Darkworld: Earth

39.

Captain Moon was feeling good. A week had passed since she had officially turned over command to Captain Anders. Progress was proceeding rapidly on the efforts to salvage the science mission. They had successfully dismantled the deep space antenna and were in the process of hauling it aboard the Yonohoan flagship. Diego had made three trips, with the humans loading the shuttle and the Topokans unloading it.

Rajesh had volunteered to be the one to assemble the pieces, or at least direct the Topokans in the assembly. He remained aboard the Seeker , waiting for the final trip before he would risk exposure to the alien environment.

Aboard the Keeper , the computer that would download the data from the probes had been assembled, tested, and deemed functional. The interface between the download computer and the Toormonda’s storage banks was also fully functional. They had tested it already by uploading the data of one of their used probes and proven that it worked.

The Keeper’s AI was slightly reluctant to avoid from analyzing the data. Apparently it was an effort for the ship to preserve the information in binary format. The ship was forced to keep multiple copies of the data and constantly its version of a chksum on it in order to keep it from degrading.

Despite this, the ship assured the team that it had enough storage space to retain the amount of data that would be required of it. It was also confident in its ability to preserve that data for transport to earth, where it would be analyzed by the supercomputers of Earth.

The crew had been insulted after learning that humans were regarded as an uplifted species incapable of doing hard science on their own. They found it insulting that every species claimed to have provided the backbone of some key invention or another, but every human innovation was dismissed because it used science established by another species to draw it’s conclusion.

It was fine when others did it, but while humans were perceived as ‘crafty’ and ‘innovative,’ they were supposedly unable to perform the necessary complex equations for the higher sciences.

“Humans are the best at rediscovering what we already know in creative ways,” was one of the more polite yet dismissive ways of phrasing this discrimination.

She had been disheartened when she had confided her outrage to Eolai and he had simply shrugged. “It has always been this way. We have contributed to every single advancement in the past one hundred thousand years, but still the universe thinks that the only thing that we are good for is killing an enemy or being killed in the place of those species which carried us on their backs to the far edges of the universe.”

“Do the Sulivans see us this way?” She asked.

“I do not believe so. They will trust the judgment of any Yonohoan over the judgment of any member of their own species on any matter. This is not true for humanity at large, only for Yonohoans. I am uncertain how they feel about the other groups and genelines because to them there are only two categories. Yonohoan, and non-Yonohoan.”

“Because of your shared history,” she supplied.

“Yes, but also because of honor. They believe that they serve the Yonohoah, while the Yonohoan take pride in serving them in other ways. It is very difficult, but we are very good at tricking them to doing things on their own for their own sake,” Eolai explained.

“Do you have an example?” she asked.

“For example, for the last two hundred years I have tricked them into defending their own worlds using the ships that they have built themselves,” Eolai explained. “Rather than relying on the human fleet which is parked two stars away.”

“They don’t traditionally defend Yonohoan space?” Captain Moon inquired.

“They will serve aboard Yonohoan craft, but until I told them that I would only consent to Stasis if it was aboard a Topokan built spacecraft, they would not build their own ships,” Eolai explained. “And then I insisted that one man would be sufficient to fly their ships, and that if they could prove that I was lying then I would be able to lie about anything. Including how many children I will have before I die.”

“And they really want you to have one hundred children before you die,” she realized.

“Yes. If the last of my children dies of old age, then they are released from the worst of the penalties in their ancient pact with the swarms,” Eolai explained.

“What happens then?” she inquired.

“I do not know,” he admitted. “The primary clause which will expire for the Topokans is that the Yonohoans may no longer slay them for any reason other than self defense, and they are no longer obligated to ensure the sanctity of our bloodlines. I am uncertain how this will change our joint society and cultures. But the Topokans wish for it to occur, and so I hope that some day it comes to pass. Regretfully I cannot be alive to see it.”

“That is unfortunate. Your people could use your guidance through such a transition,” Captain Moon told him.

He scoffed. “I am not a great leader like my father, Captain Moon. I spend all of my time in self-indulgences. I skip from one happy moment to the next, always speaking with people who are happy to hear from me. Never since I was ten years old has anyone raised their voice to me in anger. Truly I sometimes wish for someone to scream at me in hate just so that I could know what it felt like to be despised.”

“Oh, poor little Eolai,” she mocked playfully. “He’s loved by everybody. Boo hoo hoo.”

Eolai blinked at her, and then he began to laugh.

~~~~~~

The shuttlecraft boarded the flagship for the final time carrying the final payload, its pilot, and a passenger.

Minutes after it had docked, the escape pods once again ejected from the ship, carrying the skittish Topokans away from their dangerously unknowable guest.

Rajesh was disappointed that they had not come out to form ranks for him as they had for Diego when he has first boarded the flagship. However, the data from Diego’s suit camera had finally been retrieved, which had given the crews from Earth an in detail tour of the interior of the alien flagship and insights into the Topokan culture through Eolai’s patient explanations.

The two fighter shuttles had been removed to make room for the antenna, which was more bulky than it was massive, with scaffolding and light materials which it had previously extended for use and retracted immediately prior to engaging the Tunnel Drive.

The work required a surprisingly delicate touch at times as the wires were secured in place and the finer parts of the antenna were attached to the skeletal outline. Working with only Diego, Rajesh and Eolai for labor, the entire process took several hours. Not as long as it had taken to disassemble, even having borrowed the vacuum safety devices from the Keeper , the crew had still suited up in their bulky vacuum suits during the process.

The device was fully extended while inside the cargo bay, yet Eolai assured the crew that the signals it sent would penetrate the walls unimpeded and that it did not need to be exposed to space.

Following that, and the successful connection between the transplanted computer and the antenna itself, the crew ejected one of their probes to see if Diego could indeed pilot it remotely as well as he thought he’d be able to.

It turns out that he could.

While the Toormonda could have potentially chased the drones down, the antenna was still necessary to shift them from observational mode into transfer mode, and then into recovery mode. The software, programmed by corporate and government entities, was not particularly intuitive or user friendly.

Once it was aboard the Keeper , it was a simple matter of attaching a cable to the probe. Once they’d completed the trial test, the entire crew decided to throw a party to celebrate their success. With the entire crew crowding aboard the Keeper to see the departing crew off, they mixed 100% ethanol with their remaining stock of orange juice and got hammered.

Gabriel abstained at first, recording the others getting sloshed and commenting for the viewers of his documentary viewers throughout the universe how getting drunk to celebrate an event or achievement was an ancient tradition going back millennia on earth.

Then someone threatened to throw him out the airlock if he didn’t join in, and they were working on pinning him down to put the belt of the vacuum safety device on him when he relented.

Finally, the preparations were complete. Farewells were said, and the crew was separated.

Fourteen crew members boarded a shuttle craft which arrived from the surface of the planet to carry them to the medical facility on planet Totola which had been prepared for them.

Twenty members of the crew, including Takeshi and Antoine, boarded the Keeper of Dreams and, under the command of Captain Moon, left for the next rendezvous stop on their mission. The flagship tagged along with the departing Toormonda, following along in the slower ship’s wake at less than five percent of its maximum speed.

The remaining twelve members, excluding Diego and Rajesh who were traveling with Eolai, remained aboard the Seeker of New Discoveries . It would fall on them to continue to exchange their culture with the Yonohoans, and it would fall on Captain Anders to finally negotiate directly with their government.

And the government of the the Topokans, as well.

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