The Foundling Saga: Revelation (10 page)

Keller stepped out of the shower in his cabin. He could see someone had left some more of the white liquid in a cup on the shelf beside his bed. He took another sip. He felt that he was in control of his mind again, although his body still felt sluggish. At least he could feel and work his limbs again.

He had no memory of anything since a woman called Sylvia said she would take him to his cabin. The next memory after that was hearing the voice saying that he was ‘nicely cooking’. It was a term to describe the reinstatement of consciousness as his body was slowly warmed, they told him. ‘Waking up’ would do, he thought.

This was a different craft, smaller apparently. This craft was on the last few days of its journey to orbit Rayleigh. He was advised to rest, but needed intervals of exercise which Sylvia monitored. During rest periods, he was fed liquids occasionally. They did become thicker each time and would soon be a thick protein soup with vegetables, Sylvia assured him. Meat wasn’t on the menu until he landed on Rayleigh.

Sylvia showed Keller how to select some programmes to provide some entertainment whilst he was recovering from his hibernation. These were information programmes about Rayleigh. The programmes assumed a lot of prior knowledge, so Keller had to ask Sylvia a number of questions after watching these.

He was up and about after two days. Sylvia took him to a small gym with equipment to test his readiness for independent walking and movement. His ‘stats’, she said, were good. “You’ll be fine,” was all she said, looking at the various readings displayed on the walls.

There wasn’t much else to do and nothing really to see. The craft was functional and was simply a transport craft for hibernating passengers and freight. “Little excitement here,” said Sylvia smiling when he asked what else he could do apart from exercise, eat and watch their programmes.

He had been taken to the Royal lounge on his final morning. The passengers in the lounge would be wealthy and powerful, Sylvia had told him. It was cramped in the lounge but he was aware that he and his fellow Royal Class passengers were fortunate to have a cabin and lounge. He did get to speak to some other passengers of which there were about a dozen. They looked as weary as he felt and they told him that he would feel like this for at least a week. Some of them didn’t look well from the experience, or perhaps, he wondered, they hadn’t looked well when they started the trip. One of the passengers, a ‘Regent diplomat’ he called himself, told Keller that they were now orbiting Rayleigh.

“What happened at the New Exeter hub?” asked Keller. “I don’t remember anything at all.”

“If you didn’t have business to transact on the hub, then you were probably just transferred as you were,” said the diplomat. “In which case, you have just been sleeping for four months. Talk to the steward if you need to know exactly where we are,” he said indicating a man in a black tunic taking drinks to a passenger nearby.

Keller spoke with the steward, who confirmed that they were orbiting Rayleigh. The steward waved at the wall and a screen appeared. A few more gestures and Keller could then see three different views from outside the craft. The first view showed a white fluffy close up of part of the planet. “Lot of cloud cover, today,” the steward said. Another view was of distant stars; the next view, however, was startlingly bright to look at until the steward waved his hands near the screen and the screen dimmed to reveal two huge stars.

“The two stars,” Keller said in awe looking at them.

“Yes, Mizar and Alcor. They are known here as ‘The Waltzers’. They are in a perpetual dance with each other,” The steward smiled at Keller and added, “Alcor is the smaller one in truth, the one on the right. It looks bigger because it’s closer. It’s the young lady of the pair. Would you like a drink of anything sir?”

“Just water,” Keller asked, then added, “Have any messages been sent to me whilst I have been asleep?”

The steward waved Keller’s I-disc toward the screen on the wall. Keller’s face appeared, followed by words and numbers too small for him to read from where he stood. The steward waved his hand in various areas before Keller could see what was written. Then he asked Keller to put his hand near the screen. Keller saw a list appear beside his picture. The steward looked at the list, “Ignore these red ones, they are messages from the pilots.” He looked through the moving list. “You have one message from Earth, and one message from Rayleigh.”

“Can you show me the messages?” asked Keller. The steward showed him how to open and close the messages with his hand and then politely averted his eyes.

The first message brought a huge lump to his throat immediately. It was one month old. It was from Marcus confirming that his message had been deposited, as planned, near Suffolk Road and located by Outsiders who delivered it to Nola. Marcus had ended his own message with a simple “Good Luck.”

He knew that this would have provided some comfort to his family. They would now believe that he was travelling rural England with others. He felt a wave of emotion and relief, but also felt very homesick.

The second message confirmed that he would be escorted to his birth mother on transfer to Plymouth Rock, the given name of the first city of Rayleigh, which was also the capital city and the main port of transfer. He was to report to the chaperone area on arrival.

The steward looked back after Keller indicated that he had finished, showing Keller again how to ‘close’ the PMA, explaining that this was the abbreviation for Private Message Area. “When do we transfer?” asked Keller.

“You are on the first transfer, someone will collect you. You probably have about six hours.” the steward said. Keller noticed his pronunciation and accent were similar to the diplomat he had spoken to earlier, it had a harsh lilt but he seemed friendly enough.

“Are you from Rayleigh?” He asked.

“Yes, but I look after the Rayleigh to New Exeter run, so I don’t get home very often. Four months of work, two months back home, then four months of work again. I’m leased to the company for ten years. I’ll get a freeholders house when my lease is completed, so I am very lucky. Maybe then I’ll work landside again.”

Keller asked to return to his cabin. He needed to prepare for his transfer. Another steward arrived and provided some further refreshment for him, advising him of the procedure for transfer. He also apologised for any neglect in attending to him but the ratio of stewards to passengers was a concern to all, he added wryly.

Eventually, the second steward returned, checked the room, then escorted Keller and his meagre belongings through a narrow corridor. Keller found himself on a similar transfer craft to the one that he had departed on Earth. Again it was smaller, and a little less luxurious. He was approached by a woman who introduced herself and said she would be his hostess for the short journey to Rayleigh. She looked him up and down as though appreciating him, which made him feel a little self-conscious.

He was seated, this time not in a cabin but a relatively private seat with a cloth curtain between himself and someone else. The ‘someone else’ turned out to be the diplomat he had spoken to earlier in the lounge.

The journey of about two hours left him in awe of the planet below and the stunning view of the two suns in the distance. It was an incredible experience heading towards the planet like a dropping stone. The land below rose quickly towards them and he could see mountains, land, sea and greenery. Like home, he thought. The craft levelled and flew in a more parallel route with the land before gliding over some bright green forests. The forests became fields and he saw the outlines of a city coming towards them. Domes were everywhere on the horizon. They had passed some smaller domes on the fields and he assumed these were the homes of the off-worlders.

Now he could see that they must be approaching Plymouth Rock. This was the first outpost from Earth to last more than fifty years. It was now the well-established capital, where, he was told by his hostess, the people were proud of their history. They were also proud of their heritage as the children of the early adventurers.

The craft finally landed on a wide strip. The hostess came and asked him to wait for a few minutes, then she would return to escort him off the craft.

Keller sat patiently, still weary from the journey and still wondering how his birth mother would receive him and what she was like. He wondered whether he himself would move beyond the still simmering feeling of resentment. No matter how often it had been explained to him, he still felt he had been brought here under a certain amount of duress.

Keller had only been awake for a few days during the four month voyage, however, he still felt painfully detached from his family in Suffolk Road. Whatever he felt though, he knew his life had changed forever. He would need someone to guide him through all of this and maybe his birth mother would turn out to give that guidance. And, just maybe, he could return to his family as soon as his ‘duty’ was done.

The curtain was pulled back and his hostess smiled at him. “You can disembark now, please follow me.” He walked through a corridor, out through a narrow tunnel and then realised he was on firm ground again. He saw through some plas windows a concrete area that again reminded him of the Arpo. However, this one had vehicles snaking their way around on some unknown purpose.

His I-disc was scanned by another woman whilst his hostess stood by. She then took him along a narrow corridor to a desk above which read “Chaperones.” She asked him to wait on a soft chair and bade him goodbye. “Might see you again, Keller - if not, good luck!” She gave him a little wave, turned her back to him and walked briskly back to where they had come from.

During his recuperation on the transfer to Rayleigh’s orbit, Keller had thought he had learned much about the planet he now found himself on. Those programmes barely touched the surface, in truth, but to him, it was an overwhelming amount of information.

Rayleigh was about half the size of Earth. Because of the two nearby suns, it had two nights during its seventeen and a half hour day. Depending on whether you were in the northern or southern hemisphere, and the time of year, you may get a night lasting three hours, followed later by another lasting four hours. At certain times of the year you could have one lasting five hours and one lasting forty-five minutes.

It has a similar atmosphere to earth, albeit a little thinner. However, this meant that humans would still need to avoid ascending even the relatively low mountain ranges unless equipped with breathing apparatus. Gravity was about fifteen percent less than that of Earths’ - not significant enough to deter potential colonists, but it did make a difference to visitors and would take a little getting used to. The planet had a surface that was forty percent water, mainly in the form of a large ocean which split a large land mass from a smaller land mass. The smaller land mass was known as New Fiji and so named because of beaches to the west of Plymouth Rock and its tropical wet climate. This tropical wet climate was the most habitable part of the planet and it was in New Fiji that the bulk of the population was based. The other land mass, Khatru, was substantially larger. It was less hospitable, with some intense weather systems due to its Northern Hemisphere position but it provided the main source of export income for the planet. There were a number of mines and the land had vast mineral deposits. A series of outposts of hardy people would exploit these deposits and they would be transferred to the Eastern port of Macau B on New Fiji. This was then shipped internally for processing at various places and eventually shipped as freight to other off-worlders, or back to Earth, depending on the material needs of the various communities.

The population was about 3.1 million people. There were always new arrivals but not so many as there had been 60 or 70 years ago. They weren’t self-sufficient yet, particularly with regard to medicines and manufacturing facilities - all of which were vital to sustain a population. The economy of Rayleigh allowed for repairs to mining and transport equipment for example, but they did not have the population or infrastructure to allow for the manufacture of this equipment. Ownership of mines was shared by a cooperative arrangement between various off-world communities who all benefited from this trade.

Food was plentiful for the New Fijians but less so on Khatru. This was transported to Khatru via the same sea craft that brought raw materials to Macau B.

The only meat bred on land was turkey and other fowl, such as partridge and pheasant. Early attempts at breeding other animals were foiled by certain viral strains which wiped them out. However, the Ocean was teeming with fish of various species and these ensured a relatively easy access to protein for the population.

Governor Whelehan of Rayleigh had to govern a relatively small population spread over vast distances. It was, however a population that was striving, even now, to make the best of what they had on the planet, and even after several generations they were a community with a common goal of growth and success for Rayleigh. This growth and success was in the interests of all for maintaining and strengthening what they had chosen as their new home generations earlier.

It was still a community that operated like any other. They had their problems and disagreements and those in power, both in business or government would always occasionally seek too much advantage over their neighbours. Such manoeuvrings were the cause of the occasional trials and tribulations of mankind everywhere.