In the emergency shelter, Kibi pulled a warm robe closely around her and gazed at the display screen at the end of the table where six people could eat or work. On the screen, the rising sun lit up the tallest of the Monuments of Zolko, but the palace foundation was still in shadow.
Behind her, Ilika worked in a tiny galley sandwiched between shelves of supplies, racks of fuel canisters, and bunk beds.
“What smells so good?” Kibi asked, putting her bare feet up on the seat across from her.
“Eggs, mushrooms, and onions . . . cooked in a little bit of tasty nut oil.”
“Yum! We’d better finish before the others get back, so we don’t have to share!”
Ilika grinned, and carried two trays to the table.
The Manessa Kwi arrived about an hour later, rotated until the airlock aligned with the shelter’s hatch, and settled onto its struts. Rini poked his head in. “Are we interrupting?”
The four from the ship received a complete tour of the emergency shelter.
Ilika noticed Boro’s eyes sparkling when the engineer saw the rack of fuel canisters. “Boro, we should get some liquid number five. Kibi will show you how to log it.”
“Yeah! Space thruster fuel!”
“I’ve already picked out a case of pinkfruit juice,” Kibi announced. “Just use this knowledge processor, open the shelter transaction list, and add a new record.”
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“How much does it cost?” Boro asked with a slight frown, remembering Ilika didn’t have much gold or silver left after Rini’s marriage ceremony.
Ilika smiled. “Nebador doesn’t use money. We keep different kinds for visiting planets like yours. There, I had to take metal coins. Sometimes it’s seashells, sometimes just numbers stored in a machine.”
Boro looked confused. Mati and Sata both shrugged.
“You’ll learn more about that at Satamia Star Station. So . . . what did you learn on your adventure without Kibi and me?”
“Well . . .” Boro began with hesitation, “most of it we want to show you.
But there is one thing . . . at first we weren’t sure we should even tell you . . .
but we decided to, and since Sata discovered it . . .”
All eyes turned to the navigator. She took a slow, deep breath. “We discovered . . . how to override . . . any commands you’ve given Manessa . . .
that would keep her from helping us with something.”
Kibi’s eyes snapped open wide. “Teach me!”
Everyone else glanced at Ilika. He was trying to hold in a smile.
“I thought so!” Rini said. “He wanted us to know.”
“It’s a time-honored rule,” Ilika began, “that a commander must have complete command to deal with unexpected situations, the ability to change any previous command or break any rule. Every emergency is different. No one can anticipate what will be needed. That is one reason Manessa, who is only sentient, must have a sapient crew.”
Boro’s mouth twisted back and forth for a moment. “But only in an emergency, right?”
“That’s a little harsh,” Ilika replied. “I think it would be better to say, only in need. Let’s say we’re doing a training flight, and I’ve restricted your engine power. The exercise may be hard, but you’re learning things, and I’m watching for dangers. Then, during the exercise, I have to step into the toilet room, and while I’m in there, your flight conditions change. You have to be willing to override my previous limits because you know the current conditions, and sitting on the toilet, I don’t.”
Several cheesy grins greeted Ilika as he looked around at his crew members.
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Ilika and Kibi took the front two seats in the passenger area.
Mati read the story of the Monuments of Zolko as she slowly moved the ship from pillar to pillar. Each ancient face gazed at them from the large screen over the steward’s station, etched by dust and sand until the species could only be guessed, human or ursine, avian or reptile.
Boro read the story of the City of Memna, then continued with his own discoveries of charcoal pits, mural paintings, and whispering stones. The screen alternated between views of the city below and photographs selected by the engineer.
Rini told the story of Nosta and the Arch of Glimpa, while Mati slowly gave them a view from every angle. He described his own meditations on and under the Arch, and finished by telling of his rescue in the dark with one minute of air remaining.
Sata began with her embarrassing assumption that trigonometry could solve her navigation problem. Kibi admitted she would have made the same mistake. Ilika only smiled.
The navigator read the story of the Mines of Sarto while Mati hovered near the boulder and mine tailings, all that remained of a once proud and determined community. Sata finished by presenting the souvenir crystals.
“It’s time for another display container!” Kibi asserted. “Do we have anything else from the fourth planet?”
Rini brought out a cup containing a handful of sand he had pocketed from beneath the Arch of Glimpa, about where Nosta had probably turned to dust twenty thousand years before.
Over soup and freshly-baked biscuits, Ilika looked around the table at his crew, more confidence showing in their eyes and bearing than ever before. He noticed that Kibi wore a thoughtful expression.
“If these Nebador markers are numbers forty-seven through fifty-two,” she pondered, “there must be others all over the planet.”
“There are,” Ilika confirmed with a nod. “Several hundred. We could spend weeks studying the history of this planet, going from marker to marker, reading text and looking at pictures.”
Mati looked up from her soup bowl with cold, flashing eyes.
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“But we have important things ahead,” Ilika said, smiling at his pilot, “and few of the markers make good puzzles, like these do. Want to take us out, Kibi?”
The steward of the Manessa Kwi grinned. “Flight objective?”
“Let’s start with a stationary orbit.”
Mati smiled. “Easy!”
“Then we’ll put Sata and Boro to work figuring out how to get us to Sonmatia Five.”
“No problem!” the engineer declared. “I’ve got fuel out my ears, including space-thruster!”
They quickly scraped their bowls, and Rini dashed for the galley to do the dishes.
“A stationary orbit . . .” Kibi pondered aloud from the command chair.
“How high is that on this planet, Sata?”
The navigator began working at her console. “About a hundred thousand kilometers. Chart on channel five.”
“Got it,” Mati said.
“Rini, anything up there?” Kibi asked.
He looked over his displays. “Just two little moons. I’ll add them to the chart.”
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“Ilika!” Mati shrieked. “The orbit you want is between the two moons!”
The captain grinned from the steward’s station. “Those orbits are more than a hundred thousand kilometers apart. Do you think you can squeeze Manessa in?”
Mati growled under her breath, leaned back in her chair, and stared at the graph. “I just don’t want to get whacked by a big rock.”
“Think
in
three dimensions, Mati. Remember, almost everything in the solar system is in one flat plane. You already made use of that, instinctively, back at Sonmatia Three.”
Mati sat up straight and tapped at her display selector.
“Okay, I get it. Don’t worry about the moons, just go over or under.”
“Pay attention, Sata and Boro. You’re going to need this technique to get us to Sonmatia Five.”
Sata and Boro looked at each other.
“I need anti-mass and ion five,” Mati said.
Kibi checked the status of all stations, and Rini produced a weather map showing a dust storm to the east. Mati slowly lifted the ship to a thousand meters, and with a nod from Kibi, the Manessa Kwi streaked away toward Sonmatia Four’s north pole.
Deep Learning Notes
Ilika was able to cook eggs for himself and Kibi in the emergency shelter because eggs are very easy to dehydrate, powder, and store. You can buy
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them in many good camping supply stores. After adding a little water, they make reasonably good scrambled eggs. Mushrooms and onions, of course, can also be dried or freeze-dried. You will only have trouble if you insist on eggs over-easy.
What, in your opinion, is the purpose of money?
Can you think of a culture that used metal coins for money? Sea shells?
Numbers stored in a machine?
In addition to overriding a previous commander’s orders, any piloting situation (as we first noted in Book Four) could require the crew to bend, even break, the rules. FAR (Federal Aviation Regulations in the USA) 91.3(b) states “In an in-flight emergency requiring immediate action, the pilot in command may deviate from any rule . . . to the extent required to meet that emergency.” Breaking the rules “well” is one of the things that clearly separates adults from children.
“Ursine” is the adjective that refers to the entire bear family of Ursidae.
“Ursine” rhymes with “equine” (the horse family).
Two diagrams show the Sonmatia Four planetary system. Why did Mati have trouble thinking of a safe route into planetary orbit (the dashed line) when she was looking at the first diagram?
