The Colony Ship Eschaton: The entire ten book series, page 188
The planet Bounty seemed to expand and there were a series of flashes as different levels of magnification were utilized. Finally, an overhead view of Habitat One was seen. The long cylinder shape was located near a large lake which was roughly twice the size of the habitat. There was a deep groove leading up from one end of the habitat. The dark brown soil was exposed. There appeared to be some kind of trees all around the habitat, but many of them were broken and lying sideways.
“Did they crash?” Michael asked.
“Unable to confirm or deny,” Journal replied. “No response to summons.”
“Take us there,” Lindsey said. “We must get home.”
“Plotting course for successful entry into atmosphere. The Captain’s Gig has limited repulser field capacity. We will experience turbulence upon entry.”
“I think it will get more bouncy,” Jacob told his little brother.
“It is not so bad,” Joel said with his eyes wide open as he looked at the viewer and held the straps which secured him to his seat. “Not really too bad.”
Lindsey placed both of her hands on the journal and the green glow she had shown before, surrounded her and flowed into the Captain’s Journal. The console pulsed with the green light and then it spread through the entire gig. The viewer shifted back off the magnification and showed the vast arc of the plant Bounty. The Captain’s Gig settled into approach.
“Entering Bounty atmosphere,” Journal announced.
The blackness of space was left behind and the gig slipped into the upper reaches high above Bounty. There were some red tinges around the edges of the view but those seemed to mix with green as they descended. Several hard thumps were felt as the gig continued to drop into the sky.
It was quiet for a few minutes. Then the viewer became completely covered in whites and light grays. That lasted for a few minutes and then they were fully in the sky. They could see the planet’s horizon way ahead and a bit of blue above them.
“We have safely entered the atmosphere. We are now in power glide mode. Fuel is being conserved for final landing. Heat and friction were less than conjectured. Taking air and atmosphere samples.”
“Down is back,” Joel said. And he stomped his feet onto the deck.
“How long until we reach Habitat One?” Michael asked.
“ETA approximately seven hours for over-flight. This is depending on atmospheric conditions we may encounter,” Journal replied. “We are traveling at a greatly reduced speed compared to the former orbital velocity.”
“That will give us time to observe this world a bit more,” Jamie said in excitement.
As the gig descended they could see ahead of them a mountain range which spanned a great distance. There were some white tops to the mountains. A very large river system was seen as the water flowed down out of the mountains and into valleys and then into a large torrent that twisted and turned its way across the land.
“That water sure runs in crooked ways,” Jacob said as he looked at the view. “It is not straight at all.”
And down the gig glided on its flight toward Habitat One. Beyond the mountain range was an ocean which glistened blue and sparkly as they flew over it. Tan colored beaches stretched along its jagged coast. A few irregularly shaped islands were seen.
“Michael, there is some tan down there, right next to the water. Not at all like outside Dome 17,” Jamie said with appreciation in her voice.
Most of the glide, the passengers just watched in amazement at the world unfolding beneath them. The habitats they were now used to were large and impressive, but compared to the landscape rushing past below them, the habitats now seemed tiny and constricted.
“Is there no edge to the world?” Jacob asked. “No edge at all, it just goes on and on until that land and the sky meet. It is very weird.”
Sometime later, Journal asked, “Commander, do you wish to dock to Habitat One or land on the planet’s surface?”
Lindsey looked at Jamie and Michael. There was puzzlement in her still glowing green eyes.
“We better dock, use an airlock to enter, and see what condition it is in,” Jamie said.
“Or we can cut open a door,” Michael laughed.
“Cutting security doors is against regulations,” Mullen said from the back of the gig.
“Sorry, Lieutenant, I was making a joke,” Michael replied.
“Security is never a laughing matter. Security doors are in place for everyone’s safety,” Mullen said.
“You are absolutely correct,” Michael stated in all seriousness. “Please keep reminding me of when I mess up.”
“I plan to,” Mullen replied.
“I have located a possible docking location. Exterior Repair Station 553 is in a position which will allow the gig to dock. We will be twenty degrees off vertical, however the docking clamps will stabilize the gig,” Journal reported.
“Take us there,” Lindsey said.
The gig flew over the top of Habitat One, and the land around it was lush and exotic. The trees were large with deep green trunks and huge yellow leaves. They were cone shaped, but different than anything anyone had ever seen before, even different from the few surface views they had already had of Bounty.
“Altering trajectory and engaging vertical descent thrusters,” Journal stated.
The gig shifted around and pointed nose high in the air. The view showed a blue sky with a multitudes of puffy white clouds. The bottoms of the clouds all looked flattened and were edged in light grey color.
“That is so beautiful,” Gonzales said from her seat.
As the gig stalled in its upward course, and then began to descend, the passengers felt odd sensations. There was the feeling of sinking downward, and twisting, as the gig descended on its thrusters. The view of the sky shifted and a bright yellow orb was seen.
“The sun!” Regina cried in happy surprise. “That is the sun!”
“There is no sky tube,” Jacob said. “And the sky looks all funny.”
“That ball of light is the sky tube,” Henry said. “Really, the sky tube was a machine which imitated the sun.”
“This is so amazing,” Regina commented again. “Seeing a real sun and a real sky.”
There were a series of clanks and clonks as the Captain’s Gig settled into the docking rings around Exterior Repair Station 553.
“Landing and docking are completed. Seal to airlock is secure. Captain’s Gig is locked in place,” Journal said.
Everyone was lying on their backs looking up toward the front of the gig. The view screen shut down. All that remained there was blank permalloy.
Jamie unbuckled her restraints and stood up. “Feels pretty normal, except for being at a slant and sideways. Shall we enter into Habitat One?” She was climbing down over the empty seats heading for the rear door. “That airlock is going to look more like a tunnel downward, than how it was before.”
Lindsey pulled the Journal out of its location and secured it around her waist on her belt and started to climb down the seats as well. Gonzales was already at the rear hatch.
Jamie reached to push the controls to open the door, but before she could, the door swung opened in front of her. Looking down she saw into the airlock and standing at what was now the bottom of the airlock were two men.
“It is you! You are back!” Levi hollered up from what was now the bottom of the chamber.
“This part of the world is upside down, sideways, and really strange now. Welcome home!” Gideon called out. “We have ropes and things needed for climbing. We will help you all to get you down here.”
“Gideon and Levi! You are alive!” Jamie cried out in joy. “Is everything okay?”
“Except for these strange places where down has changed around, yes. The talking machine Goliath told us that someone was coming to this place, and so we came to meet you. Antioch is the same as always, but Goliath says we are on a different world now.” Both men were dressed in their permalloy armor.
Hannah and Tobias stuck their heads through the sideways door and looked up as well. “Who all is there?”
Jamie started to explain all about their escape from the needle ship, when Joel wiggled by.
“Now that I know I can survive it, that was pretty fun!” Joel said.
epilogue
The sky tube shown down on Antioch, a town that sat inside an enormous cylinder of permalloy which rested on the planet Bounty. The birds flew over the town and swooped in low to catch mosquitoes and other insects.
Liduma and her pups raced and played with the children who were running in the grasses of Coastal Plains. Some of the children were once called little lieutenants, others had grown up in Antioch, and a couple had moved here from Media. They were playing a racing and tagging game that had characters named Frog Monster and Sinclair, and if you were touched by one of them, you became the monster until you could touch someone else. The laugher was infectious.
Jamie and Michael were watching the children, the birds, and the sky tube from their chairs on the deck of the cabin.
“Jamie?” Rectora Lydia said through the combox on Jamie’s waist.
“Yes, Rectora?” Jamie answered
“It is time. Can you and Michael come to the Center?” Lydia asked.
“Right away!” Jamie nearly knocked the chair down as she leaped up. She ran inside the cabin and grabbed two backpacks.
Michael quickly stood and taking one of the backpacks, he strapped it on and followed her. They both tightened up the belts on their waists which held the holstered Willie Wackers and a sheathed permalloy knife. Michael also placed his bow and quiver of arrows on his back.
They briskly walked past the underground garage, and the bakery, and up to the Center, the largest building in all of Habitat One.
“Are we sure the radiation absorbing material clothing is not needed?” Michael asked.
“Not today!”
They walked to the portal room, where Rector Conner and Rectora Lydia were standing. They were wearing the yellow robes of their offices.
“Kurat says the final tests are done,” Lydia said with a large smile.
“It is about time,” Jamie replied. “It has been forty days since we landed here on Bounty.”
“Jamie, it took a while for the automacubes to gather specimens, and for the analysis to be done, and for the vaccines and DNA alterations to take place,” Conner said with a sly grin.
“Yes I know that,” Jamie answered.
“And the adjustments made in the air inside here to accustom us all to the conditions outside had to be done gradually,” Conner said. “After all, we are adjusting ourselves to a whole new world. That cannot happen instantly.”
“Some of Kurat’s procedures to expedite our evolution were not as comfortable as I would have liked either,” Michael said. “So the final tests were safe? We are modified enough to survive outside?”
“Yes, you two are the first ones that have adjusted completely. The rest of the biosphere here is coming along, and remarkably, there have been few if any real unexpected events,” Lydia said. “Of course, reaching the people in the under-dweller corridors has been a challenge, but the legionnaires are still taking them food supplies which have the necessary treatments in them. Lorna’s pregnancy shows that the baby she is carrying has very good results on the adaptation. So the generation we treat now will pass the traits for survival along to the subsequent generations. Locked in the DNA is the modifications needed for life on Bounty.”
“That is good news,” Jamie said.
“With all that has happened, and all you have done for everyone here, it seems fitting that you two are the ones who first step outside,” Lydia said. “That is if you want to be the first outside adventurers.”
“Yes, we do! Theta Four?” Jamie asked.
“Yes, Jamie. Congratulation on your adjustments. I have the passageway ready for your transition. You may proceed when you are ready,” the voice of Theta Four came from the display.
Conner went on, “Now remember, the camp was set up by the automacubes. There is the shelter, and the well, and the rest of what you need. The comboxes work well outside, so you can contact us in here when you need to. John and Abigail asked that you save them a place near the river. John is very interested in what he calls the amphibofish. We estimate that John and Abigail will probably be the next who are acclimatized for life on Bounty.”
“There will be many in that group who are ready about the same time,” Lydia added. “But you two are the first. You understand that you will be on your own for a few days until the others are ready. You sure you do not want to wait?”
“No waiting for me!” Jamie said. “We are going now.”
“We thought you would say that,” Conner laughed and laughed.
“Has there been any new word from the other habitats?” Michael asked.
“They are all following the protocol that Mister Green Jeans established. That AI maintains it was far easier to transform all the life in the habitats rather than try to transform Bounty. Mister Green Jeans calls it bioforming, and is certain there will be full adaptation of every life form within six months for every habitat. Apparently, on a cellular level Bounty is extremely similar to old Earth. That old AI kept insisting that we be the first ones to try it all. Mister Green Jeans complains a lot, but has done a huge amount of work in these last forty days,” Conner answered. “The question of when to awaken the people in suspended animation is still being debated. But the AIs overseeing the cocoons have already begun acclimatization processes on those people. But you want to leave, and here I am babbling. So just go out to the world you found for us!”
“Thanks!” Jamie said and hugged each of them. Michael did the same and together they walked up to the portal doors.
“Theta Four, we are ready,” Jamie announced.
The portal door opened and where they once had stepped onto a transport vehicle, they now climbed down a ladder and walked on the tube system. The hatch behind them closed.
“There is not much of a pressure difference between inside and outside now. However, since Habitat One is not fully acclimatized, I have established an air flow that sterilizes and then presses out the air from here into the atmosphere of Bounty. The other AIs assure me that there are no harmful elements passing into Bounty. At the end of the hall is the exit door. It has been installed in the tube where it was sealed for detachment from the ship,” Theta Four said.
“Thanks Theta Four,” Jamie answered. “You were the first AI we spoke to on the Eschaton. Thanks for your help!”
“I apologize for my initial condition and the difficulties I may have caused you,” Theta Four said. “Bounty time outside is just before sunrise. Enjoy your day.”
“This will be great!” Jamie said.
Michael and Jamie turned away and walked down the slick black bottom of the tube system.
“There are no artificial intelligence systems outside. And the data sticks still do not work,” Michael commented. “But maybe that is for the best?”
“So we depend on each other? In a few days, more people will come and join us in this new world,” Jamie stated. “We will be surrounded by nature, the complete opposite of Dome 17.”
Jamie took Michael by the hand. They walked to the door which had been newly stenciled in bright white paint, ‘Authorized Personnel Only: No Cutting.’
“Mullen’s work I see,” Michael laughed.
Jamie reached out and activated the door. It swung open onto a whole new world. The sky was vast and very far away overhead. It was black with stars and constellations yet to be diagrammed and named. The moon Rusty was about half lit up and near the horizon. The other moon Grey was further up in the sky with a similar amount of its surface showing. The two distinct colors added to the beauty of Bounty’s end of the night sky.
They stepped down and onto the yellow and green swirled plants which covered most of the area. They grew in small clusters and were about ankle high and very soft to the touch. Their stems intertwined with the nearby clusters. There were paths where the automacubes had pushed down the plants as they wheeled from the habitat to the camp.
They walked along one of the wheel paths, neither of them really wanting to step on the plants. A breeze of wind blew fresh and sweet air in their faces and tousled their hair.
“Oh that smells so good,” Jamie said. She drew in another big breath of the air.
“So where do we start? We can start by walking over and checking out the shelter and the camp. The rains come here unexpectedly, and not every ten days. There does not seem to be a set pattern for the rain. Shall we do that first?” Michael asked.
