The Phoenix and the Pelican - Learn to Runphoenixandthepelican.blogspot.comChris Evo-year 1, galactic eraCarpathia Adams, captain of the Anowara colony ship designated Telamon, de factopresident of the first colony of the second generation, woke up clothed. Considering all thesafety implications of using a cryogenic sleep pod for two hundred years while wearing clothesand the fairly concrete memories he had of storing his uniform below the cryo chamber, thisstruck him as somewhat suspicious.He sat up his own bed in his own shipboard apartment. All of his decorations and furniturewere unmoved from the last time he'd seen it, aside from one chair a little closer to his bed soa youngish woman could support herself."Good morning, captain.""Good. . . morning." She wore a uniform unlike any he'd ever seen- a bright silver and blueaffair with countless pins and medals he'd never come across in twenty years of service,shoulder pads, elaborate sleeve patterns, and even a thin saber on one hip. All of it wasperfectly fitted to her small, muscular frame. She smiled gently, arms crossed, back straight."I imagine this is a bit of a shock to you.""Why am I in my room, and why are you on my ship?""Very astute, captain, I'm not a crew member. It bodes well that you can recognize twothousand people, many of which were never even introduced to you. As to your first question,,I had my assistants move you to a more dignified setting for our first meeting. I didn't thinkyou'd want to make a report of your adventures in the buff." Adams jumped off the bed."Report? Are you- where are you from?""Admiral Halleaen Sortre, but you have permission to call me Haily." She controlledeverything he could possibly do at this point and knew it. She controlled everything anyone did."How did you get here?""You've been asleep a long time, captain. People back on Anowara are smart. Give usenough time and we'll do anything- even bend the very laws of nature to our will." His armstrembled."I spent the last two years of my life preparing to leave everything I've ever known foreveron a colony ship that can travel only a small fraction of the speed of light, sleep for over athousand years, and before we even have time to finish the trip you pop out of nowhere andtell me you've got faster-then-light travel.""I cannot show you your mother, Carpathia, or your first love. But the house you grew up inis still there, if you want to take a vacation. Yes, vacation. You're still contracted to settle aplanet, and the government you signed your life to is still around, though a little bit bigger thanyou might remember." He fell backwards onto the bed, overwhelmed, unfeeling. She movedslowly over every word, relishing the script."How much bigger?""We've got the Atahensic on board- I read your report on the ROCS Long- you'll be happy toknow that at least two of the other six arkships are still in the great black and blue. So farwe've got four worlds on board- we're a Federation of Planets, Carpathia! We're spreading!"Her smile stretched her face wide as she leaned even closer in, almost off the chair. "The goalof the original colonies has been fulfilled, and all we have to do is keep going!""So you're going to take me off the Telamon?""No. You've made mistakes, but nothing that bad. I'm going to wake up a few of your littlefriends and we're going to make your baby a speed demon. Drop off anyone who doesn't wantto come along for the ride of their life, and you're going to take this overarmed madhouse intoservice." Adams didn't even take a second to think about it."Yes.""Excellent. First, I want to see you wake someone up. Pick a favorite."

"Fascinating procedure," Halleaen whispered to herself. "So automated in all the wrongareas." Cecilia Dawes threw up a little into the bucket they'd put next to her cryo chamber. Stillnumb, she pulled the blanket they'd thrust at her tighter around her pale body and huddledagainst her ice coffin."Morning, captain.""Morning, private." Cecilia stared to each side of Halleaen for a while before she could get adecent impression of the blur next to her."Who's the creepy girl?""Admiral Sortre. She's come to give us a new mission.""Oh. How'd we get an admiral?" She seemed unconcerned, like she was walking late intosome low-budget movie. Her eyes watered when she tried to focus on anything, so she had tolook around the new crewmember to get an impression, even if it left her still-chilled mindalmost immediately."Faster-then-light travel. Anowara worked it out, and admiral Sortre here was kind enoughto come retrofit the engines of foreign colonies with the new tech.""So we won't need to freeze anymore?" asked Dawes. The admiral answered."No, probably not. Definitely not for a long time, anyway. It's not like it's dangerous,anyway." She chuckled. "It's just a woozy morning, nothing to be afraid of." Cecilia started toshiver again. Adams put a hand on Halleaen's shoulder."Sir, when we left, we were told that anyone coming out of cryogenic sleep had a random,unpredictable one in ten chance of never coming out again. That's not what I'd call a trivialrisk.""Haha, oh that. We figured it out right after you left. I keep forgetting how far back you'refrom, it's amazing. The deaths come from some obscure gene combination- it's complicated.Anyone who makes it out once can make it out ten, twenty, fifty times. I know someone whogot frozen and thawed two hundred times, just to prove it could be done." Cecilia threw up alittle more, then settled back against the cryo pod where she'd spent most of the last thousandyears. She seemed content with the situation, whether or not she was alert enough tounderstand it. "I never understood that man." Adams tensed up suddenly."What about the people who have the marker? Can we save them?""Eh... half, two thirds. It's a weird procedure. We'll probably have to just ship them back tothe homeworld for that. Now, next business: You seem to have a number of people who'vealready proven decent in a crisis, according to your file- Dawes, Zimmerman, Smith, Eaks,Benton. I'd like you to get a crack team together so I don't have to repeat myself.""With all due respect, I don't think I should serve with sergeant Benton anymore. The onlyreason she's still on this ship is punishment for dereliction of duty and-""I read the file. You'll both have to start acting like grownups. Now, as I was saying, you'regoing to need a handful of advisors to accompany you for the mission we have in mind. Tenshould do it- a few less, a few more, whatever you feel is necessary to the mission.""And what is this first mission, if I may be permitted to ask?""You may NOT ask, soldier. I don't like repeating myself. Get a team together and meet mein your fancy conference room this evening, eight standard time. In the mean time, I've gotsome business back on my scout ship. Good luck, captain." She saluted quickly, giving a slygrin all the way out the door. Cecilia grimaced."She's such a creeper.""She's in charge here. Now come on, get cleaned up and help me wake up the team." "Samuel Eaks, ex policeman and professor of ancient Asian studies." The old man noddedloosely at the admiral's roll call. Admiral Halleaen Sortre tapped a finger down a list, watchingthem over the top of her tiny console. "Eliza Benton, sergeant, barely, and freedom fighter.

Very loyal when the mood strikes her." Eliza sniffed at the summery. She knew better than torise to the bait. "James Zimmerman, engineer... violence enthusiast." She chuckled. No one atthe table knew if that was written down somewhere or if she'd just summarized a much lessdirect overview. "Good job. Athena Smith, doctor. Wing Commander William McKenzey.Undistinguished, but workable. Private Cecilia Dawes- I like your moxie. And last but not least,captain Carpathia Adams of the Anowara Telamon." None of the crew seemed particularlyexcited by their brief summaries, but no one could argue their validity. "I was expecting aslightly larger group, but this should be plenty to start with."Now, you all know the mission of the Telamon- find a new rock, bugger each othersideways, grow old and die there. Boring. Important, but boring."Jimmy raised his hand and interrupted before Sortre had time to yield the meeting to him. "Ipersonally believe that buggering can be quite fascinating if done correctly.""Don't we all." said the Admiral. She didn't quite suppress a predatory grin aimed at a cornersomewhere between off to one side of Zimmerman. "We're still going to set up colonies on allof those planets, of course, but you people are veterans, experts in international operations- asmuch as anyone these days could be. A few of you spent the last couple of months awakebuilding relations with what is now a flourishing Chinese colony who jumped at the chance to join the new federation of planets. What I need more then colonists is diplomats, soldiers, andadventurers. People with nothing to lose, people of an idealism that you have to spend yourwhole life tracking down on a normal planet. You seven will head up a diplomatic mission tomeet with representatives the third Atahensic colony, Chuo, and convince them to sendrepresentation to the Federation of Planets. Any questions?" Her hungry eyes grew tall,opaque, hurriedly scanning the room. Eliza raised a hand."What if they don't want to join?""If they don't want to represent themselves in any form, then we won't have any interest intheir best interest. They get no technology, they get no help in times of crisis, they get noaccess to privileged Federation systems, and they have no say in the emerging universegovernment. We're doing this for their safety, and ours." Eliza bent low and whisperedsomething in Jimmy's ear, and they both shook their heads."You said Federation of Planets. How many planets?""Five- Anowara, Niyan, Zhailou, Canistrum, and La Firma, as well as the Atahensic. We'restill in the process of tracking down the rest of the human and allied worlds.""Allied?""You didn't think we were alone in the universe, did you? Since I started this grand tour lastyear I've talked to octopi, werewolves, giant ants, and a silicate rock monster planet!" Shemade strange hand gestures to imitate these aliens creatures, comically exaggerating the walkof the werewolf and an ant's jaws at the appropriate time. The crew was unfazed. "We'reunusually spread out, but we don't have the whole universe yet.""So let me make sure I have this straight, sir:" began the captain, "you want us to jump onthe back of your ship and start jumping into the middle of all sorts of wacky alien civilizationsand try to trick them into joining us with no way to get home and no way to defend ourselves?""Oh, oh god no. You missed the part where I tow you back to Anowara and give the Telamona new engine and- we have a gun that can make volcanoes. Do you want a volcano gun?" Thecaptain looked gravely around the table, staring carefully into each face. Six blank masksnodded back sagely."Yes, we want the giant engine and the free volcano gun.""Excellent!" Halleaen clapped excitedly, beaming her creepy smile all over all of them."Before I forget, I'd like to mention that if you take on the mission, you might not be allowed togo on a full sightseeing tour on the homeworld until after its completed, and we mayquarantine you. There was a plague a few years back- germaphobes, you know." Everyone atthe table nodded. "Now, I'm going to finish hooking up the toe lines. Send me a couple of engineers when you can wake them up, if you've got any that you're sure will make it.Dismissed." They all stood up while she walked out of the room. Cecilia stood up and took herplace at the front of the room."I'm going to come out and say it: the admiral is a complete, terrifying loon."