Helios: 07 - I - This is Going to be a Rough Ride
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EDHI Skimmer Heike Onnes
Entry Orbit, Blauekugel, Nemesis
0129 VST, February 10, 2481
Magnus Gokstad drifted through the vestibule within the mating collar between the Hugo Eckener and his own craft, the LZ Heike Onnes. Pulling himself along the ladder he floated onto the control level of the skimmer where his crew were belting themselves in to their positions.
"What do we have today gentlemen," Magnus asked as he took his seat.
"The craft checks out and is ready to roll," the pilot responded.
The navigator looked back towards Magnus, "We've got some bad weather along the droptrack and winds are a bit faster than normal but shouldn't be anything to worry about."
"Just what I like to hear. The maintenance crew has the spares loaded," Magnus asked.
"Yes, they finished up about an hour ago. Everything is locked into its place nice and secure," the loadmaster replied as he gripped the railing near the mating collar.
Magnus glanced over to the lead maintainer, "You boys got everything you need here and ready to go?"
"Yep, we're chomping at the bit to get down there and fix some issues that popped up since last time we visited," Donnchadh Kinnaird grinned.
"Alright gentlemen, let's head out."
"Ok, sealing it up," the loadmaster said as he inserted the round closure into the vestibule and locked it into place, causing lights installed around the opening to change from blue to green.
"Hugo Eckener this is Heike Onnes ready to disengage," Magnus said into the hand microphone he held.
After several seconds the Hugo Eckener responded, "Roger, Heike Onnes, cleared to disengage."
"You've got control," Magnus told the pilot.
"Rodge, I've got control," he responded then began his checklist, "Closure inserted into vestibule and lights green."
The loadmaster pulled on the closure and glanced at the lights around the opening to the mating collar's vestibule, "closure inserted, secured, and lights green."
The crew continued down their short pre-disengagement checklist as the loadmaster made his way to his position and strapped in.
"Ok, disengage," the pilot ordered with both his hands gripping the control stick.
A dull thud and clunk went through the control level as the mating collar released and a spring-loaded mechanism pushed the craft away from the much larger Hugo Eckener.
"Clear for radar," the pilot said while giving the controls some down-thrust.
The copilot and navigator switched on their respective radars now that the skimmer was a safe distance from the Hugo Eckener. This was a standard practice because spacecraft were often equipped with powerful radars that were too dangerous to power up near other spacecraft having people in them.
"What's the target velocity again," the pilot asked.
"Hang on a sec," the navigator responded, "it's, uh, 1241 miles per hour."
"1241. Alright, sounds good."
After a deceleration burn the pilot turned the skimmer around to point the same direction as its velocity vector. The 100,000 ton Heike Onnes slowly descended into the swirling atmosphere of Blauekagel. Magnus sat at the commander’s position on the control level of the skimmer while his pilots and navigators brought the huge craft into the planet’s atmosphere.
“This is gonna be a rough ride, worse than usual,” the pilot said as the skimmer was heaved to one side.
The navigator replied, “Yeah, weather radar shows a nasty storm a little over 600 miles ahead and just south of our flight path. Turn to 272 and we should miss it by a few miles”.
Another pocket of turbulent gas threw the Heike Onnes up and to the left. The coiled cord of the microphone belonging to the antiquated radio mounted above Magnus swung and smacked into the mounting bracket above it.
Nemesis’ bright light faded as the skimmer descended further into the frothy steel blue atmosphere of Blauekugel. Bright lightning bolts, some thousands of miles long, flashed outside the craft revealing silhouettes of distant anvil shaped storm clouds. Even though storms on ice giants like Blauekugel didn’t often result in precipitation like on most settled terrestrial worlds, the results were similar.
Elements like hydrogen and helium along with compounds like water and methane were heated deep within the planet causing them to rise towards the upper cloud decks, sometimes at velocities exceeding 1,500mph. Once the material cooled it began to slowly fall back towards the planet’s core. On rare occasions liquid rain did occur, and this was one of those occasions. The copilot had flicked on the windscreen wipers moments after the craft had entered Blauekagel's atmosphere, but they hardly made a difference in the sheets of liquid clinging to the outside of the windscreen.
“Ok, we’re completely on instrument flight now, I can't see a thing through all this precipitation” the pilot said as the light of Nemesis faded into a black abyss of seething gasses.
“Yeah come to 275 to avoid microburst,” the navigator ordered while examining the weather radar.
The pilot pulled the control stick slightly to the right then recentered it, “Rodge, 275. On-target.”
An alarm sounded at the flight engineer's console just before a mild sense of weightlessness momentarily fell over everyone, "Auto swapover failure on engine three."
The pilot moved the throttles forward with his right hand to compensate for the loss of thrust, "Got it. Can it be restarted?"
Magnus’ crew were ex-CVAF dropcraft crewmen and he considered them the best in the business. His business was flying skimmers into gaseous planets to retrieve gas products from collector-refineries that floated in a planet’s atmosphere. On this trip Magnus and his crew would be collecting about 300,000 tons of tralphium, an isotope of helium that was rare on most settled planets but used for fusion power among other things. The very large investment required to build tralphium plants on ice giants was offset by the high market price of the element.
The crew would spend several days on-planet if everything went well and none of the refineries needed major repairs. If something major needed to be done, it may have taken a week or more of maintenance on a single refinery. The longest Magnus and his crew had stayed on a planet was a month and two days when storms severely damaged three refineries and destroyed one.
Finding people to crew skimmers and maintain refineries was difficult for companies because few people wanted to subject themselves to the dangers of descending into violent atmospheres protected by nothing but a little bit of metal and some composite materials and fabrics. Skimmers were large craft, the Heike Onnes measuring 2,000ft in length, 250ft in width, and 100ft in height. They relied on low densities to dramatically cut fuel requirements for atmospheric flight. Although skimmers were spacecraft with aerodynamic hulls and wings, they were designed more like rigid airships and handled like them in-atmosphere.
About half an hour after first entering Blauekagel’s atmosphere, the Heike Onnes neared the refinery field. Bright yellow strobes flashed at several second intervals, their light tinged green by the cloudy atmosphere and each indicating a refinery. From afar, the refineries appeared small and clustered tightly together. The reality was that they were as large as Heike Onnes and spaced about a mile apart. Each was connected to its nearest neighbors via thick steel cables to form a deltille plane of structures. Pipes, electrical lines, and small catwalks hung under the cables, effectively tying the many smaller structures into a single enormous production plant with a tower-like hub at its center. As the skimmer approached the field Magnus looked at the status display in front of his seat and gave the go ahead to dock with the refinery.
The pilot eased the craft towards the structure, matching its velocity and aligning the nose of the skimmer with the mating plate near the top of the refinery’s central hub. The Heike Onnes began to slowly inch forward towards the hub’s mating collar, soft-locking into the plate and collar with a muffled clunk. The copilot flipped the mate switch causing the skimmer’s mating mechanism to draw the craft closer to the refinery with a sound like electric arcs repeatedly cycling. Red indicator lights circling the mating collar’s opening onto the flight level switched to yellow as the craft locked into place with a thud. Once collar mounted sensors determined environmental parameters inside the refinery were safe the lights turned green.
“We’re locked in," the pilot said.
Magnus took the hand microphone again, "Hugo Eckener this is the Heike Onnes reporting arrival at field 051. We are mated and will start operations within the hour."
"Copy that Heike Onnes. See you in a week."
Magnus hung the microphone on its hook while the crew finished up their post-mating checklists, "Well gentlemen, we're on our own, two and a half billion miles from the nearest bastion of humanity."
The loadmaster unlocked the mating collar closure then pulled it out and fastened it into its holder, "yeah boss, the same as always."
He moved to the controls for the skimmer’s external robotic utility arms when he finished securing the closure. Manipulating the controls with the fine motor skills of a jeweler, he worked on getting the safety and utility cables from the hub connected to the craft.
The gas transport Hugo Eckener would jump to the next planet to receive helium gas from other skimmers similar to the Heike Onnes. Magnus and his crew had to be completely self-sufficient until the transport returned. Humans didn't often venture out this far from a system's parent star, even in areas that had been settled for centuries.
At far-flung locations support facilities common in populated areas, like skipstations and repair stations, were non-existent due to the cost of maintaining them versus the tiny amount of use they received. If Magnus' crew made an emergency call it would take almost four hours for the signal to reach the nearest spacecraft or facility capable of rendering assistance, and four hours to receive a response.
The second loadmaster was already peering through the small inspection windows at the front of the skimmer, making sure the dump ports on the hub were clear of debris. Next he engaged the transfer mechanism that connected flexible piping between the refinery and Heike Onnes. When he finished connecting the helium transfers he moved on to the hydrogen transfers.
"What do you have for this one," Magnus asked the maintenance lead as they both stood up.
Donnchadh brought his thin tablet up and fingered at a few buttons its screen, "we need to replace a dead cryo unit and inspect all of the flotation balloons. Shouldn't take us more than 120 hours."
"Sounds good, " Magnus replied while the muffled sound of pumps switching on whined in the background, "As usual, let me know if you need help or run into problems."
"Will do."
Donnchadh turned and walked towards the mating collar followed by several of his subordinates. Magnus looked up and stared through the windscreen at the enormous silvery-gray flotation balloon stretching out 2,000 feet above the skimmer. A bolt of lightning struck the balloon as he peered at it, failing to ignite the large hydrogen filled metallic bladder. There wasn't enough oxygen in the atmosphere to support combustion, and what oxygen there was had already reacted with hydrogen to form water.