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5

The next morning Yan was in his office at 0900 for their Wednesday one-on-one meeting. Clement made no mention of dinner the night before and fortunately Yan did not bring it up. She laid out the final charts and plans for the migration mission on the conference room table. With the flick of her finger she threw the plan up on the room’s main plasma display.

“Everything is on schedule,” she said. “The last of the migrants have arrived and been processed through Kemmerine and are here on the station. All but five thousand migrants have already boarded their transports and are getting used to their new living quarters for the next month. There aren’t many comforts for them as these were obviously military transports before, but they are adequate.”

“Well if we have any complaints we can just leave them behind on the dock,” said Clement. Yan wasn’t sure if he was joking or not.

“I don’t think that’s really an option, do you?” said Yan. Clement shrugged indifferently and Yan continued. “The final total is 29,741 migrants. The new settlements are all prepared on Bellus, the advance teams have seen to that. Once everyone is settled in we should be able to have all of our farms and ranches up and running quickly. In any case, there’s so much food to eat there no one will starve, but we also have two months’ worth of rations for each family as a backup in case something unforeseen arises.”

Clement looked down at the plans. “I’m not so much concerned about the migrants after they get there. I’m more concerned about what kind of trouble they might cause on the trip out. Thirty-four days one way, even for a sailor, is a long time. There will likely be family disputes, lover’s spats, and some general unruliness. I hope you’ve prepared our transport captains and crews for those potential eventualities?”

“Of course. Our social scientists have told us what to expect and the crews have all been trained in how to handle those types of domestic situations. There will be no weapons on board the transports for any of the migrants to get access to, so things shouldn’t get out of hand. Even if they do, we have full contingents of Marines that could be on any of the transports in a flash.”

“Yes, but we’ve never actually tried to transport a shuttle from ship to ship while we’re inside a LEAP field, have we? I mean, Nobli says we can do it, but only within a single, closed bubble. Make sure the transports all have a squad of Marines aboard. That should cover any trouble.”

“Any thoughts on final deployment of the fleet?”

Clement thought about that for a second. “I’m inclined to use Agamemnon’s LEAP field to cover the majority of ships, but I would prefer we have backup LEAP pods led by the cruiser commanders just in case something goes wrong.”

“Double redundancy?” said Yan.

“That’s the way the engineers always plan it,” replied Clement. “In any case, I’m more concerned about fleet communications than I am about having to move Marines from ship to ship. I realize I should be more up on these things, these details, but I can’t do everything. And besides, that’s why I have you.” He smiled.

Yan smiled back and nodded an acknowledgement. “As far as communications, Nobli has designed what he calls a ‘quantum tether,’ a kind of tight frequency wave particle, but I can’t remember the name of it. At any rate, this ‘tether’ will keep all of the ships in a single LEAP field bubble connected. The Agamemnon can be tethered to a cruiser, and then the cruiser to a destroyer, and then from the destroyers to a transport or gunship. So any kind of trouble that starts at the transport level would have to be brought up the chain before it even gets to us.”

“It sounds like we’re going to have to give the individual ship commanders the ability to make decisions on the spot, especially involving any onboard disputes. Frankly, if I could just sedate all the migrants for the whole month I’d do it.”

Yan looked at him sidelong, cocking her head slightly. “I doubt that would be very popular,” she said.

Clement shrugged again, his hands open. “It was just a thought. What about communication between multiple LEAP bubbles? Will that be possible?”

“Nobli was less clear about that,” admitted Yan. “I don’t think he really knows yet, but he did mention some mumbo jumbo about actually using a low-power version of the MAD weapon as a means of communicating a light-wave signal to the lead ships of the other bubble groups. As I understand it he’s still working on that part.”

“Well I hope so. We certainly don’t want to use the MAD energy if we don’t have to. It’s not the kind of thing I would want to use casually. So I guess bubble-to-bubble contact is out. We’ll have to rely on our crews to do their jobs properly.”

“Nobli told me that he thinks the MAD application has great potential for interstellar communications. He even showed me a diagram of a potential ansible-style network that could be implemented to keep communications between Trinity and the Five Suns open.”

“I’m not even sure how the MAD energy could travel faster than the speed of light. Maybe he has some ingenious way of putting it in a LEAP bubble and sending it back and forth that way? It’s something we can experiment with once we’re at Trinity. For right now I think we’re going to have to go with our thirty-four-day one-way trip communications method. Anything beyond that is a tremendous leap in technology, no pun intended. And all this is really a conversation for another day.”

“Of course, sir. I’ll make a note to have Nobli prepare a communications plan and get some techs working on it once we get to the Trinity system. That does bring up another question, though.”

“I’m open to hear it, Captain.”

“How long are you planning on keeping the fleet at Trinity?”

“I hadn’t really thought about that. The mission plan has no set timetable for return. We have to get everyone settled in and make plans for the next migrant group before we scatter on back home. We’ll have to leave some ships to defend Trinity, just in case. My best guess is we’ll send the transports back within a week with a cruiser and a couple of destroyers as escorts to begin the next migration cycle. I haven’t been to Trinity in a year and a half. Quite frankly I wouldn’t mind enjoying some time on the surface of Bellus, breathing in some warm, moist air, maybe taking a swim in a pond, doing a bit of hiking. And I want to take a full technical expedition up to the Hill Place, near where we met Mary and her people. I want to know who built those pyramids, and frankly try to find out what’s inside them and who may have built them.”

“There may be a mother lode of technology up there. I’d already anticipated you would want to explore, so I put together preliminary lists of geologists, scientists, technologists, etc. I planned it for the second week after the landing of the first migrants.”

“Actually, I’ve got Laura Pomeroy working on a plan right now. You should forward your ideas to her. I’ve got better things for you to do.”

Yan nodded, then hesitated. “I hope this expedition includes me?”

“As of now, you’re included in the plan. That’s subject to change, depending on circumstances. You are in command of the most powerful ship in the fleet, you know.”

“I do, sir. My plan supposed that you would want to make sure your parents are well set up on your claim property before any side adventures.”

“I don’t think any of us will truly ever have a ‘claim’ on Bellus or any of the other Trinity worlds. We’ll just be tenants on the land of the natives. As for my parents, I may want to avoid them for a while. In fact, I’d consider it a favor if you’d take the initiative to check in on them every couple of days.”

“Of course, sir. I understand.”

Clement shifted in his chair. “Look, Yan, I just want to apologize for my behavior last night at dinner. Sometimes family tensions can come out at the most inopportune times, especially when we’re all under so much stress. I know I certainly am.”

Yan shook her head. “No apology necessary, sir. As much as I love your parents and especially spending time with your mother, I understand how their constant harping on you to settle down and get married and have more Clements has probably worn down on you. And we’re all under stress, sir. Until we get this mission off the station and the migrants on the ground we won’t even know if this idea will work.”

Clement looked at her, suddenly very serious. “It has to work, Yan. It’s only humanity’s future at stake.”

“I understand. If there’s nothing else, I think we should proceed to the Departure phase of the plan.”

“I agree, Yan. Let’s get this show on the road.” At that Yan stood up to leave, gathering her papers and closing down the display screen.

They walked together back into Clement’s massive office. He looked around the vast room. “It’s time to shut things down here. As of 0900 tomorrow morning we will be running everything out of our posts on the Agamemnon. Time to batten down the hatches and get ready to sail across the sea to our own New World.”

“Absolutely, sir,” she said. I’ll see you at your station on the Agamemnon tomorrow morning.”

With that Clement dismissed her and started the long walk back toward his desk.

He hoped it was the last time he’d have to make that lonely walk for a long, long time.


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