elevator car had special exemption to get us up to Haven fast. That meant it was subject to a series of surges of acceleration and deceleration far in excess of those it normally performed. It felt as if we were on a high speed lift, constantly speeding up and slowing down. It wasn’t too harsh, just unsettling. The result was that the three days it normally took to ascend was reduced to less than a day, making it by far the quickest way to get into geostationary orbit, quicker even than going on one of the few space planes that still launched from the surface.
Once the first, vicious acceleration had subsided into a cruising velocity, more or less, Cheng and I went our separate ways. The avatar guided me to a cabin, a compact affair with a single bed and en suite facilities. It would ordinarily provide sleeping accommodations for the duration of the three-day trip up to Haven. With the rapid ascent reducing that to a day, I doubted I would get the chance to use it for sleeping, but I felt the overwhelming need to shower the travel weariness off. I checked the timer to see how long I would have before the next speed change and grabbed a quick shower before my rumbling stomach reminded me that my lunch had been interrupted.
Leaving my cabin, I headed down the spiral staircase to the lower lounge where I saw Cheng and a few others seated around a table. They had definitely picked the best one, right by a downward-slanting picture window. Night had fallen over the Mediterranean, and far below, the twinkling spiderweb lights of cities were the only things visible on the distant surface. It was odd to think we had already climbed far beyond the low-Earth-orbit satellites and space cities. Some of the bigger ones could even be seen as bright lights, creeping along in their orbits far below us.
Cheng smiled and waved me over. I grabbed a coffee from the bar and headed across to them. As I got closer I could hear that their speech was subtly distorted. He must have put up another privacy field. As soon as I was within a few feet, their voices cleared up.
“Layton, take a load off.” Cheng smiled, gesturing at me to take an empty seat.
“Thanks,” I replied, sitting down.
“Let me make some introductions. Folks, this is Layton Trent from The Hague.” Cheng said, before gesturing to each of the four men and two women in turn. “Joan Vance, Combined Intelligence Service, and Doctor Dexter Frampton, her technical guy.” I shook hands with the intense-looking, fortyish redhead and the young, earnest-looking Frampton. Both of them were Americans, obviously. “Group Captain Chemmel Sihota, Indian Air-Space Force, and this is Pavel Agapov, Federation Intelligence.” Sihota looked far too young to be a group captain, either a sign of extreme competence, lots of connections, or maybe just a vanity streak and lots of cosmetic work. “And last, but not least, Sonia Drayton from Red Star.” That didn’t surprise me; the corporations were more powerful than most nations these days. They had as much right as anyone to be in on the gig. “There’re a few other folks wandering around, but they’re too uptight to sit down and have a drink with the competition.”
“We’re competing now, are we?” I asked with a smile.
“Poor choice of words, Zao,” Vance grinned, smoothly cutting in. “We’re all heading up into the big black to figure out what the hell’s going on together.”
Cheng winked. “My apologies. Old habits and all that.”
“I take it you’ve all been attached to this task force?” I asked before taking a sip of my coffee.
“We have,” Sihota said in a deep voice. “Apparently our respective commands don’t have a clue what’s been happening and believe that we can all create a greater whole than the sum of our parts.”
“Fair enough. I’m guessing everyone onboard now has been dispatched by one of the powers that be, hence the override of the elevator’s usual climb rate,” I said with a
Once the first, vicious acceleration had subsided into a cruising velocity, more or less, Cheng and I went our separate ways. The avatar guided me to a cabin, a compact affair with a single bed and en suite facilities. It would ordinarily provide sleeping accommodations for the duration of the three-day trip up to Haven. With the rapid ascent reducing that to a day, I doubted I would get the chance to use it for sleeping, but I felt the overwhelming need to shower the travel weariness off. I checked the timer to see how long I would have before the next speed change and grabbed a quick shower before my rumbling stomach reminded me that my lunch had been interrupted.
Leaving my cabin, I headed down the spiral staircase to the lower lounge where I saw Cheng and a few others seated around a table. They had definitely picked the best one, right by a downward-slanting picture window. Night had fallen over the Mediterranean, and far below, the twinkling spiderweb lights of cities were the only things visible on the distant surface. It was odd to think we had already climbed far beyond the low-Earth-orbit satellites and space cities. Some of the bigger ones could even be seen as bright lights, creeping along in their orbits far below us.
Cheng smiled and waved me over. I grabbed a coffee from the bar and headed across to them. As I got closer I could hear that their speech was subtly distorted. He must have put up another privacy field. As soon as I was within a few feet, their voices cleared up.
“Layton, take a load off.” Cheng smiled, gesturing at me to take an empty seat.
“Thanks,” I replied, sitting down.
“Let me make some introductions. Folks, this is Layton Trent from The Hague.” Cheng said, before gesturing to each of the four men and two women in turn. “Joan Vance, Combined Intelligence Service, and Doctor Dexter Frampton, her technical guy.” I shook hands with the intense-looking, fortyish redhead and the young, earnest-looking Frampton. Both of them were Americans, obviously. “Group Captain Chemmel Sihota, Indian Air-Space Force, and this is Pavel Agapov, Federation Intelligence.” Sihota looked far too young to be a group captain, either a sign of extreme competence, lots of connections, or maybe just a vanity streak and lots of cosmetic work. “And last, but not least, Sonia Drayton from Red Star.” That didn’t surprise me; the corporations were more powerful than most nations these days. They had as much right as anyone to be in on the gig. “There’re a few other folks wandering around, but they’re too uptight to sit down and have a drink with the competition.”
“We’re competing now, are we?” I asked with a smile.
“Poor choice of words, Zao,” Vance grinned, smoothly cutting in. “We’re all heading up into the big black to figure out what the hell’s going on together.”
Cheng winked. “My apologies. Old habits and all that.”
“I take it you’ve all been attached to this task force?” I asked before taking a sip of my coffee.
“We have,” Sihota said in a deep voice. “Apparently our respective commands don’t have a clue what’s been happening and believe that we can all create a greater whole than the sum of our parts.”
“Fair enough. I’m guessing everyone onboard now has been dispatched by one of the powers that be, hence the override of the elevator’s usual climb rate,” I said with a
Similar Books
