by T J Bryan
Then Silvi took command of the conversation.
"Who was that man with the pole? The one who kept shouting," Silvi asked.
Elowin looked intently at Ervin as he explained that the man with the pole was the lead healer on the station, Knarlaon Otho, and as such was in charge of all matters moral and physical, which of course meant everything. The man was a petty dictator. When Elowin heard that Otho was dead she seemed greatly relieved and a broad smile covered her face. Ervin explained that the healer had refused to aid Elowin because she had been contaminated by the evils of Ragnarök. He had also refused to assist the other wounded crew member of the Sword and he had perished. Silvi thought to herself the crew member probably lived just a bit longer due to the refusal of aid from Otho.
Silvi asked about the freighter Treasure of Landing and was told the ship was as old as the station. The warship, now destroyed, had been found floating in the void more than a hundred years ago. There was no astrogation on either ship so they were forced to take a predetermined, pre-programed, and very slow direct route to Hsi which on return passed through Old Stones, and on every passage they were attacked by the small ships Silvi called 'Shorts.' The Treasure of Happy Landing made the trip every five or six years and this recent trip was Ervin's second and Elowin's first. They traded pumps and steam engine parts for fish. The parts were stored in old warehouses but the planet was no longer was able to build new engines. The tools were there, and the raw materials, but the skills were gone.
The planet itself was swept by plagues and fevers every few years and the death toll was high. Healers tried incantations and oaths, but nothing seemed to work. Ervin did not know the population of the planet, but he did know that its' largest city of Hikkston had a population of no more than 30,000. He explained that if cities got any bigger the plagues were more frequent so people tried not to congregate in cities. The Healers said it was the will of God and that even suggesting another source of the plagues was blasphemy and would only bring on more death.
Although fish was the primary element in the diet, thanks to the trips to Hsi, the most expensive and rare items were vegetables, but only Healers had enough money or power to consume them. When Ervin heard Silvi suggest a wealth of vegetables was available at Wu, he, and others, he began to think hard about the healers and their management of Happy Landing. Although Ervin found himself conflicted, when the fight broke out on the dock Ervin knew he had to act, and act he did by killing Otho.
Silvi explained her proposal to Ervin and Elowin. The idea was basically to re-establish a trade route to Wu and back. Given the known knot lines the passage through Old Stones could be eliminated, but there was still risk in The Dark. Therefore an OCN warship would accompany them on their initial trading voyages.
Silvi emphasized the ready availability of food at Wu station shipped in from New Carthago, and she hardly mentioned her secondary objective of introducing hygiene and medicine to their system. First she needed to get Happy Landing's agreement on food. That medicine would follow she decided not to mention.
Silvi remembered Abel's admonition about supplying advanced medicines, or even simple medicines for that matter, to primitive systems. The concern was the disruption and impact of medicine might destabilize the culture and governance leading to chaos and more death. But to Silvi's way of thinking the people of Happy Landing were really slaves of the native healers. The populace had no freedom from disease or any freedoms. Therefore to introduced some modern medicine and hygiene was simply the suppression of slavery. Silvi wondered if Abel would buy her justification, but it was easier to ask his forgiveness than permission. And after all Abel was far, far away.
In discussions with Ervin it became apparent that no one in a leadership position on Happy Landing would agree in advance to such a voyage, so Silvi decided that a fait accompli was better than asking permission. Show up with food and then see what the Healers had to say as they offloaded the food to the people.
The following day as Sigrún covered Ragnarök's descent on the station, Ragnarök captured the old freighter Treasure of Landing with no opposition. It appeared that with the death of Otho, and the very small population of the station, the seizure was accomplished with ease. However upon inspection Silvi realized that the Treasure was a wreck and that she had completed her last few trips was both a miracle and a testimony to the courage of her crew.
Ervin and Elowin would be taken to Wu on Ragnarök to establish trade relations. Foodstuffs and medicines could then return to Happy Landing either on one of the OCN freighters or on the freighter that Wu station was operating out to New Carthago. Ervin was concerned that Happy Landing had nothing to offer Wu in exchange, and Silvi assured him that the first few shipments could be done on simple credit. In truth she knew the right word was 'charity,' but she chose to say credit instead. Once the population was healthy and well fed perhaps they might get the factories running again.
The knot line to return to Wu started with the Happy Landing to Fitz portal. Fitz then had a link directly to Wu. If all went well the trip would take no more than five or six days. Sigrún would accompany Ragnarök to Wu station and there was a real possibility that Kára might well be in the system at the time they arrived.
The following day Captain Arast ordered the ship to return to Wu.
Chapter Sixty Six
Jamon System - Habitat - Year 3246. October 36 ET: 19:12
The Assembly had taken their time in ratifying the treaty with Wu. There had been the usual histrionics and grandstanding along with serious debate and the occasional off the wall questions. But finally the Treaty of Wu was concluded. Captain Smilot signed for the Conclave of Wu and the Chairman signed for the Obsidian Commonwealth. When the treaty was signed there was much back slapping and self congratulations, but Abel knew that some of the terms of the treaty would be very difficult to enforce. The Treaty of Wu guaranteed the independence of the Wu System and promised to defend Wu and its' trading routes as defined in the agreement. This included the knot lines to Wu itself and also to New Carthago and by mutual agreement if Carm and Bizon were found to be willing to join in commerce their knot lines would be included as well. The Treaty included various provisions for adding knot lines and for regular patrols along those lines. In addition the OCN was to station a SAR at Wu Station into the indefinite future.
Captain Smilot had asked that Wu be given its' own SAR but Abel resisted. Abel did not want a second independent force at this early stage of human recovery. Instead he agreed to have citizens of Wu attend the Collegium and qualify for the OCN just as any Commonwealth citizen might. Two of the students from Wu, both young engineers, volunteered. Abel encouraged them in their studies, but cautioned that they must also focus on basic engineering skills in addition to classes at the new Naval Department.
The liner Wu Ascending had brought 34 of its' people to attend the Collegium. Almost all were professionals from many different systems who had been captured and enslaved at Wu by the pirates. Most were women physicians or engineers with varied backgrounds and all were anxious to bring their skills up the level provided by the Collegium. It began to occur to Abel that the Collegium itself was perhaps the OCN's greatest unifying factor with newly recovered systems. The Dark had extinguished so much of human knowledge, and even those who managed to hold on in distant systems no longer maintained the levels of professional attainment needed to bring their systems back to full civilization. Abel wondered if the Collegium itself was perhaps the only institution of its' type left among human kind.
Abel asked the Collegium to establish a committee of Recovery and Reconstruction to talk at great depth to the new Wu students about their home systems and the status of those systems. Of the 34 new students and former prisoners from Wu 12 were from different systems or the remains of those systems. Of those Abel began to target six for potential contact. Unfortunately with the Silvi's C&P, and Farn's R&S out already exploring two knot line hubs he had little in the way of remaining resourc
es. The commitment to patrol the knot lines to Wu, and to station a SAR at Wu, would drain what little he had available within the Jamon System itself.
Once again Abel found himself lacking the crews to meet all of his commitments. SAR's were still available, but of greater concern were skills needed to fly those ships. His second concern was munitions. The supply of missiles and sand casters was not infinite and the recent action at Wu had demonstrated to Abel the need to accelerate the munitions development efforts.
Abel wanted to speak to the two women, once captive at Wu, who had wanted to join the OCN. He was anxious to learn about their home systems, but even more he needed to understand and assess these two who might well qualify to join the OCN. If there was to be any real success for the OCN it might well depend on future crews made up of personnel from newly recovered systems. Abel was concerned that his first efforts at establishing crew requirements had gone badly and he was anxious not to make the same mistake a second time. Only on this occasion it would be made far more difficult by the lack of a common foundation; that of growing up and living within the Habitat and its' common shared values.
Abel stood in a borrowed office in the Collegium and looked out the window at some new construction. The student barracks were being expanded to accommodate the new students from Wu. Smilot had informed Abel and the Collegium that upon the return of Wu Ascending another 112 would like to return as students. The Assembly had agreed as had Abel. He knew that to make the treaty hold he needed to mix as many citizens of Wu with those of the Commonwealth as possible. Of course there would be problems when different traditions and customs mix, but that was the price of unity in a dangerous universe.
A knock on the door alerted him to the arrival of his first interview of the day.
Abel turned to the door. "Come in please."
A very tall thin woman of about 40 years entered the office and glanced about. Her hair was pale yellow almost white, and her complexion pale and her face badly scarred. She did not smile as she looked toward Abel and Abel found her rather reserved in her demeanour. But then again this was an unusual meeting, and Abel was First Admiral of the OCN, and she only a visitor.
"And you must be Norba Norbanus?" Abel had read the full report of the Recovery and Reconstruction Committee and had cleared his desk of any notes or papers. He really wanted to get to know this woman who according to the interview was an engineer trained in maintenance of weather modification equipment on the Diana System.
Norba nodded her head in the affirmative. "Please sit Norba. Would you like some coffee or tea. I recommend the tea, it's from New Carthago and it is excellent."
"No," Norba replied as she sat in the chair opposite Abel's desk. Abel thought to himself this desk is a bad idea. It would be better to talk in a less formal setting like a habitat living room or perhaps a quiet cafe.
"Ah," he said. "Well if you do not mind I shall have some of this wonderful tea." Abel turned to the hot water urn that was present in almost every Collegium office and poured hot water into a small teapot. He deliberately was taking his time. He found the tea canister and placed the tea into the little pot. He picked up two cups and returned to the desk. As he placed the cups on the desk he said, "Just in case you change your mind."
Abel knew from the R&R interview not to ask about family. Norba's family had been murdered by the pirates and the wounds of that murder were still painful.
But Abel needed to find out what motivated Norba and he needed to determine how she might fit in the expanded OCN
"Can you tell me about your work on weather modification on Diana? I understand that the planet is a challenge and without your work the system would be un-inhabitable."
Norba thought a moment. "I am fully qualified on R17 through R21 rain inductors. I have a full maintenance certificate on the B series tornado arrestors and I was studying Hurricane Origin Modification Generators at the time of my capture."
She paused at the mention of her capture and Able noticed a brief shadow cross her face as she remembered some horrific event. Abel pressed on.
"Ah, I understand Diana has very advanced weather modification systems. Can you explain them to me. Here in the Habitat we simply have no weather at all. Well, we have sun and moon time, and occasional artificial rain to wash things down, but no real weather at all."
Norba was quiet for a long time. Abel thought perhaps this was not the best subject to begin their conversation. But moments later she began to speak.
"Diana was settled well before my ancestors understood conditions on the planet. They arrived escaping the initial outbreak of what you call the Great War. My people call it the 'Human Failure.'"
Abel thought the name 'Human Failure' was a very apt description of the Great War.
Norba continued, "Perhaps you know the history. Your Collegium seems to know so much."
"Actually we know very little about Diana and its' people. The 'Human Failure' broke down all communications and even the Encyclopaedia Gallectica seems to have little to say."
Again Norba seemed quiet for a long time. Was she thinking wondered Abel? Was she reticent to discuss the past? Perhaps Diana, which had avoided the worst outrages of the Great War, had adopted silence to avoid the attraction of the two warring giants. Abel was about to speak when Norba again began to describe Diana.
"Our system has 32 planets around a 'K' class star. It's a sub giant with what I now know is a weak orange hydrogen deficient light providing sun. It's rather cool for a sun. The problem for my ancestors is that they were desperate for a home and the one habitable planet looked very attractive. And actually at the moment in galactic time they surveyed the planet it was ideal. A little heavy on the gravity side and with a very dense atmosphere and one thin long continent surrounded by seas. Our planet is about 80 percent water and the axial tilt is about 18 degrees. Anyway, what they didn't figure on was the effect of the other 31 planets and their gravity interaction with one another. Our planet, Diana, was in an elliptical orbit of great complexity and soon after we landed the planet was moved a bit closer to the sun and was influenced by three other nearby giant planets. The result was weather. On a good day the wind from the north runs at 240 kilometres per hour. When it storms the wind might well be double that. The electrical storms are really the worst because they are constant and seem to line up across the continent like soldiers marching to war. Hurricanes of course. And large ocean waves."
Abel could hardly imagine a wind of 10 kilometres per hour but the idea of winds that strong amazed him
Norba continued, "After landing and as the weather began to change we decided there was no option but to try to change the weather. So for 400 years or so we designed and built weather modification stations. The early years were ones of failure, but after a hundred years or so we kind of understood the dynamics of the weather and what was needed to attenuate its' worst aspects. We also learned how to build habitats in that weather. We went underground."
"Weather modification must be heavily energy dependent?" said Abel.
"Very," Norba replied. "But the constant electrical discharges from the skies allowed us to build lightening collectors. When the weather needed the most mods the lightening supplied more than enough power. Now my people live in several areas in which we modify the weather on most days. Sometimes we just hunker down."
"Your knowledge of weather and the equipment needed to modify that weather is very interesting. I suspect that others might find your knowledge valuable."
Norba shrugged.
"I also understand that Diana builds atmospheric flyers. Now with the winds and weather that must be a real challenge."
Norba nodded affirmatively but didn't volunteer any information.
"But you did have some trade with other systems, even after the 'Human Failure?"
"Yes, we had by the time I left Diana 16 orbital stations for weather mods. Two we used as trading posts. We built our own heavy lifters and also small freighters. The freighters were slow
by your standards, but they were sturdy. We had some commerce the Gabii, Moschus, and Larissa. Gabbi needed weather mod equipment and we traded with them for food. Larissa, now that is a really strange place, we traded mostly atmospheric flyers there in return for fusion engines and some automata. I was on my way to Gabbi to do some maintenance and installation work when we were attacked. I got captured." Again Abel detected pain in her posture.
Abel decided to change the subject. "You have seen our OCN training and qualification stations? Have you had the opportunity to try one out?"
Norba nodded yes, but didn't say anything.
So Abel tried another approach. "Norba why do you want to join the OCN?"
Her reply was immediate, "To kill pirates."
Abel knew that the answer was truthful, but the directness of it and the intent bothered him. There was more to the OCN than the single determination to kill pirates. He would have to watch Norba Norbanus carefully to ensure that her obsession did not cause harm to the OCN crews, or the Habitat, or the reconstruction of human space.
Eventually Norba accepted a cup of tea and the conversation returned to weather modifications equipment, techniques, and other technical matters that Norba found non-threatening and eventually enjoyable.
As the conversation ended Abel concluded that if Norba qualified as crew, in whatever capacity, she was likely to be either a stellar crewman or a complete disaster. Time would tell.
Abel's Second interview was with Quadi Dio a woman of 23 who was a civil engineer who had built dams, dykes, canals, and bridges on her native Hypsistos. She was not much taller than Abel and now that food was readily available to everyone on Wu she was clearly filling out her once emaciated frame. Her hair was brown and cut quite short. Abel found her affable and talkative.
"Can you tell me a bit about your civil engineering experiences."
"I apprenticed under Mal Fello on Hypsistos, my home world, since I was 12. He taught me everything a civil engineer needs to know. And I made some mistakes, and from those I also learned a lot. Ours is primarily an agricultural planet with mostly flat lands and lots of rain. We also make pharmaceuticals for export to places like Diana, Larissa and Gabii and a couple others. Drainage was my specialty. I built dams, and canals and water systems as an apprentice, and when I was granted guild status I actually got to do some design work. Nothing big mind you, but when it is completed and you stand there watching the water flow, contained, and managed it is a great feeling. Nothing like it."
