‘’I already feel like a chicken about to be roasted on a spit.’ said Frida Skarsgard while eyeing the image of the Sun which now nearly filled the forward half of the holographic screens of the bridge sphere.
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‘’Aren’t we all, Frida?’ replied Tina, sitting in her command chair. ‘’SPIRIT, the ship is now all yours.’
‘’Thank you, Tina. I am now accelerating on a tangent run next to the Sun.
Protective shields are to maximum. Micro-jump in 46 seconds.’
‘’Here goes nothing.’ whispered Tina to herself. The next forty seconds were spent in silence on the bridge, while the image of the Sun was being retransmitted around the ship to allow the crew and passengers to live through that epic moment. At the last seconds, Renée d’Argenteuil spoke up from her weapons station.
‘’SHIELDS STILL HOLDING! AM PUTTING PROTECTIVE COVERS OVER
OUR EXTERNAL OPTICAL AND THERMAL SENSORS.’ she announced before muttering to herself in French. ‘’Ça passe ou ça casse6!’
Then, a brief flash of orange light, tinted with a bit of yellow, permeated the bridge sphere and the rest of the ship for a fraction of a second, marking their micro-jump.
Tina, who had been holding in her breath, then blew air out in relief on seeing that they were now in the darkness of Space, apparently intact. She then started giving orders around.
‘’Reena, establish our position and course. Frida, put us back into low Earth polar orbit. To all departments, check for possible damages and casualties. Report via FIXER.’
Next, she looked at Roshana Golshan, who was occupying the V.I.P. observer chair to her left.
‘’Well, that went better than I expected, Roshana. It now remains to be seen if your maneuver succeeded in bringing us forward in time and by how many years.’
‘’I will gladly take any positive result, Tina.’
‘’Me too! We will know about that soon enough, once we will able to observe what is going on at the surface of the Earth.’
Reena Shapour then reported verbally to Tina.
‘’We are now at a distance of 2.7 Astronomical Units from the Sun, close to the orbit of Mars. The Sun seems to have moved position quite significantly compared to before our jump. This would tend to indicate that we indeed moved in time. Positively or negatively, I don’t know.’
6 Ça passe ou ça casse!: We go through or we break. Popular expression used in France when one faces a dire situation with an uncertain outcome.
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‘’Please, make it a move towards the future.’ muttered Roshana to herself. After another four anxious minutes, the voice of SPIRIT came on the intercom.
‘’FIXER reports no damages or casualties, except for some singed paint on our external hull, Tina.’
‘’Thank the stars! We should know soon enough if this worked.’
‘’From the continued absence of any visible artificial light on the nightside of Earth, I would say that we are still in pre-technological times. However, remember that this stayed so for a good 23 centuries, until the Industrial Revolution of the Nineteenth Century. We could still have advanced forward by many centuries.’
‘’I fervently hope so, SPIRIT. We will now have to wait for our historians to have a good look at Earth from up close.’
The answer from the history department came some two hours later, with Professor Samuel Shmelling contacting Tina via the ship’s intercom.
‘’Good news, Captain: we definitely went forward in time. The Greek city of Sparta has markedly declined, while Rome seems to be at the apex of its power and glory. We can also surmise a fairly precise date to this present by the fact that the city of Londinium seems to have been recently sacked and is still burning. That historical event happened around the Summer of the year 60 C.E.7, when the Celtic tribes led by Queen Boadicea took and burned what would much later become London. Shortly thereafter, the army of Queen Boadicea was defeated by the Romans somewhere around High Cross, in the Leicestershire, with Boadicea fleeing the battlefield with her two daughters and later on either committing suicide by poison or dying of a disease. However, those two last outcomes are still wildly disputed among historians.’
Tina bent a bit forward in her command chair, her interest aroused.
‘’Queen Boadicea is a historical character of significant importance, Professor Shmelling. Her revolt nearly resulted in the Romans deciding to leave the British Isles, something that would have drastically changed known history. I am authorizing your department to use up to four of our reconnaissance drones in order to locate and identify Queen Boadicea and to then follow her, so that we could ascertain what was her final fate.’
‘’And what will we do once we find her, Captain?’
7 C.E.: Common Era. Non-religious designation for the Christian Era (A.D.).
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‘’I am not sure yet, Professor. Just find her and follow her. If she is about to die, then warn me in advance.’
‘’Will do, Captain.’ replied Shmelling, obviously liking those orders from Tina. On her part, Tina smiled to Roshana after that exchange.
‘’So, we did move forward in time in the direction of the future, and this by about 532 years. Not bad at all. Another four or five maneuvers like this and we will be back in the 24th Century. How precisely do you think that we could control those jumps in time, Roshana?’
‘’Well, this was our first attempt and a little bit of a Hail Mary, but we should be able to refine our jumps as we go and gain more experience. We should eventually arrive in our proper time within a few years of our disappearance from the region of Canis Majoris.’
‘’Well, arriving within a few days only of that date would be nice but would also be quite unrealistic. A couple of years would still make me happy.’
‘’Me as well, Tina. So, what do we do now?’
‘’We stay in Earth orbit for a few days, in order to give time to our historians to visually document this time period, then we will attempt our second micro-jump near the Sun.’
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CHAPTER 9 – QUEEN BOADICEA
01:24 (Greenwich Meridian Time)
Thursday, September 18, 60 C.E.
(21 days since encounter with black hole)
Forest in the Leicestershire, British Isles
Boadicea, hiding inside a forest with her
two teenage daughters, held them tightly against
herself, trying to reassure them as a large group of Roman cavalrymen went by some thirty meters
away, following the dirt trail passing along the edge of the forest. Thankfully, the night helped hide the Iceni queen and her daughters, Maeve and Brigid, and the Romans trotted by without seeing them. As they disappeared in the night, Boadicea thought with bitterness about how her fortune had turned around in only a few weeks. A mere month ago, after having burned down two Roman towns, she had thrown her army against a Roman force she outnumbered over ten to one. She had been confident of victory then, to the point of letting the women and children of her warriors come close to the battlefield in order to let them watch their men fight and slaughter the despised invaders. Instead of a victory for the Celts, that battle had turned into a massacre in which Boadicea’s army had been crushed by a disciplined and much better equipped foe. The Celtic warriors had been brave but they wore next to no armor except for their large shields and they had simply rushed at the Romans in a disorganized mob, while the Romans were wearing armored vests, helmets and shields and had again demonstrated the iron discipline and organization that had made them such dangerous enemies. Having positioned themselves in a narrow defile, the Romans had let the Celts run at them, waiting behind their solid rows of rectangular shields and throwing a rain of their pilums, short spears ending in a soft iron tip and shaft which bent after piercing a shield, making it hard for the bearer of that shield to pull that pilum off, thus impeding his use of his shield. As a result, the large majority of Boadicea’s 140,000 warriors had been slaughtered, with their families then either massacred by the Romans or captured as slaves. In the days following the battle, the Romans had mercilessly pursued the
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survivors, showing no pity or mercy. Boadicea herself had tried to fight on while pursued but had been forced to flee with her two daughters and a small group of loyal warriors.
Then, two days ago, her chariot had broken down and her two horses had collapsed from exhaustion as a pursuing Roman cavalry squadron was closing in on her. Her warriors had then sacrificed themselves, succeeding in delaying the Romans long enough to let her flee on foot with her two daughters. Now, tired, dirty and hungry, she was finding herself being hunted down like a vulgar animal.
Realizing that she had lost for good and could not expect anything but the worse for herself and her daughters if found by the Romans, Boadicea took a bitter decision and took out of her belt purse a small flask, then unplugged it open. Making her two daughters look at her, she then softly spoke to them.
‘’Maeve, Brigid, I am afraid that the Romans will continue to hunt us down until they will have caught us. Then, we can’t expect anything but the worse from them. I am not ready to see you being taken into slavery, or worse, by them. I have a small flask of poison with me, a poison I intend to use now for the three of us. I want...’
‘’NO! DON’T DO IT!’
Startled by that shout in Celtic that had come from within the forest, Boadicea hurried to turn around while grabbing her javelin. She then saw in the moonlight the silhouette of a tall woman with long hair and wearing a long dress, like her. The woman was alone and apparently unarmed, something that made Boadicea relax a bit.
‘’Who are you? How did you find me like this in the middle of the night?’
‘’My name is Boudica and I was named in your honor, Queen Boadicea. I came to save you and your two daughters.’
‘’Named in my honor?’ asked a confused and surprised Boadicea.
‘’Yes! May I approach?’
The friendly attitude of that woman and the fact that she spoke Celtic finally made Boadicea lower her javelin.
‘’You may come closer.’
The woman did so and finally stopped a mere two paces from Boadicea and her daughters, allowing them to eye a young woman dressed in a Celtic long dress and wearing long red hair. Maeve then noticed something that made her speak to her mother.
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‘’She strangely looks like you, Mother. She also has the same height as you and said that she was named Boudica. How could that be?’
It was the newcomer who actually answered Maeve’s question in a calm and friendly voice.
‘’Explaining that would take a long time and you may not believe me then, so I will let you understand by showing myself what I am, after I will have been able to bring you to a safe place.’
‘’Do you have horses for us nearby?’ asked Boadicea, hope coming back to her.
Strangely, the woman smiled at her question while shaking her head.
‘’No, I don’t have horses. I have better: a flying chariot.’
‘’A flying chariot?’ said Boadicea, feeling anger flaring in her at that nonsense.
‘’You take us for fools, woman?’
‘’If you will turn around and look at the forest opening next to the trail, you will see that flying chariot in the process of landing in that opening, Queen Boadicea.’
The three celts turned around then, expecting to see nothing. Instead, they gasped in shock on seeing a large, dark object which was silently flying down from the sky and was about to land on the long grass of the opening. Boadicea looked with disbelief at that impossible sight, then at the unknown woman.
‘’What...what is this magic?’
‘’That is no magic, Queen Boadicea. It is instead a machine built by a very advanced science. But we should get aboard it now, before the Romans decide to come back this way. I promise you that you will be safe with us and will be treated with respect and decency.’
‘’Us? And who is that ‘us’, woman?’
‘’Other people like me who use highly advanced science and knowledge. But let’s not waste more time with questions. You will have plenty of time to ask all the questions you want once you will be safe aboard my ship.’
Finally deciding to trust that stranger and also egged on by the possibility that the Romans could return and find them, Boadicea was starting to encourage her two daughters to walk towards the ‘flying chariot’ when the stranger took one step and put one hand forward, pointing at the flask of poison still held by Boadicea.
‘’You won’t need this where you are going, Queen Boadicea. You better throw it out and leave it here.’
Suspicion then returned to Boadicea, who stared hard at the woman.
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‘’And why would I believe you, woman?’
‘’First, my name is Boudica, not ‘woman’. Second, do Romans have flying chariots?’
That simple statement then convinced Boadicea to give the benefit of the doubt to the stranger. However, she still held on to her javelin as she threw the flask of poison away, making the stranger nod her head.
‘’Good! If you will now follow me.’
Still suspicious, Boadicea nonetheless encouraged her two daughters to follow with her the stranger towards the large dark mass now sitting in the long grass. It was roughly shaped like a wedge and was the size of a large house. Reasoning that even the Romans could not build such a fantastic object, Boadicea and her daughters followed the stranger to the back of the object and climbed a sort of ramp at the rear. Boadicea couldn’t help stop at seeing the red lights illuminating the interior of some kind of large box in which seats lined both sides. As she was about to pass the sill of the ramp, Boadicea rapped her knuckles on the contours of the door, getting a metallic noise.
‘’This chariot is made of iron?’
‘’Not iron, Queen Boadicea, but titanium, a metal which you don’t know and which is much lighter than iron while being very tough.’
‘’Tit...anium? Decidedly, you speak of strange things, my friend.’
That attracted a new smile on the stranger’s lips, who then pointed at the padded seats along one side of the box-like chariot.
‘’You will see many strange and wondrous things tonight, Queen Boadicea, but there is no need for you to be afraid of us or of what you are going to see.’
Boudica then twisted her head to look forward and spoke in a language totally unknown by Boadicea. At least it was not Latin. The access ramp of the chariot then rose up and closed with a metallic ‘clank’. Following the instructions of Boudica, Boadicea and her two daughters sat down on the seats pointed by the stranger, finding them very comfortable. Boudica then sat next to Boadicea and spoke to her in a sober but still friendly tone.
‘’My friends, what I will say to you and what you will see in the next few hours may appears like magic or sorcery to you but you have no need to be afraid. We saved you from the Romans to offer you a new life in a friendly place. This chariot will now fly up high, very high, to join a huge flying ship waiting for us. Don’t be afraid when you will see kinds of windows appear along the interior walls of this chariot, which we call a
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‘shuttle’. They will let you see outside our chariot as we fly away. Now, could I convince you to put away your weapons, Queen Boadicea? We wish no harm to you or your daughters but you could represent a danger to our citizens by possibly reacting instinctively and violently to what you will see. Know that our average citizens do not go around with weapons: only our soldiers and law enforcement officers do carry weapons.’
Boadicea then had to ask a question, overwhelmed by all this and by the images of the Earth and night sky she could now see on the ‘windows’ mentioned by Boudica.
‘’But who are you, you and your people? And from where are you coming?’
‘’We came from the far future, from nearly three millenniums away.’ answered Boudica, sounding most serious. ‘’We are presently in the process of returning to our time period via a succession of temporal trips and we intend to offer you and your daughters a new and peaceful life in that far future.’
Boadicea, stunned speechless by this, finally decided that Boudica was telling the truth to her and handed her weapons to her, making Boudica nod her head and smile again.
‘’Thank you for having confidence in me, Queen Boadicea. You will not regret it.’
For the next few minutes, Boadicea and her two daughters stayed silent, captivated by what they were seeing through the magic windows of their flying chariot.
First, as it climbed up in the sky while taking speed, they were able to see more and more of the land they had been on. As they got higher and higher, they saw the horizon starting to look curved, then were able to distinguish the waters surrounding the British Isles. Next, as they flew into the daylight portion of the planet, they were able to see the blue orb of Earth’s atmosphere, with its dispersed clouds, and the distinct curvature of the planet. Young Maeve couldn’t help speak then in a captivated voice.
‘’This is so beautiful.’
‘’This is Earth, the homeworld of Humanity and one of the planets on which we now live in the 24th Century. We are now able to travel between the stars and explore the Universe and have encountered a number of other intelligent races, most of them friendly, others hostile and dangerous. A few of those non-Human aliens live and work on my ship and you will be able to see and meet them once aboard.’
‘’Those...aliens, how different are they from us?’ asked Brigid, the youngest daughter of Boadicea.
‘’I can show you images of them now. Please look to your left at the viewing screen on the forward partition.’
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Sending an electronic command to the computer controlling the viewing screens of the shuttle, Boudica then replaced the view of Space ahead with the image of a creature with a deer-like head and a pair of strange-looking ‘Z’ legs.
‘’This is a Koorivar, an intelligent race which was the first Humanity ever encountered. The Koorivars are vegetarians and are avowed pacifists. You will see some of them on my ship. Their planet was destroyed in a collision with a wandering giant planet some 400 years before the 24th Century, but some of them were able to flee in time in three ships packed with refugees. We found one of those ships in the confines of the Solar System and helped them by giving them new lands on Earth. We have since then become very good friends and allies. Another race which we are allied with is the Drazts, the inhabitants of another star system close to ours. They could be best described as giant gorillas with four arms. Despite their intimidating appearance, the Drazts are very intelligent beings who knew advanced technology much earlier than Humanity did. Like the Koorivars, the Drazts are vegetarians. At first, we were at war with them but then made peace and are now good allies, with some of them living on my ship. Another race that somewhat resembles the Drazts but are much more hostile to us are the Vorlaks. The Vorlaks are cruel by nature and carnivorous. We had to beat them back and confine them to their planet after they attacked another race and ate the prisoners they took. That unfortunate race was the Hoshis, pony-sized centaurs whose civilization was mostly non-technological and who live as an agrarian and pastoral society.’
‘’They are quite cute.’ said Maeve, making Boudica smile.
‘’If you think that the Hoshis are cute, and they are, wait until you see a Kiryn.’
The image of another centaur-like creature then appeared on the screen. It was even smaller than the Hoshi previously shown but was covered with a thick pink fur with curly short hair. It also had six legs instead of the four legs of the Hoshis. Boadicea grinned while eyeing the image of the Kiryn.
‘’You are right, Boudica. That creature is really cute, as cute as a lamb could be.’
‘’A nice analogy, Queen Boadicea. The Kiryns are in fact herbivores with only a low technological level civilization. We first encountered them while fighting a monstrous race of predatory carnivores which had captured some Kiryns and kept them as ready
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supplies of fresh meat. That predatory race, which we named the Space Predators, was highly advanced technologically and was roaming Space in search of preys to eat. They hurt us badly at first but we gradually won over them and we recently finished exterminating that monstrous race. Unfortunately, in the final battle against those monsters, my ship was accidentally projected back in time by 2,800 years. We are now making our way back to our proper time period, in the 24th Century.’
Both Boadicea and her two daughters gasped with horror at the sight of the giant mantis-like insect with long jaws and clawed hands which was now visible on the screen.
‘’By the Gods! What a horrific creature!’ exclaimed Boadicea. ‘’You say that you exterminated them?’
‘’We did, for the good of the other races of this region of the Galaxy.’
‘’Uh, what is a galaxy?’’
‘’That is one of the countless things you and your daughters will be able to learn about once on my ship. Talking of my ship, it is called the NOSTROMO and it is now visible on our forward viewing screens. It is a huge ship, the biggest ship ever built by Humanity in fact, and it measures over 3,000 paces in length and 1,600 paces in diameter.’
‘’Er, I’m afraid that I don’t know how to count this high, Boudica.’
‘’That’s another thing you will learn about once on our ship, Queen Boadicea.’
said politely Boudica with no trace of mockery or sarcasm in her voice.
Now concentrating their attention on the forward viewing screens, on which the NOSTROMO was growing steadily in apparent size, the three Celts could only look at it with fascination and wonderment as its mass eventually filled the forward screens. Its surface was painted mate black, making it hard to spot from a distance, but Boadicea could now see that it was made of metal.
‘’This is made of iron? How could you find such a stupendous amount of iron to build such a gigantic ship?’
‘’It is made of steel, not iron, and my civilization and others produce a staggering amount of it to build ships, bridges and buildings. If this could interest you, some of our people have taken to ancient blacksmithing techniques as a hobby and produce replicas of ancient weapons and objects. I will be happy to present those people and their fares to you and your daughters, once you will have eaten, bathed and changed into clean
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clothes. First, though, the captain and owner of the NOSTROMO will meet you and greet you on arrival inside her ship.’
‘’Someone is rich enough to buy such a ship made entirely of steel? Compared to this, even the Romans would look like paupers. Talking of these Roman bastards, would you be able to exterminate them and rid my country of them?’
Boudica gave a stern look at Boadicea then.
‘’We easily could but we won’t, for the simple reason that, by destroying Rome, we would also drastically rewrite history and would destroy our own future civilization.
Believe me, Queen Boadicea: history is to be manipulated only at a very high cost...for all of Humanity. If it could reassure you, the Roman Empire will eventually wither and fall in the coming centuries. Unfortunately, that will not spell the end of wars on Earth.
Even in the 24th Century there are still conflicts, natural disasters and human rights abuses happening on Earth.’
‘’Then, why don’t you use your mighty ship to stop those wars and abuses?’
‘’Why? Because my ship and its people belong to a political entity called the Spacers League, which is composed of a number of different star systems into which Humanity has been expanding and colonizing during the last few decades. The Earth is not yet a member of the Spacers League and is still split into multiple nations of various sizes and power. Since we don’t believe in forcing our rule onto others, we live and let live while doing our best to limit the worst excesses and alleviate as much pain and misery on Earth as we can. The captain of my ship, Tina Forster, has dedicated her ship and fortune to resettling on a new world tens of thousands of refugees and homeless people from Earth. Those unfortunate people now live in peace in an agrarian and pastoral world, governed by a just and caring government. That world, named New Haven, is where you and your daughters will eventually be able to resettle, unless you choose to stay and live aboard the NOSTROMO.’
Boadicea, her eyes still fixed on image of the impossibly big ship visible on the screens, was silent as she digested all that Boudica had just said.
‘’I will wait until I could meet your captain and see the inside of your ship before thinking about what I will want for me and my daughters.’
‘’Take all the time you will need for that, Queen Boadicea. It will still take us many days before we will arrive back in the 24th Century.’
‘’But how will I manage onboard your ship? I don’t even know your language and, to be honest, can’t even read and write in my own language.’
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‘’Again, you will have plenty of time in the future to learn our language, which is called ‘English’. We will provide you and your daughters teachers who will help you learn everything you will need to learn. In the meantime, you will be able to use these personal translator units.’
Boudica then handed to each of Boadicea, Maeve and Brigid a sort of flexible collar made of fabric with a detachable and washable inner lining. A thin, nearly invisible short wire coming out of each collar ended in a small earpiece. Boudica helped first Boadicea in putting the collar around her throat, then gently inserted the earpiece in the Celt’s left ear.
‘’Can you understand me now, Queen Boadicea?’ asked Boudica, using English.
To Boadicea wonderment, she heard words in Celtic via the earpiece, right after Boudica had spoken.
‘’This is incredible! I can understand you now.’
Words in English then were heard, coming from her collar, making Boudica nod in satisfaction.
‘’With this collar you will now be able to understand the people on my ship and will be able to speak with them. You just need to pause a bit between sentences, in order to allow your translation collar time to translate what is being said. I will now fit collars to your two daughters.’
Boudica took a minute to put the two other collars around the throat of the two teenage girls, then sat back next to Boadicea.
‘’If your collars ever malfunction or if you will have forgotten to put them on, you will then just have to approach one of our security officers: they all can speak Celtic.’
‘’They all can? How so? You told me that you were just passing in this year.’
In response, Boudica took on her to reveal her secret nature and looked soberly at Boadicea.
‘’Because they are like me, Queen Boadicea: thinking, intelligent artificial constructs, machines built to serve and protect Humans. We can download in seconds new knowledge into our electronic brains, including new languages.’
Boadicea instinctively recoiled from Boudica while starring at her with disbelief and fear.
‘’You? A machine? That’s impossible! You must be human, like me and my daughters.’
‘’I’m sorry but I am not human, Queen Boadicea. I will now make a video play on the forward screen, showing in accelerated speed the construction of one android similar
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to me in the robotic workshops of the NOSTROMO. It should convince you that I am telling you the truth.’
Boadicea, like her daughters, then couldn’t help but watch on as the said video, which went on for about four minutes, played on, starting with the separate production of elements like the metallic skeleton, the power unit, the AI processor and the skin-like sheets of artificial polymer. Then, the video followed the building process as the android started to take form, receiving its ‘musculature’, made of pneumatic bags and piston which imitated human muscles, then artificial skin applied to an internal protective flexible mesh of titanium. The video ended by showing the newly built android, a young woman of great beauty, ‘waking up’ and exchanging her first words with an engineer. At the end of it, Boadicea could only look, completely stunned, at what she had taken to be a young woman. Boudica then spoke to her in a soft tone.
‘’Don’t be afraid of me or of my comrade security androids, Queen Boadicea. I was built to protect my human crewmembers, our passengers and the members of other races allied to Humanity. I am incapable of cruelty, greed, hatred or thirst for power and am programmed to protect innocent people, at the cost of my existence if need be.
Think of me as a guardian dedicated to justice and protection, a guardian who would very much like to become your friend and protector.’
Boadicea tried to say something then but just couldn’t, so disturbed and stunned she was. By the time she regained some control on her mind, she saw that their shuttle was now travelling down a wide tunnel made of steel and brightly illuminated by numerous lights. Refraining from speaking for the moment, she then concentrated her attention on the exterior views from the shuttle, as it showed the craft passing a double set of thick steel doors before arriving inside a huge rotunda and landing smoothly on its steel deck, next to a large central column with a diameter of sixty meters. Boadicea then noticed a group of three women standing next to the central column and apparently waiting for the shuttle’s arrival. Boudica then pointed the three women visible on the screens.
‘’The woman in the middle is Captain Tina Forster, the owner of the NOSTROMO. She is a Human, not an android, and is one of the most honorable and caring persons I know. Those two women next to her are however androids like me but are even more sophisticated in design and were specially built to interact with Humans and other intelligent, living beings. They are respectively named SPIRIT and Eve Silisca and they help Captain Forster in leading and administering our ship’s community. You can trust them completely.’
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As Boudica finished speaking, the aft access ramp opened, lowering its end to the deck of the rotunda.
‘’Time to go meet my captain, Queen Boadicea. Please follow me.’
With Boadicea’s weapons in one hand, Boudica led the three Celts out of the shuttle and on the steel deck of the hangar complex, then walked with them to the three waiting women near the central column. However, Boudica stayed to one side and let Tina Forster step forward to greet Boadicea and her two daughters with a smile and a solid handshake, with her words translated by the collar unit she wore.
‘’Welcome aboard the NOSTROMO, Queen Boadicea. Welcome as well to your daughters Maeve and Brigid. I am Tina Forster, captain and owner of this ship. I know that you must be famished and tired after your harrowing escape from the Romans, so I will reserve our first true discussion for later, once you will have had a chance to eat, wash and sleep. Let me just present you to SPIRIT, one of my most important advisors, and to Eve Silisca, who was designed as her daughter by SPIRIT and is the ship’s Assistant Hostess. Eve will help Security Officer Boudica in guiding you around the ship and help provide for your needs. Know that you are my guest on this ship and that we will support you and your daughters to the best of our abilities. With this said, I will now leave you in the good hands of Eve and of Officer Boudica. It was a true honor for me to be able to meet you, Queen Boadicea.’
Tina then walked away with SPIRIT, leaving the three Celts with Eve and Boudica. Eve spoke to Boadicea while pointing towards the central column, in which Tina had just entered.
‘’We will now guide you up to our habitat complex, where a cabin has been reserved for your use and that of your daughters. Would you like to eat first or would you prefer to wash and refresh yourself first before going to eat?’
Despite being quite famished, Boadicea, conscious that she still was wearing her war paint and was covered with dust and encrusted mud, like her daughters, took no time to decide what she wanted first.
‘’I would like to wash first, if possible. But what about clean clothes? We have nothing left but what we have on us.’
‘’That will not be a problem, Queen Boadicea: new clothes are waiting for you in your cabin. Once you will be washed and in clean clothes, you will then be able to go have a good meal before you will sleep to your content.’
‘’That certainly sounds nice, Eve. We are ready to follow you.’
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‘’Then, this way, please.’
Going inside the central column via one of its safety airlocks, Eve led her group to one of the elevator lifts, calling a cabin and then inviting the Celts inside it. Boadicea and her daughters did get in after a slight hesitation, still absorbing all the wonders they were seeing around them. Eve then gave them some extra explanations as she selected the level of the administrative center and of the forest habitats.
‘’This elevator cabin will now bring us up to the level of our habitat complex.
Don’t worry: that trip will both be short and smooth.’
Boadicea effectively felt only a slight, temporary sensation of movement during the trip up. The door of the cabin opened again after only a few seconds, delivering them in the core rotunda of the ship at the level of the ship’s administrative center. There, Eve commandeered one of the robotic taxi carts present in the rotunda and let the Celts and Boudica sit in it before giving a verbal order to the taxi’s computer.
‘’To Cabin 510-340, please.’
‘’Right away, miss.’ replied the male voice of the computer just before the cart started moving on its small electric wheels, heading down the eastern access gallery.
Boadicea, who was an expert chariot handler, couldn’t help bend her torso out and look down at the small rubberized pneumatic wheels of the cart as it gathered a fair speed along the corridors of the core section.
‘’I wish that my chariot would have run as smoothly as this thing, although I must say that your steel roads are much smoother than the trails in my country.’
That made Eve chuckle briefly in amusement before she replied to that.
‘’Well, your chariot makers did what they could with what they had, Queen Boadicea. We have had quite a few centuries to improve public transportation.’
‘’Talking of public transportation, this place is proving up to now to be nearly empty of people. Where is everybody?’’
‘’Sleeping, mostly. It is now barely past two in the morning, according to our ship’s clock, so you will only see the personnel from our night shift being up. This place will however fill up quite quickly once morning arrives.’
‘’Oh, I see!’
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The next comments, or rather exclamations, from the Celts came out when the cart started rolling along the long gallery with thick acrylic windows separating the European Temperate Broadleaf Forest Habitat from the Mediterranean Forest Habitat.
‘’A forest? No, two forests inside your ship? How could that be?’
‘’We actually have six different types of forest habitats on this level, each containing hundreds of trees and a variety of bushes and other types of vegetation.
They are meant to make life on this ship even more agreeable for our crew and passengers. Your cabin has a balcony which will give you a direct view over our European Temperate Broadleaf Forest Habitat, which contains oak trees and beech trees, among other types of trees. By the way, everybody on this ship can go walk and wander around our forest habitats and breathe in the various smells, or even have a quiet cold meal among the trees.’
Boadicea nodded her head in approval, appreciating that nature-loving side of these strangers.
‘’Our druids would have approved of your ship, Eve.’
If Boadicea thought that she had seen it all up to now, she had to change her opinion when their taxi cart entered the Habitat Ring Complex and turned on its Main Promenade, sandwiched between the twenty-story habitat complex proper and the outer ring aquarium. The three Celts gasped in unison as they stared at the thousands of fish and marine creatures visible through the thick, transparent walls of the aquarium.
Boudica then made a joke about that.
‘’Before you ask, Queen Boadicea: no, you can’t go fish in our aquarium. It was built strictly as a visual attraction for our passengers.’
Before Boadicea could reply to that, their taxi cart rolled inside a large elevator cabin which then quickly lifted them up by seventeen levels up an elevator shaft with transparent walls. Boadicea, who had never been this high in her life, gripped tightly the armrests of her seat, frozen with near fear. Both Eve and Boudica noticed that, with the latter hurrying to reassure the Celts.
‘’Do not worry, my friends: this elevator cabin is both reliable and safe and the upper observations galleries are very solidly built. You do not need to worry about accidents happening here.’
‘’Uh, if you say so, Boudica.’
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Once out of the lift, their taxi cart rolled for another 250 meters before stopping in front of a sliding door numbered 510-340. Making the Celts step out of the cart and leading them to that door, Eve spoke briefly in English into the intercom panel next to the door.
‘’Eve Silisca commanding: be ready to register the following three occupants of this cabin.’
‘’Ready to register the first occupant.’ replied a female voice coming out of the panel. Eve then invited Boadicea to come forward.
‘’Please put your right hand flat against this panel while looking at that small glass-covered hole. It will then register you as the legitimate occupant of this cabin.’
‘’This way?’
‘’Yes!... Thank you! Your turn now, Maeve.’
With the three Celts now registered in as occupants, Eve then invited them in and walked with them and Boudica inside one of the standard three-bedroom passenger cabins of the NOSTROMO. Boadicea had to stop in the middle of the large lounge giving a view of the forest habitat, overtaken by the utter luxury and comfort of the place compare to what she had known in her own home.
‘’This...this is nothing less than a royal palace compared with the houses I lived in before. Are all your people living in such luxury?’’
‘’This is a standard level of accommodation in the Spacers League and on this ship. Unfortunately, many people on the Earth of the 24th Century still have to live in houses much less comfortable than this and also don’t always eat enough or well. Now, talking of eating, let me show you how to use our bathroom, so that you could wash up.
I will also show you how to use our toilets: public sanitation is important in our civilization and relieving oneself in a hallway or stairwell is highly frowned upon.’
‘’I myself would certainly have beaten up any idiot disrespecting me by urinating or defecating in my bedroom or kitchen. I must say that your ship has up to now proved to hold to a very high standard of cleanliness.’
‘’Thank you, Queen Boadicea. Follow me with your daughters in the bathroom, so that you could take a nice warm shower.’
Once the group was inside the bathroom, Eve took a minute to describe to the three Celts the various appliances and how to use them, then invited them to undress next the the bathtub cum shower stall. After a slight hesitation, Boadicea told her
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daughters to undress, then did the same herself. Making the shower run and adjusting it to a warm but not hot temperature, Eve made young Brigid step in under the shower head. The teenager squealed in delight when the warm water flowed down her body and started removing the accumulated dirt and sweat off her skin. Eve then poured some cream soap in her hands and made her rub it on, soaping herself before returning under the water spray and washing off the soap. Eve examined the final result with a critical eye and pointed at the girl’s long hair, which was still dirty.
‘’I wish that we had time to wash your hair as well but that would take time, especially if we had to wait until it dried up, and I am loathe to delay your meal more than necessary. We can wait after you will have eaten before doing that. Boudica will now dry you up. Maeve, it’s your turn under the shower.’
Another twenty minutes later, Boadicea was finished with her own shower and was toweling her body dry when she hesitated and asked a question to Eve.
‘’Uh, this may sound impolite on my part but, since you look so much like real women, how woman-like is your own body? Can you sleep with a man and satisfy him?’
‘’Satisfy him? Certainly! However, being machines, we can’t produce babies.
As for our male-looking androids, they could make a woman crazy with pleasure, as they can literally keep it up indefinitely, but they can’t make a woman pregnant. Just between you and me, many of our female passengers love dating our male androids.’
‘’And the other female passengers don’t?’ asked Maeve, making Eve and Boudica chuckle at her question.
‘’They just wished they could but, being married and with their husbands present, they don’t dare try.’
‘’And their husbands, they won’t try to bed your female androids?’
‘’Bingo!’ replied Eve while pointing an index at the girl. ‘’You understood everything, young girl.’
Seeing the hesitant expression on Boadicea’s face and understanding what she may be thinking, Eve became serious and spoke softly.
‘’Look, I know what the Romans did to you, so maybe we should stop talking about sexual matters and let you get dressed, so that you could go eat at one of our food courts.’
‘’A good idea, my friend. What do you have as fresh clothes for us?’
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‘’I will show you what we put aside for you. Your dirty clothes will go to our laundry service and will be returned clean and dry in about six hours.’
Going to the master bedroom of the cabin, Eve opened its closet and one of the drawers inside, revealing a dozen long dresses, a collection of female underwear items and many pairs of shoes and slippers. There were as well a few female belts supporting belt purses.
‘’We had an idea of your approximate sizes but try some of these on and choose what will fit you best.’
‘’Decidedly, your captain is the perfect host, Eve.’ said Boadicea, making Eve nod once.
‘’And she treats everyone with equal attention, whatever their social class is.’
That declaration, which would have been completely atypical of her own time period, made Boadicea think further about her luck of having been saved by those people.
Otherwise, she would probably have been captured by the Romans and then tortured to death while her daughters would be raped repeatedly, then turned into slaves. Trying a couple of different dresses, she decided on the second one, finding that it fitted her better. It was also a nice dress made with an intense green tissue with gold embroidering. She also slipped on a cream-colored panty whose elasticity and comfort made her wish that she had similar ones before. She then completed her dress with a pair of flexible shoes and a black shiny belt with purse put around her waist. The only irritant for her was her still dirty hair but she was by now too hungry to wait further before going to eat. Eve then distributed to each of the three Celts a plasticized card with picture of them clipped to a long and thin neck ribbon.
‘’Please wear this around your neck when walking out of your cabin: this card will give you full access to our food outlets and to our public facilities, without the need for you to use cash money. Later on, Boudica will escort you to our banking center, where you will be given electronic debit cards linked to bank accounts which were opened in your name. While those bank accounts will be quite generously provisioned, please don’t go into a wild spending spree, as those accounts will get extra money in them only once per month. Boudica will tell you more later about how much money will be made available to you and about the cost of various things found in our boutiques and shops.’
‘’And we won’t be expected to reimburse that money or work for it?’ asked young Brigid.
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‘’Your basic monthly allowance, along with an initial sum meant to help you buy a new wardrobe, will not be attached to any obligation or debt on your part. The same went for all of our citizens when they joined our community. If you choose to do some kind of work or employment later on in order to improve your revenues, you are welcomed to do that.’
‘’But, what could we do as work here?’ asked Boadicea. ‘’We know nothing about your world or society and we certainly know nothing about your ‘science’ thing.’
‘’True, but certain things and occupations are truly timeless, like animal husbandry and fruits and vegetables picking. Know that there are extensive farms aboard this ship, which is essentially self-sufficient in terms of food production. We even produce our own wine, beer and alcohol on the NOSTROMO.’
Boadicea exchanged bemused looks with her two daughters, then pointed at the entrance door.
‘’Well, enough talking: let’s go eat!’
As the five of them were on their way out of the cabin, Boadicea saw Boudica use her wrist communicator in order to ask for a taxi cart. She waited for the android to complete her call before asking her a question.
‘’You can really talk with anybody from a distance with this little bracelet?’
‘’Yes, as long as you are in a place that can retransmit the signal. Here, on the NOSTROMO, I can call from anywhere inside the ship. In our cities of the 24th Century, I could also call all over the planet, because there are multiple retransmitting stations built at fixed locations. Think of it as a more advanced equivalent to a system of flag waivers posted at intervals and passing along a message over a long distance, or a series of signal fires.’
‘’I understand. Still, it does look like magic to me. It will take me some time to get accustomed to your world.’
‘’That’s quite understandable, Queen Boadicea. Be assured that we will help you and your daughters all along. In fact, you will be able to receive personal instruction on how to adapt to our society in the next few days. We will also teach you our language and how to read and write at the same time. We have very good teaching facilities on the NOSTROMO.’
As they were walking out of the front entrance safety airlock, Boudica saw a taxi cart approach, its yellow light flashing to signal that it was responding to a call. It soon
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stopped in front of the group, which then sat in it, with Boudica then talking in English to the taxi’s computer.
‘’To the Food Court Number One, please.’
‘’Right away, miss!’ replied the computer in a soft female voice, before the cart started to roll again.
Since the food courts were close to the Celts’ cabin in terms of horizontal distance, they mostly had only to take a lift down to Level 576, sixteen stories below.
They thus arrived at that food court in less than two minutes, where they stepped out of the taxi cart at the entrance to the forty meters by twenty meters surface. The three Celts’ mouths started watering at the sight of the rows of food counters lining the walls, with dozens of small tables with chairs sprinkled around the open hall. Young Brigid inhaled the appetizing odors floating around as her stomach gurgled loudly.
‘’This smells so good!’
‘’Yes, but there is hardly anyone except for the servers.’ said Boadicea. ‘’How come?’
‘’Well, it is not three o’clock in the morning yet. Only the crewmembers of the night shift would be up at this hour. However, the food courts are always opened, in order to be able to serve people at any hour of the day. There are different service tables you can choose from, including a fresh salad bar, a choice of soups of the day, an Asian buffet, a meat grill, a...’
‘’Meat grill? Let’s go!’ said at once Boadicea, with her daughters nodding their heads at that.
‘’All right then. This way, ladies.’
As they passed by the salad bar, on their way to the grills, the three Celts suddenly stopped and took a step back at the sight of two different creatures who could not be mistaken for Humans.
‘’What are these things?’ asked Brigid, fear in her voice, making the two alien beings turn their heads towards her. One was a big, hairless gorilla with four arms, while the other had a deer-like head and ‘Z’-shaped legs. Both of them wore light blue work coveralls. Boudica hurried to reassure her charges.
‘’Don’t be afraid of them, girls: they are crewmembers of the NOSTROMO. The big one is a female Drazts named Riza Doz. The smaller one is a Koorivar named Shanir. Despite their appearance, they are both friendly and very sociable.’
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Boudica then switched to English and spoke to Riza and Shanir.
‘’Excuse their reactions to you, my friends: they are fresh from the year 60 C.E.
and never saw aliens before.’
‘’That’s alright: no offence taken. Have a nice meal.’ replied Riza in a deep, female voice before returning to her task of raiding the salad bar. The three Celts kept looking back at the two as Boudica and Eve led them to the grilled meats counter, with Boadicea making a remark in a low voice.
‘’By the spirits of the woods, if I needed something to remind me that I am now in a different place, then this was it.’
‘’You may meet more alien crewmembers during the days to come, so you will have to get accustomed to that, Queen Boadicea. Aah, here we are! Would you prefer a steak, some chicken, pork chops or sausages?’
‘’If I listened to my stomach, I would take pieces of everything.’
The cook serving the meats, a man in his thirties, smiled on hearing the English translation of her Celtic words coming from the translation collars.
‘’Then, may I suggest that I prepare for your group a large service plate with a selection of our meats? That way, you would be able to taste a bit of everything.’
‘’Now, that’s a great idea! Do it!’
‘’And what selection of vegetables would you like with this, miss?’
Seeing that Boadicea hesitated while eyeing the choice of vegetables available, many of which had been unknown to First Century Britain, Boudica jumped in and spoke to the cook.
‘’Please prepare a mixed service plate with sautéed mushrooms, cabbage, oven-baked potatoes and boiled carrots, mister.’
‘’Two mixed plates, coming up!’
The Celts were served within a couple of minutes and were then led to an empty table by Boudica, while Eve went to get plates, glasses, utensils and napkins at another service counter. Eve quickly showed to the Celts how to use a fork, then asked them if they would like some fresh milk as beverages or would stick with the jar of cold water already on the table. The two teenagers asked for milk but their mother asked if wine or beer was available, attracting a grin on Boudica’s face.
‘’Beer and table wine are effectively available and are produced aboard this ship.
Would you like to try a cold beer, Queen Boadicea?’
‘’I would love to, Boudica.’
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By the time that Boudica was back at their table with the drinks, the Celts were already eating their food with gusto.
‘’Uh, be careful not to eat too fast or too much right after spending days without eating: you could get sick.’
‘’We’ll be okay!’ replied Boadicea as she ate a piece of steak. ‘’The food is really great here. They use spices here, right? In Britain, the traveling merchants who went by our village sold salt and pepper at very dear prices.’
‘’We do! Again, we cultivate dozens of types of spices on this ship. You may even get to pick them if you decided to stay and live on the NOSTROMO. I have to warn you that some of those spices which are still unknown in Britain can be extremely spicy, enough to make you think that you just ate fire.’
‘’Decidedly, our culinary experience on your ship promises to be a truly fascinating one, Boudica.’
‘’I’m sure that it will be, Queen Boadicea.’
Sitting with the Celts but not eating herself, Boudica and Eve patiently let them eat to their content, answering many questions about the kind of food to be found on the NOSTROMO. As the plates were getting nearly empty, Eve noticed that the poor Brigid had problems staying awake, while Maeve did not look much better, something that was not surprising considering the fact that they had been fleeing the Romans for days, with little chances to rest.
‘’I think that we will lead you back to your cabin after this, so that you could have some much-needed sleep.’
‘’A good idea!’ replied Boadicea, who felt quite tired herself. ‘’That beer of yours was excellent but I believe that it is also much stronger than the ales I am accustomed to. Alright, girls: take a last bite, then we will go get some sleep.’
There were no protests from Maeve and Brigid on that as Boudica called in a taxi cart for the group.
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CHAPTER 10 – WHEN TO GO NEXT?
14:01 (Greenwich Meridian Time)
Thursday, September 18, 60 C.E.
Command meeting room, A.M.S. NOSTROMO
In low polar orbit around Earth, Solar System
Tina Forster came out of the private office reserved for her use and which was adjacent to the ship’s command meeting room, then walked to her chair at the long table, sitting in it before looking at her command staff and department heads.
‘’Thank you for coming on such short notice, my friends. Now that the method devised by Roshana Golshan to bring us forward in time has proved to be both successful and safe, we now have to decide how far in the future we want to try to go for our second temporal jump. Some could be tempted to say ‘let’s go for broke’, but that would be a grave mistake in my opinion. Yes, the Golshan Maneuver worked but we still have little idea about in what proportion the various factors in it affected the time displacement. Is it the distance from the Sun at which we initiate our jump? Is it the intensity and power we apply to your Koomak Drive generator? Is it the angle of the tangent at which we pass by the Sun? We need to be able to control to at least a fair degree our time displacement if we don’t want to simply zoom by our original time period and end up decades or even centuries ahead of the year 2337. So, we need to learn how to manipulate those parameters in order to be able to arrive safely to within a maximum of a year or two from the date we are targeting. I intend our next micro-jump to be similar to the first one we performed, but with a slight twitch to the power we will apply to our Koomak Drive generator when we will jump at the same distance from the Sun as before. Then, we will again go back into Earth polar orbit and see in what year we are then. If all goes well, we should then be able to extrapolate in what proportion a change to our Koomak Drive setting affected our temporal jump. After we do that, we will attempt a third jump, this time twitching the distance at which we are from the Sun when we will activate our Koomak Drive generator, then will again return into Earth polar
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orbit to see what is the new date. I do not intend to try to jump directly to the 24th Century until we understand better this process. Now, another factor that will be important in this concerns our ability to correctly identify the date on present-day Earth with a minimum of accuracy. We were lucky in that, when we arrived in this year, we were able to see that the Celts had just burned down Londinium, a historically well-known event with a firmly recorded date. Now, let’s say that we end up after our second jump over an Earth in which nothing special is happening and in which things have been stagnant for decades? After all, how often can Londinium be burned down?’
There were a few chuckles at her joke, meant to relax the atmosphere in the room. Tina then became serious again and looked directly at Professor Shmelling, the head of the history department of the NOSTROMO University.
‘’Professor Shmelling, what I will need from you is a list of known dates for historical events, arranged with a selection of events around the Sixth Century, the Eleventh Century and the Fifteenth Century. Please select events that could be seen and identified from orbit or via reconnaissance drones, rather than events that would necessitate the sending of a ground reconnaissance team. Major battles would be good candidates, while the death of some king or emperor would not. Imagine the reaction of the locals if our team comes into a town and start asking if King so-and-so has died yet.’
This time there were outright laughter around the room, with the head of security, Ahmed Jibril, making a double facepalm.
‘’Yeah! That would really go down well.’’
Jehanne De Domrémy then surprised Tina by raising one hand.
‘’Yes, Jehanne?’
‘’I do know a couple of well-documented historical events which would be easy to observe and identify from a distance, Tina: the capture of Joan of Arc by the Burgundians on May 23 of the year 1430, near Compiègne; and her death on May 30, 1431, when she was burned in the public square of Rouen.’
Many around the table, starting with Tina, looked in shock at Jehanne then, for proposing a date on which her historical namesake would die horribly.
‘’But, but I don’t want us to use the death of such a brave girl as a simple prop for our jump calculations. And how would your adopted daughter react on seeing such an event? It could disturb her deeply, Jehanne. We should choose another historical event as a temporal marker.’
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‘’First, Frida doesn’t need to watch the recordings we would take of this event.
Second, while we couldn’t help her escape death without drastically changing history, we would have a strong incentive to be over Rouen at that time period.’
‘’What do you have in mind, Jehanne?’
The female security android then bent slightly forward, putting both of her forearms on the table.
‘’What I have in mind is something that could help Jehanne without putting history at risk. But first, we will need to make those test jumps, so that we could arrive in the Fifteenth Century at the date of our choosing.’
08:19 (Greenwich Meridian Time)
Friday, September 19, 60 C.E.
Bridge of the A.M.S. NOSTROMO
