THE JUMPGATE DEFINITIVE GUIDE - Tripod

A Story by Ike Profari
Ikeprof sighed inwardly while pretending to listen sympathetically to
the transport pilot complain about the new docking strut’s length from
the stations core. Nodding sagely and muttering appropriate “uh-huh’s”
at the correct interval Ikeprof thought about how old he was becoming.
The new docking system was a bit different than the old way but it was
improving every day and sure as heck beat the mess that resulted when
TRI expanded the recruiting effort without taking into account current
station docking capacities. That fiasco resulted in 6 months of waiting
for days at a time for a chance to dock while sitting in space exposed
to the universe and attempting to sleep with one eye fixated on the
radar scope and hundreds of ship losses due to poor docking pattern
management. Before the struts, pilots had to coordinate the traffic
themselves as they entered the single tube that allowed a ship to dock.
Many a heavy laden tow was lost in collisions with the blundering
attempts of a new pilot rotating on all three axis with engines flaring
sporadically as they attempted to learn the trade of docking. In many
respects Ikeprof preferred the new strut system. As soon as he entered
a station sector, he could see at a glance what ships were docked, what
ships were powered up and ready for flight, what squads were present
and what the rough faction make-up of forces were in the sector.
Back in his early days as a TRI pilot, one was blind to who was in the
station and when he docked, one became blind to who was in the sector.
Under the new strut system, he simply could glance out his side window
and see his friends and enemies ships all neatly in a line on all 4
faces of one of the struts. The familiar station transaction interface
activated as soon as the docking clamps closed on the hatch ring in the
nose of his ship, but could be toggled off if he needed to access his
ships radar system to monitor incoming and outgoing vessels. Had the
Quantars not perfected the station force field technology, the whole
concept would have never been accepted by the general pilot population,
but after proving that 16 morning stars and a fully loaded tow of
plutonium could not dent the force field bubbles that protected each
ship, the alternative of sitting in space waiting for an internal
station bay quickly paled in it’s appeal.
A pink flash of light signifying a collapsing force field bubble from
his left viewport caught Ikeprofs attention.. Glancing left out the
viewport, Ikeprof could make out the Solrain medium transport slowly
departing a docking port 30 spots closer to the station. Realizing that
Splooshie was waiting for a reply, Ikeprof muttered a “I couldn’t agree
with you more” response and quickly closed the comm link. Depressing
the launch button on his station interface, Ikeprof watched the force
field become visible as the shimmering energy of the force field bubble
rushed from the rear of his ship towards the strut itself as it
collapsed. Mere seconds later felt the gentle nudge as the docking
clamps released his craft and pushed him away from the strut at roughly
100v backwards. In a practiced and deft motion, Ikeprof swung the nose
of his ship parallel to the strut and roughly towards the station
proper without negating his original rearward motion. Drifting
sideways, he accelerated gently towards the now vacant shield bubble
recently made available by the Solrain craft whose twin engine glow was
still visible as it headed outward. Just prior to coming parallel to
the docking clamps, he swung his ship on all three axis’s at the same
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