The Green, Green Grass of An Exploding Mega Structure

by theidiotmachine

Author's note: this is part three. The first part was in flat Earth, the second in hollow Earth. 

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Detective Inspector Alessandra Cheng stood on the grass, and looked up at the sun. It was, almost, like being back on the planet Santipurṇa, her home. Almost, but not quite, because she was wearing a pressure suit, and standing on a city-sized square of metal, and was only a hundred metres away from the edge where a transparent plastic wall protected her from space.

Sue's drone hovered above her, its rotors humming. Sue's main core was on a shuttle nearby, but the AI could control dozens of drones independently, and one was floating here, at least partly to keep Alessandra company.

'This place gives me the fear,' said Alessandra. 'Why do I always get the jobs involving stupid orbiting mega structures?'

'Do you hate it more or less than the Renewal?' asked Sue. 'I seem to remember you saying you felt like a fly in a jar there.'

'I think I prefer here,' replied Alessandra. 'At least this place has trees.'

'The Renewal was our heritage. This place is just for rich idiots. Or will be, one day.'

Alessandra was about to say something; but then checked herself. Of course, Sue was saying this because it reminded of her original home, the Plate, the artificial moon where she'd been evicted from for accidentally killing one of those same rich idiots.

'The VIPs are there in one minute, boss,' said constable Schwartz over the radio. 'It's all quiet here at the port. Not a peep on any of our sensors. No one's coming to blow up the place.'

'I hear you. Sue, you're all ready, right?'

'Of course,' said Sue.

They were here because Alessandra now had a reputation for doing, in the words of the chief constable, stupid space stuff. After solving an accidental death on the Plate, and bringing in a suspect from the old colony ship Renewal, she had been asked to supervise the security detail for the visiting dignitaries to this, the latest marvel from humanity in the Chara system: the first working section of a ring of stations, all orbiting around the star.

'You know that the original plan for ring worlds had a single, complete ring with slots above you to make day and night?' said Sue, as usual far more interested in the architecture than the job. 'However, when you can make artificial gravity, you're better off having lots of individual sections which rotate. Then you can have proper dawns and sunsets, and you can build and manage the bits as separate sections. So that's what this is.'

'Hush, Sue.'

'Yes, boss.'

The procession of vehicles were pulling up. First came out lots of private security, serious looking people with expensive guns. Then came the CEO of the company which had built this place, followed by the president of Santipurṇa. Finally, a set of VIPs, aides and company directors and press and who knew what else.

'I know you know this, but there's nothing out of the ordinary anywhere,' said Sue. 'We may as well not be here. It's pretty, isn't it, though?'

Alessandra was here because President Ebo herself had asked for a good, old-fashioned planetary police presence along with the corporate goons. There had been rumblings on the planet for months about how the company that had built this place was part of a huge conspiracy: how humanity hadn't actually arrived at the Chara system from Earth on the Renewal a hundred years ago, but instead were here from... well, it wasn't clear what, because it changed depending on what videos you watched, but a certain type of person was convinced that the Alpha Green corp knew something.

And, worse, there was a rumour that this opening ceremony was a place to strike back, and no one wanted to take any chances. So, Alessandra was here as a courtesy, but the real security were drones outside the station, and a police presence at the port. No one was getting in today.

The CEO and the president stepped right up to the edge of the world. Because, as Sue had said, the station wasn't a single ring but was going to be a set of separate flat pieces, it rotated on its axis like a planet. The CEO was going to the north pole of the structure, or at least as close as he could safely get to. Alessandra saluted the president as she walked past, which felt strange in a spacesuit. The CEO nodded back, which annoyed her, because she hadn't saluted him. He was just wearing a suit, which also annoyed her, but then, he wasn't the one she was paid to look after. So, whatever. President Ebo was in a bright orange habesha kemis with a pressure suit underneath, the product of a protracted negotiation with the presidential office.

The CEO stepped up to a podium. Behind him was space, just a sheet of black, the stars too dim to see in the sunlight streaming down through the blue sky above. He took in the view, the assembled people, the sun, the air, the trees.

He smiled, and lifted his hands up. He opened his mouth... And then there was a noise like a thunder strike, and everything went white.

Alessandra was thrown back, and then up, and then forward, her head banging hard on the soil. The world was a blazing blur, a whirl of light and heat. She was smashed down onto the grass and then dragged forwards towards the edge. Her ears rang as she clawed at the ground..

In front of her, the ring station was tearing itself apart.

The CEO and the president were both gone. The explosion had blown apart a chunk of plastic wall, and left a crater in the turf. The blast had blown her back, and in all likelihood, had saved her life; it meant that when the as the plates of the station shifted, pointing the artificial gravity at the pole in strange directions, she hadn't been immediately thrown through the twisted hole in the plastic. However, she was now being dragged towards there as the air roared past her, eager to be free. Chunks of station were shaking, as the gravity pulled against itself. A rift was opening from the explosion source, a crack through which grass and soil fell, and smoke belched out.

She was dimly aware that people were shouting at her.

'Sue, where's Ebo?' she gasped.

A pair of claws gripped her under her armpits, and for the second time she was lifted up, away from danger. This time, however, it was by a drone: Sue had her.

'I have her, Alessandra; she was sucked out. That suit under her dress was a good...'

Then there was another boom, a noise so loud it actually hurt her ears, and the ground lit up orange below her and she was thrown into the air again. Sue's drone spiralled away, one of its engines belching smoke. Then it crashed into the ground, throwing up divots of grass as the rotors churned into the dirt. Alessandra landed on the ground again, further away from the edge. She gasped with pain.

'...oxygen tank explosion...' said Sue, her voice feed cutting in and out.

The wind wasn't as brutal here. Alessandra pulled herself up, wincing, swaying as the air thundered past. Her chest was agony. She presumed she'd broken a rib. No time to hurt now, she thought to herself. She gritted her teeth and walked, shaky not just because of the rumbling ground and the grass which whipped against her visor.

In front of her, there was a crowd of people panicking and screaming. These were the employees who thought that today would be speeches and champagne and picnics under a plastic dome. Battling against the wind and the pain, she staggered towards them, the ground shivering beneath her.

She pressed a button on her suit, to activate the loud speaker.

'Police!' she shouted, her voice booming even above the other noises. 'Everyone get to the cars! We need to get to the port...'

She was cut off by another explosion, this one from below. There were fissures in the ground, sections of metal coming loose from each other, being forced apart through explosions and the malfunctioning gravity. A tree collapsed in a crash, branches and leaves flew up around it. A flock of birds were pulled, screaming, towards the rupture.

'Sue!' she shouted into her comm. 'Get the damn repair bots here! I don't care if you have to hack in, just do it.'

'On it boss...' replied the AI.

But Alessandra didn't wait for the reply. Instead, she switched channels to constable Schwartz, who was at the equatorial port.

'Schwartz, how's it there?'

'We're all fine, looks like the blast was for the CEO. What do you want me to do?'

'Get all the shuttles warmed up. We need to evacuate. I'm sending these people to you, and I want as much medical assistance as you can get waiting for us. Let's assume this place is going to tear itself apart.'

'Yes, boss. Do you need assistance?'

She winced in pain before answering.

'Only if you can spare it. Otherwise, it's more important that you can evacuate quickly.'

She wasn't so far from the crowd, now, twenty metres or so. They were getting into the cars. The corporate security didn't seem to be completely useless, and were hustling the shocked and terrified people along. Some had oxygen masks on, and others were tending people. There were bodies; dead or unconscious, she couldn't tell.

'You!' she shouted at one of the security types, who seemed to be giving orders. 'Are you in charge?'

He looked up, was about to reply, but she cut him off. 'Good. Get the cars filled, have each one drive as soon as it's full. The port knows. No waiting, you hear? They go individually. And throw those rifles away! We don't need them and they'll just slow you down.'

The ground shook under them both, and they staggered as the gravity wobbled.

'Stop standing there and move it!' she yelled.

'Yes, ma'am,' said the goon. In her experience, these corporate security guards were ex-military, which meant they did well when you hurled orders at them, and this one was no different. He ran to the cars.

The wind was less strong further away from the rupture, but it was still brutal, and the people were flailing and staggering under its influence. A man fell, his expensive suit smeared with blood and mud.

'Who here knows first aid?' she boomed through her suit speakers, but one of the security guards was already there, kneeling down, patching the man's leg with strips ripped from his shirt. She nodded, pleased.

The first car set off, its wheels churning the mud as is sped towards the equatorial port.

'Boss, the repair workers are looking, but they're frightened,' said Sue into her ear. 'It's too dangerous for them to do much. The station AI and I are getting drones there, instead, but I doubt we can hold the place together. The president is in a shuttle, but I had to divert that from the port, so there aren't enough shuttles there right now.'

'Is she alive?'

'Just. She's not conscious. She's lost both legs from the knee down, and she's severely vacuum burnt. But, that suit saved her. The CEO is dead though.'

'OK. It feels like the explosions have stopped...'

Another huge bang filled her ears. The chunk of ground closest to the rupture burst into shards of metal and clumps of earth, all of which were sucked straight out into space. The wind intensified.

'Shit.'

A second car sped away, its huge wheels tearing up a golf course. There were two more cars: one was nearly full, and the final was the one the security guards had come in.

A shiver from the ground around them briefly flipped the gravity. Everything jumped and then landed again. A woman screamed as a metal door slammed into her; a man's arm was torn apart. The security guards ran to them both. The woman whimpered but the man was silent.

'First shuttle's away, boss,' said Schwartz.

She looked up, and there it was, climbing up from the ring station, a tower of fire and exhaust gas.

'That's all the non-essential workers and staff,' he continued. 'The first car is nearly here. We're ready for it.'

'Good work. Sue, how are you doing?'

'I'm almost back at the port. I need to pick up the station AI core. The station robots are evacuating, too.'

'Good. Do we have assistance options here?'

There was a brief silence.

'No, sorry,' said Sue. 'I can't divert any drones. We're holding the place together with duct tape as it is.'

'And I'm sorry, boss. We've got our hands full. The first car just got here,' said Schwartz. 'Lot of wounded.'

'Not a problem,' said Alessandra with a confidence she didn't have. 'I'll get there the old fashioned way.'

She killed the channel. The third car was leaving. The remaining security guards were jumping into the last car. The guy in charge shouted at her, calling her over.

She'd called it a car, but it wasn't really: it was a huge all-terrain vehicle, designed for ploughing through mud and forests, pure vanity, utterly inappropriate for the gentle hills and grass of the ring station: and yet now exactly the thing she needed to save her. She silently thanked the CEO for his choice of transport.

She stood at the door, and looked around. There were no bodies that she could see, no forgotten people anywhere. She gave a brief call through her loudspeaker, but no one moved. Right, that's it, she thought. I'm getting out of here. She slammed the hatch, and sat down.

'I'm in, let's go,' she yelled. The driver nodded, and pulled away; the engine was completely silent, which was anticlimactic.

The security people were quiet, knuckles pale on seatbelts, lips pursed. The station rocked around them. The vehicle lurched up and down as the driver hurtled across the fake countryside, and every time she had a moment of fear; has the gravity stopped? Is this it, we'll just sail up and through the dome? But every time, it plunged down again, the wheels reconnecting with the artificial ground.

A man opposite was praying; another to her left was recording a message, presumably something for his family if he didn't make it. A woman to her right was laughing, quietly, no humour in her voice.

If I make this, I am going to find these bastards and jail them all for life, she thought.

'We're ready for you, boss,' said Schwartz. 'This is it. Everyone else is off, all the humans and bots accounted for. Sue has the station AI core.'

'Are you off?' she asked.

'No, but I'm in the cockpit. This isn't a shuttle: it's the hauler. We're parked with the cargo ramp down. Just drive straight into it.'

'Got it. You,' she shouted at the driver. 'We're driving straight into a load lifter cargo hold, and fucking straight off. Open a channel with it right now, and get the coordinates.'

'Yes ma'am.' Good, it was the guy she'd yelled at before. If they both lived, she was going to find out his name and buy him a beer.

She glanced out of the rear window. Behind her the station was disintegrating, great chunks falling upwards as the gravity finally gave in. A wooden building exploded into chips which mushroomed out and then down and then was blown to the ruptures beyond. There was yet another explosion, a sudden bright blossom of fire, some way away. Flocks of birds were making doomed attempts to escape. A squirrel rolled past, wailing.

I really hope it doesn't look like that in front of us, she thought.

'Hold on everyone,' shouted the driver.

She closed her eyes and grabbed her straps, and was thrown up and then down. Then when she opened them again, everything was black, there was the deafening noise of rocket engines, and she was being pushed into her seat by honest thrust, not artificial gravity fields.

They were in the hauler.

Strip lights flipped on around them, lighting up the cargo hold.

There was a single ragged cheer, and then suddenly everyone was laughing and clapping and hollering.

She took her helmet off, and threw up into it.

#

'They had prepared for this for months. Maybe years. We were defending the port, and we had drones and shuttles around the station, because that's how you'd get there... If you were attacking it from the outside. We weren't expecting for the place to be rigged with explosives when it was built.'

She was tired, and in pain. The coffee and pills helped, but not much. She wanted to be in bed, or drunk, or both. What she didn't want was to be having this call with Oksana Riley, the chief of police for the whole of Santipurna.

But then, Riley didn't look much better. She had another press conference in five minutes, and, actually, Alessandra would rather be in a collapsing station than deal with that.

Riley shrugged. 'Well, the president is still unconscious. But she's also still alive. There were eight deaths altogether, but it could have been much worse. I've told the counter-terrorism team that if they ever want to sleep again, they will find who the hell these people are, beyond a bunch of lunatics who don't think we came from Earth. And, congratulations, everyone knows you are the woman who saved a bunch of people, so this is now your case. Although, you look like shit, so don't come in to work tomorrow.'

'Yes boss.'

'Good. Right, I'm going to tell a pack of lies to the press.'

Riley turned off the screen without bothering to sign off. Alessandra closed her eyes and lay back on the acceleration couch.

'Do you still prefer that place to the Renewal?' asked Sue.

'Fuck, no,' said Alessandra.