City-Ship Ascension

Geostationary orbit

They were still discussing the name of the new ship and some of those radical changes that awaited them in the future, when Max closed his eyes for a second and then said, “We are receiving an SOS, an emergency cry for help signal.”

“From where?” Michael asked.

“From the International Space Station, it seemed that debris of several satellites destroyed by the nuclear explosion collided with the station. It was as if they were hit with a shotgun blast. There are no fatalities but half of them have some injuries. The Soyuz reentry modules that were supposed to be their lifeboats are damaged beyond repair. The station has already lost pressure and they are currently in their EVA suits, with their oxygen levels dropping by the minute,” Max answered.

Michael didn’t have to think about it. “Max, get one transporter ready; Tyron, Pete, Al, do you want to go with me and save some astronauts’ asses?” he asked with a smirk.

“Hell yeah, that story is going to ensure I never have to pay for a drink anymore,” Al said, jumping from the bench.

After saying a quick goodbye to Elizabeth and the others, they rushed to the elevators and were in their transporter within a few minutes. The upper bay was quite spacious and had several transporters parked in, including the Excalibur, which sat in its specially designed cradle. Thick data cables connected it to the Ascension, ensuring there was no lag while Max was flying it.

The bay doors were already opened, and only the thin layer of an energy screen protected them from the deadly vacuum outside.

As soon as they boarded the transporter and strapped in, it lifted in the air, then shot out like a bullet from a rifle. The transporter needed to fly towards Earth to get to the damaged space station since the Ascension was keeping a geostationary orbit above the Equator. The City-ship was at a height of 22,236 miles (35,786 km) above sea level, sharing the orbit with hundreds of satellites, most of them used for communication purposes. To get close to the damaged International Space Station, they needed to come towards LEO or low Earth orbit. The station itself was circling Earth at a height of 250 miles (402 km). From someone that was on the planet surface, the gap between those two objects sounded like a great distance, but speed and distance in space have a completely different meaning.

Michael looked at Earth as it stood there in all its glory; the blue of the water broken by the green and brown of the land and white of the clouds. It was one of the most beautiful sights he has ever seen, a place of human origin. Now when they were ready to colonize space itself, he couldn’t help but feel a deep and profound connection to the planet below, it still felt like home.

Distances in space are immense, and they all had to change the way they thought about it. A thousand miles in space wasn’t the same as a thousand miles on Earth, speed here was a much more deciding factor. The station was circling around the globe at the velocity of 17,100 mph (27,600 km/h), which would be a ridiculous speed on the surface of the planet. It appeared as a tiny dot at first and they would have not even noticed it if Max didn’t put a green circle around it, so they could find it against the dark background of space. With each second, the station was getting larger until they could easily recognize its distinctive shape.

“They are trying to contact Earth,” Max said. “But it seems their antennas decided to part ways with the station.”

Using the transporter’s speakers, Max relayed the weak and broken signal the station was transmitting.

“Houston, this is Mission commander Jason Dax on Alpha Station, do you read…” The message kept repeating itself, and the voice sounded resigned, without hope.

The ISS was in really bad shape, all of the solar panels were mangled and broken, and there were visible holes on the station's hull. How nobody died from decompression was a miracle in itself. Michael admired people who were inside; they were pioneers who ventured into space and decided to live in such a fragile construction. Any small meteor or a piece of space junk could kill you in an instant; it was both insane and extremely brave.

Out of nowhere, Al started swearing aloud.

“Al, what is it?” Michael asked.

The angry man pointed at the space station. “I bought and assembled an authentic replica of ISS, and it took me weeks to get everything right. Now look at all those holes, I have to redo the whole thing… Goddammit, it’s going to take me forever.”

Hitting someone in the back of the head while they are wearing a battle-suit helmet is not very efficient, but it was the thought that counted and Tyron certainly tried.

“Stop messing about. Let’s try to contact them; Max, use the holo-emitters to simulate a few windows on our outer hull, and transmit on their frequency.”

The transporter approached the station and was maintaining a few feet of distance. Michael could see through the station’s small viewing port, a few astronauts in space suits had attached themselves to the walls. They did not show any signs of life, and he was concerned that maybe they arrived too late.

“ISS, we are parked outside your station. What is your status?”

One of the suits detached itself from the wall and approached the viewing port. The eyes of the man grew wide open when he saw their transporter standing there. He blinked a few times and shook his head, before fixing his gaze on the group again.

“Ah, this is Commander Jason Dax… I do not know how you got here, and I am not 100% sure that you are not figments of my imagination, but I am not looking in the gift horse mouth. We are in bad shape, and our oxygen will run out in less than an hour… half of us are injured. Christ… we even recorded goodbye messages; there are six of us here, can you help us?”

“Affirmative, one space taxi coming up; how is your suits’ integrity?”

“Some of them had punctures in them, but we patched them up. You wouldn’t believe how quickly our pressure went out into space.”

“Okay, wait for our signal and come out of the airlock, we cannot dock to it, but we can come really close.”

“Roger that, we will be ready.”

The ISS airlock needed a special docking adapter to make an airtight seal, and transporters were not designed with that in mind. It was a good thing that their doors opened to the sides, and provided a large opening. If it was any smaller, the astronauts could have never entered in their bulky spacesuits. Despite that, transporters did not have a double door airlock, so they needed to vent their atmosphere before taking on the passengers. Following Max’s orders, they all strapped in their chairs and the doors slowly opened. The air rushed out of it in a split-second, and Michael could feel the tremendous pull that the vacuum of space created, as it sucked it all out. Max canceled artificial gravity, so it would be easier for the astronauts to enter and to prevent any possible injury on their part.

The transporter maneuvered close to the ISS airlock, almost touching it.

“All right, Commander Dax, we are ready to receive you.”

As the circular airlock hatch opened, the first astronaut looked outside and shook his head when he saw Michael and the team standing, barely two feet away from him. After he came through, the others started maneuvering the injured members of ISS into the transporter.

The last astronaut closed the airlock hatch behind him, and then touched the station as if to say goodbye to it. The name tag on his suit identified him as Commander Jason Dax.

“Thank you, I thought we were goners,” the commander said, looking at the team. They made their faceplates transparent, so the astronauts could easily see their faces.

“You’re welcome, now let’s get your crew to the hospital,” Michael replied.

Max adjusted the gravity to 30% of normal, enough for them to sink to the floor, and at the same time not too strong for the weakened astronauts’ bodies. They all sat on the floor, silent, emotionally and physically exhausted.

As they were pulling away from the ISS, Michael took one more look at it and silently used his CEI to contact Max.

“Is it just me, or is that station on a wrong trajectory?”

“You’re right; it’s descending faster than it should; I calculate about ten days before it burns up in the atmosphere.”

Michael smiled. “Well, since it is technically abandoned, we could look at it as salvage.”

“Yes, we could; actually, we would be doing everyone a favor if we secure it,” The AI replied smugly.

“It’s settled then, we are claiming the station, and all other dysfunctional satellites flying there, it would be a waste not to take them to; let’s clear out our backyard.”

“It’s not a problem; I could use a few transporters to tow the whole thing closer to our position. For the rest of this scrap, I will need to build some specialized vehicles, dumpster trucks for space,” The AI humorously replied.

“And Max, I think the transporters need a serious upgrade, additional oxygen would be a nice thing to have since the only thing keeping us alive right now is what we carry in our battle suits.”

“… I will put it on the list.”

All the astronauts were lying on the floor, most of them were either heavily medicated for their injuries or asleep. He knew how they felt; for some time now they were running on adrenaline, and now when the danger has passed, the body tended to crash down.

It was the first time Michael saw the Ascension from this perspective, and it was an incredible sight. Comparing it to the ISS was like comparing a tent to a skyscraper. As they were approaching it, the true size of the ship hit him like a freight train; the City-ship was simply immense; his mind was still having trouble grasping the sheer enormity of what they accomplished. Although the surface of it was a little worse for wear and did not look brand new anymore. The pyroclastic flow they barely escaped put a completely new layer on the bottom of the City-ship, and there were smudges all over its top, created by lava bombs.

He could see small worker drones already cleaning up the damage, collecting volcanic ash, and patching up the indentations on the hull. Max told them that it would take a week before the ship was once again in its previous mint condition, at least on the outside. It would take much longer for the engine level to be sorted out. On top of that, they needed a few more days until the energy shield could be brought back to operational status. That list Max was talking about had so many entries, Michael cringed every time he looked at it.

The bay doors on the top opened as they approached the colossal ship, and they landed inside, after passing through the energy screen which kept vacuum outside and the air in. Many people were waiting to help, a group of doctors and orderlies with hovering stretchers. The first three injured astronauts were quickly placed on them and carried to the hospital, the remaining three had to sit in wheelchairs after they were extracted from their spacesuits. Long exposure to weightlessness had weakened their muscles; suddenly finding themselves in full gravity was not easy on their bodies.

Commander Dax had a stunned look in his eyes. “You know, I’m still not sure this is not all a dream. I watched your video of the Pagan Island scientific mission, but what is this place? And how are you in space right now?”

Michael looked at the sitting commander. “You saw that biodome in the documentary?”

“Yes, but what does it have to do with anything?”

“It wasn’t actually a biodome, which was a cover story; we were building this ship underneath it all along. You’ll get all of your questions answered later after you recuperate,” Michael answered and smiled.

The lift carried them to the residential level, and since it opened with a full view of the Central Park, the sight of it left three astronauts speechless. Out there on the lawn, children were playing and running around on the green grass. The parents were sitting on benches with food spread on the tables; it looked like a huge picnic.

Two big transporters arrived while Michael was on his way to ISS, they carried back the evacuated children from the missile silo base. There were only a few people left at the silo, and Elizabeth, who welcomed them when the lift opened, told him that the family reunions were very heartwarming. The children have not been away for a long time, and they saw the entire trip as an adventure. To their parents, it seemed like an eternity. So many nerve-racking things have happened to them since.

“Can we… can we stay here for a while?” Commander Dax asked as he was bewilderedly looking at the scene.

“Yes, stay as long as you want,” Michael answered. “Now, if you will excuse me, I have some work to do. Pete, Tyron, and Al here will get you to your quarters when you are ready.”

As he was leaving with Elizabeth, he could see a few children approaching the group, and heard one of them asking commander Dax, “Are you… real astronauts?”

Elizabeth smiled, shaking her head. He could not help but see the irony of the situation. These children were now a part of a human race that was living in space and could be called astronauts in their own right. Yet, the magical fame of real astronauts still surrounded Commander Dax and his crew.

***

City-Ship Ascension

ISS Astronauts Guest Quarters

A few hours later, commander Dax was soaking in a big tub that was part of the apartment they were assigned to. It would be extravagant even on Earth, something one would expect to see in the penthouse of a high-priced hotel. To find it out in space was stretching the limits of his imagination. Pete and Al, the two men that were part of the group that saved them, showed them how to change the walls in the room to project the outside view. It was the most surreal day in his life; from nukes blowing up in orbit, ISS being hit by debris, to finding himself in a penthouse suite and soaking in freaking Jacuzzi… in space.

It was also the most terrifying day in his life, as he was convinced that they would not make it out alive; he had already made his peace with God. Now, he watched a little yellow rubber ducky, bobbing on the surface of the water, and was feeling pretty much numb.

The doctor, who came after their rescuers had left, miraculously lowered the gravity in the entire suit to 50% of the standard one gravity. It was much more comfortable than withstanding the mass of his own body under its full weight. She also said that they were scheduled for a session in AutoDoc, later tonight; he was still shell-shocked from the whole experience and did not ask her what that exactly meant.

“Hey, Jace,” Yevgeny, one of his crew members, said.

“Hey.”

“I was just in the food court, and they made me a homemade Borscht, the same recipe as my Nana used to make,” he said, shaking his head, and joined him in the tub. It could easily accommodate three or four more people.

Commander Dax smiled. “I had pizza, some kid delivered it. The doctor said I should take it easy despite the reduced gravity, so she ordered it for me.”

“So… What do you make of all this?” Yevgeny asked, pointing with his hand around the room.

Commander Dax shrugged his shoulders. “Well, as Dorothy said, we’re not in Kansas anymore. I decided to relax and go with the flow, I’m not sure my brain can take any more surprises.”

“I know what you mean; this feels like we are in a sci-fi movie.” Yevgeny took a swig from a small flask and offered it to him.

“Where in the world did you get that?” Dax asked and took a healthy swig out of the flask.

“I had it in my suit. Figured if I’m about to die, I should at least have a drink of Vodka, it’s tradition.”

“Ahem… that’s some hard tradition.” Commander said and returned the flask, while the strong drink spread additional heat throughout his body.

They stayed in that tub until the flask was empty and their skin started to wrinkle.

Commander Jason Dax remembered how as a kid, he loved the stories of Jules Verne; his love for space began with From the Earth to the Moon, but he was equally fond of Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea. Yet, he never dreamed that he would experience the same kind of emotions the protagonists felt when they first came aboard the Nautilus.

Here he was, sitting in a large bathtub, while orbiting the Earth, and drinking Vodka.

Life could not possibly get any weirder.