Stepping Stones (Founding of the Federation Short Stories Book 1)

by Chris Hechtl

  “Not good,” Tw'tw'ch'ka said.

  “Can you talk to them? Get them to calm down?” the two-leg Aurelia demanded.

  “Not know.”

  “Don't know? Why not?”

  “She means she doesn't know if it will work,” Kathy stated, coming over to them. “They are scared. I would be too. This … why aren't we loading them like people?”

  “We can't let them be seen on the transport.”

  “So, we're shipping them out like cargo?” Kathy demanded, crossing her arms. “Damn it, Doc!”

  “It's not up to me,” Aurelia replied. She gritted her teeth in anger. “Roman's doing obviously. Security,” she said scathingly as a young fin was caught with a net and dragged into a cylinder. The fin was knocked out by the gas inside and her thrashing slowed then stopped. “It doesn't help that they have to be under the entire time either,” she said, watching as techs made the necessary connections to the fin. That was the other reason the fins were balking at going. Once unconscious the subject had a feeding tube shoved down their throats and into their stomachs. Tubes were attached to their bodies to carry away the waste. More tubes were connected to their dorsal blow holes. Medical monitors were attached to their bodies. Finally an IV was attached to their tail.

  “It … it's not right,” Tw'tw'ch'ka stated, rolling in distress. “Ungood! No!” She thrashed then swam away.

  “Damn it,” Aurelia cursed, watching the fin go. Some of the fins were getting in the way of things. Others were harming themselves in their distress. “Damn you, Roman,” she snarled.

  “Hopefully it'll be over soon,” Kathy said dubiously, eying the security guards warily.

  “Yes, but the breakage will be high,” Aurelia sighed, resigned to it.

  Only when Whistle’Tr’ck’ka’t scanned some of the sleepers and understand the humans meant no harm did he act. He went to the center of the room, sent out a sonar pulse to get everyone's attention. When that didn't work, his jaws came together with a thunderous crack. All of the fins and some of the two-legs turned to look at him. “Stop. Do.” He turned and nodded his beak to the cylinder. “Go or stay. Choice,” he said.

  “That's telling them,” Kathy murmured in gratitude. One by one the other fins lined up, quivering for some, but at least compliant as they were gently ministered to and encapsulated. “I wish we could do this with Roman and his apes,” she growled.

  “They aren't apes. Oh, you're talking about the security people,” Aurelia said absently as she checked her notes on her tablet. She smiled in approval. “Goons me thinks, but I digress. It looks like we're back on track for the schedule.”

  “They don't understand that. Time … windows … and we could have explained this better. In fact, I had told them they were going on a ship. Springing this on them was wrong.”

  “I know,” Aurelia stated. “There was no helping it. I didn't want them to be traumatized by the idea.”

  “You knew?” Kathy accused, eying her boss. Aurelia shrugged. Whistle'Tr'ck'ka't watched over his people, keeping them in line and obviously going last.

  “Like I said, I didn't want them to worry.”

  “Sometimes full discloser is important. Best we level with them.”

  “They aren't ready. They don't understand,” Aurelia stated.

  Kathy saw the big fin turn an eye towards them. He turned back after a moment. “I think they understand more than you think,” she murmured.

  (O)^(O)

  2153

  “So do?” Tw'tw'ch'ka asked, excited.

  “Yes, do,” Ch'nn'k stated, also excited. “See new places. But ship …,” He rolled back and forth.

  “Not good. Not good,” another fin stated, clearly distressed.

  “Different time. Different,” Tw'tw'ch'ka insisted. “New. Small fin pod.”

  “But two-leg’s numbers high,” Ch'nn'k clacked in annoyance.

  “Truth,” Tw'tw'ch'ka admitted. “Think?” She turned to the dolphin elder.

  “Think try. See. Learn. Go,” Whistle’Tr’ck’ka’t stated. He was getting on in years but maintained his position as leader of the fins. He was battle scared but still in control. Some of the larger fin species were catering to him out of respect, but it was only a matter of time before one of the larger ones got up the nerve to take him down.

  That would be a bad thing, Tw'tw'ch'ka thought. Whistle'Tr'ck'ka't's wisdom would be greatly missed. And it would be even more missed on his death.

  Ten of their number hadn't survived the trip to the new place. They'd died, some from the fear, some from the breathing sickness. Others from other things, though the two-legs had tried to do their best to save them.

  “Young go. Explore. See. Tell,” Whistle’Tr’ck’ka’t rasped.

  Tw'tw'ch'ka thought that the elder was holding on to the idea of seeing an ocean for himself, in sporting in the waves, and knowing his people were safe. It was probably why he had clung to life for so long.

  “Will,” she answered. “Tur'tk'caca see.”

  “Do.”

  “Fight?” Ch'nn'k asked. The others turned to him. “Strongest go,” he insisted.

  “No. Smart. Best …,” Tw'tw'ch'ka rolled, unsure of how to express it. “Best swim void. Best swim …,” she didn't have a word for hyperspace. “Best swim not ocean,” she said, aware the concept might not get through.

  He blew a bubble at her, a raspberry. Then he defecated and flipped it her way. He sent a loud chattering raspberry at the thought to finish the statement as she moved away out of disgust.

  “See? Why two-legs don't chose you?” Tur'tk'caca stated sadly, rolling from side to side. He clacked at her, menacing her with his presence. She held out a fin, and he nipped it, then swam away. Tw'tw'ch'ka looked at the fourth-generation fin and shook her head. The females were smaller than the males; they knew better than to fight. Dominance games were what they did; the females didn't wish to be injured. Nor did they wish for the two-legs to see such battles; it meant more cutting, more changes.

  “Must. Go,” Ch'nn'k stated, swimming off to tell others of like mind. Tw'tw'ch'ka shook her head in annoyance.

  “Let go. Two-legs choose,” Whistle'Tr'ck'ka't stated, coming up alongside her. She rolled an eye at him. He turned slightly sideways and ran a fin over her flank. “Good sometimes,” he stated, concentrating hard to get the last out. It took her a moment for her to realize what he meant. He meant that it was good that the two-legs decided sometimes. It took the pressure off of him. She nodded once.

  Over the years she had learned more about two-legs and fins. She'd heard from the others, heard stories of a house on the beach on the blue green world. Long ago two-legs had brought fins there to learn to talk two-leg speech and manners. It had failed.

  The fourth and fifth generation were better than she—they knew things, they did things. They could get on the two-leg’s internet, could find information, and learn new things. She had resigned herself to watch her grandchildren outdo her in every way. Now she wondered if she would ever see the oceans. She wondered if she too would die in the can instead of in the sea. She swam over to the computer terminal and jacked in. It accepted her Wi-Fi signal. It took a lot of concentration, but she managed to turn the screen on and load an image of the ball below. It wasn't so red, turning green and blue in some areas, but not enough. She focused on a program her youngest youngling Nak'nak'chick had recently taught her to speed the time up. It was hard to understand, but it made the red ball turn blue faster. When it stopped a number flashed—2200. She rolled in distress. Would she live that long? Would the others? She didn't know. She would have to wait and see, wait to see how things turned out.

  (O)^(O)

  2155

  Aurelia and Kathy made a point to actually ask the dolphins again if they really wanted to go. They had beaten around the bush. Kathy had asked them, but she hadn't been sure the dolphins had really understood the concept. Aurelia made a simulation to show them how far they would go from their home and
how they wouldn't be able to interact with people. She presented to them the dangers too.

  Then the two humans watched from the sidelines as the dolphin pod leaders talked it over and then agreed when they realized they'd get the chance to see new seas. Kathy wasn't sure if they understood the dangers and the concepts. She felt a bit ambivalent over that.

  “I feel like a traitor,” Kathy said, frowning as they exited the habitat.

  “Why?” Aurelia asked, raising an eyebrow.

  “Do they understand they won't be actually swimming in the oceans? That we can't risk them?” Kathy finally asked Doctor Lagroose. The older woman shrugged.

  “We'll find a way to get the point across. Just having them on board will be good for them and our people. It will also be a neat game for them and a useful career choice. A vital one in our case.”

  “At least until the computer techs and Athena figure out how to emulate what they are doing somehow,” Kathy said, wrinkling her nose.

  “Don't bet on it. Maybe, but it might take time.”

  “Unless you humans do some engineering on yourselves,” Athena interjected.

  Aurelia Lagroose looked up with a frown. She'd noticed Athena had seemed to be evolving a bit of late. No doubt the coders had been working on her, improving … her frown deepened when she realized she'd thought of Athena as a real she. She shook herself, made a mental note to explore the situation later, and then returned to the discussion at hand. “Thank you but no. Tinkering with our own genetics is out. Jack made that clear. I'm not sure about it, but I have to agree we have to draw the line somewhere.”

  “Besides, if we did go that far, we'd alienate a lot of people. We don't need to make more enemies; we've got enough as it is,” Kathy said with a sigh.

  Aurelia gave her a sidelong look and then nodded slowly. “True. Too true unfortunately. There are always narrow, small minded people out there who can't handle change or new things. They just won't accept them or will demonize them. It's a pity they can't be more open minded,” she said. Kathy nodded.

  Peter Jordan, janitor third class, overheard their discussion and scowled as he worked on fixing number 4 bot's tangled track before he emptied its bin. He was not happy about the animals. His Christian upbringing forbade man playing God. He yanked out the hair that entangled the track and then flipped the catch bin open. “Of course, filled with fur. Why not,” he muttered. Animal fur mostly, judging from the brown and black. Some of those chimps he'd seen wearing clothes.

  That was wrong, he thought, looking up. Not only were they tampering with God’s creations, but they were also giving their Frankenstein creations jobs. “Next they'll be after my job,” he muttered darkly.

  He finished with the bot 4 and set it down in the charger. There was a pile of trash around the trash can; the robots couldn't dump the cans properly when they were overflowing. Mrs. Lagroose hated to have her office cleaned; it was only cleaned once a week.

  They didn't have a lot of paper; all written records were electronic of course. No, most of the trash was empty food containers, plastic silverware, and other detritus. He swore as something gummy and sticky got all over his hands. “Damn it, can't they recycle shit?” he demanded, getting louder.

  He'd been on the job for a year; he'd thought it had been a great stepping stone to something better within the company. It wasn't working out that way though. He'd gone to a good Christian college and passed his business, marketing, and ethics courses with okay, not a 4.0 but at least a 2.5., 2.75 he corrected himself. He deserved better than cleaning up after people, he reasoned.

  He'd taken the job with Lagroose since his pastor had told him that the community needed to keep an eye on them, and it would give him an in. He'd cared less about the spying; he'd said so. But now he wasn't so sure. Someone should know about the crap they were doing. “It's not right,” he muttered. “Playing God.”

  “Pete, we need you to dump whatever you're doing and go clean the animal cages on level four,” a familiar voice said.

  “Four? That's not my deck. I'm on two remember? That's Tim's job.”

  “He's busy. You got elected. Chop chop, the assistant there is pissed about it. He's called me three times in the past twenty.”

  “Why can't the bots get to it?”

  “You and I both know they can't handle corners and tight areas,” Lisa said with an exasperated sigh. “They think the boss lady will stop by, and she complained about the smell the last time.”

  “Damn it. Why do they need cages if they are making the animals smart? Why not teach them to clean up after themselves?” he demanded.

  “These are the control animals. The assistant will get the animals out for you,” Lisa said patiently.

  “I'm cleaning her royal high and mighty's office right now. When I'm done I'll get around to it,” Pete said in disgust. He turned to make sure bot 4 was working okay. It was, toddling along on its small wheels to clean the floor. Bot 4 was the floor cleaner for that section; he could leave it alone since it was autonomous. It'd go to its charging station to dump its load and recharge when it was finished.

  “Hurry up. And make sure you put some potpourri out. She likes anything but lavender,” Lisa ordered and then clicked off.

  “Yes, your majesty,” he said snidely, going through the motions. He banged about though, rough since he resented his upcoming unpleasant task. He mumbled acid comments while he oversaw the robots cleaning the other offices. When the office was finished, he gave it a squirt of air cleaner and then pushed his cart to the elevator down the corridor.

  His behavior was picked up by a software bot programmed to monitor Aurelia's office. That triggered an alert to security. Naomi Brinks, the guard on shift, picked up the alert, checked and flagged it as a false alarm and went back to her reading.

  However, the comments were overheard by the software bot as well. Since they were in its memory buffer while Miss Brinks reacted, his comments were translated into text and then passed through a software security bot. That in turn was passed on to Athena who reviewed the recordings and then triggered a security review.

  Just as Peter finished cleaning the animal stalls, he was confronted by two unsmiling guards. “Um, hi fellas, something I can help you with?” he asked, wiping his hands off.

  “Sir, you'll have to come with us,” the taller of the pair said.

  “Why? What's going on?” Peter demanded, stopping what he was doing. The bewildered janitor was confronted quietly at the end of his shift and then escorted out. He was clearly unhappy by the security officer on either side of him, bewildered by the rapid security response. Being escorted turned into a major gossip event. Usually that happened just before a termination.

  Kathy was shocked and dismayed as well as she rounded a corner and nearly walked into them. “What the hell happened?” she demanded.

  Aurelia frowned, holding a finger up as her right hand cupped over her ear. That told the other woman that she was getting a message. Kathy waited patiently as Aurelia finished listening and then nodded. “All right. Understood. Keep me posted,” she said and then pulled the earwig from her ear. She plugged it back into her tablet and then sighed.

  “What happened?” Kathy asked.

  Aurelia stared off into space and then shook her head. “Apparently the janitor spouted off a bit. Security picked up on it. Normally they ignore it, but Athena got wind and did an in-depth review. Apparently new intelligence was uploaded, and Mister Jordan's family and associates was in it.”

  “So? That's them not him. And what a man says is his right!” Kathy said.

  “Even about what we do here?” Aurelia asked, raising an eyebrow.

  “Um …”

  “That's right, it is a serious problem,” she said with a frown. “The security breach potential …,” she shook her head and looked worried. “We'll talk with him, possibly move him to another department. I wish I'd seen this coming, I might have been able to nip it in the bud. Unfortunately, we try to limit wha
t people not in the projects know, so they can’t get the wrong idea.”

  “You can't see everything,” Kathy said loyally. She licked her lips and then shook her head. “And you can't help what people think or say. It's human nature to fear what they don't understand.”

  “We've thought for the longest time that ignorance was bliss. We'd let people toddle along happily doing their thing. What they didn't know couldn't come back and bite us in the arse,” Doctor Lagroose said dryly. She really hoped Jordan didn't get into further trouble. He knew a lot, and he'd worked for the company for a year. They could erase his memory and create a cover story, but she was deeply uncomfortable with that practice. All sorts of side effects were potentially involved … the ethics … she fought to keep her frown from becoming a scowl. “But the longer this project goes on, the bigger it gets … the more potential for other people, people who are prone to xenophobia to see it and spin it in a negative light.”

  “Especially some of the other projects? Are you afraid you've gone too far?”

  “Maybe too far too fast, but the genie is out of the bottle. What we do about it … where we go from here is the question,” Aurelia said simply. “We're not going to sterilize them and tell them they can't be people. We have a couple dozen new semi-alien races to eventually introduce to mankind. I just need to remind myself to step back and let them be people,” she said wryly. “At least the adults. But telling the solar system about them … Mars won't have any issues but Earth?” She shook her head.

  Kathy gushed a heartfelt sigh. “Yeah. When we figure out how to go about doing that let me know,” Kathy said.

  “Knowing our luck it'll come out when we aren't ready. Using the dolphins for the starships alone will assure us it's going to come out. I think I need to talk to some people in public affairs,” Doctor Lagroose said drearily. “Bollix, getting them up to speed will be a royal pain,” she said, making a face. “And then answering questions with the media …”

  “Limit exposure? Is that what you are thinking, Doctor?” Kathy asked.