Swallow the Sky: A Space Opera (9 page)

“There’s no chance we’ll
find Asima waiting for us, is there?”

“None. First, Mitan
Security has to decide that we really headed for New Earth rather than the Oskinova
system. Then they have to commandeer and prep a starship – I very much doubt that they have one lying around – and normally the journey is done in three hops, each
with a spin down/spin up cycle. I reckon we have at least a four-day start.”

“But that speedboat of
Asima’s…”

“That was a push drive. All
starships go at the same speed: flat out, two light years a day.”

“But maybe she got word
to New Earth.”

Carson smirked. “How, she
sent them a letter?”

“Oh my smart sexy
postman” she said and kissed him.

He had been careful not
to remind Aiyana about Juro’s assistant, Shin. Juro
did
have a starship ready to go, which could put Shin on New Earth just two days after their arrival. Even so
his apparent cooperation with Kalidas should keep the clan Aniko people at bay.
On the plus side they would be meeting on Carson’s territory. In his experience
criminals had a hard time operating outside their usual terrain.

Mercifully, none of Carson’s doubts seemed to have occurred to Aiyana. Unless, he mused, she was going through
exactly the same thought processes and was trying to protect him. In any case he
would say no more.

Now that they were lovers
he was finding it harder and harder to get her to keep her clothes on. Usually,
she explained in a matter-of-fact manner, she chose a crew member from her
vessel as a sex partner during her tour of duty, but for the last three months
she had been assigned to a solo ship – possibly as part of Juro’s machinations.

“I just about wore out my
orgasmotron.”

Ah youth
thought Carson. Biologically, his sex drive was still as high as hers, but after so many years and
so many lovers he had himself under more control, most of the time.

The ship had got its calculations right. As soon as the periscope was up Carson confirmed that they
were within New Earth’s arrival zone. Materializing too far out, he explained,
would simply have been a pain in the neck requiring a long uncomfortable ride
in the buggy. Arriving too near to Eridani would have been much more serious:
they would have to hire a tug to return them to the approved distance and,
depending on how close they were, pay a nasty fine.

“Why’s it so important to
arrive outside a system?”

“We’re traveling at a
nominal speed of two hundred million kilometers a second, so imagine running
into something solid.”

“But you said the ship
doesn’t really move. It has no any kinetic energy!”

“Maybe not, but our
space-time bubble sure does. And before you ask where does it come from and
where does it go, I say unto you
ask a philosopher
.”

“The colonists in the
Yongding got a lot closer to the inner system.”

“They were desperate –
and lucky.”

But Aiyana was far to
excited to keep worrying about celestial mechanics.

“How long will we be in
the buggy?” she asked as they clambered into the small craft.

“No more than an hour.”

“
What?
”

“We’re not taking it to
New Earth; private shuttles are excluded from the inner system. We’re off to
the nearest bus station.”

“When do you expect to be
return?” the ship asked as the buggy slid along the shell’s axis.

“My guess is no more than
a week. Try to finish the shopping as quickly possible.”

“Should I start plotting
our escape route now?”

“Oh God I hope not, but
keep your guard up. Disabling you would be a perfect way to keep us here.”

“Okay, will do. Take good
care of each other and be safe. I’d hate to go back to hauling freight for a
living.”

“Did it?” Aiyana asked. “I
mean was the ship really a freighter before you bought it?”

“Poetic license. In any
case, it didn’t even have a personality until I came along.”

“None of us did” said the
buggy.

But Aiyana was no longer
listening. She had her hands pressed to the globular display that encompassed
them.

“That’s it!” she shouted
as they emerged from the shell’s distortion field. She was pointing at a
blinding splinter of light floating against the starscape.

“There’s Eridani!”

“Sure is” said Carson. “Hey buggy, can you find New Earth?”

The display image
expanded at vertiginous speed, panning away from the star into the adjacent
blackness. A tiny blue speck emerged from the void.

“I wondered if I would
ever live to see this” said Aiyana, gently touching the image with the tips of
her fingers.

Carson came up behind her
and slid his arms around her waist.

“Welcome home” he said.

“I thought the bus stop would just be a set of
rendezvous coordinates.”

Aiyana was staring at the
huge ring-shaped structure surrounded by halo of spacecraft.

“How big is it?”

“God knows” said Carson “three kilometers maybe. The really interesting stuff is lurking out there in the
dark. Buggy, can you color code the starliners?”

Aiyana yelped as the sky
filled with a second set of stars, all colored green.

“There must be a million
of them!”

“Four hundred and
twenty-eight at this facility” said the buggy.

“And how many bus
stations in the system?”

“Last time we were here
there were a hundred and sixteen, but there were plans to add more.”

Aiyana did the math.

“Oh my God, fifty
thousand liners.”

She studied the display
again.

“There’s something else
out there. What’s that grey blob?”

“Let me ask the bus
station” said the buggy.

A few seconds passed as
the two systems exchanged messages across the diminishing distance.

“It’s a Kuiper Belt
object that serves as a raw materials reservoir. It has enough water to
provision the facility for a decade, although the station says the Belt is
getting depleted and next time it will have to buy from the Oort Cloud.”

“Don’t they have ice
moons they could use?” Carson asked.

“Never try dragging
anything that large against a gravity gradient” said Aiyana. “It’s much cheaper
to pull something down from the outer solar system, although I guess that’s one
less comet.”

“Anyhow” she continued “I
think it’s time to get a valet. I’m going to have a million questions by the
time we hit New Earth.”

“Don’t worry, I’ve had an
account with a service for years. I should be re-establishing contact as soon
as we arrive at the bus station.”

They disembarked at one
of a series of access ports designed for small craft and left the buggy to find
its own way home. Immediately they found themselves in a tiny reception room
with a single console. Pseudo gravity gently settled them to the floor. Aiyana
looked around the plain walls whose only decoration was a display warning of
the dangers of overstaying a visa.

“Welcome to New Earth!”
she laughed.

“This is strictly for us
working stiffs. The tourists halls are something else entirely.”

“New Earth is
very
serious about immigration” Carson had explained during the short journey from
the ship.

The framers of the
Covenant were determined to ensure that overpopulation would never again wreak
the havoc that engulfed Earth. Following endless deliberations they had developed
a complex formula for deciding the ecologically sustainable population of a
planet that factored in the size of the arable land mass, fresh water supplies,
diversity of species, and a host of other variables. It was an ironic exercise
considering that at the time the human race consisted of one thousand and two
souls. Doing the calculation for New Earth gave them a ceiling of nine hundred
million people, a number that at the time must have seemed limitless. Nevertheless
within two thousand years they were having real issues.

Making matters worse, being
the center of galactic civilization made New Earth’s transient population alone
more than many planets. At any one time the number of tourists, pilgrims,
migrant workers, and other visitors often exceeded one hundred million, putting
the planet’s total far over the permitted limit. After decades of wrangling a
permanent solution was established that maintained the population at eight
hundred and fifty million plus a hundred million temporary residents. Keeping
to those numbers required endless vigilance.

“Carson, welcome back!”
said the console, moments after he slapped his hand on its green circle.

“How long will you be
with us?”

“Probably a few weeks.”

“Very well, if your stay
extends to over a year, please notify the Ministry of Stabilization.”

“That was the easy one” Carson said to Aiyana “I was born here. Your turn”

They waited while the
circle turned red, sterilized itself, and returned to green.

“Welcome Aiyana” said the
console as she positioned her hand “what is the purpose of your visit?”

“Academic investigation
at the University of New Earth – ancient space travel.”

The machine thought about
this. Along with her biometric identifiers, which the console took
automatically, she had presented it with just her personal data. Her business
card still showed her as a member of clan Aniko.

“Are you carrying letters
of accreditation from a recognized educational institution?”

Carson jerked his head. This
wasn’t in the script.

“No, I am an employee of Carson’s – research assistant.”

He winked.
Nice
improvisation!

“Carson, do you confirm
this arrangement?”

“I do”

“This is unusual. I will
have to refer to higher functionality.”

They fidgeted as the
console ramped up its processing power. Finally it came online.

“Very well, taking into
consideration your distinguished employer, I am issuing you with a hundred day
visa. You must leave New Earth by this time or earlier if Carson chooses to
leave first. I wish you success in your research.”

“Yippee!” Aiyana cried as
they hustled out of the immigration room.

“For God’s sake, the damn
thing will hear you.”

“Whatever you say, boss.”

Carson shook his head and
muttered.

“Where are you going
honored visitors?” the corridor asked.

“Main reception, we’ve
got a bus to catch to New Earth.”

A peristaltic field whisked
them and their meager luggage down the passageway.

“How long –” began
Aiyana, but got no further before they were deposited into the central
terminus. She immediately forgot what she was going to say.

“Oh my” was all she could
manage.

The vast space was
overwhelming. Every available surface of the concourse sizzled with garish
displays – weather forecasts, welcome messages, news bulletins, bus schedules,
and advertisements for every imaginable service: detoxicologists, immigration
functionalities, cross-cultural matchmakers, personality sculpturers, gene
tailors, sensitivity guides, ancestor tracers, food tasters, data valets, and
salacious offers from much, much older professions, all displayed in a dazzling
lexicon of languages and images.

All around them was the
restless excitement of people on the move – there must have been at least two
thousand people from every spiral arm in the galaxy. Close by was line of
ultra-orthodox Semblian Kinsmen, dressed in identical grey woolens, all
carrying a bound copy of the Covenant. Each sported a long beard and
disapproving grimace. Running alongside of them was a gaggle of Huan
schoolchildren, quick and colorful as birds, waving their recorders.

“Now that’s the way to
travel” said Carson.

He was pointing to a
Nunik matriarch glistening in her finery, surrounded by her eunuchs. The hem of
her dress must have been fully three meters wide but she strode on oblivious to
the crowd as her retainers desperately tried to clear a path.

Suddenly all the
schoolchildren scattered.

“Shuang xi
!
”
they shouted in unison as each threw paper flower petals into the air.

“What’s happening?” asked
Aiyana. Now the children were silently executing a series of complex steps in
perfect synchronization.

“My valet says it’s a
square dance – all the rage in the Huan Federation. I think their getting cues
on a private channel.”

“No, it’s public” said
Aiyana, scanning quickly.

“Half sashay and roll
away”
hollered the caller.

Before Carson could say
anything Aiyana jumped into the crowd and joined the dancing. The delighted
children gathered around her.

Pass thru and split in
two!”

Her joy illuminated the
entire concourse. Inspired by Aiyana’s plunge two sturdy daughters from an
agrarian family joined the twirling dancers and one of the eunuchs leapt in
until the matriarch whacked him with her fan. Even the Semblian kinsmen managed
to smile.

The dance finished as
quickly as it begun. Chaperones appeared screeching admonishments and herding
the children across the room. Aiyana bounded up to Carson and hugged him.

“Hey, why didn’t you
dance?”

He laughed “you did
enough for both us.”

They picked up their bags
again and headed towards the bus.

“Good morning” said a
smartly dressed man as he stepped out in front of them, “may I tell you about
the Church of the Hidden Brethren?”

Carson walked straight
through him.

“Damn projections – just ignore
them.”

“What if we had stopped?”

“Two hours of automated
drivel. New Earth attracts every crackpot in the galaxy.”

They hurried on through
the crowds, Carson’s valet supplying the directions to the bus. An hour later
they were heading towards the inner system.

The main lounge of their
transport contained about a hundred people including the schoolchildren from
the bus station. Unlike the other passengers the youngsters were not responding
to the inertial dampening with queasy stoicism – they thought it was hilarious.
‘Just like being in the water’ said one. The only adult who shared this point
of view was Aiyana – she was hardened from a working life accelerating through
the Mita system. Now she was showing them how to do inertially-aided
handstands.

“Leave them alone” Carson begged “any moment now they’ll start throwing up.”

Aiyana plunked herself
down next to him as the chaperones started another round up.

“Are we there yet?” she
giggled.

“No my child, another two
hours. At least it should soon get interesting.”

So far the inward journey
had provided little in the way of scenery. As the bus’s public channel
explained, four billion years ago the sunward plunge of the gas giant Vulcan
had swept away most of the system’s outer bodies. Fortunately this ancient
catastrophe had had little effect on anything except the tourist industry, and
the debris trail collected by Vulcan’s tidal drag eventually made the
resource-rich inner planets.

Possibly to make up for
this lack of excitement they changed course to chase the Millennial Comets. Two
thousand years previously, the bus said, the celebrations for the
six-thousandth anniversary of the founding of New Earth had included nudging
six comet nuclei out of the Oort Cloud to create a dazzling synchronized spectacle.
It proved so popular that the orbits were corrected and a seventh nucleus added
to perform an encore a thousand years later. Now with the Eighth Millennium due
in three years the comets had been gathered once more. Another nucleus had been
added and they were again hurtling towards their perigee with Eridani.

Everyone crowded onto the
bus’s observation decks to watch the show. Their flat surfaces extended out
from the main body of the bus like a pair of stubby wings; each surrounded by
an inertial field that trapped a bubble of air for the passengers. For all
practical purposes they was standing outside, directly confronting the vacuum
of space.

“Am I the only one
feeling nervous?” Carson said.

Certainly the
schoolchildren seemed unperturbed. They were daring each other to peer over the
edge of the deck.

“I mean, how can that be
safe?”

“You big silly” chided
Aiyana, and to Carson’s horror she ran full tilt across the deck and leapt into
the black abyss. At two meters out her trajectory came to a smooth halt; the
inertial field spun her around and gently returned her to the surface. After a
moment of frozen shock all the schoolchild began hurling themselves into the
void. From that moment she was their idol.

A few minutes later they
were among the Millennium Comets. The nuclei’s frozen volatiles, warmed in the
strengthening sunlight, filled the surrounding space with halos of water vapor,
dust, and ammonia. Now everyone stood quietly on the deck, their faces lit by
phosphorescent light; even the schoolchildren were silenced by the eerie
display.

To everyone’s delight the
bus wove a graceful trajectory through the streaming tails. Driven by light
pressure from their parent star, the ghostly ribbons were already a million
kilometers long and would eventually span the orbits of the inner planets.

They had a momentary
glimpse of the swarm of escort vessels at the head of the procession and then
the performance was over.

“How do you maneuver
something as slushy as a comet nucleus?” wondered Aiyana “I had enough trouble
with asteroids.”

“God knows.”

As it happened, God and
one of the Huan schoolchildren knew.

“A hybrid tugging system,
honored fellow passengers. A highly charged micro black hole of exceptional
mass pulls the comet by gravitational attraction and heavy tugs using
superconducting electromagnets usher the black hole.”

“Kids today” Carson
muttered as they trooped into the main lounge. A cry went up from the crowd –
the displays were showing a small blue disk. He smiled as Aiyana and the schoolchildren
hugged each other. To left of New Earth was the bright yellow dot of Adhiambo,
the planet’s sole satellite. The moon had once belonged to Vulcan before being
shed on its vertiginous dive to Eridani.

Now the screens were
displaying a schematic of the inner planets. Beyond the orbit of New Earth was
New Mars, the mineral-rich industrial heart of the system surrounded by a swarm
of arcologies. Nearer in was Little Venus, another cast-off from Vulcan. The
giant planet itself had taken up residence in terrifying proximity to its
parent sun, completing an orbit every ten days. A close-up showed boiling gases
trailing in its majestic wake, like dry ice left outside on a summer’s day.