* * * * *
Kesney caught his breath as he turned the corner. After a moment he gave up talking and just stared at Selesta, Alessia’s spaceship. In that stare was a mingled sense of awe and excitement, but also, the ship was so long and wide that he couldn’t avoid looking at it. They had to walk all the way since the shuttle had been left at the other side of the cavern. The closer they got, the more Kesney realized just how large the spaceship was, taller than any of the buildings in the capital, even surpassing Headquarters. The length and width of it appeared ample to hold two capital cities put together.
As they approached the side of the ship, he noticed that it had sunk several micro-nariars into the rocky ground. It had to be immensely heavy, he imagined, and even more dense for its size than any ordinary vessel to do that. He wondered how her people had ever managed to get it off the ground.
The airlock opened on its own. Kesney found he wasn’t really surprised by that, not after all that had happened. Alessia and Eiron vaulted down easily to the floor below. Kesney threw his satchel down first and then used his hands to steady himself as he jumped more carefully, landing with bent knees and his palms to the ground. Strange noises filled the chamber as the outer door closed. The incredible width, though a mere natural observation, did take him by surprise; he gauged it at about a hundred micro-nariars thick or more. They passed into another adjoining airlock before the ship opened up to a corridor.
“No one is here right now,” Alessia explained as they followed her down the hallway. “The children are busy in the learning center, and the others are gathering rock and minerals on the other side with a loader to create a new playground for the children in one of the empty holds. Well, a few of them are doing the work with the loader. The others are just going along to get in the way.” She added, with a hint of a smile.
Kesney wasn’t expecting that there would be others, though he vaguely recalled her mentioning them. “You mean there are people down here? Are they from your planet?” He asked.
“No,” Alessia answered. “They are people from your planet and from Orian, the descendants of scientists who came to live on Selesta years ago.”
“Oh.” His mouth dropped open.
“After you’re settled in your rooms, I’ll explain everything.” Alessia said. “I’m taking you there now. We’ll reach the crew quarters in a few minutes.”
She stopped before an elevation device and pressed the panel to the eighty-fifth floor. The trip lasted only eight seconds. When they exited the shaft, Alessia walked to the left side of the moving corridor to go forward. A few minutes passed as they treaded the swiftly moving corridor in silence. Then in the section containing the crew’s quarters, Alessia led Kesney down several corridors to an empty room. Alessia explained that it had never been used, like many of the rooms in this section.
Kesney dropped his black bag on the sleep panel and said good-bye to Alessia and Eiron. He figured he had about half of an hour to put away his things and explore his new quarters. He remembered that he had left behind his family pictures and clothing as he unpacked his few belongings: a liquid holder, a utility knife, a family portrait fifteen years old that he had kept in his drawer beneath his console, a holder that still contained his lunch, and his Outstanding Conduct medal.
After stowing these, he got up to shut the door when he noticed a bag that Eiron had left in the entranceway. It was heavy. Inside it, he found gear from his quarters: two sets of civilian clothing, his still album, a still capture-box, a painting he had done years before, and a faded still of his parents on their attachment day. Beneath these was a pile of his favorite printvolume cartridges and a mini-telescope. Various odds and ends had sunk to the bottom of the bag. How had Eiron managed to bring these? he thought with some affection and gratitude.
His spirits restored, Kesney decided to explore the unfamiliar panels in the room. He found a computer terminal, videocom, and chronometer built into one wall and a water room containing tools surprisingly similar to what he was used to: a sealed toothcleaner, a paste dispenser, a comb, soap.
A tiny alcove to the left of the water room left just enough room for a table and four chairs, as well as a food dispenser unit and guide. The device easily captured his interest. Evidently he had only to make a selection and touch in the corresponding number for his meal to be prepared. An option to create his own menu had also been included.
But as he glanced at the printed words and numbers of the guide, he grew more and more fascinated by them. Some of them were familiar, similar to the script he used every day, others unrecognizable. He could understand a few of the words, but not many. The corresponding pictures provided more clues.
The idea that people could speak a foreign language intrigued him. He had never before realized how special it was that most of Tiasenne spoke the same language, and from the video messages from Orian that had been intercepted, he had seen that the Orians spoke a language that was very similar.
The Tiasennian government had written off the coincidence with a statement from the biological sciences division. The biogeneticists later admitted that it was not a coincidence when the government decided that the Orians had of course adopted the Tiasennian language after their initial contact.
But still this foreign language wasn’t too different from his own. How can that be? Kesney wondered. These people had come from another solar system, and no records on Tiasenne had ever mentioned previous contact with them. The alternative, that Alessia’s people and his own could have developed a similar language by coincidence, seemed more than improbable; it was impossible.
But no more than anything else that’s happened today, he thought.
The Last Immortal : Book One of Seeds of a Fallen Empire Page 58