Both Ray and Rose had recently completed their final year of education and were enjoying their last New Year holiday before starting work for EARTH-NET. Dianians were typically mature enough to attend school as young as three years of age so the time spent in school totaled only a little less than Earth children.
Ray had studied the core courses of Astro Navigation, General Engineering (which covered all aspects of the equipment the Dianians were required to operate), and mathematics and history. As an elective subject Ray had chosen medicine which was her Mother’s specialty. All Dianians were expected to fulfil two roles. One role directly related to the maintenance and operation of the G-Port nets and the other serving the Dianian community. All evidence indicated that Ray was being directed towards signals or communications.
She was near the top of her class in most subjects and signals was a specialty that required extensive knowledge, good basic electronics, and problem-solving skills. Though not in signals yet, Ray’s ability to fabricate working Com-Ports out of scrap and thin air spoke volumes about her ability. As a result, she had become quite popular and had been asked to make a few similar systems for others including one for her brother, Sparks.
Rose had chosen horticulture as her final year elective, confiding in Ray that she liked having a tan. She was also a fair pilot and was most likely to end up as a remote refueler and tug pilot for the nets. Dane was good with his hands and liked outside work so was trying hard to get into the team responsible for maintenance of the remote ground based monitoring, up-link, and relay stations.
This was dangerous and exciting work that required travel, even venturing into the Sunset Ring bordering the Darklands. Plenty of ghost stories traveled back from there with the engineers; crashing sounds in the darkened forest and stories of shadows fleeing into the dimness. The traveling engineers often boasted about how far they had dared to venture into the Darklands. Very occasionally, engineers didn’t return from maintenance tours. Unsurprisingly, Ray was fearful of the Darklands and happy that she would be spending most of her working life operating comms from Town Hall.
With her kit and clean clothes slung over her shoulder Rose paused in the doorway, blocking the light. She looked back over her shoulder, questioning. Ray held up ten fingers then drew her pointer fingers together, her other fingers curled under her thumbs.
“I’ll meet you there in ten minutes.”
Rose nodded acceptance and disappeared out the door heading for the amenities block. As she left she exposed the bright sunlit earthen of the door sill, trodden smooth by a hundred years of little feet. The smooth dirt reflected the sunlight making Ray wince.
She hung her hat on its hook and lay back on her bed staring up into the darkness near the apex of the domed roof. She lazily tracked the greenish residue of the bright doorway floating in her vision. Closing her eyes, she watched the phantom image fade through the colors of the spectrum waiting for her retina to recover from the brightness. A gentle breeze issued through the door and tickled her bare legs and the cool of the barracks settled over her like she imagined silk might. Alone in the quiet, if only for a moment.
She lay that way until images of tall grinning humans began to scratch at the corners of her mind and she sat up rubbing her eyes forcefully with the heels of her hands to drive them out. Back in the moment, she swung her feet purposefully to the floor, stood, and gathered her wash kit and the clothes she had chosen to wear to the welcome party. Back straight and chin up she headed out into the bright Diana light
CHAPTER 6
Washed and hair tidied Rose and Ray headed out towards the shuttle landing pad. Dane fell into step as they headed past his barracks.
“Hold up a second.” Dane held his hand up as they rounded the barracks end. “Gift wanted to meet us here.” Gift was Dane’s best friend - most of the time. He had a similar stature to Dane but none of his physical ability and constitution. He did however, have an acerbic wit and a natural quiet confidence that made him a bit of hit with the young Dianian women. He was known as Gift because of a joke someone had made about him years ago.
“Always welcome, like a birthday gift.” When Dane and Gift did fall out it was usually because Dane got jealous of the time Gift spent with Rose.
Streams of people were now heading in groups towards the shuttle port. Most wore the standard blue dresses, pants, and shirts that were locally made from a synthetic yarn that CDSE issued through G-Port printers. Occasionally other splashes of color were evident. Diana had no large animals but had abundant insects and a rich microbial life. Like Earth, plants tended to reproduce via wind-blown spores or by insect pollination. One species had evolved a ball of fine silky fibers that acted as tiny sail, transporting seeds on the wind. The small bundles of fluff were similar in size but finer than the buds of cotton grown on Earth.
In recent decades, enterprising Dianians had researched historical spinning and weaving techniques and had managed to produce some usable fabrics. With limited free time, progress was slow and dyeing of the fabrics lagged somewhat behind. The most successful color thus far was a rich golden yellow that had been discovered by Rose’s horticulture teacher after washing a dress with a forgotten vine cutting in the hip pocket. After further investigation, the color was isolated to the bark of the vine which, when boiled with the fabric, imparted the brilliant yellow color. There was also a dull red-brown that lasted a few washes and a faded purple derived from the roots of a small shrub.
Dianian plants largely relied on scent for attracting insects rather than color and with no large animals to eat them the fruits served mainly as fertilizer for the seeds that dropped. Likewise, Dianian fruit did not need to be brightly colored to attract animals so the native plant life was a fairly uniform green compared to the variety of colors found on Earth.
Ray wore her newest blue work dress and a bright yellow shawl that she had traded with one of the hobby weavers for a recycled Com-Port. The weaver had told Ray that she liked the way the gold complimented her copper red hair and Ray was sold. She had, thus far, been extremely disciplined with its use for fear of ruining it. This was only its third appearance after she wore it to a social dance, six months ago and also during a spur of the moment decision to try and get Mitch’s attention on a walk with friends a month before.
Like Ray, Rose wore a standard blue dress on which she had clearly modified the neckline adding a white trim and laces that she wore almost, but not quite, modestly laced up.
Finally, Gift trotted out of his barracks with his wet hair slicked down, tucking his blue shirt in hastily. He jerked to a halt upon seeing Ray and spun on his heal play-acting dizziness. Apparently regaining his composure, he bowed low before her and circling his face with his right hand he kissed his fingertips and raised his hand towards the sky.
“As beautiful as the sun.”
Ray blushed grinning and slapped Gift’s shoulder with the back of her hand. Gift held up two fingers and looked down at the spot where Ray had struck him.
“I swear I will never wash this shirt again,” he signed solemnly. Ray lifted her scarf up, hiding her mouth like she had seen in old movies and fluttered her eyelashes outrageously. Gift grabbed his heart and pretended to be faint once again.
Rose rolled her eyes at their antics and started walking.
Ray liked Gift, and once, when they were both twelve, they had even had a bit of a kiss and a fondle out in the forest, but things had never developed from there. Many people assumed they would eventually get together because of the way they teased each other and the level of ease they seemed to have in each other’s company. For some reason, however, Ray just couldn’t see Gift in that light anymore. She couldn’t put her finger on why but suspected it had something to do with his inability to be serious.
“We’d better hurry,” Rose added, looking at the stragglers bustling up the path. “I don’t want to miss this.”
Dane nodded in agreement and began to move checking out of the corner of his eye
that Rose was moving too.
They cleared the ring of barracks and headed out past Ray’s mother’s house where Sparks (named for his ability as an electrician) met them with his on again off again girlfriend Nettle. Ray acknowledged her brother with a nod. Sparks lifted his blond, stubbled chin at the bustling crowd and made the sign for
“Circus.” His clear, honest glinted and he winked at Ray.
Sparks’ girlfriend Nettle brooded at his elbow. In Dianian circles she was considered extremely alternative. The East Asian genetics showed through strongly in her, but she was taller and thinner than most women. She cropped her jet-black hair fiercely short, had multiple homemade piercings and tattoos and wore pants and shirts almost exclusively. Today Ray noticed a new addition to the collection of piercings in her ears. A pair of polished metal fragments hung from wired hooks. One was laser etched with the CDSE logo and one with the word SLAVE.
Nettle (and therefore Sparks) were part of a mostly young group of Dianians who were becoming increasingly uncomfortable with the relationship between Diana, the UN, and CDSE. Nettle saw Ray looking at the new earrings met her gaze like a challenge.
“What?” she signed.
Ray flicked her eyes away, always intimidated by Nettle’s prickly temper, but Gift jumped in.
“That’s a bit much, isn’t it?”
Ray winced but Nettle was already on the attack.
“Too much that we are little more than animals? Too much that CDSE can murder us the second they land if they like.”
“The UN court case got delayed again,” Sparks explained. “The UN is trying to get us classified as meta-human Dianians and CDSE are dragging it out. The latest is that they require a six-month recess to conduct a full review of all genetically modified human material in order to decide what is and what is not human.”
“Pisses me off,” Nettle interjected. “We are clearly not human. We should be definitely be Dianians with tribal sovereignty over our own planet. The whole thing is just horse shit”
The court cases between the UN and CDSE had been going on for at least eight years. The UN wanted to protect Dianians but lacked the money and resources to bully the CDSE. In the early days CDSE had appeared to side with Nettle and her ilk. Four years and millions of dollars were spent fighting a court case that found for CDSE that Dianians were not human. This of course led to a raft of new court cases and lobbying of governments to properly characterize and regulate Meta Humans, as they were now called. The litigation had dragged on until the present day with little progress either way.
Ray looked away as if she hadn’t noticed Nettle’s tirade. Sparks smirked at the exchange but joined Ray and Dane in the procession. Ray’s tension ratcheted up a notch. Sparks was difficult at the best of times, but Nettle made him worse. She could do without being part of their childish protests today. Sparks leaned forward into their view.
Gift couldn’t seem to help himself. “Who cares,” he signed, shrugging. “CDSE agreed years ago that we are not human. Who cares what Earth calls us? We know who we are.”
“Because, you dumb fuck,” Nettle jabbed Gift in the bicep with her finger, “if we are not human and not Dianian, then we default to alien fauna. We’re legally animals. The only laws protecting us right now are cruelty to animals and environmental protection laws, which may not even hold out here. Those CDSE assholes could butcher us for food and it may actually be legal.”
“They’re not going to do that.” Gift signed. Earth would go nuts. Besides, you would taste bitter as hell.” Dane ducked as Nettle swung a slap at his face.
Ray fell back behind Rose and Dane, letting her brother and friends take the lead. Gift fell in beside her, looking pointedly at Nettle.
“She’s trouble,” he signed, frowning in Nettle’s direction.
“I just hope she doesn’t drag Sparks into anything stupid,” Ray replied.
Their journey took them on a winding path through the forest. Fresh cuts in the undergrowth indicated that the path had been cleared in the past few days. The infrequency of shuttle landings meant it was not worth maintaining a permanent trail.
With the foliage hacked back the path was a good meter wide and flat from the habitat bot’s attentions. The Crowd bottlenecked, and progress slowed until Ray’s group shuffled along at a frustratingly slow pace. The shuttle port lay a good three kilometers from Atlas and Rose was clearly starting to fret about missing the big show.
Finally, blue sky appeared through growing gaps in the forest canopy as they approached the landing pad. A flattened earth circle in a natural forest clearing, some six hundred meters in diameter, greeted them as they finally broke through the trees. There was plenty of room for the pilots to avoid the taller trees and it was far enough from town that disasters were unlikely.
The top of the mound had been carefully leveled by habitat bots and recently scrubbed clean. The undergrowth had been cleared back from the fringes to make space for the spectators who milled around the edge conversing with rapid fingers. Rose was already looking skyward trying to peer through the perfect Diana sky and out to the waiting ship that must be out there somewhere.
To permit shuttle access, there was a gap in the EURO-NET, so no ghostly apparition of Earth interrupted their view. Dane stood beside Rose matching her gaze.
“Here we go then.” He signed as if to himself.
Ray looked at her friends’ profiles for a second then raised her own eyes up to watch the new Diana approach.
CHAPTER 7
The shuttle was late. Barring a skeleton crew manning the nets from Town Hall the entire population of Diana milled impatiently some distance back from the landing pad. Ray and Rose had given up staring into the sky and moved to shelter under a large flat leafed tree with a deeply ribbed trunk. Vine like branches dangled downward to meet roots reaching up from the forest floor.
At last, a ripple of excitement fluttered through the crowd as the smoke plume of the shuttle entering the atmosphere finally appeared. Shuttles were a familiar but not common sight to Dianians. Irregular supply shuttles, remotely piloted by the local tug operators, arrived every few years with vital components, supplies, and other items that could not be micronized and G-Ported.
To the Dianians the most important among these were the neo-natal lung implants that allowed their infants to survive. This plume, however, dwarfed those of the goods shuttles as it arched across the cloudless sky towards the rudimentary shuttle port. The glistening black ceramic shell finally emerged from the smoke as the shuttle decelerated and the landing jets rotated and roared into life; arresting the forward motion of the lumbering landing craft.
“What type of shuttle is that?” Ray saw Dane sign to Gift, palms upturned with wide awe filled eyes.
Gift shrugged, “Nothing like I’ve ever seen. Not on the regular CDSE roster.”
All eyes were glued to the glistening, black craft. They watched as the pivoting landing jets set the trees thrashing. The shuttle descended towards the dirt landing pad and spiraled slowly down, the CDSE logo appeared on the shuttle’s flank as the craft rotated, embossed in a different shade of black. Landing legs extended, and the shuttle settled onto the dirt sinking into an ominous crouch.
The Dianians shielded their eyes and pulled their collars over their mouths to filter out the clouds of blasting dust and small stones kicked up by the landing. Eventually the engines cycled down, and the dust cloud began to drift away on the breeze.
Stone and his wife Clear, to all intents and purposes the leaders of the Dianian community, gathered in front of a small delegation chosen to be the first greeters. They headed out to the landing pad as the pilot switched off the running lights and powered down the shuttle. They stood in a ragtag bunch at the spot where the steps were most likely to be located.
As it turned out, the steps hinged on the side they had chosen to stand which became clear as the gantry opened, and the steps descended away from them. Ray felt a little embarrassed as the delegation fussed an
d prodded each other around to the other side to wait for the humans. Rose grinned at Ray and her shoulders shook in a Dianian giggle. Ray returned the grin and look skyward in mock exasperation.
All eyes watched as a pair of black-clad legs appeared at the top of the steps; the torso still occluded in the body of the shuttle. The solitary figure descended and the ring of Dianians contracted as people jostled and craned their necks to get a better view.
At this distance Ray could not see well but she guessed from the athletic swagger that the figure was male. The man approached Stone and shook his hand. He was a full head taller than Stone, which put him at over six foot, and much broader across the shoulders. Ray could see him signing and felt a little pinch of pride that the newcomers would bother to learn their language. Second down the ramp was a figure wearing a CDSE jumpsuit, clearly carrying a camera of some description. No doubt the events of today were being beamed live to Earth.
Rose turned to Ray with querying eyes and indicated “something on the face”. Ray looked where Rose indicated and saw the plastic mask over the figures’ mouths and noses. She frowned thinking for a second. The Diana atmosphere was similar enough to Earth that the Humans should be able to breathe.
Ray frowned deeper and speculated, “Bacteria? Pathogens perhaps?” she shrugged. “They won’t have immunity to our microbes.” For the first time Ray wondered if the same might be true in reverse. The masks could be for the Dianians protection also. Ray had read about the devastation the flu had wrought on the natives of South America after the Europeans landed in the late 1400s. The Dianians’ genetically enhanced immune systems generally dealt well with viruses however so protection for the humans was probably a safer bet.
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