by Jim Rudnick
"Exactly what we think too, Sir, and yet once we—well, wait, 'til we actually enter the asteroid, and you tell me," Qal said, as he continued to lead them toward a huge set of big metal doors that led inside the mountain. Those doors were at least four feet thick of solid reddish-colored metal—Xithricite they imagined—and the surprise was inside.
As they entered, they had to move out of the way of a large dump truck that had a full load of reddish-colored sticks, or grids, which looked anything but like a metal ore. They walked along the inside wall as the interior roadway turned slowly to the right. Farther and farther inside they went, and all around them, the scene was the same. The walls, floor, and ceiling looked like they were made out of some kind of a dark charcoal gray rock with variations in color and shade. Interspersed within that rock was red metal ore—but it didn't look like normal ore. Instead, it was a latticework of red sticks or twigs or fat wires about the thickness of Tanner's little finger. The grids were big but in no real pattern, just a cross hatching of the Xithricite metal.
They moved over to a deep inside wall, and staying out of the way of machines and Resources workers, they sidled up to the mined wall on the right. Tanner reached out and grabbed an edge of the red metal rod that was about at waist height and gave it a tug. It didn't move. He tried to bend it figuring that putting some friction into the rod would slowly weaken it, but it wouldn't even bend. He looked back at Qal and gave him a questioning look.
Qal nodded, pulled out a simple rasp from his back pockets, and handed it to Tanner, who used one edge to slowly saw through the Xithricite rod, and eventually, a piece came off. Returning the rasp file to Qal, he looked at the small finger-sized piece of Xithricite that lay in his hand.
"Do you have any idea why this ore is like this? I ask, Qal, as in my experience, ore does not usually take on this kind of a natural form."
And he meant that. While he'd not done a Gallipedia on that, he was pretty sure that metals did not come fully formed into this kind of a rod-like structure, and he made a mental note to check Gallipedia later back on the Atlas.
Qal shook his head. "Sir, no, sir. This is just what we have for this Xithricite metal. It is so inexpensive to mine due to its ease of getting to it. We simply scoop it up using big automated cutting machines, put it into trucks, and deliver it a mile or so away to the foundry where it's melted in our furnaces and poured out as pure Xithricite metal into sheets. It's strong—about twice as strong as any other metal we have on Enki—cheap, quick turn-around from ore to final product too. So we do a lot of it. Course, the color is an issue. It will not accept any other color via using alloys, as any additives to the furnace settle out to be at the bottom of the ensuing product as its own layer. Nothing—well, nothing we have here on Enki—will alloy with Xithricite. So it's a single item alone. Oh, paint will stick, of course, but eventually the Xithricite kicks it off … seems like it has a mind of its own, Sir," he said and shrugged just as a human would have.
Tanner nodded and they slowly made their way back out of the mine, dodging trucks and crews as they did.
"How big," Kondo said, "is the size of the mine or asteroid?"
"We don't know really in that we don't know how deep it goes, but the area above ground here is approximately three miles long here by about two miles wide. Deepness is an unknown, but we have drilled down more than five miles, and we still get Xithricite coming up. Big? Yes, we suppose that it was a major climate changer, this asteroid's impact, but we know little more than that. However, there are some fossilized records from drillings in the south where back about that time, it seems that there were some major extinctions.”
They all nodded. This kind of an impact with something this big would have caused some kind of life-changing events on any planet.
Qal walked them all the way back to the bus. "Stonecraw, can I call over to the foundry and arrange for a guide there as well?" he asked, trying to be a good Resources Enkian.
Stonecraw Qew looked at the three RIM visitors.
Tanner shook his head and said, "I suppose not, we do need to get back, but we thank you for your hospitality."
Everyone smiled and the visitors queued up to board the bus. Once on the bus, it turned around to leave the area.
"At least you got a souvenir," Stonecraw Qew said to Tanner..
Tanner nodded as he pulled the souvenir out of his pocket. It lay on his hand, a simple red-colored metal rod about three inches long. This is the metal that this whole thing is all about, Tanner thought as he replied to StoneCraw.
"Yes, it's a great reminder that Enki finds and uses what it needs on its planet. I've never heard of mining an asteroid before, but I now know it can be done—and done successfully too. Kudos to the Enki Resources section for that, Stonecraw," he said.
Stonecraw Qew smiled back at him. "Not at all, Captain. We do try to make use of our planet in the best ways possible. Might I ask for a favor, I believe it's called?"
Tanner nodded.
"Could I ask that we make haste on our way home? I've just had a message from my conda—the jurors want to talk to me STAT about this whole feathered crest color changing failure," he said.
Tanner nodded and as they entered the shuttle, he instructed Lieutenant Jenkins to get them back to the Enki capital city STAT, and the shuttle picked up quickly, spun, and then yawed, and they were aimed at being sub-orbital in moments.
Wonder what that's all about, Tanner thought, and he knew Bram was wondering too.
#####
Tanner sat between Ambassador Harmon and one of his aides in what he called the diplomatic VIP seats just two rows back from the edge of the stage set in the middle of the huge rotunda in the Words Muse pyramid. He was in his dress blues, and his dang sidearm was sticking him in his ribs as there was no room for it to drop down since the seats were so jammed together. Many more seats were there for all of the RIM members there too—from the Caliphate, from the Duchy, from Faraway, and from UrPoPo too. The vast numbers of feathered heads present pulled his attention away from the RIM members.
In fact, he thought, as he looked around in the huge space, this was the most Enkians he'd seen together since they'd arrived on the planet just last month. There must have been at least a thousand seats here on the rotunda floor add more seats in the huge unfolded and erected bleachers that sat on all four of the sides of the pyramid. They would hold, as Tanner turned and scanned the wall-to-wall Enkian faces that he could see, at least ten thousand more. On the enlarged stage sat the younglings who were attending their graduation ceremony, and that'd be about four or five hundred more too.
"Quite a turnout, wouldn't you agree, Captain?" Ambassador Harmon said as he glanced at the crowds himself.
"Sir, yes, Sir," Tanner said and added "and the temperature doesn't reflect that either. Wonder how they cool such a huge space with so much body heat." I should ask someone about that, maybe Stonecraw Qew would know.
Behind them, and Tanner had counted at least five rows, sat the few RIM Confederacy members who had showed up and worked their way into this big Enkian annual event. Each had gotten five seats, so the Caliphate sent five and the UrPoPoi had sent five too. With the forty or so on the real diplomatic mission to Enki, that made fifty RIM citizens seated to watch the ceremony.
They sat. They waited. Several minutes later, a parade of the leaders of all five of the muses entered in a single file, walking to a rather stirring music piece being played by the Music Muse players who were stationed along one side of the five-sided stage. Fine Arts Muse citizens were busy painting and sculpting the beginnings of the evening too. Dance Muse citizens had provided quite a colorful crew of what Tanner would call modern dancers, as it appeared to have no relation to tap or ballet or jazz. Tanner couldn't be considered a critic, but the dancers were pretty darn good. Words Muse citizens, as this was their own pyramid, had some simple desks setup and what looked like writers making journal entries, while Performance Muse citizens were doing some kind of a mi
me thing. On that, Tanner had no idea what much of it meant, but he could see this was the norm at such an event.
As the procession made it to the stage and up the stairs, the twenty-four of the leaders took their seats in front of each of their areas. The twenty-fifth leader, Uigoeri Qor, the leader of the Words Muse did not take a seat. Our target, Tanner thought, as the Enkian made his way to the front of the stage and took the microphone at the podium.
"I greet you all—and hereby open the six hundred and thirteenth graduation day ceremonies. Resources, please bring in the ceremonial presents," he said with great panache, and from off to one side, there was a stir.
As Tanner watched, along with the thousands of others, two Resources Enkians wheeled a caged food truck between them, and there were five of them in a row. Each wheeled their carts to the rear of the stage and then pushed them up to the stage. Each of the duos then moved the carts to stand in front of the rows of younglings beside the front row of the leaders of each muse.
As Qor watched, and was pleased, he smiled out at the crowds, his beak clicking a few times as his feathered red and white crest rippled over and over.
He is definitely in charge, and proud, and about to take a big fall, Tanner thought.
There were speeches by each of the five muse leaders, and each spoke at length about what a privilege it was for their muse to be growing by accepting these new younglings. Each muse leader spoke about the younglings who had excelled by having the best potential skill and ability to become a muse citizen. They glowingly talked about each of their muses, and each received a huge beak clicking when they were done.
Nothing could be more boring than hearing the same speech but with five different flavors in a row. But then again, I'm not an Enkian, so maybe I'm not the best critic, Tanner thought and smiled.
After the last muse leader spoke, Qor introduced a conda from the Militia who also spoke and reminded the whole enclave that they too were a part of Enkian life. The Militia provided safe, secure living for all Enkians, and being a Militia officer was a good position to aim at. Only a small part of the crowd responded, and the beak clicks were few and far between.
Following the Militia conda was a Resources speaker who nearly copied the same speech the previous speaker had used but reminded everyone present that it was the Resources section that did all the work on Enki to keep their world, society, and yes, muses up and running and fed and alive. Good argument, Tanner thought, and most likely true too.
Qor took back the podium and said as loud as he could, "Could we please have the Performance Muse younglings take center stage?" He moved off to one side.
More than a hundred younglings rose, formed an orderly single file, and then reformed in center stage into rows. As they did that, the five leaders of their muse-to-be took up the area directly in front of them and motioned for the food items to be brought up by the Resources duos. As they did, the Performance Muse leader, Eesuxo Qyn, gave the younglings their final instructions.
"You will repeat after me, younglings, to earn your new muse and new name, the name of Qyn," he said solemnly. As he made the salute sign of the Enki race, the younglings copied him.
Holding both hands heart high with the palms facing down, the younglings slapped them against their chests.
Qyn said in a slow and solemn tone. "We now accept the Performance Muse as our own personal muse and hereby swear to follow the statutes of the Enki race and hold only our muse as the true law of our lives. This we swear."
Each of said the younglings repeated Qyn's words as one of their new muse leaders passed among them putting a single food pellet directly into each of the youngling's open beaks.
Qyn smiled and dropped his salute, as did the younglings, and they all swallowed. Their white feathered crests, small as they were, made a final white ripple, and they all cheered, beaks clicking, and the thousands in the rotunda all clicked their own beaks.
It was a simple, but nice ceremony, and yet to Tanner, it was still a bit odd. But tomorrow he knew it'd be odder still to all of Enki.
He grunted when he realized that a major part of any diplomatic mission was the need to sit and be patient as the same things happened over and over and over. Four more times of this same muse acceptance by the younglings. Music Muse was next, followed by Dance Muse, then Fine Arts Muse, and finally the last muse, Words.
He paid a bit more attention to Qor of Words, as this was the final youngling graduation and Qor would be the one who would bear the responsibility for this evening's food laxity.
He smiled and nodded to the ambassador as the man made some comments about how lucky they were to attend such a normally private and highly personal event in Enki society. The ambassador droned on about how the younglings all looked so proud and how the muse leaders—especially Qor—had handled their chores with delicacy and skill.
Tanner nodded because that was what one did to an Ambassador, but he had his own take on that as he smiled and nodded once more.
Tomorrow, all hell is going to break loose, and that's for sure ...
#####
He lay on his big beautiful double-sized bed and stretched. He wondered what had awakened him. A moment later, there were three chimes, and he knew he had an incoming EYES ONLY and remembered he'd turned the volume dial down low.
Do I get up and look at it? Nope, too damn comfy.
"Room AI—who is on the other end of that incoming EYES ONLY?" he said. He realized that he probably should have added a please, but then when you talk to an AI, it's like talking to a toaster. And machines like an AI did not require manners. Still, his mom would have said ... and he shook off that whole side of him as the AI responded.
"Captain, it is the Lady St. August who is making this call—rather, it is coming from the BN Sterling, located on KappaD, it seems."
At least the AI was polite, he thought, as he quickly got up and padded over to his desk in his bare feet. Thinking about it for a minute, he went over to his bathroom, grabbed his emerald green robe to wear, and went back to his console right away. He smiled at his reflection in the monitor and quickly hit the proper button on his keyboard to connect with the caller.
Moments later, the Barony crest with its two crowns in blue and red appeared, held for a second or two, and then faded to black as the Lady's face appeared on the screen.
"Excuse me, Captain, for making such a call at this awful hour—I know that it's nighttime where you are, but I did want to speak to you," she said and then smiled widely. "That, and it is always nice to see you, Tanner," she said.
Tanner smiled. "Lady, what can I do for you—and it's always good to hear from you too, Helena," he responded, and they both grinned at each other.
She nodded, looked over to her left wherever she was, and then looked back at him after a few seconds.
"Captain," she said so he knew they were back to talking about Barony business, "I'm on KappaD and a guest here of the Alex'n hegemony local governor, which is neither here nor there. But what might be of interest to us—the Barony, I mean—is what happened here earlier today."
Tanner noted her voice had gotten somber. He wondered what could be going on with KappaD and quickly reviewed his knowledge of the planet. KappaD was one of the fifteen planets in the Alex'n realm at the southern border of the RIM beside the Pentyaan realm that lay outside of the RIM. The Pentyaans, with more than twenty-three planets and systems in their realm, was the biggest and closest neighbor of the RIM Confederacy. They were asked every few years if they'd like to join and had always refused, hence the long-standing sanctions between the RIM and Pentyaan space. In fact, while the two sides were not at odds, they did have a mutual distrust and always were suspicious of each other.
"And what might have happened today, My Lady, that caused an issue?" he inquired.
She took a moment before she answered, and Tanner had no idea why she would need to measure her words.
"Today, a Pentyaan ship—a merchantman freighter of disreputable or
igins, I believe—showed up here on the fringe of the boundary between us and asked for refuge. Well, that was their word for what they wanted. According to them, they are seeking to 'escape from the tyranny of their Pentyaan masters,' and they have asked for us to provide them with 'refuge' by accepting them in as refugee immigrants to the RIM," she said, and her voice was still questioning.
He nodded but did not interrupt.
"The thing is, Captain, that no one has ever asked for 'refuge' here on the RIM—as far as I can tell at least, and that's both my own and the governor's memory at work here. Never before, so as far as we know, there is no precedent on what this means for us—or for them either. One thing, that my own Captain Flannery brought up, is the ship itself. People are one thing, but they want to also claim their ship and then sell it here on the RIM—to the RIM as a part of their navy they even said, to help finance their entry to our Confederacy. But as Flannery pointed out, the Pentyaans are going to be pretty upset with this to begin with—never mind losing an asset like a cruiser too. And in thinking about that, I'd have to agree," she finished off and looked at Tanner.
He nodded one more time and then took his time coming up with an answer. "Ma'am, for the RIM to accept refugees would be dependent upon our own statutes and laws, and I'm no lawyer. But that's as you said, people. But a cruiser is a whole other matter. Yes, I agree too with your captain—for the Pentyaans to accept losing a cruiser is most likely never going to happen. And that means that we'd be at odds with them, the RIM, I mean. This is a very interesting situation, Ma'am. Wish I was there. Oh, can you describe the Pentyaans, crew and all? Do they look like they need refuge?" He really had no idea, but he had in his past seen people who'd lost their homes and cities in war. They had not only that distant stare in their eyes, but they had an entirely different way about them. He hadn't known really how to handle the few he'd met, but he did know that they just seemed lost and alone.
She nodded. "I've never in my whole life here on the RIM met people who I consider more scared—fearful, really. They all are very anxious, and they look like they all suffer from a blanket set of fears—but what about the Pentyaans could cause that, I've no idea. While we know very little of them, they are very much, I think, like us—well, as close as aliens can be to we humans. The crew, their captain, their techies, and their warrant officers—everyone I met is like in slow motion with life as they are fearful of what I don't know. But they are full of dread and apprehension—that I know. And we've no idea why other than the same thing they say over and over—that they must find refuge from the Pentyaans. A bit of a mystery, I think—which is why I contacted you.
