We asked them what we might expect from our meeting with the high command next week. They filled us in on what we might expect and on proper protocol.
We were advised not to ad lib with high command but to answer their questions directly and truthfully. They explained that if we didn t understand the question ask for clarification but not to try to answer any question that we didn t clearly understand.
They also said that it is protocol for a military officer to be in Class-A dress and to salute the host and report in a proper military manner. We were told to hold the salute until it is returned and then quickly return to our arm to our side and maintain a position of attention.
You should remain at attention until you are given the at ease by your host. Don t walk around or sit unless you are told to do so. Never sit at any gathering until your host has been seated unless you are told to do so.
Pretty much what one might expect when reporting to a superior officer in the military seemed to be what we should do. That shouldn t be a problem since I had done it many times during my military career.
We would be required to wear our Admiral uniforms knowing full well that our ranks were only temporary.
We fully well expected that the high command would put their own Admirals on THE TOREN TWENTY and reduce our ranks back to what it was before the coup aboard the mother ship.
Finally the day came for our meeting. We reported in a military manner and were taken to a room that looked much like a conference room with long table and with seats all around it. We were taken to seats that had been assigned to us after following our host into the room. There were several other persons there who were introduced to us before the Chairperson and the six Governor Generals entered the room. As they did, all rose and remained standing until told to sit.
The Chairperson sat at the head of the long conference table. There were three Governor Generals on his right and three on his left. Our seats were near the other end of the long table to the Chairperson s right.
Once we were all seated, the Chairperson, a man with gray hair, looked at us and said: Let everyone here welcome our heroes T.S. Neville and her husband Damon Neville to Starsis. They through their bravery, ingenuity, and superior skills were able to strike a major blow against our hated enemies the Atlanteans. At the same time, they saved the lives of over 200,000 and they returned the mother ship undamaged and in tact.
Hip, hip, hurray! was the chant as all seated raised their glasses in a toast.
Now tell me Admiral Neville, looking at Tess, Would you and your husband like to continue to command the mother ship?
We would be most honored for the opportunity, she answered. How do you feel about that Damon? she asked as she looked at me.
I agree.
Good! said the Chairperson. Now let me have you both step outside for a few moments while I talk with the board. We will have you come back once our decision is reached.
We were escorted out to an anteroom where we waited for approximately ten minutes before being called back in.
“Come in and be seated,” our host said as we were led back to our previous seats by the usher.
“The decision that we reached was unanimous,” the Chairperson announced as he looked at us. Then there was a long silence designed perhaps to build the suspense.
The high command of Starsis giving me full authority does hereby promote you Tara Sara Neville to the rank of three star Admiral with the position of Commanding Officer of the mother ship ‘THE TOREN TWENTY’.”
“To you Damon Neville, we do hereby promote to two star Admiral and to the position of Executive Officer and second in Command of ‘THE TOREN TWENTY’.”
“Yo ur ranks and positions are effective later today when a special ceremony is scheduled at which time you will receive your stars and new coats showing for all to see you new ranks. Also at said ceremony you both will receive High Command’s Metal of Valor fo r your courageous acts in defeating the Atlanteans who had captured and had control of ‘THE TOREN TWENTY’ and would most likely would still control it had not it been for you heroic acts above and beyond the call of duty that saved the ship and all aboard her. We salute you! We will have a specially prepared lunch followed by a brief rest period.
After the break, you will be escorted to the auditorium stage where several thousand of your comrades will be anxiously waiting for the official ceremony where I will pen on your new stars and metals and introduce you two as their new mother ship Commander and her Executive Officer respectively.
I felt that the meeting with the high command went better than expected as we enjoyed a nice lunch and later followed them to the auditorium stage. There the Chairperson surrounded all of the Governor Generals addressed those gathered there to give them the news. The penning ceremony took place and we were invited to a reception line where everyone from the auditorium could pass by us, shake our hands or salute us according to their status as a civilian or as a military person.
Before the day was over, we were told that a gala ball would be held in our honor before our departure date from Starsis.
We were to spend another month there while the mother ship was restocked with provisions and trade goods. Starsis was noted throughout the empire for their manufacture of farm equipment, road building equipment and heavy mining equipment.
The mother ship delivered these to other Toren planets that had placed orders for them. The primary mission of any mother ship is to carry trade goods between the planets of the empire.
We had our two weeks aboard the sailboat with Tess parents and two more wonderful weeks at their condo. We also had our gala ball and a good time being entertained by so many good people. Too soon, our time on Starsis come to a close.
Even though we were sad to be leaving Starsis and Tess parents, we made a date to meet them again in five years on a Toren planet named Aquarius, our last planet before returning to Starsis to make final preparations for our return to Earth. After our return to Starsis in about ten years, we would live there until the Earth was safe enough to be re-inhabited.
We added Starsis to our half circle flag and planned to add each planet we visited along the way until we eventually returned to Earth someday to complete our circle.
The next planet in the Toren Empire we are scheduled to visit after Starsis is called Erie. After saying our goodbyes to our many new friends on Starsis we headed out again in THE TOREN TWENTY toward the stars of deep space. This time we were the real Admirals and not just Acting Admirals. With the added prestige heaped up0n us, came new responsibilities and the realization that we were out in space on our own should the Atlantean forces decide to try to take over our ship or to destroy us.
Training aboard the mother ship was stepped up. We as leaders were also able to promote many from within the ranks in our efforts to create a more formable fighting force that would be prepared for combat if and when it might become necessary.
CHAPTER 8-SNOW PEOPLE OF ERIE
We were well past the ripple barrier of Starsis by the end of the first week. This gave us an opportunity to move to warp speeds. The eight month journey would also give us an opportunity to try to learn the history of Erie and it’s people.
We joined a class at the ship’s university to study about Erie. We were surprised to learn that the people on Erie were among the early explorers to Earth. In those early days, the earth was recovering from an Ice Age. It’s artic like temperatures were ideal to the people from Erie. They are all covered with fur much like polar bears. At full growth, an adult stands between eight and ten feet tall and weighs three hundred to five hundred pounds.
There were many legends on Earth as told by the Indian tribes of the time and passed down through the centuries of Issaquah who some story tellers referred to as “big foot” or the “abominable snowman”. There were even some more recent reports of one or more b
eing sighted in the Canadian Rockies as late as the twentieth century.
These legends, as with many legends, were most likely based in fact. As the earth began to warm, the settlers from Erie had to keep moving further and further from the warmer climates seeking colder area where they could live in comfort.
It is believed that as they did, their food supplies became harder and harder to find and they began to die off. It is also possible, that space ships from their home planet might have returned many of them back to Erie.
We also learned from the course that the people from Erie, who prefer to be called snow people, are quite advanced in science and technology and will supply many restoration workers during the reclamation period on Earth.
The plan to restore Earth involves having the large powerful planet movers pull the planet further away from the sun until the temperatures drop and a mini Ice Age develops.
Once that occurs, they will gradually pull it back toward its proper orbit so the sun will again began to warm it. The restorers figure it will take several years of gradual warming before the new ozone layer will become thick enough to support life again.
During this warming period, only the snow people from Erie could survive and work on Earth. The air around their planet is thin in the mountainous terrain where many of them spend their time. Not all snow people on Erie live entirely on the surface of the planet. Many spend most of their time in underground cities they have built through the eons of time.
These cites are often warmed by heat from sub-thermal deposits in the core of the planet which managed to escape through volcanic fishers. Our professor said that many of the underground dwellers have their heavy fur sheared off and appear much like sheared sheep after losing their wool. He said that many even shave their faces and appear almost human.
Because of their massive size and strength, he said that it is better to have them as friends than as enemies. He said that a swat from the back of their hand could break your neck like it was a pretzel stick. He also said that they can carry heavy loads on their backs and can probably carry several humans at once.
The snow people are governed by a Prime Minister and they have their own military forces for combat on land, sea, air, and space. They also have farmers, ranchers, barbers, bakers, and candle stick makers like any other civilization.
They have courtships and marriages and families. They have schools and churches. They have police forces and courts and doctors and even lawyers. They live in a free democratic society and they work and play much like humans. They furnish minerals used throughout the empire. In fact, many of the elements used to build the mother ship were mined on Erie. We had some mining machinery built on Starsis that we will be delivering to Erie.
We will also take on minerals from their planet that we would later deliver to Japae another planet on our trade route.
The journey to Erie will also bring us close to the neutral zone between the Toren Empire and the Atlantean Empire. Crossing the neutral zone is considered an act of war between the two empires.
When we were about half way between Starsis and Erie, we located the space marker that required us to turn our ship to port thirty degrees to line up with the next marker on our journey. These space markers were guideposts along the way. By following them we would remain clear of the neutral zone. The turn would require us reduce speed to impulse power.
Shortly after we slowed down and made our turn, we were met by a host Of Atlantean warships. They hit us from all sides but our shields held and damage was minimal. We picked up speed and were able to out run their fighters. We soon left them in our wake.
We felt that this was the time to run rather than the time to stand and fight. We were far away from any Toren planets that might be able to lend us support. We didn t want to give any advantage to the Atlanteans.
Their crossing the neutral zone was an act of war not only against us but was a violation of their treaty with the whole Toren Empire. We would reach the next marker in about three weeks and we figured they would have another group waiting for us there.
We reported the incident to Erie and asked if there was any other way to Erie than to go to the next marker so close to the neutral zone.
They informed us of an alternative route but that is was also very hazardous because it would take us through asteroid belt that would take some very fancy maneuvering to get through.
We asked if anyone had every gone through the asteroid belt successfully in the past. They told us yes that it had been the only route they had because it was the direct route between Starsis and Erie before they had explored the route we were on or established the space markers until a few decades ago.
They explained that the route we were on was established so ships could go around the asteroid belt because the Torens had lost many ships in the past trying to go through it. They suggested that we would have to determine on our own which we felt posed the greater danger, the asteroid belt or the Atlanteans. Meanwhile, they faxed us the coordinates to the old route through the asteroids.
Another factor we were advised that we might have to consider is that the Atlanteans had been on the mother ship long enough to copy all our routes and the locations of all our space markers.
The navigational computers move the ship in a certain direction where the space markers are supposed to be and once they are in range, home in on them to guide the ship precisely to the marker s location.
If the Atlanteans were smart enough to move one of the markers a few degrees one way or the other, they could lead us into Atlantean space or they might cause us to become lost in space heading away from Erie toward one of their planets.
If we were led off into enemy territory where they could mount an armada against us, we would be in a world of hurt. The more we considered the choices available to us, the better the trip through the asteroid belt seemed.
We decided to take the direct route through the asteroid belt rather than to face the Atlanteans. We re-programmed the navigational computer and executed the changes.
The ship was programmed to slow down to impulse and then crawl when we reached the asteroid belt. We felt that if we were careful enough that we should be able to find a safe path through the belt.
At warp speed, the belt was still more that a week away. My wife and our daughters and I decided to take a few days rest and recreation away from our duties during this lull period.
We drove into a part of the mother ship that contained a cattle ranch, meadows and running streams and waterfalls. That is the beauty of being on the mother ship. It was large enough to be self-sufficient by raising its own food supply including ranch and farm products. Just as it had its city areas like around the university, it had its rural areas around the ranches and farms.
This change refreshed us as we spent some quality time doing family things like swimming and picnicking and enjoying similar activities. The week seemed to slip away quickly and too soon we had to returned to the Control Center to face up to the asteroid belt. Just before reaching the cluster of asteroids, we brought the mother ship to a complete stop. We were close enough to scan the belt and to create a possible map of through them.
We fed this information into the computer and with Marvo s help were able to determine our safest route through them as well as our safest speed. What the other travelers did not have was the help of Marvo when they challenged the asteroid belt.
We weren t cocky about it but felt that had we not had Marvo to help us, we would have stumbled blindly into the clusters like our predecessors with only luck to guide us.
We manage to cross the asteroid belt with only minor scrapes from the bombardment of small stones flying about between the larger asteroids.
Once we were through the belt, we were only two weeks from Erie that saved us several weeks it would have taken us to go around them. We then learned that pa
trols from Erie had encountered several Atlantean warships in an area near one of the space markers and had managed to chase them off.
When we reached Erie and established our orbit, we were met by work crews from the planet to load on their trade goods and then to off load the mining equipment we had for them. During this time that took nearly a month, we and a contingent of one half the passengers visited the planet of the snow people.
The first group stayed on the planet two weeks and then returned to the mother ship so the second half could have a turn. Our family spent the entire four weeks on the planet and we were able to meet with their Prime Minister and his staff. They welcomed us and arranged several tours for us. They seemed to enjoy our company and were very friendly to us. They were so much bigger than we were.
They soon were referring to us as the little people and we were referring to them as the big people. Most had never seen anyone from the other Toren planets before and seem amused about our lack of fur and our smaller size.
The air on the surface was thinner than we liked but the air at the lower levels was very close to the air we had experienced on Earth and Starsis. We soon adapted to it.
The surface was much too cold for our comfort but the underground cities were much warmer. We still wore layers of clothing to keep warm in the underground areas.
We learned that many of the snow people who live on the surface are avid skiers and many wear snowshoes to walk around in the snow. The surface dwellers are a sturdy breed and never really found living below ground to their liking.
The Prime Minister told us that they had received some new weapons that they had received from Japae recently that were superior to the ones the Atlanteans had which allowed them to chase them away in the latest encounter. He wanted us to take fifty of the weapons aboard the mother ship along with a crew of weapons experts who could install them and teach us to use them. He said we could drop off his people on Japae and that they would take the next mother ship coming back to Erie from Japae. We agreed and we thankful for his help.
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