Eddie had no way to measure the passage of time. He spoke into the microphone, but there was no reply. Not from Mahdia, not from the space station, not from the shuttle. The astronauts must be using a different frequency, he realised. In all the excitement of the hurried, improvised launch, they'd forgotten to give him their frequency and so he had no way to talk to them. He supposed he should just be grateful they hadn't overlooked something more important, like fuelling the fourth stage. Hopefully, they'd still be able to find him, he thought. They had radar, they’d probably be able to just see him when they got close enough. They could just tap on the capsule to tell him they'd arrived and that it was time to leave.

He looked out through the tiny portholes but saw nothing but stars. He felt a strong temptation to open the hatch and poke his head out to get a better look. Better not, he thought. He didn't know how long his spacesuit would be able to keep him alive, he might need the air in the capsule with him. The shuttle crew was out there somewhere. They were coming for him. So just relax and wait.

He counted his heartbeats to try to keep track of time. His normal resting heartrate was about sixty beats a minute, which would have made it easy, except that his heart was currently racing with anxiety. On top of that, he was almost feverish with dehydration and had a splitting headache. His whole body was trembling with nervous energy. He looked out through the potholes again. Still no sign of them! He tried calling into the microphone again. Maybe Mahdia would hear him by some fluke combination of circumstances. He looked at the controls of his communications system, on the sleeve of his spacesuit, and thought about fiddling with them. Maybe he'd hit the right frequency by chance and be able to talk to the shuttle crew. Better not, he thought. Who knows in what way be might screw things up?

So, nothing to do but wait. So relax. Close your eyes and daydream. Maybe doze for a few minutes. Anxiety gnawed at him, though. His mind filled with things that might have gone wrong. Some problem with the shuttle that had forced them to return to the space station, leaving them unable to do anything but watch helplessly as Eddie dropped back into the atmosphere and began to burn up...

The tapping sound startled him so much that he cried out loud and jerked against the straps holding him in place in the couch. His head spun to the porthole and he saw a helmeted face looking in at him, grinning. Eddie grinned back with relief, the weight of anxiety lifting from him so quickly that he felt almost overjoyed in comparison. The head moved away, and a moment later he heard someone fiddling with the hatch from outside. His hands flew to his helmet to make sure it was on and fastened correctly. Then the hatch opened and the air blew out in a rush. He felt the spacesuit billowing out around his arms and legs as the external pressure of the air went away.

He unfastened the safety straps and allowed himself to drift upwards, out of the couch. The other figure reached in and grasped his arms, helping to pull him up. Getting out of the capsule was a lot easier than getting in had been. He just swam through the tiny opening, and then the immensity of empty space was all around him. He paused where he was and just stared. He'd heard descriptions of what it was like, but no words could capture the reality, the glory, of seeing the universe clearly, without the Earth’s dusty, moisture laden atmosphere getting in the way. It was overwhelming, hypnotic! He completely forgot where he was and what he was supposed to be doing and just stared.

The astronaut must have understood what was happening to him because he gave him the moment to appreciate it. He must have had a similar moment on his first day in space. After a while, though, he tapped Eddie on the arm until he turned to look at him. The astronaut gestured to the shuttle, floating patiently nearby, and Eddie gave him a thumbs up to show he understood. The astronaut was wearing wings, he saw. More gaudy and ornamental than those used by Europeans. He deployed them, then grabbed Eddie's arm and pulled him closer so Eddie could put his arms around him. The wings automatically adjusted themselves to accommodate the new centre of mass. Then he took the controller in his hand and used it to turn themselves to face the shuttle.

Suddenly, Eddie jerked with panicky realisation. The two mass dampeners were still in the Mercury capsule! He'd forgotten them! He slapped the astronaut urgently on the arm until the man pushed him a small distance away, allowing them to see each others' faces. He was looking puzzled. What’s wrong? Eddie imagined him wondering.

Eddie pointed back to the Mercury capsule. They were drifting away from it, he saw, and he was shocked to see how small it looked. The astronaut nodded, understanding, and he used the wings to take them back to it. Eddie was shivering with how close to disaster they'd just come, and all because of a simple lapse of memory. How close he’d come to going aboard the shuttle, watching the capsule burn up as it re-entered the atmosphere, and only then remembering the mass dampeners. He imagined having to explain to Ben and the others what he’d done. The crippling guilt, so great that it would have physically incapacitated him. He imagined Ben's anger at his stupidity. After all he’d done, all the effort he’d gone to to persuade so many people. All undone because Eddie had been too busy admiring the view to remember why he was up there. History would remember him as the world’s greatest idiot! The man responsible for God alone knew how many deaths over the years and centuries to come!

He was still shaking at how close to disaster he’d come as he reached back into the capsule and pulled out the two containers. Now, was there anything else he’d forgotten? This was his last chance. Once they left, there would be no coming back. If there was anything else he was supposed to bring, he had to remember it now! His headache was getting worse. It was so hard to think! There hadn't been anything else, had there? Just the two mass dampeners. Dammit, he wished he could talk to someone and ask them! He looked around the capsule. There wasn't anything else in there. It must be just the two mass dampeners! He was still racking his brains, though, trying to think, as the astronaut gently urged him back out of the capsule. There seemed to be an urgency in his actions now, as if they were getting dangerously close to re-entering the atmosphere. Eddie nodded and allowed the other man to gather him close again. The astronaut then used the wings to carry them both to the shuttle, small jets of fire emerging from the struts pointing behind him.

Eddie went through the airlock first, and was glad to do so. The air in his spacesuit was suddenly beginning to get a little stale and he had a nasty feeling that his oxygen had run out. The feeling got worse as the airlock cycled, and by the time the inner door opened he was finding it hard to breathe. He grappled with his helmet, and there was someone helping him. Together they got it off and Eddie gasped in relief, sucking in great lungfulls of sweet air. Damn, but that had been close!

“How do you feel?” asked a woman's voice.

“Fine,” Eddie replied, looking up at her. It was the American woman, he saw, dressed in shorts and a tee shirt. She looked strained, he thought, as if she'd been under a lot of stress recently but was doing her best to cope. “Have you got anything to drink?” he asked her.

“They said you would be thirsty,” she replied, handing him a drinking bulb. He put the straw in his mouth and sucked in the warm liquid. He felt his body soaking it in like a dry sponge. His headache began to fade and his brain seemed to light up with new awareness and alertness, as if he’d been walking in a dream for the past several hours. No wonder he’d almost forgotten the mass dampeners. The dehydration must have been affecting him worse than he’d thought, and it was only now that he was able to drink freely again that he was noticing it.

He emptied two more drinking bulbs before the astronaut who'd accompanied him from the Mercury capsule emerged from the airlock, his wings folded neatly behind his back. He took off his helmet to reveal a friendly face with sweaty, black hair plastered to his forehead. “At last, we can talk!” he said. “I am Koshing Goushi. Pleased to meet you.”

“Eddie Nash,” said Eddie, holding out his hand.

The engineer shook it warmly. “This is Susan Kendall, the only scientist remaining in space, other than yourself. Our pilot is Benny Svanberg. He is still up in the cockpit, getting ready for our return to Harmony.”

“I’m sorry, you must be shocked by my manners,” said Eddie to the American woman. “Guzzling water instead of thanking you and introducing myself.”

“Not at all,” replied Susan, smiling. It made lines appear around her eyes that made her look tired. “I know you had to reduce your weight to come up here. Is that our mass dampener?” She pointed to the smaller of the two boxes Eddie had brought aboard.

“Yes. I'm told I have to give it to you.”

He handed it to her and she smiled guiltily as she took it. “I'm sorry,” she said, “But I have very strict orders. This has to remain in my possession until we get to the moon.”

“I quite understand.”

“Come on,” said Koshing. “We had better get you strapped in. Benny is probably keen to get back, and we have all got a lot of work to do.”

It took Eddie a few minutes to get the hang of moving around in microgravity, but with the help of the others he was finally in the main cabin, being helped into one of the mission specialist seats by Susan. Benny leaned across to look back at him. “So this is our hitchhiker,” he said, grinning. “Lucky we're going your way.”

“If you could just take me as far as Luton, that'd be great,” said Eddie. “I don't suppose you have anything to eat, do you? I haven't eaten in two days.”

Susan produced a tube of something and handed it across. Eddie was so desperate to eat that he twisted the lid off and squeezed it into his mouth without taking the time to read the label. Once again, he felt that he could have eaten three or four of them in quick succession, but now that his most desperate needs had been satisfied he found himself thinking of the impression he was making on the others. He ate slowly and carefully, therefore, even though it was the most delicious thing he'd ever eaten, his mouth watering so badly that a couple of drops of saliva broke away and floated up in front of his face. He reached a hand up to collect them, hoping no-one else had noticed.

He kept on squeezing the tube after it was empty, and then felt a light tap on his arm. He looked around and saw Susan, sitting in the seat beside his, holding out two more tubes of food. “They said you would be hungry,” she said, smiling with amusement. Eddie grew red with embarrassment, but he smiled as he took them.

“All strapped in?” called back Benny. “Okay then, Let’s get oriented.” He pressed controls on the panel in front of him and the shuttle slowly rotated until it was pointing in the right direction. Eddie opened the second food tube and began squeezing the light grey paste into his mouth. “There we go. Right then. Orbital transfer burn in three, two, one...”

“No, wait!” said Eddie, startling the others. “Wait a minute!” He dropped the food tube, which spun in the air beside him, and struggled to unfasten the straps holding him into the couch.

“What is it?” asked Koshing, looking alarmed.

“Forgot to turn off the mass dampener. The shuttle will be weighing way less than it should. Probably throw us off course when you fire up the engines.”

“It certainly would,” said Benny. “Do you just flip a switch or something?”

“Yes. There's only the one switch, accessible by means of a flap in the side.”

“I will get it then,” said Koshing, rising from his seat. He dropped back down the ladder to the lower deck. “I haven’t been thinking straight,” Eddie apologised again. “Probably low blood sugar or something.”

“Well, at least you remembered in time,” said Benny. ‘Anything else we should know about?”

“No, that's it. Sorry.”

“Well, don't feel bad. You're in a completely alien environment with virtually no training. The rest of us trained for years before we were allowed up here. Don’t worry, we'll look out for you.” Eddie smiled back gratefully.

Koshing returned a moment later. “Done,” he said. “Is there a way to tell if it is working, or not working?”

“Not really. Down on the ground, things feel lighter. Up here, I suppose you'd have to measure momentum or something. See how much effort it takes to move something. If we had time, we’d have rigged up a gizmo to do that. Maybe I still can, if you let me have access to your machine shop. I'll need something to do for the next couple of days.”

“We'll see,” said Benny, using the same tone of voice as a parent to a child that had just asked for an expensive new toy. “So, are we ready to go now?”

Koshing looked back at Eddie, who nodded. “I think so,” he said.

“I generally prefer something a bit more positive than just I think so,” said the Swede with a frown. “Still, if that's the best we can do... Commencing orbital transfer burn in three, two, one...” He glanced back at Eddie, who had the food tube in his mouth again. He nodded encouragingly. “Ignition,” said Benny, and he touched the control.

☆☆☆

Fifteen minutes later, Koshing called Eddie to the front section of the flight deck. "There it is," he said, pointing to the space station, now visible through the cockpit window in the vee between the topmost two of the nose flaps. "Your home for the next two days."

Eddie stared in wonder. From this distance, it seemed to be almost all solar panels, shining brilliantly in the sunlight. The habitation modules were a small cluster of cylinders in the middle with a network of spars and girders all around them. Eddie had seen it before, of course, in photographs and television reports, but it somehow seemed more real now that there was nothing but a thin sheet of aluminium silicate glass between him and it. "It's beautiful!" he said. "I feel there should be classical music playing."

"We have plenty of music in the computer," said Benny, who'd missed the reference. "Just tell me what you want." Eddie just laughed.

"We'll be coming back over the Americas soon," said Koshing. "We should be back in contact with Mahdia any moment. They'll probably be pleased and relieved to learn you're still alive. If you sit here in the co-pilot's chair, you can talk to them while Benny goes through the docking procedure."

Eddie thanked him and took his place in the chair while Koshing went back to sit beside Susan. Eddie was transfixed by the sight of the space station growing ahead of them, though, and it was several moments before he realised that there was a voice speaking to him through his earpiece. "Mark!" he said guiltily. "Is that you? Sorry, everything up here's a bit overwhelming."

"You made it, then," said Mark Pigeon, sounding happy.

"Yes, your rocket performed flawlessly. Please pass on my compliments to your engineers."

"I'll do that. So, what's space like?"

"Exhilarating! Terrifying! I still can't believe I'm actually up here! My life before the Scatter Cloud seems a lifetime ago. It was just over eight days ago! Eight days ago, I was just living my normal life. Everything seemed so, so ordinary! So safe and predictable, and now I'm up in space... I'm up in space! I keep running the words through my head and I just can't seem to make myself believe it. I've done a spacewalk. I'm about to dock at a space station. It has to be a dream, doesn't it? I'm going to wake up in a minute."

"You'll be fine," said Mark. "You just need a little time to get used to it. We can see you on radar, You're getting close to the space station now. Do you need me to shut up so the pilot can concentrate?"

"The computer does most of it," said Benny. "Talk as much as you want."

Mark and Eddie chatted, therefore, as the shuttle oriented itself to the docking port and edged closer. "I can see the other shuttle," said Eddie. "That's the one we'll be going to the moon in, I assume?"

"Yes," said Koshing. "As soon as we have finished installing the fuel tanks and connecting them to the engines."

"The space station's fuel tanks," said Eddie. "The fuel you use to boost the space station up into a higher orbit?"

"Right," said the engineer. "We're probably sacrificing the space station, but if we succeed in putting the moon back in its proper orbit it will be worth it."

"Perhaps they'll be able to launch some more fuel tanks before the space station comes down."

"Doubtful," said Koshing, "But who knows. Harmony's in a good orbit now, we've probably got a few months, but I imagine that the folks on the ground will have other priorities for the next few years." Eddie nodded soberly.

The shuttle's guidance computer took them smoothly in, and Eddie gave Mark Pigeon a running commentary as they went. "I can see the hatch, there are little lights all around it. We're just a few metres away now. The shuttle's nose covers are opening, they're starting to obscure my view of the docking port, I can't see how close we are now. It probably says somewhere on the control, panel, ah, Benny's pointing at something. Oh yes, I see. Fifty centimetres, thirty, ten... There's just been a clunk. Is that it? Are we docked now?"

"Soft docked," said Benny. "In case we have to..." There was another clunk. "There we are. Now we're hard docked. Welcome to Harmony, Eddie."

☆☆☆

Inside the space station, Koshing helped Eddie get out of his spacesuit and the layers beneath it, and then showed him how they showered in space. Then he found him a pair of coveralls to wear. Then, clean, sweet smelling and decent, Koshing introduced him to the rest of the space station's crew. "This is Paul Lewis, the commander of the space station. This is Yu Han, the other recent arrival and a longstanding colleague of mine. And this is Jayesh Gudka, our doctor. Since we are all in excellent health and he does not have the expertise to help us with the Colibri, he is the one who will be helping you to get your space legs. By the time we leave, you will be swimming around the place as though you had been born here."

"By which time it will be an obsolete skill," said Susan. "This place will never be occupied again, and it might be a generation before they can spare the resources to build another."

"Maybe not," said Eddie, though. "Frank, he's the guy who created our first home made mass dampener, he reckons we'll soon be able to build devices that can reduce mass by ninety, maybe even ninety nine percent. The one we've got now, the fifty eight percent one, it's so crude it's laughable! He's already working on the Mark Two. If they can reduce mass by ninety nine percent, they'll be able to build an entire space station on the ground and lift it up into space in one go! And not made of cylinders small enough to fit on top of a rocket. Imagine a single structure the size of an office block with open spaces inside it the size of an Olympic swimming pool. Maybe even an actual swimming pool!"

"A swimming pool in zero gravity?" said Jayesh. "That I would like to see!"

The others laughed, all except Eddie. "Perhaps they could finally create a rotating space station, to create artificial gravity," he said.

"Never going to happen," said Paul, though. "A rotating space station would be constantly trying to pull itself apart. If Harmony suffered some kind of catastrophic failure, it would just carry on floating here. Survivors in various modules would have a chance to get to safety. A rotating space station would fly apart, though, with different bits thrown into widely separate orbits. Survivors in one bit might find themselves thousands of miles away from everyone else, with no way to get back before they run out of air. No, gravity in space is a fantasy and always will be."

"But they tried once, didn't they?" said Eddie. "The Skyhook project. Two modules on either end of a long tether, spinning around each other to produce gravity. The tether we're going to use to tow the moon."

"Skyhook was an experimental new way to launch spacecraft out of Earth orbit to other planets," said Koshing. "The artificial gravity thing was an afterthought. A bunch of engineers persuaded the Director to let them try, since the cable was already up here. It worked, but Paul's right. No-one's ever going to build a rotating space station. It's just too dangerous."

Eddie couldn't believe that, though. The idea was just too beautiful to let go. A giant wheel in space, turning slowly and majestically, with people walking around inside it as though they were still on the surface of the Earth. If enough people want it, it'll happen, he thought, and surely many, many people would want it! They'd find a way to make it safe and one day they would build it. Maybe even within his lifetime!