Metafire

"Always aim to please," Scooter smiled more broadly and headed, like a torpedo, for the Metafire Two towing hole. He figured to catch it in mid spin rather than spin to its rate.

When the tug hit the towing hole, the entire newborn colony shook in the transfer of inertia, but more seriously, the cavern twisted slightly, like the twisting of a deflated balloon. Wavelike patterns appeared on the surface, briefly, but it was enough to give the people inside the cavern pause. Beth now moved away from her perch to watch the craft being corrected around her. Erisa made the comment out loud, "You know guys, I don't know whether I like this. There's nothing outside except vacuum, and its over a hundred miles down. There's not much protecting us."

"Nothing really," Sporkin was trying to be helpful.

In the main capsule, Angela was completing communications with Metafire, Metafire One, and Whitefire in one computer window. At the same time, in another window she was establishing the constant system testing regimens that would act as the new colony's alarm system. Even a pinhole leak would be detected. Furthermore, another window had the "multiclock" that showed countdowns in time to exhaust essentials like food, water, and air, as well as Sante Fe time and date, and daybreak and nightfall countdowns. As Scooter was completing his adjustments, the power and data links to the central New Boston power facility were being re-established after the temporary interruptions.