“It concerns you taking a vacation. You haven’t taken so much as a day off ever since I’ve been here. That’s not doing you any good, Constance.”
“Silas, I’m not going to get into an argument with you. I’m fine, as my last physical showed. I promise I’ll take some time off in the spring. I’ll even leave town!” she said.
“You’re not fooling anyone. I know you’re going to meet with the other community leaders wherever you all decide to meet. But I guess it’s a start,” Silas said, laughing. “I’ll be glad when Aidan is back. We need to upgrade the video servers, apparently a lot of people have been uploading their movies to share with the rest of the community. It’ll be good to have him back.”
“For a number of reasons. I’ve got a bunch of government paperwork to send off, I’m heading for the store to send them out tomorrow. It will be a great day when all this ridiculous paperwork they insist I fill out can all be handled online,” Constance sighed.
“No doubt.”
Rock Steady
The mission to Saturn departed on schedule to much fanfare, people watching the departure on the large screen in the commissary, at work or on their home displays. As the massive habitat was moving away from the colony, Benjamin’s team was setting up their temporary laboratory, connecting, and powering up their instruments.
Because they decided to forgo the installation of a Genesis clone on one of their jumpers, they agreed to install a transmitter on each jumper, with a dedicated receiver in their lab to store all data they collected. Actual samples, if they could be photographed, measured, or quantified in any way would have that data stored at their lab on the hab as well.
The trip to Saturn was scheduled to take two weeks, the Ops crew were unwilling to push the shields or propulsion systems too hard for the massive station, especially on its maiden voyage. On the way, the engineers responsible for the environmental systems, the water reserves, the hydroponics and seafood decks were putting the finishing touches on the storage tanks, filtration systems, and air management equipment.
Most of the water piping was installed weeks before the hab departed, the missing element was water. They had more than enough for drinking, reasonable showering, and several starter tanks of algae transferred from the colony. The first system the construction crew completed was the huge hanger for the habitat’s spaceships, including the various airlocks for ships and crew members who maintained the exterior equipment. The new water collection connections were tested with all but water and ice, that would have to wait until they reached the rings.
There was a crew devoted to running the necessary duct work for air distribution. Another crew was running the thousands of kilometers of cabling for the hab’s A.I. audio pickups and speakers, as well as for video displays in the public areas of the new habitat and cameras throughout its exterior. The best part of equipping the new hab was that where the original colony had laid copper cable, the new hab was equipped with fiber optic cable. Response time was faster, the bandwidth was unbelievable, and the power requirements were minuscule by comparison.
Structurally, the hab’s metal hull required some additional maintenance over the compressed rock of the original colony, but there were so many options available with a metal shell. There was a transparent port built into the hull in the commissary, in Ops, and above the hab’s recreational park at the “top” of the huge station. Using Christopher’s G-wave technology, raw silicone dioxide and quartz could be compressed into incredibly stronger than steel, transparent panels. The new habitat was a marvel of engineering. NASA engineers would absolutely flip if they had their hands on the colony’s technologies. Just the ability to boost anything into orbit, regardless of weight, would revolutionize space construction. The systems were decades more advanced than the original colony. Both Chuck and Peanut’s departments pulled out all the stops in its design. Chuck’s department was responsible for the space station’s mobility, the delicate balance between gravitational-based locomotion and maintaining the artificial gravity throughout the interior of the station, so that when it was on the move the inhabitants did not lose their footing. The artificial gravity was maintained at one-G, the same as on the surface of the Earth. This ensured that there would be no harmful adaptations, unlike the two space stations they had sequestered at Earth’s L5 LaGrange point. NASA astronauts and scientists were limited in the amount of time they could stay in space because of bone loss and circulatory issues from extended living in a zero-G environment.
Christopher’s original invention, which took advantage of a counter-intuitive discovery in the nature of the force of gravity, was the origin of the colonists’ space capabilities. Instead of using any reaction-based propulsion like rockets, his G-waves, moved objects through space by manipulating the direction and force of the local gravitational gradient.
Peanut’s team was responsible for installing an umbrella of shields that wrapped the station in overlapping layers of force to protect it from all but the most powerful of collisions. He made them strong enough that if the hab was to rotate out of the universe like the interdimensional probe, they would be able to contain a bubble of their home universe around the whole structure so the station, the equipment, and the residents would be able to function normally.
The huge habitat was so well equipped that it could land on any world in the solar system and take off again, not that there was much chance of it doing so. But it did open possibilities in interstellar exploration, bringing all the amenities of home wherever it went. And being able to mine water from ice asteroids made the habitat perfectly equipped for interstellar exploration. To travel in a space station capable of comfortably housing several thousand people that also had generational travel implications should the residents desire to leave the solar system, going faster than light or not, was an epic accomplishment. But for now, there are a hundred people aboard whose responsibility was to fill the primary water tanks and reserves to capacity to bring the habitat fully operational.
Benjamin was wandering around the vast structure, realizing just how much manufacturing went on in the colony itself. Building another community as large as the original, obviously called for everything needed to outfit an entire town. There had to be places to live, environmental equipment that ran water and air to every deck, the means to grow and process food. There also had to be the means to manufacture furniture, personal electronics, clothes, shoes, mattresses, tables, chairs and on and on.
It was something Benjamin normally took for granted, and he felt a little foolish for having done so. When he met up with Piper to work on provisioning and configuring the jumpers for the trip to Titan he mentioned it, somewhat chagrined over the oversight.
“Me too,” she confessed.
“Really?”
“Absolutely. I’ll tell you when I came to the same realization was when I got some sort of contact dermatitis, like athletes’ foot. When Doc Long gave me a cream for it, I wondered if it was something left over from the last run to Earth or did we manufacture it here? When I asked, he laughed, telling me that all our medications are products of the colony. That just blew my mind. I know the retrovirus helps out with all kinds of cellular maladies, but even now, there’s stuff we have to deal with that requires some sort of treatment and the infirmary always has something on hand,” Piper explained.
“Yeah, I guess I sort of knew that because of my mom, but think about how many mattresses that have to be manufactured, dressers, tables and chairs, even all the kitchen stuff, and the piping to bring water to every single living quarter here. Some of the stuff I have no idea where they manufacture it in the colony,” said Benjamin.
“A lot of it is done ad hoc, only when a particular thing is needed. I will say this, being able to mold and print stuff out of foamed rock and ceramics is pretty cool.”
Benjamin shook his head in wonder. “It’s cool when you think about it. We’re still a generation or two ahead of Earth in just about every
technology.”
“It helps that we spend no time, effort, or resources on weapons or war. Look how much America spends on their military. If we did that sort of resource allocation, half of everything we did around here would be for war, a war that will probably never come.”
“You think so? What about if they divest themselves of all their nuclear weapons and start to flood the solar system?” asked Benjamin. “Maybe we would have to build weapons to protect ourselves.”
“I don’t think it’s likely. Unless they finally figure out your dad’s G-wave technology, they’re always going to come up a distant second if they decide to fool with us. And looking at the lack of progress they’re making getting rid of all the nukes on the planet, they won’t be venturing out to us for a good long time,” Piper smirked. “By the way, I know we haven’t decided whether or not to land on the surface of Titan yet, but the more I think about it, the more I think we need to get soil and fluid samples to make this mission truly a success. That is if you won’t wig out like your dad did the first time they landed on the moon,” she said, a smirk on her face.
“Yeah, that must have been something. Mom says he was mad enough to have a stroke!”
“Maybe, but now that we’re running our own mission, I can definitely see why he was so angry. If someone had gotten in trouble or died, maybe none of this would have been possible,” she said waving her arm around.
“But we have a third-generation jumper, not the prototype, and our suits are a hundred times better constructed than those first ones. But I don’t mind telling you I’m pretty much scared shitless something might happen,” Benjamin confessed.
“Me too. If something happened to any of us, I don’t know what I’d do. We’re family,” she choked up.
Benjamin got up from the console to give her a hug. “Nothing bad is going to happen to any of us if I have anything at all to say about it!”
“Knock, knock,” a voice announced from the airlock. “Am I interrupting something serious? I can always come back.”
Piper pulled back, wiping an errant tear from her eye. “Not at all. We’re just hoping that everything goes well and none of us get hurt.”
“Or worse,” Benjamin added.
“The last thing in the world I would ever want is to lose any of us to a stupid accident, or something we overlooked in our planning,” Piper said.
Lois climbed into the jumper to hug Benjamin and Piper. After a moment, she said, with her face buried in Benjamin’s neck, “I know. I’ve been worried sick, too. I love you guys so much it would just break my heart if something was to happen to any of us.”
They all hugged tight until Benjamin pulled back, “Maybe this whole thing should be discussed as soon as possible. Obviously, we’ve all been thinking about it, even though no one has said anything.”
“Maybe we can all bring dinner to the lab and have a team discussion. Tell anyone who asks we’re working on the mission. It wouldn’t be a lie and it would explain why we’re not eating with the rest of the crew,” Piper suggested.
“Good idea. G3?” Benjamin called out.
“Yes, Benjamin. How may I be of assistance?” came the reply from his datapad.
“Sorry, I forgot you’re not wired into too many places yet. Could you send a text message to the rest of the Titan crew to pick up their dinner and bring it to the mission lab?”
“Done. I have replies from Joy, Sam and Virginia that they will be there. They all want to know what time,” asked the A.I. clone.
“Tell them 19:00, please.”
“All three will be there. Is there anything else I may assist you with, Benjamin?”
“Thank you, no. Okay, so other than trying to catch Piper and me in flagrante delicto, what’s up?” Benjamin asked, arching an eyebrow. “Or did you have some sort of ménage à trois in mind?”
Lois laughed, “Maybe later, if Piper’s up for it!”
“We’d better check with Joy. You know how she gets when other people play with her toys,” said Piper, extremely satisfied to see Benjamin’s face darken in embarrassment.
“Will you two please knock it off!” Benjamin demanded. He and Lois had taken advantage on several occasions, but she wasn’t in it for the long haul with anyone. Their generation was slow to bond. And because there was no stigma to dating around, and having several lovers over time, the members of their generation were easy going about what on Earth would be called hooking up. “What the hell were you really looking for?” he asked, slightly annoyed.
“Actually,” she said, going to the jumper’s airlock and pulling a duffle-sized bag inside, “I brought the linens and blankets for the bunks. I was going to make these up, then do the other jumper. I also have towels, too.”
“Excellent! You are on it, girl!” Piper said, giving Lois a high five. “Although, I’m going to use the hab’s locker room to save on our water.”
“Virginia and Sam set our food supplies off to the side so no one grabs them. They won’t load them into the jumpers until the night before. I had Ops focus one of the telescopes on Titan all the way to the rings. The stream is being digitized so if either of you are bored, you can look at it via your datapads. The link is in the mission folder.
“By the way, Sam’s been taking a closer look at the data the Earth probes collected on their flybys and he’s concerned about the winds down on the surface. He said he wanted to discuss it at dinner, so I guess we’ve got a full docket tonight,” said Lois. “Now, about that ménage?”
“Get the hell out of here! I have to put this console back together before I forget how I took the damn thing apart. Can a brother get a rain check?” Benjamin chuckled.
“I’m going to hold you to that, right Piper?”
“I could be talked into, as he said, helping a brother out. Let’s talk, maybe over dinner. I’m sure the others would have some helpful suggestions,” Piper replied.
“Okay, I give! You ladies just let me know when my meager services are required.”
“Meager, he says. I think we’ll be the judge of that,” said Lois, pulling half the linens from the bag, then waving as she left the jumper.
“You all take wicked delight in teasing me,” Benjamin said, lying down under the communications console and scooting as far underneath as possible. “Hand me that light, please.”
“Who said anything about teasing?” said Piper, handing him the light. She also crawled underneath to lend him a hand in attaching the data transmitter to the communications subsystem. “You know, I always wondered why we didn’t spend more time together,” she said, holding a bundle of fiber optic cables out of the way.
“Really? You don’t know?”
“No. Was there something specific that put you off?” she asked.
“First of all, you’re older than I am. When I was fifteen, you were almost twenty. It didn’t seem like it was possible, or practical. Hand me some wire ties.”
“I suppose not. What about now?” she asked as she passed the ties over.
“I don’t know. How ‘bout you give me a little time to get used to the idea?” he said, turning his head to look into her eyes, smiling.
She leaned over and gave him a soft kiss on the lips. “No problem.”
* * *
“Congratulations on a successful test,” General Archer said, shaking Admiral Park’s hand when he arrived in his office. “Have a seat.”
“I viewed the satellite video several times and I have to admit that I am completely satisfied with the results. These DS500s are the perfect upgrade to our offensive and defensive capabilities. What was your assessment, Admiral?” asked the Chairman.
“My evaluation is that the test fire was a complete success as well. The radar tracking system and fire control computer both exceeded my expectations. Before the test I had my doubts that the radar would be able to track a two-meter target traveling at nine or ten kilometers a second, five hundred kilometers away. This is a
remarkable achievement, sir.”
“You bet your ass it was! This is only the beginning; my goal is to create a shield over the country that prevents attack from ground level all the way into deep space. It’s about time we address the current threats to this country instead of relying on strategies that are decades out of date. We have an undeclared state of war with these space niggers and it’s about time we formulate an action plan that takes them out of the picture,” Archer barked, pounding his fist on the desk.
“Sir, their space station is over three hundred thousand kilometers away, they’re in lunar orbit. Even if we fire a salvo of several hundred of the projectiles, they’re going to take hours to reach them. What’s to say that they won’t be detected, sir?”
“The radar profile of the projectiles head on is practically zero. The chances of them seeing the inbounds is nonexistent, should we decide to fire on them. But it appears that we should be able to shoot their ships out of the sky since they operate much closer. We should never tolerate hostile elements operating in our country’s airspace.”
“Begging your pardon, sir. But what makes you think that the DS500 projectiles will be effective against their spaceships, or even that space station? Did you see the estimates on their ships’ top speed? They can fly rings around anything we have, including the DS500 projectiles. If we shoot at their space station, aren’t we just asking for trouble?” asked Park, almost afraid of the answer.
“Admiral, are you trying to say that we should continue to except being subjugated by those fucking people on that station? A handful of people hiding out in lunar orbit denying this country access to space? This has been a sick joke for over a decade and I think it’s high time we put an end to it,” Archer growled at Park across the desk.
“Understood, sir. What contingencies do you have in place should they decide to retaliate or they attack the Pentagon or the White House? May I ask, how do you intend to avoid the destruction the colonists visited on the Russian space center in retaliation for the missile attack launched on their colony?”
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