15:39 (Universal Time)
Thursday, August 2, 2317
Docking Station 5, Callisto Space Terminal
Callisto (8th moon of Jupiter)
Jovian System
Tina Forster was in attendance with Natalia Vasilyeva, the ship’s chief hostess, and Bill Morrison, the head of security of the KOSTROMA, at the port access airlock when a long convoy of ground cars and buses arrived at the ship’s reception point. From having followed on the public viewing video channel of the Callisto Space Terminal the ceremony given in their honor, Tina knew that the convoy carried the crewmembers of Station Eris, the prefabricated scientific base to be carried to the dwarf planet Eris by the KOSTROMA. Also coming along was a small army of astronomers, geophysicist, planetologists and space habitat engineers and technicians, plus family members of the Station Eris’ crew and working passengers, who would travel to Eris but would return with the ship to Callisto. There were even 32 paying passengers who were either rich enough to pay by themselves for such a long space trip or were sponsored by associations or corporate entities. Altogether, she expected a total of 789 passengers for this expedition, nearly three times the KOSTROMA’s normal crew of 280 persons, to which one had to add the more than 400 family members of her crew who lived permanently aboard her ship, but still much less than the maximum passenger capacity of her ship. To provide for all those extra people for over a year, thousands of tons of supplies of various types, including foodstuff, were being loaded aboard via the aft port cargo access airlock. As for the prefabricated module elements of Station Eris, they were already hooked up to the cargo module clamps along the flanks and the bottom surface of her giant ship.
As the lead buses and ground cars came to a halt near her group, Tina smiled and nodded to Natalia, Bill and the ten employees from the JUPITER Sex Club who would help guide the newcomers to their quarters and then give them a quick tour of the ship’s facilities. The twelve men and women then each boarded a bus, while Tina went to the lead ground car, which carried Oleg Ulianov and Mireille Cartier, respectively the chief planetologist and chief astronomer of Station Eris. Taking place in the front passenger seat, she turned towards the rear and smiled to the two graying scientists, whom she had met already many times during the last couple of weeks.
‘’Welcome to the KOSTROMA, Doctor Ulianov and Doctor Cartier. I will personally guide you to your quarters. Once you are settled in, I would be happy to invite you to my table for supper.’’
‘’And we will be happy to accept your invitation, Captain.’’ Replied Ulianov, who was officially in charge of Station Eris. ‘’When are we due exactly to depart for Eris?’’
‘’If there are no hiccups, we should undock at nine o’clock this evening. Maneuvering and moving to a safe distance before lighting up our main drive will take another hour or so afterwards.’’
Mireille Cartier was next to speak from her rear seat, bending forward to gently press Tina’s right hand.
‘’I must again thank you for offering to carry the family members of our station’s crew at no cost, Captain Forster. To have our spouses and younger children aboard during the outgoing trip will do a lot to keep up the morale of our people.’’
‘’It was truly my pleasure, Doctor Cartier.’’ Replied Tina while smiling to the French planetologist. ‘’To be truthful, since the Spacers League’s Administration was already funding this expedition and your trip, and since I have hundreds of suites suitable for families, it didn’t really cost me anything extra to invite the families of your people aboard, apart from the cost of the food for them. Even part of that extra cost is being covered by the Jovian Administration, thanks to a deal between me and Governor Robeson. Since my ship possesses full medical and educational facilities to accommodate families with children, along with commercial and entertainment establishments, why not use them to the fullest anyway?’’
‘’Still, your offer was very generous and was most appreciated, Captain.’’
‘’Please, simply call me ‘Tina’ instead of ‘Captain’, Doctor.’’
‘’Only if you call me ‘Mireille’ in return.’’
‘’Deal!’’
As they spoke, the convoy started rolling, guided by a ship’s electric cart driven by a crewmember. Delivering the nearly 800 newcomers to the Hangar Deck, on Level 7, and bringing them and their luggage to their suites on the Bow Gravity Sail Deck’s apartment ring, 75 meters up, took less than forty minutes. Once that was done, Tina excused herself with Ulianov and Cartier and went to see Denise Lonsdale, the ship’s cargo master. She found her with Winnie Zambela, the ship’s assistant purser, as they were supervising the storing of countless crates and kegs in the wine and liquors cellar of the Main Cafeteria Deck, on Level 10. Tina’s eyes widened when she saw the product descriptions on the crates and kegs and the amount involved.
‘’My god! Are we leaving for a long range scientific expedition or for a year-long beer and wine festival?’’
The black assistant purser gave her an amused smile in response.
‘’It may seem a lot of alcohol to you, Tina, but we will be in space and away from everything else for over a year…if we don’t hit any snag. Also, contrary to our common average passenger, those scientists, engineers and technicians on the whole earn an average salary that is much higher than that of middle class passengers. They thus have a lot more money available to burn during their trip, which will by itself be much longer than usual for us…and will feel very long for them. I am actually wondering if we will have enough to follow up with the demand for the whole trip. The various owners of our commercial concessions, and especially those of restaurants, have made the same reasoning and are taking delivery of extra supplies and merchandises to be sold to our passengers during our trip to Eris. You should see the amount of bottled or canned sauces, frozen specialty meats and fish, marinades and vegetable oil I have seen stored away since yesterday. Even Madam Lee has hired some extra dancers, ‘to provide a greater variety to her customers’ as she said to me.’’
‘’Uh, I see.’’ Said Tina, still impressed by the long file of kegs and crates. ‘’Let’s hope that we won’t end up stuck with too much leftover stocks at the end of our mission. These crates and kegs represent millions of credits in alcohol products.’’
‘’Bah, don’t worry about that, Tina: those space habitat construction specialists will drink our stores dry by themselves, mark my words.’’
Tina nodded her head before looking at Denise Lonsdale.
‘’How is the loading of our supplies and equipment for the trip going, Denise?’’
‘’There are only a few dozen supply containers left to bring inside the ship, Tina. Most of the work left to be done involves distributing and storing supplies in their correct locations around the ship. Everything will be finished well before our departure time.’’
‘’Excellent! What would I do without you?’’
‘’Panic?’’ Replied the cargo master, grinning. That made Tina pull out her tongue at her before leaving the duo.
21:01 (Universal Time)
Bridge of the A.M.S. KOSTROMA
Docked to the Callisto Space Terminal
‘’All docking clamps are retracted. Our access points are closed and secured.’’
‘’Callisto Space Control has given us permission to undock at our convenience.’’
‘’Very well! Frida, take us away on gravity sail power.’’
‘’Aye, Captain! Pulling out now.’’
The giant cargo ship, measuring a bit over 1,700 meters from end to end and weighing close to eighteen million tons with its present cargo and fuel, started pulling away sideways from the Callisto orbital terminal with apparent majestic slowness, even though it was actually moving away at an acceleration of three meters per second. All the other ships and craft nearby, along with the space terminal itself, were blinking their navigation lights continuously as a salute for the departure of the KOSTROMA on its historic mission. Tina Forster, sitting in her command chair on her bridge, felt immense pride on watching this on the viewing screens. She however didn’t let that pride blind her to the risks and responsibilities of this mission. She was now in charge of over 1,500 souls engaged in a year-long return trip, a trip that would bring them farther from the Sun than any other humans had gone before.
Fifty minutes later, with her ship now far enough from the orbital space terminal and from other ships, Tina told Dana Durning, her chief navigator and unofficial executive officer, to pivot the ship and line it up on the calculated heading for Eris. That heading had been much less simple to calculate than a neophyte would have thought just from looking at a space chart. Even though Eris was at one of its closest point to the Sun in its 557 year-long orbital period and was only 50.1 Astronomical Units from the Sun at the moment, a bit further out than Pluto, it was now moving away along an extended hyperbole with an inclination of 44 degrees to the Solar System’s orbital plane. This meant that, on top of accelerating to the orbital speed of Eris to rise towards it, the KOSTROMA would also have to add a significant velocity vector at a right angle, in order to push its trajectory to a 44 degree inclination. Any lesser ship carrying the same mass of cargo as the KOSTROMA was right now would have had barely enough fuel to get to Eris, orbit it for a while and then return on a slow trajectory that would take over four years. In contrast, thanks to its high efficiency fusion engines and huge fuel tanks, the KOSTROMA was going to be able to do the return trip in less than six months. With its flight plan in automated mode and with all the parameters double-checked and all systems showing nominal, Tina spoke six words in a calm voice to her pilot.
‘’Light up the drive, half power!’’
In the black space around the Callisto orbital space terminal, a searing point of white light suddenly appeared, quickly turning into a long, pencil-thin white flame. That long flame gradually accelerated away towards outer space, decreasing in size and finally disappearing from the sight of the viewers on the station after a minute or so.