Méridien (The Silver Ships Book 3) (42 page)

“Minister Tinto, do you have a suggestion?” Alex prompted.

“I do not mean to be presumptuous, Ser President,” Leo replied, “but I was reminded of the words my mother taught me of her forefathers’ Terran language. Originally my people were from an area on Earth called ‘Basque Country.’ Their word for ‘hope’ was ‘espero.’”

“Espero,” Alex said. “I like it. Are there any objections or any other thoughts?”

Hearing none, Alex pronounced their new city named. He took the opportunity to excuse himself for a moment, ostensibly to use the refresher. When Alex returned, he waited outside, leaning against a bulkhead. More than one Haraken who passed Alex and Étienne wondered at their President resting in the corridor. The people had become quite used to Alex’s frenetic pace. Several even queried Z, who seeing no other reason himself why Alex, with arms crossed, would spend time leaning against a bulkhead, would reply,

“Take a peek, Étienne,” Alex requested, nodding at the plex-shield window set in the conference room door. “Tell me what you see.”

Étienne crossed the corridor and joined a group of passing Harakens to blend in as he passed the doorway. His technique was surreptitious, and Alex had to refrain from laughing. After Étienne returned past the door again, trailing another group of people, he reported, “Admiral Tachenko and the Ministers appear to be quite engaged. The holo-vid is ever changing, and they are earnest in their communication.”

“Excellent,” Alex said. “We can go.”

In the
Unsere Menschen
conference room, Tatia and the Ministers had just begun their work. The concept of delivering ice asteroids to Haraken to accelerate the planet’s rainfall and oxygen levels had energized their imaginations.

It would be three days before the Ministers would separate. In the meantime, they requested meals in the room, ordered various engineers, techs, and specialists to attend them in their sessions, and employed the SADEs around the chronometer.

Julien became the SADEs’ central manager. In order to meet the enormous number and complexity of the Ministers’ requests and support the engineering efforts to develop the travelers, Julien began distributing the Ministers’ queries among the flotilla’s SADEs.

To organize the information and responses, Z ordered the build-out of a secondary database to relieve any one SADE from managing the load. Julien designed an ultra-fast controller to manage the queries and storage, and Z ordered it installed next to him on the bridge. Enormous memory-crystals were added to store the databases. What fascinated Z was the expedient implementation of his request. Not a single objection was raised, not even a question.
Next I walk, I run … I fly
, Z thought.

The tasks the Ministers envisioned themselves accomplishing became less and less gargantuan as information came to light. The SADEs knew the flotilla’s inventory. The Librans had been prepared to start an underground city on their original target planet. The bays of the
Freedom
and
Unsere Menschen
held mining equipment, ore haulers, repair vehicles, cargo carriers, and crates upon crates of tools, small equipment, power- and memory-crystals, and thousands more stored items. Espero, a city located above ground, would prove much easier to build.

From the
Unsere Menschen
’s bridge, Eric watched the
Freedom
and the
Rêveur
exit the Hellébore system. He was proud of his efforts. The President had handed him what had seemed a daunting task, and he had managed to complete his tasks before Chief Brandon had completed his efforts.

Under Eric’s guidance, engineers had stripped the seats from the
Outward Bound
and installed a bladder system. A temporary runway had been laid west of Espero’s future city center, near the cliffs, and seawater had been pumped into the shuttle’s bladder. Afterward, the shuttle delivered its load to the
Freedom
to fill Mickey’s pool.

To complete his second task, Eric had visited the spectacular cliffs that fell over fifty meters to beaches of fine black and white crystal. He needed 500 kilos of fresh, live seafood. Exhibiting one of his newfound talents, Eric had begun his quest with Z. Eric had sent, transmitting his signal via the shuttle’s comm as he stared at the far horizon across the ocean’s waves.

Z had responded.

Eric had asked.

Z had to admit that the question ranked as one of the more unique queries he had received, but he was determined not to fail Eric Stroheim for personal reasons. Z had found the answer in the pioneers’ bio-IDs. Several of them had enjoyed fishing the rivers and oceans of New Terra for sport, releasing their catch after landing it. When the pioneers had heard the request, they had helped engineers fashion seine nets to cast from the beach. The ocean waters were extremely fecund with hundreds of species of small fish and crustaceans, which inhabited the vegetation-dense shallow waters. It had taken four New Terrans just an hour of casting their nets to deliver the amount of catch Ambassador Stroheim had requested.

Standing at the cliff’s edge, Eric had watched the crewmen haul the catch to the cliff tops in barrels designed to support them until the Swei Swee “test tasted” them. The thought had made Eric’s stomach queasy. Watching the crew work, the cool ocean breeze on his face, Eric had surveyed the coastal ridge, pleased with the solution the Assembly had reached to one of their more ticklish challenges.

Tomas, who often chaired the Assembly meetings and prioritized their agenda, had led the discussion. The President had asked for a small piece of land at the cliff’s edge for him and Renée. He had requested a location that allowed him to oversee the site he hoped the Swei Swee might accept. Tomas and Eric had translated the word “oversee” as “protect.”

The Assembly had agonized over their response. Land ownership was a new concept to the Méridiens, and the New Terrans understood only the concept of land purchase. Neither group was prepared to devise a plan to allocate land to Haraken’s settlers, so the Representatives consulted the SADEs for ideas. The final decision was to allocate one square kilometer to each Haraken colonist. They could trade or sell their land if they chose to make other arrangements.

However, the Assembly still had the quandary of the President’s request for a small slice of land, two kilometers along the cliffs and extending a few hundred meters inland. The Méridiens on the Assembly had thought in terms of their egalitarian society, an equal portion for each citizen. That had been until Eric shared with Tomas, who in turn shared with the Assembly, the privileges that had been allocated to the House Leaders. It had taken several moments before order was restored. The New Terrans had sat back and watched their Méridien colleagues fume and argue.

Both Katie Racine and Pia Sabine struggled to keep their thoughts to themselves. If each had voiced her opinion, a swath of land would have been cut from the seacoast to gift the ex-Co-Leaders. But both knew their opinions would be considered favoritism, so they remained silent.

Captain Azasdau offered a solution to the dilemma. “Consider this, Sers,” he began, “that we are not participating in a privileged allocation. Julien has shared with me a concept that New Terrans have employed. They often rewarded a citizen who made significant contributions to their people without expecting personal gain in credits or assets. Consider that our new bank will be started with our President’s New Terran credits, which are at risk for their value. In addition, Ser de Guirnon has lost access to her House’s financial power. Furthermore, neither of them has gained credits or assets in return for all they have accomplished for us. Does this not qualify as individuals who deserve our largesse?”

Tomas had curtailed his desire to roll his eyes when the Assembly considered awarding a quarter of the western plain to Alex and Renée. It wasn’t that Tomas had disagreed with their sentiments, but he felt he had come to understand their young leaders to a certain extent. He believed Alex and Renée wouldn’t have accepted the Assembly’s generosity.

Tomas had sent,

As Julien was the President’s close friend, the Representatives had been willing to hear the SADE’s thoughts. Julien studied the seacoast and noted that Alex’s primary concern involved protecting the Swei Swee’s proposed habitat. That the cliff top would be Alex’s residence was a secondary consideration. Julien outlined an image of the seacoast on the Assembly’s holo-vid and included the temporary shuttle runway in his outline. The cliffs extended for thirteen kilometers in a flattened C-shape, whose tips pointed toward the ocean. The Assembly accepted Julien’s logic and carved a section of seacoast, thirteen kilometers long and five kilometers deep, for Haraken’s President and First Lady.

The
Freedom
and the
Rêveur
settled into orbit over Libre. Aboard the
Freedom
, techs loaded a barrel of fresh seawater with a small specimen sample onto a shuttle. That shuttle and one from the
Rêveur
flew to the Swei Swee’s landing point on the cliff tops overlooking the Clarion Seas.

When Alex had donned his belt harness to communicate with the Swei Swee, he had accessed the translation program and had been surprised to discover the program’s vocabulary and syntax database had multiplied considerably in size.

Alex had sent, appending the data size of the translation program.

Julien had replied,

Alex had sent.

Julien had replied.

Julien’s formal tone reminded Alex of a conversation he had been meaning to have with his friend. Alex had requested.

Julien had replied.

Alex had repeated.

Julien had halted key operations in mid-process and had reviewed the question. The answer had readily occurred to him, and he had replied,

Alex had replied.

Julien’s thought as Alex had closed the comm was that he had obtained a clearer and brighter focus, much to his pleasure.

Word of the Star Hunters’ return, announced by Julien over the Swei Swee telemetry station, had caused excitement among several hives. They had assembled on the cliff top to await the vessels’ arrival, the three Hive leaders standing foremost in the enclave.

Alex’s shuttle landed first, and he and his people set foot on Libre once again. The cliff top was warmed by the enormous red sun of Arnos. The smell of grass and sea were swept toward the group by a clean wind. Alex stopped and took a deep breath. When the second shuttle landed behind them, the crew floated two barrels down the gangway ramp on grav-lifts.

As Alex hiked toward the Swei Swee, he passed the hulks of the dark travelers, stripped of their shells. The metal looked as pristine as the day the Swei Swee had first exposed them. When they neared the cliff top, the Swei Swee poured toward them, scuttling with their alarming speed and snapping their huge claws in excitement. The flotilla’s Hive First, recognizable by the markings on his carapace, focused on Alex, lifting his claws in greeting. Alex returned the gesture, placing his hands in claw fashion above the Hive First’s. The other two leaders were waiting, bobbing slowly up and down in anticipation, and Alex greeted both of them.

On the trip planetside, Alex had accessed the Swei Swee database, stringing together phrases he would require. When Alex sent his first phrase to his harness, the whistling tones of the Swei Swee emerged, requesting their Hive First “drink some endless waters from the Star Hunters’ world.” The Hive leaders let out shrill whistles that the entire company of Swei Swee echoed. The raucous response was earsplitting.

Tatia remarked privately.

Alex led the Swei Swee toward the unloaded barrels. Although the humans were familiar with the Swei Swee’s habits, the way in which the aliens amiably intermixed, snapping their claws in anticipation, inevitably was disconcerting and required re-acclimation.

Two small Swei Swee younglings had recently hatched and rode atop a huge, scarred matron, her scraped and grooved carapace an indication of the amount of time she had spent tunneling for the Nua’ll. The sharp claw tips of a little male reached out and pinched Renée on the thigh, and she let out a yelp, jumping to Alex’s side. The matron let loose a shrill whistle that ended in a twitter.

As Renée rubbed her painful thigh, she asked Alex, “What did the female say?”

“She was remanding the youngling, Ser,” Alex replied. “She said, ‘Not food.’”

Humans and Swei Swee crowded around the first barrel. A large matron pushed forward and upended a Méridien crew member, who sat down heavily in the middle of her back. The female’s rapid bobbing forced the crewman to take several moments to descend from the back of the Swei Swee, who had been whistling a few notes over and over.

The embarrassed crew member turned to Alex and apologized profusely, asking, “Was the female angry with me, Ser President?”

“On the contrary, Ser,” Alex replied, “it seems she was making a joke. She was uttering ‘youngling’ over and over again as she bounced you up and down.”