The Great Escape Chapter 21, Part 1 of 8

The Great Escape
Chapter 21, Part 1 of 8

Throughout the journey from Samothea to Celetaris, Gloria held Ezra's hand for security.

She is a strong-minded and secure woman. The unusual strangeness of the space flight disconcerted her. Even after emerging from the orbiting hyperspace beacon near Celetaris, during the slow and smooth descent to the planet's surface, Gloria forgot to let go of him.

Yael and Freya stared out of the portholes in awed silence as a giant blue, green, and white globe moved slowly toward them, expanding as it approached.

Ezra let the girls undo their harnesses temporarily so they could see better out of the port holes. They were weightless in space now, so the slightest movement lifted them out of their seats, a sensation they loved. Gloria remained firmly strapped in.

Two hours later, Robyn gave her passengers the order to put their harnesses back on, preparatory to the sharp and bumpy deceleration through the atmosphere, during which the girls yelped for joy, and Gloria gripped Ezra's arm with both hands.

Robyn Bradford landed the shuttlecraft safely at Ocean City Astro port a mere ten hours after leaving Samothea.

It was dusk, and the lights in the Astro port beamed yellow cones onto the tarmac as the CSS Petticoat taxied into the disembarkation station, giving a last sighing nod as the brakes engaged. Steam condensed on the cooling airframe and dripped onto the ground from the wings and rocket motors.

The decontamination process began when hoses on the roof started spraying the craft down.

When they finished, a plastic-lined corridor with concertina folds automatically pressed against
the passenger bay door and sealed itself.

Robyn pressed the button to open the door. She remained on board, staying in quarantine so she could head back to Samothea as soon as possible.

Ezra led the way through the plastic corridor to a hygiene station crewed by two nurses in full protective clothing, including full-face masks.

"Don't worry, girls," he said. "It's for our protection, not theirs."

"We're not worried," Yael said cheerfully.

"Can we do it again, please, Daddy?" Freya asked. "I liked the bumpy bits best!"

"Not for now, Sweetie."

In the medical room, the nurses took pin-prick blood samples and mouth swabs. Two minutes later, the testing machines provided verdicts on the visitors' immune systems, showing that there were no diseases on Celetaris that would pose a threat to them. Nonetheless, they advised a shot against colds. Ezra agreed and went first. A nurse sprayed inoculants up his nose.

He sneezed and wiped his eyes with a tissue.

The others submitted to the same painless treatment.

"It tastes funny, Daddy," Freya complained.

"Yes, Sweetie. It'll pass."

At last, a nurse signaled that the hygiene center door could be released.

Danielle and Roger waited outside, heading a small welcoming committee from the Samothea Project Team, a half-dozen staff members available at short notice.

The sealed door of the hygiene station opened with a relaxing hiss, and there was Ezra, about five years older, thinner, bearded, but smiling with tremendous relief and gratitude at his beloved sister and rescuer. If Danielle thought she would keep her composure, she was quickly disillusioned. Happy tears flowed down her cheeks even before she'd skipped a few steps and leaped into her brother's arms, who held her tightly.

There was too much pent-up emotion to say what they felt, but the way Ezra held his sister and kissed her demonstrated most eloquently how much he missed her. They hugged at the entrance until Yael tapped Ezra on the shoulder.

"Ezra, you're blocking the doorway, and we want to meet everyone."

He found his voice at last.

"Danielle, thank you for saving me. Thank you for everything!"

"I missed you, Ezra. I'm glad you're back."

"This is Yael," he said, "a friend of mine. Yael, this is my sister, Danielle."

"Hello, Yael," Danielle said, all tears and smiles. "Welcome to Celetaris."

Ezra felt a tug on his trousers. He picked Freya up.

"And this is Freya, my oldest daughter. Freya, meet your aunt Danielle."

Gloria was last out of the hygiene center. Despite all the fantastic sights she'd witnessed - the inside of a spacecraft, traveling through hyperspace, viewing a planet from thousands of miles away, and flying over a city with a million artificial lights - she blinked in wonder at the fantastic sight of an Astro port with jet-cars, hover-buses, airplanes and spaceships arriving and leaving.

Hundreds of people milled about on the Astroport concourse and transportation platforms, and the night was illuminated by the flaring electric lights. But it was the noise that shocked her the most. The distant roar of spaceships taking off under rocket power; the rumble of airplanes taxiing to and from their berths; the whoosh of levitating ground cars and hover-buses; and, above all, the croaking loudspeakers announcing arrivals and departures.

Gloria struggled not to be overwhelmed by all the noise and confusion, but Yael and Freya seemed to absorb it all with no problem. The journey that had so thrilled and delighted the girls had jolted and shaken Gloria, frightening her in a way she hadn't expected, knocking her confidence. Ezra noticed Gloria hesitate and returned to guide her forward.

"Ladies and Gentlemen, may I present Madam Gloria, Prefect of Samothea," he said formally.

The title was impressive and reminded Gloria of her status. The respectful welcome from the Samothea Project Team helped restore her dignity. Gloria smiled graciously at Danielle and her team and strode forward to meet them.

Because the CSS Petticoat hadn't been expected back so soon, it returned quickly due to Doctor Jane Bradford's concerns about Annela, so there were no news reporters or a public audience, which was mercy. Introductions could be made quietly and without fanfare, hopefully lessening the culture shock.

As the visitors from Samothea were meeting the Project Team, medical orderlies entered the hold of the shuttle and attached levitating blocks to Annela's pod. They steered the pod into a ground transport.

When he saw Annela's pod being moved, Ezra said to his sister:

"Danielle, where are they taking Annela? Should we go with them?"

"They're taking her to the medical center at the Institute for Science," she explained. "We've arranged for doctors there to treat her. One of the doctors is a friend of mine, Cassie Leighton, a neurosurgeon involved in the project.


Ezra nodded. He'd heard of her and felt reassured.

"She'll take good care of her, I promise. Come home with Roger and me for now."

"Thanks, Danielle. Sweetheart," he said to his daughter, "we're going with your aunt Danielle, but I promise you we'll pay a visit to your mother in the hospital."

"Yes, Daddy. Robyn told me the doctors will make her better."

"They will, Sweetie."

At last, the party left the landing stage and made for the jet car station.

As the jet car levitated out of the Astro port and flew over the city, Yael and Freya were glued to the windows, absorbing all the wonders of Celetaris. They cooed in awe at the soaring skyscrapers of Ocean City. Hovercars wove their way through the air. Moving walkways crisscrossed the streets, connecting buildings at every level and carrying thousands of people.

Adverts on the shop fronts blazed out. The night-time Ocean City was the most exciting place the girls had ever seen.

The jet car soon reached its cruising height and turned away from the city, the thrust pushing its passengers back into their seats. They flew over the dark-blue central ocean toward Arts City, one hundred miles away. Below them, boats sat in the harbor with twinkling lights or skimmed across the surface, leaving trails on the water.

Turning before it reached Arts City, a mass of twinkling lights to the right, the jet car flew across a large, dark, and empty park toward the Celetaris Institute for Science. It landed outside Danielle and Roger's apartment building on the campus grounds.

There was just as much for the visitors from Samothea to wonder at in a modern apartment filled with labor-saving devices, lights, computers, books, and video screens as there was in anything they had seen on the space flight or the jet car journey. Although it was nighttime, the air was dry and warm, a condition they had been warned about but had not expected.

The three Samotheans stood in the living room, too wary to move or touch anything, until Roger invited Gloria to the large picture window, which offered a view over the Science Park.

He showed her the science tower, the Vortex, to the right and the faculty and administration tower, the Needle, on the far left, both of which were lit up and shining in the black night. Not so prominent, though lit by a ring of blue, was the mushroom dome of the conference center.

Before, it was the white rectangles of the Medical Center where Annela's pod was headed.

"Dinner will be in ten minutes, everyone," Danielle announced, having been at her computer, arranging its delivery. "Make yourselves at home."

Yael asked Danielle:

"What are our chores?"

"Chores?" Danielle wondered, breaking her own rule about not repeating what other people said.

"Yes, what work do you want Freya and me to do? We're good at most things."

"I don't have any chores for you. The housework is done automatically, and there's no cooking to do. You're welcome to help me set the table if you'd like.

They wanted. They copied what Danielle did. Freya had to kneel on the chairs to reach it. It wasn't enough work, but they were happy to be able to do something.

Dinner arrived just as they finished, and after dinner, the girls insisted on doing more chores.

"We can wash up," Yael offered. "In the Forest Camp, we normally leave the platters out in the night rain, but they wash the plates and cups in the Cloner Hall. Can we do that for you?"

"Help me clear the table and load the dishwasher."

Even that chore wasn't enough. The girls were accustomed to working a couple of hours every day.

Danielle had an idea.

"The bathroom needs cleaning," she pretended. "If I show you what to do, will you clean it for me, please?"

The girls were delighted to oblige. Danielle gave them some soap, sponges, clothes, and a bucket.

"Clean everything you can reach!" she said and left them to it.

It was quiet for ten minutes.

Gloria and Roger were getting on well, discussing the history of Samothea. Tomorrow, Gloria will begin her preparations for the upcoming conference, of which Roger has appointed himself the official historian, taking a break from filming his latest video book.

Danielle and Ezra relaxed on the settee, sitting companionably together, re-establishing the sibling bond by which they could speak in half-sentence yet completely understand each other.

There was a lot to catch up on in the last five years.

"I'm sorry Mum and Dad can't be here," Danielle said, "but Dad's on the job at the moment. I sent them a message as soon as I got Robyn's signal five hours ago."

"It's all right, Sis," Ezra said. "They'll get here when they can."

He put his arm around her, and she snuggled close, holding him around the chest, kicking her shoes off to put her feet up on the couch and fold her knees up.

"I'm glad you're back," she said, kissing his cheek.

"Thank you for rescuing me," he said, kissing her forehead. "I'll never get tired of saying that."

Giggles and laughter gradually emanated from the bathroom, but Danielle didn't stir. More laughter, raucous laughter, and eventually, screams followed. Still, Danielle waited, hugging her brother. Another fifteen minutes went by, and finally, the laughter stopped. It was ominously quiet in the bathroom. Now, Danielle reluctantly got up to investigate.

The floor, part of the ceiling, two of the walls, and the girls themselves were dripping wet.

They'd smothered everything in soap, including each other, and then used the shower to spray the whole room. Soaked to the skin, they were wiping everything down. Danielle surveyed the room. Chrome bars, the sink, the toilet, and the glass shower screen gleamed like diamonds.

The girls smiled happily. Honor was satisfied: they had helped!

"Why, thank you, girls," Danielle said brightly, going to fetch towels.

She put their clothes in the washing machine and, while they were naked, took their measurements. Danielle used the flat's computer to order a selection of clothes to be delivered the next day. Meanwhile, she lent Yael a pair of blue silk pajamas. Yael had never felt such luxurious material. With her hair combed straight after a hot hair blast, she looked fabulous. Danielle wrapped Freya in a toweling bathrobe with a hood, which the girl loved. Snug and warm, Freya climbed onto Ezra's lap and lay in a bundle until she fell asleep.

Yael meanwhile asked permission to examine Danielle and Roger's library, declaring that the Cloners didn't have half as many books as they had in just one room of their flat. She happily flicked through Roger's large academic history books and Danielle's even more obscure physics textbooks, full of mysterious equations and peculiar diagrams, until it was time for bed.

Gloria was given the large spare bedroom. They would engage a hotel room for her tomorrow so she could have some privacy. Yael and Freya shared the small spare bedroom, which Danielle had spent an hour preparing, storing the clothes, bags, and shoes that had cluttered the bed in storage boxes. Ezra made do with the futon couch in the living room.

After the excitement of the day, it wasn't challenging to sleep, even though the following day marked the beginning of one of the most remarkable eras in the history of the women of Samothea and the lives of Ezra and his family.

After breakfast the following day, Danielle let the girls wash up. At the same time, Roger took Gloria to meet Paul Kessler, a lawyer for the Samothea Project and husband of the neurosurgeon, Cassie Leighton, to discuss the program for the Conference.

Ezra borrowed a computer tab and sent brief messages to his parents and friends, checked his bank account, wrote to the insurance company about his ship, ordered some new clothes and a couple of special secret packages, and then played with his daughter until she was exhausted from laughing.

After which, he locked himself in the spare bedroom and devoted himself diligently to answering a backlog of five years' correspondence.

Danielle also stayed at home, waiting for the clothes she had ordered the previous night and working on her computer. Soon, she forgot everything else.

Roger introduced Gloria to Paul Kessler in Paul's office in The Needle, on the south side of the Science Park. As she sat in the rich leather seats, Gloria was charmed by the Samothea Project lawyer. She had never seen a movie, but she now knew what the term 'movie-star looks' meant. She tried not to stare at him so obviously; then, she laughed at herself and settled down to work.

The Conference wasn't due to start for three weeks, so Gloria had more time than expected to acclimatize to life on Celetaris. She would indeed adjust quickly to the climate, as it was a warm spring with occasional showers. However, adjusting to Celetaran society, whose population was ten times that of Samothea, might take longer.

As Paul began to explain the legal issues, Roger passed Gloria a yellow legal pad and an old-fashioned ink pen for her to work on. She also carried a stack of rough bark pages that she brought from Samothea.

"The central issue," Paul said, "is the status of the colony of Samothea, which is determined by three things. One is the original contract with Outworld Ventures, the settler company. This contract determined who could settle on Samothea and what property they owned. Our opinion is that the contract lapsed during the time that Samothea was cut off from the rest of the Anglosphere."

Gloria made a note on her yellow pad.

"Second is the Planetary Homesteading Act, which under certain circumstances can extend the period during which the Settler Company has an exclusive interest in its colony."

Gloria made another note and riffled through her stack of bark paper, quickly finding the sheet she wanted.

"And third is whatever agreements the present owners of Samothea decide to make with the settler company or any other legal party."

"So, it's your opinion that we women of Samothea own our planet because the legal ownership of the settler company lapsed after seventy-five years?" Gloria asked.

"Yes, except that the law was changed some time ago so that the original company had one hundred years of uncontested ownership. As the foundation of Samothea was nearly one hundred and five years ago, then unless I have made a mistake or ignored a salient fact, I believe the planet is yours."

Gloria seemed happy with this conclusion. She crossed out a line on the rough bark paper and added a note.

"We have no up-to-date law book," she explained, "so I compiled all the relevant laws I could find from our other books: Memories of Earth, the Story of Samothea, and the Laws and Constitution of Samothea. Incidentally, why was the period of original ownership changed from seventy-five years to one hundred years?"

Roger could answer this in detail, having made a close study of colonial history. He told Gloria the story of New Exeter-Marazonia and the consequent changes to the Planetary Homesteading Act after the failure of Alexander Marazon's tyranny. Now, a settler company owned a legal monopoly on trade for one hundred years after the colony was founded.

"The Planetary Homesteading Act was also changed," he continued, "so that the settler company's ownership might be extended another fifty years if the colony agrees as New Exeter has agreed, under Mayor Grandley, or if the courts adjudicate it because an agent of the settler company reports first-hand that the colony is unsustainable or failing."

"Such an agent must be sent within the first hundred years of the colony," Roger finished, "so we're in the clear, I believe."

"I assume you want to have amicable relations with Outworld Ventures," Paul said. "They are a prosperous company with many good contacts in the galaxy and can be helpful to you. I also assume that Outworld Ventures would want to help their former colony as much as possible, perhaps in exchange for a favorable trading status.

"But if Outworld Ventures declined to be amicable, what could they do?" Gloria wondered.

"They could make a claim in the courts for ownership of Samothea. If they won, even if they had no monopoly of trade, they could sell all the unowned land on the planet, both on your continent and on the other continents, including mining rights and fishing rights, filling your planet up with undesirable colonists or polluting industries."

Gloria looked shocked. Roger protested on her behalf:

"But, Paul, you just said the period of legal ownership has lapsed!"

"Some clever lawyer might find a loophole."

"What loophole?"

"I don't know. Relativistic time travel or some science-fiction rubbish. In an ideal world, we could rely on impartial judges. In the real world, however, especially in an Earth court, with the handsome prize of Samothea dangling before the greedy eyes of politicians, judges might find it difficult to be impartial."

"I understand that," said Gloria, "so would money be the settler company's only motivation in claiming ownership of our planet?"

"For the settler company, it would be money, but for the Earth politicians who are currently stoking trouble for us and maybe putting pressure on Outworld Ventures, the motivation is political. Earth wants to control everything so she can relocate some of her teeming nine billion population.

"Also, to be fair," Roger added to Paul's analysis, "some in the Anglosphere want to boost the populations of the outworld colonies as a bulwark against the Sino-Russian Federation, so they can maintain their military defenses as they should and not put the burden on Earth."

"I see," Gloria said, somewhat resignedly.

"Don't be disheartened, Madam Gloria," Paul continued in his smooth, suave voice. "Look at it from Outworld Ventures' point of view. They took on a massive debt when they became owners of Samothea. Terraforming costs and the loss of the first settler ship contributed to the downfall of the original settler company. Although the debt is historical, I'm sure they would like to recoup that money in addition to generating new revenue from selling land on Samothea and operating the mines and other industries.


To be continued