"I know this, Father. But it will take longer—much longer—without me. I'm afraid we don't have the luxury of that much time."
"How so?"
"Frank and his people won't always be around to protect us and insure that the Iskolians or any other race might not come back to dominate us again. Right now, the Iskolians are grateful to Frank for lifting the yoke of the Okofani from them, so they're willing to make such concessions as they have. But people soon forget such things. Frank Jameson is the Shadow Rider, which makes his domain the entire universe and more. He can't stay here and guard over us forever."
"Then you believe it is essential that you stay, on Relm, that is?"
"Essential, yes, for my people."
"But not for you."
"I think my decision is made, Father."
"I'll pack my things. What are they wearing on Relm this time of year?"
"Nothing."
Thirty-Nine
"It's beautiful," Michelle said, admiring the landscape.
"It's rocks and dirt," Anna commented through her comset.
"Yes, but look. See that? Over there, licken, and I think that's algae growing on that rock over there," Michelle said, pointing.
"What's the air pressure here?"
"Eighteen point two psi. A little higher than humans are used to, but well within our tolerance."
"What about the oxygen content?"
"Still only about four percent, but we can accelerate that. We'll also need to up the free carbon production if we want these plants to grow more."
"It's still cold here."
"It'll warm up."
"What's that over there?" Anna said, pointing off in the distance at a glint in the sunlight.
"Say! If I didn't know any better, I'd say that might be our first lake. Or puddle."
"Or skating rink. Let's go have a look."
The glint was five kilometers away, but in their warsuits, which doubled in this case as environmental suits, Michelle and Anna bounded toward it at a pace of fifty kilometers per hour. They arrived in minutes.
"It's our first lake for sure," Michelle said.
"There!" Anna said, pointing at a little stream in the distance, "It's being fed by that stream of water. Look at the steam coming off of it. It must be warm."
"Comparatively speaking, it is warm, though pretty near freezing temperature. As soon as it hits this ice, it freezes. Eventually this will become a glacier. And when the temperature comes up a bit, it'll all melt and flow downward into this valley over here."
"Which will become our first river."
"Which will eventually flow into our first ocean."
"Wow. This terraforming is really fun."
"I told you it was beautiful."
"Seems like it's taking too long, though."
"Don't worry, we're putting up a hundred more stations all over the planet, just like this one. I'd say in about twenty more years, we'll have a beautiful playground, with trees, shrubs, grass and even a few animals."
~
"How are they coming along, Suni," Frank asked, walking onto the main bridge of the Butterworth.
"Three teams on the ground, Frank. They're still looking things over. Eight neutronium-plated satellites are in orbit and a small orbiting battlestation with a compliment of fifteen hundred warbots to keep an eye on our property. On the ground we'll have six thousand workbots to tend the terraforming equipment and another thirty thousand warbots in storage bunkers in three different positions on the surface," Suni replied.
"Good. I'd like to go down and have a look at things myself before we leave."
"I'll go with you. And I'm sure a few of the others would like to see it as well. We're all pretty excited about this project. Our own private world… it's… fantastic."
"I almost can't wait."
"You'll have to," Suni said, giggling, "it'll take another twenty or thirty years, yet. We've intercepted a communications bot from Sahn, by the way."
"Oh?"
"She says she won't be coming. When we are able, she wants you to meet with her on Relm."
"Ah. Well, I suppose I might have expected this."
"You didn't want to lose her?"
"She would have done well, here. But she has much more important work to do on Relm."
"She knows many of our secrets."
"She'll keep them."
"But what if she's abducted?"
"She'll be guarded."
"You intend to leave warbots?"
"Do we have a choice?"
"I suppose not. I'll send a contingent to Relm immediately."
"Now, what about the Okofani issue?"
"Our spies have been succesful in infiltrating their government at low-level positions. It won't be long before they displace many of the Okofani leadership. The Okofani will be reigned in soon."
"The Okofani are a warrior race. They seem to need to be at war."
"We've been working on that. We think that war simulators would be helpful. Something dangerous that they could play, like wargames."
"Dangerous?"
"It has to be. It's in their psyche. If it's not dangerous then it's not interesting to them."
"Seems a little morbid."
"I did not intend to tell them how to live, Frank. Did you?"
"Well, no. You're right, of course."
"It will keep them off the streets at night."
Frank chuckled at that. "Do we need to send a spybot factory to Okofa?"
"I was thinking of a more centralized location."
"Where?"
"Relm, of course. We have friends there. We wouldn't need to hide it so well."
"So I guess we'll be headed to Relm, next."
"Unless you have other plans."
"Well, I'd like a little vacation time. Relm really is a beautiful place."
"I've only ever seen it from space, myself."
"It's quite lovely, though I don't think the sea is for swimming."
"Then we'll have to head back to Omicron Four for that."
"Oh, the memories I have of that place. Especially the ocean."
"Frank!" Suni giggled, "The Neophite has a lovely ocean. I want to swim in it again, too."
"And make love in it."
"We don't need an ocean for that, love," Suni replied, gazing into his eyes.
"Hey, you're on duty."
"I'll be off in an hour," she said, "And it seems, it's my turn in your bed."
"Aye, aye, Captain."
"My captain, my love. And where to after that?"
"I understand the Neophite can cross between galaxies."
"So I hear. Where do you want to go?"
"I've heard so much about the Andromeda Galaxy."
"From whom?"
"From Gronk."
"What did you two talk about?"
"Everything."
Fini
Timestar Page 34