Emily walked back into the room to see the others already deep in discussion. They all stopped when she walked in and closed the doors behind her.
“Ah, Emily. Thanks for helping with the kids,” Peter said easily, “Really a wonder how easily you manage them.”
“No problem. I don’t mind. How’d Luna do? She seemed like she had fun.”
“Oh yes, she enjoyed the trip immensely,” Peter confirmed, “Except for skinning and cleaning the animals. Although none of us like that, so that’s only fair I suppose.”
“Yeah, I’d imagine that that part isn’t fun. Thanks for taking her.”
“Not at all, not at all…”
There was some silence as everyone stared at Emily for a moment.
“All right, just spit it out,” Emily said, “Just hit me with whatever you’ve been discussing. No need to beat around the bush.”
Peter cleared his throat, “We were discussing plans and what to do with the children,” he said, “We can’t take care of them forever. We think it’d be best for them to move out at one point and establish their own village elsewhere. I’ve already found a few places that would be good for them to settle at.”
Emily bit back a reflexive denial and took a deep breath.
“Okay,” she said.
“Okay?” Peter repeated, surprised, “You’re not going to argue?”
“No. You’re right. They need room to expand if there’s more people. Even this much is a stretch on us. It makes sense to move somewhere else once they’re old enough. They can’t keep taking the plane to a jungle or forest every time they want to get more food. Even now you and the hunting crew are going out constantly to feed everyone since even our crops here aren’t quite enough.”
The whole group looked stunned.
“What, you thought I wouldn’t agree?” Emily said as she saw their reactions.
“Well, no. We thought you wouldn’t want to leave them alone even if you could visit whenever you wanted by plane.”
“Leave them alone? I’m not leaving them alone, who said I’d stay here?” Emily asked in genuine confusion.
“But your lab is here. Everything we’ve built up over the years. All that equipment…”
Emily waved her hand dismissively. “Oh, that? I’ll just move it. Really, it’ll be a pain but I’ll just disassemble it and rebuild it at our new home. Maybe it’ll give me a chance to quiz Luna on how well she’s been absorbing her lessons on the datapad. Have her follow along with me as I do it. Those colonist learning programs were good, but I had to fix a few things that were wrong when I was checking it over for Luna when she first started using them.”
All of the others glanced at each other. She looked between all of them, “Wait, that was the big reveal?” she said, “Wow, I was stressing so much about what it would be. Seems like a pretty simple solution to me. Really best for everyone that it’s this way. The kids get some independence and their own place, and you all don’t have to do so much work taking care of them.”
The others glanced at each other again.
“You’re sure you don’t want to stay here?” Peter ventured, “Doesn’t seem right for the ten of us to split up after everything we’ve been through.”
“I’m sure,” Emily said, “Really there’s nothing keeping me here. Like you said, it’ll probably only be a short trip by plane if something comes up. No need to make a big deal out of it.”
“Well if you’re certain,” Peter said, “I guess it’s settled then. We still have a few years before it will happen, but best to prepare early. I’m sure we can all think of a few things the young ones will need once they’ve finally left the nest.”
“Okay. I’ll start preparing too,” Emily confirmed, “Let me know what the rest of you come up with.”
— — —
“I can’t believe you can reassemble this thing from memory, mom,” Luna said as she took out another component out of the wooden crate with heavy padding inside.
“I’ve been practicing,” Emily said as she inspected the component for a moment before beginning to install it onto the half built antimatter reactor in front of her. It had been quite the challenge to build a copy of the complicated machine like the one that had powered the ship that had brought all of the Immortals here to their new planet Gaia.
“Still,” Luna said as she handed her another component, “I can barely understand any of it, let alone put it together.”
“Don’t worry,” Emily assured her, “It’s just practice, you’ll get it eventually. I didn’t learn any of this in a day. I have a good innate sense for these things, but it comes with time more than anything. Once this thing’s complete, our new village will have as much power as we’ll ever need.”
“Can’t believe it’ll only be one more year,” Luna said softly, “I can’t believe they’re sending us away like that. Fumiko keeps saying it's because they don’t want us anymore.”
“It’s not like that,” Emily said, stopping her work to look back at her daughter. Luna shot her a skeptical look.
“Okay, not completely like that. But they still care for all of you. They just want a… more distant relationship now that you’re older. You’re nineteen now, Luna. I had a full time job and had moved out of my parents place by the time I was your age. The others aren’t going away, they’ll only be a few hours' plane ride away.”
“What’s a job?”
“What’s a job?” Emily repeated.
“Like one task you had to do?” Luna clarified, “What do you mean you had a job? What does that have to do with not living with your parents?”
“Oh my,” Emily said, “I’ve forgotten how different it is here with just us. I have to think about how to explain it. But let’s just finish building this thing first.”
“Okay.”
— — —
“Woof. What a process. Can’t believe we built this whole thing in only a month,” Emily said approvingly as she looked at the squat and wide building sitting in the forest clearing. In the distance Emily could hear the faint rumble and crashes of ocean waves as well as the burbling of the nearby river.
“I had no idea you had so many things inside your lab,” Luna replied, “It’s good though. It’s much bigger than your old space, you’ll have plenty of room to grow if you want to make any more inventions.”
“Yes, it will be nice not tripping over everything so much all the time,” Emily mused, “Ah, but let’s test it out! The moment of truth to see if all the electricals are hooked up properly.”
They walked inside the building and Emily used a handheld flashlight to light their way as they walked through the dark open space inside the building. In the far back corner was the setup with the incubation chamber and all of Emily’s old equipment from her former lab, including both of the atomic printers she’d been using for all of this time. It filled up barely a tenth of the new floor space, even when they had spread it out so the machines weren’t so cramped and close together as they had been at the old lab.
The two of them reached the center of the building and entered a little concrete box with a metal door that rose from the otherwise smooth concrete floor. They went down the stairs to the bottom where the antimatter generator sat dormant. Emily walked forward and after lifting a safety panel pulled a lever on the machine. She waited a moment for all the safety lights to flick on and the generator to vibrate slightly.
Emily pressed another button after everything was primed and with a dull roar the antimatter generator came to life. It vibrated in place rapidly for a few seconds before the vibrations died down to a low hum now that it was up and running.
The two of them waited and sure enough the lights above them slowly flickered into life. Emily clicked off the flashlight and they walked up the stairs and emerged from the enclosed set of concrete stairs to see that all of the lights on the ceiling of the warehouse-like space were lit up brightly.
Emily looked around and was surprised to see that everything was working correctly. None of the lights were even flickering, let alone any fires from more serious issues in the electricals. It seems that their smaller scale tests had been enough.
The two of them walked outside again. All of the Immortals except Peter were there. Peter was back with the other kids and watching over them while the rest of them finished the preparations up here.
“Clara,” Emily called out, causing the woman to turn from her conversation with Sanje, “How goes it? We’ve just finished up with my lab and main building.”
“Almost done,” Clara said, “Just furnishing and wiring up the last five or so rooms. Then it’ll just be clearing the trees to prepare some wood and give them some space and we’ll be good.”
Emily’s building as well as working as her lab would also act as a storm shelter and the source of their electricity with the antimatter generator in the basement.
Clara and the others were finishing up on the other which was an almost carbon copy of the children’s wing of their current complex. Except instead of the end of the long hallway merging with the rest of the complex it ended with an open gym like space that was bare but meant to be a customized common room for whoever lived there.
Emily expected the older kids, Luna’s age and the older teenagers, wouldn’t want to stay there cramped with the younger ones for long. They’d want to spread out and have their own places. Especially Luna. She’d be shoved in a room with the others for the first time in her life, so Emily was sure she’d be bolting out of there as soon as she had the chance.
“Alright, good luck,” Emily said, “Luna and I will go check the fields. We still have to test the soil of the last one to see if the soil’s good enough for the crops.”
Emily started walking away after Clara gave Emily a nod of acknowledgment and turned back to her conversation with Sanje. Luna hesitated, looking like she wanted to say something as she stood there. Emily watched her and didn’t say anything as Luna struggled with herself before turning and hurrying to catch back up with Emily.
“Yeah, we’ve got to check the fields mom,” Luna repeated.
Emily put a hand on her daughter’s shoulder and Luna relaxed a bit.
“Uh huh,” Emily said sympathetically, “You can do the testing all by yourself this time. We’ll see if you can remember it all.”
Unauthorized duplication: this tale has been taken without consent. Report sightings.
“Okay, mom,” Luna said in a subdued tone.
— — —
“Cheer up, Fumiko,” Emily said, “We’ll build this place from the ground up. You’ll have the freedom to do all sorts of things that you could never do before. So it isn’t all bad. And I’m here to help whenever you need it.”
“Whatever, Emily,” Fumiko said sullenly, “Of course you’d say that. They threw you away like the rest of us.”
“Hey,” Emily said, not offended at all, “They didn’t throw us away. And I chose to come here. They didn’t plan for me to come, you know.”
Fumiko looked up and furrowed her brows, “They didn’t? What do you mean?”
“They were planning to have Luna in charge since she’s the oldest. And to have one of us fly in every few days to check in on all of you. On top of that radio we have to call for help from them of course in case of an emergency. They thought I’d want to stay there with them in the complex rather than move here with the rest of you.”
“Then why did you?” Fumiko asked, some of her anger seeming to partially drain away, “Why did you choose to come?”
“Because… Because I care about all of you,” Emily said and met Fumiko’s eyes, “I really do. I don’t care about any of them. Not like I do for you and the rest of the children. I care for all of you more than anything in the world. In the universe.”
Fumiko met Emily’s gaze for a moment before looking down and blushing at Emily’s sincerity.
Emily huffed, “It does all sound rather dramatic when I say it like that, doesn’t it?” she said.
“No,” Fumiko said softly, “I… it feels nice. You are the only one that knows all our names by heart. I’m glad that you chose to come.”
“I had flashcards in the beginning,” Emily admitted, “I printed out your faces and had the names on the back,” Fumiko shot Emily a scandalized look, but Emily just smiled and shrugged.
“I’m good, but there’s a lot of you and I had to practice. But I remembered them all eventually by heart. I know you’re angry about what’s happened, Fumiko. But the others look up to you. Almost as much as they do to Luna now. You’re eighteen and Luna’s twenty. Both of you have to set a good example to the others. They’re feeling all the same things as you are right now and more. You brooding and sulking now that we’re here in our new home is only upsetting them more.”
Fumiko looked like she was going to protest before closing her mouth, “I’m hurting them?” she asked.
“No… But you’re making them focus on the wrong feelings. The same things that you’re feeling right now. We’ve got to move forward and make this our new home. That’s got to be our focus for now. What’s going right for all of us. This place really is… a paradise.”
Emily’s eyes glazed over as she thought of the past and Earth.
“Okay,” Fumiko said, “I’ll… try. Thanks. At least Luna is always so positive. I think I see what you mean. About helping others, focusing on the right feelings.”
“That she is… that she is. Why don’t you go see what she’s up to? I’m sure she’d appreciate your help.”
“Er, uhm!” Fumiko said, suddenly sounding nervous, “Okay. I’ll go do… that. Uh huh.”
Fumiko stood and speed walked off. Emily frowned after the retreating girl. Huh, that was weird. Emily shook her head. She was sure that Fumiko would figure it out. Despite her anger problems, that girl was surprisingly self reflective when she got in the mood to do so.
Emily stood up from the log and stretched and reached down and picked up the sharp axe sitting beside her. Time for Emily to chop some more wood with her endless stamina. The hope was to create some wooden buildings, and Emily was cutting the trees into the stripped beams that they would use for the last few weeks.
She had frankly no idea how to build a log cabin, but the ship had been prepared for permanent settlement. So it had included some detailed plans on how to construct a building and the rustic methods to make them with only limited technology.
They had advanced technology in their main building and Emily’s lab. But it used valuable resources. It had taken almost twenty years of Peter and the other explorers harvesting surface deposits of valuable metals to find this much material and metal. The raw metal had been processed by the atomic printer into bars, rearranging the iron or other atoms of the metal into pure bars of material. But it put a high strain on the atomic printers and a high energy draw to do that, so Emily had tried to minimize using them that way except when necessary.
Peter had also discovered a source of limestone and other components for the concrete, which had been a surprisingly difficult task. He should be back with a shipment of more concrete in a month or two. That’s when they’d pour the foundations of any new homes they wanted to build and start the real construction of the buildings.
Emily walked over to the informal woodyard where the other Immortals had stacked the trees that they had cut down to form the large clearing around them in big piles.
Emily rolled down another tree down to the side and took her axe. She raised it in the air and swung down and got to chopping.
— — —
Emily hummed to herself as she kept working on the genome of the crops. They were good enough that they were worth cultivating at this point. But that didn’t mean they were as productive or as improved as they could be. While they had made it through the winter with the help of a few supply drops of food by Peter and the others, Emily wanted them to be self-sufficient as soon as possible rather than relying on outside assistance.
It had been about a year since they had all moved here, and the kids were settling in pretty well after a month or two of melancholy over their perceived abandonment by the other nine. But Luna and surprisingly Fumiko had stepped up to lead everyone and kept their spirits up. Emily helped too of course, but did her best to stay back and take care of the younger ones and do any tough physical labor that would severely tire out the children rather than dictating what the group as a whole should be doing. Luna was doing good enough as a leader, and the girl asked Emily whenever she needed help, so things were working out.
Emily sat back from the screen and rubbed her forehead. This plant was stumping her. She was sure she could improve the yield further, but doing so was decreasing the resilience and causing them to be more likely to die. She was sure there was a solution, but she couldn’t think of what it was at the moment.
During the days Emily helped the kids, but the nights were for her research and machines. Well they were now that Emily had set up the infrared scanners to search for danger from any wandering beasts. And hardened the windows and structure in the dormitory so the animals weren’t likely to get in, so she didn’t have to stand out there with an axe anymore as a guard. At least not as often, she still did it sometimes when the sensors detected an animal at the edge of its range.
It was probably about midnight now and she felt as fresh as ever. She’d taken the habit of sleeping one night a week, just to rest her mind a bit.
She should take a walk outside, banging her head against a wall inside wouldn’t help her come up with any solutions.
Emily walked outside into the dark night, only the exterior lights of the dormitories and the warehouse-like building behind her breaking through the dark.
A few more buildings had come up, even if they didn’t have electricity. A storage silo for their food, some more work related buildings. They were at the point where they’d started building the first couple homes. Each person wouldn’t get their own of course, but they’d get their own rooms in them at least rather than being cooped up all together in the larger one.
Emily scanned her gaze across the buildings in the night and froze when she saw that the door to the children’s dormitory was swinging open. Eyes wide, she rushed forward to the open door and went inside. Had an animal gotten in? What if it went into one of the rooms while the children were sleeping?
Emily went down the long hallway and relaxed slightly as she saw that there was no beast visible. Emily was sure that she’d closed the door when she’d put the last of them to bed, but maybe she’d made a mistake?
Emily returned to the front door and looked to the left and froze when she saw that the door there was slightly ajar. She hadn’t noticed and just rushed past it in her panic.
She carefully pushed the door open and peeked inside and saw three rising and falling forms huddled in their beds. Wait, three? Emily’s eyes were drawn to Luna’s bed which was empty with the covers thrown to the side.
Emily carefully closed the door to the room and packed up the door to the whole building as well. Luna had snuck out at night? What was she thinking? What if some animal ambushed her while she was out all alone?
Emily returned to the warehouse and activated the IR scanner. It pinged the heat signatures in the area, and Emily immediately saw the heated blob down by the river that must be Luna.
Filled with worry, Emily rushed outside and grabbed her woodcutting axe on the way and charged towards where Luna was. The predators on this planet were surprisingly stealthy to IR scans, just because Emily hadn’t seen any on the scan didn’t mean they weren’t there.
Emily eventually reached the spot and sped up as she heard rustling in the woods in front of her. She burst out of the trees into the clearing with her axe raised threateningly… only to stop.
Oh.
Emily put the axe down and started laughing.
God, this was so awkward.
“Mom!” Luna said, flushing utterly crimson even in the darkness of the forest and the moonlight filtering down through the trees. The gentle burbling and rushing of the nearby river softly sounded in the background, “What- Hey, what are you doing here?!”
Luna quickly adjusted her disheveled shirt and brushed herself off. Fumiko was frozen as well where she was straddled on top of Luna, looking equally embarrassed. Fumiko quickly rolled off of Luna and scrambled a few feet away and started patting herself down as well, trying to look casual through her equally ruffled and disheveled clothes. They had a blanket underneath them stretched on the forest floor and both looked out of breath and sweaty.
“Oh my god, I was so worried,” Emily said, still chuckling as she sat down on a nearby log, “Wow. So you two, huh? Can’t believe I didn’t see it before.”
“I- I don’t know what you’re talking about!” Luna stammered, “Fumiko was just- Fumiko-”
“Yeah, we were uhm…” Fumiko stammered, seeming to try to come up with an excuse but panicking when nothing came to mind.
“No, no,” Emily said to have some mercy, “It’s fine, you two. I’m not mad. Just surprising. How long has this been happening?”
“About… About three or four months?” Fumiko said, “Something like that.”
“Why did you hide it from everyone?” Emily said, sitting down on a nearby log, “I’m happy for you two. Really. I’m sure the others wouldn’t mind either.”
“Well, I don’t know…” Fumiko said nervously.
“I told you she wouldn’t mind, Fumiko,” Luna said and grabbed the other girl’s hand.
“You really don’t mind, Emily? I thought you’d be mad at me… Us...” Fumiko said.
“No. Where’d you get that idea?”
“Clara talked about how you only liked women that one time at dinner and I saw how you got so angry. I thought there must be something wrong with it if it made you angry at her… It isn’t like it was Sanje who said it.”
Emily sighed. Her and Sanje’s mutual dislike was infamous by now.
“No, Fumiko. Not at all. That was just between me and her. It had nothing to do with you two.”
“Then why did you react that way?” Fumiko pressed, “No one reacted that way when they were talking about it between men and women. The others were awkward too when she mentioned it. Why was it different?”
Emily hesitated. It really wasn’t a matter of prejudice like there might have been in the old world. For all their faults, none of the others cared about things like race or sexuality in the slightest as anything more than convenient labels, without all of the added baggage of it like it had back on Earth.
“Fumiko, I had a falling out with Clara a long time ago,” she said, trying to deflect one more time, “She was just teasing me in a mean way about what happened. She goes too far and can’t stop herself sometimes with her comments. It’s hard for her to control herself in the heat of the moment. She apologized to me for that after, when we were alone.”
“What happened, mom?” Luna asked with wide eyes, “What did she do?”
Emily sighed again.
“Back when it was just the ten of us, I was a lot like you two. I was nervous, and didn’t ever… well, get to express my feelings for other women very well. I still haven’t, really. Clara knew I was interested in her, and made it seem like she was interested too. We spent some time together, but she was just humoring me and wasn’t attracted to me even a little. All of it was just a fun ‘experiment’ that she was bored with once it went on for too long. And even after she kept leaving hints as if she wanted to be with me even when we both knew that it would never happen.”
Emily realized some of the bitterness had leaked into her voice and quickly suppressed it.
“Clara wasn’t trying to be cruel, she still doesn’t see what she did wrong. She really didn’t view it as anything more than something to pass the time while she was bored and a way to cheer me up when all of us were in a bad place. It was a long time ago and we’re still friends, but it’s something that we still fight about sometimes when it comes up. That’s why I was so upset that she said something like that at dinner in front of everyone. And why all of the others were so uncomfortable.”
“That’s… that’s horrible!” Luna said in horror, “How could she do that to you! Fumiko, you would never fake our feelings just to make me feel better, would you?”
“Of course not!” Fumiko said, just as appalled, “I would never.”
Fumiko reached out and side hugged Luna, and Luna returned the gesture quickly.
Emily cleared her throat, “Well, I guess I’m not needed here then. Have fun you two. And make sure to shut the door behind you next time. My heart nearly jumped out of my chest when I saw the outside door swinging open. I thought an animal had snuck in.”
“We will, we promise,” Fumiko said, “Sorry.”
“Just don’t forget next time,” Emily lightly scolded, “And take a radio with you too! It’s dangerous out here and you should be able to call me for help if you’re attacked. Even if it’s unlikely.”
“Yes, mom.”
Emily tried to think of anything else before realizing that was it.
“Okay. Stay safe,” Emily said as she picked up her woodcutting axe again and left it to dangle at her side.
“O-Okay. Bye mom,” Luna stammered and Fumiko silently nodded back.
Emily walked off into the dark woods and returned to the warehouse. She collapsed onto her cot set up in the corner. She needed some sleep, no way was she getting any work done with the sudden ups and downs of what had just happened.