After shaking the water off his clothes and wiping his face with his sleeve, Steve went further into the lounge and sat down on one of the seats. He found and fastened his seatbelt and lowered the stabilising bar, which clicked into place. Cushions immediately inflated themselves on either side of his back, fixing his body in place completely. Cool! There were no such devices on civilian ships.
Steve took a quick look back at the entrance, where the others were still hurrying in. The water was not just trickling off the roof of the shuttle and the engine nozzles, but pouring down in streams. The bright glare from the floodlights lit up the rain, blinding Steve’s eyes as it dispersed. Because of this, it was impossible to see what was going on outside the ship from inside. Shadows periodically appeared as if from nowhere, breaking through the downpour and momentarily opening the curtain of water to the world outside.
The torrential rain forced the team to get from the bus to the shuttle amazingly quickly. Some coped with their seats at once, while others fiddled about for a while trying to strap themselves in. Kimble walked along the rows of seats, strapping in those who couldn’t manage it themselves. Only then did he flop himself down onto a free seat and strap himself in with lightning speed, an action he had obviously done hundreds, if not thousands, of times before.
Once firmly in place, the captain made some sort of gesture towards the ceiling. Steve followed the gesture with surprise, and only then noticed the dark eye of a small camera above them. It seemed that the pilots had been using it to observe them. There had been no need for them to look round from their seats.
“Roger,” said a voice from one of the loudspeakers above Steve’s head. He was sitting quite close to the cockpit, and could hear the pilot’s voice even without the intercom.
At that very second, a deafeningly loud hissing noise was heard from outside. The ship was blowing out its nozzles with compressed air to eject the water that had drained into them and any other detritus. The solid wall of water cutting the interior of the ship off from events on the launch pad disappeared immediately. The water gushing out of the nozzles could be seen for dozens of metres behind them as it swirled around and away into the night sky.
From the direction of the entrance came the sound of hydraulic amplifiers, straining. The entrance door, which also served as the floor, thus making it easier to enter the shuttle, began to rise, sealing the entrance behind it. Once in place, it slammed sonorously, moving sideways slightly into slots that locked it in place. The deafening hiss from outside fell silent immediately.
A small monitor came down to a position just in front of Steve’s face and relayed the image from the external cameras. He could see the water from the rocket engine nozzles still shooting off into the darkness.
Suddenly, from somewhere behind them on the other side of the hull plating, sharp sounds like discharges of electricity were heard. At the same moment, the water from the nozzles stopped flowing in uniform streams, and diamond-patterned shock waves passed through it. The frequency of the waves kept increasing, and, with a bright flash of light, two plasma exhaust jets shot out of the ship’s tail. The shuttle was instantly filled with a low roar, incomparably noisier than on civil ships.
Steve took his eyes off the screen to look at Kimble. It was hard to make out in the semi-darkness of the shuttle, but he thought Kimble looked pleased. The lift-off in the military shuttle must have brought back some pleasant memories from his past.
The violet plasma jets changed their focal length several times, then the engine nozzles were lowered. The ship shuddered noticeably and rose vertically into the air. It was shaken from side to side almost instantly, with gusts of wind trying to throw it on its side and back to the ground.
After gaining only a few dozen metres of altitude, the nozzles changed direction again, and Steve felt the acceleration inclining him to the right. The side cushions were good shock absorbers, preventing his body from bumping painfully against the harder parts of the seat.
The shuttle stopped being thrown from side to side, and, instead, started vibrating like mad. The noise of the turbines continued to increase, and Steve felt the ship accelerate even more. Yes, it seemed the pilots had never heard of passenger comfort.
Steve looked at the image from the front camera, but his eyes could make out nothing but onrushing drops of water. Suddenly the drops were no more, and the amazing sight of the starry night sky and the bright moon shedding its soft light on a dense blanket of cloud opened up before him.
The ship’s acceleration increased significantly. This is really too much, thought Steve. The excess G was beginning to make him feel uncomfortable, and the shuttle was now gaining altitude at an acute angle to the vertical. Under the pressure of such acceleration, the blood was beginning to leave his head and his vision was blurred and fading.
After a few minutes, the ship suddenly changed position sharply, so that its ceiling was now the floor. The shaking had almost stopped, and the shuttle was moving along smoothly and steadily. Describing a huge arc, it left the atmosphere and went into orbit to meet the expedition ship.
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An excerpt from “THE CONTACT”:
The spacecraft reaches Mercury at the intended time and begins sending signals to determine the precise orbit of the planet. The experiment begins that evening. A command is sent to increase the speed of Mercury from the Experiment Control Centre at the moon base. Three hours later, the International Space Station, scientists at the moon station and also many other groups of scientists on Earth, register a decrease in the diameter of Mercury’s orbit round the Sun by two percent. Once the experiment is over, Mercury’s orbit is slowed down to its previous level.
Soon after, a Chilean observatory observes a space object moving from outer space which could potentially collide with Earth. Precise calculations of its flight trajectory are not yet possible because it is so far away, and the orbital telescopes, even those in orbit round the gas giants, are currently being used in support of an experiment testing remote manipulation technology. In view of the low speed of the object, the time for it to reach the Earth’s orbit is estimated as hundreds of years, so a low priority is given to clarifying its trajectory. Nevertheless, the instruction is entered into the central computer for a second observation of the object a week later, to confirm the low priority status.
At the next observation session, the object is not detected. The telescope control system probes the space sectors in the region of the assumed location. The unidentified space body is eventually detected, but its actual position differs greatly from that initially assumed. Following its programmed instructions, the telescope computer corrects the calculation data and raises the priority for finally calculating the trajectory. The third observation session is appointed for 24 hours later.
The third observation session reveals an even greater calculation error. The Chilean telescope’s automatic control system has to notify the scientific personnel...
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An excerpt from “THE STORM”:
The doors closed with a hiss, and the cabin of the mountain cableway smoothly picked up speed as it was carried up at an ever-increasing rate. Kate stood facing the panoramic windows and could barely hold back her tears. That idiot had gone anyway. Left everything – her, his work; he just got up and went without even saying goodbye. He had nothing but contempt for all her persuasion, arguments, threats...
She had never found out which blathering fool had infected him with the stupid idea of going to Cape Town. Jerome had always been stubborn, but sometimes his stubbornness reached such heights that she found it hard to believe in his intellectual maturity. It was so easy to instil something into him, to infect him with an idea – just like a child. He was utterly dependent on his companions and was just like they were: no opinion of his own, only that of the group.
Jerome was sociable and, as suited his temperament, his c
ompanions formed quite a large group, so it was virtually a stone cold certainty that sooner or later, considering how they were drawn towards adventures, one of them would come up with a stupid idea.
When one of the dimwits in the group learned that there was to be an unofficial surfing championship in Cape Town this year, was Jerome going to miss such an event? No, not for anything! He was surfing mad and had once been ranked in the world’s top one hundred. He was forever grumbling that the official sport was too greatly commercialised, had lost its soul. It had become a way of making money rather than gaining satisfaction by riding along on the crest of a wave...
And now there was this championship in Cape Town, and a completely unofficial one at that, although it was rumoured that almost all the champions would be going. Or at least the ones who were still respected in the informal coterie of surfers for having remained true to the concept and not having sold their soul for money.
It was as if the fact that South Africa was virtually in a state of civil war was nothing to worry about. Obviously Jerome had not paid it any attention. Anyway, little things like that just add to the adrenalin.
It had all begun two months ago, when unprecedented riots broke out in Cape Town, occasioned by the latest summit of heads of state. Riots at such events were nothing new, but this time they did not end with the police throwing a few smoke canisters, squibs and fireworks.
At first everything had looked as it always did. The chanting of left-wing slogans, bangs from squibs, the howling of police sirens, some water from water cannons, clouds of tear gas rising up from gas grenades fired into the crowd. But at a certain moment, the situation got out of control. The crowd rushed against the barrier again, and this time the water cannon could not push it back. Witnesses among the police told of people literally going crazy, sweeping everything out of their way.
A small group of retreating policemen was cut off from the main group and forced into a narrow alley. The worst of the hotheads were kept at a distance by rubber bullets, but just a few minutes later, stones were thrown at the police. There was nowhere to run and they were pushed back against a high wall. Taking fright, they opened fire with lethal weapons. The demonstrators scattered, leaving eight wounded and four dead on the asphalt. For some time, an ominous silence fell on the city.
This happened in the morning and by lunchtime the news had spread all over the planet like wildfire. By evening, up to half a million people from all over Africa had gathered in Cape Town. This time they were armed, well armed, and it’s hard to get your head around what happened next.
The following day, the armed crowd rushed up to the cordon, opening fire as they went. Return fire followed immediately and, as a result, the number killed rose to dozens. Clashes continued as soon as the second wave arrived. The crowd succeeded in seizing several assault rifles and war broke out in the city.
The summit had to be called off and the heads of state made an emergency departure by helicopters. One escort helicopter was shot down, and eight Special Forces soldiers and both pilots were added to the list of those killed.
But the rioting did not end there, it only grew worse. The armed mob, not having managed to exhaust their vengeance and hatred on the police defending the summit, turned their anger on ordinary citizens. A wave of robberies, attacks and murders began.
A state of emergency was declared in the city and a 200,000-strong peacekeeping force from four countries was brought in. For a month, it tried to restore order, engaged every day in what amounted to war in urban conditions.
When the most extreme hotheads were eventually driven out of the city or killed, a fragile peace was established in Cape Town, but riots flared up in other major cities. First Durban, then Johannesburg, and after that Pretoria. Other towns followed. All against all. The country sank into the chaos of civil war.
And that was where her boyfriend was going in search of adventure, to the very heart of it!
“But it’s all been quiet in Cape Town for a long time now!” Jerome had nonchalantly assured her, obviously not understanding what Kate was worried about. “There were riots, but they’re over!”
How much time she had spent explaining something that was obvious to any grown man – that it was stupid to risk your life just for more adventures, it was beyond madness. She had wept, got angry, begged him not to go, but Jerome had been immovable.
Though he had at least promised he’d think about it. That was yesterday evening. She had begun to hope he might change his mind but this morning, when she woke up, she found a note saying he’d be back in three weeks. Oh no he wouldn’t! He might come back in three weeks, but not to her. She was sick to death of his tricks, she’d had enough.
In less than five minutes, his things were dumped into two cardboard boxes, stamped on to pack everything in, and thrown out with the garbage.
En route to the cableway, Kate had still been shaking with rage. But now, the soft humming of the cabin’s electric motors, and the landscape opening up below, calmed her down. Her mood gradually changed to one of humiliation, helplessness and loneliness.
The world outside the window was immersed in semi-twilight when the cabin was enfolded in a layer of dense cloud. The lamps in the ceiling came on at once, adding to the sensation of cool comfort, and the mist outside the window gave the impression that she was actually in an aircraft being carried far away from her problems.
The clouds gradually disappeared as if scattered by a headwind, whistling barely audibly in the door cracks, and the cabin continued to gain height. It was now above the cloud blanket.
The artificial lighting in the cabin was switched off and replaced by the bright rays of the Sun filling everything with dazzling light. It was as if in passing through the cloud barrier, Kate had entered a new life, where there was no place for earthly concerns. All her worries, including those connected with her good-for-nothing boyfriend, had been left behind, down below. Here she would find only crystal clear air and the gigantic lenses of a telescope directed into the depths of space and the infinite abyss of the Universe.
The cabin had slowed down and was now crawling at a snail’s pace towards its destination, visible in the distance from the large viewing platform. Having reached the locking mechanism, it shook, something outside clicked loudly and the cable stopped. The doors made a hissing sound as they opened and cold dry air rushed in at once.
Kate hunched up, put on her woollen cardigan and buttoned it up. The wind here did not blow as it did lower down the island by the water, in gusts. Here, at an altitude of almost two and a half thousand metres, it blew constantly, never for a second loosening its icy grip. When the weather was really frosty (weather here only meant change of temperature, at an altitude of two kilometres there was virtually no precipitation), it was simply unbearable to stay outside. The wind pierced the body right through to the bones. She left the cabin at a brisk pace and set off to the gates.
The central administration building was a good hundred metres from the cableway station, which had been specially built for the staff of the star laboratory on Tenerife. Since the telescope complex was automated to the highest degree, and had one of the most advanced AIs on Earth, work here usually meant working alone. Staff members replaced each other but rarely met face to face so on the cableway, she almost always travelled in splendid isolation.
Inside, Kate found a small package on her desk. Turning it over in her hands in surprise, and not finding any explanatory note as to who had sent it or for what reason, she raised it to her ear and shook it cautiously. Judging from the dull sounds from inside, it contained sweets.
She hesitated briefly, then carefully opened the wrapping to find a tiny gift box of truffles inside. How perfectly timed! On this miserable morning, chocolates were just what she needed.
She made herself comfortable in her chair, switched on the console at her workplace and put a chocolate truffle in her mouth before taking a sip of her freshly-brewed coffee. The sweet aroma of cocoa and hot
coffee certainly had a positive effect. Amazing! It only took a little mixture of simple ingredients to paint the world a different colour. Maybe things weren’t so bad after all? She took a deep breath and immersed herself in her work.
The speciality of the observatory on Tenerife was the observation of the central star of the Solar System, the Sun, whose activity had been increasing anomalously for at least five years now. The number of astronomers throughout the world had also increased and they were gradually beginning to get worried about this phenomenon.
Magnetic storms had become abnormally frequent, and their intensity had increased so much over the last five years that it had been necessary to review their classification. The strongest storms in the good old days were no more than average storms as the matter was understood today. And the storms now considered strong were previously thought of as nothing less than cosmic whirlwinds.
Kate rapidly skimmed through the main astronomical news of her observatory and all the other observatories on Earth over the past night. She dwelt only on the large-type headlines denoting particularly important events.
“Another ten-thousand-year storm has been recorded,” read one such headline over a short article. She grinned. An amusing combination of words: “another ten-thousand-year storm”. It did not seem to bother the author that such events had happened as many as four times in the past two years.
Although the magnetic storms passed unnoticed by most of the planet’s inhabitants, silently raging away somewhere out in space, the severe storms nevertheless caused quite a lot of inconvenience. Apparatus, particularly of the high-precision kind, began to play up. Here and there, in various countries, mobile communication would not work, and in some places the electricity supply failed due to short-circuiting at the substations.
The worst affected were the satellites. Each such space storm put dozens of them out of action. It was said that one big insurance company specialising in the insurance of space apparatus had even gone bankrupt after having to pay compensation for a whole group of space-based apparatus that had become unserviceable at the same time.
Fundamental Force Episode Two Page 9