Meteors -- Fiction; Science fiction; Space stations -- Fiction
Blair led the way down the ladder and through the companionway to
the Station. The three passengers were introduced to Irv Mendel, who
told them how much they'd enjoy quarter-G in a couple days, and then
they were shown their cubicles, in Section One, which would be their
home for the next fifteen days. Their luggage--thirty-eight pounds
permissible--had preceded them into the rooms, which were small but
functional. There was, in each room, a bed and a chair and a small
writing table, a lamp and a narrow closet and a tiny bathroom complete
with shower stall and WC. The floor was uncarpeted black plastic and
the walls and ceiling were cream-painted metal. It took the engineers
a while to get used to the idea that the floor was _not_ what they
would have thought of as the 'bottom' of the Station from the outside.
The floor of their cubicles was, on the outside, the outer edge of the
Station. The center of the Station was not to the left or right, it was
directly overhead.
The outer ring of the Station was divided into twelve sections.
Sections Nine, Ten and Eleven housed the permanent Station personnel,
including the weathermen and television relay men and so on. Sections
Five, Six and Seven were cargo holds, and Sections One, Two and Three
were transient quarters. (The three engineers were in Section Two.)
Sections Four, Eight and Twelve contained the utilities, the sources of
light and heat and air, as well as the chow hall and food storage. At
the bulkhead separating each Section, floor and ceiling met at an angle
of thirty degrees. A man could do a loop-the-loop simply by walking
dead ahead down the main corridor until he came back to his starting
point.
Once the three engineers were safely settled in their cubicles, Blair
took the elevator back up to the center of the Station, where Irv
Mendel was waiting for him in his office. Blair went through the same
sort of paperwork as he'd done with Cy Braddock, and when they were
finished Mendel said, "How are these three kids? Going to give us any
trouble?"
"I'm not sure. Standish has a pretty weak stomach, it may take him
a while to get adjusted, but I think he'll just grin and bear it.
Miller's all right. I'm not too sure about Ricks. He's pushing himself
a little hard, one of these guys who wants to be an old salt before he
ever gets into the water. If he cracks, he may do it in style."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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