by Eric Flint
Howard greeted Kretz with a smile and a ready, roped-together group of space-suits in various sizes. "We must run," said Kretz. "Abret is ready for a hot lift."
Abret had managed to set down right next to the airlock, tricky though that must have been.
Dandani was still aboard. "Why?" asked Howard.
"He could not do the space-walk alone. And we did not have time."
Abret was already lifting, not even waiting for them to find seats.
Howard had spent too much time with Kretz not to read his expressions. "What's wrong," he asked calmly.
The tone seemed to help Kretz.
"Selna. The other Miran survivor. She is back on the spacecraft threatening to launch without us. We cannot get home if she does that. This craft is far too small and far too slow. It has no trance-equipment or drugs. And we have insufficient supplies."
"Surely she won't do that to you?"
"It… is possible, yes," said Kretz reluctantly. "She's changed sex. She needs her nesting territory. Miran always return to the area of their birth to breed, Howard. And, well, Amber was telling me you humans have something called PMS."
Howard had not the vaguest idea what Kretz was talking about. But Lani obviously did. She nodded. "Yeah. Um. You'll get used to it, Howard. Do you aliens have this problem?"
Kretz nodded. "Only at changeover. There are huge physiological and hormonal changes. On Miran… we stay a long way from someone during changeover. Once it is over-Miran females are territorial, never move out of their nesting territory again. But they are everything else we males are not. Sensible. Conservative. But Selna. .."
"Is having a whole life-time's PMS. Can't get to her nesting territory," said Lani, pulling a face.
Kretz nodded. "So we are going to the last habitat first. Abret will alight, try and calm her and stop the launch sequence. Then we, or rather I, will fly you back to your habitats."
"Kretz!" yelled Abret. The rest of what he said was a gabble of alien, but Kretz left at a run, shouting: "Get them into seats and strapped in."
Howard set about doing so with Lani.
Then they strapped in.
He was glad of it.
36
Without hope, without dreams, we have no future.
– Abraham Lee. Colonist.
"The side-boosters are flaring," said Abret, as Kretz dived into his seat. "Tell her we're nearly there! She's got to stop the sequence. Abort! Abort! ABORT!"
And then as Abret flung the ship into a skidding landing on the end surface of the last habitat…
It was too late.
Their hopes of ever returning home were a shrinking speck.
Howard was the first to get out of his seat. The two aliens were keening gently. He looked out of the forward windows. All he could see were some mounds of white stuff and a gaping opening where the airlock should be. Some of the metal walkways were also hanging-as if torn aside by some tremendous force. There was no sign of anything that could be an alien spaceship.
"What happened here?" said Lani coming up behind him.
"Their ship must have gone without them," he said quietly.
"And there?" Lani pointed at the ruined lock.
"It appears that the last habitat… is not a habitat any more."
"What do you think happened?" she asked.
"I don't know," Howard admitted. "Could anyone survive that?"
"I doubt it. They probably died fast, anyway. Well, Kretz doesn't need to worry about invasion any more."
Howard was silenced by it. How many humans, no matter how evil, had died there? "Do you think she did it on purpose?"
Lani shrugged. "I would have."
It was a horrific thought. Howard wondered what decision he would have made. His species against a single act of genocide?
Kretz stood up. "Go back to your seats, please," he said in a curiously flat voice. "We must take you back to your homes."
"But what are you going to do, Kretz?" asked Lani, taking his arm and ignoring the request to return to her seat.
Kretz shrugged. It was a very human gesture, and a very sad one.
"What can we do? Abret and I have not enough hormone supplements, food, or a ship that could reach our home. I suppose we will complete such research as we can and see if we can launch the lifecraft toward Miran." He pointed at the distant double star. "I think then we will choose a quick death," he said.
Howard had come to stand between the two aliens. He put an arm around Kretz's shoulders, and a hand onto Abret.
"You will always have a place with us," he said quietly.
"We'll even cope with super-PMS," said Lani. "And at least there are two of you."
Kretz shook his head. "Brother Howard. I did not know what brother meant, in the deeper sense of the word, when I was in your habitat. I know now. But it cannot work. Miran must go home to breed. It was that, rather than anything else that drove Selna to this desperate, doomed, illogical step. I thank you-because we are brothers across the species line, across space, across evolution. But it cannot be."
Howard squeezed his shoulder. "Then we'll have to send you home. We don't abandon our brothers either."
Kretz smiled. It was a slight, tragic smile, as Howard judged these things. "I do not believe that even the people of Icarus could build us another ship."
Howard grinned at him. "There is another answer. I believe, from what Amber was telling me-that we have five months until the final habitat is launched, to rehabilitate it. We'll send you and Abret home in it."
The two Miran looked at him, uncomprehending.
"This is a spacecraft too." Howard pointed to the bulk of the habitat below them. "It's programmed to reach your system. When one door closes another opens. Knock and it shall be opened unto you."
Kretz looked at Abret. Abret looked back at Kretz. "I think he means we have to repair the airlock," said Abret, slowly. "One door closes there before another opens. Humans have odd ways of saying things, but you get quite used to them."
Lani shook her head. "You and the uThani. Now, lets get this tub moving. To Icarus, I think. I thought it was all over but I think that now we need to consult Amber and her girlfriend and the clever box of tricks."
37
"Like it or not, a part of the payload of each habitat must be habitat building equipment. To some of you this is a dumping exercise. To others it is a research experiment in sociodynamics. But to the vast majority of the electorate it will become our outreach. Their dream-by-proxy. The feedback will stop it being forgotten. Sabotage it and history will not be forgiving."
–
Frank Darcy, Representative, Irish subregion, in the Slowtrain Funding Debate in the Lower House of SysGov.
"The first thing we need to establish is if we can synthesize enough male hormones to keep you guys from super-PMS," said Amber. "Holy Susan, that's a frightening thought. Food-well, at worst you can make do on the synthesized auto-cannibal's diet and some human sources of starches, fats and sugars. Although, I'd like to examine whatever rations there are in the lifecraft and see if we can manage synthesis."
Then she looked at the Icarus people. "Second, the question as to whether the final habitat can be made habitable, or not, needs to be investigated."
"It ought to be," said Zoe. "But whether we have the expendable resources or not is another question. Still, I can promise you that every flight cooperative will have engineers queuing to go and look. It's what we plan to be doing, when we get to Signy. This is a chance to practice. Might not do any harm to involve other habitats, if it is practical. Good training opportunity."
"We can take your engineers," said the bemused looking Abret.
"Do you have enough fuel for lots of these little hops?"
"Several thousand of them, I would estimate."
"Good," said Zoe. "Because I believe that we've got some protein-vat parts for Diana, that need delivering, as well as a blasted uThani with half our stock in spare iron, in the shape of arrow-
heads and machetes. We need to get him out of here before we go broke."
"And I need to go back to New Eden. There are some things that need to be corrected," said Howard. "It is time that they came to terms with the Universe outside of New Eden. I need to arrange for settling space for Ji and his family."
"Well, give me a few minutes to make some calls," said Zoe. "It's actually a good thing this. The fault lines between the flight cooperatives had become pretty sharp. Now, suddenly, they're pulling together, when faced with real problems and challenges."
A few minutes later she returned, smiling from ear-to-ear. "You have caused more fun than the annual flight-acrobatics competition. Can you transport five of the best in a few minutes? Ji and the uThani will just have to wait, apparently."
Amber sighed. "I'd better go too. If there is a computer net still working… If there is any air in there… well, the guys in that habitat sound like a bunch of murderers at best. It'd be wise to see if we can detect them rather than getting killed by them."
It was several hours before they returned. Beaming. Especially Amber.
"We can send them home. First…"
She looked at Howard. "I know you were upset about the idea that the Miran might have blown that airlock. It appears that the guilty party were the geniuses inside the habitat. I was able to hook up to the datanet and habitat brain and find out just what happened. They've apparently been making their own weaponry and ammunition and explosives for centuries. They packed the airlock-solid, just about-with high explosive. Set a timer and blew open what they thought was the route to the aliens. The habitat had explosive decompression of about sixty percent of the air pressure before an emergency shutter could be put in place by the surviving repair-'bots." She pulled a grim face. "There is pretty little left alive. No people at all. According to the habitat brain they were down to about a thousand anyway, and had long gone to cannibalism. Real cannibalism. The environment was poisoned, damaged and dying. The macro-'bots were mostly destroyed in the fighting, that's why the repairs took so long.
"Anyway… the other news is that the habitat brain has reordered from its allocation in the tender. Atmosphere is being replenished. The 'bots have an inner door to the airlock in place. We're hoping to place an outer one, fabricated from colonist stock in the last bead. With some work, Abret and Kretz will be going home."
Howard hugged her. That didn't seem very hard now.
The two aliens stood smiling, too.
"We have something to suggest," said Abret tentatively.
"It's a very large habitat," said Kretz.
"And very empty, for two of us," said Abret. "We wondered… Miran do not occupy space well. We have discovered humans-the right humans-are a species we wish to be friends with. Our world… is our world. We do not think humans would enjoy it much. Even the cooler regions are warmer than you would find comfortable. But we would welcome you in our space. Well. We would welcome some humans-such as our friends here. If you wished for a place of your own: There is Miran's sun's companion. It has a gaseous world you might be able to use as a fliers' haven. There are some rocky planetoids…"
He trailed off.
Kretz turned to Howard and Lani. "You once said you dreamed of a world of your own, you two. Would you come with us? We would leave you a world of your own?"
"The habitat belonged to your species. You have a claim to it," said Abret.
Howard looked at Lani. She looked back at him.
"It's not genetically practicable," said Amber. "Not two of you."
"Oh. I think we can recruit a few other sets of genes," said Lani cheerfully. "If that is okay with the Miran, that is. I quite fancy the companion star. We wouldn't be quite in each other's sandwiches. But we'd be close enough."
"What are sandwiches…?"
"Details. Along with the many other details, I will explain them to you. Howard will probably show you with pieces of dead parrot and bread."
Sister Thirsdaughter often found some reason to walk down to the airlock, through Howard Dansson's lands. In another month, the council might just accede to brother Galsson's pointed suggestions that the area be reallocated. It was a shame, really. Howard had been a nice boy, and a good husbandman. She was surprised at how many young men-and women-had troubled her for the story. They regarded the poor boy as something of a hero, it seemed.
She was too old for the shock of seeing him standing on the path looking at the wilderness that his tomatoes had become. He, and the young woman with him, had to catch her as she fell.
She sat there, looking at them holding hands. Howard certainly had found some courage out there, as well as a rather striking-looking girl. He, and she, shone with happiness and almost crackled with an energy of purpose. The Howard who had left here had not known what to do with his life. This Howard seemed to have found out.
"Well," she said. "Did you get Brother Kretz back to his people?"
"At least one of them," replied Howard. "I'm taking steps for him to go the rest of the way, soon."
"I'm glad to have you back, Howard," she said. "I always wondered if it was possible to go out into the outside world and return."
Howard smiled. "Yes. It is possible, and indeed, necessary. Every elder from New Eden must do it, and soon, if you are to survive. There is God's universe out there, and we're part of it. Now, I need to find as many of the local elders as I can. I've got a lot to do, and I need their help as much as they need mine. I've removed the bones from this airlock doorway, and it is ready for use. And I've found where the repair 'bots are in storage. This place needs some repair, before you get to the promised land."
"But…" said Sister Thirsdaughter, feeling like a leaf in the recirc of this new Howard's purpose. "This is the promised land, Howard."
He shook his head, and the girl at his side said, "No. There has been some confusion over the years. This is just the ship, getting us there. It's such a big ship that people forgot they were onboard."
"New Eden was just the Ark," said Howard. "Mount Ararat is ahead and you need to get ready or you'll capsize after four hundred and thirty years of safe journey."
He took Sister Thirsdaughter's arm, and the woman took her other one.
"I'm looking forward to taking Brother Galsson to look on the glory of the Almighty," he said cheerfully. "I don't think he's going to like discovering how great it is and how small he is."
"I hear that you were the midwife who delivered Howard," said the young woman with him, as if this were the sort of conversation women had in front of men. "I'm expecting his baby."
The screen showed a long procession of people. Respectful people, come to pay their respects to the ancestor, and perhaps hear his words of encouragement and advice. It was strange advice at times, but it had led to a remarkable disappearance of the men in brown uniforms with red braid and gold buttons.
"We have nearly eighty years to bring them up to speed," said the Osprey technician. "Then they've got thirty years on their own before they'll drop into orbit around a new sun. Mr. Ji will be able to help us. There has been a big call for Mr. Ji to stay here. We're transmitting and receiving from the head…"
That gentleman shook his head. "No," he said. "I go with Brother Howard. Is atheist place this." He smiled wryly. "I sinned much. Now have found God. Need to be close to God. And my wife say Howard he is the hand of the ancestor. She will not stay here. We recruit fifty people for the new farms." He scowled. "Need them to counter those uThani. And the women who do no work."
Unity-the habitat once called "Aryan Freedom"-went into the final and most dangerous phase of a Slowtrain habitat's existence: deceleration. Cameras from the surface of New Eden recorded it. Unity's own human and Miran cargo were in gel cases, deep in the safety of the water at the far pole, in the combination cosmic ray storm/crash shelter. They traveled with genetic material-plant and animal tissue-from uThani and New Eden and even some rice seedlings from the Workers' Paradise.
The chemical severing of the c
able midway between habitats happened so unspectacularly-as planned-as to be virtually unfelt by the occupants of New Eden. The equatorial spin ion jets had shifted slightly to separate the now decoupled Unity from merely fellow-traveling with the rest of the Slowtrain because of their matching momentum. The jets now turned Unity so that it was no longer spinning on its axis, ninety degrees from the direction of travel. Instead it turned to spin in the direction of travel. The huge probe-cable that was the equatorial ridge began to uncoil.
To the cameras on New Eden's surface, sending images to the watchers in four habitats, Unity looked like a ball, with whirling, barely visible rings around the equator and at either pole. Close examination showed how the forward momentum of Unity was transferred at the crucial moments into the launch of a sequence of probes-which is what the whole equatorial ridge had been. Some went on to explore wider before using their momentum to head back to Earth. Others, containing a sea of sociological and psychological data about the behavior of isolated humans, were heading home directly.
By the time the last probe had been launched, the rotation of Unity was almost entirely damped. The cable, which had been undergoing its own chemical metamorphosis, began to fray out into a vast gossamer sheet-into two enormous lateen butterfly wings, several thousand times the size of Unity itself.
And then, in a blaze of terawatt laser, came the Slowtrain's fusion plant's parting blessing. The sudden flash on those braking wings that had alerted the Miranese astronomers. The Slowtrain proceeded onward at its steady pace, to drop the next seed of humanity-New Eden-at a star 7.7 light-years away.
Unity continued its braking infall on Miran's sun and her companion. It would take two years to get into a suitable orbit before the solar sails must be converted to solar harvesters, and a lifecraft set out on the final leg of the journey home for the two Mirans aboard.
^ Epilogue
"Gentlemen, you miss the point of space engineering. The equipment needed to build a single habitat by melting an m-class asteroid, spinning it so that we centrifugally separate the metals, and then using the 'mosquito' to remove the fraction wanted for other purposes, and then injecting water to 'blow' it into a bubble is expensive, yes. But the process itself is simple and relatively cheap, even if getting there and setting up isn't. The point is-once we've got there and set up we're not just going to build one bubble. Even when humans get to other stars, the first thing they'll do is build more.