- We have successfully left Mars orbit, colonel, professor - captain Andre Delevigne, the officer supervising the ship's bridge informed two key people in the crew after maneuvering was completed and Future flew into the space.
Both Mathias Kaller, project's chief, and colonel McRae, military chief, were present on the bridge during every departure. Due to the distance they had to travel, everything related to the usage of engines had to be strictly supervised. Everyone still remembered the accident which happened in the Orbital Ring's dock, causing a huge damage to thrusters and, though all damaged parts were replaced, there were still concerns whenever various engines were launched.
- Let's proceed with ionic thrusters until we reach a stable speed, and then switch to plasma thruster and keep it up - said colonel McRae - It should allow us to save the resources. Do you agree, professor?
Kaller was observing the situation, looking bored. It looked like he was not really interested in matters concerning the flight supervision.
- I will trust your decision - he replied - I may be old and would like to spend as much time as possible on the New Gaia, but I prefer to get there safely. As long as you get us there safely, I'm fine with your actions - he raised hand to cover his yawning - I think it's about time I left. There other things I have to take care of, so if you excuse me.
Colonel and captain nodded. Professor disappeared behind the door.
- How does the ship's status look, Andre? - McRae asked with unofficial tone - Everything stays optimal?
Delevigne gave several orders, which were followed by numerous graphs concerning the engines' status and key systems of the ship being displayed on screens.
- According to recommendations, the crew carefully checked all navigation systems, engines, layouts, even repaired several flushes that were malfunctioning - he reported to colonel, but Ryan McRae did not smile at the joke - Everything is fine, all parameters are optimal.
- Ionic thrusters reached maximum output, captain - informed one of the officers - Maximum speed will be reached in five minutes.
Andre Delevigne nodeed and looked at colonel.
- It looks like ionic thrusters are much more efficient than we thought.
McRae snorted.
- It's about time something goes as it should. We had way too many problems so far. It's a nice change.
- Given the amount of work we put into this ship, it's about time it started to pay off. We can take it easy for now.
Captain Delevigne might have been right about things being much easier for the staff at this point, but it did not change the fact that they were still facing about two-years-long flight from this moment on, and during that time no one could expect to be treated like a passenger of a luxury cruise. Everyone in the crew had duties to perform after all.
- Ok, switch to plasma thruster and keep a stable speed - Andre Delevigne gave instructions - Focus on sensors to avoid debris and obstacles.
According to project planning, based on their group assignment, expeditions staff members had their schedules set respectively, including specific duties and time off. Obviously, due to differences in responsibilities, time spent on active work could vary greatly, but even those having only four hours of performing project-related activities, it could not be said they had a full freedom during their time off.
Assignments were not only about actions related to ship's controls and maintenance, or preparing the team towards their jobs on the New Gaia's surface, but most importantly - to keep them occuppied during a long stay in a small, closed environment. In the end, following the recent staff changes, they had about five thousand strong crew, which could cause people to feel suffocated.
Whatever one could say, and no matter how much lazy they would try to be, preparations were an important part of the mission, especially in situation where the majority of the team joined in at an advanced phase of the project, giving them less time to learn about procedures, roles and the New Gaia as a whole.
Due to aforementioned, numerous lectures were being held each day. Some people, like John Marlow, were counted for more than one occupation. In John's case, he was both considered militaryman and engineer belonging to science team, resulting in having much more duties overall than those in majority who had only a single job.
Engineering duty was taking him minimum of four hours per day, and such short shift was possible only because of the tight schedule he was on. Standard shift, given plasma thruster was currently active, was seven hours, but Marlow had to attend both military training and science team's activities.
Lectures and briefings John was participating in included a large amount of data pertaining directly to the New Gaia. From the perspective of military, he had to be familiarized with all known regions of the planet, parameters related to military activities, including air density, weather conditions or dangerous creatures specific to areas they were supposed to visit. In case of science team's lectures, there was a lot of talk about the alien megacity, and any other technological relics scattered around the planet - at least these humanity knew at this point, like strange pyramid-like structures surrounded by obelisks. What was the most interesting part of discussion-based meetings was the fact the more they went into details the more unknows kept surfacing, causing a lot of unrest, but also many theories about functions these buildings had.
As it turned out, areas closest to the megacity drones were able to reach were nearly twenty kilometers from the city's inner ring. This obstruction did not block the project's higher-ups to provide limited data concerning the alien city ot the staff prior to departing from Earth. Materials included some interesting facts about the city's functions and security, but everyone expected more details to be disclosed once they reach more advanced phase of the project. However, even after they have left the last safe point, information they were being provided with gradually had a lot of holes and missing details.
According to the knowledge they had gathered until now, aside from having a strong force field blocking the approach from the air, also getting closer to the city over land was a hard task. From what science team supervisors explained, the city was not allowing the more complex electrical mechanisms, greatly limiting possibilities concerning usage of available sensor devices as they had to rely on the simplest solutions to avoid fast detection. If that was not already a hard task, the deeper they got the tighter security was.
In the most delicate situations, equipment was only made immobilized, but they have also came upon systems which were capable of completely destroying robots of all kinds, and were obviously considered lethal against humans, who were supposed to be the main force to investigate the city in upcoming years. They had to either find a way to either pass them by or turn them off.
Information about all this security and dangers was not encouraging for Marlow, who - owing to his military experience and engineering degree - was delegated to main group responsible for investigating the city and finding the way to get inside. After all, engines he was working on during the project until now were not John's main specialty, but only a small element among the vast fields he studied - constructing and programming.
Taking his background into consideration, Marlow was wondering if people planning the expedition knew more than what they were telling them, because why would they consider his abilities to be useful for breaking through alien civilization's city defenses. It was not like he considered this to be an impossible job, but John had doubts aliens' thought process and technology solutions were in any way similar to the one's humans relied on.
Still, analysis was only a fraction of what he was supposed to be taking care of. In the end, the megacity was not covering the whole planet, but only about ten percent of its surface, though they could not rule out the possibility it was reaching deep underground. Regardless, it just meant that there was a much wider area outside the city to learn about.
Earth was two times smaller than the New Gaia, and had less land than this new planet. As a result, the New Gaia had five times more lands than Earth, after excluding the area covered by the megacity. John learned these details during topography briefing and geology lectures, though information they had in terms of the latter was still considered extremely lacking. The reason for slow gathering of the data was associated with force field once again - supposedly, aside from not letting drones closer to the city, it was also capable of interfering with measuring equipment, even farther than twenty kilometers from it, meaning records from lower layers of the ground could not be obtained. Nevertheless, current readings were enough to know that soil was fertile and rich in microelements necessary for cultivation. During lectures, they could have a look at graphs exposing the most fertile out of currently investigated areas, and even future plans for possible colonization.
During geology lectures, he saw a big commotion among colonists who volunteered for settling effort, and no wonder. At this point, Earth was highly exploited, whil the New Gaia had vast, untouched resources. No human saw such things for decades. While there was a lot excitement over it, John felt concern - land, resources, crops, all of these had value, and where is money, there come envy and urge to profit. For now, the number of colonists was low, and the amount of land was plentiful, but if people keep arriving over time... He preferred to not think about the consequences.
Marlow never thought about agriculture a lot, but he cared about one thing - as a part of reward for participation in this expedition, he was entitled to get a plot on the New Gaia, so he made sure to get one with best possible parameters. For one thing, it was for his own benefit, but he had yet another reason for that - John wanted to fulfill the promise to plant the seeds he received from Steve's father. Promises were always important to Marlow, therefore he made sure to make preparations to get the seeds planted.
Aside from the geology, John participated in lectures concerning fauna and flora of the new planet, which was one of the widest topics. The number of animals and plants was so fast, it was unlikely for the humanity to learn them well in the next century, even though an atlas has been prepared for everyone participating in the expedition, and Marlow integrated it with his PEC to make use of the data and gather additional information over the course of the mission.
Wilderness of the New Gaia could never be considered the safest place, and many animals listed in the atlas could have been easily used in horror movies. However, plants were quite similar in that regard - John never expected so many carnivores among "flowers". Moreover, there were organisms which could be classified as both animals and plants.
Rashid was among people handling the lectures, taking care of biology, and was often responsible for explaining details pertaining to native plants on this new planet.
Comments Marlow made, Rashid took on with a smile.
- Yup, it may be shocking indeed. It's not Earth after all!
They were sitting in the canteen, with slightly smaller squad than the one from the Mars surface.
- And he calls these "flowers"!
No one from the group saw the African scientist reacting like this until now.
- Rashid, c'mon, could you stop that already? - Marta seemed overwhelmed by jokes botanist made.
The man coughed, and stopped laughing out loud, though a wide smile remained on his face.
- Sorry, but it was way too amusing. If we had some dendrologist around, he'd likely started arguing with John instead of laughing.
Marlow was drinking a beer, but he raised his eyebrows after hearing these words.
- And why's that? - he asked, putting away half-empty mug.
- Because these carnivorous plants have so much in common with flowers as - he took a sip of beer and put it away immediately - this beer has with a good craft beer - he waived his hand to ask for a different beer before continuing - Okay, so... Although, on the first glimpse, the tips used for catching their victims look like petals, they have nothing in common with petals of Earth flowers. The plant itself is structurally like a tree, and these clutches are like leaves. You may argue that trees also bloom...
- Oh, c'mon, nobody cares about how these plants eat meat - Julian, who was in the middle of drinking his seventh beer, interrupted him - To most people, it's important to know to stay away from such stuff, and it doesn't matter if it's a tree, bush or a fucking flower!
Rashid finally got his second beer, but was not paying attention to it.
- Intelligent person should know...
- Yeah, yeah, speak to the hand, grandpa!
- Grandpa!?
And that wass how yet another quarrel started. Marlow did not even count how many times he saw exactly the same situation. These two guys simply reacted like that whenever they met. What was interesting though, was the fact no one tried to stop them, and instead, everyone just sat there, laughing as if they were watching some kind of a show.
- Honestly speaking, looking at these animals and plants, our goal does not seem to be a paradise, right? - once the two stopped arguing, Martin brought up this topic - And we don't know how this planet's environment will affect us.
These words caused a fire to burn in Rashid's eyes.
- We ran some simulations though, each of us went through a series of tests. We should be fine as far as the atmosphere and temperature go. But I'm happy not only researchers are thinking about his, it's important to try and understand the mechanisms functioning on this planet. Environment of the New Gaia is a really interesting topic, which we keep discussing for a long time now, even back on Earth when first pieces of data returned to us. Still, these tests I've mentioned where quite limited, so...
The casual chat by the beer suddenly changed into something similar to the lecture. According to the African botanist, approach higher-ups agreed on were the best course of action based on the most recent information they had. Environment of the New Gaia was considered close enough in terms of natural conditions to Earth, therefore they could proceed in similar manner to standard procedures during settling on Mars and moons of several planets in Solar System. Plants and animals native to a planet always affect the process of adjusting the land for agriculture, therefore various actions will be needed, including weeding and securing the fields against the animals. Besides, possibility of Earth plants or animals contracting diseases typical of the New Gaia could not be excluded. Hence, a large amount of work was required in the process of modifying both the new planet's conditions and samples brought from Earth to conditions on the New Gaia.
- Still, there's no need to worry too much. The New Gaia has plants and animals that were confirmed edible for humans, so we should be able to manage, even if our crops and animals were to die - Rashid concluded.
- I wonder how easy it will be to get our crew to eat these animals - mentioned Jeanne, displaying a photo of Gaian Tiger for everyone - I feel rather reluctant, looking at this one, though I'm sure it wouldn't mind taking a bite of us.
- Gimme a break, I don't want to look at this creepy creature. I'd rather not meet anything like that when we arrive - Marta did not like the sight of this carnivorous animal.
Gaian Tiger was one of the apex predators living on the New Gaia, and the one researchers learned the most about. This powerful creature was about the size of the Earth's elephant, and the only thing that made it similar to tigers were the colors on its body and the shape of the skull. When John saw the materials including the Gaian Tiger for the first time, he immediately associated it with depictions of mythical beings he saw back in high school, two specific creatures to be exact - chimera and manticore. While none of these mythical monsters were exactly as Gaian Tiger, they had several common points.
Aside from cat-shaped head, and tiger-like colors, this predator had three horns - two curved ones on both sides of the head and one straight, slightly shorter placed on its muzzle just above the nostrils. It was walking on four pairs of legs with paws capable of grabbing, covered with thick, reptile-like scales, though in many spots it had fur sticking out. Its body was something between a lion and a buffalo, having a long tail with a venom spike at its tip.
At first glance, something like this may appear as grotesque freak of nature, and that is how Marlow initially felt about this creature, until he saw the footage showing this predator in action - it was capable of moving insanely fast and efficiently on its eight legs, jumping and bouncing from obstacles with an unusual grace. What was interesting, and scary at the same time was that Gaian TIger was capable of standing on its two rear pairs of legs, raising two front pairs ready to fight, and a single such legs was thick as tree trunk. Getting hit by something like this meant either a certain death, or numerous broken bones if someone was lucky.
The remainder of their meeting by the beer was a continuation of showing various materials from lectures to each other, pointing out interesting, scary or amazing things. Owing to that, John learned many more things than what was specific to his occupation since his colleagues belonged to various groups. To be honest, after this short session, he ended up thinking it would have been better to stay away from some details.
Still, duties were not limited to theory, at least in case of major Marlow of course. Being a part of the military meant he had participate regularly in shooting practice and army drills. Especially the latter were demanding, both due to difference in conditions within artificial gravity and the fact he was assigned to work with Marines unit. There were days John honestly thought he will vomit all his guts.
Way before leaving Earth, John was already aware of how hard it will be to endure difficulties coming with two-year-long space travel. Two years - only when everything goes according to the plan, and here they already had a delay due to "unforseen circumstances".
Everyday's duties were supposed to keep them busy and prepare the crew for surviving on the New Gaia's surface. Indeed, anyone would agree that lectures and physical trainings were useful - even if someone personally hated military drills, it was a pure fact that these were going to produce results in harsh environment, and maybe save one's life.
Despite initial feeling of being overworked due to a number of assigned duties, which were easily keeping people away from pondering about the time needed for reaching their goal and made them less prone to psychological breakdowns, Marlow noticed how good humans were at adjusting to various conditions.
In his own schedule, initially irregular, he started noticing some schemes, which translated to finding patterns making this individual menu rather boring at some points. These feelings did not come too soon, only about after two months since they left Mars' orbit, and reached Saturn's orbit. Luckily, this meant they had to start a routine check-ups and maintenance on graviton engine, resulting in John's schedule changing to open a slot for a new duty.
Due to the ship being a prototype, its most powerful engine could only be initiated once the distance separating them from occupied planets was considered safe. Of course, owing to safeties built in the systems, it was unlikely for Future to cause harm to planets in general, but the potential shockwave and falling parts could destroy important planetary systems and hurt the population.
Anxiety was valid in this situation since Future was not flying in a straight line so to speak as it had to move between the planets' orbits to reach its last destination within the Solar System. In the first phase, they moved alongside Earth's orbit and made a short jump to Mars' orbit at optimal calculated distance. Knowing that was the case, they had to be also careful as to not leave any debris that would collide with any of the planets in the future.
Such trajectory was yet another point among the reasons why the main engine could not be used too soon. Only after going past the two inhabited planets, and reaching Saturn's orbit, where there was a large amount of obstacles, they could start preparations towards switching Future to flight in a straight line. Afterwards, they were supposed to decelerate, and first switch to nuclear engine, before going through the cycle ending up with initiation of graviton engine.
There were two reasons for proceeding with the cycle - energy consumption and acceleration speed. Explosions used in nuclear system were responsible for initial acceleration, and then ionic and plasma thrusters were supposed to increase the speed until graviton accelerator's rings are reached, where the main graviton engine was to be started.
Such operation was never done with an object of Future's size, but expected acceleration - in case of getting out of control - could direct the ship on collision course with a planet, causing a large scale disaster. Combined with other concerns, it made the most sense to initiate the sequence in the area calculations claimed to be safe.
Officially, the data supposed to be available only to people directly involved in technical work, mainly engineers and mechanics, but othe crew members with decent technical knowledge turned out being capable of coming up with theories based on limited information concerning the ship, causing unnecessary commotion. Some parts of the gossip resulted in voices against the usage of graviton engine, but it was not an option since without them they would have a hard time reaching initial speed required to fly into the tunnel, and - even if they did - passing through it would take them up to twenty years, and such delay was not an option.
The first launch was the most important, because the only initiation done so far was only a "dry run", without any speed ups and with limited amount of fuel used. That is why, several days before passing through Saturn's orbit, teams responsible for the maintenance started detailed inspection.
- Reactors work perfectly fine, active since leaving the Earth's orbit, all parameters are optimal - Martin kept informing John, while going through the list.
Currently, Marlow was in a central part of engine's module, while Johnson was in the top section with the rest of the group. They had to proceed that way, because the main control panel by which John was standing now was fully operation and readings are identical between the sections.
- Read all the values for me, starting from overall reactor's workload down to cores' status - major instructed the foreman - We will do ten attempts per statistic, every thirty seconds.
- Damn, it will take ages - commented Julian, who was standing next to Martin; they were using the internal communication line, and not the implants, therefore many people were able to hear what they were talking about, and conversation were recorded due to security reasons - Do we really need to repeat this ten times?
- Instead of complaining, just focus on your job - John scolded him in reply - The checklist requires us to do five checks per secondary parameters and ten per main parameters, but I think going with ten for each is safer. Have you already forgotten about the accident at Orbital Ring?
Obviously, there were no complaining after Marlow brought that up. Another five readings per parameter was indeed a lot of additional work, but was it not better to spend more time on this and ensure the safety of the whole crew? John considered himself an egoist for many years now, however, after the time he spent working on this project, he could no longer say he does not care about others. Besides, he really did not want to become a part of space debris.
About fifteen hours after the last test was successfully completed, a time has come to turn the engine on. First, they had to set the ship in proper position, then accelerate it to a minimal speed required for graviton engine initiation point.
- Captain, we have reached set start point - steersman announced - Awaiting orders.
Delevigne was seated in his chair, having fastened the belts and going through the data displayed in front of his eyes.
- Angle is slightly off - he stated - Maneuvering engines two and four, increase the output by twenty percent. Maneuvering engines three and five, gradually lower the power.
Two and four concerned the modules currently on the captain's left hand, while three and five were on his right. Captain wanted to slightly turn the ship.
- Ok, good. Now, slowly lower the output of numbers two and four, until the ship stops moving - he continued instructing the crew - Easy, a bit more, good, stopped. Stankovich, check the status of maneuvering and supporting engines, their power must be cut off.
Lieutenant working as a first officer immediately started data analysis.
- All maneuvering and supporting engines are turned off. The ship's position is stable, captain - he informed after a moment - We are ready for the next phase.
Andre Delevigne smiled, but a slight nervousness could be seen on his phase, though mixed up with some kind of excitement.
- Ok, announce the state of alert for the whole staff! They have thirty minutes to prepare for acceleration! This is not a drill!
- Sir, yes sir! - several voices replied simultaneously.
Just after the captain's order, and confirmation from the bridge's crew, the first officer opened the main communication channel, reaching to all parts of the ship.
- Lieutenant Adrian Stankovich speaking on the behalf of captain Andre Delevigne. We have already reached our position for acceleration towards the Gate. Acceleration phase may cause unwanted results inside the ship, including disruption of artificial gravity. Due to aforementioned, everyone - with no exceptions - is obliged to use their harness. Acceleration procedure will start within thirty minutes, and will take approximately one hour. Everyone should be already familiar with the procedure, but if in doubt, please refer to article seven hundred twenty three, available on your PECs.
At the moment this information has arrived, Marlow alongside several other engineers was still in the control centre, while mechanics were working on their respective sectors of engines. Since he was responsible for them, John additionally confirmed their preparation.
- Don't worry, John, we are not children, we know how to fasten the harness - Thorsten assured him.
- And I think even kids would manage to fasten it - said Martin - You don't have to worry about us. Still, I'd worry about the rest of the crew. With so many people, including colonist families, I bet there will be those who won't follow the procedure.
- It's their problem then - pointed out Liu - Wanna bet how many people will spill some soup?
They laughed nervously.
- If they really won't use the harness, and magnetic shoes to be sure, spilling some soup will be their smallest problem.
No one laughed after John made a point and the countdown towards acceleration started. Since the moment of announcement, minutes seemed to pass by really slow.
- Atmosphere is tense, like strings on a fat girl...
Suddenly, a wide laughter errupted, including the bridge.
- Julian, you just said that on the general channel, you know? - what Julian said was so unexpected for Marlow that he completely forgot about all this tension, but mechanic obviously felt embarassed.
Julian was about to start apologizing, but before he managed to do so, captain Delevigne's voice reached their ears:
- I'm glad you are in good mood, but you will have a work to do in a moment. Stankovich!
- Initiate the acceleration sequence!
Finally, after long anticipation, the time has come. It was now John who started giving orders.
- Power on, open the bulkheads! Set the nozzles to zero!
The whole process required several dozens of people to cooperate. Reactor had to provide the power for the panels located inside the nozzles, and then - after heating them up - move selected cores into the channel, where beams created by the panels will shatter them, creating a powerful explosion.
- We've got the optimal temperature! - he heard the confirmation.
Now, only one thing was left.
- Captain, we are ready!
All heads on the deck turned towards Andre Delevigne, whose face color became white as a sheet of paper, but he still gave the order:
- Ignition!
- Guys, hold on tight! - this was the only thing John managed to tell his colleagues before they felt a strong vibration.
Within a short moment, he heard a number of curses such as "Oh, fuck!" or "Holy shit!", though these were actually the lightest ones. He was also close to swearing, but focused too much on attaching another cord to his harness. Fortunately, everything calmed down in a matter of minutes.
Initial disruption of artificial gravity stabilized, allowing them to continue the procedure. Marlow looked at gauges displayed on the computer, and noticed they were at twenty five percent of the target speed, meaning nuclear engines produced less energy than planned.
However, there was no time to analyze the cause. They had to quickly move to the another phase, that is launching ionic thrusters. Fortunately, it was supposed to get slightly easier from this moment on. Main reactor was already heated up, so they had a lot of fuel prepared for further acceleration.
Given the circumstances, the original plan was adjusted by disregarding cooling process for nozzles in which nuclear reaction occurred. Instead of that, they moved the ionic fuel also towards said nozzles in order to maximize the power moving the ship. As a result, they have nearly managed to return back on track with the original plan, being at ninety percent of the expected speed at this phase, and could easily hope they can make up for the lost time once they switch to plasma engine. Sadly, though plasma engine initiated well, they still ended up being five percent behind.
- It means we'll have yet another delay - Martin summed up the situation at the canteen, several hours later.
Despite all the complaining Martin did, John was actually happy with the outcome.
- Well, nothing broke down this time at least - he said calmly.
Others nodded.
- Though it doesn't mean there were no casualties - Rashid sighed - It seems like not everyone understands that instructions are given for a reason.
From what they have managed to learn by gathering information, about fifty people died during the acceleration, and about twices as much got wounded. While those who ended up wounded simply had bad luck when it comes to place where they fastened, nearly everyone who died did not use the harness at all.
"Nearly", because they knew about at least one person whom even harness could not help. As it turned out, one person had to use a toilet at the very moment they have started accelerating, but unluckily, that person fastened the cord outside the toilet, and their magnetic shoes were loose because of pants being down. With this unusual setup, going against the manual, cord safety was triggered at the moment ship started shaking and pulled the unlucky fellow towards the door leg-first since the harness was connected to the pants. The momentus caused the legs to be torn apart just below the knees, but it was not the direct cause of death - the person hit their head against the metal sink, causing the skull to crack open.
- Now, that's what you call a shitty death - Julian was the first person in the group who heard the story, because it happened nearby his quarters - To die at the toilet with your own shit flying around...
- Maybe you missed that, but we are eating here - Jeanne looked at him reproachfully - You could at least wait until we finish...
Julian wanted to reply, but Thorsten stopped him.
- You need to read the room, man. Remember that person was someone's friend, same as Steve and Artyom were to us.
It was enough to make Julian behave.
- You are right, I'm sorry - he said after a moment - Everyone was gossiping about this, so I somehow stopped treating this like tragedy... It became something like an event.
Rashid pat his back.
- Don't worry too much - he tried to cheer him up - I've lived for quite a long time now. That's how the society is, the group affects individuals easily. It's normal to repeat news like that if you don't know the victim. And it's even more natural when you are young...
John thought Rashid could keep the last part out, but it looked like Julian did not want to argue this time.
- I also have a history of talking about dead as if they were just a normal, everyday topic for coffee chats - said Marta, who was drinking latte - If we didn't know someone, talking about their death doesn't mean much, even if someone makes jokes about them. The death is a serious topic for us only if it gets to someone close to us.
- That's because we are surrounded by the callousness, which sinks into everyone - Liu pointed out - In the are I'm from it's been ages since people stopped to worry about people dying. There were deaths caused by starvation, people were being sold because of their debts, families used to sell women to brothels, and when such people could no longer serve their purpose, they would be sold for organs. Earth is one scary places, and make the people who they are now.
John could relate to Liu's story - after all, this kind of thing was also common in Londonium, and since he used to live in a really poor neighborhood, such situations were happening more frequently than in other areas.
Martin raised his hand to jump in this talk.
- How about we talk about something else? - he suggested - You know, I don't want to complain, but I think this is going way too dark. Let's just don't ruin our moods, be happy that we have started acceleration, and soon will be reaching the Gate without losing friends, okay?
John could hardly focus on the conversation. What his colleagues were talking about was getting through one ear and leaving through another. The only moment that actually got his attention was the talk about this death at the toilet, and it was mainly because of how absurd turn of events this was. After long time spent on lectures and training, after successfully supervising the initial acceleration, and knowing they will still have to use graviton engine, he was dreaming about having a nice rest, to properly regenerate.
Back on Earth, Marlow's usual work day consisted of six hours of actual work, and the rest of the day he had for himself. Obviously, that was only the case if everything was going according to plan, and there were situations where he had to work much longer with a bigger workload. Nevertheless, he could always hide in his apartment, located in Londonium's Calm Spheres, where no one would bother him, unless John himself allowed contact from the outside. Among such people were several women he wanted to cease relations with, but could not do that easily due to various reasons. This was on Earth, but on Future? There was no such option as escaping from others.
Still, with current state of affairs, he planned to shut himself in his current quarters, get a decent amount of sleep and fill in the gaps in his journal, maybe even read some piled up books or movies he had no time for?
Sadly, already on his first day of rest, his - supposed to be - ideal plan faced a serious obstacle. According to original schedule, after initiating engines for set course towards the Gate, connectors between center module and others have been opened, allowing the passage between the areas of the ship which were not available until now. This also meant Keira could easily meet up with him without any additional paperwork. Over all that time spent away from each other, they talked many times via PECs, but the last time they have met face to face was a long time ago.
- My schedule isn't packed at the moment, so I could easily make time to meet up - Keira immediately mentioned the topic once passages were officially opened - Back on the Ring we've been in the different sectors, during the stop on Mars you were sent to Earth, and during the Flight towards the outer belt, we could not move between modules. Now, we finally have a chance. Don't tell me you won't be able to make it.
Sometimes, she managed to talk in a way that would not let him interrupt. He slept with her, that's true, but even now it was hard to decide what kind of relationship they had - none of them considered this being a couple, but at times John had a feeling Keira was treating him like a boyfriend. She was pretty, and they got along really well, which was enough in most situations for things to proceed smoothly, but Marlow did not want any obligations right now. For some reason though, he thought that leaving things be could cause problems in the future. Besides, he had no reason to decline.
- I should have time tomorrow - he informed her, without mentioning having several days off - Does it work for you?
- It's fine, even perfect - she replied immediately - We'll see each other tomorrow. Which hour?
- Let's say, 3 PM?
- Great, we'll meet in the main lobby.
Despite being in space, they were functioning in accordance with the Earth time, using Greenwich Mean Time to be precise. The reason why they kept track of time that way was pretty simple - not having day and night, and having no points of referrence, keeping the daily routines was much easier. GMT was selected because of being neutral, obviously.
Having made plans with Keira, John had to make changes in the schedule he originally thought off. He resigned from making any longer entries in his journal, and only noted the following: "Another monotonous day nearly passed, but finally some time off starting tomorrow, and a date with Keira. After that, he took a slightly longer shower than usual (normally, he was taking no longer than ten minutes) and went to sleep, securing his bed with belts beforehand.
They might have been in the middle of the flight, engines were functioning properly, and the speed was stabilized, but it did not mean there was no danger of artificial gravity's disruption. After hearing the story about the person dying in restroom, he knew one thing - he did not want to be among dead people gossip about.