by M. Alan Marr
Chaz laughs. “Yeah. Tell them about the pyramids.”
“What about the pyramids?” Harrison says.
“The Great Pyramid of Giza? Try the great power station of Giza.”
“No way,” Jen says with skepticism.
“True story.”
“What kind of power?” Matt says.
“Various forms, harnessing both natural and subatomic sources. If you want to learn about the pyramids, you can look up the plans for our ancient microwave technology. Giza and the Nile Valley used to light up like Las Vegas back in the day. The great pyramid also transmitted power to ships left in orbit.”
“The ancient people of Earth had power and spaceflight and everything?” Matt gasps.
“Well, yes and no.” Dev explains, “After the big revolt, those remaining behind were basically left with nothing. We had no choice. After the power station in India went thermonuclear and torched half of subcontinent, we stepped in and disabled all the others to prevent similar disasters, and at that point, all governing personnel returned to the Crown, permanently.”
“What kind of power does this ship use?” Matt says.
“Anti-leptonic,” Dev replies. “Fusion, basically.”
“Cold fusion?”
Dev frowns. “There’s no such thing.”
“What do your cities use for energy?”
“Depends on the planet, but on Trieste, we started using a lot of geothermal. Most buildings have solar collectors on their rooftops. Some regions use wind and tidal, but it’s all channeled into a central grid, which reduces the demand for subatomic sources.”
“What about dams?”
“Not anymore,” Dev replies. “We found that dams alter the equilibrium of the environment. In fact, your Three Gorges Dam in China holds back so much water weight, Earth’s axis has moved slightly. That’s something we’ve never seen before.”
“Really?”
“Yeah, you guys are always finding new ways to screw up your world.”
“Pfft,” Jen scoffs. “Hardly seems worth saving sometimes.”
“Just keep the larger picture in mind.”
“After you guys left Greece,” Steve says, “you just became legend?”
“Pretty much. That experience was unfortunate, because it only widened the chasm between us.” Dev adds, “At certain points in your history, we thought we saw chances for a gradual reintegration of our two peoples. We thought exposure to the realities of the cosmos would make Earth residents stronger and more capable. Didn’t work, though. There were always setbacks.”
“What kind of setbacks?” Steve says.
“We taught you metallurgy; you made weapons. We taught you chemistry; you made chemical weapons. We taught you to sail, you made warships.”
“We suck,” Jen says.
Dev smiles at Jen’s particular verbiage. “Your population stems from rebellion. You thrive from conflict.”
“And you guys aren’t like that?” Harrison says.
“We’re not as spring-loaded for violence. We fight because we have to. I’m a military officer, so this is what I do. But average denizens of the Crown would rarely, if ever, find themselves in a fistfight.”
“So, people rely on the military to fight their battles?”
“The military protects our worlds from attack. We also police astral commerce. Local law enforcement is handled by a Prefecture of Constables under the civilian government.”
“Who rules your world?” Steve says.
“Leadership is shared between the Admiralty and the Regency. The Regency is the civilian government, which is made up of various chancellors, regents, and ministers.”
“Does it work?”
“Chaz asked the same question, and, yes, it does. Our public servants, of which I am one, are true public servants, not power-hungry demagogues.”
“You mean, in your entire government, not one person is there to feather their own nest?”
“No, not one. And if there were, their peers and colleagues wouldn’t stand for it.”
“I said it before,” Jen says, shaking her head. “We suck.”
“Forget politics,” Steve says. “I can’t get over the whole pyramid thing. I mean, there they are in plain sight for everyone to see. I’ve seen them, and no one has figured out how they got there.”
Dev is patient. “Earth residents operate on what they think they know. And when they can’t explain something, they tend to dismiss it as false, or they create mythos about it. I’ve seen your TV shows trying to explain how ancient Egyptians could move twenty-ton blocks of pyramid stone using rollers and ropes over the sand.” Dev laughs. “Yeah, that’s how it happened . . . ”
“Wait, what other myths?” Harrison says.
“Hit me with your best shot,” Dev says, starting a rapid-fire series of questions, trying to stump the spaceman. Dev casually answers as he works.
Harrison fires the first salvo. “Loch Ness Monster.”
“Plesiosaur from our freshwater sea.”
Matt says, “Area 51.”
“Hyperbole.”
Steve speaks up. “Nazca Lines in Peru that look like runways.”
“Obviously.”
Harrison snaps his fingers. “Stonehenge.”
Dev laughs. “Uh, roadside repair site.”
Steve smiles. “Bigfoot.”
“Not funny.”
“Dragons!” Jen says, knowing that she’s got him.
Dev winces. “Dragons were indigenous to Earth. Leftovers from the dinosaur era. Very hardy creatures. And very dangerous. They did not coexist well with others. If the asteroid hadn’t hit, the Dragons might have ended up being the dominant life-form on Earth. We sort of ended up decimating the species. Most of them didn’t survive the impact, but some took shelter and went into a sort of torpor until the atmosphere cleared. They also had eggs that lay dormant for years. You can imagine everyone’s surprise when they started showing up again.”
“Really? Did they breathe fire?” Jen says.
“They spat a sort of venom extremely high in phosphorus.”
Matt nods. “Phosphorus . . . so, the venom ignited on contact with the air.”
“Correct.”
“Why the hell do the Chinese celebrate them, then?” Jen says.
Dev makes a supposition. “They were probably celebrating their towns not burning down.”
“Why hasn’t anyone ever found a dragon skeleton?” Harrison says.
“All that phosphorus,” Dev says. “It burns hot and bright. The safest place you can be in a world of Dragons is the middle of a thunderstorm.”
Steve snaps his fingers, “Methuselah!”
“Early relativity disaster.”
“Jesus, did we get anything right?” Jen says.
Dev muses, “The electric light was pretty innovative.”
“What do you use?”
“Resonance gel.”
“God, we’re primitives.”
“Jen, my dear, you only have yourselves to blame.” Dev laughs. “But Earth is lucky to have you.”
“Lucky? I can’t believe you even like me,” Jen says.
“You have a spark, Jen,” Dev says. “You’re a complex woman of heart and determination. You’ve got a streak of defiance, and you never wither in the face of adversity.”
“That tends to be confused with bitchiness,” Jen says.
“Ah, sexism,” Dev replies. “Earth corners the market in that arena. A lot of your people seem to be threatened by powerful women.”
“I hope you have a few on Trieste.”
Chaz laughs. “Wait until you meet the Field Marshal. Talk about a powerful b—woman.”
***
Life aboard the Recon ship is not that dissimilar to life aboard the 767 (although Dev and Chaz are now doing the driving). Everyone is content. Except for Matt. Over the last couple of days, Matt has not been himself. While conversational and alert during discussions, Matt seems to withdraw into himsel
f when the conversations drop off. The alarm on Matt’s Ti-Phone still goes off at regular intervals, but he doesn’t have his vitamins with him. Something is preoccupying him, and they all notice. And whatever it is, Matt doesn’t want to talk about it. Everyone assumes it was the dredging up of bad dad memories, but his condition is persisting and seems to be getting worse over time.
Chaz decides the crew needs to have a little fun, and the gravity is shut down for a while. Dev remains strapped into the pilot seat, while the eight other bodies are having a blast floating through the ship, Matt included. That is, until Milo threw up. Fortunately, the ship has a very effective sanitary system. The cleanup and odor is eliminated rapidly, and for the most part, automatically. In sanitary mode, the lighting in the ship engages to a dark blue frequency, and all of the expelled foreign material glows a very bright pink.
***
Chaz is given additional instruction on Recon ship systems and stellar pilotage, which all of the Oasis pilots take interest in. The flight attendants don’t have a lot going on during the flight, so they do what they do best, take care of their gentlemen and pilots. And despite Annette’s declaration to the contrary, she ends up being a spaceship flight attendant after all, at least until she starts the next chapter.
The crew and Chaz take time to study a primer, learning the nuances of reading Tertian, as well as basic Tertian computer protocols. Annette reads all about Recon ship evacuation. She dons a radiation suit, minus the head gear, and entertains everyone by doing a spaceship-version of the flight attendant emergency demo, complete with flight attendant finger gestures in an overly cheery briefing using a holographic display of the Recon ship’s escape systems.
“. . . And in the unlikely event of catastrophic decompression, you’ll all be dead instantly. Radiation suits are located in compartments below the main deck.” She motions to the controls on the arm of her suit. “Don the suit and select rare, medium, or extra crispy. We regret that your luggage has been misconnected to Jupiter. Thank you for flying Outer Space Airlines.”
Franz is the first to refer to Dev as Commander Dev rather than Mr. Dev. Likewise for Lieutenant Commander Chaz, although Chaz has to explain that Lieutenant Commanders are usually just referred to as Commander. That in mind, Dev instructs everyone on the hierarchy of the Tertian military and rank structure. Matt’s mood improves somewhat, and he studies as much as he can, although he still gets distracted whenever the alarm on his Ti-Phone goes off.
chapter 14
STARS IN THE CROWN
☆ ☆
The Recon ship crosses the great void between constellations so fast none of the new passengers can really comprehend the distances covered. Like Chaz, the Oasis pilots are hung up on the idea of the parsec, but thanks to the influence of science fiction TV, they can somewhat relate distances expressed in light years.
“We covered fifty-six light years in four days?” Harrison gasps, standing around the pilot stations.
“Yep,” Dev says. “Twenty-three parsecs.”
“Twenty-three parsecs doesn’t sound like much. Fifty-six light years sounds pretty impressive, though.”
“Warp. Speed,” Matt says.
“Warp nothing,” Dev replies. “We didn’t warp anything, except maybe your understanding of physics.”
“Don’t worry, Matt, I still can’t wrap my brain around that,” Chaz says from the portside pilot station.
Harrison continues, “That means we were doing, like, fourteen light years per day.”
“Well . . . yes and no,” Dev says. “TransCon space has properties that allow us to accelerate to incredible velocities.”
“TransCon?”
“The deep space between constellations.”
“So,” Matt guesses, “when you say deep space, you mean something different than just being far away in space.”
“Yes. It’s a matter of semantics, but when we talk about deep space, we refer to specific transit regions free of influence; a trough completely absent of gravity, particles, gasses, anything. It is that nothingness that allows us to press the limits of our propulsion systems. It helps if you think in nautical terms. Troughs and shallows.”
“How do you mean?”
“Troughs of deep space are plotted against the shallows. Shallows are the areas influenced by everything else.”
“You mean like tidal charts?”
“Exactly. Except instead of tides, the shallows represent areas influenced by gravity, planets, particle fronts, magnetic waves, radiation bands, etcetera. Don’t worry, you’ll learn all about that.”
The deceleration engines fire and begin slowing the Recon ship for arrival in the Tertian system. Despite the rapidly diminishing speed, they barely notice inside the ship.
***
The Recon ship arrives at the Crown with nearly empty fuel tanks and exhausted provisions. They had to switch to manufactured water earlier in the day, and just as Dev once told Chaz, it tastes both metallic and synthetic.
The ship is closing rapidly on the brightest star of the constellation. The thrill of visiting a thriving new world has everyone very excited. The star goes from being just a twinkling pinpoint near the great nebula, to a dot, to an orb, to two orbs, and then becomes more and more defined with each passing second. They plainly see the blue-white Gemma and the smaller yellow companion star, Gemini, out in the distance. There is a slight greenish overlap of their coronas, as visible from their current angle. The Recon ship makes a gentle bank slightly away from Gemma to assume the proper tack toward the current position of Trieste. The excitement is palpable to the crew, and every glance reveals something new and exciting. As Trieste comes into view, everyone is gathered at the forward windows. Dev smiles at Chaz because the crew is blocking all of the forward displays, but the pilot station displays are fine for now.
To the crew’s disappointment, Dev closes the hull before reaching the Tertian atmosphere, triggering the group to bolt upstairs to the canopy to watch as they close in on Trieste, now looming larger and larger by the moment.
“Will you look at that!” Harrison marvels.
“Is it just me or does this planet seem bigger than Earth?” Jen says, looking up at the giant Trieste.
“It is bigger,” Steve says. “Four times bigger. Chaz told me.”
“That is pretty big,” Annette comments.
Matt leans his head toward Jen. “Tell me size doesn’t matter.”
Dev’s voice comes over the comm system. “Guys, there’s a squadron of fighters departing ahead and to the left.”
The new visitors to Trieste all watch in amazement as they see six ships accelerating away from the planet. They can’t really see much detail, only that a formation of six targets are going very fast out into space. The Recon ship maneuvers into orbital approach position. From the canopy, it appears as if the planet is the one rolling underneath them. There is a perceptible change in engine sound, and the nose of the ship dips down as the fiery reentry into the atmosphere begins. There is some turbulence upon reentry, and everyone grabs on to something, not knowing exactly how rough the ride will be.
It is disconcerting to see the raw heat and somewhat scary reentry into the atmosphere for the first time from such a bird’s-eye position. They see fiery plasma streaming across the bow of the ship and up over the canopy, making the observers duck down slightly.
“Boy, it’s getting hot,” Franz says with concern. “Do you think it’s okay to be up here?”
“Dev would have said something if it was dangerous,” Harrison replies.
“Those plasma streamers are normal,” Steve says.
“Like you know,” Jen scoffs, full of attitude.
“I’ve done this before,” he replies. “Same thing happens in the fighter. We’ll be through it in a few more seconds.”
Jen realizes Steve has, in fact, done this before and smiles, losing the attitude, and puts her hand on Steve’s arm.
“Wow, look at that!” Harrison gasps as t
he Recon ship breaks through a cloud layer to the beauty and enormity of Trieste below.
The heat and turbulence subside, and the Recon ship settles into a swift and steady equatorial descent into the lower atmosphere. The crew watches with wide eyes and wonder as the features of the continents and oceans become more and more defined. Dev banks ship to the right slightly and takes up a descent course toward the Southern Inhabitance. They now have about fifteen minutes before landing at Port Admiralty, the military astroport co-located at the vast Admiralty complex on the coast.
Dev realizes both he and Chaz are out of uniform, so they will take turns changing into their flight suits while the ship is in descent. The ship is on partial-autopilot, but someone needs to monitor the controls. Dev gets up from his station and moves over to Chaz.
“Just follow the programmed course,” Dev says, pointing at the nav panel at Chaz’s pilot station. “Doesn’t look like any traffic on our present vector. If they issue a turn, you’ll hear the instruction, and the text will appear on the panel. You’ll have to initiate that manually. I’ll just be a minute. You have command.”
“Take your time,” Chaz says, happily taking the controls. “I’ve so got this.”
Dev heads below and changes into his flight suit and returns to his pilot station to assume command of the ship. Chaz notices Dev is armed.
“You expecting trouble?” Chaz motions to Dev’s weapon.
“No, but we can’t leave our sidearms on the ship.”
“Oh, okay. Is mine still in the duffel bag?”
“Yeah, in the first locker with your flight suit,” Dev says, while taking his seat at his pilot station. “Go change. I have command.”
Chaz hurries below and changes even faster because he doesn’t want to miss anything. He hurries back to his station before Dev starts the approach to the military astroport, zipping up his flight suit along the way, then checking his belt and sidearm. The crew are still up in the canopy marveling at everything they see: cities, lush countryside, and even some air traffic, although it is too far away to make out anything substantial.