The Silver Ships

by S. H. Jucha

  Watching the family exchange greetings helped the Méridiens understand more about their Captain and the New Terrans. Étienne experienced a swell of pride at having been the first to receive the Captain’s hug on the evening of the visitor’s tour. The wash of his emotions leaked to his twin, who smiled in understanding.

  The President paused in the corridor when he heard Christie’s squeal and grinned, breaking into whistling a tune. The reunion had been planned as a small reward for Alex. But after witnessing the high regard in which the Méridiens held him, he now saw it as one of his more brilliant political strokes, even if it was due more to fortune than planning.

  In the suite, Alex introduced his parents and sister to the Méridiens. In the awkward moment of two cultures meeting, Duggan whispered to his son, “How do we greet them, Alex?”

  Katie laughed in response to her husband’s question. “Duggan,” she admonished him and stepped forward to tenderly and warmly hug first Renée and then each of the twins, welcoming them to New Terra. Christie, not be left out, followed suit.

  Alex watched Renée as she was hugged by his mother. His concern melted away when Renée, who started tentatively, leaned into his mother’s embrace and then hugged his sister as if they were old friends. All the while, Alex reminded himself that many of her immediate family had probably not survived her seventy-year absence.

  The twins were pleased by the affectionate hugs of the Racine women, but then they faced Duggan, the reserved one of the family, who extended his hand to them with a quiet smile. The Méridiens eyed his powerful hand, greater even than Alex’s, with some trepidation, so they were surprised by his light touch.

  The introductions complete, Renée bowed her head and crossed her arms, the twins following suit, “We are honored to greet the family of our Captain,” she said solemnly. The formal moment over, she lifted her head and smiled, “And now we see from whom he inherited his good heart.”

  There followed a moment of shared laughter as both Duggan and Katie tried to claim credit for their son’s best qualities.

  A quarter of an hour later, a polite knock at the door interrupted their conversation. An attendant announced lunch was ready and ushered them downstairs to the dining hall.

  Christie grabbed her big brother’s arm, bouncing along beside him. “Trust you to be the first man to find aliens…and for their leader to be absolutely the most beautiful woman in the solar system,” she whispered into his ear. At the table, she insinuated herself between Etienne and Alain. Eyeing Alain, she offered him her best teenager smile.

  General Gonzalez, Minister Drake, and Minister Jaya joined them shortly, and President McMorris politely steered the conversation away from the important issues facing them. Christie wanted to know about the rescue. Katie wanted to know how Renée’s people were faring. Everyone wanted to know about the Méridien home world—the climate, the people, their society.

  In one of Christie’s more adventurous moments, and there were several, she leaned over to Alain and whispered quietly, “Are you two twins or do all men on your world look like you?”

  As Alain mulled over her question, Étienne chose to respond. “We are twins and crèche-mates. There were two other sets of twins, one male and one female, in our crèche.”

  Christie turned to look at Étienne and then back at Alain, a look of pure confusion spreading across her face. “Alex, I whispered to him,” she said, pointing to Alain, “and he answered,” and she pointed to Étienne.

  “Well,” the President stepped into the conversation, “this is the part where I talk about State secrets.” He looked pointedly at Christie, “Do you understand about State secrets, young lady?”

  “Yes, Mr. President, I do.”

  Alex was surprised by the maturity of his sister’s response. He detected his parent’s fine hand in her recent education.

  “To answer your question, Christie,” Renée explained, “we receive implants as children and are trained to use them over the course of several years.” She sought the President’s gaze. “My people can communicate with one another in many ways.”

  Christie’s response was laced with a few choice slang expressions that registered her delight, none of which translated well for the Méridiens, though they had the rest of the table laughing. Undeterred, Christie launched into a flurry of questions about the implants. Did they hurt? Could they feel them in their heads? Could she get one? The latter question evoked more laughter from everyone except Alex. He smiled at first, enjoying his sister’s exuberance, then his expression turned thoughtful.

  Lunch ended too soon for the Racines, but the day was passing quickly and there was still much to do. At the central rotunda, the family said their goodbyes to Alex and delivered another round of hugs and handshakes to the Méridiens.

  The hugs had an element of simple human warmth that Renée found herself enjoying. But it was Katie’s parting words that pleased her the most. “When you come to visit you can bring Alex too,” she was told, and the two women shared a quiet laugh.

  Alex watched his mother whisper to each of his friends, the conservative and polite Méridiens responding warmly to her hugs and words. His mother was intuitive like that, knowing just what people needed.

  Christie offered a final wave to the twins, and Alex chuckled when they returned the gesture in an exact and coordinated replica of her wave, which threw his usually over-confident sister off her step.

  * * *

  They were guided to the conference room, where President McMorris and the Team awaited them. McMorris laid out his immediate plans. All their service needs: their hover-cars, drivers, shuttles, and security would be provided by General Gonzalez’s TSF.

  He challenged them to produce a detailed agreement, or contract, as Ser had called it, demanding that two points be addressed. “One, I need advice on how not to ruin our economy with the technology transfer; two, how we can tie the Rêveur’s weapons development to some advancement for New Terra. I don’t want us to be standing around with our pants down if those aliens come knocking.”

  He turned to look at Alex and said, “And I relieve you as ambassador.” The sudden stillness at the table caused him to hurry on. “It’s obvious to me that you care greatly for your new friends. You should be free to ensure their well-being. If they approve,” and he nodded toward Renée, “you will be their official spokesperson.”

  Renée nodded her agreement. “We would accept no one else, Mr. President.”

  “Fine,” the President beamed, standing up. “Let’s get you all on your way back to the Rêveur, where you can focus on your negotiations. If you stay any longer, you’ll be incessantly stalked by newsie vid drones.”

  -17-

  At the shuttle terminal, General Gonzalez introduced Major Tachenko, who was another woman that intrigued Renée. She’d first seen the commanding, blue-eyed blonde at the news conference. What fascinated Renée was that she spoke to her people with complete authority, as a Méridien House Leader would, and her troopers were attentive to her every word. She discovered she would be seeing much more of the Major, who was in charge of their security and transportation.

  Upon their return to the Rêveur, the guests were ushered to their cabins, prepared as best they could, and settled in just before evening meal. After they had eaten their fill, they convened on the bridge.

  The first two items in the agreement were simple—the New Terrans agreed to the repair and resupply of the Rêveur and the retro-fit of the Outward Bound.

  Julien had compiled his master list by combining his internal survey, Alex and Claude’s exterior and interior analysis, and the Méridien’s inventory accounts. Tara had possessed the Outward Bound’s schematics, which Julien had used to plan the retro-fit, adding the needed items to the requisition list. To his audience, he described the manufacturing steps, facilities, and personnel required to produce the needed parts for their ships. His list detailed 925 items and the President’s team, scanning the vid display, was mesmeri
zed by the thought of what they’d be able to produce for themselves after taking care of the Méridiens’ needs.

  “I would like a copy of this list forwarded to my Chief of Projects, Derek Sanders. When will you be able to compile this information and send it to him, Julien?” Minister Drake asked, still getting used to conversing with a computer that wasn’t a computer.

  “Ser Sanders has a copy on his reader now, Minister. I’ve included some time variables that he should find most helpful, as there are some unknowns for me, such as how long you’ll require to assemble the requisite staff.”

  “That’s…umm…very efficient of you, Julien,” Drake managed to say.

  “It’s a pleasure to be of service, Minister.”

  Alex covered his mouth and feigned a frown, as if deep in thought, hiding his grin while Drake composed himself.

  The next topic of discussion wasn’t so easily resolved…the weapons. After Alex laid out his concept of creating shields and beam weapons to fight fire with fire, they struggled with how to proceed. In the quiet, Minister Jaya offered the sentiment that he’d hoped this day would never come—building destructive large-scale weapons.

  Uncharacteristically, it was Julien who responded to the Minister’s sentiment. “I am in agreement with Captain Racine. Our people are proud of their efforts to eliminate aggression and protect all beings. And while we lived alone in our corner of the galaxy, we could indulge our fantasy that all intelligent entities would be like us. Now we know that’s not true. And while the truth is painful, we must accept this pain and change. These plans are the first step in that transformation.”

  There was no ship-to-ship weapons expertise among them and no one had a concept to propose. All they had were questions. So their progress ground to a halt.

  As an alternative, Renée suggested that they work on the President’s other key point, the methods by which Méridien technology could be introduced to New Terran society without destroying the economic base. But by now, the day’s hectic events had caught up with them. The Team decided to retire for the evening. Pia met them at the access way and guided them back to their cabins.

  Alex remained on the bridge, lost in thought. He barely acknowledged Renée as she left for her cabin.

  “You need your sleep as well, Captain.” Julien advised.

  “There was an old saying about the blind leading the blind, even though we have no more blind,” he murmured.

  “An appropriate sentiment in these circumstances, Captain. But without data, we are blind despite our desire to explore this new field. I’ve searched my records and it appears I was never given information regarding weapons. I would suspect this omission was purposeful.”

  Julien dimmed the bridge lights while Alex sat in the command chair pondering the problem. The view of the stars and the planet below provided a quiet background to his thoughts. It was more than an hour later when he suddenly sat up. “I wonder if we have it?” he exclaimed and then raced off the bridge.

  Geneviève and Terese squeaked as the Captain barreled past them with a hurried apology. They queried Julien on the nature of the emergency and received,

  Alex had Julien guide him to Jaya’s cabin, where he pounded urgently on the door. It slid open, revealing the Minister dressed in his sleepwear and holding his reader, “Yes, Captain?”

  “Minister, do we have the colonists’ records—the ones they downloaded from their ship? It just occurred to me that they might include Earth’s military weapons.”

  “Captain Ulam’s logs state that the First Mate transferred the entire ship’s library to portable memory cores. I know for a fact that the early colonists depended on much of that knowledge and made backup copies to preserve it. How much of that library survives today, I don’t know. But I know who has the archives.” He grabbed a robe and they dashed back to the bridge.

  * * *

  At 7.88 hours, Julien notified Renée, Alex, and the Team of the shuttle’s arrival. Alex and Jaya were ecstatic, while the others were puzzled since no delivery had been scheduled. Responding to Renée’s query, Julien cryptically replied that the Captain and Minister Jaya had been quite busy last night.

  When the Rêveur’s inner airlock door slid open, Major Tachenko extended a sealed case to Alex. “Hope this is what you need, Captain,” she said. “We shook a great many people out of bed to get these records. It appears the colonists’ cores were dispersed to several universities and none of them knew if they had the entire original library.”

  As Renée arrived at the airlock with the remainder of the team in tow, Major Tachenko delivered a quick salute. “Ser, we loaded a double-ended, flexible docking tunnel this morning. We can secure one end to your airlock hatch and leave the other end sealed. That way the shuttles won’t have to deploy docking collars to transfer personnel. We just require your permission, Ser.”

  “Permission granted, Major Tachenko.” As the airlock sealed, Renée heard the Major ordering her people to begin the installation. The part where she referenced a New Terran animal was lost in translation.

  Alex hurried off to the bridge with the package. Jaya ran after him, rubbing his hands together and chuckling all the way. Forewarned by Julien this time, the Méridiens cleared the corridor as the two men raced past, offering apologies.

  “Where do you want them, Julien?” Alex asked, rushing onto the bridge, Jaya right behind him. Julien directed him to a lower cabinet, and Alex opened the carrying case and extracted a stack of memory cores enclosed in their own casing. “These will need power as well as data access,” he said.

  “I understand, Captain.”

  Alex placed the cores in the cabinet. Following Julien’s directions, he took a cable from the cabinet and slotted one end into a bank of connectors and held the other end against the core’s data port. He heard Jaya’s wow over his shoulder as the cable end morphed to accommodate the casing’s connector and glanced over to see a huge grin plastered across the Minister’s face.

  Renée and the other two team members arrived on the bridge to witness the two men on their hands and knees with their heads buried inside a cabinet.

  “We understand you two have been busy?” Drake said.

  “The connection has been made,” Julien announced. “Allow me one moment, Captain, while I review the organizational structure.” They all waited in silence for Julien to continue. “My analysis is complete and I’m transferring data.” Moments later, “I’m ready, Captain. I can review the files or we can query the data together, as you desire.”

  Alex climbed to his feet alongside Jaya. “Query please. Images, Earth, war ships.” He said excitedly, ignoring the people behind him.

  An image of an ancient ocean sailing vessel with rows of protuberances along its hull appeared on the central screen. Alex, confused by the image, said, “Uh, let’s work from the most recent years.” Then he caught on. “Very nice, Julien,” he chuckled. “Perhaps I was remiss in not complimenting you on your inimitable skills accessing foreign data modules and integrating the records in such an expedient manner.”

  “One never goes wrong with a well-placed compliment, Captain.”

  A spate of snickers followed from the others as they caught the joke.

  “Yes, well it goes without saying that you are a superlative individual where the manipulation of data is concerned.”

  “Yes, Captain, I can see where this conversation is heading, so I’ll return to your query.”

  Julien began displaying images across all three bridge screens. “These are Earth fighters, as they were called. Some traveled in space and directed their flight through engines spread on extended booms. They employed a host of offensive and defensive armaments—missiles, machine guns, flares, and many more items. The library has details on each of these items such as how they were employed and their manufacturing specifications.”

  Out of the corner of his eye, Alex noticed Renée had come to stand beside him. They a
ll continued to watch as Julien filled the huge screens with images of Earth’s fighters. Overjoyed with their find, Alex couldn’t contain himself any longer. He whooped, picked Renée up, and twirled her lightly around. “We found it,” he crowed and then belatedly set her down with a contrite grin on his face.

  She laughed. “It would seem so, my Captain.”

  Minister Jaya updated his teammates. “Alex knocked—or, rather, pounded—on my door last night and asked about the colonists’ archives. I told him they were at the universities. So we contacted Major Tachenko, who contacted the university Presidents, archive administrators, and techs to compile their archives.”

  “You did this during the night…I mean you woke these people up during the night?” asked Drake.

  “It seemed most expedient,” Jaya apologized.

  “How many universities responded to the request?” Maria asked.

  “Why, all of them.”

  “That probably made the Major popular,” she commented.

  “That’s what the Major delivered this morning,” he said, gesturing at the screens. “She is a most impressive and efficient woman, the Major.” It was quite a compliment coming from the Minister who oversaw technology development for the entire solar system.

  “Julien, perform a quick search for energy weapons and shields for large space vessels.” Alex requested.

  “Searching, Captain…there are no energy weapons, and the shields are only for protection from space dust. They’d be insufficient against the silver ship.”

  “Okay, so plan A is out. What about one of these fighters? Could you adapt one of these designs with Méridien technology?”

  “It should be quite feasible, Captain, but I would need to monitor test results at every stage of development.”

  “What about their dimensions? How many could we fit in the Rêveur’s bay?”

  “We would have to remove at least one of our shuttles to allow room for up to two fighters, Captain, depending on the final specifications.”