by M. D. Cooper
Earnest stopped and gave her a wink. “I’m not standing here waiting for two days, just the last five minutes.”
“Good point,” Tanis said with a shrug.
“I see you have my baby,” Earnest said and held out his arms.
Tanis handed Earnest the case which he immediately opened with a sigh.
“You have no idea how good it is to lay eyes on this,” he said. “To be so far from one’s life’s work for so long…it was nearly unbearable.”
Joe glanced at Tanis and clapped Earnest on the shoulder. “I have an idea what that is like.”
“I need to get this into storage, but I’ll come up to share a meal with you in a half an hour. Also,” he fixed Tanis with a pointed stare, “I need to check you out as well.”
He turned down the hall as Tanis, Joe, and the major stepped back into the elevator for the long ride up.
Joe asked Tanis.
Tanis agreed.
Angela said privately.
Joe asked, his brow beginning to wrinkle.
Tanis said after a pause.
Joe asked.
Tanis said and looked away.
Joe didn’t respond at first, but the expression of shock slowly turned to concern with maybe a flicker of anger or two in between.
he finally asked.
Tanis said.
Tanis shook her head, the look of concern on Joe’s face had a touch of disgust. She almost gasped at how much it hurt to see that him wear that expression. For once she was at a loss for words.
Joe said.
Tanis appreciated the humor, though she wondered if he really did think less of her. After nearly a century together it wasn’t as though she was worried he would leave her—their relationship was too cemented for concerns like that to bother her—but she wondered if she would read more into any of his offhand statements for a while.
Joe asked.
Tanis asked.
Tanis looked around and realized that the elevator had long since reached the top of the shaft. The doors were open and the lieutenant was nowhere to be seen.
“Good on him,” Tanis said. “Though rude of us to be so wrapped up in ourselves.”
“You’re going to earn a rep as one of those generals,” Joe chuckled and pulled her in for an embrace. “Do I need to offer more apologies later?” he asked softly in her ear.
“This long together and you need to ask?”
Angela supplied.
Joe sighed and gave Tanis a smile. “Looks like our erstwhile major left us a message on the net. He would like to meet us in the commissary.”
LANDFALL
STELLAR DATE: 3270395 / 12.09.4241 (Adjusted Gregorian)
LOCATION: Gamma Site
REGION: Victorian Space, Kapteyn’s Star System
“How do you feel about a stop-over at Landfall?” Tanis asked.
Joe finished taking a bite of his sandwich and asked, “why dob you awlbays ask when my mouf is fuwl of peanut butter?”
“It’s your punishment for using so much that I never get any.”
Joe finished chewing before responding. “You spend some time in the garden, growing and taking care of my peanut plants, and I’ll share a bit more with you.”
Tanis considered her many responses and decided not to bring up who it was that actually made the peanuts into butter.
“Troy needs to grab a rock and bring it down to Landfall and I wouldn’t mind going along for the ride. I have some folks I need to see down there.”
He shook his head. “I don’t think I can tag along, I’ve a new school of cadets starting up and someone has to give them all the right speeches.”
“Ah, that’s right, it kicks off in a few days, doesn’t it?”
“Yup, our first joint class. Luckily a lot of colony families have chosen to come out of stasis, so we have a good crop of Sol-born kids in their twenties and thirties to balance out and mentor the Victorian kids—suffice it to say that their education is not well rounded.”
“Glad to see some are making lives for themselves here,” Tanis commented.
Joe took another bite and nodded contemplatively.
“Think we’ll leave with the same number we came with?” Tanis asked and waited for him to finish chewing.
“I think we’ll leave with more,” Joe responded after taking a sip from his coffee. “I mean, twenty thousand people with a 5% birth rate for seventy years adds about eight thousand or so. Add to that the likelihood that we’re going to see breeding between the Victorians—who will likely be at a quarter million by then and I bet we’ll take on twenty-thousand new passengers.”
“That’s a pretty sizable estimate,” Tanis said with a doubtful look.
“I think it’s conservative. I bet we could take on more.”
Tanis stood and walked to the small galley’s counter where she refilled her coffee cup. “I think we’ll see a lot of colonists who will stay behind. A lot of them really just wanted to get out of Sol and have a fresh start. In sixty years Victoria will be a legitimate colony.”
Joe nodded. “True, that could happen, it’s really going to depend on how families intermingle and how much we can do here. I worry too much that the threat from Sirius will prompt a lot of families to leave with us.”
Tanis sighed. “I really hope we don’t have to contend with them.”
“Well, if we do it won’t be for another thirty years at the earliest, but more like forty. They’re not going to send another cruiser that can barely make it across the black and they don’t really have the ability to launch an interstellar strike without serious preparation.”
“Interstellar strike,” Tanis said and shook her head. “Who does that sort of thing? Especially for a shit system like this. I think with Yusuf it was a revenge play, nothing more.”
“Let’s hope you’re right,” Joe said.
“Well, if not we’ll be ready. No one’s catching me with my pants down.”
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“Interesting suggestion,” Joe grinned.
Tanis sat alone in the cockpit of the Excelsior. It was strange being there without Joe—all of her memories in the heavy lifter had Joe in them.
Outside, Victoria loomed large, dully reflecting the ruddy light from the Kap. It had changed from the barren rock Tanis had fought the Strident Arc above a decade ago—not much, but thin, wispy clouds now encircled the equator as the terraforming efforts began to bear fruit.
It was a large world, easily three times the diameter of Earth and much more massive. However, the density made the surface gravity less than Earth’s—just over 0.6g. For the former inhabitants of the Hyperion it was more than they were used to, but they would adapt.
Victoria orbited close to the inner edge of the Kap’s habitable zone, closer to the old star than Mercury was to Sol. The proximity tidally locked Victoria and the world did not rotate as it orbited. Instead one side warmed in the star’s dim light while the other side froze. The ideally habitable location was the narrow dusk band between the two halves of the world.
Terraforming such a place was no simple task and one not often attempted. Tanis smiled as she remembered how the Intrepid’s geologists and climatologists had been all but giddy at the chance to make the attempt.
Before the surface settlement of Landfall was established, several icy asteroids had been dropped onto the sunward side of the planet—the remains of which were still melting, forming a sea.
Over time that sea would expand into an ocean which would cover nearly a third of the planet. Even now clouds streamed out from the melting ice. Winds, trying to equalize the globe’s temperature, drew them around the equator with what—on the ground—were gale force winds.
Much of the vapor froze on the dark side of the world, slowly covering it in a snow that would persist forever, but some came back around the poles, beginning what would become an ever-constant cycle.
Slowly, the world was being born.
The settlement of Landfall, was on the eastern duskband, a thousand kilometers north of the equator. Already several thousand people lived there, many of them support staff for the terraforming operations, but many were also Victorians who wanted to live on a world after their people had spent generations in space.
Troy deftly navigated the Excelsior into Victoria’s gravity well, approaching over the frozen dark side of the world. Tanis looked down at the beginnings of what would become great glaciers which would eventually cover much of the world’s night side.
The Excelsior dropped lower through the fledgling atmosphere, avoiding the gale-force winds that raced around the equator.
The world’s dusk-band came into view, the ruddy light of the Kap peeked around, casting the world in a reddish hue. Tanis imagined what this place would look like in decades to come when brown forests grew around the dusk band and into the sunward-deserts.
She started as the ship shuddered from the atmospheric drag pulling at the rock they were hauling.
The half-kilometer wide asteroid was full of silicates needed for manufacturing, as well as no small amount of water. Though the elevator was fully operational, it’s single strand could not yet support this type of payload.
A glint in the distance showed Tanis where Landfall’s hard dome lay, and Troy tracked south of it, headed to the drop-off point.
The surface refinery came into view, as did the MDC cradle ready to accept the rock. Over a square kilometer in size, the refinery had taken more of the Intrepid’s resources to build than Tanis would have liked, but was a necessary gesture to show the Victorians that the Edeners did not intend to use them and leave them bereft of any superior technology.
Troy said and routed the call over the cockpit’s auditory systems.
“This is Landfall ATC, we have you our screens, Excelsior, you’re in the pocket and lined up with the cradle.”
“Roger that, Landfall,” Tanis responded. “Our current ETA is three minutes and twelve seconds until cargo is in position.”
“Five-by-five on that ETA, Excelsior, the rock slicers over there are eager and waiting, handing you off to their ground crew.”
Tanis acknowledged Landfall ATC’s handoff and sent a burst to the refinery crew.
“Tanis and Troy here on the Excelsior with that package you ordered. Any place you want it, or can we just set it down anywhere?”
“Lieutenant Governor Richards?” the refinery crew chief responded with surprise.
“The one and only,” Tanis replied.
Troy asked.
Angela replied.
<“Tanis and Troy” had a ring to it,> Tanis supplied.
Angela said.
Troy replied.
“Well met, Lieutenant Governor. Chief Bourke here.”
Bourke was a colony-bound Edener; when brought out of stasis she was planning to build this refinery on New Eden’s second moon. Learning she was to build it on the surface of a tidally locked super-earth orbiting a red dwarf star was a task she had taken on with enthusiasm.
A political refugee from an SDO splinter territory, she sympathized with the Victorians more than most and was eager to help them get on their feet in their new home.
“Nice to hear your voice again as well,” Tanis said. “Angela and I are just hitching a ride with Troy here. He lets me talk on the radio for my ego.”
Angela said dryly.
Bourke gave a short snort. “Err…sorry, Lieutenant Governor. Given all you’ve done I’m not sure that Troy needs to stoke your ego, but whatever you say. We’re ready here to receive the rock on our primary cradle.”
During the conversation, Troy slowed and began his final maneuvers to bring the asteroid into position over the MDC cradle.
ES shields around the cradle perimeter sparked and flared as the radioactive wash of the Excelsior’s massive fusion engines splashed against them.
ES fields below the asteroid activated and the massive rock sagged into them as Troy reduced lift. Readouts on in the cockpit showed the decrease in mass borne by the ship and when it hit zero, Troy released grapple and lifted gently away from the refinery.
“A textbook drop-off,” Bourke said over the comms. “The coffee pot hit the floor, but otherwise everything looks good.”
“This may be our last delivery this large,” Tanis responded. “The atmosphere is thickening up ahead of schedule; we got close to blowing pressure seals on the Excelsior.”
“A shame to have an MDC big enough for rocks like this and not be able to use it anymore,” Bourke responded. “Any chance you’re going to approve a skyhook?”
“I would have, but with the accelerated atmosphere it means that the winds this close to the equator may make a skyhook impossible.”
“I guess running at this capacity for six years is still pretty good.”
Tanis agreed, successes in some areas created problems in others. Never before had she needed to juggle so many competing priorities.
“We’re doing research on the graviton emitter tech coming out of Procyon. It’s possible that we might be able to build a gravlift of sorts.”
Bourke laughed over the comm. “I thought that was just a crazy rumor! A grav lift for real?”
“Don’t get too excited, it’s little more than a fantasy that just graduated into myth at this point, but Earnest thinks it has real potential.”
“Hmm…well that says a lot. I hope he figures it out.”
“Our checks are complete,” Troy added on the line. “Landfall ATC has given us our clearances for landing at the spaceport.”
“Talk to you later,” Tanis said to Bourke.
“Until next time, Lieutenant
Governor.”
Troy brought the ship around and Tanis watched the landscape pass beneath them on the route to the spaceport.
Landfall was situated in the midst of a low line of hills. The feature was the result of a tectonic plate which had buckled under stress almost a billion years ago.
The event had pushed up many strata of rich minerals to the surface, and the hills also protected the settlement from the winds of Victoria, which—even when the terraforming was complete—would never completely diminish.
The refinery was near the eastern edge of the hills with the spaceport between it and Landfall. As the fledgling settlement grew into a city, it would expand west, toward the sun, with the manufacturing to the east spreading into the dark side.
A splash of brown showed against an east-facing rock and Tanis cycled her vision to get a closer look.
she commented.
Angela said.
Moments later they passed over the last hill and the meager spaceport came into view.
It was little more than several cradles, an air traffic control tower, and refueling plant. A few low buildings housed repair and maintenance facilities.
Someday this would be a bustling port serving private spacecraft and surface to surface transportation. Tanis imagined what that day would look like, how the world would be shaped once it was finally alive and people could walk outside and stand in the sunlight.
The ship slipped through the ES bubble and Troy lowered the Excelsior into its cradle like it was a feather and moments later an ES field snapped over the ship.
Tanis stood in the cockpit and gave the instrument panel a salute.
“Well piloted Troy. You will forever be my favorite ship… next to the Intrepid of course.”