I asked, “Are you going to come to the Bridge?”
“Not right now. I’ll be along later. It won’t get done quickly.”
“Too true. See you when you get there. I kissed her and she turned over and started even breathing. Despite the lack of sleep I felt fine. Eternal pep pills, built in, hurrah.
When I got to the Bridge coffee was waiting. The Frigates, 79 of them containing the whole of the Brenesi race, had almost completed line up. They would go from north to south until their load was laid down. Another would resume when the first one was empty.
The DO said, "The preparation runs are already done, flora etc. Here goes Frigate one now. They’d created a 50 by 50 video screen and it was showing rear views out of the Frigates. A village appeared and the inhabitants resumed doing whatever they had been doing when they were picked up. They and their domestic animals had been inoculated and they were expecting to see the star system they saw. However the different planetary electro magnetic field; and the different gravity would eventually lead them to think something wasn’t in order. We’d done all we could do. They would adjust. I was glad to see the ankle length coats we’d provided, for the ones who had summer fir in the north, were being traded back and forth to get fits. Also they weren’t finding it strange that food packets of fortified fruit and nut bars were near the fire pits. They have to relight their own fire pits. Good job by the Essences.
YOU’RE WELCOME came through from Paula.
I ordered breakfast and ate with the Brenesi, in a manner of speaking. About 1100 I was thinking of lunch when M. Verdai entered the Bridge. I forgot about lunch, some forgot their duties for a moment and watched as she walked to the ‘couch’. She saluted and I returned the salute. I called the DO over and said, “This is First Officer M. Verdai Dunn Berger. See that she is entered in the rolls as such and that the security system is made aware of her.”
The DO, who was a female at the moment, didn’t gulp, but she had to fight it, Said, “I’ll see that the newly arrived FO is taken care of.”
They went off together. That was that. Somebody handed me a note, it read ‘good show, T’. I’m gone but not forgotten. I loved her even more. T. and M.Verdai, both Bergers, oh boy.
After the last Frigate had completed its run, 1330, I got a call from Tilda saying that Junior had came out of his sedation none the worse and was quite calm. He’d said he was in contact with his people and all was well in their new homeland. We hadn’t fooled anyone it seemed. I suggested that Jill should perhaps delay her descent for a few days, knowing she would do what pleased her, and Junior. Also, I asked Paula to inquire into what seemed to me to be a developing group mind. If such would replicate it would be an advantage in small group operations. Ten Frigates were standing off at 50,000 feet to give us visuals. I asked the substitute DO, the original one was still gone with M.Verdai, to pan slowly from south to north, for my peace of mind, and to give Joshua and Gina a complete view. Joshua still hadn’t made any moves to leave the ship. Maybe he wanted a tour of Earth Space. I couldn’t think why not. Maybe he would have some insights. I had lunch while this was going on. Everyone seemed to be going about their lives quite naturally. Odd, but I seemed to be sharing my meal with all of them. Better have Paula look at my mind too.
At 1500 I was still looking, fourth sweep, when Ike appeared on a small screen in mid-space near me. I made a note that I should be warned of such. Ike was saying, “Realle wants to know if you’re done for now and ready to visit?”
M.Verdai appeared on another screen next to him and said, Have him send up a Wagon to meet us. We’ll be at 20,000 feet over the Capital.”
Ike seemed perplexed, but I said, “See if that’s suitable Ike. The Wagons can dock in most of our bays.”
His face cleared and he looked off screen at someone, turned back, and said,”He’s good with 1700.”
M.Verdai said, “We are too.”
Ike disappeared from the screen and M.Verdai said, “If you’re done there, XO, I could use you in your office. I’ve been going over Realle’s request with a group.”
“Be there forthwith.”
I knew she meant the dining room, sure enough, there were 8 people I’d never seen in person there, plus the morning DO and M.Verdai. I sat. The DO presented, ”Long story short, XO, it can be done with the assets we have on board. If you’ll take note of the wall to your right you’ll see the apparatus that’s been proposed. It comes down to industrial size disintegrators with a follow up surface treatment with disrupters set to achieve about 6 inches of ceramic with a slight reflective coating on the surface. The ceramic will result in zero heat loss and zero cold intrusion. The rest of it is some piping and some wheels. Through the granite which underlies the mountains we can cut a finished one mile per hour. The proposal for the finished installation, considering maximum ease of transport is a spoked wheel with inner rings. We’re looking at 100 feet of rock between tunnels 50 feet wide and 30 feet high in the center and 8 at the sides. We’d simply start in a widening spiral from any central point. The drawings are done in Reg dimensions for you to show to Realle. We’ve prepared a 3D projector for him to get a visual. Start time could be 2400 today. Any questions?”
I answered, “I’m sure all possible questions have been asked and answered. Go set it up. If Realle doesn’t like it we’ll have use for it somewhere. Perhaps on some of the moons in Sol’s outer system. You can make ‘no atmosphere’ plans later.”
“This planet has two counterbalanced moons four times Earths moon size. We’re fairly sure they’re solid,” the DO allowed.
“So do both plans for me now. Dismissed, except for you DO.”
When everyone was gone except M.Verdai, Sally and the DO, M.Verdai said, “She has proven very useful, knowledgeable and a self starter.”
I looked at her name tag, Collene Harris, and said, “Seems like you’ve joined the inner circle Collene. Sally will show you an empty cabin down the hall. Go. M.Verdai and I have to get ready.” Sally and Collene snapped to for a moment and were gone.
I said, “I need a power nap.”
“Stay on your side of the bed.”
“I will. I need strength to get in a capsule and jump. I hope the pilot is good at catching things.”
“No, silly, we aren’t going to use capsules. Though I’d like to look at that system sometime. Nowhere in the various galaxies have I ever heard of it. We’re going to use my new Frigate. You'll like it." It has a lot of firepower. We’ll need 1 hour to get to the rendezvous point. Meanwhile I will tell you my life story.”
Her story was a lot more interesting than the current side mission but we got to the rendezvous point in time and opened a bay door. The ship we put on auto pilot. We stood in the bay with our new gun belts on. Evidently the fancy embossed ring in the middle of the belt buckle controlled the anti-grav. She said she had an internal anti-grav. Must get her to Med Deck on that one. As I’d guessed the automatics had Endless Magazines in them, and she had gone up to .60 caliber. The bullets explode on contact. Bullets mere meant to kill the enemy quicker than he killed you so I welcomed the idea. Now she was running computations on a portable calculator as to whether the new individual shield would protect us if we jumped at this height with no other aid. She hadn’t finished her reckoning when a Wagon blew into the launching bay, did a180 at full speed and hovered a yard off the floor. We were going to have only Wagon jockeys in our pilot instructor staff, I thought as we both sprung aboard. Hands gripped us and sat us in seats with force as the door closed the moment we were through it. Our personal force fields almost came on automatically from the G-Stress. Webbing came out of the wall behind us, locked together in front, and tightened, so quickly I was amazed. I was also amazed at how fast we were approaching a cliff face. A speed twice what I‘d ever flown a Frigate. I glanced over at M.Verdai. She had so wide a smile on her face. Oh God, another one.
A small hole appeared in the cliff face and we went through with a yard to spare. I didn’
t shudder. Wagons have windows all the way around so the troops can see the battle scene in its entirety before they step out. The doors slide up into the ceiling so your pack doesn’t hang up. The Regs carry only ammunition and support weapons anyway so there’s not much pack to hinder exits. Weapons are mounted beneath the floor and on the roof. I decided I wanted at least 200 more. We would see if I could generate any coin of the realm.
We shot through a tunnel, maybe a half mile, and out into a cavern that I could not see to the end. A feed behind my ear said 3 and a half miles by 1 mile wide. We stopped abruptly near a group of Regs. I’d been forewarned, liquid lunch, no problem. The webbing released us and we stepped out. The Wagon shot backward into a parking slot and out stepped a half sized Reg. Maybe they were stunted, but the face was unlined. Yep, my first pilot instructor.
A group of Regs approached us. In the middle was a fellow about a foot taller than everyone else. Maybe his size got him back here without going through Thelma’s Med Deck. He stuck out his hand and said, “I’m Torme Realle, and glad you came.”
He squeezed, I squeezed, and he looked puzzled and withdrew his hand and stuck it in M.Verdai’s direction. She grasped it and in a moment he looked more puzzled.
I said, “This is my First Officer. Whenever she speaks it is as if I have spoken. We are glad that you have invited us.”
“I’m equally glad you came. Here around us is my Circle of Advisors. You’ll become acquainted with them as we go on. I thought you might be instructed by walking around our entry bay. It is one of many the same as this. Is the gravity a bother? If so we can go on four wheels.”
“Wouldn’t hear of it. Can’t see close up while riding. Could we know the name of our pilot?"
“Certainly, Baelors son Roser. Do you deem him unacceptable as a pilot?”
“The opposite. We both find him extremely exact. Maybe we could meet him sometime, if his duties permit.”
Very rapid, it seemed, speech resulted from him and someone in the background spoke into a communication device.
We started walking and talking. I let M.Verdai give most of the answers, concentrating on getting a feeling for the activities. A point got technical beyond Torme’s English, whereupon M.Verdai switched to Reg speach. She appeared quite fluent. The normal speed of delivery was twice the human rate. Question, whether that was natural, or learned in the constant heat of battle. I didn’t hear any English after that which insulted me not at all. I noticed the pilot behind the group and motioned him over to me.
“Do you speak English, or any other Earth language?”
“Ich spreche nur Deutsch.”
So we went on in German and I learned a lot. First he spoke German because the Regs had a vast library in German. Mostly technical material, but other records also. He had read mostly Technical material having to do with flying craft. I saw here a job for Gina. Maybe they would allow Joshua to come along to read the sonnets. I was running up quite a bill.
Eventually we came back to the starting point. It was then that I realized I’d forgotten to adjust my anti-grav, but I didn’t seem much bothered. I followed the group into what was evidently a mess hall. There weren’t many Regs in it and it appeared vast. In my mind I filled it with Regs and it didn’t look so vast anymore. Four tables had been positioned together and we sat around them. M.Verdai sat next to Torme and across the table from me. Odd, to humans, arrangement, but who knew what the norm was here. I didn’t feel the slightest bit surprised when steins of beer appeared and Torme made a toast to our continued cooperation. I drank deep, strong stuff, and told them, “Thelma sends her best wishes, and would be here herself but for the upcoming child.” We had to have a round for the child. Who was the father, me, had to have one for me too. Some loaves of bread appeared and we had to have one for Mother of the Soil. Three refills later I realized except for the pleasant taste realization I was having no reaction to the beer at all.
Torme finally said, “Ike has passed on our request, I’m sure. What say you?”
I answered, “Yes. We would exchange gifts with you. See here.”
I pulled out a 3D projector and switched it on and our proposal appeared. I continued, “The question is, how many?”
“How many can you deliver?”
“We do it at a speed of one mile per hour in our present version. That rate can probably be increased with experience. We depend on you to make the plant beds. We bring in the chemicals to start and train your chemist to make your own. We’ll put in each complex one cold fusion reactor for light and heat. I ask you again, how many do you need? Not to push you, but to establish an exchange, because we want things from you.”
“I understand your way of thinking. We Regs differ a bit in our thinking as we trust the Universe a bit more to even the bargain. That’s just among our selves of course. When we sell our sons and daughters to be killed everywhere we drive a hard bargain. For calculation let’s say we want 1,000 such installations.”
“We are allies. We will arrange the details. You’ll get your 1,000 as fast as we can deliver them. In return we want 200 Grouper Wagons; we’ll change the seats. Along with them we need pilot training. In addition we want access to your Germanic data base. We don’t need your technical secrets, unless you want to share. The enemy we’re facing comes from somewhere. The more we know about them the better we can fight them. I want to bring down a few people to work with your data people.”
“When can you start?” Torme asked.
“Today at midnight. We’ll need to dock a large supply vessel. The starting point for the Farms is best done outward from some central cavern.”
“We will do it. We can sleep when winter comes.”
“This I saw wasn’t winter,” I asked in surprise?
“No, this is our fall here. We will start here. Then we will go to the summer area. The planet is cooling. It is a solid planet. A safe planet. The sun is also cooling. If we can go under the surface and feed ourselves we will be safe. Do you need to send a message?”
“It’s sent. We only need the coordinates. We’ll be landing a Ranger ship too. It has our library in it.”
Torme agreed, “The Rangers have never harmed the Regs. Never been friends. Will be friends now. Will you two stay?”
“We’ll stay until the first Farm is done. Do you have a place, a flat spot where we can set our ship down?”
“We have a larger bay under the palace, or a field near the palace. As you wish.”
M.Verdai spoke, “The field is preferable. Not because the ship wouldn’t be safe with you, but because of communication’s receipt from many sources outside the system.”
“I understand. My NAV person will tell you where to move it.”
I interrupted, “Before you move it FO send a message to have the bore team come planet side. Also have Ike assemble a similar device and then he can send his team to his planet side. Is that agreeable to you First Reg?”
“Splendid. I prefer Torme as a name. The other is so much like work.”
Everyone in his group laughed. I smiled. When in Rome---.
Information was exchanged. Coordinates were supplied. Liaison people were assigned. We went to the Palace de Sonnebrent via high speed train. The trip didn’t take long. The Palace was a mountain. I noticed a picture of it from the outside, a mountain like any other in the pictured range of mountains. We were ushered into a vast hall with high ceilings, and huge wide bladed fans above the chandeliers. One wall was a window, ‘not actual’ the voice behind my ear said. Never the less we could see our Frigate sitting in an open field. Some one would have to fetch our trunks. I had a feeling we’d be staying in the palace. A table carved out of stone, about 30 feet square was placed in the middle of the hall. Charts and drawings were strewn about. Several 3D images were evident. More stone tables lined the walls. Fortunately the chairs were modern with cushions. Food was being brought and put on tables along one wall. I took the o inside the O for bathrooms. All the comforts of home. I wa
s satisfied. M.Verdai looked around with an approving expression on her face, so evidently we were home.
Torme said, “The two views show inner mountain refuge rooms. They will deserve that name all the more when you are done.”
“Yes they will. If you will ask your people to chart a linkage from the first installation to the next, we can make a large tunnel to it, we can avoid dismantling the machine and save time.”
“Done. FO, let me introduce you around the room. From then out you issue commands in my voice. I’m certain no one will be less than jumping to obey.”
I reflected that Torme had grasped the simplicity of being in charge, find someone who can do ‘it’ and let them do ‘it’. Meanwhile I was going to have a beer. I saw from the coming and going to the beer taps; that was the way we did things here.
Chapter 39
Rafe
Four days later the first installation was finished and ready for planting. Ike’s people on the other side of the planet would finish in three hours. At this rate we would be 4 months getting the job done. I had M.Verdai call all of the team leaders into conference.
I said, “You are doing well. These people here, our friends the Regs, who we place our lives in care of, who we ask to die for our cause, appreciate beyond the capability of speech to convey what we are doing. ARK III will remain on station here. We have to move on. The pilot training on the Wagons is going well because of volunteers from our Carrier pilots. The research is going well. It’s pointless of me to go into a lot of details because all of you realize the consequences of our failure. But we can’t move on if most of the installations are not done. I would make suggestions of how we could proceed quicker, but my suggestions you probably thought of last week. So I’ll leave it up to you as to how to get the job done in a month. Thank you for your attention. XO out.”
I made sure the feed was cut before I went for another beer. I knew they couldn’t do it in a month. But I also knew that Torme was listening and he knew we were doing our best. What didn’t get done in a month he would trust us to do over time.
Greener Green I: Where Does the Circle Begin Page 28