Etrec stood on the balcony of his ancestral home and stared down at the waves crashing on the rocks below. He had been home for nearly one hundred days now and according to his teachers he was adjusting well.
He swallowed hard, trying not to let the memories through or the waves of homesickness wash over him as the ocean below submerged the rocks at the bottom of the cliff. He knew he had been born here—over a thousand years ago. Pasc and Lira had spoken of it often as he was growing up. But he had been tiny when they had returned to the space missions both had loved and he had no memories of the place.
He missed them. When he woke up on Moonbase Alpha he knew exactly what his mother had done and why. Pasc had already been too far gone in the killing sickness. He remembered the blood as Pasc took the life of two members of their expedition. They had been friends, part of an extended family that Etrec had known all his life. Etcec had been shocked at his father’s behavior, but there had been a curiosity there as well. How could his loving gentle father have done such a thing to his closest friends?
It had been Lira who subdued his father, using a gaseous sedative pumped through their base. She alone used a respirator and placed Pasc in the stasis chamber. Then she woke Etrec with an antidote and they spoke at length.
The killing sickness, she explained, always had a genetic component, passed through the male line. There was no cure that was not fatal. It involved making changes in the blood, and no Archanon could lose that much blood and survive. She reminded him than an Archanon’s blood was sacred and could not be spilled. It was part of his earliest teachings.
She explained what she had done, both to the base and to Pasc. She fixed him a meal. Told him stories. Held his hand as he became sleepy. She spoke of her wish that someday a cure would be found and Pasc could live again. His last memory was of her smoothing back his hair and telling him she would love him forever.
When he awoke he was among the Alphans. They were the descendents of the people his parents’ team was sent to study. He was still afraid of Pasc, but even more afraid of being abandoned by him.
These Alphans had been nothing like he remembered of their warlike ancestors. They were friendly—and lively in a way he couldn’t ever remember a grown-up Archanon being. He immediately felt a bond with the one called Alan and grew more and more terrified that Pasc might kill his new friend.
He shivered.
“The temperature drops quickly as the sun sets. Perhaps it is time for you to come in.”
Etrec swallowed a sigh. It always seemed time for him to do something around here. Morna took good care of him, taking seriously the task laid upon her by Pasc with his dying breath.
Etrec lived with her family in a wing of the large building set aside for families with children. Morna and her mate Trel had a son who was almost as old as Etrec. Tren was a year younger than Etrec but they were in the same class at school. Etrec found that he was behind his age mates in nearly every subject. He liked his classmates well enough but they all seemed a bit dull to him. None wanted to play and none were interested in the curious Earth game of football. One of the other boys even suggested that it was a ritualistic form of warfare.
“I’m coming,” Etrec stated dutifully, turning away from the view of the ocean.
He fell into step beside Morna.
“I spoke with your mathematics teacher today,” she said. “He wants to encourage you to learn more about our power systems. He thinks you are quite gifted in that regard.”
Etrec gave a small smile. He remembered a similar conversation with Pasc recently. No, it was a thousand years ago before the killing sickness hit. “Thank you,” Etrec responded to Morna. “It has always been an interest of mine.”
They walked toward the wing that housed their apartment.
“May I ask you something?” Etrec asked.
“Of course, Etrec. Anything.” Morna was kind and patient and sometimes she reminded him so much of Lira that it hurt.
He wondered how to begin. He had been thinking of this for some time now, and although it worried him, he had seen no evidence that it had occurred to anyone else at all. “Morna. I feel that I have a debt that I do not know how to repay.”
“A debt?” Morna frowned. “To Trel and myself for taking you in? I assure you Etrec, we accepted you freely into our family.”
Etrec stopped and looked at her. He had not thought of that. But did she really think so little of Lira that she would not have taught her son the way of clan and family? Without hesitation he took both of Morna’s hands in his and bent low over them, touching his forehead band to her knuckles. He straightened and looked into her eyes. She was tiny, like his mother had been. Lira had teased him, saying that soon she would be looking up at her son. “You are my adopted mother and Trel my adopted father. I will honor you always, care for you in your old age, and pass on the memory of your days to my children, your grandchildren. I owe you the debt of family, of child to parent. Your care, freely given has been freely received.”
Morna looked at him a moment, then smiled fondly. She reached to touch the curling dreadlocks of his hair, the time-honored style for young boys before their passage to manhood. She touched his cheek softly. “Etrec, you are truly every bit as much my son as my own birth-child.”
She glanced about. A few others walked the hallway, on their way to their private rooms after the day’s work. She took his hand and led him through a doorway to one of the many arboretums that lined the main corridors of the ancestral home. Each contained the flora from a world visited by their clan, collected and returned by Peacebringers.
A stone bench sat next to a still pool. Brilliant blue flowers floated on the surface of the water. A tree bent over the pond, its branches drooping almost into the water. “Tell me of this debt,” Morna said, settling herself on the bench, pulling her robes around her so that they did not trail into the water.
Etrec sat beside her, leaning over the pool. He reached down to pick up a pebble at his feet. He rolled it in his fingers, noting the pattern of red and green veins on its amber colored surface.
“It’s the Alphans. They found me, rescued me. They kept me safe from Pasc, even when it endangered their own lives. They found a way to cure me of the sickness and gave me back my life. They even triggered the mechanism that summoned you. I didn’t know such a thing existed. They allowed me to return … home.” Deep down, he still didn’t feel at home, but he knew it was expected of him. In some ways, he would have rather stayed on Alpha.
“We gave them nothing more than spoken thanks, and they asked nothing additional. Their actions were kind and honorable.”
“They were good people,” Morna agreed. “Although ignorant of our ways. They should have respected our beliefs regarding our blood.”
Etrec shook his head. He was young, but because of the circumstances of his childhood, he knew a bit about dealing with other races and cultures. “They did not understand. And I do not think I communicated the problem to them well. I was there when you told Dr. Russell that we cannot survive even a small loss of blood. Their people do not seem to have the same characteristics. She thought she was helping. And although she did ask over and over about giving her my blood, she never took it. I … gave it to her.”
Morna looked shocked. “Etrec? You gave her your blood? How could you?”
Etrec felt miserable. He knew that despite his mother’s teaching, he had not understood himself. “I think, that part of it was the killing sickness, effecting me. I had these… horrible urges. They frightened me—almost as much as Pasc frightened me. When Alan told me what Dr. Russell wanted, that she thought she could cure me and Pasc. I… cut myself. I bled for them.”
Morna barely hesitated. She took his hand in hers.
“When Pasc heard what I had done, he… also allowed Dr. Russell to take his blood.” Etrec felt tears run down his face. “I didn’t understand. I didn’t know it would cost his life to save mine. I heard him say… that it was the last privilege of the killing sickness to take his own life. Then you came.”
Morna put her arms around him and held him as he cried as if he were a small boy. “The Alphans,” he continued on, head on her shoulder. “They deserve our help. Even though they did not ask for it. They need it. Their base will not support them indefinitely. From what they told me, they manage to survive, but just barely.” He sat up and looked into Morna’s eyes. “Please, Morna. Can we not find a way to help them?”
Morna looked back at the boy she already thought of as her own. “We can try. You know it is not as if I can simply take a ship to them and give them their hearts’ desire.”
Etrec smiled and shook his head. “I know. But surely there is something… They’re nothing like the report Lira filed a thousand years ago.”
Morna nodded. “Give me a little time, Etrec. I’ll see what I can do.”
Etrec smiled and gently took his adopted mother’s hand. He was sure she would find a way.
The pool cue hit the triangle of ivory balls with a loud crack, scattering them across the table but sinking none. Alan Carter chuckled softly. “You’ve done it now, Bill.”
Bill Fraser shook his head and sighed. The two friends were evenly matched. They had played eight ball together for years, even before they left Earth. A ten pound note and a ten dollar AU note sat on the side of the table. The only thing money was good for any more was betting and the two pilots had long ago ‘levelized’ various currency to face value. Alan would run the table and take the money from this game.
“Call the shot,” Bill commanded.
Alan leaned over the table. “Fifteen in the corner.” It was a double bank shot, but one he had made before. Bill waited for the inevitable. Alan set up the shot carefully pulled back the cue and tapped the cue ball.
“Beep, beep.” His commlock buzzed for attention. The cue struck the ball too hard and although it hit the fifteen just right, the cue ball headed for the opposite corner with deadly accuracy.
Bill hooted as both balls dropped simultaneously into separate pockets. Alan groaned and straightened. He pulled his commlock from his belt and glanced at the tiny screen.
“Yeah?”
Sandra Benes face peered at him. “We have a contact. The Commander wants you in Command Center.”
“On my way.” He picked up the tenners and handed the Australian note to his friend, pocketing the ten pounds. “Rematch. Head to the ready room.”
Bill nodded. “Something interesting perhaps.”
Alan shrugged. “Who knows. Just get ready to launch in case we need you.”
“Will do.”
The two men went their separate ways at the door to the rec room, their game of pool forgotten.
The woman’s face on the big screen was familiar to Alan. John stood in front of his desk ending a polite conversation with her. Helena stood out of the picture and beside John’s desk. John was wearing his uniform, but Helena wore a green silk pantsuit. Alan figured they had been enjoying an evening together when summoned to Command Center. Alan stepped up beside Helena and they exchanged a brief look. Helena’s slight shrug was eloquent. She didn’t know why the Archanon ship had returned either.
“I look forward to meeting with you,” John said.
Morna nodded. As before, she looked lovely, regal and tranquil. The transmission ended.
John turned to Alan and Helena. “I’d like you two to be there. You met her before.” They nodded. He turned to Maya. “Maya, I’d like you there too.” He placed his hand on Tony’s shoulder. “Tony, you monitor things from here. Both the ship and our meeting.”
Tony nodded reluctantly, and with a glance at the others, John led them out of Command Center.
“Why did Morna come back, John?” Alan asked.
John shook his head. “All she would say was that she needs to speak with me regarding some unfinished business.”
“Perhaps there are other items from their base that she would like to have,” Maya suggested.
“We gave them everything we had that belonged to them,” Alan said. He would have liked to study some of their technology more, but they had turned over the communications unit to the Archanons along with everything else. He glanced at Helena, knowing she had wanted to know more about the stasis chamber than they had the chance to learn.
“They took everything,” Helena agreed. “Pasc’s body, the stasis chamber, and the communicator.”
The four Alphans boarded the travel tube. “We’ll find out shortly,” John said, folding his tall frame into one of the molded plastic chairs. Helena still frowned. John took her hand. “Don’t worry. I’m sure everything is all right.”
Helena looked down. “I still feel bad about the way things turned out. Pasc…”
Alan leaned forward. “Helena, it wasn’t your fault. We did everything we could.”
“The Archanon’s are not a hostile people, Helena. I do not think they would be holding a grudge.” Maya tried to assure her.
Alan watched Helena closely. Maya wasn’t from their world and she didn’t understand. On Earth, the most passive and peaceful of families might decide to bring on a malpractice suit for Helena’s actions. It was difficult to trust an alien’s power of forgiveness under those conditions.
The travel tube came to a halt and they exited at the landing pad. They waited for the ship to dock in the visitor’s waiting area. No one spoke.
When the air lock opened, John stepped up to the door, ready to greet their arrival. Alan gave a quick glance at the monitoring camera above his shoulder. Tony would keep an eye on them, but would be unable to do more than stop an advance if they proved hostile.
Peacebringers, these guys are peacebringers, Alan thought to himself, trying to convince himself that they were in no danger.
Morna stepped through the doorway and gave a slight bow to John. He introduced himself and Maya, and reacquainted her with Helena and Alan. Morna gave each of them a brief nod in greeting, but paused and stared at Alan for a beat longer than the others. John ushered her into the reception area and offered her a seat.
As with the last visit, Morna was all business. She showed little curiosity at her surroundings or the Alphans themselves. She explained her point. They had returned Etrec to his people. He was continuing his education and was adjusting well to the changes in his life. His medical tests showed no sign of the virus that had affected him and his father.
Alan felt a sense of relief. When he saw Morna he first had hoped that Etrec might be with her, and was glad to at least hear that he was doing well.
She told him that Etrec had been adopted into her family and had asked her to assist him. He felt that he owed a debt to the Alphans for giving him back to his home planet, for giving him back his life. He wanted to return the favor to the Alphans, but didn’t know what he could do for them. He did understand that their survival was problematical at best.
Morna had consulted the Archanon leaders. In the thousand years since Etrec’s birth and entombment, the Archanons had become more insular. Their reputation allowed them to live mostly apart in the galactic community, although Peacebringers were still sought out to mediate disputes when two parties sincerely wished to avoid violence or bloodshed. Archanons did not allow offworlders to live on their world for more than brief periods of time. It inevitably disturbed the peace and balance of their world.
John looked at the others with him. Alan knew he was working up to ask if the Archanons could take them home. Alan’s heart pounded, a surge of hope rushing through him that he hadn’t felt in ages.
Then Morna explained the decision of the Archanon leaders. “A life we thought was lost has been returned to us. You returned Etrec to us freely. We are grateful. We offer to sponsor one person. We will return with them to Archanon, see to it that they are trained to be able to support themselves in the galactic community of which we are a part. Once that person can contribute, we will sponsor that person’s settlement on a compatible world.”
The four Alphans sat, stunned as Morna explained the offer. One life. One person could go with them. While the Archanon’s acknowledged that the Alphan situation was precarious in the extreme, they were willing to rescue only one person of three hundred? Alan felt a slow burn where hope had been.
John spoke first. “Morna, we appreciate your offer. Did you have a specific person in mind?”
Morna shook her head. “That would be for you to decide. We will remain here for one day while you make the decision.”
John nodded and stood. Morna stood as well. She had obviously said all she came to say. She nodded and John escorted her back to the airlock. As the double doors closed behind her John turned to the others, leaned against the wall and sighed.
“One person?” Helena said, incredulous.
“When she practically admits she’s condemning the rest of us to death,” Alan growled.
John gave him a warning glance and then at the security cameras above him. Among themselves, the command staff was well aware of the various shortages and dangers. All agreed it was better that most of the Alphans be allowed the maximum amount of hope by knowing the minimum about just how dire the circumstances really were. Alan nodded, chagrinned. John pulled out his commlock and contacted Tony. “Tony, meet us in the command conference room.”
“Will do, John.”
In the relative privacy of the conference room, the five Alphans discussed the pros and cons of the offer. Helena pointed out that at least one Alphan would survive. Maya observed that the person chosen might be able to find a way to help the rest. Tony, like all good security officers, was a born pessimist. He pointed out everyone left behind would suffer a loss of morale. Alan asked if John would choose randomly as he had done with the Caldorans offered to take one person with them. John shook his head. That had ended badly. They all knew that.
Helena suggested that they send Jackie Crawford. The only child on Alpha was now five years old. Alan knew she worried that at best, given their continued survival on Alpha, they were condemning him to a life alone. More likely they were condemning him to a shared death of shortages and deprivations with the other Alphans. The rest of Alpha would most likely be more amenable to sending Jackie than anyone else. But it would likely kill his mother. She adored the child.
John rubbed his eyes. “We have a small amount of time. Let’s sleep on it and continue this discussion in the morning.”
The others agreed. Tony was the only one on duty. For the others it was late into their night. Maya’s sleep cycle was her own. She rested at odd intervals, but Alan knew than none of them would get much rest tonight.
Alan returned to his quarters and readied for bed. He even tried to sleep for a while, but sleep eluded him. He got out of bed and moved to his desk where he called up a view of the ship on landing pad 4. He was staring at the ship when his commpost announced a visitor. He wasn’t particularly surprised to see John’s face on the viewscreen. He picked up his commlock from the port on the desk and pointed it at the door.
John strode in. He still wore the white pants and padded jacket from a kendo bout in the rec area. There was a towel around his neck and he seemed to be bursting with energy. Alan remembered Tony Cellini teasing that John couldn’t handle a deep space mission because there wouldn’t be enough room for him to pace properly. “There are no gyms in deep space,” he would warn, then laugh heartily.
“You’ve got to be the one,” John said without preamble.
“Me? Why me?” Alan knew exactly what he was talking about.
John collapsed onto Alan’s sofa in the corner of the room. “Helena’s idea was noble, but it won’t work. I’m not even sure they would take proper care of Jackie. He would grow up all alone in an alien culture. It has to be someone who can find some way to come back for the rest of us.”
“Like I said, why me?” Alan asked. “Wouldn’t Maya be a better choice?”
John shook his head. “It’s not that I doubt she would do everything she could to get back to us, but I don’t think it would work. She does have a lot of knowledge that might help out there, but her background is so…”
“Sheltered?”
John grinned. “The Archanons aren’t the only people out there. Not all can be trusted. Plus, there are those Dorcons out there too.” John stood and began to pace again. “Tony wouldn’t be right either. He’s a terrific security officer, but would tend to be too distrustful. Plus he doesn’t have enough background in anything that might help him to help us.” John stopped and grinned at Alan. “A good pilot is useful in any society.”
“Yeah, but I don’t know a damn thing about any of their birds,” Alan protested.
John grinned and spread his hands. “How different can it be?”
Alan shook his head and smiled in return.
“Alan, it has to be someone on the Command Staff. Someone who knows how urgently we need to find some way off this rock. Eliminate Tony and Maya, that leaves you, me and Helena. I can’t go. How would it look for the Commander to jump ship at the first opportunity? And for … purely selfish reasons, I won’t let Helena go either.”
Alan smiled. Nor could he imagine Helena agreeing to leave; even if John suggested it. The two belonged together. No one would doubt that. So, by process of elimination, it had to be him. Not that he minded. He had no ties like John and Helena had, or Tony and Maya. Exploring space had always been his passion, and other than leaving behind the comforts of home more permanently than he’d ever wished, he liked being out here among the stars. But totally on his own among aliens? He just didn’t know.
What do you pack when you leave behind your last links to Earth? Things happened quickly after the decision was made and all thoughts of sleep were discarded. Alan’s possessions barely filled a duffel bag. He included an album of photos from home that his mother had sent to him, a few favorite books, a tiny model Eagle he had made, an old pair of jeans and a few other articles of clothing. He wondered what he would be wearing. How did aliens brush their teeth?
Helena consulted with Morna and packed a small medical kit for him, while Sandra and the data department transmitted information to the Archanon ship, including their log entries, Alpha’s current position in space, Alan’s health record, and a selection of music and videos for Alan. Morna handed him a small rod that could be accessed with any of their communications equipment containing all the data.
Alan also needed a translator. The microscopic computer was inserted into the bone at his temple. Archanons could not replace any blood lost for any reason, so it was designed to be inserted with no blood loss. Still, he was glad to have it done before he left Alpha, by Helena. There was no pain. In fact, he felt no difference at all. Morna assured him it would work perfectly whether he was trying to communicate with others who had their own implants or someone who had no idea what an implant was or whether he had it.
Goodbyes were short and quick. He spoke to Bill Fraser the longest, turning his duties over to his friend and copilot. He said goodbye to his staff, walking through Alpha’s hallways for the last time. John, Helena, Tony and Maya all saw him off. Then he stepped aboard an alien spaceship and was headed to a new world, and a new way of life.
With a joyous whoop, Alan felt his running feet lift off the ground and into the air. Suddenly he was suspended by the harness and the taut canvas wings above them. Below, the ground fell away and he caught that amazing updraft caused by the warm water below and the perfectly curved shape of the cliffs along here. He leaned to one side and turned the craft back toward land. He was already more than a hundred feet above the ground, and closer to three hundred feet above the water. Ahead rose the city, so massive it could cause it’s own updrafts as the relentless sea breeze pushed at the structure older than a millennia.
He had been on Archanon for nearly a hundred days. He was certain he would never get a grasp on Archanon society, and was not even sure he wanted to. The Archanons were so placid, ordered and self-contained. Of course, he knew that given their physiology, even the children must avoid the kind of rough and tumble life human children took for granted. And their philosophy matched their need to avoid violent confrontations.
That didn’t necessarily mean they were a boring people, or unfriendly on an individual basis. Their atmosphere was thicker than Earth’s, and staying aloft like this actually required less effort than on Earth. Alan reveled in the chance to fly—really fly—again.
When they landed at the spaceport, they made their way to a small but fast plane that would take them to Morna’s home. When Morna said that Etrec lived with her at their family home, Alan’s mental image was of a house in a neighborhood, some alien version of the suburbs. In reality, they lived in a huge and ancient edifice that was more like an entire city all inside one enormous building. They flew there from the spaceport that was equidistant to three of these ancestral dwellings. Morna informed the pilot of the small aircraft that Alan was a pilot and he was invited to sit in the co-pilot’s seat. The controls looked simple enough as they flew over a thousand kilometers to the coastal enclave that Morna called home. Mostly it was computer controlled.
The pilot, Pelx, was happy to answer questions about flying on Archanon. He had never been to other worlds, and had no wish to leave the planet; but he loved to fly. He not only flew the small fixed wing craft between the spaceport and his home city, but also had a hobby of flying gliders and manually controlled craft on his days off. It was Pelx who invited Alan to join him flying the gliders, and Pelx became one of Alan’s first friends on Archanon.
There was a piercing whistle from just below him. Pelx had also launched a glider and was gaining on him. Archanons also seemed to have lighter bones. Much lighter than humans, they took to flying as naturally as birds.
“Think you can land on the tower pad this time?” Pelx called.
The tower pad was designed for small short flight transportation that lifted vertically. It was the highest spot in the city and a challenge to reach from the ground. Alan looked up. It would take some careful husbanding of updrafts.
“I’ll wager dinner at the Terrace Gardens if you do,” Pelx challenged.
The Terrace Gardens was one of the more exotic places to eat within the city. The view of the cliffs was spectacular. Morna’s family had taken him to eat there once. He liked the food here, and everything there was fresh, well spiced and specially prepared. He eyed the tower, nearly a mile south of him and hundreds of feet above him. “I’ll take you up on that,” he called to his friend. He listened to the wind and began to circle the city, looking for just the right spot to ascend.
The city, which Morna explained did not have a name, it was simply home to those who lived there, was impressive. Fields and farmland surrounded it for hundreds of miles and there was a small harbor nearby with an active aquaculture area. Standing on the edge of a cliff, many of the family apartments and public areas had impressive views of the ocean or harbor. It stood nearly a hundred stories high and although it obviously covered a lot of space, it was made of glass and a light colored stone, which made it appear graceful and almost organic in nature. Everything was well manicured and organized.
The first few days here were spent in interviews with a procession of people that reminded him of high school guidance counselors. They were trying to get a grasp on what kind of training he would require to become a productive member of their society. Alan knew his people needed him to be more than that. He had to find a way to return for them.
One thing it was necessary for him to learn, no matter what profession, was to read, at least in the common language of their galactic federation if not in Archanon. His implant could help with that, but it was auditory in nature, not visual. He threw himself into his studies with devotion. He also began taking piloting lessons from Pelx.
The best thing to happen was to be reunited with Etrec; and Etrec seemed equally pleased. The boy had been raised by his parents on a long term exploration mission, and he was missing both his family and his old lifestyle, which had given him much more freedom than his new life. Etrec would visit him nearly every evening, coaching Alan in his studies or going with him and Pelx as they flew the tiny gliders launched from the cliff.
The glider dipped, caught another updraft and soared higher. He floated around another tower, over the top of it and caught the hot air from one of the air handlers that controlled the temperature inside the huge structure. More experienced, Pelx had already floated higher.
He drifted across a large expanse of glass ceilings for a greenhouse, then back over another air handler and shot up even higher. This time he was going to make it. Assuming he could land the bloody thing in the tiny space ahead of him.
Alan caught sight of a figure waving at him. It was Etrec. Alan dipped a wing in reply, then returned his concentration to the glider. If he didn’t stall it at just the correct time, he could end up flying right over the tower and either have to begin his ascent again, or land in the fields far below. He tilted back to brake, leaned a little to the left and then he was right over the pad. He pushed back harder, using the large single wing to stop his forward motion and dropped a few feet. Etrec dashed toward him to help him fold the wing before being blown off the roof.
“That was fantastic, Alan!” The boy cried as he caught the side of one wing and reach for the clasp that would collapse it.
“How did you know we’d end up here, cobber?”
“You’ve been talking about it for days now. I knew you could do it.”
Alan unfastened his harness and together they lifted the glider off the pad. Pelx landed lightly, and with more grace, just as they removed the other glider from his way.
“Beautiful flight!” Pelx exclaimed. “You’re a natural.”
“And you’re a terrific teacher,” Alan complimented him.
“Morna asked me to come find you,” Etrec said. “She needs to see you.”
“I’ll get the gliders stowed,” Pelx offered. “You two go on.”
Alan nodded. “Thanks, mate. Shall I co-pilot for you tomorrow?”
“I’ve got a flight scheduled to the spaceport,” Pelx said. “I’ll be glad of the company.”
With a wave, Alan and Etrec headed off at a fast pace. Morna was waiting in one of the galleries overlooking the water. She smiled at the two of them as they approached her.
“Morna? Etrec said you were looking for me.”
“He flew to the top of the tower pad!” Etrec explained to her. “It’s the highest he’s ever flown.”
Morna placed a fond hand on Etrec’s shoulder. “I saw the flight from here. Well done.”
As usual, Morna did not waste time. “Alan. Your preliminary studies are completed. We have found a job for you that will suit your skills.”
“That’s great!” Alan was more than used to hard work. He thrived on it.
“One of the freighters from the Transtar line is in need of a junior engineer. They are willing to take you on as an apprentice.”
“A space freighter?” The Archanons had told him that they did not have any commercial space-going vessels. He still hadn’t figured out their economy, which seemed only vaguely capitalistic.
“Yes. It’s a Tranchonian vessel. They stop here regularly.”
“Tranchon!” Etrec said. “Is Alan going to Tranchon?”
“I believe that’s the ship’s final destination.”
“But that’s such a long way away!” Etrec looked panic stricken.
“Etrec,” Morna said calmly and gently. “You knew he would not be here permanently.”
“Yes, but… so soon.”
Alan tried to cheer him up. “It won’t be so bad, cobber. Morna says these ships stop here regularly.”
“It won’t be the same!” Etrec practically moaned. He looked from one grown-up to the other mournfully. Then, before tears could flow, he dashed from the gallery.
Morna and Alan exchanged helpless looks.
“He will be fine,” Morna assured him.
“I know. Poor kid. Is Tranchon so very far away?”
“Distance is meaningless between star systems. However, travel time and number of hyperspace jumps can make certain places less accessible than others. Tranchon is a hub of commerce, but Archanon is, how would you put it? Away from the main paths?”
“’Off the beaten path’ is what you’re looking for,” Alan suggested.
“Just so,” Morna nodded agreement. “Although their ships do trade here, even Etrec knows that it is unlikely that a particular crewman will return frequently.”
“I’ll miss him.” Alan said simply. He squared his shoulders. There was more at stake than his personal wishes. “But I am indebted to you. This may be just what I need.”
“I thought it would suit you. You learn quickly, and this is the logical next step. I wish you well.”
“When do I leave?”
“I have already arranged for Pelx to fly you to the spaceport in the morning.”
And that quickly, Alan’s life was changing again.
“Ugly, scrawny little thing,” the chief engineer commented when Alan was introduced.
Alan looked up at the seven foot tall alien with three nostrils and said, “Well, my mother liked me well enough, so I couldn’t be too bad off. Do you remember your mother?”
Alan’s new boss glared down at him for a moment then gave a long low hoot, that Alan came to interpret as a laugh. He gave Alan a swat with his huge hand that nearly pushed him into a bulkhead. “I think you’ll do,” he said.
That quickly, Alan was given a duty roster and a course of study. There would be a lot to learn, but Alan was prepared for that.
The ship was huge. The aft area was a multi-level area including crew quarters, control room, galley and recreation. There was a commons room and each crewman had his own private room which was small but comfortable. There was even a gym on one level. Crew were expected to keep themselves fit on the long voyages. Potted plants were everywhere. They were natural air filters and a vital part of the environmental system. A hydroponics section provided more than half of the crew’s food as well as recycling both water and air.
Forward of the inhabited area was the framework for the freight. A quarter of a mile long, the frame held small containers, not unlike the sea containers used for shipping freight back on Earth, but each removable container was sealed airtight. Small space tugs were used to detach the containers at their destinations. The containers could then be delivered to either a space habitat or the surface. Other containers could then be brought up and attached in their place for the next planet or transferred to another freighter to be delivered at some other port of call. A central corridor extended along the framework for access to the forward engines and the space tugs docked near the engine section. The tugs could be used to move cargo on planets that did not have their own space facilities and their sturdy engines could also be used to assist in maneuvering the large freighter.
The freighters engines were powerful. Designed to bring the ship up to the speeds needed to take advantage of naturally occurring spacewarps that were used by most commercial ships.
Evidently, the Captain of Transtar’s Delight was desperate enough to take on a complete novice. There were probably few people willing and available at Archanon to accept an engineering position. Alan had a lot to learn, about shipping in general and the Transtar’s Delight in specific. Despite his abrupt manner, the chief engineer was a willing teacher with much knowledge to share. Alan soaked it up like a sponge.
There were two major methods of travel between the stars in the group of planets and civilizations that his translator called the Stellar Amalgamate. Both methods used spacewarps. Most commercial vessels such as the Transtar’s Delight used naturally occurring spacewarps, their engines constructed to attain the speeds needed to move correctly through the warps to reach charted destinations that were stored in their databanks. Other vessels, especially military or exploration ships, created their own warps. Their computers calculating just what sort of warp was needed, taking in to account speed and angle of entry and destination required. The engines required to create an artificial spacewarp were more powerful, and required greater amounts of fuel to move smaller amounts of mass. For that reason, freighters followed the naturally occurring established routes. Travel was slower, but much more cost effective.
This also had the added advantage of giving Alan plenty of time to study and learn. When they reached a planet, he would be flying the small space tugs. He used a simulation program to learn how to dock with the cargo containers, detach them, move them to the required location on a planet, deposit them, and return with filled containers. Although the tugs were larger and shaped differently, they reminded him very much of Eagles and he adapted quickly.
The crew was a diverse lot, coming from over a dozen different planets and a handful of different species. His immediate superior, Chief Engineer Granallanal Klin wasn’t the only person on board with three nostrils. Two of the hydroponics ratings were of the same species, but Klin informed him they were from a colony world. He called them the ‘farmboys’. The Chief Cook had an extra set of eyes that he used to keep an eye on every corner of his galley. After a workout in the gym one evening with the junior navigation officer, he found out that Cook didn’t need to close all four eyes to sleep and they were chased away from raiding for a snack by a knife-wielding Cook.
Officers and ratings together totaled thirty. The noncommissioned ratings had a separate mess, and their duties were primarily maintenance, hydroponics and housekeeping. Control room and engineering were manned by officers, with Alan one of the lowest in rank. Among the officers though, when off duty, the difference in rank was downplayed, and he frequently found himself playing cards with both the Captain and the Chief Engineer. Although the cards looked different, the game was similar to poker. He enjoyed listening to the others talk about their homes, their families, and the places they had been. He also learned more about their route. The Delight was halfway through a twelve planet run. This was a typical circuit which took a little over a year to complete.
On each planet they spend just a little over a week offloading and taking on cargo. Alan’s first tug journey was as uneventful as possible and Klin gave him a grudging compliment upon his return. They were each given two days shoreleave and Bils, the junior nav officer accompanied him. Both wanted some action and fresh air. There was a park on the edge of the city where the spaceport was located. It rented small craft like kayaks for use on a large lake. Alan and Bils rented two of the little craft and camping gear, stocked up on food, bought a map, and headed along the coast. They returned two days later sore from using muscles unaccustomed to paddling and sunburned, but in high spirits. They joined three other officers for dinner and drinks that night before returning to the ship.
Bils was the first person to whom Alan confided how he had ended up aboard ship. While they camped Alan described his home on Earth, how he happened to leave it and how he came to Archanon. Bils, latest of a long line of space freighter crew found the story fascinating and romantic. He thought it was as good a story as many of the entertainment rods found in the ship’s library. Alan wondered if he could write it up somehow, sell it and find a way to return to Alpha for his friends.
The other Alphans were never far from his thoughts. When he began to immerse himself in study aboard ship, he had opened the data rod from Alpha, wanting to compare his new knowledge of space travel with Alpha’s archives. He found a file marked personal and opened it to find messages from nearly everyone on Alpha. Sandra and Helena had collected messages from everyone and included it on the rod for him to find after he left Alpha. It was obvious that despite the official line on Alpha that everything was stable, nearly everyone knew that it was only a matter of time before something important failed, or an unrecoverable glitch occurred. The Alphans faced death on a minute-by-minute basis. The messages left Alan with a wave of homesickness and a new determination to return for them somehow.
He was learning more about the ship every day, and he enjoyed his work. His main job was to keep the two tugs in top shape and he worked them over with relish. He also stood duty in the main engine room, which was computer controlled and routine. He observed during the jumps while Klin and the second engineer carefully coaxed the exact amount of power needed for a jump from the powerful engines. Most of the rest of the time, duty shifts were merely a waiting game.
Once Bils knew about his background, it didn’t take the others long to hear about it. Alan hadn’t been keeping it a secret. He had simply been more interested in hearing about the others, the places they were from and the places they had visited. His shipmates saw it differently, and he found himself talking about Earth in general, Australia in particular, and especially Alpha and how much he wanted to help the other Alphans.
The third planet they came to reminded Alan of Ultima Thule. Its sun was a cold one and the planet received little warmth from it. A small mining colony clung to the surface under continually cloudy skies. No space dock here, Alan landed the tug with its cargo compartment in a driving snowstorm. Five of the large compartments were bound for this lonesome outpost. Alan flew two of the compartments down with Bils as his co-pilot. The other tug, flown by Klin landed the other three compartments. On Alan’s third run, he carried half the crew compliment down for R&R. This time Captain Mbarnar was his co-pilot.
As they finished the post flight checklist the Captain invited Alan to join him for dinner, saying there was someone here that Alan should meet. Intrigued, and with nothing else to do Alan donned one of the parka’s they had brought along and followed the captain into the snow.
There was only a short walk to the dome that covered the small village. A force shield crackled as they walked through an arch and out of the snow. Alan looked up. The shield sparkled like the Bergman force field they occasionally used to protect Alpha. The temperature was still lower than Alan felt comfortable in, but it was no longer blowing or snowing. He could see the snow through the shimmering field.
Stone and concrete buildings were arranged around a small green field. They walked past an area where heavy machinery was parked then there was a small orchard of carefully tended fruit trees and a long building that was three stories tall and seemed to have porches and balconies. It had to be apartments for the people living here. Everything seemed clean and neat. A group of children were playing with a ball at one end of the center field. Their laughter and happy shouts carried across the field.
A larger stone building which appeared older than the others, had a wide front porch. Large windows showed a number of tables, some with people sitting around them. It was either a restaurant or a communal dining hall. Alan didn’t know enough about the place to know which. They moved on to another house with another deep porch and curtains on the window. Captain Mbarnar strode purposefully up the walk and knocked on the door.
A thump and a bump preceded the opening of the door and two small boys crowed with delight as they swung the heavy door wide. “Uncle Shakar!” They cried and threw themselves at the captain.
“You two can’t possibly be my nephews!” their uncle exclaimed. “Why you’re a foot taller.”
“We grew,” the smallest one insisted.
“You haven’t been to Dracara in ages!” admonished the larger one.
The children led them into a large room with woven carpets in dark reds and browns. The furniture was large and comfortable looking. A low table held some kind of board game that the children were playing with small colorful pieces.
A tall slender woman with facial features similar to the captain entered the room and smiled. She came forward, holding out her hands and the captain took them, pressing them to his forehead. Alan wondered if he were supposed to do the same thing.
Captain Mbarnar turned and introduced his sister Kari to Alan. Alan was spared the awkwardness of trying to figure out how to greet her as she simply nodded and smiled in welcome and ushered them toward the living room. The family was warmly welcoming and their home was comfortable. Kari’s husband Garin joined them shortly. He was the leader of this colony which was less than a dozen years old.
Dinner was delicious. There was a large roast in gravy and several different fresh vegetables. The vegetables were grown in their greenhouses and the roast was from a wild native ox. Kari did not allow shop talk at the dinner table, although Garin tried to talk about what had been received in the shipment they had brought and what they would be shipping out. Captain Mbarnar turned to Alan and urged him to tell his story. Alan talked about Earth and Alpha. He had an eager audience. The little boys were fascinated with stories of space monsters and a drifting moonbase. .Kari listened with concern and compassion. Garin looked thoughtful.
After dinner, Kari herded the boys upstairs for bath and bed while the men returned to the comfortable living room.
“That’s quite a story you have, Alan,” Gavin said.
“I hope I didn’t bore you with the details,” Alan replied with a grin.
The captain and Garin exchanged looks.
“I think Shakar had a reason for asking you to tell it. It almost violated Kari’s rule about talking business at the table,” Garin said.
Alan could only look puzzled, not understanding.
“We’re a new colony, on a world that has its own adversities. Oh, not as hard as your moonbase. And we do have several months of the year where the force shield is not needed to keep out the weather. It’s a good place to live. But we need more people. People who would not mind hard work and who are willing to help with both the mining and the harvesting. Colonizing a new world isn’t for everyone. It’s isolated, and there aren’t many luxuries. But it does have its rewards.”
Alan looked from one man to the other, and at Kari who had just joined them. “You mean you would have room for the Alphans here?”
“We would welcome new faces,” Kari said with a smile.
“I have no doubt that the community would benefit by having your Alphans join us here,” Gavin said.
Alan grinned. “That would be… fantastic!”
“You would still have to get them here,” Captain Mbarnar warned. “But I think I have an idea for that as well.”
Kari smiled. “Bricca.”
“You think she would help?” the captain asked his sister.
“I do, indeed.” She turned to Alan to explain. “Our sister is head of our family. She controls the Transtar shipping line.”
“Not that it ever gets us a family discount,” Gavin growled.
“Gavin, that’s business,” Captain Mbarnar laughed. “But I have an idea I think she’ll agree to if you are willing to sponsor these Alphans.”
“As you knew I would,” Gavin replied.
Captain Mbarnar shrugged. “I thought you might.” He turned to Alan. “You’re too talented to be wasted in a junior engineering position. And you learn fast. Between myself and Klin, we can have you ready to take the Ship Master’s exam by the time we end our run. Pass that, and you’ll be eligible to master your own ship. A good ship master can usually work a deal to choose his own crew. With my recommendation, you should be able to contract with Transtar, and recruit at least half your crew from your own people. You’ll need some experienced people to show them the ropes and help you get there. If Gavin is willing to sponsor them as colonists, he can pledge mining profits against their passage price.”
Alan looked at the three smiling faces. “You would be willing to do this?”
“I’ll send a message to Bricca myself,” Kari promised. “Although she doesn’t offer a family discount,” she said with a smile over what was obviously an old dispute that had become a running family joke. “She is a bit more willing to allow us to pledge future profits with us than others.”
Gavin added. “We would welcome your people. I’ll send along the necessary requests and documentation for Bricca.”
Alan felt a wave of relief wash over him. Finally something concrete to help his people. This planet might not be a paradise, but it was better than Alpha. They would have the support of a community and the backing of a galactic civilization. It would take some time to get everything in order, but he knew it was going to work out.
“Two planets!” Koenig said with frustration. “Two planets at once, and we can’t settle either of them.” He shook his head.
Helena was pushing her food from one side of the plate to the other. She glanced up at him and smiled with sympathy. “We were lucky that manufactured plague on the one world attacked only specific neurotransmitters, and not the ones we use. Or you’d be dead.”
They were still coming to grips with his close brush with death. He had landed on the first planet where everyone was dead, then after leaving there they had crash-landed on the second planet which was inhabited only by the inmates and guards of a penal colony. The warden was insane and determined to hang on to her power over her people, despite the devastation on their home world. She also took a fancy to John and tried to keep him there as well, telling the Alphans he was dead. Helena couldn’t fault her taste, but was immensely relieved when John was able to escape back to the first world and send a signal letting them know he was alive.
He reached across the table and took her hand and brought it to his lips. She smiled and caressed his cheek. Dining alone in her quarters, they didn’t need to watch what they said around the others. “Sometimes I think we’ll never get off of this rock.”
“There will be other worlds,” she said.
“And there’s always something wrong with it, or somebody living there, or not enough of something we need to survive, or the atmosphere is off…”
She reached across the table and silenced him by putting her finger against his lips. “Didn’t Kano once figure that we would encounter thousands of worlds?”
He smiled. “About three thousand Earth type planets. But, he also calculated that it would take us twenty-five hundred years to reach all of them.”
Helena propped her elbow on the table and rested her chin on her palm. She looked at him for a long moment and John had to smile, enjoying looking into her beautiful eyes. “I’m just glad you survived that last one. I don’t want to spend the next twenty-five centuries looking for inhabitable planets without you.”
John grinned at her, but had made no reply when his commlock beeped. Both looked at the offending device with a stifled sigh. John gave an unspoken apology and Helena replied with a slight shrug. Just as often, the call interrupting a quiet moment together was for her instead of him.
He picked up the commlock and opened the channel, trying to hide his annoyance, but having less success than Helena usually did. “Koenig.”
“Commander, we have a contact.” Sandra Benes reported calmly. “There is a very large spaceship just coming into range.”
“Transmit a greeting to it. Let them know we see them and are non-hostile.”
Sandra nodded. “Complying,” she said efficiently, her eyes down at her console. “We’re being hailed,” she said, calmly. She looked up in surprise. “Commander, they’re calling us by name.”
“Picked up from our transmission?”
“No, sir. Their Shipmaster is requesting you by name.”
John exchanged a look with Helena. “I’m in Dr. Russell’s quarters. Patch it through to her desk.”
“Yes sir.”
John moved to the desk. Helena followed and stood behind and to the side of him so she wasn’t in the pickup.
The screen changed from the standard Moonbase symbol, to a snowy transmission. It flicked out, then cleared up. Someone stepped into the pickup. The uniform was dark with a high collar and light colored piping. He removed a dark hat with a shape like a baseball cap. Then he grinned and John and Helena recognized him.
“Alan!”
“John! It’s good to see you again. Permission to approach and land a small skiff?”
“Permission granted! This is your ship?”
“I’m Shipmaster. I’m employed by the freight line that owns it. The Transstar’s Hope doesn’t land, itself. But we have several small tugs. They should land easily on one of the launch pads.”
“Excellent. We’ll clear pad four for you. What’s your ETA?”
“I should be down in about… nine hours. What time will that be for you?”
“About 5 a.m. our time.”
“I can wait, then. Let you get a full night’s sleep.”
“We’ll be up. See you then.”
Alan nodded and the transmission cut off.
Helena and John exchanged smiles and Helena put her hand on John’s shoulder. “He’s back! That’s got to be good news.”
“We’ll know first thing in the morning. I’ll go to Command Center and make sure everything is ready.”
Helena nodded. Both knew they would be too excited to get any sleep. So would the rest of Alpha when they found out Alan had returned.
Early the next morning, Helena and John were waiting by the travel tube to landing pad 4. They watched Alan land the small craft with his usual flare. No one doubted who was at the controls. He was greeted with shouts and hugs all around, then John ushered them all to a nearby conference room. There would be a welcoming party in the rec rom at noon, until then, John wanted the command staff to hear about Alan’s adventures and about that ship in orbit above them.
Alan gave a brief sketch of his time on Archanon, and then aboard the Transstar’s Delight. He explained in detail about the colony world, and handed over a small wand that contained information about Dracara colony, as well as a personal invitation from Gavin as the colony’s leader. He showed John how to access the information, pressing a stud on the wand so that it projected the information on the nearest flat surface, or if needed, simulated its own flat surface. Using the wall of the conference room, John projected the information so all could see and study it. Alan pointed out the pertinent information and the terms of the agreement.
“From what I can tell, it’s common for colony worlds to ask for a commitment of a minimum amount of time from anyone it recruits. They hope for permanent settlers, and while they acknowledge that doesn’t always work out, it is an investment to bring new people in.”
“It sounds almost like indentured servitude to me,” Tony said with a frown. “To promise to remain there for five years…”
“But, at the end of that five years, you can book passage and leave, take with you any accumulated possessions or wealth, even a portion of the colony’s profits.”
“Assuming there is a profit,” Tony countered.
“It is a new colony. But the minerals they’re mining are needed by the Stellar Amalgamate. The people seem nice. There’s not more than about five hundred, there including kids.”
“Children?” Helena asked, obviously trying to keep the wistful sound out of her voice.
Alan nodded. “Yes, it’s not just a business. They really intend to make the world a home. It’s not the garden spot of the galaxy, but it could be worse. And, once you’ve stayed the agreed upon time, you can leave if you want. Ships make regular calls there, and you would be considered a citizen of the Amalgamate.”
Tony shrugged. “I guess I’ve just never considered myself much of a miner.”
“There are other positions available on Dracara. And I also have about fifteen slots to fill aboard the Hope.”
Helena looked at the others at the table. “Alan’s ship is aptly named. It’s brought us more hope than we’ve had in a long time.”
John put his hand over Helena’s on the table. “Helena is right. It may not be the future we had hoped for, but it keeps us alive.”
“It gives us much more of a support system than we could have dreamed of. A planet where we could start over, just ourselves, could just as easily mean sudden death for us all,” Helena said. “This way, we’re going to an established colony where they already know a lot about the world they’re living on, but it’s not such a huge population that we would immediately lose our own culture and heritage.”
Alan nodded. “John. I think this is the best I can do. And I have other obligations. If you turn this down, I may not be able to return, or offer anything better.”
John clapped Alan on the shoulder. “I think you’ve done a bang-up job, Alan. But this isn’t a decision I can make unilaterally. It’s too big.”
Alan nodded.
“How long do we have to decide?”
“Not long, I’m afraid. Alpha is rather remote, so I’m already a bit behind. Operation Exodus itself takes nearly three days. I can give you a week. We’d need to leave by then. And I had hoped to recruit a few of you for ship’s crew.” He looked around the table. “I won’t talk about that to anyone else until the decision has been made. But my people on the Hope won’t want to run half staffed back to Dracara and beyond.”
“We’ve planned a welcome home party for you,” John explained. “You can start it off by describing Dracara’s offer. We’ll let everyone have a chance to look over the data and ask questions and then take a vote on it tomorrow.”
Alan nodded and solemnly took John’s hand and shook it. As they headed to the rec room, Helena walked beside Alan and took his arm. “I already know how I’m going to vote,” she said quietly. “Do they need doctors on Dracara?”
Alan landed Transtar Hope’s second tug. For a change Dracara’s sky was a clear crystal blue and the sparkling cover of snow was almost blinding. This was the Hope’s fifth visit to the mining colony. The minerals were always a profitable cargo. There was a welcoming committee waiting for him. Helena and John were bundled against the cold in matching parkas of dark green. On a small sled behind them, two children, bundled round against the cold, jumped up and down with excitement.
After hugs all around, they walked through the snow to the dome.
“Tony and Maya were here with the last ship,” Helena said, catching Alan up on the whereabouts of old friends.
“We’re seldom in the same port at the same time,” Alan said. “We caught up with each other about a year ago, just after I was here. How does he like being shipmaster?”
“He loves it,” John said. “He keeps asking why I don’t apply.”
“And what did you say?” Alan asked. “Your contract is up this month.” They walked through the force field and the two children jumped off the sled. There was no snow inside the dome. “Will I have many applications for passage?”
“Only a few,” John answered the second question first. The boy Adam, a four year old ran ahead to join a game of football in the commons area, calling to friends. The little girl, two-year-old Erica held up her arms for her father to carry her. Alan took the sled so that John could hold Erica. “Most of us feel quite at home here. There are about a dozen who have been looking for something different. Several have already lined up another position.”
“How about you two?” Alan pressed the issue.
“We’ve traveled enough for a while,” Helena said. “I still don’t think a space ship is a place to raise children.”
Alan shrugged. “You have plenty of free time to spend with them. I hope to do it myself someday.”
“Children need fresh air and plenty of room to play without death waiting just the other side of an airlock,” Helena insisted, looking over at the children on the field.
John laughed. “You’ll never convince her, you know.”
Alan nodded. It was an old argument.
“We’re content, Alan. Dracara is a good place to live, to put down roots.”
Alan could see that there were more buildings here than the last time. He knew the settlement was prospering and he was happy for his friends. For the Alphans, the journey had come to an end.
The roar of the next skiff could be heard behind them. Alan smiled. His ship was in orbit and he loved traveling among the stars. That was his home now. Although his own journeys might be over, he was glad their search to find a home was complete.