We, The People

Author’s Note: Well, I may have officially left the realm of “short stories” with this one, we finally arrive on a planet and it’s a great opportunity for me to try my hand at a bit of world building but the story is rather long because of it. Of course if you like you can always read it here, but if you prefer other formats you can also find the story:
On Medium
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—

She stood upon a miracle and thought of the future.

From her spot up on the porch, Amelia could almost see the ocean. Almost. The steps up out of the tented garden beds let her see out into her fields rolling away in golden shades until they were lost in the reddish haze of middle distance. Beyond the great book cliffs that defined the eastern edge of the valley rose up in layered red and cream into the cesious sky to catch the last rays of yellow sun even as her fields were enveloped in shadow. Today, there were only a few pale yellow clouds dotted above the high mesa, puffed up like pillowy souffles, so she could see for miles and miles along the cliff edge as they worked their way north towards the quiet shores of the alien sea. She could imagine skirting along their layered edges, flying through the hazy evening air, and diving deep into the cool waters to wash away the day’s grime of red dust and hayseed.

It was so pleasant to imagine, but then her eyes would refocus and memories would come crashing back unbidden. The haze that obscured the edge of her fields brought back deep, painful images of the trees obscuring the horizon on her homestead aboard the Faith. An illusion designed to keep her trapped beneath a dome to wait out endless years of waking life. The cliffs beyond, intricately layered and stacked as they were showing millenia of sedimentation, looked just like the kind of thing you’d project to give the illusion of an open world. A new illusion to keep her content.

Amelia could walk out to the edge of her fields, out through all the grasses that weren’t really grasses, right out into the red crumbled dust of the desert and still the haze would obscure the miles between her and the cliffs in their stately march to the sea. Ten years she’d passed in the old farmhouse aboard the Faith, ten years, two full working stints, and she’d never so much as left the farm. She knew she should count herself lucky. Better to be safe aboard the farm than constantly be called upon to venture out into the cold silence of the ship for whatever dangerous repair the ship couldn’t complete itself. Still, how she’d craved something, anything to make her take the step across the threshold. Many days she’d wander down through her paddocks and over the perimeter stream, between the looming boulders and up to the silently waiting archway through which waited all of the CRS Delaney’s Faith. She’d wander up to that doorway and pace for hours, curiosity burning inside of her about what she’d find out in the stretching halls of the ship, but fear of the cold of the dark of the unknown always held her back. After hours of pacing, she’d always throw up her arms in disgust at her own cowardice and walk back to the old farmhouse. There was always something that needed done on a farm anyhow.

Now there was no dome crushing down around her, only miles of open, inhospitable desert to keep her in place. But it was no less a prison. Instead of pacing by the archway, Amelia would walk again and again the miles around the perimeter of her fields of golden grasses staring out into the haze looking for any sign of life. Of course, there never was one, she didn’t know what she’d do if she saw one anyway. That was why they were here anyway, this new home humanity had found contained nearly all the ingredients essential for life, but no life itself, no alien ecosystems to consider as they set up a new civilization away from the crumbling environs of Earth. Yes, Amelia’s new home was a miracle.

For unknown ages the Faith had stumbled near-blind through the blackness of space, pinballing between solar systems. At each finding no hospitality, no future for the humans in her hold. All Amelia knew was that it must have been a very long time indeed and that she must have drawn a pretty short straw. When she’d wandered into the Delaney Corp recruitment office in downtown Hong Kong, they’d sold her on an easy five-year work stint aboard the ship and then a future on a new world with boundless potential. 

Well, that all proved to be lies. Nothing about the work stint was easy, endless years of isolation had rewired her brain. Growing up she’d visit her grandparents in Montreal and was always the center of attention, chatting away happily with all of her far-flung aunts and uncles, happily skipping between French and English and Cantonese before skipping through the spring daisies. Even later in life when she’d been uprooted and moved with her father back to his home in Hong Kong full-time she had kept her ability to charm with an easy conversation. Years of isolation had stripped that away day by day, now she could barely imagine making it through a full sentence with another human. The recruiters had lied about the length too, she was told the voyage more than tripled in expected time as the first prospect systems held no suitable planets for colonization so the Faith had headed on. So instead of waking up a second time to a new home, she was woken up to a nightmarish two weeks with a gaunt Sudanese woman who looked like she survived her stint solely by fear of death, before being left to five more years of solitude as her life slipped by.

Now, finally, they had by some miracle come across the spans of space and time to find a new planet nearly tailor-made for their needs. Nearly. 542 Cancri E2, came sailing in out of the void into the sensors of the Faith like a jewel cut from God’s own horde. It was utterly, staggeringly, unimaginably Earth-like. Gravity was almost imperceptibly lighter at .987g, the days just so pleasantly longer at 25.5 hours, the seasons changed just enough throughout the year to keep things interesting otherwise the climate was improbably stable. In the sites of the Faith, it looked like a great cream and red and cerulean marble ripe for the taking. There were deep oceans of nearly pure, freshwater. Clouds banded through the sky, tinted just a pillowy off-white by sandstone dust. Red land rose above the lapping waves in great islands dotted almost perfectly through the tropics where the average surface temperature was a balmy 25C.

Still, there were challenges aplenty, as there always would be. Starting first and foremost with those crystalline oceans. Teams of scientists were pouring themselves into discovering just why they should be so pure. The pastry clouds would carry water over the great islands and bring rains that would run back into the seas carrying heavy loads of sediment, but all the minerals from the soil would eventually settle out onto the seafloor, leaving the water to swirl once more in its incredible purity. As best they could tell there was almost no chlorine locked away in the rock of this improbable planet to bind and form salts as it had on Earth. So despite the fact that there was plenty of liquid water and a reasonably protective atmosphere and a stable, mild climate there was no life to be found on this untouched gem. The scientists hypothesized it was due to the young age of the system and the complete lack of salt in the oceans that would’ve started the slow accumulation of complex proteins that would eventually spur life. Still, for a space-faring society scaring up a little salt when they needed it was hardly an insurmountable challenge, and it meant that this new planet was theirs.

No, the true challenges lay in the devilish details. When they arrived and analyzed the atmosphere they found against all odds that it was largely breathable. Just another miracle to add to the list. Of course it was just a fluke, seemingly by divine provenance when they arrived just the right mix of gasses blanketed the surface for the new settlers to breathe. And of course it was temporary, there was no feedback loop keeping the atmosphere in balance so they’d need to engineer a new balance themselves, again no insurmountable challenge they’d already done it back home. 

But then the anomalies began to crop up, and it took them wholly by surprise at first. The first settlers had been on the ground for over a month when the first tropical storm of the spring came rolling in off the sea pulling down gases from the high atmosphere. The settlers had looked on in awe at the great creamy thunderhead as it rolled in, but when a great wall of wind hit them they began to choke. There was nothing keeping the atmosphere in balance to a large enough storm cell could change the composition enough to make it unbreathable. Only a few of those settlers had made it back into a pressurized tent in time, the rest slowly suffocated as they felt the first drops of alien rain fall up on their cheeks.

And then there was the radiation. Their new pleasant golden sun showered the planet, as all stars are wont to do, with radiation of all types. The atmosphere was largely protective, but not perfectly. After all these new settlers weren’t adapted over millennia to live under these new skies. Under cloud cover you were mostly safe, mostly. On a clear day a couple minutes of exposure was survivable, barely. So while these new settlers could stand on the surface of their new home and breathe the air, they had to cower in fear of their new sun.

They were small, devilish details that drove the new society under a dome. Living in fear of a clear sky, constantly monitoring for storms that might bring down a rain of poison gas was simply too much for the humans looking to make a new home. So they chose a lovely cove on one of the largest islands straddling the equator and built a marvel. For decades the silent machinery of the Faith worked tirelessly collecting materials from around the system and constructed a massive terrarium that enclosed the entire bay and thousands of hectares besides. A place where they could be safe. All before the sleepers really began to wake and descend down to their new home, Novo Monterrey, a new metropolis for a new planet. There was plenty of room under the dome for all of the souls in the Faith’s holds, and plenty more besides. They’d learned their lessons on Earth, they would create a new society to be more balanced, more just, more perfect.

But it was not Amelia’s lot to join them in this shining new city. She was maintenance crew after all, and so the final of Delaney’s lies was exposed. There would be a new society full of promise, but the only space they could find for her was out in the country putting her honed horticultural skills to good use. They’d awoken her and sent her straight to the surface to a newly built homestead a couple hundred kilometers away from the city. She’d seen Novo Monterrey, but only the space port. She was too sick from cryo to really put up much of a fight, and besides could she really live around so many people after so much time alone?

So now her life on this new planet with no real name, looked much like her life aboard the Faith. So much so that at times she wondered if it were all a dream, if really she was still trapped on the homestead hurtling through the stars. Her plot of land was about the same size, her daily duties were much the same although now she had large plots of genetically engineered grasses to manage as well, she was able to resume her chosen diversion of throwing pottery in the evenings, hell even her house was the same.

She stood on her porch which except for the materials could’ve been the front porch of the old farmhouse. But there was no improbable wood to be found here, no her new home was decidedly local. A stout adobe house made from pink, local earth, built thick enough to keep out the worst of the radiation. If she stepped inside she’d see a spartan house that inch for inch matched the old farmhouse. A spare kitchen and living area downstairs, bedroom on the second floor with a round window overlooking the gardens, a workshop hanging off the back under a sloping roof. Only here there was no wooden furniture, crafted by the unknown hands of some other watcher struggling to keep themself sane and build a connection across the chasm of time, that and all the doors had to be airtight in case a big storm blew in turning the air noxious. But at hey, at least she got to keep her boots from her life on the ship.

In spite of all of it. All the work, all the solitude, all the injustice Amelia stood in the sheltering shade of her porch and smiled to herself as she stood on this miracle and thought about the future.

Three years she’d been here trapped on this new farm, sent to help breed new grasses that might be spread to lock down the topsoil of the island and begin to balance the mercurial atmosphere. Three years and she’d watched again and again as her crops failed one after another, each time she’d send a report on what finally did them in and a few days later a drone would arrive with a new batch of seed to try. Now after three years, she actually had hope. Her grasses had grown tall under the alien sun, they had ripened and began to bear heavy loads of seed. Not the lack of salt, not the dust, not the storms that had come in extra punishing this season had been able to take out her crop. 

Now, after eons coming through the stars and decades on their new planet Amelia felt like humanity had true hope. If they could grow here, really grow out on the surface not tucked under domes or tents, she felt like they might actually be able to forge a new life here. Maybe they could finally settle on a name for their new world after living in limbo for all these years. She liked Demeter, why not name their new world for the goddess of a bountiful harvest.

Amelia stood on her porch and smiled to herself thinking about all the ways they would grow and adapt to meet the challenges of their new life if they found the courage. She smiled and looked out over her golden fields waving in the late afternoon sun. She smiled as she looked up at the thunderhead that was beginning to form above the book cliffs. She even smiled as she saw the first gusts of wind blow off the mesa and pick up dust from the valley floor. Her tab chimed softly, a weather alert, but she already knew that. She smiled as she stepped into her staunch, cozy home and sealed the door. She smiled knowing in her heart of hearts that this storm wouldn’t be the one to ruin her crop. She smiled knowing that for the first time in a long time she had a future to think about.

--

He stood upon a miracle and thought of the past.

From his spot by the window Daniel could almost see the island. Almost. As he floated lightly by the thick-paned window the nameless planet below him rose from the truncated horizon before him. It turned slowly in the void like a great cottony confection all creamy whites over deep blues, dotted barely visibly by the red archipelago that climbed the lower latitudes toward the island where the city grew. Novo Monterrey. He’d seen the gleaming city once, years ago, and now every time the planet rose to fill the window of his office he’d look out tracing the dotted islands across the sea he knew like the back of his hand up to the great island that straddled the equator. In his mind Daniel would soar across the great chasm of space before him, through the confectionary clouds and land just outside the great dome that every so often he could see catching the evening light just before it turned into darkness. He’d walk through a cavernous airlock to soak in the soaring, crisp airs of the city.

From there his mind would slip inevitably back through the years, through the fog of time that separated him from the life he yearned for. In his mind the image of the crystalline towers of Novo Monterrey would shift and close in until he was walking along the labyrinthine alleys of El Barri Gotic. With no input from him, Daniel’s mind would conjure the laughing faces of his friends as they stumbled through the ancient cobbled streets looking for some hidden tapas bar to duck into for another bite and a few more drinks. He could see it all so clearly before him, as though the diaspora, the ships, the eons asleep, the new planet were all just some terrible dream and all he had to do was wake up. 

Of course there was no going back. The news updates from Earth lasted long enough for him to find out that the Saito seawall around central Barcelona eventually collapsed flooding the cobbled alleys of El Gotic and erasing so much history in a matter of minutes. There was nothing to return to for Daniel, even if he could. So in silence he floated by his window looking carefully for any brief glimpse of reflected light off the great dome of the city below him.

He had no such luck today though, the island was turning its slow way into the darkness of night and was becoming enveloped in the first thunderheads of a great spring storm that came spiraling in out of angry northern seas. Still, he could imagine though. He could imagine looking up through that incomprehensible dome from the streets below, large enough to create weather of its own, he could imagine the rains stopped miles above him, before sliding down the smooth glass that enveloped this resilient nest of humanity.

The northern shore of the island where Novo Monterrey sat was just turning into darkness when the first thick band of the storm made landfall. Lights, suddenly, could be seen shining back against the darkness although he couldn’t be sure if it was the light of the city or light from the high lightning that characterized these ferocious storms.

Across his office Daniel’s tab chimed lightly on his desk, snapping him out of his reverie. Duty called. With a gentle push he soared in a great arc across the room to land almost weightlessly across the room behind the desk. The microgravity of his life these past five years had become second nature, even as it steadily increased day after day. He hesitated before answering the call.

“Took you long enough Danny,” His cousin’s teasing voice drilled into his ears as her face filled the screen of his tab, collapsing the last of his peaceful moment. “What, did you drift off again? No wonder you’re so far behind schedule.” She smirked through the screen mockingly. “You’d better watch out, Yun family or not, we’ll replace your ass in two seconds if you can’t get your shit together.”

“Ah Jesus, Elena, give it a rest. Besides you don’t seem to be working too hard yourself today.” Behind her wan face and frame of straight dark hair he could see the thin columns and intricate arches of the Faith’s bridge. Which meant one thing, his cousin Elena had called it a day and was having a drink at the long bar that sat beneath the great tiled mosaic.

Again Daniel’s mind slid backwards through time, to his last visit to the Faith’s bridge. It was rather hallowed ground in their new society, the place where the council had decided the future of mankind and elected to settle on their new world. For months, he’d been living with other early wakers in newly constructed quarters kilometers aft on the ship. That he’d been invited to the bridge at all came as a surprise to him, even though he bore the proud family name of the Yun Corporation. He remembered stepping through the ornate Spanish archway into the cavernous room, the gossamer columns rising into an intricately carved dome. Down the left side a long bar stretched under a mosaic that as he understood it the ship’s AI constantly, invisibly changed one tile at a time. When he stepped onto the bridge that day it was a mosaic facsimile of Guernica slowly being tiled over by a landscape showing conquistadors landing on Aztec shores.

He’d been called to the ostentatious place by his uncle, one of the select few who’d decided the future of mankind as one of the council. As he walked by the long table of dark wood where the council had gathered to make their decision he could see his uncle sitting at the far end of the bar with the small figure of his cousin, his brow furrowed as he scoured some inscrutable reports on his tab. As Daniel approached they both turned and a jovial smile spread across his uncle’s face. That was when he learned his future, where he would earn his place in the new world. There was no use fighting the inevitable, behind his uncle’s amiable mask was an irresistible aggregation of power, if it wasn’t for him Daniel may well have never made it off Earth.

Over tall glasses of sangria he’d learned the future his uncle had carved out. His uncle would head down to the surface as soon as the dome was complete to start work on the new Yun Corp headquarters. Not a bad role for a man who’d married into the family just a decade before the ships took flight, but then again he’d always had a way for parlaying success into success. His cousin would remain aboard the Faith to manage interests aboard the ship as the general populace began to awaken, and take over the opulent family staterooms - pobre Elena. Daniel would be headed in another direction, far from the glimmering, crystal streets of Novo Monterrey far from the long halls of the Faith. Daniel would build a moon.

Elena’s gout of belly laughter snapped him back to the present.

“Perdóname, Padre, porque he pecado.” She laughed in mock reverence, holding up her drink. “Yeah you’re right, but fuck off I’ve earned. It’s been weeks now with the Tier Three Union leaders breathing down my neck about waking more of their class to head to the surface. My Dad’s down there busting his ass, but the damned atmosphere is giving us serious fits. As much as I’d love to wake everyone up and send them down so I could move on with my life, I can’t risk throwing the air systems of the city out of whack with a huge population rush. Plus, it’s storm season so we really can’t rely on outside breathable atmosphere.”

“I take it the union people don’t exactly see the finer points of atmospheric management,” Daniel cut back dryly.

“Hell no! They couldn’t tell a scrubber from a reclimator from a circulator if their lives depended on it, which is goddamned does by the way. And they have no idea how to even comprehend the volume of atmosphere we’re talking about under the dome. They just look around and see that most of the maintenance crew has been woken up and put to work, and can’t stomach that their fare-paying citizens should remain asleep.”

“I’d take a couple extra years of sleep over the construction or cultivation or asteroid hauling work we have the maintenance crew on.” Daniel looked over at his monitor that showed the swarm of haulers he oversaw spread across the system, each manned by a lonely pair of maintenance crew.

“That’s what I’m saying,” Elena sighed, exasperated. “Give us a little time to get shit set up so people can actually live! But no, they can’t get over the shock of our total flight time and want everyone awake now, good idea or not.”

“Well two thousand years is a bit longer than expected, you have to admit.” He sighed, fighting to keep his mind in the present.

“It makes fuck all difference and you know it Daniel!” She burst, finishing her drink and sliding it across for the bar to replenish. “Anyways, don’t get me started, I’m calling to give you shit not the other way around. You are fifteen runs behind schedule this month, what the hell is going on? I am not afraid to micromanage your ass if that’s what it comes to.”

“What do you want me to tell you Elena?” Daniel retorted. “There’s a reason why there’s no chlorine on the planet, there’s barely any in the system at all. We’re combing through the asteroid belt and hauling every bit of it we find back, but it’s a seriously slow process.”

“Then what the hell were your projections for? It was your goddamned schedule.”

“It looks like we tapped out the zone we were looking at and things have gone a bit dry out there. There’s no use in just hauling any old rock all the way across the system if it doesn’t have chlorine we could mine down the line right?”

“Ahh see that’s where you’re wrong Daniel.” She wagged a finger at him as she sipped her tinto. “Ever since your moon has crossed the visibility threshold priorities on the surface have changed a bit.”

“What do you mean?” He asked, puzzled. A few months back he had proudly sent out a press release that on certain evenings surface features of their planet’s new moon would be visible to the naked eye from Novo. The project he’d toiled away on for so many years was slowly but surely coming to fruition, and he was thrilled to share the news. All his work would no longer just be a speck in the sky like some distant planet, but a real moon for the new world.

“Well, ever since your tio has been able to step out on his veranda in the evening and have a glass of wine and look up at his new moon he’s decided that he rather likes it. Reminds him of home. So now he wants it bigger, and sooner, and so do all the other big wigs.” She illuminated.

No good deed goes unpunished, he thought. “So what? I’m just supposed to haul anything and everything across the system so that some rich fucks can have an evening view? I thought we were doing this to have a chlorine bank in case the salt issue became more of a problem.”

“Hey one of those rich fucks is your uncle, and without him you’d be dead, drowned back in El Gotic when the sea came to reclaim your favorite haunts.” Elena shot back mockingly.

“Christ easy does it Elena, I’m working my ass off over here too but I can’t hit a target I can’t see. How big of a moon do they have in mind?”

“Oh something round about the size of Earth’s in the night sky ought to do daddy just fine.”

Daniel nearly, choked. “Are you fucking kidding me?!” He couldn’t believe what he was hearing. “It’s one thing to just get the asteroid hauling done early so we’re nicely set up for the next couple thousand years and make a little mock moon. But the Earth’s moon was a freak, a miracle it didn’t rip the planet apart when they came into contact. Not only would we need to pull in a thousand times more material, we’d need to move the whole thing into a considerably higher orbit.” This was beyond vanity, it was lunacy.

“Oh relax Daniel.” She said slowly swirling her drink, unperturbed by his outburst. “They’re reasonable people, they’ll accept some compromise, they know it’s a new planet and all. Come up with some balance that gives us good visibility, good chlorine resources, a stable orbit, and a fucking quick timeline.”

He held his head in his hands, mind racing along the cluster of problems this was going to cause him. “I...I don’t even know where to begin.”

“Better figure it out quick primo, they are waiting down here with high hopes. My dad even has a swank apartment picked out for you when the job is done. Sweet place from what I’ve seen, penthouse, overlooking the harbor. They’ve even started bringing in more local stone to build a new Gothic Quarter just a few blocks away. Figure it out and in no time we’ll be running around down there forgetting the problems of the world. Just like old times.” She raised her glass with a sardonic smile and closed the link before he could reply.

Sighing, Daniel looked across his nearly weightless office as the planet rose into the frame of his window. They can’t even decide on a name for it and yet they have the nerve to demand the impossible, he thought. Petulantia, there’s a good name for your planet, you hubristic twits.

He turned back to his tab and monitor, combing through all the file structures that represented the past five years of his work. He’d been given no choice in the matter, but he always knew that completing this impossible moon project was his only viable path to an upper-class life in the new world, so he’d thrown himself into it with gusto.

The planet had no moon and no salt. So some bright minds thought to solve one problem by creating another. They would comb the system for chlorine-rich asteroids and bring them all together in orbit around the planet to act as a reserve in case establishing a salt balance on the surface proved too difficult for future generations. They could always mine this new moon a bit for chlorine and combine it with existing sodium on the surface to keep their ecosystems in balance. But they couldn’t risk bringing all the ore to the surface from the outset, for all they knew introducing massive amounts of chlorine would cause runaway salination, potentially throwing atmospheric balances off, maybe even kickstarting the development of life off in the oceanic depths. No, it was better to horde this reserve off the surface, yet somewhere readily accessible.

He began on the project about a year after waking up. Daniel oversaw as they rammed four different micromoons, tiny captured asteroids really, into the core of what would be this new satellite. Then they nabbed some asteroids as they passed by to give them a gravitational basis with which to anchor more valuable ore. It had taken three years before there was enough material for the moon’s gravity to pull it into a shape resembling round, that was when he’d left the Faith and established an operations base on, or near, the surface depending on the needs of the day.

For the past two years he’d poured all of his ingenuity into combing the asteroid belt faster and faster to complete the penance he’d been given to earn a life in the gleaming city that sat just out his window. First he’d floated around his office in the barely noticeable microgravity. But day after day, with his planning, the cumulative effort of a team of astrophysicists, and the daily toil of the workers riding the haulers his moon began to grow beneath him. Day by day, he’d felt his weight increase even as the value of this wild project grew for all the future generations that would live in the light of his moon. He’d began to feel hopeful for the first time in years as it seemed like all the work he’d witnessed over the years may actually pay off.

That was all out the window now. For them to get the moon reasonably visible in the next hundred years would mean they’d need to throw every bit of rock they could grab at it, burying the carefully sifted chlorine ore beneath miles of rock. Sure future generations could mine it, at a considerably higher cost. He thought about the teams of scientists he’d worked with, always patient with his lack of experience because they saw the value of the project. Already, he could see the riot their office would turn into when he broke the news to them. But that wasn’t what concerned Daniel as he sat with his head resting lightly in his hands.

No, he thought about the one hundred and four maintenance workers under his charge who were out cold and alone in the far stretches of the system bearing all the weight of the new society on their shoulders. They’d sacrificed years of their lives to watch after the ship on their endless journey through the stars, sitting isolated never knowing if they’d ever see a better life. Now they endured the cramped weightless hauls across the system just to help out if their almost completely automated haulers ever ran into trouble. Which of course they almost never did, turning the toil that much more sour. Still it was all worth it, they were all together building a better future.

It was one thing to ask them to build a better world though, it was another to force them to build a better view for the upper echelons of society. They were given this work and solemnly they took it, knowing it was their only way onto the new world, a world with no destitution or poverty no degradation or destruction, a world where for the first time in generations there was a real prospect of a better future. But they would always be the lowest class in the new society, always taking whatever work no one else could be bothered to do, in a land where work had all but lost its meaning. There would be no way for them to know what it was like to sit on his Uncle’s patio with a bottle of Spanish red, hauled millenia through the stars, on a warm evening and look up at the moon they had built. With one word his uncle had taken the project from nearly to complete to barely started. Daniel didn’t know if he could stomach it.

A soft knock came to his door.

His mind snapped back to the present. “What is it?” he asked.

Softly his assistant opened the door and stepped in. “Comms has just received a distress call from hauler #42, Mr. Yun sir. It looks like some debris has taken out their primary engine, we can’t get a call back from the crew so it looks like at least their communications equipment was eventually destroyed as well.”

Just what he needed, a new fire to put out, less resources with which to complete an even more difficult project.

“Alright Sonia, thanks for the heads up.” He sighed, bringing up the map of the hauler’s last known location. “I’ll see what the higher ups want to do.”

She bowed her slight frame and stepped out almost weightlessly as he opened a chat link to his cousin. No reason she should get to enjoy her drinks while his day dragged on.

• Well you can tell your Tier Three reps I’ve got plenty of work for them on asteroid haulers if they’re so keen to wake up their people. He sent.

• Ha, these are middle managers we’re talking about here. I doubt they’d go for that. She replied.

• We have a hauler down out in the belt. Propulsion and comms are down at least, we have no update on structural and life support. We’ll need an immediate extraction if the crew is to have a chance. He informed.

• Hold on a minute. She sent back.... .... .... Loss prevention has approved immediate release of a surveillance drone to inspect, should be on scene in two days. She finally replied.

• Elena, you know that won’t do much more than surveil the wreckage. We need people out there. He pleaded.

• Lo siento primo, that’s all we’re cleared for. There’s a good chance there’s nothing left to find anyway. She sent the message and closed the link before he could beg any more.

Daniel groaned softly as he looked back out at the planet spinning below him, he frowned deeply, head spinning with a million competing thoughts. His brow set into a deep furrow as he floated lightly over to his spot by the window to watch the planet continue its rise. Gloom set over his eyes as Daniel Yun realized for the first time in a long time that the future was something he didn’t want to think about.

--

Change came flying out of the storm.

Amelia watched from beside her workshop as the last great thunder head rolled its slow way east to spend its energies on the vast unexplored tracts of the island. It had been unseasonably late for a spring storm to come through and she fervently hoped it would be the last as she stood looking over her eastern fields, battered and sodden, but very much still alive. This latest crop had withstood an extraordinary amount of abuse and still managed to be her most productive yet. The years of toil were beginning to pay off it seemed, her own modifications to the soil rotation and planting patterns paired with the genetic engineering happening back in Novo Monterey contrived to create the first life forms truly adapted to thrive on the new world.

Flickers of lightning traced their blinding way through the upper clouds as the sun began to rise and brighten the sky above. Through all the flickering light Amelia noticed another light detach itself from the storm and swoop slowly down towards her farm, a drone. A big one. Its blinking green lights danced through the last clouds and it flew in near silence down to just beside where she stood.

In her years on the farm she’d had plenty of drones drop by carrying all sorts of things, the latest batch of modified seeds, compost, even food when her early garden harvests had failed. They would swoop in and Amelia would come running to grab whatever they held, without a moment’s hesitation the drone would lift back off and soar away to its next duty. Not today though. The behemoth alighted next to her workshop slid its cargo bay doors open expectantly and powered down. She peered into the bay, perplexed to find it empty, that’s when her tab chimed.

A message from the head of Ag Research: 

Excellent work on the cultivation. As soon as possible, please collect a five kilogram sample of each subspecies you’ve been working with and dispatch this drone back to headquarters for analysis. Once complete and dispatched, your farm vehicle will transport you back to Novo Moneterrey for a debriefing. 

- Juro

Her eyes read and reread the curt note, her head swimming. So much change held in so few words. It had been years and the teams in the city had never requested samples of her crops, then again she’d never really had much of a crop to speak of. Then there was her vehicle. She’d always considered it little more than an automated tractor, never had the notion that she could ride anywhere in it really crossed her mind. It did have a little two-seat compartment at its front, but she’d always found it simpler to just punch in the commands and set it to working the fields on its own. Then there was the author, Juro, Juro Saito, familial head of the Saito Corporation here and now the head of Ag Research. She’d remembered his name from Earth although and certainly knew his family, scions of the formidable Saito conglomerate; all of her literature certainly made clear that on the new world he was as high ranking as they come. To receive a personal note from him, and in such casual terms, made Amelia feel completely out of her depth.

And then there was the city. After all this time she’d finally get to see it. She could imagine already, gliding under the dome and down the broad boulevard she felt sure must run straight through the city and out to the beach just at the apex of the broad, circular bay. There would probably be a park there, maybe with a statue paying tribute to the watchers who’d given up so much of their lives to see the Faith safely through the stars. It was all so real in her mind.

But then, the panic. Her breath quickened as she imagined those shining streets filled with people bumping, bustling, jostling, and talking talking talking. It had been over a decade for Amelia since she’d last really been around people, and the notion of sitting down to a conversation with Juro Saito sent her pulse skyrocketing.

Dawn fully broke as Amelia fought down her panic, the sun clearing the last of the trailing clouds to illuminate a new day on her little patch of land. She looked around at the rolling fields bathed in golden morning light and slowly but surely excitement superseded dread. Maybe this was it, maybe her price was finally paid and she would finally be able to join into the new world.

With a deep breath she grabbed her wide-brimmed protective hat and insulated fieldwork shirt and headed out to get a jump on the day’s duties. There was much to be done before she could see humanity’s new home. Out in her wide acreage Amelia had been growing sixteen different subspecies of grass and four different ground-hugging legume species to help refix soil nitrogen. She’d stopped calling any of them by their Earth names after about four plantings as the genetic modifications changed the species right before her eyes. There were descendants of amaranth and millet, rye and maize, lentils and broad beans but they had changed into something entirely new over the years. Now, they all needed to be collected and packaged up so that they could go off to become the pillars of new ecosystems. Surely there was someone working on new names.

She spent the day in a blur of whirling motion, scything the tall grasses, picking the ripened hulls of her beans, gathering, tying, and labeling. The sun was well into its westward descent when she finally loaded the last samples into the drone. Kilos upon kilos of neatly packed plat matter filled the sterile hold, she tapped a button on her tab and without ceremony it switched on and lept to the sky racing ahead of her back to the city. 

Then time slowed to a crawl. Her work was done, all that was left now was to simply load up and let her vehicle whisk her away through the hills to the city awaiting on the shores beyond. But she had no idea where to even begin. Saito’s note left no indication how long she may be gone for. Her gardens were automatically watered and would survive a couple of days, but not much beyond that. What did she need to bring? What did she really have to bring? A couple of spare work shirts and her cleanest set of trousers. She wandered her slow way around the house again and again, each lap collapsing her mind closer in on the dread she held in her stomach of finally facing other humans again after all these years.

The sun dropped lower and lower in the sky as she paced around the house and through the gardens barely seeing where she was putting her feet, blind with fear. Then, without warning, her truck dropped its combine attachments, pulled out in front of the garden, and popped its door open expectantly as though tired of watching Amelia drag herself through this crisis of self. She had to laugh at the ridiculousness of it all. That she should be so scared to visit a city after surviving decades in the sunken streets of Hong Kong, that an automated truck should convey so much annoyance with a simple preprogrammed command. She took the hint and got in; farm clothes would have to be good enough for the big city, they were all she had.

Her truck whisked her northward following the valley as the sun began to set in earnest. Within minutes the farm disappeared from view behind her in the evening haze and she was left flying alone along the valley floor over the wide floodplains that followed the river to the sea. There were no roads, nothing to give her any real sense of direction other than the illuminated bookshelf cliffs catching the last rays of the day. Then, just as dusk gave way to night the truck turned up a side valley and Amelia was left in the blue lights of the cabin surrounded by so much dark, only the tiny sliver of the world’s new moon pierced the glare on the windows.

The early hours of the evening passed as the canyon tightened and steepened, the truck slowed and wound its way along a set of tracks only barely discernible in broad daylight from the surrounding desert. Amelia dozed fitfully as she bumped and bumbled along in the still silence of the cab. The shard of moon set just as she cleared the top of the mesa and the cushioned wheels were able, once more, to speed along unencumbered through the dense gravel.

The first rays of morning raced in to greet Amelia after threading their way between the peaks of a range far in the distance, she sat up struck by the view. Her truck raced along the edge of the high mesa, cliffs fell off thousands of feet below to the valley floor. The rays worked their way down and across the plains as the sun edged its way into the sky until finally it set a jewel aflame. 

At the mouth of this new valley, where the river met the wide curving bay, the great glass dome of Novo Monterrey rose in its faceted glory. Even from her high vantage on the mesa Amelia was not even with its apex. In a world of so many creams and reds and ochres the fresh morning light catching in the thousands of glass panels shown like brilliant sapphire. Beneath all that wonder of glass Amelia could just make out the shapes of towers reaching up in their hundreds, all built just the same in gleaming crystal. She sat in stunned silence as she whisked along the shelf towards her destination. In one brilliant moment all her misgivings had been burned away, she was looking at the future and could not wait to be a part of it.

After a short while her truck linked up with some more established tracks and then a graded road and then a strip of reddened pavement that dove into a tunnel that would take her down through the towering cliffs. She could see far below the broad roadway curving through the valley to meet the dome at a great arched gateway, just like she’d imagined. An eternity passed as she descended in the tunnel, aching for another glimpse of the city. But when she finally emerged on the valley floor with the dome towering dizzyingly above her, her truck took an unexpected turn. A smaller road arched around to the west side of the city, she raced along as the city grew and grew until it swallowed her entire field of vision and then suddenly the road plunged once again beneath the earth into a yawning tunnel, sending her once more into darkness craning her neck for a final glimpse.

As she passed through a buried airlock, the pale yellow of the new sun was replaced by the harsh, cold blues of strip lighting lining the roof of the tunnel. All was thrown into stark relief. She whisked silently along in the tunnel for a few minutes before she began crossing other tunnels, carved through the deep red rock. And then came the chaos.

From the other tunnels came other vehicles flying to and fro. Towering lorries, boxy delivery vans, dusty excavation rigs all came pouring by in an onslaught almost too hectic to perceive. Amelia simply gawked as her little truck weaved seamlessly between the rushing traffic. It was so unlike any experience she’d had since she left Earth she could merely sit and let it all wash over her. They would dance this way and that, sometimes with a human pilot, more often not, all in a graceful ballet that worked its way through the web of tunnels.

In time she could feel herself bending to the north, under the city proper. Traffic only increased. Now long trains and a million little courier vehicles joined the bustle, and still the ballet continued. Some infallible mind had every step mapped and Amelia could merely behold its grace.

At long last she entered a towering cavern of a room, red rock retreating back in all directions to unveil a tremendous transit hub with all the vehicles dancing around it like so many bees. Her truck skittered through it all before pulling up at an empty loading dock on one of the myriad arms of the hub and popping her door open to let in a rush of new sounds. What in the quiet of her cab had seemed an elegant dance now seemed like unfiltered mayhem. The rush of wheels over the polished bedrock swelled to fill the cavern, the coursing of air currents pushed over her. A million alerts, bells, beeps, and alarms provided an incessant cacophony.

And the voices. God, the voices. It had been three years on the farm since Amelia had heard another human voice, and countless more before that since she’d heard anything close to the chorus of shouts and whistles that enveloped her now. Technicians and foreman, pilots and construction workers, they may have been in the minority when it came to the machines they were surrounded by but they made up for it in their boister. The dense, dusty air of the cavern was filled with a torrent of cries that flooded into Amelia’s ears in all their unintelligible mayhem.

Shaking she grabbed her tab for guidance, it seemed to want her to find her way into the center of the hub and take one of the elevators she could see rising off in the distance. She made it three whole steps before the sensory overload took her. Amelia collapsed on the walkway just as her truck closed its door and drove off into the mayhem.

Some time later a voice fought its way into her haunted dreams.

“Oi, are yeh in there?” A gentle pat on the cheek. “Can you hear me lass?” A stinging light clawing its way beneath her eyelids. The nightmare continued and Amelia sat up in a gasping panic.

“Ahhh there we go.” A few stiff pats on the back. “You’re alright there.” The voice belonged to a gruff middle aged woman with a shock of red hair spraying in all directions. “Now take a few breaths for me.”

Amelia gasped for air and fought to center herself. She looked around, the chaos of the transit hub was gone and she found herself in a spartan room hewn from red rock. She laid on a small gray bed with the woman standing over her, and on one wall a ‘window’ pretended to look out on the foggy morning of some temperate river. But mercifully, the noise was gone and she was able to gulp down a few breaths.

“Now, that’s better.” The woman sat on the side of the bed and smiled at her, Amelia could have cried and clutched at this human contact she’d so badly craved, but instead she sat back scared it might all be a dream. “Why don’t yeh tell me who yeh are?” The woman reached out and kindly patted her hand, warmth flowed between them.

Amelia began to speak and only a pitiful croak emerged. Over the years on the farm her monologue had grown increasingly internalized, she couldn’t even really be sure when the last time she used her voice was.

“Oh you poor thing, lost yer voice in all this too?” She offered Amelia a small cup filled with a steaming concoction. “Here, try this. It should help fortify yer vocal cords.”

She sipped at it cautiously, but it went down like soothing warm honey and lavender, so she sipped again.

After a few minutes she tried again. “My name is Amelia,” she let out in a soft whisper. “I’ve been working out on a farm plot, I...” Her voice failed again.

“Farm work? You don’t say? I can’t say you much look like the type.” The woman smiled back. “Although you do certainly have some callouses on those little hands of yours.” She said, carefully turning over her hand. “What brings you back here?”

“I got a request...” Her voice kept cracking and wheezing, so she sipped more of the medicine. “...to debrief with...”

“Oh, never mind lass. Yeh need some rest is all, don’t worry about trying to explain yerself to me, I just look after this ward. Take yer time healing up and we’ll get you out of here in no time.” She stood up and straightened her white smock. “Now unfortunately for yeh there was a wee construction accident earlier today and some of the folks are pretty banged up, I’ve got to run along and check in on them. Can’t trust these autodocs for everything these days can we?”

“Are...are we in the city?” Amelia croaked, dying to look out the window and see the city streets she’d walked a thousand times in her mind, she nodded towards the window.

“Well lass, not so much in it as under it. Yeh’ll get your clearance to go surface side once they finalize yer appointment.” She turned to leave and looked at the window with its foggy vista. “Oh I do hate when these bloody things choose such dreary views.” She banged a small fist on the sill and it obligingly switched to display a view down a long carribean beach under a cloudless sky. “Now that’s better.” She nodded curtly before stepping through the open doorway, leaving Amelia to her thoughts and the blinding vista.

It was three days before Amelia was allowed to leave. She spent the first several hours having her corneas seared by the blazing beach view on the screen and listening to sickening groans from down the hall as the victims of the construction accident were treated. Finally she thought to ask her tab how to change the view and it mercifully switched it back to a foggy river bend. But she never could get the door to close, privacy apparently wasn’t on the menu. She gradually regained her strength and with each little visit from the woman Amelia gained a little bit more confidence in her voice, even if human interaction still felt utterly surreal.

On the third day Amelia’s tab chimed softly with an appointment to see Mr. Saito. Moments later the woman poked her red head in the door.

“Oi lass, looks like yeh’ve been given your surface clearance,” She chirped in. “Looks like they gave yeh the whole day as well, lucky gal. I haven’t been given a full day at surface level in weeks.”

“You mean you don’t live up in the city?” Amelia wondered.

“Ha! The likes of me living up in Novo Monterrey, wouldn’t that be something!” She laughed gregariously. “No lass, I just tend to my ward and enjoy my time up top when it gets passed down to me. So do all of us working down here. But not for yeh, headed up today! Think yeh can handle it?”

“I...I suppose we’ll find out.” Amelia sighed, standing up to find her farm clothes laundered and neatly folded in the corner.

“I suppose we will. Best of luck to yeh lass, I’d best not be seeing you back in here too soon.” The woman replied kindly, and with a sharp rap on the doorframe disappeared.

Amelia slipped out of her starchy hospital gown and into the well-worn contours of her freshly washed farm clothes. Patched canvas pants, now for the first time in months free of the red-staining dust of the farm. A soft chambray shirt which she always wore rolled to the elbows. And of course her boots. They were now properly battered leather, but still made her feel more sure on her feet than any medicine she’d been given during her stay. Like old friends they’d followed her down from the Faith and taken on their new life on the surface, and now they walked out with her into this brave new world.

She followed the hallway from her little room along the ward. All of it hewn from the same red rock as the rest of this underground city.  Along the way she snuck glances into adjacent rooms where victims from the accident lay unconscious surrounded by a shroud of autodocs, Amelia couldn’t tell what had happened but it must have been pretty gruesome to require this much time with the machines. Her tab guided her step by step out of the medical ward and into a common hall where long tables sat sparsely populated by people taking what rest they could find. Long window screens showed scenes of green, rolling prairie. Thankfully, the noise was kept to a manageable hush under the sound of tiered fountains that ran down the center of the hall.

Keeping her head down, determined not to let the stimulation overcome her again, Amelia followed her directions to a bank of elevators that rose up into the ceiling several stories overhead. She stepped on alone and was immediately whisked into the darkness of undisturbed rock. Up, up, up she went for one, two, three hundred feet of solid bedrock. There had been little indication down below just how truly entombed they’d been. Then, in one blazing moment the glass car of the elevator broke through into clear day and dropped Amelia gawking into the center of a sparkling metropolis.

Light rained down through the dome, soaring overhead, as Amelia staggered out onto the curb of a broad boulevard that ran through the center of the city. Overhead, crystalline towers rose dizzyingly into the lofty air. Above, so far above as to almost be imperceptible, the great dome of Novo Monterrey soared. Amelia took her reeling first steps out into the city, out into the center of the boulevard to crane her neck, attempting in vain to see where the dome met the ground in any direction. It simply disappeared into a haze of buildings and contained fog in every direction.

As she stumbled across the street, stupefied by the glory all around her, a transit van silently stopped and impatiently waited for her to kindly get the hell out of its way. It took an escalating series of chimes to snap her out of her bewilderment. Finally, embarrassed, Amelia stepped back up on the curb and the van sped silently on its way. Still her wonder did not cease. It was simply too much to take in. All around the towers rose like a million glass sculptures. Around her ,the first levels swept up in an array of ostentation, cantilevering out to provide endless alcoves and atria, courts and concourses. The street ran wide and straight, carved immaculately from the same red rock that made up the world below. In one direction she knew it would run out to the edge of the dome and into the mesalands beyond. In the other it would dissect the towering city out to the sea.

Anxiously, her tab chimed several times to get her attention. It wanted her to head west along the boulevard out towards the bay, an illuminated path jumped out of its screen. As Amelia moved into denser clusters of buildings, following her directions, she began to see something new. The citizens of Novo Monterrey. They wandered the walkways of their city, enjoying the pleasant morning air. No one seemed to be in much of a rush this morning, as they sidled lazily along in the warm light, turning into cafes and office buildings and little parklets tucked up amongst the towers. It all seemed blessedly subdued, she had always imagined a city positively bursting with life, an incessant bustle reminiscent of Earth’s great metropolises. She looked at her tab and realized it was only half an hour after sunrise; Novo Monterrey, it seemed, was a city that liked its sleep.

As she made her way deeper into the city center the crowds began to thicken a touch, and Amelia noticed the sweeping diversity of these people. Faces of every shape and color slipped by headed on their way; clothing from a hundred proud traditions from every corner of Earth fluttered by. Saris and suits, dashiki and dresses were all worn with equal dignity. Clearly some habits had yet to be left behind.

When Amelia rounded the corner to her appointment she was struck still by a sight ripped from the very streets of Earth. A set of three rubbish bins, nearly full, sat resolutely collecting the detritus of this new society. Bits of debris rustled around the base where some wayward hand had missed, the gentle morning breeze blew some out into the street. In one inexorable moment Amelia was ripped back to the streets of Hong Kong, flooded with people with noise with smog with refuse. It had been nearly fourteen years since the notion that something could even be trash had crossed her mind. Every scrap of material she’d encountered on the ship and out on her farm had its purpose and was kept in an exacting balance. Plant matter had to be reused in compost, materials in her workshop were guarded jealously and used to exhaustion. As she sat staring as some citizen walked by and dropped in a pile of greasy wrapping papers from a walking breakfast and went on their way without a second thought. The notion of such wanton waste galled Amelia in a way she would have never imagined. Maybe all this debris would go off for recycling or reconstitution, maybe there was already a landfill forming for the city tucked away in the mesas, neatly out of sight. She didn’t know, she didn’t care, she was indignant but she didn’t know if it was because she saw some sort of higher truth or if her mind was that far gone warped by time and solitude.

Again her tablet chimed impatiently. Apparently Mr. Saito kept a full schedule and wouldn’t be thrown behind so early in the day by some random farm worker. Amelia turned off the boulevard and into a wide plaza with buildings rising on three sides. In the center, a colossal sculpture stood honoring the first landing crew, depicted still alive and vigorous, exploring the new world before it so cruelly laid them low. She skirted around to the tallest building at the rear of the plaza, The Saito Center Of Terraformation.

Seamlessly she strode through the doors of the lofty building, directed at every step, every door whisking open as she approached. Only a few people passed her by or met off in the corners talking softly amongst themselves. In a rush she was on an elevator again and shooting skyward along the outer edge of the building, watching as the cascade of glass poured by around her, now a part of the crystal city rather than just a spectator. She stepped out into a high lobby and was directed by the lone secretary she’d seen into the office of Juro Saito.

He chatted busily on a call as she walked in. Behind his sleek desk, covered with a riot of maps, charts and annotated spreadsheets, a panoramic window revealed the city beyond descending on its way to the harbor and the deep blue of the ocean on the horizon. She would’ve been struck by the view if her attention hadn’t been ripped away so abruptly.

“Amelia is it?” Saito said abruptly, hanging up his call.
“Ye...yes sir.” She stumbled back, pulling her attention back down to his slight figure. “Thank you for having me in.”
“Hm, yes well I’m sure you’ll enjoy the time in the city.” He replied flatly, eyes skating over to his monitor to delve into some new, unknown information.

“Um, yeah of course. I’ve been looking forward to coming for a long time now.”

“Of course, how long have we had you out on your plot?” He wondered without looking up.

“Just over three years now Mr. Saito.” Amelia responded softly, unsure of what to make of his detached greeting.

“Three years...shit,” He sat back, finally, and looked her square in the eyes, motioning her to sit in a chair across from him. “Not exactly what you were expecting on the new world I’d guess?”

“I can’t say I expected anything after my time on the Faith,” she conceded, meeting his eyes and finding the first trace of humanity she’d seen from the man.

A laden pause held over the airy office. Here was Amelia, no more than a name on one of the many spreadsheets strewn across the desk. Here was Juro Saito, scion of the formidable Saito conglomerate on the new world. He helped choose this new planet and was now on a mission to form it as he saw fit. He didn’t know her, but his face was intensely familiar to her, ripped straight from the newsfeeds of old Earth.

Already before they left, Juro Saito had clawed his way to a position of considerable repute. Amelia remembered him particularly keenly for his work with the seawalls surrounding Hong Kong and Macau protecting billions from the worst of the storm surges that worked their way in from the South China Sea. She knew him to be ruthless and cold but simply too motivated and rich to do anything other than fail upwards, even when his walls ultimately failed under the pressure of a coming typhoon leaving millions to drown in the surging sea. Conveniently he was already frozen and several light years away when that finally happened. Now here he was, head of a completely unrelated division in a new city on a new planet. No doubt he thought he’d done pretty well for himself.

“Well, the work is imperative for the colony,” he finally cut the silence. “Once we figure out what combination of mutations allowed your grasses to survive we’ll be able to scale things up to more fruit-bearing planets, fungi, and eventually animals. We’re transforming the salt deserts of this world.”

“Of course it is,” Amelia concurred hesitantly. “Although I wasn’t aware you’d move it up quite so quickly to animals. Were the samples I sent helpful in your analysis?”

“I’m sure the lab team would have let me know if they weren’t.” He waved uninterestedly. “And of course we’re looking to scale, our entire goal here is to fix salt into ecosystems so we can create a self-sustaining environment for future generations and leave this fucking dome behind.”

He dropped it all so casually, as if transforming an entire planet’s ecology were just some new business venture. As if the steps they took today wouldn’t be felt for generations down the line, for better or for worse.

“Of course sir,” she finally hedged. “But if you don’t want to discuss my work on the farm, why am I here?”

“You’re work’s been great there, uh, Amelia.” He stumbled searching for her name. “One of the first to grow fully independent grasses I’m told, excellent work. It may well be our savior now that I’m told Alfonso Yun, that upjumped ingrate, is sabotaging the moon project for some reason I cannot fucking fathom. Genetic modification and salt fixing may be our best chance at climate stabilization.”

“Thank you sir, I’ve been experimenting with rotational planting, that was when they really started...” Amelia blathered excitedly, happy to take some pride in the work she’d been at for years.

“I’m sure the teams are all completely up to speed on your process,” Saito cut in unforgivingly. “They’ve been monitoring your work from cameras on your plot and via satellite.”

No surprises there Amelia supposed, she’d had no privacy on Earth and even less on the ship. Why should that change now?

“Ok...” She paused. “You seem a busy man Mr. Saito, so why am I in your office?”

“Busy indeed.” He looked up fiercely from the papers cluttering his glass desk. “You’re here because even in the new world there are some things we can’t monitor and I’m curious if you’ve seen anything.”

“Anything like what sir?”

“Anything unusual happening around the perimeter of your plot.” He quipped unhelpfully.

“Around my plot?” Amelia gawked. “Sir you understand I’ve been wholly isolated there for three years right? I’ve seen nothing but barren desert around the farm for years.”

“That’s good to hear.” He sighed and sat back in his seat looking up at the ceiling. “We’ve had several test plots go offline recently.”

“Offline?”

“Offline, no response to our queries, even though everything looks normal on our, uh, monitoring feeds. We sent drones out to them, the fields are all blown over with dust by now their machinery is largely gone, we can’t tell if there’s anyone left.”

“What, other farm workers have just disappeared?!” Amelia sat forward, alarmed.

“Not so much disappeared as abandoned their post we’re thinking.” His dark eyes slid down to lock into hers. “Our security teams have been tracking a separatist group for several years now. Led by a woman, Imka, they call themselves ‘transformists’, and insist that it is humanity’s duty to change to the planet not the other way around.”

“Whaa...” Amelia stuttered, dumbfounded.
Her perplexity didn’t seem to phase Juro Saito, he careened on. “They’ve issued a number of manifestos condemning so much of our work here. They say we’ve failed to learn our lessons from Earth, they say we must preserve this new world as it is. Bah!” He slammed a fist down. “What’s there to save? This place is a goddamned desert!”

“...uh. Yes, of course sir.” Amelia quavered under his fiery stare.

“But you’re saying you haven’t seen anything?” He grilled.

“No....no I haven’t.” She whispered, unsure what he was looking for in her.

“Excellent, well that’s all we needed, and to be sure you’d report any irregularities you may see out on your plot.” His dark eyes drilled deep into her.

“...Of course sir, I haven’t heard of these Transformists, and I can’t say that I’m keen to learn more.” She sat up trying to force stillness into her voice under his withering stare. “But sir, if I may, how can they exist? Isn’t the government able to track all of the citizens?”

“Bah!” He raged. “Clever bastards must have some help on the inside, some misguided misanthrope tipping the scales in their favor. If he wasn’t such a dolt I’d have half a mind to blame Alfonso Yun. But no, they’ve proven damnably well resourced and clever to boot, I suppose this is why we’ve only woken up a quarter of the passengers. You can never be too careful introducing new people to a society.”

“A quarter of the passengers? You mean most are still aboard the Faith? What, just living up there?”

“What? God no, of course not, they’re still in cryo,” he guffawed. “Silly girl, we couldn’t just have people stampeding all over while we’re trying to build a new society down here.”

“Of course not sir.” Amelia whispered, mouse-like.

“Very good. Well you may go then, enjoy your day here in the city. We’ll need you back out on your plot soon for more plantings. We’ll have you on leafy greens and squash before you know it.”

“Oh, yes sir, Mr. Saito.” Amelia’s words barely scratched their way through the heavy air of the office. “Do you have any idea when I may be able to relocate here to the city?”

“What? You want to move here?”

“Well... yes sir. I wasn’t really aware I’d be working so remote...”

“Ah! Yes well none of us was really sure what we were getting ourselves into were we?” He declared flatly as he turned his chair to enjoy the view of the early morning sun glistening off the city. “I’ll log that you’d like to come back to the city for consideration, not all of you farm workers are interested in that you know? Many prefer their solitude. But there’s much work to be done before any of that I think you’ll agree.”

“Yes, of course sir.” She submitted.

“Excellent, thank you for coming in. Enjoy your day down in Novo.” He didn’t turn from his view, but his abrupt end in conversation let Amelia know her appointment was through.

Amelia swept out of the office and back out onto the boulevard with her head swirling. The assistant hadn’t tried to schedule anything for her with the biology team, and her tab showed no upcoming appointments, could they really care so little for the work she’d been doing all this time? And then there were the Transformists. How could such a separatist group exist at all? Couldn’t they simply be tracked down and subdued if the powers that be found them so disagreeable? There weren’t billions of citizens to lose yourself among or hospitable forests to disappear into if the authorities came looking. And then the notion that three quarters of the population was still frozen, unaware that they’d found their new home. She’d never considered herself to be lucky, but even working in isolation had to beat staying frozen while a new society jetted off without you.

Down, down, down the wide red boulevard she walked. Past the glittering towers, through the streets that now struck her as staggeringly empty. The city was built to hold the two million occupants of the Faith and many more besides as the city bloomed, but Amelia could see now it was only the top tier of residences, offices, and parks that were occupied. The neighborhoods off in the rolling hills away from the harbor and city center sat abandoned, waiting for the citizenry held in abeyance.

At the end of the boulevard the masts of a few dozen pleasure yachts bobbed in the morning light. Down near the harbor a new construction of stone rose to the south, some sort of archaic walled city was being constructed along the waterfront. She looked down the narrow, crooked alleys baffled. The whole of Novo Monterrey was a glittering artifice of the future, but this seemed ripped straight from the past. Why would they put so much effort into building something so impractical when three quarters of the living population still waited patiently for their new lives?

Finally Amelia’s boots found their way off of the pavement and out onto crushed sand. At the head of the park that surrounded the marina a gleaming statue rose into the air, honoring the council who had woken and chosen this planet for coloniz

ation. A plaque was dedicated to each member as Amelia walked around. Each told the story of a head of a different organization chosen for this solemn task. Only one hadn’t bought their way onto the council, the voice of the people, chosen at random to represent the millions like Amelia, merely lucky to have been able to leave a dying Earth. Amelia looked up at her bronze face, looking out to sea catching the warm rays of a new sun.

 Beyond a gargantuan beach stretched off for miles north and south. It arced in unobstructed purity for miles out towards the headlands of the bay. A beach built for a billion souls. Wide, flat, and perfectly graded. Above all it was white. The shining brilliance took her aback for a moment, this was a world of red only shot through with wisps of white. It must have taken a monumental effort to collect this much white sand to be poured over the native coast line and create a beach of such perfectionist beauty.

But Amelia knew what this coast was meant to look like. She could see it on her drive in. Here, the coast did dip back in the deep bay she saw before her, but it was not meant to be covered in a homogenous beach. This coast was meant to be all rocky outcrops and little sea caves, pockets of red sand tucked away from the sun by cliffs of smooth, red rock. As she looked north Amelia could see the machinery that must have come through here and ground it all into submission. This new society had the means and the motivation to remake the world as they saw fit. So why wouldn’t they?

The air began to thicken in Amelia’s lungs. She looked out to sea and could only see a dirty haze along the horizon out where the dome must have met the sea. Beneath the waters great turbines would come to harvest the new moons tidal energies in the years to come, but for now it just collected haze and dust and blocked any breath of wind from coming through. Suddenly the dome was smothering. This unfathomable, incomprehensible miracle that held more air than she could breathe in a hundred lifetimes felt like a choking blanket. 

Suddenly she wanted nothing more than to watch a storm roll into her valley and blow wind, real wind, across her farm. She wasn’t scared of changing atmospheric mixtures anymore, she was at home in this world and wanted to see the real clouds hanging in the real sky and feel the real wind upon her face. Amelia turned from the beach of artifice on one well worn heel to find her back back beneath the city, back to her truck, and back to her little home. She had no idea what she’d do in the weeks to come, but she knew that she needed to breathe.

--

Change came flying out of the void.

After fifteen days of blackness Daniel could finally see something through the window, just a glint at first. Then over the course of hours the glint turned into a gleam and then into a shine and then into a glitter and then into a horror. As they closed in it became increasingly clear that there wouldn’t be much to find of the hauler they’d hoped to rescue. A few thousand kilometers out they had a pretty clear picture of what awaited them. That first glint came off of what remained of the hull, still attached to the chunk of rock it’d been pushing, and all the glitter behind it was all the detritus of life left behind after explosive decompression had ripped the crew quarters open.

Damn it, Elena was right. Was the only thought that could force its way through Daniel’s forlorn mind. He’d spent the past twelve hours straight watching the wreck grow in the fore observation window of his ship, all the time knowing exactly what he was seeing but never quite letting himself believe it. A thousand kilometers out the ship could do accurate temperature and pressure readings to confirm what he already knew. They were slowing to intercept a wreck, a cold airless husk with not but a few vacuum-formed mummies for recovery. If they were lucky.

I’m going to catch hell for nothing. Another thought finally made its way through his synapses as the final readings came in. Fifteen days and an eternity ago he’d walked into the office where his team of scientists worked tirelessly on the moon project and gave them the updated marching orders on prioritizing moon size over elemental value. Oh, and they’d have to move it into a considerably higher orbit to avoid sending the whole thing careening into the planet. No big deal, just a quick update, you guys are the best, I have all faith you’ll get right on it. So several dozen of Earth’s brightest minds took the galling news on the chin in stony silence. Only their hardened gazes as he left the room told him what they really thought.

He hated it. The dancing on puppet strings for his uncle, the well deserved ire from his crew, the now interminable timeline for the project. But most of all what it meant for the workers out here on the haulers. Like him they’d had no choice in their lot, they were all just fighting for whatever corner they could claim for themselves in the new world. Even if it meant years confined to the cramped crew quarters of an asteroid hauler. At least they were building something worthwhile. Now, he couldn’t even say that.

He’d spent that whole evening pacing on feather steps in his office, watching a storm roil the planet below as it turned through the dark of night. Just as the moon came around the far side and dawn broke on the planet’s surface Daniel Yun decided he was going to do something about it all. He couldn’t control the orders from on high, but he didn’t have to condemn those under him to death. After all with a last name like Yun, an executive class ship was almost always accessible if he really wanted it.

While the rest of the team slept off in their quarters he crept out, without a word. It was only moments before he closed the door to the shuttle pod that Sonia had caught him with a bag in hand and a smirk on her face.

“Heading somewhere Mr. Yun?” She’d asked with an impish smile.

“Damn it Sonia, what are you doing here?”

“Coming to help your hopeless ass.” She’d laughed, climbing in beside him. “Poor little rich boy wants to play the hero and save some folks. I knew you couldn’t resist.”

He had to smile, Daniel had always enjoyed her gibes when it was just the two of them. For so much of his life his name had sucked the air out of rooms sending respectable people into deference and boot-licking, even though he had no controlling interest in Yun operations or funds. Sonia was not one such person. That was why she had her job, and why he was not so secretly thankful when they’d silently left that morning to rendezvous with a system cruiser and head into the outer orbits.

That was fifteen days ago, and now she poked her head in on a man in a significantly more dour mood. When the recon drones flew by after two days they’d still had some hope, although not much. They indicated life-supporting temperatures and pressures within parts of the ship, although as they’d suspected rocketry and communications had been disabled. The drones couldn’t do much more than observe the scene as they whisked by so the days that followed held no new information from the wreck, and were filled with a deluge of inquiries and then prompts and then commands from flight control aboard the Faith. Daniel summarily rejected them all. Not even bothering to answer the torrent of messages from his cousin and eventually even his uncle. 

He’d essentially stolen the ship before anyone thought to lock him out, and no doubt they’d tried to take over control remotely. Sonia had worked with the programming team on the moon base to help keep them flying, although he had no idea if it was their work or some higher divine provenance that had kept them on course. Now they closed in on their quarry, for all the good it would do.

“Looks like things have taken a considerable turn for the worse since the flyby.” Sonia started softly, poking her head into the observation cabin where Daniel floated in silence. She preferred the relative comfort of the rotational crew quarters, out this far there wasn’t all that much to be seen through the little forward facing windows anyhow.

“No shit.” He whispered dryly. “Damn it! I told Elena we needed rescue crews out here not drones!” Raging more at himself in reality.

“We couldn’t detect the decompression so it must’ve happened several days ago, likely even a trained extraction team couldn’t have gotten out here fast enough to make a difference. It was a good effort Dan, but we stood little chance from the get go.” She offered what little sympathy could be found out in the cold blackness.

“I suppose you’re right,” He agreed through gritted teeth as he fought to regain his composure with bitter defeat so fresh on his palette. “I suppose I better face the music and see how deep I’ve dragged us in here. Easier to beg forgiveness than ask permission, they say, but I have a feeling I’ll be begging this for quite some time.”

Sonia smiled back at him as he turned from the window. “Yes, I imagine you will. But you’re Daniel Yun, the worst as can happen to you is the best plenty of others could ask for.”

“You’re a real help there Sonia, your empathy knows no bounds.” he mused sardonically. “I’m sorry for dragging you into this, I’ll do whatever I can to shield you from the blow back.”

“Blow back? For me?” She feigned shock. “I don’t know what you’re talking about Mr. Yun, you were a wild-eyed kidnapper when you pulled me from my bunk and stuffed me on this ship. I had no choice.” She gave him a light jab, trying to lighten his mood.

“Well, it’s nice to have the support of friends in these trying times isn’t it?”

“You’ll get through it Dan,” Sonia came back to seriousness. “And besides, it was the right thing to do, even if those assholes can’t even be bothered to send a ship to save lives.” She ducked out, leaving Daniel to float in silence.

He pulled up the bevy of unopened messages on his tab. The last was from Elena. I might as well start there, he thought. Elena wouldn’t really be mad about stealing a ship, she managed hundreds, but she’d be pissed he’d caused a scene and then went silent. He opened the video message and saw her sitting at her place on the bridge of the Faith, pressing a sweating glass of sangria to her temples.

“You mother fucker.” The recording began. “Is this your pinche rebellion as soon as you get a little bad news? Grow up you asshole, nobody likes what they’re doing, it’s the human condition.” She paused, now rubbing the icy glass across her forehead. He couldn’t remember ever seeing her look this tired. “I’m sure you’ve seen by now that the hauler explosively decompressed a couple days ago, we had it on long range telescopics from the ship and you would’ve known that if you’d answered your goddamned messages. Well, hopefully you’ve enjoyed your trip to the ass end of nowhere.’

“Your tio is pissed. But you already knew that, he doesn’t like anything that makes him look bad. Honestly I’m mostly surprised at how pissed this fucking Delaney underling is, a proper pain in my ass, fucking Stella.” She went on, turning the name into a sneer. “She’s got some trumped up idea that every ship in the system belongs to her personally, and wants your ass out on the curb for this. Of course dad won’t let that happen, we’ll have to preserve the family name after all. But the biggest surprise in all this is your goddamned science team.’

“Stella’s going around making a big show out of finding a replacement for you on the moon project, but the whole fucking team has dug their heels in. They’re ready to torpedo the whole project, or at least their participation in it, to protect you and that assistant you dragged into this. What were you thinking there by the way? You’re not expendable but she sure as hell is, Delaney could have her back on ice for the next thousand years if she made up her mind to. Anyways the scientists are out here trying to save you, it’d be heartwarming if it wasn’t all such a pain in my ass.’

“Anyways, you’ll get the heat you deserve and you’ll come through it, but I need you to get your ass back here. We’ve got bigger fish to fry.” Elena took a deep breath and a deeper sip of her sangria. “Info on this is still very much need to know, but it looks like we have our first political shit fest starting down on the planet. A growing number of ag research stations are being abandoned and stripped for all they’re worth. Their farmworkers, old maintenance crew I’m told, disappear as well. But lately we’ve also been losing growing numbers on the construction and mining crews as well.” She took a deep draught again, as if steeling herself for the information she was about to convey. “Over sixty of the fuckers have gone off grid thus far, and now a few of the researchers in Novo have disappeared as well.’

The ship chimed lightly and a little notification popped up on Daniel’s tab, he whisked it away irritably.

“That’s why this info has spread to our level, it’s a growing movement with apparently someone at the helm. So far there’s been frustratingly little progress in tracking these so-called ‘transformists’ down, something I can’t wrap my goddamned head around. We have every single datum one could collect on every single citizen awake and asleep, and somehow these hijos de putas have just vanished. I don’t like it, they have help from someone up high, and I can not for the life of me figure out who.’

The ship chimed twice with a little more urgency, again Daniel swiped it away without a thought. Too rapt in this new development.

“Anyway, I need you back in contact stat primo. They’ve taken farm and construction workers for their little movement which makes me think they’ll target your hauler workers as well, if they can.” She finished her glass and sighed looking up into the carved dome of the bridge. “I have no fucking idea how they could do it, but I don’t know a whole lot these days it seems. Get back here Daniel, help me and I’ll help you face the music of your little rebellion.”

He opened a new text thread back to Elena, hoping the light delay would give him a little bit of cover from the worst of her ire. But what to say? This was the first he’d heard at all about any sort of sepratist group. The notion itself seemed rather ludicrous in a society of only a few hundred thousand that, while not exactly a surveillance state, certainly kept a close tab on all of its citizens.

The ship chimed a third time, now bordering on aggression. Can’t I have a moment to think? He raged, dismissing the ping once more to try and focus on his current predicament.

No such luck. “Dan! Are you seeing this?!” Sonia’s voice carried through the linking tunnels.

“Christ! Give me one second to myself for God’s sake!” Even as he called back he could hear her scrambling up from the crew quarters.

Daniel pulled up the notification on his tab and time stopped. His tab showed a map of a volume of space. In one corner their ship traced its trajectory, in the other the plume of the wreck slowly grew, and in a third another light blinked out in the blackness.

“A ship, Dan there’s another ship.” Sonia came crashing in out of breath. “Do you see it? There’s another ship!”

His mouth hung open, his mind unable to keep up with the pinball of events. Sonia crammed her head up into the observation window looking feverishly for any sign that this might be anything other than a technological glitch.

“There, there it is!” She cried, with more hope than he could possibly muster. “What would another ship be doing out here?”

Likely just more dead watchers knowing my luck, he thought glumly not willing to let anything get his hopes up. All the same, he looked out next to Sonia and sure enough there was another little glint out amongst the starry brilliance beyond.

It took an eternal, and exquisitely uncomfortable, four more hours for them to adjust their course and jet off speed at several g to intercept the mystery ship, which Daniel was eventually able to identify as Asteroid Hauler #12 by its last known position and contact. All the while Sonia’s hope buoyed while Daniel’s dread deepened. A dread that only compounded when it became clear that the hauler was severely disabled as well.

By the time they connected to the one remaining airlock he had almost no hope at all. The ship was utterly battered, likely from being too close to the first wreck when it decompressed. No good deed goes unpunished, especially out here, he mused darkly. His ship’s readings indicated that there was only one pocket remaining that could possibly be harboring life on this new wreck, and there was no way to get to it without a suit.

Impossibly, Sonia kept her optimism in the face of all this, she held out hope as she suited up for an EVA and helped Daniel into his.

“You never know Dan, maybe they were all suited before they even began the rescue. Maybe they’re just holed up in there just waiting for us.” She chipped in the face of so much doubt.

He never believed it, but all the same found himself suited and passing through the airlock into the dark hull of the ruined hauler. There wasn’t much to be explored on a ship this small, but they had to work their way around the long way to avoid where the worst of the damage was. Through darkness and debris they floated, Daniel’s hopes falling into a new abyss, until finally they found the only remaining door that could possibly be holding pressure. By the schematic on his tab it couldn’t have been more than a mechanical closet, and there Sonia was hoping that somehow, against all odds there would be four living watchers huddled behind it.

“I’ve been trying every short-range radio frequency they could be using and can’t get a response.” Sonia admitted, finally admitting one chink into her armor of optimism. “Maybe they’re asleep.”

More likely they’re dead, ten days stranded out here crammed together, maybe they wish they were, he thought. Daniel reached up to the solid, sealed door and pounded sharply three times before putting his hand against it to feel for a response.

The universe shrunk down to the nerve endings at the tips of his fingers, the last little bit of hope pressed against this piece of cold steel. His whole body vibrated with anxious anticipation. And then, there it was. Barely perceptibly, three faint thuds from the far side.

Sonia had felt it too, and she looked over excitedly. “There! Someone’s alive in there, you see Dan it was worth it!”

“Shh, Sonia. We need to focus here.” He rapped sharply again against the steel, two knocks pause three more, code for interpreting status on either side of a pressure door. Two knocks to indicate your side had no pressure, three knocks indicate that you didn’t know the status on the far side.

Again they sat with electric fingertips pressed to the door. Waiting for any infinitesimal indication of how to proceed. They got none.

After several minutes, he turned to Sonia. “I don’t think we’re getting any more help here. We have a tough choice to make.”

“I felt it though, they responded, they beat back to us.” She quavered, hand still pressed firmly to the door.

“I know Son, I felt it too, but they must be in a bad way if they can’t even respond now which means time is pretty hard against us. This is a deadhead interior door, so we could force it open at any time, but we don’t know if they have any pressure behind there. Too much pressure and that’s bad for us. On the flip side we could let out any pressure with the relief valve, and open it safely.”

“And possibly find them all suffocated on the far side.” She finished the thought.

“That’s the risk, but if I’m being honest I don’t think they would’ve made it this far if they weren’t suited. Their suits might be in a bad way and that’s why they can’t respond, but I don’t think we should risk trying to set up a full pressure tent from here to the ship. If they can’t beat back to us, they probably don’t have the time.”

She hung her helmeted head, closing her eyes, still feeling with all her might for any little response that may come through the door. Daniel reached up and opened the relief valve and what little atmosphere was left to the ship began to escape.

It only took a couple minutes for the little broom closet of a room to depressurize, and then Daniel swung the door open to hope and despair in equal measure. Four suited bodies floated in the cramped quarters, none would’ve been able to fully turn around with the door closed. And none moved.

Sonia began frantically inspecting them all in the flood lights of her helmet.

“Power banks are almost out,” she started in a frenzy. “Shit! This guy’s been out of oxygen for five minutes.” She combed through, they were all alive, but barely.

With as much methodic calm as he could muster, Daniel carted each comatose soul back to the ship. The crew gave no response to their help, he couldn’t figure out who had been able to give any response whatsoever until he moved the last body. Daniel pulled the silvery-suited body from the hold and looked into the face plate. A dark, wrinkled, scarred face looked back at him from behind the visor. Under the gaze of his headlights her eyes opened just a crack and the frown fixed on her face softened ever so slightly.

It was three days before any of the crew were conscious enough to recount their experience once they were aboard Daniel’s ship and headed back homeward. There was only one autodoc bed aboard, and the crew who’d ran out of oxygen was in the most dire need of it. Sonia steeled herself and followed instructions from her tab on setting up IV drips for the remaining three and they waited.

It was the owner of the dark, wrinkled face Daniel had seen, Marta Iglesias, who had beat back at them with the last of her strength, and it was she who first woke up. She was a crew member of the hauler that attempted the rescue, and had worked two full stints aboard the Faith on their journey. It was entirely possible she had more experience with space than any person alive. Daniel came down from the observation deck to find Sonia helping her sit up.

“I suppose you’ll be wanting a thank you.” Marta rasped before he’d even turned around from the ladder onto the crew deck.

He had to chuckle at the audacity. “Don’t thank me, I’m just doing my job.” He shot back with dry wit, and a mocking bow.

“Ha! What job is that? Condemning crew to years in space with no end, or licking your uncle’s boots?”

So that’s how she wanted to play this.

“Oh clearly you don’t understand my day to day, it’s mostly eating caviar imported from Earth and drinking champagne while I watch the research team on the base work their asses off.”

Sonia sat by in shocked silence at how quickly the exchange had escalated. Clearly Marta hadn’t gotten many words out before he’d arrived. Marta almost cracked a smile with her wrinkled mouth and chuckled in a fit of wheezes.

“You’d be dead if it wasn’t for Mr. Yun you know.” Sonia offered her a glass of water with a stern glare. “You really should show some gratitude.”

“Oh Mr. Yun! Come off it muñequita, I may well be dead because of him for all we know.” She drank, regaining some of her voice. “Fuck, I was dead before I left Caracas.”

“All the same, I’m happy to have helped Señora Iglesias.” Daniel said earnestly, but with a playful smile.

“Ha, Señora Iglesias! At least you know your way around a good joke, you rich fuck.”

Honestly, Daniel was having trouble believing that someone so recently clinging to the edge of life would wake up with such fire. Honestly, he enjoyed it more than a little. But still, he had some digging to do.

“Fine, Marta. In case you don’t know, I am nipples deep in shit right now over this rescue op, and you may well not care a fig about it but I need some answers.” He sat next to her and locked into her dark, gleaming eyes.

She gulped down the rest of the water and sat up a little taller in her bed. “You’re right, I don’t care, but fire away jefe I’m an open book.”

“How did you find out about the wreck?”

“Oh, we’re asking dumb questions, great. The alert went out to all the haulers you twit, we saw it and were the closest ones so we decided to try and help.”

Better to get her talking early with the easy questions. “Ok, that’s very magnanimous of you but how’d you do it? Your hauler should’ve been set on a programmed course.”

“That’s a better question for you my friend. We indicated that we’d be willing to help, next thing I know we’re almost pulling three gs for seventy hours straight jetting over to the site.” Marta’s eyes bored right back into his, this was clearly a woman with no tolerance for bullshit. “I figured your team on the moon base had approved it.”

“Three gs?” Daniel gawked at the notion, they would’ve been practically pinned wherever they sat for almost three days. “Of course we didn’t approve it, I’m shocked you survived it.”

“Don’t fuck with the maintenance crew.” She spat back proudly. “We’re way tougher than you. Anyways, it did in fact suck, we did in fact survive, and in fact we didn’t get there a moment too soon.”

“Ok, so on to my next question then. What happened to the old wreck?”

Marta let out a low whistle. “Those guys were in bad shape, corrective thrust had twisted their hauler around and smashed it against the asteroid they were pushing. That’s what most of the plume was when we showed up. It took out engines and comms, just one emergency signal made it out before it all got blown to bits. They were holed up on their control deck, suited but with nothing more than short range radio for contact. They had no rations left and were down to a day or so of air.”

“So you went ahead with an extraction.”

“It seemed simple enough. We just clamped around their least torn up airlock and worked our way in door by door. The connection was never very solid, but we thought we’d have enough time to go get them out and get clear.” She finally broke her gaze, shaking her head in regret. “Well, we got them out, but when we resealed the door the connection came loose. We made it back to the control deck before we realized we were about to hit the last of their pressure windows that still held.”
“Your ship triggered the decompression.” Horrible understanding flooded Daniel’s mind. Truly, no good deed out here.

“Yes it did, and shit went from bad to worse.” Her hands clenched beneath the thin sheets that covered her. “I shoved everyone back into our mechanical closet and slammed the door. We could barely fit, but we all felt when the control deck blew, we wouldn’t have survived. So there we were stuck in a little fucking closet, at least well provisioned with water and air, or so we thought, but too scared to open the door and risk triggering further decompressions.”

“How long ago was that?”

“Well we showed up just under two days after your useless fucking drones did their fly by, you tell me. My sense of time is all shot to shit.”

“Eleven days. You guys spent eleven days packed in there?”

“I guess so. Like I said, we’re tougher than you.” She looked back up fiercely. “Still it’s not an experience I’d like to repeat.”

“Well that at least justifies the amount of heat I’m about to take for all of this...” Daniel trailed off, now time for the hard questions he thought. “Marta, I need you to tell me everything you now about the Transformists.”

She sat up straight and looked shocked over at Sonia sitting nearby.

“Ahhh, so you do know them Señora.”

“Pinche cabron!” She spat. “Some fucking trick you pulled there. Yes, fine. I’ve heard of them, but if you’re asking me for information you’re barking up the wrong goddamned tree. As you we’ll know I’ve been out here hauling rock for the past three years.”

“Heard of them? Like, been in contact with them?” He asked pointedly. “I can’t see how else you would have heard.”

“Why should I tell you shit?” She crossed her arms and looked away.

It was Sonia who stepped in. “You may not believe it Marta, but you can trust him. He was ready to come out here by himself, at a personal risk that you may not understand but believe me is very much real, to help in whatever way he could. It just so happens to have saved you and three of your crew mates.”

“Fine.” She relented. “But you’re not going to learn much from me. I got a copy of this manifesto a few weeks back followed by a direct contact shortly before this whole fiasco. Honestly, I thought it was your team either approving the message, or trying some sort of weird test on us. I can’t see how else the message would’ve gotten to us.”

Daniel rapped a finger lightly on his temple. “Neither can I...What sort of manifesto?”

“Oh the usual lofty revolutionary nonsense. I can’t say that I believe the half of it.” She sighed. “But even if only half of it is real, it’s better than what I’ve been living.”

“And what’s that?”

“Oh I don’t know. A life where I’m lied to and manipulated on Earth, crammed on a starship to lose a decade of my life to solitary confinement only to be immediately sent back out on a much smaller ship to do work so menial it’s insulting to even call it work.” Her fire came back to the fore. “All that and at least I was building something worthwhile, but now we’re just doing it so your fucking uncle can have a nice evening view. Yeah, we got your last project update.” The last word flew off her tongue as a curse, leaving an implied you spineless asshole unsaid.

“Look I’m not any happier about it than you are.”

“Then fucking do something about it! You are the one who can.” She raged, twisting the bedding beneath her.

“Okay, okay, take it easy.” Sonia stepped in mildly, hoping to cool the temperature. “So they don’t believe in the moon project?” She was grasping, bewildered by the turn in the conversation.

“Ha, you know even less than your man here! The moon, the dome, the preservation of old systems, the fucking human genome itself. They’re not here to tear it all down, but they are here to start anew. Just like we were promised back on Earth. Most of it is mumbo jumbo to me, but if it means I have a shot at a real life with my remaining years, I’ll be damned if I’m not going to take it.”

Daniel steadied himself as the room reeled about him, it was a point of view so alien to his experience but still he couldn’t deny the realities he’d seen out here in the outer orbits, the realities he’d helped create all these years from his comfortable office sitting on the moon.

“I suppose this manifesto is on your tablet? That I can get a copy if I so desire?” He feigned composure.

“I’ll send you a copy myself, you can make up your own mind.” Her eyes glared fiercely into him as he rose from the bedside and retreated into the quiet solitude of the observation deck.

Light filled the window as Daniel floated in contemplation. To one side the light of the yellow sun sent streaks across the pane, to the other the spray of the Milky Way took over in it’s twisting mysteries. He looked at his tab, the messages seemed to indicate that they hadn’t caught on to the fact that he’d intercepted another ship, and he’d sent no notice back that they’d recovered survivors. His mind was a tempest. Why had that seemed right? It was baffling that their trajectory, presumably laid by the great artificial mind at the heart of the Faith, would’ve concealed this development so deftly. But, he couldn’t deny the realities before his eyes, he couldn’t be a part of a project that condemned people to toil out in the nothingness.

He watched the lights twinkle lightly across the window as they raced back towards society. Each moment eating away at the light delay that shielded him from his family’s ire, each moment bringing him closer to a decision he couldn’t turn back from. Suddenly the observation deck on his little ship was feeling quite cramped indeed, the glass and steel stifling his every breath, and the notion of deboarding on the moon base and it’s recirculated atmosphere seemed a shallow relief. Daniel turned ideas over in his head, knowing he had no idea what he’d do in the weeks to come, but knew he wanted nothing more than to breathe.

--

Mystery was growing on the horizon, but slowly.

Several weeks had traipsed by in their lazy easiness since Amelia’s adventure; now that the storms were done for the season life on the farm was as pleasant as it had ever been. Each morning the sun would rise, gently baking the soil she cultivated, cream puff clouds would roll up the valley from the sea occasionally providing a brief shower, more often just providing a pleasant view. Without any guidance from the teams at Ag Research Amelia had decided, after a couple days, to harvest the rest of her last crop and resew the fields with the seeds she’d saved from the most successful plants. Now the harvest sat in neat stacks next to the farmhouse.

Life was largely on autopilot. Amelia’s mind drifted off while she tended to route labor letting her consider higher things. With each day that slipped by Novo Monterrey felt more and more a dream. She still keenly felt the relief that bubbled through her when she got back to the farm, back to safety, but she wasn’t sure anymore what had been so terrible about the city. Why had she panicked and ran? Wasn’t that what she’d been working for? And if she couldn’t make a life in this new society, what had she really traded her life on Earth for?

It was terribly concerning, in a way she could scarcely address within herself. She wasn’t called to be some farmer hermit in life. She missed people. Distinctly, sharply, achingly missed them. Not even friends or family from home really, but just anyone, any fellow mind with which to share a life. But the second she approached society she panicked and ran. Sure she’d asked Saito to move back to the city, but could she really even handle that if it were an option?

Disappointment lingered on her tongue. With Juro Saito, for seemingly giving no shits about the department he oversaw. With Novo Monterrey, for its overbearing artifice. With their new society, for the structures and disparities preserved from the old world. With herself, mostly though. For letting Saito dismiss her without really answering any of her most important questions, for not exploring the city to see where she could carve out a future for herself, for falling apart. She was too solitary for the domed city, and not solitary enough for her life out here on the farm, she was trapped between two worlds.

And then there were the frozen citizens, and the transformists. It was all too much to consider, so it was just as well that Amelia had a ready distraction that morning. She’d been surveling one of the fields her truck had just tilled, trying to decide what would be most beneficial to plant next in rotation, when a glint caught her eye down the valley. Mirages weren’t entirely uncommon out here on the barren flats of the valley floor, haze and heat would regularly conspire to reflect all sorts of odd light. After a few weeks, Amelia had learned to ignore them. But today, searching for anything that would occupy her mind she had stopped and looked out. The mirage was uncommonly bright and steady, and it seemed to be working its way out of the haze near the mouth of the valley.

But it was slow. Almost imperceptibly slow. Granted, the distance between Amelia and where the haze obscured the horizon was vast, but she had to stand and watch for almost an hour just to confirm that it was in fact growing. She first sighted it just after breakfast and it took until the sun was well into its descent for her to be able to confirm that it was in fact some sort of vehicle with her binoculars.

The stranger arrived just before sundown. Amelia had tried in fits and starts to get back to work all day but once she’d seen the glint, she could scarcely pull her mind from the possibilities. In the end she’d decided to simply sit in her chair on the porch and wait. 

It came rolling in like some great, segmented caterpillar. All polished mechanicals and vibrant plant matter stacked on top of eachother in a riot that was equal parts chaos and brilliance. The front section was clearly the remains of what had once been a farm truck, though the back had been torn off and converted into some kind of a rolling greenhouse. Then came a succession of towering trailers, all on matching cushioned wheels. Within, they carried more than Amelia could possibly imagine, wood and pottery, soil and grasses, metals and glass. Each was topped with an array of solar panels that angled to catch the last of the evening sun.

The creation threaded between two of Amelia’s unplanted fields, and pulled up just beyond her garden beds. She rose from the protective shade of her porch, donned her wide hat and walked out to meet the mind that built this rolling circus.

As she approached, a door popped open and a slim, dark figure stepped out barefoot into the red dust. His overalls were unstrapped leaving exposed his sinewy chest covered in skin of deep tanned red and curly black hair. He looked over with sparkling blue eyes and beamed a bright smile at Amelia that would’ve charmed her if she hadn’t been sent into such alarm.

“Hello, I’m Aleph.” He called amiably, taking a few steps towards her.

“Jesus, you’ll get scorched in two seconds! What are you thinking!” She’d already turned on her heels and was sprinting for the house, hunting for the radiation blanket she knew was in her med kit.

“Hey hey hey, relax, it’s late, I’ll be alright.” He called behind her as she tore open the door. He bounded up on the porch behind her, if only to put her mind at ease.

She returned to the door, blanket in hand, but stopped at the threshold panic switching to apprehension at this shirtless stranger on her porch.

“Sorry it wasn’t my intention to frighten you,” he appeased hands out to his sides on the far side of the porch allowing her room to creep out in relative safety. “It just gets hot in the caravan, and it’s been a long day on the trail.” He smiled sheepishly pulling a tattered shirt from his waist and slipping it on.

“Hot?” Amelia fumbled, mind struggling to keep pace. “How the hell can that matter? You just jumped out into full sun without a thought, you should be welling up with radiation burns right now.”

“Oh, not this late in the day for me anymore.” He shrugged, apparently unperturbed by the volumes of safety literature expressly warning against direct sun exposure on the new planet.

“So what, you’re just used to it now? Built up a bit of a base layer and now you don’t care. Won’t you just explode in a cornucopia of different cancers in a couple of years?”

“Well, not exactly. But I think we need to back up quite a bit here.” He smiled charmingly and hopped up to sit on the railing leaving plenty of space for Amelia to come sit in her chair. “I’m Aleph, what’s your name?”

“I’m Amelia,” she hesitated, utterly unsure what to make of this stranger. “Who are you?” she finally managed.

“Well, I was a watcher like you, I’m from just west of Jerusalem and I suppose much like you I let those Delaney recruiters talk me into a very questionable decision.” He paused with another charming smile, Amelia had to fight to keep her guard up. “Anyway, I worked a stint on the Faith then woke up beneath Novo to a job in construction building the city’s foundations.”

“You don’t look like a construction worker.” Skepticism was the safest course.

“Ha, well no I wouldn’t anymore.” Aleph laughed, running a hand through his dark locks looking out at the gardens. “Can’t say that I was ever called to it, I preferred my time on the ship if I’m being honest, I miss working with plants.”

Amelia met his evasions with stony silence.

“Right, you want to know what I want, why I’m here.”

“It’d be a good place to start,” she snipped, crossing her arms.

“Well, first and foremost I want your last harvest.” His crystal eyes locked into hers with forceful seriousness. “That’s my main goal, and by the looks of the bales on the side of your house it doesn’t seem like Juro Saito is too concerned with them.”

“What business is that of yours?”

He chuckled casually and looked back out at the fields, now waiting for new seed. “What business isn’t it of mine? We’re all in this together building a new society, and if that fool can’t see the value in the species you’ve been cultivating then it’s my duty to pick up the slack. But let’s cut to the chase here.”

“Yes, let’s.”

“I know you recently returned from a trip to Novo, which means you were called in to meet with Mr. Saito, but it was quick, so either your meeting didn’t last long, or you found the city somewhat wanting and came back to your safe space on your farm.”

Amelia deflated a touch at his astute observations, even if she was unnerved by the amount of information he casually wielded. “It was a bit of both I suppose...” she admitted.

“Of course, because Saito could care less about your work out here, he mostly wanted to warn you about radical separatists and see if you’d made any contact with them. Plus Novo is a hard place to experience after all we’ve been through.”

“Don’t act like you know me.” She shot back a deadly glance.

“Well I do. At least a bit, that was me six months ago. Although I was dealing with a Delaney underling who didn’t care about my work, and who was considerably worse informed about the nature of the separatist movement.”

“So that’s who you are, radical separatist, a transformaist as they call you, here to take the scraps of what they don’t want.”
“Scraps and then some if I’m being completely honest.” His eyes contained her once again. “And Amelia, if there’s one thing I promise to be with you it is honest. Our future depends on it.”

“Well, what do you want then?” She was done with idle chat.

“Your last harvest, your truck, most of the building materials and tech from your house, and last, but very much not least, you Amelia.”

“Oh, is that all?” She had to laugh in rage at his audacity.

“I won’t take a thing without your consent Amelia.” His eyes exuded earnesty. “I’m a recruiter for our movement and if Saito can’t see good agricultural talent, I can. The new world will need you to help it thrive.”

She held her silence, her head was still swimming with confusion from the past several days, but how could she trust a stranger who showed up out of the desert and asks for almost everything in her life?

“Look, you won’t believe me, at least for a while, but I was in your shoes not long ago.” Aleph went on, stepping into the pitch of his life. “I was placed into construction under the city for years. It was dirty, it was lonely, it was dark, it was dangerous. Always, they told me that I was working for my place in the new world, that once the construction was complete I could join the new society in Novo. But the projects never stopped, and they never will, there was no path to respectable life for me, nor is there for you here. And even if there was, would I have really wanted it?’

“On a few occasions, I was given surface clearance to go check out the city.” He paused for a breath, steeling himself. “Every time, I left after a few hours. Partly because it was so overwhelming after all the time alone on the Faith. Partly because it reminded me of so many little evils I saw in Jerusalem growing up. Division, excess, waste. They want to build a new society in the image of the old. I say let them, but we don’t need to be a party to it. I’m here to tell you, Amelia, that there is another way.”

“And what way is that?”

“Transformation.” He smiled again, now more broadly than ever before. “Transformation of everything it means to be human. Come with me and see the society we are building. We have almost a hundred citizens living in a colony out west, Hephaestia, and we want you to be a part of it. We’ll take all you’ve learned here on your farm and apply it to a new society that works in harmony with the planet. You won’t have to live your life under some dome, or trapped by some invisible caste. You’ll help us take the lessons we’ve learned from Earth and build a better future.”

“And if I say no?” She crossed her arms tighter not believing that a choice really lay before her.

“If you say no, then I get back in the caravan and I have a long drive to the next Ag Research farm.” His eyes brokered no lie. “You’re the last station in this valley before I have to head several hundred K south into the central basin, there are plenty of stations out there but in truth I doubt any have been as successful as you’ve been here. Saito may not care how much you’ve been able to coax out of this land but we stand in awe of it. Even if you won’t come, I hope you’ll at least let me take some samples of your work.”

She had to laugh once more. “Well, I suppose it’d just be outrageously rude to deny you that. Ag Research didn’t want more than a few trimmings, and I don’t have much use for more than the stalks as compost. But you say that you stand for transformation, is that why you’re able to step out in the sun and not get burned to a crisp?”

He smiled, feeling at least a small wall come down between them. “Well partly, but also partly because we don’t live in fear like those in Novo. Most of the citizens of Hephaestia worked on research farms or in mining ops before joining, I’m sure you’ve found the letter of the safety protocols to be a bit nannyish.”

“Yeah, I’ve learned that the air isn’t suddenly going to give out on me for no reason, but I’m also not stepping out into broad daylight without a fucking shirt on.”

“Fair enough.” His grin turned sheepish. “But you’re right, it’s only big storms that stir up the atmospheric mix enough to make it unbreathable. And we’ve learned it’s only certain degrees of sun exposure that really cause damage.” He dropped his smile. “That’s not the whole of it though. We stand for more than just transformation of society, we’re transforming humans themselves. Just like you are with your grasses and legumes, leaving old species behind to create new life for the new world, we’re transforming our people to not just survive here but to thrive.

“So breeding programs and gene editing?” The implications galled her.

“This is the deal Amelia, nothing is off the table if it helps us live here.” His smiling affect had all but disappeared leaving only calm seriousness in its wake. “Human generations, for now, are too long for meaningful selective breeding, but we’ve already began with gene manipulation to help our members survive. That’s how I’m able to withstand evening and morning sun, that’s how many of our citizens can breathe the air even as a storm blows in. It’s small steps for now, but ultimately we aim to make a post-human fit for this world. It will be slow, it will be safe, it will be informed and consensual, but it will happen. Humans carried the spark of sentience here and post-humans will carry it into the future.”

Silence settled over the pair as they sat looking out at the last rays of day fade from the high clifftops.

Finally Amelia managed, “This is too much for one day. I think I need to think on this for tonight. Do you need to stay in the house?”

Aleph stood slowly and gave an appreciative nod. “Of course it is Amelia, it’s an impossible thing I’m asking. But it is the right thing. And no, I will stay out in the caravan. Take the time you need but in a couple days I’ll need to move on, I hope it is with you.”

Not one wink was slept that night.

Aleph tossed and turned in his little caravan cot, wishing he’d had a bit of a warmer reception so he might borrow the couch for a night or two. But no, he could tell Amelia was too wary, and rightly so, she needed space to process all this new information. He’d said his part, now he just had to wait. 

Amelia scarcely even tried to sleep, her mind ran too wild. On one hand, relief washed over her that this seeming silver bullet had landed on her doorstep offering her future she could really feel hopeful about. On the other, there was a price. She’d never be part of the society she’d spent so long dreaming about, more than that she’d be a fugitive living off in the wilds. Sure, for now these transformists were able to live in peace, but how long could they really stand against the might of old Earth’s oligarchs once they tired of having their supplies pilfered?

Dawn was just about to break when Amelia knocked on the caravan door. Aleph opened with a patient smile.

“How are you able to live like this?” she challenged.

“Well it all takes some getting used to, but over time you’ll feel at home...” he started.

“No, not like that,” she cut. “I asked Saito the same thing, you are rebelling against the combined might of all human civilization on a planet actively hostile to life. How do you all survive? How have you not been discovered? How are you able to crawl your way out here and recruit me when Saito and Delaney and Yun would all sooner you be dead?”

“Ah, for that...” Aleph grinned impishly as the first rays of light shone in his eyes. “For that you’ll need to meet Imka.”

And so, Amelia found herself stepping through the doors of the caravan, unsure of what the future would hold, but certain she needed to find out.

--

Certainty was growing on the horizon, and quickly.

From his observation window he could see a tumult of activity buzzing around the moon base. Little glinting ships shuttled to and fro across the inky backdrop, bringing people, bringing ideas, bringing a great deal of trouble for Daniel Yun.

The remaining days of his return had passed in an incessant flurry, never was there enough time for him to formulate a proper plan before some new piece of information came flying in to send him back to the drawing board. The rest of the rescued crew had miraculously recovered and awoken during the flight, although the man who’d ran out of oxygen was still in deep, invasive treatment with the autodoc to remedy the worst of the brain damage he’d suffered. The messages flowed in with dizzying speed. Stella Delaney was personally aboard the moon base to apprehend Daniel upon arrival and oversee interim operations. Elena was hot on her heels to reassert Yun dominance on the project, backed by support from the Saito corp. Sonia was to be returned to cryo storage for her role in the theft of an in-system cruiser. Daniel was to be relegated to a minor post working on mining ops under Novo Monterrey.

He responded to each apologetically, deferentially, and cryptically. Somehow, in all the hubbub no one had noticed that Hauler #12 had gone offline as well, and that he’d successfully performed a rescue on it. Certainly, it would help his case to come home triumphantly with four saved crew members, thankful for his rescue. Or would it? He grew less certain by the hour, as with so many times on old Earth he felt as though what he was seeing around him were merely the downstream consequences of great powers colliding far overhead. They’d leave a trail of bodies in their wake and take no notice.

So against all his better judgment he held onto this vital, sustaining piece of good news. He felt certain the crew would simply be returned to hauler work, or worse, and was unwilling to condemn them to such a fate even if he had no plan for anything better. He’d take his licks, and he’d do his to save them from something worse.

Into his meditative silence Sonia drifted as he watched the ships shuttle quickly across the distant void.

“So are we going to talk about these Transformists while we still have a chance?” She asked quietly. Predictably, she’d taken the news about her impending return to cryo with so much brave reservation it made his heart ache. He’d robbed her of any foreseeable future.

Daniel sighed deeply, just wishing time would mercifully stop for a moment so he could properly collect himself. “I suppose we should. You’ve read the manifesto?”

“Of course I have, several times over, and I know you have too.” She pulled him away from the window. “I’ve been talking with Marta and the others as well.”

“I imagine they’re all too eager for anything that gives them an option to not head back out on a hauler?”

“To be honest, I’m surprised they have as many reservations as they do, given the ordeal they just went through.”

“Transformism is not for everyone.” He chuckled with no humor. 

He’d read the little manifesto, several dozen times by now. Each time finding something new to love, and something new to revile. It was only a couple pages, all soaring rhetoric rallying against the corrupt systems of old Earth that seemed bound to rebuild themselves on the new world. Condemning his family, the life he’d lived on Earth, and the life he’d dreamt of here. The author, who took no name, painted a vision for a new society that lived in harmony with the new world, not that fought against it. They left no room for argument that life on this new world would require great sacrifice in ways he’d never even contemplated. Gene editing, selective breeding, prosthetic surgeries all to create a being fit for the challenges they would face. Experiments on living people would need to be voluntarily taken in the name of creating a more perfect human.

Daniel had read and reread, his guts twisting everytime. It was one thing to look around and see his own role in the evils around him. It was another to share this vision of humans shedding their former skins and becoming something entirely new.

“No it’s not, but in the end it’s the best option they’ve got,” she agreed. “Quite frankly, it’s looking more and more like the best option I have as well. There’s no part of me that wants to go back into cryo until Stella Delaney decides I’ve learned my lesson, or more likely dies.”

The knife twisted in the wound. “Sonia, I’m so sorry. Stay by me, I’ll do my best to keep that from happening.”

“Honestly, I’d rather stay aboard here, but it doesn’t seem like that will be an option,” she sighed.

“No unfortunately not, although it’s looking more and more like that’s what we’ll have to do with Marta and the others for the time being.”

“What?” Sonia gasped. “They still haven’t figured it out?”

“No, I’ve revealed as little as possible in my correspondence and they don’t seem too concerned about any of the haulers.” He looked back out at the stars, busier and busier with traffic. “So the best I can think of for now is to leave them aboard this cruiser while we head back to the base. If I can’t think of a plan for them in a week or so I’ll spill the news and Delaney can do with them what she will. Marta’s already in agreement, it’s not much of a shield but it’s the best I can do for now. As is, it’ll take a miracle for them to not notice a crew just living aboard a recently stolen cruiser.”

“Dan, why don’t you just tell them,” Sonia implored, pulling his eyes back into hers. “This successful rescue should be a cause for celebration not dread.”

“From everything I’ve seen no one cares about the hauler crews, it’ll be a matter of weeks before they’re back out again doing the same job that got us into this mess in the first place. Sure, there’d be some lip service about the rescue being the right thing to do, but there’s something deeper going on here. I think Stella Delaney wanted to take over the moon project to consolidate low-orbital control, and I gave her the perfect excuse to do it. Elena with the backing of some Saito heads is working to stop it, but I can’t say that I play much of a role anymore.”

Stella grabbed his arm. “You’ve already played a key role for these people Dan don’t forget that, I trust you’ll find the right thing to do.”

“Thanks Son, but I doubt it.” He looked back out at the ever-growing crowd of ships buzzing in front of his window.

As time is wont to do when all you want is a pause it sped Daniel mercilessly into the future. They boarded the little transfer pod and before he could blink they were stepping out onto the departure deck of the moon base and right into the crossed arms of Elena Yun.

“Pinche cabron!” She spat almost as soon as the door opened. “As if I didn’t have enough to deal with already you have to go and give Stella fucking Delaney the perfect opening she needed to try and pry the moon project away from us!” She smacked him lightly on the side of his head. Well there’s that theory confirmed, he thought.

“And you!” she roared, turning her displeasure onto Sonia. “His ass is safe, but what the hell were you thinking? I know you’re smarter than this shit.”
“Dr. Yun, I had no choice, Mr. Yun he...” Sonia tried out her excuse.

“Oh shut it, save it for someone who cares and may actually buy it, because that sure isn’t me.” Elena turned sharply on a heel, and led them down the hallway on paper-light footsteps.

“Where are we going Elena, where is Stella?” Daniel finally managed a word.

“Back to your office, you dolt.” She didn’t bother to look back. “Not only has your team dug their heels in about the change of power, it seems this base has too. Delaney initially tried to take over your space but no matter how many techs she threw at the door couldn’t get it to budge. Now, she’s set up interim operations down in the mechanical bays below, and between your tio’s help, Saito’s support, and now my own time we’ve been able to hold her off any meaningful take over, but she’s not happy about it.”

“Wait...back up.” Daniel stammered. “How could she not get into my office? I never keep it locked. And she’s, she’s Stella Delaney, shouldn’t she be able to get into just about anywhere she wants?”

His confusion didn’t seem to knock Elena off her war path. “Hell if I know Daniel, maybe it was another trick of those engineers of yours.”
“They’re not mine.”

“Oh grow up, you know what I mean,” she shot back in retort. “Anyways first things first, we’d better hope they do actually have some loyalty to you since they’ve been holed up in their office ever since Delaney arrived and are refusing to work or even meet with us. They say they’re waiting for you two idiots to return, I can’t imagine what they hope to accomplish by that.”

They turned a corner and found themselves approaching the rear door to Daniel’s office. To either side other doors heading off in other directions stayed put, but as they approached his slid silently open.

“Ok, what the hell are you playing at Daniel!” Elena exploded. “You think this shit is funny?”

“I don’t know what to tell you, that’s how it’s always opened for me.” His hands spread wide in deference.

They stepped in, and Daniel walked over to his usual spot by the window. Thousands of kilometers below the planet spun in a beautiful summer day. Up near the top of the curve he could see the gleam of Novo Monterrey shining as bright as he’d ever seen it, catching the morning light. A dream he’d have done almost anything for just a few short days ago.

Elena stepped over and unceremoniously sat on his desk. “Alright focus here Daniel.” She snapped her fingers sharply. “In a minute I’m going to need you to go through that door and sort this shit out with your team.” She gestured to the right wall that was normally clear and overlooked the rows of desks, but today was an opaque white. “Because quite frankly we really don’t have much time to deal with their little insurrection. This whole goddamned thing is a waste of time that I can’t afford right now. I need you to reconsolidate control over this project so I can kick Delaney the fuck out and we can go back to a normal balance of power.” She rolled on. “Because these pinche Transformists aren’t stopping. They’re up to eighty by my best count now, and the biggest favor we could do for them right now is to start fighting amongst ourselves. We’ll that’s not going to happen on my goddamned watch.”

Daniel’s attention was ripped from the planet below my mention of the Transformists in front of Sonia; he turned to meet Elena’s livid eyes.

She laughed, “Oh come off it you two, I know you tell her everything Daniel so quit playing.” Elena shifted her ferocity onto Sonia. “Yes Sonia, there is a separatist group on the surface calling themselves ‘Transformists’, whatever the hell that means, and they have been the predominant pain in my ass for the past three weeks now, just barely edging out your boss here.”

“I know...” Sonia admitted, keeping an admirably steely face.

“Of course you do, now Daniel quit fucking around and help me sort this shit out you’ve started.” She stepped lightly off the desk and met Daniel over by the window, looking down at the planet spinning below. “First, you’re going to sort this shit out with your team here. Then, we’re going to hold all haulers in after their next drops for crew evaluations. I need to know if these fuckers have found some back door to communicate off-surface and get their nonsense out to our haulers. And finally, we’re going to kick Stella fucking Delaney’s ass off this base for well and good.” She put a reassuring hand on his shoulder and looked down beside him. “In a few years primo, we’ll be down in Novo, drinking tinto, and this will all seem funny.”

Daniel did his best to hold a straight face, but his best wasn’t very good.

Fortunately, Sonia was quick on her feet. “Sounds like a plan to me,” she jumped in before Elena could notice something was amiss. “Should I call in the team?”

“Initiative, that’s why I like you Sonia.” Elena turned and smiled. “I’ll leave you to it.” She swept out of the office.

“You’re going to need to work on your poker face if you want to stand a chance here Dan.” Sonia quipped as soon as the door slid closed.

“I can’t believe she’d still dangle that in front of me...” he whispered back, enraptured by the planet once more.

“Dangle what?”

“A life down in Novo...” He could feel his mind aching to slip away into his imagination, to picture what it would be like to walk the streets of El Gotic again, remade, pulled from the pages of history. But every time his mind hit the surface it would just sink through into the caverns below the city and the people toiling below and himself beside them cramped in the darkness.

 “Seems like a pretty reasonable carrot to me, especially when the stick is getting stuck down in the mines. What’s the issue?” Sonia asked, stepping up beside him at the window.

“Somehow, I don’t think it’s ever going to happen no matter what I do,” Daniel admitted.

“Then I guess you might as well do the right thing,” She offered. “You can start by thanking the team for saving your ass, I’ll call them in.”

Sonia walked through the door into the adjacent room where the thirty scientists, researchers, engineers, and programmers under Daniel’s direct supervision worked. The wall remained opaque, allowing him a few moments to gather himself. Thanks were more than warranted, he owed a debt to these people that he wasn’t sure he could ever repay.

When the door opened back up a single dark, stout figure entered. Adya, one of the lead physicists on the team. Of course, Dan thought. She’d always been a natural leader, and had a way of getting projects running her way. Of course, her way was usually the best way. He’d actually been fairly surprised when she held her tongue when he annoucned the change to the moon project. She knew it was wrong and normally would have had quite a bit to say about it.

She walked in and sat in one of the guest chairs and turned to face him; Dan remained by the window, he never felt comfortable talking from behind the desk like some old-timey middle manager handing down orders. He was the least competent person on the team. He knew it, she knew it, they all knew it.

“So what’d you do with the other crew?” Adya asked point blank.

Daniel nearly choked.

“Don’t make a habit of keeping secrets Mr. Yun, you’re terrible at it.” Her dark eyes saw entirely through him. “Delaney’s team may not care too much about keeping track of all the haulers, but we very much do. We saw #12 go offline after moving toward the wreck, we figured the worst when we couldn’t hail them but the Faith’s AI showed us that they were on an aggressive intercept course so we knew they’d be in the area. Didn’t want to rub salt in the wound and tell you there was another ship lost in all this, but then your ship did a very...odd...course correction once you saw the first ship was gone. In the end it almost looked like your stop at the second wreck was just the final turning point of your course reversal, but we looked closer and realized you must have intercepted them.”

“How obvious was it?” Dan hesitated.

“Not very to be honest, but you have a team of astrophysicists in there, they get off on this stuff.” She scolded. “Who’s idea was it? Yours or Sonia’s? It was a clever bit of rocketry.”

“Neither really, the ship set the course.” He admitted. “We just indicated that we wanted to check it out and then there we were.”

“Interesting...makes me wonder how much importance most of our work had. We always knew the Faith had intense computational power, I just never realized it could fully take over a cruiser’s navigation when it wanted.” She drummed neatly trimmed nails on a polished wood armrest. “Anyhow, we know you intercepted the ship, and you haven’t shown back up with a bunch of corpses which leads me to believe you actually did some good out there. How many did you save?”

He felt he should smile, but somehow any semblance of joy wouldn’t seem to come. “All four,” he whispered.

A smile came easily to Adya’s square face. “All four!” She grinned. “That’s amazing, we never dared hope.” Her eyes glinted in the light of the planet spinning behind him. “But you pulled four living souls off that ship and have chosen not to tell anyone about it. Where are they, on the cruiser?”

“Yeah, three are in pretty good shape, one ran out of oxygen a few minutes before we arrived. He was in the autodoc for the entire return voyage and has only regained consciousness a couple times.”

“So you’ve pulled off a miracle and you’ve chosen to hide it, you’ve chosen to take all the heat from Delaney and your cousin. Which I think means we need to have a deeper conversation Mr. Yun.” Her face settled into searing seriousness.

“How do you mean?”

She drummed her fingers for a long moment, looking out the window behind him. “I’ve never really respected your position overseeing this project,” she began bluntly. “We both know it’s your name that has you in this office and not me or any of the other abundantly qualified people out there, I’m sure you know that I was about ready to start some serious trouble over your Uncle’s proposed changes to the moon project.” From her taught lips the notion that she could have anything to say about the matter almost seemed plausible. “It was only the emergency signal that had me hold off until we had things sorted out.”

“I’m hoping there’s a but in here somewhere.” Daniel replied, forcing himself to meet her gaze. None of it was news, but the brusque words still took their toll.

“But Sonia always supported you, and I’ve always respected her. I couldn’t see what she claimed to see in you, but I knew that if she was by your side the project would be in reasonable hands.” Her fingers stopped. “But now you’ve given me ample reason to reconsider my opinion of you. Passing on your uncle’s marching orders clearly took something out of you, and now you’ve gone and put yourself on the line. Four people are alive because of it. I always saw you as just a cog in a broken system, another manifestation of Earth’s twisted society rebuilding itself here. But that was wrong, you’re a person playing the hand you were dealt.’

“All the same,” Adya continued. “I have a hard time imagining Delaney or your uncle or your cousin or any of the Saito underlings getting in a cruiser to attempt a risky rescue like you did. So why did you do it?”
He looked back out the window, the planet was turning well into night below him and only a crescent of light shone back where the last visible corner caught the light. 

Daniel took a deep breath and began slowly. “I want a great many things Adya. I want my old life on Earth back, but that’s gone forever. I want to get the fuck off this base and start my life on this new world, but that feels like it’s slipping away as well.” He turned back to meet her eyes. “I want to at least be helping build a better world if I’m not going to have any say in how my life goes, but that seems like it was doomed from the outset. I want to at least not create more suffering if I can prevent it. That was the one thing I could do. How could I not?”

“Well, it seems we’ve chosen as good a horse as we could field in this race.” Adya approved with a nod.

“I want to find a place for those poor crew we saved that doesn’t condemn them to a life in the cramped cabin of a hauler, but was that really ever a possibility? What I want most of all Adya, is to meet these Transformists, and see if they really do have a better future on offer.”

She jerked her head up. Daniel was glad to have caught her so off guard, otherwise she may well have tried to hide what she knew.

“So you’ve heard of them,” he chided.

Her fingers resumed their drumming as she weighed her options. “Well Mr. Yun,” she finally began, rising to meet him face to face. “It sure seems like I have a letter you need to read.”

With a few curt taps on her watch an encrypted file appeared on his tab over on his desk.

“You have the team’s support, I’ll have them get to work bringing in the haulers, and I look forward to seeing what you do next.” She gave an impish smile and left before he could say another word.

Daniel sat as heavily as his faint kilos could muster behind his desk and opened the file.

Dear Mr. Yun,

By now you’ll have heard of our movement, you’ll have read our manifesto, you’ll have met some of our more estranged members. But you won’t know who we are, not truly. For that you would need to join us at our colony on the surface. In a more just world, I’d simply invite you down so you could see what we’re building for yourself. Unfortunately, we haven’t built that world yet, so this will have to do.

Our goal is not to throw down the civilization your uncle and his rivals have built on the backs of so many. We only aim to provide a better path for those who choose it. We want to show the world that we need not remake ourselves in the casts that doomed us on Earth. Novo Monterrey may flourish in the end, we here in Hephaestia may die out, but we will give people the choice.

And you can help us. Your science team is eager to join us, as are many of our hauler crews. Bring in the ships, give them a choice to join us, and I will help you all come home. You are not as trapped as you feel up there on that little moon you’ve built. Give people a chance to join us, and help us build a better world together.

• Imka

And so, Daniel found himself stepping through his office doors, somehow certain of what the future would hold, but dreading how it may come to pass.

--

Her first view of the future came on the morning of the third day.

From the mesa tops she could look down into the deep canyon below, the first rays of light were fighting their way down the far wall, but the canyon’s depths held most of them at bay. Hephaestia sat in the deepest hollow, several hundred meters below at the confluence of two little rivers. They merged, trickled their way through the town and made their way through a few final bends before meeting the sea off in the distance.

It was a place unlike any built by human hands. From the mesa tops all that was visible was a solar array catching the morning light, but as she approached the canyon plunged down in a torrent of twisting red and Hephaestia lay below tucked into the protective shade of the wrought overhangs and turrets. The colony centred around a town square in the scrap of space the confluence had created in the canyon and then climbed up the sheer walls on all sides. Buildings tumbled down the walls in a patchwork of stone, glass, and metal. Here and there Amelia could pick out bits that had clearly been repurposed from a research farm’s equipment, but mostly it was just a tumult of different designs all clamouring back into the protective shade of the canyon walls. The little streams carved deep bends in the rock leaving great overhangs that hid much and more from view, but Amelia’s heart was set alight by what she could see.

And what she could see was green. On every roof and terrace, every alley and stairway, it was all green. A riot of plants grew overhanging the buildings and parks, filling the town square with lush foliage. She could hardly believe it. After years watching her little farm turn from a pale green-yellow to gold to brown over and over it felt as though her eyes had forgotten how to see such greens. Ferns crowded allies, ivies covered walls, grasses swayed on rooftops. Looking around the barren, red mesa and then down into the bustling nest of green felt like seeing a rift between two worlds.

Amelia stood on the edge, mouth agape. “How?” She finally managed, staggering. “There’s so much green. How have you done it?!”

Aleph stood beside her, smiling in the morning light. “Good old fashioned elbow grease,” he laughed. “Turns out when you recruit a bunch of ag researchers and take the gloves off of genetic engineering techniques you can really get places in a hurry. This is always the worst bit though, we get a little peek down there this morning and it’ll be tomorrow by the time we can make it down there, we have to go south for almost a hundred k and then work our way back in along the coast.” He looked over at Amelia’s hanging jaw. “Still it’s worth it to see this stupid look on your face.”

She managed to pick her jaw up. “You never told me...”she trailed off, staring down into the lush shadows.

In truth, he had tried to tell her. But he stood little chance of succeeding. The past week had been spent grinding through the empty deserts in the agonizingly slow progress of the caravan. They’d had plenty of time to talk, to tell of what awaited at the end of their journey, and he’d tried. But how can you describe a miracle?

When Amelia had knocked on the caravan door that morning he could sense how deeply she still held her reservations about his offer. Aleph knew he had to play his cards right. So he brokered no argument, merely welcomed her aboard and set the great beast in motion once again. Morning sun setting the hills aglow as they turned west. He knew how long the road was ahead, and he desperately wanted to bring on more of the wealth held at Amelia’s farm, but the caravan was full from cleaning out a station further up the valley and he didn’t want to push his luck.

They sat together mostly in silence that first morning in the little cab of what had once been a farm truck and watched the day grow bright and beautiful and the hazy hills grow into stark mesas. He had a great deal to tell her about the new life they were creating, but everytime he looked over he saw conflict on her face. So he held his tongue.

The caravan crawled through the desert, laden and slow. Bouncing on cushioned wheels over the rocky land. They fed on the sun shining down from above, creeping and meandering along their way. At night they’d stop, reserve their power, and wait. Amelia would take the little pressurized sleeping compartment and it’s cot in the back, Aleph would toss and turn up in the cabin. Progress was slow. Achingly, agonizingly slow. The little converted farm truck toiled on valiantly, but with a full load could only manage a couple kilometers an hour once the hills began to rise and they worked their way up onto the grand, western mesas.

On the third day, she wanted to talk. Aleph was more relieved than he could express, talking led to understanding led to support led to a stronger colony. So he chatted the days away. About how Imka had found the home for Hephaestia after wandering off her coastal research farm in the midst of an existential breakdown. She’d wandered days up the coast to where she could see a mesa plummet into the sea. She’d followed the little beach around it’s edge until she found the mouth of a narrow canyon twisting into the mesa’s heart. She’d followed the little river along its bends to the confluence where the twisting, protruding walls overhead protected her from the dangerous midday sun.

He spoke of how he had first encountered a recruiter for this new movement in the endless caverns below Novo Monterrey. How he’d been nearly ready to walk out into the desert and let the planet have him after years of toil in the dark. How he’d miraculously been given an assignment to haul a load of sand down from the surface, and how he’d simply kept driving west past the quarry and off into a life unknown. His little truck didn’t stop when he directed it off course, somehow, someway it kept going and going and eventually it helped him find the faint little road that led to Hephaestia. As though it too was tired of a life in the mines and wanted him to find his way.

He talked endlessly about the life they were building there in the loving embrace of the mesa. How they were creating new plants that not only could survive in the saltless soils of their new home, but which thrived in the shadows of the canyon. About how they took every scrap of material they could find and built a society without waste or want. About how the shared vision for a better future drove all of their citizens with all of the patchwork histories to work in unison, and how that drove innovation and prosperity like he’d never known.

And Amelia listened. She listened in awe of Imka’s story, knowing all too well the feeling of being trapped on a research farm, but knowing she’d never had the courage to leave. She listened in wonder to Aleph’s story, amazed that so many things seemed to be going right for this little colony when there was so much to go wrong. She listened as he tried in vain to describe what they would find at Hephaestia, heart pounding at the possibility of a society she would be proud to be part of.

And as she listened she imagined. She imagined a thousand different ways this little colony may find it’s balance with a hostile planet. She imagined how she could fit in with the bright minds building this future. She imagined how she might speed up her own work to help the cause. She imagined Hephaestia as a little western American down huddled beneath towering red bluffs. She imagined so much it almost made the slow, grinding trip across the mesa tops bearable. Almost. But she never imagined anything like she saw on that clear morning.

Aleph gave her a couple more minutes to stare deep down into the canyon as the town slowly began to wake before pulling her back into the caravan to begin the long descent.

“So part of our secret lies just in the location of our colony,” he began once they were loaded up and headed north towards the break in the mesa that would allow them access to the coast. “Gene editing or no, full strength sun here is dangerous so naturally it behooves us to be tucked away where the sun can be avoided throughout the day. That just also means that by and large imaging satellites have a hard time locating us. I’d say the biggest risks are our solar arrays up top and out on the beach, but it’s a risk we have to take.”

“You described it being in a canyon...I never imagined anything like that.”

“It’s a hard thing to wrap your head around isn’t it?” he chuckled. “I spent years working out in the canyons in Jordan growing up, even that didn’t prepare me for this country. The way the walls overhang is our greatest protection, but it has led to an interesting way of life for us. Throughout the day, different sections of the canyon get direct light. We need it to grow the plants, of course, but it sends us all to the opposite wall to seek shade. Of course, most of our activity is in the morning and evening when direct light isn’t an issue at all, but we’ve all become accustomed to what parts of the day it’s suitable to visit different parts of town.”

All the little intricacies of life. It made perfect sense of course, but hadn’t crossed Amelia’s mind. What other surprises lay in wait?

Her mind ran on and on, the caravan ground on and on, Aleph yammered on and on. Hours slipped by as they made their slow, steady way north to where a break in the mesa wall allowed them to perilously traverse down to the sea. Here the tire tracks were most evident as they threaded between fallen boulders and across open escarpments working their way down. The little truck leading the caravan drove them surely, and Aleph’s comfortable chatter betrayed no anxiety so Amelia did her best to relax.

Sundown caught them halfway down the wall. From their high vantage the ocean shimmered below them in a million ruby shards as the sun sank fat and red into the western horizon. Amelia remembered watching the sun rise on some family trips to the far side of the island in Hong Kong, it was beautiful, but somehow the desolation of this place made it all the more humbling.

Then, just as the sun was getting ready to sink down for the night an unexpected shadow jumped out of the haze on the horizon. Black mountains stretched south beading the remaining rays of light into droplets of deep red.

“What’s that?” Amelia exclaimed.

“Ahhh, you’re a lucky one Amelia,” Aleph beamed. “Usually there’s too much cloud cover out at sea. What you’re seeing there is our neighbor island in the archipelago off southwest. We call her Ithaca, and she calls to us from the sea. From what we can tell it’s much like this one, a bit smaller though and straddles the equator.”

For the first time it dawned on Amelia how big the planet truly was. They had only scratched the surface of one little island in one little part of this whole world. The vision the Transformists held wasn’t just one colony, but  a whole global society that worked in harmony with the planet. As she looked out at the setting sun beading between the distant peaks her mind slipped out across the ocean over to these strange shores. She could picture it, much like the shore she approached but possibly even more laced with twisting canyons where their fledgling society could grow.

They drove through the night, eager to reach their destination, and as predicted it morning was just beginning to lighten the sky as they turned off the beach and into the canyon. Evidence of life began almost immediately as they turned off the beech. Reeds crowded the banks of the little river. It was only a few inches deep and the bottom was packed sand so the caravan just comfortably cruised through the heart of the canyon. Amelia craned her neck up out the open windows but could only catch a glimpse or two of sky as the passed between the bends.

After a kilometer or so an exceptionally deep bend left a high shelf dry, carved back deep into the rock. The caravan drove itself up and parked next to several others, packed and ready to head back out on a new run. Amelia and Aleph stepped out into the cool morning silence.

Hephaestia was still fast asleep down in the safety of its canyon. The loading area they parked in clearly bustled during the day, but for now was just calm organization and quiet. Aleph got to work right away, dismantling the caravan for a hefty unpacking job that would surely take a team most of the day. Amelia staggered, boots in the cool, packed sand as she looked up at the carved, red walls arching up, up, and overhead. She’d seldom felt so small.

After a few moments Aleph called over. “You should follow that path over there,” he gestured to a little footpath through the reeds. “That leads into town, I’ll join you in a bit for some breakfast.”

Bewildered with wonder Amelia followed along the path in the dark quiet. It curved through the reeds, and then the canyon wall opened up in a soaring arch. Through it she could see the hodgepodge of buildings climbing the sheer walls, all still dark and resting. Neck craned, she stepped softly through and all around her the town of Hephaestia rose in chaotic beauty.

The path lept the river and then buried itself in a forest of towering reeds and ferns. The cool, damp air tasted sweet on Amelia’s tongue. As though she’d forgotten what real life tasted like. She walked on and then a new noise joined the trickle of the river. A chirp, ripped straight from the forests of old Earth. Crickets, nestled amongst the reeds sang sweetly in the fading night.

Smiling and giddy, Amelia stepped out into the square. The plants fell back on either side and an expanse of smooth, red stone stretched off before her. The river diverted on either side around this meeting place and little bridges led off in all directions into the tottering buildings above. In the center a small, tiered fountain brought the river back to the surface and filled the square with its happy bubbling. Amelia, now grinning ear to ear, finally found a seat before she toppled herself in her incredulity. She breathed in the sweet air, and looked up to the little window of sky that framed the square. It was turning a pale purple as the sun worked its way towards the horizon. And there, placed perfectly amidst it all was the bright little sliver of the moon. Two of humanity’s visions for the future, staring back at each other.

“Not a bad place to call home is it?” a voice called out.

Amelia nearly fell off her bench, as the reeled about searching for its owner. From the far side of the square she came down in a swirl of silver. She was almost impossibly tall and thin. Her graceful limbs danced through a flowing gown silver silk. Her skin looked almost pitch black in the faint morning light.

She laughed a singsong laugh as Amelia struggled for words. “Oh, I didn’t mean to frighten you!” She crossed the square in a few powerful strides long, dark legs slipping out of the flowing silk as she padded softly on bare feet.

The mystery woman took the seat next to Amelia, sitting a full head taller than her on the bench. Her skin looked carved from polished obsidian and her hair was a dense forest of little ringlets. But none of that held Amelia’s attention. Her eyes held that honor. As she looked over at Amelia with a kindly smile her eyes were nothing but polished silver. No iris. No pupil. Just pure silver reflecting back the wan light.

Amelia was transfixed.

“I’m Imka,” she smiled.

“Aleph...” Amelia stuttered. “He told me about you...”

“Not too much I hope!” she laughed again, a chorus of joy that swung through a full octave. “There is so much joy in discovering things for ourselves isn’t there?” She took a relishing deep breath of the sweet air and turned her silver eyes to the sky. “I was so happy when Aleph signaled back that you’d be joining him Amelia. I’ve very much wanted to meet you.”

“You wanted to meet me?” Amelia struggled, perplexed that any such person could care about her mundane little life on her farm.

“Oh yes of course!” Imka brought her ethereal eyes back down and locked into Amelia’s with a smile that was wholly captivating. “There weren’t many of us who worked two stints aboard the Faith! And of course our environmental research teams are very excited to learn about your successes on your farm.”

“My successes? It seems like you guys are leaps and bounds ahead of me here.”
“I understand the feeling, but this is all largely a pretty lie for now. If we didn’t tend our plants down here aggressively they’d quickly fail. We’ve been trying to introduce a couple of insect species to create a self-sustaining system.” She sighed. “It’s been tough going, as you well know the planet is largely inhospitable to Earth-life.”

“But you have so much down here...” Amelia was having a hard time reconciling her little scrap of planted fields with all the lushness that surrounded her. “What could I teach you?”

“Don’t be silly Amelia! From what I’ve heard you’ve created the first self-sustaining plants on this new world.” She grabbed her hand and looked deep into her eyes, Amelia could almost see herself in the reflection. “That’s a tremendous first step. We’ll need grasses to help fix more salts into the ecosystem, to create some biomass for a self-sustaining system to develop. They all feel like little baby steps in our grand project, but a crawl becomes a walk becomes a run. First grasses, then shrubs, then trees, then whole ecosystems.”

“I understand the vision, but I can’t really imagine this world ever being like Earth.” Amelia hesitated.

“Like Earth? Heaven’s no, this world will be all it’s own. You know that better than any of us. Are any of your grasses really much like the species you started with?”

“Well, no.”

“Of course not, it’s a new place they need to live, and that’s just the first step. The more our ecosystems grow the more they’ll diverge from anything we ever saw on Earth.” She stood in a whirl of shimmer. “Walk with me.”

Amelia followed along as she walked over to the edge of the square furthest upstream. Here the wedge shaped corner of the square divided the river in two as it trickled a couple meters below.

“Do you know how this canyon came to be?” Imka asked, eyes climbing the lightening walls.

Amelia was puzzled and decided to hold her tongue.

“Not from the steady work of our little river here, although that surely played a role, but from the floods that come every spring and roar their way through. I was living here for almost three months before the first one came, I very nearly died in the torrent. As I clutched to the walls praying for it to pass, I began to think of how I could survive in a place like this.” She looked back down at the trickling river below. “My first thought, of course, was a dam. I could fill the canyons further up and regulate the flow so I’d never need be in such peril again.’

“But that would change the canyon, and we’d live in fear of the day when the dam broke and all the water came rushing once more. So I thought some more, how can I live in harmony with the canyon? Gradually a plan formed in my mind. Let the floods come, and use them. Harness their power, and live in balance with our new home. We dug channels to keep the worst of it at bay, we built our homes high on the walls the floods carved in the shade the floods provided. As I clutched the rocks waiting for the torrent to abate that day the floods felt like death, but if you look around you see that they are life.”

“And from there you began to look at all of this planet’s challenges like the floods?” Amelia tried to gain a little insight into this mysterious woman’s mind.

“Precisely. All of the ways this place challenge us are only callings to be better. We take what the planet will give us and work our way bit by bit until we can thrive here.”

“Is that why your eyes are that way?” Amelia asked, finally getting out the burning question.

She smiled and looked down hypnotically. “In a way yes. In a way every modification we’ve made to our lives, our plants, ourselves is so that we don’t have to live in fear of our new home. The mirroring of my eyes helps reflect hazardous rays during the day, and helps my eyes gather more light during the night. I don’t know if the answer to our future here is to become more tolerant of a more dangerous sun, or if it is to become more nocturnal. But the same way I don’t want to live in fear of a dam breaking, I don’t want to live in fear of a dome cracking open leaving everyone to die.”

Amelia couldn’t tell if she was just mesmerized by this quixotic woman who had drifted into her life like a dream, but her every word was compelling. She wanted the future Imka was building. She wanted to live in a society where no overfull bins betold wanton waste. She wanted a world where she could breathe the cool morning air and feel the sea breeze begin to push its way up the canyon. She wanted a life different from the one she’d lead on old Earth, she’d left that behind after all.

Still there was one more burning question. “This is all very nice Imka, but I need to know how you intend to do it. How do you intend to stand against all the resources of Novo Monterrey? Juro Saito called me in not long ago to make sure I wasn’t about to join your movement, I can only imagine the other family heads are just as unhappy about farms going offline and people disappearing.”

Imka sat down on the smooth stone and hung her feet down towards the river, she leaned back and looked way up at the moon hanging high above. “With friends in high places that’s how.” She patted the place beside her and Amelia sat.

“I didn’t intend on starting a colony when I came here,” Imka began softly. “I just knew that if I stayed on my farm I’d either lose my mind or kill myself. I’d seen what they were building in Novo Monterrey, and how they were doing it. The solitude took its toll, but it was the purpose I couldn’t stand. I couldn’t stand being part of the system that was hell-bent on recreating the evils of Earth, so I ran and I hid here in the canyon. I hauled as much as I could take with me from my farm and I built a little home in a nook just up that wall.” She pointed a long finger at a wall under a large overhang with a dozen nooks and terraces nestled upon it. “At first when my farm truck let me take it off the farm I thought it was some glitch, that surely it’d take me back and alert the authorities to my transgression. But instead it took me all the way here, and I lived my life certain that soon enough someone from Ag Research would show up and haul me away.’

“But that’s not who showed up. Instead it was a man named Michael, a watcher like us, disaffected just like me. He’d wandered off his farm ready to let the planet take him and his truck caught up with him and took him here. We didn’t know what to make of it. The mystery only grew when more watchers showed up, then when several researchers from Novo came along we were positively perplexed. My best guess was that some kind soul was creating little security blips for us so we could slip away and not perish out in the desert. But that didn’t seem to explain it, I knew they’d be looking for us and with all the stolen equipment we had it seemed impossible that they weren’t able to track us. But then the ship’s libraries started opening up.”

“What?” Amelia gasped, remembering how elusive her interactions with the libraries were during her stints. Only the most targeted information would ever be available on her tab, despite all of her requests for something, anything to take her mind off the isolation.

“That was my reaction too,” Imka laughed again. “Not just little gardening tips, or something to read like we had on the Faith, but the full library. The entirety of human knowledge was slowly opening up to us on our tabs. The colony took off then. We had all the data from Ag Research and troves besides to help us get our first plant species at least viable. That’s why we have so many reeds down here. With enough time and all of this information at our fingertips it seemed like there was nothing we couldn’t do.”

“But who would open the libraries to you?” Amelia’s head reeled, trying to puzzle out an answer, but none came.

“Not who Amelia, but what.” A wide, mischievous smile spread across Imka’s face. “There was no kind soul, at least not as we think of them. It took me almost a year to figure it out, but it was the ship itself helping us.”

“The ship?” Amelia’s mind raced through the years of her life spent waiting in solitude aboard the CRS Delaney’s Faith. It was clear that a powerful artificial mind lay at the heart of the ship, the way it predicted her needs, the way it applied just the right touch to keep her from slipping off the edge into despair as the years dragged on.

“The ship. You know all too well after your time aboard, it has its own mind and its own ways. We’ve never received contact from it, but it’s the only explanation.” Imka looked back up at the now peach sky as though she could see the Faith twinkling in the morning light. “It opened up the libraries, it hid our tracks from city officials that would sooner have us all dead. It helped us grow and kept us safe. And now, it’s helping me find new citizens way out in space, recently I’ve been able to contact the crews of all the asteroid hauler crews out there building that moon up there.”

“Let me guess, they’re watchers as well.” Amelia knew it was true, it was too cruel and predictable not to be.

“Indeed, and I’m hoping to bring them down very soon with the help of the ship...and some others. Although it will be incredibly difficult. My hope is to bring down enough citizens that we can establish a permanent colony here and then build ships to head to Ithaca, the island to the southwest, and start several new colonies on that island.”

“There can’t be that many up there on haulers, why spread yourself so thin?”

“It’s true, only a couple hundred and as nice as it will be to have them they aren’t my primary concern.”

“Then what is?” Amelia asked.

“The poor souls, still frozen aboard the Faith.” Her silver eyes drew Amelia in deeper than ever. “They are what truly drove me to walk off my farm. Helpless souls trapped up there while the powers of old Earth entrench themselves once more. They gave up everything they had to make it here and they’ll awake to a world with no more possibility than the one they left.” She stood, and helped Amelia back to her feet. “Well I intend to change that, and I hope you’ll help me.”

Amelia smiled, not knowing what she would have to do, but knowing that it was the right thing. Imka shook her hand and they walked across a little bridge up to the canteen where breakfast was just getting started.

--

His first view of the future came on the evening of the thirtieth day.

The ship looked very different than the many others that had crossed in front of Daniel’s office window over the past month. Cargo loaders bringing in supplies for the expanding scope of the moon project. Transfer pods bringing family executives to and fro from the Faith. And of course, the grand procession of asteroid haulers filing neatly in from their far flung orbits. This was a surface ship. It’s lines sleek and slim, ready for the trials of atmosphere as it plummeted towards the planet waiting below. It was also clearly a passenger ship, dwarfing all the other little vessels that scurried by, built to haul hundreds of souls down to their new home. 

It was also a mystery. After reading the cryptic letter from this Imka, Daniel hadn’t known what to do. So one by one, he met with the crews as they made their way in, grilling them through gritted teeth for information on the Transformists as his cousin and Delaney stood over his shoulder. Then, once they’d headed back out to their ships he had Sonia send an encrypted memo informing them that they could join the Transformists down at their colony. Unsurprisingly, most were eager to accept. All had been contacted, many were firm believers in the movement but more had reservations just like his own. Without any guidance, and no idea what to do next, he simply sent them all out into a holding pattern at a Lagrange point trailing the moon hoping that the next step would become clear. This ship was the answer.

If he hadn’t been looking for it, it almost certainly would’ve slipped by unnoticed. All he knew was that this mysterious Imka had promised a ship to carry more than a hundred people down to the surface. But how could she possibly provide? A wanted renegade eeking out life on stolen materials should’ve been in no place to commandeer one of the surface shuttles. But then again, she shouldn’t have even been in a place to get him an encrypted message or any of the hauler crews a message for that matter. But there she was, and here they were. So he was keyed into any abnormal ship movements when the order came through. It all looked perfectly official. Certified by the Delaney family in fact, the surface shuttle was to move to the same Lagrange point where he’d sent all the haulers, it was a natural place to send a ship to wait after all. The official reasoning was to make room in the cargo bay on the Faith where it had resided for eons. He couldn’t tell if it was outright hacking or just a beautiful piece of corporate subterfuge. Either way, they didn’t seem to set off any alarm bells. It was only his hawkishness that had caught it and had him standing by his window to see it slide silently past, bisecting the glowing planet below like a silver bullet.

If he was being honest though, a ship getting lost in the chaos of the past few weeks seemed entirely understandable. From the second he put his tab down after reading Imka’s letter the world had been passing in double time. His office was a constant flurry of hauler crews, science team members, and company executives. At first Elena and Stella Delaney wouldn’t leave him be, perpetually over his shoulder looking for any reason to take him off the lead of the project. Well, he wouldn’t give them that satisfaction. At least not yet. So Daniel played his role, supplicant for his transgression, aggressive in questioning the hauler crews in person. Now, thankfully, the crashing forces of the great families overhead drove the pair off. Juro Saito had supplied so much support for keeping him in a job that Daniel began to wonder if he was about to make a play for the project himself. That was far enough off that he doubted it’d be of much concern for him though.

The crux, really, was the cruiser he stole. It was one thing to play a part for a few weeks, even if he reviled it. It was another to have to contrive a series of ways to keep Delaney from inspecting the ship and discovering the crew he’d hidden aboard. Stella Delaney was a cool and precise woman, she was fair and stoic aside from her riot of raven black hair that she always battled back into a knot behind her head. She had previously been overseeing all transit from the surface to the high orbits, and took great pride in her role, despite operating at a fairly similar level of authority to Daniel. Their conversations were always curt and utilitarian, Daniel being guarded and Stella not being verbose by nature. Elena loved to rip into her with streams of profanity from three different languages, which worked for Elena’s part, but Daniel found a softer touch to be more effective. All things considered though, he couldn’t really bring himself to dislike Stella. In many ways she was just like him, a pawn.

It was Stella Delaney who walked through his office door just as the surface shuttle slipped out of view, with Sonia hot on her heels.

“Mr. Yun,” she began quietly. “Are we still on track to finish the hauler crew interviews this afternoon?”

“Indeed.” He found fewer words more effective with her when he wanted a conversation over with quickly.

“And you’ve found no evidence of Transformist contact with the crews?”
“None,” he lied. “But you’ve seen all the logs for the interviews you didn’t attend. Do you think I missed something?”

“No, but their numbers on the surface keep growing, they’re going to run out of recruits soon. Hauler crews really are the only viable source of new members.”

“Maybe they plan on waking up more sleepers,” he guessed flatly.

A rare smile touched her lips. “I find that...exceedingly unlikely.”

“I’ve found all of this exceedingly unlikely.”

“Very well.” She looked out the window beside him, before idly dropping in. “Oh, it occurs to me I haven’t been able to inspect the cruiser you stole yet.”

His pulse quickened. “Oh, still...”

Sonia stepped in nimbly. “It was impounded by Yun security after we returned.” That part at least was true. “They’ve been through it several times over.” That part wasn’t. “But, you can inspect it as you like, I can put in the request with the security team and have it ready for inspection in a couple days.”

If Daniel had ever doubted Sonia’s genius her work with the cruiser had put that to bed. After they impounded the ship she’d flown into action, intercepting transfer orders with the help of a few of the more ambitious programmers on the team. She kept all of the incursions light enough that the situation simply devolved itself into confusion, keeping the ship uninspected and suspicions low. Her final move had been to transfer it back into orbit around the moon, where they hoped they’d be able to keep an eye on any contacts being made with the ship. Now it looked like their luck was finally going to run out.

“A couple of days?” Delaney raised a quizzical eyebrow. “I think I’ll give the head of Yun Security a call and see if he can sort something earlier out for me.” She turned back to Daniel. “Also, we’ve noticed that you’re holding the haulers locally, I assume they’ll redistribute once you finish the interviews?”

It was all Daniel could muster to meet her piercing eyes. “Of course. This call-in was a good opportunity to redistribute the whole fleet at once, I have the astronomy team finalizing new routes to near-planet asteroids now that the priority is on size rather than content.”

A heavy pause gripped the office. “Very well,” Delaney finally whispered, coldly. “And what about you Mr. Yun, What will you do once the interviews are through?”

“Same as always, whatever the Yun board instructs me to.” He forced a weak smile to try and mask his nerves.

“Of course you will,” She agreed frigidly. “Well, I suppose you have it all in hand then. I’ve been called back to the Faith, so I’ll be departing in a few hours. Best of luck to you Mr. Yun.”

“Thanks,” Daniel mumbled to her back as she turned away and walked swiftly out of the office, door sliding closed behind her.

“Well, it looks like our time’s running out,” Sonia sighed, collapsing into a chair.

“Sure does,” he agreed, looking away trying to regain his nerves.

“How long do you think until she figures out the cruiser is in orbit locally?”

“Not long.” His head snapped up, realizing how little time he had to work with. “But we may have a way out yet. Contact Marta and see if they can intercept the surface shuttle on its way to the Lagrange. If our luck holds maybe they can transfer over to the shuttle and park the ship in the chaos over there.”

Sonia bolted up, pieces clicking mentally into plce. “You’re sure that shuttle is controlled by the Transformists?”

“As sure as I can be, and if it’s not we’re in such deep shit regardless that it won’t matter.”

“Always one for a motivating speech, you are Mr. Yun.” Sonia quipped sarcastically.

“I always try my best.” He smiled back. “Best get going Son, that last crew will be here any minute.”

“Of course sir.” She gave a polite nod with a flippant smile, and walked out.

Daniel walked over behind his desk and tried to steel himself for this final performance. The hauler crew would come in any moment and he’d have to question them just as sharply as all the others, feigning ignorance when they blatantly lied. All to satisfy the droves of executives from every major corporation watching through the cameras behind his shoulders. 

The Transformist threat had proven sufficiently difficult to extinguish that every corporate interest on the surface and in orbit had been drawn in. Still all they knew were how many people had gone missing and a vague idea of where vehicles were seen driving off course. Somehow the Transformists had managed to squash all attempts at GPS location of their stolen equipment and satellite surveillance had proven surprisingly difficult. They had a few different potential locations for the Transformist compound, but every piece of evidence they ever collected seemed to move by the time they looked again. Daniel really couldn’t fathom how they’d been so successful, but knew he had to find out to see if they really stood a chance against the might of Earth’s old magnates.

For his part, each step forward felt compelled out of him. Every time his mind would try to run back to the comfortable fantasy of a life in Novo Monterrey all he could picture were the poor watchers condemned to working the caverns below. He had no idea if he really supported this upstart movement, but lack of options made his choice clear.

His tab chimed softly.

Oh God, not now. He thought. An encrypted file appeared, even without opening it he knew it was from Imka. Weeks had passed with no help or guidance and now, at the last possible moment, they made contact? Now, when there was nothing he could really do or change. But then again, maybe that was the point.

Mr. Yun,

Adya and the hauler crews inform me that you’ve played your part wonderfully for which I can never thank you enough, and unfortunately with present circumstances it’s beginning to look like I may never get to thank you at all. You’ll have seen our commandeered surface shuttle. I’m sending it over to collect the hauler crews already in station. Meanwhile, I’ve instructed Adya and the rest of the science team along with the final hauler crew to depart via transfer pods shortly after Delaney’s team has left this evening. Which is where I must ask the impossible of you, I’m afraid.

You see, we will need you on the moon base to approve the release of the pods. There simply are some systems we cannot control from down here. I’d hoped to find a workaround but now it looks as though the fate of those several dozen souls left up on your little moon with you lie in your hands. Release them. Let them join the surface shuttle tonight and let the future of humanity grow that much brighter.

If you can make it out and join us we will welcome you with open arms here in Hephaestia. I hope that is the case. But please, for the good of the future, stay and play this one last, crucial role.

-Imka

He sat numb. Head buzzing, eyes in and out of focus. Without ceremony the door slid open and the final hauler crew stepped in. Daniel couldn’t even focus enough to greet them, confused they eventually made their way into the chairs opposite his desk. The interview passed in a blur. He mumbled along idly, the script he knew he needed to follow but could scarcely take his eyes off the black screen of his tab that had so recently foretold his doom. The crew was clearly perplexed by his evident detachment, but he couldn’t bring himself to feel anything other than dread.

It all made sense of course. His biometrics were the sole reason he’d been able to leave the base the first time around. Now that he’d ran the gauntlet upon his return and quashed doubts about his loyalty, Daniel’s authorization would allow the transfer pods to release, but he’d need to send them all at once, internally before anyone caught on and could stop him. Even then it was far from a sure thing. The pods would race to meet up with the surface shuttle but intercepting craft from the Faith would be hot on their heels as soon as they saw the launch.

Daniel stumbled, dazed through the interview before hastily ushering the confused crew out of his office door to join the science team as they prepared to leave, packing those few things they had from the sleeping quarters and transferring what valuable data they could to the archives on the surface shuttle. Sonia stepped in a few moments later after seeing the bewildered faces of the hauler crew.

“Everything alright Dan?”

He’d wandered back over to his old spot by the window, the last gleam of light caught the edge of the planet before they slipped behind the night side. “Has Delaney left yet?”

“Um, yeah her team transferred out a couple minutes ago.”

“And the crew aboard the cruiser?”

“They should be intercepting the surface shuttle in a couple of minutes. I just got the latest request to bring the cruiser in for inspection aboard the Faith.” She paused, sensing something was amiss. “Dan, what’s wrong?”

Without turning he handed her his tab with the letter open. Her jaw dropped as she read.

“You can’t be serious,” she finally whispered.

“I’m afraid so.”

“This is ridiculous, you authorized our departure no problem without any clearance.” Her protests gained volume.

“That was just one pod Son, for this to work they all have to go together.”

“There has to be some other way,” she began to plead.

“Not that I can see. I don’t know who Imka’s in contact with but they seem incredibly well informed. This is the safest way to ensure the team makes it down to the surface.” His steady voice betold little of the turmoil that rocked inside him.

“And what about you?” Sonia’s fury rose and rose. “The captain goes down with his ship? Some noble sacrifice for you is that it?!”

“You know I’m not the type Sonia.” He turned and met her welling eyes. “But those pods will need to depart within the hour to give them a fair shot of making it to the shuttle. I don’t see another way.”

“They’ll have your head for this Dan,” she drew shaking breaths. “The best you can hope for is that they stick you back on ice until the end of time.”

He smiled sadly. “It’s like you say Sonia, the worst for me is the best for plenty of others.”

She raised a shaking fist, wanting to hit him for throwing her quips back at her right now, but couldn’t manage it. Her hand fell lightly onto his chest and she looked down as her eyes overflowed. “God damn it, Daniel.”

“Go get the team ready. We need them loaded up.” He smiled as she looked back up, drew a deep breath to steel herself and turned on a heel. Do not stand in the way of Sonia Matterson when she’s on a mission, he thought, taking what little solace he could find.

Once more, the arrow of time cut mercilessly forward. The planet turned into night leaving Daniel alone with his thoughts pacing before the blackness of his window. Only the absence of stars in this deep void told that there was anything but empty space below.

His would be a stunning betrayal after the facade he’d kept up for the past several weeks. The game between society and their ambitions to build a second Earth, and the Transformists with their ambitions to build something more would fly into a fury. Not only would the extent of their reach be known, but their human capital would nearly double in one fell swoop. And he’d be responsible.

After the pods left and the shuttle plummeted down, he’d be left alone on his little moon. The little moon he’d never wanted to build in the first place. The little moon that in one way had marked so much hope for the future of humanity in making a more livable home here, and in another represented so much suffering and cruelty. He’d be standing here when the ships arrived, when the account came due. Maybe his uncle would even show up to see him off to cryo and bid him a not-so-fond farewell. Maybe, but he doubted it.

Daniel stepped out of his office to overlook row upon row of emptied, disheveled desks. The pit, usually so full of life and energy as the teams worked away at their impossible task, sat silent. On the far side was Adya pushing the last few maintenance workers from the service bay along towards the transfer deck. She looked back and met his eyes firmly before giving a solemn nod. There was nothing to say. They both knew a price had to be paid, and he was the only one who could pay it.

He followed them along to the bustling deck with all the waiting pods, always more than enough to evacuate the whole base in case of an emergency. Sonia was there organizing, leading right beside Adya, directing scurrying bodies back and forth, playing the roles they were meant for. Daniel stood back and smiled, leaning against the door frame to appreciate the hope they represented for humanity.

Sonia eventually caught him out of the corner of her eye and stepped away. “So, have you come up with a workaround yet?”

“I don’t think it’s going to happen Son. Whoever they’re working with down there is better informed than I’ve ever been. If they say I have to release the pods, then I have to release the pods.” He tried to keep his voice steady.

Her eyes were welling, once again. “It’s just so....so...unfair,” she whimpered.

Daniel put a reassuring hand on her shoulder, “The world’s unfair Sonia, but you can go build a fairer one.”

She hugged him close. “Do me one favor Dan....” She looked up meeting his eyes. “Find another miracle out here. Find a way to join us.”

Daniel just smiled sadly, and let her go on. On into a future that was fraught and unknown, but also bright.

Then one by one, he walked down the row of the neatly packed pods with all the hopeful faces looking out. Daniel gave a curt nod to each as he sealed the doors and pressed his palm to the pad to authorize the launch. In the last, Adya and Sonia looked out, resolute and ready.

He keyed in the final launch and it was done. Daniel Yun stood alone in the bare silence of the little moon base that had been his home for all of these years. He walked through the empty desks. He walked past his wide window where the planet passed in invisible blackness below. He walked through the living quarters, and the galley, and the rec dome. All empty, all silent.

After five minutes, the first chime came in on his tab. The transfer pod departures had been noticed by those aboard the Faith. He ignored it, the ships would be here soon enough, there was nothing he could do about it. After the fifth chime Daniel just dropped his tab and wandered off to find solace in his thoughts. It was the right thing he’d done, wasn’t it? It was the only thing he could stomach, but did that make it right?

Then, as he was looking across the empty galley, the place where real human bonds had been formed on this little, soulless station, a new thought interrupted his recursive path like a bolt of lightning. Not like this. He didn’t need to stand and wait idly by for the powers that be to come and haul him off. He didn’t need to play by their rules when all of this suffering was just because they refused to relent even an iota of control to a new way of life. He didn’t need to preserve anything that they stood for. Daniel Yun had one card left to play.

He took off running toward the maintenance hangar. It was buried deep into the rock of the moon with one door that accessed the surface via a long, sloping ramp. A couple of the haulers had been taken in for repairs. They’d make a poor escape vehicle with only the barest provisions for surface reentry when all other options had failed. But they were what he had. At least it beat waiting for the ships to arrive, to watch as they emptied out all the power of old Earth to come and condemn one of their own who had dared challenge the balance of power.

In a blind fury, Daniel tore into the hangar and found the most suitable hauler waiting at the end of a long set of tracks that lead to the pressure doors. The coming ships would only be moments away, he had no time to lose. He threw himself through an airlock and made his way to the command module. Without a care for the consequences, only an animal need to escape; he input his biometrics and set the thrusters to full throttle.

In the days to come Daniel was never sure if it was some odd maintenance mode, or faulty programming, or divine provenance, but he asked and the thrusters obeyed. The ignition took him off his feet and sent the hauler careening towards the hangar doors that were dutifully holding back nearly a full atmosphere of pressure. The explosive decompression when he pierced the doors accelerated the ship almost as much as the thrusters and Daniel was hurled unceremoniously into the blackness of space.

It took every fiber of his being for Daniel to claw his way back, fighting the overwhelming gs, to the command module and kill the thrusters. By the time he managed it every available screen was sending reports that sent him running for the rearward observation windows. The explosive decompression of the hangar had triggered a chain reaction. He watched as the base collapsed in on itself, and then as the collapsing structure finally hit the reserve tanks nestled deep below the base. Oxygen and hydrogen collapsing together in a glorious conflagration that set the sky alight. As he looked, he could see the little glinting hulls of the ships coming from the Faith, all adjusting course at full throttle to avoid the inferno.

Then, something wholly unexpected began to happen. As Daniel watched the ships swerving for their lives, the explosion grew, finding pockets of trapped gasses deep within the moon. Fissures developed on the surface and huge chunks began to hurl out in all directions. The titanic rocks rolled silently through space as Daniel gaped in awe. Mountains smashed into monoliths smashed into boulders smashed into gravel smashed into dust.

The disintegration would take years of course, but Daniel could see it all play out in his mind’s eye. These gargantuan chunks of rock and ice would hurtle around the planet colliding again and again, each time becoming smaller and smaller. Some would find their way to the surface. Chaotically inputting some of the chlorine they’d so jealously guarded up here, high in orbit. Maybe it’d join with some of the local sodium and kick off the runaway salination they’d hoped to control. Maybe a little chaos was what they needed in the new world.

Daniel Yun didn’t know, right now he didn’t really care. He watched in wonderment as the moon left a trail of dust across the blackness. Then, it caught the first rays of the coming day and his heart skipped a beat. The trail of dust burst into light a million specks of light joining the spray of stars beyond. He’d destroyed something of the old world, and made something new besides. Then, Daniel Yun gathered his courage and pointed his little, ill-equipped hauler towards a new home and whatever he would find there.

--

The past finally caught up with her the morning of the thirtieth day.

There wasn’t much mystery as to what was on the horizon that early morning. The moment Amelia saw the flaring lights travelling slowly down the beach she knew the bill had finally come due. That the true challenge to the future of Hephaestia and the way of life she was beginning to love would be faced, and soon.

After her first mystical, cool morning in the heart of the canyon meeting Imka weeks ago, Amelia had fallen seamlessly into the bustling life of Hephaestia. With the sun rising she’d found her way up to the canteen as the town began to awaken. She was greeted with the wafting smell of fresh baked bread and steeping tea. Smells she’d forgotten so long ago they ripped her straight back to the streets of Hong Kong. The early-rising, cooking crew was dancing an elegant ballet around each other in the kitchen prepping a formidable breakfast for the waking townsfolk. And they were singing. Songs of all colors and languages came soaring out of the kitchen, under the cantilevered awning where rows of long tables sat.

She was one of the first to arrive and the singers welcomed her in with open arms, as though she’d always known them. They greeted her with a glorious feast as day broke and the tables filled with faces from every corner of old Earth. Steaming bread with pads of cultured butter, strong black tea grown up on the terrace above, fruits from their network of greenhouses she could see catching the first of the morning light on the far wall.

Everyone welcomed her in, asked her story, and shared theirs. Every face told a different tale of struggle and survival, in every one she saw a bit of herself, and in every one she saw a friend. After breakfast, the day’s kitchen crew was quick to put her to work cleaning and prepping a fresh harvest of vegetables. She listened in happily as they joked and sang. Just past midday Imka came along to see how she was doing.

In all honesty, Amelia couldn’t remember feeling so fulfilled, even if all she was doing was slicing carrots. Once she’d finished, Imka showed her to a spartan apartment high on the cliff wall, looking down the stream towards the mouth of the canyon. All of Hephaestia lay scattered haphazardly before her, cupped lovingly in the overhanging red walls of the canyon. She hadn’t noticed as Imka softly closed the door, but she sat on the bed for a moment’s rest and before she knew it was fast asleep.

She’d slept like never before, and when Amelia awoke the next morning she stepped out a new woman. Immediately, she was familiarized with the daily workings of the colony. Eeking out survival on a hostile world took a lot of work. She learned how they grew their food, how everything produced was eventually used in its entirety. There was no waste, they didn’t have enough to waste. It all fed back into one ecosystem which they fought fiercely to keep balanced. She learned how they divvied up the tasks each day, keeping everyone productive while allowing them to continue the pursuits that would let them build a better life and enjoy the one they already had.

Within a few days, Imka had introduced her to the team focusing on the terrace-level plants. It was all grasses, grains, shrubs, and low-lying hardy legumes. They sat rapt as she told them of her experiences on her research farm. Together they combed through the little samples she’d brought, but they all agreed they needed much more to begin crossbreeding with their most successful plants. Amelia had never meant to be a farmer, but here in this little community that felt so much like home, the work enraptured her.

She learned about the sacrifices the people had made with their own bodies to try and build a better human for their new home. Some had mirrored eyes like Imka, some were dark red of skin like Aleph and would pay no mind to the morning sun, some were bald from head to toe, and one woman was covered completely in a close-fitting coat of chestnut fur. Her modifications were so successful she could withstand even the most direct light; even still they seemed a bit extreme for most even as she clearly reveled in her freedom, forgoing all clothes and basking in the midday light. Many more had modifications she couldn’t see but amazed her all the same when she found out the ingenuity that went into their project. Allowing them to breathe hostile air, retain every scrap of salt they consumed, or drive their need for fresh water to near zero. Under their careful watch the human race was slowly, inexorably changing.

They were mostly watchers, still wearing the canvas pants and tattered shirts that had seen them through their long years aboard the Faith; Amelia even had a chance to thank the soul who’d crafted her beloved boots for her all those unknowable eons ago. He happily resoled them for her, for many more years of use. When they all got together they looked a ragtag bunch, clothes all faded from years of use or brilliantly redyed with whatever they could make locally. Knees were patched, seams resewn, any scrap of material repurposed until it finally returned to dust. But every tear and stain told a story, and the wearers were happy to tell.

Every morning would begin in the kitchen. Even though Amelia wasn’t a dedicated chef she enjoyed the close camaraderie too much and the early morning walks through the village as the others slept to miss out. The bakers would sing as they worked, welcoming in each new day, before long Amelia was singing along with them. People would trickle through until an hour or so after sunrise and head off to their morning duties. That was when the bulk of research got done, most of the village was still hidden in shade, so Amelia and her team could work out on the terraces freely. Then, as the sun crossed the zenith they’d all scurry back into the bunkers and warrens that had been built into the cliffsides. This was when the researchers got extra hands in the labs. Afternoons were spent tending to the well-being of the colony. Each day Amelia would rotate through a different task. Maintaining the solar arrays, dredging and damming the creek, excavating new plumbing lines, cleaning the incessant dust that found its way into every nook and cranny. Odious work, but somehow made better with new friends working beside her each day. Then, as the sun began to set in earnest and the red walls of their home descended into violet and purple the community came together.

After a raucous evening meal they’d walk their way down to the square in the center of town, which sat with its bubbling fountain and soft glow of lamps waiting in the starlight below. They would sit on the benches and the clean-swept stone and tell stories, share dreams, build the future they wanted if only in their minds. It was always clear to Amelia that Imka was the leader, even if she never wanted it. She never demanded the floor, never spoke over another, never presumed her vision was the way forward, but when Imka spoke they all sat enraptured. That was how Amelia learned of their plans to move beyond the safe confines of Hephaestia, across the ocean to the lands waiting beyond. Imka shared how she had contrived to bring the remaining watchers down from their prisons aboard asteroid haulers with the help of the Faith’s AI, how she hoped to do the same with the millions of souls still trapped, frozen aboard the Faith. That was how Amelia came to understand her role.

Hephaestia could double in size, absorb all the coming watchers, and still thrive hidden in its little valley. But that was no future. Amelia had been repulsed when she learned so many people were still on ice up in orbit, she knew she had to help lead the way forward. And it all started with her work. If her grasses could not just survive, but thrive on the surface without all the human intervention the other plants here received, maybe they could be the first building block. If grasses were seeded over the island across the sea, maybe an ecosystem could take root that wasn’t dependent on some dome or catastrophic terraforming technologies. Sure, they’d need to bring some salt down from the little moon orbiting above, but that was what it was built for.

That’s how Amelia found herself one night after most of the village had gone to bed asking Aleph for his help. He knew what she wanted even before she opened her mouth. He simply smiled and said, “I’ll have the caravan ready at first light.”

They’d crawled their slow way back through the twisting desert. Back to her old home. And they’d ransacked it, took everything that wasn’t nailed down and quite a bit that was. Of course her past harvest received special treatment, as did trimmings from the grasses she’d sewn and left that were growing vigorously in the alien sun all the same. Aleph was happy to get his hands on the building materials and tech in the house as well though. No small amount of ingenuity went into the repurposing of these old materials, and without any mining operations to produce more metals every ounce of it was precious.

If Amelia hadn’t known that the Faith’s AI was actively helping them, she would’ve been incredulous that they hadn’t been spotted. It took almost a full week to clear out the place and load it up. But, they completed their slow heist without incident and made off into the desert haze. Alpeh’s caravan was once again tottering full, a rolling circus of reclaimed materials, even Amelia’s little truck was piled and pulling a trailer of its own.

Their luck did run out though. On the morning of the thirtieth day. They’d risked driving through the night to get their supplies home before the newcomers were due, but as they started the final descent towards the coast in the predawn hours they both saw the fate that awaited below.

“Are you seeing what I’m seeing?” Aleph radioed back.

“Yeah...” Amelia sighed. “It’d be kind of hard to miss.”

Miles off to the south a pair of headlights criss-crossed the wide beach. It could only be one thing. Scouts. Clearly the people of Novo Monterrey were done being foiled by inconclusive satellite data. They were out for answers. 

“Why would they be sweeping with headlights like that?” Amelia asked.

“I guess they don’t have much of a choice, our trucks have the route mapped in, they’re just out here scouring for tracks.” His voice crackled back. “We should count ourselves lucky they haven’t come across any of our more developed routes yet.”

“And that we’re able to run dark like this,” she added.

They’d been driving in almost utter blackness all night with nothing but the glow of the console and the full face of the little moon hanging over the ocean providing any illumination. Indeed, it was this hypersensitivity that let Amelia know that morning was coming with the faintest shift in the light, if she’d been behind a pair of headlights there would have been no way to know.

“Aye, that too,” Aleph agreed. “At least we have a hope of catching them with the element of surprise.”
“You mean you don’t want to run back and warn the others?”

“All we’d do is show those bastards the way. No, I’ll radio back to warn the colony and we’ll see if we can get down this ridge unnoticed.”

“Then what? We ambush them or something?”

“If we make it that far we’ll see.” Aleph’s curt tone set her on edge as they steadily ground their way down towards the waves below.

From high on the mesa above, their route switch-backed down through the boulder fields of a collapsed cliff face that covered the wide beach below and nearly made it all the way into the ocean. Only a thin strip of navigable beach curved around the outside of the jumbled shoulder. The scouts would have to make their way around this thin strip if they wanted to continue along the coast. Eventually, they’d see the deep dug tracks of their well-worn route and the deeper still tracks leading north towards the mouth of the canyon and Hephaestia.

If they didn’t have something to say about it, that was.

Amelia finally caught up with Aleph deep in the jumble of boulders their path threaded just before it turned abruptly out onto the beach. The rocks towered overhead and they lay almost wholly in dark shadow even as the sky continued to slowly lighten. Every once in a while Amelia could see the bright headlights of the scout waving by as it illuminated the corner of a boulder ahead and the beach beyond. Aleph was already busy working away in the dark crevasse.

“What’s the plan?” She asked, hopping out of her little truck.

“Going to unhitch a trailer and try to roll it down in front of them just as they go by. Hopefully we can stop them getting any further.”

It wasn’t much of a plan, but Amelia couldn’t really see a better option. They could run ahead and show the scouts the way, or they could hide in the shadows and hope they pass by. Either way the colony would be discovered. They had to try something.

“Alright,” she hesitantly agreed. “What do you need me to do?”

“Take a look around that boulder down there and let me know when they’re about to pass.” Aleph grunted, wheeling the trailer into position.

Without a word, Amelia crept down through the loose sand behind the boulder to her left. She peered her head around the corner just as the headlights were swinging back to illuminate her hiding place. With a sickening lurch she ducked back into the shadows and held her breath as the lights slowly wavered back up the beach. The beams danced across the waters washing out the light cast back by the full face of the moon hanging above.

She steeled her nerves and poked her head back around for another look. The scout was actually making pretty good speed, only the immense length of the beach made it seem like they were dawdling. There must have been two people in the vehicle, one to drive at the clip they were going, and another to scan around with the mobile light.

Amelia hissed back up to Aleph, “They’re coming pretty fast, we’re lucky to have beaten them here.”

“Yeah, I can hear their motors working pretty hard. How fast do you think?”

She risked one more peek, by now the cool blue of early dawn light gave her more clarity. “It’s tough to say, maybe 40-50k. Are you ready?”

“Just about,” he whispered back huskily. “Count me down.”

Amelia lay face in the sand to hide the top of her head as she looked around. The scout ducked behind a near boulder as it made its way up the beach and the world fell silent for a breathless moment. Then the lights and sound came roaring back as they burned through the final turn towards her.

“Three...two...one...now!” she cried.

Aleph grunted and heaved the loose trailer down the last bit of embankment and out toward the beach; the scout clipped along oblivious. The driver must have been focusing on the beach ahead because their steady pace nearly let them slip by the careening trailer unscathed. At the last moment the laden trailer slammed into the back of the scout sending its front wheels high into the air before it rolled in a smash of glass and metal in the surging surf below.

Airbags deployed in the crippled vehicle and the lights and motor cut out in an instant. The loose trailer swerved with it before flopping unceremoniously into the water below, leaving a trail of their meticulously packed building materials strewn across the sand. Nothing moved in the great twisted heap and the steady waves slowly tried to suck it all out to sea.

Aleph lept into action. Amelia looked up, shocked, from her spot in the sand as he sprinted across the beach. The first rays of the day crept their way down the collapsed shoulder of the mountain as he leapt up onto the ruined scout and began tearing back glass and metal with his bare hands. Sunlight beat against his deep red skin as his dark hair waved wildly with each thrashing movement.

And he howled. He howled like a beast, like a man on fire, like a post-human fighting for his life. Amelia couldn’t tell what he intended, if he wanted to save them or kill them himself. She pushed herself out of the sand and pulled down her wide, protective hat and shakily walked over to the wreck.

“Take him!” Aleph grunted, dumping one of the stunned scouts out through the shattered window.

She caught the figure, and with all her might dragged him over to the upturned trailer where she dropped him in the sand. Aleph was not far behind with the second. They sat still, too stunned to move, propped up in the morning light. Even though they had been driving in a sealed vehicle they both wore silvery survival suits that very nearly would’ve allowed them to go out on a space walk. Amelia had seen such suits in safety briefings, there even had been one packed away in some corner of her old house, but she’d never bothered to wear one. It was no way to live, scared, behind some faceplate of the planet you hoped to call home.

But they were conscious, and they were alive, and they looked up in horror at Aleph’s red chest, bare in the morning light as he stood above them, panting, furious.

“You....what have you done to yourself?!” One of them finally managed.

There was no joy in Aleph’s eyes this time when a stranger saw the man that he had become, only a rage rooted in fear for his home.

“Become something you couldn’t, coward!” He bellowed. “Now what am I supposed to do with you?! You very nearly...”

“Aleph!” Amelia cut in sharply before he could give anymore away. It was bad enough they’d been discovered en route home and that the scouts were on the right path, they didn’t need any extra help connecting the dots. 

“Forgive my friend,” she tried more placatingly. “Let’s try again. I’m Amelia, what are you two doing out here?”

The venomous look they both shot back dashed any hopes she’d had of civility. “Finding your rat hole so we can clean it out for well and good,” the first one sneered.

“Amelia is it?” The second jibed. “Amelia formerly of Ag Research Station 27? Now Amelia traitor to the new world? Yes, we know you.”

She sat dumbfounded by the naked hostility.

Aleph had plenty to say though. “Traitor!” He roared. “Traitor to the new world! From the likes of you who cower under your dome, too scared to even take a single breath of air on this miracle.” He was meters away but his ferocity had the scouts gripping at the sand in fear. “You who’d have us spend the rest of our days digging in your pits.” He picked up a large rock in one powerful hand as he turned towards them. “Stranded in your little ships!” Aleph began to take powerful strides towards them. “Doing all your dirty work so that you can make old Earth new again!” He raised the stone high above him, ready to dash their heads in.

Time slowed then. Amelia stood by as he closed the distance, face a mask of blind fury. She remembered all her long years alone aboard the Faith. She remembered her improbably more isolating time on her research farm, knowing civilization was just over the mountains but still out of reach. She remembered Novo Monterrey and her disgust with it. And she remembered most of all the little home she’d found in Hephaestia with all those other lost souls.

As she looked on, she understood Aleph’s rage. She saw every transgression that had been laid against him personified in these two indignant scouts. A world built with so little justice that droves would trade away just to escape, only to find the same systems taking root once more on the new home they’d been promised. She saw how this vision for a better future that she shared with all the other Transformists needed to be protected.

But not like this.

Not death for life. That was the way of old Earth, the way they needed to move beyond even if all of their instincts screamed otherwise. They would fight to have their way of life, and the people of Novo Monterrey could have theirs. So long as there was a choice.

“Aleph no!” She screamed as he took his final, powerful stride towards them. He didn’t take any notice of her protest so Amelia dove at him as he raised the stone as high as he could. Her shoulder caught him in the ribs just as his balance was off and they fell into the pulsing waves of a saltless ocean.

The waves drew them in, sputtering, as the light of the new world shone upon them. The scouts wasted no time with the diversion and took off sprinting back up the way they came up the beach.

Aleph stumbled back out of the surf first “Keep running if you value your lives!” he roared after them.

Amelia stepped up beside him and slipped an arm under his shoulder, half to hold him up, half to hold him back. They looked on as the silver figures scurried away in the soft morning light, growing smaller and smaller as though eventually they’d disappear and all the problems they represented would disappear along with them. Aleph made no attempt to take off after them, but she held him tight just to be sure. Eventually, as they were fading out of visibility he looked down and asked.

“Why did you stop me?” The rage had faded from his voice and face, only resignation remained.

“We’re building a new world Aleph, it has to be worth it, it can’t be a life for a life anymore.” She looked out squinting to make out the scurrying scouts. “Old Earth lives deep within us, it drives our every move, but we’re here to move beyond.”

He sighed deeply, sun illuminating his strong, deep, red face. “I suppose I should count myself lucky that you’re with us then. Killing them would’ve only made things worse. Society will find us one way or another, we’ll contend with them or we won’t on our own merits.”

They looked out in silence a while longer as the scouts disappeared for well and good, but just then something very curious began to happen. The little moon hanging in the sky began to unmake itself. One moment they could see it sitting full face in the morning sky, and the next one corner began to crumble into a cloud of dust.

Amelia gasped, “Oh no, the new recruits!”

Aleph just put a reassuring arm around her, “Somehow, I get the feeling they’ll make it down just fine.”

Bit by bit the little face dissolved and smeared a long trail of dust across the sky, shining back in a brilliant spray of white in the deep blue. As they made their way back to Hephaestia they’d watch as the smear of white stretched and stretched across the wide open sky. In the days to come the citizens of Hephaestia would sit up and watch at night as the remnants of the old moon encircled the planet and crumbled themselves into a set of glittering rings. A new night sky for the new world.

Some of the salt harvested in the little moon would undoubtedly precipitate down to the surface. Maybe it would cause the runaway salination that the people in Novo had feared, maybe it would be just enough to let them cling to their new way of life. 

Whatever came to pass they would face it together. Amelia took courage in that as she turned her little truck up the beach that morning and began to make her way home.