Peggy piloted them in while Casey just gawked.

  “This station is designed primarily for administrative functions, and will eventually house facilities for all of your planet's space agencies. That being said, It has some residential facilities for critical staff. We are going to dock here and switch to a conveyance small enough to connect to your previous station, and you are going to invite your people to stay in some new digs while we get the disposition of your station worked out.”

  Peggy kept approaching the new station, and as she got in spitting distance, some hatches opened and what looked like docking clamps swung out.

  “There is a pressurized gangway now attached to the personal lift in the airlock. Head on inside if you would.”

  “EVA?

  “You should always have your helmet, even if you aren’t wearing it. Shouldn’t need the thermals, you aren’t going outside.” Casey tucked the helmet under her arm and headed for the airlock. The lift lowered, and Casey stepped out into an articulated hallway that reminded her of an airport jet bridge. The room at the end though only had about twenty seats and no customer service counter.

  “Since this is an administrative station and not a personnel routing hub, there are only about 100 of these gate lounges on board scattered throughout. When you are not trying to pack one hundred and fifty people into a tube through a single door you can cycle the room much faster.”

  Peggy’s voice from the speaker on Casey's collar was reassuring. As Casey stepped into the room, another voice spoke from the speakers in the room.

  “Ensign Trainor, it is good to meet you.” The voice was using an English accent.

  “Are you seriously doing English butler right now?”

  “It seems appropriate. Your fictional literature seems chock full of them. Almost like that is England’s primary export. Is there some nuance I missed that makes it offensive?”

  “No, it’s just a little on the nose. I shouldn’t have interrupted, and I apologize. Please continue.”

  “Would urban North Carolina be better?” The voice asked in a new accent.

  “Hmm. I like it.” confirmed Casey.

  “In that case, allow me to introduce myself. You can call me Administrator Tempo. I and my eventual assistants are charged with ensuring the smooth operation of this administrative tower.”

  “Charmed.”

  “We are on a tight timeline, Ensign, but for you it is unfortunately a bit of a hurry up and wait situation. One of Her Prominence‘s sisters went down to Houston to collect some medical staff to review and oversee your astronaut’s return to functioning under gravity, but they are not being very urgent with the summons.”

  “Please dispatch transport for the space station’s inhabitants. We can move them over here where it is safer and keep them at point one gee while we wait.” directed Peggy.

  “Shall we take them to one of the transitional facilities in the rings then, your Prominence?”

  “Yes, that will do.”

  Casey followed the lit indicators that showed the path to a lift, which emptied out into another lounge. This one had floor to ceiling windows that showed a craft about the size of a small bus connected at the airlock door. Casey walked aboard and saw that there were about twenty seats in the roomy interior, with a door at the rear which presumably led to a pilot compartment.

  “Please have a seat. The bus will detach and move to a facility on the upper wheel where we have an airlock adapter stowed. Once we fetch that we will move to the ISS. It should take about ten minutes, and please mind the reduced gravity during the trip.”

  After sitting and buckling her seat belt, she gave her helmet the place of honor in the seat next to her. She sang to herself as the bus departed, trying to practice a scale. She wasn’t very good at it. Before long, she felt the vibration of the airlock connecting to something, and then separating again. She watched out the wide windows as the bus scooted along and approached the ISS. Another set of vibrations and the door at the front retracted again into the floor, leaving her staring at the hatch leading into the space station.

  She got up and knocked. Through the tiny porthole glass, she saw some movement.

  “Who are you and what do you want?” came a voice. Casey imagined that it sounded Italian.

  “Ensign Trainor, US Navy, requesting permission to come aboard.”

  “This is unscheduled.”

  Casey indicated out the window.

  “So was that.”

  After another few long moments Casey heard the door unbar, and it was pulled open from the other side. She was greeted by three men and two women. She came to attention carefully.

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  “Her majesty, the queen of Hive Harseese, through her majesty's agent Administrator Tempo, and under the guidance of Princess Arpeggio, first of her sisters, extends to you an invitation to retire aboard for a medical checkup, hot showers, a good meal, and restful sleep. If it pleases you to collect what personal effects you might require, we will depart at your convenience.”

  “Are we allowed to?” Asked one of the astronauts. She sounded French.

  “I am sure the proper notifications are making the rounds. The goal is to move your operations to where you can do all this more safely, and the station here will be preserved while all of our collective agencies decide what to do with it.”

  Peggy’s voice came from Casey’s suit again. “Please leave behind all of your zero gravity materials, we have the normal versions available for you to use.” All of the astronauts seemed to suddenly realize that while they were floating on their side of the airlock, Casey was standing on the floor. A chaotic scramble ensued to rush back and collect things from personal spaces and in another few minutes they were all carefully crossing the interface into one tenth gee.

  “If you have any projects in progress that will need attention in the next several hours, talk to Administrator Tempo about it and he will ensure you have access to a remote.”

  “My sister has secured the medical team. They will be arriving at the station in twenty minutes.” supplied Peggy.

  Casey checked to make sure everyone was seated properly.

  “Alright everyone, seatbelts, tray tables, water landing; whatever. The only thing you really care about is loss of pressure. Tempo will highlight where to find your oxygen masks… right there, thanks Tempo.”

  “I live to serve.”

  “We will be stopping at a halfway house for gravity addicts for withdrawal treatment. Once medical supervision approves your continued use of gravity you will move to your assigned quarters. Tempo will oversee the transfer of all material of significance to an accessible location with the correct operating conditions, where you may do whatever it is you do as you please. Any questions? You there, in the second row.”

  “Phone calls”

  “Provided. With privacy even. No further questions, let’s gooooo!”

  Casey reached behind her and hauled the door closed on the station side. Once she was clear, the bus door closed in front of that and they were off, leaving the adapter behind for the next bus.

  Peggy interrupted her when she started humming to herself again.

  “For as much as it matters, both your classical octave and now more common Western chromatic scale have the wrong number of notes for what you are trying to do.”

  “Yeah, but I don't know enough musical theory to know how to fix that.”

  “Like I said though, it doesn't matter. You only need 16 tones. It doesn't need to have two A's, two B's, two C's, etc.”

  “Can it though?”

  “Yes. Your systems of music are just that. They aren't some fundamental truth of the universe. I can show you the math on how you can change it up later “

  “So what do I do now?”

  “Be patient. We have a lot to do that we can start on once you get back to the ship.”

  The bus vibrated slightly as it docked with one of the hexagonal pods outside the new station.

  Peggy increased her volume for the benefit of the astronauts with them.

  “Welcome to your new home for the next few days. Once medical is done with you we will move you to new quarters. The zero gravity experiments you all are working on will be moved to another space like this one where the gravity remains disabled.”

  After the bus departed, another arrived and several people started gathering their bags.

  “Please be careful exiting the bus, we are at one tenth Earth gravity on this side of the door.“ Casey warned. Even still, the first medic through the door was too enthusiastic and went sprawling.

  “Do I need to have you guys hold hands or something?”

  “I’m OK, it... it just caught me by surprise.” explained the medic.

  “You all are not trained for this, and I fully sympathise, but for the love of all that you consider holy be careful!” Casey called out to everyone in the room.

  “Are you even trained for this? What are you, twenty?”

  “Close, but no. And also not trained for this, but I did spend the night at a hollandaise express last night… on the moon.”

  Casey could tell the joke didn't land.

  “Alright then, joking aside, as the only human on the planet that has space-walked, been to the moon in the last fifty years, and experienced a hard vacuum without a helmet as a training exercise we can quit with casting aspersions on my age. I am a college graduate with a mechanical engineering degree and a Naval Officer. And if you want to sass me, I’m also Irish and I can let the disrespect fully off the leash.”

  “Point taken ma’am. Sorry.” The voice sounded sheepish. Almost chagrined, even. Casey decided to let it drop this once.

  The largest man in the room came over and offered his hand.

  “Dejon Watson, M.D. Any idea what’s going on here?”

  “Space has become a nine to five, apparently.” Casey shrugged. “While still a very hazardous environment, the expense and hardship of getting here is gone. This station is going to have regular bus service to pretty much every space agency HQ in the world.”

  “Indeed, we have office space set aside for the moment so that your agencies can work out traffic control systems and resources allocations. For that matter, there are a million and one things to come up with plans for. We may have disrupted everything, but the work is still there for those that want to do it.” Tempo added.

  “All of that is above my pay grade. How about the medical side?”

  “The pod we are in right now is one of one thousand pods that are keeping position around the administrative station. There are many default configurations, and the one next to us is an emergency care center. This one is equipped for sick bay style berthing. For anything requiring surgery, we recommend stabilization and a rapid return to the planet via a dedicated shuttle which is parked next door.” informed Tempo.

  “I would imagine that there is an office here somewhere where you could call down to Houston and arrange a schedule for duty rotations up here?” proposed Casey.

  “Shuttle service to all major destinations every 92 minutes!” supplied Tempo helpfully.

  “Yeah, I’ll get on that, thanks.” affirmed the doctor and he wandered off.

  “So Peggy, our work here is done?”

  “Yes, we can leave things in Administrator Tempo 's capable appendages.”

  Casey collected her helmet yet again and the shuttle took her back to the station proper. A lift ride later and she was walking the bridge back out to the ship.

  “First of my sisters.” giggled Peggy. “If you weren't human, I would strongly consider you for an attendant role.”

  “I suppose that if we tried hard enough we could find a nice octopus costume and pretend. I am sure no one would notice.”