Demeter

by Dr. Alan D. Hansen

  “May I help you?” The young man was tall, even sitting behind the desk. He had flaming red hair, and his face was covered in freckles.

  “I’m here to meet with…” Ryder paused, realizing that he had forgotten the name on the paper. He heard a voice from the side.

  “I suspect he is here to meet with Perthola Steerman.” Ryder turned and noticed Mr. Small and Cynthia sitting next to each other in a small waiting area.

  “I believe that’s correct,” Ryder responded sheepishly.

  “And you are?” The young man’s sharp blue eyes reflected impatience.

  “I’m Ryder.”

  “Ryder what?” the receptionist challenged.

  “Oh, sorry, William Ryder.”

  “Yes, you do have an appointment. Director Steerman will be with you shortly.” The young man gave a single nod of the head, and Ryder fully understood he was to join the others in the waiting area.

  A few minutes later they were all advised that Director Steerman would meet with them in conference room C. Again, with a nod of his head, the receptionist gave them enough information to know exactly where to go. They turned down the hallway and proceeded past two doorways to a third with a large C on it. “I guess this is the place,” Cynthia nervously whispered.

  The door was ajar, so they walked into a vacant room that had a round table and several chairs. The wall was polished black stone. The table was shaped out of a speckled granite. The chairs were not made out of stone, but rather a light colored, but solid, wood. Ryder walked over to the window that overlooked the sea and watched the barge-type vessels that were moving up the coast on the still waters. Cynthia joined him and smiled. “I think I will never grow weary of this view.”

  “Me either. What’s that over there?” He could see one of the hoppers fluttering from side to side, like it was trying to be a butterfly. He suddenly laughed. “I think they’ve put Dweeb behind the steering wheel again.”

  Cynthia rose to Debbie’s defense. “You know, it could be Becky. I suspect that flying the hopper will come naturally to Debbie. I’m not so sure about Becky. I watched her play softball once, and she couldn’t seem to bend her elbows or knees. I don’t think she’s that coordinated.”

  “Ahem,” came a throat-clearing cough as a short, heavyset woman entered the room. Her demeanor showed she was clearly in charge. She was wearing a grey jacket and gray slacks with a darker grey strip down the outer side of her pant leg. She had several hash marks up one side of the right sleeve of her jacket, and an insignia of some sort on her collar that Ryder could not decipher. Even Mr. Small stood up straighter as she entered. The woman had that greenish-brown hue that identified her as a Cryellian. Ryder realized that he had not seen that many Cryellians in Europe, perhaps a few dozen. He still found the orange-speckled eyes distracting.

  “Everyone, be seated,” the Director said in a clipped voice. “Roger, I see from the reports that you and Miss Li have returned with seven candidates. I thought you were recruiting nine.”

  Mr. Small shrugged. “Three of the candidates moved before we were able to recruit them for the trip to Europe. We inadvertently picked up one additional candidate, but she is already doing well. Hence, seven,” Mr. Small stated in a matter-of-fact tone. He did not seem intimidated.

  “Ms. Flores, Mr. Ryder, are you aware of why you are here?”

  “Something about being drafted for a year,” Ryder responded.

  “It’s much more complicated than that. You also have rights to be here. Mr. Small, have you explained that as well?”

  “Not yet.” Mr. Small seemed troubled. “The Director-General prefers that conscripts discover Demeter on its own merits.”

  “Hmmm…well, his judgment on these Earth matters is something I rely on. If I try to start second-guessing the foolish tactics of Terrans and lieutenants, I’d be in a perpetual state of apprehension and dismay.” She paused. “It is what it is,” she said, and returned to her papers.

  “You’re a lieutenant?” Ryder whispered in Mr. Small’s direction.

  “Mr. Small is not a lieutenant in the sense of rank. From a Rank perspective, Mr. Small is a major in the DDF, excuse me, Demeter Defense Force,” Director Steerman explained. “He also holds a captaincy in the Sagittarian League, which is extremely rare for people from your planet.”

  Apparently, Mr. Small decided to return the favor. “Director Steerman is a colonel in the DDF, and the Cryellian ambassador to Demeter. She is actually the second in command of the joint Demeter Defense Force.”

  Ryder decided to take the plunge. “That brings up an interesting question. I have seen plenty of people from Earth here and at Arion, but I haven’t seen a lot of Cryellians in either place. Yet it seems there should be…”

  “More of us?” Director Steerman interjected. “Actually, you will periodically see Europe and Arion flooded with Cryellians; however, the Cryellians handle most of the exterior work, space defense, while personnel from Earth handle most of the land-based maintenance and defensive structure. It seems to work better than trying to integrate forces.” She smiled sardonically at Mr. Small.

  An awkward silence followed until Cynthia asked, “So what are Ryder and I supposed to do?”

  Director Steerman immediately drew back from her thoughts. “You and Mr. Ryder have been selected as trainees in the SPC. Ryder has the heritage and demeanor for strategic planning. In your case, Ms. Flores, you have expressed a special interest in the medical field, which is actually housed with SPC because of the complex nature of medicine both on and off world. Is that satisfactory?”

  Cynthia beamed. “Yes, ma’am. Thank you.”

  “And you, Ryder?”

  “I guess that’s all right. I’ve always enjoyed strategy games.”

  “So let the games begin,” Mr. Small said.

  Director Steerman made a whispered call on her bug,. Shortly, two escorts were at the door. “Ms. Flores and Mr. Ryder, I believe you’ve met Lieutenant Aster Freeport—and in this case, lieutenant is the right word—and Ensign Duncan Steerman, my son.” The director scowled, and Ensign Steerman turned a bright shade of green. “They will escort you to your new assignments and help with your orientation.

  Ryder got paired with Lieutenant Freeport and followed him down a series of hallways that led to a large room, but no other people. “Okay, grub, looks like I’m your nursemaid this week. This is the simulated control center. I’ll be introducing you to systems, then take you through some elementary scenarios.”

  “Look, if we’re going to work together, can we knock off the insults. You can call me Ryder? What do you want me to call you?”

  “How about Lieutenant Freeport?” came a snarky reply.

  “How about Aster?” Ryder responded neutrally, holding out his hand.

  Aster stared at Ryder for several seconds and finally released a long breath, “Okay, Aster will be fine, but don’t try it with Duncan. I’d stick with Ensign Steerman with him for a while.”

  “Why? What did I do to him?”

  “You got us both grounded for a week,” Aster responded dolefully as he started working the controls of the computer.

  “Grounded? You seem a bit old to be grounded. And how did I manage to do that anyway?” Ryder snapped back.

  “Well, it was a stretch that we were able to get to Arion to see you grubs—sorry, I mean Terrans—arrive.” Aster’s voice softened a bit. “We wanted to see what you looked like. So we took the last couple of days of our leave to see you. That was supposed to be it, but we wound up creating a bit of an incident. Once we were found out, Duncan’s mother had a fit. She grounded our entire squadron, so you can imagine how popular we are in the squadron right now. By the way, that unpopularity extends to you as well.”

  Ryder stood in awe. “To see us? There are thousands of us all over Demeter. What’s to see?”

  “You don’t know?” Aster seemed genuinely surprised.

  “No, I don’t.”

  “Well, it’s no
t my place to say then.” Aster leered. “You’ll have to get Major Small to brief you.”

  Ryder tried much of the rest of the day to get more out of Aster about but to no avail. On the other hand, Aster was very informative on the setup of the Simulated Control Center. It was a gamer’s dream world. Holistic, three-dimensional shapes came across the walls and center of the room. Ryder tried to count how many different computers were operating at a given time, but he couldn't figure it out as the systems interfaced seamlessly.

  Ryder and Aster started with simple two-dimensional graphics, and then moved to two-dimensional pictures of the inner views of the interior of Demeter. Ryder then learned how to manipulate the views into three-dimensional settings. After that, Aster showed him the exterior views, including visualizations up to a light year in all directions. They went back to sightseeing the interior of the waters and islands of Demeter. Aster finally said, definitively, “Enough. I’ve had enough for one day. Tomorrow we can get into the simulations.”

  “But we’ve hardly started,” Ryder complained.

  “I agree, but we worked right through lunch, and the facilities lock up in another thirty minutes. Steerman is probably ready to do a dead drop from the observation deck by now, with or without a chute.”

  Ryder suddenly realized the grumbling sound he was hearing had been his stomach rebelling against his lack of lunch. He looked at the wall clock and realized it was after 1800. “Okay, what time do we start tomorrow?”

  “How about eight hundred?”

  “How about six hundred?”

  “Let’s settle for seven hundred, then. But I’m having lunch tomorrow.” Aster smiled sincerely for the first time all day.

  Cynthia was waiting for Ryder as he came out the “Authorized Personnel Only” door. “Well, how was your first day? I didn’t see you at lunch. I ate with Duncan.”

  “Duncan. He lets you call him Duncan?” Ryder queried suspiciously as he pushed the button to the elevator to take them up to the observation deck level.

  “I didn’t give him any choice.” She laughed. “He seems to be carrying the weight of the world on his shoulders.”

  “Yes, I can imagine. I suspect everyone on his team would like to strangle him right now.” Ryder added in an off-handed manner as they entered the elevator.

  “What do you mean?” Cynthia looked truly curious.

  “Well, he and Aster led a spy mission to Arion, just to see us arrive. They weren’t supposed to make contact, so they wound up getting their whole wing, or team, or squad, or something grounded,” Ryder said as they arrived at the 445th floor.

  “That’s not the only thing I learned,” Cynthia whispered conspiratorially. “He’s the son of the Director.”

  “Yeah, we both heard that.” Ryder automatically blocked the elevator door open for Cynthia as they emerged from the elevator.

  “Well, as the Director’s only child, he is likely to inherit her seat eventually. It’s kind of like some nobility class thing up here,” Cynthia said as she walked the view area of the observation deck. “This is so beautiful.” She exhaled slowly, taking in the vista. Turning back toward Ryder, she said, “He was already unpopular with a lot of his peers. It showed, even when eating lunch. He would have been eating alone if I hadn’t insisted that we eat together. No one else wanted to be around him.”

  “So how was playing doctor with Duncan anyway?” Ryder said to tease her.

  Cynthia actually blushed. “I did not ‘play doctor’ with Duncan. He wasn’t even around most of the day. I think he was running errands for Mommy. He’s not even in the medical field. The doctors, meanwhile, are astounding. They have equipment I have never even heard of. They showed me a bath of some mixture where they were actually regrowing a young man’s leg. They said he’d be in the bath most of the next three months, then rehab for another year, but he’ll have his own leg back again. I wish we could do that on Earth.”

  “So you can do that now?” Ryder asked as his stomach grumbled.

  “Not me. I’m doing observation all this week. If I’m still interested, and they think I’m suited to the work, then I’ll spend most of this year learning how to do things they do. They referred to it as an apprenticeship. Then if I stay, or come back, I can move on to the internship.” Cynthia seemed intent.

  “Stay?” The rumblings of Ryder’s stomach grew louder.

  “I’m just saying if…” but her eyes had a dreamy look that suggested she had already made up her mind. “But for now, we better go get you something to eat.”

  Back with the group, Ryder found out that eveyone enjoyed their first day of service. Athena was working on internal meteorology. She seemed excited, and was talking about going to the ice fields. Randy and Joel had both gotten involved in training in some robotic suits and were discussing taking them out for a flight. Becky was talkative. She and Debbie had been flying hoppers all day. They hadn’t crashed once. “Although,” Becky said, “Debbie came awful close to that rock formation. She actually caused a landslide with the tip of the hopper.”

  “It wasn’t that big a landslide,” Debbie said defensively. “And Joshua said that he had never seen anyone take to flying better than me.”

  Becky nodded. “Yes, Debbie is amazing. I think I’m getting the hang of it, and Joshua says I’m doing great, but Debbie sometimes scares me. She knows no fear. I’m not so sure that that landslide wasn’t a bit of a problem. The farmer said it would take months to clean up the mess, and that us flyboys needed to be more careful.” Both Becky and Debbie giggled as they could apparently still vividly recall the look on the farmer’s face.

  “It’s not that funny,” Athena responded to their giggles. “You may not realize this, but every crag and crevice is mapped and influences the weather and ecosystem of Demeter. I know that the report of the landslide did not bode well with the Director of Meteorology. He called an emergency meeting to do something they called remapping the system.”

  “I’ll be more careful tomorrow.” Debbie gave her insincere apology look that Ryder could clearly identify, but wasn’t sure if Athena caught it. Athena quickly turned back to her conversation with Randy and Joel.

  The next four days flew by for Ryder. He found ways to zoom in on individual areas both inside and outside of Demeter. Aster coached him on the different types of craft, ranging from hoppers to small interstellar craft, such as Pegasus, to the large Sagittarius League vessels, referred to as SL class naval vessels, or Slicks. On the third day, he and Aster started gaming. The simulations were tied into everything from self-inflicted disasters to full-scale invasions with various forces. Aster “kicked Ryder’s butt.” On day three, Ryder got his first victory, finding a faster solution than Aster did to a mock distress call inside the Demeter shell. On day four, Ryder battled Aster to a draw in a simulated external invasion. Granted, Aster had invaded with an inferior force, but it was as close as Ryder had come to winning such a simulation. It reminded him of when his grandfather had let him win a game of chess. Ryder knew his grandpa had let him win, but it still tasted sweet the first time.

  “Well, hope you have a great week off,” Aster commented at lunch. “I’ll be back on duty when you get back.”

  Ryder hadn’t thought about the fact that he was going to be on a five-day weekend. He was feeling torn. He was looking forward to the time he could spend with Cynthia and his friends from Earth, but he really wanted to get the hang of these games. “Why don’t you join us this weekend?” he finally inquired.

  “I don’t think that will work. We’re still in a blackhole with Director Steerman. I think she’s got us hand washing pots and pans or something like that.”

  Ryder paused. “I might have an idea. Let me talk with Cynthia.” He immediately called her on his bug

  After talking with her, Ryder was busy on the computer for several minutes.

  “Hey, Ryder, we still have three simulations to complete,” Aster chided.

  “Give me a minute,” Ryder respond
ed, meaning he needed five.

  When Ryder finished, the two completed their three simulations. On the first one, Aster came up with a solution to a rescue scenario that would have taken two fewer hours and cost ten percent less than Ryder’s solution. On the next scenario, examining cost of production of three new Pegasus class spaceships, Ryder was ten percent over Aster’s costs. “You’ve got to combine facts with hunches,” Aster advised. On the final scenario, a collapsed mine rescue, Ryder created a solution that beat Aster’s solution by thirty percent on time and cost. “You just got lucky,” Aster challenged.

  Ryder smiled. “Well, I think if we had another week, it wouldn’t be luck.” Just then his attention was drawn to a popup notice of incoming mail. It was a carbon copy of a message addressed to Lieutenant Aster Freeport. “Please be advised that per apprentice Ryder’s request, you and Ensign Steerman are assigned to lead a two-day tour of the canyons tomorrow. Colonel Steerman.”

  By the time he finished reading the message, Aster had obviously received and read the terse message. He stated in awe, “Okay, maybe it’s not all luck.”

  “So what time are we leaving tomorrow?” Ryder smiled as he looked over his computer control panel.

  “Eight hundred sharp. Don’t be late.” Aster tried to hold a straight face, but the right corner of his mouth slid up into a lopsided grin.

  Chapter 12: Shimmer’s Head

  Debbie was explaining some geography concepts she had learned over the past week while flying. “They really don’t have north, east, south, and west here, as the gravity shifts both up and down. We have the near side, which is the side that Europe is located on. The far side is the opposite side, and houses the Slick headquarters. It’s a no fly zone. They actually had three hoppers escort me out of their air space.”

  “You’ve already told us that story. We’re more interested in the canyons,” Ryder interjected.

  “Well it sounded like they would shoot me down or something. Isn’t that right, Becky?”