Eve On Station

Chapter One

Eve watched the space station grow larger on the screen in her small cabin aboard the Curie. It was a case of reality taking on the form of fiction. There had been countless movies, television /shows and books that depicted space stations as large wheel like structures. Originally, the idea was that such stations could be rotated to create a force to mimic gravity, since so many simple things were complicated by zero g, but the invention of artificial gravity plates had eliminated that requirement. Still, the idea of what a space station should look like had remained fixed in the collective minds of humans and it had perhaps surprisingly turned out to be a very efficient design for such structures. If nothing else, the outer ring where ships docked was kept far enough away from the central structure where most living quarters and essential systems were housed that ship accidents presented a minimum danger. Most of the living space was contained in the center where a multi-level structure projected up and down. From this hub, six "spokes" ran out at sixty degree intervals to the outer ring. The ring contained six docking ports for ships, one at the end of each spoke where passengers and freight could load and unload. Much of the space in the ring was filled with warehouses to store goods for shipping or just received from docked ships, but there were numerous small shops, restaurants, hostels and bars, mainly catering to spacers and those who worked on the ring.

There was a loud CLANG that reverberated through the ship as it connected to one of the docking ports of the ring and a few minutes later, Captain Finch's voice came over the intercom, advising all passengers that it was now safe to disembark and thanking them for travelling on Transteller. Eve slung her one small bag over her shoulder and headed for the airlock. She was travelling light as she didn't actually own much in the way of possessions, but that wasn't unusual as Transteller charged by the pound, both for the passengers themselves and for their luggage. The blonde agent was dressed in jeans, a plain white button up top, comfortable boots and a denim jacket that had survived several missions with her. Transteller didn't believe in spending any more energy than they had to on heating the basic cabins and a jacket or sweater was standard among most of the passengers, who like Eve were hurrying to disembark and swearing they would never travel Transteller again. Good luck with that, Eve thought, as Transteller had a monopoly on passenger service to the various space stations from Earth.

"Are you Eve Gold?"

Eve hoped the pause in recognizing her new identity hadn't been noticeable when a voice called out to her just as she exited the airlock onto the ring. Her employers always insisted on using the same first name when forging a new identity for her, but did change the last name. If there was some significance to this action, Eve had yet to discern what it was in the half dozen missions she had carried out for them.

"That's me," she affirmed as she turned to look at the speaker who turned out to be a woman with dark brown skin. At one time, it might have identified her as originally coming from Africa, but over the last few centuries, there had been so much population movement due to wars, climate change and a host of other reasons that the distinction was pretty much lost by this time. Behind the woman who was a few centimeters shorter than Eve stood a giant of a man who radiated bodyguard from every pore. After glaring at Eve briefly, the man returned to darting his gaze around the area searching for potential assassins, or maybe hotdog vendors.

"I'm Katherine Reynolds, the Station Administrator for Grand Central," said the woman, who while not exactly frowning didn't exactly look welcoming either and hadn't bothered to extend a hand to shake. That human gesture of welcome had also largely disappeared over the years as a reaction to numerous pandemics where close contact had been a common vector of transmission. "You can call me Ms. Reynolds or Katherine if you must, but I don't respond to Kathy or Kat or any other short forms of address. Is that clear?"