Sunspire (The Reach, Book 4) (28 page)

Tobias grinned at him.  “Well, ain’t you a bag of tricks?”

They stood back as the door began to rise, slowly but surely revealing what lay beyond.  As it reached head height, Knile ducked through and took a few steps forward.  The others followed.

Whatever the place was, it was far larger than the way stations.  Once again they found themselves in a loading dock, but this one was more expansive than the ones they had seen previously.  The walls curved outward in both directions, and the ceiling stretched upward in a broad arc.  Knile’s eyes followed it upward, and then he noticed thin, transparent strips set into the roof, and beyond it the glowing orb of Earth.

In addition, he could also see a dark shape slanting away from them in the direction of the planet.

“Look,” he said excitedly.  “It’s another Wire.”

Tobias squinted.  “I’d say you’re right, fella.  Another space elevator.”

“So this has to be Sunspire,” Ursie said, her eyes lighting up.

“Yeah,” Knile said, satisfaction in his voice.  “We made it.”

They progressed further, through another empty and derelict habitat that had obviously not seen activity in a very long time.  As the auto-lights clicked on, it became evident that the place was smaller than Habitat
Thirty-
One and less impressive visually, but Knile figured that perhaps that was partly due to the fact it had been stripped of its valuables a long time ago and left to rot.  In the end, he didn’t much care how it looked, only that it was capable of doing what they needed it to do.

Thankfully, there was one aspect of Sunspire that was still intact: its signage.  There were clear directions to all of the most important features of the habitat –
Spaceport. Living Quarters
. 
Administration.
 
Security.  Recreation
.  It was all spelled out.

“There,” Tobias said at one point, jabbing his finger at a sign.  “
Earthside Transit Control
.  That’s what we’re after.”

They followed the directions and soon arrived at the transit control doors, where Knile once again bypassed security.  Inside they found a control room that featured a broad console set before a bay window, which in turn looked out upon the space elevator itself.

Mounted on the elevator was a craft that looked not unlike the railcar from the Reach.

“There she is,” Tobias said excitedly.  “Your ticket back home.”

“But is the craft functional?” Lazarus said.

“Cross your fingers,” Knile muttered.  He strode over to the console and activated the nearest terminal, wiping away a layer of dust so that he could see it more clearly.  “Okay, the system is powering up, running through some diagnostics.”

He took out the longwave and initiated a call while he watched the boot procedure progress.

“What are you doing?” Ursie said.

“Seeing what’s happening with Talia,” he said.  A few moments later he heard the call connecting through.

“Knile?”

“Talia, good news.  We’re here.  We made it to Sunspire.”

She sighed with relief. 
“That’s great news.”

“We’re booting the system now.  Hopefully we can get it working.  I wanted to check with you about the cruiser that’s going to meet us here.  How long do we have?”

There was a scratching noise as Talia manipulated her holophone.
“About fourteen hours from now, I think.  Give or take.  The captain said he wasn’t going to wait around, Knile.  We have to do this on schedule or we’ll miss out.”

“Okay, we’ll take that into account.”  Knile tapped a button as the console prompted to continue booting after a failed power check.  “How did you go?  Did you reach the bottom end yet?”

“Not yet.  Still climbing the mountain.”
She sounded puffed.

“Okay, keep at it.  I’ll call you back.”

“Okay.”

As Knile hung up, a pleasant female voice flooded the control room.

“Warning, power supply critically low.  Solar cell backup has been utilised.”

“We’re on reserve power,” Knile said.  “The main conduit failed the diagnostics.  No surprises there.”

“Reserve power,” Ursie said.  “I don’t like the sound of that.”

“Yeah.  Who knows how far that’s going to get us.  But it’s not like we have a choice.”

The system completed its boot sequence, and then a dazzling array of parameters lit up the terminal.  Values fluctuated and labels flashed across the screen, none of which meant anything to Knile.

“Hope you can figure out all that gobbledygook,” Tobias said.

“Not sure if I can,” Knile said distractedly.  “Give me a minute with it.”

He began to dig through the menus, taking the system back to the root, and then began searching through each item in turn for ideas.  After several attempts that led nowhere, he found an item called
Documentation
and selected it, then activated the first entry.

A video filled the terminal, depicting a smartly-dressed man in a business suit strolling across a platform with a glinting cityscape as a backdrop.

“In the last two decades, off-world transit has become the largest industry on Earth,”
the man said as he walked. 
“With the rise in popularity of the off-world colonies and the continued decline of conditions here on Earth, it’s no wonder.”

“What is this?” Knile said, baffled.

“Looks like an old commercial of some sort,” Tobias said.  “Haven’t seen one like it in many a year.”

“Sunspire Incorporated is on the cutting edge of transit technologies,”
the man went on. 
“Our blend of highly skilled technicians and the newest hardware will continue to ensure that Sunspire remains the most affordable solution for all of your off-world transit needs, both in today’s world and tomorrow’s.”

“Garbage,” Knile muttered, shutting off the video feed, unable to look at the man’s vapid smile any longer.  He’d obviously moved so far back in the menu system that he’d hit material that did not pertain to the transit system.  “That’s
not
what we’re looking for.”

He kept searching, and in another subfolder he found something that sounded more useful.

“‘Training Materials’.  What’s that?” Ursie said.

He selected the entry and delved through the contents.  Once again, many of the labels sounded unconnected to what they needed, but there was one in particular that caught his eye.

“‘Technical Reference’,” he said.  “This could be it.”

The female voice sounded across the room once again. 
“Welcome to Sunspire Incorporated Training Services.  Sunspire – the most affordable solution for all of your off-world transit needs.”

Much of the material seemed inconsequential once again – health and safety training, fire hazard training, manual handling certification.  Deeper down, however, things became more specific.

“Here!” he said, jabbing his finger at the terminal.  “‘Trainee checklist for transit control’.”

He pored over the instructions for several procedures, and a few minutes later began to tentatively make selections on the production system.

“Transit system diagnostics initiated,”
the announcer said. 
“Estimated duration of journey is six hours.”

“Six hours down, six hours back,” Knile said.  “That’s
a twelve-hour round trip.”

“Cutting it fine,” Ursie said.

“Yeah.  We have to get this thing figured out and get moving.  No time to sit around.”

Urise stared at the console thoughtfully.  “When I linked minds with Heketoro back at the habitat, I could see the things he knew.  In a way, I learned things from him, about how to operate the railcar.  But I have no clue how to use this.  It looks totally different.”

“The company that ran Sunspire is different to the one over at the Reach,” Knile said.  “Probably different hardware, different operating system.  Your knowledge won’t help much here.”

She gave an apologetic twist of her mouth.  “Sorry.”

“Don’t sweat it.  The first thing–”

There was a warning horn, and then a depiction of the railcar appeared on the screen.

“Alert.  Locking mechanism unresponsive.  Repeat, locking mechanism unresponsive.  A work request has been lodged with the maintenance crew.  Ticket identification number is three-zero-one-five-two.”

“That doesn’t sound good,” Ursie said.

Knile examined the screen, where a wedge of metal above the railcar had been highlighted in flashing red.

“Looks like the gizmo that holds the railcar in the dock has seized up.”  He glanced out through the bay window, where the railcar sat exposed in the vacuum of space.  “Let’s see how we can fix that.”

He tapped on the console again, searching for more information.

“In the event of locking release failure, the manual override must be engaged here.”

The image zoomed in to the housing of the mechanism itself, demonstrating with a graphic overlay how to activate the release.

“Simple,” he said.  “We just have to pull that lever.”

“Well, heck.  That thing is outside the habitat,” Tobias said.  “You’ll die if you try goin’ out.”

“Did you not hear the woman’s voice?” Lazarus said.  “A maintenance crew will handle this problem.”

They stared at him blankly, and Knile exchanged a worried look with Ursie.  “Uh, Lazarus, I don’t think there’s a maintenance crew–”

“An attempt at humour,” Lazarus said, spreading his hands in a kind of shrug.  He inclined his head.  “My apologies.”

“Wow,” Ursie said, bewildered.  “He made a joke.  That might be the weirdest thing I’ve
heard
today.  And that’s saying something.”

Knile stepped away from the terminal, suppressing an eruption of maniacal laughter.  He felt as though he were teetering on the edges of his own sanity.

Composing himself, he glanced around at each of them in turn.

“So this is what it comes down to – the railcar isn’t going anywhere unless we activate that release.  Someone’s going to have to go out there.”

34

The shuttle glided
smoothly through the dark tunnel, its solitary headlight stabbing into the gloom.  Duran stooped forward, his hand resting on the dashboard as he stared ahead, watching as the dilapidated maglev track disappeared beneath them.

He kept expecting something to be lurking out there, something sinister hiding in the depths of the subway.

“You can quit worrying,” the stocky man, whom they simply referred to as ‘Motor’, said from the driver’s seat.  “No one comes down here anymore.  This is gonna be a nice, smooth ride.”

“Yeah.  I just don’t like surprises.”

Motor waved dismissively at him.  “Go back and enjoy the party.  It’s under control.”

Reluctantly, Duran turned and stepped out of the cab and moved back into the passenger section, where Zoe and the others were talking and laughing amongst themselves.  There were nine of them in all, a mixture of men and women from different backgrounds.  Duran hadn’t had time to get to know any of them in any great
depth, but as a whole they seemed relaxed and jovial, as if they’d already left their troubles behind.

The shuttle itself was nothing much to look at on the inside.  Every surface was pockmarked with rust, and the upholstery on the seats had been ripped up or gouged to the point where there was nothing left but bare metal.

No one seemed to mind, however.  Not in the least.

“Don’t just stand there, Alec,” Zoe called out.  She patted the seat next to her, smiling.  “Come on over here.”

There was a rowdy conversation going on between the others, and no one paid him much mind.  Duran moved over to where Zoe was waiting and settled into place, still unable to relax.