A Stepdaughter of Gaia

[Googlie]

Chapter One

Megan lay in her deceleration couch and looked out of the small porthole as the Unity landing pod broke through planet’s atmosphere and headed towards a small landmass.

She was excited as only a ten-year-old could be.

She had peppered her parents with questions almost non-stop after the awakening, when she had been revived from cryosleep, as they made their way with the others of the group to the escape pods. That they had been unable to provide answers for the most part did not deter her from asking them.

And now she was watching the beginning of a new life.

The colors looked different as they came closer to the surface, a strange looking mottled mixture of brownish green and russet red, like a patchwork quilt, interspersed with swathes of aquamarine blue denoting an ocean of some sort she deduced.

As the braking thrusters engaged, she could see, by just craning her neck, where the pod was going to land.

There was a small lake, inland from an ocean, in the middle of just such a patchwork of red and green, and the escape pod was headed directly for the shores of the lake.

“Thirty seconds to impact” she heard the mechanical voice of the on-board computer.

She looked over to her mother and father, who were lying in adjacent couches, holding hands. She wished she had a hand to hold as they landed.

The pod was crowded – Megan had heard her father talking in terms of ten thousand. She had never seen ten thousand people together at once in a ship of any kind. Oh, her father had taken her to a baseball game once when he had taken her to America with him on a business trip, but they had been inside a huge park, with grandstands. She didn’t imagine the escape pod was anything like that in terms of size. She knew the colonist list had been around 70,000 in the Unity. She’d read everything she could before that day in 2060 when they had blasted off, earlier than planned, to escape the nuclear war that was about to break out.

“Ten seconds to Impact…seven…six seconds to impact...three…two..”

Megan subconsciously braced herself for the landing.

The landing pod came down heavily on its struts, shaking a little, then settled.

There was an audible sigh of relief from many of the colonists, and spontaneous applause rang out, soon taken up by most of the group.

Then the speaker crackled again, and a woman’s voice rang out:

“Welcome to Planet. The name we know this planet by is Chiron, orbiting the twin suns of Alpha Centauri. I know all of you are anxious to get out and see what your new home looks like, but bear with us. Our sensors have been supplying data for the last twelve minutes, and the Unity itself conducted some deep probes before we ejected. The atmosphere is breathable, though rich in nitrogen. They tell us that it will be like the base camps at Everest expeditions – one can survive for about fifteen minutes without an oxygen supplement or a nitrogen removal agent.

“We have a few scrubbers that have been distributed to an advance scouting party. The technicians are even now preparing several more, but for the time being we need all of us to remain in the pod.

“It has been designed to serve as an initial habitation base, and these strange noises you have been hearing in the background are the automatic deployment of some of the pod’s working and habitation modules.

“I should also tell you that we have been separated from the other colonists in the escape from the Unity, and I am Lady Deirdre Skye. I am the Chief Botanist and Xenobiologist for the Unity. In her final moments your leaders agreed that we would each take an escape pod with our respective teams and a mixed group of colonists, and found a new society on Planet.

“You are privileged to be part of a faction who shall style ourselves as ‘The Stepdaughters of Gaia.’ Respect for Planet and her ecosystem will drive everything we do.

“Now if you want you can get up and move around. It will be crowded to begin with, until we get the all-clear from our scout patrols, and, in fact, if you look towards one of the various screens scattered throughout the pod you will see that we are picking up live feed from one of the scouts on the surface.”

Megan twisted her head to look at one of the big screens, and gasped in surprise.

The scout obviously had a helmet camera, as the view was as clear as if she were looking with her own eyes. She heard his voice as it was piped into the pod:

“I’m looking now at the landing pod – it truly is a magnificent sight as it sits with its various ancillary pods now being deployed. You can see some engineers already at work testing the pressurization before opening them up to habitation.

“As you know, or maybe you don’t know, but just before firing the escape pods, the Unity fired off a succession of seed pods to the surface with technology and vehicles so that we would not be helpless when we landed. Behind the base - which by the way Lady Deirdre has christened ‘Gaia’s Landing’ - you can see the small lake, which I’m sure some of you saw during the descent. In the lake itself you can just see partly submerged one of the unity pods.

“There is another pod just a kilometer or two to the west.”

The scout turned his head and those following in the base saw in the distance a black disc resting on the surface. The scout increased the magnification and the disc zoomed into detail. Some engineers had already reached it, and it seemed to be about four times as big as a man. They were trying to prize it open, and had strung up a ladder of sorts for one of the engineers to reach the locking mechanism, which seemed to be almost on the top of the disc itself.

As he panned the view around the disc in the distance the viewers could see the huge scar mark on Planet’s surface where the pod had gouged the soil and rocks before coming to rest, tilted crazily.

Megan was getting bored, so she unstrapped herself and walked over to her parents, surprised at how sluggish she felt.

“I want to go and explore,” she said to her mother – “and I need to find a washroom of sorts.”

“I’ll come with you,” she said, unstrapping herself.

They wandered down the line of deceleration couches to a bulkhead, where they were stopped by a young man.

“Where are you going?” he asked.

“Just to look around,” said Megan’s mother. “And my daughter and I also need to find a toilet, if there is one here.”

“Oh, they’ll be deployed by now,” he said. “Just remember not to go outside yet. And keep this color in sight at all times – it leads you to and from this sector of the base.”

He pointed to the catwalk down the middle, where a broad orange stripe was painted.

“Just remember not to open any door that’s closed, and if you should, close it immediately. You’ll know it opened because a pressure alert klaxon will go off. Washrooms should be marked in the habitation module that will be to the left at the end of this dorm. Back the other way, that is.”

“Thanks,” said Megan’s mother, and they retraced their steps.

At the far end of the rows of colonists looking with great interest at the screens, was an open airlock that they went through.

They found themselves in an almost empty chamber that had a few engineers scurrying around in setting up what seemed to be cafeteria tables and to one side what looked to Megan’s untrained eye very much like a kitchen range.

A small group was standing in a huddle to one side poring over a spread out sheet. They looked up as Megan and her mother walked past looking for the washrooms.

“Heather, you made it,” said one, breaking away from the group and coming over to Megan’s mother and giving her a hug. “And Megan too, I see.”

“Deirdre,” said Heather, Megan’s mother. “It’s not quite as we planned all those years ago. Not quite the joyous colonization of another planet, if I understood your little speech right. But we’ll survive. Who are these factions you talked about?”

Oh, the usual big three – Zakharov, Yang and Lal himself. Miriam Godwinson’s got herself a small clique and one of Yang’s young officers has gotten a group of like minded people surrounding her and commandeered a pod.”

“And I suppose Captain Garland is the remaining one?” asked Heather.

Deirdre’s face looked pained.

“No, he isn’t. He sacrificed himself to get us free – the explosive bolts malfunctioned and the escape pods couldn’t break loose. He fired them manually but it cost him his life.”

“Then who’s the seventh you talked about?”

Deirdre’s face took on a look of loathing and derision.

“Nwabudike Morgan. He somehow managed to smuggle himself aboard and has quite a group of followers now as we have. He’ll be out to rape Chiron much as he raped Earth.”

“Mommy,” Megan said plaintively, tugging at her hand.

“Oh, I’m sorry, dear,” she replied. Turning to Deirdre, she said “We need to find a washroom.”

“Well, let’s find out where they are,” she said.

“Lindly, where on that floorplan of yours are the washrooms?”

The young assistant screwed up her face in concentration, then said with an air of satisfaction:

“Just a few more yards – through the next airlock and they should be on your left – they’re unisex.”

Megan released Heather’s hand and skipped to the far end of the module, and opened the airlock.

There was an ear piercing noise as the pressure leak klaxon went off.

Megan’s scream was drowned as she fell the ten feet or so to Planet’s surface.


[This message has been edited by Googlie (edited April 26, 2001).]

[Googlie]

Chapter Three

In the base pod, a semblance of order was emerging.

The processing area had been set up in one of the ancillary modules and a bank of six computers was now adorning one of the bench tables. The colonists were lined up and snaking around the dorms and cafeteria modules as they one by one gave their particulars to the earnest young men and women manning the consoles.

"Name, last name first, then Christian name, then any middle names."

As a name was called it was entered into the console, and the operator looked to see if anything extracted from the Unity's roster registry. More often than not, there was a match, but there were the occasional glitches where the system crashed or the record was incomplete.

The roster contained names, family details, occupation and skills, why chosen for the mission, and other personal details as appropriate.

As the details were recorded, or verified, the colonist and family were given a color coded sash and directed to one of the other ancillary pods.

To begin with, for this first streaming, they were divided into four general groups:

The builder group, which would broadly be responsible for the development of the infrastructure of the base and its growth and eventual cloning into additional bases. This group would contain the bulk of the engineers, architects, assemblers, and laborers;

The discover group, which would comprise the scientific and research communities;

The military group, which would be responsible for developing a standing militia, policing, garrison duty and general protection of the base population from external threats and predators;

The final group was the explorers, whose job it would be to map the surrounds, investigate any local or native anomalies, select sites for future expansion and identify likely areas for base development as regards nutrient cultivation, mineral extraction or energy generation.

Natasha was lining up with her four children, ranging in ages from Petra, at nine, the eldest, through Dmitri, seven, Pavel, six and the youngest, Tanya, at four.

She shuffled to the head of the line.

The bored processor said:

"Name, last name first, then Christian name, then any middle names."

"Nikolishyn, Natasha, none," she replied.

"Occupation?"

"Brood mare."

The operator had already punched in several characters when he looked up in annoyance:

"Now look here..," then stopped as he saw the four children huddling around her skirts.

"You aren't here alone - where is your husband and why isn't he with you?"

Natasha fought hard to keep the tears from flowing.

"I don't know. He's a research scientist attached to Zakharov. Somehow, in the confusion of the escape from the ship we were separated. I can't find him, and I think that he may be on another pod."

Her bottom lip began to tremble.

Somewhat flustered the operator keyed in some strokes and said,

"What can you do? What are you good at?"

"I raise my family," she replied. "That's what I do - and I am good at it."

"No, no, that's not what I meant. Without your husband here how will you support yourself? Do you have a degree, or can you teach?"

"I can look after children when the parents are working - I am well qualified for that. And yes, I can teach them elementary things. But alas, I have no formal education beyond my own at age fifteen. I was married to Gregor at seventeen and then the babies came."

"Well you have to do something, so I'll put you down as daycare attendant, or creche mother. Go over to the builder group there." He indicated a module door to one side.

Natasha trundled off with her children in tow, sniffling.

Tanya knew just enough to know that the man had been horrid to her mother and she started crying. Petra tried to comfort her sister, and that was their state when they entered the module and saw several hundred families milling around, and the same process about to start again as the administrators streamed them into smaller, more manageable groups.

Natasha fought back her tears, and stood irresolutely at the doorway.

A tall man squatted down beside Tanya and chucked her under the chin. With a twinkle in his eye he said:

"Now what's a wee princess like you doing sniffling on a glorious day like today?"

She looked up at him with tears filling her eyes.

Petra spoke up:

"The man back there was horrid to my mother. We've lost our father somewhere either on this landing pod or another, and he won't let us stay unless Mom can find work to do."

"Oh he won't, won't he?" said the gruff voice. "We'll just see about that. You come with me."

With that he took Petra and Tanya's hands and led them to the head of a line that was forming in front of yet another console and operator.

There were some grumbles when he pushed his way to the front, but they subsided when the colonists waiting their turn saw the sniffling children.

"Maisie," he said.

The operator looked up.

"Yes Mr. MacDonald?" she said.

"You'll be processing this family now, do you hear? She's been separated from her husband - maybe here, maybe on another escape pod. You'll search the records for him and if he's here, we'll find him. If not, well she's to be looked after. Put her in with Heather, Megan and me."

He turned to Natasha:

"And whit do ye dae, lassie? Whit did yon pest put ye down for?"

Natasha replied:

"He said I could be a daycare attendant or a creche mother."

"Aye, and you'd do a fine job at that, I reckon. Maisie, put her down as the kindergarten leader. I'll take responsibility until we find her husband or decide he's somewhere else on this Planet."

He ruffled Tanya's hair, and turned to the more serious Petra:

"I've got a daughter about your age. She's already out there in a rover exploring the surface. Fell out an airlock looking for a lavatory, can you believe?"

Petra smiled.

"I think you two will soon be great friends," Angus said. "You'll be good for each other."

Petra nodded. She hoped so. Back on old Earth, the only friends she had were her younger brothers, and they were horrid little kids. She was looking forward to meeting this daughter.

She wondered what she was up to at this moment.

[Googlie]

Chapter Four

Megan was in fact throwing a bit of a mild temper tantrum.

“But you promised,” she wailed.

“I didna’ exactly promise,” Colin replied. “I said we’d go look. But we’ve been travelling for two hours now and we’ve only covered about twenty kilometers through this undergrowth.

“And yon steeple isna’ getting any bigger. Malc’s done some triangulations and we think that it’s still over 100 kilometers away.”

“But that’d make it over 1000 feet high,” said Lindly, doing the math in her head.

“Right on,” said Colin, tremendously impressed. “That’s what Malcolm came up with. And for something that big, and that far away, it’ll take a bigger and better planned expedition to investigate than this shakedown run. I’ve been in touch with Base, and we’re going back. Plus it’s beginning to get dark, and we don’t want to be exploring in this in darkness. I really thought we had more time”

“Well I remember reading that the Chiron day is only seventeen of our Earth hours, so daylight will be much less – and nights will be shorter too. So I agree, we should get back.”

Megan pouted for the entire return journey.

%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%

Back at Gaia’s Landing the small corps of engineers had been working flat out to produce more scrubbers and masks, distributing them to colonists with engineering or mechanical skills. They were then heading Planetside to assemble some of the temporary prefabricated modules from the landing pod’s stores as well as use some of the pod’s structural frame for more permanent buildings. They worked under the guidance of leaders who had the construction plans.

The atmosphere was such that an adult human could survive for up to thirty minutes breathing normally, slightly longer with controlled breathing, and children slightly less with their smaller lung capacity. As a result, modules didn’t need to be connected by covered walkways, and pressurization wasn’t needed in the buildings themselves, which was a relief to the engineers.

One of the modules already had its full complement of mechanics and engineers, and they were busy constructing a terraforming vehicle and sundry attachments, and the probable crew were milling around familiarizing themselves with the equipment as it was being taken out of storage.

In another completed module several of the colonists were firing up the microwave kitchens to commence the almost unending task of feeding the multitude. It was to this group that Heather gravitated, and she soon found herself in a corner running multiple tests on the various likely looking indigenous plants to establish their value as a nutrient source.

One of the overriding factors on the first day that Deirdre insisted on was that every colonist should have the opportunity to spend some time Planetside. This meant that scrubbers had to be shared, as it would be several days before the small production team could manufacture enough filters and breathtubes to provide one for everyone. Deirdre insisted the no one took the chance of being outside for an extended period without one.

The lake was a huge attraction for the children, and for some adults as well. Many wanted to go swimming, but the group of leaders was adamant that no one did until the buoyancy, salinity and noxious substance tests had been run. In addition, that wouldn’t happen for a few days until the equipment had been broken out of storage. The children satisfied themselves by standing at the shore of the lake lobbing stones into the water.

The focal point of the small community was still the interior of the landing pod. It served as the dormitory, commons, lounges, and housed the majority of the washroom and shower units.

Deirdre announced that she would be addressing the assembled colonists that evening, at sundown.

%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%

Dmitri was at a loose end. His English language skills were not so well developed as his mother’s was or even Petra’s, so he found it difficult to mix in with the ready laughter and shared wonderment of the group of children by the lake.

Not that he didn’t share their sense of adventure and discovery, but he couldn’t articulate his excitement nor fully understand theirs. He espied a boy also standing to one side, looking as lost as himself, so he went over.

“Hi,” he said. At least that was a universal greeting.

The other boy looked up.

“Hi,” he replied. “English?”

“Nyet,” said Dmitri. “Russian. Dmitri” pointing to himself. “You?” pointing to the boy.

“Non, Quebecois,” he replied. “Marcel.”

Not quite sure what a Quebecois, Dmitri stuck out his hand anyway and said “Pleased.”

“Aussi,” said Marcel. “I understand a little English.”

“Me less,” said Dmitri. “Sister better. What language Kwebekwa? And where?”

“French,” replied Marcel. Neighbor Canada and America.”

“Ah,” said Dmitri. That placed it on the map for him. “Father speak much French.”

Then the enormity of what he had just said struck home, and suddenly he couldn't contain his tears. He had tried to be manly and accept that his father was alive but many thousands of miles away and unlikely ever to see his children again – oh, he understood enough of the chatter to pick that up. The escape pods were widely scattered over Planet’s surface to enhance the chances of the human race propagating itself, and it might be decades before any of the factions actually met again.

He turned away to hide his feelings from his new acquaintance.

Marcel looked at him with sympathy.

‘Probably terribly homesick,’ he thought, then suddenly realized that he knew why Dmitri was crying.

He would never in later days be able to remember the exact moment when it first happened, but as he stood there by the shore of a small lake on an alien planet, he realized with astonishment that he knew exactly what was troubling Dmitri.

He put his arm around the shoulder of the other boy.

“I have no father either,” he said simply.

Dmitri heard him through his private grief, but also was immediately aware of the circumstances of Marcel’s loss.

His father had been killed in one of the fights aboard the Unity just before the escape.

He looked at Marcel in wonderment. Marcel gazed back, more than a little frightened.

“How you do it?” Dmitri asked. “In my mind?”

Marcel shrugged. “Je ne sais quois. I dunno,” he replied.

“It happens when I dream, I think other people’s thoughts. Always thought it was dream. But since here I hear many thoughts – tousands. I shut them out. But you – somehow I in your mind. I know what you are thinking.”

“And you show me your thoughts,” Dmitri replied. “Father died – in Unity.”

Marcel hung his head.

“Oui,” he said softly. “Only me and big sister now.”

On an impulse Dmitri reached out and hugged his new friend.

“And us. One family now,” he said.

Marcel blinked back the tears.

%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%

One by one the outside crews returned to the pod, and the exterior modules emptied as the colonists assembled for the address by Lady Deirdre. Heather and Lindly returned, and were the center of attention by their friends as they talked about the giant steeple they had seen in the distance. Dmitri and Marcel split up to go find their respective families. Colin and Malcolm found their buddies and a great air of excitement arose as darkness fell.

Then the speakers cackled to life, and the Lady Deirdre Skye began her address to the colonists.

[Googlie]

Chapter Five



“My fellow colonists.

“This speech is not something that I had expected, nor prepared for. Our Mission leader, Commissioner Lal or the Unity Captain, John Garland should have been giving this historic speech. Alas, it grieves me to report that the events of the past twenty four hours have resulted in the death of Captain Garland and the dispersion of our colonizing force into seven groups scattered over Planet’s surface. We don’t even know how many may have survived, or where they made Planetfall.

“But I will do my best. I want to share with you what I see as the gravity of our situation and to outline the tasks ahead, as I and my advisors understand them..

“Our tally shows that we are 10,724 persons, a slight majority being women, and with 177 children and youths under age 16.

“Allow me to put this into context. We might be the last remaining members alive of the Human race.

“The task ahead is huge. Our objective is firstly, to survive, and then to grow and establish ourselves here on this Planet. We do not see this place as being alien. Of course, it is different than the Earth we left these forty years ago. The air we breathe is nitrogen rich, requiring us to take care when outdoors. Gravity is greater, resulting in our expending more effort for the same results as before. Atmospheric pressure is higher, which puts greater stress on our pulmonary and epidermal systems. By that I mean that we will find ourselves breathless more often, with the greater pressure on our lungs, and our skin will itch and cuts and bruises will take longer to heal.

“And if these are the only effects we will feel, we will have done well.

“Preliminary analysis of the plants and grasses surrounding this base show that the soil will be able to support earth style vegetables and fruits. This is good news for those of you who are farmers and came on this mission with the expectation of setting up smallholdings here.

“Forestry experts tell me that it should also be able to support substantial forests of earth trees, so we will as soon as possible plant the seedlings we brought with us and nurture them into rich forests. They will have the effect, over the longer term, of changing the composition of the air we breathe into a more earth like mix. This is good news for the forestry workers who are with us.

“The land seems to be rich in mineral deposits, also good news for the miners among us. Your expertise will be needed as we kick start our manufacturing processes to develop the tools and implements we need to survive.

“One necessity for survival does seem to be in abundance – I am referring to energy. Alpha Centauri Prime, around which we revolve, provides an abundant source of energy, supplemented by the second star. Secundus, which although more distant, also contributes.

“Our initial scouting reports indicate that we have landed beside a small lake – that which you have seen to the north of us, and a short distance from either two oceans or at least two much larger lakes, one to the east, and the other to the northwest. So we are either on a largish island, or on a peninsula to a continent. That, in turn, is good news for the fishers and aquaculturalists among us.

“Now let us turn to the issue of leadership. Specifically leadership of this group. I am sure that many of you are asking what qualifications I bring, why my vision should be the one we follow, why have I assumed the leadership of this motley group of humankind?

“Let me tell you.

“I signed on with the Unity Mission as Chief Botanist and Xenobiologist, attached to Proktor Zakharov’s group of scientists. Key members of my staff have been intimately involved with the mission planning, the logistics management after landfall, the forward planning to move our tiny civilization onwards and the necessary establishment of defenses against Planet’s depredations as well as policing duties among our own colonists. We have been trained to do this.

“Most of you, on the other hand, have diverse training in farming, forestry, engineering, mining, fishing, building – exactly these skills that a colonizing group finds essential. But the administrative and management skills that are needed for planning a frontier economy are themselves specialist skills, and I, and my team, in turn, bring these.

“We have inventoried our combined skills, and I am proud and pleased to say – we will survive. But not only will we survive, we will prosper.

“Planet is not inhospitable. We will grow our base, and expand, in harmony with Planet. When we mine her minerals, we shall do so gently, thanking her for her gift. When we grow and harvest our fruits and vegetables, we shall delicately reap them, conscious that we could not survive without Planet’s blessing.

“When we build our permanent structures, we shall design them to honor Planet.

“On Unity, as our United Nations ideals were shattering under factionalism, I coined the term “Gaia’s Stepdaughters” to describe the philosophy I would live under and expect my team and followers to abide by. And I am asking you to do likewise. Collectively we are Gaia’s Stepdaughters, and as many of you have already adopted the name, this base, mankind’s tentative new home in Planet’s embrace, will be called “Gaia’s Landing.”

“Our administrators have logged details of each of you – your backgrounds and skills, your family status and ages, your preferences and personal objectives.

“We have come to a decision that we believe enhances our ability to thrive and prosper in this environment.

“We are going to divide our group into two. Tomorrow we will identify approximately 5,000 of you who will be fitted out with clothes, food supplies and tools and implements, and you will commence the trek to found a second base. The preliminary scan we conducted as we landed suggests that the coast of the western ocean – or lake, to the north of us, is the best likely direction to go. If you are with friends, and do not want to be split up, ensure that this is made known to the processors.

“I have asked one of our ablest administrators, Garth Wilson, to lead this group, and he has accepted. About two thirds of the materiel unpacked from this pod will go with the new group, including most of our tracked vehicles and trailers.

“We have few children on the mission – fewer than 2 percent. This was purposeful, as with colonization efforts a berth taken by a child can also be taken by childbearing adult. So only those families with essential skills among the parents were allowed to bring their children with them. However in drawing up the roster for the migration to found another base, we have roughly divided the children into two groups, and allocated accordingly. So if you and your spouse are on the expansion roster it may be on account of your child or children having been added to balance out the youth of Gaia’s Stepdaughters between the two bases.

“Now, a word for those of you – and there are many – who are with us involuntarily. You signed on perhaps intending to be with friends that were intent on building a new spiritual life here, or research pure science, or even live a life of freedom with the right of self expression backed by owning and maintaining personal arms.

“I say to you, you are welcome here with us. But our priorities are different. Accept them and in turn, you will be accepted by us. We shall respect your right to have your own ideas and values. But remember that we aim to live in harmony with Planet. Let that be your guiding principle, and together we will prosper.

“And finally, there are some of you with us who have become separated from your loved ones. You live in the absence of knowledge whether they are alive or dead. And you have heard the talk that it might be years – decades even – before you receive word of their fate. Rest assured that you are welcome with us. We open our arms and hearts to embrace you, whatever your nationality, whatever your language, whatever your culture.

“The unifying force that will pull us together and keep us together is our unshakeable belief that here things can and will be different.

“Few times in Human history has mankind been given the opportunity for a new beginning.

“This is one of these times.

“Together we will succeed, with Planet as our ally.

“For we are Gaia’s Stepdaughters.

“Thank you, and goodnight.”

[Googlie]

Chapter Two

Lindly was first to the airlock and as she passed a rack at the side of the door she grabbed two scrubbers and leapt to the ground.

Behind her, just a few paces, was one of the other staff members of Deirdre’s entourage and he assessed the situation at a glance.

He pulled the door shut, and mercifully the klaxon ceased its wailing. He turned to Heather and Deirdre who had just arrived.

“They’ll be OK,” he said. “Lindly’s got breathers.”

Heather raised a quizzical eyebrow.

“Breathers,” he said. “Scrubbers. They scrub some of the nitrogen from the air that you breathe to give a better oxygen mix, more like Earth’s. Your girl could last probably half an hour without one provided she controlled her intake, but she’ll be ok with Lindly. She’ll know what to do.”

Heather heaved a sigh of relief.

************************************************** ************************

Megan had fallen awkwardly, twisting an ankle as she landed.

She sat on the ground, and looked around.

The bulk of the landing pod was impressive, about the height of a ten story building on old Earth. The automatic deployment of the ancillary modules gave it a flattened sort of a look as they had unfolded from the sides and telescoped out to form various quarters all around the base of the pod.

As she looked up she realized just how luck she had been to be on one of the lower level colonist units. Higher up and she could have been killed falling down.

Just then, she saw a figure leap from the door and land nearby, rolling over in a classic paradrop maneuver. It was young Lindly, who had shown her where the washrooms were.

“You OK, kid?” she said.

“Yeah. Maybe twisted my ankle a little,” Megan replied.

“Here, put this on,” said Lindly handing Megan a weird shaped tube with a bulbous end.

“What is it?” she asked.

“A breather. It reduces the amount of nitrogen reaching your lungs and thus gives you the right oxygen mix. You don’t need to inhale through it all the time, but most of the time you will. You can take it out of your mouth to talk, but don’t forget to suck on it every few minutes for a couple of minutes at least. Sort of like smoking a cigar.”

Megan and Lindly took a few puffs through the mouthpiece.

Megan giggled. “I’ve never seen someone smoking a cigar – just in the old movies back on earth. But will we need to use these for the rest of our lives?”

Lindly thought for a moment or two.

“Certainly for a number of years. I’m part of the scientific team, and we think that if we are able to get earth trees and plants established here we can change the balance of oxygen and hydrogen in the atmosphere to the extent that it will be breathable for humans for extended periods.

“We might have to pump enriched oxygen mix into public buildings and the like to compensate for its general weakness in the air that we’ll breathe, but that’s a few years down the line. For the foreseeable future we’ll need these.

“If you’re up to it, while we’re outside why don’t we look around, then you can tell your parents all about it this evening?”

Her sprained ankle immediately forgotten, Megan said:

“Yes, lets.”

************************************************** ***********************

They walked a short distance from the base towards the reddish growth that pushed down into the small lake due east of them.

“Don’t stray too far from the landing pod,” said Lindly. “We don’t want to get out of sight or out of range.”

“Range of what,” asked Megan.

“My pocket transmitter/receiver,” Lindly said.

“Oh, you mean your cell-phone?” Megan asked. “My father had one back on earth.”

“Well, sorta,” said Lindly. “’Cept it’s not a phone, more like a mobile radio with a computer built in.”

Their conversation was cut short by a huge roar that they heard coming from the landing pod, followed by the sound of applause.

“What’s going on,” asked Megan, intrigued.

“Let’s find out,” said Lindly.

She flicked open the datapad commlink, and punched in a number.

Megan peered over her shoulder at the small screen.

A face appeared on it, a middle aged man.

“Scott here,” said the face.

“What’s going on there?” asked Megan. “We heard the commotion right here on the ground about half a click from the base.”

“Megan,” said the face. “What the heck are you doing outside?”

“It’s a long story..”

“Never mind,” Scott said. The commotion was that the engineers finally cracked open the seedpod and found a Rover inside. They’ve fired it up and it’s on its way over here. In fact, I’ll contact them and have it pick you girls up – at least there’s air to breathe inside its pressurized cabin.”

“That’d be neat,” said Lindly. “We’ll wait for them. How’s the gasmask manufacturing coming along?”

“They’re not gasmasks, so kindly stop referring to them that way. Scrubbers are just fine for a name, apt, too as they scrub much of the nitrogen from the air you eventually breathe. Now hang on while I contact the rover.”

The screen went blank.

Megan remembered what drew her to the airlock in the first place.

“Lindly,” she said, somewhat embarrassed. “I’ve got to pee.”

“Oh, yeah, I forgot,” she replied. “That’s what got you into trouble in the first place. Tell you what, can you hang on for five minutes? If I remember correctly there’s a washroom in the crew cabin of the rover that’s coming our way.”

“Yeah, I think so,” replied Megan. “I hope so.”

Lindly gave her hand a reassuring squeeze.

Just then her commlink chirped.

She flicked it back on, and saw Scott’s face again.

“They’re on their way – in a couple of minutes you should see them coming over the rise to the west.”

“Oh, I see it,” said Megan, standing on tiptoe and gazing at the advancing Unity rover.

It pulled up beside them, really quite large.

It had four classic ‘moon buggy’ wheels, each taller than a man standing upright, and was slightly bigger than the old 20 seat school bus that used to trundle Megan to and from home back in Aberfeldy in Scotland.

The hatch hissed open in an iris pattern, and a young engineer climbed down. He was wearing a protective suit and full-face mask and helmet, with an oxygen tank backpack. His voice sounded deep and hollow as it carried to them.

“I understand we’ve to pick you lassies up,” he said. “Colin MacCallum’s the name.”

He stuck out his gloved hand.

Lindly took it, and said “Lindly Patterson. And this here’s Megan – sorry I don’t know your surname,” she said, turning to Megan.

“MacDonald,” she said, “Megan MacDonald.”

“Oh, ye widn’a be Angus MacDonald’s lass, would ye?” Colin asked.

“The very same,” said Megan with a grin.

“Well, how do ye like that,” said Colin. “Angus is my boss. I’d better no keep the boss’s daughter waiting then, hop in. Malcolm’s the other engineer. He’s driving – and no very weel, either.”

The girls climbed through the freshly opened hatch into the rover.

“Can you ask him,” asked Megan in a whisper, to Lindly.

“Colin,” she said. “I understand that you have a crew washroom in the rover. Can you point us to it.”

“Sure thing,” he said, pointing up a short ladder through a hatch. “Up there and to the left aft of the sleeping den. Mind yer heid as you go, it’s a low ceiling in places.”

“You first,” said Lindly. Megan scampered up the ladder.

Colin turned to Lindly’

“And what brought you on the mission?”

“Oh, I’m attached to the science group that boarded with the Lady Skye. I’m a botanist in Duncan Scott’s group.”

“Hmmph. You look mighty fresh around the gills to be a botanist. Just out of university, were you, when we went into the freeze?”

“Something like that,” Lindly replied.

Just then Megan returned, so Lindly went up to use the facilities.

“What do we do now?” Megan asked.

“Well,” Colin replied, “technically we should return you both to the base pod, but our orders are to explore a little with this so you might as well come along. Malcolm has already told your parents that you’re safe, so they’ve said to sit back and enjoy the ride and don’t touch anything.”

“Oooh,” said Megan. “This is fun.”

“Aye, and why don’t you and Lindly go back upstairs and go up another level to the command deck. The view will be spectacular from there. You can tell us what you see and where to go.”

“And what’ll you be doing?” Megan asked.

“Oh, don’t worry about us. Malcolm will be driving, and he’s got a wee window to look out of, and I’m going to master the electronics of this thing and see how she ticks.”

“OK,” said Megan, leaving to go back upstairs, and redirecting Lindly back up as she had started to climb down.

They went through the den and up another short ladder to the command deck.

They gasped in surprise. It had a panoramic view of 360 degrees, and the view was wonderful.

Just behind them as they moved to climb a small hill was the landing pod, with its struts and modules now fully deployed and splayed out over the surface.

As they crested the hill, to the east and southeast, in the distance, they could see the shimmering haze of an ocean glinting in the sun.

To the northwest, in the distance behind the landing pod, they could just make out the shores of another ocean, which made them sure that they were on a largish island or a peninsula.

But their gasp of surprise came when they looked due north. There in the distance, glinting in the afternoon suns, they saw the tip of a spire, or monument of sorts, shining a burnished gold color in the sun.

Megan hit the squawk button.

“Guys, stop the rover and come up here and see this.”

“Wilco,” said Malcolm, and within seconds the rover had stopped and the two men had climbed onto the command deck.

Megan pointed out the tip of the spire.

“Look,” she said. “What is it? Is it another landing pod?”

“I doubt it,” said Colin. “I understand we’re widely dispersed. No, I think it’s local.”

“Ooooh, can we go look?” asked Megan, breathless with excitement.

“That’s what we’re here for,” said Malcolm. “Let’s go investigate.”

The two men returned to their posts, and the rover picked up speed as it drove towards the strange monolith.



[This message has been edited by Googlie (edited May 09, 2001).]

[Googlie]

Chapter Six

Rachel and Sarah looked at each other thoughtfully.

"Maybe this won't be too bad," Rachel said. "I liked what that woman was saying. She sounded like she knew what she was doing, sort of like Sister Miriam does."

"I thinke so too," her twin sister replied. "If they respect our beliefs everything might just work out all right. It's been anything but up till now. If only we hadn't stopped to help that kid."

"We had to," said Rachel. "It's what we're all about. It was as natural as breathing for us to help."

&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&

24 hours ago they had been on the Unity, speed processed out of cryosleep and hastily briefed by one of Sister Miriam Godwinson's adjutants. They were assigned to pod four, where the Believers, as they called themselves, were massing.

En route they had seen a small boy crying pathetically, and they had stopped to help. His father had been shot in front of his eyes, and he had lost his sister. Too small to see over the crowd, he just stopped and started crying.

The girls got a brief description of his sister, and while Rachel stayed with the boy, Sarah went hunting. It didn't take long to find her, but by the time she brought her back to the boy the crowds were surging to the escape pods.

They were swept along, and as the alarm claxons were blaring they saw with horror that they were entering Bay six.

"Wrong bay," Sarah said to one of the troopers ushering them on board. "We've got to get to Bay four."

"No time," he yelled. "She's going to blow any second. Get moving."

To emphasize his point he poked his shredder pistol at them.

So they boarded.

On the descent they had lain in the decel couches holding hands and softly singing one of their favorite hymns as Planet revealed herself to them as they broke through the upper atmosphere:

When the mists have rolled in splendor from the beauty of the hills
And the sunlight throws its grandeur o'er the rivers and the rills
We recall our father's promise in the rainbow of the spray
We shall know each other better when the mists have rolled away

They drew some strange looks from the other colonists nearby, but Rachel had such a wonderful voice that eventually they whispered to her, "Please. More. Sing the other verses."

But the abrupt landing stymied that.

%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%

The registration had been just a little traumatic.

They hadn't thought to co-ordinate their stories, and when they reached the head of the line they went forward together.

"One at a time," the processor had said.

"But, we're sisters."

"One at a time. Don't you understand plain English?"

Sarah had retreated to the head of the line in some embarrassment.

The officious clerk turned his attention to Rachel:

"Name?"

"Rachel Peters"

"Age?"

"Seventeen."

His hands flew over the console keyboard.

"We have no record of you in our files. But that's not surprising. We have a lot of gaps.

"Married?"

Rachel giggled.

"No, I'm single."

"Family?"

"Just my twin sister."

"Occupation?"

Rachel thought hard. She and Sarah were fresh out of high school, and their Father, a housebound cripple who had refused all the latest medical treatments, had bought them a new life in the colony with his life's savings.

"Nursing trainee," she said.

"Next."

Rachel walked back to the line and put out her hand to stop Sarah. "Stay here," she whispered, and turned around and went back herself to the table. The clerk didn't even look up.

"Name?"

"Sarah Peters"

"Age?"

"Seventeen."

His hands flew over the console keyboard.

"Well, I couldn't find your sister, nor you. But let's carry on.

"Married?"

"No, single."

"Family?"

"Twin sister. - You've just processed her."

"Occupation?"

"We're both Nursing trainees," she said.

"Next."

Rachel returned and took Sarah's hand.

As they walked away she said to her sister:

"This way we'll be kept together."

"Good idea," said Sarah.

"Oh, by the way," her sister added, "we're nursing trainees."

"Great," said Sarah. "You know how I faint at the sight of blood."

%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%

There had been some blood that first day, but more tragically, three deaths.

A construction worker had fallen from a gantry about sixty feet up the side of the landing pod, dismantling some of the external superstructure to recycle it, when he had lost his balance. He had died instantly on contacting the ground.

A woman had died through trying to eat some of the local fungus. It had a russet appearance and vaguely resembled high corn stalks. She had cut off a few tendrils and had chewed on them experimentally. Within minutes the toxins had entered her system and she was dead.

The third was a youth who had been walking down by the lake, and had had some sort of epileptic seizure. His friend had gone running back to get the boy's mother, but by the time she had been located, and they'd returned to the boy, he had suffocated. His scrubber was lying on the ground beside him, dislodges at the outset of the attack.

The most common ailment was a slight rash that a few dozen colonists had developed after skin contact with fungus. Deirdre herself had taken some skin scrapings and the biologists were examining the spores to see what was causing the rash and what antidotes there might be.

Rachel and Sarah knew instinctively that they were going to earn their stripes as nurses.

And today had been their seventeenth birthday.

[Googlie]

Chapter Seven

Marcel was disconsolate. He had just been talking to his new friend, Dmitri, and found out that he was going to be staying in Gaia’s Landing on account of his sister, Petra’s, “friendship” with Megan, a girl she’d never even met. But his and Dmitri's, a real - albeit fresh - friendship, was going to be disrupted.

His elder sister, Francine, a pert twenty three year old programming whiz, chosen for the mission for her thesis on ‘Computer Sentiency,’ was more pragmatic:

“But you will make new friends – non?”

“Non,” he replied. “Dmitri was like me. No English, alone, with no friends.”

It didn’t matter to Francine where she was. With her father dead it made no difference. Maybe the computer facilities would be better at the primary base.

“I’ll see what I can do,” she said.

Marcel brightened.

“Take me and introduce me to your friend,” she said.

They found Dmitri with his family. Francine couldn’t believe the young woman to whom she was introduced was already the mother of four children and only three years older than she was.

"Bonjour," she said, holding out her hand. "I am Francine Decours."

The young woman looked at her quizzically.

"I am Natasha Nikolishyn," she said. "What can I do for you?"

“It seems that your son and my brother have made a lasting friendship,” Francine replied to Natasha.

“Yes, it appears so,” she acknowledged, somewhat wary. “But they will soon be separated.”

“I know. We are slated to be on the trek to found the new colony. Do you have essential skills that would keep you here, or could you equally well be trekking?” Francine asked.

“Oh, I understand that I am on the stay group because one of the leaders has a daughter who is Petra’s age and there are so few children that they want to keep groups together to aid in friendships and learning. I am sorry about your boy.”

“Well I shall speak to the leader. Who is it?” asked Francine.

Natasha pointed out Angus MacDonald to Francine. He was engaged in earnest conversation with a small group of people.

“Thank you," she said to Natasha, and turned to her young brother.

"Allons y,” she said, taking Marcel’s hand and moving over to the group.

%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%

“But Dee, that doesn’t make sense. You’ll be stripping the base here of its potential to get a terraformer built in the next few days if you do that.”

“Gus, make it happen. I gave my word. Let’s not shortchange them now. Goodness, they’ll find it hard enough without the prefabricated modules that we enjoy. Let’s not pile on the deprivations.”

Francine coughed discreetly.

Angus MacDonald looked over, and saw that the young woman and the boy obviously wanted to ask something.

“Well?” he asked her.

She hesitated a moment, then plunged right in.

Sir, I understand that you have asked that Natasha there” and she indicated the family across the room, “stay here as her daughter and your daughter are to be friends?”

“That’s correct. Your point being?”

“Well my brother here has formed a friendship with Dmitri, Natasha’s oldest son, and we’ve been earmarked for the trek. I’d like to ask for reconsideration to stay here.”

Angus pondered. This was about the twentieth such request this morning alone. It really was becoming tedious. He wished that Deirdre hadn’t given that commitment either.

“I don’t think so,” he finally replied. “Unless you have unique skills that are needed here. What do you do?”

“I’m a programmer,” she said. “I am developing a sentient machine.”

The lady turned to her.

“Sentience? Are you part of Zakharov’s team?”

Francine’s eyes misted over.

“My father was. He was killed in the struggle on the Unity. We got lost and separated from the rest of the team, and found ourselves in this group, with the Deirdre woman.”

Deirdre suppressed a chuckle.

“I am Lady Deirdre Skye.” And stuck out her hand.

Francine was overcome with embarrassment.

“Oh, Madame, I am sorry. I did not know.”

“That’s OK,” said Deirdre. “No offense meant, I’m sure, and certainly none taken.

“But I’m sure that your skills would be eminently useful in a new base. We have so few researchers that your skills would invaluable there.”

“Oui, Madame, as you say.”

She turned to Marcel.

“Allons y, Marcel. We can do no more.”

Marcel stood stubbornly.

“I have a power,” he said.

Angus looked at him, amused, yet admiring the young lad’s perseverance.

“A power? Now that’s interesting. What kind of power?”

“Now, Gus, don’t toy with him,” said Lady Deirdre.

“I read minds. Thoughts,” he said.

Deirdre looked at him strangely.

%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%

Marcel was feeling desperate.

He hadn’t fully understood the exchange between his sister and the gruff man, but knew that she hadn’t won the argument.

Then they had been dismissed, and his sister had wanted to go.

He didn’t want to, so in a last desperate attempt he revealed his secret.

He sensed it as a light teasing on the periphery of his mind, a quiet, questing, friendly light touch of a tendril of thought.

It was coming from the woman.

He reached out with his own young mind and caressed the visiting thought with his own, and sensed understanding and awareness. He projected.

Lady Deirdre Skye stood transfixed.

In the twinkling of an eye she understood Marcel’s loneliness, the loss of his father, the alienated feeling among the other children, his bonding with Dmitri, the hopelessness he now felt that this would be broken.

She reassured him, passing the thought that he was special, that this talent didn’t belong in a new base, but had to be nurtured here in Gaia’s Landing.

She saw him smile in relief, and turned to Angus MacDonald.

“They stay,” she said decisively.

He raised an interrogative eyebrow.

“He’s an empath.” She said simply.

%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%

Petra and Megan were sizing each other up.

They found that they had a lot in common.

Their birthdays were one month apart, on the same day of the month, with Megan just turned ten and Petra about to;

They both loved swimming, and had swam for their schools on old Earth;

They both loved climbing trees and getting into scrapes;

They both had a crush on Spitzenberg, who was the German teenage rock sensation blasting the vidchannels on Earth just before they left. He was sixteen. They both giggled when they realized that he would now be 56. Then they sobered up as they thought – ‘if he survived.’

But there were differences.

Megan was an only child, brought up in a middleclass family in Scotland, with a father who was a Chief Forester and who was one of lady Deirdre’s chief advisors.

Petra was the eldest of four children, brought up in Moscow, who’s father was a molecular scientist brilliant in his field, but a pauper, and who now was either dead or somewhere where his children had no hope of getting to for years.

Megan was outrageously extrovert.

Petra was excruciatingly introverted.

All the ingredients were there for a perfect friendship.

But what really brought them together was the accident to Pavel.

[Googlie]

Chapter Eight

Garth Wilson was everywhere.

He had been the City Manager for New Bristol after the city had been rebuilt from the ground up following the food riots and anarchy of the fifties, and by all accounts had done a superlative job.

He had taken responsibility for the rebuilding program, and had been seen constantly in the rubble, and turning the sod for a new foundation, and standing aloft on a tower that was topping out and cutting the ribbon for a new public works building.

And he’d done that before his thirtieth birthday.

Now in his late thirties, he exhibited the same zeal and dedication as he assembled his colony convoy.

Both Colin and Malcolm had been assigned to help the Trekkies, as they were fondly called by the Stayers, and they were busy assembling the vehicles for the convoy. Garth had been adamant.

“Nobody walks,” he had commanded.

“It’s bad enough that we are breaking new ground and taking an exploration risk, but we are not going to do it on aching muscles caused by the increased gravity. We ride, or we stay until we have assembled enough transport for everyone to ride.”

So the motley collection of vehicles was put together.

The one advantage was that the tractors had small fission powered engines, so could pull enormous loads, and the two engineers made the assembling of trailers their priority.

They chatted as they worked, secretly thankful that they were not traveling, but staying, yet glad to help.

“That Lindly gal’s a braw lass,” said Colin, as they tightened yet another lug nut and scrawled a ‘passed’ message on the side.

“Aye, and brainy too,” replied Malcolm. “Did you see how fast she did that triangulation yesterday – that took me three minutes to do – and no in ma hied, neither.”

“Aye, brains and beauty. That’s a powerful combination,” agreed Colin.

“I wonder if she’s on the trek?” asked Malcolm.

“Probably. A lot of them seem to be the cream of the scientists and engineers. That’s why we’re staying,” Colin chuckled ruefully.

“Aye, you’re right. We’re probably stuck with that wee lass that was in a huff all the way back – Angus MacDonald’s daughter. Just our luck,” said Malcolm. “She’ll no be satisfied until she gets to see yon steeple.”

“Hmmmph,” grunted Colin in reply.

%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%% %

“Well, that does make sense,” said Lindly.

“It’ll mean splitting our research efforts, but we can at least be running two research streams with a strong presence in both bases, said Scott.

He continued:

“It’s a bonus that we’ve got the Canadian researcher, Francine. I’ve actually read her paper, and she’s got some talent. So she’ll be a fine assistant to me while you work with Schumacher.”

Just then Lady Deirdre arrived.

“Duncan, Lindly, a word if you please,” she said, drawing them to one side.

“What’s up, Dee?” asked Duncan Scott.

“Slight reshuffling,” she replied. “I need Lindly to remain here.”

“Why, what’s up?” asked Lindly.

Lady Deirdre responded:

“It’s an unusual situation. I’ve just met a young boy who’s the strongest empath I’ve ever come across. As you know, we were doing some research into this in the final months before we left, and I was exposed to a few – in fact as you both know, I have modest powers myself, mainly in mind-reading.”

Lindly was listening intently.

Deirdre continued:

“But this kid is something else. Both a mind reader and thought projector. The only other person I’ve ever been in contact with who is a projector is you, Lindly. I’d like you to stay and work with him.”

Lindly nodded. “What’s his name?”

“Marcel Dufresne – French Canadian.”

“Now isn’t that just a coincidence,” Scott interjected. “We were just talking about his mother, I presume, Francine Dufresne, and what an impact she could make to our research efforts here. Pity about her husband.”

“No, no,” Deirdre replied. “She’s not his mother, but his sister, and it wasn’t her husband who was killed on the Unity, but her father.”

“Ah,” Scott said, as if that explained everything.

%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%% %

Natasha was examining her working environment closely.

They’d identified eleven children over 2 years old and six or under, and they formed her kindergarten. Two were her own, which made the job easier.

She had been allocated a separate space at the end of the classroom module, which meant that older siblings could bring her charges to her and then go right into school.

The kindergarten room was spartan indeed. Natasha realized that she would have to make many of the fittings and chairs and tables herself. Alternatively, co-opt one or two of the young engineers or mechanics to see if they could help.

"It's tough being a colonist," she thought.

When she and Gregor had talked about it had seemed to promise a life of excitement and achievement. He spoke in glowing terms about a new beginning in a fresh land, and naively she'd assumed that life on this new planet would be much life on old Earth, except they'd be better off as Gregor's job would have more value.

But this was going to be one hard slog. A frontier economy, Deirdre had called it.

One thing was certain.

There was no going back.

[Googlie]

Chapter Nine

That evening, Deirdre sat with her small team of advisors.

Duncan Scott, of course, who was rapidly assuming the role of chief scientist - he certainly was the most senior of any of the scientists or researchers among the colonists, with the possible exception of Deirdre herself. He had worked with Deirdre on several projects and had been the driving force behind much of Edinburgh University's groundbreaking work on Biogenetics;

Angus MacDonald, chief forester. He would be crucial in the attempts to terraform Chiron through aggressive forestation;

Garth Wilson. Although he would be leaving to lead the trek, his counsel was still needed;

Dr. Amy Faulkner, chief medical officer, who had been attracted to Lady Deirdre on the Unity as the ship's final moments drew near. She had originally been a deputy to Pravin Lal, but had been entranced by Deirdre's stance against the other faction leaders which she had witnessed first hand. She was from New Chicago;

Desmond Loewen, chief agronomist. He was a Saskatchewan farmer who had worked with the Canadian government to develop several strains of rapid growth corn. Had been selected for the Unity Mission as overall chief agronomist. Deirdre counted herself lucky to have him on her team;

Kirsten Becker, Administrator. She had befriended Deirdre during the mopping up operations in Calcutta after the short nuclear exchange there, where she was responsible to the United Nations for the restoration of civilian control over the war torn and devastated region. Lady Skye had sought her out specifically for the Unity mission;

Kyle Patrick, military affairs. This had been the most trying part of the whole escape from the Unity. As Deirdre's staff rounded up colonists and ushered them to the bay, she herself was frantically trying to reach Patrick. She knew that with the ill blood spilling out in the final moments, life on Planet could become awkward when factions eventually met, and a strong garrison might be necessary. Kyle was one member of Yang's security group that she felt she could trust, having met him in Pakistan, and having talked with him over several evenings about man's destruction of the planet Earth. She had sensed a kindred spirit. So she had sought him out, and found him, and he gladly threw his lot in with Gaia's Stepdaughters. He was Irish.

This was her small advisory team.

%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%

"The first order of business is food," Lady Deirdre said. "Or, to be more specific, have we enough?"

Kirsten replied:

"Well, as you all know, the Mission was conceived at leisure but accelerated into an untimely scramble to launch before the widening war engulfed us. The plan was to have enough food aboard to sustain an advance guard of 5,000 colonists for two years, while the rest remained in cryosleep until at least the second harvest of planted crops. But in our haste of the last two months before launch, not nearly this amount was loaded, and of course we had to evacuate all 70,000 colonists from the Unity at once. And to complicate matters, it was not evenly distributed among the eight colony pods either."

"So what's the bottom line?" Angus asked. "Are we lucky, or damned?"

"Well, neither, actually," said Kirsten. "We have just over 3 months worth of supplies by my reckoning. Enough to tide us over until our first harvest, but not enough to survive a disastrous harvest, which was the original planners intent. I understand from Des that if we can plant now - or at least in the next ten days or so - we should have a harvest in three Chiron months - just under two earth months. So we should be OK, if the crops take. Des?"

"That's right," the farmer said. The corn we've got will grow anywhere, and it'll love this nitrogen rich soil, but I can't speak yet for the fruits. We'll eat, but it might be boring fare. We'll be able to accelerate the fruit with greenhouses and the vegetables with hydroponic tanks, but it'll mean work."

"Well that's not the entire picture," Deirdre said.

We're sending out the trek soon, and they won't be able to plant until they settle, so they'll need food with them. I've talked it over with Garth, and we'll give him 2/3rds of our food supplies, and we'll just make it work here."

The group looked at her aghast.

"But that leaves us with only one month. We'll need to go like the clappers to get food into production by a month," said Amy.

"Then let's go like the clappers," replied Deirdre. "We haven't explored the lake or ocean yet, either. We may be able to grow shellfish easily, or there might be indigenous marine life that's edible."

"Or maybe we can eat seaweed," suggested Kyle. "I've done that before, to survive."

"Now that's a thought," said Des. "We probably could. Extract any nitrates, and season it, and it'd be quite tasty, I'll bet. Anyone see any kelp when we landed?"

"No, but let's make it one of the patrol's priorities when we get them organized," said Deirdre.

%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%

They were getting to the end of their agenda.

"Communications," said Kirsten.

"We have only about 400 of these communications links - commlinks the engineers are calling them - to go around."

"I would like every family to have one as soon as feasible, and every colonist one eventually," said Deirdre.

"But that means that we need to set up a manufacturing line, which means minerals and smelting and processing and assembling. We certainly can't achieve that goal for a while yet."

"I said, eventually," said Deirdre.

"But how do we handle them now?" asked Angus, ever the pragmatic one.

"Garth will need some - but not in the same ratio as the food supplies. Say one quarter," said Kirsten.
"That leaves about 300."

"We all need one, as do the major teams and unit leaders, plus the facilities managers - the kindergarten, the school, the hospital.."

"The First Aid tent, you mean," said Amy with a grin. "It hardly qualifies for a hospital."

"Each garrison member will need one," said Kyle.

"That's true," said Garth. "How many have you sworn?"

"Not enough, but it's coming along." He replied. I've got 66 troopers signed up, with about 40 backroom staff - cooks, armourers, a dentist, a medical aide, some mechanics for the vehicles. About one good size regiment. But I'd say that I'll need about 80 commlinks."

Angus whistled softly. " That's over a quarter of our allocation. I think that any colonists whose work is taking them outside shouting distance of the base would need one. That'd be the farmers, the foresters, the miners, and any laborers who are engaged in land clearing or building on the periphery of the base. And that's a lot of people."

Duncan Scott chipped in:

"Apart from the security details, where I agree every trooper should have a personal commlink, I think the other workers would need only one per team, and the team size would vary by the job. The real intent is to provide a means of communication should an accident befall a colonist, or should there be any danger. We don't need one per colonist for that.

"The garrison troops need one each for instant communication with each other - lack of it might imperil their lives.

"We need one each - as do the managers and base leaders - as we are the response team and decision makers should anything happen to the base itself.

"So I suggest we plan on this, and see how many that requires."

"That makes eminent sense," said Lady Deirdre. "Vote?"

All voted in favor.

"That about wraps it up," said Deirdre. "Any other business?"

"Yes," said Kyle and Garth simultaneously.

"Kyle?" indicated Deirdre.

"We've had some instances today of a small unruly element forming a gang. They are calling themselves The Elites, or more correctly, The Spartan Elites.. They are only about a dozen in number, and apparently wanted to join with the group following the security officer, Lieutenant Santiago, but got lost, and ended up with us. I'd lock them up until they came to their senses, but that might take years, and would only tie up my men. What should I do with them?"

"Round them up, and I'll speak to them in the morning," said Deirdre. "Anything else?"

"No, that's it," said Kyle. "The floor's yours," he added, nodding to Garth.

"Thanks, I'll be brief," he said.

"Kirsten and I have been reviewing the manifests for the Trekkies and the Stayers, and looking at the demographics.

"Firstly, I don't think I should take anyone under sixteen with me on the trek. We don't know how long it will take us to find a suitable site, we don't know what we'll encounter on the way, and the distraction of children might mean that we are slower to find a site and more divisive as to whether it's a good one.

"Secondly, we have an unbalanced group. We have too many from a mining background, for some reason, and not enough farmers, engineers and general laborers. I know that in this type of frontier economy, everyone has to lend a hand at everything, but here's our thought:

"We'll take three quarters of the miners and one quarter of the farmers and engineers, and split everyone else up roughly sixty/forty, with the smaller percentage being Trekkies.

That would mean that we were committed from the beginning to find a good base site that could support minerals production, and you could concentrate on farming and energy generation here. Within months we'd be trading and that would stimulate a healthy economy."

"So how many would be on the trek, then?" Deirdre asked.

"We'd have just over 4,000 leaving you with just over 6,000. And I think if we split the food 50:50 that would be adequate. We'll just tighten our belts if we are short."

"Nonsense," said Deirdre. "I meant it when I said you'd take 2/3rds. If we are to be farmers, then we'll farm. I like your idea. Is there much change to the rosters?"

Garth and Kirsten looked at each other.

"Come on, I know you've already prepared the lists. Table them," said Deirdre.

They presented the list of names and occupations, and the leadership team approved them.

%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%

Angus and Deirdre were talking after the meeting had broken up.

"You know, Garth's a fine man," said Angus, "but he's awfy canny."

"Meaning?" said Deirdre.

"If he waits till he's ready he'll never be ready. He needs to get the list of names published, give them 24 hours to make their individual preparations and say their good byes, and then get started. The longer he waits the more comfortable his group will feel around here, they'll make friends, and want to stay."

"True," conceded Deirdre. "And if they get involved in helping to build some of the structures and infrastructure here then they'll feel ownership and not want to leave it behind."

"And some of the restless ones will likely go looking for trouble and might even join up with yon gang Kyle talked about. What are you going to say to them tomorrow?"

Deirdre smiled. "I'm going to form them into a militia, tell them that Garth is leading a trek to find Santiago, and that they're his bodyguard."

"Naw, ye widn'a." said Angus in admiration. "By golly, I believe ye would."

And that's just what she did.

[Googlie]

Chapter Ten

My Diary, by Megan MacDonald.

Day Three

Today was a hectic day at the Gaia's Landing.

First, The Lady Deirdre addressed us all again at breakfast to say that the Trekkies would be leaving tomorrow at noon, which really is 9.00 o'clock.

The time is hard to get used to. At school today we studied a new calendar system and a clock due to the Chiron revolution and its time to revolve around Alpha Prime. A month is 38 days and there are 14 of them, and a day is 18 hours. Typically dawn is at 3.00 am, noon is at 9.00 and it is dark by 6.00 at night and midnight is 9.00 at night. We debated whether an hour should have 45 minutes, so that we could keep the same 24 hours in a day that everyone is used to using. We thought that made sense, but teacher said it had already been decided to have 18 hours in a day.

Teacher is Miss Suter and she is really nice. She is young. We were guessing her age and I guessed twenty. Petra thought that she was even younger and said eighteen. We asked her and she laughed and said that she was twenty-six. That's as old as Petra's Mom. She doesn't look that old.

We are seventeen in the class, eleven girls and six boys, and we are all aged between eight and eleven.

Billy and Tony are the oldest and they are twins, just turned eleven. Tony calls Billy 'Buster' because he is always breaking things. The other boys are Stephen, Abdul, Jake and Marcel, the youngest in our group. He doesn't speak much English.

I don't remember all the girls' names. Only Petra and Corinne. Oh, and Blaire. She's Scottish too, but from one of the islands - Islay, I think she said.

Petra and I are baby-sitting Tanya tonight. At school Teacher said it was going to be a full moon - Nessus is what the moon is called, and it will be unusual because the third sun will be visible just as it is getting dark. Tanya is so excited because we said we would take her down to the lake with us to see the moon.

Miss Suter said it would be beautiful. We are leaving in ten minutes.

[Googlie]

Chapter Eleven

The mechanics and assemblers were working all evening and through the night. They had rigged up giant arc lights to provide simulated daylight to the groups working on putting together the Trekkies' caravan. From the shores of the lake, which Lady Deirdre referred to as Loch Ness, the illumination silhouetted the base structures.

Megan and Petra were down by the lakeshore, with Tanya playing happily in the sand as the waves gently lapped in the breeze. Further up the lakeside Dmitri and Marcel were trying their hand at fishing, using a baited line on a pole. The scientists weren't sure if fish lived in the lake, or if they did, what they ate, and even if this method of catching them would work. But Marcel had been fishing with his father in the mountain streams of his native Quebec, so was happy to try to prove the scientists wrong.

As the twin suns began to set below the horizon, Nessus rose, shining in the reflected light. Lower, and hanging like a faint pinprick in the night canvas of the sky could be seen the third sun.

The evening breeze was soughing through the tendrils of the fungus fields on the periphery, making a singing noise that sounded eerily humanlike. The two girls lay on their backs as the sky darkened and tried to tell each other what the stars were that came into view. Sol was what they were looking for, but didn't know where to look.

Suddenly a panic gripped Megan.

She sat up and whirled round.

Tanya was nowhere to be seen.

"Petra," she said.

"Uhuh?"

"Where's Tanya?"

Petra sat up in a flash, looking around.

"Oh, God. Don't tell me we've lost her?"

"TANYA…..TANYA….." they both yelled.

No response.

"Get Dmitri," Petra said. "I'll look around here."

Megan jumped up and ran to the lights of the construction site, bumping into Colin.

"Och, lass, ye're in a wee bit of a hurry, are ye no?" he said.

"Sorry," she panted, "I'm looking for someone."

"Aye, I see that," he replied. "Can I help?"

"Dmitri Nikolishyn. But you wouldn't know him. His little sister has just gone missing."

"Oh, ye'd be surprised at just how much I know," said Colin. "He's fishing at the wee inlet by the loch over there - about half a click to the north. I made him and his wee friend fishing rods earlier today."

"Oooh, thanks," said Megan, reaching up on tiptoe to give Colin a hug. She darted off to find Dmitri.
"I'll come wi' ye," said Colin, catching her up after a few strides.

They found the pair of boys easily, and they ran back down the side of the lake to Petra. She was still frantically calling out "TANYA", and had attracted a small crowd of colonists who were helping with the search.

Dmitri was as helpful as smaller brothers could be:

"Just wait 'till Mom finds out. You and Megan were supposed to be watching her. When did you last see her? What were you doing that you missed her walking away? Do you think she's been captured and eaten by some alien creature?"

Of course, all this was in a torrent of Russian, which only Petra could understand. The bystanders were flummoxed when suddenly she slapped him hard on the cheek.

Marcel pushed forward. "What you do that for?" he asked Petra.

"Because he was rude and insulting and not helpful at all," she replied. "What's it to you anyway?"

"He's my friend," Marcel replied. "Friends stick up for each other."

"Well help find your friend's little sister," said Petra.

By now, a crowd had gathered, and someone had strung one of the arc lamps so that it illuminated the whole lakefront.

Lady Deirdre Skye had seen the commotion and wandered down.

"So we have no idea where Tanya is?" she asked.

"Sounds like it's either the fungus or yon loch," said Colin.

Petra was getting just a little hysterical. Either didn't bode well for her sister. The fungus held who knows what dangers, and the loch was banned from swimming in until the engineers had time to convert one of the spacewalk suits into a wetsuit and schnorkel. Megan put her arm round her friend's shoulder.

"It'll be okay," she said. “Lady Deirdre is here now.”

"And so is my mother," said Petra, beginning to cry as Natasha stormed down to the lakefront from her meeting.

Natasha let loose a torrent in Russian, then hit Petra hard across the cheek. Her hand was coming down for a second slap when it was stopped in midair by Megan. Natasha looked incredulously at her.

"What the hell…." She said.

Megan said:

"Mrs. Nikolishyn, I was with Petra all evening. It's as much my fault as hers - more so if you consider that Tanya's her sister and I was the one who distracted her from her duty. If you must hit someone, it should be me."

"There'll be no more hitting," said a quiet voice, deep with authority. Natasha and Megan looked round. It was Lady Deirdre. "Violence will play no part in our society, especially adults against children. Now we have a crisis on our hands, so let's turn our attention to solving it."

Just then, a little voice piped up:

"I can help"

All eyes turned towards the source. Marcel stepped forward.

"I can find her," he said confidently.

Lady Deirdre looked at him speculatively as the crowd murmured and hooted. She raised her hand to quieten the crowd.

"Yes Marcel, you can. Why don't you try?"

He shut his eyes, and screwed up his face in concentration.

Unbidden into the minds of everyone standing around came a fleeting tendril of awareness…….a wisp of a thought … "Tanya" - and as quickly as it came it disappeared. Megan watched with interest. She saw his face relaxing then a contented smile come over his mouth. He opened his eyes.

"She's over there," he said, indicating the middle of the lake, where the seedpod sat, like a tilted Loch Ness monster, as Lady Deirdre was fond of saying.

"Is the water dangerous? Ask her," Lady Deirdre said.

"Doesn't know dangerous," Marcel replied.

"Has she her breathtube?" asked Deirdre.

There was a gasp when Marcel said "No."

"How long?" Colin asked of Megan.

"At least a half hour," she replied.

Colin started stripping off his shirt as he began to walk to the water’s edge.

“Hang on,” Deirdre said. “Remember gravity is heavier here – you might not be so buoyant as on Earth.”

“We’ll see, then, won’t we?” said Colin, wading in, until he was waist deep. He leaned forward to dive and then they could see him thrashing around till finally he came up spluttering.

“Ye’re dead right,” he said. “I’m too heavy here to float. Almost, but I just canna keep my head above the water.”

The two girls looked at each other, then Megan said to Natasha "Give me your breather."

She complied.

They took off their sandals and as one ran down the strand of sand into the water and swam strongly into the darkness of the night to the pod stranded in the middle of the lake.

It seemed as though they were gone for hours, but in reality was only some forty minutes or so.

Marcel kept up a running commentary, finding it easier to follow Megan than Petra or Tanya. Just when he said they would, the two girls appeared into view, swimming on their backs taking turns to tow Tanya with them.

As they neared the beach Colin and Natasha waded into the water, Natasha to take Tanya and clutch her to her breast and Colin to help the two girls wade ashore.

After drying themselves off somewhat, Megan handed Colin his breathtube back.

"Thanks," she said. "But we didn't need it."

"Didna' need it?" he asked. "How no'?"

"I'm not sure," Megan replied. "I think it was something to do with being near the surface of the water - maybe it was giving off oxygen or something. But Tanya didn't need it, and neither Petra nor I wore them for the swim back."

"Now that's interesting," said Colin. "The boffins will need to hear that. That's probably worth a ride out to yon steeple for you and Petra."

"Oh would you, Colin? Would you?" asked Megan.

"I'll see," he replied.

She stood on tiptoe again and kissed him on the cheek.

"Thanks," she said.


She had her first crush.

[Googlie]

Chapter Twelve

Megan awakened sometime during the night to the sound of torrential rain drumming on the roof of the dormitory module.

For three days now she hadn’t slept well, what with all the excitement of the Awakening and Planetfall, and then the strange cycle of night and day that governed life on Chiron.

But the rain was something else. During the evening the winds had shifted slightly, and now they brought this steady downpour.

There was the noise coming from below of breakfast being prepared, so she got up and wandered through to the washrooms before going down the level to the cafeteria area. There were a few of the adults about busy preparing the gruel mix of porridge and oats that formed the everyday breakfast, washed down with an ersatz coffee for the adults and a synthetic juice for the children. She saw that her father was one of the colonists who had drawn breakfast duty.

“Hi, Dad,” she said merrily as she went over to peck him on the cheek. “What’s for breakfast?”

Her father pulled a face.

“Eggs benedict with hash browns and extra bacon, and some rye toast and marmalade,” he said.

One of the women on breakfast duty chimed in:

“Now you’re talking, Gus. I wonder what kind of incentive we’ll have to dream up to get the research scientists working on an additive that could make this gruel taste like that?”

“Oh, it’ll come, you’ll see,” he replied. “It willna’ be long until we’re popping a pill that’ll make the next mouthful taste like t-bone, then another that’ll taste like sherry trifle. I wouldna’ be surprised in the least.”

“So what’s on the agenda for today?” Megan asked. “Will the Trekkies still leave if they’re ready?”

“Aye, they will that,” her father replied. “But it’s no a guid day for trekking. It’s already a bit like a quagmire oot there. But ye ken Garth. He’ll be off like a flash as soon as the last colonist says they’re ready. He’s oot there right now, been working his team all night.”

“Is Colin with them?” asked Megan.

“Aye, I think I did see him,” Angus replied.

“I’ll take him out some coffee,” she said.

She filled a flask and grabbed a handful of mugs, and pulled a coat from a rack and headed out into the rain to find Colin.

Angus looked after her speculatively.

“Did I miss something when we were asleep for forty years?” he wondered. “Did my wee lass grow up that quickly?”

%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%

Megan sloshed through the mud with the rain turning it even worse.

“Should have grabbed something that was more waterproof,” she thought. “I’ll be drenched by the time I find them.”

But soon she was under a tarp that they had strung from one of the extension modules to a row of stakes they had driven into the ground. The arc lamps were still blazing and the place was a hive of activity. Mechanics were rigging tarp covers over some of the tractor trailers, and a bunch had fabricated some ungainly looking tricycles with fat tires that would be human assisted battery powered uphill and along flat ground and would freewheel and recharge going downhill. Each pulled a four wheel trailer that could easily hold the provisions for about a dozen colonists and the colonists themselves. They had produced well over 100 of these in the past twenty-four hours.

Another group was working on the fission engines for the tractors themselves. There were some six of these, and the string of trailers would accommodate all the remaining 2500 or so colonists and their provisions. About 300 would be outriggers, scouts and patrols, and some of them had personal transports that they had cobbled together with the help of a mechanic, and comprised mainly smaller versions of the tricycles, fully human powered.

Megan found Colin helping one of these to rig up his tricycle, and went over with the coffee.

“Morning, Colin,” she said shyly. “I’ve brought you some coffee. The rest of breakfast is still being prepared.”

He looked up, and a huge smile split his face.

“Och, Jock,” he said to the scout whose trike he was assembling, “do ye see that? An angel heard our prayer as we were dying and came with coffee. Megan, lass, ye saved oor lives.”

Megan blushed a deep crimson, thankful that it wouldn’t be too noticeable in the glare of the arc lamps. She poured two coffees and handed one to each of the men. As her fingers touched Colin’s she imagined that she felt a spark of electricity between them. He seemed not to notice, and took great gulps of the coffee from the mug.

“Are you going with them?” she asked hesitantly.

“Naw, I’m just helping out. Besides I told you and your friend already that I’ll take you to yon strange tower when we’ve cleared up the mess here after the pioneers have gone.”

“Right, so you did,” she replied, just a little flustered. She was shivering slightly from the damp and partly from her nervousness.

Colin noticed it, and assumed it was the former.

“Here, lass – you’re cold,” he said, taking off his overall jerkin and putting it around her shoulders.

Megan thought she’d died and gone to heaven.

Although the jerkin was oily and smelly, and draped around her like a coat, he had held her just ever so briefly as he put it round her and patted it in place on her shoulders. She looked at him in puppy-like adoration:

“Would you like more coffee?” she asked.

“Aye, I would that, lass,” he said, oblivious to all the nuances flowing around him.

%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%

After breakfast Garth pronounced them ready.

“No point in waiting any longer,” he said. “We don’t know how long this rain will last, and every day we spend here is a day less for our plants to grow before winter that our scientists are telling us is only a few months away. Plus the rain will force us to go slower, and that way we won’t tire everyone out with a torrid pace.

“So say your good-byes to your new friends, and let’s assemble in two hours and hit the trail.”

The colonists dispersed to do just that.

Except for a small group of about thirty that approached Garth. They were all young men in their late teens and early twenties, and they were led by a tall youth that Garth would have guessed was about twenty. He approached Garth and held out his hand. Garth took it.

“Paul Scanlan,” he said. “But you can call me Captain, Sir.” He unclasped his hand from Garth’s and saluted. “These boys here are my troops.”

“Troops?” said Garth. “What troops? I didn’t ask for troops.”

“I know,” Paul replied. “Lady Skye sent us. When you find the Colonel Santiago we’ll be taking our leave of you. We signed up to be Spartans, but somehow got separated. So we’ll be your guardsmen on the trek until we make contact, then when you set up your base we’ll move on to Sparta.”

“Hmmm, I see” said Garth, not seeing at all, but intuitively understanding that Lady Deirdre Skye had probably solved one of her problems, given him a small measure of additional security and at the same time co-opted these young men into her service for a while.

“Well, I don’t know how long it will be before we make contact,” he said. In fact, we might actually find a great site for a second base before we even run across her. But you are very welcome to trek with us, and I’ll take advantage of your offer to be my garrison and troopers. Have you got transport?”

“Yes sir, we have. We’ve worked with the engineers and mechanics here to kit us all out with trikes – we’ve built two man ones for greater speed and as well if we get into trouble, one can power while the other fights.”

Garth was impressed.

%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%

Most of the Stayers came out in the rain to see the Trekkies off.

They were taking two of the small two-man Unity Rovers with them – they were about one sixth of the size of the one that had been retrieved from the seedpod, and had been crated in the landing pod itself.

One was the forerunner, and the other would take up the rear.

The tractors and their four trailers each formed the heart of the colony convoy, and had about half of the larger trikes and their trailers ahead of them and half behind. The troops in their pedal trikes fanned out on either side, taking turns to pedal up to the tractors and hitch a pull when they needed a rest.

Lady Deirdre stood in the rain, ignoring it, at the northwest corner of the base, and waved and spoke to most of the four thousand as they filed past on their way.

“Go carefully,” she called. “Remember that we are splitting up to increase our chances of survival. Find a salubrious spot and build us a second base, and stay in touch daily by commlink.”

She was there for most of the morning as the trailers with the colonists on board drove past, and the ungainly but highly effective tricycles rolled past her, like a general on a reviewing stand.

She waited until the tail-end rover had passed, then stepped into the rutted mud tracks they had left and looked after them. She raised her hand in a farewell wave, a symbol, to those of the Trekkies that looked back, of the unquenchable spirit of the woman and her determination to bond with Planet, and not be beaten by it.

Megan watched the exodus from the comfort of the dorm, looking out over the mudfields and the mass of colonists filing past Deirdre, and felt pride. Pride in being a colonist, besting the dangers of space to cross the light years to Alpha Centauri, and pride in her leader, showing that leadership even now as she stood in the torrential rain watching her people go.

Megan was indeed proud to be a Stepdaughter of Gaia

[Googlie]

Chapter Thirteen

It rained solidly for three days.

Rachel handled it slightly better than Sarah, who loved the outdoors, but who, in this constant torrential rain, found indoors to be more comfortable.

The girls still had to brave the elements to walk the 100 meters or so to the first aid module where they were working, and that was just sufficient to thoroughly soak them and put them in somewhat of a sour mood to start the day. They would arrive at their small unit with ten cots or so for the overnight patients and a small day clinic where they tended the various cuts and bruises that were the hallmarks of colonists carving out a new life for themselves in the wild.

Occasionally there was something more serious to attend to, and they generally called in the services of the young doctor, Jay Mandell, to attend to these. They were usually of the broken bone variety, or severed limb, and Jay took it all in his stride, ever cheerful.

But both girls were thankful that there hadn't been anything major to deal with, such as an epidemic or even a life threatening heart attack.

The three days passed in relative drudgery, cooped up as they were either in the first aid module or in the dormitory module.

They were thankful for the evenings. When they signed up, they were each told that they could bring with them one piece of personal property no heavier than one kilo. They had thought long and hard over this, and had made a joint decision.

Rachel purchased an annotated Conclave Bible in superthin silksheath paper. Sarah brought with her her clarinet, accomplished player that she was.

In the evenings they would go off in a corner of the dorm - now thinned out substantially with the departure of the Trekkies, and would take turns reading to each other, and discussing what they had read and its application to their current circumstances, then they would give thanks to their Redeemer in song and music.

Sarah was a concert level clarinetist, with a rare talent and Rachel had perfect pitch and a beautiful, sweet voice that turned the hearts of her audiences. The first evening or two they had played and sang quietly in the dorm, but soon a few neighbors had gathered round, and through word of mouth their prowess spread until on the three rainy evenings a crowd of almost a thousand crowded into the main dorm area to hear them.

They shared their readings with the crowd, and hesitantly gave their understanding of what inspiration they were drawing from the bible for that day. One or two of the crowd shifted uncomfortably, but Sarah had a knack for rendering the key thoughts in a homely fashion. And she was careful to give most of them an ecological, planetary twist.

The third evening Lady Deirdre Skye herself stood quietly in the back of the dorm, listening, and observing.

Sarah was reading from the Conclave Bible :

And the Lord God said, "Behold, the man is become as one of us, to know good and evil: and now, lest he put forth his hand, and take also of the tree of life, and eat, and live forever, we must send him forth." Therefore, the Lord God sent him forth from the Garden of Eden.

He drove out the man; and he placed at the east of the Garden of Eden, Cherubim, and a flaming sword, which turned every way, to keep the way of the tree of life.

Rachel spoke:

"We are that 'man'. We have been cast from that Garden of Eden, old Earth, because we grew too powerful for our own good. We became as Gods, throwing our nuclear destruction across continents and despoiling everything we touched. So we have been cast out, and the 'Flaming Sword' that bars our return is the vastness of the universe populated by so many suns.

"And man was sent forth from the garden to till. And that is what we are now doing. We are in the beginning of our new life, by the grace of God, put here to glorify His name and to cherish his gift to us, the gift of Planet.

"And as each of us faces the months and years ahead, let us do so as partners with Planet and with each other. Not for naught are we styling ourselves "Stepdaughters of Gaia", for we are not condemned to repeat the mistakes of the past.

"This is our new beginning, our genesis.

"Let this be our prayer - our Acolyte's Prayer:

"I shall not confront Planet as an enemy, but shall accept its mysteries as gifts to be cherished. Nor shall I crudely seek to peel the layers away like the skin from an onion. Instead I shall gather them together as the tree gathers the breeze. The wind shall blow and I shall bend. The sky shall open and I shall drink my fill."

Then Rachel began to play - that haunting melody that some of the colonists first heard as the escape pod hurtled to Planet's surface, and so appropriate in these three days when all that could be seen was the torrential rain obscuring everything more than ten meters away.

And Rachel's sweet voice took up the refrain:

"We shall know….as we are known,
Nevermore to walk alone.
I recall our father's promise in the rainbow of the spray,
We shall know each other better when the mists have rolled away".

As the clarinet's sweet and pure notes died down, some colonists got to their feet and walked to the front of the dorm, and began to recite the "Acolyte's Prayer" that Rachel had articulated.

Others joined them, and one shouted:

"Lady Deirdre, you too."

"Of course," she said, walking up to the front of the group and turning to face the crowd.

"I repeat it with pride, and yet humility. With determination, yet with fear. Pride in what we are here to accomplish, and in the bonding we are going through. Shown the way by two lost Believers who through the direction of the Redeemer they worship have been sent to us as messengers. And humility that we are entrusted with this task. Chosen to bond with each other and with Planet to create in this alien environment the Garden of Eden that we were ejected from for our past sins.

"Determination that this time we will succeed. We will not recreate the mistakes of the past. We will not be beaten by this environment. Rather, we will embrace it, learn from it, and mold it to our will. And fear. Yes, fear. We escaped the Unity amidst argument and fighting, and there were deaths. We know of man's inhumanity to man, and the Unity mission was intended as a break from that history, that tradition. But I fear that we have simply exported it to another star system.

"So join with me in the 'Acolyte's Prayer' as Rachel so eloquently put it. For we are the Stepdaughters of Gaia."

*********************************************

Megan and Petra had sat entranced as the twins had read, talked and sang, and after Deirdre had spoken they had held hands solemnly and repeated the prayer.

When the crowd was dispersing, they went to find Sarah.

"Miss?" they said, when they did find her.

Sarah looked down at them.

"Yes?"

"Would you be willing to teach us how to play your flute?" Megan asked shyly.

"Why, yes, I'd be delighted. And the first lesson is, it is not a flute. It's a clarinet.

"And the second lesson is, my name's Sarah, and this is my twin sister, Rachel"

"Oh boy, that's great," said Megan. "When can we start?"

"First things first. What are your names?"

"Oh. I'm Megan MacDonald, and this is Petra Nikolishyn."

"Pleased to meet you," said Sarah. "Now can either of you read music?"

They both shook their heads.

"OK, then. We'll just have to start from the beginning. I'll see if I can get one of the mechanics to make a couple of flutes to begin with - a clarinet will be harder for them - and we'll set a time for lessons. It'll have to be after your school and after I finish at the first aid center. And we'll start with two a week, say Tuesday and Friday. How does that sound?"

"Well, okay, I guess," said Megan.

"Why, what's up?" asked Rachel.

"I heard Dad talking about how we would need a new calendar because the days were only seventeen hours or something and there'd be many more days in a year than back on earth. And they've asked the scientists to come up with a new calendar that might not have the same names for days. For example, what day is today?"

Rachel and Sarah looked at each other.

"Good question," Sarah said. If you assume that we landed on a Sunday, it was three days before the Trekkies left, or at least we were three nights together, and that was three days - or three nights - ago, so today'd be Saturday. The end of our first week. So if our first lesson is to be next Tuesday, that'd be after three more sleeps. If I can get a couple of instruments made by then."

"Oh, I know who could make them," Megan said. "I've got a friend who's a mechanic *** engineer. I'm sure he'd be willing."

"Well, take me to meet him tomorrow," Rachel said. "Right now it's bedtime, so off the pair of you go."

"All right," said Megan. "Come on Petra, let's get to our dorm."

They left to go to their allotted sleeping quarters.

**************************************************

"It really was quite moving," Deirdre was telling Heather and Angus over a mug of synthcoffee. "It was like one of yon televangelist revival meetings back on earth. After the twins stopped, people started streaming to the front for what seemed to be cathartic healing. A sort of public repentance for their despoiling of old earth. These girls have talent."

"Seems like you have not a little yourself," said Heather. "From what I hear you turned the occasion into an eco-challenge and got everyone onside."

"We needed something like that," Deirdre continued. "We need things to uplift us, to give us a sense of purpose. Some symbolism. And the girls did just that so I capitalized on it."

"Well, keep dae'in it," said Angus. "Ye'll need to keep hammering it hame."

*************************************************

The next day dawned bright and fresh, with light clouds scudding across the sky.

Deirdre announced as people were having breakfast that there would be a general meeting on the hillside just outside the base.

They filtered out in ones and twos to take up positions, glorying in the sunny morning and soaking up the heat after the days of endless rain.

Lady Deirdre came out with Angus MacDonald, spade in hand. She turned to address the group:

"Stepdaughters and stepsons of Gaia. I've asked you to gather here for a very short ceremony after which we'll get cracking to get our crops planted and get our light industry underway.

"Last evening was a wonderful experience for about one quarter of us, listening to and being enthralled by the musical twins Sarah and Rachel. Where are you - stand up and be recognized."

Rachel and Sarah rose and waved to the crowd, many of whom applauded. Deirdre continued:

"After the session, Gus MacDonald here and I were talking about the symbolism of last evening, and decided on this morning's ceremony, particularly apt as the soil is extremely moist after the downpour of these last three days. So over to you, Gus."

Angus MacDonald began:

"As the Chief Forester of the mission, we have in our possession many samples of Earth's trees. I thought it fitting that we should this day, on the seventh day after Planetfall, plant a strand of trees that will at the same time refresh our memories of where we have come from as well as point us to the future that lies ahead. I have chosen the white pine as the sturdiest of our Earth stock, and it will flourish here."

With that he turned over the soil in a neat row, creating a long furrow down one side of what was a rough square in the base's Center.

Lady Deirdre went behind him, carefully pressing into the cavities in the soil about 40 small seedlings each about one foot high.

Then she turned back to the crowd.

"I want all you children to come down here, and take a handful of the soil and pack it beside a seedling. As it grows in the years that lie ahead, and as you grow with them, you will be able to say: "I was present at it's planting". By this act, this represents our promise to the people, and to Planet itself, never to repeat the tragedy of Earth."

One by one the children filed down, and solemnly picked up a handful of dirt and packed it against the side of one of the seedlings. Megan and Petra chose separate trees to nurture, as did Dmitri and Marcel.

Tanya was the last, and as she packed the earth to the side of one of the seedlings, Deirdre overheard her saying:

"Don't worry, Planet, I'll look after you."

And into her mind - as into Tanya's - came the thought.........................'know we.'



[This message has been edited by Googlie (edited May 09, 2001).]

[Googlie]

Chapter Fourteen

The Trekkies were covering about 100 kilometers a day by the third and fourth days.

The first couple of days had been difficult, in the rain, and with the unfamiliarity of the process, or how much progress could reasonably be expected to be made. They were hampered by the almost constant attention needed by the convoy vehicles until a satisfactory level of maintenance was achieved. As a result th4ey covered only about 20 klicks on each of the first two days.

This put quite a strain on Garth, as he was constantly wanting to drive them further north, conscious of each passing day eating into the late summer and early autumn, and needing to get their crops planted and harvested before Chiron’s mild winter commenced.

On the day that the rains finally stopped, they had reached higher, rockier ground, and were now a smooth functioning unit, albeit the convoy itself stretched almost a kilometer in length as it trundled it’s way north.

Their routine was now fairly set.

They didn’t travel during the darkness of the night –the five hours or so from seven in the evening to the nine o’clock midnight and through to the three a.m. dawn. Garth allowed them an hour of “getting up and getting breakfast” time, and they broke camp about an hour after dawn, at around four a.m. They traveled through the nine midday right through until around four, 9 hours with only a short snack break. Garth then devoted the time from four to sunset to making the camp, preparing the evening meal, and talking about the new life they were hoping to carve out for themselves on the alien, yet strangely hospitable, planet.

The miners were an optimistic group, eagerly discussing the likelihood of finding coal deposits, or copper or iron. They divided along mainly mineral lines, the few coal miners banding together naturally, the uranium miners, the irons, the bauxite miners. A couple of the scientific staff joined the discussions, lending their weight to one opinion or another, but mainly alerting the coal miners that fossilized minerals like coal would be rare due to the absence of trees and other carboniferous plants that compressed, would create the deposit.

Asteroid strikes were more likely to yield riches, as were volcanoes, was the consensus.

There was little time for entertainment. As they sat around in groups, forming friendships and generally sizing each other up, the usual evening’s discussions were people’s life stories, and why they signed up for the Unity mission.

The garrison group set out perimeter guards each evening, half of the group taking the four p.m. to eight p.m. shift, and the other group with one hour to midnight and the three hours to the 3 a.m. dawn.

The nights were uneventful.

************************************************** *************

On the late afternoon of the sixth day they reached the crest of a hill that they had been laboriously climbing and the lead scout rover was waiting for the main body as they crested the summit.

The view to the north and west was spectacular.

The setting suns were casting long soft shadows over the land, and looking into the sun the Trekkies could see the ocean in the distance. The sunlight was dancing over the waves that were beginning to stir as the now familiar late afternoon winds picked up.

The coastline ran from the south-west to the northeast, and as they looked north they could just make out in the far distance what looked like a peninsula. There was clearly ocean to the south of the spur of land, as they looked across a bay, and beyond the land the evening sun picked out the reflections from another body of water, either a lake or the ocean itself round a peninsula or headland.

The glinting of rocks caught the miners’ eyes, as the outcroppings picked up the suns’ rays, and they talked excitedly.

Garth joined them.

“That looks like a fine place,” he said, as they nodded their agreement.

He pulled out a small rangefinder that the engineers had built for him, and put it to his eye, tapping numbers into a small attached console.

He examined the results.

“About another 200 klicks,” he announced. “Two more days, maybe three if we cut west to the coast and follow the coastline north. May be easier going than hacking through that fungus patch yonder” he added, indicating a russet slash across their vision to the north.

“We’ll send out one of the rovers in advance to reconnoiter, with a couple of our garrison troops, and let them come back and report,” he said. “First thing in the morning they can leave. Now let’s get off this peak into the lee of the hillside and get some shelter from the wind.”

They set up camp in the shadow of the hill.

************************************************** **********

Paul Scanlon came to see Garth that evening.

“Sir,” he said saluting.

“Yes, Paul – and you don’t need to ‘Sir’ me – the name’s Garth.”

“I can’t call you that, Sir. Bad for morale. If the troops heard me using your first name there’s no saying how much our discipline would lapse.”

“OK, Captain Scanlon. I Understand. What can I do for you?” Garth asked. Playing along.

“I’d like to have a little ceremony this evening, Sir, and give some of my men small promotions and others their colors. In particular I want to give two the rank of lieutenant, and have you present them with their pins. I’d like to go on ahead with the advance rover, but I need to leave reliable men in charge in my absence. Will you do that Sir?”

Garth realized the importance of the request.

“Gladly, Captain. Who do you have in mind?”

“Sally Jefferson and Raoul Sanchez, Sir. They’re natural leaders and as keen as mustard. Raoul was one of Corazon Santiago’s runners back in the States. Sally is from a military background, and her father – a retired general, wanted her to be part of the Unity’s security force.”

“Good choices, Captain,” said Garth, realizing how important it was for Scanlon to get his approbation. “If you have the pins, let’s convene and we’ll do it now.”

“Sir, yes Sir,” said Scanlon, smartly saluting and turning on his heel.

Garth set about gathering an enthusiastic crowd, eager for any diversion to avoid listening to another colonist’s tales of where he was from and why he was on the mission.

************************************************** ***********

“By the authority vested in me by Lady Deirdre Skye, we are gathered here to applaud and recognize the leadership attributes of several of our militia.

“Captain Scanlon here has recommended to me some worthy promotions, with which I concur, and we are now going to conduct the investiture.”

Garth was making it up as he went along, but none of his audience knew any better, so the ritual was, for them, extremely convincing. And so too it was for the soon to be honored militia members, none of whom knew anything different either, with the possible exception of Raoul.

“Captain Scanlon, please.”

Paul stepped forward.

“Whom do you recommend for promotion?”

“Private Ian Smith, to Sergeant.”

“Step forward, private Smith.” said Garth.

A burly trooper barely out of his teens stepped forward. The troops had done a creditable job of creating camouflage suits out of their clothing, with a mottled rust and green color to represent the fungus and grasses of Planet.

Garth shook his hand, and handed him the chevrons for his shoulder.

“Private Maxine Cordova, to Sergeant.”

Garth repeated the procedure to a sullen looking young woman with an almost shaved head. As she took the chevrons from his hand, her face lit up with the most engaging smile he had seen since landing.

“Cadet Officer Raoul Sanchez, to Lieutenant,” said Paul.

A swarthy youngster having trouble growing a mustache stepped forward. Garth had to suppress a grin. He shook the teen’s hand and said:

“By the authority vested in me as the appointed leader of this expedition I am pleased to welcome you to the ranks of an officer in the militia of the Stepdaughters of Gaia.”

He pinned the star to the lapel of the grinning Raoul.

“Cadet Officer Sally Jefferson to Lieutenant.”

Garth looked up into the liquid eyes of a stunning redhead just a fraction of an inch shorter than he himself.

He repeated the ritual he had devised, and then trembled just a little as he pinned the star to her lapel. She grinned mischievously at him as if daring him to let his hand drop lower. It didn’t. She saluted smartly, winked at him, turned and went back to the ranks.

As the crowd started to break up and disperse, with the troopers milling about their newly promoted colleagues, Garth held up his hand for quiet.

“One more thing,” he said.

They all looked expectantly at him.

“I talked a few moments ago with the Lady Deirdre Skye, and I am proud to announce one final promotion.

“Captain Paul Scanlon, to Major.”

Scanlon was stunned. His troops pushed him forward. He came to Garth, and saluted smartly.

Garth clasped Paul’s hand in his.

“For your leadership abilities, and your common sense in electing to play the hand that was dealt you. We know that you would rather be elsewhere, but it may take years to find your own people. Meanwhile, as the loyal commander of this Division, your promotion is acknowledged.”

The crowd broke out into a cheer, and his troops behind him applauded vigorously.

Paul was beaming with pride as Garth pinned the major’s stars to his lapel.

‘Deirdre sure knows how to win them over,’ Garth thought. ‘We’ll thrive under her leadership.’

He, too, was proud to be Gaian.

[Googlie]

Chapter Fifteen

Malcolm wandered over to the school module, and saw a couple of adult colonists engaged in earnest conversation.

"Can you direct me to the kindergarten?" he asked of one.

"You can't miss it - it's through the back of the classroom. Just go right in."

He went into the classroom, and saw at the rear of the classroom the door marked 'Children's Kindergarten', and pushing it open he went right in.

It was evening, and he expected it to be deserted, but to his surprise he saw an older girl there. She was bending over some papers strewn over a table against one wall. She turned round when she heard him enter.

"Hi," he said awkwardly. "I've just come to look around."

"Oh, are you a parent then?" she asked.

"No," he said self-consciously.

God, she was beautiful.

He continued:

"I've been asked by my boss, Angus MacDonald, if I could help out by making a few bits and pieces for the kindergarten, help out the old battleaxe who is the kindergarten manageress."

"Hmmm. That'd be me then," she said. "I'm Natasha, the 'old battleaxe', as you put it." She had an impish smile when she said that which brought out the two dimples on her cheeks.

Malcolm was mortified, and blushed crimson.

"I,…...I,…..…I'm sorry," he sputtered. "The way Gus was talking I thought ye'd be much older. I'm Malcolm."

"Well I am much older," Natasha said, quite enjoying discomfiting the young man, but conscious that she needed him to build the few bits and pieces required for the kindergarten, so she couldn't be too hard on him. "I have four children of my own."

"Oh," Malcolm replied. "How's that possible? You're nae old enough."

"And very gallantly said," Natasha replied. "You've redeemed yourself with that compliment. Now have you ever been in a kindergarten before?"

Malcolm shook his head.

"OK, then. Here's what I think I need. I've never been inside one either," she confided.

He went over to the table and shook hands with her, then they pored over her sketches and notes on how she would like the room organized. As their heads bent to see the papers, almost touching, Malcolm was suddenly aware that he was physically closer to a member of the opposite sex than he had ever been before. He was aware of the muted fragrance of her perfume, and of the faint smell of the shampoo she'd used on her hair that morning. Her hand was on the table, by the side of some of the sketches, and as he looked at it it looked so small and dainty. He was about to place his rough mechanic's hand over hers when suddenly he remembered that she had said she had four children.

Hurriedly, self consciously, he pulled back and stood upright.

Natasha was as aware of Malcolm as he had been of her, and sensed his withdrawal. She looked up at him.

"Well, do you think you'll be able to help? Can you build these small chairs and desks and classroom accessories?"

Malcolm nodded. "Aye, I can that. But can't your man build them? Or is he no handy with his hands?"

She looked at him, the memory still fresh, and her eyes misted over.

"Oh, he's handy with his hands, all right. Better with his mind, though. But I don't know if I'll ever see him again."

Malcolm looked at her, her bottom lip trembling a little as she obviously was keeping tears in control.

'What a bastard,' he thought to himself. 'Must have left her and her kids for some other woman here.'

"Point him out to me," he said, balling his fists. "I'll soon knock some sense into that heid o' his."

At that Natasha did start to cry.

Through her tears she said:

"It's not like that. We were separated when we were escaping the spaceship. I should be with him, with the professor and his team, but I got lost and now I'm with you. The Lady thinks it will be years before we meet up with other humans, even if they survived the landing. I might never see him again. He'll never see his kids grow up."

Malcolm was flummoxed, not knowing what to do, so he drew on his memories of when his mother had a crying fit, and his father would just hold her in his arms and stroke her hair, and murmur sweet nothings to her.

So he did just that.

Taking Natasha into his arms, he stroked her hair and said:

"Dinna fash yerself. It'll work oot all right in the end, ye'll see. There now, stop yer greetin', here."

He fished out a handkerchief and put it in Natasha's hand to wipe the tears.

She had been surprised at first, but relaxed in the security and comfort of the big Scot's arms. It had been a hectic and stressful week, and here was a rock to lean on. She molded her body to his, and felt the stirrings of desire on his part.

'Too soon, too soon,' she thought to herself, and gently disengaged herself from him.

"Thanks," she said. "I needed a strong shoulder to cry on, and to feel a man's arms around me again. You're a good man, Malcolm."

Malcolm coughed, feeling really awkward. "'s okay," he said. "Any time you need me I'll be around. Now I'd best pick up your drawings and get to work building what ye need."

He swept up the sketches and notes, and made to leave.

"Malcolm," Natasha said. "Just a moment."

He stopped, and turned around.

She stood on her tiptoes and reached up and kissed him on the cheek.

"Thanks again," she said. "For just being here."

He left the classroom walking on air.

************************************************** *****************************

Petra and Megan were discussing what they would wear, and what to take with them in the morning.

Colin had dropped by the MacDonald's cubicle and had talked with Angus. He'd received permission for he and Malcolm to take Petra and Megan to the steeple so long as a couple of Kyle Patrick's men were with them. Kyle had said that he himself would go, with one other trooper.

Deirdre had suggested that Lindly and Marcel should go as well, just to get away from the confusion of thoughts that marked an urban community such as the base, and they could try their experiments away from the crowd. This necessitated Dmitri going too as well as Francine, Marcel's older sister.

So the expedition would comprise six adults and four children.

It was going to be quite an outing.

Neither Megan nor Petra slept that night.

It was going to be such an adventure.

Little did they know just what kind of an adventure they were about to embark on.

[Googlie]

Chapter Sixteen

They set off at daybreak, with enough provisions to last for four days, although Colin and Malcolm estimated that it would take them about ten hours to get there and perhaps eight hours back.

Megan had hardly slept during the night, and was as excited as could be when they took their leave of the base.

Malcolm was driving, and Colin assumed proprietorship of the engineer’s cubby-hole. Kyle and Kees Van der Ploeg, the young trooper he selected to accompany them, took possession of the upper observation area of the conning tower. Lindly and Francine took up residence in the crew quarters, setting up the cots and generally stowing the travel and observation gear in their allotted spaces. The kids, as kids were wont to do, roamed around inside the rover.

Malcolm fired up the engines, and watched the electronics display as the readouts advised him of the status. The fission engine was one of the latest developments of the huge Morgan Industries conglomerate back on Earth, and gave almost unlimited range to the vehicles equipped with its drive. The efficiency rating soared as it warmed, finally peaking at just below 90%, delivering almost 30,000 kilowatts. Radiation, inevitable for almost every fission engine, was minimal, with a rating of just 52.

It was roomy. About 25 feet long, by 12 wide and 8 high. The interior was compartmentalized, with separate cabins for crew living quarters, command and engineering. Forward was the command module, with the conning dome just above and behind the primary weapon, with nacelles for the weapons officer and electronics officer. Above them would be the commander, and below them, on either side of the central axis, the driver and engineer.

Below and behind the conning dome was the armory and equipment nacelle. The weaponry of the original unity rovers was just a variant on the standard issue hand weapons that most of the security forces had been allocated, with just a slightly longer range due to the higher muzzle velocity and the longer barrel. The armory contained some magazines of shells, attachments for the hand held pistols that converted the guns to flamers or projectile weapons, some percussive explosives and a couple of standard UN issue rifles. In addition to the weapons and ammunition, the spares included two complete replacement wheels, an assortment of spare panels and a rather sinister yellow heavy looking crate that said “DANGER - U235 - DO NOT HANDLE”. There were benches each side that could hold three troopers each.

Behind the stores nacelle was the fission engine assembly, with access from inside the rover. Up the stairs that Megan had climbed that first day was the crew compartment. This had four cots arranged in two sets of bunks, with the top two folding flush against the sides of the rover, and with an extractable table from under one of the lower bunks that folded out. There was a tiny kitchen range with an assortment of pots and pans, fed by a robust heat exchanger that took excess heat from the engine and converted it to power the stove assembly. Early designs had been equipped with microwaves, but after several crews had nearly starved to death in remote locations when engines flamed out, a more basic design was introduced that would work even if extracted from the vehicle and powered with wood or other combustible debris.

Dmitri and Marcel took turns at pretending to be the weapons officer. They sighted the gun on an imaginary target, and tracked it with the occasional “Whoom” coming from their lips as they pretended they were exterminating some imaginary enemy.

While the manuals said that a sustained cruising speed of 102 kilometers per hour was optimum in open country, Malcolm took it steady, at about half that pace. The giant wheels took the rocks and hollows in their stride at this cruising speed, and the maneuverability of the rover at this speed was impressive to Malcolm as well.

************************************************** *************

Megan was soon bored.

She gravitated to the electronics nacelle and sat down at the console, with Petra hovering at her shoulder.

“Now don’t touch anything,” Petra said officiously. “You’ll get us into trouble if you do.”

“What trouble can there be?” Megan asked. “It’s only a big commlink.”

She twiddled the controls, and the unit lit up.

They were still within range of the Base, on a heading that was taking them due east, before turning north for the spire. That way they would avoid the large fungus fields that lay just north of the base and which encroached on the land right up to the edge of the lakeshore.

She surfed the channels hearing only static when suddenly there was a clear voice:

“…and we’ve stopped by either an ocean or large lake to the north of us. The peninsula continues to the northwest, but this seems like an ideal spot. Rocky enough to the east to support a good mining industry, and with ocean to the north and southwest and arable land to the east along the spit of land it’d be ideal.”

“It’s the Trekkies,” Megan said excitedly. “I’m picking them up.”

“Patch it through,” said Kyle.

Megan looked at the console. Easier said than done. ‘Patch it through,’ the man had said. How? That was the question.

She fiddled with the controls. Suddenly the cabin filled with static and noise:

“I got him, Sarge, I got him.”

“Good work, Higgins. Keep your eyes peeled, there’s more.”

THWOCK….THWOCK….THWOCK

#############################

“Down, down. They’ve got Masterton.”

“Sarge, you’re painted. Got you. Drop out and go to the tent.”

#############################

“Rats, I thought I was hidden.”

#############################

“You were, but Susie got behind your lines unnoticed. Higgins, you’re painted too, drop out.”

#############################

“Damn.”

Kyle chipped in:

“Megan, that’s an exercise back at base, can you patch me in now?”

‘Drat these requests,’ she thought. ‘I want to listen to Garth and the Trekkies’

She found the control.

“You’re on, Colonel Patrick,” she said.

“Stubby,” Kyle said. “Patrick here. Sounds like you were taken by surprise. Run through the drill again but with different positions and take more care this time. And good work Susie. You’ll make corporal soon at this rate.”

“Bloody hell, Colonel. How the heck were you listening in? We thought that you were on your way to the big steeple that the kids saw last week.”

“I am, Stubby. We’re just testing the range of the commlink on board. We’ve already picked up some signals from the Trekkies, so it’s pretty powerful. But get back to work. I’ll expect a flawless drill when I get back.”

“Aye, aye, Sir,” was the Sargeant’s response.

“As you were Megan,” came the voice from the conning dome.

‘Now what the heck does that mean?’ she thought.

Whatever it meant, she roamed over the channels until she found the first one. This time it was a woman’s voice that they all immediately recognized as Lady Deirdre’s:

“…and name the base Lucky Autumn. Once you have the basic infrastructure assembled make yourself a terraformer unit that will let you concentrate on developing the surrounding terrain, then ensure that you have an adequate defense. How are the Elites?”

“Wonderful. That as a brainwave you had, I must say. Scanlon’s energized and is turning out to be a very able assistant to me. Takes his duties seriously. Made some key promotions yesterday that got him the respect of his troops.”

“Good. And Garth?”

“Yes, Dee?”

“Take care. I have a sense of foreboding about this Planet. An uncomfortable itch. It’s not all that it seems.”

************************************************** ***********

Marcel had the same feeling.

He had left Dmitri playing gunner and had gone to seek out Lindly.

“Not you feel it?” he asked in his fractured English.

Lindly put her hands on his shoulders and pulled him to the cot beside her.

“Share,” she said, tapping her head.

A look of comprehension came over his features.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Lindly sensed the exploratory tendril of thought coming from Marcel, narrow and focused. His brow was furrowed as he concentrated on her alone, trying not to effect a wide broadcast. She reached with her mind and caressed the tendril, bringing it into her full consciousness.

He relaxed as he was aware that she had made contact, and that he didn’t need to try so hard now.

He rode the wave pattern that she had opened, and as she received him she felt the thought:

“stay open, I’ll link”

She waited, watching him, and gently reaching out herself to read what she could of Marcel’s mind. She wasn’t very good at reading, being more of a projector, as Deirdre had said some days ago. She found it relatively easy to project her thoughts to another, even to the extent of persuading them to do something that they normally wouldn’t do. Back in Scotland she had befriended an old lady who was outcast by her village. “Witch” they’d called her. She had the power to read and project, and had trained Lindly. Lady Deirdre had also visited her on occasion, and in fact that’s where Lindly met Deirdre and a friendship had developed that had culminated in Lindly’s joining the Unity as an assistant to Deirdre.

”They’re here. I’ll link now”

Lindly heard them. Thousands and thousands of whispers of wisps of thought. Unformatted, disjointed gibberish, coming from all around.

Her reverie was broken by the harsh voice of Lyle Patrick.

“At the crest of this next hill we’ll see the steeple. Malcolm reports it’s well within visual range now. We’ll have a super view if you kids want to come to the conn dome.”

Then from that direction Lindly and Marcel both experienced it, like a flame of thought burning through the morass of the thousands of cluttering mental chitterings:

”Welcome”




[This message has been edited by Googlie (edited May 15, 2001).]

[Googlie]

Chapter Seventeen


The excitement was palpable.

Adults stood around to watch while the children were milling around, running hither and yon.

The kindergarten had been let out for the ceremony, so Malcolm went to seek out Natasha, and found her with one of the younger children.

“Oh, Natasha,” he said, “I’ve almost finished yon tables ye asked for. I’m aboot to stairt on the wee chairs.”

“Oh, Hi, Malcolm. That’s great. They’ll be a huge help.”

The child was tugging on her hand, impatient to get closer to the action about to unfold.

Natasha pushed her forward,

“This is Tanya, my youngest. Eager to see the Former unveiling. But she’s too small to see over the crowd.”

“Here, let me help,” said the gruff Scot, sweeping the squealing Tanya up in the air and depositing her on his shoulders in one fell swoop.

“And make sure ye wear yer scrubber,” he said to her, “the air’s pretty thin up there.”

She held on to his hands trustingly and clasped the band round her scrubber more tightly to her head, nodding solemnly. She beamed at her mother, then turned her attention to the ceremony about to begin.

“Thanks, Malcolm,” said Natasha. ‘You’ve made a little girl’s day”

“Aw, it’s nothing,” he replied. “it’d be a shame to waste these broad shoulders of mine.”

They both turned their attention to the ceremony.

**************************************************

‘We’re ready,” came the shout from within the vehicle ancillary pod.

Lady Deirdre flicked open her commlink. She was patched through to the Base’s public address system.

“Children of Gaia,” she began, “today we are unveiling the prototype of a vehicle that was conceived on Earth, shipped over 5 light years to the star system of Alpha Centauri, and now is going to commence its role as a terraformer of Chiron.

“To terraform means to transform into an Earth-like environment, and that is its purpose. It will clear fungus, plant forests, build mines and farms, and establish roads. Quite the utility vehicle. It is entirely self sufficient and can keep itself and its crew in good health, well fed and productive for ten week periods.

“I give you……the Former.”

The bay doors slid open, and the huge behemoth of a vehicle rumbled forth.

It was manufactured of a bonded steel and ceramic construction, had a crew of over 360, most of whom were lined up on its hull on either side like a ship’s crew presenting themselves in port.

Fully 120 feet long, it resembled an old earthscraper with a boring barrel in front with a habitation structure at the rear that comprised the control and living quarters. Its four pressureless tires were huge, each about three times the height of the tallest adult. It was painted a gaudy yellow.

“Ooooh,” Tanya clapper her hands excitedly. Then she bent down and said something to Malcolm that he didn’t understand. He looked to Natasha for help.

“She’s just saying hob big it is, even bigger than her on your shoulders.”

Malcolm shrugged his shoulders repeatedly, giving Tanya a bucking sensation. She squealed with delight.

He looked fondly down at Natasha:

“She’s a bonny wee lass,” he said.

**************************************************

Tony Welsh was the Former Commander. Its crew structure was set up almost on military lines, as if it were a self-contained platoon manning a tank. The actual crew numbered 367, and, in addition to Tony, consisted of three crews of 122 each. Each of the three crews were identical. There was a driver and co-driver, four science officers, each with an area of specialty, an electronics officer, and four systems operators in the command structure. A chef and two sous-chefs, and a medic were part of the support team, as were the four engineers that specialized in various pieces of the Former’s equipment. The equipment manager had an assistant and a general mechanic who was responsible for routine maintenance of the air supply system, the interior living modules, and other sundry pieces of equipment.

That left 100 grunts. They were the life blood of the Former, prepping the ground beforehand as necessary, and funneling behind it to perform all the clean-up chores that mankind’s ingenuity hadn’t yet found a way to automate.

The specialist crew had all been trained back on earth for this mission, but the grunts were colonists who had signed up without any specialty to offer. This was their working of their passage. They were indentured to the Mission for thirty years after which they could retire from forming and pursue any career that they had become fit for in the intervening years.

This first crew was all male.

Deirdre and Gus had discussed this with the advisors and the council. Sexual tension was something that Deirdre didn’t want in these early days. It might be OK for the military, with their rigid command structure, and it was a necessity for the colony team, but where she had an option, Deirdre opted for all male or female teams in the first few weeks.

The former wasn’t idle as it rolled out of its bay.

One of the functions that could be automated was road-laying, and it trundled around the base with several of its functions in awesome display.

The gantries had deployed the flailers and the compacting roller in front, which shredded any foilage and shunted it to one side for clearing by the following crew, then the roller smoothed the resulting surface somewhat by crushing small rocks and compacting the rocks and clay into a compound of wettish earth.

The midsection of the former had deployed the huge scraper which carved out the roadbed itself.

Immediately aft, the earth that was being swept up by the scraper blade was mixed with the ferroconcrete amalgam to transform it into a rock-hard like surface that was automatically laid in the channel.

The final stage in the transformation from planetary tundra to serviceable road was a thin supertensile plasmasteel surface that was laid on top which had woven into it the microfilament optic cable that carried voice and data transmissions as well as allowing for remote electronic control of vehicles.

The populace cheered wildly as the former laid its surface between the buildings that had by now been erected and especially as it laid a substantial square for assemblies.

Eventually the children tired of watching the slow progress of the former, and drifted off. Tanya clamoured to be let down and Malcolm complied, whereupon she ran off to join her friends playing nearby.

Natasha looked over at Malcolm, and after a moment’s hesitation asked “Would you like to come over to the kindergarten for a coffee? I have some perking there.”

“I’d love to,” he said.

They went off together.

**************************************************

Angus and Deirdre were watching the former, and discussing its uses.

“Dee, I think it’s wasted on roads. We should use it for clearing the fungus then plant a forest right on the cleared land. The sooner we get some trees planted the sooner we get wood for processing – building, carpentry and even for fuel.”

“But we need to get the farmers up and running,” Deirdre said. “Food is our main concern, not fuel nor fine woods.

“So let’s compromise. First, have them transform that stretch of scrubland to the west of the little lake into farming allotments, then they can start on clearing the fungus to the east up the hillside. They can plant a forest there.”

“Aye, that’ll be a good compromise,” Angus agreed.

And so it was decreed.