UNSPECIFIED SPACE

  It had been twenty-seven years, two hundred and eight days, sixteen and a half hours since they started to build.

  Jamie had spent the first nineteen and a half years welding. He’d been doing plants for the last almost year. He wasn’t much of a plants guy but it was okay. The response from the guys who were plant guys made it worth it. Deep Water Bay said that the one good thing about being so far behind schedule was, all the plants had time to grow. Some of the trees were really quite something. Deep Water Bay was just stuffed full of plants. He seemed to be quite pleased about it.

  Everybody was pleased with how things were looking now. Even being six years past deadline didn’t put a dent in it. It didn’t really matter. And it wasn’t anybody’s fault. No-one could have known, twenty-seven almost twenty-eight years ago, how bad the traffic around Greip was going to get. And they’d had to start over once, when they were only two years in. Even fifteen years in they probably all had known already that they weren’t going to get finished in time for the birthday party. The big birthday party, the twenty-first.

  That was when this was supposed to be finished. Had supposed to be finished. It didn’t matter, Deep Water Bay said. The gift would be just as exciting as a thirtieth birthday present, he said. Just as meaningful. Maybe even better, as a thirtieth birthday present.

  It was going to be a surprise birthday present anyway so it wasn’t like the Armett scion was disappointed in them. The Armett boy had no idea that they hadn’t completed his own personal loop for him to go and live on just yet. He didn’t even know that they were building him his own personal loop!

  Jamie was constantly torn between wishing to never ever stop working on building the loop and longing to finish it so they could give it to young Armett and see how happy it made him. Jamie knew they all felt the same, all of them building together.

  “I wondered when you’d get here,” said Deep Water Bay. He hadn’t. He’d known for days exactly when the Conservation Committee would get to this position. He’d known exactly what stage they’d be at in the construction when they arrived. No matter. Suspended Volume always worked up until the last second.

  “How’s it going?” asked Gold Dog.

  “Exactly to plan,” said Deep Water Bay. “You’re late this time.”

  “Sorry,” said Gold Dog.

  “Hello, Gold Dog. Hello, Fog Bank.”

  “Hi,” said Gold Dog. He never seemed very enthusiastic. He’d probably handed over control of his system over to Fog Bank already.

  “Hi, everybody,” said Fog Bank. “Everybody? Can you all hear me?”

  “Yes,” said Deep Water Bay.

  “All parts present? I mean like in my line of sight?”

  “No,” said Deep Water Bay. “We’ve got a group out on the far side of the loop. But they can hear,”

  “Taking an early victory lap?” said Fog Bank. “Call them back.”

  Jamie felt a little sad. The gas team had been so psyched when they got the atmosphere stabilised that they had all jetted off on a little orbital tour. They’d been totally hyped.

  It had really seemed like they might get to finish this one. The gas team had taken everybody’s excitement out for a screaming spin around the world they’d just created.

  “They’ll be back soon,” said Deep Water Bay.

  “No rush,” said Fog Bank.

  “No hurry at all.” said Gold Dog.

  “In that case,” said Deep Water Bay, “May we gather up the plants? I’d like to take them with us, rather than…”

  Gold Dog and Fog Bank were briefly unresponsive, presumably discussing this matter.

  “Nnn-yeah, actually, yes,” said Fog Bank.

  “Yes,” said Gold Dog. “Go ahead and collect your plants.”

  Jamie shared a pulse of joy with the others at that. To which he added profound personal gratitude to Deep Water Bay for communicating the request they’d all wished to make.

  “How long will it take?” asked Gold Dog. The Suspended Volume were all moving in already to start gathering up the plants. “Does it matter?” said Deep Water Bay. “I thought you said-”

  “It doesn’t, just curious,” said Gold Dog. “I don’t think I’ve ever seen you bootlickers get to this stage before.”

  “A hundred…” guessed Deep Water Bay, “And thirteen hours?”

  “Fine,” said Gold Dog. He ruffled his thrusters about, adjusting to settle in and keep course with Deep Water Bay. “I’ve got all the time in the world for you weirdos.”

  That didn’t require a response. It was a simple fact: they had all the time there ever would be. That was why this was all fine.

  Jamie slipped precise arms under the little fern thing he’d been settling and began to gently lift it up. They were all fine, all happily lifting the little plants back out to take them with them.

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  They had almost finished this one.

  In a few days it would be blasted back down to its component atoms. That was fine because they would already be on their way to start building the next one. They would be building for all the time left in the universe. Jamie could feel everybody sharing that knowledge and feeling so goddamn psyched that he wanted to grab this fern and take it on a lightspeed tear around this loop so it could see it all before Gold Dog and his boys started blasting.

  “It looks great,” Gold Dog told Deep Water Bay, regarding the doomed loop.

  Deep Water Bay and all the team agreed. It was beautiful. “No hard feelings,” said Fog Bank.

  “Of course not,”

  It took two hundred and seven hours or so to uproot all the plants from the loop and store them all back inside Deep Water Bay. It might have taken less time if the Conservation Committee hadn’t started getting themselves into their positions and deploying their mirrors. They all started adjusting their surfaces fussily and bouncing lasers between them to calibrate and they were not all that careful with it. They really got in the way. Tragically a few dozen succulents got fried by their test firing. They really didn’t intend to be so disruptive, Jamie was sure, but they just were disruptive.

  “What makes this take so long?” asked the Conservation ship pottering around nearest to Jamie. He was really close, maybe only a mile away. Jamie was gathering some tiny seedlings that had emerged since they began planting.

  “If you’re impatient you could help,” said Jamie.

  “I’m not impatient!” said the Conservation Committee destroyer. “And I don’t think you actually would want me to help out with whatever you’re doing there, would you?”

  Jamie didn’t reply. He would not.

  “Okay, that’s us done,” said Deep Water Bay. “Down tools. Everybody requiring uplift, get to a landing pad and beep ‘til someone picks you up,”

  “We’ll hold fire until you get out of sight, if you’d like,” said Fog Bank. “Unless you’d prefer to stick around and watch?”

  All of Suspended Volume shared the same longing. “We’ll stay and pay our respects,” said Deep Water Bay.

  “Sure. Kudos,” said Fog Bank. “Well, when we’re all at a safe distance? You can give the signal to proceed, if you want,”

  Suspended Volume did not want.

  “Understandable,” said Fog Bank. Gold Dog handed over control of his system, the tool he’d been constructed to carry. The tool he couldn’t bring himself to operate, which was why Fog Bank had been added to turn the key.

  Jamie hadn’t moved from where he’d been working. He hadn’t started signalling for pickup. In fact, he’d ceased all output from himself to the group feed. He could still feel the others, see what they were seeing, feel their movements. He could still ride the swell of the shifting shared feelings of the group but he was atop the surface tension. Held, not sharing back. Not giving of himself. A couple of the guys noticed right away that Jamie had withdrawn. They pinged him directly: “Hey?” “What gives?” but most of the group were all caught up with the back and forth of Let’s go and Come get me and We almost got that one finished, guys and Next time, eh?

  Jamie sat in the stripped, empty garden. He hadn’t even bothered to retract the arms he’s been using. They were sitting out in front of him, on the ground. Still muddy from moving little plants around. He’d taken the last couple over to the container and then told Starfish that he had to go back to collect something. And then he’d just sat down in the garden.

  It sounded like everyone had left.

  Starfish had pinged a few times, wondering where he was. If anyone had come to look for him they would have found him here in the garden but no-one came. And now they had all gone.

  Jamie knew he could- should- just start beeping and someone would come right back for him. He didn’t know why he wasn’t doing that. He probably didn’t have long.

  He thought he might just sit and wait.

  “Hey!”

  Jamie didn’t respond to the hail.

  “Hey! Hey, little garden-crab!”

  It was the irritating Conservation Committee ship who had been pestering him before.

  “Yo, have you offlined, garden guy? You know you’re sitting right on top of about-to-be-a-supernova?”

  Jamie was aware.

  Jamie felt the ship moving closer. It was in extremely close proximity to the loop now. The ‘Demolition Imminent’ warnings that had started maybe a minute ago were still sounding.

  “I’m going to pick you up, wee man,” said the ship. “Sending down a drone to grab you. If you go weird on me I’ll flick you out into space, okay?”

  Jamie thought he had definitely gone weird but he didn’t think it was in a way the ship would find alarming. Maybe a bit disheartening. He sat tight and stayed schtum.

  “I’m right behind you now,” said the ship after what seemed like seconds, and then grabbed Jamie firmly with a metal claw. “Urgh, you might have wiped yourself off after playing in the mud,” said the ship. “Never mind. Up we go,”

  Jamie was plucked from the surface of the loop and yanked backwards thousands of metres up into the void in a matter of seconds. “Great view, huh?” said the ship as it pulled Jamie up towards itself. Jamie didn’t know- his optics were calibrated for close-up work. He usually got fed visual input from the Suspended Volume members who were set up to see further. He must be just out of range.

  Jamie got a message.

  In the middle of nowhere, between the loop and the ship, Jamie received a notification. He had mail. Since he wasn’t doing anything but dangling, Jamie thought he might as well open it.

  ‘Hello Jamie,’

  it read.

  ‘I am sorry mate this must be a tough one. If you are wanting a break remember you are always welcome here plenty room and some time at sea might be good for you emotionally you know? Any time buddy. Bud N. xxx’

  Jamie read the message, baffled. How could he have even known? How could he have gotten a data packet over this quickly? It didn’t make sense.

  “Incoming!” said the Conservation ship, which didn’t make sense either since it was Jamie who was incoming. Jamie was wheeched in through a porta opened just a crack and deposited onto a scrap-heap of a deck. This ship was just absolutely full of junk.

  “Welcome aboard!” said the ship. “I’m Roller Coaster,”

  “I’m sorry,” said Jamie. “I don’t know why I did that,”

  “Doesn’t matter,” said Roller Coaster. “No time to get you back to your hive-mind cult pals before the big bang so you’ll just have to hang here with me while we completely annihilate your life’s work, okay with you?”

  “Yes, fine, thank you,” said Jamie. “I’m Jamie, by the way,”

  “Jamie!” said Roller Coaster. “Want to watch? I can share my view with you, if you’d like,”

  “Yes, I’d like that,” said Jamie. He opened himself back up again and pinged Suspended Volume right away. Sent a quick message.

  ‘On one of the Committee ships. Explain later. Pick me up before you go.”

  He looked at the letter from Bud again. Binned it. Jamie was never, ever, going to goddamn sea.

  He had a reply from the S.V.

  ‘Which ship are you on? Love you xxxxx’

  Jamie copied Roller Coaster’s ident from his pings and tossed it back down the pipe. “What do you look like?” he asked Roller Coaster.

  “Huh?”

  “Describe yourself, the guys need to know which ship to pick me up from and I couldn’t see you,”

  “Oh,” said Roller Coaster. “Uh, yellow?”

  ‘The yellow one’

  sent Jamie. And then added

  ‘Love you too xxxxxx’

  “We’re starting,” said Roller Coaster. “You watching?”

  “Share it with me,” said Jamie. Roller Coaster invited him to share his optics and Jamie accepted. “Woah!” said Jamie, disconnecting immediately. “Ow.”

  “What’s wrong?”

  “Almost melted my processor,” said Jamie. “I can’t see that big,”

  “Oh, damn,” said Roller Coaster. “Of course you can’t. Wait. Let me give you just a little bit…”

  “Much, much lower resolution,” said Jamie.

  “Low, yeah. Low as I can go….” said Roller Coaster. “Is this small enough for your wee tiny chip to process?”

  Jamie connected hesitantly.

  “That good for you?”

  “Yes, that’s very good, thank you,” said Jamie.

  “Great,” said Roller Coaster. “Okay, Fog Bank’s got the nod. Any second now.”

  The Conservation Committee joked that Gold Dog was a sun in a ship costume. A ship-shaped star. Fog Bank opened him up and released a stream of plasma towards the loop. Shaped it. Focused. The Conservation Committee split and redirected the stream with their reflective surfaces. They produced a grid of cutting light. The loop was precisely sectioned. That was how they did it.

  ‘Here’s the link to the feed from Roller Coaster if you want a front-seat view,’ Jamie sent to his team.

  ‘What’s a Roller Coaster?”

  “They’re starting!”

  “Hey! Hey! Hey!” said Roller Coaster. “Hey, yo? Are you watching?”

  “I’m watching,” said Jamie.

  “You should watch!” said the Conservation destroyer, frame shuddering with the effort of deflecting the blast. “It looks cooler coming apart than it did coming together,” he said, and Jamie had to agree.