Victor believed that none of his people would ever want to put themselves through all that, just to visit the people here. Sadly, they would only view the villagers as alien primitive savages. A lower form of life. Their biased viewpoint would be entirely incorrect.
The people here lived good happy lives and their lifespans were even longer than that of Victor’s people. They were a more healthy and robust people. All the science and medical advancements had not really extended life, it only prolonged suffering in most cases. There simply was no substitute for living in a healthy environment like this. Victor could see that hardly anyone ever got sick here. They nearly always made it to old age, very old age. Taerg looked twenty years younger than his age but he was only ten years younger than him. He told Victor that it was not uncommon to see a villager that was enjoying the beginning of their third century. Among Victor’s people, no one ever made it that far. Maybe one hundred and sixty if they were especially dynamic. Of course, along with whatever medical help they needed to prolong their life. The people here were more vibrant, healthy and substantially stronger physically, than Victor’s people.
Lately, Victor was feeling considerably better after having recovered from his burns with the help of the healers. He never felt better in his life. He noticed that his skin seemed healthier too. It was slightly darker than when he first arrived. His eyes were noticeably beginning to take on a pale orange hue. He felt stronger too. He was beginning to discern that he belonged on this planet, even though there was no real technology here. Even if he could not continue his research here. He missed his research, but he was not depressed about it. This perception surprised him, for he never dreamed that he could ever reason this way.
He was falling in love with these people and their superb way of living. Their unique wisdom gained over many centuries of village life was truly refreshing to him. He strongly desired conditions here to remain unchanged. He wanted the people to continue on with their expansion of village life. They had the right to fill the planet with their paradisiac life. He hoped to protect them somehow. He was determined to get the ship working again, it was the only way he could significantly help them.
The undertaking, would not easy. He would need to consult the manuals and use the old damaged circuit boards as a guide where possible. If it were modern circuit boards, it would have been much more difficult. They were far more complex and the components were much smaller. For these he only needed a magnifying glass not a microscope to see the connection points. The unfamiliar equipment was larger, less accurate than what he was used to and this was a little frustrating. At first, he felt awkward and uncoordinated while operating it. However, with concentrated effort, he learned to master them in a short time. It would take approximately a week to assemble each circuit board, so he knew repairing the ship would be a lengthy process. He decided to move in and take over captain Talbot’s bed. He asked Taerg to bring him new linens for it. Taerg did so, along with food and drink for each day. Every day and part of the night he tirelessly built these circuit boards from scratch. After he completed each one he would thoroughly test it with the diagnostic equipment available. It was truly remarkable that the power still functioned after all these centuries. That was an astounding marvel in itself. A credit to Taerg’s ancestors, to his ancestors.
After two months he had everything working on the ship. The batteries were completely depleted so he had to replace the fluids, other materials in them and then recharge them with the equipment available. After the ion drives were activated during flight they would keep their charge. The whole vessel had to be cleaned and lubricated. All contact points were inspected to make sure they were sound and free of oxidization. It was not excessively filthy since the whole place was sealed off, except for the passageway leading up to the outside. Inside both these chambers it was dry. This explained why all the documents lasted for this long. It also was the reason for the lack of significant corrosion on the metal parts of the ship. Over the many centuries, some dust from the doorway had settled on everything. Victor wanted to take every precaution before trusting this vessel with his and Taerg’s life. This ancient antique vessel.
The day finally came when they were ready to depart. Victor had given Taerg a flight operations manual to study. He had been closely examining it now for about one week. He needed some sort of a co-pilot. Once they were in space Victor would let Taerg have some time at the controls to make sure he learned to operate the vessel. This was important, just in case of emergency. Victor was not a highly skilled expert pilot, although having spent most of his life on space vessels, he had learned how to fly them reasonably well.
Victor had formulated a plan to handle the colonization issue. He was hoping it would succeed. Taerg said he would go along with it as long as he did not have to lie. Victor assured them that he would not. It would be a direct, honest ultimatum revealing the true situation of the people on planet Paradise.
There were no rations on this ship, so Taerg had brought food and water for them to drink. Enough for about a week. It was plenty. Victor informed him that the duration of the trip to the mothership would be less than a day.
When they fired up the engines, they sounded fine to Victor. He was a little shaky with the controls at first. He crept forward slowly out of the launching bay. When he was outside he travelled about 30 miles out to sea so no one would witness his ascent into space. It did not take long and they were in space, headed for the mothership. He looked over at Taerg and said, “How would you like to try out the controls for a while until you are accustomed to it?”
“Taerg eyes widened as he said, “I was waiting for you to say that. Okay, I’ll give it a try.” It did not take long before he was operating the vessel admirably.
“Are you sure you have not done this before?”
“Only in my imagination while reading the manual.”
“Well, I have to say, you are a natural born pilot if I ever saw one. It took me two days to do what you are doing in two hours and I had the advantage of knowing the ship with all of its technical attributes.”
“I must admit, it is enjoyable.”
He watched Taerg take her most of the way to the mothership. Shaking his head and smiling he thought, “Taerg is full of surprises.” Victor would just land her in the bay once they had permission.
* * *
Meanwhile, on the mothership captain Anderson was receiving the day’s reports from the moon’s surface construction team leaders. All reports indicated they were well ahead of schedule. Everyone had a small structure that they could call a home of sorts all positioned around a huge construction project. After the massive hangar was built they could finally land the Venture in it. There were many offices in one corner of the hanger that would serve as administration. This is where they would eventually form a government, once everyone was settled. Of course he would serve as the prime minister of that government, already elected as such on Homeworld. All this had been decided before they even left on the mission to colonize this moon.
What happened to his lead scientist Victor Marcus, was unfortunate. Advancements in their technology would be slower now without him. He sent some ships to search for the crash site but they could not find anything. They were not allowed to interact with the natives, so his hands were tied. He had done what he could, given the circumstances. He did not like the man, but that did not mean that he was not valuable to their colonization efforts. There were other scientists here, but none were even near his calibre. The Homeworld government advisors postulated that he was capable of leading the mission, although he had no desire to do so. They managed to convince Victor that if an emergency took place and the two commanding officers were unable to command, that he would take over the command. He reluctantly agreed.
Victor Marcus, a man who did not want leadership. He mused, “What kind of a man does not want to lead? Why doesn’t he want to be in charge?” These questions puzzled him. He knew Victor was not a coward. He certainly
had the ability to command. The way he confidently stood up for himself was unnerving. He did not understand Mister Marcus at all and loathed what he could not understand. He was threatened by Victor’s direct intelligent replies when giving him orders. Nevertheless, there was no need to worry about that now. According to the reports, his ship was burning up in the atmosphere before they lost contact with it. So probably, everyone on board had not survived. He would have to report this to Homeworld. It would be an extended wait for them to receive the message and then for their reply, but there was no way to speed that up. They would just have to wait. Perhaps, when the message was eventually received, it would state that they would send someone else to take Victor’s essential place in the new colony. Maybe such a person would arrive with the next wave of colonists. In the meantime, he would concentrate on uniting these people with a powerful government that would promote technological advancements and the speedy colonization of this moon. A government that he would be the leader of. Nothing could stop that from happening. In time he would rule millions of colonists. His election by the Homeworld government could only be undone by them. His delightful reverie was interrupted by the voice of his communications officer, Mister Richards.
“Sir, we have an unidentified vessel approaching from the planet.”
“That is strange, because the people below are not a space faring people.”
“They are hailing us sir.”
“Okay. Well, put them on.”
On the view screen appeared an individual with dark skin and orange eyes. He seemed very calm as he leaned forward and said fluently with only a slight accent, these words:
“Greetings, people of Kastat. We request to meet with you concerning your present operation. The colonization of our moon.”
“This is very much unexpected, but even so, we will be happy to accommodate you as our guests. May I ask you to identify yourself? Whom do you represent and how many are on board?”
“There is only two of us, I am Taerg Esidarap appointed ambassador for the people on the planet below and I believe you know who this is.”
Victor leaned into view. His skin appeared to be slightly darker and his eyes seemed different somehow. They looked like they were faintly orange tinted, but it was unmistakably him. He would remember that inscrutable countenance anywhere. When Victor Marcus walked into a room, everyone noticed. He possessed a certain presence that no one could deny. Yet another attribute about the man that he detested. Victor smiled and said, “Hello captain, I heard you were looking for me.”
“Victor Marcus,” he said as he faked a smile, “what a pleasant surprise. I was just pondering what transpired concerning your accident. We were all worried about you, but I see now that you survived. That is very good news. We found the co-pilot floating in space, but what of the pilot?”
“He was killed on impact,” said Victor sadly shaking his head, “and I was injured and trapped. Thankfully though, a brave fellow rescued me by pulling me out of the wreckage.”
“I thought we had lost you Mister Marcus, we were very disappointed. After all, you are valuable to our future advancements here. You must have a very interesting tale to tell. I look forward to hearing it. Proceed to bay number five. Control will direct you in from there. We will meet one hour from now in the tactical board room.”
After Victor agreed and switched off communication, Taerg said, “That was easy.”
“Yes, but next comes the difficult part.”
In the tactical board room, they found Captain Anderson and some security officers waiting for them. Captain Anderson was the first to speak. “Mister Marcus your physical appearance has changed slightly. Do you know why?”
“Yes, it is true. I look a little more like Ambassador Esidarap. Would you agree?”
“Well, I would not go to that extent. I do not …”
“Let me just tell you the truth Captain. The people on the planet below are actually descendants of our ancient ancestors. The ambassador and I have found proof of that. In fact, the vessel that we arrived here with is part of this evidence. It is the same as our models of the ancient ships that are required study at the academy.
In the past, there was a great conflict on the planet, nearly wiping out their entire population. The surviving Kastat rebels left for deep space to colonize another planet. I think you know which planet I am talking about, the one you and I were both born on. The remaining inhabitants were abandoned on the planet. They were left without any technology, except for the vessel we were on. However, it was disabled and of no use to them at that time. Therefore, they decided to live a simple peaceful village life without the advancement of technology. They have successfully done this for over two thousand years, while rebuilding their planet into a paradise. Their directives and historical records indicate that their moon was prepared with animal and plant life taken from their planet and now it thrives on their moon. The directives indicate that the moon is to be colonized only when the planet is filled with peaceful village settlements and needs to expand further. For this reason, it is not right for us Kastat to colonize the planet below. Captain, our colonizing the moon is against the directives of the people on the planet that the moon orbits. It is also against the decrees of the present grand council, namely the leaders of the world below. Ambassador Esidarap has copies of those decrees signed by each council member for your records.”
“Captain Anderson took the decrees and looked at them. They were in two different languages. One he did not recognize and the other was his own. After reading the one he could understand, he thought for a moment and then seriously said, “We will not be halting our efforts to colonize this moon Mister Marcus.”
“Well, we should. It goes against our own laws.”
“Does it really? I think not. You yourself have said that you have proof that the people below are our ancestors. So that means that they are our people. They come under the umbrella of our authority. Of Homeworld authority and as such will have our protection as we colonize our moon. They can think of us as their guardians in the sky ready to come to their defense, if ever they should need it. They do seem rather helpless, so they could end up needing our help someday. The galaxy can be an extremely hostile place, Mister Marcus.”
“What you are really saying is, you want to be a bullying conqueror.”
“Now Mister Marcus, there is no need for name calling, we will be peacefully reunited with the descendants of our ancestors.”
“I cannot accept this brazen barbaric behavior. I will not be a part of it.”
“That is unfortunate, in view of your contributing value to our future advancements. However, if that is your decision, so be it. Homeworld can send someone else to aid us in your areas of expertise.” Turning to look at Taerg he then said with a visibly insincere smile and sarcastic tone, “You may spend the night here Ambassador, with your loyal supporter. In the morning, you can both be on your way back to the serene village life you so much enjoy. Please give my peaceful greetings to the grand council when you see them.” Then he stood up from his chair and confidently walked out of the room with his security officers.
“The grand council,” said Taerg, “will not be pleased.”
“I know,” said Victor, “I’m sorry, I did not imagine he would be so stubborn. I really believed we could reason with him. Don’t worry though, we will think of some way to halt this.”
Chapter Seven: Backdoor
The night, meant nighttime on the moon. There was no real night on the mothership, only shifts. In this case, they were in the process of colonizing the moon and establishing a military presence there. Therefore, to get people accustomed to day and night once again, the lights in most areas were dimmed at the same time as night on the moon. That is, night where they were presently constructing the beginning of the colony. All their time devices on the back of their hands and elsewhere took about two days to adjust to the day and night time of whatever environment they were in. In the meantime they would disp
lay the same time as the mothership. Fortunately, the night shift crew was smaller than the crews on duty during the day. During the night shift, there were a lot less people up and about. Conveniently, fewer security officers on duty to walk their assigned routes. An opportune time to do things without getting caught. Victor knew all of this. He also knew far more than anyone else on Mothership about her various control systems. He was the one who designed all of her system routines and all her program functions. Including the functions of life support, autopilot programming functions, the weapons systems and the life pods as well as many other systems. True he was a computer engineer, but his true calling had always been creating unbreakable programs for various systems that could not be hacked into by anyone. He was viewed by many as a genius computer programming scientist. He was so adept at this that the military had asked him to do research on a program that would control a whole fleet of ships at the same time.
Since the systems could not be hacked into by anyone, that is, anyone but him, Victor made a plan. He knew that he always made a way in, just in case of an emergency. To him, this was an emergency on a planetary scale. He also knew that no one, not even a gifted programmer could find that way in that he had created. He could even creep into the systems without anyone knowing he was there. While anonymously present, he could make changes and then sneak back out without leaving a trace that he was ever there. No one knew these things could even be done. The reason for taking these actions in the first place was that he did not like when authority was absolutely placed in the hands of one man. What if that one man became corrupt? This is what happened to captain Anderson. Victor once again saw the wisdom of having a council of people making the important decisions. This is why he did not want to be in charge as a leader. Victor, along with the grand council below, did not want this one corrupt man to destroy their future in regard to the colonization of the moon. So now was the time, to do something about it.
Tomorrow's Paradise World: Colonize Page 7
