MY BOOKS

CHAPTER ONE

Wendy Nation pulled a brush quickly through her red-gold hair as the cryotechnician brought her a jumpsuit and some lead weighted boots from the nearby standard-issue closet . The technician, a middle aged woman who had introduced herself as Marianne, smiled at her with reassurance.

"Now, I know it's not the most fashionable garment you've ever seen but it's all we have for now," she apologized.

"Don't worry, I'm used to it," Wendy assured her as she slipped into the sea-blue garment and worked it over her hips. "This is about my eighth time out-- but only the second under Captain Edwards."

"Yes? I didn't think I'd seen you before," Marianne said. "StarCon made me sit the last voyage out. Something about too much space travel time being stressful."

"Mm hmm," Wendy answered, staring off into nothingness. She had barely been given time to wash after waking from her cryochamber less than an hour ago. Something told her this was not going to be another routine documentation of a landing procedure, or some off-the-wall writing assignment given by a Captain bored with deep space. One time, she had even had a Captain thaw her out just to proposition her--but she doubted that would be happening this time.

The Reliant was a small, galaxy-class vessel which currently carried a skeleton crew of fifty personnel. Their mission involved, among other things, delivering a large shipment of food supplies and one thousand head of cattle to a colony on Omega 17. It would be her task to film the delivery of the cattle, conduct interviews with the recipients, and await further orders.

Though her job description suggested she could be awakened for other assignments at any time, she had very much doubted this trip would go any differently than the others. She would board a ship, live among the crew for a few months until they had reached the edge of whichever planetary system they were in, and then all nonessential personnel would enter cryostasis until they reached their destination. That was what she had expected, but apparently not what was to be.

"Well, Miss Nation, I think we should get you to the Command Center. The Captain wanted the crew for this mission over there by 0800," said Marianne briskly once Wendy had worked her feet into the tight fitting, knee-length boots.

"Mission?" Wendy inquired. "What sort of mission?"

"I'm sure I don't know," she said. "I'm just a cryotech. I deal with immovables, not intangibles."

They both laughed at this witticism as they headed for the door.

"Wow, I guess it's been a while since I had to walk," said Wendy after a time. The Reliant was built in such a fashion that the amount of gravity exerting itself on an individual at any given time underwent slight fluctuations.

"Maybe we should wait a bit before taking you to Command," Marianne suggested. "A good stroll around the observation corridor will be just the thing."

The observation corridor was the outermost circle of the rotating rings which housed the crew on the Reliant. Viewed from outside, their vessel resembled a huge dumbbell. Ten rings rotated around either end of a long shaft, which was a weightless zone containing the propulsions systems, life support and other systems. In a crisis situation, the shaft also served as temporary housing.

As the two women traversed the observation corridor, Wendy began to feel like her old self again. She smiled as she watched a couple walk past, hand in hand, giggling and talking together. She didn't recognize either one of them, but she was certain she had seen them before, and it was merely her memory that was faulty.

As she glanced past them she noticed that the stars, usually a blur in the windows as they passed through at ultra-lightning speed, were crystallized into the tiny pinpoints of normal-speed travel. No planets or spacestations were visible from her vantage point, so she assumed they were still in deep space. What did the Captain need her for if they were still in deep space?

They headed for the weightless zone. Directly in the middle of the structure was a large, circular hallway with plenty of hand grips all around it.

"Here, put on the gloves," said Marianne. "You don't want to end up floating around in here for half an hour before you get across."

"Yeah, I know," Wendy agreed, pulling on the heavy gloves. Without the insulation of the gloves as a person pulled himself along the weightless corridor the cold, slippery bars were almost impossible to grasp.

Every few feet along this tunnel were maintenance access hatches, and as the two women passed, Wendy saw that one of these hatches was open. A man carrying a large case entered it and closed the door. It was marked OGU. Wendy tried to puzzle out what it meant, but she was still too groggy from her sleep to recall.

"Here you are," said Marianne as they reached the other side. She opened the hatchway, and Wendy stepped inside. "Just have a seat over there, and the Captain will brief you as soon as possible."

"Thank you," said Wendy, smiling. She felt the tug of artificial gravity increase as she stepped further into the Command Center, and gratefully took the nearest chair. She gazed out the window and furrowed her brow.

The Captain took no notice of her presence, so Wendy continued to sit for almost half an hour before she grew weary of her vigil. She stood up, stretched, and walked straight over to him.

"So, Captain Edwards, I've been dying to know why you thawed me out, and why we have slowed down?" she said to the tall, lanky man of about forty who stood scrutinizing an image on the helm's computer screen.

"What? Oh, it's you. Well, Miss Nation, as you know, I am unused to telling reporters what I'm doing in the middle of a mission, so bear with me if I forget to offer you tidbits now and then. We have rerouted temporarily from the planned trip to Omega 17."

"What do you mean, rerouted? What's the problem?" asked Wendy, her stomach doing a little dance. She wondered if she would ever overcome her nervousness when it came to space travel.

"Well, we spotted something on the scanners that looks very interesting," the Captain explained. "It appears we have encountered a Star Folly."

"A what?" Wendy gasped, growing excited. "You can't be serious!"

"The Captain is always serious, little lady," said Commander Porter from his position at the navigation post. "He's called up an EVA troop and ordered them to be ready when we reach the new heading at 0800."

"You mean you're actually going to send somebody inside that thing?" Wendy gasped.

Edwards nodded. "In fact, I want you on the team. We recently lost our medical officer, and I understand you have some training in that area. Besides, it's going to make one hell of a story, don't you think?"

"Wait just a minute. If you expect me to go along for this insane adventure, you'd better tell me more about what it is we're dealing with here. I always thought Star Follies were just Space Lore. All I know about them is that two hundred years ago all the Follies were abandoned by their occupants, and nobody knows why."

"Well, if you'll look out the starboard window, you'll see the station coming into view now--it's the most impressive sight I've ever seen," said the Captain, turning to point toward the window. "You'll notice these units have no possible means of propulsion. There are no ship ports and only very few EVA locks. They were designed to function as self-sustaining planets, and that's why this one is spherical and spins like that.

"When the Follies failed, evacuation ships came and took the people out. Now there are about twelve of these things, just sitting out in deep space, floating wherever they please. There should be plenty of oxygen generation units somewhere in there, and maybe even a little bit of food to replenish our supplies, so it will be well worth a trip inside. You know, I never thought I'd see one of these old turkeys up close."

The Captain turned his attention back to the monitor he had previously been viewing while Wendy stepped over to the starboard window to have a closer look.