Free Far From Home: The Complete Second Series (Far From Home 13-15) by Tony Healey

Dr. Gentry had before.
    "Oh . . ."
    There was nothing but darkness on the other side. They all stepped through the open hatch one-by-one, their lights barely touching the black nothing before them.
    "No power, do you think?" Chang asked.
    Before Captain King could answer, the world was filled with blinding light as the sun came up within Enigma .

 
    25.
     
    An entire world on the inside of a barrel, Jessica thought, once her eyes became accustomed to the brilliance of the Enigma 's lights. They were situated directly opposite, on the end of stems. There were three of them, and each was so bright it hurt to stare directly into them.
    But beyond the adjustment from night eyes to normal vision, it was what was in front of them that took getting used to. The team stood on a large platform, following the same hexagonal shape. They could have exited on any side, and still found themselves on a flat surface looking down on the strangest landscape ever conceived.
    The inside of the cylinder was lined with habitat. On a planet, or any spherical body, the surface formed an unending curve down. Here in the Enigma , the surface curved up over their heads. And while they had no sensation of the cylinder's momentum, since they stood within it, they were aware that the centrifugal force of the Enigma 's spin was keeping everything pinned to the inner wall with gravity equivalent to Earth's.
    "This is . . . most unexpected," Dr. Gentry said.
    "You can say that again," Lieutenant Jackson said. "I keep looking up, expecting it all to fall down around us."
    "It won't," Dr. Gentry said, and made a brief explanation of the forces involved.
    Jessica couldn't look away. A grey coloured floor lined the entire habitat, with what looked like simple metal huts or houses, and scattered among them, larger buildings. She spotted no greenery at all. Nothing living.
    However, she did see mist beginning to line the floor below them, in the habitat.
    "Doctor Gentry, I see something like mist? Down there. What temperature are we reading?"
    "It was below zero when we entered, but now climbing past zero," he announced. "What you're seeing is probably ice crystals vaporising. They no doubt formed in the dark, cold, sleep of this vessel."
    "Strange that you should refer to it as sleep," Chang said.
    "Why not? Have we not awoken it from some kind of slumber?" Gentry replied, pointing to the suns in front of them.
    It, Jessica thought. Or them . . .
    *
    Chang peered over the edge of where they stood. There was a drop of hundreds of feet to the monochrome surface of the habitat. She stepped back warily.
    "Quite a way up, aren't we?" she asked.
    "This reminds me," Gentry said. He looked around for something, obviously couldn't find it, then searched his utility belt. He settled for a small wrench.
    "Doctor, what are you doing?" King asked him.
    "Demonstrating an interesting effect of the cylinder, Captain," he said and threw the miniature wrench out into the open air. It should have fallen over the side and clattered on the ground below. However it didn't. The wrench spun out into mid-air and continued to travel until it ran out of momentum, slowed by the drag of the air. Then, as they watched, it began a slow fall toward the surface. It would take a while, but it would fall down. Mother Nature would make sure of that.
    "The gravity is stronger down there than up here," Dr. Gentry said. "A vessel like the Defiant has a form of artificial gravity holding everything in place. The Enigma works on a different principle. It uses force to do the same job. However, where we are, standing on the very axis, the gravitational force is not in effect. It's only due to the adaptive soles of our space suits that we are able to walk around without floating off."
    "Well spotted," King said. "Now we should see about –"
    Gentry stopped her in her tracks as he began removing his helmet.
    "What're you doing!?" she yelled, rushing forward to stop him. But before she could get there,