Talosian Chronicles 1: Olympus (37 page)

“Yeah, I think you’re right. She had moments before we’d left Earth, but you could still see the shadow of her loss. Not anymore; when we made love tonight, it was like she was an entirely different woman. I think she has finally let her heart truly love again,” Ian replied.

Beth chuckled. “Boy! You’re sure an old softy!”

“Uh huh, if I wasn’t exhausted, I’d show you how ‘soft’ I am!”

As she yawned, she replied, “Then finish your beer so we can get back in bed with our lovers. We’re gonna be sitting up nights soon enough with four new-borns.”

“Yes dear.” Ian replied.

“Smart ass. Now, help me up.”

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W
hen Ian arrived on the bridge the next morning, he could feel the crew’s excitement coursing through the old ship from the bow point defense turrets to the massive plasma vents astern. After four thousand plus years of slumber, Star Dancer was finally coming back to life.

“Good Morning Lieutenant Liefson. Anything unusual to report?” Ian asked.

The young woman grinned tiredly at her commander. “Nothing that I can put into words, sir.”

Ian nodded agreement. “I can understand that; I feel it too. When did it start?”

“I can’t really say, sir. When I came on duty, I could ‘feel’ that something was different, but whatever it was, was so subtle I couldn’t isolate it. I didn’t get an ominous feeling from it, so I just waited to see if something clarified it. It’s almost like the lights are a little brighter, the coffee is just a bit richer and the stars are much clearer.”

Again Ian nodded. “I have the Con, Lieutenant. Go get some sleep; I think you’ll see more of the difference after some shut-eye.”

She came to attention, and saluted. “Aye sir, you have the Con. Have a great day sir.”

Ian returned the salute. “Sleep well, Liefson.”

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A
s soon as the young assistant communications officer left, Star’s hologram materialized beside his chair, and Jenny walked in carrying two medium sized mugs. As she handed one to Ian she made a suggestion. “You know, since you have to give the address at the graduation ceremony, and you’ll be on duty tonight for the lift, why don’t you go work on your speech, and let me stand your watch?”

Ian snorted. “I was supposed to write a speech?” He lifted his mug in a salute to her. “Thanks for this, as for the watch, I was planning on working on the speech out here.”

“That might not be a very good idea...” Jenny began as the doors to the bridge slid open to admit all three navigators. Ian was about to comment on being on time for their shift, but Jenny, continuing with her sentence stopped him. “You see, Chekov and his team have been up since about four hundred going over the launch program with a fine tooth comb. They’ve even run it through several simulations on the computers down in astrophysics. They scheduled this morning to run tests on the whole system. I didn’t see a problem, so I approved it. They just finished with their simulations and have moved the program up here to the main Nav console. He’s not late, just extremely early.”

“Is there a problem with the program?” Ian asked.

“Oh! No sir! We just want to make absolutely sure every contingency we can cover, gets covered,” Chekov said.

Ian once again nodded his approval. “Carry on then, but before you start, how’s Ally doing?”

The small man smiled proudly, and puffed his chest out. “Still pregnant, sir. But it could be anyday now.”

“I think my wives might be holding off so Ally can have hers first. Although, if the baby doesn’t come soon, I think Cindy might slip ahead of her,” Ian replied, grinning.

“I think it’s the baby holding off until he or she has some playmates. Ally is more than ready for this one to be over with.”

“I’ll let you all get back to work. Tell Ally we’re all rooting for her,” Ian said.

“Will do, sir,” Chekov said as he turned back to his smiling counter-parts. It was seconds before the big screen was covered in computer code and the three where quietly talking about different aspects of the program they wrote.

Lieutenant JG Garvy toggled the console communicator. “Engineering and Operations, this is Navigation. We’re ready for the power on system test.”

“Good Morning, Gentlemen and Lady. Engineering is ready for Power on system test,” Major Dommer replied.

“All Departments! This is Operations. Please prepare for reduced power test of anti-gravity lifting system. Report readiness to Operations once you’re secured.”

Ian grinned at Jenny as he stood to give her his seat. “Okay, so now I can see why you don’t think I’ll be able to concentrate out here. You have the Con, Colonel.”

“Thank you, sir, I have the Con,” Jenny replied as she returned his salute, and sat gratefully in the warm command chair. When Ian didn’t head for his ready room, Jenny looked up at him questioningly.

Seeing her look, Ian winked and quietly said. “I’m waiting to see how this test goes.”

She nodded and began her part in this test. “Operations, Command is online,”

“Affirmative, Command. All departments report ready for lift,” Major Brighton replied this time.

“Flight Control, launch the Navigation Drones,” Jenny ordered. “Engineering, power up the AG array and bring the reactor up to twenty percent.”

“Nav Drones away, Command,” Flight reported.

“Reactor at twenty percent. AG array ready for lift.” Engineering replied.

“Navigation, initiate the launch,” Jenny said, calmly.

“Aye, initiating The Launch,” Chekov replied. “Anti-grav at five percent and climbing; main engines at standby.

He paused as the reading on the navigation console changed.

“Anti-grav at fifteen percent; mains still at standby.” During the report, an alarm started beeping. “Engineering we’re showing a power fluctuation at frame one-seventy-two, section four starboard,” Chekov said.

“Registering increased torque on keels one and three at frame one-sixty-nine,” Star reported.

“We’re on it!” Major Dommer reported.

“Anti-grav at twenty-one percent; main engines at standby,” Chekov reported.

Star looked a little worried. “Torque now on all keels and approaching maximum safe limit.”

Chekov started the next report but was interrupted by Star. “Anti-grav at twenty-seven...”

“Aborting Launch program. Scenario failure; Keel torsion from AG array imbalance exceeded safety limits.” Star reported, frowning.

“Give us twenty minutes! The gravimetric compensator was thrown out of balance by the internal gravity field. We’re fixing it now,” Major Dommer reported.

“All departments; stand down for thirty minutes. Murphy’s Law strikes again!” Jenny ordered before turning to look up at Ian. “So... What are you going to do about the speech?”

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T
he big landing/launching area on Beta flight deck seemed like it was literally packed with people. Once he’d adjusted to the crowd, Ian sought out Elias.

The Johnson family was there to see both Stephanie and Kyle graduate. Luke was still down at Talos, but his wife, Lara was there for Tara.

Ian found them all together near the exit from the pilot’s ready room. “Hi guys! I’m glad to see you could all make it!” The three cadets immediately snapped to attention as soon as they realized Ian was right behind them. “Relax, Cadets,” Ian chuckled.

“You know, I knew the ship was real, I mean at first, back when you and Janet ‘told me a story’, I didn’t believe a word of it, Even after you introduced me to Olympus and I accepted all of this; it still couldn’t get my mind to accept the reality of the ship.

“Now, I’m off-planet and standing in her. There wasn’t a big production with NASA, I didn’t have to go through the Air Force Academy and become an Astronaut; I simply got aboard a shuttle and flew here. Amazing! Just amazing!” Elias said, all starry-eyed.

Grinning at his friend, Ian said, “Welcome aboard, Elias.”

Realizing he was acting like a tourist, Elias chuckled. “Thanks Ian.”

“I wanted to ask you guys where all these people came from? It seems like the whole population of Talos is up here!” Ian asked.

“Don’t you read the New Talosian? Your recruiters are really busting their humps. We’ve had to start on another subdivision of housing!” Elias replied.

His wife, Laura, was nodding in agreement. “Since you moved up here, our population has more than doubled. Admittedly, roughly half are new eggs recommended by their colleagues, but once you add their families, the numbers grow. I should also mention that one of Janet’s recruiters has this habit of ‘rescuing’ prostitutes, and the ‘forgotten’ and ‘lost’ people. Not the crazy ones, mind you, just the ones that have given up on life.”

Ian was impressed. He’d often wondered where Janet was getting all the people from. “So just how big are we getting down there?” Ian asked.

“Well, Elias was exaggerating about the new subdivision; it’d be too difficult to explain all the empty houses once the moon base is finished. No, we’ve had the drones adding more housing underground,” Lara said getting into the conversation.

“Are any of the new people going to be coming to the ship?” Ian asked.

“Eventually. The Council just approved a request made by Ty for the addition of a marine training facility, complete with barracks. He’s already got two platoons of recruits that’ve been waiting for a decision on training facilities. If you add the members of the construction crews that have expressed an interest, it brings the recruits to three and a half platoons,” Lara replied. “I believe Luke said he was going to forward the whole thing to you for final approval before we got the drones working. Since it’s a military matter, the Council felt you should have the final say.”

“Wow, Okay, I’ll look for that once I get back to my office. It is something of a priority; Ty needs more support down there,” Ian replied.

In the old Talosian Society, there were political entities called Families that were governed by an elected Matriarch or Patriarch. (Though the position was usually past to an heir, the family still had to approve.) These family heads got together and selected a Grand Matriarch or Patriarch for the group of families which formed the Clan or House. Those selected leaders formed the Grand Council. (The pre-genocide Grand Council had over two hundred members.) The Grand Council appointed twenty to form the Ruling Council to make the day-to-day decisions of running the government. The Grand Council only met twice a year to deal with issues the Ruling Council felt needed their attention. The military High Command was a tool of the Ruling Council and was subject to oversight by the Grand Council. It had worked well for three millennia before the attack that destroyed the society.

Ian was a little surprised that the people down at Talos would adopt the political structure. “So do I call you Councilor?”

Lara chuckled. “Actually, Luke is the Councilor; I just serve as the recording secretary. Laura however, is also a Councilor, she’s ‘officially’ the mayor too.”

Ian shook his head. “So that was the deal with the new titles yesterday! I really need to start paying more attention to the newspaper. I had no idea there even was a Council.”

Laura shrugged. “When the proposal to form a Council was suggested, we did include the people up here in the vote. We felt that since we were forming their civil government, they should have a say in it.” She shrugged. “I thought you knew because your wife turned down her nomination because she felt it would be a conflict of interest.”

“I must have been really occupied with something to have missed that,” Ian said thoughtfully.

“Well, you actually were kinda busy at the time,” Elias chuckled. “It was started the day of your Command ceremony, the day after we told everyone the truth.”

“Damn, things have been moving fast down there. That was only a week or so ago!” Ian sighed. “Lara, would you please send me a list of the councilors, so I don’t make another political gaff?”

“Sure Ian, but what gaff did you make?” Lara asked. From the look on Laura and Elias’ faces, they wanted to know too.

Ian winked at the trio and turn to the silent Cadets. “Cadets, can any of you tell the Councilor and her party of the ‘Gaff’?”

“Yes Sir! We all can, Sir!” Kyle replied.

“Then please do so, Cadet.”

“As a Councilmember of the current Ruling Council, you politically outrank the Commander. However, on the ship, he is the highest authority. It is traditional for the Commander in his role as leader of the crew to be on-hand to formally welcome members of the Ruling Council aboard as a sign of respect. Failure to do so without justifiable reasons was considered a major insult to the Councilor.  After all, you are a Head of State,” Kyle finished.

“Excuse me Councilor, everyone. It’s almost time to get started, sir,” John Harris said interrupting the conversation.

Ian nodded, but turned back to the small group. “Are there any other Councilors here?”

Laura tried hard not to grin at Ian’s discomfiture. “Yes, there are four of us here. Although all of us are here to see our kids graduate, not as Councilors.”

“It doesn’t matter. You’re still a Councilor, and should be shown the respect of your office. Thanks for the info, if you’ll excuse me?” Ian asked.

They all nodded, and Ian quickly followed John back toward the raised dais. Elias watched him go. “You know, I think we really pitched him a curve ball this time. I was starting to believe nothing could surprise him.”

“Oh, things can surprise him, Dad, but he doesn’t stay surprised for long!” Stephanie replied.

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“L
adies and Gentleman, welcome to the first Star Dancer Flight School Graduation.” John began, and had to wait for the applause to die down.

“Roughly six months ago, I was standing in Flight Control aboard the U.S.S.
Ronald Reagan
watching new pilots landing for their first cruise. I remember thinking to myself that they all looked so young. I realized that it wasn’t that the pilots had gotten younger; I had gotten older.

“Today, I find myself again looking at a group of new pilots. This time, I don’t feel so old, nor do I feel as tired,” He looked at a grinning Talena. “Helping to train them has helped me find my own lost youth.”