Humanity Unlimited 1: Liberty Station (27 page)

“We have habitat plans that would support more than half a million people in one massive space station. They’ll be building one like that in Mars orbit once we get to mining Demos and Phobos.”

He shook his head. “That’s staggering.”

“Your father thought big. He wants to get mankind off Earth in a permanent way. Imagine colonies around Venus and Mars. The asteroid belt. Jupiter and beyond. Ultimately, millions of people. Even billions at some far off future date. The planet that gave mankind birth would no longer limit us.”

The pilot turned in his seat and spoke over their radios. “Welcome aboard. I’m Lenny Kawasaki and I’ll be your pilot today. We hit the burners in about ten minutes. Once we reach orbit, we’ll have another three and a half hours to get to our destination. Thanks for flying with us and we hope you’ll choose Humanity Unlimited for all your orbital launch needs.”

Harry seemed disinclined to talk, so Jess settled back and meditated. The engine ignition caught her a little off guard, shaking her and then pressing her back into her acceleration couch firmly.

The boost to orbit took just over ten minutes. They didn’t have windows, but the small screen above the pilot’ cubby showed the view. It was breathtaking.

Once the engines shut off, they were in microgravity. Basically, they floated. The pilot allowed them to unbuckle once the lifter was on course. Jess decided to stay where she was.

Watching the mercenaries figure out how to move around was fun, though. They were surprisingly adept at it, though they had a tendency to overshoot their marks.

The fun and games kept them from being bored while Jess reviewed the data dump from the ship. They’d unloaded the reactor and had it roughly in place. She’d see to the final connections once she was on board, but she was satisfied with the work that her people had done so far.

* * * * *

Harry played around for a while and then buckled back in to watch Sandra, Rex, and Jeremy. The sniper was trying to figure out how to compensate for zero-G when she tossed a ping-pong ball toward a small basket someone had taped to the far wall.

Apparently, this was a fun game for everyone. They’d try to get the motions just right and mostly fail miserably.

“This is more complex than it looks,” Sandra said after a while. “I’ll figure it out, though. I wonder how a shooter does her business without gravity. The recoil would shove her hard enough to screw up her aim. And the slug might penetrate the hull.”

“They might not have weapons in space.”

She stared at him for a moment and laughed. “Stop trolling me. Of course they have weapons in space.”

Rex held onto the back of one of the chairs. “Maybe it uses compressed air and frangible rounds.”

That made some sense, Harry decided. Over-penetration would be a bad thing in space. “Most of the ship has gravity, just not as much as you’d expect. It would mean knowing how to shoot in every level and being able to compensate correctly the first time. That could be fun.”

“But the central area doesn’t have gravity, right?” Sandra asked. “I bet I could manage something, but it’ll take time to develop the right skills and tactics to secure the whole ship. I know what I’ll be doing most of the trip out. Chasing Rex around.”

“Just what I’d been hoping you’d say.”

“You are such a pervert.”

The big scout laughed. “Hardly that. It’s all natural.”

“I want to get a good look at their systems,” Jeremy said. “They must be seriously advanced.”

Jess tapped Harry on the shoulder. “We’re almost there. Check the screen.”

Harry watched the small dot grow into a ship on the screen. The lack of reference points made it hard to tell the size until they got close. Liberty Station was huge.

The shaft the torus rotated around was shorter than he’d expected and he couldn’t see any sign of the engines Jess had spoken of. Four massive spokes connected the rotating torus to the spine, helping it rotate majestically. The torus was thicker than he’d imagined, too, but there were thousands of people in there.

Three long arms projected from the ship above the torus. He suspected there was a fourth that he couldn’t see because of the ship itself. One looked like a dock. He could see two lifters attached to it. That gave him a new sense of scale. The station was even bigger than he’d thought.

One of the remaining arms held a solar array. The other held three large disks that looked ready to drop. Maybe the mining equipment Jess had mentioned.

As they came around the station, he saw a similar set of discs on the far side of the ship on the last arm. He’d have to ask about them when they had time.

A smaller disk, about a third the size of the torus, but just as thick, sat on the top of the station. It was rotating in the opposite direction from the torus. The ship looked amazing.

“We dock at the end of the arm to the left,” Jess said. “We’ll get off in zero gravity and unload the cargo they brought up. You guys can settle in and take a tour of the ship while I get the reactor installed. By this time tomorrow, we’ll have left Earth—and our troubles—behind.”

Chapter Twenty-Seven

Jess fidgeted during the approach. In space, ships and people moved slowly and carefully. The lifter edged close to the docking arm and allowed the clamps to lock it down.

The pilot instructed everyone to stay in their seats until someone came to get them, unless they were zero-G certified. Which she was.

She unbuckled, spun over her seat, and launched herself to the handhold beside the personnel lock. She opened a cubby, retrieved a line, and went back for Harry.

“You can get out of the suit, now. They’ll pack it away for you.”

Jess helped him get his suit off and then stripped off her own. She folded them and strapped them into their seats.

She held up the line. “Let me hook us up. Until they’re satisfied that you can maneuver on your own, you’ll need to be paired up with someone who can keep you from hurting yourself or others in microgravity.”

“Does that take long?”

“That depends on the person. I think you’ll take to it quickly. Sandra, too. Rex, well, maybe by the time we get to Mars.”

“Hey,” he said mildly.

She laughed. “I’m sure you’ll do fine. Okay, use your hands to gently push on the chair and send yourself toward the handholds. I’ll be right there with you.”

Harry shoved off with too much force, but not as badly as some she’d seen. He also tumbled in the air because he was off balance. She let him hit because it wouldn’t hurt him and it would teach him a lesson.

He looked chagrined. “That didn’t go so well.”

“You’ll pick it up. You ever go scuba diving?”

“Sure. Is this like that?”

“Only in that you had no idea what you were doing before it all clicked into place in your head. This will be the same. Everyone gets the hang of it eventually.”

She led him through the airlock. A pair of attendants was just arriving to bring the new crew on board. “I’m certified,” Jess said. “I’ve got this one.”

The ship’s air smelled different from the lifter. A shade more metallic, but not as stuffy. It definitely wasn’t like natural air, but it was good enough.

Planting her feet on the hull, she grabbed his belt. “Hold still. We could use handholds, but I’m in a hurry.”

One light push sent them floating the direction she wanted. She was pleased to see that she’d accounted for his mass fairly well. They’d only miss her point of aim by a few feet.

They drifted with deceptive slowness and she stopped them at the hub. She pulled them around the corner into the spine. The spokes to the torus were only a short distance away.

Unlike the rest of the spine, the torus’ hub rotated. So, each spoke made a trip around the spine twice each minute. That took some getting used to.

It had also taken a tremendous amount of engineering to account for the edges. The spine was inside the moving hub so that conduits, pipes, and supports could run along the entire length of the ship. The junction with the spokes could even seal if there was an explosive decompression.

Jess got Harry to the hub. “See how the ladders have arrows?” she asked. “That’s direction of travel. It’s awkward to run into someone going the other direction. If you do, the person in the wrong has to back up.

“There are also elevators. We built the doors into the spokes since the cars can’t come all the way into the hub. We cinch cargoes into the hub and match speeds. It’s a bit complicated, but it greatly simplifies boosting the ship.”

“Seems straightforward enough. We’re in zero-G. That changes as we go down, right?”

“Right, though we don’t use up and down. Too confusing. Going toward the torus is outward and going toward the spine is inward. In the torus, the direction of rotation is spinward. The other is antispinward.”

He considered that. “How do you know which is which?”

Jess smiled. “You can feel the rotation. I’ll show you. Come on.”

She moved ahead of him. “Always keep one hand on a handhold until you’re certified. Then you can do this.” She lightly shoved off and coasted above the handholds. After a dozen feet, she stopped herself. It would ruin her image of competence if the line yanked her up short.

When the centrifugal force grew strong enough, they switched directions and it felt as though they were climbing down a ladder. The pull grew stronger with every rung until they came out in the innermost torus level.

Jess unhitched the line and put it into a cubby with others just like it. “Let’s get you settled in and I’ll be off.”

She led him down the corridor. “See how it curves up in each direction? It always makes me think of hamsters in their exercise wheels. And plenty of people get their exercise in just that way. Walk long enough and you’ll get back to where you started.”

“You said we could tell which direction we’re spinning. How?”

She stopped. “Close your eyes. Turn in the direction that feels like you’re moving toward.”

He paused and turned to spinward. “That’s weird.”

“Your inner ear knows when you’re moving, even if your eyes tell you you’re not. Also, check this out. Do you have a coin in your pocket?” It usually took a while before people stopped carrying money around with them.

“Probably.” He found one and held it out to her.

“Drop it.”

He let it go and it fell to the deck, but not in a straight line. The coin fell in a curve, angling toward antispinward.

“Whoa!” he said, grabbing the coin and doing it again. “What the hell?”

“That’s the Coriolis Effect. We’re rotating, but the coin is falling directly away from the spine. As we move, that direction changes from our perspective. So, the falling object curves. If you toss a ball, you’ll have to deal with the same physics. It’ll seriously screw up your basketball game.”

“And shooting. Sandra will be seriously dismayed.”

Jess laughed. “We don’t have any shooting ranges, so that won’t be a problem. You’ll get used to it after a while. Come on.”

She led him to a cross corridor and down to her room. “I’m here. I reserved the room across for you. We assigned the others rooms on this corridor. Your personal gear will arrive once they start unloading the lifter.”

“People get single occupancy rooms in space?”

“They do when we have enough to go around. The rooms are small compared to those on Earth, but they’re large enough. I really need to go look at the reactor, so you’ll have to hang here for a bit. Someone will be along to give you a real tour shortly.”

She grabbed him by the shoulder. “Welcome to space, Harry.”

* * * * *

Harry gave his new home a short walk-through while he waited for his guide. He’d expected the room to be something like a cruise ship cabin, but it was more like a small apartment. He had a living room, a kitchenette, a bedroom, bathroom, and a spare room that he could use for anything he wanted, he supposed.

The bed was a queen and already made. Built in dressers and closets had basic supplies like new underwear and ship’s suits like the one he wore. The ones in his closet already had his last name on the breast. A quick check showed that the bathroom had basic supplies, as well.

The kitchenette had a microwave to heat things up, and a small oven to bake. The two-element stovetop would suffice for his cooking skills. A small fridge stood ready, but was empty.

A buzz at the door announced he had a visitor. A short Asian man with silver oak leaves on the shoulders of his jumpsuit smiled at him and extended a hand. “Mister Rogers, welcome aboard. I’m Captain Lee, the commanding officer of Liberty Station.”

Harry shook the man’s hand. “Captain, it’s a pleasure to meet you, but I’m sure you’re a very busy man. You don’t need to show me around.”

“It’s no problem at all. I needed a break, so I thought I’d give you a tour of the ship’s common areas and then have lunch. I realize it’s after dinnertime down at the spaceport, but we run on GMT up here. Have you looked around your quarters? I hope they’re acceptable.”

“They’re bigger than I expected, actually. So is this whole ship. She’s amazing.”

The officer grinned. “Yes, she is. Come on and we’ll stroll down to the public section of the torus. Your bag should be on your bed when you get back from lunch.”

“Is there a lock for the door?”

“No. Where would someone take a stolen object? We don’t use money directly on the ship. Everyone gets their pay electronically and purchases come out of those accounts at the public stores. Meals are part of the pay, so no charge there.”

They walked back to the main corridor and then headed antispinward. Harry nodded and smiled politely at the people they passed. “What about secure areas of the ship like the bridge and engineering?”

“Those are locked. Only authorized personnel can access them. The control consoles are locked, as well.”

They passed out of the housing section and into what looked like a park. Harry stopped and stared in amazement. There was grass on the ground and small trees under a large, opaque dome. The lights seemed to be about the same color as the sun.