“For we must consider that we shall be as a city upon a hill. The eyes of all people are upon us. So that if we shall deal falsely with our God in this work we have undertaken, and so cause him to withdraw his present help from us, we shall be made a story and a by-word through the world.”
Sermon delivered by John Winthrop (1588-1649), Puritan lawyer and later Massachusetts Bay Colony Governor, on a ship heading for the New World in 1630
“Because it’s there.”
George Mallory responding in 1923 to the question of why he wants to climb Mt. Everest
I
Orbit
1.
Arrival
Wyatt, aboard Fence Family ship Magellan
There, 200 miles below, the great planet crept. They had arrived. Half again earth’s diameter, and twice the surface area, its oceans held four massive continents, including a vast island archipelago spread across the middle and upper latitudes. It was indescribably beautiful. The planet held two moons.
Wyatt Fence, watch team Four, observed cousin Allegra, assistant engineer, flipping switches at the console. Allegra’s screechy laugh had become tiresome these one-year watch periods, so tiresome Wyatt considered sending her into space, though of course he did not have such authority. Allegra was a capable engineer, ice-cold but lovely. Her younger sister Erika, systems specialist, down in the hold for the moment, clumsy and squat, knew Mind technology like nobody else.
Wyatt wished he could feel a glow of satisfaction. Arrival – slowing the ship, coming to orbit – was his responsibility, his and the ship’s Mind. They had arrived, on schedule, but not exactly as planned. During the 40-year journey that began 2125 they had lost only four of the 40 souls suspended, the souls carefully monitored by four three-person teams, one year awake and three in cryosleep. Coming out of cryo, the disorientation, the nausea, was difficult. Wyatt hated it. The monitor teams were mainly Fence Family members. Luther, the patriarch and Mission Commander, also watch team One, would be the first team member awakened now they were in orbit. Wyatt, Luther’s second cousin from the disdained Peninsula side of the Family, had never been comfortable with Luther, always feeling the imposter.
When they had left the Belt Wyatt had been 40 years old, his two cousins somewhat younger. They had all been in cryo for 30 years of the 40-year passage. Ten times, they had left cryo for one year’s duty. This was the last of Wyatt’s team’s duty, arrival. Was he now 50, or 80? The one gee thrust, first accelerating away from the Belt for 20 years, then turning the ship 180 degrees to decelerate all the way to the planet, had kept them strong. He was still lithe and trim, but he felt ancient. Now, in orbit, they were weightless, zero gee.
Allegra turned from the console, shaking her head. “It’s confirmed. The habitat modules landed off course.”
“What?” Wyatt had launched the three modules as soon as they came into orbit. The modules had released properly, aiming for the level plain by the river. First send down modules holding construction and transport robots, supplies, living units, and materials, then dispatch an assembly team to set everything up. Only then wake everyone else, the breeders and felons. This final awakening, once conditions on the ground were stabilized, was also Wyatt’ responsibility, to bring the felons and breeders out of cryo and deliver them to the planet in shuttles.
Allegra laughed. Wyatt winced.
“Wyatt, I tracked them after release but we lost the signals when our orbit took us beyond the horizon. The next pass I caught the signals, but they were – are – really faint. They’re not where we wanted them to land.”
Erika floated into the bridge from the living quarters below. She overheard Allegra.
“They landed off course?”
“They did,” Allegra said. “In the foothills, not the plains. They could be fifty, even one hundred miles from our desired settlement location.”
Wyatt pulled up a map on his battered console screen. Probe-developed maps were all they had. They gave only a rough idea of terrain, altitude, and vegetation type. They had chosen the largest island in the archipelago, an island nearly the size of Canada. Wyatt wondered if Ferdinand Magellan, their ship’s namesake, blindly crossing the endless Pacific nearly 650 years earlier, had felt as uncertain as Wyatt felt now.
“Fifty miles? A hundred miles? Are there beacons?” Of course the modules had beacons, they had to.
“They have beacons. If we must we can triangulate the search from up here on the ship.” Allegra was looking out a window at the planet passing below.
“Only when the ship is passing overhead, Allegra. Every two hours. We’ll have to drop our assembly team as close as we can and let them follow the beacons from there.” Luther, once awakened, would make the final call. He was going to explode when he learned the modules were misplaced.
Erika’s thick eyebrows were raised. “I’m not sure we are really equipped for an overland search.”
“Can we land or maneuver the shuttle close to where the modules are?” Wyatt asked, knowing the answer.
“Those units are designed to parachute people to the surface, one-way trips. They have no maneuverability.” Allegra was scowling. Wyatt kept his expression neutral. Allegra had complained about the need for aerial vehicles for 40 years.
“Finding those beacons could take days. Weeks.” Wyatt paused. Radiation shielding had forced them to cut weight everywhere. But not even a single aerial search vehicle? Luther had been, before launch, supremely confident, claiming the drones in the modules sent to the surface would be sufficient, that actual manned aerial vehicles were redundant. The ultimate choice had been his. Not something to remind him upon awakening. “Luther is going to be unhappy.”
Allegra laughed again.
“There is more, Wyatt.” Allegra waved toward the panels on the bridge. “That National Church ship, Wyatt, Americas Bloc, that finally launched five years after we did? Our Mind just confirmed it will reach orbit in just one month. One month. It almost caught up to us. Next generation fusion engines. You won’t believe its name.”
“Its name.” At least the faster engines on the Church ship hadn’t leapfrogged them, arrived first. One month? Was a one-month cushion enough for the Family to get established? Wyatt stared at Allegra. They had hoped to reach the planet at least five years before the staggeringly complex, bureaucratic, and endlessly delayed Bloc and Church effort. One month?
“Rapture. Its name is Rapture. That’s what they’re calling the planet, too, Wyatt. From the Bible, surely.”
Wyatt placed both hands on his head, closed his eyes. “They are literally rapturing themselves.” Somewhere on their ship Magellan there might be a Bible, though the Fence Family had been entirely secular since reaching the Belt decades earlier. It had been deep in the Belt, 2105 to 2125, when Family robots had hollowed an iron and water asteroid to secretly build and launch this ship.
“And,” Allegra added, staring fixedly at Wyatt, “the Mind has confirmed more details about planet life. This planet is in an ice age, Wyatt. It has megafauna. Big animals. And something else, too.”
“And that would be?”
“Possible controlled burning.”
Wyatt tried to remain calm. They had arrived, yes, but the misplaced pods had surely delayed the settlement plan. He would be blamed. Wyatt stared through the bridge window. One of the planet’s moons was rising before them, the other, beyond. Tides must be ferocious down there if the moons ever lined up. Wyatt wanted to scream. Instead, mindful of appearance, he remained measured, logical, precise. He spoke carefully and quietly, as if by so speaking he could manage the situation.
“So, to summarize, we misplaced the habitat pods. The Church ship is one month behind us, headed for the same continent. This planet is in an ice age. There may be beings setting fires?” This was ridiculous. Allegra raised a finger.
“You assume the Church ship is headed for the same continent. There is no basis for assuming that.”
Wyatt decided perhaps he would send Allegra into space after all.
Erika drifted closer, gestured back toward the belly of the ship. She wore an expectant expression. Wyatt suddenly wanted to send her into space, too.
“One more thing, Wyatt.”
“What?” Mechanical problems? Engine problems? Mind problems?
“I think we have a stowaway.”
STORIES MADE US HUMAN 