by Nina Silver
"I would love to go!" Would. Love. Absolutely. Love. To. Go. Especially if it meant working away from them two.
"Lovely, it is settled then. The transport will arrive tomorrow so make sure you have everything that would be needed. You shall go, and the two of us will stay here continuing the important task of furthering our symbol knowledge and deciphering." Dr. Morton stated and I didn't even care about the sting of those words or even care about them asking me to be a waitress the rest of the day. I was going to Earth on a mission - and I knew, I knew, I would make history by deciphering new symbols and giving us more knowledge about the Ourupta and their culture.
Four
Cove
“The decoders think it’s a faulty bomb. At least that’s the conclusion they came too.” Haze started as soon as I answered my com. I had just finished repairing the jet fuel from the transport and had been giving it a run when he called.
“Are they sure? Not that I’m trying to do their job, but it doesn’t exactly look like some of the bombs we’ve seen from them in the past or even the remaining ones we found in their crashed ships.”
“I know – management here didn’t like the explanation, so they decided to put up a team to come explore it.”
“For real?” I navigated the transport back into the garage and shut it down. “How many people are we talking about?” Space could be an issue depending on how long they wanted to stay in New Hope.
“We’re talking about five people. We are bringing the standard three soldiers and one medic, and this time also a decipherer from Saturn.”
“Saturn? Why - we didn’t have any on Neptune?” The Science University was on Saturn, so the person coming would have probably no military training. Everyone who was on Neptune had to go through basic training. When the Neptune Colony was founded, the idea was that it could be some type of first defense in case the Ourupta ever decided to return. For a military op to bring a person from the other colonies was quite unusual. It probably meant, more than anything, that the higher ups and government did not think the sphere was important enough to waste a military decipherer on a mission to New Earth.
“Yeah, some expert or something… And of course, I’ll be coming, volunteered very first.”
“Space might be an issue… We don’t have many units, we only have one left. I’ve petitioned Jupiter for a new construction, but they said they wouldn’t be able to come for at least six more months.”
“That sucks… Sounds like life on New Earth is hard.”
I shrugged to myself, and once more found myself looking up at the sky towards the colonies. “You ain’t got no idea man… But anyway, who else is coming?”
“Some younger guys, I’ll send you everyone’s bios so you can take a look.”
“Sure thing.” I saw the notification flash of the delivered files. “Got em, will check them out later. So, when you think you’ll arrive?
“We will stop at Saturn in about an hour to pick up the decoder. I’d say by tonight we’ll be there.” Haze stated with a laugh.
“Alright, it’ll be fun to see you. I’ll go ready space and supplies for you. You can crash at my place, and I’ll give the leftover unit to the other three. Then I’ll see where I can stuff the decipherer.”
“She might be tricky, has three doctorate degrees and lots of research behind her - you know how snobby the academics get.”
“Got it!” I scratched my chin. The decipherer was probably a stuffy old lady, and if I didn’t make sure to provide her a good unit she’d probably report New Hope as having crappy living conditions and then I’d have to get through a ton of bureaucracy to make everything alright again. “See you in a few then, I’m gonna go prep for your arrival.”
“Got it Cove. See you soon.”
The com went off, and I made my way towards the center of New Hope to our Commons. I entered the space that served as the Chief’s office and saw Joahna, who in many regards was my assistant.
“Chief.” She smiled at me, her hazel eyes sparkling flirtatiously. I knew she had a crush, infatuation, whatever it was that one wanted to call it, with me. There had been plenty of times I could have felt tempted to take her up on her subtle hints – but ultimately, I could not see her in the way she clearly wanted me to see her.
“Jo, how you doing this fine morning?”
“Not too bad, now that I saw you!” She fanned herself, her high red, sleek ponytail swinging from side to side. “Awfully hot today no? Have you noticed it’s been hotter this time of season than last year?”
Feeling my own sweat drip down my back and soaking the synthetic T-shirt I was wearing, I nodded at her. “Yeah, but what can we do?” I shrugged and approached her desk, “Listen, we are getting a visit from some colony citizens – we’ll need room to board three Neptunians, and then room to board a possibly pretentious snob.”
Jo smirked at my words and tapped something on her informator. “Why they visiting Chief? Are they finally here to inspect all the grumbling buildings and approve your requests for new units and repair of old ones?” She looked up at me with an angry frown. I felt her frustration, I crumbled about the same things she had just spoken of.
“Unfortunately no, I’ll tell you the reason, but only a few of us in New Hope know as of now. I’m trying to keep it on the down low, so people don’t start getting upset and what-not.”
Jo looked up at me with serious eyes. “You can trust me Chief.”
“I know Jo. Yesterday some of the boys found a piece of Ourupta tech, so there’s a team coming to check it out.”
“Ourupta tech? So close to the res? You think it’s dangerous? Must be at least a hundred years old by now, no?”
I shrugged. “That’s why the Neptunians are coming I guess. They are also bringing one of those academic types from Saturn - you know what rep they have.”
Jo nodded understandingly. A tuft of hair fell down the curve of her neck, and she pushed it back. “Well, we have one open unit – that should fit the three Neptune clonies.” Our term for colony citizens. Exactly what I had been thinking, I nodded at her approvingly, and she turned back down on her informator again. “I don’t see anything else available through Chief. I guess I could have her take the extra room in my unit – it’s been clean and all since my sister moved for work at Jupiter.” Jo’s eyes turned sad as she looked down at her informator. Her sister, Marya had left a month ago to the Jupiter Colony to work as a production worker, Jo had not liked it at all, but she had not moved to a smaller unit or found a roommate yet.
“That would work, that way you can keep an eye out on her as well.”
“Yes, good idea Chief – any clue when they're arriving? And do we need to do anything special for their arrival?”
I tapped my jaw thinking. We did not have many resources, but I also did not want to ignore an official visit from the colonies – many people would take that the wrong way, and as a lowly res on New Earth we could not afford to be black-listed. The government and the colonies were only too happy to forget about all the help we needed to survive the planet’s changed climate. Ignoring an official visit was not ideal.
I hastily send the files Haze had sent with the bios to Jo. “Let’s check on them. Remember my friend Haze?” Jo nodded, Haze would often visit the past five years since my return to New Hope, and Jo had met him a couple of times. “He’s coming too, and he sent me the team's bios.”
“Let’s see then.” Jo opened the files on her informator and quickly scanned them. “Alright, so they are sending quite a few higher ups. General Arlo Cruz, Captain Locke Kodaline, Major Haze Whitmore – your friend, Sergeant Cain Halsey who’s a medic also, and finally our snobby lady Dr. Iolee Panou. Pretty impressive chief – why are they sending such higher-ups? This woman has like three doctoral degrees in linguistics.”
I shrugged, not wanting to think much about the reasons such excellent personnel were getting sent. It was fishy. “Any more info on them?”
“Not really, jus
t their ranks and some info about previous missions they’ve been on, and in the lady’s file just research she has published.” Jo hummed. “She has lots of articles on Ourupta translation, language, and has even deciphered five new symbols in the past couple years.”
“Hmm… must be good at what she does then. Since we are getting honored by such esteemed guests, let’s have an official dinner ready for them. Just invite some of New Hope’s council members and the enforcers, and of course, you’ll be there as well.” I stated at her, and she smiled broadly.
“Of course. I’ll tell them to dress nicely.”
“Good. I’ll go make sure the unit is ready for our three guests, and I’ll go check to see if the airway is clean for their ship to land.”
“I’d think Siel has taken care of that. He always tinkers around there. He managed to build this tiny drone and was flying it over that area. It was so tiny you couldn't even see it.” Jo said with a smile. My brother had followed in my steps and attended the Military Academy, but he had ultimately wanted to be an aerospace engineer and quit. After the accident five years ago, we both returned home, and he never pursued his goals. It was nice to hear that he had been trying his hand on fixing things again.
“Glad to hear that. I’ll just check in with him then. I am expecting our guests soon after night falls.”
Jo groaned. “That’s the worst time – it’s so hot at night – and now we’ll have to run the temp controls hard, or they’ll whine and we can’t have that.”
“I know – our solar batteries though old should be able to handle that for the time being. I’ll make sure to stop and check on them as well.”
“Alright, Chief. Anything else I can do for you?” Her coy smile was back on and I openly grinned at her.
“No thanks Jo, you are a lifesaver. What would I even do without you?”
She laughed at me and rolled her eyes.
“One more thing, people will wonder why we are getting clonies. Can you make up something close to the truth without all the details and send it out to everyone’s com?”
“Sure thing – I’ll keep it simple.”
“Wonderful – if you need me you know how you can reach me. Send me the final deets on tonight’s prep – I’ll wait for them at the hangar and then will bring them to dinner.”
“Make sure you use the nice transport Chief.”
I laughed and with a salute at her turned and left the building ready to start on my list of chores. I’d better make sure everything was ready before their arrival, who knows if I’d have time to tinker with things after their arrival.
Five
Iolee
I looked out the small craft’s window as we slowly made our descent to the planet. The rosy hues of the sea and the red dirt of the One Continent caused butterflies in my tummy. And an overwhelming swell of emotions threatened to spill within me. This was my home planet – and even though it looked no more like the blue and green planet my ancestors were born on, it was still emotional to get ready to step on it for the first time in my life. I had been born on Jupiter, my parents had been scientists in the green dome on the Jupiter Colony where they worked to make stronger plants and find different uses for them.
Our small craft got even closer to New Earth, and I noticed we were heading towards the northern and eastern part of the continent. Since the small craft had come to collect me from Saturn, I had used the following six hours of flight to acquaint myself with the topography and the land around the reservation we were headed to. The reservation was called New Hope and was founded 60 years ago, by a group of survivors and some ex-military men. The part of land it was built on used to be part of the continent that was called Africa before the Ourupta attack. It was a small reservation and one of the hardest ones of the One Continent since it was so close to the Pink Ocean and the Red Desert. The living conditions for the residents there must be excruciating.
“First time on the planet?” One of the Neptunian members of our small group asked, Sergeant Cain Halsey. His tan skin nicely offset his golden-brown hair and piercing blue eyes. He was very attractive - if Xan had been here, she wouldn’t have stopped ogling the poor man. I gazed at him and the other two Neptune officials, Major Haze Whitmore and General Arlo Cruz, sitting across from me. The fourth Neptunian, Captain Locke Kodaline, was currently piloting our small craft. They were all uncomfortably attractive, and I felt especially frumpy around them, in many ways intimidated since this was my first time interacting with any members of the Neptune Colony.
The past six hours we had commenced some small talk but not much, I mostly had kept to myself reading about the topography and then studying the Ourupta symbols again. I was trying to perfect an algorithm that would give possible meanings to undetermined symbols, so I plugged on that for a couple of hours. I couldn’t complain about the men they had left me to my quiet thinking mostly, other than offering me food, or the occasional question about my studies. None of them had commented on it, but I could see their eyes sizing me up probably assuming I was inexperienced and did not have much knowledge as I looked young.
“Yes, it is my first time, and I am rather excited!” I smiled and turned back to the window to look at our descent briefly before facing the three men again. “What of you Sergeant Halsey?”
He smiled at me. “Not my first time. Everyone has to spend some time on New Earth before we get to graduate the Academy.”
“I did not know that. Did all of you have to do that?” I asked looking at the other two men and then Sergeant Halsey again.
“Yes.” General Cruz, who seemed quite young for a man of his rank, raised an eyebrow at me. I bit my cheek in hopes of managing to hold my blush at bay. I was not used to such fine example of the male nature. General Cruz’s tan skin accompanied by closely cropped head of pale blond hair and a pair of too serious violet eyes made for a fetching combination.
“So, you are not that excited to visit New Earth again?” I asked looking back at Sergeant Halsey.
He gave me a friendly smile. “Although I find your enthusiasm lovely, I am not nearly as excited.”
“Oh, how come?”
He shrugged and gave another of his handsome smiles, as the other two members of our team snickered and laughed.
Major Whitmore, a dark skinned, black haired and hazel eyed man answered with a grin. “The heat is extreme Dr. Panou.”
“Oh, that makes sense.” I blushed, I should have guessed that already. “Is it that unbearable?”
General Cruz answered me. “It is quite unbearable – the heat gets so much sometimes one can feel as if they are cooking within their skin. The nights are especially hard.”
“Oh.”
“Hope you brought some temp clothing to help with that. Those look rather warm.” Major Johnson commented looking at my form up and down speculatively. I looked down at my long white pants, long white linen shirt, and the tan leather jacket I was wearing. Maybe he had a point there, this was rather warm clothing – and I did not remember if I did bring any temp clothes either. Temp clothes were made of special fabric that controlled temperature and made the weather conditions more bearable for its wearer.
I looked out the window again, the night had just fallen, so that meant I’d feel the night heat first hand. Captain Kodaline’s voice came clear over the com’s. “We’re getting ready for landing in five minutes, just make sure everyone is strapped in.”
I looked down and made sure I was still tied in safely, and then watched as our small craft landed on what seemed like a small landing port. The excitement welled once more within me. I was about to disembark on Earth! And explore unknown Ourupta technology and language! How exciting was that?
As soon as the craft shut off, the men rose to their legs and started grabbing their bags. I undid my straps and also rose to my feet. I reached into the compartment above me trying to get my bag.
“I’ll carry that for you Dr. Panou.” General Cruz stated and easily grabbed the bag I couldn’t
reach. I blushed and smiled at him in thanks. Short people problems remained despite all the tech advances and innovations of our world. “As soon as the doors open, brace yourself, the heat will be extreme.”
I swallowed but nodded anyway. I could see a form in the dark with one of the outdated transport models that I heard people used on New Earth. It wouldn’t be that bad, the heat, could it? Just a few moments out in the heat and then in the transport.
The craft’s doors opened, and this wall of heat entered the ship. Major Whitmore exited, followed by Sergeant Halsey, and then with a last look at me General Cruz exited the plane, I followed after him, and as soon as my foot hit the steps, I started sweating. Oh, my stars. Sweat started dripping over my face, and my eyes started blinking of their own volition to get rid of the stinging in them. I grasped the metal railing which had already warmed, and hastily climbed down the rest of the four steps.
As soon as my feet touched solid ground, the heat intensified even more. I started sweating even more. I dizzily pushed back some of my escaped hair and followed after the three men in front of me. They had approached another tall male figure who I assumed was the leader of the reservation who was supposed to come pick us up. My eyesight blurred some more, and the five steps I took to reach them seemed like an eternity. I felt the sweat pour out of me in buckets and I took a ragged breath that burned my lungs and chest.
How did the people here live like this? This was unbearable. I heard the men exchange greetings but it sounded far, and my legs and hands started shaking. The blurry shape of General Cruz, recognized by the navy color of his uniform and blurry insignia, turned and pointed to me and then to the blurry form of the tall man that I did not recognize.
The male form took a step towards me and extended his arm. I forced my hand to rise to exchange handshakes. The effort to stand up on my shaky legs, and to share a handshake became extreme. I took another ragged breath - the hot air pulled in my lungs only making me feel worse. My eyesight went dark, even though I was sure my eyes were still open, and then my legs gave way under me, and I passed out.