The Navigator 2: We the People (17 page)

That was their ultimate destination after clearing the customs stop at BC IV orbital station. The temporary housing for the community was still being assembled and delivered to the site, along with getting things like sewer, water and power systems set up, as well as other services they would need. What that meant was that this first batch of people would have to stay at the 'hotel' by the starport until they could be taken out to the site.

This was also only the first bunch of 'colonists'. At present, living accommodations simply didn't exist for the whole of Cassie's old community. So, the way it had worked out was that the refugees were transferred to the council headquarters building in Tokyo to await transfer up to Darkwater and the medical facilities located there.

Now that this first group had left, then next group would begin moving up to the station. Once that group left, then next group would come up and so on. Each group of refugees would have a short wait in the New Hedron Hotel while temporary housing was set up for them out at the new Citadel build site. It wasn't ideal, as the group didn't want to be split up, but the simple fact of the matter was, none of the facilities were large enough to accommodate everyone all at once. It would take just over a month to get everyone out to BC IV. The refugees were given credits to purchase furnishings for their new homes. During their stay in that city, they were encouraged to go shopping and make those purchases. Several cargo shuttles were set aside to make sure their purchases were delivered to the appropriate place.

Several local artisans in New Hedron offered to accept custom orders at no additional cost for those that needed them. That actually came in very handy for Joe and Laura. While Joe had been in the Admiral's office, the women had gotten together and agreed to 'adjoining, but separate' quarters. Joe was told that meant there would be a minimum of three households attached together, yet actually separate.  Sharon and Abby would share a household, as would Becka, Shana and Cassie.

Each of those households would be physically attached to Joe and Laura's house. The women had drawn out their ideas and showed them to Joe who just shook his head. "Are you sure this is what you all want? People change, so do friendships: what happens if and when that happens?"

"Nothing is set in stone, Joe," Laura replied. "We know we might not always get along; we can move out or add more people as the need arises. This is based on the premise that all of us will be able to help Becka during her pregnancy and after the baby comes. Besides, she won't be the only one to have a baby, and we can help each other."

Joe groaned. "Don't tell me, you even have a timetable worked out for who gets pregnant when, right?"

"Well, among the six of us anyway," Laura replied sweetly.

"Six?" Joe replied, shocked. "Laura, Abby's still a kid!" he looked at the grinning girl. "Sorry, Abby." He turned back to Laura. "What about Sharon?"

"I'd still like to be a mother, Colonel. To be honest, you're the only man I ever considered for the father role and artificial methods are available to us," Sharon replied.

Laura nodded her agreement. "As far as Abby's age goes; Joe, we're all young again or will be soon. Please don't even try to tell me you're going to refuse to sleep with a seventeen-year-old! Even I want to, now!"

Sharon nodded. "No one told us that the treatment the doc gave us would kick our sex-drive into high gear! I feel like a cat in heat!" The dog, Merry looked up at her and 'woofed' her thought on the cat comment.

The conversation was derailed for the moment by a call from Shana on the intercom. "Colonel Anderson, please report to the Navigation room."

Joe shook his head. "I've got to get some others trained to do this." He activated his comm. "On my way, Captain." He looked at the girls. "I'll be right back."

Shortly after Joe left, Shana again spoke over the intercom. "Attention all passengers, please take your seats and fasten your seat belts for the jump. As many of you are gifted, and this is your first hyperspace transit, please be aware that many of you will feel the transition. This is normal, and the sensation should pass quickly. How you will feel it we can't say, as it affects each of us in a different way. I am told the sensation is rarely unpleasant, and it is never harmful.

"So if you feel something 'unusual' when we jump, be aware this is normal. However, if you feel something is 'not right' please let us know right away," she explained. "Our transit time to the Centauri System today will be just over five minutes. On behalf of myself, my crew, and our Navigator, we hope your experience with us is a good one. Thank you."

Becka snorted. "Five minutes? Freaking show-off!"

Abby, who was sitting next to her looked confused as did the other women, except Cassie, who was grinning.

"To date, only Cassie has been able to plot a jump between Sol and Centauri in less than six hours. When we came back here, Joe plotted the jump and it lasted just under an hour. He said it was so we could eat lunch before we got to the station. If this jump is actually only five minutes, then it will officially be the fastest jump on record. Also, I don't know where he's dropping us out at; Shana didn't mention the transit time into the system."

Cassie closed her eyes and concentrated. "Close, it feels like drop out will be very close to the planet."

"If anyone can get away with it, it'll be him. Sharon, as the new Citadel Administrator, expect a strongly worded message from traffic control about this," Becka explained.

"I don't see why they should have a problem with it; space is a big place, and, as I understand it, Navigators can avoid collisions," Sharon replied.

"Actually, the equations won't compute if there is an object in the landing area, but for someone like Joe or Cassie, I'm sure they can feel if the area is clear," Becka replied.

Cassie nodded. "We can, but not all Navigators have that ability. That's why only the strongest were assigned to the exploration ships. Blind jumps are too dangerous without it."

Shortly after the jump, one of Juno's mothers came for Cassie. Her daughter had a very unusual reaction to the jump, and they would like Cassie to come help calm the girl down. When Cassie arrived, Juno's father was bright red and would not look at anyone. Young Juno was being cuddled in the arms of her other mother. She had tears in her eyes and seemed very embarrassed.

Young Juno had experienced her first orgasm, and it had been a doozy.

As amusing as the situation was, it was not something her very strict father was willing to accept. He felt she was far too young and as yet unmarried. Her reaction had shamed him.

Mentally, Cassie explained everything to Joe and asked him to come speak to the girl's father. Her reaction could not have been prevented, even if they had known it would happen. The main part of the problem was that Juno was the only one that actually spoke English and could translate. Currently, she was not allowed to speak to her father.

As it turned out, Sharon was fluent in the language and offered to translate for them. Borrowing a scarf from another passenger, she covered her head out of respect for the man and his beliefs, but refused to cover her face. That was acceptable, and Joe was able to speak to the man. It took some doing, but he was finally able to make the man understand that Juno's reaction had not been her fault, but rather a reaction of her body much like flinching from pain.

The man finally sighed and slowly shook his head. "I have had to make a great many allowances for Juno because of her gifts. I really should not try to hold her to the same standards as any other girl, because she is not like any other girl."

Joe smiled at the man. "Perhaps, as you believe, Allah gave her these gifts to help others, as no one else so much as touched her when it happened, it could be seen as him giving her a reward for the good work she did in helping to save others?"

The man looked offended for a moment, but was clearly thinking about what Joe had said. Finally, he burst out laughing. "That would be whopper of a reward!"

Joe chuckled in agreement. "If Allah did indeed give her these gifts, would it not follow that situations that arise from the gift are also from Allah, or at least simply another facet of the gift?"

He nodded agreement with Joe's words. "When Juno first exhibited these gifts, I did not tell the Mullah, as I felt he would order her death. Such can only be used in evil ways and must be destroyed. I felt Allah would never allow such a happy, beautiful child to be so horribly cursed. So in that way, we parted from our faith. So far, we feel it has been the correct path for us. However, we fear there will be a time when Juno's gifts will lead her down a path we cannot follow. Today is proof that such a day is coming."

"My friend, that is a day that every parent of a child must face. You must trust that you have prepared them for it so they may make the right decisions for themselves. That is not to say they will not make mistakes, but we can only hope that the mistakes are small enough to be corrected. As long as she is with us, Juno will always have family with her. If you are unable, one of us will step up to help. That is what family is for, is it not?" Joe asked.

"You are a rare man, Colonel," The man replied. "I will praise Allah daily for our meeting. If you will excuse me, I will see to my daughter now."

Joe agreed and both he and Sharon excused themselves. They would be arriving at the BC IV orbital in a few minutes, anyway.

As they walked away from the family, Sharon told him what Becka had said about getting a complaint for arriving so close to the station.

"Yeah, I'm sorry about that, but I couldn't see the reason for making these folks spend a day or more on the ship while we made our way into the system. I can understand why they have those rules, but I think they'll need to be updated once we get the new training system in place. Just one more thing I need to work on," Joe replied.

"May I ask what the Admiral wanted to see you for?" Sharon asked. "I can't say yet, they want to get more information before letting everyone know. I can tell you this much, when we set up the Citadel, we need to make sure there is plenty of expansion room."

She raised one elegant eyebrow. "Expansion room, huh? Okay, I'll make sure we can do that. Just the Citadel, or the community too?"

"You're just fishing for information!" Joe teased.

"Well, you can't blame me for trying," Sharon replied.

Joe stood and looked out at the small landing field of the Marcinko Special Operations Base. He was surprised it had taken them only six months to build up this force. The force was small yet, but his people were very well trained. Twelve circular landing spots were painted on the tarmac, and two of those places were empty. A week ago, he'd sent two, twelve-man teams out to 44 Bootis-Five to provide protection for the explorations of the planet and its ruins.

It had been an eventful six months. As he predicted, the major governments of Earth had taken exception to the expanding of the recruitment for the 'Project'. The Council had been ordered to surrender themselves and turn over operational control of the project to the military. Which military was something none of the Governments could agree on, and once again war was threatened.

The Council put an end to the building conflict by refusing the order. Less than an hour later, the Tokyo offices of the Black Ocean project were stormed by special operations teams from the United States, China, and the Russian Federation.

They found only an empty building.

Instead of announcing themselves to the world, the Council decided on a subtler path. While they didn't announce themselves, they didn't try to hide either. Recruitment was handled by special teams that would make contact with selected people and talk to them about joining the effort. Some declined, not believing the offer was real, but more often than not, the offer was accepted. Combined with the occasional rescue of gifted individuals, there were daily flights from Darkwater Station to BC IV, now called 'Centauri Prime' after a fictional world in a TV series.

The investigation into the 'alien' issues in the Sol System proved somewhat inconclusive until a probe was sent from Darkwater station to perform a high resolution scan of the lunar surface. The probe included a message of peaceful intent and a request for contact. If no one was there, the message would be ignored and the probe would send back far higher detailed information than NASA had been able to ever attain. Unfortunately, that's not exactly what happened.

The moon was occupied.

The inhabitants, whoever they were, stopped the probe a short way into its projected flight. They sent a message back before destroying the probe. "We know who you are and what you are doing. We do not wish contact with you. Stay away from this satellite as well as the fourth planet; we will stay away from you."

The Council had their answer in regards to the moon and Mars. While the message had not been overly hostile, the way it was worded and the destruction of the probe was viewed as potentially hostile. Several other probes were set to watch the moon closely and hopefully monitor the aliens. For now, at least, the Council did as the aliens asked and left them alone.

But they took the warning to heart, as did the people. The Council did not keep the news classified. Once they had all the information they believed they were likely to get, they presented it to the people with the promise that more information would be added if any was discovered. As a result, it was agreed to create a military for defense.