Empyrean Rises by Spencer Pierson

Author:Spencer Pierson [Pierson, Spencer]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2019-03-26T22:00:00+00:00

Chapter 9

Time: August 18, 2030

Location: Gateway Station, Mid-Earth Orbit

Nabhitha grinned at Piper as the spunky blond began to float out of the Skylark’s airlock. The lush leather seats and hardwoods in the interior of the orbital shuttle were visible to Nabhitha for only a moment before being blocked by her friends floating hug. “Nabs!” Piper squeaked, squeezing just a bit tighter than was comfortable.

Nabhitha made a choking sound and patted at her friend's arms as if she were dying, though most of it was faked. When piper released her, Nabhitha made a show of massaging her neck, but quickly replaced it with a welcoming smile. “My goodness, you are strong and young looking as ever.”

Piper blew raspberries at her friend as she reached out and hooked one of the many stabilization bars on the corridor. “It’s only been five months, though I bet you’re ready to get back onto dry land.”

“And no food paste,” Nabhitha said, nodding. “The daily exercising just doesn’t do the same thing as gravity. I’ll be happy to get back on the ground, even though I know it will take me a bit to get back in shape. You didn’t have to come up to escort me home, did you?”

“I did have to come up, actually, but let’s not talk about it here. Is there somewhere we can go in your little floating fantasy land?”

Nabhitha nodded, spinning herself and gliding gracefully down the short hallway from the airlock. She opened another pressure-sealed door, then turned right, moving deeper into the still-developing station.

Piper glanced around, taking in what looked to be too-large hallways. It was odd for only a moment, but she knew they had been made with the intention of someday getting artificial gravity. That technology wasn’t available yet, but her grandmother was working hard on the problem and expected to have some sort of gravity generator fairly soon. Considering they were working with higher dimensions, it was a miracle anyone could say they were close, but if anyone could do it, it would be Colleen.

Still, at least they had solved some of the other dangers of being in space. It turned out that inertial dampers were excellent at shielding their space station from micro-meteors or space debris. Amazingly, it had even proven decent protection against cosmic rays and radiation, affecting and diverting even those types of low-mass particles. All of those had been a bug-a-boo of most space programs since their inception, and it was a great relief to have tools against those deadly dangers.

Nabhitha led Piper through the station, past a few other crew members that were moving in different directions and always kept to the right of each other. It was an easy habit to pick up, though currently there were so few people on the station that it wasn’t really a problem. Still, she was happy they had developed these habits early because if everything went well, the population would only grow.

Finally, Nabhitha opened a hatch and floated into a room with a large window looking out over the earth.

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