The First Colony: Book I: Settlement Chronicals

by W. J. Rydrych

  Commander Hata sat at the primary monitor concentrating on the screen that compared the actual to planned landing path and monitored the status of the pod's rocket and control systems. The pod had just completed firing of the retro rockets to slow its speed and begin its descent to the surface. Nothing was visible as yet on the viewing screen, but the first visual sighting should be within 15 minutes at the most. Watching the view screen intently, looking for the first appearance of the pod, Colin could feel the tension in the room and felt a trickle of perspiration down his back. No matter how often this landing procedure was performed it was a tense situation.

  "There it is," said Carter, pointing to the upper left corner of the screen. "Right on time and on target."

  Slowly the glowing pod increased in size as it approached the center of the screen. Suddenly the pod appeared engulfed in flames as it fired its landing rockets, appearing as a fireball as its downward progress slowed, and seconds later the roar of the engines reached the watching group.

  "Elevation 500 meters," Commander Hata said, "and all's well."

  They watched as the pod slowed and the ground appeared at the bottom of the viewing screen. "Trouble," said Commander Hata, "they've lost one of the landing engines." After a pause, "two engines out, 350 meters." Another pause, and "250 meters and off target. It's tilting toward the Columbia's hydroponics pod." The screen became obscured by the rising cloud of dust, appearing a brilliant orange from the landing rockets illuminating the cloud like a giant fireball. "Elevation 150 meters, 100 meters, 50 meters, it's down," Commander Hata said mechanically, "it hit. It looks like it hit the side of the Columbia's hydroponics pod."

  The light from the landing rockets disappeared, leaving the screen obscured by the dense dust cloud, until a dim glow began at the center of the screen. "Fire," Hata said quietly. The screen brightened, and several seconds later an enormous explosion rocked the dome. The screen went blank. Colin and the others appeared frozen in place. He shook himself, rubbing his eyes, and asked in a voice tense with shock. "How bad is it, Yasu? Is anything left?"

  The answer came back, "bad. Both pods are almost certainly a total loss from the explosion, if not from the collision; and I wouldn't be surprised if the other pods have some damage."

  Wearily rising from his chair, Colin followed the others out of the dome. "Get the rescue teams down as fast as possible, and also any spare personnel for fire control. We have to keep the other pods safe. See that the hospital dome is ready to receive any survivors, and also get the heavy equipment down to move the wreckage if necessary."

  August 1, Alpha Year 1

  The Alpha 2 Constitution required nine members for the colonization board, and Colin wanted it brought to its full complement as quickly as possible. They had too many decisions to make to allow delay, and the faster they moved on the faster events of the last few days would be behind them.

  The first order of business was to elect a new member to the colonization board to replace Frank Schumacher. A month ago Colin's preference might have been different, but now he thought Yasu Hata might be the best replacement. As chief of colony security his support might be needed in the coming months, and Colin knew he was a reasonable, level headed person who could be depended on for support. He had discussed it with Carter who Colin considered his strongest supporter on the board, and Carter had agreed to submit his name. Straightening in his chair, Colin brought the meeting to order. "We have a limited agenda today because of the importance of the items listed. The first order of business is election of a replacement for Frank," he said, "do we have any nominations?"

  Carter raised his hand, "I'd like to nominate Yasu Hata. Since he's already head of security he could represent that area for the board, which would allow Buchan to cover Frank's original assignment. Yasu’s experienced and, I believe, well respected by everyone here. That is," he said, looking over at Buchan, "if you're still interested in an assignment change. I know oceanography was one of your cross-training specialties, and you once said you preferred that to security; do you still feel that way?"

  Buchan nodded, "yes, I'd still prefer that. I'd like to second Carter's nomination."

  "Anyone else?" Colin asked. Eliciting no response, Colin continued, "if there are no other nominations we may as well vote without discussion." All raised their hands. "That's it then, Yasu it is. I suggest we temporarily adjourn the meeting and bring Yasu in. Carter, would you see if you can locate him? Everyone back here in an hour."

  Following the adjournment, as the board members again gathered, Yasu was welcomed into the group. He had always been popular with nearly everyone in the colony, including the current board members.

  "Now, the second purpose of the meeting, to review the impact of our losses, let me briefly summarize the situation. First, personnel. The planned complement at this stage was slightly over 800, but our losses, including those who were unable to be brought back from stasis, reduces that to 524; of which 75 are children under working age. This is still within the margin, but barely. Further losses could drastically limit our options. In equipment the only serious impact is reduction to only one factory pod from the three planned. We're going to have to place tight priorities on its use, which is why we need a plan from Rolf and Carlton. I think it's clear that we have to cut back on our expectations; that's something we can't and shouldn't try to resolve at this meeting, but I want each of you to give it a lot of thought."

  The meeting lasted well past the scheduled time. High priority areas were defined, where required diversion of personnel to those areas approved, and certain items were rescheduled for a later decision.

  Later that day . . . .

  Colin stretched his muscles, feeling physically tired from his shift in the fields which had lasted from the end of the board meeting until dusk. He had been dirty and sweaty from the physical activity, his first time on a tractor since his boyhood on a Kansas farm, but he had enjoyed it; it kept his mind off the other colony problems, and he found it relaxing.

  With the limited manpower available nobody could be exempt from these essential tasks, and he knew he had to take on some of the least desirable tasks as an example. It was after midnight, and as Colin relaxed in his chair watching his drink as he lightly swished it round and round in the glass he was deep in thought, with only the small lamp on the nightstand providing light. He was confident the loss of the pods could be worked around, but it would have a definite affect on their living standards. The attrition of the colony population was a longer term and potentially more serious problem. That had to be watched very closely.

  While it hadn't been on the agenda, an 'unspoken' challenge to the colony was a feared infiltration of the colony by certain ideas that had evaded the selection filter for the mission. During the middle of the 21st century a number of religious and pseudo-religious cults gained popularity on Earth, with some of these, a combination of fundamentalist religious and ecological and environmental groups, particularly influential. While their approaches varied, most were strongly opposed to simply transplanting a 22nd century civilization to Alpha 2. Instead some of these groups had a vision of reverting to an earlier, more agrarian society; a return to mankind's roots, which first required tight control of, and eventual reduction of, population. Other groups had opposite views; equally extreme. Some of these groups had become so militant that extraordinary means had to be taken to screen them out during the selection process, but it was known that some members had slipped through. That was an unknown that would have to be dealt with, but for now he had to tread lightly.

  A request for additional colonists would be sent back to Earth, but Colin didn't expect much. While he wanted the board to reach its own conclusion he was convinced the safest thing to do was to strip back to the bare essentials now, not later. They could still maintain the knowledge base with the files stored in the database, and he expected there would be some in-migration, so the learning curve to come back up again when population rose should be rapid. Th
e colony could concentrate on its agricultural and light industrial needs for now, and once that was under control bring back some of the higher sciences.

  "Well," Colin said to himself, "maybe in the long run that might be the best thing. After all, that's how our ancestors started, and they did OK."

  CHAPTER 4: Early Days

  (September 14, Alpha Year 1): The colony site was finally starting to take on the appearance of a town. New construction was beginning to fill the circle encompassed by the pods, rough roads and walkways were in place, and outside the perimeter of the built up area fields were turning green with emerging crops. The gaps in the circle caused by the two destroyed pods were filled temporarily with the salvage from the wreckage, with salvage crews continuing to sort through the remnants for materials which might be of future use.

  There had been no survivors of the landing accident, and it had been necessary to put together a makeshift crew to bring down the one remaining pod. While the accident had caused some damage to several of the other pods, only the two pods were a total loss, with other damage repairable. All in all the loss was something they could work with.

  It had been a bad beginning, with a memorial service for the nearly one-third of the colonists lost enroute to Alpha two and those lost in the failed landing. For the first week after the memorial service the mood of the colony had been despondent, and Colin had driven them hard to keep their minds off what had happened. A bad beginning, but now spirits were rising as the colony started to settle into their new home, with the feeling of newness receding.

  Progress with the livestock was better than Colin had hoped. He had just returned to the administration building from the stock nursery where the activated animal embryos from the freighters were being grown in their nutrient tanks, and by next spring they should have a wide variety of domesticated animals ready to put out to pasture. The sheep were performing best, with over 95% success.

  The experimental grain and vegetable plots were also going very well, with vegetables now available, and if the weather stayed mild by mid-October the grain crops should be ready. Although the plantings were late and the size of the plots fairly small, it boded well for next year's crop; with the next growing season their dependence on the remaining hydroponic pod should be a thing of the past, and it could be dedicated to items that weren't suited to the climate or were off-season.

  All in all things were going well. The question of what technologies they would temporarily abandon or restrict had been hashed out. For now liquid hydrogen and fuel cell manufacturing would be top priority, since it was essential to the scoutplanes and land vehicles, but a number of areas had been restricted; in many ways the colony would have to temporarily fall back to the more primitive level of the early 21st century or even earlier.

  While much could be accomplished with what they had at hand, it was apparent that for certain things they would have to go back to the basics; even something as basic as iron for tools caused a drain on colony resources. While they thought they had located a source of iron ore in the foothills making use of it was a manpower drain they couldn't afford as yet; even if they tried it would be of poor quality since they would have to rely on primitive methods for smelting. Other than iron they had yet to locate sources of other needed metals, without which even their ability to maintain their electronics capability was at risk.

  While there were other areas of shortage, most needs of the colony, such as clothing, furniture, and building materials, could be fabricated with the equipment on hand and only needed a supply of vegetable matter or wood for production, with the residue from their field crops filling much of that need.

  This morning's colonization board meeting had been particularly unpleasant. His disagreements with John Bachman were becoming a feature of the daily sessions, and John's sarcasm was becoming wearing. John felt they should be sending out more exploration teams and go further afield with those they did send out. Colin didn't think they were ready for anything that ambitious as yet, insisting on concentrating the available manpower in setting up colony facilities and developing the agricultural areas before considering explorations beyond the range of day-trips.

  Thinking further about it, the compromise had been reasonable. First, they would send a team headed by Yasu Hata to explore down to the Great River, then, when that team returned, they would send a second team as far as the Northern pine forests if it wasn't too late in the season. That had seemed to at least partially appease John. While he had opposed it at first, now that it was approved Colin looked forward with anticipation to the results of Yasu's expedition, which would start the following week. Much of the area of the Great River remained a mystery, even though the broad sweep of the river as it gathered together its tributaries in the foothills and moved to the west was clearly visible from above; but the only way they were going to find out much about the river valley itself was with the land expedition. The heavily forested river valley could prove to be a nearly inexhaustible source of timber products, rare on the savanna, and hopefully mineral or hydrocarbon deposits.

  The previous night they had held their going away party for those of the freighter crews who didn't have to stand watch in orbit. The party had been both boisterous and pensive at the same time, with the colony members feeling the sense of loss the freighter's leaving would bring. The sight of the freighters glinting far overhead was their last direct link with Earth except for the messages which would arrive by radio after their four plus year journey. It would be three years before the resupply freighters were scheduled to arrive, and until then they would have to 'make due' with what they had.

  After saying good-bye to the freighter crew members, Colin had left the party early and returned to his apartment. The forced gaiety had become oppressive, bringing too many memories bubbling up from his subconscious. For the first time since the expedition started he had drunk himself into a near stupor. He should know better, he thought; handling liquor wasn't one of his strong points.

  Several days later. . . .

  Colin walked across the compound in the light drizzle, avoiding the water collecting in puddles. This had been the first significant rain in over a month and was a welcome break from the midsummer heat, plus a necessity for the maturing crops. The haze-obscured floodlights were of only limited help in keeping him from stepping off the path into the mud as the lights of the recreation building beckoned ahead.

  Up before dawn, Colin had been tied up in planning meetings ever since the colonization board meeting that morning. Now he just wanted to relax. There were only about a dozen people in the recreation building, mostly lounging around the video display where an old movie from back home was being shown.

  Late September, Alpha Year 1 . . . .

  Margie stood with Buchan Chan and Ken McDaniel on a high point on the cliff overlooking the shore, gazing out over the bay. Margie held the binoculars to her eyes, watching the activity in the distance. They had been very wrong as to when the breeding season of the lobsters occurred, off by several months. It was low tide, and in the distance they could see the constant roiling of the waters over the mudflats as the green backs of one or more of the adult lobsters broke the surface.

  Ever since they were first discovered the juvenile lobsters were carefully monitored to determine their habits and, hopefully, their final habitat. Originally easy to catch on shore at night or in the shallow waters in the southern section of the bay, in late summer they had moved into deeper water, and less than a week ago they had noticed their sudden disappearance. In investigating they were located slowly moving in large schools along the bottom toward the continental shelf. It was while returning from following their migration that Ken discovered what they thought was the breeding ground of the adults.

  At the southern end of New Athens Bay, at the edge of the shelf, was a large mudflat about 5 km long by 2 km wide. By accident, while passing over this area, they had discovered protruding from the mud part of one of the enormous claws of an adul
t lobster, and in a more careful survey discovered other pieces of claws or pieces of the hard outer carapace, but no sign of either live lobsters or complete bodies. Now, with the arrival of the adults at the breeding ground, their habits were becoming more clear. The roiling water bespoke not only a breeding frenzy, but also a feeding frenzy, as the adult males fought for dominance. The survivors appeared to be staking out their territories and collecting the body parts of the losers near the center of their private territory; apparently a food source intended to provide the attraction which would bring the females into the selected breeding areas of the survivors. They had made no attempt to approach close to the breeding area, it was just too dangerous, and in any case the mud raised by the combat made underwater visibility limited. However videos from the scout plane at low tide, when the water over the flats was less than 10 meters deep, had been used to examine the creatures more carefully. Mid-afternoon, when the lobsters appeared to enter a quiescent state, also allowed a view of the bottom through the clearing water.

  The largest of the adult males was estimated at over 30 meters, with claws between 10 and 15 meters. Other less mature adults ranged from 20 to 30 meters, with nothing smaller than that observed. Margie estimated that, from the size of the smallest of the lobsters, they must have reached an age of 15 to 20 years before breeding started. Except for the path followed between the continental shelf drop-off and the mudflats, none of the lobsters had been detected on other parts of the shelf, suggesting their habits might be very predictable once the pattern was known. For now, and until the lobsters left the shelf, water travel was restricted to the shallow area of the bay, but hopefully once they knew their habits better they could resume unrestricted fishing in all but the mudflats and its approaches. Now their main interest was determining those habits, their range, and their schedule.