A Larger Universe

by James L Gillaspy

  "Have you ever known a lord to be grateful for anything done by a human?" Tommy asked.

  "No, I haven't. All the bigger mystery."

  "There isn't a mystery. I told you the answer when you came in. Lord Ull wants the ship repaired. She thinks this arrangement will make that happen."

  Valin stood. "Have you eaten your evening meal? Since you have solved the mystery for me, perhaps we can now discuss what your sudden elevation means to my efforts to translate the computer books."

  "I'll join you," Tommy replied, "but there won’t be an issue with the translations. The more apprentices I train to do this work, the more help you'll have. Reading the books in English will be part of the training."

  # # #

  Again, everyone in the meal room fell silent when Tommy entered. His own apprentices gave him furtive glances and turned back to their tablemates without acknowledging him. He and Valin were halfway through their meal before the conversations started again, and, if the glances were any indication, most of the talk was about him.

  However, this was nothing to what occurred the next day, a rest day.

  Tommy hadn't seen Forset in many weeks. This seemed a good time to go to Forset's service in the farmers' church, then visit with Forset afterward. He had been attending the artisans' services, but he knew of no rule to keep him from returning to the farmers' services. He was also honest enough to know he wanted to show off his new status to the first Jack and the others who had mistreated him.

  His arrival in the meeting room set off an immediate reaction among the gathered farmers. They withdrew from him in a wave as each individual noticed his presence, until he was left standing alone near the door. Those who arrived after him edged past and joined the congregation watching from the perimeter in complete silence.

  Forset entered as usual, with head down and cowl covering his eyes and walked to the room's center, taking no notice of either Tommy or the arrangement of his congregation. He turned to face the entrance, where Tommy stood alone.

  "We are far from home," Forset said.

  "We carry our home with us," only Tommy replied.

  Forset raised his cowl and searched for his congregation, his eyes wide. He started to say something, then saw Tommy standing in front of him.

  The silence lengthened until Tommy shrugged his shoulders and smiled contritely. This hadn't been his intention.

  Forset returned Tommy's smile. "They are our lords," he said.

  "They are not our Lord," Tommy replied.

  "We are their servants," Forset said.

  "We still have our souls," Tommy replied, but this time a few of the congregation joined him.

  "We go where they will," Forset said.

  "We will return." The response was bigger.

  "We have no one to lead us," Forset said.

  "He will come." And bigger.

  “Why will He come?” Forset asked.

  "Our faith will bring Him." Tommy couldn't hear his own voice.

  "What must we do?" Forset asked.

  "We must have faith." Their voices were a roar.

  At last, Forset began his walk back toward the entrance, and the congregation moved toward Tommy and gathered behind him, spiraling out around the walls of the chamber. When Forset entered the labyrinth, the crowd forced Tommy to follow and become second in line. The chanting by the congregation continued to be loud, every "We must have faith" almost shouted following Forset's "What must we do?" Meditation was impossible.

  Every person Tommy passed touched his clothes or looked up at him. The moving crowd became a wall of hands and faces, confining him, scrutinizing him, judging him. He wanted to run to his room and hide.

  The slow, quiet pacing became a tramp, not faster, but with each person placing their feet firmly on the floor with a stomp.

  When the walk finished, the room reeked of sweat. Tommy’s clothes were soaked.

  The closing chant was as loud as the first had ended. Tommy tried to leave quickly, but, when he turned, he almost stumbled over the first Jack kneeling in front of him.

  Both of Jack’s hands were on top of his head and his gaze was at Tommy’s feet. “Please forgive me, Tommy. I should’ve known.”

  Tommy took a step back. “Should’ve known what, Jack? And as for forgiveness, well, perhaps I should be, but I’m not mad at you.”

  “I should’ve known that no human born on this ship could take us back to Earth,” Jack replied. “Only a human from Earth could be the One to return us there.”

  Forset grabbed Tommy by the arm. "Come to my quarters." He said, pulling him away from Jack and through the excited crowd. When some attempted to follow, Forset turned and gave them a chilling glance and continued to the stairs.

  "I wish you'd told me you were coming to my services," Forset said. "Perhaps I could have warned you, though I wasn't expecting anything like this."

  "Warned me about what?"

  "The farmers, most of them anyway, think you destroyed an enemy ship. The shaking we received damaged buildings and pipes all over the Commons. Many artisans were required to make repairs. As best as I can tell, one of the artisans mentioned your part in the battle while working on an irrigation pump, then, near the end of the day, another artisan said you had become guildmaster of a new guild. The story has grown until you, with no help from anyone else, reached out and smote the other ship with godlike powers and were then rewarded by the lords."

  Tommy burst out laughing. "Forset, that is a pile of horse shit. Farmers will believe anything, won't they?"

  "What is the truth?"

  "You know why I was brought here?"

  "Yes, to help with the translation of some books of a technical nature. Instruction manuals I was told. I've never seen them."

  "Well, the job evolved until I was installing the devices the manuals were for. The latest project was repairing the ship's guns. We were preparing for a trial shoot when we emerged in this star system. When we were fired upon, I fired back and we won."

  "And soon after, you were made guildmaster of a new guild by Lord Ull?"

  "Yes."

  "So, if I understand this, you repaired the guns, you defended the ships with those guns and defeated the enemy, and you were rewarded by being made guildmaster. The only thing missing from this story is the godlike powers. Perhaps my farmers aren't as stupid as you think."

  "But why did they act that way during services?"

  "You gave them hope that things might change. This ship offers no hope. You came here and showed them change is possible." He reached out to touch Tommy's sleeve as many had done that morning. "But what worries me is what else they might see in you."

  # # #

  Tommy's first act as guildmaster the next day was to give Potter the freedom to roam his new guildhall. He put a litter box, food, and a water bowl just inside the door, then released Potter to explore among the pallets. Now, this feels like it's mine.

  Well, not truly mine, he thought, as Lord Ull's voice echoed from several speakers placed on the perimeter of the warehouse. "Feral, if you are there, go to deck 501. I will meet you."

  The elevator door opened to a large open chamber, dimly lit from overhead and from the gleam of small red, blue, and green lights scattered about the room and walls. As he hesitated in the doorway, trying to understand what he saw, the dark figure of a lord loomed over him.

  "Good, you wasted none of my time," Lord Ull said. "Follow me. Do not speak to anyone unless I give you permission."

  Lord Ull led Tommy almost a third of the way around the ship's central column. At this level, the column engulfed four-fifths of the available space.

  What a strange design with too much wasted space, he thought. The column is as massive here as it is in the ship's waist. It must contain more than banks of elevators and cable shafts. A movement above made him look up. Overhead, spinning chunks of The Extended Claws reflected light from the nearby star. A lander moved across his view. The entire ceiling circling the central co
lumn was a dome made of the same material as the windows in the observation rooms. As his eyes became accustomed to the lighting, he could see a few lords moving across the chamber or seated in front of desks similar to those originally in the targeting room.

  Lord Ull's path left the column and wound among the control desks and displays to a large semicircular desk a third of the way from the column to the wall. "This is the navigation station," she said. "Both the primary and secondary computers are below this floor." She grasped the recessed handle in a trapdoor beside the desk and lifted. "Go down ahead of me."

  A set of narrow steps took him down into a blackness that became complete when Lord Ull closed the trapdoor behind them. "When you enter and leave here, the lights must be off to protect the vision of those above." He heard a faint sound, and the lights came on, still dim, but much brighter than those in the chamber above.

  Tommy looked up to see Lord Ull still standing by the stairs. "The light switch is always positioned here, under the ceiling beside each entrance to this sub-deck."

  The sub-deck, as she called it, extended under the entire deck above. From his position, he counted thirty-two of the lords' computers, sometimes alone and sometimes in clusters of two or three. From each computer's base, cables led to the ceiling, to other computers, and to what had to be the central column wall. He couldn't tell how many computers were on the other side of that barrier.

  Lord Ull's head almost brushed the low ceiling. With her height advantage of over a foot, she loomed over Tommy. He could feel her eyes on him. He was glad he was forbidden to look up. Trying to meet those eyes with his would put a crick in his neck.

  "I have arranged for you and your apprentices to come directly to and from this station," Ull said. "Do not disturb The People working above. The device on the right is the reserve navigation computer that is no longer operational. You may move it aside and install your computer in its place. Do not change the control console on the deck above. Create an alternate console to your computer, so the results can be demonstrated side by side. Inform me if you need anything to make this happen. Now, follow me to your other task."

  When she completed this abrupt list of commands and turned to go, Tommy called her back. "Uh, Lord Ull, how do I get in touch with you to inform you of anything? Do I go to your door and knock?"

  Ull considered this for a moment. "I suppose that is something you could not know. I will send a guildmaster with that information. Now, follow me."

  Tommy's other task was a compartment with an empty pond, several levels below Lord Ull's compartment and at least five times as large. If there had been foliage, it had been removed, and the dirt was gray and lifeless.

  "You must make this place live again," Ull said. "Doing so will help me with one of the other council members."

  There must more to it than that, and why did you share that with me. Aloud he said, "Is there a sub-deck under this? How do I get to the plumbing?" This better not be a plumbing problem, he thought. I know nothing about pipes. Surely, someone would have already fixed a plumbing problem.

  After Ull showed him the access door, she had some final instructions. "You are likely to see other of The People on this deck. Some will be young. Some are smaller than those you have seen. Do not talk to them. Do not look directly at them. Stay focused on your business."

  Tommy said, "Yes, Lord Ull," to her back as she turned and left.

  She doesn't like being near me. Maybe I smell as bad to her as she does to me. No, that's not it. Whenever she sees me, she's reminded of my foot on her neck. Can't say I blame her. I would feel the same.

  The "plumbing room" circling the pond basin contained a control device much like the boxes in the hydroponics farms. Like them, it had been gutted of parts.

  This might be a problem The devices are similar, but they control completely different systems. Will Lord Ull let me see a working control device under an active pond? Might as well get a complete look while I'm here.

  He circled the pond basin, trying to make sense of what he saw. Large pumps that could be supplying the waterfall stood near one wall. Following the ceiling's contour and trying to visualize it in reverse, he decided other pumps and pipes supplied many smaller pools above the level of the main pond and around its perimeter.

  He found an access hatch in the outer wall almost three quarters of the way around the base of the main pond. From beyond the hatch came a faint throbbing noise. Like the sounds large pumps might make, he thought. Unsealing the hatch revealed another compartment duplicating the one he was in, except it was filled with sound and the scents of water and growing things. He discovered a working control device with a typical control panel of flashing lights a few minutes later.

  Following the deep throbbing of the pumps led him to what had to be the underbelly of the waterfall splash pool. He followed the pipes with his eyes from the pumps and up the side of the wall, to the point where they curved into the extended bottom of the pond. He was about to continue exploring when he noticed a ladder attached beside the pipes. I wonder what that's for? At the top of the ladder he found a small closed hatch in the side of the pond wall. Opening this revealed a view through falling water of the lake's surface and the shore beyond.

  He watched for a while, trying to make sense of what he saw. The pool was as crowded as a pool on Earth in a hot summer day. He counted fifty-one Nesu of all sizes swimming in the water and another fifteen visible out of the water. He couldn't see the smaller pools above the lake, where more could be seeking privacy.

  Now I understand why she needs the other chamber fixed.

  In the same relative location as the hatch he had used to enter the second compartment, he found another hatch. Opening this let him into another compartment under a pond, as dead as the first. Perhaps these ponds circle this entire deck of the ship.

  He walked around the pond's base to the next hatch. The next chamber was also dead, the one after was alive, the one after that dead. He decided he had seen enough and started back.

  They have a space and a population problem, both caused by the ship's deterioration. I wonder if fixing all of this would make them grateful to a human. He smiled to himself. No, that would be too much to expect.

  That afternoon, he had his first guild meeting. It didn't start well. No one, not even his original two assistants, would meet his eyes or talk to him. Finally, he decided to ignore their attitudes and proceed with the work. Nothing else mattered, anyway.

  He promoted Sanos and Vent to journeymen. No other guild would have promoted someone so young, but that could hardly be an argument in his guild. The guild only had two projects, and he wanted to be involved in both, but he didn't want to manage them. He would rather spend his time programming and problem solving than making lists and being certain everything got done. He took the more experienced apprentices and assigned them into two teams led by his new journeymen, as he had done before. The remainder he also split and assigned to the teams, but they weren't required to work, just follow along and learn. The ship had so many problems, he hoped he would soon have enough trained people to make multiple teams.

  He decided to get Sanos started on the pool repair first. After a trip to the pool deck, Sanos's group set to work picking the hardware they would need, and Tommy took Vent to the bridge. The two of them opened the spare navigation computer and found what Tommy expected: the parts had been cannibalized.

  "There's no point in leaving this empty box here," Tommy said. "Have your team tear it apart and stack the pieces out of the way. Leave the cables where they are, though."

  Vent looked at his feet, hesitated, then looked up at Tommy. "Why are you removing the old computer? You left the cases in place before and put your new computers inside."

  "A question!” Tommy said, smiling. “Maybe there is hope for you!" When Vent's eyes widened, Tommy laughed. "I want you to ask questions. Thanks.

  "For the hydroponics installation, I wanted to show how much smaller the new computers wer
e. Here, what matters is speed, and, if someone is interested in relative size, the old computer will be beside the new one. Let's go down and pick what we'll be using. I've got something special in mind."

  In the warehouse, he found Sanos preparing to move a stack of boxes to the elevator.

  "Sanos, before you take those, pick three identical sets of equipment and take those up, too. On the sub-chamber's far side is a hatch. Beyond that hatch are other maintenance rooms under lords' living areas. Ignore the working ponds and get the equipment set up for three additional ponds. Walk quietly when you're passing through an active chamber." He smiled. "Four will make a much bigger splash than one."

  For the navigation computer, he decided if faster was good, much faster would be better. He chose a multi-processor server PC with the fastest chipset he could find in the inventory. A second identical system would be the backup.

  By day's end, all of the computers had been moved up the elevators, and the electrical artisans were installing power on the two decks and pulling cable. So far, the electricians' guild hadn't given him any problems. Maybe they are enjoying having something to do.

  This time, Tommy took one of his apprentices and watched where the electricians were installing the cable. From the books he had been reading, he suspected the length of cable they were installing would be too long for a good signal. He wanted to know where to install routers and switches along the way. Every place he put a router or switch box, he would attach a wireless access point.

  The security in this place is nonexistent, Tommy thought, as he found an identical "hidden" storage compartment under the ladder leading down from the bridge. A press and push opened the compartment, revealing a circuitry block identical to the one stored under the track controller room. An hour later, Seth gave him a stack of paper listing the programs in the block, and the block was returned to storage.