Fan Fiction ❯ Titan ❯ Launch day ( Chapter 7 )

[ P - Pre-Teen ]

A few months later a big day was beginning. At the Mars Orbital station engineers busily scanned and rescanned the ship destined for Titan. The scientists stared out at the long cylinder, point down as it was suspended just above the floor. The station was a large circular structure, spinning as it orbited Mars to create artificial gravity as the contents was flung outwards. The launch sequence involved the spacecraft contained in the station being positioned above an airlock which was then opened, flinging the craft outwards at over a gee, but the speed quickly increased as the ship's engines kicked in, powering the craft to it's destination. Three ships would leave the orbital station today, ship A containing the Titan colonists who would start life anew on the frigid moon, ship B containing no passengers, but having an entire colonial workstation, science facility, vehicle port, water recycling facility, mineral separation plant and agricultural dome inside it. Ship C carried food and water, fuel, vehicles, tools, medicines, seeds, scientific equipment, minerals, replacement parts, computers, environmental suits, recreational equipment, cattle embryos and chemicals. The tech-crew were running routine checks when Arthur arrived. He was wearing an environmental suit, as one of the first people to leave the craft he would be put into hibernation wearing it so he would be ready to go out and explore. In almost six years he would be walking the face of Titan but for him it would only be a few hours. Hibernation was a dreamless sleep, six years would go in the blink of an eye. Arthur as medical officer would be the first awake in order to check the ship controls and awaken everybody else. He wasn't looking forward to it. Automatic awakening was a nauseous process but someone had to do it. He stood on a surveillance balcony, staring down at the ship that would take him to his world. It was starting to hit him that he would be away from his planet of birth for two decades. He looked out over the ship that he would be commanding. This was a long way to come from farming.
"Morning." said a voice behind him.
He turned to see Dan wearing an environmental suit like his but he had the helmet under his arm.
"Hey Daniel, long time since we saw each other. Where were you?"
Dan walked over to him and looked out at the spaceship being prepped.
"I had business to take care of."
He looked at his friend and lifted his sunglasses to reveal an eye and a shining, metallic orb embedded in his right eye socket. It whirred softly and a small hole in it's centre opened and closed in a robotic wink. It spiraled around as Dan replaced his sunglasses with a smile. He looked back out towards the craft and leant on the guardrail. Arthur was staring at him in amazement.
"Dan...... why?"
Dan looked at him.
"Why what?" he asked.
"Do you know how much a bionic eye costs? Hardly anyone has them. People only get them if they have some kind of accident."
Dan began to fiddle with his hand held computer.
"I had the money."
Arthur was absolutely fascinated.
"But....... why???"
Dan sighed.
"Did you know that a bionic eye records everything it's possessor sees and then it can be downloaded into a computer console for later study."
Arthur rolled his own eyes and leaned on the rail aswell.
"Dan it was only the beer. You just had a bit too much to drink."
Dan shook his head.
"It was real. I DID see that thing and I AM going to find it. I know what I saw but I don't know what it was. If I ever see it again then this eye will catch it. I'll prove it to you, I will."
"Dan just accept the fact. You didn't see a ghost. You're becoming obsessive."
There was no answer from the other man who just stood there, glaring out at the hi-tech cylinder before him. He didn't know what he had seen in that taxi but he knew it had been real. He knew that something out there had been present on that day and he was certain it had been trying to influence them. He had thought of nothing else for months, this thing had wanted him to see it, it had wanted to communicate with him. Whether it was a ghost or not it had chosen him to see it and so he would comply.
"Nevermind. Lets just stop talking about it." he said solemnly.
"Fine by me. I'm just worried about you is all. This obsession is unhealthy."
"So's smoking. I deal with it. I survive." he snapped.
"Fine, fine. Keep your shirt on."
They looked out at the crowd of ant-like people below, scurrying around the gigantic structure, preparing it for one of mankind's greatest feats. Space travel was even now uncommon and highly expensive. People didn't go on holiday to other planets, the cost was just far too great, but it could be done. Daniel had experienced it three times before, once to Earth, once to Mars and once as part of his pilot training. Arthur had never been in space before, even now he was uneasy on this orbital station. He could feel his weight, the orbital was spun to generate a gee of outwards force, he was almost three times as heavy on the station as he was on Mars and it was really getting to him. He was hot and uncomfortable. Dan didn't seem to be feeling it. Of course, he was raised on an orbital and until recently was in an Earth based prison. He was used to the higher gravity. It was a shame that only the two of them were going. Jane was dead, Benjamin was old and Liz..... well Liz was still trying to deal with the death of her father. Apparently the plant had gotten a root into some sort of potent mutagen and had developed into a particularly nasty parasite. Poor old Anthony hadn't seen it coming. At least he had passed on without pain, the thing had injected him with a poison to induce paralysis and an anesthetic before killing him. Liz had personally put the thing into the incinerator, slowly raising the temperature to watch the life burn out of it. He hadn't seen her for a while, she took off soon afterwards, to think, she had said. He wondered where she would go from here. A siren sounded and he noticed that the docking bay floor was clearing of the engineering crews. A small boarding ramp opened halfway up the towering transport vehicle, several floors above him. He nudged Dan in the ribs.
"Come on. That's our que."
They strolled silently to the elevator and waited patiently until they had reached the right floor. The door opened with a ping and they walked through the retreating crowds to the ramp. A pair of military officers stood to attention either side of the entryway as Dan passed, saluting smartly and holding their rifles to their chest. An old man stood with his hands behind his back by the door and he stopped them as they approached.
"Please make certain your helmets are on properly and all suit functions are working correctly sirs." he told them in a polite manner, gesturing to the environmental head set under Dan's arm. Dan slowly lifted the helmet to his head and pulled a computer cord from a socket on the inside. Then he lifted his sunglasses and flaps on his metal eye clicked back to allow the wire to be inserted into the pupil. Then he lowered the helmet onto his head and locked it into place. The bionic eye also allowed him control of the suit computer by projecting his thoughts along his newly replaced optic nerve, and he watched in silence as the suit diagnostics flickered past his field of view.
"Are the sirs ready?" asked the small suited man.
Arthur nodded and the man lead them into the depths of the ship. He showed them to a pair of open hibernation tubes and made certain that they were locked in tight.
"When the sirs are wish to enter hibernation, you must pull the plasteel cover shut and press this switch here." he told them, indicating a button on the tube wall next to them. "Have a pleasant journey. Good-day."
They watched him leave the dark room as they lay back in their acceleration cushions and thought their own private thoughts. They were required to enter a few minutes before the other passengers so that they could get prepared for their automatic recovery at the end of the flight. They sat in silence for a while, savouring the last few moments before almost six years of time was missed. After a few minutes the man returned, this time followed by someone in a custom made environmental suit. Instead of looking like the bulky, light-grey space suits being worn by the two scientists, this suit was fashioned from black skintight fabric. Only the belt and the helmet was metal and this was sleek and alien, with a deep-set, green visor. It projected back past the head and finished with a rounded point at the end. A long, thick antenna began on the left ear and stuck out backwards at a 45 degree angle from the floor. The whole thing was covered with seemingly random cracks that gave off a faint green glow. That must have cost a fortune. Arthur realised that the material must be strengthened electro-fibre, a type of fabric that could contain electric currents. The whole suit computer system was flowing directly through the protective cloth. He calculated it must have cost about two million UP credits. Probably more, custom suits usually contained much better gear than standard ones. He was confused. Only the two of them were meant to be in environmental suits, as only the two of them would be required to have an automatic recovery. The suited man showed the newcomer to a tube next to him and strapped them down, once again pointing out the hibernation requirements. After he had left the suited figure lifted it's arm and touched the back of it's glove. Runic symbols lit up green along the back of the wrist and the stranger tapped them gently with a finger. Arthur could make out some kind of light activity taking place behind the visor. What a suit. That may have even cost the wearer three million. After a moment or two he greeted the new comer.
"Hello. That's a nice suit." came the robotic voice from behind his face plate.
The helmet turned slowly to face him. After regarding him for a moment, the person reached up and unfastened the clips holding the headgear in place. Then it gently lifted the metallic mask off it's head. Gas hissed for a moment as the oxygen feeding tubes disconnected and sealed. As the helmet was removed to reveal the face of it's owner Arthur saw who it was.
"Hello Arthur." said Elizabeth "So you like my outfit? You always were the complimentary one."
She smiled at him as she said it and held his gloved hand tightly. Dan sat up as he recognised the voice and looked around. He noticed her and made the peace sign before laying back again to review the sights of the day. Memory downloading was a distracting task. Arthur removed his helmet too and smiled back at her. Now he was beginning to realise what a beautiful woman she was. She brushed her red hair out of her eyes and giggled.
"So how have you been?" she asked him.
"Good. Nothing to complain about. What about you though? Where did you go after your dad......" he trailed off.
She looked away from him, saddened for a moment and sighed.
"I went and got this suit first of all. Then I had a word with Geneta. After a lot of talking they upgraded my pay and have appointed me second in command to Dan as well as your medical assistant. They also let me bring my own custom weaponry instead of those cheap generic rifles." she reached to her belt and raised a long sub-machine gun. "I didn't have anything else to do, I haven't got any friends except you guys, and my dad was my only family, so here I am. I also packed a full set of armour upgrades for my enviro-suit, breastplates, shoulder pads, wrist guards, shin guards and armoured magnetic boots."
Arthur raised an eyebrow at her.
"You sound like you've come prepared for a full scale war. You know your job is to keep the peace, don't you? Not kill everyone in your path."
Liz lowered the SMG and gave him a friendly scowl.
"There's nothing wrong with being prepared. Anyway, I saw ship C being loaded. They packed some pretty heavy gear for this mere mining mission. And a heck of a lot of ammo. If they think that there's need for that sort of stuff then I'm at least going to pack an SMG."
"What sort of gear?" Arthur asked suspiciously.
"Oh all sorts. Grenades, machine guns, flamethrowers, sniper rifles, there were plans for a crystalline energy projector cannon and I'm sure I saw one of the Geneta officers carrying a minigun. The place was pretty secure, the entry ramp was guarded by guys in power armour."
"Power armour???? That's just a touch too cautious."
He pictured the hulking shapes of men entombed in eight foot tall robotic environmental suits. The inside of a suit of power armour was covered in pressure sensors. Try to move an arm and the suit senses this and puts mechanical muscles behind the motion. They could resist a lot of damage too, only really BIG guns could effectively bring them down. Crude forms of power armour was sometimes used for loading ships, they could lift a huge weight, but never for guarding them while they were being loaded. Geneta seemed to be throwing their money away for no reason. No one throughout the populated universe actually owned a suit of power armour, only companies could afford them. Hiring powered military would be unbelievably expensive, especially for a money making project like this. He also didn't like the sound of those energy projector plans. Energy weapons had been tested and more often than not they blew up, set on fire or leaked plasma through the casing, liquidating the fingers of whatever unlucky test subject happened to be holding it. Obviously these plans were in the hope of making the weapons more stable over the next six years and the new information being sent to them. No one liked the idea of solar fire being launched as a weapon, and even less so when it melted the wielder soon after. No, lasers and such like were not popular, except perhaps as genocidal bombs. A nuke based on plasma technology could only really be used to destroy a continent, the blast wasn't really capable of being made any smaller. The thought of power armoured soldiers with functioning energy weaponry was enough to make an ordinary military man run and hide. It sounded like something from one of those ancient films about aliens invading Earth. However he had to admit that no one was going to commit a crime while they were there, it wasn't worth the risk of being attacked by an explosive eight foot robot. But still, he hoped none of the suits had been packed onto ship C.
There was a small jolt as the main doors were opened and the civilian crew was loaded up. When they were onboard then the military men would board and the ship could take off. They had, maybe, five minutes before take off. Liz smiled at him.
"Don't worry so much. They're probably just being cautious. They can't afford to have any more Geneta members die can they?"
Arthur nodded but he didn't look convinced. She laughed and slapped him on the shoulder.
"Lighten up a bit. We're going to a new world." she said. Arthur turned to say something put she had pulled the hibernation tube shut and as he watched she was obscured by preservation frost. He sighed and latched the helmet back on his head. It was going to be a long trip.
Dan finished downloading his memory into the helmet and disconnected his computer from his belt. He opened a small socket on the side of the computer and pulled a wire out of the slot, which he plugged into the side of his helmet to download the memory to his console. Then he pulled his helmet off and turned to talk to his friends but they had sealed the hibernation tubes. Well he wasn't going to spend his last moments in Martian territory in a state of near death. He tapped his computer on and carried on the work on his own personal project. Maybe he should have bought a custom suit too. His 'project' would probably be more at home in a custom unit.
The control room of the station was busy with activity as the spacecraft were prepared for take off. The room was circular with a mechanical spire serving as the main computer system stretching from floor to ceiling in the center of the room. There were twelve chairs facing towards the walls. Each seat had a metal pole either side and most of them were generating a holographic computer panel between them. A young man sitting in one chair was wearing a flight suit and a head set as he got a boarding request from an incoming craft.
"Unidentified craft please transmit your ship number now."
He waited a moment until the holo-panel flashed and he tapped a few controls. Once he had relayed the code to the main computer and it had been accepted he touched his headset.
"Please state your purpose on the Mars Station." he said. After a moment he checked his computer again.
"G-O shuttle, number M-479 you are cleared for boarding in docking bay 0127, expect two security craft to escort you."
He tapped a button and resumed scanning the surrounding area. Bloody latecomers. Why couldn't people be on time? He sent a request for two escorts and got back to work.