Deep Space Dead

by Chilvers, Edward

  “You never asked me if she could be there this morning,” muttered Sol with bitterness. “Now everybody is going to think Jak is her father. He certainly acted the part.”

  “She wanted to be there,” retorted Arianna. “She’d have been devastated had she not been allowed to see him off and it was what Jak wanted as well.”

  “I know exactly what Jak wants,” snapped Sol. “He’s got a ready-made family right here, hasn’t he?”

  “Jak is going to be a part of my life whether you like it or not,” replied Arianna firmly. “And he’s going to be a part of Ambra’s life as well. You need to get used to that, Sol. Face facts and stop living in the past.”

  “You think you’ve got the monopoly on our daughter, don’t you?” Said Sol angrily. “Well you haven’t, you hear me? I’m going to have a lot more time on my hands once we’re all settled on Hearthstone and as such I want Ambra to come and live with me. I’ve got just as much right to have her as you.”

  Arianna laughed aloud. “You must be out of your mind,” she said sneeringly. “It’s always about you, isn’t it Sol? You don’t care what happens to Ambra as long as you get to spite me, as long as I can’t be happy. Well you never made me happy, Sol, you know that? Sure, it was interesting for a while but I can tell you I was crying myself to sleep those first few days I found out I was pregnant. I never wanted that kind of involvement with you, Sol, and if it wasn’t for Ambra I don’t think I’d even acknowledge you in the corridor.”

  Sol’s mouth opened and closed, rendered speechless by the vehemence of Arianna’s words. Arianna knew she had gone too far but at that moment she didn’t care. “Just you wait,” spluttered Sol at last. “We might have to all live together in peace and harmony when we’re cooped up in this tin can but once we’re on Hearthstone it’ll be a different story. You’d better tell lover boy that if he thinks he’s going to get Ambra calling him father he’s got another think coming.”

  And with that the policeman stomped angrily away up the corridor.

  Arianna was furious with Sol but at the same time regretted having lost her temper with him. Her former partner was still the Chief of Police and a possible candidate for Overseer once Kalp relinquished command of the mission. He could potentially make life very difficult for herself and Jak. Despite her anger Arianna chose not to mention the incident to her boyfriend; she didn’t doubt he would find out about it sooner or later but for now he was still pumped up on the adulation of the orbiter mission.

  The following day saw the final Council meeting before landing. Arianna was purposefully late so she did not have to encounter Sol in an empty room and as a result was one of the last to arrive. She glared at Sol across the table but the police officer had his head down and refused to meet her gaze. After a few minutes of pleasantries and platitudes mostly centred around Sol and Bratten Jorg, Admiral Kalp called the meeting to order. Top of the agenda was an analysis of the data sent back from the computers on board the orbiter. The geologist Prima Blak took the floor. “Some of this we already know, but I shall recap,” she began insightfully. “The planet Hearthstone is relatively small in circumference, being around the size of Mars. It consists of a single large continent mostly situated in the northern hemisphere but also cutting some way into the southern. Three large mountain ranges zigzag across the continent. Much of the continent is underlain with a granite floor that eventually rises up into the mountain ranges. A curious feature of this planet is the large number of labyrinthine caves which are numerous almost everywhere except in the desert regions.”

  “Caves which the scans have shown are ripe with raw materials,” said Jared Bynce the mining councillor. “Precious stones, fossil fuels, you name it. And the natural caves means we don’t have to tunnel nearly so much. Half the job has been done for us.”

  “Sounds like it was made for us,” said Admiral Kalp serenely. “It is just as well we don’t have religion anymore otherwise I might start talking about divine providence.”

  Everybody laughed.

  “I noticed from the scans a multitude of river valleys provide fertile grassland and plains,” said the city planner Jung Pepp. “Needless to say it is these areas in which we are most interested for the purposes of our initial habitation. I have primarily located a spot near the fork of a river which is also within two miles of fertile forests and caves. Truth be told there are so many prime locations I consider us spoilt for choice. However my recommendation is that we form the city somewhere along the line of seventy degrees north ad sixty miles from the first mountain ranges but close enough to the cave network so that we might commence mining operations for plant-based fossil fuels. We should situate ourselves close to the wide river whilst giving ourselves enough plain to expand into once the opportunity allows.”

  The council murmured approvingly. The Admiral turned to the naturalist Banda Ure. “What of climate?” She asked.

  “The temperature is currently warm but there is evidence of annual mild winters,” she replied. “There is a moon situated relatively close to the planet which causes large waves and makes the coastline quite a rough and unpredictable place. The fact of it being predominantly rocky also advises against attempting settlement beside the sea. You may also like to know the planet takes three hundred and twenty-five days to orbit its sun. We should plan out the calendar accordingly.”

  The Admiral nodded. “Was there anything else in the data?” She asked, looking perceptively towards Arianna. “Anything unusual we ought to be made aware of? Any kinds of electro-magnetic pulses, unusual surface activity, unexplained objects or occurrences?”

  “Not that we’ve seen,” replied the administration councillor Magnuj Bol. “I’ve had my people studying the data with a fine toothed comb all night and there isn’t anything turning up that we cannot explain. The planet is perfect, Admiral. We are all going to thrive down there.”

  5

  “Ladies and gentlemen; this is your Admiral speaking. We are now preparing to make landfall. Would all colonists please pack their things into the lockers provided and make their way down to the arboretum where further instructions will be given.”

  Of course most of the colonists had packed long before now. Most were already gathered in the arboretum for they knew the landing was imminent. Although she was still very angry with Sol, Arianna had nonetheless arranged for Ambra to spend the morning with him as a means of making up for the other day. It was a small step towards making peace with the man but Arianna could not afford any running arguments at a time like this, especially with Jak as busy as he was.

  From the bridge the atmosphere was nervous and thick with expectation. Admiral Kalp remained calm as she directed her charges to make landing. A great cheer erupted as the starship broke the surface of the clouds and the first real sight of the virgin land came into view. The entire landscape was lain out before them. Rivers ran like veins through the unbroken plains and forests all the way to the mountains with the sea to the south the clearest shade of blue anyone had ever witnessed.

  When the Tula IV was twenty thousand feet above ground the pilots began the detachment of the doughnut from the rest of the ship. Different parts of the starship subsequently came apart, clicked together and then hovered gently towards the ground. Living quarters became apartment blocks, storerooms became independent warehouses; there were offices and factories and barns and outbuildings, ready-made lumber mills and farmhouses too. The bridge and a few administrative sections, the council quarters and engine rooms now linked round to attach to the arboretum which would remain as the town hall and power station until the city proper was established. This was not the last of the detachment. Over times the layers of the arboretum fields would be dispersed and lain out along the plains in order to assist with the first crops. Before that ditches and irrigation would need to be dug.

  Now the arboretum was completely lowered on to the ground. The great glass screen that had protected them from the oblivion of space was rolled back and the a
rtificial air and venting systems were turned off. The plants and flowers within breathed their first natural air and the colonists felt it upon their faces and inside their lungs as well, the first proper air they had experienced in years, and for the children it was the first proper, natural breath of their lives.

  Now they all lined up at the gangways and prepared to disembark. The children who had been born on the starship were the first down the platform, being slowly lowered down with Admiral Kalp, as was the age old tradition. When they were a metre from the surface Ambra, in her excitement, climbed over the protective gate and, despite attempts to stop her, leapt down to touch the hard ground beneath and was thus the first person from the Tula IV to set foot upon this strange new world. Nobody really minded that much. The children ran around and breathed in great gulps of healthy, natural air. Arianna breathed deeply too, loving the way the scent of the forests mingled with the gentle breeze. The engineer Bratten Jorg was joined by the city planner Jung Pepp and together they looked out at towards the plains and forestry, the rivers and the mountains beyond and already they were mapping out roads, houses, shops, reservoirs, power stations, fields and islands. Everywhere people were hugging and kissing their families, running about and even on occasion getting down on their stomachs to kiss the virgin ground. Some people started to celebrate with their families, others wanted to make plans straight away. Arianna just wanted to walk barefoot atop the lush guard and feel the warm breeze upon her face as she planned for the rest of her life with Ambra and Jak.

  As one of the Council, Arianna and Ambra would remain around the arboretum in one of the few apartments still attached to the main body of the starship. A little later that evening she went upstairs and looked out of her window which had once let out upon nothing but stars but now gave out to a view of flowers and lush green fields. Fortunately Jak’s apartment held more or less the same view, and this was just as well because Arianna had agreed to move in with him during the next few days.

  The great bulldozers were rolled out along with the concrete, tar and stone chipping. Over the next few days the builders worked tirelessly to create the first road network. The lumberjacks set out from their stations and started to fell the tall, straight trees in the forests whilst the carpenters prepared them into long, straight boards. Miners went out with their machinery into the nearby caves and began drilling. Soon they came back and declared they had discovered a rich strain of iron ore. The engineers gleaned the spare parts from the ships engines and soon began to construct a smelting works. Looking around at it all Arianna was amazed it was all happening so fast whilst Ambra was so over excited to be almost completely out of control.

  Admiral Kalp chose a spot on a raised piece of ground just above the river for her mansion with the foundations being laid almost straight away. The Admiral’s retirement mansion was a priority for the new settlers and a symbol of the transfer to domestic, land based leadership.

  “I’m sorry, Jak. I’ve made my decision.”

  “But he’s an amateur!” Protested Jak. “I’ve aced him in every trial so far.”

  It was five days since footfall and the first proper meeting of the Council on hard earth. The meeting had begun amicably enough. Quotas were being met, the landing had gone perfectly, the ditches were dug and the remaining sections of the arboretum had been detached accordingly. Now that the groundwork was coming along nicely it was time to go further afield. It was time for the first scouting mission. There were two teams of twelve rangers on the Tula IV. Jak led one whilst the other was commanded by Sudd Wal, an athletic thirty year old with a muscular physique and a square, jutting jaw that matched his arrogance and ambition. The fact that he and his team had not done so well in the trials against Jak’s people was down in no small part to his precocious nature, although nobody could doubt his zeal and determination for the mission. Jak had always looked down on him and had seen him as something of a punk kid so the news that the Admiral had chosen him and his team to embark upon the first scouting mission was a body blow that could not go unchallenged.

  “Wal should go,” put in Sol, eager to twist the knife into his rival. “He’s earned the right after you went out in the orbiter.”

  “This isn’t about taking turns,” retorted Jak. “It is about being the best. You need the best team out there to make the initial scouting expedition and that’s us. My team was way ahead in the trials. We should be the ones to go.”

  “This is a prestige mission, Jak,” said Kalp gently, ever the diplomat. “Just as your mission was for your own prestige. They’ll be gone for ten days and all I’m commissioning at the moment is a brief sweep of the continent. I want them to map it all out, look for places of interest and fertile lands into which we might further expand, but there is to be no deep exploration at this stage. There isn’t any danger anticipated here. The rovers will go out for exploration only; afterwards you and your platoon will be able to come into your own. The fact he’s making the first mission means nothing. You’ll all get your turn.”

  “We’ll need you here, Jak,” said Sol, his tone smug and patronising. “Your team can scout the perimeter and valley, look for any interesting caves we might mine, or perhaps trek through the forests and see where we might set up another station.”

  Jak glared at him for a moment before turning his attentions back to the Admiral. “I don’t see why we can’t both go out,” he said, although he was sounding desperate now.

  “You know the rules,” said Kalp. “One ranger team only to complete the first sweep. If you both go out and something happens we’ll be stuck and without any line of defence.”

  Jak looked round towards the rest of the Council, looking for support but the councillors had their heads down. Some had already left. It was clear they wanted nothing to do with this argument and at that moment Jak knew he had been defeated. Only Arianna opened her mouth to support him but Jak quickly shook his head. He knew exactly how that would look.

  “You’re putting everyone at risk, you know that Sol?” Snapped Jak, unable to contain his temper. “We need both sets of rangers to make a good stab at this colonisation and Wal just doesn’t cut it. You know that as well as I do.”

  The ranger had followed his rival out of the council chambers and now he rounded on him angrily in the corridor as Arianna looked on.

  Sol shrugged. “This was nothing personal,” he said sternly. “Wal has earned his right to this sweep. He’s up for it and he’s ready. What’s more he’s curious and curiosity is what we need if we’re going to make the most of this world.”

  “It doesn’t matter what the reasoning was behind it. The point is you argued against Jak because you don’t like him,” snapped Arianna. “Because you can’t take the fact he took all the glory last time and now you just want to deny him anything else he has earned through his own talents. I don’t know why you can’t just be happy with what you’ve got. But then that’s the problem isn’t it?” Her blood was up and she was in a mood to be malicious. “You’ve got nothing on Jak, can’t hold a candle to him and you know it. That’s why you’re using everything in your feeble little armoury to try and prevent him from getting what he deserved. Well good men shine through, you know that Sol? Jak is going to be a part of this new world whether you like it or not and he’s going to be a hero too. Meanwhile you’re going to be stuck here calming down drunks and watching the city go up around you whilst you stand around doing nothing as usual.”

  Sol looked straight past Arianna and towards Jak, an ugly sneer on his face. “I should have argued for you to go,” he said with real malice. “At least you would be out of the way so you couldn’t try and win my daughter over as your own.”

  Jak threw back his head and laughed out loud. “Oh so this is what it’s all about is it?” He said sarcastically. “Well you carry on like this and I daresay you’ll lose her of your own accord. In case you haven’t noticed this is a time of hope and optimism, Sol, and you with your bitterness and envy at every turn don
’t exactly fit the current mood. Let’s hope you wake up before it’s too late.”

  “I’m already wide awake,” retorted Sol, coming to stand close to him. “You think you’re such a damned hero, don’t you Jak? Well there hasn’t been any need for heroes for thousands of years now, and for good reason. Heroes fall, Jak, and that’s exactly what’s going to happen to you. Just don’t you ever think you’re going to drag my daughter down with you.”

  Jak looked at Sol for a long time and for a moment Arianna thought they were about to come to blows. But at last the ranger turned abruptly on his heel and started to stomp off back down the corridor. “Have a nice evening, Sol,” said the ranger flippantly. “I hope the happy sound of families playing in the fields doesn’t distract you too much from your lonely little dinner for one.”

  Jak attended the sending off of the rangers for the sake of appearances so as not to appear churlish. The enthusiasm for Wal’s expedition was just as high as it was for Jak’s jaunt, if not higher. Wal set out with twelve of his rangers in three rover pods. A geologist named Fratia Bel would also go out with them, taking the computer with her so she might be able to survey and analyse the landscape.

  For a day or so Jak wallowed in his disappointment, but he was not a man to bear grudges and it wasn’t as if there weren’t positives in his life. The day afterwards Arianna moved out of her small apartment and went to live with him. The ranger had been asking her to do so for some time but the growing tensions with Sol was the final straw. Otherwise Arianna was kept busy in the library, gathering and collating information from the miners, meteorologists, engineers and others. She enjoyed her work immensely although she knew the zenith of her usefulness was fast approaching and she would soon be faced with a lot of down time once everybody was fully versed in what they were doing and mastered their respective trades. She began to think seriously about having a baby with Jak. She knew the ranger wanted children and it was Confederation policy to procreate as a means of increasing the population on these newly colonised worlds.