Alder's World Part One: Mass 17 (14 page)

Alder
didn
’
t explain. After a few
seconds, Garson went on.
“
I
can
’
t do this Sam. I
can
’
t be fifty years old,
pregnant and second in line behind Pilton. Tallen will kill him and
me too.
”

“We
don
’
t know that Pilton will
kill.
”

“Elana says he did it
before.
”

“Yeah. Yeah she
did.”
Alder rubbed the back of his grubby
hand against his equally dirty chin.
“
Look Treva.
We
’
re all worried, but what
are we supposed to do?
”

“You could do it Sam. You
could kill them first.
”

“What?
”

“Tallen only has four or five close
followers. They have all started staying with him in his cabin.
There could be an accident.”

“Treva
…”

“I
’
m not kidding Sam.
Everyone knows he plans to take over if we survive. I
can
’
t do it Sam. I
don
’
t know how. Pilton
won
’
t even talk to me.
He
’
s been locked in his
quarters most of the last week. Someone needs to take charge Sam.
It needs to be you.
”

“Killing crew members in
cold blood is not what taking charge is about.
You
’
re asking me to act like
you
’
re afraid
he
’
ll act. The crew is still
strong. We
’
ve been through a
lot together.”
Garson had started crying
while he was talking.
“
Maybe
everyone won
’
t follow Pilton.
Maybe Tallen will cause a fuss
…”
Her body was wracked again, this time with tears of
frustration and terror.
“
There are hundreds of us. We
’
ll make a decision
…”
His words trailed off. Her mouth was open and her eyes were
shut but no sound was coming out. Grief had overcome her. Ignoring
the fact that he was pushing his feet into the vomit, he turned so
that he could pull her head into his chest.

The lights were low and smoke still
filled the hallway. He held her silently as the grief rolled
through her and told himself that the tears leaking from his own
eyes making clean streaks on his face were caused by the sting of
the smoke.

Muuk sat opposite Dr.
Alder in the Elana
’
s strange
pool of glass and light. She was squat with a broad face and wide
nose. Her mostly grey hair was up in a bun, its lightness making
the brown of her skin seem darker.

“Last visit I
guess.”
She said conversationally.
“
Do you think
we
’
ll still have quarterly
psych evals once we get on the surface?
”

“I
don
’
t know.”
Elana answered honestly.
“
I guess; if enough of us
survive.
”

“Oh
we
’
ll survive.”
Muuk said brightly.
“
That husband of yours is some kind
of smart. We
’
ll whistle right
through the atmosphere strange space critters and all. A whole
planet, can you imagine?
”

“How do you
mean?
”

“Every problem humans have
comes from some time in the past. Every bad lesson, every mistake,
passed on from generation to generation. It seems like humans never
get a fresh start. Well, it doesn
’
t get much fresher than a brand new
planet.
”

“You
’
re thinking
we
’
ll start a new
civilization?
”

“We
’
re the first humans
to make it this far. Even when they start sending ships this far
out, it
’
s unlikely that
we
’
ll get spotted anytime
soon. How long do you think it will be?”
Her dark eyes were twinkling.
“
A hundred years? A
thousand?”
We
’
ve got hundreds of
the best sets of genes, custom picked to be friendly and to work
cooperatively and hundreds of years alone.
It
’
s going to be a wonderful
experiment.”
She leaned back.
“
I just need to be sure and get my
DNA into the pool. I
’
ll have
to move quick. I don
’
t
ovulate often, but I haven
’
t
dried completely up yet.”
She leaned back
forward conspiratorially.
“
You know, I
’
ve wondered
about Mbaka for years. He says he
’
s too old for that kind of thing but
I
’
ll bet his leg
isn
’
t the only thing in his
pants that
’
s
stiff.
”

Dr. Dryden opened her
mouth and closed it.
“
That
a
…
refreshing
attitude.
”

“There are only a few
hundred of us but we
’
re a
good genetic mix. We
’
ll need
to get as many combinations out of the original crew as possible.
Maybe if I get success with Mbaka early enough,
I
’
ll try Frence in the
biodome. He
’
s a little young
but a cutie. She glanced slyly at Elana.
“
What about you and Sam. Your baby
maker still working?
”

“This is a very different
set of sentiments than I
’
ve
heard you express before.”
Elana
countered.

Muuk laughed.
“
I
’
ve been editing and re-editing the same lines of code for
more than a decade. A change of pace will do me good. Breeding a
new race on an alien world is a great change of
pace.
”

There
wasn
’
t too much to see but
the whole crew seemed to want to make something of it. Wei from
systems, Van Weer an engineer, and the pilot Gibson, were standing
by on top of the hab module with a cutting torch and a remote
control, waiting for instructions to set it loose. The science bay
was already gone and there was less than forty-eight hours of work
left on the shielding before they would be ready to
land.

The Ceremony, as everyone
was calling it, was the last significant event before the descent.
The atomic was ready, the hull re-enforced, and a thousand other
small details attended too. Most of the crew were gathered on the
port side of the ring that ran the full circle around the ship.
They would only be able to see the last cut on monitors but they
would be able to see the module as it disappeared into the thick
soup around the ship. The whole process would have been invisible
but they
’
d set up a vibration
in the shields that was holding the cloud back a few hundred
meters. It cost them in terms of heat in the shield generators but
the math said they
’
d be
leaving at least ten days before the first possibility of an
overheat.

Sam and Elana stood side
by side gazing out the window. For once, Sam
wasn
’
t needed for anything in
particular. It was almost over. The buzz that had run through the
ship for eight weeks was quieting down. One by one, tasks were
being finished. There were no more parts to be salvaged from
science or hab, no more code to write, no more items to be
cataloged. The few crews still working on the shielding were
busy
and there was some
last minute work going on in the biodome ,but more people were
spending more and more time talking with friends or touring the
ship half looking for work, half taking a final look
around.

Some of
Tallen
’
s men had shown up
though not Tallen himself. They had taken to wearing the same blue
security uniforms regardless of their actual job title. Rumor was,
they were planning to wait until after the landing before moving to
‘remove’ the increasingly reclusive Pilton. He was there too
dressed in his white dress uniform and speaking formally to anyone
who would speak to him as if it were a banquet or formal event.
Mostly he was ignored.

A buzz went around that everything was
ready and the ring fell silent. Pilton, who was wearing a
microphone, began to speak and his words echoed around the ship.
Someone booed when they heard it.

“There is no effort more
noble that exploration. If humans have survived this long, they
have done so because of their unending quest to find homes for
themselves where there is no home, to find safe passage to peace
and prosperity in lands beyond the
horizon
…”

Behind his voice, the
radio was chattering with the instructions to release the last
lines. Van Weer was given the instruction to make the final cut and
Gibson powered on the ion engines. Like the science bay, the hab
module had only been given enough pads to push it out of the
Duster
’
s way. It, like the
science bay, would stay eternally in orbit, a part of the tiny moon
that they had accidentally created.

“…
Not every ship returns
home. Not every journey ends in glory but, as we commit our beloved
habitation module to her long slumber in space, we know that she is
giving herself so that the human journey may go
on
…”

On the screens, the plasma torch
flashed blue as the last beam cut through. Slowly, the hab module
began sliding to the port and down, away from the ship. The crew
turned their backs on Pilton and the screens, crowding up against
the plate glass.

“…
This ship is not the
metal and glass, it is the people
…”

Below them, the hab module
slid into view. It looked like a great, mechanical turnip, grey
with dust, sliding under the ship
’
s lights and out into the dark. The three crew standing on
the top in environment suits were tiny pools of light. They saluted
as they approached the edge of vision.

“I got to tell
you.”
Wei
’
s voice came over the comm, walking over Pilton, who fell
quiet.
“
You guys look great
from here. I
’
d forgotten how
beautiful a ship in space is. With the modules gone, the bottom of
engineering looks like a sea ships keel, very smooth, very
strong.
”

There was some clapping and a few
cheers.

“Well, I guess
that
’
s it.”
 
Elana said as the last glimmer
of the lights on the hab module faded into the murk.

“That’s it.”
 
Sam agreed.

“So,
we
’
ve got the best odds
possible.”
 
Elana,
glanced at Sam out of the corner of her eye.

“A lot better than we had
a few weeks ago. We
’
ve got
more than a 70% chance that at least some of us will
survive.
”

The three crew members on
the hab module had re-appeared from the dust and were powering
toward the ship using thrusters built into their suits. The crowd
was breaking up into chatting knots.
“
You think
we
’
ll lose people even if we
survive?
”

“Oh yeah.”
Alder sounded nonchalant.
“
The shields will keep us together
on impact but, even with the gravity well generators running,
we
’
ll feel about 11
g
’
s. People will get hurt;
lots of broken bones, probably some fatalities. If we get
structural failures
…”

“Stop.”
 
Elana interrupted then
sighed.
“
You know Sam.
It
’
s getting hard for me to
keep positive. I keep having this bad
feeling.
”

“Yeah. A lot of folks are
pretty worried.
”