by T J Bryan
Abel was about to ask the teens where they found the suit when Telson interjected, "I know this is an amazing find Chief, but in the jump space at the rear of the runabout there are what I think are eight others. All in cartons. All as new as the day Greayson made them 300 years ago. Eight of 'em."
Abel was dumbfounded for the first time in his life. He was at a loss for words, but quickly focused on the teens as Lennie began to shuffle his feet in worry. "I see," said Abel overcome by this stunning and incredibly valuable find.
"Ok, Lennie is it? And Larry Nillson?" Asked Abel. The teens looked up. Telson handed Abel the license cards and shook his head in amazement.
Lennie spoke first, "Your not going to pull our licenses are you? The Singleton Race is in two weeks. You know... Well..."
Abel looked down at the licence cards, and tapped them against his palm to add gravity to the situation. But he really focused on the demeanour of the teens rather than the information on the cards. "Ok, Lennie and Larry, tell me this?" Abel paused a moment to gather his thoughts. A find this valuable needed careful questions. "Where did you find these suits. These new build vac suits in these obvious new build storage cartons?"
Lennie and Larry responded simultaneously. "Out at Billo," said Lennie, while Larry said, "Over near Dees Rock."
Abel caught himself repressing laughter. Billo and Dees Rock were almost 180 degrees and 120 kilometres apart.
Abel saw Larry look painfully at Lennie. Lennie almost yelled, "Yeah at Billo. I was wrong. It was near Billo. Yeah. That's where we found it. Just floating about near Billo."
Abel suppressed a laugh. This he realized was a really bad lie. "Ok, Let start over. Larry you first. Where did you find these?" Larry looked at Lennie and then at his feet. Abel realized that a direct question was not going to work so he shifted gears. "Larry and Lennie." The teens for the first time looked Abel in the eyes, "A find like this is amazing. I think the Council is going to give you the credit and perhaps a starting position on the Singleton race. New suits like these, if they prove to be in serviceable condition, will save lives. Many lives" He paused a moment to let his words calm the teens.
Larry looked embarrassed but Lennie Karrlson, who's father was the pilot on the sweeper Quark, knew exactly how valuable the suits were to the failing infrastructure of the habitat.
Abel turned to Telson. "Get a crew up here from VacEm and take these suits over to the Collegium. We need them to check out as to serviceability. If they are as good as new then we will have Lennie and Larry to thank."
Telson nodded and reached for his ES vid-com and called up a the night VacEm crew to come to the Public Doc ASAP.
"Ok Lennie and Larry, lets go over to Nolo's Diner and get a bite to eat. I'm sure your hungry after a night of piloting your runabout. Does it have a name yet? The runabout?" Both teens looked up, their worry gone, but like all teens they were hungry. "I'm buying." said Abel. Both teens smiled.
"We haven't agreed on a name," said Lennie with the fear now out of his voice. "I was thinking Astrid after my mom, but Larry thinks a name like Swift Rider was better. We need to decide before the Singleton." With pride in his voice Larry interjected, "We just passed inspec last week. Were good to go."
Abel thought. "Both are good names. I knew your mom Lennie. She was a really fine woman. I understand that you and your sister are now living with your dad on the sweeper Quark. After the Elliot Blow-Out I kind of understand your dad's reluctance to raise you kids inside the habitat." Abel paused a moment before continuing. "How is the old scow anyway?"
Lennie seemed to have forgotten the danger to his license and to his standing in the Singleton race. "She's now almost 400, but the Quark is just fine. We keep her in top shape." He paused a moment in thought, "But there's only so much we can do without a major rebuild. Better yet we need to replace the old sweeper, but I guess we just don't have the skills or the fab in the Commonwealth." Abel nodded knowing what Lennie said was too true. The sweeper Quark was needed to sweep up debris and floating rocks surrounding the Habitat and therefore allowing crews to safely transit to the adjoining mining stations in the eternal quest for precious metals, rare earth metals, and the ferrous metals needed to sustain a station like the Habitat and give her valuable trade goods to ensure her survival. Abel, as Chief of Emergency Services, knew all too well that everything was falling apart. Entropy was constant.
Abel thought to cheer up the teens and get to some real answers. "Lets get something to eat." Abel and the teens walked away from the runabout and entered a hatch leading to passage Eighteen-Oh-One, sometimes called the "Run Fast" passage since it had the only toilet facilities on this end of the Public Dock. Across from the facilities was Nolo's Diner and Abel saw Millicent Nolo working the kitchen and preparing the morning buffet still a few hours away. "Hi Millie," said Abel to a startled Millicent.
"Oh, Chief, you scarred me. No one comes around at this time of night. What can I do for you?"
"How about some burgers and fries for these heroes here?" Abel replied. Lennie looked embarrassed but Larry looked proud. "And a couple of beers."
"They old enough?" said Milli with a wink.
"Yes, old enough to have maybe saved lives Millie. Only time will tell." Millicent gave Abel a questioning look and turned to the fridge and began to grill up some burgers.
Abel let the silence sink in as the two teens relaxed amid the smells of grilling burgers and fries. Millicent came around the counter with three mugs of Old Neilson's Beer and slid them upon the worn pale formica table top. Abel reached for his mug and lifting it said, "To the Commonwealth," Lennie reached for his, but Larry paused knowing it was not quite legal to drink at his age, and in front of the Chief who also was head of the Constabulary, was perhaps too much. "Skol," said Abel as he took a deep drink keeping his eyes on both teens.
"Skol." Replied Lennie as he raised his mug, followed by Larry who tentatively took a sip. Abel suppressed a laugh knowing that Larry, who looked reticent to be drinking, was, like all teens, quite familiar with beer.
Soon Millicent brought the burgers and fries to the table and the aroma of vat produced beef, cheese, lettuce, bacon, and other fixings subdued any teen angst left in Lennie and Larry.
Abel took a moment to evaluate the kids and then asked: "Ok guys. What happened." Lennie looked relaxed as did Larry.
Lennie spoke first. "Well... We had just made some adjustments to the Jector ports, you know we enlarged the hallows to let in more plasma... kinda easing the 'oohph' you know... Just like Professor Emmitt said. We did the math. And we had to test it out."
Larry interrupted, "Got a 4 percent increase in thrust we did. Four percent! Just what we need to make Lennie's sister Silvi's ship 'Dragon' eat our tail pipes."
Abel replied, "The Dragon won last year in a record time. Do you really think you can beat her?"
Larry laughed and Lennie broke in. "Well, she is my sister and the Dragon is really fast, well tuned, and you know what a great pilot Silvi is..., but I think we can beat her this year. That is if the containment on the hallows holds. We did the math and Professor Emmitt said it should work, but then our craftsmanship in the fab will make all the difference. Silvi is really skilled and a really good fabricator, but ..., well, I think we can do it." Lennie spoke with some doubt given Silvi's record and highly rated skills as a fabricator on Team Dragon.
Abel let them talk about the race, their runabout, the fabrication of the ship, Professor Emmitt's sage advice, and the expectation that they would defeat last years winner who just happened to be Lennie's sister Silvi Karrlson.
Abel had let them talk and as the last bit of the burgers were eaten and the mugs gone dry he spoke. "Ok guys. Out with it. Where did you find the suits?"
Lennie was the first to speak. "Well, after we tuned the engines and they were working real well, but for a flutter on the third quad port, we got bored, and decided to go out to Dees Rock. Out by the Sentinels."
"Ahh," said Abel. "You went ou
t to throw rocks?"
"We didn't intend to throw rocks, but, you know, we got bored."
Abel thought for a moment about his teen years when he himself at become 'bored' and in his runabout Ragnarök had gone out to throw rocks at the Sentinels. Throwing rocks at the ageless guardians of the deep seemed to Abel as a rite of passage. The Commonwealth had made it illegal because of the danger, but every teen with a fresh fourth class pilots license and a hot runabout knew about throwing rocks.
"Well, we know that it's not right to throw rocks at the Sentinels but everyone does it. I know it's wrong. But what's the harm," Larry said as if to justify an action he knew was unapproved by the Commonwealth.
"And then?"
Lennie spoke first and it was apparent to Abel that Lennie was the more assertive of the two. "We gathered up a really big rock, say about a mass of over a thousand kilos and took it out to the forbidden zone. We got to within about 10 klicks of the zone, but the mass of the rock made us make an approach about 30 degrees off the elliptic. It was an odd angle, but the rock was so massive it was hard to push."
Larry interrupted, "That rock was really heavy. Not just big, but dense. We could barely hold on to it with the basic tractor. But we did, and wow, when we threw it. When it came within range of the Sentinel. Blam! You should have seen it. The rock blew up like a nova."
Lennie with a broad grin on his face continued: "Yes, what a boomer. Just tore up the void. And then we thought lets get another one bigger and do it again."
"Then we saw it." said Larry.
Abel paused looking intently into Larry's eyes. "Saw what?"
Larry looked at Lennie briefly and drew in a deep breath. "The Sentinel went dead."
"What?"
"It went dead. You know that beacon on the top and bottom... they went dead. As did its' companion. They both went dead. Well I don't know if they were dead, but they stopped flashing. So we went to get another rock, this one bigger. When we came back and threw it... well it just sailed into the zone. The Sentinel didn't do anything to stop it. They just sat there dead."
Abel sat there for a moment unable to speak.
He knew it was time to talk to Helen Rebbah, Emeritus Professor Mechanical Engineering and Adjunct Professor of the History of Technology at the Collegium. Something had gone wrong within Obsidian System.
Chapter Two
Jamon System - Habitat, Public Dock - Year 3245. May 12 ET: Time 9:15
Abel sat at one of the outside tables at Nolo's diner stirring another cup of coffee. The table had one annoying short leg and kept bouncing a bit as he stirred his sugarless black coffee. The night had been long and he was close to exhausted having pulled a double shift that now seemed never ending. He gazed across the enormous expanse of the Public Dock toward Larry and Lennie's runabout, and considered the impact of their find. New military grade vac suits... Not just one, but nine. The VacEm crew had arrived about 3:00 am and taken the cartons and the suits onto a cargo slider and set off to the ME Department of the Collegium for evaluation. Abel had little doubt that the suits would prove invaluable as spares, but perhaps even more valuable as working vac suits so desperately needed by the habitat maintenance crews.
Abel stared at the black coffee and was about to take another drink when the hiss and creak of the opening of a vac door behind him caught his attention. He turned and there walked in Helen Rebbah.
Helen was a healthy 93 years old with a shock of long length silver hair that reached her waist, piercing green eyes, and a determined walk. In her hand she carried the ubiquitous inter-tab com unit that connected her to the Collegium Library and DataCenter, but more importantly to the Encyclopaedia Gallectica. She had changed little from the time Abel had been one of her less motivated students. Abel had known her as a full Professor when he was an undergraduate at the Collegium taking the required History of Technology course taught by Helen. She was tall for the Habitat at almost seven feet, but the 0.83 gravity gradient of the Habitat tended toward tall people and the advanced medical systems of the Commonwealth had extended the average vigorous life expectancy to well beyond 180 years. If you aged well you lived to a full and very long life in the Commonwealth.
Helen wore the usual pressed clean white jump suit so favoured by Collegium staff. The suit was well fitted to her slender frame and Abel could see that she wore it with some pride. The shoulder patch proclaimed her as a full professor at the inaptly named Mechanical Engineering School which among other things provided courses in jector ship engine design, astromechanics, astrogation, and a variety of seemingly unrelated engineering subjects including the History of Technology.
Helen walked up to within a few feet of the cafe table as Abel rose. Abel was never certain how to address Professor Helen Rabbah. He chose to be formal given that he had once been one of her less outstanding students. "Hello Professor, I am glad to see you at this early hour. Please sit down. Can I get you some coffee? Or one of Nolo's cement croissants?"
Helen responded with an easy laugh. "Oh Abel. It's so good to see you, but I'll pass on the coffee and the famous croissants." Helen pulled out one of the scuffed up wrought iron chairs that surrounded the table and sat across from Abel and put her inter-tab on the worn pale yellow formica table surface. Her gaze was as terrifying as Abel remembered from his undergraduate years and those verbal examinations. Kids grew up fast in a vacuum.
After some pleasantries Abel asked, "Professor Rabbah, I need some information. Something is not right in Obsidion and I thought you might help me..."
"Abel, you need not be so formal. Please call me Helen." She paused a moment before continuing. "The whole Collegium was abuzz this morning with the news of the Greayson vac suits. Military grade suits and according to Professor Wong in fine working condition. This is a major find. It's going to save lives."
Abel frowned not knowing quite how to ask Helen about his concerns and the truth of what Lennie and Larry had told him out beyond the Sentinels. Abel clenched his jaw at a loss of what to say next without causing confusion and perhaps misguided hope in the future of the Habitat.
After a long silence Helen spoke: "Ok Abel, I know this is not just about the vac suits. There is more, isn't there? Suits like these just don't show up floating somewhere in the void. Now out with it! I can see you're really bothered by this so lets just talk a bit."
"The Sentinels are going down."
Helen stiffened and her eyes grew wide as her mouth fell open. "Down? The Sentinels?"
"Yes. Not all of them, but enough..."
Abel sat silent, as did Helen, as the idea of failing Sentinels set in. After what seemed like an age Helen spoke. "So that's how the vac suits were found... Or rather retrieved?"
"Yes."
"Well in one sense I'm not surprised, but in another I am flabbergasted," replied Helen. "I always thought this might happen after more than 200 years, but then again I never expected it in my lifetime. Or in any of our lifetimes for that matter"
"Helen, this just might be a wild fowl hunt. Who knows? But on the other hand I need to check this out before it becomes a crazy chaotic mess that well might get a few folks killed or even worse to the Habitat. I need you to help me evaluate this situation and to decide what we need to do."
Helen laughed. "That's a wild duck hunt Abel." She paused. "Although who knows what a duck is anyway. But it was some kind of fowl before The Dark set in. However that's not the matter is it? The real issue is where did these military grade vac suits come from and were they retrieved from the forbidden zone? Is that right?"
Just as Abel was about to reply, he saw Lennie Karrlson exiting the vac doors on the far side of the Public Dock. Lennie paused a moment and then spied Able and began a slow walk to his table. His jump suit was clean today thought Abel.
"Helen, I asked Lennie to join us here to settle this matter. And the suits were not just found. You were right they, were retrieved. "
As Lennie approached from the far distance of the dock Helen commen
ted, "That's Ingvar's son. He is one of Emmitt's star pupils on jector engine design. Emmitt says he has the maths down solid. The Monitoring Committee at the Collegium has had him on our radar for some time. He starts next year, and after his basic ed, I hope he chooses ME as a major. The kid has talent. His sister Silvi is really something. I guess it's in the genes or at least in the family heritage. Too bad about their mom. Astrid was one of the smartest and hardest working students I ever had." Helen stopped having realized that perhaps she had said too much.
After a moment Lennie picked up his pace, and waved as he approached the cafe. As he neared he stood at the table and did not sit, but rather nodded to the Chief and then to Helen. "I came as asked. I hope I'm not late." he said.
"No. Right on time. You know Helen of course?"
"Yeah," replied Lennie. "Well, I know of Professor Rabbah from middle school and your jector training holo-vids. Professor Emmitt Wong talks about you often." Lennie remained standing and obviously uncomfortable in the presence of both the Chief and the Professor.
"Come sit Lennie Karrlson," said Helen choosing his formal name and setting the tone for a critical and serious discussion. "Can I get you something? Coffee perhaps?"
"Naww, ... I mean no thank you mam." Lennie sat, but he looked far from comfortable in the wrought iron chair. Like the table the chair wobbled a bit only adding to Lennie's discomfort. No one talked for a few moments and Lennie began to fidget. After a moment he realized his visible nerves and tried to grasp both hands together which made his anxiety even worse. Both Abel and Helen did nothing to ease his anxiety.
After a few moments Abel spoke: "Lennie I asked Helen to come over and I want you to tell her what you told me last night. About the forbidden zone, the Sentinels, and how you found or recovered the vac suits." Lennie who had been looking down at his feet raised his look and was captured by Helen's intense green eyed gaze.