To Wake the Living (The Time Stone Trilogy Book 2)

by Robert F Hays

  Jim stuck his foot through a door. The gravity beyond caught it and slowly brought it back to the floor. One quick push and he was again walking under his own weight.

  “Have you seen Karla?” Chris asked from a distance down the hall.

  “No, why, has she disappeared again?”

  “Sure has. One minute she was there, next minute gone. I need her to take notes while I interview people.”

  Jim slapped his side. “That did it. I’m putting her on the first freighter back.”

  “No you’re not,” Karla said as she stepped into the corridor from the shaft.

  “Where have you been?” Jim demanded as he turned.

  “Looking for my family, what else? You got word of yours. Why can’t I go looking for mine?”

  “I only talked to a man who knew my brother was looking for me from an old film. That’s hardly gratifying.”

  “Well, I haven’t found even that much. We’ve woken up less than a tenth of one percent of the colonists and you found out something. To me that increases my chances.”

  “You can do the rest by V phone.”

  “Shit,” Karla said, biting her lip. “I know I haven’t been the easiest person in the world to get along with but please understand.”

  Jim exhaled in frustration. The problem was that he did understand and felt extremely sympathetic. The greater problem was that others in his team had been complaining. She annoyed Dr. Chin and Dr. Ellison by being continually underfoot whenever they opened a cryo chamber. They had even caught her trying to open one herself. She had followed the procedures she had learned by observing them but they still didn’t appreciate an amateur’s interference. Her explanation was that she was trying to speed up the process.

  Levin also had a few words to say on the subject. About the only thing that ever annoyed him was someone fooling with any of his precious electronic equipment. She had done just that by accidentally crashing one of the ships old computers while she was on one of her frequent searches for information. She was rapidly becoming a liability.

  The only one she seemed not to annoy was Halbert, but he was easy going to the point of fault anyway.

  “The next freighter leaves in four days. If there isn’t a vast improvement in your attitude, you’re going to be on it. Do you understand?”

  “Yes, I’ll be good,” Karla said with a smile. “Running around in circles like a mad thing is bad karma anyway. I guess my psychotic vibes have been getting people uptight.”

  “You are...”

  Jim was interrupted by the beeping of a pen phone in the pocket of his jacket. He pulled it out and touched the receive control on the side.

  “Jim here, what is it?”

  “It’s Rick in the excursion vehicle. Just came back from dropping two mets at the weather satellite and am now chasing a couple of cryo chambers. I think they were pushed out of an airlock on the port side of the ship. Was their ejection intentional or should I round them up?”

  “Round them up Rick. No cryo was supposed to be thrown out. They can be recycled into something useful.”

  “Hey, I just pulled alongside of one and looked through the faceplate. They’re occupied.”

  “Oh shit,” Jim said as he touched another control on the phone that automatically opened a channel to everyone. “General alert. Someone has just ejected two occupied cryos from the port side airlock.”

  “On my way,” said the police officer Jim had recently talked too.

  “Have the cryo connections been damaged,” Dr. Ellison asked as Jim dove head first into the shaft.

  “Ah..” Rick said. “I can’t really tell. The pipes look a little bent, but not broken, and I can see the small green light at the foot. Just gave one a shove in the direction of the ship and going after the other.”

  “Can you read their serial numbers?” Chris asked.

  “Ah... 47,388 on the one I’m chasing now.”

  Jim reached the door of the corridor leading to the only functioning airlock on the port side. As he entered the non-gravity section he saw George appear from a cargo bay door and head in the same direction.

  “I think I know who did it,” called George as he crawled hand over hand along the rail. “Saw a man and a woman headed the other way in a hurry a couple of minutes ago.”

  They stopped at the inner door to the airlock and Jim looked up at the red light above. “The outer door’s now open to space.”

  “I just looked them up,” Chris’ voice said over the open line of the pen phone. “Two of Stutchman’s thugs.”

  “Thought so,” George said. “The two I saw had relatives murdered when they took over the ship. I was in the cargo bay checking my electric police cycle when they went past.”

  “You didn’t see them as they went to the airlock?”

  “No, I just got there a minute before which means that all the evidence is circumstantial.”

  “Shouldn’t we go chase them or something?” Jim said.

  “Where’re they going to go?”

  Jim shrugged as they made their way back along the corridor.

  * * *

  “This is some ship,” said George as he relaxed in an armchair of the Lydia’s observation deck. “And this is some room.”

  “It’s where we all relax,” Jim said, looking around. “The two lounges are seldom used. I wish you could all come over here to stay, but there just isn’t that much room. A few could live here for a while, but that would make the rest jealous, so it’s better that no one does.”

  George nodded. “It looks like this’ll be my only chance to enjoy something like this. I guess I’ll be spending the rest of my life in a tiny house on that primitive planet.”

  Jim laughed. “You obviously haven’t seen the wealth of current civilization. Even the lower levels of society live like movie stars back on Earth. Interplanetary vacations are frequently taken by police officers on other planets. I’ve met a few on luxury cruise liners.”

  “But we’re just starting out. We won’t be able to afford such things in our lifetime.”

  “I have heard an estimate of three years until your standard of living will be comparable to some of the other planets. The geo. reports indicate that you’re more fortunate than most in the galaxy, and a couple of the food plants you have on board no longer exist. The planet will get top price when they’re marketed.”

  George relaxed in his seat and smiled to himself. “Interesting. Where do you recommend that I take the family on my first vacation?”

  “One of the beach resorts on Brougham’s Folly. Rent one of the family size miniature submarines for a couple of day’s underwater tour. I also suggest renting an air cabin. It’s a balloon that looks like an old blimp. Sleeps six and you can sit out in the open on a sort of back porch and watch the scenery as it passes below. They’re computer controlled so you don’t have to know how to operate them.”

  “Hot air or helium?”

  Jim laughed. “Hot helium.”

  George smiled. “You’re pulling my leg.”

  “No I’m not; I’ve seen it for myself.”

  Jim sat back with a satisfied smile. He was pleased with the role he was playing in introducing these people to the modern world. He wished he could take each one in turn and show them the sights he himself had seen. He wanted to see the look of wonder on their faces as they sampled the relaxed pleasures of this future society.

  “Brougham’s Folly eh? Why did they call the planet a folly? Isn’t it much good?”

  “No, it’s a beautiful place. I read a plaque at the site of the first landing that explained the name. The planet itself was quite a good one compared to the others, but the colonists thought it was so dismal that they believed a mistake had been made. They had no contact with other planetary colonies so they didn’t know how well off they were. They put the blame on somebody named Brougham. There was a Brougham family on board, but no one knows why they would get the blame.”

  “No, it was Frank Brougham
they blamed,” George said.

  “Who?... Hold on. Computer, V mail to the Chairman of the Sanders Island district council, Brougham’s Folly. This is Jim Young talking with an Old Earth colonist who says he knows who the infamous Brougham was.” He then returned his attention to the officer. “George, you said his name was Frank. How do you know that?”

  “Actually it’s quite logical who they would’ve blamed. It was the chairman of the board of the computer company that installed the guidance software in the ship. Pacific Systems Incorporated of Vacaville California installed and calibrated ours as well. Frank appears in the briefing tape we all had to see before leaving. He was quite proud of the system.”

  “Would he have been on the colony ship to Brougham’s folly?”

  “I doubt it. He was in his early sixties and absolutely no one was going who was over the age of fifty five.”

  Jim leaned back in his chair. “Well, there you have it. We’ll see if we can find the video and send it to you. End Message.”

  “V mail sent,” the computer said.

  “Well,” Sam said as he entered the room. “I was a talkin’ with them there legal fellas and they said that under the constitution ah has the rights ta gives amnesty to them there people. We cain’t have no court case right now without a judge, and they says that if’n we do that them people will get off anyway. Somthin’ ‘bout the hard time they had and that they was crazy when they did it but ain’t crazy no more.”

  “Temporary insanity?” Jim said.

  “Them’s the words them legal fellas used. Ah can understand that. Them two have been through a tough time. Ah seen that after the war, people jest don’t think right no more.”

  “We need a psychologist,” Jim said.

  “Yep, one of them there head doctors like the one that talked to me. He was a right agreeable fellah.”

  “I agree,” George added. “The colonists, including myself, have lived with violence and fear for the last few years. We’ll have to change basic thinking.”

  “So, next time I see Chris I’ll ask him to schedule a couple of psych docs.”

  George pulled a notebook from his jacket pocket. “President Sam, what’s your decision?”

  “It’s jest Sam, and ah thaink ah will give them amnesty this time and a warning that ah won’t do it next time.”

  “One thing’s for sure,” George said, “we’ll have to move the whole gang to a more secure place.”

  “There are three vacant cargo bays,” Karla said as she walked into the room. “See, I told you I’d make myself useful. Just talked to Levin and he said he could easily tap in outlets for the cryos in the bays that held all the colony’s weather and survey satellites.”

  She walked to the side of Jim’s chair and picked up the attached pad. After making an entry, she handed it to him. “Here, the plans show only one entryway, which can be sealed, and an outlet to space, which can also be sealed.”

  “Good,” Jim said, looking at the plans displayed on the data pad then handed it to George. “Doing well Karla, keep it up.”

  George nodded and pointed to the screen. “I can set up my security alarms here and here. I think I shall use those new ones that just arrived from Regis. It’ll give me practice.”

  “President Sam,” Jim said with a smile, knowing that the attached title slightly annoyed him. “Could you issue an executive order to declare the area restricted and ask Chris to organize a team to move the chambers?”

  “Yep,” the President replied.

  “Tell Chris to pick people that didn’t lost relatives when the Stutchmans took the ship.”

  * * *

  The Lydia hadn’t moved in six weeks. The giant ship still appeared through the starboard side of the observation deck dome.

  “We’ll start with you Carol,” Jim said, looking around the room at his committee. “What’s the communications update?”

  “I now have a team of twenty three who can install and operate the new 3V and flat screen equipment. Four of them can do minor repairs but they still have to call on me for major problems.”

  “Celia, how’re you doing with the biologists?”

  “They’re a bit of a problem. As you know, sizable advancements have been made in the field of biology. Some of them are lost even with the simplest stuff. The biggest problems have been with the older, more educated ones. Theories and laws that they grew up with have to be revised and they’re most inflexible to change.”

  “Remember the time they come from,” Chris said. “To them education in the basics was for the young. I’ll have to work with a few psychologists on changing that fundamental attitude.”

  “I had one of them yell at me yesterday,” Celia complained. “She said that she had been handling viruses all her life and would not be told how to do it by a silly young lab tech.”

  Chris leaned back and closed his eyes. “We’re going to have to put up with that attitude. It’s a threat to their authority.”

  “Well there’s one doctor of microbiology that’s going to get an electro containment flask shoved up her tooshie if she yells at me again. The funny thing is, even as a lab tech my education is far more advanced than her doctorate.”

  Jim raised a hand to politely re-enter the discussion. “But can they handle the new bios that just arrived from Pluschard.”

  “They can handle it recipe fashion, but fully understanding it is going to take many weeks, possibly years if their attitude continues.”

  “Ok, that’s going to have to do for now.” Jim switched his attention to Halbert. “It’s now time for the farm report, Mr. Nessman.”

  “Huh?”

  “Personal joke Halbert, how’s it going with the agronomists?”

  “I took a group of them over to the freighter with the ground clearer. They were most impressed. I showed them how to operate the onboard computer and the peripherals. They do not as yet fully understand the reasons for some of the procedures but are willing to accept them. After that we went back to the ship, got drunk and told farm stories.”

  Chris laughed. “Some of the best instruction is done with a beverage and an anecdote.”

  “They’ll do just fine. They’re anxious to get down there and start preparing land.”

  “Levin, when will that be?”

  “According to the University of Hebram three more weeks and the weather around the equator will be calm enough not to destroy their work.”

  “Security, Peter, what’s new there?”

  “I’m just a Commonwealth observer dishy, but from what I’ve observed those police officers know their job. The malefactors in custody are well secured.”

  “Fine, just fine,” Jim mumbled as he looked down at his data pad. “Now for history and culture. Chris?”

  “One big bottleneck,” Chris said as he slapped his knee with his pad. “I have thirty six universities pestering me for information. As the computer banks have very little history, Karla and I have been working a sixteen hour day gathering oral history from interviews. That’s why she isn’t here now. She found a geologist who can recite a quantity of old poetry from memory. The colonists didn’t include experts in the humanities on their main decks. The few on board are below and quite inaccessible at present.”

  “What’re you saying?”

  “I need Karla. Do you still have plans to put her on that freighter tomorrow?”

  “No, she’s doing all right now. She can stay. Next subject is Earl, equipment and supplies.”

  Earl cleared his throat before speaking. “Those alcohol burning machines are in perfect condition. We’ll send down a few to cover for a while until modern stuff arrives. They’ll function unless Halbert and his farmers drink all the fuel first.”

  All present turned with smirking faces to look at Halbert who shrugged. “First crop of grain comes up and we will make more.”

  Earl continued. “The rest of the machines are being set aside for sale to gain interplanetary financing.”

  “
That brings us to the final subject, government. President Sam, how’re you doing?”

  “President Sam,” Sam mumbled in disgust.

  “The Stuchmans eliminated their own leadership. It looks like you’re it, so how are international affairs going?”

  “Ah hired some business managers ta take care of the sales of them collectable thaings and the culture stuff, but thair ain’t enough people woke up yet ta vote ta give me permission ta sell their property. Them there legal fellahs said ah can make the sleepin’ ones temporary wards of the state as they cain’t help their selves and they is in ma territory.”

  “Well you’re going to have to do something soon Sam.”

  “Yep, seems the only thaing ah can do. Don’t want ta live on charity and don’t want ta run up a big bill at the dry goods store. Cain’t have the next fellah ta take over startin’ off with a big debt.”

  Jim stood. “Sometimes it can’t be helped. If that’s all the business at hand shall we adjourn to watch the first fleet of landers depart for the surface.”

  * * *

  Chris and Jim stood looking through the observation deck ceiling at the fleet of seven colonial shuttles plus the Lydia’s own shuttle as they assembled for the descent. On the side of each colonial ship a newly painted Confederate battle flag was the only decoration.

  “I am surprised that they all so readily accepted that symbol as their own,” Jim said, chuckling to himself. “After all, very few have even the remotest connection to the southern states. The northerners, Canadians, British and Australians all seem to be quite proud of it.”

  “It’s a matter of identity. In the ten years before they left, nationalism broke down into an individual and family struggle for survival. They forgot the old divisions and developed a take care of yourself first attitude. Now they have to form a cohesive group.”

  Jim glanced back at Chris. “I thought it was most amusing to hear a black guy from Manitoba Canada joking with an Englishman from Liverpool in an imitation of Sam’s accent. I doubt if either of them knew what chitlins were let alone like them.”

  “The ones with objections to the flag have more important things to think about right now than past intolerances.”