21 AUGUST 1998
TRIKON STATION
In planning Trikon Station, much thought was devoted to whether the station should be constructed for a micro-gee environment or an artificial gravity environment. Artificial gravity could be induced by spinning the station around its center of mass. The resulting centrifugal force would create an artificial gravity gradient that would increase as one moved farther from the center.
Planners, however, opted for a micro-gee, or virtually weightless, environment in order to allow for the greatest adaptation for future use of the station’s facilities. The term weightlessness is used to describe the orbital condition where all objects tend to float. Strictly speaking, there is only one point or line of reference in any sizable orbiting structure that allows true weightlessness. That point or line is along the structure’s center of mass.
On Trikon Station, you will not be able to detect the subtle gradations within the micro-gee environment without highly sensitive accelerometers. However, for materials science and manufacturing, the minuscule differences can be crucial. Any experiment or process that requires very low gravity (on the order of one millionth of a g) can be ruined if the facility is displaced too far from the center of mass.
At the present time, Trikon Station is not devoted to crystal or pharmaceutical production or experimentation. Attempting such projects in the future will undoubtedly require a reconfiguring of the laboratory modules in order to obtain proper micro-gee management.
—from The Trikon Space Station Orientation Manual
Dan Tighe lingered in the wardroom long after the end of the dinner hour. In his hand was a Mackintosh apple. Trikon dieticians routinely included seasonal fruits in the regular ninety-day food supplies. Fresh fruit was a luxury in orbit, and station personnel devoured it quickly. The Mackintosh was the first sign that summer was ending in North America.
The wardroom ceilings automatically dimmed with the pastoral sunset depicted on the viewscreens along the galley wall. Six identical sunsets, side by side. All six combined couldn’t compare to being outdoors and watching the real thing, Dan thought.
He took a bite of the apple, slurping in the tart juices that oozed beneath the broken skin. Hisashi Oyamo and Chakra Ramsanjawi floated lazily through the wardroom on the way to their nightly chess match in the ex/rec area. Ramsanjawi threatened Oyamo with a new gambit he had devised on ELM’s computer terminal. Oyamo laughed derisively. Neither paid Dan any attention.
Dan nibbled the apple down to the core with a minimum of juice and pulp escaping to the vents. Presently, the person he had been waiting for appeared. Lorraine Renoir mixed herself a squeeze bottle of coffee at the galley designated for after-hours snacks. She noticed Dan and floated in his direction.
“Eating all the fresh fruit, I see,” she said.
“My procedure for preventing scurvy.”
“Bad choice. Citrus fruits prevent scurvy.”
“What do you expect from an old Air Force man?” he asked.
“Not much,” said Lorraine, with a smile.
Her eyes searched him in a silence that lengthened past lighthearted banter. Dan drove his teeth into the apple’s core, liberating a seed that bobbed against the roof of his mouth. Extricating the seed with his finger would be in poor taste, so he swallowed it.
“Tom Henderson tells me we have a health risk on board.”
“Who might that be?” said Lorraine.
“New Trikon scientist named Hugh O’Donnell.”
“What makes you think he’s a health risk?”
Dan made a smile for her. “His standing orders to report to you every day.”
Lorraine shot a quick burst of coffee into her mouth. She had sought out Dan to discuss Kurt Jaeckle’s offer. But now she felt the same resentment that rose like bile in her throat whenever someone attempted to compromise her position as medical officer. The Russell Cramer issue was murky; the Hugh O’Donnell issue was clear. She might disapprove of his former drug use and dislike his irreverent altitude, but she had an ethical duty to keep his medical history in strictest confidence. No matter how much Dan smiled or crinkled the corners of his sky-blue eyes, O’Donnell’s past was none of his business. At least not at this stage.
“You have standing orders to report to me every week,” she said. “Does that make you a health risk?”