Topic: It's All Relative

[Lieutenant_Q]

Launch Site Alpha
West Texas
17 June 2013  00:11 CDT

The glow from the half-moon setting in the west filled the small cabin with a faint light, not that James Atkinson could sleep anyways.  And with all that had happened earlier in the day, he should be sleeping like a baby.  He had spent much of the morning giving interviews to all the Sunday Talk shows, trying to win a PR battle that, until this point, had been seen as a losing fight.  The PR battle was a secondary, even tertiary battle, it hadn't occurred to him, or the board of investors behind the project that it was even necessary at the moment.  They all knew that a day would come that it would be, but they were all hoping on the success of their mission to be all the PR they needed.  Unfortunately the United Nations had decided that they were going to wage it now, and last week it claimed the first casualty.  Their Cargo.  While important to their mission, critical even.  Denying their cargo was not going to prevent today's launch of the other two parts of their ship.  That more than anything was what was keeping him up.  Earlier last week he had gotten a phone call from an assistant to the deputy director of NASA, telling him that they were going to delay the launch of their cargo module.  A half dozen calls and a couple of emails got to the heart of the reason: The United Nations.  They had decided that, since the mission was the first of it's kind, that they, as the one world government, needed to have a guiding hand in it.  They wanted a supervisory presence on the mission.  James had told them in no uncertain terms to go to hell.  For that, the United Nations had called in a few favors, and even bullied the White House to scrub the launch.  A launch that he and his investors had paid quite handily for.  They scrambled to find a way to get around losing the facilities at Cape Canaveral, they mostly had done so, except for what was already there.  The initial plan was to launch the Engineering and Secondary Cargo Modules first, at 09:00.  Followed twenty minutes later by the Command and Crew Modules.  After the four Modules had connected to each other, Cape Canaveral was to launch the Extended Cargo Module, this was to occur around 13:00 EDT.  After a few systems checks and a stress test, the combined freighter was to leave orbit.  All that had changed now.

James ran through the various options available, some were good, some were down right terrible.  The most promising option was the PR battle, and that included going on the four major Sunday shows:  ABC, CBS, CNN, and FOX, to plead his case.  He scored some points, especially on the FOX interview.  Demographically FOX viewers were more likely to oppose anything the UN did to step on the US, more so that either of the three other networks.  He was hopeful that some of the seeds he planted there would blossom into a Launch, even if it was delayed for an hour or two.  Weather was becoming a problem as well, as Tropical Storm Chantal was gaining strength as it passed near the island of Hispaniola.  It was forecast to either make landfall, or clip the Canaveral launch area by Wednesday, as a Category 2 storm.

A mediocre option was the courts, and his investors filed a lawsuit in the 11th Circuit Court.  James knew that a court battle was likely to be a long and drawn out fight, one that was going to push back the launch for at least a month, putting them behind schedule, and over-budget.

A bad option was hauling their cargo module to this launch site.  The time involved with breaking down the assembled module, and moving it to Texas would push their launch back to November at the earliest, assuming that NASA, or some other Federal Agency, didn't decide to interfere.

The last, and terrible, option, was intimidation.  The freighter was designed in a way that, once the mission was complete, it could be disassembled and re-assembled into a Warship.  Bullying the White House and the United Nations would be a really bad idea, but it would provide for some short term gains, at the expense of any long term relationship.

James just had to hope that the PR battle would turn in his favor.  He turned over and glanced at the clock embedded in the wall above his nightstand.  He sighed and turned away from it, knowing that he needed some sleep.  Not a second later, his wall display lit up to inform him of an incoming message.  It wouldn't ordinarily disturb him unless it was marked as urgent.  He reached over to bring the message onto the screen, it was a short simple message that said to expect a phone call around 07:30 Monday to discuss the launch.

####

-09:19 CDT

"Ten.... Nine.... Eight..."

Strapped in to his chair, James went through the phone call in his mind again.  They won the PR battle, but the administration was not happy about it, the NASA crew at Cape Canaveral began fueling the Ares V rocket an hour ago.  It was hard to tell what they were more upset about, that they had to face the wrath of the United Nations, or that they were going to miss out on the additional launch revenue that his investors were going to provide to launch three more Extended Cargo Modules.  With the money that those four launches were going to provide NASA, they could have completed the floundering Constellation project.  Or maybe it was that they saw themselves being put in the back seat by a what was essentially a corporation.

"Seven... Six... Five..."

He glanced around the bridge, everyone was strapped into their chair, relaxed and waiting for the launch.  There was nothing to be done at the moment, everything was being controlled from the complex's main center, the last time this freighter will be under external control for several months.  They never took the time to name the freighter, some considered that a bad omen, but for James and most everyone else, it would have been a worse disaster to name it, and then rename it after they rebuilt her as the patrol ship.  Currently every station on the bridge was aligned to the axis of the ship, which at the moment pointed down to the earth.  When the ship is at station-keeping, or not thrusting, the stations orient themselves perpendicular to the axis, this arrangement allows the easiest movement around the ship.  The current arrangement allowed for normal movement during maneuvers, but it meant a lot of climbing, and sometimes in multiple 'gee' environments.

"Four... Three... Ignition... Two..."

The whole ship began to shake as the rockets they were attached to, a variation of the STS launching rockets, ignited.

"One... Liftoff... We have liftoff."

James felt himself pushed back into the seat as they left the ground.  In his mind the clock began ticking now.  They had a little less than 72 hours once they reached Low Orbit to attach themselves to the engineering module, or they would fall back to the Earth and likely burn up.  Their craft had the aerodynamics of a large rock, and nothing more than attitude control thrusters and what amounted to a one shot burn rocket in case they over or under shot the mark.  They could not make a stable orbit with what they were launching with, and while the engineering module made it on target, they still had to make their mark.  The next fifteen minutes were critical to their survival.  The crew of sixty crammed into the modules undoubtedly were nervous, some for the lack of space, some for knowing just how important it was that everything goes right, and being completely helpless to do anything about it.  The computers on the ship and the launch site worked in tandem as they rocketed their way up to the Stratosphere.  Every second seemed like a minute as he strained beneath the gee-forces of the launch.  Surprisingly even with the rocket just outside the hull, the sound levels were only slightly above normal, a steady vibration seeped into the bridge from the rocket.  The altimeter beeped at every kilometer, and the beeping began to grow more rapid.  Then the craft began to level out, and the beeping slowed.

"SRB separation in five seconds."

Despite being lighter than the Orbiter, the modules still needed the SRBs to push their thrust power over what was needed to counter-act the force of gravity.  The SRBs did allow them to attain a slightly higher orbit than the Orbiter, before the Orbiter fired it's main engines anyways.  After SRB separation, the flight became much more relaxed, as the bulk of the danger was now behind them, and the crew began slowly taking control of their craft.  Orbit wouldn't be much longer now.

-09:56 CDT

The launch was a success.  They had undershot their target by only 50 kilometers, something their one shot booster could adjust for with ease.  They were in that burn now, they would overshoot their engine module, flip over with their attitude thrusters, and thrust back towards the rest of their ship, a not so complicated maneuver, they would be doing more of these types of maneuvers in the future, just not with a one-shot engine.

"Passing Engineering module now."  Ashley Hudson, a lithe blonde at the helm station, she had weathered the launch surprisingly well for her stature.  She had cut off the thrust of the one-shotter a few seconds earlier, and had already flipped them over.

"Begin braking burn."

"Braking burn commencing."

The feeling of gravity returned as they were all pushed to the burn floor, otherwise known as the back wall.  On his panel, and on her screen, was their velocity relative to the engineering module, as it slowly ticked down towards zero they all grew more excited.  "Cease burn in five... four... three..."  The RV value reached zero, "Two... one... now!"

"Burn ceased. Relative Velocity: 2.3 meters per second.  Contact with Engineering section, in fifteen minutes."  Ashley leaned back in her seat and unbuckled her straps, she, like the rest of the crew was now simply floating around the cabin.

By Relative Velocity she meant that they were merely traveling 2.3 meters per second slower than the Engineering module, which was traveling at 5 KILOMETERS per second.  But the first thing that everyone learned about space travel is: It's all relative.

[Scottish Andy]

Very well written but all very mysterious, since I know nothing of anything to do with this story. Set in the near future but apparently at present having nothing to do with Trek. It is current enough to have my interest though.

Curious enough to want to see where it goes. A good start, Lt. Q.

[Lieutenant_Q]

Lunar Lagrange Point 1
19 June 2013 - 02:23 Zulu

"Braking Maneuver Complete."

James felt the pull of the ship's thrusters fade away as the gyroscope in his chair re-oriented him 'downwards'.  He looked over towards Ashley, "Position report?"

Ashley had unfastened her straps but remained in her seat, "One hundred fifteen meters from Lagrange Point 1.  It'll be a tighter orbit than we anticipated, but the Walkers won't have far to go."

Walkers, two-thirds of the crew were Walkers.  Their sole purpose on this mission was to get the cargo out of the Extended Cargo Module, and assemble it at the L1 point.  It was going to be dangerous work.  Out at the L1 point the ship and her crew were outside of much of the Earth's protective Magnetic Field.  Solar radiation was a concern at all times, but while the people on the freighter had the hull of the ship, specially lined to give some additional protection, all the Walkers had was their suits.  Time to get them moving though, he pressed the intercom panel on his chair, "Bridge to Sickbay.  We're in position.  Solar activity remains normal."

A crisp response came over the ship's intercom, "Sickbay ready, radiation sensors come back green."

James nodded to himself as he toggled the intercom panel again, "Bridge to Walker Control.  It's your show now, we'll keep you advised of the weather, and Sickbay will keep your people's radiation monitors under close observation."

"Acknowledged Bridge, deploying Walker Alpha now."

James pulled his station monitor towards him, to lighten the ship's load he was tripling up as science and operations officer, just as Ashley was doubling as helm and communications.  It cut the bridge crew from 18, to just 6.  Technically they should also have a weapons officer, but the two particle beam weapons mounted on the front of the ship for meteorite defense could easily be handled by the ship's computer, with target selection from either him or Ashley.  The only department they had fully staffed was Sickbay, two Doctors, and eight Nurses.  Engineering came close, with six of their normal ten, however four of them were doubling up as Walkers, not that they really needed more than one person on duty when they were at station keeping.  Of the forty Walkers on board, four of them were Walker Control officers, essentially foreman, responsible for assigning the various Walkers their tasks, and keeping construction on schedule.  The other 36 were divided into work sections, Alpha, Beta, Gamma, and Delta.  Each section was to be used in six hour shifts, 30 minutes to prep, five hours in space, 30 minutes for decontamination and medical checks.  After that, they had two hours ship-board to update their work progress, make suggestions, and stand by in case of an accident.  As the first of the Walkers emerged from their hatches, James opened the Extended Cargo bay doors, allowing them access to the materials they would be needing for the project.

"When are we switching to Zulu?"  Ashley inquired as she settled in at her station.

James chuckled to himself, "Honestly, we did it about 2 and half hours ago."

"So, we get our relief..."  She trailed off, expecting him to finish the statement.

"In about five and a half hours."

"Hmph..."  She sounded annoyed, but then she perked up and looked over at him, "If that's the case, would you mind terribly if I floated on down to the Crew deck and got me some coffee?"

"Only if you bring back some for me, black."  James smiled, "And don't worry, we aren't the only ones pulling an extended shift today.  Micheal and Robert are pulling twelve hours themselves, by the end of the week, we'll be where we want to be in terms of shift schedule, but the next couple of days will be rough until then."

She smiled, "Back before you know it."  With that she kicked herself off of her chair and towards the access door.  As she reached the door, she tapped the panel aside it to open it, she barely slowed down as she went down the length of the access tube.  He lost sight of her as the door swooshed shut.

"Aren't you back yet?"  he said sarcastically as went about the mundane tasks of logging their journey from Earth Orbit to their current position.  It had taken them just under a day after all the delays and tests were taken into account.  The ship performed not quite up to her simulated norms, but they had over a month to hammer out the bugs either in her computer systems or in her physical systems.  "Engineering might just want to pull their four Walkers off Walking duty a couple of times a week so they can get all that done."

The door re-opened, Ashley floated there with the two Coffee mugs.  "You said something?"

James looked over as she entered the Bridge, "Hmm?  Oh, talking to myself.  You heard that in the corridor?"

She nodded as she handed him a mug, "Thin bulkheads."

"We had to save on weight wherever we could."  James held the molded piece of plastic in his hand, similar in many respects to travel mugs found in every gas station in North America and Europe, it had several differences that made it usable in space.  First, there was no noticeable hole in the top of it, instead a 'straw' that created a vacuum seal when it wasn't being used extended into the mug.  Second, the mug itself was vacuum sealed.  In a laboratory where they tested this thing they filled it with a carbonated liquid, they then spun and shook the mug in a centrifuge for an hour.  Not a drop spilled anywhere, until they tried to open it, that is.  Third, the mug was attached to a tether that could be attached to an appropriate fastener on his chair.  He did just that, and then took a sip through the straw.  Not an ideal way to drink something like coffee, but it did allow them to have normal fluids away from the crew deck.  "Thank you, Ashley."

"Did I miss anything exciting?"  She asked sarcastically, knowing full well she was only gone for three minutes.

"Paperwork, and the Walkers are about to put the first piece of the superstructure together."

[Lieutenant_Q]

Lunar Lagrange Point 1
24 July 2013 - 15:40 Zulu

The Crew deck rotated around the axis of the ship, providing approximately .4 G's worth of  centripetal acceleration.  What this meant for the crew was a place to eat, drink, and sleep without having to bear the bad morale effects of being constantly in weightlessness.  While even a little bit of gravity helped morale considerably, it was less effective on some of the health issues, Bone Density for instance.  They were being proactive in having everyone on board take calcium supplements, and the medical staff's other job was to determine a way to completely stop the De-calcification of the bones, continuing the work done just a few years prior by NASA on the ISS.  It wasn't going to be seen as a terrible issue now, or even on the next couple of missions, but beyond that, an answer needed to be found.   James sat at one of the tables in the mess room, he had his usual breakfast fare in front of him, Scrambled Eggs, Bacon, Toast, and Coffee.  The eggs had to be scrambled because it was really the only way they could be stored long term, and still be edible anyways.  The Coffee was in a Space Mug, as he intended to take it with him to the Bridge was he was done with breakfast.  There was the entire Walker Delta Section spread between three tables also in the room, and James made a mental note to find a way to allow the tables to be moved so larger groups could congregate.  Unfortunately the tables in the room had to be designed so they could be used whether the Grav Deck was spinning or not.  As the delicate machinery involved in rotating the deck could not withstand even a slight bit of sheering force, the Deck had to be stopped, and locked down, before the main engines could be fired.  But that also meant that the tables and chairs had to have the same gryoscopes in them that were in the stations on the Bridge, and that meant they had to be fastened to the deck.

"Bridge to Captain."

James looked over to the intercom panel, sighed and put down his fork.  He had finished about a quarter of his eggs, and half of his toast, and he was hoping he was going to get a chance to finish the rest of it.  He wiped his face and hands and got up from his chair.  Five steps later he was at the intercom panel.  He noticed that Delta Section had quieted their conversation significantly as he pressed the intercom panel, not so much out of courtesy, but probably out of curiosity.  "Go Ahead."

Micheal Sinclair, the Alpha Shift leader, responded immediately, "We have a solar disturbance developing, I think you'd better get up here."

James nodded, "On my way."  He pressed the button again to close the channel.  Since they had shifted to Zulu time, James had chosen to be the Beta Shift leader because that was daytime for the Western Hemisphere, and it made it convenient for everyone involved for him to be available should the investors, or some government official call.  He walked over to his plate, ate the rest of his toast quickly, grabbed his Mug, but stopped.  He noticed that Delta Section was completely quiet now, and all of them were staring at him.  He smiled at them and picked up his plate, "Anyone want the rest of my eggs?"

Four hands shot up in response.  He strode over to their tables and set the plate down between three of them.  But before they could start at it, he grabbed the two strips of bacon off the plate, "Sorry, these are mine."  He walked over to the exit and pressed the button to open the door.  As he stepped through the door, he had to make a conscious effort avoid the ladder that was running parallel to the current floor.  That ladder was necessary for use of the room while the engines were burning.  Several strides down the corridor took him to the access cab.  The only elevator on the ship, it would take him up to the center of the Grav Deck and allow him access to the rest of the ship, while the Grav Deck was spinning it was the only way into or out of it.  He ate his bacon in the cab, which allowed him to use his now free hand to push himself up the access shaft to the Command Module.  Two minutes after the call he was floating into the Bridge.  "Report."

Micheal started to respond but a flash from the main screen cut him off.

"Was that a flare?!"

Micheal looked back at the monitor he was floating next to, "Yes, sir.  And it's heading right for us."

James had managed to float over to the command station in that short amount of time, and was already slamming his fist down on the intercom panel, "Bridge to Walker Control.  We've got a flare heading straight for us, get your people back in here now!"

"Oh for f*cks sake!", came the response.

"Excuse me?"

"Not ten minutes ago one of our suits had a malfunction.  Her thruster pack is completely disabled.  Her partners are trying to get her back in, but I don't think I can get her in here in fifteen minutes."  Fifteen Minutes, everyone on board knew that if a flare was coming their way, they could have as little as fifteen minutes to take shelter.  Now one of the Walkers was potentially stuck outside.

"You get her in here.  I don't care what you have to do.  What rules you have to break.  I don't care if that suit ever works again, you get her in here in fifteen minutes."

"Aye, sir."

James turned his attention back to Micheal, and then realized that Micheal was the only other one on the Bridge at the moment, he started to ask the question, but Micheal anticipated the question, "Continuing the report, Robert is down in the armory preparing a probe for launch, he should be ready..."

"Armory to Bridge.  Probe is ready."

James nodded, and Micheal pressed the button to launch the probe.  "If the Flare launched its wave of protons at the speed reported in the January 2005 event, we'll get warning of that 30 seconds before impact."

James toggled the intercom, "Bridge to Sickbay.  Prepare yourselves for a radiation storm."  he toggled the channel to a second line, "Bridge to Engineering.  How long can you give me one-oh-five?"

"About 40 hours sir.  Are we going to be needing it?"

"Most likely George, most likely."  James toggled the channel one more time, "All hands, this is the Captain."  He heard his voice reverberate through the ship, "An approaching flare, along with a Coronal Mass Ejection, is putting our work on hold for the time being.  Once the flare hits us, we should be through the effects of it in about twenty minutes, but the CME is right on it's tail and we expect that to hit us only a few hours after the flare.  All hands are to report to the radiation bunkers.  We're going to be putting our radiation screen to the test here, and if it holds up, you'll be free to go back to your business.  Captain out."

"Captain, three more Walkers have left the ship."

"Probably trying to do whatever they can to get her in here before the time expires."

"Indeed, the three of them have stopped roughly 25 meters from the cargo bay doors, and apparently have some sort harness, or a net with them.  They are pulling it tight between them."

James looked over at the door as it opened to admit Ashley and Robert.  "What about the stricken suit?"

"She's currently 23 minutes from the bay doors.  They'll have to increase her speed somehow."

James looked up at the countdown timer, twelve minutes remained on it, then he looked back at the side monitor.  "I think the netting is going to be there to stop her, but I don't see what's going to stop the net."  As he spoke those words, a thruster flare ignited from the back of the stricken suit.

"They've punctured her thruster pack!  Her two partners are applying thrust away from the ship.  They're trying to keep her from getting out of control.  The other Walkers, now six of them, are all holding the net and thrusting towards them.  She'll now be on board in seven minutes."

"And undoubtedly with some broken bones," James punched the intercom panel again, "Bridge to Sickbay, prepare for incoming wounded."

"What's going on?"

"Nine of our Walkers are about to go splat against the cargo bay wall."

"I'll get a triage post set up outside of the cargo bay."

"Good, let's hope it's just bumps and bruises."

The next six minutes felt like an eternity, but with each passing minute the four of them began to relax, they saw the plan, they knew it wasn't going to be pretty.  But they also knew that it was her only chance.  The sudden change in direction that they were going to have forty seconds before the cargo bay doors was going to seriously hurt the six of them, but the final impact forty-five seconds later could kill all nine of them.  Then suddenly the entire ship shuddered, maneuvering alarms sounded, and decompression sirens wailed.

"Captain," Robert looked at the operations station quizzically, "The fire suppression system in the cargo bay just activated.  But the entire cargo bay is now exposed to vacuum."

James flipped the main screen to the cargo bay camera, a large white blob grew smaller on the screen as it flew out the cargo doors.  He smiled as he realized what just happened, "He pressurized the cargo bay, engaged the fire suppression system and then forced open the bay doors without depressurizing.  He's hoping to provide a sort of cushion to break her fall.  What did we lose?"

Robert shook his head, "Nothing except the foam has left the cargo bay, he must have gotten everything else tied down.  But the foam's not that massive."  As he spoke the foam cloud impacted the six Walkers and the net, which caught the stricken suit and the two guidance suits at almost precisely the same time.

James looked over, "Well?"

"All I can tell you is that they are inside the ship."

James sighed, "Alright then.  Shields up."

[Captain Sharp]

Uh, dude...this is good!

Keep it up!

I like the level of detail. Precise but without slowing down 'the action'. The bit with the Walker coming back with a damaged suit was inspired. You've set a great pace, established a good level of realism, and its still entertaining as hell to read.

Bravo!

--The Guv!

[Lieutenant_Q]

"Radiation levels dropping!  We're through the flare!"

The tone of relief in Robert's voice match what James had only partially felt.  The ship and crew made it through the flare wave without triggering a single radiation alarm, but there were other things on his mind.  "Compile a damage report, I'll be in Sickbay."  Without another word he unfastened his straps and shot towards the exit.  The Magnetic Field Generator had apparently done it's job, he could have waited for the details, but he had people in Sickbay that could be dead or alive, and he had to find out.  The trip from the Bridge to Sickbay was very short, in fact, the two rooms were almost adjacent to one another.  Sickbay was a Cylindrical room, wrapped around the central core of the ship, the main holding area was at the beginning of the room, while just out of sight around the core was the Doctor's offices, and further beyond that was the Intensive Care Unit and the Surgical Theatre.  When he entered the room, he saw twelve people laid out in various positions around the room, some were simply floating in place, others were fastened to a bed.  Nurses moved back and forth like fish darting in an aquarium.  One noticed him and floated towards him.

"Space Sick, Captain?"

A female voice from around the core interrupted him, "He's not here for treatment, Arian, he's here for a report."  Doctor Elliot floated into view, "Am I right, Captain?"

He fixed her with a somber stare and nodded.

"Six cases of Space Sickness, and one minor concussion.  Radiation levels inside the ship didn't move so much as a RAD.  Exterior levels were high enough to kill anyone outside, but the hull plating took care of that."  She beckoned him towards her.  "As for the Walkers..."

They had floated towards the end of the room, and stopped just outside the entry to the ICU, "The good news is that they are all alive, and that three of them only suffered some bumps, bruises, contusions and lacerations.  I've sent them to their quarters for the rest of the day.  Of the other six, we have: fifteen broken bones, nine cracked ribs, four concussions, three punctured lungs, two torn rotator cuffs, and one ruptured spleen."  She opened the door to the ICU, "I don't even know how Steven is still alive, but I have him stable.  But if I don't operate on him in forty-eight hours, he'll die."

James narrowed his eyes, "Then operate."

She closed her eyes, "I can't."

James felt a wave of fury well up within him, "What do you mean, 'you can't'?  Is it beyond your ability?"  She shook her head, "Do you not have the equipment?" Again she shook her head.  "Then what?!"

She drew a long breath, "I can't perform the surgery in micro-gravity."

James stopped for a moment and looked back at Steven, then back to her, "How much gravity do you need?"

"Some. It doesn't have to be a lot, one-fifth, one-fourth."

James blinked, "How long is the surgery?"

"Three to five hours.  I can do some of it in micro-gravity, but two to three hours of it has to be with some gravity."

He closed his eyes for a moment, running the available options through his head, of the four they had, one was thrown out immediately because of the approaching CME, "We can't get him back to Earth."

She shook her head in agreement, "I don't even think he'd survive re-entry."

"The other problem we have is the CME is going to make it a rough ride, You probably can't perform surgery during that."  She nodded, "And since we don't know how long we're going to be in for that rough ride..." he trailed off as he eliminated two of the three remaining options.  "Care to perform surgery on the Lunar surface?"

"That's not a good option."

"But it's our only one right now."  James floated over to the intercom panel, "Captain to Department heads, conference room, ten minutes."  He closed the intercom, "We'll see about getting you a proper theatre set up down there."

[Scottish Andy]

Very good stuff, Q! I second the Guv's comments in reply to the previous section. I am quite curious as to the purpose of all this, but it is moving along well, and the hazards and obstacles facing them are believable and well done.

Looking forward to more.

[Lieutenant_Q]

(Thank you for the comments, I've had to break up this part a bit more than I would have liked to, but the purpose will begin to come into focus here, and soon, quite soon, we'll start to see it integrate into... well... pre-Trek? I guess is a word for it?)

James laid out Steven's dilemma to all the department heads: all four Walker Section Leaders, Chief Engineer George Wood, Doctor Sue Elliot, and Micheal Sinclair.  He let it sink in for a moment before continuing.  "Because of various issues, most due to the approaching CME, we have thrown out the options of taking him back to Earth, operating on the Grav Deck, or operating while under power.  We have the parts that will eventually become the space station's Infirmary, I propose that we take those parts, and assemble them on the lunar surface.  If we assemble it on the dark side of the moon, we can avoid the worst of the CME, and Dr. Elliot can perform her surgery."

Juan Menedez, Beta Walker Leader, raised his hand first, "Why not just assemble it to the station and use our radiation shields to protect it?"

George shook his head, "Won't work, the shields could be extended far enough to provide protection for the station, but I'd have no power left for anything else, including life support.  Also, the station's power plants aren't with us, the first one is scheduled to come here on our next mission."

Dr. Elliot added her disapproval, "It also doesn't give me the gravity I need for the operation."

Micheal spoke up, "We'd have to provide some shielding for the surgical room.  Even on the dark side, radiation levels are going to be near lethal levels."

George nodded, "Shielding a small area is a lot easier than trying to shield us and the station.  I can set up our Auxiliary Power Unit and hook it up to a small magnetic field generator.  It won't cover much, maybe fifty, sixty cubic meters.  We'll be a little tight for power up here, I can probably rig up a solar collector to run temporarily for at least a little power boost.  We've got the parts from the stations emergency power systems that we were going to install once the central core was complete."

"Now the question that needs to be asked," James looked at everyone here, "Can we get this built in forty hours?"

George smiled, "I was tinkering with a small field generator already, was planning on installing it on one of our launch crafts.  I can have that ready within an hour."

Ammanda Willard, Alpha Walker Leader, also grinned, "That'll be the easy part, we were expecting to have the Infirmary assembled in thirty-four hours, in micro gravity.  Give us a bit of gravity, an we'll have it done in half that time!"

James nodded, "Anything else?"  The room was silent, "Alright then.  Let's get this done."  He pressed the intercom button on the table between them, "Ashley, take us to the dark side."

#####

Lunar Orbit
24 July 2013 - 17:51 Zulu

"It's been over 40 years since anyone's been this close."

James stared at the screen and pondered what Ashley had just said.  They were crossing the terminator into lunar night, "The cost of return was extremely expensive.  It still is."

"Yet we're doing it."

James smiled as he turned his complete attention to her, "We're doing it because we have some investors who want to engrave their names in history.  But there are some business opportunities out here, if you know where to look for them."  He sighed, "And whenever you have a government agency doing anything, you can immediately bump the price tag of that item by forty percent.  Easy.  Or they do it for what would be considered market value, but it's done with so many corners cut, that you have to wonder how long it will last."

"How long will what we're doing last?"  She was baiting him, and he could tell by the tone of her voice.  They didn't always agree, especially on politics.

"Many things could affect how long it will last.  If what we're doing is maintained well by our successors, the station could be around for several hundred years.  Although I suspect it will be obsolete long before then.  A rogue asteroid could hit it.  Aliens could come in and blow it up.  A space storm could tear it to pieces.  Whether we, or a government built it, it will last the same amount of time in those cases.  But if it isn't prematurely taken out of existence by forces outside of our control,  I would imagine that our great-great-great grandchildren might one day tour the station as a museum."

She snorted, "You expect Klingons to come in and blow it up?"

"If Klingons exist, I would expect them to try to blow it up.  Unless it was so obsolete it wasn't worth wasting a torpedo on it," he retorted.

Their conversation was interrupted by the intercom, "Launch bay to Bridge.  Launch Crafts one and two are ready for launch."

James pushed the intercom button, "We're set up here, we've got roughly an hour before the CME hits.  Get down there and get that field generator set up."  He pressed another button on the panel, "Cargo bay."

"Menedez here."

"You ready down there?"

A pause came before her response, "I've got everything related to the Infirmary near the doors.  Once they get back up, I've got volunteers from Gamma, along with my boys ready to load up the external mounts on the launch craft.  We'll get it all down there in two trips."

"Good, the quicker we make this transfer the better."  James pressed the button again, "Sickbay."

"Go ahead."

"It will take them two trips to get all of the Infirmary down there.  You said you'd need a trip just for your equipment, and then one for you, your nurses and your patient.  It will be cutting it close, but you'll have to be down there while they're assembling it.  And depending on the size and strength of the storm, we could be out of communication with you for a day, maybe even longer."

"We'll have supplies for us and the Walkers to last us three days.  I won't even be able to move Steven for at least a day following his surgery.  So being out of contact just means that some of us might get a little bored."

"Bored and nervous.  Good luck Doctor."

[Captain Sharp]

Two more good installments.

The surgery it is a good addition.

--The Guv

[Lieutenant_Q]

Earth Orbit
2 September 2013 - 16:12 Zulu

Construction Log, 2 September 2013.  Despite the interference of the Coronal Mass Ejection event and its accompanying detour, construction of the first phase of Station L-1 went as smoothly as possible.  We only arrived in Earth Orbit two days later than we were anticipating.  The Station's super-structure, Infirmary and one docking arm are complete.  The station also has minimal life-support, being powered by the solar panels that we installed at the end of the mission.  The crew is looking forward to the four weeks of down time.  I know I am as well.  Of all the Walkers, only Steven and Elise are not re-upping.  Steven because of his injuries, and Elise because she feels responsible for Steven's injuries. Re-supplying the ship will take about two weeks, and we'll receive our next Extended Cargo Section at a launch from Cape Canaveral on or around the 1st of October.  NASA and the White House both promised that the launch would be free of political entanglements, a bit surprising given the general level of chaos around the planet.  But that promise comes at a small price, and I have a meeting on that subject later today.

"We going to have a full crew this next time?"

Ashley had waited patiently for James to finish entering the log entry, but as soon as he had put down the PDA she spoke up.  James shook his head, "We'll have a fuller crew, but we won't be full up this time around.  The next construction mission is actually a short one.  Crew areas, one of the six reactors, and of course, the #2 cargo bay."

The two of them were waiting in the launch bay, Ashley was going to remain on the ship, while James went down to deal with the administrative end of things.  He planned on being down on the surface for a fortnight, before coming back to allow Ashley to have some time off.  "What do you think the Pentagon wants?"

"I'm not sure, I know they are going to expect me to be a bit appreciative that they've allowed our launches, but I don't think they really realized that we could have, and still will, if we have to, launch our own ECMs."

She frowned at him as the light above the launch bay door turned green, "Don't step on too many toes."

He winked back at her as he pulled himself through the door, "Now where would the fun be in that?"

Pentagon - 10:00 EDT

Three layers of security brought him deep into the bowels of the Pentagon for, what was being described to him, as an eye-only meeting.  Upon his arrival in a meeting room in one of the sub-basements of the Pentagon, he found himself alone with three other people.  One, a three-star General, motioned for him to sit down across from the other two, a Major and a Captain.  "Thank you for joining us, Mr. Atkinson."

James nodded, "Thank you for having me, General."  He took the offered seat and looked at the other two officers, "I assume that this meeting has something to do with my station."

The man nodded, "It does.  May I introduce, Captain Samantha Carter, theoretical physicist, and quite possibly the smartest person in the country.  And Major Shaun Christopher, Space Warfare Division."

James nodded to both of them, "Captain, Major."

Carter spoke first, "We were all following your construction mission very closely."

Christopher nodded, "And it gave us some ideas as to what we could do."

The General picked up a remote from the table, "One of those ideas involves using your station as a staging post, for missions deeper into the fringes of the solar system."  He pressed a button and the lights dimmed, a projector provided the lighting for the room now.  The slide on the screen looked similar to what his freighter was going to look like after the final conversion, but much bigger.  "This is what we're calling an Explorer class Starship.  As you can see, we took some basic ideas from your freighter, and designed it for a long duration mission."

Christopher folded his hands in front of him, "Of particular importance we paid attention to the way you assembled not the station, but your freighter in orbit.  We'd done similar things in the past, but never with something so massive as your freighter.  You proved it could be done, and we've started thinking about assembling a ship like that."

Carter stepped in, "But a problem with something as expensive as this ship, is that we can't be assured that it will make it up, and then stay in orbit long enough to assemble to get it to a safer orbit.  Now if we can get the pieces to your station, we can assemble it there."

James nodded, "We can coordinate in advance to have our picket ship be waiting to tow the parts to the station."

The General sat down, "We have some slight funding in the Fiscal Year 2014 Budget, which started yesterday.  But we won't be able to really get moving on the construction until Fiscal Year 2015, assuming we can wrangle the funding from the Pentagon's continuously shrinking budget.  In the meantime, I'd like to request that Captain Carter and Major Christopher be assigned to your ship for your next mission.  They can be observers, or they can be active members of your crew, but we'd like to have them on-board.

"I think we can arrange that.  But, about your budget, I thought with Iran stirring up all kinds of trouble in the Middle East, that shrinking your budget would be the last thing they'd want to do."

"You've been out of the loop for a bit.  Iran, Iraq, Turkey, Egypt, Libya, Syria.  They've all ceased to exist as independent nations. The entire Middle East region has come under the control of one man.  The Ayatollah Khomeini called him the twelfth Imam.  We currently know him only as Khan."

[Starfox1701]

Nice so I'll ask the obvious question so is that THE Cap Carter or did you just filch the name and brain?

[Lieutenant_Q]

"By using the engines to slow ourselves on the descent, we reduce the amount of friction that builds up on the exterior of the Launch Craft.  Which reduces the heat build up, which in-turn keeps our between flight maintenance overhauls down to a minimum."  James was explaining to Major Christopher and Captain Carter the design features of the Launch Craft while they were taking the ride up to the freighter.  The three of them were alone on the shuttle, after he came down a week prior in the shuttle alone.  "Currently we have two Launch Craft, we'll be getting two more for the next mission, which we'll leave at the station at the end of the mission."

Captain Carter looked over the controls in front of her, "How many times can they handle the atmosphere interface between overhauls?"

"Twenty to thirty, depends on how rough each one is.  Generally the craft is inspected upon return, and any re-entry damage is noted.  If the damage takes it beyond the threshold, the shuttle is taken out of service and refurbished.  We can do it from a small machine shop on board."

Shuan looked eager to take the controls, he had looked eager the whole trip, "What's the range?"

James shrugged, "Short.  We can make orbit, but not break it.  If we had a full fuel load, and were as light as we are now, we could make the trip to the station, but it would take the better part of a week as we would have to drift there.  The problem is, most of the fuel is used in making orbit, there's very little left to break orbit.  It takes about 60% of a full tank just to make orbit, to descend from orbit takes about 15%, and breaking orbit costs another 25%."

"That's a full fuel load."

"But that doesn't count braking at the station.  Sure we could break orbit, but we couldn't stop when we got to our destination."

Sam glanced over to him, "But that's just Earth."

James nodded, "Of course.  Making Lunar Orbit is different than making Martian Orbit, which is different than making Earth Orbit.  The amount of gravity from the planet itself is a major factor.  You could fly from the moon, to Earth, or from the station, to Earth in a short amount of time, not using a whole lot of fuel, but the return trip would be near impossible."  James fired the braking rocket as the freighter came into view through their canopy, "It's easier, and far more comfortable, to dock with a larger ship for those types of runs though."

The Launch craft slowed as it approached the underside of the ship.  James spotted the docking arm that was extended and waiting for him.  His job was to get the shuttle lined up as close to the arm as possible.  Once there, the freighter would fire a series of magnetic grapplers that would pull the shuttle in the final couple of meters.  He had done this several times in a simulator, but this was his first attempt for real.  His eyes stayed closely on the RV indicator, and the distance to target readout, so closely that he never looked out the window to take in the view.  Carter and Christopher did though, and they were speechless as they watched it grow larger and larger, until it filled their entire view.  He cut the engines completely and felt the successive thumps of the grapplers striking the hull.  They were pulled into the ship, and the launch doors were closed behind them.  Now they just had to wait for the launch bay to re-pressurize.

"You're going to meet the helmsman and first officer for a brief couple of minutes, then she has to run down to the surface to take care of a few items before she comes back up."  James unfastened his straps and smiled at them as the indicator light went green.  "All aboard."

They unfastened their own restraints and pushed their way carefully towards the exit hatch, it opened with a press of a button and they found themselves looking around as the engineering crew began a look over of the craft.  Fuel lines were attached, temperature probes were swept across the craft, even the small cargo section was opened and a stock of its inventory was taken.  The three of them floated past them towards the decontamination chamber.  Decontamination was the most important aspect of the ship, it tried to ensure that no one brought into the enclosed spaces of the ship, anything that could be considered dangerous or deadly.  They hovered in the small room as they waited for the decontamination cycle to complete, once the light turned green, the door to the rest of the ship unlocked with a click.

James was the first one to float through the door, where Ashley was waiting for them.  "Permission to come aboard?"

She smiled at him, "Granted.  You have guests, I see."

James motioned to the next person to emerge, "Major Shaun Christopher."

She looked at him, "Shaun Geoffrey Christopher?"

He smiled, "Yes.  And to answer your next question, yes my father was stationed at the Kansas Airbase, no, he did not launch on a mission to intercept a UFO in 1966."

She grinned, "That you know of."

He shrugged, and moved to the side.  James looked back, suppressing a grin, "Captain Samantha Carter."

Ashley looked at her, "THE Captain Carter?"

Sam didn't look amused, "I graduated just before Stargate, the movie, first premiered.  I was a First Lieutenant, when the series went on the air.  I could have been the basis for the character, but the creators never bothered to talk to me about it."

"Launch bay to Commander Hudson.  The Launch Craft is ready for you."

Ashley looked back to James, "All the uneventful and most boring details of the last week are tediously transcribed in the ship's computer.  I hope your week up here is more interesting than mine was."  She smiled at him, then turned to the other two, "Major, Captain, a pleasure."  She pushed herself towards the airlock, turned back at the entrance and winked at them, "Have fun!"

James shook his head as she closed the door behind her, "I'm sure you two get that all the time.  Must make meeting people interesting."

Sam laughed, "I'm actually surprised you didn't ask the questions.  You're one of the first to not do it."

He shrugged, "I knew someone was, so I knew I could wait until then."

[Captain Sharp]

Love how you're telling an independant tale, and dancing around references to TOS and Stargate.

Keep it up man. You got my attention.

--The Guv

[Lieutenant_Q]

Earth Orbit
15 September 2013 - 18:12 Zulu

The two Air Force officers had been on the ship for only a couple of days, and already it was an easy guess as to where to find them.  Captain Carter would be in Engineering, while Major Christopher would be on the Bridge.  If Carter wasn't in Engineering, she'd be in the ship's science lab.  If Christopher wasn't on the Bridge, they'd have to put out a missing persons report.  James stopped just outside of the Engineering compartment, grabbed a radiation badge and affixed it tightly to his jumpsuit.  Confident he'd know a few seconds before hand if there was any trouble, he pried open the Engineering door.  Engineering was not a place he frequented very often, not because he was scared of the large Nuclear Fission Reactor that provided power for the entire ship, but because it was such a long way away from the rest of the ship.  In the ship's present configuration, there was nothing more than an access corridor and docking clamps for the 175 meters between the ship's primary cargo bay and the Engineering section.  Contrast that with the size of the Command and Crew Compartments, which was only 60 meters long, total, and one can understand why it's a seldom visited area.  When the ship is transformed into a Warship, the entire connecting corridor will be removed and used for the sixth and final docking arm for the station, and the ship will be shrunk down to just over 125 meters in length.  James ducked into the main engineering room, and found the five people he expected to find.  Sam was in the office looking over something on the computer, George and two technicians were hovering by the reactor's control panels, chatting it up, while the last technician was checking and re-stocking a tool cart.  George noticed James enter and waved his technicians away.  "Captain, not like you to come down here."

"I don't usually like to disrupt the way you work down here.  Not that I'd really know anything about what goes on behind that shield over there."

George chuckled, "I could give you a crash course in Nuclear Physics."

James shook his head, "Another time perhaps."  He looked over to the office, and noticed that, if Sam had noticed his entry, she wasn't showing it.  He lowered his voice, "At just prior to Nineteen-hundred hours, we're going to rendezvous with an Air Force X-37B.  I need you to transfer its cargo to our bay."

George scratched his chin, "That's not going to be a lot of cargo.  The X-37B can't carry all that much."

James nodded, "No, but it is carrying two prototype rail guns, and a thousand rounds of ammunition.  We're going to replace those next-to-worthless particle cannons, and do some prototype testing for the Air Force."

"How did you pull that off?"

James stabbed a thumb in Sam's direction, "While I was meeting our two officers, one of the RnD teams at the Pentagon offered me the deal.  Since they have no way of testing them in space yet, and they're technically bound by a treaty that prevents them from doing so anyways, they wanted us to test them.  All they are is sealed versions of the rail guns the Navy developed a couple years ago.  We test them for the Pentagon, we give them the report, and we get to keep them after the test.  If China or someone else cries foul, the Pentagon will simply claim we either stole them, or reverse-engineered them."

George smiled, "Nice.  It's a shame about the particle cannons though, I wish we could have found a way to make them work."

James shrugged, "We still might.  But it's obvious that we need to refine a way of delivering the particles to the target.  Our current method just wasn't cutting it.  It would diffuse itself far too quickly."

"Well, I'll keep tinkering with it."  George looked back over to the office, "Anything else?  Is this supposed to be a secret?"

James shook his head, "Not really.  Just wanted you to know the real story, because the story the two of them are getting will mesh with what the Pentagon will claim should there be a problem.  If something does happen, the less they know about what really transpired the better off they are."

"Why are we taking directions from the Pentagon, anyways?"

"Why not?"  James turned to head out, "There's no disadvantage for us in following it.  Besides, we will probably need some cruise missiles eventually, what better place to get them from?"

George nodded, "Where are you off to now?"

"The Bridge, I'm going to have to keep Major Christopher distracted during the transfer."

[Scottish Andy]

If Christopher wasn't on the Bridge, they'd have to put out a missing persons report.

Funny.

I love that you have your Samantha Carter not be the Samantha Carter; it just makes your story very cool and more "real".

I second the Guv's... um, Cap'n Sharp's previous comments.

I was about to get all pedantic on your arse and say that Turkey-Syria-Iraq-Iran is separated from Egypt-Libya by Israel-Jordan-Lebanon-Arabia -- not to mention being on a seperate continent -- but realised just in time to save face that you listed merely a few examples of the whole Middle East (and Africa). Phew! Glad I didn't look like an idiot there. Wait, did I type that in my outside voice?

Now that we have Khan and Shaun Christopher and mentions of Stargate and Klingons, we're really getting into the swing of things! Good stuff mate, keep it up.

[Lieutenant_Q]

It'll be a few days before I post a new segment, so I figured I'd take the couple of minutes I have here to respond directly.

First off, Thank you to all of you the read this.  And a special thank you to those of you giving the feedback.

Khan:  It occurred to me a few years ago that Khan could very well have been a "product of late twentieth century engineering" and still not be a player in global politics until the mid-21st century.  After all, you have to be born first.  So I figured that Khan and his followers are a part of a secret Iraqi program developed by Saddam Hussein in the mid 1990s in an effort to counter the Western Allies technological superiority.  Khan mentions 1996 because, well, he was BORN in 1996.  That puts him at 17 right now, a bit young by our standards, but he is smarter, and stronger than the average human.  During a reading of Napoleon Bonaparte's Biography I caught something that stuck with me, something that men of that stripe seem to do very often.  Napoleon is purported to have said, (paraphrasing now) I will be a Protestant today, a Muslim tomorrow and a Catholic next week, if it gets me closer to my goals.  Khan is a very charismatic individual, much like Napoleon and Hitler before him, I could easily see him adopting the Muslim facade of being the 12th Imam.  That said, the Eugenics War will be a side show, not the prime focus of this story.

Shaun Geoffrey Christopher:  As Star Trek does indeed exist as Pop-culture in this story, it is hard to say whether or not Shaun's parents watched the episode Tomorow is Yesterday, and decided if that was a great name for the boy they will have later on or not.  He is THE Shaun Geoffrey Christopher, the ship at the Pentagon briefing is the USS Lewis and Clark, which will be his ship that he takes to Saturn in 2020.  So... what would his name have been had Tomorrow is Yesterday not been aired?  Obviously he'd still be Major Christopher, but...

The Station: As public funding for items like NASA dwindled with the growing deficit crisis, private investors begin to take up the slack.  We already see examples such as SpaceX and Virgin Intergalatic.  But these are all basically retreads of existing technology.  The inevitable increase in taxation, and regulations that will occur to try to close this deficit gap, push people to make investments away from the long arm of the Federal Government.  But despite the best efforts, there is still need for raw materials.  The Station is designed to be a way station for a new breed to industry.  Asteroid Mining.  Raw Materials are relatively exposed, and once you build the ship, the costs of getting the materials out of the rocks out there comes down considerably.  The Station is in a lot of ways like how Deep Space Nine started it's life, as an ore-processing center with a bit of commercial interests on the side.  The flare up of the Eugenics War will push more investment into the safety of space.

More to come, just have way too busy of a weekend on tap to put any more up right now.

[Captain Sharp]

I like this story premise. Kinda/not really Trek. Take what ya wanna use, leave the rest. Works for me.

Sometimes, I think Star Trek: Enterprise should have doen more of that, broken the mold. But retconning your franchise wasn't cool yet.

Anyway, keep on diggin, I'll keep on readin.

--The Guv (yup, still using this sig[y'all gave it to me])

[Lieutenant_Q]

Station L-1
1 November 2013 - 22:15 Zulu

"Relative Velocity now, one meter per second.  Docking arm one is one-three-seven meters and closing."

James glanced over to Shaun, "Are we lined up, Commander?"

Shaun Christopher looked over the operations station again.  He was given the Naval rank of Commander while he was on-board, just as Samantha Carter was given the Naval Rank of Lieutenant Commander, "Not quite, but if we reduce speed to point-two five meters per second in one and a half minutes, we'll have a perfect soft dock in about three minutes."

"That's the plan."  Ashley didn't turn towards them, instead keeping her focus on her controls.

James toggled the intercom panel, "All hands, prepare for docking."  He switched it back off, "Remember that there is no life-support on the station yet.  We tried to turn it on remotely but any number of things could have gone wrong, from a mis-installed battery, to a faulty receiver, to a bad connection from the solar array to the battery."

Sam piped in from the science station, "Not that there's much of anywhere to go on the station anyways, yet."

"True, and even after this mission there won't be many places to go.  We'll get the Reactor Control Room installed, one corridor between there and the Infirmary, the rest of the upper superstructure, and Reactor number one installed."

Shaun leaned back as they slowed to point-two-five, "Doesn't seem like much on this mission."

James nodded, "Yes, and this will be one of the quicker missions up here.  The problem with this mission was that the reactor just takes up so much space, We'll have five more just like it.  But fortunately for us, all the structural work will be done after this mission, the rest is just filling the station out, making it livable, and equipping it to do it's job."

"How many missions are left?"  Shaun turned his attention back to his monitor, but was still engaged in the conversation.

"Fourteen."

"I still don't understand why you need six reactors.  Even with everything you're putting on the station, three reactors would be plenty."  Sam had asked this question twice before, hoping for a different answer this time, maybe, what she thought might be the truth, as if she suspected that they were hiding something from them.

"Yes, three would be plenty.  But, ships will want to power their reactors down for maintenance while they are docked, we'll need to provide them power for life-support and anything else they need left running while its down.  We'll need to have reactors down periodically for their own maintenance.  We could probably make do with four, but if we needed full power output, like say for shielding, while servicing a ship or two, suddenly we'd be short power, and in a world of hurt.  Also, six reactors allows us to lose a reactor, without needing to decide what we need to cut off, while we are quite possibly facing a serious crisis.  Plus, the extra power allows for future developments that might be even more power-hungry than what we already have."

The ship came to a stop, "Hard seal!  Docking complete."  Ashley leaned back in her seat, "Pressurizing docking arm."

James unfastened his straps, "Alright, Sam, Shaun, if you'd care to join me, we'll see if we can track down the fault in the life-support system, while the Engineering and Walker crews get started on unloading the reactor."

[Lieutenant_Q]

"Seal check."

Shaun and Sam both flashed a thumbs up as they put their helmets on.  The three of them "stood" at the airlock entrance to the station, each of them had a tool kit in their hands as they waited to be the first to board the station.

"Docking arm pressure now 800 mb.  You can open the door without a problem now."  Ashley's voice came over their in suit speakers, "Good luck."

James pressed the button that now flashed green for them on the panel attached to the airlock.  The twin doors parted slowly, the three of them felt the air push them out the door.  They weren't completely in sync pressure-wise.  The internal pressure of the ship was just over 1000 mb.  The resulting pressure gradient pushed air, and them out into the docking arm, but there was no danger for them or the ship from such a small gradient.  They began their push through the station arm.  They all wore the space suits because there were sections that they were going to be traveling through and to, that were completely exposed to vacuum, and the ship's life support would have trouble getting the currently habitable sections, the enclosed sections, up to livable standards.  The docking arm looked like a corridor or a hallway that you'd expect to see on Earth.  Sam had the first question, "Why did you make it up like this?"

"Psychological.  We could have made it a zero-g tunnel that had no floor, no ceiling.  But we decided that this was going to be the first thing a traveler saw when they got here, better to give them something that they're familiar with, rather than completely blow their mind with a zero-g tunnel.  Some of them will be having enough stress inducing things to deal with as it is, lets not throw their perspective off too."

"What did we just pass through?"  Shaun looked back at an odd looking protrusion from both walls.

"Security systems, eventually.  They are installed, but there's no power to them yet.  That particular one was a metal detector."  James paused for a second, "At the end of the tunnel there's a security station, where someone will be at all times monitoring those coming and going onto the station.  The metal detector themselves, and the chemical sniffer ahead, and the two other stations beyond that, they don't make any noise to alert anyone that they've detected something, but the security station will have it noted, and based on what it sees, they can decide if its worth a search."

"You have a body scanner here?"

James chuckled at Shaun's question, "No."  After a scathing report late last year indicated that the so-called "naked body scanners" were not as safe as the manufacturers let on, they were summarily ripped out of every airport in North America, the TSA almost lost their funding in FY2013 over the coverup, and only maintained their FY2014 funding by three votes in the house.  "The closest thing to a body scanner is imaging cameras, very good ones at that.  They can detect slight bulges in clothing as it shifts.  Decontamination procedures ensure that it would shift enough that if someone was trying to secret something onto the station, the cameras would see it."

Sam grabbed a hand hold on the wall and came to a stop, "Did you hear that?!"

Shaun and James both stopped their conversation and listened for a moment.  After a few heartbeats they both said, "No."

Sam pushed herself slowly down the corridor, "I swear I heard something."

James came up along side her, "What did it sound like?"

"Like metal, bending."

"It is the first time this tube has been pressurized, it's bound to have some settling in effects."  James shrugged, but no one noticed in his suit, "Besides, if it does open up on us, we're fine, we've got thruster packs, we can make our way back to the ship."

The three of them wordlessly floated to the end of the tunnel, where a second airlock awaited them.  They were all keen on listening to hear if there was any more 'settling' that the station wanted to do, but they didn't hear anything.  The panel on the airlock door glowed red, indicating that a hard vacuum awaited them on the other side.  "This is also where the power ends."  James reached over to the wall and pushed in a panel, it slid down and exposed a large lever and a few indicator lights.  He pulled the lever to the down position, and the indicator lights reversed their positions.  A door emerged from the walls and closed behind them, sealing the three of them in a small chamber.  They could feel the air being sucked out of the chamber.  A digital gauge began counting down from 850, quickly down to zero.  When the gauge did read zero, the red light on the door panel turned yellow, to indicate that while there was still something amiss on the other side of the airlock, the airlock could at least now be opened without damaging the station.  Shaun pressed the button and the door split open silently.  The three of them turned on their search lights and entered what will eventually be the station's promenade.  A large cavernous section of the station, three stories tall with empty units lining the interior wall of all three levels, empty units also lined the exterior wall of the lower level, while the second level had multiple viewing ports, along with benches and tables, that could look out into space.  There was no exterior section of the third floor, instead larger windows were irised closed.  The Promenade extended only a few meters to their right, before it ended against a temporary wall.  To their left, the Promenade extended a couple hundred meters, further than they could see, as the Promenade curved around the central core of the Station.  Two of the interior units were already occupied, one had semi-transparent glass doors with a caduceus on the left side and a red cross on the right side.  The other unit was adjacent to the first, sealed off, as an extension of the Station's Infirmary.  It also occupied the two units directly above them, making it the largest, thus far, single unit in the Promenade.  And only one of two that will be operating rent free, the other being the Station's main security office that has yet to be built.  From the schematic of the station they knew that the Promenade currently was half completed, the other half would be built on the next mission.

"This is incredible."  Shaun finally broke the silence.  They had been staring at the Promenade for the last two minutes, and hadn't said a word.

James found his voice as well, "We're not the first to see this, but I wonder if the Walkers took the time to admire the view after they were done building it.  Makes me wish I had found a of couple minutes on the last mission to do this."  He laughed, "Imagine what it will look like when it's got lights and atmosphere."

"According to the station's schematics, the Life Support Station is one level below us.  The Battery packs are eight levels beneath us.  And the solar collectors are externally mounted on the same level."  Sam reported what they all knew, obviously as an attempt to break them out of their revery and get them back to their task.

James nodded, "Right.  Once we get Life Support working, we can take the suits off and really enjoy the view."  He sighed, "But the eight levels are deceiving. The level beneath us is in the same shape as the Promenade, half complete.  The six between that level and the Battery packs are, non-existent."  He pointed to an alley between the Infirmary and an empty unit.  "There's an access shaft, it will eventually be an elevator that will run between Promenade level 1, up there, and the two sublevels beneath the Promenade.  The open areas of the station, only a few places within it will be restricted access.  Right now, we can use it to get to where we need to go."

Shaun pushed himself towards the access shaft, "I'm up for a space walk, I'll check the solar collectors."

Sam followed, "So am I, I'll look at the batteries."

James chuckled, "I guess that leaves me on the station to look at the Life Support system.  Keep your comm links open."

[Scottish Andy]

Very nice, moving along briskly and descriptively, with lots of cool tech details.

Keep it coming.