Shepherd Moon, Book 2: Homeworld   by Roberta J. Cabot

Chapter Six The plot that was behind the attack was slowly being unraveled, and it was revealed that it was a Dravidian plot, with an unwitting Detterex citizen as their instrument to carry out their plan. Not too much detail of the plan has been uncovered yet but any betting person will say it was most probably another one of Cor's conspiracies. Ever since the "Earthers" so noisily burst upon the scene, Cor, Dravidia's then-ambassador to the Federation, rubbed the newcomers the wrong way from the beginning, especially then-Captain Amelia Steele. No one could blame the Earthers, though, especially with the high-handed, patronizing, and condescending way that Dravidians treated everyone. The only advantage that everyone else had over the Earthers was that they were used to Dravidians and just let them be. But Mia didn't stand for it, and put them, especially Cor, in their place. Which began Cor's slow downfall from grace. And ever since, Cor has been trying to undermine the Earthers at every turn. But this was the first time that Cor had actually tried this kind of thing. Could it be the precursor to war? Who knew?

 
What this was all about

So, after all the ceremonies and all the preliminaries, they started the actual conference.

They convened the following day. It was a tribute to Ben's efficiency that all the biological clocks of all the delegates syched up so that everyone was at the conference room at the appointed time: 9:00AM, Eastern Standard Time.

Ben had made sure that the conference room assigned to them - Conference Room 1 - was ready: chairs and saddles were set up, translators were available in the models that the delegates could use (Earther/Elyran earpieces, the tinier Telcontari version, Arachnian torque-types, Dixx headbands, Star-453 audio jacks, and the Daemon hairclip type), a large non-3D projection screen (per the request of the Star-453 delegates) was ready, and refreshments that the delegates liked were available in one corner of the room (everyone had to serve themselves - no one else was invited into the room because of security concerns).

Ben also made sure the appropriate flags and banners were set up, and all the "nameplates" were on the appropriate tables. He also checked with the UN security, as well as their security, that kept the room locked down.

Ben had no choice but to use CX 1 - it was the only conference room in the UN that had Level One security, and was outfitted for use by extraterrestrials as well.

After all his helpers (staff from Seraphim and some of Mia's house staff from Star Castle) signalled that everything was ready, and the lead warrior signalled that the room was now locked down and secured from electronic spying, he nodded to his Duchess.

Sahsha, seeing Ben's signal, banged the gavel on the podium, to signal the start of the conference.

"Ladies and gentlemen, and gentlebeings," she said, "I am Duchess Sahsha Liaran-Kerr-Delyer, formerly of the United Nations, and current cultural and govenment representative to the United Nations for the Republic of the Free Peoples of Elyra. But I suppose I didn't need to introduce myself."

Everyone laughed at her joke, and Mia and Tasha felt a glow of pride - Sahsha was such an expert at these things, it was a shame she wasn't able to showcase it more often.

"I now cal the conference to order.

"We are here under the auspices of the Department of General Assembly and Conference Management of the United Nations, and the office of the Secretary-General," she said, and, in behalf of EarthGov, welcome to Earth, and to the United Nations."

Everyone in the conference room applauded.

"I will be chairing the conference, and will make sure that our work goes smoothly and constructively.

"Meaning no disrespect, as we only have five Earth days to complete our conference, I beg leave to dispense with introducing everyone, except to introduce the various groups represented here, and those who lead them. So...

"The chair recognizes the Daemon delegation headed by Daemon's Ambassador to the Federation, Aorgar-Aor." Mia was amazed that both Tasha and Sahsha could remain straight-faced. She herself was struggling not to giggle at the mention of the ambassador's name, which sounded like a lion clearing his throat. Which was appropriate, she supposed, given how Daemons look.

Sahsha continued. "The chair also recognizes the delegation from Star-453, and headed by Councilor Rowan, from the Federation's Council of Custodians." Councilor Rowan stood his full nine feet, and the robot-like extraterrestrial bowed to the assembly Earther-style.

"The chair also recognizes the delegation from Telcontar, as represented by Yun-Yun and Nim-Nim, the directors-extraordinairy appointed by the Telcontari Planetary Government to this special council." The two stood up quickly, bowed shyly, and sat back down

"We welcome the delegation from Arachnia Prime, under the leadership of the First Ambassador of Arachnia." And this was greeted with the most thunderous of applauses as the ambassador, ever the showman, waved his arms in intricate patterns. Via studied them and realized it's in the glyph language of the First Clan - aside from very intricate, ornate and a showstopper, these glyphs were only known and used by descendants of the First Clan, which would make the ambassador the closest Arachnian equivalent to royalty.

Via faced him and gestured the glyphs for respect and admiration. The ambassador gestured back his thanks, still using the royal glyphs.

"We also welcome the Dixx delegation," Sahsha said, "headed by Grand Admiral Dax." Purely for theatrics, Dax stood and spread his wings, and everyone oohed and ahhhed (or the equivalent). Though impressive, these colorful Dixx wings were practically useless for flying anymore, as they have grown more and more spindly and underpowered over the millenia, and Dixx bodies had grown heavier. Nowadays, these impessive wings and their bright, colorful plumage were only used for courtship (and for showing off, as Daxx did) or to fly in environments like Colossus' central core or in domed living spaces with gravities less than normal, such as most of the domed communities in the outer planet colonies in Earth's Sol System.

In recent decades, though, Dixx commercial ships were now being designed to accomodate passengers that want to use their wings to move around them, and various commercial and entertainment facilities have been cropping up on the Dixx colony worlds and stations, and on Dixx Prime itself, where the gravity was deliberately lowered to allow winged flight within these facilities.

"We also recognize Dr. Philip McIntyre," Sahsha continued, "the director-general of the Center for Extraterrestrial Intelligence, or CETI, and the first batch of doctoral candidates for the UN's Galactic History, Economy, and Social Studies Programme, or GHES." Phil and his students stood an aclnowledged the applause.

"And, lastly, I would like to introduce Her Most Royal Highness, Queen Tasha the Forty-Third, heading the Elyran delegation, and Her Royal Highness, Lord Admiral Amelia Catherine Liaran-Kerr-Steele, Princess of the Elyran Great Plains and the Great Northern Kingdom of Elyra, Duchess of the Sciollian Isles of Earth, and Admiral of the Fifth Fleet of Earth. She's here leading the Earth delegation."

This was greeted with the loudest and most sustained applause.

Sahsha smiled and sighed in mock exasperation as she waited for an inordinate amount of time for the applause to die down.

- - - - -

To begin the conference, Sahsha called on Mia to summarize the purpose of the conference.

"Dear friends and gentlebeings," Mia began, "by now everyone in the galaxy is aware of the Earth tech we call Phase-Wave, and though EarthGov has not allowed the technology itself to be shared..." Mia shook her head, indicating the policy will continue.

From the sidelines, Dax crisply said "snap!" in colloquial English, and did the popular side-swipe finger snap Earth gesture, and everyone laughed. For a moment, the non-Earthers were hoping that Earth had rescinded its policy of proscribing Phase-Wave tech.

Mia laughed. "I'm sorry, everyone - no such luck." Dax shrugged, another Earth gesture. "What I was saying, though," Mia said, "was that, though the tech hasn't been shared, everyone has been able to share in the benefits that it provides, such as instantaneous galaxy-wide communications, navigation, weather detection and control, medical systems, advanced detection and advanced electronics.

"One of the things that most of the galaxy's scientists have been saying was that Phase-Wave can actually extend our knowledge and, in fact, see practically to the ends of the universe. It is the slowness of our compilation efforts of all the data that we have been receiving through our Phase-Wave network that we haven't been able to do much but map and catalog our small part of the galaxy.

"As you know, the repository of all this data that CETI has been laboriously collecting, interpreting, cataloguing and compiling is Memory One - our galacting mapping center based on Crystal Shoals, the so-called 'planet at the center of the known universe,' and is available for the asking by any Federation-accredited organization.

"However, there's something new..."

Almost everyone involuntarily leaned forward in anticipation.

"Yes, we've received radio transmissions and long distance images of other previously-unknown civilizations beyond the Federation, The Detterex Empire and the Tiros Empire, and though this is exciting news on its own, this is CETI's area of responsibility and not this group's. CETI will be managing this in their own way, using the protocols and procedures that they have developed over the years. Some material on this will be provided at the end of the day, and everyone is free to contact their governments if they would wish to be part of this effort.

"But, as I said, this is not what this conference is about."

Mia took a deep breath. "Several years ago, a research team from the University of Cambridge in England decided to experiment and find out the limits of Phase-Wave. They were granted exclusive use of Triton Station Fifteen for almost six months and discovered that Phase-Wave does not actually cover the entire universe. And, in fact, not even close. Ben?"

Ben obliged and switched on the 2D projector.

What was seen was a recognizable image of the galaxy as seen from "above," and the arm that they occupied in the center of the picture. But around that was a broken outline.

The outline wasn't a smooth circle or some smooth ellipse, but it was jagged, like the edges of a pane of glass that fell on the floor, with spikes and sawtooth edges randomly radiating away from the arm.

"What is that!" Rowan, from the Star-453 group, exclaimed.

"That, sir," Mia said, "is the edge of the, I guess, 'field' of our Phase-Wave." Mia waved to the observation deck. "Ben? Can you please spin the image?"

Ben made the image rotate slowly, and as the galaxy rotated, so, too did the Phase-Wave "field" with it. And, from any angle, the three-dimensional field was not regular in any way.

"What does this mean?" Rowan asked.

"I don't know," Mia said.

- - - - -

"Here's the thing," Mia said, "regardless where you are, the boundaries and edges are all constant, or as constant as is possible in a dynamic universe. This has been proven by DSC Mikasa and Earthship II from the Fifth Fleet - they have been exploring the possibility that these boundaries are not 'fixed.' It turns out they are."

Mia used a red laser pointer and indicated one of the longer "shards" - a long, sharply-pointed part of the boundary relatively near Telcontar.

"Mikasa and Earthship II traversed this part of our arm, emerging to ship-maneuverable status almost forty times, and, at each point, the "boundary" had remained consistent. They continued on until they reached the "point" of this part of the boundary. Last year, they crossed the boundary at the that point and, as soon as they did, we lost contact with them."

There were murmurs in the room.

Mia shrugged. "What did we expect? After all, that was the boundary of our area of detectable space. And we lost contact with them for over six months as our two ships explored that uncharted area. It was hard-going for them, relying on old-school radio-based navigation and detection, but there was nothing within one light-year of the tip of that point, except for one planetary system. And it's this system."

 
"Here be dragons"

As Ben flashed the pictures, everyone leaned forward. But it was disappointing. It was a "dirty" planetary system full of rocks and asteroids moving around a very Earth-like yellow dwarf star. Several of them had started to coalesce, and there were three clumps of rocks and asteroids moving around in the same orbit, but the system was still dirty with other rocks still flying around. Mia said, if they had time, they'd probably be able to map each of those rocks' orbits, but they haven't yet.

There were also several planets, about ten of them orbiting on the same plane, this new system's plane aligning with the galaxy's own galactic plane.

"EarthGov has registered this new system with the Chamber of Migration and Peerage," Mia continued, "for colonization purposes. It is classified as 'low habitable' given that none of the planets fall within the normal ranges for habitability. The closest to being habitable are these three planets."

On the screen, an animatic illustration showed the new system with the near-circular orbits of the various planets and the three "clumps" of rocks in neon circles. Discounting the orbits of these clumps, there were eight remaining orbits, in positions roughly the same as the orbits of the Solar System's planets. But if there were ten planets, why were there only eight orbits?

And as Ben zoomed in on one particular orbit, the third orbit, the reason for this discrepancy became apparent: there were three planets moving in the same orbit, equidistant from each other!

Modern planetary mechanics would have said such an arrangement was impossible, or at least, very, very improbable, but clearly they didn't know enough, because here it was.

"Presently, these three planets in a trinary orbit are the most habitable, although all three are locked in a frozen state at the moment. Why this is so, we don't know, because their orbit is in what Earther scientists call the 'Goldilocks Zone,' which is the zone where conditions for life were optimal.

"On these three planets, we believe we can survive on and, with a bit of planetary engineering magic, I think they can be very comfortable planets indeed."

Mia looked at the projected image for a moment.

"I don't know about you," she said, "but for me, knowing what this system is - one at the edge of the universe that we know, seems wonderful and mysterious.

"We have decided to call the system Ultima Thule, and if I can explain - Thule, in ancient Greek and Roman maps, is the farthest northernmost known island. And in classic literature 'Ultima Thule,' or 'the farthermost Thule,' has acquired a metaphorical meaning - the land at the edge of the known world. In Earth's twenty-first century, a Trans-Neptune asteroid in what we call the Kuiper Belt, was named Ultima Thule for these particular reasons, and so we are calling our new system Ultima Thule as well."

This was greeted with applause.

"The system's new primary is, of course, going to be called 'Thule,' and the names of the planetary and other bodies of the system are still being thought up. The IAS, or the International Astronomical Society, are supposed to provide final approval for the major planets this afternoon, and Ben will let us know as soon as possible. However, these three planets already have been given names.

"Two of them, we are calling 'Tau' and 'Omega,' which are the last letters in the Hebrew and Latin or Greek alphabets, which we thought was appropriate because these planets are in the very last known system. And the one among the three with the highest albedo we are calling 'Terra Dracones,' which is latin for 'the land of the dragons.'" Mia smiled. "But why dragons, you may ask?

"In old Earth, there is a phrase which is supposed to have been put on the edge of maps, and that's the phrase, 'here be dragons,' dragons being mythical creatures that, according to legend, destroyed oceangoing ships. By putting this label at the edge of their maps, cartographers were saying, in a metaphorical way, that this is the edge of what they knew, and beyond it, no one knew what's there and therefore is a perilous place, and because the sea is a perilous place, for those who don't know it, there might as well be dragons there."

Mia smiled a little. "Of course, this practice isn't strictly correct - ancient cartographers didn't really put that phrase on their maps. There were actually only two recorded instances where the phrase was actually used in maps, but the idea behind it, and the phrase, has caught the imagination of us Earthers ever since, and this erroneous information gained legendary status. So we thought we'd indulge a bit and call our new planet the Land of the Dragons. I know we're going overboard with Earther legends and literature, but I think it's all very appropriate."

Everyone applauded.

The Daemon ambassador, Aorgar-Aor, raised a furry, paw-like hand.

Mia nodded in his direction. "Yes, Ambassador?" (She was avoiding calling him by name so she wouldn't embarrass herself and laugh.)

"My lady," he began, "this is all quite interesting, and I am quite intrigued, as we all are, but you haven't touched on the reason for the conference. I..."

Mia raised a hand, stopping the furry alien.

"My apologies, sir," she said, but let me tell you what we found under the ice on Dracones." She nodded to Ben, up in the observation gallery, and he changed the picture again...

to be continued...

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