Serena

by Bill Nolan

Robert looked serious. “Well, I can’t. I hold an unlimited services contract on you. That means you couldn’t say no. That’s just another way of saying we couldn’t establish consent. No consent, no sex. To’Ach’an don’t commit rape.”

  Jonu was laughing again, and they could hear Dovina giggling.

  The next morning, Robert and Jonu walked over to the little coffee shop. Several locals were there. Robert wanted to put a question out there. “We have a lot of people who want to do what you are doing and settle on a new planet. We are working on making selections for another group. The question is pretty basic. We have a lot of unoccupied planets. We could put the next group on a different planet, or we could add them to this planet. A third option would be to do both. We could add some here and also plant a group on another planet.”

  Cindy, who was running the coffee shop, had a question. “Will we get any say in whom you select if they are coming here?”

  Robert answered, “No, generally not. Now, an exception might be if some friends of people already here were applying and you wanted them to join you. That might move them to the front of the line, but they would still have to meet the same qualifications as all of you did. That might become a case where we brought those friends to this planet, but took the rest of the new settlers somewhere else. How about if you spread the word on this issue, talk about it among all of the settlers, and get back to me to let me know what everyone thinks. You don’t have to all agree. If you end up with several opinions, I want to know all of them.”

  They continued discussing how things were going. As the morning progressed, the settlers in the coffee shop came and went. By the time they left to return to Shanna, Robert and Jonu had a chance to speak with about 40 people. Since a communication nexus had been installed in orbit before the settlers arrived, they could use the regular phones if they needed to contact Robert or someone else on Shanna. This nexus is also what made communication with Earth possible and connected them to the Internet. Interstellar communications did not move at the speed of light. It also wasn’t quite instant, but it was very close. Robert had learned that it wasn’t possible to explain how it worked to someone with an Earth level of physics understanding, so he didn’t even try. It did work, though. The repeaters they had installed to connect the communication in the Clouds to the Milky Way were more like signal boosters than anything else, but that wasn’t exactly accurate, either. Robert guessed that the main thing most people needed to know about the communications was that they did work. Besides, how many people could really tell you how a cell phone system worked? It hadn’t kept most people from being able to use them.

  Chapter 25, Plans

  That night Robert and Jonu returned to Shanna. Robert assumed Dovina came along, although he didn’t see her. Robert went to his office to speak with Shanna. “Have you made any headway with the other ships on my plan?”

  “Yes, the message has been spread to all To’Ach’an ships. They all tell me they will notify me if anyone tries to send out a warning. It seems to be their belief that all of the To’Ach’an traitors on ships have been rooted out, as well as all Tovena. All of the ships have done what we did and had a mental healer visit each person’s mind to see if they were traitors. There is a belief among all the ships that additional To’Ach’an and Tovena who are currently on planets instead of ships will be found to be traitors. Some may also be on Empire ships, and they are probably mostly traitors.”

  “True. We will have to deal with them later. If they are on Empire ships, they won’t be truly loyal ships or they wouldn’t have To’Ach’an on them, so certainly most of those won’t be a long term issue. So, the ships are on board with the plan. Are the To’Ach’an on those ships also on board?

  “Yes, all of the ships report that they are.”

  “OK, Shanna. Now, what’s going on with the other ships in our local fleet?”

  “Bankor has moved to Earth, where he is standing by to provide security if needed. Serena arrived there a few hours ago, and Nante transferred to her Empire flagship. Chola and Shiog are still visiting planets here in the Large Magellanic Cloud and checking them to see how suitable for humans they will be. Miko and Morkalla are off on that special mission for you and report everything is fine. All of these ships know of the plan and are ready to execute when we are ready. Of course we still need the information from Nante. You didn’t ask, but Glenora has moved most of her fleet to the Milky Way Galaxy and is spreading them out. She is keeping me in the loop.”

  “OK, I didn’t ask because Glenora told me what she was going to do, and I was assuming I would hear if anything changed. I am glad you are keeping on top of it, though. For this to work, we need near perfect coordination. What do we hear from Kysandra?”

  “Kysandra is still at Caimerce, and has had some success. She ignored a few who popped their heads up. She was monitoring their communications and they thought she had left, so a bunch more came into the open. She was able to grab another 26 and dispose of them. She thinks that leaves about 60. Give her time. She’ll get them. In the meantime, they can’t do any harm.”

  “Great. Let’s do some exploring. Everybody else is having fun. Why shouldn’t we?”

  Shanna thought that was a good plan, and they discussed which planets and in what order to begin exploration of this new galaxy. Meanwhile, back on Earth, Jane was looking over applications from more people who wanted to settle on a new planet. They were planning to settle a group of similar size to the first every few months. The apparent success of the first group, and their glowing reports from New Hope, had created a storm of applications. People were beginning to understand that being pioneer settlers now was nothing like the covered wagon early days of the United States. There were no natives involved, transportation was pretty easy, and they were not out of touch. They could still connect to the Internet, and the phones they got from the To’Ach’an still worked fine.

  There were a lot of great applications. After Jane and some others selected about 200 families for further consideration, they were contacted to come in for face to face interviews. Just like the first group, they would be examined by mental healers to make sure they were suitable, and if they made it through that process, they would spend a couple of days learning how to proceed. While they were in Tucson for this processing, they stayed in the special apartment building which had been used by the first group as they waited to embark on their grand adventure. This was a nice, six story building. The apartments were furnished, with three bedrooms and about 2300 square feet. There was a center courtyard with a pool, hot tub, and some athletic courts. There was also a clubhouse with the usual amenities. The To’Ach’an didn’t believe in going cheap.

  Now that they had been on New Hope for a while, the first group had discovered the holes in their planning. They hadn’t brought enough of some things, too much of others, and there were a bunch of new things they hadn’t thought of but now knew they needed. Serena doesn’t have much cargo space, but what she could do is extend her jump field and take stuff with her when she jumped. They loaded the needed goods into seven 40’ containers, which were lifted into space by skippers and clustered together. Serena then extended her field to include them and began jumping, which she could do quickly again, since only Jane and her Pixie observer were inboard. Two days later the containers were lowered to the new village. The stuff inside would be useful, but even the containers would come in very handy. Jonu liked how that worked out and decided to use containers for their regular deliveries. Those metal boxes are very handy.

  The settlers on New Hope had gotten together for a group meeting, and after some discussion they had decided that at least one more group of settlers would be welcome. This meant that the To’Ach’an on Earth needed to check with the next group and see whether they wanted to come to New Hope or go to a different planet. There were advantages both ways. New Hope was a known quantity, with some people already there who “knew the ropes,” so to speak. On the other hand, being the very
first people on a new planet certainly had a lot of appeal. In the end, they decided to join the New Hope settlers and get the advantages of more people and also take advantage of the experience of the first group. Once that was decided, the two groups quickly started to use the Internet to get to know each other, and also for the new group to get a lot of information as to what to bring along. It also meant that four of the new families, who were going to New Hope anyway to join friends already there, didn’t have to split off from the new friends they were making as they prepared to leave for their new life.

  Miko and his ship, Morkalla, were currently near Caimerce, ready to assist Kysandra if it became necessary. Robert had the discussion with Miko on Miko’s ship when he asked him to help Kysandra. He didn’t want anyone else, not even Shanna, to know that was happening. Robert didn’t think he had any more moles on his ship, but he was being careful. He did tell Shanna that he had sent Miko and Morkalla on a special assignment. More than most, Robert recognized just how independent the To’Ach’an ships had become. For many centuries they had treated the very intelligent and very self-aware ships as loyal servants who would do as ordered. Robert was different because he had always known Shanna was independent. They were friends, but he was not her master. Most of the To’Ach’an had never had that relationship. It was going to be a tough adjustment for many to make.

  Robert had asked Miko and Morkalla to go there because he suspected that there were still rogue To’Ach’an out there, maybe on planets and maybe on Empire ships. If so, they would probably attempt to meet with or rescue the ones on Caimerce that Kysandra was eliminating. If that happened, Kysandra was going to need help. There was no way that her little skipper could handle a big ship. Yes, she could jump and could cloak, but she didn’t have much in the way of weapons. Some of the To’Ach’an trapped on Caimerce were powerful, and still had a following. Robert didn’t want them getting away. There were also two Pixie ships in that system. Between Morkalla and the Pixie ships, he thought they could handle whomever showed up. He and Jane had an alliance with all the other To’Ach’an ships. Robert didn’t think they would break that, which meant that if more rogue To’Ach’an showed up, they would be in one or more Empire ships. Kysandra, of course, knew about the other ships backing her up.

  Nobody was coming out of their holes recently. They seemed to have decided that it was a bad idea. Kysandra knew there would be traps, and she didn’t underestimate the To’Ach’an who were holed up. She and the other ships with her were content to wait. She had feared that her Pixie friends would get impatient, but it wasn’t a problem. Pixies live a long time, and they make plans which span many thousands of years. They were fine with waiting.

  Chapter 26, Settlers and a Birthday

  Since they had already put the one group of settlers onto New Hope, it was decided that a larger group would be OK. They initially accepted 150 families with almost 1250 people total. One family elected to wait for a group going to a different planet, as they wanted to establish a lodge, and they were told they couldn’t do that on New Hope. They were allowed to continue living in the apartment building while they waited. This time Bankor handled the transport, since he had been near Earth anyway, and Shanna was still off exploring new planets. It took two days to get everyone loaded up and all the equipment and goods inboard or in containers nearby. As before they allowed 14 days for the trip. When they arrived, everything was offloaded in a large meadow about ½ mile from the village.

  At that point the new settlers broke up into two groups. The smaller group wanted to be part of the village, and so they walked up to meet with the people already living there and find out where they could put the buildings they had brought with them. The first group of settlers had made plat maps dividing the village area up into large lots. The newcomers could pick any one that hadn’t been claimed. In a couple of days, they were all settled into a space. The rest wanted to have a larger space, so they started looking, using their aircars. The exception was two families who had brought boats of a sort. They would work in the water just like any other boat, but they could also rise up and travel through the air, much like the lodge was able to do. These were fishermen, and they chose sites overlooking the ocean near the tip of the peninsula. They didn’t need docks, because when they weren’t out fishing the boats could be parked next to their houses.

  The boats were 70’ long and set up for fishing with rods, not nets. Nets were prohibited because of bycatch issues, although small cast nets were OK. The engines on the boats were electric, and the power supplies meant no fuel was needed. In addition to the fishing gear, these families had also brought lobster traps. They wanted to sample the seafood in general. Everyone had been warned not to dive or swim in the ocean. Angela had found several very large predators on the order of sharks, but much larger than a great white. It did not seem safe to go into the water.

  Within two weeks everyone was settled and had picked a space. Some were in the village, some within 20 miles or so, and some were a long way off. The aircars meant they could still come to the village whenever they wanted. Even though there were so few people, the settlers and the To’Ach’an agreed they wanted to do a better job of caring for the planet than had been done on Earth. The Pixies, although completely unknown to the settlers, were experts in ecology, and had provided a lot of guidance. Angela had helped with the stuff relating to the oceans. Since they didn’t need hydroelectric power, there would be no need for dams. Because of aircars they would also not need any roadways. Mining would be strictly regulated and, except in controlled circumstances, would only be allowed when it had little surface impact, and on asteroids and lifeless worlds. While no licenses would be needed, there were rules about hunting game, fishing, and exploitation of local resources such as forests. One of the new families had brought in the equipment to operate a sawmill. Lumber would be needed, and it was fairly certain that some of the trees would have beautiful wood. That was something which could be harvested and marketed in a sustainable way. Just because they had a whole world to exploit didn’t mean it had to be done in a careless fashion.

  With three ships exploring the Large Magellanic Cloud, they were getting information on a lot of planets. In general, they spent about a week at each planet and sent down a dozen or more teams to explore, take samples, and determine whether a planet would be suitable for settlers. In just a few weeks they had cataloged 11 planets which were just as nice as New Hope.

  Meanwhile, over in the Small Magellanic Cloud, Serena and Jane were working with a team of Pixies to do the same thing. Jane had a lot fewer people, but the Pixies were better ecologists, and so she was able to move fairly quickly. Plus, this was the Pixie’s home galaxy, so a lot of the work had already been done. Now it was just a matter of extending the research to things affecting humans. For instance, Pixies could eat some things which were poisonous to humans, particularly among the fungi, so mushrooms had to be reevaluated.

  Since this was the home galaxy of the Pixies, they had been making ‘tweaks’ to many of the planets for dozens of centuries. As a result, conditions on all of the worlds which Jane visited were as close to ideal as she could imagine. Jane wondered why they hadn’t seemed concerned about the Potriem since they were caretakers of the galaxy. Glenora told her it was because the Potriem only seemed interested in cold planets, which didn’t interest the Pixies. They don’t like being cold.

  The other huge surprise came when Glenora had Jane take her to a planet which had no atmosphere, and was in a system with no planets containing life. Except for a single planet, the rest of the planets in the system were gas giants. As they approached, Glenora took a device from her belt and pressed a depression on the side. Instantly, Serena’s scans picked up four large ships in orbit around the planet. They had been cloaked until Glenora had turned off the cloaking devices. As they approached, they could see that one appeared to be a To’Ach’an design, but almost twice the normal diameter, while the others were not To’Ach’an in desig
n. They were, however, much larger than was normal for the starships currently in use.

  Serena’s shields were already up. Since the events of previous weeks, she kept her shields up almost all the time. Jane asked her to approach the To’Ach’an ship first. There were three standard docking ports on the ship. Serena picked one and activated the dock. Jane turned to Glenora. “You want to tell me what’s going on here?”

  Glenora just smiled her sly smile. “I understand your birthday is in a month. Happy early birthday! We’ll have cake later.”

  “You are giving me these ships? Where are the original owners?”

  “Gone.”

  “Glenora, I think you need to be more specific. This is a To’Ach’an ship. That means it had, at one time, To’Ach’an people in board. My people. Now you say they are gone. Do you mean dead? Who killed them, and how, without any apparent damage to the ship?”

  “We have collected these over a period of many, many centuries. Apparently, all of these ships tried to leave your galaxy, and all got lost. It appears that the crews eventually died when supplies ran out. When we found them, the ships were still fully functional, but nobody was alive on them. They all contain a large amount of equipment and other cargo, but nothing living. We brought them here to store them, and shut them down. They can be repowered at any time.”

  “OK, let’s have a look. Serena, open the dock and check the atmosphere on the ship. Did you possibly get plans for this from Shanna? It’s a To’Ach’an ship. The original plans should be in the database.”

  “Comparing. OK, got it. This ship is Porcalt. She was built about 1500 years ago specifically to try to reach another galaxy. According to the records, there were only 23 To’Ach’an on board, but there were 300 others, and stuff to set up a colony. She jumped out of the galaxy and was never heard from again. I have sent the maps to your suit, so they will be on your heads up display. I assume you are going in to power her back up. Remember, none of the lift tubes will work until you restore power. I have mapped the best route to the main power shunts.”