The Star Pirate's Folly

Chapter 9: Orbit

Buttercup wasn't sure what to expect exactly when she stepped into the transport room. The walls were bare steel, adorned only with viewscreens that displayed friendly instructional messages indicating how to proceed. On the smooth floors, painted lines created lanes for travelers to follow to the gate itself. Opposite the airlock was a set of ceiling-height circular sliding doors—the gate itself.

Behind Buttercup, the airlock door shut and the attendant Juanito sealed it from within. Apprehension gripped her. Was she doing this right? Were the doors just going to open up for her? She wished there were other travelers there with her. The room looked like it could easily hold a few hundred people, and its size spooked her into feeling small and fragile. She walked to the middle of the room and faced the gigantic sliding doors of the gate.

A red scanning light flashed out of a lens recessed inside the gate's upper frame. The lens winked green in confirmation when it got her eye, then began pulsing once per second, and each time the green light pulsed a rhythmic chime would sound. After ten seconds a louder chime rang out and the doors slid smoothly out of the way. On the other side was a room that looked exactly the same as the one she stood in. Was that it? She just walked through?

Buttercup shifted her pack on her shoulder, a bit nervous. In just a few more steps she would be over two hundred miles above Surface, aboard the orbital station which hung overhead in low planetary orbit. It just all seemed too easy. She was expecting something powerful, something that would rumble and shake. She hadn't heard anything. Was wormhole travel really so simple? Maybe that's why she didn't remember the trips—to a child it would be just like walking through another room on the station, and then you're on Surface. She probably wouldn't have even noticed.

"Miss, you can proceed, please," came a hesitant voice over the intercom. It was Juanito.

His timid words jolted her from her thoughts and she stepped forward.

"Sorry," Buttercup said.

She walked through the archway with her head down, and although she knew it was perfectly safe she felt a distinct chill as she entered the gate. She brought her shoulders in as though she was afraid to brush the sides of the gate despite the size of the entrance. The fear passed as soon as she got into the other room, but she could hear her heart pounding in her ears. It was stupid, she knew. Just irrational panic.

Still, she grabbed the straps of her pack and pulled them tight against her shoulders as she walked to the airlock. The sound of the gate's doors sliding shut behind her made the hairs on the back of her neck stand up. She toed the thick red line that marked the area in which the airlock door would swing open, as far from the gate as she could get.

 As Buttercup stood in front of the airlock the chiming started again, and she counted as it went all the way up to ten. She read the words WAIT BEHIND LINE FOR ATTENDANT in white letters against a red background on the airlock door. She just wanted to be out of the room. The feeling grew in her chest, clawing its way up her throat until she realized she was holding her breath. She exhaled as the louder "all clear" chime rang out, and the attendant on the other side swung open the airlock door. Buttercup drew in a deep breath through her nose. She was not going to enjoy the return trip.

"Welcome aboard," said the female attendant as she carefully opened the door and secured it against the wall. "All by yourself?"

"Yeah," said Buttercup, and walked past the woman into the airlock.

The attendant pulled the shut the door behind Buttercup before moving to the other end of the airlock to open the outer door. At last the woman pushed open the final barrier between Buttercup and freedom and beckoned for her to come out.