Tehom: The Tehom Legacy Book One

by S. Abel de Valcourt

  “Yokon Yuan’s father, that’s right. The red Frerec moss released micro spores, harmless to adults. But to the little babies it made them unable to breathe right and the spores were too small to filter out, we just watched helplessly as their O2 levels dropped and they passed. Ben Opku made screens of chlorophyll that actually ate the spores and made the air safe for the babies. But we lost nearly a thousand people, Alphas and Betas. I even lost my first two babies to it, Liberty and Simeon. Just not meant to be, I guess God had other plans.” Eleanor’s eyes had filled with tears and memories.

  “It must have been terrible Gran, but we made it. We’re all still here!” Neela put her hand on her great grandmother’s shoulder.

  “A miracle child, a miracle of miracles. Just like breakfast. It wasn’t till the Deltas started coming that we really recovered from all that loss. You Deltas replaced the Alphas as we all passed on and the Gamma’s stepped into our roles, so few Betas left, the Gammas have done well though, I think.”

  “Do you really think that Tehom Prime will be what we think it is?”

  “Well, we can’t see it yet. Moving too fast, we are still flying blind. We should start the slow down soon.”

  “Still have a week, and they are all arguing about it in Council.”

  “I thought we settled that?”

  “Zelde, Signo and Samis want to delay the slow down and cut a few years off the flight.”

  “So entitled, those three. Everything now, no patience.” Eleanor shook her head.

  “Well, Eliisabet has kept them quiet mostly, but they are starting to get louder.”

  “Is it really becoming that big of a problem for her?” Eleanor looked very serious for a moment.

  “She asked me to mention it to you.”

  “Then I guess we are going on a bit of a field trip today.” The old woman stood, but remained hunched over. She still had managed to be able to dress herself each morning, even though she rarely left her room. Across from her sat a make shift wheel chair fabricated from a metal chair and spare parts. Uncomfortable to be sure, but it got the job done.

  The path from the Tehom quarters to the Council Chambers was a long one, across the ship long ways and through the promenade. It was not lost on Eleanor that she had seemingly few of these trips left in her. The faces that smiled at her all seemed familiar, ghosts of people she once knew well looked kindly at her from behind the eyes of their children and grand children. This journey always took a lot out of her physically, and so it wasn’t ventured often.

  As they reached the promenade, people stopped and turned to watch her, and when she waved politely applause broke out and crowds formed. Eleanor’s voice was heard often, she read children books over the video intercom, and she spoke to the Council the same way, arguably with the same tone. Eleanor had become a creature of myth and legend to many, and to see her out in public was a distinct rarity.

  The Council was already in hot debate, the raised voices carried over the bulkheads. To Eleanor it reminded her of children bickering over nothing. However, to her, everyone on board was a child and this issue was far from nothing.

  “The mission parameters are stupid and overly cautious! It makes no sense to stop the engine and lose gravity for six months before we reverse!” Zelde shouted as Eleanor and Neela walked in without knocking and unannounced.

  “The mission parameters keep us all safe and alive; there is no reason to be in a hurry. I am just as anxious to get there as you are, but this Council’s responsibility is to life, not to time.” Eliisabet stood as she spoke and nodded respectfully to her grandmother.

  The voices and murmurs of greeting from each member of the council continued for quite a few minutes before the meeting continued.

  “Why would we throw the whole ship into chaos with a loss of gravity for six cycles while we coast, when we could accomplish the same thing in a week and cut ten years off our trip? I’ve run the math, the planet will be in the right place. There is no unacceptable risk here.” Samis stood and spoke and the meeting returned to business.

  “Because there is no need to hurry.” Everyone turned quiet as Eleanor spoke, “Five years, ten years, or fifteen years... In the grand scheme of things, it doesn’t really matter. Samis you will be forty five when we get to Tehom Prime instead of thirty five. That seems a lot to you now, but by then you will have grand children of your own. The pitter patter of little Epsilon feet on the deck may very well slow you down. Maybe you won’t be in such a rush then.

  “But we are so close! Why prolong this trip when we don’t have to!” Signo stood and crossed his arms, looking characteristically like a child much younger. Eleanor smiled.

  “I am here to settle this. The mission parameters will not change, there are already too many unknown factors to risk more. We have a greater responsibility here, too great to fall victim to impatience! How will the engine react to being put into reverse? How long does the core take to cool down, so that it safe to reverse the flow? What will the effect of prolonged lack of gravity have on the ships biological systems? The orbit of Tehom Prime around Cassiopeia combined with stellar drift? These are all questions that were factored in by rooms full of computing systems and the best scientists of Earth. We need to continue trusting them, they got us where we are now, and they will get us where we are going. There will be no change, is that understood?” Eleanor lost her kind tone toward the end and sounded very much like she had just scolded a child for stealing cookies before dinner. Zelde found it insulting and the rage built within her.

  The vote came down as predicted by Eliisabet, 17 to 3. Most votes of important issue came down and ostracized the same three members, to some it was comical. Eliisabet found it dangerous, the same three always told no, always cast down, and always cast aside. She knew they hated her and her grandmother; she just wasn’t sure how much.

  ***

  “Those Bloodheads think they can get away with anything, why do they even have that stupid council. The Tehom’s run everything anyway!” Zelde shouted as she walked down the hall to the room she shared with Samis.

  “They can get away with anything, two sentences of words strewn along by that old hag just quashed three months of debate and progress.” Samis replied in kind.

  “Fuck that bitch.” Signo was quick to chime in, as to not be left forgotten in the conversation. He was always very careful to maintain agreement; he had long ago become Zelde’s yes man.

  The trio walked quickly down the hall fuming and angry, any passersby quickly jumped out of their way, it was known not to cross Zelde and few ever did, save the Tehoms’. Since she had first sat in on the council meetings her ideas had been cast aside, not because they were bad ideas, but because she had come up with them. For years Zelde’s ideas had gotten grander and cleverer, yet at every turn the council discarded both her and her ideas any chance they got.

  “Don’t worry, that old hag will pass on soon enough.” Signo said when the three of them were finally alone, “Soon we won’t have to worry about her anymore, she is what 93 now?”

  “She is determined to see Tehom Prime, she is going to live forever.” Zelde threw her jacket on her bed and stripped down to only her bra and panties in full view of the other two.

  “Maybe someone should just retire her.” Samis said coldly as she sat down in the chair that Signo normally sat in during their social get-togethers.

  “Don’t say that, someone might be listening. That’s trouble we don’t need.” Signo, worried more about getting in trouble than in the essence of the words.

  “It wouldn’t matter, that little tramp Neela is being groomed to take the old lady’s spot anyway, everyone knows it. Even Eliisabet can’t stop it. Soon we will all have to listen to that baby Neela spout about what Eleanor would have wanted. Same bullshit, different face saying it.” Zelde took a sip of water and for a moment lost herself in her own reflection in the mirror.

  The years of hate and political failings had taken a toll on her, even as o
ne of the oldest Delta generation members at 27, Zelde looked much older. Her black hair showing streaks of grey and she seemed to have a constant scowl on her face. Gone was the kind, intelligent, open minded girl of her youth, someone else has stepped into her. She didn’t even recognize herself in the mirror sometimes.

  From the corner of her eye she could see Signo and Samis eyeing one another, the two of them flirted often, but never consummated. Zelde had long claimed Signo as her own. It was lonely for him, but none dared to cross Zelde. He couldn’t get another woman on board to give him a friendly look out of fear that Zelde would find out, her jealousy and ire had become widely reported.

  “They really want to stretch this trip as long as possible. It makes no sense.” Zelde finally spoke, and interrupted the two making eyes at one another behind her.

  “We could do something about it, force the issue as it were?” Samis appeared meek and quiet, but behind her dark eyes was a mind even more devious and cold than even Zelde could imagine.

  “What do you mean?” Signo looked at her suspiciously.

  “Well, we all know what we need to do. If we kept the Bierre Drive running an extra week or two the only choice would be to follow our plan. They would have to throw the drive into reverse almost immediately, rerun all the math and figure it out. We’d be there in around five years instead of fifteen. All we would have to do, is delay the shut down that long, lock them out for at least a week.”

  “Sabotage? You can’t be serious.” Signo started to look less suspicious and more worried.

  “Nothing serious, we would have to keep power to the drives, but a week in the dark would be better than six months without gravity and another decade of waiting.”

  “I’m not going to be a part of this, there is no way. We would all be shoved out an airlock!” Signo raised his voice and the other two hushed him.

  “Shut up idiot.” Zelde whispered.

  “I’m just saying, there has to be another way.”

  “She has a point, Eleanor has shoved us in a corner, she won’t listen to reason, won’t listen to anyone unless it comes from one of her family. Maybe we should do something.” Zelde shook her head.

  “It wouldn’t be that hard really, sever the power pipeline to the bridge where the engine controls are. The engine would stay active, most of the ship would go dark, but everything important would stay active, we wouldn’t lose air or anything.” Samis dug deeper into the conspiracy.

  “The confusion might allow us to clean a bit of house as well, make some room for some opposing viewpoints on the council.” Zelde kicked her panties across the floor and straddled the still fully clothed Signo.

  “I should go.” Samis looked away.

  “Unless you want to watch… or join in.” Zelde prodded her knowingly.

  Samis walked to the door and caught a glimpse of Zelde whispering something into Signo’s ear before she closed it behind her.

  Chapter Twenty One: Lovers

  “Look, I know you like her and its ok. I just don’t think she sees you like that Ronar.” Hardt had his back against a wall, in front of him a crowd had gathered watching the commotion and Ronar Gamma-Utgaard blocked any hope of a clean exit.

  “Stay away from her, she is mine. I don’t care if you’re a Bloodhead or not, she’s mine.” Ronar was a massive man, obviously more meat than brains but he was determined.

  For months the two had shared the same infatuation with Mariposa Delta-Beauvers, and she had pitted the two against each other wholly by accident. In the early days of the TOGS when women had outnumbered men so overwhelmingly relationship triangles were common, even generally encouraged. However, as the population had evened out over the generations the jealousy of men had taken over and such conflicts were rarely settled calmly or amiably.

  The constant competition between Ronar Gamma-Utgaard and Hardt Delta-Rush was the source of much social interest, constant gossip and even betting pools.

  Mariposa Delta-Beauvers had been born with the red hair and pale skin of her grandmother despite her father being of Asian descent. Hardt was half Tehom, and thus had an almost identical shade of hair color. Ronar in sharp contrast was a brute, roughly double the size of Hardt with dark brown hair and olive skin. Normally it was obvious who would win such contests, hereditary and social contests on board were all heavily weighted in the favor of the Ginger population. They had become the celebrities and heroes of society. Ronar was thought of as too dumb to follow the rules, too stubborn to understand he had long ago lost the battle for the heart of his childhood friend.

  Ronar and Mariposa had sat next to each other for years in the almost constant schooling between birth and age seventeen. The games of instructional and subliminal learning had been difficult for him to grasp, but she had helped him and tutored him for years, long enough for him to have developed a neanderthalian sense of ownership. Although of different ordered generations they were only a year apart in age and had been close friends their whole lives. Until Hardt and Mariposa had turned romantic, Ronar had followed her around like a puppy even into adulthood.

  “Look you need to talk to Mari about this, I know you two are friends and I’m not getting in the way of that.” Hardt stumbled over his words. He wasn’t a coward, but even a matador knows to get out of the way of the bull.

  “I will find a way to get you out of the way Hardt, you Bloodheads can’t have everything!” Ronar in a moment of clarity glanced behind at the crowd that had gathered and simply stormed off away from the confrontation and the crowd.

  “That man is going to kill you Hardt. You really need to stay away from him.” Samis crossed her arms and shook her head at him as the crowd dissipated.

  “You’re on the Council; can’t you do something about him? Even Mariposa is afraid of him now.”

  “Well, he hasn’t technically done anything wrong you know. Pushing around a rival suitor isn’t exactly a capital offense. But I will mention it to Zelde, see what she thinks.” Samis nodded in compassion. “If he does do anything off color though, make sure you talk to a Peacekeeper, don’t sit on it.”

  “Absolutely, sadly I think it is going to come to that.” Hardt shook his head and walked away nervously.

  Samis took a hard look around Rushes. Couples flirted amongst themselves, and alcohol flowed freely any time between 1800 and 2300. As the Alphas has passed, one of the first things to change was the prohibition of alcohol. Vodka was easily made from potatoes, something that the TOGS had an abundance of and showed no shortage of creative ways to tint, flavor and mix. Samis sighed disapprovingly as a couples flirting became more shameless and a man’s pants hit the floor to the delight of his companion. Most in the room turned away as the Peacekeepers made their way to shuffle the pair out of the promenade, but Samis simply glared.

  “These people should be training, thinking and planning. Instead they’re drunk and fornicating like the rabbits down in the farms.” Samis said out loud, but to nobody in particular.

  “Why? Most of them will never touch Tehom Prime, or be too old to be much of any help. It’s their children that will be doing all the real work and advancement.” Zelde sat next to Samis.

  “All done with Signo for the evening then?” Samis licked her lips suggestively.

  “You are welcome to keep him company, if you’d ever show some initiative. It’s obvious your panties get wet every time he walks in the room.” Zelde said bluntly.

  “I thought… but you’d be ok with that?” Samis blushed hopefully.

  “See, I knew you liked him. Sure, I use him up too fast these days, the thrill is done. I think I have tortured the two of you enough, don’t you? Besides, you two are mad for each other, you are both just too stupidly frightened of your own shadow to follow through.”

  “Zelde you are serious? Don’t joke, not about this.” Samis looked directly into Zelde’s face.

  “Yes, yes. But now you have to help me find someone else, someone that will rough me up and fuck me like they
are angry and their ass is on fire. I have had enough of Signo’s sweet soft musing and pretending I am you, it is pathetic.”

  “Someone else?” Samis smiled slightly. “You know, Ronar was just in here. Pissed off, beast mode, and pushing Hardt up against the wall. You might be able to play with him for a while… be careful though, he might end up being the one to play with you!” Samis laughed freely.

  “That’s not a bad idea… besides he might be useful if I could leash him.” Zelde’s face had gone from disinterested to sinister.

  The two parted, Samis walked slowly away trying to think of an excuse to visit Signo, and even though she knew he would be dripping and smelling of Zelde; she just wanted to see him.

  Zelde however walked across the promenade much more driven, if they were truly to orchestrate a coup d’etat they would need an enforcer, a protector and someone that would follow orders without asking too many questions. Ronar seemed a perfect fit, big enough to stand in front like a wall, and dumb enough to stay there.

  “Ronar… I hear you have been causing trouble again?” Zelde ran her fingernails across the metal wall panel as she entered the recreational education bay Ronar had retreated to.

  “No. Just helping Hardt make the right choice.” He grunted.

  “Oh? What choice is that? You know he is going to get the girl. All he has to do is flash his red hair and give a smile, she will fall right into his arms and leave you in the corner holding your dick in your hand and a dream in your heart.” Zelde laughed, teasing him.

  “Don’t tease me, I want to kill that little prick.” Ronar glared at Zelde, his words unguarded.

  “You know, if you really did want to ring his neck a bit, I could be persuaded to look the other way, maybe even give you an alibi for the occasion? You know how cranky some of the Peacekeepers can get.” She grabbed his nipple through his shirt and squeezed hard enough to hurt her fingers, but Ronar didn’t flinch.

  “Don’t tease me little Zelde, you want something. Hardt is nothing to you, I’m surprised you even know his name.” Ronar eyed her suspiciously.