2.6.
“So in summary, you are to rendezvous with the Yonohoan defense fleet, which has agreed to offer you an escort home,” Captain Anders’ hologram stated. The crew of the Keeper were standing in the common room of the Toormonda for the address. “The Seeker with a skeleton crew will proceed you into Sol system and alert the Earth Space Force and the governments of earth that we are coming. We will bring the news that our science mission was a full success, although the exact methodology was modified in the field to preserve the validity of the gathered data while protecting the health of the crew.
“We will also bring news of our contact with the Yonohoans and the Topokans, as well as the status of the scope of the universe at large, which is far more filled with people than we ever believed. People like us, and people unlike us. Potential allies, and foes who will oppose us because of a complex history which we have only just begun to unravel.
“Some of you have spoken about remaining behind. While it is the position of myself and the command staff that from hence forth only volunteers will pilot the Seeker with the use of the Tunnel Drive, the fact is that until we’ve established normalized relations between Earth and the Yonohoah, I’m not certain what the official policy on immigration and emigration will be. We’re relying on them to get our people home safely and without exposure to further negative health effects. However, with the exception of Sergeant Cruz, whose situation is unique, I am ordering you all to return to the sol system.
“We all have jobs to do. Just because what we’ve found out here fundamentally changes our understanding of our place in the universe doesn’t change the fact that you all have responsibilities to the ESF and our corporate sponsors. If you are a member of the science team, you are ordered to report all findings and participate in the followup studies. If you fail in these duties, you have broken the contracts which you have signed prior to leaving earth on this mission. That failure will be reported to the Yonohoan government.
“If you know anything about the Yonohoah by now, you should realize how seriously they take oaths. While they’ve yet to give us a contract to sign, the importance that they place on the verbal oath between Eolai and Sergeant Cruz should give you an idea of how they’ll respond to someone who breaks a contract.
“If after returning to Earth, you can navigate the politics to get a visa to return to planet Topola, then good on you.
“The only exception to the order to return to earth are those members of the crew which require further medical treatment on planet Totola. They will remain in the custody of the Yonohoan government until they’ve recovered to the point where they can return to Earth and hopefully receive treatment at home.
“That is all at this time.”
The few crew members of the Keeper that were military saluted as the hologram vanished, then everyone relaxed. The crew began whispering among themselves. Some were happy with the news, while others were realizing that they were not about to get as much time to spend with the Yonohoans as they’d like before Earth’s governments got involved.
Regardless, they were heading home soon. Whether it was nervous energy or excitement, the air was palpable with human emotions.
“Right then. We have our orders from the Seeker . Does anyone have any concerns specifically for the crew, maintenance, or morale of the Keeper ?” Captain Moon asked after everyone had been gossiping for a minute to get it out of their systems.
“I’d like to formally request that whoever has been flushing their tampons in the toilet stop. You’re supposed to throw them in the reclaimer. While this is a magic spaceship that runs on happiness and almost literally magical energy, a toilet is a toilet and they can get jammed,” one of the maintenance crew said.
That earned a few nervous chuckles, and the meeting broke up as nobody else had anything significant to add. While they couldn’t process the mission data, many of the crew had begun taking advantage of the educational nature of the Toormonda they were riding in to begin exploring aspects of the universe which humanity from earth literally couldn’t measure, and were therefore either completely ignorant of, or alternatively, had only vague theories about.
Captain Moon listened to the conversations that the crew was having among themselves and with the ship’s AI and she could only shake her head at the disparity between the Yonohoan education system and that of Earth. While the rest of the universe considered Toormonda’s to be a thing for children, the twenty ships that the Yonohoan government had gifted her people were set to become not only a significant boon to their society, but a strategic asset.
She had hesitated in accepting the offered gift, but she was confident that her decision to step down from the command of the Seeker in favor of the alien magical school bus was the correct one.
Anders hadn’t done anything that she wouldn’t have done. But he had done it with the conviction that his judgment was clear and uncompromised, while her diagnoses of having reached stage two in the Tunnel Drive Exposure Syndrome meant that she would have second guessed her every decision. She might not have been able to make the decisive decision to return home at this juncture.
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It was the right call. She was glad that Anders had made it. She would have hesitated and lost the initiative.
Her career as an officer in the military was over. She would request discharge for medical reasons when she returned to Earth. She was melancholy that this stage of her life was over, but she remained optimistic for her future.
She would be a celebrity, having been in command of the Seeker of New Discovery when life was found on another planet. She’d have to be careful to follow the official talking points and avoid revealing confidential or classified information to the public, but she’d be able to lecture about many aspects of her time aboard both the Seeker and the Keeper.
She suddenly realized that she was a teacher on a magical school bus that was flying through space at three hundred times the speed of light.
“Call me Ms Frizzle,” she muttered to herself, laughing quietly.
~~~~~~
No matter how many times he did it, leaving the airlock with only the Yonohoan Vacuum Protection Device, which consisted of a belt, anklets, and wristbands, hearing the hiss of the cycling air while he wasn’t wearing a vacuum suit made Gabriel’s balls retract. Aside from the safety devices, he was wearing only his normal shipboard uniform. The alien safety devices were apparently enough to keep a pressure bubble large enough to breathe comfortably for hours, while simultaneously protecting against the radiation of space.
Or so they said, he thought to himself.
He realized that the Yonohoans allowed their children to go out and play around their Toomonda ships with nothing more than he was wearing right now, but that didn’t change how he felt about the matter.
Still, when the time had come to board the alien shuttle that would take him to the surface of planet Totola, where he would be remaining until the fleet prepared to travel to Earth for the political summit, Gabriel had elected to use the alien’s vacuum safety measures rather than a traditional vacuum suit.
He had left the majority of his possessions behind, and he would not see them again until he reached Earth. He might never get some of them back, but he’d taken what was important. The large trash bag was filled with many things, mostly books that were a gift for the Yonohoans. His thick textbook of the works of William Shakespeare was certain to be a welcome gift.
The shuttle, like the Toormonda, was more than capable of safely pulling errant objects and people into its airlocks with the use of gravity mechanics. It was also equally capable of delivering their ‘guests.’ Two Yonohoans had volunteered to come home with the earthlings; Tilandrous, a senator’s aide, and a member of their space force, Etalia.
The ship wasn’t set to leave for several hours, but the Yonohoan travelers were arriving early to go over the paperwork that the captain was requiring them to sign in order to travel aboard the Seeker with the six other returning members of the crew. It involved all of the paperwork that the humans had been required to sign on Earth, in addition to several new sections which specified that the differences between Yonohoan and Earthling physiology were not well understood to earth science. It specified that the effects upon Earth humans might not be the best indicator for how a Yonohoan would handle subspace travel, and a number of other factors practical and theoretical.
Gabriel gave them a nod as they passed each other in space. Like him, they were wearing only the Yonohoan safety belt with rings around their wrists and ankles to protect them from the harsh environment of space.
Like him, they were loaded down with burdens. Gifts? Personal possessions? He didn’t know. He simply nodded to them in passing and allowed the shuttle to pull him aboard in relative silence.
There was no flight staff to greet him. Nor was their a pilot. The ship’s AI directed him on where to store his bag, and then it was suggested that he take a seat and wait. And that was it.
After all of the departing staff members had disembarked from the Seeker , the Yonohoan shuttle silently moved towards the planet, briefly engaging its FTL drive to carry them light-hours through the star system in only a few seconds.
It would be aboard one of these shuttles that he’d be returning to Earth, he realized. It wouldn’t even take as long as it took to cross the Atlantic. He knew that Sol system was hundreds of light years away, but Yonohoan shuttles truly were that fast.
The shuttle rocked slightly on entrance to the atmosphere, and Gabriel requested that the exterior wall turn transparent so that he could see the fire of their reentry. It was beautiful.
Then they were through the ionosphere and the upper atmosphere and into the clouds. The shuttle carried them straight to the level 2 medical facility which housed the members of the crew who were suffering more severe symptoms from tunnel drive exposure. While everyone aboard the shuttle more or less had their conditions under control, they intended to get a more detailed examination before leaving the Yonohoan system next week.
“I’ve left the Seeker of New Discoveries behind me,” he said to himself. “A part of my life is over and I’ll never go back to the halls where I discovered intelligent life in the universe. I reached out from my dungeon aboard the Seeker and found that the universe is full of light.”