For One Nen (22 page)

Merari squeezed his hand and said, “Then let’s go hear the stories.”

His face broke into a wide grin. “Did you know we got a computer working so we can show some old hard drives of video we found? Me and Benai and Mathis.” When he said the name ‘Mathis’ he turned to face the loss of the Hoth sector.

Merari pulled on his arm and said, “Come, let’s go see the video.”

She held his hand all the way down the elevator and to the door of the garden where they stood for a moment before facing each other. With a wordless smile the two dropped their hands to their side and walked through the door.

Beau and Benai were talking with Deni by a far back planting station.

Benai gave Teltel a disapproving look when he saw Merari with him.

“Did anyone else come?” Teltel said as he dismissed Benai’s concern.

But Benai pressed him.

“You know she’s…” he began.

“She’s one of us,” Teltel said quickly. “Now, have the others arrived?”

“They’ve all gone to the fallow field; even the Maven is in there,” Benai said without another word of disapproval about Merari.

“You coming, Deni?” Teltel asked.

“Sure, I was just waiting for Tala,” she answered. Even Aiden is in there with his sister, Arla. The maven brought some of her friends, some elder Neph. There’s quite the gathering in there. But they all agreed to wait for you,” she laughed. “You’ve started something big, but I guess Het do things in a big way.”

Tala raced gracefully through the door saying, “I’m sorry I’m late. I tried to find something in the library. Now let’s go see this video the boys got working.”

Deni smiled at the sight of her, but then again, she always smiled when Tala entered the room.

When Teltel walked through the door of the fallow field to join the others an enormous applause erupted from the little crowd. He froze in place but after a moment he smiled. Raising his Het sized hand he gave a slight wave.

Benai jumped to his feet to slap him on the arm, “Come on, big guy. Sit back here with me so the little ones down front can see.”

0 BE/AE

Aboard the EGRESS in orbit above the planet REEN

“This is Chris again and my Eden rank was communi
cations first officer but I’m the self-appointed director of this documentary.” Chris laughed and turned the camera around to quickly show his face.

The small crowd of onlookers in the dim fallow field gasped from the thrill of seeing the one they had only read about. His hair was dark but very gray at the temples. His looks were average but his smile captivated this little audience.

The camera was then turned back around to show more of the Egress.

“It’s boarding day, uh…day two actually. I just came aboard today but the shuttles started bringing people yesterday. And as you can see, this is much bigger than our original ship, the Eden. We have lots of space for as many people as want to join us. That’s still being figured out down on the surface. I’m trying to stay out of all that mess. I’m going to go down to the engine room before they keep us mere passengers from access down there.”

The camera showed the central elevator as it opened. The camera scanned the inside of the elevator as if Chris was trying to capture every detail.

“As you can see, it’s a pretty normal elevator like the ones we had on the Eden and the Arcadia. But to save space we have one main one on here that goes from the engine room at the lowest level all the way to…”

“Hey, wait up,” a voice called out.

Chris’ hand stopped the elevator door from closing as a woman got on board.

The camera captured a woman’s face. She looked concerned.

“And thi
s is Irene, my beautiful cousin, who always worries about everything,” Chris said as he dropped the camera, which was still recording.

“Did you hear that they’re putting all the Hoth in stasis,” Irene said as the elevator door closed. “The city’s leaders are forcing them. Some don’t want to go because of it.”

“That’s just not right,” Chris said. “How can they just decide that? I mean it’s our ship…isn’t it? I know a great many people of Reen helped to build it but it was made using the Eden and Arcadia. It’s our technology and all. How are they making rules like that?”

“I don’t know but it sounded final,” Irene said with a shake of her head.

“I just hope my Nate can keep his head about him. You know how he gets about his Sadie; with her being Hoth and all. Came to blows with some of his friends over her, remember that?”

“Sure,” she said. “I’ll let you know if I hear anything more.”

“Thanks,” said Chris.

“So have you found your quarters yet?” Irene asked.

“I unpacked this morning when I boarded. Got this thing out and just wanted to make sure we captured all this,” Chris chuckled. “Our next great adventure.”

“So you’re really doing
it, huh?” she asked.

“Yeah, yeah…I retired. I think I’ve earned it don’t you?” he laughed. “And I’d forgotten how fun it is to use this thing. Remember all those recordings of the Eden that I took. Scout even hid it from me once because he thought I was kind of addicted to it.”

They laughed.

The little crowd watching the video heard the familiar ding of the elevator door opening.

Chris held the camera up again and noted, “Oops, it was on that whole time,” he laughed. “Gotta remember how to use this thing.”

“Hope we didn’t say anything too incriminating,” Irene grinned.

Ahead of them was a large room.

“It looks so big,” the Maven mumbled to her friends.

They watched as the camera panned the entire room. At the walls surrounding the room were clean metal racks. Large metal boxes were attached to many of the racks with bolts. Out of the back of these metal boxes were thick cords of yellow, red, black, and blue. The cords climbed the wall to the ceiling where they all came together and were plugged into the wall. There were large switches on the ceiling close to the array of cords.

There was an even thicker red cord that hung by a sign that read, “Emergency shut off”.

“I’m going to go back up now,” Irene said to Chris.

“What? This isn’t exciting enough for you?” Chris teased.

“I was thinking of checking out the observatory deck later. Want to come?” She asked.

“Yeah, yeah. I’ll be up there in a little while. I want to go through all the rooms just to have a record of how all this looked before we started out.”

Arms passed by the camera as if she gave Chris a hug.

“See you up top later,” she said.

“Yeah, see ya,” Chris answered back.

“And through
that open door is the machine shop to make parts as needed,” Chris said as the camera quickly panned from one side of the room to the other.

Chris stepped back into the main engine room and showed another opened door. “That’s another machine shop. It looks pretty much the same so I won’t take too long showing that.”

Back into the engine room he showed a door on the opposite side of the room. “Here’s a lab for test equipment. As you can see, there are racks like they have in the engine room but here they will take boxes and run diagnostics. Lots of test equipment in here for that kind of stuff.”

He laughed to himself, “Maybe I should’ve gotten a smart guy to do this film. It would be better detailed. That’s for sure.”

“Over there in the next room is a repair room and now we’re back to the elevator,” he said pushing the button.

On the ride up to the next level Chris kept talking.

“Now we’re on the main elevator again that runs all the way through the center of the ship but there are also diagonal elevators from each quarter sector to the main deck and to command central but those are mainly used by officers and other leaders like some of the Neph. I have a Neph friend named Gabe,” Chris chuckled.

“Gabe,” Chris chuckled again
as he repeated the name.

The Maven tilted her head as she watched the screen.

“That was my father’s name,” she said.

“Ha! a Neph named Gabe. He couldn’t be named any better even if a Denizen had named him. An angel being named Gabe.” Chris lifted a chain from inside his shirt and kissed it then dropped it back inside. “I’d give him respect even if he didn’t deserve it. But he’s honest and kind. Good man,” Chris said as the elevator doors opened.

Maven Sharla pressed her lips together and smiled as her beautiful eyes grew glassy.

“So here we are in the Central Command. Hi, Colin. He’s one of the pilots for this voyage.” Chris raised his voice a little as to tease the man. “Pretty cushy job since he won’t be needed much after we get on our way.”

The man looked at the camera and gave a half-hearted smile. “So you actually retired?” Colin asked.

“Yeah,
spend more time with the grandkids, you know,” Chris said. “Funny thing is, I’ll probably get to see them more than I did my own kids when we lived on Reen. But I got everyone coming aboard so I’m one of the lucky ones.”

“Yeah, you’re lucky. My Missus didn’t want to come. She got all caught up in that anti-Egress movement early on. Could’ve cost me my spot as pilot if she’d continued on with them. But I just told her, ‘Hey Babe, I’m going and I hope you come along’. So she’s up there right now unpacking.”

“Well, good luck with everything,” Chris said.

“See you in the black,” Colin said.

“So that’s the main console and the communications screen and the window,” he raised his voice again as the camera swung around to show the pilots face again. “The window is so Colin can see where he’s going.”

“We could always trade jobs,” Colin said.

“Like you know how to run this incredibly sophisticated video equipment,” Chris teased.

“Sophisticated?” Colin laughed. “More like archaic. That dam
n camera came all the way from Earth.”

“Where we made things to last,” Chris laughingly protested.

“I hope to God you’re right. Seeing as how most every part of this ship is Denizen.” The camera turned away from Colin, “But it’ll take us all to make this escape work.”

Chri
s turned the camera to an open door and continued his tour as he laughed.

“In here is a warehouse for part
s and cables, extra test equipment, more tools, over there in those tall white crates are even more tools and manuals from the Eden and Arcadia.”

Chris gave a long exhale.

“Okay, even I’m getting bored. I’m going to another floor,” Chris said to himself.

“Hey I’m not boring,” Colin yelled.

The camera showed the elevator and Chris’ hand pressing the button.

Colin’s voice was heard in the background laughing and then he added, “Crazy Denizen.”

Chris boarded the elevator and turned the camera back on Colin before the door closed.

Colin was smiling and gave a slight wave with the ripple of his fingers.

The screen went black a moment and then came back to life.

“Okay, here we are on the Main Deck. This is where most everyone will go about their day to day. This is just a giant city in the sky so anything you can think of needed for sustaining a city we have
it here on the Egress.” Chris’ voice was heard while the camera scanned the large circular hallway.

“This will be the great dining hall. If we turn right we will pass the door to the first garden and on around to this next huge door is the second garden. On around here in this room will be Emissaries’ offices, then this open area is officer’s lounge and lastly we’ll have a library through that door. And now we’re back to the dining hall.”

297 AE

Aboard the EGRESS

Teltel and Mathis changed out one of the little metal boxes hoping to find more videos from Chris.  The screen came to life first with the now familiar voice of Chris and then a scene of the observatory deck.

0 BE/AE

Aboard the EGRESS in orbit above the planet REEN

“Here we are on the very top of the Egress. This glass dome is called the observatory deck. I know I
, for one, will spend much time up here. It’s the best place to see the largest portion of the sky at once. The camera went up the side of the clear spherical window into the expanse of space. It held there for a moment.

“Hey, I thought you forgot about meeting me,” Irene’s voice was heard coming close.

The camera came down quickly to show the approaching Irene.

“Have you seen this?” Chris said.

“That’s just the sky,” Irene scoffed.

“I know but it’s just so beautiful,” Chris said.

“Come with me over here,” she said. “You won’t believe this. Point your camera right over there.”

The c
amera followed the clear dome downward.

“That is the Antip sector,” Chris said.

As Chris looked through the camera he said, “I’ve already seen this from Reen.”

“But have you seen that?” Irene’s hand passed in front of the camera and the camera turned to capture a steady line of shuttles coming from Reen and another line beside it returning
for more passengers.

“Good Lord, you were right. That is amazing,” Chris said. “It’s full scale boarding now. I mean, I’ve seen a few here and there but it’s actually happening now.”

“And there are three docking bays so that same thing is happening at all of them,” Irene explained. “The shuttles only carry ten passengers and their luggage. It’s takes about thirty minutes to unload them and their stuff and head back to the planet.” Irene began to have a thoughtful voice as if she were calculating.

“So that’s sixty an hour and they say it will take about a month so that’s let see…” she said.

“A boat load of people,” said Chris.

“About 40,000 people,” Irene corrected him.

“Hey, you guys,” came a man’s voice off camera.

The Camera swung around and showed a younger man that looked very similar to Chris.

“What’s wrong Nate?” asked Chris as he let the camera hang loose in his hand.

“Have you seen Sadie?” Nate said with worry on his face.

“No. Did you call the command center? They keep a log of everyone that’s come aboard,” said Chris.

The camera went completely to the floor as if Chris sat it down.

“I was too afraid to ask them,” Nate said. “I think she’s done something dreadful.”

“What are you talking about?” Irene asked.

“Last night we got word that all Hoth that come aboard the Egress would be forced to be in stasis,” Nate’s voice was heard saying.

“How did that
happen?” asked Irene.

“It was an agreement between the Hoth elders and the city’s leaders. They didn’t tell anyone about it until the agreement was settled. Sadie’s friend brought word late last night.”

“This just isn’t right,” Chris said.

“We fought last
night after Uei was asleep because she said I should go without her. We had just got word about the Hoth forced into stasis if they come aboard. She said I should take Uei and just go. We fought most all night but when I got up this morning she was gone.”

“Where’s the child?” Chris asked.

“With Lena and Pijin’s family,” Nate answered.

“I’ll get communication to them to bring him when they board,” Chris said.

“But I have to find Sadie,” Nate said furiously.

“Where would she go?” asked Chris.

“I know she wanted to go on the Egress because she’s afraid of the nova and she’s more afraid of the underground madness but she kept saying that Uei looked so Denizen that she didn’t want him to have to be in stasis.”

Someone picked up the camera where it then zoomed in on the Hoth sector where people were being taken up a long ladder and put into single sections and a glass door closed over them.

“What are you doing, Irene,” Nate’s trembling voice asked. “You don’t think?” he stopped.

The camera zoomed in closer on a tiny sleeping Hoth face of a young woman.

“What is it? What do you see?” screamed Nate half out of his mind.

The camera fell askew and the scream of Nate was evident as to what had happened.

A quivering voice drew closer to the camera as it again focused on the Hoth in stasis.

“No, no, no,” came growing sobs from Nate.

The camera fell aside again and as the video went up-side-down the view still gripped the hearts of the onlookers in the dim fallow field.

Chris held his son as they both cried. “I know things will work out, son. Just trust me. I know things’ll work out.”

Irene cleared her throat as she wrapped her arm around her nephew.

“We can’t tell anyone,” she said. “We’ll let Uei come aboard with Lena and Pijin’s family and say it Preen’s son. It can work.”

“I can get word to them over our protected communications transmitter,” Chris said.

The camera was lifted from the floor as the scene went black.

297 AE

Aboard the EGRESS

The fallow field was silent except for gentle
sniffles from many in the crowd.

Very slowly Teltel walked to the front and switched out another hard drive.

When he turned around to face the crowd he saw that the Maven was wiping her eyes with a piece of purple cloth. It shook Teltel’s calm so terribly that he began nervously scratching at his chin. He sat down quickly again beside his best friend Benai.