“I thought projectile weapons, guns, were prohibited, Captain?” she gestured toward the pair of barrels pointed out under the leading edge of a permanent half wing. She could see the large delta wing set just back from these stubby weapons carriers.
He patted her hand and looked down at her, smiling indulgently. “Lots of things done on Earth in the twenty second, third, fourth century are not valid on Renewal. We have to protect ourselves, and we have been on watch for a long time. We use what we can invent, and what should work. Frankly, if we get hit with an EMP strike, most the controls of the plane revert to fly by wire, and those guns keep on churning.”
“What is it?”
“Believe it or not, a product of the nineteenth century, a pair of .50 caliber machine guns, each wing, aimed forward. The entire space force has them. We can chew a hole in anything from up to two miles away. In a pursuit situation, we can remove an enemy’s propulsion and steering without destroying the entire ship.”
Angela remembered, finally, to lift her jaw. Then she managed, “Good God! Where on earth did you find them?”
“Two of our ancestors were gun runners and they bought out an entire army surplus corporation before they took off. Just baggage for a long, long time. Old and new stuff, back then. As we settled in, we found uses for it. Ahh, wait, the Governor of Renewal approaches. You will like her!”
The stern looking, gray haired woman approaching the bottom of the fighter’s ladder was tall, probably close to six feet, dwarfing Angela and Commander Rogers, and as Jack moved Angela into the spotlight, so to speak, he said, “May I present Governor Calmone-Morgan… my mother! Mother, a real Washington, Captain Angela Washington.”
“You took me to meet your parents, already?” she kidded. He flamed red, and his mother burst out in laughter.
Imagine, another Morgan, way out here! Like Washington, the line persisted! Angela thought, delighted.
With a wide smile that immediately warmed her face, diminishing the initial sense of being so stern, the older woman cried, “Where in the galaxy did you find this one, Jack? She’s gorgeous!”
Gorgeous? Wait, I am standing right here! Angela thought and suffered first a strong handshake, and then a full embrace. The woman towered over her, so she got a face full of breasts. She weathered it. How come all these people said that? She knew better. Gorgeous is for models and business reps and such, actors, maybe, not Captains of battlewagons.
“The reports preceded you, Captain. My Chips, it is good to finally hear from the Resolute! Did you know that of Explorer, Hope, Seeker and your Resolute, that only Hope and Resolute ever made contact back to Earth? We have all the reports of your messages from over a hundred fifty years ago, all dutifully filed on Chips. After that, they quit. We thought we lost you!”
“Do we actually know anything about the others, or are we still making a guess… errr… Governor?” It paid to be a little careful. This might well be like insulting a High Councilman.
“We think Explorer and Seeker are probably destroyed. Missing, at least, but we expected that possibility, of course. Still, to not send a single message has a grimmer portend. Yet, perhaps it is only that they lack the proper equipment. We can only hope they found a home. Now, however, after a few hundred years, here you are! So, Captain, you have stories to tell, and so do we. Dinner awaits!”
Peremptorily, as if a queen summoning her carriage, she turned and beckoned to two men in dark blue livery, both with odd pistols at their dress belts. They stood twenty feet back and had not taken their eyes off the visitors from the moment the Governor stepped out of her car. Each was a big, solid man and well over six feet tall.
One said something at his wrist, and shortly, a long, black car pulled up beside them.
One of the liveried men stepped up to Commander Rogers, pointing at his photon pistol and said, calmly, “You will not need this, Commander. I will take good care of it. No weapons are allowed in the Governor’s presence!”
Rogers put his hand on the grip and looked to Angela for guidance.
Angela waved him down, “Relax, Commander, I believe we are among friends. Let him hold the weapon for our return.”
Reluctantly, he lifted his hand and allowed the man to pull it. No point in pulling it first and ratcheting up the tension.
-----
Angela had read about cars, even limos, certainly seen lots of movies, but thought them outdated. There were so many easier ways to get around. Of course, on Resolute, it was all trams or bicycles.
The statuesque Governor Calmone-Morgan hopped into the spacious interior, one liveried man holding the wide door, then patted the leather upholstery next to her and said, “Captain? Please. You will not want to miss this!”
Angela scrambled in, awkward, as she had no idea how this was supposed to be done. She should have watched the Governor. Rogers and Jack slipped into seats facing rearward. There was still plenty of room for four more.
“Strap in everyone, please!” the Governor instructed.
Angela figured out the simple straps on her own, one over her lap, one over her shoulder, the two connected to a single buckle. She was pleased to see Commander Rogers following along, easily.
Suddenly, the vehicle lifted straight up, climbing silently nearly a hundred feet! It turned ninety degrees to port and whisked them all away. Her heart was in her throat, immediately.
Oh, God, do NOT let me be sick!
The Governor smiled, then patted her arm with a big, yet very feminine hand, saying, “Yes, I thought maybe you might live a sheltered life, Captain. Things have come a long way since Resolute left Earth. For us, too, but we brought a lot of technology with us. And we will happily outfit Resolute, if you give us a chance!”
“Thank you. I can hardly wait. But, what do you know of Earth? It has been a long, long time, so many generations for us.”
“Well, one of the advantages to our straight shot to this planet was the ability to trade messages with Earth, at least the moon, for a while. We sent up a pair of binary communicator satellites. Which, when working together properly, send a special communication burst, a packet if you will, at five times the speed of light, so much faster than microwaves.”
“Then you kept in touch with Earth?” Angela asked, wide eyed. That would be… interesting. News. Almost.
“Well, as you know, the tradeoff is in delay. There is a resistance contingent, or was, on Earth. They could only reply on a slow system that took years to reach us. In fact, these messages were so old by the time we got them, it made no difference. The messages are easily seventy or more years behind each other. So, it becomes more of a status report.”
“You must have gotten copies of ours forwarded to you? We did not get copies of yours. This might not have been such a surprise with better communication, ma’am,” Commander Rogers said, evenly.
“Well, the last one we received said the few remaining humans had gone underground, entirely, and were being systematically hunted. The population was seriously destroyed. That was sixty-five years ago, and it was sent seventy before that. Captain. I am sorry.”
Angela said, calmly, “Other than my allegiance to Earth Command, of course, I have no ties with Earth. None of my people, for that matter. We have lived on our own for too long. It is kind of like relating to your great, great grandfather’s life. It is not going to happen…” Then she stopped, stunned. She managed, finally, “Oh, my, God… That is… some palace!”
“Thank you, Captain. How quaint! ‘God.’ God has been replaced by the computer systems. Chips runs everything, sees everything, knows everything, and God, should he care, would find the competition for man’s attention to be extremely fierce. Anyway, that old place? It is a hundred years old, made out of a quartz like stone that just seems to be everywhere, big and small blocks. It could use some updating, but that is a lot of money. Do your people use money?”
“Credits. Ship credits. They are paid for their work in credits, buy food and household items i
n credits, and no one worries about theft or hoarding.”
“I like that, actually. How many people do you have on board?”
“Around three hundred and fifty thousand, Governor. We saw a lot of unsettled land as we scanned Renewal. You should have room for us, right?”
“I will bet all of your people are top notch, well educated, highly creative or disciplined people, too! They will need to loosen up, here, but yes, we will find them room. Keep in mind that we are barely over a million and a half souls, so an influx of a third more will be a matter of room. We came in with half a million, crowded as all hell. We just cannot push the savages too hard.”
“Savages?” Speaking of ‘quaint,’ what the hell did she mean?
“The species who inhabited Renewal before we came are advanced ape like creatures, not hairy, but not scales, either. Kind of a very tough rubbery hide. They are not quite up to the sticks and rocks kind of thing.”
“How big are they?” Angela asked, thinking of dinosaurs and such.
“They are three times our size and bigger, big enough to be a threat, but they are unarmed, come in small groups, and not as challenging as, say, early man in his conquest of his world. Another hundred thousand years, maybe they will be a threat. Maybe not. We leave them be, they leave us be… mostly. In any case, if your people want to live outside the city walls, you have to deal with them.”
Angela had truly hoped for a bare planet. Chasing off ‘savages’ was not cool in her book. Disrupting the species and that sort of thing was supposed to be against the settlement rules. But, of course, that was then, this was now. Things change. Rules change. She would have to adapt to fit in. Besides, mankind, here, had done the work already, and there was no undoing it. “If we stay inside the walls, do we have to split up?”
“Oh, my, yes. No one city can absorb nearly a half million people. Resources would be stretched…”
Angela touched her arm and said, “Wait, Governor. We come with complete hydroponics and husbandry. Wherever we go, we can quickly add to resources.”
“But, it is also a matter of room. The cities are walled. Is there a reason you could not divide up into say, five or six cities along the seaboard?” Jack asked, concerned for his new… friend. Not that she would miss her people, but that she might settle away from the capitol… away from him.
Meanwhile, the car had softly landed on a large pad of something that might be concrete, and the doors popped open.
After Angela and the Governor had slipped out, Angela said, “I am learning so much, Governor. I do want to discuss these things, but you mentioned dinner. I am, in fact, very hungry!”
And short, she added, to herself, ruefully…
CHAPTER 6
Okay, this is a bit demeaning, Angela thought. The table was high, the chairs built for six foot and more giants, and here were Angela and Rogers each sitting on an extra four inches of cushion to give them a semblance of fitting in. If not, they were practically like twelve year olds, their heads even with the shoulders around them. Angela chided herself, thinking, it is not demeaning, it is helpful. That’s all.
Angela was not a political animal, and it showed, quickly. She was introduced to about twenty people, most of whom joined them at the dining table, and she was maybe lucky to remember five. The Governor, Lieutenant Governor, the Mayor of the Capitol, Capitol City, and, of course, Jack and Andora. Yup, five.
The names had gone by in a blur. Commander Rogers seemed to fit right in.
The Governor and her Lt. Governor were very good hosts, asking questions, answering them as they pertained, and making Angela and Rogers feel quite welcome. The dinner was delicious. Land raised beef, a selection of, well, odd fish, and salad galore.
Angela had accepted only minimal portions, as she was accustomed to the rationing system on Resolute, but eyes twinkling, the server slipped her just a bit more, whispering, “We have plenty, and you can use it, hon!”
Not on my bottom and thighs, though, she thought, but kept it to herself, while smiling warmly, as if in thanks.
She and Rogers both had sense enough not to touch the wine, but the water was delicious. Not recycled to death, but fresh, clean water.
“So you have sea water, you know, a salt source? The fish seemed like a kind of saltwater fish,” Angela asked.
“Oh, yes. The planet is mostly water, as I am sure your system advised. And the oceans are heavy in salts and minerals. Nothing harmful, and even beneficial,” Jack explained.
-----
Angela told them of the encounters with Tal’Ken, the battles with the Zephroan, and all eyes were wide with wonder and concern.
Governor Calmone-Morgan added, “Here we are, armed to the teeth, and we have yet to fire a shot in anger. Well, anyway, in space.”
Angela shivered, realizing the enormity of such innocence, and added, “And you should not have to, Governor. Both those species are three to five light years distant, and apparently have vast areas to patrol against each other. I think the Tal’Ken just wanted to help get us out of the way. But, how did you deal with the native species?”
“Our grandparents had the old model shuttles, all noise and flame, and as they came down in a suitable spot for exploration, they inadvertently landed only a half a mile from a small gathering. These creatures do not really have a sense of community, but the individual harems, as we call them, have learned to trade with each other. One male, four or five females to a unit. Naked, savages all. Trading nuts for meat sort of thing. They bolted, and from space, I guess the scanners could see the harems pulling back away from us in a wide circle. Then, they sort of filtered off.”
“So, none were killed?”
“Oh, there have been the occasional skirmishes. Outlying settlers have had to kill a few. It is a pity, but it teaches them to stay away. There are plenty of wild animals out there, deer and boar like creatures, odd shaped but similar, and as our outlying settlers hunt, they sometimes cross paths. There was plenty of conflict in the first few years, but the creatures have held the central lands, and we keep to the seaboard. It is an unspoken agreement, so, limited conflicts, now.”
Gosh, Angela thought, it was so hard to be determined, convincing, and in control, when I look and feel like a kid next to these people. But she stayed her ground, asking, “There has been no attempt to trade or win them over?”
Laughter around the table. Jack, smiling, said, “You sound like Earth, honey. And we soon determined it was like trying to tame a wild animal.
They are a minimal threat to us, they maintain their territories far away, now, and we learned not to poke at them with a sharp stick. They have a hundred times more land, so they keep to the interior of each continent. We estimate, at best, they are a million strong. A sizable threat if we provoke them, but again, we have come to an understanding.”
“I see. Has anyone been truly harmed or killed by them?”
In the early days, we lost four or five hundred families to them, outlying settlers who refused the protection of the cities. We found evidence that these creatures ate the settlers, men, women and children. If there had been any interest in a relationship, it was quelled, right then. But it has been quiet now, for more than sixty years,” the Governor explained.
Angela knew that in advancing, progressive world, sixty years was a long time. So, they now lived peacefully, if not in cooperation, without conflict.
“So, your recommendation is that our people from Resolute try to assimilate into your communities, inside the walls, to avoid learning that lesson all over again!”
Jack beamed. She had figured it out quickly. She looked so darn cute… no, pretty… no, darn it, more than that, beautiful in a pixie kind of way. He flamed red when he noticed his mother watching him with a faint smile…
-----
The tour ended after dinner, and Jack had happily shown Angela and Commander Rogers all around the palatial estate. There were commonalities with what the two had seen in movies, and those probabl
y influenced the décor. But gosh, it was big!
The bedrooms were fifteen hundred square feet, almost four times her Captain’s quarters…and so well appointed! Oh, and speaking of quarters, what was happening on the Resolute? Responsibility, damn.
“Show me how to call up the hologram, please?” Angela asked Jack, holding out her wrist.
“Certainly!” His warm hand took her wrist, then surprised her, turning her so she was with her back against his body, and put the wrist communicator upright to both of them.
Angela tried her best not to react to his presence, his full body touch, so… very unfamiliar, but Rogers was to tell her later, barely containing his laughter, how she had turned bright pink.
Jack pushed a small button on the communicator and a tiny screen, no bigger than a watch face sprang up, the screen under the clock portion.
“Now think, carefully, until you get used to it, one word, ‘HOLO,’” he said.
She did, and suddenly a larger screen was showing in midair, about six inches wide and four inches tall, the bottom about four inches above her wrist. She was delighted!
“Can I use voice in this position?”
Jack, who was finding the beautiful little creature to be very, very warm and surprisingly soft, had to concentrate… “Uhhh, yes, but you do not need to open it to communicate. Your ship’s system and guidance is on channel six forty. Just say, “System 640, it is already keyed to your voice, only. Either your Commander or your system will answer, and put you in touch with a human.”
“Do I yell, whisper, what?” Frankly, she, too was enjoying this… momentary closeness.
“Until the communicator gets used to you, speak normally. If you have secret stuff, simply say, ‘keyboard.’ You can then type with a stylus or your fingertip. Once you get used to it, simply thinking the initial commands allows you silent and hands free operation. But, keep in mind, there is no such thing as privacy with these things. Love notes to your husband can be seen by anyone.”
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