Chapter 2: New Olympia

It happened so fast. The ship flew through an area of folded space and emerged in its new location. As it slowly dematerialized in one section, it reappeared at its new destination. The gate jumper had performed one of its many gate leaps. Its flickering blue lights ceased as it completed its objective.

For Raavi, he didn’t feel much at all. He almost questioned if he ever leaped, to begin with. He turned to look his head out the window.

Outside the spacecraft was a new location and environment. Space was the same. The void of nothingness was broken up by the strands of things that were lit up. The gate jumper had exited a swirling mass of particles and energy. The vortex was powered by a gate array of almost pure white. The enormous ring had two large spheres attached to either side of the ring. In the great distance was the shining red dwarf that lit the surrounding area.

“I have to remind myself that New Olympia is in a red dwarf system,” Raavi remarked to Dolly as he was looking out the window. It looks so much like Aphadus.”

“You have seen nothing yet,” Dolly replied.

“Attention, passengers of Flight 66613,” the intercom announced. “We have arrived at the New Olympian system. Our next stop will be the UHN Opet to drop off a passenger before we continue our main flight to New Olympia itself.”

It didn’t take long for Raavi to see it. As he continued to peer out the window, he could see the enormous gate array of New Olympia shut down. The swirling mass of particles ceased as the gate closed up. The energy poured into folding space had ended as the gate array’s glowing white light dimmed down almost instantly.

The ship itself was still traveling forward as the emptiness of space was all around the spacecraft. Raavi could see the distant planet of New Olympia. The seemingly barren world was nothing unusual to look at. It was one of three planets in the solar system. The red dwarf star had its worlds so close that one was getting scorched even by the dimmer light and radiation of an M-Type star. Much like Aphadus, the world of New Olympia was incredibly close to its star. The planets were tidally locked. One side was forever facing the star, while the other side was in perpetual darkness. Unlike Aphadus, New Olympia was seemingly lifeless. Most of it was orange and yellow rock and sand on one side of the planet. The other side was seemingly dark and cold. The superflares of its star produced radiation surges so high that it would rip an atmosphere off the world with mere ease.

“I still can’t figure out why you choose this world to be your home,” Raavi told Dolly. “You chose a world that can’t support life.”

“That isn’t true. There was a perfect reason why we chose it.”

“Hmmm...” he said with a frown.

“You are a UWAN dater. You have someone you plan on meeting, right?” Dolly asked as she looked at Raavi. There was a slight jolt as the ship turned towards the planet and activated its engines to push itself forward.

He turned to look at her. “Yes.”

“She must be pretty special.”

“Oh...” Raavi replied with a smile. “She is amazing to talk to. I just ... I can’t describe it. The more I talk to her, the more I want to be with her.”

Dolly had a smile on her face that was beaming. “The tourists are going to learn so much about New Olympia.”

“I always hear the stories of those that stay here. Is it true? ... Is it true that there are like two wives for every husband?”

Dolly nodded her head. “Mostly. It isn’t completely true. A man may have a husband or wife like another world. We allow polygamy.”

“I always wondered how you don’t run out of women by doing such things.”

Dolly looked away for a short bit as she nodded her head before looking back at him. “I guess you only know so much about us. It is true that we only have so many males on our planet. I would be lying that of the adopted children; the boys are more important.” She waved her hands, and her volume picked up. “Not saying that Fatima here is worthless. It is just...”

“There are just more women than men...” Raavi filled in the blanks.

“Yeah. I promise Fatima will have a good life here in New Olympia. It is just in my position. I can confirm that I am married to a man. I ended up marrying him, becoming his second wife.”

“Man, that must be pretty crazy. How do you handle not being jealous?”

She shrugged. “We have to accept some things the way it is. It isn’t to say that every man is going to have two wives, though. Some men may have three wives, more, or just one. It also depends on the individual and what they prefer. Perhaps this ... Ummm, may I ask who this girlfriend of yours is?”

“Her name is Oniya. She is on the UHN Opet.”

“Oh, that is why we are going to dock with the Opet. We are dropping you off there...”

“Yep,” Raavi replied with a nod. “I am not going to New Olympia directly. I am going to a ship.”

“Ah...” Dolly said with a wave. “Yeah, she is going to give you more information about us on what I haven’t said yet. You are going to one of our ships then.”

“A part of me doesn’t feel too excited about it.”

“Why not?”

“Not sure how ship life is going to be like for me. I have heard of various stories from people on the UHN service, and I am not sure how they are going to let a civilian like me onboard and all that.”

“Hmmm ... as far as I know, we do allow the ma ... boyfriends, girlfriends, husbands, or wives of those on board our ships. I don’t know much more than that.”

“Yeah, I already got a part of that,” Raavi confirmed. “I am just amazed that they do that.”

“Maybe it is the fact that you are in no real danger. Maybe for us, it is best to have those that we love always be close to us.”

Those words seemed to stick in Raavi’s mind for a while. Dolly seemed to have a point. Why would civilians be allowed on New Olympian ships that were registered in the UHN?

“Maybe ... I think even Oniya hinted that it was really more of a transport than a true warship. I think with transports under UHN service, civilians are still allowed in. Of course, special rules and orders can allow civilians to be onboard military craft regardless. My sister serves on the UHN Repose as a civilian doctor. The Repose is a hospital ship, by the way.”

“Oh, ok. Didn’t have the same interests as your sister?”

Raavi shook his head. “Nah. I preferred accounting rather than anything else.”

“I have two sisters that work in the same adoption agency like mine. It is why I asked.”

“Ah. I can see why. All of you must really like kids.”

“Heh,” Dolly seemed to giggle a little bit. “Yes. We love kids. I can’t get enough of them. I am trying to convince my husband to have one more kid.”

“Oh, I could have figured that you’re a mother.”

“Well ... I did have kids awhile back. I just want to have more.”

It was an odd comment by her that seemed to take Raavi a little bit back. She appeared young by appearance. She looked like she was twenty years old, at least by age alone. Did she have kids at a much younger age? It didn’t seem to make much sense to him. He decided not to bring up any further questions on it.

“So everyone else is going to New Olympia,” Raavi said, changing the conversation. “I wonder why there is so little on this ship.”

“I have seen more on these transports. It really depends on the time of the day these transports come and go.”

“Yeah, the way it looks, I would feel that your tourism is pretty bad.”

“No, we have it. I have been on flights where fifty to seventy people would be on the trip. Some would be like you that are going to meet up with their boyfriends or girlfriends that they chatted online or just plain tourists in general. Same with the children I bring back. Some trips it would be a single child, or it might be seven. My largest trip, I brought back ten children of various ages from Oshun ... boy was that a handful.”

“I bet.”

Dolly seemed to smile for a little bit. “Do you feel ready?”

“What do you mean?”

“To see everything that New Olympia offers?”

Raavi shrugged. “I am as ready as ever. Oniya seems like a nice woman. I can’t wait to meet her face to face.”

He turned to look out the window once again. The sight was incredible. He could also see the planet’s trail edge as it reflected its near barren surface from the star. It was much closer now as the ship continued to fly closer and closer to it. What he began to see astounded him. Twelve large white cylindrical vessels were in orbit of the planet. The spaceships were enormous the closer and closer the gate jumper got. In fact, the ships were beyond Raavi’s expectations. Their size dwarfed anything in size.

“What?...” Raavi remarked as he looked at the ships.

“That is the New Olympian fleet,” Dolly explained. “They are the defense of our home.”

“They are so huge ... the gun alone is the size of the battleship in orbit of Aphadus.”

Raavi continued to look at the enormity of the New Olympian fleet. The warships were long white cylindrical vessels. Almost shaped like cigars, the ships had several thrusters in the rear. Four thrusters were mounted forward like prongs. The aft midsection had a large sphere in the hull. In the middle sides were two large bays of some sort. Near the front was a series of arrays, but in the stern was the most notable sight. A massive dual cannon perforated the forward section. Mounted on a gigantic gimble like mount, the gun could seemingly swivel with ease. The weapon alone was more significant than the UHN Polo back on Aphadus.

“How is that possible?” Raavi asked. “I never studied much on the military, but the resources to make those must be insane. Even the business company I worked in could never afford this.”

“We just did,” Dolly replied. “Anything is possible.”

“That ... doesn’t explain it though ... it is just...”

“I admit it isn’t where I work with. I work with adoption. Maybe ... Oniya will explain more on it.”

“Yeah ... she had mentioned some of it before, but to see it up close...”

“You still haven’t seen the rest of it.”

It was here that another ship had come into view from the window viewpoint that made Raavi’s jaw almost drop. It wasn’t just another dreadnought, but it was seemingly larger. The vessel was also white and cylindrical, but it didn’t have a giant gun on it like the others. This one, however, had two substantial rotating cylindrical drums that spun on the hull. Apparently, it was generating centripetal force. The spinning drum alone was also the size of the battleships back at Aphadus. The midsection had the same array system as the dreadnoughts. It also had a sphere-like protrusion in the hull. The forward section was like a giant box for holding shuttles. The rear area had a long pink tail like array to it.

“The UHN Osiris,” Dolly remarked as he tried to make sense of it. “It was originally the Lunaran Ark that brought us here.”

“Just ... amazing...” were Raavi’s only comment.

“Attention passengers,” the overhead intercom called out. “We are nearing the UHN Opet. We will be docking with them shortly. All passengers disembarking from Flight 66613, please remain seated until we give the go-ahead to move from your seats.”

“I got to admit, there will be a lot of things that I will need to talk to Oniya about when I see her,” Raavi said.

“I am happy for you,” Dolly said with a grin on her face. “I know you will enjoy being with us.”

“Thank you.”

“If you ever get a chance, make sure you see the inside of New Olympia itself. You are only seeing the outside of it. It does no favors for you.”

The words seemed to echo in his mind. He could finally see the edge of another ship that was coming into view. The spaceship was so close to it that it was tough to see it from the viewport alone.

Outside the ship, the gate jumper was nearing its destination. It was pulling up alongside a vessel that was much larger than it. Amongst the fleet of gigantic warships was a seemingly smaller ship. It was almost twice the size of the gate jumper. It was white and cylindrical in appearance as it had two large thrusters at the rear and four forward-mounted thrusters. In the front center of the ship was a sizeable box-like hangar. Past that was a series of vectoring thrusters and what appeared to be two large rectangular portholes. The front midsection was a large white rotating drum that was spinning. The midsection was a docking port that was getting ready to extend outward to the incoming transport. Near the rear of the vessel was a sphere-like section, much like the other New Olympian ships.

It was too difficult to make out the UHN Opet from Raavi’s window. The ship was simply too close, but he could still make out some areas here and there. It wasn’t just white but a pearly gray that dominated his vision. Only the faint red light of the distant starlight altered the reflection from the surface. He briefly saw the same flag as before. The New Olympian symbol was different, having a shade of a tree branch and a bear paw print on the hull. The words UHN Opet was on the side written in both English and Chinese.

Raavi could feel the thrusters of the gate jumper slowing it down. It would jolt him just a little bit as he kept his hands gripped to the seat. He could look to the window and tell that it had come to a full stop next to the Opet.

He knew that the spacecraft was in perfect alignment with the other ship. Neither side was moving closer to one another. There was a slight sound that was coming from upfront. It was the sound coming from a porthole extending near the forward section of the craft.

“Looks like this is my stop,” Raavi told Dolly.

She looked down at his feet. “You don’t look like you are wearing any type of magnetic shoes or boots. How are you going to get out?”

“Well ... it is funny that you say that,” he told her.

He lifted one of his shoes to give her an answer as her eyes showed some slight dismay at what she saw. Showing the bottom of his right foot to her was his barefoot. There were no soles to his shoes at all.

“What?” Dolly asked as soon as she saw it. “You are actually barefoot.”

“Partly true. The shoes that I wear are designed to mask the fact that I have augmented feet. It allows me to walk around on solid surfaces without the need for magnetic boots or shoes.”

“Wow! I have heard of people that get many different types of augmentations for their bodies, but I never heard of that.”

“Yep. I use it for rock climbing. It helps me a lot when I climb the rocky hillsides of Aphadus. I never need socks. I know people sometimes get weird at seeing people with bare feet. That is where the shoes come in.”

“Attention all passengers of Flight 66613,” the intercom called out. “We have arrived at our destination. We are currently docked with the UHN Opet. You may unfasten your seatbelts and disembark.”

Raavi began to unfasten his seatbelts. He looked at Dolly as he began to feel the weightlessness hit him. It was quick as he took his feet and pressed them to the ground. There was a very slight thump sound as the soles and heels of his feet activated. It served as an anchor for his legs as they pressed down firmly to the carpeted ground.

“Heh ... I wasn’t sure that they would work so well on the carpet or not,” he told her as he stood up.

It was working. If he weren’t holding onto something or had something to keep him to the ground, he would have indeed started floating in place. It was that or ensuring that he could grab the seats and moving across the ship that way. It was apparent that these gate jumpers were designed for short ranges. They were designed to get passengers and cargo from point A to point B. It lacked the means to generate centripetal force, and holding still was not a means to use constant acceleration to create some form of gravity. The end result was that everyone was weightless.

“You take care of yourself, Dolly,” Raavi told her.

“As do you, Raavi,” she replied. “I know you made the right choice. I think you will really enjoy it here.”

He smiled. “I know I will. Good luck with the adoption agency and the babies.”

She nodded. “It will be great. It always will.”

With that, Raavi began to walk forward. Each step was unusual. The augmented feet would clamp down to the carpet as it tried to touch the floor. It was barely enough, but he was able to feel an applied pressure to the bottom of his legs. It anchored him as they would adjust to his movements. Each step was enough to move him down the alley. There was a faint light emitted from the very bottom of his feet. It was working. He was not going to be floating around in the spaceship. He instead walked with ease to his intended destination.

He left Dolly and her adopted babies behind as he proceeded down the passageway. He passed the other woman that was still busy typing on her arm display screen. She didn’t even look over to him.

It was a little bit of a slower walk from him. He would continue to look at the windows as he could see more of the ship they were docked with. He could see the docking tube that was extended from the Opet to the spacecraft. It would be an easy transition to get to.

He passed by the two men that were seated next to each other.

“Man, I can’t wait to go to New Olympia,” one of the men said. “You know what we are going to find? Nothing but hot babes.”

“I know,” the other replied with glee. “Man, if the rumors are true ... two women for each man. We are going to have like four or six women. We got it made!”

Raavi kept it professional as he proceeded past them. He could definitely tell that these guys were ready to go to New Olympia. A part of him did smile, though. Even he felt a slight thought of it. It was contagious thinking at best.

He reached past the men as he got closer and closer to the door.

“Odd...” He quietly said to himself. “I feel like a part of me is going to see something so new. I have to tell myself it is just another ship.”

Raavi stood at the extended passageway that led to the Opet. Oniya was waiting in there for him. The girlfriend of his dreams was in there. He had to go and see her, and nothing was going to stop him from accomplishing his task.

He walked down the long passageway. Like a massive space bridge, the tunnel was simple in design. It prevented the need for shuttles that the gate jumper lacked. Two ships could meet up and transfer the people needed to be moved. Of course, it wasn’t without its dangers, but space was an extensive and open environment.

His feet and shoes were now touching solid ground. He had left Flight 66613 as he could no longer feel the carpeted floor but hard surface. This made it much easier to traverse now.

The pressurized tunnel was vast in size the further and further he moved. The gate jumper’s hatch was tiny compared to the Opet’s main hatchway. Raavi wondered if it was to allow large goods to be transferred from one ship to another. The vessel he was going on was a big transport ship, after all.

He looked back momentarily as he stood between both ships. The passageway was not well lit when compared to both vessels. It was odd to him. The Opet herself was like stepping into a massive gateway of light. He could see the brief outline of a white and gray passageway inside the ship from his spot, but the light itself made it look like he was stepping into the gates of heaven. Looking back at the gate jumper, the smaller hatchway formed an optical illusion of being very far away, even if it wasn’t.

He could hear his feet now more than ever. It was still tranquil as it produced the light thump sound of magnetic pads touching and gripping the surface. It wasn’t loud, but the still quietness of the environment made anything slightly noticeable.

“Well, ... it is a good choice,” Raavi said to himself. “It is the right decision to finally meet her.”

He reached the doorway that led to the Opet herself. The brightness of the opening had faded as his eyes quickly readjusted. His feet had reached the main entrance that led into the ship. He was ready as he stepped inside.

“Wha!?” were Raavi’s only words as he suddenly felt a tug on him. It drove him to the ground hard as he lost his footing. Upon stepping into the UHN Opet, he felt it. It was weight, and it took him by sheer surprise. His feet disengaged as he crashed to the ground. He tumbled and landed on his left arm. Pain riddled his body, but it wasn’t too serious.

“What the hell?” Raavi tried to say. “How?”

He was still trying to make sense of what happened. He was feeling weight being pulled down on him. It was...

“Gravity ... How is that possible?” He asked as he tried to pull himself back up from the solid surface.

It was indeed gravity that was pulling him down. How was it possible for a spaceship to generate its own artificial gravity? His mind was filled with questions.

“I am not in the rotating centripetal ring, and this ship isn’t accelerating,” he remarked out loud. “There is no means to generate gravity like this. There is no way that I am on the planet.”

He had stood up and looked around. He felt some bruising on his left arm, but it was nothing terrible. It felt different going from zero gravity to sudden gravity in less than a second. It was the very moment that he stepped inside the ship. It was as if the UHN Opet had its own means of generating gravity.

He turned to look at the gate jumper. The doors of the Opet closed up suddenly and quickly, almost startling him. Flight 66613 had completed its task and was now in the process of detaching from the Opet. The Opet’s docking tube was retracting back into itself.

“Well ... I guess I will find out more about this later,” he told himself. He turned around and began to look at the environment that he was now in.

It was like nothing that he had ever seen before. He was reorienting himself to gravity. It felt slightly less than Aphadus’s gravity but nothing out of the ordinary. He was standing by the large airlock as a passageway had lain before him. It consisted of pearly white and gray all around him. It was incredibly spacious on the inside. The ceiling that must have led to the decks above him reached as high as thirteen to fifteen feet in height alone. You could have driven vehicles down the hallway alone.

He turned to look at one way, which led to the aft section of the vessel. It was a straight passageway that had a series of large sliding doors that led to various rooms. He could see the lighting, which illuminated everything incredibly well. There was some pulsing light that circulated on the sidewalls that went down the long halls. Like one giant array of lights, the colors would slowly shift to different colors of the spectrum.

It was seemingly pretty inside. To feel gravity underneath his feet alone felt like luxury.

He turned his head in another direction, and it was here that he saw a person approaching him. It was a single person.

He recognized her immediately, but her looks were seemingly off. She was still a little bit of a distance away, but he could hear her footsteps.

“Oniya?” Raavi asked her name.

“Raavi!?” the woman called out to him. It had to be her.

Raavi could notice her appearance. It didn’t seem right. She was as the description told her as she was. What she was wearing, though, was different from that even Raavi noticed.

Oniya was, by Raavi’s observations, a woman whose family was descended from Egypt of former Earth. She had almost a bronze skin tone to her. Her hair was black and braided, hanging down to one side. She was slightly chubby, but that wasn’t the issue. She was wearing what looked like an officer’s uniform. The typical UHN officer uniform was a perfect blend of red and blue. Red represented the familiarity to Mars, human civilization’s capital, and blue represented Earth, the planet of the lost cause. The red topper would flow down the center with blue and gold like buttons. Her blue pants and red dress shoes also seemed to highlight her looks. She also seemed to be wearing some sort of multicolored bandana or headband on her head.

It was not what Raavi was expecting, but he had little to say on it. She waved her hand as she closed in on him.

“I am so glad to see you!” Oniya called out to him.

Her smile was contagious as Raavi even smiled upon looking at her. She was somewhat odd-looking but beautiful regardless.

“I get to finally see you up close and personal,” Raavi commented to her as they walked up and hugged each other. “I hope I am not displaying something out of military code by hugging you.”

“Oh, don’t worry about it,” Oniya replied as she patted his shoulder. They released each other from their hug as they stepped back and looked at each other.

“I ... I can’t believe it,” Raavi said as he lifted his hand to look at her body and frame. “You ... you’re an officer?”

She nodded her head and then looked down. Her smile came to an end as if she felt ashamed. “Yes ... I am. I am sorry that I misled you on that. I had told you that I served on the UHN Opet, but I didn’t want to scare you if I told you that I was one.”

“I can’t believe it. You already know I have a sister that serves in the UHN. Officers don’t scare me. Besides, I am a civilian.”

“Hmmm ... true,” Oniya remarked. “With me though, it is more than that ... far more than that. Come ... let me give you a tour of the UHN Opet.”

She turned around as he followed close next to her. His eyes naturally scanned her again. It was the first time getting a chance to see her face to face finally. While she was naturally a little bit chubby, the weight went to the best places on her body. Her chest was slightly big, but the uniform covered it up. The same went with her stomach, which again was covered up by the uniform. Her butt, though, was slightly large, and that was something that the uniform could only cover up so much.

“I see you checking me out,” Oniya said with a grin.

“I am sorry,” he told her. “To see you up close, finally. You being an officer just took me off guard.”

“It is alright,” she said, waving her hand at him. “It is my fault for not telling you that before we finally get to meet each other.”

“It seems like a pattern with UWAN dating. Somebody always doesn’t tell the whole truth before seeing each other up close. At least this is a happy surprise.”

That seemed to make Oniya happy to hear. She nodded her head as she pointed to the long passageway. “This is the UHN Opet. This is a transport ship that is registered and serves the United Human Navy. It is part of the New Olympian fleet.”

“It is pretty,” Raavi remarked as they continued walking. “I can’t believe that you guys have gravity. How is that possible?”

“Hmmm... , “ she seemed hesitant. “Normally, we don’t allow people from outside colonies on our ship. It is too early for me to answer that question for you. For now, enjoy it.”

He couldn’t argue with that. It was better than having the awkwardness of relying on magnetic shoes, boots, or augmented feet to move you around.

“It is just funny,” he told her. “I ended up falling to the ground when I stepped aboard. I wasn’t expecting it.”

Her head turned to him. There was a look of concern on her face. “Are you hurt?”

He gently grabbed his left arm and moved it around a little bit. “I am fine. I have some bruises, but it will heal.”

“Well, we do have a medical bay here on the ship,” she replied. “I have a wonderful doctor that can fix that right up.”

As they would walk, Raavi could see little porthole windows on his left. Outside the portholes he could see space itself. They would continuously walk past doors on their right as they proceeded forward of the ship.

Eventually, there were no windows in the extended vast area.

“Why don’t you have any windows in this area?” Raavi asked.

“That is because we have the rotating ring that is blocking the view.”

“Oh yeah, I saw it as we were docking with the ship. You have the same centripetal rings as the other ships.”

“Yes.”

“I just find it odd that you have that, and yet you have gravity.”

“As I said,” she told him. “It will be best to explain all of it later. For now, it is best that I give you the tour.”

Raavi nodded. He could hear the massive spinning apparatus. Like a giant drum, the device itself must have taken at least a third of the ship alone. It was somewhat harmonic. It almost made it sound like the spaceship was alive. The radiating colors of the rainbow made it only prettier.

“Are all the New Olympian ships like these?” he asked her.

“More or less,” she replied. “We normally don’t let others from the other worlds on this ship except for the very few ... like boyfriends or husbands.”

“I thank you for letting me on board.”

“There was no way I was ever going to prevent you from coming on board. You are...” she seemed a little bit flushed. She went and reached her hand to grab his. He looked down as she could see her holding his hand. “I couldn’t say no to having you onboard.”