The COMPLEAT Collected SFF Works, page 596
For a moment Dervla regarded him closely, and he reminded himself that at Tara she had probably become adept at detecting the lie behind a diplomatic nicety, and he expected her to tell him so. Instead, she said "Our next meal will be delayed by at least one hour, I have been told, and I'm expecting the announcement to be made momentarily. You will certainly have to make yourself presentable, in full dress uniform and without the exercise harness. The captain is to address the assembled ship's crew."
"Everyone?" asked Nolan in surprise. "What about ...?"
"Everyone," she repeated, "including the duty officers. I am not privy to the details, but His Eminence considers this address to be too important for it to be delivered other than face to face. The ship will be allowed to run itself for a few hours. After all, we are expecting it to do so for five hundred years. Your position will be on the platform beside me, one pace to my left. And please, Healer, if there should be discussion afterwards, let others ask the awkward questions."
A large area of deck and one of the raised component inspection platforms had been cleared for them in the hanger of Lander Dock Seven. The captain, flanked by Healer Dervla and Monsignor O'Riordan, was already on the platform and standing to one side of a large projection screen. Nolan went at once to his assigned position feeling thankful that he was not the last officer to arrive. The earth-brown cloak of Dervla and the monsignor's scarlet cassock were the only touches of color amid the stark black and silver of the ceremonial uniforms and the gray, metal shadows of the landers all around them.
This was a very important occasion and everyone present knew it and was standing rigidly to attention, held lightly to the deck by the magnets of their boots. While it required no effort to stand in the weightless condition, it was very difficult to remain perfectly upright. With no downward pull to balance them, the leg muscles pulled with unequal tension and had to be corrected every few minutes. Not only were the men swaying gently from side to side but their fine, ankle-length cloaks were floating out in untidy folds and bundles. For an important ceremonial occasion, he thought wryly, gravity was required in both senses of the word.
Dervla saw his smile and frowned at him. The captain was about to speak.
"Monsignor, Reverend Fathers, Respected Healers," he began formally. "All of you know without having to be reminded that we are setting out on a voyage unique in the annals of history, and that it is a journey from which there is no return. But as with any long journey, before the departure come the farewells ..."
At his signal the screen lit with the famous picture of the Great Tower of Tara and at its foot the untidy sprawl of the Imperial City of Atha Cliath, in places glittering with high, new structures and in others tawdry with the old. A muted fanfare sounded and suddenly their High-Queen and Empress, the Seventh Maeve, was regarding them.
She was dressed in the same archaic costume that she had worn during her reception for Aisling Gheal's officers, and the words and her manner of speaking them were so similar that the same feelings of high excitement and pride stirred again the hairs at the back of his scalp. But then he detected a change in both her manner and her words.
It was as if she was speaking to them in confidence and hinting at matters which, for diplomatic and political reasons, she was not making plain. Nolan could not unravel her meaning at first, but it was clear that the assembled clerics had no such difficulty. Then slowly it became obvious to him that she considered Aisling Gheal to be a ship whose primary purpose was to be about the business of God and Hibernia.
He had heard it said that her more liberal statements, which were needed from time to time to oil the machinery of the Empire, were produced by those very senior prelates of the Imperial Civil Service who were her advisers. But now, on this unique and, to her, highly emotional occasion, she was displaying her own true feelings in the knowledge that her listeners were no longer in a position to betray her confidence.
The second message was from the most senior of Westland's Paramount Chiefs, the physically frail, incredibly aged, and immeasurably powerful Silver Elk. His words were wise and gentle, as those of a great-grandparent speaking to the grandchildren of which he is especially proud, and, even though his people had done more than any other nation save Hibernia to make Aisling Gheal a success, there was no slightest hint of partisan feeling in them. Nolan was sorry that his message was so short.
Before the third message could begin, there was an interruption. Monsignor O'Riordan cleared his throat gently, smiled, and said, "If I might make an observation. Your Eminence. We have listened to the words of our High-Queen and the great Silver Elk, and we know that the Celestial Emperors of Cathay and Nippon will also praise and thank us and wish us well. Every ruler, perhaps every single person on Earth who has reached the age of reason, would wish us well if they had the chance to speak and we the time to listen. But there are only a limited number of ways to say farewell, and I am sure that even the most egotistical and praise-hungry among us would tire of listening to such repetition. There will be ample opportunity later for anyone who wishes it to hear these messages. They have only to ask ..."
And after speaking those words to them, Nolan thought cynically, nobody will want to ask.
"But now, Your Eminence," he concluded with another gentle smile, "I am sure that we would all like to hear the more important reasons for your calling this meeting."
Looking stern and impassive, the cardinal-captain regarded the monsignor for a moment in silence, and Nolan had the feeling that a frown was not very far from his face.
"Very well, Monsignor," said the cardinal in a voice that had in it all the icy calm of a frozen lake. But when he turned again to face his officers an immediate thaw was apparent.
"This is an especially proud moment for all of us," he said. "A proud moment and a sad one, because the mightiest rulers of all the nations of Earth are wishing us well and calling down the blessings of all the gods they believe in on our great enterprise, and at the same time they are reminding us of the home and friends we are leaving.
"Cutting short these well-wishings," he went on, "may seem to many of you to be an act of needless cruelty. But I have been assured that it is a psychological necessity, that all emotional ties with Earth should be severed sooner rather than later. In this unique situation it is indeed kinder to be cruel. Monsignor."
The monsignor smiled the gentlest of smiles, and said, "It seems that I am earning a reputation for being the kindest and most cruel of prelates. Some of you may feel that I have already earned it, by refusing surface leave to officers whose duties would have permitted it. But let me assure all of you that my kindnesses, or cruelties, toward you have scarcely begun."
He turned his head to look toward Dervla and Nolan before returning his attention to the officers. He did not smile and there was no gentleness in his voice as he went on, "I have already spoken to some of you on this matter and made suggestions. Now I am giving orders, not advice. Henceforth you will accustom yourselves to the idea that you are no longer of Earth, and you must believe in this idea until you can accept it as you do your own name. His Eminence has already said it, but I shall say it again. There are very good psychological, as well as ship-related operational, reasons why the process should begin at once.
"To this end," he continued, "there will be a general tightening of discipline, an increasing emphasis on and orientation toward individual crew self-reliance, and concentration on the purpose for which we are all here. To aid this process and engender in you the proper state of mind, farspeaker traffic between the ship and Earth will be reduced to a minimum, and then it will deal only with the technical and scientific aspects of the project rather than personal matters. Messages of a personal nature will be politely ignored and will not be relayed to the individual concerned. Similarly, farseer broadcasts including news coverage will not be relayed. With the exception of those required by the astrogation department, all direct vision ports throughout the ship will be covered. This measure is being taken to reinforce the fact that Aisling Gheal is the only world there is until we reach the new one.
"In all such matters of self-discipline," he said, with a glance toward Dervla, "senior officers and department heads are expected to set an example."
There was still no trace of a smile on the priest-psychologist's round, pink face as he went on: "No doubt a few of you will feel homesick, or suffer related emotional problems, and I stand ready at all times to assist and advise. But I expect such difficulties to be minor and easily controlled, because our dedication to the success of Project Aisling Gheal is total, as is our vocation to the priesthood. Naturally, the one benighted unbeliever among us lacks the support of this spiritual discipline, but I believe that his enthusiasm for the project comes close to equaling our own."
The monsignor paused for a moment, but Dervla frowned at Nolan to be silent.
"Since the time that you passed the psychological testing and were accepted for this project," he resumed, "you have known that every officer among you, regardless of rank or specialty, is required to assume watch-keeping responsibilities at least three times during the course of the voyage. During those periods you will be all alone, the only warm, thinking human being in a ship filled with hyper-refrigerated sleepers. It is for this reason that you must begin at once to develop the habits of solitude and silence during off-duty periods, or while performing duties which do not in themselves require verbal communication.
"The psychological advantages of this prior preparation will be obvious to you," he continued, "but I realize that acquiring the habit of silence will be harder for some than others, and I am here to help with whatever form of spiritual encouragement or physical chastisement that seems necessary. You will feel lonely at times, terribly lonely, each and every one of you. But you must learn to accept and adapt to it, for to do otherwise is to risk destroying the whole project. Be warned, therefore, a watch-keeper must not resuscitate a fellow officer except for reasons of the direst operational necessity. If the unthinkable were to happen and one of you harmed a fellow officer or colonist simply to relieve his loneliness, we are empowered to exact punishment up to and including the ultimate excommunication."
There was absolute silence in the lander dock, for ultimate excommunication was the ecclesiastics' term for a summary execution.
Then suddenly the monsignor was smiling again.
"And now," he went on, "we shall discuss the watch-keepers themselves, and the further kindnesses I have planned for them ..."
Chapter Eighteen
IT HAD been calculated that the voyage would take five hundred and eight years and fifteen days, but the additional time needed to land the colonists was impossible to estimate with accuracy until their arrival in orbit around the New World. To the colonists it would seem that no time at all had passed from the moment they climbed into their cold sleep caskets on Earth until they were thawed, one hundred at a time, prior to boarding the landers that would take them down to their new home. But to the ship's officers, depending on their positions on the watch-keeping roster, between six and eight years would have elapsed.
The reason for this was that the entire ship's crew was needed for the initial acceleration and insertion into interstellar orbit, and for the subsequent deceleration into the target system. In order to conserve their precious biological time for the work that would follow landfall, and to ensure that they would still be young and physically capable of performing their duties, it had been decided that only one watch-keeping officer would be warm and awake at any given time. He would stand watch from the moment the timer in his cold sleep casket awakened him until, two long and lonely years later, he returned to it for another two centuries of cold sleep, upon which his relief would be warmed.
Having accelerated to her tremendous interstellar velocity, Aisling Gheal would coast between the stars with all but a few lighting, heating, and sensor circuits shut down. In that condition there was very little within the ship that could go wrong. The solitary officer on duty would have only a few instruments to observe and check for any minor course deviation, and then only at the beginning and end of his watch. Watch-keepers who were not themselves astrogators had been giving training sufficient for the performance of this simple task.
In the unlikely event of a ship-threatening emergency occurring, the officer on watch would initiate the revival of the senior officer whose specialty was best suited to dealing with the emergency, and only if absolutely necessary would they then decide whether the captain or other officers needed to be awakened to deal with it.
"I do not believe," Monsignor O'Riordan went on, "that this great undertaking will be placed in jeopardy by a failure in any of its mechanical components. And having come to know and understand all of you very well, neither do I believe that the human components will prove untrustworthy. But it would be remiss of me not to consider the possibility of such failures, and to guard against their occurrence by providing special training for those few who might, but in all likelihood will not need it."
He was being careful not to look at anyone directly, but Nolan was as sure as it was possible to be that the ship's subordinate Healer would be among the chosen few.
"In addition to the habits of silence and solitude," the monsignor continued, "these few will be physically separated from and have no opportunity to speak to other ship's officers for the length of time which I judge to be necessary. During this period they will not be closely confined, but they will inhabit quarters in a section of the ship distant enough for the movements and, I sincerely trust, infrequent voices of the other officers to be unheard. They will maintain themselves at the peak of physical fitness by wearing the exercise harness during every waking moment.
"As a preparation for watch-keeping duty," he went on, "they are forbidden to wander about the outer hull. For should an officer of the watch become detached or injured while outside, there would be nobody warm and awake to rescue him. The food and water supplies will be adequate for a lengthy period of confinement, but the actual quantity should not be taken as a guide to the length of the exercise, since the surplus can be returned to stores if it is terminated early, or replenished as necessary if the stay is extended. Unlike normal watch-keeping, during this exercise there will be no books or games to pass the time. The subject will have to depend on his own mental resources for recreation, amusement, and, I sincerely hope, for serious, constructive thought."
The monsignor paused, and this time it was a lengthy one, because he seemed to be looking at every single officer and devoting several seconds to each. Finally he half-turned to look directly at Nolan.
"My son," he said, smiling, "we Healers of the Mind have the ability to know when a patient, or indeed another Healer, is wanting to speak. The imposition of silence does not take effect until the end of this meeting, so if you have questions, observations, or comments, constructive or otherwise, please speak. It is probable that you will be speaking for a number of your fellow officers."
Nolan looked at Dervla in case she wanted to speak, but the small movement of her head might equally have been a nod of encouragement or a warning to be careful.
"The first question," said Nolan, "is regarding the position of these isolated areas. The ship is big, but not so large that your selectees can be isolated from all physical and sound contact with the crew and each other, and certainly not in the crew module. This leaves the colonist modules, which have to be kept cold for obvious reasons, and are barely habitable for a warm person. They will also require structural modifications if they are to be further compartmentalized into cells.
"Or it may be," he went on, "that you intend the number of selectees to be small and their periods in solitude short, so that they can be rotated through the available accommodation. Since we have a year before we all go cold and the first watch-keeping officer takes over—"
"Please, Healer," said the monsignor gently, "ask your questions without making unwarranted assumptions, or trying to answer them for yourself. The selectees will be housed in the colonist modules as you have said, but there will be no structural modifications. They will be informed of the limits of their confinement, and very generous limits they will be, and trusted not to exceed them. A combination of strenuous exercise and insulated clothing will keep them warm, particularly before going to sleep. Perhaps this will make them feel more appreciative of the warmth and comfort provided when they take their turn on watch.
"Other matters raised by your question I shall be dealing with in a few moments," he added. "You have another question?"
He had, but Nolan wished that he had been given time to think about that first, partial answer before asking others. Hesitantly, he said, "The reason for the solitary two-year watches were explained to us during basic training, as was the thinking behind the tests designed to ensure that we, as individuals, could be emotionally stable if not happy for extended periods with our own company. Many, many times have we been told to prepare ourselves for these watches, but I wonder if we have thought deeply enough about what the results might be to the officer concerned. I have thought about it, but to be honest I remain uncertain of the cumulative effect of—"
Monsignor O'Riordan was holding up a hand. He said, "Your honesty does you credit, my son. But now it seems that you are trying to open a debate, Healer, rather than ask a question. Please make your point quickly."
Nolan took a deep breath, and tried to keep the irritation he felt from affecting his voice as he said, "Quickly, then. The two-year watches will be separated by close on two centuries of cold sleep. But the officer concerned will be aware of no such separation. Apart from the moments prior to cooling and following his warming, and the insertions that might have been made in the log of the watch, no time will have passed for him.
