The Unexpected Guest - Part 6
Trouble ahead? read the latest instalment of Allen Stroud's, 'The Unexpected Guest'.
There’s a subtle shifting to Coriolis station gravity. When you’ve lived up here most of your life, you get used to it and your walk rolls with the changes. Pilots tend to pick it up fairly quickly as they’re used to all sorts of different places. Planetsiders always look awkward by comparison.
All three types of people are distinctive in the way they move. You can pick out the little adjustments for balance, the use of hand rails, all of it.
I’m walking down the access corridor to my cell when a man pushes past.
“Hey watch it!”
He ignores me. He’s grabbing for the hand rails, stumbling, like he’s drunk or unused to the space station. He’s wearing a long dark coat, like you see in the old Earth holo-vids.
I glare after him, but there’s nothing to be done. I’m nearly at my hatch anyway. I glance up and sigh. The security camera’s smashed again, with wires trailing down over my head. It’s not the first time it’s been vandalised, probably the fifth or the sixth in the last year I guess.
I press my thumb to the pad. The system beeps and the door slides back, freezing when it gets halfway. There’s a sizzling noise, a pop and a burning smell. I elbow my way in, grab the interior handle and drag the panel back to close it. I’ll have to report the fault tomorrow. No-one’ll do anything about it for a month or two, but at least it’ll be on the glitch list. Or, I can borrow a tool kit from the garage and take it apart myself? Roberts won’t be happy, but at least he’ll know I’m not asking questions about the Jameson.
Ah yes, the Jameson.
