Article 23

Chapter I

Justin Bell was heading back to the stars.

He settled back in his chair and felt a chill of excitement race down his back as the airlock door to the Skyhook turbolift slammed shut. He looked over at Matt Everett, his best friend from the Academy, and smiled.

"Well, buddy, good-bye Earth, but back home for you," Justin said with a smile.

"I finally got a chance to see a sunset and go canoeing. There's a lot about Earth I'll miss," Matt replied wistfully.

"But gravity sure ain't one of them," Justin laughed.

Matt gulped and shook his head ruefully. The ultimate moment of embarrassment for the solar sailor had been when he jumped up a bit too quickly at the dinner table, forgetting that he would not simply float away. Instead, he crashed down on the table in the Chinese restaurant, ruining his dress white uniform.

"How you Earthsiders live with gravity all the time is beyond me," Matt said. "It'll be good to be able to float again."

"We'll be back at the Academy soon enough," Justin replied.

It was hard to believe he was actually heading back to the Academy. Only two weeks ago he had thought for sure that he'd wash out at the end of the summer session. Thanks to the help of a lot of friends he managed (somewhat to his own surprise) to squeak through the Astro — Navigation course and was now returning for his first full year as a cadet at Star Voyager Academy.

"Please fasten seatbelts for liftoff," a computerized voice announced.

Justin settled down into his seat by the window and strapped himself in.

"Ladies and gentlemen, welcome aboard Skyhook Tower One, first tower to the stars. This is passenger car number 338, departing at 1303 Greenwich Space Time, arriving at Geosynch Orbit Base at 1919 Greenwich Space Time. Even if you have traveled with us before, please pay close attention to the safety briefing."

Justin watched the computer screen mounted into the back of the seat in front of him as the crew pointed out where space suits were stored in case air pressure inside the cabin was lost. Justin shook his head at that one. If they had a catastrophic depressurization there would be just enough time to look at the instructions for getting the shit out of its bag before it was all over.

"If you have any further questions, please feel free to ask your computer, the serving 'bots, or your flight attendant. We are second in line for boost so please remain in your seats until the seatbelt light is turned off."

A shudder ran through the cabin and Justin looked out the window to watch the show.

He half-wished that he lived back in the old days before 2050 when there was only one way to get into space aboard a shuttle plane. He remembered his grandfather's stories about riding an old United States second generation shuttle, soaring to the heavens atop a pillar of fire. But those days were just about finished because of the Skyhook Tower, which was far safer and a hundred times cheaper for boosting a passenger into space.

The tower was opening up space. Well over a hundred thousand passengers per day were going up or coming back down on the thirty-seven thousand kilometer-high tower, along with several hundred thousand tons of manufactured goods and supplies.

Outside his window he saw the vast domed pavilion of the Rio Skyhook Terminal, packed with thousands of passengers rushing to catch their rides into space or waiting for those coming back. It was obvious who the space travelers returning to Earth were. Many of them had been too long away from the home world's standard gravity and moved slowly, or rode on small float chairs until they got used to gravity again.

"Departure in ten seconds," the computer notified them.

The Skyhook car shuddered again as it rolled along its track and then locked itself on to the side of the tower. Justin pressed his face against the window and looked out across the terminal. Dozens of cars, which were nothing more than long thin tubes eighty feet long and twenty feet wide, were loading up with passengers. On one side of the cars were the heavy magnetic locks that hooked to the tracks located on the side of the tower. The rest of the car was ringed with small porthole windows so that the hundred and twenty passengers on board could watch the show. Once loaded, the car, standing upright, slid out of its terminal gate onto a conveyor track that guided it to one of the vertical magnetic tracks strapped to the side of the tower.

The cars would then ride up the side of the tower into space. Directly in front of the car the track would carry a negative charge while directly behind the car the track was positively charged, the combination propelling the positively charged car in the desired direction. It was the same system used in the magnetic levitation trains that now hooked the world together, with the Express running from New York to Los Angeles in five hours.

The lights in the cabin flickered slightly and the car started up. Justin felt the seat pushing into his back as the terminal floor appeared to drop away. A couple of seconds later they were through the top of the building. It was a scorching hot morning in Brazil, heat shimmers rising off the parking lot and the magnetic levitation train station outside the terminal. To the south of the passenger terminal Justin could see the vast warehouses where cargo bound for space and manufactured goods returning down the tower were stored. Rio had replaced Gape Kennedy and Star City in Russia as the major port into space, though Brazil would soon have competition when the second tower was finished in Indonesia just outside of Jakarta.

He felt as if he were sinking into the seat as the car sped up to over eight hundred kilometers per hour, the fastest it would go while inside the Earth's atmosphere. Within seconds they were nearly six kilometers above the ground.

Justin turned to the computer screen mounted on the seat in front of him and switched it to show the forward view.

Overhead the Skyhook Tower rose like a white finger pointing straight up into space. Of course it was impossible to see the far end of it, which terminated at just over thirty-seven thousand kilometers above the surface of the Earth. It was, he realized once more, the engineering miracle of the 21st century. It had been constructed from the top down. In the same way that the cables of a suspension bridge are woven together, back and forth across a river, the cables that made up the heart of the tower were lowered thirty-seven thousand kilometers down from space and anchored to the ground. It in fact had to be made in space, since the cables were uniquely engineered metal-carbon fibers, with strength ten thousand times that of steel at only a fraction of the weight. They could only be made in the zero gravity and vacuum of space. What was fascinating as well was that the tower was actually held erect by centrifugal force. The rotation of the Earth and the angular momentum thus created held the tower aloft.

The tower was really an elevator to the stars, with nine tracks mounted on the side of the tower. Two were for passengers, one up and one down, with cars departing every minute, and six for cargo, while the final track was for the maintenance crews.

Justin found it to be fascinating that there was a staircase inside the tower that went all the way from the ground up to the first station, which was located five hundred kilometers up. A bizarre new sport had developed with athletes wearing specially designed lightweight pressure suits racing up the steps; the world record for the climb was now just under twenty-two days. A rung ladder inside the tower went up for the next thirty-six thousand and seven hundred kilometers. A few crazies had asked to go for it, though it would take years to finish the climb. The UN and Colonies Space Commission had come down with a definite "No!" on that idea.

The computer screen showed that they were clearing the thirty-five-thousand-meter mark and Justin, glad that he wasn't climbing, looked back out the window. The sky was a deep indigo and he could now begin to make out the curvature of the Earth. Down below the entire Amazon basin was visible. The replanted jungle, which had been saved and regrown throughout the 21st century, spread out before him, its dark green glowing warmly beneath the midday sun.

"I'll miss the green of Earth," Matt said wistfully.

"If we get home for Christmas I'll take you to a pine forest. After it snows it's wonderful, the pine boughs covered with white, everything so silent and smelling just wonderful."

Matt pressed his nose against the window for another look.

"Good-bye, Earth," he said almost sadly.

"Hey, we're heading back to the Academy, don't be so glum," Justin said.

"Yeah, I know. But it was my first time down there. I've been living out in space all my life going down to Earth was about as exciting for me as going into space is for you."

"No frontiers down there," Justin replied. "Space is where it's happening now, and we're part of it."

"If you survive the Academy," a threatening voice behind them commented.

Justin froze as he slowly looked over his shoulder.

It was Brian Seay, their senior cadet instructor from the summer session. Seay towered over them, looking like a shark contemplating his prey.

"How you doing, scrubs?" he asked.

"Glad to be going back, sir," Justin replied, trying to keep a knot from forming in his stomach at the sight of the dreaded senior cadet.

Brian grinned slightly.

"Relax, you two, scrub summer is past. Glad the two of you made it. As of tomorrow you're plebes. Plebes third class but still plebes, and that's a start at least. Congratulations!"

He leaned forward and extended his hand. The threatening look was gone and there was almost an air of comradeship to his gesture. Hesitating a bit, Justin shook it.

"Look, there aren't any other cadets aboard this shuttle car so lets just relax for awhile, OK?"

Seay settled down into an empty chair across from Justin and Matt and strapped in.

"We'll be playing the saluting game again once we get back out there. And besides, the word is you two guys are hot shots, regular heroes for risking your lives to save those two girls. I was proud to have you in my company this summer. You even made me look good!"

Matt blushed at the mention of saving Tanya and Sue. It had even made the news nets back on Earth and resulted in the two of them being interviewed by the local holo station in Lafayette, Indiana while they were there on leave. Matt, who was normally good for a long yarn, simply went tongue-tied when the camera was turned on him, so Justin wound up doing ninety-nine percent of the talking.

He looked down shyly at the red and gold stripe above his left pocket, the life-saving award given to any member of the United Space Military Command who risked his life to save another. He noticed for the first time that Brian was wearing one as well. Brian saw him looking at the decoration and smiled.

"It was nothing much, just a little depressuri-zation accident down on the Moon. I breathed vacuum for a couple seconds when I went out to pull my roommate back in, and they made a big fuss about it later. Hell, the guy owed me twenty bucks on a falcon flying game I didn't want to lose the money!"

Brian laughed quietly and Justin looked at him with renewed respect.

"You joined the Vacuum Breathers' club?"

Brian nodded, a bit embarrassed.

The Vacuum Breathers' club was a mythical club open to anyone who had ever been exposed, without benefit of pressurized suit, to the vacuum of space. Quite a few were qualified to join it, the only problem was that the vast majority of people eligible for membership received their qualification by dying.

"What happened?" Justin asked.

"I really didn't have time to think," Brian said. "I heard the depressurizing alarm go off in my room right after I stepped out and closed the door. They figured out later that an old gasket seal on the window had let go. I looked through the door porthole and saw my roommate Abdul flopping around inside."

He hesitated for an instant as if the memory were alive and floating before him. "You know that once the pressure goes you can't open the door from the inside."

Justin nodded. It was a grim part of standard procedure better to lose the people inside rather than a whole station.

"There were no emergency suits in there and I figured that by the time I got one on he'd be finished. So I secured the door down the corridor behind me, called Base Central Control to release the safety on the door into the room, and went in after him.

"When I popped the door, we didn't have time to drop the pressure in the corridor. Luckily the door opened in rather than out. The moment I opened the door it just exploded inward; I went in and dragged Abdul out. I got a mild case of the bends from it and my eyes hurt for a couple of days, but that was it."

"But what did it feel like?" Justin pressed.

"Sort of strange. I did like they told you to do in training, exhaled and kept my mouth open. If you try and hold the air in you might burst your lungs or eardrums. I couldn't close my eyes because I had to see what I was doing. I guess what got me the most was just how silent it was. The moment the door blew in and I went through, all sound just disappeared, I could see my breath rushing out and turning into a frozen fog, and I could feel the moisture on my eyes and in my nose and mouth just vaporizing. It sort of felt like stepping out into a subzero day. Just real cold."

"That's from the skin moisture boiling off when the atmospheric pressure drops to zero," Matt interjected. "Felt it myself a couple of times."

"Yeah," Brian said with a chuckle. "It was all over with so fast, though. They told me later I got in and out of there, carrying Abdul, in just under ten seconds and once I closed the door the corridor was repres-surized in another ten seconds."

Justin wondered how he would have reacted. Brian made his decision sound so matter-of-fact. In reality, no one would have blamed him for following standard rescue procedure getting a suit on and calling for backup before going in. But that would have taken several minutes and Abdul would have been dead. Brian had not hesitated to make a split-second decision that was a wager with death.

Justin was silent. He looked over at Matt, who appeared ready to start into a story of his own, but his friend simply smiled, knowing it was best not to play one-upmanship with a senior.

"It was no big deal," Brian said quietly. "It kills me how they still have those stupid holo movies where somebody gets caught in a vacuum and their eyeballs or sometimes their whole body just explode. Actually, I think dying in a vacuum isn't too bad a way to go. You just pass out after thirty seconds or so and it's all over."

Justin said nothing in reply. His father had been killed in space; so had Matt's parents he pushed the thought away.

Brian fell silent for a moment and looked out the window.

"Space has a lot of ways of getting you if you aren't on your toes."

Justin turned and looked back out the window, In the short time they had been talking the car had climbed through the four hundred thousand-meter level. The sky was shifting into black, and stars were visible. He could see clear across the Amazon Basin all the way to the snowcapped peaks of the Andes, the surface of the Earth curving away beneath him.

The seatbelt light clicked off.

"Let's go to the top observation deck," Brian said. "It's the best view in the house."

Surprised at how friendly their old nemesis was, Justin and Matt followed along. They crowded into the small elevator that connected the three floors of the car. As they stepped out onto the top floor Justin looked up with a gasp.

High-stress plexishield domed the top of the car, giving a full view in all directions and straight up. You could see the gleaming white pillar of the Skyhook tower rising into space above them.

"Here comes a car heading down," Matt said, and pointed.

It took Justin several seconds to pick it out, a small white cylinder which quickly started to grow in size. For a brief instant Justin felt a moment of panic since it looked like the car was on their track and coming straight in for a head on collision. The car snapped past them on a parallel track and disappeared.

The three settled into lounge chairs in the middle of the room to watch the show as every minute a downward-bound car shot past on the passenger track to their right. Every few minutes a heavy cargo pod whisked by on their left, loaded with several hundred tons of manufactured goods from space. Justin watched the pods go by, realizing just how those manufactured items from space were now so important back on Earth. The cars were loaded with high-grade plastisteel, a hundred times stronger than the old fashioned steel made on Earth, as well as drugs, ball bearings, computer chips, quartz holo cubes, and even the latest rages in the art world, sand cast sculptures from Mars and paintings from the Aquarius Three orbital colony, which was made up almost entirely of artists.

Some of tile stuff those artists were putting out was beyond Justin's comprehension, but the galleries in New York, London, Moscow and Paris were all paying top dollar for it. Small communal colonies were setting up in space every month as groups of people, united by a wide variety of special interests, banded together, had a small orbital home built, and moved from Earth. There were art colonies, religious communities and monasteries, some rather weird cults and even one strange group who pretended they were characters from a popular old television and movie series from the late 20th century.

A lot of older people were retiring to space as well, especially those with disabilities that would have slowed them down on Earth. At some of the colonies many people, born all the way back in the middle of the 20th century, were still going strong and having the time of their lives freed from the bonds of Earths gravity, aided by the new longevity drugs manufactured in space.

"Here comes the five hundred kilometer station," Brian said. "We'd better get our seatbelts back on." Even as he spoke, the computer requested that all passengers return to their seats and buckle up.

The station looked like a huge donut, over one-third of a kilometer across and set like a ring around the tower. Justin gulped hard as the car started a rapid deceleration down to just thirty kilometers per hour.

As the speed dropped off Justin found that it was far easier to pick out details of the tower. The sides were coated with heavy plastisteel shielding. When the tower was built, tens of thousands of objects were still in low Earth orbit, most of it junk going back to the early days of space exploration. A lot of it had been swept up, but there were still occasional stray bits of material, bolts, parts of booster rockets, and supposedly even a camera and glove lost by an early American astronaut drifting around. Without the shielding, an impact could do some serious damage.

Those satellites still in low Earth orbit were carefully routed around the tower, but it was better to be safe than lose a trillion-dollar investment. A battery of laser cannons had recently been installed at the station with the explanation that they could destroy any junk or small meteors that might threaten the tower. Another reason that no one talked about was fear that Trac raiders might show up again as they had seven years ago. Rather than destroy a colony or two, they might go for the tower and cripple the entire space program of Earth.

The five hundred-kilometer station was the offloading point for crews working in low Earth orbit, and it was also a major tourist attraction. As they shifted over to the express track that cut straight through the station Justin caught a glimpse of dozens of tourists out in the vacuum of open space, standing along the railing and leaning over for a look straight back down to Earth.

"Better not slip," Brian observed with a chuckle. "It's a long way down."

"Hey, I heard that somebody jumped off right after the station was completed," Matt said.

"Yeah, the dummy thought that since he was out in space, it was zero gravity. He didn't understand that you needed to be in orbit moving at twenty-seven thousand five hundred kilometers per hour around the Earth to fall free, so he stepped off. They said he screamed all the way down until he hit the atmosphere and burned up."

"What the devil is that?" Matt exclaimed as he leaned forward and pointed.

Four white figures leapt from the side of the station and started to fall, shooting past the car and heading straight down towards Earth.

"Newest sport around," Brian said eagerly. "That guy taking the fall sort of invented it, I guess. Space diving. You leap from the five hundred-kilometer station and free fall for almost four hundred klicks. You have a small reentry shield on your back and retro-rockets to slow you down when you hit the atmosphere. When you get to ten thousand feet, your main chute opens. Best darn thirty minutes of your life!"

"You've done it?" Justin asked.

"Yup," Brian said with a grin. "The Academy opened it up as a competition sport last year. There's talk that it'll be part of the next space Olympics and I plan to be on the team. We see who can land closest to a target back down on the Earth's surface. We're scheduled to do some jumps later this month. Hey, we need a couple more members on the team why don't you two try out?"

"Sure, I'd love it!" Matt said enthusiastically. "It'd be a kick to fall from the sky like that."

Justin nodded as if in full agreement, but in his heart he wished that Brian would forget about it. The idea of falling hundreds of kilometers and thundering through the Earth's atmosphere was not necessarily his idea of a good time.

"I'll put you guys down on the list then," Brian announced.

"Yeah, thanks," Justin replied, wanting to kick Matt for agreeing.

Another jumper leapt off and Justin found it strange that the tourists were applauding, their gloved hands striking together soundlessly.

They shot through the middle of the station past a docked car on a side track, and several seconds later they emerged topside. To his right Justin saw an old-style low orbit transfer ship departing from the station. He had heard that it was a heck of a ride. The moment the ship undocked from the side of the tower it'd start to fall straight down towards Earth, all rockets firing until it accelerated to orbital speed; then it would climb back up and insert into orbit. It was definitely not for the weak of stomach. He was glad that for this trip up he had made sure that he had put on an anti-space-sickness patch, unlike the last time.

"All passengers please remain seated," the computer requested. "We will now accelerate up to our maximum speed of seven thousand two hundred kilometers per hour. Our arrival time at Geosynch Orbit Base is scheduled for 1919 Greenwich Space Time."

"Here we go!" Brian said. "This is my favorite part."

Justin felt as if he had been kicked in the pants. He raised his arm and it felt decidedly heavy. Looking over at a computer terminal display, he saw that they had just hit 2.1 gees acceleration and were holding. Their speed quickly climbed through a thousand kilometers an hour. The side of the tower became a blur. They crossed through two thousand and then three thousand kilometers per hour, the car riding smoothly. Downbound cars on other tracks snapped by and were soon almost impossible to see except for a flash of light that shot past in the blink of an eye.

He turned his head to one side and saw the curvature of the Earth sweeping away. All of Central

America and southern Mexico were clearly visible along with the turquoise blue of the Caribbean Sea. Feeling slightly dizzy, he turned to look straight back up and closed his eyes for a minute.

"Acceleration is complete. Please feel free to get up out of your seats," the computer announced. "If you should feel hungry, refreshments are being served on the bottom deck."

Justin gulped hard and waited for a moment but his stomach didn't give any signs that it wanted to rebel. He looked over at the gravity meter on the computer screen. As the ear climbed farther away from Earth, gravity would slowly drop away to only a fraction of surface gravity at the top of the tower. But the car would slowly continue to accelerate, holding at a steady 2 gee until final deceleration.

"Let's get some grub and watch the show down below," Brian said.

Matt, feeling a bit shaky, followed them over to the small spiral staircase rather than wait for the elevator. They went down the three levels to the bottom floor of the car, and as they stepped out Matt gasped in surprise. The floor was covered in plexishield, and the bottom cover had been retracted. Earth, now nearly three thousand kilometers away, was visible directly below his feet.

He stood there for a moment, absolutely amazed by the view. The entire sphere of the Earth was now visible, filling up most of space below, as was the long thin needle of the tower going straight down until it simply disappeared from view.

Matt shook his head and moved to join Brian at a table in the corner of the room but Justin found that he wasn't hungry at the moment. He was far more interested in watching Earth as it slowly dropped away.

The first-timers stood around like him, looking down, some of them nervous, others excited, while the old hands at space travel picked up the snack which was being served out by a ' bot and headed back up to their more comfortable seats on the main decks. Justin finally wandered over to join his friends and settled down into a reclining chair beside the table, ignoring the sardonic grins of Matt and Brian over his concession to the gee pull.

"A cadet has to look like an old hand whether he is or not," Brian said dryly. "Even if the sun should go supernova, don't get excited and don't stand there gaping like a tourist."

"Can't help it," Justin answered quietly. "It's just that the view is so incredible."

"You've seen it from the Academy all summer long."

"Yeah, I know. But just think, this tower is anchored on the ground and goes up thirty-seven thousand kilometers. It's incredible that we're riding on it. Sort of like we're still attached somehow to back down there. And besides, it's beautiful to look at."

Brian laughed softly and shook his head.

"You'll get over it."

"I hope I never do," Justin replied, looking Brian straight in the eyes.

A thin smile creased Brian's face.

"After it's scared you a couple of times it might not be so beautiful anymore," he said.

"Even then, I hope I don't forget how to look at it the way I am right now," Justin insisted.

"Ah, a poet here," Matt interjected with a laugh.

Brian shook his head.

"Plebes. Thank heavens I've grown beyond it."

Relaxing in the chair Justin half-listened to the stories Brian and Matt swapped back and forth, with Matt holding the upper hand when it came to yarns about his life as a solar sailor. The gee-load gradually lulled him into a stupor, and through half-closed eyes he wondered how Matt, who had grown up in a zero-gee environment, was handling it. His friend was obviously putting on a show of bravado in front of Seay, straining to remain upright. Over a cup of coffee Brian launched into another story, and Justin felt himself drifting away.

"All passengers please return to your seats for deceleration and docking with sky tower station."

Justin looked up, amazed that the hours had passed so quickly.

Matt and Brian gulped down their drinks and started back up to the main deck area with Justin tagging along. As they settled back in their chairs Brian and Matt were already into a boasting war as to which of the two had experienced the narrowest and most hair raising incident and Justin found himself feeling very much like an outsider. He strapped into his chair and leaned back.

"All passengers are now secured," the computer announced, and Justin's chair pivoted in a half-circle so that he was now hanging upside down, the back of the chair pointing straight up. The reverse-magnetic motors kicked on, pushing Justin up as the car started to slow down. From his window he could see

Earth far below, small enough now that if he held his hand out he could completely block it from view. Beyond it was the endless ocean of stars.

The long minutes of two-gee deceleration dragged out and he found himself drifting to the edge of sleep. Then the warning bell sounded to indicate that deceleration was complete.

"Prepare for docking at Geosynch Orbital Base Station, gateway to the solar system and beyond," the computer announced. "Have a nice day."

His chair rotated back to its upright position. When deceleration stopped, he felt his stomach leap. They were at near-zero gravity. He took a deep breath and waited, expecting his old enemy space sickness to kick in but nothing happened. He opened his eyes and saw Matt grinning at him.

"You're a veteran now," Matt said, "not Wee the first time."

"Don't remind me."

"Yeah, don't remind him," Brian growled behind them. Embarrassed, Justin looked back, remembering how he had thrown up all over Brian's dress white uniform. Brian looked at him coldly for a moment, then smiled.

"It's all right, kid, but some day I'll pay you back I promise!"

He reached out again and shook their hands.

"All right, plebes. Outside this ship there'll be hundreds of cadets waiting for the shuttle to the Academy. Out there I'm Senior Cadet Seay and don't forget it. And if you cross me, so help me I'll kick your butts from here to Phobos and back again. Got it?'

"Yes, sir!" Matt replied with mock seriousness.

A faint shudder ran through the car, and Justin spared a quick look out the window. The huge circle of the main docking station was straight overhead. It was nearly one and a half kilometers in diameter, and it appeared to float like a huge halo at the very top of the tower to which it was hooked by half a hundred support spokes. Hundreds of ships of nearly every description were anchored into the docking ports, everything from small express-courier ships and two-seater Strike Eagle defense craft to hundred thousand-ton bulk cargo-carriers. Hovering in holding patterns beyond the ring were more ships waiting for an open docking bay, and beyond them was a long necklace of solar power stations with panels ten kilometers across and zero-gravity manufacturing centers.

Space suddenly disappeared as the car entered a docking tube. The car slowed down, switched through several side tracks, and then came to a stop.

"Thank you for riding United Nations Skyhook Tower Number One, Earth's tower to the stars. Please exit by the nearest door. Please follow the flashing blue arrows to the baggage area to reclaim your luggage. To locate the docking bay of your connecting flight, please consult your computer monitor before leaving."

"It's Docking Bay B-47," Brian announced. "You guys have any luggage?"

"Just our tote bags," Justin replied.

"Come on then, I know the way."

Justin undipped his seatbelt and clutched his chair while Matt reached up to the overhead compartment and pulled down their bags. Brian was already out in the corridor and Justin struggled to keep up with his friends as they cleared the airlock and stepped out into the main arrival terminal. With a new ship coming in every minute, there were hundreds of passengers milling about. Justin threaded past a group of Benedictine monks wearing the plain brown robes of their order, who were drifting down the corridor alongside him.

"Heading to our new monastery orbiting Jupiter," one of them said excitedly when he saw Justin looking at him. "Can't let the Franciscans and Trappists do all the work out here."

At the end of the open corridor, which stretched for several hundred yards and was lined with duty free shops, they reached a shuttle tunnel that would take them to the B docking area. It seemed like a flood of white uniforms was converging on the spot, and Justin looked around in surprise. During the summer session the only cadets aboard the ship were the scrub class, their cadet instructors, and a few hundred others who were engaged in special projects. Everyone else had been out at hundreds of different research and work sites all the way from Mercury to Jupiter. He felt decidedly uncomfortable at the sight of all the additional stripes on cadet uniforms, and he looked down self-consciously at his own empty sleeve.

There were no seats aboard the open shuttle tram so he just floated into the long compartment, grabbed hold of a strap, and locked his feet under the safety straps set in the floor. Brian was already lost to view although Justin could hear his voice laughing and describing what a miserable bunch of scrubs he had been forced to work with for the summer. Justin and Matt looked at each other a bit nervously, especially when they noticed the disdainful glances of the upperclassmenas if the presence of two mere third-class plebes were not even worthy of comment.

The tram started up and drifted into one of the tunnels leading to the outer rim of the station. As the car emerged from the tunnel, Justin was overwhelmed at the sea of white uniforms floating in the B docking area.

Leaving the tramcar, they looked around in confusion.

"Justin, Matt!"

"Hey, it's Madison Smith," Matt cried, and he pushed off to float over to their old classmate. Her dark features were crinkled up into a bright cheery grin and, using her sticky bottom gravity shoes, she clumsily walked over to them to give her two friends a hug. Justin looked around and saw his other friends coming over; in the back of the group he noticed Tanya talking with Sue. She broke away from her friend at the sight of Justin, came up a bit shyly, and extended her hand.

"Good to see you, Justin," she said quietly.

He had been nervously wondering about this moment ever since he left Earth. There had been that hug and kiss on the day that he rescued her and a second kiss just before leaving for Earth. He noticed that Sue was already up to Matt, giving him a hug. Hugs were acceptable according to Academy regulations but anything beyond that was definitely frowned upon, in public and in private. The rules were tough on that point, but everyone knew that when a bit of romance took hold it was kind of hard to clamp down on it completely. But lie wasn't sure if he really wanted a romance with Tanya or not. They had, after all, been bitter enemies right up until the moment he pulled her back from the edge of the cliff on the Moon. Now he wasn't sure, and he instantly picked up that she was nervous as well.

She pulled back a bit.

"Ready to head back?" he finally asked.

"Sure. I think it's going to be an interesting year."

"All right, plebes. First Battalion Company A, fall in, let's get a hustle on! Transport Twenty-Three leaves in seven minutes and I'll be damned if one of my pukes gets left behind."

Justin looked over his shoulder to see Brian approaching, and there was a low moan from Madison and several others gathered around Justin and Matt.

"Come on, move it! I'm sick at the sight of you pukes! And speaking of pukes" Seay came up to Justin and fixed him with a steely gaze.

Justin came to attention, amazed at Seay's sudden transformation from friendly comrade to company commander.

" It's gonna be a long year with you bums and with any kind of luck we'll get rid of most of you, one way or the other."

He could see that Brian was again all business. It was going to be an interesting year.