“Hey, my name's Commander Daniel Hartford”, I say to the twenty-three people gathered before me. “It's 0950, right now; you all need to meet me at the air-docks by 1200”. I dismiss them and they head their separate ways.
A little about me? I'm the owner and captain of the starship Alpheratz. The new owner that is; Andromeda Shipping Inc. Went bankrupt about a month ago. I bought their final asset the Alpheratz and assumed their debts. The Alpheratz is a cargo ship; and our first job is to deliver supplies to a colony 1800ly from Sol.
Now I'm on the Earth space-station GAMMA-4, rounding up crew for our next haul. I know a few people but many of my crew will new.
GAMMA-4 is one of many Earth-orbit trading and commerce centers. I'm currently on level 62 which is populated mostly by corporate offices and lay-over housing for starship crews. The the air docks occupy levels 50 down to level 25. I've got about two hours until my crew us supposed to meet me at the shuttle so I figure I should head down to the docks and power it up.
I turn the lights off in the conference room and lock the door to the Andromeda Transportation office. Heading down the wide corridor, I take a right to the lift tube. There's several people in the tube with me, they all seem to be preoccupied with their own business. I take care not to hit anyone as I carry my two packs of supplies and personal items off the lift.
Level 46 hums with the usual midday activity. Left and right, a diverse swarm of life is busy working on everything from unloading and loading cargo, to fixing damaged spacecraft.
Let me diverge from the story for a minute to describe what an air-dock is. When a small spacecraft needs to be repaired, re-crewed or take on cargo, it is inefficient to do so by the means of an airlock or spacesuit. Hence the invention of the “air-dock”. It's a metal tube, ranging from about ten meters in diameter well over eighty. They can be anyware from thirty to three hundred meters in length. On on the end of the tube that faces outboard the space station are two, massive clam-shell pressure doors. On the other end of the tube, the end that faces inboard space station is a massive hangar door. This door opens once the craft is secured inside and the dock is pressurized. It allows the the craft to be moved part-way into the hangar level; this allows for a greater level of accessibility with the craft.
I'm heading to dock number 30-073, a medium sized air-dock which I can see aways ahead of me. When I reach the base of the air-dock door, I insert my key card into the scanner and after a short beep, the door begins to open. For a full minute, the electric motors hum as they open the colossal thirty meter sliding door.
High overhead the service lights illuminate the shuttle and the inside of the dock. I climb the ladder on the side of the dock chamber to the service platform. From there I am able to open the external hatch of the shuttle. I enter. It's dark inside, though the emergency lighting provides enough light for me to find my way forward. I click the internal lighting breaker and switch the cockpit lights on.
This particular shuttle is mostly used for crew or personal transfer between the Alpheratz, and a planet or a space station like GAMMA-4. Of all the Alpheratz' six shuttles, this one is the only, with a name. She is called Kennebec. The other shuttles are docked to the Alpheratz and are given numeric the numeric designations of A-1 through A-6. “A” stands for “Alpheratz”; the Kennebec is A-1.
On the Aux-Electrical panel, I quickly go through each fuel cell start-up sequence. Next I begin the reactor auto-power-up sequence. The computer monitors this process, which will take about twenty minutes. Since I'm no longer needed in the Cockpit I grab my packs and toss them in my stateroom, just aft. I unpack a few things, then think better of it, repack them and put my packs in a locker. We'll only be on the Kennebec for about three hours, so there's no sense getting settled. I figure I might as well tidy up a few things while I'm here.
An alarm signals the completion of the reactor start-up. I step back into the cockpit. I spend the next ten or so minutes turning on various systems such as: gravity manipulation, engines, and the navigation systems. Since the reactor is now
It's 1100 now so I step back outside the ship and wait for my crew to arrive. Walking around the service platform in the air-dock, I detach each docking clamp the holds the shuttle in place when the gravity manipulation systems are off. Someone calls my name.
I look down through the grate in the platform; several crew have arrived. I recognize the four people to be: Allison Jackman, my first mate; Ralph Brokaw, my second mate; Steven Perrine, my third mate; and Vincent Grasso, my chief engineer. “Hey!” I shout down.
Each in turn they clamber up the ladder. Steve, a stocky dark-skinned man standing about six-six, hands me a paper box. “We were just up to Greenwald's on level 70. We had lunch and thought we'd get you something.” “Thanks!” I say, opening the box. Inside are four large slices of Greenwald's pizza. I step back into the Kennebec, motioning for my crew to follow.
We descend the ladder from the cockpit down the second deck. The ladder lands in the companionway. To either side are crew berths. At the end is the galley.
I'm on my third slice of pizza as we sit down around the galley table. Vincent mentions that he wants to check some things before we depart. I check my watch. “Well, you better get on that.” I say. He nods and heads gets up. “I'm gonna head up to the cockpit, just so I can plot our departure and be there when the rest of the crew arrive” mentions Allison. “Yep” I reply. I finish my pizza and dispose of the box.
In the cockpit I join Allison. “Do we have a departure plan?” I ask. “Yes, we do”. She switches a few screens in the navigation display. “Departure cleared us for 1200” she says without looking up. “That's in ten minutes I say, I'm gonna check with Vincent real quick just to make sure we're ready to go.” “Alright” she says, this time briefly glancing over her shoulder to nod at me.
Just as I reach the top of the ladder, I see Vincent, already on his way up. “Are we good?” I ask. “We're set to go.” “Okay let's secure all external connections and prepare for departure.” I say to the intercom. After a second, “External connections are secure.” To Vincent I say: “Close the internal hangar doors and depressurize the hangar.” “On it.”
The cockpit has three seats. When facing forward, Allison is in the left seat. Vincent has just taken the right one. The center seat is for the pilot/CO. I sit down.
“The hangar doors are closed and sealed, I'm beginning the depressurization sequence.” “Allison, contact departure.” I say. “Departure this is the Kennebec, requesting departure from bay 30-073.” “Kennebec this is departure, bay 30-073 is fully depressurized, opening external doors.” Looking out the cockpit window, I can see the inside clam-shell doors. Silently, they begin to open. They're no more then a centimeter open when brilliant sunlight glares in. As the doors open wider I can see the Earth below. The thin blue arc of the horizon laced with white puffy clouds is tinged with yellow and orange of the recent sunrise. “Kennebec, the doors are open, you are clear to depart bay 30-073.” “Copy departure.”
Momentarily frozen by the grandeur and beauty of the view before me, I quickly regain my composure. I disengage the gravity units that are holding the ship firmly in the dock and fire a short burst of the aft thrusters. Without a sound, other then that of the ventilation system, the Kennebec glides from the air-dock and into the sunlight.
“Do we have a slip-drive target solution for the Alpheratz” I say to Allison. “Yes, it's about a three hour trip and close to 75 percent efficient.” “Good” I say, firing the aft thrusters again and for a longer burst. “We're about 500 meters from the station when we're at 5k engage the slip-drive”. “Ten seconds...Five seconds, three, two, one, engaging slip.” A blinding flash out the forward window quickly fades to the bright blue glow of Čerenkov radiation. “Everything looks good” Allison says. She turns to me smiling, “this never get's old does it”. “No” I reply it never does.
“Well, I'm gonna head down and check the reactor” Vincent says. “Alright” I say. I stare out at the uniform bright blue glow as the Kennebec hurdles through slip-space toward the Alpheratz and toward my future.
Continued in Part 2.
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