by Chris Hechtl
Paki shot the bonobo nurse a dubious look. She was smart enough to have a shawl and a steaming cup of tea. “Don't get me wrong, but I think you are full of shit,” he said with a shake of his massive head.
Beatrice shot him a hurt look. “Why?” she asked, taken aback.
“Remember science class? Plants breathe in carbon dioxide and exhale oxygen. Well, most do, mushrooms do the opposite,” Paki explained patiently, as if to a child.
“Yeah, any school kid knows that,” a young Neochimp said in exasperation as he walked by.
Paki shook his head and waited for the annoying troublemaker to pass before he turned to Beatrice.
“Carbon dioxide is a greenhouse gas. We need it to thicken things up and heat things up. That's why, after they bombed the planet with rocks and comets, they seeded it with gene-engineered mycrozenia. Mushrooms,” he explained. The bonobo bit her lip but nodded at his lecture. “Now if the plants are sucking it up to make oxygen for us to breathe, there isn't enough of a thickening agent left.”
Beatrice blinked at him as she processed that and then nodded slowly. “Oh. So …”
“So, I think Alina was right; we jumped the gun and landed too early. We should have landed in another decade or two. But …,” Paki shrugged helplessly. They'd had that particular discussion before. It hadn't gotten far beyond the usual gripe session since the decision hadn't been up to them.
“So, why did we?”
“Pressure from everyone to get on the ground most likely. So, we're here now. We'll have to make do with what we've got,” the Neogorilla chuffed.
“Great,” Beatrice drawled, hugging her shawl tighter.
“Don't worry; if mankind is up to par like normal, we'll be polluting the planet in next to no time,” Paki said with a smirk.
“Don't get too hopeful about that. We're going to be building most of the industry up there,” Beatrice said as she pointed a long finger up to the sky. Paki followed her finger up and looked up speculatively. “Industrial complexes up there since this star system is so rich in asteroids. I bet we'll beat out Pyrax in next to no time and eventually rival Earth when we get our feet under us,” she said with pride.
Paki nodded with his own grin. A lot of people had signed on to the colony for that very challenge. “Besides, aren't fossil fuels the big culprit on Earth? Well, we don't have them here. No food chain before the terraforming. I do remember that much of the briefing,” the Neo bonobo said with a sniff before she took a sip of her tea.
“True,” Paki admitted.
“The eco-geeks better get the balance right or we'll all be victims of our own success,” Alina said wryly as she came up behind them. “Damn! Brr!” she said with a shiver.
The two apes looked over to her and then snorted as they looked at each other humorously. Alina tended to go sans clothes whenever she thought she could get away with it. This had turned out to be one of those times she regretted it. The cat shouldered on a sports bra and then a rain coat before she went looking for her running shoes for her morning jog.
“True. But that's their problem. We've got our own,” Paki said, indicating the rows in the field.
“It'll be all of ours if they can't get their shit together,” Beatrice muttered as they got back to their morning schedule.
~~*^*~~
The Randall family's situation wasn't lost on their neighbors, nor people in the small but rapidly growing Landing. Malory was admired by people around them for her willingness to pitch in with hard work. Some of the single men flirted with her in passing. She put them off since she was married, but she wasn't above taking something they gave her … to help the kids she reminded herself. Some even told her she needed to ditch duddly-do-nothing Donald and find someone else. She felt better, wanted by someone. Slowly she allowed herself to flirt a bit.
Donald instantly became jealous. On her way back from doing the laundry, he confronted and pressed Malory not to hang out with them. “They are our friends and neighbors!” she protested.
“If they are hitting on my wife, they are no friends of mine!” he growled.
“Don, it's innocent. I wouldn't stray; you know that,” Malory protested, aware they were making a scene.
“You are not to associate with those … people,” he ordered.
“Don, I'm not a kid! You don't own me! I need them. You won't lift a finger to help me and they do!”
“I am … I am homesick, okay! I miss my family!” he threw his hands up in the air.
Malory noted their kids were watching them fight. She suddenly felt intensely guilty. She could see that little Faith struggled to understand. Tirel and Patricia tried to shelter her, but they both shot angry and hurt looks at their parents.
Malory bit her lip.
“No more,” Donald snarled. “Now, what's for dinner?” he demanded, sitting on a stump.
“I don't know. I've been at work all day. You're the one here,” Malory said, exasperated all over again.
“Oh, so now cooking and cleaning is my job?” he demanded. “I hate this place,” he muttered, picking up a pebble and tossing it.
“Well, better get used to it. It was a one-way trip,” Malory said as she crossed her arms.
“Mama, I'm hungry too,” Tirel said. “I'll help you cook,” he offered.
“Me too,” Patricia said.
“See? There you go. Helpers a plenty,” Donald said, waving a hand. “Have at it.”
Malory shot him a dark look. “Come on kids, let's get busy. Your dad can fend for himself though. And he can sleep in his own sleeping bag,” she growled.
“That's what you think, lady. It might be a lean-to but I'm the king of this castle,” Donald said, thumping his chest as he pulled out a bottle of hooch.
“Where did you get that?” she demanded.
“Wouldn't you like to know,” he said with a sniff as he took a swig. He coughed and wiped at his mouth with the back of his hand. “Damn! That is rough! Like paint thinner!”
Malory shook her head as she went to the improvised kitchen area. “Tirel, get the fire going again. We'll need it,” she muttered.
“Right, mama,” he replied, getting to work as he'd been taught.
Malory looked at her husband, but he didn't lift a finger. He just sat on the stump drinking the hooch and muttering about how unfair everything was turning out to be.
~~*^*~~
Once he had a basic idea of what he wanted to achieve, Doctor Grayskull used explosives and purpose-built robots to dig the cave mouth out and expand his fortress. Building the structure posed all sorts of interesting challenges, which was a worthwhile diversion in its own. He considered reprogramming some of his limited supply of nanotech to help with the project, but reluctantly packed it away when he overheard some talk against nanotech in Eternia City.
Instead, once the latest building was complete, he took back his building printer. That hadn't made him popular with the community leaders, but he didn't care and pointed out they wouldn't let him set up his reactor in the city anyway.
He'd transported and then reassembled the giant robotic contraption to his fortress and then used it to build the edifice of his castle. Once he was certain it was functioning smoothly, he brought in and installed his fusion reactor with the help of his robots and then began transporting his lab equipment piece by piece.
Sometimes he wondered why he'd chosen a skull face as the front of his castle. It was a bit morbid, and the use of a drawbridge was wholly inconvenient. But it did give his new home what he wanted; an imposing feature that would scare away would-be trespassers. It also made a statement, and besides, he'd always wanted a skull faced castle when he'd been a little boy. A bit of whimsy wasn't normally his thing, but this one had risen from the depths of his memory and had felt right.
He reminded himself to set up defenses should the need arise before he plunged back into the project at hand.
~~*^*~~
Once Speedwell was unloaded, Governor Thrakle cleare
d the ship to depart for home. “We've kept you long enough, Captain. My thanks for your patience,” he said.
“I'm not completely heartless,” Captain Holt replied. “You were right to hold them back until the winter had passed,” he said grudgingly. The fuel that the colony had provided would give him a healthy reserve to get back to Sol he knew. But since it was hydrogen and not deuterium and Trinium, it wouldn't be as energy efficient. He planned to burn the hydrogen on the way to the hyperbridge. It would slow him down a bit, but it would allow him to keep his more efficient fuel for transiting the hyperbridge network.
“Still, I'm sorry you'll miss your bonus. Godspeed,” Fin said in his final address to the ship.
“Good luck to you, all of you. If all goes as planned, we'll be back in about three and a half years or so. Give or take a month … unless the home office redirects us to another colony,” the captain said.
“Understood. Safe sailing,” Fin replied with a nod as the circuit was cut.
“We're on our own,” he said once he saw the ship get underway and break orbit. He made a puttering sound. “One way or another we'll make it work. We've got to,” he vowed.
~~*^*~~
Malory was intensely grateful when they were given space in the barracks. It had taken far longer than expected, the entire spring, summer, and fall season, but with winter fast approaching, something had to be done. The governor had apparently given some of the shareholders who were squatting in the barracks a choice, make room or move back to their holdings and get ready for winter.
All Donald could say was that it was about time.
Birdy had come with them and was in their building. Malory was as much concerned for the frail woman as she was for the health of herself and her kids. The blond woman had developed a nasty cough after the last series of cold rainstorms. One of the Neochimp nurses had finally come around skid row to treat those who were sick and had pronounced the woman had pneumonia.
Birdy smiled to Malory as they set up their belongings in one section of the barracks. Malory tucked their gear under the bottom bunk. Patricia and Tirel had to share a bunk. Donald had become more or less resigned to having Faith sleep between him and Malory. Not that Malory was interested in any marital bliss with the way he'd been acting.
The following morning she had even more cause to be grateful when Tirel crowed about snow falling outside. She looked out the window over the excited kid's heads and watched the first flakes of winter begin to drift downward in the wind.
~~*^*~~
Magellan exited hyperspace at the jump zone to the hyperbridge leading to Sol. Once Kathy pronounced the coast was clear, they deployed a satellite buoy to transmit a warning. “It's one thing to do it here at the jump to home, but we need one at the entrance too,” Mort pointed out. “You know, to warn ships coming into the sector.”
“We need to warn Earth. They are going to need all the lead time they can get if they are going to do anything about this,” Captain Cooley said firmly. He stopped himself from reminding them that their return to Sol was in no way guaranteed. They might run into problems along the way.
“With Earth First in charge of the government? Skipper, you and I both know that's a big if,” Mort said quietly.
The captain nodded once as he crossed his arms. “We do what we can,” he said firmly. “Rig the ship for hyperspace jump,” he said.
“Aye aye, sir,” the chief engineer replied after a moment. One by one the other department heads echoed the order.
Chapter 7
January 2233
Protodon
The colony ship Pinta dropped off the first thirty thousand people on the small colony world of Protodon. The colony had a minimum gear for their setup; they'd just managed to scrape together the money to pay for the down payment for the colony along with leasing the ship.
Half of the colony was made up of lottery winners. The founders of the colony had latched onto the Antigua lottery concept to pay for the colony. It hadn't been easy, and it had forced them to split the colony's shipment of hopeful colonists in half. Each half would have another fifteen thousand lottery winners.
Bobby McDonald shook her head as she looked out the window to the island chain. The fog was lifting, so on a clear day one could see for kilometers around. The images from space they'd seen hadn't done the world justice. It had also been something of a misnomer to some; they hadn't realized the islands were so small in some places.
Given that the planet hadn't naturally evolved to sustain life, the terraformers had erred on the side of caution and overkill. They'd also been in something of a hurry in order to get the planet habitable so they could get their bonuses.
For the next several centuries, at least until someone figured out a better planetary refrigeration process the woman mused, the planet's surface would be covered in water with a scattering of various sized islands. Each were really mountain tops; the terraforming process had melted the ice caps too much she thought pensively. It would take centuries of the planet cooling before the ice would reform and the water levels would recede.
She inhaled the morning breeze. “Like fine wine,” She murmured.
“Eh?” her sister Claudia asked.
“Nothing,” Bobby said, waving a dismissive hand. Claudia eyed her and then went back to her chores.
Everything had to be handmade, Bobby thought. It was a tedious process. They had trees, but with the planet covered in islands, the trees were precious. She'd heard grand ideas of fishing fleets and dredging operations to make the islands bigger. You had to have a ship to have a fishing fleet. More than one she thought. She and her sister had come from the Earth with little. She knew some had come with barely the clothes on their back.
“Top of the mornin' to you, ladies,” a familiar voice said from the shelter's window. Claudia cracked a welcoming smile to young Reg Mannolini. Reg had red hair and was something of a character with his fake Irish accent, suspenders, and knitted cap.
“How are you this fine morning, Reg?” Claudia asked. Bobby shook her head at her sister's flirtatious tone.
“Fine, just fine,” Reg drawled. “I see the herds have been turned loose early,” he said.
Claudia craned her neck around him to see the white dots of the sheep flock on the hillsides. They only had so many sheep to begin with; every one of them was precious. “Damn it,” she muttered. She whistled to the dogs and then sent them off running to gather up the herd before they got into trouble.
“Ah, I see they must have done that on their own then,” Reg said with a grin in his voice as he tipped his hat back with his thumb and forefinger. Claudia went out with the collies to help round up the flock.
Bobby went out and tended the fire, then stretched. “Anything new to report, Reg?” she asked.
“Now that you mention it, yon Luca has finished his hang glider and is already testing it,” he reported, pointing to a triangular speck doing wheels in the morning sky. “He said the best time to fly is during the morning with the updrafts and such,” Reg said.
“Damn it,” Bobby muttered, shielding her eyes to look up to the speck. Luca was birdy happy. He was young and had loved to fly on Earth despite the terrible pollution.
“It seems to work. Now once he has the air masses mapped out, he says he can carry a package to the nearby islands,” Reg said indifferently.
“He's still nuts,” Bobby said with a growl. She turned flashing green eyes on Reg. “And so are you for encouraging him!”
“Ah now, don't be sore, lass. I know some say man wasn't built to fly, but we got here, din' we?” he asked with a roguish grin.
“Maybe. But it's one thing to fly in a spaceship or … whatever. Quite another to trust your life with a contraption made from wood and scrap!”
“Tis built here by hand. If it breaks, he only has himself to blame,” Reg said. “And tisn't all wood. It has some bamboo in it to lighten it up. He wanted more, but he used up all that was available,” Reg said.
> “Right,” Bobby drawled.
One of the things that had sold her family on Protodon was the idea of recreating the old country. A Celtic land for their descendants, a simple place for simple pleasures and such. They'd stuck to that theme with some things, the sheep for one, and fallow collies to manage the flock. They also had the materials to make whiskey and beer, plus a few other touches of home.
But they'd had to compromise on a few things too. Doctor Hubert Humphrey had brought along the bamboo and a few other plants. He'd also seeded the oceans with anything he could get his hands on. He'd tried to talk some Neos into coming, Otters, Selkie, and dolphins, but since the colony was so new and the species were still exploring the seas on Mars, they'd declined.
A few Neos had come along though, like Adam Ursini. The big shaggy brown Neobear tended to his own holdings and ran maintenance on a series of antenna farms on them. The antennas allowed the colony to talk to someone in orbit or to pass information from one island to another.
Bobby stoked the fire a bit, and then put a pot on to begin boiling water. That was something some of her people were still learning and getting used to, the idea of actually having to use fire, let alone cook raw food for themselves. Some had very little food to begin with. Fortunately, it was mid-spring on the planet so they could pick berries and fish.
“Fishers are on the coast. There was some talk around the fires about making a boat again. They want to take some of the drying wood and make a long boat. Try their luck further out,” Reg reported.
“Damn it …,” Bobby sighed.
“I know,” Reg said with a grimace. He'd worked the cutting teams off and on for the past week. He had fresh calluses and some sore muscles for his trouble. Cutting a tree down with an ax was something new and he'd thought exciting at first. But the newness had worn off to a general pall by the fourth or fifth chop.
Some people didn't realize how much work it was to live in a back-to-basics colony. They were learning however.