Fleet Academy
By: M. Scott Cottrell
Copyright 2011,2013 ©
Second Edition
All rights reserved, no part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopy, recording, or any information storage or retrieval system without prior written permission of the author.
Table of Contents
Chapter 1 - Boost Phase. 4
Chapter 2 - First Leg. 17
Chapter 3 – Moon base. 39
Chapter 4 - Destination Mars. 60
Chapter 5 - Shuttle Mission. 74
Chapter 6 - Rescue. 87
Chapter 7 - Transit time. 113
Chapter 8 - The Ropes of Command. 137
Chapter 9 - Europa. 167
Chapter 10 - Preparations. 193
Chapter 11 – Neptune Loop. 212
Chapter 12 - Contact 242
Chapter 13 – Path to the Sun. 260
Chapter 14 – Life around the Sun. 274
Chapter 15 – Heat of the Sun. 302
Chapter 16 – The wake of Mercury. 331
Chapter 1 - Boost Phase
Everything was blurred by the distortion waves roiling up from the expanse of heat soaked tarmac. The line of white cigar shaped boost shuttles appeared to dance in the distance as Matt stood behind the glass that shielded him from the scorching heat of the Phoenix spaceport. One of the slender shapes lifted into the air and quickly accelerated into the clear sky, the power lifting it invisible to all those watching. Long gone were the days of decades past when every launch was accompanied by the thunder of a thousand storms as the shuttles lifted into the air on massive tongues of flame and towers of toxic smoke.
Matt turned from the window to work his way through the busy complex to the Navy Embarkation Center. At least I’m finally here he thought to himself as he walked the stiffness out of his legs. Even at over four hundred kilometers per hour the twenty eight hundred kilometer trip out from New Chicago on the mag-rail felt like it had lasted forever. Part of him wondered why the service didn’t use hoppers to fly them instead of leaving them to the boring hours of ground transportation. Oh well. Guess it doesn’t matter now, he thought as he stepped up to the embarkation desk, presenting his orders to the civilian clerk. “Ensign Matt Molter reporting for transport to Station One.”
After glancing through the two short pages the bored looking clerk eyed him carefully. “ID please.”
Matt handed over his ID card and pressed his thumb on the tiny sensor pad. The machine quickly blinked green matching his thumb print with the one stored in the memory chip in the ID card and the world tracking computer, indicating that he really was who he said he was.
“Report to Bay 27 at 1830 hours,” the clerk intoned as she handed back his orders and ID. “Pass through the security gate now, please.”
Matt dropped his sea bag on the scanner belt and walked through the security gate, both of them quickly being scanned for any weapons or explosive devices. Hearing no tones from the automated scanning machines, the security officers motioned him on. He shouldered his bag and headed down the long building to the shuttle tubes. The launch complex was so sprawling that the only efficient way to get from the security building to the actual shuttle pads was by riding the tiny tube cars that resembled over grown pills, zipping back and forth on their magnetic tracks. Finding a tube that serviced Bay 27 he pressed the access button and the door opened with a gentle whoosh, revealing the inside of a tube car. He ducked as he stepped into the small car, dropping his sea bag into one of the seats and settling himself into another of the comfortable bucket type chairs. The car started out with a slight jerk, moving out of the terminal and into the blazing sun. Matt took his last look across the arid landscape, expecting that the next time he saw it he would be looking down from the orbiting space platform Station One. Feeling like he stepped into a low g trainer, the car dipped its nose and disappeared underground, plunging him into relative darkness until his eyes adjusted to the artificial light. Like a gopher running its tunnels, the car zipped through the underground maze leading to the array of launch bays and pads, eventually arriving at bay 27.
Matt had waited three years for this day. Now was the time to put all the training, simulations and study of those years to work. This was the start of his mandatory space deployment, the last phase of the academy’s space training program. In six months he would hopefully be a Lieutenant Junior Grade serving on a fleet ship, or better yet, recommended to command school; if I can keep from screwing up in the next six months, he thought to himself. He knew full well that only a small fraction of the cadets that went into the space phase made it to command school, a grueling two year combination of intensive courses and even more rigorous simulator work on one of the space platforms. Most cadets washed out of the command program during this initial space phase, to be support officers, or worse, ground dogs, labeled ‘unfit for space duty’.
The chime brought him back to reality as the tube car slid into the underground launch prep bay. With that same gentle whoosh the doors slid open revealing a large but fairly crowded room. Matt proceeded to the desk and again presented his orders and ID.
“Place your bag on the scale please,” the young female attendant said as she flashed him a pleasant smile.
Matt dropped his sea bag on the scale and weighed himself and his bag in. The computer terminal dutifully noted his weight and that of his sea bag and then transmitted it all to the boost shuttles computer where it adjusted its computations for orbital insertion. She stood up from her small desk and tagged his sea bag before letting the conveyor whisk it away.
“Thank you. The shuttle will load in about ten minutes. Enjoy your trip up!” She told him, the smile never leaving her pretty face.
Matt collected his papers and thanked her, returning her smile. At least this one has some personality, thought Matt to himself as he moved toward the crowd milling around the seating area. Looking around he could see quite a variety of people, from small children up to relatively old grandparents. By far, however, the bulk of the group was made up of men and women in their twenties and thirties, and guessing by the uniforms, a number were there for the same reason he was, naval duty on either Station One or one of the many fleet ships. The ten minutes passed quickly as he waited with the rest of the group for the boarding call. Only one more tube car had arrived, adding a few more uniformed passengers to what looked to Matt like a fairly full shuttle flight. The pleasant clerk announced that the shuttle was ready for boarding and wished them all a good flight. Matt stood from the seat he had dropped into and lined up with the rest of the passengers, to take his turn on the powered staircase carrying them up from the underground pre-flight room to the waiting orbital shuttle. The last few dozen feet of the trip were above ground in a windowed tube allowing him a quick glimpse the long cigar shaped craft, with its stubby wings and obvious lack of rocket exhaust bells. As Matt stepped off the stairs into the shuttle entryway, he was directed by a smiling flight attendant to take the first available launch couch. Walking down the aisle he found an open seat a number of rows back, and slid into the outboard seat, leaving room for another passenger to take the aisle seat. He was somewhat disappointed that the orbital shuttle didn’t have windows like the slower atmospheric jobs. As he was securing his seat harness, another cadet dropped heavily into the seat next to him.
“Hey, how ya doin'. Kevin Ridel’s the name!” The tall lanky newcomer drawled with a distinct Texas accent.
“Matt Molter. Headed for the training ship Saint Claire.” Matt replied, holding his hand out.
“Same here. Looks like we’re gonna be shipmates.” He drawled, giving Matt’s hand a firm shake.
Only a few more minutes passed before the last of the passengers were seated and the flight attendants had finished the cabin check, ensuring that all the passengers were securely belted before strapping themselves in. Matt had studied the theory of the super conducting pulse magnet at the academy, but this would be his first experience in a ship that applied the principles. It was a clean and effective method of lifting mass into lower orbit, removing the significant atmospheric pollution associated with earlier launches. Unfortunately, it only worked within the planets magnetic field, making it useless for deep space work.
The lift off was surprisingly smooth. Matt had expected to have more of a feeling of acceleration, but the inertial damping systems were well tuned, keeping the cabin at a constant 1 g toward the deck with practically no backward force, even at their nearly 5 g acceleration.
Their arrival at Station One, less than thirty minutes after liftoff, was heralded only by a slight bump, as the docking locks engaged, and the flight crew announced that they had arrived and may disembark.
“Well, Kevin, I think we’re here. We have until 2100 hours to report to the Saint Claire. Let’s see if we can find a view port and get a look at Earth before we report.”
“Sounds like y’all got a good idea there. Lead on.”
Matt exited the shuttle through the docking collar with Kevin close behind. The air tasted almost metallic to Matt as they followed the passengers ahead of them into the station and took in their first breaths of the totally artificial environment of Station One. The docking ring corridor stretched in a long curve before them disappearing in an artificial horizon. Spaced every hundred feet along the outer wall they could see an airlock leading into a docking collar and an occasional passage on the inner wall leading to the interior rings of the station. As they walked down the gently curving corridor Matt took note of the emergency bulkhead doors he had learned about in his space structures courses, each door designed to isolate a portion of the station in the event of a depressurization accident. They followed the bulk of the departing passengers to a cross-corridor with a sign marking the location and the direction to the habitation rings. As they preceded down the cross-corridor, a spoke between the stations concentric rings, they came to the first portals looking out on space. Taking a quick glance out they were disappointed to see nothing but the black of deep space. As Matt’s eyes slowly adjusted to the view, he was stunned at the carpet of stars spread out before them. As they stood, mesmerized, a piercing lance of light broke through the window. Almost as soon as the light sliced into his vision, the portal darkened, reducing the light to a tolerable level. Matt jerked back in surprise. “Man that was bright!”
“Y’all got that one right. I thought it was gonna sear my eyeballs right outta my head.”
“Yah, but did you see those stars? At the risk of sounding like a down lander, I’ve never seen so many stars in my life.”
“Well, we grow ‘em big in Texas, but that’s a lot more sky then I’ve ever seen!”
“Come on; let’s see if we can find a porthole that looks out at earth. Otherwise we’re going to have to wait for the ring to come back around again.”
Kevin followed Matt down the corridor toward the next habitation ring.
“Ya know we’re gonna have find a port on the other side of the station.”
A Chief Petty Officer overheard them as they walked down the corridor in front of him. “If you sirs want to get a good view, head down to Level 1. There’s a good observation deck there.”
“Thanks Chief. What’s the fastest way to drop down there?” Matt asked him.
“Take this spoke to the core drop tube and head straight down to one. Just mind the gravslide.”
“Thanks again Chief!” Matt replied as he snapped a salute to return the Chief’s before he and Kevin turned and headed down the indicated spoke. The Chief walked away muttering about another ‘new bunch of rookies’.
The two of them continued down the spoke passage toward the core of the station, passing the intersections of all five rings before they saw the yellow markings on the floor, warning of the gravity transition or ‘slide’. The last ten meters of the tunnel gradually eased off the artificial station gravity, from station normal one g, to the zero g of the central core. It was a much more efficient way to pass a large number of people than cycling them through a gravity lock, but it was really only practical on a station or large cruise ship. It just took too much energy and equipment for a small ship or shuttle. If the slide didn’t exist, the sheer force of instantly passing into the zero g inner core from the one g artificial gravity of the spoke could tear a man apart. Matt checked for the green indicator light, ensuring that it was working the way it was supposed to, before he stepped into the slide. He felt the same butterflies in his stomach as he had going into the zero g trainer at the academy, feeling like he was suddenly falling even though his eyes told him he wasn’t. As he stepped into the zero g core, he floated to a side handhold and waited for his stomach to get used to the floating feeling. Kevin followed into the core tube moments later, and the two flipped head down to pull themselves along the pull bars mounted around the outside wall of the tube. Matt was careful not to allow himself to float too far from the wall and the hand holds as he glided along in true zero g for the first time. It wouldn’t do to have his new ship learn that he had allowed himself to get stranded in the core tube the first time in real space! After several pulls along the pole he was able to start drifting, gliding easily with only a few touches of the hand pole to control his drift, the fifteen decks they needed to travel sipping by quickly. As he drew near the end of the core tube he noted the warning placard indicating that deck one gravity was operating at one tenth of normal earth gravity. As he floated out of the tube he immediately started to fall back into the tube, disorienting him briefly before he grabbed hold of the pull bar to swing himself off to the side. Matt settled his feet on a donut shaped deck that ringed the central core tube and looked up. Up and down being relative to the direction one just happened to be pointed at the moment. The observation deck was little more than a clear dome, providing an unobstructed view of space, with the exception of the portions of the dome that were automatically darkened by direct sunlight. From this vantage point Earth looked close enough to reach out and touch. The blues and whites were such a stark contrast that you could almost feel the colors.
“My gawd!” Kevin drawled as he pulled himself into the observation dome. “Have you ever seen anything as beautiful as that?”
“Not in my whole life, Kevin.” Matt replied as they both stared in awe. Matt lost himself briefly to thoughts of what was behind them and what lay ahead.
“Come on Kevin. We better collect out gear and get back up to the docking ring. It wouldn’t do to be late for our first assignment.”
“Right behind ya.” Kevin called to Matt’s retreating feet.
Matt watched the levels slip by as he floated up the core, slowing as he approached level fourteen. Near the gravity slide he found the station map for the level, and took a few moments to orient himself and find the cargo port on the small diagram. He pushed off across the 10 meter wide core to get to the spoke closest to his destination, Kevin following close behind. Matt already knew that going through the gravslide was never going to be his favorite thing. He went through slowly, letting he stomach catch up as he transitioned back to normal gravity. He looked behind him as he cleared the slide and saw Kevin shoot through with a smile on his face, obviously not bothered by the gravity change. With a shake of his head at his new friend Matt headed up the spoke away from the core, Kevin still close behind.
The cargo port was easy to find as were their sea bags, the rest of the passengers having collected their bags long ago. They claimed their bags and headed back down to the core to jump back up to deck fifteen. It only took a few minutes to find the main docking port that hosted the Saint Claire. Matt Presented his orders to the cute redheaded Petty Officer standing watch at t
he port, with “Jenkins” embroidered on the front of her blue jump suit. “Ensign Matt Molter reporting!”
She looked over the orders and thumbed through a pile of data packs, pulling one out and handing it over with a smile. “Welcome aboard, Sir. Here are your quarter’s assignment and other orientation information. You have officers call in the officers’ mess at twenty-one hundred hours. Your duty assignment will be made at that time. Don’t forget to log into the ships system and sign in as soon as possible.”
“Thank you Petty Officer Jenkins,” Matt said as he took the data pack and returned the salute that the Petty Officer snapped. He took a deep breath and then stepped into the docking port and his new home. Once inside he waited for Kevin to process in as he had.
“Let’s find a data port and find out where our quarters are,” Matt said to Kevin, as he started down the corridor, aiming for a small yellow panel on the bulkhead. Matt pushed his data pack into the port and was presented with a menu of data files in the pack. He selected the ‘quarters’ entry and a map and room number popped up on the tiny screen. He oriented himself to the map and pulled the data pack out of the port. “I’ve got cabin 216. Let’s see what you got.”
Kevin popped up his data pack and found that he was bunked in cabin 218, two doors down from Matt. “Well it looks like we’re not going to bunk together. Come on. Let’s get settled in, we got almost an hour before officer’s call.”
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