Borisova looked at me intently. “Your patronymic middle and last names suggest you are Greek. Are you?”
I nodded. “Yes, I am. I grew up in the city of Edessa, province of Edessa. My father was an assistant librarian in the city library. I have no brothers or sisters. You?”
She frowned. “Greeks hate Bulgars. Don’t you?”
“I do not.” I sat back in my seat, realizing I had to convince this woman to join my crew as a valued crew person, not as a sex object. “Greece does have a history of expelling some Bulgars. Others moved to Bulgaria of their own accord. In my trips to ancient Classical Greek ruins I met Bulgars. Most I liked. What is your background? And why did you end up in indentureship?”
She grimaced, then sighed. “My father and mother are the bakers in the small town of Herakovo, to the northwest of Sofia. I am their only child. I graduated from secondary school with a specialty in literature.” Her expression turned neutral. “As to how I ended up in indentureship, what other kind of job gives Earth people any kind of career? Alien trade corporations dominate Earth’s economy. You know this. My parents needed funds to pay for my mother’s cancer treatment. I accepted their decision to indenture me right after I turned 17. I have been on the Instruction since then. Guidance Primary Weeltoe has been kind to me.”
I well understood her points. If my parents had not indentured me at 17, I would have been lucky to obtain a job doing sanitation work in the sewers of Thessaloniki. Most Earth youth eagerly sought off-planet jobs. I knew too many fellow Edessa graduates who had no jobs even with university degrees. “Thank you, Kalina Borisova Stoyanova.” I looked to Weeltoe. “Guidance Primary Weeltoe, I offer to purchase the indentureship of trainee consultant Borisova by trade of the gravity projector device I have just demonstrated. If you dedicate three or more fusion reactors to power it, you might achieve the 20,000 kilometer range I have just demonstrated.” I looked ahead. “Sharp Claw, deactivate our gravity projector.”
Weeltoe looked to the avian pilot. The avian gave a wing gesture he understood. He looked to his side. “Borisova, what is your wish?”
“I will serve on the Akantha as cultural analysis consultant to Captain Jake Demetrius Vitades. No other duties are required?”
Just the presence of an attractive woman who shared our common Balkan history. I nodded. “No other duties are required.”
She looked to Weeltoe. “I accept being traded to service on the Akantha.”
Lotan now looked my way. His dance moved to Friendship Established as he faced the vidscreen. Weeltoe nodded slowly.
“How will you convey the gravity projector to me?”
“By transport on my shuttle. She can return on the Icarus.”
Weeltoe reached out his long-furred right hand. He touched the left arm of Borisova. “Go with my blessing. And send me a neutrino note now and then as to your adventures. While the reputation of this Vitades is mixed, the Dark Services Listing reviews say he always provides employers with an adventure. And danger. Be alert while serving his craft.”
“I will, dear Guidance Primary.” She bent over and kissed the top of his red-furred head. “I depart for my cabin to gather my things. Then I will go to the hangar. Safe journeys to you.”
And that was that. I would now have a sixth crew member who could supplement the work of Lotan the Influencer. Who did not seem to have had a great impact on Weeltoe. Why not? It was one of many questions I would ask young Borisova. We had two more Guidance Gates to pass through before we entered Gates lying in unknown regions of the Scutum Arm. There would be time for all of us to adjust to the new crew member. It was a task I looked forward to.
Kalina looked at the cabin assigned to her. It was smaller than the space she had on the Instruction. Then again, the Guidance trade vessel had been twice the size of this Akantha vessel. And its entry doors operated as spirals, like the shutters in old antique film cameras, long before digital imagers showed up. She had been met by the Influencer being Lotan and conveyed from the hangar up the central hallway to the entry door to her cabin. He alerted her to the fact she could call aloud to the vessel AI Akantha anywhere in the vessel and she would respond. No surprise there. She had done the same on the Instruction with its smart and engaging AI. She scanned the space.
The living room space was first after entry. It contained a soft-cushioned couch, a recliner seat and a glass table for drinks or reading tablets. She had laid her own vidtablet on it moments ago. Ahead, at the end of the room, was a Food Alcove that synthesized all kinds of food based on software programs and analysis of samples. Again similar to the Instruction. She walked forward and looked left through the open archway. A large bed platform occupied half the rest area’s space. The gray metal walls were empty. But surely the vessel’s AI could take imagery from her vidtablet and project picture holograms on any wall she wished. Moving inside the rest area she saw an entry circle on the left. It was closed. A touch to the center of the circle and it spiraled open. Inside were a vacuum shower, a refuse basin that required squatting and a water sink with mirrored wall. Again standard for most bipedal oxy-nitro breathers. She turned and entered the rest area. The shower room entry closed with a hiss. She noticed the opposite wall had rectangular outlines that suggested mobile storage drawers for clothing and whatever. Back in the living room she noticed the opposite wall held shelf-like indentations. One could place music and reading disks there, art sculptures or anything else one possessed that was smaller than her head. She dropped the carrybag she had been holding on entry.
“AI Akantha, where is a bulk storage space? I will need to store my carrybag someplace after I empty it.”
“Crew being Kalina, behind the couch there is a square outline on the wall,” she sang in a soft soprano. “Touch it and you will locate a space large enough to store a person. Or four carrybags.”
She looked up. The ceiling had four glow spots that shown white-yellow light onto the living room. Similar glow spots illuminated the other cabin spaces. Kalina noticed the wall that faced the central hallway had no outlines on it or indentations. “Thank you. Where is the cabin’s vidscreen?”
“Within the wall you are looking at. Simply say ‘vidscreen on’ and it will illuminate. Speak the topic you want and my library archive will provide it,” she sang softly. “Views of the Balkan region of Earth are available.”
Bringing forth homesickness was not something she wished to feel. But this AI intrigued her. “Akantha, why do you sing your responses?”
A chuckle sounded from overhead. “Captain Jake still misses his lyceum girlfriend Akantha. So I named myself and my vessel after her. She was a talented singer in the choir of a Greek Orthodox church in Edessa. So I sing when I speak.”
Well, that was interesting. “Show me a picture of this Akantha.”
“She will appear on the vidscreen,” the AI sang. “The image is from the captain’s personal vidtablet that he carried when he left Edessa for indentureship with Academician Lik Sotomor of Century Prime University on the world of Primus 3 in the Noble system, Sagittarius Arm.”
Kalina had heard of the university. It was known galaxy wide as an explorer of Harl ruins. Which kind of fit with Vitades and his possession of Harl devices. She looked at the vidscreen. A young woman of late teens age appeared, wearing a soccer uniform and waiting on the edge of a green field to enter play. This Akantha was similar to herself in hair, build and litheness. But her face was more Greek than hers. More rounded. However she had blue eyes, like Kalina’s. “Thank you. Return the image to storage, please.”
The image vanished. The vidscreen became a gray wall surface. “The captain has asked that you join him in the Control Chamber once you are refreshed and wearing whatever clothes you choose. I have installed a function seat close to his.”
Duty called. She had cost this Vitades a unique device. Now she had to pay him back with her time and knowledge. She grabbed her vidtablet and held it up. “I will report shortly. Will you transfer images a
nd biographies for all crew beings on this vessel to my tablet? Including data on the employer Laserta?”
“I will. It is done. I hope you enjoy your work within my home.”
Kalina smiled to herself as she grabbed her carrybag and headed for the rest space. This AI was created by the ancient Tessene people, who were a servant species of the Harl. But clearly the AI did not know what had happened 400,000 years ago. Otherwise this vessel would not be in Scutum Arm. It was going to be interesting to learn why the vessel was heading to a Harl world uparm. Were there other Harl devices within this vessel? And what was it with an AI called Stars crystal? Lotan had briefly mentioned it was a Harl AI that co-directed the Akantha, in cooperation with Akantha the AI. That must make for interesting algorithms! She looked to the bathroom and felt in need of a hot shower. Yes! It was one of the few luxuries available on a long-haul star vessel. She was going to indulge her passion for hot soaking!
CHAPTER TWENTY
Laserta sat in her Control Chamber seat, accel straps across her chest, and fumed. The last three weeks had been full of frustration. To her surprise the Vitades Human had managed a fee payment to an alien star vessel of an Empire that controlled nine Gates. The captain called the alien a ‘ground-hugging starfish’, which required her to look up the term on her tablet. While the alien did indeed possess eight fleshy arms, a central mound with primary brain and single eye, and was orange in color, there the similarity to the coastal ocean creature of Earth ended. With the help of the Influencer crew being Lotan and the human female Kalina, Vitades had bought safe passage across the 9,000 light year expanse of the Eloteen Empire by paying a fee of gold bars, iridium bars, a single gravband and holo imagery of the Harl statue on Boundary. It appeared the Eloteen aliens worshiped the memory of the Harl, whom they treated as gods. At least he had not given away any of the eight zero-point power blocks! Those she wanted to possess. And intended to possess them once their arrival at the Harl home world system was done. That would happen in short moments when they exited transit and emerged from the Gate that lay at the end of the jinking red line she had first seen above Boundary.
“Captain, emergence will occur in 33 seconds,” chittered the Astrogator being Meander. The four-legged, hard-skinned being stood before her control pedestal, two griparms outstretched, manipulator spines hovering above the dots on her panel.
Laserta did not like an being who was not a furry. But she had to admit this Astrogator insect was efficient in plotting their transit through multiple Gate wormholes.
“Pilot, take vessel control up emergence,” said Vitades in his smooth-flowing mammal voice. “Keep us at one psol emergence speed. Let us see what this system is like before we move faster.”
“Ready to assume normal space piloting,” chirped the avian with purple feathers and a red beak.
If there were aliens she disliked more than insects it was avians. The few avian species on her side of the galaxy were known to be arrogant and dismissive toward ground-bound species like her own Mogelians. Well, she could handle the light gravity normal to avian worlds. They could not stand a gravity higher than seven-tenths gee. To her that meant all ground-bound species were superior to any avian species.
“Influencer, Consultant, be prepared to assist if we encounter other star vessels,” the captain said firmly.
The Lotan being clicked “Ready to assist” while the Human female Kalina said “A new culture will be interesting to encounter.”
Laserta felt distaste at her failure to bring the human female into her scheme to take over the Akantha. The Kalina being had made clear her loyalty was to Vitades. What made it strange was the captain had not sought sexual congress with the new female, even as he continued to decline her Employer right to sex with any employee. He had also resisted the increasing efforts of the reptile female to join with her. Perhaps he was aware such joining always brought forth Mating Fangs in Notem females. Whatever the reason, the human male resisted the opportunities presented by three humanoid females. On her world such a male would have been terminated upon the first refusal to join with a female dominant.
“Exiting,” chittered the Astrogator.
Black space filled the vidscreen. A white-yellow star occupied the center. A system graphic appeared. It showed nine planets in orbit about the star, but the usual cometary and ice world belt beyond the ninth world did not exist. There were some comets showing here and there, and a few ice worlds. But nothing like the thousands which circled her home system. Laserta saw no moving neutrino sources anywhere within the system. But large numbers of orange dots were scattered in all parts of the system. Some lay close to the fourth world, others lay outside the ninth world and many occupied spots in between. She felt astonishment.
“Captain!” clicked Lotan. “The system is filled with Gates! I see, I see—”
“One hundred twenty-nine Gate symbols,” said the Kalina female, her tone surprised.
The Lotan furry showed surprise at the Human counting visually faster than he could. The female looked to Vitades. “Sir, captain, it appears the fourth world is the home world, judging by the number of Gates close to it.”
“You are correct,” boomed the voice of Stars crystal. “While I and my fellow Primaries knew the planet location of the Harl home world, none of us knew it hosted so many Gates. This bears consideration.”
Vitades sucked in his breath. Then he looked over at the ground-hugging six-legged crew being. “Engineer, are these Gates real?”
The being’s two red eyes shone bright. “They are real,” he honked. “I am receiving graviton emissions from each location shown on the graphic. Since Gates distort space-time with controlled gravitons, those are indeed real Gates.”
“I could have told you that,” spoke the AI Akantha. “My sensors show the same.”
“As do my sensors,” chittered the Astrogator.
Laserta slapped her armrest. “Fine. The Gates are real. Can we transit to one close to the fourth world? Or must we go there the slow way by thruster?”
“I do not know,” Akantha sang sharply.
“Nor do I,” boomed Stars. “However, if your Astrogator determines the stellar coordinates of a Gate close to the world, and includes that data in a repeat of this star’s light curve, you might be able to enter the Gate we just exited, and emerge above the fourth world.”
“What could we lose, Akantha?”
“Nothing. Either the Gate will return us to this spot or it will transit us to the fourth world,” she sang firmly. “I compute no other option for Gate function.”
“Astrogator, do as Akantha suggested. Pilot, reverse our course and head us back to the Gate we just exited.”
“Captain, sending out star light curve.” The insect touched her panel with a griparm spine.
“Reversing our vector track,” chirped the avian, one wing-hand touching her panel.
Vitades looked at her. “Employer Laserta, once we confirm there are no living Harl on this world, I will grant you your Employer’s Claim choice. Of one item. No more. And I will ask Stars crystal to let me drop you off at your home world on our way back to Boundary.”
Anger filled her. Deadly anger. Then cool awareness washed over her. The voyage home from this system would take them through empires and domains that she could influence. The crew of this vessel had their own needs and hopes beyond being paid. She had been known as the prime negotiator in her dominant group. This time she would not fail. She would take over this vessel, control all Harl devices on it and become the ruler of any empire she chose. The Stars crystal had said no known combat vessel could defeat the Akantha. She suspected that was true. So, she would continue to pretend as a loyal crew being.
“Thank you, Captain Vitades,” she barked slowly. “I look forward to returning home with a single item.”
The Human male frowned. His expression denoted suspicion at her compliance. Well, she was used to dominating males who were suspicious of dominant females. They always lost. Femal
es always won. At least on her world of Nastura. Vitades looked away and forward.
“Sharp Claw, do you detect any neutrino emissions indicative of fusion power reactors? Anywhere in this system?”
The silvery reptile glanced at her panel, then up at the graphic image. “I do not. As you know neutrinos cannot be blocked by any rock or metal or star. If there was a fusion reactor somewhere, it would show on my instruments. And Engineer would feel it.”
The blue circle of the Gate loomed before her. Laserta braced herself for whatever she might see on the Harl home world. The system was empty of star vessels. And it seemed empty of Harl beings. A few more moments and they would know if all what appeared to be, was indeed real.
“Entering Gate,” chittered the four-legged insect.
Laserta licked her lips. And waited.
I blinked as we emerged on the daylight side of the fourth world. White clouds partly filled its sky. The blue of water covered every part of the world I could see.
“Stars crystal, your image of this world showed land continents. Where are they?”
“Covered in water,” the Harl AI boomed. “The image you viewed also showed large ice caps at the planet’s north and south poles. No ice caps appear now. Something melted all the ice on this world and the oceans inundated the land. Only the peaks and ridgelines of the tallest mountains show above the water surface.”
I squinted. Then watched as Claw made the Akantha’s scope zoom in on the equatorial region. The gray and purple of mountain peaks showed as a scattered line of land dots. They occupied the space where an equatorial continent had once existed.
Akantha, could melting both ice caps cover a world this deep in water?
No, it could not. If your Earth ice caps all melted, including your Greenland, it would flood every coastal area and kill billions of humans. But the oceans would rise by only a hundred to a hundred fifty feet. No more. Something else added water to this planet.
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