Post by Lorpius Prime on Dec 13, 2010 23:44:55 GMT -5
Task Force One had only two days to go along its 67-day journey. Actually, the trip was going to conclude a few hours earlier than calculated, due to the realities of final approach maneuvers. All 22 ships had stopped their smooth program of continuous deceleration a day ago. Now they were maneuvering and accelerating in short but forceful bursts every few hours under the direction of Human and Tadpole navigators. Soon they would settle into relatively stable positions around the L4 point of the Uranus-Titania system.
Xi Feng would have preferred a position closer the moon. But even if the Tadpoles would have allowed the Task Force keep station at the L1 point, she probably would have had to rule against it. The Humans had brought only a limited supply of propellant with them, and spent more than half of it just getting to this point. The Tadpoles produced some, but not enough to keep up with the Task Force's station-keeping needs. Occupying the L4 point meant Task Force One could stay about six months and still have enough propellant for a trip home at reasonable acceleration. Any longer than that, and Xi Feng would have to start ordering ships into parking orbits around Uranus to await resupply from Earth.
The Commodore's logistical concerns were small compared to the problems the scientists and engineers from the New Mars Company were facing, however. The last she'd heard, they were despairing over being able to use the Discovery habitat as the anchor station of a space elevator as it was intended. The crews of the two larger ground habitats were also concerned, since their structures had been designed to sit on the rocky surface of Mars, rather than the much icier Titania. Acquiring the raw materials needed to sustain a colony was also going to be trickier, though the engineers were apparently letting the Tadpoles do most of the worrying on that account.
To their credit, the Tadpoles were already starting to take over some responsibilities. The first new transport from their colony ship had docked with the NMC Discovery yesterday and two more were on the way. Commander Kirk reported that well over a hundred Tadpoles were on board the habitat now. His crew were training the technicians among them how to use the habitat's equipment, and explaining its design. Worryingly, however, the Commander said that most of the new arrivals didn't appear to be new crew, but unskilled civilians. They had arrived with some food and very little else in the way of possessions, and were now camping in the habitat's large but undeveloped living zone. Kirk's impression was that these were unmistakably refugees, and the incoming transports were carrying hundreds more. Xi Feng wondered just how bad things were at the Tadpole colony.
The Uruguay wasn't scheduled for any maneuvers during Xi Feng's watch over the bridge this time. She was letting the junior officers and spacers handle as much of those as possible. The crew was actually more experienced than most on an Earth Fleet ship. Prior to the formation of Task Force One, Uruguay had been scheduled to replace a good portion of crewmen with fresh Academy graduates in early August. That plan, of course, was now on indefinite hold. Still, even an experienced crew needed to keep in practice. Xi Feng's personnel would be just that much better at their jobs when they did finally move upwards and onwards to other ships.
So instead of checking her navigators' math (among other jobs, being captain of an Earth Fleet ship qualified one to work as a high school physics teacher), Xi Feng spent her time reviewing the images and data which had been gathered so far on the Tadpole colony. Thus far they had identified at least a dozen Tadpole spacecraft flitting back and forth between the moon and the arkship. No one could yet say how many of the other "objects of interest" were Tadpole constructs, but the figure seemed likely to top a hundred. They were scattered among the four nearby Lagrange points and in orbits around Titania which could not be naturally maintained. Of course, the most interesting object of all, the one of which Xi Feng kept finding disappointingly poor quality photographs, was the behemoth hanging at the L1 point. But, much to her frustration, no amount of squinting would produce a clear image. Xi Feng would just have to wait to get a better look.
Pascual Molinas tried to flatten himself against a wall as an NMC technician hurried past. It was difficult without gravity, but the tech launched himself forward into a sort of spinning dive and sailed by without a collision. Pascual decompressed again once he was on his way.
When Ambassador Rokden had left the Barn Swallow to travel back to the Tadpole colony ahead of the Task Force, it had left Pascual in a sort of limbo. In the end, he had decided to visit the NMC Discovery and meet with the small crowd of newly arrived Tadpoles. He had never had much luck getting Rokden to talk about his species' culture or society, so Pascual hoped this would be an opportunity to get a first-hand look.
The Discovery's crew had been much busier than Pascual had expected. They pointed him in the right direction, but otherwise left Pascual to find his own way through the enormous vessel. Moving through an Earth Fleet ship involved climbing up and down a lot of ladders. The Discovery, which was designed to simulate gravity by rotation, made use of lengthy corridors. A trolley system would have eventually made the walks easier for the ship's thousands of inhabitants, but it wasn't yet operational.
Actually, very little of the Discovery's living space was ready for occupation. Furniture was still disassembled and packed, appliances weren't installed, and utility lines were unplugged. All of the final preparations were supposed to have been made in installments as colonists arrived over a period of years. The vast open-air central compartment was off-limits while the ship was still under an acceleration program. Not that anyone would have wanted to go in there; it was still entirely barren.
The Tadpole civilians were staying in a "hotel" near the docking terminal at which they had arrived. It was not ideal accommodation—especially when the Discovery accelerated—but it was the best that could be done on short notice. The crew quarters were full, and they would have been obstacles in the service compartments.
Despite the distance, Pascual found the hotel easily enough. It didn't have a name yet, just a designation for the building: "2108-C/R", printed clearly next to the doors. He floated in front of them for a moment before realizing that he would have to slide them open himself, as the automatic mechanism was still inactive. That was less trouble than it might have been, but he left the door open behind him so he wouldn't have to fiddle with it on the way out.
The floor of the reception area was polished wood which actually looked rather majestic in the dim emergency lighting. A large escalator blocked off by warning barriers led up to the hotel's main entrance in the central chamber. Pascual spent several minutes admiring the room because he really had no idea where to go next. There were no Tadpoles here to greet him.
"I really should have planned this better," he told himself.
Feeling stupid, he finally just picked a hallway to explore at random. No one answered any of the doors he knocked at in the first hall. Of course, Tadpoles might not understand what the knocking meant. Pascual considered shouting, but the notion of yelling for attention in an empty hall was somehow embarrassing.
The second hallway yielded much better results. The first door led into a hotel ballroom, and inside Pascual found perhaps three dozen Tadpoles.
They were all stuck to the floor, sitting in back-to-back pairs and leaning against one another. The pairings were the only order to their arrangement so far as Pascual could tell, and they were otherwise scattered about haphazardly. The ballroom was better lit than the reception area and hallways, and after carefully pulling himself inside, Pascual could see every Tadpole head swivel to look at him. None of them stood up, spoke, or made any other motion.
"Hello…" he said. Speaking to a crowd had never been one of Pascual's favorite activities. Speaking to a crowd of strange aliens did not look like it was going to change that feeling.
"Hello, Human," one of the closer Tadpoles said after a moment, still without moving.
Well, at least they speak English, Pascual thought. Then he mentally kicked himself for not having a plan in case they didn't. And speaking Spanish doesn't count, he told the sarcastic part of his mind.
"Yes, er, my name is Pascual Molinas. I am an Ambassador from the OES to your people."
After another few seconds of silence, a different Tadpole answered, though Pascual couldn't tell the voices apart.
"We know of Eduard Molinas from the OES. Is Pascual Molinas an alias?"
"Uh, no. Eduard is my uncle, and my superior as the Chief Executive of the OES. 'Molinas' is our family name. 'Pascual' is my personal name."
"We understand, Ambassador Pascual," said the first Tadpole again. "I do not think we can help you, none of us is a government authority."
"No, I know," Pascual said. He had trouble just looking at the Tadpole he was speaking to. The rest of the room was still staring at him, and it was a little unnerving. "Ambassador Rokden has gone back to your colony. I was just hoping to speak with you as, um, ordinary individuals. If you do not mind?"
One of the Tadpoles on the far side of the ballroom emitted a rapid series of burping noises. Pascual assumed he was saying something to the other Tadpoles, but no one offered to translate.
"We do not mind," said the first Tadpole once more. "You are welcome to be here with us."
"Thank you," Pascual inclined his head. He was afraid of trying an actual bow and losing his tenuous grip on the door frame. "Is there a name I may call you?"
"My name is Viziminit," answered the spokesman.
"Viziminit," Pascual repeated.
The Tadpole shook his head. "Viziminit," he said again, Pascual couldn't tell the difference.
"Viziminit… Ah, I may not be able to pronounce it entirely correctly."
Viziminit did not speak for a moment. Then he said, "I understand. Your approximation is tolerable."
"Sorry," Pascual shrugged.
"I apologize," Viziminit said. "I did not consider the implications of your species' differences."
"Right… well can you tell me anything about yourself?"
"You have heard my name. I am an adult, a Maklig and an Enharg. I was whole-born 42 years ago from my inertial perspective, I do not know the conversion into your time nor how to calculate the effect of time dilation. I have trained as a general labor supervisor, but my skills are not vital to either the colony or the ship. The arrival of your ships' is fortunate for me. If you had come much later, or not at all, I would have been transported to the colony."
"Which is killing you," Pascual acknowledged. It was a bit of a spooky feeling, seeing all the Tadpoles here. Rokden had said from the beginning that they were desperate for help, but… Pascual wondered if he could have bargained so hard with the Tadpoles if he had met Viziminit and his companions before.
"Yes."
"So," Pascual said quickly, trying to change the subject, "when did you learn English?"
"We learned on our ship, before coming here."
That didn't really answer Pascual's question, but before he could ask for a clarification, another Tadpole spoke up with his own question.
"Do you communicate with chemical signals?" the voice asked. Pascual couldn't actually tell which Tadpole it belonged to.
"What?" he said, dumbly.
Suddenly, the noise level in the ballroom trebled, as several Tadpoles began speaking to one another in their gurgling language.
"Is your language entirely communicated with light and sound, or do you also have chemical glands and receptors?" Again, Pascual couldn't see which Tadpole was asking, and he certainly couldn't tell the voices apart.
"Um," Pascual blinked, trying to get his head around the question. "I guess our sense of smell is detecting chemicals," he touched his nose. "But we don't really communicate with each other that way. Well, maybe some very simple, uh, emotions, but nothing you could call a language. Pheromones are what we call those chemicals. I think some insects use them a lot. Ah, those are a type of very small non-intelligent creatures on our planet."
The Tadpoles set to murmuring again, but they quieted down after a minute, and Viziminit spoke.
"We understand. We were curious because our language instruction only ever mentioned visible and audible signals. You are like the Charterlings in this way. We," and for the first time he used a hand gesture, waving at the entire room, "use pheromones as a significant component of our language. That is why we are positioned in this manner; it is easier to quickly communicate thoughts of great complexity."
Pascual looked around the room more slowly. The gesture was unnecessary, the Tadpoles still looked the same. But now at least he understood what they'd been doing. They were talking.
"So is that what the, uh," Pascual waved a hand around the back of his neck, trying to indicate the fuzzy black ridges the Tadpoles had down their backs, "things you have are for? They're like big pheromone glands and receptors?"
More Tadpole gurgling, then, "Yes. Our Enharg." Viziminit paused for a moment and tilted his head slightly. "And that is how the colony is killing us."
Xi Feng had slipped into a daydream when her console buzzed harshly and opened an emergency comm window.
"Commodore," a woman's voice said, "uh, you'd better come down here."
Xi Feng blinked a couple times to refocus her eyes. On the screen was the face of Spacer Apprentice Ileana Black from the engineering crew.
"Excuse me, Spacer?" Xi Feng said.
Black gulped. She was the lowest-ranking crewmember of the Uruguay and the last time she had spoken with Commodore Lee, it had been with the XO standing next to her as she explained why she'd reported for duty with a hangover.
"Sorry, sir," she tried again. "Master Chief Ferreira asked for you down in medical. He made it sound pretty urgent."
Why are you in medical? Xi Feng wondered. Maybe she was off-duty getting some painkillers or something.
"Did the Chief say what this was about, Spacer?"
"I don't really know for sure, Commodore," Black was starting to sweat. "But, um, Spacer Takenaka and I, we found Lieutenant Muyskens passed out in the head. We took her to medical and, you know, hung around to see if she was all right. But then the Chief started yelling that we should call you."
Dammit.
"Right," Xi Feng shook her head, still processing, "tell the Chief I'm on my way." She struck the console screen with a knuckle to close the comm window.
She undid her straps and got up. "Lieutenant," she said to the tactical officer, "take the watch."
"Aye, sir," he said. Ordinarily, he would have followed up with some sort of sarcastic remark, but he'd either heard the whole conversation or could see the look on Xi Feng's face as she pulled her way towards the hatch. That was good; Xi Feng probably didn't have the patience to spare right now.
Xi Feng would have preferred a position closer the moon. But even if the Tadpoles would have allowed the Task Force keep station at the L1 point, she probably would have had to rule against it. The Humans had brought only a limited supply of propellant with them, and spent more than half of it just getting to this point. The Tadpoles produced some, but not enough to keep up with the Task Force's station-keeping needs. Occupying the L4 point meant Task Force One could stay about six months and still have enough propellant for a trip home at reasonable acceleration. Any longer than that, and Xi Feng would have to start ordering ships into parking orbits around Uranus to await resupply from Earth.
The Commodore's logistical concerns were small compared to the problems the scientists and engineers from the New Mars Company were facing, however. The last she'd heard, they were despairing over being able to use the Discovery habitat as the anchor station of a space elevator as it was intended. The crews of the two larger ground habitats were also concerned, since their structures had been designed to sit on the rocky surface of Mars, rather than the much icier Titania. Acquiring the raw materials needed to sustain a colony was also going to be trickier, though the engineers were apparently letting the Tadpoles do most of the worrying on that account.
To their credit, the Tadpoles were already starting to take over some responsibilities. The first new transport from their colony ship had docked with the NMC Discovery yesterday and two more were on the way. Commander Kirk reported that well over a hundred Tadpoles were on board the habitat now. His crew were training the technicians among them how to use the habitat's equipment, and explaining its design. Worryingly, however, the Commander said that most of the new arrivals didn't appear to be new crew, but unskilled civilians. They had arrived with some food and very little else in the way of possessions, and were now camping in the habitat's large but undeveloped living zone. Kirk's impression was that these were unmistakably refugees, and the incoming transports were carrying hundreds more. Xi Feng wondered just how bad things were at the Tadpole colony.
The Uruguay wasn't scheduled for any maneuvers during Xi Feng's watch over the bridge this time. She was letting the junior officers and spacers handle as much of those as possible. The crew was actually more experienced than most on an Earth Fleet ship. Prior to the formation of Task Force One, Uruguay had been scheduled to replace a good portion of crewmen with fresh Academy graduates in early August. That plan, of course, was now on indefinite hold. Still, even an experienced crew needed to keep in practice. Xi Feng's personnel would be just that much better at their jobs when they did finally move upwards and onwards to other ships.
So instead of checking her navigators' math (among other jobs, being captain of an Earth Fleet ship qualified one to work as a high school physics teacher), Xi Feng spent her time reviewing the images and data which had been gathered so far on the Tadpole colony. Thus far they had identified at least a dozen Tadpole spacecraft flitting back and forth between the moon and the arkship. No one could yet say how many of the other "objects of interest" were Tadpole constructs, but the figure seemed likely to top a hundred. They were scattered among the four nearby Lagrange points and in orbits around Titania which could not be naturally maintained. Of course, the most interesting object of all, the one of which Xi Feng kept finding disappointingly poor quality photographs, was the behemoth hanging at the L1 point. But, much to her frustration, no amount of squinting would produce a clear image. Xi Feng would just have to wait to get a better look.
* * *
Pascual Molinas tried to flatten himself against a wall as an NMC technician hurried past. It was difficult without gravity, but the tech launched himself forward into a sort of spinning dive and sailed by without a collision. Pascual decompressed again once he was on his way.
When Ambassador Rokden had left the Barn Swallow to travel back to the Tadpole colony ahead of the Task Force, it had left Pascual in a sort of limbo. In the end, he had decided to visit the NMC Discovery and meet with the small crowd of newly arrived Tadpoles. He had never had much luck getting Rokden to talk about his species' culture or society, so Pascual hoped this would be an opportunity to get a first-hand look.
The Discovery's crew had been much busier than Pascual had expected. They pointed him in the right direction, but otherwise left Pascual to find his own way through the enormous vessel. Moving through an Earth Fleet ship involved climbing up and down a lot of ladders. The Discovery, which was designed to simulate gravity by rotation, made use of lengthy corridors. A trolley system would have eventually made the walks easier for the ship's thousands of inhabitants, but it wasn't yet operational.
Actually, very little of the Discovery's living space was ready for occupation. Furniture was still disassembled and packed, appliances weren't installed, and utility lines were unplugged. All of the final preparations were supposed to have been made in installments as colonists arrived over a period of years. The vast open-air central compartment was off-limits while the ship was still under an acceleration program. Not that anyone would have wanted to go in there; it was still entirely barren.
The Tadpole civilians were staying in a "hotel" near the docking terminal at which they had arrived. It was not ideal accommodation—especially when the Discovery accelerated—but it was the best that could be done on short notice. The crew quarters were full, and they would have been obstacles in the service compartments.
Despite the distance, Pascual found the hotel easily enough. It didn't have a name yet, just a designation for the building: "2108-C/R", printed clearly next to the doors. He floated in front of them for a moment before realizing that he would have to slide them open himself, as the automatic mechanism was still inactive. That was less trouble than it might have been, but he left the door open behind him so he wouldn't have to fiddle with it on the way out.
The floor of the reception area was polished wood which actually looked rather majestic in the dim emergency lighting. A large escalator blocked off by warning barriers led up to the hotel's main entrance in the central chamber. Pascual spent several minutes admiring the room because he really had no idea where to go next. There were no Tadpoles here to greet him.
"I really should have planned this better," he told himself.
Feeling stupid, he finally just picked a hallway to explore at random. No one answered any of the doors he knocked at in the first hall. Of course, Tadpoles might not understand what the knocking meant. Pascual considered shouting, but the notion of yelling for attention in an empty hall was somehow embarrassing.
The second hallway yielded much better results. The first door led into a hotel ballroom, and inside Pascual found perhaps three dozen Tadpoles.
They were all stuck to the floor, sitting in back-to-back pairs and leaning against one another. The pairings were the only order to their arrangement so far as Pascual could tell, and they were otherwise scattered about haphazardly. The ballroom was better lit than the reception area and hallways, and after carefully pulling himself inside, Pascual could see every Tadpole head swivel to look at him. None of them stood up, spoke, or made any other motion.
"Hello…" he said. Speaking to a crowd had never been one of Pascual's favorite activities. Speaking to a crowd of strange aliens did not look like it was going to change that feeling.
"Hello, Human," one of the closer Tadpoles said after a moment, still without moving.
Well, at least they speak English, Pascual thought. Then he mentally kicked himself for not having a plan in case they didn't. And speaking Spanish doesn't count, he told the sarcastic part of his mind.
"Yes, er, my name is Pascual Molinas. I am an Ambassador from the OES to your people."
After another few seconds of silence, a different Tadpole answered, though Pascual couldn't tell the voices apart.
"We know of Eduard Molinas from the OES. Is Pascual Molinas an alias?"
"Uh, no. Eduard is my uncle, and my superior as the Chief Executive of the OES. 'Molinas' is our family name. 'Pascual' is my personal name."
"We understand, Ambassador Pascual," said the first Tadpole again. "I do not think we can help you, none of us is a government authority."
"No, I know," Pascual said. He had trouble just looking at the Tadpole he was speaking to. The rest of the room was still staring at him, and it was a little unnerving. "Ambassador Rokden has gone back to your colony. I was just hoping to speak with you as, um, ordinary individuals. If you do not mind?"
One of the Tadpoles on the far side of the ballroom emitted a rapid series of burping noises. Pascual assumed he was saying something to the other Tadpoles, but no one offered to translate.
"We do not mind," said the first Tadpole once more. "You are welcome to be here with us."
"Thank you," Pascual inclined his head. He was afraid of trying an actual bow and losing his tenuous grip on the door frame. "Is there a name I may call you?"
"My name is Viziminit," answered the spokesman.
"Viziminit," Pascual repeated.
The Tadpole shook his head. "Viziminit," he said again, Pascual couldn't tell the difference.
"Viziminit… Ah, I may not be able to pronounce it entirely correctly."
Viziminit did not speak for a moment. Then he said, "I understand. Your approximation is tolerable."
"Sorry," Pascual shrugged.
"I apologize," Viziminit said. "I did not consider the implications of your species' differences."
"Right… well can you tell me anything about yourself?"
"You have heard my name. I am an adult, a Maklig and an Enharg. I was whole-born 42 years ago from my inertial perspective, I do not know the conversion into your time nor how to calculate the effect of time dilation. I have trained as a general labor supervisor, but my skills are not vital to either the colony or the ship. The arrival of your ships' is fortunate for me. If you had come much later, or not at all, I would have been transported to the colony."
"Which is killing you," Pascual acknowledged. It was a bit of a spooky feeling, seeing all the Tadpoles here. Rokden had said from the beginning that they were desperate for help, but… Pascual wondered if he could have bargained so hard with the Tadpoles if he had met Viziminit and his companions before.
"Yes."
"So," Pascual said quickly, trying to change the subject, "when did you learn English?"
"We learned on our ship, before coming here."
That didn't really answer Pascual's question, but before he could ask for a clarification, another Tadpole spoke up with his own question.
"Do you communicate with chemical signals?" the voice asked. Pascual couldn't actually tell which Tadpole it belonged to.
"What?" he said, dumbly.
Suddenly, the noise level in the ballroom trebled, as several Tadpoles began speaking to one another in their gurgling language.
"Is your language entirely communicated with light and sound, or do you also have chemical glands and receptors?" Again, Pascual couldn't see which Tadpole was asking, and he certainly couldn't tell the voices apart.
"Um," Pascual blinked, trying to get his head around the question. "I guess our sense of smell is detecting chemicals," he touched his nose. "But we don't really communicate with each other that way. Well, maybe some very simple, uh, emotions, but nothing you could call a language. Pheromones are what we call those chemicals. I think some insects use them a lot. Ah, those are a type of very small non-intelligent creatures on our planet."
The Tadpoles set to murmuring again, but they quieted down after a minute, and Viziminit spoke.
"We understand. We were curious because our language instruction only ever mentioned visible and audible signals. You are like the Charterlings in this way. We," and for the first time he used a hand gesture, waving at the entire room, "use pheromones as a significant component of our language. That is why we are positioned in this manner; it is easier to quickly communicate thoughts of great complexity."
Pascual looked around the room more slowly. The gesture was unnecessary, the Tadpoles still looked the same. But now at least he understood what they'd been doing. They were talking.
"So is that what the, uh," Pascual waved a hand around the back of his neck, trying to indicate the fuzzy black ridges the Tadpoles had down their backs, "things you have are for? They're like big pheromone glands and receptors?"
More Tadpole gurgling, then, "Yes. Our Enharg." Viziminit paused for a moment and tilted his head slightly. "And that is how the colony is killing us."
* * *
Xi Feng had slipped into a daydream when her console buzzed harshly and opened an emergency comm window.
"Commodore," a woman's voice said, "uh, you'd better come down here."
Xi Feng blinked a couple times to refocus her eyes. On the screen was the face of Spacer Apprentice Ileana Black from the engineering crew.
"Excuse me, Spacer?" Xi Feng said.
Black gulped. She was the lowest-ranking crewmember of the Uruguay and the last time she had spoken with Commodore Lee, it had been with the XO standing next to her as she explained why she'd reported for duty with a hangover.
"Sorry, sir," she tried again. "Master Chief Ferreira asked for you down in medical. He made it sound pretty urgent."
Why are you in medical? Xi Feng wondered. Maybe she was off-duty getting some painkillers or something.
"Did the Chief say what this was about, Spacer?"
"I don't really know for sure, Commodore," Black was starting to sweat. "But, um, Spacer Takenaka and I, we found Lieutenant Muyskens passed out in the head. We took her to medical and, you know, hung around to see if she was all right. But then the Chief started yelling that we should call you."
Dammit.
"Right," Xi Feng shook her head, still processing, "tell the Chief I'm on my way." She struck the console screen with a knuckle to close the comm window.
She undid her straps and got up. "Lieutenant," she said to the tactical officer, "take the watch."
"Aye, sir," he said. Ordinarily, he would have followed up with some sort of sarcastic remark, but he'd either heard the whole conversation or could see the look on Xi Feng's face as she pulled her way towards the hatch. That was good; Xi Feng probably didn't have the patience to spare right now.