Incarna

Day 13: Dawn, Western Pacific.

Harold Parrish felt the slight jolt of the Skylon undocking from the International Orbital Station and frowned with regret. Maybe he could afford one more placement later this year but his schedule was looking outrageous and he was due to start onboard systems development for Kalpana Station early next year. Of course all of that would depend on how all this Incarna bullshit turned out.

He stood next to one of the cabin windows and watched the IOS drift away from him. Usually the cabin crew made him strap into his seat for any manoeuvres but his package needed to be monitored and he now had Skylon Frequent Flyer Points, well he would if they existed. Maybe in a few years when the first space hotels received safety certification. At the moment they still couldn't sort out the shielding issues. Cosmic ray exposure wasn't something to sneeze at if you wanted to have kids.

"AIME, Research Unit Status please!"  "Yes Harold," came his ex-wife's voice. He'd used hers as the voice of AIME so he wouldn't get emotionally attached to the AIME. It had been the idea of Jaeger Internationals Head of Psychology Services. Harold still wasn't sure about the idea. He tended to over react to AIME's curt algorithm responses as if he was being ignored or nagged or both. Oh well!

"Status all green Harold ..." Wait for it here it comes ... "... and Harold it has only been 5 minutes since you have checked the system status. I am authorised to advise you to relax and to let AIME do its job. You will be advised immediately anything untoward occurs!"  Yep there it was the nag! Bloody Max couldn't resist programming that into the current AIME OS, now could he. Bloody kids.

"Yeah dad, just get used to letting the OS do its job," he'd said when Harold had complained about the protocol methodology. "We designed AIME to make the decisions, so let it!"

Harold tried to shake the frustration out of his Zero G afflicted brain but Max's voice kept intruding. "Dad, I'm calling it the, Sit Down, Shut Up and Hold On Protocol." Harold grinned at the thought of it. SDSUHOP didn't really work as an acronym so they'd decided to call it the Holden Principle after the now defunct Australia's National Car. In the years before seat belts, that had often been the bumpa sticker on the hotted up Holden Toranas or Monaros.

In this case they were going to do the first full AIME controlled orbital drop of an AINGEL - Artificial Intelligent New Generation Emergency Life or Leib as Max preferred. They'd argued over whether to stay in English and use the word life but Max was adamant that the German root word Leib, for 'to live' was acceptable given the family's maternal Prussian heritage. Harold used Life anyway, people tended to accept the silliness of acronyms for what they were.

Harold did a final systems check of the onboard instrument pack that was the relay for the AINGEL. They were scheduled to perform the drop over the Woomera Space Port. They had the best tracker equipment there and they were more than happy to take Jaeger International money for another one of Harold Parrish's hair brained ideas. The fact that many of them turned out to be multi billion dollar success stories was probably even more of an attraction to the cash strapped CSIRO teams working from Woomera.

Harold ran his hands through his thinning hair and stroked down his beard then pushed off from the control panels for the data pack and AINGEL in the cargo bay. He guided himself effortlessly down the access tunnel to the passenger compartment. He slipped his access card through the airlock, pushed inside immediately it opened and waited for it to close and cycle through the safety checks.

Ngaire the chief stewardess was waiting for him as he entered and gave him her usual luscious, "All set there Mr Parrish?" "Yes thank you Ngaire. This will be an exceptional flight," and he gave her his conspiratorial wink. She winked back and smiled her 'you may be wealthy but I'm the boss' smile. She checked the airlock as it cycled closed behind him, then pushed off and followed him to his seat. She watched him buckle up then checked that his pulse and blood oxygen monitors were working. She smiled again and drew out a refreshment pack from her stores compartment opposite the aisle to Harold. It held all the things he might enjoy during the trip plus his luggage. "Please Mr Parrish, no showing off with any of the beverages this time!" He winked again and smirked. He loved sucking droplets of tea or coffee out of the air as they floated in front of him. He had squirted some out too hard on the trip up and they had splattered across the passenger compartment much to the humour of the new crew on their way to the IOS.

He took out a tube of Coconut Quench and sucked on it slowly as he watched the IOS drift further and further away. In fact it was maintaining its orbital velocity as the Skylon used retro jets to reduce its speed and lower its orbit.

They would take one complete orbit before using the main Sabre engines for the descent to Goulbourn Space Port. Harold estimated that one orbit should be sufficient for the AIME to complete its scans before they conducted the AINGEL test flight. Given how exorbitant the 'Rent- A-Skylon' rates were, one orbit would have to do to maintain any semblance of cost benefit analysis for the AINGEL program.

Harold watched the curve of the Dawn Terminator move inexorably toward them across the Pacific jumping the International Date Line and confirming that the world was round. Lightning flashed from storm cells around Tahiti and a vast cloud band hid New Zealand in its pre-dawn light. He felt the occasional push as the engines were used for some primary course corrections to achieve the AIME orbit. He was looking forward to this. One complete orbit with Ngaire's luscious golden Maori skinned smile to accompany all of his enquiries. He would be allowed free movement once they had established their new orbit, but until then he was more than happy to play tourist.

Ngaire came floating down the cabin toward him and pulled up gracefully and efficiently next to him. She had been with Air New Zealand before SOS - Skylon Orbital Services. An unfortunate acronym but very catchy. For any orbital emergency or routine transfer of equipment and personnel who do you call - just think SOS.

Ngaire had been accepted into SOS because of her professional record at Air New Zealand, and her strength. She never suffered from Zero G nausea and moved around the cabin as effortlessly as an acrobat amid the wires, ropes and ribbons of an aerial circus.

She was frowning, "Captain Dagger would like to see you on the flight deck now Mr Parrish. A priority One Security message for you!" Harold felt his stomach drop as if they'd hit an air pocket. Ian Dagger was an old mate from years back. Ex SAS then a very successful Commercial pilot and security consultant, and now a Skylon Captain. Harold was due to visit the flight deck later when they did the drop test, not now. Something was up, something very serious was definitely up!