She was flushed and breathing hard.
“And that’s an understatement,” he said.
“What just happened there?” Fisher asked, frowning at them.
Maria laughed. “More information than you want to know.”
Fisher blushed and turned away to clean up the dishes. “Meet you in the Command Center.”
Roscoe and Maria both laughed, then holding hands, jumped back to the heart and soul and brains of Morning Song.
TWENTY-NINE
MARIA STOOD IN front of the two command chairs, holding hands with Roscoe. A tiny part of her was worried about sitting down again, but honestly, she felt excited about the learning she knew was coming.
“How did it go with Chairman Ray?” Callie asked.
“Interesting describes it,” Roscoe said. “Fisher will explain. He’ll be here in a moment.”
She nodded.
Maria pulled Roscoe toward the two chairs. “We have some lessons to learn.”
“Looking forward to it,” he said, squeezing her hand.
Then they turned and sat down, scooting back into the form-fitting chairs and making sure they had a solid hold of each other’s hands.
Again the blue heads-up screen came up in front of them and Maria could again feel her mind expanding even more.
She and Roscoe both did a quick check of all the ship’s major systems.
“Everything seems to functioning fine,” Maria said.
“Better than can be expected after such a long trip,” Roscoe said. “Morning Song, you have done a great job over the long voyage.”
Words appeared on the translucent blue screen in front of them.
Thank you, Chairmen.
Are you ready for the next stage?
“We are,” Maria said.
The form of the chairs shifted and encased them quickly in a tight but comfortable shell. She still held Roscoe’s hand, but could see nothing at all.
There was no sense of movement at all, but within just a few seconds the big chairs opened back up.
They were now sitting in a large circular room, their two chairs on a higher level looking out over what looked like a comfortable living room. Five steps led down into the round center of the room.
Long couches, large overstuffed chairs, coffee tables, all formed in groups in the large room like a lounge, or a very comfortable waiting area. The floor seemed to have a carpet of some sort on it and everything was in brown tones.
Maria guessed that the room might hold a hundred people without trouble, and there were enough couches and chairs for more than that. It was an immense round room. But at the same time it had numbers of areas where just a few people could talk and feel private.
The ceiling was far overhead and the light indirect. The only thing she could smell was a faint scent of bread cooking.
Maria knew that they were supposed to stand and just make themselves at home. So they both did stand, looking around, but keeping their hands together.
Maria was amazed. The huge room, even for its size, felt very, very comfortable.
Maria had a sense where they were, but she didn’t want to think about that being possible.
Roscoe pointed at the wide area where their two chairs sat. “Landing areas for a good fifty sets of chairs around the room. See the marks on the floor?”
She did and she agreed. This is where the Chairmen came.
At that moment another set of command chairs shimmered into existence about a quarter turn around the circle away from them.
Maria remained holding Roscoe’s hand as the new command chairs opened and Chairman Ray and Tacita stood, smiling.
Of all the people she had expected to see here for their training, it was not them. Not after the way they had acted on their ship just a short time ago.
Chairman Ray, his long gray hair flowing behind him, stepped down into the main part of the room with Tacita at his side.
Roscoe glanced at her, then led them down the five steps.
“Where are we?” Maria asked as they got near Chairman Ray.
“Earth,” Ray said, smiling.
“All human cultures name their home world Earth,” Roscoe said, annoyed at the dance of an answer.
But Maria knew what Ray meant. She had to just let him say it.
“The first Earth,” Ray said, still smiling and indicating they should sit on a comfortable-looking couch. “This is the home world of all the Seeders.”
Maria just couldn’t breathe.
It felt like something heavy was on her chest.
It wasn’t possible.
She knew that the Seeder home world was just a myth. She never expected to be here.
Yet she knew, with her connection to Morning Song, that Ray was telling the truth.
She was on Earth.
Not her Earth or Roscoe’s Earth.
The first Earth.
THIRTY
ROSCOE COULD SENSE how upset Maria was and squeezed her hand some and guided her to sit down beside him on one of the soft-looking couches.
As they sat, the couch shifted slightly and molded perfectly to their forms.
Ray and Tacita sat across from them, both smiling.
“We are sorry about our deception on my ship,” Ray said. “We knew you were going to go back to the Morning Song and immediately jump here for your training and we needed to get to our ship to get here as well to greet you and help you get started and answer questions we couldn’t answer with Chairman Fisher present.”
“Where is your Mother Ship located?” Maria asked.
“In the spiral galaxy that is named The Sevens by the residents there,” Tacita said, her voice soft for the first time that Maria had ever heard. “It’s the same spiral galaxy that Morning Song originated from.”
“It is our base,” Ray said. “Our ship is called Warm Night. We built the Morning Song there along with her sister ship, Morning Breeze, who is coming into the Milky Way in about forty thousand years on the same path.”
“You built them?” Maria asked, trying to wrap her head around how old the two sitting across from them really were.
“We did,” Tacita said, nodding.
“Maria and I are the first Chairmen of the Morning Song?” Roscoe asked, clearly as surprised as Maria felt.
“The only ones there will ever be unless there is an accident or you have a desire to step down,” Ray said. “She is your ship and your companion from the moment you sat down and she accepted you.”
Maria had nothing to say.
Neither did Roscoe it seemed.
Ray smiled. “I assume since you had just gotten here you have eaten before coming?”
“We did,” Maria managed to say.
“Good,” Ray said, standing. “We will jump back when your first training is complete to help in answering any questions you might have.”
“Just stay seated,” Tacita said as she stood beside Ray.
Then they turned and moved toward their command chairs.
And at that moment a simple bubble surrounded Maria and Roscoe and collapsed in skin-tight on them.
Maria only had a moment to even think about it before the images came flooding in.
And for the first time, she started to really understand that even though she had been an expert, how little she had known about Seeders.
And their history.
THIRTY-ONE
AS THE BUBBLE that had wrapped around them dropped and Roscoe let the last of the images fade away, he shook his head. It felt like he had had so much information crammed into his mind, it would be impossible to remember it all.
But somehow, it felt like he did.
Around them the large circular room hadn’t changed at all.
He was still holding Maria’s hand and he turned to face her.
“You all right?”
“I think so,” she said, blinking her wonderful golden eyes. He could feel so much more of their attraction now and all he wanted to do was hold he
r in his arms.
She moved over and leaned into him and he put his arm around her.
“This feels perfect.”
“It does,” he said.
They sat there silently like that for a good minute, just not talking. Roscoe was lost in all the information he had been given, and in his incredible feeling for Maria.
Two command chairs shimmered into place and again Chairman Ray and Tacita got out and came toward them.
“How long were we in that information flow?” Roscoe asked, describing what had happened to them in the best way he could.
“Three hours,” Ray said.
“Food will be brought in for all of us,” Tacita said, “and we can answer questions as you have them.”
“I’m not sure what I know and don’t know,” Maria said.
“That feeling will pass with time as your mind organizes everything,” Ray said.
Roscoe nodded.
“Can you help me,” Maria said, “if possible, understand a timeline structure for the Seeders.”
“Of course,” Ray said. “It was your passion before this, I would have assumed it would remain your passion.”
Roscoe was just going to let her lead on this. He needed the same thing, a way to organize the vast amount of information that had flowed into his mind in the last few hours.
“The Seeders originated on this planet?” she asked. “The first Earth as it is called.”
“Yes,” Ray said.
“And as they managed to make it into space and discovered trans-tunnel drive, they spread out and discovered they were alone in the universe.”
“They were alone in this galaxy, yes,” Ray said.
Roscoe was following all of this and having Maria talk it out loud really was helping him organize his mind as well.
“And as they spread out, they developed the techniques the frontline Seeders use now in terraforming appropriate planets,” Maria said, “and then seeding them with human life and plant life from their original home world.”
“Yes,” Ray said. “But in those first few hundred thousand years in this galaxy, they learned the hard lesson about the falseness of non-intervention in growing human civilizations. It was not a smooth road to galaxy-wide stability.”
Roscoe nodded, remembering all that very clearly now as Ray put it in clear form.
“After this galaxy stabilized,” Ray said, “and became very advanced, faster ships were built from a series of really lucky inventions and we were able to jump to a nearby galaxy. We again found no other intelligent life.”
“So they seeded it,” Maria said, nodding.
“Yes,” Ray said. “And continued on until in one galaxy the explorers ran across alien life, a young civilization they called The Ants because of their heritage.”
Roscoe could see The Ants clearly in his mind. Very close to Earth ants, only the size of small dogs and with advanced hive minds. When humans had discovered them, The Ants had managed to get into space, but only barely.
“We left that galaxy alone and moved around them,” Ray said, “not bothering them.”
“They are now extinct?” Maria said simply.
“Sadly, yes,” Ray said. “But we have not touched their galaxy in any fashion in case some of their members have survived.”
“Seven alien races, seven galaxies skipped,” Roscoe said, clearly getting the images of each alien race. None of them felt threatening in any fashion in his teaching. And four of the seven were now extinct. None of the four had yet to make it out of their own home system.
Roscoe knew there was an entire branch of Seeders who did nothing but study and look for new life forms. They always moved ahead of any Seeder frontline into a galaxy to make sure there were no aliens in that galaxy anywhere.
“That is correct,” Ray said, answering Roscoe’s statement about how humans skip entire galaxies with hints of alien races.
Tacita finally added to the discussion. “To answer the next question, no one really knows exactly how many galaxies humans have spread over. The galaxy this original planet is in cannot be seen from the Milky Way.”
“That far?” Roscoe asked, again not being able to comprehend the distance.
“That far. No number really describes the distance,” Ray said.
“How many Mother Seeder ships are there?” Maria asked.
Roscoe was surprised he didn’t have that information in the giant information load they had taken in.
“At the moment there are twenty-eight of us,” Ray said. “Counting your ship. Fourteen more ships are in transit as the Morning Song did, but we hope without the programmed braking problem. Ten more are under construction in various galaxies.”
“We need many, many more,” Tacita said.
Ray only nodded to that.
“And our mission,” Roscoe said, “is to crew and stock the Morning Song and head out from the Milky Way in a new direction?”
“That is the basics of it,” Ray said.
Maria squeezed Roscoe’s hand to signal there was more that Ray wasn’t saying, but Roscoe had caught that as well.
“But you want us to go in a certain direction,” Roscoe said, “that has some possible problems, correct?”
Ray and Tacita both sat there staring at them, then Ray nodded slowly. “Yes. We have heard that there may be another galaxy-spanning race in the direction we would like you and Morning Song to go.”
Suddenly he and Maria being picked for this made sense.
He looked at Ray and nodded. “You picked Military and History and a lot of brains to lead this because you think we may need both in what we run into. And we are from a young galaxy still able to think without centuries of training into Seeder dogma.”
Ray and Tacita nodded.
“After a time of growth and steady worlds, humans by nature are very pacifistic,” Ray said. “We would stand little to no chance against an aggressive alien race who didn’t like us. We don’t even like large governments and when not needed, we disband them.”
“Did you know this alien race might be out there,” Maria asked, “when you sent the leading edge of Seeders and the Morning Song over a million years ago toward the Milky Way?”
“Yes,” Ray said bluntly. “We need you to recruit fighters as well as workers and arm Morning Song for a fight if needed.”
“The empty hanger,” Roscoe said. “A fighter deck.”
“Yes,” Ray said. “And when the second ship arrives in forty thousand years, it will recruit from Andromeda and head out in a similar, but slightly different direction to see what it can find.”
“And you have not scouted this alien race in any fashion?” Roscoe asked.
“We have some,” Ray said. “From what we can tell, their main galaxy a million years ago was about thirty galaxies from the Milky Way, but we have no idea if they are now advancing or not in any direction. We really know little about them. All of this will be in the final educational session in ten days. One thing at a time.”
Roscoe didn’t much like waiting on something as important as that, but he understood. And Maria’s hand in his helped him.
At that moment a table appeared between them, their seats on the couch lifted them to a comfortable dining position close to the table, and then food appeared.
Turkey, gravy, rolls, and more potatoes and dressing than any four people could eat in a week.
And it smelled heavenly. Until that moment Roscoe didn’t realize just how hungry he had become.
“Eat,” Ray said. “Then return to Morning Song and rest. Tomorrow will be another long day of learning.”
“Can our minds handle this kind of information flow for ten more days?” Roscoe asked.
Ray and Tacita both smiled. Then Tacita said simply. “Yes, and you have only begun the learning. It will continue for life.”
Then she leaned forward and grabbed a large drumstick as Roscoe just sat there until Maria pushed him to start eating.
Section Three:
&n
bsp; AN UNDERSTANDING OF POWER
THIRTY-TWO
WHEN MARIA AND Roscoe returned to Morning Song, both Callie and Fisher came running down to the lower level of the Command Center to face them. They were both clearly very happy and relieved.
Behind them the big screen showed the open space and in the distance was the Milky Way Galaxy, filling a quarter of the screen with its billions of suns.
Maria felt like she was once again home and could feel herself relax.
She and Roscoe both did a quick scan of Morning Song to make sure she was doing all right. Everything seemed perfectly in balance and the big ship was still braking. After they got down far enough to allow other crew to come on board, they could start some of the major repairs that were needed.
Maria smiled at Callie and Fisher as she and Roscoe stood, continuing to hold hands. “We didn’t know we were leaving like that or we would have warned you.”
“Yeah, a surprise,” Roscoe said.
“Where did you go?” Fisher asked.
“A long ways away to do a training session in the history of Seeders,” Maria said.
“Every day we will be doing another,” Roscoe said, “I suppose on different topics, so this will be normal. Are you all right here?”
“We are,” Fisher nodded. “We’re doing eight hour shifts and rotating.”
“Great,” Maria said.
Roscoe looked at her and smiled. “You up for a little exploring before we get some rest and go back to class?
“I’d love that,” she said, smiling, a surge of excitement running through her. Even though she knew the seeder history now and she really understood this ship, she wanted to see it all for herself.
Roscoe looked at Fisher. “Call if you need our help. And Morning Song, please help them and keep us informed.”
On the image of space that filled the large front screen, the letters formed.
I will.
“Thank you, Morning Song,” Maria said.
Then Roscoe squeezed her hand and jumped them.
Smith's Monthly #9 Page 18