

Devotion Runs Deep

By Michael Black

Copyright 2019 Michael Black

Smashwords Edition, License Notes

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Contents

Prologue

Chapter 1

Chapter 2

Chapter 3

Chapter 4

Chapter 5

Chapter 6

Chapter 7

Chapter 8

Chapter 9

Chapter 10

Chapter 11

Chapter 12

About This Story
Prologue

"My Teddie!" Kayla was frantic, in the rush to the ship she had forgotten to grab her cherished fuzzy bear from the bed in her quarters and she was being extra 'difficult'. She did not want to leave her precious sleep toy behind, and that was that. Candi could understand the terror in the little girl's eyes, she had seen the love Kayla always showered on the furry inanimate thing. Truth be told, Candi felt a certain fondness for the little fuzzy toy too; she had never chewed on it, but liked to lick sometimes. It always made Kayla laugh when Candi did that. "I get!" As Candi took off as fast as her four legs would move she heard Doktor Mary shouting "Candi don't! We have no time, the virus is spreading." Candi shouted back, hoping she could be heard, "I go fast, is important!" She ran through the open doorway into the compound and up the stairs to Kayla's bedroom. Grabbing the teddy bear off the bed quickly she ran back out, carrying the all important treasure in her mouth, only to see the starship rising through the low hanging clouds, leaving without her.

Candi wandered aimlessly for a while, farther from the lab compound. Doktor Mary had told her that she didn't know for sure if the virus would hurt a dog. None of the Gen 1's, Gen 2's or Gen 3's had come down with the sickness and they had been released into this world to hopefully survive. Candi was Gen 4 though, the very first; no one knew if the gene mixture was as immune as the other Gens were, so she had to be extra careful for a time. Candi wasn't angry that she had been left behind, she knew how deadly the virus was to humans. A hundred biologists had already died and she feared for Doktor Mary and her daughter Kayla. Candi's eyes leaked during the wandering. When she was several miles from the compound the sun was setting as she lay down to rest on a small promontory above the valley below this mountain. When it was totally dark the planet's moon began making its nightly trek across the pitch black sky, blocking out thousands of twinkling dots of light as it moved. The sight reminded Candi of the human's God, Doktor Mary had talked about him a lot. While Candi didn't really know how to pray she did know that it was the feeling behind it that meant the most, so she began singing to God. The plaintive sounds lasted all night, sometimes just the modulated tones of her kind, but other times voicing the human words she knew, all the while hoping Doktor Mary and Kayla were safe. The teddy bear lay beside her throughout the recital.

There were no signs, no soft magical voice telling Candi if her song was heard or not, but her singing did have one curious result. All the Gens came to her during the night on the promontory. There were eight of each Gen, representing a fair number of the different breeds, twenty four dogs total; plus the only Gen 4 ever, the humans called her a 'Shepherd'. Candi talked softly with them all, "Stay together, work to survive, what Masters want for us." Dogs are smart to begin with, and all the Gens understood human speech even if the 1's and 2's had a little difficulty speaking it. All of them agreed that Candi's little speech was a wise thing, and all of them hoped the humans would return one day; humans were nice to dogs usually. It was decided that Candi would lead the pack and make the harder decisions for them. Slowly an intelligent society grew.

***

The Generation Project was borne of the most noble of motives. However, the Earth's constant desire for more powerful war machines and weapons was not. Originally the Bio Weapons Research Center on Carandel had been built for the purpose of killing people with some exotically evil 'bugs' certainly, but after a few short months officials woke up to a far more sinister horror and repurposed the remote laboratory to finding ways to save people instead. The facility even had a new name, 'Angel Labs', searching for antidotes to the many bacteria and microbes being found every year as Humanity struggled to spread out through the stars. A fair number of the bio scientists were also dog lovers as well, and they brought the Generation Project with them. The goal was to increase a dog's lifespan and by default the number of years a loving human could enjoy their company. It was not an official mandate, but the researchers worked in their spare time only, so the project was tolerated to a degree.

Trying to extend any species lifespan is not a fast process by any measure, but you don't have to wait for a subject to die either. Cellular biologists can monitor cell degradation to figure out if a 'potion' is living up to their expectations. The mixture the biologists settled on had a bonus effect as well; the dogs began thinking more abstractly, and started talking. By the time Candi received her 'dose' when she was born, 26 years had elapsed since the project began and the first Gen 1 was still alive, even if he was slow and half blind. Candi was 6 when the 'accident' happened, and she lived for 37 more years. During that time one cave in the valley grew into 23 caves, holding up to 12 dog families in each. They began making things too, crude at first but a little more detailed and refined as the colony progressed. Candi was proud of them all, but there was one thing she would do every evening without fail. Each night she would climb to the promontory, carrying the dilapidated teddy bear in her mouth, and sing to the human God for hours. It did not matter if it rained, Candi would just put the bear under a flat rock where it stayed relatively dry. After a while Dizzy, one of the Gen 3's, managed to fashion a container for the bear and it finally stayed dry all the time. Her three litters didn't stop Candi either, she never missed a single night. One night Candi went up to her 'High Place' and did not come back. In the morning the pack elders found her in her usual spot, just lying there with her eyes closed as if she was asleep. They buried Candi in soft ground behind the promontory and covered the grave with rocks. Dizzy, Candi's mate, created a simple wooden monument and anchored it in the ground in front of the stones. Then he looked up at the sky, wondering what Candi had seen up there for so long. Dizzy never understood what it was that drew her to this spot every night. He had asked her once and all she would say was that "God lives there, will send Masters back one day."

Dizzy was confused by the words at first, but he remembered back to the first days when Candi had said she wished she still had the 'pretty book' that Doktor Mary had used to teach her how to read words. Dizzy had been 1year old at the time and ready for any challenge. Even though the 'Lab' was taboo he went back to it to find this book. It was supposed to be thick and 'pretty', that was all he knew. It took three times, but he finally found it and brought it back for Candi. It was the prettiest book in the compound, but Candi scolded him for half a day for taking such a risk. After she was done scolding she did thank him though, and showed it by teaching him to read human words too. Dizzy went back to her cave and found the book open, right next to the place she always slept. Most of the words were still strange to Dizzy, but the word God was repeated over and over again. His eyes focused on one entry half way down the page that simply said, 'God is Love', that was easy enough to understand. He didn't have to look for God, God was inside everybody. Candi sang to God every night so that he would send the Masters back to the pack; he knew that was a good thing. Dizzy decided then and there he would read all of this book, puzzle out every word, and teach the others. After dark that night, and every night for the rest of his life, Dizzy sat on the promontory and sang to God for Candi. It began a tradition that endured for all the time the pack waited.

The Masters did return, but it was almost 1000 years later. An archaeological expedition thought they were going to dig through a research facility from old Earth; they were not prepared for what they found instead...

***
Chapter 1

"Alright Einstein, standard orbit until we find the lab complex. It is supposed to be half way up a mountainside so focus scanners on all the mountain ranges first." A rude noise came from the overhead speaker, "Yes Captain Obvious Master of the Universe Boss Man. Should I just waste time orbiting, or tell you I already know where it is? The beacon is still functional, even if it is a bit weak." Bill Elgin cringed, "I should reprogram your personality algorithm Einy, sometimes you grate on my nerves at the wrong time, like now." Einy knew he had the winning move, "You do that and I'll tweak those environmental controls in your cabin again. Would you prefer 30 degrees or 90 this time? Besides, you're the one who put in the snark routine Boss."

Putting his hands up in the traditional surrender gesture, Bill laughed. "Ok ok, you win this round. Just tone it down a bit, ok buddy?" A softer voice was his reply, "Noted and adjusted Captain. There's a lot of cloud cover down there, switching to radar for descent and slowing to 500 mph. This elevator is going down, so buckle up and hang on just in case everyone. That means all you passengers back in your cozy cabins back there too folks. I'm watching the indicators for compliance so don't try fooling me. Captain's in a mood today." Finally getting the necessary green board, Einstein took the ship downward through the thick clouds. Even though the AI could 'see' perfectly fine with his scanners and radar, he still slowed to 200 mph. These clouds were thicker that even he was used to. The descent seemed to last forever, but the Gymkhana's forward screen finally showed flickering images of the surface, "As you can see on the board Boss, we're at 3500 feet in altitude and the clouds are breaking up. The mountain is off to the right at 3 miles, so I'll head for it as soon as I get us out of this soup. Just another 100"...suddenly the ship turned completely over and dove for the ground. Bill briefly saw something on the screen as it hurtled past, just missing them. As the ship righted itself, steadying out at 1400 feet, Bill found his voice, "What in heck was that Einy? Does this planet have a flying animal or something we need to know about?"

An AI does not startle easily, and they certainly don't stutter either. Einstein didn't get that particular memo though, "I...Boss...that wasn't an animal Captain, it was an aircraft. Uh oh, it's in trouble too, spiraling down. I'm following it, boy that thing is flimsy! One wing keeps flopping up and down, it's trying to level out. Ow! That had to hurt." The screen showed the crash, and the pilot being thrown about forty feet from the 'airplane'. Einstein hovered at 200 feet and zoomed in on the motionless pilot, "He isn't moving Boss, better get the Doctor up here. That guy"...Einstein didn't really need to state the obvious when they got a close up view, but he did anyway. "It's a Dog!" Bill Elgin was normally crisp and clear with his orders in emergencies, it was how he was made. This time however he was speechless for ten seconds before he shook off the image and spoke, "Land on that flat space to the left of him Einy and lower the boarding stairs. Air looks good on external, but sniff once anyway." Flipping the all call switch, Bill said softly into the microphone, "Doctor Carnes, double time it to the bridge please. Bring your trauma kit and...oh heck, bring everything you can carry Doc, we have an injured dog here." All they heard from the speaker was an incredulous "What?"

***

Melly was having the most fun she had ever had in her short three years, she was finally flying! Elder Andee had out done himself this time, building this magical machine that let her touch the sky. She always knew he would succeed anyway, Elder Andee was the smartest of all the pack. That was no surprise really, since he was a direct descendent of Mama Candi and Papa Dizzy; the Truth Teller said so, and the Truth Teller was never wrong. His telling of each family's heritage went all the way back to the learning time.

Elder Andee had had four failures before he perfected flying like the birds. The flying bed even looked like a bird mostly; it had to be very light to do its job of course, and not just anyone could ride it. To fly properly there had to be someone small at the controls and Melly fit that requirement nicely; at only four pounds she was what had once been called a Chihuahua, and now she was honored by the whole pack, chosen to be the first 'flyer'. What had seemed like a wondrous adventure had turned out to be a bitter frustration at first, four dismal failures had never left the ground. But Elder Andee had never given up either, finally building the first unpowered glider last season. After several dozen 'training' days learning how to control the magical beast, tethered to the ground at the special windy place on the other side of the mountain, Elder Andee had cast her loose one day to reach for the sky. As Melly flew for twenty more days, she learned that if you stayed at a certain distance from the mountain, the wind could push you up higher and higher. Melly perfected the feel for 'updrafts' and today she was going to touch the clouds. She was very close when the big 'thing' fell out of those clouds, almost hitting her.

Whatever the thing was, it was huge; Melly went one way and the thing went the other, almost turning completely over as it avoided her. Almost turning over herself, Melly over corrected; and heard the 'snap' of the left wing. Frightened to a level that approached panic, she still managed to work the controls, finding a position that would at least let her spiral down instead of fall. Melly fought the panic rather than the glider, finally finding some measure of confidence again. Melly concentrated on landing somewhere soft and safe. She spotted the long flat landing pad in front of the forbidden place; there was no choice really; it wasn't soft, being solid rock, but it was the only flat area close enough, taboo or not. Melly timed her landing just perfectly, right up until the left wing broke completely at ten feet over the landing pad, and threw her out. It hurt a lot when she hit the stone, and Melly pretty much welcomed the darkness that followed.

When Joe Carnes reached the bridge he was confused; actually he felt lost, "What are you talking about Bill? You know dogs went extinct centuries ago along with everything else, there aren't..." Catching sight of the small animal on the bridge screen, he was struck dumb for a minute. The body lying on its side was a mottled tan and white, with white being predominant. It had two straight pointed ears, a short snout and a very obvious tail. Doctor Joe Carnes had seen pictures in the few Old Earth books in school, but this wasn't a static photo in any book, "That is a dog! Open the hatch Einy, I have to check it out. Come on Geraldine, we have a patient who needs help!" Geraldine Paige, the ship's nurse, was staring at the image in shock, but managed to find the here and now. "Yes Doctor, it is beautiful isn't it?" Joe laughed at the momentary deviation from professional decorum, but could not argue with the words, "Yes it is, but right now it is a patient. First things first." The two headed down the stairs as the hatch finished opening. Kneeling down beside the prone form, Joe gently felt all over the tiny body. "Alright, she is a female, that part is obvious. She's breathing shallow but steady; there may be a fracture in the left front leg, we'll scan on the ship. That scrape by her ear suggests she might have a concussion. Ok, unpack the back board Gerry and fold up a towel on top to cushion her, and another flat on top of her to keep her warm. Let's get her into sickbay, I want a full body scan and a neuro workup for her skull." When they had Melly situated on the back board they picked her up gently. Turning to go back inside they found 7 of the Gymkhana's passengers staring at them with their mouths hanging open. One of them asked his partner, "What's a dog?" Not everyone paid attention in history class it seemed.

***

Andee felt fear, more fear that he had ever known before. Something had happened he was sure, it was half a day and Melly had not returned. Had the flying bed failed? Had she flown into the mountain? He did not know, but he did know one thing. Melly had flown away in this direction and he would not stop until he found her. It had never occurred to him before that he loved his little student, but he was certain of it now. Andee's old bones protested, but he kept moving, using his nose to sniff out her scent. The light was dimming when he reached the old promontory where his ancestress had lain for a thousand seasons. The grave was still well maintained, with wild flowers growing among the rocks where she lay. He knew all of the story from the teachings, maybe she would help him now. "Mama Candi, Melly missing, is my fault. sent her in flying bed, not come back. Please; ask God watch over her so I can find her? Melly means much to me, to all of pack. Help find her." A light breeze rose for a minute, a warm breeze even though it had been a cool day. It blew outwards toward the promontory, telling him what he needed to do. Andee walked out to the edge of the cliff and sat on his haunches, looking up at the cloudy sky. He closed his eyes for a moment, then opened them and began singing as so many had done before. Andee sang in the old way, in the soft modulated tones of his kind, until a hole opened in the clouds. It was like a tunnel, and Andee could see the tiny lights far away. One of the lights grew brighter for a moment, winking at him. Andee felt better seeing that, and he knew Melly would be alright. He lay down right there, and drifted off to sleep. In the morning Andee continued on toward the forbidden compound, the thoughts of the taboo place didn't bother him now.

Pete Askew was fascinated with this flying toy, they had left it right where it had come to a stop. Being the engineer on the Gymkhana, he loved anything mechanical. While this 'plane' was crude by any standards certainly, Pete was seeing a real ingenuity in the control design. Every surface employed a warping method to maintain the direction the pilot chose. Pete smiled, thinking of the puppy in sickbay. That a small dog could fly a craft was amazing in itself, but even more astounding was the fact that she had almost landed the damaged aircraft, he had watched Einstein's recording of that feat five times. Pete wanted to understand that little dog, he had to admit she was pretty. Pete turned his head to the west, had he heard a faint sound, a voice?

Andee knew he was getting closer, Melly's faint scent had been in his nose for an hour and it was getting stronger now. He was feeling an excitement he hadn't felt in many seasons, she would be up by the forbidden place and he could see the massive outcropping of rock even now. Andee began running, not fast yet but more than the slow walk that let him keep the scent. He might be getting old but he still had muscles enough to get there, Melly was a powerful incentive. Andee called out her name, "Melly! Where are you pup?" When less than 100 yards remained Andee couldn't hold back any more, and broke into a full on sprint; she was close now, Andee could even smell her scent while running. Reaching the top of the trail, Andee ran around the complex building, and skidded to a halt. In front of him, on the other side of the plateau not fifty steps away, was a big metal rock. Andee wasn't staring at that however; the big metal rock was startling of course, but next to the forbidden place were the remnants of his flying bed with a strange animal crouching next to it. The animal saw Andee and stood up, and every word from the legends came to Andee in a flash. They were bigger than dogs, and walked on two legs instead of four; they had no fur other than on top of their heads, Andee was looking at a human, a Master, and he looked just as shocked as Andee felt.

Pete was in shock alright, He was an engineer through and through, always ready to handle the next piece of machinery that decided to act up. But a big dog that looked like he could take a hefty chunk out of him? Not so much; Pete had been attacked by a tiny rodent when he was a child and that incident had instilled in him a healthy respect for caution, so he had no idea what this big dog would do; Pete really wasn't prepared for what the dog did next though. The dog got up slowly and walked carefully up to Pete, sat down and tilted its head. Then the real shocker came when the dog said, "Welcome Master, am Andee. Where Melly?" Pete felt like he was in some 3D fantasy movie, it just didn't seem real. He didn't know anything about dogs, heck nobody did really; the one short lesson in school hadn't said anything about talking though. They were supposed to be extinct, but here they had found two in one day. Pete managed to stammer out, "Hi Andee, I'm Pete and I'm the engineer on this ship. Do you mean the little white and tan dog? She got hurt when the plane crashed, but Doc Carnes is working on her now." From behind him Pete heard, "No he isn't, the Doctor is on break for a minute. Right now she is sleeping Andee and my Nurse Geraldine is watching her. Your Melly hit her head hard and may have a slight concussion, but there is no real swelling so she should be just fine in a couple of days. Would you like to see her?

Andee tilted his head back and forth for a moment before speaking again, "Words are strange, please yes, would see Melly, Master. " Joe laughed, "I'm not your Master, Andee. Just call me Joe, ok? Can you handle those stairs over there? Come on, I'll show you sickbay, where Melly is." A confused Andee followed the two humans over to the ship, and bounded right up the stairs with ease thinking I may not know these things, but I am not dumb either. The 'ship' was amazing though, Andee's eyes almost crossed trying to see every detail. The long tunnel that Joe led him through was bright all the way and filled with different colors Andee had never seen before. When Joe stopped he pointed into a cave that was even brighter than this tunnel, "There she is Andee, your Melly is in a deep sleep now, but she may wake up sometime tomorrow. I gave her a small dose of pain medication to help her deal with the discomfort, so she won't respond to you. That is Gerry sitting next to her, the girl just won't leave Melly for a minute.". Andee looked up at Joe, then back at Melly lying on the strange bed. Softly he spoke, "Many new words for poor head, see you care for Melly. Thank you Master Joe, Master Gerry." The Nurse looked pointedly at Joe, a raised eyebrow asking the 'What is going on' question. Joe just shook his head to keep her from starting off on him. Gerry looked at this new 'big brute' of a dog for a moment, "You don't have to speak soft, she can't hear you."

Actually Melly heard every word, but her head just wouldn't sort them out. Besides, this dream she was having was too wonderful to bother with opening her eyes just yet. In this dream she was in the most beautiful cave ever, all bright and shiny. She was on the softest pile of leaves she could remember, and one of God's Angels was stroking her fur. No, this was not the time to ruin a perfect dream by waking up, maybe tomorrow, and Melly let herself sink deeper into sleep. Joe got the bright idea after a few minutes, "Andee, would you like to stay here on the ship tonight? It'll be dark soon and I have a nice soft bed for you." Andee did his funny little head tilt again, "Honor me, please yes would like it. Joe took Andee to his cabin next door, it had two bunks across from each other. "Here ya go Andee, just hop up and stretch out, you'll like it." Andee liked the sound of the man's voice, but he had something to do first, "Please Master Joe, must thank God for this day. May do first?" Totally lost, Joe followed Andee out of the ship and to the edge of the huge slab of rock. Andee sat down in the darkness and began his song. Pretty soon Joe's mouth was hanging open, for the sounds were almost musical in tone. Andee let his voice increase in volume after a while, and the sound carried to the valley far below. The pack came out of their caves and stared upward; for the first time in 1000 seasons, happy songs came from the mountain. All the people on the Gymkhana heard them too, and it dawned on more than a few of them that they had never even entered the Lab Complex they had come so far to find.
Chapter 2

Melly was really enjoying this dream, and she loved the feel of her fur being rubbed. "Mmmm thank you Elder Andee, feel good. She opened her eyes, only to see a face not Elder Andee, smiling oddly at her. Melly jumped up and yelped, "ow ow", then lifted her left front leg to ease the sharp pain there, and started trembling. "Not dead, still hurt." The strange dog laughed, "No Melly, you aren't dead although you came close to it." Just then Andee came around the corner at full speed and slid into the bed trying to stop. "Melly not shake. Masters return; legend true and real. Calm down young one." Gerry was laughing so hard now her eyes had tears in them, "You should calm down first Andee. If you keep running around the ship like that we will be treating you in the other bed over there, so slow down already." Even though it hurt to do so, Melly kept turning her head back and forth to see both Andee and this 'someone else', finally settling on Gerry, "You are Master?" Bill Elgin's voice came over the speaker, cutting off Gerry's reply. "Doc, Gerry, I need to see you on the bridge right now please, and I do mean now! We have to discuss semantics." With looks of confusion on both faces, Joe managed to say, "Andee, please keep Melly company for a minute, we will be right back, I promise." Andee looked up at them both, "I do Master Joe."

When the two medics arrived, Bill just turned his head, saying, "Please close the door and lock it Joe? Einy, silence please?" Einstein responded quickly, "We're silent Boss." Bill sighed for a moment before he continued. "Alright guys, we've been listening in and this is not a Command Order or anything like that but you really need to let them call you Master, at least for a while. I had Einy look up any information on dogs, there is woefully little in the database. The only files he found was an old children's book about a boy and his dog, and a list of dog breeds with pictures and descriptions, Andee seems to be a Belgian Shepherd and Melly is a Chihuahua by the way. Anyway, the beginning of the book mentioned that the man and dog relationship was very special, and had been for a hundred thousand years on Old Earth. That's one reason I think it is important to them that you let them call you Master, they seem to see us that way. The other reason doesn't need much explaining, if you would Einy?" The screen lit up to a sea of dogs and Einstein spoke up, "This began at sunrise, they just lined up in neat rows and sit staring at us. There are 907 out there at the moment, not making a sound. It is eerie."

"Weird or not, we need to smooth this out before it gets even stranger. Joe, can you ask Andee to speak to them? Ummm, maybe if you took the little one out it would help, too. Is she up to that?" Bill was getting a little anxious, having no real idea yet why all these dogs were outside was making him edgy. Joe wasn't exactly calm either right now, but his nature guided his opinion. "Bill, Melly is just too shaky, and will be for a couple more days; but if we carry her outside to be seen, it should be ok." Gerry volunteered for that job, she already liked the little furry girl a lot. As they reentered sickbay, Joe broke the news, "Andee, there are a lot of other dogs outside the ship, would you talk to them please? Melly, will you let Gerry carry you outside so they can see you're alright?" Melly felt a tingle run all through her, "Yes Master, would like that." As Gerry gently picked Melly up and put the little dog against her chest, Melly shivered, "Like this, warm Master Gerry! Feel good." Gerry laughed, "I like this too Melly, let's go outside in the fresh air for a while."

Almost as an afterthought Bill made an all call announcement, letting everyone what was going on, "Listen up people, we have company outside. Quite a few dogs have arrived and we are going outside to show ourselves, to demonstrate we are friendly visitors. It is your choice, but the more of us out there the better. That is all." Pete was already at the side door when Bill got there, and he saw five others making their way up the central passageway. Andee carefully navigated the stairs, with Gerry right behind carrying Melly. As the others descended and spread out, the dogs heads began shifting to look at each other and back at the humans standing there. Bill said, "Ok Andee, go ahead." Not quite sure of what he should say, Andee sat on his haunches and looked at all of his brothers and sisters waiting patiently, "Song answered. God bring Masters back; have purpose now. Tell families." There was a bit of shock among the humans when 1000 dogs raised their heads to the sky and howled for 30 seconds before they began filing back down the path next to the complex. Gerry was the most surprised when Melly joined in right below her ear. They had come here to learn something more about Old Earth but that idea had been sidetracked for now. Maybe they were learning something though, all these dogs had to have originated on Earth after all. Gerry just wasn't sure yet what the lesson was. The only thing that felt right at the moment was this little dog snuggled up close to her. It took three more days before Melly was allowed to walk around on her own for any length of time, the limping was the gauge. Gerry also made Melly promise to tell her if it hurt her at any time. In between they just talked about things; Gerry asked Melly once who her God was and the little dog actually looked shocked, "Not my God, you're God too. Mama Candi said Doktor Mary said so when showed Mama Candi to read words. God watches over all." That one stumped Gerry for a while, religion had fallen by the wayside long ago and was just a vague memory. She asked how Melly knew God was real, and got the most perfect of answers, "You here Master." Gerry smiled, but cringed inwardly. It was going to be hard work to break the puppy of that habit, so she changed the subject a bit, "You really love Mama Candi, don't you?" Melly looked down for a moment, "Not supposed to say, Mama Candi like God; she love all, made sure pack safe. When she go to God Papa Dizzy sing for her, teach us words in pretty book." Gerry just had to ask, "What book, Melly?" The little girl did that head tilt thing again, "Don't know all words, but can start. 'In the beginning God created Heaven and Earth." That got Gerry's attention, "You know about Earth?" Melly tilted her head in confusion, "Yes, Earth here, Heaven in sky. I almost touch Heaven." Gerry should have known better by now than to ask such a loaded question, all Melly knew was this world. Then she shivered at the thought of just how close Melly had come to dying, "Yes Melly, you almost touched Heaven." She stroked Melly's fur for a minute without thinking, and got a closed eyed, soft "Mmmm" for her efforts. That was becoming something of a ritual between them. A subtler ritual had started on the second night, when they began sleeping together snuggled up close. Neither of them thought anything about it, but they had reawakened an ancient ritual that had begun over 100,000 years before.

Doctor Joseph Carnes was having something of a similar situation with Andee, although he didn't realize it at first. Andee had been staying pretty much glued to Joe for four days, innocently following him everywhere. It didn't really bother Joe, but that 'Master' thing kept making him wonder if the dog was doing it out of some feeling of obligation. Joe made the mistake of asking Andee if he wanted to go back home. Wrong question; the ears flattened back against Andee's head and the head drooped almost to the deck. Joe almost didn't hear the reply, "Tell go Master, I go." Joe's eyes could not have gotten any wider, "No no! Andee, I like having you here. I just thought you might...you can stay as long as you want to, ok? The ears stood straight up and Andee's eyes sparkled, "I stay thank you Master Joe." It was late that night, when Andee went out on the plateau to sing to God, before Joe finally realized that Andee really did like him and his company. It took a while for him to fall asleep thinking about it.

It was the morning of the fifth day when one of this group of humans remembered why they had originally come here. The dogs had been so distracting that no one had even gone near the entrance to the old laboratory complex. Over the centuries the open door had blown shut during the occasional storm, so it wasn't the subtle invitation it once was and everyone just forgot the reason they had come to Carandel. In fact, nobody even knew this planet was called that; not even Einstein, who had found the way here in the first place. Buried deep inside the old 'Corporate Archives' he had stumbled across a single paragraph that mentioned a starship arriving from a bio research facility. The ship had been quarantined for thirty days because of an undefined 'sickness' onboard. There were only two people on the ship, survivors of a mysterious plague that killed everyone at the facility. There was no mention of dogs or even the names of the two survivors, but there were old style spacial coordinates that Einstein could chew on. After a day of mathematical wizardry Einy told Bill Elgin that he had a destination that might interest Bill's 'club'.

They called themselves 'Archaeologists' because it sounded cool; in point of fact, Bill's group were amateur sleuths with a fanatical interest in anything 'Old Earth'. It is understandable really, since the human race of today knew practically nothing about the planet of their origins. Actually, it was worse than you might think, for there wasn't much of a human race left at all. There were no more than 6,000 people living in the Universe that the starship Gymkhana called home. That number was a symbol of hope however, much better than the 4,123 that were left one thousand years before, when the Earth died. It wasn't a single catastrophe like what killed off the Dinosaurs, nor any other onetime event that caused Earth's demise. Truthfully and accurately, it could be described in one single word; humans.

***

Pete entered the ships small galley and official Archaeological Society meeting room, sitting down at the front of the club members. Besides being one of the ship's engineers, he was also the club President, so he started right into what bothered him. "These dogs have been quite a distraction for five days now. I think we should start thinking about why we came here, it is sitting not fifty feet from the ship; so let's set up a plan for this 'dig'...Oh, hi Crissy, come on in." The head peeking around the corner of the door materialized into a young woman as she moved to the corner table at the back of the eating area. She listened raptly throughout the little planning session. She almost never tagged along on the searches, but she listened intently to every meeting.

Bill Elgin had found Christine one day just staring at the Gymkhana. He had seen her around the settlement a few times, just fleeting glimpses really, but enough to recognize her. So when he found Crissy outside on the landing area he found it a little odd. Nobody came outside for long on Sore Point, it was usually too hot to be out anyway without a reason, and certainly not just to stare at his ship. The average temperatures were 85 to 90 degrees all the time out on the surface of Sore Point, not totally unbearable but definitely uncomfortable. "You like my ship?" The girl graced him with a look and nodded her head. "Ok, come on inside and I'll give you the grand tour. Einy, open up. We have a guest." That one moment set in motion a chain of events that led to a long term association that is normally called family. They had walked around the ship for about thirty minutes, Crissy soaking up every tiny detail; then they sat in the galley for a while, and Bill slowly pried the girl's story out of her. When Bill asked her name she just said "Christine", and when he asked what her last name was she looked down, "Don't remember." She didn't remember much about her parents either, just that they died some years ago. She also told Bill she had been sick when she was little, that's why she didn't remember things. It was something of a shock when she did remember what the sickness was called; Encephalitis. It explained the memory problems some, but didn't explain why she always seemed moody; the little schooling she had experienced told that story, the kids had teased and tormented her, calling her 'stupid' because she couldn't remember seemingly simple things. School was voluntary on Sore Point anyway, so Crissy just left one day. From then on she kept moving around and avoiding people. She was sixteen Bill guessed, with no place to anchor herself to, so the offer poured out before he even thought about it. "Well, the ship is a little dirty but you can stay here if you want Crissy. That simple gesture earned Bill the only genuine smile he saw from the girl all day, and she got him smiling too by saying, "I'll clean it up good!" He didn't really think she could clean up a starship all by herself, but Crissy did just that and more. Three weeks later he found her outside, actually polishing the hull with a rag; that was two and a half years ago. She was still moody often and didn't feel comfortable around most people; Bill was pretty much resigned to the fact that Crissy would always think that nobody truly wanted her; the hurt ran that deep. There was one thing that ran even deeper, and Crissy would find it today...
Chapter 3

Sanna scraped the last of the old leaves out of the cave she shared with four other mothers with puppies. They all shared in the cleaning, so it wasn't hard really. It was usually harder to clean the larger caves when they weren't bringing up their litters. She would be moving soon, once her last puppy went in search of his own path in life; it was the way of things, ever since time began. Sanna looked around to find where Tipper had gotten to; there he was, chasing his tail again. She felt sad for a moment, thinking again of how he would probably never mate; Tipper had been damaged when he was born. His snout was slightly crooked, his ears didn't stand up straight like they should, flopping over instead, and one eye was bigger than the other. But the worst thing for her son was that his legs were different lengths, it made it hard for him to keep his balance. It was why she named him Tipper, it took over a month just to learn how to walk, let alone run, and he tipped over often . She often caught him watching all the other puppies running around playing 'catch the dog', looking so sad. Sanna's heart ached for Tipper, it looked like he would have a poor life, and he was just four months old now.

Today he wasn't looking at the other puppies though, he was looking the other way, up toward the mountain. "What do you see Tipper?" The pup looked at her for a moment, "Don't see nothing Mama, hear it." Sanna listened hard, "I hear nothing Tipper, just the puppies." This time he didn't look at his Mother, " Not noise Mama; can we hear feelings? Makes me sad." Sanna knew her puppy was special in a strange way; he sometimes heard things no one else did, "What do you think we should do about it Tipper?" The dog just kept staring for a full minute, finally deciding. "I will go to the High Place Mama, someone hurts." It would be a long journey for such a small pup, and just like any other Mother in history she wanted her puppy safe, "I will go with you." Sanna could feel the warm thoughts suddenly, "Thank you Mama." It was a long journey indeed, simply because Tipper couldn't run well yet. He walked carefully though, and Sanna felt pride that Tipper never once stumbled or flopped over. Her puppy had a mission and he would see it through.

Christine Elgin had followed the boys outside when they went over to the entry door to this mystery Laboratory. She sat with her back against the duracrete wall, and thought about how this facility had been built to last; then wondered what could have caused the people to abandon this sturdy building. She had seen two other 'excursions' with her own two eyes, both shabby worlds that had been mining facilities for metals and other stuff. Crissy smiled slightly, it was funny she could remember the first one at all; maybe her memory was getting better now. Then the bad thoughts came back again, all the times kids had called her stupid for not learning all the things the teachers told her. She wanted to hate them, but felt sorry for them instead; they didn't know any better, 'Daddy Bill' had told her that. Crissy had a big smile for that thought, Bill didn't like being referred to as Daddy, so she didn't say it to his face. She could think it though, and it always gave her a good feeling inside. That was the best part, it 'was' a good life for Crissy now, and all she had to think of when she felt down or sad. Happy thoughts helped give a person 'stability', Doctor Joe had said that too sometimes when they had actually talked about good thoughts and bad thoughts. Crissy liked him a lot because he treated her just like anyone else, and that was important. She knew she was 'different' but Doctor Joe made sure she understood that different did not mean bad. It meant Crissy was special and that was a good thing. All the good thoughts couldn't help right now though; Crissy was staying outside the Lab because Pete said it was best for now, they didn't know about what they would find inside and he wanted her to be safe. Crissy didn't like it, but chose not to complain, so she turned her attention to the two dogs coming around the other corner of the Lab.

One was bigger than the other but they looked almost the same; well, not exactly the same, the bigger one had straight up ears while the little one had floppy ears. The big one stopped and sat down while the little brown one kept going for a few feet before stopping and looking back. The big one nodded, which Crissy thought strange; she hadn't seen other dogs nod before; then the small one straightened out and started walking again, and Crissy could see it walked with a little wobble. Wobbly maybe, but Crissy realized it was walking right toward her, and she got a little afraid for a minute. The dogs seemed to be nice but she never yet had one close to her; well, it was pretty small so it couldn't eat her could it? Crissy didn't know much about any animals, she had never even run into a rat like Pete had, so this was a close encounter of a different kind for her.

The little brown dog walked slowly up and sat down about three feet away from Crissy sitting cross legged, her hands on her knees; the two stared at each other for the longest minute and Crissy could plainly see the nose that looked crooked and the one eye that was noticeably bigger than the other. It wasn't bad really, and Crissy couldn't help but think it was kinda cute in a way. Finally the dog tilted its head, "Am Tipper; hear you call." That confused Crissy and she tilted her own head, "I didn't say anything." The dog tilted its head the other way, "Inside. You hurt inside sometimes. I hurt sometimes too. Other 'new ones' not play with me, don't run good. Nose and eyes wrong." When Crissy didn't reply, Tipper thought she wasn't interested in him, "I go now." The head drooped slowly as the little dog made to stand up; and Crissy's eyes went wide, "No! Don't go away, I think you are pretty. Please stay? We are different, but that isn't bad, Doctor Joe said it makes you special, and that is a good thing! Please stay and talk with me Tipper?" Crissy had never cried much before, even when she was alone; but she could feel the tears now. Tipper stood and walked right up to her leg and licked her hand, "I stay, we good special." Crissy would never be able to explain it but she reached down then and picked Tipper up, hugging him close to her chest. Tipper just naturally reached up and started licking away the tears, and that got Crissy giggling; another thing she hadn't done, so she stuck out her tongue to meet his. They parried tongues back and forth for a while, then Crissy put Tipper gently in her lap where he got comfy and they talked for hours. Tipper looked back once to the other side of the flat place, at his Mother. Sanna looked at her pup and then up to the sky, letting out a soft happy howl. Then she turned and walked back down the mountain. Crissy asked Tipper, "I thought you dogs only sang at night. He looked up at her, "God watches always." Neither of them saw Bill watching from the boarding hatch; he wore a wide grin just for the two new friends. Bill and Einstein debated long into the night over what was going on here; this was not the usual trip anymore. Something else happened that day, but no one would know that until three weeks later when Crissy was the only human that didn't get sick.

***

During that three weeks the club wandered deeper and deeper into the complex; it was that big. They explored slowly and used up plenty of flashlights, and two days alone, just to find the power room, Pete wanted to see what was used back then to generate the electricity for the lighting and equipment. He was rather surprised that the funny looking box he found looked much like the reactor in the engine room on the Gymkhana. He spent two days checking and double checking to be sure all or most of the buttons and switches were the same as he was used to and were labeled similarly. Finally Pete let out a sigh and turned the selector to cold start and reset the 'panic' switch. Not knowing if the old reactor would work at all, he was about to push the start switch when he remembered, "Strip the board stupid!" Pete carefully flipped all the 142 circuit breakers to the off position, except for the four reactor control switches, then walked back and pushed start. At first it looked like nothing was going to happen, but a minute later he heard the soft hum begin and the small control screen lit up with 5% showing in the window. He kept his hand poised over the panic button for the whole 37 minutes it took the number to reach 100%, then waited five more to be sure. The screen had already changed to read 'Full Power, No fault, Switch to Normal'.

At first Pete just closed the power room breaker, and almost fainted when the lighting showed a big dog 3 feet away looking at him. "Ackkk, don't scare me like that! What are you doing in here?" The dog tilted his head so fast one of his floppy ears flipped up on top of its head, making Pete smile in spite of himself, "Make sure God protect you." That word again, he had heard it fifty times by now, "How would you know I am protected?" The dog tilted his head the other way and now both ears were on top of each other, "You live, this place forbidden." Now Pete was really confused, "I don't get it, if this place scares you, why did you come in then?" The dog shook his head and the ears settled down properly again, "Don't know word. You go in, Ned go in to be near. Feel good to be near." Pete had to laugh at that, "Yeah, ain't that the truth. Ok, let's get these breakers closed." He only did the lighting, no equipment or outlets yet; this was a touchy time. The lights were enough to startle the five others in the complex when the lights suddenly came on, until Pete came running down the central hallway shouting "We have lights!" They did a double take when they caught sight of the big dog chasing behind him.

The lights helped enormously; instead of looking down a narrow tunnel of light, the club had a wider perspective on their search for knowledge. The mandate they followed was straight forward enough, find any information on their 'home planet', Earth. The reason for that quest was comically simple as well; the people of Sore Point knew almost nothing about the planet Earth, other than it had once existed and sent supplies once a year on robot freighters that picked up their loads of exotic elements and minerals for the return trip to Earth. Sore Point was one of the only four planets ever found that had atmospheres breathable by humans, and they had huge quantities of raw materials that Earth needed badly after the local sources had dried up. The four planets of Sore Point, Sampson, Seldon and Faraway provided those necessary materials. Two of the worlds were named for the explorers who discovered them, and the other two were merely a result of how the contract workers felt about their temporary homes. All four were harsh planets for various reasons, but all of them provided essential resources to keep the human race advancing. And that was the problem, Earth stopped sending ships and relief workers. The four planets in the 'outer reaches' suddenly found themselves an isolated portion of humanity. It took twenty years before a ship made the long trip to and from Earth before someone found out that they were the 'only' portion of humanity left at all. The rest of the people knew that something had gone drastically wrong on Earth, but Bill Elgin was the only one who knew something about that little bit of history; it had been his family's secret for a thousand years. The exact details were quite murky now after being passed down from father to son for so many generations; his ancestor had almost killed himself getting there and back; all Bill knew for sure was that he was the proud owner of the only true starship in existence. Drew Elgin had been there when an odd looking military ship had arrived from a planet nobody knew existed. Because his Grandfather thirty times removed had been the senior pilot on Sore Point at the time, he had ended up owning the ship, and the rest was history now. It wasn't public knowledge anyway, but Bill was thinking it ironic that Einstein had pulled out the very information that allowed his ship to return to its origins.

"Einy, do you have any memory of this planet at all?" The AI thought that was a ridiculous question, "You know darn well my original log files were erased centuries ago Boss Man. I don't have fragments of memories like humans do, that was a silly question!" Bill gritted his teeth, but he understood why Einy was being snarky again, "Don't be a smart ass Einy, I was just wondering something. Two people came from here many many moons ago and I just would like to know who they were, that's all." A contrite voice came next, "You're forgiven Captain Mine. I know I was the ship that brought them to Sore Point and it 'is' frustrating not to know anything about it." Bill didn't laugh; he could feel sorry for the big lump of circuitry, the darn thing was acting more and more human every year. This was the second week, and the information began to flow...

***

Joe benefitted the most right from the start; much of the information dealt with the latest medical research of the time and there were notepads and computers everywhere. Anything he read would help fill in the gaps in his medical knowledge, and it expanded his understanding a lot; the real holy grail was found in the infirmary. One whole wall was filled with medical books, there had to be two hundred neatly lined up on the shelves. Doctor Joseph Carnes was a happy camper, and Andee felt it. "Is good find Joe?" The Doctor laughed at the innocent query, "Oh yes Andee, this is kind of like finding God in a way, it will help all the people I'm sure." Andee tried to laugh like Joe did; it would need a lot of work. "Is good you believe now."

The gold mine was the next find; a storeroom filled to the ceiling with cases of bandages, gauze, splints, braces, you name it. They were over a thousand years old, but vacuum sealing had left the treasures as fresh as the day they had been produced. Happy camper became giggling kid as he looked through some of the cases. Andee just kept looking at his Master with his head tilted again. He didn't know what any of this 'stuff' was, but he knew Joe was really happy and that was always a good thing. Gerry and Melly found them ten minutes later; Melly was snuggled against Gerry's chest as was becoming pretty much normal now on their walks together. "Where is Joe, Andee?" "In that cave Gerry; too little." Gerry smiled, setting Melly on the desk, "You stay here for a minute Melly, ok?" The little dog looked up at Gerry, "Ok M...Gerry." The Nurse smiled warmly at Melly, her tiny friend would learn. Gerry squeezed into the storeroom to help Joe. The room wasn't so much small as it was packed tightly. There were only narrow paths created between the piled up cases, to get deeper into it.

Melly passed the time waiting by just looking around the infirmary's office. From up here on the 'desk' she could see so much more than being on the floor. By walking around a bit she could see even more, there were so many different things to look at. She had to walk carefully though, lots of strange objects were laying on the surface.. Looking down from the opposite end of this desk, Melly spotted a big fluffy thing on the floor; it looked real soft and was easily big enough for Elder Andee to fit in it. She sat down to look at this some more and felt the corner of something not flat under her. Looking back Melly saw a strange shape behind her, with other little strangely shaped things with the symbols that made words on each one. She tried to read the words, but none of them made sense, and there were other stranger symbols mixed in with the words. It was puzzling but not unusual in the Master's 'complex'. Melly was liking that new word she learned from the Masters.

Suddenly the big shiny thing lit up brightly and a face stared at Melly. It startled her and Melly yelped; the face didn't move, it just stared at her. Andee came around the desk to see what bothered his protégé, "What wrong young one?" Andee stopped short when he saw the face; staring out of the computer screen was the face of a young Belgian Shepherd dog. Melly gathered her wits and looked at the face. "Look like you Elder!" Andee wasn't saying anything for a minute, being in shock. Unlike Melly, who was just looking at the pretty face, he could just make out the single word at the bottom of the screen. It was a word the whole pack knew from birth, and Andee whispered it, "Mama Candi."

Pete hadn't been lax in his concern for safety; he just didn't know that the infirmary had 'Medical Priority' when it came to power. When he started the reactor, every single thing in the infirmary powered up after a thousand years, it had its own power panel. If it had already been on back then, it was on now. That included the computer and monitor for the Chief Medical Officer for the complex. The computer itself had booted days ago, and the monitor didn't come out of sleep mode until Melly had sat on the keyboard. Gerry and Joe saw it when the excited pair came out of the storeroom, but it would have to wait. All searching came to a halt for half a day while everyone selectively loaded the 'loot' in the Gymkhana's small cargo bay. When the club headed back to Sore Point they would carry not only new information, but physical treasure as well to benefit the people. Gerry did come back to the computer four days later, along with Andee, Joe and Melly. All of them wanted to explore it for different reasons, knowledge being the first consideration. None of that knowledge they found would help much in a few more days, but at least it filled some of the huge gaps in understanding that existed within the human race now. The countdown clock had been running ever since the power came on, and the alarm was about to sound.
Chapter 4

Mary Dressler was frantic now, she had to somehow stop this plague but was at a loss how to do it. None of her modern medical scanners had provided any answers She laughed as if she were demented for over a minute as the tears ran down her cheeks. It was a ludicrous joke to even be trying anymore; there were only three people alive now, herself, her daughter and ironically the very man who had brought the sickness to Carandel.

Major Eric Salazar had arrived two weeks ago, already sick, in a strange military starship no one recognized. He had walked down the cargo ramp; stumbled down would have been a better description, and said only one thing for four days, "The Earth is dead now and you are my only hope. Then he simple crumpled to the rock of the landing pad." It didn't take a moment for Mary to recognize something serious so she immediately turned to her team, "Place him in isolation STAT, full biological protocol with scans all the way down to the molecular level people. James, get all the broad spectrum antiviral vaccines we have ready, if we have to we will pump him up with every one of them. Even before the first scans were done Mary knew it was some kind of flu virus, she didn't even need the thermometer to know the Major was starting to fry. When she did get the readout, it was 101 degrees and slowly rising. By the next morning she thought they might have a chance though, he was stable at just below 103. They still needed to finish all the blood workups, but at least the prospects were looking a little better. It did look better, right up until three of her team collapsed right in front of Mary. Then the other five did the same thing, followed by the biologists, one by one. From then on it was a downhill race with death, and death won; almost.

Mary was exhausted; no, more than exhausted. She had been up constantly for twelve days now, except for cat naps at her desk. All her muscles screamed at her now; putting 98 of her colleagues in the 'Sterilizer' had that kind of effect. It was called the Sterilizer because it sounded slightly better than calling it what it was, The Furnace. It was the only way to be sure the live virus was destroyed, but she cried for every one of the people she put in there. She said a prayer over every one too, just before pushing the ignition button; it was automatic and thorough after that. There had been 100 of 'her people' the day Eric Salazar arrived. Now there were only two left, her and her Daughter. She had told Kayla she had to stay in their quarters for a time, it was very dangerous to wander around. Mary made Candi promise to keep her daughter from leaving their quarters, even if she got angry, "An absolute promise Candi, this is really bad and you must keep Kayla safe no matter what." Candi looked at Mary for a long minute; finally she resolved the magnitude of the responsibility in her mind, "I do Doktor Mary, is official." Mary smiled at her beautiful Shepherd. Candi only called her that when she knew it was 'God' important, "I love you Candi and God loves you too, never forget that." It had been 13 days ago, and now Mary had only one tiny chance to eradicate this deadly bug forever.

It was an archaic technique from centuries ago called 'Disease Vector Analysis' it was just a long shot, but Mary Dressler took her profession very seriously. She entered the isolation room where Eric was; he was looking at her through half opened eyes, "You have tried Doc, and I do appreciate it; but I think you are fighting a losing battle with this. Thank you for trying. My ship is yours, it will take you to safety. Please write this sequence down? Pilot Epsilon Delta 484 command transfer medical evacuation priority. Repeat it back Doc." Mary wrote it on her small notepad she kept in her smock, then read it back to the man. "You say that when you are onboard and the Autopilot will transfer command to you." Then he watched her take a small plug of flesh from his arm; she put it in a sealed culture dish and bandaged his arm. Then she went back to her own little lab in the office. Putting the small dish on the culture warmer, she turned it on. Mary walked back to the isolation room to tell Major Salazar something encouraging, only to find the man dead; it broke her resolve. After putting the Major into the Sterilizer and saying the prayer, Mary knew it was all over. They would leave this place; the 24 other dogs had been released into the wild and cautioned that the complex was forbidden until they were called back. They were all intelligent and Mary said yet another prayer that they survive. It never occurred to her that the answer had been around all along; no dog had ever gotten sick.

Mary ran to her quarters and collected Kayla and Candi; the three headed for the entrance to this facility. Mary punched the 'panic' button that shut down the reactor as they went through the door; she didn't even bother to close the door as they went to the ship and up the ramp. There a major crisis ensued when Kayla realized she didn't have her teddy bear, and Candi took off to retrieve it. Mary thought she should read the words to get the ship transferred while she was waiting, so she spoke the words. A clear mechanical voice responded quickly, "Command transfer accepted, state name of new Commanding Officer." Mary said back, "Mary Dressler", and the robot came back with, "Welcome Captain Mary Dressler; reaction mass insufficient for Earth destination. Only destination available NGC 7119, local name Sore Point. Confirm destination, Captain. Mary didn't have any choice so she just said, "Confirmed"; and the ramp started closing. If Mary was frantic in her infirmary, she was terrified now, "Stop! Wait for our dog!" The Auto Pilot responded blandly, "Medical Evacuation Protocol initiated, no changes accepted." Major Eric Salazar had meant well; he really wanted someone to survive this disaster, and it wasn't going to be him. But by invoking a Medical Evacuation Priority and specifying a destination, Mary had told the Robot Pilot to do what its programming dictated and it would not be deterred until it reached that destination. The theory was valid actually, ever since humans had first ventured into space; traveling in space required many calculations almost constantly, and if you didn't trust the computer to make some decisions, you might as well give the human pilot an Abacus. Using robot pilots usually worked very well, but once in a while the programming came up a bit short on compassion. It was a tiny flaw in computer code, but it was the key that had begun this odyssey.

***

Pete felt like a kid in the Treat Shops back on Sore Point. Finding the power room was important certainly, and surprising as well; but when he found the maintenance section of the complex he was in Nirvana. He suddenly had every toy he could ever want, lathes and milling machines, hoists and hydraulic presses were only a few of the hundreds of tools here that had allowed the human race to rise out of ignorance. He spent an entire day just fondling all the equipment. Today Pete wandered through all the labs and offices looking for any electronic or electrical equipment that might improve the conditions on his home planet. His perpetual shadow Ned followed right behind. As he walked into the infirmary he said a quick 'Good Morning' to Joe, Gerry, Melly and Andee; then walked into the small room where his targets were. Focusing on the bigger equipment first, Pete didn't see the tiny amber LED light on the warmer, winking in a steady rhythm.

Culture warmers were simple devices in concept and design; they only had one purpose, to heat things up to a selected temperature. They had a heating coil, and a sensor circuit to maintain the set temperature; simple machines sometimes work too well however. After a thousand years the heating coil had deteriorated, only half of it was working now. The little sensor was working just fine though and when it detected the temperature drop; it turned up the heat to compensate. The culture had grown well in the three weeks since the power came back on and the glass culture dish held out valiantly against the uneven heating, until now. Pete heard the tiny 'crack' sound and finally saw the little LED. Absentmindedly he flipped the power off, and continued investigating the other equipment. The attack had begun...

Joe and Gerry were trying to figure out this ancient computer, with no small amount of frustration nipping at their patience. Being used to voice controlled electronics, the keyboard and mouse took some getting used to, but they 'pressed on' as it were. Neither of them blinked an eye when the facial recognition program let Gerry right in, simply showing these words on a blank screen, 'Identification Confirmed, Full Access Granted Doctor Dressler'. From then on it was blindly exploring the desktop and clicking until they learned how to operate it; it was several hours later before they stumbled into the photo gallery. In it were hundreds of pictures of people, places and things; it took Joe a few minutes to realize, "That must be Earth." Neither of them knew what Earth was 'supposed' to look like, so they didn't know the sky looked wrong in all the photos; it wasn't blue, but more 'brownish gray' in color. Gerry clicked on another sub file named 'family' and Doctor Mary Dressler's life opened up with pictures of her Mother and Father, two Brothers and all her Aunts, Uncles and Cousins; Gerry and Joe didn't notice Ned sit up suddenly and begin sniffing the air in every direction. He smelled something different, something that had not been there a short time before. It wasn't a strong scent, just a whiff really, but it had been in the small cave with Master Pete until Pete finished up in there and walked past Ned; now the smell was in this cave too. Ned had never smelled anything like it before; it was a sweet smell, so the wrongness wasn't obvious yet. It would puzzle Ned for the rest of the day until he fell asleep that night lying on the floor in Pete's cabin. In the morning Ned smelled it everywhere; it was on the ship now...Ned followed Pete back into the complex for another day of new discoveries.

Colds weren't unknown on Sore Point; such a thing was rare certainly on a hot world, but did occur when people turned the air conditioning down a little too far sometimes. Here on Carandel however, the club was being introduced to their first change in seasons. The air temperature had already dropped ten degrees, and a slight chill in the morning was the norm now, so it was not surprising when a few members asked Joe and Gerry for some antihistamines to counter the sniffles; Sickbay had a good stock of the pills. The only problem was, the sniffles didn't go away, and when all three developed elevated temps Joe put them to bed in their cabins. He was a pretty good Doctor and gave each one a shot of broad spectrum antibiotics to counter the rising temperatures, and started looking through his newly acquired treasures, the medical books. While he did that, four others came in with the same basic symptoms and Joe knew then that this was not a common cold. By late afternoon everybody on the ship had the symptoms, and Joe was wearing himself out fast trying to watch over all of them in their cabins. Gerry was on one of the sickbay beds with Melly and Bill was on the other. Both the humans were unconscious now, and Joe's head was beginning to spin; he hadn't actually counted patients, so he didn't realize that two people were missing until Andee mentioned it. Joe knew Pete was still in the complex, but that new dog Ned was always with him now, so he was pretty sure the dog would let him know if Pete was sick. As Joe collapsed to sickbay's floor he thought of Crissy. She and Tipper had wandered off this morning, heading down the trail to look around for local berries. He hoped everything was alright, it sure wasn't here. The two wayward travelers didn't show back up until after dark.

Ned did know Pete wasn't feeling good, he was right there when it happened. Pete had been sniffling all day long, and by early afternoon he was sweating too. Ned mentioned it once, "You not good Master, move like new puppy." Pete managed a smile for the concerned dog, "It's just a cold 'buddy', I'll get over it with all the pills in me now." Pete was a stubborn sort, pretty much a requirement to be a good engineer; not so much in things medically related though, like admitting you just felt terrible. He sat down in a nice cushy chair in the Maintenance Office; it was a wise decision, as Pete didn't have far to fall when he toppled out of the chair ten minutes later. Ned had no experience with illness, none of the dogs did. They could injure themselves sometimes, but dogs on Carandel never got sick; so Ned did what he did know, he began licking the perspiration from Pete's face. Ned was sure that would help, and it did to a point. Pete almost woke up several times, trying to say words, but then he'd fall asleep again. Being a hound with a big tongue, Ned was a little sloppy with his licking and sometimes the perspiration would get into Pete's mouth, mixed in with some saliva on his own tongue. The last time Pete woke a little, he just managed an "Ugghh" before passing out yet again. Not understanding the strange word, Ned continued his ministrations for two more hours before deciding he had to move Pete outside to where the other Masters must be. Ned got him out of the office by simply grabbing some of Pete's shirt in his mouth and dragging his 'patient' through the doorway. Looking up the hallway to the entrance, Ned began dragging Pete along, his paws slipping often on the polished floor; Ned was a stubborn dog too and the long journey would not defeat him. Inching along at a snail's pace, Ned finally got his charge to the front door after a couple more hours, just as the sun was beginning to set. Pete wasn't sweating anymore, but he wasn't exactly in touch with the world either. Ned dragged him out onto the rock slab and looked around for some help; there was none.

Tipper ran to the top of the path; yes, ran, he had been finding his balance all day, Crissy made sure of that. He stopped short of the stone and sniffed the air, "Bad smell Crissy, smell wrong." As the girl reached the landing pad she could plainly see no one around, "Where is the bad smell Tipper? There isn't anybody outside." Tipper sniffed some more, "All place, no place smell good." She picked Tipper up and ran to the ship's stairs; they were inside before Ned opened the complex door. When Crissy got inside she found an empty bridge; looking down the main passageway she saw every cabin door wide open, and that was even more odd; someone was always moving around on the ship. Looking into sickbay Crissy saw the horror story, "Daddy Bill!"

Andee looked up from licking water from Joe's face, "All Masters hurt, they sleep...Master Crissy not hurt?" Andee looked as confused as Crissy had ever seen the dog, his head tilting back and forth repeatedly. "No, I feel fine; what is going on here?" Tipper sensed the fear in his Master and reached up to start licking; out of habit rather than anything else she stuck out her tongue to lick back, and Andee saw the gesture, "You share water!" It wasn't a clear medical diagnosis certainly, but it was something different from what he and Melly had been doing. Looking back and forth between Bill, Joe and Gerry, Andee's mind was working overtime trying to figure this out. That was when they heard the mournful howl from outside. Andee bolted out the door, a startled Crissy and Tipper following close behind; Melly just kept licking perspiration from Gerry's face with her tiny tongue.

Andee came to a skidding halt next to Ned; looking at Pete he could see no perspiration at all, and Pete was moaning now, another thing different. "Ned share water with Master Pete?" Ned tilted his head, "Ned lick Master Pete all day!" and another piece of Andee's puzzle fell into place, "Call pack Ned, need help, Crissy get water to share?" Crissy was totally confused, this was getting bizarre for her young mind, "I can give everyone water Andee, that is easy." Andee shook his head, "No, not give Crissy; we 'share' water, stop hurt!" More than confused, Crissy still knew they had to do something; she ran back into the ship with Tipper in her arms to get her big cleaning bucket and some bowls. Ned went to the edge of the cliff and began howling louder than ever before, an alarm; it took twenty minutes before the first dogs showed up, and Andee assigned one to each of the Masters, explaining what they had to do to make the 'hurt' go away The first dog 'triage' in history lasted all through the night, with the remainder of the pack singing to the darkened sky. Early the next morning, before the sun rose, they all had the first indication it was working; Pete suddenly sat up on the stone, simply saying "I feel like crap, what happened?" The one frightening moment came when Bill stopped breathing for a minute; a terrified Crissy lost it, slapping him several times, "Don't you do this to me William Elgin, you can't leave me!" It worked; as Bill began breathing again one eye half opened, and Crissy was rewarded with a thin smile before Bill passed out again, and she cried for the remainder of the dark night.

***

It took two more days for everyone to agree that they were healthy again; Joe spent extra time reading through his precious medical books, focusing on viruses. He found several references that suggested that once a patient had won out over a virus their immune system would prevent a recurrence. Pete was bugging him to let him go back into the complex so he could play with his own precious toys, so Joe finally allowed the 'experiment'. After two days with no symptoms, he allowed everyone back in; the one puzzling aspect to the plague bothered him when he heard about it, why had Crissy never had any symptoms? Joe started watching her every move for an answer, while pouring over the texts even more closely. The only clue he would find was when he saw Crissy and Tipper do their little tongue trick one day; he read even more, and found a 'theory' in the book. It posited that in the same way many viruses were contagious when people came in contact with each other, natural immunities could be passed along through 'intimate contact'. It intrigued Joe for a time, but it didn't make sense to him; the only 'person' Crissy came in intimate contact with was a dog. He decided to get more evidence, and the evidence was sitting next to Joe right now. "Andee, do you dogs get sick?"

Andee looked up at Joe with the tilted head again, "Not know word Joe, what 'sick'?" Joe tried explaining that sick was what all the humans were when they were all unconscious in bed, "We were all sick, but not Crissy." Andee understood that, "You mean hurt; Crissy not hurt when Tipper share water. Was bad time for Masters, we share water with all Masters and hurt go away." Joe had to laugh, it was the best and most innocent confirmation Joe had ever heard. While it was not exactly empirical evidence, it did make sense. He would get his empirical evidence a week later when Doctor Mary Dressler explained it to him herself.
Chapter 5

Gerry was having fun now, she could navigate this computer fairly fast. The file structures were easy and logical even, once you got used to them. Today she found something called 'videos' and clicked on it; inside were a variety of icons with descriptive names under them. The one marked 'Medical Log' interested her naturally, so Gerry clicked on that one; now she was staring at another set of icons with just old dates under them, except for one that just said 'vid1'. It seemed odd so Gerry clicked on it; and was introduced to the final medical log entry of one Doctor Mary Dressler, Chief Medical Officer of Angel Medical Research Center, Planet Carandel. The woman looked ragged, as if she really needed some sleep; as she started talking Melly kept turning her head back and forth, "Look like you Gerry."

"Yes she does Melly." Joe walked up behind the two, "She looks a lot like...she looks 'exactly' like you Gerry! Can you start it again?" Gerry wasn't listening, she was staring at the image with her mouth open. Finally recovering she looked up at Joe, "She said her name was Mary 'Dressler', Joe; my Great Grandmother told me once that one of our ancestor's maiden name was Dressler; Kayla Dressler. She said she had come to Sore Point during the Dark Times." If Gerry was merely surprised, Melly was staring at Gerry as if she was God himself, "Kayla Mama Candi's Master! We go to Mama Candi's High Place Gerry?" Looking down at the little dog she had fallen in love with, Gerry nodded, "Yes Melly, I would like to see where Mama Candi is. I would like that a lot." Joe didn't say a word as Gerry carried Melly out to the front entrance; he had known for a long time that women saw things from a different perspective than men did, and he wasn't about to interfere in this quest. He sat down in the chair and watched Doctor Mary Dressler explain viruses, 'vectors' and death. After watching the video for the tenth time Joe felt he understood now why none of the club were ever likely to be bothered by the sickness again; and if what Andee said was true, they weren't going to be affected by any other sickness either.

***

Gerry had to laugh whenever Melly got too far ahead of her. The little dog was excited and wanted to get to her special place. Gerry had to admit she wanted to get there too, so she started jogging to keep up; they had already covered a couple miles. Melly finally stopped, looking up toward an innocuous rock outcropping sticking out of the mountainside. A well worn path led up to it and Melly said, "Are here, Mama Candi lives there." Gerry thought it an odd turn of words, but all the dogs speech took some getting used to. They walked slowly up the path leading to the promontory, and when Gerry got to the top she knew why this place was special; the flat rock was clean for one thing, almost polished after so many centuries of paws walking on it. There was no dirt anywhere out on the rock; nothing to mar the sense of order and peace Gerry felt. Looking around, Gerry saw the small grove of trees forming an arch over a plot of ground covered with neatly placed stones and wildflowers growing in between; behind that a small covered shelf with an equally small box on it. Melly walked up to the edge of the stones and lowered her head. "God bring Masters; thank you Mama Candi."

Gerry knelt down beside Melly and touched the stones, "Candi is here Melly?" She remembered the first day at the computer with the image of a beautiful dog staring back at her, "What is in the box?" Melly looked up, her head tilted, "Reason we wait for Masters. Yours now, open and see." Gerry gently slid the small box off of the shelf and lifted the cover; inside was something she had never seen before, Sore Point had other little knick knacks to entertain. It was obvious it was made for a child though, the little hints just shouted cute. Being made of synthetic materials, the little Teddie Bear had managed to survive a thousand years of waiting. The fake fur was still soft and pliable, and the plastic eyes gleamed. As she picked up the toy carefully Gerry was struck by the sewn mouth turned up in a mischievous smile, as if to say "I am being held, my purpose is fulfilled again". Gerry and Melly sat out at the edge of the promontory with the furry toy between them for hours, before going back to the Complex. As the sun was setting Gerry and Melly searched the second floor of the complex until they found the CMO's living suite and placed the Teddie Bear on the large bed she found; it was back where it belonged and Gerry couldn't help thinking of one word, 'home'. She and Melly began sleeping there from that day on; it just felt right.

Bill Elgin was having his own crisis of conscience; sure, the quest for knowledge had always driven him since he was a child, but he had never once even gone inside the complex. He knew one reason why, the ship was his whole reason for existing. The ship and Einstein, who was his friend really. Bill related to his electronic nemesis more than he related to even Joe. The Doctor could be as acerbic as Einstein when he disagreed with Bill, and that was why they were friends too; Bill detested people who agreed with him too easily. But something had changed when they found the dogs here; the animals had detoured the humans from their original purpose. Well, maybe not detour, but everybody was paying as much attention to the dogs as they were to finding out about Earth. Bill laughed out loud then; here he was dwelling on them too. He had to admit, dogs were nice, and their sole interest was being near people. He decided to take a little walk through the complex;, maybe he would find something interesting to settle his mind.

And there they were again, all seven dogs who had been hanging around for a week now; they would come up to the plateau in the morning and just sit all day waiting for the club to emerge from the ship for another day of searching through the complex. As each human entered the front door the same dog would follow their chosen 'buddy' at a distance; it was always the same pairing, and the last couple days had John, Ed and Tom letting their dogs walk right up beside them. The other dogs stayed about ten feet away as they followed their humans. It was perplexing for Bill; until he spotted 'his' dog waiting in the usual place for him to show himself. It was the same one he had seen when he opened his eyes the day the sickness went bye bye. It wasn't a particularly big dog, but the short hair made it clear it was female, probably one of the terriers in the dog breed book. As Bill descended the stairs the dog waited until he walked past, before standing and pacing Bill twenty feet behind. Bill stopped and turned to look at the dog as it sat down again, "Why me?" The dog tilted it's head quizzically for a moment, "We share water, is important." A simple statement really, but Bill certainly understood how important it had been to him; Joe had explained that part graphically. "Ok, come on and walk with me. I don't know what we will find in here, but we'll look anyway, ok? What's your name?" The dog stood up and actually pranced over beside Bill, "Sanna, Master. We find good things." Bill didn't make the connection to Sanna and Tipper being family until much later, but despite not finding much that hadn't already been discovered, he did find some new 'good things' he hadn't expected; and another dog took up residence on the Gymkhana.

It is one thing to go looking for information on the history of the human race, and quite another to interpret that information when you find it. While the 'Sore Point Archaeological Society' was dedicated to uncovering the 'why' of Earth's demise, they were still amateurs and just didn't know what information would give them clues to what had really happened back on Earth. The reason was painfully obvious and had nothing to do with their amateur status; the only history the human race knew about now was the four large planets they had occupied for the last thousand years, and those were not exactly 'pleasant' to live on. They were mining planets whose sole purpose for existing was to replenish Earth's depleted resources, and were populated by contract workers not 'colonists'. As such, they had not brought very many mementos of 'home'; the goal for everyone was to do their time, make lots of money fast and go back to spend that money, nothing more. It worked pretty well for nearly a hundred years, and everyone was happy; until one year 7,569 workers found themselves stranded. First the robot freighters stopped showing up on time drop off supplies and collect the quotas of ore and rare elements; that caused some heartburn right away, as the massive bulk storage fuel tanks sat filled to the brim and the piles of processed rock lay unclaimed out on the great deserts. The big freight shuttles, all 100 of them, sat idle with nothing to do. Fear surfaced, and when the shift change ships failed to show up as scheduled anger teamed up with the fear to create chaos for a while; the workers were stuck and the 'Dark Times' began.

***

Drew Elgin was making his daily rounds, inspecting his 'squadron' of ore shuttles. They weren't really a squadron since there were thirty one of them, but it sounded better than bone yard rejects. This was the ninth year of what had become known as the Dark Times, and he was just now finding enough mechanics and machinists willing to start restoring these things to flying condition. All of the old shuttles still flew, just not as well as they once did. These were the last examples of what had once been a fleet of 100 'dump trucks' re-tasked as interplanetary rescue shuttles. During the first five years of isolation the shuttles were employed to move the residents of three other worlds to Sore Point; the planet was the best chance for the human race to survive at all, if only marginally so. It was the processing and manufacturing planet while Sampson, Seldon and Faraway were the raw materials mining worlds. Sore Point was blessed with enough foundries, refineries and machinery to sustain the effort, and it possessed the largest source of one crucial ingredient for life; water. It was deep underground, but since people had to live down there for the most part anyway, it was actually a good thing From then on the goal was to keep extinction at bay. Accidents and crashes contributed to the reality of just how tenuous that goal was.

Drew felt the vibration in his chest before he heard the deep hum; at first he thought one of the processing plants near the surface was going to act up again, but the sound wasn't coming from that direction, it was above him. Looking up, Drew saw a starship descending to land right next to his squadron; judging by the markings it had to be an Earth ship, but it didn't look like any he had ever seen before. It didn't have the big engine nozzles for one thing, and it was landing vertically like a helicopter without the backwash and clouds of dust that went with that method of flight. The ship wasn't even as large as his ore shuttles, so it wasn't a workhorse; as the ship pivoted to land Drew saw the emblem on the side. This was a military ship of some kind alright, but when the rear ramp touched the ground the only people on the ship were a woman and young girl; Doctor Mary Dressler and her daughter Kayla had arrived, and a new chapter in Sore Point's history began in earnest. After a self imposed 30 day quarantine, Mary and Kayla were absorbed into the frontier society with enthusiasm; Doctors were in very short supply after the riots and general violence that prevailed during the first 5 years of isolation, and to be blunt about it, Doctors with Mary's experience and credentials were non-existent. For that simple reason Mary Dressler became something of a savior for the human race at a time when she was needed most.

Drew Elgin also became a savior of sorts, although he never knew it; he was a shuttle pilot first and foremost, not a card carrying engineer or scientist. Nobody was; remember, the remainder of the human race were all worker bees with only one goal now, survival. Drew did have one thing that placed him a cut above the rest though; an insatiable curiosity about everything and anything. Paired with a stubborn determination to understand new technology, it made Drew the perfect choice to tackle an experimental starship no one had seen before. It had to be experimental; nothing on the ship was familiar, and even the robot pilot didn't look like the ones on his shuttles. Drew felt that was the key, understand the pilot and you were a step closer to understanding the ship; so he started there. It was voice controlled and all he had was a hand scribbled note from Mary to go by; her warning about the medical emergency wording at the end of the string had him skittish, so Drew left that part off when he repeated the command transfer order. It worked better than he expected, and five minutes later 'Captain Drew Elgin' was the proud owner in command of an interstellar space ship he knew nothing about. Carefully he began asking questions of his new 'friend'; robot flight computers aren't exactly geniuses, but they do have a fair amount of knowledge database. When Drew asked about the ships engines he got a baseline lesson in ion propulsion, "Ion engines employ any non-volatile reaction mass that can be ionized and expelled in measured quantity utilizing magnetically shaped ion streams. Inert gasses provide the most efficient energy conversion of ionized particles without the risk of detonation. Other elements can be utilized at lower efficiencies. Current reaction mass levels insufficient for any useful destinations; refueling required." So began Drew's introduction to the friend he would eventually name Einstein. It would be five more years before he felt he understood the ship enough to attempt a journey to Earth. It only confirmed that the once pretty blue green marble was truly and completely dead. During those five years Einstein lost his memory; not all memory, just the flight log that contained the only record of where he had come from with two people on board. Drew had made a tiny mistake during their conversations about the ship, and Einstein deleted all reference to Carandel. Since it was a super secret facility from ages past, the planet was not in the navigational database at all. Drew assumed all along that the ship had come from Earth, so when he confirmed that Earth was no more the existence of another planet faded into obscurity. There was another record, the arrival log at the corporate office, spatial coordinates and a brief description of a 30 day medical quarantine; but it would be a thousand years before an innocuous query by Einstein in the corporate archive sparked the interest of one of Drew Elgin's descendents.
Chapter 6

Even the most dedicated researchers can get bored, and the club was not immune to that feeling. Gerry and Crissy weren't exactly members of the club anyway so they were the first to succumb to boredom after almost two months of looking at walls and computer screens. Joe and Bill weren't official members either, but they were totally absorbed with their medical books and starship; and dogs of course, dogs were becoming pleasant companions to the research. There was a whole planet out there though; a nice comfortable and inviting planet instead of a harsh and difficult one to live on. Crissy got the idea first, "Gerry, would you and Melly like to take a long walk with Tipper and me? I want to see something different for a change." Gerry smiled at the suggestion, "I think you may be psychic Crissy, I've been wanting to do exactly that for a week now. I got a better idea than walking though; maybe Bill will let us use the 'scooter', we can go lots farther that way."

Scooters were not scooters in the classic sense; they were more of a small atmospheric flyer that came as a result of the few innovations garnered from a starship named Gymkhana. Using a tiny version of the gravity drive that allowed the ship to fly and land on a planet smoothly, the two person vehicle let the club cover a greater area on the few planets they still plundered for loot. No one had ever bothered to reverse engineer an entire starship from scratch; there just wasn't anywhere to go to warrant that and starships were very very complex anyway, but they could build little vehicles to make it easier to get around. The scooters weren't very useful down in the tunnels or around the big processing plants, but out on the open terrain they were a boon to travel as long as you could stand the heat; on Carandel, however, they would be invaluable. This was the first time anyone had thought to actually explore the planet, and when Bill heard the idea he was all for it. "Now that sounds great! Go ahead you two; just bring it back in one piece, I may want to take a trip later on myself; would you like that Sanna?"

The only dog who had ever flown was Melly, but even she was amazed by the scooter when the foursome took off an hour later. "Fly high so fast!" Both Gerry and Crissy were laughing while Crissy held tightly to a trembling Tipper until he finally got used to this new experience. Then the journey became fun for all four of them; Gerry flew low over the entire valley first, watching all the dogs looking up and howling in surprise. The sight was not your everyday occurrence; not just yet. Gerry angled out of the valley a minute later, climbing to 500 feet; it was a good all around altitude for everyone to see anything of interest. They flew over a large grassy plain, spotting a number of grazing animals in the distance. They passed over three moderate forests and saw lots of colorful birds flying among the trees; the two dogs were mesmerized by it all but Crissy managed a "This is beautiful Gerry, I've never seen anything like it!" Gerry smiled widely but kept watching where they were going, "I'm with ya there Crissy, no one has; including our two passengers looks like. Melly, have you seen all this before?" The dog tried to look up at Gerry but couldn't seem to take her eyes from the scene before her, "No Master, dogs stay in valley all time." Suddenly her head did shift, looking far off to the left, "Look!"

They were structures, that much was obvious; 'whose' structures was not so obvious though. Whoever built this little settlement, they had done so a long time ago. The whole place was overgrown all through the little town or whatever it was, but the buildings themselves were pristine, like they had been erected yesterday. The sight made Gerry cringe, this was eerie looking. It also helped her decide that this first jaunt was over. "We need to get back, Bill needs to know about this; heck, everybody needs to know!" They had a better idea of how far they had gone when it took over an hour to get back to the ship. Bill called the all hands meeting to order 40 minutes later, "Alright, we have something new to investigate guys; Gerry and Crissy found evidence that someone was here before us, and I'm not talking about the people we already know were here. This group of buildings are roughly 300 miles away to the South East and I think we should check them out; doing so may or may not add to our knowledge of the complex, but it is definitely an odd discovery and we could use a break to reset our thinking. So do we take a short detour?" The vote was unanimous except for one point no one had thought of; Ned looked up at Pete, "Masters go away?" From the startled expressions on everyone's faces, Joe could see this trip was no longer the simple 'dig' they had begun two months ago. They had all gone off in search of information and found more than they ever expected. All the wealth of information wasn't what kept them on Carandel anymore, it was the planet itself; and the dogs. "No Ned, we don't go away like before. This is like finding a new cave; we will look at this new thing and come back, ok? Can all of you let the pack know that tonight, I think we can wait until morning for this trip, right Bill?"The two had a private conversation on the bridge while the dogs diverted the frayed nerves that could arise from seeing the ship flying off.

"Bill, have you noticed that half the team sleeps in the complex now? Either that or outside under the stars? There is a reason for that I believe; two reasons really, this planet is unlike any of the ones we know now, It is actually nice to be here, and that is affecting us; when was the last time you thought about going back to Sore Point?" Bill's eyes went wide for a moment, thinking about it, "I think you got me Joe; when we came here I was thinking we would stay for a couple weeks and go back to share what we found, and then come back again if we found anything worth the trip. I agree we found far more than we expected, not only in the information we found about Earth, but the dogs as well. We will have to go back one day to let the people know what we have found and what to do about it; we owe that to them, but now that you mention it I don't really feel the need to rush that anymore. Dammit, I feel happy here!"

Joe laughed at the revelation, "Good! You just made my case for me; and you mentioned the other reason for all this, which is just as important. The dogs have changed the way we think about living you know, and that's why I suggested waiting to rush off and investigate Gerry and Crissy's discovery. We owe it to the dogs to treat them well, and I'm not just talking about the virus either. They are fun to be around sure, but there is something more I haven't put my finger on yet. Do you realize they all waited for us for a thousand years? Not us specifically of course, but for humans in general. Something Andee said that first week didn't make sense to me at first, but it does now; I asked him if he wanted to go back home and he said "You say go I go Master." That shocked me Bill and I thought about it ever since. They don't think in the same way we do, but they have the same feelings we do. The only thing they want is to be around and near us, and I think we need to start thinking of them as people too. Ned actually looked frightened that we would leave them again." Ned, Sanna and Andee returned after dark; apparently their talks with the pack waylaid any outright fears that simply flying off in the morning might have generated, for there were no howls evident at their departure. Einstein did tell Bill though, "There are a lot of faces staring up at us Boss; maybe you should make this as short as possible, we can always come back a second time." Bill looked at the metal housing that was Einstein for a minute; were the dogs affecting him too? "Good idea Einy, we'll keep it to a maximum four hours of ground time when we get there."

The flight out only took 20 minutes; Einstein flew in a circle around the enclave looking for the best place to land, finally settling on a spot behind the largest building. By default that became the first one explored; it was two stories with quite a few rooms, all of them large and with absolutely nothing in them. There were no furnishings anywhere, or evidence that there ever had been. Tom noticed the next odd thing, "There are no windows, just square holes in the walls. Who would erect buildings with no way to shut out the weather?" Pete chimed in, "That isn't all; where is the plumbing or lighting? I haven't seen anything like a bathroom, or any kind of switches for electrical here. Ned, do you smell anything different in here, like someone lived here?" The dog walked around the big room for a minute before replying, "Masters and grass only", then he tilted his head "Doors too big." That innocuous statement got everyone's attention; it wasn't obvious at first because they looked like normal rectangular doors, but the proportions weren't quite right. They all were about 6 inches wider than they were used to, and were a full foot taller. The handles were also placed higher up; Bill said it out loud, "Whoever they were, they weren't average humans; let's spread out and look through the other buildings, look for anything different at all."

The club took their time looking through every one of the thirty one buildings; they were all different sizes but much the same; empty. Crissy stayed with Bill and Joe, while she held Tipper because of the tall grass. When they reached the end of the little town Bill and Joe went into the last building, and Crissy went past it to find another small building attached to the back end of the bigger one. It had its own door so she opened it and went in, putting Tipper on the floor. This was one room about twenty feet square, but with no window holes in any wall. It didn't have another door leading into the bigger building either, so Crissy picked Tipper back up and turned around to catch up with two of her favorite people; and saw the handle on the wall behind the door. All the doors had shiny knobs in them, but this was just a shiny lever sticking out of an otherwise blank wall, having no obvious purpose. Putting Tipper back down again, Crissy tried turning the lever a couple times, but it wouldn't move. Figuring it might be stuck she wiggled the lever harder, then tugged on it; and the lever slid out two inches. Now the handle turned easily, and when she turned it down nothing happened; so Crissy turned it all the way up the other way, and heard a loud 'clack' followed by Tipper's yelp as part of the floor started rising with him on it. Grabbing the dog as the trap door slab reached her waist, both of them watched wide eyed as the hidden entrance finished opening; but an entrance to what? Turning to go tell Bill and Joe, Crissy found both of them standing in the doorway with the same astonished expression she wore. Bill found his mouth finally, "All these buildings are a distraction, a decoy to hide this! Come on you two, we've been here past our time limit and need to get back home. Just close the outside door and we'll explore this another time; I don't think it'll go anywhere while we are gone. Crissy grinned at her adoptive Father; he had said the magic word, and this planet did feel like home to her now.

The old trusty scooter got a real workout for the next week; the club all paired off into teams of two for the simple reason that the scooter only had room for two people. By taking the lid off the storage compartment the dogs could even go with them too; and the dogs did want to go, this was all brand new territory for them as well. It was a touch crowded back there for Andee and Ned on the Joe/Pete team, but not too difficult for the hour trip. That was good since they were the first team out the next morning. When they returned eight hours later they were beyond excited, and Bill had a hard time deciphering the high speed rambling from both of them. Pete was excitable anyway, but Bill had not seen Joe this excited since he found the medical books. "It's a big place down there Bill; really big, and there are machines like nothing you've ever seen before my friend. Pete and I only got to explore the first level and that was as big as the lab complex is. There are two more levels below that one. What we saw is amazing, but what we didn't see is just as amazing. We found protective suits Bill, but no other evidence of the people themselves; whoever they were they looked similar to us structurally, but were at least 7 feet tall and bulkier. They had technology we can only guess at, but they didn't use computers. There were written papers on every desk, but I doubt we will ever translate the language; it is mostly groups of squiggles and lines, I brought some pages back with us."

Pete jumped in then, "They had scooters Boss, way bigger than ours, and they held six of their people in each one. I felt like a child sitting in one of the seats, but it wouldn't take much to let us use them; the controls look similar, and it looked like a reactor for power. There's a long underground tunnel that heads off toward the North, but we didn't explore it; the thing has to be a mile long. I think the first level is mostly maintenance bays for their ships, but all we found were the four scooters. I got the impression they left this world in a hurry, everything was just laying around. It's a bit dusty down there too, Ned said everything smelled old." Bill raised an eyebrow when he heard that; the lab complex was more than a thousand years old but no dog had ever said it smelled old; the virus had smelled 'bad' to the dogs, yes, but none of them had ever said the place smelled 'old'. It was only a tiny fragment of a clue to a greater mystery that had plagued some people back on old Earth who were interested in cultural legends. Bill didn't know any of that of course, but somewhat ironically, if he had known then he would have recognized that finding the underground facility supported two of the more interesting Earth legends; 'giants' and aliens.

***

After that first week interest tapered off for the simplest of reasons; you can't learn much if you can't read anything. Sure, a lot of the machinery was exotic and unrecognizable, but pipes were pipes and electrical cables were obvious no matter who made them; appliances were the same way; cooking utensils and most tools were equally obvious even if everything was bigger. New became blah after seeing everything once or twice, and the team went back to what they knew in the complex. Pete was certain the big scooters would be useful one day, but now was not that day; they were here to figure out what had happened on Earth and the research sped up once again. Bill set a time limit before they would have to at least make an appearance on Sore Point to share what they had found so far; in 30 days they would head back to spread the word. Like it or not, the whole team knew they had a responsibility to educate their people; they would do that through the different 'Councils' and plain old word of mouth. While everyone had access to public use computers, only one in a thousand actually owned one; it might take a while to get the word out, but then what? Bill had the makings of an idea that had been bouncing around in his mind for a week now. It was ambitious and required a lot of variables to come together just right; most were just logistics problems that needed solving, but one variable posed the most difficult hurdle of all, changing people's minds.

The people who represented the current human race were intelligent people who had managed to survive on a planet that didn't really want them; they all knew they were descendents of Earth, a place that had devolved into myth and legend over time. None of them knew what it was like, but the prevailing dream was to once again reunite with that world some day. Almost every conversation mentioned Earth at least once, it was what kept the daily grind at bay. The prevailing theory for a thousand years was that something had happened, but Earth ships would someday return and take them all 'home' Bill knew better than most how futile that dream actually was, it was his ancient ancestor who had brought the truth back; and that truth had become the family secret for all this time. It was going to be hard enough to shift people's thinking to a second world they couldn't actually see yet; there was no need to dash their hopes completely by just saying 'Oh, by the way, that world you dream about all the time is dead.' Sanna looked up from her spot next to the command chair. "Hurt inside Master?" Bill laughed and ruffled her fur when he got the words translated in his mind, "No Sanna, it is just some difficult decisions I may have to make soon; I'm just thinking about it." Sanna licked his hand once, "I help." Surprised by that simple remark, Bill stared at the small dog for a moment as another idea formed in his mind, "Maybe you will Sanna, maybe you will."
Chapter 7

Being the junior member of the Archaeological Society of Sore Point, John Craven was by default the oddball in the club; it wasn't because of his inexperience really, but more the result of age. He was simply the oldest at 63, and an icon among the small group who called themselves humans. Older than even Joe and Bill, John was the stabilizing force in the club now; he just didn't see things in the same way others did. That talent led to the most useful information the club found in the complex; and it didn't come from the research computers at all. It came from a personal laptop that had belonged to a man named 'Newt'.

Newton Marchand was not your average researcher; in fact, Newt wasn't a researcher at all, he was hired as a lab technician. He wasn't qualified for that either, but he did have one trait that proved invaluable to a facility that engaged in cutting edge medical research; he was meticulous in everything he did. He was a 'gopher' really, but Lab Technician sounded so much more official. While Newt didn't have all the schooling for the position he held, he was extremely intelligent and earned his unofficial Doctorate the old fashioned way; on the job. Newton Marchand was on the last ship to Carandel with his patron and mentor, Doctor Elian Manseur; Newt was 19 when he left Earth with his beloved laptop and a collection of 40 memory sticks containing a chronological account of the human race's self immolation. You see, as well as being inordinately smart, Newton Marchand was a passive historian with a bent toward Ecological disasters. In other words, Newt saw Earth's death coming before it happened, and knew that nobody could stop it. By making the move to Carandel he avoided the fate that awaited the human race, only to die seven years later when Eric Salazar brought a tiny remnant of that fate to him.

John wasn't interested in all the medical data that filled all the lab's computers, that was Joe and Gerry's territory; he wanted to know the people, so when he had gone through the lab computers he began looking on the second floor for any hints at who the people were who had ended up stranded here. He did find a lot to work with, since most of the hundred people in the complex at the time had at least one laptop or tablet in their quarters. Most of them, including Mary Dressler, had email packets to and from Earth, and those provided clues of their own as to what it had been like on Earth back then; John found Newt's quarters and his day got better, or worse depending on the point of view. The good news was that the charging cord was plugged in; the battery had deteriorated long ago, but the cord would power the computer. Another piece of good luck was that Newt didn't like passwords so it powered right up when John located the power button. From then on it was learning the operation of the laptop, and puzzling out Newt's naming conventions for files; that took all of thirty minutes, Newt was a great organizer and didn't use abstract names. Every file stated plainly what it contained, making John's task enormously easier and less time consuming. Easier did not mean faster though, and John spent the night reading endless 'News Reports' and Scientific papers that explained how a pristine paradise had become a dried up toxic wasteland of a planet.

***

Newton Marchand's thesis was the key to all of Earth's slow death; he had begun the long dissertation before moving to Carandel; edited and added to the work as time allowed when he got there. The Title was 'Nature Murdered' at first, but Newt changed that later to 'Nature Lost' because he came to realize that the human race didn't intentionally kill Earth; they had collectively failed to respect Mother Nature until it was too late. A half million written observations and opinions were the process; a dead planet was the proof of concept. Newt had written it over time, not to gain any claim to fame; the human race wasn't around anymore to praise him. He wrote it for himself, so there would be a record of what had happened, if there were any future generations who might read it. Somewhat ironically it did benefit another group of survivors Newt didn't even know had existed.

None of the usual suspects were solely responsible for the Earth slowly drying up and shriveling into non-existence, but all of them contributed to the final act. Even that final act that toppled the scales completely wasn't the reason Mother Nature lost the battle she had been fighting for five billion years; it only made an already difficult job impossible to recover from, and Mother Nature conceded defeat. You see, maintaining a delicate ecological balance isn't easy, but when some of the biological participants keep doing things that counter your work the job gets exponentially harder; and Newton Marchand knew that on an almost intuitive level at an early age. He spent his relatively short life collecting all the evidence he could find; news reports were okay for finding clues, and the ever present activist emails came in handy, but those two were always full of opinions from average everyday people and often led him on false goose chases. The very best sources of information came from the scientific papers that dealt with proven facts; and Newt filled forty memory sticks with every single one he found on the internet, the Newton Marchand thesis titled Nature Lost began shortly thereafter.

It would be easy to just say the human race killed the Earth, but that wouldn't be totally accurate; as John read more and more of Newt's paper he found that humans had a hand in every ecological disaster ever discovered except one; no one could blame a 65 million year old asteroid strike on humans, they didn't exist yet, but that one almost destroyed all life on Earth by itself, so it was the first reference. Even then, it only took about a hundred years for Mother Nature to get the ecology back into balance, and life took off again. Enter 'modern' humans roughly 200,000 years ago; Mother Nature welcomed the new biological species, they were smart and everything was fine until 400 years before Newt was born. Humans began advancing far faster than before and became industrialized, inventing many things to make their own lives better; from the beginning some of those discoveries started affecting Earth's ecological balance. There was a long list of 'breakthroughs' that caused unintended consequences, and led to changes in the planet's atmosphere and climate; to be fair, every incident was caught in time, even the long running fossil fuel 'climate crisis', but some of them just barely in time. The damage had been done however, and the delicate ecological balance became a fragile one waiting for the final mistake that would seal the worlds fate. That came as a result of the most noble of intentions the human race ever had; the quest for other 'habitable planets'.

Early spacecraft were terribly inefficient, using millions of pounds of fuel to lift small 'payloads' into the magical realm of space; that only got them 'into space' but not much farther. The human race was going nowhere fast while using up the Earth's vast resources at increasingly higher rates. They needed a breakthrough that would allow humans to reach other stars, and it came with two startling innovations at the same time. A 'gravity drive' got humans into and out of a planet's atmosphere quickly and efficiently, and a more powerful ion propulsion system let people travel to other stars and actually explore. 'Manned' survey starships were built and a new race was on; for one hundred years many ships explored the Milky Way Galaxy looking for planets that would do one of two things, sustain life, or replenish Earth's now limited resources; or both. The results were disappointing; while four planets were found within a single densely packed star system, they were the only ones and weren't good enough for any colonization dreams. Still, they were a valuable discovery and two industrial conglomerates began what came to be known as 'Project Freight Train', bringing needed materials back to Earth in massive robot freighters that never touched down anywhere. That became the focus for all of humanity and exploration came to a grinding halt while Earth caught up with itself. Since the ore shuttles on Sore Point only had to make short trips up to the waiting freighters, they used the old volatile fuel engines to accomplish their task, rather than the newer methods of propulsion. Never having been replaced, those shuttles became the only source of transportation when the Dark Times arrived. They could and did reach the four local planets, but nowhere else; consequently, no one ever dreamed they could be used for something more.

There was a fifth planet found, and ironically it would have justified all of the original exploration; but because it was discovered by one government's super secret research branch, its existence was never shared publicly. Instead an off planet bioresearch complex was built to think up some nasty ways to win wars and other conflicts that always plagued the human race's history. The complex hadn't even developed its first 'targeted virus' before Earth's leaders noticed something odd; random groups of people and animals around the world began coming down with strange illnesses that couldn't be identified. What was worse, some of the Earth's foliage started dying off too. At first the onslaught appeared random, but when the Amazon rain forest began shrinking, pretty much everyone on Earth got the message; humanity was in real trouble. It didn't take long to figure out that the exploration ships had found something they hadn't been looking for, the ones that did come back anyway. There was a 60% attrition rate for starships that ventured into the unknown; alien bacteria and microbes didn't always need planets with atmospheres to lie dormant on. For the first time in history the world found itself fighting a war that no one wanted, and every bio-scientist on Earth was enlisted to find a way to stop the assault. The lab on Carandel was re-tasked to help find cures to all the tiny bugs that were attacking life on Earth. A laboratory complex that had been designed for up to 1000 scientists now had only the first hundred to arrive as its sole occupants. John recognized the final irony immediately; the reason that humankind had ventured into space in the first place had provided the weapon that finally destroyed the Earth, and yet that exploration had also allowed two tiny groups to survive, the humans of Sore Point and the dogs on Carandel. John couldn't help but wonder if there wasn't some reason behind that weird stroke of luck.

John's 'shadow', Bella, looked up at John, "Master tired, go sleep?" John couldn't help but laugh, wondering if this was what it was like to be married; he had never taken that path. Sometimes the dog's attentions seemed like nagging, but she did have an uncanny knack for sensing his moods too, "Yeah Bella, all this reading `does wear my eyes out. Let's sleep in here tonight." He lay down in the old bed and Bella parked herself next to it as was usual. After a moment John looked over the edge, "Come on up here Bella, it is much softer than a floor." The ears stood up straight and she hopped up beside John, "Thank you Master John, feel good." As he closed his eyes John thought, Yes indeed, this does feel good.

***

They had never openly discussed it yet but the club had changed; 11 people had come to this world from another world with a singular mission, to seek definitive knowledge about a third world that was nothing more than a vague distant memory now. A collective dream was now a reality, but on the wrong planet; was it really the wrong planet though? Eleven minds were struggling with that question and they would have to come clean soon; Bill was responsible for them all, but he didn't call for the meeting, Crissy did. When she got them all together in the ship's galley/conference room there were more 'people' than the original crew; 11 dogs made it just a tad crowded, but they had a big stake in this now too. For the first time in her life Crissy was a public speaker, "I think all of you know why I called this meeting, I've seen it in your eyes for days now. We are all thinking it, maybe in different ways, but I'm gonna say it first; I don't want to go back to Sore Point. In six more days when we are supposed to leave I want to stay here where my home is now." The only sound came from Tipper as he let out a happy 'yip', while reaching up and licking Crissy's face furiously. Ten other dogs looked up at their chosen companions anxiously. It only lasted for a minute until Gerry seconded the motion, "Umm, I want to stay too; I know we have to spread the word back on Sore Point but I'm thinking not all of us are needed for that. I've seen the change in all of you since we got here too; we came here looking for knowledge about our heritage, and found a new home instead. While we owe it to our friends to let them all know about this world so they can choose on their own, I have already made my choice. What do you think Joe?" Melly cast her vote without thinking; it sounded a lot like 'Woohoo!' as she snuggled even closer to Gerry's chest. That got all the humans laughing for a minute, until they noticed the rest of the dogs staring at them; that decided Joe's little speech for him.

"One thing needs to be taken care of right now. All of you dogs listen up, we are not going to abandon you again, remember that. This is going to be like what we did when we went to look at that strange place. There are many more Masters where we came from, and we have to go back to let them know of this world; 'our world', but the ones that do go will come back, right guys?" That got enthusiastic agreement from everyone, as they all reached down to quell the dog's fears by stroking their fur or just holding on to them. Wagging tails confirmed that it was working some. Bill further eased the anxiety by proposing his idea, "I've been thinking about this for several weeks now; anybody who does go back to spread the word can take their dog with them; I'm pretty sure that they will help convince our people that there is a new and better dream. That is if you dogs 'want' to go with us of course." Andee spoke up rather loudly, "Go all places Masters go!" A collective howl settled that question for good, and the original discussion turned into who would stay to 'hold the fort' and who would go back to Sore Point to do the heavy lifting. A side discussion evolved from the big question; just what would they do if people actually chose to move here? The sun was coming up before anyone realized they had been talking all night.
Chapter 8

Six of the club members elected to stay and 'prepare' for whatever might come, and five chose to take on the daunting task of changing an entire society's views on their daily lives. Just like their ancestors who had once called Earth their home, the current crop of humanity were individuals who had different opinions on what was right and wrong, good and not so good for them personally; the one anchor that kept them going was the fragile dream of once again living on that mythical paradise. The whole club now knew that paradise was gone to dust now; but was it really? It had been a thousand years since Drew Elgin had made the perilous journey to Earth to see the catastrophe for himself, and the ugly question kept blinking in Bill's mind; had the Earth managed somehow to recover? He broached the subject with Einstein one night when everyone else was asleep, "Einy, is there some way we can reach Earth like you did so long ago?" Einstein took longer that Bill could remember before he answered, "I've been waiting for that question for a long time Boss; just like a thousand years ago, making the trip from Sore Point is not practical, even with a full load of reaction mass; that is the reason Drew Elgin came close to dying when he tried it. Six months there and six back isn't a pleasant trip unless you take a farm with you for food. Carandel is quite a bit closer to Earth, and it could be done the old fashioned way; by coasting part of the way. It would add about two weeks to the journey there, and two more weeks on the return trip, but we could do it from here with full tanks when we start. I would suggest we wait though; this project you've taken on is actually a lot easier, even though it will be a logistics nightmare if it succeeds."

That plain language answer pretty much settled the matter; even if Earth had somehow magically recovered, it was still impossible to move people there. It made Carandel the preferred destination for the human race, and that went full circle back to the original problem of how to convince the people that they should move to a place they had never heard of before. You couldn't just say this planet was Earth, that would be a monumental lie and Bill would not even consider it; not to mention that everyone knew that Earth had been covered with cities and industry and Carandel was not covered with much more than lush vegetation and some beautiful scenery. The one selling point would be the fact that Carandel was a very nice place to be; actually living 'on' a planet rather than 'in' it would have to be promoted often. Maybe it would be enough; Sanna looked up at Bill, "Master hurt inside again, we go for walk?" That was what he needed to hear right then, "Good idea Sanna, let's take a long walk; would you show me the valley?" When the two returned after dark Bill had an even better perspective on how good the planet really was; food growing on trees and bushes, and even right out of the ground was a far cry from the hydroponics farms on Sore Point; another selling point for the task ahead. Sanna kept pointing out the best tasting edibles she knew, and that was only a fraction of what was available; dogs didn't cook or bake things.

The final preparations for departure caused some heartburn; what to take back with them had evolved since that first day when all of the club just thought they would loot the place; now they were thinking about living out their lives here. Joe had the biggest crisis of all, his beloved medical books; if he took them all back to Sore Point and some people decided to stay, so would the books. Gerry let him stew for a while before she couldn't hold her laugh in any more, "Joe, you just love holding those books; have you forgotten the computer has a complete database of every kind of ailment the human race ever experienced? It is searchable by symptoms too!" The sheepish grin told the story plainly, and the books ended up in the cargo hold as well. Two mornings later a depleted crew of five lifted off to waving hands from the six brand new 'Carandelans'. The scooter sat beside them; Pete had suggested that and Bill readily agreed to leave it for their use. While they wanted to explore more of the planet, Bill forbade any exploration at all until he brought back a couple more scooters for safety sake, "There is no need to tempt fate. Let's see how well this idea is received first. I can't promise how long this will take, but whatever comes of it, we will come back in no more than three months."

At the last minute Crissy changed her mind after talking it over with Tipper; she knew the young people on Sore Point and how they felt about everyday living. Since they represented about 30% of the population she could be the most effective 'Ambassador' of all, so she and Tipper swapped off with John and Bella. Bill was extra proud of his 'daughter' for opening up and taking on the responsibility, and John was better suited to organizing the efforts on Carandel anyway. Bill and Pete would concentrate on the pilots and engineers/mechanics, first convincing them that moving was a good thing, and then asking them to think up ways to do it. Bill already knew that the old shuttles would have to be employed in some way; even if they crammed 40 people into every nook and cranny on the Gymkhana it would take forever to transport thousands to Carandel, even with back to back trips, it was a weeklong journey using an economical speed. Joe would tackle the Doctors and Nurses; while they weren't numerous they did deal with all of their society on a daily basis and could spread the word faster. Ted Melnick would present his case to the Teachers Council, and then simply walk the tunnels and corridors with his dog Sadie to remind the people that something new and unusual was going on, and answer questions that were sure to surface. None of them would use Earth being dead as a selling point, but if the subject came up they would tell the truth of it as compassionately and sympathetically as possible; it was going to be a hard pill to swallow one way or the other, once the truth came out.

It wasn't easy to tell which dog enjoyed space the most, all five spent most of the first day staring out from the bridge; it was just big enough for the three big dogs to sit in the command chairs with Sanna and Tipper sharing the one fold down jump seat. All of them had seen the bright dots of light in the sky from down on the ground, but now for the first time they saw the stars even more clearly and brighter than ever before; Bill thought the dogs were beginning to understand the concept of planets and stars, as well as the vast distances involved, but Andee's soft comment set him straight on that point, "Is God's home." That innocent phrase pretty much squashed Bill's idea for a science lesson, dogs just didn't think that way. Other than that the trip back to Sore point was the usual boring journey through space; six days later the dogs were introduced to a different world than they knew when Einstein landed in his usual spot next to the shuttles. The sun wasn't up yet so it was relatively cool when they deployed the stairs and opened the hatch; cool at least by this planet's standards. The dogs couldn't really appreciate that small distinction though; Sanna looked up at Bill, "Hot Master." Bill cringed a little, wondering if bring them along was that good an idea after all, "It will be lots cooler down in the tunnels Sanna, but I want all you dogs to let us know if the heat gets too much for you, ok? We can always go inside one of the offices where it is cooler. He made it a point to check at 100 feet below the surface where it was more than ten degrees cooler; Sanna said "Better Master, is good." When they reached the 'Central Hub' of tunnels Joe took the lead, "Alright, let's take this slow and easy guys, remember always that no one here has ever seen a dog up close before so walk slowly and make introductions cautiously. Psychologically speaking today is the make or break moment so just be friendly. It may take a week for people to get used to seeing the dogs around so...oh heck, just be yourselves; let's spread out and do our thing."

While Joe meant well with his caution, the reality was less of a problem than they expected however; occasionally it was almost humorous. There were startled expressions from pretty much everyone they met, and that was expected; but it seldom took more than a few minutes to quell the concerns regarding dogs. Oddly enough the short three paragraph reference to dogs in school had helped prepare some for the face to face introductions; those that remembered it anyway, and the rest became less apprehensive the moment a dog actually spoke to them. That brought up the inevitable question of where did they come from, and slowly the secret of Carandel became public knowledge. There was no 'Hey, this world we found is great; we should move there.', Joe had stressed that point emphatically. You don't 'tell' people what to do, you just answer their questions honestly and let them tell themselves what they 'want' to do. That strategy worked; it didn't result in waves of potential emigrants but the campaign did generate the first sparks of interest in another planet. By the second week just about everyone knew of the dogs from a mysterious planet called Carandel; and the numbers of questions began to increase to a point that something had to be done to answer them all.

There was no formal Government on Sore Point, there had never been a need really; but there was an 'informal' one. Every 'profession' had their own council to keep the efforts of each group standardized. The number of council members ranged from 3 for the miners up to 11 for the Farmers who kept everyone fed; everyone worked at what they had a talent for, just to keep society going. People got their answers through their council usually, but this was different; now they needed answers from a small group of people about a different way of life entirely. The teachers came up with a practical solution, adding Carandel to the 'school' curriculum on the local internet. The school operated out of the old corporate offices ever since the Dark Times ended; the server was there and so were several good sized conference rooms that could be used for hands on classes. There was no age limit for learning something new, so everything you could pick up in a classroom was duplicated on the school website; it was simple to add Carandel to the list of classes, and the questions pretty much drove the information that was organized under the subject. The team took up residence there to provide the answers, and it all worked pretty well for two weeks, until the inevitable question showed up in the person of one Tricia Anderson.

***

The problem with humans is that their thinking relates directly to what they know or are used to; it is pretty much a key factor in how we make choices. More and more people were reading about the benefits that Carandel offered; Bill and Joe took pains not to brag and stuck to the simpler facts that it wasn't constantly hot and you could live on the surface instead of underground. Even though they weren't trying to actually sell anyone on moving, the fact that food grew naturally on the surface was a big convincer, and a lot of questions came from that most important of human necessities. It boggled people's minds that you could pick fruit right from a tree; simply because most people didn't know what a tree was, let alone bushes and grass; Sore Point didn't have anything like that to relate to, just a lot of desert. The club knew of such things because they had learned about them from the dogs on Carandel and they had the real thing just outside the complex. The point was that they were trying to convince everyone that there was a nicer place to be, but had not thought to take some pictures to actually show people what it was like. For now all they could do was answer questions to get people to start thinking about that better place. Bill promised himself to correct that mistake; they would take lots of pictures when they got back, on something of a planetary survey. Einstein could do that easily with his optical scanners.

Crissy was doing her own brand of selling from the beginning, but it wasn't targeted at the general public. She knew of a small underground society that existed as forgotten citizens of Sore Point; Crissy was well acquainted with the orphans because she had been one not three years ago, and her secret mission was to bring the wonders of Carandel to them. Crissy didn't so much find them as they found her on the second day; one did actually, and he was the one she needed most to reach all the other 'kids'. When Crissy and Tipper reached the lowest tunnel she heard the familiar voice, "You are looking good Crissy, I've missed ya. Most of the kids still ask about you sometimes. Who's your friend?"

Crissy knew George liked her, he had always tried to get as close as she would let him when she lived among the outcasts, "Hi Geo, this is Tipper; he is the reason I want to talk everyone, well one of the reasons. He's a dog, and he's my very best friend. " Geo raised an eyebrow at hearing that, "Wow Crissy, you really have changed; that has to be the most words I ever heard from you at any one time. Hi there Tipper, I'm pleased to meet you." Tipper looked up at Crissy for a moment, then at the boy, "Good meet too Geo, is special time." Crissy had to giggle at Geo's startled expression, "Yes Geo, they talk too; and they're real smart. Can we get everybody together so I can tell them all about Carandel please? You still hang out under the water treatment plant?" They did live there, and after an hour Crissy had all 31members of this Sore Point subculture waiting to hear her spiel; Geo told her "There were 33 until last week but Amy and Jeb lucked out and the Nicholson's took them in."

The shocked questions started almost immediately when Crissy told the group about weather on Carandel; the youngest girl, Joan, spoke up skeptically, "You're foolin', nobody lives 'uptop' where the sky is; you'd burn up!" Crissy had known that was coming, she didn't believe it for the first few days on Carandel either, "No foolin', you can live uptop as much as you want to on Carandel, and get rained on too. Rain is a little scary the first time, but it does feel kinda nice." The girl's eyes went wide, "What is 'rain'? And a short side lesson on water falling from the sky ensued for a half hour before at least some of the kids believed the amazing story. The discussion naturally migrated to the dog lying peacefully in Crissy's lap; all dogs really, as Joan piped up again, "If I go to this Carandel place with you can I pick out a dog too?" That simple question startled Crissy for a minute; she had never thought about the relationship before. She could easily remember the day Tipper had walked right up to her however, and how that meeting had pushed away all the hurt she felt. There must be words to explain it, Crissy just had to find them. She smiled at Joan, "You don't just pick out a dog Joan, a dog picks you. They don't think about things the same way we do, but when a dog 'chooses' you, they know it inside. They see who you are on the inside; so you may have to wait a little while but with all the dogs on Carandel, your dog will find you I'm sure. Isn't that right Tipper? The little pup looked up at Crissy, then over at Joan, "Yes, is special good."

At the end of that first day Bill was annoyed with Crissy when she and Tipper got back to the Gymkhana way later than he expected, "Where have you two been? I was worried you got hurt or something worse. Don't you"...Bill didn't get the chance to finish as Crissy ran up and hugged him tightly. "Oh Da...Father, I'm sorry but we were telling my friends about Carandel and I lost track of time; but I think I might have some passengers for the trip back. In fact three days later she had 25 confirmed passengers for the return trip; one of them was Joan who wanted two things above all else. First of all, after seeing Tipper up close she wanted to have her own furry friend; a world where you could stay out under the sky all the time was a slightly less important consideration for her, and rain was relegated to a 'wait and see' third place. Dealing with young people who had a limited number of years experience to form their views on life was one thing; dealing with older adults who had come to terms with their existence on Sore Point was quite another. Bill and Pete ran into more than skepticism when they gathered the pilots and mechanics together. Both groups were realists, involved with the physical problems of Sore Point; the machines. Few days passed where a part didn't have to be replaced or machined from scratch. The pilots were mechanics in their own right, and kept the dwindling number of old ore shuttles flying; the 23 that were still air tight anyway. The other 3 'leakers' were kept running for in atmosphere flights around the planet; why? You still had to train new pilots. The 30 pilots didn't fly that often anymore, but they did at every opportunity. Pete started off by telling them all about the planet, what they knew of it so far. That was the easy part; being pragmatic by nature, most of them recognized the benefits right away; Tricia saw the flaw in the presentation right away though, "I don't have any problem with a world that doesn't bite you every day, but how the heck do you think we're going to get nearly 6000 people there? And if we try it, why not just go back to Earth, it's still there isn't it?" Bill stood up so fast Trish thought she made him mad, "I think I'd better answer those questions Pete; to answer your first question Trish, I have to answer the second one. In plain language, we can't get to Earth from here; it is just too far away and would take about six months just to get there if we had a nice big ship, which we don't. It is ironic, but Carandel is much closer to Earth than we are, and it is possible to get to Earth from there; but even then it would take very careful planning, again if we had a nice big ship to work with. So you see, Carandel is by default the destination we have to think about; and that takes us back to your first question. That world is six days from Sore Point at an economical speed for my ship the Gymkhana, but we can't take very many people at one time and I'm sure you can do the math; and that brings me to what we do have. Can we figure out a way to use the ore shuttles?"
Chapter 9

The proverbial cat was climbing out of the bag; it wasn't clawing its way out, more like peeking out and looking around. Tricia cornered Bill and Pete after the meeting, "You two are trying way too hard to keep a secret; call it woman's intuition if you want to, but it was kind of obvious to me you weren't telling all about Earth back there. Give it up, I'm a big girl now." Bill looked at Pete for a moment, the question plainly visible in his expression; was it too early to admit the truth? Pete's shrug made the answer equally plain; they were going to have to come clean eventually, and there were plenty of people just as astute as Trish waiting for the missing pieces of the story, "Ok Trish, let's go back to my ship. Sanna and Ned look like they could use a break from this heat." Bill got two wagging tails in agreement with that suggestion, and he realized they all would have to pay closer attention to how the dogs were handling this visit. He knew they would not complain outright.

After they settled down on the Gymkhana and the two dogs had some water to cool down, Bill started in, "Have you ever wondered why the ore and shift change ships stopped arriving back then Tricia?" The woman laughed for a minute, "Of course! I expect everyone on Sore Point wonders about that one sometimes. Something certainly happened to leave us stranded all this time; we just don't know what. It's been a long time, but someday they'll show up again, we only have to..." Tricia's eyes went wide as the terrible thought flashed in her mind, "Earth 'is' gone, isn't it." Bill held up his hands to ward off the onslaught before it went too far, "Hold on Trish, we don't know that it is physically gone; but we did find a lot of information in the lab complex on Carandel and some of it does tell us what happened. I'm not going to lie to you girl, but I won't give you false hopes either. Here is what we do know from all the different pieces..." For the next three hours Bill and Pete teamed up to explain their journey of discovery that had yielded far more than anyone had ever expected. The complex itself fascinated Trish but the reason it was originally built worried her, it was Newton Salas' treatise however that crushed any lingering hopes that Earth was a viable dream anymore.

Humans react to devastating news in many different ways; Tricia Anderson was a cut above the average human though, having chosen a profession that was historically dominated by men. She had earned the respect of all the Engineers by proving her competence over time; Trish was smart and saw the discrepancy, "This all happened over a thousand years ago; I think someone should go to Earth and confirm it is truly gone. I wish we could have done that back then, maybe we could have saved some people." Bill frowned, trying to decide whether or not to reveal his family's secret; Trish had taken the evidence well so far, so he blurted it out finally. "Someone did go to Earth back then Trish; my ancestor did it in this ship, and he nearly died in the attempt. It's how I know the Earth was truly dead then." He told her the fragmented description of what a lifeless planet looked like, but then softened the blow somewhat by telling Trish his plan to go there from Carandel one day, "I'm thinking there is a slight possibility the Earth might have recovered, but it would still require that we get some reaction mass to Carandel first, and that goes back full circle to how to accomplish that. The shuttles are the key to all of this I believe, but whatever we come up with, it will take time. If people do decide to move, what we do is even more important to get them there safely; everyone here on Sore Point is all that remains of the human race." Trish promised she would keep the secret for now, "Telling everybody would just cause panic I'm sure, and we don't need that; but I am going to push for us to use the shuttles. 'How' is going to be the biggest challenge, I already know the engines are only one part of it; those things weren't built for passenger service."

***

Tricia was right, the shuttles would be a big challenge; one other challenge was just as important as getting the human race to Carandel; Joe Carnes was dealing with keeping them alive when they got there. 250 of the 300 medical people showed up for the show and tell he held in the biggest conference room available; Joe began with a detailed story of their arrival on Carandel, not because of what they had hoped to find but how all their intentions were diverted before they had even landed. He started by stressing the dogs for a reason, because he knew what would be the biggest concern for the Doctors and their staff. After detailing the discovery of the dogs, Joe dropped the bomb on them, "This is Andee, and I owe him my life." That did the trick and he had their rapt attention; Joe explained in excruciating detail how the dogs had answered the call to save the entire crew. One of the assembly laughed out loud and stood up, "You mean to tell us these dogs are Doctors too?" Joe laughed right back at him, "Not at all...but you might as well admit they are Doctors in their own right. This fellow here recognized something was very wrong, followed the symptoms, deduced why Christine Elgin wasn't sick, derived the correct treatment, and called the entire pack to help with that treatment. If that isn't a Doctor, I don't know what is!" There was silence for several minutes while they digested that revelation, before a nurse spoke up, "That is all well and good, but how do you know that virus won't attack again? And for that matter, there must be other 'bugs' on that planet."

Joe wanted to thank the woman for bringing that up, "No, I don't know that the virus is eradicated; it could be out there waiting for a host, and you are right. There could very well be other diseases too; but I don't think that would be a problem in the long run, you see dogs don't get sick at all. I had to explain to Andee what it was, they don't have a word for it, just 'hurt'. They are just as susceptible to injuries as we are, but they never get sick; not even a cold. I have no empirical evidence to support my theory, just what is contained in the medical books I brought back, but I do not believe any of us who experienced the unorthodox 'treatment' will get sick again. We could work up a vaccine for anyone who migrates to Carandel that would be a bit more, shall we say, palatable. That got all the group laughing, and it pretty much ended the meeting; as Joe and Andee began walking out of the conference room Andee stopped short and sat down, looking at one of the Doctors. "Hurt inside, need help." The man looked startled, "Yes, I have a minor surgery scheduled later; how did you know that?" Joe chuckled, "Oh! I should have mentioned that Arnold, dogs are pretty good at sensing when something is wrong."

If the higher professions were fairly easy to make their case to, the average worker bee wasn't so easy to convince that there was something better waiting for them. They couldn't see the benefit with just words even though the questions kept pouring in, and that made pictures all the more necessary. By the middle of the third week it was obvious they had to get back and take some photo images to help out with the campaign. Ted wrote up a short but informative general message for the message board, telling everyone that they would be back in a little while, after they got lots of pictures of Carandel. Since 'What is it like?' was the number one question in its many forms, that should hold the fort 'til they got back. Crissy made the trip down to the water treatment plant to collect all her kids for the trip back, helping the expected passengers pack what they wanted to take with them. For the most part that consisted of a single change of clothes and maybe two or three toys or keepsakes, plus the homemade sleeping bag that had served as their only link to security. The six holdouts stood off to the side watching, until the group started filing out of the chamber. There was a single shout, "Wait!", and ten minutes later there were 31 passengers for the trip back. It threw the planned accommodations off somewhat, but a little musical hot bunking would let everyone catch a nap whenever they wanted; food was not going to be a problem since the kids seldom ate much at all, and the Gymkhana took off an hour later.

Even on a relatively short six day trip the age old problem with space travel surfaced; what to do while you waited to 'get there'. Joe gave each of the new additions a semi thorough 'physical exam' and a shot of his special brew, a vaccine he had whipped up from blood samples, using both the dogs and the humans onboard, and crossed his fingers hoping it would be enough. Einstein had the few entertainment videos in his database, the ones that still survived anyway; plus some school lessons about the Dark Times and how the 'First People' had survived, but everyone had seen them before so talking was the preferred way to pass time. For two days all the kids made the short pilgrimage to the bridge where Bill gave short lessons on the wonders of the Universe; but that interest faded fast when they saw that it was pretty much just one big nothingness with tiny dots of light all over. The questions on Carandel expanded to not only what it was like but where would they live and who was in charge. Even though most had been doing it for several years already, Crissy still had a hard time convincing the kids that they would be responsible for themselves mostly, "You'll have to see it for yourselves really; it isn't cramped and hot like Sore Point so you have lots of choices on what you want to do. Nobody is gonna tell you what to do, but I suggest everybody stay together until you get used to how open Carandel is. I've been there and I still don't know much about the whole planet; it's going to be fun to explore with these two extra scooters though, that I can promise you." Tipper confirmed that with "Fly is good!"

All the talking in the Universe cannot prepare you for the experience of seeing it for yourself; it doesn't matter if you are human, dog or alien, first sight is always disconcerting. The usual mandate to fasten seatbelts was pretty much rescinded for the Gymkhana's descent through Carandel's atmosphere, and Einstein slowed to a crawl for landing at the complex, there just weren't enough seatbelts for everyone this time. Every newcomer's eyes were glued to the various screens in staterooms and the galley however, as they were introduced to large fluffy cumulous clouds passing by. As they dropped out of the cloud cover the scene changed to vast greenery everywhere the kids looked, and the soft exclamations began. The shocking tableau proved once and for all that they weren't in Kansas anymore.

***

Gerry was browsing through her ancestress' computer yet again; she had long ago realized that Mary Dressler's computer held far more than just medical jargon and observations. The deeper Gerry went into the thousands of files, she found more and more of a person's life on Earth. The myriad photos alone were sprinkled with places Mary had visited over her 39 years as a member of Earth's population. Gerry liked looking at all the different colorful scenes usually, but they also showed her another place and time that didn't exist anymore and that would bring the sadness back every time. Melly was laying next to the keyboard as usual, glancing up at each picture as it popped onto the screen, when she suddenly jumped up and danced around the desk excitedly, "Masters here Gerry!" That exhibition startled Gerry out of her funk, "The ship is back Melly? How do you know that?" Her little companion stopped running around in circles and sat looking up at Gerry, tilting her head to one side, "Feel inside, you not feel it?" Gerry sat back in the chair for a moment and closed her eyes; at first she felt nothing, but then the slight vibration began in her chest, growing a little in intensity as the seconds went by, "Ahh, I feel it now. Come on, let's see what's up out there." Picking up Melly, Gerry headed for the front entrance; getting to the door just as Einstein touched down on the rock slab outside. The ten other Carandelans in the complex, five humans and five dogs, caught up a few seconds later and all of them filed out to welcome their friends back.

They expected ten 'people'; what they got was a crowd of forty one. While Crissy and Tipper gathered the kids together to ease them into the reality of arrival, Joe and Andee walked over to the surprised club members, "Umm guys, we were a bit more successful than we had thought we would be. The kids are going to be in shock for a while so be extra gentle with them. Crissy is their anchor for the moment because they trust her; remember, everything here is new and frightening for them, so let them get comfortable at their own pace, it'll take a while." In fact it took several hours before any newcomer even went inside the complex. The kids already knew the adults and dogs from the transit here; now Crissy expanded their horizons by introducing everyone who had stayed on Carandel. Trust was not easily earned at anytime in human history, she knew that instinctively; but Crissy had two things going for her here, a nice welcoming planet, and the dogs. The kids had heard all the stories about weather, but they were still apprehensive at feeling it; the questions had a physical presence now. One boy kept looking up at the sky with broken clouds occasionally blocking the sun, "Is it always like this Crissy?" "Pretty much Allan, but every day is different too. It is never exactly the same, and sometimes it feels colder. It might even rain later today, that will be fun for ya." All during the lessons the dogs wandered among the new arrivals; it allowed the kids to reach out and touch them when they felt like it, and even generated a few more questions.

The sun was low in the sky before the kids were offered their own rooms in the complex, Bill mentioned it as casually as if it were a normal thing; for children who had had few if any things of their own it was anything but normal. All the suites were much the same, except for the little personalization's of the people who had occupied them long ago. The choosing didn't take long and most picked rooms that would let them stay close together in the same corridor. Joan asked Crissy if she could pick one close to her room. Feeling a bit flattered by the request, Crissy said, "Sure Joan, I think the one across from mine is still unoccupied." Having never had a close friend before, Crissy found herself entering a new world of her own. Oddly enough, or perhaps not so oddly, Geo picked a suite on the end of the kid's corridor.

Joan hung around Crissy for three days; she wasn't intrusive or anything, and usually gave Crissy her space. Crissy finally had to laugh when she thought back to how the dogs acted when they picked 'their human'; Joan was acting just like that, and the girl was always polite, "Come walk with us Joan. If you stay back like that the dogs will be jealous." Tipper looked up at her, "What jeyous?" That made Crissy laugh again, but it lasted only a second; and the thought was suddenly just there, Joan was a younger version of Crissy herself. The girl was just as insecure as she had been, until Tipper had come to her that day; and Joan had been the only one who had asked about having her own dog, yet she had not mentioned it even once since they had arrived. Was she afraid to be put to the test, to find out there wasn't a dog for her yet? Crissy had to admit it was a pretty scary thought. "How about we take a walk Joan, Tipper and I can show you the dog's town in the valley." The only time Crissy had seen the valley herself, she had been flying over it at about 200 feet, so the three and a half mile walk felt quite a bit different by the time they arrived at the first of the caves. They walked slowly through the valley and all the dogs seemed interested in them, some would even say something as a welcome; but then would wander off to continue whatever they were doing. They looked into the caves at all the little knick knacks that had some special meaning for the dogs; some were baskets to carry things around in, and others were oddly shaped pieces of wood or stone lying in rows. As of yet, none of the dogs paid any real attention to the two humans and Crissy began wondering if this just wasn't Joan's time yet for that 'special' meeting, and they were almost at the other end of the small valley.

***

Ellie was busy nursing her latest litter; she had 7 this time, 6 males which was unusual in itself, and the one female. The girl was very unusual for two reasons; she was noticeably larger than normal for a shepherd, and would likely be as big as the first leaders of the pack; and she was as dark as night all over. The only marking at all was a single narrow patch of bright white fur right in the center of her forehead that looked a lot like one of the lights in the night sky. Ellie had heard the Masters call the twinkling lights stars before, when she had visited Andee at the forbidden place that was not forbidden anymore. This was his litter too, probably his last attempt; Ellie knew he was proud, for both of them were descended from the first leaders, Mama Candi and Papa Dizzy, and that somehow made their mating extra special. Ellie wondered if Andee would come down to see his pups before they grew old enough to seek their own path. It was not required, or even a tradition; just a nice thing sometimes. All of the pack were one family after all. The puppies were ten suns old now and their eyes were only part way open.

Ellie felt it when the girl pulled away suddenly, so she looked toward her. The pup was crawling to the mouth of the cave, and she began whining. The little girl wanted outside and was struggling to get there. Getting up slowly so as not to disturb the boys too much, Ellie moved to the opening and saw the two Masters and little Tipper walking by. The girl was whining louder now, and a tiny growl came out as she tried to stand up; Ellie knew what she wanted and picked the pup up in her mouth, carrying her out in front of the younger Master and putting the puppy down in front of the startled girls foot. Looking up at the startled Joan, Ellie said simply, "Want near you Master. I bring." As the puppy licked and pawed Joan's foot, Crissy giggled in relief, "I think you found your dog Joan, go ahead and pick her up." Joan was totally flustered now, but she had enough presence of mind to reach down, picking up the jet black ball of fur as if she were fragile glass and cradling the puppy close to her, "She is so soft! Can I take her back to my room?" Ellie spoke up, "Too soon, ten more suns maybe. Is learning time." They spent several more hours together before Joan would grudgingly admit they should go back to the complex; the puppy had confirmed that it really was too soon by dribbling on Joan's shirt once, and whined a bit when they had to leave; but Joan promised to come back every day. That calmed the puppy's anxiety some and she settled down when they walked back up the trail; the puppy still didn't have a name yet, but she would on the next evening.

Andee ambled down the path into the valley; he had told Joe he needed to see his new family. Joe had understood and agreed easily, "Go ahead Andee, family is always important. I'll be here when you get back." It made him feel good that Doktor Joe was tuned into Andee's needs, they were bonded tightly in the old way now. He nuzzled Ellie in greeting and sat down to admire their litter; seven was normal, but six males in one litter was unusual to say the least. Andee licked each one to let them know they were special to him, then turned his attention to the female curled up in sleep beside Ellie. He could not remember any puppy from any litter that was solid black, that was very special indeed, and he licked the girl gently. The gesture woke the puppy and she looked up at Andee; the bright white mark on her forehead startled Andee, he had seen such a mark only once before in the image of another jet black dog on a computer screen. It was not exactly the same mark, not yet anyway, but the message was clear to him. It was normally the Mother's place to name the puppies, but Ellie had never seen the image like he had, "Name her Candi; is special name, is right name."
Chapter 10

Bill was edgy, pacing up and down the main passageway on the Gymkhana. They had been back almost two weeks and he had not taken that survey flight to gather some photos of Carandel yet; what was he afraid of, finding out the planet wasn't as nice as they thought? Or was it that Carandel might be even nicer, encouraging people to spread out too far. He laughed at himself, "What a stupid thought, that's the point of having a nice comfy planet dummy, to actually 'live' on it! " Sanna was pacing right alongside, "Bad thoughts Master?" That settled Bill's mind, "Yes, I think I was Sanna; sometimes people let their minds wander too much, and that isn't always good. But how about you and I make those bad thoughts go away by flying around to see more of this world we live on, let's find some new good things again, okay?" Sanna danced around for a moment, "Fly high good all time Master, see far!"

Before they took off Bill realized that he couldn't just run off without telling everyone what they were doing; the years of doing that were in the past now. On Sore Point pilots could fly off solo whenever they wanted, simply because it was a somewhat routine occurrence and no one gave it a second thought. Here it was very different though; the Gymkhana was their only link between the two worlds, and even his club might get upset if they walked out of the complex to find an empty landing pad. Old attitudes were changing and he smiled to himself; proper planning and communication were the prime concerns now, every day, and that included the dogs. The dogs knew more about 'outside' on Carandel than all the humans combined, and Bill had to remember that if a mass migration was going to be successful. He and Sanna spent the day spreading the word of their intentions, and the next morning Gymkhana took off with a mixed crew of six; Pete and John decided to come along for the ride, and naturally Ned and Bella wanted to tag along too. John was thinking ahead to 'what might be' years from now and knowing what the whole planet looked like would help with that interest.

The flight was an enormous success for the simple fact that 100,000 images resulted. Einstein operated on the basic principle that if it was different he took a picture of it; and the planet Carandel was as diverse as Earth had been, with forests, plains, mountains, valleys, rivers and streams everywhere. There were two fair sized oceans with sandy beaches stretching into infinity too, everything unknown on Sore Point. Carandel even had a few small deserts, although they wouldn't compare to those on either Earth or Sore Point. It was clear that animals and birds ruled the planet though, and the human race would have to relearn how to deal with them; it was a far cry from the rodent population people were used to. Bill had Einstein concentrate on getting close up images of the different types of animal and bird species, to compare them with the personal photos they had found in all the computers in the complex. It was fairly obvious already that there was no direct comparison, the planet was that different. John wondered if they should be competing at all with Earth, a comparison with Sore Point was more practical for their goal of bringing people here; and there was always the biggest question to answer, would everyone eventually 'want' to move. The pictures would help a lot, he knew that much. Two weeks later, after several debates on whether or not to include the Earth photos at all, Bill and Pete made the speed run to Sore Point and had Einstein upload the packet as a separate linked folder in the Carandel lesson plan. Pete wanted to check and see if the Engineers and Pilots Council had made any progress in devising a way to make the exodus happen, and Bill was curious enough to tag along.

The two weren't expecting much progress when they arrived at the old repair hangar that served as an oversized conference room now; but they were surprised when met with no progress at all. Kurt Rodgers explained the problem in his gruff voice. At 78 years old and being the eldest person on Sore Point, Kurt doubled up as the pseudo Governor for the entire human race as well as being the Senior Engineer, "Your proposed project does have its merits Bill, but we are in something of a bind right now; machinery is failing at a faster rate than usual, and I just can't authorize even a small task force to research modifying shuttles. Every mechanic and machinist we have is working extra shifts to keep up with the breakdowns, and all the pilots are helping out too, so you can see that right now is not the time for a large scale refit that may or may not be needed if the population doesn't buy into your plans. I'm sorry Bill, but the welfare of the people must come first."

The revelation startled Bill, just like any other average citizen he didn't really pay attention to what it took to maintain all the creature comforts that kept a society running. The news hurt, but more importantly it set off an alarm bell in his head, "Kurt, we have known each other for a long time now, and I respect you; there have been times when the Gymkhana would have been grounded without your help, so I can appreciate the decision you had to make. But I may have to disagree with your rationale this time my friend. What if this setback comes down to more than the question of if the people 'want' to move to a new home; what happens if it turns out we 'have to' move. These multiple failures might be a warning, and if we are not ready people could die; so you may want to take that into account. Trust me on this Kurt, the biggest hidden benefit of moving to Carandel is that we would be spending less time worrying and more time living. The planet really is that nice, and now we have the pictures to prove it. They are uploaded into the school database, so take a look when you can." Kurt promised he would, and the two headed back to the ship for the night; only to find Tricia waiting for them at the ramp. "I finished my shift and wanted to talk to you about what I thought up for the shuttles. I can only work on it in my spare time now with all the breakdowns, and there is precious little of that, but I think I've come up with a practical way to turn short range haulers into crude starships.

As they settled down in the galley Trish started right off, "I started off thinking about how to use them with their base configuration as built, but that went away five seconds later; you know as well as I do that shuttles use up a lot of their fuel just getting off the ground and into orbit, so that idea got squashed fast. Even if we used extreme fuel management once in space, similar to what was done during 'The Rescue' and coasted to Carandel, every trip would be one way; we cannot use the shuttles as is, that was glaringly obvious, but then I thought of the scooters. We built the scooters using that gravity drive your ship has Bill; I wonder if we could use the same principle to retrofit the shuttles. It would solve the biggest problem we face if it's possible.

Pete had come along primarily to support Bill's efforts in getting a solid plan for moving a society they hadn't even convinced to move yet. He wasn't very good dealing with people, but he knew shuttles inside out, and also knew every single system on the Gymkhana, "Wow, you impress me Trish, I had no idea you knew anything about the shuttles; aren't you in the power plant section?" Trish gave him an odd look, almost angry, "Yeah, I never worked on the shuttles, so what, I'm not ignorant ya know! Shuttles waste fuel doing the same thing your ship does so easily; it's simply logical to use that gravity drive somehow, it doesn't take a genius to figure that out." Pete was startled by Trish's outburst and raised both hands in surrender, "Hold on my friend, I'm not criticizing you; that's a great idea really and you just set the direction we should go with all this, I like it." Bill was amused when Trish gave them a sheepish grin, "I'm sorry, I guess all the work is catching up with me; these back to back breakdowns have me worried. Living here on Sore Point is turning into a real struggle, and I think we are losing." She yawned to prove her point and Bill knew how to solve that, "We can fix that temporarily at least, how about you take one of the cabins and stretch out here tonight Trish. I'm going over and see if Kurt will assign you to us to bounce more ideas around; somehow I don't think it will be as easy as it sounds."

Kurt Rodgers had not gone home yet, and Bill caught him in the middle of 'changing hats', walking the hundred feet into his 'Governors Office'; Kurt was listening to reports from the various Section Chiefs for the colony. When Bill explained his idea, Kurt's eyebrows went up a few notches, "Ahh, Patricia Anderson; I've been watching her for some time now, a very intelligent young woman, a real mover. If she keeps up the pace she has set for herself, I suspect she will replace me some day. Brent! She is in your section is she not? Are the repairs progressing well enough that you might live without Trish's capable hands for a time?" The middle aged man laughed out loud for a moment, "You know darn well she is the reason we're ahead of the game in the power plant repairs Boss; I can't imagine where she finds the energy to even think about that pet project of hers, let alone sleep. If you want her on that crazy scheme full time go ahead and take her for a couple weeks. Are you really buying into the idea now Kurt?" Chuckling back at Brent, Kurt's features went serious a moment later, "I'm not sure yet, but what Bill said in the meeting a while ago hit hard. I'm thinking maybe we all should look at those photos he put in the school site; perhaps we do have something to learn after all this time fighting to keep our people healthy."

A quick speed run rapidly turned into a four day extended stay for Pete and Bill; using gravity emitters was a solid theory, a nimble Gymkhana proved that much. The problem was that all flying vehicles are not created equal; scooters weighed in at just under 1000 pounds empty and could carry another thousand pounds of passengers and cargo if necessary. After a lot of trial and error the scooters ended up with twelve emitters very carefully placed all over the hull, the majority underneath and on the sides for directional control; the configuration resulted in the scooters flying much like the ancient helicopters of old Earth. Einstein flew the Gymkhana the same way in atmosphere, but there was where the similarities ended; he was a starship, scooters were not. The Gymkhana was 2800 tons mass/weight empty, and had forty four gravity emitters arranged all over the hull, even on top, and each one was two feet in diameter compared to the eight inch emitters on the scooters. Putting gravity emitters on an ore shuttle was going to be a massive task, as they weighed in at 3400 tons mass empty and fully loaded topped 5800 tons; carrying passengers fit somewhere in between, it would be a mathematical nightmare. Enter Einstein into the equations; not only was the Gymkhana a perfect baseline for calculations, he also had the schematics and data for each shuttle available in the old corporate maintenance database; after picking 'Oscar-233' as the test ship, Einstein ran every possible configuration through his brain and came up with a 'safe'104 emitters, three feet in diameter, two days later. Oscar had the distinction of being the 'newest' shuttle with the latest upgrades installed; it was more of a ceremonial choice since all the remaining shuttles were over a thousand years old now, and in the same relative condition. Trish and Pete inspected every square inch of the hull and Pete couldn't help commenting, "We finally found a benefit for Sore Point's dry heat, metal doesn't rust up here on the surface."

Stage two of the planning phase was problematic because of an inherent flaw with gravity drives; the farther away you got from a gravity source the less responsive the system got. That was because the system didn't actually use gravity at all, but rather the natural magnetic fields possessed by all planets; the so called 'gravity emitters' used and manipulated those fields in order to fly. The effective loss wasn't too dramatic within the confines of a solar system, but going interstellar between stars pretty much made the effects go bye bye at an ever faster rate; that little glitch posed a different problem. Either they would still have to use the rocket engines after all, with all that volatile fuel presenting its own dangers; or they would have to somehow fit ion engines to the shuttle, something no one on Sore Point had ever done before. Pete and Tricia were sitting in the shadow of Oscar, talking about the new concern with Ned lying in between the two; the dog wasn't an Engineer of course, not even close, but he did know what the Gymkhana's ion engines looked like. Pete had showed him more than once. Now that the two humans were deep in discussion about those engines, Ned decided to get involved; he raised his head and looked over at the Gymkhana. The ship's engine exhaust nozzles looked like big tapered bells; Ned didn't know what a bell was, but he could certainly recognize a shape. The two engines were mounted on rounded gimbals for directional control in deep space, which didn't mean anything to Ned either; but the overall shape of these four rocket exhausts looked pretty much the same to him. They weren't exactly the same, but the four engines were mounted on gimbals too, and that was enough to convince him, "Look same Master." Pete followed the dogs gaze up to the closest exhaust nozzle and smiled, "Not quite Ned, these engines operate on different..." Then it hit him, "I'll be darned, he's right! Here we've been racking our brains trying to figure out how to retrofit ion engines to Oscar's ass end when we don't really have to, the basic engine housings are already attached. We would have to install an ionization chamber, magnetic rings for shaping, and maybe change out the throat liners, but the two types of engine operate on the same basic principle; inject reaction mass into the chamber and push it out! Good boy Ned, you made this a lot easier now." That got Pete an enthusiastic tail wag, "Look same Master, big work."

Ned was more right than he knew, especially when Einstein unveiled his order of battle so to speak. Having access to all the shuttle builders drawings, he analyzed every system onboard the massive beasts and devised a removal plan for equipment and machinery that served no purpose in the revised design. Since most of the machinery supported firing and controlling pressurized volatile liquid gasses, including oxygen, for the original engines, there would be tons of extraneous pumps, compressors and piping to get rid of. The fuel tanks themselves would remain; they had been built to handle extreme cold and pressures, so they could admirably handle the lower pressure argon used for ionized reaction mass. If Einstein's calculations were right, and they were, Oscar would be able to make at least two round trips between Sore Point and Carandel without needing to refuel. The engines themselves would require only minor mods compared to the interior removals. The plan was complete; at least the 'gutting' phase, Trish would have to wait for the manpower to make it happen until the current repair crisis faded into history. As something of a tranquilizer Einstein gave Tricia his preliminary design for interior accommodations for passengers and a power plant suggestion using one of the auxiliary reactors her division had as spares, "One of those reactors has a power output more than sufficient to handle both the gravity and ion drives Trish." When she blew a kiss at Einstein Bill asked, "Are you kicking me to the curb Einy?" He got one of Einstein's ruder noises in response out of the speakers, "Not a chance Omnipotent One, I just like the way she thinks." The basic plan was complete; would the modifications perform as expected? No one knew at this stage, and it would haunt Pete for a number of months to come.
Chapter 11

Before they took off on the trip back Kurt Rodgers visited for a few minutes, "What you said the other day bothered me Bill. I can't deny that breakdowns are increasing in frequency, and it does take longer to make repairs on some of them. Right now we are catching up, so I'm going to 'loan' Trish four of our helpers to get her going on this project. It is the best I can do at the moment, but I'll take another look at it in about a month's time; by the way, I browsed through those images; it is hard to accept that we can live on the surface of a world; tell me the truth, is it as good as Earth is?" Bill and Pete looked at each other for a moment; both knew now what the answer had to be, but how to say it without ruining the dream? Bill couldn't lie, it just wasn't in him, so he told Kurt straight out, "The short answer is that Carandel is better than Earth and Sore Point combined, Kurt; the 'why' of it is not easy to explain however. I think most of our people understand that something bad happened to Earth long ago, and some of what we found in the lab complex confirmed that. What the Earth is like now is still unknown, but getting there from here on Sore Point simply is not practical for us; the distance is just too great, so I believe moving the people to Carandel should be our goal, regardless of how people think of Earth. All of us who have been there can tell you it is a damn sight nicer than being here, half of the club sleeps out under the stars now, except for when it rains of course."

Kurt raised an eyebrow at yet another reference to weather, "That is something I'll have to see for myself, maybe I'll tag along with you one day. That's for the future; but you have been talking around the issue Bill. Are you saying Earth isn't there anymore?" Pete sighed and Bill nodded at Kurt, "Our best guess is that the Earth is still there Kurt; we just don't know if it will ever be livable again. It is pretty obvious that we are the last of the human race." He gave Kurt an abbreviated explanation of the Newton Marchand thesis on Earth's demise, then added Doctor Mary Dressler's short description of her experience as proof of the final act. " So you can see, Kurt, there are unanswered questions about Earth; but Carandel is out there and available for us to improve our lives now. In a way we owe it to our ancestors to accept what the planet has to offer us." Kurt Rodgers wasn't smiling, "Well that is a kick in the pants certainly; I can see why you carefully avoided that bit of information in your promotion of Carandel. Given my own reaction I agree with you; we cannot just blurt that out to the people, it would devastate many of them. Even at my advanced age I still had the slight hope of returning to the Earth, but now that I know we don't really have that option it makes me want to see this new world all the more. If you would, give me about three months to settle this latest set of problems, and come get me, I think Fred can cover for me for a few weeks. In the mean time I think I'll start some subtle word of mouth promotions of my own to help convince the people; thanks for being honest with me on this."

***

Humans are a pretty resilient race; for thousands of years they had conquered adversity of all kinds, even some that they created themselves, and managed to bounce back every time. Humans are frail as well when it comes to perception, and among the many psychological challenges they face in life, one stands out as the most difficult of all; fear of the unknown, more generally referred to as Anxiety. The people of Sore Point lived their lives dealing with relatively minor anxieties, such as the occasional power outage, with little thought given to the possibility that things could get worse. The reason was simply that they 'believed'; it wasn't a religion but might as well have been, everyone believed deep down inside that they would one day be rewarded with an idyllic life on the paradise planet of their ancestors; everyone except eleven members of The Sore Point Archaeological Society that is. Bill and ten others knew the bare truth now, and that truth was causing him no small amount of ancient anxiety; what if some of the people clung tenaciously to their belief in Earth and refused to move to Carandel? Bill broached the subject with Pete on the second day of the trip back, "We have to face it Pete, Kurt and Tricia took the reality of our situation well, only because they pretty much think the same way we do when it comes to problems. The average Sore Pointer won't be so accepting and will more likely see Carandel as a temporary solution, a detour on our way back to Earth; a lot of them may think it too much trouble to move at all. With only 6000 of us left to represent the human race, it scares me that we might not make it if we don't stay together." Pete was about to answer when Sanna beat him to it, "Mama Candi say to first pack Master; stay together Masters come back, God promise." Bill had to think on that one for a minute, "That's a nice way to think Sanna, but so many random things had to came together just right we might never have come back without a little luck." Sanna got the last words in by wagging her tail, "Not luck Master; God send you back!" Sanna pranced over to her bowl and drank some water; Einstein got the final word as one of his 'less rude' noises came from the speakers, "She got you there Boss..." Pete just chuckled to himself as he scratched one of Ned's ears.

The anxiety faded on the trip back, partly because they were going back home and partly because Einstein didn't let Bill and Pete dwell on the myriad problems yet to be discovered with the plan. On his own the AI had conducted his own little experiment before they ever left the densely packed star system, and discovered a little trick that no one had thought up before. "Boss, I played around with a little theory that might help with the shuttle performance when we get that far. I have always used the gravity drive to get up to speed and slow down within star systems, and the shuttles should perform in about the same way overall; but because of the mass differences I thought I'd see how far past the Heliosphere the emitters would be effective in providing an extra nudge. It isn't much but the extra seven percent has boosted us to just under half the speed of light; we will be arriving at Carandel eleven hours earlier than usual." That news had the desired effect by inject something more positive into the debates; Bill and Pete were a bit more animated for the remainder of the journey back home. Sanna and Ned just enjoyed the view of 'God's Home', as usual. The welcome was pretty much as expected, with one humorous twist; still very much the puppy, Candi was introducing Joan to the favorite game of 'Chase the Dog', running all over the big landing pad and stopping to tease Joan into trying to catch her. The two were so immersed in the challenge that they didn't see the Gymkhana until the huge shadow descended over them; both moved quickly over to the complex door to let the ship land.

***

Humans had coined thousands of cute phrases over the millennia, most of them defining a certain moment in history. Many of them could be applied to space travel too, but one related to the human condition itself no matter where you were; 'Time flies when you are having fun'. Once the kids had gotten over the initial shock of living 'up top' under the blue sky of Carandel they began exploring farther away from the anchor point of the old lab complex. By the time that the Gymkhana returned the path into the valley was getting well worn, and six of the young people had decided they wanted to build a place they could live in, instead of having to go back and forth to the complex every day. None of the remaining human race had a clue how to build a house, and certainly not some of the youngest of the group, so they went to the one person who might have an idea or two, John Craven. John didn't really know either, but he did have an edge on the rest; he had browsed through just about every old computer in the complex and found all sorts of nice to know information from an age long ago; all he had to do was remember which computers had the necessary files. Several of the bio-scientists had squirreled away their ideas for dream homes, complete with design drawings in some cases; usually of the boxy stick built variety, one design stood out because it wasn't squared off at all. Unique and considered odd in its time, the dome house finally had its day on a planet billions of miles away from its conception. Relatively simple and quick to build, the file also had how to instructions on the various materials that could be used to construct them. Poured concrete was the most durable and long lasting material to use, and if there was one thing Sore Pointers were familiar with already, it was concrete. All they had to do was find the ingredients here on Carandel; consequently the scooters were tasked with a new mission profile, a search for materials. Water was no problem at all, as there were rivers and streams all over the planet including the one stream running right through the valley itself. Likewise clay, sand and gravel was plentiful; limestone and calcium based minerals might take a few days to find. When he heard about building houses at one of the weekly status meetings, Bill was reminded once again the size of the undertaking before them. 6,000 people don't fit into a 1,000 occupant lab complex very well, even if almost half of them were in three or four person families. It also made him aware that three more months had elapsed and Kurt would be waiting for him to begin the grand tour he had agreed to; suddenly the task before him became even more monumental than it had been. Getting the people here now seemed less important than what to do with them once they arrived. The human race was about to trade in their survivor status for the brand new position of pioneers; it would be a steep learning curve to be sure. The human race of Sore Point had been living within a closed society for over a thousand years now, where everyone was dependent on each other to survive; that interdependency would work to their benefit as they spread out on Carandel, but the effects of a wide open planet would take some getting used to at first.

Bill pretty much expected this speed run to pick up Kurt Rodgers for his 'vacation' to be uneventful; it had only been three months, not really enough time for anything to have changed. That thought evaporated before they even landed, when Einstein announced, "There are more people working on Oscar than were assigned to Trish, Boss. They appear to have him stripped down to bare essentials now, and six crawlers are moving around him." Bill could easily see just how much had been accomplished when Einy touched down; just about every piece of machinery a shuttle carried was neatly placed in rows off to the side of the big dump truck slowly being turned into a star ship. "Are those emitters I am seeing on the hull Einy? Looks like Kurt is taking the project a lot more seriously than before." Bill and Sanna were half way to the lower level entrance when the answer himself came through the hatch leading down, "Welcome Bill, it's good to see you again. I was just going to see for myself how far they have come with the mods; it shouldn't take long. Patricia is bugging me to authorize the final twenty emitters, says they are holding up her schedule; she wants to begin low level flight tests before the end of this year, the girl is a dynamo." After walking through the cavernous load bay and onto the small bridge, they found Trish squirreled away under the pilot's console with another technician, only her bare feet sticking out. She was cursing to no one in particular, "Dammit, this power lead was supposed to be long enough; it is gonna put us another day behind Jake, and we can't afford many more of these glitches." Sanna sniffed the girl's feet and looked up at Bill, her tail wagging. Bill got the message clearly and just nodded as Sanna gently licked the bare foot closest to her; it had the expected result as the feet suddenly disappeared further into the console, "What the...alright, whoever is messing with me you're in trouble now!" The situation defused quickly when Trish crawled out and saw four pairs of feet standing on the deck, only two of which were human. Trish learned something new then; dogs could appreciate humor too.

The ensuing conference on Oscar was short, simply because Tricia had all her ducks in a row and alternated between praising her crew and complaining she needed more materials faster. The secondary consideration was that the temperature was starting to get hotter as it approached noon time. Bill finally had to laugh, "Maybe you should come with us now Trish, Kurt is going on his vacation and you frankly look like you could use one too." Trish grinned at him, "Oh no, not yet! I'm saving that trip as a reward. I've managed to look through all those pictures you brought back, and I picked out a place I think I want to live; it has a lot of those funny looking trees with the fuzzy nuts and big leaves on them, and there is a nice pond not far away with water falling off the rocks that looks beautiful. Once the project is proven, I'll be on Oscar's first flight to Carandel, Bill, you can bet on that!" Kurt smiled at Trish, then frowned, "Dedication is good, but I want you to get more sleep girl; beginning tonight. On the way back to your cube would you tell Fred Gorn to meet with me on Bill's ship? We'll do a handover before I go see what awaits us for myself." Kurt was a bit edgy an hour later when Fred finally showed up; the reasons for his not being prompt were walking behind him, a young couple with two small children, all carrying what looked like their entire possessions. Fred introduced them, "Kurt, Bill, this is Paul and Alice Gravely and their two girls, Barbara and Susan. Paul and Alice are in the medical section and are studying to be nurses. Don't tell Joe Carnes, but he's the reason they decided to make the move now; after reading the books he brought back they want to learn more from him." Bill got a laugh out of that admission, but settled down a moment later, "Yeah, Joe would probably feel uneasy knowing he was such an inspiration; but I bet he'll welcome the assistance in the infirmary. If this continues we may end up with a larger population sooner than we expected. Alright you guys, you're in luck. We have plenty of room this trip, so pick a couple of cabins and we'll head out in about an hour.

Humans deal with the unknown in many ways, but very young humans have only one outlook on the concept; moving to another place far away is scary until they find out what it is like and the two Gravely girls clung to their parents for the first hours after liftoff. Sanna took care of the apprehension by simply introducing herself and giving the two a tour of the Gymkhana. Dogs have a calming effect on small children it seems. The small cargo bay became something of a playground once Sanna showed Barbara and Susan her version of Chase the Dog, mixing in a little schooling on what wonders awaited them on Carandel. By the time Einstein landed the ship five days later, their parents had their hands full with two excited girls anxious to explore an even bigger playground; Sanna's little 'nanny' experiment helped allay Paul and Alice's own inner anxieties as well, and Carandel's first real pioneer family arrived ready to take on the challenges of a brand new world of their own.

***

Good old Geo, or George if you prefer, was having his own bout with anxiety; although it had nothing to do with a brand new planet. He had always liked Crissy and had developed a vague intention of them pairing up one day to maybe build a family of their own. There was one tiny problem with his plans however, Christine Elgin wasn't cooperating with his efforts; Crissy was friendly enough with Geo, even more so after she found Tipper, but for the moment her whole existence revolved around the little dog. The few times he tried to get friendly with Tipper were utter failures, and the dog had actually growled at Geo the last time. He was beginning to think something was wrong with him, Joan had mentioned one time that dogs always knew who you were inside and her puppy Candi shied away from him that day, pretty much proving the comment. If there was ever an inferiority complex, George was building a big one. Was he just a bad person, or was it something even worse? The quandary bothered him enough that Geo slipped away one afternoon and took a very long walk; his ancestors had called it a 'walkabout', that was about all Geo knew from the little his Grandfather had told him about their heritage before he died. "When there is great conflict inside, go walkabout to see yourself. The answer is at the end of the journey." The advice hadn't meant much at the time, and wandering around on Sore Point wasn't exactly practical anyway, it was just too crowded and 'up top' would fry you; but here was the perfect place to seek answers. By the fourth day he could barely see the top of the mountain range that held the lab complex, and after walking continuously for that long Geo was good and tired. The sun had set and the bright full moon was rising higher in the sky above a small grove of trees, a good place to rest for a while. Geo sat down on a bed of leaves, resting his back on the smooth rock jutting up in the center of the grove, and thought about how it all seemed so unfair; he wanted to complain about how hard his life had been, but he couldn't get that far. Life was just life, it was what you did with it that made it good or bad; George thought about all the people he had known on Sore Point, they were all different, sometimes in just little ways and sometimes in bigger ways. Some had even been gruff with him, but all of them would help you when you needed help. When he had lost his own family Geo had wandered aimlessly for a time, not really caring about anything; then he found the other kids like him, and it gave him purpose again to take charge and show them how to survive on a hostile world. But now they were here on Carandel, and this world wasn't hostile at all; maybe that was what was wrong with him, was he still thinking of survival rather than accepting this new world? There would still be challenges certainly, but this world wasn't trying to hurt you if you got distracted for a moment. This planet would forgive you if you enjoyed it, and Geo laughed, "It's that simple is it? New world, new attitude; I can do that."

Geo spotted the dog sitting on the rock at the edge of the clearing; even though the full moon cast a fair amount of light, it was still hard to focus on the dog, but it was quite large and it was as black as the darkest night. Between the eyes was a small narrow patch of white fur, almost diamond shaped, but it was the eyes that captured Geo's attention; they sparkled in the moonlight. The dog just stared at him, boring into him for another full minute, before it raised its head to the sky and let out a soft high pitched sound; it wasn't a howl like Geo had heard before, but more of a single note within a song. Looking up at the sky himself, Geo saw the cluster of shooting stars streaking across the moon. Geo smiled, he remembered they were called meteors, and they usually fell to the earth, rather than just passing through the atmosphere like these were doing. When they were gone from sight, Geo looked back down to the dog; but it wasn't there anymore. He was alone again in the night, yet he didn't feel alone now. The whole world was out there and George would learn its ways; he slept soundly through the night and started back to the complex in the morning. He was half way across the first field when Geo saw the scooter coming his way; it was flying a bit wobbly as it moved nearer, and turned sharply when the pilot saw him. Landing with a noticeable bounce, a crying Crissy jumped out and ran to Geo, hugging him tightly; then she backed away and started punching Geo in the chest, "I am so mad at you Geo! You scared everyone when we found out you were missing; don't you ever run off like that again! I was worried sick."

More than a little confused by the sudden affection, or lack of it for a minute, Geo did see that Crissy was alone; except for Tipper trying to figure out how to jump from the scooter to the ground, "Crissy, you don't know how to fly a scooter! You could have killed yourself, and Tipper too. Let's get back there, he's gonna get hurt yet if he jumps out." As the two walked back Crissy wiped away her tears, and when she got into the passenger seat Tipper took care of the leftovers, "I watched Gerry a lot when we took trips to see things, and I remembered what to do. I did pretty good, didn't I?" The laugh came out before Geo could stop it, "Yes, I suppose you did good, since the scooter is still in one piece; but I'm flying back. It's been a long time, but one of the pilots did show me how to fly these." They talked a bit on the way back, but Bill monopolized both of their time for a while once they landed the scooter, finding more choice words to vent his anger than either one had ever heard before, "Don't you ever do that again; I was worried sick!" Bill was somewhat defused when both suspects broke out laughing at his last choice of wording, the use of Crissy's own words was just too funny for them. Later, in Crissy's room, Geo told her why he had to go find himself and all the concerns piling up inside him, "Grandfather said the people had done it since the beginning time." Then he told her about seeing the dog in the moonlight. Tipper raised his head suddenly, "You talk to God?" Geo was startled for a moment himself but brushed it off, "No Tipper, there was no talking, just a big dog sitting on the rock staring at me for a long time. It was all black and hard to see at first; there was only the one small white spot between its eyes. The dog didn't say anything at all, and it disappeared when the shooting stars flew over." Now Crissy was staring wide eyed at him; it creeped Geo out seeing her like that, "What's the matter?" Crissy managed to shake herself out of it, "I think you saw Mama Candi, Geo, Gerry showed me the picture on Doctor Dressler's computer. You just described her exactly, and it's why Andee named Joan's puppy Candi." It would be four more months before Candi attained her full growth, but when she did Geo saw the truth in what was said that day. It would haunt his thoughts for many years...
Chapter 12

"The best laid plans of mice and men often go awry..." Someone said that millennia before, but no one knew that now; Patricia Anderson was getting firsthand experience in what the phrase could mean in real time though. She had hoped to get Oscar off the ground by the end of that year, but here it was two months into the new year and Oscar still sat in the same place. First the reactor she chose would not maintain a stable power output, so Trish had to spend three weeks changing that one out for a smaller one that used a different control circuitry, requiring that they change the control panel too. That turned out to be a better deal, since the second reactor put out more power than the specs said it would and the power was stable at all levels. Then four of the emitters refused to work at all, and that set them back over a month while the coils were rewound; today though Oscar would be airborne, even if it was only about three feet in altitude. The pilot, Oren Halstead, was antsy to get there, and Trish was in the second seat watching every gage on the console as if they would disappear any second, "Ensure neutral controls, engaging emitters at zero field density...power is stable Oren, coming up to ten percent field density. See how the cyclic reacts at this power setting." Oren pulled up on the lever for vertical ascent; he had only pulled up a third of the way when they felt the vibration start. It was a light vibration, but Trish started to get up to check the reactor when she saw it out of the window, "We're moving!" Oren tweaked the attitude stick slightly, "I've got it Trish. Response is a little sluggish but usable; I'm gonna move us well away from the other ships so we have plenty of room to continue, coming up to three feet." He barely pulled a fraction of a degree more on the control and Oscar shot up almost ten feet, "Ookay, ten feet then; that tells us two things right away. First we need to buffer the power flow to the emitters somehow to dampen the control reaction, and second...that is one heck of a reactor! I'm landing here." Just as fast as Oscar went up, he came down with a pronounced thump. Oren was smiling from ear to ear, but Trish was frowning as she went to zero field density again; he wasn't going to put up with that, :Oh don't be such a poop butt Boss; it works! And we know the shock absorbers work just fine in the struts. We have more thinking to do, but Oscar just had his first flight with the new system." Trish tried to give him a dirty look, but it turned into a wide grin, "Yes he did, didn't he; ok, we need to puzzle out smoother control overall, so let's get to it." It would be three more months, but by the time the Gymkhana came back for a visit Sore Point had a reliable new scooter; a 3800 ton scooter. It was time to turn that scooter into a true starship. There are three basic requirements that must be met for a space going vessel to earn the lofty title of interstellar starship; first it had to be airtight in the vacuum of space, and Oscar had met that one for over a thousand years, and with a few pieces of machinery he would be able to recycle and refresh that air. The second requirement was getting from the surface of a planet into space efficiently and safely; and likewise returning to the surface in the same way, and Oscar now had his gold star in that department. The only real stumbling block now was installing ion engines, and that was more like putting a different type of battery in a cherished toy. While no one on Sore Point had ever built their own ion propulsion system, just about every engineer had studied the Gymkhana's system, and had the basic understanding of what was needed. Add to that a very capable AI to provide considerable 'how to' pointers along the way, and you had a good working team to make it happen. That would leave the easiest part of the entire project; adding some basic amenities for the proposed passengers.

Ion engines are simple in concept, consisting of a primary chamber where the reactive mass is ionized, and a secondary exit chamber or thrust nozzle. The beauty of the concept was that you could generate a push from an extremely tiny amount of mass; the problem was that the resulting push was equally tiny unless you got creative, and human scientists could be very creative indeed, once they got stubborn. The very first ion engine was little better than a toy that put out barely a fraction of an ounce of usable thrust; the needle twitched though, proving the concept. For a long time the best the human race could do was propel satellites and some in system probes, but each time they experimented the thrust needle went a little higher on the scale. One year a scientist got a bright idea; you used a magnetic field to create ions in the ionization chamber, why not use a series of magnetic rings in the thrust chamber to shape and concentrate the ion stream being expelled. And while we're at it, let's build the engine bigger so we can see the results...it worked, and ion propulsion took the detour that led to the exploration of other star systems, and the catastrophes that left the current human race the ignominious status of castaways. Now Einstein and the Gymkhana were the examples that the project was doable, and Oscar was the test bed; Trish and her team were the enthusiastic humans who would make it all happen...on a certain day in what would have been the month of June, 3247 on the old Earth calendar, Oscar the starship left the Sore Point system, its destination the planet Carandel.

Whenever the Gymkhana was airborne on its gravity drive everyone knew it from the subtle vibration they felt in their chests; it had become so routine that none of the colony took much notice anymore, so when the deeper and stronger vibration began all of them knew something was up. Bill and Sanna were relaxing on the bridge talking with Einstein when she jumped up and started running in circles, "They come, they come!" At first Bill thought the dog was going nuts, but then he felt it too, "Einy, what's going on?" "I got him on radar Boss, Oscar is here." Bill was outside a minute later looking up, Sanna by his side; most of the complex joined them there on the landing soon after, all of them doing the same thing, looking up at the clouds. Everyone waited, and waited some more; about four minutes passed before John pointed up to the far left, "There they are." The dark shadow became a recognizable shuttle as it dropped out of the cloud cover, moving slowly toward the landing pad. When Oscar swung by the rock landing pad and continued on to the near end of the valley, Bill realized "He can't land here; even if Einy moved off, Oscar is just too big. They'll land out on the plain, who wants to go meet them?" He realized how silly the question had been when all 57 people and 14 dogs around Bill suddenly surged toward the Gymkhana; whoever was onboard Oscar, they were going to get the grand welcome. It took a few minutes to get all the people and dogs crammed into Gymkhana, but once airborne and on their way to the shuttle's landing spot Bill saw just how grand the welcome was going to be; just about every dog in the pack was running at top speed out of the valley, over half would get there before Einy landed. The pilot's hatch was opening as they landed, and out came Tricia Anderson, wearing the biggest smile Bill had seen yet, "Told ya I would come! I just had to be on the first endurance flight; took us 12 days to get here, but that's mostly because we didn't push the new engines, Oscar operates great!"It was a bit of a surprise to find out there were more than just Trish and Oren onboard; all 14 of the team had elected to make the first long range trip to Carandel, justifying it as wanting to keep eyes on the machinery. No one bought into that fallacy, but it sounded nice anyway. While the newcomers got acquainted with the sea of dogs that wanted to get close to them, Trish took Bill and Pete on an abbreviated tour of Oscar's innards, "All two hundred and fifty cubicles are in place, but we only fitted out the first 25 so far. We'll finish the rest when we get back, but I couldn't wait anymore; I had to know we could get here."

Trish and her crew stayed five days, but there was little relaxation; all of the project team had squirreled away their own favored photo that represented their new dream, and they wanted to see the real deal, to walk among the features that had caught their eye. The scooters got extended workouts; a few of the chosen locations were rather far away from 'home base'. Trish and Oren spent one whole day at her 'grotto', doing whatever they wanted to; and when Bill saw the smiles on their faces that evening he knew the two were a little more than just work partners. It made him feel good to know they had reached a turning point; seeding the interest in Carandel had been something of a struggle because of basic human nature, the resistance to drastic change. There was still a long road to travel in that respect, but those seeds were already sown and the seeds were growing. Proving Oscar's viability was the true beginning for the human race; now they would have the means to move their society to a new home. There would be more Oscars to make that happen, because they would be moving a good portion of their infrastructure as well as people. It had only been two years since they had found this pristine world, and it would be quite a few more before the human race called themselves 'Carandelans'; but as Bill watched Oscar rise up into the clouds on the fifth day, Bill said it to himself, "It will be a new history for us now, and we will have to be damn sure we don't make the same mistakes all over again." Pete spoke up from behind Bill, "You got that right Boss; we still don't know everything that happened to Earth, but what we did find in those computers tells us plainly what not to do; we have to listen to it."

***

John sat at the edge of the great slab of rock, looking out past the end of the valley, where the small town was taking shape. Twenty houses were in various stages of construction, with four of them completed. There were just over six hundred colonists so far, yet already people were tentatively spreading out on their new world. It would be a long time still before all the people were moved to Carandel; if all of them did move. Bill walked up and sat beside him, "The human race has a real chance now, don't we? I never thought of it quite this way before, but our people were just existing on Sore Point, where here on Carandel we can actually live and grow; it feels like the way it's supposed to be." Sanna looked up from her place beside him, "Is God promise Master." Bella lifted her head and let out a soft howl in assent, catching John's attention. "That is something that has confused me for some time now; all the dogs mention God from time to time and I had thought it was just something they made up on their own, but Doctor Dressler mentioned God often in her diary too, even before she moved here from Earth; just who is God, Bella?" The dog looked at John for a long moment, her head tilted, "Is first words learn as puppy Master, 'God is love'..."

~

*From an earlier time*

She walked up the path to her high place, the promontory she had visited every night for 37 seasons. It seemed like a longer journey now, but that didn't matter. The promise must be kept. She sat in her usual place on the edge, looking down at the valley below; then glanced at the container holding the toy that meant so much to her. The toy was a reminder of the happy time long ago, and it gave her strength. It was chilly tonight, but that did not matter either; the song would be sung. She sang softly, as always now; loud did not matter, the song mattered, and she sang the song until the moon was directly overhead. She looked up at the moon as she felt the sudden warm breeze caress her fur. There was a soft voice carried by the breeze and she heard it clearly. "You have done well Candi, the children will continue. It is time to rest now. Sleep Candi, and claim your reward." She lay down with her head on her front paws, and closed her eyes. "Yes Master."

The pack found her in the morning in her high place, lying there in a peaceful sleep. The song would be sung for a thousand more seasons; it was a good song,

a song of Hope.

***
About This Story

Yes, I did it again! Dogs are a major part of who I am, and always will be, but this one ultimately was a story inspired by one dog in particular. She was the first dog I ever had and I found her in a Pound in Orlando, Florida 50 years ago. She was an older Belgian Shepherd between 8 and 10 years old, and she was a big beautiful girl with a dark coat of fur that had a blue tint in the sunlight. I named her Babe for that reason; you know, from the Paul Bunyan story; or maybe you don't, no matter. I only had her for two months before I had to find her a good home when I got orders back to sea in the Navy. There's a lot more to that story, but I'd rather not go into it other than to say I couldn't take a 70 pound Belgian Shepherd on a 1500 mile journey in a Volkswagen Beetle. For various reasons I have regretted giving her up ever since, and I think about her just about every day. There isn't any real point in telling you that, just maybe to honor her in some small way, so...

This story was for you Babe.

Now for the part that always makes me uncomfortable, talking about me. I have come to realize that I'm not really an author in the classic sense, since writing comes hard for me. I think I'm more of a story teller since my 'style' is grounded in everyday people doing everyday things in an everyday world, wherever that world may be. My characters aren't superheroes fighting off super villains, that is definitely not my style. Ok, enough rambling...

Thank you for reading this story; even for me this one is a bit more unconventional than usual. I hope you enjoyed it. If you liked it, or even if you didn't, please leave a review note wherever you downloaded it from. And as always, if you want to make it a little more personal you can email me at:

mwb_8@yahoo.com

Don't forget the underscore before the 8. Thank you again for reading,

Michael
