As the Last Life Boat Leaves

AS THE LAST LIFE BOAT LEAVES
PROFESSOR CONSTANZA JARUFSKY

As the yacht pulled from the Odin Path, we stood with eyes on the huge liner, once the Pride of Space.

We watched the lights blink out, deck by deck. We could almost feel the systems shutting down. Slowly, as things happen in space, the beautiful ship began to yaw; the Odin Path was 'sinking'.

As we continued away, the magnificence of the Odin astounded. The erssavis, which had seemed so large, were dwarfed by the dying ship.

Time had been measured in seconds. The last passenger off, the final rescue ship less a kilometer away; the Odin ceased to function.

Tears filled my eyes, and I knew the others held the same reverance at the death of the largest and most luxurious space cruiser ever built.

Perhaps tow beams lashed out from the erssavis to capture the Odin, to prevent it becoming another wreck in space, but our engines engaged.  The Odin was soon a spot n space, then gone. 

We were away; all aboard had been saved.

Yes, as I, they were vessels designed to hold ten or twenty per cent less of their current occupancy; but no one was going down with the Odin. No one was going to experience the horrible death of abandonment, seeing the last lifeboat depart.

We were going to KeyTash. That is, if we followed the instructions the ZeSha had given.

Though I believed those aboard the yacht on which I traveled would keep in the grid, I knew many, if not most Xenians would not.

Many, if not most, now 'free' of the ZeSha, in 'control' of a craft of some designation, would seek to reach Earth. I don't think many understood the ramifications of an ionized atmosphere.

I think the human mind can deal with mega-events singly. A war, conquest, invasion, domination, plague; if spaced in monthly doses would have permitted acclimatization.  But it happened in hours.

Terran's undefeatable armada vanquished, impenetrable planetary defenses obliterated, the landing of the invaders and the new regime; within a single afternoon.

It might have been survivable, life might have continued in a near normal fashion were it not for the 'plague'.

When I would own privacy, whether a week, a month, a year from this date, I would carefully list the antecedents of that 'plague'. For now, it was the aftermath which concerned me. The consequence, which had the remaining Xenians packed upon the Odin for deportation.

We were bound for Earth; but in a moment of insanity the leaders of Terra had ionized the atmosphere. The ZerShaz could not invade; but Terrans could not get out and we could not be landed.

Our only oasis in this vastness was a ZerShaz planet called KeyTash in the 7th sector.

With lifeboats overburdened, fuel at a premium, KeyTash so far, to waste a gram of energy could end a life. Lives.

I had spoken to the lifeboats, from the just supplied Cruise Ships (called Love Boats for their not so clandestine use) to the Tourist Travelors to the yachts begging, warning, trying to make the refugees of Xenos III understand Earth was not an option, following directions supplied by the ZerShaz, the only chance of survival.

These Xenians, these survivors of war and plague and the ensuing riots, could never trust the enemy who defeated them.

I hoped maybe one soul on each of the lifeboats would appreciate that there were no options.

ZerShaz vessels, erssavi, (war ships) and small flyers, (be they veShavitchi or veheTalya) flew about us the first ten minutes, then were gone, in the blink of an eye.

The Fourteen erssavi that is their warboats were overcrowded with ZeSha, carrying twice the standard.   Perhaps the Captains, 'omTays' would deposit a portion of their occupants on KeyTash and return to take us aboard.  

It was a hope.

I had informed my people of the situation on the erssavis so they would understand why those ships could not have been used for our rescue. I doubt I was believed.  Nothing about our conquerors was ever believed. Perhaps it was too stark, too black or white. But the ZerShaz are a species of absolutes.

Unlike humans.

At the thought I turned to view my ship mates.  Unlike those who found themselves aboard a ship of unknowns, I had selected my companions. It was my hand which had made assignments.

Before the arrival of the extra ships', I had distinguished sixty of the eighty thousand  Xenians who could be left behind.

With eighty thousand refugees from Xenos III on a ship to hold eighteen thousand with just enough life boats to accommodate twenty thousand comfortably, perhaps thirty thousand uncomfortably, I, who had been Governor of the planet made the selections of who would be placed on an imaginery life boat.

I was grateful it had not come to it. But had those blessed extra vessels not arrived, perhaps sixty thousand people would die on the Odin.

I made selections not with prejudice nor malice; I had chosen those most necessary and placed them upon the boats we had, careful as to ensuring pilots, navigators.  

Perhaps, were I younger, had I not spent nearly 3/4ths of my life in Politics, I could wash in guilt. But many decisions I had made over the years, whether creating a new town or changing the course of a river were made with the same sense of necessity.

I had elected Space Yacht 1 for my journey, assigning Crya Savimbi, a pilot, her husband, their four children, John de Marco, Sara Bloomfeld (a fashion designer), Ann Pice, Gerry Craig (a class two navigator), and Mary Marconi (a doctor) as my traveling companions.

I'd met them previously, considered them worthy of saving and chosen them as I felt they could exercise the necessary logic.

The ZerShaz in full control of space, it was unlikely any comfortable human settlement had been left unscathed.

Xenos III had been a fertile planet with ample resources. A planet early explorers could have turned into a paradise. But Xenos had not come uninhabited. The Tricoyna, a supremely technologically advanced species, occupied Xenos III.

The 'Tricks' as we called them, happily provided pilgrims with all manner of miracle appliances, which were duplicated and  exported.  Dispis, dispensors, from which one could receive a continual supply of vitamin enriched nutri-cubes and nutri-drink replaced food preparation and to a large part, agriculture within a generation.

Press a button; needless to cook, grow food; for the nutri-cube was created from chemicals. Chemicals extracted from the soil, from wastes, fed into a sorter and processed, to pop fresh into your hand.

Who believed this wonderful end to starvation would cause it?

That a planet so fertile it could feed itself and

Impressum

Verlag: BookRix GmbH & Co. KG

Tag der Veröffentlichung: 04.11.2021
ISBN: 978-3-7487-9851-4

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