The Unearthing (57 page)

♦♦♦

Exhausted, elated, the citizens of the Ship were now preparing to celebrate what would technically be their last night on Earth. The following morning would begin the ceremonies, the tributes, the speeches; four hours worth, before they began boarding the Ship. Tomorrow night they would sleep their first night in the habitat and the following morning would see them depart for the heavens. A vast open-air auditorium had been built where the Passengers of the Ship would assemble in the morning, while below them and seen on gigantic monitors the official dignitaries would make austere proclamations heaping praise and prayers on the masses. Tonight however, the inductees would celebrate. Parties were ongoing everywhere throughout the Enclave. The Army had been called in from Fort Arapaho to serve as security, to ensure that the crowd remained under control. Allison and a bunch of people from her classes had been going from party to party to party and had settled on a big outdoor event in the courtyard of one of the dormitory complexes. Liquor and drugs abounded, seeming to have been brought in for the express purposes of making this night an apocalyptic celebration.

It was a measure of how excited people were to be going onto the Ship and how afraid. Not even midnight yet and the pairing off had already started; couples, trios, even quads and quintets were leaving the party arm in arm, heading by the fire escapes to the dormitory levels. Allison herself had been propositioned five times already by both men and women. Three of those offers she was honestly considering, as the party and the atmosphere of excitement, inebriation and sensual tension mounted. The mood was infectious, especially as she got high and began feeling the languid effects of the toxins in her system and the revelry around her. Most parties were well organised and under control. There were a few exceptions, of course: a small outdoor orgy brewing in one corner of the common, bloody fights between intoxicated idiots scattered here and there with a fair share of minor injuries incurred, some damage done to property in the form of petty vandalism.

In quarters where religious and cultural beliefs didn’t permit such debauchery, the parties were still in swing, though in a more reserved form. Many a faithful of many a religion spent the night instead praying for the souls of the revellers, that God would not judge them too harshly for their actions tonight, in light of the fact that they would soon be leaving this planet Earth behind.

Allison pushed her way through the crowd, feeling the warm press of bodies against the cool air of the desert night. Somewhere beyond the noise of the revelry Shipsong could still be heard, blending in with the hundred different noises her ears could pick up as she moved through the mass of people. The crowd broke before her and Allison found herself in the middle of an empty space, quiet and calm eye of a physical and emotional storm. The area in question was a quiet and secluded circle of park and benches, left mostly untouched by the crowd as if through some collective will to leave one quiet space undisturbed and create a sanctuary those in the chaos could flee to when in need of a little order. Allison sat down, tilting her head back to take in the stars and breathe deep of the night air. Her head was light and the tilting motion sent a dizzy little thrill through her. On this night it felt so good to be alive. She wondered what spectacular vistas the night sky on Habitat would reveal to her once she was aboard the Ship; for surely she would never see these stars again as they appeared from Earth.

♦♦♦

“
Good morning everyone,” Colonel Bloom said, sitting down at the conference table. A buffet had been set up along the back of the room; this was to be a breakfast meeting and everyone had plates and cups beside their consoles. The Senior Staff looked bleary this morning; there had been many late nights these last few days as the Ship got the Ship ready for launch tomorrow morning.

“
We have the induction ceremony in another hour,” Bloom said, “So, let’s keep this as brief as possible. I’m just after status reports from each department. Let’s start with provisioning. Alina?”

“
We’re good to go,” Captain Tanaka, the Ship’s Engineering, Systems and Provisioning Officer replied, “The Ship’s stores are full; the last of the heavy equipment for the in-house industries to be set up is aboard; Agriculture Systems are already producing and the Passenger’s belongings are all aboard and being delivered to the specific quarters.”

An elaborate courier system had established to make sure everyone got their baggage and belongings when they moved into their homes on Habitat. The logistics of the operation were like nothing Bloom had ever experienced. She’d helped with the evacuation of an entire city during the Australian Conflict and even then the preparations hadn’t been as complex as they were here. Of course, back then they’d only been moving people along with whatever belongings they could carry.

The citizens of the Ship had packed up most of if not their entire lives: there were the pets; from dogs and cats to fish, reptiles, birds, horses and apparently even one full-grown sow. One vintage car collector had insisted on bringing his entire collection, over one three hundred vehicles. There were articles listed on the civilian cargo manifest that Bloom considered even more unusual: a collection of over three hundred whips and riding crops (NOT belonging to one of the equestrians), thirteen antique suits of armour and a set of costumes, including two seven-foot tall fibreglass monstrosities from a pre-millennial syndicated science-fiction show.

“One day, I’m going to have to sit down and read this entire list,” Bloom said.

“Yes, Colonel you will,” Benedict agreed, “There are some pretty strange things put down there.”

“Linx me a copy,” Bloom said, “Systems?”

“We have a handle on most of the Ship’s functions, now,” Captain Tanaka said, “Once we’re skyside, we’ll be supervising and maintaining many of those systems, directly. We’ve also finished working with the Morale department and with Lieutenant Kalenga in Communications, Documentation and Library Systems, on a Shipwide computer Grid, with access to the data, music, art and video we downloaded into the Archives as well as some stuff from the Ship’s existing archives. And our Research Engineers are now working with the Ship on coming up with Ship/Earth technology hybrids. We may see some real benefits from this up here before the folks back home do.”

“Very interesting; I’d like to see a full report from R&D, as soon as possible,” Bloom replied, “Doctor Cole, is our hospital ready?”

“The main hospital is up and running and my staff is in place,” Cole said, “And we have emergency triage centers set up throughout the populated sectors of the Ship, with roving emergency response teams on patrol routes where we don’t have coverage.”

“Ship’s security?” Bloom asked.

“We’ve mapped out patrol routes throughout the Ship,” Commander Nadia Castaneda, the Security Chief said, “We have enough officers to start, but I’m going to want to recruit about five hundred more from the civilian population as soon as possible.”

“You’ll have to talk to Governor Santino about seeing if the Education department can handle a small police academy. Education’s a civilian concern and therefore under his jurisdiction,” Bloom said, “Otherwise we’ll have to train them as part of the militia. Other security issues?”

“We have operators ready to train with the Ship on its defensive systems,” Castaneda replied, “The brig facilities are up to par though I hope we never need them and we have a forensics squad ready to run.”

“Again, let’s hope we never need them,” Bloom concurred, “I think that about covers most of our immediate concerns. There isn’t much to be done as far as the Alien Studies go. Nothing pressing in any of the other departments?” Everyone else shook their heads.

“Good,” Bloom said, “Then I think that about wraps up this meeting. Just one note for the military personnel: I know that some of you have been reporting to duty without the uniform jacket on or with the jacket unbuttoned. That isn’t a problem aboard Ship, but for the ceremonies this morning you are expected to be in full uniform as we mercifully haven’t had a dress uniform issued. Duty jackets, buttoned to the top, will be expected; issue the order to your respective departments. That’s it, folks. We’ll see you all topside for the last time, in about an hour.”

♦♦♦

The sun was setting by the time the last of the passengers had boarded the Ship. The blue bands of strange energy were glowing in the evening sky, the Shipsong loud in the ears of everyone remaining on the surface as the bustle and noise of loading nearly a quarter of a million people into the gargantuan vessel died down. People had begun gathering along the new perimeter set up by the World Ship Summit nearly two days before. Everyone wanted to witness the spectacle of the Ship’s launch. Fort Arapaho, which had been home to the Ship Survey Expedition, would no longer be needed after Shiprise. As such, the base was to be decommissioned.

Sequestered within the Ship it was a ceremony that Colonel Bloom and Major Benedict were sorry to miss. As the flag was lowered and removed from Fort Arapaho, the moon was halfway through the night sky. The Shipsong echoed powerfully and eerily throughout the area. Systems and sensors would record the coming day’s events for the sake of science, history and the public interest. They stood now, silent mechanical sentinels solemnly waiting for the Ship’s departure the following morning. Aboard Concord Three, the space station’s new crew set every single Earth-facing monitoring device they had to watch the Ship.

♦♦♦

In the vacant Fort Arapaho, The Shipsong was stronger now, echoing off of deserted walls and empty buildings, picked up by microphones and monitors scattered throughout the compound and the surrounding desert. As the first rays of the sun poked over the horizon, coloring the cold desert night, stirring awake those eager observers who had fallen asleep a remarkable thing happened; something totally unexpected, something that immediately stirred everyone. As dawn broke, the Shipsong stopped.

After coming in search of intelligent life, after being damaged and buried during the Cataclysm, after lying dormant beneath the Earth for aeons, the Ship had been discovered, unearthed itself and communicated with intelligent life, fulfilling its ages-old directives. And now at long last, the Ship again had crew and passengers, and it was at long last completing its mission, and beginning the journey home.

FINALE

SHIPRISE

Allison McQuire woke to the rich scent of coffee brewing. It took her a long moment to remember that she was deep within the Ship. Her quarters on Habitat were still not unpacked; her bed was there but little else. Artificial sunlight streamed welcomingly through the round windows. The walls were a bare creamy yellow, the floor black, almost like polished marble. Every room was backlit through the ceiling as in the rest of the Ship. Allison rolled sluggishly out of bed and padded her way into the kitchen, furnished with the latest available appliances, to fix herself a cup of coffee. She’d set the coffee maker the night before; it had been one of the first things she’d unpacked besides a change of clothes for today. Outside, the beautiful greenspace of Habitat stretched out: hybrid trees casting cool shade, the generated sky a rich and beautiful blue. The air was fresh down here; fresher than she’d ever known on Earth.

Allison recalled the trip to the Ship yesterday afternoon: Following agonizingly dull induction ceremonies with speeches, prayers, musical tributes and--Goddess help her--interpretive dance numbers, the Passengers had been sequestered into groups. Then it was on to the embarkation zone according to the number assigned to each group. Allison had been in Group Nine so she had had to wait nearly five hours before embarkation. And then Embarkation itself was another completely surreal experience.

They were herded outdoors from their staging area, where a fleet of hundred and fifty-passenger busses sat waiting. The busses were all aimed down the Ramp, towards the Pyramid network. As each bus was loaded it drove off while the next one in line began taking on passengers. Once she’d taken her seat on the bus, what it was she was about to embark upon settled on her shoulders. As the bus pulled away from the terminal her last view of the Earth was one of the desert vista to either side of the Ramp. The Ship was beginning to overtake the scene, and she found herself staring into the mute face of a young Black man who was, like her, sitting alone in the throes of realization of what was to come. He looked as she did: nervous, eager, and afraid. They held each other’s gaze a long moment, silently sharing each other’s worries of what was to come. Then they broke contact, looking back out the windows. The gold and blue of the Ship was visible everywhere now beyond the leading edge of the Ramp. They were nearly there. Everyone rode in silence, listening to the Shipsong, loud even through the walls of the bus. The bus turned, taking a secondary route to the embarkation point they’d been assigned. Someone at the front of the bus wearing the gold-and-black uniform of the Ship’s crew was giving them instructions; where to go when they arrived at their embarkation point, what signs to follow, and if they got lost how to interact with the Ship and find their way to the registration areas. The Passengers had all been walked through this already but it was nerve wracking about to be doing it for real. Allison thought of the party the night before, and of the night before that, her last with Laura. She’d have memories of her dearest friend for a lifetime but their last hours together had been bittersweet and achingly brief.