Ch. 01 -- New Beginnings.
Kyle Whitehall stood in the departure longue and waited with the exaggerated patience that only a teenager could manage. He had no idea how he and his father had ended up here waiting for their ride that would take them to their new life.
The lounge had no windows and the passengers were completely cut off from the outside. They had arrived at the shuttle port, logged in with their retinal patterns and finger prints and been directed through a sealed tunnel, like everyone else, but that is where the similarities ended. Kyle found himself in a changing room, with stalls labelled with the names of the passengers. His one-piece coverall in light blue was hanging in his niche. The suit was familiar as most people wore them to work, but these had stirrups to keep the pant legs and sleeves from floating in space. At least it had plenty of pockets.
Kyle was nineteen and had just completed his first year of college with honors in electrical engineering and he was not looking forward to giving that up. He had maintained a four point oh average through natural brilliance and no little amount of hard work. He had also been on the school intermural water polo team. His studies did not allow him the time to go out for sports as anything more than a relief valve for his excess energy. He was six foot two and one hundred and ninety five pounds of blonde haired blue eyed muscle. He honestly didn't know what had happened to him over the last year, but he had grown into a very handsome man. Girls though were still an alien species to him and he didn't see the longing looks that followed him all over campus.
He had never expected that he and his father would be accepted to the Clarkson habitat in orbit. Clarkson was the most exclusive habitat to apply to and Kyle's family had applied four years ago. The competition to make the cut was so fierce that it was rumored that families that didn't make the cut had suicided rather than admit failure, but Kyle put no stock in those urban tales.
Clarkson only took families, complete families, no singles were allowed, which was why Kyle was confused that they had made the cut. His mother had died of injuries in an aircar crash three years ago and Kyle had thought at the time that they had been dropped from the list. His shock was off the charts when he was called out of class three weeks ago for a final physical and interview. He could only put it down to his father being the best mechanical engineer on the planet.
He had read the brochures about Clarkson and knew that they required multiple interviews, transcripts and physical reports before they accepted anyone, but when he thought about it, some of the questions on his internship application and interview had seemed a little strange at the time. And his father's insistence that he have a complete physical every three months he had just written off to paranoia about the death of his mother. His father Jack had claimed that had his mother been in better health, she might have survived the injuries, but Kyle could never remember her being sick. He glanced over at his father and saw himself in a few years.
Jack Whitehall was a slightly older version of his son. At forty two he could still give Kyle a run for his money in the pool. He had the same strong chin and blue eyes and they could almost pass as brothers except for Jack's slightly greying hair.
Kyle looked around the lounge at all the others waiting for the same shuttle and saw that there were no small children. It looked like the youngest person there was eighteen or nineteen. All had the same backpack as a carry on and most had their electronic pads out and were reading or playing games. A few looked like they were surfing the net, but no one was on a comm call. That seemed strange to Kyle, why weren't these people gloating to their friends that they were going to Clarkson, or at least saying good bye. Kyle was just reaching for his own pad when a chime sounded and a soft voice informed them that it was time to board.
Kyle waited until most of the others in lounge entered the tube before he followed. As one of the last to board, almost everyone else was seated. The shuttle attendants greeted him and indicated the number pad on the bulkhead. Each member of the habitat was issued an id number and it was on their flight suit, not just on the name tag on the left breast, but also stitched on the inside of the left sleeve for the user's reference.
Kyle checked his number and punched in. The screen lit and indicated that his seat was row six seat D. The attendant indicated he should go down the outboard side and Kyle moved to the aisle. The shuttle seating compartment was laid out for sixty passengers, ten rows of six split with two aisles. The seats were well appointed and spread out enough for the passengers to recline almost flat. Kyle found his seat, the only one still empty and secured his backpack in the overhead storage. On his seat was a small silk bag and he scooped it up before settling himself comfortable. He buckled in before he did anything else, the four-point harness quite familiar. He glanced at his seat mate and could only make out that she was female and looked about his age. Her figure, what he could see from their seated position was nice, but her eyes were covered by a set of VR goggles and her hands moved in the open air in front of her.
Kyle opened the draw string on the bag and pulled out a set of goggles similar to the ones that his seat mate wore, a set of wristbands and what looked like a necklace of steel. The single sheet of written instructions indicated that he needed to put the necklace on first, then the wristbands and the VR glasses last. Shrugging, Kyle complied with the instructions.
The necklace was a little tight, it fit right at the base of his neck, the wristbands snapped over his wrist and he slipped the goggles on, the small ear buds in the strap dangled right at his ears and he seated them comfortably before pulling the goggles down. The screen in front of him lit and a prompt appeared.
'Input user ID.'
A numeric keypad appeared.
Kyle raised his hand was shocked to see a VR hand appear.
This was cutting edge tech
, he thought,
if they can coordinate my hand in VR through the wristband.
Current tech required a web that fit over each finger like a glove to read the hands movements. He waved his hand a few times and the VR hand responded instantly. Then the prompt flashed again to get his attention. Kyle input his code and the prompt vanished.
'Calibrating for new user.'
The screen said and he felt the necklace tighten slightly then loosen to a more comfortable feeling. The wristbands shrank slightly and were a perfect fit. He felt a shiver go up his spine and then the screen lit with his complete bio-med profile.
'Welcome aboard Clarkson shuttle four delta Kyle Whitehall.'
The screen said.
'The flight to the habitat will take six hours, please make yourself comfortable for takeoff and the review the following safety information.'
The screen lit with all the mandatory requirements for shuttle flights, ditching procedures, loss of pressure, emergency exits, and firefighting equipment. Kyle paid attention to the video, he understood that space will kill if it gets the chance.
By the time the video finished, Kyle noticed a new side bar on the screen and touched it. It was their current flight information. They had already taken off and were at twenty seven thousand feet and rising like a homesick asteroid. There was no feeling of movement.
'The Clarkson Habitat is the finest habitat in orbit and we look forward to your participation in improving the environment for all.'
The screen flashed and as soon as he finished reading the sentence it vanished and a new one appeared.
'The habitat or hab is twenty seven kilometres long; the main hub is three kilometres wide. There are four rings; each is six kilometres in diameter with an internal area one kilometre wide.'
A schematic appeared to match the text and as it described each part it flashed.
'Ring one and two are residential,'
the lowest two rings flashed.
'Ring three is for hydroponics,'
the second from the top flashed.
'And ring four is industrial and shuttle maintenance.'
The top most ring blinked.
'Life support, power reactors, water reclamation and administrative offices are located in the main hub.'
The central trunk illuminated each with a different colour and a label for each section.
'The command, control and communication centre is located at the very apex of the hub.'
The tip of the hub ahead of the rings blinked twice.
'Your family residence is located on Ring two, Quad three, Section twelve, Street four, Residence one seven nine.'
As the screen described the location, each section would flash then zoom in. The house was shown as simple two story three bedroom two and a half bath home. There was grass in the front and a pool in the back. Kyle blinked at that, the grass made sense, since it was probably part of the hydroponics required to filter the air, but the pool made no sense. Before he could follow that thought through the screen changed.
'Intra-hub transit is located fifteen metres from your door and the university is located on Ring one, Quad two, Section ten, Street five, Building seven three. The fastest route is via Intra-hub bus route two nine, to station four then tram nineteen. The tram stops at the university; total travel time is twenty eight minutes.'
'Kyle Whitehall, you have been selected for testing for command crew of the Clarkson Habitat. Testing will be completed at the university, said testing to commence with seventy two hours of arrival.'
Kyle stared at the last message and tried to figure out what was going on. He had not put in for command crew; he wanted to be an engineer. He really needed to talk to his father, but now was not the time, the system was still displaying information about the habitat.
'The hab is currently in Medium Earth Orbit at an altitude of twenty thousand kilometres or approximately twelve thousand four hundred miles. The hab had a current population of fifteen thousand nine hundred forty, not including your current shuttle. Upon arrival, the population will be exactly sixteen thousand, which is considered nominal.'
Kyle tried to focus on the information being presented but it was too much to take in all at once. He let the screen play out and read whatever appeared, but he did not try to absorb all of it. Just as a screen came on informing him of the location of the nearest movie theatre, the screen suddenly blanked and a new message appeared.
'Prepare for landing.'
His VR goggles suddenly shifted and he was sitting on the nose of the shuttle as it approached the open hanger bay on the habitat. He gasped and heard a few people cry out. The girl next to him suddenly gripped his arm tightly. She released him almost instantly and then reached down and grabbed his hand. Kyle returned her grip and stared at the habitat and the star scape behind it. This was going to be his new home for the foreseeable future.
The shuttled slid easily into the cavernous bay and docked without the slightest bump. The station tractors had been guiding the shuttle before the VR goggles switched over. The shuttled settled on the pad and then the pad dropped. The passengers felt that sudden motion, the first in over six hours and the elevator dropped out of the dock. Kyle looked up and saw the hatch close above them and then light spilled up from beneath. Another hatch opened below them and Kyle realized that it was an airlock.
The shuttle dropped and then the second hatch closed and the pad slid forward until it came to a stop before a windowed gallery and another tube was run out. As soon as the tube was secured, the harness that he wore clicked and Kyle removed the newly unlocked harness. Now he understood why they were forbidden food and drinks for the last fifteen hours before launch. He disengaged himself from the tight grip the girl had on his hand and pulled his goggles off. He turned to his left and found himself staring into the deepest set of violet eyes he had ever seen.
She was of oriental descent and had a round soft face and a pert nose. Her mouth seemed to want to smile, but her eyes held him, and the seemed ashamed.
"I am sorry I grabbed you," she said softly, her English perfect. "When we suddenly appeared on the nose of the shuttle, it startled me."
"No problem," Kyle said with a shy smile, he was not used to talking to girls. "I was more than a little startled myself. I'm Kyle Whitehall."
"Sona, Yamoto Sona." She said softly, still not looking at him.
