Chapter 59

Third Mission, in system RKO-289 aboard the FUP Shuttle Royal Yacht in orbit around the planet called Thessaly, 2401 CE

“So, in fifteen hours,” Captain Bertram’s image said from his place in the bigger holographic square of participants’ windows above the galley table, “probe Beta will have taken up a lunar orbit guaranteeing the probe has an unobstructed line-of-sight to both Thessaly and to probe Alpha—once Alpha attains its final orbital position one-and-a-half hours later and begins scanning Artifact B behind Thessaly’s larger moon. Those transmissions will be recorded while Beta beams the intel back to us.”

“What if Artifact B takes offensive measures against either one or both of the probes, Sir?” asked the image of a serious-looking, middle-aged woman whose title said she was Captain Mildred of the Advance Shuttle Alendron. After our first teleconference, Juliet pointed out to me the Alendron was one of the Away Team landing vessels assigned to the Glenndeavor, but it wasn’t her team’s Ship.

“If that happens,” Bertram answered, “presently there’s nothing the Task Force will be able to do. Hopefully Alpha would detect whatever type of offensive measures Artifact B was about to employ and take evasive action while alerting Beta. Remember, both are Marine probes—agile, fast, with an amazing amount of fuel to burn, and some tricks of their own.”

“Point of fact, Captain Mildred,” from his square above the galley table the young-looking pilot of Marine Assault Shuttle Nine, Lieutenant Couch, spoke up, “Captain Bertram is right about the tricks, and the Task Force would find out whatever might happen almost immediately, even if we’re behind Thessaly. As one part of the probe deployment plan, the Captain required my team park one of our over-watch comm-sats in a geo-sync orbit over the North Pole during our last pass. Its mission is to collect any probe data we miss when were out of contact. Granted, that OW-sat is not a long-term solution compared to the other two probes; but the payload’s orbit is high enough that we’ll only be out of com-link with Beta for only eighteen minutes at a time. Any transmission we might miss we can download from OW-sat One.”

“I want to thank you, and your efficient crew, Lieutenant Couch,” Captain Bertram said before gazing around without moving his head much, his eyes seeming to meet mine for a moment. Despite the initial illusion of eye contact, my inner geek knew the Captain’s likeness addressed not only Juliet and me, but his gaze must also be sweeping over the faces of the usual officers and specialists on all the other craft in the Task Force who were populating the rest of the holographic squares.

“So, everyone, when the first transmissions from probes Alpha and Beta begin,” explained our force commander with a nod of his head as he continued to address everyone online, “the Task Force will have just finished an ascending node of our orbit in relation to Thessaly. We’ll be able to receive the first data packets directly, no planetary mass blocking our reception, even with the OW-sat now in place and functional. Once Alpha finishes its preliminary study of Artifact B, it remains on-station gathering intel while monitoring the object on all bands, assuming Artifact B makes no aggressive actions toward the probe.

“Due to our vital primary mission, we cannot assign more assets so some of you can gallivant off to the Artifact—at least, any time soon,” said Bertram. “And that’s no matter what Alpha discovers. Both probes will continue their duties as we make our EDLs and beyond. Once the delivery drones dispatched from the evacuation fleet arrive, we’ll have our satellite network in orbit and operational. Then we’ll grab situation updates on Artifact B off Satnet. We’ll evaluate our options once we secure the landing zones and make them ready for the Evacuation Fleet. Who knows, in a perfect world we might be free to send a team up to knock on the Artifact’s front door before the Evac formation gets here; doubtful, BUT, you first-contact rushies, do not pin your hopes on that happening. Therefore, I proclaim the end of this discussion thread during this meeting; understood?”

I saw a number of people in the square-of-squares nod their heads and heard several other voices saying, “Yes Sir.” I took the time to take a big sip of my hot coffee before putting my mug on the table in front of my seat and looking back up at the holo-projection.

“Now, back before Captain Mowmyier and I finally determined which vessels would make up this Task Force—” said Captain Bertram’s calm looking face; his image seemed to gaze out at just Juliet and me again. His eye slowly moved from his right to his left then down a bit, until I bet everyone felt he’d looked them in their eyes as well.

In the total quiet coming from the meeting’s audio feed, I easily heard Bertram taking a slow deep breathe.

“—Now, as I became aware of the amazing range of resources available to carry out this vital mission which Captain Mowmyier entrusted our Task Force to complete, I have to say that I was, and still am, truth told, amazed,” Bertram told us, his holographic eyebrows going up. “So, to best employ one of those resources I didn’t even know existed at the time, but that I’ve recently become happily acquainted with, I am going to turn this briefing over to the personality known as RY, however; that will be in a few minutes.”

Shock goosed my system! Beside me, I caught a flash of movement out of my left eye. Juliet’s right fist appeared at her mouth to muffle a cough. Her green eyes squeezed shut and Juliet’s left hand managed to lower her teacup away from her face and down to the saucer on the galley table with without spilling a drop. To say I was surprised as well at Captain Bertram’s words would be a world-class understatement!

How does it happen that the Man, my paranoid ass-wipe immediately demanded from my lizard brain as he pointed at Captain Bertram’s face above the galley table, is sayin’ he’s ‘recently become HAPPILY acquainted’ with our good buddy without us knowin’ about it? My inner geek quickly shushed him so we didn’t miss anything else the Captain said about our shuttle’s very own artificial intelligence unit!

“For you members of this meeting who don’t know, RY is the latest advanced model Artificial Intelligence available to ExServ, and is assigned to the shuttle, Royal Yacht,” Captain Bertram announced from his holographic square. Bertram’s face was now a mask that I’d not want to see across a poker table. “We are lucky that all the Royal Yacht class shuttles from the Glenndeavor have an Ai of his model aboard as well, and successfully evacuated with the rest of us. If I’d have known his capabilities before Captain Mowmyier and I assigned vessels, we’d have at least one more Royal Yacht class shuttle with us now. But, I didn’t and we don’t.

“However, the shuttle, Royal Yacht,” Bertram told us as the image of his head and shoulders seemed to lean forward in his square, “is one of the three vessels which, you should know, provided the Task Force with spectacular scanning data and those amazing video feeds, which together are the most pressing reason we’re having this unscheduled meeting. The other two vessels that the Task Force owes thanks are the Marine Armored Assault Shuttles, AAS Eight, and AAS Nine. I tell you now, that without the abilities of those three craft, along with each shuttle’s officers and crew, we wouldn’t have half of the intel we’ve got on the planet below.”

Through my connection with Juliet, I could feel her pride bloom in response to the Captain’s recognition and thanks. I didn’t need our connection to notice she sat up straighter in her chair and picked up her teacup again with a happy grin on her beautiful face.

“More importantly right now,” our Task Force Commander said, “without those three shuttles we also wouldn’t have the wealth of incredible intel about the area on Thessaly that will become our home for the foreseeable future. We’ll all live there and work hard to prosper, at least until we’re relieved by other Federation assets. And I am certain, the lands we claim and the facilities we layout and build will be the nucleus of a permanent Federation presence here on Thessaly—not only because of our soon-to-be two-legged neighbors on our side of the Great Eastern River—but especially because of our four-legged neighbors in the territories on the other side of the river.”

Through the audio emitters I heard several of the meeting participants chuckle.

“And, before any of you just can’t contain yourselves and speak out—” Captain Bertram’s voice warned us as his right hand came into his holograph field with palm and fingers up in a stop gesture, “—yes, I am aware of speculation circulating that the Centaurs of Thessaly might be representatives of that ancient, mythical, space-going race called The Seeders. If that does turn out to be the case, then ... well. But this meeting is not the forum to bring up any such speculation. Am I clear?”

I felt my head nodding, yes, and notice Juliet was nodding her head as well. I glanced around the holographic display hovering over the galley table. I noticed, from the look on the faces of at least five people, that some of the attendees might be feeling that this meeting was the perfect forum to discuss The Seeders. I also noticed that none of the eager believers were ship commanders. According to the titles under their names, each one represented some support role in Task Force Bertram.

“We are all of one accord then,” said the Captain with a nod of his head, as if the power of his will was going to make his words so. “Now, back on task. I’ve found RY to be a most impressive, ah, individual. With his amazingly advanced abilities to collate and analyze all the scanning data and video files collected so far, he’s introduce me to some very eye-opening facts and conclusions about both groups of our neighbors. So, please, RY, at this time I’m turning this meeting over to you; give us your report.”

“Thank you for your kind introduction, Captain Bertram,” said the deep voice that seemed to come from the handsome male face I’d not noticed before up in one of the windows. The man’s face looked surprisingly like a certain vid star and heartthrob I’d watched several times now, along with the crew of the Royal Yacht, much to Juliet’s embarrassment. The title under his square in the holographic display above the galley table read, R.Y., Artificial Intelligence, Shuttle Royal Yacht.

I had to bring my right hand up and use the web between my trigger-finger and thumb to rub over my top lip so my palm and fingers hid my massive grin! I was afraid I might start laughing and fought back a snort. I didn’t know if my reaction was from nervous tension or because RY had managed to bring his insights and incredible processing power to Captain Bertram’s attention without me, and probably anyone else aboard the Royal Yacht, knowing about it!

Then I felt a twinge of embarrassment—short of being able to hack into just about any computer-based system I’d encountered so far, I didn’t figure I had any really special skills that would warrant my sitting in on these meetings. My first wife, Juliet, as the Command Pilot of our shuttle, had picked me to attend. I could be the poster child for nepotism at least.

“Select officers and crewmembers of Task Force Bertram,” RY’s deep voice addressed us, “I am pleased to present my analysis of the scan data and video evidence that the Royal Yacht and both Marine Armored Assault Shuttles, AAS Eight, and AAS Nine were so diligent in collecting. To be specific, my analysis in this meeting will cover what has been discovered and what can be interfered about the observed populations of our soon-to-be neighbors.

“First, I want to say that an in-depth summary of the discoveries learned so far from the scans and videos shall be sent to each of you at the end of this teleconference. I am sure none of you want to hear unnecessary numbers and reference citations during this presentation.”

Again I could hear a few people chuckle through the combined audio links coming through the overhead speakers.

“Now that we have information from our secondary scanning orbits to compare and combine with the data and videos from our primary passes,” the deep voice of our shuttle’s AI spoke as I watched the face RY picked from himself talking from his space in the holographic display, “we have reliable population approximations for all the different groups identified as descendants of the original colonists which we have discovered and mapped, as well as numbers for the surprising populations of our neighbors on both sides of the Great Eastern River. For those of you interested, that information will found in the summary I will send to each of you.

“As some of you know, having highly accurate population estimates is important for several reasons,” said RY, “but we don’t have other important data, such as fertility, mortality, or migration rates for the various groups we’ve identified on Thessaly. Discovering those three rates is beyond the scope of our present data collection method—orbital scanning. And while those missing factors will limit some of the population modeling that can be done with the data we have collected, I will pursue other modeling methods in an attempt to corroborate any information we might receive from the colonists concerning how long they have been on the planet and the number of original colonist who landed. If the colonists decide not to share the date their ancestors arrived here on Thessaly, or how many people made up that original group, a regressive analysis can still help shed some light on both issues.

“At this time the reliability of any information we might receive from the colonists themselves would certainly be in question. Especially concerning those three rates I mentioned earlier, along with the original number of colonists, and the date their ancestors first arrived on planet,” RY said with a nod of his fictional head. “It is true the Maori representatives we continue talking with have been quite helpful on many subjects; however, they were not forthcoming about our soon-to-be neighbors on either side of the Great Eastern River. Although, I think we would all agree, we would have been, shall I say... skeptical if they actually told us we’d find Centaurs inhabiting much of the territory between the Purple Mountains and the Great Eastern River on the continent of Thessaly.”

That actually got RY a few laughs from the attendees! And three beats after the laughter stop RY told us from his media face above the galley table, “Still, knowing when the original colonist arrived; who they were; where their various groups came from on Old Earth; as well as why they left that planet and how they were able to leave that solar system without leaving any apparent historical clues to their departure—we all can agree those points would shed light on the situation we face in finding ways to best relate to everyone down on the planet; both now, and once we land.

“If we add the facts,” said my friend RY, “that there are living Centaurs on this planet the colonist previously told us they call Thessaly; the fact the territory where those Centaurs are located on the continent, which is also recognized by the colonists as Thessaly; and that the mythical home of Centaurs on Old Earth was in the area still known as Thessaly—that leads me to conclude the colonists have known about the Centaurs all along.”

“But they certainly didn’t bring the Centaurs with them,” a male voice muttered from one of the squares. His utterance got him a short laugh from many of the faces in the holographic display.

“The likelihood of that having happened,” RY said in a deadpan-sounding voice, “is infinitesimally remote. However, I will now address what is known from the excellent scanning and video data provided to all of us by the joint efforts of AAS Eight, AAS Nine, and the shuttle, Royal Yacht.”

I could almost feel everyone’s attention focus on RY’s words. While only Juliet was physically present in the galley, my connection to her proved she was eagerly anticipating what she was about to hear. Our connection made me aware she held a control stylus in her right hand and was using the device to insert flags in the file she was recording of the meeting. I realized by doing that she easily could go back later and examine flagged sections without having to hunt for points she wanted to study. I didn’t feel one bit of shame that I wasn’t doing the same as well. I’d just talk to RY later and ask him about anything I didn’t understand, or if I wanted him to give me more information on some point he’d talked about.

“Video evidence has provided a great deal of information about both the Unknown Peoples, or the UP as, during this report, I will call those humans on the eastern side of the river corridor and the Centaurs living on the western side of the corridor,” RY told the meeting.

Suddenly the holographic field filled with a video showing three UP men from above. From the nature of the gloomy light, I would say it was early morning where and when the clip was recorded. My enthralled inner geek wondered if what we were seeing had been enhanced.

The primitive hunters were crouched down and spread out a good ten meters from one another in very high meadow grass and scattered brush. They stalked toward a small herd of bison located across the clearing. Each hunter’s long black hair was hanging in a braid from the back of their head, down one side or the other of each man’s neck. I also could see they wore loincloths and knee-high moccasins. Carrying what I knew were spear throwers, each knocked with a missile, the three men seemed to freeze in place and remain still as statues. Across the meadow, two bison took several steps from the other grazing animals in the direction of the approaching hunters before stopping, looking about, and then lowering their big shaggy heads to the thick grass. Then I noticed a caption at the bottom left corner of the scene that gave the latitude and longitude and I knew the clip we were seeing was from the northeastern section of Thessaly. Those coordinates were followed by a time and date stamp; 0620—06/02/0001 PED. I recalled that according to ExServ SOP, PED was service-speak for Post Evacuation Date.

“The UP, such as these three individuals,” said RY’s deep voice as we watched the hunters slowly move forward again, “populate somewhat dispersed areas from near the eastern banks of the Great Eastern River to the foothills and plains near the eastern seaboard of the continent Thessaly. Their distribution also extends from the foothills of the Southern Mountain range near the equator, stretching northward to within roughly two-hundred kilometers of the great river after that water course turns east and flows toward, and then into, the eastern ocean.”

A colorful satellite map of the continent Thessaly appeared in bottom right corner of the holographic display showing a light blue overlay representing the territory RY just describe.

Before the hunters in the video approached the bison herd close enough to launch their spears, the scene of the three men faded. It was replaced with an overhead long shot showing more than a dozen hide-covered teepees facing what had to be a different meadow. From the angle of the sunlight and shadows I guessed it was midmorning, which a glance at the time stamp in the left corner supported. Some structures had been set up on the meadow turf and some were located back among the sparse tree line of the woods that went up the northern side of the valley.

It was easy to see men, women, and elderly individuals, alone or in small groups, going about their daily chores around the encampment. Children were seen playing in small groups or helping with some of the work. Glancing at the latitude and longitude coordinates, I realized I hadn’t see any animals, such as dogs or horses, which my movie collection from Old Earth suggested might be included in native villages. I had to laugh at myself as I realized those movies were fictionalized representations of native cultures on Old Earth—this was the real thing on Thessaly!

“Population distribution is uneven and consists primarily of villages having between seven family groups up to as many as two hundred in a few cases,” RY said as the video changed to display another village in the holographic field, similar to the first. From the coordinates posted in the lower left corner, this setting was perhaps 60 kilometers from the first settlement. “But analysis of dress and shelter construction,” RY’s voice said, “as well as visible clues such as facial traits; totems; design motifs evident on shelters, some clothing, and various weapons; all these things support the argument that the UP consist of seven separate clans or tribes. I would argue all seven groups are organized in sort of confederation; but more on that aspect later.

“In the overall territory I described previously,” said RY, his voice sounding almost excited to my ears, “I have deduced that one clan or group controls territory to the far southeast and extending almost to the coastline there.” The area he was talking about went white in the light blue territorial overlay on the satellite map in the lower right corner.

The video image in the holographic field changed again, showing yet another settlement about the same time of day. The individual structures were rectangular in shape and covered mostly with wide sections of tree bark. The people I saw appeared in manner and dress to be from a different tribe compared to the first two villages. This third village was located to the southwest and was 1,625 kilometers away from the second encampment. I was somewhat happy I’d not seen any of these three video clips on any of my video feeds as the Task Force orbited above Thessaly. Suddenly I was anxious to see all the other vid clips I’d missed!

“The second group, or clan, of the UP is found in a large area in the south,” RY’s deep voice said from the overhead emitters as the white range changed on the map in the lower corner to show the second clan’s range, “while a third clan is located in the southwest. Scanning and video data shows that the fourth UP group is established in the central-western area of the territory, with their range extending close to the banks of the Great Eastern River, or the GER as I will refer to that body of water. A fifth clan is found in the northwest, and their territory seems to be from near the banks of the GER to the west and adjacent to the lower boundary of the sixth group, which is found in the north-central part of the land between the GER and the east coast. The last clan, the seventh clan, has territory that extends rather sparsely throughout the northeast, and to within a hundred kilometers of the Great Bay along the coast were the GER joins the eastern ocean.

“There were no permanent groups, together or dispersed,” RY informed us as the I watched the people moving around in the third village shown in the holo-field above the galley table, “found in either the central, or the central-eastern sections of the territory bound by the GER to the north and west, the Southern mountain range to the south, and the eastern coastline.” The map in the lower right corner displayed the area RY was talking about.

“However—” said RY, his deep voice seeming to take on a hint of excitement, if that was possible; and the scene above the table changed to show a grassland area in afternoon light. I saw a sprawling valley floor that was covered in grassland interspersed with a few small patches of woods where four small rivers or large creeks joined, forming a single large river, then RY continued, “—from scans and video evidence, I have been able to identify this area you are all seeing now. The site is located almost at the middle of the unoccupied central territory.”

In the holographic representation above the table I started noticing various turf-covered hills and curving ridgelines coming up out of the grassland that didn’t seem natural to my eye. First I realized that some of the hills seemed perfectly circular around the base; which, granted, could be the results of glaciation—but so many together?

Then, as my eyes followed along one sinuous, meandering curves of the low ridge that also didn’t seem to vary in width, I found myself thinking the shape could represent a snake. Coming to the end of the landform, I realized it looked like a snake with possibly an egg held in its open mouth! Tearing my gaze from the amazing reptile effigy to look further around the grassland, my mind registered that several of the mounds formed geometric shapes that no glacial deposits could possibly create!

“I’m certain,” RY said, surprising me at his use of a contraction again, as several small captions appeared on the now frozen scene of the wide valley with arrows pointing to specific mounds, “this is an expansive ceremonial site. This valley contains over a dozen earthen mounds,” and the captions for each mound brightened momentarily while several people watching on other vessels could be heard as they softly gasp or swore in amazement.

“Three effigies,” said RY as a succession of three captions lit up with an arrow pointing to each earthwork in the 3-D holograph.

“And this is what I would describe as a grass-covered processional roadway,” RY told us as a soft white line marked the extent of a long, low, grass-covered hump that could be called a wall, and that was to the east and the right of the scene. And then another soft white line marked the equally long and low, grass-covered west wall. Both low walls oriented north and south while creating an approximately 100-meter wide grass expanse between the two features that did not vary along its entire length.

“As all of you can see, this roadway,” said RY, his deep voice coming from the overhead actually sounding excited to my hearing and making me wonder what he was about to reveal, “extends for approximately five kilometers, heading directly north from the juncture of the four waterways. That roadway terminates at this serpent effigy which has what might be a massive egg or seed depicted in the snake’s open jaws. Calculations show the head and egg orient toward the sunrise on the summer solstice. In addition, three other sections of the effigy mound align with the sunrise, one on the winter solstice, one on the day of the spring equinox and one on the fall equinox. Consolidating these four indicators into one manmade earthwork demonstrates a very sophisticated knowledge of astronomy. I look forward to finishing my study of all these earthworks in detail sometime in the near future.”

I was stunned, feeling a turbulent mix of excitement, surprise, wonder, and anticipation at what I was seeing and learning about these mystery people who’d be our neighbors once the Task Force made planet-fall. Through our connection, I could tell Juliet shared some of my mixture of emotions as well.

“These manmade earthen mounds,” said RY’s deep voice, “are arranged in an area covering approximately ten square kilometers or one thousand hectares. In addition to this site, there is scanning and video evidence that suggests there are over forty-five other manmade mounds scattered throughout the combined territories of the Unidentified Peoples. Also, I have identified a site with ongoing organized activity preparing a location for what only can be the building of another mound. It appears that there are several camps from different clans, which are now moving in the direction of that activity. In consultation with two specialist among our people, I will now suggested that there will be a gathering of some kind around the time of the summer solstice at that site, where they will, among other things we suspect, construct a new earthen mound.

“I feel confidant that the Unidentified Peoples, whom our Maori friends say they don’t really know about, are actually seven hunter-gatherer clans of a cohesive mound-building culture,” RY told us. “They have demonstrated the ability to organize and direct large numbers of people from different territorial and clan groups to cross long distances and then perform ceremonial labor. What the resulting earth mounds might mean to the UP is at this time, only conjecture. The video evidence we’ve gathered shows there are many similarities in shelters, dress, and especially certain design motifs to be seen on some of their clothing, some of their weapons, and their living structures when compared to different indigenous tribes that once occupied areas in North America and Central America on Old Earth.

“While I know that there are those among you,” said RY as I could see the images of his right hand raise in a ‘halt’ gesture, “who think their existence on Thessaly is evidence that these people were somehow transported here by the group referred to as the Seeders; I counsel patience and caution at this time. There is much more research and study that must be—”