Chapter 10

“Sarah’s Clan,” said Keriann as AlphaD01 carried Sarah’s Clan back to Dóchas, “I am very embarrassed. I don’t understand why it took me so long to realize we had lost contact with you.”

“You shouldn’t be embarrassed,” replied Judy. “When we first discovered the problem, we weren’t sure how much energy we would need to counter the drugs. Our connection with you likely just faded out rather than abruptly disappearing. We have been comparing our individual responses to the food, and each of us responded to the drugs at a slightly different rate. It isn’t clear whether the rate difference was due to the food we chose, the amount each ate, differences in our bodies or all three.”

“How do we avoid this in the future?”

“I’m not sure that we can,” replied Rusty. “In a situation like today, one approach would be to stagger our consumption as that wouldn’t be very obvious. It would be noticeable to someone closely monitoring us, and they would likely take offense as it indicates a lack of trust. I wonder if they were certain that the spices would affect us. The way Olua acted indicated that he seemed certain that his plan would work. Based on what was said, he was very fixated on obtaining our technology and us. I wonder how they knew.”

“How should we meet with the Iridiens in the future?”

Sarah said, “Very cautiously. The next meeting will be either here or at An Clochán, preferably the latter. We may need to visit their ship again. Before we do that however, we must take a dream walk through all of their ships, and even then carefully consider whether we should really go or not.”

“Orgaine will likely sense us taking a dream walk.”

“Yes, and if they don’t like it, I feel like telling them ‘too bad, so sad’. We should wait until they extend an invitation for us to visit, and then make our acceptance conditional on the results of a dream walk. If that is not acceptable then we could consider having just a few of us go, presuming that it is important enough to take the risk. Those who stay behind would actively augment the senses of those making the trip through our mind-link.”

“How about asking some bots to be a part of the contingent? Plus if all of us tightly link, we would be in a stronger position to counter another attempt on us.”

“There are some weaknesses with that approach; however a mixed group might still be a better choice for such a visit. One thing we should be careful of is whether they can block or disrupt our psionic abilities.”

“Is their friendship this important?” asked Jackie.

“Yes,” replied Alena, “our sense is that in spite of their internal turmoil, the Alliance of Worlds, through the Iridiens, intends to be friendly toward us, just as they would with any newly discovered world. We don’t know the extent of their friendship. Nor do we know the extent of the turmoil in the Alliance of Worlds. We now know that at least Olua’s world, the Dutsuz, wants our technology and us. We think their motivation is that it would enhance their prestige and greatly increase their wealth. Based on what we saw and heard, they wouldn’t care if something removed us from the scene as long as they gained our technology. In fact, it sounded several times as though they wanted us as an additional protein source. In the future, we are likely to encounter other people who are as intent on dominating us. However, the Iridiens would probably like us to join their alliance as they see it benefiting everyone. So, long term, it will be to our benefit to have good relations with at least some of the Alliance of World members. Besides the Iridiens and Dutsuz, there are two other species in the fleet. I wonder what they think of today’s events.”

“Alena, we agree with you,” said Kathryn. “We think, we should continue to be friendly toward this Alliance of Worlds fleet, and in particular the Iridiens. At the same time we should be cautiously alert to being misled by other segments of the Alliance of Worlds.”

“Boy, that will be a challenge,” said Joyce.

“Just as much as it was on Earth,” replied Jill. “Our advantage on Earth was that we had an idea of how the game was played and knew the history of the different groups. I wonder if other worlds have as much hostility between groups based on religious or physical differences.”

“True,” responded Erin. “We may have come to rely too much on our telepathic ability in understanding others. It clearly works when interacting with humans, but may not with other species.”

“Wait,” said Aoife, “when we were on their ship, I really didn’t try to understand their thoughts as they weren’t very clear or understandable. I could sense intent so I focused on that aspect. None of those we met had feelings that indicated any hostility or harm toward us. Now, there were some in the meeting room whose friendliness seemed a little put-on or phony. We know now that Olua’s group intended to take control of us in a way that would circumvent our resistance. Our error was in part due to us just looking for hostility toward us. Tara and I need to compare Olua’s thoughts with what he said.”

“I saw the same thing,” added Tara. “It seems that from Olua’s point of view, they did not intend to harm us, well at least not immediately. Does this indicate that they think differently than we do? Aoife is touching on a point about telepathy that we haven’t seen before. In the past, the threats we have detected with telepathy have been active physical threats. This was more of a subversive approach. We need to consider whether our psionic abilities can detect subversive threats.”

“Alert Cathan and Brid to your observation now! They are planning on telepathically screening the visitors on An Clochán.”

“Cathan just advised us that they had already seen the problem there,” said Kelly.

“Aoife, Tara,” said Judy, “one possible reason the thoughts weren’t clear is because their mental associations and language are very different from those we know. When conversing with them we have used standard language to express ourselves. The translation doesn’t occur until you are ready to verbalize the thought.”

“Anyway,” said Sarah, “our next meeting with them should be at An Clochán.”

“We agree,” replied the eight clans.

“Jackie, Molly, how has the last few days impacted the work on your ships?”

“We’ve probably lost a week, maybe a little more,” replied Molly. “We have gained some operational experience but that really doesn’t compensate for the lost time.”

“It is the same with us,” added Jackie.

Keriann said, “Why don’t we shift our focus to outfitting Marthanóir and Fiontar? I am not sure we can regain the time, but it will keep it from slipping any more than necessary. For the Alliance of Worlds fleet, we will just monitor their activity. I am inclined to put Ferrets on all their ships.”

“Agreed,” replied all the Command Staffs.

“What did you have in mind for the Ferrets’ objectives?” asked Sally.

“Conversations and status of the systems on the ship. However, conversations won’t be of much use unless they use standard language, or we can learn their languages.”

“We think we should hold off on the Ferrets except for the two Dutsuz ships,” said Kathryn. “It seems to us that we would potentially escalate this incident if they found them. We definitely want to monitor their activity and transmissions though.”

“If there is another incident,” said Molly, “Ferrets should be immediately placed on all ships, along with a number of spiders.”

“Wait, I am confused,” said Colleen. “Aoife and Tara can’t decipher their thoughts but our Intelligence groups were able to intercept transmissions between ships and decipher them?”

“They use standard language for the transmissions between ships. We intercepted those and they contained an occasional sprinkling of the speaker’s native language. Our array of drones is still around their ships, listening to their transmissions.”

“We are encoding our transmissions, correct?”

“Definitely. The key changes daily.”

“If we’re not going to use the Ferrets now,” said Kelly, “then we need to strengthen our links to the bridge. In fact, we may want to actively monitor the bridge at all times. If we do this, then I like the idea of having us do rotations in groups of three with at least five on the bridge at all times.”

“Kelly, are you concerned that if subsets of our clans always work together it will cause small divisions in our clans.”

“No, not really. It is a way to ensure that each of us has an opportunity to be close to all of our spouses during all aspects of our lives. As completely as we are bound and linked to each other, it is hard to imagine how divisions could occur within a clan.”

“For nearly all the clans,” said Judy, “I would agree. We have seen a few people that have difficulty letting go of the past and naturally sharing with their spouses so their bond grows.”

“I sense we are all in agreement with how to proceed,” said Sarah.

“Yes,” replied all the Command Staffs.

“Did any of you watch the replay of Nicola’s run-in with Orknov?” asked Kelly of Keriann’s Clan.

“We watched it,” replied Sarah. “She did very well. There were several times you almost couldn’t see her move from one spot to the other.”

“We noticed that as well. We need to tell her how well we thought she did.”

“Agreed.”

“Any feed-back from our security teams at An Clochán?” asked Siobhan.

“Not really,” said Sarah. “Requiring the oath and telepathic scan did not appear to upset them. Briana did say that the Iridien Spec Ops members seemed very impressed with the facilities. They are just finishing lunch. Several have asked if our ships were like An Clochán. When we told them ‘yes’, a few doubted our answers. Antopolis reminded them that he had visited Dóchas, and then confirmed that our ships’ facilities were similar to An Clochán.”

Chester of Keriann’s Clan said, “They see our ships as warships, and our accommodations are pretty plush for a warship. We see them as an exploration ship, as that is our intent. They are our homes, and our families are with us. However, their view is correct; the Dóchas class ships are basically a warship. They have to be. It is likely that all of their warships are very utilitarian, which is what our teams saw when visiting their cruisers yesterday. When we designed our cruisers, we felt comfort would enhance our readiness, so we chose to make them comfortable while maintaining their capabilities.

“Think about it from their perspective. They have several hundred years of history and knowledge behind them. To them we are an upstart, short on history but loaded with technology, some of which they have apparently overlooked. We are probably the smallest space faring species they have ever encountered.

“Now add to that the fact that we surprised them a few days ago when we confronted them. I suspect it has been a long time since that has happened without a battle ensuing. During the confrontation, and after, we did nothing to humiliate them; in fact we have shown them what they were up against without rubbing their noses in it. Considering their experiences, they are probably a little uncertain about our depth, capabilities and intentions, as in ‘waiting for the other shoe to drop’. The fact that circumstances caused us to increase our monitoring has likely added to their uncertainty. With our approach, we are subtly telling them that we are confident of our capabilities and will do everything possible to ensure our security.”

“We are now back on Dóchas,” said Erin.

“Chester,” said Rusty, “that is a good analysis of the situation. From what we saw of their ship, it is very utilitarian.”

“Some of us ought to visit An Clochán while their Spec Ops teams are there,” said Keriann.

“We are going to relax a bit,” said Jill. “Later, we need to check on how our visitors from Earth are doing, considering today’s events. Isn’t it close to the time Darren said he had to be back?”

“Yes. The others are here for several more days,” replied Maeve. “I wouldn’t be surprised to see Doug and Virginia interviewing the Iridiens on An Clochán tomorrow.”

“Nor would I,” responded everyone.

“They are good people. Grand View media will really benefit from adding them to their staff. Let’s plan on conferring this way in the morning,” said Sarah.

“Agreed,” replied all the Command Staffs.

On Dóchas, Sarah’s Clan had just sat down to dinner when Virginia and Doug asked to join them.

“We would love to have your company,” said Joyce. “Where are the others?”

Virginia said, “Darren is getting ready to leave. Two of the reporters are also packing as they are returning with him this evening. I think the others are on Iarracht, but Chloe would know.”

“So, what do they think of their visit?” said Maeve.

Doug and Virginia laughed, before Virginia said, “Darren is very glad he came. He has enjoyed every minute of it. Being here has given him some ideas for stories to run featuring your preparation to move to the Celia system. He was really excited to have a front seat to the Alliance of Worlds arrival, but to him, today’s events put a cloud over things. He wants us back next week, unless we can sort out how to anchor our evening program from here, then we can stay a little longer. We would really like to do our program from here. If that works, we would like to come back periodically and do it again. We are certain that he wants to discuss this with you before he leaves.

“The reporters who are going back seemed to be enjoying themselves although they seem a little uneasy about being in space. They have visited with many of those at An Clochán and have spent quite a bit of time talking to those who are here on a contract basis. From the few snippets I have heard and read, I think they are focusing on why people would want to be here.”

“Melinda,” added Doug, “made the comment that their articles have all been fair but not on topics she would normally consider important enough to write about. Why they focused their articles on the reasons people come here puzzles me. To me it seems to be a very small part of the opportunity of being here.”

“Doug,” said Joyce, “if I remember my history correctly, a lot of people didn’t understand why the pioneers moved west either.”

“Your memory is good and you make a good point. These articles will likely help some people understand the dynamics. The articles could even cause some people to consider joining you. It would really be much better if they inspired Earth’s technologists to work harder so that we can be a space faring world.”

“You will be in time.”

“Presuming some radical nut case doesn’t destroy Earth,” added Virginia. “It has always amazed me the number of reasons people can find to hate and kill others. Some of them continue doing it for generations.”

“If their political or religious leaders would speak factually and truthfully to everyone,” said Jill, “then much of the turmoil would disappear. Instead, it seems like some use differences to fan discontent and take attention away from working toward solving issues.”

Just as they finished dinner, Darren along with several reporters came over to them. Darren said, “Sarah’s Clan, thank you so much for inviting me here. This has been the greatest adventure of my life. Your people are wonderful.”

“We would like to second that,” said a reporter with the others nodding in agreement. “We plan on writing several long articles about our visit and the people we’ve met. As the culture and environment here are very different to what we are used to, we recognize that there is the potential for us to have errors in our articles. We are wondering if some of you would proof read them before we submit them to a publisher.”

“Sure,” said Maeve, “send them to Melinda or Sam. They probably won’t be the one who does the review, but they can coordinate it. We will only review them for accuracy and grammar.”

“Thank you. Again, I agree with Darren that this has been the greatest adventure of my life.” The others nodded their agreement.

“Melinda said I should talk to you about Virginia and Doug hosting our evening news from here,” said Darren. “We want the shows to give the appearance of being live, so we will need to work out how we want to handle the communication time lag.”