Stars Fell on Alabama

by M. Alan Marr

  Everyone repeats the toast, and they touch glasses with measured reverence and take their first sip.

  “I thought we invented Navy Grog,” Chaz jests.

  “We taught you the recipe,” Tan replies in kind.

  “My friends, we accomplished something today,” Dev says optimistically. “Now, starts the hard part.”

  Chaz frowns. “Convincing the Admiral and Field Marshal was the easy part?”

  “I’m afraid so.”

  Chaz nods. “We need to find four more pilots, and quick.”

  “Are you really going to use Earth residents?” Joss says.

  Chaz confidently replies, “We are.”

  “The Admiral is right,” Tan says, contemplatively. “You seem incredibly well-adjusted here. I actually forget you’re from Oasis.”

  “We’re not all bad,” Chaz says cheerfully. “Just most of us.”

  Joss raises his eyebrows. “You two have just advanced the cause of Earth to a level no one has ever seen.”

  “What do you mean?” Chaz says.

  “The subject of Earth has always been a sort of . . . acknowledgment of a problem we created.”

  “You created?”

  “In our failing,” Joss explains, “under dreadful circumstances our forebears were unable to resolve. You may not know this, but the disaster on Earth helped unify the rest of the Crown in terms of societal cooperation.”

  “This is true,” Dev says. “They saw firsthand what can happen when bonds break down.”

  Tan adds, “Growing up, we were always taught that one day Earth would reach out to us. Looks like that finally happened.”

  “Well,” Chaz says, “indirectly. I mean, if Dev and I hadn’t met, none of this would be happening.”

  Tan shakes her head. “If you and Dev hadn’t met, Humanity as a whole would be in a far worse situation.”

  Chaz laughs and looks at Dev. “So the fate of Humanity rests on our dating life.”

  “I suppose it does.” Dev laughs and then jokes, “Earth is screwed.”

  Joss and Tan watch the playful banter between Dev and Chaz. They have never seen Dev with anyone who has changed him so passionately. Tan loves this side of her old friend.

  “What’s next, Dev?” says Joss.

  “Tomorrow, Chaz and I will take a fighter up to Bellerophon and speak with Idris.”

  Joss frowns slightly and looks at Chaz. “Have you been there?”

  “No. We flew over it on the way here. What’s it like?”

  “Bellerophon? It’s a tropical paradise—you’ll love it,” Joss says, and quickly changes the subject. “And then what, Dev?”

  Dev half chuckles. “And then we need to return to Earth and begin the search. We also have to locate a site for our base of operations.”

  Tan nods. “I’ll have the ground specs for you before you leave.”

  “Specs?” Chaz says.

  “Specifications.”

  Chaz laughs. “No, I mean what kind of specs?”

  “Oh, sorry. I’m not familiar with the terrain composition on Earth, but I need to make sure the underground structure will be stable.”

  Chaz is curious. “What factors will you be looking at?”

  “Ground density, specific gravity, aquifers, geologic instability, mineral composition . . . anything that could affect the placement and weight of the structure.” Tan looks at Dev. “Will you be taking a Recon ship back?”

  “Yeah,” Dev says. “We’ll need to if we’re going to bring back four more pilots.”

  “Good,” she replies. “In that case, Dev, shipboard analytics can route to your interlink device, and you’ll be able to scan the areas remotely.”

  “Recon ship, I almost forgot,” Joss says. “Dev, some officers from Adonis brought your Recon ship back from Lyra this morning.” Joss turns to Tan. “Dev brought a ground vehicle from Earth.”

  “He did?” Tan says, then turns to Dev. “You did?”

  “Yes. Automotive technology has improved over the years, although they’re still using internal combustion.”

  “I forgot all about the truck,” Chaz says. “Should we take it back with us?”

  “Originally, my plan was to leave it here for our techs to study, but we’ll need transportation when we get back to the lake.”

  “I should buy a floatplane,” Chaz suggests. “That way we can fly over and land on the lake.”

  “Floatplane?” Joss says. “What is that?”

  “It’s an aircraft fitted with pontoons so it can land on the water.”

  “I don’t understand,” Joss says.

  Dev explains, “Earth doesn’t have gravity displacement technology.”

  Joss looks at Chaz. “You’re still using aerodynamics?”

  “That’s all we’ve got,” Chaz replies.

  “Amazing.”

  “That’s why Chaz has such an innate feel for flying,” Dev says, and then turns to him. “We have to try to teach nuances that come naturally to you. It’s very impressive to watch you fly.”

  “Like how?” Chaz says.

  “Your landing in the simulator, for one thing. You brought that trainer into a near perfect touchdown with such grace and intuition . . . it’s very difficult to teach that,” Dev says with all sincerity. “You live and breathe aerodynamics every day of your flying life; something we often take for granted and perhaps even lost over the years.”

  “I’m not sure I understand that,” Chaz says. “I mean, you guys do this all the time, no?”

  “Let me give you an analogy that might help,” Dev says. “Think of it as the difference between a spaceship pilot and a spaceship operator. Two entirely different things.”

  “Dev’s right,” Joss says. “Tan and I can get a Recon ship to Penthar and back using the auto-flight systems, but we’re nowhere near Dev’s level of skill. Or yours, for that matter.”

  Chaz is surprised to learn this. “That’s wild. Can everyone do that? Operate a ship?”

  “Not everyone,” Joss replies. “We’re fleet officers, so we have basic training in spaceflight.”

  Dev explains, “When we left Alabama, I programmed the Recon ship for an auto-flight climb to orbit.”

  Chaz recalls, “That’s right, you did all that from a keyboard.”

  Dev nods. “That’s the spaceship-operator type of flight Joss is referring to.”

  “And that you can do?” Chaz says to Joss.

  “Exactly,” Joss replies. “The hands-on combat flying you’re going to do is highly specialized stuff. Watching you in the simulator actually made me nauseous. I don’t know how you weren’t overcome with disorientation.”

  “I was faking it,” Chaz jokes.

  The four continue chatting about Earth, aviation, how Dev and Chaz met, and all the events that led to this point. Chaz genuinely likes both Joss and Tan, and he can see the excellent bond they share with Dev. They feel like family. Chaz drew a parallel to his world where an entire year or more can pass between seeing old friends, but reuniting makes the time disappear. This is so common in the military, and in the airline business he comes from as well.

  One single tankard of grog, and no Parting Shots required. Time for the officers to disband. Before leaving, however, Commander Joss adds one more thing.

  “I’ll see that your Recon ship is serviced and flight ready by the time you return from Bellerophon.”

  “My thanks, Joss, Tan.” Dev smiles. “It was great seeing you both.”

  BARI PROVINCE

  Chaz and Dev emerge from the transit station to a beautiful evening in Bari. Chaz looks around in amazement that many of the stone pillars and stone-lined streets have some kind of soft illumination within them. Curious, Chaz approaches an obelisk carved with directions. The carvings are all glowing blue. The edges of the obelisk are also softly lit.

  “That’s amazing,” Chaz says, looking at the stone. “How does this light up?”

  “What do you mean? It’s just made of stone,�
�� Dev jokes, because that’s what Chaz said about the Mayan pyramid.

  “Very funny.”

  Dev puts his arm around Chaz’s shoulder. “The light comes from energy absorption in the crystal lattice of the stone. It resonates along visible frequencies.”

  “I’ve never seen anything like this.”

  “All those ancient cities on Earth were once bright beacons of life. Energy transmitted from the power stations would light up structures like this for miles around. The ancient city of El Dorado wasn’t made of gold; it was made of rock that resonated in yellow frequencies.”

  Entering Dev’s dwelling, they see Bross has refreshments waiting for them. The living room glass doors are open to take advantage of the fresh sea breeze. Chaz walks outside to look at the spectacular view of the bay. A full moon is out, but the Tertian moon Ichi is nowhere near as bright as Earth’s moon, and instead, presents as a soft grey orb in the sky. The waters of the bay are being illuminated, not by the moon, but by a line of multicolor light cast from nearby planet Dué and her neon atmosphere. Dué is just on the horizon and setting.

  “Is that the beacon of Dué?” Chaz says.

  “The very same. This time of year it’s only on the horizon briefly, but I’m glad you get to see it.”

  They watch as Dué sets. The colorful line vanishes, and the horizon grows steadily darker, bringing out the radiance of the cosmos above. The sea turns darker as well, bringing out the bioluminescent animals of the deep. Chaz’s big cat is on the beach stalking and pouncing on crabs.

  Dev takes a very satisfied deep breath. “It’s beautiful here, isn’t it?”

  “Amazing,” Chaz marvels. “It’s like a whole other world at night.”

  Dev looks out at the water. “There are your squids.”

  “The bright spots?”

  “Yep.” Dev points to a dark silhouette at the beach pouncing on some prey. “And there’s your cat.” Dev slides closer to Chaz, and they stand together, gazing out at the sea.

  Chaz smiles as he watches Dev staring at the ocean. “You’re not looking up.”

  Dev turns to Chaz and smiles. “Hey, your turn.”

  Chaz looks up and turns to the sky above and behind him. He softly gasps. The sky is filled with stars and a much more vivid Milky Way nebula. “Whoa—”

  “Your moon is so bright you can’t really see what else is out there. We’re also a lot closer to the galactic nebula here.”

  “Amazing. Amazing! What do you call that?”

  “Bracchium Corinae. The Arm of Corina.”

  “It’s beautiful! From Earth it just looks like a faint cloud.”

  “I want to show you something else.” Dev turns and points to a particular area of the sky, to a tiny group of four stars. “Look to the right about forty degrees; there’s a small constellation of four stars off by itself. Just to the right of the bright one.”

  Chaz’s mouth opens. “It that Earth?”

  “That’s your sun. The light you’re seeing now took fifty-six years to get here.”

  “Wow,” Chaz marvels and suddenly feels the distance between himself and the four little stars. “Look at that. It really does look like an Oasis.”

  “On our older charts, the four stars are drawn as an island.”

  “That is the coolest thing I’ve ever seen,” Chaz marvels, not taking his eyes off the sky.

  Dev points to another part of the sky above and well left of Oasis: three stars that form a triangle, the apex of which pointing toward Earth’s star. “And there’s the source of our troubles.”

  Chaz’s smile fades. “Triangulum.”

  “That’s it.” Dev shakes his head. “It’s like a signpost. A mathematically certain treasure map.”

  “Cosmic irony,” Chaz says. “Imagine being lost in the sea of space and having an arrow pointing to the only oasis in the region.”

  “And therein lies our mission, to protect the well.”

  Chaz takes a deep breath and goes back into work-mode. “Daunting task. Your Admiral just charged you with the entire safety of seven billion people on Earth. The Navy would never hand over something like this to just one officer.”

  “Two.” Dev says, “The Admiral charged both of us with that task. You are second in command here, Chaz. Those stripes on your sleeves do mean something.”

  “Yeah. I’m beginning to understand that.” He adds, “What do we do?”

  “Tomorrow morning, we’ll take a fighter up to Bellerophon and speak to Idris. Then we’ll come back here, regroup, and head to Atlanta. On the way home, you start astronautics training. We also need to start working up a list of potential places to put the base.”

  “I was thinking about that on the train.”

  “And?”

  Chaz looks back up at his star in the sky. “It may not be so easy to find. Earth is a busy place. Aside from the existing property in Alabama, which I don’t think will work, I think we should look in places like Texas, Wyoming, Alaska, and possibly an island or two. Places with a lot of space or sea access.”

  “Alabama won’t work because of the lake.”

  “I didn’t think of that,” Chaz says. “But too much commercial air traffic transiting to and from Atlanta anyhow.”

  “I’ll send a message to the law firm to book us a couple of weeks on the BBJ, and we can start scouting.”

  Chaz’s attention changes from the Constellation Oasis to Dev. “You know . . . for what we’re paying in charter fees, we might as well buy our own jet. That will eliminate giving anyone at the charter company too much information on where we’re going and what we’re up to.”

  “You’re probably correct.”

  “Look, I understand the need for security. I also recognize the need to be able to go when we want to go and be able to work in private. I’m on board with that.” Chaz adds, “I think we need our own aircraft at this point. Plus, the regulations concerning private aircraft are different than charter regs.”

  “More restrictive or less restrictive?”

  “Much less.”

  “Very well. How do we go about buying a BBJ?”

  “We should have the law firm set up a meeting at Boeing.”

  “I’ll let them know. Anything specific I should tell them?”

  “I can’t believe I’m going to say this . . .” Chaz says bashfully.

  “What?”

  “If we’re going to do this, I wouldn’t mind upgrading the aircraft. The BBJ is fine, but if we’re going to involve other pilots and potentially a support staff, and a global search for a base, we should consider a longer range aircraft.”

  “Do you have an aircraft in mind?”

  “Well, I was going to say let’s look at 767, but why not just go for broke and buy a Dreamliner? It’s new, it’s efficient, and it’s really cool-looking.”

  “As you wish.”

  “My advice is to have the attorneys let Boeing know we’re serious.”

  “I’ll put them on the case.”

  “Make sure they emphasize quick delivery. I don’t want to waste a lot of time shopping for an airplane. We’ll need to fly into Paine Field in Everett, Washington. It’s just north of Seattle.”

  “I’ll tell them.” Dev pulls his interlink device out and begins composing the e-mail.

  “Oh, and I need to check my work schedule,” Chaz says, pulling his own interlink device. “Can you help me with that?”

  Dev programs Chaz’s device to accesses the old com buoy linked to the one left in Earth orbit. Dev sets a single-key access to the Internet and Triad’s scheduling system and hands it back to him. Just as Chaz thought, his trips posted in giveaway were picked up by other pilots looking to improve their schedules. His calendar is now clear for the next several weeks, and no funny business is required.

  Chapter 23

  Stars and Moon

  A Tertian Lambo, as Chaz calls it, drops him and Dev off on the tarmac before a row of Class II TransAt fighters at the military astroport. Both
are wearing their flight suits and sidearms and are ready to go. Chaz is in awe at the lineup of impressive fighters, and is very excited about his next taste of real spaceflight.

  The ground crew salutes the officers and begin unplugging the fighter from support and maintenance equipment attached to the ship. Dev smartly climbs aboard on the left side. Chaz somewhat awkwardly negotiates the climb up the footholds on the right. They settle into the cockpit and buckle in as the seats adjust themselves. Dev runs the power up sequence and starts engines.

  “The Crown fighter has four very powerful engines. And advancing the throttles even a little would produce far too much thrust to safely conduct ground operations. Because of that, the engines default to ground-idle after startup, which steps down thrust output for ground maneuvering. There’s a soft lock in the lower 25% of the throttle band. That’s the ground-idle range. The engines will up-regulate to flight-idle when you advance the throttles beyond the ground-idle stop. Smooth advance, smooth transition; rapid advance, the engines will surge into flight mode for quick response. On the Weather Decks of warships, fighters are hard docked to their pads with the landing gear already retracted. Those pad interlocks bypass the normal start sequence and defaults the engines into flight-idle since no ground maneuvering is possible.”

  “What about arrivals?”

  “For arrivals, ground-idle is armed when the landing gear is extended and activates when your velocity is below sixty knots. There are also speed and proximity sensors if you’re conducting low level ops with the gear retracted.”

  “Okay.”

  “Let’s talk about the throttle system. I’m sure it hasn’t escaped notice this fighter has four engines but only two throttles. That’s because we normally operate the engines in pairs; port and starboard. Just under the throttles, you see four sliders along the curve of the panel. Those are micro-throttles associated with each engine. If you need to modulate or shut down an individual engine, the sliders are what you use.”

  “Yeah, I remember you doing something with those when we arrived, but I was a little preoccupied with crashing at the time.”