Toll and Rusty watched in awe as the
coastline got closer and closer. They started to make out details in
the cities and towns. The ship, however, was headed straight for the
water where a large landing platform stood.
“Is that where we're landing?”
Rusty questioned. “And why is there a landing pad alone out in the
middle of the ocean?” The ship set down on the landing pad with
effortless ease. A containment field bubbled the ship and the pad
slowly lowered into the ocean. Carter smiled as the containment field
held the ocean at bay.
“It's not alone.” Carter commented
as the platform became completely submerged, revealing the extent of
the underwater facilities. The buildings and tunnels appeared to
extend in every direction. Several underwater vehicles were moving
about freely, completing unknown tasks along the ocean floor. One of
the bio computers came over a ridge and Rusty sat down hard.
“Is that?” he stopped mid sentence
in awe. Carter followed his gaze.
“Oh yeah, that's Aquarius.” He
smiled. “She's being prepped for a deep space exploratory vessel.”
Rusty was beyond intrigued.
“They have gender?” He stared at
the bio computer trying to glean every possible detail.
“Not in a physical sense, but
everyone on the project had a really hard time not assigning some
sort of identifier to them based on basic behavior patterns. The sad
fact of the matter is, it's like applying a gender to this ship. It
will never do anything to identify with that gender, but we still
give it a name and think of it as a trusted friend.” Carter
finished his speech as the platform slowed to a stop and butted up
against an airlock system that led to an entry tunnel. The airlock
door on their side opened up and Carter stood. “Gentlemen, I
appreciate everything you have done for me today.” They exited the
ship. “But I have a lot of work to do. I hope you won't think it
rude of me, but I will be leaving you for a while, I'll catch up with
you later after you've been brought up to speed on what we're doing
here and the state of the universe on this side of the gate. I'll
check in with you then and you'll have some decisions to make.” The
outer door closed behind them. The inner door opened to reveal Warren
and two other technicians. Carter was all business instantly. “All
right, let me see the most recent data.” The second technician
handed him a data pad and followed behind as Carter and Warren argued
over the data it presented, leaving Toll and Rusty alone with the
woman who was all smiles.
“Welcome to planet Earth!” She
almost shouted. Rusty smiled and Toll busted out laughing. The
woman's smile wavered but she soldiered on. “This is my first time
greeting people like you.” Her explanation caught them off guard.
“People like us?” Rusty questioned.
“You know.” she ventured
cautiously, regardless of the giant smile on her face. “Extra
Terrestrials.” she slowly made her way through the words hoping the
pair would catch up. Again Toll lost himself in a fit of laughter and
even Rusty couldn't keep a wayward snort under control.
“We're not aliens, we're human just
like you.” Rusty offered.
“I didn't say aliens.” She
clarified. “You're not born of earth, so by default you are extra
terrestrial.”
“You must have met plenty of people
from Mars or the moon.” Toll attempted to point out. She shook her
head.
“Never left the Earth. Not many
people from Mars or the Moon make it to Earth, and if they do, I'm
pretty much the last person they would want to talk to.” Her
explanation left Rusty with a ton of questions.
“So, who exactly are you then? And
why would people not want to talk to you?” He asked. She smiled.
“Ophelia Harris McMasterson the
Third. Fully skilled in the art of teaching history.” She held out
her hand with pride. Toll Took her hand with a huge smile on his
face.
“Toll Drasmuth the First, fully
skilled in the art of not crashing expensive ships into cheap
meteors. Pleased to make your acquaintance.” Toll motioned to
Rusty. “This is Rusty Wainwright, Esquire. His skill set sounds
even cooler than mine.” Toll stepped back and Rusty seemed to be
caught off guard.
“I write computer code.” He offered
with no flare.
“That's it?” Toll exploded,
gesturing wildly. “You tell Carter that your a “mainframe
mastermind” and you tell this perfectly wonderful young woman “I
write computer code.” what is wrong with you as a per -”
“I hear your colony has made some
serious advances in crystalline data structures.” Ophelia
interrupted. Toll's hands, which had stopped mid rant, quietly
dropped to his sides.
“Honestly, it's what I grew up with
and it's probably not all that much different than the computer
systems you have here.” Rusty dissuaded, but Ophelia was hooked.
“Almost everything here is
biologically coded. I know that many vehicles have older style
electro- chemical based computer systems, but everything I've ever
worked on is, at least on an academic level, alive.” Rusty and
Ophelia headed down the hall away from Toll.
“Is anybody going to explain why they
sent a history teacher to babysit us?” he shouted out, and was
totally ignored. “No? It's cool, don't worry about it.” He looked
out through the nearest window at the ocean. “I got
important...fish to look at.” He tapped the window as a large
trout swam by. “excellent job, carry on.”
