Colonists - Leader, part 7

BREVITY MILITARY HQ

July 4, 2186

"So, what you're saying, Flight Lieutenant, is that a whale came up out of the water and ate our probe? Likely the only only probe we're ever to receive from Earth?" Advisor Ying Oum with unveiled annoyance.

"I guess that's what you'd call it, ma'am. It was huge - maybe the size of the extinct Humpback whales on Earth," she explained.

Oum shook her head in frustration and turned away from the pilot to look out the small window the briefing room had. Decatur leaned back in his chair, rubbing his hand across his mouth and chin, "Well we don't really have any options about it. It was completely out of our control. It crashed down into the water and the local, massive, wild life ate it."

Oum turned to him, "Is that a joke? Is any of this funny?"

"Maybe in an ironic sense, it is, Advisor. Here we are, floundering on this new world and our one shred of a piece of hope from Earth is cast away into the deep sea. It survives all the rigors of a multi-year space journey just to be eaten by a water-based life form. It is a bit funny," Decatur replied, now rubbing his forehead.

Oum watched the recorded video feed from Pharaoh's dropship camera for a few seconds more, "I don't want this made public yet. The combination of the loss of such a probe and the fact that very aggressive large water animals exist could hamper our efforts to exploit the sea as a viable resource."

Decatur frowned and his lips cut sideways in a bit of disapproval, "What do we tell them, then?"

"Nothing," Oum stated flatly.

"That's not going to work," Pharaoh cut in, "There were the civvies out at that worm carcass - they already heard what happened over the radio. They think it's the Kamikaze. And the civilians will talk, Advisor. We're going to have a lot of upset people not not a lot of time if we don't explain this to them."

"The morale implications could be worse if we tell them-"

"'Could be worse?!' Are you listening to yourself? This kind of lying is what lead to the Final War on Earth!" Pharaoh shouted, standing fro the seat she was in.

"Stow the attitude, Lieutenant!" Decatur said in a raised voice.

Oum walked across the room to confront the pilot, "You will do I say."

"The hell I will! Major-"

"Flight Lieutenant, you're dismissed," Decatur said pointing to the door, now standing as well. The woman came to quick attention and popped off a rapid salute and damn-near stomped out of the briefing room.

Oum turned to Decatur, "You need to reign in your people, Major."

"I'll talk with Pharaoh - but she is right. We can't lie to these people. As much as we don't like it this is something that isn't our fault. We have no sea vehicles and no way of tracking that... whale or fish, whatever it was. So it we're lucky the thing will expel the probe - one way or other," Decatur said as he sat back down.

Oum breathed heavily through her nose in frustration, "I suppose you're right - we can't make the mistakes of our forefathers on Earth. In Old China they had a saying - 'wàn shì kāi tóu nán.' It means 'All things are difficult before they are easy.'"

"And a word spoken can never be taken back," Decatur smiled crookedly.

Oum eyed him, "I wasn't aware you knew Old China's teachings."

Decatur shrugged as he turned off the looping video of Pharaoh's dropship cam, "I've read a little philosophy. To prevent repeating the mistakes of the past, we have to understand it." Decatur then raised his tablet from the small desk at the front of the briefing room, "Let's decide how best to tell our people what happened."

BREVITY COLONY SQUARE

July 5, 2186

Ying Oum stood at the podium at the front of the colony's central gathering place. The large grass field had some small benches and now well-worn foot paths, but the colony itself didn't have a large surplus of chairs to lay out in rows like on Earth or other larger, more established colonies. Instead the people gathered were mostly standing or sitting on the grass itself. The podium Oum had used, which was the simple wooden one made from local trees that she'd always used for public addresses, was only raised up from the ground by a small stair platform that allowed a single speaker. The colony square had a slight incline so the audience could all easily see her and she them.

About half of the colony's total population, all those not working at the mine or otherwise critical for the colony's survival, had been invited. She decided not to spend any more time waiting as the crowd of more than 600 stirred in impatience, talking all the while.

"Good morning, everyone. Thank you for coming to listen to this important news," she began. As I'm sure many of you witnessed or heard by now, there was a bit of commotion yesterday. We detected a probe that entered our atmosphere. Our military forces quickly and expertly followed the then-unknown object to it's landing in the nearby sea. We determined it was a probe sent from Earth, we assume, one year after we left - well before we actually arrived here at Nile.

"Despite our tracking efforts, before a recovery could be made, a large unknown sea creature swallowed the probe whole. We have since lost track of it. I tell you this, not so that you'll despair in the loss of this priceless gift from home - so that you'll rejoice in knowing that Earth hasn't forgotten us. And in that regard, we must not forget Earth," she paused for a moment. "For the time being, until our biologists can make a better determination of what other life lives in the sea, we ask that you don't take any expeditions there. In time, we are looking to establish a fishing village. For now, that is on hold for everyone's safety. I'm now open to having questions asked."

A man near the front of the crowd stood up from his place on the grass. "Advisa," he called for attention, his African accented English was thick, "How do we know it was from Eart'?"

"The pilots who pursued the probe had cameras aboard the dropships; video recordings show that the probe landed intact on the surface of the water while staying afloat with large orange flotation devices. Along its side was the flag of Earth," Oum explained.

The man had a look of dismay, "Is dere no hope to recover dis?"

Oum drew her lips into a line before answering, "For the time being, all we can do is hope. That hope being that the digestive system of this particular animal is not particularly potent and that it will, eventually..." she looked at Decatur, "Expel the probe." Oum couldn't keep the slightly crooked smirk from her face as she used the man's own word from the day before.

She turned back to the man asking the question, "Perhaps then, if the probe is still active, it will send out a transmission we can detect."

Another woman a ways away from the first questioner stood, "Do we have any idea if the Kamikaze know about us?"

Oum shook her head, "We have no reason to suspect that our location has been discovered."

"'But we don't know' is what you're saying," she pressed.

Oum hesitantly nodded, "I'm saying we don't have a way of knowing - therefore, we don't have a reason to suspect we have been discovered."

"But this probe might have told us that," the woman's voice was starting to rise.

"Maybe. It might have told us that the Kamikaze have finally been defeated, and Earth is coming to re-establish contact with us. We simply have no way of knowing," Oum was forcing herself to remain calm in what she could see was the budding of panic from this woman.

"We need to do something. You need to do something! We have to know!"

The first questioner turned to the woman and began to shout, "Now you calm down! Quick talkin' dis crazy talk!"

"I will not! We could be staring death in the face right now!"

"And what will you do? Move the whole colony?!"

"Yes! Yes - we should move," the woman was starting to fray emotionally at suddenly being questioned.

"Wit' what?! And where to?! The Kamikaze have ships, dey will see us from orbit anywhere we go!"

By this point Decatur had already signaled two of his Infantry to move in on the man while he and another moved toward the woman. Oum couldn't hear him from her location on the podium, but she knew she had to regain control of the audience. She began talking again to refocus their attention on her, "As I said, for everyone's safety, we are keeping  the fishing village on hold. But we will begin surveying the surrounding sea as quick and safely as possible. I know we have a lot of talent and skill among you, those who worked fisheries back on Earth or other colonies - and we want to see you put those skills to use for yourself and the colony."

Now the man and woman had both sat back down, having been subdued. Oum spoke once again as Decatur returned to standing beside the podium, "Were there additional questions?"

BREVITY ADMINISTRATION BUILDING

Former Landing Zone command building

July 5, 2186

"There was terrible," Oum said.

"You haven't made many public speeches, then," Decatur replied.

"Excuse me? I've made dozens all across the PAC - I never had anyone question me in the way that woman had," she rebuked.

"Well I suspect those speeches were from a tired and complacent people as a result of the sheer exhaustion as a result of the Economica Collapse. They probably listened just enough, applauded and cheered just enough to get through the speech and return to whatever meager lives they had. But these people," Decatur said opening his hand toward the window, "These people are volunteer settlers. They're very brave and very independent. Sometimes that independence can be... boisterous."

Oum shook her head, frustrated that - despite the culture gap between the AWDI and PAC - some of the colonists seemed angry at her even though they were all working together. "This is why I was hesitant to tell them about the probe; I didn't want this very thing to happen. I didn't want there to be malicious whispers and dissension being caused."

Decatur put his hand on her shoulder as she leaned on the desk, "I know. It's never easy. But as someone who is a descendant of people whom had their leaders time and time again lied to them, I understand that woman's concern - misplaced though it may be."

"The PAC doesn't question our leadership. The Final War and the Economica Collapse proved that we needed to be more honest with our people, to better guide them. And the people knew we were working to do just that."

"Which is why you were chosen for this mission, Ying. You are honest and dedicated, you just have to prove it to them. To be frank we've had it pretty easy. No major diseases, no plagues, no riots - you haven't yet been tested and this was your first one. I think you passed, it'll just take time to have word spread," Decatur removed his hand and stepped back.

She turned, "I don't think I understood the challenge before me when I so confidently told Earth Command I was ready for this and wouldn't fail."

Decatur shook his head, "We rarely are. But don't count yourself out. I think, for the most part, you're doing really well."

Oum turned to look at him, "Only for the most part?"

Decatur smiled, "There haven't been food riots, yet. That's a good sign."

"Barren planet" image originally hosted on Beyond Earthly Skies at http://beyondearthlyskies.blogspot.com/   I am not the original artist nor do I own the image showed. The image used after being located under the "Public Domain" search filter.