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“So that’s where we are.” Harry Belfontaine, commander of the Eurocorp Adventurer, summed up the situation. He wiped his hands on his khaki slacks as he sat. Once he’d worn a uniform with medals and scrambled egg on the visor of his cap, but that had been sacrificed to a passel of kids for some game over a year ago and had long since vanished into the children’s playroom.
Around him, just over four hundred people, men, women, and children, watched him intently in the small, cramped auditorium deep in the bowels of their ship. “It’s crunch time. We go to the woods or the plains, but once we choose, we can’t change our minds. We won’t have fuel enough to re-launch.”
They’d been in orbit for over a month. Everyone was antsy, now that they were so close they could see their future home. Everyone ached for land beneath their feet again, longed to begin the work of settlement.
Meet the new neighbors? There was plenty of curiosity, but that worried Harry the most.
Hands waved. He nodded to a man in the front. “How much riskier is the forest landing? Are you gonna get us all killed?”
Harry grinned, although the point was valid. “I sure hope not, Tim. We’ve located two clearings large enough for the ship, but not so close to habitation as to cause panic. The controls haven’t failed us yet, but because of the narrow space, it is riskier. We can’t deny that.”
A young family rose to their feet. The man spoke. “How long before our food’s exhausted?”
Harry nodded to Ben Albright, the first officer. Ben stood slowly. He’d had aching joints recently, a problem shared by many of the adults on board.
“Food’s not an issue now that Henrik’s got the mold situation under control. The limiting factor is, we’d be so low on fuel in a month that landing could be dicey. The risk increases with every day we delay.” Their departure had been rushed, to say the least. It had come down to leaving with a reduced fuel load or not leaving at all – and probably facing prison or firing squads.
“Then why’re we still up here?” an angry female voice from the back demanded. “Why you haven’t put us down yet?”
It took a few seconds for Harry to decode the thick accent. “Because this is how long it’s taken to confirm suitability, test air and make educated guesses about soil. Don’t expect miracles, Hannah.”
“Humph.” The woman’s snort as she sat evinced a few chuckles. Hannah wasn’t known for patience.
Another woman stood near the middle of the auditorium. “Harry, are you going to tell us what you recommend?”
He glanced at the row of men and women occupying the tables to either side of him. “Truth is, we’re evenly divided. Forest is riskier getting down, but the timber would be valuable when we start building. Plains are easier for landing, but not much wood. Water’s available in both locations. Both have seasons. Both areas are settled and farmed, but plains are more isolated. What more do you want to know?”
“So what it comes down to is, do we want to eat veggies or porridge all winter.” The male voice off to Harry’s right got a few laughs, but at heart everyone recognized this was no joking matter. This was the rest of their lives. And their children’s. The success or failure of their unauthorized mission.
Harry waited for his grin to fade before he said, “Are we ready to put it to a vote? Any objections?”
The first man, Tom, stood again. “You’re asking a lot on the basis of a one-hour meeting. Any chance we can think on it and vote tomorrow?”
Waves of assenting murmurs filled the room.
Harry looked right and left along the tables. Receiving the unspoken agreement from his senior crew, he nodded. “Oh eight hundred hours sharp. Be here, folks. The sooner this is resolved, the greater our chances of success. And the more time we have to get a crop in while it’s still summer.”
The meeting broke up. Every one of the persons on board had been in attendance, even the two babes in arms. Following the decision tomorrow morning, in a matter of days they’d be on solid ground again.
Equally important, to Harry’s way of thinking, was that once they’d landed, he could transfer command to their designated settlement leader, Elspeth Gandsdottir, who had been both an anthropologist and a skilled hostage negotiator back on Terra. She in turn would rely on Henrik Strauss, one of their team leaders and their agricultural expert, who had spent most of his free time over the last two years boning up on survival and homesteading techniques. Harry had argued against using so much of their precious computer storage for the Eurocorp library, but now he was grateful he’d been overruled, and not only for improving Henrik’s knowledge. The small video library had grown old, and more and more of his settlers were acquiring a taste for reading.
Not your settlers.
No, but he’d developed a proprietary feeling for this ship and its inhabitants. Something that wouldn’t stand him in good stead after the transfer of power. It was time for him to pass the baton, having safely, and with a minimum of strife, shepherded his oddly matched crewmates to a new land.
Heaven help us, he muttered, acknowledging the challenges in their immediate future. Then he joined Ben and Constance, their medic, as they made their way to the mess.