Chapter 51: My Stomach Dropped

There was a loud chime. The echoing sound seemed to penetrate every wall in the pod. It rang out for several seconds and then stopped. Silence followed.

“Everyone, the Glowworm has arrived in orbit around Crucibleat. All citizens have requested their pod sites down on the planet and drops will commence immediately. Please secure any loose items,” the AI announced.

I carefully turned Angelique so she was sitting securely in my lap. “I’ve got the most important item secured,” I said confidently. “Minions, it’s your job to secure the rest.”

I could feel my ladies roll their eyes as they got to their feet. “Ignore him,” Ashley said dismissively. “It will only get worse. I think we’ve already put everything away, but let’s make a quick check.”

Miki sighed. “I just put away our copy of Lords of Waterdeep. The game’s cabinet was secure and locked when I left it, but I guess I can check again. Other than that, the only loose things would be clothing or the sheets on the bed.”

“Angelique has some stuffed animals doesn’t she?” I asked.

“They’ll be fine if they get shuffled around on her bed,” Erica said.

The whole room seemed to shift to the left. We could hear a faint hiss that lasted less than a second. The lights flickered.

“Pod detached from transport,” a flat mechanical voice called out. “Seals holding. Internal batteries at one hundred percent.”

“How long will the batteries last?” I asked.

“The batteries should last for seven days after landing. However, power couplings are already being extended to the drop points. This pod should be connected to the terrestrial generator by oh oh thirty,” the mechanical voice said.

“By when?” Aine asked.

“That would be just after midnight,” I said. “So about four and a half hours from now if it really is two thousand hours.”

“What is that?” Aine asked. “I’ve noticed everyone using times like that, but hadn’t had a chance to ask what it all means.”

“Military time,” Lenore said as she held her hands out towards Angelique. Her daughter clung to me as the pod seemed to shift. The motion was uneven and the room shook for a moment.

“What?” Aine asked.

“The military wanted a faster way to communicate time and changed from the clock you are used to, to one that had twenty four hours. You’re used to having people say eight p.m. In the military the clock keeps going up after noon rather than jumping to one p.m., so one in the afternoon becomes thirteen hundred hours. You can convert the time just by subtracting twelve hundred if the time reported is above that,” Ashley added.

“So, two thousand minus twelve hundred...” Aine said.

“Try twenty minus twelve,” I suggested. “Those would be the hours.”

“Eight,” Angelique said firmly.

Aine looked over at Angelique. “So eight p.m. I get it now, but I’m not used to it.”

“We’ll use the clock we are used to in the house,” I said. “Although I forgot what we’ll see on Crucibleat. I doubt the day there is exactly twenty-four hours long.”

“The planet you will be on finishes a rotation every twenty-two hours seven minutes,” the AI responded. “It completes an orbit in five hundred two days.”

“Spins faster, but larger orbit. I’m guessing the star is a bit stronger than Sol then,” I said.

The room seemed to slowly rotate. Even with the walls we could feel some acceleration.

“Mark?” Constance asked.

“My guess is that the pod was getting ready to enter the atmosphere,” I said. “I’m not sure what kind of system they use, but be prepared for a bumpy ride.”

“What?” Constance asked. Her voice was filled with terror. She wrapped her arms around Miki and buried her face in the other woman’s shoulder.

“I’m sure they’ve done this before,” Ashley said.

“But they could be intending to kill us,” Constance said with a quaver in her voice.

“That I find unlikely. From what we can see the aliens are rather timid. I expect they have actually programmed their computers with something similar to the Three Laws of Robotics that Asimov once proposed,” I said.

“Who? What?” Aine asked.

The room now seemed to be moving downward. I felt like I was in a fast descending elevator. Angelique gave a quiet cry of fright and wrapped her arms around my neck as I turned to look at my frightened red-headed concubine.

“Asimov was an author who suggested that once humanity developed robots, we’d program them so that they could never intentionally harm a human. I believe the AI units for the Confederacy have similar programming. They can’t intentionally harm a citizen of the Confederacy,” I said calmly.

“But you are the only citizen here,” Constance complained.

“I really doubt they could hurt or kill all of you and not kill me in the process,” I said.

The room seemed to move around in a circular pattern. All of the ladies cried out in dismay and grabbed the closest person. I looked up at the ceiling.

“AI, how high up are we?” I asked.

“We have entered the outer atmosphere of the planet,” the AI responded. “Please allow the computers to handle the landing.”

“I other words, no more questions,” I muttered as the room started to jump around. “And expect this to continue for a few minutes as we pass through the atmosphere.”

“Why?” Aine wailed out in fear.

“Because we have to slow down gradually and while that happens, we’ll get knocked around by the atmosphere. It’s not that much different than hitting turbulence while riding in a plane,” I said.

“I don’t remember anything like this,” Ashley moaned out.

I glanced over at my treasured friend and concubine. Her face looked green as she held onto Lenore with her left hand and held her right hand over her mouth.

“It will be over soon,” I said.