Clarkson Habitat Ch. 01

Ch. 01 -- New Beginnings.

Kyle Whitehall stood in the departure longue and waited with the exaggerated patience that only a teenager could manage. He had no idea how he and his father had ended up here waiting for their ride that would take them to their new life.

The lounge had no windows and the passengers were completely cut off from the outside. They had arrived at the shuttle port, logged in with their retinal patterns and finger prints and been directed through a sealed tunnel, like everyone else, but that is where the similarities ended. Kyle found himself in a changing room, with stalls labelled with the names of the passengers. His one-piece coverall in light blue was hanging in his niche. The suit was familiar as most people wore them to work, but these had stirrups to keep the pant legs and sleeves from floating in space. At least it had plenty of pockets.

Kyle was nineteen and had just completed his first year of college with honors in electrical engineering and he was not looking forward to giving that up. He had maintained a four point oh average through natural brilliance and no little amount of hard work. He had also been on the school intermural water polo team. His studies did not allow him the time to go out for sports as anything more than a relief valve for his excess energy. He was six foot two and one hundred and ninety five pounds of blonde haired blue eyed muscle. He honestly didn't know what had happened to him over the last year, but he had grown into a very handsome man. Girls though were still an alien species to him and he didn't see the longing looks that followed him all over campus.

He had never expected that he and his father would be accepted to the Clarkson habitat in orbit. Clarkson was the most exclusive habitat to apply to and Kyle's family had applied four years ago. The competition to make the cut was so fierce that it was rumored that families that didn't make the cut had suicided rather than admit failure, but Kyle put no stock in those urban tales.

Clarkson only took families, complete families, no singles were allowed, which was why Kyle was confused that they had made the cut. His mother had died of injuries in an aircar crash three years ago and Kyle had thought at the time that they had been dropped from the list. His shock was off the charts when he was called out of class three weeks ago for a final physical and interview. He could only put it down to his father being the best mechanical engineer on the planet.

He had read the brochures about Clarkson and knew that they required multiple interviews, transcripts and physical reports before they accepted anyone, but when he thought about it, some of the questions on his internship application and interview had seemed a little strange at the time. And his father's insistence that he have a complete physical every three months he had just written off to paranoia about the death of his mother. His father Jack had claimed that had his mother been in better health, she might have survived the injuries, but Kyle could never remember her being sick. He glanced over at his father and saw himself in a few years.

Jack Whitehall was a slightly older version of his son. At forty two he could still give Kyle a run for his money in the pool. He had the same strong chin and blue eyes and they could almost pass as brothers except for Jack's slightly greying hair.

Kyle looked around the lounge at all the others waiting for the same shuttle and saw that there were no small children. It looked like the youngest person there was eighteen or nineteen. All had the same backpack as a carry on and most had their electronic pads out and were reading or playing games. A few looked like they were surfing the net, but no one was on a comm call. That seemed strange to Kyle, why weren't these people gloating to their friends that they were going to Clarkson, or at least saying good bye. Kyle was just reaching for his own pad when a chime sounded and a soft voice informed them that it was time to board.

Kyle waited until most of the others in lounge entered the tube before he followed. As one of the last to board, almost everyone else was seated. The shuttle attendants greeted him and indicated the number pad on the bulkhead. Each member of the habitat was issued an id number and it was on their flight suit, not just on the name tag on the left breast, but also stitched on the inside of the left sleeve for the user's reference.

Kyle checked his number and punched in. The screen lit and indicated that his seat was row six seat D. The attendant indicated he should go down the outboard side and Kyle moved to the aisle. The shuttle seating compartment was laid out for sixty passengers, ten rows of six split with two aisles. The seats were well appointed and spread out enough for the passengers to recline almost flat. Kyle found his seat, the only one still empty and secured his backpack in the overhead storage. On his seat was a small silk bag and he scooped it up before settling himself comfortable. He buckled in before he did anything else, the four-point harness quite familiar. He glanced at his seat mate and could only make out that she was female and looked about his age. Her figure, what he could see from their seated position was nice, but her eyes were covered by a set of VR goggles and her hands moved in the open air in front of her.

Kyle opened the draw string on the bag and pulled out a set of goggles similar to the ones that his seat mate wore, a set of wristbands and what looked like a necklace of steel. The single sheet of written instructions indicated that he needed to put the necklace on first, then the wristbands and the VR glasses last. Shrugging, Kyle complied with the instructions.

The necklace was a little tight, it fit right at the base of his neck, the wristbands snapped over his wrist and he slipped the goggles on, the small ear buds in the strap dangled right at his ears and he seated them comfortably before pulling the goggles down. The screen in front of him lit and a prompt appeared.

'Input user ID.' A numeric keypad appeared.

Kyle raised his hand was shocked to see a VR hand appear. This was cutting edge tech, he thought, if they can coordinate my hand in VR through the wristband. Current tech required a web that fit over each finger like a glove to read the hands movements. He waved his hand a few times and the VR hand responded instantly. Then the prompt flashed again to get his attention. Kyle input his code and the prompt vanished.

'Calibrating for new user.' The screen said and he felt the necklace tighten slightly then loosen to a more comfortable feeling. The wristbands shrank slightly and were a perfect fit. He felt a shiver go up his spine and then the screen lit with his complete bio-med profile.

'Welcome aboard Clarkson shuttle four delta Kyle Whitehall.' The screen said. 'The flight to the habitat will take six hours, please make yourself comfortable for takeoff and the review the following safety information.' The screen lit with all the mandatory requirements for shuttle flights, ditching procedures, loss of pressure, emergency exits, and firefighting equipment. Kyle paid attention to the video, he understood that space will kill if it gets the chance.

By the time the video finished, Kyle noticed a new side bar on the screen and touched it. It was their current flight information. They had already taken off and were at twenty seven thousand feet and rising like a homesick asteroid. There was no feeling of movement.

'The Clarkson Habitat is the finest habitat in orbit and we look forward to your participation in improving the environment for all.' The screen flashed and as soon as he finished reading the sentence it vanished and a new one appeared. 'The habitat or hab is twenty seven kilometres long; the main hub is three kilometres wide. There are four rings; each is six kilometres in diameter with an internal area one kilometre wide.' A schematic appeared to match the text and as it described each part it flashed.

'Ring one and two are residential,' the lowest two rings flashed. 'Ring three is for hydroponics,' the second from the top flashed. 'And ring four is industrial and shuttle maintenance.' The top most ring blinked. 'Life support, power reactors, water reclamation and administrative offices are located in the main hub.' The central trunk illuminated each with a different colour and a label for each section. 'The command, control and communication centre is located at the very apex of the hub.' The tip of the hub ahead of the rings blinked twice.

'Your family residence is located on Ring two, Quad three, Section twelve, Street four, Residence one seven nine.' As the screen described the location, each section would flash then zoom in. The house was shown as simple two story three bedroom two and a half bath home. There was grass in the front and a pool in the back. Kyle blinked at that, the grass made sense, since it was probably part of the hydroponics required to filter the air, but the pool made no sense. Before he could follow that thought through the screen changed.

'Intra-hub transit is located fifteen metres from your door and the university is located on Ring one, Quad two, Section ten, Street five, Building seven three. The fastest route is via Intra-hub bus route two nine, to station four then tram nineteen. The tram stops at the university; total travel time is twenty eight minutes.'

'Kyle Whitehall, you have been selected for testing for command crew of the Clarkson Habitat. Testing will be completed at the university, said testing to commence with seventy two hours of arrival.' Kyle stared at the last message and tried to figure out what was going on. He had not put in for command crew; he wanted to be an engineer. He really needed to talk to his father, but now was not the time, the system was still displaying information about the habitat.

'The hab is currently in Medium Earth Orbit at an altitude of twenty thousand kilometres or approximately twelve thousand four hundred miles. The hab had a current population of fifteen thousand nine hundred forty, not including your current shuttle. Upon arrival, the population will be exactly sixteen thousand, which is considered nominal.'

Kyle tried to focus on the information being presented but it was too much to take in all at once. He let the screen play out and read whatever appeared, but he did not try to absorb all of it. Just as a screen came on informing him of the location of the nearest movie theatre, the screen suddenly blanked and a new message appeared.

'Prepare for landing.' His VR goggles suddenly shifted and he was sitting on the nose of the shuttle as it approached the open hanger bay on the habitat. He gasped and heard a few people cry out. The girl next to him suddenly gripped his arm tightly. She released him almost instantly and then reached down and grabbed his hand. Kyle returned her grip and stared at the habitat and the star scape behind it. This was going to be his new home for the foreseeable future.

The shuttled slid easily into the cavernous bay and docked without the slightest bump. The station tractors had been guiding the shuttle before the VR goggles switched over. The shuttled settled on the pad and then the pad dropped. The passengers felt that sudden motion, the first in over six hours and the elevator dropped out of the dock. Kyle looked up and saw the hatch close above them and then light spilled up from beneath. Another hatch opened below them and Kyle realized that it was an airlock.

The shuttle dropped and then the second hatch closed and the pad slid forward until it came to a stop before a windowed gallery and another tube was run out. As soon as the tube was secured, the harness that he wore clicked and Kyle removed the newly unlocked harness. Now he understood why they were forbidden food and drinks for the last fifteen hours before launch. He disengaged himself from the tight grip the girl had on his hand and pulled his goggles off. He turned to his left and found himself staring into the deepest set of violet eyes he had ever seen.

She was of oriental descent and had a round soft face and a pert nose. Her mouth seemed to want to smile, but her eyes held him, and the seemed ashamed.

"I am sorry I grabbed you," she said softly, her English perfect. "When we suddenly appeared on the nose of the shuttle, it startled me."

"No problem," Kyle said with a shy smile, he was not used to talking to girls. "I was more than a little startled myself. I'm Kyle Whitehall."

"Sona, Yamoto Sona." She said softly, still not looking at him.

"Nice to meet you Sona, welcome to Clarkson Habitat." Kyle said as he shook her hand.

"And the same to you Kyle," she smiled up at him before she let go of his hand and started to gather her things.

Kyle followed her example and packed his VR goggles in the bag, but found that the wristbands and necklace would not come off. Sona saw him struggling with them and giggled.

"They don't come off." She said simply. "You must have missed that part of the introduction. They are permanent as long as we are on the station. They allow the system to track you in case of emergency, and they monitor your health."

"Oh, I guess that passed me by, a little too much information." Kyle said sheepishly.

"I know," Sona said gently. "I got lost about a quarter of the way through, I think the last thing I clearly understood was the escape pod locations. After that it is kind of a blur."

"Kyle, let's get going." Kyle jerked his head around and saw his father waving at him. Kyle and Sona were among the last onboard the shuttle.

"Sorry, gotta go," Kyle said lamely.

"Thank you again for your help." Sona said, bowing slightly as she stood.

Kyle grabbed his backpack from the overhead and stuffed his goggles into it and moved down the aisle to meet his father. Jack stood impatiently by the hatch and grabbed Kyle by the shoulder and hugged him tight.

"We made it." Jack said, "we are really here."

"I know dad," Kyle said hugging him back quickly. "Now let's go, we are blocking the hatch."

"Yeah, I am just so happy and proud of you." Jack said as he released his son and they moved down the tube, Jack's arm still around Kyle's shoulder.

"Dad," Kyle said as the moved into the gallery and checked in with the deck control officer. "I got a message on my VR screen that I have been accepted for Command Crew testing."

"You made it." Jack almost shouted. "I hoped that you would." He hugged his son again, this time even tighter.

"Dad," Kyle sputtered. "You knew about this?"

"Well, I did notice when we submitted our applications that you didn't put down a preference, so I did for you. I selected both engineering and command crew. But you did the rest. I just put you down for consideration. Now let's get home, we have other things to talk about."

"Like what," Kyle asked sharply.

"Not here," Jack replied and he led Kyle out of the receiving gallery.

Jack led Kyle out to the curb of a surprisingly ordinary looking cab. They climbed in and gave the driverless car the address and they sped off home. Kyle looked over his shoulder and saw the door that they came out of looked like any other door leading to a shopping centre on earth.

All the way to their new residence, Kyle tried to get information out of his father, but Jack kept changing the subject until they were almost at their new home.

'Arrival at your destination in four minutes.' The cab announced suddenly.

"Kyle," Jack began hesitantly, "do you have any idea of the selection requirements for the Clarkson Corporation?"

"Yeah, I read the brochure and have seen their adds on the vids."

"Then you know that for acceptance to the hab, they only accept complete families."

"I have seen that, I wondered why." Kyle said.

"They want stability, but didn't you wonder how we made it?" Jack asked as the cab turned on to their street.

"I thought that you made some kind of deal with the corporation." Kyle said simply, starting to worry.

"In a way I did." Jack confessed. "They needed my skills and they really wanted yours, but they will only take complete families. Now I want you to understand that I loved your mother very much, but her death really derailed our chances for coming here."

"What did you do Dad?" Kyle demanded sharply.

"Kyle they made me an offer and I had to take it." Jack said as firmly as he could. "It was all very last minute, but they had another family that they wanted when the father was killed in an industrial accident and that left the mother and daughter alone and out of the running as well. They also really wanted the daughter and they approached both of us and..."

"You got remarried and didn't tell me?" Kyle accused.

'We have arrived at your destination.' The cad said, pulling up to the curb of the same house that Kyle had seen on his goggles.

"No, I would never do that without telling you." Jack responded shortly. "I just agreed to share the same house with them." He finished with a very small voice as a second cab pulled up behind them.

'Please exit the vehicle; we have arrived at your destination.' The cab repeated.

Kyle grabbed his backpack and threw open the door and stepped out on the sidewalk. The old fashion mail box on the post of the fence read Whitehall & Yamoto. Kyle saw this and whirled to the second cab and saw Sona climb out followed by a beautiful Asian woman that had to be her mother.

Jack followed Kyle out of the cab and moved to gather up the two women. He herded all of them to the front door and touched his hand to the scan plate.

"Jack Whitehall." He said firmly.

'Jack Whitehall acknowledged.' A voice responded. Jack stepped aside and let the woman step up to the plate.

"Yamoto Aki," she said in softer but clear voice.

'Yamoto Aki acknowledged.' The voice said again. She moved off and waved for Kyle but he simply stood still and looked at Sona.

"Yamoto Sona," Sona said placing her hand on the plate.

'Yamoto Sona acknowledged.' The voice said for a third time.

Kyle stepped up to the front door and touched the plate, still in a complete state of shock.

"Kyle Whitehall."

'Kyle Whitehall acknowledged.' The voice spoke for the last time and the door opened. 'Welcome home.'

Jack went in first and the girls followed, Kyle stood on the front step for a few seconds longer, staring at the sign on the door that appeared as the door opened, listing their names. Finally, he followed the others into the house and the door closed automatically.

The house was a basic design, the front door led into a small alcove that separated the dining room from the kitchen. The living room was attached to the dining room and a library, the bedrooms were upstairs. The master bedroom had its own on suite bath and the other two bedrooms had a bathroom between them. Kyle immediately went to the bedroom that had his name on it and closed the door softly.

He wanted to slam the door and scream, but he knew that his father would not tolerate such behavior. The last time Kyle did that, Jack had pulled the hinge pins and removed the door all together for a month to teach him a lesson. Now with two women in the house that he had no knowledge of, the last thing he wanted was to lose tiny amount of privacy he still had.

His room was not decorated, but was furnished, bed dresser, desk, computer interface and a large screen on the wall at the foot of his bed. The closet held several jumpsuits like he had on, it appeared that that was the required fashion on the station. His personal clothing was in one drawer and he did not like the idea of someone he didn't know buying him underwear, but there was not much he could do about it. The swim suits that were in his drawer were all of the brief type and he vowed to replace them quickly. He wanted shorts to swim in. He was far to self-conscious to swim in something so revealing. The knock on his door interrupted his train of thought.