Escape to the Stars! Read online

  Chapter 4: Lunar Orbit

  “Standby for docking.” The pilot released the intercom switch and concentrated on centering the reticle on the docking arms’ target. A few judicious pulses of maneuvering thrusters guided the shuttle to a gentle contact with the arm. As the arm drew the shuttle against the docking port, the pilot slapped a series of toggles to power systems down.

  He popped the hatch to the passenger compartment and floated through. He held onto a handrail until the last of the passengers had been escorted into the orbital station. Jose’, his co-pilot for the last couple of years floated up and said “That’s the last of them Pat. I unlatched the cargo hatch and the hold is being cleared now.” Pat could hear the faint bumping as the handlers man-handled the containers out. Touching a control on his forearm, he said “Gently people! That area needs to hold pressure. You need to treat it gently, like you would a woman her first time!” Chuckles were heard from several sources. A distinctly feminine voice answered and said “Why would I do that? I wasn’t!”

  “Oh shit.” The pilot hurriedly shut off the link.

  Jose` chuckled and shook his head. “You always manage to put your foot in it when it comes to women Pat!”

  “Oh shut up Jose’ and let’s get out of here. We only have a few hours before we need to head back to the tether. And I’ve got a vacation dirt-side I don’t want to miss!”

  Shaking his head again, his friend replied “I still don’t understand why anyone would actually volunteer to feel gravity full-time. And weather! Why can’t you just spend a little time on the moon and practice flying Archimedes Cavern or dust-surfing on the surface?”

  Shrugging, Pat couldn’t offer a reason any Loonie or Spacer would understand. “I’m first-gen Spacer and I remember growing up dirt-side. I actually enjoyed watching thunderstorms up close and swimming in the ocean. My parents still live near Tahoe and have invited me to spend some time with them.”

  Waving to fend off the excuses, Jose’ pushed off the handle and slipped neatly through the hatch into the station. Pat followed, irritated that Jose’ couldn’t understand and share in his enjoyment of activities on Earth. The only part he didn’t enjoy was the time he had to spend at the Midway station on the Elevator to regain his dirt-legs. The two-days spent walking about in Midway was boring. It took a good night’s sleep in full gravity to regain any equilibrium. Even worse, was remembering to put things on a surface, otherwise it would crash to the floor, sometimes disastrously.

  Pushing off, he followed Jose into the station, pausing to close and lock the access to the shuttle. Keying in his code, he was assured that only he or Jose’ could re-enter the shuttle. Heading to the Commander’s office, he deftly avoided passengers struggling with zero-gee. Slowing as he approached the hatch leading to the command deck, he lingered out of site, waiting for a verbal confrontation he was hearing to end. Soon after, a red-faced grounder fumbled his way out of the command deck and rebounded from the opposite bulkhead before inexpertly propelling himself away.

  Popping his head around the hatchway, he scanned the interior for other potentially explosive situations. The commander spotted his furtive glance and waved him in. “Sorry ‘bout that Pat. That grounder was upset that a container in his case breeched in flight and allowed cologne to leak out all over his stuff. I had to remind him that all liquids were supposed to be in vac-u-tainers but he said that it had been a last-minute gift and he hadn’t had the time to put into a vac-u-tainer. I had to have his case strapped to the outside until the liquid dissipated.”

  Pat was silently grateful that he wasn’t the reason for the explosion. He’d had his share of complaints from grounders that had suffered various indignities while passengers in his shuttle. Saluting casually, he announced “Reporting that we have arrived safely and intact. All passengers have been transferred and the shuttle is locked-down.”

  The commander acknowledged the report and said “Refueling is underway. You should have a full-load when you head back. I figure you will have about ten hours.”

  “Yes ma’am. I’ll be ready. Permission to go EVA and inspect the shuttle. I noted an odd reading on a pressure gauge for the station-keeping thrusters.”

  “EVA’s already underway. Cameras caught a wisp of vapor coming from your aft thruster area and the Loadmaster wanted it checked out. It may be nothing but…”

  “Understood Commander. Thank you! That will give me some more time to catch a few more Z’s.” Saluting lazily, he backed out of the compartment.

  He pulled himself along the handgrips, heading to the crew lounge. Grabbing a packet of coffee, he injected water until the package swelled to normal size. He then placed it in the ultrasonic heater for a few seconds. It came out almost too hot to handle. Letting it cool a bit, he injected a dose of sweetener and flavoring. He shook it for a few seconds and then sipped a bit. Satisfied, he grabbed a wrapped protein-pastry out of a floating mesh bag, and then pulled himself to a corner. There he slipped his feet into loops on the deck to anchor himself. This allowed him to eat without floating into another diner.

  A few minutes later, Jose’ entered the lounge and headed to the coffee dispenser. Pat could smell the dampness from the shower he’d taken. Thus reminded, Pat finished his coffee and then pulled his feet from the loops and headed for the showers.

  Once there, he closed the privacy-curtain, stripped out of the paper flight-suit and stuffed it into the ‘cycler. He floated into the curtained alcove and let the magnetic edges of the shower curtain seal into place. He turned the fans on to their lowest setting and then used the hand-wand to wet down quickly. After shutting the water off, he eyed the use-gauge and was pleased to see that he was well under the allotted amount. He squeezed the nipple of the body-wash dispenser to get a palm-full of cleanser. Then he quickly rubbed the slimy stuff all over and scrubbed it into his scalp. He waited a short time for the foaming-action to slow and then rinsed off. He clipped the wand into its holder and turned the fans on high-speed to collect the water and dry off. As he shivered in the blast, he wondered briefly why the designers hadn’t added larger heaters to the system.

  When he was dry enough, he punched the button to kill the air-flow and then un-sealed the shower curtain. Using a nearby hose with a squeegee attachment, he vacuumed the compartments’ walls making sure he didn’t leave any water droplets lingering around to drift off. Satisfied, he ripped the plastic film from a paper lounging suit and slipped it on. Closing the adhesive fasteners, he opened the privacy curtain and headed into to the berthing area.

  He found an open sleep alcove and zipped himself in. Dimming the lights, he adjusted the air-jets away from his face and allowed his body to relax. It drew up into a semi-fetal position as he allowed the tensions to drift away.

  He was startled awake by a klaxon sounding an emergency. He burst out of the alcove and headed towards the shuttle. Jose’ met him partway there, still rubbing the sleep from his eyes.

  “What’s going on?” He asked.

  Pat shook his head and continued his rapid progress through the station. Terrified grounders clung to anything at hand and babbled questions at them as they passed.

  “Head to the lounge as you were told! Then you’ll know more than we do!” Pat shouted at them over the blaring of the klaxon. The Klaxon went silent and the general announcing system chose the moment to crackle awake.

  “Attention all crews! A massive solar prominence has been detected. We have less than a day to move this station into moon-shadow. All personnel not assigned an emergency station are to gather in the passenger lounge and stay out of the way. All shuttle crews report to your shuttles and prepare to detach!”

  Experienced crew-persons guided anxious passengers to the lounge and made sure that they were sealed in so that they couldn’t get in the way. Jose’ trailed Pat as he followed the florescent-yellow tape leading to their shuttle. He keyed-in the lock-code and the hatch si
ghed open. They ducked through and re-sealed the hatch behind them.

  Jose’ lingered at the hatch to watch their detachment from the station. Pat popped through the hatch into the cockpit and sealed it behind him. He toggled switches in rapid succession, bringing systems on-line. A green light on the console told him that the hatch to the egress umbilical was detached. Another light went out once the power umbilical had detached. He keyed the intercom and said “Hang on Jose’. I’m backing us away. Verify we clear the tunnel.” A pair of clicks answered him.

  Pat joggled the joystick to the right minutely and the maneuvering thrusters pushed them away from the station. Another pair of clicks told him he was clear of the tunnel. Allowing their momentum to carry them away, he shifted the headset to traffic control and said “Shuttle Galileo clear.”

  “Acknowledged Galileo. Stand off one hundred meters and follow us.”

  “Ten-four.” Pat killed their momentum at the requested distance and watched as the other shuttles detached and moved to station-keeping positions. The hatch popping behind him announced Jose’s entry. Strapping in, Jose’ said quietly said “All systems are green. The hold is depressurized.”

  Pat nodded and they watched as the stations’ thrusters flared on and the station began to pull away slowly. Pat eased the aft thrusters on and matched the maneuver. A few minutes later, the thrusters died and Pat killed his aft thrusters as well. “All shuttles will maintain their current relative positions until further notice.” Each shuttle acknowledged and then maintained radio-silence. Pat adjusted his heading slightly to maintain relative position to the station. As he waited for any further developments, he eyed the radiation-counter. He was relieved to note that it was still in the green.

  It was several hours before the disk of the Moon eclipsed the Sun. The station continued to glide forward until it neared the center of the moon’s shadow. The bow-thrusters showed blue cones of plasma as the station slowed. A few puffs of inert gas indicated that it was nearing station-keeping. Jose’ watched Pat match the maneuver with skilled ease. He had always admired Pat’s skilled handling of their shuttle.

  “All shuttles stand by to re-connect. Shuttle Tiderion is cleared to approach.”

  Pat and Jose watched as small puffs of gas showed the other shuttle obeying the order. Two other shuttles were allowed to dock before Traffic-control allowed their shuttle to dock.

  Confined to the shadow of the moon until cleared by the Solar Observatory, Pat and Jose’ headed to the Crew-lounge and gathered with the crews of the other shuttles to catch up. A deck of cards appeared and several crewers belted themselves to the stools around a table to play. The cards were slightly magnetic, which allowed them to stick to a metallic playing surface laminated to the table.

  Some of the other crewers gathered around to kibitz or to place side-bets. Pat was unlucky at cards so he contented himself with reading a book on his pad. Jose’ was flirting with the female cargo-master. A screen on the bulkhead displayed station-status and a graphic of the radiation-detector. A sudden spike in the reading drew everyone’s attention.

  The value shot into the yellow area and then slowed. To everyone’s relief, the indicator remained in the yellow band for the next hour before slowly falling back into the green. 24-hours later, they were cleared to return to their previous orbit.