Colonization

by Scott McElhaney

  She kissed me again, making me wonder just how much strength was going to be required on my part.

  Sarai Stark

  Chapter Thirteen

  The next few days were highly unusual. Renata and Commander Knight were suddenly spending a lot of time together, which was nice considering how lonely Renata always seemed to be, but curious considering the extent that the commander permitted it. While there were no laws or rules against it, the Navy frowned upon captains fraternizing with passengers or crew. Yet the two of them were together at all times, whether he was on duty or not.

  I was just grateful that she didn’t look like a teenager anymore. After about two or three months on KMA, everyone started looking healthier and stronger. All the sunken eyes went away and muscle started forming. Renata was always on the go and always willing to lend a helping hand, so naturally she gained back her weight in the form of muscle and her frame quickly became that of an adult woman. She now looked every bit her twenty-three years and so to see her holding hands in the corridors with a commander of perhaps thirty didn’t look so inappropriate.

  I had to remind myself that I was no longer her commanding officer since she had technically resigned from the colony. I also had no authority except in rank over the commander and even so, he was the ship’s captain and I had no right to judge.

  I spent my days mostly at Zane’s side. We talked a lot, laughed a lot, and even managed to make love in his hospital bed more than once. I didn’t know if it was the medication that got him going or simply the peace of not having a colony to worry about, but either way, we were feeling like our old selves again.

  Three days into the journey home, the ship received a call requesting a publicized interview with the three colonists. They asked that the three of us get together in the ship and do a video interview with a Navy-controlled news station. We agreed, of course. It would be the first time we will have been seen by the world in over thirty-three years.

  The captain brought a video monitor and recorder into the medical bay since we wouldn’t be moving Zane for the interview. His bed was angled forty-five degrees so he could be seen better. Renata would be seated on the right side of him and I on the left. We decided it would be best just to wear the USS South Carolina-provided officer coveralls since our own clothing from when we arrived were a bit ragged and somewhat dirty even after being washed. And if we wore the EVAs we came over in, it could send a wrong message to the viewers. They didn’t want the viewers to believe that KMA was an uninhabitable moon.

  The person interviewing would be Chief Petty Officer Ryan Stamms of WNAV in Norfolk. He assured us that although there would be a several-second delay in our questions and answers, those delays would be edited out to make it more watchable for the viewers.

  After the polite smiles and introductions from all of us, he went straight to the questions we were hoping to avoid.

  “So tell us about the discovery of the Chief Medical Officer on the CP-4. I understand her suicide was the reason the ship was stuck orbiting the moon for so long…”

  “So let’s talk about the moment you saw Shuttle One burn up in the atmosphere. There was a lot of debris smacking into those shuttles on the way to the moon, correct…”

  “How did you determine that the Hawke Jump was responsible for the near destruction of the moon…”

  We answered those questions to the fullest and I found myself getting somewhat irritated. We had accomplished something never done before in the history of mankind. We visited another star system in person. Then we accomplished something else never done before. We landed on a world in another star system. Then we accomplished something else never done before. We colonized that extra-solar world. Where were the questions that addressed what the people of Earth should be asking?

  “So, the hailstorm that destroyed the greenhouses. Would you-”

  “Chief, may I interrupt?” Zane said, though the chief kept talking.

  The interruptions didn’t work the same when there was a several-second delay. Finally, he stopped and asked Zane what he wanted to say.

  “We were left to die because our ship’s relay computer was programmed improperly and didn’t know how to comply with the command to abort the mission. So the ship continued on until the suicidal wake-up call that left us to die in orbit. The ship’s XO, my wife Sarai Stark, had managed to override a significant flaw in the Delayed Aging Chamber’s dream program and forced an escape from the inside. Had she not done that, we would have been left to die in orbit. Two design flaws so far that should have killed us, not to even count the flawed Chief Medical Officer. Then, we discovered the biggest flaw of all. The US Navy slammed an experimental spacecraft into the only other world in our galaxy confirmed to be able to support human life. Inside this craft was a black hole that would never be destroyed and had we not contained it, we would have eventually had a full size black hole located merely twelve light years from Earth. Why aren’t we being asked if we, the colonists, are afraid of the people of Earth? Why aren’t we being asked if we are afraid of the US Navy? I think these would be more pertinent questions.”

  I could see Commander Knight and Doctor Lord off to the side with their jaws hanging wide open. We just sat there in silence while we waited for the delay to pass.

  “You raise a good point, Mr. Stark. Since those particular theories haven’t been confirmed yet, we will save-”

  “Confirmed?” I interrupted while the chief continued on unaware just yet, “The wormhole we just transited exists only because Master Chief Leah Paulus and her crew located and captured a subatomic black hole that she hypothesized should exist only if the Hawke Jump was responsible for the massive crater on Kepler Moon Alpha. Located right in the center of that crater was none other than a black hole. You currently have copies of that data. That wormhole opens up into this solar system in the exact spot that the Hawke Jump supposedly disappeared. And prior to knowing this information, we determined that the moon was hit with something at the exact time that the Hawke Jump disappeared from here. If you want to confirm all the problems with the CP-4, it still lies dormant in orbit of KMA. If you want to investigate the body of the Chief Medical Officer, she lies in a powered-down freezer on that ship.”

  “While we appreciate the rescue and the hospitality of those aboard the USS South Carolina, we certainly have reason to be afraid,” Renata added, probably to toss in a commendation for the ship’s captain.

  After a short pause, the Chief came back on, “This wasn’t meant to be an interview to stir up sore memories or discord. The three of you… actually your whole colony represents all that the Navy admires in our star sailors. That is after all what the term ‘astronaut’ means. Star sailor. We appreciate you for all you’ve accomplished in spite of the many obstacles and in the end, you provided us with a gateway to this world so that we can not only help, but we can provide continued help, support, and manpower. We’re going to provide a full Navy base there with a full staff to ensure that you will never-”

  I got up, kicking my chair over in the process.

  “Shut it off!” I shouted, pointing to the monitor and the recorder, “Shut it off now!”

  “It’s happening,” Zane stated, “Just as I assumed it would.”

  “What’s happening?” Renata asked, rising from her seat.

  “We just handed them the whole moon on a silver platter,” I said, “They are going to present it as though they are providing us with comfortable housing, electricity, medical, dental, vehicles, and everything else, which is going to be all true. But they are providing it because it would have looked improper to start building a state of the art military base on KMA while the original colony was struggling just to survive. By this time next year, there could be a full city there. In a decade when the skies clear, there may be a whole nation already built with highways, airports, and best of all, prisons and taxes.”

  “So we were just Christopher Columbus or the people of the Mayflower?” Renata said, �
�We provided everyone else with something we never really got to enjoy. We lose all our foothold.”

  “That’s just it,” Zane added, “We won’t be Columbus or the Mayflower. We’ll be the Native Americans. You can bet that we truly will lose what we claimed as our own. And we didn’t steal it from anyone, so the land was truly ours, at least the portions we surveyed and took already. None of that land will belong to us or to our descendants. We all agreed to the Colonization Project because it gave us an opportunity to explore and to claim something of our own. To experience the true meaning of freedom and community.”

  “Well, we just cut the connection to the Navy’s broadcast and they are going to want answers,” Commander Knight said, “And they can already figure out your reasoning, so they won’t be questioning you in that regard. It’s me who’s going to have to answer for the broken connection.”

  “Tell them I ordered it,” I argued, “I outrank you.”

  “You and I both know that you don’t outrank the captain of any ship even if that ship was captained by an ensign,” he replied.

  He was right of course. Rank didn’t matter going up against a ship’s captain. Otherwise admirals could go onto any ship and order the captain to go anywhere they wanted.

  “I’m getting a new set of orders anyway when we return and it doesn’t sound like something appealing. Pretty much another form of the Europa run,” he said, “So I’ve really got nothing to lose.”

  Rigel Knight

  Chapter Fourteen

  “I want to go wherever you go,” it was Renata standing at the doorway near the foot of my bed.

  I had gone to bed an hour ago but wasn’t sleeping. Tomorrow was the day we were docking at the shipyard and I’d spent the better portion of my day fielding questions from the Navy. I never had to answer for the disconnected interview, which I felt sure was due to the fact that they were now fearful of a rift between the colonists and the US Navy. They had gone into the interview expecting worship from these people. They had expected the colonists to be exceedingly grateful for the offer of so much assistance.

  “I’m probably going to be nothing but a transit captain, Renata,” I said, sitting up in bed, “That’s no life for a lovely lady like yourself.”

  “They allow spouses,” she said.

  “Spouses,” I repeated, looking at her curiously, “No, not on transit ships they don’t. You’d be put up in some Navy housing near the shuttle port and I’d only see you once every couple months. And besides, you’d really consider marrying a salty dog like me?”

  She came into the room and sat on the bed next to me. She placed her hand on my back.

  “Salty dog? When I think of a salty navy officer, I imagine one of those rigid, grey-haired, angry men that no longer know how to smile. And a ‘dog’ you’re definitely not. Rigel, you’re the sweetest man I’ve ever known and these few days we’ve had have been the best in my life,” she said, “And it’s not just all the interesting stories you tell or the time we’ve spent playing video games. It’s not just the fact that you’ve taught me how to play Spades or the fact that you’re the best Spades partner a girl could have. It’s not just that we can already read each other’s cues to know who truly has the good cards and who’s bluffing. It’s not just the fact that I love spending every moment with you. You know what it really is? You treat me like some sort of treasure or a princess when I’m the furthest thing from it,”

  “I’m a girl who abandons her own mother on a smelly cold planet. And I don’t just abandon her, I abandon all those who I counted as friends. I abandoned everyone who helped me in the last year. Even before all that, I abandoned my fiancé when my mother offered me tropical beaches on a new world. Yeah, she was forcing me to go, but deep down, I wanted the beaches more than I wanted my fiancé. I’m no treasure and I’m definitely not a princess. I’m nothing more than a horrible brat, but you seem to only see the person inside that I wish I could be – the lady I want to be.”

  “That person inside is even more beautiful than the person on the outside. And trust me,” I touched her cheek, “This is a very beautiful exterior. I could stare at you all day if it wouldn’t creep you out.”

  “See?” she said, kissing me tenderly, “I could spend forever with that.”

  “And I could spend forever with you, but I need to ask you something and hopefully it won’t scare you away,” I said.

  She put her hands in her lap and then nodded, “Okay.”

  “What if I’m not in the Navy anymore? What if I don’t end up being the captain of another ship?” I asked, “I’ve been doing a lot of thinking tonight and… well, I’m having second thoughts about where I belong in this universe.”

  “I don’t care what job you have in the future,” she immediately said, “But what do you mean about where you belong in the universe?”

  “That’s where I’m being torn apart inside. Renata, I truly believe that I love you. I want to spend every waking moment with you,” I said, followed by a pained sigh of worry, “But where I want to go… it’s where you definitely don’t want to be.”

  “I want to be with you, so it-” she paused and looked me in the eyes, “Wait, you want to go to KMA?”

  I had her undivided attention now. She was watching me with a look of confusion.

  “I don’t want to spend the rest of my life running shipments back and forth, only to eventually die as a pilot who’s never been further than Saturn,” I said, “I want to go places I’ve never been. I want to explore. It’s why I joined the Navy in the first place. And it worked at first. I got to see moons and planets I’ve never seen in person before, but then it got to be the same thing over and over and over again.”

  “I get that, but KMA? You’ve never been there, so you really don’t know how bad it is. It smells like farts, and I’m not joking,” she snickered a bit, but then she got all serious again, “It’s cold all the time and when it gets windy, the cold actually seems to hurt. We have five-day spans of sheer darkness where even Kepler 963a offers no more light than what reflects off its rings. And we work all the time. There’s always something that needs to be done. The only rest is when we eat or sleep. Video games? That would be unheard of there. Who would have the time?”

  “Believe me, I read all the reports and heard everything you three have told me. Even so, I want to be a part of that. I want to belong to something that matters. And do you know what would make it all the more worthwhile?” I asked, “If you would be there with me. If I could be your ColSup, and more than that. If you would be the spouse I came home to every night to chase away the cold that was in my bones. I’d hold you all night long and that chill of the previous day would all go away.”

  “Y-you would? You’d hold me every night?”

  I chuckled, “That’s what you got from that? That’s the very least I’m offering you.”

  Sarai Stark

  Chapter Fifteen

  At first I thought the knocking was something in my dream. Then it happened again, waking me from a deep slumber. I turned on the light and noticed that the clock read 1:32am. I hurriedly rushed through the suite and unlocked the door, believing there was some sort of emergency involving Zane.

  There before me stood two people wearing Navy shorts and t-shirts. Why did Renata have to be so attractive even in the middle of the night? My hair was a twisted mess and I was sure I had the creases of sleep printed on my face.

  “Sorry to bother you at this late hour, but we will be docking in six or seven hours,” the commander stated, “But we need to discuss an important matter and I wasn’t sure if I’d ever get a chance.”

  “Captain, I’d see you at breakfast,” I argued, rubbing my eyes.

  “Can Rigel be my ColSup?” Renata interjected.

  “Wait, what?” I asked.

  “I want to join the colony – your colony,” Rigel said, “And not in the same way that the Navy is intending on ‘joining’. I’m asking as a civilian.”

  “Ci
vilian? You’re the captain of this ship, Commander,” I said, stepping aside and gesturing them into my suite, “Come in and let me get a cup of coffee.”

  They entered the room and shut the door behind them. I hit the switch on the coffee maker on the way to the small living room where I sat down on the chair. They sat down on the sofa across from me, looking over at me expectantly.

  “This isn’t what you’re thinking, Commander Stark,” he began.

  “I’m thinking that you’re making a rash decision based on a newfound love. And I get it. I remember how it feels to be newly in love,” I said, “But what happens when Renata gets fed up with all the obstacles of KMA again? What happens if she leaves you?”

  “I would never do that and as a matter of fact, I’m telling you that I want to return,” she said, “And I obviously know what I’m signing up for this time. I didn’t know the first time around.”

  “But you were so quick to make a decision to leave back there when Doctor Lord offered us an exit, Renata. You went from being a regular hard-working member of our colony to instantly deciding you wanted to leave when you saw your chance. Do you want to risk hurting this man by making that same choice again a year from now when the weather hasn’t cleared up?” I argued, “I’m just looking to make sure you two know what you’re talking about.”

  “Can I explain something without you getting mad or jumping to conclusions?” she said.

  “Go for it,” I waved her on.

  “I never left Zane,” she said, causing my heart to suddenly drop, “I had one friend through it all and that was your husband. When he was injured and dying, I dropped everything to be there for him. And all he asked of me was that I would be there for you, Sarai. And I was. I made sure that you were eating and sleeping. I was bringing you food and water while you stayed at his bedside. I spent those three days of hell watching over the both of you because I was committed to the only friend I had. When the doctor arrived to help him, you’ll notice that I never mentioned leaving. It was only when she stated that she was taking him away from us that I made a decision to leave. I won’t and don’t leave those who I love.”