There was a murmur of assent and the room’s bouquet lessened as a suggestion of hypothesis testing set many of them to thinking about experimental protocols and ways to proceed, breaking up their anxiety in the room.
“Right, so this is a good news - bad news situation. The bad news: you’re not going to be able to liberate every Tosh on the planet, at least not right now. But, realistically, even if they were ready to go, you don’t have the means to move millions of people, let alone support them once you arrive at your destination, which segues into the good news. It’s going to require lots of trips back and forth, but you do have sufficient ships to accomplish relocating the populations of your research compounds over a reasonable span of time.”
“That is only a piece of the equation,” said Evlerp. “Transportation is key, obviously. But even before that can happen, pilots must be trained. And before that, the vessels that have sat in storage for millennia must be tested, and any faded portions replaced or brought up to specifications. We are talking about settling a virgin world. Even if we had the means to instantly move all of us, they would be hardpressed to survive. Those who travel first will bear great burdens. They will have to establish shelter, survey the land, plant crops, mine necessary minerals, and secure the safety of an impending colony against unknown and heretofore uncategorized dangers and threats that may be commonplace on this new world. That we can do these things is a certainty, but it will be a gradual exodus, and those who will await their turn here will be just as busy determining the priority of supplies and devices, expertise and skill sets that we will send out in each wave.”
“Good,” said Gel. “I like how you’re thinking. This is all doable once you break it down into pieces.”
“What about Master Manager Srin?” asked Aushthack. “Our safety depends on isolation and secrecy. The Cliveden’s claim of ownership of the moon threatens both of these things. And while you pointed out that my original intention of simply destroying that race’s portal into the system was shortsighted and at best would only forestall the Cliveden returning with an aggressive agenda, the situation must still be resolved. How do we void his claim on the moon? On the entire star system for that matter? How do we get him to shut down his portal? It may no longer generate wealth for him, but it grants him status among his people, and he won’t give that away.”
Gel smiled. “I think the answer to that problem lies in the way you phrased the question. Srin is not going to give you anything you want. Most Cliveden are quite xenophobic, and indeed Srin had undergone special training to allow him to suppress his innate distaste for other races and converse with us. Their daily mindset is about acquiring advantage, because advantage turns into status, and that defines their system. You cannot appeal to his better nature. The concept of charity toward others simply doesn’t exist for the Cliveden, and there is no point in asking him to do the right thing and surrender his claim on the moon and the system. The way to move him, the way to produce a change that will be honored and respected by all the Cliveden, is to offer him an opportunity that benefits him, both in the moment and long term. That benefit must so outweigh even the wildest possible profits that he could envision from maintaining the status quo that he won’t hesitate to accept such an offer.”
“But what do we have that we can offer?” Asked another Tosh, one whose name Gel did not know. “From the beginning, you have ever warned against sharing the technology we have that produces individually-sized portals as being destabilizing to the wider galaxy. And while it’s possible that we may possess other technology of value that we are currently utilizing or that we could resurrect from our ancient records, implementing new concepts into the existing Cliveden paradigm would require time. Your description of benefits for Srin specified both immediate and long term advantage. At best we might manage the long term, but not the immediate. How then are we to resolve this problem?”
“As to that,” said Gel, “I propose that you focus your efforts on the first half, preparing your people to leave, working out the staging and the order and the distribution necessary to allow you to claim the moon. As for how to accomplish that claim, I ask your kind indulgence”
“What does that mean?” said Evlerp.
Gel smiled, feeling at last in her own element. Her experiences as a courier had included a large portion of negotiating, and while it had been a rocky start, she’d like to think she’d gotten quite good at it.
“Leave that to me. I have a few ideas that will appeal to our Cliveden friend and achieve your goals.
Planning Freedom
Gel met with Evlerp, Kerloan, and other senior researchers from all the compounds. They walked her through the plan one more time.
“We are in agreement with Aushthack’s suggested location for a first site,” said Brevne, the lead chemist from Tlener. She indicated several spots on a map they’d taken from Aushthack’s survey data.
“Place the devices here and here and here,” she said. “And only when all three are in position are you to activate them. They will work in reference to one another as they perform the initial excavation for a trio of underground facilities, which by the time the other pilots arrive with the first wave will have been transformed into our initial dwellings.”
Her hand moved across the map, kilometers from the nearest of the dig sites, and caused another three widely spaced locations to light up on the map. “Here, here, and here. You are to place these other devices. Again, activate all three remotely at the same time. They are programmed to prepare the terrain for cultivation and then go dormant. At the proper time they will stir back into action and plant a variety of crops, which we believe are most suitable to the climate.”
Gel nodded. The machines of either set were huge and had been made ready within days of Aushthack sharing the wafers with all the data from the moon, and stored against the first planned departure. Even now, teams of Tosh had taken them to the surface and were carrying them through the swamp, to eventually park them outside Tiggly. Gel had assured the senior researchers she would personally install them in one of her ship’s holds and secure them for transport.
“You’re confident this will work? That by the time your first wave of colonists arrive, you’ll be well on your way to having food and shelter?”
“We have run a large number of simulations,” said Kerloan, “tweaking multiple variables to their extremes. We have meteorological models and geologic readings, which Aushthack captured using ground-penetrating technology that our ancestors created, which perhaps other races in the galaxy that you know never saw fit to develop.”
“The thing I don’t understand is why you’re building underground housing. Aushthack has shown me images of some of the cities your ancestors built. They’re architectural marvels. Maybe you don’t want to aim that high from the beginning, but surely something more modest on the surface would be better than starting with an underground complex. You don’t need to hide.”
“You are an outsider,” said Evlerp. “We don’t expect you to necessarily understand.”
“Can you explain it to me?”
“While it’s true we have the records to build endlessly glorious cities as our ancestors did, you forget they did so in service to their overlords. It’s fair to say that we fully intend to build above ground structures eventually, but when we do so they will not resemble the majestic cities we created as thralls. The Tosh need time to develop new art and architecture that will reflect our new lives as a free people.”
Gel nodded. “Okay, I can appreciate that. But… you really think your machines here can do all you’ve described without someone on hand to troubleshoot?”
“Absolutely,” said Kerloan. “Barring a major cataclysmic event, the devices you unleash for us should be more than able to adapt to variations or surprises. They will respond with pre-programmed actions appropriate to whatever scenario obtains.”
“But it’s all just theoretical,” said Gel. “you’ve never actually done any of t
his.”
“I don’t understand. The theories and models are sound.”
“Right, no, I get it, but there’s a world of difference between how something works in a classroom and how it actually comes out in the field.”
All the Tosh around her stared at her with an expression somewhere between confusion and the patience of parents trying to explain something to a dim-witted child.
“This will be our world of difference,” said Evlerp, and that was the last word on the subject.
The senior Tosh had expressed their expertise as related to the plans for establishing a colony on the moon Aushthack had named Dawn, and which waves would be the most efficient time for each of them to make the trip. All but Kerloan.
“I will not be going,” she said.
Brevnen and Peltond both began chittering in surprise, before Evlerp shushed them with a clap of her hands.
“What is this?” she said in Traveler.
“I believe that in our eagerness to be free, we are ignoring important work that needs to be done here. I will be leaving the compound at Tlener, but not to venture to Dawn. I intend to take as many of my team as agree to accompany me and establish a presence within cities of the main islands.”
“Why?”
“To reconnect with the rest of the Tosh. Based on what Gel has told us, I believe that the Clarkesons would approve. They’ve abandoned the cities our ancestors built, and if we have nothing to fear from them then we should take them back and restore them to functionality that serves the Tosh that inhabit those areas.”
“They can’t maintain the cities. They no longer possess the skills,” said Evlerp.
“But we do. And where we don’t, we have detailed records to show us the way.”
“They’re no longer literate,” said Peltond. “How do you expect them to understand those records?”
“By teaching them,” said Kerloan.
“Nor will she be taking this project on alone,” said Mefler, the leading biologist from Tlener. “I will go as well, along with as many of my assistants and students as will come.”
“For what purpose?” asked Evlerp.
“I intend to establish a lab to explore ways in which we might do what the Clarkesons have failed to accomplish and undo or otherwise circumvent the servitude they built into us so many millennia ago.”
“The sooner we are successful,” said Kerloan, “the sooner more of the Tosh will be able to make the trip to our new world.”
Gel sat there, stunned, her eyes darting back and forth from one scientist’s face to another.
Evlerp finally broke the silence. “I would have preferred to have heard about this earlier—”
“We only just—”
“I was running simulations and I—”
Evlerp silenced both Kerloan and Mefler with another clap of her hands. “As I was saying, I would have preferred to have heard of this earlier, but I cannot fault the intention. We had previously floated the idea of studying this problem. Perhaps in our excitement to begin moving forward to a new home we let it slip from our attention. But it is not enough for a thousand Tosh to escape and leave behind millions.”
Kerloan nodded enthusiastically and the others around the table murmured in support.
“We have no concept yet if such a goal can be achieved, or how long it might take to implement. Years, generations, perhaps more. But if you succeed, then in time all the Tosh can choose to follow us off this planet. And until then, I believe your efforts could inspire our kin in those cities and begin to pull them from despair and more in alignment with ourselves.”
She took a moment to catch the eye of each of the researchers around her. “Some of you may wish to reconsider if or when you will venture to Dawn considering the other work that Kerloan will bring to the cities. Give the individuals in your teams the same choice. We will not be truly free until all Tosh can leave.”
Randolv Greyce Slept Here
A day later, the Tosh were ready to send Gel on her way. Aushthack had told her how efficient his people could be, and they were already training pilots, restoring vessels, and stockpiling supplies. The first wave would be on its way in no more than sixty days, maybe as few as fifty. The clock was running.
She said her goodbyes and left in early morning, walking one more time through the swamp. She had no doubt that the Tosh were tracking her every step of the way.
In time she stood on the hilltop beyond the swamp, with the door to Tiggly’s largest hold yawning open. Left to her own devices she could have simply teleported the sets of excavation and farming machines directly into secured spaces aboard the ship. Instead, she had to guide each of them individually up the ramp and park them just inside the door. When she had crowded them all inside, she sealed the entrance. Free from the curious eyes of the Tosh, she summoned Barry to her hand. With a few nods of his plush head she slotted each of the machines into its proper location. They took up the back half of the hold’s volume. Gel lowered a movable bulkhead to secure them, separating that portion from the unused section of the hold, and next filled the space around the machines with a motion absorbing foam that would keep her cargo from moving about until such time as she arrived at her destination, applied a dissolving agent, and distributed the machines to their appointed tasks.
She was about to take an interior corridor from the hold to Tiggly’s bridge, but the ship alerted her that someone had arrived outside and awaited her attention. Gel reopened the cargo hold’s door and jumped to the surface. She sealed the ship behind her before walking around to the front of her vessel.
A Clarkeson awaited her, though at a glance she knew it was not the same consortium that she had met with before. In addition to being even larger, the colorful swirls of its facial configurations and the pattern of its vibrant hair was different. Then too, it had two extra pairs of arms extending from its torso.
“Whom am I addressing?” said Gel.
The chorus of voices that emanated from the Clarkeson were both louder and deeper than the last one that had spoken with her.
“We have used the time since our last meeting to assemble not merely all those with whom you have previously met, but more besides. And even so I must begin by expressing the regret and apologies from members of seventeen of our consortiums who could not join us, but who will have the details of this encounter related to them in short order.”
“I wasn’t expecting a follow up encounter. Has something changed? Are you backing out of your deal to free this portion of the Tosh?”
“That would be a duplicitous action,” said the Clarkeson. “And while we understand that the Clarkesons of your experience have come to be associated with trickery, that is not a behavior we have learned, nor wish to explore. Our presence here is for a completely different purpose.”
“Glad to hear it,” said Gel. “And what might that purpose be?”
“To bear witness to your departure, as it is a benchmark for the future of the Tosh. To commemorate this moment in our collective memories and, perhaps most importantly, to express our profound appreciation for your actions up to this point, as well as those which lie ahead.”
“Oh, well, okay. You’re welcome.”
“Even though we can assume humanoid form, our lives are vastly different from your own, Angela Colson. The Clarkeson experience of time illustrates this more profoundly than even our existence as colony beings. Despite these distinctions, we honor you. Please know that from this point forward anything you need, any assistance we might provide, you need only ask and we will grant it.”
“Okay. That’s a bit much but, okay.”
The Clarkeson ignored her reply and instead held out its lowest left hand. The skin writhed and a ring of burnished purple metal rose up from within its flesh until it rested on the palm.
“We ask that you accept this token of us. When you return to your wider galaxy, should you need anything from any Clarkeson out there, only show them this ring and they will provide. It wi
ll mark you as someone who knows where they came from and what they did. Any resources they possess will be yours to use as needed.”
She took the ring, unable to think what else she could do in the situation. She slipped it into a pocket of her leather jacket. “This is really too much, you get that, right?”
“It is nothing compared to what you are doing. You are saving our children.”
Gel re-entered her ship and made her way to the bridge. Tiggly’s displays showed the gigantic Clarkeson dissolving in the breeze like some humongous dandelion going to seed. She ran through the standard lift procedures, cutting no corners. The familiar routine comfortably reminded her who she was and what she was about to do. When she completed her review, the ship rose from the surface of Stefnal, and once she had cleared its atmosphere, Gel located the portal on the edge of the star system and locked in her course.
She passed through without complication, emerging into the maelstrom of the huge gas giant where the Clarkeson had placed their hidden network of portals. Almost as an afterthought, she guided her ship up and out, and only paused after establishing an orbit around the gas giant. Then she set Tiggly to scanning both the system and the constellations of stars to work out where she was. The star was a white dwarf, and had shrunk to become smaller than any of its four planets. The first two and the last were rocky barren worlds with the gas giant she orbited in between.
Tiggly successfully identified their location, but the galaxy was a big place and even after billions of years, some portions still had not been visited and logged. From her review of the records in the ship’s database, other than the outbound Clarkesons, Gel was probably the first sapient individual to traverse this system. That entitled her to certain perks. She had the time so she spent a day performing a full spectrum of scans of the white dwarf, its rocky worlds, and the gas giant below her. It was the kind of detail that could only be made from a vessel in the system.
Ace of Thralls (Freelance Courier Book 3) Page 14