Chapter 7

Note: When the conversation is a telepathic exchange, it is indicated by italics font.

Sarah’s Clan had just left their suite when Star said, “The two small groups of ships from Alliance of Worlds have transitioned from FTL and are maintaining a position to keep Uranus between us. Our Bird Dog task group is in position behind them.”

“Any activity?”

“Calvin reported that they appeared to be scanning the solar system. Each of their cruisers launched several reconnaissance probes. The probes are streaming data back to them and our ships are able to copy it. A couple of the reconnaissance probes did scan the area where the Bird Dogs are positioned. Based on the reaction, it doesn’t appear that they could distinguish them from their surroundings. Calvin indicated that he was not surprised. He expects that they might see them when the data is more thoroughly analyzed.”

“I wouldn’t expect them to see our cloaked ships on first pass,” said Chester of Keriann’s Clan. “At least initially, they will need to overlay scans in order to detect them.”

“Chester, that’s a good point,” replied Rusty. Sensing not everyone understood, he continued, “Our analogy to analyzing scan data is to think of it as aerial photos. To find camouflaged locations, you need to overlay several photos taken at different angles or at different times of day. It is reasonable to presume that they would do the same.”

“Thanks. Star, we will go to the bridge as soon as breakfast is finished,” said Aoife. “How are our guests doing?”

“They are up and should be at breakfast in a few moments. Indications are that they had a good night’s rest.”

“Thanks.”

Sarah’s Clan had just sat down when Joyce saw Melinda enter the dining room with their visitors. She said, “Melinda, why don’t you all join us after you get your food?”

“Sure. It will be good for Virginia and Doug to spend some time with your group. They will likely have questions, as they saw the Security Teams wearing tactical suits and in action.”

“Not a problem. Our meeting this morning will probably be brief.”

“We need to introduce them.”

“Fine, we’ll call on you.”

“Good morning,” said Lorelei as she approached Sarah’s Clan accompanied her group.

“Good morning,” replied Sarah’s Clan in unison. “We hope all of you had a good night’s rest.”

“It was great, but could have been longer, especially when I am cuddled up next to Earl. We should probably make introductions again.” With that Lorelei began introducing the members of Sarah’s Clan followed by the visitors. “Let’s eat before our food gets cold.” Sarah’s Clan shifted around so that the visitors were interspersed with them.

Keri, one of Sarah’s Clan’s daughters said, “Doug, we thought your questions last night brought out a lot of important details?”

“Thank you. I found the whole program very interesting and learned a lot. In many respects yesterday turned into a very interesting day.”

“I enjoyed what I saw of the program,” added Virginia. “It was especially exciting because I pretended to be a panelist and most of the time when I thought of a question to ask, Doug asked it. The biggest surprise of my life was last night when Doug called me with what turned out to be the offer to come here, although I could have done without some of the excitement after the call.”

“Cathan’s and Edana’s Clans would not have let anything happen to you,” replied Keri.

“I know that now, but when those people forced their way into my house I was scared,” responded Virginia. “By the way, I haven’t seen Cathan’s or Edana’s Clans this morning. I wanted to thank them for being there last night. It is scary to consider what would have happened if they hadn’t arrived.”

“At the moment, they are preparing to launch their cruisers.”

“Cruisers?”

“Yes. Dóchas has eight cruisers in its complement of ships. Briana’s Clan left with one cruiser yesterday. They are with six of our cruisers near Uranus.”

“Is that very far from here?” said Virginia.

“It is around 2 billion kilometers from us at the moment, or about a third of the way around the sun.”

“That is hard to grasp.”

“We tend to think of distance as time, which we express in terms of light speed. You came from Earth last night, right?” Virginia nodded. “Distance wise your trip was about 0.3 billion kilometers, but we like to think of it as 2.8 light hours.”

“I’ll have to admit I didn’t notice much about the trip after we left Twisted River, until we saw your ship.”

“On your tour this morning Lorelei will take you to the observation bubble. Nearly everyone enjoys the view of the universe from there. We sometimes go up there to watch the activity around our ships.”

“Keri, how old are you?” said Virginia.

“By our calendar, I will be seven in a few months.” Virginia started to reply, as Keri continued with, “If we were on Earth, I would be nearly ten.”

“You seem much older than that.”

“Even though we live a long time, we reach maturity within a year of being thirteen, and shortly after that we will likely reach our adult height of around 210 cm.”

“Wow, you’ll be as tall as those we were with last night. So what do you do during the day?”

“We go to school and do other group activities. Sometimes we help out in the different departments.”

“Isn’t it difficult with different ages all in the same class?”

“We don’t really divide into classes. We work either by ourselves or in groups while interacting with the learning center.” Virginia had a puzzled look. “I guess you would think of the learning center as a computer. Our courses cover everything from the basics to advanced topics.”

“Interesting.”

“Many of our other activities, I think, are similar to what children do on Earth. We play volleyball, basketball and study martial arts.”

“Except for the implied depth of the course work, it sounds pretty normal.”

Keri quickly replied, “Well there is one big difference. We don’t have all the personal drama with our siblings and friends that the TV programs and books indicate occurs on Earth. The artificial drama seems such a waste of time.”

Virginia blushed as she quickly replied, “Gosh, I hope I didn’t imply...” Keri, Jordana and Earnán had big smiles as they watched Virginia flounder. “You guys are pulling my leg.” With that the three of them chuckled, along with Doug.

“Yes, we were.”

“Nice leg too,” added Earnán with a smile.

“So, are all of you claiming to be seven?” The three children nodded their heads. “Your sense of humor seems to be a bit older.”

“That is probably due to the way we communicate with our parents and other adults which is very open and candid,” replied Earnán. “We understand that that is not the case on Earth.”

“Why do you say that?”

“From what we have learned of Earth’s cultures, by reading and watching some TV programs, people there are not usually very open with each other. We feel very fortunate in being able to communicate with each other telepathically. As a part of our learning experience, we do exercises where we don’t use one sense while doing our normal activities. Doing that gives us a much greater appreciation for each of the senses. We have noticed that our senses have grown in sensitivity with each exercise.”

“Are you including telepathy as a sense?”

“Yes,” replied Jordana. “An advantage of telepathy is that emotions and complex feelings are easily shared. This is especially true for those that are very difficult to put into words. Telepathy helps you see other points of view. Since we have always communicated telepathically, we didn’t really appreciate that until Kennith and his sisters arrived about a year ago. They have made comments many times about how much telepathy has helped them understand their mother, each other and those around them.”

“Who are they?”

“Alena’s children. We met them when we were vacationing on Earth. They were at the Smithsonian Air & Space Museum the day we visited. After spending a good part of the day with them at the museum, we wanted to see them again so we invited them to visit us. During their visit here, Alena and our parents found that they had special feelings for each other, so Alena and her children joined us.”

As they ate, Virginia and Doug continued talking with children sitting around them and learned more details of their daily activities. Lorelei smiled as she watched the two of them interact with the children.

“Sorry to interrupt,” said Lorelei, “but it is time for the morning meeting, then we will take our delayed tour.” As Lorelei was speaking, Sarah, Erin, Maeve and Rusty moved to the center of the room to moderate the meeting.

“Good morning,” said the moderators.

“Good morning,” was the reply.

“First,” said the moderators, “we believe Melinda has a few visitors to introduce.”

With that Melinda stood and said, “First we have Darren, the program director for the Grand View TV station. Virginia is a reporter and broadcast engineer. She is also a close friend of Doug who was a panelist at yesterday’s interview. And you know Rob and Paul from the Grand View papers.” She then went on and introduced the other reporters. “They will be here for several days.”

As soon as the introductions were completed, several choir members stood up and began a song to welcome the visitors. At the end of each verse was the phrase, “Welcome to Dóchas!” As each verse ended the intensity of the phrase grew. Sarah’s Clan was surprised by the song but joined in with everyone as the last verse ended.

At the end of the song, the visitors all said, “Thank you.”

“Are there any issues for us to address this morning?”

A woman stood in the back of the room and said, “Are the other ships arriving today?”

“As far as we know, yes,” replied Maeve. Sarah then added, “The two small groups near Uranus made their FTL transition several hours ago. They have cloaked and are now moving in this general direction. Our task group is trailing them.”

“Thank you.”

“Who has the first item?” said Sarah. The moderators then oversaw the discussion as the crew went over a number of scheduled activities. During their review a number of issues were clarified and a few minor changes were made. When the discussion appeared to be at an end, Erin said, “Is there anything else?” She paused a few moments then, Erin continued with, “Hearing none, we will see you at lunch.”

As people were leaving the dining room, Virginia quickly told Jordana, Earnán and Keri that she had enjoyed meeting with them and hoped to visit with them again. Each of the children gave her and Doug a hug before leaving with the other children. Virginia and Doug watched them for a while as they moved through the dining room.

“Amazing children,” said Virginia.

“Appropriate for an amazing people,” replied Doug.

“Lorelei, why do they have these meetings?” asked Virginia. “I would have thought their telepathy and AIs would make them unnecessary. Many stories on Earth relate their interpersonal connections to a hive structure.”

“The meetings are something they started a long time ago. They work, and everyone likes the interaction. You may not have realized it but everyone on the ship participated in the meeting. Those working were connected both telepathically and through a terminal in their work area.”

“Virginia, your comment about them having a hive social structure,” said Earl, “is marginally accurate, but only in appearance. It does not come close to explaining the dynamics between them. Lorelei and I have been living here for some time now and still don’t fully understand all the interactions.”

“I can see that,” replied Virginia. “The conversation with the children was very interesting, in fact I had trouble keeping up my end.” Doug nodded his agreement.

Lorelei was nearly laughing when she replied, “You got hung up by their age, didn’t you?”

Virginia blushed as she said, “You’re right, I did in part.”

“We think you will find that they are much more mature at their age than most 20 year olds are on Earth. Telepathy is likely a part of the reason, but their learning system is a great contributor. We can talk more about it later; actually we can stop by there during the tour. Now, let’s do the tour.”

“Weren’t Cathan and I supposed to talk to Clarence this morning?”

“Cathan’s Clan is deploying with one of the cruisers. She talked to Clarence before she left with her clan. Cathan told me that Clarence wanted to talk to you sometime today. In the meantime, he was gathering more background information based on what Cathan told him. We were planning on making that near to the last tour stop so you can spend some time with him. After that we planned on showing you where Judy and Gail work, but the order may change.”

Melinda said to the group of visitors, “Our tour this morning will start out at the observation platform. From there we will visit each section of the ship including the bridge. Lorelei and I are leading the tour but we also have Sam, Kelsey, Karmen and Earl with us. So we are off.”

“To see the wizard?” replied Doug with a smile.

“Perhaps, but not the one you are referring too,” said Sam as everyone chuckled at the reference to the Wizard of Oz.

“Melinda,” said Paul, “we thought we would tag along as well. It has been a while since we visited and thought a refresher would be good.”

“Great.”

Entering the observation deck, there was a collective gasp from the visitors. Even with the awesome view of space, their attention was at first focused on the departing Star Fighters. Once away from the ship the Star Fighters would pair up and then move to join a small group of other fighters a short distance away. Their dull black shapes were barely visible against the black darkness of space.

“Virginia. Doug, the two larger ships,” said Sam, “are our cruisers. There is a third one that we can’t see from here. Cathan’s Clan is in the one on the right.”

“What are they doing?” asked Doug.

“Typically they would be running defensive drills,” replied Kelsey. “I didn’t go by the FOC, so I am not sure what they have planned for today.”

Melinda waited until the visitors began to look at the different stars around them before she said, “Although it can’t be seen with our current orientation, we are currently 80,000 km above Mars. It is behind and beneath where we are standing. We are currently pointed in the general direction of Jupiter. One of our escorts will now assist each of you by pointing out objects that interest you.”

“Melinda, where are the other Dóchas ships?” asked Rob.

“They are quite a distance behind us. When you were here before, we maintained parallel orbits around Mars. We currently have six ships in a 3 axis defensive array in an orbit over Mars. It gives better coverage with our sensors, without any energy penalty. We are outside that array. When we visit the bridge, you will be able to see the positions on the map.”

After about 15 minutes, Lorelei said, “We have more to see. You can come back here at any time. The view you see is the background for many of Melinda’s and Sam’s news stories.” With that Karmen led the group off the observation deck.

When Sarah’s Clan stepped onto Dóchas’ bridge, Star said, “The two groups of cruisers with Alliance of Worlds markings are moving on a path that will have them pass between us and Jupiter.”

“Is Bird Dog TG shadowing them?” asked Terry.

“Yes. They are about 200 km behind them in the CT3D formation.”

Sally said, “CIC has assigned the two groups of Alliance of World ships identifiers AWCA and AWCB, then each ship in a group is indicated with a numerical suffix.”

“FOC,” said Sarah, “send a cruiser and a flight of Star Fighters to intercept them after they cross Earth’s orbit.”

“Acknowledged,” replied Sabrina. “MachaD02 is assigned to the mission.”

“MachaD02,” said Rusty.

“Dóchas Command Staff, MachadD02 here.”

“Travel uncloaked with navigation lights. Challenge them just inside your weapons range. Be prepared, as they may prefer to fight rather than respond.”

“Yes, sir,” said Ciar of Cathan’s Clan. “We are in contact with MachaD01 of Bird Dog TG.”

“Excellent.”

Sarah’s Clan monitored the operational exercises going on around their ship. In the exercise this morning, several of the Star Fighters from their other ships were trying to penetrate their defensive perimeter. On the bridge monitor, they could see all the ships taking part in the exercise.

Suddenly Rusty said, “FOC. Cease exercise. All pilots hold position relative to Dóchas. Now!”

“FOC, have all ships reinitialize transponders.” Immediately the codes blinked as the display refreshed identifying all of their Star Fighters and Badb cruisers.

“Sarah’s Clan,” said Shannon, “the latest data from the main Alliance of World group indicates that they have active drones monitoring us.”

“Fine,” replied Rusty. “I ceased the exercise because I thought I saw some unidentified objects, apparently not. It looks like we are not detecting their drones. FOC are the fighters configured for dog fight simulation?”

“Yes.”

“Then run a dog fight exercise. Remind them this is an exercise and we don’t need any damaged ships.”

“Acknowledged. Commands sent.”

Moments afterward the movement on the screen resumed as the fighters moved to designated locations to start the simulation. The exercise ran for about thirty minutes before one of the fighters began moving erratically.

“Break off exercise,” came the voice of Sabrina over the bridge’s speakers. “All ships move to position N2. Launch, RescueD1.”

Sarah’s Clan watched the fighters move to their assigned position while RescueD1 moved toward the fighter that had been moving erratically. When it was alongside the fighter, four people could be seen exiting the rescue shuttle and moving toward the fighter.

“Launch, RecoveryD1,” said Sabrina. As the recovery vessel moved toward it the rescue team could be seen assisting the pilot from the fighter. The group moved toward RescueD1 and disappeared from view.

“Sabrina,” said Sally, “did the pilot indicate what happened?”

“She thinks something hit her ship. Those on the recovery ship indicate extensive damage behind the pilot’s compartment and to the attitude control system. They won’t know anymore until they get to the ship. The pilot is a little shaken but otherwise okay.”

“Good.”

“Star, would you replay the action around the damaged fighter, starting just before it was hit?”

Sarah’s Clan watched the replay several times before they spotted the very brief flash of light from the Star Fighter. Sarah said, “The flash of light seems to indicate that something besides a rock hit the ship.”

“Why do you say that?”

“Well, if it was a rock, I wouldn’t expect a flash. If it was equipment failure, the light wouldn’t tail off the way it did. So with those two eliminated, and knowing from Intelligence that there were drones in the area, we could conclude it was a drone that collided with the fighter.”

“Why didn’t she use the escape pod?” said Alena.

“The fighter was stable. Normally the escape pod is only used if the fighter’s systems go critical.”

“Okay. Thanks.”

“Look at the time,” said Erin. “It is nearly lunch time. Let’s take turns getting our lunch and then eating here.”

“Moms and Dad,” said Keri, “we will bring lunch up to you, if you tell us what you want.”

“Thanks,” replied Sarah’s Clan. “Bring yours and join us.”

“Virginia, Doug, Lorelei and Earl are with us.”

“That’s fine, bring them too if they don’t mind not having tables to sit at.”

“Okay.”

A little while later their children entered the bridge carrying food. “Virginia. Doug,” said Sarah, “I thought we would have seen you earlier this morning.”

“We met Clarence and spent quite a bit of time with him.”

“Good. How did your discussion go?”

“Surprisingly well.” Virginia saw several odd looks. “Well from my standpoint I am very pleased with his group’s assistance. Before we talked, I was concerned that whoever was behind the attempt on me would not be found. Clarence and his friends have identified several links between some of the stories I covered and people with connections to the ranch operation. He was pretty certain it would be quickly sorted.”

“Excellent.”

“What’s going on?” said Virginia looking at the display.

“One of our fighters was hit by an object during a simulated dog fight and disabled. The pilot is on the rescue ship and a recovery ship is preparing to bring the fighter back. Our fighters and several cruisers have moved into in a ring formation around us.”

“So that screen with all the print is our formation.”

“Yes. Let’s eat while we talk.”

“Good, idea,” replied Virginia as her stomach growled prompting everyone to laugh.

“I am sure Keri or Earnán would go get you some more.”

“This is fine. I have more than enough food.”

As they started eating, Virginia was slow to follow even though her stomach growled again. Finally Lorelei said, “Sarah’s Clan, would you tell Virginia about the bridge while we eat, otherwise I think it would take her all day to finish.” Several chuckled.