Chapter 15: The Admiral's pinnace

I had written the name of the pinnace on a piece of paper, and placed it in Ada's hand as we left the Mess. The staff on Base had been assembled, and had fallen in across the bow of the craft. They were called to attention as we crossed the runway towards the craft. The maintenance crew had placed a small podium beside the bow to support the bottle of champagne.

Ada Crisp mounted the podium, and faced the troops. Glancing at the piece of paper that I had given her, she declared in a clear voice. "I name this Space Ship, Argo, and may God keep safe, all who sail in her." The troops responded with three rousing cheers.

I put my arm out, and helped her descend from the podium.

"Tell me, Admiral, where did this name come from?"

"It's the name of the ship that conveyed Jason, and the Argonauts on their adventure seeking the Golden Fleece. That ship was named after it's builder, Argus, but in Greek it means swift, and this Argo carries the next, faster generation of space drive designed by Professor Burton."

We had walked back to the door of the Argo which was let down with a set of steps mounted on its rear side. We were greeted by CPO Brenda Burns who was going to run the galley. We entered the craft, and I led the Crisps to the bridge. I pointed to Lieutenant Brian Crisp, and said, "I think you know the commander of this vessel."

Ada moved forward, hugging her son, and planting a kiss on his cheek. The Colonel merely 'hrumphed'.

He held out his hand, saying, "Congratulations, Brian."

Brian was still blushing from his encounter with his mother.

Following that I introduced our engineer, Lieutenant David Maltby, our cook, CPO Brenda Burns, and our nurse, CPO Cheryl MacTavish.

The rest of the tour was quite quickly accomplished. The mess-hall cum lounge, the galley, and the drive room occupied the center of the vessel, with our state rooms accessible directly off these, as were the various storage areas. At the rear of the Argo, two shuttle craft were housed.

Between the two shuttle craft the were housings for five drones. In addition to the Burton designed drones, we also had Federation communicator equipment. This enabled the communicator balls to take off from, and land, on the outside of the craft.

Two days later, Tom Chubb returned with Kah, and Weem. I had arranged a double ceremony for Weem with Bob Mather. Bob had brought along his tame judge, and they spent some half an hour with Weem explaining that if she wanted to join the Space Service, she would also have to become a citizen. She finally accepted their premise, and the ceremony was performed in the Mess. It was followed by a celebration, after which we had to put up Bob, and his judge, for the night.

The following morning, we took Bob, and his judge back to Washington as the President had expressed a desire to inspect the Argo. He was complementary about the layout, and said that such a vessel might be useful for his own use.

Leaving Washington, we ascended up to an elevation of six miles, and set course for Alpha Centauri. Even at one quarter speed, the trip only took just over sixteen minutes. Arriving at the double star system we tuned into the Osmum beacon, and set course for Osmum. Identifying the beacon does not give one the distance from it. A gentle approach at a fraction of light speed gives the equipment time to interrogate the beacon, thereby gaining knowledge of the distance to it.

Once we were close enough to be challenged we heard:

"Osmum Space Port Authority to unidentified vessel. Please announce yourself."

Brian replied, "Osmum Space Port. This is the Earth vessel Argo with a passenger for Osmum. Is that Gir?

"Yes, and who is that?"

"It's Brian. We're bringing Kah home. Weem is with us, but she's joined our Space Service, so she won't be staying."

"Right, I'll phone Mel. She will want to know how many there are for the evening meal."

"There are seven of us, including Kah, and yourself. He asked if you, and Horj could be there? Is Mog still with you?"

"Yes to both your questions."

By this time, we were touching down on the grass alongside the port building. We emerged to be greeted by Gir. She enthusiastically hugged us all, and said, "Look! We have a bus now. Here, give me that other bag, Kah."

She took his second bag from him, and led us onto the bus.

"Take us to the leader's home," she said.

"Which one is that?" replied the bus.

"Where Mel lives."

The bus started off.

Within five minutes, it had drawn up at Kah's house. We all debarked. Mel met us at the door, and there was another round of hugs. We entered the house, and followed Kah into his living room. We had barely settled down with drinks when Horj, and Mog arrived.

"Welcome home, Kah," said Horj.

"I, also," added Mog.

"How did you like Earth?"

"Very well, Horj. Tom gave me a box which makes a moving picture show. They even have picture shows in their houses. It's called television. It's a mixture of news, presentation of real things, music, and a sort of theater."

"It sounds like the mixture we have here now. While you've been away, one of the Earth people has made use of our telephone system. We now have what he calls the internet with our telephones. You have a box in your house which is connected to the mobile telephone system. Those boxes are connected to others, called computers. They can do all sorts of clever things."

"I saw computers on Earth, but their television was a separate thing."

"They say it might be a separate thing here too, someday, but for now one of the pages on this internet shows television from fifteen hue to eighteen hue each day."

"How many of these programs are there?"

"Just the one, but he says that there may be others one day in the future."

"Who is doing all this?"

"The man from Earth is using all sorts of people, and what's more he is paying people to take part. He's even tried using programs from Earth. There was a music program using compositions by Bate-hoven, and Mose-art. It was very interesting to compare it with our own music. Bil, you must bring those two composers to visit us someday."

"I'm afraid those two gentlemen died quite some time ago," I replied.

"He's also using the work of our own dead. Do you remember those books you found on Thorangia, Encyclopedias, I think you called them?

"Yes."

"Well, he's put a lot of things from those on the internet. Its surprising how many people have computers now. At the cattle markets, you'll hear farmers discussing many strange things, and that runs through all the population. It's as though you have kicked us out of our complacent ways, and we are making progress again."

"How are you taking all of this, Mog?"

"This progress thing. Its pushing my people as well. They have decided to leave their island, and join the people here. There is room to work the land. There are new ways of life, we must try."

His language skills seemed to have improved out of all recognition. I felt now that his people could be assimilated into the main population.

"I only hope," I said, "that we can make progress on Earth as well as you have here on Osmum. We have even further to go than you in some ways. Tell me Horj, what do you think of the academics that we sent you?"