by Jim Rudnick
In the Ready Room on the Drozir, the three of them sat in silence for a moment.
"Barony might not just sit by and allow this. They have invested millions of credits on Throth, so that might mitigate that sit-back on their part," the XO said.
The captain nodded. "Yes, but I'd worry more about the Marwick and that captain of theirs. He's a loose cannon, rumor has it ..." They all nodded at that.
"That's all for now," Political Officer Vetochkin said. "Sorry that I had to spring this on you in this manner, but in the planning stages, the Premier ordered me to keep this close ..." he finished off with a small smile on his face. Standing up, he walked out of the Ready Room without a backward glance.
The room remained silent as the two officers sat quietly in thought wondering what would really happen on the Keshowse soon.
#
Sachem Ahanu stared again at Kikinamagan Nibin, his face a blank page.
He shook his head, wiped his forehead with a sleeve, and then looked back at the youngster in front of him.
"Kikinamagan Nibin, please ... re-state that once more—I must have been meditating too deeply," he said.
"Sachem, again, I am afraid that I must report that Epsilon tank number 1007 is empty—someone has emptied it, Sachem," he said quietly, his voice steady but still the tone he used was nothing more than anxious.
Nibin had just started his daily shift on Epsilon Row, checking his daily 200 Sleeper tanks, and #1007 was very near the start of the row. He motioned to the tablet clipboard in front of him and pointed at a small message screen on the sidebar of the tank listings.
"Sachem, as you can see, I have noted that tank number 1008 is one of the ones we call a variable tank—the readings fluctuate almost at the same rates over a period of my weekly rotation—one week up 0.4 percent and then back down to even. So I know that tank, and when I check on it, I always wheel my cart up high to make notes—and that means that I usually check the face of the Sleeper in tank number 1007 too ... and five minutes ago, Sachem, the tank was empty. Yet its readings show that it's absolutely on a par, reading-wise, for more than 1600 years, Sachem ... yet it is empty. And we do not power empty tanks, Sachem," he said, showed the sign of respect as the back of his right hand touched his forehead, and then he dipped his head too.
Ahanu sat and thought about that and realized that, yes, the Ikarians had designed each tank to hold a Sleeper, and so only tanks that held a Sleeper would be powered. Only tanks that held a Sleeper would be on the list of tanks to be checked, and he knew that even he would have checked tank number 1007 more than a hundred years ago.
"Nibin—you have one tank that is fully powered, but is empty. Does your message show any mention of why that might be—and where that Sleeper has gone—if in fact there ever was a sleeper in number 1007?"
"Sachem, no, I only know that tank number 1007 held a Sleeper—a delightful looking child, a boy I believe—as of just a few days ago when it was last checked. But no, Sachem, I do not know what has occurred ... just that the tank runs perfectly and has never ever even shown up in the logs as being anything but reliable, Sachem. It appears we have a mystery, Sachem," he said and looked directly at his tribal row chief.
"Have we any records of any 'tank disturbance' on Epsilon, Kikinamagan?" Ahanu said.
"Not a single event ever, Sachem—well, on Epsilon. Earlier in the week, we were all surprised by the brouhaha between the Barony scientists and their forces, if you remember, Sachem. That lasted only a few minutes and was really up on Gamma Row, Sachem," he added and nodded at the same time.
Ahanu realized that other than this single event by Barony visitors to the Keshowse, there had been nothing in his 241 years on his ship. Only this one single event when others were there. One single event which was perhaps the theft, the removal, of one Ikarian Sleeper—the loss of a citizen that was still a child who had yet to awake in their new home. The rationale behind that theft was the part that ... and he stopped cold. He thought on that, and then it struck him—an idea so monstrous that he shrugged it off. No one could—would ever ... and he stared out the view-port up in the administration offices and then turned to the Sigil of the Feathered Serpent above his head.
Dismissing the Kikinamagan, Ahanu got up and knew what he had to do. He looked to the console on his desk to see where Sachem Hassun was right now, and he moved to the staircase to go to the bridge as quickly as he could manage.
A full five minutes it took, but he eventually got to the bridge to take Hassun aside for what he knew would be a long, long talk.
#
"Sir, something just a bit—wait—no, Sir, the Keshowse has changed its heading—is still changing its heading, Sir," Lieutenant Lebedev the Drozir helmsman said quietly, his voice firming up as he spoke.
"On screen," Captain Pankov ordered as he turned his attention to what the helm was talking about.
The Keshowse was to starboard and looked for all intents and purposes still on the same heading as they all were. Pankov could detect no changes at all.
"Helm? Are you sure? Looks to me like ... ahhh," Pankov said as the Keshowse shimmered a little and he nodded.
"Do we have any idea on the course?" Pankov said as he messaged Politico Officer Vetochkin immediately, "and how the hell are they doing that? They supposedly have no active engines at all?" he finished.
On screen, the Keshowse shimmered again and the nose of the alien ship moved slightly farther abeam, but Pankov had to stare hard at the heading to be able to tell.
"Sir, no idea on the engines, but I do see ... yes, that they appear to be ejecting gas—most likely oxygen from within the ship, Sir, and at that size, they have a lot of air to use," Lieutenant Lebedev added, and his hands danced on the Helm console.
He worked his buttons and screens and then turned back to the captain as Political Officer Vetochkin arrived and flopped into his chair on the bridge.
"Status, Helm," Vetochkin ordered, snapping out the two words.
"Sir, yes, Sir. The alien ship, the Keshowse, is altering their course by bleeding off oxygen—they have no engines, Sir, and the new heading appears to be toward the Barony, Sir," Lebedev finished off, his voice obedient and polite.
Vetochkin stared at the Keshowse. "Is that bleed off of atmosphere why the ship looks like it's shimmering every few seconds?" he asked and stared at his captain.
"Yes, Commissar, when you bleed off air from many ports, you don't change your heading in a few seconds—you change it slowly, and the ship does appear to shimmer when that occurs. Heading, true, Helm," he added, and he and Vetochkin looked back at the Drozir Helm bridge officer.
"Sir, yes, Sir. Well, they'll need to still make some minor adjustments, but yes, Sir, the heading is toward the Barony ... at least that's what is appearing to be their final heading. Sir—Sirs," he added.
And on screen, the Keshowse shimmered again, then once more, and finally lay still on the screen.
"Ansible, any chatter on this?" Vetochkin asked, and they all turned to Lieutenant Baryshev to watch. His head was cocked to one side as he was listening to various chatter among the consort ships, and he finally turned to his captain.
"Captain Pankov, their heading changed by about 3.0277 percent at least so far, Sir. And everyone has noticed—all open channels, and they all are going to match the new heading, but I did notice, Sir, that the Sterling ordered to change to encrypted channels just a moment ago, Political Officer Vetochkin—wait, Sir," he interrupted himself, and the bridge waited for a minute more. The lieutenant nodded, turned a toggle on his console, and then turned back to the captain as the bridge loudspeaker came to life.
"... and as we all know, we will be making the transport of the Ikarians much quicker as we will be using the Gibraltar to make that move in a few months rather than over hundreds of years. Yet the Keshowse will maintain this new course heading to eventually arrive at Throth as well, to be used by the Ikarians as they will decide then. So again, please do not be concerned
with this new heading change as it was both planned and facilitated by our own engineers ..."
Captain Pankov nodded, and his Ansible officer turned off the Barony feed. They all turned to stare out into space on the view screen and waited. Sure enough, as the Helm of the Drozir changed to match the Keshowse, the bridge saw that all the other ships matched that new heading all now aimed at the Barony and Throth.
Vetochkin smiled.
"Helm, keep watch. I want to know in seconds if the Keshowse makes any further adjustments—if anything changes on that ships' heading, I want to know. Understood, Lieutenant?" he said, his voice again strident and loud.
"Sir, yes, Sir," Lieutenant Lebedev said, snapping back his answer immediately.
The five ships, alien and human, moved together on their communal new heading, deeper into the RIM.
CHAPTER NINE
The Awakening procession slowly made its way down Epsilon Row, moving through the last fifty or so cryonic tanks that abutted the last staircase leading up to other rows and the tribal administration offices. At the lead walked Sachem Ahanu, followed by his own Kikinamagan, Nibin who was to become the next Epsilon tribe Sachem, and then the rest of the Sachems and elders. Behind them, the drummers beat the pace as the Ikarian Awakening Day procession moved down the row, stepping to each of the multiple drumbeats.
Sachem Nadie walked beside his own Shaman Kikinamagan, awakened, as was the custom, from any of the six rows of Sleepers. He had picked his own replacement to become the new Ikarian tribe Shaman, and the young boy strode along strongly, Nibin noted. This would be another Shaman like the current one, who would keep the tribe’s history and legacy above all else.
Following the elders was a circular grouping of Kikinamagans, who were trying to keep pace but at the same time also shepherding the already newly awakened Sleepers to keep the children together. One of the Kikinamagans had a hold of the shirt collar of one of their charges and was not letting go no matter which way the child tugged and pulled. The group was noisy and yet still the solemnness of the day was observed as they stopped up at the far end of Epsilon Row and were met there by the Awakening medical team who stood along with four newly awakened Epsilon Row Sleepers.
"I greet you" Sachem Ahanu said, his voice carrying over all of the procession, as they all stopped near the end of the cryonic tank row. The Kikinamagans moved the group of newly awakened Sleepers up too so that they could watch the induction of the Epsilon Row’s new Kikinamagan.
The Awakening team leader nodded and made the sign of respect, the back of his right hand slapping his forehead, and then he bowed.
"Sachem Ahanu, we have followed your instructions and have awakened these four Sleepers as per your directions. May the Feathered Serpent rise ..." he finished, and the four children were pushed forward to meet their destiny.
Ahanu looked at each of them. These were the four new Epsilon Row Sleepers, newly awakened, who would take the places of the four Kikinamagans, who soon would be the elders. The passing of the Epsilon Row patriarchy was at hand, and Ahanu stepped to the side as his own successor came up to stand beside him.
As had been done so far today on each of the rows from Alpha through Beta, Gamma, Delta, and now Epsilon rows, the change of the Sachems was occurring.
"Kikinamagan Nibin—are you ready to become the Sachem of the Epsilon Row for the next cohort of Elders," he said quietly and then made the sign of respect.
Nibin looked at the Ikarian who had been his Sachem, his mentor—in fact, almost his father for the past 121 years, made the sign of respect, and held it for over a minute, as was the custom. Sachem Ahanu had meant for him at least, both a link to his Ikarian past as well as his link to his future ... and for that he truly loved his Sachem.
He straightened and then looked toward the four young faces that stared up at him. Awakened only hours earlier in their tanks and then washed, clothed, and fed, they knew what lay ahead. Each of the Sleepers had gone through the mandatory orientation of the cryonic sleep and what might happen should they be chosen to be awakened as a new cohort crew member.
They'd be expected to serve their first 121 years as a Kikinamagan, under guidance and mentorship of an Elder, and then to become an Elder for the last 121 years after their next Awakening Day to oversee their own Kikinamagan. It was how things were to be, and eventually they too would go back into tanks until their new world was found. Each of these newly awakened Epsilon Row members had a place in the future of their Tribe and its culture, and each knew what was expected of them. Yet each of them, like the ones already awakened and part of the procession, were still children, and as such, their general lack of solemnness was something to be expected.
Nibin looked at each of the four in front of him. Each was from the Epsilon tribe; three boys and a single girl looked back at him. From these four, it was up to Nibin to decide upon who would be his own Kikinamagan, and by being chosen for that honor, then to become Sachem after he went back into the tanks. One of them chosen now from these four such as they were.
One of the boys had longish hair, jet black, of course, but down past his shoulders, and he hid his gaze back beneath some of the strands of that hair. The next one of the boys had a small medical patch on his ear, and Nibin wondered what might have happened there and if he was okay. The girl stood next yet slightly ahead of the others, one hand twined in her bobbed hair, twisting a strand over and over. Her eyes didn't leave Nibin's but stared back with the same curiosity. The last of the boys hung back as Nibin gave him the once over too, and he never even looked up from his shoes.
One of these, Nibin knew, would become Sachem of the Epsilon tribe—to replace him in 121 years. One of these ...
Nibin turned to his Sachem and said quietly yet still loud enough for this small group to both hear and understand, "Sachem, none of these will be my Kikinamagan and eventually the Sachem of the Epsilon tribe. None seem to me to be good enough ..." and his arm suddenly jerked downward from behind.
The girl let go of his elbow and stared right at his narrowing eyes.
"I am the one. I am the next one. I am good enough. I am the one ..." she announced loudly.
Nibin smiled as his lure had worked, and he knelt before his choice—or rather the next Sachem who would follow his rule. He stroked her black hair, looked her right in the eye, and nodded.
"Yes, you are the one," he said, took her hand, and rose as he turned to face Sachem Ahanu. He squeezed her hand slightly, and almost in unison, they showed the sign of respect to their Sachem.
Ahanu smiled and signed back. The drums began to beat again as the whole procession started up once more to go down to the last row, the Zeta Row, to greet their newly awakened Sleepers and to judge which of them would eventually become the Sachem of the Zeta tribe row and the procession moved on.
#
Kikinamagan Nibin dragged yet another box out of the sub-stage flooring and moved it laboriously over to the pile of decorations, both new and archived weapons and clothing, in the middle of the Council Chamber room. More Kikinamagans were over at the side of the room, setting up various Tribal shields on their own stands to show all of the various tribes and clans. The rows were long and varied with color and shapes and sizes.
Nibin paused for a second to look around and noted the Chamber had been nicely decorated at the table and chairs seating area for the big planned dinner. The area where he stood along with many others was as yet unadorned as it was to hold the history of the Ikarian tribes with their specialized culture, weapons, and mores.
He shrugged and went back to the opened doors of the storage area and eyed the more than a dozen large packing cases and sighed.
"And that sigh, my Kikinamagan, indicates exactly how I felt 121 years ago when I had to help set up the celebrations and décor in this room," Sachem Ahanu said as he smiled at the younger man. He was not helping, as he was in the cohort of elders and the job was up to the younger Ikarians to do the tasks needed for the Awakening Day, from set
up to take down ... something he had done long ago.
"Sachem, yes, I know. It's just that this seems so, so, well—un-needed at this point as we are only months away from our new home. I find it difficult to believe that the Tribal Council could envision going back to the way things were now that things have changed, Sachem." He quickly added the Ikarian sign of respect to his superior.
Ahanu nodded. "Not open for discussion, as the Council requires that we remain the same when it comes to our customs, our mores, our laws—and as such, we do what we do as Ikarians," he said quietly. Nibin wondered if his Sachem wanted to go back into the tank to lie quietly in that chemical bath until the tank took over and then drift away into the blackness that lies in Sleeper sleep. He held out his hands, palms up.
"But Sachem, surely with the end of the voyage a few months away, we could forgo the need for the Awakening Day and instead, extend our time together ..." he asked, his voice almost pleading.
"That, of course, is not our way, Kikinamagan, and yes, I've noted your displeasure on this, and we can talk more about it on our new world. Now I should let you get back to the job ..." He smiled at the younger man and moved off toward the far exit.
Nibin shook his head. This was plain a waste of time then, he thought as he dragged out yet another box of items for display. This one was long and high, and the outer shell said it held bows and clubs. He wondered about the arrows that went with the bows but didn't bother to stop to search. Maybe they'd bring up the practice ones from the Course room, but he didn't know. Instead, he just kept on swinging out the boxes and piling them up in the middle of the floor.
Over on the far wall, one or two of the boxes had been dragged over by Naqreq and Wematin, and he saw they were in the process of hanging up quiver after quiver of arrows all along a display wall. He grunted with the knowledge that the bows would have a match after all. More boxes were still under more of the now closed doors, and that meant there was still much to do. He was glad that they'd started setting up the Council Chamber so early in the week. Still, there were several things to do in three days and then the actual awakenings too. He grunted once more and went back to open up yet another door and drag out boxes.