The Ring of Acies

Chapter One: An Ambiguous Morning in Duodecant III

Initium Station is never quiet. Each work shift in the standard thirty-hour day is busy. Terrine Zafas is awoken by the very irritating alarm clock the Eftai Corporation gave her when she began working for an engineering firm in Eftai's terraforming group. She opens her soft vertical sleeping cell and reaches over to the alarm clock.

"One of these days, they're going to find bits of this thing in an air recycler." she thinks to herself.

The young woman floats through her small apartment and makes it to the kitchen. The station does not have artificial gravity. However, one of Initium's many engineering firms is working on it. Outside her apartment, she can see a vast recreation space in the large module, surrounded by the pillars that contain housing units for the millions of people living in Duodecant III. There are already kids in the park floating around on energy tethers beneath the module's light-emitting ceiling, which provides the module with a pitiful amount of artificial daylight.

The station orbits the planet Acies, which is the Eftai Corporation's newest colony. But 'newest' is not saying much. Terrine is a part of the third generation to be born on the station. The station is broken up into twelve duodecants, each with a residence module (R&R), a business module (Biz.), and a planetary operations module (P. Op.) which is connected to the planet's surface by a space elevator. At the base of each elevator is an atmosphere processor that delicately converts Acies' atmosphere into a more breathable mixture over the course of centuries.

Terrine grabs her things and floats out her door. She pushes herself down the hall and floats down her pillar's primary service tunnel to the tower base. She walks through what can only be described as 'the city.' Her magnetic shoes click as they pull her to the module's floor. She walks by some kids in the park.

"Hey, Terri!" one of the kids says.

"Hey yourself, Milaz." Terrine replies. "They're gonna be testing the gravity generator in a couple of hours. Make sure you and your friends are at most two meters off the ground, ok?"

"Two meters got it."

Terrine follows a familiar scent over to one of the cities pillars, then deactivates her shoes and floats up five levels to a deli run by two kind men. She activates one of her shoes and pulls herself through the doorway. She greets them.

"Hey, Mash. Hey Gav." Terrine says in an upbeat tone.

"Good..." Gav checks his watch "...morning, Terrine. What can I get for you?"

"The usual."

"What a surprise." Mash retorts.

"Good morning to you too." Terrine responds.

"Easy there. He's been up all night. His shift ends in a few minutes." Gav explains as he enters the front of the deli from the kitchen.

"Shit! Is it six already?"

"What's the matter?"

"The damn company clock is broken!"

"Here," Mash says. He quickly finishes her order, vacuum seals it in a bag and tosses it to her.

"Thanks, Mash!"

She deactivates her shoe and jumps out the door, then floats in a straight line towards the section of the module facing P. Op., putting her forearm thrusters on full power to get there on time. She lowers herself to the ground and activates her shoes as she reaches the transit station. She scans her ID card and makes the 05:50 transit car with seconds to spare. The massive inter-module transit trains are packed with every shift change. The fast trains cover thousands of kilometres in minutes. The airtight cars always reek of perpetual bad breath. The duodecant's next oxygen shipment is not for another month, which means the smell of recycled air is only going to get worse. The disadvantage of starting at six is that the train stops at the P. Op. Even though the surface workers are cleaned and sanitized before leaving, they still reek of sulphur. At 0610, the train pulls into Biz. and Terrine rushes off the train car. She knows her employer will not accept the faulty alarm clock as an excuse, not after last time.