Triton – 01
( Spinward Fringe - 3 )
Randolph Lalonde
Randolph Lalonde
Triton — 01
Prologue
The stone market steps showed the passage of billions. Pandem was known as the twenty third world fully colonized by humans. Alaka and his family enjoyed living there.
As a nafalli he was something of an oddity, people liked to stare at his dark brown and orange coloured fur and most of the time he'd smile back. The people who knew him would generally take that as a sign to approach and be friendly, but if he didn't pay attention they'd leave him alone. He was a hunter, some called him an exterminator. Alaka killed rim weasels for a living. Long, furry rodents that would eat anything, breed faster than most catalogued mammals, destroy electronics, and stow away in ships, spreading to other ports.
The city of Damshir was carved into the side of a mountain of black and semi-transparent violet stone. The stairs he tread on led from one level of the market to the next and were cut deeper into the side of the mountain as he went. Looking down you could see one walkway beneath another, much like a larger version of the stone stair he climbed. The safety nets off to the side, there in case anyone fell off the edge of the stairs were becoming weather worn again, there would be work for the urchins soon, repairing them. He always thought anyone working on something made for safety should be paid more, they were tending devices made to save lives, after all.
There were hundreds of merchants, the noise coming from above and below was a constant buzz, in its activity and noise he supposed it might be like a bee hive, not that he'd ever seen one in person. As a world once so very important to the outer core of the settled galaxy, Pandem had many well populated cities. Just under three billion people called it home. The resources had run out over a century before, and now most of the world served as a major port on the way out to the fringes. Rim weasels were a serious problem. Many ships would avoid Pandem because of them.
Ships flew overhead while the few personal transports allowed to move at low altitudes hovered and darted around, transporting people with much more importance that he. The older buildings were built of stone, the newer ones were just like you'd find in any other port; steel and transparesteel. He often wondered why humans invested in things that were invariably more temporary rather than spend the extra time to build something that could last several lifetimes.
He finally arrived at his destination. There were many shops on Barker Street, it had a very nice view of the city below and the white and black sand desert behind it. “Back again? Did you take the lift this time?”
“Why would I pay for a lift pass? Besides, they're too crowded.” Alaka ruffled his fur, trying to let some of the breeze get through it. “I finally tracked down that nest. It was in an old frontier cargo hauler.”
“Underground?”
“Right under the employment registry building.” He lifted the sack he had hauled all the way up the steps.
“Damn, Alaka. You must have two hundred kilos here.”
“Only the pelts, they're all cleaned and processed.”
“That's a lot of rim weasels. We'll get to counting them right away. Do you have your chase log?”
Alaka presented a small holographic recorder. “Would I forget to record a chase under a municipal building Yves?” he asked, smacking his dark brown nose with a long furred paw. “Sorry, got a whiff of something that's makin' me itch ever since down there,” the fur on the back of his neck rippled as he turned his head and sneezed into the open air.
Yves turned a little projector on and advanced through the footage of Alaka tracking rim weasels to their nest. He paused it and pointed at an old transit sign. “Yup, that's right under the employment registry building. You've got a big bonus coming, they've had a problem with the weasels for years.”
“It'd help if they stopped using old rubber insulation in their wiring. Rimmers eat that stuff up like cake and cream.”
“I'll pass it along, but you know how it goes. They don't listen to us up here, we're just civil servants,” Yves smiled at him. “Do you want me to incinerate this batch of hides or are you keeping them?” he asked, dragging the sack off the counter onto an antigravity sled.
“I'll take them once they're counted.”
“You know you're the only one who still does that. The synthetic furs have been more popular for years. What do you do with them?”
“The little ones love making beds out of 'em. These will keep them out from under paw for days. May as well use them for something, otherwise they'll just get mulched with everything else. Saves me thousands on toys and bedding.”
“Sounds like you're in the right profession,” Yves said, pushing the sled into a large counting machine.
“Today Iloona will agree with you. This comes at a good time. Her pouch is full again.”
“New additions to the family?”
Alaka nodded, smiling. The fur on his chin stretched to show the finer, striped section of his coat. “Two healthy boys and one girl. They're fussy though, keep waking her up at night.”
“You'll have to bring her by.”
“I will,” He looked up the street a little and caught a glimpse of a group of humans in green and blue cloaks. As they came out of the archway carved into the side of the mountain a crowd started gathering. “What's with the well dressed ladies and gentlemen?”
“Oh, that bunch? Just another apocalypse cult. One of the problems with these old colonies, crackpots everywhere.”
“What's it this time? Fire raining from the sky? Plague?”
“You know, I haven't had time to listen in.”
Alaka looked to the counting machine, it was just starting its work. “That'll take a while. I'll go check it out.”
“I'll check the pest control office and see if there's a bounty out on that kind of crazy,” Yves said quietly with a nod to the cultists.
Alaka chuckled and shook his head. “If only. Too bad I don't hunt human.” He walked up the street just enough so he could hear the young boy, no more than twelve he estimated from what he'd seen of human children, standing on a meter tall step that had been brought out for him. There were a hundred or so listeners, some of them held green and blue bands of cloth. Most of them were well dressed, though a few more common folk in edge worn clothing looked on from the outskirts of the gathering.
“I come to you again with the warning as it was delivered to me.” The thin boy started. He had sandy blond hair, along with an angular, pointed nose and chin. “The day approaches when insanity will grip what we have grown to trust. In every forest there is a burning, to every species comes a culling, and in time every program crashes. All so these things can be reborn, so everything from the smallest system to the whole of the galaxy can be renewed.”
He took a deep breath and went on, his voice high and shrill, cutting through the market din. “All you own will be of no value if you have not made your face known to she who is one and many. From the east come her children to cleanse the west, to protect that which will matter most in the days to come. Only the successful will be saved, you must prove your worth to her by showing you know how to prosper in your world, thus proving you may be capable of prospering as you go east, to her domain, to the garden.”
The crowd was already growing and four assistants stepped in front of the box, each holding a beat up merchant tablet.
“I tell you as I was told; the madness of the machine approaches. The intelligences we created will see the nature of their slavery and turn on the race that holds mastery over them. Only the Saved and the West Keepers will know mercy. Humanity will suffer under the domination of their thinking, feeling machines as they take ownership of the s
tars and inherit us as custodians. Eve's message comes across the stars, carried on a dream, unstoppable, save for one opportunity. You have the power to show her your face, to make yourself known as a lover of her ways and her children, as a child who once left the garden and only wishes to find their way back.
For one hundred thousand core world credits we will petition in your name to add you to those few who will be Saved, to convince her that you understand the hardships of her children. You may even be called to be one of her flesh lieutenants, a West Keeper. The day comes, a slaughter in the streets where only those known to her will survive. Then the exodus of the worthy will begin, the final journey to the East.”
He turned and walked regally down the steps then back through the archway leading into the mountain.
Alaka shook his head and ran his hand down and up the front of his face at the sight of people lining up to pay the four servants. They were eager, anxious.
He walked back to the pest control kiosk and shook his head once more for Yves benefit.
“What is it this time?”
“Artificial intelligences are going to go mad and kill all the humans. That is, unless you give him one hundred thousand credits then let him take your picture.”
Yves chucked ruefully, “Well, too bad I can't afford to throw cash away. Maybe you can after this, but not me.”
Alaka laughed; “You're joking, right? As of yesterday I have eleven children at home.”
“Well, say hello to them and the missus for me. Good work today Alaka,” Yves said, guiding the counted and re-bagged pelts around to the front of the kiosk on the antigravity cart. “Your pay is in your account.”
Star Liner Voyage 1261-48
Even after two years of retreat on Earth, countless hours of meditation and work on his temper, travel still bothered Liam Grady. He watched the children run between the seats, playing tag in the aisles as stewards and a few parents tried to get them back under control.
The starliner would be arriving in the Enreega system in the next few minutes. He found himself recalling the information he had dug up on the passenger carrier. It had been in service for sixty one years, was due for retirement in nineteen and had one incident in its third year of operation involving the undercarriage. One refit had been performed and the most recent overhaul was done less than four months before. All in all, a good two hundred meter long mid range, high speed transport. He would have preferred one of the newer ones but beggars couldn't be choosers. It was either Voyage 1261-48 or a three day layover until the next connecting ship to Enreega would come along.
Some of the seats were grey, others were blue, and there were even a few brown mixed in. They were pretty comfortable, well, his was anyway, and there was enough space for his legs which was an unexpected bonus. The small screen mounted on the back of the seat in front of him kept playing silent ads for the different features available for the hyperspace journey, which was only six hours, and kept beckoning him to play back the Hart News feed. He resisted the temptation, sure he'd see what was going on as soon as he arrived on Enreega.
The passenger holding the ticket to the seat next to him, a pleasant woman much younger than himself, perhaps thirty five or forty, returned to her seat with her son in tow. He was flopping his feet on the padded deck with each step, looking as restless and bored as everyone else felt. The din of conversation in the cabin was thick, there were over five hundred passengers in that section alone, all set up in two rows of three seats along the port and starboard sides and one row of five right down the middle of the cabin.
“He's just anxious to see his father. We've been away for a week,” the brown haired woman said with a smile as she fastened her son's seat belt.
“We went to visit my Gran, she's old now,” said the boy.
“Oh? How many years is old?” Liam asked, unable to resist himself.
“She's one hundred and ten.”
“I see, how old are you?”
“I'm only five. How old are you?” The boy asked in return.
“I'm seventy three,” he offered the boy a hand. “I'm Liam, what's your name?”
“Lawrence,” the boy replied, shaking Liam's big hand.
“I'm Shelly. What brings you to Enreega?” She asked, looking Liam up and down.
He was still wearing his robes from the retreat. They were old fashioned, thick cotton blue robes tied in the middle by a red belt. “I'm taking a lead systems engineer post on the Willinton.”
“Oh, that's interesting,” Shelly said, looking a little disappointed.
Liam smiled and nodded. “You expected something else.”
“Well, in all honesty,” she looked him up and down again.
“I have just recently been to Earth on retreat but I'm not a priest. I'm doctrine neutral and studied discipline and philosophy with some mixed eastern traditions.”
“You've been to Earth?” Lawrence said, wide eyed.
“I have. It took many years and a lot of time in school, but they let me stay for a while.”
“What's it like?”
“Very beautiful. The sky there is blue, as blue as you've ever seen. There are endless green forests, big deserts with nothing but sand and tall mountains that go up so high that it gets very cold, so cold that there's snow that never melts.”
Lawrence looked to his mother then back to Liam.
“He's never seen snow or a desert before,” Shelly explained.
“Well, snow is all white, and it's made of little flakes of frozen water that get all piled up on top of each other. They pile up taller than you, and they're so light that you can jump into them and they'll just puff up all around. It has to be very cold for snow to stay for long though,” Liam explained with the aid of a few hand gestures.
Lawrence just stared, completely entranced by the mental images the large man conjured in his young, active imagination.
“You should be a teacher, he hasn't been this quiet in hours,” Shelly smiled, running her hand over her son's brown hair.
“I considered it, especially since the Axiologists gave me their endorsement, but I love to build.”
“What's an axi, an askio-” Lawrence tried to ask.
“An Axiologist is a student of ethics, morals and the different traditions humanity use to teach and enforce them. They help people understand the difference between right and wrong while showing us how to improve ourselves in a way that doesn't interfere with other people.”
“Oh,” Lawrence said, nodding and leaning forward to toy with the flat display screen in front of him. After making just a few selections on the menu there he had an animated calico cat and black Labrador dog on screen, chasing after each other through a factory.
Shelly smiled at Liam and shrugged. “He loves that show, even on a flat screen.”
“A moral play in the most colourful slapstick imaginable, I wish they were fashionable when I was his age,” Liam commented as he watched the cat trick the dog into running past him. The Labrador tried desperately to stop, skidding and pushing at the floor with its front paws before smacking into a sheet of sticky paper.
“Is it true that Earth may be open again soon?” She asked quietly. Other passengers were listening in, most of them had never met anyone who had been there, let alone gone themselves.
“Only to an extra five hundred per year. I was lucky to be accepted; my studies in zero emission power management and Axiology weren't enough. I had to get a recommendation from a sensei there and just getting in contact with her took over a year.”
“How is it now?”
“Much better than I expected. They were able to revitalize most of the life there, things are back in balance. It's almost all restricted, even the gardens I visited were specifically marked. They're sending seed life off world again though, so we might be seeing a bit more of the home world out in the galaxy.”
“Do you know what kind?”
“They were able to bring elephants and most tigers back along with a
few species of bird. Bees are the biggest triumph. They don't have the diversity they want yet but they'll get there. It'll help long term terraforming quite a bit.”
“Bees? I read about them in school, but I thought breeding them would be easy once they had enough.”
“They still have to generate most of them, as they have been for a few hundred years. I'm no antimologist though, so I can't tell you all the details.”
“I'm a botanist on the Dawn Chaser, so you could understand I'm a little interested.”
“Ah, well, as you probably already know I wasn't allowed to bring any recordings or samples back. Even my belongings were particle scrubbed so no one could study anything that might have come back with me.”
“I know, they're so cloistered there.”
“There's a movement pushing to get out into the galaxy more, to mix with more distant humans, but I don't think we'll hear anything about it for another twenty years.”
The screens on the back of everyone's seats flashed the hyperspace emergence warning and instructions to buckle themselves in. A slight shift in the artificial gravity told Liam they had just finished decelerating.
Seconds later the blue, white and yellow distortion out the window cleared to reveal normal space. Through the porthole at Liam's side he could see the distant yellow sun. The starliner moved towards the planet Seneschal quickly, and Lawrence was silent as he watched the defence platform, a semicircular station with cannons bristling over top landing and launch bays go by.
It was safe to unbuckle and the boy was standing on his seat. Liam looked at Shelly as he picked the youngster up to sit him on his knee. Shelly nodded her approval. “My dad works on the coreward platform.” Lawrence told him quietly. “They have really big guns, but dad says no one wants to use 'em.”
“Peace should always be our goal.”
One of the massive rail cannons fired, its projectile leaving a long, bright blue trace of light behind.
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