Green Comet

Continuing the serial release of The Plainsrunner under a Creative Commons Attribution Share-Alike license – (CC-BY-SA).

This is the penultimate chapter. Here we learn about Archie’s people and what happened when the Visitor came and attacked Grasswind and Sunward. After this story finishes tomorrow, I will be uploading more readings to the YouTube channel, Okanagan Reader.

Please join in the conversation. If you like this, let someone know so they can enjoy it, too.

rjb

Chapter Fifty-Three – The Story

Archie looked at his friends on the other side of the window, then at his new friends on this side. The mood was somber and did not fit with his idea of how this moment should be. Here they had two distant cousins, the Grasswindians and the Sunwardians, separated for millennia and finally reunited. And they had two alien species meeting for the first time. And a great historical wrong was soon going to be made at least partially right. This should be an occasion for celebration, not for gloom and politics. He was going to have to change that. It was time to tell the story.

He began with the comets, and how they began by visiting them and worked their way up to living on them. How they would ride long period comets far out in their solar system and back in again. He focused on the spectrum comets, the really large, really long period ones named after the colors of the spectrum. Red and Orange, the first two. The tragedy of Yellow Comet, and its rebirth as Green Comet.

Then the Visitor came, and Red Comet was destroyed re-entering the system. Excitement and welcome turned into horror as the Visitor swept through, killing everyone it could find. Orange and Green were able to change their trajectories, making their orbits hyperbolic and leaving their home forever. Now those two comets have set themselves between the stars and built themselves up into constructs housing many people.

Tallgrass listened patiently, squelching the questions that kept popping up, until he could do it no more. “The Visitor,” he said, stopping when everyone looked at him. But he continued. “The Visitor that destroyed your world. Is it the same thing that destroyed ours?”

“Yes,” said Archie.

“But this isn’t it. The Visitor and the Prime are different.”

“That’s right. The Prime is a hundred kilometers long. The Visitor was only twenty. But it had a lot more scouts and modules, and many more weapons. It was the killer. The Prime just came along after it and harvested resources.”

“Then how …” Tallgrass stopped himself. “Sorry,” he said. “Go ahead.”

“No problem,” said Archie. “I’ll let Fran tell the next part because it more directly affects her comet, Green. I’m from Orange Comet.”

So Fran told how the two comets, occupied by the only surviving members of their species, set themselves between their old star and the two stars they thought the Visitor was most likely to visit next. After a long time it came in Green’s direction, and they attacked it, severely damaging it and putting it out of commission.

They felt it might be safe to visit their old system now, to see how it was doing, and that’s when they discovered the Prime. At first they thought it must be the master of the Visitor, sending it out ahead and coming along behind, but then it left, heading back the way it came. They were curious, so they went after it, one ball from Green Comet and one from Orange.

“Like the the ball on the stern of the Prime,” said Tallgrass. “That’s how you travel.”

“That’s right,” said Fran. “That’s how we caught the Prime, and then we tied ourselves onto it. Eventually we figured out that the Prime wasn’t the master, but rather a docile servant, and we made ourselves more at home.”

They rode the Prime all the way back to its origin, where they met the Makers, who had sent out the Visitor in the first place. But then it was just a little thing. A von Neumann machine sent out to explore the stars. It didn’t grow into a world killer until later.

Pilgrim One interrupted. “You met the people who sent the Visitor? What did you do? Did you punish them?”

“No,” said Fran. “They were busy punishing themselves. By the time the Visitor reached its first star, the Makers had driven themselves into a deep dark age.”

“So they go unpunished?”

“We saw no point in punishing their descendants.”

Pilgrim One obviously disagreed, but these people had suffered worse than his people had, so he stifled his objection.

After waiting a moment to see if Pilgrim One had any more to add, Archie took over the narration. He said, “What Fran didn’t tell you is that she was so important in saving her comet from annihilation that some people formed a theology with her as its saint.” He shook his head. “That caused no end of trouble.” He nodded at Pilgrim One, who was staring at Frances, his face vacillating between awe and hostility.

Archie continued. “By the time we left the Maker world we had pretty well figured out what happened. The Makers sent out their von Neumann machine, then their civilization collapsed. The Visitor, still a tiny thing, must have had something go wrong with its programming that caused it to become fanatical in its objectives. It was meant to explore, locate resources and build the necessary machinery to do the job. It did that, but on a large scale, with no governance. It was now an unguided, minimally intelligent device whose only purpose was to go from star to star, building itself up and collecting resources. And it had a whole galaxy to work with.”

Tallgrass jumped in again. “And then it came here, right? But by then it was bigger.” He frowned. “But why did it attack us. Why didn’t it just do its job and move on?”

“We think it perceived you as a threat to its resources.” said Archie. “So it subdued you.”

“It sure did,” said Tallgrass, “but not as badly as it did you.”

“No,” said Archie. “We think it was evolving to do its job more efficiently and more thoroughly. And we think it was insane.”

“Did radio have something to do with it? Is that why we have this taboo about radio?”

“Yes. In our system it immediately attacked and destroyed any source of radio transmissions.” Archie stared off, over Fran’s shoulder into the vast space of Green Comet’s square. When he came back he had a hard smile. “But we don’t have to worry about that any more. The Visitor is dead and its cargo drone is not dangerous.”

“So we don’t have to worry about radio any more?” asked Tallgrass. “Actually we never did after the Visitor left, did we?”

“No,” said Archie. “It was never coming back, and the Prime, which remained here gathering resources, is not insane.”

Pilgrim One said, “You speak of resources. Does that mean that this Prime is full of resources?”

“Yes,” said Archie. “Well, no,” he amended. “It was full of resources, but we left a third at the Maker world, took a third back to ours, and brought the rest here.”

“You gave our resources to those murderers?” Pilgrim One was outraged.

“Well,” said Archie, “they weren’t the murderers, just their descendants. Part of the resources came from the first star visited, the uninhabited one, and it was their machine that gathered them. Also, we needed them to keep the laser going so we could get home.”

Pilgrim One was dissatisfied, but Tallgrass said, “You deserve to do whatever you want with the resources. You suffered the worst. You killed the Visitor. And you tamed the Prime. You were within your rights to keep it all for yourselves.”

“Yes, we could have.” Archie looked at Fran on the other side of the window, and they smiled at each other. “But no,” he said, looking at Tallgrass, “we couldn’t have. It wouldn’t have been right.”

Tallgrass’s eyes shone, but Pilgrim One looked disgusted. Tallgrass said, “So you brought our share back here, for us. What is your plan now?”

Archie was about to answer when he was distracted by the arrival of a person leading six robots. “Ah,” he said. “Thank you.” To his guests he said, “There’s one for each of you. We’re so used to being able to fly everywhere that we’ve spread out a lot. The distances are too great for you to comfortably walk them, so each of you can have one of these to help you get around.”

They looked at the eight-limbed robots, all identical to Scarface except for the scar and the dent. Tallgrass grinned and pushed off the wall, trying to decide which one to pick.

Continuing the serial release of The Plainsrunner under a Creative Commons Attribution Share-Alike license – (CC-BY-SA).

We’re down to the last few chapters. Thank you for coming along and I hope to see you joining in future projects. In this chapter we find out more about the Prime and the people living in it.

Please join in the conversation. If you like this, let someone know so they can enjoy it, too.

rjb

Chapter Fifty-Two – Hints

Pilgrim One took a moment to find his voice. He looked at Archie with a vaguely surprised expression on his face. Had he been expecting something more impressive? Something bigger than this little furry biped with wings? Something that merited the tough talk with Supervisor Steel. Finally he said, a little louder than necessary, “Yes they are weapons, and we’re going to keep them.”

“That’s fine,” said Archie. “Wear them if they make you feel comfortable, but please don’t …”

“Don’t use them. We know. The Prime doesn’t like them.” Pilgrim One scowled at Blunt, who was protectively cradling his injured arm. “Why do you blame your ship for your actions? Why don’t you take responsibility yourselves?”

“The Prime is not our ship,” said Archie. “We normally travel in much smaller vessels. You might have seen one attached to the rear of the Prime.”

After a brief silence, Tallgrass said, “The sphere? The two hundred meter hollow ice sphere we saw during our circumnavigation?”

“Yes,” said Archie. “Normally we travel in one of those with a light sail, but since we were coming with the Prime, we decided to live inside it.” He spread his arms. “As you can see, we’ve made ourselves at home.”

Still suspicious, Pilgrim One said, “So you do control it. Why pretend you don’t?”

“‘Control’ might be a bit strong,” said Archie. “It’s more like we get along with it. Like it tolerates us. But I’m getting ahead of myself. Now that you’re all here I can tell you the whole story. You have made it all the way out here, and you’ve shown that you’re ready to learn the truth.”

“The truth?” snorted Pilgrim One. “How are we supposed to know it’s the truth? You could be the same people who destroyed us before, and now you’re hiding behind your vessel, blaming it for everything. You hide up here, disguising your ship with rocks and rubble, and wait for us to lift ourselves out of the destruction you rained down upon us. What now? Do you plan to taunt us for a while, and then destroy us again? Or maybe this time you plan to enslave us.” He crossed his arms, breathing hard.

Archie spoke softly. “That is a very elaborate conjecture,” he said. “Not surprising, given what has happened to you, and how little you really know.” He turned to lead them out of the airlock. “All we can do,” he said, “is give you the facts as we know them, and trust your good sense.” He moved out into the hallway. “Come,” he said. “There are some people I want you to meet. They can help me tell the story.” He chuckled. “You’re right,” he said. “Even though there weren’t nearly enough rocks to hide the Prime, we were trying to disguise its outline. We wanted you to discover us out here, but we didn’t want it to be too easy.”

The Grasswindians followed him out and, with the alternative being left behind, the Sunwardians followed suit. “Why?” called Pilgrim One, hustling to catch up. “Why all the subterfuge? If you have nothing to hide, why not just show yourselves?”

“We considered that,” said Archie, flying backward so he could talk to them, “but we decided against it. We thought that it would be better if you discovered us for yourselves.”

“But think of the time we could have saved. If what you say is true, then we have spent valuable time in unnecessary ignorance. You could have avoided that by simply revealing yourselves.”

“Yes. We did think of that. Ultimately, we decided not to risk it before you were ready. We decided to let you demonstrate your readiness by finding us yourselves.”

“You decided. You sat up here on your high throne and decided what was best for us. Or maybe best for you.”

“That’s right,” said Archie. “We decided. Either way it would have been our decision, and this is the one we chose. Was it the right one?” He shrugged. “We might never know.”

Pilgrim One took a deep breath to reply, but Supervisor Steel said, “Let’s leave that for the philosophers. There would have been questions no matter which one they chose.”

Archie was noticing again how laborious it was for his guests to walk all that way with their unaccustomed stick and peel gait, and no help from gravity. Last time he was able to tow them, but there had only been three of them then. Now there were seven, and even without the distrust and discomfort among them, it would have been unwieldy. He was trying to figure out what to do when Scarface came along.

He stopped the little eight-limbed robot and explained his plan to the group. Minutes later Scarface was walking back toward the Square towing a large entourage. Archie had put Pilgrim One at the front of the line to assuage any feelings that might be wounded otherwise. Then it was hand on hoof all the way back. Supervisor Steel was the first Grasswindian in the line for diplomatic reasons, and Tallgrass brought up the rear so Blunt would have less reason to complain.

They streamed into the Square that way, to the delight and amusement of the people there. Archie asked Steel to lead the newcomers over to the window, while he went to talk to someone. Then he joined the group, finding Steel introducing the Sunwardians to the people he’d met earlier.

Fran, with the golden eyes and golden-brown fur, said, “Hello, Archie. We’ve met your new friends. I’m glad to see the rescue was successful. It has been an interesting couple of days for you.”

Archie laughed. “It certainly has,” he said. “But more importantly, the time has finally come. The whole reason we came here so long ago. At last we can do what we came to do.”

All seven of his guests were intensely interested, the Grasswindians with curiosity, and the Sunwardians with suspicion. Archie wanted to savor the moment, but he knew he didn’t have the time. The apparently endemic paranoia of the three Pilgrims wouldn’t allow it. He decided to start right away.

“It’s story time,” he said. “This is the whole reason we came to your star. To your planets,” he told the seven. “It’s why we brought the Prime here, and why we gave you hints of our presence.”

“Hints?” said Tallgrass. Then, “The gliders! You dropped the gliders to stimulate our curiosity.”

“That’s right,” said Archie. “The data gathering was secondary. It was still important, but presenting you with a nice mystery was our main goal.”

“Well, it certainly worked,” said Tallgrass.

“That’s all it was?” said Pilgrim One in a small voice.

“Yes,” said Archie apologetically. “We know they have become an important part of your theology, and we’re sorry. That was not our intention.”

“Does that make it all a lie?”

“No,” said Archie. “Not necessarily. The rest of your beliefs might be perfectly reasonable.”

“But the Heavenly Messengers are the foundation of our doctrine. Their appearance and their perfection are signs of their divinity.”

“Well, they are made of quite an advanced alloy. They have to be, given what they have to go through.” Archie paused, face worried. “I do hope you’ll be able to incorporate this new information into your worldview.”

Pilgrim One’s face showed despair and fear. It was plain to the Grasswindians, and even Archie could see it. The other two Sunwardians took the cue from their leader and soon their faces were full of fear, too. Pilgrim One said, “I have to tell them. My superiors. The Most High Servant.” He stared off at some private ordeal. “If we go back, we have to tell them.”

“Can it really be that bad?” asked Archie. “Surely the truth …”

“The truth.” Pilgrim One snorted. “The truth is what the holy books say it is. What the holy men have revealed.” He looked at them all. At his crew. The Grasswindians. The people in the magical window. And finally at Archie. “You’re right. We will be able to incorporate this into our worldview. But I don’t think you will recognize it when we do.”

Continuing the serial release of The Plainsrunner under a Creative Commons Attribution Share-Alike license – (CC-BY-SA).

The Sunwardians on the Hooves of the Prophet get introduced to the Prime. They don’t seem to much like it.

Please join in the conversation. If you like this, let someone know so they can enjoy it, too.

rjb

Chapter Fifty-One – Pilgrim One

While they waited they caught up on some chores, including reporting to Mission Control.

“It’s good to hear your voice again, Specialist Wayfarer. We were beginning to wonder.”

“Sorry,” said Wayfarer. “There’s been a lot going on.”

“Do tell.”

So she did. The last report had been just after the circumnavigation, when there hadn’t been much to tell other than how big everything was. Since then they’d gone inside, met an alien, been introduced to his friends back home and talked to the Sunward vessel, which was currently being rescued.

Mission Control had a lot of questions. What were the aliens like? What was the big vessel like inside? What was it and what was it doing there? Did it pose a danger to Grasswind? How did the aliens communicate instantaneously across light years? Why did they shoot Blunt? How was he doing? Are the aliens antagonists? What were the Sunwardians like? What was their vessel like? Were the aliens really rescuing them? Why?

Wayfarer did her best, but a lot of the questions didn’t have any answers yet, and the ones that did had answers that were big, complicated and incomplete. With help from Steel and Tallgrass she was able to bring Mission Control up to date, and to reassure them on most points. The aliens seemed quite nice. They lived on comets since the Visitor destroyed their world. This vessel, the Prime, appeared to have been the Visitor’s cargo vessel. No, it doesn’t appear to pose any danger. Yes, it shot Blunt, but we were warned not to use our weapons. No, we don’t know how the window works, but we’re sure they will tell us eventually. No, we don’t think it’s a trick. The Sunwardians? They seem okay, if a little suspicious. Okay, paranoid. Their vessel is a prototype. That’s why it broke down. Yes, Archie arranged a rescue right away.

There were a lot of questions and it took a long time with a six second delay at every back and forth. At last Mission Control said, “We’d better let you go so you can recharge your batteries.”

“No problem there,” said Wayfarer. “We’re hooked into the Prime’s grid, so we’ve got all the electricity we need, and the batteries are fully charged. They’re also replenishing all of our consumables. We’ll have all the fuel and oxygen and water we need for the return trip.”

“What? No food?”

“The food goes without saying. You should try the iceberry muffins. Fortunately the chirality of the amino acids is the same as ours. Archie says it’s because our stars formed out of the same molecular cloud.” Wayfarer paused, then said, “Tallgrass wants you to tell his mom that.”

“Will do. She gets everything anyway.”

“Thanks,” said Wayfarer, grinning at Tallgrass. “We’d better go. They’re about to put Hooves of the Prophet into its airlock, and we think it’s best if we’re there to greet them.”

“Understood. We’ll be standing by for updates. Mission Control out.”

The Hooves of the Prophet rested on the center of the floor of a fifteen meter cube, just as the Emissary did. Like the Emissary, it rested on a patch of setae, which held it in place. After the room was pressurized, the hatch opened and two pressure-suited figures floated out and explored the room. Like the Emissary’s airlock, the only thing of interest in this one was the five meter high door.

The two figures were hovering by their vessel watching the door when it began to slowly open. They both put their hands on the weapons they wore. As the crew of the Emissary had earlier, they had to lower their eyes to look at the person entering the room.

It was a small quadruped whose scales gleamed softly in the light. It walked on the floor with a peculiar sticking and peeling gait. In addition to its four legs it had two arms, and it was carrying a large sack in one hand. It stopped just inside the doorway, which remained open behind it, and put down the sack. Facing them, obviously unarmed, it spoke and said, “Greetings Sunwardians. Welcome to the Prime. My name is Supervisor Steel.” He glanced at their hands. “Are those weapons?”

The Sunwardians looked down, then one of them spoke. “Yes,” he said, “of course they are. It was my decision that the situation was uncertain and arming ourselves would be prudent.”

Steel nodded. “It’s all right,” he said. “I did the same thing. They don’t mind if you wear your weapons. Just, please, don’t try to use them.”

The Sunwardian’s stance got more aggressive. “I will decide if we use them or not,” he said.

Steel noted how threatening they looked in their pressure suits. Bigger, with an anonymous uniformity. He thought about how four of them must have looked to the little alien, Archie, and he was impressed again. He said, “That is your decision, of course. I must emphasize again, though, that you do not use them, for your own safety.” They said nothing, but they moved their hands away. “Very good,” said Steel. “Now, let’s complete the introductions, if you please.”

The one who had been speaking said, “I am Pilgrim One, and this is Pilgrim Two.”

“Nice to meet you Pilgrim One, Pilgrim Two. Do you have real names as well? I assume those are your designations for the mission.”

“Those are are real names,” said Pilgrim One.

“Very well,” said Steel. “Now, I suggest you remove those suits. It’s safe and you’ll be much more comfortable.” When they looked at each other but did nothing, he said, “It will also conserve your resources. You can’t wear them forever.”

“It doesn’t matter anyway,” said Pilgrim One, beginning to remove his suit. “We’re already dead. We were dead when our engine failed. When our mission failed. There’s no point in prolonging it.”

As they helped each other out of their suits, Steel reached into his sack and pulled out three sets of booties and stuck them to the floor. When they were done he picked up two sets and walked forward. He held up a foot to show them his bootie, then demonstrated the peculiar walking technique while they put theirs on. While they were practising he said, “There’s one more set for your crewmate. Pilgrim Three, I presume?”

Their hands went to their thighs, where they had strapped their pistols after removing their suits. “Who told you we have a third crew member?” demanded Pilgrim One.

“No one,” said Steel. “It just stands to reason. You wouldn’t undertake such a long mission with just two. That wouldn’t be enough. And I don’t think Hooves of the Prophet would support four. That leaves three. Also you’re hyper-vigilant and a little paranoid. Holding one back would be a reasonable precaution.”

Pilgrim Two took offense, but Pilgrim One nodded and took his hand off his weapon. He turned to his vessel and called, “Number Three, take off your suit and come out here.” He looked at Steel and almost smiled. He said, “You understand the demands of command, don’t you?”

“Yes,” said Steel, smiling back. “I understand protecting your crew and your mission.”

As Pilgrim Two looked on suspiciously, Pilgrim One nodded, sharing the moment with his peer, the only one who could fully understand. Then he said, “We have no mission. Hooves of the Prophet is no longer serviceable. We are never going home.”

“I wouldn’t be so quick to write off your mission,” said Steel. “Archie tells me he thinks they can fix your vessel. They should even be able to make a few improvements to make it safer. Things you probably would have done anyway if you weren’t in such a hurry.”

“Archie?”

“Our host. The one who met us in the other airlock. You know, if you don’t want to risk it, they could attach your vessel to one of theirs and carry you there much quicker. You could even ride inside their vessel if you wanted.”

“We’ll think about it. We’ll talk it over with Mission Guidance. In the meantime, when can we meet this Archie? I would like to convey greetings from the Most High Servant of Sunward.”

“Of course,” said Steel. “You’ll meet him. But first I’d like to introduce you to the rest of my crew, beginning with Mission Specialist Blunt. He will show you why you don’t want to draw your weapons.”

“I find it hard to accept that you would allow them to injure your crewman, and do nothing about it.”

The introductions were made and Pilgrim One was having a private talk with Supervisor Steel, while the rest of the two crews were getting to know each other. The two from Hooves of the Prophet were both staring at Wayfarer, who was beginning to look uncomfortable.

“And that,” said Pilgrim One, pointing at them. “A woman on a mission like this.”

Steel smiled and said, “Mission Specialist Wayfarer is a valuable member of my crew.”

“Doing what? Is she there to service your needs?”

Steel’s smile vanished and his brow grew heavy, descending over narrowed eyes. “No,” he said quietly. “Why? Is that what your women are to you?”

“No!” said Pilgrim One, shocked and offended. “Our women are revered. They are sacred vessels of God’s gift of life.” He drew himself up in haughty superiority.

Steel’s throat filled with a jumble of angry responses, but he swallowed them and said, “Our women are our equals, and their bodies serve them, not us. Specialist Wayfarer is good at what she does, and I’d gladly have a whole crew just like her.”

Pilgrim One smirked. “What would you have done if they had shot her instead of Blunt?” he asked.

“They wouldn’t have shot her because she wouldn’t have drawn her weapon.”

“But if she had? Then what? I don’t think you would have just stood by then, would you?”

Steel sighed. He said, “That kind of speculation leads nowhere. The fact is, Blunt lost discipline and paid the price. And we had been warned.”

“So you let them get away with it. Sacrificed one of your crew to prudence, or worse.”

Steel spoke through stiff lips. “I will be answering for my decision when we get back to Grasswind. I am required to explain myself to them. I am not required to explain myself to you.” He glared at the Sunwardian. “Yes, they injured Blunt, but they could have just as easily killed him. They could have killed all of us, but they didn’t. If you think you can do better, then be my guest. Order one of your crew to shoot Archie when he comes.”

Pilgrim One’s eyes flickered, but he maintained the rest of his haughty demeanor. “I will decide what orders I give, not you,” he said.

“Of course,” said Steel, “and I will decide mine.”

Pilgrim One looked as if he wanted to say more, but he closed his mouth and looked away. He said, “So, where is your alien? Why doesn’t he show himself?”

“He’ll be here shortly,” said Steel. “We thought it would be best if we met you first, to give you time to prepare. To be honest, the weapons on your ship worried me. I wanted to assure myself that you wouldn’t do anything rash.”

With a pitying look, Pilgrim One said, “Too delicate for the harsh realities of life, eh Steel? Well, stand aside then. I’ll show you how to deal with these aliens.”

At that moment there was a movement in the doorway, caught by the prey eyes of them all, and they turned to watch Archie enter. The Sunwardians put their hands on their pistols, and Steel got his crew to separate themselves from them, just in case.

Archie flew in about two meters off the floor. Just inside the doorway he sculled with his wings and put his feet down. Folding his wings, he said, “Welcome to the Prime. My name is Archie. Those are weapons, aren’t they?”