New Earth (chap 2)

Chapter 2

Connor and Hugo had not been asleep long when the Primuis had opened their dorm room door. They were insisting that the boys get dressed and come with them, they already had a half asleep Walter with them. They could tell this was not going to be a normal process report that the Professor was always complaining about. All three were held separately till it was their turn to be asked questions from when did you start at the school to where did you hide your findings. It would be mid-day before any of them would see another person beside their interrogators. They did not yet know Theresa, the last of the four students from Terra core, had been there all night. She had not even been allowed to sleep yet.

The rest, all from Cameron, were picked up on their way to classes. After only a few questions, they were each sent back to their dorms with the Primuis’ thanks for their cooperation. They talked to each other learning they had all been asked the same questions but they had not all answered exactly the same way. Since they were all there, they guessed that was a good thing. It was not until Hugo and Theresa had entered the common room that the group had put together that those from Cameron were treated different than those from Terra Core. That was an eye opening experience for most of them.

Timus had not had any contract with anyone from the trip when Primuis officers showed up at his home that morning. There was four of them in full uniforms just as the sun was breaking through the windows. It would be fifteen hours later and dark before they would leave telling him not to leave the moon until them talked to him again. As soon as they left he decided he had to get to the school in the morning to check on the others, especially those others from Terra Core.

“Professor?” Eric’s assistant, Clair Bolus, stopped just inside the doorway relieved to see him. “Professor Wortison, wake up. You missed your first class.” Stepping closer to him as he began to stir.

“What did you say Clair?” Eric said, slowing coming to. He had slept in his office just in case this might happen. It was also why he had been careful hide away his discoveries. He would be able to exam them in more detail later but for now he had to be a Professor. “What time is it?”

“It’s almost 800 hours. The region stopped into your lecture to see what your lecture was covering.” Clair smiled at Eric as she talked but she always seemed to be smiling when near him. “He left as soon as he found out you were asleep in your office.”

“Did you explain how adding oxygen would only cause more acidic compounds to form?” Eric chose to focus on her lecture first not showing undue concern about the visit. “It almost seems counter intuitive but the atmosphere has plenty of oxygen it’s just mostly bonded into toxic and corrosive compounds.” As most of the professors here He had several fields of study he taught. Terra-forming technology was his third discipline at the school. Then he asked the important question almost as an afterthought. “Did the region say why he chose today to visit, was it due to my field trip?”

This had not been the first trip that had drained him, but Clair had never known him to miss his classes. It had always been a thing for him. He was training the young mind who would carry their future. He could not let the past rob them of the knowledge he could give them. He felt that every missed class was a missed chance to teach. It might be that question that he could ask or answer that would turn that light on for someone. She thought he prepared more for a class he was going to have her fill in on then he did on his own. For him to just not show up was very unlike him.

Clair realized she had not asked him about his outing nor had he given her his data pad for her to log in his notes as he usually did after a research trip. With that they fell into their usual banter. Discussing this point verses that point carefully dancing around the elephant in the room, the way they both felt for each other. So she started the dance in mid tone to get him started asking about his discovery.

It would not be till evening after the last of his classes that he could examine the treasure from the wreck. So their banter was exactly what he needed to keep his mind on the day. Carefully telling her about the trip without telling her so much she could be in trouble if things got complicated with the Regions or the Primuis. He carried this resolve into the rest of his classes, careful not to tell too much even when asked direct questions. No matter how tired there would be no daydreaming today.

It became even more important that Eric was not daydreaming at the end of his last class. It was then when they showed up at his classroom door. “Professor Eric Wortison.” Stated a well-built male dressed in the uniform of the Cameron Primuis forces who stepped through the door as his last student walked out. Behind him a second even larger man stand quietly with eyes fixed on Eric. The first man continued, “We need to speak with you,” the larger male opening the door, “shall we head to your office Professor?”

“I need to gather my things but I’ll be right with you.” Eric was sure this was not a social call. As he put his data pad and papers into his pack, he thought about his classes during the day. He had not thought much about it but he had not seen any of the 11 students who had been on his trip. One or two might have been too tired or excited to make class but all of them.

He had not seen Timus today either. They always met for breakfast after an outing to go over how it truly went and how they would write it out to look much better. Had the Primuis figured out something had been taken from the wreck or just trying to put a lid on what they had found till they could put their own spin on it. They would not have made it to the wreck yet, least of all, searched it for evidence.

“Eric, do you know what they want?” Clair asked as soon as Eric entered the office with the two dark blue suited men. “They would not let me go get you.” Pointing at the man sitting across from her, “He has not even said a word to me just sit there, watching me.”
“He was not meaning to make you uncomfortable. It is protocol to only ask questions when two of more Primuis are present.” The male who had spoken to Eric in the classroom explained. “It decreases the chance answers could be misinterpreted or remembered wrong.” Sitting on the couch beside the third man as the larger suit stood to his right, he gestured towards Eric. “Shall we began with your debriefing about your discovery Professor?”

Well it least they finally had gotten around to why they were here. If they were looking for the data sticks they would not find them here. He had been careful not to impacted Clair in that way but still he had gotten her into the middle of this. He would take any punishment they had decided to deal out as long as Clair was not included. It was with their first few questions that they surprised him.
“Was there any sign that others had find it before you?” The question seemed out of left field. First what others the School would not have sent a group before without telling him and there was no others on Cameron to undertake such a mission. At least not the anyone know of anyway. Before Eric could ask the second man give away part of the answer while talking to the third man. “Any Terra Core personnel or markings would have been long gone.” He had not meant to say that loud enough for Eric to hear but he had.
Eric answered honestly, “We hooked up a power trans during our field trip to the wreckage. As far as we could tell we were the first humans on the ship since it crashed.” Eric was not sure why they thought Terra Core would be on Cameron. Even more importantly why it would be a problem if they were here.

“We understand you have ties to Terra Core, Professor.” The smaller of the three men spoke for the first time surprising Eric at first as his voice was exactly the same as Eric’s. “Where you aware four of the students you took on your mission were born on Terra Core?” Pausing to let his implication sink it then continued, “That seems a little high for a course on Cameron History, also your assistant on the trip,” looking down at his data pad, “a Mr. Timus Figjust, he is married to a Terrast and often travels back there.” Closing the pad and placing it into it holder as if to symbolize he was done with questioning. “The hostiles between Cameron and Terra are increasing almost daily”

Anger started up inside Eric as he was being accused at least turning a blind eye if not betraying Cameron outright. “First Gentlemen, My course for which the field trip was for is Human history with the subtitle of how did we get here? Second My ties are My mother which is a subject best left alone.” He was close to losing his composure when Clair placed her hand on his arm, one day he should tell her the story about his mother. Calmed by her gesture he continued, “As for Timus and his wife, they live on Cameron but her family is still on Terra Core. Would you have him deny her visits to her family? And what is this issue with Terra Core we are the only two groups of humans that we know of. Together we only number 750 to 800 thousand max if not for mixing between moons neither of us would survive the gene pool would become too shallow.”

The debriefing took a different direction as what they had found became the main topic. Eric was quite good at playing the game with officials. Wording was all important just as it had been with the Regions. By the time the three men had left he had been given permission to re-exam the crash. Even with that he was still upset when they left.

It took Eric a while to claim down completely after the men from the Primuis had left. Not just because they had stopped just short of accusing him and his students of spying. It was bringing up his mother that had set him off the most. He had not thought of her in years now being more concerned on his search for the true history of humankind.

It was funny he had started on this path because his mother had left his father and him at a young age. She had converted to Tereanism, a cult that believes human started on a destroyed planet only 3 light years away. They had a compound on Terra Core so she decided she had to go there. It would have been easy to hate Terra Core and all who lived there for just that reason. But instead he followed a different path, he would study where humans actually came from. The facts had to be out there. Then no matter what the answer everyone would know and his mother would not have to live somewhere else to be near those who believed as she did.
How simply a young boy believed the great problems of the world can be solved. As the years passed, Eric followed many paths backwards to their inevitable dead end. The deeper he research the more things stand out. Terra Core by all measures was paradise. Its atmosphere was breathable and in almost to perfect ratios. It had standing and moving water which allowed the settlers to move around more freely. Cameron was toxic causing the settlers to depend on domes to survive. What water was there was often frozen. Any oxygen in the atmosphere was in acidic compounds. These differences cause the cultures of both worlds to form differently.
The freedom of movement on Terra Core lead to several small groups or ‘cults’ to form as they could separate themselves easily from others. Through the generations each group developed slightly different languages. This caused share ideas between groups to be harder which decreased the rate of technological advancements. The individual was at least as important as the whole. They truly lived by a live and let live philosophy.

By contrast Cameron having to use domes and being in orbit around a planet further from the star was much colder. This limited movement gave raise to larger settlements. It also allowed ideas to be shared easily. That mixed with the need to find ways to do things caused rapid technological grown. Laws and rules were valued highly as a single person being lost could easily be overlooked if the outcome was for the better of the whole.

Weighting both moons it made no sense for Cameron to have be settled at all. What differences had caused them to choice such a harass environment over living with their fellow humans? Eric had to find what they were before and prove they truly were the same people. He followed this into being a Professor. By using facts he would find the true origin of humankind. He started in the only place he could think of the archives. Tracing back to landing on both moons was easy, but before that when on the mother ships was much harder.

Terra Core not needing to live in the crafts dismantled the larger crafts to build the settlements. Repurposing the computer system wiping their memories to make room for more important things. With that all records of the journey were lost, the ships bring parted out meant there was not even that evidence to work with.

On Cameron needing the ship to live very much the same way they did in space so they were left intact at first. Slowly each became a settlement but its data pool was saved to ensure no useful knowledge was lost. On early Cameron knowledge was power. But even that was not enough to allow some secrets of the mother ships to be kept.

Eric spent many night scrolling thru old files some missing more than what was there due to age. It was in the archives that Eric first met Clair. She was working her way through school at the achieve. Every day he would say ‘hi’ to her as he passed by on his way to the backroom and usual seat. When he moved on to the university, from the regional school five years later, Clair left with him as his teaching aid.

Chapter 3

It had been a strange couple of days for Eric, from the highs of actually discovering the mother ship ‘Taurus DSE’ to finding out how close to war the two moons actual are. With nothing on his schedule today he was finally going to relax and examine the data sticks from the wreck. Clair being fully informed now he felt comfortable having her go thought his data pads. He had waited before to keep her out of any trouble that might come out of what they discovered. The CP’s had even told Eric he and his students would be allowed to reexamine the wreckage after the Primuis finished their study of it.

Setting up a terminal, Eric pulled out a small gray box from the desk placing beside the screen. Opening it, he took the first of the old data stick and searched for the right interface to place it in. All the common ones were in the front but there was also a few older types in the back. It was these he would try first. He would not know if it didn’t work if the stick was bad or an incorrect interface. The newest of these sticks would be at least 300 years old. The more he thought about it the more insane the idea he would get anything out of these became.

He tried each port until he found one in back of the computer that was not too large or too small The first stick showed no signs of life when he placed it in the only port in which it would fit. He tried a second and then a third. He was careful not to pitch them as it still could just be the interface was too different to read the sticks. He might have to try to use a computer from the ship. If they would allow him, that is. He was trying the fourth and what he had decided would be his last when the end of the stick lite-up. His computer tried to open the files on it with several programs before the message popped up to abort search or manually pick program to open with. That’s when he installed the translator program he had to use when reading chips from Terra Core.

It seemed like just minutes ago he had clicked open the first Captain’s journal on the sticks. In truth that was hours and ten sticks ago. It seems these were not just the journals of one Captain but everyone the ship had had dating back so 600 years and counting before the crash. They used a time system based on a 60 second 60 minute 24 hour day. Those days cycled in a unit of 365 making up their year. Eric would have to figure out how those translated it their time units. After all their hour had 70 minutes which were 50 seconds long and their day was 21 hours long and a cycle around the planet was 120 days with a solar cycle of 491 days. There was just no way to compare without a standard. He could not assume their second was the same as their second without going thru their working computers timing systems.

Eric tried to organize the journals into a timeline starting with the year the last Captain placed on their arrival at Cameron 4360. He learn from her that the Taurus was believed too structurally unsound to enter the atmosphere along with a ‘Conjuror’ which was left orbiting Terra Core. At least for the Taurus it seems they were wrong. Both had been in the same meteor storm on the outer edge of the Gleise system, their name for this system. At least the ship had been unmanned when it crashed and that somewhere on Terra Core was another crash site that might hold even more history if it had not been repurposed like the rest of Terra’s fleet once it was found.

It seemed that the Captain was a position handed down family lines at least on this ship. It had long been known each ship was governed slightly differently in day to day operations. Eric had gotten from to journals so far that Taurus would have gladly separated from the other ship and only had contact with them through the yearly exchange of bloodlines. To keep the gene pool as diverse as possible eleven volunteers, one of each of the other ships, between the ages of 19 and 25 from each of the 12 ships would be moved to the other ships picked at random. He also found that while it had be thought they had been a larger number of humans on each ship that had only been towards the end as they closed in on Gleise. They had limited each family to three children at most. This accounted for accidental childhood deaths and infertilities to keep each ship population around 1500 and allowed for sexual ratio fluxilations.

Many of the stick from old times were actually copies as the Captains would apparently read over past Journal for help in day to day operations. Eric had to assume other ships has some similar practices and that would even be used to train future leaders among the fleet. Even with being copied journals before 3000 seemed to not have survived leading Eric to figure it was about that time with they started making copy before more passed data was lost to them. He also found several entries that would harm if not destroy different cults. Ones like the Tereanism who believe humans actually came from a destroyed planet orbiting a smaller star just over three light years away from their solar system. But when Taurus passed thru that area almost 400 years before reaching Cameron it was a dust cloud then too. It may have never been a planet but even if it was it was not where we came from. Eric smiled despite myself at the thought of disproving that cult.

It was only when Clair knocked on his door that he realized he was still at his computer and had yet to be asleep even though it was already morning. He opened the door looking at her through his blood shot eyes. His night had been much like hers, some much data so little time. But it was so interesting to actually see the path of humans from some long forgotten home world to Two moon orbiting different planets both orbiting Gleise. Why had they left and might there still be humans living somewhere out there. A journey of over 2000 years, based on one stick with only a hundred or so readable words on it. That would be generation after generation being born living and dying on those ship. Eric and she would have to compare notes once he had some rest.

“Did you spend all night looking through your collection?” Claire asked playfully as she pulled out one of his data pads grinning at him then saying. “I only studied over this till midnight I figured one of us would have to be able to do your classes today. You get some sleep and maybe I’ll fill you in on some of the details I figured out.” Handing him the first data pad then pulling out the second, “I still have to translate your entries on this one. Now sleep and I’ll see you after the last class.”

Eric stopped her as she turned to leave by grasping her arm softly, “Thank you for all you do for Me. I don’t know where I would be without you.” He fought the thought of kissing her then released her arm. “Remember to tell my advanced history class that I’m taking volunteers for my next field trip. Oh and send Timus to see me.” seeing the look on her face he added, “around 1 so I can get a little sleep.” Smiling at her as he could see that is what was on her mind.

“I will Eric now sleep.” She might as well have said I love you the way she was mothering him. She did after all and she was sure he did as well just it was understood. Now off to instruct the current group of young minds.

The day went fast for Clair. The first class was Cameron History, not a hot bed of controversy. The second was Terra Cameron relations but she kept a lid on that one today. Talked to Timus finally at lunch and caught up with his own meeting with the CP’s. The last class was the advanced history studies which as soon as she had the announcement of another field trip there was no other topic to be talked about, maybe she should have waited till the end of class to tell them about that. Now she was on her way back to Eric’s hopefully he actually slept he had looked like death this morning.

Timus had gone to Eric’s as soon as he and Clair talked. He had checked in with all the students from the trip each had been visited by the CP just as he had been. He had been worried about the Professor until Clair told him that she had told Eric to stay home and sleep and she would cover his classes. Had they worked Eric over or had he been worried about the rest of them and not slept? Either way Timus told his wife he would be home after he checked on his friend. He ring in on Eric’s comm, “Professor you awake?” He did not want to sound too friendly encase he was not alone.

“Yes Timus, come on up I have been worried about you my friend.” Eric truly had, he was no sure what the CP had done with the rest of his party or how it had effected Timus. He needed to get in contract with his students as well but Timus may have already. He opened his door just as Timus stepped out of the lift. “You look well friend come in for a drink and we can talk.” His voice showing nothing out of sorts as he stepped aside to allow him inside.

Timus didn’t say a word until after the door was closed. “I assume the CP visited you as well about our discovery.” His face turning a shade of red as he spoke, “who do they think they are to question our loyalty or intentions with the mission. How would something like the crash even be helpful to Terra Core anyway?” He was clearly still upset by the questioning by the CP’s men.

Eric started asking Timus about his interview and if he had talked to any of the student from the trip. They talked about what was asked and how each person was ‘asked’. The four students from Terra Core had been questioned much longer than those from Cameron. For some reason the girl from TC had been of particular interest for them. Theresa had only been home an hour after unloading the shuttle when they visited her. The boys were each visited first thing in the morning at the same time while still asleep. Those from Cameron where asked questions in group while the others had been separated.

It was a while later before Eric felt comfortable telling Timus about the CP’s offer to examine the crash site and asking if he would again control the shuttle and the dome. He also asked if he thought the students who had gone before would be interested after the questioning. Timus did not answer right away but before he left he agreed to go with him. He also added that he did not know why but Connor had gone back to TC this morning but all the others were still in class today.