Geh!kin forced himself to take a break every now and then, but he couldn't stop thinking about the strange new world they found themselves in. Or not on, more accurately.

Why did aliens have to wait until our world was ending to show up? We could have learned so much! We could have saved so many more!

Those were useless thoughts, and Geh!kin shoved them aside for the dozenth time. There was too much to do in the here-and-now. I never wanted to be a leader. For all her youth, Ktheg!lik was good at it. But there are already at least two of the new people trying to take charge, and I honestly think I'll do a better job than either of them. Ultimately, though, I have Nik!eh's support at the moment, and that's enough to keep me on top.

Geh!kin sighed. Nik!eh is in charge, because he controls the golem, and the golem controls the ship. That's what it comes down to. We're going to come into conflict soon, unless I figure out how to head that off. Nik!eh wants to take this ship and go back to his home planet, naturally enough. We want to stay here and rescue our people. The doctor and the other Goldaskians appear to want to travel back to what they call "civilization" out there in the galaxy.

Thinking of fitness of leaders...we could do worse than Nik!eh, but he honestly doesn't seem terribly bright. I'm guessing his vastly superior education is what is enabling him to keep up with us and be useful for more than giving Petra instructions. This brings up the troubling question: what are the other hoonans like? Nik!eh himself doesn't seem to have a high opinion of them, particularly the leaders of his people. If we travel to Earth, we might have serious trouble.

So, what do I do about it?

I need to come up with a good compromise plan and then convince everyone to go along with it. Well, I need to convince Nik!eh to go along with it. All right, let's see. The things everyone wants are survival, this ship, and Petra. In the long run, Petra is the most valuable prize, but without survival, it's pointless. We have to continue search and rescue, and most importantly we have to work towards food self-sufficiency. We have to learn how to farm under this terrible sun. I'm not ready to give up on Ooafa, though some of the others are. Rescuing people has broad support; getting people to make a serious go of it on our home planet doesn't have the same level of consensus.

Knowing that there's a whole healthy world out there—lots of them, in fact—makes quite a few people want to become penniless immigrants in the greater galactic empire or whatever they have running things. The idea is that in a land of kings, even a pauper lives like a prince just on the scraps. But our own history tells us of ways that can go wrong...and ways it can go right, to be fair.

Geh!kin flicked his ears in annoyance. It hasn't even been a dozen days yet since the Goldaskians invaded and we took this ship. At the moment, the farthest ahead most people are looking is their next meal or the next election. But these problems are coming. What's the solution?

With my people, I suppose we let them go where they want. The ones who want to stay on Ooafa do so, and the ones who want to go searching for bluer waters come aboard this ship when it leaves. Some of those will go to Earth with Nik!eh. A world that we know we can survive and eat on is better, to some, than stories of other worlds that might be just as good.

Assume that this ship is leaving for Earth in, say, half a gross of days. More than double that at a minimum before it could return. The people still on Ooafa have to be able to survive at least that long without further help. Even running all nine of Petra's makers on food production for a season probably won't be enough, and we can't do that if we need to make survival gear or farming equipment as well.

This novel's true home is a different platform. Support the author by finding it there.

Geh!kin pulled one of the glowing boards closer and asked Petra to show the numbers that he kept looking at even though they kept changing. This ship carried 204 crew. So far we have 37 fuak!a aboard and eleven aliens. It can carry about three hundred people if needed, and four hundred for a relatively short trip. Maybe we want to go to some nearby world before we travel to Earth. I could probably appeal to Nik!eh's curiosity.

There's the problem of the Goldaskians learning early that their ship has been taken, though. We'll have to see what it would take to disguise the ship as something else—and how much time that would take from the printers. But if we could drop off a couple of hundred survivors on a planet that welcomed them, somewhere they could survive at least a season or two without angering the locals, then that would ease the strain on the ones staying behind, and lighten the load on the ship as well. I'll have to ask Doctor Vik!ah about the possibilities. Or, perhaps Pilot Yulliksu might have a better idea of what worlds nearby would welcome our refugees.

All right, suppose we keep rescuing people for several dozen days, and then head for a nearby world with refugee immigrants. Who knows how long it would take to make sure they are welcome and can survive, and drop them off? Then after that, we go to Earth.

Earth.

Eight billion hoonans, Nik!eh says. Two hundred...he probably meant "nations" when he said "groups." All better educated than fuak!a, with a better grasp of the possibilities Petra can provide. His people will want the ship, and Petra, and probably want all of us as zoo exhibits or for study or something. Nik!eh does not have any particular power back home, he says. He's not sure he could protect us. I can only imagine what some fuak!a would have done to a small group of aliens if we had been the ones with superior weapons and technology.

The two biggest dangers, aside from starvation, are the Goldaskians coming after their ship, and the rulers of Earth. We can avoid the former for a year or two if we go straight to Earth. That won't make the Goldaskians aboard happy, but there are only ten of them and they could always be dead or stranded on the planet instead, so they probably won't complain too hard. I shouldn't ignore their wishes, though, because they might easily sabotage the ship or hold us hostage somehow to get better treatment. Best if I give them enough that they don't want to revolt in the first place.

So, one possibility is, a season here on search and rescue, three or four hundred of us crowd aboard and we go to Earth. Assuming we somehow navigate those problems, we spend part of a season on Earth—or above it, at any rate—and then come back here. We see how the survivors are doing, help some more, and then risk going to an alien port somewhere nearby, with more refugees.

We need the ship more than we need Petra, Geh!kin concluded. And the hoonans are probably stable enough that they can see the long-term benefit of Petra. If Nik!eh leaves with Petra when we reach Earth, and we take the ship, we'll yet have some of our options open. We can still rescue people and work on survival. Maybe one of those other worlds will be willing to help us, in exchange for some mining rights or something.

We'll need to convince the hoonans to let us take the ship, and they won't want to. So, we'll have to arrange it so that they can't stop us. I expect that the shuttle will be on a one-way trip, and we'll need to flee immediately to prevent the ship from being taken. Assuming Nik!eh lets us go.

Geh!kin nodded to himself. Yes. Lots of questions need answering and lots of details filled in, but I expect that plan will be at least somewhat palatable to everyone. Now—well, at my next break, anyway—I need to ask Petra questions, then Nik!eh, and then Doctor Vik!ah and possibly the other Goldaskians aboard. I'd better come up with at least a few variants on this plan that people can fight over when it's time to have this discussion.

For now, back to figuring out food supplies and shuttle flights...

If you find any errors ( broken links, non-standard content, etc.. ), Please let us know < report chapter > so we can fix it as soon as possible.