Warp Thrive

by Ginger Booth

  Of course the fifth Selectman was named Ellia. The woman was on her way as they spoke. Aden’s eyes began to dart to the side, as though seeking escape.

  Clay’s pocket tablet chimed loudly, making Tor jump and Aden spin around to face him. “Time, dear,” he announced. “The formal statement has arrived from Mahina Actual.” He shot Aden a fierce grin.

  “There’s no need to tune in,” Sass shared. “Kassidy already knows how to broadcast on every Denali screen.” Most of that know-how was supplied by Aurora.

  Now Aden’s mouth fell open. His peachy bakkra shone brightly. But Sass estimated they weren’t quite strong enough to produce euphoria today.

  “Greetings, Selectmen of Denali,” boomed from speakers through this Waterfalls cosmo dome. Sass turned to watch the closest giant display. Hunter Burke, Guy Fairweather, and Pierre Lavelle sat together in Fairweather’s office to address them. The Mahina Actual Chief of Security spoke first. “We are deeply disturbed by a report from our ship Thrive. That you have taken prisoner two of our engineers, at great danger of personal harm to them. And that this was done while they were actively engaged in saving beleaguered citizens of Denali Prime.”

  “Ones you failed to even look in on,” Clay’s son tag-teamed. “Although Captain Collier as good as told you there were survivors at that site from day one.”

  “Very unimpressed,” Lavelle drawled, supposedly there to represent Sagamore.

  “Our demands are simple,” Guy resumed. This wasn’t a conversation. These men recorded the video hours ago. “One. You release every Mahina citizen immediately. Two. You do everything in your power to make sure Captain Collier, and every Mahina citizen, including Dr. Yang, leaves your planet healthy and on time. They will not miss their launch window.”

  Hunter continued. “Or no one will ever visit Denali again from Mahina. All technology exchange will cease. You’re on your own.”

  “You might be thinking,” Lavelle shared, leaning forward wolfishly. “What can they do? Pono is impossibly far away! And it is true, I have been to Denali before. I will not go again. But happily!” His face shone with joy. “I can shoot rocks at you from here!” He turned to confide in Hunter. “I cannot aim very well, of course. But they cannot dodge. So it all works!”

  “I’m glad it won’t come to that,” Guy Fairweather assured the camera. “If there is any negotiation to be done, obviously this slow back-and-forth is awkward. Therefore, we’re agreed that Clay Rocha will serve as our envoy on site.” His companions nodded – Clay, not Sass.

  Sass appreciated the touch. Clay smirked and shrugged at her.

  Guy finished, “We hope to hear back of a happy, successful, and complete conclusion to this matter. In say, no more than 28 hours from the time you view this. I see no reason for it to take longer. The men you just threw in jail are guilty of nothing but a starring role in saving lives in the Denali Prime disaster. Mahina out.”

  A roar was building in the dome. Sass blew out between pursed lips. They’d come on too strong. But suddenly Kassidy and Aurora appeared on the screen.

  “Fellow Denali,” Aurora addressed them, “I’m sure you’re wondering what caused this horrible interchange.”

  Kassidy nodded and summed up the situation in the most prejudicial possible terms, Aurora backing her up every step of the way. She introduced the prisoners by familiar images from the rescue of Denali Prime. Copeland busy with his techs on the ship. Photogenic Ben carrying a sick little girl and ordering technicians around. Eli reaching the first children. Kaz clearing ash with the guns.

  Aurora added, “And these are photos sent by our people from the dungeon at Hermitage.” Prisoners cowered around their air panels, taking turns to sit because their air hoses were so short most had to stand. Closeups of the dreaded necrotic bakkra.

  She continued, “I’m happy to report to you that our people already broke free from the dungeon.” She showed another still shot of Ben reaching out to help one of the necrotic ones, while a doctor in hazmat suit pushed him away for his own safety. Other hazmat-suited figures sprayed the men with stinging disinfectant. “Selectman Diego has been voted down by popular acclaim.” Another picture showed the cosmo Great Hall of Hermitage, looking out over a sea of angry fists.

  “Waterfalls,” Aurora addressed her fellow townsfolk, “Selectman Aden caused this. I was there. I will testify to every step of this injustice. I will also testify that Selectman Gorey, who orchestrated the evacuation of Denali Prime, knew nothing about it. Tor knew. Viola and Ellia did not.”

  Aden hissed and made to bolt. Clay got in his face, and forced him into a seat. Sass stepped to his other side and placed a hand on his shoulder to hold the Selectman in place.

  The next face on the screen was Gorey’s. “I submit a vote of no confidence.” He was followed by Ellia, an aged farmer, her face cobwebbed with wrinkles. In a querulous voice, she stated the same.

  Kassidy and Aurora entered the Council area, surrounded by several dozen hunters, their skin cleaned of battle bakkra, but their caste clear by expression. Kassidy sent a drone to zoom in on Selectman Viola.

  “What say you, Selectman Viola?” Aurora demanded.

  Stone-faced, the third Selectman echoed Gorey and Ellia’s verdict. She continued, “Therefore I find Aden no longer First Selectman. I cannot vote for Tor to replace him.”

  “Gorey! Gorey! Gorey!” growled through the dome.

  Viola swallowed. “In Waterfalls, it is our custom for three Selectmen, including the First, to be of the cosmos.”

  “GOREY! GOREY! GOREY!”

  Aurora suggested, “Perhaps today is the exception that proves the rule, Selectman Viola.”

  “I am willing to serve,” Gorey stated from the screen. “I also vote no confidence in Tor. I do not censure Viola, but clearly she is too weak to lead.”

  Ellia’s face took over the screen. “I am not the leader we need. I agree with Gorey, and support him as First Selectman.”

  “What say you, Viola?” Aurora crooned. “You’re on.”

  “I have confidence in Gorey,” the cosmo gritted out. She shook her head. “No confidence in Tor. Gorey, you are First Selectman.”

  It was the right response. The dome thundered with applause.

  Gorey’s face took over the screen again, and he nodded respect. “I am First Selectman. Now this show comes to an end. There will be an election to replace two Selectmen – both cosmos. That will be held in two months. And I will speak to Clay Rocha and resolve the Mahinan concerns. I believe that will be trivial. Good people of Waterfalls, we have much to do. Please return to your work confident that justice will be done.”

  With that, the screen blanked and stayed that way.

  “Good job, girls,” Sass encouraged Kassidy and Aurora.

  “Am I forgiven?” Aurora begged.

  “Only because you warned me ahead of time,” Sass allowed.

  The hunters took Aden and Tor into custody, and led them away.

  “Four passengers to Mahina is acceptable,” Gorey concluded. “Aurora, Dr. Tyler, Zan, and a farmer to be determined. That’s two cosmos, but Aurora is our diplomatic liaison to the Pono worlds.”

  “An engineer,” Clay suggested. “Our worlds can learn much from each other in the technical sphere.” Sass sat beside him in the negotiation, but Mahina deputized him, not her.

  “You only offered me four beds,” Gorey differed. “And I have three castes to satisfy. The farmer is particularly important.”

  “I understand,” Clay allowed, “but I still recommend a technician or scientist instead of a warrior. Based on what Mahina has to offer. Frankly, I think a hunter would find the moon boring. There’s nothing to hunt. I was a policeman there for many years. Even the crime is dull.”

  Gorey sighed. “Mahina will host these people indefinitely, comfortably, until they can arrange transport home to Denali. They may choose to stay. But if transport has been offered and turned down, Mahina is no longer obligated to support them. In
return, we will supply all the star drive fuel you require, and replacement cargo containers. Your balance of value is such that you’ll run out of cargo room long before you run out of credit to fill it.”

  Clay nodded. “And we take the third generation star drive and warp lens.”

  “The priceless and irreplaceable,” Gorey noted.

  “You keep Nanomage and Koala,” Clay countered. “When Thrive arrived here you had zero air travel capacity. We leave you with two ships in working order. With difficulty, they could reach orbit. But what you need is their travel and air reconnaissance ability.”

  “The only warp lens in the star system,” Gorey repeated. “And the only third generation star drive.”

  “But Denali lost almost its entire scientific establishment,” Clay argued. “We bring the third generation star drive to Hell’s Bells, where the only remaining engineers exist who can understand and duplicate it. So there will be more than one. The warp lens is only valuable if someone uses it.”

  “You don’t suggest replicating that?”

  Clay shrugged and traded a glance with Sass. “Please explain.”

  Sass sat forward, arms on the table. “These technologies came together in Nanomage, but they’re unrelated. The third generation drive, we knew nothing about, and are eager to understand its advances. The warp lens we have always known how to make. But the industrial infrastructure needed to produce one is ridiculously costly. And we have no other use for it. The box is turned on for a few minutes to warp a ship to another star system. In the entire Mahina system, how many ships are available to do that?”

  “You’re saying that we lack the will to replicate this item.”

  “Correct,” Clay confirmed. “I think of the three communities in the Aloha system, Denali probably has the least interest in using the warp lens. Witness the fact that it’s a simple box. And you never even removed it from Nanomage.”

  “That’s true of the star drive as well,” Sass murmured. Clay nodded but narrowed his eyes. My negotiation. She sat back in her chair.

  “All of Nanomage was lost to you,” Clay concluded. “We gave you back what you most needed. A working skyship.”

  Gorey sat back considering this. Clay felt the man was at somewhat of a disadvantage here in the cosmo dome, bereft of his outdoorsman bakkra. But he’d dealt with the Thrive on that basis for weeks, and grown comfortable.

  Slowly, he nodded. “I believe I can sell that argument. But I want to stress, to the parties you represent, the reason we do what we do. Sass, you sold me on this the day we flew the first children from Denali Prime. My world – all our worlds – survive only by the grace of our technology. The volcano caused us possible extinction-level harm by killing off generations of our best and brightest scientific minds. If we survive here, it will be thanks in large part to technology transfers and assistance from the Pono worlds. That is why.”

  Clay studied the wording of their agreements so far. “Would you like to add verbiage to address that?”

  Gorey shrugged. “I am a man of the hunt, of fighting and brutal conflict. I don’t know the words. But we require help, or our only way to survive will be to find our way off this world to take what we need from yours. Aden screwed up. He cultivated enemies where we desperately needed allies. But his motivation was sound. We need someone to come back.”

  “I can only promise my ship,” Sass returned sadly. “And my ship is not coming back. All our ships are privately owned. I think we have the structure that will yield a future voyage, though.”

  Clay signaled her to surrender the lead again. “If you’ve chosen your envoys well, Gorey, they will be the ones who tell you what you can make, offer, and bribe to get that next ship to come here. But frankly, we already got what we came here for. After all we’ve invested in time and treasure and horrific risk. All the effort we put into helping you to help us. Technology transfer already accomplished – Saggy emergency air bubbles, superior coolants. You can’t renege now on our rewards.”

  “Agreed. But please, tell them what I said. In your own way.” He rose. “I’ll speak to the other Selectman as a formality. They will approve. I have no authority to make promises for the other cities of Denali. I recommend you stay away from Hermitage. You are safe in Waterfalls, and what’s left of Denali Prime.”

  38

  The day before takeoff, the captain declared play day. They said their good-byes at Waterfalls two days ago. Yesterday they finished filling the containers with fuel here at AML. All packed and ready to go, now Ben splashed with Cope in the river cavern below the labs.

  Smooth rock slithered beneath his bare feet. Tendrils of black current caressed him, racing off to dark mysteries beyond the visible reaches of stone surrounding him.

  The months had flown by, busy with work and play. Full summer came on like a burning bulldozer, with temperatures reaching 140 degrees – 60 Celsius, and 24-hour sun. They dropped the 20-hour nonsense when the sun was up or down all the time. Sunset in a few weeks would be the locals’ biggest celebration of the year.

  But they’d be gone.

  With their fuel supply secured, being manufactured here at AML, he and Cope had worked long hours on other projects. The farm domes of Waterfalls were especially grateful for their new air conditioning systems using Mahina’s ice wand coolant.

  They made friends. Good ones.

  Reza and Teke got into a spray fight a few meters away in the mercifully cool dim cave. Cool being relative, of course. It was 90 in here, and the fresh mountain stream was lukewarm. But at least the pink water rapids and underground flow discouraged ferocious water creatures. And greatest mercy of all, the sun reached them only via the glowing orange waterfall. Beyond them Abel and Jules canoodled, entirely engrossed in each other.

  Reza would accompany them to Mahina instead of Dr. Tyler. Teke was so jealous he refused to speak about it anymore.

  Yesterday Abel tucked each shipping container directly to a loading dock, and they accomplished the bulk of the packing in shade. But then the tech crew rigged the outer netting, this time made from the carcass of an ocean leviathan. Damn, that stuff smelled bad. They trusted a bit of space vacuum would cure all that. Reza and Teke could work for a half hour straight, but Ben and Cope needed to hide in the trapdoor every 15 minutes to cool off.

  “Remind you of anybody?” Cope asked softly now, smiling at the pogo-hopping Teke.

  “Me, are you suggesting?” Ben replied in mock offense. He took in the exuberant youth for a moment. “I guess he does. You miss him? The younger me?”

  Cope shook his head slightly. “He’s still here. Got a few more tricks up his sleeve. And he taught me to play again.” He slapped water at Ben’s face, which turned into a wrestling match. Cope dunked him first, then he got revenge.

  This led to a game of chicken against Reza and Teke, with Ben riding Cope’s shoulders. Teke was young and strong, but Cope’s height gave Ben the edge. He managed to unseat the kid once while losing two falls himself. Ripping off the opponent’s breath mask also scored, easy to accomplish by snatching at the air hose. Teke bested him at that, too.

  They paused to watch Sass and Clay shoot down the waterfall screeching, something the captain explicitly forbid them to do. Ben and Cope cringed together in sympathy just watching them.

  “Can I do it, cap?” Teke called out. “You got to do it!”

  “No! Only us. We’re special!” Sass and Clay cracked up laughing, and swam to the far side of the current.

  “I’m going to miss this,” Ben said. At Cope’s raised eyebrow, he clarified, “Swimming. Mahina needs a place to swim.”

  “We could do that,” Cope allowed. “Not open air. We’d lose too much to evaporation.” Mahina’s atmosphere was bone dry. They kept their reservoirs mostly underground. “But I bet we could build one. Some day when we have nothing better to do.”

  Ben grinned back crookedly. “Like that’ll ever happen.”

  “It might. With Yang’s nanites, I co
uld live to 100 and healthy.” That was a wonderment to Cope, who’d made adult decisions and arrangements based on a life expectancy around 40.

  Before Thrive, Ben was too young to believe in death after life, no matter what he saw around him. The 20-year-old never really believed he would become 30. At 22, it still wasn’t on his radar.

  “I don’t think I’ll miss anything,” Cope continued. “Remember it fondly, sure. I’m awfully eager for home, though.”

  “We’ll come back,” Ben suggested. “We have 100 years!”

  “Never say never,” his partner allowed. “But I don’t think so.” His face lost its fun, and he pressed Ben’s hand for comfort.

  “It’ll be alright, Cope. Takeoff. We’ll survive. Then five months home. Catch up on our schoolwork.”

  “Yeah.” He blew out long and softly beneath his face mask. “What could go wrong?”

  “Cope, you’ve spent 6 months worrying and preparing. Done is done. Let it go and play! Here, lie back and try to float. I’ll spot you.”

  “You first,” Cope invited.

  This trick was impossible in the dead sea pool at Waterfalls with an air tank on his back. He needed to detach the harness and hold it on his chest, and then it felt like he was lying on the surface. But in fresh water, muscular, they were sinkers instead of floaters. Cope held Ben’s shoulders to keep his face above water as he lay back, feeling the river slurp around his breath mask, tiny currents nudging him here and there. He closed his eyes and trusted Cope, feeling the wild water.

  It was an illusion. Nature was no more kind and giving to humans on Denali than Mahina. This world was wildly different, but just as cruel, Earth life every bit as much at the mercy of fragile technology. This gentle grotto was hardly Denali standard. But the illusion of being nurtured by a kindly nature was a powerful one.

  Just for a little while, Ben forgot about tomorrow.

  39

  Sass leaned on the front seats in the bridge, taking in the view while Abel and Ben flew to their chosen launch site. The last thing the Denali cities needed on a toasty summer day was the heat of Thrive’s takeoff.