The space station security manager's door had his name, Col. Dave Fletcher, engraved on a plate on it. I knocked, and Col. Fletcher opened and asked us to come in. I introduced us and Col. Fletcher asked us to take zero gee perches on the "floor."

"Call me Dave," he said, lighting up a cannabis cigarette. "I'd offer you some of this," he said, "but it's illegal for civilians. As chief of security here I need to maintain a heightened state of paranoia."

"What can we do for you?" said Angela.

"I received a report on your mission and Dr. Miller's run-in with the angry physicists. I want to assure you that the space community is on your side and ask you if there is anything I can do to assist you."

"Thank you," I said. I think it would be beneficial if you can alert us to any unusual activity or message traffic."

"Done." said Col. Fletcher. "Please enjoy your stay here. Your transfer shuttle will depart in 70 hours. You might want to take advantage of some of our sports facilities while you are here."

We thanked the Colonel again and went back to our quarters.

"I think we should play some tennis," said Angela, after we had rested a while. We didn't have beds, per se, in our room, but rather padded areas on the cylindrical wall with straps and curtains that could be drawn for privacy.

"OK, how is tennis played in zero gee?" I asked.

"You'll see," said Angela, making the court reservation on her PDA.

We went to the sports center at the appointed time and borrowed some rackets and balls from the robot attendant. "You're in court two," it said.

We entered court two and fastened the door. The court was a cylinder, 10 meters in diameter and 30 meters long, with hemispherical end caps. The entry door was in the center of one end cap. The net was about a meter high and encircled the middle of the court around its circumference. The two circular service lines were six meters from the net, and the circular baselines were twelve meters from the net. Six lines in the axial direction from the net to the service line divided the service area into sextants.

"Regular tennis on Earth has singles and doubles play, but space tennis can be played with one, two, three, or six on a side," said Angela, putting her towel and PDA into a flush-recessed storage compartment near the entry door. I did the same, and also stowed my gun.

"Play is very similar to regular tennis," said Angela, "except that you must have both feet in contact with the wall when you serve. In zero gee, there is no limit to how 'high' you can jump. So the play scenario goes like this: the server pushes off and glides to the opposite wall, landing behind the baseline. His inertial force holds him in contact with the wall, and he must serve before he loses contact. His opponent knows which sextant service will be received in, so he pushes off at the same time as the server so he can rebound and be in position to intercept the ball after it bounces in the service court."

"This is going to take some getting used to," I said, "so let me take some practice hops and serves."

"Go ahead," said Angela, and she pushed off with her racket for the opposite end of the court.

One cannot stay in continuous contact with the court wall in zero gee. It's a contiunous jumping from wall to wall. One can't change velocity in mid-jump, either, so each jump must be planned to intercept the ball's trajectory.

After warming up a bit we played one set, with Angela narrowly beating me due to her greater experience in the zero-gee environment. I found that without spin, the ball will fly in a straight line, usually flying past the baseline for the loss of the point. The station used a nitrogen-oxygen mix for air, at full atmospheric pressure, so putting spin on the ball would make it curve. If we consider the "up" direction to be toward the central axis of the court and the "down" direction to be toward the cylinder wall (court surface), then applying topspin to the ball made it dive down to land in bounds, with a high bounce, just as in Earth tennis. Sidespin and backspin were also effective in certain situations.

When we got back to our room, Angela showed me why zero-gee sex wasn't all it was cracked up to be. It was all right for me, but it was very difficult satisfying her. We finally were able to wedge ourselves into the confines of the viewing cupola, where she was able to prop her buttocks up on her hands with her elbows behind her and I was able to push with my feet and hands. We were climaxing right up against the glass looking out at the bright stars.

Afterward we went down the hall and showered together. The zero gee shower had a blower at one end and water would be swept by the flow of air into the exhaust at the other end. The water was then centrifugally separated from the air, and the used water and air were sent to the recycling systems. The fresh water sprayed and blown by the warm air. We turned off the water and turned on heating coils in the air blower and it dried us rapidly.

Back in our room we put on fresh station outfits and went to the Planet View bar for a drink before dinner.

Copyright 2004 by Rick Wagner, all rights reserved.

(to be continued)

OK, chapter 4 is done. What do you think?

Extremely cool story!!!
Reminds me of "Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy" and "Total Recall"
Can't await chapter 5+

-Captain.

I'm working on chapter five right now.

Sorry I haven't replied to this before, Rick! This is a very interesting story arc you have going on! Are you planning on publishing this?

I look forward to the next installment!

~Much Love~
Megan

Thanks, Megan. I don't know if anyone would pay for this story, especially as it can be read for free here. I'm still working on chapter 5, which should appear soon.

The long-awaited sixth chapter is posted.