Space Colony One Books 1 - 6

The Concordia Deception-6

ETHAN WAITED FOR CARIAD in the lot outside the shuttle station. A regular shuttle schedule of three arrivals and departures per day had begun to run, and Cariad had comm’d to say she would be on the noon arrival. Ethan had watched the shuttle fly in, appearing from out of the sky as if by magic. To him, Nova Fortuna was now no more than a stationary point of light at night, and in the daytime the starship was entirely invisible.

As a Gen, he now required special permission to return to his old home. The new rule rankled, especially because Woken like Cariad could come and go as they pleased. The reason given was that the Woken’s roles were mostly scientific and performed aboard the starship, while Ethan’s and the other Gens’ jobs were confined to the settlement or nearby. Yet the delineation was clear: the Woken had freedom to travel to and from the ship and the Gens did not.

The planetside dwellers had quietly pushed back by taking control of the flitters. Nova Fortuna had brought thirty of the fusion-powered land vehicles to the new world. They would run for around three years before their energy ran out, but the technology to refuel or replace them was unlikely to have been developed by that time. Consequently, the Manual stated that they must only be used when absolutely necessary, such as for emergencies and transportation of materials or equipment that was too heavy to be moved by any other method.

The Gens had taken it upon themselves to bend the parameters of what constituted absolute necessity by routinely using the flitters on trips outside the settlement. Massive road making machines were already crawling slowly across the landscape, and solar-powered electric vehicles to run on them were being assembled from kits, but neither were ready yet. The Gens were nervous about venturing into the wild with no means of escape from predatory organisms other than their own two feet. Also, they had quickly picked up on how convenient it was to ride a flitter. After growing up aboard a starship that had transit cars, they weren’t used to walking long distances.

Ethan was looking forward to taking Cariad for a ride. He’d packed some food so they wouldn’t have to return to the settlement to eat when they got hungry. Shuttle passengers began to emerge from the station exit, and Ethan smiled as he saw Cariad’s familiar figure among them.

She spotted him seated in the flitter and waved. “Hi,” she said as she approached. “How did you get permission to take one of these? I thought we were hiking out there. I wore my walking boots.”

“It’s a little far to walk,” Ethan replied. “Besides, all the farmers have the use of the flitters.”

Cariad’s eyebrows lifted. “All the farmers? But aren’t you supposed to be—?”

“Saving them for emergencies?” Ethan said. “Strictly speaking yes, but the roads out to the farms aren’t ready yet, so that doesn’t make a lot of sense, does it? Also, though the creatures from the First Night Attack are nocturnal, there’s always a chance something else might take an interest.”

“Have any other life forms been spotted?” Cariad asked.

“No, not yet. Xenobiologists have combed the farming districts but they didn’t find anything. We put up an electric fence around the farms anyway, just in case.”

Cariad opened the flitter door and climbed in. There were seats for six, but the rear four were folded down to make room for a load. The flitter briefly dipped under the extra weight then returned to its former elevation.

“What happened to your face?” Cariad asked when she saw Ethan close up.

He’d forgotten they hadn’t seen each other since the bombing at the stadium. She probably didn’t remember being rescued.

“Just an injury from the explosion,” he said. “The scar’s fading now. How’s your arm?”

“It’s getting better. The doctor said just another few days and it’ll be good as new.”

“Good. And your head?”

“It’s fine. I heard you pulled me out of the wreckage. I wanted to thank you.”

“You don’t have to thank me. Anyone would have done it.”

“I know, but... ” She drifted to silence, apparently unsure how to frame what she wanted to say. “It’s good to be planetside again. I always feel a little claustrophobic aboard ship, even though it’s as big as a small town. There’s something weird about living in an entirely artificial environment. I’ve never quite gotten used to it.”

“I never minded it. Living aboard Nova Fortuna was all I knew before we came here. In fact, the first time I came planetside, I was nervous. The idea that I could walk for years and never walk in the same place twice freaked me out a little, though I wouldn’t admit it to Lauren.”

Cariad’s expression turned sympathetic, but the atmosphere between them became awkward. Ethan wondered if it was the first time he had mentioned Lauren to her. He couldn’t remember. Thinking about Lauren since she passed was almost unbearably painful. Maybe he hadn’t talked about her up until then.

“It’s about time we left,” he said, starting up the flitter. He reversed the machine from the curb and pulled out of the lot. Once they were through the gate in the electric fence, he set the flitter to automatic.

Cariad gave a surprised Oh, as it left the road before setting off through the fern-like trees that surrounded the settlement.

Ethan chuckled. “We’re heading directly to my land. The flitter doesn’t pay much attention to roads. When you’re floating thirty centimeters high, there’s no need for them.”

“I would have thought there might be some need for them,” Cariad replied.

“Nope. Flitters go around anything that’s in the way, moving or not, or they rise up and pass over. They’re very safe. You never went in a flitter back on Earth?”

“I didn’t. They were entirely new technology. Anti-gravity propulsion had only just been invented, and the engineers had barely run all the safety tests on the flitters before they were loaded onto the Nova Fortuna. I hadn’t even seen one in real life, only in vids. I remember the FTL starship engine scientists had hopes that a-grav would lead them to a breakthrough, but that hadn’t happened by the time we left.”

“This is really your first time in a flitter?” A wave of delight washed over Ethan. He’d always seen Cariad as smarter and more experienced than he was. He’d never thought he would be more accomplished at something than her.

“What are you thinking?” Cariad asked.

“Nothing much. Why?”

“You have a goofy grin on your face.”

“I do?”

“You do. Is it because I said it was my first time in a flitter?”

“No... well, yeah, actually. I didn’t think I’d ever have more experience in something than a Woken. You always seem to know everything and have done everything. Being around you makes most of us Gens feel stupid, if I’m honest.”

Cariad’s expression fell, and she turned to look out at the passing landscape.

“Is something wrong?” Ethan asked. “I didn’t mean anything by what I said. I was only talking about what it’s like being a Gen. I wasn’t criticizing you.”

When Cariad turned back to Ethan, her face remained sad. “Is that how you see me? Is that what I am to you? A Woken?”

“No. I didn’t mean it like that. I was only talking generally. I don’t think of you as just another Woken. You’re a friend, Cariad. A good friend.”

She appeared to feel a little happier. “You’re a friend, too. I don’t think of you as a Gen.” She returned her gaze to outside the flitter. They had left the forested area that surrounded the settlement and were traveling across an open plain, where the rubbery ground cover grew waist high. The flitter adjusted its height accordingly. On the horizon lay a thin blue line. It was the lake that bordered Ethan’s land.

Ethan stole another look at Cariad. She seemed to have gotten over the downturn in her mood. He recalled her as he had first seen her in the First Night Attack, carrying a flaming brand in each hand, the light of the torches flickering across her face. The image had remained in his mind and probably would forever.

“I think I can see it,” she said. “That’s the lake, right? Is your land on this side of it?”

“Yes, it is. Of all the allotments, mine is farthest away from town. The land on the other side of the lake doesn’t belong to anyone yet.”

“Yes it does. It belongs to everyone,” Cariad said with a smile.

“Yeah, that’s right. Until it’s allocated.”

“Maybe if your farm does well, they’ll give you the land on the other side too. You could have a huge place.”

“I guess so.”

“Wouldn’t you like that?”

The only person Ethan had told about his dissatisfaction with the idea of becoming a farmer was Dr. Crowley, his other Woken friend who had also died that terrible first night of the settlement. The profession allocation system was intended to be flexible within the parameters set by academic achievement, strengths, and temperament., but refusing to choose any of the positions offered to you upon high school graduation was seen to be anti-social. Ethan was only going to be a farmer because he didn’t really have a choice. In another life, on Earth, he thought he would have done something quite different.

“Ethan?” Cariad said.

He realized he hadn’t replied to her question. “Sorry. No, I’m not very enthusiastic about farming. If I could choose, I’d rather explore this new world. I used to read a lot when I was a kid, mostly when I should have been doing my homework. I read about the great explorers of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries on Earth. They would go places where no human had ever set foot, like the South Pole. Then fewer and fewer of those places existed. Later on, people went to the summits of the highest mountains and deep into ocean trenches. They went to all the places on Earth where it used to be too hard for people to survive. They went to the Moon. Then by the twenty-second century, there wasn’t even anywhere on the colonized Solar planets that someone hadn’t explored.

“But this place... we know hardly anything about it. We only have information from probes to tell us what’s here, and we found out on the first night that information isn’t reliable. We need to know more about this planet. I want to find out more. But I’m going to be stuck here digging the ground and growing crops for the rest of my life.” His voice had risen. He paused and gave a wry smile. “Sorry. I guess I needed to vent.”

They had passed through the gate in the fence surrounding the farming district. Cariad looked out at the approaching lake in silence for a little while, then she said, “You know, you’re right. What if there’s some other menace out there that could destroy us? We need to know about it. If we don’t, how can we defend ourselves? We’re lucky that the electric fence seems to keep everything dangerous out of the settlement. What would we do if there’s a life form that isn’t affected by electricity? We need people like you to find out what the dangers are.”

“I’d love to do that,” Ethan said, “but I don’t see anyone giving the order any time soon.” A new Leader had yet to be elected after the bombing, and a date for a new Naming Ceremony hadn’t been set. “We’re nearly there. We might already be on my land, in fact. It isn’t easy to tell without boundary markers, but I think this is it.”

The lake stretched out in front of them. If he had to be a farmer, Ethan counted himself lucky to have such a useful resource on his doorstep, though water channels to other farms would cut cross his land. Maybe the lake contained something like fish too, something that humans could eat.

He stopped the flitter a short distance from the shore, and they got out. The ground was spongy, and their footsteps left imprints as they walked across it, wading through the vegetation. Together, they went toward the stretch of water.

“I wanted to ask you,” Ethan said, “is this planet very different from Earth?”

Cariad thought a while before replying. “At first look, it isn’t. The sky’s blue, the vegetation is green, there are mountains and oceans, rocks and soil, and the gravity is nearly the same. That was the main reason this place was chosen. Once the colonists arrived, they would be on their own. No request for help would even reach Earth until it was way too late. So we couldn’t commit to a colonization except on a world where conditions were as near perfect as possible.

“But now that I’m here, it’s different in so many ways. The plants look weird. The air smells funny. The sunlight isn’t quite right, and of course the night sky is totally different. And the sounds... Can you hear anything?”

“Only the noise of the wind.”

“On Earth, if we were out in the countryside we would hear birds and insects, maybe frogs and other animals depending on the time of day. This planet is almost entirely silent. If I don’t think about it, I don’t notice, but I guess I feel it on another level. Nothing is quite right about this place. I don’t dislike it, but I seem to always be a little bit aware that I’m somewhere different.”

A warm, humid breeze came toward them from across the lake. The sun was still high. Its rays blazed across the water surface, creating a silver sheen on the smooth expanse.

They reached the lake’s edge where the vegetation gave way to black sand. Lazy ripples lapped at the shore. They were alone in the alien landscape.

“What do you think?” Ethan asked.

“It’s beautiful.”

Chapter Five

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