Return to Dakistee (19 page)

Christa smiled. "Madu, I assure you that we will attempt to awaken every one of your people."

"Attempt?"

"I naturally can't guarantee that everyone can be resuscitated. We hope that's the case, but it has been twenty-thousand annuals. But I promise you that you can participate in every effort and verify for yourself that we are doing our best."

"But not until your superiors decide to start the awakenings."

"Come with me, Madu." To a nearby nurse, Christa said, "I'm taking Madu to the surface to see her planet. If there's any problem, I'll summon help, but I don't think we need anyone along."

The nurse looked over at Dr. Johannes, who grimaced and then nodded reluctantly.

As the elevator opened at the rotunda, Madu gasped slightly. The enormous room was filling quickly with delivered supplies that hadn't been taken to the dormitory level yet.

"This is food and clothing for you and your people. When we checked the mess halls, we found no sign of foodstuffs nor clothing in any of the dormitories."

"Every person in stasis has a vacuum canister stored on the Recreation level."

"I wasn't aware of that because we haven't toured that level yet. Well, I'll tell them to forego clothing in future supply deliveries."

As they approached the facility entrance, a PFC there said into a radio, "Outgoing traffic. Hold new sleds."

They waited several minutes until a loaded sled hovered into the rotunda, and then entered the tunnel when the PFC waved them on. Madu was fascinated by the oh-gee capability.

"It's opposed gravity technology. We call it 'oh-gee.'"

As they emerged on the surface, Madu immediately appeared depressed and spiritually crestfallen. "Christa, I'm sorry. I owe you an apology."

"For what, Madu?"

"I didn't really believe you. It just didn't seem like twenty thousand annuals could have passed." Madu turned and let her eyes sweep the horizon in a three-hundred-sixty-degree arc. "But now that I see for myself, I can believe it. My beautiful city has utterly disappeared."

"Twenty thousand annuals of rain, wind, and sun take an extraordinary toll on buildings. As I understand it, the first explorers to this planet were able to speculate it had once been populated only because of the unusual topographic features, which resulted from collapsed buildings in major cities. Perhaps now you can also appreciate why we must awaken your people slowly, rather than all at once. Aside from the health concerns, there're also the issues of habitat and sustenance. We would be hard pressed to feed an additional one hundred eighty thousand people, or even thirty thousand more people, until we could arrange for food shipments and the construction of shelters to house them."

Madu just shook her head gently. "My beautiful city. My beautiful, beautiful city. I wish you could have seen it, Christa. Dakistee had many beautiful cities and places, but nothing like the capitol here."

"I have seen it, Madu. It lives on through images stored in the computers we've found. The planet is still a beautiful world, and, when your people are reestablished, you can begin to rebuild your cities. The GA will help."

"I'd love to see what images you have."

"Of course. But another solar, okay. This solar I'd like you to give me a tour of your institute."

"I'd be happy to show you around."

"Wonderful. We'll pick up Lt. Carmoody when we go back down."

"Uh, Christa?"

"Yes?"

"Does Lt. Carmoody speak Dakistian? It seemed like she was following our conversation while the nurse showed no comprehension."

"Grace doesn't speak Nordakian or Dakistian. She has reason to be a lot more interested because of her position on my staff, but she doesn't understand more than an occasional word."

"I see. I didn't want her to think I was slighting her by speaking only to you."

"I'm sure she didn't feel slighted, and I assure you that she couldn't have responded. Shall we go?"

As the two women descended into the tunnel behind a sled filled with supplies, Christa contacted Carmoody and arranged to meet her on the Rotunda level.

Carmoody was in the Rotunda when Christa and Madu arrived. Christa commandeered the elevator for a quick trip without supplies and they stepped inside.

Madu said, "Administrative level," in Dakistian, and the elevator replied with, "Yes, Director Ptellewqku."

When the instruction to close the doors was given, Christa and Carmoody braced themselves for the drop, but it never occurred. Instead, the doors at the back of the elevator opened.

Christa grinned as they stepped out. "When we visited your office last time, I didn't realize it was on the same level as the Rotunda. We came here from the Medical level and then returned there afterwards."

"It made sense to do it this way. Newly arriving people were automatically taken to the Housing level where they were met by someone who would escort them to their dormitories to await their sleep appointment."

"How did you select who would be put into stasis?"

"The selection process was a bit unfair, but we did what was best for our society. We established two age thresholds. Using the first, we invited the greatest minds below that point to join the sleepers. Many declined because they wanted to live out their remaining years with their families."

"That's understandable."

"Yes. After that, we used the second threshold, a much lower one, to select a cross section of society because once sterility was overcome, we would need people who could repopulate our world. It's depressing that our scientists were apparently never able to accomplish their task."

"I'm sure that once news of your survival surfaces, the scientists on dozens of world will begin working on a solution."

"I hope so, and that they have more success than my own people."

As they reached the area outside Madu's office, she said, "I just want to check something. I'll be right out." With that, she disappeared through the doorway.

As the door slid closed behind Madu, Christa turned towards Carmoody and said in a lowered voice, "Gracie, I told Madu you don’t speak any Nordakian or Dakistian. You told me you've been studying it, but I don't know how much you've picked up. I'd prefer that Madu think you don’t know any."

"Of course, Christa. May I ask why?"

"Madu compared herself to a politician yesterday. Someone once said that politicians never say what they mean and never mean what they say. If Madu believes you don't understand her words, she may speak more openly in front of you when others are awakened."

"You don’t trust her?"

"I don't really know her, so she hasn't won my trust yet. She observed that you were paying attention like you understood yesterday, so don't change that. It's okay to continue listening closely as if you're trying to understand, but if she asks you anything directly, play dumb— even if you understand all or even part of it."

"Okay, Christa."

Madu emerged from the office carrying a viewpad a few minutes later. "I accessed the computer to look up some information. I'd like to wake my assistant up later when we're in the Vault."

"We still haven't verified that it's safe to begin waking others."

"I feel wonderful and there've been no indications the awakening process is detrimental to anyone's health. Besides, it would be good to have a second individual for the medical people to monitor now that I've experienced no complications."

Christa hesitated for a moment, then said, "Okay, but I want the medical people to check you over one last time before we awaken anyone else to ensure that everything is still okay."

"That's fine," Madu said with a smile. "Follow me and I'll give you a tour of this level before we go down to the next."

The tour of the Administrative level took four hours because Christa insisted that she see every room in order to verify personally that no technology with restricted access could fall into the wrong hands. But all they found was ordinary and outdated computer hardware and office assets. Tracking software proved that her CT had visited every part of the level by creating a detailed floor plan as they went.

Before continuing their exploration, they visited the mess hall set up on the Housing level by the Marines. The layout was the same as the mess hall in Fort Carver, so the cooks hadn't had any trouble adapting, but they'd had to bring water from the other facility because there was no water available here as yet.

After lunch, the tour continued on the Recreation level. Owing to the numerous large open areas reserved for sports activities, the tour was completed in half the time of that required for the Administrative level. Four enormous swimming pools were available there, but, like everywhere else in the facility, there was no water. One section of the level contained the tens of thousands of vacuum canisters that Madu said contained the clothes of the sleepers.

Madu again received a clean bill of health from Doctor Johannes, who quipped, "You're the healthiest twenty thousand year old female I've ever examined."

Christa's translation brought a smile to Madu's face.

"Thank you, Doctor," Madu said. Then it's alright to begin awakening some of my people?"

When Christa translated, Doctor Johannes looked at Christa sharply. "I wouldn't go that far. Are you authorizing the awakenings, Commander?"

"I've told Madu that we'll awaken her assistant, subject to your approval. Having a familiar face nearby will make her feel more comfortable as we try to establish a schedule for further awakenings. I believe she harbors some concern that we don’t intend to awaken the others. I've explained that we're moving slowly due to health concerns for the awakened and because of logistics regarding food and shelter for so many."

"Provided we can continue to closely monitor both awakened individuals, I have no objections."

"How long do you anticipate you'll have to monitor the Dakistians?"

"I don't know. We're in uncharted territory here. I suppose that if no complications arise, thirty days should be adequate."

"Thank you, Doctor."

Chapter Fourteen

~ October 24
^th
, 2285 ~

Chairman Arthur Strauss reached down and tapped the com button on his desk and the face of Councilman Ahil Fazid filled the wall monitor in his office.

"Yes, Ahil," Strauss said. "What is it?"

"Arthur, I've just received a message from Dakistee. Commander Carver's assistant exited the tunnel in an agitated manner and contacted someone. I've also received word that a Marine Emergency Medical team lifted off minutes later."

"And?"

"Don't you see? Carver must have opened the facility. I don’t know what happened, but something must have occurred down there. This presents us with a great opportunity to take the facility while they're distracted. I'm recommending that we launch the attack as soon as possible."

"You believe the two reports are linked?"

"I do."

"Very well. Send a message to our people there and have them commence the operation immediately."

"Yes, Arthur."

* * *

"I call this emergency session to order," Admiral Moore said in the Admiralty Board meeting hall. The other admirals were all in attendance, but only aides and senior clerks had been allowed to join them in the large chamber on this occasion.

"We've received a message from Lt. Commander Christa Carver that requires our immediate attention."

"Carver?" Admiral Hubera said loudly.

"Yes, Donald. Now please hold your comments until we view the message." Admiral Moore nodded to the clerk staffing the equipment console. A head and shoulders image of Christa appeared on the full wall monitor, and she began to speak.

When the message was over, the first to speak was Hubera.

"As soon as I heard her name, I knew she was about to hand us a major headache."

"Donald, you can hardly blame Commander Carver for a situation on Dakistee that began twenty thousand years ago," Admiral Platt said. "Be reasonable."

All Hubera did was mutter and grind his teeth.

"One hundred eighty thousand," Admiral Ahmed, the Space Command Quartermaster said. "I think we'd better prepare some food and clothing shipments immediately.

"Yes, Raihana," Admiral Moore said, "but right now I'm more concerned with the diplomatic situation. The Galactic Alliance, after an exhaustive investigation to guarantee that no sentient life existed on Dakistee, made numerous concessions to the archeological community. Now we find that we have given away land we had no right to give."

"It's not our fault they buried themselves several hundred meters below the surface of a planet we thought uninhabited," Admiral Hubera.

"No, not our fault, perhaps, but we'll have to deal with it nonetheless. I've requested an emergency session of the GA Council to apprise them of the situation, but while I wait for them to gather, I wanted to inform all of you of the message. As Raihana says, we'll have to send food and other supplies as quickly as possible."

"These people haven't been awakened yet," Admiral Bradlee said, "so there's no imminent need."

"Even though the speed of our new transports would allow me to send supplies in just a few days," Admiral Ahmed said, "it will still takes weeks to make arrangements and prepare the supplies for shipment. I must be ahead of the curve on this."

"Quite right, Raihana," Admiral Moore said. "By all means make your preparations so we'll be ready when the Council gives us the order to deliver the supplies, as I feel sure they will."

* * *

Madu stood at the operations console entering basic information until an image of her assistant appeared on the monitor. As the image stabilized, she pressed the contact point marked, 'Kudlaknee.' As when Madu was awakened, the viewer immediately changed to show a series of numbers as console gauges came to life, then a steadily increasing waveform filled the viewer. There was only silence for several minutes until a noise from above drew their attention. A stasis box was being carried along by a suspended robotic arm. Another arm accepted the delivered chamber and gently lowered it to the floor where an automated cart was waiting. As with Madu's awaking, the cart accepted the box and left for the Medical level with its precious cargo as soon as the box was securely positioned. The three women followed along.