Mindshard (ON HOLD)

Ikaris 7

     Hanging in the fifth null gravity Lagrange Point between Icarus Prime and Secundus, Ikaris 7 was a graceful construct of steel and plastic nearly a square kilometre in size, powered by fusion reactors deep in her belly.  She had taken over a year to build, with construction crews working around the 36 hour Icarus clock to assemble first her metallic spine then her plastic and alloy body.

     The largest of the Ikaris Group, massive stations built in high Icarus or Lagrange orbit, Ikaris 7 served as both the primary hub for all civilian transport and military ships moving in and out of the system, and home to the DESE primary sensor array.  Her docks, massive, multi-vessel capable nodes extending from the station’s main, lozenge-shaped structure on heavy booms, were able to handle over a hundred ships simultaneously during peak traffic.  The booms, equipped with automated transport systems and a tube train system similar to the transit system down on Prime, were nearly constantly busy with streams of cargo and personnel moving back and forth.

     In nearly the exact center of the great center lozenge sat the DESE sensor platform, a raised structure bristling with sensor clusters and data gathering equipment so dense, it was like a forest of metal and plastic sprouting from the station’s spine.  In the station’s belly were the administrative, storage and technical services that insured the station’s smooth operation.  Here the UDF had a garrison of marines for the station’s protection, in addition to the station’s own security force.  More than once in her life Ikaris 7 had been the target of both insurgents and terrorists and the Directorate didn’t want such a vital link in their service chain crippled by a surprise attack.

     Burning out of the atmosphere at several times the speed of sound, the station wasn’t immediately visible on the shuttle’s scopes.  But, as the pilot activated the mule’s primary thruster assembly and boosted their speed to just below XLS threshold with a surge of power, the transport hammered through the cloud of ships, satellites and defense platforms in low Icarus orbit and out into interplanetary space, the station the shuttle’s ultimate goal.

     To say space between Prime, Secundus and the various Ikaris stations was crowded would’ve been a vast understatement.  Traffic moved non-stop between the three 36 hours a day, ranging from transports like the one Vaughn now rode into space, to heavy interstellar craft, gangly tangles of metal that could only survive in space, well outside a planet’s gravity well.  They plied the Prime-Proteus-Earth run, moving vital materials and resources between the colonies and Humanity’s home world.  Well-schooled in the traffic patterns of the various vessels in the Prime-Secundus Gap, as the interplanetary void between the planet and her largest moon was called, the pilot expertly weaved her way through at full speed, always bringing the shuttle back to her primary course.

     That never wavering path soon had the station on the shuttle’s scopes and, as it swung into view through the heavy cockpit windows, the pilot throttled the primary thruster assembly back and powered up the breaking thrusters.

  “Ikaris Control, this is transport MT901 on approach.  Requesting final clearance and bay assignment.”  She rasped into a throat mike as her co-pilot went through a quick systems check.

  “MT901, you are cleared for approach.”  The metallic voice of the station’s traffic control AI returned into the pilot’s ear.  “And assigned docking bay 4, immediate docking privilege.  Initiate proper vectored thrust now.”

     The pilot glanced quickly at her comrade, the two sharing a surprised look.  Immediate docking privilege?  That was generally assigned to dignitaries and military brass.  The colonel, while a high-ranking member of the base command staff, was neither as far as they knew.  Something was going on up here!