The
FIRST COLONY
Book I: Settlement Chronicals
By: W. J. Rydrych
ISBN
All rights reserved, including the right of reproduction in any form or by any mechanical or electrical means including photocopying or recording, or by any information storage or retrieval system, in whole or in part in any form, and in any case without the written permission of the author and publisher.
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events, locales, or persons living or dead, is entirely coincidental. Parts of this work were previously published, in whole or in part, under the title Settlement 2127, © 2015 by W. J. Rydrych
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Authors Preface
Settlement Chronicals Prologue: The Far Future
BOOK I: FIRST SETTLEMENT
Chapter 1: The Door Opens
Chapter 2: Catastrophe
Chapter 3: Arrival
Chapter 4: Early Days
Chapter 5: Hint of the Future
Chapter 6: The Great River
Chapter 7: Torgai
Chapter 8: Village of Hath
Chapter 9: Kraa
Chapter 10: Contact
Chapter 11: The End of Innocence
Chapter 12: Uncertain Future
Chapter 13: Gathering of the Clans
Chapter 14: Watching and Waiting
Chapter 15: The Long Trail South
Chapter 16: Village of Suth
Chapter 17: The Grand Council
Chapter 18: Waiting for Answers
Chapter 19: Torgai Emissaries
Chapter 20: Chance Meeting
Chapter 21: Aftermath
Chapter 22: Ultimate Provocation
Chapter 23: Changing Planet
Chapter 24: Retribution
Book I Epilogue
AUTHORS PREFACE
The second half of the 1950s and the decades that followed were a fascinating time for young engineers entering the field. Computers were finding both commercial and military uses, and were beginning their evolution; first vacuum tube systems, many occupying large rooms, through transistor based systems, to the integrated chips of the laptops of today. Driven by the rapidly evolving semiconductor industry that gave ‘silicon valley’ its name there seemed to be no limit they couldn’t exceed. To top it off the space program had opened new horizons to explore. Over the ensuing years and decades I was fortunate to have a ringside seat to all three of those transformative trends, and the journey never ceases to amaze me.
Now, well over half a century later, technology has advanced to where, rather than filling a need, it’s beginning to define what society needs. What that will bring is a story than can be written only by future generations; all I can do is speculate.
I started writing these chronicles in 1988 in my spare time. What I wanted to write was not really science fiction, as many will classify this work, but an adventure story outlining one of the many futures mankind might have. That required avoidance of things that, in science fiction, substitute for the ‘magic’ of books of fantasy; a balancing act that required that I say ‘yes’ for some technologies, and no for others. I even avoided the temptation of including the ‘transporter’ and ‘warp drives’ so common in today’s television series.
When I completed the first three books in 1992, I had no intention of carrying it further. They were written for my own curiosity; I simply wanted to see how the story, once begun, would end. So once the third book was finished, and I saw the ending, I forgot about them. However, now, nearly three decades later, I find the ending to Book III unsatisfactory. Perhaps not necessarily unsatisfactory, but leaving questions unanswered; questions that could only be answered by ‘postulating’ a situation that could arise based on the evolving technology of today, and putting it on paper.
Many things have changed since Book III was completed. Technology had advanced far beyond that of the 1990s, and is continuing to accelerate. Today, simple forms of nanotechnology, artificial intelligence, and virtual reality are with us, but with technology accelerating their capability will almost certainly expand far beyond what they are today. Soon we will be able to select the characteristics of our children, or even modify ourselves, and soon the need to work to provide food and shelter will be replaced by the need to find ways to fill the idle time of the majority of humanity.
What does that accelerating change portend for the future? Have technology and society so intruded that mankind’s trajectory has altered? As the centuries roll on is something else destined to replace mankind as the dominant species on Earth; perhaps something as simple as artificial intelligence gone rogue? Or perhaps some ‘aberration’ of the human genome caused by mankind’s hubris giving rise to an alternate species with the ability to supplant mankind? I suspect the future will provide both those options, as well as many more.
The fourth and final Book in the series explores the above questions by presenting one scenario of what that future could bring if we, as a species, lack ‘wisdom’ as well as ‘intelligence’; something harder to come by, and something often in short supply.
While many things have changed since Books I-III were written, I found little reason to make substantive changes to those earlier books and limited a rewrite to minor editing, including some dates in the Book III epilogue. With the above changes to Books I-III, and the inclusion of Book IV, this is the story that results; which I title The Settlement Chronicles.
PROLOGUE: The Far Future
Saaml sat in the form fitting seat as the image formed before him, others in the room either sitting or standing. The image projected was of the planet they were orbiting, changing as new areas became visible.
The occupants of the control room were humanoid in shape, but even a casual observer would have noticed two distinct species were present. The more numerous was that to which Saaml belonged. Short, about one and one half meters in height, bipedal and with an upright stance, and of slender build. The head was rounded and hairless, and held large, expressive eyes set in a fairly flat, small-featured face. While it was evident two sexes were present, both were of the same general appearance, size, and dress.
The other species was quite different. Also bipedal and with an upright stance, it differed from the more numerous species in that it was much taller, typically over two meters in height, and with a narrow head with a long snout. An additional difference was the heavy fur or hair that covered much of the head and body. In this species the female appeared to be considerably smaller than the male. With more observation it would also become evident that the smaller species was the dominant of the two.
Where had this ship come from, and why was it here? For over 1,000 of its home planet’s years the ship had been on a mission of exploration, forever searching, but never finding the object of its search. Generation after generation had been born, lived, and died during that time, and the end was still not in sight. The search could last another 100 or even 1,000 years.
This mission had an unusual purpose. It was not here to discover new worlds for conquest or exploitation, to search for an outlet for excess population or a source of raw materials, or even to search for new technologies or scientific knowledge to bring back to their homeworld; their purpose was much more narrowly directed than that. The mission was to solve a theological dispute of their religious caste.
Over 300 light years away a fledgling civilization had gone on to become the center of a medium sized empire encompassing nearly 20 starsystems. In time the social structure h
ad evolved into a strict caste system, with the dominant caste the religious caste. As in any caste system, the chain of ancestors was fundamental for establishing status, and the further into the past this chain could be extended, the higher an individual’s status within the caste. As the search for their roots intensified, more and more of the history of the ancient civilizations on their home planet came to light. The planet yielded a treasure trove of archeological riches; artifacts, burials, traces of long-dead cities buried beneath the accumulation of time, and evidence that, whoever had built and lived in those cities had developed a complex, highly evolved civilization before they disappeared. And before that? Traces of earlier phases of civilization; an agrarian period of small villages and subsistence farming, and further back the hunter-gatherer.
But there was an inconsistency. No link from the earlier civilizations to their own could be found, and while there was a clear path from the burials and artifacts of earliest cultures to the lost cities, the remains were not those of their own species. Further, it became evident that the early civilization had ended abruptly and at that time the indigenous species had ceased to exist. They had reached a blank wall; they could not establish their own origin, and the uncertainty was unacceptable in such a caste sensitive society. They lacked roots on their own planet.
As the study of the remains continued the seed of doubt flourished. If these early cities were not built by their own species, then who had built them? And a more profound question; if they could find no link to their own past here on their own planet, where had they come from? The next step was an intensive search of the other star systems within their empire, but here they came up empty. Yes, signs of early life were uncovered, but nothing that would link those remains to their own species. And further, even in those systems any species that could remotely be considered civilized had ceased to exist several thousand years earlier.
In questioning the origins of their species the very foundations of the entrenched caste system was placed in jeopardy. Within the religious caste a schism developed. One group believed their race had been spontaneously created by an all-powerful God several thousand years before; a God who had grown displeased with the previous inhabitants. The other group believed that thousands of years before a wandering people had visited their homeworld, destroyed the indigenous population, and colonized the planet with their own species. No record existed, the conflict was between differing religious beliefs, and the opposing beliefs were so deeply rooted that civil war threatened.
Then, to calm the conflict, the wiser among their leaders suggested they send missions to distant star systems to search for any record that their race had originated elsewhere, and if so, where that original home world was. This had been agreed. Starships had been dispatched, some up the spiral arm of the galaxy of which they were a part, others downward toward the galactic core. That was how the mission of the starship of which Saaml now had command had started, as one of the ships sent up the spiral arm toward the outer rim.
The fleet of ships had visited hundreds of planets in the preceding 1,000 years. On some signs of former civilizations had been found, and on others existing civilizations had been encountered. While civilizations that were clearly alien were sometimes encountered, it soon became apparent that they, themselves, were closely related to most of those found; civilizations which were sometimes built upon the remains of a preceding alien civilization. What cemented their belief in a common heritage was the companion race that often existed side by side with the primary species with many of these newly discovered civilizations was, in appearance and characteristics, nearly identical to their own companion race.
It would have been easy to conclude that they had evolved on the planet of one of those newly encountered races, except for one thing. None of these sister races could establish their species was indigenous to their own planet, and many had legends of their ancestors coming from a far off place. True, they themselves may have migrated from one of those planets, but that evaded the basic question; where had the species itself originated?
Within less than 200 years part of the answer was in hand. Genetic testing proved that, while the genetic code had diverged with time, they and many of the races encountered were offshoots of the same basic species. The results of testing of the companion races was even more definite; with little divergence in the genome it was as if that species had been locked in time. Back on their home world the data was analyzed, and it soon became evident the genetic divergence of their own race was based on civilizations further up the spiral arm, not those nearer the galactic core. It was as if, in ages past, the ancestors of their own species had swept down the spiral arm of the galaxy towards its core, devouring existing civilizations as it went; an unstoppable tidal wave.
It was evident they would not find the answer they sought toward the galactic core, but further up the spiral arm. The ships sent toward the core were recalled, but those sent toward the rim were ordered to continue. While the primary question had been answered, another question remained. Where was the homeworld of their ancestral species? From mapping the changes in the genome the general area of the galaxy where the species first evolved could be predicted. Toward that area Saaml's ship had been directed, and Saaml felt sure they were getting closer and closer to their goal. If not reached in his own lifetime, the answer would come within the lifetime of his children or grandchildren.
Orbiting the fourth planet of this small G-2 class star they had encountered the signs of a dead civilization, but the surveys indicated the planet had never been heavily developed or heavily populated. What signs of habitation uncovered had been limited primarily to a few deep canyons. Now, before leaving for still another star system, they were completing the survey orbits of the frozen, airless, barren third planet; a planet their survey instruments indicated had several unusual features. While the survey instruments were automatic, the anomalies detected had brought most of the command staff to the control room.
Saaml and the others sat or stood quietly as the computer described the anomalies in detail, pointing out through the holographic display those features it found unusual. The picture it painted was both confusing and, in some ways, contradictory. In many ways the planet was unusual. A combination of large frozen oceans separated by rocky, scarred continents, with only a very thin layer of atmosphere formed mostly of nitrogen and water vapor; it was what they classed as a 'water world'.
True water worlds were rare. Water was present on many of the planets they had visited, but normally in the form of ice at the polar caps or subsurface moisture. Here, while covered with an ice layer hundreds of meters thick, the vast, deep oceans contained enormous amounts of water. In their experience planets with large quantities of water located within warming distance of their sun, such as this one, should have developed a substantial atmosphere over time to moderate the temperature, and usually some primitive form of life. But for some reason this one had not. The atmosphere was mostly a light layer formed of water vapor out-gassing from the surface ice, with traces of nitrogen and oxygen; and the atmospheric layer was much thinner that predicted for a water world of the obvious age of this one. If any life existed it was likely confined to the oceans, or microbial life that existed in sheltered locations such as within the rocks themselves.
Even as they watched the display, which tracked the dawn as it moved across the planet’s surface, they observed a thin mist develop over the frozen oceans and the glitter of surface water as the heat of the unmoderated sun melted the upper layer of ice, a layer of water which would again be frozen solid within the first minutes of the frigid night.
The display moved to an enlarged picture of patches of rubble scattered over the planet, which the computer explained appeared to be the result of some cosmic event capable of leveling everything in its path. Whatever had happened was estimated to have occurred several thousand years before their arrival. The same was true for the numerous craters that pockmarked the service, the result of
meteors that had impacted the surface after removal of a heavier atmosphere.
But the anomaly that created the most interest was that, while the surface was barren and without significant atmosphere, the composition of the rubble in certain areas of the surface consisted of concentrations of elements normally not formed in nature, or if formed widely dispersed. Also noted was widespread evidence of hydrocarbons which could only have formed from prior organic sources. The computer speculated that the source of these materials could be artificial structures that had been leveled thousands of years before, and the hydrocarbons were evidence of prior heavy vegetation or other life over a long period of time. If that was the answer, it would point to a long history ending with a very dense population; which could only have developed with a denser more benign atmosphere.
The conclusion drawn was that this had once been a heavily populated planet with a sophisticated civilization, but that several thousand years before the world had been devastated by some event that had leveled and seared the surface, tearing away the atmosphere. The computer could not pinpoint a cause; speculating that it could have been an immense solar flare or even some artificially generated cataclysm.
While that was the reason they had been called to the bridge, that was not why they were now listening with such intense interest. The computer had, just moments before, interrupted its presentation based on new information. The instruments indicated that far below the surface were signs of large caverns of a repetitive, artificial appearing configuration, indicating a large underground structure. Further, while there were no life signs, it appeared to be largely intact.
A week later . . . .
Saaml treaded his way through the scattered debris that littered the floor of the large room, row upon row of shelves extending into the distance. Containers were stacked on the shelves, some having fallen to the floor contributing to the apparent chaos. Portions of the walls had partially collapsed, and most of the shelves were in ruins. It was apparent some calamity, whether a planet quake or shockwaves from blasts on the surface far above, had reverberated through the chamber. The portable lights installed throughout the chamber, with the resulting shadows, merely highlighted the scope of the destruction.
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