First Night On Athena

 

    Standing right in from of the petals, he said “Athena.” The petals drew into the wall all around the Chute leaving a pearlescent lighted circle exposed. It looked a little like fog in there, but shiny fog. 

    David stepped into the fog and vanished.

*** 

    Martha stared at James open mouthed. James’ eyebrows went up, but Alice just smiled at them. The petals of the opening closed just like an old-time camera shutter. But in five minutes they opened again.
    Before they had time to say anything David stepped back into the room. He carried two apples and an exotic flower. The exoticism of the flower, a brilliantly orange thing, was lost on Martha and James since they didn’t know much about flowers anyhow. He gave an apple to each of them, as a sort of proof that he had gone somewhere real. He handed the flower to Martha and the Slip Chute closed again.
    He looked fine, not harmed at all, blond, handsome, his blue eyes smiling. “So, you see. It’s quite simple in its operation, though mysterious as heck in its origins,” said David.
    “So, what do you two think,” said Alice. “Are you still interested and ready to try the Slip? I know it goes against natural instincts. But, once you try it, it won’t bother you a bit.”
    “Try your apples,” said David. “Athena is as solid and normal as those nice apples. Just think for a minute and I will pray for you too.”
    Prayer was another thing James and Martha knew nothing about, but they watched and waited, tasting their apples while David commended them to the Creator for peace of heart and safety during the Slip. It seemed pleasant and comforting to them, in a fatherly sort of way, if they had known anything fatherly that is.
    Alice said, “I can go first and be there to receive you if you like, or you can go first and I will follow, but I will be right with you in any case.”
    Martha said, “I think I would feel better if you went first. I can’t believe, in a way, that I am even talking this way, but we have to keep being brave, don’t we? There is no way we can go back to the pods and that miserable city.” James nodded.
    “Good girl,” said Alice with a big grin. “If you wrap your arms around each other when you step in you will arrive in the same condition. You will land in a kind of park, on a sort of platform made of wood once you step out of the gate. I’ll be right there waiting for you.”
    In a moment Alice was gone. The gate closed.
    James wrapped his arms around Martha. She held him tightly too right around his middle. Together they stood in front of the gate. James said firmly, “Athena!” The petals opened again and together they stepped in and vanished from the sight of the watchers in the room, who cheered them on as they went!
    They felt a weightless moment of disorientation, then there was a solid surface under their feet, and they could see the back of the same sort of petal arrangement as they had just entered a moment before. It opened. Still tightly wrapped together they stepped through onto a rather plain wooden platform. As the gate closed behind them, they saw Alice who was sitting on a bench on the platform watching their reaction to their first sight of Athena.
    Holding hands, they looked around. It seemed very normal. The air was pleasant with a slight floral scent. It was a warm day with a little breeze. The sky was blue, but ever so slightly darker blue than on Earth. There were clouds in the sky, lightly golden colored clouds. The platform was built in a grassy area. The grass looked totally normal. There were flower beds here and there around the grassy area. It looked very informal, but not random.
    Alice patted the bench beside herself, so they sat beside her, just to take a breath and look around for a few minutes.
    “We have to get you settled in rooms in our apartment building for unmarrieds and then visit the store! You are going to need everything aren’t you? You can get everything on credit. Most people come like you did, with nothing of their own. So, we just front you want you need. When you start getting paid you can pay the store.
    “We’ll talk about what kinds of jobs are available too.”
    There was a narrow graveled road leading away from the park. In the distance were several buildings. They were of wooden construction, very simple, but also very pleasant to look at. They looked comfortable. There was a large five story building and beyond it an area with small houses laid out in a grid. Beside the apartment building was a low building with larger windows. This was the store.
    James was beginning to wonder how they were able to build all of this with only what they could bring through the Slip Chute. He was impressed because it must have been only the tools they could carry. This small village represented a lot of work. He could see that they had really started from scratch on Athena.
    “Alice, do you have any kind of electronic communication here,” asked James. “Or is that coming in the future?”
    “We do, and maybe your work will be involved with building and maintaining it. What we have is pretty basic. It’s mostly just record keeping now,” said Alice. “All of the hardware has to come through that Slip Chute. You would probably be going back and forth and bringing material in.”
    They talked as they walked toward the larger building. Both young people were smiling and looking all around.
    Inside the building there was an office on the first floor right inside the door before the hall that passed through the length of the building. In the office, a lady sat at a desk working on a keyboard. She was young like them. Alice introduced her as Delores Garcia. She had a great head of curly dark hair and rather jolly brown eyes and was wearing a floral print dress. Martha had never seen a dress. She was intrigued. And somewhat envious.
    Delores took them up to the second floor and showed them two rooms next to each other. Each had a bed with plain bedding, a table, two chairs, a closet, and a bathroom. Each had a window facing the park. She gave them keys to numbers 205 and 206. The rooms were pretty in a simple way, with nicely painted walls and woodwork. There was an analog clock over the door of each room.
    Delores explained that the dining room was on the first floor and about how mealtimes worked. People who had houses did their own cooking, but the new hires and other single people usually just ate at the dining room. There was a modest charge for each meal and they kept track of each person's charges there in the dining room. She mentioned that the kitchen could always use a hand with all the cooking and serving if Martha was interested. Martha had never done any cooking but thought she could learn, so yes, she was interested.
    Next Alice brought them to the only store on Athena. She and the staff helped Martha and James set up accounts. Then they spent an hour or so choosing clothing, toiletries, and some things just for fun. People in the village often made things for sale, so there were handmade clothes, but the shoes were brought over from Earth. There was no shoemaker in town yet. There were homemade candies and cookies too. They could see that they would be coming back to the store from time to time as they found out what they needed.
    Outside around the corner was the office for the whole village. It was like a town hall, but with an employment department too. Alice introduced them to the man at the desk, who turned out to be a man that James had grown up with. They were astounded to meet each other there. His name was Jerry. No one was worried about having last names yet. After their names they just wrote the date they first came to Athena. For convenience they used the Earth date. Everyone understood it.
    James and Jerry talked about James helping with IT on planet. It seemed like he had a position built in already. Martha and Alice watched happily.
    Soon it was time for dinner. There was a three hour period of time when you could come for dinner, so there weren’t too many people there at any one time. It was pretty quiet when they entered the room. There were locally made tables with benches. A few men and women watched them get settled. A young girl came to the table with a list of offerings. There was a choice of three dinners. All the food was locally produced.
    It impressed Martha and James that everything they looked at or touched on Athena had been built by these people they saw sitting there eating their dinners.
    Alice brought Martha to the head cook and introduced her to him. His name was Bob, also with no last name, because he came from the pods too a couple of years before. Alice said Martha would like to learn cooking and it was settled that she would appear in the kitchen, not tomorrow but the next day at 6AM. It seemed like a good fit for a very young girl with no previous skills.
    Alice said she would walk them up to their rooms to say goodnight and then she would walk home to one of the small houses, where her husband waited for her. It had been a busy but very successful day for the best recruiter Athena had working for them.
    She left them standing outside numbers 205 and 206. They were exhausted. It had been a day unlike any other, but a very good day. James held Martha in his arms for a few minutes. She cried a little just from tiredness and the newness of it all. They said goodnight to each other, went into their rooms and to bed for their first night on Athena.

James and Martha.docx