Chapter 14
2245 ~ Aurora orbit
There were four shuttles on board, and they were outfitted with chemical rockets, very similar to those that had been used for carrying people and materials up into Earth orbit. The design was nothing groundbreaking; it was simple, sturdy, and built to last. The shuttles were capable of carrying thirty adults, including the pilots, and had an automatic glider system that adapted its flight to the characteristics of the atmosphere and gravity of Aurora, and by itself, it was capable of identifying—and avoiding— risky terrain, such as oceans, rocky areas, and mountains, taking them safely to ground. The automatic system ensured a safe landing and freed the shuttle pilot for other tasks, such as scouting for terrain that would be suitable for long-term habitability, which was a different challenge altogether. The pilot could take manual control at any given time, and she could also alter the designated landing spots the automatic system proposed. This was crucial on this first flight, as the spot they chose would likely be where they would set up their initial camp, which would soon grow into a colony. They didn’t have enough fuel to search all over the planet to find the perfect spot, so when they found something that looked good enough, for both landing and long-term habitability, that would be where they would land.
As Tina buckled up, she glanced over at her copilot, Lieutenant Henry Carroll. She had chosen him personally, knowing that he was capable and steady, and quick to react in an emergency. He was also her friend. Now he was doing the final checks and everything looked fine. As the hatch was closed, he smiled at her and nodded affirmatively. They were ready. In a minute, the shuttle would be released from the Exodus, and the attitude thrusters would separate them from the mother ship. They silently counted down the seconds.
“All right, folks. Hang on. Three, two, one.” There was a rattling sound, and a bang followed by another and another and another. That was the attitude thrusters, separating the shuttle from the mother ship. Tina felt a pull as the shuttle glided out, away from the Exodus and into its own orbit.
“That’s it. We’re clear. Initiating auto pilot.” She toggled a switch and the attitude thrusters kept working to adjust the shuttle to its projected course.
The new world came closer into view as the shuttle gained speed. They were flying over the night side of the planet now, and it was utterly black. So different from Earth, where the night would be lit up all over the planet. The marks of human civilization. Tina enjoyed the sensation, but kept a close watch on the displays. It was an old habit of hers, never trusting the automatic system completely.
There were six passengers, scientists all. They would assess the landing site, from potential for agriculture to meteorological conditions to running tests on the local vegetation, sampling the air, and a whole set of other tasks. She didn’t know each of the scientists personally, but she trusted they were the best at what they did.
“Okay, ready for retro burn. Three, two, one.” There was a kick in the back, and they were pressed into their couches. They could feel the shuttle changing directions. The retro system was designed to shed their velocity, in order to take it out of orbit and let it fall toward the atmosphere of Aurora. After more than a century, it still functioned, just as the technicians who’d inspected it said it would. The retro burn ended abruptly, and they were thrown forward into their straps.
“All good, Major,” Henry said. They were no longer in orbit. Now the shuttle was falling toward the planet, small bursts from the attitude thrusters adjusting its alignment and course so that the nose pointed in the direction of descent. A few minutes later, the shuttle tipped up, so that it flew belly first, where the large heat shield would protect them when they entered the atmosphere.
Then they felt it. Gravity. They were entering the atmosphere. At the same time, they saw the first light of day, as dawn quickly came closer. The view was suddenly obscured, as the colors of the burning plasma filled the air around the shuttle. Tina and Henry looked at each other, and Tina could see the concern on her copilot’s face. They both knew this was a critical phase. The shuttles were designed from years of experience with Earth’s atmospheric entry, but no one really knew how that would work here. In theory, it should be fine, with everything adjusted to the conditions of Aurora’s atmosphere, but you never knew. As the shuttle shook more violently, Tina felt sweat trickle down her back. There were no guarantees, no certainty, and this was something quite different from flying scramjets across North Africa.
Then, just like that, the plasma dissipated to reveal blue sky with scattered clouds around them. Somewhere, while covered in the burning plasma, they had crossed the terminator into daytime. The shuttle shook a little as it adjusted to its new surroundings. They were flying. No longer falling, but actually flying. They were still high up, so the horizon still showed a curve, but they were able to see contours of the landscape beneath them. They were flying toward Verdi, where they assumed they would be able to find a spot where both landing requirements and possibility of long-term habitation would match. Things were moving very quickly now. They flew across a mountainous landscape that had to be somewhere in the western regions of Cerula. As their descent continued, they passed the coastline and beneath them were the vast expanses of ocean. Tina recognized the features from the map that Professor Lowell had shown them. It shouldn’t be long now.
After a few minutes, they could see land in the distance. The shoreline approached quickly, and once they lowered the landing gear, the shuttle started shaking again.
“That’s it,” Henry said. Tina could see it now too; the grasslands were right in front of them. The landing site was an expanse of grasslands with a forest to the south, and a river running just north of it, while north of the grasslands there was a region of low mountains. The coast would be to the east of their landing site.
They were flying low now, just a hundred meters, eighty, seventy …
“This is it,” Tina said into the comms, so that everyone could hear. “We’re going in for landing.” She gently pushed at a handle, and the landing gear touched ground. Carefully she let the weight of the shuttle come down. The shuttle skipped a few times before finally settling down, speeding across the landscape. Then there was a loud bang as the chutes deployed. The shuttle slowed, and as it came to a halt, Tina realized she had been holding her breath, and she let it out. Henry had a wide grin on his face as he released his secondary handle, and looked at the readings on the displays. All good, it seemed. The shuttle would be operational again in just sixteen hours, the time it took to reload the batteries and refill the rockets, an automated process that converted atmospheric components into rocket fuel. Tina peeked out as she reported back into the comms.
“Exodus, this is shuttle. We are safely down.”
2245 ~ Aurora
Setting up camp was hard labor, and Thomas Dunn breathed heavily under the weight of a crate filled with some kind of lab equipment. The first landing had been a success yesterday, and now they had the first results from the soil and air samples taken. They were told that they would be able to plant edible crops here from the seeds brought from Earth, as soon as they had the camp ready and everybody settled in. That would be even harder work, as most of it would have to be done before winter set in. The scientists had given them some idea of what Aurora winter would be like, and although it would be comparable to certain parts of Earth, it wouldn’t be comfortable. Thomas wasn’t sure how to interpret that, but one thing was for sure; you didn’t want to be caught out in the open on a cold winter night in these parts. But it was still late spring, and the air felt nice and warm against his exposed neck. He resisted the temptation to remove his facemask. He knew he would be able to breathe the air, and it would have felt so good, but the scientists had told them all to make sure they kept them on at all times until they had the air-tight shelters ready, so he did. He wasn’t much for respecting authorities, but this mandate he would stick with. Who knew what kind of bugs he would catch if he didn’t.
He caught a glimpse of the shrink, Taylor, and chuckled to himself, as the older man was obviously having a harder time of it than he. Sweating hard, while carrying a piece of one of the containers that would be used as living quarters, Taylor had to stop to catch his breath every ten steps. They had been told the lower gravity would make them all feel super fit, at least initially, but at the moment, he didn’t think Taylor would agree. As Dunn carried a crate over to the biology team, who of course had to be at the other end of the campsite, he thought about the shrink. An interesting fellow actually; so careful with his words, Thomas thought. He didn’t know where the man stood, but obviously he wasn’t one of Havelar’s cronies; he would have known if he was in the inner circle, but of course that didn’t mean he was to be trusted. The plan had been designed so that no one knew who had been picked by the senator and his people, and who were thought of as loyal to the Andrews regime. Even so, Taylor didn’t seem to fit the bill in either direction. And considering it, perhaps he didn’t belong to either camp. Perhaps the psychologist would turn out to be something else entirely.
The campsite was located in the far east of the continent they had named Verdi, on a large expanse of grasslands, not far from the coastline. Just to the north there was a wide river, and Thomas thought that once the immediate tasks on site were covered, they should try to see if Aurora had any fishing opportunities. From what he knew of fishing back on Earth, it looked promising. Of course, no one knew whether fish or anything that resembled fish even existed on Aurora, although the biologists believed the waters surely held some kind of life. But he would certainly go check it out as soon as possible.
North of the river, there were mountains that would probably protect them somewhat from the northern winds the meteorologists had said they should expect come winter. The geologists suspected the area to be rich in minerals as well, and the sooner they could get started on mining their own resources the better. He could see the peaks from here, still covered in snow. He wondered whether they had glaciers or some kind of snow up there throughout summer too. The lower temperature and the altitude made it entirely possible, even though the highest couldn’t be more than around two thousand meters.
When Thomas looked to the south, the only thing he could see was more grassland. But he knew that there were large forests in that direction, from what they had told him. The rough maps they all had on their tablets now showed the forests to be about a three or four-day walk away. To the west, there would be grasslands and sparse forest in between lakes and a few hills or mountains. It seemed the terrain varied more to the west, and beyond the first lakes no one really knew much of what to expect just yet.
The site itself stretched over an area of more than two square kilometers. They would have several housing areas, where all living quarters would have at least one air-tight room, and there would be communal air-filtering facilities that would provide these rooms with clean filtered air. In the southern end of the site would be a runway for the shuttles that would remain valuable means of transportation, both around the area, as well as to and from the Exodus, which would remain in orbit, to serve as a communications / weather / scientific satellite. From time to time, someone might need to get up there for maintenance or some scientific work that couldn’t be conducted on the ground, and the Exodus had great equipment for astronomy, which would be used for getting to know the planetary neighborhood.
Getting the fusion reactors that would provide electricity for the colonists up and running was one of the highest priorities. At the moment, the first one was actually being assembled, just north of the site, close to where the greenhouses would be situated. South of the reactors there would be a large administrative building and a hospital. The hospital would be the only building, at least for the time being, that would be completely air tight, with filtered air in the entire building. And of course, the labs of the scientists would be clustered together, somewhat resembling a university campus. That was where Thomas was standing right now, in the western part of the site, too far from the shuttle field, he thought. After unloading the crate, he walked over to the nearest person for a quick breather.
“So, how’s it going over here? You found anything interesting yet?” he said as he leaned against a stack of crates still unopened. A girl, or rather a woman, probably somewhere around thirty, eyed him sideways. She seemed to have something else on her mind, but as she was the only one there, it was obvious the question had been directed at her. She didn’t say anything for a couple of seconds, and Thomas noticed that she had beautiful eyes, and the rest didn’t look too bad either, with close-cropped black hair and Latino features. Judging from her hair—or lack thereof, she must have been one of the last ones to wake up, he thought. Of course, the facemask hid most of her face.
“Well, that’s not really my area of expertise, but … I’m working on agriculture, and that seems promising … Ah, there seems to be a bit of wildlife here actually. The first thing they found was some kind of insect, well, several kinds actually, that live right here on the ground. Kind of similar to beetles, just really small, so I guess most people haven’t noticed them yet. And then there are the mosquitoes and bees, or whatever we decide to call them. There seem to be a lot of them further inland. There is actually a team of four biologists exploring the area just west of here as we speak.” He reached out a hand toward her.
“I’m Thomas. Dunn. Administration.” She took his hand, and shook it lightly.
“Maria Solis,” she said. Solis. That would make her Ramon’s daughter, Thomas thought. Ramon Solis was one of the head figures of the Consortium, but even so, he didn’t seem close to Havelar. Deeply Consortium entwined of course, but a different person altogether.
“So, any other life forms around?” he continued. “Any proper aliens?” he winked at her, and he could see her smile under the mask.
“You know, Mr. Dunn … we are the aliens here.” Hmm, he thought. She’s teasing.
“Come on now, you know what I mean,” Thomas pushed on, half joking.
“All right then. Well, to answer your question, no. Not intelligent life, or at least not as we believe intelligent life would behave. We did find several tracks of some kind of large species right next to the shuttle field, and there have been infrared sightings of living things both to the north and south. From the size of mice to horses. But no sightings yet though. And there are large CO2 emissions from the plains out west that cannot be anything other than living beings. But it’s early still. Most of us came today. We haven’t even got all the equipment down from the Exodus yet. I guess there will be new findings every day, as we explore the area more.” He nodded, and decided he would talk some more with her later. He took out his mittens; it was chilly, even this time of year, so he put them on.
“Well, I’ll get back to my crates now. Got a lot of stuff to move before we’re done for the day. See you later.” Then he turned away, and walked toward the shuttle field.
Walking back, he thought of the secret containers still secured to the Exodus. He had placed trackers on all of them, and knew they hadn’t been moved yet. Whatever they contained, he would make sure that when the time came, he would be ready to go out on a little field trip of his own. The containers were too large to be placed in the shuttles, so they had to be moved from the Exodus to Aurora in some other fashion. Perhaps they were able to land by themselves? Anyway, if they held weapons, as he suspected, getting a hold of them could prove the difference between tyranny and freedom, and even though he doubted that he could secure them all, somehow he would make damn sure that Havelar didn’t get all of them. Maybe he could even steal one or more away. That would take accomplices of course, and he still didn’t know whom to trust. It would be a gamble, whatever he did, but he suspected the time for caution would come to an end, sooner or later. But not today. Thomas Dunn would be patient.
Epilogue
2245 ~ Aurora
It was their first night on Aurora, and everyb
ody was gathered at the shuttle field, close to the safety of their three shuttles. When it came time to sleep, they would spend the night inside, with guards posted on the outside, and two infrared scanners continuously searching for anything that might constitute a threat. With the latest radar and motion-sensor technology, they should be safe enough. They hadn’t discovered anything dangerous so far, but better to err on the safe side.
Maria Solis still hadn’t gotten used to eating with the facemask on; it still felt awkward. You had to hold your breath as you opened some sort of lid where you could push the food in by little pieces. Then you had to wait for two seconds, as the sterilization system made sure the food was completely decontaminated, before another lid opened on the inside, and the food could be pushed into your mouth. It felt sterile and cumbersome, but for now they just had to get used to it. She quietly giggled to herself, thinking how gross eating anything with gravy or sauce would be. Drinking was easier, since they just inserted a straw, and as long as it wasn’t too hot, that worked for soup as well. She imagined there would be a lot of soup.
She had a good feeling, although there were concerns on her mind as well. But mostly it felt good. They were the first humans to spend the night on Aurora. Thinking about the thrill of exploration made her think of her grandfather. He would have been so excited to have had such an opportunity.
The first landing party led by Major Hammer had returned to the Exodus, once the samples were all taken, and the shuttle rockets were recharged. They had all returned on the second flight down, with more passengers and equipment, as they were eager to continue their work. Hamilton had allowed it, and put Hammer in charge, as civilian authority wouldn’t take over until all passengers were on the ground. Two more shuttles had returned with them, carrying as many as they could carry, including Maria and her father. One shuttle remained back on the Exodus, as a safety precaution in case something happened on the ground. After all, most of the people were still on the mother ship, and it would be weeks before everybody was down on Aurora. By that time, all the living quarters would be up, with the air filtering system and the first reactor online. It would be hard work, but by early summer, they should have crops planted and most of the science and exploration projects up and running.
Suddenly Maria heard a noise from far away. It was a deep rumble, resembling a lion’s roar, although deeper. Though they hadn’t seen much yet, it being the first day and all, from everything they had discovered so far, the planet seemed to be teeming with life. She looked forward to exploring her new home, and wondered what their life on Aurora would be like. She turned and looked at her father, sitting right next to her, a little back from the campfire. Obviously, he hadn’t heard anything. He looked distant now, and she smiled inside her mask. Her mother was back on the Exodus, and she probably had that very same expression right now. They didn’t cope well with being apart. She knew she was privileged, being here in the first place. Even more so, as most people didn’t have their family around them. That was due to her parents being so high up in the Consortium hierarchy, of course, and knowing that had a bitter aftertaste. But who was she to complain? She did, however, suspect there would be a price to pay, since all that money that helped fund the Exodus project back on Earth would be worth nothing now that they had reached their final destination. Havelar would expect nothing short of obedience and strict loyalty from every Consortium associate and their families once he took charge. And how could her parents object to that, really? After all, the Consortium had taken her family away from the disaster that had awaited them on Earth, and given them a new chance.
“What is it, dear?” she heard her father say as she stared into the flames. It was her time to be far away now, lost deep in her own thoughts. She smiled again, and regarded him fondly.
“Nothing, Dad. Just wondering what happened to everybody back on Earth. I miss Elle … Aunt Lorena and Uncle Esteban …” She took a deep breath and her father gave her a knowing look. They both knew the odds. Of course, a century and a half later none of them would be alive, even if they had survived Devastator’s impact. So, for better or worse, all they had now was each other, which was more than most had.
“Dad,” she finally said. “Why did they call it Aurora? No one ever told us at Selection, and we were all so busy anyways.” Her father’s face lit up, and she saw that familiar twinkle in his eyes that she’d learned to recognize even as a kid.
“Aurora …” her father began. “Aurora was the Roman goddess of dawn. A new day … Hope, new beginnings … I don’t know if that’s why they chose that name, but I like to think so.” Maria nodded and thought of what this had all been about. What was it, if not hope? A new beginning?
“I like that,” she said.
She was deep in thought again when she noticed Havelar and a few of his people waving at her father. He saw it too, and rose with a sigh.
“I just hope we can do better this time,” he said quietly, before he walked over to the head of the Consortium, soon to be governor of Aurora. Looking at her father, Maria thought he looked more subdued. Still, what he had said made her feel a deep sense of hope.
“This time, we make our own world,” she whispered to herself, watching the flames of the campfire light up the night. The first night of their new life on Aurora.
~
Watch for Part Two of the Exodus Trilogy
AURORA
Join me on christensenwriting.com!
Be the first to know about new releases,
and download your FREE ebook!
When the world ends, what do you do when you realize you are still alive?
In a world devastated by natural disaster, only the most stubborn refuse to give up. When Ed Walker learns that others have been preparing for the disaster for years, he begins to realize finding them may be his only shot at survival. But time is running out...
In a dying world one man makes a choice to keep going, hoping against all odds there might be a future after all.
Alive is a 10.000 word story loosely based on events in Exodus by Andreas Christensen, but can also be read as a standalone.
Download your FREE copy from https://christensenwriting.com
Before you leave, I would like to ask you a favor.
In the new world of publishing, word of mouth may be the most important factor in a story finding its readers. If you enjoyed these stories, please consider leaving a review. It doesn't matter if it's short. The fact that someone read it, and liked it, could mean the difference between another reader deciding to try it, or moving on to the next story. And it would be much appreciated.
About the Author
Andreas Christensen is a Norwegian science fiction author. He is the author of the Exodus Trilogy, in which a divided Earth must face the ultimate extinction event. On distant Aurora, more than 40 light years away, humanity must come to terms with its legacy of violence and division and begin to build a new world.
You can find his complete bibliography on christensenwriting.com.
Andreas has a weakness for cats, coffee, and up until recently, books so heavy he'd need a separate suitcase in order to carry them every time he traveled. Luckily, the world has changed, and the suitcase has now been replaced by an e-reader.
You can find Andreas Christensen here:
Website: https://www.christensenwriting.com
Blog: https://www.christensenwriting.com/blog
Twitter: https://www.twitter.com/achr75
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/christensenwriting
Thank you for reading books on BookFrom.Net Share this book with friends