Stars Fell on Trieste

by M. Alan Marr

  “They’re all yours, Bross.”

  “May I please have your attention? I have your lodging assignments available.”

  Franz, Milo, and Annette are billeted together. Steve and Harrison are together. Matt and Jen are assigned together.

  “How was the rooming situation figured out?” asks Harrison.

  “Your flight attendants, as crewmen, are housed together,” Bross replies. “The remaining pairings are based on relative position.”

  “Can we change them up?” Harrison asks.

  “No, sir, you may not.”

  Dev walks out of the bedroom after stowing his and Chaz’s weapons in the secure closet, and overhears the tail end of Harrison’s conversation with Bross. “Harrison, you’re going to be plenty busy learning to fly our fighters. Annette will have to get along without you for a while.”

  “Yes, sir.”

  Everyone is a bit weary after the long trip, and happily make themselves comfortable in Dev’s dwelling. Bross prepares a meal as Franz enthusiastically looks on. He is very eager to learn about the Tertian diet and foodstuffs.

  The elevator/doorbell rings. None of the crew know what the soft chime is for until Bross presses the button on the lift. It is a military crewman. He salutes Bross and then stands aside. Bross motions for the other occupant to enter. Matt walks into the room, wearing normal Tertian clothing, jubilant and excited. “You started without me!”

  Dev smiles. “Hey, it’s Hazardous Matt.”

  “It’s HazMat,” Matt says. “And yes, sir, it’s me.”

  Jen rushes up to Matt and gives him a big hug. “I’ve been worried sick about you!”

  “I’m fine.”

  Harrison exits the washroom. He sees Matt and calls out to him. “Hey, HazMat, they let you out without your spacesuit.”

  “Better than that!” Matt beams. “They filled me up with some sort of antiviral and, OH MY GOD, I am one hundred percent healthy!”

  “What?” Jen gasps.

  “I am one hundred percent clear and healthy. Done. No HIV. Not one evil little strand! On top of that, they restored all my T-cells, cleaned up my smoker lungs, and even said I’ll practically live forever now!”

  Steve starts a slow clap that persists into a raucous applause. Jen hugs him again. There is an amazing sense of relief. Matt starts getting emotional. “I didn’t tell anyone because I didn’t want you to treat me differently.”

  Steve eases away from the group and sidles up between Dev and Chaz. He whispers, “Did you guys know before he said anything?”

  Dev, wearing a satisfied smile, gives Steve a slight nod. Steve, realizing they knew they’d be saving Matt’s life by bringing him here, puts his arms around their shoulders. “You’re a good man, Dev. You too, Chaz.”

  Annette, Franz, and Milo converge on the hug and join in. Harrison joins as well, followed by Steve. Chaz and Dev watch the big group hug. Bross watches them all from the foyer. Matt is finally released and slowly approaches Dev and Chaz.

  “You . . . saved my life. They said I should live at least another ninety-five years. You—” He breaks down and hugs Dev.

  “You’re part of the family, Matt,” Dev says. “Only now a bit less hazardous.”

  “You can count on me for anything. Anything.” Matt hugs Chaz next. “Thank you, Chaz.”

  “So, Commander?” Jen asks, wiping her eyes. “Is there a bar on this planet, or are you a bunch of intergalactic teetotalers? We definitely need to celebrate.”

  “I know just the place.” Dev looks at Bross. “Dinner will have to wait, Bross.”

  chapter 15

  STARS ON PARADE

  ☆ ☆

  The Oasis group is taken to a nearby storefront called Sig’s. Through the windows, everyone can see an elaborate tangle of distillery equipment and shelves filled with various bottles for sale. To the passerby, Sig’s looks like just a liquor store of sorts. But instead of entering the storefront, Dev leads his group around the more nonpublic side of the building to the real Sig’s the locals of Bari know.

  The crew follows Dev and Chaz as they descend a set of stone steps to a windowless, below-ground Bari watering hole. More of a rathskeller, Sig’s is a hodgepodge of spaces carved out of the building’s, previously unused, basement spaces.

  While the street-level distillery produces and bottles Sig’s signature brew, most of the distillery piping snakes directly down to the taps in the bar down below.

  It was here, at Sig’s, where Chaz and Dev drowned their sorrows after witnessing the carnage of an attack on Lyra. That same attack was just one of many engagements the Yeti had launched against the Crown. It was here Dev received the damage assessment of the entirety of the attack. And it was here that Chaz came up with the idea of establishing an Earth-based defensive squadron.

  Sig’s is fairly busy with the early weekend crowd. It is also the eve of the Herculaneum Meteor shower. Chaz briefs his fellow Earth residents that Sig’s brew is like a mixture of beer and moonshine, while Dev speaks to the barkeep and servers to make them aware his guests are very new to Trieste. As such, they happily serve up many different libations and snacks for the Earth residents to sample.

  The other patrons soon learn of the newcomers’ unconventional origins as well, and have many questions and take the opportunity to welcome them all to Trieste.

  There is a signal on Dev’s personal device. He pulls the device off his belt buckle and looks at the screen displaying the crest of the Admiralty. Chaz instantly thinks Dev is being issued new orders. Dev reads a textual message as it scrolls across the screen. Chaz waits for the bad news, then he sees Dev smiling as he replaces the device on his belt.

  “What was that?”

  “Cable from the Flight Admiral. He thought I’d like to know . . . We retook Hercules.”

  “That’s great!”

  Dev raises his glass. “To victory in Hercules.”

  Chaz smiles with pride. “Victory.”

  A small weight just lifted. Dev knows retaking even one enemy-held position means they are making headway.

  Jen meets a local man named Gin, who is around her same age. Gin is a physical trainer at an athletics facility. He is there with some of his coworkers, and they have dinner plans, but he says that seeing Jen another time would be great. Since she will be on Trieste for the next several months, that is a real possibility, and one she feels she will welcome.

  Franz, Milo, and Matt talk together, and Matt eventually strikes up a conversation with a fellow called Beech, spawning an entire chorus of “What’s up, Beech?” from Matt in his unique vocal pattern. At one point he says, “Come here, Beech,” and they dance to some local music. The Earthlings are a hit.

  A female Leftenant named Bren seems to catch eyes with Steve quite a bit. Dev recognizes her from the Admiralty.

  “Leftenant Baraless, I believe?”

  “Flight Commander,” she greets warmly. “I heard you were bringing a group of Earth residents here for training, sir. Would this be one of them?”

  “Indeed so. Leftenant Bren Baraless, may I present Captain Steve Fitzgerald.”

  “A Captain?” she says delightfully. “You’re master of an ocean vessel, sir?”

  “Transoceanic, actually,” Steve replies, pouring on the charm.

  “On Earth a Captain is roughly the equivalent of Fleet Commander,” Dev explains. “Steve is an atmospheric pilot in charge of the group of Earth residents we brought up here.”

  “Well done, Captain,” she says to Steve. “I’d love to hear more about your adventures.”

  “Well, right this way, Miss Bren.” Steve smiles. Dev mouths the word Leftenant to Steve, who happily nods to Dev and Chaz as he moves off with Bren. “My apologies, Leftenant,” Steve says as he walks with Bren to a vacant table. “I’m not used to Tertian formalities yet.”

  “So, miss has other connotations beyond not hitting a target?”

  “It’s, uh, . . . a title to signify a young single woman.”
>
  “As in, she missed out on a relationship?”

  “Hmm . . . maybe not quite that bad.”

  ***

  As the casual celebration marches on, Matt, Jen, Harrison, and Annette sit at a table across the room reflecting on their situation.

  “Can you believe we are sitting in a bar on another planet?” Matt asks.

  Harrison snuggles with Annette. “Pretty freakin’ awesome, HazMat, pretty freakin’ awesome.”

  Dev and Chaz are talking at a small table off by themselves.

  Jen is leaning her elbows on the table, cradling her chin on interlocked fingers. She watches Dev from across the room. “How the hell did he rig that lottery?”

  Dev makes it a point to not let the evening get out of hand, since they all have to work the next day. As the group meanders on foot back toward Dev’s building, Jen looks up and sees the brilliant, star studded nebula winding across the night sky.

  “Holy cow!”

  Everyone looks up at the staggering cosmic sight, so different than anything in the night sky on Earth.

  “Whoa,” Harrison says, squeezing Annette closer to him.

  The group is glued to the sky.

  “We call that, Brachium Corinae,” Dev says. “The arm of Corina.”

  “This is the part of the Milky Way we can see from home?” Steve asks.

  “The very same.” Dev smiles. “Of course from Earth, it just looks like a faint ribbon in the cosmos. We’re practically at its doorstep here.”

  Annette looks around. “So it never really gets pitch-dark here?”

  “Not unless there’s cloud cover.”

  The dark moon Ichi inhabits another part of the night sky, to the astonishment of the group.

  “What is that?”

  “That’s our moon. We call it Ichi.”

  “It’s so dark.”

  “Yeah, the surface of your moon is highly reflective. Ichi isn’t. Later on tonight you’ll see another planet called Dué, which has a neon atmosphere. It’s nearby and lights up in different colors. In fact, our ancient astronomers initially thought it was another moon because it has a fixed orbit.”

  Matt frowns. “Fixed? Not elliptical?”

  “That’s right. Gravity from our suns pulls Dué towards them, while Trieste’s gravity tugs in this direction. As such, Dué is in perfect balance. She rises and sets like clockwork. Our ancient mariners used to navigate by her.”

  Matt points to another celestial body, a large, twinkling blue ‘star.’ “What’s that blue one called?”

  “That is the planet, Triton. You’ll all be going there at some point.”

  The group continues on toward Dev’s building. The streets start filling with people. They all seem to have a strange, slow gait as they seemingly emerge from all the buildings around them, all looking up, as if in trance. It is strange to the point of making Jen very uncomfortable.

  “What the hell is happening? It looks like the zombie apocalypse.”

  “Oh, yes, of course,” Dev says, then points to the sky as it begins lighting up with a meteor shower. More brilliant than any meteor shower any of the group has seen on Earth, this is like watching horizontal fireworks streaking through the air. “Wow,” Dev says, with wonderment.

  “You’re wowed?” Chaz asks.

  “How can you not be?”

  “What is it, exactly?” Harrison asks.

  “It’s the Herculaneum Meteor Shower.”

  Dev goes on to explain that the meteor shower is a sort of holiday on Trieste that happens every three or four years. It marks the beginning of the Crossover, the time in the Tertian planetary cycle where the paths of Trieste and Triton eventually exchange orbits. The crossover brings out the true nature of the binary star, as the orbit of the smaller companion star, Gemini, appears in the daytime. Trieste’s orbit becomes farther away from the principal star, Gemma, but the additional warmth Gemini provides makes up for the difference. Nighttime becomes cool to cold, and the seasonal transformations in the lands and seas that typically occur during autumn begin taking place.

  “Wow!” Chaz gasps as a large meteor streaks past, seemingly just overhead. “They’re so bright.”

  “It’s the gravity here,” Dev says. “Those are some large rocks whizzing by.”

  “Uh, do they ever hit?” Jen asks.

  “No. Their composition isn’t very dense, but their mineral content lights up the sky for miles around. Don’t worry, we have projectile teams stationed midway between here and Hercules to take out anything that could pose a danger.”

  The mood outside is great. Once the collective awes are heard in the bars and eateries, patrons abandon their tables to pour outside to bask in the splendor of the meteor shower. Dev smiles, because coincidentally, it’s also the day the Crown retook Hercules.

  Jen’s discomfort in crowds is obvious, so Chaz leads the group to the nearby pier behind Dev’s building for a private place to view the sky. The meteor shower is only fleeting, however, as the narrow band of space debris continues on its long trek around the suns. Twenty minutes later the meteor shower is over and the night sky is as clear and beautiful as ever. The calm of the night sky combines with the alcohol served in the bar and starts to show on the newcomers. They are winding down from a long journey and so many firsts.

  Dev addresses the group, “I know you’re all tired, but before we go inside, I want to show you one last thing . . . ” Dev leads the group around his building to the pier and walks all the way to the end. The band of the enormous nebula is behind everyone, so the view ahead is just ocean and a ‘regular’ night sky. Dev points to a spot, twenty-five degrees above the horizon, where the star-spangled sky thins to near blackness. He points to a small constellation of four small stars, somehow lonely among the rest of the cosmos. “Behold, my friends, the Constellation Oasis.”

  There is a mad dash to find the stars, as if they were all competing for the same piece of sky, but there they are . . . four stars in a seemingly innocuous patch of the universe located in an area of cosmic desolation. A bright spot in an otherwise limitless sea of darkness, an oasis.

  The group is mesmerized by their stars.

  “Is one of those Earth?” Franz asks.

  “Second one the right,” Dev says, “That’s Earth’s sun.”

  The whole group stares at the constellation in awe. Even Dev. They watch and smile. Harrison squeezes Annette that much closer. Franz and Milo lean into each other. Chaz puts his hand on Dev’s shoulder. Steve puts his arms around both Jen and Matt. They are all connected one way or another. They are the only people on Trieste who belong to that particular star.

  “It’s so far away,” Matt says slowly, in amazement.

  “Wow,” Harrison whispers. “Fifty-six light years.”

  “What are the other ones called?” Annette asks.

  Dev replies, “Barnard, Alpha Centauri and Proxima Centauri.”

  “Wait,” Matt says, “Barnard’s star is named after a guy from Harvard.”

  “Yes.”

  Matt is confused. “How do you guys call it that, then?”

  Dev smiles. “The stars of Oasis used to be called Litus-Rubrum, Sol, Centaur and Centaurides.”

  “When did it change?”

  “About the same time you guys set foot on Trieste.”

  Chaz is shocked. “Really? Why?”

  Dev points to the sky. “My friends, that is your constellation.”

  “Ours?” Harrison says.

  “Well,” Dev says, “in the same way the Crown is my constellation, Oasis is yours. The Admiralty recognizes that.”

  Matt looks at Dev. “Litus-Rubrum? Doesn’t that mean Red Beach?”

  “It does. Litus—sorry, Barnard—is a red dwarf.”

  “What were the other ones again?” Annette says.

  “Sol, that’s your sun, then Centaur and Centaurides, the male and female centaurs.”

  Jen is surprised. “And you guys changed the name just for us?”
>
  “We amended the names. You’ll see Litus and Barnard on our charts now.”

  “Wow.”

  “That’s actually pretty cool.”

  Dev turns around. “The eight of you hold the future of your entire world.”

  The newcomers all seem to pause at those words and look at one another, sharing the realization that what Dev just said is true.

  Jen looks at Dev. “Can we really do this?”

  “We have to,” Chaz interjects. “There’s no one else who can. It’s all up to us.”

  Jen looks worried. “How many fighters?”

  “Six,” Dev says. “Standard deployment squadron.”

  “Six fighters to protect an entire planet.”

  “Six for now,” Dev says. “Once we’re up and running, we can reevaluate our needs. But for now, six will have to do.”

  Returning to their new dwellings, the group settles in for a good night’s sleep. Each of them finds a set of sleepwear, courtesy of the attentive Leftenant Bross.

  Jen and Matt quietly get ready for bed. Not much is said as each is consumed with the idea that their entire world is unknowingly relying on them. They both climb under their covers and stare up at the ceiling.

  Jen is a bit uneasy. “Mattsy? You’re pretty smart, do you think this will work?”

  Matt thinks about the enormity of Jen’s question. “If it doesn’t, I guess we’ll get to live here.”

  “What about everyone else back home?”

  Matt shrugs his shoulders. “Eh, screw ’em. I only hope if a Yeti lands, it crashes right into my ex’s house.”

  They both burst into laughter. Not an ideal solution, but at least it temporarily took some of the pressure off.

  Harrison and Steve also climb into their beds without saying very much.

  “You good, Harr?”

  Harrison takes a deep breath. “I think I’m in over my head.”

  Steve looks up at the ceiling. “I know what you mean, man. I know what you mean.”

  Harrison looks over at Steve. “Dev is pretty high up here, isn’t he?”

  “I think so. I mean, they trusted him with this whole Earth business. They gave him a spaceship.”