The captain leaned forward in his chair, looking past the small screens that surrounded him to the main screen. It showed the winking lights of space, a star field, awe-inspiring in its breadth.
“Coordinates set?” he asked.
“Coordinates locked, ISE standing by,” Ensign Kalinda replied. She turned to Lieutenant Pace and smiled. He nodded and flexed his fingers as if getting ready to pilot a shuttle through a forbidding atmosphere.
“Jolly, please open ship-wide communication,” the Tortoid said.
“Open,” he replied, appearing next to the captain and giving the thumbs up sign. The captain raised an eyebrow as he studied the AI’s holographic image--a perpetually happy, young man.
“Attention, crew of the Cygnus-12, The Olive Branch as we are supposed to call our baby. Maybe the new name is most appropriate. Thousands of years ago, humanity went to the stars, to explore, to find new homes for people to flourish. Our ancestors found Cygnus, they created us and for that we are forever thankful. We had some missteps, fought a civil war, but we survived and now I’d like to think that we are stronger than ever. Humanity’s children are coming home. We bring an olive branch to show them that we appreciate what they’ve done for us. Tell them that we are okay, that we’ve grown up, and will never forget that our roots are forever in the earth. Standby to activate the ISE. Earth, here we come.” Command Daksha continued to hover serenely.
The captain took over. “Prepare to activate the ISE. All crew report on station.”
Pickles had been looking at his board. He didn’t hesitate. “All green, Captain. The crew is at their posts.”
“Briz, please confirm that we aren’t going to jump into the middle of the solar system again, maybe even into the sun?”
“I can confirm that we won’t end up in the sun, but I can’t confirm that we won’t end up within the Sol System’s heliosphere. I can say there’s a really good chance that we won’t. Is that good enough?” Briz said, uncharacteristically imprecise.
“Jolly?” The captain looked for validation.
“I bet that we’ll jump to the edge of the gravity well, Captain.” The AI stood with his hands behind his back, looking confident.
“You bet?” Rand wondered aloud. “Have we lost our ability to go where we want? Buckle in, people. Who knows where we’re going to end up. Be ready for anything at the other end. Sensors on passive only. Activate the ISE in three, two, one. Activate.”
The crew felt nothing. One moment they were beyond the heliosphere of EL475, then the next, they were in a new system.
“Location?” the captain demanded.
Jolly smiled. “Bullseye,” was all he said.
“We are on the edge of the heliosphere. Earth, sir. She’s just over there,” Kalinda said, pointing somewhere at bright lights within the star field that occupied the main screen.
“Report!” the captain called to the ceiling.
Briz was first. “Engineering reports no system failures. Dark matter is at thirteen percent. We are taking advantage of interstellar space and banking now. Inspections are ongoing. Full report in two hours.”
Chirit was next. “Passive sensors are receiving stray signals from within this system. Analyzing now, but it looks like humanity is alive and well.”
Someone cheered, and others picked it up.
“Well done,” the captain said softly. “Humanity has come home.”
***
Tandry had pulled the voice signals to her station and was running them through Jolly. Chirit was looking at telemetry and other data streams bouncing around the system.
“Lieutenant, how much do you think is normal?” Tandry asked her section head over their direct comm link.
“I can only compare it to Cygnus where we have robust intersystem travel, including an active shipyard and asteroid mining operation. The level of activity seems comparable,” Chirit replied.
“Everything I’m getting from their communications seems emotionless--simple reports on status. The language is close enough to ours that I understand without needing Jolly to interpret.” Tandry buried herself in the communications, looking for any hints of how the Cygnus-12 could contact the inhabitants without alarming them.
The spaceship sat unmoving, a speck of dust within interstellar space, silent to anyone who would be listening and invisible to anyone who would be looking.
***
Cain woke early. They’d been outside the system’s gravity well for ten days. Dark matter was banked to seventy-five percent. There were no indications that they’d been spotted. Their work continued uninterrupted based on what the sensors could pick up.
The people of Earth’s home system chattered away, reporting everything but saying nothing.
Cain opened his neural implant when he saw it flashing. He was distracted by a heavy blob on his legs. Brutus was upside-down, wedged between Cain and Ellie, snoring lightly. Carnesto had made a bed from Cain’s clothes. He hung his uniform carefully over the back of a chair every night to keep it sharp between cleanings.
Carnesto had pulled it to the floor. Cain sighed and returned to the message from Jolly. ‘Please report to the mess deck for a meeting over breakfast.’
Cain loved a good breakfast to get him started, but the meetings with Daksha and the captain seemed to be starting earlier and earlier. Jolly never slept, but he had the decency to respect the boundaries of those who did.
Ellie’s hair was spread across her pillow as she lay on her side. Her neck was exposed and Cain caressed the pale skin with his lips, enjoying her warmth. He groaned, having to tear himself away from her. Brutus scratched Cain’s leg as he climbed out. The ‘cat continued to snore.
“Damn, Brutus! You’re just mean. You don’t even need to be awake to be mean. It requires no thought from you, does it, little man?” Cain whispered. His feet hit the floor and he stood, stretched, then kneeled next to the bed so he could kiss Ellie on her cheek. She smiled as she brushed at her face and rolled over.
Brutus was tossed about but didn’t scratch her. “Why, you little turncoat!” Cain chased Carnesto off his clothes. There was a ring of black cat hair that seemed statically attached. He shook his shirt out, but it made too much noise. He wet a rag to try to wipe the hair off, but it only made the hair wet.
Cain dressed, rolling his eyes and shaking his head. “My uniform would look better if I slept in it,” he mumbled. “What do you think, oh defiler of my clothes, want some breakfast?”
Carnesto stretched and walked to the hatch, waiting. The big black ‘cat had refused to wear an access collar from day one, just like Lutheann, a habit that Brutus had adopted when he came on board.
The major looked at his disheveled appearance and re-opened the window before his eye. ‘Jolly, can you fabricate me a new uniform, have it ready for when I finish breakfast? This one is unrecoverable.’
‘You’re going out like that?’ Jolly quipped. Cain hesitated. ‘I’m kidding. It’ll be in the recreation room waiting for you.’
‘You’re getting better, Jolly. Well done, and thank you.’ Cain walked into the corridor and found Carnesto and Brutus both following closely behind.
On the mess deck, the captain sat in his usual place. Nathan and BJ were standing on the table eating their raw beef. Cain didn’t bother quibbling. He simply filled two plates to heaping and put them on the table away from the kittens, making sure to give Carnesto and Brutus plenty of space. Then Cain ordered his omelet, finally sitting down in his usual spot.
A mess deck with space for the whole crew, a number of tables, yet everyone could be found sitting in the same seats every single time they visited.
Cain took a huge bite, enjoying the hot, melted cheese, eggs, and vegetables. It was all fabricated, but Cain didn’t know the difference. He usually just shoveled his food in and ran off to his next event. Ellie said she would break him of that.
He wasn’t sure he wanted broken. He wanted to break her of taking forever to eat. He laughed to
himself as he closed his eyes and savored the taste of the omelet. He wondered where they hid the hot sauce. Someone accused him of using too much. After that, it disappeared.
When Cain opened his eyes, he found Rand staring at him.
“What?” Cain asked.
“You could be the most contented man I’ve ever seen,” Rand explained as he petted Nathan. Although sentient, they were still ‘cats. “We could all learn a lesson or two from you, Cain.”
“Thanks, I think. Maybe I’m not smart enough to worry about the things that are costing guys like you their hair.” Cain nodded accusingly. The captain wasn’t that old, but his hair was thinning rapidly.
“I think it’s the opposite. You are smart enough to know what’s in your control and what’s not. By the way, how are you treating my engineer?” Rand slapped Cain on the back, making him choke as he’d just taken another huge bite. Cain’s goal was to eat his omelet in four bites. He’d cut it in half and then cut those halves in half.
He never ate breakfast with Ellie. She would have been appalled.
“I’d like to think that I’m treating her well. She saved all our lives on Heimdall. I don’t take that lightly.” Cain balanced the last piece of omelet on his fork, looked out of the corner of his eye to see if Rand was going to ask another question, and then shoved the food into his mouth.
“You are one lucky man, Cain, and I know what you believe, that you make your own luck. That’s what I mean. You are the great-great-grandson of the couple who brought us back to being civilized. Who would have thought that free trade was the linchpin to an entire society? Free trade was the foundation that allowed us to go back into space.” Rand looked at his own empty plate, before getting up and returning it to the fabricator.
“Here we are,” the captain continued. “Earth is down the well and would you believe it, we don’t have a single thing to trade.”
Cain swallowed the last bit of his breakfast and started laughing. “What do you want me to do about it? I’m not quite in the trade business. I follow in the footsteps of my great-great-grandmother; I’m the one with the sword, of course.”
“Indeed, Major Cain.” Daksha finally joined the conversation. “We were going to send them a message and wondered if you and Ensign Ellie would care to do the honors again. You are, after all, the Space Exploration Service’s First Couple. You present a good face for Cygnus VII.”
“We’re going to send our message, something along the lines of, ‘hi, honey, we’re home’?” Cain wondered.
“Same as last time, Cain. I think the message is sound. We add in the part where we look forward to meeting with the people of Earth, sharing with them the stories of our galaxy, and that we’re happy as hell that the bots haven’t destroyed the system. You know, Cain, the usual,” the captain replied.
“You two are showing up to breakfast too early. By the time I get here, all the decisions are made and usually they involve me doing something.” Cain smiled.
He didn’t mind being the face of the colonists who had gone to Cygnus VII. He didn’t mind at all. It was a fitting tribute to his great-great-grandparents.
“Of course we’ll do it, as long as you smooth things over with Briz. Last time I showed up in engineering, he shot me with insulbrick!”
“Ha! Jolly showed us that video. That was pretty funny. Why do you think he did that?” Rand asked, pointing his finger accusingly at Cain’s chest. “The honeymoon’s not quite over?”
“Hey! I’m sure I had something important to tell Ellie. That Rabbit thinks he’s a god down there,” Cain complained.
“He is a god down there,” Daksha replied.
“Okay, I’ll admit that,” Cain conceded. “I’ll even say that he was right. I had nothing honorable in mind when I visited, but damn! An insulbrick sprayer?”
Daksha nodded slowly.
“Is that the uniform you’re going to wear for the video?” Rand asked. Cain hung his head, then looked sideways at Carnesto, sprawling on the table after having eaten his fill. There was one strip of meat left on his plate. Brutus left two.
“‘Cats are the epitome of my life and the bane of my existence,” Cain offered with a shrug. “Jolly has a new uniform ready for me. If you’ll excuse me, I’ll let Ellie know, and we’ll be ready shortly.”
Cain jumped up, bumping the table and making four sleeping ‘cats angry. He delivered his plate to the fabricator on the way out. He hurried out before either Carnesto or Brutus could join him.
He stopped by the rec room to pick up his newly fabricated uniform, changed right there, and stuffed the Carnesto-hair-infested one back into the fabricator for recycling. He always felt better putting on a clean and sharp-looking uniform.
He strode boldly from the recreation room to the quarters he shared with Ellie. He didn’t bother knocking as he opened the hatch and entered.
Ellie had gotten up and was washing. He didn’t understand why she brushed her teeth topless, but it wasn’t something he discouraged. He always took care to make sure no one was in the corridor when he opened the hatch, just in case.
He sat in the chair and watched her, feeling a bit like a voyeur, though not so much that he was going to stop looking at her.
“They want us to do the hello earthlings video,” he said.
She finished brushing and spit into the sink. “You and I, the faces of Cygnus VII,” she said, turning and facing Cain. He had to stand and hug her, rubbing her back and then going lower. She caught his hand and pushed back. “When?”
“Now,” he replied. “As soon as you’re dressed, that is.”
Ellie had to fight him off a second time, which ended when she dove for her shirt and put it on before zipping her jumper the rest of the way.
“The bridge?” she asked.
“The bridge,” Cain confirmed.
Together they headed out and upward toward the command deck. Brutus and Carnesto met them in the passageway. “Are you vagabonds joining us?” Cain wondered.
Neither one answered, but they both followed their humans down the corridor, up the stairs, and to the command deck. They entered to find the bridge crew waiting. There wasn’t much to do when the ship wasn’t flying. They’d already laid in their course and were ready to move, but that wouldn’t happen until they received an answer to the ship’s signal.
Tandry had found a video format that she was able to replicate. Their intent was to send the signal to the people of the system in a way that was immediately playable. They picked a number of channels on which to broadcast their message.
The only remaining issue was to record the video.
Cain and Ellie stood where they had the last time, with no ship information behind them. Cain’s attention was pulled to the bulkhead next to the hatch where five names had been recently inscribed, adding to the total of lives lost in service aboard the Cygnus-12.
Rand stood up, depositing Nathan in his chair. He fussed with Cain and Ellie’s uniforms to make sure they would catch the light in the best way. When he turned back, he found Brutus and Carnesto seated with Nathan.
“Don’t let him have his way, Skipper,” Cain suggested.
“Too nervous to sit down anyway,” the captain answered. Cain and Ellie both gave their ‘cat partners a harsh look. The Hillcats remained unmotivated to move. Brutus laid down and closed his eyes while Carnesto started cleaning himself.
“And you wonder where the kittens’ irreverence came from…” Cain started.
“Okay, people, tighten up! We have a video to shoot. Remember what you said last time?” Captain Rand clapped his hands to get everyone’s attention.
“I was an ensign last time, about a million years ago.” Ellie pursed her lips and looked at Cain out of the corner of her eye. She was still an ensign.
The captain checked with Jolly. His hologram held an old-fashioned movie camera. Rand counted down on his fingers--three, two, one--and pointed to the young couple standing against the bulkhead.
“Peo
ple of Earth,” Ellie started, smiling broadly, “your children have come home.”
“We are the descendants of those who rode the RV Traveler nearly four thousand years ago, flying from Earth and settling on the planet Cygnus VII. The ingenuity of the Cygnus scientists has made it possible for us to travel vast distances instantaneously. We left a few short months ago and now we are here, outside your gravity well, and we request permission to enter your space,” Cain repeated his phrases smoothly.
“We have evolved in a number of ways,” Ellie continued, “and hope that you have, too, so when we meet, we can share the successes of the human race, of all that has been accomplished, and what has yet to be achieved.”
“Thank you to those with the vision to send colony ships into space and give us a great home where generations have flourished, where we intend our children to grow up before they, in turn, reach for the stars. We look forward to your reply and to meeting you,” Cain finished the message. The captain chopped his arm downward.
Jolly looked at him and the motion, having already shouldered the camera, indicated that he was done recording. “What’s that all about?” Jolly asked.
“Cut. Finish recording. It’s a movie signal,” Rand tried to explain.
“I’ve seen all the movies that you’ve seen and that is most definitely not a signal,” Jolly enunciated.
Cygnus Arrives: Humanity Returns Home (Cygnus Space Opera Book 3) Page 20