Chapter 2: Rendezvous to MJJ-12

It had been a couple of hours as Kane was sitting in his chair in a private room of the lounge. He was located in one of the many rooms in the midsection of the ship. The centripetal rotating ring was off-limits since Titan’s gravity was pulling everything downward. With even the light gravity of the moon, it was impossible to walk inside the ring. Designed to generate gravity by centripetal force, it made it impossible to traverse to his own room. Essentially, the ring had rooms all over inside of it, with his private room being upside down near the top. He had been hearing announcements over the intercom for hours, letting everyone know about the ongoing preparations of getting the Gabatrix ready for launch.

The room Kane was in was a little small. He had turned it into an office until the ship would be launched into space itself. It consisted of an overhead display near him on one side of the room. It had two doors that led to a mess hall and the central passageway. He had a small luggage pack with him that carried his wardrobe for the meeting. It rested comfortably on the mounted desk where he sat.

The mounted chair was soft and comfortable to sit on. He knew this was only going to last for so long though. Once in space, there would be no gravity except inside the rotating ring. There was a metallic desk but nothing too fancy. It was a private enough room that he could browse through his messages without much interference. A part of him had felt apprehensive about the upcoming dateline.

“The T’rintar gave us so little time to prepare...,” he said out loud as he turned on the computer projection display from his left hand. The display activated immediately, and he began to browse through the options for him to read.

Kane’s attention was focused on the email box sent through by the United World’s Alliance Galactic Network through proper security channels. He had received a top-secret message from the UWA Intelligence Bureau. The ambassador opened it up, and it asked for his password confirmation. He brought his left hand and projection close enough to him that it popped a new button for him to press. It asked, “Confirm Scan?” and confirmed it.

The moment his right finger clicked the yes button on the projected image, a series of scanning lights began to fire off from his left thumb. It was carefully reviewing his eye for authentication. The light stopped, and the analysis showed that the eye recognition worked.

An email message popped open, and he began to read the displayed text for him to read. It seemed promising for him to read. He nodded his head as he acknowledged it.

The door opened up as a crew member walked into the lounge room. Seeing that he was no longer alone, Kane closed his left hand. This caused the projected image to fade away. The crew member only saw a little bit of what was happening.

“I ... apologize,” the stranger told him. She saw the Ambassador and was about to turn away. “I didn’t mean to bother you. I thought this room was unoccupied.”

Kane looked at the woman. She wore the same red and blue uniform jumpsuit that the other crew members had. Her red-dyed hair was tied up in a bun, the typical fashion statement from Martian women that Kane was aware of. She seemed to be a woman in her forties and had a pale complexion. She had freckles on her face and seemed composed. Her rank insignia had a leaf and what looked like a stethoscope on it. It was etched on both sides of her collar devices.

“No, that is alright,” Kane told her. “I wouldn’t mind the company. You don’t have to leave.”

“Very well,” she said as she turned around to look at him. She was standing by his table. The doors closed, leaving the two of them inside. “My name is Lieutenant Aline. I am the chief medical officer on board the UHN Gabatrix. I saw you earlier at the briefing today.”

“Ambassador, Kane,” he greeted back as he extended his hand to greet her. “I do apologize. There were ten people in that meeting that I didn’t look at the faces too closely.”

She walked up to his hand and shook it. “Don’t feel bad. All of us come from all over the UWA. I don’t know about you, but I feel like taking a breather.”

“Getting everything ready for the trip?”

“Yeah ... the equipment still works. It’s antiquated, but it still works. We got enough supplies for this short mission.”

“I am hoping it will be short,” he told her. “The idea of getting stranded in space is shitty.”

She shook her head. “Honestly, people get too wired up over nothing. They need to calm the fuck down.”

Her brazen words caught him off guard. “Sorry?”

“Oh...,” she said. “I apologize. Us UHN sailors call our language ‘sailor mouth.’ We get used to cussing up a storm. I can hear the faint accent in your voice. You are from Cebravis, aren’t you?”

“That easy, eh?” he asked her.

There was a seat next to him. It was also a comfortable couch. She walked up to it and sat down on it.

“One thing nice with low gravity is that it really adds the spring in your step.”

Kane listened to her talk, but her accent was weird. It sounded almost Martian in some aspects, but it also sounded like the few people left on Earth. She would appear sickly if she were from Earth, but that wasn’t her case.

“I’m trying to figure out what place you came from with the sound of your voice,” Kane said. “Earth?”

She laughed. “Hell no. Earth is fucked up. I wouldn’t be in this condition otherwise if I came from there. Actually ... Venus.”

“Ah...” Kane said, nodding his head. “I rarely ever meet anybody from there. How are those balloon cities anyway?”

She thought about it. “Comfortable. You feel like you are in a spaceship, but you have gravity pulling down on you all the time. It’s pretty nice, actually.”

Kane had only heard the stories about Venus from the Venetians. He knew about the fact that the planet was colonized with the creation of the “Aeolia Program.” It was believed that Venus could be terraformed into a habitable planet by introducing balloon cities. While the pressure inside was insane and heavy, Venus had a number of close elements toward Earth. For one, it was much closer to Earth than Mars was. Gravity on Venus was 90% of that of Earth, and there was an atmosphere and air pressure. If it weren’t for the substantial runaway greenhouse effect crushing things underneath the clouds, it would be a nice place.

“I got to admit that it is fascinating to come from such a place,” Kane said with admiration. “I always wondered why they stopped building more cities.”

“Simple,” she replied back. “Good ol Cebravis and the other planets took priority. They wanted to look at Venus as an experiment in colonizing gas giant planets in case there were too few exoplanets available out in the galaxy. It is pretty nice, honestly. We are the ‘Gangler planet’ in case of the few people that suffer from ‘Gangler’s Syndrome or Low Gravity Adaptation Syndrome.’ With Venus having such a high gravity pulling on you and the balloon cities able to float high above the crushing surface, people go there to recover. They have an excellent UHN medical facility as well, where I was trained in how to become a doctor.”

“Do you guys ever have to worry about your balloon cities getting holes and falling down to get crushed?”

“Hell no! It will never happen. Actually, we get holes all the time. The one thing nice is that the pressure is the same inside or out. Holes can get patched up real quick, and nothing leaks out. Since we are floating at the right altitude, it possible to walk out with a temperature suit and oxygen mask, and you’re fine.”

“Really?”

“Yeah ... of course you still have to watch out for the acid rain here and there. Thankfully, it is still nothing that bad. Like ... I was born on Venus, and I am still here talking to you. That should give you an idea that we have been managing it pretty well there. You should get a chance to stop by there. We have five cloud cities with Vega being our capital.”

“What city were you born from?” he asked.

“Venera. That is where they have the UHN Medical University, too. Venera, you always get a nice view of the gate array in orbit, too.”

“What about the sky, though? Isn’t it like orange and bleak looking?”

“No, our cities float above that. We are right at the perfect altitude where you see blue sky. Below you are all that CO2 tan soup mix. We have incredibly long days, but we control it with overhead window blinds. We simulate night there.”

“That is pretty interesting.”

“Tell me about Cebravis,” she said.

“What needs to be said about Cebravis. It is the New Earth. Almost four billion people call it their home. Four large continents, pristine oceans, gravity very much like Earth, heck, it’s even bigger than Earth. We have more space to travel around and probably the largest amount of nude beaches one could ever surmise.”

She laughed. “I forgot about the nude beaches. I heard Cebravis beat Oshun at that part.”

“Yeah, in fact, the cevan is really good too.”

“Cevan? ... Oh yeah, your fish. I love them. They taste so good. Doesn’t beat the Oshun life, though.”

“Eh ... I’ve had different. Some people like ours better.”

Aline decided to change the topic. “I noticed that you have a Marten JK-5,” she said, pointing to his left hand.

“Oh yeah, my hand. Yeah, I got one of the best that they offered.”

“I got a better augment,” she said, pointing to her right arm. “I have the Genisen SLR-8 Augment Arm.”

“Actually ... I never heard of that.”

“You wouldn’t unless you work in the medical field like me. Some doctors would give their life savings to have one of these. They’re awesome,” she said as she flexed her right arm.

The fact was that both their hands and arms looked entirely undistinguishable for their bodies. The augmented artificial limb and hand that they both had looked genuine.

“What is so special about your augment?” he asked her.

“It includes most of the basic tools for surgery. My right pointer finger has a small laser scalpel to open or stitch wounds. It is more precise than a real human arm, and I can even do things like ultrasounds with it that link up to the computers. Plus ... the typical UWAN navigation too.”

“I don’t know ... I always like the ability to open up my hand and interact with my onboard hand computer core instead of using an arm. I can just open up my hand and close it when I am done interfacing with it.”

“Mmm...” she shook her head. “Yeah, I like what I got.” She paused for a little bit, and her tone seemed to change a little bit. “So ... you are the ambassador for this mission, huh?”

“Yes,” Kane answered.

“I don’t know what to think. We still don’t know what they look like?”

He paused for a few seconds. “They have a little bit more information on the Itreans and T’rintar, in general, that is from the damaged hard drives of the Syn. It is a painstaking process having to put together the corrupted files and trying to make sense of them. I just got a message from UWA Research, and they think they might be reptilian in nature ... at least, they think so. The data is so fragmented.”

“Even though it was captured intact?”

“Barely ... honestly, it would take another month to put things together. Thankfully, they are able to assemble enough data on some parts that the equipment the T’rintar uses militarily is being sent to the UHN Gabatrix. At least we won’t fly in completely blind and ignorant.”

“You think we stand a chance against the Itreans?”

“I don’t know...” Kane said. “It has been so crazy these two months. We had an AI go and take over Mars to beg that she wouldn’t be taken offline ... plead that her unborn daughter be spared. Then, a month later, we capture a destroyed T’rintar ship and get a truce meeting from that clan a little bit later on.”

“I agree ... ugh ... I remember being home when they said Mars was hacked.”

“Yes, I was thankful it wasn’t on Cebravis. It was all over our news, and then Aniruddha made his announcement that he was resigning.”

“Were you elected in by the Lee administration?”

“No,” Kane said, shaking his head. “I was actually a part of the Aniruddha Administration. I was just ... well, I was just a nobody, actually. I was the clerk to the Secretary of the Treasury. When Aniruddha resigned, it caused a small upheaval in the whole government, as was expected. Thankfully when Li Wei Lee took over, she pretty much just had most of the people keep their jobs instead of finding new people.”

“Politics...,” she said, shaking her head.

“I love it, actually.”

“Yet here you are...”

“No, I wanted to do this. When I heard about the T’rintar and the possibility of peace, I jumped on it quickly. I wasn’t doing it for the Lee Administration. I just ... I didn’t want to be cannon fodder when the Itreans come to blow us up on Cebravis. After Eutera and Cipra ... Cebravis was going to be next.”

“Any of us could be next. The cloud cities of Venus,” she said, snapping her fingers. “It wouldn’t take long to destroy all that. I remember even some of my friends that said if the Itreans come to attack Venus ... well.” She paused. “Some of them are planning on opening up the hatch and jumping out. They said it would be better to let Venus claim them than let the bombs come falling over the cities.”

“Yeah...” Kane said. “I’m not ready to die. If the T’rintar come to have us talk, then let’s do it.”

“Are you ready for such an action, though?”

He shook his head. “A part of me is ready to talk to their Ambassador or whoever is going to meet us. Another part of me is scared shitless.”

“We all are...,” she said. “But ... I keep the faith. This mission might as well be the most important mission to ever happen for humanity since the Gabatrix Experiment. I’m no historian, but I feel that is what this is going to be. I understand you being nervous, Ambassador.”

Kane nodded his head. He tried to change the topic again. “Well ... if we can allow an AI to take over our society, release us, and then we go and let her live, it does show promise in humanity. I just wish our aliens felt the same way.”

“Perhaps they do.”

“I imagine they do as well.”

“You know ... it’s funny. I have a friend that helped in Minerva’s delivery,” Aline said.

“Really?”

“Yes,” she replied. “She works here on Titan. When Minerva went into labor, they called her to help with the delivery. Her husband, Ericson, was a happy man.”

“I imagine it was. It was on the news, but it still kept getting swamped out by all the news with the Itreans and their impact on society. Sometime after this, I will have to get in contact with Ericson, especially once we come back. They are here on Titan, right?”

“I think so, according to the news a while back.”

“Hmmm ... I did see the UHN Tyson that was here at the docks.”

“Unfortunately, I don’t know much more than that. We have a slew of ships at the dockyards.”

“Me neither,” he said. “I don’t know much military stuff. I am just a political worker.”

“I am just a doctor. So that’s that.”

There was a long pause in the conversation. Finally, Aline slapped her knees. “Well ... it is time for me to head back to work. Once we get the ring-spinning, I am going to get my first wave of nausea patients. Better be ready with all the meds. How is your experience?”

“With what?”

“Motion sickness, nausea, or weightless issues?”

“Oh ... actually, it didn’t bother me much. I made the trip to here on transport and shuttle with no problem, and I grew up on Cebravis most of my life.”

“Well, if you feel any sickness or the need to throw up, just come to the medical bay, and we’ll help you out.”

“You got it, doc.”

Aline stood up. She patted him on the shoulder. “These are dark times, but we have gone through worse.”

“I can’t think of anything worse than this,” he said.

“Our ancestors had to abandon a planet. Trust me. We went through worse.”

Kane knew that Aline was mostly right. At the moment things could be far worse.

“I will stay confident,” he replied.

“Take care of yourself,” she told him. “The ship should be departing pretty soon. I recommend going to the bridge. Old or new, being in a warship launch is amazing. It’s a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity.”

He smiled. “I think I will do that.”

She waved as she stepped towards the closed door of the room. It opened up as she stepped out to the central passageway. When it closed, Kane was left to his own thoughts once again. He breathed a sigh of relief, but his mind would go to the display. A part of him wonders if he would ever see home again once they made the jump. Would the T’rintar just blow them to pieces or actually welcome them? For now, he had to close his eyes and monitor the intercom chatter.

Twenty-five minutes had passed. Kane stepped out of the elevator that led up to the dorsal side bridge. The large partially bulbous section of the center midsection of the ship housed the hangar bay and the dorsal and ventral bridges. Technically, the vessel had no windows. The bulbous part consisted of the area where the armor was the thickest creating the bulging spot. Kane would have to ask more about ship construction since his knowledge could have been better.

The ambassador took a good look at the bridge of the ship or at least the one that he was in. It was a large room that housed over ten consoles. The horseshoe-shaped room consisted of display consoles where the crew was stationed. Mounted chairs with straps were all over the place, including where the crew and staff worked. Besides the displays for the consoles, there was a massive horseshoe display that wrapped through the whole room. It might have been the largest screen that Kane had ever seen. He could only imagine what the latest warships had for their equipment.

The bridge was the heart of the ship. It was the command center for the warship and combat coordination center.

For Kane, it was somewhat overwhelming to be inside. Crew members had headsets on. Others had their hands interfacing with the consoles or at least the ones that had augmented arms or hands. Some had tablets that they used to interface with the consoles. He could see that some of the consoles depicted the internal layout of the ship. One showed the guns, and another appeared to be the mechanisms and equipment on the vessel. The center console in the room was where the captain sat. He had a central console that showed all the consoles and their data. His hand was interfaced with it as he seemed to concentrate on it.

The ambassador looked at the massive horseshoe display. He could see the other ships that were docked in the squared-off hangar of the Titan moon base. The block-like pylons each held a starship in place. Even though they were closed off, you could still see the other ships through the massive window-like apertures. He could see the research ship Tyson tucked into the corner of the hangar. The vessel was offline. Another was flat and looked like a horseshoe. Maybe it was a transport of some sort? Another dock showed a battleship that was similar to the Gabatrix, a sister ship perhaps.

“Status reports that everyone has left hangar section five,” one of the crew members informed the captain. “They will begin pumping out the oxygen in preparation for our launch.”

“Excellent,” the captain said. He turned his head enough as he saw the ambassador behind him. His voice raised a little bit so he could hear him. “Ah ... Ambassador. I knew you wanted to see a warship launch. You couldn’t get a better seat in the house. Go grab one of the empty seats and strap yourself in. I am about to announce to everyone to get themselves ready for the launch.”

“You got it,” Kane said. He could feel the excitement start to get to him. He had been on the shuttles when they launched, but nothing was ever going to be as big as a 280-meter long plus-sized vessel weighing countless tons in its launch. This was going to be big.

He looked around the room and saw an empty seat. The red vinyl-mounted seat was his best bet. He walked up to it and sat down. There were a series of straps where he began to fasten himself in. He saw the captain interface his console again as he put on his headset and earpiece.

The ship’s overhead speakers lit up. “Attention crew of the UHN Gabatrix,” the captain announced. “This is your CO speaking. Our preliminary checkups appear to be good. We are getting ready to launch the ship into orbit. I ask all crew members to get strapped in their seats. Once we break orbit, we will then make the jump to New Olympia. Captain William out...”

The intercom ceased. Kane could see the activity of lights going on outside of the ship from the massive display. The internal hangar was depicting red lights indicating that the hangar was having all the oxygen pumped out and moved somewhere else.

“Sir, engineering reports status green from the super direct fusion drive core,” one of the crew members on the bridge reported. “Emergency backup core is available and shows status green.”

“Excellent,” the captain said. “Ambassador...” He said, turning his head towards Kane’s direction. “Grab a headset and put it on.”

The Ambassador was fully strapped in his chair. Not far from him was a magnetic clip that held a small headset and earpiece attachment. He picked it up and fitted the earpiece into his right ear. There was a small microphone that hung from the headpiece. He noted the number four that was written on it in English and Chinese. He adjusted it and fitted it over his head and face.

“What is the number on your headset, Ambassador!?”

“Number four,” he answered.

You could see the captain begin keying in instructions on his console. His left hand glowed a little bit as he continued to interface with his own console. Suddenly Kane could hear the captain’s voice come through his earpiece. He noticed the captain’s voice was much quieter now.

“Can you hear me, Ambassador?” the captain told him.

“Yes, I can, Captain,” he responded. “Can you hear me?”

“Yes, I can. I have you patched into a separate channel. You will only hear me from this channel instead of the crew com channels. I will be able to talk quieter to you instead of me yelling across the room and causing unnecessary noise pollution in the bridge.”

“I understand,” Kane said. “You have to see the House of Representatives when the Chairman introduces a bill. This place is relatively calm by comparison.”

“Politics ... One of the things with having a crew of a hundred is that it is far easier to manage these ships than in the past. Bear in mind that I will be in and out of this channel. I do have a ship to run.”

“Understood, Captain,” the ambassador responded. “Makes sense.”

“Ever done a rocket launch like this before?”

“First time for me.”

“Just want to make sure you are ready. You are the most important person for this mission. Essentially, this whole ship is getting you from point A to point B for a meeting.”

“It is, Captain,” Kane replied. “But everybody on this ship is important as well.”

“They are. I am still surprised that the T’rintar clan doesn’t send message envoy probes to do these negotiations.”

“Sooner or later, we would still have to meet them face to face. Perhaps the T’rintar want to meet us face to face as a custom.”

“With the UWAN nowadays, things get pretty isolated between ... hold on.”

The coms between the captain temporarily ceased. Kane knew that he was busy. His eyes would continue to watch the hangar bay lights. The red lights continued, and finally, it gave an orange glow.

“Titan Hangar control reports that we are ready to launch,” one of the crewmembers announced to the captain. “Air is matched with Titan’s air. They report that there is a methane rainstorm that is over our heads. The crew reports that they are all strapped in and ready to go.”

“Oh, they are going to have fun cleaning all that shit up when they open the hangar bay doors,” the captain responded to her. “Normally, they wait till it passes before they open the doors. Tell them we are ready to launch. We welcome the rain.”

“Aye, sir.”

Even though Kane was near the back of the room, he was mostly getting front-row seats. The captain’s voice came into his earpiece once again.

“Normally, the doors remain closed during the methane rainstorms,” the captain told him. “Since this mission is top priority, they will have to have us launch through it. I don’t know about you, but I will have to hate having to clean that up after we launch.”

“I don’t know much about my chemistry captain,” Kane replied. “But isn’t methane and nitrogen explosive?”

“It is. Of course, there is one thing that Titan doesn’t have, and that is oxygen. Good ol oxygen is the culprit for your explosions. Since Titan doesn’t have any, we’re just lying on a pile of frozen inert natural gas. It’s why they have to pump out the oxygen safely from the hangar. If they just open up the hangar bay doors without doing it, the results would be ... kinda explosive.”

The hangar bay doors began to open up. The moment that it did, the natural light of Titan began to flood inside the bay. It was an orange and tan hue that began to illuminate everything. It was not bright outside. Titan was much further away from Sol than Mars or Venus. The thick atmosphere served as a blanket for the sunlight as well. Kane could see as the hangar bays continued to open up more and more.

The moment that the bay doors retracted over the midsection of the ship, they could hear the sound of faint taps on the hull. It was the sound of the methane rain that was smacking harmlessly off the armor. It reminded Kane of the bountiful rain storms on Cebravis. He could only imagine that even though Titan had its own beauty, it was just a frozen gas dump of a wasteland.

“I will have to get a chance to do a spacewalk outside of Titan’s moon base someday,” Kane said out loud. He didn’t know if the captain heard him or not.

“Hangar bay doors are fully open,” the crew member told the captain. “Pylons preparing to adjust our position for launch sequence.”

“Roger. Once we are in position, initiate countdown and launch at your discretion,” the captain replied.

A new set of blue lights began to light up on the bridge. Kane did not know what it meant, but he began to feel a pull on his feet and body. The overhead display was showing all the events that were taking place.

“Hold on and get ready for a ride,” the captain told the ambassador through his earpiece. “This is the fun part.”

Outside the hangar, there was a unique spectacle that was taking place. The UHN Gabatrix could be seen in her illuminated glory. A series of lights generated from the ship and the natural lighting of Titan showed a yellowish-gray starship. A set of pylon clamps began to lift the entire vessel upward. It was adjusting the ship to point at a 90-degree vector. It was slow but methodical, where every second was a three-degree change. The rear engine module was positioned downward towards the surface. The methane rain began to fall down, hitting the dorsal section of the ship. The front bow nose pointed straight up as the pylons held the vessel perfectly in place. With such low gravity, the pylons didn’t have to do much work. The Gabatrix had a heavyweight to it, but the low gravity meant that it was easier to deploy ships than what other planets had to do.

Inside the Gabatrix, Kane had a firm grip on his seat. He could feel his weight shift to his back as the ship was lifted to a perfect upward position. The gravity pressed down on him was light, but he knew this was only going to be the beginning.

“Initiating countdown!” the crew member yelled. “T minus ten in counting. Ten ... nine ... eight ... seven ... six ... five ... four ... three ... two ... one. Launch!”

Suddenly at the Gabatrix’s engine module, a series of five thrusters began to activate all at once. Simultaneously, the docking clamps released the battleship as a volley of burning fire emitted from the thrust nodules. The flames struck the lower pylon and burned out as the Gabatrix began to lift off like a rocket of Earth’s ancient past.

Kane could feel the acceleration hit his body hard. It was nothing terrible of course, but it felt like sitting on a seat of a theme park ride on Cebravis. The rest of the crew was feeling the g-forces being pressed upon them as well. The Captain even smiled a little bit.

The Gabatrix lifted off the hangar bay. The pylon clamps began to recede into the hangar bay itself. The methane rain was just a scene that was occurring at the same time. The ship was getting higher and higher as there was a flame trail that left behind it. The liquid and frozen methane evaporated as it was exposed to the intense heat of the Gabatrix’s engines.

The hangar doors began to close up immediately as more of the rain fell inside the open bay itself. The spaceship flew higher into the sky, traveling at a hard speed. The constant acceleration was heavy on him, but it felt fun. He gripped his seat and watched the display board as it showed the thick air around the ship. The rain droplets continued to hit the hull, producing light thump sounds. Eventually, the ships’ engines began to drown out the noise.