When Dai’s men came back, exhausted and sore, they found the Terrans with a supply of hundreds of filleted fish and wanting to know where to put it. Dai refrained from telling them where he would prefer it to go and showed them the freezers. To his great relief, they did the work. Like many of his men, he was very uncomfortable despite the painkillers. The area that had been treated was a trifle tender. Lifting supplies all day hadn’t helped. They knew they should have rested but there was no time. Another full round of analgesics was distributed that night, and all was ready as the pilots met to plan the journey.
“Who’s going?” Dai asked. “Uh, I’ll rephrase that. Is anyone staying besides me?”
“No one wants to stay except for Dacklorat and Kudales,” came the answer.
Dai smiled. Dacklorat was smitten with Miyuki, and Kudales was after Ludmilla. Dai wondered if they had consulted with the ladies in question but decided he would stay out of it. Besides, he couldn’t talk. “You will be very undermanned for the return journey. My suggestion would be that you try to recruit Terrans for some extra crew to help, but I’ll leave that choice to you.”
Dai worried about the implications of all this. Once his crew had departed there would be three of them left. Just enough to crew his ship in an emergency, though there were some likely Terrans who might be open to some training. Of course, he mused, that broke some of the few regulations he hadn’t broken yet. Dai’s crew were hand-picked, all right. They shared his fears and his paranoia. They knew what he was involved in and were with him. They were intensely loyal to him personally and shared his judicious sidestepping of some regulations and ignoring others. Like this little venture to Terra. Dai decided not to count the regulations it would break. He was very sure one or more of his crew would accurately count it up and gleefully inform him, probably after telling the rest of the crew.
He sighed. Sometimes there was no justice in life. The responsibility was his and he would have to face the consequences. He winced at the thought. There were two more incoming Niseyen military ships, with what reaction he didn’t want to think. But his focus was the same as Sarah’s: keeping two Races alive. Like so much of life, he thought, if all of this this went well his contribution would be probably ignored, possibly acknowledged by the military, even possibly applauded. But if it all went wrong and something happened to his ship and his crew, his alone was the responsibility. Ouch. His official orders had been only to go to Torroxell, negotiate the Treaty, report back, and give assistance. He was to remain on Torroxell until he received further orders or was relieved. It was never envisaged that he and his crew would part company.
There would be enough people for crew, he figured. The ship would be empty except for a huge cargo of fish, food for refugees to augment the goop and other food on board. It was lucky the Keulfyd were a similar carbon-based life form and the Terrans could eat most of the same food on board. His crew had scavenged through shops and loaded food for themselves as they were reluctant to eat goop, but Sarah told him refugees would eat what they were given. He wondered if she was being optimistic. He was surprised that so many Races could eat that food but probably the Keulfyd had chosen many of the Races that had come with them with that in mind. It made it easier to stock the ship. That made sense,
He pondered the make-up of the two crews and blessed the multiple training his crew had had. And the simulators. The official, standard ones and the ones he and his crew had added. They had pretty much divided themselves up into the two crews. All essential abilities and training were in each crew. Leaving three crew members behind would give them twenty-four crew for each ship, plus some Zeobani had volunteered to go and Sarah was going to send two Terrans with each ship. That was under minimum crew for a long voyage, but over it if he counted the Terrans and Zeobani. It it would be legal on the outward trip but not on a fully loaded return.
On second thoughts, he realized, that wasn’t true. Sarah could make any regulation she liked as Torroxell was her planet. And Terra didn’t have any regulations pertaining to spaceships. Sarah could authorize the return flight. He wouldn’t get away with this on any other planet!
He wondered which Terrans would go. If Sarah decided to send Ludmilla or Miyuki, this could be fun. He wondered if she would make the choice or ask for volunteers. How did Terrans do this? The Okme were all organized to go and would be doing some serious maintenance and upgrades on the outward journey in the Medical Center on each ship. They had loaded on all their damaged or sabotaged Healing Machines so they could fix them en route. Mostly they would be reversing some judicious damage they had done while on the Keulfyd ships. One noted sadly to Helkmid, “It is faster to cause damage than repair it. A lot faster.” On the return journey, they expected to be flat-out treating Terrans.
The choice of Terrans to go had already been made, at yesterday’s meeting. Alan and Nial were to go on one ship, Sally and Pieter on the other. All had volunteered.
Sarah was puzzled and not a little hurt by Alan’s decision to go. When she asked why, he replied, “Thousands of single women and me improving by the day? No contest! I’ll be recovered by the time we get there! Oh, I can’t wait.”
Sarah was horrified, angry, and humiliated, but hid her feelings. She no longer wondered why Alan had been married four times. She realized she should have known all along. She was so relieved she had never told him how she felt about him. He hadn’t noticed, she hoped.
That night, Sarah was in tears, very rare for her. How could I have got it so wrong again! What is wrong with me? Why am I attracted to bad men? Again and again?
This interchange between her and Alan had not gone unnoticed. Ludmilla had seen and understood. Later that night she told Sarah, “You are a rescuer and are drawn to men who are in need. You do not get the point that those who are in any type of trouble are mostly in trouble due to their own weaknesses or their own poor choices.”
“Oh, I finally realized that with Robert. He was both weak and impulsive. His financial judgment was non-existent and he had no impulse control. If he had money, he looked for something to spend it on. If he didn’t have money, he worked on me with numerous justifications as to why he had to have something. Or he would buy it anyway, on time payment, with my credit card or his, which I paid for, or he would book it up, or get someone to send a bill. Every pay day, when I went to pay the bills there were extra bills and often there was not enough money to pay them. He didn’t care! There was seldom any money left for me. He spent it all on himself. He would sometimes make a point to others that he had bought something for me, but he bought it with my money! He didn’t learn from experience and couldn’t see that the fault was his. What I didn’t understand was that he could see his faults in others but was blind to his own. I loved him so much, and was so hurt when I found out he had been cheating. And while I was pregnant with Katy! Yet I know I would not have kicked him out if I had not been so sick, so tired and so grumpy. I’m too loyal for my own good! He did so little. I was working full-time, doing almost all the housework and Rob got out of everything by claiming he had such a sore back. I don’t understand why I pick bad ones. Why?”
“You’re a rescuer,” said Ludmilla calmly. “And you don’t see the bad in people, only the good. Especially once your emotions are involved. If they were good people, down on their luck or victims of someone else, it would work. But most people in affluent societies who have little deserve little, because they don’t look after what they have. And that goes for people who go through multiple relationships. They often end up alone because they are no good and get kicked out, except by people like you. How good a father was he?”
“That was an eye-opener. I didn’t put his name on the birth certificate so he didn’t have to pay maintenance. He liked that bit, but that meant he also had no rights to Katy. That was the bit I liked. So I could take her where I pleased and send her to the schools I wanted and take her overseas when I worked away from America. He happily accepted it when I told him the trade
-off for this meant he didn’t have to pay. By that time I was wised up to him. I thought he would fall for it, and he did.”
“Who does Katy take after?”
“Me. Thank God for that!”
“And thank your genes and your attitude. What’s Katy like?”
“Strong, independent, full of initiative, compassionate, opinionated, excellent judgment, way better than me when it comes to men! She’s bright too, a bookworm, a natural student.”
“What is she studying for?”
“She’s not sure. She doing mostly social sciences.”
“Sounds like her Mum.”
“I always wanted to be a doctor but I wasn’t good enough at maths or science. Then I thought about law, but it seemed too immoral and I don’t like our justice system. The adversary system stinks. Two lawyers playing with someone’s life, playing prima donna.”
Ludmilla sighed. “Ours isn’t much better.”
The next morning, Ludmilla and Sarah were sitting at the same table as usual discussing the ships leaving and what they would like them to bring back. Dai had told Sarah they planned to leave around midday. There were no Niseyen in sight. All were helping get the ships ready, as were most of the Terrans. The Niseyen woman, Kudsher, had decided to stay as had Thikedoty, the boy with her, who turned out to be Mahmoud’s age. Mahmoud had taken him under his wing and renamed him Odie. He explained, “Any kid whose name contains the words thick and dotty deserves help!”
Odie was awed by the Terrans and traumatized by the events of the last month. He was a bit clingy but he shared Mahmoud’s basic kindness and had a wicked sense of humour. He had the requisite requirements to be a favourite with Mahmoud: he was bright and he cared about others. The opposite to how it appeared, he had been caring for Kudsher who was not related to him.
Sarah looked up as the two of them wolfed breakfast and raced out the door. Idly, she wondered how long it would be before Odie could drive and fly. Not long, she figured, and he would be welcome. The children had really stepped up to the mark — she seldom heard a grumble. She looked at her breakfast, which tasted a lot better these days, and remarded to Ludmilla, “I could never get Katy to eat breakfast. She was never hungry in the morning. I told her to stay and finish her degree. I bet she’ll turn up here.”
“Are you going to tell her you got elected President of a planet?”
“I didn’t! People just started calling me that.”
“You are President, though. It’s unanimous. I suspect that’s one of the reasons Alan decided to go. He would like the job and knows that while you’re here he won’t get it.”
Sarah looked up, startled, “He’s jealous?”
“I think so. Especially now he’s feeling better. He didn’t have the energy for the job before.”
The two got up and went out to help get the ships ready. A bit after midday, they lifted quietly off the ground and left, heading for Terra. Alia solemnly gave them clearance to leave. Sarah was also in the new Air Traffic Control room to see them off.
“Five months it will take for them to return. Maybe four if they just fill up and return. Will we still be here?” asked Alia.
“Well, I intend to be,” said Sarah.
She sent out messages to all the other ships then waited while Alia downloaded waiting messages. One was from Kelly, saying she would arrive at Petislay soon.
“Still no official communication from the Niseyen?” Mathew asked one night when they were chatting. “We are all uneasy and puzzled at this. Where is the official delegation? You said Dai has told the the Niseyen so they know about us. But mostly I’m wondering in anticipation what kind of an impact our news will bring on Terra.”
“Have you still not managed to communicate with them?”
“No. I ordered the Niseyen slaves to keep trying to communicate with the Niseyen. but they say the Niseyen aren’t answering. Two of the Niseyen had memorized encryption codes so no other Races would know what they were saying, so the message is safe and the direction is known.”
“It’s worrying,” said Sarah, “but here’s some good news. Four of the ships that have answered Dai’s messages are heading for Terra. He organized for the location to be given later and they know only the general direction. Two of those were private ships. Even that information was for Captain and Navigator only. I’ll leave it to you as to what to do with them but we could do with some food producers and there are all those fishing villages that are empty. We’re not sure what kind of creatures lived there but we’ll fit the cottages. And I need to tell you that going to Terra with Dai’s men is a communication control panel, a spare off Dai’s ship, with all the programs installed. When that is set up, every Terran Flying Fortress, Terra, Torroxell and Petislay will be in contact with each other.”
“That’s great!” said Mathew. “Being able to talk to each other is so good. I’d been wondering what would happen once all the ships were in space.
“Dai suggested this. He’s also transferred the Air Traffic Control room back onto the airport which works much better.”
“Useful bloke, isn’t he?”
“Very. I’d better scram. Talk again a few days.”
Sarah wondered how relationships would pan out with the Niseyen but she had no real concerns. It could be fun. There would be enormous culture clashes but Terrans were used to these. The Niseyen weren’t, though. She wondered how they would cope. Hopefully they would teach the Terrans a thing or two about unity.
Dai also was thinking about this. His cover story to Sarah for the satellite part of the communication network had been that it would work better and faster if augmented by the satellite he hoped they would be allowed to deploy in orbit on Terra and he was hoping that Medala and Jaynar would link up soon after. He had explained he couldn’t link them up without permission, which only Petislay had given. He refrained from telling her that the Petislay communication channel was military and that there had been no communication or messages of any kind, civilian or official, from any Niseyen world to the Terrans. Nothing. He didn’t understand this and was very uneasy. It sounded as though some secret information he had been given, and wanted to doubt the accuracy of, was true after all. That caused him a lot of distress and he didn’t know what to do. Surreptitiously, he continued to send out encrypted messages to people he knew, mostly Niseyen military.
Dai was at the control panel of his own ship, along with Dacklorat and Kudales, watching the take-off and second guessing himself. The other two were probably doing the same, he thought. As the ships cleared the atmosphere, the three Niseyen left and headed for the mess hall for their job assignments.
Sarah stood up as they came in. “I was told you spent a full day gathering supplies for the Okme and I feel a little guilty. We were so concerned with our own problems we never thought to ask if they needed help. Thank you.”
Dai looked a little embarrassed. “Ah, it was a trade. They did something for us and we gathered supplies for them. They got the best of the deal — twelve hours’ labour from each of us for one each from them! Still, they do have a monopoly.”
“Oh.” Sarah assumed they had had injuries or illnesses treated. “Today we need a big defluking group, food gatherers and I have made an executive decision that we all need to learn Universal. Total immersion is the best way I know how to learn. So we will have every second day Universal only, starting today. We have now eight Niseyen left. Please correct us and help us. Mathew and I believe that all Terrans should learn it and he intends to organize the Terrans on each incoming ship to learn. They need something to occupy them and that will be ideal.”
The next morning, Bea and Bella earnestly explained a problem to Sarah. As Bella put it, “None of the ships have names.” After a lively discussion, Sarah delegated everyone to think up names. They decided these should be topical and cheeky rather than named after people or Terran things. That night, all the suggestions flowed to much hilarity as a common theme seemed to predominate. Sarah compiled all
the names and said, “I’ll send this list to all the ships. Kelly has already named DeArk but the rest aren’t named. The list is Deliverance, Tenacity, Audacity, Temerity, Challenger, Courageous, Destroyer, Topdog, Topcat, Hellcat, Justice, Endeavour, Trouncer, Subduer, Triumphant, Victory, Conquest, Overcame, Payback, Vanquisher, and Restitution. The most suggested name is Defiance, which five of you suggested. Several came up with names like Sword, Spear, Arrow, Rocket, Missile and Rifle but I suggest they be relegated to a secondary list for now.”
“For smaller ships,” someone suggested.
The next night Sarah announced, “After some consideration, Joline, Mathew, and Steve decided on Defiance for their ship and Audacity for the one they are towing. The ships taken by the Niseyen are now named Temerity, Restitution, Victory and Challenger. I did explain to the Niseyen what all the names mean, using the Translator to get as close to the meanings as possible. The Terran-Niseyen crews then chose their own ship names.” She smiled at the cheers and clapping.
She went off to bed thinking it had been an entertaining night and served as a distraction from all their problems. And once again, the children had contributed.
Chapter Twelve
The next day, Dai reported along with everyone else to breakfast to find out what Sarah needed done next. He watched along with Kudales and Dacklorat as she delegated the jobs out, then turned to him. “You said there were two or three more Niseyen military ships incoming. Do you know any of them, the Captains and crew?”
Dai was startled. This was not what he had anticipated. “I know one ship, not the others. Why?”
“I want one whole crew to stay here to get ships ready for incoming crews to take out and the other two crews to take some of the biggest ships to Terra for more settlers and refugees. Draft in as many of us as you need to get the job done. Refueled, provisioned and ready to go.”
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