Black Star

Chapter Twenty-five

In the pitch darkness, Leroy fumbled around in his belt until he retrieved a small headlight and switched it on. Dropping it over his head, he adjusted the beam to his line of vision. 

Looking up inside the inner spoke of the Lazarus the powerful beam faded to blackness in the distance. He was fully aware of the task that lay ahead of him, starting with the quarter kilometre climb, albeit aided by the lack of gravity as he drew closer to the central core of the ship. He took a deep breath and began, only stopping to catch his breath occasionally. It seemed harder this time around, perhaps the stress was causing him to tense up more. Just as last time the worst part was the point before weightlessness took over, when the fatigue started to take effect. 

At this point, there was an uncomfortable feeling of limbo, with no way up and no way down, except a 200-meter fall into the abyss. It was easy to make himself feel disorientated, like a fly on the spoke of a giant roundabout. He had to get a grip of his psyche because that is exactly where he was now. He told himself these feelings were signs he was getting closer to his goal and he was right. Gradually he felt himself getting lighter as he climbed and the dim light at the end of this tunnel drew closer. Finally, he arrived at the join between the spinning outer of the ship and it's still central core. 

Technically the central core was still and the rest of the ship that spun. From his vantage point, it didn't feel that way at all. From his perspective, he was at the end of a tunnel in weightlessness looking into a large spinning room. Like a fairground ride he was getting ready to leap through the wall of an enormous spinning barrel. Luckily his headlight failed to illuminate the entire space, but his beam picked up the far wall well enough. He gripped the sides of the entranceway, mentally counted to three and pushed. Now he spun head over heels in free space, floating across the barrel and heading for the far wall. He scrambled for purchase, grabbing at the nets around the room until he became still. His perceptions had now shifted and the entrance he had just entered from was now just a hole that ran around the barrel-shaped inner core. 

Once he'd composed himself, he pushed himself along the still inner core of the Lazarus. As he floated along it became clear he'd entered by one of the narrower chambers, now the space opened out into various chambers. Other than his own light, the area was in total blackout, the drones that operated here had no need for the visible light spectrum. As he moved purposefully along it was clear these were the main storage areas of the ship. This weightless area would be serviced by A.I. drones and because there was no up or down, all the storage space was utilised. Sacks and crates were fixed in huge nets to the walls or ceilings, all dependent on your orientation. In the next room, he passed two spek drones loading goods onto a transporter, presumably more supplies for the paying clients. The drones were like giant spiders and appeared sleek and nimble, with four appendages to hold them in place and four to manipulate goods. They paid no heed to Leroy as he floated past them, kicking his way towards a cylindrical steel hatch across on a far wall. The disc-shaped door was bright yellow and was one of the few areas left unobstructed. His biggest fear was short-lived, it was not only unlocked but was free of any alarm device as far as he could tell. He opened the hinged door and it slammed into the open position onto a magnetic holder. He floated inside and felt around the inner wall for the rails designed to provide purchase for any drone or human workers. He was now inside the Lazarus central mains room and because this might be an area requiring human intervention the lighting was automatic. Now he had a better sense of scale. He was at one end of a huge cylinder, the outer edges having eight rows of cabinets that stretched from one end to the other. From this vantage point, he was looking down on these structures from above. Each pair of rows was a different colour, red, white, blue and green. Pushing off from the entrance, he floated between the green rows and checked the numbers printed across the top of each cabinet. Seeing the numbers were in sequence he deduced there was some way to go till he found his objective. Using the handrails, he dragged himself sharply along until he found what he was looking for.