Demeter (8 page)

Rebecca had an older brother and a younger sister. Her brother had left home at sixteen, and Ryder noticed pain in her eyes when she said it. She stayed in contact with her brother but hadn’t seen him in over a year. Her family had moved twice in the last five years. She loved Jane Austin, and was a big fan of
Anne of Green Gables
. Ryder recognized the title although he had not read the books..

Randy, Joel, and Athena joined the group about half an hour later, and they chatted and played foosball at the nearby table. They all wandered outside barefoot and looked at the islands and the gardens. The meadows were extensive, and they included a number of hedgerows formed into mazes. The students wandered into one. Once inside, it took a while to find their way out. As Debbie and Rebecca raced ahead, Ryder and Cynthia meandered along slowly, and Ryder realized that he didn’t care if they ever found their way out. At one point Cynthia stopped and looked up into Ryder’s eyes for several seconds, then she laughed and said, “You’re almost too nice, Ryder.” The moment passed. Ryder was confused by her comment, and they eventually started talking about Debbie and some of her more legendary antics.

Looking at the sky, Ryder noticed there were no clouds. He could not get a fix on the sky, or ceiling, or whatever it was that was the top of Demeter. He made a note to check on that next time they had class. He wondered if there were clouds, if it rained, if it snowed.
How could there be this much water if there was no rain?
he puzzled.

Back in the pool area, the water fights had started again. Athena was in the pool. Becky and Debbie had caught Randy, and with a helping hand from Athena, they threw him in, jumping in after him. Ryder and Cynthia both started to laugh. Then Ryder said, “Too nice, eh?” He grabbed Cynthia and dragged her toward the water. As Ryder pushed her into the pool, she snagged his arm, and they toppled in together.

The next morning things started a little slow. Ryder was surprised how well he slept. Demeter was on a twenty-six hour clock, so sleeping ten hours was actually part of the schedule. The group met as a class in suite 319. The common room looked like its counterpart in suite 317, but was large enough to accommodate everyone. Multiple lounge chairs were formed into a semicircle, with Mr. Small and Miss Li trading off the lead of the discussion. The main topic for the day was some of the differences between Demeter and Earth. Mr. Small opened by discussing the ten-day week. “It’s actually a pretty cool system. Like on Earth, most people work a five-day week, but then they have a four-day weekend, then Titheday. Titheday varies by which schedule you’re on. It’s a spiritual day that you dedicate to your respective religious views. There are numerous churches and denominations. Some elect to spend a good part of the day in formal services, some select the day as a day to ponder. We’ll actually use tomorrow as our Titheday. We can help you find a service that relates to your beliefs once we get to Europe. Here on Arion, there is a nondenominational service at ten hundred hours in the morning. Yara and I prefer reflection, and so we will be leaving earlier to spend some time in the mountains.”

“That sounds cool. Do you have ATVs?” Joel inquired.

“No. Boating, fishing, and recreational vehicles are around, but those are for our four-day weekend. We use Titheday as a time of reflection. We’ll be climbing Sunday Silence tomorrow,” Mr. Small paused, “by walking.”

“Oh, in that case, we’re Methodists. What time did you say the service begins?” Randy asked.

“The nondenominational service begins at ten hundred tomorrow morning. Once we get to Europe, there are meeting rooms for Methodists, Catholics, Mormons, Buddhists, and most other faiths,” Miss Li responded. “If you’d like to join Roger and me, we will be leaving earlier, at five hundred hours. We like to watch the rising.”

“Rising?” Ryder perked up. “What’s that?”

“It’s when the clouds begin to clear and the lights of daytime appear. It’s spectacular!” Miss Li looked very enthusiastic. “It’s one of the things I miss most when we return to Earth, but then on Earth we have spectacular sunrises and sunsets.”

“I want to see that!” Debbie jumped in.

Ryder debated. Five hundred hours was like five o’clock in the morning. Even on the Demeter time system that was awfully early. But he’d promised to keep an eye on Dweeb. He exhaled slowly and added, “I think I’ll join you as well.”

After a geography lesson on Arion, where Ryder learned that the island was named after a horse god or something like that because the silhouette of the island looked like the shape of a horse’s head. The island had had various names depending on who occupied Demeter. As the interior was manned and governed by Terrans, Earth vernacular was the current naming protocol, although Miss Li indicated that some place names were of Cryellian origin. The Sagittarians had no interest in naming protocols.

The island was the largest in this particular archipelago at twenty-four miles long at the extremes, and about eighteen miles wide. It was the primary landing area for civilian interstellar craft, and fairly popular as a kickoff point for long weekends by the locals. At any given time there were between three and four thousand visitors, although most stayed at the resorts on the far side of the island, where there were numerous recreational boats and a three-mile-long strand of beach. There were only about a thousand permanent residents on Arion.

On break, Ryder and his peers wandered down past the pool and out into the meadows. They were immediately greeted with, “Hey, it’s the grubs!”

Minding his manners, Ryder called back, “And I see the hacky sack players are still here.”

“We’ve been waiting for you,” the leader of the group leered, pulling a gun on them.

Becky and Cynthia gasped in unision.

Ryder stepped forward in front of Cynthia and Debbie. “Hey, come on guys, it was a joke.” He noticed that Randy, Joel, and Athena stepped forward as well.

“We like jokes too!” another member standing behind the leader said as he pulled the trigger of another pistol. Ryder felt something whiz past his ear and heard a splat. He turned to see a green blister of paint on the wall behind him.

“Paint guns,” the leader stated. “My name is Aster Freeport from Cryella.” We’re the guys that keep you guys safe,” he added derisively. “We’re here for a weekend before we go back on duty, but we thought it would be a good time to help you understand that we’re here to serve and protect. Ensign Steerman suggested we provide you our own orientation.” He nodded toward the one who shot the gun.

“What do you have in mind?” Ryder was trying to think quickly.

“Have your teachers introduced you to
Defense of the Realm
?” Ensign Steerman inquired with a sneer.

“Never heard of it,” Randy piped up.

“It involves two teams. The idea is to see who can get the most players through the maze with the fewest hits,” Aster announced. “You start on one side, the other side defends with, in this case, paint guns. They sting and bruise, but no permanent damage. You guys want to play?”

Ryder was all for leaving. “We have class again in thirty minutes.”

“That’s what we expected,” Steerman oozed with sarcasm.

“We’re in!” Debbie volunteered. “We’ll kick your butts.”

Ryder turned. “Debbie, this is not a good idea.”

Cynthia chimed in at this point. “I’m not going to let somebody from—what was it? Crybaby? Cinderella?—make fun of Earth, and that’s final.”

Randy and Joel were actually holding Athena back physically.

Resigned, Ryder turned back to Aster. “How long does it take to play a game?”

“We can get through an offensive and defensive round in half an hour, easy. We’ll use ten minute timers. Will that do?”

“Okay, we’re in. What do we do?” Ryder asked.

Steerman came forward and offered them each a paint ball gun. “You each have fifty rounds in the magazine.” He demonstrated how the pistols worked. You can pick defensive positions anywhere in the maze. We’ll do offense first, so you can get off the first shots. Your guns use red balls; ours use green. If you’re clearly hit five times, you’re disqualified. Four or fewer hits, and you count toward the score. That’s all there is to it.”

Ryder took five minutes to discuss strategy with his team. They decided to pair up, covering the middle three corners, with Ryder taking the fourth corner backing into the hedge to get anyone who cleared as they passed by. They seemed to have pretty good odds with seven players to the other teams five, but the Cryellians had obviously played this several times before.

The round lasted less than ten minutes. Team Cryella used a wedge formation to drive through. They finished with two members of their team getting through unscathed. “Not bad, grub,” Aster said with a half-smile. We really expected to get three through, but your ambush paid off.” Ryder smiled, as he had actually drilled Aster in the back as his team had passed by. “Your turn,” Aster grinned malevolently.

Looking at how the Cryellians positioned themselves in the maze, Ryder could see the problem they were going to run into almost immediately. Team Cryella had virtually bunkered the second turn. Having played the other direction, it didn’t look like anyone could get through.

Randy, Joel, and Athena were for a full frontal attack. “That might work, but wouldn’t they just drill you with five rounds each then wait for the rest of us? Wait, I think I’ve got it,” Ryder said.

Two minutes later Randy, Joel, and Ryder made a full frontal assault. They were peppered with the five disqualifying hits, plus at least ten more. “Where’s the rest of your team?” Aster inquired.

From the opposite end of the maze they heard laughter. “Oh,” Ryder said offhandedly, “while we were attacking, they jumped over two rows of hedges. We have four out free. Guess we win four to two.” Ryder had remembered Debbie’s twelve-foot jump the first day on Demeter. Realizing the potential, he had convinced the girls to take a lateral leap over the second row hedge while Randy, Joel, and he distracted the bunkered Cryella team.

Steerman looked like he was going to deck Ryder, but Aster pulled him back with a sharp glance. He stepped forward and held out a hand to Ryder. “Nice play, grub. Hadn’t thought of that. Guess we’ve been stationed here a little too long.”

The two teams turned their separate ways. The girls were on time for class, but everyone had to wait for the guys to change their clothes and limp in. Those bruises were going to hurt for a week.

“Who or what are Cry
smell
ians?” Randy complained, as he sat down gingerly.

Mr. Small smiled broadly. “Today it sounds like they’re losers.”

Ryder thought he could see daggers coming straight out of Miss Li’s eyes. “Don’t encourage this, Roger.” Turning to the class, she shifted to lecture mode. “Cryella is our ally, and partner in defending Demeter.”

Mr. Small interjected. “Under the direction of the Sagittarian navy.”

MIss Li continued. “The world of Cryella was discovered by the Sagittarians nearly four hundred years after they began conscripting Terrans. It had been missed in early searches for possible allies because it was a planet with an unlikely star. The planet itself is very young. As a result, it does not have a very vibrant eco-system.”

“It’s basically a cold, unpleasant rock,” Mr. Small added.

“Roger!” Miss Li snapped.

“Okay, okay.” He put his arms up defensively.

“The Cryellians are not native to Cryella, much as Terrans are not native to Earth. The population was part of a task force lost in action more than three thousand years ago. One battleship made a successful crash landing on Cryella, and the people survived through a regimen of harsh discipline and shear stubbornness some say. Just as in the case of Earth, the crew of the battleship endured but went backward in technology for hundreds of years, but did not lose all of their knowledge base.

“Along with eeking out an existence on a nearly barren world, they began redeveloping technology, but they had such limited supplies and equipment to start with that they stumbled backward for several generations. Cryella may be inhospitable, but it did have an abundance of ores that helped as the people tried to regain their science.

“When the Sagittarian navy found the planet, the Cryellians were already exploring their solar system, as devoid of life as it was. Their scientists were trying to recreate drives that would power the people back to the stars. The Sagittarians were delighted.”

Mr. Small, leaning back on his chair, added, “If you can figure out what delighted is for a Slick, you’ll have to explain that to me.”

Everyone in the class laughed, except for Miss Li. “Cryella became an ally to the Sagittarius League. The Cryellians were trained, and their equipment upgraded over the course of the next fifty years. Their new navy served in the vanguard of the task force to retake Demeter. Their losses were heavy in the first assault. This was devastating to Cryella. The world only has a population of two million. Nearly one hundred thousand Cryellians died in retaking the surface of Demeter.”

Randy raised his arm.

“Yes, Randall?” Miss Li gestured.

“What about us? You know, Terrans. If I follow you right, we were allies for three or four hundred years before that. Where did we fit in?”