Earth-Net

by David J. Garrett

  Rose had always displayed a stronger desire for human comforts than many Dianians and had latched onto the new arrivals strongly. She was one of several young Dianians who had moved out of EARTH-NET roles and into jobs servicing the human workers. Rose currently worked in one of the two bars, set up to entertain. They were bawdy places that Ray tended to avoid. In fact, only a few Dianians seemed to feel comfortable in them.

  Occasionally Ray would bump into groups of drunk men moving between bars or on their way home. They were prone to lewd gestures towards the young Dianian women. A favorite was a hand grip motion towards their mouths. Apparently, the fact that Dianian women didn’t need to breathe was a source of great excitement to them. Ray had asked Rose whether she had ever done that, to which Rose replied,

  “Of course, why not, they love it.”

  It wasn’t like blow jobs was something Dianians didn’t do, but the way the human men acted about it made Ray’s guts squirm.

  She had commented to Rose, “If one of those meat heads tries to put their greasy thing in my mouth, I’m going to bite it off.”

  “I bet you wouldn’t,” Rose had retorted, “If it was the right guy, I bet you would enjoy it.” Ray reserved judgment but doubted it. Whenever she was around human men the shadow of Pritchard in the forest loomed over everything. She didn’t trust them.

  Ray wasn’t exactly prudish. She’d had a few tumbles with Dianian guys and nearly with a Human once. He had tagged along on a maintenance run and seemed nice enough. Ray had balked at the last minute. Somehow, when they got down to business, that fact that he kept speaking freaked her out.

  Ray ran her own maintenance team now but before then she had bounced around between crews for a while. The excitement of the new job, the close quarters out on maintenance tours, and the lack of anything else to do, naturally lead to occasional sex among the young maintenance engineers.

  Ray had been no different in the early days. She enjoyed sex but viewed it as more a pleasant pastime than a life goal. So far it had not been the Earth shattering, life changing experience that Rose reported most weekends and Ray had been careful not to let herself become infatuated or devastated that the guys hadn’t fallen in love with her.

  In fact, Ray was kind of glad they hadn’t. She enjoyed her freedom and ability to run her own schedule. Her summary based on her friends’ and co-workers’ was that relationships messed your life up and made you fat.

  Many times, Ray had sat and listened to Rose. She would be recovering from a hangover and confessing to accidentally sleeping with some guy that she didn’t even like and then being devastated the next weekend when he didn’t ask her out. Ray was determined not to let anybody have that sort of control over her.

  Her mind returned to the conversation. Ray saw Rose glance toward the toilet block, clearly feeling uncomfortable and a little embarrassed.

  “When is you next day off?” Ray inquired.

  “Day after tomorrow,” Rose replied, unconsciously already moving to escape.

  “Good,” signed Ray lowering her arm in front of Rose like a boom gate, blocking her escape. “You’re coming with me to dinner at Mum’s. You need a night off and some decent food. No excuses.”

  Rose mock saluted, and Ray lifted her arm. Rose waddled off around the corner in her overly tight skirt and bare feet. Ray watched her leave, a slight frown creasing her brow. She was never sure whether to be happy for her friend or not. She certainly seemed to be getting what she had always professed to want, but it didn’t seem to be making her happy at all. ‘That’s true of most people I suppose,’ she thought to herself glumly, then shook her head as if denying the negative thinking. Ray turned and strode purposefully back to her Barracks.

  Lying back in her bed her thoughts returned to Jonah. She realized she hadn’t thought about him for a while. For years, she had seen him around the compound, coming back and forward on various missions. He had kept his distance since the incident in the forest. Ray had caught him looking at her guiltily a couple of times, but when she looked back he averted his eyes resolutely and moved on quickly. Thinking about him now she smiled fondly at the memory of him chatting happily with her in the Medbay or on one of their long walks. At first, she had felt a little hurt by his abrupt disappearance but that had faded with time. Clearly, he had been directed to keep away from the locals. In fact, since the military outpost had been built, the marines stayed out there almost all the time, so Ray barely saw any of them.

  Ray stared up into the rafters feeling not the least bit tired but nobody she knew would be awake so there was little point in getting up again. Her mind returned to Pritchard and the boat on the lake. Something still felt off about it but the memory of the fear was already fading. It was probably just the fact that she didn’t have her clothes that made it seem far worse than it was. She replayed the boat traversing the water above her head until the scene felt like it might have actually been fun. She felt a little dangerous and brave and smiled sleepily, eyelids drooping. Quite an adventure.

  Ray must have slept because she woke with the odd sensation that her cheeks were being crushed. Groggily she tried to open her mouth, but her lips were cinched together in the middle like a goldfish. Something vigorously shook her head and her eyes sprang open, her body surging with adrenaline getting ready to fight.

  Nettle stood on the ladder to Ray’s top bunk and had a firm grip on her face. Seeing Ray’s eyes fly open she let go and pulled her fist back as if to punch her. Ray held up both hands for protection.

  “Get up Fuck Face,” Nettle signed relaxing her fist and dropping to the floor.

  Ray stared after her with pulse racing. She sat up, so she could see Nettle standing below waiting, with a bored expression on her face.

  “You’re a real bitch you know that?” she directed at Nettle. “What the Fuck do you want?”

  “I don’t want anything from you,” Nettle responded casually. “Sparks wanted me to grab you on the way. Jager has called a town meeting.”

  “What for?” Ray asked swinging her legs over the ladder and descending facing outward. As she hit the floor she landed feet apart in a crouch. She immediately pivoted, swiveling her hips, delivering a sharp punch towards Nettle’s bicep. Nettle reacted quickly, turning to get out of the way, but couldn’t avoid the worst of the blow. Nettle dropped her right foot back as if to retreat but then pushed off the ball of the foot delivering a vicious kick to Ray’s thigh. The girls grinned at each other with their guards up.

  “You’re getting faster,” Nettle finally signed, her guard relaxing.

  Ray rubbed her thigh, “And you’re getting meaner. Now I remember why I didn’t like you as a kid,” she responded.

  Nettle looked bored, “I don’t like you now. I just need a sparring partner that doesn’t totally suck and doesn’t get a hard on when we grapple.”

  “Who says I don’t get a hard on when we grapple? “Ray responded with a straight face.

  Nettle grimaced and made a puking motion breaking Ray’s mock seriousness into a wide smile. “Give me a minute,” she signed, “I didn’t get much sleep last night.” Grabbing a T-Shirt and track pants from the shelf, she dressed quickly.

  As they walked Ray looked at Nettle’s profile thinking about how much had changed. As they had grown, Ray’s discomfort with Nettle’s take-no-prisoners attitude had grown into a admiration and respect. The fact that they had decided to learn kick-boxing together was, no doubt, a big part of that.

  With no teachers on Diana, they had figured it out for themselves. From ComNet tutorials and old movies, mostly. Primarily, they focused on being as fit and strong as possible and kicking and punching heavy things and each other, as much as their limbs could withstand. With that and the running they were both lean and strong. Ray was starting to be quietly pleased with the definition she was getting in her shoulders and back and even her abs in the right light.

  Ray and Nettle used the gym set up by the marine several times per week. It had a
bunch of free weights, bags and a boxing ring. Ray liked to go early in the morning before work because the time coincided with Master Sergeant Aymes’ daily workout. Ray found Aymes’ dedication, physique and raw power completely inspirational.

  Her workout was simple; free weight squats with lumps of lead the size of small tires on each end of the bar, bench press, chin ups, press ups, and lunges. Then came the part Ray loved. Unlike most of the marines, who practiced a lot of ground fighting mixed with boxing, Aymes would simply square up to the heavy bag and smash it with her fists. No speed work, just raw power. She would hit it, apparently as hard as she could, non-stop in a tank top, boots and fatigue pants for thirty minutes until she was drenched in sweat and her huge, calloused knuckles were bright red. Her flat expression never changed. She let out sharp exhalations of breath with each resonant dull thud, occasionally pausing when the bag swung too much. Ray imagined jaws and ribs cracking under the heavy blows.

  Once, Aymes had paused to watch the girls spar on her way to the showers, her huge shoulders rising and falling as her breathing recovered. Ray had caught her eye and imagined she detected approval, but, with Aymes it was impossible to tell.

  After a short walk Ray and Nettle arrived at The Glade. Not much had changed since the arrival of the humans, except the speakers which had been upgraded to more traditional looking conical PA speakers. They were much better for voice, but music didn’t play as well. Now that other venues were available for dancing on Diana, the Glade didn’t get nearly as much use for social events.

  Stone was setting up to talk as Ray and Nettle arrived. At his back stood Director Pfeffer, smiling benignly, and Jager, as usual surveying the crowd like a hawk. Most of Diana were already there and the girls had to settle for a position near the back. The mood was one of speculative confusion. Full town meetings were still rare which meant that something especially significant was about to be announced.

  Stone tapped the microphone, checking that it was on and began to speak. Because of his position as the self-appointed spokesperson for Dianians, CDSE had relented and fitted him with a thought to speech implant. The neural implant was developed tetraplegics, before full spinal repairs were commonplace.

  Initially the implants were simply brain machine interfaces for moving wheel chairs and such, but thought to text soon followed. From there, all that was required was a simple software overlay to enable thought to speech.

  Most on Diana, however, agreed that giving Stone one was a terrible idea. If he was overly dramatic before, he was patently ridiculous now. For a start, he was not yet very proficient at using his implant and this meant that his modulation of tone and pacing were always off. Ordinary sentences would rise in pitch, as if they were questions, and emphasis would often fall on the wrong word, making the sentence ambiguous or confusing the meaning completely.

  Worst of all, Stone had developed a nasty affectation whereby he mouthed along with his implant as if he was actually speaking. Having not spoken for his entire life, his mouth movements looked unnatural and comical.

  With Captain Spiranos initially and now Director Karen Pfeffer running Diana, Stone had no official position and was viewed by most Dianians as an embarrassing joke. CDSE seemed to like him though and still wheeled him out when anything official was happening.

  All eyes turned forward and fluttering hands stilled as Stone’s synthetic voice crackled through the PA.

  “Thank you all for taking time from your busy schedules to join me on what I am sure you will agree is a most important day for the people of Earth and for all of us here on Diana. For the past few months Captain Spiranos, Lieutenant Commander Jager, Director Pfeffer and I have contributed to a series of important talks between CDSE and the various governments of Earth. During these talks, we Dianians have provided important input into a number of decisions that impact all the people of Earth and all of us living here. The governments of Earth have assured me personally that they have considered carefully the impact that these decisions will have on the Dianian community. The have gone to great lengths to assure me that our efforts and those of our ancestors will never be forgotten.”

  Ray could see the frown on Nettle’s brow deepening as Stone’s placatory words started to have exactly the opposite effect to that intended. Nettle noticed others passing worried looks between them and many raised eyebrows.

  “We all know that new measures on Earth to control atmospheric decline were enacted well over a century ago. Along with those restrictions, great effort was directed towards reforesting and protecting remaining green belts on Earth. We also know, that as long ago as twenty years the North Atlantic Phytoplankton bloom was showing signs of recovery. Ten years ago, climate scientists started to report that they believed that Earth might once again have a stable atmosphere. In recent years, the evidence has become sufficient to convince the governments of the world that that is indeed the case. The governments of Earth wish me to say to you, today, that we have been successful. We have won. The Earth is cured.”

  Stone adopted one of his biblical poses, clearly expecting rapturous applause from the crowd. Faced instead with silence and worried faces, Stone looked up confused.

  “We can go back home?” His thought to speech implant unintentionally turning the sentence into a question.

  Nettle looked at Ray and signed, “I am home.” Her face was an unreadable mask. “Those bastards are going to shut us down.”

  CHAPTER 17

  After the announcement from Stone, Director Pfeffer had given a lengthy and overly reassuring speech outlining the “refocusing of resources on Diana.”

  The UN, and therefore Spiranos, had officially, if not in practice, been in charge for the first years but CDSE now managed all aspects of Dianian life and operations.

  Spiranos was apparently still on Diana, but nobody ever saw him. As far as anybody knew he lived in a complex out the back of the military compound on the banks of the Great Lake that bordered on the Life2 complex. Around dinner tables, Dianians speculated that he lived in the lap of luxury and that it was probably a reward for his conquering of Diana.

  Jager was now the face of the UN and wherever events of importance occurred he was sure to be lurking in the background like a shadow of doom.

  Director Pfeffer announced the CDSE plans two days after Stone’s ill-conceived speech. The plan was to decommission and stow the EARTH-NET program over a period of nine years. The nets would be furled back into their canisters which would remain in orbit, as insurance, in case Earth cocked up their atmosphere again. A few sub nets would remain to be used for communication between Earth and Diana. Space assets, such as the remote tugs, would either be re-purposed or abandoned to drift off into space. Ground based assets would be re-purposed for internal communications or salvaged for parts.

  In place of EARTH-NET the Life2 program would be ramped up enormously. Over one thousand homes had already been built on the banks of the Great Lake and further developments were planned.

  The big question on everybody's fingertips was, “What then? What did CDSE intend to do with over four thousand unemployed Dianians?”

  CDSE’s answer came a week later. CDSE operators would take over and maintain the dormant assets of the EARTH-NET program. They would also take over all comms and signals. Every opportunity for transferring Dianians to employment for Life2 would be explored. There would be many positions initially in construction and later in horticulture, growing food for the Life2 inhabitants, and service jobs like housekeeping and maintenance.

  On the day of the announcement Ray returned to her barracks to find that the ComPort she had built for herself had been removed. Talking to others around the complex it became clear this was a global situation. All the ComPorts that Ray had built had been confiscated by CDSE private security, along with all the other private units Ray knew of. Ray was strangely glad that the UN marines did not appear to be involved in the operation. The line that CDSE was selling was that “during this difficult and com
plex transition period it is critical that communications between Diana and Earth be as secure as possible to ameliorate the risk of asset losses. “

  To Ray, this seemed ridiculous. The furling of the nets would be no more difficult than normal net operations. It always worked fine while Dianian kids surfed ComNet or watched movies. One young Dianian youth was caught trying to hide his ComPort and was dragged off to the military compound by CDSE security.

  This was clearly a calculated ploy to remove any means by which Dianians could communicate with Earth or interfere with CDSE operations. The Dianians knew it and angry whispers started to circulate. Having never been confronted by such direct aggressive tactics, the Dianians were mentally and physically unprepared to resist. Instead, they whispered in the dark and complied, almost universally; many feeling sick with themselves for not having the courage to act. Stone and Clear were nowhere to be seen.

  In the days that followed, Pfeffer’s smiling announcements continued to flow. Universal Haemo-Tabs were an expense that CDSE were unfortunately unable to justify going forward. Dianians whose jobs required physical endurance could apply for a prescription. Naturally CDSE were moving all pharmaceutical G-Ports to a central facility staffed by CDSE personnel.

  Pfeffer’s staff began sorting the community into work details based apparently on age and physical appearance. Expertise in a particular field appeared to have no bearing on placement. A fit young Dianian was equally likely to be placed in construction or Horticulture. Attractive Dianians, in particular the young women, were placed in housekeeping.

  By the time the community had all been reassigned, anger was already simmering. CDSE still needed some Dianian tug pilots and Nettle was one of the lucky ones and kept her job. The other exception was the remote engineers. The CDSE personnel were unfamiliar with the antiquated Dianian remote signals equipment and needed trainers to go with them during a transition period.