An Accidental Alliance (21 page)

     
However, it was Iris who immediately jumped into acquainting herself with the craft. She was not interested in flying it, but in how it worked and how they might customize it for whatever missions they chose to fly in her. She also came up with the name for the craft. “The
Hendrick Hudson
, of course,” she told Park and Arn. “What else would Van Winkle’s first starship be named?” Neither man had an answer for that and she immediately had the name and a hastily designed logo, a bowling ball and a set of nine-pins, painted on the ship’s tall tail.

   
  
“And you say this baby can go to the moon and beyond?” Arn asked Terius later that day after they had both toured the new craft.

     
“I thought we had been through this,” Terius told him gravely. They had this argument several times already. “You know we cannot go to the Moon. The Galactic base is there to enforce the Covenant and I am certain they would stop you from going anywhere else for that matter.”

     
“I keep hearing about that,” Arn nodded, “but to me it just sounds like a bad case of squatters. Well, if they are there to defend the Covenent, I intend to rely on them to do just that.”

     
“What do you mean, Arnsley?” Terius asked.

     
“I’ve been reading that Covenant of yours even more closely since we met in Ghalati,” Arn replied, “and I’ve read the legal commentary on it as well, and according to what I have read, The Mer may not be allowed to fly your own ships out of Earth orbit, but there is nothing at all in there about traveling on a ship owned by someone else.”

     
“Save that no one else would allow us to,” Terius pointed out.

     
“I would, and I have such a ship,” Arn assured him.

     
“The Galactics will include you in the Covenant,” Terius predicted.

     
“Over my dead…” Arn stopped and corrected himself, “Over their dead bodies if they try.”

     
“You may have been correct in the first place, Arnsley,” Terius told him.

     
“Well we’ll just have to see about that, won’t we?” Arn commented.

     
“We will,” Terius nodded.

     
Discussions between Park and Taodore were more productive and revealing, however. “My people fear for yours, Parker,” Taodore told him a few days after the
Hendrick Hudson
had arrived. “Most see you humans as our venerable ancestors brought back to life and no one wishes to see you come to harm. Also keep in mind that while this ship is rated for interplanetary travel, it has been longer than any of our records go back since a Mer ship has gone beyond the Moon.”

     
“When did you last go to the Moon?” Park asked curiously.

     
“Nearly a century ago,” Taodore shrugged. “We have to go there once each century to renew the Covenant. I must have mentioned that before.”

     
“Not that I can remember,” Park replied. “And when is the next time you’re supposed to go there?”

     
“In nine years,” Taodore replied. “We are particularly worried on that count, of course. On the renewal who knows what new restrictions the Galactics might place on us?”

     
“Not much more than they already have,” Park replied. “But we’ll both talk to Arn. I think it is safe to say we won’t take the
Hudson
out of low Earth orbit unless it is necessary to repair one of our satellites at least until the next renewal. After that we’ll all have a better gauge by which to judge the Galactics, I should think.”

     
“That sounds reasonable,” Taodore agreed.

     
Opening the launch silo turned out to be a longer and messier job than planned and the launch of the Van Winkle satellites got pushed back a year while the job proceeded and the rocket was checked and rechecked for damages from the shower of rocks that rained down on it when the mining crews finally broke through the hard siltstone and dolomitic limestone layers. The stone was, in fact, much harder than Park had been led to believe from the base’s records and he decided it must have at least partially metamorphosed during the time the humans had been in stasis.

     
Fortunately the launch vehicle had only suffered minor scratches from the breakthrough, but tests of the telemetry and guidance circuits turned up unexpected flaws that had to be worked out. In the end, many new customized systems had to be fabricated in Mer factories.

     
During that year, over three thousand Mers came to live at Van Winkle Base, bringing their families and helping to turn it into a true colony town. The humans started pairing off and two dozen children had already been born with more on the way.

     
While over two thirds of the population were living in their own homes outside the original base, Park and Iris continued to live inside the subterranean structure simply because they had not had the time to build a home and move into it. They had, however, managed to take over the entire wing their bed rooms had been in and renovate it into a more comfortable suite where they could relax, often with Marisea, who slept over as frequently as not and who had her own room in the suite from the start.

     
With the influx of other Mers her age, Marisea started dating young men, which to Park’s surprise made him as nervous about the prospect as it did Taodore, but Marisea had a streak of traditionalism in her and brought all her young men over for Park’s approval. A Mermaid’s
tamovir
, evidently, was more important to impress than her father and with such a famous and prominent
tamovir
most of the boys were overwhelmed by the prospect of meeting him.

     
Marisea was also a serious student and, with the establishment of a school at Van Winkle Base, most of her time was spent doing homework in Park’s and Iris’ suite, which also intimidated some of the boys who wished to go out with her since both humans found the time to teach at the school. So there were many nights when after a long day, the three of them would sit cuddled up on the couch together either reading or watching a movie from the Base’s large store of entertainment media. Once a set of relays had been established between Van Winkle and Ghalati, they were able to receive live broadcasts from the Mer City as well.

     
Park taught an entire class comparing the cultures of the Mers and the humans through their entertainments that had people of all ages in his classroom once each week. He would often bring in guest lecturers from various Mer universities as well as the humans of Van Winkle. The class became so popular, in fact, that they ended up holding it in a newly-built auditorium one night each week.

     
Park and Iris also found themselves traveling extensively during that year, often with Marisea. The teen was an invaluable aide and guide in the various Mer cities they had to visit, especially in her own home town of Sanatie. Their travels were mostly to coordinate tracking for the launch day, but they also found themselves lecturing on what the Mer referred to as pre-ancient history, human technology and entertainments. That last surprised Park in spite of the popularity of his class at Van Winkle Base, especially when the Mer entertainment industry plunged headlong into a series of stories that were essentially remakes of old human films.

     
One puzzling development over that year was the sudden disappearance of most Atackack from the trading post cities they shared with the Mer. The Mer had built schools in which young Atackack were taught to read and write, history, and arithmetic. Some few, mostly males, who had been chosen to serve as shamans, stayed in school long enough to learn more advanced subjects although all inevitably returned to their tribes.

     
The Mer had never learned why that was. Most enlightened Mer looked forward to the day when they could interact with their Atackack neighbors in a peaceful and productive integrated society. The Atackack, however, were ultimately loyal to their tribes. Park wondered if it could either be genetic or a form of pheromone imprinting from birth.

     
However, the Mer schools for the Atackack had always been filled with the young insect people, and the trading cities were usually filled with Atackack traders doing business in their click-clacking language with the Mer and each other. The Mer Trading cities were the few places Atackacks from different tribes could always meet in peace.

     
Two months after the human’s first visit to Ghelati all the Atackack abruptly vanished from all Mer cities except for a few crippled and addled Atackack who either could not leave or would not. When asked about the withdrawal of the others, the remaining Atackack would not say why the others had gone.

     
“It is quite the mystery,” Taodore told Park and Iris in their suite one evening. Marisea, tired after a long day, had been unwilling to go to sleep and instead had drifted off while cuddled up against Park. He was almost used to that by now and realized he would miss it that day she found a Mer man to cuddle with instead. “We know they went back to their tribal lands, we just don’t know what prompted them to.”

     
“Do you have trading posts for all the Atackack tribes?” Park asked.

     
“Well, we deal mostly with the Geck and Bidachik tribes as they have settlements on the coast,” Taodore replied. “A few Totkeba tribesmen will make the trek, like Tack did, of course, but we almost never see the Pakatis unless we go to them.”

     
“What about the Kogacks?” Iris asked.

     
“They’ve never sent their children to our schools, though we did offer,” Taodore answered. “Only a few ever came to trade, but they haven’t been around lately either and they aren’t receiving visitors either. The Atackack have marker sticks on their paths that they have been
 
kind enough to teach us, the markers are all saying ‘No admittance.’ Generally that means they will kill any stranger who dares venture beyond the markers. We’ve always respected their privacy in such matters so…”

     
“…nd the near settlements,” Marisea mumbled sleepily from Park’s shoulder.

     
“Oh yes,” Taodore nodded, “They’ve abandoned all the settlements within a hundred miles of our cities. It’s like they have all chosen ignore everyone else in the world.”

     
“And just as it’s becoming interesting,” Park remarked. “Think of all they’re missing!”

     
“Uh huh!” Marisea agreed sleepily into Park’s shirt.

  
   
“Okay, small fry,” Park chuckled. “Time for you to go to bed.”

     
“I’m not that sleepy,” she protested.

     
“No, of course not,” Park agreed. “So why don’t you do your homework?”

     
“Oh yeah,” Marisea nodded and start falling to sleep again. Her eyes snapped open and she protested, “I did it hours ago.”

     
“Then maybe you should get some sleep,” Iris suggested. “You have an early class tomorrow and Park’s class in the evening.

     
“Oh, okay,” Marisea agreed reluctantly. “Good night, Park.” She kissed him on the cheek and then did likewise with Iris and her father and hop-stepped off to her room.

     
“She’s a good girl,” Park noted. “But it usually takes Iris’ suggestion to get her to go to sleep.”

     
“That probably explains why I never could get her to her bed either,” Taodore laughed. “I did leave out something about the Atackack. The few ones left in our cities tell us their kinsmen are preparing.”

     
“Preparing for what,” Park asked.

     
“Ah, now that’s the question, isn’t it?” Taodore asked pointedly.

     
Iris knew there was something wrong with the
Hendrick Hudson
, but it took a while for her to place her finger on the problem. The craft could fly, that was obvious. It had been flown from the far eastern city of Planaco where it had been manufactured and in fact had completed three orbits as a test flight on its way.

     
It flew on jets in the atmosphere and on rocket power once in space. The humans were mildly surprised that rockets were still in use in spaceships, especially with the gravity suspender technology the Mers used on a daily basis. But it turned out the suspensor units needed a surface to hold their wearers over. The higher above such a surface, the less effective the devices were, so while the ship effectively had artificial gravity, the same technology would not assist in the launch. Park and Iris learned that the Mer kept the gravity in their ships just low enough to be able to tell up from down and to keep their tails in contact with the floor. To them it felt like wearing their suspensors and the humans found they could soon adapt to the lighter pull on their feet.

     
The inside was fantastic beyond anything she had expected. It was all gleaming hallways and bulkheads, with perfectly contoured chairs and couches and ample room for the crew. The bridge looked more like something from a jet plane than anything from Star Trek. Well, she had always thought the Bridge of the Enterprise was an impractical use of space, but for some reason she had expected something from a sea-going ship’s bridge. In spite of that disappointment, the myriad of flashing lights and digital displays made up for it all.

     
There was nothing wrong with any of the instruments and the exterior of the craft looked flawless, so she started making sketches of the spaceship. She made several dozen of them and from as many different angles as she could figure out and finally she saw it. There was a small flat area just under the nose of the bird. It looked like there was supposed to be something mounted there.