Dreams among Stars

by Pirx Danford

  When I pondered how to use the remaining day sensibly it suddenly hit me that I still had to send a report to the waking center, to not emulate Bernhards mistakes.

  I still didn’t know enough, but I could at least draft up a warning.

  So while the eight - I definitely needed a name for their group - kept busy with the different tools and the learning machines I wrote up a short report.

  Incident report on 4839-08-30, Helen van Scharl:

  With great effort I was able to leave the waking area alive.

  Should this be my last report, so I urgently advise my successors to avoid direct confrontation, but rather search for the nearest way for fleeing from the area around the waking center.

  The most powerful group denies the fact that we are aboard a space ship and has destroyed every contingency for higher education throughout the whole ship.

  There are a number of groups resisting them, yet I advise on great caution when making a choice with whom to ally.

  I was able to connect the waking central with the maintenance center in sector C 3 II and am working on clearing the maintenance tunnels and connecting the other three maintenance centrals.

  Should it be possible, I will try and extend the maintenance tunnels to provide a secret entrance close to the waking area, so that fleeing might become a bit safer.

  I have to assume that all of my 9 predecessors perished at the discharge from the waking area, should I learn of any evidence to the contrary I will include these in my next report.

  From the different worts-case scenarios we were trained for none match. The society has relapsed far back and is at some point between the stone age and the medieval times.

  I have great hope that tomorrow I can convince the the remaining people, or rather tribes from the outer decks to cooperate and also I found further traces of Bernhard Nwosu, who maybe left some clues as to the nature or origin of the catastrophic incident.

  I am carefully optimistic and proceed with the assumption that won’t be the last report I turn in.

  With a sigh whose origin was unclear to me I submit the report, when Marple who had been waiting for a fitting moment signals me.

  “Helen my darling, great news about the ships communication system. The maintenance drones were able to bring up a lot of the transmitters placed at the maintenance tunnel entrances, in fact I do have a good connection with Bee and a quite unstable connection with Rogspa.”

  I thanked Marple fort the good news and quickly contacted Agatha and Rolf, both were well. Agatha did arrive at the tree house and was still waiting for her sister. I explain to her how she could use her glasses to contact Rolf and told about my newly acquired eight apprentices. Then I arrange a longer call with Rolf for later the evening and get back to work.

  The ships communication system relied on the glasses, the communication means of the permanent crew were not as comfortable and direct by intent. In fact that had been one of the incentives with which the social engineers had hoped to interest people to complete the intensive training to become maintenance technicians, but apparently it had not been enough.

  After mulling it over I created glasses for Kara, including Marple there were 5 glasses in circulation.

  “Oh a gift!” Kara yelled when I handed her the glasses and that was the name her glasses kept.

  With a sincere face and lots of pathos I told Kara “I herewith appoint you as leader of the maintenance troop Phoenix. With these glasses you are able to access the ships systems and also to get in contact with me.” It was damned hard not to smirk as she accepted the glasses with a solemn expression on her face.

  It could not be much more back than three months of my actual lifetime that I had wild farewell parties in Paris, everyone around me wore some sort of assistance system with, be it glasses, bracelets, whole suits or even implants.

  And now I nearly felt like a demigod while handing out such basic technology.

  I combined planning the repair mission starting in two days, with checking the current state of knowledge of the eight - oh wait I meant troop Phoenix.

  Ultimately the planning resulted in the conclusion that the hardest work would need to be done by the maintenance robots.

  Regarding the knowledge a huge amount of basic knowledge was missing, there were years of training ahead for Phoenix and so I had the troop exercise until late in the night how to manufacture learning machines, as well as combining defect ones to a working device. I explained where and how to get a hold of batteries and energy and beat in to grab every learning module they could get hold of and to copy and distribute them.

  During the exercises I followed my intuition and explained to Kara that her final examination was to create data assistant glasses for the troop Phoenix.

  It was late when Rolf contacted me through Rogspa and I welcomed the break. My students looked at me with big eyes, when I started talking to the air and when I joined Kara in she squealed excited.

  I introduced Kara and Rolf to each other and unceremoniously told Rolf that he and his helpers would be know as maintenance troop Alpha from now on and that he was their leader, then I explained the final examination involving the glasses to him and impressed upon Kara and Rolf to cooperate at the retrieval, repair and distribution of the learning tablets.

  With that I ended the conference and let Kara join her troop for the night, then I continued my talk with Rolf in private.

  It was good hearing his voice, he was happy that I was so well and advised me not to trust the Flying Hustlers. It would take generations until the deep schism between the outer deck people could be healed.

  Nonetheless I extracted the promise from him to definitely work together with Kara.

  By now the group that was accompanying Rolf had swollen to 14 people and as the basic knowledge modules were pretty boring, they had started doing outside mission training.

  During that one of Rolfs friends had died, yet that seemed not to faze him too much. I transmitted a construction plan for empty storage modules together with a plan for a copying device that would enable Rogspa to write to the modules as well as copy them, also I sent a copy of the safety training for outside missions.

  After asking to send a copy of the basic school courses either to me or Kara as soon as possible I tiredly made my farewell.

  In the meantime it was short after midnight and I quickly jumped into my bed to get some sleep, still the thoughts about tomorrow had me sleep restlessly. I often awoke and felt, still from my shallow dreams, the whiff of arrows barely missing my head.

  Coming morning I rose early and at the fabber created brightly shining red and golden Phoenix badges and a ceremonial apparel for me.

  It was kept in blue and brown hues as the technicians uniform, yet the blue was brighter and the brown was more golden, to that some silvery epaulettes and braids and I felt like someone from a circus.

  Additionally to the festive uniform I buckled on my belt with the two pistols, as I was still unsure about the coming events.

  At the collective breakfast Kara accepted the badges with a happy smile and the troop proudly put them on.

  Hask looked abashed from the troop at me and it took no speculation to understand that he felt overlooked.

  Practically he was no technician, not even an aspirant.

  Without further ado I created a variation of the technicians uniform where I replaced the brown elements with a deep red and the blue with a pastel white.

  As Hask was changing clothes I took a look outside, where more and mor colorful tents were being pitched up. Quite a number even on small platforms or in balloons hanging between the trees.

  On a whim I had the fabber also create a sheriffs badge like I remembered them from the old western movies.

  I handed Hask the badge and said “Congratulations, you are the first and only of the ships security force!” That resulted in Hask not leaving my side throughout the whole day.

  Satisfied I surveyed my colorful crew, indeed the regu
lar staff from back at the start of the mission would not have looked too different.

  That was when stage fright got a hold of me, it was quite likely that the overall success of our mission depended on this days events .

  I hurried into the bath and spat out some bile, thoroughly rinsed out my mouth, took a deep breath and then left the maintenance center with the whole troop flocking behind me.

  By now several folks of the Flying Hustlers were busily hurrying around between the tents.

  Before the central a large circle of seating accommodations had been set up, and with a good gap it was encircled with a cordon of stretched rope, to keep a seemingly larger number of expected spectators at distance.

  It would be a public spectacle and not a closed conference, which was not really helping with my nervousness.

  Some of the Flying Hustlers already were seated at their places, besides Maximus who sat absorbed in a peaceful discussion with Gurd, like there had never been any rivalry between them, there were another three chieftains and two elders present.

  Gurd noticed me and my people coming out of the central and turned to Maximus pointed in my direction, whereupon Maximus signed me to join them.

  As I took seat at Maximus side, Hask took position directly behind me and the troop Phoenix assembled behind the cordon near me. Gurd gave me a nod and commented our appearance with a short “Impressive!” to which Maximus smiled approvingly.

  Behind the two elders there was a warrior placed each, so it appeared appropriate for Hask positioning himself behind my place.

  Maximus pointed at the attending people one after the other and gave me a brief introduction about them.

  To our left, not too far away sat Peter Amber the chieftain and Ingrid Bach the elder of the tribe Amber with each other, surrounded by followers that came to receive orders and then hurry quickly away.

  Directly opposite on the other side of the circle sat the chieftains Hugo Mandible from the Ticks and Francois Chocke of the Choppers together and discussed animatedly.

  After Gurd looked at Maximus questioningly he explained to me “Traditionally for this kind of meeting rival tribes are be placed oppositely to each other, so you can imagine that we don’t get along too well with the Ticks and Choppers. They will be joined by the Yellow Bellys, Rock Crushers, Fire Keepers and of course Schröder will join them too. Luckily we have more allies than enemies.” Just then a tall woman approached and looked at us coldly, while she took seat with her head held high at Hugos and Francois side. Sighing Maximus commented “Athena Schröder - she is the chieftain of the family Schröder, our most outspoken rivals.”

  Not far to our right sat the last chieftain currently present and I recognized from his apparel that he had to be with the Moon Warriors, which Maximus confirmed when he introduced him as Emilio Savoy the chieftain of the Moon Warriors.

  Deeply lost in talk two elders approached. Which greeted me friendly when they took seats beside me and Maximus introduced them as Felix de Val the elder of the Red Backs and Karla T’Chi the elder of the Silver Linings.

  A larger group approached and took seats at Emilio Savoys side, it were 5 Flying Hustlers and Maximus introduced them as the council of the tribe Strength. Originally the tribe had been called Guardians of Strength, but since more of a century even themselves called their tribe just Strength.

  Meanwhile so many people came in flocks, that Maximus gave up on introducing everyone. As he was greeting the new arrivals sometimes friendly and sometimes reservedly by waving, eye contact or just nodding, he explained to me that the to and fro running messengers were conveying news and delivering presents and even initiated agreements.

  The image of the murderous barbarians, which had been forming in my mind through the depiction from the Open Eyes, proved to be completely wrong. Even as the crews descendants may had been unlearning about most of the technology, at least not all of the social achievements had been lost.

  Felix unexpectedly addressed me “Don’t let yourself be fooled, at our hearts we all are warriors.” Giving his chest a pound with that, which had Karla giggling “You are only using your spear as cane these days.” Before Felix could give a riposte - his head dangerously turning red - Emilio Savoy rose up and caused a loud clatter with a ready shield and spear.

  I noticed that he was the only one within the inner circle with shield and spear and that those were heavily decorated. Maximus whispered “He is the head for this gathering.” That was puzzling, as the Red Backs had been the ones that had “discovered” me, anyhow it probably was for some political reason.

  “Welcome!” Emilio greeted everyone “Flying Hustlers, this council is exceptional for many reasons. In particular I am happy about our tribes attending nearly altogether, only the Crystal Seekers, Gerblings and the family Zinc are missing.” At that Athena rose and exclaimed “The family Zinc has joined Schröder.” And took seat again. Without responding to that the Moon Warriors chieftain proceeded “I believe a gathering in such numbers is lying more than a quarter century in the past and one reason is very obvious.” With that he pointed at the open entrance of the maintenance center to then swinging his arm pointing at me.

  “We have a very special guest. By now you all have heard of her. Yet the introduction I leave to Maximus.” With that Emilio took seat and Maximus rose “Greetings to everyone” to what he even included the opposite side of the circle with a distinct nodding “to our territory. As it is I am also not entitled to introduce our guest, this honor deservedly is with Gurd Fenman.” A whisper went through the crowd, prior to the beginning Gurds presence within the inner circle had cause many raised eyebrows.

  Gurd rose and with a friendly gesture shook Maximus hand, before Maximus sat back down. “Tribes!” Gurd began “The great honor befits me to introduce to you our very special guest and friend. The reason for this is her first great merit upon our tribe - a merit which may echo on a much larger scale today, should we all find an agreement.” At that he had raised his view upwards, so not to look at anyone in the circle, which made it look like he was appealing to divine forces. Then he turned to me and I rose with my heart feeling like it was pounding a way out of my chest. “With great pleasure I am humbled to present you with the newly awoken maintenance technician Helen van Scharl.”

  The following ruckus swept me off my feet, the whole inner circle including their followers rose and clapped. The fighters clattered their shields and spears and throughout the crowd loud hooting made its rounds.

  I nodded and waved and felt electrified through and through.

  The minutes of applause stretched like hours and only when Maximus and Athena moved like it had been formerly arranged towards the center of the circle it became somewhat quieter. Yet when the two in a notable political gesture hugged the racket became even more louder. I took this opportunity to seat myself and slowly the din died down.

  Emilio and Peter of the opposite camps of the Moon Warriors and Ember joined Maximus and Athena and respectfully extended their hands to each other.

  Then Maximus waved me to join them and to my abashment the four bowed to me with crossing their right arm before their chests and leaning forward with lowered heads.

  They all shook my hand respectfully, then Athena impishly flashed her eyes at me and began a speech.

  “Recently many of you have already become acquainted with Helen.” She held one of the Clarioncallers up. “Everyone here knows Schröders motto: Death upon all Open Eyes! Anyhow it does not end with: at all costs - and surely not if the price would entail death for all of us. Effective immediately the alliance of the bloody writing” at that she pointed to the direction of the circle where also the Ticks and Chompers were seated “will cease fighting against the Open Eyes. At least until we managed to save the ship.”

  I noticed tears coming to my eyes and when I noticed Maximus grinning like a satisfied cat I couldn’t help myself and had to poke him. “You had planned all this!” I accused him, however he dismissed my a
ccusation with “This actually was Athenas brainchild.” And I eyed the women in amazement and decided I absolutely had to get to know her better.

  However the surprises were continuing.

  From the edge of the crowd a murmur was rising and suddenly Marple which I had tilted up like a headband signaled a contact request from Rolf. Lowly his voice sounded “Surprise!” into my ear and a group of Open Eyes pushed through the baffled crowd, or rather a circle warriors of the Flying Hustlers was shoving, which were surrounding them and carefully watched the crowd.

  The old Rab and two other tribe elders joined us in the center of the circle, while the remainder of the Open Eyes waited behind the cordon. After everyone was welcomed with a friendly handshake but no hugging, Gurd rose from his place at the circles side and proclaimed with unsurpassable pathos “And so Helen van Scharl has not only united us the Red Backs and us the Flying Hustlers in this week. On this historical day the people of the outer decks are again united as one tribe!” At these words everyone around me was raising their arms and I felt like the ground was falling away from me.

  The resulting chaos surpassed the previous cheerings and it took at least half a hour until the fuss calmed down again. After 15 minutes we left the center to take seats again and the old Rab took a place at my side, which resulted in some moving of the circle.

  When the crowd finally calmed Emilio announce “The inner circle will now withdraw for a closed session, but to honor this memorable day celebrations will commence, for great sacrifices will be made soon. Honor our tradition: first celebrate life, then celebrate battle and then celebrate death. Regard our guest with respect!”

  And as we were leaving the inner circle it was already changed into a dance floor and at the edges tables were laden with specialties from the tribes.

  My mind was still spinning, when I entered the large tent set up for the meeting and I noticed the much smaller circle of sitting cushions and the many edge regions for smaller groups.