by P F Walsh
Now, the Orchestra on the elevated platform over the stage began to play the Polonaise. The first two couples alongside each other, four abreast, of one hundred and eighty young couples, came down the stairs followed by a long line behind them as they stepped slowly across the Hall floor. Each young lady was in a white ball gown with their hair up and wearing a sparkling tiara. They marched to the back of the Hall, split and doubled back to line each side of the floor. The ladies each held a bouquet of Hhearn flowers. The front of the entire balcony, back, and sides, was covered with matching, blooming flowers. The spotlight played over the couples as the tiaras flashed. The Hhearn crowd was mesmerized by the syncopation of music to a stately promenade. Once the Debutantes were all lined up on either side of the Hall, the orchestra on the floor began to play as the Ballet dancers streamed out onto the floor, and began to dance.
Hhearn had never seen an Earth’s Ballet and the audience murmured with ‘ooh’s’ when they saw the ballerinas go up en pointe in moves the Hhearnians would have proclaimed impossible until they saw the Grande Jete’s and other moves performed and knew they had to find a new word for this. The standing applause on their completion was sustained and enthusiastic. The Orchestra then struck up an overture from the “Barber of Seville” by Rossini. After the Orchestra had taken its bows, they began to play for the first of two opera singers, both male tenors whose booming voices filled the room with excitement and marvel at their power and talent. They sang in Italian, and none of the Hhearnians could understand the words, but the performance and the music were thrilling.
Next on the program was a choreographed group dance by all the Debutantes and their Escorts moving in and out in complex steps and moves. Ball gowns twirling and coat tails flying. More applause and then the Orchestra played the First Strauss waltz of the evening as the Debutantes and their Escort twirled around the room in a Viennese waltz. Every woman in the Hall wanted to be on that floor even though they did not know how to dance. Hundreds of silent resolutions were made to learn how. At the end of that waltz, the choreographer turned to the audience and said,
“Ales Waltzer,” (Everyone Waltz.) The President, along with Secretary Lewis, Maejel, and Millie moved down to the floor to dance. The President Took Millie’s hand and led her to the dance floor with the biggest possible smile she could manage without splitting her face as she glanced at Maejel. Sean and Nasht-Mer, Doris and Maja-Ben and a few others left their seating and went down to the main floor to dance as the remaining Hhearnians watched and yearned to be down there too.
The music continued, one Orchestra alternating with the other, mixed in with the sound of Earth champagne corks popping, and lots of laughter. Hhearn neophyte dancing couples moved onto the floor as the Orchestra played dance band music. In Vienna, their Ball goes until 5 AM. On Hhearn it closed at 2 AM, but had started earlier than Vienna. An enormously satisfied crowd clutching their programs, gifts of Swarovski champagne flutes, were slowly leaving a magical evening. Every one as they left, asking Liesl Von Woldenburg through an interpreter,
“Will it be an annual event? “
“Can my daughter participate?”
“Where do we buy the gowns and tiaras?”
The Broadcast producer came out to personally thank Liesl for the camera placements and camera calls as the program progressed. He said to her,
“The broadcast looked like we knew what we were doing, and had done this before. I am so grateful for your help and a breathtakingly. gorgeous evening. I really hope you will be back next year.”
Then, in an Earth move he had seen recently, he kissed her hand and left. Liesl glowed with satisfaction of competing an impossible project successfully. They all went back to the Seeker and gathered in the lounge, too excited to head for bed as the bar became busy for nightcaps and more champagne. Some of the musicians sat and played dance music while others of the group and the debutante couples danced. Allister watched and smiled,
“So much better than searching the galaxy alone.” He thought, and allowed his mind to consider possibilities.
Liesl danced a few dances, had two drinks and went to her cabin to sleep, exhausted but satisfied
The broadcast had reached epic polling as did the other Earth events. Mail flooded in wanting to know how daughters could be considered as debutantes for the Ball next year, and where can she and her daughter buy one of those Ball gowns? All this mail was opened, sorted and sent over to Liesl at the Seeker which wasn’t leaving for Earth for three solars after the Ball. There were hundreds, and more were still coming in from the other member worlds which had seen the Ball on the vid.
The next solar, the Senior Councilor consulted with the other Councilors on whether they should have a Ball at the end of each annual meeting. He received the most unanimously positive response he could remember on any polling issue. He too received queries regarding daughters and gown purchases. He sent those over to the Earth Embassy to Wally, knowing how adept these Earth folks could be to make things happen. He reflected a bit on the tux rental and could see that a specific dress code separated this event as being exceptional, and also rendered garment competition entirely to the ladies on gowns. The men were dressed all alike, dignified, and for a night, equal in importance. He felt that was a good thing and wondered why they had not thought of it before, especially the music.
“We would have lost all of this had we sent Earth into Vassal status. That would have been a great error of greed.” He thought. As he sat down behind his desk to prepare for another boring meeting.
“I wonder if Sean needs another ship crewman, even if he is as old as me?” He thought.
The President of the United States got up the next morning and, in a few minutes, went down to the Seeker dining room with his secret service contingent for breakfast. Allister was there of course, watching to make certain everything was going as planned. He nodded to recognize the President as he entered. The President could smell the coffee and bacon, essential hallmarks for beginning the day and got to work at the buffet preparing himself a plate, moving to a table nearby. After a few minutes the Secretary joined him.
“Good Morning Mr. President, are we up and about after a late night?” he asked
“Well John...most of the body is, the mind is still trying to sift out the champagne bubbles.” He answered. The Secretary began,
“Last night I had a chance to talk to the Speaker of the Assembly of Denknish. She doesn’t know how to dance by the way, and she was telling me they have a number of starships for sale and would we be interested. She insists we would receive a much lower price based upon our service to their planet and Lotma. I told her I would check with you. She offered to ride us back to Denknish to look them over and transport us back to Earth. She asked some ladies at the Ball where they got their gowns. Guess where she wants to visit?”
“Sounds like we need to extend out trip doesn’t it?” Asked the President, “I’m always looking for a bargain. Let Eddie know so he can check out her ship and accept Her invitation. I guess we should send a courier drone back to Earth to let them know what we’re doing.”
The Secretary said he would take care of it all and went to the buffet to load up a plate as Millie came into the room and was motioned by the President to join him. Another blazing smile as she went to the buffet assembled a nice light breakfast, and returned to sit with the President and the Secretary to enjoy breakfast and good company.
“That was some night you ladies pulled off.” The President said, “What’s next?”
“Thank you, Sir, there will be a bit of thinking on what’s next. We have lots of requests for booking of Concerts, and now dance band request are beginning to come in, so I suppose we will be booking lots of events, and keeping Earth musicians and entertainers busy. The big problem is transport.” She said.
“I think we may be solving some of that problem in the next few days Millie, we’re going to look at some starships after we leave here. Earth needs some people transports
. We have three freighters but they would not work for comfortable people transport. We’ll let you know through Maejel as soon as we have some.” He said.
She nodded, and continued eating. “He’s a really good dancer. I wonder if any of my friends will see us dancing on the telly?” She thought. She knew a vid had been recorded and sent back to Earth for the media to follow the President’s trip.
At the Den Mill of the Sisters of Mak’am, Mother Primitia suddenly sat upright in her alcove as she was absorbing the energy from the generator.
“I can hear the voices.” She murmured in her mind and jumped up to rush to her pedestal, from there she could call the Sisters to conclave. In a short time, they were all in attendance in front of her, standing in rows and waiting.
“The time we have waited for so long has arrived. The voice of our conveyance whispers in my mind. It is mournful and hopeful to be found. I now know the exact spot where our energy renovation lies awaiting our rescue.” She said soothingly into their minds.
The Sisters began to sway back and forth mentally whispering the ancient prayer chants. The Zelkon hawks in their roost above, now excited by all the words and images in their minds, flew out of the tower into the night as a flock now knowing where they were to go to confirm Mother Primitia’s urgings. They flew into the city and caused a stir as people noticed them circling above and wondered what they were hunting. Many saw this as a bad omen and hustled away.
The Senior Councilor was having his weekly security meeting that had skipped a week because of the annual Council Meeting. Added to that was all the time he had to spend with some of the leaders of the fifty planets who wished a private session in his office. Most were business related, some territorial disputes that needed to come before the Council for boundary adjustments, and a serious complaint from Rhhymnet, the furthest member that another freighter had been pirated and the crew set adrift. This time, the crew had run out of air in the escape pod where the pirates had confined them and set them adrift. Their emergency beacon was still sending when the escape pod was found. The entire crew was dead.
This escalated the level of concern for both the host planet and the Council. Council war ships had patrolled the area twice already with no detection of any unidentified ships. This was the third freighter taken. Normally each member planet would patrol its own area of space. In all three cases the patrol craft were in another sector far away when the piracy occurred. The Freight Company’s only notification came from the notice of an overdue ship from its destination. This was often a long interval as it was in this latest case. By the time a notice worked its way back to the Freight Company that its freighter was overdue, a large period of time had elapsed giving the pirates ample time to secure the vessel and take it to wherever they had a base.
The confusion raised was in the logic of it. The freighters were not being used in any Council Member planet shipping since the identification of each freighter was embedded in both the AI onboard and the anti-matter power source. While the AI could be changed, the anti-matter power source could not. The ships were literally built around the power source and once charged, exhibited an energy flow that had a distinctive marker that was different for every unit. The two identification markers were displayed on query and must match. None of the ships had been detected as being in use. “What were they using them for?” The Councilor wondered
“Send the information and ID codes on these freighters to Denknish and Lotma and alert them these freighters are stolen. It’s not likely it’s them, they now have a surplus of ships they’re trying to sell, but one may turn up there.” Said the Senior Councilor.
Maja-Ben an agent from the SIS (State Investigation Service) who was attending the briefing suggested,
“We can send Rhhymnet some of our LS Beacons. These are latent squawkers Sir. These are like emergency beacons, but only squawk a signal after a set period of time. We could set these to wait a lunar and then briefly send a signal at a specified time and random intervals. We would know what those were for each unit and be out there waiting to pick it up. I recommend they be installed clandestinely without the Company’s knowledge. We can insert one of our people on the cleaning staff to handle this. It looks like someone on the inside is providing routes and departure times to the pirates.” He suggested.
“How does it get activated if the crew doesn’t know it’s there? Asked the Councilor.
“The unit is connected to the navigation system and knows the route. If the ship shuts down somewhere along that route in an unscheduled stop, the unit is activated but won’t start transmitting a signal until the delay interval has expired.” Said Maja.
“How many freighters does Rhhymnet have?” The Councilor asked.
“I believe they now have nine, Sir.” He answered.
“Do it, as soon as you can, we have to catch these people, they are now guilty of murder since the crew died. Lethal force authorized.” The Councilor said.
“Next item?” He said as he shuffled his papers.
“Sir, the next item is a bit strange.” Said Erkrut-Dom a Supervisor from SIS and Maja-Ben’s boss.
We have a complaint from Member Leerkon that the junk yard is being looted.”
“A junk yard is being looted?” Repeated the Councilor with an amused surprise in his voice.
“Yes sir, several retired, old ships have been stolen. As you know sir, Leerkon is the Member world that recycles all the recyclable material from our members. This is the first criminal complaint we have ever received from them and their local enforcement people are puzzled.” Said Erkrut.
“Why are they just noticing this now?” Asked the Councilor.
“Sir, the ships are stored quite a distance apart from each other to prevent damage from drifting collisions. From time to time a Yard tender goes out to readjust their locations and determined the ships were missing.”
“Do you think this bears SIS investigation?” The Councilor asked Erkrut.
“I think we should take a look at it, sir. Someone is accumulating a small fleet. We can’t imagine it is for benevolent purposes.” he said
“Very well, send someone out there.” The Councilor ordered.
“Dare I say, what’s next?” The Councilor asked with a smile.
The construction crew from Denknish and Lotma was making good progress in excavating the site for the two new office buildings in Hhearn City. They had fenced in the area with metal screen fencing. That allowed the breeze to flow through to help keep the site cooler and allowed people to stand and watch the progress. Maklo Boorlik was the construction Manager, called the ‘JB’ for Job Boss, and he was harassing the shovel operator to take bigger bites of the soil to fill the machine’s bucket more fully. Operators sometimes ease back on the soil removal to extend the job and therefore their employment. The Operator frowned but nodded affirmatively that he got the message. The shovel excavation was for the basements. On the other side of the site, a drill rig was drilling down to set end bearing pilings for the first building to the stone below the upper loose soil. These would carry the weight of the buildings.
All was going well on the drill rig. Six holes had been drilled and then set with metal sleeve forms and re-bars inserted. Three had already had plascrete poured in them. The drilling had been easy through the mostly sandy soil which was too loose to support a building the size the plans called for; thus, the pilings would take the load. They were just ahead of schedule on the drilling. The heavy-duty engine that drove the drill head was running fine and not laboring. That was when the drill head hit something that stopped the rig, and its faster than usual drill advance, with a shock that ran back up the drill rod and shook the whole rig. The engine stalled. The sudden drop in noise alerted Maklo of his first snag on this job.
“What in blazes is wrong now, they’re not down to the stone yet.” He thought to himself as he strode over to the drill rig.
“Hey Boss, looks like we hit something. You want me to pull up the head?” Ask
ed the rig operator.
“Yeah, pull ‘er up, but do it slow, and watch for unexpected water pressure, we may have hit a main not shown on the utility plan.”
The operator nodded and restarted the engine. When the rig hit something, the clutches automatically popped out, the operator now shifted the feed to reverse and slowly engaged the clutch to draw out the drill head. The head came out clean with no water coming behind it, just a pile of sandy soil it had cut free. Both the operator and the job boss pulled back the safety cage to get closer to the drill head. They bent down to look and saw that several of the cutting teeth had been broken off and the remaining ones looked polished. Whatever they hit was harder than the cutters on the drill head. Under normal circumstances virtually impossible.
The drill operator had been drilling for three decades.
“Never seen anything like this JB. What do you want us to do after we change the drill head?” He asked.
“Swing the rig away a few feet from the hole and let’s get a vid cam down there and look it over. Whatever it is, we can’t build a big building on top of it until we know it’s not going to collapse. It may be hard but brittle. Get the cam. Let’s call a break, it’s time for lunch anyway. You and I will work on this and catch lunch later” He said.
He stood up and blew the job whistle, pointing to his mouth, letting the crew know it was a lunch call. The site got very quiet as all the machines stopped and the crew headed for their lunch buckets.
Liesl Von Woldenburg was overwhelmed with email, snail mail, and incoming calls to the Seeker from Hhearnians asking about next year’s Ball. She was stymied by all this demand and a pending departure back to Earth for the Seeker and its passengers. She asked for a meeting with Allister and Maejel to decide what to do about all this interest that they have stirred up. Maejel, sensing that this turned into a bigger problem than anticipated put out a call for Sean to attend as well. They met in the Seeker’s small dining room with closed doors. Since Sean was only now being made aware of the demand, Maejel and Liesl recapped all the voluminous contacts they had received. Sean listened and then spoke,
