“That I will, old friend,” Questor replied softly. “He will be glad to know that you still remember him.”
“Well of course I remember him,” the Captain asserted. “I dearly wish he could have been happy here. But no matter how much my Nearkin might dispute the issue, life aboard the Resonance just isn't for everybody. That's why I let you have him.”
Just then Michael announced that the initialization of the stardrive was about to commence.
“Well the Resonance appears to be in good hands,” the Captain continued. “So why don't we retire to my quarters for a bit of private conversation.”
Michael, who had actually been trying not to listen, blushed but said nothing.
As Questor followed the Captain towards the stairs, they heard Michael give the order. “Engage temporal inverter.” There was no sensation of change. Not even a Questor could detect the difference in the temporal flow. Unless of course, he had a view of the starfield. As the Resonance had approached the minimum threshold velocity, temporal dilation caused the appearance of the stars to change. Those on either side of their course had gradually become slightly elongated blurs, instead of crisp points of light. Those forward of their course had brightened. While those behind them had dimmed. When the temporal dilation was inverted, everything behind them vanished completely. For even the flow of light itself was affected and the photons became effectively motionless.
They could still see forward because they overtook the photons in front of them. Neither the Captain nor Questor paid the visual phenomenon in the overhead display more than a passing glance.
The Captain's quarters consisted of a small bed chamber connected by a hall like galley to a personal shower stall and then to a toilet stall. One wall of the galley was mostly filled with an open archway to the only other room, a large study. The walls of which were lined with shelves of ancient books and scrolls. The study had 4 chairs, each with a small table on either side. The chairs were positioned facing inwards in a small circle. The Captain had dropped into the only one to show any sign of wear and he gestured towards the other chairs.
“Please sit and tell me what's on your mind old friend,” he instructed.
Questor sat down in the chair directly across from the Captain.
“I was recently ambushed by five suicidal cybernoids,” he began. “Who nearly got me in a coordinated overload blast from their microfusion reactors.”
Silence briefly prevailed.
“You'll have to be a bit more careful then, won't you?” The Captain finally suggested. “But what makes that important enough for you to make the journey to the University?”
“Well for starters,” Questor explained. “They were emanating disruptive energy fields. All of which were on wavelengths specifically chosen to disrupt guild nanites. Especially my nanites.”
The Captain was quick to realize what the fact that the cybernoids knew anything about Questor's operating frequency meant.
“That is disturbing news my friend,” the Captain replied. “If they have gained that much detailed knowledge of our systems, then they are once again a serious threat. I'm not at all sure what even the Professor can do about it. Though perhaps his extensive data base can identify the source of the security breach.” The Captain paused for a moment. “Seems to me you implied there were at least two reasons to see the Professor?”
“Yes and I think you'll find the other reason interesting,” Questor began. “But first let me explain that there is a delightfully unusual world that is only marginally suited to the human colonization. That has surprisingly begun to compliment the local ecology. They have established a delicate balance that I really don't want to see trampled underfoot. Can I count on you in that regard Captain?”
“Well now,” the Captain replied. “I'm surprised you need to ask that. You know I like to see mankind working in harmony with nature. I certainly wouldn't, as you say, trample such a place underfoot. Why do you ask?”
“I know you wouldn't,” Questor assured him. “But I'm concerned what others will do if this gets out.”
Then without saying another word Questor showed the Captain the crystal disk he had acquired on XenDar. Nearly 3 cyclets passed before the Captain spoke.
“A new site?” he asked. Questor just nodded. So the Captain continued. “I gather the location isn't generally known and that you'd prefer that the Resonance didn't make any special trips there.”
“That's why I need your word Captain,” Questor advised. “But I warn you, once you've seen my site data, you won't want to keep it.”
Questor had taken many long journeys over the aeons of his long life. Several of which had taken significantly more subjective time than this one. On this trip the Captain himself was always there and Questor enjoyed his company. Though such was the solitary life style of a Questor that it was often ten overcycles before either of them would think to seek out the others company. This trip also provided regular, though brief, periods of entertainment and company from the Nearkin. Yet somehow the time weighed on his mind more than usual.
He felt a need to hurry back to XenDar. There was something waiting for him deep within the pit in the floor of the fifth chamber of the cave. Something that wouldn't or couldn't wait very long. Besides that, Questor felt he was neglecting his new apprentice. Even though he knew he'd left him in good hands. He felt like he should be there.
The Resonance was larger than some inhabited planets. Thus it had room enough for the 3 billion Nearkin on board who cycled in and out of hypersleep. The Captain allowed a maximum of one thousand of them to awaken for the small gatherings he scheduled once every thousand subjective years. He permitted them to spend up to 2 years of the one to two thousand year lifespan his muscly enhanced medical augmentation nanites gave them. Before requiring them to return to hypersleep. Only a hundred of them would be allowed to take part in the next gathering to provide some continuity to their musical creativity.
Once each voyage, approximately at the halfway point, there would be a festival the Nearkin called an ‘awakening’. When all of them were allowed to wake and spend ten whole years in an orgy of concerts, gatherings and general merry making. There wasn't any work they needed to do except on rare occasions when some passenger had arranged to be released from stasis. So that he or she, could take part in the festivities. In which case a few of the crew would be required to spend some of their time looking after the needs and wants of the awakened guest.
That was a rare occurrence, because most passengers didn't care to know about the shipboard festivities of the crew. They just wanted to wake up where they were going. Those few who were curious enough to consider it, were strongly discouraged by the terms of the waiver they'd have to endorse releasing the Resonance, it's captain, it's crew and the guild itself from any liability arising from the potential consequences of a rare condition called Stasis Saturation Syndrome. Which occurs once in about one billion stasis sessions with guild stasis chambers. One in a hundred thousand, with the next best type of stasis technology.
The problem with Stasis Saturation was of course that it was impossible for an affected individual to survive a return to stasis. This wasn't too bad a fate when it happened in a solar system with an inhabited world. At the halfway point in a journey in an inverted time dilation starship however, it meant expending the rest of ones life before the ship reached it's next destination. True, it's likely that a few of the Nearkin would volunteer to stay awake to ensure that the remainder of that life would be as pleasant as possible.
The problem would be preventable if the passengers could use the same kind of hypersleep chamber as the crew does. Unfortunately the hypersleep process depended on the presence of a special kind of medical nanite that even the Captain couldn't supply to everybody. In fact, his impressive ability to manage the oversight of those who do have them, was already stressed to it's limit at awakenings and during the first and last year of each voyage when all the Nearkin were roused at once.
So it wasn't something he could routinely do for all his passengers. Unfortunately, once a passenger was already affected by Stasis Saturation, the use of a hypersleep chamber wouldn't work. That left just one possibility of an affected individual surviving the journey. The Captain would feel obligated to try but he could not guarantee that the nanites would find the individual involved to be an acceptable candidate to host a nanosymbiont.
Questor had come aboard the Resonance at a rendezvous point. This wasn't considered a destination. It was a mechanism in place for short range guild ships to hitch a ride on a long range transport such as the Resonance. By having known points in space and time where such a transport would spend as little real time as possible to check for incoming passengers. Thus when the halfway point awakening occurred, most of the Nearkin were surprised that he was there. Even though he neither required nor requested it, a full dozen of the Nearkin immediately insisted on tending to his needs during their 10 year wake cycle. Of course there weren't any left among them who had actually been there the last time he had traveled aboard the Resonance. Though of course, they had all read about him.
He was after all the one who had brought them that scrap of music that had so inspired Nearkin culture. It wasn't long before the Nearkin had badgered him into playing a variety of music on various stringed instruments on a regular basis. For the next ten years he played and sung both Irish, and Scottish tunes at least once every 5 overcycles. Questor didn't mind. The sad and sweet slow tunes combined with the fast paced ones, somehow helped to ease his mind. This was aside from the fact that, during the ten year awakening, the female Nearkin did their best to make him aware that there wasn't a single moment when one or more of them weren't willing to grant him sexual favors.
At first he had tried to at least stop them during his musical performances. Until they prevailed upon the Captain to explain that the Nearkin would prefer to see how well he could play while one or more of their best nymphs tried to distract him. At which point he surrendered. From that point on, as soon as he would begin to play or sing a tune, one or more of the girls would lift his kilt and begin a performance of their own. When he wasn't busy making music, the ladies were even more aggressive.
As much as he enjoyed their attentions, by the end of the ten year festival he was beginning to tire of it. Questor found himself starting to look forward to the long near solitude of the rest of the journey.
Then the day came when the Captain solemnly announced that the 10 year awakening was coming to it's end. There was much sorrow in his voice. Questor knew, as did every Nearkin aboard, that the Captain's sorrow went far deeper than the end of the festivities. It also went deeper than the long loneliness that he would endure while the Nearkin slept.
For this was the time when he would have to watch those few of his beloved Nearkin who's lifeforce was too faded, to endure another hypersleep session, age and die. It was a pain he couldn't avoid. He would stand strong for them. He would give them what comfort he could. Each of the fading ones had known for certain at the beginning of the 10 year awakening that it would be their last. They had said goodbye to and celebrated their life with, their friends. Each of them had been able to select two of those closest to them to stay awake. So that when the time finally arrived, they could bid them a final farewell. Most of them would start to show visible signs of a rapid aging process within another year. The strongest of them would pass away in less than another 10 years.
Then after the last of them had gone. After the last eulogy had been spoken. The Captain would preside in a final ceremony without words. There would however, be music. Each of those chosen close friends, would pick up a musical instrument. In recent times many of these were bagpipes. They would all play hauntingly sad melodies. While the Captain would slowly walk among them until he reached a great leaver. The music would fade and the Captain would pull the lever, consigning the ashes of the faded ones to the void between the stars. Then after standing in shared silent morning for full cyclet, the Captain would speak the only words that would be spoken by anyone onboard before the Nearkin mourners had all returned to hypersleep.
“We have celebrated the lives and mourned the death of the faded ones,” he would say. “Now it is time to put away the sadness. To remember and honor them by living. Go, return to your hypersleep chambers. But before you lay within, resolve to wake with your hearts free from the burden of sorrow. Because, now that they can no longer live the life of happiness that they shared with us. We shall have to live it for them.”
It wouldn't be until the last of the Nearkin were once again asleep that the Captain would give in to his own despair. Then he would wail with a sadness that few but another questor could hope to understand. The curse of being virtually immortal, is watching the ones you love grow old and die. Questor was no stranger to this sorrow but unlike the Captain, he usually only lost one loved one at a time. The Captain mourned them by the hundreds.
Indeed, this time there had been nearly one thousand of them. The Captain's nanites were so thoroughly integrated into the Resonance's control systems that the Captain's lament could be felt throughout the ship. Questor expected it to take several years before the Captain would be able to keep his promise to the departed ones and banish the sorrow from his own heart.
Chapter 23 Girls on the prowl
“I need to ask you something Cindy,” Stephanie said as the elevator door opened to the portal chamber.
“About what?” Cindy asked as she stepped onto the elevator.
“About Jake,” Stephanie replied as she also stepped inside. Then just before the door closed she gestured over her shoulder at the portal chamber behind them. “Now that we've reconnected the portal to Wildernest, I should probably give him a little special attention.”
“And you mention this because?” Cindy prompted.
“Well you see,” Stephanie continued. “I need to know if you want us to do it together or if you just want to watch?”
“Well I don't know,” Cindy replied with a grin, as she selected the third floor. “Want to go for a run with me while I think about it?”
“Sure, Cindy,” Stephanie agreed. “Where should we meet?”
“Meet?” Cindy challenged. “I'm talking right now, down the backyard trails, as we are.”
The elevator door opened as she spoke. Cindy didn't wait for an answer to lead Stephanie out through the roof's screen room then up the back ramp.
“You know of course that we could get arrested for nudity on those trails,” Stephanie informed Cindy as she palmed the identi-screen at the back gate.
Cindy snorted.
“First, they'd have to catch us,” Cindy said. “Any Sister of Rebirth, who lets the local authorities catch her out here, deserves to be locked up.”
That said, Cindy ran across the yard, waving at the helicopter pilot just before the wheels touched down with a slight bump. Then she disappeared down a hiking tail. Stephanie had followed suit. Except that while Cindy was waving at the somewhat flustered pilot. Stephanie did a two second hand stand with her legs split wide open, giving him a really good view. Then she chased after Cindy. The Pilot turned his seat to face his passenger as he opened the security partition.
“I'm awful sorry about that landing mam,” he began to apologize.
“Can it fly boy!” Sandra interrupted. “I was looking out my window as we came down. And I saw a couple of strongly believable reasons why your attention just might have drifted a bit at the last second there.” As she spoke, Sandra looked down at the pilot's crotch. Then she licked her lips seductively. “If that swelling is half as painful as it looks, you should let me administer a little first aid.”
“Don't you think that hand stand was a little over the top?” Cindy asked with a chuckle as Stephanie caught up. “It's a good thing that the chopper was already so close to the ground.”
“I wouldn't feel too bad for the guy though,” Stephanie replied. “I saw Sandra looking out the window of that choppe
r. So I'm thinking she's probably busy solving the problem we caused right now.”
The girls both laughed. Then Cindy suddenly stopped running and quietly stepped behind a tree that stood beside the trail. She hadn't had to say a thing to be sure that her fellow Sister of Rebirth, would also have noticed the sound of bicyclists coming the other way on the trail.
Stephanie had elected to crawl into the bushes on the other side of the trail. The girls stayed out of sight as three teen aged boys rode by.
“It's a good thing we spotted them before they saw us,” Cindy said as they returned to the trail.
“Oh, I doubt they would have been offended at our lack of attire if we hadn't,” Stephanie said with a grin.
“Probably not,” Cindy agreed. “But they were a bit young for us don'cha think?”
“Not by Wildernest standards,” Stephanie retorted. “But given the local laws about such things, the most they'd have gotten from me would have been a good peek at my tushy anyway you know.”
“Maybe so,” Cindy conceded. “But knowing how guy's like to brag, they'd soon have half the boys in the county prowling these woods, looking for us.”
“Yeah,” Stephanie agreed. “No doubt half of them would be hoping we might give them more than a free show too.”
That was when Cindy turned on to a small side trail.
“Isn't this the path to your friend's camp?” Stephanie asked.
“I've never gone there this way myself,” Cindy replied. “But I do think David's swimming hole is down this way.”
“Do you plan to go swimming or something?” Stephanie inquired.
Cindy just smiled. The swimming hole wasn't empty when they got there. David was sitting under the waterfall.
“Come on I'll introduce you,” Cindy said, just before slinging her shoulder bag onto one of the rocks and then diving in.
Stephanie opened her mouth to say something but Cindy was already in mid dive. So Stephanie shrugged, leaned her staff against the rocks and dove in after her. The sudden swelling in David's groin demonstrated that he saw the girls approaching. About half way to David's ‘sitting rock’ Cindy stopped. Then she looked Dave in the eyes and crooked her finger at him. He smiled and slipped off the rock and swam over to where the girls were standing in water just deep enough to cover their navels.
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