Gaian liner "Arboretum", Gaia's high orbit, Edinburgh system, 1st January 822 AS.
Flora entered the acces code with a bit of excitement. It was her first time on Arboretum's bridge. Sure, she had a chance to get onboard few times, but no one really let her go right to the ship's heart. The doors opened silently, revealing a quite large, somewhat dark room with suprisingly few people inside. Arboretum's command section was looking almost abandoned compared to busy hangar, observation decks or crew quarters. No wonder with such a security around. She stepped inside and looked around, not sure what to do. In the center of the room there was a table with a large display, currently showing something looking like a photo of a forest. Above it there were multiple screens showing various parts of the photo with unknown to her markers and walls of data. From what she managed to notice on one of them, they were showing seemingly abandoned buildings surrounded by a lush jungle. The walls of the room were also covered in screens, most of them showing the radar and ship's systems. Each one of them had a console with a chair in front of it, however only two or three of them were actually crewed at the moment.
There were two men standing by the table in the center. Flora slowly approached them when the bigger one made an inviting gesture. After coming closer she noticed that the display was showing a small complex of buildings, surrounded by a metal fence. They were definetly abandoned for years by now, nevertheless they still were in a good shape.
What took you so long, eh? - she heard a chuckle. - I'd rather expect you to arrive in no-time. - the bigger one showed up to be Sherman. She was slightly suprised that she didn't recognised him earlier. Personal matters. Fair enough. - Sherman looked at the second man standing by the table. The man was for some reason amused by her trying to recognise him. Flora definetly saw him before, but she was unable to determine who exactly was standing right in front of her. He chuckled when she narrowed her eyes. He was older than Sherman, he was maybe even 60. She got a bit nervous after Sherman raised his eyebrow and the mysterious man started to chuckle more. I don't think I've got that much older, or did I? - Flora suddenly got enlightened. - Long time, my dear. How are you? Sir Andersen! Oh... - she blushed, ashamed by not recognising him. - I'm sorry, it's just... Uhm... Dark... Around... Nah, no need to get nervous. Happens to everyone. - he was more than amused by the situation. - I think I'll have to cut down on smoking, it makes me look awful... Well, either way, how are things? Pretty well... I wouldn't mind having a swimming pool back on Holmfirth, but other than that, things are okay.
The man slowly looked at Sherman. Holmfirth... You assigned her to Holmfirth? - Andersen pointed his finger at Sherman, suprisingly making him nervous. Uhm... No... I mean... You assigned her to Manchester? To that meatgrinder with crapload of Hunters, Mollys and Hackers preying at our ships at every single rock? Uh... Were you even aware of what could happen to her out there? If Mollys or Hackers would get their hands on her? Or even Hunters? Were you?!
Flora was suprised to see Sherman actually look like a child that did something wrong. I've asked you for one thing - keep her safe. Was it so hard? Was it so hard to keep her away from such places before she'll get some experience? If something would happen to her... How could I even look at in her mother's eyes again, knowing that not only I've hid from her the fact that her daughter is still alive, but I've also trusted a complete moron that he'll keep her safe?! How could I?!
Shermand remained silent. Flora couldn't really understand what sir Andersen just said. Look into her mother's eyes... Would he... Now, my dear. - he turned to her and took a deep breath. - How were your first flights around? Any issues, problems? I... Uhm... - she glanced at Sherman. He already knew what she had to say. - I've got... Uh... Disabled in New London, but... - she stopped as sir Andersen's face turned pale. He looked around and hit the table with his fist, causing a small crack in the display. He then simply left the bridge.
Heavy silence filled the room as Flora looked at Sherman and raised her eyebrow. Few people operating the consoles knew better than to look at them.
Can we please solve this later? - Flora frowned but nodded slightly. - Thank you. Now... Do you know what does this stream show?
Flora looked down at the table, noticing that the photo was in fact a live transmission. Looks like... A research outpost? Correct. As you know, we're planning our little expedition. Consirdering the fact that as a former CRI proffessor I hold the acces codes to some of those old research outposts, we've decided to use one of them before moving to a more uncharted area. However, we don't really know in what condition thier equipment is, so we'll need to someone to go down there and inspect them. And this will be your job. - Sherman looked at her. She was barely hiding a smile. - After the Saarbrucken you're one of the few people that know how to fly our modified CTE ships. While you've been getting yourself back up on Holmfirth, me and Trevor modified an Eagle fighter. It's now equipped with two propellers, just like the Albatross, which means you wont have to worry about polluting all the surroundings of your landing zone. Your task will be to get to three ressearch station located respectively near the equator, in the comfortable middle zone and then on the north pole. - he pressed few buttons, and the abandoned buildings turned into an orbital view of Gaia, possibly from a camera mounted somewhere on Arboretum's hull. Three markers appeared on the planet's surface, showing the locations of each outpost. - the trip should take you four days to complete. You'll spend the nights either in the ship, or inside of the outpost. You'll also have another assignment, but I'll send you the details once you'll finish the first one. Any questions? - Flora just shook her head. - Observation deck 6. That's where Andersen likes to spend his time onboard. I bet you want to ask him few questions. I wouldn't mind asking few questions to you as well. Your launch is scheduled for tomorrow 6 am. Don't be late.
Observation decks were one of the very few recreational parts of the ship that still served their initial purpose. 6th was the lowest deck, placed right at the front of the ship. Wide windows reaching from the floor to the roof were providing an excellent, undisturbed view on the most precious gem of the Sirius sector. Gaia. The most beautiful planet in Sirius. Flora gazed at the world beneath her. For her, it was such an abstract and illogical concept to simply wipe out all the life down there to replace it with earth-like, all this while ripping off chuncks of planet's surface to mine out the natural resources, slowly turning the planet into another New London.
She slowly approached the glass on the left side of the ship, as it was the one currently facing the planet. The sun was about to set and Arboretum would shortly move above the night side of Gaia. And as soon as it'll come out on the other side, she'll be on her way down there. It will be her first time to ever set her foot on Gaia's surface. And she'll be on her own. It was making her both nervous and excited. Sure, she knew many species living on Gaia's surface, but learning from the neural net and actually standing down there were two different things.
Beautiful, isn't She? - Flora turned around, pulled back from her thoughts. - We should be proud of ourselves, my dear. The treasure of Sirius, the library of almost every possible life form... And we're the ones that actually stood up to protect Her, while everyone else pretended to be looking to the other direction or was too busy with fattening his own wallet. We are Her guardians, my dear, we're her only line of defence so far. I know that this will be odd to hear, but can you promise me something? - Flora nodded. - I know there are some voices consirdering Nomads as our... "allies". I've even had a chance to listen to one of the more... prominent ones. Do not listen to those madmen. The Nomads are a plague, they can become even bigger danger to Her than Planetform and BMM combined. Under any circumstances, don't trust them. Now... - he turned his eyes to her. - I'm pretty sure you came here to ask me few questions, correct?
Flora nodded again but remained silent. She still hesitated a bit after Andersen's encouraging nod.
Back in the command center, you said that if something would happen to me, you wouldn't be able to look into my mother's eyes... - she turned her eyes back to the window. - How do you know her? I've became one of your father's colleagues few weeks after you arrived at Torshavn. Shortly after I realised who he was, I've messaged Sherman to treat you more... carefully. To not endanger you much. - he smirked when she turned back towards him and crossed her arms, slightly offended. - You've mentioned that something happend in New London. Can you tell me more about this, apparently unfortunate, event?
Her slight anger turned into stress as she recalled the events from New London. She still felt a slight shiver every time she was flying to Trafalgar. She'd preffer to forget them once and for all. Seems like it wasn't meant to happen anytime soon.
It was in Southampton field... We were moving some supplies from that junker base back to Holmfirth. - she stopped for a moment. - Shortly before jumping into Leeds, we've found ourselves surrounded by a Molly ambush. I've simply panicked, got separated from the convoy... They just toyed with me, disabling my ship piece by piece... When they got bored, they simply left me there. I was drifting in a disabled ship, without any hope... - she wiped a lone tear from her cheek and looked back at the planet. - One week. Seven days of lone drifting inside a disabled, falling apart ship, surrounded by millions of wrecks. Thank Mother Corsairs stumbled upon my ship back then...
Andersen frowned slightly after realising that Flora is clearly having some more... spiritual beliefs, additionally pretty much caused by that fool assigning her to Holmfirth. Not that a bit of spiritualism was a bad thing for a Gaian, but still, knowing her father's stance towards such, as he calls it, "illogical deviations", he felt guilty for harm he probably brought to her relations with her family by not overseeing her. It was too late anyway. The silence dragged on for a minute or two before he spoke again.
I'm sorry, I shouldn't have asked. - another moment of silence. - I think that dragging this conversation is pointless. You need to get some rest before tomorrow's flight. If you'll need anything, I'll be on Islay for few days. But now, go get some sleep. And keep in mind the importance of this event, my dear. First time is always the best one.
