age of miracles
December 8th, 2016, 13:13 Earth Time.
Margie's eyes had met Chuck's over the small bank of monitors that separated them. As Gene Patrick watched the miraculous return of the courageous crew on the viewport, they had slipped out and separated without a word, each moving to the spiral staircases which surrounded the tubes in the Hub structure alone, Margie's to the left of Flight Control, Chuck's to the right.
When they reached the top of the stairs, they stopped and looked around. Seemingly satisfied, their eyes met above the crowd in the assembly hall. They exchanged subtle nods and disappeared down the stairs.
On SubLevel 4, they met again, two floors below the assembly hall, beside the entrance to the tubes. Margie produced a key, unlocked the firehose door, and reached in behind the hose itself.
There was an audible click, lost on all ears but theirs. From the far side of the hall, they heard something heavy sliding slowly. When the sound ended there was a dull thud, followed by the muffled sounds of a man yelling and pounding on something.
Margie reached behind the hose again, pressing a button.
There was a faint hissing noise from the direction of the man's commotion.
Chuck opened the maintenance closet beside the firehose housing and pulled out a small crawler, a piece of carbon with casters on it, and two gas masks. He handed one mask to Margie.
Margie let a minute pass on her watch. The noise in the distance stopped.
Margie held the gas mask in her right hand as she clicked her last switch, and the heavy sliding noise began once more.
They both donned the gas masks and moved swiftly past the tube doors. They turned left at the end of the short tube access, just in time to see two massive plexiglass doors slide back into the walls.
The brig guard lay unconscious where he'd been pounding on the plexiglass. Chuck searched him for the keys and unclipped them from his belt. Gas masks on, they walked the 10 meters to the cells, two big holding pens, two single-occupant units. A plain wooden desk and chair placed to observe them all.
They found Copernicus Rade Nagas in the last cell in the row, his gaunt features and salt and pepper beard unmistakable. Chuck unlocked the cell, and Margie helped him raise Nagas' head as he slid the crawler under him. Chuck towed him out of the cell, and began to move him up the ramp to the tubes.
Margie relocked the cell behind them, and returned the keys to the belt of the unconscious guard.
Chuck pressed the button for tube 4. His vox box lit up instantly and he clicked on. "Target acquired, Jimmy, reactivate tube four on high speed service."
The lights came on in the tube 4 cabin, the doors opened and they slid Nagas in on the crawler. Margie punched her code into the tube keypad.
The doors closed, the rotation backwards and down began. Once they were horizontal, the cab accelerated quickly on it's trip outward from the core to the outer ring.
In ten seconds, the autobraking kicked in and the Youngmans used one hand each to keep from banging their heads on the front part of the sled, the other to hold Nagas safe from a similar accident.
The sled stopped and the hydraulics began to push them vertical again. They had eased Nagas back down onto the crawler. When the doors opened, Chuck clicked the send button on his voxbox, and Jimmy Fenster returned the sled to normal service.
The doors opened to half a dozen surprised faces.
Chuck pulled the crawler out. "Which way to MedLab?"
A man pointed to their left. "That way, first hall on the right."
Chuck Youngman smiled at him a little. "Thanks."
As they moved along the way with some feigned urgency, Margie said "Two fifty-two."
Chuck looked a bit surprised. "I thought we were better than that."
She looked disappointed. "Me too."
They turned down the hall.
"Ready?" Chuck looked at her.
"Just a sec, checking the number again, she only came up yesterday so she has a new voxbox."
Chuck looked down at Nagas, knelt and tightened the man's traditional Gvot headdress. "Mebbe you should mention to her we don't want to be doing this again."
Margie was satisfied. "OK, now." She walked away, dialing a number on her vox. She turned right at the end of the hall.
Chuck knelt behind the crawler, pushed it up to speed as if he were curling, then stopped dead, holding onto the crawler handle to keep it from disappearing with their guest.
After his departure, crawler in hand, it looked for all the world like an unconscious Copernicus Nagas had slid on his back from the Hub Brig into an outer-ring MedLab unassisted.
Hilary Erhard answered the call promptly. "Commander Erhard."
The woman's voice was strong and clear. "What you want is in the MedLab at the end of tunnel four on wheel one. It would be nice if we could keep him this time."
The voxbox clicked off without waiting for a reply.
Erhard turned her smiling face to her two newest trusted accomplices. "Well, that's one thing out of the way."
Margie's eyes had met Chuck's over the small bank of monitors that separated them. As Gene Patrick watched the miraculous return of the courageous crew on the viewport, they had slipped out and separated without a word, each moving to the spiral staircases which surrounded the tubes in the Hub structure alone, Margie's to the left of Flight Control, Chuck's to the right.
When they reached the top of the stairs, they stopped and looked around. Seemingly satisfied, their eyes met above the crowd in the assembly hall. They exchanged subtle nods and disappeared down the stairs.
On SubLevel 4, they met again, two floors below the assembly hall, beside the entrance to the tubes. Margie produced a key, unlocked the firehose door, and reached in behind the hose itself.
There was an audible click, lost on all ears but theirs. From the far side of the hall, they heard something heavy sliding slowly. When the sound ended there was a dull thud, followed by the muffled sounds of a man yelling and pounding on something.
Margie reached behind the hose again, pressing a button.
There was a faint hissing noise from the direction of the man's commotion.
Chuck opened the maintenance closet beside the firehose housing and pulled out a small crawler, a piece of carbon with casters on it, and two gas masks. He handed one mask to Margie.
Margie let a minute pass on her watch. The noise in the distance stopped.
Margie held the gas mask in her right hand as she clicked her last switch, and the heavy sliding noise began once more.
They both donned the gas masks and moved swiftly past the tube doors. They turned left at the end of the short tube access, just in time to see two massive plexiglass doors slide back into the walls.
The brig guard lay unconscious where he'd been pounding on the plexiglass. Chuck searched him for the keys and unclipped them from his belt. Gas masks on, they walked the 10 meters to the cells, two big holding pens, two single-occupant units. A plain wooden desk and chair placed to observe them all.
They found Copernicus Rade Nagas in the last cell in the row, his gaunt features and salt and pepper beard unmistakable. Chuck unlocked the cell, and Margie helped him raise Nagas' head as he slid the crawler under him. Chuck towed him out of the cell, and began to move him up the ramp to the tubes.
Margie relocked the cell behind them, and returned the keys to the belt of the unconscious guard.
Chuck pressed the button for tube 4. His vox box lit up instantly and he clicked on. "Target acquired, Jimmy, reactivate tube four on high speed service."
The lights came on in the tube 4 cabin, the doors opened and they slid Nagas in on the crawler. Margie punched her code into the tube keypad.
The doors closed, the rotation backwards and down began. Once they were horizontal, the cab accelerated quickly on it's trip outward from the core to the outer ring.
In ten seconds, the autobraking kicked in and the Youngmans used one hand each to keep from banging their heads on the front part of the sled, the other to hold Nagas safe from a similar accident.
The sled stopped and the hydraulics began to push them vertical again. They had eased Nagas back down onto the crawler. When the doors opened, Chuck clicked the send button on his voxbox, and Jimmy Fenster returned the sled to normal service.
The doors opened to half a dozen surprised faces.
Chuck pulled the crawler out. "Which way to MedLab?"
A man pointed to their left. "That way, first hall on the right."
Chuck Youngman smiled at him a little. "Thanks."
As they moved along the way with some feigned urgency, Margie said "Two fifty-two."
Chuck looked a bit surprised. "I thought we were better than that."
She looked disappointed. "Me too."
They turned down the hall.
"Ready?" Chuck looked at her.
"Just a sec, checking the number again, she only came up yesterday so she has a new voxbox."
Chuck looked down at Nagas, knelt and tightened the man's traditional Gvot headdress. "Mebbe you should mention to her we don't want to be doing this again."
Margie was satisfied. "OK, now." She walked away, dialing a number on her vox. She turned right at the end of the hall.
Chuck knelt behind the crawler, pushed it up to speed as if he were curling, then stopped dead, holding onto the crawler handle to keep it from disappearing with their guest.
After his departure, crawler in hand, it looked for all the world like an unconscious Copernicus Nagas had slid on his back from the Hub Brig into an outer-ring MedLab unassisted.
Hilary Erhard answered the call promptly. "Commander Erhard."
The woman's voice was strong and clear. "What you want is in the MedLab at the end of tunnel four on wheel one. It would be nice if we could keep him this time."
The voxbox clicked off without waiting for a reply.
Erhard turned her smiling face to her two newest trusted accomplices. "Well, that's one thing out of the way."