Drifting Dark

Chapter 2: Flipped

Cassie stared at the hole in the floor as Mike began climbing down the ladder. It creaked under his weight. The rusty nuts might have shifted, or it could have been just her imagination. He had to pull his shoulders in to squeeze through the opening.

She leaned over the side to peer past him. The tunnel went right through the ship. All six stories.

It looked like a long drop.

In reality, with the grav flip, it would only be three.

It looked worse than it actually was.

Cassie gripped the sides of the ladder firmly. She looked at the rung below. The yellow paint was flaking away. It was mostly black now. It probably wouldn't break under her weight, things rarely did. Benefits of being small and light.

She found herself testing it anyways. Force of habit.

It held. It didn't even creak as she shifted her full weight onto her foot. Her boots gripped the metal securely.

This was beginning to feel familiar.

She began to climb downwards, falling behind Mike again as she struggled with her heavy bag. One floor down, and she was already starting to regret packing so much. Another floor down, and the weight seemed to be disappearing. It took her a moment to realize that each step was easier than the last.

Cassie glanced down at Mike, who was almost half a floor ahead of her by now. "What's happening?"

"The grav flip is coming up," Mike explained. "We're climbing down right down, but we're going to be climbing up in a minute."

Cassie stopped, glancing downwards at the floor below, the divider between the two halves of the ship. It didn't look any different, save that the ladder below them looked cleaner, the bright yellow standing out against the brackish walls.

But gravity wasn't exactly something that could be seen.

"So how does it work?"

"It's microgravity in the middle. Then it switches on the other side," Mike explained as he continued downwards. "The two middle decks are actually half grav, but we don't use them for anything except storage. You won't have to learn the pains of working in low grav."

"Great," Cassie replied absentmindedly.

Mike paused right above the opening. "Here we are." He glanced up at her. "Just be careful when you fall to the other side."

Cassie's brow furrowed. "So I just... fall?"

"I'll show you, it's easier than it sounds." Mike grabbed each side of the ladder, his feet floating in the air. "If you launch yourself at just the right moment..." He yanked himself downwards, letting go at the same time, and launching himself precisely through the hole in the floor.

On the other side, he began to pull his legs in as he leaned back. In less than a second, he'd smoothly completed a half backflip. She watched carefully as his descent slowed, stopped, then he was slowly floating back towards her.

No, not towards her. He was floating towards the ceiling of the level below her, just opposite the ladder. As he straightened out, he twisted halfway around, just so his feet hit the floor pointing towards the ladder. All done in one smooth motion.

From her perspective, he was standing on the ceiling of the deck below her, looking up at her, smirking up at her.

"Wow," Cassie whispered, her grip on the ladder shifting, adjusting. "I want to try."

"Uh, maybe you should take it slow..." Mike started to say, but Cassie had already pushed off the ladder.

In the wrong way. In the wrong direction.