For one hundred thousand core world credits we will petition in your name to add you to those few who will be Saved, to convince her that you understand the hardships of her children. You may even be called to be one of her flesh lieutenants, a West Keeper. The day comes, a slaughter in the streets where only those known to her will survive. Then the exodus of the worthy will begin, the final journey to the East.”
He turned and walked regally down the steps then back through the archway leading into the mountain.
Alaka shook his head and ran his hand down and up the front of his face at the sight of people lining up to pay the four servants. They were eager, anxious.
He walked back to the pest control kiosk and shook his head once more for Yves benefit.
“What is it this time?”
“Artificial intelligences are going to go mad and kill all the humans. That is, unless you give him one hundred thousand credits then let him take your picture.”
Yves chucked ruefully, “Well, too bad I can't afford to throw cash away. Maybe you can after this, but not me.”
Alaka laughed; “You're joking, right? As of yesterday I have eleven children at home.”
“Well, say hello to them and the missus for me. Good work today Alaka,” Yves said, guiding the counted and re-bagged pelts around to the front of the kiosk on the antigravity cart. “Your pay is in your account.”
Star Liner Voyage 1261-48
Even after two years of retreat on Earth, countless hours of meditation and work on his temper, travel still bothered Liam Grady. He watched the children run between the seats, playing tag in the aisles as stewards and a few parents tried to get them back under control.
The starliner would be arriving in the Enreega system in the next few minutes. He found himself recalling the information he had dug up on the passenger carrier. It had been in service for sixty one years, was due for retirement in nineteen and had one incident in its third year of operation involving the undercarriage. One refit had been performed and the most recent overhaul was done less than four months before. All in all, a good two hundred meter long mid range, high speed transport. He would have preferred one of the newer ones but beggars couldn't be choosers. It was either Voyage 1261-48 or a three day layover until the next connecting ship to Enreega would come along.
Some of the seats were grey, others were blue, and there were even a few brown mixed in. They were pretty comfortable, well, his was anyway, and there was enough space for his legs which was an unexpected bonus. The small screen mounted on the back of the seat in front of him kept playing silent ads for the different features available for the hyperspace journey, which was only six hours, and kept beckoning him to play back the Hart News feed. He resisted the temptation, sure he'd see what was going on as soon as he arrived on Enreega.
The passenger holding the ticket to the seat next to him, a pleasant woman much younger than himself, perhaps thirty five or forty, returned to her seat with her son in tow. He was flopping his feet on the padded deck with each step, looking as restless and bored as everyone else felt. The din of conversation in the cabin was thick, there were over five hundred passengers in that section alone, all set up in two rows of three seats along the port and starboard sides and one row of five right down the middle of the cabin.
“He's just anxious to see his father. We've been away for a week,” the brown haired woman said with a smile as she fastened her son's seat belt.
“We went to visit my Gran, she's old now,” said the boy.
“Oh? How many years is old?” Liam asked, unable to resist himself.
“She's one hundred and ten.”
“I see, how old are you?”
“I'm only five. How old are you?” The boy asked in return.
“I'm seventy three,” he offered the boy a hand. “I'm Liam, what's your name?”
“Lawrence,” the boy replied, shaking Liam's big hand.
“I'm Shelly. What brings you to Enreega?” She asked, looking Liam up and down.
He was still wearing his robes from the retreat. They were old fashioned, thick cotton blue robes tied in the middle by a red belt. “I'm taking a lead systems engineer post on the Willinton.”
“Oh, that's interesting,” Shelly said, looking a little disappointed.
Liam smiled and nodded. “You expected something else.”
“Well, in all honesty,” she looked him up and down again.
“I have just recently been to Earth on retreat but I'm not a priest. I'm doctrine neutral and studied discipline and philosophy with some mixed eastern traditions.”
“You've been to Earth?” Lawrence said, wide eyed.
“I have. It took many years and a lot of time in school, but they let me stay for a while.”
“What's it like?”
“Very beautiful. The sky there is blue, as blue as you've ever seen. There are endless green forests, big deserts with nothing but sand and tall mountains that go up so high that it gets very cold, so cold that there's snow that never melts.”
Lawrence looked to his mother then back to Liam.
“He's never seen snow or a desert before,” Shelly explained.
“Well, snow is all white, and it's made of little flakes of frozen water that get all piled up on top of each other. They pile up taller than you, and they're so light that you can jump into them and they'll just puff up all around. It has to be very cold for snow to stay for long though,” Liam explained with the aid of a few hand gestures.
Lawrence just stared, completely entranced by the mental images the large man conjured in his young, active imagination.
“You should be a teacher, he hasn't been this quiet in hours,” Shelly smiled, running her hand over her son's brown hair.
“I considered it, especially since the Axiologists gave me their endorsement, but I love to build.”
“What's an axi, an askio-” Lawrence tried to ask.
“An Axiologist is a student of ethics, morals and the different traditions humanity use to teach and enforce them. They help people understand the difference between right and wrong while showing us how to improve ourselves in a way that doesn't interfere with other people.”
“Oh,” Lawrence said, nodding and leaning forward to toy with the flat display screen in front of him. After making just a few selections on the menu there he had an animated calico cat and black Labrador dog on screen, chasing after each other through a factory.
Shelly smiled at Liam and shrugged. “He loves that show, even on a flat screen.”
“A moral play in the most colourful slapstick imaginable, I wish they were fashionable when I was his age,” Liam commented as he watched the cat trick the dog into running past him. The Labrador tried desperately to stop, skidding and pushing at the floor with its front paws before smacking into a sheet of sticky paper.
“Is it true that Earth may be open again soon?” She asked quietly. Other passengers were listening in, most of them had never met anyone who had been there, let alone gone themselves.
“Only to an extra five hundred per year. I was lucky to be accepted; my studies in zero emission power management and Axiology weren't enough. I had to get a recommendation from a sensei there and just getting in contact with her took over a year.”
“How is it now?”
“Much better than I expected. They were able to revitalize most of the life there, things are back in balance. It's almost all restricted, even the gardens I visited were specifically marked. They're sending seed life off world again though, so we might be seeing a bit more of the home world out in the galaxy.”
“Do you know what kind?”
“They were able to bring elephants and most tigers back along with a few species of bird. Bees are the biggest triumph. They don't have the diversity they want yet but they'll get there. It'll help long term terraforming quite a bit.”