Laughter echoed around the brightly lit cavern. Geoff pushed off from the wall and swooped past the doorway with a whoop of joy. Robbie and Sam followed gleefully behind him while Tori twirled like a ballerina floating in mid-air.
“It’s fantastic, Tony,” Melissa said, standing in the doorway to the spherical room with her sister and Tony Cellini.
“It reminds me of a short story by Heinlein,” Helena said pensively, keeping a careful eye on her offspring.
Alan came into view, floating past the doorway feet first and upside down from their perspective. He made a silly face at his one-year-old daughter who was watching her father, uncle, cousins and brothers play in the zero-gee cavern from the safety of her mother’s arms.
“Menace from Earth,” Melissa said with a smile at her husband. “They had wings and flew around the cavern as a form of recreation.
“That’s the one,” Helena nodded.
“Yes, I thought of that too,” Tony said. “I thought this might fit in well with your plans for the hotel so when we came across it, I had my construction crew coat it to make sure it was air-tight and left it for you to see.
Susie reached out for her father but Melissa hesitated. “What if it makes her sick?”
“She’ll be fine, Love. If she makes a mess or is distressed, I’ll hand her back and clean things up, Alan said with typical laid-back practicality.
John arrived at the doorway. “Want to try it, Helena?”
Helena shook her head. “I’m content just to watch.”
Melissa cautiously handed the baby over to Alan, the child suddenly becoming light as she left the influence of the localized artificial gravity field in the corridor.
Alan took the baby by the hand and she floated in the air, eyes wide with surprise.
“You know, there should be a gallery for people who just ant to watch other’s experience zero-gee.
Geoff zoomed by with a whoop. “This is fun, Mommy!”
“And a place like this could appeal to families,” Alan said, moving more slowly with Susie as the infant got used to floating in the air.
Melissa nodded thoughtfully. She knew Alan still had reservations about the hotel, which he told her, needed careful marketing to avoid the reputation of a brothel in space.
“Perhaps there could even be a restaurant where diners could watch others ‘fly’ while they eat.”
John laughed and stepped lightly into the corridor. “As long as no one out there loses their lunch right by the window.” He put his arm around Helena and exchanged an amused look with Cellini.
Alan laughed. “Oh, yeah, that would be a real turnoff.”
Mel’s eyes narrowed. “But if we put trained acrobats out there during dining times, and allowed general admission the rest of the time…”
Alan winked at his daughter, “Mommy’s getting ideas again. Let’s fly, little girl,” He pushed off towards the center of the cavern. Geoff was right behind them. “Wait for me Daddy!”
“Come on, mate,” Alan called, and he was soon enveloped by a swarm of children.
Melissa laughed at the sight and slipped out of the platform sandals she was wearing. She took one step to the edge of the hallway, took a preparatory bounce and launched herself neatly into the cavern.
Helena watched with amusement as both her husband and Cellini watched Melissa’s shapely form glide through the air. Melissa was wearing a navy blue jump suit that was skintight, with red and white piping. It was her imaginative idea of space travel clothes. She looked like someone straight out of a raunchy space comic, but Helena had notice that none of the men were criticizing her fashion sense.
John put his arm around Helena’s shoulder and turned to talk to Tony about power sources and various other factors of expanding the facilities on the Rock. Helena listened with one ear while Melissa began to coach Tori on how to control the speed of spin by moving arms and legs. They hovered head to head and one would spin while the other watched. Helena found it disorienting just to watch, but was glad that her daughter didn’t seem to suffer similar problems.
When the children tired, Alan and Melissa herded them back to the corridor and they returned to the quarters they had been assigned. The rooms were spacious and well furnished. It was a three-bedroom apartment. Cellini and the Verdeschis intended the rock to be permanent habitation, and a number of families already lived there. More were moving to the space platform all the time as earthbound companies began to take advantage of the facilities that were being built. Two competing chip manufacturers already had clean rooms producing high precision chips in microgravity and microatmospheric conditions.
Melissa and Helena fixed supper while John and Alan took childcare duties and got the children cleaned up and ready for bed. Sam and Robbie both fell soundly asleep before supper was over and their fathers carried them off to bed. Tori and Geoff were too tired to protest when they were led away next. All four were sharing a room together. Susie also dropped off to sleep quickly in her father’s lap and he carefully placed her in the small portable crib they had placed in their bedroom.
The adults lingered at the table after dinner, talking about what they had seen during the day and what they expected to see during their stay here. Although four months had passed since Melissa had first shown her proposal to the others, John had only been officially working for the family-owned corporation for a month. This was Alan’s second trip to the Rock during that time and he was describing his amazement at how quickly the facilities were being expanded. Additional temporary living quarters that their hotel would provide would be in high demand.
After an hour or so of conversation, Melissa finished off her beer and leaned toward her sister. “Mind keeping an eye on the sleeping babes while Alan and I take a little walk?” She winked and added, “We’ll return the favor later.”
Helena smiled. “Planning to explore that cavern again?”
“From a very adult point of view.”
Helena shook her head. “You two go ahead. And you can return the favor after we’re back in Florida.”
Melissa laughed and nodded then stood and took her husband’s hand. “Come on, flyboy, take me for a romantic stroll. Where’s your sense of adventure, Cake?”
Alan followed his wife out the door willingly while John and Helena laughed.
As the door closed behind the couple, John took Helena’s hand. “Yes, Cake,” he teased. “Where’s your sense of adventure?”
“Alive and well and doing fine in full gravity, thank you very much.” Helena squeezed her husband’s hand and added, “We’ll get them to reciprocate next week and you can take me out to the beach in that old car of yours.”
John grinned. “Hey now, that old car is a classic! But I’ll take you to the beach any time you like.” He leaned forward and kissed her, softly at first, then with more passion.
The move to Florida had been a good one for the Koenigs. They saw more of each other, and more of their children. Alan and John had always worked well together and John was enjoying a job that was more creative than political. Much of the time they worked at the Carter’s house, in Alan’s den, although John was beginning to spend more time in his own den, connected online. The Carters planned their work schedule around their children’s activities and it was easy for the Koenigs to fall into a similar pattern. Helena worked two twelve hours shifts a week in the nearby trauma center and was enjoying being a ‘real doctor’ again. She was happier and more relaxed than John had seen her in years, and their love life proved it. Sam loved playing at his aunt and uncle’s house with Robbie. The two were already best buddies. Tori and Geoff had even managed a détente when they ended up on the same t-ball team and Geoff found out Tori could throw a ball.
Direct, as always, Melissa led Alan to the elevator and let her husband know exactly what she intended to do. Alan used the passkey Cellini had given him to allow them entrance to the unfinished sections of the Rock, including the cavern he had showed them that afternoon. They walked hand in hand through the empty tunnels, and through two more airlocks. At the second airlock, Alan made sure the door on their side was wedged open. That assured them complete privacy. By the time he had finished at the airlock, Melissa had shed sandals and jumpsuit and stood on the edge of the cavern. She blew him a kiss and dove into the air.
Alan stood and watched, admiring the view. Even after five years of marriage he had not tired of looking at his beautiful wife’s body. That had surprised him. Before Melissa, pursuing the next girl had always been the main attraction. But Mel was a keeper.
“What are you waiting for, Flyboy?” she called, floating in midair in a provocative pose.
Alan grinned, shed his clothes quickly and followed her into the cavern. Melissa met him in mid-air and moved to absorb most of his forward motion. The two spun slowly, face to face.
Melissa smiled. “I’ve been thinking about this all day.”
“You’ve been thinking about this a lot longer than that,” Alan said with a grin.
She laughed, agreeing, and moved gently closer to him, wrapping her long tanned legs around him. “You’ve been pretty cooperative yourself.”
He placed his lips over hers and slid easily and gently inside her. She made a small noise of contentment that generally drove him crazy, but both kept their motions to a minimum. They had tried zero gee together before, and were well aware of the mistakes that could be made. They had no wish to begin to spin fast enough to make themselves dizzy or move with enough momentum to crash into a rock wall. After their first peak Alan gently trailed kisses all over her body, tasting her, gently nipping certain sensitive areas. He brought her to orgasm again, then they floated together, relaxed, in a tangle of arms and legs that would be impossible to maintain in an environment with gravity. Both of them enjoyed the opportunity to simply relax and be with each other.
Alan had nearly dozed off, his face tucked against Melissa’s neck, arms around her and feeling her heartbeat beneath his hand. Suddenly there was a low pop, a dull thud and the lights in the cavern went out.
Both froze.
“What was that?” Melissa asked.
“Something’s gone badly wrong.” Alan was certain of it. He kept a secure hold on Melissa, not certain where the exit was.
Melissa moved suddenly. “The children—“
“Gently, love. Gently,” Alan’s heart beat faster, thinking the same thoughts as his wife. “Do you remember where the exit was?”
“Um… damn. My eyes were closed. I don’t know. Had we been spinning any?”
“I wasn’t paying attention either. Look, love. We’ve got to find the exit. It’s the only way back to the kids.”
He felt Melissa nod against him. “Okay. How to we do that?”
“If we push away from each other we can search twice as fast. We push away from each other and when we hit the wall, turn to face the wall and move to your right. It’s going to take us a while, but we should be able to find the door. If we’re too high, we’ll eventually hit the lights.”
“Alan, what if we’re not searching parallel to the door. There is no up or down.”
He kissed her cheek softly. “I didn’t say it’ll be easy. Ready?”
She took a deep breath. “Yeah, okay.”
He kissed her lips and she squeezed his shoulders. Then they put their hands against each other and pushed off, drifting away from each other.
“Alan?” Melissa called. The dark isolation was oppressive.
“I’m right here, love. Let’s keep talking. It’s awfully lonely here in the dark without you.”
“I was just thinking the same thing.”
“Hey. I’ve found the wall.”
“We were that close to the wall? I didn’t realize that.”
“Neither did I.” His voice was getting farther away as she moved toward the opposite side of the cavern. He continued to talk to her, describing how he was moving to the right.
“Oh!”
“Found the wall?”
“Yeah.”
“Okay, love. Start working to your right as you face the wall.”
“Alan—“
“It’s our only chance love. We can’t rely on someone to come find us. Whatever is going on out there, they won’t have time to come find us.”
“Alan, what if something is really wrong?”
“Honey, something is really wrong.”
“I mean… oh, Alan!” Her voice broke and she couldn’t continue.
“Let’s just concentrate on getting to the kids. You know John and Helena will be with them, and taking good care of them. But there’s no reason to start speculating on what may be happening outside this cavern.”
“Okay, okay. I’m just scared. Really scared.”
“Me too, hon. Me too.”
Alan began to sing a nonsense song like the ones he would sing to Susie. Melissa laughed softly and continued searching, comforted by his voice. It was off key but it was his beloved voice and it kept her calm.
“Hey!” She called as her hand missed the wall. She waved her hand around in the dark and found the corner. She had almost missed it. Six inches above her hand was the lip of the entrance. She had no idea if it was the top or the bottom as she ran her hand along the edge of the opening. “I’ve found it.”
“Good girl!” Alan called from across the dark void. “Any idea which way is up or down there?”
“Not yet. Hang on.” She carefully investigated, moving her arm farther into the opening. She didn’t want to push herself all the way in the opening until she knew whether she was holding onto floor, ceiling or wall. She proceeded with her exploration, but could find no sign of up or down. She finally, cautiously, slid inside the opening, expecting to fall either on her feet or her head. Neither happened.
“Mel? Love?”
“Alan. The artificial gravity is off here in the corridor.” Her hand wrapped around her jumpsuit. She needed a light right now a lot more than she needed her clothes.
“But it is the corridor?”
“Yes. It is. Our clothes are here.”
“Keep talking. I’m coming.”
She clung to the wall and to her jumpsuit and talked to Alan. He launched himself toward the sound of her voice and floated across the cavern. He found the wall just above and to the right of her then made his way ‘down’ to her. When he grasped her hand she pulled him into her arms. He kissed her quickly. “Okay, now we get to the airlock.”
“Clothes?” Mel asked.
“Yeah. We’d better get them on. Don’t want to scare anyone we meet up with.”
“Thanks a lot!”
“Don’t want to tantalize anyone either,” he teased, reaching out to pat her bottom.
They found her jumpsuit and his jeans and shirt, but only one of his shoes, and their underwear and her sandals were nowhere to be found in the dark. He decided that was good enough and pulled on his jeans and his shirt, not bothering to try to button the shirt. He could hear Mel struggling with her jumpsuit and then finally heard her zipping it up. He made sure he kept a hand against the wall at all time, which complicated things, but he certainly didn’t want to drift out into the cavern again and lose the entrance.
Once she was ready, they made their way down the corridor to the airlock. It was still jammed open just as he had left it. The position of the door, and the airlock controls let them orient themselves to the regular up and down of the rest of the station. Alan then insisted that they move through the airlock and into the next section of corridor along the floor. Someone would be trying to re-establish power and gravity and he didn’t want them falling to the floor when that happened.
There were no emergency lights in this section of corridor either. It was simply an exploratory tunnel connecting the cavern to the already established areas. They moved on to the other airlock, opened the door and headed into the next section. There was still no gravity, but here there were emergency lights. Alan tried a comm panel located in the corridor, but it didn’t work. They headed down the hallway to the elevator.
They stopped at the double doors and Alan turned to Mel.
“It’s not going to work, but there should be an emergency accessway here. There are airtight doors between floors. With any luck, there’s air pressure on each level. If we hit a breech, the door won’t open.”
“Then what?”
“It will depend on where we are. I hope to get to a level that has some communications working, or some place we can effect repairs. We don’t know what’s gone wrong, and we need to find that out.”
“We need to get to the kids!”
“We will. That’s five floors up. We need to move up the ladder as if the gravity will come on any second, okay?”
“Okay. That way we won’t fall if it does.”
“Good girl. Just remember, we may not be able to get up all five floors right away.”
“Okay.”
They moved to the door next to the elevator. The electronic passkey Alan had was useless for opening doors, but he pulled it from his pocket and used it to slip into the edge of the door to the accessway. He pushed it to the top of the door which went ‘click’ and popped open.
“I didn’t know it would do that,” Melissa said.
“You’ve got to have some way to open doors if the power is down.”
“You’re very good,” Melissa smiled at him.
“Thank you.” He ushered her into the small room with a ladder reaching up to the ceiling. It was darker in here, but there was still a dim emergency light bulb. He was glad to see that.
They began to climb, awkwardly in the zero gravity. He still didn’t want them to fall if the gravity came back on. That caution hampered them a great deal.
The first doorway opened easily with the manual override. So did the second. But the third wouldn’t budge. They moved back down to the door into the corridor they could get into. It was an engineering level. There was still no power or gravity here. They moved cautiously along the floor side by side. Alan said there was a control room for the power station in this direction. Then Melissa heard something. They both stopped and listened.
The sound was unmistakable and they exchanged a look and pushed forward down the corridor. Alan pointed out a cabinet containing a fire extinguisher and other emergency supplies. “Maybe there’s something in there we can use.”
Melissa nodded and opened the cabinet. There was a small med kit with an emergency blanket. She followed Alan around the corner and came across the first person they had seen. The young man was bent double and spewing vomit as he slowly spun. Alan pulled off his shirt and used it to soak up the vile globules that surrounded the young man. Alan reached out and stopped the spinning while Melissa twisted the blanket into a make-shift bag and held it up to the man’s face.
Just stopping the spin seemed to help some, although he looked pale and drained in the dim light. “Thanks.” The young man gasped.
Before they could say anything, the airlock at the end of the corridor opened and Tony Cellini floated through clad in full pressure suit.
The young man turned at the sound and the movement made him begin to heave again. Alan and Melissa held him still.
Upon seeing Melissa and Alan, Tony unsealed his visor. “I was not certain what I would find here,” he said with a smile.
“What happened, mate?” Alan asked.
“One of our newer vendors insisted on piloting the ship through docking. My controllers shouldn’t have allowed it but they were insistent. They missed the docking bay and managed to broadside the main power conduits. The backup generators failed—they are the ones on this level. We need to get them back online.” Tony said. “Mel? Can you take our ill young man to the Eagle? The grav units are working there. Alan, I could use your help here. Main engineering is a mess, and that’s where we’ve had all the casualties.”
“How many?” Alan asked.
“Four. All explosive decompression. No chance for us to do anything for them at all.”
Alan and Melissa both nodded somberly and Alan helped Melissa take hold of the incapacitated young engineer.
“Our kids…” Melissa started.
“I was in your apartment when the incident occurred. The children are sleeping soundly. Helena is with them. Unfortunately we had no need of the good doctor’s services. John and I went to the control room first and I left him there.”
Melissa and Alan both gave a sigh of relief. Melissa asked, “How soon to fix the artificial gravity?”
“Life support takes priority, then lights and communications before gravity, Melissa,” Tony explained patiently.
Melissa nodded. She smiled at Alan and headed toward the door with her charge. Tony and Alan headed for the engineering room.
Within two hours the crisis was over, power was restored and life support and artificial gravity returned to normal. Melissa stayed on the Eagle until Alan returned to pilot them to a different airlock. They turned over the sick engineer to the medics and headed for their apartment, exhausted.
They remained on the Rock for three more days. There were no more emergencies. Alan and John both felt that the incident gave them additional insights on how to design the hotel to be safer and less prone to accidents. They talked non-stop for days, taking notes and drawing designs in their respective laptops.
They boarded their Eagle late one evening after dining with Tony Cellini. Melissa and Helena bedded the children down in the passenger section of their Eagle while John and Alan flew. Helena came forward to the command section about a half hour into the flight and knelt between the two men. She placed a hand on Alan’s shoulder.
“Melissa needs you. I’ll co-pilot for a while.”
Alan grinned. “That’s not quite right, Helena. Melissa may want me, but she never really needs me,” he joked.
“That’s not true, Alan. Right now she needs you.”
Alan shrugged and relinquished his seat to Helena.
The children were all asleep. Robbie and Sam shared the top bunk in the back of the cabinet, one head at each end. Tori was on the bottom bunk. Geoff had a pallet on the floor and Susie was in her crib. Melissa stood by the crib, her back to the door from the command section. Alan walked softly up behind her and wrapped his arms around her waist. She pressed against him and he leaned over her shoulder. Tiny Susie lay sprawled on her back, arms stretched out, completely relaxed.
Alan smiled. “Just like a cherub.” He turned and kissed his wife’s cheek, and noticed the tears. “What’s wrong?”
“I nearly got her killed—got them all killed! We should never have taken them there.”
Alan pulled her to the other side of the cabin, away from the sleeping babes. “No you didn’t. They were fine. They never even knew what happened.”
“But… if…”
Alan wiped away her tears. “Yes, space is dangerous and we should never think otherwise. But it’s worth the risk.”
“Risk! I don’t mind risking my own life, but they’re so helpless. I have no right to risk someone else’s life.”
“Mel, you risk their lives every time you strap them in their car seats to go to the grocery store! You just have to judge which risks are worth taking.”
“Was this worth getting them all killed?”
“Yes, I think it was. Especially since they’re okay. We learned a lot, about how to prevent that from happening again, for one thing. Also, our kids are going to grow up feeling at ease with space travel. This is their future we’re building here. Their generation will not be earthbound! They’ll be at home here among the stars, and what we’re doing now will give them the chance to be in the forefront of the movement into space!” She watched him with wide serious eyes while he gave his little speech. He pulled her into his arms and she rested her head on his shoulder. “We’re doing the right thing, honey. Where’s that space pirate I married?”
She gave a small laugh that sounded almost like a sob. “I’m here. I’m here, buried under all this ‘mommy’ shit. I was just so scared for them.”
“They’re fine. And they’ll be up here more over the years. We just have to be a bit cautious and treat this as a reality check. Our future is out here, and so is theirs.”
Melissa nodded reluctantly. Alan kissed her lips softly. “Part of the trip was fun wasn’t it?”
She had to smile and agree.
“And we want to do it again, don’t we?” he kissed her cheek and her jaw. He could feel her respond to him, as she usually did.
“Yes,” she admitted. “But with a little less reality thrown in.”
“I’ll try to arrange that, Love.” He kissed her again and held her until it was time to land the Eagle.
Maureen J. Long
November, 2000