Chapter 11
Fleet Arrival
Ten months later ...
Athena watched with anticipation as Gadwin's command ship approached the Kerbmun station and carefully maneuvered to dock. A new facility to handle the influx of Talian refugees, Station Kerbmun One was constructed over three months with isolation rings that spun to simulate actual gravity. It could, at its current level of construction, handle well over three hundred kerbals at a time. Right now there were fifty kerbals, mostly medical staffers to evaluate the newcomers as they were awakened to verify their health.
But Gadwin gets to dock with the station first. Athena could remember his first words at finding out that there were already kerbals in the system.
"Incredible!" he exclaimed. "And, they only arrived sixteen hundred years ago? That would account for why we didn't know anything of them back home."
"Agreed." replied Athena. "Due to logistics, Old Kerbin must have been sending out stellar probes a thousand years at a time, then Solitude must have accelerated the process towards the end, sending them instead to the Tempus system. Our two missions, ours to Talia and theirs on the Manifest Destiny, were most likely sent out by Kerbin many millennia apart, with ours being first launched."
"And ours arriving at Talia thousands of years before the Manifest Destiny arrived here." said Gadwin. "We're looking at the data you've collected to date; good work working with the Mesbinites to increase your yield on that. We're all impressed at the data obtained. From our estimates, we should be able to settle on the southern coast of the circular continent near the equator; that should give us adequate agricultural land to the north, in spite of the deserts to the east and west."
"The Mesbinites agree." said Athena. "Though we only number no more than ten thousand at this time and they are well over eight million, they've gotten their eyes on the continent to the west, both north and south of the desert."
"I'm sure we'll get along just fine." replied Gadwin.
Now, Athena watched as Gadwin's great command ship, another massive 'space ark', made its ponderous way meter by meter as it lined, then moved forward to dock. After a few more minutes, the word was given that the ship had docked. After a few more minutes waiting for its guidance systems to be negated to let the station's system take over, permission was given to open the hatch. Athena could only watch.
Then a head popped out of the hatch and turned her way. It was Gadwin. Athena didn't hesitate; she moved forward and embraced her friend. Then she turned and said, "Gadwin Kerman, I'd like to introduce you to Stephane Kerman, chief liaison of the Mesbin government to the Talian refugees."
Gadwin took Stephane's proffered hand and shook. "Now that first introductions have been made," said Stephane, "Let's retire to the main gravity ring to confer on what's ahead." Gadwin nodded and they moved to the main access ladder. Gadwin's ship had docker at the null-G section of the ship, thus they had to 'lower' themselves to the ring structures so they could actually stand on a firm surface.
After lowering themselves halfway, they moved to a vertical lift which lowered them the rest of the way. Leaning slightly towards Gadwin in the lift, Stephane said, "I'm not really comfortable in null-G, you see. I'm neither an explorer or colonist, I'm a politician."
"I understand." replied Gadwin. "It feels good to have my feet on a surface I can actually walk on. As a businessman, I didn't get to do much space travel until I started the program that led to the colony ships."
"What were your first space ventures?" asked Stephane.
"Communications satellites." replied Gadwin, "But then I personally financed the Eaglio probe, mostly for expansion purposes. It's secondary purpose was to launch the Last Hope. Last I heard, the spent fuel tank for the Eaglio probe was the basis for the first space station built there."
"Most likely," added Athena, "Using the docking port I was attached to." She looked at Stephane. "Using a docking port rather than a decoupler or separator, I wouldn't disturb the orbit of the fuel tank once I parted ways with it." Stephane nodded in understanding.
"That's right." said Gadwin. "We just kept adding to it, using the main tank as a control and distribution point for fuel needed, with extra tanks added to increase capacity. The rest of the station was launched piecemeal and added where needed. At last count, it could handle just over fifty kerbals."
At that point the lift came to a stop and the doors opened. Stephane led everyone to a comfortable conference area with an expansive view.
"I'm assuming a colony was set up on Eaglio, but how big was it?" asked Athena.
"Just over ten thousand." replied Gadwin. "With a full staff of tremins to keep the population in line."
Athena shuddered remembering her time in the wards. "As long as we avoid that nonsense, we should be all right."
"Indeed." said Stephane. "Not everyone on Mesbin has been told of the religious dictatorship on Talia; it frightens anyone who hears of it. Because of this, we'll have to seriously check out everyone who comes off of those ships. Even one could cause problems."
"We've done all we could to prevent anyone of the orthodoxy from getting here." said Gadwin. "But anything is possible. If anyone was 'inserted' into the wards, we could have a unguided missile on our hands. Let's hope we can keep problems to a minimum."
Everyone nodded at that.
"On a better note," said Stephane, "We've managed so far to establish a base camp to support just over five hundred kerbals. Our teams on the surface are working hard to increase that number, and adding more 'sub-communities' to allow for sprawl. We're also working on adding the farm plots as well; that should start to produce results soon."
"That's good." said Gadwin, with Athena nodding. "In a few weeks, barring something unforeseen, we should have our first settlers on the ground."
KSPTT
Three months later, thing were looking good. The first eight hundred Talian settlers were already on Kerbmun, with over half of them working farms. Food was plentiful, with some food going to Mesbin. And, a Mesbin colony was just beginning, with two hundred settlers to the east, with one hundred farmers.
So Gadwin came up with a plan for Tempus.
"We'll take my command ship to the Tempus system." said Gadwin. "Athena can come with us, since she's been there before. I'll cede the Last Hope temporarily to the Mesbin space agency for their further explorations; that'll give their people better understanding and experience in the Bussard-Alcubierre systems." he noticed Athena's distant gaze. "Coin for your thoughts?" he asked.
Athena looked at Gadwin. "I'm only wondering what became of my friends on Rhode. As head of the Rhodian government, Alton must have taken a bit of heat for my departure, and James and I had many wonderful talks about spaceflight and other 'things'."
"We'll contact Rhode." said Gadwin. "Where should we start?" he asked.
"We should go to Verna first." replied Athena. "It's orbit should put us heading towards the Tempus system, and from there we should find out what happened. Do you still intend to pass on the technical data on the Bussard-Alcubierre systems?"
Gadwin nodded. "All kerbals must have the knowledge, that way no one party has a technical lead that would allow them to aggress against the others. So, Verna first, then after learning about things, we can head for Rhode."
"All kerbals must unite to survive, even across the stars."
KSPTT
Waking slowly, he began to feel after a time. And he felt cold. Carefully opening his eyes, he saw an irregular pattern which began to fall. Then he saw the edge of something, then the face of another kerbal.
"Hello." said the kerbal. "I'm Doctor Gamet. Don't try to move or talk right now. The cryofreeze after effects should take an hour to ease, then we'll move you ourselves."
He started to move his mouth as if to say something, but the doctor just shook his head and held up his hand. "No, don't talk for now." the doctor said. "Let your body readjust to normal temperature. We'll tend to you for the next day, then you should be able to move to the next phase of the operations."
KSPTT
"Is that the special patient?" asked Gadwin. Doctor Gamet nodded.
"Was it wise," asked the doctor, "To bring this one kerbal along? Wouldn't that overexpose our position to the orthodoxy?"
Gadwin turned to the doctor. "I believe it will break the orthodoxy. Their first tenet is 'There is no other place but Talia.' To show that there are other places can only go to show the orthodoxy as being false."
"You're taking a big risk with this one." said the doctor.
"I admit it is a risk." replied Gadwin. "But if evil is to be broken, we must start somewhere. And here it starts with this one kerbal. Someone once said, 'In order for evil to spread, all it takes is for good kerbals to do nothing.' I'm doing what I feel it takes to end the yoke of the orthodoxy. Let's get him ready for the mission to the Tempus system. He'll need to see everything."
