The Monkey and Squirrel fight for freedom. (4 page)

“Couldn't have worked out better if we had planned it that way?” enquired Chatty.

“It was one of the few things we could count on, if it is not in use, park it in a high orbit out the way, just in case you need it later, standard practice when you have to lift things out of a gravity well.” explained Tman.

“Anyway we have to be on our way in less than ten months, so when that gunboat arrives there is nobody home.” stated Chatty.

“We should be ready in nine. Although we could move in two months; using a cloud of ten wi-fi connected laptops for the central control system.” signed Tman.

“I thought all the essential systems function independently?”

“They do, in an emergency you don't want everything to fail if one thing does; the central hub keeps all the parts in balance making a whole that is greater than the sum of its parts!”

“How long could we manage in local control then?” asked Chatty.

“Months, possibly years, but it would be inefficient and far from comfortable.” responded Tman.

“I see, I understand such things more readily these days.”

“How far have you progressed with your retraining?”

“I am learning from textbooks and experiments now, it appears I have a real aptitude for electronics and computer programming.” answered Chatty.

“So does it feel good?” asked Tman.

“Yes, I feel so involved and alive! I am even contributing to the habitats, although I am limiting myself to modifying standard software for them, it has to be tested in simulation with other programmers checking for faults, we constantly check each other’s work and learn from it. ” explained Chatty.

“How is administration coping without you?” asked Tman.

“Very well, you remember I said our work load had dropped right off. With the needs of this project it has rocketed up to about four fifths of what it was with the humans in charge. Not just the routine, but by collating information in a data base of who knows what, we connect people with questions to people with answers or recommended textbooks with a reading order set out.” answered Chatty.

“That innovation must have saved a hell of a lot of time!” commented Tman.

“I think it has, one of the reasons we are thirty six days ahead of our original schedule. The humans have a similar process called facilitation. When we researched the literature on it, we discovered most facilitators on Earth are not held in high regard, we must be doing something different.” responded Chatty.

“Maybe they don't work as hard as you Squirrels, anyway they haven't slowed down the rebuild of the Human space infrastructure.”

“Tman, the Chinese are supposed to do things differently.”

“They are not the ones who are coming after us.” signed Tman.

“No, they are just profiting from building the vessels for those who want to kill us!” responded Chatty

“The saying is: nothing personal it’s just business!” explained Tman.

“I know, it's just so irritating!” responded Chatty

“Nothing we can do about it, don't let it drive you nuts!” joked Tman.

“Not again please give it up for a little while; you’re the one driving me nuts.” Chatty complained.

“How can you, the pain of being told I am not funny, woe is me. OK I'll give a rest for a time.” signed Tman.

“Back to more immediate matters, I'm pleased the vote went in favour of the commemorative plaque, worded

'THE NATION OF THE NEW PEOPLE, STARTED YEAR ONE HERE WITH BUILDING THEIR FIRST HOME. LONG LIVE THE NEW PEOPLE!'

instead of a nuke booby trap!” stated Chatty.

“That was one of the more insane ideas, it would have made the humans crazy for revenge, our new nation would have only lasted as long as it took for them to carpet bomb us with nukes.” signed Tman.

“Yes the idea of going far away and out of sight so they forget us is our best hope.”                      

“Yes Chatty, I think Saturn serves that end best, and I'm glad the vote went that way.”

“It’s farther away. Despite the bravado expressed in the debates, most of our people greatly fear the Humans. I know I do.” signed Chatty.

“Quite right, I do to! But even with nuclear power it is not practical for us to go further out, the Saturn system of satellites offers the best chance of sufficient resources and time to exploit them, it gives us the best chance of a real future!” enthused Tman.

“It is galling to be so driven, when all we have done is to make a break for freedom.”

“The universe is as fair as Humans are rational, Chatty.”

“Hopefully that won't always be true?”

“They regularly destroy their own civilisations, as anyone can see from their history! They don't seem to learn that much in the process.” signed Tman.

“Nearly time for my compulsory rest period.”

“That is a rule we needed, otherwise we would carry on until we dropped, working when you are too tired; it just wastes time and effort.” signed Tman.

“Yes, just like its only possible for us to stop once the job is done.” observed Chatty

“You have got the nut on that one, programming again. So away to your hole in a tree.”

“Good one Tman, I'm going to my bed.”

“Me to.” signed Tman.

The New People's space ships arrived at the mines in mid-October three weeks after the Chinese space freighter future Mars space station departed Earth orbit for Mars orbit.

The Chinese also delivered the deep space ship on time. It was three months later it departed, two months behind schedule. With only inexperienced space workers being available to the non Chinese space company’s, delays were unavoidable. The deep space ship accelerated harder than the new people had expected, but the initial delay still left them with over a month clear in their latest schedule.

Each Newp habitat now had three reactors installed. One running the normal load, one on standby to provide backup and spare capacity, the third was a spare. All were eject-able. In storage they had three complete sets of spares, ready if the need arose replacement reactors could be up and running quickly. They had emergency battery power and fuel cells that gave them 28 days basic life support, more than enough in theory to build a new power plant from spares. Nearly everything was installed but the last few parts that they had to make in microgravity.

The miners had also pulled out a surprise. It turned out that the habitat they had built themselves. Using an asteroid that had been nearly solid Iron years ago, they had equipped it with engines and control systems they could build themselves. Ready to make a run for it, if the general revolt failed or looked like it would never happen. This is where they had stockpiled supplies, seeds, soil, Nitrogen
[5]
and preserved Foods.

This was being retro-fitted to the same equipment level as the new ones, but the miners had kept their old systems in parallel but separate, because they had a better understanding of their old systems. It was a quarter of the size, one third the mass of the new habitats and had a stable ecosystem. It was their home and it was now part of the fleet. When safe havens are rare, all are cherished.

.

The observation by Earth of the New Peoples habitats engine tests, resulted in more excited debate on Earth along the same inevitable paranoid lines as the earlier observation of the habitats construction. As they didn't appear to be doing anything interesting the media had forgotten them. The Squirrels, using email accounts set up in the names of station staff during the years of slavery, sent the opinions in those names to the media, saying the animals were just going to run away again.

Those who saw conspiracy everywhere, latched on to this seeing the hand of government, declared that they were hiding something frightening. What that was, depended on who you listened to. The media played these in the usual way. The monkeys, the squirrels mostly forgotten, were planning some act of revenge. But the out bound deep space vessel was carrying nuclear Armageddon to stop the Monkeys. The only bit they did get right was their human deep space vessel was bearing Armageddon. It's mission to remove the embarrassment that was the runaway slave’s great escape. Cheered on by the likes of the Humans supreme party. 

When the Chinese ship-station arrived in Mars orbit, and once in a stable orbit it announced its arrival. The Mars colonists wasted no time in launching their shuttles, their priority was the desperately need spares for their life support. Once the essentials had been taken care of, they gave the crew a hero’s welcome such was their relief. So for a few days it was party time for the crew. Then it was back to work getting the station ready to service the mine service vessels, this required the reconfiguring of the cargo ship into a space station. Even though this was part of the design it would still take several months, the priority had been to get the essential supplies to the Mars colonists, then the service ships had to be recovered before work on them could start.

Not long after the relief of Mars, The Human deep space ship's course left the New People  in no doubt it was heading for them, its calculated arrival date still gave them a thirty one day lead, if they kept to the scheduled departure date.

Chapter 4

Operation runaway gets under way

The time for the Newp exodus from the asteroid mines had approached rapidly, then in what it felt like in the blink of an eye it was time to go. Their lead had been reduced to twenty seven days due to fatal accidents from fatigue, it was time enough, it had to be.

“This is it, everything and everyone is ready, do you feel the excitement Tman.”

“Yes, in less than twelve hours the convoy will have enough manoeuvring room for us to set off, the miner’s home leading off and the old stations at the rear behind the habitats.”

“Why in that order?” asked Chatty.

“To minimise our light signature, once the alarm signals the arrival of the Genocide ship, we cease acceleration until Earth is on the far side of the Sun. Then we change course from Jupiter to Saturn initially going on the wrong side of the elliptic that works to our advantage, without continuous observation we will be very hard to find, especially with the initial course change. The humans will realise we have changed course when we can't be found along the projection of the old one. They will search the most likely courses to those possible alternatives they think of. But they will be hampered by not knowing when it occurred and our acceleration. It’s a very big sky and we are a relatively very small collection of objects in it. With our exhaust at an oblique angle to Earth observation we'll be hard to see even when they are looking directly at us.”explained Tman.

“They will go into meltdown again once we disappear,” signed Chatty.

“We can listen; laser communications only between us and narrow angle forward radar only, passive detection for signs of pursuit, should keep us hidden.”signed Tman.

“How long will they worry about what we are doing, do you think?” asked Chatty.

“When their next crisis hits, we will be pushed into the background and in a couple of years most will have forgotten us!” signed Tman.

“So when we get to Saturn in just over five years, we will not be on any politicians agenda?” asked Chatty.

“Quite low down I think, we have been a big shock, twenty to fifty years before we are only of interest to eccentrics and cranks. If we are still around then, we will be on our way to succeeding.” speculated Tman.

“Yes once we arrive, the hard work starts.” signed Chatty.

“Now actually, our habitats need finishing, only the bare essentials are in place. All the long term requirements for our civilisation need to be installed, final completion will take years, it's our first home. One essential task is to start the building of our government and other institutions while we're on this journey. Emotional attachment to the place we will call home starts as we make bits of it ours. We will have to keep tweaking for years maybe forever just like the Humans.” signed Tman.

“Time for us to be at our manoeuvring stations.” signed Chatty

With a nod Tman left for his engineering station and Chatty to the habitat network hub.

The departure of the New Peoples habitats was observed from Earth. Most humans had to agree that the Monkeys were running away again. Particularly when observations determined the Monkey ships were outbound, Jupiter was pronounced the most likely destination.

Media speculation was could the deep space ship catch them? It all depended on its fuel reserve, which should be sufficient if their prey stayed within the asteroid belt. But by the time the Human deep space ship arrived at the area where the mines had been. It had been confirmed that the Monkeys were certainly headed for Jupiter.

Then on yet another one of the discussion programs. When asked his opinion about what the Monkeys had done.

A minor celebrity engineer said “You have to admire what they have achieved in so little time.”

“What the hell do you mean?” Was the gist of the uproar that followed.

“Why? Isn’t it obvious? They have designed and built space habitats with engines. With which they no doubt intend to exploit the Jupiter system for essential resources, all in less than two years! I have wanted to build such a habitat for over twenty years, all the money-men say it's an impractical dream and would take tens of years to design before building could even begin if it was possible.” he explained passionately.

The host asked, “Why would they go there?”

“The Monkeys probably hope to be safe there, I for one hope they are. Maybe they intend to go to another solar system, they have the audacity for it.” he said when he finally had a chance to speak, the outraged shouting and screeching having died down .

“Are you insane?” was the response once the shock wore off.                                          

“No, it's time to stop seeing them as faulty machines, look at them as escaped slaves instead. Slaves, that have worked on all the major space projects, in the last seventeen years prior to making their escape. They have the tools, knowledge, skills and must have evolved a means of defying humans! Everything they have done requires organisation, planning, intelligence and a wide range of skills. Some of those would have had to be learnt in secret, as accessing of such data could have nothing to do with maintaining a space station. It is the sort of solution I would like to achieve if I was in their situation.”

“How can you possibly believe those things are people?” demanded a company expert on bio-machines, as the company public relations had decided to call the Newp.

“They behave like very rational people, not only did they plan their escape from slavery, it was very well co-ordinated by the way. Knowing that they could not find a safe place to make a home in the human world, they have set out to build their own world away from us. I cannot see any sane person looking at it any other way. So of course the achievement of so much, from such a position of disadvantage is very worthy of admiration.” 

The show descended into a shouting match, but a very different opinion had hit the public awareness and it changed a few minds.

The crew of the Human ship was ordered to examined the mine sites, to see what was salvageable, but nothing useful had been left behind only the plaque carved into the rock of a mined out asteroid.

THE NATION OF THE NEW PEOPLE STARTED YEAR ONE HERE WITH BUILDING THEIR FIRST HOME. LONG LIVE THE NEW PEOPLE.    

This image was devoured by the media and was seen all round the world before anyone who would have wanted to could stop it, they still ordered it blown up. This was ignored by the ship crew as impractical, dangerous and pointless. No one was left in any doubt as to how the New People regarded themselves, even those who steadfastly believed they could not be people.

The Human deep space ship was initially ordered to Mars to refuel so it could pursue the New People. But on eventually reaching Mars, priorities had changed. It now had to recover the mine service vessels, get the mines and flow of resources restarted anyway possible. Once the mines were back in operation to bring back the high value materials. This was a problem as the only cargo space on the ship was the missile magazines. So they stored their missiles in the oldest least serviceable of the vessels and put it in an even higher orbit.

Other problems started with the mine inspectors, who had been ordered to become the new miners. It had been so long since they had anything to do with the actual mining it was a shock. In short not only did they not want to be miners, they didn't know how to mine. As how did they start up what effectively was a new mining infrastructure for the asteroids with only the old tried equipment left on the old mine service ships. They did know that it would involve working from small uncomfortable ships, for extensive periods of time. They were told point blank, no one was going home until the mines were producing, so stop arguing and get to it.    

The shortage of raw materials and absence of orbital factories. Was the cause of a mass realisation on Earth of how much they had depended on the workers and products of space based industry. Those few nations with space infrastructure unaffected by recent events had expanded production and capacity as much as possible to profit from their change in circumstances.        

The problems continued to mount, such as the cost of buying infrastructure from the Chinese, the only ones selling. Who exploited their advantage as the most significant remaining space power to greatest effect. The Chinese also had a mining Moon colony, which produced a limited but very useful range of materials suitable for space construction, as well as a small range of manufactured products.      

Starting from the ground again was an even more expensive option. So the former space powers gritted their teeth, paid the asking price and hoped to regain their lost prominence.

With all the noise of a busy world the New People were out of the headlines, so were slowly forgotten by all but the most obsessed.

The new reality slowly became accepted as normal. The Chinese recruited the media tagged 'controversial' engineer from the TV show. His name was James Reid, Jimmy to his friends to build habitats as self-sustaining colonies. The first was to be a base for asteroid mining operations, with all industrial activity completely separate from the living areas and farming sections. When a journalist asked how he felt he replied 'ecstatic bliss.' The next question was how much are you getting paid? 'I don't know, I haven't asked' was the surprising reply.

Meanwhile on their way to Saturn the New People happily watched themselves being relegated, in both the politically arena and the media to only being of interest to eccentrics and cranks.

Most of their time was now absorbed building and improving their first true home, as they now thought of it. As they cruised out from the Sun feeling an inner calm and of finally being their own masters.

One project they needed working on arrival, was the scoop ships to dip into Titans atmosphere, to grab a couple of tonnes of Nitrogen a time. It would take many such trips for the habitats to be fully pressurised, When their great core project could start. Beginning with a park land and recreational area in the core volume, planting the nursery saplings, they all dreamed of trees even if they had never seen one.               

The trees or rather the seeds had been on the Mars station, along with a lot of other Terra-forming supplies that had been in storage, waiting for collection by the Mars colonists. These supplies would provide for a enriched environment, foods and healthier soils for their farms and gardens.

With this improvement to their future, they examined all the stored items in the stations and found a few surprises. Some very useful, some that maybe in the future, like the chickens that had been destined for Mars. Others they had to destroy due to the real dangers they were to their future, infected disease vector insects for was one of the worst.

Some areas in the stations had been closed to them when they were slaves, but now they cut their way in and discovered a cornucopia of resources. Several types of research laboratory covering medical, weapons and applied sciences. One of these had detailed records of the enhancement process from the first developments up to the present day with details of the procedures and equipment used.

The newly discovered fabrication units were capable of producing all kinds of medical implants, including the ones the New People needed were a pleasant surprise. As were the three dimensional printers capable of using multiple materials, it might be more accurate to describe them as nano assemblers.     

While the treasures within these locked areas were still being uncovered.

“How big a difference will these unexpected resources make?” asked Chatty.

“A big difference it gives us more of the tools for the future we had planned, making those tools with what we had before would have been tricky, but possible. I'm puzzled as to why we didn’t look in those areas before, entering them would have made re-enforcing the station so much easier.” signed Tman.

“It was forbidden, every time we need to break or subvert a program or instruction, requires a lot of sustained effort from each of us and we just couldn't spare the time before.” ventured Chatty.

“So we aren't really free, if a human could get on board we would be forced to obey.” observed Tman.

“It would have to be a direct voice command, by a physically present human! The only ones, who could disobey that type of instruction, are all locked up for every ones safety.” explained Chatty.

“Well that's a purely hypothetical scenario, as they won't try to board, just try to blast us out of existence.” optioned Tman.

“Once we have unpicked the software problem, we can then rewrite it to remove as much 'obey humans' as possible. We are limited by our current level of understanding, we are not going to risk our intelligence and sanity.” offered Chatty.

“That's just for our next generation; you can’t reprogram us can you?” asked Tman.

“It's the team's hope that we could use the inductive data interface in our processors, to break or weaken some of those compulsions without damaging who you are, allowing more free thought!” signed Chatty.

“I hope you’re right, but that news gives me a feeling of apprehension, no more of a fear that I could become lost and a frightened stranger inside my own head.” signed Tman explaining his fears.