//------------------------------// // Chapter 1: Discovery // Story: Landing Procedure // by Skiddlz13 //------------------------------// The Universe, an anthology of endless possibilities; it has a set list of rules that are almost impossible to decipher. Galaxies are born, while others die. These Galaxies are filled with billions of stars. A few of the stars in these galaxies harbor life, and in several billion years, are doomed to bring death. Planets orbit these stars. They are bases of harvestable resources for life to either flourish or perish. Very few of species of life become intelligent, through a series of evolutionary events that make it possible. It perhaps could be environment, or even another species. No matter what happens to these galaxies, planets, or life. The universe continues to exist, and is the home to the ones that happened to evolve in it. Around one yellow star, there is a pale blue dot, smaller than some of it’s neighbors a couple doors down. Orbited by a moon, it is made of 2 parts water, and 1 part land. It has housed life for 3.5 billion years. For millions of years, a species has evolved to become one of the greatest top predators on their planet. They are the humans: complex problem solvers, long distance walkers, and one of the great toolmakers. If there is a flaw in their evolution, the humans correct it with technology. They cannot fly at all, bite hard, punch fast, and their average reaction time isn’t something to marvel. All these weaknesses have an invention to overcome them. One of the ultimate weaknesses about the humans, is their mortality, it could be said that it just means there is something to live for, but living forever is very inviting, if they could live forever, what is the point of fearing natural death. In the year 2029, and invention, that fixed the weakness, nanobots. Microscopic particles, that fix, tweak, and create. Nanobots move through the body, making humans faster, stronger, and smarter. In 2039, 60% of the population had nanobots. In 2045, 99% of the humans had nanobots. They estimate nanobots will make humans live forever, but it is unclear, because it is hard to define what forever means. Nanobots, at this point in time, only prevent death from natural causes. Humans can still meet an unfortunate accident, or get murdered by other humans. One thing is to be said about nanobots, they give humans the power of a god. After the nanobiotic era, humans were getting bored with their colonies on mars, and even their colonies on almost every single rocky body in the solar system, they still couldn’t get out of a valley of boredom they dug themselves in. Human technology started to lag behind, as less and less people felt the need to invent so quickly. During the 2100’s, scientists started to speak out, that the universe wasn’t going to wait for them. “We still have a universe to explore!” The one sentence that we could do it, and time was not waiting for us. If we could be curious enough to discover The Americas, we can still explore, yes, living forever gives you the sense of “Do we have to.” Living forever, doesn’t mean that the universe will halt its progression. So, we built the colony fleet. Big ships that would go out into the galaxy and explore the planets. A typical colony fleet could have the capacity to set up colonies, and stick citizens in the colony, on a maximum of 10 planets. Equipped with military weapons, colony domes, and a cruise-ship style housing for the “colonists”. We went out, and accelerated as never before. In 10 years, we colonized 50 star systems. All these colonies though, weren’t on hospitable planets. The colonizing was successful, finding a new Earth was not. “Give me the time Lt. Huen,” I said. “Its 2:19 Earth-Summer, 14, 2351 sir,” He answered. “Thanks Lt Huen,” I replied. I combed my fingers through my long hair, still greasy from me not having a shower in 2 days; it was matted, and as dry as a desert. I should probably have a shower when nightshift starts. I pushed aside my thoughts, as I looked through the front view screen, luminous over the ambiance of the bridge. On it were the stars scattered around the galaxy with mystery and wonder, they were all different colors, and some were even brighter than others. I looked at my captain’s computer beside my chair to look at the near by star systems. “Darian? Can you search star systems Torra, Genesis, and Colan for any planetary history?” I asked, wondering if there were any worthwhile planets. “Sure Captain.” Darian typed up the three star systems into the tertiary database. As he was typing, I looked back at the view screen, and marveled at the stars again. I looked around to see the bustle of my ships bridge, the crew talking and laughing as they went through their routines and jobs. “Captain, Genesis, according to the Keplar 100 mission, has 3 planets, 1 is possibly habitable.” Darian said. I looked at him, “Transfer the information to my com.” My viewing screen opened up the information found. 3 dots, planets, were orbiting a bigger dot. It was the Genesis system. “Worth checking out?” I inquired. “Not sure sir, we should send a probe to check it out…maybe we could find something,” He said. I looked toward the control helm. “Helmsman Berd, fire, 1 FTL probe at the coordinates of the planet,” I commanded. He pushed in some numbers than entered the orders. “Fired the probe sir.” Now lets see what you bring back. “Halt the colonial convoy,” I said. “The convoy is standing by sir,” said Helmsman Berd. “I’ll be in my quarters if any of you may need me,” I said. I slid my key into the deadbolt of the door. The LEDs turned on automatically once I closed the door behind me. Finally some rest. I should also have a shower. I walked into my bathroom closing its door. Walking over to my mirror, I brought my fingers to the bump of my brain implant. The brain implant was put into any human who wanted it to increase brain capacity, such as memory, problem solving, and holding complex models in one’s head. I went over to my shower and turned on the water. I stepped into the shower and started washing my hair, rinsing it out. I stood in the show letting the water to massage my skin. After the five-minute time limit on the shower, I decided I should probably dry myself. “Dry,” I commanded. The shower burst into a loud roar as it jet-dried me thoroughly for about 3 minutes. Walking out of the bathroom, I stood in the middle of the middle of the room, wondering what I could do. “I should do I little reading,” I said enthusiastically. When I got nanobiotic injections in 2029, I made it my goal to read every single Sci-fi book from the 20th and 21st Century. I went over to my bookshelf and pulled out The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy. It is a good book, silly, but good. I took my book and sat down in one of the room’s chair and started to read. I read the book for about an hour until I was interrupted as the chief engineer, Randy, walked in. “Captain? Could I talk with you?” He said with a sad look on his face. “What’s up Chief?” I asked. “How can you deal with it?” he asked. “Deal with what?” “You know Captain, living forever, you are one of the oldest humans to get nanobots. You are 344 years old captain, how can you deal with that?” I looked at him for a bit, I closed my book and put it on my side table. “Don’t take this the wrong way Randy, but how old are you?” I asked. “I am 134 sir.” He replied. “Well, it’s hard, watching the human race explore through space so quickly. After awhile, I realized, the older I got, the less of my family I actually knew. I don’t even know my great great great grandchildren, yet I remember raising my children 5 years after I got the nanobots. My only advice is, my good friend, always do what you want to do, you are probably not going to keep in touch with 10 generations, but you will keep in touch, with the ones you grew up with. Just don’t do anything stupid.” I told him. He looked at me for a bit, and replied, “Thanks Captain.” He then got up, and walked out of my door. My answering machine buzzed to life, “Sir, this is Science Officer Darian, the probes have come back… and you should come see this.” Equis, a large rocky planet orbiting around it’s white parent star. It is home to a stew of intelligent creatures, it does have a sort of linear evolutionary system with earth when it comes to animals, it has every animal Earth has, except primates, It does have extra creatures that are parallel to human mythology too. Almost every single animal on Equis has what the humans define as intelligence; these creatures include bunnies, cows, pigs, sheep, and ponies. The dominant species are the Equines. Unlike the humans, they are superiorly close-minded to new ideas and concepts. Since they have evolved into three main types of intelligent equines, there has been cultural and racial divides for as long as they have had intelligent. They have had the odd war and argument, but most of the conflict is discrete. The Unicorn tend to be the rich and powerful, the pegasi bring the weather to the land, they tend to be lazy and have a lot of down time, and the earth ponies, are the ones driven to grow the food, and are often looked down upon by mostly the unicorns. The three have been built for specific purposes, but ponies seem to have a problem with looking at each other as true equals. They have had problems with their insecurity, the humans have it, but the equines have to deal with their herd instinct, no matter what, you have to have at lease someone with you at all times. Why do I have to always get up in the morning again, oh right, mothers oh so precious teaching about how I control the sun and stuff like that. I woke up in my bed, desperately trying to cling on the comfort of sleep. To no avail, I complained about why I couldn’t sleep forever all the way till I landed all 4 hooves to the side of I bed. When I finally opened my drowsy eyes, the sharp rays of the sun coming through I window attacked them. “Why do you have to be so harsh sun?” I mumbled. I shuffled to my washroom to see if a shower could wake me up. I opened the door and trotted over and turned on the hot water. After checking the heat of the water, I stepped into the gentle massage of shower on my coat. A shower defiantly makes me contemplate life a lot. Why is my mother bossy, wonder how hot Sparkling Armor was this morning, why is the sky blue. Me turning of the water interrupted these precious thoughts, as reality was a cruel mare indeed. I dried myself off and walked over to my vanity. I brushed my wet pink hair, dried it, and brushed it again. I put on my eye and horn make-up. Oh for gosh darn it, why is my snout so big, is that a blemish! I quickly got my emergency blemish kit and covered it up with a thin layer of 100% opaque white coat make up. I put on my accessories and looked dreamingly at the picture of Captain Sparkling Armor looking back at me. After my morning routine I laid down on my comfy chair and started reading my book, something about this phony science, before my Mother barged in and started telling me I am late for my lessons. “Celestia!” My mother, Queen Solar, busted open the door with her back hooves and marched into my room with fire in her eyes. “Yes Mother,” I replied calmly, flipping a page. “You are late young lady,” she fumed. “Fine, coming,” I said joyfully, lightly closing the book shut and levitating it to my bookcase. I stood up, and passed my angry looking mother, and smirked when I was around the corner, out of her field of vision. “So mother, what pray tell are we learning about the sun today?” I asked. “You are going to learn about how it actually works.” The pair walked through the hallway passing the numerous doors. “Sister!” I turned around to see my sister, Luna, galloping toward me. “Sister! Sister! I saw a moving star!” yelled Luna. I looked at her, “Luna, that’s not possible, its day time.” “Sister, I did though.” “Why don’t you go draw it for Mommy,” My mother walked up to her and pushed her gently away. “Okay Momma.” Then Luna was off to go draw what ever she apparently saw, but I was off to go learn about how important the sun is. “You should see what the probe brought back Captain,” said Darian as a walked in. On it was a list of information and maps. On one map I saw a spinning model of what looked like earth, but the moon orbiting it is a little less massive than Earths moon. “This is one of the most earth-like planets I have ever seen,” I said. “President of Colonial Affairs on deck!” The guard said. “Captain.” I spun around to see my wife. “Colonial President Trish, what is it that you want?” I asked her. “The colony fleet is wondering why we stopped,” She said. I looked back at the picture. “It’s because we found a place to colonize,” I told her. Trish looked at me surprised. Then she burst out smiling, “Oh honey! This is great, I can’t wait to tell the convoy.” She gave me a big kiss and walked away. I looked around to see the bridge crew looking at me giggling. “School Children! Make preparations to warp jump to the planet,” I commanded. “SIR YES SIR!” They yelled. I sat down and contacted the colony ships to prepare for warp jump to the new planets coordinates, and prepare a colony dome to put on the planets moon. “Colony ships, this is Captain Matthew, prepare to land on a moon 1300 km in radius. Colony 1, prepare a small dome to settle on the moon, make sure it has a planet surveillance station on it. You decide where you put it, just don’t put it somewhere that gets sun most of the time.” “Okay Captain, we will get the construction-bots right on it. Out Warp jump engine is ready,” They replied through the static-ridden video. “Jump on my mark, 10,9,8,7,6,5,4,3,2,1, jump!” I commanded. The space around the convoy distorted as it began folding them closer and closer to the moon. “The jump will be complete in 120 minutes sir,” Helmsman Gordan replied. “Second Officer Henry, prepare an unmanned orbiter with an environment sensor array to detect environment and possible life signs,” I commanded the young man. “Yes sir!” I finally get to rest from those stupid sun lessons. I don’t even want to raise the sun, but apparently I have to because it is my “destiny” to be the ruler of the land. I flopped down onto my bed and just thought; I wonder what Captain Sparkling Armor is doing right now, probably thinking about me. I giggled at myself for even thinking such a thing. Why would a royal guard think that way about me? He only sees me as a princess to guard. I levitated the book I was reading. “At least I have my love poems,” I whispered.” I can just dream of me being cradled in Sparkling Armor’s arms. I looked onto the pages, adorned with handwritten pictographs depicting love and tragedy. I closed the book and sighed. I stood up and walked over to my balcony, it was a beautiful night. The stars and the moon made a boring black into a soothing beauty. I wonder if you are looking down on us, governing our lives. Which reminded me I should probably go to the temple tomorrow. The goddess wouldn’t want me to skip out on her love now would she? I looked out my cabin window at the other 5 colony ships. They were massive creations; built for fast expansion into the cosmos. The ships were cylindrical with little domes around it. Most of the domes were almost 6 km in diameter. Most of them were filled with skyscrapers, infrastructure, some food towers, and one or two power generators. It was a prebuilt metropolis, attachable, and interchangeable. If one part of a city was damaged it can be quickly replaced with an exact replica in a matter of hours. In other colonized worlds, they are almost never replaced. The attached repair robots, take the left over rubble, and repair the clear dome covering the city. “Sir, jump ending,” Said a crewman outside of the door. “Very well,” I replied. I made my way up to the bridge to find that jump completion routine was taking place. “Captain, we have reached the moon.” “Good, hail Colony 1,” I commanded my screen. “Colony 1 Captain here.” “Get out of jump and prepare 1 dome for the temporary settlement on the moon,” I said. “Copy that, Colony 1 out.” “Set the viewing screen to the moon,” I commanded. The viewing screen switched to a moon, same color, and around the same size. “Set viewing Screen to planet.” The screen changed to a blue green ball, around the size of a basketball. “What should we name it Darian?” I asked. “Uh, Genesis?” He said. “No to boring,” I replied, “Isis, Egyptian god of fertility and magic?” “Perfect choice sir, I put it in the database.”