//------------------------------// // Veni // Story: Planet of the ponies // by Weeeman //------------------------------// Chapter 1: Veni In the year 2050, the ANSA (American National Space Administration) launched humanity's most ambitious space project ever: light-speed travel and planet colonization. The idea was pretty simple, a spaceship with the new light-speed travel technology, the Icarus, and it's crew would travel for eighteen months and land in the nearest habitable planet. In said planet they would establish a base and then they would populate the planet. At the same time they would prove the Hasslein Curve theory, which involved time dilation due to near-light speed. The ship crew included hundreds of genetically modified human zygotes that could be implanted on a fertile woman to give birth to a new kind of superhumans. They had been designed to reach adult age in seven years and be able to learn everything an adult needed in that time, while their own descendants wouldn't inherit these traits that would result in overpopulation. The Icarus traveled through the immensity of space at the speed of light for it's sixth month. The last person awake inside of it was the ship's engineer, lieutenant Robert Eisenfaust. He was checking the status of the rest of the crew as they hibernated: their leader John Stringer, their “steward” Matheus Sheinfeld and their medic Nanami Kato. Each of them was the best of the best in what they did. Colonel John Stringer, aged 35, was an expert on commanding. A veteran from the Afghan war, his purpose would be to lead the colony like a military settlement until they were numerous enough to choose their own leaders in a democratic way. He also was a marksmanship wonder with any kind of weapon, something much needed if they found dangerous fauna. Being a battle hardened soldier, he knew how to keep everything under control, specially his men. Lieutenant Matheus Sheinfeld, aged 28, had been named the steward by the rest of them because his only purpose while aboard was preparing the food and cleaning up. His real mission was to make their colony self-sustainable with his knowledge, as he was an expert on wildlife and agriculture, and to be a reliable source of knowledge in case of encounter with both flora and fauna. Something noticeable was that he was really strong, as he had been training for the IronMan competition before being hired for the mission. Lieutenant Nanami Kato, aged 24, would watch over their health and determine the order of fecundation. With her guidance they wouldn't face certain death in case of acquiring an alien disease (they all feared dying like the Martians of “The war of the worlds”) and their descendants wouldn't suffer inbreed related diseases. She was also a psychologist, essential to maintain mental stability. Last but not least, she would give birth herself to the first extraterrestrial humans, becoming the Eve of their new world. Robert himself knew their ship, the Icarus, like the back of his hand. He had been part of the development team who designed it before he was chosen to undergo astronaut training because John Stringer himself had said: “We need someone there who knows which knot he must screw before the ship explodes or something”. Robert suspected that they had chosen mostly because he was the only engineer in the team who was less than thirty and healthy. The training was really intensive and hard, but who would refuse the chance to become part of human history at the age of 25? Even though he wouldn't see his friends ever again, he knew he had made the right choice. His knowledge of engineering and science in general placed him as the technician required to design buildings, perform reparations and replicate Earth technology on the long run, specially remote communications. The only thing he lamented was all the time he had lost learning Spanish and Chinese, as he would never use them. All of them were athletic after the astronaut training, although Matheus far surpassed the others, and they had learned about teaching, child-care, and many other essential subjects that a new civilization would need. He watched a screen which displayed the estimate year on Earth. They had spent only six months in the ship, but if the Hasslein Curve theory was right, due to their relative speed it was as if seven hundred years had passed on Earth since they departed. He felt weird knowing that everyone he had met was dead, and he wondered how Earth had fared. 'Does man, that marvel of the universe, that glorious paradox who has sent me to the stars, still make war against his brother... keep his neighbor's children starving?' he mused. Now he would join the others in hibernation for the next twelve months, and then they would awake in the forty first century. He took a last glance to check that everything was working properly as he lied down and activated his own hibernation process, the sedating drug already working on him. Robert woke to the sound of crystal shattering and the feeling of said material falling on him. He opened his eyes to see Matheus' arms pulling him out of his hibernation chamber. He managed to keep his balance and tried to ask what the heck was happening, only to be interrupted by John, who was near the Icarus' door. “Rob, we've landed on water! The ship's sinking! Do something before it's too late, and check if the atmosphere is breathable!” He quickly ordered. Robert took a second to process everything and ran past Matheus to the pilot cabin. There he started to push buttons in a seemingly random pattern as he checked the screens which displayed a lot of news, most of them bad. “There's atmosphere, no toxic gases and oxygen enough, we can breathe! Something big hit us while we slept,” he shouted as he managed to stop the sinking by activating the last working engine, “the ship is barely functioning! It won't be long until it sinks to the bottom of the sea, or whatever this is! We have two minutes to wake Nanami, pack everything we need and leave!” As he pronounced Kato's name the two others took a sad glance to her chamber. “Rob... Nanami won't wake up,” The captain sadly said, “she's... You better see it for yourself.” Robert approached Nanami's chamber and discovered to his horror that the beautiful medic now resembled an Egyptian mummy. Her chamber had malfunctioned and she had died of dehydration without even noticing. He stood there for what felt like an eternity, but was only 20 seconds, too shocked to react, until Matheus placed himself between Robert and the corpse. “We can't waste our time mourning!” He cried, “Pick your things up and head to the exit!” As soon as he said that, he lifted the two huge backpacks he had dropped to snap Robert out of his daze and ran to the door that John had already opened. Robert quickly grabbed another backpack and followed Matheus. Fortunately, the door was above the water level, and with a few struggles they managed to pull out the liferaft, which inflated itself in a few seconds. They threw the four backpacks to the raft, jumped to the water, which was salty as Robert noted, and immediately climbed to the boat. When they managed to sit comfortably they all watched the sinking Icarus in silence, the three of them lost in thought. Robert noticed that they were on a lake of crystal clear water. “Maybe the lake isn't too deep”, he nervously said. “We could recover-”. “Recover what?!” Matheus interrupted, “Nanami's corpse?! The now useless embryos?! We are fucked and you-”. “Silence”, the captain ordered with a calm voice which Sheinfeld obeyed, “we must reach the shore and check what we have and what we lost. Then we will discuss our options”. “Yes, sir”, they both replied. For anyone looking it was obvious that Sheinfeld wanted to say more, but he knew better than going against Stringer and remained silent. Robert opened his bag and picked his multipurpose glove. It was a big and heavy glove (which resembled a Middle-Age knight's gauntlet) covered by solar cells. The gauntlet was known as technoglove, and it was the most useful tool they had. He grabbed a cubic device from the backpack, attached the small string that hanged loose from one side to his glove and threw the cube to the air. He pointed the nearest shore with his finger and the cube glided to the spot thanks to the four wing-esque appendages that had protruded from it when Rob dropped it. As the device landed the four appendages gripped to the terrain. The string started reeling when Robert moved his fingers in the right order, dragging him, and the liferaft with all it carried, to the shore. In the meanwhile he noticed the lack of life in the zone that surrounded them. There weren't fishes nor plants in the water, and the land that surrounded them was desert. As they reached the shore they jumped out of the liferaft and pulled it out of the water. They started sweating as soon as they stepped on the alien floor, the heat was almost unbearable. The captain pointed a small hill. “We must reach higher ground so we can observe the surrounding area”, he stated, “finding potable water and evidence of life is our first priority”. “The water purification system can provide us-” Robert started. “Too noisy, it may be dangerous” Matheus said. “He's right, we must be careful until we know more of this place” conceded Stringer. Five minutes later, they reached the top of the hill. From there they could see the desert reaching the horizon, and a few more lakes. “I think I see something!” Matheus exclaimed. John opened his backpack and, after a few seconds of searching, pulled his binoculars. He used them to watch the zone Sheinfeld had signaled. “It looks like a forest to me, take a look you two”. He gave his binoculars to Matheus, and then to Robert. They all agreed, it was unmistakably a forest, located 20 kilometers away. “Robert, how many hours of daylight do we have?” Stringer asked. “This planet rotation is similar to Earth's, so we have about 5 hours of light left”, Eisenfaust replied. “We can cover that distance before sunset”, said Sheinfeld. “Yes, but with this heat it would be tiring and we can't afford wasting energy and water”, replied Stringed, “we will cover the distance tonight”. They descended the hill to be under its shadow. As soon as the sun rays stopped their relentless assault on them they dropped the backpacks and they ate the infamous space food they carried and drank a bit of water. “We have four hours until sunset,” stated Stringer, “Matheus, I want to know how deep the Icarus has sunk. Robert, we must know if there are technological advanced aliens in the planet, try to detect radio signals or something. I will scout the area in the meanwhile, I'll be back in less than two hours”. “Yes, sir”. Matheus took his own technoglove while Stringer took a hunting rifle and a lot of ammunition as he said “there's no kill like overkill” and they left. Meanwhile Robert took a device with an antenna from his backpack and headed to the top of they hill they had climbed before. He placed it on the floor and soon the antenna began to rotate. The young man went back to their base and used his Geiger counter. Luckily, the radiation detector displayed safe levels of the invisible and potentially lethal particles. After that, he turned on the monitor linked to the signal detector and watched it, looking for anomalies. An hour and a half after John and Matheus left, the latter returned completely soaked. “The lake isn't too deep, about seven meters” he revealed, “we can get into the ship and retrieve anything we need without air supplies”. “Could we pull the ship out of the water?” “I don't think so, the bottom of the lake slopes steeply, we would need a lot of power to do it”. “Damn it” Robert cursed as he got up, “I'm going to take a dump, take my place with the signal detector”. Matheus nodded and Robert left. Twenty minutes later he returned to find both John and Matheus chatting. As soon as they noticed him they stopped talking. “Any signal?” Eisenfaust asked. “Nothing yet. But the captain found something”. “Rob, I discovered it while I explored”, said John with a serious tone, “We are not alone”. He showed him what could only be the skull of an animal. “It looks like...” Rob began. “An equine, but it's not like Earth ones”, Sheinfled ended Rob's phrase, “It has the eyes on the front, like a carnivore, but the teeth are designed for an herbivore diet. It looks like it has a big encephalization quotient, but I'm not sure, specially dealing with aliens that could have more efficient and compact brains or something like that. Oh, and it's muzzle is also too small.” “Anything else?” asked Robert. “As I told John, if such an evolved animal lives in this planet there must exist many other kind of smaller animals and vegetation. There may be predators too, so we must be careful.” “From now on, we will always be armed and we won't wander alone. I don't want to become the dinner of a six-legged, sparkling, vampiric wolf”, commanded John with humor, “Robert, have you found something else?” “The radiation levels are safe, so at least the vampire wolf won't be radioactive”. They all laughed for a few seconds, as they hadn't since their tragic landing. As soon as they finished John took the word. “Before we leave, I would like to honor Lieutenant Nanami Kato, whose death was unexpected and tragic. She was kind, honest, loyal and generous, and she was also the first to laugh and cheer. Earth lost a great woman when she left with us. For our friend Nanami, I want to observe a moment of silence." The three of them stood still and silent for the next minute, then Rob and Matheus saluted as John fired his rifle in an improvised volley. When the echo of the shot couldn't be heard their commemoration ended. “It is time to leave. We will reach that forest before sunrise, rest until then and explore”. Two hours after they left the crash zone twilight led to night. “Whoa! That moon is huge!” exclaimed Robert, and then he thought 'don't know if huge or just very close'. “Good, we will have good illumination”, added John, “but I would have loved to have more than one”. “Or a moon which wasn't white”, said Matheus, “that would have been interesting”. They felt silent for a couple of minutes, until John asked them if they recognized any star or constellation. None of them did. One hour later they arrived to the forest. The transition between desert and wood was radical, the sand and the stones led to grass, mud and trees. “Now this is weird” Matheus said while he rubbed his head, “a few of these trees are similar to Earth ones, while most of them are different. My theory is that, being this planet Earth-like, many species look terrestrial due to convergent evolution. I will need to investigate it further as soon as possible”. “So... We are going to explore the forest now?” asked Robert. “Yes, we will put up the tent here and go into the forest. We won't go far so we can return to this clear area quickly if we find something dangerous”. A couple of minutes later they had set up the tent and wandered into the forest.