Dem Lia turned her attention to the eight people at the table. She had met all of them during the two years of ship training with the Aeneans, but knew none of these individuals well. All had been in the select group of fewer than a thousand chosen for possible awakening during transit. She checked their color-band stripes as they made introductions over coffee.
Four men, five women. One of the other women was also an emerald green, which meant that Dem Lia did not know if command would fall to her or the younger woman. Of course, consensus would determine that at any rate, but since the emerald green band of the Amoiete Spectrum Helix poem and society stood for resonance with nature, ability to command, comfort with technology, and the preservation of endangered life-formsand all 684,300 of the Amoiete refugees could be considered endangered life-forms this far from human spaceit was assumed that in unusual awakenings the greens would be voted into overall command.
In addition to the other greena young, redheaded woman named Res Sandrethere was: a red-band male, Patek Georg Dem Mio; a young, white-band female named Den Soa whom Dem Lia knew from the diplomacy simulations; an ebony-band male named Jon Mikail Dem Alem; an older yellow-band woman named Oam Rai whom Dem Lia remembered as having excelled at ship systems operations; a white-haired blue-band male named Peter Delen Dem Tae whose primary training would be in psychology; an attractive female violet-bandalmost surely chosen for astronomynamed Kem Loi; and an orange maletheir medic, whom Dem Lia had spoken to on several occasionsSamel Ria Kem Ali, known to everyone as Dr. Sam.
After introductions there was a silence. The group looked out the windows at the binary system, the G8 white star almost lost in the glare of the Helixs, formidable fusion tail.
Finally the red, Patek Georg, said, All right, ship. Explain.
Saigyôs calm voice came over the omnipresent speakers. We were nearing time to begin a search for earthlike worlds when sensors and astronomy became interested in this system.
A binary system? said Kem Loi, the violet. Certainly not in the red giant system? The Amoiete Spectrum Helix people had been very specific about the world they wanted their ship to find for themG2 sun, earthlike world at least a 9 on the old Solmev Scale, blue oceans, pleasant temperaturesparadise, in other words. They had tens of thousands of light-years and thousands of years to
hunt. They fully expected to find it.
There are no worlds left in the red-giant system, agreed Saigyô the AI affably enough. We estimate that the system was a G2 yellow-white dwarf star
Sol, muttered Peter Delen, the blue, sitting at Dem Lias right.
Yes, said Saigyô. Much like the Old Earths sun. We estimate that it became unstable on the main sequence hydrogen-burning stage about three and one half million standard years ago and then expanded to its red giant phase and swallowed any planets that had been in system.
How many AUs out does the giant extend? asked Res Sandre, the other green.
Approximately one-point-three, said the AI.
And no outer planets? asked Kem Loi. Violets in the Helix were dedicated to complex structures, chess, the love of the more complex aspects of human relationships, and astronomy. It would seem that there would be some gas giants or rocky worlds left if it only expanded a bit beyond what would have been Old Earths or Hyperions orbit.
Maybe the outer worlds were very small planetoids driven away by the constant outgassing of heavy particles, said Patek Georg, the red-band pragmatist.
Perhaps no worlds formed here, said Den Soa, the white-band diplomat. Her voice was sad. At least in that case no life was destroyed when the sun went red giant.
Saigyô, said Dem Lia, why are we decelerating in toward this white star? May we see the specs on it, please?
Images, trajectories, and data columns appeared over the table.
What is that? said the older yellow-band woman, Oam Rai.
An Ouster forest ring, said Jon Mikail Dem Alem. All this way. All these years. And some ancient Ouster Hegira seedship beat us to it.
Beat us to what? asked Res Sandre, the other green. There are no planets in this system are there, Saigyô?
No, maam, said the AI.
Were you thinking of restocking on their forest ring? said Dem Lia. The plan had been to avoid any Aenean, Pax, or Ouster worlds or strongholds found along their long voyage away from human space.
This orbital forest ring is exceptionally bountiful, said Saigyô the AI, but our real reason for awakening you and beginning the in-system deceleration is that someone living on or near the ring is transmitting a distress signal on an early Hegemony code band. It is very weak, but we have been picking it up for two hundred and twenty-eight light-years.
This gave them all pause. The Helix had been launched some eighty years after the Aenean Shared Moment, that pivotal event in human history which had marked the beginning of a new era for most of the human race. Previous to the Shared Moment, the Church-manipulated Pax society had ruled human space for three hundred years. These Ousters would have missed all of Pax history and probably most of the thousand years of Hegemony history that preceded the Pax. In addition to that, the Helixs time-debt added more than four hundred years of travel. If these Ousters had been part of the original Hegira from Old Earth or from the Old Neighborhood Systems in the earliest days of the Hegemony, they may well have been out of touch with the rest of the human race for fifteen hundred standard years or more.