The Eons-Lost Orphan

by Laer Carroll

  "I'll emphasize that at our next team meeting. Speaking of which, I'd like you to attend that. It's just past lunch in the conference room across the hall. Meanwhile, let's get you squared away on lodging. Like everyone here we sleep in the arty-grav section of the station.

  "Henry!"

  "Yes, Boss." A young blond man of maybe thirty looked into the office from the door into the office. "This is our guest? Hi, I'm Stanley. Welcome to your new home."

  He lightly shoved on a door jamb and floated into the office, halting by planting his feet on the floor and letting Velcro soles anchor him into place.

  "This is Stanley Cooper. Stan, Jane Kuznetsov. Give her a tour and briefing on procedures and a sleeping berth."

  "The berth is set up and I'll take her to it at day's end. Come this way Ms. K."

  <>

  The next few days Jane got to know every part of the station, both the no-gravity and the low-gravity parts. It was quite big, with a variety of ways for rich people to enjoy themselves. It also had offices for business people to help manage the several orbital industrial complexes which made products more cheaply than on the ground such as foamed-steel.

  <>

  By the third week of Jane's visit she'd become an old pro at living in the station. She became popular with the station workers when at a meeting she introduced them to a new product.

  The meetings were always just after lunch on Mondays. After all business was taken care of the manager of the World Space Station said, "We've got a treat in store for us. Or so our super gofer Jane claims. Over to you, Jane."

  Before the meeting Jane had brought in several boxes and tacked them to the floor against one wall with Velcro. She floated to a standing posture, twisted to face the rest of the room, and tapped the floor with her boot tips to anchor herself.

  "A company downside has made a product for low/no gravity workers."

  She held up a belt with two devices attached which resembled small soda cans, then donned it, positioning the cans with tops and bottoms facing forward and backward. There was a half-foot long lever on the outside of each can pointing up.

  She touched a button on the front of the belt and a couple of lights lit on the belt. She glanced down at them, then laid hands on the two levers and manipulated them.

  She slowly drifted off the floor to a foot's height, then pivoted to her right and drifted forward till her face was near the wall. She pivoted a half turn and her back gently hit the wall.

  Her rebound sent her back in the direction from which she'd come. Before she'd gone far she went sharply down and had to flex her knees to absorb her feet's impact with the floor, ending up standing upright with the tips of her boots again Velcroed to the floor.

  "Oops! As you can see it takes a bit of practice to use --I call it the flying belt. It's based on a device one of your co-workers tried out two years ago when she was up here. She used parts from a quadcopter to make it. It didn't work well and she forgot all about it once she got downside. But the invention of the decabattery and the telemag jet got her to thinking. Lo! Her reinvention of the flying belt."

  One of her friends spoke up. "It looks like fun. But we get along pretty well without it."

  "We do. This model would sell mostly to our customers--I mean your customers. I'll be back down at the Academy soon. They can fly around and play aerial soccer or tag or whatever. You might make a lot of money setting up a place for them to play in.

  "But in those boxes is a different version. Instead of air jets like this one, it has space jets."

  "Those are for real?"

  "I invented them. I tested them in high-altitude test chambers and the companies the Academy signed up with to use the tech have tested them in orbit. They probably did it from here but you never knew about it because they were just another firm trying out all sorts of gadgets and processes. But I heard about this company's flying belt and helped them make an additional model."

  There was some excited or interested conversation about that. The manager made them quiet down, so Jane continued.

  "Outside we're limited a lot because we have to be tethered at all times. We always have the fear we'll be cut loose and go drifting off before our buds can get to us.

  "Now we don't have to be. We can get around a lot more freely. My guess is that we'll still have to use tethers--"

  "You will," said the manager.

  "--but you'll have a lot more freedom.

  "One of the improvements these belts have over the quadcopter model is a lot more available energy. You can attach several battery packs back here."

  She did a pirouette which showed three small battery packs hooked onto and plugged into the back of the belt.

  "And they can be decabatteries when they become available.

  "Meanwhile I had both air jet and space jet belts made up and sent up. They're in those boxes there. I'll let the Boss--" She nodded toward him. "--arrange to have them signed in and out. I suggest you practice a lot inside with the air jet model before you to use the space jet model outside."

  The manager spoke up. "They certainly will."

  "One final matter. The air jet and the space jet tech have been declared Tech Export Limited. They don't want Russia and China and the like getting their hands on it. They will eventually, through independent development and spying. It sounds like something out of movies, but both countries have really big and well-funded spy networks constantly doing industrial and other espionage.

  "You could make a lot of money by stealing one of these devices and smuggling it downside to sell. Especially the space jet model. But the US has several ways to discourage and to punish anyone who does that. They will catch you."

  Jane had learned how scary she was in android mode. She became Jane+Robot.

  "And if they don't, I will."

  <>

  A few people were alarmed by the scary side of Jane. The rest were mildly surprised or claimed they'd known it was there all along. "Everyone has a dark side. I'm more concerned by those who hide it."

  One matter bothered Jane.

  Every Monday a spaceplane arrived from the Mojave Space Port, no more often. It took a full week to turn around the mother and daughter ship housed there. The pilots stayed over that night and Tuesday night. It took that long for the station's personnel to empty the craft's holds and load them properly balanced with products from the orbiting factories.

  Jane sought them out. They were happy to see her and impart their wisdom to her. She was so curious and easily impressed. That she was a pretty girl helped, even to the female pilots. Some even let her sit in the cockpit of the daughter-ship and lecture her on the controls and procedures. She soaked the knowledge in. Before long Jane could pilot a spaceplane better than the long-time pilots, a fact she kept to herself.

  As the weeks went by she began to notice men's hands and then to wonder what it would feel like to have them on her body. The moment she fully realized this she was so shocked that she became Jane+Robot.

  Then it was obvious to HER. Having finally reached space HER body was becoming ready to have a child. If SHE ever chose to. There was no hurry. Her life span was much longer than that of primitive humans.

  That last thought saddened HER as calmness settled upon HER and SHE became Jane again. So many of the people she loved and liked would eventually pass away.

  Perhaps before that she might be able to develop a way to extend everyone's years.

  <>

  The Monday of the week before her return downside Jane was interrupted at some routine help she was giving the Station Power engineers by an exclamation from someone nearby.

  She turned with a couple of co-workers and looked at the woman. She stared back at them through the clear view screen of her vear.

  "They nuked Beijing!"

  "What?!" "When?"

  Jane checked her vear's Notices channel. There was an incoming news report from one of the downside's many news channels. It showed a satellite image of a bright fl
ash of light in a distant edge of Beijing. Then an obscuring cloud of rising and spreading brown smoke.

  The video recording continued to show the cloud for several seconds. Then the image shrank to a quarter its full size at the lower edge of the screen and began to repeat. The rest of the screen showed a news desk and a woman. She spoke.

  "That was the view which was released not quite fifteen minutes ago. It appears that"

  Jane+Robot spared a few centiseconds to compose a statement. Then Jane's voice spoke to her co-workers.

  "It wasn't a nuke. It was something like one of the Air Force's castle-buster bombs. About 4000 pounds TNT equivalent. And it's not the center of Beijing. It was quite far from that."

  "...according to the Department of Defense. Now for"

  SHE decided there was no immediate threat to HERself and those under HER protection. It would waste attention on this event until more data became available. SHE relaxed.

  Jane was shaken. How many people had just died? How many others would suffer, those close to the explosion? Their families and friends?

  She drew a deep breath. She was tempted to go back to being a cyborg but resisted the temptation. Drawing on Robot's knowledge of psychology she'd long known that she needed to be able to face hard reality if she was to stay human and healthy.

  She let out her breath.

  "I'm going to wait till more info comes in. Meanwhile, this job IS KIND of important. Or do you not agree, Chief?"

  <>

  Two days later Jane boarded the spaceplane for return downside and home.

  Chapter 21 - USAF Academy - Year 4

  Jane returned to her last year at the Academy with a strong sense of purpose. She'd been to space. She would return there. When she did she intended to be in a position of power.

  As usual at the beginning of each semester she got together with the major in command of her squadron, SQ 3 (one of ten) in group GP 1 (of four groups). He resembled a garden gnome to her mind, a happy and friendly one.

  "You've had an interesting summer, Cadet," he said, looking at something on his vear.

  Jane found it very interesting that he made it seem that he'd actually reviewed her summer. Logically it was unlikely. He had not quite a hundred cadets under his command. If he spent even 15 minutes on each, that was four full work days.

  Something to learn there.

  He went over each of the several course areas a cadet needed to graduate. First were social sciences.

  She picked almost all those in military subjects, including effective command and leadership theory and practice. Outside of class she intended to study the dirty side of manipulating people, such as spreading lies and making and betraying secret alliances. She would not use those means but she needed to know how to detect and counter them.

  One course she selected was command structure, with emphasis on that of the Navy. The Space Force had been spun off the Air Force and inherited much of its command structure, then through much lobbying of the Air Force and its industry allies brought back into it. She thought that the Navy structure was a better fit for the long duration missions likely in the future, with space forces scattered all across the solar system.

  To satisfy the Arts part of the required course areas she chose video production. That would have practical applications in her future in space.

  Besides it would be fun, an important consideration. All work and no play made Jill a dull and unhappy girl.

  Robot agreed, concerned as it was with Jane's safety in all ways. Its knowledge of psychology was theoretical but deep, the product of a civilization with millennia of history.

  For her English requirement she chose the twin speculative fields of fantasy and science fiction. Not only would this be fun but it would also be practical. Jane's career and long life might resemble some of the more far-fetched stories she'd encounter in those stories. Forewarned would be forearmed.

  For sports she made her usual trio of volleyball, soccer, and basketball.

  She got settled in and the next week began her classes. The only club she joined was the Chinese Culture Club. The news out of China was disturbing. She wanted to better understand what was going on there.

  And she returned to dancing. She was NOT going to be a "dull and unhappy girl"!

  <>

  On the Monday three days before Thanksgiving the Assistant Superintendent of the Academy "requested the pleasure" of her company at the end of her class day. She showed up at his office ten minutes early and was told by his secretary that he would be with her "shortly."

  Jane assumed that was a polite way to say "indefinitely" and sat down to read a military sci-fi novel. It was a thinly disguised though well-thought out re-imagining of space navies as 18th century sailing ships. That she deemed fantasy more than SF. But the organization of the military and the prices they paid for their service was realistic. She had become absorbed in it.

  Her immersion in it was interrupted two minutes later when the secretary said the man would see her now.

  He stood as Jane entered the room and before she could brace and salute he gestured at a chair. He said, "At ease, Cadet Kuznetsov. Please be seated."

  Jane did so to find herself being examined curiously and (she and Robot agreed) cautiously. She gazed back with the same curiosity. What was this about? Why cautiously?

  "I asked you here because the Space Force has made an unusual request. They'd like to pick you up at our air field shortly to fly to Andrews for consultation on a project there. They will transport you the day before Thanksgiving by air to Pasadena so that your holiday will be curtailed only briefly. Are you up for it?"

  Jane smiled. "This is truly a request? Do I, a lowly cadet, really have a choice?"

  "Oddly enough, you do."

  "And wonder for the rest of my life what I missed? I'm ready to jump up this instant and run to the airfield. It IS only five miles, mostly downhill."

  He smiled back. "That will be unnecessary. If you'll pack your luggage for your Thanksgiving holiday and take it out front of your barracks in--" He focused his eyes on his vear's faceplate. "--an hour and thirty-five minutes you'll find a car waiting for you."

  "Now?"

  His smile grew broader. "Yes, now, cadet."

  She stood and saluted him, then about faced and quickly left the room.

  <>

  He was still looking at the doorway so recently emptied when the Superintendent of the Academy filled it.

  The woman said, "Still panicked by The Demon Kuznetsov?"

  "No. And maybe even more Yes. I LIKED her. Nearly loved her, she's so adorable."

  She came in and sat. "The mark of a successful honey-pot ambush predator is how seductive it is. Its victims go readily to their doom."

  The man looked at her accusingly. "You are NOT making me less scared."

  "Be less scared. Just still cautious. I think she's exactly what she looks like. She goes out of her way to help people because she really cares for them. They like her, they follow her, maybe to their death when she thinks, wrongly, that she knows how to help people."

  "Like those naïve and well-meaning but stupid politicians we see too many of nowadays."

  She stood and turned to leave.

  "One thing we can be certain of. She is the exact opposite of stupid. Which may be worse. Those who can succeed big can fail big."

  He called after her, "Again, NOT making me less scared!"

  <>

  It was two hours later before the van Jane was in rounded the south border of the airfield and turned left into it. Her driver waved at gate guards and drove straight through between several buildings and around the building in which the control tower was housed, ending on an apron which led to one of the four runways. There waiting for her was surely her ride: a popular small bizjet made by Cessna. And it was powered by two telemag jet engines mounted on its waist.

  Jane didn't pay much attention to them. For sitting on the floor of the interior with her feet on the lowe
st of two rungs of a skeletal two-rung ladder was someone she knew.

  "Rachel! Are you my personal chauffeur today?"

  The curvy Latina dressed in flight overalls fake-scowled. "I tried to get out of it but they said mean things to me."

  She hopped down and came to hug Jane. Then she took one of Jane's two suitcases from the truck bed and led the way around the wing of the aircraft to stow it in a modest bin open under an engine. Jane handed her suitcase to her and then stood straight to put a hand on the engine, close enough she didn't even need to stretch.

  Information flowed into Jane+Robot. SHE considered it for a few seconds, then relaxed into HER warm half.

  Rachel slammed the small door shut and latched it securely shut.

  "Come on, Princess. Let's get this circus on the road."

  The pilot took the two steps up into the cabin, then waited for Jane to enter it. She pulled a lever and the ladder rotated up into the cabin and folded itself into a recess. She pulled the door shut and locked it.

  "Come up front."

  The interior had six obviously comfy seats. Four at the back faced forward. The two just rear of the door faced backward. The cabin was a few inches over five feet high so the two short women only need to crouch a little.

  Rachel took the left pilot's seat, Jane the right. They buckled in and the pilot brought the aircraft alive.

  "Academy Airfield Control, this is Cessna ExecJet N932XT on your apron with one passenger aboard. Request permission to take off on flight plan previously filed."

  "Roger, Cessna 32XT. Wait five."

  "Roger, Control, 32XT, wait five, wait five."

  Despite the Wait order the pilot eased the jet forward along the apron toward the entry to the runways. This was only a bit premature as the go-ahead from the tower came just a minute later.

  In complete silence from the engines the jet arrived at the turn into the launch points for the runways and pivoted to enter the runway access path. Reaching one of the launch points the jet rotated toward the runway and paused.

  "Academy Airfield Control, Cessna 32XT, ready for takeoff."

  There was only a brief pause, then "Cessna 32XT you are Go for takeoff. Have a safe flight."