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The Rose by Chris Cook, Part 3 @->--
I first set foot on Delva IV, by my count, two weeks later. I
learned later that it had been almost a month, due to the difference in
time between realspace and the warp, where the ship that carried me and
the other potential Sisters had travelled for much of its journey. The
auto had taken us to the town's transit station, where we had boarded
one of the buses that ran between the towns and the City. Ten hours
later we had left the bus and boarded one of the shuttles that ran on
rails from Clearsky to other cities, and in this case to the spaceport.
I had never been on a shuttle before, but it wasn't much - just a fast
bus with fewer bumps in the 'road' it travelled. But the spaceport was
something else again.
The shuttle ran down into an underground transit system, where
they must have been maintained, but passengers disembarked just before
the tunnel began, still in the open. As the Sister Superior and I
stepped off the shuttle and threaded our way through the small crowd on
the platform there was a rumble from above, growing to a great roar that
was louder than anything I had ever heard. I looked up, between the
gaps in the rain shelters above us, into the open sky, and saw the
corona of a bright light from one side, like the halo of the sun which
was setting behind me. Then the sky vanished, first beneath a massive
disc of flame and light that was the source of the almighty roaring
noise, and then that passed to be replaced by a metal sky, like a
building in flight. I stared openly at it as it passed overhead, unable
to believe something so massive could possibly fly. It took me a moment
to realise that it had gone, and I was again staring at the sky, shading
red into night. I quickly looked down to see the Sister Superior
standing a few paces ahead of me, her face immobile - not amused, but
not really angry either.
"You have never seen an orbital shuttle before?" she asked as I
caught up with her.
"No, Sister Superior," I answered. One of the few details she
had volunteered during our mostly silent trip was the proper way of
addressing the various ranks of Sister.
"They are only one of the miracles wrought by the servants of
the Emperor," she said. I hurried to keep pace with her as she led me
through the interior of the spaceport. There were no windows in the
areas I saw, and as the craft I boarded was reached via a sealed
corridor I had no other glimpse of the place. I say 'I' boarded, rather
than 'we' - the Sister Superior left me in the care of a Sister who was
waiting for recruits such as myself. There were already more than
twenty young girls waiting, in a room isolated from the main walkway of
the terminal by a frosted glass wall. Some were chatting quietly, some
were keeping to themselves. I found myself taking one of the small
seats still available, with my bag on my knees, staring at nothing,
thinking of nothing. As I had looked around the room and seen no faces
I recognised, I suddenly felt tears beginning to form in my eyes. So I
sat, and fought them back. After a couple of hours' waiting, and the
arrival of half a dozen more girls, we were ushered into the corridor
that led us to the orbital shuttle.
We were seated in rows, strapped in securely by the shuttle's
crew and told not to try to leave our seats for any reason. Our bags
were taken for storage in the lockers, and then the door back to the
spaceport closed with a clang and a hiss. A crackly voice told us to
prepare for lift-off, and a moment later the deck shuddered and there
was a roar from outside, dulled by the intervening metal of the
shuttle's hull. I had expected worse than the slight feeling of weight
that accompanied our lift-off - each seat had a paper bag attached to
its arm, which we had been told was in case we felt nauseous during the
trip, but it was really a lot smoother than the bus earlier. I suppose
some people are affected differently to others. The girl on my right
looked a little pale, and was breathing deeply, steadily, as if trying
to calm herself - if so, it must have worked.
After half an hour of non-eventful travel there was a quiet
clang, and five minutes later the door swung open again. The shuttle
crew unstrapped us and headed us towards the door, which now led to a
short passage through which we entered the transport Sacred Star.
Again, there were no windows, and so we remained ignorant of what the
ship actually looked like. I still haven't seen the Sacred Star from
the outside, but I did eventually see others of the class she belongs
to. But for the moment the mighty ship consisted of a low-ceilinged
chamber containing a handful of men in unfamiliar uniforms - Navy, I
guessed. One was speaking to the Sister who had accompanied us as I
passed, following the girl in front of me as we were all directed to a
doorway to our right by a young Navy man.
We ended up in small quarters, each cabin holding six of us in a
space barely larger than my room at home. Two walls were occupied by
bunks, three high. The other free wall, opposite the door, was
featureless save for a black panel set into it just below the ceiling.
As the door behind us slid shut the panel lit up, and turned out to be a
screen which now showed the face of a middle-aged man with grey hair,
receding back over his scalp. His high collar was visible, telling us
he was an officer like the ones we had seen earlier - perhaps the
captain, for the collar was decorated extravagantly. He spoke in a
bored monotone, as if reading a prepared statement.
"This is a recorded message," he said. "You are being
transported to the Schola Progenium Convent on Delva Four for education
as members of the Sisterhood. Remain in your quarters and rest. You
will be notified shortly before any occasion on which you will leave
your cabins. When outside your cabin obey all orders given to you by
members of the ship's crew, and go only where indicated by those
supervising you. That is all."
I knew it was, by home time, well into the evening, but as most
of the day had been physically undemanding I found myself unwilling to
sleep just yet. My companions were likewise well awake, leading us to
talk for some time. All but one of them were a few years younger than
I, the exception being Serena, a girl of my age who had lived in
Clearsky. I found out she was the daughter of a Major in the Guard, who
had been called off-world to join the 87th Brightwater regiment, on the
recommendation of a Colonel who had been his commanding officer until
the regiment was raised five years ago. Having no other family, Serena
had been accepted by the Schola Progenium. Unlike me she didn't have a
clear idea where this would lead her. The others were Tasmin, Lasille,
Donna and Ursala, all of between eight and eleven years. Lasille was
from Clearsky also, and had shared the rail shuttle with Serena. The
other three were from various towns across Brightwater - Ursala from one
only a few hours from my home, but which I had never visited. They
drifted off to sleep one by one, leaving Serena and I to talk for a
while until we decided it would be best not to be too tired for whatever
tomorrow would bring.
@->--
To be continued...
--
TRANSLATOR: Chris Cook
TRANSMITTED: Alliance Heavy Cruiser Artemis
CROSSFILE: http://www.netspace.net.au/~alia/
AUTHOR: Sister Antonia
THOUGHT: To every life a light that shines.
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