Exiled to the Stars (75 page)

Susan nodded. “I authorized it, of course. I’m not sure why it was so urgent, but he was sure there was something he could only learn in the city. I certainly hope it was worth leaving you at Site One, and a 2500-klick trip.”

Her terminal gave a beep, announcing that Doctor Andre Benton was requesting to be cut in on three-way. She clicked ‘accept’, and then examined the two grinning faces occupying her monitor.

“Good morning, Doctor Renko,” Andre said. “has Rena spilled the beans and ruined my surprise?”

Susan smiled. “No, but if
one
of you doesn’t start talking soon, I will personally fly up there and paddle both your backsides.”

Their smiles, if anything, became wider. “Well, Mistress, I was
right
!” Andre crowed. “The Type 7
is
a communicator. Rena and I are using it now, and we wanted to see if it would work at the colony.”

Susan was stunned. “It works? You’re using them now?”

Rena nodded. “Yes, mistress. Oh, when we use them, we have to wear night-vision goggles to see images at all, and we need the new enhancers to see them in detail. But once we turned the frequency down to its lowest level we could hear each other fine, though we sound like baby ducks.”

“At 2500 klicks?”

Andre nodded. “With no distortion or attenuation at all. Actually, we suspect they’ll work planet-wide.”

Susan’s frown was skeptical. “Planet-wide? Really? And how could you judge that?

Andre just nodded, seeming unfazed by her skepticism. “We’re pretty sure, now, that the communication medium is part of the power broadcast system. The fact that we couldn’t communicate with you supports that. The power broadcasts reach the city and Site One, but not the colony. No power, no comms.” He looked self-satisfied, but Rena looked irritated.

“Much as I hate to admit it, Doctor Susan, I’m afraid he may actually be right.

Ninthmonth 12, Year 55 A.L.

Ken sighed. He was
tired
. He’d led the colony for over a quarter of a century, ever since Cesar Montero’s death. And it had been a busy and turbulent quarter-century, leading the tiny, isolated, farming community huddled around the crashed ship and behind their walls, and driving it forward. He smiled. Far too often, it had been two steps back for every step forward.

Now, though, not only was the colony flourishing, with a population approaching 20,000, but it was spreading and developing healthily. The mines were now a community of their own, as was the Seaport Project, and even the river fishing village. Not to mention the scientific communities at Site One and the City. They had a healthy economy, and trade and manufacturing were booming.

Jack Brooks, the colony’s richest man, was gathering volunteers to set up another settlement in the valley outside the City. He was sure they would find a way to tap the spider-peoples’ power broadcasts. Ken wasn’t so certain, but he was gratified that Brooks was finding volunteers adventurous enough to try. Things were going well.

Which made this the perfect opportunity for Ken to retire. A couple of years ago, he’d begun writing what he hoped would be a definitive history of the colony, from boost out at L-4 to, well, today. He was still working on the voyage, and was having difficulty dealing with, as well as writing, the account of his wife’s and daughter’s rapes, and his and his son’s beatings.

Surprisingly, though, he was also finding it therapeutic. Oh, the pain was still there, of course, and he knew it would never go away. Not completely. But now it was a dull, permanent ache, rather than the tearing, horrible pain he’d carried for so many years.

But there was no
time
! Running the colony was a more-than-full-time job, and his book was progressing very slowly. Sometimes a week would go by without writing a word.

He wasn’t worried about the colony. Lee Jenson was a good man, and would make a good leader. He and Ken had endlessly discussed plans and proposals for the future of the colony. But Lee was the one who would implement them, not Ken.

He looked around. He was actually standing in a city built by meat-eating spiders over 500
centuries
ago. And to a certain extent, it was still functioning. He shook his head. He’d been dealing with the issue of the spider people for sixteen years now. He was glad to be handing it off to Lee, although he
was
proud that today would kick off a new phase in Alien Technology Studies. He would go out with a comparative bang.

He turned to Susan Renko, on his left. She
had
to be in her seventies or eighties, at least, Ken decided. But she was still an attractive woman, still seeming only middle-aged, and handsome, in a fashion-model way. The blonde hair was streaked with gray, now, but she made no effort to conceal it.

“Well, Susan,” he said, “we come to a major milestone in Vlad’s plan. Are you happy?”

Her smile was full and her face filled with satisfaction. “Very,” she replied. “And I’m proud of you and I thank you for establishing these ‘Long-Range Explorers’. I’m confident that they’ll bring us the spider peoples’ technology.”

Ken smiled and raised a hand. “Don’t thank me. Thank Lee and that son-in-law of yours. They managed the impossible: getting the Council to see the future.”

“Well, here comes Lee, at least. I hope we can get the show started.”

Ken smiled. “Patience, Susan. It’s a sterling virtue.”

Susan’s smile didn’t fade. “But a limited one. Sometimes it’s
impatience
that’s the virtue.”

Finally all the white lights were set up, overwhelming the city’s dim red ones, the crowd, such as it was, was assembled, and the cameras set up and tested.

Ken stepped to the podium. He looked out over the crowd. There were only a few dozen of them, members of the scientific community studying the city. But he knew that the cameras were taking his image to the colony, to Site One, to the mines, to Seaport, to the fishing village, virtually everywhere that man had spread on Crashlanding.

“Good morning,” he began. “And welcome to one of the most momentous events in the history of the colony, as well as my final act as Colony Administrator.

“Sixteen years ago, we discovered that we were not the first civilization on Crashlanding. That others had been here long before us. They died out, but they left us amazing works of development and technology. We have spent the last sixteen years trying to understand their legacy.

“Today, we take a large step in that effort. The spider people lived underground. They apparently almost never visited the surface, except for food. To the best of our knowledge, they did not fly, not in space, and not in the air.

“But they had what we think was a worldwide civilization, connected by a system of tubes with cars running through them. Today, thanks to the foresight of the Council and your new Administrator, we will make a large stride in understanding the spider people, and exploring the world they left us. Here to tell us about it is your newly-elected Administrator, Lee Jenson. Messer Jenson?”

Lee stepped to the posium with a confident smile. “Thank you, Administrator Terhoe. I will do my best to fill the shoes of the giants that preceded me, Cesar Montero, and you, sire.”

He turned back to face the cameras. “As Administrator Terhoe said, we have spent the last sixteen years studying the legacy of the spider people. We have been hampered by the fact that we have found no written materials other than labels on equipment. So, we are like blind men, carefully feeling our way, and trying to avoid destroying anything important.

“Our scientists agree that one of the biggest factors keeping us from learning more is that so far, we have found only two installations; one that we
think
is a power station, and another, where I stand now, that is an actual city.

“But if we are right, and this was a worldwide civilization, there must be many more installations, where we can learn what we need to know. We need to find the schools, the factories, the scientific laboratories, and the thousands of other installations that can boost us on our own way, and make us truly the spider peoples’ inheritors.

“We still do not understand their writing. We still do not understand their power system. But we have now begun to be able to
manipulate
it, to make it work for us. We have learned to use their communicators, that can connect us worldwide. And now, we have learned to activate the tube car system, or at least a part of it.

“Today, we will launch four of those tube cars. They will each be occupied by a team of four of the brave men and women who volunteered to become Long-Range Explorers. Each car will go in a different direction, to return only after six months. In the meantime, of course, they will carry the spider people’s communicators, so they can report the marvels they find.

“And now, to present the sixteen brave young people who will dare this adventure, I would like to introduce Colonel Ronald Creding Junior of the Explorer Corps.”

He stepped away, and Ron stepped nervously up, tablet in hand. Lee moved to join Ken and Susan. He smiled. “Well, here they are, the sacrificial lambs.”

Susan shook her head. “No. I see them as our hope, our saviors. If they don’t succeed, Lee,
you’re
the one who will have to lead the development of a colony trying to survive on wind and sun power.”

“Believe me, Susan,” Lee replied, “I know how much is riding on their success. But if anyone has ever literally traveled into the unknown, its these Explorers.”

Susan nodded, a sudden pride in her expression as she shushed Lee so she could hear Ron announce, “Vladimir Kenneth Creding,” and “Cesar Vladimir Creding.” As two tall young men stepped forward.

Lee startled. “Creding? But that means…

Susan nodded. “My grandsons.”

Sixthmonth 21, Year 59 A.L.

It was a momentous occasion, but the gathering was small, crammed into the Dorm 7 classroom of the old ship. The public ceremony had taken place hours ago, and the celebrations were still going on.

This
ceremony was for those most most intimately involved in bringing the colony to this point. Lee Jenson, the Colony Administrator, was there of course, with his wife, Kerry. Retired former Colony Administrator Ken Terhoe was there. The Credings were there, Tara, Ron Junior, and Elaine. Doctor Susan Renko was there, along with those scientists she considered worthy of the honor.

Old Lars Norstrom was there, as was the former Jana Matuchek and her husband, Angel Koh. The entire Council was there, of course, along with several specially-invited former Council members.

Lee Jenson walked to the teacher’s terminal at the front of the classroom. There was no introduction, no fanfare.

“Ladies and gentlemen,” he began, “We are gathered here to commemorate the most important moment in our colony’s short history. I say that because from this moment on, our colony can be confident of an apparently infinite power source. No longer do we have to worry about whether the colony can exist on wind and solar power. No more will be have to worry about whether we might have to step back to nuclear fission for our survival. No more do we have to worry about our outlying settlements’ energy requirements.

“Today, we have completed the move to the spider peoples’ energy broadcasts. We now know how to convert their energy for our own use, and how to redirect the power broadcasts.

“You all know these things. You have all been intimately involved in this accomplishment. And you all know that the celebrations are ongoing, and threaten to last for days. But we, gathered here, all know of the extraordinary efforts it took to reach this point. We are here to symbolically mark the end of the old, EarthGov colony, and the founding of the new, independent Crashlanding colony.

“So, I want to call up here Former Colony Administrator Kenneth Terhoe.” There was a rush of applause as Ken strode to the dais. “Ken, would you issue the command, please?”

Smiling broadly, Kenneth Terhoe turned to the computer, which now displayed his avatar, his beloved wife. “Computer, please begain shutdown of all onboard fusactors!” He mashed his thumb on the authorization panel. “Authority accepted,” the computer replied. “Shutdown routine running.”

The cheers and the waving arms couldn’t conceal Ken’s move to wipe a tear from his eye.

Tenthmonth 14, Year 60 A.L.

“Mistress, I think you’ll want to see this.”

Susan Renko raised her head from the images the Long-Range Explorers had been sending. Her shoulders were a bit slumped, now. Though she had continually warned herself that it might take years to find the kind of things they needed, she’d been unable to keep from getting her hopes up.

They’d just celebrated the fifth anniversary of the launching of the first Long-Range Explorer cars last month. The cars returned every six months to change crews and bring in artifacts. But it had been five years, now. Ten crew changes. It was getting harder and harder to maintain her enthusiasm. But she was Doctor Susan Renko, and she was doing Vlad’s work.

So, despite the fact that she longed to retire, to putter around her lab, and to putter among her memories, every day she got dressed in her immaculate shipsuit and spotless white lab coat, and went to her office at the headquarters of the Alien Technology Research Department.

And every day, she spent the day hunched over an enhancer, reviewing the images from the Long-Range Explorers in a desperate bid to find Vlad’s Rosetta stone.

Susan straightened, realizing that her back was aching terribly. She stretched, grimacing. She was nearing 100, now. Even with the symbiont, there was a growing litany of aches and pains. She stood, stretched her legs, and then turned to Rita.

Rita was an assistant, one of four the Council had provided her when the Explorer reports began coming in. None of them were scientists. In fact, they were all simple clerks. But she had carefully trained them, and she was confident that they knew what she was seeking.

Rita was her best, and wouldn’t waste her time on some scratches over a door, or a few squiggles on a wall. So she walked over briskly. Suddenly she saw Rita’s eyes go wide, and her jaw drop. The girl jumped up. “Doctor Susan!” she exclaimed, almost shouting. “I think this is it!”