[PLOT FINALE] Deus ex Machina, I of III
Posted on 26 Dec 2024 @ 8:14pm by The Narrator
814 words; about a 4 minute read
Mission: Miranda
Near the End of the Eugenics War
Tanel Baran stood at the viewport of his ship, the Adriel, and glared at the retreating image of Earth on the other side. He still could not believe the sheer audacity of those others…those who claimed to be his peers. Ha! He knew now just how peerless he was.
Doctor Baran was not just one of those working on improving the human race, he was the very forefront of it, and those philistines had the nerve to question him. How dare they say that he was going too far. Until that moment, he believed that they had all been in this together. Tanel had truly believed they were all part of the same glorious mission.
Well, he had been wrong. He supposed there was a first time for anything, but he certainly wasn’t going to let it happen again.
Thus, he was on board a ship, fleeing from his home world like a common criminal… He had to keep those fools from interfering with his work. He was sure that there was somewhere else out there where he could continue his work. He had filled the hold of this sleep ship with all of his equipment and digitally stored research.
When they found their new home, the work would continue.
“Doctor?” a mellifluous voice called from the door. “It’s time.”
He turned to see the face of his beautiful wife, the best that his work had ever produced. She smiled beatifically at him, and he knew that it was time to engage the ‘sleeper’ part of this ship, because the journey ahead would be a long one. He was leaving it up to fate and the programming of this ship’s computer to wake them when a suitable place was found.
Tanel floated in the near-zero-gee to the door and took his wife’s hand, the last two conscious upon the ship, about to enter a long, long sleep…
Now
Talvi Baran stood with her back to the door, staring up at a portrait hanging in the wall of her office. It was a man, standing much like she was at that moment—standing tall and straight, hands laced behind her and head held high. It was her grandfather, Tanel, the reason they were all here today.
Their great shepherd had left Earth when others failed to see his vision, taking the risk in deep space and deep sleep. He had found a planet and made a home, but the group was soon found out for what they were and chased away. So it went for some time, frequently when Talvi’s mother was a child, until they found this planet. There was no one here, but the caves had made for an ideal place to live, hide when they needed and thrive otherwise.
Occasionally, though, they did need…updates and upgrades. Fresh technology, fresh DNA sporting the advancements of the past decades.
She turned when she heard someone at the door to her office, seeing Gadra—one of her best scientists—standing there. Talvi didn’t say anything. She simply nodded for the older woman to speak whatever was on her mind. While waiting for her to do so, Talvi took a seat. Gadra entered the rest of the way into the room, but she didn’t sit. She rarely did. It was one of her genetic traits: she needed little rest.
“Those three officers, from the ship Odin, are now locked in the rec room,” she reported. “Our internal sensors are picking up unique psionic abilities from two of them, unlike what we’ve seen before. I’m not sure our field technology will be able to block them fully, but it should be enough until we determine what else we’re going to do.”
“I have faith in the abilities of you and your team,” Talvi said with a serene smile. “I’m sure it will hold. I doubt they are that different from others we have met. Have the teams on the ships reported in yet?”
Gadra inclined her head. “Work continues apace, although the team on the Montana have met some technical difficulties and may be delayed.”
Talvi nodded thoughtfully, looking at the portrait of her grandfather again. She wondered what he would think of her operation now, with all that she had done to increase and improve it. It wasn’t easy to bring ships here without being obvious about it, but tailored viruses had a predictable and useful effect. Isolated though this place was, they still learned enough.
They never had to venture beyond the planet’s orbit for anything. They managed to make everything come to them…
Talvi Baran knew that her people would never be forced off a planet again, and they would still continue her grandfather’s mission.
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