Designing Paradise

By Mike Combs

Wendell Drake, a humble designer of shopping malls, designs a space habitat in his spare time. But something seems to be physically pulling him into his creation. Is he going mad... or going someplace else?

This science fiction short story describes some of the quality of life and recreational features which might become possible in orbital space habitats.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Mike Combs
• Release date: Aug 20, 2019
• ISBN: 9780463159590

Book preview

Designing Paradise

by Mike Combs

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Copyright © 1997

Cover art by Robert McCall

The Christians had it all wrong when they said Hell was a lake of burning fire. Hell, Wendell Drake had decided long ago, was being stuck in a Chicago traffic jam in the middle of December.

Wendell held one hand up to block the orange rays of the setting sun, and looked with dismay at the vast river of snow-covered cars before him. Snow, lifted from the hood of his car, darted across his windshield at a sharp angle, indicating the ferocity of the wind outside. He felt an occasional shudder as the winds rocked his car.

It was the only movement he had felt in some while. At quitting time there was always a traffic jam even under the best of conditions. When the roads grew icy and slick, and drivers continued to maneuver like jack-asses, there were the inevitable pile-ups. You could be home an hour or more late when that happened.

Now it seemed like there was some movement up ahead. Wendell turned up the window defogger in anticipation of actually driving again. The low sun lit every fog-spot on his windshield with a bright orange glow. Wendell was one of those unfortunate souls who lived West of his place of employment. This ensured two daily commutes spent staring straight into a sun right at the horizon.

Wendell was unlucky in several respects. Afflicted with both a receding hairline and the persistent paunch of a desk-bound worker, he was already well into his mid-life crisis at forty seven. He was a Computer Aided Design (CAD for short) architectural engineer, but designing yet more shopping malls for MallWorks had ceased to be fulfilling many years ago. His career seemed to be heading nowhere, mostly because he just couldn't work up any enthusiasm for the gaudy palaces of consumerism his supervisors required of him.

But Wendell didn't get his kicks from his job. In his spare time, he was designing Paradise.

Now coming up the street where he lived, Wendell was once again driving into the sun. He made the mistake of trying to flip his visor back down again while simultaneously turning into his driveway. Distracted, he had taken the turn too fast for the icy conditions. Now he slid toward a neighbor's car parked in the street much too close to his driveway. He could only see the car now that it had eclipsed the setting sun, and it was far too late to avoid hitting it. Wendell bounced off the steering wheel, wincing.

He got out, sadly looked the damage, and did the right thing by leaving a note with the parked car. Wendell then pulled into the driveway, and reluctantly proceeded into the