Chapter No.31. Uncovering.

The next morning, we gathered at the command station where Janet and Sharon had spent some midnight oil trying to decipher the alien astronomical charts and symbols.

"We think we have discovered a few things about these aliens," Janet said. "They definitely are from a system near Earth, but we're not quite sure of its location."

"We believe that these aliens came to Earth to herd humans as a food source," Sharon said. "Evidently, they employed a religious scam to make humans think they were angels gathering the believers for a journey to Nirvana. At some point, the ancestors of the dome city citizens realized that and tried to stop it by firing a missile at one of their ships. That incident might have ended the alien's attempts to obtain more humans."

"There is also the possibility that the aliens succumbed to a human illness," Janet added.

I shook my head, "All this time we thought that humans were killed off by climate change. Ironically, removing billions of humans from Earth stopped climate change, at least to a certain extent. The only question is: are there human survivors on the alien home world?"

"Could be," Janet said. "We won't know until we discover the location of their planet and go there."

"I agree. In the meantime, we may as well complete our plan to reverse climate change. Bridget, Natale and I will go out with the shuttle and deposit the iron sulphate in the Gulf of Mexico and the Caribbean."

Janet and Sharon didn't say anything, but they realized what was going to happen and prepared for it.

Bridget, Natale and I went down to the engineering deck to get a drum of iron sulphate. We had COMA stop the wheel rotations so that we could more easily move the drum through the axel tubes and up to the hanger deck, where we could load it on a shuttle.

After COMA decompressed the hanger deck and opened the main hatch, I carefully maneuvered the shuttle out of the hanger so that I could fire the breaking rockets to plunge it down through the atmosphere. After leveling out at a thousand meters over the Gulf of Mexico, I flew a zigzag course while Bridget and Natale operated the controls to spray the chemical onto the water.

I flew out past what was left of Florida and Bridget and Natale resumed spraying again after I turned the shuttle southeast and flew over Cuba.

"There's quite a bit of those islands still above water," Natale said. "I thought that they were flooded over."

"They were, but it seems that the oceans have dropped down a bit since our first arrival."

"That's a good sign that climate change has abated," Bridget said.

"No doubt about it," I said.

Once the chemical supply was gone, I flew the shuttle back up to the ship. We joined Janet and Sharon at the command station.

"Any progress in interpreting the alien astronomy charts?" I asked.

"Yeah," Janet replied. "We think that their home world is orbiting Tau Ceti, which is a K-class star approximately 12 light years away."

"Are we going there?" Natale asked.

I rubbed my jaw. "I don't know how safe that would be. Our vessel is not very capable of conducting a war in space with those saucer ships. If we took on any serious damage, we wouldn't be able to return to Earth."

"I would think that those aliens are probably not as capable as they were a hundred years ago," Sharon said. "Maybe they're already extinct."

"That could be, but no matter what, we'll be running a risk if we go there."

They didn't say anything. I sighed. "COMA, establish a communication link with the dome city."

Adal's face appeared on the main screen.

"We completed the iron sulphate run. We're going to go out to where we think the angelic aliens took humans. I don't know when or even if we'll return."

"Good luck on your journey."

The link ended.

"Okay, do the calculations for a trip to Tau Ceti," I said.

We strapped into our G-chairs and braced for the burn that would take us out of orbit and then to accelerate into hyperspace, something we had gotten used to.

When the acceleration burn had been completed and the wheel deck spins were started, we got out of our chairs and sat down at the command station to check on the ship's status.

"Everything is at optimum," I reported.

"We're definitely in hyperspace," Janet said.

"How long?"

"Five days," she answered.

I stood up. "I'm going to the agricultural deck to make sure everything is okay there."

"May I join you?" Bridget asked.

I looked at her to attempt to discern her motive but didn't discern anything. "Sure."

We went down the axel tube to the agricultural deck and headed to the robot charging station. All of the robots were out doing their thing.

"Looks like they're all functional."

Bridget turned to me and grinned. "Are you functional?"

I wasn't surprised that she would say something like that. "I am. Why do you ask?"

She aimed a mock frown at me. "Don't you like me?"

"Yes, I do."

"You don't show it," she said, frowning. "Why do you always take me with you on away missions?"

"You're the exo-biologist. If we run into aliens or alien remains, I need you to inform me about them."

She sighed. "I thought that you were interested in . . . you know."

I repressed a smile, but it leaked out as a subtle smirk. "We're on duty."

She returned a subtle frown with a hint of amusement. "No, we're not."

"I suppose you're right."

She looked around. "We could enjoy it here. No one's looking."

"Ah, I don't think that's true." I pointed at small spheres attached to the beams that held the canopy over the charging station. "They are there to constantly monitor what goes on here."

She walked over to the back part of the station and looked out over the corn stocks. "isn't there a place that's not monitored?"

"Nope. Every crook and cranny on this ship is monitored."

She stared at me with a surprised look. "Even the showers?"

"Yes."

"The engineers who designed this must have been perverts."

I laughed. "No doubt about that." I gave her a serious expression. "This vessel was not designed for privacy. They didn't allow for the crew to enjoy themselves."

She aimed a serious expression back at me. "Don't you get the urge to do it?"

"Yes, I would be lying if I said I didn't." I held my index finger up. "However, there are four of you and only one of me. That makes it awkward."

She stared at me for a moment before smiling. "We'll have to take turns!"

"I'll tell you what. Why don't you discuss it with the other women."

She pouted. "Okay."

I didn't hear any more about it until the next day at supper. As our custom, we gathered at the food station for a communal supper of soy steak, potatoes and corn, washed down with a beer.

"We've been discussing the issue of sex," Janet said. "We agree with you that this situation is awkward, but we would like to hear your rules about it."

I squinted at her. "Rules?"

"Yeah. You're the captain and have control over our bodies."

"You can't be serious!"

"We are. We told you that we would do anything you wish."

"Yeah, but I don't control your bodies. That's not right."

"We give you that right."

"Look, I understand how you feel. We're on our own with very little chance of settling down, but this is not the Love Boat. Whatever I do I have to be equal in the way I handle you."

"We can take turns," she said without even blinking.

"Okay. Let's say that I will welcome one of you to my bunk between 2200 and 2300 each night where I will be appropriately dressed for love. You can work out the schedule for which one of you comes to me dressed the same way."

"Agreed," she said.

They smiled and that was it.

Some would say that this situation was a fantasy born out of heaven, but I didn't see it that way. It was just an equitable solution to an awkward situation.

Our real test of mettle would come when we arrived at the planet orbiting Tau Ceti.