A New Colony amongst the Stars

by Philip R Benge

  **********

  Outside the gates of the large Washington DC space port, a small group of protesters had gathered to voice their protests at the planned colonisation of the planet New Caledonia by the Church of the Universe. The protesters intended to prevent access to the space port of all goods or people bound for the colony starship; they were followers of the Genesis cult. As a convoy of three coaches, filled with some of the colonists, approached the gates of the space port, the protesters attempted to block their path, only the local state troopers prevented them, instead the members of the Genesis cult had to be content with verbal protests and the odd hand thrown missile. One of those present was Magnus Smart, the leader of the cult, he was a large powerful man and he was able to force his way through the line of state troopers, and in doing so he stopped the convoy of coaches, for he wanted to pass on a message that he personally had received from god, and he had been told to deliver it personally to those who had ignored god`s previous warnings.

  “Take heed unbelievers, God has cast Man out of the Garden of Eden, to attempt to return to it will anger him and bring down on the transgressors his swift divine punishment. He destroyed your first space ark; he will destroy your second one.” Smart cried out angrily into a small transmitter around his neck while he shook his fist at the colonists.

  The Genesis cult, like many other religious groups, had some very affluent followers amongst its members, and Magnus Smart was able to use their wealth to finance many things. This wealth paid for the technology that allowed his words to come over the speakers within the three coaches, words that would been stopped by the windows of the coaches which were almost sound proof.

  The colonists within the coaches were already feeling uneasy as they looked down at the protesters, they could see their banners proclaiming the death of any who left the Sol solar system, it was only the security grills that covered each of the windows that protected from the usual attack that a normal protester could launch against them. Even so the banners made the colonists feel a little anxious for their wellbeing, some were even a little scared; however, Bishop Vernon Marley was aboard the lead coach, as he had been aboard the lead coach of the previous convoy that had passed through the space port gates just two hours earlier. His voice was heard aboard all three coaches via the same speakers, and he now reassured his people that all was well, they should not panic but put their trust in god. Bishop Marley and his wife would be also travelling to New Caledonia with the colonists, their reason being the same as the other 99 couples travelling with them, to start a family, for it was very expensive on Earth to have even one child, and only the rich could afford to have more than one.

  Three more men and two women had managed to follow Magnus Smart through the line of state troopers, each of them carried a paint can, and they threw the cans of paint at the windscreen of the lead coach. The lids on the cans had been removed so that the paint splashed across the windscreen making it almost impossible for the driver to see where he was going. Some of the colonists screamed out in fear as the remainder of the protesters surged forward pushing the state troopers perilously near to the coaches, but finally Smart and the other five protesters were forced back behind the line of troopers allowing the three coaches to finally drive through the gates. With paint covering much of his windscreen the lead driver could only see snatches of what was in front of the coach, and foolishly he turned on the windscreen wipers, and that smeared the paint across the whole of the window, and so once inside the space port he brought the coach to a halt, the other two coaches proceeding on to the shuttle. Bishop Marley immediately disembarked from the coach and instructed the coach driver to proceed slowly forward, for he would be his eyes and they proceeded on without further delay. When all three coaches had finally reached the shuttle the colonists boarded it, the shuttle would then take the colonists up to the space dock. The colonists were full of hopes for the future, the trouble at the port gates would soon be forgotten and then only their dreams of a new life in a virgin world would fill their minds.

  Amongst the final batch of colonists was Captain Mark Summers, he was one of the most experienced of the men making this trip, having recently retired from Earth`s marine corps and so space travel was nothing new to him. With him was his new bride Susan, they had only been married for one week, and they were looking forward to spending their honeymoon upon a new world.

  Susan was a farmer`s daughter, they had met while she was at university, she left it with a degree in farming, she had planned to use it to help her father on the farm he managed in central Utah. However, one month after leaving university her parents had died in a traffic accident, and afterwards the owners of the farm told her they did not want a young woman just out of university running the farm. She now found herself an orphan, homeless and out of work, she would have been desolate except for one thing, Mark was already very much on the scene by then. He was on extended leave while recovering from a broken leg that he got while hunting down a particularly nasty pack of space pirates. Their romance had blossomed and Mark had asked her to marry him, and Susan had accepted, however she had stressed that she did not want a life of constant worry while he was away from her on active service. Susan still could not believe that Mark had agreed to put aside the excitement of his life in the marines, to start a new life with her, one that would be quieter but physically harder, but she was very happy that he had. They were moving to New Caledonia to start their new life together, to raise a family, and to carve a farm out of the wilderness. They had been accepted as colonists because the man in charge of allocations had known her father; even so it was only because of one other couple changing their mind that space had been found for them.

  As they walked from the shuttle towards the Ark, across the metal floor of the space dock, their ears were blasted by the messages being broadcast almost continuously by the space dock`s loudspeaker system. All of these messages were now aimed at the colonists; it was ordering them to walk directly to the starship so as not to block the corridors. Mark increased his pace, anything to get away from the deafening messages. However, many of the other colonists had ignored the order, they had stopped to take in the views of Earth that they could see through a number of view ports, and Susan decided to join them, for this was to be her first trip in space and the sight of the Earth hanging there in the blackness of space was too beautiful a sight to pass up.

  “Move along please, you are blocking the way.” The loudspeaker screamed out even louder.

  Mark looked back at Susan, who seemed unaffected by the loudspeaker, as were many others amongst the colonists even when the man at the other end of the loudspeaker turned up the volume, Mark saw the look of awe in her eyes as she took in the view, so he returned to her side so that they could enjoy it together.

  “Darling, it is beautiful isn`t it, from the photographs that we have seen of New Caledonia it should be equally beautiful.” Mark said as the person on the other end of the loudspeaker continued to scream out orders.

  “Come on Susan, let`s get aboard the Ark before the idiot on the other end of the loudspeaker self-implodes.” Mark begged, for the noise of the loudspeaker certainly affected him. He was used to the sounds of battle, but not the sound of some manic official screaming through a loudspeaker with the volume turned up to maximum.

  Unwillingly, Susan allowed Mark to lead her away from the view port as a long line of motorised carts appeared, all loaded with goods going to one or more of the ships currently docked at the space port. The other colonists were now also heading for the starship, and between them they brought the convoy of carts to a halt, making the official at the other end of the loudspeaker system scream out in exasperation.

  “What a fantastic start to our honeymoon Darling, I will always remember that view, it was so beautiful.” Susan said as they stepped aboard the Ark, as for Mark he would remember two things, her look of awe and the manic official.

  **********

  Departure date had arrive
d, and all the colonists were now in cryogenic stasis, their goods loaded and stored in the ship`s hold. The large spacecraft now moved out of space dock and away from Earth; soon it left the Sol solar system far behind it as it sped towards the planet New Caledonia. Nothing could now prevent the planned colonisation, apart from the two explosive devices that it carried in its hold.

  **********

  The crew of the Ark slowly regained consciousness as the starship`s computer brought them all out of cryogenic stasis, it was just before the starship was about to drop out of hyperspace. Each member of the crew had a long drink of water, and most splashed some more water upon their faces; they needed too after cryogenic stasis, to awaken themselves. They were approaching the planet of New Caledonia and the helmsman now took the massive starship into orbit above the new colony world, Captain Larson was sitting in his chair upon the bridge and the newly awakened crew were all at their posts.

  “Ok, take us down to the landing site helmsman.” Larson said.

  The helmsman acknowledged the order and now took the starship down through the planet`s atmosphere, suddenly one of the starship`s minor computers began to smoke, then a small explosion caused all of the electrical devices on the bridge to wink out for a second, before coming back on.

  Larson moved over to the computer station, where 1st officer Robbie Jenson was already running diagnostics on the starship`s systems, he turned as Larson looked at the monitor he too was reading.

  “We`re all right Captain, moisture must have somehow got into one of the relays when the environmental system kicked in, it caused one of the minor systems to blow, but the backups came on-line, we`re still good to go.” Jenson said with a smile on his face.

  Unknown to the officer, one program to do with this system was still faulty, the one that told the starship`s main computer the exterior air pressure, this one was displaying a completely wrong reading, not that it would affect the huge starship in any way. The starship continued down towards the planet, passing 18,000 feet and dropping down towards the planet. The wind chose this moment to pick up speed, pushing hard against the starboard side of the starship, they now encountered a particularly bad piece of turbulence, however the powerful thrusters of the starship were more than able to compensate for it, the crew only suffered minor discomfort as the vessel neared its destination. The starship was speeding across a tall forest, moving towards a large grass filled prairie that disappeared over the horizon; this was their planned landing site.

  “Helmsman, bring the speed down to slow ahead, and prepare to bring her to a halt.” Captain Larson ordered.

  It was now that the starship`s computer gave the two explosive devices an erroneous exterior pressure reading, the starboard explosive device went off in a deafening explosion, and flames leapt from the large hole blown in the starship`s side. The starship was just 50 feet above the ground, so the explosion did not prove fatal, as it was meant to be. It was now that the second device detonated leaving the starship with only the rear thrusters to regulate the direction that their forward motion would take them, and to make matters worse the forward port vertical thrusters were also thrown off line by the explosion. The starship immediately took on a drunken list to port and without the forward port thrusters to negate the force of the strengthening wind from the starboard side, the starship veered sharply off course.

  “Helmsman stop all engines then take her down.” Captain Larson exclaimed.

  The order was too late though, and before Larson could even think to use the rear thrusters to regulate the ship`s course the sleek starship crashed into the outermost trees of the forest, the nose of the starship easily cleaving its way through them. The tortuous sound of the metal screaming as it thrust its way through was mixed with the sound of tearing branches and falling trees. Those amongst the crew who were not sitting down were violently thrown to the floor; how none of them were injured was a miracle and thankfully the colonists were all secure in their cryogenic pods. The atmospheric engines had been ripped from the starship`s fuselage soon after the Ark pushed forward into the forest, so Captain Larson could not even put the ship into reverse, he was powerless to stop the ever growing catastrophe. Thankfully the starship slowly stopped its forward motion and began a slow descent to the ground, slow because of the trees pressing in on it from every direction except the rear. Chief Engineer Donald Peterson now turned off the forward starboard side vertical thrusters which brought the starship onto a slightly more even keel, one that sloped downwards towards the stern of the vessel, which then crashed down onto the grassy meadow with a loud thump as the power to both of the stern thrusters now failed. The forward section of the ship was still slowly sinking down and producing a terrible grinding noise as the trees were forced sideways which scared any remaining wild life away from the area. This section of the starship did not actually hit the ground, for there were too many trees beneath it, even so many things were jarred loose when it finally stopped its downward motion, however the crew knowing it was coming were holding on for dear life. There followed another series of sounds, some were parts of trees breaking under the massive weight; others were parts of starship breaking away, as the starship slowly settled upon its bed of broken trees. At least the automatic sprinklers had put out the many fires that had sprung up, the final scream from the starship occurred when its back was broken when it had begun to settle down into its final resting place.

  Captain Larson and his bridge crew slowly got to their feet. “Anyone hurt?” Larson called out, but miraculously they were fine apart from a few scrapes.

  He now contacted engineering; thankfully the intercom was still working after the crash. “Chief, is everyone all right down there?”

  “Yes, Captain, a few cuts, Engineer Balder may have a mild concussion after colliding with a wall, but otherwise we got off lightly. What the hell happened Captain?”

  “I have no idea Chief, there were two explosions and suddenly our bow came around and we plunged straight into the forest that borders the landing area. However, we can look into the cause later, right now get everyone over to the cryogenic pods section; we need to revive the colonists while we still have some power remaining and before anything else happens.” Larson replied.

  Larson looked across at Jenson; he had been busy while his captain checked on the condition of his crew.

  “The reserve power is still flowing to the cryogenic pods Captain, but as you said, we need to revive the colonists quickly, or we will lose some, maybe all of them.” Jenson said having anticipated his captain`s next question.

  “Right, all of you, follow me down to the pods.” Larson ordered and he led the three other officers off the broken bridge.

  They found that the cryogenic pods had indeed survived the crash, and with the reserve power they had sufficient energy to allow the crew to revive the colonists. With the assistance of the crew members from engineering they began to bring the colonists out of stasis, taking the dazed colonists out of the starship to rest in the meadow.

  “Jenson, you had better take some of the colonists to the armoury, hand out a Phaser rifle to anyone you think capable of handling one without accidentally killing one of the other colonists. Have them keep a look out for any of the local carnivores; the survey identified quite a few large animals that may look upon a crowd of confused colonists as dinner.” Captain Larson ordered. “In fact you had better stay with them to ensure that we do not lose anyone, it would be totally unfair after surviving the crash.” Larson decided.

  Neither the captain or any of the crew had yet had the time to take the crash in, to think about what had happened and why, they were all too busy working, even now it was a race to save lives.

  **********

  When all of the colonists had been brought out of cryogenic stasis, Captain Larson and First Officer Robert Jenson decided to check the hull of the downed starship, to see if they could find out why they had crashed, Chief Engineer Peterson accompanied them. However, before proceeding w
ith this task Larson stepped back to look at his stricken starship, and what he saw brought tears to his eyes and anger to his very being.

  “Robert, Donald, if a human being caused this, then damn his soul for eternity.” Larson said to his 1st officer, using their Christian names for the first time ever.

  “Amen to that Captain.” Jenson and Peterson replied grimly.

  They stood there staring at the downed starship, finally taking a minute to get their breath, to think of what could have happened and how lucky they all were to have not lost a single life in what was a major disaster. For the starship had come down near to the banks of a river some eighteen feet wide slowly flowing from out of the forest and into the vast prairie, in some places it was quite deep and they had missed landing in it by just ten feet.

  On commencing their inspection of the starship they soon found the evidence, a large hole in the side of their broken starship where the forward starboard side thrusters had once been.

  “Captain, the blast came from within the ship`s hold, see the area around the hole has been forced outwards, it was sabotage!” Jenson exclaimed. “The Genesis cult must be behind it, they took out the ship to turn their warnings into facts.” He declared angrily.

  “You may well be correct Robert; the explosion took out the starboard thrusters, however this is not the reason why we slewed off course and were forced into the forest.” Captain Larson replied. “Come on Robert, Donald, let`s check on the port thrusters.”