'I think that's exactly what it is,' I said. 'The flotilla. Although now that we're this close, it looks more like a single ship than a flotilla or convoy.'

  'But we're almost there,' said Le Seaux. 'It can't be possible. Exactly how fast are we going?'

  'And how big is that thing?' said Chen. 'They said it was about the size of a large town.'

  But it looked bigger than that.

  Much bigger.

  21

  THE DARK SHAPE of the Roman ship grew larger, sucking away the light and filling the giant screen.

  'Strange shape for a spaceship,' said Chen. 'Looks like a stack of pipes.'

  I thought it looked like a bunch of flat, dark purple grapes. I also thought it wasn't a flotilla, either. It was a ship made from many other ships, all connected together into one mega vessel.

  'I can't see any lights,' I said.

  'You're othering them again, Lieutenant,' said Le Seaux. 'They mightn't need light, and that's perfectly fine.'

  No need for light? That makes them pretty 'other,' I thought, but I kept my mouth shut.

  We all stared at the image of the ship on the screen.

  'Look,' Chen said. 'On the underside. See?'

  No lights had come on, but on one of the grapes, a port slowly yawned open.

  'What if it's a gunport for one of those beams?'

  'Mr Chen,' said Le Seaux.

  'I think that's where we're going to dock,' I said.

  Chen looked at his watch.

  'I can't believe it's only taken us an hour to reach here,' he said. 'How long did your Slingshot instructor say it took to reach the moon in the pre-Accord era? Must have been days, right? Right, Burns?'

  I was thinking fast about something else, something about to happen.

  'Oh, no,' I said.

  'What's wrong?' said Chen.

  'We've got to move before it's too late.'

  'Move where?' said Chen.

  'Captain,' I said to Le Seaux. 'This time, I think you're right. We better get into some kind of restraint. You saw what happened to us before, right, when we were thrown against the hull? Well, now we're going to have to slow down again.'

  'Won't it be the same as on the way up?'

  'It might be,' I said, 'but look at how fast we're coming in towards the ship. There's won't be time to slow down gradually. They're going to brake hard.'

  'How hard?' said Chen.

  'Hard enough to squash us like bugs,' I said.

  'Return to the entrance port,' said Le Seaux. 'We were safe there.'

  Instead of arguing with her, I turned and walked deeper into the hold towards the giant seats. If they were for Roman troops, they could work for us too. Maybe.

  'These might have harnesses,' I said. 'Whatever they are.'

  Le Seaux was standing with her hands on her hips again. 'We're going back to the entrance port, Lieutenant Burns.'

  I ignored her.

  The hold was so large, the seats were even farther away than I thought, and much bigger. Whoever used them must have been huge, well over seven feet.

  I sat down in one of the rows of seats looking aft, since that would mean when we slowed down I'd be forced into the back of the seat, not flung from it. The buckles and straps were way too large, so I quit fooling with the buckles and tied myself in, using a neat reef knot.

  Then, I looked over my shoulder and called 'Here! This is how you do it. Come on.'

  Chen wavered between Le Seaux and me and then, after shrugging, came over to where I was sitting.

  'How big are these guys?' said Chen. 'They must be twice our size.'

  While Chen fiddled with his straps, the ship decelerated. I guessed thrusters had been fired. Both Chen and I were pressed hard against the backs of our seats.

  The deceleration ceased momentarily. I instantly got up and looked for Le Seaux. She had been flung to the deck and then all the way to the hold's entrance. I ran over to her, hoping to get there and back before the next burst from the thrusters.

  Le Seaux was standing up when I came over. 'Come on, Captain' I said, 'Trust a sailor on a ship.'

  'What makes you think the Navy would be in charge of spaceships? This isn't the sea. And you've never been on a mission.'

  'Thank you for the reminder,' I said. 'Come on, Captain. It will be safer this way.'

  Luckily, she had come to her senses because she turned and strode into the cavern, following me all the way back to the huge seats. Then she sat down and started trying to buckle the harness.

  'Captain, the straps are too large to buckle tightly. A reef knot might be best here. They're easy to undo in a hurry,' I said. 'I can show you,' I said.

  But she had tied her own knot. Just in time too. The shuttle fired its thrusters again, this time with much more force. We were flung violently backward into our seats.

  'You're right,' said Chen. 'This is worse than the take off.'

  'How close are we?' said Le Seaux.

  'I wish I could say, but I can't turn my head to look at the screens.'

  So the three of us sat there in the giant seats, pressed flat against the seat-backs, saying nothing, gritting our teeth against the forces. It was hard to concentrate on anything but enduring it, but I guessed we were all thinking the same thing: What would be waiting for us when we docked and the hatch opened?

  When the shuttle had slowed down enough, I untied and took a look at the giant screens. One showed a distant Earth, blue and white and small. The other screen showed the curved shape of the huge Roman ship, going away into the gloom. Our shuttle must now be one of the 'grapes.'

  'Twice is too many times for this stuff,' said Chen. 'I'm going to need my masseuse to work overtime.'

  'Your masseuse?' said Le Seaux.

  'My massage person,' he replied.

  'I wasn't referring to your improper use of gender,' said Le Seaux. 'I was referring to the fact that services such as massage are illegal.'

  'What can I say?' said Chen. 'It's different where I live. How else do you think we get to make the movies?'

  We waited several minutes in the silence, expecting an announcement or an instruction, but there was nothing. Only silence.

  'We will wait another minute,' said Le Seaux. 'Then we will return to the entrance port.'

  Chen said, 'Before we go, there's something I meant to ask on the way up. Maybe you military guys know the answer.'

  'What's that, Mr Chen?' said Le Seaux.

  'Why us?' he said. 'Why are we on this mission? Why not the generals and admirals and commissioners? Why us? I mean I'm not even military. I'm not government either. I'm a businessman and a civilian. The guy from AONT Africa was a civilian as well. So why us? They didn't even tell us in the briefing.'

  I looked at Chen properly for the first time. He looked to be about six feet shorter than me, just under six feet. He had a mischievous grin and dark eyes. He wore his hair cut short with a side part. It was almost a military haircut, but not quite. Too long on the top. His clothes were practical rather than fashionable. Sensible pants. Shirt with a collar. And sports shoes, perhaps to signal that he wasn't totally serious about his appearance either. But there was something else about him that I had just put my finger on, an impression that he didn't regard the Accord with the same reverence as everyone else.

  'So why?' Chen said. Why us?'

  Le Seaux was about answer to his question, when there was a bang and crash amidships.

  'Oh great,' said Chen. 'More trouble.'

  'We're attaching to the side,' said Le Seaux, sounding knowledgeable all of a sudden. 'Mr Chen, Lieutenant Burns, lets stand at the entrance to greet our hosts.'

  The bang on the side was followed by the sound of metal creaking. Then after several minutes of groaning and banging, everything went quiet. On the screens, the views of the Earth and the mothership had disappeared, replaced simply by space.

  We stood in the void wondering which direction the port would open.

  'Now what?' said Chen.

  Then, with another round of creaking metal, a great section of the hull opened up, a panel, the width of an apartment building. It rose up slowly, like a gigantic garage door, revealing the gleaming black metal of the mothership's hull.

  'What about air?' said Chen.

  'What?' I said.

  'If there's no air on the other side, we're going to be sucked out, right?'

  He was right, but it was too late to do anything. The second port began opening. We braced ourselves for whatever might happen next: a great rush of air, a blue beam.

  Or something worse.

  But nothing happened. The seal with the mothership had been complete. The second port had opened and all we could see on the other side of the doorway was darkness.

  For the first time, I wished I had a weapon with me. No, it wasn't T.E.D. thinking. It wasn't fear either. It was just an honest reaction. Carrying a weapon doesn't mean you can't be tolerant.

  'Approach slowly,' said Le Seaux.

  We walked around the deck to the door's great dark mouth. We halted at the edge and peered across the seam.

  Nothing but blackness, emptiness, the smell of metal, distant murmurings or whispers that might have been from machinery--or not. It was like a tomb in there, a giant dark tomb. No welcoming committee waited. No official greeting came forth.

  No monsters.

  It was at this moment, I realized how reckless the Accord had been. They hadn't prepared for our safety at all, not even going so far as to ask about air or food. It wasn't that they had no regard for us. It was that they believed that tolerance would somehow make everything better, and that if they asked these question of the Romans or visitors, they would risk hurting their feelings.

  Anything to avoid being called xenophobic.

  'Hello!' I called across into the dark. Nothing came back, not so much as an echo.

  'Latin,' said Chen. 'What's the Latin for hello?'

  'I don't know,' I said. 'What's the French?'

  'It's hello too,' Le Seaux said, 'Or hallo, as we pronounce it. Or you can say bonjour.'

  'Is it hail?' said Chen.

  'I don't know,' said Le Seaux.

  'At least there is breathable air,' I said. 'So far.'

  We waited on the threshold for another minute, half standing, half at attention, expecting someone or something to step forward and greet us, but no-one and no thing did.

  'What now, Captain?'

  'I will step aboard first,' she replied. 'Then you, Lieutenant. Then Mr Chen.'

  She raised one Army boot, ready to place it across the seam. Then suddenly withdrew it.

  'We have forgotten something,' she said.

  'OK, Captain,' I said. 'Our mission. It can't hurt to remind ourselves. We greet the Romans, our galactic visitor friends. We tell them the values of the Accord. We hear their response. If possible we televise...'

  'No,' said Le Seaux. 'The gift.'

  'What happened to it?' said Chen.

  'It's at the entrance. The first entrance, Lieutenant,' she said.

  I turned and jogged across the deck, all the way through the doorway beneath the giant screens and out into the passageway. Le Seaux must have dropped the gift at the door when we entered zero gravity. I could see it at the far end lying at the base of the port. I jogged to the end, picked the gift up, then turned and ran back-- actually ran from that lonely section of the ship. Just being alone in it only for a few seconds, reminded me of how far from safety we were.

  'All right,' said Le Seaux. 'Let's move onto the ship, but when we meet our galactic visitors, I am the one to speak first. Understand? Tolerance, equality, diversity.'

  'Tolerance, equality, diversity,' I said.

  'Tolerance, equality, diversity,' said Chen.

  And then we stepped across the seam into the Roman ship.

  22

  WE STEPPED OVER the joint between the shuttle and mothership.

  I had imagined a great moment in history was about to take place, but our entry onto the Roman mothership was an anti-climax: lonely, silent and intimidating.

  The synthetic soles of Le Seaux's and my boots made no sound. Chen's civilian hiking boots made a cartoonish squelch.

  'Sorry,' he said.

  'Hello,' Le Seaux called out. 'Hello.' Her breath frosted in front of her face. 'Hello,' she said once more.

  No reply.

  'They must know we're here, right?' Chen said.

  'Of course they do,' I said. 'How could they have missed our arrival? Somewhere on this ship there must be a bridge with crew members. They're probably monitoring everything going on in the space around them, especially their shuttle returning from Earth.'

  'Maybe we're not a priority,' said Chen. 'Maybe they have a lot of other things going on.'

  'Whatever the case, Mr Chen,' said Le Seaux, 'we will respect their culture.'

  'Captain,' I said. 'If they're not here, we could at least explore a little.'

  'It's more respectful to wait.'

  I had already switched on the torch in my handheld. The beam penetrated only ten feet into the thick darkness, revealing more black-grey walls.

  I switched off the torch. 'Should we try for lights again?'

  'Yes, Lieutenant, we can try for lights.'

  'OK,' I said. 'Lumina!'

  No lights came on.

  'Lumina,' I said quietly.

  Nothing.

  But then there was something. Lights came on above us and in front of us. They snapped on in a series, going away from us and either side of us, like the dividing lines on a highway, just as they had done on the shuttle.

  'It worked,' I said.

  'No, it didn't,' said Chen. He was standing next to a large box covered in switches just inside the entrance doorway. He was standing there with his handheld. 'Maybe their technology isn't as advanced as we thought.'

  'It's strange that they're not here to greet us,' said Le Seaux. 'It must be a cultural difference,' she concluded, then added, 'Which of course is absolutely, totally fine.'

  'Maybe they're still preparing for us,' said Chen. 'Maybe they have a different concept of time. For them, our seconds might be as long as weeks. They could be making their way to us right now and think they're punctual and not keeping us waiting.'

  'Whatever happens,' said Le Seaux, 'the Accord requires us to respect the Roman's culture.'

  'What about this Roman thing?' said Chen.

  'It's their choice,' said Le Seaux.

  'I know, but why name yourself after an ancient pre-Accord people?'

  'As the Commissioners told us in the briefing,' said Le Seaux, 'the galactic visitors know we call their planet Rome. They've simply assumed the name to make it easier for us.'

  'Isn't that a form of cultural appropriation?' he said.

  Le Seaux said nothing, but I knew the answer to Chen's question from hours of courses back on AONS Harmony.

  'It's not considered cultural appropriation,' I said, 'when the former Western culture is appropriated by any other culture.'

  'Exactly so,' said Le Seaux.

  'Isn't that unfair on the Western culture?' said Chen.

  'It is impossible to be either racist or oppressive to the West and its descendants,' I said. 'Didn't they teach you that in Hong Kong?'

  'Of course,' said Chen. 'I just forgot.'

  We spent the next minute peering at the corridors either side of us and in front of us, all of them lined with the same slimy dark material as the shuttle. They each seemed to lead nowhere, but the passageway directly ahead was punctuated by a series of heavy doors.

  'Captain, permission to explore,' I said.

  'No,' said Le Seaux. 'We wait for our hosts.'

  'We can always say we went looking for them,' I said. 'That we were eager to meet them.'

  'No,' said Le Seaux. 'Not when we've just arrived. Your aggressiveness, Lieutenant Burns--it's coming out again. I remind you to keep it under control. We must trust in our guests and our Accord values, and wait.'

  I couldn't help but think that the Accord values weren't actually helping when it came to actually doing things, and the blasphemous idea popped into my mind that the values actually restricted action rather than encouraging it. They dampened initiative.

  'Yes, Captain,' I said.

  'Good,' said Le Seaux, putting her hands behind her back. 'Let's just wait. Mr Chen, you too,' she said. 'Our hosts will be along any minute, now. T.E.D.'

  We waited in a respectful line by the entrance.

  But suddenly, a noise came from somewhere along the passageway in front of us.

  'Listen,' I said.

  The noise came again.

  'Sounded like a groan,' said Chen. 'Like someone's being sick. Or in pain.'

  'Maybe that's a greeting,' I said.

  'Or something we shouldn't be prying into,' said Le Seaux.

  'Permission to inspect,' I said.

  'Absolutely not, Lieutenant. Stay right where you are.'

  But then the groan came again, louder this time, like a call for help, painful and horrible.

  I had an idea.

  'Permission to render assistance,' I said.

  Le Seaux looked at me with her green eyes narrowed.

  'It might be a way to help our hosts,' I said. 'That might be the person sent to greet us. Perhaps they're in trouble. Or perhaps we are meant to move forward to meet our hosts rather than wait.'

  Le Seaux thought for a moment, probably testing all the possibilities for consistency with Accord values. Then she said, 'OK, Lieutenant. Proceed slowly and with caution and respect. Never forget you are representing the Accord. Mr Chen and I will remain here. Do not do anything without reporting to me first, and I mean anything, Lieutenant.'

  As I moved down the passageway, the black material seemed to draw me in, the way it sucked in light. Once again, I wished I had a weapon with me, a PQ47 rifle, or even a pistol. Not good Accord thinking, but thoughts of the Accord values didn't help.

  Ten yards in, I passed by the first of the heavy doors. It was at least ten feet high and fortified with a rivets around its edges and a large handle--a large handle for very large hands. Or limbs of some kind.

  I passed several more doors, each the same. Which one was the source of the groan? When I was fifty yards down, I turned and looked back at Le Seaux and Chen. They stood way back at the entrance, the yawning cavern of the shuttle behind them.

 

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