As the MetteCraft-636S short-range transporter rolled off its acceleration slope, Arthur sighed a breath of relief. Despite traveling more than most, Arthur always felt uneasy during the initial sharp acceleration out of a planet’s atmosphere. Usually the tension in the pit of Arthur’s stomach would start to melt after being released from the grip of acceleration, but surrounded by Lockett’s thugs, Arthur could not get himself to relax. Arthur and the two men were now just about a third of the way from Koss City to the long-range freighter that would take him the rest of the way to the city of Etna on Ukemochi.
Sitting directly across from Arthur was very tall, sharply dressed lackey with reddish-grey hair. From his height and the tint of his hair, Arthur was able to surmise that this man must come from Io. (The very low gravity caused Ionian children to grow exceptionally tall, and the reddish tint was likely a by-product of the TeneNitrogenous fertilizers used by the protein farmers on Io.)
In an attempt to break the tension, Arthur feigned a soft, sympathetic smile to the Ionian across from him, and remarked, “It’s truly a travesty what happened on Io earlier today. I’ve not had time to catch up on the details, but I hope you didn’t have loved-ones lost in the attack.” No reaction from the Ionian. Figures, Arthur thought to himself, and he decided to occupy himself in another way.
Arthur unbuckled himself and floated across the zero-g cabin over to the porthole. Most short-range shuttles in Arcturus did not have viewing ports. They were too expensive and too vulnerable to justify. Happenstantial then that this one, and many other shuttles that operated around Koss, did. Koss was beautiful, and the rich tourists from Kepler and Tycho demand such luxuries when they visited. They were happy to pay for the privilege of an opportunity to ogle at the gas giant jewel that fueled their economy. Arthur didn’t blame them. It was one of his favorite things to do as well.
Arthur sighed once again as he gazed across Koss’s brilliant blue star-sapphire-like surface contrasted against the absolute blackness of deep space. His mind began to drift.
Arthur found himself reminiscing on the last time he looked out on Koss from a porthole. He was with his family and on the way to the planet hopper from New Victoria to the rich moon, Honos, in orbit around Kepler. It was a classy ship. Huge rotating rings to simulate gravity filled with all types of entertainment, including actual swimming pools with a viewing port the size of two of him, not the six inch thing he was looking out of! Half the fun was the trip over and back. The spaceflight was relatively short too. Those luxury ships only ran when the flight path between destinations were optimal, which is rare, especially for when traveling from the deep fringes of Arturus. In fact, beautiful Koss and its moon New Victoria is the only place past the Goshen Belt a luxury ship like that would be seen.
The orientation of Koss and Ukemochi was approaching their apogee-minor—the longest distance between the two planets—certainly a less than optimal time for Arthur to begin his trip sunward. No luxury ships would be making this voyage for months. In fact, very few ships at all were flying this route. His only choice was to hitch a ride on the Hitachi, a gargantuan, ugly freighter built to haul Kossite, an extremely valuable mineral mined in the crushing depths of Koss and Fidge & Co’s main export, to industrial cities like Etna.
Arthur felt a small tug at his body as the shuttle reoriented itself for deceleration. As the craft rotated, the Hitachi replaced the pleasing image of Koss. The simple change in perspective ripped Arthur from his daydream and brought him back to the harsh present reality.
From bow to stern, the Hitachi was engineered for with one purpose: industrial efficiency. Nothing on the outside was built for aesthetics. The ship was simply a long orthotope - like an unimpressive skyscraper. On board, there was no entertainment area. The crew area was rather small and just enough for a dozen on shift to be comfortable for a little while. The rest of the crew went into hibernation pods to sleep their lives away between the shifts and endless hauls between worlds. The building like, industrial nature of the ship reminded him of where he was going, Etna, and to the nano-factory on the orders of Mila. His brow furrowed and eyes hardened as the apprehensive dislike of her turned into a smoldering rage.
After some pre-hibernation prep that involved not eating or drinking anything for 36 hours except for some bland, green nutri-gel he climbed into his pod, where he would lie in a dreamless, unconscious state for the remainder of the 23-day journey only wake when the Hitchi was docked at Tokyo station in geocentric orbit above Etna.
***
It was Arthurs first time to Ukemochi and the reddish-green of the dense planetary foliage below as he traveled down the space elevator from the station to the city of Etna made his head spin. Ukemochi was a both a breadbasket and high-tech industrial hub of Arcturus. The two mega-cities, Ukemochi City and Etna, each hosted populations of at least 150 million and included some of the most brilliant ecological and industrial engineers in the system.
As he approached Etna, the industrial city and home to his new nano-factory, Arthur began to feel the hard tug of the super earth’s gravity. Frak!, thought Arthur as he felt himself quickly become even more disoriented by the abusive physical stimuli of the new planet. His time was split between Koss, which kept an optimal 1G in the clouds above the crushing gravity of the gas giant, and 0.36G on the moon of New Victoria. It was a hard adjustment to Ukemochi’s 1.86G pull. Arthur groaned in pain as he strained his arm to press the sequence on his haptic band to release pain relievers and stimulants. With a sign of relief, he then programmed the next command to his bio-nanobots, which went to work reinforcing his bones, muscles and organs so they wouldn’t fail or break in the harsh environment.
“This way,” said the tall redhead as they stopped on the upper city platform level and he pointed to a vehicle.
“So, where is this so called factory?” asked Arthur in a tone that showed his discomfort of both the idea of his involvement and the planet it was on.
“Sector 4-A7, about 23 minutes from here, Mr. Fidge. Welcome to Ukemochi. I trust your journey was pleasant,” said a sharply dressed woman with a steely look on her face walking towards him from the flyer. As she got closer Arthur could see the blue hew of an optic implant in her left eye.
“It was ok, thank you. And you are?”
“Krevchenko,” she said. “I am one of Ms. Lockett’s personal assistants, and I have been assigned to you for your stay on Ukemochi.”
“Assigned to me?” Arthur asked, his annoyance betraying him though he otherwise forced an amiable tone. He was suddenly keenly aware of just how short his leash would be here on Ukemochi.
“Yes, Mr. Fidge. Mila has a lot invested in you, and even more invested here on Ukemochi. I’m here to make sure you get what you need.”
I’m sure you are, Arthur thought to himself.
“We’re on a tight schedule,” Krevchenko continued, “so if you would kindly follow me, Mr. Fidge. We have a helijumper ready to take us to the main campus.”
“Please, call me Arthur.”
***
The helijumper’s flight path took Arthur, Krevchenko, and the two thugs that escorted Arthur from Koss directly over the Thamir Materials manufacturing facility. From his window, Arthur had a clear view of the expansive campus and its dozens of buildings, radiating around a tall metallic executive tower that shined brightly with the reflection of the sun and had a twisting structure like rotating blades that rose from a thick cylindrical base to a single bladed pointed top. The helijumper approached the executive tower by degrees, ultimately landing on a pad about a third of the way from the top. Arthur followed Krevchenko who was ahead of him and slightly to his right while the two men flanked him and trailed a step behind.
Krevchenko approached a seemingly blank wall, which parted as the group approached to reveal a vacuum tube transporter. Arthur followed Krevchenko in, while the two men stayed behind.
“Welcome to your new offices. We’ll start the tour in the executive briefing room,” Krevchenko explained, not bothering to turn her head towards him. Arthur said nothing, still disoriented from stasis and gravity shock.
The vacuum tube took them to the top blade of the building and opened. Arthur followed her through a series of doors, up a short flight of stairs and finally into a large meeting room with a 360 view of the city. Chairs surrounded a large table and one of the chairs was filled, but turned away from them. All Arthur could see where a pair of crossed legs sticking out to one side.
“Mr. Fidge, ma’am.” Krevchenko said, quickly turned and walked back the way they came.
The chair turned and Arthurs heart pounded. “Hello, Mr. Fidge,” said Mila with her hands in a diamond shape in front of her and the same smile on her face that he saw at the end of their the hologram conversation on Koss.