by Jack Webber
John was in the midst of another flying dream when a knock roused him from sleep.
Mellissa was already awake, and nearest to the door, so she opened it and saw a burly man, capable of hefting 50 pound suitcases with one arm. Indeed, that was part of his job description.
"Luggage." he announced. "Sorry I didn't bring your bags up last night. There are over 400 passengers, and well, your stuff was on the bottom of the pile."
He tossed the first bag into the room, a task that required little effort, given the low gravity.
Mellissa slid it towards the back of the room, as though she were playing luggage hockey.
John stood by the window, ready to act as goaley. The porter held the next bag and the scanner beeped. He tossed it into the room and moved to the third.
Mellissa had no trouble keeping up with the incoming luggage, and within a minute all 8 pieces were back in their possession.
"Oh skat!" muttered John, hoping the kids wouldn't hear. "I forgot about Ellare's case. It has to be opened in," he looked at his watch, "in the next 25 minutes." The porter closed the door and went down for another load.
John wasn't sure if he should open it in private, without the kids peering over his shoulder. The case could contain anything. It could be a bomb. Well if it was, they were all dead in the vacuum of space, so it didn't really matter where the kids stood. He let his family gather around as he laid the suitcase on its side and stared at the keypad.
He remembered the destruct code, because he spent more time rehearsing that one. But now he wasn't sure about the access code. He had 24 minutes to figure it out.
"Mellissa did I give you the access code?"
"No."
He turned back to the keypad and stared. Then he closed his eyes and went back in time 24 hours. He pictured himself in line at the counter. "What did the man say? It was 2, and then four different odd numbers. And five wasn't one of them. 7139 or 9713 or something like that. Well there are only 24 possibilities." He stepped through them systematically, and finally reached 27913.
FOURTEEN
The case beeped and a green light came on. John lifted the lid. The right half of the case was filled with technology: the computers, the environmental controls, the x-ray re-router, the self destruct unit, and the energy absorber. It was impressive, and on any other day he would have spent hours studying it, but not today. His attention was drawn to the left compartment, which held a baby, about 9 months old. Velcro straps held her in place against a padded backing. She was snug as a bug, and it's a good thing too, the way baggage is tossed about. She seemed to be sleeping.
"It's a baby!" shouted Tania.
John put his hand to her mouth and told her to be quiet. "We could get in a lot of trouble; don't make a big announcement." That was an understatement. Smuggling a baby certainly wasn't as bad as ferrying mosquito larva, but the practice was certainly not condoned.
Mellissa reached in and pulled the velcro straps away. Several leads were attached to the baby's chest, and the vital signs were displayed on a flexible flat-panel screen sewn into the inside of the lid.
Mellissa removed the leads and the vital signs went flat. They were replaced with a single icon with the word message.
John touched the icon, and the screen showed an image of Ellare, as though he were speaking directly to them.
"John, Mellissa, Tania, and Mark. You're hearing my voice, so that means you've opened the suitcase in time. I'll assume you're in a private setting, and I can talk to you without being overheard." A pause icon appeared at the lower left, but John allowed Ellare to continue.
"This message is suppose to be 5 minutes or less, but let me spend at least one of those five minutes apologizing to you, all of you, for putting you in danger. The interplanetary commerce commission takes a dim view of stowaways, and you could be in real trouble if they find out. But I thought you might understand. You took risks, and put everything on the line, to get your kids to Mars, and that's what Marlin is doing. She's been my friend for 25 years, and I told her you were going to Mars, and she came up with this plan. The baby is her daughter, Beth. Her mother, Beth's grandmother, lives on Mars. She will get to you as soon as she can, and give you our code word Marsupial, then you will give her the baby. I'm sorry there was no room in the suitcase for supplies. Maybe you can get formula and diapers and the like from the ship's stores. I know there are other babies on board." In fact there were no such supplies; passengers were instructed to bring their own. This ship didn't provide much in the way of personal effects, except for meals.
Ellare's image continued. "This suitcase is pretty amazing isn't it? I suspect it costs as much as a ticket to Mars, but she couldn't afford two tickets, and she couldn't send Beth by herself, and she didn't want to mess with the underground in any case, so she thought this was a better plan."
A clock appeared at the lower left, counting down from 19 minutes. "When this clock reaches 0 the drug will wear off and Beth will wake up. She's probably going to be hungry, so look around for something to eat. She's pretty good with soft foods, like cereals." Mellissa knew there were cereals and breads in the cupboard, maybe even some apple sauce.
"This suitcase contains illegal technology, so you need to destroy it. Close it back up and type the destruct code, 16935. Good luck, and thank you. Marlin is forever grateful. Beth will be too, when she's old enough to understand."
Ellare disappeared and the screen went blank, except for the clock.
"Tania, find some cereal and a small glass of milk." Mellissa instructed. "Not one of those sugar cereals that you kids eat, but a plain one."
Mellissa carried Beth over to her bed, which would have to serve as changing table until somebody came up with a better idea. After 24 hours, she definitely needed changing.
Four diapers were tucked into one corner of the case; after that they were on their own. Mellissa opened the diaper and realized she had nothing to clean Beth with; no wipes, not even a cloth.
"I'm going to give her a bath in the bathroom sink." she announced, closing the diaper back up. "Keep an eye on her."
She went over to the bathroom and started filling the sink with warm water. Fortunately it was a large sink.
Mark sat next to Beth and kept her from rolling off the bed while Tania took cereal and milk to the kitchen table. John watched the action from a distance, still transfixed by the suitcase.
"Ellare said I should destroy it. Is it really safe to do that? Maybe I should just close it up and carry it along." He heard the lift stop outside his room, and he closed the case in a hurry. He thought about the punishment for transporting classified technology and decided Ellare was right. The lift went up several floors, and it seemed safe to enter the destruct code. When John pressed the last digit the case almost jumped. The explosion sounded muffled and far away.
John felt the sides of the case grow warm, and then hot - almost too hot to touch. After another minute the case cooled, until it was practically room temperature. He waited another five minutes, and then lifted the lid.
Granules of metal and sand covered the bottom of the suitcase in a layer three inches thick. John scooped up a handful and let it sift through his fingers. Some particles were as fine as sand - others were large nuggets. The larger nodules were iron or iron oxide, from the metal housing and transformer cores. The fine grains really were sand, from the silicon in the computer chips and the oxygen in the air, and in the plastic. The white powder in the corner came from the lithium hydroxide canister, which absorbed the baby's carbon dioxide and became lithium carbonate. If all the gold from the electronics were gathered together into one nugget it would warrant a meticulous search, but he thought this unlikely. The elements seemed to fall where they may, without any sorting or repositioning.
"We'll have to get rid of this stuff." he commented, scooping another handful of sand. "I'll dump a little down the waste tube every day. What do you think?"
John turned, expecting a response from Mellissa, b
ut he was all alone. His wife and kids were crammed into the tiny bathroom, intrigued by their new foster child.
John didn't notice, because Beth wasn't crying. In fact she was having a great time in the sink. He was about to investigate when they flew out, first Mark, then Tania, then Mellissa with baby in arms.
Mellissa carried Beth over to the bed, applied one of the four diapers, and looked around for clothes. There was only one outfit, the one she wore in the suitcase, so Mellissa put it back on.
"If she eats like you did," Mellissa said to Mark, "we're going to be washing this outfit every night."
She carried Beth over to the kitchen table. "Let's find out. Looks like Tania has set a nice breakfast for you."
Tania loved babies, and she happily fed Beth cereal by the hand, along with a small cup of milk that Beth could almost hold, but not quite.
"A lot of that cereal is hitting the floor." remarked Mellissa.
"But some is going in." countered Tania as she put a few more pieces in Beth's hand. Mark watched the baby from time to time, but was more interested in his video game. While everyone else was occupied, he had the TV to himself.
Lunch was served, some kind of pasta with meat sauce, and everybody ate greedily. They had all skipped breakfast, and now they were starving.
Tania tried to give Beth a fork full of noodles, but they hung down her chin, dripping sauce on her one and only outfit.
"They're too long." advised Mellissa. "If you cut them up it might work better. And don't give her any of those pieces of meat. I've almost forgotten my infant CPR."
After lunch Tania played with Beth while the other three watched a movie. "You're performing a miracle with that little one." commented Mellissa. "I don't think she's cried for more than five minutes today. You're doing a great job!" Beth was torn from her family, her home, everything she ever knew, yet she didn't seem to mind.
"Mark and Tania weren't this easy." Mellissa thought to herself. "I just hope this continues for two weeks."
By late afternoon the gravity seemed almost oppressive. It was amazing how quickly the human body adapted to low gravity, especially if the transition was gradual.
Now the ship was approaching the end of its tether, swung around the earth like a ball at the end of its string. At twice the geosynchronous radius, the pull from the cable was exactly 1 G. Shortly after 5:00 Captain Mills made another ship wide announcement.
"Ladies and gentlemen, we're approaching the end of the cable. In 5 minutes the toilets will flush and the plumbing will shut down in preparation for zero G. We'll only spend a few minutes in freefall, while I orient the ship. Then I'll fire up the engines, and you'll feel a tenth of a G-acceleration, all the way to Mars. Of course we're going to turn the ship around at the midpoint, and then decelerate, but it will still feel like one tenth G. So enjoy the low gravity. Believe it or not, the one third gravity on Mars is going to seem heavy when you get there. But you'll adjust in a day or so. It's still much lighter than Earth. I'll let you know when we're in steady flight."
A few minutes later, valves closed shut, as toilets flushed all over the ship. At precisely 17:16:51, twenty explosive bolts blew simultaneously, setting the ship free.
John felt ill as the floor dropped out from under him. They felt like they were falling to Earth, though they were really falling out into space.
This time Beth cried, and 47 other babies cried along with her. Some young children cried as well, and their voices could be heard up and down the corridor. Beth was floating above Tania's bed, just out of Tania's reach.
Mellissa jumped up, ready to help, and crashed into the ceiling. She slowly pushed herself back towards the floor, then pressed one foot against the wall, sending her towards Beth and Tania. She grabbed Beth on the way, like a receiver running for a pass, then sailed on across Mark's bed, across John's bed, and into the back wall. She made her way back to John's bed and sat down, as best you can sit in zero G, with Beth against her chest. She tried to produce a rocking motion, moving legs and torso in opposition. It looked like a strange exercise, but it was the best she could do.
Mark and Tania started doing flips by the door, and John stayed near the kitchen table, feeling positively ill. He felt fine last night, when the gravity decreased over time, but the sudden drop to zero was hard to take. He held on to the table and looked at the stars out the window. Their fixed position in space helped counter the illusion of falling. He knew that the cupboard behind him contained space-sick bags, and he wondered if he could get to them. After a couple hard swallows he decided to stay where he was, motionless, staring at the stars.
Yet even these permanent features of the heavens betrayed him, as the ship turned towards its new orientation in space.
John closed his eyes against the moving star field, but he opened them a few seconds later, just in time to see Earth rise in the window. It moved up to the middle of the pane, then slid off to the right as new constellations came into view.
Then he noticed something else; he was actually sitting in his chair. His body pressed against the seat, ever so slightly. He looked across the room as Mark and Tania drifted gently towards the floor. In another minute the valves clicked open and the toilets flushed again, filling their bowls with water.
"Ladies and gentlemen," reported the Captain, "our engines are running at full throttle, and we're on our way to Mars. You are now experiencing 0.1 G. Get use to it, because this will be your environment for the next two weeks. Your dinner should be coming in about an hour. If you need anything, push the call button. If everything goes smoothly, you might not hear from me for several days. Have a nice trip."
It only took a few minutes for Mark and Tania to readjust to the new gravity, as they hopped from bed to bed, their heads just grazing the ceiling. Mellissa continued to comfort Beth, and the crying slowed, now that there was a sense of up and down.
John also felt a little better, though he wasn't sure he'd be ready for dinner in an hour. He stood up and walked over to the suitcase, grateful that he had latched it shut. If he had left it open there would be sand and powder all over the room. He sat down next to Mellissa on the bed. "How's she doing?" he asked.
"She's better, but I think the baby crying upstairs is making her nervous."
Indeed, the little one in room 23 was not as calm as Beth. They heard him crying on and off throughout the day, and he was still crying after his sudden immersion into zero G.
"Sing a song." suggested John. "Then she won't hear the baby upstairs."
Mellissa started singing in a soft, beautiful voice. "Hush little baby, don't say a word. Mama's gonna buy you a mocking bird."
By the end of the song Beth was asleep. This should have been her afternoon nap, but the 24 hour slumber derailed her sleep schedule.
Mellissa placed her gently in the middle of the bed. No need for side rails; if she rolled off in this low gravity she wouldn't be hurt. She might not even wake up.
"Be sure you get her up in an hour or so," said John, "or she'll wake up in the middle of the night."
Mark and Tania stopped their gymnastics, which were getting a bit loud, and settled down to watch TV while Beth slept.
John and Mellissa tried to lie next to each other on Mellissa's bed, though they didn't quite fit. They weren't sleepy; they just wanted to rest and do nothing for a while. The baby would wake soon enough.
FIFTEEN
It was only 8:15, but Mellissa knew the folks upstairs were awake; she could hear the baby crying. In contrast, Beth was happy and content in her morning bath. But there were no diapers remaining. She should have gone on a scavenger hunt last night.
Well no matter, the folks upstairs were awake; maybe they'd be accommodating.
"Tania, can you run upstairs and ask if they have extra diapers, or wipes? I really should stay here with the baby, and your father's still in bed. Tell them," ... "tell them we lost our suitcase with all our baby things."
Tania opened the door and stepped out onto
the landing. She closed the room door and was about to push the up button when her eyes were drawn to the far side of the landing. She stepped towards the gaping hole in the floor, almost 8 feet square. Below her, another landing, with another hole just like this one. A series of holes closed in on a tiny point in the distance, the floor of the ship, and the ladder ran all the way down to the bottom.
She looked up through another series of holes, all the way to the top. "It's only one floor, and I feel so light; who needs the elevator?"
Her left foot swung out into space and stepped onto a rung of the ladder. In a moment she was climbing with ease, like an arboreal creature in its natural habitat. With her head and shoulders poking through the next hole she placed her hands on the floor and flipped herself up onto the landing. It was easy!
Tania stood up and knocked on the door. Several minutes went by, and she was about to knock again when a short woman answered. She seemed surprised to see a young girl.
"Can I help you with something?"
"Hi. I'm from downstairs and..."
"Oh dear, I'm so sorry. He just seems to cry all the time, and I can't make him happy. I guess it's the low gravity or something." He was crying even now, his voice ringing out through the corridor.
"Oh that doesn't matter. We have a baby too." The woman was visibly relieved. "But, well," Tania wasn't good at lying. "They lost our suitcase, the one with all the baby things in it, and...". If you follow a lie with the truth, it's not so bad. "We have absolutely no diapers. We were wondering if we could..."
"Don't I know it!" began the young woman. "Two years ago we took a trip to Canada, and wouldn't you know, they lost all our bags. All of them! Oh they found them a couple days later, but we had to buy clothes and things, just to get by. Well I'm not surprised. Sure, I'll get a bag together. Diapers, wipes, I think we have a couple extra outfits, how about formula?"
"You mean like milk? Oh I don't know, she seems to eat regular food. She ate part of my spaghetti lunch yesterday."