“Sir... Don’t tell me she’s a dissident. I don’t know her all that well, but honestly... It’s Ramon’s daughter.” Havelar shook his head, and motioned for him to calm down.
“Don’t worry, Thomas. I don’t suspect her of being a dissident. And you would know.” He waited for a couple of seconds before he continued.
“She’s one of the candidates for a program I have planned. It’s too early to discuss yet, but I want you to have a look at these files.” He swiped across the screen, and a folder with a list of names appeared.
“I want you to see if there are any weaknesses in our analysis of each and every one of these candidates. I want you to focus especially on medical history, not just the candidates themselves, but also their parents and grandparents, however far back you can get. And hereditary traits, such as intelligence, personality, and so on.” Thomas looked puzzled, so Havelar decided to explain a little. Not too much though.
“I know it’s a little different from what you’re used to. But this time, it’s not about rooting out disloyal members of our colony. I don’t think loyalty would make much of a difference in this matter. No, I just want to make sure the candidates are healthy and smart. That’s all,” he said, with a cheerful smile. He knew Thomas well enough not to expect him to believe that there wasn’t more to this, but as long as the spy did his job, Havelar would be content. Thomas had shown himself to be trustworthy, and in time, he would be given access to his inner circle. Ever the cautious man though, Havelar had a habit of selecting his closest associates carefully, and over time. So for now, he kept his most inner secrets to himself.
MARIA SOLIS
Maria Solis was striding across the field in front of the campus, passing along the greenhouses where she would usually stop by to check up on her experiments. Even though, she was in a hurry, she allowed herself a moment to take in her surroundings. The field was covered by grass, and flowers painted the landscape around it in a hundred different colors. It was early morning and 55 Cancri A was still creeping upward, bathing the landscape in its warm, yellow glow, which seemed to make every color more vivid and every contrast sharper. Aurora’s summer was truly something. Not as warm as she’d been used to in Los Angeles, but that was just fine. The rays warmed enough that she could wear her short sleeves, and had she wanted to dress up for a party, she would have no problem wearing a skirt or a dress. She didn’t even mind the facemask much anymore; she’d gotten so accustomed to it. She looked around, still impressed with the growth of what had been their landing site just a couple of months ago.
Fort Andrews was becoming a town. Small, yet very town-like, with features such as distinct divisions between the different districts. At first, they had simply called it the camp, although after a few days, someone decided that they needed a real name for the place. She didn’t know how they had decided on the name, but for whatever the reason, and though some people resented it, the camp now carried the name of the last president of a nation long gone, on a planet far away. The town was located in eastern Verdi, not far from the coast. An hour to the north, a wide river called the Trickler had proven to be rich in small wildlife.
One creature, the river snake, looked more or less like snakes on Earth, except for their grey fur and the two small “arms” that ended in a small claw from each one. Then there were the dragon fish, which were as long as a human being and as wide as two, with six fins on either side, and a strong, wide mouth with razor-sharp teeth that, at first, had puzzled the biologists. There didn’t appear to be any natural prey for the dragon fish, and the biologists wondered whether there was some yet-to-be-discovered species that would prove to be further down the food chain. They discovered that it built land-based nests out of the tall trees on the northern bank. As they continued studying the dragon fish, they realized that the dragon fish were herbivores that used their teeth for sawing, and that they used their fins to actually climb up the trunks to their own length and thus reach the lower branches. It was these observations that made them reconsider their earthly notions that had caused them to classify the species so falsely, as the dragon fish was an example of an Aurora amphibian.
Fort Andrews stretched over an area of more than two square kilometers. There were already several housing areas, and all living quarters had at least one airtight room by now. The communal air-filtering facilities provided clean filtered air to the living quarters. The fusion reactors just north of town produced electricity and power for everything from greenhouses to air filtering to light and heating, come winter. Havelar’s headquarters were located south of the reactors, right next to the hospital. The hospital was still the only building that was completely airtight. The shuttleport, where the first shuttle from the Exodus had landed, was located at the southern end of town. It was a fenced area, and currently held a storage facility along with a communications center. It also housed a barracks for the security forces. Originally, the plan had been to keep a small security force, but as soon as Admiral Hamilton had relinquished command of the colony, new recruits had been taken on, and although Maria didn’t know how many they had at the moment, she knew there would have to be more barracks built to house them all.
On the far side of the Trickler, and a ways to the east lay the camp where Major Tina Hammer, the former executive officer of the Exodus, had started a boat-building project along with a few of her friends from Selection. They had already built a small shipyard from timber and some supplies from the Exodus, and the plan was to get a few fishing boats and a larger exploration vessel ready before next spring. They already had orders from several who pictured themselves as the future fishermen of Aurora, and the exploration vessel was something the administration was planning to use for exploring the Verdi coastline. Further exploration would obviously demand larger vessels, which would come in due time. Maria thought the former scramjet pilot might one day be the richest person on Aurora, and her enterprise could turn out to be a stroke of genius.
North of Tina Hammer’s camp, their immediate world was bordered by a string of mountains, already called the Rockies by some and the Himalayas by others. Time would tell who won that argument. There were plans to exploit the rich mineral deposits there, and geologists were already exploring and mapping the most promising sites on the southern slopes. As soon as the planned bridge across the Trickler was ready, sometime next summer, mining would commence. Whatever lay beyond the mountains no one could tell yet. All they had were the images from the Exodus, the mother ship that had carried them through space to their new home on Aurora. The starship now acted as their satellite, and would provide them with reconnaissance and weather data for years.
West of the settlement were a mixture of grasslands and forest in between lakes and hills. There were mountains as well, but none very close. Beyond the first lakes, whatever they knew came from images sent down from the Exodus. Maria thought she stood a decent chance of being part of the first team to explore the western region. The expedition was due to set out just after harvest was done, and would be led by Professor Jeremiah Lowell. They had been teammates back in Selection, and Jeremiah was someone she trusted 100 percent. However, he was also a loud mouth, and she just hoped he didn’t botch it. It was common knowledge that you shouldn’t be too vocal criticizing the way things were handled by the administration, and Jeremiah did have a tendency to cross that line now and then. So far, it had been overlooked, but since Havelar’s takeover, he ought to be more careful, she thought.
The colonists were still restricted to the immediate area surrounding Fort Andrews. They still didn’t know enough about what lay beyond, and so the administration had deemed it safer to place certain restrictions on movement. They had defined a perimeter that surrounded their settlement, and the restrictions were tighter to the south and west than to the north. On the northern end, they were usually allowed to go as far as the Trickler, which was a popular spot to go for bathing and private excursions. And there was a bit of traffic going between Tina Hammer’s
settlement and Fort Andrews as well.
The time for first harvest would be here soon. With luck, they would have time for two harvest seasons before winter. They needed everything they could manage to grow in that time, or winter would be very uncomfortable. Luckily, everything grew faster here. The climate was a little cooler than most of them were used to, but it suited the genetically enhanced seed well. They had large stocks of seed, and in time, Aurora would bear potatoes, apples, corn, grains, and fruit. They even had a decent stock of animal embryos, which was still stored on board the Exodus. They had decided not to start breeding animals until next year at the earliest. Animals needed to be fed, and until they had a surplus, there simply wasn’t enough food for animals of Earth origin. Sure, there were grasses in abundance, but they also needed to feed them through winter. But in a year or two, hopefully there would be a small number of cows, sheep, and pigs around.
Maria shoved thoughts of winter to the back of her head, giggling at the sight of a fullerfly, colorful little creatures about the size of large butterflies, buzzing across the field going about their business as if they were all by themselves. Summer was perfect, she thought, and it wasn’t just the climate and the sense of discovering a new Eden with its wonders and marvels. It was the overall mood, the spirit. Hope and optimism permeated the community, and everyone was slowly settling in. Nothing could take that away.
Especially not today. She was on her way to see Jeremiah and a few other scientists, who were franticly planning for an expedition scheduled to go south within days. The expedition hadn’t been approved yet, but Jeremiah insisted there was no way they could say no to this. Maria wasn’t as certain about it, but if it was to happen, she wanted to be a part of it. So far, the Havelar administration had been very strict about sticking to the overall plan, not deviating in the slightest. Most proposals that weren’t part of the original plans were therefore denied, but it was worth a try. This time, the arguments to go might be strong enough to convince even Havelar himself.
The reason for all this was an image received from the Exodus six days ago. South of Fort Andrews, a vast expanse of grass stretched as far as the eye could see, with scattered lakes and probably some marshlands in between. None of the patrols that had been sent out to explore the area had ventured far enough south to see the end of it. But they knew there were large forests beyond the explored lands, stretching as far as the southern coastline. The earlier images produced by the Exodus hadn’t revealed what lay beneath the forest canopy, but the image received just six days ago had turned the entire scientific community upside down.
The image was one of many picturing the forest, but with one difference. It showed a thin plume of smoke rising through the canopy. Maria didn’t know what to think. Of course, it could be a forest fire, but Jeremiah had been adamant. There was nothing to support such a claim, and subsequent images showed nothing to indicate there had been a forest fire in the area. No, he claimed, whatever produced the plume was contained, controlled.
So, could it be human? A few eager beavers going off on their own? She didn’t think so. As far as Maria knew, no one had even ventured that far, and the rules set even before landing had been clear: No unauthorized expeditions that might endanger them all, because no one knew what they might find.
But if not human, what then? An intelligent species? That was the thing everyone spoke of, and to be truthful, that’s what had gotten her so excited about it as well. Of course it might be something entirely unexciting, such as a geyser or some sort of volcanic phenomenon, although Jeremiah, being a geologist, claimed it couldn’t be. Whatever it was, the thought of actually going out there into the unknown, to explore, gave her butterflies. It was simply too exciting not to be a part of it.
Chapter 2
KENNETH TAYLOR
After coming to Aurora, Kenneth Taylor had often contemplated the twists and turns that had divided his life into three distinct parts, and the differences and similarities between these parts. He saw them as three different lives, and he himself as three different people living these lives. In his first life, he’d been the cocky and sometimes over-confident young man on his way to the stars. The space cadet watching Scott and Reynolds putting down the flag on Martian soil, making him immensely proud, and quite a bit jealous as well. That young man still had his own goal well within range, since his goal had been to be among the first colonists to build an outpost on the red planet. Then he had made one critical mistake, one that was to shape his life for years to come, and lead to his downfall, and kill his dream of ever going to Mars. His mistake opened his eyes to the way fear and paranoia were destroying the ideals upon which his entire life was built. That same mistake had saved his life, too, because the Mars colony ended in disaster. But, by then, the young, enthusiastic man had been replaced by another, more careful and quiet Kenneth Taylor. His second life was one of personal solitude, academic success and growing estrangement from the society he would once have been willing to die for. While his success as an academic was undisputed, he chose to keep his political views to himself. From bitter experience, he knew that the wrong word in the wrong ear could end his career, and he even saw other skeptics fired, or even sent off to jail on account of minor offenses and hearsay. Then Devastator appeared, and his third life began. He still didn’t know how it would turn out, but so far, it had brought him from Harvard to Aurora.
He had taken to the habit of wandering off, out by the perimeter where military patrols kept a vigilant eye out for balders, terrible furry beasts taller than a human being, with sharp claws, fangs the size of a man's arm, and an aggressive demeanor. There had already been several balder attacks, and although no one had died yet, it was only a matter of time before someone was taken unaware by the frightening predators. There could be other dangers lurking in the forests outside human control as well, since the area was largely unexplored. So on a couple of occasions, when he’d walked too far out, armed men had caught up with him in their quad bikes, and brusquely told him to go back to safety. He’d complied, but it still irked him in a way he recognized. He had a problem with anyone telling him what to do, and he wanted to explore this new world for himself.
So one day, he decided to take matters into his own hands and venture out into the unknown by himself, whether the military goons liked it or not. He started watching the patrols, and noticing their habits and routines. It turned out they varied their schedule every four days, but by observing their routines for two days, he could easily anticipate where they would be at any given time for the next two days. After that, he was able to go wherever he wanted, as long as he planned it a couple of days beforehand.
One day, out beyond the perimeter, he encountered a creature he’d never seen before. Its short fur covered most of its body, which was a deep burgundy, with dark brown stripes, and a long wagging tail. Its head held two saucer-like eyes, a wide snout, and large rounded ears, and it didn’t appear to have a mouth at all until it screeched in a high-pitched voice; three short shrieks, as if telling him something urgent. Then it cocked its head, and it seemed to Kenneth that it was waiting for him to answer. He was too entranced to even think of trying to communicate with the creature, and after a few seconds passed in silence, the creature bounced off. Kenneth thought it looked funny. He didn’t think it was dangerous, and he was fascinated by its apparent curiosity and the way it seemed to try to communicate with him.
After a while, he had sat down to rest and have a snack. He didn’t have a lot to eat; the rations were enough to sustain them, but not a lot more, and it would take some time for the colony to be self-sufficient. For now, they were still reliant upon provisions brought down from the Exodus. He unwrapped a high-concentrate energy bar, and bit into it. It tasted of honey and butter, with a hint of chocolate. As he chewed on it, he thought back on when he had been a young man, and realized that he’d actually come quite far. If he’d known back then what lay ahead, he wouldn’t have believed it. But still, the young Kennet
h Taylor would probably have been fascinated by all this. It was NASA astronaut, combat fighter pilot, and national hero John Scott who had first set foot upon Mars, but it was the man who had followed Scott, Oliver Reynolds, who had been Kenneth’s big hero. Dr. Reynolds, the geologist and second man to walk the surface of the red planet. And while Scott went on to tour the world, and eventually won himself a seat in the Senate, Reynolds had slowly disappeared from the spotlight as he went back to academia to pursue his greatest interests. Both heroes in their own ways, but somehow Kenneth had resonated more with the quiet academic than the brash jock. And then, after building a career of his own, with no prospects of ever fulfilling his true dream, he’d ended up here, more than forty light years into deep space. The dream of his youth, only a million times further. The bitter parts of it, such as leaving a doomed Earth were always there, and then there was the issue of government… But even so, he had reached so much farther than he’d ever dreamed.
Of course, after every man, woman, and child in the first permanent human settlement outside Earth had perished, and the history books were rewritten to fit the new order of things, Dr. Oliver Reynolds had been largely forgotten. The history of the first men on Mars still held a place in the collective memory of the nation, but only as a warning and an example of the naiveté that had eventually led to the disaster.
Every time Kenneth though about that, he shuddered. To think that the fatal disaster should be used as leverage to cripple the constitution and dismantle democracy was nauseating. And even worse, what if it hadn’t happened? What if the Mars settlement had been a success, and NASA and all the other agencies had been allowed to continue their work? Could the greatest disaster of all time have been averted? Could they have discovered the rogue planet earlier, possibly even saved Earth? Or at the least, saved more lives?
Aurora (The Exodus Trilogy) Page 2