Deep Space Journey - 4. DSJ Chapter 4

After some discussions, it was agreed to let the colony on Ganymede go ahead, and so the ships made their way to their new homes, each of them having carefully selected a suitable location. On Callisto, the Alpha, Beta and Gamma colonies are located approximately 15 kilometres apart in a triangle formation.

On Europa, the Alpha, Betta and Gamma colonies were also in a triangle formation but are only 9 kilometres apart while Ganymede Alpha was located on a plateau on the edge of a small mountain. The Perseverance decided to land on Ganymede near the Alpha colony so as to help coordinate the establishment of the 7 colonies from that point.

The transport shuttles were the ideal size to transport the council members to the Perseverance for their weekly council sessions. It was agreed to get the building work started at Ganymede first as it would be supplying the building materials. Each of the colonies would have a number of same additions added, namely a power plant to provide all the power supplies, also a hydroponics centre, to create all the food they will require, and a sports and recreation area for their community.

On Ganymede, this was going to be done by building a huge dome over and around the colony that will be 8 levels or 36 meters higher than the roof of the ship, and approximately 420 metres in diameter, making the dome just 60 metres from the front and rear of the ship, but a good 170 metres from each side.

These areas would be landscaped with lawn and gardens and turf sports fields, to provide a relaxing atmosphere to the colony. To overcome the harsh environment on the outside surface of the moon, the additional areas for power, hydroponics and other facilities would be constructed under the surface within the boundaries of the dome, except for a transport terminal which would be underground but away from the dome and will have a connecting tunnel to the colony.

The transport terminal will be mostly a large entry foyer leading from the connecting bridge with the transport ships. At the end of the bridge are an escalator and stairs down to the foyer, which has the customs & quarantine centre. This will be the main receiving point for any ships coming from or going to Earth. Beyond that is another foyer that has an administration centre for arranging transport, as well as the entry gate to the departure lounges for transport to the colonies.

The executive council decided that because the colony was creating a large community centre it would be the best location for the Capital of the Republic. Once the dome and the terminal are completed, four large columns 4 stories high, with views all over the colony gardens and a great high view of the world outside will be constructed on top of the main building, and that will have a one-level High Council Centre, containing the High council chamber, and the Chancellors administration offices.

Meanwhile, on Callisto and Europa, the colonies were also planning on building underground with linking tunnels, but they were not going to build a big dome-like Ganymede. But it was during the designing and planning of the undercover areas at Europa that discussions changed to incorporating the three communities to become one big community.

Having the three colonies combined as one would reduce the work for everyone, and the more they discussed it the more everyone liked the idea until it was decided that was the best thing to do So now two of the ships relocated to the site of the ship with the best location, with them being placed in a rectangle shape sixty metres apart, and they planned to build a raised roof between the three buildings to provide a sheltered open space like the capital for recreation and sporting activities.

When Callisto heard of the plans for Europa, two of the three communities wanted to do the same as Europa, but one of them didn’t. It was some time before they reached an acceptable compromise. The two communities would do a similar plan as Europa, while the third community had decided to travel to Ganymede and be part of the capital city, not directly linked to the city but only two kilometres away, so they were close enough to use the cities facilities.

After some planning and designing, they came up with a location on top of a mountain plateau, which is about 32 metres above ground level, just short of the total height of the city dome. The plateau covers an area about 8 times the area of the former ship, and two rectangular covered areas were built, one on each side of the community. One side was for sporting facilities and the other side for social and recreation space.

All of this work establishing the city and the other three communities took nearly a year to complete, and the executive council decided to hold off visiting Earth until all the construction work had been completed. By this time the executive council along with the Board of Directors of DSRES prepared a plan of action for when the Perseverance makes its first appearance on Earth.

It had been decided that they needed to set up some protocols with the New Zealand government for the arrival of the first-ever space ship from deep space. It was by chance that one of the directors of DSRES is old school friends with the New Zealand Governments Federal Minister of Defence and Federal Minister for Foreign Affairs, and he managed to arrange to have them over to his place for a weekend away.

Unknown to them, they were whisked away by private helicopter to the remote Island, late on a Friday afternoon. It was near the end of the flight when the director announced to his two old friends that he was a Director of an organisation known as DSRES. Both men recognised the abbreviated name, and that he was taking them to the DSRES base on an Island for a tour and information briefing.

On arrival at the base, they were greeted by a guard of honour, and the director introduced them to the other 4 directors before leading them into the base, where they were given a detailed tour of the facilities before they went to the dining hall for an evening meal. The visitors were shown to their guest quarters and informed they would be given a full briefing in the morning after breakfast.

After a good rest and a hearty breakfast, the guests were shown to a large conference room, which included a number of occupied computer desks and a large video screen. Once everyone was seated, that being the executive council of DSRES plus the two computer technicians and the two guests, Operations Director Lenegan stood up and introduced himself, and began by explaining that DSRES was a private corporation, established to fund, design and build a long-distance deep space vessel to travel into space to explore new worlds, and if possible meet people of new worlds.

Director Lenegan said to the guests that the corporation had exceeded this main goal, and achieved a lot more, thanks to the work of the crew members who were brave and skilled enough to take this challenge. As broadcasted over five years ago, about a year after the launch of the vessel, they had managed to visit many of the outer planets in their solar system and send back data from those exploration trips to the planets.

But as to be expected, there would be a long term of silence when the vessel went deeper into space. Over a year ago we had received our first call back from the crew of a new vessel, some of the original crew among them, but also crew members from the world that gave them sanctuary.

After a long journey, they rebuilt a large cargo vessel that they had come across and had salvaged, which is a more advanced vessel, and they were able to go even further out into space to explore more, before returning to this world known as Sahndrol, where they prepared to return trip to our solar system.

With a bigger ship and more crew plus a fleet of seven smaller ships, they have returned to our solar system, stopping to examine each planet and its moons in more detail, mapping them all, and collecting more detailed data. With the additional 6 vessels which each one is a separate community, they have searched out a new place to call home. Over the past eleven months, they have chosen a location and established 4 separate communities, each is of different size, with one been designed and built as the capital.

There is now a community of 628 people located on three moons of Jupiter, who are now citizens of the United Republic of Jupiter(URJ), and that the DSRES now comes under their jurisdiction, as the Earth Embassy. Director Lenegan stated that soon all but one of the 5 directors of the former DSRES will move to different locations around the world to establish Embassies of the URJ.

Those locations have not been finalised yet but would probably be Oceania, which will not be here on this Island, America’s - which will be located in Canada, Europe - which will be in Geneva, Africa - which will be in South Africa and Asia - which will be in Japan.

He continued on by saying that, because this Island was used as the base for the Corporation, it was decided to approach New Zealand first, to ask if they would be able to host the first ship from outer space. The Deep Space Vessel known as Perseverance, is at the capital of URJ, waiting for the planning of arrival to be sorted out. Then it will come, but only if welcomed.