Colonization (The Seamus Chronicles Book 3) (15 page)

I felt like a Sherpa carrying the reactor back to the village. We never did find the tools, which was disappointing, but the others are carrying quite a bit of food and several new water containers.

Our return walk started while the sun was still below the horizon. The temperature was perfect for physical activity. Once the sun came up the temperature rose with it and discomfort was a factor for the rest of the trip. We took three breaks and the last one spanned several hours. As a result we ended up getting into the village after sunrise.

Mike’s comment about a bigger issue gnawed at me the whole way home. Getting me away from my parents and dropping that bomb had to be a strategic move. But why leave it there? Why not give me something to think about while we walked?

Fortunately Mike seems like a genuine guy. When we got home everyone headed off to rest and he didn’t press the issue. My parents were both asleep and I didn’t wake them to tell them something was weird.

Sofie and I lay down together as we have been doing. Thoughts about making babies kept me awake. We kissed a little but she wound up pushing me away with complaints that she was sweaty and gross and just wanted to sleep.

Mom was awake before everyone else. I was still tired, but spending a little time with her felt like a smart thing. While we were only gone for one Locus day it was more like four Earth days. Even with my notebook, keeping track of time and days is proving challenging.

“Did you horde all the notebooks?” Mom asks as we walk down Main Street.

“No!” I feel like everyone is accusing me of being selfish lately.

“I’m sorry Seamus. It just seems like something you would have done before. I was looking for a notebook to record some things about the garden and I know that you had one. I can’t find any others.” Mom explains.

“One of the guys from the other plane thought someone took the tools from their cargo hold. Maybe the same person grabbed the notebooks?” I offer as an explanation.

“I hope we don’t have a thief among us. We have such an amazing opportunity to start a society based on trust and respect. Let’s assume there’s a miscommunication for now. I want you to see these seedlings.” Mom tries to put the challenge out of her mind, but I can tell she is compartmentalizing and not forgetting.

The garden space is amazing. There are clear furrows and they are well spaced. Even more surprising are the seedlings that have already sprouted. I never paid much attention to mom’s garden at home, but it felt like months from when she planted to when there was growth that looked like something.

“Mom, this looks great.” I’m not sure why she wants me here looking at her garden. I didn’t check with her on my reactor iterations.

“Clearly there are more hours of daylight here but this still seems like remarkable growth. Do you think that having the seeds exposed to radiation could have affected their growth rate?” She asks me

It’s a great question and there must be someone from McMurdo who studied something relevant to this. We’ll need to sort out this ‘bigger issue’ sooner rather than later so we can get working together to not only answer questions, but also take advantage of some of the environmental differences on this planet.

Pretending that I know what I’m doing I kneel down and inspect the seedlings. There seems to be a thin cover of dew on a few of the leaves and that is surprising. Even though the nights have been cool we have not noticed any dew on the native plants.

I thought about this once before when I realized that waking up outside was not as miserable as when dad forced us to go camping one time when I was eleven. The dew point was a common mention in forecasts and weather reports back home, but I never really thought about what caused dew.

“Does it feel humid to you?” I ask my mom, trying to think more about dew.

“I thought it was my hormones going crazy, but yeah, it feels humid. It even feels like the air is heavier than when we first got here.” She answers me.

The containment field that is keeping wavelengths of light and certain radiation from coming in may also be keeping gases from getting out. By changing what comes in we are also changing what goes out. A relatively small change could result in a major impact. Green house gasses were bad on Earth because they were leading to a negative climate change. Here they are leading to a positive climate change by making our atmosphere more like what we are used to.

“Heavier but more like Earth, right?” I want to make sure she feels it the same way I do.

“Hmm. I never thought about it feeling more like Earth, I guess you’re right.” Mom smiles.

Now I really want to get the sensors from the space plane so we can track the changes. If we can use the containment field to develop the atmosphere of this planet to be more compatible for humans, imagine what we might be able to do on other planets that are close to habitable but not quite there yet.

“Hey, you guys need to come check this out.” Dad is behind us and he surprised me more than a little.

“Don’t scare me like that!” Mom snaps at him but she’s smiling.

“So I was able to get a little fire going with some of the packaging you guys brought back. Another can of Chef-boy-r-dee just was not going to cut it. I had noticed some eggs from the chickens and thought I could use the protein. Unfortunately I grabbed on that had been fertilized.” Dad wrinkles his face and sticks out his tongue a little.

“So not only were you sneaking an egg, you didn’t even candle it to see if our brood were increasing?” Mom is not smiling anymore.

“Never mind that, check out this crazy chick.” Dad is well past being in trouble with anyone.

Mom and I follow dad down the path a ways. When he turns off towards where he and mom had spent the night, he stops and stoops over. Mom and I join him a few seconds later.

The sight is amazing and kind of disgusting. It mostly looks like a baby chick, except for its back and the texture of the feathers. The back is broad and hard, almost like a turtle shell. The feathers are not soft and downy like a baby chick, they are wiry and stiff. They look like they are made of carbon fiber.

This presents another shortcoming of my intellect. I know that there were birth defects and the causes varied. There were many animal species that had defects of an extra eye or limb. If memory serves there were even unsurprising cases of two complete heads on an animal. This seems like a modified body structure and not an anomalous growth.

“I’m not sure what we do with this if anything, but I thought you guys should see it.” Dad can be very dopey.

“One more thing for our growing book of mysteries.” I smile back, not ready to care about this latest weird discovery.

“Anyway, if I spend any more time in the garden I’m going to wind up killing plants instead of helping them grow. While you were gone Liam and Cassandra found the end of the trail coming out of the quarry and it met with another one going off along the shore. Do you want to come check it out with us?” He asks me.

I don’t really want to go. Another day spent walking will drive me crazy. Why didn’t we bring a Segway or bicycles? The only reason to go is that I don’t want Cassandra to discover something without me.

“Give me some time to check in with Sofie and then I would love to come along.” I lie about my enthusiasm.

Getting the second reactor operating was less of a chore than it was for the first one. I peddled long enough to get my laptop charged and then Sofie took over to kick-start the reaction. We have electricity, now we need the electric heaters and the sensor array to take advantage.

Sofie and Grace helped solve the mystery of the notebooks. Grace had grabbed all of them and was working with Remmie to write people’s names on them. There were enough for everyone to have three, and she thought that rather than make them a point of contention, they should just be distributed evenly.

I think it was a good idea, but if I look from the perspective of the group from the river plane it seems like we’re acting without consulting them. Yet on the flip side, we have lectured them a time or two about working together.

While I took some more daylight and time notes and thought about the irrigation system Dad hung around me like a lost puppy. With Liam and Cassandra off together a bunch of the time and mom wrapped up in her projects it’s like he has nothing to do.

Eventually he couldn’t wait patiently for me anymore and started asking when I would be done sitting and writing and if we could leave to explore soon. I wonder if his new energy has anything to do with the coming baby. Was he was like this before I was born?

Apparently Cassandra and Liam went ahead of us. Based on watching them around the village I bet they just wanted to get some time alone so they could make out in peace. I like kissing Sofie, a lot, but it’s not like my brother and Cassandra. They seem to be working really hard to be a couple and their affection seems to be insincere. Maybe I’m jealous or nervous that Sofie will see their passion and start to question what she has with me.

I was happy to let her stay back at the camp with my sister and Remmie while I went exploring in the jungle. Never have I tried to sneak off with her to make out or do more. Maybe we just have a more mature relationship than my brother. Why do I still compete with him?

Walking around a bend in the trail I catch my brother locking his lips over Cassandra’s mouth. They are sitting up on a knoll covered in something that resembles moss. A rock outcropping rises above them slightly and light floods the opening in the growth of the jungle.

From simple visual inspection it would make sense to me if this were another quarry. However, I don’t see any of the rectangular voids like we found at the earlier site. I did notice a change in the soil around the head of the trail, and if the monoliths create a fence of some sort we are on the ‘other side’ of the fence compared to the village.

Dad ignores the lovebirds and starts to make his way around the base of the knoll. Travel is easy and the term ‘man made’ pops into my mind, though I don’t believe that the creatures on this planet are humans.

Suddenly I can’t see my dad anymore and he wasn’t that far in front of me. What ever made these trails may live here and they might have done something to my father. My heart begins to race and sweat pours off my brow.

“Seamus, you have to come see this.” Dad is calling to me calmly, but I cannot see him.

“Where the hell are you?” I ask, confused and a little angry.

“In here.” He doesn’t give good directions.

Eventually I am able to see the opening in the ground. I’m not sure what possessed my father to crawl through a hole in the ground on some strange planet, but I follow him in.

Once through the hole a large space opens up. It’s a cave of sorts, though in spots it looks to have been manipulated with tools. It is very primitive and does not seem to match the technology that extracted the monoliths from the quarry.

Dad is shinning the light from a flashlight along the wall and once my eyes adjust I can see it too. There are paintings covering the walls. What I can only assume are animals dominate the characters displayed. There are a couple of drawings that look like ships of some type, but they are separate and not related to the others. Short of the drawings themselves it’s hard to tell if there is something representing intelligent life in these images.

If I had to guess this is more of an inventory of creatures than a depiction of an interrelation between any sets of creatures. Whoever or whatever drew the pictures is intelligent and dexterous. I’m not sure if that’s good or bad for us.

“Wow.” Is all I manage to eke out.

The cave with the drawings turned out to be anticlimactic. Everyone went to check it out and marvel at what it may mean. It may mean that something intelligent was here at one point.

Not knowing where we are in the evolutionary cycle of this planet means the intelligent life that may live here is equivalent to Stone Age humans. Those cave drawings could be days or weeks old for all we know. If that’s true I don’t think we’re dealing with a species that could have traveled the galaxies.

On the other hand, those drawings could be millennia old. A people who were here, evolved, and left may have drawn them. The potential is fascinating but it doesn’t feed us or provide shelter.

It’s been about four Locus days since the cave discovery. That makes it almost a full Earth month. The garden is growing like crazy and we are going to have a bumper crop in another few days.

Survival has become less of a question and that is a good thing and a bad thing. Good because feeling like we are going to make it is an incentive to keep working. Bad because having confidence in our success has people more relaxed.

Normally I would say that relaxation is good but right now it means there is time to speculate. Mike and I never had the conversation with Mom about his ‘bigger issues’ and we should have. There are rumblings of distrust from the McMurdo team and even though we are pulling together in general they stay separate from us.

One of the guys in the group asked if he could retrieve one of the reactors from the river plane. He asked out of respect for the fact that I invented and built it. His plan is a little crazy though.

The thinking is that if I can repair the reactor and set it up as a containment field he can wear it on his back and travel in safety. We’ve only covered a tiny bit of this planet and there is much to learn. I’m jealous of his ambition but also curious about the timing.

We are looking good for now, but I would not go so far as to say that we’ve done everything that needs doing. Explorers serve an important purpose, but I think we should solidify our foothold before we look for new ones.

Luke, the guy who wants to explore, is concerned that we are wasting energy and resources developing a temporary habitat. He feels that there may be a better, more fertile spot to establish our village. Mom is happy to let him go and doesn’t seem phased by letting him take a reactor as well as some food.

Our first log cabin, for lack of a better description, is complete. It’s become a central spot for the whole community and we are sitting outside of it now having our ration of food. I can see some of the McMurdo team packing up and it’s my assumption that they are making another supply run to the river plane. Mom is watching them closely but I’m not sure what she’s looking for.

“Excuse me, Mike.” Mom calls to Mike before any of them start walking.

Packs are dropped to the ground and heads are thrown back in frustration. There are no words but the body language is clear that this is the breaking point.

A woman, I think her name is Sarah, sloughs off her pack and walks quickly over to us.

“How did you get to be in charge?” She points a finger at my mom.

“I don’t really consider myself in charge. It’s just that with so few of us I feel like we need to make sure everyone is safe and accounted for.” Mom is not surprised by the anger.

Mike comes trotting over still wearing his pack. He puts his hand on Sarah’s shoulder and whispers into her ear.

“Bullshit! I want to go home, I want to see my kids.” Sarah screams at him.

“None of us agreed to participate in psychological experiments. I don’t know where we are or what you’re doing with us but we do not consent to this treatment. Consider this a formal request to speak with your commanding officer.” Mike is serious.

Mom looks completely off guard. She looks at dad, who just shrugs his shoulders.

“I’m sorry Mike, I don’t have a commanding officer and I’m not sure what psychological experiments you’re talking about.” Mom finally says to him.

“Your game was a little too far fetched. Killer viruses and space warps aren’t real.” Mike shakes his head as if still trying to convince himself.

“But they are. This is not some game or a trick. We really are on a new planet.” Mom is trying not to sound patronizing but it doesn’t work.

“You cut off communications for months. Then out of the blue you come pick us up and take us back to Ames. At Ames you keep us isolated so we can’t even question what’s going on. Finally you drug us, put us on a plane in a river somewhere and then tell us we’re on another planet. The production quality is amazing, but the jig is up. I want to go home.” Sarah stands defiantly.

“I’m sorry for what you are feeling, but no one is tricking you. All of this is real. If you can think of any way for us to prove it to you, we will.” Mom is genuinely sad.

Sarah has disbelief in her eyes. I can almost see a physical reaction as she hits rock bottom. She confronted her supposed nemesis and conceded defeat. In her mind she should be released. Instead, she was told that it is not a game and there is no release.

“Why did you wait so long?” I ask Mike.

“Several of us applied to the Mars program. We knew that in addition to the explicit tests there would be covert tests to see how we would cope with the stresses of prolonged space travel. Jane led us to believe that this was one of the tests and if we made it through our likelihood for being selected for the program was high.” Mike makes the whole thing sound reasonable.

“I didn’t agree to this!” Sarah sobs.

“I’m finally speaking up because I think that Jane is crazy. Also I finally believe that Sarah is not a plant to introduce social and emotional stresses into the test. If you people are all actors and this is fake then congratulations, you duped me and I’m an idiot.” Mike looks defeated and tired. He is no longer the surprisingly young guy I first talked to, he has aged.

“Mike, we’re not in charge, so please hear this as a suggestion. Take your team and go on a supply trip to the river plane. We won’t send anyone with you; you can all speak freely. Figure out what you believe and what we can do to help you. When you get back we’ll all move forward together.” Dad is calm but firm.

It surprises me that adults behave like this. I can imagine a group of high school or college students going along with a crazy experiment for too long. Sometimes it’s hard to speak up and it seems like the more crazy the situation, the more difficult it is.

The other drawback of not being focused on survival is that Cassandra feels like she can ask me about stupid ideas. She has a theory that there is a way to harness the sun’s radiation to cut through the stone we found at the quarry. If that’s true she wants to build a radiation oven to melt the stone and see what kind of ore we can get from it.

Sounds great on the surface but in practice it means another walk. I’m not taking down the containment field so Cassandra can run some stupid tests. The only way we can access the pure radiation from the sun is if we go outside of the containment field.

Going off for a few days with Liam and Cassandra is not appealing to me. If Sofie wanted to come it would be one thing, but she doesn’t. She would rather stay here and play with Remmie and Grace while working with the McMurdo team on some of their materials analysis.

With the McMurdo guys going on the supply run Sofie will have a chance to do her own thing. She doesn’t want to pass that up and I don’t blame her.

“Seamus, do you have time for a quick walk before you head out?” Sofie asks.

“Sure. I never thought I would do this much walking in my life, let alone over a month or two.” I smile at her.

“I think we should pick a new spot for a cabin. Some of the others have already claimed spots but I think we can find one better than where we’ve been sleeping.” She’s put some thought into this and that doesn’t surprise me.

“What’s wrong with where we’ve been sleeping?” I’m not sure that better is a real possibility.

“I feel like we’re kind of living with your parents. If we’re supposed to, you know, procreate, I’d rather not do it next to your mom.” She’s smiling and her energy is radiant.

My girlfriend and I are looking for a love nest. To be honest I never thought anything like this would happen, let alone before I was eighteen.

When we get to the other side of the central cabin she looks back to where we came from. Satisfied that we cannot see where my parents have been settled she walks a short ways down one of the newly carved paths.

“Look, there’s some light that sneaks through onto the ground here and we are totally separate from the others. We can have our own little garden and lots of privacy but not be too far from your family.” She surveys the spot with her hands on her hips.

I remember back to the conversation we had on our way to Ames. Sofie wanted to go off and find a small house by the ocean. At the time spending the rest of her life alone reading books and gardening sounded perfect to her. Now she’s inviting me to join that life and I’m beyond happy about it.

“I love this spot. We can start simple but it twill totally be our own.” I hug her and then we kiss passionately.

Why do these things have to come up just before I leave? I suppose I could stall Liam and Cassandra one more day so that Sofie and I can move over here and get to work on the whole procreation thing.

“I’ve learned a ton from the McMurdo gang. While you’re gone I’m going to work on a basic structure. When you get back we can move in!” Sofie claps her hands a little and it’s good to see her excited and happy.

“I was going to offer to stay so we could sleep here tonight?” I say optimistically.

“Easy tiger. I don’t want to get in the way of your science. Besides, I think Cassie and Liam are already annoyed that you are making them wait.” She pushes me away playfully.

We walk back around the central cabin and my brother and his girlfriend are waiting for me with full packs. If only Liam knew what I was putting off to help him. He owes me big time but I’m not sure how he could ever repay me.