Chapter 6

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

“Good morning,” said Sarah’s Clan as they entered the conference room on Iarracht over Ananu in Celia system.

“Good morning,” responded Keriann’s Clan. “Siobhan’s Clan is going to connect via video.”

“We suspected they might,” replied Tara. “Their babies are really cute.”

“Yes they are.”

“So how are you all feeling?”

“Pretty good now,” replied Keriann. “Well actually, compared to last week I feel very good. I think I may have been overdoing it since our spouses left and last week it caught up with me. In fact I think that that is true for all three of us.”

“Pregnancy can do that, or it could be that plus what could be a new strain of cold virus,” responded Judy. “Quite a few patients have experienced symptoms similar to what that would cause. In most cases it was beginning to clear up by the time they decide they should see us. As a result we don’t have a good handle on the actual cause.”

“Well I am glad it is behind me.”

Sally said, “How soon will the others be here?”

“Except for Siobhan’s Clan, they should be here any time. Although, Amy’s Clan indicated that they may be a little late but to go ahead and start without them. Amy said they would mind-link with us if that happened.”

“Good,” replied Joyce.

Eleánóir of Keriann’s Clan said, “Well I will certainly be glad when our spouses return from An Clochán. Even though we can connect with them via our mind link, it seems like they’ve been gone forever.”

“Yes, it does,” responded Kathryn as her clan followed her into the conference room. “Good morning all.”

“Good morning,” responded everyone.

Elana said, “The others are just behind us.” She had hardly finished speaking when the remaining Command Staffs entered.

Once they finished greeting each other Keriann said, “From the responses we saw, moving the Councilor’s ceremony and Landing Day celebration to Thirday, Sevmonth was well received.”

“And that is?” asked Kriss of Molly’s Clan.

“Oh, 4490 ÓT or 3610 AT,” responded Jackie. “We are happy that we’re moving toward using our new calendar, but thinking of events by cumulative date is still convenient at times.”

“Once we are comfortable with the calendar we should have a better perspective on the relationships between events,” said Amy. “Figuring out when to celebrate an event will definitely be easier with a calendar as it makes them more visible.”

Erin of Sarah’s Clan said, “With those coming from the Alliance of Worlds delaying their arrival, we will have more time to prepare. Although it is convenient for us we’ve wondered what prompted it.”

“Well the extra 40 clock cycles means that we can adjust the timing of the celebration if we have to so that those coming from An Clochán will be able to participate,” added Kendra of Siobhan’s Clan.

“Finnian of Chloe’s Clan told me that all the comments on the net regarding the proposed holidays were positive,” said Angie of Kathryn’s Clan. “A few had questions about how the date of Founders Day was determined.” Seeing the others expressions she continued, “To determine a date for the Órarduine’s beginning, and its anniversary, they changed the elapsed clock cycles to fit Ananu’s time scale. When you do that, today is clock cycle 3569 AT rather than 4446 ÓT.”

“I didn’t think we were going to do that!” exclaimed Kaitlin of Maureen’s Clan.

Niamh quickly responded with, “Oh, that hasn’t changed, we’re not. However, it did come up again when the group was trying to establish the date for Founder’s Day on the Ananu calendar. Needless to say, the idea of shifting the dates in our history came up again and was a hot topic for a while. Some liked the idea of having a consistent time line rather than the discontinuity we have now. Those that liked the concept were able to convince the group to look at it again in detail. It didn’t take them long to realize that it makes the past very messy, so they decided to only use that method to determine the date for Founder’s Day. Oh, it is also used for setting the day of the year for birthdays.”

“What about ages?” asked Kathryn.

“You can go there if you want to,” responded Angie with a smile, “but none of the group wanted any part of that. It would significantly change everyone’s age, to about two-thirds of their current age in fact.”

“Hey, it is a natural question, but I am not saying any more about it.” Her response caused many to chuckle.

Betsy of Amy’s Clan said, “In terms of aging, continuing with the number of elapsed clock cycles is probably the best choice. This is a psychological issue as a person perceives their aging by the number of days they’ve lived. However, from a physiological stand point elapsed time has a stronger link to aging. But the difference doesn’t outweigh the psychological benefit so you’ve made a good choice. The use of elapsed time is an excellent way to shift a past date to our Ananu calendar as it will spread them over the whole year.”

“Thank you,” responded Angie. “I’ll share that as there are still some doubters. Also, Founder’s Day is based on when Sarah’s Clan came out of the tubes, not the day Sarah woke up. There is a difference of 156 twenty-four hour clock cycles between the two dates, so the proposed anniversary date is the 400^th day of the year, or Tenday, Fouweek, Ninmonth.”

Niamh of Keriann’s Clan said, “So how do we plan on handling the Cross Quarters since Ananu has two satellites.”

{Author’s Note: Cross Quarters is the mid point between a solstice and an equinox or an equinox and a solstice. Two solstices and two equinoxes per year, results in 4 mid points or Cross Quarters. On Earth the names for the Cross Quarters varies with the culture.}

“But solstice and equinox is based on Ananu’s orientation toward Celia,” responded Kaitlin of Maureen’s Clan.

“Oops, sorry. I don’t know why I thought it was related to the moons.”

“No problem. This places Samhain on the Firday, Firmonth, which we’ve set as the beginning of our calendar year. Imbloc is on Fivday, Foumonth. Beltane is on Firday, Sevmonth. Lughnasadh is on Fivday, Tenmonth.”

“While you’re at it, what are the rest of them?”

“Except for this, year Celia Councilors will begin their term and take their oath on the Firday, Thirweek, Secmonth. Future Landing Day celebrations will be on the Firday, Fivmonth. Thanksgiving will be on the Firday, Twelmonth.”

“Thanks for indulging me, but it is hard to remember. Still, I suspect that once we have calendars it won’t be an issue.”

“Not a problem. Based on the nodding of heads I see here, you aren’t the only one with that issue.”

“She is not,” responded Emma of Keriann’s Clan with many others in the room nodding in agreement.

Angie said, “Our online scheduler layout is now using the Ananu calendar. Once the family formally agrees to the dates for the holidays their notation will change. Currently they are shown as awaiting ratification so that we have visual cues. We are still working out the birthdays for everyone, which as noted earlier are based on elapsed time. One advantage to this is that it distributes them over the whole year.”

“Good,” responded several.

Tara said, “It seems to me as though we’ve gone full circle, and I am now wondering what we’ve gained.”

“Basically we have documented the implications that arise when the time base for past events is changed,” responded Angie. “We didn’t find any references to this situation in the library so we suspect that it is an unusual one.”

“Sort of,” said Amy. “Many of the new settlements we’re familiar with just took the year they settled and worked from there. Even though we set up the Órarduine calendar several years ago, we never really moved away from using the cumulative day count. Your basis for considering this as the 6^th year is stronger than many we’ve seen. So going full circle, today is the 30^th day in the Sixmonth of the 6^th year, or clock cycle 4446.

“Angie, I just realized that there is an aspect that we need to be sure is included in the documentation, if it is not already there. Previously we numbered Órarduine days from when Sarah woke up and thought of that as their emergence. This is what we had in mind for the Founder’s Day celebration. I like this new choice as it is closer to being the birth of Órarduine, and is based on an event relating to all those who would become a clan and not just one individual. We need to make sure that the difference in starting point is noted, and the reasoning behind the change.”

“Okay. I’ll make sure that is included.”

“We think this new approach is much better,” said Tara. “We know that Sarah was a little uncomfortable with her waking up being set as our beginning. Basing it on the emergence of the first eight from the incubators is a more accurate and more logical date. We like the calendar layout, and the holidays being spread over the whole year.”

“We agree,” responded everyone.

Keriann said, “It looks to me like we’ve covered that topic.” Hearing no objections she added, “Next is the status of the Durale prisoners.”

Alison said, “Well the interrogations are complete. These have provided us with a lot more information about the Durale culture, their plans and their perspective of others. It is not a pretty picture and seems very different from what we learnt of the Dutsuz from Commander Timalta in Sol. These people see the universe as being there solely for their benefit. Thus, it belongs solely to them, so they can use it in any manner they choose. They view themselves as being above all others.

“Using what we learned about their ships in Sol, we’ve been able to recover the surviving ship’s logs and reference material. These include details of its last several missions as well as their next assignment. However, even using the Durale navigation data Astrogation hasn’t been able to determine where this trip originated. They don’t think it was in the Dutsuz system. The coordinates for other voyages don’t seem to fit with the star maps we have from the Alliance either.”

Emma said, “While we were in Sol, the data we obtained indicated that they had absorbed those they found on other planets. Included in the data were indications that they have agents in critical locations of the Alliance members, which gave them access to privileged information. With that kind of access those same agents could hide their interactions with other select worlds.”

“Good point. With that in mind, there are a couple of prisoners we should question again as I don’t believe that that possibility was considered before.”

“Another thing to consider is that the coordinates may be coded in some way.”

“We’ve considered that. We do have descriptions of the places they’ve been to, so hopefully our visitors from the Alliance can help decipher them.”

“How are they doing on the island?” asked Brigid.

Several laughed as Brittany said, “Actually, better than some expected. It took the first groups several days to realize that they had no choice but to stay there. Apparently they didn’t believe us when we told them to leave the lions alone. Several attempts were made to capture or kill them, resulting in 5 deaths.

“Recently two more died when they attempted to capture those delivering food. The lions put the attackers down, and in the process their food was scattered, some of it was covered with the attackers’ remains. The next several deliveries were made by a Security team accompanied by a pair of lions. There haven’t been any more issues with delivery.

“The remaining prisoners have split into small groups and set up camps around the island. The groups appear to be based on where they grew up and there doesn’t seem to be much interaction between them. However, they all show up for food deliveries and seem to be satisfied with the food. During the deliveries there is usually very little talking, although occasionally they will ask for something. No request has been refused and we are keeping a log of what we give them.”

“What do they know of their future?” asked Ron of Jackie’s Clan.

“They were told that they are restricted to the island until we can make other arrangements. If one of our visitors wants them then we will move them from the island to a transfer point.”

“What is the status of their ships?”

“We placed the three we captured together in a stable orbit. Two are pretty much junk. We haven’t done anything with them, as we thought our visitors might want to look through them. As for the one we disabled, the exterior is sealed and it has a partial atmosphere. The systems are in what we consider to be a standby state but not hibernation. The data systems weren’t shut down due to concerns over how to bring them back online. Currently our ferrets can access them. We haven’t identified any self-destruct commands and we think there should be some. It is something we have on our ships.”

Sally said, “Considering their attitude, there may not be any.”

“That is a possibility, but we didn’t think it was worth taking the chance. The other issue is access codes and whether we’ve correctly reset them, as the available manuals aren’t clear to us.”

Rusty asked, “Were you able to figure out whether they sent a message regarding the status of the mission? If they didn’t send one, were they supposed to?”

“From what we can tell, they didn’t, and there is no indication that they were supposed to send one afterwards either.”

“Strange,” said Terry. “You would think their commanders would want to know if the mission was successful, unless they didn’t expect any of them to return. Another alternative would be to monitor this system.”

“We agree,” said Keriann. “Are we monitoring their conversations on the island?”

“Most of them.”

“We should try to do better than that as there could be clues in what they say to each other. From what you’ve said about their attitude, if they didn’t know the mission was to destroy the planet’s biosphere they may expect to be rescued.”

“We’ll see what we can do regarding monitoring all of their conversations,” responded Alison.

“Is there a problem in doing that?”

“Primarily resources, but perhaps we should look again at how we are using them. Thanks.”

“From your expression, it looks like you’ve discovered something.”

“Only that we may not being using the lions observations, or what they hear, as well as we could.”

“Anything else regarding the prisoners?” asked Keriann.

“Not from us,” said Conan of Siobhan’s Clan with others in the room nodding in agreement.

“Next item is the people coming from An Clochán. For openers, how do we describe them?”

“They are all ‘new Family members’ from our perspective,” responded Maeve. “I think that that is better than ‘crew member’, although some will likely seek opportunities in that area.”

“We don’t have any problem with that,” responded Tiff of Siobhan’s Clan, with the others indicating their agreement. “So, seeing that we all agree, we should refer to them in that manner from now on.”

“I think that is a good idea,” said Amber. “I don’t think our spouses at An Clochán were sure of the best description either.”

Kaitlin of Maureen’s Clan said, “That is likely the best way. Besides, a lot of those we’ve interacted with on Earth seem to gravitate toward joining us. When I first noticed this I was concerned that we were somehow enticing them. However, I don’t now believe that this is the case.”

“I think they will fit in just fine,” responded Kendra. “With so many at one time, it may take a little longer, mostly due to the delay in joining us. By the way, the Staffing group at An Clochán arranged to purchase enough iPads so everyone could have one. With some minor modifications they can connect to our learning system and library. With these, people will have something to do in addition to the other activities during the trip.”

“Great idea,” said Courtney. “I’ll bet Apple was happy with that purchase. Would they be a benefit here?”

“Could be, but we need to bounce that off our network systems engineers,” said Claudette. “A key reason for getting the iPads is the lack of learning center terminals that will be available during the trip to Celia. They may be the best choice for some other situations, especially if it is relatively easy to configure them to interact with our systems. They could increase the capacity of the learning centers, which is a current project. The centers are currently in high demand, and with our new arrivals they will continue to be for some time.”

“Jim, are there any issues at Tara Ardchlár?” asked Molly.

“Not really. The first tunnels should be connected in the next day or two, although it could be a few days more. The primary tunnels One South and Two South are useable from Three East to just a little east of One East. The connecting tunnels to residence towers 2E 1S, 1E 1S and 2E will be finished tomorrow then work can begin adding the next levels to them. The primary tunnels 0ne East and Two East are progressing. Tunnel One East is useable between Three South to just past One South and Two East is close to where One North will be. We have enough resources to work on three buildings concurrently with 5 in progress. By having this many buildings under construction at the same time we can use our resources more efficiently. This is in part because we can move them to a different building when we need to pause on one currently being worked on. Currently plans call for the Common buildings at 2E 1S and 1E 2S to be covered before we begin the residence towers for 2E 1S. This should happen within the next 60 days. The other buildings are at 1E, 2E, and 1E 1S.”

“That quickly!” exclaimed several in the link.

“We think it could be a little quicker, but it could also be several weeks longer. In planning activities several people think that we should delay the outer ring of residence towers until all 8 residence groupings are built. They think that by doing that there will be less time loss due too many activities in an area.”

Caitlyn of Keriann’s Clan said, “We like the idea of limiting a residence group to having just 8 towers. Would you refresh my memory on tunnel names?”

“Sure. We are placing the tunnels under the grid lines for Tara Ardchlár. So the first east – west tunnel south of Central Square is labeled One South. The first north – south tunnel east of Central Square is One East. The layout for the streets hasn’t been decided or how they will be named.

“As to the residence towers, we will finish 3 Common buildings before starting the residence towers. Even so we will continue to build Common buildings but at a slower rate. The connecting tunnels between the Residence Hub and towers will be added as each one is built. The towers will start the same way we did the Common buildings.” Sensing puzzlement he continued, “Sublevel 3 and Sublevel 2 are built first, but Sublevel 2 is not covered. This makes it easier to move stuff between ground level and the tunneling activity. Even though the utilities are on Sublevel 3, provisions are made to allow the equipment to be readily replaced. I hope that is not too much detail.”

“Not from my perspective. Have you thought about how building would progress beyond this corner?” asked Violetta of Kathryn’s Clan.

“Our plans are to build the Residence groups at 2E 1N and 1E 2N next, which would be toward the space port. This would include the nearby Common buildings as well. We considered building west then north since it would delay the need to move the space port north. However after considering resource use, we’ve decided to continue as planned. This would make the Residence groups at 1W 2S and 2W 1S and the nearby Common buildings next in line. An exception is being made for the Medical Center at 1W and 1W 1S.”

Terry said, “If I remember the criteria correctly, the defensive system that obscures our presence on the ground becomes more effective as each pair of Residence groups is added. Once we have all eight up we can effectively obscure the whole site.”

“Your memory is correct,” responded Mairia of Jackie’s Clan.

“Does this cause any difficulties with the underground access?” queried Kriss of Molly’s Clan.

“Not really. Once the connecting tunnels for these five buildings are complete, plans are to continue extending tunnels for One South and Two South to where they would connect with Four West. One East and Two East will be extended to the SpacePort. These efforts will be at a more leisurely pace than we our current one. Doing this has several advantages. One is that the tunnels will be ready when we start a new building’s foundation. Another is that we can shift resources from this task to other areas.”

Rusty said, “So we need to decide on any changes before you finish with these first buildings.”

“If we are going to make a change then it should be within the next 8 weeks.”

“Well considering our current situation, we don’t see any need to make any changes,” said Brandan of Maureen’s Clan. “We agree with an initial placement of 8 residence towers in each grouping, with provisions to add more if they are needed once all 8 groupings are complete. Besides, with just the eight towers in a grouping everyone has a better view. An alternative would be to continue with some people living in the Residence Hub.”

“We agree,” said Jackie. “Jim, has anyone asked about placing buildings near the farms?”

“Yes. There will be some centered among the cultivated fields. Those are relatively simple buildings to set up. Where they will be placed hasn’t been established yet as the group is still laying out the fields.”

“When will they begin planting?”

“From what we heard,” replied Amy, “with in a couple of weeks.”

Erica said, “An engineering group is currently planning on how to move the asteroids to be used as forts to where we want them. One consideration is to place one at both the L4 and L5 points of both moons. These locations would presumably have the smallest need for station keeping. Expectations are that we will have two in position, and with construction underway, in 2 months. Currently the forts have a higher priority than setting up an asteroid for manufacturing.”

“Good,” replied Sally. “We need to have a discussion on this aspect of our defense as I don’t think we set any clear objectives or capabilities.”

“Let’s plan on doing that after our spouses return,” proposed Brittany. “One potential issue I see with the L4, L5 choices is that they won’t deviate very far from the ecliptic plane.”

“Good point,” responded Oriel of Keriann’s Clan. “The L4 of one will be fairly close to the L5 of the other, so they would have similar fields of fire.”

“Yes, they would,” said Conan. “We agree with Brittany and Sally, so let’s discuss this a week or so after they return.”

“Agreed,” replied everyone.

Erica said, “I will schedule the meeting and include the appropriate engineering and security staff. Obviously the Command Staffs are included.”

Rusty added, “As food for thought, when I think of a space fort, I see something like our ships FCS but with about 5 to 10 times the fire power. The field of fire of one fort should overlap those of the other forts. They obviously need all the support elements that a ship has.”

Keriann said, “I agree with Rusty’s concept. I also think that we’ve covered this well enough for now. The summary on the planetary activity was the last item on the agenda. Does anyone have anything else?” After pausing a few moments, she added, “Seeing no new issues, let’s adjourn until this time next week when we will meet at Tara Ardchlár.”

Brigid said, “We hope you can all stay for dinner. If you are Muiriol can tell you which suite she has set aside for you to use.”

Rusty said, “Erica, wouldn’t it be better to set up an asteroid for manufacturing before we begin working on the forts.”

“Yes. It would make building the forts a lot easier. Based on our brief discussion, I think the asteroids we’ve picked are too small.”

“Why is that?”

“Not enough mass. Besides, when you add the required support systems, their emissions will be difficult to hide. In light of all that, the timing for starting the project was likely in error.”

“While having forts available quickly would be nice, we don’t see it as a necessity. It just means that until we have them we are restricted on how long our primary ships can leave the system. Actually that is also true for the cruisers.”

“I agree with both of you,” said Keriann who had walked up during their conversation. “Before we have the discussion about fort details, those with tactical experience need to decide how we would capture a world like this. Having that information will make it easier to determine how and where we want to place the forts. In any case, when they are positioned, we should leave what appears to be two weak points, one more obvious than the other, but both with a defensive arrangement that would minimize any escape once an intruder was committed to an attack.”

“When we discuss this we should ask our Mentor friends to join us,” said Rusty.

“Maybe we ought to use this as a strategy class,” responded Keriann.

“I think you two should handle that aspect,” said Erica. “I sort of know your intent, but think it would be better if you all do it.”

“We can,” replied Keriann with Rusty nodding.

“Are you joining us for dinner?” queried Caitlyn.

“Yes,” replied Rusty and Erica.

Erica added, “We will be leaving after dinner.”

“I don’t believe anyone is staying over.”

It was a few days later that the Iridien passenger ship, IGN404, entered a Martian geosynchronous orbit. Its orbital position placed the ship to the east of An Clochán. A few hours after it arrived over Mars, 2 Iridien Spec Ops cruisers entered Sol system.

Kara was in An Clochán’s Security Center with Effie when Breacadh alerted them to the cruisers FTL transition. Their systems soon detected valid IFF codes from the cruisers and they then heard Sol41 say in Iridien, “Welcome to Sol, Commander.”

“Task Group 33 is glad to be here,” came the reply. “We should be there in 6 hours.”

“Condition?”

“Both cruisers need a few repairs. If the hangar and technicians are available then they can be accomplished in a fairly short time. Otherwise it is a normal restock.”

“Duration of stay?”

“Only a few days.”

“In that case we can discuss the details after you arrive. Advise when over Sol41, to receive approach vectors.”

“Will do.”

“Sol41 Approach Control, this is Kara at An Clochán. We need the contact details for IGN404.”

“Oops, sorry. We thought you had those.”

“No, I guess those involved thought someone else told us. Since our preferred departure is only a few days off, we thought we would have heard from them by now. The message regarding the passenger ships just indicated that they were being sent, and an approximate arrival time. The two Monque operated ships are due to arrive within the next two clock cycles.”

“Sorry, we thought you already had that information. We just sent communication protocols for IGN404 to Breacadh. This ship is under the command of Captain Ersatz.”

“Thanks. Do you have the Monque ship ids and the names of the commanders?”

“No. Their IFF codes were just forwarded to Breacadh. If they were Iridien, I could probably guess who the Captain was and be right. We’ll pass that on once their identification is verified, and we will specifically direct them to contact you. Actually we are surprised that Captain Ersatz hasn’t contacted you already.”

“Thanks.”

Effie said, “Breacadh, please establish a connection with IGN404 Captain Ersatz.”

“Aye.” Then a few moments later, “Connection established.”

“An Clochán Security Center calling Captain Ersatz,” said Effie.