|Viraliv|[20-14]Sliue-Ececs|Ora’s Eye|Tepi|Tepi-3|
11,163,955,738cy
Terraformer Station ‘Favala’, Low Tepi-3 Orbit
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
#One Year Later
Idris once again stares out the glass of the now noisy bridge room. Preferring to see the ships packed to the brim with soon-to-be-colonist with his own two eyes over the telemetry probes of the Favala. Even though he can’t really see much in comparison. The specialists have just finished laying down the prefabs, readying the colony to its occupants. Roughly five-hundred colonists will be dispatched each wave, not much certainly but it’s a great start. The first wave has just launched from the ship, and if they’re successful they won’t be the last either.
The exploration teams have explored seventeen miles of Alpha site, the site of the new colony. Strangely enough, the layering in the materials making up the cave at that level suggest liquid water once existed there. It’s the hope of everyone that there is some remnant of that water further down, especially the would be colonists. There is a hypothesis that these massive cave systems were carved out by ice glaciers, though it’s quite unique for glaciers to dig down into the ground. Maybe some planet wide event happened, that caused the gravity to increase or perhaps there was something unique about the glacier or this spot in particular. Once the colonists get to Alpha site, and after some time of settling in, the exploration teams will be able to resupply there, allowing them to explore the caves faster than ever before. We will get our answers only by digging deep, not only in Alpha site but in the other caves too.
Exploration at Beta Site and almost everywhere on Tepi-3 has halted in favor of expediting the exploration of Alpha Site, a name that will likely change soon. So far, nothing major has been discovered on any planets. Suspicions that the Tepi system is a young one have only gotten stronger. On a different note, a response to the report Idris sent two years ago should be reaching the Faval at any time. This report will likely bear a simple acknowledgment and ask for an update on the terraforming progress. The next shipment of cargo should be arriving soon as well.
Idris focuses once more on the ships carrying the colonists and finds that he can no longer see them, reluctantly viewing the landing through the Favala’s lens he can see that the ship has started the landing process now.
#Point of View Random Colonist Aboard the TFS-Favala-C
The shaking finally stopped, a smooth flight compared to others yet still bumpy along the way. With no infrastructure to guide the path, the pilots of this transport had to land using telemetry provided by the Favala and the transport itself. Though calling this a transport might be a little grand, it’s closer to an escape pod than anything else. However, it served faithfully, getting the colonists to the planet in one piece. No small part due to the skills of whoever the pilot is.
Before that though it was quite rough, all of a sudden being woken up and told to get ready for grounding in a few weeks. We just had enough time to get up-to-date with the state of this colony and what exactly we will be doing. Well, no time to rest I suppose, the hard work is still ahead of us we can’t start wanting a break already.
In the meantime, small groups of people have been putting on gear and shuffling into the airlocks. The first to see their new home with their own eyes. I’m in the back so I’ll be amongst the last of the groups to leave.In these cases it's best to leave last, less danger that way. Well, at least nothing wrong has happened thus far. Nothing is expected to go wrong either, really a dead world is better than an inhabited world. At least, for us colonists, I’m sure our leaders would’ve loved to have seen a green planet. But, there’s less danger in a barren one. By now many people have entered the world beyond, outside of the dark interior speckled with dim lights. I am ready for my turn to look upon my new home, as do a few others beside me.
The pilot ushers us to the airlock. We enter. Like a tomb it’s almost completely dark. No windows on the other side to show us our destination. The way we entered is slowly closed to us but, a door closed allows another to open. Literally in this case, the door leading to the outside is slowly opening. Light from Tepi can be seen flooding in from the opening, extremely bright. So bright that one wouldn’t be able to see if our visors did not compensate. After the seconds it took for them to do so, I got my first sight of our new home. Mountains surrounded us, reaching far into space. No sky exists, neither were there clouds or anything else, no common site of busy ship-lines or flying creatures. Just dust. Everything was covered in orangish dust, even the ship that had just landed a few hours ago now had a fine layer of it to contend with the paint on it.
The rocky terrain was rigid and sharp, one could barely see an artificial structure, probably the pressure valve that was explained so much during our briefings. Our new home will be in there, dubbed Grashkillok, better than the previous name that was Alpha Site. Everything has been built for us, we just need to settle in and get to work. Including laying down the infrastructure for the next wave of colonists. Once enough citizens get here we will start work on some terraforming arrays. Right now most of the jobs are industry so we are already going to be terraforming a bit from that, something about building atmospheric pressure or something. I don’t really understand it all but honestly, I’m just happy to get a new chance at life. Even if it is on some barren wasteland.
#POV End
“Yes sir, all of the colonists have made it off the transport. They are now gathering and being led to the pressure valve.”
“Good, make sure nobody gets lost down there, we don’t need any kind of trouble today.” Idris shuts down the comms. Hearing that the colonists made it down safely and that everything is proceeding smoothly makes even the captain happy. It’s not like he’s about to show that though. Instead, he addresses the bridge crew and congratulates them on becoming a part of history. This truly is the start of this planet, all of its history and future occupants will owe it to them. As such, as is tradition, this day will become a planetary holiday. The colony really sets that in stone, even if the colony were to fail in the next few centuries then people would colonize the planet in the future and remember those that failed. They would probably settle down in the ruins.
If you spot this story on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.
The colonists will start settling in and setting up shop in the Alpha site which is a huge milestone. It has many benefits and not only expedites the terraforming process but makes the following phases easier to accomplish. Many of the successful terraforming missions credit their success to the founding of a strong first foothold. And most terraforming projects that haven't founded a colony are still terraforming to this day, even a few centuries later; those that didn’t fail at least. From now on the challenge starts, managing everything would be difficult. Therefore a council of leaders for the surface side colony is created. While they take charge of the colony they do ultimately serve the captain, and of course, the colonists too.
The colony right now will be very basic, only creating the most basic of resources and more importantly being a hub for supplies for the exploration teams. Once the colony has more people than the more modern and advanced industries can be developed. Until then, basic metal extraction, smelting, and farming will likely be the main sources of employment. Although it’s forced, pacing a colony in waves is a good way to ensure positive future growth. Having too many colonists at once could paralyze a weak and new council, which could snowball and become a lethal blow to terraforming assets. Anyway, as the colony can not currently produce advanced metals and more importantly refine them, production of these resources relies solely on the Favala. The Favala is large, however she only has so much advanced industry to manage, and very diverse types of metals are required in all phases of the terraforming project. This makes the transports crucial, even if they don’t need those materials right now.
Good news is, with the founding of the first colony morale is higher than ever. Not that it was at any real risk but the higher the better. People tend to be more efficient when they are happier and have hope.
#One year Later
A message sent was not returned. The expected message from High Command was never received. There could be many reasons for this and the most likely would be that they are sending the message with the transport ship. Within the year the transport ship should return to the Tepi system. They will know then. Meanwhile, the colony has been progressing. Much has been done, two more waves have reached the surface of the planet. Toiling away in the fields and factories, creating materials, food, and atmosphere. Though small, progress it is, it’s still better than nothing. Two more waves equates to two more pressure valves, pushing them further into the depths of the cave system. As are the explorers, finding the treasures of the earth beneath. No water has been found but the historical proof is still there, tempting them deeper into the caves. Not that they wouldn’t be exploring these caves anyway. Twenty-Three miles have been explored, the cave tunnels very rarely shrink but the trend is noticeable. The tunnels are getting smaller even if it is nanometers at a time.
Construction on the larger projects such as terraforming arrays will have to wait until all colonists aboard the Favala are on the planet, preferably settled in. This will likely be far into the future, until then all they can do is continue building the basics. A strong foundation that can expedite later and with more potential is better than a colony forced to grow quickly that ends up destitute. Of course, people can’t help but be impatient but the uniserve hastens for no-one, it would take at least a century before the inhabitants of Tepi-3 are ready to construct modern mega projects. This is simply a symptom of technological discovery. As more research, materials, industrialization methods, entire industries, the more complicated the chain of production gets. Far more complex than simply banging two rocks together to create a tool. All that really means is that everything takes much much longer to do. Technology can, of course, shorten that time but in the end it reaches a point where it gets harder and harder to become more efficient.
A wall of sorts, one of progress on the universal scale. A wall that every civilization encounters at multiple points throughout their development. Discoveries or reforms like the industrialization revolution of the reader’s civilization are examples of when civilization overcomes these walls. But the walls only become harder to overcome each time. Eventually civilization simply relies on quantity instead of quality, afterall does it matter if a ship takes a hundred or so years to build when you are building thirty of them at the same time? Not to mention if everyone is slow it doesn’t matter if you are too, the only ones time still matters to are those with short life spans, relatively of course. And most space-faring species have longer lifespans, artificially extended through the use of technology and understanding of biology.
Well, I’ve gotten a little off track. Where were we in the story? Ah, near the end of this chapter.
The mood on board the Favala is still in high hopes, though the lack of response from high command put a bit of a dapper on it. The head officers and Idris handled it though, using the line of thinking that the transport ship will be bringing the message calmed everyone and it’s the most logical conclusion.
The council on the surface of Tepi-3 has begun its first rounds of reformation. Terraforming projects, being so far away from high command, have the ability to effectively run themselves until they are finished. It’s not a perfect system, especially on the longer projects, they tend to believe themselves independent from the TFS. But high command can’t create much traffic to the region otherwise others would begin to take notice of that. As such, while not a perfect system it is the only one available. This freedom of choice is also on the subject of governing practice, something that will shape the future. The council of Tepi-3, along with some respective and maybe slightly threatening advice from the captain, have decided to uphold the TFS’ democratic practice. Although on Tepi-3 the government has a little more power, being a colonial government they will often need to take drastic actions. Something along the line of the goal matters more than the journey in these drastic situations.
This means the people, for now, will be able to directly interfere in the democratic process. Although, once the population grows to be too big that direct interference would be difficult, however that’s a problem for the future. This direction has made the colonists all very happy, perhaps this is what the captain wanted. For the colonists to really feel like they are important to the colony and that it invests in them and therefore, for their own interest, they should invest in the colony and work as hard as possible for its future. Or maybe the captain just got a healthy dose of government influenced education.
All in all everything seems to be going well for the Favala and the people of Tepi-3. The captain can only feel like everything is going smoothly, a feeling that is off putting for someone in his line of duty.