Jupiter Three

“Hey Ryan, you were a shuttle pilot, weren’t you?” Duncan asked from across the diner. Duncan has just started coming back to the Mesa, and had some guy with him. There were a lot of people here tonight as a matter of fact.

“I AM a shuttle pilot Duncan, not was. Why?”

“Come over here, I want you to meet a friend of mine.” he replied.

I walked over to the table where Duncan and his friend were sitting. Carl had been in earlier, but had left before Duncan showed up, and I hadn’t seen Julia much at all the last couple of days.

“Derick Ryan, meet Jay Brothers. Jay is a shuttle pilot for the mission.”

Jay held out his hand and I shook it. “What brings an official pilot up here with the norms?”

“I was talking with Duncan earlier this evening, and he was telling me about this place, thought I would give it a try.” He sat back casually in his chair. “So your a pilot too?”

“Yeah, I did the Phobos run for a while, then shuttled frigates to Terrestrials for a bit. How ’bout yourself?”

“I did the Terrestrials once or twice, but most of my runs were between colonies. I even did the pole to pole run for a while.” He took a sip from his drink. “So what’s a pilot doing as a cook in a diner?” he asked.

“Lottery. Had to take what I could get. You made the cut?”

“Sure did. Have you been to the bays?” When I shook my head no he continued, “I parked half of the shuttles in Bay Three. I’m scheduled for the mining runs once we get set up.”

“I envy you,” I replied, and it was the truth. I missed not flying, even though it had only been a couple of months.

“Come on down some time, and I’ll take you through the bays.”

“Really? I thought they were off limits?”

Jay gave me a wink. “The restraints in the bays have to be double checked, equipment monitored. They have us running thourgh pre-flights pretty regularly. What do you think they have us doing for the next several months? Got to keep us busy.”

I hadn’t really thought about what they would have grounded pilots doing. Maintenance. Make sense.

Jay and I talked for a bit, but it started getting busy, so I had to get back to work.

Man, I would LOVE to see the bays. If you’ve never been a pilot, you can’t understand what it’s like to be grounded. Just sitting in the cockpit and running through the pre flight would be something, especially with the equipment they’ve got down there. I was going to take Jay up on his offer – soon.

Yesterday was my day off, and Jay said he could get me into the bays.

We took the elevator to the hub. It was a long trip, and some people get nauseated as they get closer to the center. As soon as we got to the hub, we became weightless.

We pulled ourselves through several hundred meters of hallway before reaching the airlock into the shuttle bay.

“They have the pilots and mechanics run each shuttle through pre-flight every week,” Jay explained. “We run computer diagnostics, engine checks, and life support.”

“How many shuttles are we talking about?” I asked.

“There are forty seven in here, another twelve on the other end of the Jupiter Three.”

Jay started pulling himself a along a guide rail. There were a couple of other crewmen in the bay floating around a shuttle a few hundred meters ahead of us., but otherwise the bay was empty of people.

“I have to run a diagnostic on one of the cargo ships at the other end of the bay. We have a ways to go – try to keep up.

“Speak for yourself.”

We came out of the airlock into the open bay. It was immense – at least a kilometer. There were at least four different models of shuttle, plus two large cargo vessels. I counted 40 vessels, and I was sure I couldn’t see them all.

“My god, I had no idea…” That was all I could get out.

“Think about it, Ryan. There are five hundred of us going to a system that can’t support human life. There are going to be hundreds of us all going in different directions doing different jobs, everyone of them critical to establishing the colony. Transport is essential.”

Jay started to pull himself along a rail. “Let’s go, we need to get to a ship on the other side of the bay.”

I grabbed the rail and started to pull before I realized the rail was in motion, pulling me. Made sense considering the distance we had to travel, but I had never seen this type of transport system before. We were flying through the air like two ghosts. We passed three or four other crewman who gave us only cursory glances, but for the most part the bay was devoid of people.

“Get ready to let go,” Jay said after a few seconds.

“Uh, how do we stop?” I asked, realizing we had built up some momentum.

“You’ll see, just let go,” he answered.

Sure enough, he let go when we reached a large cargo shuttle. His feet went almost immediately to the ground, as if there were gravity. Interesting. I went a few more meters, then released my hold on the rail…and immediately sailed off towards the far wall of the bay.

I am not new to weightlessness; I’ve just never been weightless in a place this big without being in a suit. After the initial shock of having braced myself for a sudden stop, and then not stopping, I decided to enjoy the ride.

I was sure that this was just a practical joke, and the look on Jay’s face confirmed it. I did a couple of in air flips to show I was in control of the situation as I headed toward the far wall. It was some distance away, but there was no other way to stop, and nothing to push against. The air was slowing me down, but not very fast, and I wasn’t sure I wanted to stop in mid flight anyway.

As I approached the far wall I began to make out a large cargo net. This was standard for any shuttle bay without gravity, which is why I hadn’t panicked. The net would bring me to a stop and allow me to climb (pull) to the “floor” of the bay. On reaching the floor I simply floated over the floor to the opposite side of the walkway, and grabbed the rail heading back.

When I got near the cargo ship, I released the rail and pushed off perpendicular, eventually using the rear of the cargo shuttle to stop me.

Jay was LHAO. “I’m sorry, that was a hoot,” he chuckled.

I just smiled and gave him a shove. He sailed about one meter before he was brought to the floor with a click. “Electromagnets in the boots, standard issue. They have them in the air lock – I’ll get you a pair next time. Come on, lets climb aboard.”

We pulled ourselves through several hundred meters of hallway before reaching the airlock into the shuttle bay.

We boarded the shuttle. It was a four seater, with with an airlock between us and the cargo area. It was like being home. Jay started running through pre-flight, then motioned towards a side panel.

“Why don’t you check out the navigation system and life support while I have the computer check the engines.”

I had flown this model before, so it didn’t take me long to run through the systems check. “I can’t thank you enough for bringing me down here. It has been WAY too long since I’ve been in this seat.”

“Yeah, I can believe it,” Jay responded. “I can’t wait until we can take these back out into space. You seem to be able to handle yourself, mind if I ask why your not a pilot on this voyage?”

“Long story, they found out I got into some trouble at university; it was enough to bump me down the list.”

“You’ll have to tell me over some beers some time, if they ever open up the bar again.”

We finished up the with a walk through the cargo area of the shuttle, then a quick walk around the outside. I was really impressed by the amount of open space with breathable air.

“The must have a huge airlock for these babies.”

“Ryan, you wouldn’t believe…”

“Your telling me shuttle jocks only work an hour a day?” This was Carl’s initial response after I shared how I spent my day off.

I had spent most of the day working out in the gym. The doctor had given me an OK on my ribs, though I was still on the supplements, so I wanted a heavier workout than I had been doing since the “accident” with the bed. I arrived at to work early, and Carl and Duncan were both having dinner, is I told them about my trip to the shuttle bay.

“What the hell do they do with all that time off?” he continued.

“That’s not all they do, Carl,” Duncan chimed in. “Jay told me that they maintenance jobs on this ship, as well as mechanics training.”

“Apparently the colonial administration doesn’t want the pilots to be totally dependent on the mechanics — they say it’s in case of emergency, you know, out on a mission somewhere.”

“It’s probably so that they have scabs in case the mechanics ever decide to strike,” Carl retorted.

“Either way,” I continued, ” all the shuttle jockeys have to train with a mechanic at least three days a week. That’s what Jay told me.” I looked to Duncan for confirmation, and he nodded.

I wandered off to start my shift. Julia had agreed to meet me for a late dinner during my break. When she arrived, we left for a diner I knew about on level three. Even I can’t eat at the Mesa ALL the time. ;> Their cook had scoffed fresh berries from the hydroponics farm, and was said to have come up with an artificial creme recipe that didn’t taste like crap.

“So they didn’t have any security in the bay?” Julia asked when I told her about my day off.

“No they do, and the guy gave me a long second look when he pulled up my file, so it’s probably flagged; but he seemed to know Jay pretty well, so they let us in.”

“It sounds like Jay is a good guy to know,” she responded.

“What do you mean?”

“Look Derick, getting ahead in the new system is going to be just like getting ahead in the old — we are going to have to know the right people, make the right friends. Otherwise we’ll always be ‘norms’.”

“Is that what I am, one of the ‘right’ people?”

Julia smiled. “You have other benefits,” she said with a wink.

Someday this girl is going to get me in a lot of trouble. I just know it.