Demeter (4 page)

Rebecca Creer was sitting next to him. Debbie and Cynthia were across the aisle. Ryder knew two things about Rebecca: she would read the entire way, and she wouldn’t say a word to him. Debbie once counted, and announced to Ryder, that Rebecca had only spoken seven words all day in class.

Rebecca turned to Ryder. “Something is not right with this. I’ve traveled to Europe twice before, and this just isn’t right,” she declared.

Ryder was in shock. “What did you say?” he asked stupidly. More surprised that she had spoken to him than by what she had said.

“The planes for international flights are more crowded and uncomfortable than domestic flights. When my family and I went to Spain last year, I could barely hold my book up without having my arms go into spasms. This is bizarre,” She declared.

There was a doorbell-like ping, and the pilot announced that they would be leaving shortly, and to fasten their seatbelts.

Ryder looked for the carlike seatbelt, and was immediately confused. “Miss Li, I don’t have a seatbelt,” he complained. It was at this point he noticed something else: there was no flight attendant to ask for help.

Miss Li walked to the front and immediately had everyone’s attention. “You will probably notice that this is a private plane, as opposed to a regular airliner. You’ll need to fasten your safety equipment. Sit back in your seat and press the blue button on the arm rest. But be sure you are sitting back as far as you can in your seat when you push the button.” She then sat down quietly, as if to demonstrate, and pushed the blue button on her console. There was a faint purr, and several restraining devices automatically deployed, firmly securing her to the chair. Ryder heard several other purrs and clicks. He looked at Rebecca, and then pushed the button. A moment later she did the same.

The plane moved out onto the runway and left shortly thereafter.

Rebecca had a concerned look on her face, but then opened her book and started to read. Ryder guessed that further discussion would be futile and pulled out a book of his own. The seat was very comfortable, although more restraining than he had experienced on the previous flight. He felt more secure somehow.

Two hours later, he put down his book and looked out the window. It was nice to be able to have the window seat for a change. They had passed over the last of the landmass. They were now crossing over the Atlantic. Off to the side, he saw another plane that looked a little more familiar in style than their own. He thought they were awfully close, as he could make out the plane ID, J-773.
Wait a minute
, he thought,
the tail of our plane was J-773.
That’s when things really started to get strange.

The ping of the announcement system went off, and the pilot’s voice came back over the intercom. “Please be sure that your restraining devices are firmly in place. We will be accelerating in one minute.”

Miss Li got out of her seat, as did Mr. Small, and checked everyone’s restraints. “Looks good up here,” called out Mr. Small.

“We are clear back here as well,” responded Miss Li.

After the teachers were reseated, Ryder could feel the pressure as they accelerated and angled sharply upward. The crushing sensation continued for several minutes, and Ryder’s ribs started to ache. The sky began to turn purple, then finally black, and for a moment, Ryder thought he was passing out.
The stars, I’ve never seen them so bright,
he thought.
Wait a minute, what are we doing up here!
He then panicked and tried to get out of his seat. The securing system was locked. They were trapped!

Ryder’s stomach was doing flip-flops trying to escape through his throat. He was having trouble with his orientation. His eyes knew which way was up because he was braced into his seat, but the rest of his sensory system was struggling. About the time he figured out that this was what being weightless felt like, he heard the hum of what sounded like the air filter his mother used in her bedroom. His system did another lurch. He closed his eyes, trying to hold the contents of his stomach in place. He hated throwing up. The burning sensation and acrid taste of half-digested meals returning through his throat was something he had religiously avoided, even when he was sick. He willed his system to deny the volcanic eruption, and little by little his stomach settled back down. When he opened his eyes again, up was up and down was down. He didn’t think it was possible, but somehow they had weight again. Perhaps they were speeding back toward the earth.

Miss Li unbuckled her restraining harness and slid toward the front of the “vehicle.” Ryder wasn’t sure that “plane” was an appropriate term anymore.
Can I call it a plane if it is outside the gravitational pull of the earth?
he wondered.

“We will be taking a detour from our originally scheduled flight,” Miss Li announced. “I’m sure you are all wondering what is going on. I would like to assure you that there is nothing to worry about. We will be aboard the Pegasus for the equivalent of five Earth days, and then we will arrive at our destination. As promised, you will have a year of extraordinary educational and service opportunities.”

“You’re kidnapping us,” Athena snapped.

Athena tried to get out of her restraints, but the release button had sunk into the arm panel and was inaccessible. Ryder could hear two or three others struggling with their restraints.

“That won’t be necessary,” Mr. Small said. “The restraints will be released in a few minutes. But we want to explain what is happening first.”

“You lied to us,” Randy barked. “Why should we listen to anything you have to say?”

“When did we lie to you?” Miss Li inquired.

“You said we were going to Europe to study for a year abroad. This ain’t the way to Europe.” Randy sounded like he was ready to explode.

“Isn’t,” Miss Li corrected. “And we did not lie to you.”

“What do you mean you didn’t lie to us?” Ryder challenged. “It doesn’t sound to me like we are headed to Europe.”

“We are going to Europe,” Mr. Small interjected. “Europe is the name of the complex you’ll be staying in.”

“What?” Randy yelled. “You tricked us! We thought we were going to Europe—you know, France, Spain, Italy.”

“Did we ever say that we were going to France, Spain, or Italy?” Miss Li asked.

Ryder pondered her words. Every time the question of itinerary had been brought up, Miss Li or Mr. Small would divert the discussion to the exciting things the children would be doing. They had been so excited to be going, and without any real costs, they hadn’t thought to go back to the question about their itinerary. “Wait a minute. You said that we’d have a chance to go mountain climbing, boating, and,” he paused, “sightseeing.”

“Well,” Mr. Small said smiling, “look out the window. Now there is a sight many travelers would spend millions to see. Also, where we are going you can do all of those things, even more so than on the continent of Europe on Earth.”

Ryder and his companions were distracted for a moment as they looked out their windows. The earth was beautiful. Ryder wasn’t sure how far up they were, but the earth looked about the size of a basketball. He started to get a little woozy. The vessel was rotating in such a manner that both sides of the aisle could get a fifteen to twenty second view of the earth. Somewhere on the other side of the aisle, Debbie sighed at the splendor of the blue and green illuminated ball. He felt like doing the same thing.

Ryder turned back to Miss Li. “Okay, what’s the deal? Are you aliens? Are going to dissect us? Run all sorts of tests to see how our nervous systems work?”

Mr. Small snorted, and Miss Li actually laughed. “No, William, we are not aliens. I’m actually from Los Angeles, and my parents are from Malaysia. Roger is from Havana, Illinois. No, we are not going to dissect you. You may have some assessments, or ‘tests’ as you call them, but not to see how your nervous system works.”

Debbie piped up. “Can I fly the plane?”

Debbie's enthusiasm was mitigated by Athena who had fallen into silence with her arms tightly folded.

Miss Li smiled again. “We’ll see. But first I must tell you a story. That, however, will be after dinner.” She pressed a button, and the chairs started to shift to the interior perimeter of the ship. A panel in the floor opened and a round table emerged. On the table were several plates of hamburgers, and French fries, and milk shakes. Ryder decided to start with the milkshake, which turned out to be his favorite flavor: caramel marshmallow. It was very creamy, as opposed to those frosty ones that the fast food restaurants sold.
Tastes like they went for the high fat ice cream,
he thought, feeling better about the trip already.

When they finished eating, the scraps and dirty dishes vanished when the table disappeared.
Great! I won’t be doing dishes
, he thought.

The chairs shifted again into a semicircle, and Miss Li started to talk. “Our story begins six thousand years ago.”

“Oh, Miss Li, could we have a bathroom break?” Debbie asked.

“Of course. I wasn’t thinking.” Miss Li pushed another button, and all the restraints released. Ryder was curious to see if anyone would try to jump Miss Li and Mr. Small, but the only jumping he saw was several people racing to get to the facilities first. He realized he was going to have a bit of a wait.

“What do you think about this?” Joel asked Ryder when he returned from the restroom.

“I really don’t know. I like Mr. Small and Miss Li, and for some reason I trust them. But before I know what I think about all this, I want to hear their story. Then maybe I’ll have an opinion,” Ryder said as he got up to take his turn.

“Makes sense, I guess. But kidnapping is still kidnapping,” Joel said.

Five minutes later, as Ryder returned to his seat, he had a chance to look at everyone’s countenance. The faces ranged from curious to strained. Debbie was staring out the window, jumping on and off her seat as Cynthia pointed to areas of interest on the moon, which they were now closer to than the Earth.  A variety of drinks and snacks had appeared in the center of the table, but no one was eating now.

Miss Li called everyone to attention and started once again, “Sol, our sun, is in the Orion Spur of the Milky Way galaxy. We talked about this a few weeks ago in class. The Orion Spur, sometimes referred to as the Orion-Cygnus Arm, is a smaller spiraling group of stars bordered by two larger and better known arms of the galaxy, Sagittarius and Perseus. Although the Orion Spur is much smaller than those two larger arms, it still contains billions of stars.” In effect, the Orion Spur is the bridge between Sagittarius and Perseus, and therein lies the problem.”

Ryder sat back listening to information he was well familiar with. Debates raged over how many arms were parts of the Milky Way, although he tended to agree with those who counted eight. Orion was much more compact than what he thought of as a real arm of the galaxy. He sat up suddenly after thinking about Miss Li’s last comment. “Problem?”

Mr. Small leaned forward, “A little more than ten thousand years ago, a mere moment in the life of the galaxy, two superpowers collided in the Orion Spur. The Sagittarius League and forces for the Perseus Arm began a war over who should control the billions of stars in the Orion Spur. The war has continued, and continues, with no end in sight. Both sides claim the territory. Both sides argue that their honor demands that the war continue.”

“So this is a fight over territory?” Ryder stared incredulously. “There are billions and billions of stars in Sagittarius and Perseus. Surely they haven’t expanded to all of those stars, have they?”

Miss Li sighed. “It is strange. We don’t know a lot about Per-Sian exploration and colonization, but we know that the Sagittarians occupy a relatively small area within their arm. I’ve often asked, why this war over Orion? As far as I can tell, it is more a matter of pride than colonization or expansionism. Both sides seem to harbor a sense of manifest destiny. They feel it is their right to occupy all they survey.”

“So what has this got to do with us?” Athena challenged. “We’re not part of either side.”

Miss Li looked closely at Athena, and her lips started to curve upward into an ironic smile. “Well, that’s not totally true, Athena. Six thousand years ago, a group of people fled from the wars. They traveled through one of the way stations in the Orion Spur and escaped to what we now refer to as Earth.

“We know from the histories that they intended to build a cooperative, neutral planet, demonstrating that all the various groups involved in the war could live and work together. We will never know if their plan would have worked, as three of the ships, including the command vessel, were destroyed in their attempted flight. The remaining three ships did make it to Earth, but rather than working together, they parsed the continents and mingled with the indigenous people. Sadly, they failed to retain their civilization. Over the next thousand years, it appears that the cultures all but disappeared.”

Ryder interrupted,  “Well that makes some sense. I remember reading about the ancient Harrapan civilization in India, and the Mayans in Central America. That explains a lot.”

Miss Li nodded. “Those certainly are two relevant civilizations, and their technological achievements certainly fit. I was actually on a dig in India related to the Harrapans. Most people have never heard of them.” She then turned back to the others. “We are not sure if the problem was too small a population pool, the decision to break into three groups, or disease. Most likely it was a combination of all three. Their technology also deteriorated. It is obvious that things began to re-evolve after about a thousand years, but by that time most of the knowledge had been lost. In some cases, bits and pieces of enlightenment came back as dogma, visions, or even in some brilliant ancient scholars deciphering the earlier script of records long forgotten.” Miss Li frowned. “So much was lost with the destruction of the library at Alexandria.”

Alexandria caught Cynthia’s attention. “I heard that they had medical treatments that were even better than our own today, and it was all lost.”

Miss Li took a moment to nibble on a cracker then wash it down with a drink of water before she continued. “In any event, eventually there was a renaissance of ideas and thoughts. Terran capacity never dimmed, only our memory. Our warlike disposition also remained, and as our mission of peace was lost to antiquity, we returned to something we knew well: war. The better part of our nature, and our belief in God, was mixed with pieces of the truth, but never all. It was, and remains, a turbulent planet, with the fundamental ideas that brought us to Earth lost.”

Rebecca raised her hand and asked, “So you’re taking us to teach us the truth so we can restore the original vision to Earth?”

“Sadly, no,” Miss Li replied. “Earth was lost for millennia. The war between the galactic arms has continued all this time. The focus within the Orion Spur is on the three systems containing the way stations, rather than developing planets. Even self-sustaining ships need refueling and repair, so control of the way stations has always been critical to the battle between the arms. In this sector of the Spur, Demeter is the way station that was controlled by the Per-Sian League for several centuries. About eight hundred years ago, the Sagittarius League began the process of retaking Demeter, which has changed hands several times over the millennia. As you can imagine, the logistics of a military campaign covering thousands of light years is difficult to maintain.”

Mr. Small interrupted. “The shift in power in the region has always been more of a battle of logistics than a battle of ships. The last actual battle I was involved in was about sixteen years ago, and that was more a skirmish than a real battle. I remember I thought I was a goner when Shadrack and his brother swooped in and—”

“Roger! No war stories!” Miss Li interrupted, staring sharply at Mr. Small. She turned to Ryder and his friends. “Once he starts telling war stories, he doesn’t stop.”

Joel looked at Miss Li, “What is logistics?”

“It’s the process of moving personnel and materials from the staging area, in this case the Sagittarian worlds, to Demeter. Not only do they have to move ships, but they also have to have all the supplies needed to support those ships. Of course the navy itself is fairly easy, they had control of the second station, Haumeah and could build forces there. But typically for every thousand fighting men or women, you have another thousand support personnel. The Sagittarians began exploring a less expensive means of supporting the invasion of Demeter.”

Mr. Small took over, with millions of stars and tens of millions of planets in the proximity of Demeter, the Sagittarians began looking for potential developing world’s where they could recruit their support staff. Having studied the archives I know that they spent over a hundred years looking for viable candidate worlds and in all that time they found a total of two: Earth and Cryella.”

“Cryella?” Cynthia queried.