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jumped. There was padding in the bottom and all around the sides. I bounced slightly and looked around. There was nothing much to see except for a tiny, almost miniscule vid screen, a
headset with mic, and some waist-high tubing. I was still trying to understand what the tubing was for when a voice said,  Have a nice trip, and a lid slammed closed over my head.
There was a moment of complete darkness followed by a yellow glow as the light came on over my head.
The vid screen came on about the same time that the cargo module jerked, swayed, and went horizontal. The screen swirled and coalesced into a picture of a pleasant-looking,
middle-aged freelancer. I fumbled the headset onto my head in time to hear most of her spiel.  & join us aboard FENA Air. Now, settle back in padded comfort while your high-tech
passenger module is loaded aboard one of our first-class ships, and lifted into orbit.
 The trip to Staros-3 will take approximately two hours. If you wish to catheterize yourself, please do so now, as the safety restraint system will make movement difficult during
the journey itself.
Now that I knew what the tube was for, I was determined not to use it. The woman continued to talk.  & medical emergency, then please notify the ship s crew via your headset,
and they will make sure that medical personnel are waiting when we dock with Staros-3.
 So, settle back into the padded privacy of your personal transportation enclosure, and enjoy the trip.
Personal transportation enclosure? Who the hell did they think they were kidding? My enclosure was little more than a padded mailing tube, completely inaccessible during
flight, and vulnerable to all sorts of potential dangers. Not to mention the fact that my accommodations would push the average claustrophobe over the edge in a matter of minutes.
The universe jerked as the autoloader came to a halt, then started into motion again as the cargo module was pushed up and into the shuttle s belly, where it was hooked to the
ship s life support systems. Oxygen hissed in through a nozzle located next to my head, caressed my cheek with an ice-cold hand, and slid down my neck.
Maybe the oxygen stirred it up, or maybe it would have made itself known anyway, but the thick odor of sweat, vomit, and god knows what else oozed out of the tube s nooks
and crannies, overwhelmed the disinfectants, and filled my nostrils with a sort of funky perfume. It made me gag.
The restraint system was activated without warning. The first thing I noticed was a snug feeling as the padding pushed in around me. Then it had me in a soft but insistent
embrace that allowed for almost no movement at all. But the laws of physics prevailed, and I felt the additional half-gee as the shuttle accelerated down the runway and blasted off.
Though unable to see outside, I had seen countless takeoffs on television, and knew how it was supposed to work. Or thought I did, anyway.
Unlike the space shuttles used back in the 1990 s, the current equivalents used standard runways for takeoff. Once airborne they used air-turbo-ram-jets to reach Mach 25, or
more than 17,000 mph. The trick was to compress the air through the use of turbines at lower speeds and use the force of the incoming supersonic air stream to compress the air at
higher speeds. Or was it the other way around? In any case, rockets kicked in at Mach 16 or so, boosted the shuttle to Mach 25, and thus into orbit.
There were other factors too, such as the high-strength, temperature-tolerant materials that went into the hull, and the complicated technologies that cooled the aircraft s skin.
Taken together, they made the trip into orbit as routine as a flight from Los Angeles to New York had been a hundred years before. Unless you were making the trip in a glorified mailing
tube, that is& which I don t recommend to anyone. How do I remember this stuff? And forget less complicated junk? It s like I said before& Beats the heck out of me.
Unable to move, and with nothing to do but watch the unending commercials that FENA Air pumped onto the vid screen, it was easy to fall asleep something I did rather
quickly. When I awoke, it was to mild nausea induced by zero gravity and a gentle bump as the shuttle docked with Staros-3. The inevitable announcement followed. Video swirled and
the woman reappeared. She seemed happy with the way things were going. [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]

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