Arriving in orbit of the planet New Shouria (Wolf 1061c) Wolf 1061 System, 14.1 light years from Earth, in Ophiuchus Tina took a deep breath while looking at New Shouria and its moon, New Haven, now only a few million kilometers ahead of her ship. She then looked at the Koorivar sitting to her left in the V.I.P./Observer chair of the command platform.
‘’This will be the new home for your people, Vice-Governor. About 85,000
Koorivars already live on New Shouria. They are the original crew and passengers of your three evacuation ships, which we found and then rescued, plus their more recent offspring. The planet they now live on is actually very similar to Shouria in terms of local gravity, temperature and atmosphere composition and density and is illuminated by a red dwarf star, like Shouria. When we found this world and its moon, New Haven, it was populated by a wide variety of mostly non-sentient animal and marine life, plus had dense vegetation. I said mostly non-sentient animals because there does exist one intelligent race which is indigenous to New Shouria: the Kooroos. These are giant birds
148
with a very colorful coat of feathers, a long neck, a long feathery tail, two hind legs with sharp claws and two front legs cum arms with clawed hands. They have a language and a rudimentary writing system but are still at what we would call Stone Age technological level. They are definitely carnivorous predators and preyed on the land animals of the planet. Our first encounter with them was a bit violent but we quickly came to terms with them and they now coexist peacefully with your compatriots on the planet.’
‘’And the moon, what kind of life did you find there, Captain Forster?’
‘’Originally, there were only local mammals of varied sizes, plus small birds and fish. Since I turned it into a relocation world for dispossessed refugees and survivors from wars and natural disasters on Earth, I imported a variety of farm animals and built fish ponds and large hydroponic farms. I also had fruit trees from Earth planted around in a large scale. New Haven is now mostly an agrarian and pastoral world which concentrates on food production and has only a limited heavy industries base. Life on it is simple and peaceful and the refugees from Earth I resettled there are fast growing in number.’
‘’Your New Haven definitely sounds like a place which Koorivars would appreciate. Since it is much smaller than New Shouria, I suppose that the gravity on it is also much less, right?’
‘’Correct! While gravity on New Shouria is 1.3 Gs, the gravity on New Haven is only 0.73 Gs. That and the unspoiled nature on it makes it a popular touristic and vacation spot for citizens of the Spacers League. Well, enough about my world: let’s concentrate on New Shouria. I will now call Governor Sheraz, on New Shouria, to tell him that a big brick is about to fall on his head with the arrival of nearly half a million more mouths to feed and lodge. Talking of Governor Sheraz, may I give you a word of advice, Vice-Governor Keradek?’
‘’I am listening, Captain.’
‘’What I want to point to you is that technology, especially that of Space travel, has enormously evolved compared to what you knew on Shouria. Also, we have encountered many more sentient civilizations around our region of the galaxy, most of them friendly ones but also a couple of predatory and hostile races. Our ultimate fight with one of those predatory races, the Space Predators, actually was the cause of our involuntary travel to the past. Governor Sheraz has witnessed all this and also has been interacting with the Spacers League, of which he is a registered voting member of its High Council. You may technically overrank him in Koorivar administrative terms but he
149
has current knowledge and experience of this time period, while you don’t. I thus strongly counsel you to cooperate and support him fully and to not try to supplant him or take his place. I am asking this for the good of all Koorivars and not out of partisanship towards Governor Sheraz, who is a good friend of mine. As for myself, I will do everything possible to help your people to relocate on New Shouria and build up new lives for themselves.’
Keradek nodded slowly his elongated head while looking her in the eyes.
‘’This is a wise counsel, Captain Forster, and I will follow it. Know that I am no megalomaniac in search for personal power and that I will always pass the good of my people first.’
In response, Tina gave him a slight smile.
‘’I wish that Human politicians and leaders, both past and present, could have been as reasonable as you are now, Vice-Governor. It could have averted a lot of pain and misery in our history. I will now call Governor Sheraz. I will connect your feed to my call, so that you can both watch it and participate in it.’
Pushing a few buttons on the small command panels hooked to the armchairs of her command chair, Tina soon had the head and torso of Governor Sheraz appear on one of her video screens. Sheraz’ reaction to seeing Tina was immediate and emotional.
‘’Tina? You are alive! Thank the stars for that! Where are you now?’’
‘’On my NOSTROMO and approaching New Shouria’s orbit. Me and my ship and crew are all well but our fight with the last Space Predator asteroid ship was, let’s say, quite eventful. To keep it short, it committed suicide by trying to sucker us into an uncharted black hole. While that Predator ship was destroyed by it, we managed to pull away from it but in the process were accidentally thrown back in time by 2,800 years and ended in the Year 472 B.C.E. Thankfully, my science team and SPIRIT found a way to gradually return to the future by using the gravity of the Sun in a very specific way.
While on the way back to the future, I decided to make a stop in the Year 1959 and to pay a visit to Shouria a few days before its destruction, so that I could rescue as many Koorivars as I could. I now have a total of 465,218 Koorivar refugees from Shouria aboard the NOSTROMO and I intend to drop them on your planet. We will thus have a lot of work to do together for quite a while, my friend.’
‘’Nearly half a million Koorivars...on your ship.’ could only say at first Sheraz, completely stunned. ‘’But we will need the help and assistance of the whole Spacers
150
League in order to get the necessary supplies, equipment and foodstuff for all these poor people.’
‘’I know and I thus am asking you to immediately send a request for emergency assistance to the High Council, as the governor of New Shouria. Could I also ask you to start preparing at once campsites for those refugees? My ship is presently as full as an egg and I will have food for those refugees for only a day or two at the most. I will tell Piotr, on New Haven, to send what he can in terms of fresh vegetable produces, but that could only be a temporary cure and a short one. The priority will be on tentage, camp equipment and furniture, portable generators and tons of vegetal foodstuff, enough to lodge and sustain half a million Koorivars. I will now call New Haven to ask for Piotr’
assistance. In the meantime, I will let you talk with Vice-Governor Keradek.’
‘’Keradek?’ said Sheraz, stunned, before Keradek activated his link.
‘’Yes, it’s me, old friend. I was tasked by Governor Shuran to accompany our people, along with a small administrative support staff, so that we could provide leadership and support to them once on New Shouria. However, you are the Governor of New Shouria and I have no intentions to undermine or usurp your authority. I am thus at your full disposal, Sheraz.’
From stunned, Sheraz’ face showed clear relief and he then smiled to Keradek.
‘’Then, let’s do what is possible for our people...and welcome to New Shouria, Vice-Governor.’
On her side, the response by Piotr Romanski, the governor of New Haven, to Tina’s call was no less emotional and she quickly had to cut his flow of questions to her.
‘’Piotr, we will have plenty of time to talk together in the next few days. Right now, I need you to load up on shuttles all the stores of fresh produces available and to send them to New Shouria as quickly as possible. I have only one or two meals per person worth left for the refugees I have aboard the NOSTROMO and food will be their most critical priority. I will soon land directly on New Shouria, near its main city, so that I could more easily and more quickly unload my passengers. On top of gathering reserves of food for the refugees, could I ask you to send back to the NOSTROMO my squadron of heavy fighters I left in the system before departing in pursuit of the Space Predators?’
‘’I will call Major Nomura right away, Tina. I am sure that a certain copilot in her squadron will be particularly happy to rejoin the NOSTROMO.’
151
That indirect mention about her son Misha made Tina’s heart accelerate for a moment.
‘’And I will anxiously await his arrival onboard, Piotr. I will now have to cut this conversation short: I will be quite busy in the hours to come.’
Tina then cut that link with regret as she pictured the face of her teenage son in her mind.
11:36 (Universal Time)
Coastal waters near the city of New Shouriana
Planet New Shouria (Wolf 1061c)
Riak, a female adult Kooroo, was lazily flying near the surface of the sea off the coast of the large island where her family had its cave, looking for a nice big fish to catch with her hind claws, when she suddenly heard a loud voice from above speaking in Kooroo.
‘’WARNING, INCOMING SPACESHIP COMING DOWN.’
Riak, who had heard similar voice warnings in the past when some of the big flying metal ships of the strangers came in to land on the island to disgorge passengers and cargo, looked up, twisting her long neck to do so. What she then saw nearly made her freeze and drop down in the ocean: most of the sky above her was now blotted by what looked like a huge metallic mass flying towards the coast while gradually coming down at the vertical. Riak then turned sharply to the right and started flying as fast as she could in order to get out of the way of that flying behemoth. She went into hover when she judged that she was now at a safe distance but quickly had to back further away as the incoming spaceship proved to be of truly monstrous size, being easily as big as a large mountain. That spaceship finally landed in shallow coastal waters next to the big settlement of the aliens, its landing legs not even half submerged by the sea. Ryak, still in hover mode, watched on as a sort of ramp extended out from the landing leg closest to the shore, with its extremity soon resting on firm ground. As soon as that ramp was in place, a long line of ground vehicles started rolling down that ramp, going towards the nearby alien settlement and dropping off thousands of aliens there before returning to the giant spaceship. Ryak was still watching that process after resuming normal flying when she saw a dozen much smaller ships fly down from high above and then enter the giant spaceship. Reasoning that all this was way beyond her comprehension, Ryak resumed her fishing: whatever was happening, her family still had to eat.
152
12:15 (Universal Time)