Chapter 11

“Mr. Dewitt, do we have a firm ETA for docking with the Cybele colony?”

“That we do, captain.” Aaron made a few final adjustments to his report and sent it to her console. “We should be arriving in orbit in twenty hours, with a prime docking time of oh-six-hundred-thirty-seven. Coordinates and engine firing patterns have been sent, which should get us into orbit. We can take her in manually from there.”

Jass looked over the route, and saw immediately that it was more than adequate to bring them safely to dock. “Load it up, Ms. Chiappari. Route approved, Mr. Dewitt, let's get this part of the trip over with and get back on our way.”

The hours passed quickly; everyone had a job to do in order to get the Curious Machine docked safely. By the time the ship cruised into orbit, everything was ready. Jass checked to see that all of the Pequod's crew were in their quarters and safely strapped into their hammocks.

The crew of the Curious Machine had gathered in the main cabin and buckled themselves into their harnesses for descent to the asteroid surface.

“Ms. Marshall, is the cargo secure for docking?”

Kristin called out, “Cargo checked and secure.”

“Ms. CeSaran, are the comms clear?”

“Clear and open.”

“Mr. Takahashi, are the engines ready for descent?”

Denjiro coughed and replied, “Engines have passed diagnostics and are fully responsive.”

“Mr. Dewitt, do I have manual control of the engines?”

“Engines are on manual and ready to go.”

Jass smiled, and reached out for the controls. “Let's take her down, then.”

At first, the descent was not noticeable. The asteroid had only minimal gravity, but after a few minutes, Jass could feel the weight of her body returning, and she began to settle into her seat. After weeks of weightlessness, even the gravity of Cybele felt strange.

The ship was now traveling across the face of the asteroid, and Jass saw the colony come into view on the horizon as the ship continued to slow.

The official name of the colony was New Coalwood, but most people referred to it by the name of the asteroid, Cybele, or called it Cybele city. It looked like a patch of bubbles, Jass thought, bubbles nestled in a crater, clinging to the rough surface of the asteroid to avoid being flung back out into space.

There were several charred concrete slabs outside one of the larger domes, and she guided the ship towards one of them. The landing sequence started, and as the ship fired thrusters from the bottom of the hull, several large metal bracers descended and supported the weight of the ship.

With a groan of metal, the ship fell silent. “Ok, that's our part of this. Now we wait. Permission to release harnesses, but stay in the main cabin until we're connected to the dome.”

Jass released her own harness and got out of her seat carefully, testing her weight. Merriam fumbled with the latch on the harness and stood up. “Oh man, it feels so good to be able to just stand again—ow!” He planted his first step too hard and banged his head on the ceiling of the room.

“Not all gravity is created equal,” Jass commented. “Just because we have gravity here doesn't mean that it's very strong. Walk carefully until you get used to it. Merriam swore and sat back down, rubbing his head.

Kara said, “Captain, I've got a call from the Cybele base, they're ready to get us hooked up.”

“Excellent, put it through the speakers.”

A deep female voice crackled through the ship's speakers. “Hello Curious Machine, this is Cybele base. Good to finally see you here.”

Jass grinned. “Not half so good as it is to be here. Are you ready to get us docked? We've got some folks who are pretty anxious to get off of this ship.”

“Copy on that, we've got a crew on their way to you now. Everything is done from outside, so just sit tight til we get you connected to the dome.”

“Acknowledged. We'll be waiting. I see the crew now.”

Looking out the window, she could see a large tube, about the size of the airlock on the Curious Machine, begin to extend from the main dome. The front of the tube rested on a wheeled cart driven by a crew of three in spacesuits. In a few moments, the odd contraption had moved out of the field of view of the window.

“Den, Kristin, you two go down and let me know when they've got everything connected to the lock.”

The two crew members agreed and moved carefully down the corridor to the airlock. The others waited in the main cabin until the familiar clunk of a docking mechanism locking into place around the airlock could be heard. Kristin's voice came over the comm system. “Captain, the tunnel is in place and we are clear to exit the ship.”

With a sigh of relief, Jass said, “Acknowledged. Thank you, Ms. Marshall. We'll be down right away.”

Jass waited until the rest of the crew had begun to make their way down the corridor before she left her seat. Walking in this gravity was strange, almost dream-like. There was a definite down now, but each step threatened to send her careening into the ceiling. She didn't mind visiting asteroids, but she was glad she didn't live there.

The Pequod's crew met them in the corridor outside the airlock. Jass pushed her way through the crowd, careful not to bump too hard into anyone.

Just outside the airlock, the three suited figures were taking off their helmets. The one who appeared to be in charge was a middle-aged woman with a shock of curly orange hair. “Welcome to Cybele,” she said, smiling and extending her gloved hand. Jass shook it, and replied, “Good to be here. Let's get this thing moving.”

“Right,” the woman said. “We'll unload the cargo once everyone is off the ship, it'll be easier. I assume your payload specialist has marked everything correctly and grouped it so my people can tell what's being offloaded here?”

Jass glanced at Kristin, who nodded. “Yes, she has. I'll let her give you the details later.”

“Sounds good. Now, if everyone will just follow me. We've got the tube pressurized but we'd like to get everyone back into the dome as soon as possible and get you into the gear you're going to need while you're with us. For some of you folks, this should be a familiar routine, since you left us not that long ago.”

Some of the Pequod crew managed faint smiles, but most seemed eager to be moving as soon as possible. The crews worked their way through the tube and Jass followed at the back of the crowd, the orange-haired woman at her side.

“Sorry for the lack of introductions,” Jass said, keeping her eyes on the path ahead. “I'm Jassmyn Stewart, captain of the Curious Machine.”

“I'm Elena Denisoff,” replied the older woman with a smile. “I've heard about you. Pretty young to be running your own supply ship out here. I guess there are more and more like you these days, though.” Before Jass could respond, the group left the tunnel and found themselves inside a small room that lead into the large dome.

“Last lock to go through,” called out Elena. “Just go on through, I'll manage the controls.”

When all of the spaceship crew was through the lock, she turned back to the opening of the tunnel and began punching commands into the keypad on the wall. They heard a hiss as a thick panel slid in to cover the opening, and Elena turned back to them.

“Welcome to New Coalwood, or as most of us call it, Cybele City. We may not have many of the luxuries that you're used to, but we're pretty proud of the lives we've built here. Under normal circumstances, you'd just stop here long enough to unload some cargo, refuel your tanks, and be on your way in a few hours. But these aren't exactly 'normal circumstances,' so we're going to do things a little differently. You're in luck today; we've got a few rooms that are standing empty until we get a few replacements for the mining operation, so you'll be staying there. I've got rooming assignments that I'll send to your captains here in just a minute, and they can dole them out the way they want. Pequod folks, you'll be staying with us until we can work out something with one of the Mars-based rescue crews. We're happy to help out, but we are running a business here, so we'd appreciate it if you spent most of your time in your quarters. Curious Machine folks, you'll only be here for a day, so we've got some special provisions to get for you.” She gestured to a cabinet in one corner of the room. “In this cabinet you'll find some mag boots. They're boots that have a weak magnetic element in the soles. They'll help you keep your feet on the floor in our low grav, since you won't be staying long enough to learn how to walk properly, and we don't want to have any injuries from a misplaced step. There are plenty of sizes in there, so just find something that fits you. Leave your own shoes in there, nobody's gonna bother 'em. Pequod folks, we're not gonna worry about boots for you just now, since you're going to be here for a while. You'll be a lot better off just hanging out in your quarters and walking until you get used to the gravity.”

There was a brief rush for the boots, but soon everyone from the Curious Machine crew wore the boots. Several looked relieved at the added security. Jass lifted a foot, testing the effect. It reminded her of being in the movie theater near Mars University and trying to walk out after a movie over the sticky floor. It was not an entirely pleasant sensation, but at least she wouldn't go flying into any walls if she lost her balance.

Walking through the dome into the city was like walking in a dream, Jass thought. Her feet stuck to the floor, but her body felt almost like it was floating, and her braid bounced off her back at every step and took a few seconds to fall back into place.

The metal walkway lead through the first dome and through a low tunnel to the next. In the tunnel, Jass could see between the domes and across the face of the asteroid. The surface looked a lot like Phobos, she thought, but the horizon seemed so close! It made her feel like she was on top of a high mountain, looking toward a drop off that went for miles. Then they entered the next dome, and the sight was gone.

Her computer beeped, and she glanced at it. It had finally connected to the Cybele network, and was downloading the sleeping room assignments. They had allotted them four rooms, with two to a room. Jass quickly drew up a list of roommates, and put the computer back in her pocket.

Elena stopped in front of a row of doors in a small nondescript building. “Here are your rooms. I'll let your captains tell you who is staying where. Go ahead and drop off your personal effects, then I'll take you to the dining hall. Some of the folks here were pretty impressed by that rescue, and we figured it called for a celebration.” She smiled. “We don't want to keep anyone waiting!”

Jass called her crew together. “I think we can make these arrangements work for one night. Besides, it doesn't sound like we'll be spending much time in there. Denjiro, you're with Merriam. Kara, you're with Dani. Martina, you're with me. That leaves Kristin and Aaron. Sorry, guys, it's the only way to make it work. It's not my fault that more guys didn't sign up for this trip, I knew I should have promised free beer on that recruitment poster.”

Elena showed them into their rooms, and each pair dropped off their bags before exiting to rejoin the group. The Pequod crew took longer to get set up, but soon the crowd was following Elena into the city again.

Jass noticed that most of the domes of Cybele City covered machinery and mining operations; very little formed the actual town, and most of that seemed devoted to small apartments or dormitories. When she asked her guide about it, Elena nodded. “We rotate crews about once a year, just to make sure that no one starts to have trouble from being in low gravity for so long. With a maximum of a one year stay, most people don't want to bring much, they just want to have someplace to sleep at night. Most of the apartments are built on one model. But just because we're not much of a home doesn't mean we're all business, either. We've got a small school for kids who need to keep up with their studies while one or both parents are working. They've got a library that's open to the whole town, with files of thousands of book that can be checked out, plus some music and pretty much any movie you can name. And we have big dinners about once a month or so. We've found that having a big party is necessary for retaining both morale and sanity.”

As they got closer to the large building in the center of the dome, Jass saw more and more people. The families of the miners, she assumed, or those who were off-duty. A woman who caught her eye smiled and waved, and she returned the gesture.

Elena directed them inside the building. It was a large, mostly open space, with a smaller room that Jass assumed was the kitchen. Long tables lined the walls several deep, and chairs of all varieties were scattered around the room. In the center of the space was a large spherical cage, made out of some sort of plastic. It looked like something the miners had made themselves rather than anything prefabricated, and Jass hadn't a clue what it was for. Perhaps some sort of entertainment, she thought.

A blast of warm air, accompanied by a cacophany of clanging, came from the kitchen as a young man opened the door and came out, waving to Elena.

“Hey! We're so glad ya'll are here, we're almost ready!”

“Everyone, this is Max, he's on the morning shift, usually, but he got reassigned to help with the food today.”

Max smiled, and shook the hands of everyone in reach. “I made the mistake of letting them know I was a decent cook once, and now I get drafted every time they want a fancy meal.”

“don't let him fool you,” Elena said, “Max trained as a cook on Mars before he came out here to work. He'll use any excuse he can find to get into a kitchen. Wait till you hear what he has planned for tonight!”

The young cook clapped his hands together. “Yes, tonight! You've all been out in the black for a couple of weeks now, I'm guessing, except a few of you I recognize who stayed with us recently. I can guess you're ready to eat something with a little crunch to it?”

Aaron shouted, “Hot damn!” then fell silent as the others laughed.

“I'll take that as a 'yes,'” Max said. “Well, we've got some nice hot fresh bread, a fresh salad from our hydroponics garden, a couple different pastas and sauces, some oven-baked fish with crispy skin, and to finish up, a hot chocolate cake.”

Jass felt her knees go weak; she was used to the spacer's diet. But to have an unexpected dinner, a meal with heat and texture and everything that the processed food lacked...It was enough to make a woman feel a little weak in the knees. Looking around, she could tell that she was far from the only one with that response.

Elena noticed, too. “Why don't ya'll have a seat while dinner finishes up? It should be soon: the crew from the day shift will be getting off in about ten minutes, and they try to get up here while the food's still hot.”

The crews sat down, the Pequod crew at one table, and the Curious Machine crew at another. Jass glanced at Aaron. “Happy about getting some real food again?”

“Oh, happy does not even begin to describe it. Every time I go home to Mars, the first thing I do is get...a friend to let me use her kitchen to make every food I've been missing. I usually blow the first half of my paycheck at the grocery store just stocking up on all the things I've been missing.”

“I know what you mean, Aaron,” commented Kara, overhearing the conversation. “I usually stop off at the store on my way home from the hangar, no matter how tired I am, because real food trumps sleep for at least a week after I get home.”

“Fried chicken. I always crave fried chicken after the first few weeks in the black,” Aaron continued. “Fried chicken and pocky.”

“Pocky?” Kara laughed. “Really?”

“Don't tell me it's for kids, because that stuff is delicious,” he protested. “I have a whole shelf in my pantry that stays stocked with it.”

Jass laughed, picturing Aaron standing in front of his pocky stash like a connoisseur, selecting which box to open next.

In a few minutes, the doors opened and men and women began to fill the room. Jass looked around, wondering what sort of people lead this life. She couldn't imagine living this close to space without being on a ship.

The people she saw seemed tired but happy; the women wore their hair short, in bobs that bounced lightly in the low gravity of the asteroid. The men tended to be shorter than average, but stockily built. Friends greeted each other with shouts and laughter, and children ran around the edges of the room shrieking with the excitement of a party.

A clang sounded, and the din quieted until Jass could see Elena standing in the middle of the room with a metal spoon and a large pot. “That's better! Alright everyone, I think we're pretty much all here, so let's get started!” The applause and shouting crescendoed again and Elena was forced to bang on the pot several times to restore order. “Hang on, I'm not done yet! You've heard about the problems that our friends on the Pequod had when they left us, but they're back with us safe and sound! That's half the party right there!”

The Pequod crew waved from their table, and a few cheers went up from the room. Elena continued. “But the other half of the party is because of these folks over here, the crew of the Curious Machine! They were en route at the time, which is damned lucky for the Pequod, because they heard the distress signal in time to slow down, come around, and pick up the crew. Hell, they even saved some of the cargo!”

The applause and cheering was deafening as the shouts echoed off the metal interior of the building. Jass felt her face turning red, and had to be dragged to her feet by Elena. The ruckus continued for a few minutes before Elena banged on the pot again.

“Alright, we've done our cheering, now it's time to eat! And you can cheer for that if you want, but you'd best get in line in a hurry. If you stop to cheer, it's all going to be gone.”

There was a brief cheer, but most of the people got up to line up for the food. Elena grabbed Jass by the wrist and pulled her to the front of the line, with the rest of the crew following behind. “Your crew gets to go first, since you're the reason for our celebration. And don't be too put off by all the attention; one day is pretty much the same as any other out here, so we make a big deal out of things whenever we can. Helps break up the monotony.”

The Curious Machine crew was able to fill their plates with food quickly, but getting back to their seats proved more difficult. At every step, someone stopped them to congratulate them on a successful rescue, or ask about the latest news from Spirit City, or about their route.

Finally, they sat down at their table. The miners understood the importance of a solid meal after weeks in space, and left them alone to eat in peace. Jass bit into the hot fresh bread, and felt the crust crunch into flakes on her tongue. She could feel the butter coating the bread, running hot and liquid at the corners of her mouth. Next, she sliced a bite of fish off her fillet and tasted it, closing her eyes as the crispy skin crackled. The pasta was hot and fresh, covered in a mushroom sauce, and the salad full of flavor. She tried to hold herself back, but in a few moments, the entire plate was empty and wiped clean with the last of the bread.

Aaron looked over at her plate and laughed. “I guess you were hungry, captain.”

“Just a little bit, yeah.” She leaned back in her seat with a sigh of contentment. “I had no idea I was that hungry.”

“I hope you saved room for dessert,” said Elena, stopping by their table. “Max is pretty proud of it. Here he comes now.”

The young man appeared, holding a large tray of small plates, each with a single chocolate cake in the center. He carefully set a plate in front of each crew member. “Hurry, you don't want these to get cold!”

Jass looked at Aaron, who shrugged and cut into the little cake with a fork. A wave of chocolate spilled out of the cake, pooling on the plate. Aaron whistled and quickly stuffed the bite into his mouth. The others wasted no time in cutting into their own cakes while the dessert was distributed to the rest of the diners.

As the food was consumed, the noise level in the room slowly rose. Finally, after the last plate was cleared and the noise had reached an almost deafening level, Elena stood and called for attention.

“Now that we've been fed, I think it's time for some entertainment!” A roar of approval drowned out her words, prompting another clang from the pot. “Volunteers, step up and pick up your gloves!”

She stepped out of the center of the room and seated herself next to Jass. “Is it a boxing match?” Jass asked over the noise of the crowd,

Elena laughed. “Not really. I guess it's a little like wrestling. We call it magging. It's something that developed among the mining colonies in the asteroid belt, since it's really the only place where the gravity is right.”

Two men stepped up to the plastic sphere in the middle of the room, holding a small box of gloves. From where Jass sat, the gloves appeared to have metal strips embedded in them.

“See those?” Elena said to the whole table, pointing to the box. “They come in sets of four. Each pair in that set will have one negatively charged glove and one positively charged gloves. If you have a negatively charged glove on your left hand, your opponent's will be on his right hand.”

Kara spoke up. “Oh, I think I've heard about this. The gloves will naturally repel each other because of the similar charge.”

“Exactly! The goal is to stick your opponent's hands together while keeping your own free. It's harder than it looks.” Elena motioned for them to watch.

The first two competitors had entered the sphere and latched the door behind them. One was small and wiry, with a shock of close-cropped red hair. The other was taller and dark-skinned, with glossy black hair. Each stood in a low crouch, hands up in a guarded position. They circled each other for a few moments, then the red haired man lunged at the other one.

Everything was a blur of motion for a moment, then the twp seperated, panting. Jass had missed the action, but Aaron yelled in her ear, “That was amazing! Did you see the way he moved? He used the back of his glove to try to slam the other guy's hand across his chest!”

“I think this is going to move too fast for me,” Jas sshouted back. Elena motioned to the clear cage where the action was beginning again.

The taller man grinned at his wiry opponent, and stood still, waiting, while the redhead danced back and forth, looking for an opening. Finally, the two lunged at each other, hands grabbing for each other. It was a strange sight, Jass thought: the sheer weight and force of each man held his hand in place, but neither pair of hands touched. There was a wide space between each one. The red haired man tried to gain an advantage by walking halfway up the side of the cage, propped against his opponent's hands, but the darker man shifted his left hand downward, and the first man lost his balance and toppled to the floor of the cage amid groans from the crowd. The motion bounced him off the floor of the cage, and he quickly braced himself against the top of the sphere before letting himself fall back to his feet again.

They circled and lunged several times, and Jass wondered when they would get tired; it looked exhausting. It was almost like watching fighting fish in a bowl, she thought. The low gravity of Cybele made it possible for the men to walk up the sides of the sphere with little effort, flip over each other's heads, and twist away with a single leap. Again, the pair locked their hands without touching, and moved around the cage, trying to get the other's grip to break. Finally, the darker man pushed hard against the other man's hands, causing him to take a step backward and up the wall of the sphere. With a quick move, he twisted his wrist so that his hand was outside the red haired man's hand, with palm pointing inward, and shoved it with all his strength.

The red haired man threw up his other hand to balance himself as he flew across the sphere, and found his palms locked together by the magnets in the gloves. He swore once, then pulled the gloves off and shook his opponent's hand with a grin. The darker man remained in the sphere, and yelled insults at the next man in line, who was putting on his own set of gloves.

“It's the official sport of the asteroid miners,” shouted Elena over the noise. “Everywhere else has too much gravity to do it right, though they've tried to get it going on some of the moons. Nothing like it anywhere else in the solar system, am I right?”

“I've never seen anything like it,” Jass shouted back, applauding for the fighters. “It's almost like a dance, or like swimming, more than wrestling.”

The competition lasted for hours, and after the Curious Machine crew learned more of the rules of the game, they found themselves cheering, groaning, yelling and cheering along with the crowd of miners.

Hours later, the crew staggered back toward their quarters for the night, still laughing and cheering. The crowd of miners thinned as various groups split off to go to their own lodgings, calling out encouragements or taunts to their friends and the visiting crews, who gleefully returned them. Aaron's arm was draped around Denjiro's shoulder as the navigator laughed. They finally arrived at their quarters and each pair went into their assigned room.

Martina entered the room first and switched on the light. Jass felt breathless from laughing and cheering, and sat down on one of the bunk beds to catch her breath. “That...I don't even know what that was. I have never been to anything even a little bit like that.”

The younger girl didn't respond, but began changing into her pajamas. Jass leaned forward and said, “I know it's hard when someone you've fallen for betrays you, but moping like this won't help. It won't make him treat you better and it won't make you feel better.”

“Stop telling me what to do!” Martina yelled. “I don't care how much older you are or how much more experience you have, or anything else! You're not me, and you don't know my life, so just leave me the hell alone!” She jumped up the ladder to the top bunk and disappeared under the blanket.

“Martina...”

“I mean it, just leave me alone! When we're back on the ship, you're my boss and I'll do whatever jobs you want, but I don't have to take your advice about this!” The voice was muffled under the blanket and Jass though she might have started crying again.

“alright, alright...”

With her mood dampened, Jass changed into her sleeping clothes and got into the bed. It took a while for the adrenaline of the evening to wear off. Finally, she drifted off.