Liam’s Jump

By Lucian C. Ban

Chapter 1: “Just No”

“No!”

“But dad, you said I can take with me something to have fun with…”

“Yes I did. But what would you do with a rope up there?”

“I don’t know. And it’s not just a rope, it has…”

“Just take a toy or whatever. We have a weight limit to carry with us. Don’t take anything too big or too heavy.” and he stepped out of the bedroom.

Liam looked at the roll in his hand. The rope was about 10 meters long, pretty strong, but elastic, and the color was a mix of dark blue with some yellow spots, just like stars on the night’s sky. It didn’t take too much space and it didn’t weight too much. It seemed appropriate to have it with him in this trip. He just liked it. He always found ways to have fun with it. Most often he was imagining himself to be an explorer, an adventurer… and they always needed a good rope around. Liam shoved the rope in his hiking backpack and put it in his luggage.

Chapter2: “Loose Screw”

The next morning the whole family was in the boat travelling to the Launchpad. The trip was going to take a bit over 1 hour, as the launch facilities were very far from the shore in order to avoid the sound of the rocket. They had to wake up very early in order to get to the harbor in time and he had very little sleep at night due to the excitement over the trip; Liam was very tired. When they boarded the transit boat he thought its name was very funny… “Loose Screw”. Who names a boat like that?

While waiting, he took a look at his white astronaut jumpsuit in one of the mirrored walls. He knew that he wasn’t able to keep it, as it was part of the standard gear that they were issued with for the trip. Liam was just turning 10 today, but it looked perfect on him. It even had his name on it “Cadet Liam”. He hoped to be able at least to keep the nametag.

Now that they were cruising on the ocean, Liam got bored and he went to the viewport to try to spot the Launchpad.

There it was! At first he spotted just the tip of the craft, a small metallic shine at the horizon, but as they approached, it grew bigger and bigger. As the boat docked, Liam no longer felt tired. The spaceship dwarfed everything around it. It was bigger than a skyscraper and he was going to fly to space in it. A flying space skyscraper.

Chapter3: “Tell me you’re joking”

The group got to the elevators, some in silence, but most of them pretty chatty. Liam was beyond excited; he would run to the front if not for his parents. The elevators would take them over 100meters high to board the rocket. As they got up, the Launchpad below became smaller and smaller. “Loose Screw” was leaving and, by the time they got up, the boat looked smaller than the tip of his finger on the ocean floor. The crew helped the passengers get to their seats. They were purposefully designed to tilt during the flight so that the G-force would be more manageable for everyone, no matter the orientation of the rocket. Liam was strapped in his own seat. It felt somewhat like in a rollercoaster, only much tighter.

“Ladies and gentleman, this is the captain speaking. Welcome aboard the “Tell me you’re joking” Starship. In a few minutes we are going to lift-off and get to the “This has to be large” Space station. The voyage will take approximately 18 hours. After we get to space, you can leave your seats and enjoy the facilities on board. Meanwhile, stay put and enjoy the ride.”

“3… 2… 1… Ignition!”

The chair started shaking. He could feel the power of the rocket through its vibrations. Although wore a helmet and his ears were covered, the sound was also almost deafening. They started moving. At first it was almost imperceptible, just like someone lifts you with your chair gently up… but then he started feeling heavier in his seat as the rocket was gaining speed. Little by little, the pressure grew, but, after a short “bang” everything went silent. They just passed the sound barrier. After a few minutes he started seeing the floor move, but it was actually his chair repositioning. The rocket was tilting and rolling on its back as it reached higher altitudes. The pressure decreased slowly and, after a short while, Liam felt weightless.

“Welcome to space!” he heard the captain speaking. “You can unstrap and enjoy zero-g. Just be careful when flying around.” Liam couldn’t wait and darted out of his chair, just as his mother was saying “Hey, slow down mister. Stay with us for now.” But he had no way of stopping now, as he was flying away from the chairs. Flying away right in the arms of one of the crew. “Hey there, Cadet! I got you. There’s always some of you who does this after launch.” And, laughing slowly, she gave him a gentle push towards his parents.

“This. Is. Amazing!”

Chapter 4: “This has to be large”

The space station was growing in size as the ship was aligning with it for docking. It looked like a row of cylinders, spheres and wheels, all tied together through the middle and spinning at different speeds. Liam knew that they did that to generate artificial gravity. Each module had to spin at different speeds according to its size and the gravity that they wanted to generate. As the craft was approaching the docks at one of the ends of the space station, it became obvious that it was much bigger than the ship he was travelling on. As the docking completed, Liam was able to see the name of the station written in big bolded letters “THIS HAS TO BE LARGE”. “Yep, that name is surely fitting.”, chuckled Liam.

The gathered their luggage and backpacks and headed to their quarters. Their room was facing the earth, with big transparent windows. It was amazing. A huge blue and white ball with everyone on it.

“Liam, while we unpack, why don’t you go out exploring the entertainment lounge? It’s right next to us and we’ll be with you after we finish.”

“Oh really? Thanks mom!” Liam grabbed his backpack and darted out of the room.

Chapter 5: “Liam’s Jump”

The entertainment area was a big cylinder shaped module, about 30 meters wide, transparent on one side and opaque on the other, with a long pole going straight through the middle. Due to its slow spin, you could walk on its edges, but only barely. Any jump would push you to the other side, while in the middle you would be weightless. That’s where the pole was useful, as you could push yourself back on to the edges or pull yourself to one of the 2 side entrances to the module.

Liam started jumping around eagerly, just as some other people were doing. It was hard to aim exactly at the middle. During one of the jumps, he managed to grab the middle pole and pulled himself to the middle of the room. Then he remembered his backpack and pulled the rope out of it. Liam tied one of the ends from the pole and made a noose from the other, tying it to his feet. He then pushed himself out, diving towards one of the walls. He gained a bit of speed and the rope started stretching… a few meters from the wall, the rope started pulling him back toward the middle of the room. “Weeeee!!!”

One by one, people stopped jumping around and watched Liam bungee around the middle pole.

“Mommy, I want to do that too!” pleaded one of the little girls that were playing in the entertainment lounge.

“I can let you go for a few jumps if your parents are ok with it.”, said Liam.

They came to him and helped her strap up for the jump. As the little girl started to bungee from the pole, more people came to Liam to ask if they can have a go. On one hand he would have wanted to play more himself, but on the other he was happy that he can help others have fun too with his rope.

As his parents entered the entertainment module, they could see Liam, with a bunch of people around him and a little girl screaming and flying around tied to Liam’s rope.

“LIAM! STOP it! What’s going on?” shouted his dad. But he got interrupted by another man, dressed in a red jumpsuit, coming to him. “Are you Liam’s father?”

“Uh, yes I am.”

“Hello sir. My name’s Martin, I’m the commander of the space station. I was just coming over to talk to you.”

“Oh, I’m sorry he did this. I told him not to take the rope with him and I did not double check when we left. I take full responsibility! I’ll take care of…” but the Commander interrupted him.

“Sir! You misunderstand. Liam did not do anything wrong. Quite the contrary. For months we were brainstorming on what kind of upgrades can we do to the entertainment lounge to make it more fun. And nobody thought to bring a bungee rope to space. We actually have none on the station. But in just a few minutes, your son managed to double the fun for everyone on board. I even have some of my crew asking if they can have a go at it. And to be perfectly honest…” he leaned closer “… I would like to try it myself.”

“Oh, I did not think….”

Meanwhile Liam was coming over to them.

“No worries! With your permission…” and the Commander looked at Liam “… and Liam’s as well, I would like to… hmm… borrow your son’s bungee rope for a while… at least until we get a new one sent from Earth. We intend to make it a permanent attraction in the entertainment lounge. And with your blessing, we’ll name it “Liam’s Jump”!

March 16, 2022