enough,
I ’ ll try Frence in the
biodome. He ’ s a little young
but a cutie. She glanced slyly at Elana. “ What about you and Sam. Your baby
maker still working? ”
“This is a very different
set of sentiments than I ’ ve
heard you express before.” Elana
countered.
Muuk laughed. “ I ’ ve been editing and re-editing the same lines of code for
more than a decade. A change of pace will do me good. Breeding a
new race on an alien world is a great change of
pace. ”
The Ceremony
There
wasn ’ t too much to see but
the whole crew seemed to want to make something of it. Wei from
systems, Van Weer an engineer, and the pilot Gibson, were standing
by on top of the hab module with a cutting torch and a remote
control, waiting for instructions to set it loose. The science bay
was already gone and there was less than forty-eight hours of work
left on the shielding before they would be ready to
land.
The Ceremony, as everyone
was calling it, was the last significant event before the descent.
The atomic was ready, the hull re-enforced, and a thousand other
small details attended too. Most of the crew were gathered on the
port side of the ring that ran the full circle around the ship.
They would only be able to see the last cut on monitors but they
would be able to see the module as it disappeared into the thick
soup around the ship. The whole process would have been invisible
but they ’ d set up a vibration
in the shields that was holding the cloud back a few hundred
meters. It cost them in terms of heat in the shield generators but
the math said they ’ d be
leaving at least ten days before the first possibility of an
overheat.
Sam and Elana stood side
by side gazing out the window. For once, Sam
wasn ’ t needed for anything in
particular. It was almost over. The buzz that had run through the
ship for eight weeks was quieting down. One by one, tasks were
being finished. There were no more parts to be salvaged from
science or hab, no more code to write, no more items to be
cataloged. The few crews still working on the shielding were busy and there was some
last minute work going on in the biodome ,but more people were
spending more and more time talking with friends or touring the
ship half looking for work, half taking a final look
around.
Some of
Tallen ’ s men had shown up
though not Tallen himself. They had taken to wearing the same blue
security uniforms regardless of their actual job title. Rumor was,
they were planning to wait until after the landing before moving to
‘remove’ the increasingly reclusive Pilton. He was there too
dressed in his white dress uniform and speaking formally to anyone
who would speak to him as if it were a banquet or formal event.
Mostly he was ignored.
A buzz went around that everything was
ready and the ring fell silent. Pilton, who was wearing a
microphone, began to speak and his words echoed around the ship.
Someone booed when they heard it.
“There is no effort more
noble that exploration. If humans have survived this long, they
have done so because of their unending quest to find homes for
themselves where there is no home, to find safe passage to peace
and prosperity in lands beyond the
horizon …”
Behind his voice, the
radio was chattering with the instructions to release the last
lines. Van Weer was given the instruction to make the final cut and
Gibson powered on the ion engines. Like the science bay, the hab
module had only been given enough pads to push it out of the
Duster ’ s way. It, like the
science bay, would stay eternally in orbit, a part of the tiny moon
that they had accidentally created.
“… Not every ship returns
home. Not every journey ends in glory but, as we commit our beloved
habitation module to her long slumber in space, we know that she is
giving herself so that the human journey may go
on …”
On the screens, the plasma torch
flashed blue as the last beam cut through. Slowly, the hab module
began sliding to the port and down,
I ’ ll try Frence in the
biodome. He ’ s a little young
but a cutie. She glanced slyly at Elana. “ What about you and Sam. Your baby
maker still working? ”
“This is a very different
set of sentiments than I ’ ve
heard you express before.” Elana
countered.
Muuk laughed. “ I ’ ve been editing and re-editing the same lines of code for
more than a decade. A change of pace will do me good. Breeding a
new race on an alien world is a great change of
pace. ”
The Ceremony
There
wasn ’ t too much to see but
the whole crew seemed to want to make something of it. Wei from
systems, Van Weer an engineer, and the pilot Gibson, were standing
by on top of the hab module with a cutting torch and a remote
control, waiting for instructions to set it loose. The science bay
was already gone and there was less than forty-eight hours of work
left on the shielding before they would be ready to
land.
The Ceremony, as everyone
was calling it, was the last significant event before the descent.
The atomic was ready, the hull re-enforced, and a thousand other
small details attended too. Most of the crew were gathered on the
port side of the ring that ran the full circle around the ship.
They would only be able to see the last cut on monitors but they
would be able to see the module as it disappeared into the thick
soup around the ship. The whole process would have been invisible
but they ’ d set up a vibration
in the shields that was holding the cloud back a few hundred
meters. It cost them in terms of heat in the shield generators but
the math said they ’ d be
leaving at least ten days before the first possibility of an
overheat.
Sam and Elana stood side
by side gazing out the window. For once, Sam
wasn ’ t needed for anything in
particular. It was almost over. The buzz that had run through the
ship for eight weeks was quieting down. One by one, tasks were
being finished. There were no more parts to be salvaged from
science or hab, no more code to write, no more items to be
cataloged. The few crews still working on the shielding were busy and there was some
last minute work going on in the biodome ,but more people were
spending more and more time talking with friends or touring the
ship half looking for work, half taking a final look
around.
Some of
Tallen ’ s men had shown up
though not Tallen himself. They had taken to wearing the same blue
security uniforms regardless of their actual job title. Rumor was,
they were planning to wait until after the landing before moving to
‘remove’ the increasingly reclusive Pilton. He was there too
dressed in his white dress uniform and speaking formally to anyone
who would speak to him as if it were a banquet or formal event.
Mostly he was ignored.
A buzz went around that everything was
ready and the ring fell silent. Pilton, who was wearing a
microphone, began to speak and his words echoed around the ship.
Someone booed when they heard it.
“There is no effort more
noble that exploration. If humans have survived this long, they
have done so because of their unending quest to find homes for
themselves where there is no home, to find safe passage to peace
and prosperity in lands beyond the
horizon …”
Behind his voice, the
radio was chattering with the instructions to release the last
lines. Van Weer was given the instruction to make the final cut and
Gibson powered on the ion engines. Like the science bay, the hab
module had only been given enough pads to push it out of the
Duster ’ s way. It, like the
science bay, would stay eternally in orbit, a part of the tiny moon
that they had accidentally created.
“… Not every ship returns
home. Not every journey ends in glory but, as we commit our beloved
habitation module to her long slumber in space, we know that she is
giving herself so that the human journey may go
on …”
On the screens, the plasma torch
flashed blue as the last beam cut through. Slowly, the hab module
began sliding to the port and down,
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