Chapter 5: My name is Shannon after great great grandma.
I've reread great gram-pa Stephen's journal and am amazed at the primitive conditions they traveled under. The only reason I could get access was that I was assigned to the asylum at the age of 22. Mom had a copy of it but there were to many gaps to satisfy me. I was surprised by the number of classified journals when I started searching for his journal in the main database. Next year we'll be at the rendezvous star. Our population is 8 times the number at the original split and we have 7 habitats and 6 defense ships in our convoy. From history we'd be classified as gypsies. We did establish one colony, but haven't discovered any intelligent life in the three star systems we visited.
We've been here for two years and have started another habitat. This systems asteroid belt is 50% ore, 15% ices, and the rest rock. The only two planets are gas giants, one inside and one outside the asteroid belt. No signs of life at all.
Finally contact has been established. The other group will be here in six months, but they claim they are having problems with their torch. The council dispatched a warship in the direction their signal came from.
It's been 4 months and the warship reports no radar or visual contact.
A week ago we received another signal. It was in a different direction from the first. It told us not to reply. Then they informed us that they'd run across another spacecraft and that it had destroyed 3 habitats before they managed to chase it off. If we were safe build a few extra warships and meet them at rendezvous star 2 in two hundred years. Immediately the construction on the habitat was halted and plans for the warships were dusted off. The council decided to build 2 and then 3 more. The habitat would be redesigned as a construction station and docking port for the warships. Another of the asylum members suggested that we also build an ore carrier and instead of dissembling our factories when we moved, we load them and continue construction during the trip. The council decided to implement the suggestions and then notify the general population of the threat.
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Scout Expedition Page 5