The Unearthing
Page 45
Shipsong sounded continuously and created strange echoes in the streets of the Village. The morning sky was a pale blue, the sun warming the air which had that dry, desert scent that Bloom had come to know quite well. She breathed deeply, thinking to herself of the damp, earthy smell of Habitat and how it reminded her so much of the springtime scent she remembered from growing up in the country.
“Taking it all in one last time, Colonel?” Bloom turned. Major Benedict stood there his arms crossed behind his back. The new uniform suited him a lot better than it did her.
“You might say that Exo,” She replied, “Just one last look around to make sure I didn’t leave something plugged in.” Benedict, now her Executive Officer and second in command of the Ship’s crew, chuckled.
“In my entire career I never expected anything like this,” Bloom said, “I’ve been to space…I’ve even done the Moon Run… but I never thought I’d be going into space like this.”
As the crew boarded the Ship to make final preparations their families waited in the Village for the civilian boarding in two weeks; those whose families had opted to come aboard. The Tickets onto the Ship had caused no small number of divorces and disownings. They had even made personal fortunes, in some cases in the billions of dollars, for those who opted to auction them. Bloom fell silent. She didn't like thinking about the impact the Ship had had on families around the globe. She thought of Mark and how he’d still be alive if the Ship hadn’t been unearthed…But, no. She knew the truth of that. Gabriel Ashe and the United Trinity Observants were responsible for Mark’s death, not the Ship. The Ship had changed lives, certainly; some deaths were even directly attributable to its presence. Not a single person on Earth was untouched by the Ship. Personal destinies the world over had been forever altered. Some lives ruined no doubt. The only hope Bloom had was that more lives were changed by the Ship for the better. Only time would tell.
♦♦♦
Allison stared out the window of her dormitory’s commissary at the spectacular view of the Ship. The sun, high in the sky, shone down and was reflected off the brassy gold surfaces of the Ship’s outer hull. Shipsong resonated through the window. Four days. In four days she would be entering the Ship and leaving the world she had always known behind. It scared and excited her a little. To be leaving the world, to be going off…to be going away.
“Amazing, isn’t it?” Allison turned away from the window. A young woman cradling an infant in her arms was sitting, looking out the window.
“It’s been an amazing year,” Allison agreed. She offered her right hand. “Allison McQuire.”
“Susan Roshenko,” the woman said, shaking Allison’s hand. Only now did Allison notice the woman’s accent, “And this little one is Vladimir,” Susan said.
Allison smiled at the sleeping infant. “My husband Marcus and I are from Belarus,” Susan said, “We’d never taken a trip beyond The Russian Economic Union until we were told we were to go on the Ship.” Allison nodded.
“I know the feeling,” She said, “I’ve been around North America and down to Argentina once or twice, but I never got much opportunity to tour the world. I always wanted to, but now I suppose the opportunity’s gone.”
“Lose the chance to tour the world and tour the galaxy instead, yes? Possibly much…much? Many galaxies.”
“Seems like a fair trade,” Allison said.
“Was it hard for you?” When Allison frowned quizzically, Susan rephrased the question.
“Deciding to leave the world and join the Ship,” She said, “Was it hard?” Allison considered the question; the reasons she had to leave and the few loved ones that she was leaving behind.
“It…wasn’t as hard as I’d expected it to be.” She replied,
Susan smiled and nodded. “It was in some ways difficult for us,” She said, “My husband has many friends and family at home. None of them wished to join us. In fact his parents…what is the word…refused the lottery?”
“They disqualified themselves,” Allison offered.
“Disqualified, yes; thank you. They disqualified themselves. My mother and my sister are coming with us, but none of my brothers. It is a hard thing to leave all those that we love behind. My brother Ivan won’t speak to us anymore because not are we just leaving, but my mother comes with us.”
“It must be very hard on you,”
“Where we come from, there is not much opportunity,” Susan explained, “My husband is a grid-weaver all I know is code validation. We wanted something better for ourselves and of course for Vladimir. We hope that on the Ship or wherever the Ship takes us, there will be this opportunity.”
“It’s a big gamble, though,”
“No more so than the gamble anyone takes when going in search of a better life. That is why you’re going, isn’t it?” This gave Allison pause. She was going aboard the Ship, yes. She wanted to see the stars, to live in the Ship, but what reasons did she have for going, beyond that? Was there any real purpose to her being aboard the Ship? James had given her his ticket but really, why had she accepted it? She could have sold it for billions…instead she had opted for the Adventure…but…why? She could think of no other reason than because it was the Ship.
“To be honest I don’t really know,”
♦♦♦
Mark Kodo rose from bed and went straight to the window. The shutters were open facing out onto the lush green lawn, the pale blue sky growing gradually brighter as Habitat’s “sun” crested the narrow horizon to the East. Kodo inhaled deeply of the cool morning air and smiled. He was at least seven, possibly ten kilometres beneath the outer hull of the Ship and nestled in the Ship’s core. Yet the air was fresher, crisper, cleaner than anything he could remember breathing on the surface. There were no pollutants in the atmosphere down here. Nothing re-filtered, nothing purified. When he went outside, he’d actually feel the warmth of the sun beating down upon him. The atmosphere surrounding Habitat wad perfectly attuned to the needs of life on Earth; more so than the damaged atmosphere of the planet above. Kodo was glad to be able to call Habitat home. He left his bedroom for the shower and once done there headed to the kitchen. The Ship was home, now and he was happily getting used to that fact.
♦♦♦
Sonia Aiziz awoke slowly, body and mind working in concert to prolong her return to the waking world. It wasn’t that she was not sleeping well nor that she was particularly tired; she was still in mourning. There was simply no other way to describe what she was feeling. She’d been sequestered from Michael Andrews weeks ago when the members of the Alien Studies division had begun their pre-flight training. During training with its long days, intensive classes and physical conditioning Aiziz had had little time to consider the fact that she would never see Michael again. At night the long days left her so exhausted she fell asleep as soon as her head hit the pillow and during meals there were the other members of her linguistics team around her to keep her company. Now however, aboard the Ship at last, repressed loss and pain welled to the surface and broke. She pulled herself from her bed. Aiziz made her way into the shower. She had a staff meeting in an hour, one she could ill afford to miss; that was something to focus on.
♦♦♦
It was three kilometres from Habitat’s equator to the North Pole and the transitway station. Although many people chose to walk the short distance there were automated transport lines which circumnavigated Habitat. The transport lines followed a circuitous route around Habitat, stopping at various points of interest and a small shopping district. Most of the actual businesses ringed the bulkheads outside of Habitat, but there was no discounting the convenience of a corner store. Round trip, the ride around Habitat would take an hour; far more time than it would take to walk from the equator to one of the poles, but civilian life aboard Habitat was destined to be leisurely.
♦♦♦
Colonel Bloom left her residence, stepping outside into warm virtual sunshine the decision to begin her day with a morning run to Lake
Echohawk. She thought it was an asinine commemoration of the man’s life; whoever at the World Ship Summit had decided to name the freshwater lake at the South Pole after Mark clearly had no understanding of the contributions he had made in life. Bloom would jog down to the lake and from there back up to the North Pole transitway station. Nothing could have made the morning better. This place was a small island of Earthly paradise. As she ran, Bloom had to keep reminding herself that she was inside. The warmth of the sun, the clear, blue sky, the breeze and the scent of the air, the pastoral silence all shut the Ship out so well.
♦♦♦
The last week prior to the boarding of the Ship’s passengers was spent loading their belongings and personal effects aboard. Day and night, tractor trailers ran the route from the Passenger’s Enclave to the ring of pyramids below the Ship’s main Pyramid. As Shiprise approached, tension, excitement, anxiety and joy began to build within the Ship and the Village, from there slowly infecting most of the rest of the world.
As the launch date approached, hundreds of would-be passengers backed out of the Shipflight: more than sixty-five hundred spots opened up aboard the Ship, clearing room for a second wave of alternate Ticket holders. The Los Angeles Times scored the best headline about the sudden drop-out; their front page showed a wide-eyed, ecstatically happy family, waiving their Ticket under the banner headline:
FLYING STANDBY ON THE SHIP
♦♦♦
And then suddenly the last twenty-four hours before boarding had arrived. The Passengers found themselves quiet, contemplative, spending much of their time outdoors looking at the sky, the desert around them, watching the Village, just marvelling at the natural and man-made skylines and vistas. People suddenly craved a walk in the Village or long conversations with family, friends and people they hadn’t spoken to in years. There was a strange silence in the Passenger’s Enclave even with the constant passage of the trucks. Looking out from her balcony, Allison McQuire recognized it for what it was: The calm before the storm.
♦♦♦
Exhausted, elated, the citizens of the Ship were now preparing to celebrate what would technically be their last night on Earth. The following morning would begin the ceremonies, the tributes, the speeches; four hours worth, before they began boarding the Ship. Tomorrow night they would sleep their first night in the habitat and the following morning would see them depart for the heavens. A vast open-air auditorium had been built where the Passengers of the Ship would assemble in the morning, while below them and seen on gigantic monitors the official dignitaries would make austere proclamations heaping praise and prayers on the masses. Tonight however, the inductees would celebrate. Parties were ongoing everywhere throughout the Enclave. The Army had been called in from Fort Arapaho to serve as security, to ensure that the crowd remained under control. Allison and a bunch of people from her classes had been going from party to party to party and had settled on a big outdoor event in the courtyard of one of the dormitory complexes. Liquor and drugs abounded, seeming to have been brought in for the express purposes of making this night an apocalyptic celebration.
It was a measure of how excited people were to be going onto the Ship and how afraid. Not even midnight yet and the pairing off had already started; couples, trios, even quads and quintets were leaving the party arm in arm, heading by the fire escapes to the dormitory levels. Allison herself had been propositioned five times already by both men and women. Three of those offers she was honestly considering, as the party and the atmosphere of excitement, inebriation and sensual tension mounted. The mood was infectious, especially as she got high and began feeling the languid effects of the toxins in her system and the revelry around her. Most parties were well organised and under control. There were a few exceptions, of course: a small outdoor orgy brewing in one corner of the common, bloody fights between intoxicated idiots scattered here and there with a fair share of minor injuries incurred, some damage done to property in the form of petty vandalism.
In quarters where religious and cultural beliefs didn’t permit such debauchery, the parties were still in swing, though in a more reserved form. Many a faithful of many a religion spent the night instead praying for the souls of the revellers, that God would not judge them too harshly for their actions tonight, in light of the fact that they would soon be leaving this planet Earth behind.
Allison pushed her way through the crowd, feeling the warm press of bodies against the cool air of the desert night. Somewhere beyond the noise of the revelry Shipsong could still be heard, blending in with the hundred different noises her ears could pick up as she moved through the mass of people. The crowd broke before her and Allison found herself in the middle of an empty space, quiet and calm eye of a physical and emotional storm. The area in question was a quiet and secluded circle of park and benches, left mostly untouched by the crowd as if through some collective will to leave one quiet space undisturbed and create a sanctuary those in the chaos could flee to when in need of a little order. Allison sat down, tilting her head back to take in the stars and breathe deep of the night air. Her head was light and the tilting motion sent a dizzy little thrill through her. On this night it felt so good to be alive. She wondered what spectacular vistas the night sky on Habitat would reveal to her once she was aboard the Ship; for surely she would never see these stars again as they appeared from Earth.
♦♦♦
“Good morning everyone,” Colonel Bloom said, sitting down at the conference table. A buffet had been set up along the back of the room; this was to be a breakfast meeting and everyone had plates and cups beside their consoles. The Senior Staff looked bleary this morning; there had been many late nights these last few days as the Ship got the Ship ready for launch tomorrow morning.
“We have the induction ceremony in another hour,” Bloom said, “So, let’s keep this as brief as possible. I’m just after status reports from each department. Let’s start with provisioning. Alina?”
“We’re good to go,” Captain Tanaka, the Ship’s Engineering, Systems and Provisioning Officer replied, “The Ship’s stores are full; the last of the heavy equipment for the in-house industries to be set up is aboard; Agriculture Systems are already producing and the Passenger’s belongings are all aboard and being delivered to the specific quarters.”
An elaborate courier system had established to make sure everyone got their baggage and belongings when they moved into their homes on Habitat. The logistics of the operation were like nothing Bloom had ever experienced. She’d helped with the evacuation of an entire city during the Australian Conflict and even then the preparations hadn’t been as complex as they were here. Of course, back then they’d only been moving people along with whatever belongings they could carry.
The citizens of the Ship had packed up most of if not their entire lives: there were the pets; from dogs and cats to fish, reptiles, birds, horses and apparently even one full-grown sow. One vintage car collector had insisted on bringing his entire collection, over one three hundred vehicles. There were articles listed on the civilian cargo manifest that Bloom considered even more unusual: a collection of over three hundred whips and riding crops (NOT belonging to one of the equestrians), thirteen antique suits of armour and a set of costumes, including two seven-foot tall fibreglass monstrosities from a pre-millennial syndicated science-fiction show.
“One day, I’m going to have to sit down and read this entire list,” Bloom said.
“Yes, Colonel you will,” Benedict agreed, “There are some pretty strange things put down there.”
“Linx me a copy,” Bloom said, “Systems?”
“We have a handle on most of the Ship’s functions, now,” Captain Tanaka said, “Once we’re skyside, we’ll be supervising and maintaining many of those systems, directly. We’ve also finished working with the Morale department and with Lieutenant Kalenga in Communications, Documentation and Library Systems, on a Shipwide computer Grid, with access to the data, music, art and video we downloaded into the
Archives as well as some stuff from the Ship’s existing archives. And our Research Engineers are now working with the Ship on coming up with Ship/Earth technology hybrids. We may see some real benefits from this up here before the folks back home do.”
“Very interesting; I’d like to see a full report from R&D, as soon as possible,” Bloom replied, “Doctor Cole, is our hospital ready?”
“The main hospital is up and running and my staff is in place,” Cole said, “And we have emergency triage centers set up throughout the populated sectors of the Ship, with roving emergency response teams on patrol routes where we don’t have coverage.”