37.

The rest of the meeting took hours as the team worked on all of the technical details which needed to be addressed for their modified science mission to be successful. The computer systems which would have be disassembled were identified, both the systems which would be transferred to the Keeper and the systems which were going to the Yonohoan flagship.

Perhaps ironically, the reason that the probe control system couldn’t be hosted on the Keeper was the same reason that the Earthlings were able to communicate with the Yonohoans; the deep space antenna which was receiving and broadcasting the signals sent to and from the fleet and the planet itself was simply too large to fit on the smaller ship and still have room for the crew.

This also meant that once they reached that stage of the disassembly process, they would be reliant entirely on the Yonohoan communications devices that were being made available to them.

Seeing that it was inevitable that they become reliant on them, Captain Anders relaxed his previously held embargo on most of the advanced devices which the crew had been attempting to convince him to allow on board the Seeker (or had already sneaked aboard without approval).

It suddenly became commonplace to see staff members floating through the ship wall talking to floating heads of other crew. Or the Yonohoans, who were eager to give help and advice.

Gabriel, whose role in the science mission was more or less complete since there would be little more data analysis until they returned to Earth in the Keeper , made a suggestion to Captain Anders. Anders took a few hours to consider it, gave him a list of restricted areas, and then gave his approval.

That was how Gabriel found himself floating through the common areas of the Seeker with an alien recording device, talking about how life had been aboard the ship prior to his momentous discovery of the Rocktala signals coming from the planet Totola.

“So this is the mess hall. Or the cafeteria, or whatever you want to call it,” he said when he arrived in that room. “We don’t have food forges. Everything we eat, aside from a few tomato plants that we’ve been able to get to grow for us, we had to bring with us. It was all manufactured on Earth and brought into space via our space elevator.

“As you can imagine, not having artificial gravity makes some aspects of eating in space difficult. There’s no pouring milk over your cereal, no eating soup with a spoon. You can’t sit a plate on a table without it floating away. So most of our food are things like this. Tubes filled with nutrient pastes. This here is a tube of Turkey Surprise. The surprise is that it’s supposed to be served hot, but it has a symbol here which shows not to microwave it.

“That took me a while to figure out. Apparently on Earth it’s supposed to be placed in boiling water to heat it, or transferred from the tube into another container and microwaved. I guess they didn’t care if we ended up eating microplastics from microwaving it during this mission. Anyway, it tastes terrible cold, but it’s not too bad if you heat it up first.”

He spent quite a while talking about the food aboard the Seeker , going through the refrigerator and describing each of the rations in turn. He tried to explain how they tasted, whether they had any cultural significance or not, and mentioned which were his favorites and which he disliked.

Several crew members came and went, and depending on their personalities they were either introduced or they hurried out of the room when they realized what he was doing.

He showed them other aspects of life on the Seeker . He explained hygiene, both how the bathrooms worked and how they cleaned their bodies. He showed them some of the less secure parts of the spacecraft, including some of the science instruments like the space telescopes.

He wasn’t able to show them the housing of the three power plants or the Tunnel Drive due to security concerns, but he was able to show them some of the probes that had been recovered. He eagerly spent an hour discussing the various parts and the instruments and what the Earthlings were hoping to accomplish with their experiments. Which was really just to look at the universe from multiple angles and compare vastly different locations at the same time.

“See, for the entirety of our recorded history, we’ve been stuck on one planet orbiting a single star. We were wondering what would happen if you looked at the universe from multiple angles from vast distances apart and tried to put the pieces together into a three dimensional puzzle. A lot of people on Earth thought it was a massive waste of money, but the politicians approved it because we’re getting overpopulated and some people think we need to find a new planet to live on,” Gabriel explained.

He laughed.

“The truth is that we haven’t taken very good care of Mother Earth. Hopefully our alliance with the Yonohoans will help us solve some of our energy issues and possibly give us the technology to reverse some of the ecological damage that we’ve caused.”

He went through the crew quarters, showing off his own room and receiving permission to display those of some of his crewmates. He showed off his ‘dungeon’ of a workstation, having to explain that Earth hadn’t quite figured out how to make holograms like the Yonohoans yet so everything was in still in two dimensions.

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Eventually, he brought the tour to the bridge, pausing at the entrance to allow everyone to secure their workstation to prevent any data from being displayed. He interviewed the command staff, analysts, and technicians who kept the Seeker running.

The tour ended with an interview of Captain Anders.

“How does it feel being responsible for establishing diplomatic relations between Earth, the Yonohoans, and by extension the Topokans?” Gabriel asked.

“Extremely stressful but also rewarding,” Anders answered. “While a part of me wishes that I was still second in command, I understand Captain Moon’s reasons for stepping down fully and even now continue to stand by her in solidarity. She made the right call in a difficult situation. I’m not certain I could have done the same thing in her place, but I shall attempt to follow her example as the finest officer of the Earth Space Force that I have ever had the privilege of serving.”

“Do you have anything to say about the technical or medical difficulties we encountered during our mission?” Gabriel asked, having approved the questions before hand.

“We haven’t had any technical issues prior to arriving in Yonohoan space. The Seeker has been performing like a dream. Unfortunately, the only method of Faster Than Light travel that our planet has discovered causes neural degeneration. We knew that going into this mission, but we were hoping that the methods we were using to counteract it would allow us to complete it. Unfortunately the results were more insidious than we believed.

“While we were initially resentful that the Yonohoans claimed that they were legally required to impound our ship when we met them, we have come to understand the vast value that they place on the human life and we can therefor understand their reluctance to allow us to endanger ourselves.

“That said, we are not ready to surrender the Seeker of New Discoveries to anyone at this point in time.”

“What do you think of the Yonohoans?” Gabriel asked.

“They seem to be an honorable people. They are extremely proud of their past. They seem to have a unique sense of humor. They have been helpful and supportive of our mission since we opened lines of communication with them. While our relationship started out rocky when they shot down one of our probes in an unfortunate misunderstanding, as well as informing us that they would follow us should we attempt to leave their system, we are establishing a relationship of trust and support. We are learning about their culture, and we are sharing the culture of Earth with them. And through them, we are spreading our culture to the rest of the universe, which is much bigger than we thought it was.”

“Given some of the troubles that the crew is facing, between the impact of the Tunnel Drive on our health and the technical difficulties we are facing in completion of our science mission with the use of the Toormonda ship that the Yonohoans have given us, how are you maintaining morale?” Gabriel asked.

“The gift of the Toormonda spacecraft that we have named The Keeper of Dreams has itself been a great boost to morale. Having a place to go to exercise and get away from the stress of being cooped up inside the Seeker has been a great boon. Even those who don’t enjoy the exercise have enjoyed the simple change of scenery,” Anders answered.

“Aside from that, I have approved a number of projects for cultural exchange that the members of my crew not otherwise occupied have been completing in their free time. These include projects like Project Radio Tower, which Captain Moon initiated and was completed under my tenure, in which they spread the culture and history of Earth with the people of the Yonohoah. Things such as reading of our literature, talking about our history, or sharing personal experiences. We have learned that although humans live throughout the universe, life away from Earth is often strange and unfamiliar to those who have never left our home planet.”

At this point, Gabriel said “One of the things we’ve learned is that many people have questioned why we’ve accepted a Toormonda and are transferring our research over to it instead of replacing the illegal FTL drive in our ship and completing the mission with our original parameters. What do you have to say to that, Captain Anders?”

“Several things. First of all, I understand that to most of the Universe, the Toormonda are associated with childhood. But they are also associated with exploration, discovery, and the repetition of results in a way that proves existing theories to be valid. Those aspects fit precisely with our science objectives, making the gift of a Toormonda a boon to the people of Earth.

“Second, while I’m reluctant to admit it, the fact is that the Toormonda possesses advanced technology which is unavailable to the people of Earth at this time. We had no idea that the Tri-dimensional generator was even theoretically possible prior to having it explained to one of our engineers, who regretfully still doesn’t understand the advanced mathematics and physical components of the device.

“The truth is that while the rest of the universe was engaged in the millennia long struggles of the Liberation Wars, our ancestors were almost universally hunting animals with primitive weapons made only of stone and plant fibers. Until we met the Yonohoans, nobody showed up and gave us a helping hand. Nobody explained how the universe worked to us. We’ve figured everything we know about space flight out all by ourselves.

“Regretfully, that means that the Toormonda is far more advanced in many ways than the Seeker of New Discoveries, despite the fact that the Seeker is the most advanced spacecraft ever built in the shipyards of Earth.

“However, as smart as the Toormonda is, I’m rather pleased to declare that it still can’t beat our encryption. Unfortunately, my duties require me to ask Gabriel to end the recording at this time so that my bridge crew and I can return to work.”

“Thank you for your time, Captain,” Gabriel said, and he ended the recording.

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