A hero? Any job? What had gone wrong? How had this happened?
As soon as I finished talking with Cameron and Nu Venia, I was quickly escorted back to the bay area, without going near the Blood Vines. Four short hours later Admiral Grossman requested my presence on the WSC Britannia for a conference call. Unfortunately Cameron had the privilege of talking to the admiral before I did.
I suddenly wished the Britannia had already left. And I wouldn’t be having this conversation.
“But, Sir . . . ” I was trying to object to my new orders without dissolving into hysteria.
The Admiral’s holographic head and shoulders and the back of his chair hovered over the table in front of me. His colorless face and that counterfeit smile safely sat in his World Space Coalition office. He didn’t wait for the communication time delay for my reply. He kept talking.
With only a layman’s understanding about quantum gravity, quarks, subatomic particles, or how space folds words, all I knew was that some mathematical physicist performed the right calculations and the admiral and I could speak. Even though we were light-years apart, there was only a twenty-minute time delay as our words raced across space.
When Cameron had escorted me back to the bay are, he explained Woden to me. Falcon’s Captain Assetti and the first mate Father Striken mounted an expedition to explore the planet. They had packed their gear and walked out of camp alone, just the two of them. They were gone for so long, everyone thought they’d died. When they did return, they brought back something that saved the crew from certain death and helped them thrive. Cameron called it “life” but he insisted he didn’t know what it was. I was sure he was lying. I just couldn’t prove it.
Now he wanted to mount the same expedition to save his people and he was to dragging me along.
My father’s voice tried to calm me, but my fear was beyond his reach of reason. I didn’t care about anyone’s point of view but mine. I did not want to go outside. This was not a day trip to the mountains. Woden was a voyage in unbelievable and uninhabitable cold!
We were headed to the North Pole where temps would drop far below zero. My entire body would become one solid icicle. I could die.
I wasn’t ready to die.
Finally, the admiral stopped speaking.
His image would remain frozen until the arrival of my words reactivated his image or he started speaking again.
The streaming image could continue, but it was disconcerting. He was not responsive to me as I spoke. He could be doing almost anything: like paperwork or having a different conversation with someone while waiting for my response. The admiral could go to the bathroom and return in time for my words to reach him.
“Sir, the ocean is melting,” I quickly said, hoping I didn’t sound as if I was whining—even though I was. “Summer is coming. The expedition will be traveling over melting ice. I don’t understand why this is necessary.” In my head I screamed, I don’t want to go.
I waited for his response, hoping he’d understand the danger. He didn’t.
“Cameron assures me you’ll cross the ocean to the permanently frozen ice before the ocean melts. There’s no real danger,” he said.
One conversation with Cameron and the admiral thought he knew him. If only I had spoken to the admiral first.
I watched his plastic smile as he waited for my response. How I wished I could reach into the monitor and swipe that irritating smile off his face.
“Religious fanatics rarely realize the danger they’re putting themselves and others into, Sir,” I said, before I could stop myself.
When Assetti and Striken returned, their accomplishments brought new respect, which I was sure had grown into reverence over the years. I had no way of knowing what had really happened or how much of the story was true or how much was exaggerated and had become legend.
Cameron wanted to bring the same unity to his people who were undecided about trusting WSC. No one since Assetti and Striken had succeeded in surviving the same trip.
It was unclear why Nu Venia was going. I had the feeling she didn’t want to go any more that I did. I feared this was a political move on Cameron’s part and he was willing to risk Nu Venia’s and my life for his ambitions.
On our walk back to the bay area, Cameron told me about his people’s two opposing thoughts. He wanted to reunite with Earth. Adumie wanted to remain isolated.
Hoping to override his decision, Cameron volunteered to make Woden to prove his worth. If he survived, he would earn the right not only to speak to the people, but to force Adumie to listen to those of WSC. Cameron adamantly believed our successful return would bring harmony. He also had the mistaken impression that I would personally save his people from some illness that was slowly killing them.
I was equally sure we would die out there. Somehow I had to convince the admiral this was a bad idea, that Cameron was wrong, and I was the one to listen to.
“What are you talking about?” Admiral Grossman asked. I’d waited forty minutes for this?
“Permission to speak freely, Sir?” Now I’d have to wait forty minutes for his permission. Twenty minutes for my words to reach him and twenty minutes for his words to reach me.
This was going to be a long conversation.
There was a pad and pen on the desk just in case someone wanted to take notes during a conference call. To settle my nerves, I doodled.
“Permission granted.”
The room was so quiet by the time he answered I jumped at his words.
“Cameron has an agenda. I think he’s crazy,” I all but shouted.
The admiral’s next words continued over my outburst. “Cameron mentioned someone named Nu Venia. Who is she?” he asked.
“Nu Venia? I’m not sure who she is to him, his daughter maybe. I know she’s loyal to him, to the point that she’ll follow him anywhere. I think she does whatever Cameron says,” I said. “Though, I’m pretty sure she doesn’t want to go on this expedition. She hasn’t exactly said anything; not to me anyway. But I can tell by her body language and the expression on her face that she doesn’t want to go.” I tried to say as much as possible to help my case. “Sir, I truly do not want to go. There are civilians who would love to make this trip and might be more helpful to your cause to open a dialogue with these people.”
I was fighting for my life. I didn’t want to die out there traipsing across a winter wasteland on some stupid quest. With all my heart I wanted the admiral to believe me. I waited for my words to reach him and have him order me not to go on Woden.
I was too nervous to continue drawing. I paced.
“Lieutenant,” his commanding voice came in loud and clear.
I whipped around to face his holographic image.
“I’ve talked to Cameron. He seems of sound mind to me.” The admiral didn’t sound pleased with my objections.
He was also a man of few words who seemed content to drag this conversation on. Evidently, he had all the time in the universe and didn’t mind wasting it.
I was ready to pull my hair out.
“Sir, it’s more than 2,000 kilometers to Akiane’s North Pole!” I pleaded. “When the star sets here, it’s total darkness. The cold is extreme. The temperatures drop well below freezing, blizzards that last for days. We could die. Forget them. I could die!!!” What more could I say to convince him? “It will take at least two years to make this trip. I’ll miss the transport back to Earth.” I was running out of arguments.
Forty minutes later: “I’m sure that won’t happen.” My heart sank. His pasty face smiled at me. “Cameron is native to Akiane and is used to the extreme weather. He knows how to survive. He’ll take good care of you. You won’t die. There will be another transport. You won’t be permanently stuck there.” Again that fake smile hanging under uncaring eyes. “This mission could secure you a prominent position anywhere you want when you return to Earth,” he repeated.
The words were similar, the tone more ominous; the meaning had changed. If I didn’t make the trip
I would not have a job or be able to get one once I returned to Earth.
“By the time I return to Earth, I’ll retire from Space Force. With the money I’m making for coming to Akiane, I can take a permanent vacation.”
Meaning: Admiral, you can shove your job.
The expression on his face told me he understood. His fake smile had faded. “It is my understanding that you had already agreed to make this journey.”
“Not really. I was tricked.” It would take time for my outburst to reach him.
Admiral Grossman was in a nonstop dialogue. “You’re under orders, Lieutenant Hewitt. If you don’t make the expedition, you’ll not only have failed to fulfill your contract, you’ll be court-martialed for disobeying an order. You’ll be an embarrassment to the space program, America, and the world. Not only will you be dishonorably discharged, but you’ll forfeit all your pay, and you will be thrown in the brig as soon as you return—for no less than twenty years! I will see to it.”
I slumped back in my chair, the anger that had fed hope withered. If I didn’t go with Cameron, I’d lose everything and spend the best part of my life in a cell. If I went with Cameron, I could die. To go or not to go, what was the difference? Either way, my life was over.
“Do we have to walk, Sir?” Resigned to my fate, I hoped a shuttle or a hovercraft. It would make the trip easier. Olivia and had one, why couldn’t I. Ah but, I knew the answer. Nothing else I’d begged for in my life had been granted. Why would this?
My mind flashed back to the time I had been lost in one of the worst blizzards to hit Northern Minnesota. I almost died of hypothermia.
School had been cancelled because of the blizzard, which was unusual. School was rarely cancelled, even when it snowed. But Dad said this blizzard was exceptionally dangerous.
I was thirteen and had been reading a book about a girl on an adventure to save her father from criminals. I suddenly realized my cat was no longer sitting on my lap. I couldn’t remember when she’d moved.
I searched the house; she was nowhere to be found.
If the cat wasn’t inside, she had to be outside in the blizzard.
I stood in the opened door and called her name. She didn’t answer. The snow was so thick I couldn’t see the edge of our yard. She’d never be able to find her way back. I went out to find her.
I’d gone no more than a few feet when I realized my mistake. I wasn’t wearing my snowsuit or boots. When I turned around I couldn’t see my house. I tried to find it, but was disoriented. I couldn’t even tell if I was heading in the right direction or into the village. I was lost in my front yard.
“Daddy, Daddy, DADDY,” I screamed, but he didn’t answer.
The snow swallowed up my voice. Frantically I tried to find the house.
My toes and fingers became like ice. I shivered from the cold.
I lay down and burrowed into the snow. The snow quickly piled on top of me. Soon I was snuggled in and warm, and about to fall asleep when I heard Dad’s voice calling from far off.
I’d left the front door wide open. Dad guessed I was outside. He dressed properly in his snowsuit and boots, then tied a rope around his waist and tied the other to the house so he wouldn’t get lost. He methodically searched the yard until he found the mound of snow with me in it.
He carried me into the house, bundled me up in front of the fireplace and filled me with hot chicken soup.
The cat had been sleeping under my bed.
Hate wasn’t a strong enough word to describe how I felt about blizzards. I was outright terrified of them, eighty MPH winds, and whiteout snowstorms. Unfortunately, telling the admiral about a bad childhood experience wouldn’t get me out of this expedition.
The admiral ignored my last outburst. He only answered my last question. “I offered Cameron a shuttle when he asked for supplies, but he said you have to walk, something about woods. Do you know what he meant?”
“It’s Woden, Sir. Wodan, Wuotan, he goes by many names. I don’t know exactly what it means to Cameron. It’s part of a Scandinavian Myth. Woden is a war god. I don’t know what the myth means to these people, or what it has to do with this trip, or why we have to walk. The walking might have something to do with the fact that the captain of the lead ship and her first mate explored Akiane on foot when they first landed there.” And before he asked the obvious question of, “How do you know?” that so many ask when I know things like this, I told him, “My father studied northern cultures. He liked to tell me about them. I guess I listened.”
“Whatever.” Whatever?I’d hoped for a better response.
“The point is you’re going. Not just because it’s your job, or because of your orders, but for the expedition. We need to gain these people’s trust. And if that means you have to go outside for a while, you will go outside.” He made it sound as if I was only going out for a couple hours, not months. At least he said his little speech without that fake smile of his.
“Lieutenant, you have until the next transport arrives. If the colonists are not in agreement to their fate, a military convoy will be launched.”
Visions of Marine boots trampling flowers, and axes hacking at trees loomed before me. I had a sick feeling there’d be bloodshed over the Blood Vines.
“Those people must accept the reality that they are an Earth colony,” he finished.
Admiral Grossman had won.
Then it dawned on me . . . I sat straight up.
“Sir, why is the Admiral speaking with me?”
I kept an eye on the clock, and leaned into the screen when I knew my words would reach him and return to me. I watched closely for any signs of surprise. He covered it well; his eyes widened then quickly narrowed. Grossman shifted slightly before he spoke, “This is such an important mission. Of course I should be the one speaking to you.” He settled back in his admiral’s chair as if his words were enough and that I’d submissively salute him and be on my way.
Instead, I asked, “If this mission is so important, Sir, why send me? Why not send someone with more authority or a civilian who wants to go? Perhaps a scientist who could study the ice, snow and astronomy?” Jorg wanted to come along. Gino or Spago would gladly take my place.
Then I had a revelation. One that was so obvious I almost cussed at myself for being so stupid. “You wanted someone you could order and who would have to obey you. If I was a civilian and refused, whatever you’re planning would fail.”
Again the shift. I guess he thought I’d be a nice little sailor who’d do as I was told. He hadn’t planned on my questioning or thinking.
Admiral Grossman’s resolve returned. His whole body language changed. If possible, he became more rigid. Fire blazed in his eyes. “Are you alone?” he asked.
Forty minutes and that’s all he had to say?
I looked around the WCS Britannia conference room as if looking for someone. There was an oval table that comfortably sat fifteen people. Instead of a large overhead projection of him, where the admiral could prove his dominating presence, I had chosen the smaller life-size hologram so I could look him directly in the eye as if we were equals, which in fact, as he was proving to me, I was his subordinate.
He’d asked to speak to me in a secure room. Yes, I was alone.
This time, not waiting for the time-delay reply, he leaned in closer to me and lowered his voice, “You are on a top secret mission.”
So top secret that he forgot to tell me?
“It’s not possible for the first crew to have survived. Humans can’t survive subzero temperatures like that. They must have had help,” he said.
If they couldn’t survive the temperatures, why send them here in the first place?
And who did the admiral think was out there besides us Earthlings?
“It’s possible there are other beings living on Akiane,” he continued.
This idiot was my superior? I couldn’t help it, I burst out laughing before I knew it was coming; I laughed so hard I missed the Admiral’s next
words. I immediately gained control, but it was too late. The transmission of my laugh was already on its way.
Nevertheless, I said, “Admiral, you can’t seriously believe there are aliens on Akiane. It’s impossible for life to exist outside the habitat. These people only survive because of the habitat they’ve built.”
When I saw the return image, his face looked as if it had turned to stone. I was in grave trouble.
“We thought it was impossible for the colonists to survive for 321 years without our help, but somehow they managed,” he said in his strict admiral voice. “It is your mission to find out if there is indigenous life on Akiane or if some other alien life came there from another planet.”
Other alien life?
“If there is intelligence on your side of the galaxy, we need to know their intentions.”
Intentions? Was he serious?
“Are they hostile? And if they are, we need to prepare ourselves for possible attack,” he finished.
“Sir, if they’re hostile why would they stop on Akiane, then leave everyone behind? Wouldn’t they abduct them for questioning?”
“That’s what we want you to find out!” He spoke with such authority that I knew my freedom of speech had ended and that I was expected to obey orders.
I was the point person on a mission to learn about hostile aliens. Why me? There were plenty of Space Force military on the transport. What made me so special? I didn’t even believe in aliens.
What a waste of money.
What a waste of time. My time and life.
The fake smile returned. Grossman finished his little speech. “Bring back specimens for the scientists of whatever you find while crossing Akiane.”
Just what did he expect me to find besides aliens?
AKIANE LOG
Faris Assetti
Nearing the end of the fifth year
Winter is coming. Each morning there is frost on the plants outside. They are beginning to wilt. Thin sheets of ice are forming on the ocean.
The fish are returning and with them a new creature we have not seen before. They, like the fish, must have left for open waters. The creatures were not here when we first arrived. Now that the ocean is beginning to freeze they are returning to the only land available near what will soon be the only open water.
Pegasus Colony (People of Akiane: A Colonization Science Fiction Novel Book 1) Page 22