Grand Designs Corps of Engineers

Ring Around the Sky by Allyn Gibson Chapter One As Tev woke from his nap, he smiled and felt completely refreshed. The past fewweeks had been trying, and to be able to sit, lean back, and relax for hours onend put him quickly to sleep. He snorted, clearing his nose, and stretched hisfacial muscles to loosen them. He took a deep breath and exhaled slowly. Thishad been a very good nap. He turned to the Kharzh"ullan seated next to him. "How long until we reach thebase station?" he asked. The Kharzh"ullan checked his wrist chrono and frowned. "I never was good atmath. Should be soon. Half an hour, perhaps." "Good," said Tev as he leaned back into his seat and closed his eyes. He hadtraveled from Kharzh"ulla to the Ring and back many times in his life, and hehad always enjoyed the passenger cars. They were oriented differently thansubway trams he had used in and around San Francisco when he had been atStarfleet Academy"the subway trams had seating on a single, long level, but theKharzh"ullan passenger shuttles had seating on five levels, with chairs arrangedin a circle around the central ladder that ran from level to level, and theconductor"s station at the base of the passenger car. Like the trams, theKharzh"ullan shuttles traveled through tunnels, but where the San Franciscotrams traveled beneath the city, the Kharzh"ullan shuttles moved through thespace elevators between the planet"s surface and the Ring. The passenger beside him shook Tev"s shoulder. Tev sat up, turned his head, andhalf-opened his eyes. "If you wouldn"t mind my asking . . . ?" Tev"s neighborsaid.Tev shrugged. "You"re an off-worlder," said the neighbor. "Have you been to Kharzh"ullabefore?" Tev smiled. "Many times." He leaned back in his seat, his eyes focused on somedistant point beyond the central ladder. "I used to live on Kharzh"ulla. InPrelv, actually." A skeptical look crossed the Kharzh"ullan"s face. "Been away long?" "Years." "Why did you leave?" Tev sighed. "Starfleet." It wasn"t the complete answer, but it would suffice fora stranger.His companion nodded. "What brought you back?" "Business," said Tev after a lengthy pause, his voice low. He closed his eyes.His companion seemed to take the hint, and said nothing more. Tev had spent too long in space. He could feel the shuttle"s movement throughthe elevator just as he could feel a starship"s, down the superconductingmagnets that ran thirty thousand kilometers from surface to terminus at theRing.Tev"s eyes shot open. Something felt wrong. Very wrong. "Aeh-hvahtin," said Tev. "What are you talking about?" said his companion. "We should be decelerating, but we"re not." He did a quick mental calculation"the passenger shuttle should have been decelerating rapidly from its speed offive thousand kilometers per hour. If the passenger car didn"t begin brakingsoon it wouldn"t have the time or space to slow to a stop when the car reachedthe elevator"s base. Tev unfastened his shoulder harness and began to rise from his seat. A hand onhis shoulder stopped him. "What do you think you"re doing?" his companion asked. "There"s some sort of problem, probably with the passenger car"s brakes. I"m aStarfleet engineer. The conductors need my assistance." The other passenger unclasped his hand from Tev"s shoulder. Tev nodded inwordless thanks and lunged for the ladder.The climb down the ladder felt endless. Time seemed to slow for him. What shouldhave taken at most a minute, from the fourth passenger level to the conductor"sbooth, seemed to take hours. Tev heard the voices of the other passengers, theirfright and anger as they too realized that the passenger car was in gravedanger, that their lives might soon end. HWard, Dayton is the author of 'Grand Designs Corps of Engineers', published 2007 under ISBN 9781416544890 and ISBN 1416544895.