VESSEL

KHAN PATEL & PETER SMITH

2450 AD. Apollo Construction Team. Tunnel Miners. TENDERHOOK 7

The mining skiff, TENDERHOOK-7, slowed and matched speed and rotation with the asteroid 362 IDA. The ships dull grey metal exterior scratched and dented with the scars of many asteroid belt excursions. The computer aided tracking and external guidance beacons on the surface of the massive rock, allowed the skiff to slow and match the relative motion, then nestle comfortably into the air dock protruding like a stoma from the side of the asteroid.

“And the other thing we have to worry about is, the deeper we tunnel into Ida, the more the Coriolis force will affect the contact integrity of the fracker. “Peter continued. “Since we have gone beyond two kilometers our output has dropped somewhere around 15%.”

Khan quietly went through the docking checklist, making sure the Tenderhook was secure and had a valid seal on the lock. The external clamps were all green and the pressure was stable. He powered down the reactor and logged their arrival with the Mantrell Engineering Group. MEG had been terraforming the asteroid for close to twenty-five years, and they controlled the access to the interior.

As they both prepared to suit up and enter the mines, Peter continued his diatribe.

“We have fracked nearly 200 km of tunnel ourselves my friend and we get paid by the meter. We should be compensated for the low gravity delays of mining closer to the center. I’m just being pragmatic, Khan, my old mate, we are being held to ransom by a badly written contract! Some shitty bloody union lawyers, should have consulted an astrophysicist or at least put some clause in it to renegotiate if conditions changed appreciably….”

Peters voice muffled then went silent as he donned his helmet and latched it securely to the body of his suit. Khan concentrated on his own environment suit. Every seal, toggle, latch and zip had to be in place and tightly fastened before the suit had integrity clearance. The diagnostics scrolled across his HUD and in the low right quadrant a full green circle displayed 100% suit integrity. He tapped his forearm control panel.

“…and the bastards still don’t reimburse us for time spent in Earth-Lunar transfer. Why do we put up with this crap?” The older miner carried on his string of issues.

Khan yawned, swallowed and equalised the pressure in his ears. “Peter, really, come now. Our contract expires in less than a year and thousands of miners and engineers will be without any decent work. We will be lucky to be able to stay out here. You have done very well and I think you could do with some time off down on the blue.” A hint of his native Pakistani drawl tainted his words. “Let’s get back to the tunnel and tally up some meters today.”

The pair cycled through the airlock and climbed the ladder up into the dimness of the lock antechamber. The roughhewn stone walls around the central airlock portal glistened with condensation in the chilly bubble of air so near the surface. To the back of the chamber a two-man cart sat in the entrance way to the main ramp way. The carved oval entrance to the spiral ramp was lit by a string of halogens leading off to the right into the ascending roadway.

They travelled in a long corkscrew up the spiral. The lights strobing into and out of the cold darkness. The hum and vibration of the cart the only sound accompanying the two miners up into the middle of the massive asteroid. To the “south” of them, in space mining terms, the rear of the rock, was the vast empty cylindrical cavity that would soon be terraformed into the biosphere that would be christened “Apollo”. Where they were, fracking was an area to the “front” of the rock.

The spiral ramp opened into a large domed grotto and the miners steered the cart towards one of the far walls. Around the cave other teams of miners were going about the business of tunneling. Several large Thermal Fracking Bores were being tended by their mining teams. Others were obviously off roster and were relaxing in one of the warm well-lit hab domes.

Khan and Smith walked towards their machine. It resembled a large steam locomotive from centuries before. At its front a solid metal disk that was the business end of the tunnelling machine. In simple terms, it didn’t actually drill or bore through the rock. The fracker disk at its nose was moved against the face of the rock to be mined. In the bitter cold of space the stone was barely above absolute zero, and even warmed slightly by the mining environment, it was still very chilled. The reactor on the rig was then brought online and an intense release of thermal energy focused through the fracker disk face into the cold stone. The resultant massive thermal expansion pulverising the material into gravel and dust.

The two experienced miners climbed into the cab at the back of the TFB. Peter strapped in and fired up the engines and prepared the transfer to the thermal capacitors. Khan engaged the caterpillar drive and they moved into one of the adjacent tunnel mouths fanning from the grotto.

“I really can’t go back. I mean I want to, but my parents had to sell the farm in Florida.” Peter said quietly. “The sea levels have overcome the levies and the farm is now useless. It can’t be worked with the salt tainting the soil and the family have lost most of their income and assets.”

“Are you still worried about that Peter?” Khan looked across at his long-time friend. “The research has confirmed that sea levels have definitely stabilised and the global temperature has stopped rising. In fact, buddy, in the last three months I have been following some feeds that predict the global warming trend has peaked and the temperatures have trended across the planet now as slowly cooling.”

Peter sat thoughtful and quiet. After his morning rant over his contractual gripes he had his mind in a different place. The work they were doing was incredibly complex and ground breaking. He was pretty sure he was part of something that was bigger than a mining operation in the belt. For the last few years, the positive reports supporting the improving climate of earth had mankind breathing easier. Desertification had slowed. Icecaps were starting to grow again and sea levels had begun to drop. The deterioration of the planet over the last few centuries had definitely ended. But the reverse in the warming trends were one end of a pendulum swing, coming to a stop and reversing. And Peter had read the theories. The massive ice melt changing the temperature and salinity of the oceans, leading to the interruption of the ocean currents. The massive engine driving heat around the planet’s surface had all but stalled, and Peter who was a geologist was more than aware of the ramifications.

“The last time I had time on Earth I went back to England and oh, man, the holiday theme parks, hotels and resorts were the envy of Miami and Orlando. Why don’t you let off some steam for a few months after this contract has been completed?” Khan offered.

Peter shrugged.

The TFB trundled to a stop in front of the end of the tunnel. They were set to continue the burrowing deep into the asteroids front end. The three-dimensional schematics of the huge project were on screen as they fed coordinates and fracking data into the controls. The thermal capacitors could be heard ticking in the background as they charged up. Khan used the laser array to line up the TFB fracking plate, and nudged the disk snuggly against the wall of rock.

“Capacitor at 100%. Magnetic couplers ready to engage. How’s plate contact and alignment Khan?” Peter said. His finger on the trigger he waited for Khan to give him the thumbs up.

Khan checked the cabs safety shielding and then gave Peter the nod. Peter pulled the trigger and there was a moment of silence as the process cycled through. The reactor uncoupled and the massive heat sinks released the millions of joules of thermal energy through the copper plate pressed into the end of the shaft. Through the toughened cab the hiss of superheated steam preceded a high-pitched squeal that wound up and was suddenly drowned in a staccato series of cracking explosions. The machine was shunted back a few inches and swayed on its suspension.

Khan activated the clearing mechanism that began to scoop away the debris. The tunnel was now two meters deeper and as soon as the debris was removed from the front of the vehicle, they would move forward and repeat the process.

Peter sat scrolling through the schematics once again. Since the beginning of the construction, Peter had followed the massive project with a keen interest. To capture a large space rock, spin it up along its axis to give it centrifugal gravity, then hollow out a living space within to provide room for a space colony. Surely man’s most ambitious endeavour. He had joined the excavation unit at MEG, a decade ago and had spent over half that time burrowing the cold stone viscera from Ida.

Peter sat poring over the plans deep in thought. Khan stood and walked behind Peter and looked over his shoulder at the flat screen.

“She is sure something. I look forward to tell my grandchildren how I helped build this city in the sky. On clear nights, they say, with a decent telescope, you will be able to see it. It will be the most amazing construction in our sky.” Khans hyperbole trailed off.

Peter was quiet and scrolled the visuals of the asteroid down to where you could view it, in its entirety. “What does it look like to you?” He asked Khan. Khan stood back and took in the whole schematic.

“Man’s greatest feat!” Said Khan as if representing all of mankind.

“Seriously. Look at it. What do you see?”

Khan bent closer and scrutinised the visuals. “I don’t know, a damned big rock. Looks like a football or a fat cigar. Maybe a loaf of bread. What does it matter? It will soon be the coolest place to immigrate to. They will use it as a base to terraform other planetismals as we colonise the belt.”

“You know what it looks like to me?” He left the question hang for a moment.

“What Peter?”

“A space ship.” He said.

Peter nodded imperceptably.

“Or perhaps.... a lifeboat?” Peter thought.