QUANT (COLONY Book 1)

by Richard F. Weyand

  “A bit over half. And I’m not sure how to fill the other half yet. I have about five times as many applications for those spots as I need.”

  “You could do a lottery.”

  “You mean, actually do a lottery?”

  “Sure, Janice. Just because you’re in the government doesn’t mean you can’t do what you promised. Granted it’s unusual, but not impossible. And it would keep you from making a systematic error. You know, where you decided on some criterion over the subtle issues remaining and it was exactly wrong.”

  “How do I keep from getting too many of one occupation or skill set and not enough of the other?”

  “Start pulling groups at random – doing a lottery – and mark off their occupations in the list of spots in the occupations you still need. When you don’t need any more of that occupation, strike those with that occupation out of the pool of those remaining. Something like that. You’d probably have to tweak that because of the groups thing, but you get the drift.”

  “I think that would work, Bernd. Weird. It never occurred to me to actually do the lottery I promised we would do.”

  “You’ve been in government too long, Janice.”

  Quant’s next step was to put out a lot more information about the colony effort. What it would entail. What life would probably be like on the colonies. What would be important from the start. The everyday conveniences colonists might not have for several years while the colony got up and going. The everyday joys of colony life that the colonists might not have in their current environment.

  The information wasn’t intended to convince anyone of anything either way. Quant was good enough at persuasion now, she could have made a convincing argument in either direction. Instead, it was additional information, to help people make up their minds.

  Once the lottery winners were announced, they would still have to commit to going. There would be a second pass of the lottery through the remaining applications to fill the slots that opened up.

  On the second anniversary of Janice Quant’s accession to the Chairmanship of the World Authority, she addressed the people of the world in a live video.

  “Good afternoon, fellow citizens.”

  “A year ago, we opened applications for a lottery to determine who would be selected for the colonization of other planets, outside this solar system. Many of you responded and entered the lottery.

  “Six months ago, we closed the lottery, and began the selection. It has taken quite a while, because it couldn’t be a simple lottery. We couldn’t, for example, have twice as many doctors as we needed, and no engineers, or twice as many engineers and no doctors. That couldn’t be left to chance.

  “So as people were selected, we marked them in the occupational slots we needed. When all that occupation’s slots were filled, we took the remaining people of that occupation out of the pool of candidates.

  “This made the process longer than a simple lottery, but it was fair while ensuring we have all the occupational slots we need for a colony to be successful. I supervised this entire process myself. I did not delegate it.

  “When I finish speaking, I will send out the notifications. Whether you were selected in the first pass or not. Those of you selected then have a decision to make. Do you go or not? We are providing as much information as we can to help you with your decision. You can also ask questions, and we will answer all we can, and make the questions and answers available to the news wires.

  “I say first pass, because some people will ultimately decide not to go after all, even though they applied and won the lottery. We will pull applications again, in a second round of the lottery, to fill those empty spots.

  “So if you weren’t selected in the first pass, that’s not a final answer. You may still be selected in the second pass.

  “To those of you who were selected in the first pass, you have four years to get ready for departure. Four years to learn additional skills. Four years to terminate your affairs here.

  “I would ask those of you who were selected in the first pass to make your final decision in the next three months. That will give people selected in the second pass time to get ready for departure as well. That only seems fair to me.

  “With that, I will send out the notifications now.

  “Thank you for your attention.”

  “That simulation seems so real,” Anna Glenn said. “I can’t get over it.”

  “Yes. Janice is very good at computer simulations.”

  Glenn smiled.

  “Well, duh,” she said.

  Decker just smiled and nodded.

  In the Chongqing administrative region, Chen GangHai went to his father, Chen LiQiang. Chen Zhufu, the head of household. In English, simply, the Chen.

  “Grandfather, we have won the lottery for the planet colony.”

  “We have?”

  “Yes, grandfather. We can go to this new planet. Have a large farm, and leave this small place to your brothers.”

  “Then there need be no famine.”

  “No, grandfather.”

  Chen sighed. It seemed the answer to a prayer.

  “Grandfather, what do we do now?”

  Chen’s answer – in Chinese, of course – was repeated many times across Asia that day.

  “Xue yingyu.”

  Learn English.

  “Well, are you going to check or should I?” Jessica Murphy asked.

  “You check. I’m too nervous,” Rachel Conroy said.

  Murphy went to her office display and checked her mail. She clapped her hands, once, then came back out into the living room.

  “We’re in, Rache,” Murphy said

  “The whole group?”

  “Yep. All four of us.”

  “That’s nice,” Conroy said. “Now the question is, Should we go, Jess?”

  “Why not? Here, you’re just another computer geek and I’m just another mechanic. On a colony, though, those are essential occupations.”

  “And having kids, Jess?”

  “We were going to anyway, Rache.”

  “That’s true.”

  Murphy’s display was buzzing for her.

  “Just a sec. That’s probably Dwayne or Gary.”

  Murphy went to her office display. She was back in five minutes.

  “Yeah, it was Dwayne. Wanted to know what we were going to do.”

  “So are they in?” Conroy asked.

  “They are if we are, Rache.”

  “OK, Jess. Let’s do it.”

  “So should we go check mail?” Susan Dempsey asked.

  “Oh, just wait for it, I think,” Robert Jasic said. “Should be any sec–“

  The twins, eleven now, came running into the room.

  “We won,” Stacy said.

  “Ms. Griffith’s group,” Tracy said.

  “We all won.”

  “We’re going, right?”

  “We are, aren’t we?”

  “That’s the question all right,” Jasic said.

  “You said it wasn’t time to decide yet,” Dempsey said. “Well, it is now. So now what do we do?”

  “Family meeting, I think.”

  “Meeting now, right?” Stacy said.

  “We’ll get Amy and Matt,” Tracy said.

  And the twins ran back out of the room.

  Amy, now thirteen, came into the room, followed by Matt, with the twins shooing them on from behind. Amy was just at the turn, that no man’s land between child and adult. Matt, fifteen and change, was further along the curve. He had reached his full height now, and was wiry and strong. He obviously took after Jasic’s family in the size and muscle department.

  The twins sat on the floor of the living room in front of Jasic’s and Dempsey’s armchairs, while Amy and Matt sat on the couch.

  “Everybody knows we won the lottery, right? Maureen Griffith’s group. So do we go, or no?” Jasic asked.

  “How would life be different?” Amy asked.

  “It’ll be harder,” Ja
sic said. “Not college and then marriage and an easy life in the suburbs. It’ll be a lot of work. Everybody’s going to have to grow up quicker. Do their share. But it will never be boring.”

  Amy nodded.

  “We want to go,” Tracy said.

  “Yeah,” Stacy agreed.

  “Is everybody going to go? Everybody in the group?” Matt asked.

  “I don’t know,” Jasic said. “We haven’t talked to anybody else yet.”

  “Well, if Peggy goes, I want to go,” Matt said.

  Jasic nodded. He had figured that was the lie of the land.

  “What about you guys?” Amy asked. “Do you want to go?”

  Dempsey was about to answer when there was a high-pitched scream from outside.

  “Peggy!” Matt said.

  The teenager exploded off the sofa and headed out the front door at a dead run.

  “Shit,” Jasic said. “That doesn’t sound good.”

  Jasic got up and headed out the front door. The rest following along behind.

  He went diagonally across the street to Harold Munson’s and Betsy Reynolds’s house. He just caught a glimpse of Matt heading in their front door as Peggy, their fourteen-year-old, held it for him.

  As Jasic crossed the street he heard shouting and then a crash.

  Jasic walked in the front door and took in the scene in a flash.

  Huddled on the floor was Betsy Reynolds, holding the side of her face where a bruise was starting to form. Her three younger children were shielded behind her. Peggy stood to one side looking on at the center of the room in grim satisfaction.

  And in the center of the room, Matt, fists balled, stood over a somewhat worse-for-wear Harold Munson. It looked like Munson’s nose was broken and he’d lost a couple teeth.

  “I told you what would happen to you if you touched her again, asshole. You want to hit somebody, get up and hit me, not beat up on a woman. Come on. I’m waiting, you chicken shit.”

  Munson was having none of it, though. He was holding his nose and moaning.

  “All right, Matt. I think he’s done,” Jasic said.

  Jasic heard sirens approaching and looked to Peggy.

  “I called the police.”

  Jasic nodded. He hoped all the witness statements lined up, because it was pretty clear Matt had done quite a number on Munson.

  The police came in, and Munson immediately called out from the floor, “Officer, this thug assaulted me.”

  Everybody tried to talk at once then, when the most remarkable thing happened. The display in the room came on, apparently by itself. On it was Janice Quant. She did not look happy.

  “Officer Penrose? I’m Janice Quant.”

  The lead police officer snapped to attention and saluted the screen.

  “Yes, Madam Chairman. I’m Penrose.”

  “When the police call came in from this address, my headquarters staff started recording this channel. The World Authority has an interest because the woman there on the floor, Betsy Reynolds, has won the lottery to be a colonist. She and her children.

  “She was assaulted by her husband, the man on the floor there, Harold Munson. The recording picks up in the middle of that assault. Matt Jasic, the young man there, halted that assault in defense of the woman, during the course of which Mr. Munson suffered his injuries.”

  “I see, Madam Chairman.”

  “Officer Penrose, I want Harold Munson taken into custody and charged with assaulting a colonist. That’s a World Authority violation. I want a protective order against him for Betsy Reynolds and Matt Jasic and the rest of their families. If he is ever seen in this neighborhood again, I want him incarcerated for the four years until the colony ship leaves. On my authority.”

  “Yes, Madam Chairman.”

  “Matt Jasic?”

  Matt had dropped his fists. He turned and faced the display. Peggy went up to him and put an arm around him.

  “Yes, Ma’am.”

  “You’re an admirable young man, and I’m glad your group won the lottery. Colonies need people who know right from wrong and are willing to stand up for what’s right.”

  “Thank you, Madam Chairman.”

  “Thank you, Mr. Jasic. Quant out.”

  The police officers walked up to Munson, on the floor.

  “All right, Mr. Munson. On your feet. You’re coming with us.”

  “What about my things? My clothes?” Munson asked.

  “When you get a temporary address, you can let us know and we’ll tell Ms. Reynolds. She can send them to you or not. I don’t really care.”

  The police bundled Munson out. Matt and Peggy helped Betsy Reynolds to her feet and to a chair. Peggy got some ice wrapped in a towel for her face.

  Matt came over to Jasic.

  “I’m going to stay here tonight, Dad. I don’t trust that bastard not to show up again later.”

  Jasic nodded.

  “Makes sense to me. Call for help first. He may bring friends.”

  Matt nodded.

  “I’m not sure that prick has any friends, but I’ll call first.”

  Jasic shook his son’s hand.

  “Nice job.”

  “Thanks, Dad.”

  Jasic collected Dempsey, Amy, and the twins, who had watched all the goings-on from the porch, and headed back across the street to their home. Walking across the street, he spoke in a low tone to Dempsey.

  “I think Matt’s had to grow up pretty fast already.”

  Decker was just about to go to bed when Quant appeared on his display.

  “Oh, what a day,” she said.

  “What’s the matter, Janice?”

  “I’ve had to intervene dozens of times in squabbles.”

  “Today?”

  “Yes. Since the announcement. There are some situations I’ve had my eye on. I expected trouble from some of them. So I was monitoring them.”

  “You were monitoring them, Janice?”

  “Yes. You’ve left your display open to me all these years, Bernd, and I figured out how to basically do that with any display on the network. People don’t normally shut their displays completely off, they’re in standby. So I was watching. Had my blades watching anyway.”

  “And you had to intervene?”

  “Yes. Dozens of times. Bernd, for as much as I like people, there are some of them I could do without. And what is it about some men that they think, if you disagree with them, that beating you up will change your mind?”

  “Heavens. Really? In this day and age?”

  “Oh, yes. All of them resolved now, thankfully. And some people will sleep behind bars tonight.”

  “Well, that’s good. Were any of them colonists, Janice?”

  “A couple. ‘Were’ is the operative word. Not anymore.”

  “Excellent.”

  “Yeah. I probably shouldn’t have intervened directly, but that shit really pisses me off.”

  Education And Training

  With four years to go until the colony ships left, there was time for the colonists to undergo a serious amount of education and training before departure. Most had enough savings not to require interim income, and colonists started to leave their jobs.

  Those young people not yet in the work force dropped out of the normal education curricula as well, to take the accelerated and much different curriculum available to the colonists. Rather than college preparatory classes, they took classes in animal husbandry, construction, farming, and other useful skills.

  There were newsletters for the colonists coming out of Quant’s colony office. There was also a question and answer system, with new questions and answers posted every day.

  All Maureen Griffith’s group committed to go. Maureen and her husband Hank Bolton and their kids, Joseph, Emma, and Paul. Bob Jasic and Sue Dempsey and their kids, Matt, Amy, Stacy, and Tracy. Bill Thompson and Rita Lamb and their kids Debby, James, and Jonah. Jack Peterson and Terri Campbell and their kids, Tom, David, Ann, and Kimberly. Betsy Reynolds – wi
thout Harold Munson – and her kids Peggy, Richard, and the twins, Carl and Sally.

  Amy Jasic, a precocious thirteen, saw the writing on the wall. She read up on what the World Authority speculated colony life to be like, and family and children were a big part of being successful as a colony. She started hunting for a husband among the neighborhood kids, and fifteen-year-old Joe Bolton was surprised but not displeased to find himself the object of her attentions.

  Stacy and Tracy saw this and started thinking in that direction themselves, though they were only eleven. They would be fifteen by the time the ship left, and they didn’t intend to wait for the last minute. The twins went on the hunt as well, and, like everything else, they did it together.

  Their attentions ultimately centered on James and Jonah Thompson. They weren’t twins, but they were brothers, fourteen and twelve. Stacy preferred James and Tracy preferred Jonah, but, as with many things in life, that would reverse before it got to the clinches.

  One of the things the colony would depend on for meat early on is hunting wild game. Raising cattle for both beef and dairy made sense, but animal husbandry of domesticated animals is labor intensive compared to meat from wild game. The interstellar probe, once browse plants were established, would be releasing deer and other wild game on the target planets. No animal husbandry was required to harvest them for meat.

  What was required, though, was the ability to hunt, dress, and butcher game.

  Quant’s colony office made experts available for teaching hunting and dressing skills to colonists. Some of those experts would be colonists themselves, while others wouldn’t. But colonists were encouraged to learn hunting and dressing skills as part of their education.

  When Griffith’s group got their turn hunting, they all went – all nine adults and eighteen children. First, they each took classes in hunting and dressing over their displays at home. How to select an animal that wouldn’t damage the herd. The rudiments of both stalking and lying in wait. How to clean, skin, dress, and butcher the carcass.

  The classes also taught the rudiments of firearm and bow safety. Bow hunting would be preferred in the colonies because it didn’t use up a scarce resource – ammunition – which would be scarce at least until an ammunition factory was brought on-line. That would be years down the road. In the meantime, any firearm hunting should be done with care. One shot, one kill would be the rule.