Original Work Terra Novae Spes

An awful long way from home to see the Milky Way. Or is there one locally as well?

 

Given the Milky Way is over 100,000 light years across, it is not out of the realm of possibility.

 

Meaning the haze in the sky we can see when we're out of the city lights and light pollution.

I was originally going to go full technical nerd and explain which arm of the galaxy Novae Spes was sitting in, but decided against it.

 

CHAPTER 14


Estimated Time of Arrival: 16 Earth days


It had been a busy couple of weeks since the command group had been woken from stasis as they prepared for the eventual arrival at Novae Spes. Mary and the medical team had started waking the colonists up from stasis and had a good plan for getting most of them up and running by the time they arrived at the planet. Or so the plan was. She was extremely busy at the moment and wasn’t attending regular meetings, so Ben decided to allow the section heads a little additional time to get their departments in order. He decided to check in with the team leads since their daily meetings were being postponed for the time being.

“Getting antsy?” asked Ben as he saw Angeline taking readings of one of the additional planets in the system they were in. He was wandering between the individual sections at the moment and saw her working in one of the science sections before deciding to pop in and give her a visit.

“New system with new worlds,” she said with a smile as she checked the data coming in.

“And new discoveries,” said Ben.

“This one I’m looking at is just an ordinary gas giant,” said Angeline. “Unremarkable except we are the first humans to ever see it.”

“Which makes it kinda important,” said Ben.

“I’m sure it has some hidden mysteries as all planets tend to,” said Angeline. “But for the moment, we’re going with ‘boring gas giant’ and leaving the big discoveries until later.”

“Looks larger than Jupiter,” said Ben as he glanced over the data. “Which will cause giddiness on the part of your staff.”

“And we get to name it,” she said with a smile. “You just browsing around?”

“Kinda,” said Ben. “I’m wondering what the local environment is like.”

“I’m sorry?” she asked.

“Tell me about the solar system we’re in, please,” he stated.

“Oh, certainly,” she stated. “What do you want to know?”

“Pretty much whatever you know so far,” said Ben.

“Okay, so the star is a main sequence type G2V star, pretty much identical to the Sun in the Terran system, life expectancy of another four to five billion years or so before it goes into a Red Giant phase and wipes out the nearby system,” she stated. “Eleven major planets total and we are still trying to account for the dwarf planets and outer belts.”

“So, eleven major planets, of which we’re heading to the fourth orbiting the star. Closest planet to the star is what we call an iron planet, almost devoid of any silicates like we have here and composed of a mainly iron surface and core. Some silicates, but not as much as one might think. Slightly smaller than Mercury in the Sol System and orbits extremely close to the star. Second planet is a silicate type, but similar to Mercury in the Sol System with more silicates than the first planet and slightly larger, like about Mars sized. A very thin atmosphere of oxygen and carbon dioxide, but not nearly enough to sustain life.”

“The third planet in the system is more or less a Venus twin around Earth sized. Slightly larger than Earth with a thick atmosphere of mainly sulfur dioxide but with a decent amount of carbon monoxide. It’s highly volcanic as it appears to still be undergoing continuous regeneration of the surface much like Io does in the Sol System. Surface temperatures are the highest we’ve recorded in the entire system because of the intense cloud cover.”

“Next is Novae Spes, which I don’t need to tell you about it,” said Angeline. “However, there are three moons in orbit which cause serious tidal prediction problems as each are tugging at the oceans. We believe at least two are captured dwarf planets as the composition is unlike the planet here. One has a surface similar to Mars, rich in iron, but no atmosphere to speak of. The next one in orbit is close to Luna in size, slightly smaller and with somewhat of the same composition of silicate rock. It very well could have been created at the same time as the planet here or been caused by an impact. The third moon is the second smallest and the only one with an atmosphere, mainly methane and hydrogen. Not a complete atmosphere, mind you, but enough to give it a blue hue.”

“The next planet, number five, is very curious and has the astrophysics team all sorts of excited. It’s called a carbon planet and almost entirely devoid of water. Surface is rich in carbon compounds and graphite it lacks any appreciable atmosphere. However, it’s rich in diamonds since the pressures on the internal mantle and volcanic activity send them to the surface.”

“The planet is a diamond?” asked Ben.

“Not specifically so, but the potential is there for massive carbon formations,” said Angeline. “Anyhow, the next planets, numbers six, seven and eight are your prototypical gas giant planets of which we’re passing close to seven. Large concentrations of hydrogen and helium in the atmosphere, solid core, weather patterns, so on and so forth. Nothing specifically special about them although one, number seven, has over a hundred satellites in orbit. It’s also the largest planet in the system, slightly larger than Jupiter as you stated.”

“This is the one you’re looking at?” asked Ben.

“It sure is,” said Angeline.

“A hundred moons?” asked Ben.

“That we’ve counted,” said Angeline. “Some are larger like Jupiter’s moons and have stable orbits as well as have relaxed into a spherical shape, others are far smaller. But yes, a hundred different moons in orbit.”

“Amazing,” said Ben. “Go on, please.”

“Okay, after number eight, we have an asteroid belt that has not only icy bodies, but iron and silicate types of asteroids. No dwarf planets like Ceres, but an intriguing mix of metals, silicates and frozen gasses to include a lot of water.”

“Next planets, nine and ten are ice giants like Uranus and Neptune for the most part. High concentrations of methane, helium and hydrogen in the atmospheres which give them a blue color as well. Now, the eleventh planet? That has us all kinds of excited.”

“Imagine that,” chuckled Ben. “And why?”

“Because if the orbit was closer to the star, it would be a complete ocean world,” said Angeline. “The planet itself, between the Earth and Mars in size, is composed almost entirely of water ice on the surface and water mountains caused by cryo-volcanism. If, and I stress the if, the planet was closer in the system, it would have an entire surface of water. We don’t know what the core material is at this point and there are other concentrations of frozen chemicals, methane and whatnot, but mainly it’s a water planet.”

“Well, that’s cool,” said Ben. “Anything else?”

“A belt in the outer system like the Kuiper Belt in the Sol System where we get comets and asteroids coming in as well as the cloud in the outer system like the Oort Cloud as well. Minor and dwarf planets in the outer system haven’t been completely cataloged yet since the advanced astrophysical equipment to do such things won’t be arriving until the later expeditions, but we have discovered about twenty objects for further study so far.”

“But nothing else inhabitable unless we’re under a dome?” asked Ben.

“No, the first three planets are out because of the heat, though one could create a moving colony like the one they have on Mercury on the second planet here. The first is out for that idea since the iron would hold in residual heat and make shielding critical to such a place. The fifth planet could, and I stress the could, be habitable under a dome, but we’d have to import nearly every bit of oxygen and water it would need as well as the basic building materials for the most part. There are significant amounts of titanium we’ve observed, so it could be an important mining colony for us in the future.”

“As colonization goes, there are several moons around the gas and ice giants that could be suitable as long as we had domes built. Plenty of water and basic materials there to build and sustain those places. However, getting to and from wouldn’t be easy.”

“And the water planet?” asked Ben.

“Frozen world,” said Angeline. “However, it very well could sustain a decent sized population like Pluto and Eris do in the Sol System. The outer belts could provide basic building materials like they did in the early days of the Sol System colonization and go from there.”

“But a bit chilly?” asked Ben.

“Very much so,” said Angeline. “What else?”

“That’s it mainly,” said Ben. “Though I am wondering about external threats.”

“Comets and asteroids?” asked Angeline.

“For the most part,” said Ben.

“We’ve observed a few dozen comets so far, but nothing heading towards Novae Spes,” she stated. “However, until we get the advanced equipment in, we’re blind as a bat out here.”

“Bats weren’t really blind,” he chuckled.

“Don’t attempt to scientifically correct me, mister!” she objected with a laugh. “Seriously though, we have basic equipment on the Santa Maria we’ve been doing observation work with. It’s crude, but it is giving us a head start. Luckily, we do have the cosmic vacuum cleaners for lack of a better term in the ice and gas giants sucking up material that might be headed for us otherwise. Just like the Sol System, we will have some limited protection from our cosmic neighbors so you can sleep easier.”

“Still, I remember Kirk and Riker talking about the heavy bombardment period and the fact it appears to have been far too long since a catastrophic strike hit Novae Spes. In short, they basically said the planet might be overdue for a heavy hit,” said Ben.

“You’re worried about the climatic changes like what happened after the Sao Paulo strike in 2039?” asked Angeline.

“Part of it, yes,” said Ben.

“Not much we can do about it at the moment,” said Angeline.

“Still nice to prepare for it,” said Ben.

“With the follow-on colonists, I’m sure we’ll have the materials to build a suitable deflection strategy. But I’m afraid we might be on our own to start,” said Angeline.

“Just something to think about,” suggested Ben.

“We’ll keep an eye out,” said Angeline.

“How did all this knowledge come in the past two weeks?” asked Ben.

“It didn’t,” said Angeline. “Novus had a bunch of probes zipping around the system for the past decade or so checking out the other worlds in case Novae Spes didn’t pan out.”

“Due diligence sort of thing?” asked Ben.

“More or less,” said Angeline. “Honestly, they only took readings on most of the planets and left the detailed science to us when we arrive.”

“Interesting,” said Ben. “And none of the data transmitted?”

“Not really,” said Angeline. “Novus felt it was important not to send too many signals from this system in order to keep it a secret. So, by and large, the probes have been buffering data for the past decade. We’re now collecting it and going through.”

“How long is it going to take?” asked Ben.

“Months if not longer,” said Angeline. “Probably well into Expedition 2 or 3 likely when we get the full astrophysics team on the ground. My small team and I will go through some of the data, but for the most part, we’re going to be busy getting everything built up. We’ll save the heavy work for when we get expanded.”

“If you find anything really cool, like a huge diamond, let me know,” said Ben.

“Will do,” said Angeline as she went back to perusing the data. Ben started heading towards the infirmary to check on the colonists coming out of stasis, but ran into Rachelle along the way.

“Hey Ben,” she said and continued bee-bopping down the corridor.

“Hey Rachelle, hold up a minute,” said Ben.

Ben saw her skid to a stop and swerved around to come back to him, even leaning over as she turned around by shuffling her feet. He chuckled at her youth and knew her levity would be good for the group in the long run. She came to a stop in front of him and added a large cheesy grin and mock salute for good measure

“So, how are you and Charity getting along?” asked Ben without much prompting as he knew Rachelle liked direct questions.

“Outstanding!” exclaimed Rachelle. “She’s been a huge help! Like, totally awesome!”

“Okay,” said Ben with curiosity.

“No, seriously,” said Rachelle. “She’s been like the thoughtful big sister to me since we started planning on the work we’ll be doing. I’m all about rushing headlong into the fire and she’s been throwing buckets of water in front of me.”

“That’s good, right?” asked Ben.

“Absolutely,” said Rachelle. “We’re kind of a ying and yang deal where she is slow, methodical and patient while I’m the crazy girl with her hair on fire trying to do everything at the same time. We really have balanced each other out when it comes to division of work and problem solving.”

“I’m glad,” said Ben.

“No, I’m glad you asked her to help,” said Rachelle. “I’m maybe…too young for this position. But she certainly has helped me identify areas which I didn’t think about beforehand.”

“No problems with her giving you…suggestions?” asked Ben.

“Absolutely not,” said Rachelle. “She tends to look at things from a more detailed view while I can see the big picture. Again, we’re working as equals and not as boss-worker.”

“But you don’t have a problem making a decision whether she agrees or not?” asked Ben.

“I haven’t had to, but it’s something I’d probably talk to her about in advance if I could,” said Rachelle. “If it was a life and death decision, I’d make it and deal with the fallout afterwards.”

“I hope you never have that situation,” said Ben.

“Been there, done that,” said Rachelle. “When I was doing the Olympus upgrades, we had a large system error that, if not corrected inside of fifteen minutes, would have shut down the entire life support system as well as the radiation shielding. I didn’t have time to worry about who’s feelings I was hurting and just started barking orders. Even those I considered my equals didn’t question it and jumped in to help. I feel like Charity would do the same. She knows there’s a time to debate and a time to do.”

“I doubt we’d have something quite so…dramatic where we are heading,” said Ben.

“It’s an alien planet we aren’t familiar with,” said Rachelle. “I’d be surprised if we don’t run into that situation frequently.”

“Hopefully, we can plan around it so it’s not quite as frequent as you think,” said Ben.

“Totally off topic question, you know a Gale Whitaker?” asked Rachelle.

“Sure do,” said Ben. “Why?”

“I don’t think she’s assigned to a team and might be useful in my department,” said Rachelle.

“Gale Whitaker would be valuable to anyone’s team,” said Ben.

“That’s a pretty good bullet on anyone’s resume coming from the big boss,” she stated.

“I’ve known Gale a long time. You don’t get much better,” said Ben.

“Okay if I snag her?” asked Rachelle.

“What will she be doing?” asked Ben.

“Personnel work probably,” said Rachelle. “An oversight on my part.”

“Best choice you could make,” said Ben. “But make sure nobody else laid claim to her.”

“I’ll check into it,” said Rachelle. “Anything else?”

“Nah, keep up the good work,” said Ben as she bounced off to wherever she was originally heading. Ben went at a slower pace towards the infirmary and his original destination. He finally arrived and saw Mary was busy checking over a group coming out of stasis right then. He gravitated towards her as she nodded at a med tech and looked over one of the members.

“Hey, you,” she said with a warm smile. “I mean, sir.”

“Oh, just can that sir stuff right now,” he laughed.

“What can I help you with?” she asked.

“Just came down to see what was going on,” said Ben. “You can only tell so much from a file and I’d like to be able to meet some of the folks I’ll be working with.”

“You might be in for a wait,” said Mary. “We just started the wake up period.”

“How long does it typically take?” asked Ben, who wasn’t entirely familiar with the process.

“Depends on the variety of factors,” said Mary. “Age and physical condition are the most important. It typically takes anywhere from an hour to an hour and a half for the average person to come to after being in stasis. Shortest I’ve ever heard of was fifteen minutes and the longest was three and a half hours.”

“That long?” asked Ben.

“Yeah, crazy,” said Mary. “Unfortunately, we have to let nature take its course and allow the body to progress naturally from the stasis state. You can’t use any kind of catalyst or you could kill the individual.”

“Let me guess, lesson learned the hard way?” asked Ben.

“Sadly, yes,” said Mary. “Though certainly not by me. In the early days when stasis was relatively new and doctors didn’t entirely understand the physiology behind it.”

“I would ask for an explanation, but I’d probably be in over my head,” said Ben.

“You don’t give yourself enough credit,” said Mary. “You’re pretty smart.”

“The medical field was never my strong suit other than screaming for a medic and slapping a band-aid on a scratch,” said Ben with a chuckle. “Anything more complicated than that I go into the fetal position and I faint at the sight of blood.”

“Oh, really?” she asked with an amused look on her face.

“Absolutely,” he said with a grin.

“Well, it’s a good thing you have me around, isn’t it?” she asked with a smile.

“Absolutely,” said Ben. “So, who are we waking up right now?”

“We have eleven coming out right now,” said Mary. “Looks to be three from security, a family of three, one services tech and a pair of scientists and engineers.”

“How are the children when they come out of stasis?” asked Ben.

“Surprisingly better than the adults,” said Mary. “They listen better and don’t go off tripping over their own feet before being warned.”

“I can’t believe you remember that,” said Ben with a laugh.

“It left a lasting impression,” laughed Mary.

“Are you saying I’m a klutz?” he asked with a laugh.

“Oh, I’d never do anything like that,” she said with a playful smile.

“Right,” said Ben. “Well, I won’t hold you back. Are you doing anything for dinner tonight?”

“I’m probably going to be here,” she replied. “Sorry.”

“No, it’s okay,” he stated. “I just wanted to get caught up on who has come out of stasis.”

“Oh,” said Mary with a little dejection in her voice. Ben knew right then he had screwed up and she thought it was for a more personal reason rather than business. He thought very highly of Mary on more than a professional level and might have had a Freudian slip right then. He felt like she might have been interested in him as well, but he knew that chance might slip away if he didn’t act fast.

“How about breakfast tomorrow instead?” he asked.

“That’s doable,” she said and perked up slightly. “I don’t have the first batch coming out until 0800 or so. So, 0700 sound okay?”

“It’s a date,” said Ben.

“Are you asking me out, Commander Nash?” she asked with a playful grin.

“Breakfast isn’t necessarily a date,” he said with a laugh.

“Depends on what you did the night before,” she replied with another playful smile.

“It seems like you’ll be here all night,” he said with a smile.

“Well, all work and no play makes Jill a dull girl,” she said with another playful smile.

“I’ll see to it you are thoroughly entertained tomorrow morning then,” he said with a wink. “Maybe even trip over my own feet.”

“I bet you will,” she laughed. “Talk to you later, okay?”

“Until later,” he smiled back at her. Heading out of the infirmary, he was at a loss of what to do. As he meandered the hallways, he kept thinking about what happened when you got a fine staff together that were highly proficient in their jobs. You end up being utterly bored, he thought to himself as he passed by the mess and saw Kendrick Whitaker making a face as he took a bite of the goop.

“I am going to beat your ass when I get over this stasis,” growled Kendrick as Ben pulled up a chair on the opposite side of the table.

“Now how’s that going to look if your first act as Sergeant Major turns out to be your first court martial offense?” chuckled Ben.

“You know me better than anyone on this tub other than Gale and you even know some things she doesn’t know,” said Kendrick. “So, you know as well as I do that wouldn’t be my first court martial offense. Or yours for that matter”

“Yeah, good point,” said Ben with a grin.

“I’m to understand we still have a few weeks before we hit the planet?” asked Kendrick.

“Just a hair over two weeks,” said Ben.

“I took the liberty of looking over the security personnel roster,” said Kendrick as he took a drink of water to wash the taste out of his mouth. “Whole lotta Chiefs and not many Indians as we used to say.”

“But professionals all,” said Ben.

“They going to listen to a broke down old Sergeant Major when he tells them to move?” asked Kendrick. “None of this rank has its privileges bullshit, right?”

“Kendrick, I’d dare say most of them have heard of you at some point or another,” said Ben. “You and I are practically household names in the military community. They know professional when they see it and won’t question your authority on the matter.”

“Some of those younger kids they probably never heard of me, though,” said Kendrick. “Which means I’ll have to whip someone’s ass the first couple of days to set them straight.”

“Anyone ever tell you you’re a grumpy bastard when you come out of stasis?” asked Ben with a chuckle.

“Yeah, uhh,” said Kendrick as he lowered his voice. “Gale did.”

“Hence why you’re eating alone?” asked Ben.

“Yeah, could be,” said Kendrick and chuckled.

“Anyway, anything negative pop out at you?” asked Ben.

“Other than being a little top heavy, no,” said Kendrick. “Good mix of skills and experience. I’d dare say we’ve got ourselves a fine unit when we get together.”

“Do me a favor and help guide Tasha along though,” said Ben. “I might not have the time to peek over her shoulder, but a helpful suggestion from you carries a lot of weight.”

“I doubt I’ll need to, but you know I’ll speak my piece,” said Kendrick.

“She’s never done this kind of work though,” said Ben.

“Hell Ben, neither have we,” said Kendrick. “Sitting on our backsides watching a bunch of scientists pick at flowers and stuff? Pretty foreign to both of us.”

“True,” said Ben. “But I have this feeling we will be tested.”

“Tasha’s been ready for her own command,” said Kendrick. “She’ll be fine.”

“I thought so to,” said Ben as Gale came in and gathered her own goop and came over to sit with the pair.

“Did my husband tell you he’s in the dog house?” she asked as she sniffed at the goop and took a spoonful. Ben saw it was the butterscotch and tried to intercept her before she got it in her mouth, but didn’t manage to say anything before she shoveled it in.

“Wow!” she exclaimed. “Honey, you should try this!”

“What the hell?” blurted out Ben.

“This is good stuff!” she exclaimed.

“I don’t even have the words…” said Ben.

“Love me some butterscotch,” said Gale as she grabbed another spoonful.

“Anyway, yes, he did tell me you didn’t take to his grumpiness,” said Ben.

“We’ve been married for too long for me to put up with that nonsense,” said Gale. “And while he may be all brave as he can be out on the battlefield, he’s not brave nor stupid enough to start a war on two fronts.”

“You’ve always been a rare gem, Gale,” said Ben with a smile.

“Well, we’ve got to find you a rare gem of your own,” said Gale. “I noticed that pretty doctor didn’t have a wedding or engagement ring on.”

“Why don’t we table this discussion for later?” asked Ben.

“Uh-huh,” said Gale. “We’ve known you long enough to know you already had that thought. Haven’t we, baby?”

“I’m not even getting in the middle of this,” said Kendrick as he finished off his bowl.

“Apparently the Captain’s wife is the matchmaker around here,” said Ben. “I don’t want to have two of you after me.”

“Ben, you know I’m not leaving this alone?” asked Gale.

“Let’s get settled first,” suggested Ben. “Then you can set up the blind date.”

“I’ll hold you to it,” said Gale.

“Your kids out of stasis yet?” asked Ben as he changed the subject.

“They come out in three days according to the med folks,” said Kendrick. “Gale and I’d like to be there if we can.”

“I doubt your services would be needed,” said Ben. “Rather, we can make the time.”

“We’d appreciate it,” said Kendrick. “Otherwise, what else can you tell us about where we’re going?”

Ben spent the next five minutes detailing what he knew about where they were going as well as the area they picked out for the colony. Kendrick and Gale both asked questions along the way and Ben answered them to the best of his knowledge. However, he also realized they might not be alone and it would be good for the colonists coming out of stasis to have a generic brief. He made a mental note to discuss it with the leadership team at the next meeting.

“If there’s nothing else, I’ll leave you all too it,” said Ben. “Gale, don’t make him sleep on the floor your second night out of stasis.”

“As long as he behaves himself, he might have earned the right to crawl back into bed with me,” she said with a hearty laugh.

“You two squabble, but I know there’s not anywhere else in the galaxy you’d rather be,” said Ben and turned to Gale. “Have they picked a job for you yet?”

“No, but probably with the Infrastructure Team if I was to guess,” said Gale.

“Have you been talking to Rachelle?” asked Ben.

“The little hyper girl that can’t stand still?” asked Gale.

“That’s the one,” chuckled Ben.

“Yes, she came by and gave me a quick two minute interview,” said Gale.

“I think she wants you on her team,” said Ben.

“I didn’t know I was that impressive,” said Gale. “I had been out of stasis for only a few hours.”

“She’ll find you a job consummate with your skills,” said Ben.

“I figure we’re all going to have to chip in before it’s all said and done,” said Gale.

“We sure are,” said Ben as he looked at his watch. “I’ve got to check in on the engineers, but we’ll catch up later, okay?”

“I look forward to it,” said Kendrick.

Ben headed out and towards the engineering station where he knew Cyrus and Grady were going over the plans for dismantling the Santa Maria. Again, figuring they were likely busy, but he was performing a leadership function by at least showing his face and showing interest in what they were doing regardless if he knew what specifically they were doing. As he wandered the corridors, other crew and colonists nodded at him, knowing he was soon to be the “big boss” of the colony. He politely smiled and greeted them, not knowing everyone’s name at the moment or where they were assigned, but he knew he needed to project the quality of openness as they would be trusting him with their very lives soon.

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Even with more colonists being woken from stasis at an increasing rate, Ben felt the normal staff meetings should continue with the new discoveries they were making. They were twelve days from making orbit when he called another staff meeting to go over everything they had discovered so far from both the long range sensors as well as the data sets transmitted from the probes they had gathered over the past year. The meeting went well until Rachell tossed a good question for the group to consider.

“So, how are we going to do this?” asked Rachelle. “The surface teams, I mean.”

“Okay, so the question was asked about how we’re going to go down to the surface. And it’s a valid question I’ve been thinking about for a while,” said Ben. “I’m thinking, in the beginning at least, is to use the Santa Maria as a base of operations and send down crews just during the daylight hours until we can establish a good perimeter. I’m not really liking these predators we have little information on and I’d prefer to keep everyone safe in orbit.”

“Will the shuttles be enough?” asked Grady.

“Fuel shouldn’t be a problem as we can refuel them from the main ship,” said Allen. “But they are typically only good for about 30 people or so. And not including supplies or cargo. One or the other can be put on board.”

“And we only have ten of them,” said Charity as she joined the meeting. “Even with multiple trips, it’d be hard to get everyone down and back every day even with extended daylight hours.”

“How long is a turnaround?” asked Ben.

“If we orbit over the colony, maybe a half hour flight down, unloading takes about ten to fifteen minutes, probably longer depending on cargo and another half hour back. Refueling and servicing will take about thirty minutes. Call it three hours round trip to be safe,” said Charity.

“And we have how much daylight?” asked Ben.

“During this time of the year?” asked Angeline. “Approximately 14 hours or so. We’re right on the edge of spring in this region.”

“Three trips back and forth for just personnel and not counting cargo which takes additional time to strip the seats,” said Ben. “Ten shuttles per trip, 30 people per, it’s doable.”

“But wise?” asked Allen.

“That’s why we’re having the meeting,” said Ben. “Getting inputs.”

“We also have the four gunships,” said Allen. “They can carry, what? Another ten?”

“Ten max,” said Ben. “If it’s the Novus Mk 44.”

“I think they are,” said Allen. “Charity, can you bring up the storage and check?”

“Give me a minute,” said Charity as she went to a computer console to bring up the file.

“Why don’t we land the Santa Maria and make that our home base?” asked Tasha. “The plan is to land it eventually anyway when we start tearing it apart. Why not sooner rather than later?”

“It’s not a terrible idea, but I’d prefer to have the cleared landing zone like we planned,” said Allen. “That’s one item we shouldn’t deviate from.”

“Is there anywhere we looked at that could accommodate this ship?” asked Ben just to stir the discussion about the idea.

“Not without taking out fields we already looked at for agricultural purposes,” said Kurt. “The plan, and we know how those go, was to clear this section of wooded area after it was determined the ship wouldn’t crack through the surface.”

Kurt brought up one of the photos to show the group where he was talking about. “The ship was planned to land at this location so moving materials into the colony living areas wouldn’t be as hard. So, we take away at least one of the fields we planned on using for a farm and plant the ship instead. I’d bet it won’t grow.”

“I’m not sure we want to do that,” suggested Rachelle.

“Okay, why not?” asked Ben.

“Food production for starters,” she replied. “We have enough to get through the first winter, but that’s rationed foods and basics for everyone. The crops we planned on raising would supplement that in a big way to where we wouldn’t be so close to the edge.”

“Could we clear another field?” asked Cyrus.

“Takes time,” said Kurt. “We have fields ready to be plowed in certain places which is why we decided on this location.”

“So, we are faced with a choice,” said Ben. “First, recognizing we don’t know about these predators’ habits and how they will react to having a bunch of humans moving in puts teams at risk if they stay on the surface overnight. Second, we can land the ship in a field we originally intended to plant with crops, which will cut our food supply in the fall. Third, we clear a new field while also setting up a defensible base camp for the ship to land, but move back everyone to the ship during the nights. Sound about right?”

“Nail on the head,” said Javier. “I’d say we err on the side of caution and bring the crews back and forth until the landing site is cleared.”

“Make that the first priority instead of the base camp?” asked Tasha.

“That will take time,” said Grady. “It will cut into the agricultural planting.”

“Not going to do us much good if these predators start picking people off,” said Tasha.

“How sturdy are the cargo pods?” asked Angeline as an idea hit her.

“Decent I suppose,” said Cyrus. “I’m honestly not up to speed on the construction.”

“How about this,” said Angeline. “We send down the cargo pods with the equipment we need for clearing and planting. Construction crews and a security detail could use them as makeshift quarters for the nighttime. We could still shuttle back folks, but make it a couple of NS days rotations until we can land the ship.”

“I’ll have to check the material construction,” said Cyrus. “But it’s not a bad idea.”

“We have portable HVAC systems that should work inside,” said Grady. “Drill a small hole to get power in and run the cables? Seal it back up with some epoxy? That could work.”

“Can they be locked from the inside?” asked Ben. “And furthermore, are they airtight?”

“I’d say we could rig up some kind of locking mechanism,” said Grady. “As for the airtight, yes, they are sealed for transport outside the atmosphere. These cargo containers aren’t meant to be returned, so we aren’t losing anything by tearing them up.”

“I’d prefer to make sure we keep out all bugs and critters somehow,” said Ben.

“Cyrus? We have any empty containers we could play around with?” asked Grady.

“Yeah, about three dozen or so from the stores we used getting here,” said Cyrus.

“So, Plan D is to convert and land these containers which provides limited living space so we aren’t shuttling everyone back and forth, we send in a security contingent as well as a construction gang to start clear cutting the forest and establishing a base camp and go from there?” asked Ben. “Am I missing anything?”

“No, sounds decent,” said Allen.

“How long on clear cutting that forest?” asked Ben. “And what equipment will you need and is it hard to get to?”

“I honestly can’t give you a good idea on how long it will take,” said Grady. “Not until I see it for myself. We’ve got the photos, but that won’t help until we actually start cutting.”

“And the equipment?” asked Ben.

“Should have been stashed up front where we can get at it easier,” said Grady. “Cyrus?”

“I’ll have to check with the logistics officer about that,” said Cyrus.

“Okay, looks like you two have some work,” said Ben. “I’ll leave you to it.”

The pair departed to first look at the containers as well as finding the right equipment to land when it came time to start working. They had five days, but it wasn’t really a lot with everything else that would be going on.

“Anything else?” asked Ben. “We’ve got the final data sets that came in that we should review when we get the chance. Not just from the landers, but from the rovers that have been prowling about. I’m sure the science team will want a look at all the new species that got DNA typed and cataloged, so Javier, get your team on that when they are up to speed. They’ve got seven years of catching up to do and they will be some busy beavers.”

“Rachelle, if you don’t mind, I’d like to have your team assist in the medical bay once they are up and running as well. The med folks are running themselves to death trying to account for everyone coming out of stasis and could use a hand,” said Ben.

“I’ll get those awake to help out,” said Rachelle.

“And Tasha, those of your security contingent that aren’t getting proficiency fire and training out of the way can help in that regard as well,” said Ben. “People will want to be up and about since this is the exciting part and we could use the security contingent to help corral them and tuck them in. The ship’s crew will appreciate it.”

“I’ll see if I can break loose some teams,” said Tasha with a nod.

“Angeline, I know your folks will want to look at the other system planets as we pass by,” said Ben. “I’m all for that, but also give the science team some help with sorting through the data sets. Our two on board scientists might have missed a subtle reference to the predators where we are going and I want to know all about them before we land,” said Ben.

“Yes, sir,” said Angeline.

“Kurt, do you think your team would be much help in that regard?” asked Ben.

“Honestly, no,” said Kurt. “My team is going to be one of the last brought out of stasis. There are tests we can run, but we have to get to the surface first.”

“Right,” said Ben. “But do me a favor and see if Tasha could use some help with her training of the security folks. Your file indicates you’ve had weapons training before and that would be helpful in breaking her free to assist. As a minimum, monitoring the range.”

“I can help with that,” said Kurt.

“Anyone else I missed?” asked Ben.

“I’ll fly the ship,” said Allen. “That makes Charity available for whatever you might need.”

“I’m sure she’ll find some way of keeping herself out of trouble,” said Ben.

“Or keeping Rachell out of trouble,” suggested Cyrus.

“Yeah, like that’s gonna happen,” muttered Ben loud enough for everyone to hear.

“I heard that,” said Rachell with a sour face.

“It’s more or less the general consensus,” laughed Allen.

“Yeah, I’m not going to argue that,” laughed Rachell.

“Anything else major?” asked Ben.

“I need to speak with you offline about a matter,” said Mary.

“After the meeting?” asked Ben.

“If you could,” said Mary and Ben saw she was serious about something.

“Write down the good Doctor for a one on one consultation,” said Ben. “Anyone else?”

Nobody at the table brought anything else up and Ben knew they had duties to tend to as he closed the meeting. “We’ll meet in three days barring any major developments. If we have any ground-breaking information come our way, we’ll reassess so keep yourselves somewhat available if needed.”

The group gathered their notes and headed to their individual sections as Grady and Cyrus headed to storage to see to their latest task. Ben headed towards Mary who was already heading towards him. She nodded in the direction out of the room as Ben approached and he quickly reversed course with her at his side.

“Something wrong?” he asked.

“Let’s get to the infirmary,” said Mary as they walked the distance through the ship without another word. Ben was curious when they arrived and found a single patient in the medical bay lying on a bed sleeping peacefully at the moment.

“We had an issue with stasis blindness,” said Mary after they were inside what she considered the protective confines of the medical bay. “We didn’t catch it until it was too late.”

“What happened?” asked Ben.

“A member of the Engineers, Megan Hardesty, came out with stasis blindness and we didn’t catch it until we were too late,” said Mary. “We tried the immediate therapy, but it didn’t take.”

“Blind for life?” asked Ben.

“Not exactly,” said Mary.

“Can you explain in as simple terms as possible?” asked Ben.

“We can’t retry the procedure for at least six months,” said Mary with a sigh. “Basically, it takes your body up to a week to recover from stasis. You go back on simple foods up to 24 hours afterwards, but the body itself is still in recovery mode for lack of a better term up to a week afterwards. Exercise is fine and even encouraged, eating is fine and most normal human activities are okay, but the eyesight is a different matter for some reason. Most medical manuals tell you to wait up to two weeks before any complicated procedures just in case. However, the eyesight is a tricky matter and you could permanently blind someone by performing it within a certain time frame.”

“On the flip side, it takes your body at least a week to get accustomed completely to the stasis state when you are inducted in the pod. Regardless, every medical manual for the procedure explicitly states you wait at least six months to try the Beta Wave procedure again. So, we have to wait half a year as a minimum to drop her back into stasis and then another week to wake her back up before trying the Beta Wave machine to restore her eyesight,” said Mary. “The same manual for the Beta Wave machine says give them at least fourteen days in stasis to ensure the drop is complete before waking them up and trying again.”

“You’ve tried it already, I assume?” asked Ben.

“Didn’t take,” said Mary with a sigh. “Again, without getting technical, it has to be caught while the brain is still ‘waking up’ for lack of a better term. She didn’t know it was happening until it was too late and we didn’t catch it in time.”

“You can’t do it now?” asked Ben.

“Not without dangers associated with firing a modified brain wave into an active person’s mind,” said Mary. “Those signals can interfere with other portions of the brain and it is not recommended because of complications.”

“So, what can we do?” asked Ben.

“We go by what the manual suggests,” said Mary. “Sometimes, the brain wakes up the eyes naturally on the second run, sometimes it doesn’t and we try the Beta Wave device.”

“How many times can one undergo such a procedure?” asked Ben.

“I just don’t have good data on that,” said Mary. “Nothing in the medical textbooks either for the most part since the Beta Wave machine is a controversial topic to begin with.”

“Controversial?” asked Ben.

“It stemmed from a form of mind control developed by the Chinese,” said Mary. “And can be modified to perform mind control even now. A lot of doctors won’t even work with one since it has the potential to be abused. The only reason Novus tossed one in is because of the likelihood we might need it for this Expedition as well as others and we’ll need every able body we have.”

“I understand,” said Ben. “Is Grady aware?”

“I told him she had complications from stasis,” said Mary. “Nothing more.”

“He should know,” said Ben. “A member of his team is going to be down and he should be aware of that fact going into this in case she’s a critical member.”

“I know,” said Mary with a sigh.

“You okay?” asked Ben.

“It’s just…I have a patient I can’t heal at the moment,” said Mary. “The cure is right there and available, but the wait is going to be intolerable.”

“Two cases out of how many that have woken up?” asked Ben.

“And a 50% fail rate on those,” said Mary with a sigh.

“And a 99% success rate on bringing people out of stasis without any problems,” said Ben. “Didn’t you say before the amount of people coming out with blindness was about 5%?”

“I did,” said Mary.

“Yet, you’ve beat those odds silly through your dedication and hard work,” said Ben.

“I guess I have,” said Mary with a smile. “Just one more and my success rate is perfect.”

“That’s the spirit,” said Ben. “Regardless, have you talked it over with the young lady?”

“I have,” said Mary. “The blindness portion, but not the potential treatment down the road.”

“Big subject for someone who just came out?” asked Ben.

“It’s a lot to throw at them, yes,” said Mary.

“Does she have family on board?” asked Ben.

“No, like many, she’s alone,” said Mary.

“We should let Grady know,” said Ben. “You want me to come with you?”

“Not until I’ve had the chance to talk over the possible treatments with her,” said Mary.

“I know you’ll do what’s right,” said Ben as he patted her hand. “Eventually, Megan Hardesty will be able to watch a sunset on our new planet.”

“If she has even a percent of your determination, I know she will,” said Mary warmly as she took Ben’s hand and gave it a squeeze. He gave it a squeeze back and they stood there for several moments before dropping their hands away from each other. Ben took his leave of Mary with a smile and told her to keep her chin up as Mary gave him a warm smile in return. He departed the medical bay sensing there was more to the smile than appearances but decided to take up that particular situation another day.

“So, another month and a half of this?” asked Megan from her bed.

“You’re awake?” asked Mary.

“I’ve always been a light sleeper,” said the girl in her late 20s. “Who was in here?”

“Commander Ben Nash, the Colony Leader,” said Mary.

“It’s okay to tell Mister Stafford as well,” said Megan. “He needs to know his structural engineering specialist can’t exactly see the structural engineering specifications.”

“You sure?” asked Mary.

“Please,” said Megan. “But I do have a request.”

“Anything,” said Mary.

“Can you get a tablet that can teach me Braille?” she asked.

“We might be successful on the second try,” said Mary.

“I would rather be productive in the meantime,” said Megan. “I’m a fairly quick study, though learning to read with my fingertips might be a little different.”

“I’ll see to it first thing in the morning,” said Mary. “But you do need rest at the moment.”

“Thank you,” said Megan. “For everything you’re doing.”

With those simple words, Mary felt her spirits lifted and was determined even more to help Megan recover her eyesight. She headed over and gave the girl a pat on her hand and adjusted the covers slightly, being as protective of her patients as she always was.

Ben headed along to engineering to discuss unrelated matter and watched as the two talented engineers came up with a good plan for the construction. Ben saw they had melded into an extremely dynamic team during their time together and felt a lot better about the timetable needed to get the colony up and running since he now had two powerful team leaders working at it together rather than Grady having to go at it alone.

In truth, his entire command team had melded together nicely and Ben hoped attitudes and egos wouldn’t be present with the awakening colonists that tore at the fabric of what they wanted to achieve. He also knew it was inevitable and would happen eventually, but perhaps the greater good of what they were trying to accomplish would push them towards teamwork rather than the same divided camps they had just left and hopefully would be a historical footnote rather than a fact of life in their new world.

 

GREAT STORY, THANK YOU

 

CHAPTER 15


Estimated Time of Arrival: Zero Hour


“Orbit, Captain?” asked Charity from the pilot’s seat as their new home filled the viewscreen to their front. The view of Novae Spes was mesmerizing, but the crew diligently attended to their duties as the ship neared the optimal point for inserting itself in orbit. They had been continually slowing and preparing themselves for the braking burn to enter the orbit of their new home and provide additional scientific measurements prior to landing and calling it home.

“Standard planetary orbit; let’s make it 500 kilometers,” said Allen from the pilot’s chair.

“Standard planetary orbit at 500 kilometers perigee, aye,” said Charity as she adjusted the ship onto the new heading and prepared the engines for a braking burn. “Navigator, confirm.”

“Right in the middle of the path, ma’am,” said the navigator.

“Preparing for turn and braking burn,” said Charity as she checked, rechecked and verified everything one more time before taking the controls a little tighter. As the distance counted down, she started flipping the ship over as the inertial dampeners and artificial gravity took over to keep everyone’s feet on the floor. They felt a little lighter for a moment, but the artificial gravity kept them planted. The passengers were safely locked in their cabins except Ben who was on the bridge at the moment watching from the rear without interfering.

“Beautiful planet,” said Allen as he sensed Ben was close.

“Even prettier in person,” said Ben as the planet disappeared from view momentarily as the ship flipped over on its rear end so the engines would be facing in the direction they wanted.

“Still in the groove, pilot,” said the navigator.

“Aye, prepare for braking burn in…two minutes, mark,” said Charity as the countdown clock appeared on the main viewscreen.

“All engine controls at your disposal, pilot,” said Cyrus from engineering over the intercom system. “Full power available if you need it.”

“Pilot acknowledges,” said Charity as she shifted slightly in her chair, a sign to Allen she was a little nervous about the situation. “One minute.”

Alarms were heard going off in the ship as the crew made the last-minute checks to ensure everything was locked down just in case. The braking burn was a standard procedure, but they had come too far to leave anything to chance at that moment. The main computer took over the countdown at the twenty second mark as Charity fidgeted one last time and settled in for the maneuver. At the “zero” announcement, she ignited the main engines to slow the ship and saw the indicated speed slowing, but taking what seemed like an inordinate amount of time to come down. However, she wasn’t impatient as she advanced the throttle in ever increasing thrust percentages as the ship slowed into orbital velocities.

“Looking good, pilot,” said the navigator.

Charity didn’t acknowledge the call, but rather continued watching the sensor readings and the ship’s speed as they slowed even more. Once she was close, she started pulling back on the throttles until they were at the necessary speed for orbit and shut them off entirely.

“Braking burn complete,” said Charity.

“Altitude is 501.1 kilometers, speed is 7.9 kilometers per second and we are in a stable orbit,” said the navigator. “Nailed it.”

“All stations, we are in orbit,” said Allen over the ship’s intercom. “You are clear to secure from braking burn operations and resuming normal duties.”

“Let me get this fat girl turned around,” said Charity as she flipped the ship back over to where the bow was “heading” in the right direction once again and turned the ship so the port side was facing the planet so it would be in view of the observation windows.

“Main engines secured, Captain,” said Cyrus from engineering. “We’re going through the shutdown checklist, so I’ll be unavailable for the next hour or so.”

“Thanks, Chief,” said Allen over the intercom.

“I really hope nobody left the lights on in their house,” chuckled Ben.

“I think I left my purse at the last rest stop,” said Charity with a chuckle as she continued putting the ship into station keeping mode and turning over control of the orbit to the main computer.

“If you ever carried a purse,” said Allen with a laugh.

“I’m a girl! I carry purses when I’m not all dressed up in this drab gray uniform!” she objected.

“Which hasn’t been for the last seven years save your poker nights with the other girls,” said Ben.

“You knew about those?” asked Charity.

“I’m the commander, of course I knew,” said Ben.

“Specifics?” asked Charity and a bit of nervousness showed in her voice.

“I don’t need to know that,” said Ben.

“Probably not,” laughed Charity as she completed her checklist and went over it once again just to make sure. It’s not that she didn’t trust the computer to keep them on the right heading, but she knew it was too important at this point to miss any minor detail.

“Transfer of automated orbit complete,” said the computer synthesized voice as the computer started controlling the orbit. A pilot would be on station just to make sure everything was okay, but for the most part, they would just be monitoring the computer to make sure it was performing as it should be. Charity relinquished control of the station to one of the relief pilots and joined Allen and Ben.

“Well, what’s next?” she asked, relieved another milestone had been reached in their journey.

“Now we let Javier, Kirk, Riker and the science team go crazy scanning the surface,” said Ben.

“And the rest of us?” she asked.

“Wait for the data to come back,” said Ben.

“Captain, our primary landing spot is coming up,” said the navigator. “Off the nose at about 11 o’clock or so.”

“Shall we take a look at our new home?” asked Ben as they moved towards the front of the bridge. The optical array was deployed and was giving a close-up view of the area they would be landing in and calling home very soon.

“Way better optics than the satellites,” said Ben as the surface moved along at a somewhat rapid clip. “More detailed.”

“Spared no expense,” said Allen. “That’s the landing site coming up.”

The area they would be landing in came into view and they saw the area with their own eyes for the first time. A small herd of the kangaroo looking animals was grazing in the field, not realizing they were being spied on right then and would soon have new neighbors.

“Nice choice if I say so myself,” said Allen as Charity came up.

“Command Staff is assembling in the forward rec room, Captain,” she said and eyeballed the location for herself. “Looks like a nice sandbar on the river there.”

“Looking for the beach?” asked Ben with a chuckle.

“Nope, I’m holding out hope you appoint me as the first commander in that tropical location we looked at in the beginning,” said Charity with a grin.

“Yeah, you’ll need to get in line for that one,” laughed Ben.

“Just one island,” said Charity with a sigh. “I’d anoint myself queen and humbly rule over my minor domain. I’d be a benevolent queen though and allow you to traipse on my land.”

“Oh, would you now?” asked Ben with a laugh.

“Hoping maybe?” she asked with a grin.

“I think you’ve been hanging around Rachelle too much,” said Allen with a laugh.

“Which does bring me to a question,” said Ben.

“Okay…” she said and suddenly got guarded.

“Not a bad question,” said Ben.

“I get nervous when the Commander starts asking pointed questions,” she said with half a smile.

“Are you ever going to stop being nervous around me?” he asked.

“Probably not, sir,” she chuckled.

“Ever going to stop calling me sir?” he asked with a grin.

“Of course, Commander,” she grinned back at him.

“Will it kill you to call me Ben?” he asked with a laugh.

“Honestly, I’m old school when it comes to that,” said Charity. “I’ve called Captain Smith, well, Captain Smith since I was assigned. I don’t think he has a first name other than Captain.”

“Refreshing,” said Ben. “However, if you slip up and call me Ben, I’m not going to take your head off.”

“Well, that’s nice to know,” she laughed. “So, what can I help you with, sir?”

“Just curious how you and Rachelle are getting along?” he asked.

“I’d say it’s been great,” said Charity. “She’s like this bucket of pure energy and it’s hard to keep up. But also slows down enough to listen to advice. My original thoughts on the matter were unfounded it would seem.”

“You give her much advice?” asked Ben.

“More like suggestions,” said Charity. “A different way of doing things or handling issues. She typically listens although if she doesn’t agree she gives a good reason why.”

“Is there much disagreement?” asked Ben.

“No, not really,” said Charity. “And normally it’s because I might have overlooked something myself or didn’t know enough about the system.”

“That’s a good thing,” said Ben.

“Honestly, we’re like complete opposites on how we attack problems,” said Charity. “Like night and day differences. She’s all cavewoman approach and beating a problem over the head with a club while I’m hanging back looking for a way to snap its knee.”

“Ouch,” said Ben, who knew exactly what that pain felt like.

“You get the point, though,” said Charity. “She is truly gifted when it comes to intelligence. And maybe that’s why she throws caution to the wind from time to time because she tends to be right. But I’m teaching, and she’s learning, to look at the details and the overall ‘why’ of the problem systematically rather than just attacking it head on. I think she does to an extent, but I do it in a more methodical manner. My way isn’t always right and her way isn’t always right. But we balance each other out in the end.”

“It’s good to have multiple approaches to problems though,” said Ben.

“I agree,” said Charity. “And that’s when I let her do her thing and I hang back and look at the smaller details. It’s kind of a two-fold approach to handling business. She comes at it from the top down while I come at it from the bottom up. Sometimes we meet in the middle and other times one of us has the problem solved before the other catches up.”

“So, you’re playing the big sister?” asked Ben.

“You’ve been talking with her, haven’t you?” asked Charity with a knowing smile.

“Perhaps,” said Ben. “A good leader gets all viewpoints on a situation.”

“She calls me her big sister,” said Charity. “Apparently, she’s an only child and kind of, I don’t know, adopted me as her family. Even taken to calling me sis.”

“Do you call her sis?” asked Ben.

“Yeah, from time to time,” said Charity with a smile.

“Ever call her Rachelle?” he asked.

“You are setting me up right now, aren’t you?” grinned Charity.

“Yep,” he grinned in return.

“No comment,” she laughed.

“Okay, I just wanted to check,” said Ben. “We’ll need harmony within the staff when we get to the surface and I wanted to make sure everything was harmonized.”

“Won’t get any problems from us,” said Charity.

“Okay, the Captain and I will meet you in the rec room in a few minutes,” said Ben.

“Until then,” said Charity as she headed off towards the staff briefing.

“Shall we join the maximum excited science team?” asked Allen.

“I’m almost afraid to,” said Ben as he knew data was already coming in on the planet.

“Be prepared for maximum excitement for the rest of your life,” chuckled Allen.

“I do have a question,” said Ben as he and Allen headed towards the conference room.

“Shoot,” said Allen.

“Charity is the First Officer, but you had her in the seat for the braking burn as well as the planned landing whenever that is,” said Ben as an observation rather than a question.

“She’s the best natural pilot I’ve ever met,” said Allen. “Not that I don’t trust my pilot staff to perform such a maneuver, but we get one shot at getting it right. I want and we need the best in that pilot seat during such times.”

“She does have a steady hand,” said Ben.

“Ever since I first saw her coming into the Novus Fleet, she has always been a natural. She flew everything from fighters up through the bulk personnel carriers in the North American Fleet and she is rated in everything Novus has,” said Allen. “If you ever want a pilot to do anything and everything from combat to just a cruise around the planet, she’s your girl.”

“I wasn’t questioning the choice, just that it was unusual for a First Officer to do such things,” said Ben. “You make the choices on this ship, not me.”

“No, I didn’t think you were questioning it at all,” said Allen. “The other pilot staff knows and respects her abilities and they learn from her every time she sits in that seat. You didn’t notice the gaggle of them at the rear of the bridge while we were in that braking burn?”

“No, I wasn’t looking honestly,” said Ben.

“They were studying and learning from her,” said Allen. “All told, they don’t take it as a slight she was in that chair. They know talent when they see it and set ego to the side.”

“Commands respect by doing instead of ordering,” said Ben. “She would have made a good infantryman if she was in the Army.”

“I’m pretty glad she volunteered for the fleet,” said Allen with a chuckle.

“Very much so,” said Ben as they arrived at the conference room and, as expected, Javier, Angeline, Kirk and Riker were excited over the initial data coming from the planet. Other scientists were looking over the various sensors and talking excitedly with each other.

“Commander! This is amazing!” exclaimed Kirk.

“I’d bet,” said Ben with a chuckle as he went over to see what was making them so excited. However, all he saw were raw data figures crossing the screen as the computers analyzed the surface they were traveling over. “Care to share?”

“It’s our landing location,” said Kirk. “Even better than we planned.”

“How so?” asked Ben.

“Weather patterns, overall climate, ground conditions and location of critical resources,” said Javier in a more sedate tone. “While there really isn’t much to be had in the immediate area, there are already several indications of formations of critical minerals within a few hundred kilometers as best as we can tell.”

“We won’t be able to know for certain before we actually get survey teams at the locations, but the data from orbit looks promising,” said Kirk.

“Have you discussed this with Grady yet?” asked Ben.

“No, we are just now getting everything collated and organized,” said Javier. “But we think he’ll be impressed when he sees the data.”

“Anything else?” asked Ben.

“As expected, it is right on the edge of spring in the area we planned to land at,” said Angeline. “Also, we have a rain front moving in probably in the next day or so. We should be able to get data on weather patterns and how it affects everything.”

“Okay,” said Ben. “What else?”

“We have been trying to observe the local wildlife as much as possible,” said Kirk. “But still no indication of the large animal that destroyed the probe.”

“Hibernation maybe?” asked Ben.

“Possibly so,” said Kirk. “Being that spring is right around the corner, we might see the creature coming out fairly soon.”

“Make any threat a high priority,” said Ben.

“We did manage to capture pictures of the dinosaur creatures,” said Riker. “On the other continent though.”

“None where we are going?” asked Ben.

“No, but we did find pictures of a species of mega-fauna we hadn’t seen yet,” said Riker as he brought up the pictures of the creature in question.

“Kinda looks like a sheep,” said Ben.

“Slightly larger than a normal sheep,” said Riker. “Think elephant size.”

“Just these pictures?” asked Ben as he went through the half dozen they had.

“They were coming out of a forest,” said Riker. “We were out of range by the time the herd moved out.”

“Keep up the good work,” said Ben.

“The landing still planned for three days?” asked Javier.

“We need to meet to discuss that,” said Ben. “Just continue going over the data and identifying potential risks and threats.”

“Will do,” said Javier as he went back to a monitor to check over additional data coming from the planet. Allen and Ben walked to a nearby monitor and checked out the real-time feed coming from the surface.

“It is a pretty place,” said Allen.

“We’re going to do our best to keep it that way,” said Ben.

“15,000 colonists give or take,” said Allen. “I wonder how many generations it will take before we start spreading to the other continents.”

“Depends on how many don’t like the way we are running business and choose to find another place to live,” said Ben.

“You’d let them up and leave?” asked Allen.

“What choice would we have?” asked Ben. “I’d tend to think individual freedom would be first and foremost in our thinking. And having the ability to head out to do it their own way.”

“Just a dangerous place for individuality,” said Allen.

“And the Europeans that colonized North America are so different?” asked Ben. “I think we have a leg up on them technologically speaking, so it won’t be like having a muzzleloader and sword to tame the wilderness.”

“Still have to be careful,” said Allen.

“All told, I’d love it if everyone lives together in peace and harmony,” said Ben with a sigh. “But, let’s face it, it’s in our nature to disagree and even move away from what we perceive as problems. We can’t and shouldn’t stop that.”

“I have this feeling you’re correct,” said Allen.

“History shows those with the will and determination to move away can survive,” said Ben. “In early North American history, a group of settlers defied the English King and moved past the Appalachian Mountains to start their own colony without interference. Not only did they survive, they managed to put together an army unit that was instrumental in the old United States Revolutionary War. Walked back over those mountains and won against what was considered a superior British unit.”

“Interesting,” said Allen. “So, we just let them go?”

“I think it’s the right thing to allow those who want self-determination to do so,” said Ben. “Hate to say it, but such things can and will cause problems if we forced them to stay.”

“Plenty of land to be had I suppose,” said Allen.

“We’d help and try to entice them back into the fold,” said Ben. “But I knew going in we might have those who would prefer to do their own thing.”

“Hopefully not up front,” chuckled Allen.

“Hopefully not,” said Ben. “You know more about engineering than I do. Are the timetables realistic on what we need to accomplish in the next year or so?”

“Reasonably so,” said Allen. “It’s going to greatly depend on how long it takes to land the ship and get construction underway. That’s a huge hurdle to get over before we’ll know if the timetables can be met.”

“And luckily a lot of construction is modular, yes?” asked Ben.

“You’re talking about the quarters and whatnot on the ship?” asked Allen.

“More or less,” said Ben.

“I haven’t studied the plans in depth, but I don’t think every one of the individual compartments are going to be used for quarters and buildings,” said Allen. “If I remember, we are going to use local materials to build what we need along those lines. Or at least some.”

“Which can pose problems,” said Ben.

“Grady is a pretty straight shooter from what I can tell,” said Allen. “His work speaks for itself and he tends to meet deadlines for the most part. And the fact we don’t have to work in pressure suits to build everything is very helpful.”

“Nice change of pace,” said Ben. “Kind of like Alpha Centauri.”

“Let’s hope we don’t end up with the same problems,” said Allen.

“Certainly not,” said Ben as he watched the four main science team members getting excited over something else. “I don’t think we’re going to have a problem keeping the science teams busy while we’re here.”

“They’ll push the boundaries to try to explore more, throwing caution to the wind and all that,” said Allen. “And likely get on your nerves before long.”

“Hopefully Javier can temper them,” said Ben.

“I feel he might be the worst,” chuckled Allen.

“I’d bet he understands there is a creature out there that is dangerous to us,” said Ben. “And will help reign in his teams without many problems.”

“I’d love to know more about that,” said Allen.

“One could hope we have better information by the time we land,” said Ben.

“We’ll need to think about revising that,” said Allen.

“The landing date?” asked Ben.

“For the Santa Maria,” said Allen. “That forest looks a bit more difficult from the air to clear than the original photos indicated.”

“I thought you were talking about the initial landings,” said Ben.

“Nah, a whole pack of wild horses couldn’t hold you all back,” said Allen. “And truth be told, I’m kind of jealous of you for being the first.”

“Someone’s got to do it,” said Ben with a chuckle. “First one on the planet, first one bitten by the first discovered poisonous snake on Novae Spes.”

“Maybe being second does have its perks,” chuckled Allen.

“My momma didn’t raise any dummies,” said Ben.

“Do you think three days is realistic on the initial landing?” asked Allen.

“Should be,” said Ben. “I think we’ll play that one by ear though. Gives the science crews enough time to get the data evaluated, but hopefully not rushing anything. If I give them too much time, they’ll overanalyze it. Too little and they could cut corners.”

“True enough,” said Allen. “While the rest of us go slightly bonkers waiting.”

“I’d assume you can temper everyone,” said Ben as he received yet another science report from the team leads and scanned over it on the tablet he had taken to carrying around. “It’s been seven years, what’s a few more days to make sure it’s safe?”

“Very true,” said Allen. “And yes, we’ll be patient because we can.”

“Patience is a virtue and all,” said Ben as he finished reading and skipped the in-depth science data before typing out a reply to Javier and Kirk. He was just finishing up when Charity approached with her own larger tablet. She showed the data to Allen before he nodded his approval and turned to Ben who was finishing the response.

“Ben, got a minute for Charity?” asked Allen.

“Sure, let me finish this up right quick,” said Ben as he typed out the final thought and sent the email back to them. Ben turned to them as they headed towards the few available seats on the bridge as he noticed Charity had a grin on her face.

“Something wrong?” asked Ben.

“No, you just hunt and peck really fast,” she laughed.

“Never could get the whole ten fingers thing down with typing,” he chuckled. “Anything more than four fingers and I’m stumped.”

“Yeah, I could see that,” she laughed.

“But you came to me for other reasons than to critique my typing skills,” he stated.

“Or lack thereof,” she grinned at him. “We came up with a breakdown of the ship’s crew and to what sections we feel they’d best be suited to.”

“Oh yeah?” asked Ben. “Please.”

“Here’s what we think would work the best,” said Charity as she handed over the tablet with the numbers and sections they were already assigned to as well as the proposed sections to be assigned to on the planet. He quickly looked over the numbers and saw she had put a lot of thought into the areas of expertise.

“Only ten to the Science Department?” he asked.

“We didn’t bring that many scientists on board,” said Allen. “Naturally, Kirk and Riker will be assigned to science, but it’s a very limited compliment on the ship.”

“And five to Agriculture?” asked Ben.

“The hydroponics section,” said Charity. “Like minds and all that.”

“The entire engineering section goes under Grady?” asked Ben. “Realize I’m not questioning your decisions in the least, just wondering what thought process was behind it.”

“Cyrus, Grady and I discussed that,” said Allen. “Being that the Santa Maria will eventually be dismantled when we arrive, the best people to determine that dismantling and later modification to rebuild will be the engineers and the engineering team on board.”

“Makes sense,” said Ben. “Security gets 50?”

“The crew with the weapons and combat training,” said Charity. “And others that just don’t quite fit into other areas. I’m not dismissing the special skills Tasha and her team bring to the table, but overall, it’s not hard to train someone to be a sentry.”

“However, there is more to it than that,” said Ben.

“Which I talked over with Tasha,” said Charity. “Obviously, there are team bonds and tactics that will need to be learned and she has an idea for that already. But initially, the guard force can and will need to be supplemented until we get an active perimeter sensor system in place and the walls surrounding the colony. We pair up one of the ‘new guys’ with her seasoned team members for guard duties. They get training in tactics and whatnot as they go along.”

“Seems reasonable,” said Ben. “You’ve talked with all the Directors?”

“Yes,” said Charity. “Like Rachelle understands there really wasn’t a good deal of crew that would fit into the support team for the most part. Cooks and things like that, but not necessarily a bunch of programmers or infrastructure specialists. She picked her team from the start and filled most of the positions that were critical.”

“Most of?” asked Ben.

“A couple of oversights,” said Charity. “I’d prefer to talk that over with her before bringing it to the boss’s attention if that’s okay.”

“I think that’s the best thing to do as well,” said Ben. “If you’re looking for my approval, you have it. I can’t argue with the numbers and as First Officer, you know the talents on the ship far better than I do.”

“We’re still a good ways off from putting it into practice,” said Allen. “But we can at least prep the crew to know where they will be added.”

“What about the pilot staff here?” asked Ben.

“Part of SIT at the start since zipping here and there might be more of an infrastructure issue rather than a security or engineering issue,” said Charity. “It’ll be a lot easier if one person has the scheduling lead on that one rather than assigning every group a shuttle or two.”

“To include the gunships?” asked Ben.

“Yes, considering they can and likely will be used as transports up front,” said Charity. “I’d prefer to have the pilots cross trained with the shuttle and gunship designs rather than being locked into a single platform. Of course, we can and likely will designate some on-call gunships for support that will tactically fall under Tasha and the security forces, but overall, the pilot staff should be administratively and operationally under the SIT.”

“I’m not sure Tasha will go along with that,” said Ben.

“Actually, I talked it over with her and she agreed,” said Charity. “So long as she has support if she needs it, she’s more than willing to go along with that.”

“Can’t argue when the section heads are agreeing,” said Ben. “Anything else?”

“No, I’m running the pilot staff through the wringer on the simulators for both the gunships and shuttles as well as cargo casting for the surface,” said Charity.

“Let’s hope that works,” said Ben who knew casting was dangerous and had about a 30% fail rate when done incorrectly. However, practice paid off and the more she had the crews running through the simulations, the better chances they had of getting the invaluable equipment to the surface before the ship landed.

“If there’s nothing else, I’ll see to the training,” said Charity as she retrieved her tablet and received a nod from Ben.

“She seems to have grown into the role of First Officer,” said Ben after she departed.

“It took a while, but yeah, she got the hang of it,” said Allen. “One person or rather persons she didn’t talk about was the stowaways.”

“He’s a machinist and welder, right?” asked Ben.

“Yeah, you thinking Grady?” asked Allen.

“I’d at least bring it up in passing,” said Ben. “The kids obviously won’t be assigned, but the wife can probably lend a hand wherever.”

“Should we have her aptitude tested?” asked Allen.

“Wouldn’t hurt,” said Ben. “But the overall decision rests with the individual team leads after they’ve been briefed on the conditions surrounding the matter.”

“Of course,” said Allen. “If you want, I’ll talk to Grady and Cyrus myself.”

“I figure we could go together,” suggested Ben.

“When?’ asked Allen.

“I’d imagine they are wrapped up at the moment,” said Ben. “It can wait, right?”

“They’re still in stasis,” said Allen. “We didn’t wake them up until we knew what we were doing with them for certain.”

“You think giving them a clean slate is wise?” asked Ben.

“I think we’re all getting a clean slate,” said Allen. “No reason not to extend that to everyone regardless of the circumstances.”

Ben knew they were taking a risk in assigning them to teams given the circumstances behind what was going on, but he had reviewed the data on them himself and determined the possibility of them being an enemy plant was extremely low. The Poe family wanted little more than what the rest of them wanted and that was a fresh start. And Ben couldn’t argue with that desire as they all felt it.

“If there’s nothing else, I have some housekeeping items to tend to,” said Allen.

“I’m going to stop in on the security folks,” said Ben. “I’ll catch up later.”

“See you then,” said Allen as Ben headed towards the area they had converted into a classroom for the training of the colonists. As he headed inside, he saw Sergeant Major Kendrick Whitaker about to get under way with his instruction. As soon as he noticed Ben, he started to call the room to attention. However, Ben waved him down and motioned for him to continue with his briefing as he took his place on the back wall.

“Good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen. I’m Sergeant Major Kendrick Whitaker, Chief Enlisted Member for this expedition. I served in the North American Armed Forces for 25 years before doing some contract work and then being selected to serve as the big dog for the enlisted folks here in the colony. I reviewed all your resumes before coming today and realize this group will adapt quickly to the designs we’ve selected,” said Whitaker as the group focused their attention to the front of the classroom.

“Okay, so weapons training and familiarization 101,” said Kendrick to the group of 20 security force members gathered in the classroom. “We’re going to be going from the bottom to the top, starting with our pistols, carbines, shotguns, light machine guns, individual grenade launcher systems, heavy machine guns and defensive cannon. We’ll also show you the shoulder fired missile systems, but we don’t have any training shots for those, so reading and seeing pretty pictures is going to have to be good enough.”

“Now, we only have two days to go through this and a lot of time will be spent here, but we do have some range time built in as well,” said Kendrick. “And provided we won’t be able to fire the grenades or the heavy cannon, but everything else is on the table.”

“What about marksman systems?” asked Senior Sergeant Noah Taylor.

“Those will be available to individuals who have the previous training and are identified in advance. Additional training will happen once we are settled on the surface,” said Kendrick as he saw another hand raised. “Yes?”

“Are there going to be designated personnel as say light machine gunners in advance?” asked a younger trooper. “Like full time?”

“Possibly,” said Kendrick. “However, we want anyone and everyone on the security force to be able to pick up whatever weapon is at hand and know how to employ it.”

“Roger that, Sergeant Major,” said the trooper.

“Okay, so come to the front of the classroom here and grab your pistols and carbines,” said Kendrick as the group got up and headed to the front of the class where Tasha was busy handing out the weapons one at a time. Many of the younger troopers looked at the weapons with curiosity as they headed back to their seat.

“Did you guys knock over a museum or something?” asked a Captain named Jerome Irwin as he looked over the pistol.

“I’ll have you know the design is not that old,” said Kendrick. “I carried one myself at one point.”

“You were included in that statement, Sergeant Major,” grinned Jerome.

“Can we make sure someone sits with this Marine and has the 3-D pop up manual to help translate the big words for him?” asked Kendrick in a loud voice to the room. The group laughed at Jerome who took the prod in stride with a grin and headed back to his seat. Eventually, everyone had both and were reseated.

“Now, before you say it, yes, the designs are gunpowder based,” said Kendrick. “I recognize that as well as Commander Nash. Now, you may be asking yourself, ‘self, why such an old piece of crap when we have such excellent pulse electron and magnetic accelerator designs?’ Well, because they won’t fail the first time we get hit by a solar flare or geomagnetic event. They still go bang when high tech electronics are knocked out.”

“We are going to an alien world where we know little of the planetary and solar environment. We have to be prepared for the worst and creating additional gunpowder should be a fairly trivial task when we arrive as the planet has all the resources to make new stuff. And we have machinery to create new brass and reload the old stuff.”

“Okay, pistol first,” said Kendrick as he saw the group picking them up. “Official North American Mk 81A3 design in 11.43 mm Standard caliber. Some of you older folks might remember it as the .45 ACP. The very last gunpowder and cartridge based weapon built for the North American Armed Forces before moving on to a magnetic accelerator design. Now, it does have one nice technological goody added in, so go ahead and assume a firing grip, pointing the weapon in a safe direction and press the magazine release button five times with your opposing finger.”

The group did as instructed and the pistol grips started changing their dimensions as well as surface to mold to be the perfect fit in the bearer’s hands. Beeps were heard as the weapons finalized themselves into the configuration and set the polymer back to its dense state.

“Now, if you want a rougher texture on the grips, press it another four times and keep doing that until it reaches your desired…desires,” said Kendrick.

Again, the group did so with some not changing a thing and others making the texture a little more slip resistant and some making it as rough as heavy grit sandpaper.

“Okay, good,” said Kendrick. “Now, we’ll start with a refresher on weapons safety…”

Kendrick continued the briefing as Tasha had quietly joined him in the back of the room. Tasha watched as the Sergeant Major continued to do what he did best in teaching the new troops. However, most were professionals and had handled various firearms during their career and quickly got spun up on the new weapon.

“Looking good,” said Ben quietly.

“I don’t know how many you picked, but I haven’t seen anyone yet that I wouldn’t pick in a heartbeat to join our old unit,” said Tasha. “Even the conventional troops are a cut above and probably would have qualified for service with us.”

“Novus did a pretty decent job on selection,” said Ben. “I had a few changes, but nothing major.”

“Anything I should be worried about?” asked Tasha. Ben explained the six names he replaced and didn’t even have to give the reason why as Tasha raised her eyebrows.

“They seriously were going to contract them?” she asked.

“Yep,” said Ben. “I didn’t tell them no, I told them hell no.”

“I wouldn’t want our security force to go in six people light because they had an unfortunate training accident before we even got to the planet,” she stated.

“Pretty much what I said,” chuckled Ben. “You should have seen the look on that corporate vice president’s face.”

“But he agreed to swap them out?” she asked. “As well as future Expeditions?”

“I hope so,” said Ben. “I tried to impress on him the…untrustworthiness of said individuals and I really hope it took.”

“You aren’t the only one,” said Tasha. “I’d hate for someone’s first day on the planet to end in a memorial.”

“We’ll play it by ear,” said Ben as he saw the Sergeant Major getting into the detailed field stripping and cleaning of the pistol. “I’ll be by later.”

“You just want to see the look on their face when we pull out the heavy machine gun,” said Tasha with a grin.

“Absolutely,” said Ben with a chuckle. “They think these pistols are old? Wait until they get a look at that.”

“It’s on the schedule for tomorrow actually,” said Tasha. “But with the way this group is already ahead of pace, it could be today.”

“Please give me a call before you do,” said Ben. “I can’t wait to see the look on their faces when they see Ma Deuce the first time.”

“Absolutely,” said Tasha as Kendrick continued with the lesson and she saw the troopers were quickly picking up the new, though old, system.

“What kind of recoil can we anticipate?” asked one of the troopers.

“Extremely mild compared to some older designs,” said Kendrick. “It has a delayed micro-hydraulic and spring enhanced recoil system.”

“Like the European M-900?” asked the trooper.

“Similar, yes,” said Kendrick. “But a bit beefier since the round is larger.”

The lesson continued and the Sergeant Major saw they had learned about all they could without firing the pistols and moved onto the carbine.

“And now for the main weapon we all need to be familiar with,” said Kendrick as he picked up the carbine in front of him. “New Israel Mk 50 carbine in 6.5 mm caliber.”

Tasha headed forward and started handing out empty magazines for the group as they continued the training and quickly adapted to the systems they had as opposed to what they were familiar with. Even those younger troops were able to quickly find the weapons were easy to learn and were up to speed in no time at all. Tasha saw this as a sign of a true professional and realized the Novus Group had done their due diligence in picking the security staff, although aided slightly by Ben. But what he told her had her a little concerned as any future staff would need to be seriously looked over upon arrival. And vetted further to ensure the safe and efficient operations they would need to undertake.

Ben eventually headed out as well towards other sections as he saw the group was coming along very quickly, aided in part to their professionalism but also to the fact that Kendrick Whitaker was a very talented instructor. As he headed towards the Agriculture section to check on Kurt, he realized it would be people like Kendrick and Tasha that would keep the security staff together and focused on the primary job of protecting people. He felt all the section heads and their leadership would be good at that as he had evaluated most of them on the times he was out of stasis and found they were natural leaders. Even as Rachelle was playful much of the time, she had a serious, all business side to her that motivated people to get the job done without argument or hesitation. He knew the little things like that would keep the Expedition alive in the year between the landing and the next wave of settlers.

While he felt confident, there was still a little doubt in the back of his mind about what they were doing and the unseen dangers that lurked on the planet below. But, as long as everyone stuck to their training, such dangers could be mitigated or eliminated before they affected everyone as a whole. Arriving at the Ag section, Ben saw more leadership in action as Kurt was going over the finer points of actual farming as opposed to the hydroponics the crew was used to. Again, he was a talented teacher in his own right as Ben decided to have a seat and learn a few things himself as his job demanded he be familiar with all aspects of the colony.

 

Sounds good thus far...looking forward to the next installment!

Thank you for your efforts.

 

CHAPTER 16


“Tomorrow morning, I will lead a landing party to the surface,” said Ben as the science teams had completed another couple of days of analysis on the data from the surface. Additionally, the sensor suite on the Santa Maria had been working overtime gathering additional data. From all accounts it looked as safe as it could be and the logical next step was taking that small step outside a craft.

“When?” asked Allen.

“Right after daybreak,” said Ben. “I know it’s a risk, but I want to take the entire command group down with me save Allen and Cyrus. I know you are eager to get to the surface as well, but this ship still needs a Captain and a Chief Engineer.”

“Risky taking everyone,” said Rachelle.

“And a seven-year journey coming here based on blind faith wasn’t a risk?” asked Kurt.

“If you object and would prefer not to go, I won’t hold it against you,” said Ben.

“Yeah, that’s going to happen,” said Rachelle with a scoff. “I’m in.”

The group nodded their agreement with the idea and Ben brought the meeting to a close.

“If there’s nothing else, please be ready to go by 0900 Earth time,” said Ben. “Charity, I’d like you to be the shuttle pilot to the surface.”

“I’d be honored,” after she got a nod of approval from Allen.

“We’ll meet here and go over any last-minute details,” said Ben. “Otherwise, try to get some sleep tonight.”

The meeting broke up and the excitement started spreading about finally setting foot on their new home. Like children before Christmas morning, the command team departed rapidly heading to their quarters to prepare gear as well as speaking to their colleagues about what was happening. Before he departed, Mary approached Ben.

“I was included in that, right?” she asked.

“Of course,” said Ben. “You’re a director and will be with the first group.”

“I have to admit, I’m a bit nervous,” she stated.

“Just a walk in the park,” said Ben.

“Almost literally,” she chuckled. “Should I take anything in particular?”

“Basic med kit,” said Ben. “But the shuttles have those already. Your weapons, but I doubt we’ll be needing them. Otherwise, your spirit of adventure will be required.”

“Yeah, I’m kind of boring in that regard,” she laughed.

“Can’t be too boring since you’re here,” said Ben with a smile.

“You have no idea,” she laughed. “I was once nervous about a trip to Armstrong City on Luna.”

“But wasn’t your residency done on Ganymede?” he asked.

“Yeah, we took a cruise ship from Earth,” she laughed.

“Well, it’s not like we can turn around and go back,” he chuckled. “But I think after you get on the surface, see that blue sky with your own eyes and smell the fresh air, your mind will totally change about adventure.”

“I hope so,” she said with a smile. “You off to pack?”

“Yep, and make sure my uniform is nice and pressed for the historical camera shots tomorrow,” he said with a grin.

“What are you going to say?” she asked. “It’s kind of is a big moment in our history.”

“Honestly?” he asked. “I haven’t got the first clue. I’ll just make it up as we go along.”

“No small steps, giant leaps? Standing on this new world looking past it to the next frontier?” she asked as the paraphrased words had been spoken by the first person on the moon and the first person to set foot on Alpha Centauri 5.

“I’m not going to give it much thought and go from the heart,” he stated.

“Well, it’s a good heart, so I’m sure it’ll be perfect,” she smiled.

“Well, thank you, Doctor,” he said with a return smile. “Anything else?”

“No, I’d best make sure my uniform is nice and neat as well,” she said. “Until tomorrow.”

“Good night, Mary,” he said with a smile as they departed. As he went to his cabin, he was wondering what he might say since it would be a profound moment. But words didn’t come to him as he prepared his items for the next day and made sure his weapons were in order. Eventually after repacking his pack a third time, he tried to go to sleep, but he was nervous as well. And excited. But mainly the fact humanity’s future was in his hands weighed heavily on his mind that evening. He knew there would be a couple of billion people living in the Sol System after the collapse of the Earth, but he knew this was humanity’s best shot at starting over with a clean slate. Eventually he drifted off to sleep, thinking of the old ways and how they could chart a new course for mankind as they ventured forward.

********************
​

The command group gathered in the briefing room far in advance of the scheduled meeting time as the individual heads were dressed out in the uniforms and appeared to be ready to go to the surface without any further delay. However, Ben knew they needed to go over some additional details before just jumping on the shuttle and making their landing. As he saw the group was assembled, Kurt Sweeney being the last to arrive, he went to the front of the table. Ben saw the weapons they would take leaned neatly against the side wall as he started the briefing.

“Today is the day,” he stated as Charity turned on the cameras for the entire ship to see the historic briefing and meeting. “Just in case anyone forgot, we’re landing today.”

“And I thought we were going to discuss the current menu,” laughed Javier.

“Field rations for the near future once we reach the surface,” chuckled Ben. “First, let’s get a weather report.”

“Temperature at our primary landing zone will be 17 degrees when we land, going up to a high of 21 degrees during the day. We have extremely patchy clouds with lots of sunshine just waiting for us. Winds will be out of the west-northwest at about 12 kilometers per hour,” said Angeline. “In short, it’s a perfect day for our landing.”

“Extended forecast?” asked Ben.

“One day and three-day forecast showed similar conditions, dipping to 12 degrees at night with possible rain in the next Novae Spes week,” said Angeline. “But lots of shine and pleasant temps during the daytime.”

“Sounds like we hit at the perfect time,” said Ben. “Terrain?”

“We’ll be landing at Primary Zone Alpha as planned,” said Tasha. “Terrain shows extended grass-like areas with patchy wooded areas to the north and south of our location. To the immediate north, we have a wooded area on top of this hill, raising approximately 25 meters from the landing spot, with woods extended approximately 350 meters at its widest point. And to the south we have a dense wooded area extending for nearly 700 meters. To the immediate east and west, we have open grasslands with no appreciable terrain features for nearly six kilometers until we hit the river to the east and these low rolling hills to the west at nine kilometers. Gentle sloping terrain all around the planned landing site.”

“Probe data shows the area to be stable with no indication of caves or sub terrain structures and the ground is the Novae Spes equal of what we called dirt on Earth,” concluded Tasha.

“Sounds good,” said Ben. “Wildlife?”

“Data shows the area to be inhabited with a variety of insects and fauna of varying types. The most numerous are the kangaroo looking animals which tend to graze in the open areas where we will be landing. Other species have been spotted, but we have not seen a hostile species in our review of the data. Certainly not one large enough to cause problems,” said Javier.

“It’s the little ones you have to watch out for,” said Grady with a chuckle.

“It’s sounding like conditions are perfect,” said Ben. “Let’s go over the additional concerns for the morning and immediate action plans.”

The group spent the next fifteen minutes going over the extended plans including everything from mechanical failure on the shuttle to encountering a hostile species to the shuttle sinking in the ground upon landing. They went through the evacuation procedures and actions on contact until everyone was fully briefed on their role and understood the part they would play.

“One final item,” said Ben. “Since the main group will be traipsing around the surface for however long, I added a second person for the shuttle trip to partner up and be security for Charity as she waits patiently with the shuttle. Sergeant Major Whitaker will be paired up with her as a just in case since I don’t want anyone alone while we’re on the surface.”

The group turned and nodded him Kendrick Whitaker as he had a look of sheer confidence in protecting them. Standing 173 centimeters and weighing in at a little over 100 kilograms, he was the recruiting poster member for protection and looked ready to take on anything even at his age.

“Looks like we covered everything,” said Ben. “Any questions?”

The group sat quietly waiting for him to give the word to “go” as they all looked eager to get the most important part of their mission underway. Ben saw they were like a spring under tension just waiting to be released and decided they had covered everything sufficiently.

“Okay, if there’s nothing further, we’ll meet at Docking Bay 2 in one hour. I’d suggest you take the opportunity to get a bite to eat and grab any last minute equipment you’ll need for the surface. We will ensure the planet is safe before notifying Captain Smith to send the second wave to the surface with our extended teams,” said Ben. “Dismissed.”

The group shot out of their seats, grabbing the weapons and packs they would take while scampering out of the room. Ben followed at a more sedate pace picking up his carbine along with the basic survival pack and walking over to Allen.

“Interesting approach broadcasting it to the entire ship,” said Allen.

“I felt everyone should see what we’re doing instead of wondering what we talk about behind closed doors,” said Ben. “And I’m glad the peanut gallery comments were kept to a minimum.”

“Oh, I’m sure someone was biting their tongue,” chuckled Allen. “We’ve got a ship prepped to take you down along with the additional shuttles ready for the follow on.”

“Or rapid extraction,” said Ben with a grin.

“I’d hope not,” laughed Allen.

“I know the security forces are armed, but what about everyone else?” asked Ben.

“We thought of that and have them ready to be issued, but not everyone’s been through the training yet,” said Allen. “Some have had the basic training, but most haven’t. The command group has pistols except Charity has her survival rifle in the cockpit.”

“We’ll forego it for the first trip for the rest of the staff save security,” said Ben. “It is something to rectify in the near future.”

“I did put my security section on alert to move with the rest of Tasha’s force if you run into trouble,” said Allen. “Along with two more gunships for support.”

“Sounds good,” said Ben. “I’m going to grab a bite to eat, you hungry?”

“I ate before showing up, but I’ll grab a cup of coffee,” said Allen.

“I’d like to go over the parameters for a rescue mission while I’m eating if that’s okay,” said Ben. “As in, when you aren’t going to come get us.”

“That’ll be a cold day in hell,” said Allen. “But we have to have that talk.”

“Indeed,” said Ben as the pair headed to the galley, passing expedition members who politely nodded as they passed by. A few stopped the pair and shook their hands thanking them for the opportunity to be a part of the expedition as well as making that first trip to the surface. The entire ship seemed eager for the mission to get underway as Ben saw the remainder of the command staff already eating quickly and departing for their sections to grab additional gear. He and Allen sat away from them discussing a sensitive subject not everyone needed to hear at the moment. Allen objected from time to time and Ben heard the logic behind his objections before either overruling him or accepting the changes to the plans. Eventually, everything was settled as they headed to Ben’s quarters where he picked up his hat and the other small pack for the trip.

“Not everything in the survival kit for your liking?” asked Allen.

“I’ve found a couple of additional items come in right handy when you really need them,” said Ben as he attached the small pack to the larger one.

“With your record, I’m not surprised,” said Allen as Ben retrieved his carbine and attached the web gear to his chest. They headed through the ship as additional personnel stopped them and wished Ben good luck. Eventually, they arrived at the docking bay where they found Charity going through the pre-flight inspection one last time on the ship they knew she had already checked at least three times.

“Shuttle ready?” asked Ben. “We’re taking a gunship?”

“More power, better shielding and easier to maneuver,” said Charity. “We aren’t taking a large group and the main shuttles are monsters. It’s unarmed though unless you want us to load up the weapons pods.”

“No, I think we’ll be fine,” said Ben. “But it’s okay from storage?”

“Checked, rechecked and checked once again,” said Charity as she wiped her hands on a rag and straightened out her uniform. “I’ve just got my survival pack and weapons. Anything else I’ll need?”

“A steady hand to bring us to the surface,” said Ben as he saw Javier coming in and an assistant was carrying additional baggage.

“Doctor? You taking all this?” asked Ben.

“Is it too much?” asked Javier as he looked through the various bags and kits.

“We’re just the first party to land,” said Ben reasonably. “There will be other shuttles later.”

“Yeah, I got a little overeager,” said Javier. “I’ll just grab the basics.”

“Nothing you can’t carry on your back only,” said Ben.

“Yes, sir,” said Javier as he quickly went through and got several items before packing them away in his backpack. The remainder he asked the assistant to bring down on the next shuttle. Others were seen filtering in as Tasha started handing out items for the group.

“What’s this?” asked Grady.

“Body cam,” said Tasha. “Figured it’d be nice to have some continuous visual and audio recordings of what we are looking at rather than having to stop and take pictures constantly.”

“Good idea,” said Grady as he got the device ready. Eventually, the entire command team was in place and Allen and Cyrus came in as well.

“Everything set?” asked Allen.

“I believe so,” said Ben.

“I envy you,” said Allen. “Bravery never goes out of fashion.”

“I wouldn’t call it brave,” said Ben with a chuckle. “Not like we can just say ‘nah’ at this point.”

“Still,” said Allen. “You are taking the first steps towards a new future. That’s important.”

“And we have you to thank for getting us here,” said Ben as he shook Allen’s hand. He went around the room and shook everyone’s hand and thanked them for so readily volunteering to accompany him to the surface.

“Everyone ready?” asked Ben and looked at Javier. “Without being overloaded?”

“Mainly empty sample containers,” he said. “I’ll be fine.”

“Okay, last chance to back out,” said Ben. They looked at him and started filing onto the gunship without being prompted as Ben turned back to Allen and Cyrus one last time.

“If anything goes wrong, you may attempt a rescue, but only if it doesn’t threaten the safety of this ship,” said Ben.

“I’ve already got a team on alert in case of trouble,” said Allen with a nod.

“I’ll pick you out a nice spot for a house,” said Ben as he shook Allen’s hand one final time.

“Godspeed,” said Allen as Ben headed into the gunship and got into the copilot and weapons operator’s seat which was empty for this ride.

“Are you a qualified pilot?” asked Charity.

“Qualified, no. Does it mean I have flown these things, yes,” said Ben with a laugh.

“And you can land, right?” asked Charity. “Just in case?”

“By landing, you mean just stop the ship from flying?” he chuckled.

“You’re not quite instilling confidence as a copilot right now,” she laughed as she finished up the last-minute checks and prepped the shuttle engines to start.

“Yeah, we aren’t going to talk about this,” he laughed.

“With your permission?” she asked.

“Permission?” he asked in return.

“To depart,” she stated.

“Oh, yes, please,” he stated.

“Santa Maria, this is Novae Spes 1, requesting clearance for departure from Docking Bay 2,” she requested over the comm.

“Novae Spes 1, this is the Santa Maria,” said Allen over the comm. “You are cleared for departure. Again, Godspeed.”

“Thank you,” said Charity. “And thank you personally for giving me this chance.”

Charity saw Allen nod out of one of the viewers as she powered up the engines and brought the gunship into a short hover. She moved forward and passed through the electronic shield that kept the atmosphere inside the ship and moved into the vacuum of space.

“Heading for coordinates indicated from the probe,” she stated and flipped several switches. “It might get a bit bumpy back there, make sure you’re strapped in.”

Ben tightened his own harness as she brought the gunship buffeted slightly from hitting the outer atmosphere, but Charity headed straight through without any problems and without taxing the shielding or thermal plates too much. She eventually lowered the speed as they headed across the continent towards their new home.

“Landing area dead ahead,” she stated and the display came up on the screen to their front. “Fifty kilometers.”

“Have advanced visual?” he asked. She activated another system and showed the enhanced optical image of the landing area as they closed the distance.

“Looking very quiet,” he stated. “Where’s the probe in relation to the landing area?”

“Over here,” said Charity as she changed the image to show the probe sitting somewhat in the open, the first time it had been seen by human eyes in over a decade.

“Looks okay, no exterior damage we can tell,” said Ben. “Back to the landing area.”

“Ten kilometers,” said Charity as she changed the view on the display again.

“Nice big rock in the middle of our landing zone,” said Ben.

“Yeah, probably going to have to dig that up before we start building,” said Charity.

“Or build around it,” said Ben. “Nice place for a landing though.”

“Surface scans indicate stable ground,” said Charity as she checked one of the sensors.

“Put us down right next to it,” suggested Ben.

“Aye, sir,” she stated and slowed the ship even more. “Santa Maria, this is Novae Spes 1. We are at the targeted landing zone and are heading in for landing at this time.”

“I copy, Novae Spes 1,” said Allen over the communicator as he sounded a bit nervous.

“Lowering landing gear,” she announced and flipped one of the switches in the cockpit. Ben checked the sensor and saw them flash green.

“Gear down and locked,” he stated.

“Gently now,” muttered Charity under her breath as she turned around and flared the ship out for landing before setting it down so softly the occupants didn’t even know they were on the ground.

“Santa Maria, Novae Spes 1 is on the surface,” said Ben over the communicator. Charity was busy shutting down the engines but keeping the systems active just in case they had to make a rapid exit for some reason. The area was fairly clear with a grass like field surrounding them. The only feature was the large monolithic boulder sticking out of the ground to their rear.

“Roger that, Novae Spes 1,” said Captain Smith. “Santa Maria standing by.”

“All conditions reading safe, Commander,” said Javier as he got up and checked the science instruments on the shuttle. “No detectable toxins, oxygen levels are good and craft is stable. There is…pollen in the air, but it’s not toxic to humans as best as I can tell.”

“Well, Commander, now or never,” said Tasha.

“And so it is,” said Ben with a smile and took in a deep breath. Not too many people had the ability to say they were “first” on a new world. But this certainly seemed more important than the ones in the past. At least since the first steps mankind took off the Earth. He went to the side hatch and unlocked it, all eyes in the cabin on him. He decided for posterity to go out unarmed and unclipped the pistol belt and stowed his rifle by the door, earning a set of raised eyebrows from Tasha in the process. However, he looked at her and nodded, giving the non-verbal indication everything was okay. She had known him long enough to recognize the look on his face as a calm feeling came over her like everything was going to be perfectly okay. Opening the hatch, the fresh air suddenly filled the cabin with the smells they would become familiar with very soon.

He stood in the doorway, looking over the new world to build and a wave of emotions swept over him. But he didn’t stop as he stepped down from the door and onto the ground they were now going to call home. He took several steps away from the gunship, being recorded for posterity and towards the large rock they landed near. No words were spoken by anyone at that time as he slowly walked the twelve meters to the rock and gently swept his hand across it, feeling the texture smoothed over by the weather and feeling the warmth from the sun. He looked up into the sky at the clouds as they gently were being moved by the winds. The sunlight was warm on his face as he closed his eyes and took in a deep breath. He knew it was important to say something, but nothing came to mind other than the sensory overload he was feeling right then. But his solitude wasn’t to continue as he heard gentle footsteps in the grass behind him.

“No words?” asked Tasha softly.

Ben just slowly shook his head and looked at the others coming out of the shuttle. They too were taking in the new surroundings and looking around much like he was. Tasha took her cue and did the same, eventually closing her eyes and allowing the sunlight to warm her face. Her smile was indicative of knowing the chaos they had come from. And furthermore, the hope of knowing where they were going.

“Novae Spes 1, this is the Santa Maria,” said Captain Smith over the comm. “Sitrep?”

“Santa Maria, this is Commander Benjamin Nash, reporting landing site is secure and now officially designated as Novae Spes Spaceport,” said Ben.

“Had a bunch of us worried you got swallowed up,” said Captain Smith with loud cheers and applause heard in the background. “Let us know when we can send down the next group of shuttles.”

“Give us a few minutes and we’ll let you know,” said Ben.

“Santa Maria standing by,” said Allen.

Ben turned and saw the group was gathered around him. Even Charity had departed the shuttle to take a look at her new home. He decided a speech might be in order right then and gathered them around in a semi-circle.

“We’re standing on this new world not as only a new frontier, but as possibly the last chance for our species. We don’t come here as conquerors or explorers, but rather on our knees at the mercy of what this planet and the future will bring, begging for the continued survival of our kind. We can choose to leave behind all that pushed us to this place and start anew or we can continue destroying ourselves as our forefathers did. I make the choice to start from this place, this rock, to dedicating myself to learning from our mistakes and pushing for a brighter future. To building a new civilization of peace and prosperity so those who come after us will never know the horrors we left behind.”

“Amen,” said Javier Santiago quietly.

“Let’s make sure the area is secure,” said Ben. “We’ve got a lot of work to do.”

 

CHAPTER 17


The group went back to the shuttle and retrieved packs and sidearms for everyone except Tasha and Ben who took rifles as well. Charity and Kendrick stayed behind to keep the shuttle prepared for a rapid getaway just in case it was needed. The group headed for the nearest patch of woods where the cutting would begin in order to clear an area for the Santa Maria to land. Javier kept looking around as did Angeline at the surroundings. Being a botanist and a zoologist, he was amazed at how Earth-like the surroundings were and stopped frequently to look at the different forms of vegetation they encountered along the way.

“It’s almost like grass on the Earth,” he stated. “Same texture and growing pattern.”

“The life we’ve found on other worlds hasn’t been completely different from Earth’s,” said Ben. “At least for the most part.”

“No, but this is kind of like Earth’s twin if you would,” said Javier as he collected a sample and dropped it into a small specimen jar.

“I would have figured you’d be more interested in those,” said Tasha as she nodded towards the sky.

“Birds!” he exclaimed. “Wild birds!”

The creatures did appear bird-like as they flew past the group, chirping at the intruding aliens on their planet. However, they continued past the shuttle and into the other set of woods on the other side and out of sight.

“Why do I suspect we aren’t going to have a lack of work over the rest of our lives?” asked Angeline with a chuckle as she too was amazed at the environment.

“This is a scientist’s dream!” exclaimed Javier as they got to the outer edge of the woods. He walked quickly to one of the trees and saw it also was very familiar looking. “This appears to be like the sugar maple tree on Earth, but it’s growing straight up like an evergreen tree! And this one like a red oak from North America! And the undergrowth! Simply amazing!”

“If that’s like maple on Earth, we might have found a good source of raw materials for building. Maple is, or rather was, a pretty sturdy wood,” said Grady. “Same with the oak.”

“Well, this is the section we planned to clear for the ship,” said Ben as he noticed Javier was wandering around checking out nearly everything he could. “Let’s not stray too far into the woods, Doctor.”

“I won’t,” said Javier as he collected more samples and looked around, identifying several different new species that had been captured on photographs by the probes, but hadn’t been seen with human eyes until that time. Suddenly, Tasha put her arm up and shushed the group. Something was heard moving in the trees ahead and Ben also got his rifle ready as he followed her forward. The group looked a bit nervous at the situation, but calmly backed away to the edge of the trees. Tasha moved forward quietly as a head looked around one of the trees at the two of them. It looked at the intruding creatures but didn’t make a move to run off like many animals might with an unfamiliar intruder.

Ben saw it was one of the kangaroo looking animals and had a brownish red featherlike coating that helped it blend into the surroundings. It peered at them curiously before moving back behind the tree, unsure if they were a threat or not. Tasha and Ben stopped moving forward as it peered out once again at them before taking a step out and sniffing the air. The two were also unsure if it was potentially a threat and decided to be on guard just in case. The animal eventually decided its best option was to leave the curious creatures behind and walked away into the deeper woods.

“Pretty,” said Tasha.

“Absolutely stunning,” said Javier as the rest had gathered behind them silently. “It’s slightly different than the photographs. I wonder if it’s a different subsect?”

“Possibly,” said Angeline. “That one did have a slightly redder hue.”

“I want one,” said Rachelle with a laugh.

“I almost wish we had a capture unit,” said Javier. “I’d love to do a DNA analysis.”

“You could be in luck,” said Mary as she walked forward and found a featherlike item that had dropped from the creature before it departed. She made sure her gloves were on before picking it up and dropping it into the jar provided by Javier.

“This doesn’t look like a feather when not attached to the animal,” observed Javier.

“More like a hair with additional hairs growing out of it,” said Angeline as she looked at the item inside the jar and wiggled it back and forth.

“It also didn’t seem to consider us a threat,” said Ben.

“We’re new creatures around here,” said Angeline. “We haven’t given it a reason to fear us.”

“And let’s not,” said Ben. “Are we calling this area secure?”

“No indications of anything toxic, hostile or harmful,” said Angeline as she checked the sensor pack she had brought along.

“And no hostile animal life,” said Tasha. “So far.”

“Doctor Blevins?” asked Ben.

“No significant radiation of any kind,” said Mary as she checked the device again to be sure. “This planet must have a great magnetosphere and ozone layer.”

“How so?” asked Kurt.

“The radiation levels we’re getting here, well, let me put it another way, five years here would equal about a year on Earth,” said Mary.

“So, we’re a go?” asked Ben.

“No reason not to,” said Mary as the others nodded.

“Santa Maria, this is Novae Spes 1,” said Ben over the communicator.

“Go ahead, Commander,” said Allen.

“The shuttles are clear to proceed, Captain,” said Ben.

“Departing at this time,” said Allen. “Should be at your location in about twenty-five minutes.”

“Copy that,” said Ben. “Novae Spes 1 out.”

“Commander?” asked Javier. “Can we move ahead a bit?”

“See something?” asked Ben.

“Maybe,” said Javier as the group pushed forward into the forest slightly. After they had gone about twenty meters, they saw what Javier had found.

“Is that a tree?” asked Rachelle.

“It is,” said Javier as he walked over to the tree whose trunk was at least six meters in diameter. “It’s like a giant sequoia tree from Earth, but the trunk looks like a giant baobab.”

“Leaves are different though,” said Angeline as she looked through the small set of binoculars at the canopy of the forest. “Looks like the same leaves from the maple looking one.”

“There’s more,” said Tasha as she pointed to the west.

“Amazing,” said Javier as he saw where she was pointing.

“Are those things…solid?” asked Grady.

“I couldn’t even tell you,” said Javier. “None of the rovers have ever seen anything like this.”

“Maybe specific to this region?” asked Angeline.

“Maybe,” said Javier. “The rovers went through the forests here, but never saw anything like this that we saw. We obviously haven’t reviewed everything though.”

“Endangered species?” asked Ben.

“Again, couldn’t tell you,” said Javier. “We’ll have to bring in equipment to determine age and composition and whether it’s different from the others.”

“If it’s solid…” said Grady. “And there’s forests of these out here…”

“You won’t want for building materials,” said Kurt. “I do recognize the leaf pattern from other areas though. Could just be this one’s a bit older than others.”

“But there are more,” said Tasha as she pointed. “I counted at least a half dozen.”

“About 50, maybe 60 meters tall,” said Angeline.

“I’m already practically speechless,” said Javier.

“Yeah, not so much,” said Rachelle as the group laughed. “You’re giddy.”

“You have no idea,” laughed Javier.

“Commander? The shuttles are about ten minutes out,” said Whitaker over the communicator.

“Roger that,” said Ben. “We’ll head back to the shuttle and get the others settled in. But Tasha, I want your security guys to know not to go around shooting anything that moves. If it’s a threat, they are allowed to engage. But we aren’t coming here as hunters. We are the aliens here and need to treat this planet as guest quarters until we can get settled in.”

“Got it,” said Tasha as they headed back, Javier and Angeline pointing out different items along the way of interest. “So, are we naming animals yet?”

“Hadn’t really planned on it,” said Javier. “Why?”

“Because she wants to name the kangaroo thing,” said Angeline with a laugh.

“I do,” said Tasha as a matter-of-fact.

“And your name would be?” asked Javier.

“A featheroo,” she replied with a grin. “You know, a feathered kangaroo.”

“Really?” laughed Javier. “What if it turns out to be like a cow or something?”

“Featherow doesn’t have a ring to it,” said Tasha. “But featheroo does.”

“And those don’t really look like feathers up close,” said Angeline.

“They look close enough,” said Tasha. “Admit it, featheroo works.”

“I like it,” said Rachelle. “It does have a ring to it.”

“I can’t even believe I’m entertaining the idea,” laughed Javier. “But I’m pretty sure you just named the first species of animal on this planet.”

“Yea for creativity!” exclaimed Tasha and got a high five from Rachelle.

“For the spur of the moment, it’s not bad,” said Javier.

“Don’t kid yourself, Doctor,” said Ben. “She’s been thinking of that since the first time she saw the pictures of it.”

Javier turned to look at Tasha and saw she had a sheepish grin on her face. He realized Ben was correct and chuckled at the situation, though the name “featheroo” was kind of catchy. They arrived at the shuttle and found Charity and Whitaker were busy scanning the area.

“Lots of smaller thermal readings,” she stated as the group came onboard and stowed the samples they had retrieved. “Could be wildlife coming to see what the noise was about.”

“Get any pictures?” asked Javier as he looked at the readings.

“No, they are staying concealed for the most part,” said Whitaker. “But make no mistake, we are being watched right now.”

“Anything large or possibly threatening?” asked Ben.

“No, looks to be mostly under 10 kilos if I was to guess,” said Charity.

“Mostly?” asked Ben.

“Yeah, a couple a little larger, but nothing too large,” said Whitaker. “Not accounting for the possibility of venoms, sharp teeth and claws of course.”

“They aren’t a threat to us, we aren’t going to threaten them,” said Ben. “Javier, I know your science teams are going to be busting to try to capture some of these creatures for analysis. But I’d prefer to just observe at the moment.”

“I think that’s the best option too,” he replied. “Observe in the natural environment and attempt contact or capture later.”

“Again, we aren’t coming here slaughtering everything from day one,” said Ben. “We’ll figure out what kind of creatures are tasty at a later time.”

“Except the featheroo of course,” said Tasha. “Too cute to hunt and eat.”

“You want to starve?” asked Grady.

“It’s not that cute,” said Tasha as the group laughed.

“I’m sorry, did you say a featheroo?” asked Charity.

“Tasha got to name the first species,” said Kurt who spoke for the first time since arriving.

“You mean that feathered kangaroo thing?” asked Charity. “You stole that from me!”

“I did not!” exclaimed Tasha. “We came to the name at the same time!”

“We kind of did,” said Charity.

“I’ll give you both credit,” said Javier as he finished stowing the samples. The group heard the shuttles coming in and orbiting around the first shuttle with the pilots asking for landing instructions over the main comm channel.

“Tasha and Kendrick, if you would be so kind as to help,” said Ben as they departed and started marking the locations for the shuttles to land. They both got on the comm channels and started directing the pilots in to a landing area, forming a rough circle with the rock as the central point. Eventually, all the shuttles had landed and the passengers were coming out and looking up much like the first team had done. The leadership team allowed the groups to do so for a few minutes before herded them into the center as the new personnel continued looking around. Tasha’s security team far outnumbered the remainder of the group with the engineering party being the second highest in number.

“Welcome to Novae Spes,” said Ben. “We’ll go over some ground rules here from the start, so listen up please.”

“First, nobody goes anywhere alone,” said Ben. “Period and no discussion on that. We are on an alien planet that we have limited information about and we have little to no information on predators and wildlife. So, we will go in pairs or larger groups until the area is known to be safe. Which could take quite some time.”

“Second, we are being watched by some of that very same wildlife,” said Ben. “First Officer Steele and Sergeant Major Whitaker have been monitoring sensors and has noticed several thermal spots in this area. Now, Major Hayden will be briefing the security troops more in depth, but we will not, I repeat, will not start shooting at anything that moves. Some of you have weapons. They are for self-defense only. If you are being attacked, yes, please defend yourself. But otherwise, we are the aliens here intruding on these animal’s homes. For the moment, at least, until we establish ourselves.”

“Third, Major Hayden will establish a security perimeter. Everyone has a tracker device that will show the outer edge of that perimeter. Do not stray outside that area without either first consulting her or myself. This area we landed is will be locked into your trackers, so if you get disoriented, follow the signal back to the shuttle here.”

“Last, but certainly not least. We are only an exploration party today to determine the viability of this location for a suitable colony site,” said Ben. “I know we are going to see some new and interesting things. However, we will have plenty of time in later trips to study things in depth. We will only be here for the daylight hours today until we get the information we need and head back to the ship once it starts getting dark. I realize it’s going to take some effort to re-secure this area every day until we have a hard perimeter established, but I will not place anyone in unnecessary risk until we have properly evaluated the area,” he said in conclusion.

“If there’s nothing else, please break down into your individual teams and get with your direct team leaders for further instructions while Major Hayden establishes the perimeter,” said Ben as he turned back to Charity. “I’ll like you to keep the pilots corralled here please. They can go explore to the woods, but I’d prefer them waiting near the shuttles.”

“Got it,” she replied and went to gather the pilots doing the same thing as many others, looking up at the sky in amazement. Ben wandered over to Tasha and heard her giving a far more in-depth briefing and reiterating several times about not being the first to shoot unless necessary.

“And you know how those nerds would react if you did have to shoot,” she stated. “They’d start blasting away at everything including us. So, please do yourself a favor and make sure it’s absolutely necessary before shooting. Oh, and there is at least one of the feathered kangaroo in the woods, which we’re calling a featheroo. Do…not…shoot…them.”

“What kind of a dumb name is featheroo?” asked one of the team leads.

Ben bit his lip to keep from chuckling at her as a sour look came over her face. “It’s not a dumb name and the scientists think it’s perfectly acceptable. But don’t shoot it, period.”

“Unless it attacks, of course,” said Ben.

“Unless it attacks,” said Tasha. “Okay, team leads report to me for sector assignments.”

The six team leaders gathered on her as she looked over the map and gave them individual sector assignments except for two.

“Captain Irwin, I want your teams on roving patrol inside the perimeter,” she stated. “Once everyone has their folks in place, start working the perimeter.”

“Got it,” said Captain Jerome Irwin.

“Captain Sokolov, your team will be on ready reserve,” said Tasha. “I sincerely hope you will not be needed but be prepared to either respond to an incident or cover those retreating from the area. You’ll maintain a presence by the shuttles where you can respond to any sector needed.”

“Yes, ma’am,” said Captain Anton Sokolov.

“Okay, up to no more than a kilometer out from the shuttles,” said Tasha. “The science teams will likely be pushing for an extended boundary, but that’s as far as I feel safe at the moment until we get a more in-depth recon of the area. We can run that far as can all the other folks we’ll be protecting out here.”

“And make no mistake folks, we are the first, last and only line of defense for them out here,” said Tasha. “Our job, when it comes down to it, is preserving the lives of everyone else. We are the only hope they might have for getting to safety and it’s a job we will not fail in. Even if it means we have to make a stand we might not win in order to get the civilians to safety, we make that stand. And I’ll be right there with you fighting until they are safe.”

“Oo-rah!” announced Captain Jerome Irwin as his Marine side came out.

“Do you want my team to get the heavy weapons ready?” asked Anton.

“Have them prepared, but not broken out unless we absolutely need them,” said Tasha. “And nothing that isn’t man portable.”

“Yes, ma’am,” said Anton.

“Anything else?” asked Tasha and received shaken heads in return. “Let’s get to it then.”

“Pretty good speech,” said Ben after the team leaders had departed to their individual assignments. “Even I was motivated.”

“I learned from the best,” said Tasha with a smile. “Thanks for being there for moral support though. It’s appreciated.”

“Like I told you a long time ago, you and you alone are in charge of security out here,” said Ben. “I’ll still help with advice, but only if you seek it.”

“Like not shooting the featheroos?” she laughed. “I couldn’t imagine something that cute being aggressive.”

“Alien planet and who knows,” said Ben.

“Right,” said Tasha as she headed back and saw the other teams looking fairly antsy at not being able to go do their jobs. She checked the small tablet she brought with her and saw all 72 personnel were still on the move, but several had already been placed in the easier to reach locations. It took far longer for the teams traveling through the woods since they were being more cautious about moving forward, but after a half hour, they were in place and the team leaders had reported in.

“Okay, we’re as secure as we can be,” said Tasha.

“Team leads, you have permission to explore,” said Ben.

As if an old starter pistol had gone off, teams scattered to do their various jobs and explore the new environment. Since he didn’t have an established “partner” on the surface, Ben grabbed Tasha as his while he would move around and check on the individual teams. They departed towards the wooded area where Grady and the engineers were taking samples as well as determining how much work needed to be done.

“Give me a minute,” said Ben as he went behind the trees.

“Seriously? We had a bathroom on the shuttle,” said Tasha.

“I didn’t need to back there,” said Ben as he opened his fly and relieved himself.

“We’re on an alien planet we just landed on and you have to mark your territory,” said Tasha with a laugh. “All around the galaxy, males are the same.”

“You’re just jealous I can stand up while doing it,” he laughed as he finished up.

“It does have its advantages, I suppose,” said Tasha as they continued into the woods, finding Grady and another engineer observing the trees.

“They are far denser than maple on Earth,” said Grady as he showed them a small branch he had cut. “Might make clearing this a little more difficult.”

“But not impossible?” asked Ben.

“Just slower to cut through them,” said Grady. “It could alter our timetable. Especially when we get to those large ones.”

“But you won’t know until you start?” asked Ben.

“Nope,” said Grady. “But on the positive side, if the material seasons and stays the same density, we are looking at some fine basic materials for construction.”

“When will you know?” asked Ben.

“We’ll have to get to the ship in order to determine how it will respond,” said Grady. “I might have an initial answer tonight. As you know, we have a drying kiln in the storage that can, and most likely will, be used to speed up the process. Depending on how this wood reacts, we could have basic lumber in less than three days from each tree.”

“I’ll leave you to finish up,” said Ben.

“But one thing is promising,” said Grady before they moved on.

“Oh?” asked Ben.

“The ground is extremely stable,” said Grady. “No caverns or soft soil for at least a depth of 150 meters. Bedrock after about four to five meters or so from the initial scans.”

“Is that going to cause a problem?” asked Ben.

“It could make construction a little trickier for the larger structures we have planned, but it’s straightforward work,” said Grady. “The bedrock will be better for the structures though as it provides a far more stable foundation.”

“Any minerals so far?” asked Ben.

“I’ve got another team working on that,” said Grady. “Should have initial readings by tonight.”

“Okay, I’m on the communicator if you need me,” said Ben as they moved on towards where Kurt and some of the other agricultural specialists were working in the fields.

“Couldn’t have picked a better spot if I tried,” said Kurt as they approached.

“Oh?” asked Ben.

“Some of the best soil I’ve ever seen for growing stuff,” said Kurt as he nodded them towards a couple of holes. “Initial tests indicate extremely low alkalinity and more than ample amounts of the critical nutrients needed for most of the Terran and extraterrestrial based crops we have planned. In short, this stuff is perfect and untouched for our needs.”

“Okay,” said Ben.

“Long story short,” said Kurt. “Many of the former places on Earth with large scale farms had topsoil that didn’t even have a fraction of the nutrients we have here. We’re talking thousands of years of this soil just absorbing what we need.”

“That’s a good thing,” said Ben.

“More than a good thing,” said Kurt. “This means we won’t need fertilizer for the moment.”

“I didn’t think the sample data sent by the probes had all this,” said Ben.

“It didn’t,” said Kurt. “But then again, they weren’t checking for the right things. It was looking for minerals and things like that. I look for different parameters.”

“Got it,” said Ben. “When could we start planting?”

“We could plow today and plant tomorrow if we wanted to,” said Kurt. “Of course, after we clear the thatch and whatnot.”

“I’m sorry, thatch?” asked Ben.

“Okay, make a long story short, this stuff is more or less long grass. Comes out in the spring, grows over summer, dies during the winter. The dead stuff lies on the ground before eventually deteriorating and going back into the soil,” said Kurt.

“Okay,” said Ben.

“Basically, the thatch can prevent water and rain from reaching down to the roots. Now we can till it under, but it’s just as easy to remove it and mulch it up for compost,” said Kurt.

“I’d assume you have knowledge of how to do this?” asked Ben.

“Sure, a machine designed by yours truly that works like a charm,” said Kurt. “It mows, de-thatches and mulches into a container we can then use for compost.”

“On the ship, I take it?” asked Ben. “Up front?”

“It’s somewhat easy to get to,” said Kurt. “It’s time consuming though.”

“How time consuming?” asked Ben.

“Maybe add another week onto the time,” said Kurt. “But it’s worth it.”

“Still is an extra week,” said Ben.

“There is the slash and burn method,” said Kurt. “Not recommended though.”

“We burn it off?” asked Ben.

“Basically, a long time ago on Earth, farmers would go into an area they intended to farm which might have been covered in forest or heavy grass. They would cut down the excess vegetation and burn it to create suitable farmland,” said Kurt. “The burning also helped put nutrients into the soil, but it doesn’t add that much.”

“So, we’ve been here a day and you’d like to burn the place down?” asked Ben with a chuckle.

“Not like that,” said Kurt in an annoyed voice.

“Will that benefit us?” asked Ben.

“Just takes less time,” said Kurt. “And gets down into the roots that can come back.”

“Which is the best course of action?” asked Ben.

“Run the thatch machine over it,” said Kurt. “It might take longer, but it’s safer and provides us with compost materials for down the road.”

“I’ll go with whatever you feel is best,” said Ben.

“I’ll run the slash and burn idea by Grady and some of my other folks,” said Kurt. “We’ll discuss it and get back with you with the best option.”

“Thanks,” said Ben. “We’ve got a little time, not much, but we didn’t plan on any agricultural stuff until we were about a month in at least. So, use that time wisely.”

“Will do,” said Kurt. “And thanks for being open minded about it.”

“I’m not the expert around here,” said Ben. “That’s why I have you guys.”

“Okay, I’ll let you know what we decide,” said Kurt as he went back to getting samples and moving from one place to another as Ben wandered back towards the woods.

“Going to see Grady again?” asked Tasha.

“Nope, Javier,” said Ben.

“How do you know he’s over here?” asked Tasha.

“You know exactly where he is,” said Ben. Tasha looked at her communicator and called up the location of Javier. Sure enough was in a straight-line path with the direction they were heading.

“Oh, the tree,” said Tasha.

“Yep,” said Ben as the headed in and passed Grady heading back to the shuttle are with various samples he had taken and to gather additional equipment.

“Anything crazy?” asked Ben.

“Nah, Javier’s heading in to look at the tree though,” said Grady.

“I figured as much,” said Ben with a chuckle. He and Tasha eventually caught up with Javier and another man as they were busy walking around the tree with a device of some sort.

“Well?” asked Ben as they completed a full circle.

“Amazing,” said Javier as he looked at the data and showed it to his assistant.

“Impossible,” said the assistant.

“We can do it again,” said Javier. “But the device is calibrated.”

“Let me run it again,” said the man as he took the device from Javier and started walking around the tree again.

“Something good?” asked Ben.

“If the initial data is correct, this tree is solid all the way through,” said Javier. “And when I say solid, I do mean solid. Some pith in the center, but even that appears stronger than the Earth based trees we are used to.”

“How old is it?” asked Tasha.

“A thousand years old? Maybe more,” said Javier. “And there are others just as large.”

“Impressive,” said Ben as the assistant finished up the second reading.

“Just no way,” he stated as the data was the same.

“New planet, new rules,” said Javier. “It’ll make Grady happy.”

“This is the area we designated for landing the ship,” said Ben. “Are these monsters going to be hard to remove?”

“We’re taking readings of the root system right now,” said Javier. “Let me compile the data and get back to you later.”

“Fair enough,” said Ben as they headed to the other side as additional teams were here and there looking and taking various samples. Once they reached the clearing, they saw Rachelle approaching with a serious look on her face.

“I have a problem,” said Rachelle. “Kind of for the both of you.”

“Okay,” said Ben.

“When Tasha established the perimeter, she didn’t take into account heading to the river to get samples and checking the terrain along the way,” said Rachelle and saw Tasha about to interrupt. “That’s not an accusation either, Tash, I was just pointing out an oversight in all our planning.”

“So, how do we fix it?” asked Tasha as she realized they collectively had made a mistake.

“We’ll need permission to break the perimeter to head down,” said Rachelle.

“How far past the perimeter is it?” asked Tasha.

“About three kilometers to the best place to get samples,” said Rachelle. “Maybe three and a half from the looks of it.”

“Long way from secured areas,” said Tasha as she looked at Ben.

“Still something we need to get before we leave,” said Ben. “What are your thoughts?”

“I’d rather not let them head out there without a security detail as a minimum,” said Tasha. “But I have another idea as well.”

Tasha headed back towards the shuttles and motioned with her head for the pair to follow them. Once they arrived at one of the shuttles that had brought the security detail, Ben saw what she was thinking and automatically approved of the plan.

“We head out on these and take two, no more than two, people to get the samples and get right back,” said Tasha as she patted the single-person multi-terrain, multi-purpose vehicles, commonly called the MMV. It looked similar to an old All Terrain Vehicle on Earth, but had an upgraded fusion engine and greater torque and suspension.

“They only have room for one,” said Rachelle. “And I’ve never driven one.”

“You can get by with two,” said Tasha. “Passenger right behind the driver holding on.”

“Okay,” said Ben. “Obviously, you’re going and Rachelle will want to tag along. Who’s number three and four?”

“I’d say one of the science team,” said Rachelle. “I can check with Javier.”

“I’d like to keep my security teams here intact,” said Tasha. “You up for a quick trip?”

“You want me to drive the second one?” asked Ben.

“It’s not far from the perimeter,” said Tasha. “We can probably cover 25, 30 kilometers per hour, maybe a tad more over even terrain. Out and back in a jiff.”

“And who runs things here?” asked Ben. “And keeps folks from burning down the place?”

“Less than a half hour max,” said Rachelle. “I’d certainly feel safer having our two best soldiers along for the ride.”

“Get with Javier and find a scientist,” said Ben as he knew it was a quick trip. But the inner part of him wanted to explore a bit more than they already had and he was happy Tasha had suggested it. Rachelle bounced out of the shuttle as Tasha announced over the radio they were departing the perimeter, but she was still on the comms to respond. Ben unstrapped the two vehicles and started moving them out of the shuttle and down the ramp onto the ground. By the time he had the second one out, Rachelle had returned with one of the science team members in tow, a zoologist named Doctor Charles Dawson who went informally by the name Chuck.

“We’re going outside the perimeter?” he asked.

“That’s the plan,” said Ben. “You volunteered?”

“Absolutely!” he exclaimed as Tasha came back.

“Okay, everything is set up,” she remarked as she saw Dawson. “Hi, Tasha Hayden.”

“Chuck Dawson,” he replied and shook her hand.

“Okay, Chuck,” said Ben. “You’ll ride with Tasha and Rachelle; you’ll be my passenger.”

“We’re going on those?” asked Dawson.

“Safest and fastest way of getting there,” said Tasha. “It’s outside the secured areas.”

“Oh,” said Dawson. “Do I need my pack?”

“Wouldn’t hurt,” said Ben as he went to the shuttle to retrieve his pack and speak with Charity who was looking quite bored right then.

“Sunning yourself?” he asked with a chuckle as she had removed her uniform top down to her t-shirt and rolled up the sleeves on that as well.

“Heard folks on Earth used to do it this way,” she replied with a lazy smile and stood up.

“I’m thinking you are getting a little too relaxed already,” said Ben.

“I…you’re right,” said Charity as she stood up and started to put her uniform shirt back on. “My apologies. Won’t happen again.”

“I’d expect you to set the example for all the pilots out here,” said Ben. “But minor compared to what you could be doing I suppose.”

“Caught up in the moment, I suppose,” said Charity. “Everyone else is excited about this or that. Kinda hard to get excited about sitting around a bunch of shuttles.”

“Or you could be evaluating the data Rachelle already has,” said Ben reasonably.

“Yes, of course,” said Charity. “Again, won’t happen…again.”

“I’m heading outside the perimeter for about a half hour or so,” said Ben. “While I’m gone, you will be in charge of the landing area and the forces here.”

“I’m sorry?” she asked, getting more alert.

“You’re taking over while I’m outside the perimeter,” said Ben. “In case something goes wrong or I get hurt, you are in charge until I get back.”

“Okay,” said Charity who wasn’t used to being delegated such responsibility.

“I’ll be going to this point here,” said Ben as he showed her on the overhead picture of the area. “We’re getting water samples from the river and straight back here. I’m taking Rachelle, Tasha and a science team member named Chuck Dawson. Again, should be gone about a half hour or so and if you don’t hear from me in that time, try calling on the comm. If I don’t return any comm, launch one of the shuttles to do an aerial search pattern for us. If you don’t find us, you are to gather all personnel and head back to the Santa Maria and get further instructions from Captain Smith.”

“Yes, sir,” said Charity.

“See you in a bit,” said Ben as he headed back and found everyone was ready to go. He put his pack in the small cargo area on the rear of the MMV and stowed his rifle in the rack on the front. Hopping on, he started the small fusion powered motor and put it into gear.

“Turn your hat around backwards,” he said to Rachelle as he did that very thing.

“Got it,” said Rachelle as she turned her ball cap around. Ben saw Tasha and Dawson doing the same thing as they departed, the motors making their distinctive electric whine as they left the landing area and headed towards the nearby river. They hit a few bumps along the way, causing Rachelle to grab his midsection a little tighter as they moved along. Looking over, he saw Dawson doing the same thing as Tasha was having a little fun at his expense by gunning the engine a little more when they went over a bump. He had a terrified look on his face, but she was nothing more than a large grin.

They reached the woods as Tasha held back slightly and pulled her MMV in behind him following him as he avoided the heavily vegetated areas as they continued along. They saw two of the sentries on duty and stopped quickly to let them know who they were and they were allowed to continue. Ben found Tasha had already called ahead and let them know to allow passage. He pushed the accelerator and worked up through the gears, finding 20 KPH was about the max he could go without throwing off their passengers. However, that was only the top speed as they had to slow from time to time to navigate the terrain as they went along. However, it took less than ten minutes to reach the river as they pulled to the embankment.

“Pretty scene,” said Tasha as she observed the river gently winding its way through the small valley. “And you are going…where?”

“Just taking a look around,” said Dawson. “Seeing if there’s anything of interest.”

“I’d prefer you stayed right here or helped Ms. Marchand with getting the samples,” said Tasha.

“I just…okay,” said Dawson as Tasha gave him a look that she didn’t want to be argued with. He went over to where Rachelle was getting the sample containers ready and assisted with getting the long pole to get samples from away from the banks.

“There’s fish!” he exclaimed as he looked closer at the water. “Or something in the water!”

The others moved a bit closer to see what appeared to be a fish-like creature in the water, about 30 centimeters in length and swimming in the small pool. It had lighter gray skin than its Earth counterparts and quickly darted away once it noticed something was on the shore.

“We knew the sea had life,” said Ben as he scanned around for others. “I couldn’t imagine why the rivers and lakes wouldn’t either.”

“This might make a good fishing spot someday,” said Dawson.

“You fish?” asked Tasha.

“Long time ago with my grandfather,” he stated. “Not all scientists work in a lab 24-7.”

“So, you’re not a complete nerd,” she said with a grin. “Got it.”

“Not really a nerd,” he muttered and attached the sample container to the end of the rod and held it out over the river to get a sample. It was fairly tricky trying to keep it balanced to keep the container from spilling and he had to make several attempts before getting it right. Just as he brought the container up with a good amount, a creature almost two meters long jumped out of the water and bit down on the container and pole. Dawson tried to pull it back, but suddenly found himself being drug down the embankment and almost into the water.

“Let it go!” yelled Ben as Tasha grabbed Dawson by the waist to keep him from going into the river. But right before Dawson let go, the creature yanked one last time throwing them both off balance and into the water.

“Are you kidding me?” asked Tasha after sitting up in the shallow water. Dawson was on his hands and knees coughing at the water as he had accidentally ingested some.

“Both of you out of there, now!” ordered Ben.

“Aw, hell,” said Tasha. “I might have gotten some in my mouth too.”

“Did you get enough for analysis?” Ben asked as he turned to Rachelle.

“Three containers,” said Rachelle. “Should be enough.”

“Okay, we leave now,” said Ben. “I’ll radio Doctor Blevins and let her know to expect you two. Tasha, you’re in the lead. Are you okay to drive?”

“I’m really angry right now, but I can drive,” she growled. “You should have let go of the pole as soon as it grabbed hold of it.”

“I didn’t know, okay?!” exclaimed Dawson. “It surprised me and I didn’t think! I’m sorry!”

“We can be sorry later,” said Tasha. “In the meantime, I get to be mad at you and hope we didn’t get infected with anything bad.”

“Let’s move,” said Ben as they all saddled up and Tasha started heading back to the landing zone. She heard Ben calling ahead over the radio for Doctor Blevins to be prepared for the pair and briefly described what happened. Tasha heard the acknowledgment and worry in Mary’s voice as they sped up slightly on the trip back. She wanted to be mad at Dawson right then, but realized it wasn’t quite his fault a large creature had decided to try to eat their inedible sample container. Eventually, they passed the outer line of sentries that gave them a wave through and continued through the forest. Tasha didn’t realize just how bad it was until they arrived and found Mary as well as one of her med techs in a bio suit waiting for them.

“Put these on,” said Mary as she handed over two additional suits. “We’re going back to the ship as soon as you get them on.”

“Yes, ma’am,” said Tasha with a sigh and shot Dawson a dirty look. They doffed the gear they had on before Mary bagged it up as well and tossed it into the waiting shuttle.

“Let me know how they are,” said Ben to Mary as she got on board.

“I’ll keep you updated,” said Mary as she let the pilot know they were on board and needed to depart. Ben heard Mary giving instructions for their arrival on board the Santa Maria and the additional measures that would need to be taken once they got there.

“What brought all that on?” asked Angeline as she and Charity came walking up.

“Apparently there are fish in that river. Like a really big fish,” said Ben as he described what had happened when they tried to retrieve the sample away from the shore.

“Sounds pretty deep to have a fish that big,” said Charity. “They going to be okay?”

“That’s up to Mary,” said Ben. “But, hopefully nothing serious.”

 

Good start, great flow, waiting for the Stobors, wide open at this point and waiting for the unknown, lots of plot set up, dangers on planet, stow a ways, opposition noting departure direction different from stated destination, no real cohesion in crew as security, scientific, and settlers seem to have had no real period to work out differences and as the bard puts it the best laid plans of man oft go awry. Book up to this point has set us up for a major conflict of some sort with center on survival rather than colonization. Kind of an anti Tunnel in the Sky in which the plot was centered on the individual rather than the group interactions. Eagerly looking forward to more of the story.

 

CHAPTER 18


As the shuttle climbed for altitude, Mary went over and placed a biomed sensor on both Tasha and Chuck, taking note of their temperature, heart rate and other physiological data. Nothing was out of the ordinary at the moment, but she knew that could change rather quickly. The ship’s infirmary had already let her know they were prepared to receive the two and everything was ready for the complete scans once they arrived. Mary also called ahead to the science department and let them know they needed to rush testing the water for any toxins and pathogens. Kirk responded himself and let her know he would be ready.

The shuttle came into the docking area and they were met by more individuals in bio suits, ready for the transfer of the individuals. Tasha sighed once again and realized it might be some time before they were cleared as they were led a short distance to a shower facility. The shuttle departed back to the surface in order to bring the away teams back when it was time.

“Okay, both of you take sterile showers,” instructed Mary. “Put your suit, clothing and anything you have on you in the bio bags in the chamber. There are clean suits for after you get finished waiting in the changing area along with scrubs. I want no less than twenty minutes of scrubbing places you never even thought of scrubbing with the provided soap. Understood?”

“What about our weapons?” asked Tasha.

“In separate bio bags, but in just the same,” said Mary.

“Yes ma’am,” said Tasha with a sigh as she headed inside followed by Dawson. Tasha saw the lighting overhead was the UV type that might kill an airborne pathogen if it was in their system. Unzipping the bio suits, they placed them in the bags provided and started doffing their clothing. Chuck wanted to apologize again and turned around to find Tasha already down to her underwear.

“Sorry,” he said and quickly turned away.

“What’s that?” she asked.

“I said I’m sorry,” he stated over his shoulder.

“I’ve got underwear on,” said Tasha sarcastically. “I’m not naked.”

“I didn’t know if it would make you uncomfortable,” said Dawson as he turned around. “But either way, I’m sorry about what happened.”

“It’s okay,” said Tasha as she shoved her outer clothing into another bag.

“It’s not okay,” he stated. “I should have reacted differently.”

“You did what you thought was right in trying to save the sample,” said Tasha with a sigh. “I might have done the same thing. It’s water under the bridge, forgive the pun.”

Dawson nodded at her politely and looked at her once again, seeing she was in far more shapely without the baggy uniform on and was toned up from countless hours of exercise. His eyes involuntarily looked her up and down quickly before looking away.

“What?” asked Tasha.

“Nothing,” said Dawson as his eyes darted away guiltily.

“Were you just checking me out?” she asked.

“No!” he protested.

“Are you lying to me?” she demanded.

“No…okay, you’re really in shape,” he said.

“You’ve got to be kidding me,” she muttered. “We could die and men will still be pigs.”

“What’s that?” he asked.

“Nothing, Charles,” she stated as she emphasized his name. “You aren’t going to see me get naked. Now turn around until I can get in the shower. And I swear, if I see you even peek once, I’ll extend your stay in the infirmary as they set several of your soon to be broken bones.”

“Yes, ma’am,” said Dawson as he quickly spun around. Tasha finished disrobing and putting her underwear in the bag as well. She got in the shower and closed the door before telling him it was okay to open his eyes again.

“How did you know my eyes were closed?” he asked and finished disrobing himself.

“Because you’re more scared of me than catching some alien bug,” she said and smiled to herself. Thinking back, he was in far better shape than most scientists she knew as well and had a rugged handsomeness about him. However, now was not the time to be thinking over things like that as there were far more important items on the line. The hot water felt good as she got busy with the provided brush scrubbing all over her body and going over it again just in case. The chemical smell in the water seemed a lot more potent as time went on and she washed her hair for the second time.

“I’m telling you right now if I turn into a bleached blond, we’re going to tangle no matter how sick we get from this bug,” said Tasha from her stall.

“Say what?” he asked.

“I smell the chemicals in the water,” she stated. “And if it bleaches my hair or heaven forbid turns it into some godawful color, you are going to regret it.”

“We could possibly be contaminated with an alien pathogen and you’re worrying about your hair?” he asked from his shower stall.

“How’s everything going in there?” announced Mary’s voice from the intercom.

“Oh, just peachy,” said Tasha. “What’s in the water anyway?”

“A mix of antibacterial and antiviral chemicals,” said Mary. “Won’t change your hair color.”

“Hope not,” said Tasha.

“Doctor Dawson, are you okay?” asked Mary.

“Yeah, going on scrub number three,” he yelled back.

“The science lab is already at work studying the water samples that came back along with your clothing,” said Mary. “No obvious signs of toxins at the moment.”

“That’s a good thing, right?” asked Tasha.

“I said obvious,” said Mary. “The analysis is nowhere near complete.”

“Oh, that’s nice,” said Tasha sarcastically.

“You’ve got another five minutes until I’m happy you’re clean,” said Mary. “After that, you go into an isolated observation chamber until we’re happy you’re free of any bugs.”

“Yeah, clean externally,” said Tasha. “Some of us will still have dirty minds.”

“Oh, knock it off, will you?” said Dawson from his stall.

“Something I need to be worried about?” asked Mary.

“Nope, nothing at all,” said Dawson.

“Okay,” said Mary. “Finish up and get changed.”

“Would you like to go first?” he asked from his stall. “I wouldn’t want to get accused of trying to sneak a peek at you.”

“Oh, please,” said Tasha with a scoff as she shut off the water and started toweling off.

“Okay, I’m going first then,” said Dawson as he finished up and grabbed a towel from outside the stall. He quickly dried himself off and grabbed the set of medical scrubs, pulling them on and walking to the chamber door.

“Can I come out now?” asked Tasha.

“I’ll face the wall,” said Dawson.

“Thank you,” said Tasha as she quickly grabbed the scrubs and slipped them on. “Okay, I’m respectable again.”

“Okay Major, Doctor. There’s suits in the boxes by the airlock door,” said Mary over the intercom. “Slip those on and someone will meet you at the other side.”

“Lot of precautions,” said Dawson as he started pulling on the suit. Tasha didn’t say anything as they got everything on and sealed up. Heading into the airlock, the light changed from red to green on one side and then from green to red on the other. A med tech was waiting as the door opened and they were led away from the decon area. As they walked along, people gave them a wide berth as they were walking by.

“Why do I feel like a circus freak?” asked Tasha.

“You’re fine,” said the med tech as they entered the isolation room. “Same airlock procedure. Head inside, doff your suits and go through the inner door.”

“Remind me again why I helped you?” asked Tasha as they went inside.

“I have no idea,” said Dawson as the door locked behind them and they started to remove their suits. However, Tasha’s zipper got stuck prompting her to struggle.

“Let me help,” said Dawson as she jerked away.

“I’m fine,” she growled and yanked at the zipper again. However, it wasn’t coming open and she let out a sigh before admitting defeat.

“Oh, so now you need my help?” asked Dawson in a tone.

“Look, I’m sorry,” said Tasha. “I don’t like being trapped like this or looked at like some caged animal. I know it isn’t entirely your fault, but it still sucks.”

“Not entirely my fault, huh?” he asked as he got the zipper unstuck and pulled it the rest of the way down.

“No, it’s not,” said Tasha. “Just part of it.”

“Right,” he said with an eye roll as the inner door opened and Mary was seen inside in her own bio suit.

“Grab a bed,” said Mary with a wave of her arm. Tasha took the first bed and plopped down into it with a sigh and beat the pillow slightly. Dawson took a more sedate pace and sat on the edge.

“I’ll need to get blood samples from you both,” said Mary as she went to Dawson first. He stuck out his arm without being prompted as Mary drew several vials and put them in a tray. She headed over the Tasha who hesitated.

“Don’t like needles, huh?” asked Mary.

“How could you tell?” asked Tasha with a nervous laugh.

“Never saw a soldier that did,” said Mary. “And it’s our little secret, but Ben doesn’t like them either. Almost wouldn’t let me take a sample.”

“Oh?” asked Tasha. “When did you have to draw blood?”

“Doctor-patient privilege,” said Mary. “But he had me worried for a minute or two. Everything worked out okay in the end.”

“Good to hear,” said Tasha as she winced at the needle going into her arm. “You would think after several hundred years of medical advances, they’d come up with something less painful than a needle to draw blood.”

“Still the most effective way of doing it,” said Mary. “Okay, I’ll get this analyzed while you two take a much needed rest.”

“Yeah, that’s going to happen,” said Tasha with a scoff. Mary chuckled as she departed the facility and the med techs made sure a bio monitor was on each of their wrists.

“I’m pretty sure I’ve got an alien growing in my gut like one of those bad 20th century movies,” said Tasha to nobody in particular. “Going to bust right out and kill everyone in the room.”

“I’m not sure that’s the way it worked,” said Dawson.

“Probably the way this one will work,” said Tasha. “Grow right out and pow, everyone on this ship is dead within like two hours. And it will be all your fault.”

“Is there another room maybe?” Dawson asked the med tech.

“No,” said the med tech with a veiled smile. “There is a divider that I can put up.”

“Is it soundproof?” asked Dawson.

“Afraid not,” she chuckled.

“Never mind then,” said Dawson. “Maybe a pair of earplugs?”

“I heard that,” said Tasha.

“It was meant to be overheard,” said Dawson pointedly.

“Am I pushing too much?” asked Tasha.

“That’s an understatement,” said Dawson with an edge in his voice.

“Well, it is your fault I’m stuck here,” said Tasha.

“Well, you didn’t have to try to help me,” said Dawson. “So, it’s your own damn fault you’re here and not mine.”

Tasha got quiet as she realized she had pushed too far. Had she just let him fall into the river, she very likely wouldn’t be there right then. But she hated being reminded of that fact even though true. She rolled over in the bed and tried to get comfortable. Before she knew it, Mary was waking her.

“Tasha? Are you okay?” she asked.

“Yeah,” said Tasha with a yawn. “Just a little nap. I was going on like 36 hours straight.”

“That’s not good for you,” said Mary who Tasha noticed wasn’t wearing the bio suit, but was wearing a mask over her mouth and nose.

“I’ve done it before,” said Tasha. “No big deal.”

“No, it is a big deal,” said Mary. “Your body is not accustomed to some of the microbes we’ll be encountering and needs time to fight them off and repair itself. Sleep gives the body the opportunity to do just that. So, no more late nights without sleep, clear?”

“Yes, Doctor,” said Tasha as she took the admonishment in stride. “I was just kind of excited about the landing and didn’t get any sleep.”

“We all were excited,” said Mary. “But you need your rest now for certain.”

“Something wrong?” asked Dawson as he sat up.

“Well, good news and bad news,” said Mary. “The good news is there are no microbes or parasites in the water for the moment that the human body can’t contain. Bad news is there are microbes and parasites that could infect the human body with untold consequences. So, you’ll be getting an antibiotic injection that will help boost your immune system and let the body fight it naturally. If it becomes a problem, we’ll cross that bridge when we get there.”

“However, for the moment you two will continue under observation in isolation for the time being,” said Mary. “The techs won’t need to wear the full bio suits, so that’s a plus. But you will be locked in here for some time. You will get plenty of rest, drink plenty of fluids and eat regularly when the meals are provided. Understood?”

“You’re a pretty tough doc,” said Dawson with a half a smile.

“I don’t play around with my patients’ health, especially under the circumstances,” said Mary. “Did I hear an agreement, Major Hayden?”

“Yes, ma’am,” said Tasha. “Eat, drink and be merry.”

“I’ll have a couple of tablets brought in so you have something to keep you occupied,” said Mary. “Lord only knows the conversation won’t be enough.”

“We’ll play nice,” said Tasha who heard a scoff from Dawson. “Or not.”

“I’ll be by to check on you guys in a few hours,” said Mary. “Until then, do try to refrain from beating each other senseless.”

“No promises,” said Dawson as he heard a scoff from Tasha as well.

Mary departed and headed for the communications center to contact Ben who she knew was worried. She managed to get him on his individual communicator as his face appeared on the monitor.

“What’s the prognosis?” he asked immediately without any pleasantries.

“As I told them just a bit ago, good news and bad news,” said Mary and went through explaining about the water situation. “So, kind of bad news is we don’t know how the human body will react to them at the moment. Good news is, simulations show the human body can beat them with no lasting effects.”

“I’d bet Tasha is going out of her mind,” chuckled Ben as he was relieved the prognosis by the doctor seemed to be good. “She hates being locked away.”

“She got into it with Doctor Dawson a while ago,” said Mary. “They aren’t talking.”

“She’ll be fine,” said Ben. “Probably be hard for him to get a word in edgewise by the time this is over.”

“But either way, we didn’t specifically want human test subjects for what this planet can throw at us, but we have two of them so our knowledge will be expanded greatly,” said Mary. “Possibly even come up with an antidote in advance.”

“I’m not a fan of the conditions it’s under, but I would be a fan of the results,” said Ben. “So, otherwise, the water is safe?”

“About as good as it can get,” said Mary. “UV screened and filtered and it’s good to go. The bugs on this planet are just as susceptible to UV as the ones are on Earth.”

“I’ll let Javier know,” said Ben. “Anything else?”

“Nothing I can think of,” said Mary. “When are you heading back?”

“We’ll probably be underway in the next hour or so,” said Ben. “We’ve got all the samples we will need for the initial survey and are just checking out the neighborhood at the moment.”

“Wish I could have been there,” said Mary.

“You were missed,” said Ben.

“By whom?” she asked.

“Me of course,” said Ben with a smile. “I like having a doctor around.”

“I’ll make sure I’m there next time,” said Mary.

“Okay, I’ll come see you when we get back,” said Ben.

“Bye,” said Mary as Ben ended the call. She headed back in and saw Tasha was back asleep and Chuck was heading that way as well. Through the excitement of the landing as well as the events on the surface, she felt pretty tired herself and headed to the mess to grab a bite to eat. As she walked past her quarters, she decided a nap was the more desired option and headed in without thinking. Doffing her clothing, she grabbed a shower and laid down, falling asleep almost as soon as her head hit the pillow.

Meanwhile on the planet, Ben knew the teams were likely still excited and trying to bring back half the planet as samples, but they had been going for a full seven hours and probably learned as much as they could from the area they were in.

“Team leads, please return to the shuttle landing area,” he announced over the comm. Checking the small tablet, he saw each of them returning to the shuttles, though it took Grady slightly longer as he was furthest away. And as he waited, Ben saw an oversight in the leadership as Tasha’s beacon read “out of range” on his device.

“Captain Sokolov? This is Commander Nash, please meet me by the shuttles,” said Ben.

“On my way, sir,” replied Anton as he left his team and walked the short distance to Ben.

“I didn’t realize you were so close,” said Ben.

“It is okay,” said Anton. “How may I help you?”

“With Major Hayden out of pocket, we don’t have a designated security team commander,” said Ben. “And as you are the next ranking individual, the duty falls on you.”

“I’m sorry?” asked Anton.

“We are getting ready to pack up and depart,” said Ben. “I need someone making sure all the security personnel get back to the shuttles and are accounted for.”

“Sir…” started Anton.

“You think they aren’t going to listen to a Russian?” asked Ben with a smile.

“It is a serious concern,” said Anton.

“And your team so far has ignored you? Done opposite of what you asked?” asked Ben.

“No, they have followed my instructions,” said Anton.

“So, what’s the problem?” asked Ben. “I’ll make it easy for you. Call in your team leaders and when they get here, brief them on the retrograde plan. I’ll let them know in Major Hayden’s absence, you are in charge. Fair enough?”

“That is fair,” said Anton.

“And I’d get out of the mentality we are Russian, North American or European. Out here, we’re all on the same team, we are Novae Spesians,” said Ben.

“I understand, Commander,” said Anton as he asked for the team leaders to come to his location. As they were arriving, he was coming up with a plan based on where the teams were located on the ground. As he got up the nerve to brief them, Ben stepped to the front of the small semi-circle and addressed them.

“I’m sure many of you heard Major Hayden was taken back to the ship for a medical emergency,” said Ben. “But she is fine and is just under observation for the moment since she accidentally ingested some water from the river nearby. Doctor Blevins thought it prudent to keep an eye on her just in case something went wrong. But she will be back at it very soon and again, nothing is wrong with her.”

“In her absence, Captain Sokolov is the next ranking member on the ground,” said Ben. “But he thinks you might be hesitant to take orders from a Russian. However, I assured him you are all professional enough to follow his instructions as we gave up being a Russian or a North American or Chinese when we set foot on the Santa Maria the first time. You became Novae Spesians the moment you set foot on this planet. Now we remember our heritage for certain, but we are forging a new heritage and dismissing the national divides that destroyed our planet. We are united here in the common goal of survival and cannot let our petty differences divide us any longer, regardless of what happened in the past. We have to set aside those differences and work together for the common goal.”

“So, I’ll turn this over to him and let him brief you on the plan,” said Ben as he stepped back. He saw the team leaders gather around Anton as he briefed them on the order of events, pointing at team locations every so often as he received nods and acknowledgements from the team leaders gathered there. Upon completion, he sent them back to their respective areas to wait for the call to withdraw and walked over to Ben.

“Am I really the ranking Captain on the ground?” he asked.

“I honestly have no clue,” chuckled Ben. “Probably not though.”

“You set me up?” asked Anton.

“No, I gave you a mission to perform and you did it,” said Ben. “Look, leadership doesn’t know national boundaries or corporate influence. And I’ve read enough in your file to know you’ve got the leadership needed to do this job down pat. Do you honestly think those guys care? No, they recognize you as a fellow professional and we’re all in this together.”

“You are smarter than your file from Russian Intelligence indicates,” said Anton with a wry smile. “It seems we…they did not know how capable you truly were.”

“I’m glad,” said Ben. “I’d rather be underestimated when being faced on the battlefield.”

“Something we certainly did in the past,” said Anton as he followed Ben over to the gathered leaders. “But I thank you for the opportunity. All of them in fact.”

“No problem,” said Ben. “Your reputation as a professional proceeded you.”

“Not just that, but my daughter will live,” said Anton.

“I’m sorry?” asked Ben.

“Even as a decorated Russian Officer, I had no place in the domes,” said Anton with a sigh. “Higher ranking individuals, plutocrats and politicians took up most of the space. We could only watch my beloved Tatyana die before her time. She had been treated for cancer twice before coming here.”

“Is she okay?” asked Ben.

“I believe so,” said Anton.

“You get that little girl seen by Mary as soon as we return to the ship,” said Ben. “In fact, I’ll let her know to make time in her schedule.”

“It is appreciated,” said Anton with a polite nod. Ben gathered the leaders around as well as Charity as he notified them of their departure.

“I know we’re all excited and keep discovering new things, but we have to analyze what we have so far and we can’t do that from the surface,” said Ben. “A couple of days on the ship figuring out what we have isn’t going to kill anyone.”

“Just five more minutes, Daddy?” asked Rachelle with a grin.

“You sounded like Tasha right then,” chuckled Ben.

“Speaking of, she’s okay, right?” asked Angeline. “And that other guy…Dawson?”

“Yes, under observation, but they’re fine according to Mary,” said Ben. “Okay, start calling in your teams and getting them back into their shuttles. If they don’t remember which one, just toss them into an open seat, but make sure we’ve got everyone. Captain Sokolov will be the last team lead aboard and I will be the last off the planet. Questions?”

“We are planning to leave monitoring equipment,” said Javier. “It will be okay?”

“Shouldn’t be a problem,” said Ben. “Is it set up?”

“Takes about ten minutes,” said Javier.

“Okay, let’s get to it,” said Ben. “Loading begins now and we’ll all depart together.”

The team leaders headed off to collect their people and started bringing them in. Angeline oversaw the placement of the monitoring equipment and got everything set as Javier counted noses of his personnel as they came on board. Many wanted to stay, but realized they had much more to do when they arrived at the ship.

“Science Team is onboard,” said Javier as the last individual got a seat.

“SIT is accounted for,” said Rachelle.

“Medical Staff is good,” said the lead med tech that had taken over for Mary.

“Engineers are good to go,” said Grady.

“Along with Agriculture,” said Kurt.

“Anton? Go ahead and get your folks back in,” said Ben.

Anton started calling the teams in and collapsing the perimeter towards the ship. Ben saw it was a good plan and he kept up with the teams, not allowing one to come back and faster than the others. Eventually, everyone was back and accounted for as he sent them to the different shuttles to depart.

“We’ll be back,” said Ben as the leadership headed to the gunship and engines started on the other shuttles. They took off in the same order they landed and headed back to the ship. Ben, as promised, was the last one inside as he sighed looking at the landscape they were departing from. He knew he would get to know it far better in the future as he closed the hatch on the gunship and headed to the copilot’s seat.

“You got a bit of sun,” said Ben as he saw Charity had a reddish hue.

“So did you,” she remarked as she started the engines and prepared for departure.

“It’s a nice problem to have,” he stated.

“Very nice,” she replied and lifted off, breathing out a sigh herself. “It’s a beautiful place.”

“Soon to be home,” said Ben as they rapidly gained altitude and caught up with the slower shuttles before falling into a trail pattern. It didn’t take long to achieve orbit and reach the Santa Maria as they slowed their approach and listened for the controller’s instructions on which docking bay to land in. Eventually, they were called and headed into the bay they had departed from originally as Charity brought the gunship in for another soft landing. After finishing, they were met by medical personnel who requested they head to the infirmary to get a quick check.

“Something wrong?” asked Ben.

“No, but Doctor Blevins wants to make sure you didn’t bring anything back,” said the med tech.

“Of course,” said Ben as they collectively headed through the ship and found a line waiting outside the infirmary as people shuffled in and out as they got a quick check and their vitals were recorded for later analysis. Eventually, the line dwindled down and the leadership group was called in as the techs took their readings as well as withdrawing a sample of blood. Ben saw Mary come in and look over everything before smiling at him and making her way over.

“Everything’s okay?” he asked.

“I’m sure you’re fine as a fiddle,” she said.

“I don’t know if that’s how that saying went,” he chuckled.

“I said it, I can make it anything I want,” she stated with a grin.

“Yes, ma’am,” he said with a chuckle. “How are Tasha and Dawson?”

“Under observation,” said Mary. “Should be okay though.”

“Good,” said Ben. “Anything else?”

“Yep, each and every one of you needs to go to the mess, grab a bite to eat and then go shower and get some sleep,” said Mary as she announced her instructions to the entire group. “I’d bet not a one of you got a hootie darn’s worth of sleep last night and you don’t need to be fatigued. Play time with the samples can wait until you’ve had some rest and a decent meal.”

“She’s a mean old doctor, isn’t she?” asked Kurt with a chuckle.

“She’s right though,” said Grady. “We all have assistants and specialists that can start analyzing what we brought back. I could use a nap.”

“Speak for yourself, old man,” said Rachelle. “I’m rip roaring and ready to go!”

“Yep, and you’re going right to the mess and right to the shower and right to bed,” said Mary.

“Yes, mom,” said Rachelle with a chuckle. “Anything else?”

“Nah, get out of here,” said Mary with a smile. “See you guys tomorrow. 0800 on the staff briefing tomorrow, right?”

“Yes, we’ll use the rec center…no, let’s make it a working breakfast at 0700 in the mess hall,” said Ben. “Unless anyone needs a projector?”

“I’d think one might come in handy,” said Grady. “But I can talk to Cyrus about getting one set up for us.”

“Okay,” said Ben. “Tomorrow morning then.”

The team leaders started shuffling out, still excited about what they had discovered that day, but also knew they needed sleep before thinking over the items they had brought back. Mary was still checking some data on the various members that had returned when Ben approached.

“And are you going to sleep?” asked Ben.

“I was actually going to check on my two patients,” said Mary. “I was able to catch a nap before you got back.”

“As soon as they are done, I have a favor to ask,” said Ben. “And I’d like to see them too.”

“I’m heading there now,” said Mary. “And the favor?”

“I don’t know if you’ve met Captain Anton Sokolov yet. He’s one of the security personnel and brought his family with him. Anyway, his daughter needs a quick check if you don’t mind,” said Ben.

“Is something wrong?” asked Mary. Ben briefly explained the situation as Mary shook her head.

“Medical over there still sucks,” said Mary. “For all our advances in technology, they are still behind the rest of the world.”

“When can you see her?” asked Ben.

“I’ll do it right now,” said Mary as she accessed the personnel roster and found where they were staying. Ben saw Anton returning from the armory and passing in the corridor outside and called to get his attention as Mary was connecting the intercom to their quarters.

“Hello?” asked the voice haltingly.

“Hi, this is Doctor Blevins in the infirmary and I’d like to see you and your daughter here please,” said Mary through the intercom.

“Doctor,” said Anton as he politely smiled and spoke in Russian into the intercom. He received an acknowledgment from his wife and gave them simple directions to follow. “She does not speak English very well yet. She is learning along with my daughter, but it is difficult to learn.”

“I’m sorry, I didn’t know,” said Mary.

“No, it is okay,” said Anton. “You will make sure my daughter is healthy?”

“Absolutely,” said Mary. “It’s no trouble at all.”

“Thank you, Doctor,” said Anton with a smile as he waited patiently in the corridor for his family. Eventually a yell of “Papa!” was heard outside as his daughter darted up to him and was lifted off the ground in a hug. His wife received a quick kiss as they came inside.

“Captain, you might need to translate some of what I’ll be asking,” said Mary.

“Of course,” said Anton as they headed into a different compartment where a scanner was located. Mary relayed the instructions for him to put Tatyana on the scanner and have her lay flat. She did so, looking slightly nervous as the device took readings and gave Mary an in depth look at her internals.

“Where were you living before coming here?” asked Mary.

“A base outside Saratov,” said Anton.

“I see,” said Mary. “I’m going to need to scan both of you as well.”

“I’m sorry?” asked Anton.

“Saratov was hit by nuclear weapons at one point in the 21st century,” said Mary. “And even though declared safe, there was still a high amount of residual radiation. When the area turned into a desert, that radioactivity got swept up into the dust. There’s a good chance all three of you have precancerous cells. But it’s an easy treatment.”

“Of course,” said Anton as he picked his daughter up off the scanner and gave her a smile for being brave and swiped down her nose with his finger. He got a giggle in return as his wife laid down and was scanned as well. He was the last as Mary took the readings.

“You were a smoker, too,” said Mary with a wrinkled nose.

“I was,” he said. “But before coming here.”

“Your lungs are still clearing,” said Mary. “Nasty habit.”

“I have quit,” said Anton.

“Good, because you might not get to see your daughter grow up otherwise,” said Mary.

“Point taken, doctor,” said Anton with a respectful nod.

“Okay, I’m going to give you all three some pills to take,” said Mary as she made an order in the dispensary. “One in the morning and another twelve hours later for three days. After a week, I want to see you all here again for another check.”

“My daughter will be okay?” asked Anton.

“She will grow up to be a very healthy and lovely woman,” said Mary with a smile and retrieved a sucker from her drawer to hand over. Tatyana took it with a “spasiba” before being corrected by her father.

“In English,” he instructed.

“Thank you,” said Tatyana with a grin.

“Thank you for being brave,” said Mary with a smile. Anton translated the English word as Tatyana repeated the word “brave” back.

“She’s a quick learner,” said Mary.

“She is a very special girl,” said Anton with pride. The medicine came out of the automatic dispensary and Mary handed over the three bottles.

“First one tonight and every twelve hours starting tomorrow morning,” said Mary.

“It will be done,” said Anton as he translated for his wife. She thanked Mary as well with a smile on her face and picked her daughter up to be carried back home. However, Tatyana demanded to be taken into her father’s arms instead as it was a place daddy’s little girl preferred.

“See you,” said Mary as they were preparing to depart.

“Papa? What is wrong with her?” asked Tatyana as she saw Tasha lying on the bed.

“She drank some bad water,” said Anton.

“Is she okay?” asked Tatyana as she recognized Tasha from the platform when they were leaving.

“The doctor says she will be fine,” said Anton.

“Can I see her?” asked Tatyana. “Maybe I can make her feel better.”

“Perhaps later,” said Anton as they were departing when they were stopped by Ben.

“If you don’t mind, I’ll need an after-action report when you get the chance. As well as a plan for follow on security concerns with the next wave,” stated Ben.

“Is this not Major Hayden’s responsibility?” asked Anton.

“Until she is out of sick bay, no,” said Ben. “I’m asking you to do it as well as taking her place at the staff meetings.”

“Yes, Commander,” said Anton.

“Tomorrow morning at 0700,” said Ben. “Working breakfast in the mess.”

“I will be there,” said Anton as they departed.

“She is a beautiful little girl,” said Mary as she checked the data again.

“Was she sick?” asked Ben.

“It was a matter of time before she was again,” said Mary with a sigh. “The pills I gave them should be enough to knock out the chance of cancer in the future, but we’ll have to keep an eye on her for the next year or so.”

“Better make sure you have plenty of candy,” said Ben as he opened the drawer and stole one of the suckers he spied from before.

“Hey! Those are for the kids!” she objected.

“I’m a big kid,” he said with a wink. “And speaking of kids, let’s see Tasha and Chuck.”

“Next compartment,” said Mary as she retrieved two masks for her and Ben. They headed inside the isolation chamber where Tasha was busy on a tablet along with Chuck on another.

“Come to break me out of prison?” she asked.

“Nope, this isn’t your parole hearing,” he laughed.

“Bummer, I have been a good girl,” said Tasha with a grin.

Ben heard a sarcastic “uh huh” from the other bed as Chuck didn’t look over.

“Oh, be quiet,” said Tasha with a roll of her eyes. “Anyway, I feel fine.”

“For now,” said Mary as she checked the monitor.

“I’m sentenced to all three days?” asked Tasha.

“Yep,” said Mary as she moved over to Chuck.

“I put Anton Sokolov in charge while you were gone,” said Ben.

“I honestly don’t know that much about him,” said Tasha.

“We won’t be going back to the surface before you’re out,” said Ben. “But there needs to be an officer in charge until you are out.”

“You’re right,” said Tasha. “And I didn’t really appoint a chain of command.”

“No better time than the present,” said Ben.

“And she needs to get caught up on her rest as well,” said Mary as she came back over. “Someone didn’t sleep the night before the landing.”

“I slept a little bit,” said Tasha.

“How about a bit more than a little bit?” asked Mary.

“I promise,” said Tasha.

“Well, I’ll leave you to it then,” said Ben. “Get well soon?”

“Yeah, something like that,” said Tasha. “Night.”

“Good night,” said Ben as they departed.

“I’m heading to the mess, want to join me?” asked Mary.

“I think your instructions were eat, shower and bed,” said Ben. “I’d be very happy for you to join me.”

“Well, at least for the first one,” said Mary with a laugh.

“Right!” he exclaimed. “I didn’t mean to imply…”

“I was joking,” she laughed. “Don’t be so serious.”

“Joking about only the first one?” he asked with a laugh.

“Yeah, that’s a good start,” she laughed in return as they headed for the mess. Upon entering, the various individuals that had gone to the planet were regaling the others who had to stay behind with stories and tidbits of information. The various section directors were also there giving instructions to their teams on what needed to happen as well as what was planned going forward. Mary and Ben grabbed seating and got caught up on the other items she had missed upon her departure. Eventually, Ben started yawning and Mary instructed him to follow the remainder of her orders to shower and get some sleep. He complied with a smile before heading to his quarters and doing that, falling deep asleep as soon as he hit the bed.

 

Thanks Grand for the story. You can write for as long as you want I'll surely read it all love sci-fi stuff. Thanks again
Chuck

 

CHAPTER 19


“Everything okay over there?” asked Chuck as he heard Tasha tossing and turning in the bed. So much so that it woke him up along with her grunting.

“Yeah, I’m okay,” said Tasha and followed it up with another grunt.

“Doesn’t sound like it,” he stated and looked over to find her grabbing her stomach. She was pale and didn’t look that well at all.

“I’m fine,” she stated and winced while grabbing at her stomach again.

“Yeah, right,” he stated.

“No, Chuck! I’m fine!” she protested as she saw him hit the call button for the nurse. However, she wasn’t able to stop him before another pain hit her. The on-duty nurse came into the room and started to head for his bed where the alarm emitted, but he pointed at Tasha who tried to put on her best face.

“No, you don’t look good at all,” said the nurse as she checked the monitor. She headed over to the wall intercom and called Doctor Blevins who she knew was asleep.

“Yes?” asked Mary sleepily.

“Major Hayden doesn’t look good right now,” said the nurse. “Vitals are looking like a possible parasitic infection.”

“Okay, I’ll be right down,” said Mary as she rolled out of bed and pulled on the first clothing she found. Heading into the observation room, she immediately saw Tasha didn’t look good at all.

“Tasha-” said Mary as she bolted out of bed and headed for the bathroom. The nurse followed her to the door as Mary did a quick check on Chuck to make sure he wasn’t showing signs.

“Is she going to be okay?” he asked.

“Probably a parasitic infection from the water,” said Mary. “We have to let it run its course.”

“I have something wonderful to look forward to,” he said with a wry chuckle.

“No, your vitals aren’t showing any signs of infection,” said Mary. “Your body is probably fighting it off.”

“Yeah, don’t tell Supergirl that,” he chuckled. “Just one more thing she’ll blame me for.”

“This is a lot more rapid than I’ve seen the Earth based parasitic infections happen,” said Mary. “But new planet, new rules and all. Our bodies have adapted to those, just takes time for them to adapt to the nasty little things we’ll encounter here.”

“She’ll be okay, though, right?” he asked.

“She should be,” said Mary. “We’ve got some medicines we can try, but the body tends to fight it off without our help. Mostly, that is.”

“Ma’am? Are you okay?” asked the nurse as Tasha was finishing up.

“This is embarrassing,” said Tasha.

“I have a new set of scrubs,” said the nurse. “And there’s a shower here as well.”

“Thank you,” said Tasha with sincerity.

“Be glad your boyfriend cared enough to alert us,” said the nurse.

“Boyfriend?” asked Tasha.

“Doctor Dawson,” stated the nurse.

“He is so not my boyfriend!” protested Tasha. “Whatever gave you that idea?”

“You two squabble like a couple,” said the nurse. “And he seems to care about you.”

“No, no, no,” said Tasha with a brief laugh. “Trust me, if a boyfriend got me this sick, I’d be single the next minute.”

“Well, regardless, he cared enough to make sure you were okay,” said the nurse. “I’ll wait outside for you to get cleaned up and changed. Just toss your old scrubs in the hamper.”

“Thank you,” said Tasha as she finally was able to get up and weakly went to the shower. Getting inside, she doffed the scrubs and quickly washed her body before finishing up and drying off. Once she was changed, she deposited everything in the hamper and returned to the room.

“You’re going on an IV,” said Mary as she already had the solution ready. “I checked your bloodwork and you’re bordering on dehydration along with lower blood sugar.”

“This truly sucks,” said Tasha.

“However, your body is fighting it,” said Mary.

“If I didn’t feel like hell, I’d come over there, drag you out of that bed and beat you silly,” said Tasha as she looked at Chuck.

“Back to being my fault?” he asked.

“You have no idea,” said Tasha as she grunted getting back into the bed. “You owe me big time. Like huge.”

“I’ll make it up to you,” he promised.

“Everyone heard that,” said Tasha as the nurse prepared an IV and got it started. Tasha grimaced as she got it started and fed in the solution.

“Okay, start with Ringers and switch to saline after it’s done. We’ll go two saline, one Ringers mix as they finish,” said Mary as she annotated the tablet. “Let’s feed a dose of Hypercillin as the antibiotic and Intranox as a counter-viral.”

“Any antimicrobial?” asked the nurse.

“We’ll hold off on that for the moment,” said Mary. “Let’s see how she takes to the others. But get a dose of Deadrehine 17 ready just in case.”

“Yes, Doctor,” said the nurse.

“I’m going to be well hydrated I suppose,” said Tasha weakly.

“You are,” said Mary. “Good and bad news.”

“I hate that,” said Tasha. “Can’t you doctors ever start with good and better?”

“Okay, good news is, this thing came on fast, it might die out just as fast,” said Mary. “Better news is, this should be the worst it gets.”

“Pretty bad,” said Tasha as Mary took a scan from her bed.

“It does appear to just be limited to your digestive tract,” said Mary. “And that’s good news. You should be able to eat regular, but simple foods. And that’s good news. But the bad…”

“I get to rush to the bathroom every fifteen minutes,” said Tasha with a weak chuckle.

“This is going to take a couple of days probably,” said Mary. “But we can hope your body follows your mind’s stubborn streak and fights this thing off quickly.”

“Any chance of me giving this to Charles over there?” asked Tasha with half a grin.

“No, it’s not contagious,” said Mary.

“Too bad,” said Tasha.

“I heard that,” said Chuck.

“You so owe me,” said Tasha.

“I made a promise,” said Chuck.

“Now, we can give you a sedative to help rest if you’d like,” said Mary.

“No, I’d prefer to be able to get to the bathroom on my own,” said Tasha. “I very well could create a mess here that cannot be contained.”

“These beds were designed for that,” said Mary. “But if possible, get to the bathroom.”

“Thank you, Mary,” said Tasha sincerely.

“You just get better,” said Mary with a kind smile and turned to the nurse. “Have Doctor Chambless take another look at the microbes as well as running another scan on her in the morning. See if there’s anything else we can or should be doing.”

“I’ll let him know,” said the nurse.

“And if anything changes, don’t hesitate to call me,” said Mary.

“First on my list, ma’am,” said the nurse.

********************​

Ben woke after having a very good night’s sleep and prepared himself for what was likely to be an exciting day. After showering and shaving, he sent out the text asking for the leadership to meet in the morning immediately after breakfast. He had a suspicion some had already been up and about through the night hours analyzing the data or items they had brought back and sure enough, he passed close enough to the temporary SIT office to find Rachelle already typing away at a computer.

“I thought I told you to get some rest,” he stated as he walked in.

“Never needed more than five hours of sleep or so,” said Rachelle without looking away from the computer monitor. “I’m good.”

“You’ll learn with age to slow down,” he chuckled.

“I’m actually finishing up the central programming for the colony,” she replied. “Remember when I said all I needed was a few days alone with a computer and I’d be set?”

“Vaguely,” he stated.

“Yeah, Novus programmers are the worst,” she replied. “Took about two weeks longer than I thought though they seriously owe me for patent infringement.”

“How so?” he asked.

“Because outright theft of my programs for certain things,” said Rachelle. “The Olympus upgrades I put into place? Yeah, they’re all over this thing.”

“Well, maybe they knew you would change them and put them in to start with?” asked Ben.

“Not making me feel better,” grumped Rachelle. “You know how much these programs are worth on the open market?”

“As much as a new life outside a dome on a new planet with a nice tropical zone?” he asked.

“Yeah, about that,” said Rachelle with half a frown. “As leading Novus Group representative on this trip, I’ll let you know up front I want my own island with infrastructure support and a shuttle at my beck and call in case I want to visit you peasants.”

“I’ll take that under consideration,” he laughed. “Breakfast?”

“Give me like five minutes?” she asked.

“Is that like a normal person’s five minutes?” he asked.

“Longer if you keep asking questions,” she stated without taking her eyes off the screen.

“Right,” said Ben as he knew the galley wasn’t far from her office and headed down to grab two cups of coffee to start. Coming back, he sat the second cup gently to her side as she muttered a “thanks” under her breath and grabbed at the cup with one hand while still typing with the other. Ben sat silently and sipped at his own cup as eight minutes later she looked through one section as he saw her mouth moving and her finger tracing the screen.

“Well, that should take care of the interfacing problems with the power distribution system,” she stated as she sipped at the cup. “Until we expand, that is.”

“There were problems?” he asked.

“Could have been,” she replied and closed out the program. “It’s technical, but I’ll explain if you want me to.”

“I’m good,” said Ben. “Though I can’t get over how you can type with one hand.”

“You think that’s impressive, just wait until you see me type with one and write a note with the other,” she laughed. “Now, breakfast and more coffee?”

“I might have asked that a while ago,” he chuckled as they headed into the galley and got into the line and grabbed whatever was on the buffet menu rather than trying to have the cooks fix them something. Since most were woken from stasis, additional supplemental galley staff had been working hard to get everyone fed, but the lines still were longer than usual.

“How are Tasha and Chuck?” asked Rachelle as she looked past Ben and found Mary walking up with a tray.

“They’ll survive,” said Mary as she took a seat next to Ben. “Though the bug hit Tasha pretty hard. Chuck is fighting it off though.”

“That sucks,” said Rachelle. “Bet she isn’t happy about that.”

“I’ve had worse patients…” said Mary.

“Likely a few better too,” laughed Ben who knew Tasha didn’t like being in a hospital.

“She should be showing improvement by this evening though I’m keeping them both another night just to be sure,” said Mary as she dug into her eggs.

“What was it exactly?” asked Ben.

“Standard bad water bug,” said Mary. “Nothing serious except the fact humans have never had to fight it off before.”

“But not like cholera?” asked Ben.

“Similar in structure, but the science and medical departments are still analyzing it,” said Mary. “Not fatal though as she can and is fighting it off.”

“I just know cholera is some bad stuff,” said Ben.

“When untreated, yes,” said Mary. “Though she’s getting the best treatment in the galaxy.”

“That she is,” said Ben as Javier and another scientist joined them.

“Can I get your data when you’re done analyzing it?” asked Rachelle. “Water purification will fall under SIT by the time this is over and I’d like to make sure our filter can take care of it.”

“Absolutely,” said Mary. “Though it’s already shown a high susceptibility to ultraviolet light.”

“Leadership only?” asked Javier as he was in the middle of a discussion.

“No, please,” said Ben as he scooted slightly to make more room at the table.

“I’m telling you, it’s freaky!” said the scientist.

“As we keep saying, new planet, new rules,” said Javier. “Well, maybe old rules.”

“How can it be that earth-like?” asked the scientist.

“Find something exciting?” asked Ben.

“Some of the grass is almost genetically identical to a couple of Earth species,” said Javier. “Like it was transplanted here from Earth and just had minor changes due to the environment.”

“But enough to make it unique?” asked Ben.

“Just enough,” said the scientist. “We were up last night analyzing the items brought back from the surface and it’s crazy how much alike some are.”

“We?” asked Ben.

“The science department,” said the scientist as Ben looked at Javier.

“I…might have gone down for a bit while I couldn’t sleep,” said Javier sheepishly.

“I’d bet it was more than a bit,” said Ben with a frown.

“I’d dare say you were the only one that got a decent night’s sleep,” said Javier.

“Right,” said Ben. “We’re going to have a staff meeting this morning and go over everything, but I know you all will need to be in your individual sections for analysis,” said Ben.

“I’d actually make that this afternoon or evening,” said Rachelle. “I know my folks are still running tests along with everyone else probably. We probably can get better answers this evening to the questions we all have.”

“I know we’re still going over data,” said Mary.

“And I saw Grady and Cyrus at work this morning,” said Rachelle.

“Fine,” said Ben as he typed out a change to the schedule and sent it out. “This evening works. And then I’m serious, all of you are going straight to bed and without argument.”

“Yes, Dad,” said Rachelle with a wink.

“I’ve also got the last group coming out of stasis this afternoon,” said Mary. “Depending on the time, I might have to turn it over to Doctor Chambless.”

“I was under the impression everyone was out?” asked Ben.

“One small group in the end since we’ve been doing it in batches. We’ve held off the past week or so in preparation of the landing,” said Mary. “Plus, Captain Smith wanted to talk to you about four of them.”

“Ah, yeah,” said Ben. “That little problem we haven’t figured out.”

“Anything we need to know about?” asked Javier.

“Nah, nothing major,” said Ben as he made a mental note to discuss it with the Captain.

“Other than that, anything pressing?” asked Rachelle. “I’ve got more programming to get to.”

“No, please don’t let me hold you back,” said Ben as the group broke up and finished breakfast or headed their separate ways. He headed towards the bridge where he figured Allen would be, but found Charity in control of the ship at the moment.

“Good morning, Commander,” she said. “Coffee?”

“I won’t ever pass up coffee,” he stated as she grabbed him a cup from the nearby machine. “I was actually looking for Allen.”

“He’s off in engineering with Cyrus and Grady,” said Charity.

“Probably figuring out how to tear apart your ship,” chuckled Ben.

“I will feel a bit down as she’s grown on all of us over the years,” said Charity. “I remember reading about all those old ships the crews would see off as they were destroyed as targets or sunk as reefs. I always wondered how they’d feel but I guess I get to find out firsthand.”

“She’s been a good ship,” said Ben.

“Best one I’ve ever served on,” said Charity.

“Anything else going on I need to know about?” he asked.

“Nah, just a standard planetary orbit and we’re continuing to gather data. Looks like rain in the forecast over our new colony site this evening,” said Charity.

“Does Angeline know about that?” he asked.

“She’s the one that let me know,” said Charity. “This afternoon, we plan on launching the satellites as we go around the planet.”

“Are we going to have to change orbits for that?” he asked.

“We’re already climbing, relatively speaking, to about seven hundred kilometers,” she stated. “But no, we won’t need any serious altitude or position changes as they have built in propulsion systems that can and likely will change on their own.”

“What kind of satellites exactly?” he asked.

“Communications, data and weather with a science suite installed as well,” she replied.

“Everything packed into one?” he asked.

“Pretty much,” she stated and noticed something amiss. “Helm, watch your rates.”

“Aye, ma’am,” said the pilot from his chair as he made a minor adjustment.

“Anyway, we’ve got additional geosynchronous satellites we’ll be launching in the coming days as soon as Kirk and Angeline determine the best orbit for them,” she stated.

“Sounds utterly boring,” he chuckled.

“Exciting part is coming up when we get on the ground,” she stated. “We’ll get you there safely.”

“I do want you coming up with the cargo and personnel shuttle runs,” he stated. “Basically, who and what gets down to the surface when.”

“I can do that,” she replied. “I’ll get with the individual section heads and determine the batting rotation.”

“Thanks,” said Ben. “Captain is in engineering?”

“Let me find out,” she stated and looked for the location of the Captain along with Cyrus and Grady. “No, it looks like they are in Grady’s office.”

“Can you let them know I’m on my way down?” he asked.

“No problem,” she stated as Ben got a refill on his coffee and headed towards the office that doubled as the second bedroom of his quarters. Upon arriving, he politely buzzed the door and waited for someone to appear. A woman in her mid-40s came to the door and opened it.

“Yes?” she asked.

“Hi, I’m Ben Nash,” he said politely. “I was looking for Grady, Cyrus or Captain Smith.”

“Oh, the Commander!” she exclaimed. “We haven’t met yet. I’m Dani, Grady’s wife.”

“Pleasure,” said Ben as he took the offered hand.

“Please come in,” she stated. “They’re in the office arguing about something again.”

“Happen a lot?” asked Ben.

“One thing about my husband is he likes to argue,” she laughed.

“He hasn’t argued with me,” stated Ben.

“Oh, he knows what battles to pick,” she laughed as she motioned him back into the quarters where the Captain, Grady and Cyrus were arguing over this point or another.

“Look, I’m telling you they will hold and the materials won’t corrode!” exclaimed Cyrus. “I checked them myself during the design as well as manufacture!”

“We’re talking about the integrity of the colony walls!” exclaimed Grady. “I don’t think riveting them is going to be the best option!”

“No, you’d rather try to weld 10 meter tall, 25 mm titanium blocks individually,” snorted Cyrus.

“We could do both,” offered Allen.

“Yeah, double the time,” snorted Cyrus again. “Look, they aren’t rivets. They are 50 mil stainless steel taper pins that can’t and won’t back out! They’ll be just as strong or stronger than welding the plates together!”

“Could you weld the pins in place?” suggested Ben.

“I…when did you get here?” asked Grady as the three looked up in surprise.

“Not long ago,” said Ben.

“Short answer is no,” said Grady. “Welding titanium to stainless steel isn’t easy and it can make the material all kinds of brittle.”

“Just a suggestion,” said Ben. “I take it you all are discussing the colony walls?”

“Yeah and not making much progress,” said Cyrus.

“Well, take a break for a moment,” said Ben. “We have our stowaway question that needs answering since he and his family are being awoken today.”

“Yeah, I forgot about that,” said Allen.

“Stowaway?” asked Grady. Allen briefly explained the situation as well as the actions they had taken in regards to the Poe family. Grady nodded when Allen finished up.

“I might have done the same,” said Grady. “I know the practice is to toss them overboard, but I don’t think you’re that kind of guy, Captain.”

“No,” said Allen.

“You never told me about that,” said Cyrus. “Just that we needed to check the entire ship over for transmitters and the like.”

“I didn’t want to make the crew nervous,” said Allen. “Sorry.”

“No, less people that knew, the better,” said Cyrus. “What did you say his name was?”

“Poe, Todd Poe,” said Allen.

“Metals machinist, right?” asked Cyrus.

“Yeah, how do you know that?” asked Allen.

“I helped build the ship,” said Cyrus. “You remember good talent and the man is a good metal worker. His work is top notch. I would have recruited him if we had a spot.”

“And he’s about to be woken up today?” asked Grady.

“We can’t keep him in stasis forever,” said Allen.

“I’m here to see if you want him on your team,” said Ben. Grady turned to look at Cyrus.

“The man is good, but it’s your team,” said Cyrus.

“Would you trust him?” asked Grady.

“His work is exceptional,” said Cyrus. “Though he did break the rules to get onboard.”

“I don’t think you can ever have enough welders,” said Grady. “Why not.”

“And the wife and kids?” asked Ben.

“The kids obviously will be, well, kids,” said Allen. “As to the wife, maybe agriculture?”

“Did you aptitude test her?” asked Ben.

“No, not before stasis,” said Allen. “I guess now might be as good a time as any.”

“You know Tasha would throw a fit if we tried to assign her to security,” said Ben.

“I’ll see if Rachelle can get the old aptitude programs up and running,” said Allen. “But agriculture might be the best fit for the moment.”

“I do want to meet them before assigning them,” said Ben. “Lay down the law and whatnot.”

“They are getting pulled from stasis today?” asked Allen.

“According to Mary,” said Ben.

“We’ll have monitors implanted,” said Allen. “Not that I don’t trust them, but I just don’t trust them on my ship.”

“Maybe assign a guard?” asked Ben. “I can check with Tasha.”

“Theatrical, but yes, I agree,” said Allen.

“Okay, I’ll leave you guys to your arguing,” said Ben.

“It won’t stop,” chuckled Cyrus. Ben headed out and towards the infirmary to check on Chuck and Tasha. Heading inside, he saw Tasha looking fairly pale, but Chuck looking fairly normal.

“Doctor…?” asked Ben as he approached the desk where a younger doctor was sitting.

“Griggs, Charlotte Griggs,” said the on-duty doctor Ben recognized as the wife of the soldier Tasha had requested as he was forming his teams.

“Ben Nash,” said Ben as he held out his hand.

“I recognize you, Commander,” she stated with a pleasant smile. “Pleasure.”

“How are our patients?” he asked.

“Well, Doctor Dawson is doing fine, the parasite is in his system, but his body is fighting it just fine and I doubt it takes hold,” said Charlotte.

“However…” said Ben knowingly.

“Major Hayden is another case entirely,” said Charlotte. “We’ve seen the worst, or we’re pretty sure we’ve seen the worst, but it hit her hard.”

“She giving you trouble?” asked Ben.

“Nothing we can’t handle,” said Charlotte with a laugh. “We deal with ornery patients all the time…or did.”

“As a pediatrician and obstetrician?” asked Ben.

“Expecting mothers can be the worst,” laughed Charlotte. “Anyway, if you’d like to go speak to them, I’ll give you a mask.”

“Is that necessary?” he asked.

“Precaution,” she stated. “We don’t think it’s airborne and there are UV lamps we know will kill it, but trust me, you don’t want it.”

“I’ll take the mask,” he said with a chuckle. After slipping it on, he went through the chamber designed to kill off the known bugs and was blasted with a rush of air as he stepped through. Heading inside, he went to Tasha first.

“Coming to see the pitiful patient?” she asked weakly.

“The doctors say you’re going to be fine,” he said.

“Yeah, but going to the bathroom every hour isn’t fun,” she stated. “Though you are probably going to have to bust me down in rank soon.”

“You aren’t beating up Doctor Dawson,” said Ben with a chuckle.

“I doubt in her condition she could beat up anyone,” said Chuck without looking up from the tablet he was reading.

“I’ll take that bet,” said Tasha irately.

“Okay, come on over if you’re feeling froggy,” he stated, knowing she wouldn’t respond.

“I’m so going to beat his ass when I get over this,” she stated with a groan.

“Play nice,” said Ben with a chuckle.

“Anyway, Mary says I’m about as bad as I’m going to get, but I do feel a bit better at the moment. I’m able to keep down the breakfast they brought, so that’s a good thing,” she stated.

“We aren’t planning on heading back for a couple of days,” said Ben. “You think you’ll be up to it by then?”

“Wild horses couldn’t hold me back,” she replied. “I will ask for a side mission to hold Chuck under the water until he contracts what I have though.”

“Tasha…” said Ben with a chuckle.

“Okay, anyway,” said Tasha.

“Anyway, I’ll have Anton continue to fill in until you get back into the swing of things,” said Ben. “Unless you have someone else in mind.”

“Why him?” she asked.

“Because he’s that good,” said Ben. “You saw the intelligence file or should have when I asked for his number. In our military, he would have been challenging you for that top spot or in charge of one of the Ranger Battalions.”

“Looks like he’s worming his way in at the moment,” said Tasha.

“You’re still the big girl in charge,” said Ben.

“Yes, I have no problems with him holding down the fort while I’m a prisoner here,” she replied.

“I’ll let him know to get with Charity on the landing rotation,” said Ben.

“No, I’d like to talk it over with him if that’s okay,” she replied.

“Of course,” said Ben. “I’ll let him know to come see you.”

“You realize there are communicators and all sorts of whiz-bang fancy technological stuff even in here?” she asked. “I’m perfectly capable of making a call.”

“Yes, ma’am,” he stated. “Anything else?”

“Chocolate cake,” she stated. “I’ve got a craving for chocolate cake.”

“I’ll run that by Mary,” he chuckled and headed over to Chuck.

“Just analyzing the items we brought back, though I’d love to be in the lab while doing so,” said Chuck as he sat down the tablet.

“Anything interesting?” asked Ben.

“All of it?” asked Chuck. “It’s a new planet.”

“What is your field anyway?” asked Ben.

“Zoology,” said Chuck. “So, we haven’t really gotten into my specific area save the analysis on the featheroo…feather we brought back.”

“Not really a feather?” asked Ben.

“Like a hairy hair,” said Chuck. “We’ve never seen anything quite like it.”

“Probably is an exciting time for your field,” said Ben.

“You have no idea,” said Chuck.

“I’ll leave it to you then,” said Ben. “Make sure Tasha is a good patient.”

“Yeah, I’m not sure who’s going more crazy being cooped up in here,” he chuckled.

“I am,” stated Tasha without being prompted.

“You both get better,” said Ben. “We need you back in the field.”

Ben headed out and deposited the mask in the biohazard bag in the chamber before being instructed to “wash your hands for at least a minute and use that soap.” After finishing the task, he thanked Charlotte and headed towards the science area where the teams were already at work doing analysis on the items they brought back. Quite often, one of the scientists would exclaim about something and prattle off in extremely scientific talk that Ben just couldn’t follow. However, the others in the room obviously knew what was said as they came over to see the latest discovery.

“Anything major?” asked Ben as he gravitated towards Angeline.

“I’m not entirely up to speed on the things they are talking about,” she admitted. “However, I get the idea it’s going to keep them busy for a lifetime.”

“And your area of science won’t?” he asked.

“As soon as we get the instruments unpacked, we’ll be just as hysterical,” she said with a laugh.

“Charity mentioned the satellites were going to be launched,” said Ben.

“In progress,” said Angeline. “I’ve already stabilized the orbits of those sent out and Doctor Kirk and I are working on the best spots for the geo orbits for the communications platforms.”

“Anything I can help with?” he asked.

“You’re bored, aren’t you?” she asked with a laugh.

“You have no idea,” he laughed in return.

“Not unless you know orbital dynamics,” she stated.

“I…think I’ll go see Kurt,” said Ben with a laugh.

“I will warn you, he’s just as bad as these guys,” said Angeline with a grin.

“Security then,” said Ben with a laugh. As he departed, the science team got excited yet again over something and gathered around one of the devices to see yet another mystery solved. Ben was utterly bored at that moment in time as he bounced from section to section looking for something to do. He almost got involved in the ongoing discussions in the security section, but remembered he shouldn’t get involved in the nuts and bolts of the decisions and allow his younger staff to learn themselves. Eventually, he headed into the medical area right after dinner and before his team leader meeting to find Mary bringing the last colonists out of stasis. Rachelle was nearby since she had members of her team coming out as well. He saw several people in the various stages of waking up and Mary moving from one to the other.

“How’s everything going?” asked Ben as she whizzed by.

“They all are coming to at the same time,” she stated without stopping.

“Anything I can do to help?” he asked.

“No, we’re covered for the moment,” said Mary as she whizzed by again checking on yet another person coming out of stasis. It appeared to be a younger red-headed female that was fairly coherent and had been one of the first woken in this batch.

“Is my family awake yet?” she asked.

“Yes, your mother and father are over there,” said Rachelle as she and Ben came over. “But stay right here for the moment please. Let the doctor take a look at you.

“Baby? Is that you?” asked one of the men coming from stasis.

“I’m not a baby anymore, Dad,” said the younger female with a tone.

“Just checking to make sure you’re okay,” he said from his bed.

“Yeah, now you check on me,” she replied sarcastically.

“Honey, that was seven years ago,” said the father.

“Feels like yesterday,” said the redhead. “Because it more or less was yesterday.”

“I’m sorry, again,” he said meekly. Ben motioned to Rachelle to get the full story and walked away from the patients as another doctor started checking out the redhead.

“What’s the deal?” asked Ben.

“Kinda funny actually,” said Rachelle. “Apparently Dad over there was excited and in a hurry and forgot his dearest daughter on the shuttle platform. He assumed, falsely as it turns out, she was right behind him, mom and the other child. Well, seems she went to the bathroom and didn’t catch the shuttle he was on. She got a lift later with the security team, but he didn’t discover her absence until they arrived on the ship.

“Oh, that’s horrible,” chuckled Ben. “I feel bad for laughing but it’s funny at the same time.”

“Yeah, looking back it is funny,” said Rachelle. “Though I don’t think Sarah, that’s the daughter, finds it all that amusing.”

“And what happened then?” asked Ben.

“Well, he freaked out when he got here, but the security team let us know she was on the way. Still, he was worried sick she wouldn’t make it,” said Rachelle. “Let’s just say the reunion was a bit chilly when she got to the ship. Hell hath no fury and all that.”

“Does he work for you?” asked Ben.

“No, but she does,” said Rachelle.

“A little young, isn’t she?” asked Ben.

“And I’m not?” asked Rachelle. “She is brilliant. Graduated from college early like I did and assisted me on the Olympus upgrades. She’s a natural at computer coding and complex systems interactions. However, she wouldn’t come along without her family, so we made spots for the parents and the little brother.”

“And they do?” asked Ben. “As in employment?”

“He is an accountant and she is an HR type,” said Rachelle.

“Both on your team?” asked Ben.

“He’s an overage,” said Rachelle. “And knows he’ll get tasked out to other fields, probably agriculture, while he’s not doing accounting. On the other hand, I did overlook the need for a human resource type when outlining my needs, so she’ll slide right into a job.”

“And the son?” asked Ben.

“Still a student,” said Rachelle. “He’s also highly intelligent, but not like the sister. Very few are at her level to be honest. That’s not an insult to him, but she’s just that good.”

“This little family drama won’t cause problems, will it?” asked Ben.

“I wouldn’t think so,” said Rachelle. “They’re all here and I’m sure Dad will pay his penance.”

“Still kinda funny,” chuckled Ben.

“Like getting left behind on vacation or something,” said Rachelle. “What brought you down here, anyway?”

“I have another family I’m going to check on,” said Ben as Mary nodded at the four across the room from the other dozen that had come out. He went over to them, but was intercepted by Mary as he approached.

“No,” she stated.

“I was just going to introduce myself,” said Ben. “And let them know they would be meeting with me tomorrow.”

“Introductions are fine,” said Mary. “No, cancel that. You can wait. Their systems are still susceptible to shock and worrying over the big, bad Commander wanting to see them isn’t the best thing for them.”

“I wouldn’t say anything bad!” he protested.

“They can wait another twelve hours,” she stated. “Unless, of course, you want to override my medical decision to allow them the wake up period.”

“No, I’m not going to do that,” he said with a sigh. “Did they say anything?”

“He’s still waking up, the wife asked about the kids and the kids asked about their parents,” said Mary. “So, pretty much all is right in the world.”

“Yes, Doctor,” said Ben with a sigh as he knew he shouldn’t cross Mary on this. “Security has an escort outside waiting for them.”

“We’ll put on the personnel trackers before they leave,” said Mary.

“Not implants?” asked Ben.

“Not in the state they are in,” she replied.

“I’ll defer to your judgment,” he stated. “But they will be escorted.”

“They need it anyway,” said Mary. “Anything else?”

“No,” said Ben. “Just…thank you.”

“For what?” she asked.

“Keeping me from impulsive behavior,” he stated.

“I’m sure it happens pretty often,” she chuckled.

“Regardless, I like having folks around to keep me balanced,” said Ben. “And you’re exceptional in that regard.”

“Well, thank you, Commander,” she said with a warm smile.

“I’ll see you in a bit,” he stated as he turned to leave.

“Until then,” she stated as she returned to her duties and he headed to his quarters to check on the progress of the sections. The meeting was fairly uneventful as the individual sections gave what information they had and shared the exciting discoveries, but still needed more time for all the data to be looked over. They all decided to call it an early night as they were exhausted from the trip the day before and analyzing the samples they brought back. Retiring for the evening, they headed their separate ways and fell asleep while the new information on the planet continued to swirl in their heads.

 

CHAPTER 20


“He is inside?” asked Ben.

“With his wife,” stated Allen as they were joined by Cyrus and Grady.

“The kids?” asked Ben.

“With a security member at the moment,” said Allen. “They said they didn’t want the children exposed to what you were going to talk about.”

“You? Aren’t you coming in?” asked Ben.

“We have a bit of a history,” said Allen. “I’d prefer he deal with you as a clean slate.”

“History?” asked Ben.

“I…got the information from him using questionable means,” said Allen.

“Not torture, I’d hope,” said Ben.

“Not physical torture, no,” said Allen. “Mental…could be debated.”

“Can you sum it up in thirty seconds?” asked Ben. Allen explained how he got the information from Todd Poe on how they came on the ship as well as if anyone knew about it.

“I’ve used similar tactics before,” said Ben.

“It still isn’t me,” said Allen.

“Regardless, I agree the meeting should be with me,” said Ben.

“I’ll be outside,” said Allen as Ben, Cyrus and Grady headed in to see the Poe family sitting behind a table. They had a curious look at the three new faces as they settled into the chairs provided for them.

“I’m Commander Ben Nash,” said Ben to start off the talk.

“Military detachment?” asked Todd.

“As in big boss in the new colony,” said Ben.

“Have we arrived?” asked Todd.

“We have,” said Ben. “And I’ll be asking the questions here.”

“Yes, sir,” said Todd.

“Now, give me the five minute explanation on how you came to be here,” said Ben.

Todd spent several minutes explaining how they came to be on the ship with occasional injects from his wife. As they neared the end, Ben saw he received a text on his communicator and saw Allen informed him the stories matched to what he was told when they captured the family.

“So, I’m to reward you with a new life because you broke the rules to get here?” asked Ben.

“I wanted my family to survive,” said Todd. “Do what you want with me, but let my family breathe clean air and my children grow up in a safe place.”

“And how do you know it’s safe here?” asked Ben.

“I don’t,” said Todd.

“Chances are, there will be dangers lurking around every corner,” said Ben. “And yet, you chose to put your family at risk without knowing them?”

“It was better than certain death when the Earth fails,” said Todd. “I had a cousin that worked on the Gaia Controller. She told me there was nothing they could do to prevent the total collapse of the Earth’s ecosystem and everyone not in a dome would be dead in fifty years. I wanted my children to at least have a fighting chance.”

Ben leaned forward and placed his hands on the table. “I can understand and sympathize to an extent. But you should know this world is untouched. You know what happens when other nations and companies get involved in these worlds adaptable for human colonization. Having anyone outside the selected few know about it makes it an unacceptable risk.”

“We aren’t a threat,” said Paris Poe.

“I didn’t say you were,” said Ben. “However, if anyone knew you were leaving, the risk to us all goes up exponentially.”

“We didn’t tell anyone,” said Todd.

“Even family?” asked Ben.

“Even them,” said Todd.

“That’s a bit cold to leave your family behind,” said Ben.

“Did you leave family behind?” asked Paris.

“I did not,” said Ben.

“So, you don’t know how it feels to want them to survive,” said Todd.

“I didn’t have a family,” said Ben. “So, that removes the portion of ‘give a damn’ from the equation for me. Especially in regards to people I just don’t know.”

Todd and Paris got quiet at that announcement as they shifted slightly in their seats.

“Now, regardless of everyone’s past, everyone gets a clean slate at the place we’re going to. We’d be hypocrites if that offer wasn’t extended to everyone including those who got here from questionable means. But I want you to know up front, I will brook no problems for either of you. Period.”

“You came here against my will, but I’m willing to give you a chance just like we’re all getting that opportunity for our second chance on life and furthermore, our species. You will be assigned to a directorate of my choosing. You will perform the work we assign. You will stay off my radar save if your kids get an award in school or one of my section heads tells me what a great job you’re doing. Now, I haven’t come up with punishments yet for the crimes we have yet to decide on, but make no mistake, I will start with you two if you cross me,” said Ben.

“Yes, sir,” they both said with a nod.

“Now, Mr. Poe will be assigned to the engineers. There is no reason we cannot put your background to good work especially since were building everything from the ground up. Mrs. Poe will be aptitude tested to determine what area she can work best in and you’ll join that section with a smile on your face and a spring in your step as you help us all work towards a better future for all mankind,” said Ben. “Am I being clear?”

“Our children?” asked Paris.

“Will be under the supervision of the caretakers during the day. They’ll do schoolwork when we get that up and running, but children should be with their parents. Even a shadow child,” said Ben. “We’re starting over here. You can either work to make yourselves valuable members of this expedition, blazing a path for those who follow or you can end up nothing more than a distant memory,” said Ben.

“Only one of our children has been in school,” said Paris.

“The other turns five this year, yes?” asked Ben as he received a nod. “Then she is of the age where her formal education needs to start.”

“Just like that?” asked Todd.

“Just like that,” said Ben. “She will be treated like any other child her age where we’re going. There will be no such things as Shadow children where we’re going since we’re going to be directly responsible for repopulating the human race on this world.”

“I…” said Paris. “It’s a big change from the way I’ve done things.”

“You’ve been educating her already?” asked Ben.

“To a limited extent,” said Paris. “She’s smart though.”

“Well, prove it by putting her in school where she excels,” said Ben. “Otherwise, you two will be around to help build this place doing what’s required.”

“We do whatever you demand of us?” asked Todd.

“Yes,” said Ben. “And in turn, we provide you with food to eat, a safe place to live and a chance at a new life. We won’t ask you to do anything we aren’t willing to do ourselves, so put out of your mind the idea we’re going to give you all the shit details.”

“We agree,” said Todd without further consideration.

“And my profession?” asked Paris.

“You will be aptitude tested by Ms. Rachelle Marchand at her next convenience and she and I both will determine what area you would be best suited in,” said Ben.

“Are we to be escorted everywhere as well as monitored?” asked Todd.

“Until I’m comfortable with you, yes,” said Ben. “The Captain isn’t comfortable with you roaming the ship just yet and I’m not comfortable because he’s not comfortable. So, when he’s comfortable, I’ll be comfortable.”

“I’ll be getting in touch with you as to your specific duties,” said Grady. “We don’t have you in the rotation yet, but trust me, there will be work to go around.”

“And you are?” asked Todd.

“Grady Stafford, Chief Engineer,” said Grady. “Which means you’re mine.”

“You might remember me,” said Cyrus. “Chief Engineer of the Santa Maria Cyrus Hendrix. When Mister Stafford can’t find anything for you to do, I’ll be finding creative ways of keeping you employed.”

“I do remember you,” said Todd.

“Now, any other pressing questions?” asked Ben.

“No, sir,” said Todd after he looked at his wife. “Just a request.”

“Which is?” asked Ben.

“Can we see the planet?” asked Paris. “With our children?”

“Not until you’ve fully recovered from stasis or until we’ve determined your work schedules,” said Ben. “Spots going down are limited.”

“No, we meant to see it even from this ship,” said Paris. “We haven’t been in a position to see anything yet.”

“I think that can be arranged,” said Ben as he rose along with the others. They headed out of the room where the Poe children were collected and went to the forward observation deck.

“Helm, this is the Captain,” said Allen over the comm earning a hard look from Todd Poe in the process.

“Go ahead, sir,” said the pilot.

“Swing us around so we can get a view of the planet, please,” said Allen.

“Aye, Captain,” said the pilot. They felt the ship moving over and slightly forward as the planet came into view and the Poe family gasped at the view of the planet just as the sunrise was coming over the terminator of the horizon.

“It’s perfect,” whispered Paris.

“Is that our new home?” asked Alysha Poe as she was held by her father.

“Yeah, baby,” said Todd. “Where specifically?”

“Coming up on the bow,” said Allen. “About 500 kilometers from the coast at the edge of the mountain range on the eastern portion of the continent.”

“Todd, I don’t have the words,” said Paris as she held their youngest child, Jade.

“I promised to keep you safe,” said Todd as he set his child down and Paris did the same.

“Do you girls like animals?” asked Ben as he knew the easiest way to make friends with the Poe family was through their children.

“Yes,” said Alysha guardedly.

“Let me show you a picture of something close to our new home,” said Ben as he brought up one of the monitors in the observation room and called up pictures of the featheroo. Several different shots of the animal in its environment flashed on the screen as well as a video of it hopping around and foraging.

“It’s like a kangaroo!” exclaimed Jade.

“But it has feathers!” stated Ben.

“It’s cute!” stated Jade.

“Want to see something else?” asked Ben.

“Sure!” stated Jade. Ben brought up the eastern continent and the pictures of the dinosaur as he showed them.

“It’s a dinosaur!” exclaimed Paris.

“Lives on the eastern continent exclusively,” said Ben. “Not the one we’re on.”

“Are there more of these things?” asked Todd.

“A few,” said Ben. “We’re still cataloging all the flora and fauna.”

“Thank you,” said Paris after a moment. “My husband’s pride won’t allow him to admit you are giving us a chance at a new life here, so I’ll say it for all of us.”

“Pride be damned, thank you, sir,” said Todd.

“Now, head on down to the galley and get your meal of goop…I’d stay away from the butterscotch if I were you and continue resting up,” ordered Ben. “We’ll be in touch.”

“Yes, sir,” said Todd as Paris collected the children and they departed with their constant escorts through the ship.

“That went better than expected,” said Allen. “Though he did give me the evil eye.”

“That was to be expected,” said Ben. “Regardless, you’ll take the precautionary measures to keep this ship and the expedition safe.”

“Of course,” said Allen as he got back on the comm. “Helm, you are clear to resume initial course and orientation.”

“Aye, Captain,” said the pilot as she brought the ship back into position.

“What’s next?” asked Allen.

“Let the individual directorates continue refining their data and we have a meeting tonight,” said Ben. “I think we’ve done everything we can and need to head back.”

“I agree,” said Allen. Ben spent the rest of the day bouncing from section to section and seeing the same thing, “more data needed.” He informed the section heads of the planned meeting late that afternoon before dinner and continued working on his own little side projects until it came time for the meeting. He was first to arrive as the other section heads as well as selected staff that could answer specific questions filtered in to the makeshift conference room. It made the room tight, but not uncomfortable. He finally called everyone to their seats and brought the meeting to order.

“So, we’ve gotten as much data as we can on the samples we brought back?” asked Ben who knew it’d been two Novae Spes days since they returned and everyone was getting antsy to get back to the planet.

“Nothing in the data that is in the least bit hazardous to humans,” said Javier. “Other than the obvious microbes in the water that can and will put us down if untreated.”

“Meteorological data is consistent with the early ‘spring’ on this planet,” said Angeline. “It’ll get a bit chilly at night, but nothing that bad.”

“How cold are we talking?” asked Grady who knew the plan was still in place for his workers to stay on the planet with the security personnel.

“Anywhere from 5 to 12 degrees Celsius,” said Angeline. “Daytime temps are between 18 to 22 degrees give or take. No rain at the moment in the forecast.”

“She makes a good weather girl,” said Cyrus with a laugh. “We’ve managed to isolate all the equipment Grady will need to start clearing the area. And on the advice of Kurt, we’ve gotten some of the agricultural machines out to help clear the grass.”

“I forgot to follow up, but you guys talked?” asked Ben.

“We did,” said Kurt. “And we decided the de-thatching machine is the best option. While the slash and burn idea is sound, the problem we face is that the vegetation just has too much water content right now to burn off easily even with it coming out of winter. We’d need a catalyst, but that takes the chance of ruining the soil we want to use.”

“So, we use your toy?” asked Ben.

“Best option,” said Grady. “I’ve used his machine in other places, a smaller version mind you, but it works like a charm.”

“Okay, get it cleared and go from there,” said Ben. “Kurt, I’d imagine you want a team on this initial clearing trip?”

“If we can spare the room,” said Kurt.

“We can find the space,” said Charity who took on the responsibility of coordinating who went to the surface and who came back. “Equipment might be a different matter. Speaking of which, we’d like to use the gunships for that purpose as well.”

“For moving equipment?” asked Ben.

“Yes, they have the upgraded and more powerful engines,” said Charity. “We’re going to have to use the casting method for some of the larger equipment to get it to the surface and those can be extremely helpful for that.”

“Get the pilots spun up,” said Ben.

“We’re continually running the simulations,” said Charity. “I want it absolutely perfect.”

“So, anything else?” asked Ben.

“Yep, when do I get to go back?” asked Tasha as she appeared in the room in surgical scrubs along with Mary. She was still slightly pale from her bout with the alien bugs she got but seemed to be looking world’s better than the previous day.

“Well, I see the Novae Spes bugs didn’t kill you after all,” said Grady as the group applauded her return.

“I’m still on limited duty for three more Novae Spes days,” said Tasha as she took a seat next to Anton who had been filling in for her. He politely tried to excuse himself but was stopped.

“No, you’ve been doing a great job in my absence and you need to stay,” said Tasha. “I’m going to be out of pocket for a little while longer it seems.”

“Of course, ma’am,” said Anton as he sat back down.

“What’s the timeline?” asked Ben.

“Tomorrow morning, with your approval, of course, the shuttles start taking down cargo to the surface as well as the empty containers,” said Charity. “We feel the risk of leaving them without any security is minimal since we haven’t seen any indication of hostile wildlife in that area. Three waves of cargo at the moment and followed by security and engineering teams.”

“I’ve got some of my best folks ready to convert the empty containers into living space with full power and air,” said Grady. “And they will be airtight and have an interior locking device per your instructions.”

“I do think that’s wise,” said Ben.

“It takes about two hours per unit to get them up converted,” said Grady. “And we can do two units at a time. Each unit can accommodate up to ten personnel, but it’ll be a tight fit.”

“But only temporary,” said Cyrus.

“And how many empty containers do we have?” asked Ben.

“Around 35 or so,” said Charity. “We have a couple of partially empty ones we could empty out and use as well.”

“That’s already about half the Expedition,” said Ben.

“And not taking into account the ones we’ll empty when we get our gear to the surface,” said Grady. “We can convert those as well so the tight fit will only be for a little bit.”

“Aren’t you going to need some storage space?” asked Ben.

“For the individual tools and whatnot, sure,” said Grady. “But the equipment? Those’ll be fine sitting out since we can lock them up for the most part.”

“I do want to interject something I’ve been meaning to ask,” said Mary. “Work-rest cycles.”

“We have been avoiding that conversation,” said Ben.

“Our bodies are used to the 24-hour Earth based cycle,” said Mary. “We have a lot more daylight here and people are going to push themselves thinking they can go on just because there’s daylight. That’s potentially dangerous in my opinion.”

“I’ve got folks that can work a good 12-hour day if not more,” said Grady. “We’re used to it.”

“That’s not the problem,” said Mary. “The problem is over that amount and your body becomes fatigued and it’s going to be the same thing I mentioned to Tasha and Chuck the other day. Your body will need rest in order to combat the host of microorganisms we are undoubtedly going to attract on this planet. We’re still studying them along with the science team, but if Tasha is any indication of what can happen, we’ll end up with a bunch of sick folks.”

“And trust me, you don’t want what I had,” said Tasha.

“So, we’re looking at no more than 12 hours up?” asked Grady.

“That would be my suggestion,” said Mary.

“Still leaves 18 hours down so to speak,” said Cyrus.

“I’ll be honest,” said Mary. ‘This is going to be a unique situation for us. Most planets we’ve colonized have had shorter days than Novae Spes. Or the colonists have lived under a dome and kept the Earth sleep cycle. I’d love to give you an educated guess, but we just don’t have any data to indicate what will happen to the human body.”

“So, you’d prefer to err on the side of caution?” asked Grady.

“I would,” said Mary. “We could, I stress the could, push the working day a little longer if we were to have some test subjects to see what the short and long term effects were, but that would have to be a pretty controlled test.”

“I’ll be your first test subject,” said Grady. “And I’ll probably have no problems finding other volunteers to give that a try.”

“Something you will have to realize though, once the doctor has made her decision regarding working hours, her word is law,” said Ben.

“We’ll accept it,” said Grady with a polite nod.

“My biggest concern will be the circadian rhythm of the individuals in question,” said Mary. “They’ll be up at night wanting to work.”

“Is that even a viable option?” asked Rachelle.

“For the majority of our purposes, no,” said Grady. “I’d prefer to have daylight for when we are clear cutting the forest.”

“Same with my team,” said Kurt.

“For security?” asked Ben.

“We think a 12 on, 12 off schedule will be okay for the moment,” said Tasha after having a quick whispered conversation with Anton.

“Even though the days and nights are considerably different?” asked Ben.

“That’s one of the standard practices in other places,” said Tasha. “We can adjust as we go along, but for the moment, I think this is a safe bet.”

“Are there other duties inside the camp that could be done in the dark hours?” asked Ben.

“Plenty of stuff,” said Cyrus after having a quick side bar with Grady. “We would have to adjust our schedule of cargo landings a bit, but yeah, we can have 24-hour operations.”

“Or 30,” said Mary.

“I know your folks are multiskilled in their respective areas,” said Ben. “But can they go from working heavy equipment to delicate work in the same Novae Spes day?”

“Certainly,” said Grady.

“Okay, I’d like to implement a 12 on, 12 off for everyone heading to the surface,” said Ben. “To include the Science and Services and Infra…”

“Infrastructure Team?” asked Rachelle.

“It takes too long to say that,” said Ben. “I’m making a command decision right now and from this point forward, you will be known as the SIT team.”

“Services and Infrastructure Team…team?” asked Rachelle with a chuckle.

“Come up with another word for the T or live with it,” said Ben with a smile.

“Technology,” suggested Charity. “We are responsible for the information and computer systems. Services, Infrastructure and Technology Team”

“Okay, from this day forward, exalted leader has decreed we will be the SIT team,” said Rachelle as she took a note. “And so shall it be!”

“I don’t know about that exalted leader crap,” said Ben with a laugh. “But yes, I think simplification is better in the long run.”

“Simple it shall be!” announced Rachelle with a grin as the others laughed.

“Okay, so we’ve got pretty much everything covered,” said Ben as he recapped the meeting quickly and looked around for additional inputs. “I’d imagine you guys want to do some side bar conversations, so I’ll leave you to it. Charity? What time will runs commence in the morning?”

“Just before daybreak on the planet,” said Charity. “We’ll time it to where they are landing just before the sun comes up. It’s equipment, so shouldn’t be a big deal.”

“No personnel to control the landings?” asked Ben.

“There will be a team on the first shuttle that does that,” said Charity. “It’ll stay through the landing cycle and be the last one back up. As we get permanent personnel on the surface, Anton has designated personnel to perform that role.”

“Fair enough,” said Ben. “Meeting adjourned.”

The individual team leaders had quick side conversations with each other, discussing matters of importance to each of them.

“This is what I have planned for movement of your guys to the surface,” said Charity as she went to Tasha.

The pair went through the roster as Tasha saw it was a good plan but made some small changes that she explained to Charity with the reason why.

“You talked with First Officer Steele about the rovers?” asked Tasha as Anton joined them.

“Some idiot packed them deep in storage,” said Anton. “They are trying to get to them, but it is taking time. Probably on the second day or third at the latest.”

“I don’t like the idea of having to do everything on foot,” said Tasha.

“We can use the MMVs in the meantime,” said Anton. “Cyrus managed to fashion us a trailer we can use to mount the heavy machine guns.”

“How many?” asked Tasha.

“Two,” said Anton. “Possibly two more tomorrow.”

“Good work,” said Tasha. “While I’d like to have a dedicated platform for the heavy stuff, it’ll be nice to have something at least in the interim.”

“This is the defensive setup I was considering,” said Anton as he brought it up on his tablet and started going through. Ben noticed Tasha was letting him spread his wings a bit and moved around the room to others.

“I just want to have my concerns noted,” said Mary to Grady and Cyrus.

“As they are and we’ll go with the 12 on, 12 off schedule that was proposed,” said Grady.

“I just worry about some of your guys trying to do more than they should,” said Mary.

“They won’t,” said Grady. “I’ll personally see to it they stick to that schedule.”

“You’re going to be on the planet’s surface?” asked Mary.

“I am,” said Grady. “Cyrus will stick around up here in case we need something fashioned or something critical out of storage. But whatever my folks get put through, I’ll be right there with them going through the same thing.”

“Okay, I feel a little better about it,” said Mary. “But please don’t overdo it yourself.”

“I’ll do my best,” said Grady with a chuckle. The small meeting broke up as Mary went to Charity to find out exactly when her team would be sent down. Grady and Cyrus gravitated to Ben and voiced another concern.

“I didn’t want to call Charity out during the meeting and we were going to talk to her, but her timetable for landing the equipment is way off,” said Grady.

“How so?” asked Ben.

“Well, the casting method is far slower than she gives it credit for,” said Cyrus. “It works, no problem there, but the object is basically attached to two shuttles heading for the surface.”

“Okay, I’ve seen it done, but don’t know the intricate details,” said Ben.

“Details meaning normally the object doesn’t have shielding or thermal plating,” said Grady. “The shuttles and gunships do and they can withstand reentry heat at higher speeds. Not entirely high speed, but either way, when you cast an object it has to be taken way slower.”

“And you think she didn’t take this into account?” asked Grady.

“We know she didn’t,” said Cyrus. “We tried mentioning it and nearly got our heads taken off.”

“Asking for the boss to talk to her?” asked Ben.

“If you could,” said Grady. “She’s done an outstanding job at getting everything ready to go, but she got swamped with some of the details.”

“I’ll make the time to discuss it,” said Ben as he sought out Allen to help. He was on the wall watching the side meetings as Ben walked up.

“Cyrus and Grady talk to you about the casting of the heavy equipment?” asked Allen.

“Yeah,” said Ben. “Do they have a valid point?”

“Kind of,” said Allen. “Truth is, the speeds she projected are right on the edge of the safety line. It has been done but doesn’t mean it needs to be done. I’m personally thinking the slower speeds are better for us even though it wrecks her timetable.”

“Especially since we have a single shot at this,” said Ben. “And I realize some of that equipment is one of a kind until the next Expedition and it wouldn’t do if we burned it up.”

“I was thinking the same thing,” said Allen. “She’s done a good job of organizing everything for the first week, but the timetables…”

“Are unrealistic?” asked Ben.

“No, but there isn’t a margin for error or delays built in. And again, it’s right there on the edge of being unsafe. It’s still safe…for the most part. But there’s a lot of variables that can wreck it if not taken into account,” said Allen. “Want to talk to her?”

“Yeah, let’s do,” said Ben. They headed over to her as she was finishing the discussion with Mary and sat at the table to look over the timeline again. She saw them approach and gave a tired smile as they sat down.

“You guys are going to tell me my timetables are out of whack too?” she asked.

“If others have pointed it out, you have to realize that something might need to be changed,” said Allen. “Let’s look them over together, okay?”

She went through the timeline of the schedule and Ben saw many were right on the edge of what he might consider safe as Allen pointed out. It could be done but didn’t have any natural breaks built in for the pilots as they shuttled back and forth. A point Allen showed her.

“I know,” said Charity. “It’s just that everyone deems their equipment or personnel as critical and I’ve tried to be as accommodating as I can without pissing everyone off.”

“It’s not an easy task,” said Ben. “But the schedule can be modified, no?”

“Of course,” said Charity with a sigh. “But do I push the medical team back or the second crew of engineers? Do I swap an equipment run for personnel and shove that departure back a day? It’s not easy trying to please everyone.”

“Have you talked to everyone at the same time?” asked Ben.

“No, talked with each, yes, but not together as a group,” said Charity.

“We’ll do it right now if Commander Nash thinks it’s okay,” said Allen.

“Let’s get it started,” said Ben as he moved back to his original seat and Allen got the attention of everyone in the room for another quick meeting. Everyone resumed their seats at the table and got notepads and tablets ready to go.

“Okay, we’re going to have a serious discussion about the departure timeline,” said Ben. “Charity is in the unenviable position of trying to please everyone and ends up pissing off everyone when she’s done. So, as team leads, we will discuss what’s absolutely critical to get to the surface and revamp the timeline accordingly. For the first week, at least.”

The group saw Charity had sent them the schedule of events as they looked for each individual section that pertained to them. Charity took center stage as she outlined the proposed changes and pushed times here and there along with making some swaps.

“I can reduce the medical team on the first wave,” said Mary, willing to give something up in the hopes others might do the same. “Reduced compliment to four, but still enough for most realistic emergencies we might face. And some of the gaps can be filled in with the security team’s combat medics.”

“And that opens up…?” asked Ben.

“Eight spots,” said Charity.

“No doctor on the first wave?” asked Ben.

“My med techs can handle most things that could come up,” said Mary. “And truth is, for anything serious they will be evacuated up here anyway.”

“Your call,” said Ben.

“My techs are the best in the galaxy,” said Mary. “They’ll be fine.”

“I could use some additional engineers on that first load,” said Grady. “And I’d bet security could add another few folks as well.”

“Actually, Captain Sokolov and Cyrus came up with a device that can mount one of the heavy weapons we might need,” said Tasha. “If there’s room, I’d like two of them sent down in the first wave for support. It’s a one-time trip save the weapons.”

“I can wait on the second run for the engineers,” said Grady. “Won’t hurt our construction timeline one bit.”

“Okay, so security needs all eight spots,” said Charity making notes as she went along. The cargo casting timeline was also pushed back another hour which would give the pilots ample time to bring the devices to the surface without any undue stress on the equipment they were hauling at the time. Most teams gave and took as they moved along and solidified the plan to something far more workable in the long run.

“Everyone happy?” asked Ben once they final touches were made.

“I think this will work out better in the long run,” said Javier. “Our teams will have more time in between shuttle runs to analyze the samples we bring back.”

“And it even works into the work-rest cycle of three days on the planet, a day back we agreed on before we started the landings,” said Tasha.

“Everyone is happy?” asked Charity. “You know I can’t finish until I’ve pissed someone off.”

“Okay, I’m pissed,” said Allen.

“How’s that?” asked Angeline.

“Because I’m not scheduled to go to the surface at all!” he exclaimed as the others laughed.

“I’m sure we can squeeze Captain Smith into a shuttle ride for a trip down,” said Ben after the laughter died down. “He is kind of responsible for getting us here.”

“Not without my engines he wasn’t!” exclaimed Cyrus.

“Okay, two spots for Chief Engineer Hendrix and Captain Smith,” said Charity.

“In seriousness, work them in,” said Ben. “They are just as much of the team as anyone and deserve to look around before we land the ship.”

“Will do,” said Charity.

“Nothing else?” asked Ben. “All side conversations and discussions complete?”

Heads were nodded around the room as they liked the new timeline and the changes that were made were for the better. They broke up once again for the one on one meetings where additional work was completed and planning was made. Eventually, Ben saw Chuck Dawson enter the room carrying a piece of cake and headed towards Tasha.

“What’s this?” asked Tasha.

“Call it a peace offering,” said Chuck. “I feel really guilty about you getting sick and I wasn’t, well, I wanted to make it up to you so I bribed the mess staff for this.”

“How did you bribe them? We don’t have money,” said Tasha.

“Okay, threatened them instead,” said Chuck as he tried to hand it over.

“I’m not sure I can…what kind of cake is that?” asked Tasha as the scent of chocolate hit her.

“Double chocolate fudge,” said Chuck. “With additional vanilla icing.”

Tasha looked it over and wasn’t sure she could handle it. But she didn’t realize Mary had already approved of the idea as well making him promise to get a piece herself. She received a nod of approval from Mary with raised eyebrows at the delicious looking cake.

“If you don’t I sure as hell will,” said Rachelle as she reached out for it.

“Nope! That’s my cake!” exclaimed Tasha as she took it. “Thank you, Doctor Dawson.”

“Chuck,” said Chuck.

“Thank you, Chuck,” said Tasha as she took the fork and tried a bit of it. “Oh my god!”

“Bad?” asked Rachelle.

“Orgasmic!” said Tasha as she got a larger piece.

“Share and share alike,” said Charity as she saw what was going on.

“Hell no! Go catch that bug I got and make some other guy feel sorry for you!” exclaimed Tasha as she spun away and continued eating the cake. “Water under the bridge, Chuck.”

“I’m glad you’re feeling better,” said Chuck as he started to depart.

“It’s still your fault,” said Tasha.

“Of course, it is,” said Chuck with a shake of his head as he departed.

“Nerd,” said Tasha under her breath as she continued eating.

“Kind of a hot nerd though,” said Charity as she watched him depart. Chuck Dawson was 185 centimeters tall with broad shoulders topped off with wavy brown hair and brown eyes. He didn’t look like a typical scientist and more able to jump into a football lineup.

“If you say so,” said Tasha as she glanced at his retreating form.

“Real nice butt for a nerd, too,” said Charity.

“I never noticed,” said Tasha as she got another piece on the fork.

“Like hell you didn’t,” laughed Rachelle. “I may not have known you that long, but you’re a single woman and I’d bet you checked him out at least once.”

“Okay, he isn’t built like most of the nerds I’ve met before,” said Tasha. “And yeah, he looks good going away as well. But so long as that’s the direction he’s moving from me.”

“Open season for me?” asked Charity.

“Be my guest,” said Tasha. “But he’s trouble, he’s stubborn and…a nerd.”

“Right,” said Charity with a laugh as Ben went to the front of the room.

“If there’s nothing else, let’s have dinner as a group for what might be the last time until we’ve landed the ship and everyone is on the surface,” suggested Ben. “Can Tasha join us?”

“Something simple would be okay as long as it’s not more chocolate,” said Mary.

“I thought it was one of the basic food groups?” asked Tasha as she had another bite of the cake with a look of contentment on her face. “Someone lied to me.”

“They did,” said Mary. “And while the rest of us enjoy the rest of that cake, you got your dessert first and get to watch us eat ours.”

“Maybe I don’t want to be a part of your stupid dinner now,” said Tasha with a scoff, but with mirth in her eyes.

“Anton? Ready for that promotion?” asked Ben with a grin.

“Fine, I’ll play along,” said Tasha with a sigh.

“Okay, let’s head down to the galley,” said Ben as everyone collected their items. “Give it about twenty minutes for everyone to stow their stuff and we’ll have dinner one last time.”

“I seem to recall a religious reference from Earth about a last supper,” said Kurt with a smile.

“I’m not getting crucified,” said Ben. “Don’t even finish that thought.”

“Wouldn’t dream of it,” said Kurt as the others laughed. They headed out of the meeting room and to their individual quarters where they stowed the various note taking devices before heading down to the galley. The mood inside was fairly electric with all the colonists eager to get to the surface and begin what they had desired for so long. While it hadn’t been officially announced, word and rumors were spreading the next landings would commence the next morning. Ben managed to secure a table that should be able to accommodate them all and headed to the line to get a fitting final meal with his leadership team. Others came in with the same idea on their mind and found Ben had already arranged for one of the cooks to produce “anything they desired” for the meal. The various section heads got the meal they wanted and joined Ben at the table, save one.

“Why isn’t Anton here?” he asked Tasha who was about to sit down. He motioned across the galley where he was sitting with a couple of other security troopers.

“I’ll find out,” said Tasha as she slowly walked over to Anton and had a quick conversation. He picked up his tray and joined the others at the table.

“I was not sure since Major Hayden was back if I was a part of the group,” said Anton as he sat down across from Ben.

“You’ve done exceptional in my absence and got a lot of logistical details worked out with First Officer Steele,” said Tasha. “In fact, I was thinking of proposing to Commander Nash you would become my time full second in charge.”

“I’m sorry?” asked Anton.

“The command team wasn’t built with a full time executive officer,” said Ben. “The corporate bosses thought one of the senior team leaders would assume that until the second or third Expedition. However, we did have a slight overage on your numbers, so if you had a replacement, you would assume the duties you’ve rightfully earned.”

“I’m sure we can find someone to promote,” said Tasha as Anton looked both stunned and proud at the same time. He thanked them both before digging into his meal with a smile on his face the whole time. Ben knew loyalty wasn’t built through demanding it. He knew it was built through rewarding those that worked hard to get ahead. And he knew Tasha had just gained a loyal member of her staff even though the two had never worked together before. The remainder of the leadership group filtered in with Mary taking the seat immediately to Ben’s right as she sat down.

“Chicken parmesan?” she asked as she looked over his plate.

“Love some Italian cooking,” said Ben with a smile. He saw Tasha staring at him with a silly grin and scrunched his forehead in a non-verbal way of asking her what the issue was. She did little more than slightly nod at Mary with the same grin. Ben shook his head at her with a roll of his eyes as Tasha went back to her dinner as well.

“One thing I do need to cover with everyone while we’re here together,” said Ben. “We need to talk over chain of command and line of succession so to speak.”

The members of the leadership sat slightly forward as they did wonder who specifically was next after Ben and Allen.

“Okay, so at the top is me, obviously,” said Ben. “And after that, Captain Smith. The decisions weren’t easy to come to and I based it on a multitude of factors including age, experience and previous jobs that had management experience. So, please don’t take it as a personal insult if you felt you should be higher in the pecking order.”

“From the top: there’s me, Allen Smith, then will be Grady, Kurt, Tasha, Javier, Angeline, Mary, Cyrus, Rachelle and rounding it out will be Charity. Again, I’ve tried to take into account your respective positions currently as well as past experiences. Angeline, I picked you above some of the current section heads because it literally came down to a flip of a coin as to whether you or Javier were going to run the science team,” said Ben. “And you have run at least two science departments as well as an off world science team before.”

“I understand,” said Angeline.

“If anyone feels like I haven’t given due consideration to their talents, please feel free to talk to me in private. Again, please don’t take this as a personal slight,” said Ben. “This has been the hardest decision I’ve made so far especially when I have so much talent at my disposal.”

“I mean, I thought I should have been second in charge,” said Rachelle with a sparkle in her eyes. “Seriously? What does a ship’s captain know?”

“He certainly knows how to change your diaper if the need arose,” said Allen as the group burst out in laughter at Rachelle.

“Maybe I’ll be content on the lower side of the totem pole,” said Rachelle as she blushed up. “Seriously, I have no problems with what you’ve established. I have a lot to learn and a long way to go. But I’m glad to have Charity around to help me through the steep learning curve.”

She gave a polite nod to Charity and received one in return. They had already met several times and discussed division of labor in the work that would need to be done and Rachelle already felt comfortable having her handle things on her own. She knew Ben obviously knew she would need the help since building something from the ground up would be a monumental task and having someone experienced to help her was absolutely necessary. For the 20th time, she was happy he was their leader and was being pragmatic about the decisions.

“Having said that to say this, you need to work out individual chains of command within your sections if you haven’t yet,” said Ben. “Team leads and whatnot. Who is in charge when you aren’t around and can make decisions in your absence.”

“I’ll get Anton working on that,” said Tasha.

“I would prefer to wait until you are back in position for that,” said Anton.

“Or you could come see me at the infirmary,” said Tasha. “Mary?”

“Light duties won’t hurt you,” said Mary. “Administrative work will be fine and it’s far better than the physical altercations you kept speaking about.”

“Was she still threatening to beat up Doctor Dawson?” asked Ben.

“Only about every half hour,” said Mary with a laugh. “He took to calling her out on it and it seems to have subsided.”

“When I get back to 100%, he’s going to get his ass beat,” said Tasha.

“Shocking,” laughed Ben. “Anyway, make sure you get that done and published if you could.”

The dinner continued as stories and laughs were had by the group members as they discussed little things that had happened so far and the exciting discoveries they had already made. The mood was infectious as the group looked forward to finally accomplishing what they had set out so long before to do. Eventually, everyone was done, but remained behind for additional cups of coffee and continued chatting as Anton’s family came looking for him and his daughter plopped herself down on his lap. Mary did a quick check to see the medicine was working as advertised and she got another treat for being “such a brave young lady.” But Mary made them promise to stop by the infirmary when dinner was over in order to get a complete scan on all three of them.

Eventually, they finished dinner and were served the remainder of the chocolate cake and even Tasha got another small piece. They all agreed it was good, but not quite orgasmic as Tasha had described, however, they all hadn’t been cooped up in isolation for two days either. The team leaders went their separate ways, preparing for the next wave of departures the next morning along with increased contingents of their respective sections. Again, excitement took over, but most that had been already were able to go to sleep without any problems since they knew they had a lot of work in the coming days and weeks and knew they needed to get sleep when they could. Save one person who continued to plan on the little items he knew they would need to accomplish in order to survive. It was well past midnight Novae Spes time when Ben finally laid down and went to sleep.

 

Thanks Grand have you quit your day job yet, cause if not you could and write full time. You Sir have talent
Thanks again. Chuck

 

CHAPTER 21

Three weeks later

The colony was coming together quickly as more people were on the surface especially during the day and additional temporary shelters were being set up by the engineers. They also were cutting at the nearby patch of woods to their south in order to create the landing zone for the Santa Maria, though the work was slower than anticipated. Most of the crew had rotated up frequently to the ship save one person who had only been up only once since landing. And his absence was concerning to several people who decided it was time for him to have a break.

“Doctor? You got a minute?” asked Grady as he and Tasha approached her as she was checking a device meant to monitor the pollen in the air.

“Give me one sec,” said Mary as she finished calibrating the device and it showed green lights across the panel. “Tasha? Everything okay?”

“Yeah, I think I’m fully back into form,” said Tasha. “It’s not about me.”

“Oh?” asked Mary.

“We need you to talk to Ben,” said Grady. “The rest of us have been keeping to your 12 on and 12 off schedule for the most part and tried to give you some good data so you can figure out what’s happening to our bodies. But him?”

“What about him?” asked Mary.

“He’s overworking,” said Tasha. “I tried mentioning it and he blew me off.”

“Oh, did he?” asked Mary. “I mean are we talking a couple of hours over or what?”

“Maybe like up to 18 to 20 hours at a pop,” said Grady. “I’ve seen him up and about working on this and that at completely odd hours. I’d suspect he isn’t getting much sleep right now.”

“Doing what?” asked Mary.

“Helping with everything from the engineers to agriculture to the SIT team,” said Grady.

“Even filled in a while for one of my troops,” said Tasha. “I know a leader is supposed to be leading by example, but we need him bright eyed and bushy tailed and not worn out in the first couple of weeks of us being here.”

“So, when advice from friends fail, get the doctor to make it an order?” asked Mary.

“I’m not necessarily a friend, but if he’s ignoring Tasha…” said Grady.

“I’ll take care of this right now,” said Mary as she located the pistol belt and snapped it on before heading out to find him. Looking through the quickly growing compound, she found him helping carry some of the lumber just created for a new building. He smiled as she approached and she saw the tiredness in his eyes as she approached.

“That’s a look that means business,” he said as he wiped his brow.

“I need to give you a quick checkup,” she said.

“I’m okay,” said Ben with a smile and a curious look.

“That wasn’t a request, Commander,” said Mary in her best doctor voice.

“Okay, let me get done helping here,” said Ben.

“And that didn’t mean later either,” said Mary. “That meant right now. Plenty of other strong backs around here that can haul lumber from one place to another.”

“I…yes, doctor,” said Ben as he knew he probably shouldn’t argue. He slipped off the gloves and followed her back to the medical station, a converted container she was currently using as a central clinic. Once inside, she instructed him to sit as she got her diagnosis equipment. Putting a med band on his wrist, she saw the data was already coming out that was troubling.

“When’s the last time you ate?” she asked.

“This morning maybe?” he stated. “Don’t recall exactly when.”

“Over nine hours ago?” she asked and raised her eyebrows. “Blurry vision?”

“No,” he replied.

“Headache? Dizziness? Soreness?” she asked.

“I’m a little sore, but that’s because I haven’t worked this hard in a long time,” he replied.

“Catch,” she stated as she tossed a bandage roll towards his face. He barely managed to swat it away before striking him.

“Okay, my orders, and they are orders, are for you to get on the next shuttle that comes down and head back to the ship. You are to take a shower, sleep, eat and not return to this planet for at least three full days,” she stated as she filled out a medical chart. “You’re showing signs of increased blood pressure, your immune system is dropping and this adds up to signs of fatigue.”

“I can’t have my people out working while I take time off,” he objected.

“Want to make it four days?” she asked with a tone and a serious look on her face. “If you recall, my word is law around here. Or did you forget making that announcement as well.”

“I…I’m just trying to get the ball rolling,” he stated. “Leading by example.”

“And we all have seen it, we all know you’re capable of lifting heavy objects and we know you care,” said Mary. “Now let the rest of us care a little about you in the meantime.”

“I’ll be okay,” said Ben in a last-ditch attempt to forestall taking time off.

“No, you will not be,” said Mary. “Fatigue will impair your higher cognitive skills before long and affect your decision-making process. You will have lapses in judgment, will start forgetting more and more things and will cause problems down the road. You need rest right now.”

“I just…a leader should be at the front helping,” he stated.

“A leader is also the one that makes good decisions and not those impaired by fatigue,” said Mary. “Look, I understand where you’re coming from, I really do. But you are building trust right now that could be dashed away by one fatigued induced bad decision. You don’t need that and I’m heading it off right now.”

“No other option?” he asked.

“Sure, you can disobey it,” she stated. “But when the leader of the colony makes the unwritten rule that the chief doctor’s word is final and goes and breaks that himself? How am I supposed to make others rest when they need it?”

“I can rest here on the planet,” said Ben.

“This is what you’re going to do,” said Mary as a serious look came over her face and she knew she needed to be more forceful. “You will designate someone to take over in your absence. You’re going to wait on the next shuttle to come in, you’re going to place your ass in said shuttle, take said shuttle to that ship, get something to eat, take a shower, wander to the bed after drying off, and then sleep until you want to wake up. And when you wake up and stretch, feeling all kinds of refreshed, you’re going to feed yourself another decent meal and sleep even more if you want. Are my instructions clear?”

“Crystal,” he replied, seeing she wasn’t to be trifled with and meant business.

“And until said shuttle arrives, you will stay right here and keep me company,” she stated. “I’m lonely, don’t have anyone except you to tend to at the moment and you will follow my instructions to keep me entertained.”

“Yes, ma’am,” he said.

“Now, see how nice I can be when you follow the doctor’s order?” she said with a smile.

“Yes, very peasant bedside manner,” he chuckled.

“Well, if someone would take the subtle hint that I am trying to help them, I would be able to smile and give them two aspirin and not worry about them trying to overdo it when they should know better,” she replied with a chuckle.

“It is appreciated,” said Ben.

“Be glad there are some that care about you,” said Mary.

“Some?” he asked.

“I’m on the fence,” she said with a half a smile. “Depends on how well you follow my instructions.”

“To the letter,” he replied.

“Promise?” she asked.

“Yes, ma’am,” he stated. “Can you let Grady know to come see me?”

“Sure,” said Mary as she walked out to find Grady and Tasha still conversing over something to do with the security plan. “Ben wants to see you.”

“He’s taking a break?” asked Grady.

“Yep, I’m personally shoving him onto a shuttle and he’s not allowed back down here for at least two days,” said Mary.

“You know that’s not going to take,” said Grady. “He’ll work while he’s up there.”

“Not if your dear old doctor happens to be going back with him and can monitor the situation,” said Mary. “Doctor Chambless is coming down to replace me and I’ll be on the same shuttle.”

“Still won’t stop him from trying to do something while up there,” said Tasha.

“I can keep him in his room,” said Mary.

“Oh, really?” asked Tasha with a grin and raised eyebrows.

“Not like that, you perv!” exclaimed Mary. “I’m saying if he knows I’m watching him, he won’t be as likely to disobey me and look for something to do. I’m sure he has some administrative stuff to be doing, but no heavy work. I’ll make sure of that.”

“And spank him if he gets naughty?” asked Tasha.

“Is there something I’m missing here?” asked Grady.

“Nothing at all,” said Mary as she shot Tasha a dirty look and received a grin in return. “Anyway, I’ll keep him up there and relaxed for at least two days. Hopefully, he sees the light and stays for three days. It would be exceptional if he’d take a bit more.”

“Good luck with that,” said Grady. “I’d go out of my mind.”

“You know how to pace yourself,” said Mary. “He won’t stop until he drops.”

“Thanks for all the help, Doctor,” said Grady as he headed inside to see Ben.

“While I’m gone to my imprisonment, I’m leaving you in charge down here,” said Ben. “I know you’re planning on staying down here and you’re the next senior member to take over.”

“Nothing crazy coming up,” said Grady. “I’ll contact you with anything I can’t handle.”

“I’ll speak to Javier if I get the chance,” said Ben. “His scientists will be driving you up the wall trying to push the envelope on getting samples and exploring.”

“They got a load of new toys in,” said Grady. “One of the containers had their drones, so they can go out exploring until their hearts are content without ever leaving the local area.”

“That will be a huge help,” said Ben. “Do you think I was overdoing it?”

“Absolutely,” said Grady. “But you’re probably no different than me. I will work until I drop to get something done. But this is a marathon, not a sprint. I realize that. I’m not sure you do.”

“Good point,” said Ben. “I’m sure the doctor will keep me on point going forward.”

“Look, we love the fact you’re eager to jump in and help out. It amazed and amused some of my guys and gals seeing the big dog doing manual labor. But I have this feeling you’re going to be the glue that holds us together in the long run,” said Grady. “And you have to be rested for that.”

“I think I said it best to Charity some time back,” said Ben. “Said something to the effect of getting older and not running with the young dogs any longer but knowing which dogs to pick to run. I guess I haven’t been good about heeding my own advice.”

“Hell, Ben, we thought it was awesome you jumped in,” aid Grady. “We’ve seen too many management types in the past sit back and sip coffee while watching us work. The fact you got your hands dirty meant a lot to my folks. It makes them want to work even harder for you.”

“And means I’m even more tired trying to keep up,” said Ben with a chuckle.

“Go get some sleep and eat a good meal or two,” said Grady. “Ain’t nothing down here that can’t wait a few days for you to check out or help with.”

“I’m only going to be out two or three days,” said Ben.

“Then make sure you take the two full days without working,” said Grady. “Else I’ll get the mean doctor after you again.”

“You put her up to it?” asked Ben.

“Yep, I sure did along with Tasha,” said Grady. “It’s because we care.”

“I’m not hugging you,” chuckled Ben.

“You’ve been going hard for seventeen days straight while the rest of us have had days off here and there,” said Grady. “And that’s just on the planet’s surface. Add in another two weeks before we even landed where I know you were working sixteen hours a day or more trying to get everything ready. Take the three days, you’ve earned it.”

“Maybe I will,” said Ben.

“Like I said, if anything comes up, I promise to call,” said Grady.

“I appreciate it,” said Ben as he heard the shuttle coming in for a landing and Grady saw something amiss and headed out to correct it. Mary came back in and smiled at him, knowing the wheels were turning in his brain and he realized it was better to get some rest.

“Thank you,” said Ben.

“It’s my job,” said Mary. “As it’s the job of your lieutenants to keep an eye on you and make sure you are taking care of yourself.”

“You could have just asked nicely,” he stated.

“Yeah, I tried that,” laughed Mary. “And you made me go into doctor mode to make you listen.”

“Okay, maybe I’m a bit stubborn,” he chuckled. “Is this my transport?”

“It is,” said Mary. “They are offloading cargo and personnel. Should be ready to depart in about twenty minutes or so.”

Before he could reply, one of the other doctors came into the container and Mary started bringing him up to speed on everything that was going on as well as their current situation. She reminded him several times to watch for fatigue in the workers and put a stop to it as quickly as possible. Before long, everything was ready and she collected her things to depart.

“Do you need anything from your temporary quarters?” she asked.

“Yeah, that would be helpful,” he said.

“You forgot, didn’t you?” she asked.

He didn’t reply but had a sheepish look on his face. She didn’t say anything either except a knowing “uh huh” as they headed to his container and collected the few things he had on the surface.

“You’ll make someone a fine wife someday,” he said with a chuckle after stuffing everything into his pack, retrieving his rifle and heading out.

“Someone huh?” she asked.

“Quite possibly,” said Ben as they headed for the shuttle and grabbed available fold down seating on the sides of the craft. Luckily, there wasn’t much to take back save some science team samples and the trip was fairly quick. Docking was an easy affair as they headed into the large cargo area and landed with a minor thump. Upon exiting, they found the crew of the Santa Maria already grabbing the seating and getting ready to put it back in along with a group of 20 personnel ready to head down to the surface. Ben didn’t know how many were going to stay or would come back, but he suddenly felt very tired then. He thanked Mary once again before getting to his quarters and dropping the gear in the middle of the floor and feeling very fatigued at the moment. But he had a mission and stripped down before getting in the shower and the hot water relaxing him. He suddenly felt all of his 42 years as he allowed the water to wash over his face and just stood there.

Eventually, he knew he couldn’t just stand in the shower any longer but thought it might have been an outstanding idea. He washed off quickly and grabbed a towel to dry off, contemplating on whether to even try the mess or just go right to sleep. A noise in the bedroom portion caught his attention as he peeked around the door.

“Hello? Ben?” asked Mary’s voice as she looked around and was carrying something.

“Hi,” he said from behind the door.

“Oh my! I’m so sorry!” she exclaimed. “I thought you might have been done!”

“Waited a little longer under the shower than I should have,” he said from inside with the door cracked open. “Hang on.”

He looked around and realized he didn’t have anything to toss on in the bathroom as he hadn’t planned on company. “Umm, can I ask for a favor?”

“Uh, sure,” said Mary hesitatingly.

“Nothing bad, I promise,” said Ben. “But could you look inside that chest of drawers for some clothing? I seemed to forget mine.”

“Sure,” she said and he heard her cross the room and start opening drawers. “Nothing.”

“Seriously?” he asked. “Might I ask a favor for you to turn around?”

“I’ll try to be proper,” she replied with a chuckle. He peeked around the door and saw she was facing towards the door as he wrapped the towel up and crossed the room and dug around in his kit until he found what he was looking for. Pulling on the exercise shorts and t-shirt, he pronounced himself “decent” again as she turned around.

“So, I figured you might be too beat to head down to the mess,” she stated. “So, I thought we might share a meal here.”

“Such a fine wife to be,” he chuckled.

“Hope so,” she smiled at him. “I didn’t know what you wanted, but you seem to like chicken. So, I got you a chicken Cordon Bleu along with healthy veggies on the side.”

“Sounds delicious,” he said as he cleared the small table and she brought the trays over. He saw she got the same for them both with green beans and broccoli. While he positively hated broccoli, he thanked her as they sat down and started eating. Small talk passed the meal away as they finished up eventually and kept talking. Eventually, he rubbed at his neck and grunted.

“Something wrong?” she asked.

“Getting old,” he sighed with a smile. “Overdid it out there.”

“I won’t say I told you so, but…” she smiled at him. “Go sit on the bed.”

“Sorry?” he asked.

“Go sit on your bed facing the end,” she stated. “Doctor’s orders. And take off your shirt.”

“Yes ma’am,” he stated and walked over to the bed and did as she requested.

“Nope, right in the middle,” she corrected him as she slipped off her shoes to get on the bed. She balanced on the headboard area that provided just enough room to sit down comfortably. “Now, back up a tad.”

Again, he did as instructed and scooted back before her hands were felt on his neck and started massaging his neck and upper back. He wanted to protest but didn’t find the words coming out of his mouth since it felt really good.

“So, I got my certification in massage therapy and used it to help make my way through college,” she stated. “And being a doctor, I know the high points to hit to make everything relax. Pretty soon, you’ll be as good as new.”

He found himself only grunting as a reply as she pushed his head down slightly to continue her work. “Wow,” he grunted eventually and put his head on his knees.

“I’m a woman of many talents,” she stated and continued.

“Very much,” he managed to say eventually as she continued for several more minutes. Eventually, she ran her fingers up through his hair lightly scratching at his head and running her fingers down his neck gently before finishing up.

“I even have some hidden talents,” she whispered in his ear after leaning over and letting her hair tease his shoulders in a non-verbal way of letting him know what other talents might have been available should he choose to discover them. She followed it up with a light kiss on his shoulder, but he didn’t respond and she looked at him with his head on his knees.

“Ben?” she asked softly and heard him snore slightly as he had gone fast asleep. She chuckled slightly at the situation and muttered “just my luck” as she helped him into a sleeping position and covered him up without waking him. She tiptoed across the room and collected the trays before tiptoeing out and looking one last time with a sigh, shaking her head and wondering why she had such bad luck, horrible timing or a combination of the two.

********************
​

“Shouldn’t you be getting ready to head back to the surface?” asked Mary as she saw Ben in the galley grabbing breakfast. He still had on his workout clothing and looked ill prepared to return to the surface right then. She hadn’t seen him since she left him asleep after his massage and he was looking world’s better.

“I thought you told me I’d stay up here three days?” he asked. “Good morning to you too.”

“Good morning,” said Mary with a warm smile. “I told you three days, but I never thought you’d take all of them.”

“I didn’t realize how much I needed it,” said Ben.

“I won’t say I told you so,” she laughed.

“Join me for breakfast?” he asked.

“Absolutely,” she stated and got her customary cup of hot tea. They found seating and dug into their breakfast as others came and went through the galley.

“I wanted to thank you for the massage the other night,” he stated. “It hit the spot.”

“I didn’t intend to put you to sleep,” she laughed. “I didn’t think I was that good.”

“It was perfect,” said Ben with a smile. “And I’d gladly pay whatever you charge if the situation was to present itself again.”

“And who massages me?” she asked with a twinkle.

“I’d give it a whirl, but I’m not sure of the techniques you used,” he stated.

“I might take you up on that offer,” she stated. “I’ve been working around with other groups as well and got a little sore.”

“Just let me know when you would like it,” he stated.

Mary almost asked for it right then, but her reserved side came out once again and didn’t think it would be proper for her to be propositioning her leader in the middle of the galley. She certainly wouldn’t have minded discovering his other attributes and she certainly wasn’t opposed to revealing her attributes to him as she stated before. But she shied away even though chances were he would have gone along with the suggestion.

“So, you’re heading back tomorrow?” she asked.

“Yeah, first shuttle down in the morning,” he stated. “You?”

“Two more days,” she stated. “There are test results they want me to look over before I leave.”

“Any other plans? I’m forbidden to work at the moment by the mean ship’s surgeon,” he asked.

“The mean ship’s surgeon is still taking it easy,” she laughed. “Otherwise, I’m catching up on my rest and taking a look at everything we’ve got so far.”

“Sounds good,” said Ben as Allen walked up.

“I see you’re even more rested than yesterday,” said Allen.

“I’ve been playing by the doctor’s rules,” said Ben. “How’s everything on the ship?”

“A lot easier so to speak,” said Allen. “Rachelle sent back some of her logistics crew that is currently identifying the cargo and creating paths to get to the essential equipment needed on the surface. Once we got enough containers out, it’s getting easier.”

“Won’t be a problem when we land this thing, right?” asked Ben.

“You might want to talk to Grady about that when you get back,” said Allen. “He still can’t give a timeframe on when that will happen.”

“Problems?” asked Ben as he saw Mary flash a dirty look at Allen out of the corner of his eye.

“Nothing major and we built in delays in the construction timetable,” said Allen. “Nothing that can’t wait until you’re back on the surface.”

“Not because Mary just gave you a dirty look over mentioning work or something that might trouble me?” asked Ben with a chuckle.

“He honestly didn’t say,” said Allen. “Which means it probably isn’t serious enough that it can’t wait until you’re back.”

“Which I was planning on being back today,” said Ben.

“How about I call him and ask if it’s something that can wait?” asked Allen.

“Or we both could,” said Ben earning a dirty look from Mary. “I can still do some planning up here and catch a nap this afternoon.”

“Yes, you can,” said Mary, slightly relenting. “However, that doesn’t mean you set up a special shuttle ride in case it turns out to be something else. I’m sure it can wait.”

“I’ll consult with my doctor if it turns out to be something serious,” said Ben.

“That works,” said Mary. The trio finished their breakfast as Ben and Allen headed into the bridge where they got on the communications system and waited for Grady to reply. It didn’t take long before he was seen on the screen sipping at a cup of coffee in front of one of the new buildings.

“Hey, guys,” said Grady.

“How’s everything going down there?” asked Ben.

“Pretty good,” said Grady. “Nothing crazy to report at the moment as everyone’s just chugging along and getting done what needs to be done.”

“No delays or anything?” asked Ben.

“We had a brief rain shower last night, but we planned for that,” said Allen. “Otherwise, nothing that can’t wait until our next leadership meeting.”

“Are Javier’s boys and girls bugging you?” asked Ben.

“You have no idea,” said Grady with a laugh. “They are kind of persistent when it comes to wanting to get out further.”

“Slip the leash a little and coordinate with Tasha for a couple of security teams to go with them,” suggested Ben. “Provided the recon shows it’s safe.”

“Will do,” said Grady. “Anything else? We’re setting in a foundation in a few minutes.”

“Allen mentioned something you might think would be a delay?” asked Ben.

“Nothing that can’t wait until you’re down here later today,” said Grady.

“I’m playing hooky today and will be down tomorrow,” said Ben.

“So, nothing that can’t wait until tomorrow,” said Grady. “A few plans and obstacles I have ideas for, nothing else.”

“Nothing you want to mention today?” asked Ben.

“It’s not that important,” said Grady.

“Fair enough,” said Ben as he knew Grady was a straight shooter and would tell him if it was important enough.

“I will say this, I already instructed Rachelle to get the field kitchen out of the storage and get it set up on the next run of cargo today,” said Grady. “Gave her the ‘or else’ ultimatum.”

“Field rations not particularly satisfying?” asked Ben with a laugh.

“No, sir,” said Grady. “I’ve worked too hard in my life to live off that shit for weeks on end.”

“They’ll do a number on you,” said Ben with a smile.

“Otherwise, we’re all about peace, love and harmony,” said Grady.

“You think you can hold down the fort for another day?” asked Ben.

“Yeah, we’ll be good,” said Grady. “Allen, could you send Cyrus down today? I can have him back this evening, but there’s a few things I need to go over with him.”

“I’ll let him know,” said Allen.

“Otherwise, let me get back to the grindstone,” said Grady.

“See you tomorrow,” said Ben as they signed off.

“Everything seems like it’s going well,” said Allen.

“Yep,” said Ben. “Until we hit that inevitable snag in our plans.”

“It always happens,” said Allen. “Though we’ve planned around things like that.”

“We’ve got a year to get everything ready,” said Ben. “You think we’ll make it?”

“I think we’ll get there if not sooner,” said Allen.

“Okay, anything else pressing?” asked Ben.

“Can’t think of a thing,” said Allen.

“I’ll catch you at dinner then,” said Ben as he departed. He headed back towards his cabin for the afternoon nap he had promised himself. He knew sleep would likely benefit him more than wandering aimlessly around the ship checking out the individual sections and he knew sleep wasn’t a luxury he would have when he returned to the surface. However, he wondered if he should head down to the infirmary to see Mary just for a social visit. He felt like there might be something there, but his professional streak kept him from exploring it at the moment. He laid in the bed wondering if he should at least invite her to dinner before nodding off to sleep, the question unanswered in his head.

 

And then...and then...???

LOL

Great story thus far. Appreciate your talented writing.

 

CHAPTER 22



“Coming up on the landing, everyone stay strapped in,” said the pilot over the intercom as the shuttle came in for the morning run at the colony. Ben made sure his belt was still in place as he pushed his pack slightly under the seat. The pilot was talented and he only felt a slight bump as the main gear made contact with the surface. Gathering everything up, Ben headed out and saw the next group waiting to board for their break on the ship.

“Well, someone is looking refreshed,” said Tasha as she prepared to head back to the ship. Ben came off the shuttle looking world’s better as he had “been lazy” the previous three days and gotten his rest caught up.

“I will admit, sleeping in and not doing anything the past three days was just what the doctor ordered,” he stated with a smile. “Literally.”

“Did she tie you to the bed?” asked Tasha with a wink.

“Not quite,” said Ben with a roll of his eyes as he knew Tasha was about to suggest other ways of Mary keeping him occupied.

“Anyway, nothing serious at the moment and we’ve got our first guard towers up,” said Tasha. “Obviously, it’s better than nothing and gives us a further look outside the perimeter than we would normally have. We placed sensors at the likely infiltration points as well.”

“You’re heading up?” asked Ben.

“Yes, sir,” said Tasha. “Anton is taking over at the moment with the day shift and Captain Jerome Irwin is taking over the night shift.”

“Sounds good,” said Ben. “How was Grady?”

“Reasonable enough,” said Tasha. “Javier kept bugging him to go out further, but he managed to temper them into waiting.”

“I warned him about that,” said Ben with a chuckle.

“Everyone is trying to push ahead,” said Tasha. “Even my own guys are getting into the spirit of exploration and volunteering to go out with the science teams.”

“How long are you going to be gone?” asked Ben.

“Three days,” said Tasha. “I’ve been here nine, so it’s my turn.”

“At least you know when to quit,” said Ben.

“Grady was asking about you last night, when you were coming back specifically,” said Tasha.

“Something up?” asked Ben.

“He didn’t specify,” said Tasha as the shuttle started loading up and she unslung her carbine. “Anything else?”

“Nah, enjoy your down time,” said Ben. “Where is Grady anyway?”

“Over by the southern patch of woods,” said Tasha. “See you in three days.”

“Later,” said Ben as he collected his things and headed towards the quarters he was using on the surface. Depositing the pack inside, he slung up his carbine and headed towards the southern woods. As he passed through the growing colony, the area looked different in just the three days he was gone as new buildings were already being built and the foundations set by the robotic builders being put to work by the engineers. Even with the “hired help” as Grady put it, there was a lot of human intervention necessary to complete the building as well as the finish work. Ben was somewhat ready to get back into helping but would be more careful in the future as he realized he was overdoing it and needed to plan for the long term instead of rushing everything.

He caught up with Grady watching the engineering remove the trees in the southern area which was to become the landing zone of the Santa Maria when they finally finished. He watched as the large machines went this way and that as well as a truck creeping by heavily loaded with several of the large trees already stripped of their branches.

“You look rested,” said Grady as Ben approached and shook his hand.

“I’m glad we have a mean doctor that made me stay,” said Ben.

“And mean section heads that brought it to her attention,” said Grady with a laugh.

“That too,” said Ben. “How is everything going?”

“Fairly well in the colony,” said Grady as he spent the next two minutes bringing Ben up to speed on the latest construction. “All things considered, we’re right on track.”

“So, down to business,” said Ben.

“Yeah, glad I broke the news to you early about the trees,” said Grady with a frown as Ben walked with him. “Work has slowed in that area.”

“Seems like you’re going reasonably quickly,” said Ben.

“Sort of,” said Grady. “The trees are dense enough they are wearing the blades out on the cutting equipment quicker than I’d expected. We’d love to use the laser cutters, but the fire danger is a little much and it scorches the wood regardless. So, we have to use blades only.”

“So, you’re having to re-sharpen them sooner?” asked Ben.

“Yeah, luckily, they packed in three sets of blades apiece per vehicle, so it’s just a matter of getting them swapped out and replaced,” said Grady. “Takes about a half hour per unit, but every twelve hours we’re swapping blades.”

“Some thick stuff,” said Ben.

“That’s only part of it,” said Grady. “Being that some of this land will eventually be part of the colony, we’re removing the stumps as well. And that’s taking almost double the estimated time we built into the schedule of events.”

“Okay?” asked Ben.

“The trees have a far denser root system than we thought going in,” said Grady. “We’re able to dig the roots out, but then have to cut them by hand with either the chain saws or hand tools. Not exactly fast paced work.”

“And the holes?” asked Ben.

“Since we’re grading and leveling off the area, we’re using the dirt to fill in where we can,” said Grady. “Again, not difficult work, but time consuming.”

They paused as another tree was about to fall after the large machine had cut it at the base. It groaned slightly as it came down and landed with a powerful thud against the ground. As soon as it came to a rest, the teams immediately started removing the larger branches for later use. A flatbed vehicle pulled up to remove the larger branches while an earthmover moved in to start taking out the stump.

“Isn’t it more efficient to cut them down then remove the stumps and clear the rest?” asked Ben.

“Six or a half dozen each way,” said Grady. “We’ve already tried it both ways and found this method was slightly safer for everyone involved.”

“Okay, you know I’m not going to question something safety related,” said Ben. “But where’s the next hang up?”

“The Giant Nova Maples,” said Grady, referring to the large trees in the forest. Javier had matched it to distant genetic cousin of the maple tree on Earth, but with the obvious Novae Spes differences. However, they decided naming it in honor of the Earth tree was appropriate.

“I happened to notice you are cutting around them,” said Ben.

“For a good reason,” said Grady simply.

“I’m sure you are about to explain,” said Ben with a chuckle.

“We don’t have the equipment to take them out like we do a normal tree,” said Grady.

“Those blades are huge,” said Ben.

“Still not large enough to take these things out,” said Grady.

“You typically don’t come to me with a problem unless you have a solution,” said Ben.

“The blades themselves have a cutting depth of about two meters. If we remove the blade guards, we can get up to close to three meters, maybe a tad more,” said Grady.

“And…?” asked Ben.

“Let’s just say it’s not wise,” said Grady with a sigh. “The blade guards are there for a reason. To keep people from walking into them as the good first reason.”

“People don’t walk into those things!” protested Ben and saw the look on Grady’s face. “Do they?”

“An old comedian on Earth once said, ‘you can’t fix stupid.’ There’s a reason those things are called guards,” said Grady. “And the second reason is if the blade comes loose, it blocks it from coming out of the machine. Destroys the blade and probably doesn’t help the machine itself, but it’s not a threat to people. If it gets loose though…”

“It’ll cut through anything in its path,” said Ben. “What’ll you need?”

“It’s not that specifically,” said Grady. “I’d prefer to leave them be. Trust me, I’d love to have the materials out of a single one, but darned if I can’t think of a safe way of getting them out.”

“There has to be a way,” said Ben.

“Look, the machinery just wasn’t designed for this,” said Grady. “It’s literally the largest tree we’ve ever encountered off world by a long shot. Had I known in advance, I might have been able to design a special piece of equipment, but as it stands, we have to use what we have.”

“I wouldn’t be opposed to leaving them save for two reasons,” said Ben. “First off, part of it will be the ship landing area and that will present a problem. Second, even if it’s inside the wall, we have no idea how old these things can get and if or when they fall they are going to destroy everything it falls on.”

“Yeah, I came to the same conclusions,” said Grady. “Look, big decisions come to you and if you want me to remove the blade guards, I’ll do it. But I’m telling you right now it’s not safe.”

“Could you design something and have Cyrus and his bunch fashion it on the Santa Maria?” asked Ben. “They have a section dedicated to new materials.”

“Possibly, but we’re talking weeks before anything is done and it’ll have to be cast to the surface before we could even test it,” said Grady.

“Which wrecks the timetable on landing the ship,” said Ben.

“Pretty much,” said Grady.

“Cut the rest of the forest first,” said Ben. “We’ll deal with them last.”

“That’s the plan at the moment,” said Grady.

“And come up with a safe plan for taking them out,” said Ben. “I understand it might not be entirely safe, but they have to be removed.”

“I understand,” said Grady. “I’ll likely do it myself.”

“No, you’ll put your best person in that machine and have them do it,” said Ben. “I can’t afford to lose you out here.”

“I have to do the first one,” said Grady. “I can’t have my people doing something I can’t or won’t do.”

“Leadership by example,” said Ben. “Look, take the first one out, fine. But put your best guy or gal in there for the rest.”

“I will,” said Grady.

“And no bucking authority on that one,” said Ben.

“I won’t, I promise,” said Grady.

“Okay, next issue?” asked Ben.

“As you know, or may not, the cabins and facilities are going to be built with redundant heating installed for the winter,” said Grady. “While we don’t anticipate a catastrophic loss of power, it’s always there in the back of our minds.”

“I knew it was planned,” said Ben. “Not the specifics though.”

“Well, we plan on using wood heat,” said Grady. “Which is why we’re salvaging as much as possible from these trees.”

“Didn’t know that,” said Ben.

“Before you bring up the pollution angle, it’s been mitigated down to 2%,” said Grady.

“Explain,” said Ben.

“Burning wood creates heat, you know this, and also produces ash, smoke and carbon monoxide and dioxide,” said Grady. “We obviously don’t want to start down that road here on this brand-new planet, so the units will be ultra-high efficiency models that reduce the emissions to only 2% of the total output. With me so far?”

“Yes,” said Ben.

“Okay, so the smoke, which is a mix of carbon, carbon dioxide and monoxide, small particulates we know as ash or soot and sometimes steam if the wood is still wet,” said Grady. “The advanced units we use burn hot enough to reduce the carbon monoxide production and filters take out the soot and trap additional carbon monoxide. The only thing left is trace amounts of the soot and carbon dioxide along with the water vapor. The traps also take out other hazardous chemicals if they are present.”

“Which water vapor isn’t going to cause significant environmental damage,” said Ben. “And carbon dioxide shouldn’t be a problem with all the plants.”

“Not in the quantities we’re talking, no,” said Grady.

“Okay, so?” asked Ben.

“Again, it comes down to efficiency,” said Grady. “We plan on using everything humanly possible from what we’re cutting down. Branches and trees over about 100 mm are heading to be formed up for lumber. In the case of smaller stuff from 100 mm to about 125 mm or so will be used for trim or chipped down for particle board.”

“And the smaller stuff?” asked Ben.

“From about 25 mm to the 100 mm point, that’s going to be our firewood,” said Grady. “Being thinner than the rest of the tree, it’ll season quicker and should be ready in time for the fall and winter around here.”

“Okay, season?” asked Ben. “I’ve never had a wood burning stove.”

“Season means it dries out from the stored water a living tree has,” said Grady.

“You can’t run it through the kiln?” asked Ben.

“We could, but doing it naturally works just as well and the kiln will be needed for additional materials. Basically, we stack it up and let it season naturally,” said Grady.

“Okay, got it,” said Ben. “And the hang up?”

“Getting that stuff measured and down to size,” said Grady. “These stoves, when they come online, can be fed twice a day with the small stuff. Fill it in the morning, fill it in the evening and you’re done. It never needs to be touched throughout those times.”

“Except we’re on a 30 hour day here,” said Ben.

“That’s actually taking that 30 hour day into consideration,” said Grady.

“Oh,” said Ben. “Okay, so it’s getting it sorted?”

“Sort of,” said Grady. “After these guys get done cutting the branches, they are loaded and sent to another location. The trunks are cut and picked up to head to the kiln for a rapid seasoning. After that, they get cut into lumber we can use.”

“So, what’s holding it up on that end is getting the small stuff cleared from the bigger stuff and done away with,” said Ben.

“More or less,” said Grady. “We can size it up but cutting what we don’t need off what we need is time consuming and I just don’t have the bodies.”

“Nothing automated?” asked Ben.

“Not for what we’re doing, no,” said Grady. “It’s literally doing everything with hand tools. Clippers, limbers, small power saws and whatnot.”

“And your solution?” asked Ben. “I know you have an idea in your head.”

“Asking the SIT team to help out,” said Grady. “For the moment, there are no computers to program or infrastructure to maintain. I need manpower more than anything.”

“That’s going to be one hell of a chest and arm workout,” chuckled Ben.

“They’ll be pretty buff as Tasha puts it before they are done,” said Grady. “I don’t want to imply the SIT Team doesn’t have anything to do at the moment…”

“But they really don’t have much to do for the moment except itemize cargo,” said Ben. “What are we doing with the other small stuff? Leaves and small branches?”

“I’ve got an idea about that along with the exterior scraps as well,” said Grady.

“You know I’m open to ideas,” said Ben.

“The really small stuff and leaves we’re going to compost,” said Grady. “And I’ll get to that here in a minute as that’s a separate idea that will require your permission. However, the lumber scraps as well as the leftover small stuff we can’t use gets chipped and shredded to size to create pathways in the colony.”

“I thought the plan was to put in hard surfaces?” asked Ben.

“Eventually, yes,” said Grady. “Either pavement or Plasticrete will go down. But we still need the raw materials for that as well as the time involved. However, you can see we’re already getting some ruts going here and the first good rain is going to turn this place into a muddy hell.”

“We’ve had some rain since we’ve been here,” said Ben.

“Not like what the historical data is telling us,” said Grady. “Apparently, around early summer we start getting some torrential downpours. The rains we’ve had were gentle and soaked into the ground easily enough.”

“Yeah, something we didn’t think of,” said Ben.

“So, instead of setting all the stuff we can use as firewood off to the side, we chip some and pour it in areas with high traffic to keep down the dust as well as mud when it rains,” said Grady. “We’ll be able to find plenty of firewood later, I’m sure. Even if we have to import it from the mountain region to our east which we’ll probably end up doing anyway.”

“Okay, you mentioned compost?” asked Ben.

“Yeah, this is where it gets tricky,” said Grady with a sigh. “You sure you don’t want to talk to Rachelle first?”

“Complete story,” said Ben with a chuckle. “No stalling.”

“Right,” chuckled Grady. “So, there are two methods of composting. One is to just pile the stuff up and it decays naturally from the bacteria that eat it up. No different than what happens on Earth. The bacteria here are just as efficient in that regard.”

“Second method is to ‘help’ it along with a composter,” said Grady. “Basically, it’s a large drum that you fill the stuff into, make sure there’s some water, but not too much. Anyway, you set it up, fill it up and it rotates enough to mix the stuff inside. The heat helps the bacteria break the stuff down faster and you cut the time to half or less.”

“Okay, you have my permission,” said Ben wondering why the decision came to him.

“Yeah, there’s the complicated part,” said Grady with a scrunched nose.

“Drop the other shoe,” said Ben.

“We have to build the composters,” said Grady. “It wasn’t something that was included in the original equipment for the colony. But we do have the perfect sized piece of metal already for something like that. And that’s where the problem starts.”

“You’ve got more shoes than my ex-wife to drop,” said Ben.

“The ASD engines and projectors are ideally suited for what we want,” said Grady.

“Not like we’re going to be using them after we tear apart the ship,” said Ben with shrugged shoulders. “Easy fix.”

“That’s not the problem,” said Grady. “They have to be dismantled in a very precise and controlled way. You can’t just start tearing out nuts and bolts.”

“I’m not even going to pretend to know anything about what’s inside them,” said Ben.

“As I don’t either, just what Cyrus and Kirk have told me,” said Grady.

“I’d probably rather not ask Kirk about it,” said Ben with a chuckle.

“Yeah, I made the same mistake,” said Grady. “Okay, so two parts to the ASD system, the drive which makes the ship go and the projector that opens and holds open the window.”

“This I knew,” said Ben.

“Yet, what most people don’t know is other than the controls going to the bridge, the system itself is entirely contained to include a power source,” said Grady.

“That I didn’t know,” said Ben. “But…?”

“The power units are right in the middle of the thing,” said Grady. “Which is why we would have to be extremely detailed and very careful when dismantling them. The whole damn thing’s on and off switch is placed where nobody can get to it.”

“That’s…the most ridiculous thing I’ve ever heard,” said Ben.

“I said the same thing,” said Grady. “Cyrus told me it was designed that way so if the ship had a catastrophic power loss, the ASD systems wouldn’t be affected and drop them out in the middle of nowhere. When he puts it like that, I can understand why they are self-contained.”

“No, I mean why put it in the center where nobody can get to it?” asked Ben.

“Manufacturer probably did it that way so they would have to do the maintenance on the units themselves or provide replacements,” said Grady with shrugged shoulders. “Think about it, a unit only they can service? That’s additional money in their pocket.”

“Still doesn’t give a good reason the ship itself can’t shut them off,” said Ben.

“Oh, they can,” said Grady. “Problem is, until you disable the power unit itself, the projector and engines could come active again, create a window and suck in whatever happens to be nearby to include those trying to dismantle the engines. Which is why you have to do it in a very specific step-by-step way to avoid that.”

“The designers had to have anticipated they would need maintenance!” objected Ben.

“The units themselves are designed to be swapped out as a whole and sent back to the factory for repairs and replacement,” said Grady. “Look, I thought it was stupid as hell myself, but it’s not like I’m responsible for that.”

“I’m very glad to get this information from you instead of Kirk,” chuckled Ben. “I’d have probably choked him by now.”

“I gave up about two minutes in,” said Grady with a chuckle.

“Can you build these composters without them?” asked Ben.

“Yeah, shouldn’t be that big a deal though materials are going to have to be fashioned and dedicated to that,” said Grady. “But we’re eventually going to have to dismantle them anyway.”

“But the ASD coverings will work better?” asked Ben.

“Perfectly sized for composters,” said Grady. “Hell, they are already encapsulated. We’ll just need to build some supports and struts that will rotate it and we’re in business.”

“How about this? I go and talk to Rachelle about giving up her people and you talk to Kirk about the ASD dismantlement?” asked Ben with a wry smile.

“Yeah, no,” said Grady. “Big decisions come to you. The Rachelle thing? That’s a little thing.”

“Can’t fault me for trying,” chuckled Ben. “Okay, talk to Rachelle and let her know if it comes up you have my blessing. I also like the idea of the wood chips as pathways around here even though they will likely wash off. It makes sense to have some paths and trails instead of beating down the grass everywhere we go. You have a chipper already?”

“Came as part of the equipment,” said Grady.

“And it’s big enough?” asked Ben.

“Should be,” said Grady. “However, this is some dense stuff we’re dealing with and it might be a bit slower. But, overall, it’ll be plenty large enough.”

“Okay, talk to Rachelle,” said Ben.

“I’ll get on that,” said Grady. “And Kirk?”

“He’s still on the ship as far as I know,” said Ben with a sigh. “I’ll have him come down on the next shuttle run and talk to him about it.”

“Anything else?” asked Ben.

“No, I think that’s the best status update I can give you,” said Grady. “I’ll be rotating up to the ship day after tomorrow and Cy will be running things from the ground for a few days.”

“Keep up the good work,” said Ben as he headed off and Grady went back towards the colony. Ben headed towards the agriculture area where one of the large machines was busy plowing a different portion of the fields planned as the farm. He caught up with Kurt actually driving the machine and waited for him to stop. Ben climbed on the machine and found the driver compartment big enough for two as he headed off.

“How was your leave?” asked Kurt as he set the machine’s controls into a cruise mode.

“Restful,” said Ben. “You’re driving the machine?”

“The other guys are planting the other fields,” said Kurt. “It’s a bit early, but I don’t think it’ll hurt the seeds.”

“And this field is planned for?” asked Ben.

“Wheat,” said Kurt as he came to the end of the row and turned the machine around. “Maybe some other veggies at the edges, but mainly wheat for the moment.”

“Everything on schedule?” asked Ben.

“Ahead of schedule really,” said Kurt. “Maybe by two weeks, but that’ll change once the late spring rains get here.”

“How so?” asked Ben.

“Weeding which will take a lot of manpower,” said Kurt. “Certain items grow faster than the Terran crops which will choke them out if we don’t remove them.”

“You’ll need assistance?” asked Ben.

“Maybe,” said Kurt. “Other than that, the science department is studying some animals for possible domestication. Including the featheroo.”

“For consumption,” said Ben.

“Man wasn’t meant to be a vegetarian,” said Kurt. “We didn’t make it to the top of the food chain by eating plants. We’ll need a steady source of protein in our diets.”

“Anything else?” asked Ben.

“Possibly, but I’d prefer Javier tell you about it,” said Kurt.

“Otherwise?” asked Ben.

“Otherwise, we’re ahead of schedule and making work at the moment,” said Kurt.

“Get with Grady then,” said Ben. “He has some intensive manual labor work.”

“The trees? Yeah, he told me he might ask for help,” said Kurt.

“The quicker we get that patch of woods cleared, the quicker we can get the ship on the ground and start making real progress on building,” said Ben. “Until it comes time to tend to your respective section that is.”

“I’ll get with my section tonight and ask for volunteers,” said Kurt.

“That might not be the best,” chuckled Ben.

“No, they’ve been looking for work,” said Kurt. “And being farmers, we’re used to some of the small power tools they’ll have us use. Better than Rachelle’s folks at least.”

“Right,” said Ben. “Did your simulations on the crops come through?”

“They did and better than I projected,” said Kurt.

“That good?” asked Ben.

“Again, the soil has been just sitting here waiting for us to plant on,” said Kurt. “First harvest should be a bountiful one.”

“Planning for Expedition 2 as well?” asked Ben.

“Should be more than enough to store,” said Kurt.

“Sounds good,” said Ben. “You can drop me off here if there’s nothing else.”

“Or you could wait for me to get back to the other end so you don’t have to walk as far,” said Kurt with a grin. “I know I’d take the lazy route.”

“Yeah, now that you mention it,” said Ben as he took out his communicator and requested Jim Kirk make his way to the surface on the next shuttle to discuss the option Grady has presented. Kurt and Ben continued with small talk as they reached the eastern end of the field and Ben headed back into the colony, unsure of what to do next except continue to visit the work sections. He was approached by Rachelle and Charity as he entered the middle of the colony.

“Grady came and talked to us,” said Rachelle without prompting.

“And?” asked Ben expecting them to protest.

“And thank you for sending him our way!” said Rachelle. “My folks are going batty not having anything constructive to do!”

“I expected…something else,” said Ben. “Anger maybe?”

“No, we’re literally sitting around with nothing to do at the moment except itemize the cargo containers as they come down,” said Charity. “We see others working their ass off and want to be a part of something.”

“And?” asked Ben.

“We’re setting up the entire team for training in the morning,” said Rachelle. “I don’t care how many blisters we get; we all want something to do.”

“That works,” said Ben. “Anything from your side?”

“Nothing major of note,” said Rachelle. “We finished planning the aqueduct route and water purification station location along with the water tower.”

“Tasha will thank you,” chuckled Ben.

“Nasty little bugs,” said Charity. “I don’t know about the biology, but Doctor Chambless says they are not fun to contract.”

“But we can kill them, no problems?” asked Ben.

“Zero residue,” said Rachelle.

“And the water works for the farm?” asked Ben.

“We’ve decided on a route with Kurt,” said Rachelle. “That doesn’t need to be treated and can be straight from the river.”

“And these bugs will be killed before they seep into the plants?” asked Ben.

“That…is a good question we really didn’t think about,” said Rachelle. “I’ll get with Javier, Kurt and Doc Chambless.”

“If you would,” said Ben. “It wouldn’t do to have a record crop and it all be wasted because the food was tainted.”

“Right,” said Charity.

“Always remember the four basics of survival: shelter, water, food and security,” said Ben. “Charity, you damn well should remember that from your basic training.”

“You’re right, sir,” said Charity taking the minor admonishment in stride.

“Without water, we have no food and without food, we have no life…well, without water either. Anyway, we should dot our I’s and cross our T’s on everything since we don’t get a second chance come winter,” said Ben.

“I promise I’ll have an answer by nightfall,” said Rachelle.

“I’m not mad,” said Ben as he saw the two looking like they were waiting on him to explode.

“Big mean military dude isn’t going to get gruff?” asked Rachelle with a hint of a grin.

“Big mean former military dude is just pointing out the little details we all should be looking for in this colony,” said Ben with a chuckle.

“We appreciate it,” said Charity as they took their leave and went off to find Kurt, Doctor Chambless and a member of the science team. Ben continued into the colony, getting a little bored, but managing to catch up with the science team and started expanding his horizons with helping in their experiments and even getting caught up in the excitement in discovering a few new things himself. He saw the science team was patient and were exceptionally good teachers as well as most knew when to slow down and allow him to see for himself the process of what was happening or would explain it in simpler terms as to the importance of the discovery they made. They also thanked him for taking the time to actually see what they were doing instead of just assuming what they were doing was important.

“Not too bad, huh?” asked Angeline as Javier had already headed to supper.

“Your guys did well breaking it down into simple terms,” said Ben. He had noticed the field kitchen had been set up and was preparing normal meals for the workers. Along the way, he brought up a file he needed to study before his next important meeting.

“Truth be told, sometimes I get lost in certain areas,” said Angeline.

“I did have a question for you or Javier,” said Ben.

“Shoot,” said Angeline.

“The Giant Novae Maples,” said Ben as he multitasked by reading and asking an entirely unrelated question.

“Are not endangered,” said Angeline with a shake of her head.

“You know this for certain?” asked Ben.

“Positive,” said Angeline. “It’s the same tree as the other Novae Maples, just far larger and older. We sent the drone out scouting near the mountains and found entire groves of them. If we had an Earth designation, it would be ‘Least Concern’ on the conservation chart.”

“Even the giant ones?” asked Ben.

“The drone took readings over a 150 square kilometer area and found they were extremely common in the forest,” said Angeline. “We won’t be responsible for destroying a species in our first year.”

“How common?” asked Ben.

“Two to three every square kilometer if not more,” said Angeline. “These are just older ones that have outlived others in the forest.”

“I just wanted to make sure before we started cutting,” said Ben.

“Once Grady takes them out, Javier and his botanists want to look at the stump and try to gauge how old they are,” said Angline.

“I think that’s a great idea,” said Ben.

“Anything else?” asked Angeline.

“Nope,” said Ben. “Want to grab a bite to eat?”

“I ate earlier and have to do some astronomical studies,” said Angeline. “Thanks though.”

“Okay, have fun,” said Ben.

“Always,” said Angeline. “Night.”

“Night,” said Ben as he headed over and grabbed whatever they were serving out of the field kitchen for dinner. While he was eating, he studied the daily reports that were coming out from the individual sections and saw several items that would have been front page news back on Earth. However, they would have to keep such discoveries to themselves. At the end of the day, Ben realized he didn’t have to just perform the manual labor to keep up with the rest of his teams. While getting the construction underway was important, the science teams were performing invaluable work themselves identifying additional unseen threats and advancements that would help them thrive in the long run.

Ben continued reading over the file from earlier, studying the matter he knew was likely needing a more knowledgeable approach. He learned quite a few things as he continued to read the files and technical specs of the object in question and was amazed at the complexity of the design. However, when they started dismantling the Santa Maria, he knew the ASD systems would have to be made inert regardless and there were truly only two people in the colony capable of taking them apart to do just that.

Eventually, he had what information he needed and started preparing for bed. After changing and stowing his weapons right next to his bed out of habit, he had a feeling of contentment over everything that had transpired so far and looked forward to integrating himself into other sections in the coming days.

 

Interesting about the ancient maples...brings to mind the network of cyprus, some say the largest organism in the world...
Are the maples the progenitors of the forests, or is it more than that?
Nah, just trees...lol

 

Yeah, just trees so to speak.

Don't worry, we'll get to some other fun stuff soon.