Ivan Kal - Olympus

As Elias and Laura left the transport, they were met with two security officers, greeted them with a salute of right fist to the chest which Elias and Laura returned. The salute was Tomas’s idea, he believed that Olympus security should start to look more like a military as his plans went forward, and knowing his plans for the future, he agreed. The rest of the world, wasn’t bothered by their salutes, they have grown accustomed to seeing Olympus security everywhere, and the militaries of the world frowned, but believed them just a bunch of mercenaries playing soldiers.

“Sir, the shuttle is ready.” One of the officers said. Olympus security didn’t have a strict rank system yet, like the military though, there were plans to implement some in the future, so they relied on Olympus tier system for now.

“Good.” Elias said, and followed the officers to the shuttle.

The Olympus shuttles were nothing like the shuttles from the past, they weren’t 2/3 rockets and 1/3 the actual shuttle. These were built by using a combination of earth and alien technology. They were capable of flying inside the atmosphere, leaving the Earth’s atmosphere and traveling through space. They were used to transfer both people and cargo from Earth to Space. The Hermes class shuttle was never going to win any beauty contests but it did get the job done.

They approached the blocky shuttle, the flight crew was already priming the engines, when they boarded one of the pilots instructed them to fasten themselves, and then disappeared into the flight cabin. Soon after they could feel the shuttle lifting of the ground.

The experience of leaving the Earth’s atmosphere was rather uneventful, the shuttle itself was completely sealed. There were no windows, though there were view screens that could show the video from one of the outside cameras, but Elias didn’t bother to turn them on, he found the whole experience a bit disconcerting.

A few minutes later they could feel the effects of Earth’s gravity disappear signaling that they have entered space.

A screen directly across from them turned on, most likely by Laura with her implant. All that could be seen was the dark void filled with bright stars, much brighter than how they are seen from Earth, the shuttles cameras were much more advanced than the ones used long ago, He remembered when Seo-yun explained to him years ago how the images that were taken back when mankind first left Earth were of a much lower quality, and when taking a picture or a video the lens focused on the things that were brighter than the stars like the moon, a space station or astronauts, so stars weren’t captured because they were much dimmer, giving the impression that you can’t see the stars in space. The technology then wasn’t enough to capture the same things that the human eye could. Now those cameras outside could capture the same things human eye could see and much more.

The stars slowly moved as the shuttle turned, the Earth appeared on the left side of the screen, and a few moments later the Cloud stations form could be discerned in the distance. As they drew closer the station grew bigger, until it almost filled the screen. The station itself had a unique look, Tomas rejected the designs that relied on wheels and spin to generate gravity as he planned on incorporating the artificial gravity generators as soon as the technology became available. The station resembled a five pointed star when watched from the above or below, kind of. The center was the main habitat, it was cylindrical in shape with both the top and the bottom housing numerous sensor equipment and relays, from the cylinders center extended the five star “points”. The points were more like five skinny arms, at least for now. They would in time be decorated with multiples of other boxes and pods, as the station grew, one of the arms that was the designed as the station’s food production facility, where the food for the station’s inhabitants was grown, had already finished construction, and had slowly started production, each star point was about 400 meters long, and was planned to be around 200 wide. The rest of the points were mostly just building blocks. The other fully finished part was the center, the heart of the station. It was 700 meters high and had a diameter of 500 meters. It was a feat of engineering that was never before attempted. It was silver in color, it had no windows on the outside, but Elias knew that there were many cameras on its surface that would allow those living inside to see outside. The main part was imagined as a business and recreation area, but for now a only a few floors or decks are used for those purposes, and the rest was used as temporary housing for those that lived on the station, until one of the fingers intended for habitats could be finished. The shuttle made way towards the lower part of the cylinder, that housed docking stations, and couple minutes later they safely landed inside the stations hangar, the door closed and air was pumped back into the hangar. The hangar wasn’t large, it was just big enough to house three Hermes class shuttles, and Tomas planned to have a docking ring installed around the cylinder in time to accommodate the bigger ships he planned to build. As they landed Elias could feel the effects of gravity which meant that Tomas had already installed the gravity generators, which was a relief for Elias as he hated constantly bumping his head on the celling in zero gravity.

As they left the hangar they were met with a woman in an Olympus business uniform, black skirt and jacket. Elias approached and offered his hand.

“Nadia, it’s good to see you again.” He said.

“Likewise Elias, Laura” Nadia Wilson said as she shook his hand and then Laura’s, she was Tomas’s assistant and second, since Elias stepped down from the position and focused only on the department he was the head of.

“How have you been?” He asked.

“Well enough, I just hope that the generators keep working, so that I can finally stop exercising with those blasted machines.” The machines she was talking about were designed for the people that stayed for extended period of time in space, to battle muscle atrophy.

“They seem to be working fine. It feels as if we are down on Earth.” Laura commented.

Nadia nodded. “Yes, now if they can only keep it working everything will be fine. Come this way, you know how Tomas gets when he is kept waiting.”

“Lead the way.” Elias said.

They moved through corridors, passing people in Olympus uniforms, rushing from one end to the other, carrying all kind of different equipment. Every so often they would pass by an open panel in the wall with wires or big conduits peeking out and someone fixing something. The inside of the station might be habitable but it wasn’t finished just yet, not by a long shot. The walls were still just metal plates, with no paint or decoration, at least in this part of the station. Elias had visited the station once before with Seo-yun, when it was just barley habitable. It amazed him sometimes how fast Tomas managed to build everything. But then again he had the advantage of near unlimited resources, and alien technology. Most of the things here were built using Olympus’s version of the alien fabricator. Seo-yun and her team had managed to unlock, and somewhat improve on the concept, in its complexity if not in scope. Olympus nanotechnology was, as it turned out more advanced than the one they found in the alien ship, their nanites were capable of much more sophisticated work, and they could be programmed to do much more.

They arrived at the elevator that would take them up to the top part of the cylinder were Tomas’s office was, they entered and the elevator started moving as soon as the doors closed, meaning that Nadia sent instruction via her implant.