Tina was starting to feel the exhaustion from hours of constant stress and hard decision-making and knew that she would soon have to stop the evacuation process and head back to the Solar System in order to jump time towards the 24th Century. Getting a new call on the intercom, this time from Natalia Vasilyeva, the ship’s head hostess, she punched the ‘link’ button and looked at the picture of the tall blond on the screen. If anything, Natalia was looking even more tired than Tina was, and for good reasons, as she had been responsible to parcel out tens of thousands of refugees between the various quarters’ areas available around the ship.
‘’Yes, Natalia?’
‘’Tina, we now have a total of 409,906 refugees aboard and we are about as full as an egg. We simply are running out of space for more Koorivars. Furthermore, the longer these poor people will have to stay aboard, the more critical the food factor will become. With that number of passengers to be fed, we will have enough vegetarian food for only one, maybe two meals per person if we ration it. After that, they will start to
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starve. We have to return to our time and drop off those refugees on New Shouria, and soon!’
Those words, while only reflecting the reality of the present situation, brought immense sadness to Tina: despite all the valiant efforts of her crew, what they had accomplished today was little more than a drop in a bucket. If she left now, that would leave nearly 1.2
billion Koorivars to face imminent and assured death. However, the sad truth was that doing more now would barely make a difference. Her sense of morality then revolted against that thought: one more life saved was always worth it. But how could she accommodate even more people on her NOSTROMO? Then, an idea struck her tired mind and she looked resolutely at Natalia’s image on her viewer.
‘’We will depart for New Shouria soon, Natalia, but only after an extra round trip by our craft and heavy shuttles to the surface. Together, they could pick up another extra 55,000 Koorivars and bring them aboard.’
‘’But...where will we lodge all those extra people, Tina? We have refugees filling all our emergency quarters, our crew and passengers have opened their cabins and apartments to refugees, we have Koorivars sitting in our sports stadiums, around our forest habitats and the plains and forests of our Medieval World are full of people.’
‘’What we will do is, once our shuttles would return for a last pickup trip, keep their passengers aboard our craft instead of making them disembark. If we leave for the Solar System right after our craft will all be aboard, we could be back in our proper time period and near New Shouria in less than three hours. Those refugees will be comfortable enough inside our shuttles for such a short time and I believe that this would be more than worth it in order to save and extra 55,000 Koorivars. So, what do you think, Natalia?’
While still preoccupied, Natalia slowly nodded her head, a sober expression on her face.
‘’That could work, Tina.’
‘’Then, I will pass the appropriate orders to our shuttle squadrons at once.’
‘’And what will we say to the Koorivars on the planet when they will see that our shuttles are not coming back for more passengers?’
A big lump formed in Tina’s throat at that very pertinent question.
‘’I will soon call Governor Shuran and will explain to him the need for us to leave soon. I am not going to lie or hide to him our intention to depart.’
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23:51 (Universal Time) / 0.83552 percentile of orbital period Office of Governor Shuran
Capital city of Shouriana, Shouria (Gliese 667Ce) Shuran, despite having fully expected the need for the NOSTROMO to leave once full of refugees, still felt a big weight on his shoulders after listening to Tina Forster.
He sat back in his chair while staring at his HoloNet screen, then spoke softly.
‘’Captain Forster, you already did a lot more than any of us hoped for and for this you and your crew will have my eternal gratitude. How many of my people have you been able to accommodate aboard your ship?’
‘’We now have a total of 465,218 refugees aboard the NOSTROMO, Governor.
As soon as my security officers sent down on Shouria will be back on my ship, I will leave for the Solar System, where I will make my ultimate temporal jump to return to my proper time period. Once in the year 2337, I will immediately go to New Shouria, where your people will be landed and will be able to rebuild their lives among their compatriots.
Are you sure that you don’t want to come with us, in order to provide leadership to your people, Governor? I still have time to send a shuttle down to pick you and your family up.’
‘’Thank you but no!’ replied at once Shuran. ‘’I will not abandon my people in its darkest time. Know that I ordered my vice-governor, Keradek, to go board one of your shuttles at Shouriana’s astroport, along with a small group of high-level administrators and technocrats and their families. Keradek in turn called me to confirm that he and his group were on their way up to your ship. I gave him full plenipotentiary powers to act in my name and in the name of our people in order to lead and administer our survivors.’
Tina, obviously deeply touched, stayed silent for a few seconds before giving to Shuran a traditional Koorivar goodbye sign.
‘’I wish I could have done more here, Governor Shuran, but I must now concentrate on saving those who could be saved. Before I close this link, I am now sending you a video file for you and your people to watch after my departure: it will show you views and scenes of New Shouria, where the people from your three refugee ships have now been living for seventeen years and where your people will be able to build new lives for themselves.’
Tears rolled down from Shuran’s eyes on hearing that.
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‘’Captain Forster, this is the most precious parting gift you could have left to us before leaving our system. Be assured that all of our people will be able to soon view that video. Thank you again for everything and have a safe trip.’
Shuran then made sure that the video file he had just received was downloaded into his computer. He then copied it on a mini-drive, which he pocketed, before calling his minister of communications to send him a copy of that file, along with a message to his people.
00:40 (Universal Time)
Sunday, September 20, 1959