ITSF Project -Science Fiction Contest Terms and Conditions

The Clarke-Bradbury International Science Fiction Competition

Tonight's Episode

Andrew Mays

"Good evening! Welcome to Space Junkyard, the program where you decide the fate of a neglected orbital facility. On tonight's episode, The Molina Research Station. I'm Commander Peiter Sovudin." He paused and motioned towards his companion. "This is Dr. Maya Leonov, the only additional crew member joining me on this expedition." Strands of red hair were visible under her helmet. Cut short and close to her face it complimented sharp green eyes that seemed to sparkle in the lights of the zerograv camera now concentrating on her.

"Thanks Commander." She shifted her eyes slightly left to consult the mission notes on her heads-up display. "The Molina Research Station was powered by a bioreactor, with supplementary solar collectors and several lithium-ion battery units." The camera focused closer on her face. "The station maintains an orbit which comes as close as 600 km above the planet and goes as high as 60,000 km. This path repeats every twenty four hours and has been in a slow decay since last year, when the station was abandoned."

"Now it's time for you to begin voting to decide the station's fate!" The Commander exclaimed. "Vote for a refit and this derelict station will be transformed into a space hotel. Vote for destruction and the station will suffer a fiery reentry at the conclusion of tonight's episode. Call one of the displayed numbers now!"

"You look beautiful, Doctor." The director's voice rang out on their com channel during the break. He was watching from the comfort of an editing bay on the outskirts of Paris.

"Thanks." Maya blushed slightly.

"I wish I could say the same for you, Commander." He joked. "We're back in 10."

"I put on makeup and everything for you too!" Peiter smirked.

"And five, four, three, two, ..."

"Welcome back to Space Junkyard: The Molina Research Station." Peiter smiled to the camera focused on him. Another camera had floated over and was concentrating on Maya's efforts to open the airlock. "In moments we will open the doors and give you a tour of a station that has been dormant for over a year."

"The airlock is active." Maya announced. The camera swiveled up from her and floated back slightly, discharging compressed air to maintain a stable flight path.

Bubbles of red moisture and shattered ice crystals began drifting up from inside the station as the airlock slid open.

"What's this?" Peiter asked as the gap widened. He extended a gloved finger up into a ball of gelatinous red liquid and watched it separate.

Maya pushed back and looked into the station in awe. A camera focused on her face. "It's beautiful."

The walls of the station were entirely frozen over. Pockets of a slightly glowing red liquid were visible underneath. The camera lights sparkled off the ice before her as Maya pushed forward.

"I've never seen anything like this." Peiter commented as he entered the station.

"The conditions which caused this are rare." Maya nodded, talking to the camera.

Peiter turned and resealed the hatch. "The glow is a bioluminescent algae called Gymnodinium Breve which was used in the bioreactor. It appears there has been a leak." She moved to examine the wall. " Amazingly this single celled organism has managed to mutate, propagate and survive underneath the ice."

Maya withdrew a sterile dish from a pocket. Scooping some of the algae into it she carefully sealed the sample and slid it back into the pouch on her leg.

Continuing deeper into the station she noticed their motions where enough to activate the algae. Looking back she could see their trail in a scar of glowing red.

Maya moved to the wall and slapped the ice. Both cameras focused as the algae began to glow brighter.

"Why does it do that?" Peiter asked her, thumping the wall and observing the same effect.

"It's a defense mechanism of sorts." She responded. "The dinoflagellate glows when the water around it becomes agitated."

"Interesting," The commander thumped again and watched the algae grow brighter. The camera stayed focused on the glow as Peiter carried them into the break. "Call now and place your votes for the fate of this station. We'll be back after these commercials."

"You two wouldn't believe the ratings we're getting!" The director announced as the first numbers started coming in. "I don't think there's a set in the northern hemisphere that's not tuned in to watch."

"So do we get the viewership based variable pay increase?" Peiter asked, winking at Maya.

The director answered only by beginning the 10 second countdown.

"You're watching Space Junkyard: The Molina Research Station." Maya announced. The ship schematics appeared in her display and rotated in three dimensions before her.

"We'll start with the main control room and see if we can get the ship's power and computer online." Peiter said. "Then we can take a look at the engine room. From there we'll examine the living quarters and labs."

"Commander, I'd really like to take a look at the bioreactor first." The cameras angled in close on each of their faces to show the tension between them.

"Very well Doctor." Peiter replied as he turned to trace back up past the airlock to the main control room. "I'll see if I can't get the reserve power systems online."

"Yes Sir." She replied, continuing on to the engine room at the center of the station. Breaking the seal of ice Maya slid the door open and floated into the darkness. A camera captured the event from a vantage point in the hallway.

In the main control room the computer terminals were all frozen over. Commander Sovudin carefully used a knife to clean one. The camera feed from his helmet cam was filled with a spray of ice as he pried open the access panel underneath the screen.

Peiter easily located the reserve power cords in the mess of wires that he found. "Okay." He announced to the camera focused on him. " I'm going to disconnect this main power line." He pointed to the thick blue wire, it was frosted over at the top. "Then I should be able to connect reserve power to this terminal." He unplugged the frozen connection and let the cord float next to him as he plugged in two smaller reserve cords. Continuing he explained, "If the batteries are not completely dry I'll be able to access the ship logs, download the system databanks and get some secondary systems back online."

He straightened up and balanced himself with one hand as he drifted above the terminal and switched on the computer. He whistled as it blinked to life, the screen displayed very low battery power. Peiter checked the station's functions and stated, "Operational capabilities are only at ten percent."

The camera switched to Maya in the engine room, who carried them into commercials with a smile. "Remember your votes tonight will determine the fate of the Molina Research Station. Make your choice and call now."

It was only then that Maya realized how dark it was around her. The only light she had was the faint red bioluminescence, the camera lights and her own flash. Moving to the wall she began to tap with her flashlight and her fist. The stimulation caused the algae to glow brighter as she made her way slowly around the room.

"That's a brilliant bit of thinking, Dr. Leonov." The director announced to her. "You're live in ten seconds."

She now had the equivalence of the light from several low wattage lamps surrounding her. The ice magnified the glow and reflected it. " This is Space Junkyard: The Molina Research Station, I'm Doctor Maya Leonov. Welcome to the engine room of this once mighty station." She tapped harder up and down the walls and the glow increased. "This bioluminescent algae was supposed to be contained in the bioreactor." She kicked off the wall softly and floated to a squat cylinder in the center of the room. "It was conceived and constructed by Molina Industries, the namesake of the station itself." Her helmet cam showed the exterior of the tank was frozen solid. The contents began to glow brightly after several taps from her flashlight, revealing that the structure was clear. "Inside is Gymnodinium Breve, a single celled organism that glows red and produces a form of ether when it is stimulated. The fluids insidethe bioreactor are spun to agitate and then separated into algae, water and ether. Each of these elements was recycled and used onboard; ether for fuel, water for drinking, and the spent algae reprocessed for food."

The engine room looked lit with neon under ice. "It looks like the freeze has caused several cracks in the exterior seals of the bioreactor." She stated. "I don't know what kind of shape the interior mechanisms are in. It's hard to say honestly if it will be possible to make repairs in order to return these engines within safe operational standards. The slightest damaged seal could cause dangerous brevitoxin leaks."

"Brevitoxin?" Commander Sovudin questioned from his post at the main control room.

"Brevitoxin is a fused ladder-like lipid soluble polycyclic ether which was purified in the bioreactor and used to fuel the entire station." She paused and watched as the glow inside the bioreactor began to dim. The camera used a powerful macro zoom on one of the seals. She watched the video in her display, it showed the algae leaking out like lava from a volcano. "If the brevitoxins were released through a crack such as this one it would cause an aerosol effect which would easily spread the toxins throughout the station's circulation system."

"What symptoms would occur from human inhalation of these brevitoxins?" Peiter asked. He had finished the transfer of the information from the station's computer systems to the shuttle systems.

"Nausea, severe muscle ache, loss of motor control, and reversal of temperature sensation are commonly experienced. Not the sort of things you'd wish to experience on a luxury cruise this far away from the convenience of a drug store." She replied, laughing softly.

Commander Sovudin had left the main control room and floated towards the engine room, his helmet cam showed the long expanse before him. " These are the hallways you could be roaming if you vote to turn this station into a space hotel. Next up on Space Junkyard, we'll show you the preliminary design plans, take a quick tour of the crew's quarters and tally the votes. Stay tuned!"

After a call he had received at the beginning of the commercial break the director had an announcement to make. "The network just confirmed that both of you will be getting your variable pay increases. In addition they want to extend your contracts for five more Space Junkyard episodes to fill out the season. Congratulations to you both. You are live in ten, Doctor."

"Welcome back to Space Junkyard: The Molina Research Station." Maya's smile had grown unmistakably larger. She had left the engine room and joined Peiter in the bunk during the break. "Crews of eight scientists at a time used to occupy this narrow room. I worked and lived here for a six month mission and this was where I slept." She peeled back the top layer from a cocoon of insulted fabric which was mounted on the wall.

A camera panned across the room to show several other wall mounted sleep stations. "The scientists living here weren't concerned with luxury." Peiter continued. "If tonight's votes are in favor of the hotel conversion we've hired interior designers and architects to make sure that your stay here in the Molina International Resort would be a five-star experience in the stars."

Video playback began on sketches for the luxury hotel. Shades of blue and green accentuated the designs and heavy fabrics appeared draped throughout the sketches. Tubes of luminescent plastic ran along the walls to provide light. "These designs spare no expense for your comfort." Maya explained. "The current laboratory space is to be divided into three bedrooms." An illustration of the rooms showed mattresses on the floor. "Magnetic fibers will be sewn into the blankets and sheets to keep guests in place, comfortable and warm during their sleep."

The images showed a television screen built into the wall of a room. " Personal entertainment systems double as computer terminals and stations for video conferencing." Peiter explained. "And direct satellite access guarantees you won't miss any game."

"It's time to tally the votes!" Maya exclaimed.

The final tallies appeared on Peiter's display. "The votes are in ladies and gentleman! We've had a record number of voters call in this episode and you have decisively elected to destroy the station."

"During this next commercial break we'll prepare the station for demolition." Maya reported. "Stay tuned for the exciting conclusion!"

They had practiced the critical timing of this last three minute commercial break over and over.

In less then a minute Maya and Peiter had to clear the station. Their bulky space suits slowed them down considerably. The zerograv cams hovered obnoxiously close to their hurried evacuation.

As they opened the airlock Peiter stepped into the shuttle and released a flock of small black robots into the station, each carried an explosive payload. "The demolitions are hot." He reported.

Maya released a less expensive zerograv camera onto the station and sealed the hatch. This camera was destined to be incinerated in the process of providing interior footage of the final explosion. "We're good to go!" She announced to Peiter who had moved to the controls of the small shuttle. "The airlock is sealed and the camera is away."

The next minute and a half was used to put a safe distance between the shuttle and the station.

"And we're back in five, four, three, two ..."

"Welcome to the conclusion of Space Junkyard: The Molina Research Station. During the break the station was prepared for destruction." A video recap showed the explosive units floating into the station, they twisted themselves open and locked into place with magnets. " These devices contain enough explosive force to rip the station apart." Maya explained. "The remaining wreckage will then all safely disintegrate on reentry for your viewing pleasure."

"We're all out of time. From both of us at Space Junkyard, Doctor Maya Leonov and myself, Commander Peiter Sovudin; thanks for watching."

The video feed from inside the station showed the soft flow of red underneath the ice. The detonations started at the opposite end of the long hall across from the camera. The station shook as the walls split apart. Ice melted and cracked down the hall. The fractures of steel and ice were chased by a white hot fire which quickly consumed the camera.

The shuttle's aft camera showed the station ripped open in a bright burst of orange and yellow light.

The flaming debris streaked against the sky in tendrils of stark white clouds as the show's credits rolled.

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