Colonization

by Scott McElhaney

  “Then let’s find out what this is all about,” I said.

  Sarai Stark

  Chapter Four

  “How many times have you opened it?” I asked, shivering inside the large brown tent.

  The twelve-by-twelve-by-eight-foot tall tent was originally used as a supply tent when we first settled here on KMA. Now it housed the enormous metal box that should have been a reactor core and should have provided us with power. Instead, we used it to entrap and exploit a not-so-microscopic black hole that had originally arrived here inside of an experimental space craft.

  The large grey box took up more than half the space inside the tent. Next to the box, there was a table that my husband Zane built for Master Chief Leah Paulus and her equipment. Faith Marhofer, our local carpenter, could have manufactured a more reasonable wooden table, but wood was now a very precious commodity that we burned for heat. Faith spent her time felling trees and seasoning the lumber merely so we could burn what she provided. This was never what she or any of us had intended.

  Leah sat at that metal table now, working at the control panel that once operated Shuttle Two. Our resident electrician, Lane Edwards, reconfigured that whole system so that it could operate what had surprisingly become an operational wormhole that opened up to the same spot in the solar system where the Hawke Jump originally “vaporized”. The black hole that we had captured turned out to still be tied to the same spot where it had originally folded or perhaps ripped space. Leah, the nuclear genius that she was, managed to find a way to take control of that connection and to also control when it would open and close.

  While I had known she was working on this experiment of hers for several months, I never paid it much attention. It was simply something that I didn’t really understand and preferred to keep it that way. Besides, while she promised that it could have the potential to provide instantaneous transit between the star systems, we as a colony didn’t want contact with Earth. It wasn’t until the two severe storms hit in three days’ time, destroying all three greenhouses, a quarter of the crops, and one of the land rovers that we decided we needed to really pay the concept of hers some heed.

  While several people got together to cannibalize the damaged greenhouses in order to put all the good windows into one or two of the greenhouses, Leah and Lane got to work on verifying that they could open and control the wormhole. Again, I didn’t oversee much of what was going on over there. Instead, I was still concerned with our immediate survival and the health and safety of those of the colony. Then something more drastic happened and I had no choice but to consider the implications of a wormhole. I suddenly had a change of heart in regards to the concept of instantaneous transit between the systems.

  “I opened it six times since I sent the beacon, but no luck just yet,” Leah stated.

  “Hourly?” I asked.

  “I still have an Earth based time-piece right here, President, and I’m opening it once every sixty Earth minutes,” she replied, “That means it’s been more than seven hours since it arrived in the solar system.”

  I groaned, “And for all we know, there isn’t a ship within a week’s time from the beacon.”

  She turned to me, “It’s going to be alright, Sarai. This is going to work.”

  Rigel Knight

  Chapter Five

  “Why the need for an EVA suit?” I asked Doctor Lord.

  “The Hawke Jump,” she simply replied, loading some more supplies into a medical bag, “They have every reason not to trust us after that. So they are controlling the size of the wormhole somehow and not permitting anything through above a certain mass. They don’t want us dropping any ships onto their moon.”

  “Their moon?” the chief engineer repeated.

  “Until we know where they stand, we’re going to be very obliging. We need to remember that after a year in that hostile environment, those people are strong, intelligent, and will probably have a defined sense of ownership. It’s their home – not a US Navy colony,” I said, “Our visit will be anything but political.”

  “So, if I read all those documents correctly, we are to ignore the part about building a space station or port around the wormhole entrance. Since this is an emergency, we are following the steps in the first six documents,” Doctor Nguyen said.

  “Yes,” Doctor Lord replied, “They are going to open the wormhole for only five minutes at a time and they will do it hourly. It is only during those five minute spans that we can detect its presence with our scanners, which we’ve already done twenty minutes ago. Now we know exactly where it is, which is basically right out the back door where we found the beacon inside the trunk. We missed an opportunity to go through that time, but in exactly thirty-eight minutes, it will be opening again and I’m going to hopefully leap through it.”

  “And we’ll leave the rear hatch open, expecting your return hopefully the next hour or the hour after that,” I said.

  “Well, I imagine they’re doing the hourly thing right now just so we could get a chance to find the wormhole. Once we have it targeted on our maps and the navigational computers, they can just open it anytime they want,” she said, “But they won’t know we located it until we arrive in person and tell them.”

  “I’m surprised they included instructions on how to create a gateway that we can control on this side,” the XO stated.

  “They aren’t enemies,” I said, “Heck, these are all mostly US Navy personnel and would still maintain their ranks. These people are going to be the number one news story for weeks after we get back.”

  “I just hope…” Doctor Nguyen started to say something and then just shook his head.

  “What is it, Doctor?” Lord asked.

  “We’re obviously going to establish a lot of back-and-forth travel between the two worlds. The Navy is going to stake its claim since they colonized the moon first,” he said, “How long before it’s just another government-run world with taxes, property disputes, pollution, and war? As of now, it’s probably a very science-run world over there. It’s probably a scientific community of people working together.”

  “Sadly, Doctor Nguyen, there’s no way to stop that from happening. Once this gate is established and the people of our world offer that colony anything and everything they need to survive, a strong relationship will build. The help would have only been provided however with the understanding that we could start building homes, businesses, mining colonies, and eventually military ports,” I said.

  “We don’t know that,” the XO argued, “Look at Mars and Europa. They’re still fully scientific-run communities.”

  “Europa had no ties at all to the government. That began and was fully funded by three universities. The US Navy simply provides the transportation,” I argued, “The Mars Colony however is fully funded by the Chinese government. It may have started as a joint effort between Russia, Japan, China, and the US and funded mostly by donations from schools and eccentric billionaires, but about fifty years ago, all the money was coming from China. Again, the US Navy still provides the transportation though. But Kepler Moon Alpha? That is one-hundred percent government funded and more than sixty-percent populated today by US Navy personnel. And any ColSups residing there would have signed some documents that would have stated they themselves technically belonged to the Navy, so let’s just say it’s one hundred percent populated by the Navy.”

  “So, what happens when China, Japan, or Russia hears about a wormhole that leads to that moon?” Doctor Nguyen asked.

  Doctor Lord closed her overstuffed medical bag and then stood up, “Everyone is going to want a piece of KMA eventually, but for now, I need to get my suit on and load up my pockets with some food and coffee for those people over there. Let’s talk about the depressing stuff after we help those people.”

  “You’re right, Doc,” I said.

  Sarai Stark

  Chapter Six

  I was pacing in front of the fabric door to the tent while Leah did the usual countdown that
she had already done six times before. I didn’t know what to look for or even where to look, so I just stared at the giant grey box that contained the tiny black hole in its core.

  “Twenty seconds… nineteen… eighteen…”

  I wasn’t in the tent when she had sent the encased beacon through the wormhole several hours ago. Lane was there and explained to me that when she opened the wormhole, a blue light hovered about three feet in front of the black hole’s sealed hatch. He told me that they originally drilled a pinhole into the hatch, which would usually be viewed as exceptionally dangerous, but Zane welded a sliding bar over the hole which was safely lined in lead.

  “…Two… one… now”

  She tapped a command on her keyboard and then slid the bar toward her, revealing that tiny hole in the hatch. Directly in front of the door, as Lane had already explained, a blue transparent ball of light the size of a baseball hovered in the air. It looked like it was a clear ball filled with swirly blue gas. I could have imagined it being a miniature model of a planet like Neptune perhaps.

  “It’s now been open for thirty seconds… thirty-five seconds…”

  Lane explained that prior to sliding open the metal bar on that first run, they had already situated the trunk where the ball of light would have appeared. They had to place it on top of another trunk in order to get it high enough and wondered if both trunks would go through the wormhole. It was the very reason they didn’t personally lift the trunk into the blue light. They didn’t want to risk being pulled through with it. But alas, the only thing that instantly disappeared in a sudden flash of blue light was the only trunk they intended to send through.

  “One minute has passed. I will be shutting the wormhole in less than four minutes,” she said.

  Although I had no right to be impatient, I was worried nevertheless. I wanted immediate assistance and I didn’t care how that assistance came, as long as it was of the same medical technologies we once had access to. Otherwise part of me would die.

  In that instant, the room lit up brightly as though someone had turned on a blue sun inside the room. It was shut off as quickly as it had turned on though. I heard Leah slamming the metal bar closed just before I noticed an EVA suited figure lying on the floor by my feet.

  “Oh my god!” Leah screamed, laughing suddenly.

  The figure got to its knees and then looked up at me. It was a woman who was staring wide-eyed at me. She must have been as startled as I was by Leah’s scream. I reached out my hand to shake hers.

  “Welcome to Kepler Moon Alpha,” I said, still holding out my hand, “I’m Pres… I’m Captain Sarai Stark of the CP-4.”

  She finally stood, then switched the large bag she was carrying to her other hand so she could shake my hand.

  “I’m Lieutenant Jennifer Lord. Doctor and surgeon,” her muffled voice echoed inside her helmet, “Very good to meet you. We never realized that your ship had survived, otherwise I assure you that the Navy wouldn’t have left you here like this. Anyway, you called for medical assistance, ma’am?”

  “Oh yes,” I covered my mouth, “And you can breathe here if you’d like to get out of that suit, but I have to warn you that it’s cold here and to those who aren’t accustomed, it smells quite bad.”

  She unfastened the neck collar and then lifted off the helmet. She started to breathe in just then and stopped suddenly.

  “Whoa,” she said, “Quite… intestinal?”

  I laughed and nodded, “We don’t smell it anymore. The impact event from about thirty-four years ago still gives the moon a charred and sulfurous aroma.”

  I noticed that she planned to keep the suit on, even with the helmet off. Leah came over, introduced herself, and then took her helmet since her hands were full. We exited the tent and I pointed toward the shuttle. I couldn’t help but to notice the doctor’s curiosity as she looked up at the darkened sky that struggled to hide Tau Ceti’s noonday presence right above us. She examined the horrible sight that was both shuttles. They not only bore the damage of atmospheric entry, but also the damage we imparted on them when we borrowed metal from the remaining portions of the outer hulls. I saw her take note of the shuttle’s chimney that was belching out a steady stream of black smoke.

  “No way!” the doctor was suddenly wrapped in an intense hug from Kennedy McEwen, “It worked! You’re here!”

  “I’m happy to help,” the doctor said, patting Kennedy on the back.

  Kennedy released her and then stepped out of the way. Suddenly, I noticed David and Angela Cox following us as we headed to the side entrance of the shuttle. Renata appeared at the door of the shuttle, holding it open for us to enter.

  “Please save Zane,” Renata whined as we walked past her and straight to the cubicle that Zane and I shared near the front of the shuttle.

  The doctor immediately knelt next to the cot. I could hear the rattling of his strained breathing even from ten feet away. Renata stood beside me, tears already in her eyes.

  “What happened and when?” Doctor Lord asked.

  I saw Zane open his eyes just then and then slowly look over at the doctor.

  “I-I’m dead?” he whispered, then choked out his usual wet cough.

  “You’re perfectly alive, my friend. I’m Lieutenant Jennifer Lord and I come to you from the USS South Carolina,” she said.

  “South Carolina?” I inserted a little too abruptly, “The Europa run?”

  “Yes,” she turned to me and smiled, “You heard of it?”

  “I was the XO probably thirty-five… forty years ago?” I said, “Not good with time anymore.”

  “Wow, so the ship is as old as it looks,” she said, opening up her medical bag, “No offense!”

  “Oh, that ship was old when I was on it,” I said, “I hated it.”

  “Yeah, so does the Captain, but he thinks he’s hiding his hatred from us,” she said, “He stares out the windows all the time imagining he’s somewhere else. Zane, I’m going to inject you with some nanos. I need to do it in three areas, so you’ll feel three jabs.”

  “He was crushed, doctor,” Renata offered as though it was her husband lying there in the cot, “We located a good healthy forest almost a mile up the river and we used the river to get the logs to the colony.”

  “The logs were floated downstream and then guided to the sawmill along a creek we had dug,” I added, “He was the one guiding the logs that day… three days ago. He slipped, crushed his leg and hip between two of the floating logs, and then before he could right himself, he fell further. The logs came together again and it crushed his ribs.”

  “We have to get him to the ship,” she immediately replied, “I can sedate him enough for us to transport him. He’s got fluid in his lungs and that is something that can’t wait.”

  I wasn’t prepared for such a quick evaluation and response from the doctor.

  “What about the EVA gear?” I asked.

  “We have to get it on him, and very carefully. Even if we make it painless for him, we can’t risk the broken bones damaging any arteries or organs,” she said, “You’re his wife?”

  She had turned to Renata when she asked that question. I was never going to be free of the insinuations.

  “I am,” I inserted a little too abruptly.

  “Do I have your permission to do whatever it takes?” she asked.

  “Yes, definitely,” I said, “But I’m going with you.”

  I felt a hand suddenly clamp onto my arm. It was Leah.

  “You’re in charge of the colony, Sarai. We need you here, especially now,” Leah stated, “They will take care of Zane and bring him back safely.”

  “I can’t leave him,” I replied, tears coming to my eyes suddenly, “He’s my ColSup and I’m his. McEwen is completely up to speed will take over while I’m gone.”

  The doctor rose from her spot next to Zane’s cot and reached into her pockets. She drew out several packets of coffee, energy bars, and vitamin supplements and dropped them on the storag
e trunk next to us. She continued emptying more and more pockets.

  “If you can open up the wormhole an hour after we leave, I’ll make certain that we get you more food and supplies. We won’t have headed back to Earth by then, although I have to warn you that it’s definitely where this man is going. He constitutes a medical emergency. His survival and the survival of your colony takes precedence over our current mission to Europa under Navy protocol. I can get you the food stores that we were going to bring to Europa to tide you over until we get something more sufficient going,” she said.

  “You’re leaving us here in the cold and dark?” Renata blurted all of a sudden, “I want to go too. You can’t leave me here! I despise this place.”

  “We’re not abandoning the colony. I’m going with my husband to be with him until he’s stable,” I argued, “We’re coming back – both of us.”

  “No, you don’t get it. I signed on for a tropical world with sunshine and beaches! I never wanted to be here. I only stayed because I had no choice. But there’s a choice now,” she pleaded.

  “Dear lord! This is no time for evacuating!” I growled, “What will you be arguing when the sky clears up here in a few years? Will you be pleading to come to this paradise, only to be told that you don’t have enough money for the trip or for the plot of land? You’re either part of the colony or you’re not. Zane and I will still be part of the colony and we will return.”

  “I’m not part of this colony. I will never want to return even when the sky clears,” she said, “I hate the name Tau Ceti and Kepler Moon Alpha.”

  “What about your mom, Renata?” Leah inserted, “Your family is here.”

  “She’s not family,” she argued, “The only person who ever asked how I was doing or checked up on me was Zane. The only person who took any time for me ever was Zane. And yes, I know he’s your husband and I know you still believe I want to steal him from you, but the only way I view him is as a friend and a father. He’s the father I never had. If he is gone, I have absolutely nothing left here.”