Chapter 4 – Liftoff
… take me out to the black, tell them I ain’t coming back …
— Firefly — Joss Whedon
In less than two weeks the tranportees found themselves boarding a shuttle craft. No longer the shiny white, well maintained shuttles of NASA, these were military craft painted a drab gray and showed the same signs of wear and tear as there soon to be occupants. Although larger than the shuttles of the 20th century they still had the same basic look, a stubby nose, a long, narrow cargo bay with twin cargo doors and the same stubby wings for re-entry and the same flying brick aerodynamics. In fact, the main difference was the cargo bay, as it had been updated for an entirely different cargo. The updates allowed shuttles to haul up to 80 prisoners at a time to the earth orbiting space station. While UN officials might have been inclined to refer to the retrofits as cots there were in reality much closer to a two-wheel dolly. The transportees were strapped into their “cot” before take-off and then wheeled into place in the shuttle cargo bay and locked down. Each dolly had just enough padding for the occupant to survive lift-off and the short trip to the space station. Needless to say, the tranportees were tightly packed in the shuttle and comments like “who designed these things, Hannibal Lector?” were common. Sardines in their tins have only slightly less space, and smell only slightly worse, than these prisoners during their short journey.
The earth orbiter was no more luxurious than a shuttle, but it was larger. As a military craft it was not designed for tourists and bore the same relationship to one of the luxury earth orbiters as a Lamborghini to a Yugo. The soon to be lunar citizens would spend their time in a numerous small holding compartments. These compartments were little more than padded steel boxes with cots that folded out from the walls. Each station maintained just enough spin to provide an artificial gravity sufficient for eating and sleeping. Earlier space stations didn’t have any spin, which resulted in space sick transportees. As bad as the mess was, the stench was worse. It was soon determined that it was better for everyone if a slight gravity was maintained.
To provide an artificial gravity the space station had a design not unlike a huge Ferris wheel but with only four spokes. There was a stationary hub in the middle for shuttles to dock with and then the four long tunnels that led to the outer compartments. The compartments formed a ring around the hub, with each compartment connected to the other. All told this Ferris wheel was close to a quarter-mile in diameter. Any less than that, and instead of an artificial gravity what you had was closer to a spinning can that resulted in vertigo instead of anything approaching the sensation of gravity. The outside wall of each compartment served as the floor while the station was rotating. In keeping with their military heritage, portholes were few and far between.
From the earth orbiter, the next step was the lunar shuttle. The lunar shuttle wasn’t designed to do anything more than make the journey from the earth orbiter to lunar orbiter and then back again. It was even more stripped down than the earth shuttle as it had no need for wings or anything approaching an aerodynamic design. Like the space station it was strictly no frills, hardly more than a container barge with a rocket engine at one end and retro rockets along the sides for guidance.
The final step was a brief stay at the lunar orbiter while the transportees waited for a lunar lander to take them the final leg of their journey. It would carry the lunar prisoners to the surface of the moon, refuel and return to the lunar orbiter for the next load. The whole process wasn’t unlike that used by some trucking companies. Small trucks take cargo to a train, the cargo is loaded in freight containers, the train travels to another depot where it’s cargo is once again picked up by small trucks.
All things considered, the process of transporting prisoners to the lunar colonies was as cheap, efficient and fast, and generally their human cargo made it safely, if not comfortably, to their destination. What Peter, Jeremy and soon discovered is that one man’s definition of safe didn’t necessarily equate with theirs.
One of the more indelicate operations was moving the transportees from the shuttle to the earth orbiter. It was accomplished using a short tunnel that extended from the orbiter’s hub to the hatch on the shuttle. The prisoners were moved from the shuttle cargo area to the orbiter while still firmly attached to their dolly. While there was no real risk to the prisoner it was a time when their true qualities quickly rose to the surface. Weightlessness was a new feeling to many and the trip though the thin, semi-transparent tunnel was completely unlike anything they had ever faced before.
There were some like Peter and Jeremy who took the procedure rather stoically and others who simply couldn’t keep their mouths shut. Bile, both physical and verbal, spewed from their mouths. Obviously, this behavior was not the way for the prisoners to endear themselves to the orbiters crew and more than one tranportee was “bagged and gagged” within a very short time. Still, aside from some bruises (the crew’s distaste for their cargo was readily apparent, hence the bruises) usually everyone made the trip from the shuttle to the space station with a minimum of fuss. It wasn’t until they were in their cells and unstrapped that things could, and some times did, turn ugly.
Anyone who has spent time in the drunk tank of their local jail could at least begin to relate to the experience of the transportees in their padded cells. For many of them it was their first close contact with their fellows and, as is so often the case, familiarity bred contempt. The only good thing was their unfamiliarity with moving in low gravity and their total lack of weapons meant they really couldn’t do any lasting damage to one another. For many transportees it was their first real exposure to Newton’s first law: for every action there is an equal and opposite reaction. A punch thrown in low gravity is not a punch, it is merely a novel way of spinning in-place. This caused much amusement among the experienced spacers. But, even assuming the punch was perfectly thrown and actually struck the intended victim, it didn’t have much force behind it because the person throwing it didn’t have earth’s gravity field anchoring them to the ground. Under such conditions fist-fights were more humorous than harmful. The few tranportees with enough experience in low-gravity to do harm were more inclined to enjoy the spectacle than get involved.
Peter, Jeremy and David were part of the latter group and saw the distraction as an opportunity to discuss their future. “What happens when we land?” asked Jeremy. David, who had been on the moon twice during his abbreviated naval career, spoke up. “Well, the first thing they will do is assign you cubic. Every man gets space to live in, not much, but enough. As I hear it, they first tried putting us in military style barracks; ’bout 20 men to a room. The problem was that without guards the fightin’ practically never stopped. That led ‘em to try somethin’ else. They gave each man his own space… as an escape if nothing else. Each cubic is keyed to its owner’s hand print. It’s not a perfect system but it works good enough. When you think about it, that’s really the key to the moon, everything works just good enough. The food isn’t too good, the air isn’t too clean, the rooms aren’t too big, the people aren’t too nice, everything is just good enough.”
“Once you have cubic, they give you basic clothing and assign you a job. If you don’t show up for your job, you don’t earn credits and if you don’t earn credits you don’t eat. Pretty simple really. Some things you do can earn you more credits but you can’t loan credits and they can’t be stolen. If you get sick or injured, you go to the hospice. There you either get well quick or die. From what I’ve heard of the hospices, ya best plan on staying healthy.”
“Well that’s easy to say but how do you stay healthy?” asked Jeremy. “Well, mostly by knowing who your friends are” replied David. “Ya see, in theory the moon is run by the military, but in reality they tend to stay out of the way. They don’t care what the convicts do to one ‘nother.
“I’ve heard that in the early days it was pretty ugly, what with clans, families and street gangs fighting it out real regular like. But the street gangs didn’t last long – no loyalty among thieves as it were. However, a good share of the early transportees were from Scotland – the Scots have always been an ornery bunch and many of them didn’t take kindly to being absorbed by Euro Union – so those that weren’t forced into the military were sent up here in droves. And the first thing they did was organize into their traditional clans. Them that couldn’t make it inna a clan or a mafia family had to fend for themselves.”
David spoke on “The mafia and the clans beat the hell outta the street gangs because the gangs couldn’t get organized. Gang members only had a slight loyalty to each other and none to the other gangs. The Scots, on the other hand, have terrific loyalty going back hundreds of years to their clans plus a tradition of uniting with other clans to fight the Brits so it wasn’t hard for them to wipe out a bunch o’ thugs; same thing with the families. They played the gangs off each other, sat back, and watched. It wasn’t long before the gangs were all good and bloodied up, and then the clans just knocked off the survivors.”
“As I unnerstand it, now you have kind of an uneasy truce between the families and the clans, neither one strong enough to knock of t’other, and both sort a loosely united against the military. So the trick is to find a family or a clan what needs you. However they’re kinda choosey like, ‘specially if you don’t have some Italian or Scots blood in you. Now Peter here, he’s got it made. He’s Scottish, plus he’s a medico. Every clan on the moon will want him. O’course that might work agin him as a families might just as soon kill him as let a clan not have their own personal physician. You’d best pick a side fast Petey. Me and Jeremy, we’re gonna have it tough. Pilots and Radio operators aren’t exactly in high-demand. Course, on the other hand, we ain’t hardly worth killin’.”
David’s words came true before any of them expected, but it was Jeremy rather than Peter who was approached by one of the other cons, a Frenchmen named Levisseur. Levisseur was a swarthy young man, tall, good looking in a hard sort of way, very quick and with a boundless ego. Word from the camp was that he thought himself a ladies man. When he spoke to Jeremy he managed to combine both condescension and derision. To Jeremy’s practiced eye Levisseur seemed nothing more than a jumped up street punk. Jeremy found it hard to take Levissuer or his message seriously. When he later told the message to Peter and David he did so with barely hidden contempt. “Peter, he wants to take over the space station and grab the next shuttle that docks with it. Then he wants me to fly it and take at least 20 of us back to Earth.” “He does, does he” Peter replied with disbelief. “What makes him think he can pull this off?
“Well, this is how he sees it. When the moon shuttle arrives, guards will have to let us out of here so we can board it. As soon as they open the door we jump them. We hold the guards hostage until they next Earth shuttle arrives, get on board it and I take us out of orbit. We don’t have to worry about landing it, ever since one of ‘em blew up on re-entry they have a system that allows the cabin to separate from the rest of the shuttle and land with parachutes. He says we can land in Angola, they won’t care that we are prisoners.” “So what did you tell him?” “I said I would have to think about it.” “Good lad” said David “as that’s about the dumbest plan I ever heard.”
“Why’s that?” asked Jeremy. “Well, what does he plan on breathing while we wait for the next Shuttle to arrive? “I’m telling ya, this is how it will play out. Let’s say we actually manage to capture a few o’ the crew. Okay, so we have our hostages, does he think the crew will just sit back and take it? I’ll tell ya what they’ll do. First, they will change the oxygen mix in this compartment and quicker than you can say ‘Bob’s your uncle’ we’ll be unconscious. Second, the crew will come in and rescue their mates. Last, they’ll decide what to do with us mutineers. They can drop the oxygen to zero and let the rest us sleep permanent like or they can restore the oxygen, find out who the ring leaders are and use them as an example. If you ask me, they’ll take the ring leaders for a walk”. “A walk?” said Jeremy. “Yeah, a ‘short walk with a sudden pop’.” David said with a grim laugh. “Ya see, they sends ‘em out without a space suit while we all sit ‘n’ watch on a vid screen. I’m tellin’ ya, I’ve seen it done, it ain’t pretty, and it’s not somethin’ you want to see twice.” The only good thing about it is you can’t hear ’em once they’re cycled through the airlock.
Like David, Peter couldn’t quite believe Levisseur’s stupidity. “Jeremy, I’ve heard a little of this man Levisseur, he’s not a man you want to say no to … at least not to his face. We need to find a way out of this that keeps him happy and saves our skins … or saves our skins, as come to think of it, I don’t care all that much about keeping him happy”
Peter found Levisseur with a small group of people, one or two former members of his gang plus a few hangers on, the type that always gravitate to someone bigger and faster … but not necessarily smarter.
“Levisseur” said Peter “I understand you’ve been doing a bit of thinking “outside this here box” as it were.” “Yeah, that’s right” he replied. “Do ya know what will happen to you if you go forward with this foolishness?” asked Peter. Levisseur while not a deep thinker, possessed a certain natural cunning that made up for it. He didn’t like Peter’s questioning him, but was just curious enough to let Peter say his piece. “Man, I’m telling you, you haven’t thought this through” Peter repeated. “When we capture one of their men, they’ll simply short the oxygen, rescue their man and we’ll end up talking the short walk.” “It’ll work if we act fast enough” said Levisseur. “We get out of this cell quick and head straight for the control room. They can’t gas us as long as we keep moving, they need air too. We out number them and if we get to the control room before they know what is happening, we’ll have won before they even know there was a battle.”
Levisseur had a point, but Peter was far from ready to throw in his lot with him. “I’m telling ya it’s too simple, we can’t be the first to have thought of this, we don’t know the layout of the space station, we don’t know how to work the controls are and we don’t know how long we can hold out until a shuttle arrives. It’s not be enough to get to the control room, we’ll have the whole crew of the space station on our backs. I’m telling ya you need to think this through.” Levisseur didn’t like Peter and especially didn’t like Peter telling him what to do. When Peter went on to say he’d do nothing to stop him but he, Jeremy and David would have no part in it, Levisseur had heard enough.
“Blood” said Levisseur, “I’m not asking fer your help, I’m telling ya.” Now, the truth is Levisseur didn’t need or want Peter, but Jeremy he had to have and he figured David with his communications skills could be helpful. For this reason Levisseur then, in what he considered an attempt at reasonableness, said this was their only chance, once on the moon they could never return. Blood had to acknowledge the truth of that, but it was against his judgment to put his faith in such a any plan led by a man like Levisseur. Finally, however he agreed that if Levisseur and his group could capture the guards, he, Jeremy and David would join the attempt to reach the control room and fly the shuttle.
Levisseur realized that Peter was pushing the risk on to him, but as already stated, Levisseur had a certain shrewdness that made up for what he lacked in intelligence. He too had some ideas about risk and how to distribute it. While Peter informed Jeremy and David of their agreement, Levisseur talked to him men and made sure they understood that if things went wrong, it would be Peter’s fault because, it was Peter’s plan. It was with some hilarity that they all agreed that Peter was definitely the ring leader. As far as Levisseur was concerned the plan was perfect. If they escaped, he could kill Peter later, and if they didn’t, he would enjoy watching Peter and his friends pop.
“It’s a fool’s plan led by a fool.” Peter told Jeremy and David “It can’t possibly work”. “You’re right, it can’t” replied David. “I’ve never served on a prison station, but I can tell you they ain’t such fools as to let a guard in amongst us. Sure, we might have the advantage of surprise …” “How’s that?” interrupted Jeremy, “If I were them I’d have the cells bugged and be listening to every word that’s said.” “Well, there are a couple of reasons they wouldn’t do that, most of all, they don’t have the man power to listen to the conversations of 200 prisoners.” “But what about using a computer program, one that listens for keywords and only copies conversations worth listening to?” “Jeremy, what keywords you gonna use” replied David “You’ve got over 200 prisoners on board, what do you think they are going to talk about other than escaping? How ‘ere you going to sort out real threats from the casual nonsense? The way I see it, they may even want something to happen, so they have an excuse to make an example of some of us. Think about it, you think this is where they want to be? This is the worst duty in the space navy and the best way to get out of it is to be a hero by suppressing a riot. They don’t care what we try, they hold all the cards. Hell, they don’t have just aces up their sleeves, they have the whole damn deck and they know it.”
It was only a couple of days before the shuttle to the moon arrived. As was known, the prisoners would have to be moved from their cells to the shuttle. However the method was not as predicted, no guard ever came inside their cell. Instead the door to their cell opened and they a voice over a loudspeaker told they had 10 minutes to leave the cell. Anyone left behind would be “popped” as the air in the compartment was be pumped into a storage tank. Once leaving the cell prisoners were to follow the corridor to the moon shuttle. Anyone not boarding the shuttle would face the same fate as anyone not leaving the cell. Any airlocks between their cell and the corridor were locked tight so they had no choice but go to the shuttle. Unlike the first part of their journey they wouldn’t be strapped to the acceleration cots, it was up to the prisoners to bring them or not. But, because of their experience at liftoff, most of the prisoners needed reminder to bring their cot.
Once inside the moon shuttle Levissuer’s fury knew no bounds as he was convinced that Blood was somehow to blame. Blood, for his part, wasted few words while telling Levisseur that it was a fool’s plan from the beginning. “Did I not tell you it would never work?” “Did you really think they would be such fools as to send a guard inside our cell for any reason? Every contact they have with us is a risk so they set it up so there is no contact. Why does that surprise you?” More than words would have been exchanged between Blood and Levissuer but the rocket engines of the shuttle ignited forcing them to the floor.
The lunar shuttle’s acceleration increased rapidly and then leveled off at slightly less than 2 gs. The main objective of the continuous acceleration was simple, get transportees to the lunar space station fast – before the need for food or water became too pressing. The shuttle hadn’t been built with a living cargo in mind, so rather than add the necessary accoutrements they just added more fuel tanks.
The constant acceleration had the secondary benefit of keeping prisoners tired and, in the case of Levissuer, less inclined to cause problems. It didn’t surprise Peter that Levissuer seemed to forget about him during this time. Blood knew all to well that men like Levissuer could put their grievances on hold until a more opportune time. And, just as Blood knew the tendencies of men like Levissuer, Levissuer knew in turn that men like Blood had a code of honor that could be turned to his advantage. Or, as he put it “honorable men are easy to kill … ‘specially when they’re sleeping.
It was during this period of high acceleration that David tried to warn his friends of the danger represented by Levissuer. “Petey, once we land you had better grow eyes in the back o’ your head, or before you know it, your back will have an unfortunate meeting with a knife”. It was with disdain that Peter responded “if a man like Levissuer can take me then I deserve to die. I’ll not spend my life looking over my shoulder worrying about the likes of him.” “But Peter” enjoined Jeremy “you’ll have to deal with him soon as he is not a man to forget you. He doesn’t care that his plan didn’t work, all he sees is that you made him look stupid … admittedly not a major accomplishment, but the way he sees things, he has to deal with you quickly or risk a knife in his back from one of his own men.” David agreed with Jeremy “mind you Peter, you keep a sharp eye out as soon as we make the lunar surface, that will be his best opportunity to take you.”
Peter wasn’t worried Levissuer would try anything during their brief stay in the lunar orbiter, too many people had already taken a dislike to him and would like as not warn Peter if Levissuer was planning anything. Peter didn’t expect trouble as soon as David predicted but he did not doubt that he would be forced to deal with Levissuer before long. Peter didn’t know when it was coming, but he knew it was.
No Comments Yet