The small shuttle sat on the runway, the early morning rays
of sun glinting off of its silvery tiles. Six weary looking passengers and 2
pilot crew boarded her silently.
The team from Cosmic Cleaners were all clad in grey-blue
overalls with the Cee-Cee emblem of two joined crescent moons on an embroidered
patch on the left breast pocket. Jude sort of missed the cosy cocooning of her
training suit – the fact that she was now dressed in corporate work wear sunk
home that shit had got real pretty fast.
The cabin of the shuttle was fairly cramped, since most of
the hold was taken up with vital equipment and specialised cleaning materials.
There were also food supplies and personal protective clothing but very little
in the way of home comforts, Jude suspected. In their final post-launch
briefing before setting out on to the tarmac, good old Cee-Cee herself had
graced them with her presence (this being the first time Jude had seen her
since her initial interview, an event which now seemed to her like ages ago in someone else’s
life) and as well as telling them what a prestigious and hard-won contract this
was, how very important it was that they did a most excellent job, what it
would mean to the company, etc., etc., she also took great pains to stress
emphatically to them that this trip was designed to make a profit, not cost her
any more money than was deemed absolutely necessary. They had been allowed five
weeks to get the job done but there would be a generous bonus incentive if they
came in under time.
They took their seats .Unsurprisingly, Maxie and Kristof chose
to sit together and began chatting away in which couples do when they are with
other people around . Glass and Hennessey had taken one each of the remaining
two pairs. Jude hesitated but as Wib slid past her and in next to the German
(maybe he was taking keeping their assignations hush-hush a bit too rigidly),
she had no choice but to take the last place beside Hennessey. It wasn’t that
they had fallen out but he had been noticeably frosty towards her since she had
shared the news she had taken up with Wib. She had never given him any
indication of any romantic or sexual attraction during their time working
together and she and Wib were (as much as they could be in such a small group)
being as discrete as possible.
“Alright?” she said to him as she buckled in, hoping to at
least make the short hop up to the space station a little more convivial. To her surprise and
delight, he turned and smiled. He’s excited, she thought, like a big kid on his
first ever moonshot.
“Oh yes, Sadako (he had recently gone from called her by her
first name to using her last and this gave her pause – maybe things were still
chilly after all?). All set. I’ve done this a zillion times but it still makes
the hair on the back of my neck stand up.” He ran his hand through his freshly
shorn hair, trimmed from his usual mop. “Not that I have that much now.”
Before she could formulate an answer, a voice came on over
the comm.
“Good morning folks. My name is Kimiko Goro and my co-pilot
here is Ed O’Reilly and we will be your flight crew today. Our jaunt up to the
CSS Tiandong will take us approximately 4 and a half hours, give or
take. We’ll be setting off in just a few minutes, once we get clearance. Please remain buckled in to your seat once we
take off and then until I or Ed give you the nod. Thank you.”
Hennessey pulled a pad out from one of his many pockets. He
seemed to look to Jude for permission. “I’m just going to read a bit, if that’s
okay?” he said.
“Carry on, “she replied and closed her eyes.
The first, and thus far only, Chinese Space Station Tiandong was launched in 2021 as a
research facility into life support and further space exploration. It had been
designed for use for up to a decade but had remained functional until 2043 when
the Beijing government had set its sights on its burgeoning Mars mission. The
craft itself was an old-style third generation modular station and sat in a low
Earth orbit of 400 kilometres and at 43 degrees. The main module was the core
cabin, which housed the station’s main life support and thus its crew living
quarters. It was also home to control systems such as orientation and
propulsion. There was also a small kitchen, toilet facilities plus the station
computers, scientific and communication hubs. It was also where the shuttle carrying
Jude’s team would dock.
From there were two laboratory modules with navigation and backups
for the CCM (core cabin module) which also contained all the system cables and
piping. The CSS garnered its electrical power from a large solar power array,
one of each fitted to the three modules. The power was stored in photo-voltaic
cells and back-up energy was stored in the station’s own mini power station to
enable continuous station function when it passed into the shadow of the Earth.
The shuttle docked with the CCM airlock. The Cee-Cee crew all
wore small oxygen masks.
“It’s been a good long while since anyone’s breathed up
there, “Chief Dug Howe had informed them at one of the briefings. “So until
Maxie here gets the station life support up to full speed, you’ll need to use
portable back up systems.”
The CSS had been designed as a low-density grav environment,
so all of the team swam in and around. Goro and O’Reilly were good enough to
pitch in and aid with the off-loading of the supplies and equipment from the
hold. Glass and Kristof coordinated the storage of the various crates and boxes
while Maxie and Wib worked on getting the basic systems online from their
dormancy.
Jude and Hennessey busied themselves with stowing the team’s
belongings. In the aft of the CCM they found a door with the Standard Chinese
characters that they had learned indicated sleeping quarters. To Jude’s (and
possibly Hennessey’s) dismay, there were only three berths.
“Kuso!” she exclaimed. Where the fak were the half dozen of
them supposed to sleep? The heavy schedule of tasks needing to be completed
within the next forty days certainly wouldn’t take into account any kind of
system where three of them could work while three of them slept – they had been
contracted to take as little down time as was necessary to get the job
finished.
“Looks like we’ll have to spread out into the lab modules.”
quipped Hennessey. “Either that or double up.”
“I hear Glass is a heavy snorer,” Jude retorted, then
regretted her remark. But it was too late – Hennessey had move on to inspect
the other habitat facilities.
The other four members of the team were equally dismayed by
the cramped facilities. The kitchen was equally spartan, so they would have no
choice there but to take meal breaks in twos or threes. And the prospect of
toilet facilities made Jude shudder. Fortunately, as they were there to work
and not to experiment or have any leisure time beyond their minimal sleep and
rest breaks. She just hoped that the next month or so would pass at
hyper-speed.
The six crew member had each been allotted tasks according
to their specialty. Maxie, as indicated by the work he was currently
undertaking, would work on the modular systems, running diagnostics, installing
updates and new hardware. Glass, with her more scientific background, would be
assessing the experimental modules. The Tiandong
wasn’t going to be repurposed as a research facility, more likely a habitat
or stopping off point for lunar travellers. Hell, it could even be a private
orbiting porno palace for all Jude cared! It wasn’t her job to ask. Her presence
here was to provide support. As the least experienced and qualified member of
the team, she knew she would be doing a lot of the grunt work. Probably
assisting Wib with some EVA hull repairs – in training she had shown some
skills in no-grav tasks requiring some dexterity and precision. Kristof’s main
priority, he had told her, would be a station wide inspection and inventory so
would no doubt call on her for help with that. She knew Hennessey wouldn’t
probably be looking to her – his specialism in satellite technology meant the majority
of his time would be taken up with updating the avionics and the latest
solar-power grabbing tech. That suited her just fine – if he wanted to take the
huff because she’d taken up with Wib that was his problem and not hers!
However, it hit home pretty clearly that Jude was going to
be the one with all the dirty and boring jobs here. Thankfully a no gravity
environment resulted in no dust or dirt. There were still 20 plus years of
residue and human (and animal) detritus with the additional years lying empty
for it to become ingrained. She would be primarily responsible for the
hydration collection and recycling mechanics, not only sanitising and upgrading
it to current intergalactic standards but also, in these early days, getting it
and keeping it running to accommodate the needs of six hardworking souls. A
system designed for 3 at a push would be bound to struggle with six. And, as
Coop had gleefully reminded her on several occasions after she let it slip, she
would be cleaning out human waste remnant that had accumulated for almost as
long as she had been alive and using distinctly less efficient or sophisticated
plumbing than the modern space traveller was accustomed to.
“You could be sitting on a goldmine though,
love,” her former partner had joked. “I knew someone who was in the crew when
they salvaged and dismantled the old International Space Station. Found a
crystal of uric acid the size of your fist in a waste pipe. Made claims that it
was from good old Chris Hadfield himself. Sold it on U-bay for half a million
yen. Word is that the Canadian Queen wears a chunk of it in her tiara.”
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