Return to Dakistee

by Thomas DePrima

  As she reached the steps to the stage, she received a standing ovation. She smiled and waved as she walked to the podium and then basked in the applause for a few seconds before raising her arms. The clapping subsided and the audience retook their seats.

  "Hello, and welcome to the First Dakistee Constitutional Resurrection Convention," Madu said into the microphone. "I'm quite sure none of us ever expected to sleep for as long as we did. We believed our brilliant scientists would find a solution to our problem and we would be awakened within a few decades, or perhaps half a century at most. When I was awakened and told I had slept for twenty millennia, I didn’t believe the people who had restored me to consciousness. I suspected ulterior motives. I was wrong. I learned we were never awakened by our own people because the scientists never found a cure for the plague that doomed our civilization. Unless that now happens within our lifetimes, our people might indeed be doomed.

  "Perhaps the best news greeting our reawakening is that the galaxy has passed us by. Ordinarily, that kind of news is tragic, but, for us, it might represent our salvation. It's now possible to travel faster than light and go places never dreamed of when we were born. It means that while we slept, oblivious to events that were happening, and while the galaxy remained ignorant that we were waiting to be awakened, great strides were being made in science and medicine.

  "The person to whom we all owe our lives is Lieutenant Commander Christa Carver. She's of Terran lineage but was born here on Dakistee just a short distance from this facility. It was she who solved the riddle of opening the door to this facility, a task that scientists told me would be impossible to anyone who hadn't been briefed in the process. The complex procedure was intended to ensure that thieves didn't break in during the decades we slept without guards at the entrance. We could sleep secure in the knowledge that when we awakened, everything would be just as we left it. And it was, thanks to the Space Command personnel who protected the facility after Commander Carver unsealed the entrance and who still guard the entrance to ensure we aren't disturbed by the archeologists at the nearby dig site.

  "I'm sure most of you have been to the surface in recent weeks. Our beautiful city is now just a memory, thankfully preserved in images, as are all the other cities on our world. During the time we slept, our planet's infrastructure has crumbled to dust. We will rebuild it. We must rebuild it. It will take time, which brings us back to the point I touched on earlier about finding a cure to the plague.

  "To date, I've awakened fewer than six hundred sleepers. The first to be awakened were people who could support my effort to awaken more in case Space Command tried to prevent me from doing so. But once I was sure Commander Carver was only trying to ensure an orderly and safe awakening process, the people awakened were those most able to assure our future survival. That means most of you. Our first goal must be to find a cure for the condition that prevents us from natural procreation. If the most brilliant people of our earlier time couldn't solve the dilemma during their lifetime, the new effort must be massive— all consuming in fact. I refuse to believe it will be futile.

  "To accomplish our number one goal, we will need funding. I've been told the Galactic Alliance will treat the project as a humanitarian effort, but we all know that humanitarian efforts don't always accomplish their idealistic goals. We also know that nothing moves an effort along better than money, so we must have huge sums of money to fund the research and development work. That's the only way we'll get the attention of the most brilliant of the brilliant in this new universe we've awakened into.

  "We must work together with the one main goal always uppermost in our mind. If we can do that, we can look forward to one day seeing our world populated with the new offspring of the young men and women still waiting in stasis to begin their new lives.

  "Thank you for listening to my plea. I'll now open the session up to questions."

  Madu pointed to a man who appeared senior to most of the people in his seating area.

  "Madame Director, I was under the impression that this session was to be dedicated to resurrecting our constitution. Other than your opening sentence, I've heard no mention of it."

  "Professor Olivegzelt, I felt I had an obligation to present the problem most important to all of us at this time and then allow the group to take the remainder of the session in whatever direction they wished. Resurrecting the constitution is important, but, in my opinion, pales in comparison to the procreation issue. Do you have a particular question about the constitution?"

  "Yes. When will it become the law of the land again?"

  "Within this facility, it is the law of the land. Outside is another issue. When the Galactic Alliance performed an in-depth survey of the planet and found no sign of sentient life, it assumed none existed. It never realized we were asleep so far below the surface. At that time, it awarded contracts to a non-profit archeological organization to uncover the remnants of our 'long dead' civilization. There was no malicious intent. They were simply explorers looking for answers. When the GA learned that the planet was still inhabited by a sleeping population, all contracts were rescinded according to included clauses providing for this eventuality. The items that have been recovered and not yet shipped off planet were seized and will be turned over to us when our government is formed. In the meantime, the planet is under martial law and will be governed by Space Command."

  "A military, not even our own, is going to dictate what we can do and when we can do it?"

  "Space Command's mission is to keep the peace and provide a means to settle arguments and conflicts peacefully. I had gotten to know Commander Carver pretty well in the short time we worked together and I can promise you that she is not a dictator. She is not seeking power, glory, or personal wealth. She's assured me that as soon as we're in a position to assume control of our planet, the Galactic Alliance will return full control to the elected government."

  "Completely? And they'll leave— completely?"

  "If we wish to remain a part of the Galactic Alliance, there will of course be a presence here— a small presence, as is appropriate for embassies. If we decide to separate ourselves from the Galactic Alliance completely, they will leave completely."

  "I'll believe it when I see it."

  "Anyone else?" Madu asked, looking out at the audience again.

  "How are we supposed to raise the money we'll need to support our research?" one of the engineers who had worked on the water problem asked. "The planet is in ruins. There's nothing left up there. Except for where the archeologists have pulled back the surface cover, it looks like a prehistoric world."

  "I have a few ideas on that, but I'm going to need lots of help on this project. We know that when we went to sleep there had to be vast wealth in precious stones and minerals stored in large, secure warehouses located around the planet. We must begin an intensive effort to find them before some archeological group does."

  "And what if they've uncovered them already?"

  "They haven't, according to the item lists I've seen of the things they've sent to the planet Anthius where the central repository is located. They're following traditional archeological search procedures, peeling back the layers of time slowly and methodically, being extra careful not to destroy anything. They believed they had all the time in the world to discover what lay hidden, so there's been no massive effort to search for deep vaults that might contain vast wealth. If we act swiftly, we can locate the government caches before they stumble onto them."

  "But where do we even begin? We have no organization or structure and no assets."

  "We have this facility to begin with. And there are five others just like it. Most importantly, we have a hundred and eighty thousand Dakistians. They include some of the finest minds in our population when it was time to sleep. We can do this and will do this."

  "But we have no government. Where do we start?"

  "We start small and build, as is always done with any organization."

  "But who will
lead us?"

  "I nominate Madu Ptellewqku for interim leader of our planet," someone shouted from over on the right side of the seating.

  "I second that nomination," another said as a chorus of voices took up a chant of "Madu, Madu, Madu."

  The young engineer looked around, shrugged his shoulders, and sat back down as the chant increased in pitch.

  Madu finally held up her hands for quiet. "I'm honored to be nominated to run the interim government. If that's what you want, I promise to do the best job I can. But I have to ask if there are any other nominations."

  When no one spoke up, Madu said, "Very well. Can we have a show of hands to see if I have your full support?"

  A number of hands shot up quickly, followed by a slow but steady rising as people thought about the vote and decided to go along. A few people appeared undecided and abstained, but the overwhelming majority raised their hand in support.

  "Thank you for this show of support tonight. I will do the very best job I can while I function as your President."

  "Did I do okay, Madam President?" Madu's assistant asked later when the program was over and the citizens had left the gym.

  "You couldn't have timed it better, Toydan. And Marcillos did his role perfectly as well. I thought that idiot Professor Kequilisk was going to bollix everything, but he finally had the good sense to stop asking foolish questions and sit down. I needed someone to provide a little dissidence and awoke him because he always opposed everything. My plan came together perfectly."

  "What now, Madam President?" Toydan asked.

  "We have a lot to do. We have a planet to run and a disease to conquer. We're going to be quite busy before we can move into a new executive mansion."

  * * *

  "We just received a dispatch from Anthius," Dr. Manson's assistant said to her as she returned to her office following lunch. "They say the cylinder you brought to Commander Carver will not be coming back to you. It seems the cylinder is constructed from some special metal listed as a controlled distribution substance."

  "Is it dangerous? Was it radioactive or something?"

  "I don't think so. There's just some law that says we can't possess it."

  "That's ridiculous. It has to be Carver again. That bitch is trying to make sure I don’t get my decoration back. I knew I shouldn’t have brought it to her."

  Manson strode angrily into her office.

  "You had no choice," her assistant said, following her in. "Anthius ordered you to."

  "I bet she put pressure on the curators at Anthius to fabricate this ridiculous story. I wish I could have found something to lay on her, but she's as squeaky clean as a nanotech robot. Her sister might be called the Ice Queen, but she should be nicknamed Snow White."

  Her assistant giggled. "That's funny."

  Manson looked at her assistant somberly. "What's funny about it?"

  "I've heard Carver is still in a coma. If you remember the story, Snow White was in a coma after she bit into the poisoned apple given to her by a witch." Manson was staring at her like she had just scored zero on an IQ test. "Don't you get it? Commander Carver was attacked by a witch and now she's in a coma."

  "Don't you have some filing to do, Paula?"

  Her assistant stopped smiling and said, "Yes, ma'am."

  When she was alone again, Manson looked at the empty display stand on her desk where the cylinder used to rest and said, "Coma or not, I'll get even Carver. Just you wait."

  * * *

  "What's the matter, Lieutenant?" Lt. Uronson asked a morose Carmoody in the mess hall as he took a seat across from her. "You look like you lost your best friend."

  "I might have. There's still been no improvement in Commander Carver's condition. I'm beginning to worry she may never return to work."

  "Oh. Well, it has been a long time for someone to be in a coma, but a lot of people have been comatose for much, much longer and still recovered."

  "I wish we could have found that woman Madu saw in the Commander's room on the day of the attack. I don't know how she got out of here without anyone else seeing her."

  "It was pretty crazy just then with all the dig site people packing up and returning to their camp. It's too bad this facility doesn't have cameras set up at important locations. It's SOP in the Marine Corps. We'd never have an entrance to an important facility without vid coverage. When the Corps took over Fort Carver, we had to add security cameras at the entrance because there weren't any. I guess the Dakistian people were more trusting than we are."

  "Or more impractical," Carmoody said in a lowered voice.

  "Yeah, that too. Where will you go now?"

  "I don't know. I thought I'd be able to stay here for a while and work with the Commander, but now I don’t know."

  "You like her, don't you?"

  "She's great. She's brilliant and funny and was more like a friend than a commanding officer. I really enjoyed our time together. I've never worked with anyone who was so dedicated, and yet so— so— easy to get along with."

  "Well, don't count her out yet. She might surprise you and come walking through the door when you least expect it."

  "I wish."

  * * *

  "Come in, Pete," Lt. Col. Diminjik said to Major Garfield when he heard the office door open. His chair was tipped back as far as it would go and he was staring out the window with his fingers interlaced and resting on his stomach.

  "You look the perfect picture of relaxation, sir," Garfield said with a smile.

  "I'm just enjoying the calm before the storm."

  "Storm? The weather is calling for average temps and clear skies for several days."

  "Not that kind of storm. I'm talking about the political kind."

  "But everything seems calm enough. The protests are over, the brass hats didn't hold you responsible for any of the trouble here, and we've been promised more personnel. Things seem to be rosy."

  "We've been promised more people because we're going to need them. As soon as they start awakening those hundred eighty thousand sleepers, this planet is going to go from a quiet little outpost to a Mecca for entrepreneurs looking to cash in on the new opportunities here."

  "But that will be the worry of the Outpost Commander, not you."

  "Right now I'm worried they might stick me with the job."

  "What about Carver?"

  "Yeah, what about Carver? No one seems to know. I saw a news piece yesterday that said the newsies on Higgins are complaining because they're not allowed to interview her. Hell, they say they can't even find out where she's being cared for. She's not in the base hospital nor any of the usual care centers. Holt won’t even discuss it with them other than to say she's not available for interviews. The scuttlebutt is that she's still in a coma and not expected to recover."

  "But she's a Carver. Don't they have some special healing power or something?"

  "Perhaps her injuries were too extensive even for that. Anyway, if she doesn't make it back here, I'm afraid they might stick me in the CO spot until someone else can be appointed."

  "Aren't you there already, pretty much?"

  "All I really have to worry about right now is this base. And that's fine with me. There's no way I want that Dakistee Outpost CO job. You know me— I'm not good at dealing with civilians, politicians, or newsies."

  "Few military people are."

  "Carver is. She's the ideal candidate, if she recovers."

  "Wouldn’t it bother you to be subordinate to someone with lower rank?"

  "She's an O-4. That's just one pay grade behind me. And she's the clone of a full admiral with all the same capabilities and knowledge of Admiral Carver. No, it doesn't bother me to report to her. I'm happy to have her to run interference for us, and perhaps she can get us some of the appropriations money I've been asking for. I just hope she recovers and gets back here soon. This planet is going to implode in the near future and I don't want to be the one stuck holding the reins when it does."

  * * *

/>   Chapter Twenty-Six

  ~ January 29th, 2286 ~

  "This is Neal Neally, reporting outside the Space Command Judicial Headquarters in Arlington, Virginia where the court-martial of Rear Admiral Donald M. Hubera has just concluded," the reporter said to the oh-gee camera focused on his face from a meter away. The judicial building could be seen in the background. "Reporters were barred from the courtroom, so my information comes from a Space Command document with key highlights prepared for the press.

  "The trial was not a lengthy one, but it was paused for six weeks until the court-martial of Captain Robledo was concluded, owing to complaints of prejudice and innuendo filed by Admiral Hubera's civilian attorney. As has already been reported, Captain Robledo was found guilty of all charges and remanded to the prison colony on Saquer Major for the remainder of his life. He will be housed in the same, no-visitor detention block as the former Flag Secretary of Admiral Elersey, Captain Dumona, who was found guilty of similar charges back in 2268. Two other senior officers, whom it was proved also accepted bribes or payments from the Raiders, were likewise incarcerated at that time. Admiral Elersey was censured and dismissed from the service for incompetence. In this new case, no other Space Command officers were found to be complicit with Captain Robledo.

  "Admiral Hubera has been found guilty of the charges against him, but, owing to his lifetime of excellent service to Space Command, the court decided he will only be reduced in rank to Captain and permitted to retire from Space Command. We do not yet have a copy of the proceedings log, but I understand it shows that Captain Robledo was at least partially responsible for provoking Admiral Hubera into taking the actions he did.

  "This is Neal Neally, reporting live from the Space Command Judicial Headquarters in Arlington, Virginia. We'll bring you additional coverage as new information comes our way. Good day."

  * * *