Libre, A Silver Ships Novel (The Silver Ships Book 2)
Page 18
Cordelia responded,
Following their latest sleep cycle, eighteen Bergfalk orbital station workers woke and began their day’s work. Each of the women were surprised when they couldn’t find their fantasy vid of the Admiral within their implant and queried their associates for another copy, only to find none of them had it. In the following days, the subject of the missing vid would occupy much of their discussions and would add to the growing mystique of the New Terran Admiral.
* * *
While Mickey supported the readying of the Freedom for launch, Lazlo drove Mickey’s engineering and flight crew teams to complete the Money Maker. They hurried to add the final environmental system runs through the spine from the aft engineering compartments to the forward bays and build out the final bays, especially the two front bays that would house meal facilities, Medical, and additional crew cabins.
Tatia continued to support the freighter’s outfitting. Julien, choosing to take some liberty with crew assignments, sent Alain, Tatia’s Méridien lover, to support her. Lazlo managed the freighter’s bay assembly, and Tatia and Alain managed the deliveries of unassembled fighter sections, missiles, and cabin fittings.
In addition to Tatia’s other duties, she began handling pallet shipments of the new minelettes she snuck through the manufacturing process with Julien’s help, minelettes that were never loaded on the freighter.
At the end of a long day, Tatia and Alain would find a spare cabin, arrange some bedding, and curl up together for the night, enjoying the precious time to hold one another. Their morning chimes would wake them still curled in one another’s arms, too tired to have even moved during the night.
Breakfast was dispensed for the freighter’s crew in a commandeered station restaurant where everyone would get progress updates from the SADEs while they ate and before they started their day all over again.
At the rate everyone was working, Alex worried about accidents, primarily for the EVA crews and the shuttle pilots. He ordered the SADEs to ensure that those crews, after two days of heavy work, were rotated to lighter duties for a full day. Z had insisted this was inefficient.
Z took a moment to work out the possibilities of that scenario occurring. Much to his surprise, he found several instances where it was possible—not probable, but possible. After that, the SADEs began diligently rotating all critical and dangerous crew assignments.
Bumps, bruises, cuts, and broken limbs became commonplace. The lines at the city-ships’ and orbital stations’ Medicals were never-ending. People were hurrying. Many sections were not completed, exposing sharp bulkheads and hanging conduits. Heavy loads, despite being floated by grav-lifts, were dangerous if not properly managed. They had mass, and once in motion, they had inertia.
The rapid work pace cost the flotilla its first death. Aboard the Freedom, a Bergfalk crew member was pushing a heavily loaded grav-lift ahead of her. Bobbie Singh, a New Terran tech, stepped aside to let her pass, when a young Libran girl, chased by her brother, raced around the corner directly into the grav-lift’s path. Bobbie realized the Bergfalk tech could not stop in time, and he screamed an urgent warning to her and dived in front of the lift to enfold the child in his arms. His heavy, gravity-built torso took the brunt of the impact. The girl was unharmed except for some bruises, but Bobbie died of multiple traumatic injuries to his neck and spine. They were injuries that even Méridien nanites couldn’t repair fast enough to save him.
A brief memorial, a “star service” as the Méridiens called it, was held for Bobbie aboard the Freedom, which most crew could not attend. Too much time would be lost. Cordelia broadcast a vid of the ceremony and played Mütter’s music softly throughout it.
Thereafter, no Rêveur New Terran ever stepped up to a Freedom meal dispenser again. The Librans politely requested their cousins be seated. Food and drink were brought to them until they were full.
-19-
After Bobbie Singh’s star services, the ten-year-old Libran girl, Amelia, whom Bobbie had saved, stopped playing games with her younger brother. She began following the New Terrans, any New Terran, asking to help. The crew members began by giving her small jobs just to keep her busy and out of their way. After days of effort, she was adopted and became indispensable as a runner. Implants were great communications tools, but an implement left behind, a replacement part required, or a tool requiring recharge, were not transportable by implant. Feet were required, and a young girl had the energy and time to do what would cost the workers both of these.
Eight days after starting her efforts, Amelia began organizing other children. Within days, she recruited thirty-eight of her fellow passengers to become runners. The young children such as Amelia did not yet have implants to provide translations for the New Terrans, who used their belt harnesses to communicate in Con-Fed. For complex instructions or the request of a specific part, the New Terrans communicated their requests via their readers. The children would take the readers with them, following its instructions and drawings to manage the request. When completed, they would dash back to the worker. This became such a popular means of utilizing the runners that Libran crews vied for New Terran crew members to join their group.
Parents gave up admonishing their children to be careful and walk as was the proper way to behave aboard ship. They were comforted to see their young ones involved, rather than worrying about the coming aliens as they had been doing. As far as the parents were concerned, the children had every right to work to secure their own future.
Amelia’s focus shifted from running to organizing the others. She would receive verbal messages from Cordelia via an ear comm Captain Cordova had given her. The messages detailed where her work crews had moved, enabling her to redirect her runners. Over days, the runners and work crews had become accustomed to one another, so Amelia worked to keep them together. The number of runners grew to 144, and Amelia was given her own reader, programmed in Con-Fed, for her to manage the children.
In the course of her travels, Amelia found a quiet but commanding Méridien adult. As a child, she had never known her father, who had been killed in a mining accident when she was two. So Amelia found herself intrigued by the Méridien’s serenity and easy smile. But despite her entreaties to support him as a runner, he politely refused her. It was only through constant requests that the man finally chose to give her a job. It was a small request, but one she happily complied with, dashing off at her top speed. Each day, she received one or two requests from him. Despite the time demand of organizing and managing the other runners, Amelia kept running for him.
One day, as she rushed to r
eturn to the cabin where her Méridien was working, she stepped into the path of Ser de Guirnon.
“Ah, Amelia, isn’t it?” Renée said, steadying the young girl by the shoulders to prevent the two colliding.
“Yes, Ser,” Amelia replied, bobbing her head in respect.
“And aren’t you the one who organizes the runners?” Renée asked.
“Yes, Ser,” she replied quietly.
“I hear you’re doing a fine and much-needed job for the crew, Amelia.”
Amelia felt Ser de Guirnon, House Alexander’s Co-Leader, wrap her arms around her and hold her close. She felt awkward, unsure of what to do, and she looked over to see her adopted Méridien worker smile at her. Tentatively, Amelia returned the embrace, something she had only received from her mother, and felt the awkwardness ease away.
Renée felt the stiffness leave the young girl, who relaxed and returned her embrace. Then the child began to sob in her arms.
The crew members stepped into the corridor, slipping past Renée and the young girl to give them privacy. They waited while the guilt that the young Libran had held inside of her for so many days finally broke free, her tears streaming onto Renée’s uniform.
When the tears stopped, Renée dried Amelia’s eyes. “Do not carry this guilt, young one,” she said. “We, as a people, strive to keep our children safe. Now you know that New Terrans believe the same. Ser Singh would tell you that now if he could. He protected you. Honor his memory with your work, but do not let your guilt destroy you. That would give him no honor.”
Amelia nodded her head in understanding and wiped her face on the sleeve of her dirty ship uniform. All the runners had discarded their bright, gay child-print wraps for ship uniforms. A friend of her mother’s had created armbands to identify the runners. It wasn’t necessary, but the children wore their distinction proudly.
“Did you come to see someone in particular?” Renée asked.
“Do you know whom you help, Amelia?” Renée asked, nodding to the doorway.
Amelia turned to look at her quiet Méridien. She shook her head. When Amelia had asked the Méridien’s name, he had simply replied “Étienne.” He did not profess a title or require a formal manner of address, so she thought he must be a freighter crewman, a cargo handler, or some such.
“That is Étienne de Long of House Alexander, personal escort of Admiral Racine.” Renée left while Amelia’s mouth still hung open as the young girl stared wide-eyed at her “not” freighter crewman.
Étienne sent, humor lacing his statement.
-20-
As the Freedom approached completion, the majority of the work force, shuttle deliveries, and passenger transfers began shifting to the Unser Menschen. The few shuttles that continued to ply between the planet and the Freedom concentrated on stocking supplies to complete the ship’s outfitting.
Eric breathed a sigh of relief when the first shuttles began docking in his city-ship again. He had perceived the SADEs’ wisdom in concentrating on one city-ship first, even though he was loath to admit it. Having two unfinished city-ships, if and when the aliens arrived, was of no value. What still irked him was the ease and readiness with which the SADEs supplied their analyses and projections to the Admiral. Even then, he wondered why he never thought to ask the questions himself.
One additional thought continued to plague Eric. The SADEs had decided that the Freedom would be completed first. When it had been announced, Eric had asked Z how the decision had been reached.
Despite Z’s explanations, which Eric hadn’t found fault with, the Leader still wondered if the Admiral didn’t have something to do with the decision to build out the Freedom first.
* * *
Unfortunately Alex’s conversation with the Leader did not proceed as he had expected. To Alex, it was a simple, straightforward decision. But Eric did not see it that way. That the purpose of two liners on station was to determine whether the Unser Menschen might need to be abandoned, to him, was unacceptable.
“Leader Stroheim,” Alex said, trying to reason with the man. “What good is a ship that can’t get underway? Would you trap your passengers on board a doomed ship when some of them might have the opportunity to transfer to the Freedom?”
“This is not about trapping anyone, Admiral,” Eric responded. “It’s ensuring that the maximum effort is devoted to readying the Unser Menschen just as you did the Freedom.”
Alex was halted by Eric’s words. “Just as I did the Freedom?” Alex repeated. “What do you mean by that?”
“It’s what you call a figure of speech, Admiral,” said Eric, regretting that he had expressed the thought.
“I know what a figure of speech is Leader. But it’s my people who have figures of speech, not your people. So I ask you again: What did you mean by that statement?” Alex was leaning over the Leader’s desk and belatedly realized that his entire stance had become intimidating. In response, Eric was leaning far back in his own chair on the other side of the desk.