Dadr'Ba (24 page)

The thought of fighting Sh’P’Po helped P’Ko gain back some control of his thoughts and emotions and feel less subordinate to Sh’P’Po, the D’En, the CASS spy.

The shuttle had entered the loading bay through a single ramp and door, which then opened up to a loading dock that could accommodate two supply shuttles side by side, one side a loading dock which the shuttle was marrying up to and the other was a dual function loading dock/vehicle maintenance bay.

P’Ko found himself on the far side of the bay from the vehicle maintenance area. P’Ko could see some movement underneath behind one of the oversized ATV’s (all-terrain vehicles) used by the Mi’Nr’s. He his gaze drawn toward the vehicles DU’s (drive units), noting the DU’s used up in Zone Two are puny in comparison.

P’Ko’s focus was pulled away by some alarm sounding on the loading dock ahead of him, and his curiosity about the tools and lifts in the maintenance bay would have to wait there would be plenty of time for that later.

P’Ko turned to find up on the dock, a large, stout four-legged security bot sounding off fiercely. It bounced lightly back and forth on its front legs in spite of the heavy gravity, its long sharp metal teeth glaring.

P’Ko turned to find Sh’P’Po, who didn’t seem to show any concern for the bot already pulling his gear from the shuttle’s storage locker beneath the rear deck. Reluctantly P’Ko followed suit. They walked over to the stairs at the far end of the loading dock.

The shuttle had already docked, and the robo-lift had already started to offload the shuttle’s cargo.

P’Ko, though at first fearful of the vicious security bot, noticed that it was clearly focused on Sh’P’Po as it stood its ground at the top the stairs as they approached. P’Ko began to relax a little, yet wondered how this approaching face-off between Sh’P’Po and the security bot would end.

A loading dock door opened, and three Mi’Nr’s strode onto the dock, two in front and one trailing far behind. P’Ko stopped and pretended to adjust his gear and fumbled with some of the straps, creating as much distance between himself and Sh’P’Po as possible.

Sh’P’Po stopped at the bottom of the stair looking up at the security bot, his hand resting on a pouch attached to his belt, was his hand quivering? P’Ko couldn’t tell for sure.

The three Mi’Nr’s didn’t call off the bot until they were beside it and Sh’P’Po started up the stairs. They clearly didn’t like Sh’P’Po. P’Ko shouldered his bag and walked over to the stair.

Sh’P’Po was speaking with the three as P’Ko approached. The apparent senior of the three addressed P’Ko “Welcome. I’m Ve’Ln
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the Su’Pr (Superintendent) here at Bo’R three; you can call me Su’Pr Ve’Ln. You must be P’Ko, we’ve heard a lot about you, you got here at a good time for training, things are running smoothly.” P’Ko sensed that the statement was for Sh’P’Po’s benefit as much as his.

Su’Pr Ve’Ln turned and introduced the other two. “This is An’Ja
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the chief mechanic who will be your section supervisor and T’Mo, who is your sponsor and the cleanup crew lead.” “T’Mo, why don’t you take P’Ko and start his in processing? An’Ja and I will help Sh’P’Po with his inspection.”

P’Ko followed T’Mo through the door the three had just come through and down the central corridor past the lobby and a conference room to the crew’s quarters.

T’Mo showed P’Ko to his quarters and asked for the uniforms and eSuits that the CA had issued to him. Saying they needed to be “inspected” that the “quality control” from the CA is not on par with that of the mining community.

T’Mo pointed towards a cleaned and pressed used eSuit neatly folded on one of the two chairs of his new home. Asking him to get settled and change, that he’d return in half hour and take him on a tour of the T’Bm.

P’Ko handed T’Mo the crisp new uniforms and eSuits still in their wrapper, and picked up the eSuit setting on the chair and looked at it carefully. It was worn thin in a few places but had been patched and reinforced. The fresh seals around where the arms and legs had been lengthened stood out against the rest of the suit, giving it a striped look.

P’Ko looked closer at the eSuit he held, and saw that someone had spent some serious time and care making it for him. All the seams were done by hand using a unique stitch that was stronger and more flexible than a machine stitch. He thought of his mother as he scrutinized it, recognized and understood how much thought had to go into it and how difficult making this eSuit must have been. He knew how hard his mother worked as a tailor, and how hard she worked and how little she was appreciated.

T’Mo nor the other Mi’Nr’s that greeted P’Ko had reached out to him psychically.

Now T’Mo, seeing P’Ko’s actions, guessing disappointment added: “the tailor and her assistant did their best estimating your measurements. It should work well enough in the cold areas in and around the T’Bm. I wouldn’t recommend it for continuous use or venturing very far from shelter. After your CA supplied eSuits are checked out, they’ll be returned to you, and you’ll need to go to the tailor and have them properly fitted.”

T’Mo turned to leave.

P’Ko stopped T’Mo, saying and feeling his words. “Wait, I know quality when I see it, this was made with outstanding care and workmanship. Please thank the tailor and her assistant for me.” T’Mo, psychically surprised, with a startled look on his face. Paused a fraction of a second smiled and replied as he left, “No, you’ll meet her soon enough, and you can thank her yourself, she’d appreciate it more coming from you direct.”  

P’Ko’s quarters consisted of a single room on the T’Bm’s upper deck. It is slightly larger than his room at his parent’s apartment, but with an arched ceiling. He had a small bathroom and a small sitting area large enough to host one or two visitors. He, or rather his parents would be allowed to keep his room in their apartment for him while he is in apprentice status. Once he completes his apprenticeship, his parents will have to give up the extra bedroom and move or have their apartment reconfigured.

P’Ko took the opportunity to message Su’Zi, his parents, and Mi’Ka that he had arrived, and he’d send more info about his first day later. He then began familiarizing himself with the controls for the room and syncing them with his TaC-B.

Then he put on the eSuit that had been altered, the arms and legs were a little too short. Thankfully the body length was right, and it fit well across the chest and shoulders, but was loose in the middle and around the arms and the thighs. 

T’Mo returned and took P’Ko on a tour of the T’Bm; their first stop was the medical bay. T’Mo introduced P’Ko to the resident med-tech who showed P’Ko some of the equipment in the bay, most of which necessitated remote doctoring, by a doctor zones and sectors away, with the MedTech only performing what they are instructed to do by the remote physician. The MedTech had P’Ko lay on an exam table while he demonstrated how the diagnosis and scanning equipment operated. Then gave P’Ko’s a “sample” body scan and a vaccination, described as something that would help him adjust to his environment.

What followed this was a very thorough tour of the T’Bm. P’Ko was introduced to all the crew, with only a few laughs and jokes about how he looked in the ill-fitting eSuit. That was quenched when T’Mo cautioned them not to get on the wrong side of Dr’Zi
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, the tailor that made P’Ko’s eSuit, she has a way of getting back at anyone that offends her.

Then they had lunch in the T’Bm’s small mess deck with that part of the crew that was rotating out
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. P’Ko was famished; he soon realized that just existing in this zone took more energy, and it was compounded by the fact that he skipped breakfast, and was too embarrassed to mention it to T’Mo.

They continued the tour and near quitting time met in the conference room with Dr’Zi, Bo’R three’s tailor, who came over from the camp to take P’Ko’s measurements to make the necessary alterations to P’Ko’s CA issued eSuits. She offered P’Ko a fifty percent discount on his first order, which he gladly accepted. The significant alterations would take almost all of his remaining graduation credits, but P’Ko was glad that his savings would remain intact. He wasn’t concerned, as he didn’t plan on spending any credits down here in a T’Bm.  

They finished up back in the dining area, this time with the whole crew present; P’Ko was introduced once again and received a guarded warm, but not enthusiastic welcoming. 

After dinner P’Ko was exhausted, he had spent his first full day in gravity that was roughly twice what he had spent his entire life in, and it was a concerted effort the whole day, not to let it show. He had aches and pains but was confident that those along with his fatigue would slowly go away as his systems adjusted to the new baseline.

P’Ko hadn’t seen Sh’P’Po since they parted that morning, and was glad for it. He settled into his room, barely taking the time to unpack and slept like a rock in his new home.

Chn’Gi lay naked, soaking in the warm tub, away from the prying eyes of the surveillance cameras scattered through the rest of her quarters, the scented bath emollient making her skin feel smooth and slick against it.

Under the eerie glow of her “reading light,” Chn’Gi figured out how to use the reader and found that the data cartridge was part of a sequential backup of Dadr’Ba’s historical archive.

The reader, being a data storage diagnostic device, was designed for verifying and viewing samples of the data that had already been indexed and sorted during the recording process, so it was slow. The thing lacked the processing speed and bandwidth for data mining of bulk media, the high density, highly compressed data cartridge held a petabyte. It was like trying to find a particular star in a far away galaxy using the naked eye.

Just when it was beginning to seem an impossible undertaking and Chn’Gi began worrying that she might have to go back to Lu’Gs and part with more of her precious paper to get help finding what she was looking for, she got a break through. She found the cartridge’s metadata index. Using the metadata index, she was able to manually scan the entries and hyperlink to the raw data.

However, even with the index, the search was time-consuming, there were thousands of metadata sets, each containing hundreds of elements. The puny device couldn’t even sort and she dare not risk exporting it to a real computer, the CASS with its data crawling search routines would surely detect her activity. But the way was clear, given time she’d have her answers.

With the deliberate focus of a scientist on the path to discovery, Chn’Gi dove into the task of tedious organization and study. Soon she gathered data points linking them together in a far scattered mesh, as she amassed ever more data points and matrixed them into her data set, she was able to outline the history of her people. The more she learned the more she came to understand why the CA might want to eliminate the past, to outlaw it, to forget the past.

The CA council, especially the Commander and the CASS Director, should already know this history. Even without psychic abilities Chn’Gi sensed that they telegraphed their suspicions plainly enough. If what she suspects is true, it’s no wonder the CA is so concerned about O’M and she wondered if all ToG survivors knew.

Then, Chn’Gi cursed herself; she’s stuck, how’s she going to produce an unbiased result. How’s she going to hide what she’s learned and the powerful feelings festering inside her?

Chn’Gi decided that the safest way forward is to dumb up and resolved, in spite of the fact that the Commander asked her to, not to make any predictions. She could safely make deductions and conclusions based on the facts, but she would base her reports on what she and her team had detected and confirmed.

It’s unavoidable now, and will be agonizing to continue to allow the council to treat her like she’s stupid and incompetent. Chn’Gi will continue her analysis of the Or’Gn’s history. She paid a dear price for the reader and data cartridge and always believed that knowledge was power, and as a scientist realized that knowledge was necessary to solve complicated, protracted problems. Hopefully if she learns enough she’ll discover a way out of her predicament.

In the end, Chn’Gi might be able to show everyone that she’s not what people have made her out to be. Chn’Gi spent most of her life with people treating her childishly, and she hated it.

She grew up never tiring of toys and dolls, even after graduation, she liked having her imaginary friends and playmates around. They were always there, good listeners and hardly ever contradicted or disagreed with her.

Chn’Gi reflected further and forced herself to acknowledge, that at least in part her being treated subordinately is due to her not having found a mate in the one hundred plus years since her graduation.

She can’t help that she hasn’t found a mate; she hasn’t met and fallen in love with that special someone yet. Now, Chn’Gi, approaching midcareer can see that her peers, her supervisor and now even the Central Council treated her as a tween (someone “between” graduation and an established career) and not a full-fledged career person. Someone that is granted the respect that a person of Chn’Gi’s education, position and age would typically possess.

Chn’Gi set the reader aside and splashed warm water against her face and ran her fingers through her hair and down her face, then across her body, forcing herself to relax. She caressed herself, tensing her muscles hard, then relaxed, feeling the little pleasure flow up her body.

She’s still comfortable with her female gender, sometimes questioning the choice she made so long ago. And still not settled on her sexual preference. She’d experimented over the years with both sexes as partners and though she tended to prefer female partners was attracted mostly by personality.

Chn’Gi was not comfortable with the idea of pre-mated
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sex, making it hard find someone. In spite of its social acceptance, CA’s endorsement and the Church’s ambivalence towards the subject. Chn’Gi’s relationships often ended when the potential partner wanted sex, and Chn’Gi wanted to wait.

Despite the negative impact on the social aspects of her career, Chn’Gi reassured herself that she would remain resolute in her decision to wait for a committed relationship before having sexual relations and not go out of her way searching, she’s not desperate. Thankfully Chn’Gi told herself, she’s still decades away from being labeled a “leftover
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.” Until then she could take care of herself.