Dreams among Stars

by Pirx Danford

  “I am really happy that there are some people left that haven’t lost sight of the mission.” I expressed my delight with. “My child” Rab sighed “There is so much to say about this, but now about our requirement or rather requirements.” He waved one of the men forward which moved closer with a handheld computer in his hands.

  “Alright, our first condition is that one of us has to accompany you and is allowed to learn how to perform those repairs you speak of. The next condition is that you return to us and repair those devices.”

  I examined the small computer, which consisted of not much more than a touchscreen. Those devices were cheaply manufactured in large amounts and were used as learning devices since ages.

  I asked “What do you need the devices for?” and received the reply I was hoping to get “We want to teach our children how to repair the ship.” I looked around the crowd “And who is it that should accompany me?” Old Rab pointed at the man holding the handheld computer “My grandson Rolf Gustavsson” I looked Rolf up and noticed that he probably was in his mid twenties just like me. “Rolf, you are aware that it will be extremely dangerous?” He nodded and replied with a pleasantly firm voice “Yes, but the reward is well worth the risk.” I looked at him with a gravely expression “I cannot promise that we will survive this mission.”

  He stood his ground under my gaze.

  In the meantime someone had been monkeying with the hill and suddenly an entrance to a cave became visible, when a figure approached running from the trees.

  Wheezing the young woman came to a halt before our group and gasping for air she uttered “Soldiers!” Troubled looks examined the landscape. “Its the Benefactors, at the towers foot still.” Energetically the old Rab signaled for attention. “You, you and you” he pointed at people in the group “take a partner with you and notify the resistance within the segments B two to four on our clock, then our neighbors at C three and five and then also C three to five at clock two and four.” With that six members of the group hurriedly left.

  The remainder of the group followed the hurriedly onward pressing Rab towards the entrance.

  I followed and was baffled when I saw the tunnel even was lighted.

  Someone closed the entrance and I truly hoped the soldiers didn’t know the tricks of this segments natives.

  I felt like I had entered a gigantic molehill and was half expecting the face of a gigantic mole to breach through one of the tunnels walls any moment, like in the kids movies explaining animals and nature in animated cartoons.

  The air was surprisingly clean and the earthen smell was nice and not moldy at all.

  At some spots the tunnel was pretty narrow, but after a short while we reached the center of the hill and with that finally the locks gate.

  The control room was not very large and seemed like an altar in a prayer room, appropriate decorations had been placed and I realized that defending the airlocks had been raised to a religion for these people.

  When I excitedly hurried to the control room I felt a tension running through the crowd, to suddenly allow a foreigner that close to the holy of holies nearly was demanding too much.

  Suddenly Rolf was at my side and whispered “Let me enter the room first.” He waved to the group and opened a cover panel rendering visible the manual opening mechanism.

  I was unable to resist the temptation and with a grandiloquently gesture I said “Open” which Marple commented with a grumpy “You really could be more polite” as the door opened with a hiss and I chuckled at the surprised faces.

  Rolf looked at me disapprovingly, as he crouched into the small room.

  I followed and busily started taking inventory.

  The available equipment was in brilliant condition to my pleasant surprise.

  Quickly we found two fitting suits, but I had to face the problem that I needed a 100 meters of data cable and matching clamps for the outer hull, so no one would entangle in the cable on future maintenance missions.

  I checked the reserves in the material tanks, those were nearly depleted, but it would be enough for the cable.

  The fabrication device or in short fabber for any desired construction parts, was not in working condition though, it had been used until completely worn out. To have it create its own replacement parts had been overlooked.

  I was prepared for a situation like this and took out another of the nanite stripes.

  After placing the stripe on the fabber my busy little machines got down to work and repaired the fabber, after that I set it to produce a copy of itself so I would have a spare fabber ready just in case.

  Now I only needed the cable and we would be ready for action.

  Rolf was closely watching all of my actions throughout the last half-hour and was seemingly memorizing all my movements, at times the attention nearly was too much to bear.

  From the outside someone knocked on the door, which Rolf carefully opened. The old Rab was telling him something, while I was busy rolling up the slowly forming cable around my hips, which was an arduous task in a space suit.

  After the talk finished Rolf closed the door and reported to me “The soldier are on their way to this and the other close by airlocks, so when we are done with the mission we have to be very careful on our return.” I nodded “Okay, by the way I am ready, so it is time for your first lesson.” He looked at me questioningly “We have to perform a thorough check on each others suit, watch me closely as I check your suit.” I checked the fasteners of his suit and made sure everything was properly tightened. He repeated the procedure with my suit. Then I said “Marple, close the visor… please.” And my helmet came out from the collar.

  I surveyed Rolf, of course there also was a control for this, but with data assistant glasses everything out there would be much easier for him.

  The fabbers reserves still were sufficient and I signaled Rolf to wait, while I left it to Marple to have the fabber make a copy of her.

  Only with some resistance Rolf allowed me to put the glasses on him and when the assistants voice resounded in his head he gave off a startled sound and nearly whipped the glasses off.

  I let him have some time in which he had a talk with his new companion and he was looking at me with a bewildered look every now and then, after a while he decided to christen his glasses with the name “thing” for now.

  “Thing, close the visor!” With that we both were finally completely ready for our mission. I checked the radio link between our suits and then turned toward the real airlock.

  When it whizzed open I was on one hand excited to finally be able to witness the ship from the outside and on the other hand dreaded the findings we would make on this mission.

  Hopefully the ship was not damaged beyond recovery!

  The airlock consisted of a tunnel leading to the outside and a number of intermediary doors, which in case of a breach would hermetically seal off the airlock.

  Rolf followed closely behind me, it was too narrow to walk side by side.

  Arriving at the outside door the nearest intermediary door automatically hissed shut and the air in the room was pumped back into the ship.

  Should the exit open with too much air in the room the surge would brutally hurdle us into space.

  Just one of the many possibilities to lose ones life on an outside mission.

  I calmed Rolf who was looking around with a haunted look on his face. “Just follow my example and you will be fine.” With that the exit slid open and the little remaining air escaped as a light breeze.

  I fastened a support rope to my suit and carefully moved through the exit.

  Only after I thoroughly had checked the functionality of my boots anchoring feature I dared to release the rope.

  Rolf also had fastened himself to a rope and was joining me hesitantly.

  The stars reflected on his otherwise dark visor.

  Right then I realized the momentousness of our situation.

  This hull below our feet, this gigantic ship was everythi
ng keeping us alive, we were at one of the most hostile places the universe held in store for creatures like us insignificant humans.

  I explained to Rolf how the boots anchoring worked, it was a combined system of magnets and hauling ropes that automatically anchored themselves on the ships hull.

  It even was possible to aim at locations a 20 meters away to move around quickly on the hull.

  His boots were working flawlessly as well, so we pushed the two ropes back into the airlock and watched it slide shut and seal itself off again.

  The main computer had traced the location of a working data connection on the outer hull and stored it on my maps. It was finding a working connection to one of the maintenance centers and connecting both networks, which were the difficult parts of this mission.

  There were multiple spots at which a connection to the maintenance center at C 3 II were possible.

  Carefully I moved forward, but after a short period Rolf became boisterous.

  He circled me with leaps and bounds and more than once he stressed the whole length of his boots hauling ropes, when I had to push myelf away from the hull to catch one of his ropes with my hands my thread of patience snapped.

  “Now stop jumping about like a toddler. Don’t you understand that there won’t be any rescue if you lose the ground?”

  I was unable to see his face but his voice was filled with mischief, he was giddy from the experiences “But you are here to watch out for me. It is so fantastic out here, just like I had imagined from the tales!”

  This was so confusing, for me my training had just been a month ago and for this lad our experiences were a part from his ancestors history.

  When Marple finally displayed our target with a blinking red light I was relieved. I sent the coordinates to Rolf and closed in.

  At first sight everything was looking good, but the terminal located here, was not responding to any of my tries to bring it back to life. A quick check with a testing device revealed that the connections at this spot were completely dead.

  We were located at the lower end of a circular route along the possible locations we had a chance of finding a working connection at and I decided to move counter clockwise to the next possible spot.

  There the terminal had been properly blasted away and a queasy feeling was crawling up on me.

  At the next location a strong sense of déjà vu hit me and everything around me suddenly seemed very familiar.

  I examined the hull more closely and there it was.

  On its bracing the huge letters TRB-19 were displayed.

  Automatically I detached the the sensor, then I turned to Rolf and thrust it into his hands.

  “Don’t lose it, these sensors have to be periodically replaced. Remember how to do it and pay special attention to this one, it is especially important!”

  Haltingly Rolf accepted it, with a few short movements I drew a fastening rope from his suit and wrapped it around TRB-19, then we moved along to the next checkpoint, as the lines here were also completely dead.

  Its said third time is the charm, for us it was four. The terminal located at this spot greeted me with the status screen I was desiring so much and indeed was connected to the main computer in segment C 3 II.

  I connected the data cable and anchored it directly beside the connection, so it would be safely secured.

  Then I showed Rolf how to fasten the cable on the ships hull and slowly we were making way to the connecting spot of the waking areas main computer. Quickly Rolf had grasped how to apply the brackets and was directly behind me tightening the cable to the hull.

  The mundane work nearly had me forgetting that I was moving through deep space only protected by a much too thin suit.

  Anytime this thought surfaced again I sidetracked it with lecturing Rolf about the different structures attached to the ships hull. Right when I was droning on about sensor redundancy and why it was so important to plan the maintenance cycles in a way that not all devices would need to be checked or replaced all at once we were arriving at the connection point.

  Though the main computer had been able to trace the lines functionality to this location, there was no terminal in place. Nevertheless I connected the data cable and made sure it was anchored safely. Then I hurried back to the terminal we just came from.

  I was so eager that I pushed away from the hull and assisted by the boots whipping cables I measured the distance with huge steps.

  During this I miscalculated a jump and nearly got too far away, to Rolf’s luck as right when my ropes hooks found purchase he floated past me.

  I grabbed one of his his boots and pulled Rolf along with me.

  “We have to be much more careful.” I said hoarsely. “When your people start with outside missions you should fasten safety bonds to each other.”

  Anyhow the terminals display was much more important now.

  I rejoiced when I detected that a connection was in place.

  Complete success on my first mission, even if I would meet my death now, at least my successor would have complete access to the ships status.

  Rolf said “Your cheers do mean that you accomplished your goal? Will you keep your promise?”

  To all intents and purposes I longed to get to the maintenance center at C 3 II, luckily the folks of Rolf’s tribe were familiar with the coordinate system.

  “Rolf, are your people also located at segment C 3 in section 2?” I met his kin at segment C 4 at section 3, so two habitats away from there, but maybe his tribe was spread out farther.

  “Sorry Helen, but our tribes are organized in small groups, still we keep closely in touch. I suggest you return with me and after you helped us we take care of you reaching your desired location.”

  As I had given my word I agreed.

  Marple and Thing displayed the location of the nearest airlock leading back to Rolf’s tribe and we set off.

  Unassertive Rolf asked “This sensor” he touched TRB-19 “what makes it so special?” Intrinsically I didn’t want to reply to that question, since it was such a disconcerting mystery to me, nonetheless eventually I replied “It is like this, since I wakened I have these strange dreams. Dreams in which I am part of the ship itself. In one of these dreams I was TRB-19 and felt its death - well his malfunctioning through a much too long service time.” I only heard a Oh! From Rolf and then silence, as we moved along.

  After a while Rolf had made up a speech “You are not the first with such strange dreams, the first case that I know about happened a hundred years ago. It was a boy child of the Irimani, which like most people enjoy the Benefactors protection. People started to believe in what the boy was telling, as the Benefactor could not have that happen the boy was taken captive. Since then everyone receiving such dreams is being pursued by the Benefactors troops. Our tribe is called Dargye and we belong to the people called The open Eyes, it is our custom to venerate those born with this gift, because it is our belief those are messengers of the ship.”

  I just had to find out more about the social situation aboard, it was extremely evident that the populace had developed in a completely unpredicted direction.

  After arriving at the airlock I had Rolf exercise how to find remotely controllable components with Things help.

  “I feel like a demigod!” he laughed as the airlock zipped open.

  We entered and I returned “But much too mortal, I had to find out on my way through the ship.”

  After the airlock had sealed and air pressure was stabilizing I felt my pent-up tension falling off. A bit larking I urged Rolf to hurry up, but he reminded me about the Benefactors soldiers.

  As this was a different airlock I checked on the fabber, it was worn out like the other, but it was stocked with a much greater amount of construction materials.

  It was a task requiring great diligence to get all the ships fabbers back in working condition, to then proceed and get the ship back into a better shape.

  As we left the airlocks antechamber only a dark ca
ve greeted us.

  Rolf purposefully moved toward one of the walls, only to halt on the way, start laughing and then speaking up “Thing, activate the lights” to which the cave softly shone up.

  I really liked the earthy smell and felt as protected below the thick layer of earth as I hadn’t felt for a long time now.

  We had been outside a good six hours and the dangerous work now took its toll on us.

  Tiredly we had a small meal from my provisions, sadly the Dargye did not store food supplies with the hills, which Rolf regretted even more after he finally brought himself to take a bite from the stripe of synthetic fare.

  Suddenly his face lightened up and he examined the wall around the entrance tunnel, with a triumphing yell he removed a stone from an opening and retrieved a clay bottle.

  With the elated swagger of a successful hunter he returned to me, took a gulp from the bottle and then offered it to me.

  I carefully smelled it and a fruity scent filled my nostrils.

  After a careful sip I drank greedily.

  “Steady! This is pretty strong stuff.” Rolf pulled the bottle away from me and I suddenly had the urge to throw my arms around him. I saw his face floating hugely before my eyes, then everything around me faded away in a blur.

  I came my senses with a hefty hangover sending resounding noises through my head, the try to clear my head by shaking it was punished with a stinging pain. My moaning brought Rolf into the scene, whose voice had my ears ringing. “I am truly sorry our fruit liquor is… a bit on the heavy side.” This was a massive understatement, but I also attributed the strong impact to the fact that I had to live as a teetotaler the 2 years before my cryogenic sleep.

  Throatily I replied “Forget about it, but speak low please yes? Oh man, how long was I gone for?” “Only the night, its early morning, a time as good as any other to be on our way.”

  I silently kept swearing to myself “Our glasses would have given us and advantage in the dark.” He smiled calmingly “Well if it is not safe outside, we just stay here until evening. We can both learn more than enough from each other.” Did he mean that suggestively? My head pounded and I was cranky. “No time for jokes, this isn’t a game, lets check if we can go outside.”