The Lost Colony, DM Arnold [ebook reader for laptop TXT] 📗

Varada. We'll have gravity and atmosphere -- that'll make it easier. According to the yard master, this one was fully functional when taken out of service.”

“Put a team together to bring it on board.”

“But Sir...

“Is there more, Ensign?”

“We couldn't find a more marginal specimen if we looked for one. Certainly the Communications Corps has freshly-decommissioned relays that would be more suitable. We could call in a favor with them and...”

“You have your orders, Ensign.”

Zane snapped to attention and proffered the Floran two-finger salute. “Boom, Sir.” The captain's eyes narrowed and he returned the salute. Zane turned on his heels and marched off the bridge.

Nyk stood holding hands with Andra as they stood in the observation lounge looking aftward. The scout had maneuvered so the house-sized relay station was directly aft, and had matched its velocity. The shuttle bay clamshell doors swung open.

Four open cockpit thrust tractors, manned by crewmen in pressure suits left the bay and headed toward the relay. Two before and two aft, they hooked cables onto it and began towing it toward the open bay. The gap between the scout and the comm station narrowed.

He watched two more crewmen wearing thruster packs drag cables out from the bay. These they hooked onto the relay. With the tractors hauling to the aft to keep the cables taught, they began to draw the device into the shuttle bay.

“It looks like a tight fit,” Nyk remarked. “Let's go below. When will we have another chance to see the outside of a comm relay this close up?”

He headed for the lift and exited on the shuttle bay deck. Peering through the view panel in the pressure door he could watch the crewmen winch the relay station inside. A pair of crewmen placed roller dollies under the station. He could feel scraping transmitted through the deck.

The clamshell swung shut and he could hear the bay pressurize. The pressure door slid open as the captain stepped from the lift car. Zane removed his helmet and wiped perspiration from his brow. “We brought it in, Sir,” he reported.

“So I see.”

“Chief will start fueling the fusion reactors. As long as it's in the bay, we might as well go over the exterior -- make sure the antenna couplings are all sound. I'll install comm protocol upgrades. We'll have it ship-shape before we reach Varada, Captain.”

“That's more like it, Ensign.”

Nyk approached Zane. “We're giving this away?”

“That's the plan.”

“Aren't we afraid the Varadans will learn some secrets? Like our comm ciphers?”

“This will be parked outside their heliopause. They won't be able to reach it -- their fastest shuttle would take ten years to make the transit ... one way. If you'll excuse me, I want to get out of this suit and start breathing life into this thing.”

Nyk wandered around the shuttlebay regarding the relay station. He poked his head into the docking tunnel and saw Zane sitting at a vidisplay running diagnostics. “Come on up,” Zane called to him.

He pushed a stepstool under the docking tunnel and clambered inside. “This is so much smaller than the one near Earth. Is that the crew cabin?”

“Yes,” Zane replied. “No one will want to spend any more time aboard this one than necessary -- not without atmosphere or gravity.”

“How is it coming?”

Zane put down his diagnostic panel. “I have the comm equipment upgraded. This one only has two hundred channels, but it'll do for the Varadans for years to come.” He poked some switches. “Assuming it stays running that long. Right now, we're running it on ship's power.”

“The reactors don't work?”

“So far, the chief hasn't been able to get the fusion reactors fueled -- they leak hydrogen.”

“That's not good.”

“He has one of his mates in the machine shop fabricating a new set of cryogenic couplers which should do the job.”

“What was it you said to the captain right before leaving the bridge?”

“Do you mean, 'Boom, Sir?'”

“Yes -- what does it mean?”

Zane chuckled. “It's a bit of Service slang. It means, 'I think what you're ordering me to do is stupid; but because you out-rank me -- consider it done.' I find myself using it often with the command on this bucket.”

“Isn't it insubordinate?”

“Oh, no.” He gestured toward the communications equipment. “Refusing to work on this piece of pootoo would be insubordinate. There aren't any rules against having opinions, though.”

“Zane -- what's it like?”

“What's what like?”

“What's it like being a male ax'amfin? I'm sorry if my question seems too forward.”

He smiled. “Nykkyo -- Andra has told me some of her experiences with you. I won't consider anything too forward coming from your lips. Being a male ax'amfin is pretty much like being a female one except for the gender thing.”

“That's a rather glib answer.”

“It's the best I can do. Actually, Nykkyo -- you and I have much more in common being men than Andra and I do being ax'amfinen. I think it's easier being a man. Ax'amfin features are more striking on a woman, don't you think?”

“I'd say so.”

“It must be difficult having your physical appearance define your whole life. That part of it is more difficult for the women, I think.”

“Don't you ever wonder?”

“Wonder what?”

“What it would be like to fulfill an ax'amfin assignment?”

He smiled again. “Nykkyo -- the day they told me I failed to make the final cut was the happiest of my life. It meant I was free to fulfill my own dreams.”

“The ExoService?”

“I've wanted to do this since I was a kid. You have to realize what it's like growing up with these features. My parents worked long and hard with genetic counselors before they created an embryo with the right features for the finishing schools. They knew time was running out on my mother's biological clock.

“Finally they had all the features -- the light skin, the blue eyes, the white hair ... certain innate cognitive abilities. It all lined up with the profiles. There was one small problem called a Y chromosome. It was either implant or start over. There's always Rote Academy, they consoled each other.

“Rote accepted me -- on a provisional admission.”

“What does that mean?”

“It meant they'd pay my parents only twenty-five percent, with the rest held in trust until I successfully completed the program. Of course, Rote doesn't pay for boys what Vebinad does for girls in the first place. Here I was -- a double disappointment for my parents. I didn't want to go. When I washed out, they saw their graduation bonus vanish into thin air. I haven't spoken to them since. They accuse me of deliberately failing.”

“Did you?”

Zane smiled. “Like I said, it was the happiest day of my life.”

“Are you enjoying the Service?”

“For the most part. They recognized my talents for the comm stuff during basic training. I got my certificate, but lacked the rank. So, they fast-tracked me through officer's training and assigned me to this barge. Most comm officers are first lieutenants -- or better. Beggars can't be choosers, I suppose.”

“What do you mean?”

“It's not like I could pick my commission. It works both ways -- there's no line of crew out there waiting to man this bucket.”

“The 500s perform a critical function,” Nyk replied. “When the next colony...”

“And, when's THAT going to happen? It's been three hundred years since Lexal was seeded. In the meantime, we run a skeleton crew and make short cruises to keep our systems ship-shape...”

“...And,” Nyk added, “when the Service has something big that needs to be lugged from point A to point B...”

“Like a relay station ... right -- the Service considers us a big, deep-space tender shuttle.”

“You're making the run from Tedium to Apathy and back again, with an occasional side trip to Monotony.”

Zane looked up at him and chortled. “That's a good one.”

“It's a line from a movie program I was watching with my Earth mother-in-law ... about a navy vessel with a similar mission.”

“That's right -- Andra told me a bit of your situation. It sounds like your Agency assignment has been anything but boring.”

“Anything but,” Nyk replied.

“Unlike mine. We also serve who sit and wait... If you'll excuse me I have some more comm circuits to ring out.”

The warp chimes sounded and Nyk belted himself in. “Another jump,” he said. “It's been like this all watch -- jump, then reconnoiter, then jump again. No one can get anything done because as soon as you start something the chimes sound and you have to stow it and belt yourself in.”

Andra adjusted her restraints. “What precisely did you want to accomplish on this crossing?”

“Nothing... But, if I knew this is what life aboard an exo scout was really like -- it would've dampened my enthusiasm right away.”

The viewport shutters closed and the jump shook the ship. The indicators went dark and the shutters retracted. Nyk unhooked his belt and looked out the viewport. “Andra! Look!” Andra bent over and pressed her nose against the port. “It's a globular cluster! That last jump took us way outside the plane of the galaxy. We are really far from home.”

“And no doubt another jump coming.”

“I hope so -- I wouldn't want to be stranded here. But -- isn't that a sight? Those are some of the oldest stars in the galaxy. It looks close enough to touch, but it must be thousands of lightyears away.”

Another chime sounded -- the one ending the watch.

“We're going to spend the night here,” Andra said.

“Looks like. Here is as good as anywhere, I guess... Let's go up to the observation lounge.”

The lift doors opened and he climbed the spiral stairs to the lounge. “Oh, my goodness,” Andra exclaimed.

He pointed. “There's our globular cluster...”

“No, Nyk -- look down!” she said.

“You can see the galaxy -- the central bulge -- our arm of it. This view is worth it all, don't you think?”

“Oh, yes. THIS is why Florans enlist in the ExoService.”

“And, here I am without a camera.”

“What about your handheld?”

“I forgot.” He pulled it from his sash and used the built-in camera to snap photoimages. “Oh, how I wish I could show these to Yasuko and Nicky. Maybe we should bunk here tonight. Could you imagine waking up to that view?”

“I think there's something else you'd like to do to that view.”

“Yes -- if we could assure we wouldn't be interrupted -- we would.”

The chime signaling the start of the watch sounded through the ship. “Are you coming to the captain's briefing?” he asked Andra. “We were asked to be there.”

“No. I can tell when I'm unwelcome in that boy's club.”

“They're an all right bunch.”

“To another man, perhaps. I've sensed nothing but hostility from the senior officers. I don't know if it's because I'm a woman, an ax'amfin, or both. I suspect both. I don't like the way the captain treats Zane.”

“Zane is a precocious junior officer in a senior officer's role. He's handsome, blond and bright -- I'll bet he has no problem getting dates on shore leave. Teasing such a one is part of the Service.”

“It goes beyond teasing, Nyk. Remember -- I've been trained to read people. There's something deeper.”

“You're sure you're not coming.”

“Positive.”

“I'll give you a full report, then.”

Nyk adjusted his xarpa and headed down the corridor into the bridge. From there he stepped into the captain's cabin and took a seat at the conference table.

Captain Hayt sat at the head, along with his first officer, both chief engineers, Zane and the navigator. “We expect planetfall Varada this watch,” Hayt announced. “We have some background material on our objective and our mission.” He gestured toward his navigator.

“Planet Varada masses 1.2 times greater than Floran. Rotational period is ten percent shorter. Revolutionary period is fifteen percent longer. Their sun is class GIII. Solar radiation protection is recommended for crew operating on the surface.

“The axial tilt is eleven degrees. Seasonal variation is minimal. The planet has two moons that appear to be asteroid captures. There are two continents, with the bulk of the population living in a band stretching from roughly the equator to approximately forty degrees north latitude. The population becomes dramatically sparser further north. From approximately seventy degrees to the poles are polar caps. Two small, uninhabited continents lie under each cap.

“Mean surface temperature is twenty-five Celsius; near the equator the mean is thirty-five. The climate in the equatorial zones is temperate to semi-tropical. Rainfall is moderate, and severe weather is uncommon.”

“It sounds very much like Earth,” Nyk remarked. “Nicer than Earth, in fact.”

“It's no wonder the original settlers refused to abandon the planet,” Zane remarked. “It sounds more hospitable than Floran itself.”

The captain rapped the table. “On to our mission. We will have one away team, led by our Comm Chief.”

Zane stood. “I will be taking a team of myself and two midshipmen to deploy the tachyon uplink on the roof of the administration building in the capital city. Local communication trunks have been laid in and we will attempt to configure protocol