The Inner Ring (gxg)

Chapter 8

Vanessa dangled at the end of a tether, feeling like a monkey from the old barrel of monkey toys. Her hand was gripping Pepper's, who was then holding Xavier. Xavier was gripping his wife's hand who was hanging on to Lena as they all laughed. The group was outside the space station getting used to being in low gravity and doing some space walks. It wasn't a proper way to train, but it was an unorthodox mission on a tight schedule, so they were doing what they could. Vanessa had slept on the station, but had never done a walk, nor had Pepper. Both Emily and Xavier had been in space on Mars shuttle missions, but they hadn't performed a spacewalk either. All the others had, even Miles who had done a few on his trips to the space station.

Once the shuttle had docked, the work began. The shuttle pilots let everyone get onto the space station with their gear, and then released the shuttle and returned to Earth for the next run they'd make. In the meantime, the mission crew got to work on making sure their specialized gear was working and got a crash course in the ship's modular design. Each of them had been issued a pair of boots with small magnets to make walking easier, yet not so strong that it was an issue to move. Once they had spent several hours learning how to attach and detach different modules, they had their monkey adventure, which was both educational and provided quite a few laughs. After spending a few hours on a spacewalk while tethered to the station, the group headed inside for a meal and their mission briefing.

The meal was a surprise. It was their first meal together in space, and Anton had been kind enough to have the shuttle that had brought them up also bring an array of easy to heat pasta dishes that would be a lot better than any of the foods coming out of bags that they would soon be eating for the next ten years. The chatter was light, and a bit forced, as everyone who didn't know what was happening was waiting for the news to drop.

Finally, when the meal was done, Anton spoke. "I know you'll all been patient, so now I'm going to tell you what the mission is." The older man paused for a breath, looking them over with a grin. "In twelve hours, we're going to be headed to Uranus."

"The fuck?" Lena blurted out. Emily and Xavier clutched each other's hands, and Brody just had a small smile while Miles looked as though he'd already been briefed.

"Now, some of you may have guessed that already," Anton spared a glance at Brody whose smile had turned to a smirk. "But now you'll know why we're going." He handed each of the crew members a manila folder with blown up images of the ones that Pepper had originally shown them in the office just a few days prior. "We have an agreement to receive all images in real time from the MUSE spacecraft that is currently orbiting Uranus, and a few days ago, Pepper here found these in images of the inner ring."

The others eyed Pepper with renewed interest as Vanessa reached over and squeezed her shoulder. "Way to go Pepper!" called out Lena.

"As you can see, there are two large craft out there. In addition, there may be some smaller ones as well, though we won't know for sure till we're out there. Needless to say, the historical and financial ramifications are incalculable. I know I mentioned earlier that there would be a financial bonus for this trip. That bonus will be $250 million dollars for each of you," Anton continued. "I hope that will meet with your approval."

"So, Xavier and I would each get that?" Emily asked, stunned.

"Yes, that is correct," Anton confirmed.

"I hate to be the downer here, but is this trip safe?" Xavier interjected.

"Dude, what trip into space is safe?" Lena chortled. Xavier just shrugged in response.

"As Lena said, no trip is safe. But we have a good crew here, and if we play our cards right, we'll all be famous and rich when we get back," Anton promised. "I wouldn't be bringing my daughter on this trip if I didn't feel it was going to be a success."