Chapter 8

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

It was the morning of the 45^th day of the Sixmonth shortly after the Command Staff’s were up when they were informed by System Control that Grey Eagle 2 Task Group had transitioned to normal space. About an hour later Alana said, “Command Staffs, are you available for a meeting this morning?”

“We are just going to breakfast,” replied Erin. “How soon did you want to meet?”

“After breakfast is fine, if that suits everyone.”

“That is fine,” replied all the groups.

“What’s up?” asked Sally.

“We’ve had some issues with the crew on IGN404. We’ve had no difficulties on the other ships. On IGN404 the crew are under control, for now, as we’ve restricted most of them to their quarters unless escorted. With Zyworki’s team leading we are essentially crewing the ship. This includes a few of the original crew, members from other Iridien teams, and us. As far as we can tell this has nothing to do with the Durale, but is an issue of greed and dominance.”

“Trying to raise our curiosity?” laughed Aisling of Siobhan’s Clan.

“Not intentionally. Just trying to say that we are in good shape but that there are some issues that need to be dealt with on arrival. Our staff and passengers are in excellent spirits and anxious to be there.”

“Good. How about meeting in two hours?”

“That works well for us. We’ve synced clocks and are headed toward our orbital assignments. Current projections have us arriving at 20:00 hours.”

“Great. We’ll be waiting for you to contact us.”

A little over 2 hours had past when Alana said to the Command Staffs, “We are ready at this end if you all are.”

Sarah replied with, “We are. Please be aware that not all of us are active in the link, but that those who aren’t are monitoring it.”

“Okay. We are in sort of a similar situation. We are on IGN404. In the room with me is a member from each of our teams as well as Mark, Egan, and Zyworki. Since Zyworki’s telepathy isn’t very strong we will be repeating everything we hear, which may sound like an echo.

“The reason we asked for this conference is that we think it would be best if we moved everything off of this ship as quickly as possible. Captains Norlanz and Ptrizne have told us that they can accommodate between a third and half of the passengers from IGN404 on their ships. What we don’t know is where we can place the remaining passengers.”

After taking a deep breath she continued, “The reason for this is that we’ve had multiple problems with many of this crew. Commander Zyworki is now in command of the ship. Captain Ersatz, along with almost all the crew, are confined to quarters except when accompanied by one of our staff. We have eleven passengers that we cannot find. They were last seen in the company of crew members headed toward non-passenger areas. In addition to this were numerous reports of unrelenting groping, propositioning, and similar behavior.

“The earliest issue had to do with food service. It was shortly after leaving An Clochán that several of us noticed that the food quality declined, along with the quantity served. Around the same time we noticed that the passengers seemed unmotivated and unfocused. With the assistance of the spiders we determined that the crew was adding a sedative to the food.

“When asked, several crew members indicated that this is the way they normally handled refugees. They claimed that it was necessary to give the refugees sedatives as it reduced issues due to them being unfamiliar with living in a confined space. What they didn’t say was that this also let them get away with reducing the quantity and quality of the food. It isn’t clear to us who was benefiting from the reduced operational costs. An aspect they didn’t mention was that by drugging the passengers it was easier for the crew to manipulate them.

“We solved the food problem by firing their staff and taking over the food preparation. The rude behavior was solved by confining the offenders to their quarters. This was extended to the Captain and Officers as they didn’t agree with the way we chose to maintain order. In several cases we considered spacing the worst culprits. However, Zyworki objected because he wants them turned over to their Justice department. This is in part because of what has happened during this trip, but there are other reasons which are better explained in person.

“Just as we were leaving An Clochán an Iridien courier was picked up by their cruiser. Unfortunately it wasn’t opened until we were in hyperspace, as it contained a warning about this crew. It also provided additional background on the ship and some details of how the arrangements were made to lease it. While this is a passenger ship, it is only a small step above a cargo ship. Well, actually on Earth, ‘tramp steamer’ would probably be a good description. This fits with how it differs from the other two ships although it wasn’t apparent to us at first. The problems we’ve experienced didn’t start until after we were underway. Zyworki has indicated that there weren’t any issues on the trip to An Clochán. So the actions by many of the crew members were a surprise.

“We’ve been holding family meetings and everyone is aware of the issues. In fact it was during a family meeting that we were alerted to other issues. It started with a woman asking if anyone had seen a friend of hers. This led to others asking questions, which brought out issues regarding the behavior of some crew members. In looking into this we also learnt that some of the crew had previously been refugees but were now trainees. Almost all were female and we didn’t see them before the voyage because we didn’t inspect the crew quarters. They spent most of their time in those quarters and only left when escorted by their trainer. Now they really are crew trainees.

“I think that summarizes what is behind our request although I think I rambled a bit. Does anyone else want to comment?”

Eric of Vanessa’s Clan said, “The woman raising the issue of her missing friend, along with the subsequent harassment comments, really changed the dynamics between passengers and crew. Before that I am not sure anyone had said anything about inappropriate crew behavior, but that certainly wasn’t the case afterwards. As to the missing people, we are pretty sure which crew members were involved. We think we have the evidence in the Spider’s memory, but we don’t have enough resources to search it. Erasing that part of their memory is blocked.”

“Do all the passengers know of the issues on IGN404?” asked Sally.

“Yes,” replied Alana. “Everyone knows that there is a problem and that this ship isn’t as nice as the others.”

Sarah said, “Okay. Let’s plan on moving all the passengers off IGN404. As to where, we’ll have something worked out by the time you arrive. Our intent is to present a plan to the family this evening.”

“If we can, we think we should begin shifting passengers this evening,” said Kathy.

“We need to have a detailed review of what happened,” added Alana. “While all of us are embarrassed over what has happened, we want to know what we overlooked, misinterpreted or misunderstood. I believe that all of our staff working on IGN404 feel it was our failure that permitted the apparent deaths.”

Egan said, “I’ve said this before, and Mark agrees. It was neither yours nor our failure. There were things that all of us missed or misinterpreted. There were a few issues on the other ships but they were typical of misunderstandings between different cultures. The issues here had a very different basis, actually ‘seedy’ might be a good descriptor to use, so we should work to understand what we missed and endeavor to avoid it occurring again.”

Rusty, Chester, Sally, Kelly, and Keriann responded firmly with, “We agree.”

Kelly added, “Let’s get things sorted and everyone settled before we take time to review the events.”

“Each team has kept a detailed log, as we’ve seen you all do,” said Sybil of Christina’s Clan.

“Excellent,” said Brittany of Keriann’s Clan, “those, along with the Spiders data, should help us understand where errors were made, if any. Remember, even when you do everything correctly bad things can still occur.”

“Amen to that,” responded Rusty, Mark, Egan, Chester, Kelly, and many others.

Molly said, “I think we have a lot to do over the next several hours and it seems like we’ve chosen a path forward, so as Sarah likes to say, ‘let’s get to it’.”

“We are good at this end,” said Súsanna.

“We are looking forward to seeing you in about 10 hours,” responded Sarah.

“Yes!” added her associates.

Maeve said to her counterpart on the other ships, “Let’s have the Staffing departments sort this out.”

“We agree.”

Casidhe of Siobhan’s Clan said, “Once they figure out what they have, we should put it on the net as this will alert everyone to the issue. I am sure Communications can handle letting everyone know what’s going on.”

“Let’s suggest that to our groups.”

“Okay,” responded the others.

Sally said to her counterparts, “Once we have all the passengers off IGN404, let’s have our Intelligence groups interview the crew. Let’s see if we can learn what they intended to achieve. With that we can compare how things looked to our people.”

“Interesting concept,” replied Chester, “and this seems like a good opportunity to learn more about another culture.”

“You’re making it even more interesting,” added Brandan.

It was 20:15 hours when Golden Knight, Princes Manria, and IGN404 reached their assigned orbital position over Ananu. This placed them 3000 km below and 500 km ahead of the Dóchas ships. Once they had settled into position Star said to the Command Staffs, “Alana’s team is now on board IGN404. All passengers are gathering in their respective ballrooms and dining areas.”

Alana said, “Good evening Command Staffs. It sure is nice to be home.”

Aoife responded with, “We can certainly understand that feeling.”

Sarah, Siobhan, Melissa, and the others who had traveled to An Clochán added, “Yes, we do.”

“While we are waiting for everyone to get settled, we have a couple of items,” said Alana. “After the passengers are moved some of our staff, along with two Security teams, will remain to assist Zyworki. The other Iridien Spec Ops teams will be assisting as well.”

“That is a lot of man power, is there that much of a threat from the crew?”

“We don’t think so but we are being very cautious. Zyworki’s team is the lead in dealing with the them. Zyworki has sent a courier to his Command Center with a report outlining the issues with IGN404’s crew. When we offered continued assistance, he immediately accepted. We indicated that the offer included assistance from our Security and Intelligence groups.”

“Good thinking and yes,” replied Sally. “Clarence and Muireann have identified a group who can assist them. They probably shouldn’t come over until the passengers are relocated.”

“Good. We’ll let Zyworki know of their availability. As to manpower, we will likely reduce it in a few days.

“We think we can cut back on the number of cruisers near us but thought we ought to talk with you all before releasing them. Four cruisers should be more than sufficient.”

“That is fine. Release those not needed back to their ships,” said Melissa of Siobhan’s Clan. “We’ll probably start rotating cruisers through those slots.”

“Even though we’ve only had time to skim your report, it appears to be very thorough and we are certainly impressed,” said Sarah. “Let’s plan on reviewing it tomorrow or the next day, depending on how the relocation of the passengers progresses. All the Security and Intelligence departments have a copy, so they may contact you about it.”

“Okay. There is one piece missing, which is the Spider data. Since we’ve been in system we received some, so we’ve started rotating them and downloads have begun. We started with those in areas that we thought would have important information.

“It looks like the passengers are all here so we can start when everyone is ready.”

“Good. Unless you need assistance before then, let’s shelve this discussion until we get together.”

“Fine.”

Edana said, “We are ready on Princess Manria.”

Vanessa said, “We are ready on Golden Knight.”

Together the Command Staffs then said, “Good evening everyone and welcome to Celia System. We are very pleased that you’ve arrived safely. You are in time for our first Landing Day celebration which will be in 8 days. We had hoped that all of you would’ve had a pleasant voyage. Unfortunately we learnt this morning that those on IGN404 had to put up with some unpleasantness. For that we apologize. Although it was unpleasant, we hope you feel that our Staff and Security teams did everything they could to remedy the situation. Having heard about the conditions on IGN404 we believe all of its passengers should be quickly moved to another location. Doing this creates some issues but they appear to be solvable. As was indicated before, it will be at least 6 months before we have permanent residences for you at Tara Ardchlár.

“We do have temporary residences there, but there is not enough room for everyone on IGN404. However, there is room on Princess Manria, Golden Knight, and our 7 Dóchas class ships. This gives us more than enough space to accommodate everyone from IGN404.

“Now before we explain how we intend to do this we should tell you a bit about the facilities at Tara. These are under very large dome tents which is divided into living areas. These areas are similar in size to those we have on our ships for sleeping and relaxing. For your other needs, there is a community toilet and shower area a short distance away. There is a covered walkway between the two. A dining area is nearby which is also where those working at Tara eat. Meal service is very similar to what you experienced on the ships, in that it is open around the clock and has four scheduled meal times.

“The first step in the move is for those on IGN404 to tell our Staffing department your preferred choice of where to live. If you are on Princess Manria or Golden Knight and wish to move, please tell the Staffing department. Since we would like to begin moving people off of IGN404 in the morning, please make your preferences known this evening. Some of you are probably thinking ‘what if I don’t like where I have chosen?’; well if that is the case then you need to talk to staffing at that time as it may be possible to move again. You can contact the Staffing department using your communicator or iPad.

“Today is the 45^th day of the Sixmonth. We would like have all the moves completed by noon on the 47^th. We have a family meeting planned for the evening of the 47^th. No doubt some are wondering what we mean by a family meeting. It will be similar to the meetings that you’ve been having during your journey. Here, each ship has a crew meeting nearly every day. Note that we consider everyone living on a Dóchas class ship to be a crew member. A ‘family meeting’ is when the meeting includes everyone on the ships as well as those at Tara. We suspect some of you find this concept hard to believe. You are not alone in that as others thought the same until they experienced one. We believe that telepathy plays a significant role in making it possible and effective.

“If you haven’t noticed, we are speaking verbally as well as telepathically. We’ve chosen to speak this way as we are not sure that everyone is comfortable communicating telepathically. Between now and the time we have a family meeting our communication equipment will be set up on Golden Knight and Princess Manria.

“One last item. Once all the moving is complete there will be regular shuttle runs between ships and Tara Ardchlár. Our learning centers are on the Dóchas class ships, there are also a few at Tara, however these are not set up for instructional use.

“If you have any questions or concerns please do not hesitate to ask any of us. Again, we are glad you chose to join us on this great adventure. That is all we have for now. Good night.”

“Well done,” said Kara and Alana.

“How did the passengers react to it?” asked Jill.

“I would say that they are pleased,” responded Alana.

Maeve said, “Hello Kenshin, Mark, Egan, this is Maeve of Sarah’s Clan. How did the passengers react to our announcement?”

“This is Mark. They were somewhere between quite pleased and ecstatic.”

“Good.”

“Did Alana indicate that I was going to assist Zyworki with interviewing the crew?”

“Not explicitly. We don’t have any objections, but you should still let Staffing know where you want to call home. As to our interest, we see this as a way to gain a better understanding of what occurred, its contributors, and what we missed.

“There is also a need to establish the true cost of using the ship. It was obviously less than the contracted amount. What is your interest?”