༺ Thesium ༻

Terraformers

Captain Theo Nimes groaned with a deep refusal. Coming out of cryogenesis was rough on anyone. The crew began to stir.

Heavily climbing through layers of reanimation protocols, he gradually regained consciousness. It was a burden. There was a period of disorientation accompanied by a sense of unreality and so Root gave them plenty of time and a good deal of gentle care. Their first needs were all physical but everyone of them felt communication to be the number one priority. Where were they? Who are these people? What are we doing here again?

On wobbly legs they gathered gradually at the big external screens. Throughout the ship little groups huddled together to gawp in wonder at the planet below. They yawned, they stretched but mainly, they goggled! Terraforming had been fabulously successful while they slept, circling their new home from above its clouds.

The planet had few life-forms when they arrived but now that Root has been so hard at work for so many years sending probes, autonomous machines and huge swarms of nanobots, it had soil and drinkable water. It had seasons and mountains and shores and forests. It had a balanced atmosphere and sparkling rivers ran through the halcyon glades. This daughter of Gaia circled her strange star at just the right distance, just the right speed. It was, well, just right! A heaven in stark contrast to the hell left behind.

Theo got on the ship-wide intercom. “Hello there my heroic colonists! Let’s have a big feast and a meeting to talk things over about what we’re going to do. Let’s get together in Main Hall number one at seven this evening. You’ll all be happy to know that there have been no casualties, everything looks tip top and the master plan is all set. Oh, and we’re all seventy two years older than we were a fortnight ago, happy birthday old timers! Out!”

Their celebratory meal had been a riot! It had taken quite a while to settle everyone down for his talk, so excited were they, but they really wanted to hear it and eventually a hush descended and Theo rose to his feet.

“This here is our new star, over here the wormhole we’ve come out of and right over there is home. We all know that we won’t be returning, it’s sad I know, but this right here is where we have to MAKE our new home. You’ve all seen the planet below by now and isn’t she marvellous? (loud cheering) Root has incredible things to show us by and by, but the first thing is our new base. Root? please show us.”

The screens showed the base from high drone footage. Nestled in the banks of gentle hills, the landing site was clearly visible and looked ready for them.

“Hello everyone, you can call me ‘Root’. We didn’t get to know each other before your stasis began but while you’ve been sleeping I have done the ground work, in all literalness, and now need your help to further the building of infrastructure. The intention is to build a central 3d-printing facility over here and factories over there. We can bootstrap off our onboard replicators, robotics can drill down into the planet, it’s hot down there, and create a heat exchange energy plant. Materials can be collected and taken to the main factory which will start on building the bigger stuff - dwellings, laboratories and farms. Above all, we need a nursery. The first tranch of embryos need to start their journeys as soon as practically possible. I’ll need a computing and data collection facility which we want to build underground, somewhere around here, to archive and process everything. You’ll have initial allocations already but all personel decisions will rest ultimately with Captain Theo.”

The days that followed were spent sending shuttles to and fro, further establishing their base. Everyone had a multitude of tasks to perform and it was only a week or so before engineering were ready to land the main ship. Stepping on to their new home was a deep feeling for all of them. It was so much like the earth that the joy in their hearts was the joy of a return. Their recognition of this new planet must have come from very deep, atavistic sources, for not one of them had ever bathed in a stream before. Lying in lush grass watching clouds float by was novel for them all. They couldn’t get enough of it.

And so it was that five full years of frenetic activity exploded forth on their brand new world. Their activity centred around the moored ship which was used primarily as an interim energy source. By the end of the fifth year its main components had been repurposed and used in Root’s new, primary infrastructure. Theo’s shuttle craft was now no longer used either. Everything they needed was now close at hand. They kept it in central pride of place in the heart of their emerging city. A symbol of their voyage to this beautiful new world. A symbolic vessel carrying their torch of life into an uncertain future. A ship filled with lights.