Morning Song: A Seeders Universe Novel (16 page)

Making love, they became one person.

And one of them was always touching the other it seemed. They gained energy from contact.

On the day they decided to let the first ship try to dock with the
Morning Song
, she and Roscoe were in their command chairs. They had decided that Roscoe’s former ship,
The Huntington,
should try first. It was the fastest of all the Seeder ships at sub-light speeds.

On the bridge beside them at one station was Fisher on Roscoe’s right and on the other side Callie on Maria’s left. The two of them just felt comfortable now in those third and fourth command positions. Maria liked them there.

All fifteen on board
Morning Song
were in the Command Center, leaving Fisher and Callie’s ship,
The Lady,
empty.

“First,
Morning Song
,” Maria said, studying her heads-up display, “we need to move
The Lady
to one side of the big landing bay.”

On the big screen in front of them was the image of
The Lady
sitting in the middle of the huge landing bay.

“A position close to Entrance 63,” Roscoe said.

Maria knew that was the entrance they had used on their jumps to the Command Center the first time.

“Can we do that?”

The word “Yes” appeared in the middle of the big screen.

“Everyone, monitor your stations,” Roscoe said.

“Go ahead,
Morning Song
,” Maria said.

The Lady
vanished from its position on the big dock and appeared near one wall, still looking very small.

Maria could tell that all systems were stable.

“Very good,
Morning Song
,” Maria said.

The words
Thank you
appeared on the big screen over the image of the mostly empty landing dock.

“Power down engines to full shut-down,” Roscoe said.

Maria watched the systems closely as the engines slowly powered down. They had decided it would be easier for a ship to match a constant speed than one that was changing every second.

“Engines powering down,” Fisher reported, more for the rest of the crew, since she and Roscoe got the information slightly ahead of everyone through their big chairs.

“Atmosphere shield on the docking bay door seems to be functioning,” Hudson said from a station behind her.

“Engines shut down,” Fisher reported. “Everything stable.”

Maria shifted the image on the big screen to show
The Huntington
matching speeds with them just outside the big bay door.

Red, who was now Chairman of
The Huntington
, came over the link. “Speeds matched. Engines off.”

“Open the bay doors,” Maria said.

The bay doors seemed to hesitate for a moment, then slid back in four directions.

Maria knew they would need to be serviced as well, but for the moment they were working.

“Atmosphere shield holding,” Hudson said.

“
Morning Song
,” Maria said. “Please bring
The Huntington
on board.”

Maria knew a tractor beam had taken a firm grip around
The Huntington
and was pulling it in through the doors.

“Wow, some perspective,” Roscoe said.

Maria was stunned as well.
“The Huntington
was the biggest warship the Seeders had built in Andromeda, and yet coming in through the big bay doors, it looked almost like a toy hanging there.

“Middle of the deck is fine,
Morning Song
,” Roscoe said. “They won’t be staying that long.”

The Huntington
drifted over the massive deck and eased to the surface.

“Closing bay doors,” Maria said.

“Tractor beam released,” Roscoe said.

A moment later Red and Mattie’s faces came across clear on the big screen. “Welcome to the
Morning Song
,” Roscoe said, smiling at his old friends from Sector Justice.

“Wow,” was all Red could say.

“Bring engines back to full. Let’s keep slowing down,” Roscoe said.

“Engines coming back up slowly,” Fisher said.

Maria and Roscoe both stayed in the big chair until the engines were up and running smoothly and the ship was stable.

“Thank you,
Morning Song
,” Maria said, standing and pulling Roscoe up as well.

“Very well done,” Roscoe said.

The words
Thank you
again appeared on the big screen.

“Hudson, you have Command Center,” Roscoe said. “Everyone stay to rotations for now. Help has arrived.

Hudson’s head snapped up and his eyes were wide.

Maria squeezed Roscoe’s hand for being so mean, and barely stopped a laugh at Hudson’s look. He would be fine, just as Roscoe knew he would. Plus,
Morning Song
would warn them if something was going wrong.

Roscoe turned to Fisher and Callie. “Want to meet our first guests?”

“Love to,” Callie said.

And a moment later Roscoe had the four of them in the Command Center of
The Huntington
.

And after the first twenty minutes of explaining the size and scope of
Morning Song
, Maria realized that they had one more important task that needed to be done very quickly. There needed to be an introduction video to
Morning Song
that everyone was required to watch.

Before coming on board.

THIRTY-FIVE

IT TOOK ANOTHER twenty days for the crew of
The Huntington
to take over some of Command Center duties and start repairs.

The fifteen original members on Fisher’s ship remained there, sleeping and eating together, since they had all become friends. Roscoe liked those dinners since Fisher was such a great cook.

He and Maria had borrowed an extra bed and transported it to their suite on
Morning Song
because they just didn’t want to keep everyone awake with their lovemaking. Besides, even without furniture, they loved their suite.

The crew of
The Huntington
bunked and ate on board ship, since repairs to the water systems on
Morning Song
were far from started, let alone completed.

Roscoe and Maria had been talking and wanted to offer the second-in-command to Fisher and Callie. But they weren’t sure how to go about it. So one afternoon as things were calm, they jumped to Chairman Ray and Tacita’s ship after asking the day before if they could.

They ended up back in the sterile meeting room and both Ray and Tacita were happy to see them.

“How is the learning settling in?” Ray asked as they all took seats, Ray and Tacita on one side, Roscoe and Maria on the other. As they always did, Roscoe and Maria moved so their legs would be in contact.

Roscoe shrugged. “I know the knowledge is there and I find myself knowing something suddenly when I need to know it, but I have no memory of knowing the information before. I’m no longer surprised at that happening.”

Maria laughed. “Describes my experience exactly.”

“It will get smoother with time,” Tacita said.

Roscoe glanced at Maria and she nodded that he should go ahead. “We are wondering if we can offer the job of second-in-command of the upcoming mission to Fisher and Callie.”

Ray sat back, smiling.

Tacita shook her head. “You can offer any job on the
Morning Song
to anyone you want, as long as
Morning Song
approves.

“We are not your bosses anymore,” Ray said. “It is your ship, you have your mission, you do as you see fit on that mission. But you do need to ask your ship.”

Roscoe nodded. That made sense.
Morning Song
needed to be able to work with them.

“Without sitting in the chairs,” Maria asked, “is there any way
Morning Song
can give them the knowledge about herself she gave us at first?”

“Any panel will tell them,” Tacita said.

“But I would do that in private,” Ray said, “since they will have a lot of questions.”

“Do you think Fisher and Callie will agree?” Tacita asked Roscoe.

Roscoe smiled at Ray and Tacita. “You put the four of us together for a reason, didn’t you?”

“We did,” Ray said, smiling. “If Fisher and Callie agree, can we ask one thing?”

“Certainly,” Maria said.

Roscoe knew exactly what Ray was going to ask, so he said it first. “You want them in forty years to chair the next Mother Ship coming in.”

Again, Ray laughed. “Yes. But I would suggest you not tell them that, not at first at least.”

Tacita nodded. “Wait five or ten thousand years.”

Again Roscoe just couldn’t imagine living that long. But he agreed anyway.

Two days later
Morning Song
had agreed to their choice of Fisher and Callie, and Fisher and Callie had agreed and said they were honored beyond words.

Then they had gone through the scanner brain widening in the Command Center and been stunned.

“I can actually see and understand the ship now,” Fisher said, looking off into the distance in his mind.

Roscoe laughed at that, since that was exactly how he had felt.

“
Morning Song
,” Callie said, “You are a masterpiece in construction and engineering.”

The words
Thank You, Callie
, appeared on the big screen in the Command Center.

Maria hugged Callie at that.

That evening, in the kitchen of
The Lady
, while Fisher cooked a wonderful dinner in celebration, the four of them laughed and joked and then started to plan what was needed to be done over the next few years to get ready for the mission.

Ten days later,
Morning Song
had slowed enough to start bringing in more help.

The Huntington,
with about half her crew staying, left to go start recruiting and setting up construction areas for the building of the warships needed.

Roscoe and Maria had put Red and Mattie in charge of the military wing of the mission and all the recruitment, since
Morning Song
had liked both of them and they both had agreed to go along when asked.

The plan that Roscoe and Maria and Fisher and Callie had worked out was pretty set. It would take almost five years to hire crew, do needed repairs, stock everything, and build enough ships to have a fighter fleet on board.

For Seeders, five years was a blink of an eye.

Chairman Ray thought that far too fast, but said he would wait and see.

For Roscoe, it seemed like a very long time.

But as long as he and Maria were together, time really didn’t seem to matter.

Section Four:

THE MISSION CHANGE

THIRTY-SIX

A MONTH LATER, more and more crew were coming on board and fanning out into different areas of
Morning Song
, doing repairs and bringing up stations. A promise of flowing water was still a ways away, something both Roscoe and Maria could hardly wait to have happen. Then they would be able to furnish and actually move into their Chairmen’s suite.

They spent a lot of days, evenings, and often late into the nights in the command chairs, linked in with everything going on over the ship, working to prioritize what needed to be done first and helping the repair crews where they could.

Everything was going well, but over the last few days, there was something that had been bothering Roscoe as it became clear that their plan was soon going to be in full forward motion very soon.

Another couple of months,
Morning Song
will have slowed enough to actually trans-tunnel jump to a large Seeder base in a satellite galaxy on the way to Andromeda where all major repairs and crew recruitment would really start.

And those preparations included building a large military fleet.

So one night, after he and Maria had spent a wonderful hour in their suite making love, he brought what was worrying him to Maria.

She was naked, her wonderful red hair spread over the bed, her shoulder cradled into his side, her arm over him and her leg over his leg. They often slept just like that, feeling more comfortable touching as much as they could.