THE KOSTROMA SAGA by Michel Poulin - HTML preview

CHAPTER 22 – GETTING TO KNOW EACH OTHER

 

13:46 (Universal Time)

Tuesday, December 25, 2317

Command bridge of the A.M.S. KOSTROMA

Low orbit around ERIS

‘’KOSTROMA, this is Stennis: the VEON SHOURIA is now completely free of ice and my digging teams are in the process of pulling out of the site, over.’’ Tina, sitting in her command chair, replied herself to that message.

‘’Understood! Advise us once your teams are at a safe distance from the basin.’’

‘’Will do! Stennis out!’’

Tina then concentrated on the view of the VEON SHOURIA on one of her screens. Three days of intensive work by Jake Stennis’ digging crews had hollowed a basin in the methane ice with a diameter of nearly 500 meters and a depth of 550 meters. The Koorivar ship now rested in the open at the bottom of that basin, standing on its five landing legs. Six minutes later, just after Stennis had reported that all his workers and their equipment were back in their shuttles and on the way back to the KOSTROMA, Tina saw the Koorivar ship starting to slowly rise from the basin, probably under some sort of anti-gravity propulsion. She watched, fascinated, as the alien ship emerged above the surface ice of Eris, then moved sideways equally slowly, finally landing back on its skids on the methane ice surface. Less than a minute later, she heard on her opened radio channel the slightly high pitch voice of Shanya, the central computer of the VEON SHOURIA, speaking in its now more than decent English.

‘’Thank you, KOSTROMA, in the name of the Koorivars.’’ Spirit, the KOSTROMA’s central computer, replied to that in the Koorivar language, with the English equivalent being scribbled simultaneously on Tina’s viewer. Then came a message from the VEON SHOURIA that Tina had been hoping for since she had withdrawn from the alien ship.

‘’Captain Forster, Captain Shanandar would like you to meet him aboard his ship, at your convenience. You may bring up to three companions with you if you wish so.’’ Tina hurried to answer at once.

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‘’VEON SHOURIA, this is Captain Forster. I am pleased to accept the invitation of Captain Shanandar. I will be at the foot of your ship with three companions in approximately one Earth hour. Thank you again for your invitation. KOSTROMA out!’’ As soon as she closed the channel, Tina thought about who would accompany her and with what. It took her less than a minute to take a decision and switch her intercom on.

‘’Attention, please! This is the Captain speaking! I want Jim Lowell, Doctor Maria Perez and Doctor Steven Barrie to report immediately to the command bridge conference room. I say again: Jim Lowell, Doctor Maria Perez and Doctor Steven Barrie are to report immediately to the command bridge conference room. Thank you!’’ Next, she called the head of her agronomy department, Janus Kadar.

‘’Janus, this is Tina. You remember the list of vegetal products we checked for possible compatibility with the Koorivars’ biochemistry?’’

‘’Yes, I do! We also checked out a few dairy products as well.’’

‘’Then, I want you to prepare samples of all those products, as well as of the food items we produce on the ship out of those products. Measure enough of those products and items for multiple sampling and analysis. Make it quick: I will be getting them in about half an hour.’’

‘’Holy! Then, I better get on it right away!’’

‘’Thanks, Janus!’’

Tina then got out of her command chair, heading towards the small conference room of the bridge complex.

15:03 (Universal Time)

At the surface of Eris, near the VEON SHOURIA

Tina’s small group stepped out of the shuttle that had brought them close to one of the landing legs of the Koorivar ship, carrying two large storage boxes full of foodstuff samples. The armored door of what seemed to be an access tube integrated into the landing leg and skid then opened as they heard a radio message in English in their spacesuit helmets.

‘’Please enter our access airlock with your companions, Captain Forster.’’

‘’Thank you!’’ replied Tina before starting to walk towards the open door, followed by the three others. Climbing the ramp leading to the door, she entered a fairly large compartment that would have been large enough for twelve humans in spacesuits. As

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soon as the whole group was in, an airtight door on the inside closed and the noise of hissing air filling the compartment started to be heard. Pressurizing the compartment took about twenty seconds, with an inside door opening afterwards, revealing what looked like an elevator cabin. The group of humans could not help step back in surprise on seeing a suited alien figure inside the elevator cabin. The Koorivar, who stood about 155 centimeters without his spacesuit, bowed to them and spoke on the radio in his language, with his ship’s computer translating at once.

‘’Welcome on the VEON SHOURIA. I am Kooroo. Captain Shanandar sent me to guide you to him. Please step inside the elevator cabin.’’

‘’Thank you, Kooroo.’’ said Tina before entering the cabin, imitated by her companions, who put down their two storage boxes. She waited until the door of the cabin had closed and that they had started moving up before speaking again.

‘’Kooroo, may I present my friends, from left to right: Doctor Steven Barrie, Jim Lowell and Doctor Maria Perez.’’

The Koorivar eyed all four of them with intense curiosity, evidently noting the difference in body shapes between the two men and two women.

‘’You have both male and female friends with you, right? We did have such male/female differentiated species on Shouria, but we are ourselves what you would call hermaphrodites, I believe.’’

‘’Me and Maria Perez are indeed females, while Jim Lowell and Steven Barrie are males.’’

‘’And what did you bring in those two crates, if I may ask, Captain Forster?’’

‘’We brought with us samples of the various vegetal foodstuff we have on our ship, so that you could test them for compatibility with the Koorivar digestive system.’’ Tina thought that she saw then a sudden spark of interest in the purple eyes of Kooroo, who made what she believe to be a smile with his small, deer-like mouth.

‘’An excellent initiative indeed, Captain Forster. Aren’t you going to unseal your spacesuits now? I assure you that our atmosphere is completely compatible with your breathing needs.’’

‘’If you don’t mind, we prefer to keep our suits sealed until we are both reassured that we are not going to contaminate you and your ship.’’

‘’An understandable precaution, Captain. Ah, here we are!’’ The cabin now stopped, its door slid open, revealing a long, wide corridor lit by red overhead lamps.

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‘’Please follow me!’’ said Kooroo before stepping out of the cabin and starting to walk down the corridor while removing his spacesuit’s helmet. His gait was strange indeed in the eyes of the four humans, his two thick, muscular legs reminding them of chicken legs, but with an extra joint. While definitely alien in aspect, the Koorivar could be said to look cute in a way, the way a human would find a young deer or kangaroo cute. The Koorivar in fact reminded Tina of a kangaroo with a deer head, but with no tail and with different, much thicker legs and arms. It had no fur, its pale brown skin being smooth and bare under its spacesuit, and its long snout, with a narrow mouth under it, sported what looked like a vestigial short horn at its tip. Slight bulges in the torso of Kooroo’s spacesuit showed the presence of a pair of breasts, something Tina had seen previously on the anatomical charts inside the alien ship’s infirmary. Breasts would be logical for hermaphrodites, on top of both male and female genitalia, since all the members of that species could procreate and have to feed infants. The knowledge about breasts with the Koorivars had pushed Tina in thinking that maybe they could eat and digest some of the dairy products produced on the KOSTROMA, which was the reason she had asked Janus Kadar to include dairy products in the samples.

Following Kooroo while carrying their two storage boxes, the four humans were finally invited by him to enter a room on the left side of the corridor, close to the central core. They found themselves in a large, nearly empty room whose only furniture was a ‘U’ shape arrangement of twenty seats. The seats itself were strange, looking like chairs placed backward and with computer terminals and screens attached to their high backs. Tina’s eyes however hooked at once on the six Koorivars waiting in the room, each one behind a chair. They wore a sort of loose fitting blue coveralls and wide, soft sole boots. One of the Koorivars, whose coverall sported more white braid than the others, then spoke in his language with a high pitch voice, with the ship’s computer translating at once.

‘’Welcome on the VEON SHOURIA, Captain Forster. I am Shanandar, captain of this ship. I must say that your KOSTROMA makes for an impressive sight indeed.’’

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‘’Thank you, Captain Shanandar. However, your ship’s interstellar trip is even more impressive.’’

Shanandar bowed to that compliment, then looked at Kooroo.

‘’You may return to your duties, Kooroo.’’

‘’Yes, Captain!’’ replied Kooroo before turning around and leaving the room. Once the door was closed behind him, Tania pointed her companions to Shanandar.

‘’May I present you my ship’s medical doctor, Doctor Maria Perez, my second engineer, Jim Lowell, and one of our top astronomers, Doctor Steven Barrie.’’ Shanandar and the five other Koorivars bowed after that, with Shanandar returning the favor.

‘’And here are Krennek, my ship’s navigator, Shoumak, my chief engineer, Shirani, our head planetologist, Kazmiriel, our ship’s healer, and Shourazan, our head bio-chemist. Before we go further, I must thank you and your crew for delivering us from our icy tomb. Without your visit and your subsequent digging work, we would have been probably condemned to stay in cold sleep for many more centuries, until our isotopic batteries would have run out. Then, we would have all died, and with us would have died one of the last hopes of our species.’’

‘’To save your ship and crew brought us great pride and joy, Captain Shanandar. As you may have seen from our history, which you were able to view, we may be a violent race at times, but we are also capable of much compassion and kindness.’’ Tina thanked at that moment the fact that they had to pause to let the ship’s computer, Shanya, translate both sides of the conversation, something that let her ample time to think before speaking. Shanandar bowed again.

‘’Your honesty and openness are certainly reassuring to us, Captain Forster. I must say that we were at first nervous to face carnivorous beings, especially after seeing the way you raise animals and then eat them. On Shouria, we had all but wiped out carnivorous predators, so that our people could go around in peace.’’ That made Tina smile.

‘’I certainly can understand your point of view, Captain Shanandar. While on the subject of food, we brought with us samples of all the types of vegetal and dairy foodstuff which we produce on our ship, so that your specialists could analyze them and confirm if they would be edible or not for your people.’’

She didn’t miss the fact that all the Koorivars immediately looked at the boxes with apparent intense interest. Maybe their food situation was bad and they were short on

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rations. That was a very real possibility, since a 301 year-long trip in space would put to the ultimate test the shelf life of any type of preserved foodstuff. The next question from Shanandar only reinforced that supposition.

‘’Do you have much reserves of those vegetal foodstuff on your ship, Captain Forster?’’

‘’We in fact grow our own food on our ship and have enough surplus to be able to sell part of it at our various stops. We also happen to have come to Eris to establish a scientific research station and we brought substantial extra food reserves to stock that station. Even for my ship, which is considered very fast and long range by human standards, the return trip between Jupiter and Eris takes close to one Earth year, so that station needs to have enough food reserves for two years. Are you in immediate need of some food?’’

Tina, anxious to see if Shanandar would be frank with her or would try to hide his difficulties because of pride, was reassured to see him answer in a straightforward way.

‘’We in fact are facing a cruel problem right now, Captain Foster. When we woke up, we initially used a synthesized liquid nutrient formula to regain our strength in the first hours. Then, we opened our ready reserves of solid food, only to find that they have all turned bad during our long trip among the stars. Further checks showed us to our despair that all of our food reserves, including the seeds from Shouria which we intended to use to plant new crops once we had found a new home, have gone bad and are unfit for consumption. I am afraid that, if your own foodstuff is found to be incompatible with our digestive systems, then we will be condemned to starve to death.’’ Tina, like her three companions, was left speechless and horrified by that declaration.

‘’But…but, there must be something that can be done to prevent that. Surely, some of our foodstuff will prove to be edible by Koorivars.’’ Shanandar saw the emotion in her response and nodded his head somberly.

‘’We hope so as well. Shourazan, Kazmiriel, you will need to work fast from now on. Bring those food samples to our bio-chemistry laboratory and start analyzing them at once.’’

Maria Perez, who had been even more shaken by Shanandar’s confession than Tina had been, then took a quick decision.

‘’Then I will go with them and help your people test our samples.’’ Tina, like Jim Lowell and Steven Barrie, looked at her with surprise and misgiving.

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‘’But…you will run out of air for your spacesuit in about twenty hours, Maria. You can’t remove your spacesuit here until we are sure that you won’t contaminate the Koorivars with some human disease.’’

‘’Then, I will have Minnie, my assistant, replace me in fifteen hours. Time is of the essence now and extra helping hands are needed here.’’ What appeared furiously like tears ran down the faces of Shanandar and of the other five Koorivars present.

‘’You were not lying when you said that your race was capable of compassion and kindness, Captain Forster. We will be most happy to accept the help of your doctor and to host her. Kazmiriel, you will take Doctor Perez with you to the laboratory.’’

‘’At once, Captain!’’

They all watched as the two Koorivars and Maria Perez walked out, carrying the two boxes of food samples. Shanandar then pointed the ‘chairs’ nearest Tina and her two companions.

‘’Please, have a seat: we have much to discuss together.’’ Shanandar then sat himself, advancing with his legs spread until he straddled one of the chairs’ horizontal bench, lowering his posterior on the bench and leaning his chest on the front vertical padded support, with his two arms straddling the vertical support and now being in position to use the computer terminal attached to the vertical support. The three humans imitated him and actually found the benches quite comfortable. Shanandar addressed Tina again, with Shanya continuing to translate.

‘’Now that the most urgent matter has been taken care of, let us talk about the future, Captain Foster. Your information sent to us showed that, apart from going through a fratricidal war recently, your race’s original planet is grossly overpopulated, heavily polluted and depleted of much of its original natural resources. In these conditions, what are the chances that your race will be able to offer us some viable living space? Before you answer that, please know that, contrary to you, the Koorivars are mostly a sedentary people and did not travel or live in space to the extent you humans do. While we certainly had the technology to easily travel within our solar system, we made a conscious choice to cling to firm ground and thus built only minimal space installations and ships. You could in fact say that you are truly Space veterans compared to us. Your own KOSTROMA, while not having an interstellar drive, is a very impressive ship by Koorivar standards. You also seem to have some types of technologies in which you are superior to us.’’

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‘’In which technologies, if I may ask?’’

‘’In weapons, for starters.’’ replied Shanandar with a meaning smile. ‘’Your so-called ‘gravity sails’ are also way superior to our own short range anti-gravity fields in terms of secondary propulsion system. Our computer technology, while different, seems to be about on par with yours in terms of capability. Where we Koorivars particularly shine by contrast is in bio-chemistry and what you would call the decorative and creative arts. While you humans seems to be very good at working in Space, we Koorivars fancy ourselves to be artists first and foremost. Our nature is mostly pacifist, probably due to the fact that we don’t eat meat and never had to hunt other species. The time and resources you expended to make war during your own history; we used to develop our social and artistic skills. So, what could your race offer to a community of artists and farmers?’’

‘’To be frank, that would rightly be a decision to be taken by my politicians, Captain Shanandar. I however can tell you that, while much of Earth is indeed overpopulated and polluted, some areas managed to avoid those problems, through more careful local management and long term policies. There are still intact territories large enough for a few tens of thousands of people which are available on Earth, notably in a number of natural wild life reserves and parks. I myself periodically go take vacations in such a park area on the west coast of what we call North America, which is the best preserved continent on Earth by far. There are dense forests there, with long ocean coastlines and plenty of wild life. I am sure that you would love it.’’

‘’I would indeed like to visit it, Captain Forster.’’

‘’Please, call me simply Tina.’’ she replied with a gentle smile. Shanandar made a smile of his own and nodded his head.

‘’Very well, Tina. And what would your politicians ask of us in return for giving us a place to live?’’

‘’That is something that only they could decide, Shanandar. Hopefully, they will ask for nothing in return save for your friendship. I myself would find that more than sufficient. Just the cultural exchanges between us would stimulate greatly our own social growth and, with luck, make us a less violent race. Please understand that the question about whether other intelligent beings existed in the Universe has been one that has resulted in many heated debates during our history. Now that we have found you, that debate could possibly now turn to a more positive one, by shutting up the

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demagogues who were claiming that we were some kind of special exception created by God.’’

‘’Ah yes, this religion business.’’ said Shirani, the Koorivar planetologist, in a guarded tone. ‘’We once cultivated such kinds of beliefs, thousands of years ago, but we thankfully outgrew them once we realized how tiny a part of the Universe we were.’’

‘’Many of us have also outgrown those beliefs, Shirani. Unfortunately, some still push those beliefs, targeting in particular the least educated and the more naive of our people, with the goal of influencing them and gaining power on them.’’ The Koorivar chief engineer, Shoumak, then jumped in the conversation.

‘’Tina, you have sent us much data about your history, your bio-chemistry and the structure of your society, but you have given us little hard data on your own ship and its various systems, save for its general characteristics and performance.’’

‘’To which I could reply that you did yourself tell us little about your ship, my dear Shoumak.’’ replied Tina without hesitation but in a polite tone. That seemed to amuse Shanandar, who looked at Shoumak while speaking to Tina.

‘’Please excuse my chief engineer, Tina: he tends to be more suspicious than me on many things. It must be a professional deformation on his part. However, he was correct in saying that you didn’t say much specifically about your ship. For one, you didn’t tell us if you have any weapons on your ship, yet your recent history mentions your KOSTROMA as having taken part in the hostilities during your last war.’’

‘’Touché!’’ said Tina, electing to stay honest with the Koorivar. ‘’At the time, I deemed those details as superfluous: finding ways to help you was a more pressing matter. To answer you: yes, we have weapons on our ship. In fact, despite being officially an ultra-heavy cargo ship, the KOSTROMA is presently rated as the most powerful warship in this solar system. We destroyed dozens of enemy warships in combat before peace could be reestablished. Be assured however that we have nothing but peaceful intentions towards you.’’

Her direct answer threw a bit of a chill on the conversation, as she had expected but, in her mind, lying would have been worse in the long run. Her gamble seemingly paid off, with Shanandar bowing to her.

‘’Honesty is a quality we admire most, Tina. Let us talk openly to each other, then. I can tell you now that our ship’s main propulsion system is based on the release of energy from the mutual destruction of matter and anti-matter.’’ Jim Lowell’s face lit up at those words.

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‘’I suspected so! Only an anti-matter rocket engine would have the power to propel a ship up to a notable fraction of the speed of light, short of some kind of system that would distort space and time. But manufacturing this much anti-matter must have been a huge industrial undertaking for you, no?’’

‘’Not really, Mister Lowell.’’ replied Shoumak. ‘’We produced our anti-matter as we went.’’

That pronouncement left Tina, Jim Lowell and Steven Barrie speechless for a moment. Lowell finally got over his stupor and nearly shouted his next question.

‘’But, how could you do that? We need huge particle accelerators and fabulous quantities of electrical energy just to produce a few milligrams of anti-matter.’’ Shoumak nodded at that.

‘’Your data showed that much to us. However, know that we have developed a technique to transmute matter into anti-matter, using little energy and only very compact equipment. Our ship is fueled by lead pellets, with pellets melted and heated into vapors. Half of those vapors is then converted into anti-matter and injected into a rocket exhaust chamber, along with an equal amount of normal lead vapor. The reaction between the two types of vapors then liberates massive amounts of energy, which is funneled out through our main rocket nozzle, propelling our ship.’’

‘’But…but, that’s fantastic! This could revolutionize our whole space travel industry and make space travel much cheaper.’’ exclaimed Lowell.

‘’But it also could cause our utter destruction.’’ replied Tina somberly, her face grave. As Lowell and Barrie looked at her with confusion, she spoke in a gloomy voice.

‘’Imagine what some on Earth would do with such a technique to easily produce anti-matter at will. It would take no time before someone produced weapons and bombs with that technology, weapons and bombs which could blow to pieces whole asteroids and carve huge craters where our subsurface space cities are. Do you think that men like President Mobutu of the African Federation, or Marshal Khan, would have hesitated to use anti-matter weapons against the Spacers League, or against the Northern Alliance? I don’t think that they would wait one second and there are plenty of men like them left on Earth…and around the Solar System.’’

Lowell and Barrie were unable to reply to that, mostly because they realized at once that she was right. On his part, Shanandar got up from his bench and clapped his hands together, obviously imitating human applause.

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‘’I see that I judged you right, Captain Forster. You are indeed a good, honest and forward-looking person whom we Koorivars can fully trust. You would be one of the first persons to benefit from using our anti-matter technology, yet saw at once its potential dangers if put in the wrong hands. So, what would you counsel us to do with that technology?’’

‘’It belongs solely to the Koorivars by right, Shanandar, and no human should order you to give it away. If I would be you, I would destroy your anti-matter engine and erase all the computer files concerning it, to avoid its misuse.’’

‘’And how would we then bring our ship to your Earth afterwards?’’ asked Shoumak, as Lowell and Barrie gave Tina stunned, outraged looks. Very conscious of the kind of trouble this could put her in, Tina ignored the looks from her two companions and answered the Koorivar engineer.

‘’Simple: my ship would take you in tow and bring you to Earth. The

KOSTROMA can tow a mass of up to twenty million tons behind its stern and could easily handle your ship. It could even enter vertically the atmosphere of Earth and gently put down your ship on the spot of your choice.’’

‘’But, you don’t have the right to take such a decision by yourself, Captain!’’ Objected Steven Barrie. ‘’This anti-matter drive could open to us the road to the stars.’’

‘’And would you argue that we should acquire it by all means, including outright theft, Doctor Barrie?’’ shot back Tina, hardening her tone. As a heated verbal exchange started between Tina and the astronomer, with Jim Lowell watching from the side, unsure what to say, Shanandar spoke to Shoumak in the Koorivar language.

‘’Shanya, do not translate my next words to Shoumak. Shoumak, go at once to the engine room. You know what you have to do now.’’

‘’I understand, Captain. I’m on it!’’

Shortly after Shoumak had left the room, Maria Perez entered it, attracted by the increasingly harsh words she was hearing on her radio. Having heard the whole exchange from the human side, she already knew the reason for the dispute and charged Steven Barrie, patting rather roughly the left shoulder of his spacesuit.

‘’How the hell do you dare talk like this to our captain?’’

‘’How do I dare? I dare because she is going to throw away a chance for Humanity to make a tremendous step forward in science and in Space exploration. That is not her decision to take. That’s a decision that belongs to our political leaders and to the leaders of our scientific community.’’

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‘’Wrong! That’s a decision that belongs to the Koorivars, and to no one else. Did you even listen to her arguments, or are you so completely blinded by the possibilities of that technology that you are ready to forget all that happened only two years ago? Are you advocating that we take that technology by force?’’

Only then did Barrie seem to remember that there were Koorivars present, listening. He gave them a side look and kept for himself the words he had in his throat. As for Jim Lowell, while the engineer in him screamed of holding on to the anti-matter technology at all cost, the man in him started to understand the point of view of Tina. Shanandar looked gravely at the four humans present in front of him.

‘’Captain Forster was certainly right about the ownership of our anti-matter drive technology: it is ours to decide, and ours alone. She is also right about another important thing, in that the preservation of peace is more important than boundless technological progress. That is a lesson that we Koorivars learned during our

millenniums of history. You would do well to remember that, Doctor Barrie.’’ The astronomer reddened with anger at that rebuke but didn’t reply to it. Judging that her group better leave now before the controversy blew up again, Tina got up from her bench and bowed to Shanandar.

‘’I believe that me and my people better return to the KOSTROMA now and let you analyze those food samples with the help of Doctor Perez, Captain. Permission to leave your ship.’’

‘’Permission granted, Captain Forster. Thank you again for all that you did for us. We will advise you by radio as soon as we have the results of our sample analysis. Krennek will guide you back to your shuttle.’’

Tina left after a last bow, following the Koorivar navigator and with Lowell and Barrie in tow. On her part, Maria Perez nodded her head to Shanandar and left to return to the bio-chemistry lab.

Two hundred meters below, in the main machinery room, Shoumak, helped by his assistant engineer, finished disconnecting the matter conversion chamber and its molecular inverter tubes, then carried it into another compartment used to effect major repairs. Fixing the seventy kilo piece of equipment to a work bench with the help of a vise grip, Shoumak grabbed next a plasma torch and lit it up. A few repeated passes were enough to transform the conversion chamber and inverter tubes into pieces of molten slag. Gathering all the spare parts related to the anti-matter drive, he also melted

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them down, then erased all the computer files documenting the drive and its governing principles, ordering his assistant to do the same with all the copies of the maintenance procedures concerning the anti-matter drive.

15:58 (Universal Time)

Shuttle Hangar Number Six

A.M.S. KOSTROMA, in low Eris orbit

‘’THIS IS NOT OVER, CAPTAIN FORSTER, I PROMISE YOU!’’ John Murdoch, one of the small craft maintenance technicians of the KOSTROMA who was present in the hangar when an apparently furious Doctor Barrie stepped out of the shuttle, threw a dark look at the astronomer as the latter walked away. He then looked at Tina, who was now coming out of the shuttle with Jim Lowell.

‘’What the hell is wrong with that asshole, Captain?’’

‘’Nothing that I can’t handle by myself, Mister Murdoch.’’ replied an apparently frustrated Tina before also walking away, leaving the technician to scratch his head.

18:45 (Universal Time)

Crew cafeteria, Level 19

A.M.S. KOSTROMA

Tina was eating her supper without much conviction, her mind wondering still if she had taken the right decisions on the VEON SHOURIA, when a smiling Jake Stennis showed at her table.

‘’I know that you are a busy person lately, Captain, but could I speak with you for a moment?’’

Tina steeled herself immediately, expecting more criticism about her counsels given to the Koorivars. She however didn’t want to be impolite to the construction crew manager and pointed the chair opposite hers.

‘’Please, have a seat, Mister Stennis.’’

Stennis sat down at once and glanced at Tina’s supper, chicken fried rice with green vegetables.

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‘’I am sorry to disturb your supper like this, Captain, but this shouldn’t take long. I came to inquire with you about the ownership of the diamonds we found on Eris. Some of my men are wondering if they will be able to get a cut from them.’’ Stennis was surprised to see Tina seemingly relax suddenly at his last words.

‘’Uh, did I say something inappropriate?’’

‘’No, no, not at all, Mister Stennis.’’ said Tina, smiling to him. ‘’To answer you, I don’t know yet about that. Since the Spacers League funded this expedition, I suspect that it will get at least part ownership of those diamonds, if not of the whole lot. I could always send a message to Callisto Prime to clarify that subject, which will probably be decided by high level lawyers.’’

‘’I suppose that you are right about that, Captain. Still, even a small percentage of those diamonds as a ‘finders’ fee’ would be nice for my men.’’

‘’I will certainly mention your men, along with the others involved in the surface exploration of Eris, in my message. May I ask you in turn a question?’’

‘’But, of course, Captain!’’

‘’You are a qualified geologist and deal a lot with the value of various minerals. Would the quantity and quality of the diamonds we found to date be enough to impact on the market price of diamonds back home?’’

‘’Oh, certainly!’’ replied without hesitation Stennis. ‘’The diamonds we found here are of prime quality, apart from being unique in color. The quantity we found to date also rivals maybe a full year’s worth of diamond mining on Earth.’’

‘’So, putting those Eris diamonds on the market could severely devalue the price of all diamonds, right?’’

‘’Most possibly, Captain. What are you coming at?’’

‘’Well, I was toying with the idea that maybe part of those diamonds could be used to produce jewels which would constitute gifts to all of our people, including your crews, that is of course with the prior approval of the Spacers League administration. Wouldn’t your workers like to be able to offer a nice diamond necklace and earrings set to their wives or daughters?’’

Stennis smiled as he thought that idea over.

‘’I suppose that Jenny wouldn’t mind that one bit. I like your idea.’’

‘’Then I will make sure to inform you of the answer from Callisto Prime on your request as soon as I get one, Mister Stennis.’’

‘’Thank you, Captain! You are most kind. Have a good evening.’’

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As Stennis got up and walked away, Tina couldn’t help think that her evening was most probably already shot, with Steven Barrie being said to be busy raising the ire of the other scientists on the KOSTROMA against her. There was however one possible way for her to change her mood tonight to something a bit more cheerful.

19:11 (Universal Time)

The GLEAMING STARS jewelry shop

Main Promenade Deck, Level 9

A.M.S. KOSTROMA

David Simonov bowed his head politely and smiled to Tina when she entered his jewelry shop, situated on the Main Promenade Deck of the ship.

‘’What may I do for you this evening, Captain?’’

‘’Actually, you are the one who could do something for me…and the rest of the crew.’’ replied Tina before putting on the counter a small box. Opening it, she uncovered three big, rough and uncut orange-yellow diamonds which made David’s eye open wide with admiration.

‘’These must be three of the diamonds that your crewmembers found on Eris, right? They are awesome!’’

‘’They indeed are, Mister Simonov. While the ultimate ownership of the

diamonds we found is still unsure, I decided that at least one Eris diamond could be used to produce something that would properly commemorate this expedition. You are a qualified stone cutter, aren’t you?’’

‘’I certainly am, Captain!’’ replied proudly the jeweler. ‘’I learned my trade with the Diamond Cutters Guild of Amsterdam before opening my shop on your ship. By the way, all those extra passengers you accepted on the KOSTROMA for this expedition did much good to my business, and I must thank you for that.’’

‘’You are welcomed, Mister Simonov. I want you to look closely at those three diamonds and to choose which one would be the best to produce a single, unique large diamond that would serve as a stand-alone souvenir of this expedition.’’

‘’Let me just get my lenses, Captain. It won’t be long.’’ replied the jeweler, emotion nearly overtaking him. Searching under his counter, he quickly produced a set of magnifying lenses and adjusted one over his right eye before grabbing in turn each diamond and examining them carefully, watched quietly by Tina. After maybe four

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minutes, he put one of the three uncut diamonds, which was the size of an orange, in front of Tina.

‘’This one has a minimum of fault lines in it and could be used to produce a truly unique gem, Captain. You do want a one piece, un-mounted diamond, right?’’

‘’Correct! As payment for your work in cutting and polishing that diamond, I will let you keep the diamond parts cut out of it. Would that be satisfactory for you?’’ Simonov nodded his head at once: on such a big rough stone, cutting it properly would result in maybe one third of the material being cut away. Since the stone was so big, the parts cut away would still be more than big enough to produce many nice jewels with them.

‘’That will be more than enough to compensate me for my work, Captain.’’

‘’Excellent! How long will you need to do the work?’’

‘’I wouldn’t dare rush my work on such a beauty, Captain. I also need to man my shop during the day and evening. Maybe a month.’’

‘’A month it will be. Depending on the answer I will get from Callisto Prime about who will own the rest of the diamonds we found on Eris, I may have more diamonds for you to cut in the future, Mister Simonov.’’

‘’I will certainly await with eagerness that answer from Callisto Prime, Captain. Thank you for putting your confidence in me.’’

‘’You deserve it, Mister Simonov. Have a good evening.’’

‘’And a good evening to you as well, Captain.’’

Tina then put back in her box the two diamonds ruled out by Simonov and left the shop, leaving the jeweler with the chosen stone still on his counter. Simonov contemplated the rough stone for a long time, already thinking how he was going to turn it into a masterpiece of visual beauty.

20:33 (Universal Time)

Thursday, December 27, 2317

Shuttle Hangar Number Five

A.M.S. KOSTROMA

Tina warmly hugged Maria Perez as the latter stepped out of the shuttle which had brought her back from the VEON SHOURIA.

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‘’Nice work on the VEON SHOURIA, Maria. So, we can truly cohabitate with the Koorivars without risks of transmitting diseases to each other?’’

‘’We can!’’ answered the medical doctor, grinning. ‘’Their physiology and bio-chemistry is too different from ours. Our microbes and viruses simply wither and die from starvation when put in Koorivar cellular cultures. The same happened to Koorivar organisms left in human cellular cultures. The other good news is that, even though our bio-chemistry is different, many of our vegetal foodstuff can be digested by the Koorivars, while able to providing them their basic nutrients needs. Our various cereals and green vegetables in particular are compatible and are even found to be tasty by the Koorivars, who tried them after we finished analyzing them. I have the list of compatible foodstuffs with me.’’

‘’Excellent! Could you show it to me right away?’’

A bit surprised by Tina’s request, Maria took out her data pad as Tina shouted to the crew of the shuttle, which was coming out of their craft.

‘’HOLD IT THERE, GUYS! YOU WILL HAVE SOME SUPPLIES TO BRING IN A HURRY TO THE VEON SHOURIA.’’

Now understanding what Tina was thinking, Maria smiled to her and showed her a file she had opened on her data pad.

‘’Those are all the foodstuff items found to be compatible and safe for consumption by the Koorivars. I made a separate list of the items which are indigestible or squarely harmful to them. The stars besides each item denote the rating in terms of taste appeal of the item according to the Koorivars.’’

Reviewing quickly Maria’s list, Tina then opened a line on her wrist communicator, calling Carla Forlani, the ship’s head of food production management.

‘’Carla, this is Tina. I know that the hour is late, but I need you to shake your people into action in order to prepare immediately a delivery of foodstuff to the VEON SHOURIA. Be ready to note the following, to be packed and sent at once to Shuttle Hangar Number Five: one ton of wheat grains; one ton of oat grains; two tons of cabbage of various types; half a ton of carrots; half a ton of green peppers; a hundred kilos of peanut butter; a hundred kilos of fresh strawberries and, finally, fifty kilos of cacao beans. Have the lot put in vacuum-resistant containers before bringing it to the shuttle waiting in Hangar Five… Thanks in advance, Carla.’’ When Tina faced again Maria Perez, the doctor was smiling widely in gratitude at her.

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‘’The Koorivars will be ecstatic over that delivery of food, Tina. Their liquid nutrient solution kept them from starving, but they were really in need of some solid food. You will be truly a saving angel for them.’’

‘’Well, others on this ship are calling me rather more nasty names, Maria.’’ said Tina, a bitter smile on her lips. ‘’A group of astronomers and astrophysicists sent yesterday a petition to Callisto Prime by laser beam, asking that I be impeached for me counseling the Koorivars not to give away the design of their anti-matter drive.’’

‘’Screw those idiots!’’ spat Maria at once. ‘’I hope that none of our crew joined that petition.’’

‘’Thankfully, none did. Discord among the crew is the last thing I need right now. Jim Lowell did approach me afterwards to say that he had been asked by those scientists to put his name on the petition, but he refused. He told me that he now understands fully my reasons for counseling the Koorivars against giving the secret of their anti-matter drive.’’

‘’Good for him! Let’s hope that our politicians back home will show as much common sense as Jim.’’

‘’Do you really think they will?’’ asked Tina, doubtful. Maria then made a grimace.

‘’Uh, not really. They are politicians, after all.’’

14:01 (Universal Time)

Friday, December, 2317

Office of the Governor of the Jovian System

Callisto Prime, Callisto (8th moon of Jupiter) Jovian System

Janet Robeson noticed at once the unhappy expression on the face of Zu Lyang Li, the head of the Jovian Association of Astronomers and a person with a lot of influence in the local scientific community. She greeted him on his entrance with a handshake and a smile.

‘’Welcome, Doctor Li! What may I do for you today?’’

‘’I am here to present you a petition signed by the majority of the members of my association, Madam Governor.’’

‘’A petition? Then, let’s sit and discuss it calmly. Would you like some tea?’’

‘’That would be a fine idea, Madam Governor.’’

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As Li took the sofa offered by her, Janet quickly told her secretary to bring a tea service, then sat opposite the astronomer in an easy chair.

‘’So, what is this petition about and what caused it, Doctor Li?’’

‘’It is concerning a flagrant abuse of power on the part of the captain of the KOSTROMA, Fleet Captain Forster, Madam Governor.’’

Janet did a doubletake at those words.

‘’An abuse of power? By Captain Tina Forster? There must be a mistake, Doctor Li: I know Captain Forster well and she is no power-drunk officer.’’

‘’Well, I will let you judge with this, Madam Governor.’’ replied Li, presenting to her a printed message. ‘’This was received by me yesterday and came from a group of astronomers and astrophysicists presently aboard the KOSTROMA, on Eris. I think that their message and petition are self-explanatory.’’

Frowning, Janet took the printed message and started reading it carefully. She tensed on reading the part revealing that the Koorivars possessed an anti-matter drive, something Li noticed.

‘’You can now see why we are taking this matter very seriously, Madam Governor. This anti-matter drive could open to us the stars around our solar system, if we could convince the Koorivars to share its secrets with us in exchange for helping them to resettle. By advising on her own the Koorivars to keep their drive out of our hands, Captain Forster did a major disservice to Humanity and should be held accountable for her irresponsible actions.’’

Her face tightening progressively, Janet read carefully the message from Eris, then the petition brought by Li, as the astronomer got his cup of tea and started taking sips. She finally rose her nose from the documents and gave a cautious look at Li.

‘’While I can understand the point of view of your astronomers, I don’t see here any counterpoint from Captain Forster, nor did I receive any directly from her up to now. Are you expecting me to condemn her without at least hearing her side of this story?’’

‘’And why wait for that, Madam Governor? Her guilt is self-evident. She didn’t even discuss her decision with her own ship’s staff before advising the Koorivars to keep their secrets to themselves.’’

‘’And what about her belief that we could possibly use that technology to produce weapons of mass destruction?’’

‘’That is obviously an exaggerated fear, Madam Governor. Nobody would be foolish enough to use anti-matter bombs inside the Solar System.’’

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Janet gave a jaundiced look to the astronomer, wondering how such an intelligent man could be so blind to the reality of human nature.

‘’Doctor Li, know something that was kept classified for two years now: during the war against Dictator Zembelo, we learned that he had initiated a program to start production of an ancient chemical warfare agent, an agent he wanted to use against our space habitats. That agent, of frightening potency, could have wiped out our space population with only a few thousand liters of it in total, if dispersed via our ventilation systems. That threat was avoided only by us destroying the underground complex where that agent was being produced. That strike by the way also destroyed the city of Lagos, in Africa. Now, if the Southern Federation was ready to poison our space habitats, then to send suicide teams on ramming attacks against two of our space installations, do you really think that it would hesitate to use anti-matter weapons against us if it could put its hands on that technology?’’

Her question seemed to take Li off balance…for a few seconds. The astronomer then insisted on a grim tone.

‘’I am sure that we would be able to protect that technology from getting into the wrong hands, Madam Governor. Just think on the other hand about what we could do with it. We could send automated probes to all the nearest stars around us, probes which would not need to support living crews and which would be able to start reporting data within mere decades. Anti-matter drives would also revolutionize space travel within the Solar System, cutting greatly both travel time and costs. We simply can’t ignore such a fantastic opportunity, Madam Governor.’’

‘’You seem to forget one important factor, Doctor: that technology belongs to the Koorivars, not to us.’’

‘’The Koorivars are without a home, short on supplies and in need of our help. We surely could come to a mutually beneficial arrangement with them concerning that technology.’’

‘’And what if they refuse to give it away? Do we then threaten them with slow starvation? From what I can see about this; your astronomers are the ones who are talking irresponsibly. Yes, anti-matter technology is damn tempting, but I myself, like Captain Forster, can’t deny the dark side of human nature. I am a politician and, as such, I keep seeing that dark side all the time. I am sorry, but I will have to side with Captain Forster on this, Doctor Li.’’

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That left Li voiceless for a moment. His face showing disagreement, he eyed Janet while replying to her.

‘’Then, I am sorry to tell you that your response will force me to make this petition public and…’’

Janet jumped to her feet at once, furious.

‘’ARE YOU MAD? YOU WOULD TELL THE WHOLE SOLAR SYSTEM THAT ANTI-MATTER WEAPONS COULD BE AVAILABLE FOR THE TAKING? THAT

WOULD PAINT EVERY KOORIVAR IN OUR MIDST AS A TARGET TO SECRET AGENTS OF THE SOUTHERN FEDERATION. YOU PUBLISH THAT PETITION AND I WILL HAVE YOU ARRESTED FOR CREATING A MAJOR SECURITY THREAT AGAINST THE SPACERS LEAGUE. I DON’T WANT TO HEAR A SINGLE PUBLIC WORD ABOUT THIS SUBJECT. IF I DO, YOU WILL BE ARRESTED AT ONCE. AND DON’T EVEN THINK ABOUT LEAKING IT ANONYMOUSLY TO THE MEDIAS. I BELIEVE THAT THIS MEETING IS NOW OVER, DOCTOR LI.’’ The astronomer, severely shaken, got up from his sofa and gathered his documents, then walked out without a word. Still furious, Janet thought about the implications of this affair. Unfortunately, since the scientists aboard the KOSTROMA had sent their petition on an open channel, there was a clear possibility that the news about this anti-matter drive was already spreading around. Measures needed to be taken, right now! Walking back to her work desk, she activated her intercom, calling her secretary.

‘’Emma, call the director of the Security Branch and tell him to come and see me at once…’’

16:46 (Universal Time)

Shuttle Hangar Number Five

A.M.S. KOSTROMA

In low Eris orbit

Tina, standing with Maria Perez, Natalia Vasilyeva and Piotr Romanski in one corner of the shuttle hangar, waved happily when Shanandar, wearing a blue coverall decorated with white braid, walked down the ramp of the shuttle, followed by Shoumak and Kazmiriel. None of the Koorivars wore a spacesuit, but all sported specially made sunglasses to shield their eyes from the standard white lighting of the KOSTROMA, which was much more intense than the natural red light that had bathed Shouria.

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Walking to the incoming group of Koorivars, Tina shook hands vigorously with the three of them, finding out then how strong they were for their size. That was however hardly a surprise, since they came from a world with a gravity of 1.3 G.

‘’Welcome aboard the KOSTROMA, my friends. I had been hoping for such a moment for days now. I hope that our lower oxygen content and atmospheric pressure don’t inconvenience you too much.’’

Shanandar replied via the small portable translator unit attached to his belt.

‘’I feel like I would be making a mountain excursion on Shouria, but it is quite manageable, as long as we don’t start running, my friend. On the other hand, your low gravity eases a lot our movements.’’

‘’Excellent! Let me now introduce to you Natalia Vasilyeva, our ship’s hostess, and Piotr Romanski, our financial agent.’’

There was a short exchange of greetings and handshakes before Tina asked the Koorivars a question to clarify a point.

‘’At what intervals do you eat meals and when is your next meal due? Your Shouria calendar has proved totally different from ours, along with the length of your days.’’

‘’In term of your own days, we eat four times in your daily time period and we are due to eat in about two to three of your hours.’’

‘’Then, we will have supper together later on. Do you sometimes eat your vegetables cooked or do you always eat raw produces?’’

‘’Our cuisine includes a lot of what you call ‘salads’, but we also eat cooked and spiced vegetables. We however avoid any animal and fish products, except for milk and cheese.’’

‘’I will pass that to our cooks before supper, then. In the meantime, I would like to give you a quick tour of my ship, if you would like that.’’

‘’We certainly would be delighted to visit your impressive KOSTROMA, my friend.’’

‘’Then, please follow me.’’

The first thing Tina showed to her Koorivar guests was the Power Generation Deck on Level 4, three levels below the Hangar Deck. The sight of the three huge main fusion reactors, each producing up to three gigawatts of power and housed each in

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separate compartments, made Shoumak’s eyes open wide. So did the sight of the Shomberg Mark 7 thermonuclear drive and its four giant plasma exhaust ducts.

‘’Our own main drive may be superior in terms of performance, due to its nature, but the sophistication of your equipment is truly impressive, Captain Foster. It also appears to be impeccably maintained.’’

‘’Thank you, my dear Shoumak. I am in fact very proud of my ship and of my crew.’’

‘’And so should you, Tina.’’ said Shanandar. Too bad that my two children are still in cold sleep: they would have loved to be on this tour.’’

‘’You have your children with you on your ship?’’

‘’Every adult Koorivar on my ship had his young children, if any, put in cold sleep with him. Separating families would have been too cruel.’’ Sensing the sadness in that remark, Tina moved quickly to another subject, going to the next lower deck to visit the laser batteries and flywheel power capacitors used to fire up the thermonuclear reactors or power the combat laser turrets. Kazmiriel shivered on realizing the destructive power of the said laser turrets.

‘’It is reassuring to know that a person as responsible and kind as you control such power to kill, Tina. On Shouria, we have not known war for over a thousand of your years and we had no weapons left.’’

‘’Then, you can’t know how lucky you were in that aspect. War was and still is the scourge of Humanity. Let’s go see now something definitely more to your taste.’’

That turned out to be a visit of a couple of the central spine decks dedicated to plant cultivation. Kazmiriel’s eyes glimmered as he looked at the stacked rows of hydroponic basins full of plants, with robots and computer-controlled arms working around the basins.

‘’And you have 170 such levels which you use to grow food, Captain Forster?’’

‘’Yes, plus eight much larger decks housed in our aft gravity sail section and some fruit tree plantations in our bow gravity sail section, for a total of 445 hectares of cultivation floor surface. Since most of our hydroponics decks stack basins one on top of each other, up to four high, our total productive surface is actually more like 1,300 hectares, more than enough to feed year-long my crew and my passengers and still have plenty of surplus for sale at our various ports of call. I must say that this ship is a pioneer in the concept of cargo ships also being food production centers.’’

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‘’Tina,’’ said with fervor Shanandar, ‘’just for this, your ship would have been truly admired on Shouria. The few ships we had that engaged in space travel and commerce didn’t have any growing facilities onboard.’’

‘’Was your space activity so limited, Shanandar?’’ asked Tina, intensely curious about that subject. ‘’You speak as if you are an exception as a Spacer on your world.’’

‘’I was, actually. There were maybe less than a hundred ships of Space in use in our star system. While very advanced technologically, our industrial base was fairly small, since we were mostly a sedentary, pacifist people whose main interest was in the arts. Very few Koorivar saw the need to travel in Space. In that aspect, you humans are far more experienced at Space travel and living in Space than we were. I have to say that, once my people will be settled and my ship grounded for good, I will personally miss Space travel.’’

Tina contemplated the Koorivar in silence for a few seconds before speaking softly.

‘’Shanandar, you and any Koorivar who would wish to continue traveling through space will always be welcomed to stay on this ship after your people are settled properly. Consider that an open invitation from me as the owner of this ship. You and other Koorivars would also be able to be more than just passengers on the KOSTROMA. Apart from all the specialties I use to crew it, there are resident commercial establishments which provide a number of services and products to my crew and passengers. Those establishments could easily employ some of your people who would have the right talents.’’

The three Koorivars exchanged surprised looks before Shanandar faced Tina again.

‘’Your offer is very generous and tempting, Tina. We will certainly consider it. Could we go visit some of those onboard commercial establishments you just spoke of?’’

‘’We certainly can, Shanandar. In fact, I will make it our next stop.’’

Riding again one of the elevator cabins of the ship’s central axis shaft, the group stepped out in yet another rotunda, with Tina then leading her group down a wide hallway towards the circumference. Along the way, the three Koorivars eyed with intense curiosity the large store windows lining both sides of the hallway. Halfway down the hallway, Kazmiriel stopped to look at a display of female clothes on sale, then eyed the store windows on the opposite site, which featured male clothes.

‘’Your two sexes seem to prefer wearing different styles of clothes. Is there a specific reason for that?’’

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‘’A number of them, actually.’’ answered Tina. ‘’First, there is of course the anatomical differences between men and women. Women’s clothes have to take account of their breasts and of their wider hips. Second, there is tradition: through human history, women’s clothes were designed to differentiate them from the men and to either enhance or hide their body’s appearance, depending on how puritanical or libertine the society of the time was. Third, there is the so-called sex appeal. Men are much more attracted visually to female bodies than the women are by male bodies, thus women’s fashion tend to be designed with that sex appeal in mind.’’ Natalia Vasilyeva giggled at Tina’s last sentence.

‘’Talk for yourself, Tina: I don’t mind eyeing a nice-looking man.’’ The three Koorivars smiled at that exchange, with Kazmiriel speaking up.

‘’Decidedly, this interaction between your two sexes is something I will have to study more carefully. It seems to be truly a prime component of your general behavior.’’

‘’A prime component? My dear Kazmiriel, many human empires and kingdoms fell because of a woman, or rather because of the lust of a man for a specific woman.’’ Piotr Romanski, who had been listening in silence all along, then asked a question to the Koorivar doctor.

‘’And how do you manage interpersonal relations as hermaphrodites, if I may ask?’’

‘’Simple enough: we can be attracted to any other member of our race. However, that attraction is not primarily visual, as we all have the same anatomical attributes. For us, attraction is much more a question of personality and compatibility in tastes and interests.’’

‘’The way a sensible, enduring relationship should be.’’ said approvingly Piotr. ‘’And how do you split the care of your children, when you have one? I am asking that because, traditionally, women are considered to normally be the primary caregivers for young children and babies.’’

‘’Something that is logical, since only your women can give birth and feed milk to your babies. In our society, rules of child rearing are quite simple: the Koorivar who gives birth becomes the primary caregiver, with the child carrying the name of his genitor. Since we are hermaphrodites, this means that both members of a couple or the members of a larger family cell can have children and become primary caregivers for their respective children. Those children, apart from their proper name, also legally add the name of their genitor when signing documents. I, for example, would sign as

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‘Kazmiriel, child of Krivar’. In certain cases, when common names are involved, the name of the genitor to the genitor can be added as well to avoid legal confusions.’’

‘’Hum, that sounds a lot like what was done in our own past. And do you have many children on average?’’

‘’Not that many, Piotr Romanski. We voluntarily kept birth rates low, so as not to overtax the resources of our home world. On average, each Koorivar would produce one child in his whole life. Our population has been stable at around 1.2 billion individuals for centuries…until disaster struck.’’

The three Koorivars fell into mournful silence then, with Tina and her two comrades respecting their grief and not talking until Shanandar looked up again at them.

‘’Well, what is done is done. Let’s continue on this tour. We have so much to learn about you.’’

‘’Then, this way, please. We are about to hit the Main Promenade, the commercial and entertainment center of this ship.’’

Another twenty meters and the group turned left on the Main Promenade, with its three story-high façades and six meter-wide pedestrian track bordered on both sides by plants, flowers and small trees, with a four meter-wide patio ring on the inner side of the pedestrian promenade. The Koorivars, who had lived under the dim red light of their red dwarf star and were accustomed to low levels of light, were nearly overwhelmed by the bright multicolor displays of the shops and establishments lining the Promenade.

‘’Such colors you can enjoy!’’ said Shanandar in an envious tone. ‘’There would have been no equivalent to this on Shouria.’’

He then noticed a bit late that the fair-sized crowd circulating on the Promenade or sitting at tables on terraces and patios was now staring at his group with intense curiosity, with many whispering excited comments between themselves. Tina tried then to put her guests at ease about that.

‘’Please do not worry about the attention you are attracting: it is simple curiosity and does not denote any hostility or suspicion.’’

‘’To be frank, I suppose that you would have attracted the same kind of attention on Shouria, Tina.’’ replied Shanandar. Doing his best to ignore the stares, he kept following Tina’s lazy pace, gazing at the various shop displays along the way. He and the two other Koorivars however quickly had their attention attracted to a couple crossing path with them, pushing a stroller with a baby in it and with two preteen children

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holding hands with their father. The children, even more than their parents, in turn stared at the Koorivars. The little girl of the family, who was maybe four or five years old, then let go her father’s hand and quickly trotted to Shanandar to examine him from closer up. There was no fear on her face, only pure curiosity, as her big blue eyes looked up at him. Shanandar smiled and crouched down the way only a Koorivar could, his posterior resting on the floor and his legs bent under him. He then slowly offered one hand to the girl, who touched it after a short hesitation. As the girl’s father came forward to get back his child, Shanandar spoke softly in Koorivar at the girl, his words then translated by his portable translation unit.

‘’Hello, little one! My name is Shanandar. What is your name?’’

‘’Melissa.’’ answered the girl in her small voice. ‘’What are you?’’

‘’I am a Koorivar. My people have come from far away, from another star system.’’

The father of the little girl then got to them and took his daughter’s hand while giving an apologetic look to Shanandar and Tina.

‘’Please excuse Melissa if she bothered you.’’

‘’It was actually a pleasure to meet her, mister.’’ replied Shanandar, getting up from his crouched position. ‘’She is a very beautiful child.’’

‘’Thank you…mister.’’

As the man took his daughter back to the rest of their family, Shanandar smiled to Tina.

‘’When I said that she was beautiful, I meant it, Tina. Even on Shouria, her round, soft facial features and blue eyes would have inspired many of our artists. I suppose that children everywhere can be said to be cute.’’

‘’This actually makes me even more curious to see a Koorivar child, Shanandar. Well, let’s continue this tour, if you don’t mind.’’

Continuing to follow the loop formed by the Main Promenade, the group went by a number of various shops before arriving at the northeast quadrant of the promenade, with its multiple restaurants serving various styles of cuisine. Natalia Vasilyeva smiled in understanding when she saw the three Koorivars hesitate and shiver while passing by the TEXAN GRILL, where pieces of meat were being grilled under the hungry eyes of waiting customers.

‘’I suppose that being herbivores gives you a wholly different view of life compared to that of omnivores like us, Captain Shanandar.’’

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‘’It certainly does, Miss Vasilyeva. Do all of your people eat meat or fish?’’

‘’Not all! A small minority follows by choice a vegetarian-only diet.’’

‘’And what are the reasons for them to follow such a diet?’’

‘’Some do it because they believe it is better for their health, while others do it because they believe that raising and butchering animals to eat them is cruel. The truth is that our species has been surviving at least partly on meat and fish for millions of years by now. Widespread organized agriculture has existed for only about ten or eleven thousand years on Earth; while hunting and fishing has been practiced for times immemorial. What about on Shouria?’’

‘’In our primitive times, we Koorivars were foragers and herbivores, roaming the plains and forests of Shouria and living simple, peaceful lives. As the level of knowledge of our race and our science progressed, we switched progressively to organized agriculture, so that most of our planet could stay pristine and to avoid stripping bare the vegetation as our population grew. We also instituted measures to limit our population growth, lest we overcrowded our world.’’

‘’Sensible policies, I must say,’’ cut in Piotr Romanski, ‘’and that we could have learned from. Did you have any carnivorous species on Shouria, Captain?’’ Shanandar appeared to gaze through his souvenirs for a moment before answering Piotr, nodding his head.

‘’We did have a few carnivorous species on our world, but we were forced to relocate them all on a separate continent, in order to ensure the safety of our population. At the time of the disaster that destroyed Shouria, those carnivorous species were nearly extinct, due to the fact that they had basically eaten all the other animal species on their continent of exile.’’

‘’Well,’’ said Tina while continuing to lead the group, ‘’you may find plenty of food here on the Main Promenade that should be to your taste, my dear Shanandar. Did you eat pastas on Shouria?’’

This time it was Kazmiriel, the doctor, who answered.

‘’To be frank, no! We however analyzed the samples of pastas you sent us, even tasting them, and were agreeably surprised: they are made from vegetal grains that we can eat and digest, but the way you prepare and cook them is totally new to us.’’

‘’Then, I may have the perfect place to invite you for supper, my friends. We are about to arrive at a Japanese noodle and sushi shop. While it does serve some fish, seafood and meat dishes, you will find plenty on its menu that you can eat…and

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hopefully like. Aah, here we are: the TOKYO NOODLE SHOP. Please follow me all: supper is on me.’’

Letting the others sit at a table, with the other customers and the cooks eyeing the Koorivars none too discreetly, Tina went to the service counter to speak with the head cook and owner, who saluted her with a bow of the head.

‘’What may I get you and your friends, Captain?’’

‘’Uh, I would have some special requests for you, Mister Sato. My alien guests are purely vegetarian and can’t eat meat, fish or seafood. Could you prepare a variety of plates of noodles, rice and cooked vegetables, using only vegetal oil but with no butter or fish sauce. Make it as wide a variety as you can within those limits and don’t skimp on the quantity: the bill is on me.’’

Jiro Sato glanced at the Koorivars, then smiled to Tina.

‘’I will make sure that your new friends will want to come back here in the future, Captain.’’

‘’Thank you, Mister Sato.’’

Tina then returned to the table, sitting facing Shanandar. The latter, watching a customer pay for his meal at the service counter, gave Tina a questioning look.

‘’Your society seems to make its members pay for products and services, like ours. I hadn’t had time to really think about that up to now, but how will my people contribute to your society, in order to earn its living?’’

‘’Hmm, a good question indeed, Shanandar. I will let my commercial agent and financial officer answer that. Piotr?’’

Piotr Romanski, a jovial-looking man with a balding head, a short, carefully trimmed beard and a bit of a pot belly, thought over his answer for a few seconds before speaking slowly, deliberately.

‘’In truth, this question may soon enough become a lot more relevant than many could think. Our politicians back home will be the ones who will decide where you can be settled and with what kind of support and assistance. Unfortunately, our history is full of tales of refugees, sometimes whole ethnic groups, chased from their homes by wars or natural catastrophes, only to end up rotting for years or even decades in squalid refugee camps which provided them with only bare subsistence means, while the rest of the planet either forgot about them or stopped caring for them. While I believe that, as the first alien intelligent race we ever encountered, your people will be better treated

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than most of those past unfortunate refugees, the question of your future contribution should be carefully studied right away. You said that most of your people were either farmers or artists, right?’’

‘’That was true of our society at large, ‘’answered Shanandar, ‘’but the people selected for cold sleep on our ship and on the two other ships meant to preserve our race include a much larger proportion than normal of scientists, engineers and technicians. That was done because we expected to have to rebuild our civilization once we had found a new, habitable home.’’

‘’May I ask what made your people choose our star system as the planned destination of your ship, Captain?’’ cut in Natalia Vasilyeva. Shanandar lowered his head at that, answering while looking at nothing in particular as sadness washed over him.

‘’You may, miss. The wandering brown dwarf which destroyed our world was very difficult to detect from afar, thus was detected only a few years before the destruction of Shouria. We had to decide very quickly what to do, including where to head to with our ships. At the time, our astronomers had charted dozens of star systems with planets that could sustain life around our own system. One of those systems was your Solar System. However, we had no inkling that your Earth harbored intelligent life, that is until only a few of your months before the destruction of Shouria. That was when our astronomers finally detected faint but unmistakable radio and video signals from your system. That was what decided us to head for your Solar System.’’

‘’And what year did you detect those radio signals?’’ asked Tina, suddenly excited. In response, Shanandar took out of a pocket of his coverall a small, flat box and looked at the viewing screen on it while punching buttons. After maybe fifteen seconds, he looked up from his data pad.

‘’Our astronomers first detected those radio and video signals in your year 1958. With a distance of 22 light years between our two star systems, this would mean that those signals, which were badly distorted and garbled, were emitted from your Earth in your year 1936.’’

Tina, Natalia and Piotr took out their own data pads nearly simultaneously to search historical data concerning the year 1936. Piotr Romanski was the first to speak up.

‘’The Berlin Olympic Games of 1936 in Germany featured the first attempts at broadcasting a powerful television signal across the planet. What an irony!’’

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‘’What is so special about that event, Mister Romanski?’’ asked Kazmiriel. Piotr gave him a somber look.

‘’Well, what attracted your ship to us was part of the propaganda spread at the time by a dictator who would later become known as the instigator of some of the worst mass murders and atrocities ever committed in Human history. His name was Adolph Hitler and he started a world war that eventually cost a total of 55 million dead.’’ The Koorivars looked at him with their mouths open, unable to imagine the extent of such a tragedy. Realizing how shocked they now were, Piotr pocketed back his data pad and gave them a dismissive smile.

‘’Well, that was a very long time ago. Let’s forget that and concentrate back on the business of what your people could contribute…’’

Thankfully, that awful historical event was soon nearly forgotten, with Piotr and the Koorivars discussing how the latter could adapt to life among Humanity and pay their way into the human society. Four minutes later, a waiter started bringing a collection of dishes to their table, smiling and bowing while presenting the dishes to the Koorivar.

‘’Here you are, gentlemen! You have here a tossed salad, steamed white rice, vegetarian fried rice, noodles with green onions, soya sprouts in teriyaki sauce, vegetable egg rolls, noodles with bamboo shoots and mixed fried teriyaki vegetables.’’

‘’Thank you, sir!’’ replied Tina with a smile before lining up the various dishes in front of the three Koorivars, who couldn’t help sniff them with hungry looks.

‘’Have the honors of the first picks, my friends. Try a bit of everything first, then decide what you like the most. If you want more of a specific dish, then just tell me.’’ Being most unfamiliar with the noodle dishes, the Koorivars tried them first, chewing and swallowing cautiously at first. Their eyes widened with delight nearly at once and they then spooned more noodles in their plates before also eating a bit of everything else. Tina was not surprised to see that the tossed salad was also very appreciated: it was after all the closest to normal food for an herbivore. The Koorivars ended up seemingly liking all of the dishes, with maybe the steamed white rice the least favorite, while washing the lot down with hot green tea and cold water. At the end of it, Shanandar sat back while patting his belly with contentment.

‘’That was a most enjoyable culinary experience, Tina. So, what is next now?’’

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‘’Dessert, of course!’’ she replied with a grin. ‘’You must try Mister Sato’s fried bananas. After, once we are out of this restaurant, I will show you something that will probably help give you some renewed feeling of home.’’

20:27 (Universal Time)

Temperate lowland forest ecosystem, Quadrant ‘B’ Bow Gravity Sail Deck, Level 16

Overwhelmed by emotion, Shanandar slowly crouched down on the stones paving the trail crossing the middle of the forest planted in Quadrant ‘B’. Both Kazmiriel and Shoumak were at least as stunned as him as they looked around at the trees, bushes and tall grass surrounding them. Tina thought for a moment that she saw tears in the Koorivar captain’s eyes.

‘’This…this is so beautiful, so…magnificent! I never imagined that a ship of space could contain such a forest.’’

‘’Actually, Shanandar, there are four separate, compartmented forests on this deck.’’ said softly Tina, herself moved by the Koorivars’ reactions. ‘’Come: we will tour them together.’’

08:14 (Universal Time)

Friday, January 4, 2318

Purser’s offices, Human Services Deck (Level 16) A.M.S. KOSTROMA, in low Eris orbit

Piotr Romanski had just opened his computer to check for any incoming message, either from inside the ship or from Callisto Prime. His eyes immediately caught on a message that had arrived from Callisto Prime during the night. The message’s priority was as a simple ‘routine’ one, which was why he had not been awakened on receipt by the communications section of the KOSTROMA. However, the message heading immediately raised his interest and he opened it at once.

‘’Subject: Ownership of Eris diamonds… Hum…’’

Reading quickly the message once, he then reread it carefully, taking out his pocket calculator to crunch a few numbers. He smiled to himself once he had finished his

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calculations: someone on Callisto Prime had actually paid attention to the ‘suggestions’ he had included in his Christmas message to the Spacers League administration asking about the legal ownership of the diamonds found on Eris, which by now represented a sizeable fortune. The return message also gave a nominal value per carat for those diamonds, based on their quality, color and quantity compared to what was available on the diamond market. Switching to internal call mode, Piotr called Tina Forster, who answered after a single buzz. Tina seemed to be in good humor this morning, despite the growing bad blood between her and many of the scientists traveling on the KOSTROMA.

‘’Good morning, Piotr! What can I do for you this morning?’’

‘’Good morning to you too, Tina. I actually got some good news from Callisto Prime in my morning mail: the Spacers League administration finally got around to decide on the ownership of the diamonds we found on Eris.’’

‘’At last! And?…’’

‘’And we get to keep a nice bonus out of them. Even with an arbitrary value equivalent to the cost of industrially produced diamonds of the same quality, what we found up to now on Eris is more than enough to repay the costs of this expedition. Since we are still finding more diamonds as we do our prospection of Eris, Callisto Prime gave a cutoff date for estimating the value of the diamonds to what we had found by December 25, then subtracted the total costs for this expedition, including the construction cost of Eris Station and its manning for the first year. Any diamonds found after December 25 will go to fund the treasury of the Spacers League and to pay for subsequent resupply trips to Eris. Once all that is taken out, it leaves a special bonus of 10,000 credits per ship crewmember, construction crew worker, Eris Station crewmember and embarked scientist supporting the mission. On top of that, you get an additional bonus of four million credits reserved for any future refit or shipyard maintenance work on the KOSTROMA.’’

A grin appeared at once on Tina’s face on hearing those words.

‘’Hell, those are very good news, Piotr! This should do wonders for the morale of the crew.’’

Her grin then faded away as she thought about something.

‘’Uh, that message, did it mention any decision taken about the Koorivars and their settlement in the Solar System?’’

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‘’Unfortunately, no! You haven’t received a response yet about that from Callisto Prime?’’

‘’I am still waiting for one. This is truly killing me: over 22,000 Koorivars may have escaped the destruction of their home planet only to possibly end up as destitute refugees. Even if someone gives them a decent piece of land on Earth or space in one of our space cities, their adaptation and integration will be long and costly. I hope that someone on Callisto Prime is considering that problem right now.’’

‘’And…that dispute about the anti-matter technology of the Koorivars?’’ asked cautiously Piotr. ‘’Has it been ironed out?’’

‘’Not here on this ship, at the least. Callisto Prime has been completely silent about that subject up to now. I suspect that there could be some nasty political backroom dealings concerning that technology. I however still firmly believe that it is way too dangerous to be put in human hands right now.’’

‘’I also believe the same, Tina. Let us hope that commons sense will prevail on that subject.’’

‘’I hope so too, Piotr. However, we can only hope for the moment, no more. Well, thank you for the good news about the Eris diamonds. Inform me once the final financial arrangements are done about the crediting of those bonuses.’’

‘’Will do, Tina.’’ said Piotr before cutting the link. He then sat back, preoccupied: he had little confidence that all the leaders of the Spacers League would be able to decide on a unanimous policy concerning the Koorivar anti-matter technology. Too much potential power was at stake there.

10:29 (Universal Time)

Monday, January 7, 2318

Head offices of the Sverdlovsk Group

Vostok City, Hygiea, Main Asteroid Belt

Nadia Suslov, sitting behind her large work desk, looked critically at Lieutenant Colonel Anton Jelavic as the big man entered her office, let in by Nadia’s secretary. Jelavic was the head of the Fourth Department of the Hygiean Security Forces, which was in charge of covert actions, espionage and counter-espionage. In his three years as head of the Fourth Department, he had proved to be discreet, efficient and ruthless,

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qualities which Nadia would particularly need right now. She showed him an easy chair set to one side in front of her desk, keeping a neutral expression all the while.

‘’Please, have a seat, Colonel.’’

Jelavic, his own face inscrutable, sat down and waited for Nadia to speak further.

‘’Colonel, I will need the services of your department for a most delicate and important mission, a mission that could give us a new tool of immense power and that would push us at the forefront of the Spacers League. You must have heard about the alien ship found on Eris by the KOSTROMA?’’

‘’Who has not, Misses Suslov.’’ said Jelavic in his bass voice. ‘’From a few things that I have heard recently through the grapevine, that ship seems to have created quite a few controversies across the Spacers League and on Earth. Resettling those aliens is one of those controversies, while the question of financing their resettlement is another. There is also the question of their ship’s propulsion system. Despite all the efforts of Governor Robeson on Callisto to keep that secret, the fact that those aliens use anti-matter is now fueling some pretty heated discussions among the scientific community across the Solar System.’’

Nadia smiled at those words.

‘’I see that you keep yourself well informed, Colonel, as you should. That alien anti-matter technology is precisely what is interesting me right now. What do you know already about that, uh, particular controversy?’’

‘’That most of the astronomers and astrophysicists in the Solar System now want the captain of the KOSTROMA to be skinned alive for counseling to those aliens on Eris to refuse to give away their anti-matter technology to us. To be fair to Captain Forster, I can understand her concerns, to a point: the idea of the African Federation getting hold of that technology is a truly frightening one.’’

‘’True! It will thus be up to you to ensure that only the right persons acquire that technology. Do you understand me, Colonel?’’

‘’I do, Misses Suslov.’’ replied Jelavic, a mean smile appearing on his face. ‘’What are the limits to what my agents can do to acquire this technology?’’

‘’No limits, Colonel!’’ answered at once Nadia. ‘’The only thing that I ask of your agents is to be discreet and to not get caught. I want to be able to deny any involvement from our group if something goes wrong. One last thing: you know Major Michel Koniev, presently posted at the ZERO-G HEAVEN space brothel?’’

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‘’Yes, I do! A very capable officer, who also happens to be in very good terms with Captain Forster. I suppose that you want him to be kept well away from this operation?’’

‘’Correct, Colonel! However, don’t take any prejudicial action against him because of that, unless of course he directly impedes your operation. I still believe him to be a loyal officer.’’

‘’He will be kept in the dark, Misses Suslov. Anything else?’’

‘’One last thing. Discretion is more important than speed in this case. If we are to acquire that technology, then I want the rest of the Spacers League to learn of it only once we have mastered it and applied it to our ships. It will then be too late for them to do much about it.’’

‘’You can count on my department, Misses Suslov.’’

‘’Then you are dismissed, Colonel. Good luck in your operation.’’

‘’Thank you, Misses Suslov.’’

Jelavic then got up from his chair and saluted her before pivoting around and leaving the big, luxurious office. Nadia sat back in her chair, thoughtful: what she had just initiated could make her the most powerful person in the Solar System…or result in her abrupt downfall. However, anything worthy of acquiring meant taking some risks for it. Empires had not been built in the past by simply sitting around and hoping for the best.