The Ninth Orb (3 page)

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As project leader, Eden was among the first to disembark. Ship’s captain, Ivy Sterling left the bridge in the hands of her second in command, formed up a squad and accompanied Eden and the six sector leaders that stepped into the particle transporters and beamed plantward.

Their arrival did not go unnoticed. They generated a surprising amount of excitement among the defenders of the installation across the valley from New Savannah when they regenerated on the transporter platform on the roof of the municipal building. Ivy, who’d moved to the low wall that surrounded the platform as soon as she’d materialized and lifted her field glasses to study the fortifications looked grim as she lowered them at last and turned to Eden. “They might not have looked that interested in the colony, but they’ve been watching it pretty closely. They noticed our arrival.”

Eden snatched the field glasses from Ivy and lifted them to her eyes. As her vision focused a jolt went through her. One of the soldiers on the distant wall held something very like the field glasses she had, and he was looking directly at her. As she watched, he lowered them. His expression was unreadable, making it impossible for Eden to determine the gravity of the situation, but she recognized the face--or thought she did, anyway. It looked like the same male she’d had such a close encounter with before on the bridge of the ship.

On the other hand, she hadn’t really seen any of the others very closely. There might not be enough difference in their appearance to tell them apart.

She shrugged. “It might just be coincidence that the male decided to look at about the time we arrived. He didn’t look particularly disturbed.”

“Then why did he sound an alarm?” Ivy demanded tightly.

Eden blinked. “Sound an alarm?” she repeated.

Ivy lifted her arm, pointing to the wall. When Eden raised the field glasses to her eyes again, she saw that Ivy was right. All along the wall facing them soldiers were taking up defensive positions.

Frowning thoughtfully, Eden lowered the glasses again. “That’s a defensive maneuver,” she said finally. “They don’t know what to expect, so they’re preparing--just in case. Why don’t we try ignoring them and see if they get the message that we’re not interested in tangling with them?”

“They might take it as contempt--which could totally piss them off.”

Eden looked up worriedly. “Check the fields. If they’re operating at a hundred percent, then I don’t think we have anything to worry about.”

One of the soldiers that had accompanied them plugged into her system and called up the information. “Computer verifies that all defensive systems are at one hundred percent,” she responded after a few moments.

Still frowning thoughtfully, Eden nodded. “We’re just going to have to risk them taking exception at this point. We still haven’t cracked their language and I couldn’t communicate with them if I tried. If our presence seems to stir them up too much, we’ll return to the ship and wait until they settle down a bit to try again.”

Resisting the temptation to try to communicate with gestures, which could easily be misinterpreted, Eden focused her attention on the city itself with an effort, gazing out at the sprawl below them. In a sense, New Savannah was as cold, boring, and unimaginative as the ship. There was actually pleasure to be derived from the rigidly square, level, totally symmetrical buildings and roadways, however, primarily because of the contrast between the city and the backdrop of cerulean sky, craggy purple mountains, and the view of the valley that lay before the city.

Heartened, Eden turned after a time and led the group across the roof to the roof access door. It opened readily to her identification and the group filed into the lift. As curious as she was about the administrative offices, they weren’t really high in order of importance. Ignoring the temptation to check them out, she ordered the elevator to the ground level. The heels of their boots echoed hollowly on the stone flooring as they exited the empty building and paused outside to examine the city that bots had built.

Beyond those that had been built for specific tasks like the municipal building, the hospital, and the police department, none of the buildings had been claimed or assigned and there was nothing to greatly separate any one from another beyond the dimensions. But there was a variation in the sizes and heights that added interest to the otherwise bland cityscape and Eden could easily see that the colonists, once they’d had the chance to settle, could personalize their space to give the city the warmth it was lacking.

Crossing the walk outside the municipal building, she stepped down onto the main roadway. At once the road began to move smoothly. Bracing herself for balance, Eden studied the outer façade of the buildings that would make up the city’s marketing center as she moved past. Behind her, she could hear the sector chiefs discussing the merits of the buildings and the faint creak of armor and weaponry as the soldiers shifted uneasily, obviously having found no comfort in the computer’s assurance that the security systems were fully functional.

As their uneasiness filtered through to her, Eden found her thoughts wandering from the city she was supposed to be inspecting to the aliens across the way.

More specifically, her thoughts were on one in particular. She could lie to herself all she wanted, but she knew the alien she’d seen in the field glasses was the same one that had jump started her hormones when she’d first seen him in the viewing screen on the bridge.

How close, she wondered, were they to human males? Close enough that companionship might be an option? Recreation if not procreation? They had their frozen pops to insure the continuation and purity of their species. If by chance there was a possibility of compatibility, she couldn’t help but think that, politically speaking, it would be a very good gesture that could help make peace between the two camps.

Upon consideration, she decided she probably should amend that to ‘a sort of peace’ because if they were human-like at all, the difference in their cultures wasn’t going to be the only thing the colonists would find to disagree with them about.

Chapter Three

When they had thoroughly inspected the colony, Eden and the others beamed up to the ship once more to begin the battle over territory, leaving the squad on the ground to hold the city. The structures weren’t all completed, but they wouldn’t need all of them at this point and certainly not for a council meeting. The main thing was that there was no comfort to be found. None of the buildings were furnished and she wasn’t ready, yet, to give the go ahead on offloading such things.

They were met by curious colonists on their return.

Eden wasn’t surprised. Even the more fearful among them were anxious to get off the ship for a little while if it was safe enough to do so. After dividing the colonists into lots of twenty five, she allowed the first group to descend to explore the city and enjoy the openness of being beyond the metal bulkheads of the ship and walking in real gravity and atmosphere rather than artificial.

They began the meeting with the caveat that the plans they were making might not actually be implemented, but it seemed everyone was now willing to agree that there were only two choices--stay or return. They certainly weren’t equipped to try an alternate planet for colonization. The construction materials they’d brought had been expended on building New Savannah and they would be reduced to living in mud and stick huts if they tried to colonize another planet.

That being the case, everyone had begun to feel very possessive about the planet they’d staked out to claim as their own.

Eden had a pounding headache long before they’d managed to settle much more than a quarter of the territory among the sects. Deciding finally that it was enough to agree on the buildings that would be used for specific work, Eden adjourned the meeting.

“If we do decide to stay, we can settle disputes over living quarters as they arise. I’m sure there will be some--there always are. But everyone has options and we should be able to settle things agreeably enough.”

The sector leaders didn’t seem completely satisfied with that ruling, but they accepted it and departed to discuss the proceedings with the colonists in their sectors.

Eden merely sat gazing absently at the far bulkhead for a while, rubbing her temples to ease the tension.

The trek had seemed endless. She supposed, in the back of her mind, she’d always known that when they arrived she was going to have her hands full, but it had seemed like such a distant possibility that it hadn’t actually seemed real to her. They hadn’t even been orbiting a full day yet and already she was beginning to feel the weight of her office.

Abruptly, she pushed herself away from the conference table and rose. She couldn’t presently deal with the root of the problem and until she could she wasn’t going to borrow worries. Striding from the council chambers she paused in the corridor for several moments and finally headed toward the bridge. Without surprise, she discovered that the viewing screens were on and the crew was studying the alien installation.

Ivy’s second in command, Lt. Sarah Carter, glanced up as Eden stepped from the lift. “I didn’t expect to see you back so soon.”

Eden smiled faintly. “As tempting as it was to stay a while,” she responded wryly, “it’s damned uncomfortable and I thought it best to settle the territory as soon as possible.”

Sarah’s dark red brows rose. “You’re going forward?”

“Any word from Houston?” Eden countered.

“Dead air so far, but I don’t expect a response for a few hours yet.”

Nodding, Eden crossed to stand closer to the viewing screens, studying them. “You’ve been transmitting the images to them?”

“I haven’t been screening them, if that’s what you’re asking.”

Eden glanced at her. “It didn’t occur to me that you would. What did you make of the activity when we arrived?”

Sarah frowned. “Honestly?”

Eden smiled thinly. “I’d like an honest evaluation, yes. Sugar coating isn’t going to be very helpful.”

“They looked hopeful and horrified at the same time, if you ask me--assuming I correctly interpreted the expressions I saw.”

Eden frowned. “That sort of described our own feelings on the matter, but I doubt it was for the same reasons. Hopefulness to see some action, you think?”

Sarah grinned. “My guess would be not military action.”

Eden’s reaction was purely feminine. It embarrassed her. She felt her cheeks redden. “I think that’s just wishful thinking on your part,” she retorted.

Sarah chuckled. “Maybe, but it hasn’t been so long that I’ve forgotten what a man looks like when he has fucking on his mind.” She got up from her seat and crossed the deck to stand next to Eden, pointing. “These here, along the walls--the soldiers didn’t really give much away about what they were thinking one way or the other. The workers, that’s a different matter altogether. Hardly a peep out of them the entire time we’ve been studying them, then your group arrived and all of a sudden they were chattering like magpies. The computer collected a good bit of the speech patterns.”

Pausing, she turned to the communications officer. “Give us a playback, Rheames.”

Eden frowned as she listened. It was a relief to discover that the aliens seemed to have vocal chords similar to humans. The words were just so much gibberish to her ears, and yet the patterns and tones were enough like human speech that it might almost have been an Earth language she was hearing. “Any clue yet what they might have been talking about?”

“The computer hasn’t finished collating the data yet, but it seems certain they realized you were all females. What isn’t clear to me is what they made of it. As I said, they looked hopeful and at the same time horrified.”

“Maybe because we’re not the same species?”

Sarah frowned. “Maybe. I got the feeling they felt threatened because it was females--which wasn’t something I would’ve expected. I don’t know why and I’m probably wrong, but I still sensed that.”

Eden digested Sarah’s comments, trying to decide whether she could place any faith in the woman’s intuition. Finally, she dismissed it. Even if there was something to Sarah’s assessment, neither of them had a clue of why the aliens might feel threatened by them and if they did they were being surprisingly non-aggressive about it. “I assume from that that there’s still been no sign of females among the aliens?”

Sarah shook her head. “The computer did a count. What you see is all there is--about six hundred altogether--which means they outnumber us about three to one, they’re a hell of a lot bigger physically besides which they seem to be, on average, a good bit stronger than human males, and from what I can see they aren’t far enough behind us technologically to give us a big advantage either. Let’s hope they remain as non-aggressive as they appear to be at this point because I’m not sure the shields would hold against a determined assault from an army like that.”

Eden merely nodded, trying to keep her grim thoughts to herself. As she watched, the aliens seem to pause almost as one. Excitement rippled through them after a moment and she could see their mouths moving in speech, could see them straining to stare toward New Savannah in the distance, though she doubted they had the capability of seeing so far when she’d already noticed the one with the field glasses.

She assumed they were field glasses, or something like that anyway.

“The new group just arrived,” Sarah pointed out, drawing Eden’s attention toward another screen.

Eden studied the group that appeared on the pad and then turned her attention to the aliens again. “Maybe it’s the particle transporter that unnerves them? I mean, if they aren’t as advanced as we are they might never have seen anything like it. Watching us appear and disappear would be enough to scare them if they don’t understand it.”

Sarah shrugged. “Maybe. You see what I meant, though?”

“I do. Again, though, their reaction is strongly reminiscent of our own--excitement to be here, disturbed to discover we aren’t alone, and that the company is strange. I doubt they’re any more accustomed to seeing aliens than we are--and I don’t think I would’ve been less unnerved if the colony had turned out to be all females.”