Ipseity by Tony Corden

Author:Tony Corden [Corden, Tony]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9780648289029
Published: 2018-12-12T07:00:00+00:00

Wisp had her AI move the Betrayal closer to what they thought was the station while Leah headed down to the hangar to make sure the Starfighter was ready. Leah climbed the ladder and took her seat in the captain’s chair. Wisp wasn’t far behind and sat in the other chair which was just in front of and below Leah’s.

Wisp said, “Want me as a passenger or do you have a job for me?”

“Observer works at the moment. We’re looking for anomalies. You have a couple of screens in front of you so maybe put a thermal image on one and a 3D wireframe on the other. Once we’re off the Betrayal, I’ll set the cockpit to full visuals.”

With Gèng’s help Leah manoeuvred her way off the Betrayal and then changed the cockpit to full visuals. The walls, including the floor and the ceiling, became transparent. Leah then set the Influenza A for manual control and accelerated for the Space Station. As she got closer, she slowed and brought the Influenza A near to one of the large spikes that pointed toward the planets. The disc had a radius of three kilometres, and its height was six hundred metres. Leah asked Wisp to read the measurements for the spike. It was circular with a radius of one hundred and fifty metres, and it was centred on the disk’s edge. It was constructed of what looked like a series of five-meter wide metallic bands, and it vaguely resembled a segmented worm. Each successive band had a twenty-five centimetre smaller radius. Wisp said the plot showed three hundred bands which added up to a one-and-a-half kilometre flexible tube. Leah flew along its length and couldn’t see any marks, hatches, or anomalies anywhere on the spike. Wisp said that the twenty-five-centimetre reduction had been consistent and the final radius was seventy-five metres.

Leah said, “Wisp, can you superimpose the first scan images on what we are seeing?”

Wisp did so and they could both see that the original scans had the tubes, or spikes, being almost one hundred metres longer and other than ending sharply they seemed to fade out of sight.

Leah said, “I’m going to fly between the planet and the end of the tube. The first time, I’ll take the Influenza another hundred metres past the scanned ending, and then I’ll gradually move closer in. Make sure we are getting as many measurements as we can.”

She moved the Starfighter well past the scanned edge and then flew through over the end of the tube. As she did, she felt the ship give a little shudder and then they were out the other side.

Wisp said, “We experienced a force pulling us toward the spike. I suggest you don’t do that again.”

“Let me try once more, a little closer in. If the force is larger, then we’ll leave it at that.”

On the second pass, they experienced a noticeably larger acceleration toward the tube. Leah said, “They’re operational, and it looks like the station is powered by gravity somehow.

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