Greener Green I: Where Does the Circle Begin

by Peter Sowatskey

  I looked at her fondly. I knew I would never be her equal, and lately that fact had ceased to bother me. I was on her team and we would prevail. She smiled at me brightly; in my mind again, she winked. I was beginning to understand the Greeks and their ships ladies, always striving.

  She continued, “Prestrillo has the station problem in his mind and under control. Let him do it. If he messes up, you can rescue him and then ask him about other Ranger weapons. I’d like to know about their history. There are primarily unknowns on that subject.”

  We dallied until it was almost departure time. Then she stood saluted me, kissed me and held me close, and then was gone, but her presence lingered. I didn’t question. I just went to the Captains chair on my ships Bridge and said, “Giddy up.” Somebody translated and we did just that.

  Chapter 31

  Rafe

  Sitting in the Captain’s chair on the way out to ARK IV, and doing absolutely nothing, but being commanding, because the whole trip was on auto pilot, my mind turned back to the briefing Prestrillo and I attended on Phaeton. Something about the other space stations and flying fowl.

  I said, to my trusty A/V person, Molly, who I’d placed in my right seat. (I wasn’t assigned a co-pilot for the short trip out to ARK IV.) “Could you prevail on someone to bring up locations of the three space stations and show their variance, minus/plus in distance from Earth?”

  She did nothing. A 3/D Solar System appeared in front of me variances noted in sequential flashing numbers. “And that Molly would be a pattern. Do you see it?”

  “Same distance variance apart, exactly the same distance outward.”

  “Bravo, send to Prestrillo and tell him to revisit the fountain pond, Malvenestere, Phaeton.”

  “Sent---. He says never wake up. What does he mean by that?”

  “Did you study kenning?”

  “Absolutely, everyone does, required. Good way to think.”

  “Did anyone specify conscious, or unconscious, or sub-conscious, or whatever other level of consciousness you name?”

  Molly answered, “I don’t recall.”

  “According to Thelma, the further removed from the conscious mind you are the better kenning works. Does that compute for you?”

  “I’ll have to consider that for a couple of days.”

  “Fine. Time to docking?” I asked.

  “Four hours.”

  “Let’s go find the Mess, oh, Officers Mess, I can sit in my trainer.’

  “Ship’s trainer.”

  “Molly you’re a spoil sport. Come on.”

  It was a nice Mess. More an officers briefing room than Mess but who was I to argue. The trainer cabin sat in one corner and didn’t take up all that much room. I asked, “You’re not cleared to pilot this thing, are you?”

  “Yes, nomenclature, 5 miles long by three quarter mile in diameter at widest point, Powered by seventeen HD/F-E reactors, flies as well forward as backward, weapons,--“

  I cut her off, “I read the history of its development-- turns around on the control room ball--fore and aft the same mile of engine room/weapons. Good in and out of atmosphere. Short range Plasma Cannon, long range extra light missiles. So many shields that I lost count. I know this isn’t a different Frigate. I also know I need to be able to fly it, as much as any one individual can because if I don’t know what it can do how can I know what to do with it. Understand?”

  “Of course. Probably your lack of flying will be your greatest asset. Because you have fewer habit patterns to lose. We’ll work on it every available moment.”

  We worked at the trainer controls until we were called for docking at ARK IV. It was difficult to adjust, from the Frigate, but I did when I quit thinking prow and stern. This ship had neither, in practice. I recalled a time after the War and my homecoming. In 1866 I had taken my Grey uniform south of the border to see if someone needed killing. Plenty did and I got good pay. I’d fallen asleep drunk on a table in the middle of a Cantina. When I awoke, the four I’d been chasing had me surrounded. I pretended to pour another drink and halfway through doing that had dropped the bottle and drew my two guns. For a moment I was shooting in all different directions! I’d gotten wounded, but they’d got dead, though I had to empty four pistols to do so. This ship was like that, swivel around and shoot, swivel half- right and shoot. It was a formidable weapon. Thelma’s Flagship was the same design as the Executive Officers ship, only twenty miles long and four miles in diameter. A Flagship had the same number of crew members as an EO’s ship, twenty. That left a lot of room for armament.

  We waited off ship while Hortimer docked, or rather was docked. Docking had been made automatic in his old/new ship. I couldn’t envision an automatic ass wiper but if the maintenance people had it, it was built in. Then we slipped into our docking tube. It didn’t make any difference in docking. Go in head first, turn control room around, now you were heading outward, sweet.

  Everything on ARK IV was powered and ready to go. So when I sat down on the Control Room couch (Hell, it was a couch!) and said “Giddy up.” We started moving. You’d never know you were moving unless you had faith in the read outs, and looked at the 3-D presentation of the Universe above my head. It showed us, blinking red, pulling away ever faster from Earth, and blinking green, toward Wintorne City to pick up Lord Walter Wiltorne. I’d said to my staff, “If we’re going to do it let’s do it proper.” So the local Ranger, Fracule, had been asked to invite his Lordship along to supervise, or in effect, observe, his problem being solved. That this idea had flown surprised me to no end. This Fracule must be a powerful person locally to have pulled it off. I had a further surprise for his Lordship which he wasn’t going to like either, hostages.

  After three hours, I ordered food for Molly and me. We shared cornbread, fish, rice, and beans. I thought it would remind her old times and it did. She had a dreamy expression on her face. I looked around and realized that moving something like a small state, as all the ARKs were, couldn’t have been remotely possible without telepathy. I expect that there were places and people aboard that I’d never meet. I hoped they wouldn’t feel slighted. A runner removed the dishes and came back with my favorite, cherry pie, four slices, two for now, and two for later. I planned to keep close to the control room until I had a feel for it, any slight kind of a feel.

  Forty eight hours later, I was still holding forth on my couch. Molly also. We’d been there all the time. The people on the actual controls changed every six hours. No one who had gone off duty had returned. I’d guessed that they were making this sojourn part of some training program. I had no way to evaluate any one. We’d managed to avoid being too close to the suns we passed, so they passed my exam.

  Seeing only open space between our location and the Wintorne system, where we should arrive in another thirty hours, I decided that I’d proven my point. I saw that we had a large pool of qualified people to draw from, which translated into enough time for training. Consequently, the crew probably wouldn’t ever make a mistake. That calmed my concerns considerably. I made a slow circuit of the room, Molly by my side, pausing long enough to realize, I had no idea what half the chairs were doing. I completed the circuit, called the shift Duty Officer over, and said, “You have the Bridge.” We exchanged salutes and I retired to my ship, Molly still with me.

  Back in my dining room, we took our dress jackets off and Stalorne brought tea. I thanked him and asked him to wake me in ten hours.

  “Well, what did I do wrong, Molly?”

  “Nothing, honest, nothing, the crew know what your skill level is. They don’t expect anything from you. You could have made an ass of yourself and asked people to explain their jobs, and two months later not known all of that job; but since you didn’t do that, you passed with honors. The only thing they need from you, any of the crew, is you to say, go-stop-wait-kill whoever. They know all the rest. The Med Deck can turn out 20,000 new bodies every 24 hours. They’re not doing that now because we’re almost up to full strength.
A new program initiated and administered by the Essences strives to do more training, broadly sweeping training, before rejoining. It cuts way, way, down on classroom hours. So in summery, it’s under control, you just need to lead.”

  “Thank you. Get some sleep Molly.”

  “I will. I’d sleep better if you kneaded my feet. I’ll do yours, too. If you’d care to?”

  “We’ll try it.”

  Chapter 32

  Rafe

  Sitting on my couch in the Control Room, four hours out from Wintorne, I said, “Get Ranger Fracule on the phone won’t you?” to no one in particular.

  A phone appeared in front of me and I grasped it. (Showing off.) “Ranger Fracule, this is XO Berger, Rafe to you. We’ll be at the coordinates we set in four hours.”

  “Lady Wiltorne has decided to accompany his Lordship. She will be in my associate’s ship and dock first.”

  “Acknowledged, Out.”

  I let go of the phone and it disappeared. Lady also, who knew what that meant. I thought about changing the quarters slightly and looked at Molly, but she spoke before I could, “Done.”

  “Red carpet?”

  “Done.”

  She was making life so much easier.

  Two hours out from rendezvous I called the Duty Officer over and said, “Let’s go to Yellow Alert.” A slight yellow tint appeared in the lighting.

  Immediately the ongoing 3-D Solar system representation moved to the right and a second 3-D appeared showing ARK IV and it's immediate vicinity. Also a second shift of command workers, including DO appeared and came to 'parade rest' behind the seats of the crew already in place. I realized many changes were taking place all over ARK IV. I looked at Molly and made to speak. She reached over and touched my arm for a moment and said; “The DO would have suggested the same in fifteen minutes. Only prudent.”

  I was satisfied that I wasn’t being groundlessly paranoid.

  A half hour out from the rendezvous, I began to see blue circles with flashing question marks in them, ‘too much, too close’ I considered, and at the same time thought, ‘we should do something about those ships’.

  I was about to raise my hand to motion to the DO when he said, “Frigates out.”

  Shortly, a lot of golden dots appeared around ARK IV. I tried to estimate how many.

  Molly said, “327.”

  I thought, ‘that’s a lot of hurting’, while I observed the blue circles retreat.

  Two balls of white light which represented Ranger Fracule and his associate, rose from the planets surface and came to meet us.

  Our rate of approach slowed and we started to change course for out of system while we continued to drift a bit closer to the planet. The white balls changed course to meet us and closed to ship vicinity in the space of an eye blink. We needed some lessons from Ranger R&D for sure. The balls merged with ARK IV and we continued our out of system vector at a greater speed.

  We were pulling swiftly away from the question marks so I said, “Frigates return. Cancel yellow alert in a half hour unless circumstances dictate otherwise.”

  About fifteen minutes later, Molly said, “His Lordship and Lady request Bridge privileges.”

  “Of course. Express handling directed. Both Rangers too. Get some ch---.”

  Eight overstuffed armchairs appeared. Molly said, “Paula and Betty are on their way here.”

  “Eight it is.”

  A transparent room formed in an open space of deck and then went away. I approached the four of them and Ranger Fracule, who I recognized from his photo, stepped forward with a tall female at his side. Her presence almost equaled his.

  He said, “This is Tilda Vand, my associate and this is Lord Walter Wiltorne and her Ladyship Bernice Tracler Wiltorne.

  I stepped closer to them and saluted. While he was returning the salute, I kissed his lady’s outstretched hand. She was not a tall person and a bit plump but I sensed a mind of her own. I was turning back to him noting his drooping shoulders and almost trapped expression. Paula and Betty entered and I said, “This is Commander Paula Hawkins and Ensign Betty Trill, of our Scientific Advisory Section.” I motioned Molly over and said, “This is Molly Trueblood, my aide. She will see to your creature comfort, and beguile you with tales of her world if you care to ask.”

  Ranger Fracule said, “It’s been ever so long since I’ve seen a ship like this. May I show Tilda around the Control Room?”

  “Of course. Molly, won’t you see what everyone will have and then you can accompany them to answer questions, or perhaps ask some of your own.”

  Both Tilda and Fracule said, “Beer.” And Bernice said, “Wine.” And everyone else allowed wine would suit them, me included.

  I motioned to the armchairs and said to Bernice, “Pick out a comfortable one. I’m sure they vibrate. Your Lordship, sit wherever you like. We don’t stand on a lot of formality on ARK IV. I don’t know where you are in your meals routine but you’ll have your own cook, who will have everything, if not we’ll stop and pick it up.”

  His Lordship smiled and chose the most heavily stuffed chair, while the drinks arrived with a pourer. Molly moved off with a Ranger on both arms absolutely glowing.

  His Lordship asked, “I suppose this is a prototype vehicle, though I misspeak to call it a vehicle, more like a flying province.”

  I saw that Paula and Betty had settled themselves on either side of Bernice, oh Bernice, if you only knew.

  “Actually it’s not. We have four, but more are being manufactured.”

  “In space of course, lots of labor woes?”

  “Totally automated. Only foreseeable problem is raw material. But the universe is vast. We’ll find a spare rock or two.’

  It appeared I added to his shoulder droop.

  He lowered his voice to not interrupt the ladies and said, “Absolutely deplorable situation this Bren thing. Do you know the details?”

  “Actually I don’t. We’re here on a rescue mission at the request of Ranger Fracule.”

  “I never knew he had such powerful friends. I guess there’s a lot I never knew about him. He has put me on notice. Do you know what that means?”

  “No. But if it’s something negative I’ll ask him to reconsider. You don’t strike me as a bad person.”

  “You know, I’m actually not. I find out in the end I’m not much of a person at all. After officers school, I had notions of doing research, but my older brother got himself killed on some unnecessary campaign, that barely got a footnote in our history books, and pop, I’m in charge. In charge, what a joke. I was never really in charge of anything. As the years went by, the problems increased and the people to solve them diminished in capability, to the sorry mess you find me in. God's sake, I go on. You’re sure you’re not a minister?”

  I laughed and he did too, after a bit. His popping off came before I could think of a question to ask. Maybe this is what telepathy is. Paula and Betty glanced my way. Guess not.

  Walter finished his second glass of wine and was starting on his third when Bernice suddenly stood with a hand on Paula and Betty and said, “I’m tired Walter. We can get to know these nice people tomorrow evening. I’ve brought a wine chest along and some special recipes. I’m told there’s a farm market we can shop at, so we’ll do that while you attend to affairs of state. Won’t we ladies?”

  Farm market? Who knew? Paula and Betty smiled so I figured they were game. I stood and said , “It has been a real pleasure. We’ll meet for lunch tomorrow, Walter. It will be alright.” I saluted, he returned my salute.

  The four of them went to an open space, the transparent room formed and they were gone, along with the room, a moment later. I sat down heavily and held out my glass. It was filled. Life is good. The yellow light went away and the extra crew . Tilda, Molly, and Fracule came back and sat down. I motioned to the drinks. I said, “It’s been a long day and I hope you, Ranger Fracule, will end it on a positive note and honor us with your first name.”

  I saw
him trying to smile, and I knew it wasn’t something he did often, or maybe in recent history.

  “Prestrillo said you were unorthodox. So am I, and so far we’re both still alive. I’m happy to shake your hand, I’m Erlo.”

  “Thank you, Erlo. You’ve no idea how much your trust pleases me. Thank you. Have you arranged for quarters with Molly? We had no idea what you’d prefer.”

  “I’d prefer a hammock near your pool. I suppose there’s some bathhouse nearby.”

  “Certainly is, and hammocks galore. What about you Tilda?”

  “Molly has extended me an invitation which I’ve accepted.”

  “Fine. Erlo, can we meet for breakfast?”

  “Sure.”

  “DO, have someone escort Erlo to the pool?”

  “I’ll do it myself, my backup will be here in, ah, he’s here. Let’s go Ranger Fracule.”

  They stood in an open area, a room formed; they went, along with the room.

  “DO, you have the Bridge. I’ll be in my quarters.”

  Chapter 33

  Rafe

  When I got there, I sat at the dining room table making entries in my personal log as I did every chance I got. Stalorne brought a pot of tea, and I asked, “What recruiting trip was Thelma talking about?”

  “She wants to get an ANNU KI and dissect him to learn about the body structure. She figures, if a band of Nubians captured one from any one of the three tribes near the Tiberius, it would just look like local politics.”

  “If I’ve got this right, you want us to collect some, or all of your people from back in 1500 BC, train a battalion, say, and send you into Persia to collect ‘Giants’?”