At long last, the Pacific Foundries sprung to life and the first ship in three long centuries emerged from beneath the waves. It's glistening white hull inlaid with black lines and the name of the Amaya emblazoned in bold lettering.
It was the fastest ship ever built and rivaled the size of the Grand Traveler. Captain Edward Nathans of Ganymede was selected by lottery among the Proto-Artesians and he took command with a crew of a thousand mariners. Their maiden flight to Alpha Centauri was uneventful and they were cheered and greeted by the Charon and Meteor.
The Amaya assumed the role of transiting the increasing frequency of ore shipments as new ships were being built to replenish the fleet. For the first time in centuries, old ships were retired and scrapped not for lack usefulness, but of the ready quantity of newer, better ships.
Gregor kept the Grand Traveler and turned down the second ship the Perry. That went to Mars and every other ship was handed to either a Proto-Artesian or Neo-Artesian leaning Captain until the first hundred ships were evenly distributed.
Liberty Station had finally delivered on its promises and were richly rewarded for heralding a new golden age for mankind as a dozen of the new vessels began charting paths to new star systems and planets. Future generations will look down on us and feel appalled at our squalor conditions on cramp and aging space stations compared to the luxury and abundance of whole new planets lush with green plants and blue oceans. The rush to colonize new planets caused surging vacancies across the inner and outer rims with hundreds of millions signing onboard for the next jump to stars as hundreds and thousands of light years from Earth.
We followed star charts that were gleaned by the Proto-Artesians from the mechanical brain and identified at least a thousand habitable worlds once home to the Alpha Centauri and we laid claim on all of them. The value of the knowledge gleaned from that dead alien brain could not be understated and coupled with the new star ships we had all that we needed to forge our own Empire.
I was granted special audience with the researchers who had been studying the alien brain and visited their research installation on Despina. They were led by Doctor Peter Hsiang, a Martian Neo-Artesian who surprisingly led the Proto-Artesian team. His obsession with the mechanical brain led him to Despina and he had been successful in building an interface to communicate in a primitive way to extract valuable knowledge and information. They were able to map some of the complex brain waves and could interpret its thoughts and believed the it could still dream.
Doctor Hsiang was most interested in meeting me as he heard of my dream travels and after examining me found it remarkable that we had many similar brain wave patterns and even more startling we both once had a similar tumor. The alien brain's tumor was long since exhumed eons ago when it was first severed from its body.
I placed my hand on the thick clear glass and was startled that I could sense it and felt its general unhappiness. The Doctor showed me how to use the interface and the brain recognized me as someone who had also traveled through dreams and eagerly wanted to converse with me. It felt trapped and wanted to be allowed to pass on than persist as some macabre science experiment.
There was little more of value it could share or know as it was a low ranking member of its race. He described his past life as akin to a maintenance technician. He agreed to share what else it could in hopes of earning its freedom to travel once more and it wanted to share a secret with me alone, asking the Doctor and its team to leave the room and not hear what it was about to tell me.
Peter hesitantly agreed and promised we would be alone and no one would listen to what it was about to say. For added security, the brain showed me how to converse directly with telepathy and we practiced for several minutes until I felt a rush and sense of clarity. His thoughts were so clear and I could hear everything he was saying at an incredible pace. He must have spoken a million words in a fraction of a second as he quickly brought me up to speed on all the particulars of dream travel, including its obvious risks and dangers as I had already become aware of.
He then asked me to stretch out my arms and dip down. He warned it would be frightening and excruciatingly painful, but something I had to experience eventually. It will leave scars both visible and seared into my being. I agreed without hesitation and we both jumped to another world, not too far from our own and he pointed out a tiny speck of light as our Sun on the horizon. Then in a dark hole that appeared he had me dip deep down and I reached in and felt the squirming brain worms.
I could feel it crawling and its touch burned my skin, it was awful. He made me grasp it and then we quickly jumped back to Despina and I could see the horrible thing flailing about. It let out a piercing shriek as it began to disintegrate and dissolve into a burning ooze. It had wrapped its tentacle body around both my arms and as it hissed into nothing I could see my skin scarred with purple and black contusions that were raw and bleeding. I could feel the thing, the worm that pierced to the bone and I collapsed screaming in pain as the Doctor and its team came rushing in, they could see the smoke and for a moment the silhouette of the brain worm.
Then I heard a laugh and a cackle, this was a cruel stunt, a joke. The Doctor's assistant helped me to the infirmary as the Doctor frantically pressed on the interface and all it got was the same reply that the brain wished us doom.
Tuesday, July 7, 2020
Chapter 63 - Transcendance
I didn't tell anyone, but my time on iG's home world had given me the ability to travel to other parts of the galaxy. While it always felt like a hazy dream, I knew it was my mere consciousness had been untethered and while my physical body slept, I could freely travel on the limitless void. I soon became adept at pressing on the strings to send me wherever I so pleased and could visit a thousand worlds in a single night.
And by some unknown method, time slowed down and I spend what seemed more like days on each of those new worlds. With each of my trips, I felt greater confidence and noticed my dream form resembled the colorless bodies of iG and the other Alpha Centauri. On all the worlds I traveled to, there was little trace of their existence, with only a few still harboring crumbling ruins and for reasons equally unclear, I could not find my way back to iG's home world.
I yearned to reach out to another, but felt it selfish to awaken them who would quickly succumb to the disease. I did not need to wait long as it seems eventually, they each reach the terminal point and decide to awaken on their own to briefly see this world once more.
She reached out her hand, nervously and was startled when I grasped onto her. She must have not expected a traveler on this now lonely highway and she was happy to spend time with someone. We walked for a while on some lush garden world she remembers fondly and still remained as she once experienced in her youth.
She shared somehow with her thoughts or memories how she was still only a child, but on a magnitude and scale beyond our comprehension. She showed how she could completely transform everything around her, disassembling entire mountains into its individual atoms and reverting it back as it was. She let them dance in a spiral vortex and crushed them into the size of a tiny speck of sand that carried its entire weight, placing it in the palm of my hand and she let me unfurl that speck back as if painting a landscape and brush with my fingertips each mountain top.
And as the sun was setting, she felt fear and huddled near me. She yearned for her mother who she knew was long dead. The pull of an eternal slumber nagged at her brain as she felt the crawling things slowly unraveling her existence. I tearfully held her like my own child and lay her gently on her side. She was happy to not have to die alone and closed her eyes.
I violently snapped out of this dream and felt a terrible throbbing pain. Blood was dripping from my nose and had drenched my bed sheets. I tried to sit up and staggered out of bed, falling and fell unconscious.
I came to in the infirmary with Pei holding my hand. She said I had been in a coma for 5 days and Kallos found me in my room after I failed to show up the next morning. The doctors found a small tumor on the left side of my brain and while it was not malignant had grown to a size that it was causing increased pressure and the source of my painful headaches. They had reduced the swelling by cutting a hole in my skull and instinctively I gingerly raised my fingers and felt a round tube suctioning blood.
I told her of my many dream adventures and my most recent encounter with a young Alpha Centauri girl. Pei told me to rest and said I should stop with the dreaming and believed the tumor in my brain was likely the result of me spending too much time in that toxic void and these brain worms may have found a way to infect humans.
Pei was probably right and something so wonderful usually had a costly price. We were not meant to travel so freely and experience many lifetimes, our feeble brains could not handle such an experience compressed into a single night. I was more cautious and for a time avoided dreaming, but the temptation was hard to resist and I promised myself I would only heed the call if another of our ancestors was taking its last stroll.
And by some unknown method, time slowed down and I spend what seemed more like days on each of those new worlds. With each of my trips, I felt greater confidence and noticed my dream form resembled the colorless bodies of iG and the other Alpha Centauri. On all the worlds I traveled to, there was little trace of their existence, with only a few still harboring crumbling ruins and for reasons equally unclear, I could not find my way back to iG's home world.
I yearned to reach out to another, but felt it selfish to awaken them who would quickly succumb to the disease. I did not need to wait long as it seems eventually, they each reach the terminal point and decide to awaken on their own to briefly see this world once more.
She reached out her hand, nervously and was startled when I grasped onto her. She must have not expected a traveler on this now lonely highway and she was happy to spend time with someone. We walked for a while on some lush garden world she remembers fondly and still remained as she once experienced in her youth.
She shared somehow with her thoughts or memories how she was still only a child, but on a magnitude and scale beyond our comprehension. She showed how she could completely transform everything around her, disassembling entire mountains into its individual atoms and reverting it back as it was. She let them dance in a spiral vortex and crushed them into the size of a tiny speck of sand that carried its entire weight, placing it in the palm of my hand and she let me unfurl that speck back as if painting a landscape and brush with my fingertips each mountain top.
And as the sun was setting, she felt fear and huddled near me. She yearned for her mother who she knew was long dead. The pull of an eternal slumber nagged at her brain as she felt the crawling things slowly unraveling her existence. I tearfully held her like my own child and lay her gently on her side. She was happy to not have to die alone and closed her eyes.
I violently snapped out of this dream and felt a terrible throbbing pain. Blood was dripping from my nose and had drenched my bed sheets. I tried to sit up and staggered out of bed, falling and fell unconscious.
I came to in the infirmary with Pei holding my hand. She said I had been in a coma for 5 days and Kallos found me in my room after I failed to show up the next morning. The doctors found a small tumor on the left side of my brain and while it was not malignant had grown to a size that it was causing increased pressure and the source of my painful headaches. They had reduced the swelling by cutting a hole in my skull and instinctively I gingerly raised my fingers and felt a round tube suctioning blood.
I told her of my many dream adventures and my most recent encounter with a young Alpha Centauri girl. Pei told me to rest and said I should stop with the dreaming and believed the tumor in my brain was likely the result of me spending too much time in that toxic void and these brain worms may have found a way to infect humans.
Pei was probably right and something so wonderful usually had a costly price. We were not meant to travel so freely and experience many lifetimes, our feeble brains could not handle such an experience compressed into a single night. I was more cautious and for a time avoided dreaming, but the temptation was hard to resist and I promised myself I would only heed the call if another of our ancestors was taking its last stroll.
Chapter 62 - Revival
Zhao-Yi was soon 3 and Pei visited Kallos and I while the Grand Traveler was docked at Ganymede Station. Enya showed us around and we settled in a famous restaurant while Kallos spent time with his daughter. She was the epitome of a sister marine and wore her ocean blue uniform proudly. Everything was neatly pressed and perfectly aligned. Mine was a bit loose and she quickly tightened my belt and several suit buckles to bring me into regulation.
We marveled at how we were spending more time together as real sisters than we had in our younger days. Our gap in age prevented us from being in the same primary schools or group of friends and he was always tagging along with her male friend Mira. Mira was now married with a child and still living on Io Station. They write to each other on occasion, but have lost touch somehow after he became a family man.
As there were an abundance of daughters of Olivia there was no pressure on us to marry or have offspring. Sophia joked that we would be spared that responsibility, although the significance of Ninya's bloodline was not be dismissed and eventually one of us would be sanctioned. In her strict obedience and skill they were more obliged for Enya to have a child.
It was something she dreaded as she had no interest in men. And while she tried her best to find something, anything, she preferred the solitude of her books and training. It gave her great pleasure and peace when she lost herself in her studies. All the while knowing this made her even more desirable. She envied me and also when it seemed all but certain it would be and Kallos sharing a child, I was spared yet again.
He is miserable, she observed. The moment she was born, Pei showed her true intentions and she only spends time and visits for their daughter's sake. But it serves him right for being fooled and he has no one else to blame.
I disagreed with her assessment and felt while it was not the kind of life Kallos would have wanted, Pei has never deceived him. He accepted this would be the result of sharing a life with a sister marine and while he may have underestimated what he is experiencing now, he does not regret his decision and loves Zhao-Yi.
Enya smiled and in hushed whispers said it was rumored that Anna Three, before she died had confirmed with Sophia that she had adopted Pei and by tradition the bloodline of Anna continues with Pei and now Zhao-Yi. If they so choose Zhao-Yi could have a child and if it was a girl she could take the name of Anna Four. That would be to the delight of madam Naoka to realize her dreams of a dynasty would merge the strongest of bonds between the Knut and the founder of the sisters.
Surprising how things come to turn and yet many wonder if this is only a false rise and elevation before her downfall. The sisters are known for such cruel mischief and it would be Naoka found wanting if Zhao-Yi proved to carry no great bloodlines.
But they tested and confirmed both Kallos, his father and little Zhao-Yi were in fact of the blood of Karl Knutmudsen by his sister Greta and the Siph Gleiss clan. Naoka would not make such a simple mistake, nor Pei. They were all but certain of this.
We both laughed as she was peddling in the false rumor again of the unknown teacher and by our lineage the true creator of the Artesians. If it were so, then Ninya's daughter Maria was already the child that the sisters had yearned for and she died an ignominious death on Alpha Centauri three centuries ago by her own grandmother. But if it were true, then madam Naoka would have the pair of us on the top of her list.
I felt the soft touch of a small hand on my leg and peered down to see the little freckled girl Zhao-Yi. She was dressed in a simple red dress and had taken liberty to sit on the bench next to me. She was not afraid and would often do this with strangers. Pei and Kallos joined us for the remainder of our meal and we had barely touched our food. They had great news and Pei decided to return to the Grand Traveler with Zhao-Yi as she found she was doing well with his constant presence.
Enya and I passed glances as we knew it was more Kallos complaining of her long absences and Pei acquiesced as soon she would have to leave their daughter in charge of other teachers. Her mother had no pressing agendas and she was free to take any assignment and post as all focus was on Alpha Centauri and the impending firing up of the Pacific Ocean foundries. Initial tests of some small material have proven successful and the mysterious robots beneath the waves were yearning for more, much more raw ore to begin building anew.
Delays on the mining that was meant to have yielded a new ship was behind schedule at least two years and growing discontent both between the elite and the Liberty miners were nearing crisis. The Grand Traveler was meant to travel with a small delegation to appease everyone and encourage continued extraction of the mineral ore.
We marveled at how we were spending more time together as real sisters than we had in our younger days. Our gap in age prevented us from being in the same primary schools or group of friends and he was always tagging along with her male friend Mira. Mira was now married with a child and still living on Io Station. They write to each other on occasion, but have lost touch somehow after he became a family man.
As there were an abundance of daughters of Olivia there was no pressure on us to marry or have offspring. Sophia joked that we would be spared that responsibility, although the significance of Ninya's bloodline was not be dismissed and eventually one of us would be sanctioned. In her strict obedience and skill they were more obliged for Enya to have a child.
It was something she dreaded as she had no interest in men. And while she tried her best to find something, anything, she preferred the solitude of her books and training. It gave her great pleasure and peace when she lost herself in her studies. All the while knowing this made her even more desirable. She envied me and also when it seemed all but certain it would be and Kallos sharing a child, I was spared yet again.
He is miserable, she observed. The moment she was born, Pei showed her true intentions and she only spends time and visits for their daughter's sake. But it serves him right for being fooled and he has no one else to blame.
I disagreed with her assessment and felt while it was not the kind of life Kallos would have wanted, Pei has never deceived him. He accepted this would be the result of sharing a life with a sister marine and while he may have underestimated what he is experiencing now, he does not regret his decision and loves Zhao-Yi.
Enya smiled and in hushed whispers said it was rumored that Anna Three, before she died had confirmed with Sophia that she had adopted Pei and by tradition the bloodline of Anna continues with Pei and now Zhao-Yi. If they so choose Zhao-Yi could have a child and if it was a girl she could take the name of Anna Four. That would be to the delight of madam Naoka to realize her dreams of a dynasty would merge the strongest of bonds between the Knut and the founder of the sisters.
Surprising how things come to turn and yet many wonder if this is only a false rise and elevation before her downfall. The sisters are known for such cruel mischief and it would be Naoka found wanting if Zhao-Yi proved to carry no great bloodlines.
But they tested and confirmed both Kallos, his father and little Zhao-Yi were in fact of the blood of Karl Knutmudsen by his sister Greta and the Siph Gleiss clan. Naoka would not make such a simple mistake, nor Pei. They were all but certain of this.
We both laughed as she was peddling in the false rumor again of the unknown teacher and by our lineage the true creator of the Artesians. If it were so, then Ninya's daughter Maria was already the child that the sisters had yearned for and she died an ignominious death on Alpha Centauri three centuries ago by her own grandmother. But if it were true, then madam Naoka would have the pair of us on the top of her list.
I felt the soft touch of a small hand on my leg and peered down to see the little freckled girl Zhao-Yi. She was dressed in a simple red dress and had taken liberty to sit on the bench next to me. She was not afraid and would often do this with strangers. Pei and Kallos joined us for the remainder of our meal and we had barely touched our food. They had great news and Pei decided to return to the Grand Traveler with Zhao-Yi as she found she was doing well with his constant presence.
Enya and I passed glances as we knew it was more Kallos complaining of her long absences and Pei acquiesced as soon she would have to leave their daughter in charge of other teachers. Her mother had no pressing agendas and she was free to take any assignment and post as all focus was on Alpha Centauri and the impending firing up of the Pacific Ocean foundries. Initial tests of some small material have proven successful and the mysterious robots beneath the waves were yearning for more, much more raw ore to begin building anew.
Delays on the mining that was meant to have yielded a new ship was behind schedule at least two years and growing discontent both between the elite and the Liberty miners were nearing crisis. The Grand Traveler was meant to travel with a small delegation to appease everyone and encourage continued extraction of the mineral ore.
Monday, July 6, 2020
Chapter 61 - the iG
I began having very strange and vivid dreams about the time we first arrived on Triton. They were not disturbing or terrifying, just very detailed and consistent. Every night, I would repeat the same sequence of walking through a large hallway and down corridors to a central room where a man without a face was waiting for me. For reasons unknown, I called him the iG and each time I turned to address him, I would wake up.
I confided in Kallos, then in Yuna and it seemed I was the only one experiencing these dreams. Andrea, one of the surviving sisters recognized I was troubled and she guessed correctly that it was due to the vivid dreams she called Warp Sickness. Some of the first sisters who were stranded on Alpha Centauri also described similar scenes of an unknown being and they believed it was the dead Alpha Centauri whose brain they were carrying onboard. The dreams eventually subsided after a few years and most were harmless, except one that described crawling worm like snakes that were invisible and stretched for eternity to distant points of light. All the sisters who had the dreams would eventually experience that final dream and they would cease soon afterwards.
I told her of the scenes and she was surprised at the rapid pace as it took me only a week what the sisters described taking at least a year before they reached the iG. If the advance pace was consistent then I would soon experience the crawling worms within another week or two. I shuddered at the thought and she assured me while unpleasant, it meant the dreams would end.
On the third night after my conversation with Andrea, I decided to face my fears and demanded of the iG to show me these wormlike snakes and he stood up suddenly and pointed towards me. He then walked towards me and beacon for me to follow him down another corridor behind his throne that seemed to disappear into a white void. And while I could not hear him speak, I felt somehow his words or perhaps his thoughts as he explained we were entering his consciousness.
The worms crawling through the void stretched for eternity and they touched all points of the universe. He pulled on one of these strings and placed it on my fingertips and we were suddenly transported to another planet and somehow I knew we had moved to the other side of the galaxy. He motioned to me that this was the birthplace of the Alpha Centauri and we walked through mammoth buildings of stone and light. Behind each large door in a long corridor rested an Alpha Centauri encased in a thick fog that was more like solid glass, yet moved and hissed with our passing. At least a million of these doors existed on this single floor and there were thousands of floors on this long dead planet.
They are now tombs for the last few survivors who remain suspended in time. They continue to dream and persist in the void. As I pass some doors that are now darkened and empty, he explained eventually some succumbed to the disease that has infected the void of their shared consciousness. The crawling worms are the manifestations of that disease.
His pace became labored and he approaches a door that has begun to dim, he steps into it for one last time. He was awakened by my journey to Alpha Centauri and wanted to warn me of what was soon to come. As he rests his head to sleep, I could not help but embrace him and kiss him on the cheek. I thought I felt him smile and the sense of gratitude as the fog dissipated and the door went dark.
The dream did not end and I continued walking down the many hallways realizing that my consciousness had been transferred somehow to their home world. I followed a path and exited into a warm garden of exotic plants dominated with blues and reds with three bright suns shining overhead. There were graceful machines, more like light shadows moving about and keeping everything tidy and everything in its proper place. I could step through the shadows and they had no substance, yet they could grasp and move things about.
Continuing down for what seemed like hours, I felt no fatigue and reached a building that I somehow knew was a depository of information, a library of sorts and filled with many books of glowing balls of light. I touched each of them and they imparted information, but at such a rushed pace that I could barely make sense of it other than glimpses of things. I sought frantically for information on why our creators hated us, but could not find anything. As the light faded into a sunset, I felt myself turning into vapors and I awoke back in my bunk on the Grand Traveler.
I confided in Kallos, then in Yuna and it seemed I was the only one experiencing these dreams. Andrea, one of the surviving sisters recognized I was troubled and she guessed correctly that it was due to the vivid dreams she called Warp Sickness. Some of the first sisters who were stranded on Alpha Centauri also described similar scenes of an unknown being and they believed it was the dead Alpha Centauri whose brain they were carrying onboard. The dreams eventually subsided after a few years and most were harmless, except one that described crawling worm like snakes that were invisible and stretched for eternity to distant points of light. All the sisters who had the dreams would eventually experience that final dream and they would cease soon afterwards.
I told her of the scenes and she was surprised at the rapid pace as it took me only a week what the sisters described taking at least a year before they reached the iG. If the advance pace was consistent then I would soon experience the crawling worms within another week or two. I shuddered at the thought and she assured me while unpleasant, it meant the dreams would end.
On the third night after my conversation with Andrea, I decided to face my fears and demanded of the iG to show me these wormlike snakes and he stood up suddenly and pointed towards me. He then walked towards me and beacon for me to follow him down another corridor behind his throne that seemed to disappear into a white void. And while I could not hear him speak, I felt somehow his words or perhaps his thoughts as he explained we were entering his consciousness.
The worms crawling through the void stretched for eternity and they touched all points of the universe. He pulled on one of these strings and placed it on my fingertips and we were suddenly transported to another planet and somehow I knew we had moved to the other side of the galaxy. He motioned to me that this was the birthplace of the Alpha Centauri and we walked through mammoth buildings of stone and light. Behind each large door in a long corridor rested an Alpha Centauri encased in a thick fog that was more like solid glass, yet moved and hissed with our passing. At least a million of these doors existed on this single floor and there were thousands of floors on this long dead planet.
They are now tombs for the last few survivors who remain suspended in time. They continue to dream and persist in the void. As I pass some doors that are now darkened and empty, he explained eventually some succumbed to the disease that has infected the void of their shared consciousness. The crawling worms are the manifestations of that disease.
His pace became labored and he approaches a door that has begun to dim, he steps into it for one last time. He was awakened by my journey to Alpha Centauri and wanted to warn me of what was soon to come. As he rests his head to sleep, I could not help but embrace him and kiss him on the cheek. I thought I felt him smile and the sense of gratitude as the fog dissipated and the door went dark.
The dream did not end and I continued walking down the many hallways realizing that my consciousness had been transferred somehow to their home world. I followed a path and exited into a warm garden of exotic plants dominated with blues and reds with three bright suns shining overhead. There were graceful machines, more like light shadows moving about and keeping everything tidy and everything in its proper place. I could step through the shadows and they had no substance, yet they could grasp and move things about.
Continuing down for what seemed like hours, I felt no fatigue and reached a building that I somehow knew was a depository of information, a library of sorts and filled with many books of glowing balls of light. I touched each of them and they imparted information, but at such a rushed pace that I could barely make sense of it other than glimpses of things. I sought frantically for information on why our creators hated us, but could not find anything. As the light faded into a sunset, I felt myself turning into vapors and I awoke back in my bunk on the Grand Traveler.
Chapter 60 - Liberty Station
Many of the smaller planetoids and larger asteroids also housed installations and there were thousands of them scattered around most of the outer rim. Most are abandoned and remained so with only the foolhardy who attempt every few generations to lay claim and try to revitalize them. A rare few succeed and of these were the 10,000 inhabitants of Liberty Station orbiting a large rock of solid gold.
The value of gold in all of human history would pale in comparison to the 10 million metric tons of pure gold that Liberty Station orbits every 90 minutes. One could scoop up several pounds of gold dust with ease, but the gold has little value and the inhabitants make a living mining other nearby rock for mineral ores.
All of these values made Liberty Station the ideal candidate and was carried across to Alpha Centauri to help begin preparations for the largest mining operation in history.
And on a station so seemingly insignificant in size hosted a chapter of sister marines who were loyal to Naoka. Naoka's mother was born on Liberty Station and several of her daughters have at one point or another served for a time there. A boring space rock whose only saving grace is a fully stocked bar and a delicious spicy pickle delicacy. Arlen imports several colored varietals and served it as a garnish for some of his dishes. It was an unusual connection that he first shared with Pei when on Triton.
To the chagrin of the many senior Proto-Artesians and Neo-Artesians at the peace summit, the concern of the pending loss of the Liberty pickles was made an actual amendment to the charter signed by everyone in attendance and provisions made to ensure that all 11 varietals were preserved with half of the known skilled masters, mostly elderly women transferred to the nearest suitable home on Enok Station.
Liberty Station was tethered using a long cable measuring several miles in length and moored to the right side of the Grand Traveler. The station rested parallel to the ship and was hurtled through space time and placed into orbit around Proxima B. The Libertarians wasted no time in establishing their new home and ventured to the surface already teeming with thousands of scientists, explorers, a large contingent of soldiers and sister marines.
The initial estimates it would take about a year to find suitable sites and within a few more months yield enough ore to produce a dozen new starships. The operations would continue to expand and there was aspirations to produce hundreds if not thousands of new ships each year.
The value of gold in all of human history would pale in comparison to the 10 million metric tons of pure gold that Liberty Station orbits every 90 minutes. One could scoop up several pounds of gold dust with ease, but the gold has little value and the inhabitants make a living mining other nearby rock for mineral ores.
All of these values made Liberty Station the ideal candidate and was carried across to Alpha Centauri to help begin preparations for the largest mining operation in history.
And on a station so seemingly insignificant in size hosted a chapter of sister marines who were loyal to Naoka. Naoka's mother was born on Liberty Station and several of her daughters have at one point or another served for a time there. A boring space rock whose only saving grace is a fully stocked bar and a delicious spicy pickle delicacy. Arlen imports several colored varietals and served it as a garnish for some of his dishes. It was an unusual connection that he first shared with Pei when on Triton.
To the chagrin of the many senior Proto-Artesians and Neo-Artesians at the peace summit, the concern of the pending loss of the Liberty pickles was made an actual amendment to the charter signed by everyone in attendance and provisions made to ensure that all 11 varietals were preserved with half of the known skilled masters, mostly elderly women transferred to the nearest suitable home on Enok Station.
Liberty Station was tethered using a long cable measuring several miles in length and moored to the right side of the Grand Traveler. The station rested parallel to the ship and was hurtled through space time and placed into orbit around Proxima B. The Libertarians wasted no time in establishing their new home and ventured to the surface already teeming with thousands of scientists, explorers, a large contingent of soldiers and sister marines.
The initial estimates it would take about a year to find suitable sites and within a few more months yield enough ore to produce a dozen new starships. The operations would continue to expand and there was aspirations to produce hundreds if not thousands of new ships each year.
Chapter 59 - Worlds End
The Worlds End is the famed bar resting nestled in the top eight floors of the tallest tower jutting out of Triton station. It enjoys a captivating view of the largest city on Triton station as well as the main space docks and the emptiness of space.
Kallos invited me for a drink as we had heard stories of the place from his father and seized the opportunity to pay a visit. Pei had taken leave and given birth to a daughter named after her older sister Zhao-Yi. The birth was sanctioned and recorded by her mother on Io Station. She would remain with their daughter for 3 years as was custom of the sister marines then resume her duties.
Pei confided in me before she left for Io that she would not be returning to the Grand Traveler and would focus on training her daughter. The first descendant of Karl Knutmudsen destined to become a sister marine. Madam Naoka's dream was achieved and madam Sophia congratulated her. She would love and care for her husband Kallos, but from a distance as her priorities was now with their daughter.
We laughed that he had become his father and the itinerant life of a sailor was befitting and prescient. His mother was also a sister and as soon as she bore a son, she left and remained nameless. As a young child he yearned to know her face, in time he buried those feelings. He never felt alone as he always had the presence of the sisters and became familiar with them as soon as he was 6. It was when he first met Pei and they played in the tunnels.
He never told me until now that he knew Pei was watching over them in the tunnels. He was familiar with her presence and the faint fragrance of her hair. It was when he was holding me that he felt her movement and knew she was upset when Pei led them to the exit. Pei was too young, they were all too young, but the sisters had planned this encounter and she broke their rules and was severely reprimanded.
There is a battle still raging between Io Station and Mars, between the two dueling madams Naoka and Sophia. The descendants of Olivia made their choice, while Naoka in her daughter overruled centuries of tradition. To their surprise it was Anna Three who seemed fated to always intervene on Pei's behalf who vetoed their decision. The rogue sisters had never done that before for anyone and was the first of many conversations that Sophia and Anna Three would share, many centered around Pei.
His head was spinning as the intrigue, counter-intrigue and subterfuge added for good measure made each action taken by the sisters, merely a ruse for yet another greater action that in turn was yet another. I agreed and felt at times it was pure chaos that they let run wild, but somehow could steer in the general direction they so chose.
We talked of both my sister Enya and now our half-sister Felicia who were recently graduated. Enya stationed on Ganymede and Felicia to the Capital Domes. Felicia became the personal assistant of madam Sophia and not permitted to complete the final traditions of the sister marines, penance for her prior crimes. Sophia found it more useful to have her skilled and accomplished as a sister marine, but not known as one.
We overlooked two levels below shrouded by crystal chandeliers Captain Gregor with the Gustafson's. Yuna joined us at our seating, half drunk on the strong Triton liquor. She made a noise as she finished the bottom of her tankard and the Omni-10 in blue stripes cut her off from any more drink.
She commented that she could still disassemble the poor robot and rewire its logical circuits in her current state. The Omni-10 to its credit stood fast and refused her another drink. Yuna surrendered resting her head on her folded arms.
Kallos invited me for a drink as we had heard stories of the place from his father and seized the opportunity to pay a visit. Pei had taken leave and given birth to a daughter named after her older sister Zhao-Yi. The birth was sanctioned and recorded by her mother on Io Station. She would remain with their daughter for 3 years as was custom of the sister marines then resume her duties.
Pei confided in me before she left for Io that she would not be returning to the Grand Traveler and would focus on training her daughter. The first descendant of Karl Knutmudsen destined to become a sister marine. Madam Naoka's dream was achieved and madam Sophia congratulated her. She would love and care for her husband Kallos, but from a distance as her priorities was now with their daughter.
We laughed that he had become his father and the itinerant life of a sailor was befitting and prescient. His mother was also a sister and as soon as she bore a son, she left and remained nameless. As a young child he yearned to know her face, in time he buried those feelings. He never felt alone as he always had the presence of the sisters and became familiar with them as soon as he was 6. It was when he first met Pei and they played in the tunnels.
He never told me until now that he knew Pei was watching over them in the tunnels. He was familiar with her presence and the faint fragrance of her hair. It was when he was holding me that he felt her movement and knew she was upset when Pei led them to the exit. Pei was too young, they were all too young, but the sisters had planned this encounter and she broke their rules and was severely reprimanded.
There is a battle still raging between Io Station and Mars, between the two dueling madams Naoka and Sophia. The descendants of Olivia made their choice, while Naoka in her daughter overruled centuries of tradition. To their surprise it was Anna Three who seemed fated to always intervene on Pei's behalf who vetoed their decision. The rogue sisters had never done that before for anyone and was the first of many conversations that Sophia and Anna Three would share, many centered around Pei.
His head was spinning as the intrigue, counter-intrigue and subterfuge added for good measure made each action taken by the sisters, merely a ruse for yet another greater action that in turn was yet another. I agreed and felt at times it was pure chaos that they let run wild, but somehow could steer in the general direction they so chose.
We talked of both my sister Enya and now our half-sister Felicia who were recently graduated. Enya stationed on Ganymede and Felicia to the Capital Domes. Felicia became the personal assistant of madam Sophia and not permitted to complete the final traditions of the sister marines, penance for her prior crimes. Sophia found it more useful to have her skilled and accomplished as a sister marine, but not known as one.
We overlooked two levels below shrouded by crystal chandeliers Captain Gregor with the Gustafson's. Yuna joined us at our seating, half drunk on the strong Triton liquor. She made a noise as she finished the bottom of her tankard and the Omni-10 in blue stripes cut her off from any more drink.
She commented that she could still disassemble the poor robot and rewire its logical circuits in her current state. The Omni-10 to its credit stood fast and refused her another drink. Yuna surrendered resting her head on her folded arms.
Chapter 58 - Triton Station
The unusual orbit of the moon of Triton in retrograde around Neptune afforded it special prominence during the early colonization of the solar system. The hulking remnants of a massive space installation sat counterpoint and rivaled the size of the largest of the planetary stations orbiting Io. It's incredible size stretched around as a thin metal ring measuring a few miles in diameter at its greatest apex to only a few meters in other parts that spanned the full perimeter of Triton.
It was presumed that Triton station was meant to be a staging area for future explorations of space and a partially built foundry and shipyards were found drifting near the main station structures. The carcass of a dead ocean behemoth was also found silently standing guard and none could fathom the purpose of bringing a metal whale this far out into space.
Mars was the main focus of colonization due to is obvious abundance of building materials and by distance each of the nearest major stations, but Triton was given special priority and grew to over a million colonists within a generation. Those who once lived there did not attempt to prolong their existence and much of the original foundations and components remained intact, while on other stations they had to disassemble centuries of re purposing and raw ingenuity.
By some unknown accord the descendants of Anna established the sisters compound on Triton and with Olivia's passing a few decades later, her daughters formed a home on the Martian Capital Domes. This accord remained intact for a century until the emergence of the Proto-Artesians who first appeared on Triton and fanned out across the outer rim. By the current era as many as 1/3 of all humanity were adherents and they chafed in their opinion under the oppression of the conservative faction.
Many of the larger stations and colonies maintained elevated levels of artificial gravity to simulate Earth, but most were at ratios slightly below 1 G. Triton was the rare exception that maintained slightly higher levels with some parts of the ring of stations orbiting the moon as high as 1.3 G. This created a hardier stock and of their numbers the feared berzerkers of the Proto-Artesian fleet.
Much of the outer rim fleets were divided between Io and Triton, with the greatest of their ships making port at Triton. The most legend of these was the Charon, and the rival of the Grand Traveler who crippled her during their last encounter during the Battle of the Saturn Moons. Unlike most other starships, the Charon was built for war and one of the oldest. After her creation along with her sister ship the Meteor, all subsequent vessels were designed for exploration. The Pacific foundries were programmed to run in a cycle and had reached near the end of a string of ship models that included the Charon and Meteor before repeating a new sequence.
The Charon's hull was eight times thick and bristled with heavier armament than found on the Grand Traveler. It's only flaw was its lack of maneuverability and speed. The previous Captain of the Grand Traveler succeeded in saving her by outflanking and disabling the Charon's engines with its final salvo before hurtling back to Io. The lack of operable weapons spared her from future encounters.
Captain Gregor intentionally docked besides the Charon when making port at Triton. The two hulking ships stood in contrast with the equally menacing Meteor docked across from the Charon. All three Captains were convening to discuss attempting an unusual maneuver to catapult several star ships tethered to the Grand Traveler upon its next trip to Alpha Centauri.
The technique had been perfected after several previous trips and a small station was orbiting Proxima B manned by ten thousand souls who were preparing for major mining operations on the surface. As part of the peace summit, the Proto-Artesians were granted the privilege of sending several star ships to Alpha Centauri to serve as independent monitors and assist in surveying the planet.
Kallos was now the navigator having completed his training and with the rush of expansion to Alpha Centauri many of the more experienced hands were already being drawn up in record numbers to other star ships in anticipation for the creation of the first new star ships from the foundries in over three centuries.
Captain Wolf Gustafson of the Charon and Gregor shared a few rounds and speculated that their once revered ships would soon be old relics as the glistening new ships that will soon emerge would outstrip them. They jostled at a chance for one last duel between the two old ladies and reckoned it be fitting they take place around Titan. Both students of history, Captain Wolf confirmed he was a distant relative of the old Generals of Onion City, from his son Sigmund, but by a daughter and his family recently took on the Gustafson name a few generations prior. His great-grandfather Captain Gustavus was an admirer of Wolf Gustafson.
To think a Gustafson was sitting across from a descendant of Karl Knutmudsen, staring into the emptiness of deep space on Triton. Wolf's elder sister Louise was the Captain of the Meteor. It had become a family tradition with Gustafson's now commanding both famed ships and their father the Admiral of the outer rim fleets. Stranger still as none of them are adherents of the Proto-Artesian nor Neo-Artesian faiths.
Gustafson's were never one to hold much reverence and dutifully adhere only to the principles of war. As such both factions hand picked the Gustafson's unanimously to be the independent monitors on Alpha Centauri.
A woman of modest height and slightly stocky build embraced her brother and introduced herself as Louise Gustafson. Barely 4 feet in stature, she was still imposing and gripped Gregor's hand that brought a smile to his face. He was smitten by Louise and not met a woman like her. Wolf recognized this and let out a loud laugh and warned his sister's choice of men would be more to Gregor's taste.
Suspicious by nature, Louise wondered out aloud this was a rather convenient way to take two of the greatest warships of the outer rim fleets and place them light years away to be trapped forever around an alien planet. Indeed, this was an accusation raised by several prominent Proto-Artesian leaders and the compromise was made that the Grand Traveler would share command between Captain Gregor and one of the Gustafson's.
Louise and Wolf had convened on this and agreed their cousin Sigmund would take command of the Meteor. He had served for several years with Louise and was familiar with their ship. Most of the Grand Traveler's core crew were Proto-Artesian and the Neo-Artesian faction other than Gregor and Kallos' father were limited to the sister marines and soldiers.
Gregor commented that she had already met with Chief Engineer Yuna and she was the most fervent loyalists of the Proto-Artesians and he trusted her above most of the crew. Yuna was born and raised on Triton and still had some of the berzerker blood. Louise liked Yuna and her presence onboard the Grand Traveler was welcomed.
It was presumed that Triton station was meant to be a staging area for future explorations of space and a partially built foundry and shipyards were found drifting near the main station structures. The carcass of a dead ocean behemoth was also found silently standing guard and none could fathom the purpose of bringing a metal whale this far out into space.
Mars was the main focus of colonization due to is obvious abundance of building materials and by distance each of the nearest major stations, but Triton was given special priority and grew to over a million colonists within a generation. Those who once lived there did not attempt to prolong their existence and much of the original foundations and components remained intact, while on other stations they had to disassemble centuries of re purposing and raw ingenuity.
By some unknown accord the descendants of Anna established the sisters compound on Triton and with Olivia's passing a few decades later, her daughters formed a home on the Martian Capital Domes. This accord remained intact for a century until the emergence of the Proto-Artesians who first appeared on Triton and fanned out across the outer rim. By the current era as many as 1/3 of all humanity were adherents and they chafed in their opinion under the oppression of the conservative faction.
Many of the larger stations and colonies maintained elevated levels of artificial gravity to simulate Earth, but most were at ratios slightly below 1 G. Triton was the rare exception that maintained slightly higher levels with some parts of the ring of stations orbiting the moon as high as 1.3 G. This created a hardier stock and of their numbers the feared berzerkers of the Proto-Artesian fleet.
Much of the outer rim fleets were divided between Io and Triton, with the greatest of their ships making port at Triton. The most legend of these was the Charon, and the rival of the Grand Traveler who crippled her during their last encounter during the Battle of the Saturn Moons. Unlike most other starships, the Charon was built for war and one of the oldest. After her creation along with her sister ship the Meteor, all subsequent vessels were designed for exploration. The Pacific foundries were programmed to run in a cycle and had reached near the end of a string of ship models that included the Charon and Meteor before repeating a new sequence.
The Charon's hull was eight times thick and bristled with heavier armament than found on the Grand Traveler. It's only flaw was its lack of maneuverability and speed. The previous Captain of the Grand Traveler succeeded in saving her by outflanking and disabling the Charon's engines with its final salvo before hurtling back to Io. The lack of operable weapons spared her from future encounters.
Captain Gregor intentionally docked besides the Charon when making port at Triton. The two hulking ships stood in contrast with the equally menacing Meteor docked across from the Charon. All three Captains were convening to discuss attempting an unusual maneuver to catapult several star ships tethered to the Grand Traveler upon its next trip to Alpha Centauri.
The technique had been perfected after several previous trips and a small station was orbiting Proxima B manned by ten thousand souls who were preparing for major mining operations on the surface. As part of the peace summit, the Proto-Artesians were granted the privilege of sending several star ships to Alpha Centauri to serve as independent monitors and assist in surveying the planet.
Kallos was now the navigator having completed his training and with the rush of expansion to Alpha Centauri many of the more experienced hands were already being drawn up in record numbers to other star ships in anticipation for the creation of the first new star ships from the foundries in over three centuries.
Captain Wolf Gustafson of the Charon and Gregor shared a few rounds and speculated that their once revered ships would soon be old relics as the glistening new ships that will soon emerge would outstrip them. They jostled at a chance for one last duel between the two old ladies and reckoned it be fitting they take place around Titan. Both students of history, Captain Wolf confirmed he was a distant relative of the old Generals of Onion City, from his son Sigmund, but by a daughter and his family recently took on the Gustafson name a few generations prior. His great-grandfather Captain Gustavus was an admirer of Wolf Gustafson.
To think a Gustafson was sitting across from a descendant of Karl Knutmudsen, staring into the emptiness of deep space on Triton. Wolf's elder sister Louise was the Captain of the Meteor. It had become a family tradition with Gustafson's now commanding both famed ships and their father the Admiral of the outer rim fleets. Stranger still as none of them are adherents of the Proto-Artesian nor Neo-Artesian faiths.
Gustafson's were never one to hold much reverence and dutifully adhere only to the principles of war. As such both factions hand picked the Gustafson's unanimously to be the independent monitors on Alpha Centauri.
A woman of modest height and slightly stocky build embraced her brother and introduced herself as Louise Gustafson. Barely 4 feet in stature, she was still imposing and gripped Gregor's hand that brought a smile to his face. He was smitten by Louise and not met a woman like her. Wolf recognized this and let out a loud laugh and warned his sister's choice of men would be more to Gregor's taste.
Suspicious by nature, Louise wondered out aloud this was a rather convenient way to take two of the greatest warships of the outer rim fleets and place them light years away to be trapped forever around an alien planet. Indeed, this was an accusation raised by several prominent Proto-Artesian leaders and the compromise was made that the Grand Traveler would share command between Captain Gregor and one of the Gustafson's.
Louise and Wolf had convened on this and agreed their cousin Sigmund would take command of the Meteor. He had served for several years with Louise and was familiar with their ship. Most of the Grand Traveler's core crew were Proto-Artesian and the Neo-Artesian faction other than Gregor and Kallos' father were limited to the sister marines and soldiers.
Gregor commented that she had already met with Chief Engineer Yuna and she was the most fervent loyalists of the Proto-Artesians and he trusted her above most of the crew. Yuna was born and raised on Triton and still had some of the berzerker blood. Louise liked Yuna and her presence onboard the Grand Traveler was welcomed.
Sunday, July 5, 2020
Chapter 57 - Naoka Linst
Naoka Linst was an only child of a sister marine. Her mother was the first of her family to join the sisters and served with distinction earning her daughter the privilege of joining when she was 3. Naoka exceeded all expectations and was accepted by the madam of Io Station as her personal guardian. She became well known as a skilled assassin and rumored to have eliminated over a hundred targets during her brief career before she was elevated to the rank of madam by her predecessor's sudden death.
She married the only son of her predecessor and had seven daughters, the youngest two Mei and Pei. To her dismay, her madam was also of no notable bloodline and this earned her ire as she yearned to be accepted among the elite of the sisters who all could establish a connection to Anna or Olivia.
Sophia was well acquainted with madam Naoka as her first mission was to Io Station to retrieve the child of sister Marina from an illicit affair. Marina was punished for the birth of Felicia that was non-sanctioned. She was placed in the care of Naoka along with two other girls from different mothers and in total five heirs of Olivia.
Sophia made it known to Naoka she knew exactly her obsession and placed all the hidden heirs in her charge. She had no secret ploy. If she so desired to end all the old bloodlines, she had them within arms reach.
Naoka seethed at such an accusation, but accepted the five girls and placed them with each of her five eldest daughters. For being found wanting, she accepted the sacrifice of her youngest daughter Pei who she sent on a suicide mission to Triton. Anna Three felt insulted by her sending a novice and exacted her own price with the death of two of her older daughters.
In exchange for the executions, Sophia granted Anna Three what the Proto-Artesians had long desired, the cybernetic brain of a devil beetle. It was the Proto-Artesians goal to awaken a fully sentient life form and from their interpretations of the texts of the Ancients they believed their ancestors were on the verge of imbuing the essence and memories of a long dead Alpha Centauri into a mechanical automaton.
They found the near dead creature buried deep within Proxima Centauri B, in the final throes of the viral disease and kept alive through suspended animation. Our ancestors locked eyes and a billion years passed in an instant. The sheer audacity as they severed the head and then preserved it in a biomechanical gel.
In time they were able to recreate and clone the alien brain for every individual neuron synapses and produce the hundreds of copies that reside in each of the devil beetles. All were considered imperfect, except for the original and through the work of their founder Edgar he was able to identify the correct beetle.
Through wars and intrigue Edgar's computer brain as he described it was stolen by the sisters and carried on the first starships. Olivia brought it with her to Alpha Centauri, but decided against leaving it there as she predicted correctly mankind would return to the dead planet. She entrusted it to a relatively unknown sister Rebecca Linst on Io Station and whose dynasty by default became madams without claim to any bloodline.
In their folly a descendant of Linst took on Naoka as a protege and later her daughter by marriage to entrust her the location of the cybernetic brain. And as a bargaining chip Naoka later surrendered it to Sophia to spare some of her daughters. Linst had warned never to reveal it to a descendant of Olivia as her ancestors were warned by Olivia herself to destroy it rather than let it eventually fall back in the hands of the Proto-Artesians who wish to bring about the return of the Alpha Centaurians.
The old tomes that Olivia gathered from an extinct sect known as the Ancients detailed mankinds obsession with reincarnating an Alpha Centauri and they nearly succeeded. Their woeful lack of skill and understanding of their technology required producing behemoths the size of tall skyscrapers to house and sustain the artificial copies of the alien brain. A war broke out between various factions, many who opposed awakening a creature who looked down upon man as inferior and wanted to annihilate us, but a rarefied few who controlled most of the government were optimistic as they championed the existence of that one sympathetic System Lord, for reasons unclear saved mankind.
On the eve of mankind's awakening of the computer brain, many chose to flee and were shot down in great number by the automatic programming of the devil beetles. Those who had already traveled and built the foundations of the great colonies, were left stranded and in time perished. By design they were made dependent on Earth and looked despondently towards their home that had turned its back on them and withered away.
She married the only son of her predecessor and had seven daughters, the youngest two Mei and Pei. To her dismay, her madam was also of no notable bloodline and this earned her ire as she yearned to be accepted among the elite of the sisters who all could establish a connection to Anna or Olivia.
Sophia was well acquainted with madam Naoka as her first mission was to Io Station to retrieve the child of sister Marina from an illicit affair. Marina was punished for the birth of Felicia that was non-sanctioned. She was placed in the care of Naoka along with two other girls from different mothers and in total five heirs of Olivia.
Sophia made it known to Naoka she knew exactly her obsession and placed all the hidden heirs in her charge. She had no secret ploy. If she so desired to end all the old bloodlines, she had them within arms reach.
Naoka seethed at such an accusation, but accepted the five girls and placed them with each of her five eldest daughters. For being found wanting, she accepted the sacrifice of her youngest daughter Pei who she sent on a suicide mission to Triton. Anna Three felt insulted by her sending a novice and exacted her own price with the death of two of her older daughters.
In exchange for the executions, Sophia granted Anna Three what the Proto-Artesians had long desired, the cybernetic brain of a devil beetle. It was the Proto-Artesians goal to awaken a fully sentient life form and from their interpretations of the texts of the Ancients they believed their ancestors were on the verge of imbuing the essence and memories of a long dead Alpha Centauri into a mechanical automaton.
They found the near dead creature buried deep within Proxima Centauri B, in the final throes of the viral disease and kept alive through suspended animation. Our ancestors locked eyes and a billion years passed in an instant. The sheer audacity as they severed the head and then preserved it in a biomechanical gel.
In time they were able to recreate and clone the alien brain for every individual neuron synapses and produce the hundreds of copies that reside in each of the devil beetles. All were considered imperfect, except for the original and through the work of their founder Edgar he was able to identify the correct beetle.
Through wars and intrigue Edgar's computer brain as he described it was stolen by the sisters and carried on the first starships. Olivia brought it with her to Alpha Centauri, but decided against leaving it there as she predicted correctly mankind would return to the dead planet. She entrusted it to a relatively unknown sister Rebecca Linst on Io Station and whose dynasty by default became madams without claim to any bloodline.
In their folly a descendant of Linst took on Naoka as a protege and later her daughter by marriage to entrust her the location of the cybernetic brain. And as a bargaining chip Naoka later surrendered it to Sophia to spare some of her daughters. Linst had warned never to reveal it to a descendant of Olivia as her ancestors were warned by Olivia herself to destroy it rather than let it eventually fall back in the hands of the Proto-Artesians who wish to bring about the return of the Alpha Centaurians.
The old tomes that Olivia gathered from an extinct sect known as the Ancients detailed mankinds obsession with reincarnating an Alpha Centauri and they nearly succeeded. Their woeful lack of skill and understanding of their technology required producing behemoths the size of tall skyscrapers to house and sustain the artificial copies of the alien brain. A war broke out between various factions, many who opposed awakening a creature who looked down upon man as inferior and wanted to annihilate us, but a rarefied few who controlled most of the government were optimistic as they championed the existence of that one sympathetic System Lord, for reasons unclear saved mankind.
On the eve of mankind's awakening of the computer brain, many chose to flee and were shot down in great number by the automatic programming of the devil beetles. Those who had already traveled and built the foundations of the great colonies, were left stranded and in time perished. By design they were made dependent on Earth and looked despondently towards their home that had turned its back on them and withered away.
Saturday, July 4, 2020
Chapter 56 - Pei's Child
The existential crisis of discovering that there existed an abundance of advanced, sentient alien life was overwhelming. I sat on my bunk in total silence. In desperation, I clung to my old novel of the unknown teacher. It was painful to hear what Pei had learned from Andrea and the other survivors and confirmed with their translations of the ancient Alpha Centauri texts, but it was even more difficult to process when she confessed she was pregnant with Kallos' child. She didn't want to have any secrets between us.
Kallos father comforted me and he had known of his son's affair with Pei. He was disappointed and scolded him, telling him to tell me. But he is only a boy and he felt personal guilt as he had known both me since I was very little and both our families were close.
I avoided Kallos for most of the time we were stationed back on Mars. The Grand Traveler was being prepared for another trip back to Alpha Centauri with a larger crew and a team of scientists and explorers. I spent my spare time in the gardens.
Everyone gave me privacy and after several weeks, I did feel better and resumed my training with Pei. She accepted me again as her student. I told her I didn't hate her or felt wronged by what had happened and would support her relationship with Kallos.
Sophia suggested I take a holiday and visit Earth. My sister Enya was also finishing up her training and taking a short break as well. It would be good for me to go somewhere different and clear my thoughts. Enya and I could visit the ancestral home of the first sisters in the Earth Capital. Sophia would accompany me as she had official business to attend to as well.
We took another ship, a regular cargo hauler and arrived in the Earth Capital within hours. A private car arrived and a pair of sisters greeted us and took us to the sisters estate outside the Capital. It was on a peaceful vineyard and near the training academies where Enya was staying.
It was morning tea and Enya was waiting for us in an open gazebo behind the estate building. I was surprised as most of the servants and workers were humanoid robots and they served our tea and food with quick precision, no movement wasted. Enya got me up to speed on everything about her training and she was excelling beyond any of her instructors expectations, she would soon graduate and allowed to go on her first mission to the outer rim.
I was happy for her and she asked me about Kallos. I told her everything and she was disappointed, but happy for me as she felt he would always be a liability considering his heritage and madam Naoka. She was surprised to learn of Felicia and even more so my pardoning her.
Enya laughed as she had no plans or intentions of ever getting married or falling for a man. She would remain happily single and hopefully soon a full fledged sister marine. Sophia congratulated her on her progress and enthusiasm. She wished I had at least some of Enya's ambitions.
After tea, Sophia excused herself as she went to meet with the other senior sisters. Enya called for a car and took me to the city and we toured several museums and art galleries. When I told her about Alpha Centauri and what we discovered there, she was intrigued, but not surprised. The only big news that would come out of the Grand Traveler's successful voyage was the resumption of the Pacific Ocean foundries and soon thousands of new star ships.
Sophia is likely here to discuss that and prepare the sisters as both the Neo-Artesians and Proto-Artesians will begin vying for access to those new starships and a path to the stars. Some may also be shocked and dismayed that mankind are the rejects of our ancient alien ancestors, but most will not care and only focus on a bright future.
There is enough material on Proxima Centauri B to yield billions of starships. And preparations to begin mining of the rare mineral in abundance on that dead planet were being discussed. The sisters would soon convene a peace summit between the two Artesian factions to divide the galaxy between them. The northern hemisphere would go to the Neo-Artesians while the south would belong to the Proto-Artesians. Our current solar system would become neutral ground where both would agree to live peacefully side-by-side, any who disagree can soon take one of the countless starships to any new world to mold in their own ideology.
Kallos father comforted me and he had known of his son's affair with Pei. He was disappointed and scolded him, telling him to tell me. But he is only a boy and he felt personal guilt as he had known both me since I was very little and both our families were close.
I avoided Kallos for most of the time we were stationed back on Mars. The Grand Traveler was being prepared for another trip back to Alpha Centauri with a larger crew and a team of scientists and explorers. I spent my spare time in the gardens.
Everyone gave me privacy and after several weeks, I did feel better and resumed my training with Pei. She accepted me again as her student. I told her I didn't hate her or felt wronged by what had happened and would support her relationship with Kallos.
Sophia suggested I take a holiday and visit Earth. My sister Enya was also finishing up her training and taking a short break as well. It would be good for me to go somewhere different and clear my thoughts. Enya and I could visit the ancestral home of the first sisters in the Earth Capital. Sophia would accompany me as she had official business to attend to as well.
We took another ship, a regular cargo hauler and arrived in the Earth Capital within hours. A private car arrived and a pair of sisters greeted us and took us to the sisters estate outside the Capital. It was on a peaceful vineyard and near the training academies where Enya was staying.
It was morning tea and Enya was waiting for us in an open gazebo behind the estate building. I was surprised as most of the servants and workers were humanoid robots and they served our tea and food with quick precision, no movement wasted. Enya got me up to speed on everything about her training and she was excelling beyond any of her instructors expectations, she would soon graduate and allowed to go on her first mission to the outer rim.
I was happy for her and she asked me about Kallos. I told her everything and she was disappointed, but happy for me as she felt he would always be a liability considering his heritage and madam Naoka. She was surprised to learn of Felicia and even more so my pardoning her.
Enya laughed as she had no plans or intentions of ever getting married or falling for a man. She would remain happily single and hopefully soon a full fledged sister marine. Sophia congratulated her on her progress and enthusiasm. She wished I had at least some of Enya's ambitions.
After tea, Sophia excused herself as she went to meet with the other senior sisters. Enya called for a car and took me to the city and we toured several museums and art galleries. When I told her about Alpha Centauri and what we discovered there, she was intrigued, but not surprised. The only big news that would come out of the Grand Traveler's successful voyage was the resumption of the Pacific Ocean foundries and soon thousands of new star ships.
Sophia is likely here to discuss that and prepare the sisters as both the Neo-Artesians and Proto-Artesians will begin vying for access to those new starships and a path to the stars. Some may also be shocked and dismayed that mankind are the rejects of our ancient alien ancestors, but most will not care and only focus on a bright future.
There is enough material on Proxima Centauri B to yield billions of starships. And preparations to begin mining of the rare mineral in abundance on that dead planet were being discussed. The sisters would soon convene a peace summit between the two Artesian factions to divide the galaxy between them. The northern hemisphere would go to the Neo-Artesians while the south would belong to the Proto-Artesians. Our current solar system would become neutral ground where both would agree to live peacefully side-by-side, any who disagree can soon take one of the countless starships to any new world to mold in their own ideology.
Chapter 55 - Proxima Centauri B
Three hundred and seven years ago, the Grand Traveler made its maiden voyage to Alpha Centauri. It was a test of its star drives and they worked perfectly, hurtling the ship and its crew safely across deep space in mere seconds what would take several years for light to travel. The technology of the star drive was a mystery and the best our scientists could surmise the ship didn't actually move, but the star drive somehow would bend space and time between the ship and its final destination like the folding of a piece of paper onto itself. The ship would then be nudged forward and it would have made the leap almost instantly.
What madam Olivia and the sisters who first manned the Grand Traveler discovered was what Pei had thought was rumor. They found a habitable planet similar to Earth, but in considerable decay and full of ancient ruins. They also found evidence of previous human space travel and they had established a small outpost on the planetary surface to excavate and study the alien technology.
It was as if mankind was looking at a fun house mirror when they studied the ancient aliens of Alpha Centauri who looked much like us and in time as they began to decipher the ancient languages they grew with increasing angst that they were looking at themselves.
A large crater was gouged out of one of the continents of the dead planet and it was made by man. The sisters then understood that the massive space rock that was excavated was brought back to Earth and was the missing substance used by the Pacific Ocean foundries to build the thousand ships. The path to the stars rested in the graves of our oldest of ancestors.
A small group of sister marines remained on Alpha Centauri while Olivia and the others returned to Earth and never made mention and forbid any future deep space travel, that became interpreted as an inoperable star drive.
Sophia began sharing this with Pei and myself as she wanted to prepare us for the eventual return of the Grand Traveler to Alpha Centauri. She gave us the old journals of madam Olivia and everything they cataloged. It is likely there are descendants of those few sister marines who remained. Even Olivia never shared why she chose to leave a dozen of her sisters on Proxima Centauri B who repaired and restarted the ancient human outpost. Sophia believed she left them to form a colony as a sort of insurance policy if mankind finally failed in its new frontier as shortly after the inner and outer rim colonists began their petty wars.
What is known, at least one of those sister marines was a descendant of Olivia and likely Ninya's own child Maria. So Olivia must have had good reason and belief that such a small colony had a good chance of thriving on that dead planet. It was something worth discovering for ourselves and in a few days time the Grand Traveler would make its new maiden voyage.
Captain Gregor and Kallos father spent most of the time checking everything and plotting their course. They estimated that if things were to fail the Grand Traveler could return at near light speed and would take about ten years to get back to our solar system, but by then nearly everyone onboard would have perished from lack of air, food and water. Yuna programmed the ship's computers with this doomsday scenario and they accepted only volunteers of the original crew that dwindled to thirty strong. They were at first hesitant to allow Kallos and I to accompany them, but with much cajoling they relented and Pei would follow as she reminded me I still had my training to fulfill.
The fateful day arrived and the Grand Traveler positioned itself in orbit around Mars and pointed its nose towards Alpha Centauri. Yuna made several last minute checks of the systems and they fired up the star drives. In an instant the stars seemed to stream towards us as we peered through the screens on the ships bridge and saw everything pass by us at great speed. It didn't feel like we stepped from one side of a sheet of a paper or another, the ship felt like it was moving as such phenomenal speeds.
And as quickly as it happened, we all let out a gasp as we were in orbit around Alpha Centauri and could see the binary stars with Proxima Centuari B in orbit. The ships sensors began detecting several objects and as Sophia had prepared us for were the remnants of old stations and dead satellites.
Gregor had the ship come closer and orbit around the planet and continue to scan the surface as it picked up the ruins of great cities, roads and it picked up a faint, but active beacon from the human outpost on the southern continent. Yuna translated the message repeating in the beacon and it was in old English. This shocked most of the crew to hear the words of our own ancestors speaking to us from an alien planet.
Kallos and I accompanied the Captain and several of the crew in a shuttle. We docked with the outpost whose lights had long since dimmed, but there was movement and we were all floored as people greeted us on the landing pad. There were seven survivors, all shabbily dressed in tattered uniforms that Pei recognized having old insignia of the sister marines. The leader of the survivors Andrea welcomed us and shared their origin story of how everything came to be. The original colony at first was prosperous and grew to several hundred inhabitants, but a few years before our arrival a terrible storm destroyed most of their food sources and many died from starvation or from the infighting that erupted over the last remaining supplies. It was a very dark time and in desperation some resorted to cannibalism.
The survivors were divided into two tribes. Andrea and her sisters remained on the outpost and periodically fended off the larger group of about thirty members who moved to a nearby ruined city and were the ones who embraced and practiced cannibalism. They tearfully had lost an eighth member only a few weeks prior who was dragged away during another of their raids.
Pei embraced Andrea and she brightened up realizing they were both sisters. They went away to speak as Captain Gregor decided to send the shuttle back to the ship to ferry over supplies and re-establish the outpost by repairing the power generators and weapons systems. He sent both Kallos and I back to the ship as he prepared for a fight.
Andrea confided in Pei that what she had shared was true and then told the rest of their groups story. Olivia had left the sister marines with the plans of soon returning. They were to continue exploring and learning more about our past. The sister marines anticipated leaving in less than a year. After several years had passed, most felt betrayed by madam Olivia. They accepted their fate that they were permanently stranded and began making a home.
For generations they lived mostly on the outpost and ventured only a few hundred miles. About a hundred years before our arrival they discovered an ancient library and were able to decipher the Alpha Centauri language and learned of a billion years of our ancestors history. They were a long lived race who had already populated the stars and visited other galaxies. Their numbers exceeded the trillions upon trillions and they had ships larger than giant moons zipping about, but then everything collapsed and went silent.
A disease, a virus of unknown origin began to spread through the entire Alpha Centauri race and in time nearly all succumbed to it and died. The virus prevented them from having children and with all their advance technology, nothing could prevent their eventual extinction. In their waning days as their galaxy spanning civilization collapsed, they discovered a rare few individuals were resistant and immune to the disease. But these individuals were considered inferior and by all measures stupid.
Our ancestors felt whatever gods may have existed were mocking them as the most lowliest of low of their race would inherit the greatest of their achievements. In their anger, the Alpha Centauri's planned to kill off even these rare few than tarnish their legacy that no one would be around to ever care or know about. A sympathetic System Lord in another remote star system rescued a few of those survivors and sent them to Earth. It was then realized that the entire planet of Proxima Centauri B was one of those giant ancient starships, long since going silent and rotting from within.
Proxima Centauri B had served as a sort of staging platform as those Alpha Centauri loyal to the System Lord prepared the simpleton survivors for their future existence on Earth. They sent the survivors in waves spanning thousands of years until the last of their kind died out.
Proxima Centauri B had served as a sort of staging platform as those Alpha Centauri loyal to the System Lord prepared the simpleton survivors for their future existence on Earth. They sent the survivors in waves spanning thousands of years until the last of their kind died out.
It was painful to discover the true origin of our past and the utter disdain and hatred of our ancestors for mankind. And by some instinct Olivia abandoning deep space travel was to protect us from learning this awful truth.
After a brief discussion with Captain Gregor. Pei convinced him to abandon the outpost and take Andrea and the six survivors back with us to Mars. We left several years worth of provisions and supplies and messages for the other survivors that we would return for them.
Chapter 54 - Event Horizon
Mei arrived on Mars with her charge a younger girl of 12 named Felicia. We were introduced and Pei shared that we were both descendants of Olivia. Mei shortly after took Felicia to visit the sisters compound where she was initiated in her heritage by madam Sophia.
Pei and Mei went off on their own to Himetsu and left me alone in the Capital Domes. I relished the opportunity to stroll through the central gardens and admire the hundred foot high water fountains. The gardens were at least a square mile in size and considered a waste of prime land that could be used to grow high yield crops, instead of flowers and terraced landscapes.
I found myself getting lost within the gardens and stopped by one of the many fish ponds to admire the colorful koi fish. Crumpling up a cookie I had saved, I fed the eager fish and watched as a flock of geese and mallard ducks floated by. It was a picture of serenity and I could find myself wanting to remain there.
My ears pricked up, and I could sense someone's presence behind me. Adrenaline began rushing and coursing as my heart began to pump faster. My pulse quickened and I steadied myself. As if by instinct and from Pei's training, I raised one fist up to my ear and felt the sharp noose choke around my neck. I struggled for a few moments and broke free.
Whoever was attempting to strangle me, lacked the strength, but her technique was apparent of a sister marine. I was gasping for air as I turned to confront my unknown assailant and in the haze of my eyes I made out a feminine figure, shorter than I, but only a shadow. The failure, must have startled her as she quickly fled, not realizing I would soon faint and pass out on the ground.
Pei found me and said I was very fortunate. She scolded her sister Mei and said it was Felicia who tried to kill me. Felicia was my half-sister and by tradition one of us would have to die. Both Pei and Mei were observing me in the gardens. They did not intervene when I was attacked and I furiously asked why, was this some kind of test?
Pei shook her head. If Felicia were a threat, I would already be dead. She asked instead for understanding and patience. The little girl had no one and now with Pei having succeeded in killing the rogue sister, she had first choice of which of the two would live. She clasped my hands and kissed my cheek. Poor Felicia.
The sisters convened and the madams brought forth Felicia to the docket. She was found wanting and sentenced to death. They made no qualms or special reservations as a descendant of Olivia. She had already selected her funeral urn and placed it on her alcove.
Felicia looked despondently towards Mei who was equally dismayed. No tears. For no reasons I could understand, I shouted out towards everyone in the auditorium fashioned into a makeshift courtroom. The room fell silent as all of the sisters eyes were on me. I demanded to know why they were sentencing her to die and as the victim of the accused if I did not have a say in her trial?
Madam Sophia allowed me to continue to speak and address everyone. I looked towards Felicia who showed little emotion and stiffened her shoulders. She showed coldness and disdain towards me. She would prefer death than to be spared by me. I chose the latter and after some hushed deliberations by the senior madams they would allow a temporary stay.
We left the auditorium and in the hallway, Pei angrily grabbed by arm and asked what I was doing. Sophia soon stepped out of the doorway and interrupted us. She placed her hands on my shoulder and asked me to walk with her to another room where Felicia was waiting and seated at a table.
We sat across from each other. Felicia looked away, but listened as Sophia spoke to both of us. By tradition it is true, one of us must be killed by the other, but we are also both sisters and daughters of Olivia. This makes things complicated and she then shared that among the other madams she also has a half sister. Felicia looked up intently.
Sophia wanted us to consider that and as daughters of Olivia we were exempted from whatever the Neo-Artesians traditions. She also wanted to share that she had long suspected madam Naoka of wanting as she lacks any bloodline and for a time she suspected and had placed five daughters of Olivia in the care of Naoka who in turn loathed to place five of her own daughters to become mentors and protectors.
Sophia then looked to me and shard that as Naoka had seven daughters she sent her youngest Pei on a suicide mission to Triton station. It was Anna Three who saw through this ruse and spared Pei, but made it clear to Naoka she knew her plans by killing two of her daughters and forcing her to place me under the care of Pei.
Felicia then asked what is Naoka's intentions? Sophia gestured to all of us, the total annihilation of all the old sister bloodlines. With the end of Anna's last descendant, this left the daughters of Olivia, and while numerous, the only remaining threat to Naoka to start her own dynasty.
Sophia placed her hand on mine and had great pity for me. Felicia is the daughter of sister Marina and she naturally wanted to keep her safe. She made a bargain with Naoka and placed me in her charge and training, which was substandard and would poorly prepare me for when Felicia and I would eventually meet. Marina was also found wanting.
She trusts Pei who is becoming aware of her own mother's duplicity. She is not so certain of Mei who remains loyal and equally as cunning as their mother Naoka. Sophia then released us and said it was ultimately in our own hands, by either of us killing each other we would be helping Naoka further her ambitions.
My head was dizzy and I instinctively reached for Felicia's hand and held it in mine. She didn't shudder or recoil and we spoke for the first time without any motives. What madam Sophia shared was true and we were all pawns in some game that has been played for generations. Felicia sincerely apologized for trying to kill me and she knew no promise of hers would be sufficient to allay any suspicions I harbored that she wouldn't try to do it again.
I later confided to Kallos about what had transpired and I only spoke of the gardens and Felicia. He was shocked and asked if I was okay. I was still a little shaken by everything as it was the nearest experience with death and was grateful for Pei's training. We embraced and he also wanted to confide with me, he still felt guilty and embarrassed that he had never told me about his relationship with Pei. For a time he did love her while he was still with me. He wasn't sure what to think of it now with all three of us spending so much time together. He confessed he was finding it a perfect situation to have both Pei and I, together. I slapped him.
Pei and Mei went off on their own to Himetsu and left me alone in the Capital Domes. I relished the opportunity to stroll through the central gardens and admire the hundred foot high water fountains. The gardens were at least a square mile in size and considered a waste of prime land that could be used to grow high yield crops, instead of flowers and terraced landscapes.
I found myself getting lost within the gardens and stopped by one of the many fish ponds to admire the colorful koi fish. Crumpling up a cookie I had saved, I fed the eager fish and watched as a flock of geese and mallard ducks floated by. It was a picture of serenity and I could find myself wanting to remain there.
My ears pricked up, and I could sense someone's presence behind me. Adrenaline began rushing and coursing as my heart began to pump faster. My pulse quickened and I steadied myself. As if by instinct and from Pei's training, I raised one fist up to my ear and felt the sharp noose choke around my neck. I struggled for a few moments and broke free.
Whoever was attempting to strangle me, lacked the strength, but her technique was apparent of a sister marine. I was gasping for air as I turned to confront my unknown assailant and in the haze of my eyes I made out a feminine figure, shorter than I, but only a shadow. The failure, must have startled her as she quickly fled, not realizing I would soon faint and pass out on the ground.
Pei found me and said I was very fortunate. She scolded her sister Mei and said it was Felicia who tried to kill me. Felicia was my half-sister and by tradition one of us would have to die. Both Pei and Mei were observing me in the gardens. They did not intervene when I was attacked and I furiously asked why, was this some kind of test?
Pei shook her head. If Felicia were a threat, I would already be dead. She asked instead for understanding and patience. The little girl had no one and now with Pei having succeeded in killing the rogue sister, she had first choice of which of the two would live. She clasped my hands and kissed my cheek. Poor Felicia.
The sisters convened and the madams brought forth Felicia to the docket. She was found wanting and sentenced to death. They made no qualms or special reservations as a descendant of Olivia. She had already selected her funeral urn and placed it on her alcove.
Felicia looked despondently towards Mei who was equally dismayed. No tears. For no reasons I could understand, I shouted out towards everyone in the auditorium fashioned into a makeshift courtroom. The room fell silent as all of the sisters eyes were on me. I demanded to know why they were sentencing her to die and as the victim of the accused if I did not have a say in her trial?
Madam Sophia allowed me to continue to speak and address everyone. I looked towards Felicia who showed little emotion and stiffened her shoulders. She showed coldness and disdain towards me. She would prefer death than to be spared by me. I chose the latter and after some hushed deliberations by the senior madams they would allow a temporary stay.
We left the auditorium and in the hallway, Pei angrily grabbed by arm and asked what I was doing. Sophia soon stepped out of the doorway and interrupted us. She placed her hands on my shoulder and asked me to walk with her to another room where Felicia was waiting and seated at a table.
We sat across from each other. Felicia looked away, but listened as Sophia spoke to both of us. By tradition it is true, one of us must be killed by the other, but we are also both sisters and daughters of Olivia. This makes things complicated and she then shared that among the other madams she also has a half sister. Felicia looked up intently.
Sophia wanted us to consider that and as daughters of Olivia we were exempted from whatever the Neo-Artesians traditions. She also wanted to share that she had long suspected madam Naoka of wanting as she lacks any bloodline and for a time she suspected and had placed five daughters of Olivia in the care of Naoka who in turn loathed to place five of her own daughters to become mentors and protectors.
Sophia then looked to me and shard that as Naoka had seven daughters she sent her youngest Pei on a suicide mission to Triton station. It was Anna Three who saw through this ruse and spared Pei, but made it clear to Naoka she knew her plans by killing two of her daughters and forcing her to place me under the care of Pei.
Felicia then asked what is Naoka's intentions? Sophia gestured to all of us, the total annihilation of all the old sister bloodlines. With the end of Anna's last descendant, this left the daughters of Olivia, and while numerous, the only remaining threat to Naoka to start her own dynasty.
Sophia placed her hand on mine and had great pity for me. Felicia is the daughter of sister Marina and she naturally wanted to keep her safe. She made a bargain with Naoka and placed me in her charge and training, which was substandard and would poorly prepare me for when Felicia and I would eventually meet. Marina was also found wanting.
She trusts Pei who is becoming aware of her own mother's duplicity. She is not so certain of Mei who remains loyal and equally as cunning as their mother Naoka. Sophia then released us and said it was ultimately in our own hands, by either of us killing each other we would be helping Naoka further her ambitions.
My head was dizzy and I instinctively reached for Felicia's hand and held it in mine. She didn't shudder or recoil and we spoke for the first time without any motives. What madam Sophia shared was true and we were all pawns in some game that has been played for generations. Felicia sincerely apologized for trying to kill me and she knew no promise of hers would be sufficient to allay any suspicions I harbored that she wouldn't try to do it again.
I later confided to Kallos about what had transpired and I only spoke of the gardens and Felicia. He was shocked and asked if I was okay. I was still a little shaken by everything as it was the nearest experience with death and was grateful for Pei's training. We embraced and he also wanted to confide with me, he still felt guilty and embarrassed that he had never told me about his relationship with Pei. For a time he did love her while he was still with me. He wasn't sure what to think of it now with all three of us spending so much time together. He confessed he was finding it a perfect situation to have both Pei and I, together. I slapped him.
Chapter 53 - Illumination
Gregor Illum's sister Greta made her home on Mars. She lived in a smaller city near the southern pole and Captain Gregor paid a visit while the Grand Traveler was in space dock. They embraced and shared pleasantries as close siblings and shared everything that had happened since his last visit.
Greta was well and prospering managing a small shop. He found that amusing considering their famed heritage and by now a large throng of believers have made Greta's store quite full. An equally large crowd had formed that day with Gregor's arrival and Kallos father accompanied him along with several soldiers.
It's a pity you told them, Greta sighed. She had preferred they keep their heritage more hidden as she hated becoming a celebrity. Some of the more ardent followers erected a makeshift shrine and a statue of the Knut across the street from her store. It should come as no surprise at what lengths diehard followers of the Neo-Artesians would go to touch the hand of the creator.
She further lamented it made her chance of finding a suitable husband that much more difficult. And she asked why her brother had not yet settled down with a woman. Gregor scoffed at that and had little patience with the various sisters they sent his way. He sent each and every one of them packing and now with his planned mission to Alpha Centauri, there would be little reason to marry and raise a family. As such he felt no reason to fear as their ancestors legacy would end with him and he would not carry it on by having children.
He already knew of their mother having another child, he didn't know who that child was, but from what he knew it was likely a half-brother. The last sister taunted him in saying that this second son of their mother had already children and so the legacy of the Knut will live on.
They walked to the local park as they always do and sat beneath some oak trees on a park bench. They shared some tea and pastries that Greta had prepared on anticipating his visit. For the most part the Neo-Artesians dispersed and gave them some privacy. They finished afternoon tea and Gregor spent the night at Greta's home on the second floor above her shop. Kallos father and the other soldiers stayed in a nearby hotel at the order of Gregor who wished to have privacy with his sister. In the morning after breakfast they all returned to fleet headquarters.
Greta was well and prospering managing a small shop. He found that amusing considering their famed heritage and by now a large throng of believers have made Greta's store quite full. An equally large crowd had formed that day with Gregor's arrival and Kallos father accompanied him along with several soldiers.
It's a pity you told them, Greta sighed. She had preferred they keep their heritage more hidden as she hated becoming a celebrity. Some of the more ardent followers erected a makeshift shrine and a statue of the Knut across the street from her store. It should come as no surprise at what lengths diehard followers of the Neo-Artesians would go to touch the hand of the creator.
She further lamented it made her chance of finding a suitable husband that much more difficult. And she asked why her brother had not yet settled down with a woman. Gregor scoffed at that and had little patience with the various sisters they sent his way. He sent each and every one of them packing and now with his planned mission to Alpha Centauri, there would be little reason to marry and raise a family. As such he felt no reason to fear as their ancestors legacy would end with him and he would not carry it on by having children.
He already knew of their mother having another child, he didn't know who that child was, but from what he knew it was likely a half-brother. The last sister taunted him in saying that this second son of their mother had already children and so the legacy of the Knut will live on.
They walked to the local park as they always do and sat beneath some oak trees on a park bench. They shared some tea and pastries that Greta had prepared on anticipating his visit. For the most part the Neo-Artesians dispersed and gave them some privacy. They finished afternoon tea and Gregor spent the night at Greta's home on the second floor above her shop. Kallos father and the other soldiers stayed in a nearby hotel at the order of Gregor who wished to have privacy with his sister. In the morning after breakfast they all returned to fleet headquarters.
Chapter 52 - Sea Urchins
A rare Earth delicacy was offered in abundance at the annual celebration on Mars celebrating the founding of the Capital Dome. Tens of millions of sea urchins are harvested each year and brought to the Capital Domes. The elite among the Martian citizens gifted at least 2-3 sea urchins of a modest size and quality. While Martians grow their own local varieties, they find the succulent flesh of an Earth sea urchin of a quality without peer.
Arlen prepared a whole platter for Pei, Kallos and myself. He was rationed several small wooden crates and we marveled at the sight of all of them atop a bed of ice. To the untrained eye they looked no different from a Martian varietal and when properly seasoned and prepared by an expert hand, almost indistinguishable.
They melted on the tongue and we finished the platter. It was a luxury neither Kallos and I had ever experienced on Io Station. The only sea creature we were well acquainted with dried algae and sea kelp protein. But here on Mars we enjoyed and spoiled ourselves. Himetsu became our favorite haunt on weekends when not in training or on drill.
The Grand Traveler was being retrofitted as new parts were made available including what was rumored potential substitute pieces for the inoperable star drive. This surprising turn delayed its departure and Arlen thumbed his nose at Pei.
For centuries, scientists on both Earth and Mars have tried to reverse engineer and build a working star drive. They came close on several occasions, the most recent with a small probe they launched past Neptune and tracked making its way near Alpha Centauri before losing contact. That test was kept secret and conducted by a hand picked scientists by the Neo-Artesians who long suspected the sisters have withheld the technology.
The naval summit was also convened to discuss preparations for a full scale test of the rebuild star drive and the Grand Traveler was the obvious candidate. The Neo-Artesians wanted to see for themselves why the sisters abandoned deep space travel and what did they find on Alpha Centauri.
Kallos and and I both resounded in unison that they found proof of sentient alien life. And that the entire universe was teeming with little green men. Pei smiled at our childish antics and shared that the sisters did indeed finding something on Alpha Centauri and specifically on one of the unknown planets orbiting the binary star system. She herself was never made privy, but the rumors among the initiates was they did find ruins of an ancient civilization and that they were our ancestors who came here to inhabit planet Earth.
They were leaving a dying world in search of a new one. But to the sisters dismay, mankind had already traveled to Alpha Centauri thousands of years before and from the ruins they scavenged much of the advance technology we take for granted today. It should come as no mere coincidence that mankind in a few short decades progressed to such a pinnacle that should have taken many centuries. The pace of progress was too much for mankind and nearly brought about their downfall.
We pondered if our purported ancestors from Alpha Centauri were so advanced that we later learned to improve our own technology, why did they lack all of that when they first made Earth their new found home? Pei had thought the same thing years before and accepted the theory that for whatever reason the Alpha Centaurians shunned their technology as anathema and wanted to start a new, simpler existence. But like our ancestors, we share the same penchant for finding our woe.
In any case, once the Grand Traveler completes its final retrofit and the restoration of its star drives we would all discover the truth of what the sisters found. Pei then asked, as she balanced a shot glass, if the Neo-Artesians wanted to keep this a secret how she as a sister marine already knew this. She laughed at the incompetence.
Arlen prepared a whole platter for Pei, Kallos and myself. He was rationed several small wooden crates and we marveled at the sight of all of them atop a bed of ice. To the untrained eye they looked no different from a Martian varietal and when properly seasoned and prepared by an expert hand, almost indistinguishable.
They melted on the tongue and we finished the platter. It was a luxury neither Kallos and I had ever experienced on Io Station. The only sea creature we were well acquainted with dried algae and sea kelp protein. But here on Mars we enjoyed and spoiled ourselves. Himetsu became our favorite haunt on weekends when not in training or on drill.
The Grand Traveler was being retrofitted as new parts were made available including what was rumored potential substitute pieces for the inoperable star drive. This surprising turn delayed its departure and Arlen thumbed his nose at Pei.
For centuries, scientists on both Earth and Mars have tried to reverse engineer and build a working star drive. They came close on several occasions, the most recent with a small probe they launched past Neptune and tracked making its way near Alpha Centauri before losing contact. That test was kept secret and conducted by a hand picked scientists by the Neo-Artesians who long suspected the sisters have withheld the technology.
The naval summit was also convened to discuss preparations for a full scale test of the rebuild star drive and the Grand Traveler was the obvious candidate. The Neo-Artesians wanted to see for themselves why the sisters abandoned deep space travel and what did they find on Alpha Centauri.
Kallos and and I both resounded in unison that they found proof of sentient alien life. And that the entire universe was teeming with little green men. Pei smiled at our childish antics and shared that the sisters did indeed finding something on Alpha Centauri and specifically on one of the unknown planets orbiting the binary star system. She herself was never made privy, but the rumors among the initiates was they did find ruins of an ancient civilization and that they were our ancestors who came here to inhabit planet Earth.
They were leaving a dying world in search of a new one. But to the sisters dismay, mankind had already traveled to Alpha Centauri thousands of years before and from the ruins they scavenged much of the advance technology we take for granted today. It should come as no mere coincidence that mankind in a few short decades progressed to such a pinnacle that should have taken many centuries. The pace of progress was too much for mankind and nearly brought about their downfall.
We pondered if our purported ancestors from Alpha Centauri were so advanced that we later learned to improve our own technology, why did they lack all of that when they first made Earth their new found home? Pei had thought the same thing years before and accepted the theory that for whatever reason the Alpha Centaurians shunned their technology as anathema and wanted to start a new, simpler existence. But like our ancestors, we share the same penchant for finding our woe.
In any case, once the Grand Traveler completes its final retrofit and the restoration of its star drives we would all discover the truth of what the sisters found. Pei then asked, as she balanced a shot glass, if the Neo-Artesians wanted to keep this a secret how she as a sister marine already knew this. She laughed at the incompetence.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)