The station by Kurt Alan Tornberg (best authors to read TXT) 📕

They stood on the platform, belted on, the lift started moving. Slow at first but then it started picking up speed. Gunnar thought to himself how long it would be before he would feel like he weighed less. Many thoughts ran through his head and before he knew it, the platform was 2.5 miles above the surface, he thought he felt lighter now. He really could not tell as the weightlessness was so gradual. Must be so, he thought, the platform had almost doubled in speed. Gunnar could see the dark of space as he glanced up. It was not like the old days, blasting off, not knowing whether or not the craft would make it. There were so many deaths back in the day, now space travel had become common from using the platform, it made several trips to the station a day. He felt privileged, he was happy with his job in engineering. He enjoyed the trips up, standing on an open platform in a space suit was pretty exciting, once docked, you unhooked from the rail and stepped onto the ramp, walked up to the waiting room where the doors swung closed and sealed. Pressurization took several minutes, the red light flashed if it was to low, green was go! You could take off your suit, and walk through the hatch, it was a wonder land up there, several different species of humanoids now used the station.
He could see it now, the darkness had enveloped them and the station blazed in the sunlight like a star. He would be there soon. He thought about how much his wife hated the whole thing, going to space and all. Maybe that was why he was so attracted to her, being so grounded, she never wanted to go although she had the opportunity many times. He was weightless now, the magnetic boots held him to the platform, he felt elated. Glancing up at the station again, he thought he saw something flit by, then again. It was a meteor shower, more like a dust shower, certainly they would not have sent the platform if the knew. Seconds past and then a blinding flash the platform lurched, his feet became dislodged from the grate, he floated, tethered to the rail, as was everyone else. They said that it would never happen. But it had, a stone the size of a softball had found its way to the cord. Nano fibers clustered together to make a long cord were not designed for that king of impact.
The platform picked up speed, soon they would enter the atmosphere and that would be nothing left of him and the other passengers but dust. Maybe he should have listened to his wife, he would be still standing on the ground.

Publication Date: 08-04-2011

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