invading his inner core. Behind him sat Eliana, watching the display from her accel-couch. She appeared somber and not fully rested, as if her night had been as disturbed as his. But she’d taken the time to brush out her waist-long black hair, apply rose-colored lipstick and change into a Vietnamese cheongsam style dress. During their shared breakfast, she’d been friendly enough, though she had talked only of minor things.
Enough .
Avoiding the strain of ocean-time , Matt went to gestalt perception as he took in the holosphere, absorbed real-time readouts on local space, catalogued ship system checkouts, and tracked Mata Hari ’s holo display of Sigma Puppis.
Located about 194 light years from Earth, the double star system looked fairly straightforward. It consisted of a K5-III orange-red giant, with a G5-V yellow star orbiting it about 1,200 AU out. Eleven planets danced around the G5 main sequence star, in the standard pattern of iron-silicate inner ones and gas-giant outer ones, while only a broad disk of asteroidal debris circled the K5 giant. Like two ships passing in the night, each star had little to do with the other, except for gravity tides that ebbed and flowed between them.
The tides elongated slightly the orbits of the G5’s outer planets, but did not affect the inner planets. The native Derindl species shared the fourth planet, Halcyon, with the Third Wave human colony. Theirs was a Venus-sized world of water and warmth that basked under the yellow star. It possessed two oceans, three continents, a few deserts, two ice caps, a stormy atmosphere and . . . a very rare, very unusual planet-wide forest. Within that forest grew the ‘tree cities’ of the Derindl aliens. Taking biotechnology and genetic engineering to a fantastic level, the Derindl had long lived in symbiosis with their giant Mother Trees, and in return, the Trees provided nearly everything needed by a biology-based culture. Fuels. Food. Water. Waste recycling. Home habitats. Temperature control. And a playground.
Before the coming of the Anarchate the Derindl had lived peacefully, despite severe caste disputes, in a world culture at least twelve thousand years old. Only the arrival three hundred years ago of Anarchate diplomats, and Trade entrepreneurs, had added anything new to Derindl society. And most of that was limited to a Trade station that orbited high above Halcyon. But all that had been changed by the recent arrival of Third Wave humans.
The human colony lay in the northern continent, on a high plateau called Tharsis. The settlement’s name was Olympus. And most of the colonists were expatriate Greeks from the Peloponnesus and southern Attica, who dominated interspecies Trade between the Derindl and the aliens of Zeus Station. The Greeks’ role had generated jealousy among some Derindl Clan groups, but the Union had challenged them to create crossbreed people filled with the best talents of both species. Ties of blood usually kept commercial jealousy in bounds. Low numbers also helped. The Greeks were but thirty thousand strong, and the crossbreeds numbered just eight thousand, while the Derindl had been static at nine hundred million for millennia.
All in all, things worked.
Then came the disaster of Halicene Conglomerate.
At a distance of four light hours from Halcyon, Matt could not see the massive strip mine scar created by the mining combine in Halcyon’s southern continent, which Eliana said already measured ninety kilometers wide by six hundred long. But it would grow, and fast. The Stripper itself measured six by six kilometers square. It would not be long before the ecodamage became irreversible.
Matt turned in his glass seat, catching Eliana’s attention. “Where is the Halicene MotherShip?”
Eliana stood up from the accel-couch, taking his query for an invitation to join him in observing the holosphere. Perhaps she too desired human company. “In orbit about the K5 giant,” she said, squatting beside the
Enough .
Avoiding the strain of ocean-time , Matt went to gestalt perception as he took in the holosphere, absorbed real-time readouts on local space, catalogued ship system checkouts, and tracked Mata Hari ’s holo display of Sigma Puppis.
Located about 194 light years from Earth, the double star system looked fairly straightforward. It consisted of a K5-III orange-red giant, with a G5-V yellow star orbiting it about 1,200 AU out. Eleven planets danced around the G5 main sequence star, in the standard pattern of iron-silicate inner ones and gas-giant outer ones, while only a broad disk of asteroidal debris circled the K5 giant. Like two ships passing in the night, each star had little to do with the other, except for gravity tides that ebbed and flowed between them.
The tides elongated slightly the orbits of the G5’s outer planets, but did not affect the inner planets. The native Derindl species shared the fourth planet, Halcyon, with the Third Wave human colony. Theirs was a Venus-sized world of water and warmth that basked under the yellow star. It possessed two oceans, three continents, a few deserts, two ice caps, a stormy atmosphere and . . . a very rare, very unusual planet-wide forest. Within that forest grew the ‘tree cities’ of the Derindl aliens. Taking biotechnology and genetic engineering to a fantastic level, the Derindl had long lived in symbiosis with their giant Mother Trees, and in return, the Trees provided nearly everything needed by a biology-based culture. Fuels. Food. Water. Waste recycling. Home habitats. Temperature control. And a playground.
Before the coming of the Anarchate the Derindl had lived peacefully, despite severe caste disputes, in a world culture at least twelve thousand years old. Only the arrival three hundred years ago of Anarchate diplomats, and Trade entrepreneurs, had added anything new to Derindl society. And most of that was limited to a Trade station that orbited high above Halcyon. But all that had been changed by the recent arrival of Third Wave humans.
The human colony lay in the northern continent, on a high plateau called Tharsis. The settlement’s name was Olympus. And most of the colonists were expatriate Greeks from the Peloponnesus and southern Attica, who dominated interspecies Trade between the Derindl and the aliens of Zeus Station. The Greeks’ role had generated jealousy among some Derindl Clan groups, but the Union had challenged them to create crossbreed people filled with the best talents of both species. Ties of blood usually kept commercial jealousy in bounds. Low numbers also helped. The Greeks were but thirty thousand strong, and the crossbreeds numbered just eight thousand, while the Derindl had been static at nine hundred million for millennia.
All in all, things worked.
Then came the disaster of Halicene Conglomerate.
At a distance of four light hours from Halcyon, Matt could not see the massive strip mine scar created by the mining combine in Halcyon’s southern continent, which Eliana said already measured ninety kilometers wide by six hundred long. But it would grow, and fast. The Stripper itself measured six by six kilometers square. It would not be long before the ecodamage became irreversible.
Matt turned in his glass seat, catching Eliana’s attention. “Where is the Halicene MotherShip?”
Eliana stood up from the accel-couch, taking his query for an invitation to join him in observing the holosphere. Perhaps she too desired human company. “In orbit about the K5 giant,” she said, squatting beside the
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