Canticle Blue

44. Shuttles

Music - The Hills of Home by Kevin Braheny and Tim Clark

The first fast-shuttles were assembled in a polar crater on Innis. Because of ongoing construction within and around the Terreska landing bay, there was simply no room left near the ship. To create a site for them, Pa'Keh first landed the Castel vertically in the crater, followed shortly afterward by Estmere in the Maire Meid, transporting a liana piloted by Corei.

The extended utility modules the ships carried resembled giant, elongated spools. Below each piloting canopy, surrounding the top of its module, was a hatchway frame mounted on a circular bulkhead. Two airlock bulkheads encircled each base. The modules themselves contained shuttle crew contingents—including Shei Pendel and Os Andis—and hundreds of fabricated parts.

Assembly of the first shuttle began with the installation of titanium spars connecting all three bulkheads. After that, Shil and N-type layers were fitted to the frame and bonded by the liana. This created the shell of a cylindrical passenger section that would eventually be capable of carrying a hundred people and their possessions. The sphere section of the shuttle was then erected above it in the same manner. When complete, it would contain the control and service areas of the ship, including a piloting compartment, radio-navigation room, crew cabins, and a galley-dining area. In this new ship configuration, R-type thrusters (or "Sphere-Drives") were built into the skin of the sphere itself.

Once the main R-drives were installed on the passenger section, the human crew members joined Middi already in the sphere, and the ship—which then resembled an open flower—simply lifted off of the Castel, closed its hatch and airlock, and completed pressurization. The first shuttle was named the "Arna," after a nocturnal insect found in the Terreska database.

After the launch, Estmere flew the Castel back to the Terreska, with its utility module intact. By that time, construction had already begun on the second shuttle, which would be called "Crisopa."

While they remained in the assembly area to render aid, if needed, Shei, Pa'Keh, and Os made test flights in the Arna, finding it to be every bit as fast and responsive as they had hoped. With the new sphere-drives, the shuttle could also make precise turns and even move backwards, when the main drives were not deployed. They practiced many "proximity landings" on Innis in low gravity, floating just low enough so that their boarding conveyors could have been used, if they were installed. After getting clearance, they then flew to a remote area of Havel in stealth mode to practice landings there. Then, responding to a request, they made a brief night landing in one of the enclosed courtyard areas of the Bryn Institute to take three families and several data-archive units aboard. After apologizing to the families for the austere conditions inside the shuttle, they set a course for the Terreska at their best comfortable speed.

As the Arna slowed to a near-stop in the vicinity of the Terreska, its passengers were treated to a spectacular sight. They had been sitting in quiet near-darkness beneath the shuttle's V-sky in the sphere section, weightless, with only their seatbelts holding them down, and its celestial displays had made them feel as if they were floating in space. When Shei began to finalize the shuttle's approach, the giant vessel swung into view, rolling massively overhead and filling almost the entire vault of the sphere. Then, just when it seemed that they could get no closer without collision, the Maire Meid suddenly passed between the two ships, noticeably gaining speed as it swept across the V-sky on its way to Innis. It was towing a giant docking ring for the new habitat ship to be built there. As the Meid moved away, Estmere briefly flashed the ship's running lights in waves to salute the Arna and its passengers. Once it was gone, the huge rotating maw of the Terreska docking bay loomed directly ahead. At that point Shei stopped the shuttle's approach, folded the main drive blades, and spun the ship completely around. The V- sky display then shifted to a rear view showing the advance of the Terreska's docking arm. Once the arm had grasped a mooring pin on the Arna, its operator slowly engaged a clutch to synchronize the shuttle's rotation with the Terreska, and then drew the ship backwards into the bay.

As soon as it landed, and the bay was re-pressurized, the Arna was immediately beset by engineers and craftsmen, keen to examine every detail of the ship they had designed, and then to get it ready to return to Innis.

The new families were met enthusiastically, first in the docking bay, and then in the habitat section, by old friends and new, many carrying hand-crafted housewarming gifts. They were shown their new homes and then given a brief tour of the habitat chamber. In a day of wonders—not the least of which had been encountering the Middi—they couldn't help but notice a procession of sunbeams wandering deep into the ship as they walked toward the domes near the bow. When they reached the Commons, Aedh met them with a deep bow and explained, "Pewari Gilon regrets that she cannot come to greet you at this time. She is making a sunset."