“Can we eat now?” the engineer asked after shutting down his station and spinning around.
The captain didn’t answer the question directly. “Boro, all empty fuel canisters go by the airlock. Kibi, I’ll work with you on swapping out waste containers. Sata, collect all trash from the galley, and Rini from the toilet rooms. Mati just had a very intense hour, and is off-duty.”
“I’m still shaking,” she admitted.
They all heard a dull thud against the hull.
Ilika looked at Kibi. “You did it! You explored the entire Sonmatia solar system, then endured star transit, atmospheric braking, and star station docking, without ever panicking and opening the main hatch!”
She looked back with mischief in her eyes. “There were moments I was tempted to open it with my fingernails!”
Mati and Sata howled with laughter.
“I believe,” Ilika continued, “if you check your console, you’ll find a boarding tunnel in place and breathable atmosphere outside the hatch.”
“Whoopee!” Kibi cheered as she stepped to her station. “Yep. Permission to air out the ship, captain?”
“Granted!”
They could see a walkway through the hatch, going straight as an arrow through a clear, circular boarding tunnel, but they had a quarter hour of work before they could begin the journey. After gathering trash bags and canisters
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near the hatches, Ilika had them pack a change of cloths and other personal things. Interior de-contamination took an entire day, he explained, about as long as they’d be in medical quarantine.
“Manessa,” the captain said as he shouldered his bag, “you are in command. Make sure the cleaning crew does a good job.”
“They always do, but I will monitor the process, even though I cannot technically be in command, as you know.”
Ilika smiled. “Thank you for . . . all the countless ways you kept us alive since the last time I remembered to thank you. We will see you tomorrow.”
“You are welcome, and I look forward to serving with all of you in the future.”
The captain, four ex-slaves, and one innkeeper’s daughter stood facing the hatch. They all bore rucksacks, save Mati. Rini’s bag was heavier than the others.
“The cleaning, sterilizing, and quarantine is necessary because we just came from a primitive planet with all sorts of bugs and germs that might be harmless to us, but could infect others in the Nebador Services. Our time in quarantine will depend on what the healers find. Mati will probably begin chatting with the surgeon.”
“Can we . . .” Boro began shyly, “. . . you know . . . buy some food somewhere?”
“There is no money here, Boro. Money is a way of rationing goods and services in a general society where some people would be lazy, or take more than they needed, if they could. People who do either of those are NOT
members of the Nebador Services. This is a working civilization. We don’t have time to be lazy.”
“What . . . um . . . happens to someone who takes more than they need,”
Sata asked, “like maybe too much food?”
“If they can’t grow out of it, they get a one-way trip home. I don’t think any of you need to worry. Shall we go see what’s cooking?”
Everyone nodded vigorously.
“Pilot and navigator, as you do in flight, would you lead the way?”
Sata held Mati’s hand as they made their way down the steps, through the
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hatch, and slowly along the boarding tunnel. They could see in all directions, with crystal windows of the star station not far away, and thick roots and vines weaving it all together.
Boro and Rini came next. Boro’s eyes were wide with wonder, but Rini wore a contented smile and looked like he was coming home.
Ilika and Kibi brought up the rear.
Soon the navigator and pilot stood at the end of the boarding tunnel and peered into a circular room, a bit larger than the main deck of the Manessa Kwi. About a dozen soft chairs and couches were scattered about. Around the edge, doorways with curtains, some open, led to little sleeping rooms. A double door on the opposite side was closed, and a large glass window, behind a strange machine, was currently dark.
The round table in the middle of the room, set with plates, cups, and serving dishes, drew their attention. From it came the aroma of hearty vegetable stew and baked fish.
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Sata was about to dig in when she realized everyone else was slowly sipping pinkfruit juice. She remembered their warnings about eating too quickly after being hungry, turned to the engineer beside her, and looked into his warm eyes.
He smiled back and tapped his cup against hers when she held it up.
Kibi looked around the table with sparkling eyes. “What should we know about this place, Ilika?”
He set his cup down. “You have seen other sapient people in videos and on view screens. Now you must learn to walk among them, and get used to their speech. Most people here are far more intelligent than we are.
Barely-sapient creatures, like Tera, do not roam about freely on a star station.
There are four-legged people here, but they can think circles around you, I promise. We are just monkey mammals from backward little worlds.
Remember that.”
Everyone was quiet and thoughtful for a minute as they started eating their stew and fish.
“I know what Mati’s doing here . . .” Sata began after taking the edge off her hunger.
The pilot smiled as she examined a strange vegetable on her fork.
“What will the rest of us be doing?”
“Ship maintenance, stocking supplies, getting to know the star station . . .”
Boro took another piece of fish. “Is this the center of Nebador?”
“Far from it. This is an outpost on the edge of the wilderness, like the little village of Nug in the mountains of your kingdom.”
Rini chuckled. “But without the bones and flies!”
Ilika nodded. “While we’re here, we’ll get more comfortable with the notion that our lives are intertwined with beings much greater than us, like this star station.”
“I know Manessa isn’t sapient,” Mati began, “but I think of her as smarter than me in most ways.”
Ilika nodded. “There are also sapient beings here that make us look like children, but most of them are invisible unless they want to be seen.”
“Like . . . Melorania?” Kibi posed.
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Ilika nodded while chewing and swallowing. “We’ll also get familiar with the Mission Assignment Room, where beings like Melorania are most often glimpsed. Mati will miss a few things, but she’ll be doing something very important.”
Mati nodded since her mouth wasn’t currently free for speaking.
Suddenly Sata frowned, watching Boro take a third piece of fish.
“Shouldn’t we . . . stop eating soon, so they don’t think we’re taking too much?”
Ilika smiled. “No, Sata, I wasn’t talking about having a hearty meal. Some people, when they have unlimited food, eat until their bodies blow up into blubbery masses of flesh they can barely move around with their own feet.”
Everyone frowned at the thought. Boro breathed again, and dug into his delicious baked fish.
Deep Learning Notes
Why can’t Manessa technically be in command?
Are there any hints in this chapter that Boro was hungry?
Ilika mentioned one of the differences between a “general society” and a
“working civilization.” We live in a general society. It has to find a place for everyone who is born, even if that means killing them or putting them in prison. A working civilization is more like a corporation: it doesn’t have a place for everyone, and anyone it rejects simply goes back into the general society.
Why was everyone (but Sata) slowly sipping juice, at first, when they sat down to a meal? We know they were all very hungry.
How is Nebador, where “most people here are far more intelligent than we are,” different than most places “out there” we have imagined in both science fiction and religion?
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Why wouldn’t Nebador welcome people without enough self-control to only eat what they needed?
