Prologue

It had become the practice of the homesteader couples not on duty to gather at dusk on the ridge above the “dorm” and watch the sunset and appreciate the vast, empty open unspoiled spaces before them. The sunsets on the open end of the valley are spectacular. The shades of blue and amber are a delight. I imagine it is what Earth’s sunset looked like before we changed the atmosphere. It is the reason the ‘settlers’ came – to escape an overcrowded earth. So, here I was, sitting next to Jennifer with her hand in mind. She squeezed my hand and smiled. I took it to mean “Isn’t this joyous, you me, and all this beauty”? We had only been together for a few weeks, but I cannot deny that I care for her more with each passing day. I also admit that the depth of my feelings unsettles me. It would have been a perfect moment, but while others marveled at the incredible blues, purples, and golds as our sun dipped below the horizon and stared into the vast empty landscape, I looked for movement beyond the barrier at the open end of our valley.

1
A Leap of Faith

a few brief months earlier In what started as a typical day.
Sean O’Hara is my name; I am thirty-four years old today. It’s 8 AM and I am sitting at my engineering workstation testing a very special pump my crew developed. It uses minimal energy, lasts 40,000 hours of use, and is easily re-buildable. Here at SO, nothing goes out the door until I am satisfied. I started this company five years ago to take on engineering challenges that other engineers thought were unsolvable. As the little pump passed each test, the pride in my crew of 11 engineers swelled, and I was grinning like a schoolboy who just discovered girls. This pump was ‘all them’. I had no hand in its design, and I was fine with that. I composed and emailed approval, ok to release, and WELL DONE to the crew. It was then that my phone made an odd buzz I hadn’t heard before.         

I read the Resettlement Bureau’s notification email three times before my mind accepted this as real. The code number matched the one they assigned me when I applied. I had prepared the homesteader questionnaire on the Resettlement Data Device (RDD) the bureau sent me when I passed the preliminary interviews. The bureau strongly suggested I complete it upon receipt. I have double-checked it a dozen times.

The Resettlement Bureau’s computer had randomly assigned me that “ticket” (my name on a very secure list). It grants me passage on the resettlement ship, Phoenix. I should explain that the word random isn’t precisely the right word as the Resettlement Bureau’s computer uses a sophisticated algorithm to choose the Homesteader’s population. The mix of engineers, farmers, teachers, physicians, etc. The ratio of men to women, single to married, it’s all very scientific and precise.  It is also very secret; only the bureau and the 300 people selected know they are on the list. 

It was just sixty-six years ago that our scientists discovered the mineral and the Y wave. Two years later, they solved the light-speed barrier with those discoveries. Forty-five years ago, they built the first ship capable of visiting other solar systems. Since then, they have constructed many more and ever bigger vessels. They have also continuously searched for more deposits of the mineral and habitable planets as we’ve outgrown the Earth.

Over the years, the Resettlement Bureau learned how to best crew a settlement ship. Secrecy is a must. It starts with an email that gives the settler a short time to report to the bureau (I had 3 hours). Once you arrive at the reporting station, the Bureau will notify your people. You can take nothing with you other than a single memory stick. We need every square inch of the Phoenix for storage: all the food, machinery, building supplies, and everything else that we will need to survive on our new home planet. Forgetting anything is not an option.

What makes anyone want to risk their lives on the other side of the galaxy? My answer is a couple of things: I am an only child; single, and I lost my parents a few years back to an on-the-job accident. They were engineers too. My only other living relative is my grandfather, and he is quite old. When I told him my plans, he said, “Go for it.” If you get it, I’ll be happy for you. The odd thing is I’ve got a great job that I love. People bring to my twelve-person engineering firm complex engineering challenges, and often, we solve them. The diversity of those challenges makes the work interesting but, despite all that, I’m bored. I’ll admit I am lonely. Also, the earth’s overcrowding demands our search for new homes and space. Someone has to go, and I am ready for a new life.

I got up from my station, took the elevator 2 floors up to my apartment, took a shower, got dressed, grabbed the RDD, locked the apartment, walked away, and didn’t look back. The Bureau would handle the transfer of my apartment and all my possessions. The firm’s ownership would pass to my three longest-tenured employees. My apartment would go to Jane, my first employee. The crew is a gifted group of people and will be just fine. Because I’m single and have no pets, it was easy for me.

I splurged on private transport to a building a couple of doors away from the bureau. It shocked the driver when I gave him a 500-credit tip. The bureau’s instructions were specific: arrive alone and be discreet. Not long after, I walked through the doors of the bureau. I followed the arrows to “traveler reception.” There were two people there, a man and a woman. She asked for my RDD. She plugged it into her system, looked down, hit a few keys, stared at her screen, and said, “Welcome, homesteader O’Hara.”  I thanked her and she hit a few more keys. She handed my RDD back to me and said: “Please go through that door and have a seat.” I said thanks and did as requested. 

The three people sitting on two overstuffed couches looked up and smiled. The man in reception came through the door behind me and said, “Now that we are all here, we can leave.”

Over the next two hours, I learned that the woman and man from reception, Ralph, and Sally, were former police. The husband-and-wife team of Frank and Beth were botanists. Jennifer, the stunning blonde, was an electrical engineer and was very nervous. She had the bluest eyes I have ever seen. Maybe because I was anxious about what we were about to experience, I was not nervous when chatting with her. Beautiful women usually make me very uncomfortable. It’s been that way since my fiancé gave me the heave-ho a few years back. 

2
Departure

We arrived at the shuttle departure site, and they served us some strange mushy food, then we changed into homesteader’s suits, and they hurried us aboard our transport. Shuttle l was utilitarian; it had 20 rows of 4 bare-bones uncomfortable seats, with five seats up front for the crew. The flight wasn’t what I expected, very smooth, and the only discomfort was from the acceleration. In twenty minutes, we arrived and docked with the Phoenix, and we then unloaded. The Phoenix is a massive vessel, the largest ship ever constructed. Still, the two-month trip to our new planet will be in tight quarters.  

We learned from the pilot that Shuttle One and its bigger brother, Shuttle 2, would come with the Phoenix to x48. Yes, x48, they stopped naming the planet’s new hope, new earth, etc., years ago. I am not exactly sure why. The scuttlebutt was that the bureau chose the first few “new homes” poorly. They turned out to be challenging to settle, as some had unfriendly climates, plants, animals, insects, etc., and there were other very unpleasant discoveries. Those too-optimistic names became a bit of a grim joke.

As the last ones to arrive, we, a group of 48 people, lined up and processed ourselves in one of the ship’s many enormous bays, which were already nearly full. You handed over RDD, then security people inserted it into a reader, and erasing your earth’s presence got underway. This was the point of no return. I later learned once you entered your details into your memory stick back at home, the Bureau had the information and they used it in the selection process. Surrendering your disc was more ceremonial and part of cutting your ties to the earth. We were all given a multifunctional device called a PA (Personal Assistant) and mine flashed J22 with directions to my sleeping cubicle. Then they gave me an injection, stating that it would help with the transition to speed, and instructed me to get to my berth as soon as possible. There were two rows of them, stacked four high and 20 in a row. At first, I thought 160 people; then I saw my new friends, the botanists, kiss and then climbed up and in together. Everyone I saw seemed to be part of a couple.

I thought to myself, it would be nice to have a partner. I opened the cubicle’s entrance slide and quickly learned I wouldn’t be sleeping alone. Jennifer, the engineer, was already asleep on what would become her side of the bed. Her PA was in a charger nook designed for two PAs. I would have gone and found someone to make sure this was what the bureau intended under normal circumstances, but the injection was kicking in big time. I closed the cubicle slide, put my PA in the charger, carefully slid into the bed, and fell asleep immediately. 

Shortly later, back on earth, my name appeared on the new “leavers” site. The twelve people I chose received a personal email explaining what I left for them, my thanks and goodbye and well wishes.

3
A Fast Two-Month Trip

When I woke up, Jenifer was already awake and reading her PA. She said to me: “You should drink all of this right away, it will make you feel better.” Despite feeling disoriented and woozy, I got it down. I looked down and saw the bracelet-like device with tubes attached to my leg. It popped, detached, and retracted into the wall. “You might as well read the briefing”, and she handed me my PA.

It was from the captain of the Phoenix. “Welcome to X48 homesteaders. We have been orbiting x48 for six days. Yes, you’ve been asleep for sixty-four days. After you fell asleep, the medical team visited and attached your doze bracelets and verified you were all set for your traveler’s sleep. Our ship simply isn’t designed to have 320 people moving about. So, we let you sleep through it. You’ll need some hours to stretch those muscles. Please follow the instructions below and stay with your sleep partner.”

We exited the sleep cubicle and immediately noticed about half the sleep cubicles and their occupants were gone. The remaining homesteaders used the freed-up space to work out our stiff joints with instructed exercises. Then all our PAs chirped and flashed: Report to Shuttle 1. It included instructions on how to get there. On the way to Shuttle 1 through the portals, we could see Shuttle 2. 

Shuttle 2 was beyond enormous, bigger than any ship I had ever seen. We boarded, found our way back to our old seats, and watched on a screen as our Shuttle 2 disappeared, presumably to land. We then had a ringside seat as the pilots went through the landing steps checklist and then started the landing sequence. The trip to the surface was twenty minutes, but unlike the trip up from Earth to the Phoenix, this was a scary, speedy, bumpy ride. Jennifer and I locked eyes, then she mouthed the words: “Is this normal?” we learned it was, but what is ‘normal’ when you are on the other side of the galaxy from Earth?

We landed, unboarded, and watched shuttle 2 take off and leave the detachable warehouse bay with our cubes behind. I was stunned to see that the bay was a wing of our star-shaped dorm building. Two large tractors moved it into position. Not thirty minutes later, our sleeping wing was up and running. Looking around, we were in a lush green valley with steep hills on three sides. It occurred to me that this was a highly defensive position. In 30 years of resettlement, the bureau had learned to expect the unexpected.  I also noticed the huge solar panel farm. In the distance, on the open end of the valley, I saw what appeared to be a line of equally spaced dots running from hill to hill. I said out loud, “I wonder what that is?” a tractor driver walking by said, “Oh, that’s the security barrier.” 

Our PAs started chirping, and they directed us into the star-shaped “dorm” building and the great hall in the center. We all sat in front of a large screen and watched an orientation video. This video wasn’t a polished production. I assumed they recorded it here on the planet.  

It started “My name is Troy Wentworth; I am your appointed lead homesteader here on X48. First, welcome. A small crew and I have been on site for nearly eight months, patiently waiting for you. We learned a good deal about our new home. We created this video to bring you up to speed on exactly what we’ve learned. Please forgive the choppiness of the video. We’ve continually been updating it as we make more discoveries. Please watch it more than once.”

“There are two things I want to emphasize, Number 1, under no circumstances leave the Valley unless your job calls for it, and if so, never without at least one guard. Though you shouldn’t need to; our number one priority is to get the greenhouses, additional solar panels, several buildings, and wind turbines constructed and up and running. We have allocated everyone here to those tasks for the first few weeks.  After that, we will assign you work according to your specialty. Number 2, always travel in pairs at night. There have been no problems, but experience has taught us it is a wise safety precaution.”

The video explained its early springtime at the homestead. They chose the location on x48 because of its temperate climate, rainfall, soil properties, and the lake at the head of the valley. Successful farming was all but guaranteed. The green of the valley was a low-growing shaggy moss. Most local wildlife were small vegetarians, a few small predators, and a few larger dangerous animals, but they lived far away. Insect life was also so far harmless but to be avoided. The video emphasized that so much was still unknown.

Although growing crops outside had been successful and continually tested, the greenhouses-controlled environments would ensure food for the homesteaders. A failed crop was not an option. Oh, the video informed us we homesteaders are all vegetarians. 

The video then highlighted other interesting locations around the planet where researchers had discovered natural resources. Finally, the video displayed the control plan. The perimeter barrier was item number 3 and marked completed. It was nice the bureau wasn’t taking any chances, but it was like seeing a group of security officers together on Earth. You would always wonder what’s up. I was wondering.  

Finally, the video addressed the sleeping arrangements for singles. “It surprised some of you to be sharing a berth with a stranger. I don’t need to remind you we have limited living space. The computer handpicked your partner for compatibility. If the situation becomes unbearable, please come and see me.”

4
Man Best Friend

We watched the video twice and headed outside, and they advised us to stay close as first-day fatigue would no doubt set in. We were staring at the many vistas. Focusing on what details we could make out. That’s why we didn’t hear or sense their approach from behind. I guess all that “insects are to be avoided” stuff had me a bit on edge. Then I felt something on the back of my leg. I screamed, then jumped forward and landed on my butt. I turned to see two of what looked like giant German shepherds wagging their tails. They hurried over and licked me. I was embarrassed at first, but a member of the advance party, a big guy, who was nearby, said. “Good, being afraid of everything; it could save your life” I would later learn Daisy and Neil were two of six homesteader dogs. Being a dog lover, I quickly made friends. They wandered the grounds, played, watched, and stayed away from the barrier, and I would learn later well-earned their keep.

Ten minutes later, our PAs alerted our group to “chow time” in the great hall. We ate, met some more people, then went to our cubicles. We learned clothes were communal. You grabbed a new homesteader suit out of cabinets and threw your old one in a labeled bin, and that was that. It took me a second to realize all the men and women were all the same size. We learned that x48 has plenty of water, and lots of sunlight so the homesteaders could take warm showers regularly. Again, the bathrooms and shower rooms were a communal unisex affair.

The Settlement used the recycled water for the crops. The lessons of waste We didn’t lose the lessons of waste on earth. We showered, and changed, and then that first-day fatigue hit us. I would swear I was asleep before my head hit the pillow. I awoke to our PAs chirping. I realized Jennifer had snuggled up to me during the night. I think she was a little embarrassed. I said, “It’s ok, we’ve been sleeping together for months,” and she laughed. I thought sleeping with Jennifer was not a terrible place to be. I must admit to being disappointed when our PAs had different report locations. We headed off our separate ways, me to defense training, her first to an exercise class, then on wind turbine construction.

The instructor explained they would teach every homesteader first aid, defense, and how to use an energy rifle. Again, nothing had suggested we would need them, but preparation and safety were the homesteader’s number one priority. They made us watch a video on the weapons. These energy rifles were more than deadly, but they had a low-energy target settling. We spent an hour doing target practice and weapons familiarity. It turns out I was a natural and scored a ‘sharpshooter.’ The instructor said we would regularly do this training for the next few weeks. With our weapons slung over our shoulders, we went for a hike to the next valley and got to see the Great Lake. It was more like a small ocean. I asked if there were lake creatures. The instructor said he had observed large splashes, like a predator feeding. He told us, “Studies of the lake and its inhabitants will begin in a few weeks. We’ve been so busy.”

It was early evening when we returned. I noticed a new wind turbine spinning high on the hill and four more in various stages of construction. There were two massive greenhouse frames where there had been an open space. The patrol drones were just returning when we finally made it to the bunkhouse. We had a quick meal, and I went to my bunk and was pleased to see Jennifer waiting for me. We discussed the day’s activities. Jennifer explained the wind turbines were modular and engineered to go together with little fuss. Building them was a kind of fun. It was good to see her happy and excited. She asked about my day, and I talked about weapons training. She got a concerned look, and I said, “They said they had zero problems so far.” Later, I Jennifer pleasantly surprised me when she kissed me good night.

I continued working on greenhouse construction and Jen working on the wind turbines with intermittent security training for both of us continued for about three weeks. At the end of the 25th day on the planet, six giant turbines were happily spinning with the night breeze and connected to the homestead’s grid. Four of the giant greenhouses were complete.