From the desk of Vitasta

From the desk of Vitasta

Notes: This is my tribute to the Star Trek Universe, which I love.

Time: irrelevant

Chapter 5:

We spent all day at the hanger getting the warcraft ship-shape. By sunset's streak on the asteroid, we could see the sky melting in the horizon. It would be a very short time until darkness fell all around us, and we were on edge because of the fireflies, and the thought that they might return upon nightfall made us very uneasy. But we had managed to check all systems and conducted a small dry run on the plains of the salt desert, and before long we were on our way back to camp. The journey we made by foot was reduced to a matter of hours with the warcraft hovering over the ground and moving at supersonic speeds. By night, I was already with the Vet who examined the now red sore where the firefly had bit me. I showed him the dead fly, and he simply nodded. He had never seen such creatures before, nor had he heard of them in any of the colonies that were in the surrounding region: on the moons of Jupiter and Saturn. "You'll be fine," he told me, and then explained the somatic secretion of the fly. "It's a mild toxin that puts you into deep hiber-sleep, but does not have any lasting effect."

As I was making my way back to my quarters, I ran into Sita. She looked as mesmerizing as ever with the dark flowing hair and gentle smile. "Any news from Ram", I asked her. "They'll be here tomorrow morning", she said and then added, "I heard about the incident in the hanger. Hope you are okay now. Rest tonight, tomorrow will be a big day."

I didn't argue with that. I was in a pretty bad shape. Rest sounded like a good idea, though sleep came very late as I lay around idly in bed, staring at the markings in the ceiling. I thought about my parents, the base camp, the fire flies and I thought about the First Men and the war. It was hard in these times to find alcoves of peace and silence, and yet for a decade we had managed to remain hidden in the base camp. On any other occasion, we might even have declared this our home. We had vegetables gardens now, and children, and for us, the refugees of war, we had a semblance of a kindred community. Maybe this was all we could aspire for, maybe this was all that we needed to survive in this world, and to be happy. Chasing after visions of gods who we never knew, maybe that was a foolish call, to sacrifice everything we had built, and for what? Some strange idea that the long dead First Men could deliver us, that we could go back to our homes in our separate planets and moons and that maybe, just maybe we could rebuild our lives, and find happiness?! No, it seemed like such a far-fletched idea that in my mind I was determined to let Ram know my reservations against this plan. 

By the time I woke up in the morning, Ram's party from the other asteroid had already come in. They were gathered near the central  hall with all the elders as I rushed in. They seemed to be engaged in some kind of heated discussion. I took a seat next to one of the boys who was with my at the camp and he filled me in. Ram had brought a small troop of commandos, highly trained soldiers that he wanted to take with him, but the Telepath and and the rest of the elders wanted to take some scientists and a priest on the journey instead since they feared offending the First Men with guns. 

"We need to protect ourselves in case the message is a phony!" Ram was screaming, "We can't never be prepared enough against the agency."

"We have a cloaking device on the ship, the mission is a stealth operation, why do we need so many armed guards! We need scientists and archaeologists Ram."

"Gentlemen, what are we doing. Arguing like school children over the number of people we take on a field trip! We need at least 10 soldiers and then maybe we can make some room for a scientist or two, but I am not taking along some priest on this mission. Let this be the first of many  perhaps, let us go and check out the scene, and then we can send for the scientists, but this, right now, we cannot take that chance, we will be risking this entire camp, can't you see?!"

There was merit in his argument, I could tell, but the older members of the camp were not convinced, they didn't want soldiers in the celestial temple, or whatever they thought they would find in Hygeia. Suddenly there was a shrill, almost defeaning buzzing sound. The Telepath then relayed his voice into our minds, collectively, all at once he spoke. 

"This journey is important to me. I will fly the ship. I will decide who comes along. The ship has no real weapons anymore, we are relying on our cloaking device to fly through the distance to Hygeia without detection from the agency. It's risky. I agree with Ram, once there, we would be defenseless without any soldiers on ground with us, but there must be a high priest with us, someone who can open the holy doors into the realm of the First Men. We will take them both, 7 soldiers, 1 priest, and the warcraft crew. We will leave tomorrow at dawn. There will be no more argument now. We need to be united."

No one would argue now, not with the Telepath. I would be going on the journey as the engineering hand, that was sure, but I wondered who else would join the crew. There was Braff, the Tom who worked on the lower engines with me, and maybe someone else would join to look into the warcraft circuitry. And then of course the Telepath. That would be four of us, essential for flying the craft. I decided to go and talk to the Telepath once before leaving tomorrow. 

As everyone was leaving the central hall, I decided to approach the Telepath as he sat in the far left corner with his eyes closed. As I got nearer, I could sense the Telepath's voice in my brain, "Not now Jata," He said, "But we will talk soon. I know your inhibitions about the journey, but it is a holy quest. Just have some faith." I saw his the almost serene expression on his face, the half smile, the red eyes closed and the soft heaving of his breath and decided to leave him alone. He was right, we had enough time on the journey to talk, but I couldn't get past the fact that he considered this a holy quest. I wondered if others felt the same way. 

On my way out of the hall, I saw Sita and Ram arguing in the passage way. They saw me at the distance and stopped talking. Ram walked away, and Sita gestured to me. As I got closer, I could see that she had been crying. "I'm a fool," she said, "but I guess he is right. He is the leader and needs to be on this mission, no matter how dangerous." I was not aware of the nature of their relationship, but now I got a feeling that I had perhaps walked in on a personal matter. "Walk with me," she said as we made our way to the Kitchen. 

*

Celestial Temple in the Asteroid Belt. 
Image from the Internet.

*

to be continued...