The Legend of Miaree

Chapter Eighteen

Assembled in space, it stretched over five miles in length. Square angles allowed utilization of all areas. Connected sections contributed to the length, but were removable. Huge enough to transport a section of juplee forest, powerful enough to push past the side portal of God’s Constant, it gleamed in the harsh, unfiltered sun, absorbed the blackness of space on the out-sun side. It was ready.

In Rim Star II she floated near, saw the towering walls of the ship extend above her. Skillfully she circled it, admired it, measured it with her eyes. Pride pounded in her breast. She put her hand on Rei’s and smiled. He understood.

"Yes," he said. "The first. The first of many."

Monitoring the communications frequencies, she knew it was time. She withdrew to a safe distance. Searing light flared from the trailing engine compartments. Aboard, outsized converters hummed. The movement was slow and majestic at first; then, with an acceleration which left her breathless, the star ship dwindled to nothingness. She followed it on her instruments, saw it. As it hit the side portal of the Constant, it disappeared.

Three years in the future, it would be back. It would carry a host of workers, workers sorely needed to mine the asteroid belt, to continue the gutting of hot First Planet for its metals and materials, to dig into the center of Five, to man the assembly lines and operate the mining drivers and labor at the thousand-and-one tasks ahead during the construction of a fleet of like ships which would release millions of Delanians and Artonuee from certain death before the Fires brought their doom. And while in the Delanian systems, it would serve as a prototype for a million of its kind. The entire resources of thirty billion Delanians would be diverted into building the star ships. The vast fleet would sweep outward, following the lead of scout ships which, at that very moment, were searching the stars toward the opposite end of the Galaxy for habitable planets. Planets would be found. Planets would be settled. Together, Artonuee and Delanian would spread across the empty reaches, planet to

planet, system to system, taking with them their life, their technology. Doom would be thwarted. Life would go on. And in the end, the labors of such as Bertt and Untell would allow an escape from the doomed galaxies, would allow life to be eternal in safe, green worlds of promise far from the Fires.

Meanwhile, there was endless work and continual problems and Rei’s love to inspire her. A day seemed endless, yet the days became weeks and the weeks years, and the first star ship returned to disgorge eager workers and the dread information—information which traveled at light speed and thus had not reached the Artonuee system—that the collision of the two globular clusters just outside the spiral arm had begun. Death raced toward the Delanian worlds. There, a crash program of building was underway, which, by the time the star ship reached Five at light times twenty, produced thousands of ships. The first of the final wave would be arriving in less than a year’s time.

The knowledge stunned Miaree. Somewhere there, where her eye could not see, billions of beings were to die. And she was helpless to prevent it. She wept for them, Rei’s strong arms comforting her. And she worked harder than she had thought possible, for the Artonuee, luckier than the Delanians, had been given time. The first waves of radiation and fire would strike the outlying Delanian worlds in less than three years. Artonuee would have a minimum of twenty times that time span in which to prepare to evacuate the system. Although she wept for the Delanians, she rejoiced for the Artonuee. In sixty years she could build enough star ships to save all, to forest a ship with juplee and select prime ifflings for the long trek to safer planets. She could build a ship designed to salvage the artistic beauty of Outworld—flora, fauna, artifacts, art works. God was good. God had forgiven.

Thankful that she was young and able to cope with the long hours, she was everywhere. Inspired by Rei’s presence at her side, she was capable of going thirty-six hours without sleep. Her mind, expanded by the learned knowledge of Rei’s people, could absorb the most difficult of technical problems.

Miaree was forty, just at the end of her young adulthood, when Mother Aglee kissed her lover one final time and boarded a ship for the last flight. With the office of the Mother vacant, the five worlds of the Artonuee throbbing with frenzied activity, Miaree agreed to allow powerful

members of the Interplanetary Council to advance her name for election. Because of her travels and her prominence in the building program, she won easily.

Only ten days after Mother Aglee sought her iffling, Mother Miaree, wearing the robes of the first lady of all the Artonuee, entered a large conference room to be briefed on the state of the system. She had been so involved in the administration of the factory planet, Five, that she had not been able to keep abreast of problems outside her own field. The sobering facts which were thrust upon her from first one serious-faced official and then another left her in a state of shock and sorrow.

Spant, Delanian, Co-administrator of Space Exploration: "Lady, more than two thousand Light Twenty Scouts are in the outer stars. Although good news could be reported at any time, the results to date are discouragingly negative. As you know, the formation of planets is a rarity, requiring such a combination of conditions as to make only one star out of a half-million a planet producer. Aside from two planets in the early stages of producing water, no habitable worlds have been discovered. I request the authorization for the construction of an additional five hundred scouts."

Rei, by appointment of the Mother, Supervisor of Raw Materials:

"Lady, time is too short. We must consider the exploration program a failure in its present form and adopt Contingency Plan Two."

Mother Miaree: "For those of you who are not briefed on Contingency Plan Two, it is simply this. Should the exploration program fail, as it has failed to this date, at the time of final decision, when the exploding stellar material begins to threaten our system, we embark on the fleet of star ships and use the fleet, itself, as an exploration tool. Perhaps a word from Bertt, Star Fleet Overlord."

Bertt, Star Fleet Overlord: "Ladies, males, Delanians. Although passenger space is the primary object in the construction of a star ship, it has long been recognized that long periods of travel could be necessary.

We never had any guarantee that good worlds would be discovered within a reasonable distance. Thus, we have constructed each ship to have the capacity to live in space almost indefinitely. Unfortunately, the space required for growing synthetic foods, and for the other life support systems required, cuts down severely on the space to be allotted to passengers. Should disaster strike immediately, we would be able to save only a small percentage of the combined populations of our races. However, it is estimated that we have a minimum of twenty years to complete our building program. Should we make certain technological breakthroughs, the picture could be improved. If we allotted more of our time and our available resources to research—"

Mother Miaree: "Dear Bertt, that is an old argument, one which was settled long ago."

Belle, Overlady of Outworld: "Lady Mother, attention is required to the continued destruction of our most beautiful planet. As you know, the Council opened Outworld to Delanian settlement some ten years past. Since then, the Delanian population has grown out of control with new arrivals. Delanians outnumber Artonuee on Outworld ten to one. Their numbers strain the resources of the planet. We have been forced to utilize for dwellings and industry a large percentage of our natural parklands. Where once the Great Bloom stretched for five hundred miles, unbroken, sprawling cities now soil the air. This desecration—"

Argun, President of the Delanian People in Exile: "Would the lady prefer that two billion Delanians die on the home worlds?"

Mother Miaree: "None of us would wish such a tragedy. Too many Delanians died. Their death saddens all of us."

Caee, Overlady of The World: "Mother, it is true that we are all saddened by the tragedy which has swept the home systems of the Delanians. I deplore before God the sad fact that, together, we were able to save not more than one-fifth of the total population before the Fires destroyed all who were left. It is truly a cosmic tragedy. However, six billion Delanians were saved by the star ships which were built here, by our people and their people, and by the star ships which were built in the Delanian systems. We Artonuee have opened our arms to our Delanian friends. We have welcomed them in their billions to our small worlds, and we have paid a terrible price. I do not deplore the sacrifice of the Artonuee. No. Indeed, we owe a vote of thanks to the Delanians for alerting us to the doom which we had considered to be remote, a happening of the distant future. So our lots are cast together. It is not merely petty thinking, then, when I say that I must insist that action be taken regarding the production of Delanian children on The World. I do not, of course, have to tell the Mother the grim statistics of iffling mortality—"

Mother Miaree: "Perhaps you do. Remember, I have spent my time on Five and in space."

Caee: "The information is classified."

Mother Miaree: "All here are suited to receive classified information. They would not be here if they were not."

Caee: "Yes, Lady. If you would care to read the last report."

Mother Miaree: "I do, indeed, care to read the last and all reports regarding alterations to The World. I want all material pertaining to tampering with the life cycle on our home planet in my office immediately following this meeting. In the meantime, perhaps you would be so kind as to inform me when it was decided and who decided to allow even one iffling to die."

Caee: "Mother, I am sorry. I thought you had been informed. It was decided by the Interplanetary Council, at the urging of Mother Aglee, to allow iffling reserves to fall to a working one-on-one level some seven years past. At first, this was easily accomplished by the mere nonreplenishment of stock as homecomings lowered the iffling population. Thus it was possible to utilize a portion of the juplee forests—"

Mother Miaree: "Am I to understand that the sacred juplee forests have been leveled?"

Caee: "Mother, there are five hundred million Delanians on The World."

Mother Miaree: "God the Mother!"

Argun: "Lady, it was a difficult and terrible decision for your predecessor and for the Council. It was felt—"

Mother Miaree: "Damn you all, tell me. Iffling mortality?"

Caee: "Mortality is at a low level, and selected females are being commissioned to produce fertile eggs to replenish—"

Mother Miaree: "How low is low? What is the state of the iffling population?"

Caee: "Lady, a blight, thought to be the result of atmospheric pollution, has hit the forest. Ifflings are dying at a rate which reduces the population by approximately seven percent a year."

Mother Miaree: "And the growth rate of the Delanians on The World?"

Argun: "In accordance with our agreement, we are holding all Delanians to zero population growth."

Mother Miaree: "As of now, there will be no child births allowed to Delanians on The World."

Rei: "Lady, is this not a harsh decision?"

Mother Miaree: "Dear Rei, I did not assume this office to preside over the death of all the Artonuee. All my life I have faced the fact that, someday, the Fires would end Artonuee life, but I will not accept a slow and lingering withering of our race through the destruction of that which is most sacred to us, our home world. We have sacrificed. Our worlds bulge with six billion Delanians. No. Now it is time to call on the Delanians on The World for a sacrifice on their part. Argun, I respectfully direct you to issue orders preventing any further conception on our home world."

Argun: "It will be done, Lady."

Mother Miaree: "Caee, I want daily reports from you on this situation. I will not be satisfied until there is no iffling mortality. Do you understand? And Belle, I appoint you to personally select females to produce fertilized eggs. You may ask for volunteers. That failing, you have the authority of this office to use any means to insure that the iffling population is maintained at a safe level. If it requires the incarceration of suitable females until their ripeness produces fruit, then consider it an order."

Caee: "Yes, Lady."

Mother Miaree: "For the information of all, a report, from the Supervisor of Raw Materials."

Rei: "Lady, before this conference began, Fleet Overlord Bertt reported to me that construction is at a halt on the three hundred star ships nearing completion, and new starts have been postponed indefinitely. The fact is that we’re running out of materials. Although some exploration continues in the asteroid belt, for all practical purposes the belt has been mined empty. Our prime source for the needed metal is now First Planet, and conditions there, so near the sun, are, to say the least, bad. Our engineers are working on methods to mine the sunside of the planet, but such efforts are not expected to produce returns for another five years or more. Meanwhile, the further explorations for metals on Five produce nothing. Five is a gutted planet. The mines of New World, Outworld, and the small area where mining is permitted on The World are spent, produce only low grade ores which do not meet the demand. The star ships drafted into temporary duty as mining ships, traveling to the three arid planets of the star Seberian, require months for a round trip. Nevertheless, they are providing us with our main bulk of useable metals. There is a severe shortage of diamond drills, and I would respectfully request the Mother to issue a statement asking all citizens to make available for industrial use their private jewels."

Mother Miaree: "Noted and done."

Rei: "Although we have not, as yet, experienced food shortages, an agricultural crisis is imminent. Arable land has been used to build factories and dwellings. Ninety-five percent of our basic foodstuff is now being dredged from the seas, and the heavy use of shallow water growth for synthetics threatens to unbalance the growth cycle of the salt water agricultural areas. I would think that consideration of food rationing should be undertaken by the Council during the next session."

Mother Miaree: "I will talk with Council leaders."

Bertt: "Lady Mother. I have watched my chosen world be stripped of its resources and its beauty. Although this saddens me, I do not regret it, for will not my Five be consumed, seared, destroyed, when the Fires reach us? And is it not true that all our old worlds will meet their ends in the Fires? I agree, of course, that The World must be preserved until the exodus to insure the continuation of our race. However, with a present capacity to move only sixty percent of our combined populations, and the future grim, as far as raw materials are concerned, would it not be wise to lift the exploitation limitations of the two planets which still offer prospects of production? I refer, of course, to New World and Outworld."

Belle, Overlady of Outworld: "Our garden world is already spoiled beyond hope. Would you put mining shafts in the last remaining

parklands? Would you ship ore in huge rollers down the streets of our cities?"

Bertt: "Would you have millions burn in the Fires, sitting happily in the last remaining parklands atop the metals which could have saved them?"

Mother Miaree: "Your point is well taken, Bertt, but such decisions are a matter for the Council. If you will prepare your proposals I will present them."

Jenee, Overlady of the City of Nirrar: "Lady, it is a small matter, perhaps, since we are faced with problems of cosmic size, but would you express an opinion on the desirability of posting members of the guard at strategic locations throughout the city? As you may know, the exuberant spirits of the Delanian young sometimes take a destructive course. The problem is not a major one, but their activities have been known to interfere with the administration of the city, which is, as you know, vastly overcrowded. Destruction of property and forced merge are merely two of the symptoms."

Mother Miaree: "Perhaps the President of the Delanians has a comment?"

Argun: "Lady, give me as many guards as you can. I will augment their number with enough Delanians to stop such outrageous activities."

Mother Miaree: "Done, Argun. Thank you for your help. We Artonuee have not faced such problems in the past and would scarcely know how to handle them. Now, it has been a long and tiring day. My office will be open to any of you, but now I suggest that we all seek our dwellings, since the hour is late."