Lost Among The Stars

CHAPTER 4 – GLIESE 667C-2

‘’That office on the third floor: I swear that I saw a red light move inside it.’’

Shanandar felt blood rush to his brain as he looked up at the said office.

‘’I see it! Please don’t speak or move until I say otherwise: Human speech could spook any survivors. I am going to call out in Koorivarese.’’

Opening fully his visor, Shanandar then shouted at the top of his lungs.

‘’HEY, UP THERE! WE CAME TO SAVE THE PEOPLE OF THIS COMPLEX. WE HAVE A SHIP WAITING IN ORBIT.’’

At first, he got no response or reaction, so he shouted again, repeating his message. After a few more seconds, a Koorivar head finally appeared at the window and waved before disappearing. That sight truly electrified Shanandar, who resumed his walk towards the building and signaling his companions to follow him.

‘’I think that this survivor is on his way down. Let’s meet him at the entrance of the building.’’

What he didn’t say was how happy he truly was now: to find any survivor here after all those years had to be nothing short of a miracle.

The two Koorivars and five Humans stopped short of entering the building and waited a few paces outside the main double doors. One of those doors was soon pushed open from the inside and one Koorivar stepped out, only to freeze with an alarmed expression at the sight of the five Humans and robots standing behind Shanandar and Kazmiriel. On their part, Shanandar and the other team members were shocked to see that the Koorivar survivor was a mere child of about ten years of age, skinny, dirty and n***d. His sight saddened Michel, who spoke softly to himself.

‘’My god! He looks like Hell!’’

Kazmiriel’s instincts as a Koorivar healer specialist then made him slowly advance towards the child while speaking softly in Koorivarese.

‘’Do not be afraid, my child: those beings came with us to help and are friendly ones. They saved my own ship, the VEON SHOURIA, after it landed on the wrong planet and was entombed in ice for years before they found it and freed us from the ice. Are there many more survivors like you in this complex?’’

‘’A few hundreds.’’ answered the young Koorivar in a weak, timid voice, his eyes still fixed on the Humans. ‘’I don’t know exactly how many: it has been so long now. Do you have food with you?’’

Kazmiriel nodded his head and took out one of the cereals and honey energy bars he carried on him, giving it to the child. The way that the latter devoured the bar broke his heart.

‘’The survivors here must have survived with only minimal food for many years now. Let me ask the child about the others.’’

Kazmiriel waited until the child had finished eating the bar and crouched in front of him.

‘’Are the others far from here? On which level could we find them?’’

‘’We all live in and around the old hydroponic gardens complex, two levels down. Some of the adults still know how to maintain and operate the gardens, but their output has been steadily decreasing with the years. I was searching the old mine’s offices in the hope of finding some canned food.’’

Kazmiriel and Shanandar exchanged knowing looks before Shanandar looked in turn at Michel Koniev.

‘’We need to turn this into a mass evacuation operation. Could you send someone to alert the KOSTROMA about what we found?’’

Michel nodded and turned his head towards Leo Sanchez.

‘’Leo, go back outside and alert the KOSTROMA by radio that we have found one survivor and expect to find hundreds more soon. I am sure that my wife will react with all due diligence to these news.’’

Sanchez nodded, then turned around and ran away towards the complex’s entrance. With him gone, the rest of the team left their mining robots behind and followed the Koorivar child down a set of stairs inside the administrative building.

‘’The elevators have stopped functioning for a long time now.’’ explained the child while going down the steps at a tired pace that denoted his level of malnutrition. ‘’We all moved permanently to the gardens level to be within easy access of the surface and to protect and maintain our food supplies.’’

‘’Protect your food supplies? From whom or what?’’ asked Shanandar, frowning. The child then gave him a sheepish look.

‘’From those of us who wanted all the food for themselves and refused to share it with others. There were fights at times, in which a few of us were hurt or even killed. However, all the ones who tried to keep the food for themselves were chased away and have not been seen for years now. My parents think that they died of famine somewhere inside the mine complex.’’

Shanandar and Michel glanced at each other, understanding too well what had happened here: hunger and the wish to survive at all cost could stimulate the worst in most individuals and push them into doing things they normally would not do. Still, that meant as well that there could possibly be some dangerous individuals running around, ready to commit violence.

‘’If their situation was this desperate, then we should expect the survivors to react with frenzy and start a stampede once they see that someone has come to save them. I will let you address them, but me and my men will be ready to use our stun pistols if you deem it necessary.’’

‘’Hopefully, we won’t get to that point, Michel, but you are right to want to be cautious: this is no ordinary situation for us Koorivars.’’

Two levels down, the group stepped out of the stairwell and found itself at one end of a vast room with a succession of concrete pillars supporting its rock ceiling. Most of the cavern was filled with rows and rows of stacked hydroponic growth basins. However, only about one quarter of the basins seemed to be still in operation, with overhead lamps lit and with fertilizing liquid circulation pumps humming. The rest of the basins were dark and only contained the decomposed plant remains. What however struck the rescuers was the sight of hundreds of Koorivars, old and young ones, sitting or lying around on mattresses and blankets laid along the walls of the cavern. The smell of unwashed bodies also struck their nostrils. Michel Koniev had seen before crowds of refugees fleeing war or some natural disaster on Earth, but the scene before him still moved him deeply.

‘’My God! Those poor people must have been enduring hell during all these years.’’

Shanandar tried to reply to that but couldn’t: a big lump was blocking his throat. He finally was able to speak, but chose to address the crowd of Koorivars instead of Michel.

‘’LISTEN TO ME, ALL OF YOU! I AM CAPTAIN SHANANDAR, MASTER OF THE EVACUATION SHIP VEON SHOURIA. MY SHIP FOUND SOME GOOD PEOPLE WHICH HELPED MY CREW AND PASSENGERS ONCE IN THE SOL SYSTEM. THOSE SAME GOOD PEOPLE HAVE SUBSEQUENTLY OFFERED THEIR HELP TO FIND THE OTHER SURVIVORS OF OUR RACE. ONE OF THEIR SHIPS IS IN ORBIT AROUND THIS PLANET AND IS GOING TO RESCUE YOU. BE PREPARED TO LEAVE BUT DO NOT PUSH OTHERS AROUND AND BE CALM AND PATIENT. DO YOU HAVE ONE OR SOME RECOGNIZED LEADERS IN YOUR GROUP?’’

After a short moment, a mature Koorivar made his way to the front ranks and stopped in front of Shanandar, saluting him in the traditional Koorivar way.

‘’My name is Shalmanazar and those people recognize my authority. Can you really save all of us? We are a bit over 1,350 persons here.’’

‘’Do not worry, Shalmanazar: the ship we came in, the KOSTROMA, can easily accommodate many times that amount of people. It also carries large supplies of food, on top of producing its own food. We will start the evacuation soon, once your people are ready. Are there more people in other parts of this mine complex?’’

‘’Not that I know of. We all concentrated here decades ago, both to be near our sole sources of food and to create warmth by being near to each other. As you can see, most of us wear only old, dirty rags, while others have nothing left to wear. The survivors of the Great Disaster had some reserves of clothing and spacesuits at first, but those eventually wore out or broke down. Even the hydroponic gardens have been degrading steadily as decades went by and the output of the emergency isotopic generators diminished.’’

‘’What about those who were creating troubles and tried to keep all the food to themselves?’’

‘’Those have not been seen for over half a generation now. They probably died of starvation years ago, down in lower levels of the mines. Will you also take away our accumulated stocks of metals before leaving?’’

That last question from Shalmanazar both confused and surprised Shanandar, making him reply with a typically human expression.

‘’Why the f**k would we care about your stocks of metals? We came to save lives, not to loot the system!’’

Kazmiriel then gently touched Shanandar’ arm with one hand.

‘’Shanandar, his question makes sense, I believe. First, this mine was the main source of heavy metals for Shouria. Second, their ancestors probably continued to mine those metals for a while after the collision with the brown dwarf, in order to give themselves a purpose other than simply surviving, and those metals represent the fruits of decades of labor. Third, those stocks of heavy metals could help pay for the resettlement and rehabilitation of these people on Earth, the way our own reserves of gold from the VEON SHOURIA helped us build our new colony on Vancouver Island.’’

‘’Hum, you are right. How much metals of what types do you have here in this complex, Shalmanazar?’’

‘’We have a few tens of thousands of cubits of Iridium, platinum, vanadium, tungsten and gold.’’

‘’Uh, how much is one cubit in kilos, Shanandar?’’ Asked Michel Koniev, out of curiosity.

‘’One Koorivar cubit is equal to about 600 of your kilos.’’

Michel nearly strangled on that answer but managed not to make remarks then, not wanting to derail the conversation between Shanandar and Shalmanazar. A radio message relayed from the outside by Leo Sanchez then reached him.

‘’Michel, this is Tina. Be advised that I am going to land the KOSTROMA next to the mining complex, in order to facilitate the evacuation of the surviving Koorivars. Will you need some special equipment or vehicles for that operation?’’

‘’Yes! Most of the approximately 1,350 survivors inside the mine have little or no clothes left and will freeze once out of the complex. They are also weak from malnutrition. We will need all the ground transport vehicles we can muster, along with blankets and some clothes for the Koorivars. I suggest that we use our stocks of T-shirts as an expedient.’’

‘’A good idea! I will have someone prepare all that. Anything else?’’

‘’Yes! They wish as well to have the stocks of mined and smelted metals brought aboard as well. Kazmiriel says that those stocks could help pay for their resettlement and rehabilitation on Earth.’’

‘’Very well. How much metal are we talking about?’’

‘’Supposedly, a few tens of thousands of tons of iridium, platinum, vanadium, tungsten and gold.’’

Michel could nearly hear Tina swallow on hearing that.

‘’HOLY…! Alright, we will load those metals aboard, but only after all the survivors will be on the KOSTROMA and are being cared for. I will send you a convoy of vehicles loaded with supplies and clothing as soon as we will have landed.’’

‘’Add some energy bars as well: these poor people are truly bordering on starvation.’’

‘’Will do! Tina out!’’

Next, Michel approached Shanandar and spoke to him.

‘’The KOSTROMA will send a convoy of ground vehicles loaded with clothing, food and emergency supplies as soon as it will have landed.’’

‘’Excellent! Now, let’s organize those poor people and bring them up to the level of the administration building, so that our vehicles could more easily collect them. This promises to be both long and complicated.’’

Shanandar’s prediction turned out to be true, with the moving out and transportation of the Koorivar survivors taking a good three hours once the KOSTROMA landed some twenty minutes later. The 47 Koorivars who were part of the ship’s crew or were passengers for the mission all participated in that operation, facilitating the communications with the survivors and greatly calming the fears of the latter as they interacted for the first time with Humans. Tina made a point to come down to the ground operation and quarantine center of the KOSTROMA, situated in one of the six huge bullet-shaped, pod-like structures which acted as the ship’s landing legs, accompanied by a sober-looking Gerald Holmes. The sight of so many skinny Koorivars, wearing little or no clothes, drew tears out of her eyes as she watched her crewmembers work feverishly to process the refugees, giving them quick showers before they received some clothes and a couple of energy bars each. Doctor Kazmiriel, along with the nine Koorivar medical specialists who had volunteered for the mission, worked non-stopped to quickly examine the newly arrived and decide if they needed some extra care before being escorted to their new quarters on Levels 11, 12 and 13, which were the old passenger cabins of the ship. To help guide and reassure the survivors, a number of the Koorivar crewmembers also moved temporarily to those decks, so that the refugees could find helping hands nearby at all times. Once all the Koorivar refugees were aboard and were being processed, Tina put the ship’s cargo master, Denise Lonsdale, in charge of recuperating and stowing aboard the stocks of heavy and precious metals held inside the mining complex. Even though Michel had already warned her to expect a lot of metal, the quantities brought inside the cargo holds of the KOSTROMA still nearly floored her as she watched with her ship’s purser c*m commercial agent and finance officer, Piotr Romanski, forklift after forklift roll by, each loaded with heavy pallets of pricy metals.

‘’Holy s**t! All this has even more commercial value than the load of rare metals which earned us an attack by pirates prior to the 2315 war with the Terran Federation.’’

‘’A lot more actually, Tina.’’ replied Piotr, a balding, jovial man who was an expert on space commerce and shipping. ‘’At least, the financial well-being of those poor people will be assured for decades. God knows that rehabilitating them will take lots of care and time.’’

‘’And we will be there to help them, I promise.’’ said Tina, making both Piotr and Gerald Holmes nod their heads in approval.

08:44 (Universal Time)

Wednesday, April 21, 2320

Command bridge of the A.M.S. KOSTROMA

Landed near the Koorivar mining complex on Gliese 667Ce

‘’The last search team has returned aboard with its reconnaissance drones, Captain. No other survivors have been found inside the mining complex, but our teams did find dozens of Koorivar remains in various corners of the complex, all of which dated from at least a few years or decades.’’

‘’Very well! Dana, have all of our shuttles come back aboard from their exploration of the rest of the system?’’

‘’The last one is presently on final approach, Tina. Unfortunately, no other traces of survivors have been found in the old space installations and outposts they checked out.’’

‘’Understood!’’ said Tina before looking at Shanandar and Shalmanazar, who were occupying chairs on the bridge, switching to Koorivarese language.

‘’Mister Shalmanazar, Captain Shanandar, do you agree that further searches in this system would be futile?’’

‘’I agree!’’ replied Shanandar at once. ‘’Let’s go find our two ships.’’

Shalmanazar took more time to reply, for the simple reason that he knew next to nothing about space: he had been raised inside the mining complex, with little formal education received from his parents, who themselves had next to no education. In truth, the only reason he had been chosen as a leader by the survivors in the mine was his strength of character and leadership qualities. The fact that the alien captain of the gigantic and most impressive ship he was in was actually asking for his permission to leave this planet deeply humbled and also honored him. That Tina could speak Koorivarese, thanks from working with Koorivars for over two years, also impressed him.

‘’I agree as well, Captain Forster. We will not find more survivors in this system.’’

‘’Then, it is settled! Dana, lock our next destination in our navigation computer. Frida, you may now take off from this planet on gravity sail power.’’

‘’Engaging our gravity sail drive, now! Liftoff!’’

Rising slowly at first in order not to disturb overly the surface of the planet, Frida Skarsgard waited until the KOSTROMA was over one kilometer above the surface before applying more power and pointing the ship towards their next destination. Fifteen minutes later, they were out of the gravitational well of the planet, at which time Frida engaged the anti-matter rockets of the ship, greatly augmenting the ship’s acceleration rate. Tina, who was carefully watching their heading, speed and altitude, then gave a brief order.

‘’Dana, you may initiate the jump now.’’

‘’Jumping now!’’ said Dana while pressing the large, red button activating their Koomak Drive. The giant cargo ship then disappeared from the Gliese 667C system in a brief orange glow.