The New Frontier Read online

  Ryan Kinzy

  The New Frontier

  Book I: The Cielo Space Chronicles

  © Copyright Ryan Kinzy 2011

  All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopy, recording, or any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from publisher.

  Requests for permission to make copies of any part of the work should be emailed to: [email protected]

  Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Kinzy, Ryan.

  [Fiction, English.]

  The new frontier: Book I the cielo space chronicles/Ryan Kinzy

  1st ed.

  P. cm.

  To my children

  I may not be able to take you to space, but we can dream about it …

  Table of Contents

  Part I: Brave New Space Station

  Chapter 1 A New Beginning 3

  Chapter 2 Welcome to Cielo Prime. 15

  Chapter 3 Life on the Station 29

  Chapter 4 Exploring the Station 41

  Chapter 5 Getting Really, Really Sick. 50

  Chapter 6 Strange Things are Starting to Happen. 57

  Chapter 7 A New Species 65

  Chapter 8 Escaping from Aliens 72

  Part II: The Treatment

  Chapter 9 A Spoiled Plan 81

  Chapter 10 The Experiment 90

  Chapter 11 A New Ally 98

  Chapter 12 Making the Treatment 107

  Chapter 13 New Cielo 125

  Chapter 14 Spacewalk 134

  Chapter 15 Discovered 144

  Chapter 16 The Trip Home 154

  Part III: A New Alliance

  Chapter 17 Our New Allies 165

  Chapter 18 More of the Treatment 179

  Chapter 19 Flying out to Jupiter 192

  Chapter 20 Space Ship Pilots 213

  Chapter 21 The New Plan 226

  Chapter 22 Going Into the Belly of the Beast 239

  Chapter 23 Attack of the Killer Monster. 252

  Chapter 24 Unlikely Heroes 262

  Part I: Brave New Space Station

  Chapter 1

  A New Beginning

  “Look, there it is!”

  “Where? I can’t see it.” The two girls stood on the ship’s promenade deck, looking out the window. The younger girl squinted.

  “That little speck out there. Here, let me zoom in.” The older girl, Lauren, made a waving motion with her hands. The whole window zoomed in, revealing a complex of stations floating in space. She flicked her hand to the left until one of the stations was centered in the view.

  “There. See?” she asked.

  “Wow,” said her sister Julia. “I couldn’t have imagined that.”

  The girls looked at the space stations in awe. The magnificent structures sparkled in the blackness of space, slowly turning. The dust and debris of the asteroid belt formed the backdrop, with a blanket of brilliant stars sparkling beyond.

  The station on the left looked like the oldest, four giant wagon wheels stacked on top of each other with an axle in the middle. The station’s skin boasted giant swaths of steel that resembled patches on a worn out pair of jeans. It looked as if it had been haphazardly pieced together over the years.

  Adjacent to the older station were two tubular stations. A smaller, completed one, and a larger behemoth that was half done. Unlike the wagon wheel station, these two had irregular shapes sprouting from their cylindrical bases making them look like pin cushions.

  The larger of the structures, still under construction, sported gargantuan arms of steel jutting out into space on the unfinished part. The whole middle of the station was criss-crossed with massive cables that connected one side to the other. The other, smaller tubular station had the same shape as the bigger one, but was dwarfed by its larger companion.

  “Look at that one!” Julia pointed to the incomplete station. “I hope we’re going to live there.”

  “I think that’s where we’re going to live,” Lauren said, pointing at the smaller tubular station. “That should be Cielo Prime.”

  “Oh,” Julia frowned slightly, looking back and forth between Cielo Prime and the larger station.

  The new station bustled with activity. Ships scurried back and forth, bringing pieces and parts to the new station. Sparks flew as worker bots welded giant steel plates in place. The sisters stood silent for a moment, mesmerized.

  “How big are the stations?” Julia cocked her head and crinkled her nose. It was hard to judge how big the stations were just by looking at them. They looked at least many miles long and several miles in diameter.

  Lauren shook her head, as if coming out of a trance, and turned to look at her sister.

  “I don’t know. Hold on.” She moved her hand to the bottom of the window and tapped on it. Words appeared above her fingers – Introduction, Location, People, Government, Economy.

  “Here,” Lauren touched “Introduction.” A cloudy square appeared on the window, which brightened and then focused on a set of statistics. She could still see the station through the translucent text.

  Cielo Outpost

  Number of stations: 3

  Station Names: Cielo Prime, Cielo One, New Cielo

  Population: Cielo Prime: 250,000; Cielo One: 100,000; New Cielo: 250,000 (under construction)

  …

  Lauren’s face crumpled and her shoulders slumped. “I’m sure I’m going to hate it. I bet they don’t have anything I like to do there. I can’t stand it already!”

  She stomped her feet and growled, “We’re out in the middle of NOWHERE! I can’t believe we had to move! It’s not fair!” She folded her arms and stared out into space, then glanced back at her sister, expecting validation for her anger over the atrocities they’d been subjected to by their parents.

  Instead, Julia, who was used to these episodes, didn’t pay attention and kept looking out the window.

  Lauren rolled her eyes and folded her arms tighter.

  Their family was headed to the Cielo Outpost—the furthermost stations in the solar system. It didn’t matter to Lauren that her father had to move them for his job. She just missed home.

  The trip was grueling and everybody’s nerves were wearing thin. The family had been on the transport ship from Earth for almost 30 days, with just two more days to go.

  The first two weeks had been exciting, as they met and played with other kids displaced by their own parents’ tyranny. Of course, they kept up their schoolwork during the day, but there was plenty of time left over to explore all the nooks and crannies of the ship.

  By the third week, it started to hit the girls that they really were moving. As gloom set in, the two sulked around the cabin complaining about the move. Julia fed off the emotions of her older sister, who increasingly grumbled in the last week. Now that they saw the outpost so close, it was final. The beauty of the incredible complex and excitement of living in space was overshadowed by the fact they had just left everything they knew behind them.

  They turned around to face the crowd on the promenade deck and scanned the people with solemn faces.

  The deck had small kiosk restaurants tucked along its back wall. Lauren thought it looked like a food court in a mall like they had back home. There were tables scattered about, families eating, and kids running around. She could almost forget they were in space.

  They recognized a young girl who was sitting with her parents. The girl said something to her mom, then got up and weaved her way over to the sisters. She was one of the girls they ran around with on the ship.

  “What are you looking at?” the girl asked. She wasn’t quite as tall as Lauren, so she craned her neck to exami
ne Lauren’s face.

  Getting no immediate answer, she looked down at Julia, whose curly blond hair encircled her head like a wreath. Julia’s haphazard ensemble fit her personality, with clothes that sort of matched but didn’t quite go together, topped off by a fanny pack she wore at her waist.

  Lauren, on the other hand, had perfectly matched clothes with meticulously groomed hair.

  “Hi, Heather. We’re just looking at the station,” Lauren finally said glumly.

  Heather looked at the station in view. “It’s that close now? Amazing! I can’t wait. It’s going to be great!”

  Lauren tried to hide her disappointment. Heather stepped closer to the window, between the two sisters. She peered at the stations, watching them slowly turn.

  “Where are you all going to live again?” she asked.

  “Cielo Prime,” Lauren muttered as she looked at the smaller cylindrical station.

  Heather looked up, squinting at Lauren. “Oh, that’s right, now I remember. We’re going to be on the big station, New Cielo. My dad is working for some of the government people over there.”

  She paused, noticing Lauren’s demeanor. “You don’t seem too excited about it.”

  “I’m not,” Lauren answered, barely audible.

  “It’ll be fun for you, Julia!” Heather looked down at Julia’s fanny pack. Julia didn’t go anywhere without it. “I’ve heard the asteroids have all kinds of new rocks and things nobody has ever seen before on Earth!”

  Julia’s eyes lit up. “Yeah, I know! My dad is going to bring back everything he can find from out there!” As she spoke she reflexively touched her fanny pack, where she kept her microscope and sample collections.

  Lauren rolled her eyes and her body followed, exaggerating the exasperation. “I don’t know why you carry that stuff around with you here, Julia. We’re on a ship. You won’t find anything here!”

  “You never know!” was all Julia said, with a slight smile back at Lauren.

  Heather looked back at the station as it was rotating. She pointed up at the window to the middle of the cylindrical station.

  “Can you see where you’ll live?”

  Lauren made a counter-clockwise motion with her hand. The view of the station rotated and zoomed in. It looked like a weird, inverted city. All the buildings protruded off the surface of the station as expected, but all the writing and billboards were upside down.

  The station was wrapped up and down, end to end with tubes where trains sped around, moving people from one end to the other.

  The whole thing was surreal. It looked like something they’d only seen in movies, not in real life.

  “Do you know what building you’ll live in?” Heather asked.

  “Hmm, let’s see,” Lauren said, tapping on the menu again. She found “Show landmarks,” and touched it.

  Little boxes of text appeared over the biggest buildings, labeling what the buildings were.

  Lauren made a circular motion with her hand as if she were winding a yo-yo. As she did, the whole view of the station shot forward over the surface of the station. It looked like they were floating just outside it, looking in. One of the larger buildings was labeled, “Alpha Centauri Landing.”

  “I think that’s where we are going to live,” Lauren said. “I heard it takes some getting used to, with all the buildings upside down and all the grass and parks on the surface.”

  “Yeah, it’s going to be strange,” Heather said, raising her eyebrows.

  Just then, Heather’s mom waved to her. “Well, I gotta go eat. Good seeing you!” She turned and ran off to join her family.

  Julia glanced up at the station on the window, then quickly looked at her sister and smiled. “It’ll be OK. We’ll have fun, you’ll see.”

  Julia looked back at the window. The translucent menu was still there. “What’s this?” she asked tapping on ‘Introduction’.

  The window transitioned to a panoramic view of the stations. Above them music started to play. The girls looked up and saw a cone shaped speaker that directed sound downwards so they were the only ones that could hear.

  The music faded and a narrator started speaking, “People have been exploring space for over a hundred and fifty years building extensive civilizations on the moon and Mars. Yet until Will Thurmond III conceived the idea to build a civilization in the asteroid belt, nothing like it had ever been attempted. And now thousands of families, just like yours, immigrate here each year!”

  The imaged changed to show a transport ship similar to the one they were on. The transport ship was shaped like a wagon wheel with five wheels sandwiched together. The whole ship spun as it moved, keeping a constant gravity for all the passengers. The narration continued, “Now, people lured by the drive to conquer this corner of the Solar System journey to Cielo as quickly as new immigration slots became available. Space is limited and only people who are invited can move to Cielo. You are part of the lucky few. These transport ships travel between Earth and the outpost eight times a year.”

  “Lucky?” Lauren questioned, frowning at the speaker overhead.

  The window changed to show the picture of a bald old man with thin tufts of hair on either side of his head. “Cielo was the brainchild of an altruistic trillionaire from Earth who had a dream to build a new world in the heavens. He convinced investors from all around the globe to contribute part of the cost and he paid for the rest. Mr. Thurmond spent his entire fortune funding the project, but died knowing his dream had been realized.”

  The imagery shifted to show a construction zone in space with a wagon wheel station similar to the transport ship. “It took 20 years and many people’s lives to build the first station, Cielo One. Soon after Cielo One was put into service the outpost blossomed. Cielo is strategically positioned next to the asteroid belt, where the inhabitants extract practically any minerals and metals they need to further extend Mr. Thurmond’s dream.”

  The window switched to show Cielo Prime. “After Cielo One was built, architects dreamt bigger and better designs leading to Cielo Prime. Finally, the culmination of all we have learned went into the newest station, New Cielo, which is scheduled to be complete in two more years. Cielo is truly the pinnacle of human achievement. Welcome to the new frontier!” The final image showed New Cielo floating in space with the asteroid belt and stars glittering in the background.

  “Huh. THAT was entertaining,” Lauren said at the conclusion.

  Julia glanced behind her at the doors. “We better get back to the cabin. It’s almost time to eat.”

  The girls turned around and walked toward the exit. The window behind them flashed back to the original view with the station – a speck in the distance. The glass exit doors whished open before them, revealing the long hall.

  Accommodations for the passengers were spread across the wagon wheels, with long spanning halls in the middle and doors on either side of the halls. At intersections, passengers could pass between the wheels and get to recreation centers like the promenade deck, the ship’s school, hospital, and other necessities.

  The cabins weren’t cramped, but they weren’t spacious either. The girls’ cabin was barely big enough for a family of six. Much smaller than the home they came from on Earth.

  As they walked, the girls reminisced about their old home which was in Austin, Texas, a bustling city of 10 million people. They had lived close to the city’s center in a 14-story condo building. Their condo was spacious by condo standards, but it wasn’t as big as the single-family houses around the corner from their building. Their mom always said she wanted a house with a yard, but at their dad’s pay scale, that wasn’t going to happen.

  At 10 and 12, the girls didn’t care for the cramped quarters much and craved the privacy they used to have back on Earth, so they spent a lot of time wandering around the ship trying to find quiet spots.

  Lauren and Julia’s cabin wasn’t too far from the promenade deck. There was a single intersection between their wheel and the promenade
deck’s wheel.

  In the hall, the floor noticeably curved in front of them with the shape of the ship. On either side of the corridor, the doors were indistinguishable from each other except for the numbers in the middle. Next to each door was a control panel that the inhabitants used to open the door with their handprint or where guests would announce themselves to the residents inside.

  Lauren thought it looked like a utilitarian hotel. “They could have spruced this up a little, don’t you think?” Lauren said to her sister.

  “What do you mean?” Julia asked while she counted numbers on the doors. “Ten fifty two, ten fifty four, ten fifty six. Here we are.”

  “They could have put plants or something to make it look nicer,” Lauren said.

  “Yeah, I guess,” Julia said as she put her hand on the panel beside door number 1056.

  The door slid open. Their dad heard the door and came to greet them. “Back so soon? Did you see anything?”

  Lauren’s face soured. “Yes, we saw the stupid station. I can’t believe we’re moving there. Why are we going again? Oh, that’s right, because you want to ruin our lives!”

  Their mother looked up from the couch at their dad, heaving a sigh.

  Their dad’s faced softened. “Lauren, you know why … I have a great opportunity out there and we had to take it.”

  He continued, “Really, it’s not going to be that bad. The place is growing like crazy. So you saw the new station? It’s going to be twice as big as Cielo Prime! They need a lot of metal to build that thing, and that’s why we’re here.”

  “Yeah, we saw it, but it’s still not home. I lived there my whole life! All my friends are there, my life is there!” She put her arms at her sides.

  She moved toward him, counting on her fingers. “No more swims at Barton Springs, no more walks around Lady Bird Lake, no more rock climbing, no more bike riding on trails.”