by S. H. Jucha
In two and a half days, the matrons reached the beach. They would spend more time ensuring their work was shored up in the manner of their dwellings to prevent the pathway eroding. But when the first matron stepped onto the black-white crystal sand beach, she whistled shrilly and scooped a small amount of sand into her mouth to taste it. The matron spit out her mouthful of sand and warbled her delight. The other females joined her in song. The Swei Swee had found a most satisfactory home.
In response to the females’ song, the males jumped out of the swim pool and raced down the path. Gaining the beach, they dashed across the sand toward the breaking waves, great gouts of black and white crystals shooting into the air from their driving legs. Diving into the waters, they surfaced and whistled to one another. Within moments, the males were spearing fish and gathering crustaceans, which they offered to the females until they were satiated.
The pathway cut and stomachs full, the Swei Swee turned to the protection of their eggs. Young females returned to the cliff top to gather the eggs from the pool. The males began carrying rocks, which had fallen free of the cliffs, and carried them out to the matrons, who stood on a rocky bottom in shallow waters. The matrons directed the positioning of the stones and began cementing them in place.
Alex left the Swei Swee in peace to enjoy their new home. His parting gift to them was an FTL relay station on the cliff top for their Hive Singer, which earned him Mutter’s sincere gratitude.
* * *
Three tasks received the majority of Alex’s focus, the first traveler’s construction, Haraken’s military, and the new constitution.
After a typically tough day of negotiations with the Assembly, which had required an enormous amount of control on Alex’s part not to strangle Ser Lina Monti, Alex exited the Representatives’ habitat. It had been Katie’s suggestion to relocate the Assembly Representatives planetside. When Alex had asked Katie why, she had responded, “How would you measure our progress on the constitution, Mr. President?” When Alex admitted it was poor, she had replied, “Perhaps the output of the Assembly would improve if they had a close-up view of their new home.” Alex had read between his mother’s lines. The Representatives had found their new accommodations quite spartan compared to that of the city-ships. Without the distractions of friends, crowded meal rooms, and entertainment centers, progress on the constitution improved remarkably.
Alex paused to watch an ice asteroid streak overhead, leaving behind a wide trail of super-heated steam. Little Ben had begun delivering ice asteroids to Haraken many days ago, and his efforts had already produced a noticeable change. The hot, dry air had become faintly cooler and had brought the smell of moisture. Clouds had been seen gathering over the mountains, where miniscule amounts of rain were being detected. The SADEs calculated that Little Ben’s efforts would allow the planting of trees along the mountainsides and ravines within several years, which would accelerate the oxygen content in the atmosphere. As the nanites sealed Alex’s oxygen plugs to his nose, he thought, I can’t wait.
The SADEs had initiated an emergency over-watch procedure for the Swei Swee as a precaution against Little Ben’s activities. Some of the ice asteroids had substantial dust cores. When they struck the ocean, their effects were often felt on distant shores. Upon the detection of rogue waves, Mutter would sing to the Swei Swee to seek shelter.
At one point, Alex had attempted to explain to the First why the walls of the egg dome should be strengthened against the inbound ice asteroids, but he had made no progress. Finally, the leader had beckoned to Alex to follow him, and they had left the cliff top for the beach below. As Alex gained the sands, he had stared at the egg dome. It wasn’t the temporary shelter of mottled cliff stone he had seen being built days ago. Blue, green, and cream swirled through walls that glistened as the Swei Swee dwellings did. The matrons had covered the temporary shelter with their permanent crystal building material. Alex had waded out to the dome. Small slots allowed seawater to mix with the inner dome space. He had struck the dome wall with the base of his curled fist. Alex thought he might have been striking a starship bulkhead. That had ended their conversation. As Alex left, he could have sworn the First’s warbles hinted at laughter, and his suspicion doubled when Mutter demurred from providing a translation.
* * *
In one of the inexplicable coincidences of life, two separate events would collide, enabling the Haraken’s future prosperity.
Early one morning, Mickey had arisen from his cot and hurried to catch a ground transport to a shuttle parked on the runway that had been hastily laid at Espero’s future terminal site. The final destination of the shuttle was the Freedom, but it made a priority stop at the Money Maker for the Chief Engineer.
Mickey made his way to the bridge of the converted freighter and requested some privacy with Mutter. To Captain Menlo, who had lived most of his entire life with an implant, privacy was easily obtained even in a crowd, and he knew Mickey was well-versed in his own implant’s applications. But Lazlo also knew Mickey was under a great deal of pressure to deliver Haraken’s first traveler, so he was content to order the bridge cleared.
“Mutter,” Mickey said when they were alone. “I need your help.”
“I suspected dire tidings, Chief Engineer Brandon, when you came to speak to me in person,” Mutter replied.
“Please, Mutter, call me ‘Mickey.’ It will shorten our conversation. I didn’t mean to make you anxious. There is no bad news. I’ve hit a wall, and I need your help.”
That the Chief Engineer did not appear harmed in any way from his encounter with the wall was of great relief to Mutter. The SADEs needed Mickey healthy and unharmed to achieve success with the traveler, which probabilities dictated would lead to their personal success. “How may I be of assistance, Mickey?” Mutter asked.
“Once the Swei Swee females create a shell, which the President is pushing us to let them start, we have no means of ingress-egress. It’s not like any of us can chew sand, and without an opening, we can’t load passengers or freight or even hook up to a station or vessel. We need a standard hatch,” Mickey said.
“Have you conducted any experiments that we may not be aware of, Mickey?” Mutter asked.
“We know we can cut a hatch, Mutter. It’s slow, but doable. We also know that the moment we cut into the shell, we diminish the resonance continuity, which means the energy collectors won’t charge at a sufficient rate. We also know that any attempt to close a cut with nanites fails to restore the continuity.”
“We will work to help you resolve the problem, Mickey. Thank you for bringing your problem to us,” Mutter replied.
Mickey left soon afterward with Mutter’s wish that he avoid walls in the future, unyielding as they were to humans.
* * *
The SADEs’ attempts to solve the traveler ingress-egress problem were fraught with failures. It was quite the dilemma for entities who rarely found an impediment they couldn’t overcome. Mickey had the matrons build meter-square, flat sheets of shell for the experiments. The engineers applied a wave generator to a plate and attached an acoustic device to measure the square’s harmonics and the strength of the signal. First, a plate was cut in half, and following the SADEs directions, the engineers attempted to reconnect them with various methods while still maintaining the sheet’s resonance strength. However, the results were abysmal. If the rejoining held, the resonance was diminished, or the method wouldn’t rejoin the cut, or the resonance was returned to full strength but the method of rejoining could only be employed once, which would make the technique unusable for a hatch.
After another day of complete test failures and against Mickey’s vociferous objections, he and his team readied their first frame, complete with interior instrumentation, charging crystals or collectors, and a drive for transport to the shell construction site. The frame floated on an enormous pair of grav-lifts.
Pools of seawater, specimen tanks, and two mounds of silicate minerals that the matrons had identi
fied as required material stood waiting at the construction site.
Alex, Mickey, and the frame arrived with the dawn. Soon after, the First emerged over the cliff top and scurried to greet Alex. The majority of the females had followed him.
The humans and the First stood aside as the females went to work. Young females took a small sample from one pile while the matrons sampled the second pile. While they masticated, they ambled over to the bow of the frame, where a heavily scarred matron waited. When the females were ready, the elderly matron warbled and another matron took her place at the bow. She was the Swei Swee female whose carapace Terese had repaired. For nearly a decade, she had been relegated to the position of cripple, unable to aid her People. Now she was offered a place of honor. She would begin the first traveler shell for the Star Hunters.
The honoree bobbed her pleasure and turned to the nearest young female. To the humans, it appeared the two females kissed as their mouth parts entangled. The honoree continued to masticate her mouthful of minerals, combining her material with the ingredients of the younger female. When the honoree was ready, she spit her formulation into her true hands and laid it on the crossbar of the bow’s frame, shaping and spreading the concoction. Exposed to the air, the material began drying, taking on a lustrous blue sheen shot through with subtle green bands. The matron placed her mouth parts on the small piece of hardened shell and hummed. The harmonics of the shell fragment was picked up by the matrons, who added their voices until all voices were in harmony.
“Black space, Mr. President,” Mickey exclaimed. “That old girl just tuned the chorus. That’s how they do it.”
Alex replied.
Alex sent a silhouette of the Sleuth melting into a puddle. Julien just laughed and returned to monitoring the telemetry from his people’s implants. With so much at stake, the SADEs were monitoring every conceivable viewpoint.
“Mickey, I need your seawater sampling containers … all you have,” Alex requested.
“Mr. President, I can send a tech down to the beach for those collections,” Mickey offered.
“They aren’t for seawater sampling, Mickey. I need to collect some Swei Swee spit,” Alex replied.
There were times such as this when Mickey knew it would not pay to ask questions. So he hurried to fulfill Alex’s request.
Once Alex had his set of containers, he approached a young female and sat down in front of her. She immediately lowered herself to the ground without stopping her chewing. Alex opened a container and hawked a loud, noisy spit into it. For a moment, his actions froze the entire cliff top population before work resumed. The eyestalks of Alex’s target were fully extended and trained on his container. Alex closed the first container and opened another, offering it out to the female. To her, it was obvious the Star Hunter First was requesting a tribute, and she hurried forward to comply, spitting her compound into Alex’s container, at least most of it. Alex’s hand and coat sleeve caught the rest of it.
Alex warbled his approval, and the young female hurried for another mouthful of silicate. He pointed to a second female, whose two closest eyestalks swiveled his way, and he indicated his fresh container. She hurried forward to add her tribute. After that the females began to line up in front of Alex, wishing to add their tribute to the Star Hunter First’s collection.
The traveler shell was created mouthful by mouthful, the matrons testing the harmonic of the construction before their portion dried and making any necessary last adjustments. It was incredible to the human observers that the females could unerringly bridge the gaps between the frames as if a laser guided them. It had occurred to Alex that there was substantial value in the males having four eyestalks to watch for hunters in the endless waters, and now it occurred to him the value for the females. With two eyestalks focused in opposite directions, they could align dwelling walls and a shell between frames.
Alex was leaning against the swim pool, and the First, floating inside, clung on the frame next to Alex. All six of their eyeballs were on the females. Alex’s head turned at the sound of the First’s rush to the far side of the pool. The leader pulled himself half out of the pool, his eyestalks trained on a distant noise. In a rush, he cleared the pool’s edge and raced toward the sounds.
Alex cursed. The noise had come from his home site, and belatedly he recalled that construction was to begin today. A committee formed by Harakens had insisted their President have a proper domicile. Alex had foisted them off on Renée, who hadn’t enjoyed their well-meaning intentions any more than Alex would have. Swearing at the timing and taking off at run, Alex remembered to plug in his oxygen tube. Over the pounding of his own feet, he heard the slight thumps of Étienne’s fleet footsteps keeping pace with him.
Before Alex and Étienne could reach the house site, they heard the shouts of humans mixed with the shrill whistles of the First. Please not now, Alex thought, sending a fervent wish to fortune, hoping not to discover a deadly encounter between humans and Swei Swee. Arriving at the home site, Alex found the First, his claws raised threateningly and snapping rapidly, had backed the crew up against their transport. One of the crew had raised a heavy laser tool in his defense.
“Stand down,” Alex yelled as he stepped between the disputing parties.
The First dropped his claws and bobbed urgently in front of Alex. A long song ensued, which Alex’s translator only partially managed.
Once Mutter completed her analysis of the leader’s song, she sent,
Alex’s vision of a timber and stone home, such as his parents had on New Terra, wouldn’t be realized on Haraken due to the lack of forests, but he had still harbored thoughts of a traditional stone house.
will be losing their job,> Alex replied.
Alex sent Renée a short vid of the scene he had encountered at the building site. He heard her intake of breath and a surprised, “Oh, my.”
A wonderfully strange woman whom I hope never to lose, Alex thought.
Alex sent the work crew on their way with his apologies. Then he knelt down in a sandy spot and directed the First to his side. Alex spent an hour diagramming his home, careful to match the proportions accurately to his implant’s image and relating the drawing to the markers staked out by the committee.
Alex and the First went back to observing the building of the shell while Alex waited for the model. Hours later, a transport pulled up and a New Terran tech jumped out with a bundle in his arms and raced toward Alex. He arrived panting, and his eyes started to roll up in his head. Étienne grabbed his arm to steady him, and Alex pulled out his coat’s oxygen tube and plugged it into his nostrils.
When the tech’s vision cleared and he steadied, Alex admonished, “A few ticks more or less will not matter in what we do, Lamont. At the present time, we have no enemies who threaten us.”
“Your pardon, Mr. President. I was told this delivery was critical.”
“Understood, Lamont. Oxygen plugs first … hurry later.”
After the tech left, Alex walked with the First over to the house site. Alex displayed the model, removing the roof to show the home’s interior. Eyestalks compared the model to the outline Alex had made in the sand. His sharp whistle of “Affirmative” pierced the air, and he scurried off to draft his own crew.