Chapter 35

It was shortly after Sarah's Clan's visit with the J3 people on freighter FLDC-3 that the rate of releasing people from hibernation was increased. Now, two weeks later, twenty people emerged from hibernation each day. Their first week was spent building up their stamina, exercising, and learning about their new environment. By the end of the first week most were ready to consider an opportunity to work on one of the Dóchas ships.

In preparation for moving to another ship the J3 people were provided with a list of staff openings for each ship that matched their career interests. After indicating their interest in a position, they went with a group to visit the relevant ship. During their ride the shuttle they were flown around the Órarduine formation, providing them their first view of the Dóchas class ships. When the shuttle began its approach to their destination, the monitor on the cabin's front wall changed to show the forward view. In the hangar they were greeted by their hosts as soon as they exited the shuttle. Their host clan then gave the group a quick tour of the ship before taking each of them to visit the department with the open position that they were interested in. After their interview they rejoined the group and their host clan to get a closer look at the facilities on the ship. Some of them participated in athletic activities. Although they had the option of returning to the freighter after dinner, they nearly always spent the night with their hosts.

Many decided to accept the position on the first ship they visited, but it wasn't unusual for a candidate to visit several ships before deciding on one. Once they made their decision, they immediately transferred to their new ship, where initially they stayed with their host clan. After they felt comfortable on the ship, they selected a compartment for themselves. Not surprisingly it was usually a compartment as close as possible to their host's suite.

It was set up so that a lot of the time during their first several weeks was spent in the learning center. On their first visit to the learning center they took a comprehensive knowledge and problem solving test disguised as an interactive game. With this information, the learning center AI provided them with a list of self-paced training modules. Once completed these would bring their skills up to the level needed to easily function as a crew member. For those who arrived with a certification, the testing verified their competency and followed up with a refresher course. The refresher course had the unique Órarduine procedures woven into it and provided a review on topics where a candidate appeared to be weak. Once they satisfactorily completed the basic requirements for their skill, they began working in their department for part of a shift. The other part was spent in the learning center until they were fully qualified for their position. Once fully qualified, they were encouraged to spend additional time in the learning center to expand their knowledge of both their new environment and to learn additional skills.

The work schedule for the J3 people was initially established to match their host clan. This gave the host clan the opportunity to include them in their various free time activities, but in such a way that they didn't feel forced to participate. Through this participation they met other crew members, broadening their connections with the Órarduine family.

It was almost time for dinner when Jill said, "Is everyone ready to go?"

There was chorus of replies, before Aoife said, "Judy isn't back yet."

"She was in surgery today," replied Jill.

"Yea, but that shouldn't have lasted this long. She told me they were only doing two procedures."

Jill had just stepped into the corridor when she saw Judy hurrying toward them. "Judy's back."

They waited for Judy at the door to their suite.

"Based on your smile, it looks like the surgery was a success," said Joyce.

"Oh ... It definitely was," replied Judy a bit out of breath but looking very happy. "You all go on to dinner. I'll be there as soon as I freshen up."

"We'll wait for you. Besides, tongues will wag if we don't arrive together." Several chuckled.

"Yea, right."

"So really, how did it go?"

"Much better than the first round. You know, after the difficulty we had with the first operations we were only planning on doing two today. Those went so well, we went ahead and did eight more. Since they weren't formally scheduled it took a little time to get started."

"So what do the J3 people think about this?"

"Well the ones we called in were surprised and happy. Their friends who came by later were ecstatic when they heard how successful we were. You know, after Serarck, Gao and Anming recovered from their surgery, Kathy, Connie and I discussed their individual reactions to the removal of the implants. We think they were bothered by them more than they let on, a lot more. Kathy compared it to being raped, and then wearing a sign attesting to it."

"I can see that," said Sarah. "Perhaps we shouldn't have told them about the implants."

"They already suspected," replied Jill. "On their home planets, all slaves wore a permanent mark to indicate their status. Usually it was a collar. In many places slaves were only permitted to wear a skirt that was no longer than 5 centimeters below their crotch."

"I remember seeing that now. At least they didn't remove fingers like we saw being done on Earth."

Aoife said, "I saw Serarck today. She is working in our navigation department. As soon as she saw me she came right over and gave me a hug. She was very aggressive and gave me a kiss with a lot of tongue. She told me that this was in partial thanks for rescuing her.

"I told her that we just did what any civilized people would do. She laughed, and then added that our definition of civilized behavior was significantly different to that of some worlds who claimed to be civilized. She then asked me to give each of you a hug from her. So here is your hug." As she hugged her spouses, she continued, "I told her that there wasn't any reason she couldn't do it herself. She indicated that she would be by one day to do that, and anything else we wanted to do together.

"She told me that her wound had fully healed. There was only a faint scar where the incision was made. With a little prompting she told me that the only time she really had any discomfort was during the first two days and it was minor, after that it was hardly noticeable.

"Before we went our separate ways, she sort of apologized for her aggressiveness during the hug and hoped I wasn't offended. Blushing, she told me she was strongly attracted to our clan and hoped that she could be intimate with us. I told her it could be arranged and kissed her."

"That explains why she was so friendly," said Judy. "Next time you see her invite her over. You might want to include her significant other in the invitation. As to the operation, even though removing the RFID chip was difficult, she recovered very quickly. We had similar difficulties with removing Gao's and Anming's RFID but they too recovered just as quickly. They reported post-surgery discomfort similar to Serarck's."

"So what did you do differently?"

"I'm embarrassed to say this, but we aren't certain. We are still concerned about infection or other post-op complications so we asked each of them if we could implant a biometric monitor. No-one had any problem with it, although they did ask a number of questions about it. We told them that all of us have a similar device in us.

"Okay, I'm ready. Let's go to dinner because I am starved." Just then her stomach grumbled.

"With that noise, we should follow her at a safe distance," said Alison. Several of them chuckled.

"Hey, I said I was hungry," replied Judy as she walked quickly down the corridor with her other spouses hurrying to catch up.

As they sat down to eat Joyce said, "Have you noticed the changes in the J3 people?"

"What changes are you referring too?" questioned her spouses.

Alison said, "I think Joyce is referring to what happened right after our visit to FLDC-3. Serarck and Zhaos approached Molly and Kathleen and asked if it was possible for some of the folk from their clans to stay fulltime in the hibernation release area. Both Molly and Kathleen immediately thought that there was some sort of conflict between the J3 people. Serarck surprised them by anticipating their reaction and simply told them that so far everyone was getting along fine. Serarck and Zhaos then explained the reasons behind their request. Since then at least six Órarduine are in the compartment all the time."

"I've heard a lot of good things about those who have moved to other ships," added Jill.

"Zhaos chose to come to our ship," said Erin. "When he is not working he spends a lot of time with Serarck, and they frequently go back to FLDC-3 to lend a hand."

"I've seen Anming with them quite a few times. She sure has taken a leadership role in the hibernation release project."

"Yes. It will be interesting to see if they blend in with our family like others have in the past."

Maeve said, "I think it may take them longer to build strong interpersonal relationships. This is for several reasons, but lack of telepathy is the leading one."

"Good point. We should be alert for any issues resulting from a lack of that ability."

"Let's go back to the RFID topic for a moment," said Alena. "Judy, will the medical group be able to catch up on removing the RFIDs?"

"Shouldn't be a problem? Now that we have a workable procedure, all the medical groups can assist. It will just take a couple of clock cycles to acquaint them with the procedure."

"Okay. I just had the impression that only one group was doing this."

"Up till today, yes. Beginning tomorrow, we will remove ten more RFIDs as we demonstrate the procedure to the other medical staff. Our medical AIs will record each operation. We plan on using those recordings to create a training module for the future, as the techniques we've learned can be used in other situations."

"Cool."

"Is Kathryn's Clan still coming over?" asked Jill.

"When Kathy and I were chatting after the last operation, she said she was looking forward to it," replied Judy. "Tomorrow is the start of their unscheduled break, so they will be here when we get off. Actually, Kathy is coming over in the morning to work with us."

"Cool. Briana told me that they were fine with us being late since we had visitors. I told her 'thanks' but we would be on deck on time."

"Good," replied Rusty. "We need to set the example. We could get some extra rest tonight, then we wouldn't dip as far into our reserves if we don't get quite as much sleep tomorrow night."

"We're game," replied his spouses.

"They're planning on staying overnight, right?"

"Yes. They will leave for their ship right after our morning meeting."

Sarah's Clan was on the bridge of Dóchas when the count-down timer chimed. They were now just two clock cycles from J4. Everyone glanced at the clock as Joyce said, "Cool, just four more weeks till we arrive in Celia System."

"I don't know if you've noticed, but our freighters are nearly full of satellites for our sentinel sphere and components for our settlement," said Claudette. "With so many of the components ready for installation, we will be able to quickly finish the structures once they are built. Amy's Clan thinks the component availability will really accelerate putting our settlement together."

"Did you see the proposal Security is working on regarding the sentinel sphere?" asked Sally.

"I am not sure."

"They are looking at the benefit of sending several cruisers ahead with sentinel satellites. The plan is for them to arrive about two weeks before we do. After a brief survey of the system, their assignment would be to begin placing the additional sentinel satellites in the sphere. Expectations are that they can complete that, and have it tested, by the time we arrive."

"That's a great idea," added Joyce. "The teams there will like the company. And if that can be accomplished, then we can begin adding the detail to our topographic survey of A-Celia while we are assembling our habitat."

"Well from what I saw, it didn't look like they could carry enough satellites to bring the sphere's sensitivity to the level we desire."

"Sally, the plan I saw a couple of clock cycles ago," replied Terry, "had seven cruisers making the trip, with each carrying 6 satellites."

"What about their Star Fighters?"

"They were going to fly rather than ride. That way there would still be room for each Star Fighter to periodically dock with a cruiser. Enough extra pilots were going so they could switch off."

"Okay that would work, but wouldn't six satellites pretty well fill up the hangar space on the cruisers?"

"The Star Fighters could enter the landing bay far enough to change crew and resupply. The advantage to doing this is that we could fill out the sentinel sphere to 61 points. That puts the points about 0.35 ly from each other."

"If they can work it out I'm all for it. That is about half the density we set up in Sol, but I understand the detectors on these satellites are more sensitive."

"Significantly more sensitive."

"Security is evaluating whether or not we need to have more than 61 points," said Terry. "Currently, they think anyone trying to sneak in will approach using planets or asteroids to mask their presence. In that case, a few more points in the sphere's top and bottom third would provide more resolution without a lot more investment."

"What about Celia's Sentinel Navigation Buoy array?" asked Rusty.

"No one has queried it since we have been actively monitoring the Celia system with our probes and recon trips."

"Good. Do we know if it is collecting data on our activity?"

"Yes. At last check, it is functioning correctly."

"So Joyce," said Claudette, "you're anxious to begin exploring A-Celia."

Joyce laughed and then replied, "Yep, just like you and everyone else."

"Well we certainly have a lot of details to take care of before we can all begin living on A-Celia," replied Sarah.

"Are we now skipping the habitat stage?" asked Alena.

"Sarah's Clan," said Amy, "may we respond to Alena's question?"

"Certainly."

"Our plan has us going through a habitat phase but for it to last for a very short time. We can do this because all the data we have shows a very favorable environment. It is very similar to Earth and our home planet. Our primary concern is antigens. All the Órarduine have received a set of immunizations so that they won't have an adverse reaction to A-Celia's antigens. Even so, we need to carefully monitor our response to make sure that they are effective. This should be complete in a couple of days, but it wouldn't surprise us to have missed a few.

"Our initial plan for settling A-Celia is ready for review. In it, we are using construction robots almost exclusively to build the first buildings and the tunnels connecting them. They will be overseen by the logical bipeds in our family as they won't have any antigen issues. Our current plans call for all biological bipeds to wear environmental suits until the antigen issues are resolved. This is included in our presentation for our next Command Staff meeting, which is tomorrow, right?"

"Yes. We're going to do it virtually."

"Good. Then while we are at J4, we can have a family meeting to go over the details. We think we have captured everything but there are undoubtedly some significant items that have been overlooked."

"Knowing you guys," said Alison, "those items won't be very significant."

"My, you have a lot of faith in us."

"We just know how good you all are and who is assisting you."

"Thanks. Now we need to comb through the plan again to make sure we live up to your expectations."

"Don't do that. It will spoil the fun."

"What fun?"

"The fun of finding an overlooked item. Realizing there might be something missing really gets people to read it closely."

"Good point. The last time I checked, the outlines for the proposed economic system and a potential form of government were also pretty well along."

"Yes," replied Sarah. "We should go over those before they are presented to the family as well."

"Agreed. That discussion is set for one week after we depart J4, right?"

"Yes."

"We should set a date for them tomorrow when we get together."

"Fine. Are you doing your dream-walk tonight?"

"Yes. We plan on including a few of our children."

The next morning Amy's and Briana's Clan arrived at the dining room just as Sarah's Clan did. Amy said, "So are we all set."

"Yes. Everything looked fine. The probes are there waiting for us. We didn't think they were supposed to arrive before us."

"Yes," replied Briana, "they were to be there 2 clock cycles ahead of us."

"Oh, okay. We looked them over and none of them are showing any signs of tampering."

"Great. Did you give Star their coordinates?"

"Yep."

"What did your children think of taking a dream-walk?" said Amy.

"They thought it was an interesting experience," replied Sarah. "The four who have now done it with us want to try it on their own to see if they can do it."

"What did you tell them?" asked Briana with a concerned look.

"They could try, but they needed to have one us, or someone agreeable to us, with them when they did so. We were pretty blunt when we explained the risks to them."

"So..."

Aoife grinned, "So expect to be asked."

"Well we will need to take a bye on that," replied Amy. "That is a skill that has eluded us."

"We didn't know that," replied Judy. "We were under the impression that all the command staff clans could do it, as well as several security teams."

"We can do it for short distances. We are just not very comfortable with it."

"Well," said Briana, "we are comfortable taking dream-walks. However, like Amy's Clan we are fairly limited on the distance we can reach."

Sarah said, "We usually form a circle with at least our arms linked or over each other's shoulders. We've tried other ways but that seems to be the most comfortable. Sometimes all of us actually participate in the dream-walk. Other times, just a few us actively participate while the rest stay in the background. When it is just a few of us, we can either go further with the walk or extend the time."

"So, maybe strength is based on the number participating."

"It would make sense, based on what we've just shared."

"Hmm, I think I'll talk to our sister clan. Perhaps we can try it together."

"Briana, that is an interesting idea," added Amy. "I wonder how well the other Command Staffs can do dream-walks?"

"Well, we do have a staff meeting shortly," said Jill.

"If we have time, let's bring up the topic. You know, I am not sure that we know the capabilities of each group. In fact we may be presuming too much."

"Good point; that could have some unintended consequences, and not necessarily good ones."

Everyone in the group nodded their head in agreement.

Entering the conference room, Sarah's Clan was a little surprised by the layout for their staff meeting. As Amy had told them, there were two models of the island on A-Celia. Actually seeing them was a surprise even though they had closely studied the 3D models.

The two large models were in the middle of the room. One model was of the whole island. The model next to it was of the area where they planned on placing their settlement. Sarah's Clan went to look at them more closely.

The island rose abruptly from the ocean to some 300 meters above sea level and covered an area of 512,000 sq. km. From the sea all that could be seen were high, shear, rock walls containing many crevices, some large enough to offer some shelter. In some places the rock wall transitioned into mountains whose peaks rose above the top of the rock face by 1000 meters or more. There was only one break in the rock wall around the island which was on the southeast side. The break was only visible as you approached from the southwest, but to enter it you had to approach blind from the south southwest.

Beginning at the break and extending back toward the east this area had two rock walls. The rock wall coming from the west was about 1.4 km behind the one coming from the east at the break. These two rock walls formed a gorge that ran some 65 km before the interior rock wall abruptly stopped at the bay. At the opening, the outer wall began as a pile of rocks at the break-water, and rose until it was some 200 meters above sea level. The water from the bay drained through the gorge to the ocean, with no place to put ashore between the bay and the ocean.

In order for a boat to enter the gorge, it needed to begin its approach from 3 km out, at a 30 degree angle to the break. Once the river came into view it would have to turn toward it and follow it into the bay. The point where the river entered the bay was close to where the river from the western side of the island also entered the bay. The flow was toward the eastern end of the bay, and due to this flow the boat would tend to drift toward the rock wall on the right. To avoid hitting the rocks or running aground it would need to bear to port. On entering the bay a wide band of sand could be seen, this began at the mouth of the river just passed and extended about 2.5 km along the bay shore. At this point the edge of the bay consisted of large rock boulders and short sections of vertical cliffs. The cliffs varied from being just above water level to a few meters high.

All the water from the interior of the island emptied into the ocean via these two rivers. Inland the river from the east was connected to a series of streams in the east and south central areas. The river from the west was connected to a series of streams in the western and northern areas of the island. The western river had a larger flow than the eastern. Much of the land along the rivers consisted of gently rolling plains, sloping toward a creek or small stream. Some streams began in the rugged valleys on the sides of the small mountains.

From the bay the land rose slowly for more than 60 km before it began to rise rapidly to form a line of hills. The ridge formed an arc somewhat parallel to the island's perimeter, but varied greatly in height. Even so it was clear that the ridge ran from the river in the east all the way to the river in the west. There were wide waterfalls on both rivers where they flowed over the ridge and down toward the bay. Behind this ridge was a wide valley that ran almost three quarters of the way across the island from the eastern river to the west where the land sloped up from the river. The location of forests, brush, streams, fields, and animals that probably existed on the island, were shown for each valley.

The interior of the island rose in steps as one moved north. The steps were masked in most places by tree covered ridges, but were evident in the rivers. Above each transition the river formed a lake. Some were very large covering more than 100 hectares. Where each lake became the river again there was a either a waterfall or a series of rapids.

In the north central area of the island were five large plateaus each covering more than 900 sq. km. The most central plateau rose a few meters higher than the others. It was also high enough that the ocean could just be seen over edge of the island. The southernmost plateau had an area marked off indicating that a more detailed rendition was shown on the other model.

The second model was of a section of the southern most of the five plateaus. This plateau was located toward the center of the island. A large area of this plateau's center was cleared for their settlement and a short distance to the southwest was one of the larger lakes.

The clan was examining the model when Aoife said, "This has much more meaning to me than the 3D images we've been using."

"I agree," replied Erin just as Amy's Clan entered the room. "Are we planning on placing the settlement on this plateau?"

"Good morning," said Amy's Clan.

"Good morning," replied Sarah's Clan.

"Yes, our proposal is that we place the initial settlement on that plateau. The settlement details will appear as we go through the presentation."

Rusty said, "Great. I think the models provide a better perspective of the island's terrain than I get from the holographic images."

"Even after all the times we have done this, we still have that difficulty," replied Jim of Amy's Clan. "That is why at this point we prefer to use a model. There is an inherent spatial relationship that virtually everyone has difficulty sensing even with a holographic image. So we have placed duplicates of these models in each conference room. When you go back to looking at the holographic images after studying these, you will find you have a better sense of depth and detail. The images have a lot more detail than can be shown in the models."

"Command Staffs, are we ready to begin?" queried Sarah.

"Yes," replied the others in turn. As each clan responded, holographic images of them formed in each conference room. Visually it looked as if all eight clans were in the Dóchas conference room, but in actuality only two were there.

"Star, is this conference setup new?" asked Alison of Sarah's Clan, referring to the images.

"Yes. This is the first meeting to use it, and you can thank your engineering staff."

"Won't this consume a lot of additional resources?" asked Claudette of Sarah's Clan.

"Actually, it takes less. There is a duplicate of this arrangement on each ship. If there are problems, we will switch to what we have been using. The advantage to this is that you can see more than just the head and shoulders of all participants."

"It is certainly life-like."

"Yea, but I don't think the hugging and kissing part is very life-like," replied Siobhan's Clan.

When the laughter died down Sarah said, "Again, Amy's Clan, these models of our island are fantastic. These should definitely give us a better feel for the proposed site layout."

"We agree," replied all the clans.

"Before that though, we have a couple of items to cover. First, our transition out of FTL is now set for 21:30 hours tomorrow. This is primarily based on the observations during our dream-walk last night."

"Was there a particular reason for the change?" asked Eleánóir of Keriann's Clan.

"Only that it places us closer to the probes we are picking up. This new position should also give us a better view of the surrounding universe when we are in our 3 axis defensive array. Without the change a significant part of the view would have been blocked by a rather large star.

"I guess we should have included that in our advisory. This will keep us from having to change locations, which means we may be able to move up our departure date."

"Okay, you just said the magic words, 'departing earlier.' It is music to my ears."

Several chuckled at Eleánóir's response.

"Molly or Jackie, would you update us on the status of the J3 people."

"Counting those released and those in process, we have released exactly 817 from hibernation as of yesterday," said Jackie. "About 2 dozen have been causing difficulties. They are all Tigsuma. Fortunately only a few were activated at a time. We are not sure whether this was a coincidence or orchestrated, but it really doesn't matter. Initially this group was hostile toward everyone, but they were even ruder to the J3 people.

"The first three were in their second day of recovering from hibernation when Serarck and Zhaos came over to help out. As soon as they entered the compartment holding hands, the three Tigsuma began berating her for associating with 'that breed'. It only took a few comments to set Serarck off. She responded in kind but never raised her voice. You didn't need to know the language to know that they were not polite words. The three Tigsuma were soon shouting loud enough that they tripped the compartment security monitor. Not fully understanding their words, the AI erred on the safe side and summoned a Security Team to investigate. We thought the Tigsuma were going to physically attack Serarck and Zhaos, but you really don't want to tangle with either of them.

"The sudden arrival of the Kara's Security Team interrupted the verbal combat. Pat of Kara's Team asked what the problem was. One of the Tigsuma rudely replied that it was none of their fucking business.

"Pat and Kara looked at Serarck. She told them that one problem was that the Tigsuma didn't believe how they had got here. She had offered to show them their hibernation chambers but all they wanted to do was complain and insult her.

"Kara told them that the solution was easy, they either listened to Serarck, or they were immediately going back into hibernation.