MVOTHT Ch 09



INTERLUDE -Midway Station

Slyfox 567 dropped his service ship out of Quasispace. As usual he slowed down and approached Midway. He loved to see that shiny isle of light and appear out of the eternal night. He always dropped a little earlier out of Quasi for that reason. In the distance he could see the beautiful disc of the Andromeda Galaxy and if he turned the smaller but no less spectacular spiral shape of the Milky Way Galaxy. He never been in either one. He was born on Midway and so was his father. His mother came from Nolight, the twelfth Bridge Base. He never seen a Planet or a Sun outside of Virtu. He worked for GalCom and fixed Relay and Booster arrays. Fixing those problems the robots and Nanites could not. Of course everything was triple redundant and no GalCom or GalNet user would ever have to wait for a call. As much as Bridgers like him considered themselves independent, he and everyone knew they weren't really. Even the most sophisticated molecular level recycling and reuse technology could not sustain colonies so far from any resources, besides the Bridge was not only a community and string of space stations, it was still the connection between Andromeda and the Milky way Galaxy. Midway was the largest artificial construct known. Fourteen Gigamon Stations had been linked together and there was construction going on to encase the entire thing in a sphere of 500 kilometers diameter. Midway was where things happened. His own ComUnit chirped and he activated to see the face of his supervisor, Sloan Dunkin. Dunkin did not have a real Bridger Name like Slyfox, because Sloan actually was born dirt side on a real Planet. Sloan had a puffy face and chewed on his trademark cigar." Are you still out there? One would think you have seen Midway more than enough!" "I don't think you'd understand. I am not entirely sure I do myself. I am committing to docking control now." "Did those 76 Units give you any trouble at Vanilla Base?" "Just a little. I wish they never upgraded to the 76ers. The new Connectors are too big for the Nanites and too small for the robots." His ship linked into the Docking control and drifted into the almost invisible tractor beam corridor that pulled him in. From here he could see the Space Train station with its long accelerator pipes. Over hundred trains passed through every day and more lines were planned. Sloan said."I see you when you're in." Then disconnected. Slyfox thought he knew why Sloan had called on a Friday afternoon. There was some kind of emergency repair job and he had no one else to ask. This time he would have to say no, as he had plans with his wife to check for a new home. Not that their old home was bad, but it was a 2 bedroom house in Updeck Village. He always dreamed about an apartment in Mikado Towers, from where he could have a space view. Besides a bigger place would not be bad, now that Mona was expecting. Little Irma was growing fast and wanted her own room. Having to share a room with her brother wasn't going to work in the long run. The ship passed through the outer Energy curtain and a robot arm took his 80 meter Leyland Tradesman and placed it on a conveyor trolley. The trolley took him to the Service bay of GalCom-Maintenance and into his parking bay. He was right, Sloan wanted something! He actually waited for him on the Parking Deck, something he would not do if this was a regular work week ending. Slyfox handed him his report E-Pad and said."What is it this time?" "Well we do have a six-four-six at Fort Chester. You are the only one available with military clearing I can send at the moment." "What about Starmaster46 ? He has the same clearing I have! Besides a six-four -six is a lot of work. I never had a complete failure code in ten years!" "Starmaster is still out, working on the Space train Control Com Construction along with Sexybeast and Peter678." Slyfox knew they could not ignore a Complete Failure call, especially not from a Military Base. even though it was only for Civilian Com traffic. Military communications went over an entire different system and was not part of GalCom. " Alright I do it, have the replacement units loaded. I am going home to tell my wife and go back out!" Sloan handed him a little envelope." I knew I could count on you. This is a little thank you from the Company for your efforts." Slyfox opened the envelope and found a black Keycard inside. Sloan said." That is the Owners key to Apartment 221901, Mikado Towers. The boss heard you always dreamed about moving there and he knows the manager. This one became available and we purchased it for you. So you can't say we forget to recognize our best techs." "You are kidding me right?" "Mona already knows and started to move. We wanted to keep it a surprise." "I wanted to be angry and complain and all, but how can I do that now?" "Exactly! Now check your new place and then get out there and fix me that repeater unit." Slyfox thanked his supervisor and ran to the next Trans Station Mover and called his wife on the move." Honey, they sure surprised me today." Her smiling face appeared." I know and the new place is fantastic. We got six rooms and you going to love the view. I am already here the movers should be done soon!" "No one even asked me!" "You were the one who wanted to move. I thought it be a nice surprise. Besides I know you gotta go fix something, so the Weekend is busted anyway." He typed in the new address and, the ISM shot through the vacuum tubes. His new home was all the way on the topmost segment of Midway or over 300 clicks above his current location. He wiped his Corporate Card across the reader. His company paid for the ISM fees and he could use it as much as he wanted. Actually working for GalCom wasn't so bad at all. He had quite a few benefits and made enough so Mona didn't have to work. Of course having two and soon three kids was actually a recognized occupation and a full time job all by itself. Slyfox and Mona had a very traditional marriage contract. One Partner only, with strict monogamy clause. They extended twice and now agreed to a life time partnership. He sat down and dialed for a drink from the ISM Serv Matic and sipped his Coke while he activated his Valet-viewer and went through the family images he always kept with him. Mona did look so lovely in her white dress. He fell in love with her every time anew when he saw her. The picture of Irma as she was born evoked special feelings in him, feelings many fathers felt since time began and yet no adequate words existed to describe. there she was at her first day in Basic school. And there on her tenth birthday only last month. Little Kevin his son only two years behind his sister. At Vacu Ball practice and there after his first victory. He was only eight but Slyfox had dreams he would be a famous Vacu Ball player and perhaps even be drafted into the Midway Bashers. Thinking about the Midway Bashers made him angry, how could his team loose against the Terran Terrors? That they didn't do so well last week against the Last Step Wolverines was bad enough, but against a team that came from Dirt side? Ah well tonight they would have a chance to show they were still contenders against the Saran Satans. If they won they still had a chance for the Champ Bowl Finals. then he realized he would not be able to see the Game as he was back out. The ISM system spoke to him: Dear Passenger we are arriving at the requested address. Have a pleasant day. Thank you for riding Midway ISM." The ISM Car stopped and he stepped out onto a busy boulevard with trees and grass area in the middle. the simulated sun was about to go down, large letters in the sky warned of a shower in 17 minutes and an increase of wind speed. A large green Terra park with lake and wooded area to toe left across the boulevard. Buildings and a shopping center on his side. Straight across however was the immense base of Mikado tower One. It went far up all the way through the clouds and through the blue sky. It went straight through the top dome that separated Uptown from Space. He went straight to the main entrance and his new black owner card let him into the enormous lobby. A bank of Elevators in the middle and he swiped his card and the thing went up. As it stopped and let him out he knew he was on one of the top floors . The curving corridor was transparent to the right and he could see part of Midway and the Uptown Dome below. In the distance of the darkness he saw the Milky way Galaxy. While on the slide belt he checked the apartment numbers and jumped of as he saw 221901. His wife already very pregnant waddled to hug him and made an gesture." It's perfect! We got lots of room and the view from the Master bedroom is spectacular, just as you always wanted!" Much of their furniture was already up and Slyfox noticed a new Wardrobe. he knew better as to question his wife why she found the old one wasn't good enough anymore. he looked around and said." Where are the kids?" "Irma went for Piano practice and Kevin found they have Pewee Vac Ball Court here." He kept her in his arms as he inspected the new apartment and she was right, from a huge view port in the Master bedroom he could see the Milky way Galaxy in the far distance. As well as the dim lights of other clusters and Galaxies of the local group. Of course the view port could show simulations of just about anything but he preferred this. ________________________________________

He was still dreaming about his new apartment as his ship dropped out of Quasi Space. Fort Chester was still 20 light minutes away. Not many knew about this place. Fort Chester was an Ultra High Security Prison for the most dangerous criminals. Fort Chester was not part of the Stations that made up the bridge, but was 20 light-years removed to the side. It could only be reached via special shuttles from Midway. He never was at Fort Chester before and wondered what kind of beings were locked up with such drastic safety and security measures. The Union did not have many prisons as far as he knew. Lesser crimes were usually punished by a spell in Penal Colonies. The real bad crimes carried the death penalty. Fort Banning was also not a civilian prison but some sort of Fleet Installation. He was hailed by a dry voice." You have been identified as Service Craft GalCom 54. One life form aboard. Please verify identity." He did the usual way and the voice said." You may proceed." His goal was not the actual fort but a Repeater and Booster Unit floating in space 5 light minutes from the actual prison. He wondered what caused a complete failure as he approached the 300 meter tall spindle shaped Booster Buoy. In his 25 years as Service Tech for GalCom he had only two cases of complete failures. One was due to vandalism and the other due to a reactor containment failure that blew up the entire Buoy. He had visual now and the Buoy looked undamaged. The Energy readouts looked normal, but he could neither raise the remote diagnostics nor the repair bot. This buoy still used the old 75 units. The Nanites had trouble with those but the Robot was able to fix and maintain them. he actually looked forward to see what went wrong. His professional curiosity now wanted an answer. The ship automatically docked at the airlock and he grabbed his Diagnostic Unit and summoned his own Tool Bot and went across the short Flex tunnel and opened the door to the Repeater Buoy. The smell of something burnt stung his nose. It was darker as it should be. Only one of the Ilu Plates worked. As he went for the main panel, he suddenly felt all his hair stand on end as he saw the body of a man and something cold touching the side of his neck. A voice said with an amused tone." Thanks for providing me with a ride out of here! You are however no longer needed!"