by Pirx Danford
Rolf and a small group of his troop stepped up to me and warmly Rolf embraced me, who I then introduced to the green-eyed flashing Kara. That the troop Alpha and Phoenix seated themselves together at the edge after that pleased me.
Together with many of the chieftains and elder I took a place on the seating cushions and used the opportunity to sit beside Athena. I had to shoo away the chieftain of the Yellow Bellies though, but he made room without complaints.
The events had to be digested, so we had some time before something like an agenda would be pursued again.
Athenas garment consisted of a decorated leather armor and I got to know her as a cold and very power-conscious woman. The family Schröder was more like a clan and they were joined with the Yellow Bellies, Rock Breakers and Ticks as the alliance of the bloody writing. The meaning of that denomination resulted from the name lists of the fallen warriors, which was recorded on the walls of a temple. Every name on that list, so the postulation was, should be reckoned up with a dead fighter from the Open Eyes and the longer the list became the louder the alliance demanded war.
After talking with her it was difficult for me to like Athena, as her longing for vengeance completely filled her up and she was absolutely sure to be in the right. However it was not difficult at all to respect her, as her alert mind and sure feeling for politics made her an important ally.
When she asked me somberly, how much time I estimated to remain for the necessary repairs I noticed a lot of ears following our discussion closely. “In all honesty, if the rift cannot be sealed and the structure of the inner braces has become too brittle, then it is already too late.” Quickly I added “But there is hope!” I looked around and many faces were turned to us. “There are many plans to be made, if we act together and fast at that, then we can make it.”
I did not have time to discuss the plans with anyone before, still now my ideas were just bubbling out.
To my surprise quite some chieftains and elders were coming forth with ideas for solutions and set up discussion groups at the edge areas, while I already told about the next plan on my mind.
The beginning was the requirement to recruit as many help as possible for maintenance work within a very short time, Followed by the requirement that a lot of people would be needed for outside missions. About the question how best to recruit inhabitants from the middle decks, Gurd and Athena along with three others formed a discussion group.
Mapping the damages was an important task, which was strongly interwoven with connecting the other maintenance centers.
I mentioned the necessary expedition to the airlock from my dream, as well as the clues from Bernhard I had to find.
It was immensely significant to have as much functioning fabbers as possible.
Also a way had to be found to retrieve as much raw material as possible from the vegetation and the broken machinery.
Albeit the primary issue - and I found myself in a small circle of remaining disputants - was obviously how to get to the maintenance center at the engine area as that was completely closed off by the Iron Warriors.
As we were debating, it was busy all around us. The members of troop Alpha and Phoenix had split among the discussion groups and were moving like particles from group to group, to then meet themselves again to confer.
I noticed that with delight,while our debate was moving into a very grim direction.
Maximus and Rab, together with Hugo, Francois and Karla remained with me. Soon it became manifest that the irrational hatred agains any technology, as well as the abnegation of the fact that we were aboard a spaceship left no leeway for convincing the Iron Warriors. The end results from the discussion group about recruiting middle deck people pushed us even further along the grim path. They joined us and advised that the middle deck would be quickly convinced by spreading Clarioncallers, especially as the villages were suffering greatly from the Iron Warriors oppression and the fire of resistance was still smoldering below the cloak of obedience. However the so won new allies would subsequently need to be protected. What we were planning was a war.
A feeling of unreality overwhelmed me and I felt the urge to withdraw, to hide in a corner and simply stop thinking.
This was not why I had become an engineer. I wanted to repair things and understand the world around me better. Now I was planning a campaign and had to contemplate acceptable losses.
The old Rab saw what was going on with me and after a short talk with Maximus he took me aside and went outside for fresh air with me.
There I inhaled deeply, at first it filled me with joy to witness the high-spirited festivities around me. Then it hit me like lightning that mayhaps soon many of these fighters would find their grave.
And when I slumped to let my feelings run free the old Rab shook me in his arms to comfort me.
I went to the maintenance center to quickly freshen me up and Has followed me like a shadow. A shadow that was scaring away everyone that tried coming close to me.
After a few minutes of solitude, which Hask provided through fiercely guarding the entrance, my mind slowly was clearing.
We went back to the tent and this time around I was able to return the joyful cheering of the revelers, this was the least I owed to the people that would put their lives on the line for me.
When I entered back into the tent the first question I was assaulted with, was if I couldn’t provide advanced weaponry for the conflict.
Technically I could have provided quite a selection stun guns did not use up too much resources and were easily recycled later on.
My gaze came to a rest on Hask and an idea was stirring.
I asked for some time to discuss with Hask, who welcomed my proposal very enthusiastically.
He insisted to deliver an introduction of my idea and so he declaimed to the group on our return “To fully understand Helens suggestion you have to take into account, that with only one ally at her side, she took on 20 of our best warriors - well and me-” this earned him some laughs “and completely defeated and imprisoned all of us.” He was applying the truth a bit liberally, but at its core it was true and so I proceeded to explain my concept.
Starting with Hask a security service should be formed, every warrior who volunteered to join it would be welcome.
I would teach my maintenance crews to produce stun guns, but only members of the security force would be allowed to carry those. The catch of the matter was, that every member of the security force would be obligated to vow allegiance to the ships well being, meaning the loyalty towards the group it belonged to had to be renounced.
Skeptical looks went around. Maximus angrily flashed at Hask and felt obviously betrayed, when Gurd surprised me with a spontaneous gesture and used the opportunity to employ his well oiled pathos. He knelt down on one knee before me, but looked past me into Hasks face “I abjure from my tribe the Red Backs. From now on my fealty belongs to the ship and I hope the security service will accept me as a member.” This decision was not mine and I observed what Hask would do now. As I saw the light shining in his otherwise serious face, I knew what would happen next. Hask measuredly approached Gurd and extended his hand. “Accepted!” Towards the onlookers he exclaimed “The security service will accept every contender with honest intentions.”
Maximus was torn with mixed feelings, he had hoped for greater power, now the strongest fighters would be out of his control, on the other hand his strongest opponent just had given away every right to contest his leadership.
The initial dislike of my concept from the other chieftains should quickly dissolve, as we took a closer look at the results from the task groups. Everything would join together in a perfect total picture.
It was propounded that the maintenance forces to be recruited from volunteers of the outer decks should be split into two groups.
One group would train for space missions on the hull and create a chart of the outer hull damages as well as the outer decks themselves, while collecting and repairing e
ach and every learning machine they could retrieve.
The other group would accompany the campaign in the middle decks and recruit as many new members as they could.
Each maintenance troop should split into new troops when it reached enough members to do so.
The security forces had to be informed about the locations of working fabbers, to secure them. Resources should be collected while the damages were being mapped, also the members of the repair crews should try to find independent volunteers within the settlements for work teams that would collect recyclable plants.
During the campaigns the maintenance central at C 5 IV and B 2 I should be secured and connected.
At that topic I learned that besides the Iron Warriors another force existed in the inner decks, which had nearly been obliterated by the Iron Warriors, still the few remaining people were being feared as deathly champions.
The difficulty was that they attacked any intruders indiscriminately, the hope lied with the Clarioncallers having an effect.
I had to set up and complete my expedition to the airlock at C 4 II as fast as possible, then move to the maintenance center at C 5 IV to inspect it, followed by the task to help winning over the people of the ships core and naturally I was supposed to orchestrate the security service as well as the repair crews.
Basically I had to be everywhere all at the same time, this would just not do. So I tasked Rolf with coordination of the outer deck maintenance troops and passed the responsibility for the security forces into Hasks and Gurds hands.
As all areas I would traverse should be secured by allied forces I hoped to make progress quickly.
The plan seemed sound and even if the thought of the impending battles was aggravating me, the hope that the mission may have become manageable gave me strength.
It was late in the night when we stepped out of the tent, yet still the festivities were going strong and we all joined into the partying.
Only early in the morning I should find myself some exhausted sleep on a cot in the maintenance center.
Complacently I thought of all my new friends and allies.
I had a plan that might give my new home a future, was my last thought before my eyes fell shut.
Confrontation
The next day was spent preparing the expedition to the airlock, the crews of Kara and Rolf helped me to get everything ready in a timely manner.
Naturally there had been disagreements at the festivities, but those took place during the discussions outside of the tent and to my knowledge no further bad blood had been drawn.
Our mission was formed under the assumption , that the airlock was still in a fixable state, but it was a research expedition to the same extent.
I hoped for results that would provide a concrete solution towards repairing the gap in the ships hull.
After we finished preparing the mission we went through the the tasks lined up for the two engineering crews.
Rolf wanted to join the conquering efforts of the middle decks with group Alpha and Kara agreed to take care of doing the cartography of the outer decks, as she was extremely keen for outside missions. This resulted in a very thorough member exchange, as members of the groups switched places to take part in the mission most interesting for them.
We discussed again how to proceed with material retrieving and recycling and I walked Kara and Rolf through the steps of reading the status of the material reserves on the maintenance terminals. This was only possible on those terminals that had been reconnected to the communications network.
Alongside recovering learning devices and additional learning modules, it was important to search for traces of schools and libraries. My hope was that the iron warriors of the Benefactor hadn’t destroyed everything.
There was the possibility that I could access a central archive with learning materials, after the five maintenance centers would be connected, but that remained to be seen.
As we all had gotten up late today, it already was late in the evening, when Rolf took his leave with troop Alpha to join with Hask and Gurd. I ordered Kara to get up to twenty maintenance robots ready, while I joined troop Alpha to watch their progress.
We found Hask and Gurd flocked by a group of warriors, which in turn was surrounded by a greater group of onlookers.
While the inner core group was watching the hubbub with calm faces, the soldiers in the larger group were debating heatedly amongst themselves and trying to argue with the unmoving inner core as well.
Now and then a warrior of the outer group took one of the conveniently close by red arm bands and donned it, to then move into the inner core.
As Hask recognised us he stepped out of the chaos. Sprightly he moved towards us and told proudly “The security service already counts a good two dozen members.” This news brought a smile to my face, which I made sure he saw and then asked him to accompany Rolf and me. Troop Alpha joined the core group and I waved Gurd my goodbye as we moved on.
As expected most chieftains were already assembled within the large tent and planning how to deploy their forces most effectively.
Hask was collecting quite some malignant glances as we entered, my sight fell on Maximus and Athena, which were lively arguing about differently colored chumps placed on a map.
“… have to guard all access points or close them down.” I heard Maximus say as we got closer. “Then we concentrate our forces on fewer positions.” To which Athena replied “And I am still convinced that small guard posts on each access point will work just fine. We track on which position a breach attempt is being made, cut off the attackers from their reinforcements by remote access doors or other means of blockades and wear them down.” This sounded cold blooded, but effective and I only barely could prevent to picture the carnage this would mean.
Maximus shook his head and grumbled something like “much too risky” when Athena already noticed our approach and greeted us. I reported that the expedition was ready to leave and could take off directly morning come. Then I learned that great numbers of warriors had already been dispatched as scouts, each with some Clarioncallers in their baggage. They were expected to spread individually across the whole middle deck segments. Further battle strategies would then be adapted to the developing situation. Mainly the chieftains were busy getting accustomed to work together, as that had been a rare necessity in this form. Athenas content smile while explaining that the strategies of the family Schröder, respectively the alliance of the bloody writing, only had to be adapted slightly to the new situation sent cold shivers across my back. To my disgrace I had to admit that all of this became so uncomfortable for me that I left all the planning completely to my allies. My last refuge was to inculcate Hask with the reminder that the ships security service was responsible for the good of the ship and with that the well being of all of its inhabitants. Pointless massacre would not help anyone, the services task was to secure peace.
“Helen, neither the the Flying Hustlers nor the Open Eyes hold a strong grudge against the Iron Warriors. What you should be worried about are the middle deck people, which have suffered under the Benefactors oppression since generations.” I put my hand on his arm “Give me the promise to ascertain that only battles will be fought that are really necessary.” Reluctantly he agreed, not because he was longing for the fight himself, but because he knew about the difficulty of this task. I took my leave from the chieftains and stepped out of the tent with Rolf at my side. He had to get back into the planning and detail out the role the maintenance crews would play. There had been so much going on, but I had to think back to the time we spend together during and after the outside mission. Feelings stirred which I simply had no time for, so I just took his hand and looked deeply into his eyes “Take good care. I do want to see you again and alive at that.” His eyes answered mine questingly and his parting hug lasted longer than the usual time. As he let go of me with the words “Take care too” my heart was beating stronger than I wanted it to. So I turned around and hurried ba
ck to the maintenance center.
The following night was dreamless again and early next morning we took off with half of the Phoenix crew and five members of the security service. We only had to move one sector towards the drives, meaning the ships tail yet it took us half a day with the great amount of materials we were transporting. The closer we came to the airlock the more excited I became. The passage between the sectors was roughly at half of the way and even as there were remainders of the separating wall the gaps were so wide that we were only barely slowed down.
On our arrival I noticed the hill still intact to my relief.
Here was the strange stripe located that had caught my attention and when I got closer to examine it my feet sank into swampy ground.
Then I noticed that the hill was being completely overgrown by the same plants. Kara reported the entry tunnels had collapsed, so without further ado I ordered the robots we brought to remove the hill. While we made camp, the robots already started on the task. It became apparent that the soil was so shot through with extremely tough roots, so much so that it was comparably solid to the ships hull itself.
So the robots cut a tunnel straight to the hills center. The former caves room was full with thick roots, which absurd as it was had breached the airlocks door. Weirdly it seems as if the plants desired to flee the ship.
After the way to the outer door had been cleared by half the distressed moaning of the doors closing mechanism I remembered from my dreams became audible. For a short moment I felt like being on both sides of the remaining offshoots at once and whispered “Help is coming.”
As safety measure we repaired the inner airlock doors, after uncovering them. Sadly this airlocks fabber was defective as well and the space suits were in no working condition.
I sacrificed another stripe with nanites, to repair one of the suits, then I closed the second inner airlock door and supervised the baring of the outer airlock door.
As the yammering of the engines ebbed the silence was a comfort I strongly welcomed.