Chapter 3: Vector

Another couple of hours passed, Jamie only leaving his place at the window to eat a meal that was offered to him by a stewardess. It wasn’t especially good, bringing to mind the age-old jokes about airline food, but travel had made him ravenous. Liz was similarly unimpressed, but at least they had given her a larger portion. All things considered, they were very accommodating of aliens. They probably had to be, as this was one of the few places on Earth that they were likely to pass through regularly.

The Earth was finally small enough for him to see it in its entirety. It was about the size of a basketball now, framed against the black backdrop of space, its azure oceans making it shine like a jewel as it reflected the unfiltered glare of the sun. Jamie hadn’t imagined that the tether would be so absurdly long. It was a little unnerving, being so deep into the void, so exposed. There was only a pane of reinforced glass, or maybe some kind of transparent polymer that separated him from the instantaneous death that lay just a couple of inches away. This far out, the gravity of the Earth barely had any effect. It was only the climber’s AG field that was keeping their feet rooted to the carpet.

“Check it out,” Liz said, “you can see the station.”

“Really?” Jamie asked, squinting into the darkness. “I don’t see anything.”

“Oh yeah, I forgot that my eyes are better than yours,” she chuckled. “It might take a few more minutes.”

She was right, as usual, the glint of the station soon coming into view. At this distance, he couldn’t make out much detail, but that gradually changed as they approached.

Their tether wasn’t the only one, he realized. There were a dozen or more that converged on the underside of the station, what looked like an upside-down dome made from white metal. He could see hundreds of glittering windows, the long cables disappearing into recesses in the hull. It was hard to tell with no frame of reference, but as they neared, he guessed that the disk was maybe three thousand feet across.

“That’s the underside of the station,” Liz explained. She had been here before, likely to this very station. “This one is called ‘American Terminus’ because it has tethers in both hemispheres.”

“Why is that?” Jamie asked, watching the disk loom above them.

“A conventional space elevator can only be tethered to the equator,” Liz explained. “You couldn’t have one in the states, or in Argentina, because it would be pulled out of its orbit. Instead, these stations have multiple tethers that terminate in both hemispheres. They serve several countries at once. This one has anchors in Canada, the USA, Argentina, Brazil, Mexico. They all end up in the same place.”

“Look!” Jamie exclaimed, pressing his nose against the glass. Along a nearby tether sped a large, cylindrical pod, several times the size of their own climber. It was heading back towards Earth, quickly vanishing from view.

“That’s probably a cargo crawler,” Liz said. “It’ll be full of shipping containers.”

“Is the station just this upside-down dome?” Jamie asked.

“No, that’s just the lowest segment where the crawlers dock. There’s a central pillar that runs up vertically through the station, like the trunk of a tree. Right at the top are the docks, huge berths that are open to space. That’s where the jump freighters come in to unload their cargo. Beneath those are several disks that branch off from the central structure, stacked one on top of the other, kind of like pineapple rings. They don’t spin like you might imagine because gravity is provided by the AG fields, so they’re stationary. That’s where the crew lives, where the hotels are, that kind of stuff.”

“How big is it?”

“Not sure,” she said, scratching her chin with one of her claws. “If I remember, it was at least six thousand feet tall. It’s pretty huge.”

“It’s over a mile tall?” Jamie mused, trying and failing to get a better look.

“It’s big,” she confirmed with a nod. “Like I said, this thing services the entire American continent.”

The seatbelt signs came on once again as the cavernous opening above swallowed them, casting them into shadow as it blotted out the sterile glare of the sun. Jamie returned to his seat reluctantly, strapping in, the voice of a stewardess echoing through the speakers.

“Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to American Terminus Station. We hope that your ride with us has been a pleasant one. Please remain seated while the seatbelt sign is on. Be sure to remove all bags and belongings from the overhead storage compartments once the crawler has come to a full stop. Checked baggage will be unloaded from the cargo bays shortly. Please proceed down the gantries, and follow the colored arrows to reach the baggage reclamation area.”

Jamie felt the floor vibrate beneath his feet, a tremor rocking the crawler as what must have been docking clamps locked it into place. Once he could leave his seat, he made his way over to the windows, but all that he could see was the featureless metal of what must be a docking bay.

The sealed hatches that were spaced out at intervals along the hull popped open, stale air rushing into the passenger compartment. It smelled metallic, processed, like an air vent exhaust in a tall building. The oxygen that he was breathing had probably been recycled innumerable times.

He and Liz loaded up with their bags, following the crowd of travelers as they slowly filed out onto a ring-shaped platform that surrounded the crawler, not dissimilar to the one in the anchor back on the ground. Large doors led out into a subtly curving corridor that was wide enough for five or six people to stand shoulder to shoulder, far more spacious than Jamie had been anticipating. The ceiling was even high enough that Liz didn’t have to duck.

All of the exposed hull material was white, making him feel a little like he was in a hospital, while the carpet was the same UN-blue that he had seen in the crawler. He soon found the arrows that the stewardess had mentioned, a series of color-coded lines painted onto the walls, each one leading to a different part of the station. He read off the names as he walked by. Main elevator, customs and immigration, baggage reclamation, bathrooms, maintenance.

The gaggle of chattering travelers turned off into an expansive room, a series of conveyor belts slowly winding their way along. This was where the baggage would be unloaded, identical to what one would expect to see in an airport. After a few minutes of waiting, a myriad of backpacks and suitcases began to emerge from an opening in the far wall, the passengers crowding around as they collected their respective belongings.

Jamie and Liz proceeded on, making their way out into another corridor. Jamie paused to examine an information kiosk, pulling up a map, and checking it against his phone. As Liz had described, the station was made up of a huge central tube that ran vertically through half a dozen pancake-shaped disks, terminating in a large dock at the top of the structure.

“We’re supposed to go to umbilical D-twelve,” Jamie said, squinting at the map. “I see, each section has a letter. We’re in F right now, so we need to take the elevator two levels up.”

“Lead the way, navigator,” Liz said as she hoisted one of their packs over her shoulder. They made their way inward towards the central pillar, following another of the color-coded lines, Jamie lamenting that they were moving further away from the windows. He wanted nothing more right now than to get a look outside. Liz seemed to pick up on his excitement, smiling down at him as she loped along by his side.

“You’re like a little kid with a new toy,” she chuckled. “You were never into this kind of stuff when we were younger. The only thing you ever seemed interested in was running track. One would think that dating an alien would make you curious about space travel, but no, Jamie’s eyes are fixed squarely on the asphalt.”

“A man can broaden his horizons,” Jamie replied, leading her up to the wide elevator doors. He tapped at the touch panel, waiting for them to open.

“You’re a dork,” she chuckled, giving his butt an affectionate whip with her tail.

The doors slid open, Jamie and Liz stepping aside as another dozen people came pouring out of the car, making their way down the corridor. When Jamie stepped inside, he noted that there were surprisingly few buttons on the touch panel, far fewer than there were in the residential buildings that he was accustomed to. Technically speaking, this place only had six levels. He tapped in D, and the doors slid shut, Jamie feeling a subtle sense of motion as the elevator began to rise.

“You want help with any of that stuff?” Jamie asked, eyeing the bags that Liz was carrying.

“Are you kidding?” she scoffed. “It’s only one G. Try hauling this stuff around in one-point-three.”

“Wait a minute,” Jamie said, feigning surprise. “Are you suggesting that Borealis has higher gravity than Earth? I have literally never heard about this before.”

“Oh, haha,” Liz replied sarcastically, shifting the weight of her bags. “I don’t see you complaining, mister ‘let me lick your abs’.”

“Those are private bedroom things,” he protested, Liz giving him another whip with her tail. He caught it this time, feeling Liz tense as he held it in his hand.

“Don’t you pull it,” she warned, her cheeks starting to warm. “Not unless this elevator has an emergency stop, and you’re prepared to deal with the consequences.”

“Truce,” he replied, releasing the furry appendage.

The doors opened, and they stepped out into another corridor, only distinguishable from the last by the different colored lines that ran along the walls. Once they reached its end, they emerged into a more familiar environment, a kind of miniature concourse that ran around the exterior of the disk. It was lined with stores, restaurants, and hotels, wide enough that it resembled a carpeted street. Between the crowds of travelers, Jamie could make out soldiers clad in black armor, their faces hidden behind the opaque visors of their helmets. He had played enough VR games to know that they were carrying CR-52s, top-loading PDWs that fired caseless ammunition. These were UNN Marines, not just spaceport security.

So far from the front, it was sometimes easy to forget that the Coalition was at war...

“We have to go left,” Jamie said, gesturing down the curving concourse. “I’m not sure what an umbilical is, though.”

“You’ll see,” Liz replied, following behind him as they weaved through the crowds. “It’s a way for ships to dock together, or for smaller ships to dock with stations without requiring a berth.”

They soon reached the end of the concourse and entered the boarding area. There were rows of airlocks spaced far apart on the curving walls, and finally, windows. Jamie hurried over to the nearest one, pressing his nose up against the glass as he peered outside. To his dismay, he still couldn’t see the Earth. It was too far below the station.

What he could see, however, was a docked ship. Its bulky, white hull was maybe two hundred and fifty feet from its rounded nose to the conical engine nozzles at the rear, covered in a skin of interlocking tiles. It was vaguely cylindrical, but there was nothing streamlined about it. Everywhere he looked, there was some kind of bulging blister or uneven protrusion, like a plastic mold full of air bubbles. Above a row of cockpit windows was a bulbous, rounded dome, reminiscent of a beluga whale. There were no wings or control surfaces of any kind, which suggested that it wasn’t capable of atmospheric flight. There was only a scattering of thruster nozzles that had charred the surrounding hull material black. In bold letters along its flank was stenciled ‘UAS Magellan’.

“Hey, that’s a UAS ship!” Jamie said, Liz leaning down to peer through the window. “Think that’s our ride?”

“Look at that radome,” she mused. “Probably, yeah. Where is it docked?”

The vessel was linked to the station via a skeletal, fifty-foot tube that had been extruded from its hull, wrapped in what looked like a white tarp. That must be the umbilical.

“Looks like one of the airlocks down the corridor,” he replied. “I’m gonna guess that’s D-fourteen.” He paused to pull up his phone, double-checking their instructions. “Not sure what we’re supposed to do now. The email the science types sent us says that we’re supposed to show up at the umbilical, and that’s it. I don’t see anybody,” he added, peering about the boarding area. There were a few people sitting on rows of benches, presumably waiting for their ride, but there was nobody who stood out to Jamie.

“I guess we’ll take a seat and wait,” Liz replied, lugging their baggage over to the benches. She had scarcely gone ten paces before someone waved to them from across the room, starting to jog in their direction. It was an olive-skinned man wearing white overalls, a UAS patch sewn onto his upper arm.

“Lizka and James, right?” he asked as he came to a stop in front of them. “My name’s Sarris, I’m the radar operator on the Magellan,” he added as he gestured to the vessel beyond the windows.

“Sorry, have we ... met before?” Jamie asked.

“Nah,” Sarris replied, nodding to Liz. “They told me that a human and a Borealan would be coming to D-fourteen, and your friend is the only one I’ve seen.”

“Oh, of course,” Jamie chuckled. He had been around Liz for so long that he tended to forget how rare it was to see a Borealan this deep inside UN space. “Yeah, I’m Jamie, and this is Liz. Pleased to meet you.”

“I’ll let the Cap known that you’ve arrived,” he continued, reaching into his pocket and pulling out a phone. “Cap, the passengers are here,” he began as he held the device up to his ear. “Yeah, I’m sure. You seen any other eight-foot felines around here? Yeah, I can do that, sure. I’ll see you later.”

He slid the phone back into his pocket, turning back to Liz and Jamie, who had been waiting patiently for him to finish.

“The Captain says we should start boarding,” he said, glancing at Liz’s haul of bags. “Do you need any help with that stuff?”

“Thanks, I got it,” she replied with a smile.

“Alright then, this way.”

They followed behind him as he led them towards one of the airlocks, Sarris pausing by the reinforced door. Beyond the small windows, Jamie could see a pressurized chamber, along with a second door that led to the umbilical. A sudden pang of fear gripped him. Didn’t they need space suits for this kind of thing? He could see some hanging from racks on the walls inside the chamber, little more than flimsy, yellow pressure suits with a hood-like helmet. They looked more like hazmat suits than space suits to Jamie.

“I’m assuming you’ve been on a ship before,” Sarris said, addressing Liz. “How about you?” he asked, turning his attention to Jamie.

“This is my first time,” Jamie admitted, hoping he didn’t look as worried as he felt.

“Okay,” Sarris began, gesturing to the door. “The airlock is just two doors, one on the inside and one on the outside. It’s there to equalize pressure and to act as a failsafe if there’s a blowout. Which won’t happen,” he added hurriedly as he noticed Jamie’s alarmed expression. “Door one opens, we go inside and equalize pressure. Then, door two opens, and we continue down the umbilical that leads to the ship. Easy.”

He reached up and scanned his phone on a panel beside the door, and it opened with surprising speed, vanishing into a recess in the ceiling above. The scent of the station’s stale air gave way to an odd, acrid smell that reminded Jamie of ozone. The three of them stepped inside, and the door closed again with a whoosh, the hiss of escaping gas filling the chamber. They waited for a few moments, and when the process was complete, the second door opened. Beyond it was the umbilical, an extensible, metal frame that resembled the load-bearing jib of a crane. Jamie could see the far door that led into the ship proper, perhaps fifty feet away. The white material that protected them from the vacuum of space seemed flimsy and thin, giving the impression that someone could put their hand through it if they weren’t careful. The walkway was metal, textured with a diamond plate pattern for better grip, exposed cables winding their way between the supports like vines through a jungle canopy.

“Sorry, you might have to duck a little,” Sarris warned as he led on. The metal platform emitted worrying creaks beneath his boots, Jamie sharing a shrug with Liz before following after him. The umbilical was barely tall enough for an average human, never mind a Borealan, Liz having to double over as she made her way along. She finally relented, handing off a couple of the bags to Jamie when he offered to carry them.

“Welcome to the Magellan,” Sarris announced as he reached the door, extending a hand to give the hull an affectionate slap. “She’s a survey vessel, Pythia class, and she’s going to be your home for the next few months. Cap says I should give you the tour before everyone else gets back. They’re making the most of a few hours of shore leave,” he explained as he entered a code into a bulky number pad on the door. It slid open, revealing another, smaller airlock.

There was barely enough room for Liz to squeeze inside behind them, another rush of ozone-scented air indicating that the pressure was equalizing. With the opening of one last hatch, they were finally standing inside the ship. It was about what Jamie had imagined. He found himself in a fairly narrow corridor, just wide enough for two people to pass one another, and just tall enough that Liz would have to watch her head. The walls were mostly white hull material, pipes and electrical cables snaking their way along them, the deck made up of textured sheet metal. It was lit by light strips that were embedded in the ceiling, casting everything in a bright, synthetic glow.

“Let me show you to your quarters, and you can put those bags down,” Sarris said as he set off towards the aft. “There are three decks, and most of the living space is up on deck three. That’s where the cabins are, and the rec room. Deck two has the bridge, the computer lab, the kitchen, the galley. The lower deck has the science lab and the server room. The hold and the engine room extend up through a couple of decks.”

They turned left off the main corridor, Jamie spying signs that placed him between the hold to his left and the engine room to his right. Mounted on the wall in the middle of the corridor was a ladder that led to an opening in the ceiling. Sarris climbed up, Jamie following behind him, Liz passing up her bags before squeezing through after them. It was a tight fit, the aperture brushing her broad shoulders.

This time, they continued towards the stern, quickly arriving at rows of cabins. Jamie could make out six doors, and judging by the layout of the ship that he had seen so far, there were probably another six on the other side. It seemed that two corridors ran the length of the ship, hugging the exterior, while all of the rooms were situated between them.

“You’re in cabin nine,” Sarris said, stopping at one of the doors. “Sorry,” he added as he hit a button in the frame, the panel sliding aside. “We don’t have locks or codes on the doors, as we’re not used to having guests aboard. The crew will respect your space, though, so don’t worry about it.”

The cabin resembled a small hotel room. It was little more than a bed, a shower cubicle, and a sliding cupboard for their belongings. It was nice enough, Jamie had seen much worse. Sarris was already looking Liz up and down, however. Jamie could see the wheels in the man’s head turning as he sized her up, his eyes darting first to the bed, then to the shower cubicle. She would probably fit in the shower if she crouched, but the single bed was a no-go.

“Ma’am, are you ... going to fit in here?” Sarris asked skeptically. “This ship wasn’t built with a Borealan crew in mind.”

“Don’t worry about me,” she replied, tossing her bags onto the bed. “This isn’t my first rodeo, I’ve flown on human ships before.”

“If you need anything, just talk to the Cap,” he added.

“Any extra blankets and pillows that you have aboard would be a good start,” she replied, turning to appraise one corner of the room. She lifted her furry hands, holding them up to her face, forming a square with her fingers like she was about to take a photo.

“You got it,” he replied, giving Jamie a confused glance. “I’ll let our requisitions officer know.”

“How’s your food situation?” she continued. “I don’t know if you’re aware, but Borealans eat enough for about five humans.”

“The UAS made us aware of your nutritional requirements,” Sarris replied confidently. “We’ve stocked up on supplies.”

Jamie set the bags that he was carrying on the bed, then they continued their tour of the ship. Deck one housed twelve cabins for the crew, along with a rec room where they could unwind when they weren’t on duty. It wasn’t dissimilar from the break room at the supermarket where Jamie worked, albeit much more comfortable. Right at the back of the ship was the engine room that housed the reactors and the jump drive, running through all three decks.

Deck two housed a large computer lab where many of the crew did most of their work analyzing data from the Magellan’s arrays of sensors. Sarris explained that the purpose of a survey ship was to mount expeditions into deep space, searching for potential colony planets and mapping out uncharted systems, of which there was no shortage. The kitchen and the galley were also on this level, along with a large cargo hold that extended into the lower deck.

On the final deck was the science lab, where experiments could be conducted, and the server room where all of the ship’s data was stored. The ship was far from spacious, but Jamie was surprised by how much they had packed into the limited space. Having lived in a small apartment for most of his life, he was no longer too worried about getting cabin fever.

Their last stop was another ladder that led into an observation deck mounted beneath the vessel’s belly. It was little more than a glorified cupola, a bubble-shaped capsule large enough for maybe three people to stand inside it, lined with windows that would look down on whatever planet the ship was orbiting. There were computer terminals where the occupants could access tools like advanced telescopes and radar systems that could penetrate dense cloud cover to map alien terrain.

Finally, Jamie got the unobstructed view that he had been wanting. To his left was the bottom half of the space station, its disk-shaped modules attached via a thick, pillar-like central structure. Its hull was a stark white against the backdrop of space, every surface covered in glittering windows that reflected the unfiltered glare of the sun. From out of view beneath the upturned dome at the bottom were the tethers, at least a dozen of them trailing down towards the planet. They were so unimaginably long that they didn’t seem to diverge at all this far from the ground, even though their anchors were separated by thousands of miles. The jewel in the crown was Earth, Jamie’s gaze lingering on it. It was like a blue marble wreathed in swirling clouds, glowing brightly in the harsh sunlight, so small from this distance that he felt he could have reached out and plucked it from the sky.

Liz’s words in the crawler resonated with him now, and a profound sense of his own insignificance washed over him like a tide. He remembered worrying about making rent payments, being disappointed that his favorite brand of soda wasn’t in stock, grumbling to himself about delays during his daily commute to work. Everything that he had ever known – every experience, every person – had just been condensed down into a singularity that he could cover up with his thumb.

“Nice view,” Liz said, following his gaze. “Puts things into perspective, doesn’t it?”

“I think that covers everything,” Sarris said. “Nowhere is really off-limits save for the engine room and other people’s quarters. You should probably stay out of the lab, too, and don’t take anything out of the cargo hold without getting the okay from Bradley first. He’s our req officer. This isn’t a military ship, we’re all pretty laid back here.”

“When will we meet the rest of the crew?” Liz asked, turning back to face him.

“They’ll be along shortly, we have to get underway pretty soon,” Sarris replied. “They’re probably dragging their feet as much as possible. This is the last time any of them will be setting foot outside of the ship for the next few months.”

“What about you?” Jamie asked, wondering why the radar operator had stayed behind.

“I drew the short straw,” he chuckled. “Oh,” he added, fishing in his pocket for his phone as it began to chime. “Speak of the devil, and he shall appear. The crew is on their way back. If you guys need anything that isn’t already onboard, now is your last chance. Out in the black, there are no rest stops, no convenience stores.”

“I think we have everything we need,” Liz replied. They had been diligent in their packing, double and triple-checking their list of necessities.

They followed Sarris back up to the airlock, where they awaited the rest of the crew. After a few minutes, the outer door to the umbilical opened, and a group of people carrying armfuls of shopping bags stepped into the pressure chamber. They were all wearing the same white uniform as Sarris, each one sporting a UAS patch.

As soon as the inner door opened, all eyes were on Liz, the reactions ranging from surprise to fascination. A woman at the head of the group stepped forward, setting down a pair of plastic bags that were loaded with goods. Jamie could see snacks, drinks, frozen junk food, presumably all things that they didn’t have in the hold.

“So, these are our passengers?” she asked as she appraised the pair. She was a stout woman with brown hair that was tied back in a utilitarian ponytail, a pair of icy, blue eyes peering out from a weathered face. If Jamie had to guess, he’d put her in her late forties.

“This is Liz and Jamie,” Sarris confirmed.

“I’m Captain Cassidy,” she said, extending a hand to Jamie. He took it, noting her surprisingly firm grip. “Most just call me Cassie or Cap.” She reached out to Liz, shaking the alien’s giant, furry hand without reservation. “It’s been a good while since I’ve seen a Borealan,” she said, craning her neck as she appraised the towering feline. “I was part of a survey team that did some work mapping Borealis a couple of years back.”

“Did you stop in Elysia?” Liz asked.

“Didn’t get to go planetside, unfortunately. We were just there to scan the surface from orbit. Beautiful planet, though.”

“Borealis is often best enjoyed from a distance,” Liz chuckled.

“I trust that Sarris has helped you get settled in?” she asked, Jamie and Liz nodding their heads. “This is my crew,” Cassidy added as she turned to gesture to the group of people who were standing in the airlock behind her. There were nine of them in total, all of them hauling shopping bags. Jamie could sympathize. This was their last opportunity to stock up on snacks and comfort food. “I’m sure you’ll all get well-acquainted over the coming months,” she continued, stooping to lift her bags. “Right now, we need to get this stuff to the hold.”

The crew gave them brief greetings as they passed, following their captain down the corridor.

“You’ve earned some brownie points with the crew already,” Sarris said once his companions were out of earshot. “Any excuse to take a little shore leave and stock up on perishables is a good one.”

“So, what happens now?” Jamie asked.

“Once the crew have put their haul away, I assume we’ll be moving out,” Sarris replied. “Now that you two have arrived, we can get back on schedule. I don’t think Cap would mind you being on the bridge when we undock if you wanted to get a good view.”

“Sound good to me,” Jamie replied, Liz giving him a nod.

They proceeded to the stern of the ship, entering a room that was arranged in a semi-circle, the forward bulkhead giving way to a single, long pane of glass that wrapped around the nose of the vessel. It doubled as a display, Jamie noting that there were a few icons and system status readouts at the edges. Beyond was the inky darkness of space, the hull of the terminus station curving away to the left.

To the left and right of the bridge were consoles where the crew would sit, banks of monitors and holographic displays showing more readouts from the ship’s systems. There was more seating further towards the back wall, as well as a prominent captain’s chair situated in the center of the room, equipped with its own holographic projector that was creating a flickering display within easy reach of its occupant.

As if on cue, Captain Cassidy and some of her crew began to file onto the bridge. Jamie half expected Sarris to stand to attention and salute his superior, but he reminded himself that this wasn’t some Navy frigate, it was a civilian science ship. Sarris would no more salute his captain than Jamie would salute his shift manager.

“Hey, Cap,” Sarris began. “Is it cool if the passengers stay to watch us undock?”