Worlds Apart Pt. 02

They began to load into the car, walking along gantries that led to the open hatches, Liz having to duck to avoid hitting her head as she stepped through. The interior was the same white color as the hull, the deck carpeted in UN blue. There were rows of seats that faced outward from the cylindrical bulkhead at the center, arranged on an incline, kind of like the seating in a theater. The other occupants were already loading their belongings into the baggage compartments above their seats, helped by a crew of half a dozen uniformed stewardesses. One of them walked up to Liz and greeted her, remarkably nonplussed by the sight of the giant alien. She had probably seen several in her time.

"We have Borealan seating this way, Ma'am," she said, leading her around the circular compartment until they reached a set of larger seats. They were more like office chairs, with a cutout below the backrest, perhaps more suited to species with tails. Liz thanked her, then took a seat at the far right of the row, meaning that Jamie could sit in a human-sized seat beside her. As Liz began to stow their bags, he noticed that the passenger compartment wasn't an unbroken ring. There was a wall blocking the way to his left. Upon closer inspection, he realized that it was a sealed booth for the crawler's operator. He could see someone sitting at a control panel through a small window.

"I didn't expect it to be this big," Jamie muttered. "There are bathrooms, stewardesses, enough room to get up and walk around. It's more like an airliner than what I was imagining."

"It's a smoother ride than an airliner," Liz replied, slamming the baggage compartment above their seats shut. "By the time we're going to be traveling at any real speed, we'll be beyond the atmosphere."

A few minutes passed, and then the seatbelt signs above the windows ahead of them came on, Jamie fastening his harness around his waist. There was a crackle as a woman's voice came through sets of speakers that were spaced around the compartment, the chatter of conversation dying down. One of the stewardesses began to list off safety instructions, informing them of what to do during an emergency separation and letting them know to remain seated until the climber cleared the upper atmosphere.

The car began to move, Jamie feeling no vibrations of any kind, which suggested that it must use a mag-lev system similar to the train that they had ridden here. It quickly cleared the anchor, rising into the air, Jamie watching the surrounding countryside shrink away. In only a few minutes, they were nearing the cruising altitude of a plane. The car was going straight up, it had no need to gradually gain altitude as an aircraft would.

They sped up through the clouds, the city coming into view in the distance. At this altitude, the mile-high skyscrapers were no larger than chopsticks, the sun reflecting off their thousands of windows to make them glitter like diamonds in the morning light. Beyond the urban sprawl was the shining ocean, fading into the atmospheric haze at the limits of his vision.

As soon as the seatbelt sign turned off, Jamie hurried to one of the round windows, pressing his face against the glass as he tried to get a look down. Because of the upward slope of the hull, he couldn't see the tether directly below, but he could see the endless expanse of the planet as the flat horizon slowly began to curve.

"Take a good look," Liz said as she joined him by the window, planting a hand on his shoulder. "This might be the last you see of Earth for a while."

"I can't believe I'm really going into space," he said, turning to glance up at her. "It's surreal. I work at a supermarket, I don't make enough to be a tourist, I shouldn't have any reason to be here."

"Space elevator-induced imposter syndrome," Liz mused, ruffling his blonde hair. "That's a new one. Just wait until you see the planet in its entirety. It's a strange feeling, seeing everything that you've ever known reduced to a tiny, blue marble that could fit in the palm of your hand."

A few more of the passengers had risen from their seats now, milling about the compartment, admiring the view. The stewardesses soon reappeared to offer refreshments, and Jamie was surprised to see that alcohol was allowed onboard. It wasn't exactly a first-class experience, but it was turning into a far more enjoyable ride than he had been anticipating. It was kind of like riding a very spacious and well-furnished bus.

Before long, the sky above became an inky black, the cold, naked stars starting to twinkle. They must be approaching the limits of Earth's atmosphere now, the cusp of space. The world below only grew rounder as time passed, like a fisheye lens filter was gradually being applied to it, the finer details becoming less defined.

"Keep an eye out for the station," Liz said, gesturing to the ceiling. "You should be able to get a pretty good view of it when we get close enough. We're probably about halfway up by now."

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.