The rest of the black clad figures descended in a column, each of them shaking hands with Stone and Clear and then progressing slowly along the line of delegates. Ray noticed several women in CDSE uniforms. Ray craned to get a look at their hands. She couldn’t quite make out their shorter fingers at this distance, but she could clearly see their long bodies and comparatively short legs.
Following the CDSE figures appeared a column of men and women dressed in the unmistakable jungle combat uniform of UN marines. Dianian eyes widened in surprise and Ray felt a murmur of speculation ripple through the crowd.
The marines had various attachments and metal contraptions on their uniforms and each had a large assault rifle slung casually over their backs. This was a UN navy ship and some of the delegates including the captain were military, but the combat troupes were unexpected. Ray stared at the machines of death strapped to the soldiers and felt her heart skip a beat.
These were the first real weapons ever seen on Diana. Why did the UN think that twenty-four heavily armed marines were necessary for this mission? Violence was not commonplace on Diana, but it did happen occasionally. They had an ad hoc volunteer police force of bigger, stronger folk who would intervene to break up fights and go and have a stern talk to kids who were raiding the fruit trees, but they had never needed any type of weapon, let alone an assault rifle. Ray found the marines deeply unsettling and from the shuffling of feet around her she suspected the feeling was shared.
One of the marines towered above the rest and had shoulders bigger than most of the men. She, together with one of the larger male marines, wrestled a pod down the stairs. The mask wearing occupant’s raven-haired head protruded from a tightly strapped blanket inside the Plexiglas dome that covered the pod. Stone and the first of the humans to descend had a quick translated conversation with the pod bearers and together they looked to where the medical team waited to take the patient. Again, Ray felt her heart rate jump and her fear surge at the prospect of caring for him later that night. The added fear of contracting some virulent Earth virus magnified her dread.
Ray’s mother, Bones, stepped forward to meet the stretcher bearers and leaned over the apparently unconscious man for a moment. Satisfied, she indicated the way to the Med Bay and the team disappeared around the bend. Ray’s mother had been known as Bones ever since she set Clear’s arm after it was broken by some falling lumber years ago.
Ray’s focus returned to the main group of humans who were now also disappearing towards the barracks. No doubt for some sort of smaller and more official welcome she supposed. The crowd shuffled in place for a while, clearly unsure what to do next and a little stunned at how quickly the humans had emerged and then disappeared. Ray saw many signs for “tall” and speculative confusion about the masks and lots of signs for gun. She wondered if the humans had expected a round of applause or some sort of fanfare.
Rose twirled a blond ringlet between her fingers. Lost in thought Ray put a hand on her shoulder, capturing her attention, and gave it a little friendly squeeze.
“I thought they might wave to us or something. Throw sweets to the children like they do in the Earth parades perhaps.” Rose looked over the ship again for a moment frowning to herself. “I guess they are just like us in the end, here to work.”
Ray could see similar conflicted feelings reflected on the faces of the crowd as they dissipated towards their various tasks, preparing for the community welcome. Ray and Rose were off the hook having dug tubers for a good period that morning, so they headed straight to the glade where the welcome party was scheduled for the evening.
CHAPTER 8
With no single structure big enough for everybody to gather, full town meetings were conducted within a relatively flat patch of forest, adjacent to the town, where the undergrowth was thin and could be easily cleared. The trees in the area were sparse but still provided reasonable shade. Collectively, the Atlas community referred to the place simply as The Glade.
Very large meetings were a rarity but frequent enough that certain infrastructure remained at the glade. A power cable had been run out to a junction box at some stage and some enterprising soul had built four enormous wooden speaker boxes that hung from the trees under rickety looking rain shields. The sound quality of the speakers left a lot to be desired, but they were famously loud. A more recent addition was a cabled microphone that had been cobbled together from spare parts during a refit of the internal comms room at Town Hall. The cable snaked over the edge of a small central dais and meandered out to meet the junction box which presumably also contained the amplifier. The Dianians obviously had no use for a microphone leading Ray to assume that the humans were going to make some sort of speech.
Rose and Ray arrived before the bulk of the crowd and were rewarded for their enthusiasm by being commandeered to carry chairs and tables out from the Mess Hall. Stone was up on stage with the top screwed off the microphone peering into it with a look of intense concentration. A scruffy looking man stood beside him periodically poking at the microphone internals. Suddenly they were rewarded with an almighty bang, then a crackle and buzz through the speakers. Ray startled and dropped the end of the wooden trestle she was carrying. The scruffy technician screwed the cap back on and attached the microphone to its wooden stand before heading over to the junction box. After a short period, music started to crackle through the speakers. Rose and a couple of the other young ones clapped their approval.
Eventually, at least half the furniture in Atlas was dotted around the perimeter of the glade leaving a large clear space in the middle where the growing crowd was gathering in knots. A long line of trestles on the Atlas side of the glade was being set with piles of standard printed resin plates and cutlery for the buffet dinner to come. Animated conversations were in progress everywhere and the mood was festive.
Ray joined her friends in a prime spot just off to the left of the dais. Rose had a two-handed grip on Dane’s arm and was using him to hold herself up on tiptoes, craning her neck to see if the guests were on their way yet. Dane didn’t appear to mind one bit.
“Shame your Mum’s missing this,” Rose signed to Ray over her shoulder.
“She doesn’t like parties all that much,” Ray replied. She’ll be happy in the Med Bay and I’ll take her some food when I go over later tonight.”
“Make sure you get some red berry pie,” Interjected Gift just arriving through the crowd, now shoulder to shoulder. “I could smell it cooking as I came past the kitchens. I love that stuff.”
Dane nodded agreement. “They have real sugar from the new cane fields at the moment. Much better than the sweetener that CDSE G-Port through.”
A smattering of applause broke out at the perimeter of the crowd. Rose jumped up and down a few times, leaning harder on Dane’s arm, to see over the heads. The column of humans came into view. A cameraman edged backwards through the crowd capturing everything. The applause swelled to a clatter. Freshly showered, shaved, and in clean dress uniforms the humans looked like something out of a movie.
The masks were gone now and the first few to come into view smiled and waved at the crowd. Presumably they had all been given a broad spectrum anti-viral and had some time to spruce themselves up. The tall leader sparkled in Navy service dress, so dark it almost looked black; the quadruple gold stripe on his cuffs and shoulder boards indicating his Captain’s rank. Three more officers in naval dress followed behind him.
The man directly behind the captain carried XO insignia and struck Ray as quite the most beautiful man she had ever seen. From the direction of the gazes around her she was not alone. He had piercing blue eyes so pale they were almost gray, lightly tanned skin, and hair so black the Navy uniform looked blue in comparison. Even more striking than his face though was the way he moved. He just looked flat out dangerous, his legs pivoting smoothly at hips like a great cat, all fluid economy and hidden power.
He stood behind the Captain’s right shoulder and looked over the crowd in a way that r
eminded her of the eagles of Earth, picking the fattest rabbit to swoop down on and take.
Two more officers followed; a compact middle-aged woman with short gray hair and a nondescript mousy haired man who looked around forty. Ray couldn’t quite make out the insignia, but she assumed Comms and Engineering. A column of fifteen men and woman in clean, black CDSE jump suits followed. Ray recognized navigation, comms, scanning, engineering, and technical among the insignia but others were unfamiliar to her. Bringing up the rear were four stern faced marines in their sand colored service uniforms. The tall woman with short cropped jet-black hair led them out, eyes roaming over the crowd. Ray didn’t recognize the ranks and turned to Gift. Gift squinted to count the stripes then filled her in.
“She is a Master Sergeant. The next one is a Corporal followed by two Privates, first class I think. The rest must all be privates, they are not coming up onto the stage.”
As they moved closer the Captain’s beaming smile passed over them and Ray caught a glimpse of Roses cheeks reddening a little as she clutched at Dane’s arm. The Captain looked about seventy to Ray’s eyes, lean and athletic with a leader’s posture and bone structure. His gray hair was so pale it was almost white and a short but pronounced scar ran through the middle of one eyebrow.
Gift looked wide eyed at the Master Sergeant as she passed. Her shoulders threatened to burst the seams of her perfectly pressed jacket. Gift winked at Ray.
“I wouldn’t mind getting squashed by that,” he signed.
Dane caught the movement of Gift’s hands and added, “She might want to eat you afterward.”
Gift shrugged, “probably worth it.”
Rose dragged her eyes away from the captain and grinned at Ray, clearly imagining a similar sort of squashing. Ray raised her eyebrows and looked pointedly at Rose’s hands that were still digging into Dane’s arm. Rose, getting the message, disentangled herself from Dane and smoothed his sleeve.
“Sorry,” she grimaced. Dane flexed his fingers working the blood back into them.
The column made their way through the crowd slowly and assembled on the dais. Four chairs sat behind the microphone for the officers and the rest assembled in the back. The marines stood at ease with their hands behind their backs and feet apart and the CDSE crew in a variety of attitudes. Stone stepped forward smiling and waited until the crowd’s attention was directed his way. A slim, nervous looking blond woman in CDSE uniform shuffled out from the group and moved to face the officers and crew, her eyes fixed on Stone. From the distance at which she stood Ray could hear her translating clearly as Stone began to address the crowd.
“Today is a great day for the inhabitants of Diana and for the inhabitants of Earth. Today represents the coming together, for the first time, of two great cultures. For two centuries we have looked up at each other’s home worlds and shared our lives over the vast expanse of space. For two centuries Dianians have worked tirelessly to ensure the continued survival of our ancestral home. We are proud now to welcome the first humans to our adopted home that we have built among the stars.”
These last words Stone accented with a grand sweep of his arms, finishing with hands held wide and chin lowered onto his chest. He paused for what seemed like an age before raising his eyes gradually, stopping with his gaze directed over the heads of the crowd. With his shoulder length hair, sandals and loose blue tunic it looked like a 20th century religious figure had stumbled into a camp meeting and decided to deliver and impromptu sermon. Out of the corner of her eye, Ray could see Gift vaguely shaking his head. Stone was predisposed to be overly dramatic and Ray too wondered if this was quite the right situation for one of his florid performances. Ray caught a hint of confusion on the face of the translator as she waited for Stone to continue.
“Today we share our food, our shelter, and our hearts with you,” Stone gestured graciously towards the Humans, “and with all the people of Earth,” another grand arm sweep.
Ray lost focus having seen versions of this speech dozens of times. Instead she peeked around the heads in front of her at the humans. They were close enough to study in detail for the first time.
The Captain’s and XO’s face were both professionally neutral. The Captain nodding agreement at appropriate points in the translation while the XO stared over the crowd like they were dinner. Ray was struck by how unremarkable the majority of the faces of the newcomers were. Just like anybody on display in front of a crowd, some didn’t know what to do with their hands and most had unnatural looking fixed smiles that were starting to fade as the translation droned on.
The Dianians around Ray had already dispensed with the smiles and just looked bored. The camera focused unwaveringly on Stone and Ray felt a small surge of embarrassment imagining what the people watching on Earth were making of the performance. Thankfully Stone appeared to be winding down and he finally paused for applause and stepped back to make way for the Captain to take the microphone.
The Dianian technician scuttled forward and flicked the microphone power switch to on. Everybody winced at the echoing thump and piercing squeal of feedback that emanated from the speakers. Someone lowered the amp volume until the squeal subsided. The technician looked apologetic and scuttled back to the junction box and his waiting sidekick.
The Captain rose and approached the microphone removing notes from his breast pocket. Without a lectern he was forced to hold his notes in his hand, unfazed he took his time reading through the first card and turned to face the crowd. He looked directly at Ray, or so it felt, and she found herself expectantly transfixed. He spoke;
“A long time ago a man descended the last step from a spacecraft and uttered the immortal words, ‘One small step for man, one giant leap for mankind.’ Today I feel a kinship with that bold explorer, but I am reminded that these same steps I take today were taken two hundred years ago when the first of your kindred arrived on this land. We are here and alive today because of their bravery, fortitude, and courage in the face of almost insurmountable odds. My crew and I and every man, woman, and child on Earth owe the first one hundred and fifty, their descendants, and all of you here today a debt that can never be repaid. We are here to say thank you… You are not alone anymore.”
The silence in the crowd was absolute as the Captain’s words echoed among the trees settling over the crowd like rain on a scorched desert. Ray could see tears pooling in Rose’s eyes already and in those of the people around her. The long-lost saviors of Earth were being welcomed back. The rush of emotion that Ray felt took her breath away, all the privation and sacrifice, the heartache of being the saviors of paradise but never being able to touch it. It was all going to end and the Dianians were going to reap the rewards for their efforts. The crowd erupted into cacophonous applause. Ray found herself clapping as hard as anybody. Tears now rolling freely down her cheeks. Rose pulled Ray into a giant hug. Gift wrapped his arms around both of them, grabbing Dane by the back of the head on the way in. They stood that way, in the midst of the crowd, letting the applause wash over them until the volume finally started to fade.
The Captain had ridden out the applause in perfect stillness, his eyes downcast. Once the crowd settled again he looked up and continued.
“I am Captain Richard Spiranos of the United Nations interstellar ship Golden Hind. Behind me are my Executive Officer, Lieutenant Commander Carlos Jager and my Signals and Navigation officers, Lieutenants Marion Chandler and Miles Blackstone.”
Captain Spiranos continued down the chain of command naming each of the CDSE crew in turn. The translator was Prudence O’Callohan, wearing presumably brand new Interplanetary Communications insignia along with the cameraman Jurg Spielman. The highest ranking CDSE representative was Karen Pfeffer, the new director of CDSE Operations, Diana side. A bright, slim woman with a wide, pleasant smile. Possibly fifty years old but with the body of a much younger woman.
A good portion of the crew were medicos and hypersleep scientists looking after the health of the crew and monitorin
g the effects of extended hypersleep. Engineering were named next followed by geologists and xenobiologists. They were there to (In Captain Spiranos’ words) “Continue to collect and add weight to the wealth of data already obtained by Dianians, regarding the local geology and flora. “
The giant intimidating female marine, who had stood at ease and expressionless throughout the entire ceremony, turned out to be Master Chief Vanessa Aymes, her subordinates were Corporal Cheng and PFCs Pham and Gomez. Corporal Jonah Fielding was indisposed and being well looked after in the Medbay. He was expected to make a full recovery.
As Captain Spiranos finished and looked around towards Stone, Clear thankfully stepped forward and succinctly concluded the ceremony. The Officers, marines, and Prudence were escorted to one long table featuring a leafy table arrangement. The remaining crew were shown to three adjacent tables. Nobody felt they could relax until the cameraman holstered his camera and moved to join his CDSE shipmates.
With insufficient chairs for everybody to sit, the majority of the crowd remained standing, chatting in groups around the glade. Pretty soon the music system crackled into life and the more gregarious youngsters started to dance. The Dianians were big on standardized dances, where the group have a sequence of steps that repeat throughout a particular song, often rotating ninety degrees between repeats in the sequence.
All the songs played in the first part of the evening’s festivities had well known dances associated with them and soon the glade was jumping with everybody under forty on the floor and a good portion of those over forty joining in too.
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