Second chances

"Who built the worlds?" asked Jennifer.

Joseph Macabee loved his daughter's cute, earnest expression when she asked serious questions. He looked down at her face, her wide-open blue eyes. Standing upon a small hill above the new settlement below them, they could see the makeshift dwellings, solar panels, windmills, water towers, and other buildings that the colonists had assembled so quickly after landing just one year before under the bright lights of the colony. The lights were far enough away, however, not to blind their view of the stars and the earth-like planets that hung low on the horizon. The nearest one was only the size of a football in the sky, but then with others visible behind it, smaller and smaller curved against the dark night like a pearly necklace of green, blue, and yellow receding down below the horizon.

         "No one knows. I would say God Himself. The engineering of worlds is well above my understanding and the life upon these worlds is even more of a miracle." He paused, reflecting on the marvel of what they were looking at. He continued, "You know, every one of these worlds you see in the sky is exactly the same size and weight as the one we stand on now. The continents etched upon their surfaces are also the same. The life we find on each planet is of the same sort. The worlds even spin at the same speed, they orbit in the same precise orbit and they encircle the sun in the sky completely all the way around it. The mass of all 333000 planets in this orbit added together is precisely the same as the sun in the sky and everything is in a perfect balance. It is a marvel that fascinates me and the greatest minds of our age."

         Jennifer paused as if taking that in. Finally, she asked another question, "Are there people, like us, upon all these worlds?"

         "There is wildlife, the same as here, but we have colonies on only two planets thus far. Uncle Tom is on that planet there." He pointed to the nearest planet in the sky. "There are no more ships on their way from Earth. There was an accident after we left and it is now uninhabitable. That was where we come from." He looked up into the night sky and located the pattern of stars associated with Canis Major. "If you look carefully you will see a shape in the sky like a big dog, where I am pointing. The sun is a fainter dot of light just below that."

         "I don't really see a dog, but I can see where your finger is. Those lights seem so faint daddy, how far away are they?"

         "Oh a long way, it took 100 years to reach here. I was born on the ship and my father told me stories about the earth that he heard from his own father but I have never been there. I am told it looks a lot like here, except now without any life, just ruins, and pollution."

         "Po...loo...shon. What is that daddy?"

         "It is when people make the water undrinkable, the air unbreathable, and poison the life around them." Joseph sighed thinking about Earth, all life on that planet was now extinct. They had to make this new chance work, he thought to himself.

         Jennifer looked genuinely puzzled.

         As they stood watching the stars there was a massive flash of light. This lit up the scene all around them. The nearest planet in the sky was the source of the explosion. Debris shot into the sky from the explosion. Most then fell back to the planet. Smoke billowed out from the point of the explosion and started to cover the planet.

They hurried back to the base, now frantic with activity, colonists running from building to building. Joseph ran to the communication center. He saw that his brother, Tom, was trying to call him. Switching on the console screen he recognized a stressed-out-looking figure similar in appearance to himself but overdressed in a smart business suit. His brother's girlfriend Gemma, tall, hot, and inappropriately dressed, stood behind him checking her makeup. He recognized a single, balding, and more corpulent engineer crying over a console and dressed in a lab coat in the background.

         "Hi brother, you can probably see that we just had an accident. We were trying to use our colony ship engines to kick start the deep core reactor."

         "Where is the rest of your team?"

         Tom paused and looked awkwardly around at the engineer, then exchanged a glance with Gemma.

         "Ermm they did not make it, it is just us now."

         "Why were you playing with that technology? That was what destroyed Earth. Why are you doing that here also?"

         "Oh brother, we have had this discussion, I know you are happy with humanity remaining in the stone age with windmills and solar panels. But doing the big stuff and making the big money requires a big energy supply. Green troglodytes won't ever achieve that." Joseph was reminded of the conversations between himself and his brother as they approached the system. Ultimately the colonists had divided into two teams because the difference between the two was so great. The one team led by his brother Tom had supported an industrialization model similar to the one used on Earth and the other led by himself had opted for a Green and sustainable approach to the colonization of the world they chose.

         "You blew up your planet!" Joseph said with some anger. "You know that the gravity stream gives immense power generating possibility with tidal and geothermal power also. There were alternatives."

         "Well we got the mix wrong. Good job we have so many other planets to experiment on." Tom shrugged with a sheepish grin. The apparent nonchalance and indifference to the loss of his entire team just put Joseph's back up even more.

         "No! These worlds are a gift to mankind. You cannot do what you just did on another world also."

         "Look brother we're never going to agree about what the future looks like. We need that power to make our civilization great and allow commerce between the worlds. We are so close and we have all the experimental data here about what we did wrong. We can do this. Anyway, we're trapped in the radiation bunker and we need extraction. You can dump us on another world with some starter tech and then we can rebuild and start again. We will leave you alone, do not worry."

         Joseph looked at the monitors and at the data streamed by his colleagues in the communication center onto the big screens. He paused a moment.

         "The whole surface is radioactive, it is about fifteen times over acceptable levels. Do you have radiation suits?"

         "We can walk the distance to a shuttle and use the airlocks to decontaminate the suits before coming on board."

         Joseph glanced at the anger on the faces of his colleagues, watching with him. Nonetheless, that was his brother there on the screen. He knew that Tom had been in charge but dressed up as he and his girlfriend were, and hidden away in this shelter, it seemed that they did not get their hands dirty with any actual work. Gemma was checking her hair in the mirror.

         "I need to talk to Jim," Joseph nodded at the engineer.

         "Why, we just need extraction?"

         "No, we also need to know what went wrong, if we are to avoid repeating this error ever again." Tom shrugged and whispered something in Jim's ear pushing him towards the console. A tearful and slightly podgy man spoke on screen,

         "Hi, Mr. Macabee, good to see you again...they are all dead."

         "I am sorry Jim, you mean Sarah and the kids?"

         "Yes them and everyone else."

         "Can you send us a data dump from your computer core?"

         Jim nodded and flicked a few buttons. The data started streaming over.

         "Jim, how many rad suits have you got in the shelter?" Joseph noticed the data stream reach 100% and a confirmation message come onto the screen.

         Jim looked, moving into the background, opening a cabinet. Then as if in some panic he opened another. finally drawing out two suits.

         "Just two, but there is something else also. The surface is molten lava over the center, we cannot leave the shelter."

         "What is the supply situation?" Joseph asked

         "We have about five years of supplies here." Jim did some calculations. "It will take about six months for the lava to harden to the point you could land a ship on it, but then you would have to dig us out. If you brought an extra suit with you you could get us all out. Mr. Macabee, I told them not to do it... but they..."

         Tom pushed Jim away from the camera and concluded, "So we will see you in six months brother," The screen went blank as Tom hung up.

Six months later the ship landed on the neighboring planet, now a smoky black ruin in the sky. They scanned the surface and drilled a hole down toward the shelter door.

         Having descended a ladder to the door of the airlock, Joseph radioed Tom inside. "OK we are here and we have the extra suit. Shall we come in so that you can suit up?"

         "That will not be necessary, Jim had an accident. I regret to say that he died, so he will not be coming with us."

         Joseph thought that sounded intensely suspicious, but they proceeded with the rescue plan. "OK, then suit up and you come out to us. We will lead you to the ship."

         Some minutes later a fully suited Tom and Gemma appeared at the outer door of the shelter to be led up the ladder, through a black wasteland of hardened rock, and to the ship. As they de-suited in the rescue ship airlock Tom joked with his brother and Joseph played along. Joseph noticed that Gemma looked a little the worse for wear and was silent, just nodding every time Tom made a statement and smiling at his jokes, her eyes deadened by hidden pains, her old arrogance and vanity gone now.

         On entering the ship, however, Tom and Gemma were greeted by several armed men who bound their arms and legs before strapping them in for the assent.

         "Why?..." spluttered Tom. "I thought you were here to rescue me."

         "We are brother, but you will not be returning with us to our world. We will be taking you to your own planet with basic survival gear and a ten-year food supply."

         "Please do not leave me alone on a planet with this man," begged Gemma. "I promise I will obey your rules. He killed Jim and he will kill me if you leave me alone with him."

         Tom snarled at Gemma for her betrayal. Despite the fact that he was bound she looked terrified of him.

         Joseph noticed that Gemma no longer wore makeup, was dressed normally now, and looked like a changed person. He nodded to a security guard who cut the bindings on Gemma's arms and legs but left Tom's intact.

         "I need a new team and a starter kit, why are you doing this brother?"

         "You murdered your old team and destroyed a planet. You are the worst of us and there has to be a consequence for this. And we have plenty of worlds to leave you on."

W/C & Notes ▼

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Notes: The mass of our sun is 333000 times that of the earth hence the choice of 333000 Earths in orbit and in perfect balance with the sun.