Deep Space Journey - 3. DSJ Chapter 3

The council gave the crew of “The Perseverance” a welcome home celebration party, and old friends were reacquainted During these celebrations, Quinn told of their journey, struggling with space storms, pirates, corrupt governments trying to confiscate the ship and remodelling the living quarters to make them family-friendly, so there was no room for 1 VIP guest and plus 20 guests and 50 more crew.

A few days later, Quinn was summoned to the Executive Council, where he was informed that they had selected an Ambassador to travel back to Earth with them, and who will represent the Sahndrol people on all Diplomatic matters. Quinn said he was delighted to accommodate the council's wishes, and asked who the Ambassador was.

At that moment, Dennison Chaney (Chaenej in Drol) entered the Council chambers, bowed to the council before facing Quinn and smiling. Quinn bowed to Dennison and said that he is honoured to have such a gifted and honourable person travel with them.

Quinn informed the council that they would be departing as soon as the ship is restocked, refuelled, and new crew members had been selected to fill the vacant positions. Ambassador Chaenej informed Quinn that his wife - Madame Chaenej would be travelling with them also.

The council informed Quinn that he would be leading a fleet of seven ships back to his home solar system, as many had expressed an interest in joining the crew of the Perseverance. Since he was the fleet commander, Qjiinn, as his name is pronounced in the Drol language, was also awarded the promotion to Commodore.

The other 6 ships were slightly smaller than the lead ship, with only three decks on each ship. They were selected because of the way they were designed, so they could accommodate more, with no research facilities. The ship can become a colony pod when they want to settle at a location, as it has generators, hydroponic food production facilities, and basic construction and maintenance workshops. Each ship carried a total of 22 crew and 70 passengers, and they carry one 5-person transport shuttle and four 5-person land buggies.

A month later with a fleet of seven ships, with 76 on Perseverance, leading a total of 628 people to the home solar system of their leader, they set off for the journey to Earth, with just 8 of the original 11 members returning home. The 3 members who were staying on Sahndrol, had made recorded messages to their families back home on Earth.

Qjiinn had decided that he wanted to visit all of the outer planets of his home system, and each of their moons, to examine and collect data on each one including mapping the planets that have surfaces that can be mapped, to see if any have breathable atmospheres similar to Earth that can sustain life.

Previous research had shown that some moons of Jupiter and Saturn could possibly be able to have colonies, and these would be the moons they would concentrate on establishing two colonies on. Each ship also was carrying one piece of machinery that would assist with constructing additional buildings.

Not passing through any time rips for the return journey would have made the return journey a lot longer, but with different ships with improved technologies, it would take about the same time as it took them on the original journey to deep space. The less than one-year-long journey to Earth would be extended by nine months, for time to spend exploring the outer planets and moons, where Qjiin hoped he would make his new home, as he no longer felt that Earth was suitable to bring up a family.

By that time, he would be 28 years old, his wife will be 31, and their sons Maenyl and Suamyl will be 6 and 3½ years old. The journey went very well as expected and took just over ten months to complete before they reached the outer edge of their home solar system.

It was at this point that Quinn decided to call home base. “Deep Space Vessel Perseverance calling DSRES Project Base, are you receiving us, over”? There was an eight-minute twenty-second delay before they received a reply, “DSV Perseverance this is DSRES Project receiving you loud and clear, is that you speaking Quinn, over”, Qjiin recognised his father’s voice, and some tears began to show as he cleared his throat to reply.

“That is correct Director, I’m receiving you clearly too. There is nearly an eight-and-a-half-minute delay from the time I stop speaking and hear a reply from you, over”. For the next two hours, father and son spoke, with Qjiin telling his father all about their adventures.

Ambassador Chaenej also participated by informing them of the official title that he now holds, and his life partner travelled with him. He also informed him of Qjiin’s title as Fleet Commander, with the title of Commodore, and that they have a fleet of seven ships, with a total of 628 people with plans to colonise one or more planets in the outer solar system, as an alternative to Earth.

Ambassador Chaenej informed Director Lenegan, that they would be doing this before making a visit to Earth, so as not to create too many issues with the United Nations of Earth. During the next few months, Dennison made regular weekly reports to the DSRES base about their exploration of the outer planets and the moons, which were mapped, had various samples collected and analysed, and documented.

Only two of Saturn’s moon – Rhea and Titan, were found to be inhabitable, even though the temperatures were very low, this could easily be overcome by the constructional buildings, to provide more space. When they came to Jupiter, there were two moons that would best suitable for colonising. They too have very cold temperatures, but they both have oxygen and water which were the main items needed to assist with colonising both Europa and Callisto.

They were both thoroughly explored and mapped, while a third possible planet - Ganymede was a possible location later. Five representatives from each of the 7 ships met on the mother ship Perseverance to discuss their options with Qjiin and Chaenejas well as to present all the information they had gathered from the exploring, and to make final decisions of which ships would set up colonies on which moon.

The representatives went back to their ships and discussed the options with the people on their ship, and two days later the committees came back to the Perseverance to announce their decisions, which was broadcasted back to each ship so everyone could see what was being discussed.

Ambassador Chaenej suggested that a governing high council be selected to run what he suggested be called the High Council of the United Republic of Jupiter. The committee members all agreed to this. Dennison then suggested that each ship nominate 5 council members from each ship, and three Executive Council members will be selected from the Perseverance, making a total High Council of 38 Members.

Later calls from the Captains of each ship had reported that the current 5 committee members would be the Council members. With that decided, Ambassador Chaenej proclaimed those members duly elected as Council members for a period of 8 years, or till they retire due to illness or death.

He then asked for himself, Qjiin and Lucas to be accepted as Executive council members. The council members all agreed to this and recommended that Ambassador Chaenej be elected as Chancellor of the High Council for a period of six years, and this was all agreed too.

Once that was all agreed on, the announcements were made from each Ship which will now be a known as a Colony, to where they would like to be located, three selected Callisto and three selected Europa, but what surprised everyone was that that the last colony selected Ganymede, be use of its rich deposits of Ore, which is suitable for producing building materials.