I didn’t say any goodbyes. There wouldn’t be much to miss.
The engines fired up, a long, high-pitched whine that settled into a low growl. The ship rumbled and then we were shooting upward. I felt myself pushed back hard against my seat. I was glad I had skipped breakfast.
We kept picking up speed until suddenly everything loosened, my seatbelt no longer digging into my chest, and it was like we were at a standstill, hovering in space.
That was a guess. There weren’t any windows to look out of. I had hoped to see Earth one last time. Not because I was feeling sentimental, but because I always thought the view would be hard to beat. That feeling of utter aloneness as your planet receded into the distance, knowing it was home and you were leaving it. You weren’t just traveling to a different country. No, this was something far more drastic. You now belonged to the less than one percent of people that had left the planet.
Before we had launched, Hayes had buckled himself into the seat next to me. I glanced over and caught him staring at me. I tried to smile, trying to act like I was enjoying this.
“Don’t worry,” he said, “you’ll be able to see it once we dock with the Astraeus.”
“What’s that?”
“Earth.”
“I wasn’t really thinking about it.”
“Uh huh,” Hayes said, clearly seeing through my lie. “I recall saying something like that, too.”
“Yeah?”
Hayes raised his voice so I could hear him over the rumble of the ship’s engines. “That’s right. I know how it is. Sometimes that’s the best part. Watching your own planet fall away. Makes you feel all alone, but there’s something comforting in that. Like you’re at peace for the first time in your life.”
Hayes had summed it up in fewer words than I could have. Comfort in the fact that you’re alone. I hadn’t given the man credit. We spent the majority of our time looking at the man as a superior; as the man who gave us orders. Sometimes you forgot he was human the same way we were.
The rumble of the engines died, leaving us in a strange silence. Over the intercom, a pilot’s voice said, “Initiating dock procedure.”
The ship leveled out, rocked back and forth, giving a violent shudder and a loud clang as the docking ports locked magnetically.
“Docking procedure successful,” a voice said over the intercom.
Hayes unbuckled and stood up, directing us to do the same. We slipped on our spacesuits. Technically, now that we were docked with the Astraeus, we could pass between the two ships without needing suits, but mission procedure required us to wear our spacesuits whenever we rendezvoused with another vessel. It was a standard safety measure in the event the docking ports suffered a breach.
We had had ample training in getting in and out of our suits. With enough practice, we had been able to get it down to about thirty seconds. We were all suited up and ready to roll out within a minute. Hayes spoke into the intercom. “Ready for transition.”
The doors hissed open. Hayes herded us through the corrugated chamber, bringing up the rear. Once we were all on board the Astraeus, he said, “All clear,” and the doors slid shut.
We climbed out of our suits and hung them neatly on the hooks to the right of the docking station doors. There was a large window on the far wall which presented us with an unobstructed view of the Earth. I could have gone on staring at it for hours. Hayes had been right about all of it. The aloneness, the surprising comfort a person could find in it.
“Take it in,” Hayes said. “This is the last time you’re going to see it for a while.” He didn’t rush us. He allowed us time to commit it to memory.
I’m not sure how long we spent there. However long it was, it didn’t seem like long enough. We heard another clang as the carrier vessel we had arrived in uncoupled from the Astraeus’s docking port. It drifted past the window, performed a lazy one-eighty, and we watched it accelerate toward Earth until it disappeared into the atmosphere.
I don’t know what the others were thinking. Maybe they were saying their goodbyes.
I didn’t. All I could think about was what lay ahead. I was still enjoying that comfortable aloneness.
“Let’s get moving.”
We had docked closer to the rear of the ship. Directly to our right were the doors leading to the equipment storage bays. We headed in the other direction, through the cramped janitorial room, past mechanical and engineering, and after sciences we were in the lounge and recreational areas. Flynn suggested we stop into Finnigan’s, but Hayes nixed the idea. The ship was mostly deserted except for us and the flight crew. The rest of the flock would be arriving within the next few hours.
The size of the Astraeus didn’t escape me. For all intents and purposes, it was a mobile city.
Hayes showed us the security section, the equipment closet, and our quarters. To save space, we would be double-upped in rooms. Except for Gloria and Captain Hayes, who, for obvious reasons, would each have their own. We didn’t draw straws. Hayes made the decision. He paired me up with Harper, and inwardly I wondered if I had somehow made his shit list. Although nobody said so, we all considered Harper the weakest link. Mainly because he didn’t know when to shut his trap.
We dumped our stuff in our rooms. They weren’t much. Bunk beds secured to the wall, a small desk, can-lights in the ceiling, and a porthole window that you wouldn’t be able to fit a basketball through. The rooms were depressing. I couldn’t see myself spending much time there, and I thought maybe Flynn had it right – maybe Finnigan’s was the place to pass the time.
Next up, Hayes passed out duty belts. They didn’t allow lethal weapons to be carried on space missions. Our only gear was two sets of zip-tie cuffs, an expandable stun baton, and a can of restraint foam.
I had seen the foam in action. When you sprayed it on someone it expanded and turned to a hard rubber-like substance. Use enough of it, you could literally encase someone in the stuff. It would work well enough in the ship’s artificial gravity, but outside of that it was useless. The stun batons could be lethal if you hit someone with it hard enough. It was made of reinforced steel, and when you pressed down on a button on the handle a blue halo would appear at the end of the rod, capable of delivering a shock powerful enough to make anybody drop to their knees. I flicked my wrist, expanding the baton to full-length, and pressed the button on the handle. The halo glowed electric blue. I collapsed it and placed it in the holder on my belt.
The belt felt good resting against my hips. It gave me a sense of authority. Hayes had told us that feeling that way was just fine, but to not let it go to our heads. The belts and gear might have made our authority known, but it was also what separated us from the rest of the crew. The belt and the gear created a rift. In some primal part of a person’s brain, it created an ‘us versus them’ mentality. Hayes wanted us to keep that psychological rift as small as possible.
“We’ll start walking patrols at oh-eight-hundred hours. Two-man teams. I want two people stationed in the docking area to assist with new arrivals. But let’s meet your flight crew first.”
Past the flight crew quarters was navigation, the command center and the cockpit. Outside the entrance, Hayes keyed the intercom and said, “It’s Hayes. You have a minute for a quick meet and greet?”
The door slid open. We were greeted by a short, clean-shaven man with brown hair combed over to the side.
“Meet your flight commander,” Hayes said. “Jim Sturgeon.”
We took turns shaking hands with Sturgeon. He seemed friendly enough. He gave us a tour of the command room and introduced us to the rest of the flight crew. Debby Huang was the ship’s navigator. She stood in front of a large holo-map floating over a table projector. The Astraeus was represented by a stationary red blip on the blue-hued map. Earth was a small blue sphere, and the other planets in the solar system followed, represented by spheres of various s
izes. When Jin was introduced to Debby, they had a brief conversation in Chinese. I couldn’t understand a word they were saying, but both of them were smiling. If I didn’t know any better, I thought Jin might be the tiniest bit smitten with the petite navigator.
We then met the pilot, Susan Harms. She was a short brunette, maybe 5’1” with her boots on. She flashed me an uneasy smile when I shook her hand. I couldn’t blame her for being nervous. I was nervous and I had less responsibility than she did.
Howard Jensen carried the title of Payload Commander. He was rail thin and looked like a man drowning in his blue flightsuit. He seemed easy going enough.
Sammy Wong, Flight Engineer. Chinese, my height. He spoke in broken English, sometimes stumbling over getting the words to come out right, but he appeared capable in his job.
I had to keep reminding myself that a good portion of the crew was Chinese. Even with Sarver’s fortune, the mission was beyond expensive. During his speech, Melbourne had dropped the fact that it was the most expensive undertaking in history. They had paired up with the Chinese in order to mitigate the financial risk.
Not that anyone would ever know; they were keeping it under wraps. I imagined that was because failure would have meant a lot of lost money and, perhaps worse, it would be a very public embarrassment. I didn’t think they would make the details known until they could deem the mission a success. But when Sarver had put the word out for potential co-funding, the Chinese had jumped on the opportunity. With certain stipulations of course. They were allowed to hand-select up to a third of the crew and obviously they would share in the spoils if the mining operation was a success. I had no idea what the profit split was. I didn’t give a rat’s ass about who got rich.
Before we departed the command center, Hayes said, “We’ll have a man stationed in the command center twenty-four-seven. Standard procedure.” He didn’t ask for volunteers. “Jin. You’ll take the first shift.”
Jin didn’t seem to mind. He hadn’t taken his eyes off of Debby Huang since we entered the room.
After we left the command center, Hayes put Yuri and Harper on walking patrols. Flynn and I were assigned to the docking station to monitor the arrival of the rest of the crew. Perkins and Gloria were to remain at general crew living quarters to make sure everything went smoothly.
Flynn and I headed for the rear of the ship. We took our time getting back there, familiarizing ourselves as we went. Flynn paused outside of Finnigan’s. It looked like an old-style Irish pub, an ancient-looking sign posted above the entrance that spelled out Finnigan’s in green, spidery letters. “I’m more of a Texas hole-in-the-wall type,” Flynn said. “But I guess we can’t bitch. All goes down the same. Even in places close to hell. I reckon I’ll be spending more than a few nights helping close the joint down.”
“If Hayes doesn’t have you pulling night patrol,” I said.
Flynn looked like he was heartbroken. “Yeah, we’ll see.”
When we reached the docking station, another carrier vessel was arriving. From the big window, we watched it slow and dock. Another vessel hovered a ways out, with another approaching in the distance.
After the magnetic port connection was made, the clamp auto-closing to form an air-tight seal, there was a whoosh of air as the doors slid open. People shuffled through the doors, single-file, most of them wide-eyed, wearing the same stunned and nervous expression I assumed I had been wearing when we had first arrived on the Astraeus.
Flynn stood on one side of the door and I took the other. We glanced at identification badges, comparing photos to faces. We helped direct passengers if they were confused about what section they should report to. Most of them were scientists in the various fields and were all going to the same place. I spotted Lisa and Thomas in line together. I was beginning to think they were inseparable, even if they denied being anything more than good friends.
I wasn’t sure if I should say anything when they reached the door. I was acting in my capacity as a security officer and part of me thought I should keep it formal and business-like. When I looked over at Flynn, he would alternate from trying to appear stern whenever a male crewmember passed by, but a goofy grin would take over his face whenever it was an attractive female. He even told one of them, a long-haired brunette, that he would be in Finnigan’s ‘tying one off’ later if she felt so compelled to join him. I wondered how Hayes would have felt about that.
Hayes had said our attire and gear could create a psychological rift between us and the rest of the crew; that most people had a natural tendency to rebel against authority whether they were aware of it or not. With that in mind, I decided that I could afford to be friendly, and if anybody questioned it, I could explain how I was just trying to narrow the rift.
“Hey there,” I said as Lisa stepped through the doorway.
“Jake,” she said. “You were first to arrive?”
“Close to it, I guess.”
She looked me up and down, pausing at my duty belt before her eyes met mine again. “You’re looking awfully…authoritative.”
“That’s because he’s the law now,” Thomas said, stepping in behind her.
“Sounds like a prestigious position.”
“Nah,” I said. “All it means is that I get to carry more toys than you.” I removed my expandable baton from its holster and pressed down on the button on the handle. The fiery blue halo crackled into life. It was stupid. Showing off, pure and simple. Flynn smiled. He seemed to understand. If you got it, flaunt it, his smile seemed to say.
“It’s pretty,” Lisa said.
I shrugged and reholstered the baton.
“Pretty dangerous, you mean,” Thomas said. “I don’t believe in weapons.”
“He always has an opinion,” Lisa said. “So, hey, will I see you later maybe?”
I told her it depended on where Hayes posted me later. “Have you heard of Finnigan’s?”
“Who hasn’t heard of it? It’s all anyone’s been talking about. You would think it’s more fascinating than the mission. I’m not really the bar type.”
“Either am I,” I said. “But I thought I might stop in later to see what all the hype was about. Maybe I’ll see you there?”
“Could be,” she said, and then it was time for them to move on as more people came through the doorway.
After Lisa and Thomas were gone, Flynn said, “Barely an hour or two into it and you’ve already got yourself a prospect.”
“Prospect?”
“A girl.”
“I don’t know about that.”
Flynn wagged a finger at me. “Protest as much as ya like, ya can’t pull one over on me, Lansing. I can smell interest from a mile away.”
“Good to know.”
The carrier vessel emptied. The dock doors closed. Once it departed, the next carrier pulled up to the docking area. There were two more ships after that, with the janitorial and maintenance crew being the last to arrive.
“What now?” I asked after it was clear that everyone was accounted for.
“Guess we should report back to Hayes,” Flynn said.
I keyed my mic, ready to call Hayes over the radio, but Flynn stopped me. “I didn’t say we had to do it immediately. Might not hurt to do a walk through. Make sure there’s no lost sheep lingering in the hallways.”
I caught on quickly to his meaning. He wanted to scope things out, get the lay of the land. More importantly, I thought, he wanted to see if he could make conversation with any of the more attractive ladies we had seen boarding the ship.
“You’re shameless.”
“What? Doesn’t hurt to become familiar with your environment. Hayes himself mentioned building a good relationship with the rest of the crew. Besides, we’re in space not a seminary.”
It was hard to argue. So I didn’t. I keyed my mic and said, “Lansing to Hayes.”
Over our radios: “Go for Hayes.”
“We’re sealed up tight back here,” I said.
“Report to my office for assignment.”
Flynn was shaking his head. “That was cold, man. Really fuckin’ cold.”
CHAPTER 8
I cleaned up in my room, doing my best to shave while I gazed into the small mirror that hung above the sink. Harper was sprawled out on the top bunk, looking glum.
There was a hunk of amber sitting on one of the shelves next to Harper’s bunk. Curled up inside of it was a perfectly preserved black widow spider.
“What the hell is that?”
“A black widow.”
“I know what it is, but why do you have it?”
“Sentimental value.”
“Really?”
Harper picked up the chunk of amber and began turning it over in his hands, examining it.
“No,” he said, “I guess it’s just to remind me that dangerous things can come in small packages. Plus, I’ve got a thing for bugs.”
He placed it on the shelf and let out a deep sigh.
“What?”
“Night shift,” he said. “Why me? Why not you?”
“Luck of the draw,” I said, and put a nick in my neck with the razor. “Shit.” Artificial gravity felt a lot like real gravity, but occasionally you could tell the difference. It could be disorientating. Didn’t help that my shaving skills were subpar.
“I don’t think Hayes likes me.”
“I wouldn’t know about that. I don’t think it has anything to do with favoritism.”
“I think it has everything to do with favoritism.”
“He likes Flynn, but Flynn is pulling night duty with you.” I wiped my face off with a towel, glanced in the mirror a final time and decided it was as good as it was going to get. “Somebody had to be first. We’re on a rotation. More than likely I’ll be pulling it tomorrow.”
Project Diamond (Jacob Lansing Series Book 1) Page 7