Those Left Behind

by Alan Davenport

  Cindy, still a bit overwhelmed, led the group to the first car. When the door opened, the Australians stood gaping at the bounty inside. Melvin, the colony’s farming councilor gasped and said, “Look at all of that grain!” His eyes opened wider when he glanced over at the vegetables and he asked in disbelief, “Are those tomatoes?” When Cindy nodded he said in awe, “Our colony was not able to keep them growing. The last of ours died off ages ago!”

  When Cindy led him to the next car, he had to grab onto the door frame to steady himself. “Are those… turkeys? Real TURKEYS?” Cindy shook with laughter, sending her long hair flying. “No silly,” she sputtered out between laughs, “Those are the CHICKENS that I told you I was bringing!” Melvin reached his hand into one of the cages to touch one of the softly clucking hens and he said in wonder, “They are so soft.” Cindy pointed to the incubator and said, “We also brought four dozen fertilized chicken eggs which will hatch soon.” She smiled and patted him upon his shoulder and said, “You soon will have enough chickens for your entire colony.”

  Martha remained uncharacteristically quiet. She followed in silence until they opened the last car. “Oh my God!” she gasped when she caught sight of the coffee bushes. “You brought us two of your coffee plants. The actual PLANTS?!”

  Paul nodded. “Yes, we produce more coffee than we can drink. With these, you will soon be able to as well.”

  “Bloody hell, Paul,” she cried. “We are forever in your debt. If there is anything you need from us, anything at ALL, just say the word and if it is in my power, I will give it to you.”

  Paul shook his head. “No, we are just helping out our new friends. We do not need anything in return.”

  “Nonsense!” Martha vehemently said, “There must be something.” Paul looked at his feet and said nothing, “What? Tell me,” Martha demanded.

  “Well, you have already loaned us your precious reactor techs. If we may continue to borrow them until all five reactors are repaired that would be great.”

  “Done!” Martha said. She studied his face and shrewdly asked, “Come on. Out with it. Don’t be shy. What else do you need?”

  Paul looked down and said, “No, I cannot ask for what we really need.”

  “ASK!” Martha shouted in her council chambers voice.

  “Oh alright,” Paul uncomfortably said, “There are only one hundred thirty-eight of us left. What we really need are more people. In particular, people with technical expertise. We have the virtually untouched technical wing however we have hardly anyone who properly understands tech.”

  Martha clapped him on the shoulder and said, “Is that all? Bloody hell Yank. We have a surplus of people here. Our colony is a bit overcrowded to be bloody honest. I am sure we can find a few willing to immigrate.”

  “Thank you!” Paul said with real emotion. He embraced Martha for a second before releasing her and stepping back in embarrassment.

  Martha laughed and said, “Well, let’s let our people deal with the cargo.” With a flair she asked, “Would you like to see the rest of our colony?”

  “Indeed, I would,” Paul said and then Martha lead him to a travel cart. The crowd parted like water as Martha rapidly drove the cart through their midst.

  Chapter 29

  The Starship Project director Jane McCann stood alongside Lane Basso, her minister of exploration, upon the bridge of the new generation five starship. She laid her hand upon his shoulder and sighed deeply. Lane sighed as well and remained silent. Jane squeezed his shoulder and whispered, “I wonder what it will be like?” Lane, speaking equally softly said, “I don’t really know. We have all the computer models, however who knows how accurate they are.” Jane shook her head, as if to clear out her funk and asked a junior officer, “How long before we get there, ensign?”

  The ensign, a young man of only seventy-five, snapped to attention and said, “Five more minutes, Madam Director.” Jane frowned at the formality of the title, however she did not correct the young man. She only asked her friends to call her Jane. “Thank you, ensign,” she said and then returned her gaze to the large view screen at the front of the bridge.

  Lane shuddered. “I hope that all of the models are correct. If the Earth is just a brown, dead rock I don’t know…”

  Jane interrupted him. “Don’t think that way! You have to put some trust in the computer models.” She swept her hand out and pointed to a computer screen. The screen depicted the life-like image of the ship’s computer avatar. “I honestly think that the new version three computer avatar programs are smarter than most humans.”

  Lane nodded. “Yes, Jane,” he agreed. “I suspect that the avatars that we upload into their 3D printed, synthetic human bodies will supplant us all someday.”

  Jane shook her head. “No, they will not replace us. They ARE us. We created them from our own minds and memories and gave them living bodies to inhabit. They are not replacing us, they are the next phase of human evolution.” Jane closed her eyes, took a deep breath and added, “They embody the very best of humanity.” She pointed straight ahead and said, “If we had them three hundred years ago, we would never have let the Earth become devastated.”

  Lane sighed and nodded. “Yes, you are correct of course Jane.”

  A very beautiful and fit Asian woman with waist-long black hair that was so shiny that it seemed to have a blue sheen to it, stood holding hands with an equally fit man with long, straight blond hair. She grinned at Lane and said in a fake German accent, “Vee vill take over the vorld!”

  Lane blushed and said, “Well, um. Sorry Kelly. I didn’t mean you!” When the blond-haired man gave him a frown, Lane sputtered, “Sorry Nathan. I didn’t mean to insult your wife!”

  Everyone burst out laughing. Kelly smiled and said, “Oh Lane. After all of these years you still make me laugh.”

  Lane opened his mouth to respond and Nathan cut him short. “It’s okay Lane, really. We were just kidding.” His face took on a serious look. “Jane,” he said, glancing towards the view screen, “It feels like an eternity since we left.”

  Jane took a deep breath, sighed and said, “I know what you mean. The memory of the fall of civilization is still as fresh in my mind as the day we departed.” With a low voice which was barely audible she added, “I’ve often thought about having that memory purged from my consciousness when I had a replacement body printed but…” Her voice trailed away.

  Nathan shook his head. “I know. I’ve considered the same thing many times.” He bowed his head. “It wouldn’t do to forget though. We need to remember the past so that we do not make the same mistakes again.” With a deep sigh he whispered, “To this day it still feels like I abandoned the planet in its time of need.”

  Kelly squeezed his hand, leaned in and rested her head upon his shoulder. “No dear,” she said, “You did not abandon them. There was nothing we could do and you know it!” She took his face in her hands, looked directly into his eyes and said, “Don’t beat yourself up. After all, you saved everyone else when you found Eden. Humanity can never repay the debt owed to you for finding us our new home.” Nathan hugged Kelly and said, “You were there with me too dear. I could not have done it without your help.” She hugged him back and then they all stood together in silence, watching the timer count down on the main view screen.

  The young ensign called back over his shoulder, “Thirty seconds, Madam Director.”

  Jane nodded to him, turned to Lane and asked, “Nervous?”

  Lane shook his head. “No,” he said, trying to hide his nervousness. However, when Jane gave him a knowing look, he relented and admitted, “Yeah, maybe a little.”

  Jane squeezed his shoulder and said, “Me too. We have not been back since the fall of civilization.” She shook her head, as if to suppress all of her bad memories. “Well,” she said, putting on a brave face, “We’ll soon see.”

  With a barely perceptible lurch, the gleaming new starship dropped out of warp right over the Earth’s surface.

>   A collective gasp escaped the lips of everyone on the bridge. Lane cried out, with his voice cracking with emotion, “It’s… It’s so… SO GREEN!”

  Jane, with tears forming in the corners of her eyes, whispered, “Yes. It is indeed.”

  Sally and Max found Mary sitting beside her friend Tiny, who was shoveling food into his mouth, as usual. Mary’s face lit up with a bright smile when she saw them enter the cafeteria. “Hey you two,” she cried and pointed to the chairs beside her. “Come on over and sit with us.”

  Sally grinned at her and said, “Wonderful morning, isn’t it?”

  Something in her tone made Mary suspicious. She scrutinized Sally’s face and said, “Okay, what are you two up to this time?”

  “Oh, nothing much,” Sally said sweetly.

  “Okay, now I REALLY know you guys are up to something. Come on. Out with it,” she said, her eyes darting back and forth between Sally and Max’s faces.

  Max said nothing, however he was obviously trying very hard, and failing, to not break into a grin. Sally cracked under Mary’s scrutiny. “Oh, heck Mary, we can’t ever keep anything from you, can we?”

  “That’s right,” said Mary, giving her an evil eye. It would have been effective except for the sparkle of amusement in her eyes. “Okay, so what is it? You have me dying of curiosity now!”

  Max, with a mischievous grin said, “We have a little surprise for you. Are you done eating?”

  She looked directly at Tiny and said, “We’re done, right?” Tiny stuffed the remainder of his breakfast into his mouth and he rose from his chair. “Where to?” Mary asked, fairly vibrating with curiosity.

  Max clapped her on the shoulder and said, “Follow us.” He led them to Mary’s utility cart and sat down in the driver’s seat. “Everyone in!” he said and then started driving towards the technical wing.

  They rolled to a stop in a large room filled with miscellaneous old vehicles. Most were covered by a thick layer of dust. They had been sitting there idle and unused since the colony closed its doors for good when civilization had fallen. However, one of the vehicles was dust-free. Maintenance bot 12 worked industriously installing something into its dashboard. The vehicle had a spindly frame made from tubular steel which wrapped all the way around up over the seats to form a roll cage. Very large and bright lights were attached on the very apex of the roll cage. Large knobby tires were attached at the end of long swing arms. Under the vehicle, which had a prodigious amount of ground clearance, an aluminum skid plate protected its entire underside.

  Max grinned at Mary, who was staring at the vehicle with wide open eyes. He let out a little laugh as he watched Mary. “So, how do you like your new ride?” Mary, unable to speak, ran over to him and gave him a bear hug. “They used to call these vehicles dune buggies,” Max said. “They are designed for off-road use.” He patted the buggy and said, “Unlike the utility carts, which were never designed for uneven ground, this vehicle can go almost anywhere.” He put his hands upon Mary’s shoulders, looked her in the eyes and said, “Even the buggy is not invincible though. As long as you use common sense you should never get stuck.”

  Mary, radiating happiness, said with her voice cracking, “I don’t know what to say, Max. Thank you SO much!”

  Smiling at the look of joy on Mary’s face he added, “You should be able to explore quite a bit with it.” He led her to the buggy. “Let me give you the low down on its operation. It is an all-electric four-wheel drive machine with a separate 20-kilowatt electric motor for each wheel. It can go over one thousand miles on a charge so as long as you charge it up each time before venturing forth, you will never have to worry about range-anxiety.” Mary, uncharacteristically speechless, nodded as Max made each point. Max looked her in the eyes and said, “One final thing. These vehicles were made for recreation, although they can be used for pure utility if you desire too. Since they were meant mostly for fun, they can go very much faster than the utility carts that you are used to. Be CAREFUL and use minimal pressure upon the accelerator until you get used to it. Understand?”

  “Yes!” Mary said and, unable to stop herself, hopped into the driver’s seat. 12 had just closed up the dashboard and was running a thick cable up the inside of the roll cage. At the very apex, he installed a long, pointed rod. “What’s that, 12?” she said.

  12 swiveled his cameras towards Mary and said, “That is a five-eighths wave VHF radio communications antenna.” Mary looked at 12 curiously. “What’s that for?”

  Sally answered for the robot. “It’s for the two-way space maritime radio we had him install.” She pointed to the radio in the dashboard and said, “That radio was meant for space communications and only for relatively short-range communications. It is not supposed to be used planet-side, however since there are no spaceships anymore I don’t think anyone will mind if we use it to keep in touch with you when you are afield.” She pointed in the direction of the door to the outdoors and said, “We will be installing another one by the door and will put its antenna high up on the hill above the colony so we may keep in touch.”

  “Good idea,” Mary said. She looked at the radio and said, “Can you show me how it works?”

  “Sure,” Sally said and then sat down in the passenger seat beside her. “There are three controls. The large silver knob is the channel selector. There are one hundred different channels. Channel nineteen is for general chatter and channel nine is for emergencies only. Channel fifty is a special use channel. You cannot talk on that one. All the other channels are free to use as you please. The radio will always monitor channel nine in addition to whatever channel you choose. We may as well use channel nineteen.”

  Mary nodded and said, “Understood.”

  The other controls are volume and squelch. The volume control controls how loud the speaker plays and it also turns the radio on and off.” She turned the volume knob to the right and with a little click the radio illuminated. Its display lit up and displayed channel nineteen. A loud rushing noise came from the speaker. Mary winced and said, “Ugh!” Sally laughed and reached for the knob labeled squelch. She slowly turned it to the right until the noise just stopped. “The squelch control silences the speaker when nobody is talking. Turn it up until the noise JUST stops. If you turn it up too far it will begin to silence valid transmissions. Are you with me so far?” Mary nodded and then Sally reached and grabbed a bulbous, hand sized device at the end of a tightly coiled cable. “This is the microphone. To talk, all you have to do is push the button on its side and speak, in a normal voice, into the grill on the front. Release the button again to listen.”

  “Wow,” Mary said. “This is cool!” She took the microphone from Sally, pushed the button and said, “Testing. Testing.” She looked it over and then hung the microphone back onto a hook designed to hold it upon the dashboard. “How far can I talk with this?”

  Sally reached over and switched the radio off. “Pretty far. Like I said, these radios were meant for short range space coms. They only put out twenty-five watts of power normally. I had 12 add a booster amplifier so it now puts out one hundred and seventy watts.” She pointed to the antenna and said, “Don’t touch the antenna while you are transmitting. It will not kill you but it will hurt! Also, don’t try to transmit if the antenna is damaged. The power that is meant to radiate into the air will have nowhere to go and will damage the transmitter.” Sally took a deep breath and said, “These radios operate at very high frequencies. That is what VHF means. The radio waves from these basically go line of sight. In space, they go on forever, although they weaken with distance and at very long distances the delay caused by the speed of light makes conversations impractical. On the Earth’s surface however, this is not an issue because distance is limited by the curvature of the planet’s surface. If you and another person are on the tops of mountains you may reach one hundred miles. If the person you are trying to talk to is only a mile away and you are on the opposite sides of a mountain from each other they may not hear yo
u. Just remember, at VHF frequencies height is might. In normal terrain, I expect that twenty miles will be about average.”

  Mary, so happy that tears flowed down her face, reached out and squeezed Sally’s hand. “Is it good to go? May I take it out for a test run?”

  Maintenance bot 12 bobbed his cameras and said, “Yes Mary Hydro. The vehicle and its auxiliary communications system are complete. All systems are nominal and the vehicle is ready for operation.”

  “Sweet!” cried Mary. She looked at Max and said, “May I?”

  Max, who was standing next to the dune buggy on Mary’s left smiled down at his excited friend and said, “Of course. Have fun!”

  Mary switched on the buggy. Sally jumped out in alarm. “Whoa Mary,” she cried. “I can’t go with you. I have to finish up installing the two-way radio by the door.”

  Mary grinned and patted the seat beside her. “Tiny, do you want to go fishing?”

  Tiny jumped up and down, “Yes!” With a face-splitting grin, he said, “Tiny likes fishing!”

  After Tiny sat down, Mary instantly pressed down on the accelerator as if she was in her slow utility cart. All four tires chirped and shot loose gravel from the dirt floor all the way across the room. Alarmed, she stomped upon the brakes. “Oops!” she said with a sheepish grin. She looked at Max and said, “Easy on the power. I get it now. Easy.”

  Max, chuckling down deep in his gut, waved and said, “Have fun!”