Tomorrow and Tomorrow

Chapter 5: reports

Cameron took her Canary uniform jacket to the congress meeting, but didn't put it on. She knew it bothered Canary members that she didn't wear her full uniform anymore, but Aeneid members hated the uniform. She made sure she didn't wear one of her expensive shirts, but a drab green. Appeasing everyone was exhausting, but necessary. These meetings were already stressful enough without people trying to lump her into one category or another.

Dashiell was a stickler for starting meetings on time, even now when congress had nearly doubled overnight. Branches had been split into departments, and each department had a voice in the room. Cameron had been voted in as head of personnel, for which she had been surprised, but grateful. The position afforded her more freedom than she would have expected. She was one of the first department head in the room, though this meant she had to converse with Dashiell. She bobbed her head at him as she sat down.

"Cameron!" Dashiell said warmly. "Libba wanted to know if you and Harper wanted to come over for dinner tomorrow. You two were a delight last time."

"Certainly," Cameron replied with an easy smile. "I should check with Harper, but I don't think we have anything planned. Should we bring anything?"

"Oh no, just yourselves. Libba will be thrilled. Teren just loves you; I can't thank you enough for letting us take in Biscuit. He and that dog are fierce friends."

"I'm glad," she said, making a mental note to message Harper their new plans.

She wished that Harper and she could have kept Biscuit, but both of their schedules were so moonshy that she wanted to find him a more permanent home. Teren was the first child awakened from cryo, without any of his friends or old life. Biscuit had helped him acclimate. It had worked so well they were planning on using a couple of the puppies from the new litter to the same purpose.

Other members filed in. Ford had taken over for his partner Austen. She was still basically in charge of communications, but had refused to be in the same room as Lincoln. Cameron couldn't blame her, but hadn't been afforded the luxury to refuse. Walsh had come out of retirement to replace Dylan. It had been a surprisingly good thing; Walsh was good at making the chaos of environ simply to understand. They managed a lot of important components of the base.

Lincoln had protested mightily when even after Landing Day, the majority of the replacement congress was from the Aeneid. But the people in this room were the people who knew the most of about the base and the planet; the ones with the best plan of survival. The only person who just a politician was Dashiell Turner.

Cameron didn't like him. She felt that he was arrogant and shallow. However, even she would admit there was no one else for the job. No member from the Aeneid or Canary could be captain during this time; people were too scared, too angry. Dashiell could calm a room with a couple sentences and he could galvanize a team who had been flagging behind. He was pompous, but he was important. Harper didn't know it yet, but Cameron was grooming him to become the next captain. It was one of the reasons she wanted him to learn the slang of each ship, and dress with consideration.

Once everyone was seated, Dashiell cleared his throat.

"I've read everything I can on our reports of earthstorms. They seem much like the hurricanes that we had back on Earth, only we don't have extensive a warning system here. What we do have is invaluable, thank you Ibsen. It seems like once we shut everything down we're just kept in the base until the storm passes? How long is it usually? I read a full cycle, but surely that can't be right."

"Anywhere from two to six weeks," Walsh said. "This is only the second storm we've had any real data on, so we're a long way from predicting duration. We all continue our day to day jobs and activities, but any construction, exploration or growth is basically on hold. I usually do my paperwork during our earthstorms."