A hum built up,becoming an almost physical force that she could feel in her gut. Shecould see the glow now and it suddenly flashed around the bend ahead,revealing itself to be one of the monorail cars that serviced theship.
It roaredpast, battering them with displaced air. It roared down theright-hand branch and then lurched up into a vertical shaft soabruptly that Gabriella found it hard to believe anyone inside couldsurvive.
The wind died quicklyand she re-opened her helmet, calmly taking another sip of her tea.She took a look at her self-invited companion and giggled.
“This place is anacquired taste,” she told him, reaching out to pluck a meal-barwrapping from the side of the oracle’s face.
“Yes it…”Sulak worked his jaw and then leaned over to spit something out ontothe floor. “… Ithas its charm, though. Iwould suspect that none of the crew come down here unless somethingis in need of repair.”
“I haven’t seenanyone,” she agreed.
“I’ve becomesomething of an aficionado of forgotten spaces lately,” heexplained. “Did you know there’s a network of tunnels throughoutthe ship that were meant for the engineering division?” He shookhis head in wonder. “Most ships don’t use them. Few people areeven aware they exist.”
“You don’tsay?” She said, hoping she wasn’t encouraging Sulak’s nonsense.Still… Why doesit feel like this is more important to him than he’s letting on?
He let outanother gravelly chuckle. “I dosay, young noblewoman. They even have several neural interfaces inthat network, should they have to deal with some random piece of newequipment and need a quick bit of training.
“Of course, that wasa wildly optimistic bit of designing by our ancestors. It’s beenthousands of years since our people have done anything innovative.Perhaps that’s why those tunnels go unused.”
“Perhaps,”she said as noncommittally as possible.
“Well, as I said…”He stood, brushing carbon soot from his robes. “The universe hasits own ideas on what should have meaning to whom. I’ll leave youto what remains of your solitude.” He gave her a polite bow andwandered down the dark tunnel on the left.
Gabriella watched, notat all sure why the fine hairs on her arms were suddenly pricklingagainst the inside of her armor.
Grounds for Grievance
Come Together Coffee House, Unity
Frank took a speculative look at the coffee makerin the kitchen. It would do a perfectly good job of turning Trisha’sbeans, brought all the way from Earth, into a cup of joe.
He looked out over the peninsula, past the gardento the tunnel that ran through the first floor of their house to thenarrow street outside. The new coffee house was probably also doing agood job of turning her stock of beans into coffee.
“How would I know,” he asked himself, “if Idon’t go and find out?” He confirmed that he was wearing pantsinstead of pajamas and headed out, across one of the paths runningthrough the garden, and into the tunnel.
The tunnel was just over nine feet high, six feetwide and paved with the same carboncrete ‘cobbles’ that coveredthe courtyard around their garden. At the halfway point, a heavybronze gate secured their home, though there was little in the way ofa criminal element in Unity.
He pushed lightly on the gate and it swung open onfrictionless bearings. Sensors built into the heavy, ornatebronze-work could have recognized the residents and unlocked whentouched but the gate was purely ornamental for now.
He stepped out into the narrow pedestrian street,not much wider than his house’s entry tunnel, and headed toward themain street that bisected the town from east to west. Some of thelocal critters had already taken a liking to the town and a few ofthem were up in the eaves, cooing and burbling their appreciation ofthe late afternoon starshine.
Nature never missed out on a niche.
Wont be long before we’re able to support thenext wave of people, he thought,looking up but not seeing what made the noises. Then wemight want to think about locking our gates and building a jail.
Crime rarely missed aniche either.
He frowned, not wantingto ruin his relaxed mood but, now the cat was out of the bag, in hisown mind at least. The council was going to meet soon. Lawenforcement would have to be on the agenda.
They couldn’tafford to ignore what lay ahead. Hells,he thought in Imperial, there’s going to be crimescommitted by the folks that are already living here. You can’t havea group this size live in perfect harmony for a couple of growingseasons without a fair bit of tension developing.
He passed anintersection and turned left, angling over to the sunnier side of theslightly wider street. The warmth washed over him and he decided he’dmake a serious attempt to just enjoy the afternoon.
No sense worrying about something if I can’tdo anything about it right now,he thought, turning again,this time onto the main street.
A house on thatcorner had an exterior garden.Rather than the house wrapping around the open space, it sat at theback and a two-meter wall surrounded thegarden. A dog barked inwarning as he passed and the sound made him nostalgic for Earth.
Wonder how many folks brought dogs?he mused.We should ask around to see if there are any litters ofpups on the way.
He reached themain square and turned left, walking past the church and turning leftagain to duck down the narrow aisle between it and the Sikh temple. Ablock behindthe holy structures sat oneof the small squareswhere space had been set aside for low-intensity commercial use.
The square, roughlyforty meters by twenty, was cunningly sloped so anyone standing atthe south end could see over the roofs and the wall to the north. Themountains looked magnificent framed by the buildings on each side ofthe open space.
There were onlyfour shops so far. One enterprising family had a reliable connectionback home who’d taken over their specialty spice shop. They wereperfectly positioned to supply an off-world shop with everythingthat might be needed for a taste of home.
Two doors down, a storewas setting up to supply textiles from home through a similar familyconnection. It was rumored that the owner was even working on a wayto turn local plant fibers into usable cloth using nanite tech.
Nextto that shop was a chocolatier, if the gossipwas true. The blindswere
