Day Twenty ∞ Wednesday evening (PST)

"IT MATTERS NOT," Mickmi said with her eyes on Atlas, "and it concerns us not. Blanc, please maintain vigilance of the situation 'on the ground' and outside our perimeter."

—Will do, my Queen. Selina contracted and widened before fading.

Mickmi floated forward to position herself before them inside the shield. "Gentlemen... Let us get to work."

Danny headed back to the ships with the others to find both flanked with extruded brackets holding the netting-wrapped metal pole bundles they'd travelled with, a few of the protruding ends now curved into arcs. A 3D schematic popped up on his HUD, virtually moving each pole into position to create a support frame.

"Please secure the parts according to the assembly instructions on your displays."

Mickmi pulled two short straight poles and held them out, parallel to each other. Muzzy reached for a long, curved one as Danny's display highlighted another with a flashing green outline.

That was the one he was supposed to take. He pulled it out of the mesh wrapping by floating away from the bundle, and turned the two socket protrusions toward Mickmi's poles as the arrows indicated. He and Muzzy pressed from either side, joining the four pieces into one as Eckstein approached with a curved pole.

Danny found assembling the frames both easier and harder than he expected. Without gravity guiding his sensory awareness, there was no "up", no "down". Every direction was the same. He had to calibrate himself to working in this environment, as well as getting used to the servomotor assistants in his spacesuit that responded as if they were a part of his musculature.

He floated back to inspect their handiwork. It looked like a pair of skeleton wheels, each with three columns of mesh attached along its circumference, open and ready to receive the load. The other team was securing the last piece of their second frame when a new person indicator popped up on his HUD next to the line marking the factory boundary.

"Internal delivery mechanisms operational for two ports," Artemae said via the comms, "ready for loading."

Danny looked up. Framed by one of the yellow squares, Artemae hung in her usual attire, her bob hovering around her head like a black halo. But her red skirt did not behave the same way. He puzzled over it for a moment before remembering it was part of her Nanite construction. It would be a simple matter to keep the material stiff. Why she didn't do the same thing with her hair escaped him.

Muzzy stared at her. "Is there an invisible airlock there?"

"What for?" She threw out a cheerful hand. "The plant is completely autonomous. Air is not a requirement."

"Wait, what?"

"Damn," Eckstein said as she leaped toward them.

"My Queen," Artemae halted before Mickmi, "reactivating the hull shield requires more time than we have here."

Mickmi thanked her and waited for Lora's team to join them.

"I don't get it. Shouldn't she be dead by now?" Jagg asked, voicing what Danny knew would be on every man's mind. "Why isn't she wearing a spacesuit?"

The men were all staring at her.

"She's not human either," Danny said. "She's more like a living machine... artificial intelligence. So she doesn't need air."

"No... kidding," Atlas muttered, but it transmitted clearly in the comms.

"I'm disappointed, Daniel... You're calling me a machine?" Artemae swung next to Mickmi and met Danny's gaze with lifted brows, grinning.

Mickmi turned to the seven gathered before her. "One vessel must remain outside-perimeter while we load the other. It will maintain a quasi-shield around the plant, along with extra monitor probes. If a threat approaches—antimatter, space debris, or... if we are targeted—full-shield activation will focus on the exposed area, in addition to our working space and product storage area. We have not enough range power to protect the entire plant at once." She looked at each person, met Danny's gaze for a moment before moving to Lora and Jagg beside him.

"Yeah, we better finish this most ricky-tick," Tillman said. "If we're targeted, they're not going to be focusing on just one area."

"Paulux will initiate the monitor shield around Nightstar 4," Lora said as her ship backed away just beyond the invisible perimeter shield.

"Thank you." Mickmi turned to Artemae in silent communication and, after a moment, Artemae looked down at herself.

"Oh! I see why it's not appropriate."

Her short skirt grew longer and paler, wrapping itself around each leg, covering her gladiator sandal straps as it turned into a pair of pink, ankle-length slacks.

"There! No more risk of distracting views."

Danny chuckled and shook his head to himself when she winked at him.

"We are two loading teams," Mickmi said. "Daniel, Jagger, go with Artemae. You receive the anti-matter containers from the stacks and pass them on. Remember, handle them with extreme care."

Danny and Jagg floated after Artemae and entered through one of the large, open hatches. Looking around, Danny rotated his angle in relation to the floor so his boots could latch onto the surface, simulating gravity.

This was a huge, surprisingly well-lit space. A quick glance around the gray walls and ceiling revealed no light fixtures, yet the light seemed to emanate from everywhere, leaving no shadows. Just like inside Mickmi's ship. Here and there, long manipulator arms hung from tracks in the ceiling. Before them, row after row of widely spaced containers, the same size as the dummies they'd practiced on in the swimming pool. They were not stacked in racks or magazines as he'd expected, but sunken individually into round depressions in the floor. Each one had red "loaded"-indicator lights between the side panels on its cap.

"That's the antimatter? No prob."

Danny glanced at Jagg who looked relatively comfortable for a rookie in a spacesuit, alert and curious.

"Yeah," Danny responded.

"The containers will be delivered to you at the door," Artemae said as two of the mechanical arms came to life and travelled along their tracks to the front row containers.

Danny stepped back to position himself at the hatch.

"I'll take the other one," Jagg said and headed for the opening 20 meters away.

Outside, Mickmi's ship relocated itself between the two openings, turning the 'wheel' frames toward them. Eckstein and Muzzy formed the extended 'chain' to Mickmi hovering next to the frame. The person markers on Danny's heads-up display confirmed that Lora's team was similarly spaced out on the other side toward Jagg.

"Ready," Eckstein said, and several voices echoed him.

Danny turned to Artemae. "We're ready. Are you controlling those robotic machines?"

"Yes, and I will pace them." She floated further into the storage room. "I'm hooked into the operating interface."

The lever arm turned to the pallet and activated its huge two-fingered 'hand', lowering it over the first container. Slowly its grip closed around the side straps protecting the transparent cylinder and lifted it out of the floor, then the arm swung toward Danny. But instead of bringing it within his reach as he'd expected, it released the container in mid-'air' and gave it a slight push.

O...kay.

It was perfectly aimed at his chest. Grabbing it, he realized only the motion gave the container 'weight', threatening to push him off his feet. Inertial mass. His boots magnetically locked him to the floor as the antimatter container halted obediently in his arms—this weightlessness thing was going to take a little more getting used to.

He turned to the opening.

"Remember," Mickmi's circle flashed on his HUD, "use gentle movements. There is no need to throw. Think of it as pushing a balloon into the air. Or a boat in water. But without force."

Danny released the container and used his finger to move it away from his chest. Not that way. He grabbed it by one of its side grips before it floated away to the left, then palmed it toward Eckstein. He could see what was inside the cylinder now, a large, orange, pill-shaped capsule secured in place by surrounding brackets. Safely encased by a heavy-duty cap at either end, held together by the metal straps.

Electromagnetic containment, popped into Danny's mind as clarifying labels appeared on his HUD. The main metal parts consisted of a titanium alloy with osmium and iridium, and a flap covered a safety control panel on the top cap.

Eckstein forwarded the floating container to Muzzy who carried it to Mickmi. Together they placed it on the netting, and as they removed their hands, that part of the netting curled around the container, securing it.

She looked up. "Next one."

Danny faced the stockpile as another container was sent his way. After a few more, he developed the sense of timing, adjusting to the flow. Each time, he would check that the net to done its thing before sending the next one. He soon found himself perspiring, not so much from exertion as from tense concentration. A lapse in attention was an invitation for Murphy's Law and he had no intention of giving that a chance. His spacesuit kept him dry, wicking up the sweat from his chest and shoulders, except for the slight moisture on his forehead and cheeks. At least, the interior climate control ensured his visor helmet wouldn't fog up.

It took the two teams around one and a half hour to fill the two frames. From Danny's vantage point, Mickmi's ship now sported a pair of elongated, belted wheels similar to an army tank's.

"Take five," Mickmi said. "Remember to hydrate in moderation. A drinking straw is inside your helmets." She circled the 'wheel', inspecting every row, then exchanged places with Lora and inspected the other side.

Danny had forgotten about the water. The straw grew out of the neck ring, aiming for the corner of his mouth.

"Can't we just pee over the edge?" Muzzy said, brushing off his gloved hands. "I imagine it'll just float around in orbit for a long time before making it to some rainclouds..."

Tillman chuckled. "With your luck, you'd get arrested for peeing on the White House lawn!"

Danny almost choked on a gulp of water as the airmen burst out in laughter.

"You guys, there are ladies in the house," Eckstein managed to say between snorts.

"Is that possible though?" Jagg asked from the other hatch, chuckling.

The same question echoed in Danny's mind as he laugh-coughed to clear his throat. His HUD responded by displaying a diagram of his spacesuit, highlighting an area around the crotch, as simultaneous technical and usage information popped to the fore from his mental library.

"Do you really want your very own personal pecker balloon to play with?" Atlas commented dryly.

So like Atlas. Danny shook his head with a chuckle. "Hey, there's no need. The spacesuits are built with smart padding, so they will absorb and break down any amount of leak... or waste."

"Yep. That is correct." Danny could hear the amusement in Artemae's voice.

Lora joined Mickmi in front of the ship. "Both batches are secure."

"Agreed," Mickmi replied. "We can start on Paulux. Everyone, stand clear of the vessel."

Deymos moved toward Lora's ship to park sideways beside it with the antimatter load turned away. A flickering energy field appeared between them and rippled along the outer shield. Then Paulux moved toward the loading area, the energy field between the two ships growing paler. Danny realized they'd been connected all this time with Deymos feeding Paulux extra energy for the monitor shield stretching around the huge factory, as well as providing standby for emergency power injection. Now they'd exchanged roles.

"We are at 647 kilometers. Steady decline." Mickmi turned around and met Danny's gaze for a moment.

—All's well, Danny thought before she could say anything.

She flashed him a smile through the helmet in return. "The probes identified a meteoroid cluster heading for Earth's atmosphere."

Danny's heart skipped a beat. Meteors?

"Is it a threat to us?" Tillman asked.

"Unlikely," Mickmi responded. "We continue loading while we track it."

The teams got to work again without a hitch, the airmen astronauts throwing occasional remarks at each other in banter. Half of the storage floor was now full of empty containment potholes, lined with thick antislip padding. The manipulator arm nudged each container from afar, but its aim targeted Danny so well, he didn't need to take more than one sideways step as goalee.

He'd relayed a few tosses when his nose started to itch. He ignored it at first, but it grew persistent. Since there was no way he could scratch it with his hand, he contorted his facial muscles several times. Then he pursed his lips upwards, blowing a stream of air at it. That didn't help either.

Man... how to get rid of it? Irritated, he pushed the next container toward Eckstein, then drew a deep breath, turning back to the interior. Focus. Maybe if he focused on the tip of his nose, really focused for no more than ten seconds since it took almost fifteen for the containers to reach him now, he could...

A prickling flood of warmth overtook his nose and soothed the spot. The medibots in action again, following his attention. He sighed in relief as he caught the next container.

Row after row of antimatter cleared out two holes at a time. They were down to the last row when Selina's voice sounded in his head, —The cluster of meteoroids...

Danny froze for an instant but kept his eyes on the container already on its way toward him.

— ∞ —

©2020 by kemorgan65

Credits: Banner image and antimatter containers created in Daz 3D with assets from Daz3D.com and AdobeStock.com