by Robin Roseau
“I’ll go get them so Erica doesn’t have to bring them back,” Sartine said. She stepped over to the embassy ground vehicle and had it moving by the time the five carriages were out of sight. She followed after them and would return long before Cecilia was done with Mordain.
“It is quite the outing today,” Valtine said. “Three vendarti and the governor. Were you expecting such a turnout, Maddalyn?”
“It was originally to be five of us,” I said. “But I believe we are more than happy with company.” Just then, Cecilia’s ground vehicle powered up and lifted into the air. A minute later, it began moving forward.
On any other planet, we could have done this on automatics. But here, that wasn’t possible, and I didn’t know if it ever would be. It was one thing for a vehicle to navigate a paved and marked road, but it was entirely different to travel what was little more than a glorified game path. And without far more navigational aids than the planet had, they couldn’t operate on full automatic, either.
From what I could tell, Mordain did well. She kept the vehicle under control, which really wasn’t at all difficult, and at a speed that should be safe on the trail from here to the rejuvenation center. Cecilia had her drive around the airfield, making turns and coming to a stop several times. Then the vehicle began driving more complicated patterns, figure eights and the like. Finally, they drove back and set down in the grass, nearly exactly where they had begun. The vehicle drew silent, and then Mordain gave out a whoop of joy, easily audible with the canopy open.
“That is all it takes?” Valtine asked.
“I wouldn’t let her drive on a heavily populated planet,” I said. “Or take it into town.” But this wasn’t my responsibility to manage, and if Mordain required help, she could call for it.
Cecilia climbed out, saying loudly enough for all to hear, “Well done, Mordain. Who will ride with our young driver?”
Balotorid, her husband, stepped up. “I will.”
I don’t know if there was a signal, but Rordano also stepped forward, holding his wife’s hand. “Larimarn and I will take the remaining seats.”
“Excellent,” Cecilia said. “I’m not going to arrange the rest of you. Maddalyn, you know your assignment.”
“Yes, Governor.”
Kalorain and I stepped to Mallory’s jumper, Luradinine following us. A moment later, Margotain joined us. I helped everyone get settled before climbing into my seat. I powered everything up, ensured the controls were comfortable, and then used the radio. “Jumper two ready.”
A message arrived via my implant. “How good a pilot are you, Maddalyn?”
“I learned on Tarriton,” I sent back. “Why do you ask?”
“Do you know the section of road that follows the cliffs?”
“Yes.”
“Do you think you could pop over there and set down?”
I thought about it. “Yes. Am I to be a safety fence?”
“Yes,” she said. “Between the road and the cliffs, right where they would emerge from the trees. Are you entirely confident, Maddalyn?”
“Yes.”
“Take off now. Don’t tell anyone else what you’re doing.”
“Yes, Governor.” I looked around. “Here we go.” I lifted from the ground then nudged us forward. “Sound off. Is everyone comfortable. Kalorain?”
“I love flying with you, Maddalyn,” she said.
“I’m good,” Luradinine said. “Maddalyn Herschel, I want to learn to drive.”
“You understand the woman to ask is in the other jumper.”
“I am aware,” she said.
“I’ll see what sort of arrangements I can make. Margotain, have you flown before?”
“Once.”
“Did you get sick?”
“No. Mother was deeply frightened. Maddalyn, I want to learn to drive. Are ground vehicles expensive?”
“Why are you asking about ground vehicles?” Luradinine asked. “You should ask about jumpers.”
I snorted. “New jumpers are expensive,” I said. “There is a used market.” I thought about it and realized in another year or two, I could probably afford one myself, a small one with a modest range. “Ground vehicles can be very expensive, but the ones here are basic. I believe the governor’s ground vehicle was actually expensive.”
“It’s very small,” Luradinine said.
“Hold that thought. Speak up if you’re not ready.” No one said a word, so I advanced the controls, and we began racing down the runway. “Here we go.” I lifted us.
My passengers were quiet, but I glanced over at Kalorain. She was smiling. I glanced backward. Margotain was looking down. “That’s a good way to get sick,” I told her. “Look out more.”
“Can we circle Sudden?” she asked.
“All right, but only a half-turn.” I banked the craft and set it for the town.
We did a circle, following along the north side before heading out over the bay. I turned us south then said, “Margotain, are you familiar with the road to the rejuvenation center?”
“Yes.”
“Can you help me find the section that follows the cliffs?”
“Sure.” A minute later she said, “There it is. Just ahead.”
“I think I see it,” I said. “Margotain, I’m going to fly past it and fairly low. Please verify we have the right place.”
“Sure,” she said.
I kept us over the water, a hundred meters from the cliffs and perhaps only fifty meters high. We were halfway through the section I thought was the road when Margotain said, “Yes, that’s it. I can see where it exits the trees, but I don’t see any tracks.”
“The ground vehicles don’t leave them,” I said. “And wagons don’t travel here often enough to cause any.”
I actually had ample room to do this. I headed out to sea and then turned around, heading for the point where the road would disappear back into the trees. I descended to perhaps twenty meters above the top of the cliffs then began a turn, finishing directly over the road. Then I just let the craft settle until we were driving along like a ground vehicle. I slowed further, and then at the end, just before we would pull into the trees, I turned right. “Kalorain, Margotain, we should be well clear of the path. Please verify.” It was on their side, after all.
“Yes,” Margotain said. “About three meters.”
I looked out my side. Ten meters to the cliff. Good. I settled us to the grass, popped the canopy, and said, “This is the halfway point. We’ll wave at them as they pass us.”
Then I checked the instruments. They showed tracking information for the two ground vehicles and Cecilia’s jumper. I watched, and I realized she was keeping an eye on the ground. I sent her a message via implant. “We’re down. Who is leading?”
“Sartine,” she said.
“Does she know I’m here?”
“Yes.”
My passengers were talking quietly, but then Luradinine asked, “Maddalyn, why are we parked here?”
I considered lying, or offering a half truth. Instead, I said, “Because if Mordain is going to have trouble, it will be here.”
I let them figure it out from there. It was a minute later before Margotain said, “Should we get out, in case?”
“No,” I said. “We’re safer inside than anywhere else we could be.”
Ultimately, of course, none of this was necessary. I watched the panel, and when Sartine was about to break from the trees, I turned and pointed. A moment later we saw a flash of sunlight reflecting off her vehicle, and then she pulled out from the trees, traveling at a sedate, safe pace. Mordain was behind her at an excellent following distance. The two made the easy turn to follow the road, and we waved. Once they were well past us, Luradinine said, “That was uneventful.”
“Cecilia wouldn’t have let her drive if she didn’t trust her,” I said.
“And yet, we’re here anyway.”
“And it wasn’t at all necessary,” I said. “Is everyone ready?”
> * * * *
We were first to reach the airfield at the rejuvenation center. I thought about taking my passengers sightseeing but decided it was best to put them onto solid ground. I had us parked and standing beside the jumper when Cecilia flashed past. She remained in the air until the two ground vehicles broke through the trees, and then she set up her own landing. Soon, all four vehicles were parked in a row. Passengers began disgorging from all of them, but I noticed Mordain hadn’t powered hers down.
I walked over and leaned in. She looked at me. “I don’t know what to do.”
“You did well,” I said. I pointed. “Don’t tell on me. It says Power Off.” I had to use English for that. “Point at it when you see it.”
Her hand wavered over the panel, but then she found it. “That one.”
“Just push it.”
She did, and the craft obediently grew silent. I helped her with her buckle, and then she practically flew from the vehicle, hugging me tightly. Then she jumped up and down a half-dozen times, her last jump landing her in Cecilia’s arms. She jumped up and down, hugging Cecilia while she did it, then let her go and jumped a couple of more times.
“I did it! I did it!”
“You did very well, Mordain,” Cecilia said. “How are your passengers?”
“My passengers? Who cares about my passengers?”
She grinned and bounced to her husband, throwing her arms around him. He lifted her, and they kissed, her feet off the ground. Then he gently set her back down. “I am proud of my Galatzi wife,” he said.
* * * *
After that, until it was time to go, I had few responsibilities. Cecilia offered a tour of the facility, and the three vendarti all wished an opportunity to reacquaint themselves with their temporary homes from the First Planetary Congress. I was actually a little overcome, thinking about it, which grew when Cecilia led us into the large chamber where the congress actually met. The vendarti spoke to Cecilia, who nodded, but then she stepped to me. “Do you know how to operate the equipment in this room?”
“I can figure it out.”
“Power it up,” she said. “Find the systems for lights and the sound system. And there’s a video I want to display. Can you do that?”
“Yes, Governor,” I said. I took a seat and accessed my implant. It took a minute to teach myself the controls. I brought up the lights on the center platform and brought down the house lights. I found the controls for the spots and sent them after the governor.
“Very funny,” Cecilia yelled to me, her voice booming through the room.
“Sorry!” I yelled. “I’ll turn that down a little.”
“Test, test, test,” she said, and I adjusted the controls. But then she crossed the room and took a seat beside me.
No one else knew what was going on, but the vendarti moved onto the stage. “This is a historic place,” Sartine said.
“It is third in significance behind our first landing, and the first landing of the star people,” Baardorid said.
“It is here that Talmon agreed to join the empire,” Luradinine continued. “Over seven hundred vendarti met here for months as Cecilia Grace and her staff outlined what it would mean to join the empire.”
I leaned to the governor and whispered, “I wish I’d been here.”
“I wish you were, too,” Cecilia said. “But you’re here now.”
“The history of this planet began over five hundred years ago,” Sartine said. “Our history began on Earth.”
And then over her head a hologram of Earth appeared.
“Give me a microphone,” Cecilia whispered. I dived into the controls then nodded.
“This is a very old photograph,” Cecilia said. “The title is The Blue Marble. This is Earth at the beginning of the space era, a photograph taken by one of the earliest manned missions to Earth’s only moon.”
There was silence as everyone in the room stared at the photograph. The vendarti moved out from underneath it to look at it, and I adjusted all the other lights.
Finally, Baardorid said, “Earth was the birthplace of all of humanity.”
“Governor,” asked Luradinine, “Do you know how long after this photograph our ancestors would have left?”
“I don’t know exactly,” she said, “but mine left 149 years later. Yours would have left within ten years of that time.”
No one spoke, and then Cecilia dimmed the photo. I brought the stage lights up again. We all remained quiet another minute, and then Sartine said, “Our people came here. They left their great ship in the skies and descended to the surface.”
“First landing was along the coast, further south,” Baardorid said. “I have never been. It is too far.” And then Cecilia put up another image, this one new, taken from the air, circling First Landing. Again, everyone grew still.
There was a village nearby, but it was small. Sometimes that happened. On some planets, the site of First Landing is actually deeply isolated. On others, the settlers built their homes surrounding the landing sight, and it becomes the most important city on the planet. This was quite common.
But First Landing is not always the perfect place for the settlers, or as they learn more about their planet, others may find ways to be more successful, and other towns can grow larger. Sometimes that is due to politics. I didn’t know the history of Talmon well enough to know what had happened here. I was about to learn.
“Our ancestors seeded much of the planet,” Baardorid said. “It seemed at first that First Landing would be a perfect spot. But the summers were a little too hot, and so, over time, those of us who had settled further north were somewhat more successful in raising food.”
Cecilia let the image fade.
“We populated the planet,” Luradinine said. “For those of us in these times, it seemed like we had populated quite heavily. I imagine Cecilia and Maddalyn feel otherwise.”
Cecilia put up a new image, and everyone gasped. “This is First,” Cecilia said, “On Centos Four.”
“Such odd homes,” Baardorid said.
“Do you see one of the small squares in the side of one of the buildings?” Sartine asked. “That is a window, probably from floor to ceiling. Each row of them represents one floor. Those buildings are all very tall, much taller than trees.”
“You can see trees,” Kalorain said. She ran up onto the stage and pointed. “Are those trees?”
“Yes,” Sartine said. “That is a park not far from the home of Cecilia’s parents. Walking through the park, those trees are as tall as most of our trees here.”
I muted Cecilia’s microphone then leaned to her. “Do you know what you’re doing?” I asked in German.
“It’s time,” she said. “I hope. Give my microphone back.”
I nodded and turned it on.
“I would not argue this is better,” she said to the entire room. “There are some advantages of so many people. We can discuss them another time. But there are disadvantages. Sartine, name one.”
“They need to make a park for you to see trees,” she said. “In Indartha, I only need step outside, and I see the mountains all around me. Even in cold Indartha, I can see trees, beautiful trees, from anywhere I walk.”
“I want to show them Frantzland,” I whispered. Cecilia nodded, and I took the hologram from her. After a moment, I brought up an image of the star. “This is Frantzland’s star.” I paused. “German is going to slip out of me. Please forgive me for it.”
“Temporary amnesty,” Valtine called out.
I zoomed the holograph to Frantzland. I expanded it, and then I let it slowly rotate.
“What is that?” Baardorid asked.
“My old home,” I said. “Frantzland.” I zoomed in, further and further until we were viewing a section of the surface perhaps a kilometer in size.
“There aren’t any trees,” Sartine said. “Is this a desert?”
“Yes,” I said. “One that covers the entire planet.”
“I think,” Valtine sa
id, “We understand why you now call yourself a ‘good Talmon girl’.”
“Show them the rest, Maddalyn,” Cecilia said.
I was prepared. I shifted the image. “This is called an air lock,” I said. I used German and then translated into English. “I do not know if we should use Talmonese for that?”
“No,” Cecilia said. “We are not introducing new words for existing technology. This is a door.” She explained the concept.
“I do not have an image of passing through the tunnel,” I said. “We have something called an elevator. It is like a carriage, but it goes up and down through a vertical tunnel.”
“They have them in the buildings on Centos Four,” Sartine said. “You do not need to climb stairs.”
“We have trains,” I said. I had images of those. I put them up. Then I showed them a few more images.
“What happened to your planet?” Luradinine asked.
“Talmon is my planet,” I said. “Nothing happened to Frantzland. It has always been a desert, or so we believe. We have always lived below the surface.”
“Your entire life?”
“Yes, until I left, three years ago.”
I flashed a few more images and then let them fade.
Then Cecilia took over, putting up a globe of Talmon, images taken from orbit. “Talmon,” she announced, “as it would appear from three hundred kilometers high.”
“It’s so beautiful,” Sartine said.
“Very beautiful,” I said.
“This is shown accelerated, several hours condensed into one minute,” Cecilia said. And then she showed the process of deorbiting, ending with a landing. Then the image morphed to a view from a camera located above the ship. A moment later, a group of riders appeared through the trees, and after a moment I recognized a younger Baardorid and Chaladine.
“That is you, My Darling,” Valtine said.
“First contact,” Cecilia said. A moment later, two people, a man and a woman, appeared. Baardorid and Chaladine approached, and then others stepped forward, setting down a table before stepping away. Four people sat down.
“First contact,” Baardorid repeated. “We were so frightened.”