Research

Allies or Enemies

               Archer excused himself from his “family” for the evening to take a walk in the town. During their off shifts, which were staggered, they would return to the rooming house at the far edge of town via public transports. Now paid with small golden balls at the end of every 4 days, the costs to take transportation and lodge outside the town were less than staying in the city center.

               He was reporting the next morning with Ensign Samuels, but Laskin just finished his last day. Archer left them at the guesthouse so he could be alone for the night. After two weeks of snooping around Reactor Two he had yet to find out why the Tellarites built these reactors. The citizens seem to be thrilled but ignorant of the risks of radioactive energy. It was time to take a break from thinking about Thorium and Tellarites.

               He vaguely remembered the layout of the city, but so much had happened in the last decade it was hard to be certain. He stopped at the small library across from a restaurant, both of them lit up inside with electric light. The restaurant was humming; the library almost as much. Maybe he could get a few answers to some remaining questions in there.

               Upon entering he found a detailed city map on the wall. It was better than the images taken from orbit in that streets were named and buildings identified.  At the center of the map was the library. To the north was Reactor two and its surrounding complex of buildings. On the north west was the sea, and to the south east was their original boarding house. The map ended at the edges of town. A small box on a table underneath the map contains miniature copies of it, so he tucked one in his shirt pocket.

               Most of the books on the shelves were relatively new. He wandered over to the science area, but was disappointed to see such a small selection. He was starting to learn to read their primary language, called Wolg, after a highly populated land mass.  Anatomy, biology, crystals, diets, experiments – everything was alphabetical, albeit rather Wolg-alphabetical. It took Archer a few minutes to translate it in his head. Time, calendars, clocks – he thought he’d figured out the daily cycle that lasted about 22 earth hours, but keeping time didn’t seem to be much of an issue in the city. Of course the farmers needed to know their seasons.

               He pulled out a large book, History and Time, and sat down with it. An “annular” was an Akalli year – 590 days at 22 hours each. The three small moons determined the other cycles – the equivalent of a week, a month, and a season. That was just more than one and a half times the earth measurements. Without pronounced seasons, just a cool and a warm, farming was more reliable, the plants more adaptable, and the people easy going. The people. He glanced at the biology books, wondering if…he looked at the authors names but saw nothing with the word Riaan on it. Now he understood why Kellam was astonished to hear he was over 50.

               Riaan had been in the back of his mind since the first mention of Akal more than a month earlier. He kept pushing her out, or at least burying her behind his mission. He’d managed to distract himself for the first couple of “weeks” but she slipped in, quietly, sometimes when he slept, sometimes when he was served hot tea, sometimes when he thought about the aliens that were profiting somehow from the nuclear reactors.

               He left the library and started to make his way towards a merchant area where he’d first met Riann. He knew it was a long shot. He didn’t want to drag his team on his personal goose chase, so he’d not had any time to indulge his fantasy. The longer it took to get there, the more intense the high of possibly seeing her again. He didn’t know what he’d find down the quaint street of shops mixed with homes. He noticed a shop where he might buy some interesting clothes that might be better suited to his evolving employment at Reactor Two.

               And the street was a dead end. The last building was the place he’d taken Riaan after his first officer, T’Pol, had felled her with a phaser pistol from behind. Maybe it was then that his heart went out to her in her defense. Or was it when he carried her home from one street over? When she accused him of being a poor liar? It didn’t matter exactly when, but her determination, her courage to investigate, her intelligence and commitment to science were admirable, even enviable.

               Electricity had been fitted to the house; it was brightly illuminated from the indoors. He thought perhaps it lost a lot of its charm in the retrofit. But the deed was done. At this point it was a matter of damage control and putting a stop to further technology and exploitation. The genie was out of the bottle and there was no getting it back inside.

               The sun had crept below the horizon and it wasn’t hard to stay in the shadows. He peered in one of the windows, but saw no one. Archer decided to stop playing games with himself and he just knocked on the front door. For half a minute he listened to his heart pound in his head. ‘What’s wrong with me? I shouldn’t be here. This is a waste of time. It’s not part of my mission to go searching for a memory’. The door opened slowly.

               An elder woman smiled but said nothing. Her hair was stark white, her face weathered.

               “I…I’m looking for a woman.  Her name is Riann…?”

               “Riaan? She hasn’t been here for quite a while now.”

               “You knew her?” Jon asked, hoping the woman could maybe direct him to her.

               “Oh, no, but she was known around here. She was the apothecary for several years.”

               “Do you know where I might find her?”  The old woman smiled at Jon.

               “Young man, she left the city when the reactor was built 5 years ago. No one knows exactly where she went. Out to the countryside, most people guess.”

               A dead end, indeed. 

               Archer stashed Riaan back behind the mission in his mind that night and went back to his investigation at Reactor Two the next morning. When he arrived, Kellam greeted him with extra enthusiasm at the office, handing him a cup of what Archer considered the equivalent of coffee.

               “Good day, Jon,” he boomed. Kellam was a little gentler with him the last few days and only bumped him with his fist instead of knocking him off balance. “Good news for you! Your work at the condenser and generator has been excellent. The leadership at the reactor dome is requesting you transfer to their department.”

               “I take it that’s a good thing,” he asked with internal sarcasm.

               “It’s a rare thing. Usually only people from the University ever get to work with the fuel control. We can train most anybody to work the generators and coolant system. For someone without University documentation to work at the fission controls, well, you’re the first.”

               “I’m not sure I’m ready for that.”

               “Of course you are, you’re a smart man, one with a future here,” Kellam told him.

               “Well, in that case, I’m looking forward to it.

               The two of them left the tertiary compound together and boarded a small electric transport vehicle to hasten the journey to the actual Reactor Control Facility.

               “Tell me, Jon, how are you and your children adjusting to life in the city? Are you still at the guesthouse?”

               “Yes, actually, we are only staying there during the work shifts,” he explained. “We head back to the edge of town where it’s less expensive to stay. No electricity out there, you know.”

               “Oh, you won’t need to do that once you start at the primary facility. You can expect double gold wages. In fact, I know someone with a home you can rent here in the city. You could save on transport fees and avoid the commute time. I really recommend you consider it, Jon.”

               “Well, I’m fond of the older ways, I’m not sure I understand this electricity and all it can do. What’s the advantage, really? I’m fine with how it’s been.”

               “When they first proposed the idea most of us didn’t understand why either. But then when we saw all the things we could do safer than with open fires – cook, lights at night, heat the homes, and of course all the jobs that came along with it – mining for conductive materials, mining for the thorium, manufacturer of new things for the homes…it wasn’t hard to say yes. The folks under 30 are more encouraged by the possibilities than the folks over 30.”

               Archer nodded but stared ahead at their destination. How could he ask if aliens brought the technology? He’d still not seen a single Tellarite in the more than 10 days he’d been searching. He’d been thinking about the conversation but words just wouldn’t gel.

               “And you say the University here at Tammalynnia was the whole start of the revolution.”

               “It was a sudden change, but the research seemed sound. It was really an epic breakthrough. Who knows what else we’ll be able to use electricity for, eh!” Kellam all but shouted to the world. Jon waited for a punch in the arm but instead Kellam turned the handle on the transport and it leapt to the request for speed. Archer was a little surprised at the torque the small electric vehicle possessed. In a few more moments, they arrived at the remote office where the reaction was controlled away from the actual system.

               “I like you, Jon. You’re a smart man; you care about your family. What else is more important than that?”