Pilgrim One: Prominence (Project Pilgrim Book 1)

by Christopher R. Marrs

  In short order, the cargo was moved out, and the handlers then starting waving passengers into the hatch, offering assistance as needed. As Narmer observed, the preferred method was to pull oneself along the ceiling using the handholds and then slowly launch oneself at a handler, holding your pack tight to your chest. That way, they could grab any part of you to stop you without the packs continuing their initial trajectory and causing damage or harm.

  Soon it was their turn, and Narmer followed Deides as she slowly rose above her seat and grabbed a handhold in the ceiling. With one hand, she started to pull herself across the ceiling towards the cargo hatch, then she let go and clasped her pack to her chest with both hands. She was headed right on target.

  Narmer tried the same tactic, but let go too late and was swung up into the ceiling, which he hit feet first, and then he bounced back towards the floor. He felt someone grab him from behind and push him towards a handler. The handler expertly caught him, then grabbed his pack and shoved it through the hatch, and then did the same to Narmer.

  One handler caught his pack; another grabbed him. Then both he and his pack were shoved further inwards. The hatch opened up into the hub of the station where people, transport mechs, and cargo performed a choreographed dance to get everything and everyone to the correct destination on the station. Narmer and Deides followed their fellow passengers towards a hexagonal hatch with an iris that was fully open. It was now obvious that this was the hatch that allowed access to the great spokes of the station as they rotated into position relative to the hatch.

  They were hurried into the hatch and entered the spoke. Narmer noticed that the left wall was moving closer to him, so much so that he bumped into it, slid along just a bit more, then was stuck to it.

  “The rotation of the station causes the spoke to move sideways relative to you and then pin you to its side. You are beginning to feel a bit of ‘gravity,’ so you can stand up now on the ‘wall’,” Narmer heard from behind him. He looked around and saw that it was Jegit.

  Narmer put his feet on the ‘wall’ and slowly stood up. He saw that Deides had successfully stood up as well.

  “The trick now is to bend over and grab your pack,” Jegit challenged them.

  Deides started to bend down, and she almost fell over. But, she was able to use her arms to cushion her fall.

  “In the ‘gravity’ created by spinning, walking outward to the rim on a spoke will feel like you are walking slightly uphill. And it will feel a little downhill in the opposite direction. Once you get to the rim, walking into the spin, or retrograde, will feel the same, uphill, and walking prograde will feel like downhill. You never fully get used to it, but you will get fairly adept at it. Just try not to do too much damage to yourself in the meantime,” Jegit instructed.

  After a few tentative steps, Narmer and Deides were able to make their way towards the rimward end of the spoke with their packs, with Deides beginning to leave him behind. After walking for upwards of a hundred paces, they approached the rim hatch of the spoke.

  As Narmer turned to ask Jegit, “What now?” he noticed that the hatch on the hub end was closed. He also noticed the other twenty people behind him that he’d obviously been holding up.

  After a short wait, the hatch in front of them began to split open, and the doors slid right and left out of view. But it looked all that was revealed was a recessed wall.

  Jegit turned to address the group, “Those of you that have experience with this, go ahead of us. The rest, step to the left and wait with me and I’ll show you how to do this safely.”

  Narmer watched as most of the group moved towards the hatch, his new group was mainly ‘greenies.’ Each member of the group, one at a time, walked up to the wall, stuck a foot out in front of themselves and placed it on that wall, followed by the other foot. They were now standing out from the wall, parallel to the floor of the spoke, and then each walked right through the ceiling!

  Narmer turned to Jegit, “OK, that is pretty amazing! I want to try!”

  Jegit said, “Watch me do it, a bit differently, it will save you from some embarrassment.”

  Jegit walked right up to the wall, with his pack above his head and then stuck the pack to the wall. He put his hands on the wall, then pressed his entire body against it. He proceeded to get into a crouch position on the wall, grabbed his pack, then slowly stood up out of a squat position.

  “That’s how it is done, the first time. No need to show off. So, if you would please, come forward and make the transition.”

  Deides was first, and she did it just like Jegit demonstrated, then walked up out of sight through the ceiling.

  Narmer was next. He, of course, had to try the experienced move. He walked up to the wall, put one foot on it, then as he tried to bring the other foot to the wall, he fell to his knees, against the wall. While the group was laughing at him, he got into a crouch, grabbed his pack, and stood up.

  “Hey, I’m only going to get to do this once, so I had to try!” he said.

  Jegit shot him a hard look and squeezed his lips hard to tell Narmer to stop talking.

  Narmer got the hint, but he didn’t know what he said that was wrong. He noticed a ramp in front of him, looked up, into the spoke one more time, then started walking down the ramp to the deck of the rim.

  At the bottom of the ramp, he saw Deides waiting for him with a number of station personnel. He walked over to her and said, “What’s the matter with Jegit?” just as she put her finger to his lips. “No talking sweetness.”

  They waited for the rest of the group to descend with Jegit at the rear. One of the station people said, “Follow me, and we’ll get you berthed and acquainted with the station.

  And like lost little baby animals, they followed.

  After a tour of the supply depot, one of the common areas, the galley, and then exercise gym, they were led to the berthing area. “Pick a room either side down this hallway,” their guide said, “Those of you that are traveling by yourself, find someone to double up with, get to know one another. You are free to roam the public areas; please stay out of the operational areas. Everything is labeled.”

  “And if you decide to take a walk outside, please close the door behind you…” he said without smiling as he walked away.

  “This is almost exciting, I have to keep reminding myself what we went through to get here, and it is not over yet.” Narmer confided to Deides.

  “Well, let’s get some sleep, we depart for Chon-su at midrise, in about nine chirps at midrise, and I’m sure that we will need to be up early for that.”

  “How do you know that?”

  “The station people were filling me while I was waiting for you to complete your transition to the rim. Had to do something while I was waiting for you,” Deides said as she stripped and crawled into bed.

  CHAPTER FOURTEEN

  Narmer awoke to a buzzing in his head, no, it was near his head. He fumbled around with the unfamiliar control panel above the bed until he hit the light. The buzzing continued. He sat up and focused on the vid panel. Picking the message play icon, he selected the priority vid message waiting for him.

  It was Jegit, “Good rise, please meet me in the galley at six chirps, we have things to discuss.” And then it ended.

  He got his p-tab from the shelf next to the control panel and thumbed it on. He saw that it was five chirps, a chirp before the rise. He figured that they had only gotten a small handful of chirps of sleep. He began to caress and gently shake Deides awake.

  “There’ll be none of that now sweetness; you heard the message, we have to meet with Jegit. We’ll barely make it as I am definitely getting cleaned up. I’ve been attacked, shot at, crammed into all sorts of vehicles and been around too many other people. All just since the Joining!”

  “Um, I was under the impression that there’d be more, well joining, since the Joining,” he whined.

  “Yes, sweetness, but it is the end of the world you know…” she replied with little
humor.

  He checked his p-tab, ‘4’ rises until Departure. He shook his head in amazement.

  Deides got up and headed for the hygiene stall. Narmer watched her go with much interest. He was happy about that.

  He began to look back on the events of the past rise. He had gotten Joined; he had been shot at, almost killed, he had learned a lot about the how the world worked that he had had no idea about and he was starting another rise with more questions that he had on the previous rise. Not making much progress, but at least now he knew why Jegit had been interjected into his life, now what?

  Narmer could hear Deides in the stall, so he decided to go help. He walked into the stall, “Now, now, I’m just cleaned up. And there isn’t time after you get cleaned either. Get moving!” she said as he tried to wrap himself around her.

  He gave her his angry face as he turned on the sonic cleaner and stepped in.

  As Narmer performed his cleaning routine, he took notice of his surroundings. He found them to be comforting. The room was not white like the shuttles, but with light panels that had a hint of blue. This theme was prevalent throughout the station. Definitely an upgrade from his residence. While not as nice as Deides, still pleasant. But he didn’t enjoy it as much as he would have, he was anxious for this rise.

  He exited the stall, and he could hear that the vid was on. He walked out wrapped in a drysheet mussing his hair into position.

  He saw Deides standing motionless watching the vid above the bed. One of the planetary news feeds was showing chaos.

  “What’s going on?” he asked, eyes drawn to the vid.

  “It has begun... The end of us has begun. The midset shuttles right behind us all made it off planet, but just barely. There is widespread looting, fighting, and fires in the cities. The launchports are under siege. The Council has declared a planet-wide emergency. The Guard has pulled back to the launchports and is securing them to facilitate getting the last shuttles launched at midrise. The Council is stating that they can guarantee that the last shuttles will launch, with the Final Selected and rest of the Vanguard passengers aboard. But the talking heads on the news feeds are more pessimistic.”

  “Some of the hinter regions have declared themselves independent of the Council and that their territories are now off-limits to outsiders. New borders have sprung up under armed guard. They have stated that they are going to survive the End on their own. No one in authority seems willing to argue the point and are essentially ceding their independence. Not that it means all that much. They are probably better off managing their affairs on a smaller scale at this point.”

  They were both watching the events unfold when Narmer realized that it was almost time to meet with Jegit, “We better get moving, we’ll be late.”

  They finished getting dressed and left their room. Exiting the berthing area, they passed one of the common areas on the way to the galley. They noted that all of the vids were on and showing similar scenes to those which they had been watching. But most of the people were in motion, with a purpose. The rim was an active place this early in the rise.

  They arrived at the galley, just a little late and they could hear Jegit speaking from atop a table as they entered, “…and you’ve done it well. We will still be able to get the bulk carrier ready for departure at midset.”

  “There is still a lot to do before we depart Nunet. When we break from this meeting, see your section leader for task and scheduling information. You will find that we have added a few more tasks. We will do our part to facilitate the evacuation of Nunet. We have moved up the timetables to shorten the time on station for the last wave of Selected and crews’ time on station. They’ll board their carrier and meet us on Chon-su. Due to the unfortunate circumstances unfolding on Kepteyn, it was decided to minimize our exposure before Departure. The faster we can get the majority of personnel and cargo on Chon-su the better.”

  “I would suggest that you stay away from any of the vid reports. There will be plenty of time during our journey to Chon-su to catch up on the latest. Your minds need to be on what we have to accomplish during the next few rises until Departure.”

  “Alright, let’s get moving. Hold your questions for your section leaders. Be quick, be efficient, be safe, but let’s get on to the next stop of our journey.”

  Jegit hopped down from the table and made his way towards the doorway, he noticed Narmer and Deides and detoured towards them.

  “I hope you enjoyed your rest. You are about the only ones that got any,” Jegit said, looking a bit more worn, “everyone else has been getting the bulk carrier ready for our departure to Chon-su.”

  Noticing that Narmer was warming up with questions, Jegit interrupted, “go grab a risemeal and meet me over in that commons area and I’ll catch you up.” He then strode off.

  Deides started towards the serving areas and following her, Narmer said, “I am rather hungry, I didn’t get a full setmeal at the Joining.” He could see only the back of Deides head, and she was shaking it.

  The selection and apparent quality of the food were surprising to Narmer. He was so used to the basic public diet, but this food was bringing back memories of better times.

  He and Deides went on separate hunts for various items. Narmer was looking over a selection of fruits when he was jostled from behind. He turned to see who it was. “Hurry it up!” said the tall, overly muscular man who seemed to be the offending party, “we are on a time schedule.”

  “My apologies,” replied Narmer as he stepped back, “by all means.” He watched the man as he set his pack down under the server racks and loaded up his tray. Narmer then looked around for Deides and saw her exiting the galley towards the common area. So, he made is way there too. As he reached the doorway, he looked for a drink and saw a juice station near the door. He stopped to fill up a nip and added that to his tray. As he was leaving, he noticed the man that he had bumped into was leaving as well with his tray. The man headed towards the supply depot, and Narmer headed over to the common area for his meet up with Jegit.

  Narmer sat at the table with Deides and Jegit. Jegit was talking into his p-tab in the middle of a vidcon, Deides was watching the vids.

  “I’m feeling a little guilty, everyone here is working on getting us out of here, and I just feel in the way,” Narmer fussed.

  “That is about to change,” Deides noted, “Jegit told me a little before is vidcon.”

  “You are correct,” Jegit piped up as he closed out his vidcon, “there are needs everywhere. Narmer you are going to help out with comms. There are a number of ad-hoc Sections that we’ve created, but they don’t have the necessary communications support that they normally would. We need people that can receive and direct comms as required. You’ll be working out of the comms section aboard our bulk carrier. I’ve sent your instructions and an introduction to your section leader to your p-tab. Please get over there as soon as you can.”

  “Deides, you’re going to help out with the logistics section on board. They need people to tag and track the mass of cargo that we are onboarding now. The same for you, I’ve sent your instructions and an introduction to your section leader to your p-tab as well. As soon as you can please.”

  “I have a few questions…,” Narmer mumbled between bites.

  “Let me give you the summary first,” Jegit suggested, “I’ll get you up to speed.”

  “During our ascent, I was in touch with the other department heads. We put a plan together to process our wave of Selected and crew through Nunet as quickly as possible. This is mainly due to so many that didn’t make the midset launches. We now have excess carrying capacity going to Chon-su. We have two bulk carriers on station here. One is for us, and the last is for the final wave of shuttle launches at midrise, in less than four chirps, as well as the evacuation of Nunet. Our thinking now is that since we have the excess capacity, we could essentially evacuate Nunet now. This would leave the barest of skeleton crews to process the final shuttles. They’ll process the p
eople and cargo within the hub, no need to visit the rim. That would speed up their journey to Chon-su. We’ve had the plans for this in place for a while, we just now have to execute them.”

  “Why the hurry?” Deides asked before Narmer could.

  “The unrest and chaos that is taking place now is a wild card in our plans. The faster that we can get to Chon-su, the better off we’ll all be.”

  “I’ve got to run to my next meeting,” Jegit said as he rose from the table, “See you on board.” He then headed spinward on the rim towards the supply depot.

  “Well, this is turning into more of a working Joining than I had anticipated,” Narmer said with a little sarcasm, “I was looking forward to some relaxation.”

  Deides looked at him, “Sweetness, any of the social norms that we knew of are gone. We are making this up as we go along. Try to be helpful in the meantime.” She got up, “I’m headed to the room to grab my pack and another change of clothes. See you there?” she gave him a weak smile and turned to leave. She tossed her tray into the recycler and turned spinward on the rim to retrace her steps to the berthing area.

  “I’m going to enjoy the last of my risemeal in peace,” he grumbled, and so he did.

  CHAPTER FIFTEEN

  Narmer headed out of the commons area and started making his way to his room as well. He observed that the general flow of the people around him was against him. That made sense as he noticed the time on his p-tab, almost seven chirps, three chirps to midrise and the scheduled departure of the carrier. Most people were making their way to ramps connected to the spokes which would take them to the central hub where the carriers and shuttles were docked.

  Narmer entered the berthing area and saw most of the operators that he and Deides had launched with were busy packing up the last of their gear. A few looked his way, but most were too immersed in their tasks to notice him.

  As he walked through the doorway, Deides was standing in front of the vid with her back to him. He could see her hands were on her face and her shoulders were shuddering. He walked up and put his arms around her. She spun around and stepped back, “Don’t!”