Chronicles of Athena Lee Book 3

Chapter 6

Chapter 6

Flying the Starfury Mark 1 has got to be the best ride in the galaxy! The single seat fighter was easily the most recognizable fighter in any galaxy. Each of us was assigned one as part of our training package. The UN trainers had set up an obstacle course of sorts in the space surrounding the station. The objective was to do as many laps as possible in the time allotted. The sneaky part was that starting on the second lap, there were simulated pirates and meteors to deal with. On the fifth lap, the ship’s systems were programmed to produce random failures.

The goal was to teach us to expect the unexpected and how to quickly and correctly react to it. Upon completing the course, each fighter was stripped down and checked for damage and wear. The ships were then rebuilt and reprogrammed. All of this was done by us, the cadets. This lesson was solely about self-sufficiency. Everything that we did contained a lesson. Some good some bad. Some of these lessons resulted in casualties.

My brother Anthony was one of those who had suffered. Now that ‘The Program was in its fifth year, genetically programmed growth spurts had kicked in. We went from being the size of normal-five-year-olds to that of 18-year-olds in a matter of months. The doctors that were part of the system informed us that we would have one more growth spurt at age eight, which would set our basic shape permanently.

To me, this made a whole lot of sense. Space suits pretty much came in one or two basic sizes. How would we find new suits if we grew older and larger normally? It dawned on us that the program administrators had been waiting for us to finish our training. We all needed to be bigger to fly the ships.

The first lesson we learned was how to wear a spacesuit properly. Each piece of the suit served a specific purpose. Leave one off, even by accident, and there could be a tragedy. Poor Anthony was one such loss.

Underneath the suit, each person was supposed to wear three different, specific layers of jumpsuits. A basic gauze-like body suit that allowed the body to breathe and keep cool. The second layer was similar to a sensor suit that a VR participant might wear; it read your body’s responses to heat, cold, and other external stimuli. The third layer was a cross between Nomex and neoprene. This layer protected from fire and cold. The layers needed to be worn in that specific order.

Over them was the newest state-of-the-art space suit. These were made from a revolutionary lightweight metallic compound that had been discovered in the asteroid belt. Not found on Earth, Rigveda was easily mined, and the UN used it to build practically everything.

Putting these suits on in regular gravity showed they were no heavier than that of an old-fashioned rubber diving suit. As one complete unit, the suit kept you at an even body temperature at all times. It had repeatedly been stressed to all of us the importance of following procedure when putting on all the layers. Anthony taught us all to remember that lesson.

“Attention. Attention. This is not a drill! This is not a drill!”

“There is a pressure leak on Level Three. There is a pressure leak on Level Three.”

At the first words over the speaker, we all sprang into action as we had drilled for years. Counting in my head, I put the layers on in numerical order. All of our hard suits were racked in power ports along the walls. As we climbed into the suits, we could see and hear the leak as it became a torrent. With a loud whistling and roar, the bulkhead gave way, sucking us all into space.

Using our training, we began linking our suits together making chains using the built-in secure cables on our belts. As we linked up, I looked over at Anthony to check his cable connection. I could see sweat beading up on his face, his faceplate fogging up. I pulled myself along the cable and grabbed hold of his arm. I put my helmet next to his to better communicate.

“Anthony! Are you okay?” His eyes were wide, and his face was growing red. He shook his head at me and tried to speak. For some reason, his communication system wasn’t functioning. I checked his suit, front and back as quickly as I could. Not seeing anything wrong, I pulled out a communication line and connected it directly to his suit.

“Anthony, can you hear me now?” Silence. There was a faint scratching noise and lots of static. I looked up at my brother. His eyes were now very wide, almost wild. His face was bright red, and he was starting to gasp as if he was out of breath. I checked his readouts. Everything appeared to be normal with his suit. He had plenty of air. But his body shook uncontrollably as he started to convulse.

Several of the others were now helping as we tried to hold him still. I was looking into his wide eyes when they grew pale as the ‘light’ went out of them. My brother was dead. We floated in space holding the body of our brother and teammate for the next two hours.

The medicos that examined Anthony later concluded that his death was a tragic accident brought on by the haste of the emergency. Anthony had not followed the set procedure for putting on this suit. He had put the under layers on wrong. He must have gotten confused and put the sensor suit on first, followed by the cool suit. The cool suit registered as cold air to the sensor suite. So, the sensors had kept increasing the internal temperature inside the suit to compensate. Anthony died of heat stroke in the icy depths of space.

Anthony’s death gave us grave perspective, and we vowed to do better and to learn everything that the Program deigned to teach us. From that point on, our team would forever strive to be the best in honor of our brother Anthony 0257. But our challenges only grew harder, and in time we lost more of our brothers to accidents.