Spacebound Bookmobile

Nobody can hear a scream in the vacuum of space, or so they say.

It's true. There's nothing for the sound waves to vibrate through, so there's no sound.

That's just physics.

Ariel took a slow bite of her protein bar and tapped the wall with her foot, starting herself on a slow rotation as she scanned the page in front of her. Non-fiction was usually difficult, and this volume on physics was especially dry, but she’d been through all their fiction three or four times each and was itching for something new. The physics book was slim, and marked as if it were meant for children, so it seemed like a good place to start.

“Ariel,” Mom called from the helm. “Don’t let your food float around. You remember what happened to the air filter.”

“Sorry,” Ariel looked away from the book to snatch the protein bar out of the air. Hooking her foot though one of the loops on the shelves, she pulled herself towards the helm and tucked the bar into a pocket next to her rumble seat. “How close are we to DS9, anyway?”

“Four more hours. Then however long we have to wait for a docking space,” Mom replied. Ariel yawned, slipped the economics book back onto the shelf, and paid more attention to the protein bar. They wouldn’t have to wait long to dock; everyone at DS9 was always happy to see them.

“Helena, do we have any of those crackers left?” Dad popped his head up out of the hold, right near Ariel’s feet.

“No dear, you ate them all.”

“Mmph,” Dad frowned and ducked back into the hold. “We’re ready for a re-stock, that’s for sure.”

He wasn’t wrong. Food had been looking low for a couple of days. DS9 would stock them up like they always did, but the Bookmobile was going to have to stop at a colony soon if they wanted something that wasn’t freeze-dried. The hydroponics on DS9 grew fresh fruits and vegetables, but they kept most of it there and preserved the rest for storage. Ariel might be able to get Marley to give her something fresh though.

She finished off her meal and tapped off the back of her mom’s seat so she could dip her head down into the hold.

“Can I get the repair box, Dad?” she asked. There was barely enough room for one person in the hold, so she couldn’t just crowd in with him.

“Sure,” he twisted around to pull the arm-length box free of its latch and guided it up to her. “Last minute repair jobs?”

“Everything should look nice for DS9,” she said.

Ariel held the box under her arm and drifted over to the shelves near the airlock. Trailing her fingers along the spines, she inspected the condition of each one. After so long, and so many sets of hands each book had passed through, even the most well-cared for of their collection were in bad shape. Spines were cracked and broken, many beyond recognition; and missing covers were more common than intact ones. She pulled out a hardcover that had come loose of its pages and set about stitching them back together—the glue binding the pages was holding up at least. Hardcovers had longer lifespans than paperbacks in general, but they broke loose of their covers a lot more often.

Fiction came first—especially the high fantasies, wild west stories, and romance novels that had long-haired men and women in frilly dresses on them. Those kinds of books were always the most popular. General fiction: the stories that were just about people living on Earth before the exodus, without wizards or magic or any of that, were taken out a lot but Ariel suspected that had more to do with looking back at Earth than anything else. When all of those were taken care of, she moved onto the mysteries, then the horror. What had once been called science fiction was now widely regarded as comedy and didn’t see much traffic. Ariel had read all the ones that came through, of course, but having experienced living on a spaceship and travelling the galaxy first-hand, the elaborate and sometimes outright ridiculous depictions in the books didn’t interest her all that much.

Warp drive would be nice—she had to admit—or teleportation. Worm holes did a lot to shave time off a trip, years in some instances, but it was nothing like just appearing right where you wanted to go in an instant. Ariel let the repair box hang for a moment and moved the comedy books to a more prominent spot. DS9 worked on a lot of new technologies, maybe one of the engineers would be inspired to figure out warp speed. Food replicators would be nice, too. She could have strawberries all the time, and finally get to taste what a plum was like. They might even get to have things like coffee or hot chocolate. Those things were mentioned all the time in books, but chocolate was a rarity since the exodus, and Mom and Dad insisted she wouldn’t like coffee.

They worked in silence; Mom at the helm, Dad taking inventory, and Ariel making a slow circuit of the shuttle, tending to the books. Many of them were getting to the point where she couldn’t repair them anymore, and would need to be traded out. Ariel was good at book repair, but there was only so much you could do with librarian tape and a sewing kit.

“We’re coming around Zul,” Helena announced. “You can see the nebula.”

Ariel dropped what she was doing and pushed over to the helm, just as Dad buckled himself into the other seat. Zul was a gas giant that was so big it had probably wanted to be a star when it was first forming. The clouds swirled over its surface in violent oranges and reds, lighting flashing inside, so bright and so often the planet seemed to glitter. Unto itself, Zul was amazing, framed against the nebula that skirted the edges of its solar system, it was magnificent.

The nebula was called the Aurora, after the aurora borealis and Australis back on Earth. A cloud of gas that had been swept up in interstellar wind and decided to put on a show—a wave of blues and greens and purples painted across the star-scape. The astronomers on DS9 had determined that the nebula was two hundred million years old, and it still waved on that interstellar breeze.

When she looked closely, Ariel could just make out the dark silhouette of DS9 against the bright backdrop of the Aurora. It was large by space station standards; a regular hub because of its position near the worm hole and the cosmic slingshot of Zul’s gravitational field. Five circular decks were attached to a central core by long shafts, set in a constant rotation. Several other ships, bigger freights and transports, already docked along the rings.

“DS9, this is Bookmobile, over,” Dad turned the dials so they matched up with the station’s frequency. “Requesting docking permissions.”

There were a few moments of silence, then a crackling voice replied over the monitor.

“Hey Rainier, welcome back!” Ariel recognized the voice right away—Geoff was a frequent visitor of the Bookmobile. He liked wild west books and somehow always had candy in his pockets.

“Good to be back!” Dad replied. “How’ve you been?”

“More of the same. You got anything new?”

“Couple things.”

“We’re full up at the moment, but I’ve got a re-fuel taking off in an hour. I’ll bump you to the top of the list,” Geoff said.

“We appreciate it.”

“See you soon!”

As they approached DS9, Ariel ran through docking prep. Securing the hold, she swung the thick door shut, resettling the books on the shelf that sat on top of the hatch. She double-checked that all the bands holding the books fit snugly—DS9 had light gravity because of its rotation, and things often shifted during docking. When everything was taken care of, Ariel unfolded the rumble seat from the wall behind the helm and buckled herself in, tugging the straps tight over her shoulders.

“All rests well,” she announced, being sure to sound as professional as possible. “Ready for docking.”

“Hold for docking,” Rainier replied.

Even with clearance, docking and depressurizing could take over an hour, so Ariel reached into her jump suit and pulled out the book she’d selected for stand-by. It was a well-loved copy of an epic fantasy about a group of friends trying to destroy an evil ring. Both covers were missing and the pages were so worn they felt like cloth, but all the pages were still there, and the story never got old. Ariel opened to a random spot in the middle of the book and started to read. She liked it better after the elves showed up, anyway.

It took a while, but after twenty or so pages, Ariel felt the familiar rumble and clang of the docking bay latching onto the ship, and the tug of gravity as the Bookmobile was pulled into the station’s rotation. Her ears popped, as the air pressure changed to match the inside of DS9. She yawned big and wide to clear her ears out again. Finally, the familiar buzz of the airlock sounded, signaling that it was safe to open up and leave the shuttle.

Ariel set her book next to the rumble seat and it stayed there. She unbuckled her safety straps and stood, careful to keep her feet on the edges of the shelves so she wouldn’t damage the books. Down was such a weird concept.

“Don’t forget your shoes on the way out,” Mom reminded her as they stepped into the airlock. A small cubby just inside the narrow space held a pair for each of them. Ariel slipped them on, wriggling her toes against the unfamiliar sensation. They were getting a little tight, but she hardly ever wore them so it didn’t seem worth mentioning.

Geoff was in the corridor to meet them. He clapped Rainier into a big hug, then Helena, and finally Ariel, lifting her clear off the ground and nearly tossing her into the air.

“Welcome back, Bookmobile!” he said warmly. “We missed you.”

Geoff had a deep, rumbly sort of voice when it wasn’t crackled over a radio. His skin was tan like theirs, and he had bright blue eyes that could look straight through you. He kept his head shaved smooth and had a near-perfectly shaped skull. He was smiling most all the time and liked to crack jokes that Ariel never understood but made Mom and Dad laugh. He was thoughtful with the books he read, and knew a little about fixing spines and gluing covers back on, too. Often, he’d trade a book back in better condition than he’d first got it. Once he borrowed a wild west book that had its last three pages missing and wrote his own ending on the inside of the back cover so the next reader wouldn’t be disappointed. He made sure the story ended happily for everyone, even the horse.

“Anything in particular you’re looking for?” Helena asked.

“You know I just like to browse,” Geoff said. “I have a few more hours at traffic control, but I’ll be by.”

“See you in a few hours.” Rainier said as Geoff turned to head back up the hall. Before he left he winked at Ariel, pulled something small out of his pocket, and tossed it her direction.

Ariel held her hand out, expecting the candy to float over to her, but it arched instead and skittered across the floor. She chased after it and stuck it in her own pocket as Geoff chuckled and ducked into a doorway just down the hall from them.

The floors on most of DS9 were curved, so if you looked straight down the hallway it seemed to be forever climbing upwards. It never felt like you were climbing though, and the gravity wasn’t terrible, she just had to remember that things could fall now. The halls were lined with dorms for visitors, apartments for residents, offices, laboratories, and even a few shops. The main command center was kept in the central hub of the station, only accessible through elevators that ran along the connection shafts. Ariel had been allowed to visit once when she was little. Command was dark, full of monitors and flashing lights, with thick portal windows to let everyone see the stars and the nebula outside. Dozens of people worked there all at once, talking into headsets and keying things into computers. It had been a lot to take in at the time. It probably still would be.

“I’m going to go see Marley,” Ariel said. “Is that alright?”

“Sure,” Helena said. “Check in with Geoff if you go anywhere else.”

“Okay,” Ariel took off down the hallway at a jog before she remembered that doing anything in gravity was more difficult than usual, and slowed to a walk.

Marley worked in hydroponics, which was located in one of the inner rings. Ariel found a connecting corridor and made her way there, but it was a long walk. There were a lot of new faces in DS9. Many would be visitors, she suspected, but some wore DS9 badges on their coveralls. There were familiar faces too. Ariel waved to the people she knew and let them know where the Bookmobile was docked.

Hydroponics was open, and she stepped straight inside. The lab was so long you could see the curve of the deck taking the rows of plants up and out of sight in either direction. The troughs hung suspended in stacks all the way up the ceiling, set in a slow rotation to bring the plants up towards the bright lights that lined the top of the walls. Green sprouts showed in each trough, or trailed off the sides, and the steady drip of water was ever present.

“Marley?” Ariel called, looking down the long rows. “Are you here?”

Marley emerged from the end of a row up ahead, smiling at the sight of her. She was nearly as short as Ariel, with a light, wrinkly face, wispy gray hair, and cheerful brown eyes. An intricate line of black filigree and twining knots curled up from under her collar and stopped just beneath her left ear. Everyone said hydroponics had come a long way, and produced more since Marley took over, even though she had taken over even before Ariel was born. Marley liked to have a variety, and everything always thrived. She smelled like garlic.

“Welcome back, Ariel,” Marley said, welcoming her into a warm hug. “You’ve grown some.”

“I have?” Ariel asked.

“Mmmhmm,” she confirmed. “What’s it been? Five or six months, hasn’t it?”

“About,” Ariel said. “The circuit keeps getting bigger.”

“Well, I’m sure that’s good for business, but I must say I prefer seeing you all more often,” she said. “Are you here to help me with the plants?”

“Yes.”

It was always cool and moist in the hydroponics chambers, and the air smelled fresh and light. The trays rotated slowly, and Marley led her up and down each row, taking notes and pointing out certain plants as vegetables or herbs. Ariel plucked a spinach leaf and chewed on it.

“We don’t have anything new recently, but there is a row of strawberries coming ripe,” Marley said as she checked off a row of green onions. “You’re welcome to grab a few when it comes around.”

“Thank you!” Ariel said brightly, watching eagerly for the strawberries to come down where she could get at them.

“You got anything new for me in the Bookmobile?” Marley asked.

“We have some new romance novels,” Ariel replied blithely.

“Pfft,” Marley huffed and shot her a reproving look. “Thrillers? Murder mysteries?”

“A few of those, too,” Ariel told her. The strawberries came down and she scanned the rows for the reddest ones, selecting two and popping one in her mouth right away. It was juicy and sweet, with just a hint of tartness. Berries made a nice change from chewable fiber and protein.

“Don’t try to push your bodice rippers on me,” Marley said flatly, “or you can get your strawberries elsewhere.”

“I won’t,” Ariel chuckled and nibbled at the second strawberry. Marley handed her the checklist and she followed along, making notes as directed. She spent hours in hydroponics, being lectured on the different fruits and vegetables that grew there, and circling the entire, lengthy space. They ended by walking out into the orchard at the very end. The trees were kept short and closely pruned; just big enough to produce fruit, with their roots exposed and constantly shining with nutrient-rich water. The fruits were small and green, not nearly ready to eat. Ariel felt a pang of disappointment. They rarely docked at DS9 when the fruit trees were being harvested, and she wanted to know what a plum tasted like.

When she got back to the Bookmobile, it was too full to get in. The residents of DS9 had turned out in force to sift through what they had to offer. A few people picked out books and left, others offered tradeables in appreciation, some brought back books they’d picked out before or that they’d picked up somewhere else that would be new to the Bookmobile. Ariel stood outside for a few minutes, looking for a good place to slide in but it was too packed, and everyone seemed to have a good idea of what they were looking for without her assistance.

Instead of squeezing in, Ariel pulled her own book out of her pocket and wandered down the hall until she found a good viewing deck. The window well was just deep enough for her to sit inside, both feet propped up on the ledge in front of her. She opened her book to the middle again and started to read, looking up every so often to watch the stars slide by outside. When the nebula came around, she set the book down altogether, hugging her arms around her legs and resting her head on her knee, enjoying the majesty of the nebula. Up close it shimmered faintly, almost as if it were full of lightning, like Zul. Ariel wondered if it was full of lightning. The magnetic field tended to play havoc on a ship’s navigation, so everyone always went around. It was strange to think that a gas cloud could be the same thing as a solid wall, just because technology couldn’t handle it.

Eventually she got tired and headed back towards the Bookmobile. If there was enough room to squeeze through she could at least sleep in one of the seats at the helm.

After some hours of trading and selling books. Ariel and her parents went to take care of themselves.

Rainier stood up from the salon tech’s chair, brushing his hand through his newly sheared hair and gestured for Ariel to have a seat. Her parents always insisted on taking care of things like showers and haircuts when there was gravity to keep the mess down, and it had been a year since her last haircut.

“Mom, can I shave my head like Geoff?” she asked as she sat down. Long hair wasn’t exactly helpful in zero gravity. She could always tie it up, but she got tired of messing around with it and dealing with tangles. The tech chuckled.

“I don’t know, Ariel,” Mom looked apprehensive. She scrunched up her mouth and furrowed her eyebrows. “You might not like it so much.”

“Please?” Ariel pleaded. “Geoff looks so cool, and my head is shaped alright; I can feel it.”

“It’s your head,” Helena conceded. “I won’t stop you. Just be very certain.”

“I am,” Ariel said confidently. “And it’ll be way easier! I won’t have to get anything done to my hair at all for a while.”

The technician switched from scissors to a buzzing razor and Ariel positively reveled in the tickling sensation of her thick, black hair being released from her head. It fell to the floor coiled in fat locks. Her head felt light and cool after. When the tech was done, she ran her hand over her smooth scalp. It felt pleasantly weird.

“Do you like it?” the tech asked, holding up a mirror.

Seeing herself bald was shocking at first. Ariel had a brief moment of regret, but her head was shaped nicely; not quite as nice as Geoff’s, but good enough to show off. She turned from side to side to get a better look at herself and decided she looked like the wise masters from a story now; a monk who might live on a mountaintop with an ancient order of librarians who also know kung-fu.

“Yeah,” she said, grinning. “I like it.”

Mom stood to the side, hand over her mouth, looking slightly aghast but mostly amused. Ariel slid out of the seat and made room for Helena to sit down for her turn.

“Are you going to shave your head now?” she asked.

“No,” Helena said firmly.

They took care of showers next, each snagging a stall in the bath facility. It was a much simpler experience when the water ran down, and drying off was much faster without a whole mop of hair on top of her head. Ariel was finished way ahead of her parents, but they always dawdled in the showers anyway. She left ahead of them and went to reopen the Bookmobile so they could get as much business as possible before departing.

Geoff was waiting at the hatch, and broke into a big grin when he saw her.

“Nice haircut,” he said with a chuckle, running his hand over his own smooth head. “An excellent choice, if I do say so myself.”

“Thanks,” Ariel said, rubbing her head again. “You here to check something out?”

“Sure am.”

Ariel got the shuttle open and ushered him inside. He went straight to the wild west books, craning his neck to get a good look at them—when gravity was involved they were on the ceiling, straining against the bands that held them in place. Ariel stole a glance at the comedy shelf and saw a few conspicuous gaps. Maybe someone would figure out warp drive after all.

“Any new colonies?” Ariel asked. “Should we add a stop to the rotation?”

“A few potentials,” Geoff said. “Mostly mining places, and all within a short hop of here. I imagine they’d all be happy for a change of pace.”

“And we can hop back here in between,” Ariel mused.

“I’d appreciate that,” Geoff said, wriggling a book free of the band so he could flip through it. “There’s another planetary colony, just a settlement, no industry really. A place called Casca. It’s a long haul though. You’d have four months of nothing just to get there. Not sure if you’re up to the trip, but I imagine you’d have an eager market when you got there.”

“Sounds like it,” Ariel said. Four months was a number from the old Earth days, or the earliest explorations of the outer reaches. Most flights were shortened by wormholes or at least broken up by stations or other colonies along the way. She wasn’t sure her parents would be up to it. “Why would anyone settle that far out?”

“I hear it’s a nice place,” Geoff said, tucking the book under his arm and picking out another to peruse. “Some people just want to settle down.”

Ariel had seen that in a few books before. Looking for a home wasn’t uncommon in stories but getting caught up in adventure and leaving home seemed a lot more exciting and worthwhile. She couldn’t imagine riding out for four months of nothing just to stay in one place. What would the point of that be? Where would she get new books?

“Okay, I’ve got a trade-in for these two,” Geoff said. He pulled a book with a plain green cover out of his pocket and tossed it to Ariel. She remembered to catch it before it hit the floor, and examined the outer cover. The cover was unmarked, and in stunningly good condition; only a few scuffs around the edges, and the spine wasn’t broken at all. When she flipped through it though, all the pages were blank.

“Where’re all the words?” she asked.

“Figured you could put something in there,” Geoff said with a wink. “Happy thirteenth.”

Ariel blushed and closed the empty book.

“This is for my birthday?”

“Of course.”

“I’m not actually thirteen yet.”

“No, but you will be by the next time you come around, right?”

“Probably,” Ariel agreed.

“See, I’m just getting in while I can,” Geoff said.

“Hey Geoff,” Helena said as she stepped into the shuttle, her hair still damp and falling over her ears. “Find anything you like?”

“Couple things,” he said. “Just filling in Ariel about a couple of new colonies on the radar if you’re interested.”

“We are,” Mom said, starting up the console at the helm. “Can we get a map from you?”

“I’ll bring one over.” Geoff nodded to Helena, smiled at Ariel, and left the shuttle. He returned a few minutes later without his books, but with his tablet. They got the map transferred into the Bookmobile’s navigation and Geoff headed for his own residence.

“Stop by later if you’ve got time,” he offered on his way out.

“We will!” Ariel called after him.

When Dad got back, they all sat down together to take a look at the new locations.

“Everything is very doable,” Rainier said, examining the list. “The asteroid is close by, maybe a day if we slingshot around Zul. These two are near Cheen, and we need to stop by there again soon anyway, see what the market has. Casca looks nice but that is awfully far.”

“It could be a generous market if they don’t get much traffic,” Helena pointed out, “We could take the wormhole near Cheen out to the Osage system. It’s only three months from there, and we can refuel at DS20.”

“Could be worth a shot,” Rainier agreed.

“We’re going to the asteroid first, right?” Ariel asked.

“Of course,” Dad smiled. “It’s so close, how can we not?”