Epsilon Eridani (Aeon 14: Enfield Genesis)
Page 15
Jason sent an acknowledgement, whistling a soundless tune as he strode into the dining hall and giving an amiable wave to crew personnel just exiting. A glance around the room showed their guest seated alone at a table with Jonesy. He steered toward them, greeting them as he approached.
“Mister Andrews,” Simone greeted, her voice cautious but welcoming.
Jason squelched a brief flare of remorse for his behavior over the past few days; he knew he’d come across as curt, bordering on hostile.
Now’s as good a time as any to mend those bridges.
“May I join you?” he asked with an easy smile and saw Simone’s expression relax.
She nodded and returned his smile with one of her own.
“I’d like that,” the AI invited, gesturing to a chair.
Jason pointed toward the buffet set up at the back of the dining hall. “Let me just grab something and I’ll be right with you.”
He grinned at Tobias as the Weapon Born stepped into the room, inclined his head toward the table where he intended to sit, and sent the AI a sloppy salute.
As he turned toward the enticing smells wafting from the warming platters lined up along the half wall that separated the kitchen from the dining area, he received a ping from Terrance.
Jason hid a grin at the stressed tone in Terrance’s mental voice and wondered briefly what had caused it. He snagged a plate and began to fill it from the variety of breakfast foods, both savory and sweet, before him. Sliding his gaze back across to their visitor seated at the table, he offered,
He could sense Terrance’s relief.
Jason’s brow rose, and his grin settled into a smirk as he slid a couple of fried eggs on top of his gravy-laden biscuits.
Terrance replied.
Originally from Tau Ceti’s third planet, Eione, Vi had bartered part of her ticket to Epsilon Eridani for her services as a chef. None of the humans aboard the Vale had minded in the least; what the woman could do with fresh ingredients was a gastronomic delight.
Jason sent Terrance a shot of the spread before him and heard him groan a
Plate balanced precariously on top of his steaming mug of coffee, Jason snagged one of the thermal carafes of coffee for refills later on. He then charted a course through the sea of tables between the buffet and where their guest sat. After settling his plate, he gestured to Jonesy’s cup with the carafe.
“Can I top you off?” he asked, and the engineer smiled and proffered his mug.
Setting the carafe down, Jason ambled back over to the station where one of Vi’s AI sous-chefs was prepping some vegetables for a lunch dish.
“Hey, Nick, Terrance asked if there was any way he could get a to-go order for hot cocoa.”
Nick looked up, knife poised as he cocked his head. “In trouble with Khela, is he?”
Jason chuckled. “Actually, I hear it’s Beck’s fault. If you get the story out of that cat, let me know. I’m sure it’s a good one.”
Nick shook his head. “Tell Terrance I’ll have a servitor send a fresh pot right up.”
Jason sent the AI a sloppy two-fingered salute, then snagged a few more strips of bacon off the platter sitting under a warmer before returning to the table.
“Thanks,” Terrance called out as he entered the dining hall. He nodded hello to a few Enfield employees at a table across the room, straightening the cuff of one sleeve as he approached.
“Morning, Jonesy. Simone,” Terrance greeted, nodding to them both. “I apologize for running late. Mind if I grab a bite? I’ll be right with you.”
“Not at all.” With a wave of her hand, Simone gestured to Jonesy’s charcuterie plate. “I understand this isn’t considered breakfast food in Alpha Centauri, but Jonesy asked about Godel customs, so Nick fixed him a carpaccio platter. I highly recommend it. Jonesy tells me it’s delicious.”
Jason saw the expression on Terrance’s face as he glanced down at the remains of the chopped, raw meat on the engineer’s plate, and he suddenly had an idea what Beck might have done.
Coughing to hide a laugh, he supplied, “Yes, well, Terrance is more of a bacon-and-eggs kind of guy. What you recommended for Jonesy is what they call Mediterranean-style, isn’t it?”
Terrance didn’t wait to hear Simone’s response; he beat a hasty retreat to the buffet line. Jason used Terrance’s escape as an opportunity to dig into his own plate.
“He seems a bit frazzled,” Simone observed, as Jason lifted his fork and cut through the rich, runny yolk of fried egg. “Is everything all right?”
Jason left Tobias to field that question as he dug into his meal. A twist of his utensil had a bite-sized piece of egg loaded onto the fork, which was then dipped into the gravy until suitably coated. Popping the load into his mouth, he paused to savor the morsel before chasing it with a swig of coffee and a bite of bacon.
“Just a wee bit of mischief from one of our uplifted crew members,” Tobias offered, and Tobi stirred from where she lay under his feet.
Simone looked bemused while Jonesy paused, a forkful of carpaccio halfway to his mouth. “Uplifted animals,” he mused, his tone thoughtful. “You never told us why you don’t have them here in this system.”
Simone shook her head. “I think it’s simply because no one ever considered it. Why, I couldn’t tell you. If I recall my pre-Sentience War history correctly, weren’t some companies experimenting with this back in Sol, around the time the first SAIs were created?” She shot Tobias a questioning glance.
The AI nodded. “Heartbridge, Psion, a few others.” He shot a glance over toward where Terrance was filling his plate with a pile of fluffy, golden, scrambled eggs and a generous side of bacon. “Including Enfield Scientific.”
Jason winced. “Yeah, that was Terrance’s great-great-someone, wasn’t it, Tobe?”
“Aye, it was at that.” The Weapon Born turned back to the AI from Godel. “The owners were left out of some critical decisions by management, I’m afraid. As a result, the family bought out the shareholders and took the company private. It’s also when they pulled up roots and moved to Alpha Centauri.”
Simone spared a sympathetic glance toward the approaching Enfield. “So I recall from my history lessons. But ever since, the company has had an upstanding reputation.” She smiled as Terrance rejoined them.
“But back to uplifted animals,” she continued. “All of the initial experimentation happened centuries after our colony ships left for Little River. But the ones back in Sol, weren’t they an avian species? Parrots, if I recall.”
Tobias laughed, the sound a rueful one. “Ah, yes,” the AI recalled. “O
ne of the very few pleasant memories I have of my time there. There was one bird in particular, Crash, his name was. Had quite a thing for numbers, he did.”
An unreadable look crossed his face, and then he stirred, glanced at Jason, and redirected the topic.
“As far as uplifted felines go, Tobi here is one of the first. Jason’s mum back in Proxima did the work. You may have heard of her,” he turned to Simone. “Cara Sykes’s daughter, Jane. A neuroscientist, quite skilled.”
Simone’s expression lightened, and she favored Jason with an approving look. “I must admit, I’ve only met Tobi and Beck so far since I’ve been aboard. How many are on the Avon Vale?”
“Ahhh. I take it there’s no love lost between you two, Tobi?” Simone directed to the cat, twisting her head to peer under the table.
Jason smirked at Kodi’s dry riposte as the AI joined their conversation.
“As riveting as it is to discuss uplifted cats,” Jason tilted his head to peer down at Tobi with a wink, “I’d rather talk about the plan once we arrive.”
Kodi chuckled.
Terrance merely rolled his eyes, stabbing a forkful of egg and chasing it around the plate to sop up some of the bacon grease as Simone nodded her understanding.
“Good,” Jason said, eyes narrowing in thought. “How soon before the container ship’s ready to transfer us over?”
“We’ll have a tug waiting to push a container up to your starboard bay as soon as you’re docked,” Simone assured them. “We can transfer you over immediately after our meeting on Godel.”
“Excellent,” he smiled, tipping his mug back to down the last of his coffee. “We’ll be ready.”
“Don’t get cocky, Tobi, understand?” Terrance set his fork down and craned his neck to peer under the table at the big cat. “You come back to us in one piece, you hear me?” he added as he slipped Tobi a piece of sausage.
She took the offered piece from him and swallowed it with a gulp, then licked his hand in thanks. Terrance grimaced and wiped his hand before pushing his plate aside.
Jason smirked, then grabbed a half-eaten slice of bacon off his plate and handed it to her.
He shot Simone a look. “In the meantime, if you have any specs for the container ship, that’d be helpful.” His gaze grew concerned. “The lunch isn’t going to be one of those several-hours-long state dinners, is it?”
A brief smile lit the AI’s face. “I promise it won’t. Although, it wasn’t easy to arrange. We don’t have much opportunity to entertain foreign nations outside Barat on our little planet, so representatives from Alpha Centauri—”
“And Tau Ceti,” Khela interjected with a smile as she approached.
“And Tau Ceti,” Simone agreed, nodding, “are a real treat for us.”
Jason grabbed his empty plate and rose, offering the chair to the Marine. She nodded her thanks as she sat.
“Sorry to eat and run, folks,” he said, as Tobias and Tobi rose to follow him. “But we have a mission to prep. You know, for when we’re in the wilds of New Pejeta, sweating our asses off.”
“You do through your paws,” Jason countered.
“Good hunting,” Simone said to Tobi, her tone solemn, then turned to Jason and Tobias. “I promise you, we’ll keep the rest of your crew very busy while you’re away.”
Something about the way she said it had Jason peering at her sharply and wondering just exactly what the AI meant by that.
A SOLEMN CHARGE
STELLAR DATE: 03.13.3272 (Adjusted Gregorian)
LOCATION: ESS Avon Vale
REGION: Godel nearspace, Little River
“Welcome to Godel,” Simone said quietly from where she stood on the bridge of the Avon Vale. The main holoscreen revealed the frenetic chaos of Godel’s main spaceport as they came in on final approach.
Landon shot a quick glance over at the AI as she dropped a file to him on the ship’s net.
“Thought your team might like a quick refresher before we land,” she explained with a smile.
At Jason’s nod, Landon tossed it up onto the bridge’s main holo.
The image shifted from the bustling activity of nearspace to a more sedate view of the planet, slowly turning against the black backdrop of space. Dressed in cool blues and whites, with a belt of lush green spanning its equator, Godel looked like an oasis.
“The FGT had to wrap it in stasis, you know,” Simone confided conversationally to the bridge crew. “That’s how they kept it from being pulled apart as they wrestled it into place.”
From his position at scan, Landon saw Hailey’s head turn and shoot Simone a curious look.
“Oh, not Enfield-grade stasis, mind you,” the AI’s eyes crinkled in a smile as she returned the comm officer’s look, eliciting a few chuckles from the rest on the bridge. “But they had to do something to protect it as they nudged it into the habitable zone from its original orbit farther out.”
As the image zoomed into the planetary terrain, it morphed into majestic, snow-covered peaks that thrust their jagged way into the air, far above the tree line. The mountain range was met on both sides by tundra that seemed to go on forever.
The image shifted and the frozen climes slowly gave way to green, moss-covered fells that rimmed chilled, glassy seas. Rivers traced their way through the terrain, drifts of fog hanging low and heavy in their folds.
“Eire,” Tobias uttered in a quiet voice from where he stood next to the captain’s chair, and Landon saw Jason shoot the Weapon Born a sharp look.
“Very similar, yes,” Simone agreed.
Curious, Landon ran a query and discovered a reference to lands back on High Terra, a region where those of Irish descent had settled. His gaze rested thoughtfully on Tobias, the Weapon Born with the Irish accent, but the AI offered up nothing more.
On the holo, the verdant land mass gave way to chains of islands, a delicate archipelago of brilliant greens. Oceans clung to their shores, plunging steeply into the deepest marine blue as the holo shifted closer to the slight bulge at Godel’s equator. Here the blueness of the water turned a deep green as it ran ashore against the lavish greenery of an equatorial landmass.
“If you’d like to compare Godel with Barat,” Simone added to Landon quietly, “there’s a file that does that, too.”
Landon backed out of the first file and accessed the second. An image coalesced of the star’s inner system, showing two planets in the habitable zone. Barat was barely over an AU from the star, whereas Godel, the larger of the two, was located a little under two AUs away.
Data floating under the image indicated Godel had a mass that gave the planet a gravity of 1.2 gs, while Barat’s was the standard 1 g. Godel had a moon, Escher, and orbiting Escher was a single moon-moon, Bach. Landon found it curious that the moniker moon-moon—something that dated back to Earth’s twentieth century, if he recalled correctly—was still in use.
“Barat is closest to our star,” Simone explained, “and it’s slightly warmer. It was the first to be terraformed by the FGT. They completed it fifty years before Godel was ready for habitation.”
The system map dissolved, replaced by satellite imagery showing a planet painted in browns and golds. Splashes of blue indicated oceans and, at its poles, the orb was accented by areas of green w
ith just the barest hint of white.
The holoimages progressed, and Landon felt as though he were aloft, skimming past the tops of trees. Trees gave way to the rolling hills of the planet’s northlands, covered in a riot of gloriously colored vegetation. These in turn morphed into vast swaths of savannah. Its equatorial region consisted of a single, planet encircling veldt, the open, grassy range broken by occasional clumps of trees and low scrub.
Simone continued the narrative as the images continued to resolve themselves on the bridge’s holo.
“For the most part, the population prefers the more moderate climates found nearer the poles, although the Humans’ Republic has a few urban areas that have been built up around the two elevators, placed at equidistance at the equator.”
The file ended, and Landon returned the view to the image of the planet they were approaching.
“Godel, as you can see,” Simone added quietly, “is a bit cooler in its climate, with its most populated areas encircling its equatorial region. Of the two, Godel should actually be marginally less agriculturally productive, but historically, the opposite has proven to be true.”
Interesting comparisons. How much of Godel’s success, he wondered, has to do with its mindset, as opposed to its circumstances?
Just then, Hailey straightened, flipping her long braid over her shoulder. “We’re being hailed by the New Kells Spaceport, sir,” she informed Jason with a glance back at the captain’s chair. “They have our transponder ident and are sending us routing instructions.”
The XO straightened, nodding to the comm officer. “Thanks, Hailey.” He then nodded to the AI running the nav boards. “Handshake with them, will you, Flo, and set up our approach. Give me an ETA when you have it.”
* * * * *
Simone was as good as her word. The moment the Avon Vale’s amidships port dock connected with its umbilical at Godel’s New Kells Spaceport, the AI forwarded the token of a tug operator to Hailey. A container was scheduled for delivery to the Vale’s starboard dock in two hours. At that point, they’d load the Eidolon into the container, with Jason and Tobias onboard, Tobi tucked securely into the stasis pod.