Ender’s Game Alternate Universe ~ Prequel
AKA Spaaaaaaaaace!
The shuttle shook, too much to be considered vibrating, but not enough to be considered rocking. The loosest of buckles and latches rattled in their places, smacking against whatever they could, as the vehicle shot straight upwards. The children, sitting in four rows on either side of a central aisle, six columns to each side, tightened their buckles, anxious and afraid.
There was a dull roar as the initial boosters were going off, the first push in the last set of stages to get into orbit. The two large engines that were firing off ran for about a minute, pushing them up so far that the children inside could look out the port and starboard windows, and see the curvature of Earth, slowly, ever so slowly, turning in its eternal rotation.
The ship stopped shaking, just as abruptly as they had lifted off the ground. For a moment, there was silence, almost as loud as the engines themselves. They weren’t yet out of orbit- they were going no faster than two hundred and fifty meters per second, after all. Any faster and it wouldn’t be as efficient.
Ten seconds after the engines cut off, a low hum slowly built, filling the cabin of the ship, as the electromagnetic drive within powered up and started pushing the ship onwards. There was still plenty of rocket fuel; the shuttle could get all the way to Battle School without needing a refuel. However, it was much more cost-effective to use traditional chemical thrusters to do the heavy lifting, and then electromagnetic drives to do the slow and steady.
The ship started accelerating once more, making up for the ten seconds of uncontrolled, non-propulsed flight. There was nothing truly felt- it was more of a slight pull on the gut as the shuttle seemingly defied gravity, without any apparent effort.
As the vehicle reached farther and farther up, the press of acceleration slowly slackened on the children, leaving them feeling lighter and lighter as Earth became too distant to affect them.
One child in particular, right at the farthest end of his aisle, was staring out the window. He jerked back, slightly, feeling his entire body continue moving even after he stopped, disoriented both by the sudden weightlessness, and by the spire that had just speared into his vision. Grabbing ahold of the two handles on either side of the window- whose purpose was obvious, now that he was in zero-g- he pulled himself closer to the window that was practically radiating cold, and peered at wherever the base of the spire came from.
He caught his breath, as he caught the sight of a massive space station. Five rings, each of them separated by what must be a dozen feet, as if stacked atop one another with some space in between, with five tubes leading from each to a central cylindrical piece- which connected directly to the spire that he had seen. They were flying straight through the station!
One of the tubes, which he now saw was to be as wide as the length of a school bus, passed by his window, as they delved into the station. It was then that he realized that the station’s rings were moving, each of the tubes narrowly missing the shuttle as they flew. They traveled straight through, that hum that had accompanied their entire trip slowly petering off, to be replaced by more sudden bursts of speed in seemingly random directions.
It took him a moment to realize that the shuttle was coming in to dock- the only unoccupied port he had seen was the one between the third and fourth rings, the others ones all filled. Abruptly, more maneuvering thrusters fired; the shuttle slowly spun, the rear coming about to face the station’s central cylinder.
He caught his breath as he looked into the distance- a great, massive ball of sorts. He hadn’t noticed it before, but there was a sixth ring- but between the fifth and sixth rings was a massive glass ball, of sorts, almost as far-reaching as the wings themselves. He could see little lights, twinkling inside; he saw what appeared to be a… train, of sorts, shooting along the edge of the cylinder, and around the ball, presumably taking passengers to the last ring, for fast transportation.
And in the distance, his breath really caught. A hulking shadow sat, hovering in the void- every five seconds, its outline would appear as red warning lights blinked on and off. An International Fleet destroyer, a warship, just sitting silent and unnoticed. It brought the question of just how invested the IF were in him, and the other children, and just what warranted such caution, to have a warship guarding them.
His attention turned from the window to the hallway they had entered through, to see a man ‘standing’ on the ‘ceiling.’ Or… they were sitting on the ceiling and he was standing on the floor. Either way, he was upside down in comparison to them, and he had a smirk on his face, as several kids looked a little queasy.
”Welcome to the Battle School, children. What can any of you tell me about space?”