Roughly translated into English:

“You’re not going to answer the call of the Earthmen?”

“No. If they can’t handle one fanatical member of their own, how then will they deal with the many when the forces of greed, need of resources, or population growth tempt them to the other continent?”

“Their technology has already outpaced their maturity.”

“Yes, both on their own planet and here as well. It’s unfortunate that their scientists have already stumbled upon such a quick means of transportation but they are now discovering the serious side effects of such travel beyond the fabric. Unless they also reason out how to counteract those, they travel by such means at their own peril.”

“It will be interesting to see which path the humans take. Based upon our experience with so many other young species, they only think they have a choice of two.”

“Indeed! It is such a rare pleasure when a race chooses the third way.”

Day 82

Before I forget, let me just say that I’m even more depressed now that there’s more of Connor’s family here (and friends). I mean, Connor and his kids are near damn unstoppable, and now there’s more of them? You just can’t beat them at what they know. Sure they don’t know everything, not yet anyway.

And why do there have to be so many women? Couldn’t have some more males and let us ladies have some of that? Fine!

[/end jealous rant]

Day 82 (though largely about Day 72)

I’ve got a new pal to help me with my exploration and cataloging, Stanley Robinson. Stan was a biology student back on Earth, and somehow didn’t feel compelled to come forward until after the storm to help with the native species. As a result, I like to call him Stan The Man, just to get his goat. Because I’m like that.

Anyway, he’s been a big help and because we’re in such desperate need of supplies (of any kind really), we’ve been going out on regular trips. Sometimes it is to explore more of the local area (minus the dark forests…no need to encounter any beasties), and other times to the outer regions of this continent.

Then we decided to go to the Southern Continent (perhaps some day it’ll get a “real” name). That changed everything. Quite literally.

I know the official story is documented already, so I’ll just fill in a few details, you know, the little things no one really cares about but that a small few may appreciate. If you don’t, well, what are you reading this for in the first place??

So on the way down there, Stan noticed my leg hairs were quite a bit long. I guess he hasn’t seen that on a woman before, which is amazing since it is growing more common here on Alchibah. I explained how it was not a priority, esp when razors are in such short supply, and he hadn’t encountered anyone in college going au naturale? Apparently not. So then I proceeded to point out to him my eyebrows becoming a uni-brow, and my more-than-peach-fuzz mustache. I think I frightened him. Connor & Rocco just shook their heads, though I’m not sure exactly at what.

Seeing another intelligent species was so exciting, it was like meeting the devils all over again. Except then one of them spoke English, which I think the lovely yet totally figurative phrase comes to mind “I nearly shit my pants.” Remember, figurative.

So after I was done being frightened, I got terrified. I think we all were as it was a quiet ride back. Stan wasn’t even interested in my hairiness. Though I did have to razz him about his “Greetings, we come in peace.” Such a dork. But what do you expect from a biology graduate student? (For those who don’t know me well, I say dork in a loving way…I like spreadsheets and databases for goodness sake!)

So the trip was a bust. We didn’t get to collect much of anything, and it turns out we’re not allowed back there (except to maybe kick Dobswell’s ass…but that’s another story). It would have been great to talk with the Soessossins about their plants and animals, but that would have been too easy. Oh well. I wanted an adventure and I got one. There’s an old idiom that everyone should know: “Be careful what you wish for.”

From the Hand Written Meeting Notes

Alchibah Township Hall - Day 82
The first thing Reye said prior to the meeting in the conference room getting underway was, “Does everybody have their communicators turned off?” After everyone nodded Les continued, “I have R.Hadrian waiting outside, and he is acting as a sergeant at arms and a messenger should something important come up. We will keep a paper record of this and other meetings until we can figure out how the self styled Guardians got into our com net. Ash? Anything to add on that front?”

Ash said, “I have a couple of ideas that I need to talk to Hibbes about, but my best guess is the Guardians didn’t do it through the operating system, but found a way to directly image the state of the computers physical structure and duplicate it in hardware or perhaps with software. If that’s true they could copy written notes the same way.”

“Damn it all to hell,” Karl Nash swore, “If they can do that they could have something in this room right now overhearing everything we’re saying. And to scan anything that accurately, wouldn‘t it violate some kind of uncertainty principal or something?”

“Too true Karl,” Ash replied, “At least if we were the ones doing it. That’s what I need to talk to Hibbes about, to see if he can come up with some kind of way to detect a hyper presence, or make something like a Faraday cage that it can’t signal through. For now I think we either stop talking about the Guardians or else assume since they aren’t responding to the medallion they are off somewhere else.”

“Bad news there,” Reye said wearily, “I got a hold of them an hour ago, and told them what has happened. They were not too pleased. I told them Dobswell and company were on the southern continent but as of yet hadn’t made contact with the Soessossins. I also told them that we intended to go and retrieve the shuttle and might bring Dobswell back. They didn’t say yes or no so I guess we can go ahead and do that. The question for us is—Do we want him back?

“I have one small bit of good news. When I was done talking to the Guardians through the medallion, Chandler called down from the Mayflower. He and Hibbes have already cobbled something together that detects the signals from the medallion. They don‘t know how to decode it but he told me they could keep an eye out for activity and let us know if there was any. My best guess is we aren’t being watched now. But it‘s just a guess.”

Andy Stuart spoke up, “I think we should now confine this meeting to only those things dealing with Dobswell. Other matters mentioned yesterday can wait till Ash gets with the mad scientists. I say next, much as Dobswell and crew have earned some harsh punishment, we don’t want them here right now. Don’t have the time or systems to deal with them. The colony has other matters of more importance than making the rules and holding a trial. I do have a copy of the proposed trial procedure written up by the committee, but it needs to be passed on by all the citizens. For now I think we go, take the shuttle back, but leave them to their own devices. At least for now.”

“I agree,” Reye replied, “We have far more pressing things, one of which is getting everyone from the Dancer integrated into our group. To that end for tomorrow I propose a town meeting. They should all have read the Constitution by then and be ready to decide whether to join us or attempt something else. I don’t have a sense of how that will turn out but we need to find out now. If they join, as I expect most if not all will, we need to see about setting up some more freeholds and establishing labor accounts.”

Nash said, “I hope no one objects to them getting freeholds, but if anyone does I can predict the vote will go against that position. Joe?… Before we get back to the Dobswell issue, how is the search for Bart, Janie Laura and especially Lester’s son Mike making out?”

Karl said that with a look over to a grateful Reye. “Judith and Pam ask me now constantly about that situation and I can’t help but wish we were doing more.”

“Nothing new for the time being, the whole Leviticans Guardian thing took away time that I wish it hadn’t,” Joe replied

“You and me both,” Andy said. “I am going to fly a few passes today and Joe and JJ. Parker I am sure will do the same. We’ll keep our remaining shuttles in the air and I am confident we will find them within another couple of days.”

Nash said, “It can’t be too soon. Ok let’s finish this up. I agree that leaving Dobswell on the southern continent is the best course of action for now. The technical question I need answered is whether retrieving the shuttle is a civilian or a military matter? I say the involvement of the Guardians makes it military or at least a militia and defer to Colonel Stuart. Any one object?”

No one else spoke up and Reye said, “That’s the way then but unless you find compelling reasons to plan it some other way Andy, let’s get Bart and Janie back first.”

Andy spoke up, “Agreed, The whole Stuart Clan wants Bart and Janie and their group back here before we waste any more shuttle time on these jerks.

“Then unless I hear some Major Objections, we go get the shuttle. The people can stay and I hope we don’t even see them save with one exception.

“Les, try to tell the Guardians; if those People harm one Soessossin and we find out about it. Strike Force goes and gets them.

“Let the Guardians know that we will Police our own!”

“That’s something I second,” Joe Fortson said.

“I want to add one more thing,” the Historian said, “It seems obvious to me that the Guardians interfered with our sentinel at the wormhole, but they must also be interfering with other things as well. That’s the only explanation for why the sensors on the Mayflower didn’t pick up the Dancer till she was already here. So Ash, when you talk to Hibbes, make sure you talk to Captain Travis as well. He probably has figured this out for himself, but let’s be sure. And of course that means any electronic device in the colony; maybe even the robots could be compromised.”

Reye spoke again, “Kara, I don’t think we have said anything the Guardians could take exception to, but just in case, take the meeting notes and hide them somewhere. I don’t care if you hide them under a rock, just someplace where, if the Guardians can do a scan of whatever they want, they aren’t likely to look. If they are so good they can scan all the time and everywhere we have no hope of hiding anything from them anyway. Ash, please do get with the mad ones and see what can be done on that front. Unless someone has other issues I think we all need to get on with it. Anyone? Ok then, town meeting tomorrow at six.”

From the Log files and recordings of Lester Reye

Day 81 - First Inn.
“This wasn’t what we needed.” Les Reye almost wailed after Karl Nash told him that Dobswell had taken off with a shuttle. He turned to Andy and Captain Travis and said, “Is there anyway to stop him?”

Travis replied, “Probably so, but short of outright destroying the shuttle he’s taken off with, it would mean sending people to the southern continent which might not be a very good idea. I’ll get Calver back on line and he can do a track and set up an intercept. I think you have already found the first reason to use the communicators the Guardian gave you.”

Les said, “The Guardian said not to call him unless the Soessossins were being threatened. Do any of you think Dobswell is threatening?”

Andy Stuart looked at Les and shook his head slowly from side to side, “Les call them. This is no time to fool around with guessing. They are so far in advance of us that—Well you saw what they did to Coopersmith. They could pop us all to wherever it was they sent him and I don’t want to go. And when you talk to them see if they could bring the asshole back. He may be a jerk but we are pretty short on people here.”

Travis spoke when Andy was done. “No doubt about it southern continent on a straight line course. Their keeping it in the Atmosphere so we have a few hours. Calver scanned the personnel files and there’s no reason to think Dobswell could fly a shuttle. Better do a check and see who else is missing.”
Karl Nash said, “I’m on it” And left the room.

Andy said to Reye, “Well we’re waiting.”

Les took the medallion from his pocket and raising his eyes said, “I don’t like this a bit,” while pushing the gemstone in its center. The gemstone lit up, but for seconds there was nothing, no sound, nothing, then more seconds and more nothing.

After a minute Rocco said, “What’s going on here? This doesn’t make any sense at all. Talk into it Les, maybe something will happen.”

Les said, “Testing… ah hello.. hello?… Anybody there?” He repeated that then started yelling louder into the thing and finally after about five minutes gave it up. In a more normal tone of voice he spoke into the center of the medallion and explained what has happened. His final comment was that they would try to halt Dobswell short of killing him as he really didn’t think the man posed much of a threat to the Soessossins. “Anyone got something to add?” he asked. When no one responded he pushed the stone again and the light went out.

“A whole ‘nother problem we got now.” Andy said. And just then Nash came running back.

“Dobswell, the wife, son and daughter, and three others. Helen Graham, Marty Ciotie, and Cot Edwards. Cot must be flying the ship. Don’t think anyone else is unaccounted for and they didn’t take their robots. What happened with the Guardians?”

Travis said, “Nothing, nothing at all. Their phone seems to be off the hook.”

“So what do we do?” Karl asked.

Reye looked puzzled and said, “There’s no time for a council meeting and vote so I’m putting it into Andy’s hands for now. But I think we need to try and stop them and with no loss of life.”
“Thanks for favors large and small,” Andy said. “Captain Travis, lets see what we can do.”

It wasn’t much. An hour later Ash Andrews boosted one of the other colony shuttles onto a track to intercept Dobswell and Edwards. He piloted his shuttle out of the atmosphere in a suborbital flight plan and intercepted well short of any land. It turned out to be a waste of time.

Despite repeated warnings on the com channel, and a fly-by with missile lock followed by a launch across the bows, Edwards, who had no intention of getting into a shooting match with Ash, just plowed straight ahead, refusing any communication at all. There wasn’t a thing Ash could do short of taking Dobswells’ ship down and likely killing all aboard, and that had been ruled out.

The general consensuses was that Ash should break contact well away from the southern land mass. It might be that a few could land without bringing the wrath of the Guardians down on their heads but a battle on the continent itself seemed too risky. So Ash, cursing, gave it up and returned to Liberty City.

“I’m going back to the Mayflower,” Captain Travis said, “I need to deal with the Surprise and her oddball crew. What I will do is move the ship further out into a stationary orbit over the other continent so that visuals of Dobswell and what he is doing are readily available.

Les Reye tried several more times to contact the Guardians, and as before with zero result. When Ash Andrews returned to Liberty city he went to the Community Building where the Council members, Andy, Nash, Gabe, and Joe Fortson, along with a large portion of the rest of the colony were waiting. Obviously there was going to be some kind of a council of war.

Reye dismissed everyone but Council members and the military and civilian defense leaders saying, “That’s it for now folks, nothing more happens today and everyone has work to do. We’ll go over everything at the next town meeting in a week or so.”

After the room emptied out Reye said, “No recordings of anything said here, I am going to say a few things we might not want anyone to overhear.”

“Wait a second Les, You still got the Guardians communicator on you?” asked Connor.

“Oh! I see what you mean,” Reye said looking chagrinned while patting his shirt pocket.

“I’ll take care of it,” Fortson said. He spoke into his com unit saying, “RoDan come to the Community building right now.” He then said, “RoDan is waiting at the Bot Shop for a ‘Clean and Grease’ if we are going to be paranoid about this, let’s do this right.”

Joe held up his hands motioning for silence and wrote on a piece of paper which he passed around to the others, “I’ll have him take the Guardian’s com a good ways away, and give him instructions to relay any transmissions to us here. I am going to set my com to receive only. I suggest everyone else do the same or better yet turn them off entirely.”

While that was going hand to hand Joe wrote out instructions for RoDan and when the bot got there gave him first the instructions and then the communicator.

A few minutes later, after RoDan left with the medallion Les said, “So what about the Guardians? And by that I mean what do we, or can we do about them?” Reye had asked the question everyone had on their minds. “And before anyone answers, I am thinking about it from this point of view; humans have always been the top predator in our food chain. It is one of the things that make us human and I don’t know that I want that to change or that it can change without changing us as well.

The session lasted a half an hour, and finished with an agreement to meet again the next day.

“And these are unclean to you…
the great lizard according to his kind,
the gecko , the land crocodile, the lizard,
the sand lizard, and the chameleon.

Leviticus 11.29-30

“We are Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God,” Jedediah Dobswell said to the five others occupying the shuttle’s rear compartment. “He has seen our iniquities and knows of our evil ways! The only path to salvation is through works combined with righteousness and testimony. The apocalypse is at hand and we must bear witness to His glory and to His truth. Else our immortal soul is lost!”

The shuttle gave a lurch then rocked back and forth several times. Jedediah Dobswell went forwards and said, “Brother Edwards, pray that you keep us on an even keel.”

“Got ya‘ Rev. Haven‘t flown anything exactly like this before.” Cotton Edwards had been a close and intimate friend of Jack the Blade, prior to Jack’s untimely demise. Edwards figured it was best he vacate the situation in Liberty City before too many things caught up with him. The shuttle lurched again. “How’s about you go and check the back? That would be best, yeah check the back Rev. Gotta concentrate a bit.”

“Yes, certainly, that would be best,” Dobswell said, beating a hasty retreat from the control section.

In the ship’s rear compartment, along with his wife, son Aaron, and daughter Ruth, were two others, Martha Ciotie and Helen Graham. After two months of proselytizing they had been the only people he had converted to his sect of Leviticans out of the half dozen who had shown any interest at all. Sister Helen was leaving her husband behind; she clung to her new faith as the only thing keeping her afloat after everything that had gone wrong since they had fled the Earth. Dobswell, his son and wife as witnesses, had granted the divorce.

Sister Martha felt the power of Word the first time she heard Jedediah speak. With her sweet gentle nature she found something, a certain knowledge and strength, that she had always been lacking. She realized now that she was at peace with herself, if not the world, for the first time in her life. She knew that now instead of fighting all she needed to do was accept.

Losing interest in, or awareness of, the sounds and motions the shuttle made, Jedediah said to his son, “Aaron, tell us why it was necessary to leave our newly built home and begin anew.”

“Father, as it is written—The Lord destroyed Sodom and Gomorra! So too will the cursed abomination called Liberty City fall. For they have heard the Word but failed to heed the message. They eat of the animal that is not a chewer of the cud, and of the serpent, and the fish without scale, and it is unclean. They do not sanctify the fields nor make offerings. They fail to honor the Sabbath…”

While Aaron continued, and Jedediah gave silent thanks for a son so well versed in the ways of the Lord God and so obviously favored in His sight, Jedediah thought that for himself, he could have remained in the den of iniquity and tried to bring others into the faith. For his son’s sake though, it was best they escape temptation, spending time in the wilderness, and bringing the Word to the heathen. Jedediah had wrestled mightily with the concept of taking the Word to the non-human aliens on the southern continent.

Jedediah had been at first been certain, that not being made in the image of God, the aliens in spite of an appearance of intelligence, must be mere animals. Ones over whom man should rightfully hold dominion. And then came the revelation.

In a dream. He saw his son Aaron coming down from a high mountain, in a halo of light and surrounded by flames. In his arms Aaron cradled two tablets upon which were inscribed the Commandments. At the foot of the mountain there were a multitude of the llama like creatures he had seen images of. And in the light of bonfires and torches the creatures were worshiping a graven image, golden, larger than life.

And as Aaron neared they stopped their milling and they became dumb. And they faced Aaron. And they knelt down on the ground. And they stretched their arms forward on the ground. And their eyes shown with an eerie light. And the thunder rose and the lightning flashed. And a bolt of lightning struck down the idol. And it fell to the ground. And Aaron spake to them saying, “I have come from my Father, as did Moses of old. And thou shalt hear His Word. And thou shalt heed His Word. And thou shalt cast down false idols. And thou must…”

Jedediah awoke in cold sweat, he did not tell his son of his vision, but knew what he must do.

Elana

Day 83, early evening

I couldn’t believe I had missed the Dancer’s welcome party, not to mention the guardians arrival. John filled me in on it after I got in from the surveying mission an hour ago. It’s a shame. I do love rocks, but even a real passion for geology doesn’t make them more interesting or exciting than that whole hullabaloo. My stop by Hannah’s after I got back more than made up for it though. Way, way more than.

There are a few moments in everyone’s life that are true pivot points, moments that unalterably transform their life, for good or for ill. Though of course I didn’t know it, I was about to have one of those moments.

I had been having the nightmares again almost every night for weeks and weeks. Every night it was the same; I was about to die, and so were my parents and my baby brother, and then the giant came and everything turned into noise and fire and yet at the same time everything was all of a sudden ok. The giant’s eyes were gentle as my mother’s and yet hard as diamonds. I always felt that the nightmare was more than that, but I could never remember anything more than the dreams. Until I walked into Hannah’s.

I reached out and grasped the handle of the big main door to the First Inn and opened it. The sounds of the festivities reached into the twilight, and I couldn’t wait to join in them. As I stepped into the building a large, no, a huge figure a few tables into the room slowly turned at the sound of the door and I was looking into those gentle, hard eyes.

I could feel myself slowly falling, but the sensation quickly stopped and was replaced by something far worse: terror. Sheer, raw terror.

Gabriel Benjamin

As I turned around out of curiosity when I heard the door swing open I couldn’t believe my eyes. It couldn’t be. I hadn’t seen that woman in person since she was nine. I watched as she won gold after gold as a swimmer in the Olympics but I never expected to see her again, not in my lifetime. And yet here, trillions of miles away…And then she fell like a rag doll, hitting her head pretty bad on the side of a table on the way down.

I was next to her in a second as the room quickly went silent. She was bleeding a bit and would have a nasty bruise, but mostly she seemed fine. She definitely needed a doctor though. I glanced around.

“Mariana and Kurt left the party early.” Andy said, “They’re at the lab – you saw the map, right?” I nodded. “She’ll be ok, but you can get her there as fast as anyone.” I nodded again and lifted her gently as I went into overdrive and headed out the door in a beeline for the lab.

Elana Pierce

I could hear enormous, horrible sounds in the distance, and they were coming closer. The two guards inside our room were looking nervous, which just made it worse. When they got nervous they’d hit us, and I didn’t like that. My leg hurt so much from last time. And I especially hated when they hit my baby brother. Mom always cried when they did that. She cried so much since we got kidnapped and taken here.

The door smashed open and the guards fell down. There were two really loud bangs when they did. I think they were shot. Good. The guy that knocked the door down was huge. He made dad look like a little kid. And he was dressed all in black and had guns and guns. We were all just staring at him. Then he started talking into the air in front of him.

“Gaelic, Angel. Found em – south wing, east side. Blue’s going out the back door. Cover our asses. Over.”

“Angel, Gaelic. Consider it done. Over.”

Then he turned to my dad.

“Ambassador Pierce, Master Chief Gabriel Benjamin, US Navy. We need to get you and your family out of here. Are you all ok to move?”

“My daughter,” dad said, putting his hand on my shoulder, “they broke her leg. We can’t-”

“I’ll carry her.” He turned and yelled over his shoulder, “Cyclone, get in here and help me strip these hajes of their vests. And bring the two in from the hall too.” He looked up at my dad again as he squatted down and started to take the dead guard’s vest off. “I wish I had better news for you ambassador, but we’re exiting hot. We don’t know what happened yet, but they knew we were coming. We’ll get you folks out of here safely, but it isn’t going to be pretty.” He turned to me.

“Elana? My name’s Gabe.” He reached out his huge hand and I shook it with my tiny one. “I know your leg hurts a lot right now and you’re probably pretty scared, but everything’s going to be ok. Can you put this on for me? It’ll help keep you safe,” he said, handing me the vest. “And before you know it you’ll be playing catch with Sammy and Rex again. Your neighbors the Mannings are watching them until you get home.” I smiled soo big when he said that. I cried for days ‘cause I thought they killed our puppies. I threw my arms around the giant’s neck and kissed him on the cheek. I was crying pretty bad, but mostly because I was so happy, not cause my leg hurt.

“Thank you,” I whispered in his ear. I was real quiet. I don’t think anyone else heard.

My mind started buzzing, flipping through images and sounds faster than I could follow. The giant got shot, once, twice. One of the soldiers went down. Which one? The giant and I got caught in an explosion but somehow I didn’t get hurt. We got trapped in a hall and our whole family huddled behind the giant as the world seemed to end. There were explosions ripping through the building. Blood and fire were everywhere. Images of scores of dead men flashed through my head. The giant got shot again and again and more of the soldiers with us died. And then we were all next to two helicopters and somehow we were safe. The last thing I remember before I went in one helicopter and the giant went in the other was squeezing him tight, kissing him on the cheek and whispering in his ear again, so soft I could barely hear it,

“Thank you.”

…

I woke up in the same giant’s arms, twenty years later. We were nearing the lab and I could feel something warm and wet on my head. I must’ve made quite the fool of myself back at Hannah’s. I looked up at the giant.

“It was you, wasn’t it? All those years ago. I never even knew if you survived.” He slowed to a stop, but he didn’t say anything. But the eyes were the same, the hard, gentle eyes. I reached up and kissed him. Not a little girl peck on the cheek, a real kiss this time. After I decided he knew I meant it I leaned forward in his arms and, for the third time, whispered in his ear,

“Thank you.”

With help from the Log Files of Joe Fortson.
Day 85 Alchibah

“Damnit Ash,” Joe Fortson said from the position where his bulk was overflowing the jump seat, “You know I would do it that way but not Bart! He would figure we would have given up the search and taken the most direct route back to Liberty City. I can’t see him taking a turn for the ocean as soon as he got out from the highlands thinking that we had a better chance of finding him there.”

Andy Stuart, sitting in the co-pilots position had to agree. Bart was nothing if not self reliant and after however long it had taken to get out of the mountains the direct route best suited his character.

So what would you do Joe?,” Andy asked.

“It’s like this, two months have gone by and not a sign. I kick myself for not looking harder, but any of the close in signs, and by that I mean fire pits, will be hidden by all the new growth. Just cause we found the lander where we did doesn’t really mean Bart and the others passed the same way. But I think it likely. Bart would have followed the river as far as it could take him.

“The one thing I am sure of is he would have known the direction he needed to head in to get back to Liberty City. So—We found the Dora in the river, the river flows south. Bart would follow the river as far as he could till it gave out is what I would bet on. If he cut to the coast it would have been later.
“Let’s set down where it merges into the grassland and walk back up stream looking for evidence of campsites. A firepit will be all it takes to show they were there. If we find that along the river we can decide what to do next.”
“That works for me,” Andy said, “Ash?”

“Course plotted. ETA fifteen minutes.”

Andy took one side of the stream and I took the other. Two months ago with the end of the spring run off there must have been much more water. Even so an hour later Andy found the evidence we had been hopping for. So what now? Let’s think about it.

Ash came up with the plan we went with. He said, and it was obvious afterwards, that if any of the survivors had a good communicator we wouldn’t be here now. So if any radio communication was possible it would be short range at best. Less than ten miles in a straight line distance. Neither Andy or I could take exception.

“What we need to do is head south from this point at low altitudes especially at night and make lots of noise so they hear us and know we are looking. They will make a fire and that is something at night we can see. We just need to be in the right place at the right time.”

That’s what we did. Sweeping south we came across a several hundred yard burned off area not yet overgrown and thought it likely the sign of a blast rifle discharge but it was old enough that it didn’t help with the course plan other than to let us know we were on the right track.

Andy summed up the situation pretty well; “We can crack enough O and H off of the forth wheel to keep the shuttle in the air 20 hours a day. We don’t need H-3 to stay atmospheric so we won’t stress the Mayflower for fuel.

“The bottom line guys is that we can’t find Bart, all we can do is have a presence and let him find us!”

J.J. Parker had almost insisted he come with us on every flight, and then he took a turn in the rotation command. Not sure why, must have been some personal beacon going off. Trying to prove somethin to himself? It made some kind of sense. He was one of the vast middle of colonists.

Parker did his work in town, mostly building things, often with John Pierce as a partner, and made sure his parents Hanna and Jules Sr. were looked after and the First Inn was doing well. It was rebuilt even better than before. Linda, his wife, was building up points of her own as a medtech and their children were not much different from any of the others. The oldest, Emily might be the first to bear a child on Alchiba. I think he felt he had to do more.

All of the news about the ship coming in and the aliens, guess I shouldn’t call them that; we are the aliens. It still took second seat to finding Bart.

We had the room and J.J. had qualified as a pilot, though I wouldn’t have wanted to have him do anything beyond takeoffs, landings and holding a course between. All of the things we had learned in the last few days were in the back of our minds but finding Bart and Janie were paramount.

Laura looked up, there was a high contrail following a high dot up in the sky. “They’re looking for us. Nothing else makes sense.”
“I am sure you’ve got that right Laura,” Janie said. “Tonight we make the biggest bonfire since we landed.”

The Jeep and EmyCee worked for three hours before the sun went down to bring in the fuel. It was a blaze that if not in a clearing would have set the woods afire. Just a bit before midnight lights arched across the sky and the close range communicator built into Laura’s comp unit signaled a message.
“They found us,” Laura said, jumping for joy.
“Are you sure?” Mike Reye asked.
“Let’s see what you got?” Bart asked.

Before Laura had a chance to answer the lander from Liberty City set down in the clearing and Joe Fortson ran out the door.

Connor

Day 81, evening

The sense of anticipation inside the First Inn was palpable as most of the colony crowded into Hanna’s new digs waiting for the new arrivals. Not that it was all that crowded, what with the rebuild and all – JJ and John had seen to that. The feeling in the room was mostly excitement, but there was a definite, if small, undercurrent of…let’s call it ‘resentment waiting to happen.’ We all feel a real sense of belonging and pride in Liberty, and some of the more narrow-minded among us (you know who I’m talking about) seem to have twisted that pride into the sort of xenophobia that I would have hoped we had left behind. Me, I was just excited to meet the newcomers to our little modern day Wild West. When you’re 49 light years away from Earth it isn’t every day you get to meet new people.

I wasn’t really sure what to expect, but as the new arrivals streamed in it was almost like a family reunion. Everyone was hugging, shaking hands, clapping strangers on the back like old friends. It was a truly amazing display of humanity’s better angels coming out to play. As Kara put it later in the evening, “It was as if, just for a little while, everyone forgot about suspicion and distrust and just let the best of what people can be shine through.”

Then, as the last of them came through the doors I saw a face I never dared hope I would see again. Gabriel Benjamin, my big (huge, actually) little brother, strode through the entryway, half filling even the newly built double doors. And right behind him, though they didn’t tower over the crowd, came my two other favorite people in the ‘verse.

“Oh my God! Gabe! Kat, Chavez! I don’t believe it!” I started forward just as Sinopa saw her younger brother, Chavez. His real name was Okanai, but he reminded everyone in the rebellion so much of the character from Young Guns (we loved watching the old classic westerns and action movies) that the name stuck. Sinopa is pretty much the only person that calls him by his real name anymore.

“Okanai!” she shouted just as the girls blew by us, barreling towards their uncle and the two other people (besides Sinopa and I) they consider family. That was a sight for sore eyes. Jai looked almost heartbreakingly happy. I haven’t seen a smile that big or that real on her since she was nine. She hurled herself the last five feet through the air, meeting the biggest bear hug this side of the galaxy. The twins arrived a couple seconds later, just in time for Gabe to scoop them up along with their big sister. They looked like just about the four happiest people in the universe just then.

I waded through the crowd, grinning like a fool. My big little brother. I still can’t believe he’s here. As I reached him he slowly stood and grasped my shoulders for a second before we lunged in and hugged, squeezing each other and laughing. Then it was hugs all around, the crew back together again. And the evening was only just getting started.

It’s with some chagrin that I write this. How ironic that we colonists somehow expected to have this lonely planet, this little space of ours to ourselves.

Instead, it would seem that we are not alone. There are more things in Heaven and Earth. . . But mostly in outer space!

Well, I’ll just let everyone tell their own story. You can read the official history here. Of course, there is much that is left out of “official” histories and so you should continue reading below, as well.

Crowded house indeed!