Alar laid with his eyes closed as the morning alarm pulsed throughout his room. He squeezed them shut a bit harder, trying to extract a few more seconds of rest before he had to get up and face the day. He had been awake from stasis for almost 6 months now, but the doctors said it was not uncommon to have difficulty getting into and out of sleep for up to a year after. This made sense, as his body had technically been asleep for over 100 years, at least compared to time on earth. With the time dilation that occurred from the ship traveling at 0.9c for the majority of the trip, it had only felt like around 50 years within the ship itself, but since Alar had been in stasis the entire time, it made little difference.
He groggily pulled himself up and began getting ready. Civilians on board the spaceship did not have uniforms per se, but they were required to wear standard flight suits, as extraneous clothing was not only a hazard but a waste of space when every ounce of weight throughout the entire ship mattered. They weren’t bad. They were pants and a shirt of the same light grey color, which distinguished them from the crew, who all wore blue. They compressed lightly against his skin, and were outfitted with lots of different pockets and spaces for tools and gadgets that he would need when they got planet side.
He pulled on his clothes and boots and wandered into the bathroom, washing his face and handling his other small morning tasks. He looked up from the towel in his hands at his own reflection, his green eyes a sharp contrast from his light brown hair and short beard, one that he should probably shave in the next few days before they made their descent. There were no requirements or restrictions on his appearance. However, through the countless briefings and training sessions since he had awoken, it had become apparent to Alar that no one truly knew what to expect once they landed on T7-404, the large planet they had been traveling toward for over 100 of Earth’s years. Not having the opportunity to shave, wash, or perform other routine tasks for a long time after landing was a real possibility.
When Alar had left earth, he had done so with more excitement and hope than most. It was admittedly hard to have a lot of hope when the planet you lived on was on the brink of complete destruction, but he had been excited nonetheless. The world he had left was not one he had particularly enjoyed, given the circumstances. He had naturally missed the small number of relatives and friends that had still been on earth when he left, and who had by now either died or left the planet themselves, but he was filled with more optimism about the opportunities and mystery in front of him than the world he had left behind.
Earth as humanity knew it was gone. At first it was “only” a few nuclear bombs launched between two countries, but others had gotten involved, and before anyone knew it, over 30 warheads and thousands of kinetic weapons had been fired. Almost a billion people had died before a cease fire had been reached, but that was only the beginning. The nuclear fallout affected large portions of the world, destroying food supplies over vast regions of the planet. Countries closed their borders, hoarded food, and conflict escalated. While nuclear weapons were off the table, biological ones were not, and modified viruses and insects progressively wiped out more and more of the already dwindling food supply. Crops were irreparably destroyed, infrastructure demolished, and before peace had been reached, Earth was no longer a viable place to live for the vast majority of humanity, and probably wouldn’t be for thousands of years.
Alar was barely a teenager when the wars had started, and while he did have some memories and experiences of a “normal” world and life, his formative years were completely overshadowed by the wars. By the time he was an adult, the direct conflicts had ended, and he, like most of humanity had attempted to pick up the pieces and move forward as best as they could. He had attended school, procured a degree and attempted to make his way in the world, but normalcy was nearly impossible when society was on the brink of total collapse and worsening by the day.
After a few tumultuous years, he decided to apply for one of the exploratory missions to “potentially habitable” worlds. Almost all travel to the closer planets was done entirely by the military, military contractors, or scientists, and few, if any, civilians were accepted. However, the further out and riskier the trips became, the more civilians and lay persons were accepted. This was for the simple reason that the further away the planet was, the less tenable a return trip or trip to a different world was in the event that something went wrong or that the planet wasn’t viable for habitation. There were still naturally qualifiers, as everyone on board was expected to contribute in some way to the building and development of the ”new world”, but it was easier, and Alar had finally been accepted after about a dozen applications. His degree and training was in construction supervision, and he had been tasked with the supervision and maintenance of a portion of the fleet of bots, drones and machines that would take part in the construction of the buildings and dwellings that would make up their new world.
Alar finished his morning routine and placed his hand on the door of the dormitory he had been assigned after waking from stasis, the touch registering and the door sliding back smoothly into the wall, allowing him to exit into the hallway. He had yet another descent briefing in about 50 minutes, the first of several scheduled throughout the day, but that left him enough time for a quick breakfast. He passed by a few dozen people as he made his way down the hall and towards one of the ship’s cafeterias, most of them moving quickly with intention, or busily focused on a screen in front of their eye or in their hand. A few recognized him and nodded or smiled distractedly, but most just passed him without paying him any attention.
This didn’t particularly bother Alar, with nearly 30,000 people currently residing on the ship, it was unsurprising that he would not recognize many that he passed, especially since most were segmented into their work sections for briefings and trainings, and therefore only interacted with the same hundred or so people on a daily basis. Alar was a bit different, as he was grouped not only with his work sector but also with his newly formed “tertiary security unit” compromised of newly awakened non-military members that had some form of prior combat training.
Alar had been shocked to learn upon awakening that the planet they were traveling to appeared to have its own sentient population, something that was entirely unknown before leaving, and as such it had not been planned for prior to departure from earth. Only minimal weaponry, defensive forces or security teams had been made part of the crew, with the majority of those that did exist only meant to act as a police or security force within their own society. Therefore, Alar had been conscripted into one of these backup “security units” in the event that conflict arose with the native population. Their usefulness was questionable however, as Alar’s “combat experience” consisted of him wrestling on his town teams as a child and training kickboxing at a local gym during and after university to stay in shape. His only experience with a weapon was hunting once or twice a year with his family before the war, and the VR combat games most boys played online growing up. This nominal experience surprisingly made Alar one of the most experienced “combatants” in his civilian squad, which in his opinion did not bode well for their chances if they were actually forced into any form of conflict with the local populace.
Alar arrived at the cafeteria, which was filled with a few hundred people seated at long benches throughout the large room. He was served his food and coffee, which Alar was pleased to learn after waking from stasis was delicious, being military-grade rations, compared to the food he was accustomed to back on Earth. He spotted a few people he knew at the end of one of the benches and made his way over to them to sit and eat before beginning the day in earnest. Everyone at the table he approached wore the same grey outfits that he did, and most were from his work section, comprised mostly of other construction supervisors or related professions, such as repair technicians, materials coordinators, and power grid analysts. He sat down next to a woman with black hair and violet eyes, a sign of genetic modification before birth, who even seated was almost a head shorter than Alar. She had sharp features, including a slightly pointed chin and high cheekbones, giving her an angular, almost delicate appearance that contrasted with the sharp intelligence in her gaze. Her black hair was pulled back into a loose knot, though a few strands had fallen forward, framing her face as she sat, leaned forward and deep in conversation with the individual in front of her. Her name was Eira, a grid analyst from his section, and she turned her head toward Alar as he sat.
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“Good morning sunshine”, she said, giving him a brief smile as he sat, but not giving him the opportunity to respond before returning her attention to the man in front of her and continuing. “Do you agree that even if we land and are greeted by whatever is down there with open arms, that this entire situation is going to fundamentally change every logistical timeline we currently have in place?”
“I mean, I guess there could..” Alar began to say, before being cut off as she continued.
“Because Theo here seems to think that we are going to be pretty much walking in there and laying down power lines within, what did you say Theo, “a few days tops” like we aren’t literally dropping from the fucking sky onto a planet that probably doesn’t even possess the technology to confirm their world is round.”
“I didn’t say that!” Theo, a stocky man of around thirty, with dark skin and hair, responded with exasperation, “I just meant that I don’t think that we are going to have as many issues as people are saying. We are going to be seen as essentially gods to them, or like magical and supernatural powerhouses, and as soon as we throw out a few drones and show off a little bit, they are going to begging us to help out wherever we can.”
Alar, by now sipping his coffee, continued listening to a conversation he had felt like he had heard a few hundred times already, but enjoying the back and forth nonetheless.
“Did you see yesterdays report? Two billion Theo, with a “B” is the current estimate. No long range communication, unless they have messenger birds or something, and you think its going to be a couple of days before we have enough of a presence to not only gain possession of land but be able to do something with it? No way. No possible way. We are going to be sitting on the ship for weeks while our diplomatic teams try to figure out how to even communicate with them.” Eira exclaimed before pulling her own coffee towards her and settling back, her point seemingly made.
“We have the most advanced AI reasoning models that exist that are going to be planet side with us” he said back, “as long as they are speaking words, we will have a language translated and imported to us within a day.”
“That still doesn’t mean we will be able to talk to the right people, assuming they even are people” Alar finally chimed in, gaining a nod of approval from Eira, “we think we are landing near one the capital cities, but everything is assuming they have a societal structure that in any way mimics our own understanding. What if their leaders are on a completely different part of the continent? What if they don’t even have political leaders as we understand them?”
From their briefings, Alar and everyone else had learned pretty much everything that was known, or assumed, about this planet, after the ships scientific crews had observed it for over a decade before any of those at the table had even been awakened. The sentient population was humanoid, did not have any electricity or advanced technology, and had cities, buildings, roads, transportation and infrastructure that could best be described as medieval. They seemed to be human, or near human, in appearance, but apparently different portions of the planet had societies with extremely different genetic makeups, with some continents having structures and systems built for beings that grew to be barely larger than the average child on earth, and others with beings significantly larger than the average adult human.
They were landing where the scientists believed the most populous and stable population existed that possessed the most similarities to earth. This, they theorized, would lead to the highest likelihood of interacting peacefully with the local inhabitants.
“Okay, okay, sheesh” Theo raised his hands and responded in mock defeat, “maybe it will be a bit longer than a couple of days, I will remember to never again express optimism around the likes of you two.”
“Good” Eira shot back, smiling as she did. “Don’t you have to be going soon? Your sector is meeting at the docks this morning.”
“Oh! I forgot, yes, thanks!” he said, hurriedly grabbing his tray and standing up from the table. “I will see you all at final briefing tonight!” and with that brief farewell he was off, half walking, half jogging out of the room. Eira had an uncanny attention to detail and knew almost everyone in their section’s schedule, roles, and assignments—often better than they knew their own. She never seemed to forget anything, never had to double-check her work, and never had to be told something twice, like someone who had long ago learned that mistakes had consequences.
Alar hadn’t known her before he had awoken, but they had bonded quickly after being assigned to the same section. There had been no dramatic introduction, no defining moment that sparked their friendship. It had just… happened. A quiet sort of understanding that neither of them had any interest in being anywhere but where they were right now.
She didn’t talk much about her life before the mission. Not like some of the others, who still clung to old stories, reminiscing about places and people that no longer existed. When Eira spoke of Earth, it was always in broad, impersonal strokes. She never mentioned family. Never talked about what she had left behind, and he had never asked.
Alar watched Theo leave, smirking as he did, before turning back towards Eira. “He is right to a certain extent though.”
“Hm? How so?” she responded, sipping her own coffee as she did.
“A pre-industrial society like this is going to have no real explanation for us except for magic or the supernatural.” Alar continued, tapping his fingers idly against the table. “Even if they don’t see us as gods, they’ll definitely see us as something beyond their understanding.”
Eira sighed, stirring what was left of her coffee. “I don’t think that’s necessarily a good thing. People don’t usually react well to things they don’t understand.”
Alar frowned. “You think they’ll be hostile?”
“I just think we have no idea,” she replied. “Everything we’ve assumed about them so far is built on surface-level observations. We don’t know how they think, what they believe, what they fear. Even if they aren’t aggressive, their way of life might be so different from ours that we don’t even realize when we’re pissing them off.”
Alar exhaled through his nose. She wasn’t wrong. They were walking into this blind.
“What do you think about the anomalies?” he asked. “We still don’t have an explanation for those. If they’re just a regular medieval civilization, what the hell is causing those energy readings? The gravitational shifts?”
Eira shook her head. “I don’t know. And that’s what bothers me the most. The scientists don’t have an answer. The reasoning models don’t have an answer. Hell, for all we know, the people down there don’t even notice it. Maybe it’s normal to them.”
Alar rubbed the back of his neck. “That doesn’t make it less weird.”
“No,” she admitted. “It really doesn’t.”
They sat in silence for a moment, both slowly starting to gather their trays as they continued.
“Well,” Alar finally said, stretching his arms behind his head, “let’s just hope whatever’s causing it doesn’t take issue with us setting up shop on their planet.”
Eira smirked, but there was little humor in it. “Not like we are giving them much choice…”
They both stood, trays in hand, as the cafeteria around them began thin out.
“You heading to your sector?” she asked.
“Yeah. Got another briefing in a few minutes” Alar said, rolling his shoulders. “More ‘contingency planning’ and ‘unexpected social dynamics’ lectures.”
Eira smirked. “Sounds riveting.”
Alar grinned back. “I live for it.”
She set down her tray at the cleaning bot and turned to him. “Well, don’t fall asleep in there. See you at the final briefing tonight.”
“Yeah,” he said, following her toward the exit. “See you then.”
They parted ways in the corridor, the steady hum of the ship’s systems filling the silence as the reality of what was soon to come slowly dawning on them.
By the time the day was over, they would be one step closer to setting foot on an entirely new world.
One they still didn’t understand.