Galactic Startup

by Brian Whiting

  Mason looked at Cindy. They had spent years in training and several months together on the station. She knew exactly want he wanted to know at a glance.

  “The computer is showing the pressure is stable on the other side. There’s a slight imbalance, but it’s safe to open.”

  “Taggert, we are opening the airlock,” said Mason into his com link.

  Taggert relayed the information to Space Command.

  ***

  As the space station door swung open, Alex and the others greedily breathed the comparatively fresh and more importantly, warm air. Timmy was the first to speak.

  “This is so awesome,” he laughed between chattering teeth.

  Alex considered it an understatement for the epic moment. He reached out to no one in particular and said, “Welcome to the United States Vessel Surprise!” He emphasized the word Surprise.

  Commander Mason reached out and shook his freezing hand.

  “My name is Commander Mason. This is Lt. Commander Cindy and Commander Xi.”

  “This is Jorge, Timmy and Zeek.” Alex floated toward the airlock. He had hoped they would be allowed into the warmth of the station. But Mason was an intimidating presence with a stern and unwavering face. Alex sensed it wouldn’t be that easy.

  “You invited me to your vessel,” Mason said. Taggert was talking in his earpiece: “Space Command is tapped into your mic. They are listening to your conversation.”

  Alex’s smile diminished only slightly.

  “Of course. Try not to touch the metal, it’s pretty cold.”

  “Is your heater malfunctioning?” asked Mason, feeling the chill creep into his arms.

  Instead of embarrassing his friends and their accomplishments, Alex simply nodded. Timmy looked at him. They proceeded into the cargo container one by one. The crew of the USV Surprise, followed by the crew of the ISS.

  “What the hell is this?” Commander Mason demanded when he entered the cargo container. “If I was anywhere else, and I mean anywhere, I’d call this a terrible prank. Who’s in charge?”

  Alex, Jorge, Timmy and Zeek exchanged glances. They never really considered any one of them to be in charge, though they did tend to rely on Alex for direction and sometimes motivation. Alex spoke up.

  “I am.” Mason considered for a moment, but kept his thoughts to himself.

  “How did you get here?” asked Xi, impatiently.

  Timmy was about to open his mouth, but Alex was too quick.

  “That’s proprietary information. What we will tell you is that it took no more power then what’s contained in the batteries you see along the floor.”

  “You achieved escape velocity on stored electrical energy?” Mason looked from one side of the container to the other. Each side had nothing more than a flat screen above a computer desk seating two people. The only other decorations were the nests of computer wires and cables going every which way. Those that hadn’t been taped down were floating freely. A row of batteries on the far wall and a camera in each corner essentially completed the inventory.

  Everything about what he was seeing screamed it wasn’t possible. Mason wondered if a rocket had put them into orbit.

  Alex wrung his hands with both cold and nerves.

  “Sorry. As I mentioned, we come with gifts.”

  Zeek floated toward the astronauts with a foot locker, and opened it. Candy bars, soda and even a whisky bottle began to float out. He quickly closed it, and pushed the box through the air to Cindy. Two of the candy bars had escaped and now floated above their heads.

  “Chocolate!” She reached out for one. “Snickers!” She tore it open and took a bite, her expression melting with satisfaction. “Oh god, have I missed these.”

  Timmy and Jorge smiled broadly, and Zeek put his arm around Alex. This was a mission accomplished.

  “Why are you here?” Xi asked, his arms folded across his chest.

  Commander Mason was examining the foot locker. Heavy oak with thick metal clasps. NASA would never allow such excess weight into orbit, he thought to himself.

  “We are testing our new propulsion drive and figured what better destination than the space station,” Alex replied, shrugging his shoulders.

  “What kind of propulsion?” Xi moved closer.

  “It’s anti-gravity,” Timmy blurted, unable to contain his pride in his design.

  Alex whacked him for his stupidity, sending them spiraling in different directions.

  “Anti-gravity got you to the space station?” Xi continued.

  “What’s the range?” Cindy asked. “I mean, if you can tell me.”

  Alex bit his bottom lip. His desire to brag fought against the need for secrecy and won. He doubted the information could hurt them.

  “The range is system-wide.”

  “System-wide. You mean…”

  “We can go anywhere in the solar system. At least.”

  “How fast?” Cindy continued.

  “We haven’t reached a limit. We got up here in less than an hour.” Alex loved the attention, but he was starting to become uncomfortable with the questioning.

  “You guys have radar or guidance tracking? I can’t see any.” Mason couldn’t believe the lack of vital equipment.

  Jorge knew why he was asking. Traveling in orbit was risky if you couldn’t see other moving objects. But radar was a luxury.

  “No,” was his only reply.

  The space station crew floated motionless, mouths agape.

  “Can we see the space station? It’s just a little chilly in here,” Zeek said, breaking the tension.

  “Unfortunately, you don’t have clearance,” Mason replied.

  Taggert spoke in Mason’s ear.

  “Space Command wants you to give them a thorough tour. Keep them on board. They are reassigning the X-32B to your position. ETA seven hours.”

  The Commander corrected his previous statement seamlessly.

  “What the hell. You guys just did the impossible. If you won’t tell anyone, neither will we. Come on over.”

  Cindy gave Mason a curious glance. She took one last look around the container. It reminded her of the carboard boxes she used to pretend were spaceships as a kid, playing with her brother.

  The tour began with the habitat modules. The astronauts carefully showed their visitors how they slept, explained the dangers of muscle degradation, solar radiation and demonstrated methods for managing exercise, food, waste, energy and air recycling.

  With each system, the astronauts asked what the Surprise used in comparison, or if they had even considered such risks. Mostly they would answer that they had no equivalent on their ship, but Alex realized they were giving away a lot of other information without noticing. Hours had gone by and it would be morning soon. The questions were making him uncomfortable, and he tried to think of ways to make a graceful exit. It was only a matter of time before they let crucial information slip.

  When no one was looking, Alex mashed the buttons on his electronic watch until it beeped several times. He pretended to be surprised.

  “I’m so sorry,” he said. “The tour has been awesome, but we have to go.”

  “Please, stay,” Mason smiled innocently. “Have some food. We would love to hear more about your voyage and all the work that must have gone into it.” Privately, Cindy recalled their freeze-dried food. She wondered if it was the best way to entice them.

  “How about we plan on another visit soon,” replied Alex, nervously.

  “When can you return?” Mason fished.

  “We’re free tomorrow?” Jorge proclaimed, happily. Alex closed his eyes and clenched his fists, slowly exhaling.

  “Is that so?” said Mason.

  “Um, not tomorrow,” interjected Alex. “We have to make several modifications before we can come back. We’ve learned a lot today.”

  Taggert was in Mason’s ear again. “We can give them a CO2 scrubber.”

  “You know, I bet we can provide an air recycling system for the Surprise
,” said Mason.

  Timmy, Jorge and Zeek perked up. Alex didn’t even hint interest.

  “Maybe on our next visit,” he said, pushing the others toward the airlock.

  Mason frowned as he looked around in a last-ditch attempt to find something to get them to stay. Something must have spooked them, he thought, as he relented.

  “At least keep my email address. We can stay in touch.” He flung a business card towards Alex, who caught it and pocketed it. He stopped at the airlock.

  “Thank you for the tour. Please enjoy the goodies, and we’ll come back soon.”

  Cindy looked incredulously at Mason.

  “Who the hell has business cards in space? You think a shuttle of cheerleaders is going to stop by?”

  Mason frowned and thought about tossing the clipboard at her.

  “I found a few in one of my binders the other day. Besides, I didn’t see any girls on this shuttle… maybe the next one.”

  Meanwhile, Timmy was taking pictures of the docking collar and noted some quick measurements before shutting the cargo container’s door.

  Cindy secured the airlock. They both waved through their little windows at each other.

  ***

  Alex buckled into his seat and looked into the camera he knew was still recording.

  “Well. We made it to the International Space Station. Mission successful. Now let’s go home.“

  “We don’t actually have to go anywhere. Why did you spoil the fun?” Zeek asked with a hint of anger.

  “Look, you may not have noticed, but I did. They were interrogating us. Now they know we live in Florida, that we built this ship at my parents’ house, that with piss-poor planning we still managed to get into space and dock with the station. We showed them the entire ship. And for some reason they were stalling. I don’t know why, but my spidey senses were tingling.”

  “And who made you captain all of a sudden?” Jorge shot Alex a dark look, while checking his computer for updates.

  “I don’t know. They expected there to be one, I didn’t want to give them other ideas. Let’s get out of here while we can.”

  “You got it, boss,” said Jorge, sarcastically.

  Timmy pushed a button, and the docking collar slipped off the hull. It hung lifelessly from the space station.

  Alex grimaced at the sight of it. He lowered his head and closed his eyes. It would take an unscheduled spacewalk to cut the rubber docking sleeve from the station.

  Jorge used the control sticks to rotate the anti-grav disks upside down, and applied power. Now the ship was drawn to the source of gravity instead of repelled by it.

  Timmy was busy hitting keys at a frantic pace, which always got the attention of his friends. He had the ability to type so fast it was breathtaking to witness. After giving him a few moments, Alex interrupted.

  “What’s wrong?”

  “Our air. Jorge, we need to lose speed and head back in the other direction to put us over home. Then we need to descend. But not too quickly, we don’t have any heat shielding. If we time it right, we can make it back before the sun rises. Timmy was still typing like crazy. Moments later, a plot appeared on Jorge’s screen.

  “Don’t leave that line,” said Timmy. “There’s no room for error.”

  “That will bring us in over the Gulf of Mexico,” said Jorge, but he adjusted to follow nonetheless.

  “We are also fighting the rising sun. It might be light out when we get back. I figure we come in over the ocean at low altitude, try and make it to the garage without too many people seeing us.”

  “Yeah, no one’s ever on the beach at sunrise!” Zeek rolled his eyes.

  “You should really call it a hangar now,” said Timmy, ignoring him and sitting back to watch Jorge work.

  “You’re so right!” Alex chuckled. “But Zeek has a point. Lots of people will see a cargo box flying over the trees. Why don’t we come in from above?”

  “You said you didn’t want to lead anyone directly to our… hangar. Descending directly is a sure way to pinpoint its location on anyone’s radar. Flying in low avoids radar altogether.”

  Alex realized he was right, of course, and silently gave thanks once again for having friends smarter than he was. They had done something amazing here, today. Somehow, he felt something huge had been set in motion. He began to consider his plans for the future, turning away from the others and into his own little world.

  The container began to shake as it entered the atmosphere at two thousand miles per hour. Not fast enough to heat the hull, but not exactly slow. This box couldn’t be less aerodynamic, Alex thought, as the shaking of the container became bone-jarring.

  “Decrease the power,” he yelled over the terrible noise.

  “It will be over soon. We’re decelerating fast!” Jorge shouted back.

  He was right. A few minutes later, they were over the surface of the water.

  “We are one hundred miles from the coast, and about two hundred from the hangar. Altitude is six thousand feet and falling,” reported Timmy.

  Alex’s own display showed a ground speed of two hundred miles per hour, decreasing slowly. The container shook with occasional bursts of turbulence, but after a few more minutes, it was still. Alex looked over at Zeek, who was strangely quiet.

  “Hey Zeek, pop the air, would you?”

  Zeek rolled his head. He didn’t smile, didn’t say a word. He sighed with irritation and pushed the button to open the air vent as if it were a great struggle. It was always hard to predict Zeek’s changing moods.

  Leaning back into his chair, Alex closed his eyes and began to think about his friends and how he had met him.

  Timmy and Jorge had been in his life since they were babies. His parents would always hang out with a few friends who had kids of their own. Eventually, they became inseparable.

  Alex met Zeek in sixth grade when they sat next to each other in the back of class and played handheld video games. They had never spoken to each other. Zeek was a weird kid and Alex avoided him like everyone else.

  One day, Alex noticed Zeek having trouble on a level Alex had played before.

  “You have to freeze him first,” Alex said. He was the first person Zeek hadn’t ignored completely. He looked at Alex, and finished the level using the recommended freeze spell. That slight edge was what he needed to move on. He reached out a hand.

  “You can be my friend,” Zeek said. The room went quiet. It was the first time many in the class had heard him speak. Most found it easier to pretend he didn’t exist. Alex remembered the teacher asking if Zeek had said something. Alex had said no, and the class continued.

  When class ended, Alex beelined to the cafeteria as always. A bully by the name of Hunter was giving Timmy and Jorge grief about knowing their place in the lunch line. Alex walked over and stood next to Timmy. He knew he couldn’t fight Hunter, who was easily a foot taller than any of them. But they had an unspoken rule that when one of them faced trouble, they banded together. The harassment would dwindle or become less severe, most times. This didn’t seem like one of those times.

  Alex didn’t realize, but when he left the class, Zeek was following, absorbed in his game. And when Alex stood next to Timmy and Jorge. Zeek was there as well.

  “You dweebs keep multiplying,” Hunter said to no one in particular. “What’s your loser name?” he asked Zeek, who acted like he was too busy pushing buttons to notice what was going on.

  “Hey, loser. I’m talking to you.” And then Hunter made the mistake. He pushed Zeek’s handheld game down, trying to knock it out of his hands. Zeek slowly looked up at Hunter, who was about to make another smart remark. Faster than anyone thought possible, Zeek kicked him a hair above his right knee. Then he chopped the larger boy in the neck, with the side of his left hand. He tossed his video console from his right hand to his left. He threw out his right hand in a fist – not quite a right cross, but it made contact with Hunter’s jaw. The bully fell like a sack of potatoes.

&n
bsp; Timmy, Jorge and Alex stared with their mouths wide open. After a few seconds, other students started to cheer. Zeek paid no attention. He stepped over the body, and kicked over a chair alongside Hunter.

  Moments later, an administrator came running over. He asked the four of them what happened. The cafeteria went quiet. Zeek spoke up.

  “He was standing on the chair like an idiot, and it fell over. You should get him to the nurse, quick!”

  Administrator Womack seemed more surprised that Zeek was talking than that Hunter was unconscious on the floor. Zeek just looked at Womack expectantly with his eyebrows raised. Womack regarded the assembled crowd.

  “Nothing to see here, go back to your activities,” he said.

  Zeek reinserted his ear phones and returned to slaying magical beasts. Timmy, Jorge and Alex grinned at each other and escorted Zeek to their table, where they expected to see him from then on.

  A bolt of turbulence knocked Alex back to reality. The others were standing. Alex looked around.

  “What happened?”

  Timmy frowned, without looking back.

  “We made it home. I’m going to bed.”

  Alex realized how tired he was as well. He stumbled out of the container, and discovered it was back in the familiar shed. He paid no attention to his friends leaving in Timmy’s car. Alex wandered up a short dirt road to his house. The sun had not yet fully risen. Strangely, his father was waiting for him, or seemed to be. He was sitting in a chair, positioned so Alex would see him as he came through the door.

  “You’ve done something special. Here I was thinking you were wasting your time with those friends of yours. Now I see it was well spent,” he said, showing no emotion.

  Alex couldn’t think of anything to say, so he just stood in the door, slightly swaying.

  “Do the other parents know what you guys accomplished today, or just me?”

  “We’re not ready for inquiries yet, from anyone.”

  “You should get to bed, we have much to discuss when you wake up.” Alex walked past while his father stood, removing a coat from the back of the chair. His eyes never left Alex as he went up the stairs.

  “Alex. I’m proud of you.” Alex looked back and down, but his father had moved out of sight. Alex shrugged slightly, annoyed at the interruption. He kept on going up.