Terradox Quadrilogy

by Craig A. Falconer

  This building, evidently inspired by its Terradox-based counterpart, would only welcome arrivals on a few occasions over the next year or so as essential workers and then the general population arrived in batches prior to the romosphere’s final departure from high-Earth orbit.

  After that, the plan was for an interior refit to repurpose the building as Arkadia Central Hall, the future house of Arkadian governance in years, decades, and indeed centuries to come.

  As soon as the gentle landing was complete, Rachel rushed to a window and gazed out in awe.

  “We’re actually here,” she said, mainly to herself.

  Chase fiddled with a few buttons on the control console before joining her briefly at the window. He had initiated the final stage of atmospheric testing, a largely redundant procedure which would check that readings from the Karrier’s own external sensors agreed with those already received from the thousands of sensors built in to Arkadia’s landscape.

  “I’m going to load up the Explorer,” he said. “Can you keep an eye on these readings and call me if anything doesn’t look right?”

  “Sure thing,” Rachel replied, sitting back down and attentively watching the screen as the first data began to flow in. “It’s all looking good so far.”

  Keen to get outside, Chase set off quickly down the corridor and wasted absolutely no time in gathering everything he needed. His first port of the call was the live cargo bay, which housed most of the boxes he had to load into his TE-900, the large multi-terrain touring vehicle he would be using to cover a vast distance in the hours to come. TE stood for Terradox Explorer, as he knew very well, but today the vehicle’s horizons would be broader than ever.

  Chase’s visit, while considered a crucial symbolic moment for the Arkadia project, was also of great pragmatic importance; his arrival marked the first of many which would bring precision equipment and other resources to the romosphere. Some of the items to be delivered, such as the live cargo Chase was about to load onto the TE-900, quite simply couldn’t have been fabricated via any existing romotech-based methods. Others, however, like a ground-based telescope Rachel was set to install, were inanimate objects and items whose construction could theoretically have been coded into the embryonic romosphere which expanded into the vast world of Arkadia.

  Due to the two-year expansion time and three-year gap between the initial launch and the planned mass arrival of Arkadia’s inhabitants, it had been wisely decided to refrain from hardcoding too many specifics into the romosphere’s final layout. Because so many decisions relating to Arkadia’s founding society were made during the romosphere’s expansion — indeed, some were still to be made and would continue to be debated for months to come — it made a great deal of sense to concentrate on the big picture and leave some of the details until later.

  For this reason, many buildings were currently empty but for the most basic fittings. Much of what was still needed could and would be fabricated in Arkadia’s own expansive Romotech Production Zones, which weren’t strictly zones in the sense that term was used on Terradox but which would fulfil a similar function on a far grander scale.

  Any live cargo naturally had to be sourced from either Earth or Terradox, and Chase’s current horde of bio-crates were the first of many such deliveries. Although he didn’t know the precise details of what were eggs, what were larvae, or what other terms might have applied, Chase knew that the largest of the boxes he moved to the TE-900 contained whatever was necessary for insects and fish to emerge in a short time.

  He did know how much care and attention had gone into preparing the so-called bug boxes in particular, and he had been tasked with placing and unpacking them at specific co-ordinates during his day-long mission.

  The only animals present on the Karrier that were alive in a form recognisable to Chase were a dozen or so canaries. These birds had been in the main area rather than locked away in the dark and controlled conditions of the live cargo bays, and he had grown to like them during the journey. Although he’d been unsure of them at first he now knew he would miss their company on the way home, once he’d placed them in pre-built enclosures complete with an algae-based feeding system.

  Well, if algae’s good enough for us… he thought with a wry grin.

  His final cargo, in deep freeze, was a huge crate containing a vast collection of viable genetic samples of other animals. These were destined for Arkadia’s biomedical centre, or BMC for short, a large campus-like development consisting of distinct sectors which would serve as everything from a primary care hospital to a centre for cutting-edge biological research and reproductive management.

  The Karrier’s cargo-moving equipment made Chase’s loading quick and easy, and before long the cargo bays were empty. As far as he understood, future deliveries would coincide with the arrival of core staff members in Ferrier-class vessels, many times larger than this Karrier, and the live cargo bays of those Ferriers would see a lot of future use.

  Rather than from Terradox, other animals would be brought to Arkadia from Earth at a later date. He knew for sure that things like poison arrow frogs and tardigrades, both of which were being studied extensively on Terradox, were dead certs to make the trip.

  Dozens and likely hundreds of other species would make the trip to Arkadia, with the most controversy so far having arisen when it was confirmed that chimpanzees would be among them. This wasn’t for invasive medical research and certainly nothing along the lines of vivisection, Dimitar Rusev and other key Rusentra figures had stressed to temper a brief public outcry, but rather for very limited and humane toxicology-related and atmospheric testing processes. The confirmed presence of rodents, some of whom would be used in essential and humane medical research, generated predictably less public interest.

  Chase had no strong opinion on that front, knowing that the staff at the BMC cared for their animals and that the kind of testing that would occur was a world away from the kind people were worried about. His only hesitation regarding the animals who would share his new world had always focused on the potential of any large carnivores being brought for behavioural research. Thankfully common sense won out in arguments that had occurred on this point far above his decision-making level, with Holly having personally assured him that she wouldn’t let anyone “pack any crates full of lions and tigers and stick them behind romotech fences that could fail and let them out.”

  With the last of the boxes loaded, Chase stepped into the TE-900 to check that it would start up. I really should have done this ten minutes ago… he thought, momentarily doubting the vehicle’s perfect status readings. It started up without any problem, sending a wave of relief through his body as he headed back to Rachel.

  “All okay?” he asked as he approached.

  “Green all the way,” she replied, rising to her feet. “You know what comes next…”

  Chase’s eyes lit up all over again, like they had when he first passed the cloak and caught sight of Arkadia. “You know, I really wouldn’t mind if you want to go first. I know you’ve done a lot of work on the sensors and on making sure everything would be okay in the cargo bays. We wouldn’t have to tell anyone that you were first to step out.”

  “There are cameras everywhere, Chase,” she chuckled. “Thanks, really, but even before we release the drones, the cloak-cams will pick us up and send everything back to Terradox. And our orders couldn’t really have been any clearer: you go first. After all, you are Chase Jackson.”

  “So everyone keeps telling me,” he laughed, stepping towards the corridor that would lead him to the Karrier’s hatch. “But hey, you can’t say I didn’t offer…”

  “And don’t pretend the air is choking you,” Rachel said, patting Chase on the back as he inched ever-nearer to becoming the first person to set foot on Arkadia. She remained in the safety of the Karrier, as planned, to monitor his unsuited descent from its ramp to the Arkadian surface.

  For his part, Chase was too keen to explore the new world to waste time with a
ny jokes — even ones that he would normally have enjoyed. His innate keenness to explore was so great that the intermediary step of touching the surface of a world he already knew to be safe struck him as something to get out of the way, rather than an adventure in itself. He even wanted to carry Rachel’s toolbox with him, to minimise the number of trips they’d need to carry everything she needed to assemble a telescope on the roof of Arkadia Central Station, but she reminded him that Holly and everyone else wanted some nice clean footage of him touching down with a smile on his face and nothing in his hands.

  It wasn’t that Chase didn’t appreciate how lucky he was to have been chosen for this mission — he did, and had made that clear to Holly and the rest of the selection committee — he was just positively itching to get up in the air in his TE-900 and see everything that his future home had to offer.

  If Arkadia was a rock, Chase Jackson had long wanted nothing more than to turn it over and see what was underneath.

  Once through the exit, he strode confidently down the Karrier’s ramp. He turned and waved to Rachel at the front window, then paused for several seconds. “Well, here goes…” he said, trying to introduce some tension without laying it on too thick. He spoke again as he stepped onto the dry surface: “This is for everyone who made it happen.”

  He looked down at his feet then continued walking until he was in the centre of the small gap between the Karrier behind him and the huge building in front. He outstretched his arms and spun in slow circles, looking at the sky as he went.

  “Time to get down to business,” he said after several rotations. He saw that Rachel was already gone from the window, getting ready to make the short walk through the building to reach its roof, and he hurried back inside the Karrier to help her with the equipment.

  Rachel accepted his offer of going out first this time, and led the way with her tool box. Chase wheeled out a much larger container which held the telescope itself and followed right behind.

  The building’s automatic door opened when Rachel approached and a vast array of high lights flickered to life when she entered.

  “Power’s working,” she said, happily stating the obvious.

  “Looks that way,” Chase replied, laughing without slowing down.

  Even if huge lettering hadn’t identified the building as such, both would have immediately recognised it as an exact replica of Terradox Central Station, just with far less furnishings and far fewer informational screens.

  The elevator worked without any hitches and delivered them to the roof in no time. Chase took the opportunity to glance out at the expanse of undeveloped land.

  “Do you know what it feels like?” he asked, leaning into a safety railing as he gazed back to see Rachel busily unpacking tools and components. “It feels like we built a safari lodge and forgot to order the animals.”

  “I don’t think you order the animals,” she replied without looking up, amusement in her voice. “Don’t you just build a lodge where there are already animals?”

  “That would also be an option,” he chuckled, walking around to look out in another direction. There, to the back of the building, he saw a series of lines marked on the ground. The large spaces between them were effectively parking spaces where Ferriers would be kept, fully stocked and ready to be used as emergency life boats in the hugely unlikely event of an emergency.

  After a minute or so of looking out and thinking about the possibilities, Chase checked that Rachel had everything she’d need and told her that he had to get going. “I have a long list of places where I have to drop stuff off,” he reminded her, as though it was necessary. “Starting with the BMC for all of the deep-frozen samples.”

  “Say goodbye to the birds for me, okay?” she said.

  “Goodbye for now,” Chase replied. “The canaries are going to nice areas and they’ll have all the food and water they could want. You’ll definitely see them again when you come back.”

  “That’s what I meant,” Rachel smiled, looking up from an imposing-looking series of installation instructions.

  “Cool. So how long is that thing going to take you to fix up?”

  “Two hours, maybe three. I’ll be done before you’re finished with your drop-offs. You’ll easily be longer than that, right?”

  Chase nodded enthusiastically, a broad grin filling his face. “Don’t wait up.”

  fourteen

  Having flown back and forth over almost every inch of the colony in the past seven years, Chase Jackson knew Terradox like the back of his hand.

  Arkadia, however, was an unexplored wonderland.

  After he took off towards the Biomedical Centre, the first thing that struck Chase was the seemingly unending flatness of the landscape. Compared to Terradox, with its rocky peaks and uneven terrain, the sight before him was so flat that it didn’t look real.

  For as far as he could see, the landscape looked decidedly plain. Everything felt the same too, with no changes of conditions like he was used to at home. Indeed, in stark contrast to Terradox, Arkadia had no zonal grid whatsoever. A small number of areas would instead be zoned-off from the general environment as necessary, using microsphere-like barriers, wherever atmospheric changes were needed for specific purposes or where potentially contaminative materials would be used or stored.

  This is Terradox without restrictions, Chase thought as he raced towards the horizon. This is Terradox if Holly and the planners had been able to build the colony from scratch instead of having to do their best to work around what Morrison gave them. This time we’ll be able to fabricate whatever size and shape of ‘zonal’ divisions we want…

  His next thought was that the vast plains below would be perfect for herds of buffalo or wildebeest, continuing on the safari lodge theme that first crossed his mind on the roof of Arkadia Central Station. I need to suggest that to someone, he thought, slightly more serious about the idea now that he saw just how much space there truly was.

  Several more minutes passed with similar thoughts circling, until the Biomedical Centre finally came into view up ahead. By the time Chase reached it and prepared to land, a much more expansive development was just visible towards the horizon. Having been desperate to reach the BMC until now, Chase suddenly had a new target in mind.

  He was self-aware enough to laugh at these fleeting thoughts as he landed the TE-900 gently at the BMC’s main entrance. The somehow campus-like layout of the concentric development was very eye-catching, from the ground as well as the air, and the glass-heavy design of the buildings did justice to the scale of the project.

  A huge amount of research would be conducted in these buildings, as had been the case in the primary research laboratories housed in the high-rise research units of Terradox’s Gardev Heights.

  There were no automatic doors here, as Chase had been warned, but his wristband allowed access exactly as it should have. He ventured inside the primary care hospital to take a look around, leaving his cargo in the vehicle for now. Although the furnishings proved just as limited as inside Arkadia Central Station, which surprised him slightly, he felt very much like the air was pregnant with progress.

  His exploration of the hospital was anything but eerie, unlike the stories he had heard of Holly and Viola’s initial discovery of the unoccupied development in Terradox’s best-forgotten New Eden zone. Indeed, rather than one of foreboding, the only sense Chase got was one of the boundless possibilities Arkadia offered.

  The sight of a fully stocked room and its ready-to-fill frozen storage units focused Chase’s mind and reminded him that he was here to do a very specific job. With that in mind, and with his initial curiosity sated, he fetched the relevant cargo from his vehicle and began to unpack it. Taking tremendous care to follow every instruction to the letter, this was no quick task.

  A short break was required when the task was complete, and Chase took the opportunity to check in on how Rachel was doing with her own task. She was more than halfway done, he learned, but Chase couldn’t h
ave been happier to have a lot more work ahead of him.

  If Arkadia was a full-sized swimming pool, a bird’s eye view confirmed that the construction planners had barely dipped their toes in the water. Even the extensive areas which had been earmarked for imminent development and were currently being discussed on Terradox amounted to nothing more than a tiny sliver of the shallow end — it really did take being there to understand just how big Arkadia was.

  Chase’s next stop, where he was to place the first group of canaries in their waiting cage, took him straight over Arkadia’s main residential development: Starview Springs.

  The vast space he crossed before reaching the city-like development’s sprawling streets reaffirmed that the planners had consciously left massive areas undeveloped, presumably to allow for whatever kind of societal expansions were later deemed necessary or desirable.

  With a relatively small founding population and plans in place to expand outwards in good time, Starview Springs was surrounded by empty space.

  The best view yet greeted Chase when he flew over the pastel houses below, although he couldn’t shake the notion that the picturesque unoccupied homes looked like they were part of a nuclear test site of centuries gone by, waiting for a bomb to be dropped.

  More positively, thanks to these views it belatedly struck him that one thing citizens and planners on Arkadia would never have to worry about was distributing power, a task which had been done seamlessly but anything but effortlessly on Terradox.

  Here, there was no need for a single underground cable or unsightly pylon. Here, Arkadia’s cloak efficiently stored power generated both via solar capture and within the reactor at the core of the enormous romosphere. All buildings and large vehicles were designed with what Chase understood as a kind of thin romobot ’coating’ on their roofs, which enabled them to draw power from the cloak’s immense bank as and when required.