Journey To Proxima Centauri b - 1. Journey To Proxima Centauri b

Act 1 - Arrival at Proxima Centauri b

"It's behind me, isn't it."

"Yeah. Don't move."

"No shit!"

Lieutenant Trevor Gold had just turned around after we heard a crunching noise behind us. He was ten meters (~33 feet) in front of me. I’m Corporal Vincent Schmidt. Private Stuart Cooper was ten meters behind me. Whatever "it" was, was between Stuart and me.

Obviously both curious and fearful, I queried, "What is it?"

Trevor was somewhat of a wise ass, "Gee, let me check my flora and fauna of Proxima Centauri b reference guide. Nope. Blank pages. It ain't in there."

"Stupid question, sorry. What does it look like?"

"I'd say the closest comparison is what they called a bigfoot in the twenty-first century. Basically, a large, hairy, ape-like creature, this one with four legs, though."

"How large?"

Trevor referred to his Digitally Enhanced Face-plate Imagery system, "DEFI, enable measurements. Determine height and weight of the creature behind Corporal Schmidt."

DEFI, pronounced deffy, responded in all of our headsets, "Creature is approximately 5.79 meters (19 feet) tall and weighs approximately 429.7 kilograms (947.3 pounds). Both measurements are within a 3 percent margin of error."

"Fuck, it's huge." Cooper sounded scared. Rightfully so. The creature was less than 1 meter (3.3 feet) in front of him. All he could probably see of it were its four legs and lower torso.

"DEFI, enable ground-to-ship communications."

"Communications enabled."

"Gold to Commander Brown."

"Go, Gold."

"Commander, we've run across a large creature. It hasn't made any hostile moves yet, but it walked into our vicinity and remains, apparently seeing or sensing our presence."

"Diagnose chameleon apparatuses."

"DEFI, analyze chameleon status of our personal environments."

"Lieutenant Gold and Corporal Schmidt's personal environments are operating at 98.1 percent efficiency. Private Cooper's is at 89.4 percent."

"Oh, fuck." Cooper somehow sounded more scared than before.

"DEFI, perform directional analysis of Private Cooper's environment."

"Efficiency is at 99.7 percent to the front, 90.3 percent to each side, 77.4 percent to the rear, and 89.3 percent from above."

"Cooper, don't move an inch."

"Ya think?"

Gold looked up, "DEFI, analyze ring of items surrounding creature's head at center screen."

"97 percent confidence items are visual aids."

"DEFI, estimate visual field."

"The nine visible visual aids provide a 200-degree field. If aids surround its entire head, a 360-degree field is attainable."

"Vertical range?"

No response.

"Oh, for God's sake. DEFI, what is the creature's vertical visibility range?"

"Approximately 150 degrees, estimate within a 10 percent margin of error."

"Commander Brown, I think we need to divert the creature's attention somehow."

"Understood. Private Baxter, generate a visual disturbance 100 meters (328 feet) to the right of Private Cooper's location."

"Aye, aye, sir. Disturbance in three... two... one... now."

The creature leaned slightly to the right, then took one step in that direction.

Brown ordered, "Cooper, turn slowly to remain facing the creature and slowly back away."

"A-a-aye, eye, sir."

Cooper turned slightly and took a half step backward. Immediately, one of the creature's arms swung in Cooper's direction. Six one-meter-long claws extended from its hand and sliced through Cooper. Cooper literally fell to pieces to the ground. He didn't even have a chance to scream.

I started losing my nerve, "Oh, we are so fucked."

Gold was a little calmer, "Commander, we need an area scan to determine if any other life-forms are in the vicinity."

"Already completed. The creature is the only, um, alien, life-form within a scan radius of 250 meters (820 feet)."

"Suggestions, commander?"

"Due to its hostile action, I plan to sonically immobilize the creature."

"You can't kill it?"

"Negative, Gold. Unknown ramifications due to its death could put the entire mission in jeopardy."

"Understood."

"Baxter, enact focused sonic immobilization."

"Aye, aye, sir. Immobilization in three... two... one... now."

"Gold, Schmidt, get your asses back to the ship ASAP."

We didn't need to respond, just started heading back to the ship. After ten seconds, we got a new command.

"STOP!"

We stopped. Gold queried, "What is it?"

"Another life-form entered the area. Shit. Gold, take cover if you can."

Trevor headed toward a rock outcropping about 20 meters (66 feet) to his left. He didn't get more than three steps before a massive foot crushed him.

"Commander????"

"I saw that, Schmidt. Stay perfectly still while we analyze our options."

"I can try, but I'm literally shaking in my boots."

The wait was interminable. It felt like an hour, but thirty seconds later I got my command.

"Schmidt, as slowly as you can, lie down on the ground. We're going to strafe the area with sonic pulverization."

"But..."

"We'll limit it to one meter above the ground and up."

"Aye, aye, sir. I am prone now, face up."

"Baxter, fire when ready."

"Firing now, sir."

Everything above me vibrated. The plants, bigfoot, and whatever stepped on Gold were cut off one meter above the ground.

"Rise up a little, Schmidt. Visually inspect the area. We don't detect anything, but I'm not taking any more chances."

"Nothing moving that I can see."

"Return to the ship but prepare to hit the ground at a moment's notice. If we detect anything else in your vicinity, we'll pulverize again."

"Roger that."

Fortunately, I made it back to the ship in one piece and not flattened. Another team was dispatched to gather Cooper and Gold's remains. The commander had some difficult decisions to make.

*****************************

Twenty minutes after I returned to the ship, we went into panic mode. The ship was instantly surrounded by seven bigfoot-like creatures, and three similar creatures roughly four times their size. The three larger creatures may have been the parents or some other evolutionary version of the bigfoots. Nothing happened for thirty minutes, then there was a disembodied voice apparently booming down at us from outside the ship. I wondered where the fuck they came from. We got no perimeter warnings at all.

"Humans. Why have you destroyed two of our sentries?"

"Baxter, enable external voice amplification."

"Yes..."

"That is not necessary. We receive your thoughts. I repeat, why have you done this?"

"I will speak out loud so my crew may hear my answers. I am Commander Raymond Brown of the Earth long-range traveler USS Centaurus. We are on a mission to evaluate this planet for possible colonization. Your two sentries destroyed two of our crew."

"Why did you not request permission to land?"

"We didn't know we could."

"Ignorance will not be tolerated. You did not even attempt to open communications before landing."

"Again, we didn't know you were here."

"Again, you show ignorance. We were aware of your presence once you entered orbit. How could you not know we were here?"

"Our scanners detected no life-forms present on the planet."

"We remain underground while there is no external threat. We sentries come above ground to patrol only if we sense a threat. An uninvited craft with mobile life-forms qualifies as a threat."

"Why couldn't you communicate with us before you destroyed my crew members?"

"We attempted to do so just prior to your landing. You were not close enough to communicate with until you were inside our atmosphere. We needed time to assimilate your language before we could be understood. Our initial attempts were interpreted by you as buzzing."

"Telepathy is not one of the abilities we possess. Without the scans, we had no way to open communications."

"Acceptable. We will communicate further after we have returned to the time before your crew mates were destroyed."

"Wait. What?"

"You are ignorant in so many ways; how could you ever had made enough progress to travel so far from your home?”

“We’re advanced in many other ways.”

"That was a rhetorical question. We will communicate once again in sixty of your minutes."

"So, can I assume there will be no more hostile actions?"

No response.

Sixty minutes later, I was back on the planet's surface with Cooper and Gold. But I also knew they had died. It was a disconcerting situation, to say the least.

*****************************

"Aye, aye, sir. Disturbance in three... two... one... now."

The creature leaned slightly to the right, then took one step in that direction.

Brown ordered, "Cooper, turn slowly to remain facing the creature and slowly back away."

"A-a-aye, eye, sir."

"DO NOT PROCEED IN THAT DIRECTION!"

Cooper didn't move.

"Where the hell did that come from, Lieutenant Gold?"

"I have no idea, Cooper."

"I can answer that, Lieutenant."

"Enlighten us, Schmidt."

"Yes sir. We've been here before. What we're hearing is one of the planet's sentries."

"We've never been here before."

"What is the last thing you remember before hearing the voice?"

"You and I started heading back to the ship after Cooper was ki... Wait, what the fuck?"

"Apparently the native occupants are able to return back to a previous point in time, but it seems we still maintain our memories from before the return."

"Lieutenant, are you saying I was killed?"

"Apparently, you and I both were. I know I didn’t make it back to the ship. Is there anything more, Schmidt?"

"Yes. They can read our thoughts. I suspect they're communicating with us telepathically."

"Is that true, sentry?"

"It is. You may return to your ship, but do not attempt to enter the blue fields again. That is a sacred place, and no-one may enter without permission. We will open negotiations regarding your colonization after you are together with the rest of your kind."

"OK, close ranks on Stu, Vince."

We walked toward Cooper, being careful to avoid the blue fields to our left. We were very close to entering them before. We may all have gotten permanently dead if we had strayed off the path we were using.

We all made it back to the ship. Once we removed our personal environments, what were one called space suits, we were summoned to the mess hall aboard the ship. All 16 of us were present.

"Commander Brown, we are ready to discuss your idea of colonization."

"Great. We're..."

"We know of your intentions and desire to migrate many of your kind here. We will give you terms, and you will either accept them or leave the surface."

"Don't we have another choice?"

"Yes. Stay without meeting our terms and you will be forced to send your leaders back on Earth instructions to not attempt to return, and you will all be destroyed."

"I don't like that choice. We're listening."

"You have landed on one of three inhabited continents. Only one other continent would be sufficient to maintain human life. It is not inhabited because it cannot support [word unintelligible] life."

"What..."

"You would not be able to understand the term which defines our species. You call this system Alpha Centauri. You may call us Centaurians. The continent you may inhabit is approximately 4,000 mesums to your south-southwest. This translates to approximately 10,700 of your kilometers (~6650 miles). We suggest you all take your next sleep cycle simultaneously. It would be highly disorienting for you to be awake while we transport you to near the center of that continent."

"I can arrange that."

"The continent is somewhat larger than your Europe, at approximately 24.1 million square kilometers (~9.3 million square miles), including ice masses. You must limit your population to 900 million humans. Anything more than that will not allow sufficient space to support the populace. That is roughly one quarter the density of your Asia, which you apparently feel is overcrowded."

"It will take us many years to grow to that number. It has been estimated that we can transport 7500 people per trip. Each round trip will take roughly 300 days. In 10 years, we could move almost a million people per ship. Even if we built 10 ships, we wouldn't have much more than 10 million transported, and perhaps that many once over in growth in the next almost 11 years. Population growth should not be a problem for centuries."

"We must request that each arriving ship remain in orbit for one of your days after arrival. This is to allow us sufficient time to analyze each person aboard. There may be incidents where one or more persons are denied disembarkation. These persons will need to return to Earth. The one you call Baxter is the first. He enjoyed the destruction of our kind too much."

"What if they don't want to leave?"

"They will be destroyed if they leave your ships."

*******************************

The next morning we awoke in another location of the planet's surface. Fortunately, however the Centaurians pulled that off, our navigational systems recognized the move. Commander Brown called all hands to the mess hall once again.

Commander Brown was once again our spokesperson, "Centaurians, are you there?"

"Yes."

"Are we at the center of the continent you mentioned?"

"Approximately. There is a lake at the exact center. You have been placed on the shore of that lake. There are three underground entrances within 5 km (3.1 miles) of your location. The closest being .4 km (1312 feet)."

"You said the sentries remain below ground. What about us and the rest of the Centaurians?"

"The sentries have been bred specifically to withstand the conditions on the surface, unprotected, for an extended, but still limited, interval. The surface equilibrium temperature is 234 K (−39 °C; −38 °F). The amount of time a human can survive on the surface, unprotected, would be extremely short. The personal environments previously utilized will be necessary for humans to migrate between the ship and the different underground caverns. Centaurians can remain on the surface, unprotected, for a significantly shorter period than the sentries. This interval would be a corollary to five of your days, or roughly 43 percent of one orbit around our star, which you call Proxima Centauri."

"What about the temperature underground? How is that maintained?"

"We will share one of our heating and water processing units for each underground cavern that will be in use. There are fifteen interconnected caverns relative to the three entrances I previously mentioned. One will be transferred immediately, although it will take approximately one stellar orbit to arrive and be installed."

"How long is that in earth years?"

"One stellar orbit is 11.2 of your days."

"Right. I should have remembered that."

We prepared another survey team. Cooper and Gold begged to be excused, understandably. Sergeant Hugo White and Privates Esteban Turner and Francisco Haas accompanied me into the closest of the entrances.

The entrance was large enough that we would be able to use ground vehicles to transfer personnel and supplies into the caves.

White was primarily a geologist and analyzed the surrounding rock, “It’s very solid, highly metallic. There should be minimal risk of collapse.”

White asked, “Turner, what about the air quality?”

“It’s quite similar to Earth’s atmosphere of primary components, which are approximately 78% nitrogen, 21% oxygen, and 0.9% argon, with trace amounts of other gases like carbon dioxide, water vapor, and neon making up the remaining percentage.

“The air here is 72% nitrogen, 24% oxygen, 2% carbon dioxide, and 2% neon. Temperature is slightly warmer than on the surface, at −33 °C (−27 °F).”

“Thanks, Esteban. DEFI, enable ground-to-ship communications."

“Communication with the ship is not possible due to the metallic composition of the cavern walls.”

“DEFI, where would communications be possible?”

“Communication is possible at 32 meters (105 feet) inside the entrance.”

“Sergeant White, permission to decompress personal environment.”

“Hell no, Schmidt. I’m not going to be responsible for making you sick or dead. We can get the okay from Commander Brown and try that on the next trip.”

“Roger that, Sarge.”

Act 2 - The First Wave

“Schmidt, my ready room. Now!”

I followed Commander Brown into his private office. He liked to call it his ready room. Some fictional captain from like, 250 years ago did that.

“Yes, sir?”

“Sergeant White indicated you requested to decompress your personal environment?”

“Yes, sir.”

“Why would you think that was acceptable at this point in the mission?”

“Once Private Turner shared the chemical composition of the air, it was within acceptable parameters for humans.”

“You’re our physicist, correct?”

“Yes, sir. But I’m also our reserve chemist.”

“OK, that makes your request a little less dangerous. But how about we wait for Dr. Cashman to complete his analysis, OK?”

“Yes, sir.”

“Great. I must say that I am impressed with your attitude after the apparent demise of your crew mates on your first excursion.”

“Thank you, sir.”

“Fear is fine in moderation. You didn’t panic. I know I can count on you in stressful situations. I don’t believe that will be our last.”

“Agreed.”

“Dismissed, Corporal.”

Well, I dodged a bullet on that one. Too many strikes with Commander Brown and I’m in the lab until most of the crew returns to Earth. I guess not panicking after Cooper and Gold were apparently killed offset that goof somewhat.

Thirty total surveys were completed before the Centaurians completed the installation of the first heating and water processing unit. Everything from soup to nuts was checked. Four of us were to remain on the planet until the first colonists were to arrive.

Besides myself, the others were Doctor Morris Cashman, botanist, and biologist, Privates Esteban Turner and Francisco Haas. Turner, Haas, and I covered physics, chemistry, geology, and environment, as well as backing up Cashman’s skills. Basic living skills, like cooking, construction, and the like were universal. All 16 of Centaurus 4’s crew were able to perform those and many other functions. Fortunately, in the mid-twenty-first Century, a man named Patton Gilson perfected implanting knowledge directly into the brain. It would have taken each of us 4 to 6 years to become experts in the number of disciplines necessary the old-fashioned way.

Anyway, that put me in charge of our small colony. I expected the four of us to be quite autonomous. We were well versed in the skills needed to remain and make preparations for the first batch of colonists to arrive.

We would be alone for between 10 months and a year, ideally. It would take 154 days for Centaurus 4 to travel back to Earth. If Centaurus 5 was ready, they would depart immediately. Ideally, this would occur within a month of C-4’s return. Centaurus 5, being a transport vehicle, was expected to travel at lumex 8.8; i.e. 8.8 times light speed. As such, their travel time would be 175 days.

Minimally, we would have 329 days to set up the temporary quarters for 7,504 people. If there were delays, we’d be here alone longer. Each modular structure would accommodate up to 8 people in four separate areas. If we completed 3 per day, as was expected, we should be ready in 313 days. We had very little wiggle room if things met the minimum schedules.

Communications could travel at the lumex 11, the speed Centaurus 3 had attained. We would know 35 days before C-5 arrived that they departed. We had anywhere between 292 and 322 days before we’d know if, and when, our return vehicle would arrive. A smaller ship would be brought by C-5 that we’d use to return home at lumex 10.7. Our return trip should only take us 145 days.

Obviously, that’s the sunny day scenario. We had resources sufficient to sustain the four of us for 600 days. Longer if we were required to ration some. None of us wanted to consider what would happen if our resources became insufficient. The biggest concern there was not being able to grow the food expected.

The trip out was successful in that regard. The pigs, chickens, fish, and other small animals reproduced at the expected rate, so we had quite an assortment of menu choices. All we had to do was maintain an acceptable rate of reproduction so 7500 people wouldn’t starve after arriving.

Simple, right?

C-4 left us on what was September 3rd, 2247, to go back on Earth. Here, it was day 18. As had been known for centuries, PC-b revolved around Proxima Centauri once every 11.2 earth days, or 269 hours. Technically it was 11.1868 days, or slightly less than 268.5 hours. Even more accurately, 16,109 minutes. We had a special camera placed just inside the entrance pointed at the "sun." Using that, we were able to determine how many "years" we had spent on the planet. Since we were both underground, and always facing the sun, days and nights were somewhat irrelevant. We still operated on 24-hour intervals with regard to meals and sleep, but kept track on how many orbits we had made. We were at just over 1.6 PC-b "years" when we were left alone.

Since none of the others were remaining, we had 48 personal environments available to us, two-thirds of the entire complement. Two for each crew member returning to Earth would remain with them. Our continent was uninhabited by the Centaurians, so there were no blue fields to avoid. The four of us had free reign over the 24.1 million square kilometers of our temporary home to explore. And explore we did. To put that in perspective, our domain measured roughly six billion acres. We were cartographers in addition to contractors constructing the habitats, which would be shared among the fifteen interconnected caverns reachable from the three entrances closest to Lake Brown. It was respectfully named for our commander.

New Earth, as our continent became known, was irregularly shaped, but most closely resembled a parallelogram with rounded peninsulas and bays on all four sides. Due to the extreme temperatures, the shores were ice, rather than water. A complicated system of diggers and conveyor belt-like devices transported chunks of ice along the surface, and into the caverns. Lake Brown was roughly one-third the size of Lake Erie, at 8500 square km (3281 square miles). Our best estimate was that it contained over 42 trillion gallons of frozen water. It would last us a while. If not, there were dozens of smaller lakes and the oceans at our disposal.

We had massive robotic rototillers which would convert a portion of the floor of each of our fifteen cavern cities to farmland. The number was a nice coincidence, as each of them could be named after another crew member. We chose the four largest to be named after one of each of us. Cashman was the largest. We figured the doctor was the most important of our little family. Schmidt was the second largest, Turner and Haas were next. Due to his prohibition of leaving the ship, the smallest was named Baxter. Gold and Cooper were the fifth and sixth largest.

In alphabetical order, the rest were Bauer, Harris, MacKenzie, Murray, Phillips, Ross, Wallace, and Zimmerman. Those were all roughly the same size, so we decided to place the same number of habitats into each of those eight cities. The initial populations of each would be:

Cashman - 664
Schmidt - 640
Turner - 576
Haas - 528
Gold - 496
Cooper - 472
Bauer - 464
Harris - 464
MacKenzie - 464
Murray - 464
Phillips - 464
Ross - 464
Wallace - 464
Zimmerman - 464
Baxter - 416

There were sixty-two extra habitats, so a total population of 8000 could theoretically be supported. There was no expectation of additions during C-5's journey, but growth soon after their arrival could not be discounted. There would be families and couples aboard, so growth was definitely expected.

Working together, we were able to complete our three habitats per day in six hours after the first week. We'd work for two hours, then take a break to check our water supplying systems, most of which were normally disabled. We only required water in the city where we were actively working and living. After the day’s three habitats were completed, we would spend some time mapping the surrounding area. Progress in that regard was slow, but we had no specific deadline, like with the habitats.

Twenty days before expecting to finish in each city, we asked the Centaurians to install the next heating and water processing system. Communication with them was fairly easy, although we would have to go outside the first wall that was placed at each entrance to think at them. The entrance walls were necessary to keep the heat inside the caverns. The first roughly quarter-mile of passageways were open to the elements, and thus required our personal environments.

We'd been working 306 days and were nearly complete building habitats, generating and maintaining farmland when we started to closely monitor the communication system. There was a receiver on the planet's surface, and repeaters throughout the passageways into the depths of the caverns. We each had a receiver we would carry, so when the word came, we would all know simultaneously.

After five days, on day 311 (June 22, 2248) as expected, we received word that C-4 had made it home. We had a minor celebration. It wasn't in our initial plan, but after we started growing some crops, it wasn't long before we started brewing our own beer and making wine. Needless to say, no habitats were built that day after we received word.

Ten days went by, then twenty, with no additional contact. We weren't worried just yet, knowing it was possible a thirty-day delay between C-4's arrival back home and C-5's departure would occur. It took twenty-two days before C-5 had taken off from Earth. It was July 14, 2248. Another 175 days and we would welcome the new arrivals. We received word of their departure 140 days after it occurred. C-5 would send a message to PC-b every 29 days indicating its progress. The time it would take each of those messages to reach us would take less time than the previous. We expected, and received, C-5's 29 and 58 day status messages on 19 July and 25 July. You remember, the messages could travel faster than the ships. The message we expected from their 87th day did not arrive on 31 July as expected. They should have been halfway here when they sent that message.

On day 80 of C-5's journey, it was hit by space debris. This should not have been possible due to the shielding employed. Apparently, a microscopic particle on the absolute worst trajectory cleared the shield's filters. Hitting a microscopic particle at 8.8 times light speed was disastrous. The ship was destroyed in little more than an instant. 7500 colonists and 60 crew were lost. There was just enough warning of imminent collision for C-5 to send an automated distress message back to Earth. That message took 64 days to arrive at mission control. A message to PC-b would take another 140 days. So, 204 days after the collision, we were informed of C-5’s destruction. It was day 273 (15 May) on PC-b when the collision occurred, even before we knew it had taken off. It was day 477 (5 December) when we found out it would never arrive.

Centaurus 6’s construction was nearly completed and ready to go when word of the destruction reached Earth. It took another three months to reconfigure the shields to prevent another disaster. C-6 departed Earth on 16 October, day 427. Once again, before we even knew C-5 had been destroyed. On March 5, 2249, we received a message that C-6 had left earth. Once again, we hoped that in 35 days, we would welcome our colonists. We continued to receive status messages from C-6 as expected, every 5 to 6 days. On April 2, 2249, we received the message it had sent on it’s 145^th day. Arrival was imminent.

That arrival into PC-b’s orbit occurred on April 9^th. On April 10^th, it was allowed to land. For whatever reason, six people were denied permission to leave the ship. Three of those were married. 9 people stayed on the ship and would return home with the crew on the smaller ship that we would return to Earth on as well.

It took 16 days to unload all the people and immediately necessary supplies from C-6. There were six Multi-Personnel Land Vehicles (MPLVs). Each MPLV would transport up to 100 people and their personal belongings, which was limited to 50 pounds each, from the ship to the tunnel passageways, where they would disembark at the entrance to their destination city. In addition there were also six fully loaded Supply Delivery Vehicles (SDVs) that would take supplies, tools, and larger equipment to the fifteen cities. Each SDV would take five trips to the cities. They were essentially six semis that would simply transfer the 30 trailer containers to their destination cities. It was a large, coordinated effort to get everything off the ship that was staying. The trailers didn’t need to be emptied completely before the four of us left with C-6’s crew, and the 9 that did not have permission to remain.

Unfortunately for yours truly, one of those denied entrance was essentially my replacement. I had another visit to the commander’s office.

“Hello Corporal Schmidt. I’m Commander Major Marlon Inglis. First, let me say you’ve done an exemplary job getting New Earth ready for us. I’m sure you’ve heard that Lieutenant Sarah Lamont was denied acceptance.”

“Yes, I have. Do you know why?”

“No. It seems our hosts are not very forthcoming with reasons for any of them.”

“Alright, so why am I here?”

“Lieutenant Lamont was to be your replacement.”

He waited until I gave some indication I knew what that meant. I nodded, slowly.

“As such, I must ask you to remain here on PC-b, rather than returning home.”

“Ask, not order?”

“Correct. It will likely cause some minor pain to the colonists if you choose not to accept the assignment. There are others qualified, but none with your experience to lead the physics regiment.”

“I see.”

“As you are probably aware, including Lamont, 14 Lieutenants are assigned to stay, with one Captain to oversee them. I am prepared to give you a field promotion to Lieutenant should you remain until the next ship arrives.”

“So, one additional cycle.”

“Correct.”

“Well, I have no family back on Earth waiting for my return. I suppose I can stay another year or so. I’ve been here longer than that already.”

“Excellent. Consider yourself a Lieutenant. As such, you will also be the equivalent of mayor of one of the cities. You would get first choice of the city named Schmidt if you desire, but if I may make a suggestion?”

“Of course.”

“Being less experienced as the other Lieutenants, perhaps taking responsibility for Baxter may be a smarter decision.”

“I agree that would be the better way to go. I suspect I’ll need more direction from the Captain and other Lieutenants than anyone else. Baxter will be fine.”

“Excellent. The rest of the Lieutenants already know their constituents. I would suggest you migrate your quarters from Cashman to Baxter at the earliest possible convenience, so you can get to know them quicker.”

“Understood.”

“Thank you for being so accommodating in this matter. I am confident you will be successful in your new role.”

“You’re welcome.”

“Dismissed, Lieutenant.”

I very shortly discovered that Cashman, Turner, and Haas’ replacements were denied entry and they would be remaining as well. At least I would have three friends. They were each staying in their namesake cities.

None of us suspected the Centaurians had an ulterior motive in doing that. Although, it should have been seen as too big a coincidence to ignore.

Act 3 – Another Year In Space?

The crew of C-6 departed PC-b on April 27^th, 2249, along with the nine persons that were denied entry. C-6 itself remained on the surface. There were still some less important items to retrieve, but since the ship itself was staying, we saw no need to hurry to empty it until those items were found to be required. They left on the smaller ship that was also brought by C-6. It was the same class of ship as what would have carried us back had C-5 not been destroyed in a space accident, so the 69 people aboard the C-6 Shuttle should be back on Earth in 145 days.

The same expectations were present for Centaurus 7, which would bring the next 7500 colonists. Its departure was expected within 30 days of the C-6 Shuttle’s return to Earth. The 145 days of C-6S’s return trip would turn out to be quite eventful for the colonists of PC-b. At least the first 30 or so.

Multiple teams were created to bolster the temporary habitats. They were fine to live in for the short-term, the 60 to 90 days it would take to expand the habitats to be more suitable as permanent residences. They began their work almost immediately in all fifteen cities. The teams consisted of 10% of the city’s population. The number of people was slightly off from how we initially set them up, having 5 fewer people overall because the four of us remained and nine couldn’t stay. But they were close enough to have the same number of workers as planned.

Similarly, there was one small team of six cartographers that would map the individual 15 cities, their interconnections, and their entrances. Another team of cartographers were responsible to continue the work the ‘first four’, as we were being called, had started before the colonists arrived. That team was actually eight teams of four. Each day those teams would venture out on one of the Cardinal Directions (N, E, S, W), and Intercardinal Directions (NE, SE, SW, NW) to survey the land. As they got further away from one of the cavern entrances, they would separate more and more, as the circumference of the circle they were mapping would get larger and larger. After three weeks, each cartographer was approximately 400 meters (.25 miles) away from his or her nearest partner.

The Centaurians noticed this. On day 23 of their survey, one of the surveyor's signals was lost. Private Rhonda Lankin’s nearest neighbors no longer saw her.

Based on the initial interaction with the Cantaurians, anyone traversing the land on foot would carry a motion sensor that would alarm if anything larger than a small animal, which we’d never seen on New Earth, was detected. It had a setting to detect other personal environments, which fortunately, was engaged. The sensor would not alarm if a nearby personal environment was detected, but it would track it.

At 9:33:12 AM, Eastern Standard Time, on May 20, 2249, the four closest surveyor’s sensors no longer detected Private Lankin’s personal environment. The mapping was halted, and the nearest surveyors sent out the word that Rhonda had disappeared. Each team traversing a Cardinal direction was led by a Corporal, the rest of the surveyors were Privates. One of the Corporals, Destiny Edwards on the North point, returned to Cashman, her home base, to report the disappearance. All but the nearest four were sent back to their homes while those four searched around Rhonda's last known location.

After ten minutes of searching, one of the searchers, the Southern Corporal, Callum Baker, noticed a depression in the ground. Not that finding a depression was unusual, but with the surface temperature of −39 °C (−38 °F), one that wasn't completely frozen was extremely curious. They sent a message to have a few people return with shovels. Unfortunately, in the twenty additional minutes it took for those shovels to arrive, the depression had closed from a 1.5 meter diameter (59 inches), to .5 meters in diameter. Six minutes later, it became impossible to dig because the ground had completely refrozen. A patch of ground, even one that small, would take at least a few days to freeze solid. Not twenty-six minutes. Something extremely unusual had occurred.

**************************************

Rhonda Lankin had been sucked into the ground so fast, she didn't even have a chance to scream. Her face plate cracked instantly, and she found it difficult to breathe due to the cold and surrounding dirt. She was only underground in dirt for a few seconds before she landed in a passageway. With a crack in her face plate, she started feeling the cold immediately. She lit her personal environment's LEDs so she was able to see around her. She was in a rocky passage. Rhonda attempted to communicate with the others, but something prevented the transmission. At that point, the ground beneath her started moving her. Looking at her compass, she saw that she was being moved in the same general direction she had been walking during the surveying. Whatever it was making it happen, it continued to accelerate her. She also sensed that she was moving deeper underground.

After speeding up for three minutes, decelerating began. DEFI was still functional, so she discovered she had traveled roughly 8 km (5 miles) from where she found herself underground. The area she now found herself in started getting warmer. Before long, it was 19 °C (66 °F). Six small creatures, looking like baby bears but even smaller, maybe the size of a house cat, were crawling toward her. She was hearing, no, sensing, they were saying 'sonch, sonch' over and over again. Behind the baby bear-like creatures were around twenty slightly larger creatures. They resembled chimpanzees somewhat, but were smaller. She surmised that they were likely immature beings. The baby bears had reached her and were chewing off her personal environment. It was about half gone before the chimp creatures reached her.

The chimp creatures began chewing as well, but it wasn't her personal environment. Rhonda Lankin began screaming. Her screams didn't last very long at all. She was reduced to a skeleton in less than a minute.

**************************************

Back at Cashman, data from Private Lankin's personal environment was analyzed in complete detail. It was determined that she did indeed sink into the ground where the soft ground was found. After that, the signal was lost. Knowing the metallic makeup of the cavern walls, it wasn't surprising that her signal was lost beneath the surface. However, nobody could explain how or why the ground could soften and refreeze so quickly. The entire perimeter of their subterranean environment was searched for additional tunnels that could possibly be followed. None were found. Officially, Rhonda Lankin was missing. There was very little hope that missing was all she was.

Captain Rian Cardenas was in charge overall. He was determined to get an answer to the mystery, so he left Cashman and walked out to where he would be able to communicate with the Centaurians.

"Centaurians, are you there?"

"Yes, we are."

"One of our members has gone missing. She apparently was pulled into the ground. Can you tell me if you have any idea what happened?"

"It is feeding time for juvenile Centaurians. Your Rhonda Lankin has become sonch."

"Sonch? What is that?"

"The best translation is baby formula."

"She's been eaten?"

"Yes."

He was outraged, but Cardenas remained calm, "We were never told any of us might get eaten."

"You are a severely ignorant species. All you needed to do was ask."

"We should have asked if we were going to become your food?"

"Yes."

"Why would we ever have even considered that was a possibility?"

"We have never hidden that fact from you."

"You may be able to read our thoughts, but we can only read/hear what you specifically say to us."

"Your ignorance is not a fault of ours. We will need approximately one hundred or your numbers over the next ten stellar orbits to sufficiently feed our juveniles. When can we expect them to be made available? Ten per stellar orbit will be preferred. Now that you know you are food, we expect you to comply. It has been a long time since we have not needed to consume our ill and aged to sustain life."

"We're not going to simply sacrifice ourselves to be eaten by you."

"This is the way it is in the entire universe. More advanced species prey on the the less advanced. You utilize this practice yourselves. You offered the Rhonda Lankin being to us. Why not others?"

"We... What? How did we offer her to you?"

"She was in a feeding zone."

"How are we to know where these feeding zones are?"

"They appear randomly, depending on where the carkons are."

"Carkons?"

"Juvenile Centaurians."

"So, even if we wanted to, we couldn't send our people into these feeding zones without knowing where they are."

"Your entire continent is now essentially a feeding zone. The Carkons know that there is sonch present. They will be in many places. They have a range of four mesums. Any sonch detected within four mesums of a group of carkons will be captured and consumed."

“Four what?”

“Mesums. Roughly equivalent to ten kilometers (6.2 miles).”

"This is not acceptable."

"You invaded our planet. You may leave if you do not wish to comply. Unfortunately for us, we have no way to prevent your craft from leaving."

"This conversation is over."

"Wait, please. The carkons will be at your location shortly. We would be honored to accept one as important as yourself as sonch."

'Fuck that!'

Captain Cardenas wasn't about to stand around and be eaten. As soon as he was back inside the doorway, his communicator was alerting.

"Captain Cardenas, are you there?"

"I'm here. Who is this?"

"Lieutenant Castillo, sir."

"What is it?"

"It appears more people are disappearing from Bauer, sir."

"Bauer is the southernmost city, correct?"

"Yes, sir."

"Order the evacuation of Bauer immediately. Private Lankin was eaten by juvenile Centaurians. They believe we are here to be their food."

"Oh, God. I'll order evacuation immediately, sir."

"Let's also empty a one city border around Bauer. Evacuate MacKenzie, Phillips, and Wallace as well. I'll be back at HQ in five."

"Roger."

When Captain Cardenas got back to HQ, he summoned all the Lieutenants to the Cashman control center. None of the rest of us knew what was happening. We were shocked very soon after he started his meeting.

"Thank you all for coming on such short notice. I'm declaring a state of emergency. Our people are disappearing. I've communicated with the Centaurians about it and have been told they're being used as food for their juveniles."

Like I said. We were shocked.

"Castillo, do we know how many have been taken from Bauer?"

"At least five, sir. It's a bit chaotic with the evacuations to get a solid count."

"We must make preparations to abandon New Earth immediately. They want one hundred bodies to satisfy the appetites of what they call carkons. Go back to your cities and let everyone know we have to start moving food to the ship. I will go out and inventory what is still there, but we will probably need to take everything we possibly can."

I spoke up, "It took us 16 days to unload what we needed for the short-term. How many more people are we going to lose if it takes us that long to load back up?"

"Does it matter? In time, we'll lose everybody. They want ten per stellar orbit for the next ten orbits. Who knows if they'll try to 'stock up.' We need to mobilize immediately. I'll inventory the ship and send a message back to Earth that we'll be returning. After that, like everyone else, I'll be carrying supplies out."

"We have over three hundred children, sir. I think they should carry what they can once and remain on the ship."

"Yes. Excellent suggestion, Murchison. Along with their mothers. We must try to prevent leaving them as orphans. Let's get moving. Dismissed."

We scattered. I went back to Baxter to find it overrun with refugees from Phillips. Murchison, who was Phillips’ mayor, and I, did our best to quell the panic and organize the people. Mothers and their children grabbed what they could and headed to the ship. Thank God it was left behind with some supplies. We had a total of 372 military personnel now that Lankin was gone. They all fell in line immediately. It took some effort, and time, but things were finally being moved to the ship in an orderly fashion. I just hoped we could move enough and load the people before too many more were lost.

It took quite a bit shorter a time to load than unload. Nine days after the evacuation was ordered, we felt we had enough food to survive the trip home. Of course, we loaded as many animals as we could as well, but we did have to leave many of the larger ones behind, pigs and sheep mostly. I hoped the Centaurians choked on them. But, thankfully, we’ll never know.

We lost another twenty people in those nine days. Fortunately, none would have been critical on the trip home. Including Rhonda Lankin, thirty people were taken for food. Nine were taken from Bauer in the confusion of those first couple hours.

We took off on May 29, 2249. I had been on PC-b twenty-one and a half months. None of us were happier to leave than we that made up the 'first four'. They’d been there every day that I had. In 175 more days, I’d finally be back on Earth.

That is if we can avoid space dust en route.

Epilogue

We made it back safely. Captain Cardenas’ message that we were abandoning PC-b arrived 35 days before we did. NASA made great strides in the next six months toward plans to colonize the next closest potentially inhabitable planet, Ross 128 b.

Just over a year after our return, the first mission to Ross 128 b was launched. It was manned, but only cyborgs, drones, and equipment left orbit on a shuttle to go to the planet. At 11.03 light years away, that first mission took just over 376 days at lumex 10.7 to arrive at Ross 128 b.

Needless to say, I passed on taking part. Maybe I'll go on the third ship. Who knows what kind of monsters will be found there?

The End