Colonization

by Scott McElhaney

  “And let’s not forget the name that they gave to one of their nations. Murphy-Stark,” my father said.

  “Why is that important?” I asked.

  The adults all looked over at me like I’d just asked a stupid question, but then I saw my father soften. He stepped toward me.

  “On Earth, where your parents were born, it was common to name places after original settlers, explorers, leaders, and surveyors. Many places were named after Columbus, Lewis and Clark, and Washington. No one remembers any of Columbus’ crew, but as the leader, his name ends up being used everywhere in the United States,” my father stated, “And when the crew of the CP-4 became the first settlers of KMA and they presented this ‘new world’ to the people of Earth, they would only remember the names of the two captains. Captain Murphy was the one who brought us here, but he didn’t survive to ever set foot here. It was Captain Stark, your mother, who led the first settlement. The people of Earth must have thought it would be a nice way to honor them by naming one of their first nations Murphy-Stark.”

  “So how did these other people from Earth get here if you shut down the wormhole? And as Mom told me long ago, it took you guys seventeen years to even get here from Earth going about it the long way,” I argued, “Renata and I are sixteen and born just two weeks of each other, approximately eight months after you shut the wormhole down. Basic math says that they should only just now start arriving and killing us.”

  “Killing?” Henley’s father laughed, “Who said they were going to start coming here to kill everyone?”

  “It was in the novel that Jenice wrote last year,” I argued, “Still one of the best stories I’ve ever read.”

  I smiled over at her where she sat next to her parents. She returned her usual shy smile. I often wondered if her shyness stemmed from the fact that she was the only one of our second generation who had naturally dark brown flesh. I saw no reason that it would be something to be shy about, especially considering her parents had those same darker skin tones. It would be like Henley being shy due to her red hair or me being shy because I had blue eyes. It didn’t make sense to me.

  “Well, apparently they arrived a long time ago and decided to avoid us altogether. And they didn’t just avoid visiting us, but they made a point to avoid all detection as well,” Kennedy stated, “I’d never once seen a shuttle fly by or that telltale streak of a landing craft plummeting through the upper atmosphere.”

  “But how did they get here?” I had to ask, leaping back and seating myself on one of the table tops.

  “The Hawke Jump,” Rigel said, “They were made aware of the fact that the experimental engine actually worked. They also learned that they shouldn’t target a planet or a moon with it, but rather target the open space near the destination. I can just tell you that’s what I would have done. I’d have arrived here within a month of the wormhole being shut down.”

  “That’s exactly what they would have done,” my mother stated, “I don’t know why we never considered that all these years.”

  “And let’s not forget that the Hawke Jump creates a potential wormhole just from its use,” our eldest villager Leah Paulus added, “They’re here and they’ve been here on KMA for a long time. We should just be grateful that they’ve left us alone all this time.”

  “Alone and without any of the technological and military advancements that they would be continuously privy to with access to an operable wormhole,” Darius added.

  “We’ve been here flying hoppers that are more than sixteen years old and driving land-movers and rovers that are constantly in disrepair, while they are all flying phazer-jets with planet-busters?” I asked.

  “Phazer-jets and…” my father started to question me, “Oh yeah, Jenice’s story. While I did think that was an awesome novel, let me remind you that’s all it was. It was a story about an interplanetary war from the mind of an imaginative and smart kid. But it was still just a story.”

  “Well, the three men we picked up had been floating on a portion of a wooden ship,” Keyandra said, referring to the raft that Chris went back and retrieved after we arrived, “It would be much easier for a technological race to resort to using full-size shuttle craft for trade rather than trusting some ancient wooden ships to the open seas.”

  “You’ve got a point,” Henley’s father said, “Why don’t we talk to these men and get some more information before we make any plans based on theory and speculation?”

  “Well, Tina believes we need to let them rest and eat for a while before we interrogate them,” my mother said, “And she said that they are too malnourished and their veins are too weak for her to be able to treat them with nanos, so we are at the mercy of time and sustenance.”

  Chapter Four

  I moved my wooden piece four spaces, landing on the blue square labeled “+3”.

  “What do I do now, Haden?” I asked the boy lying on the floor across from me.

  “Plus three… you get to go forward three more spaces,” he said.

  I went forward three spaces and landed on a blank red space. He quickly picked up the die and shook it in those small cupped hands of his. Then he flung it a little too hard onto the board, knocking over both of our pieces. We both laughed while I quickly resituated the pieces in the correct spots.

  “I want to go visit these other nations, especially if their cities are anything like those images we’ve seen from Earth,” Henley said.

  She was lying face-down on the sofa behind me, skimming through stuff on her electronic tablet. Haden and I lay on the floor in front of the sofa playing a board game that was supposed to assist him with addition, subtraction and multiplication. He was fine with everything except the multiplication.

  “Mom said that those people wanted to build military bases here before we were born,” I said, watching Haden move his piece, counting off the numbers aloud as he went, “It really sounded like those people thrived on war and discord.”

  “Times two,” Haden read off what the green square said, “Do I go forward two spaces?”

  “No, you rolled a three which brought you there. Three times two,” I explained, “What do you get with two threes?”

  I held up three fingers on both hands. He counted them, touching each of my fingers with his.

  “Six,” he said, “So do I move six more spaces?

  “Sure,” I said.

  I doubted we were playing the game properly, but I didn’t care. At least we were doing the math portion right and he seemed to be having fun. In truth, I was really just hanging out here to spend time with Henley. Haden was a good kid though, so it didn’t put me out any to play a few games with him while we were stuck babysitting. Besides, it was already past his bedtime and he’d be out of our hair soon enough.

  “But if they always focused on war and fought each other all the time, why would their cities look like this?” she asked.

  She held out the tablet next to me. I looked over and saw an image with exceptionally tall and shining buildings. It looked like they were all made of chrome, although it could have just been the way their star reflected off the windows. She reached over and brought up another image, showing more tall buildings, only this image was at night time. It truly looked beautiful.

  “Looking at these images will only cause you to hurt inside,” I argued.

  “Yeah? Then let’s check out your history on my tablet,” she said, tapping in a few commands.

  She then held out the tablet again, showing me a few dozen thumbnail images of Kepler 963a, KMA, the Milky Way, Europa, Venus, Neptune, Earth, and Mars. I tapped the underwater image in the corner, enlarging it.

  “Check that out, by the way. That light is reflecting off the icy roof of Europa’s hidden ocean,” I said, “That image was taken by a remote sub that was-”

  “Come on!” she yanked it away, laughing, “I was pointing out that you daydream about other places too, even if it hurts.”

  “Your turn, Thatcher,” Haden said.

>   “Actually, bud, we need to get you to bed,” I argued, “Your mom said you had to be in bed an hour ago, but don’t tell her we let you stay up.”

  I got up and then lifted him like a sack of wheat beneath my arm. He laughed as I spun him around and then carried him off to his bedroom. I lowered him to his bed and waited for him to cover up before switching off the light.

  “Can you open my window? It’s hot in here,” he said.

  It actually was feeling a little muggy in the house. I opened it a couple inches and then switched off his light.

  “Good night, bud,” I said, leaving his door cracked an inch.

  When I returned to the living room, Henley was still lying on the couch with the tablet, scrolling through the images it contained. I squeezed myself next to her, lying up against the sofa-back and facing her. I could see more and more images of the cities from Earth. She was totally engrossed in each of the pictures that she pulled up. I decided to focus on her instead, combing her long hair with my fingers.

  “Do you think that there are too many people on Earth? Is that why they need buildings with a hundred floors?” she asked.

  “Maybe,” I replied, uncovering her ear as I continued raking my fingers through her hair.

  “So it isn’t that the people of Earth are bad. They are just over crowded. I guess you would get more conflict if you had to face a thousand people each day instead of the usual twenty or so people we see each day,” she said, “Imagine a world so crowded that you got knocked over all the time by people walking in all directions. Pretty soon, you’d get mad at someone or they would get mad at you. You would probably end up getting mad nearly every day of your life.”

  I leaned in and kissed her earlobe. Then I drew that tender earlobe into my mouth with my tongue.

  “Is someone trying to distract me from these buildings?” she asked, shutting the tablet down.

  I kissed her beneath the earlobe and then she finally succumbed to my advances and fully turned to me on the couch. I put my hand behind the small of her back, making certain that she didn’t fall off. We’d often shared the couch like this while Haden slept in his room. It was the best part of babysitting.

  “Are we bad?” she asked, kissing me gently on the lips, “Mom says that you and I can’t keep doing this without eventually taking it too far.”

  “I wish we would take it too far,” I laughed.

  “See, you don’t help me at all in this regard,” she laughed, punching my arm.

  I knew what she was getting at though. Both of our parents, and really the whole village, had stressed fidelity and respect to us ever since we were very little. And while Henley and I were treated as adults in every other fashion, some of our elders felt that marriage should wait until we were eighteen. So because of that, the two of us who have been best friends for as long as I could remember; the two of us who shared our first real kiss when we were ten; the two of us who proclaimed our eternal love for each other back when we were only eleven, were still spending many evenings fighting those powerful temptations that were made even worse with the touch of our hands and our wandering kisses.

  “We’re not bad, Henley,” I whispered, “We’re just… dangerous.”

  Henley Knight

  Chapter Five

  Tina Davies, our residential nurse who went by the title Doctor Tina, was still at the hospital when I got there. My parents had come home a little buzzed on their own wine, as evidenced by their giggling, their touchy hands, and disgusting kissing. Because of this, I was more than happy to head out while they were heading for the bedroom. They just insisted that I not stay out more than an hour. Since Kepler was about to eclipse Tau Ceti soon, it was nowhere to be seen in the sky tonight. Kepler and Tau Ceti danced as close as lovers when it was nearing a shadow period. The only orb to offer any light tonight was Kepler Moon Beta which itself was barely a crescent high in the sky. It made for a rather dark stroll through the village. My thoughts went to the cities of Earth, which then brought my thoughts back to those men from the raft. That led my evening stroll to the hospital.

  “We lost one of them,” Tina said, stopping me at the door.

  “One of them died?” I asked, startled by how easily she said this.

  “They were in exceptionally poor health. Even the other two are going to need some real prayers on our part,” she said.

  “But isn’t there something more you can do?” I argued.

  “Yes, like I said, I can pray and so can you,” she said, “They’re getting plenty of fluids and I was able to inject them with some repair meds, but beyond that, my hands are tied.”

  “Can I see them?” I asked.

  She looked at me for a moment, and then stepped aside. I entered the hospital which really was nothing more than a house converted into a three-bed sick bay with another separate room for quarantine. I only knew of one instance when someone was put in quarantine. It was several years ago when Marie Lopez got a bad case of the flu. They thought it might have been some other unknown disease simply because her symptoms were so violent.

  I immediately noticed that the bed to the right was empty. The other two beds still had men lying in them and the man on the left was awake and looking at me.

  “That one is eating,” Tina said, nodding to the man who had my attention, “His name is Brian Fox.”

  “Can I talk to him?” I asked.

  “Sure,” she said.

  He smiled at me as I approached. I took the chair that was between the two beds and scooted it closer to him.

  “I’m Henley,” I said, “You might remember me from the beach. I gave you my canteen.”

  “Of course I remember you,” he continued to smile, “I’m Brian Fox. I’m the only one left.”

  “No, only one had passed away,” I said, “I’m sorry that we couldn’t save him.”

  “No, the man behind you died just a moment ago,” he said, “I heard him struggle and then he stopped breathing.”

  “What?” I stood up and turned to the man in the bed behind me, “Tina!”

  She was at the sink washing some glasses when I hollered for her. She turned to me and saw that I was pointing to the other man whose chest didn’t seem to be rising anymore. She quickly grabbed a towel and started drying her hands.

  “Brian said he heard him die,” I said.

  Tina rushed over and checked his vitals, confirming indeed that he was dead. She simply drew the sheet up over him and to my surprise, she started to cry. I didn’t know what to do. Just then, she closed her eyes and started talking. She was saying things about Jesus taking the man home and asking that he embrace him and comfort him. She kept saying odd things about salvation and then even started thanking this Jesus-man.

  “He’s in heaven now,” Brian said from behind me, “The good doctor had let him know that there was more for Anthony even if he didn’t survive his current battle. She told us about another place where Jesus takes those who belong to him. Anthony belonged to him, so he’s okay now.”

  “Are you okay?” I turned to Brian, “You’re not going to die too, are you?”

  “I’m okay. In more ways than one, I’m okay,” he smiled, then nodded to the chair, “Will you sit back down again and tell me about your village?”

  I was sort of creeped out by the thought of a dead man lying in the bed behind me, but I couldn’t disregard the needs of the man who still seemed very much alive. I scooted the chair close to him and then sat down. I could hear Tina moving stuff around on the bed behind me, but chose not to look.

  “You don’t want to hear about us,” I said, “We’re just a small boring village of about twenty-six people. I say ‘about’ because I secretly believe that one of the builders is pregnant.”

  “Who?” Tina asked suddenly from behind me.

  “Faith the builder. I think Sean and Faith Hart are going to be parents,” I said, still refraining from looking behind me.

  “What makes you think that?” she asked.

&
nbsp; “I saw her at the beach a couple days ago and she’s got a belly, and not just that. Just like any pregnant woman, her hands were often touching that little belly,” I said, “I mean, I think she might even be two months along or more.”

  “Poor thing,” Tina muttered.

  “Why do you say that?” I finally turned around.

  “Most people brag about having a baby because they are so excited about it. Faith would be the most excited of any potential parent, yet she’s told no one. You see, Faith and Sean have wanted a baby for a long time now and they’ve already had three miscarriages,” Tina said, “She’s not even getting excited and telling anyone because I’ll bet she’s scared. She’s afraid of getting her hopes up again. Yet if she’s more than two months along, she’s further than she’s ever been. I need to talk to her and make sure she’s okay.”

  “Your doctor has a lot on her plate,” Brian said, drawing my attention back to him.

  “That she does,” I said, “Anyway, as I was saying, our village is nothing special. Tell me about Murphy-Stark or New Sumter.”

  “New Sumter – that’s where I’m from,” he said, “Paid for my way here by selling my land rover and cashing in the college fund my mom had set up for me. Been here fourteen years now.”

  “You had to trade stuff to be able to come here?” I asked.

  “If it were free, the whole world would already be here, kid! And besides, they didn’t want to populate this new world with a bunch of homeless vagrants. The only way you were allowed to come here was if you put fifty thousand dollars in cash down on a home and paid the five thousand it cost just for the trip into space and to the wormhole entrance.”

  “Wow, that seems like a lot. What exactly are dollars?” I asked.

  “Dollars?” he asked, “Do you use Euros or Yen here? Pounds?”