Writing for Fun
August 2015
Visitors From Space - Jan Osborne
I am Major Tom Chandler, governor of the Earth colony on planet Gliese. I had brought them here fifteen years ago on the 'Mayflower,' in convoy with nine sister spacecraft.
Now forty five Earth years old the hard physical work and grinding responsibility of my time here was beginning to show. I had travelled the mile from our communal meeting room, at the epicentre of our two mile wide life support dome to my life pod located at the perimeter. I felt depressed and weary beyond words and then angry to allow myself to succumb to such self pity. I stepped down from my solar powered scooter and entered my pod. After taking a sonic shower and grabbing a cup of tea from the replicator I settled down to write my personal log of the day's events on my laptop.
Log entry: Earth date 1st July 2255
Sat down with the nine other commanders of the ten spacecraft and hosted a meeting to discuss how we were to celebrate this year's anniversary or Founder's Day as they liked to call it. Once settled and a programme of events drawn up someone then raised the question of security and our openness to invasion from an alien species.
We laughed off the thought of 'little green men' but those words would prove to be prophetic.
At this point I stopped typing and sat back to think what I had really felt during those discussions . . .
I had contributed little as celebrations were, to my mind, a waste of time and energy. We had work to do. Goddammit, were they ever going to agree and shut up? I had clenched my fist in an effort to control my rising anger and to stop myself walking out. I glanced up to see Commander Rachael Harris, who doubled up as psychiatrist, frowning at my behaviour.
I had been seeing her in a professional capacity for the last three months to learn to manage my, by now, increasing explosions of anger and to explore why I was repressing all other emotions.
Her gentle probing of my psyche had revealed the reason; when my wife, the love of my life, had died giving birth to our son I had blamed him for her death, rejected him and vowed never again to get close to any other human being and lay myself open to such emotional pain again.
My brother and his wife had raised the boy. One year later I had left Earth for good.
Resuming my log I noted that our achievements in the short space of time we had been here had been heroic, or so I thought. The best one – the seeding of the planet's atmosphere – was almost complete. Oxygen levels had risen steadily over the years and we were confident that next year we could dismantle the dome and start planning our life outside. Already the birth rate had exceeded our expectations; probably due to the long, cold Gliese nights and little else in the way of entertainment. Space was now at a premium.
My next train of thought took me back to life on Earth.
Way back in 2015 astronomers had discovered Gliese, the nearest M type planet sixteen light years away. It had a mass five times greater than Earth and was slightly dimmer and cooler but receiving about the same stellar energy from a red dwarf sun. The planet had less oxygen in the atmosphere than Earth but was capable of sustaining human life.
Even back then we had the technology for space travel, but not the speed. It would be another 85 years until fusion power was harnessed to enable us to travel at half the speed of light.
By 2150 the earth's climate was in greater turmoil and millions of people worldwide were dying of extreme natural disasters, crop failures and wars. World governments made the unprecedented decision to join forces and send a one way expedition to colonise Gliese in an effort to save mankind.
In the next fifty years spacecraft with the new drive were built on the Moon. Towable hydroponic modules were seeded and life support materials were packed in space trailers and prepared for launch behind the ten spacecraft. Each ship was carrying its own payload of ten crew and fifty young adults to populate a brave new world. In all, six hundred brave souls faced a one way journey; all faced forty years in stasis. The ships' computers would awaken them out of cryogenic sleep when in Gliese's orbit. The huge distance between Earth and Gliese meant that there was no going back. Even communication with Earth would be impossible. They would be on their own.
As the most experienced astronaut, I, at the age of thirty, had commanded the lead ship.
Too tired to write more, I fell into my bunk and slept a troubled sleep.
In the morning I gazed out through the transparent dome drinking in the beautiful soft ruby reds and oranges of the sun rising through the deep purple and blue streaked dawn sky. Then I froze in horror. Fast approaching were ten spacecraft of unknown origin. Earth ships they were not because even if they had left the very next day to our launch they would not arrive for another forty years! At unimaginable speeds they traversed the sky and started to land. With ice water running in my veins and a sickening fear in my heart I took out my communicator and summoned all available citizens. Screaming at them to bring anything they could use as a weapon. As fast as we could we headed for the nearest exit and grabbing oxygen masks dived outside to meet our fate.
In eerie silence and with ruthless efficiency the spacecrafts disgorged their cargo of human like figures each with face helmets and I watched in horror as they lined up in precision rows like a well trained army. Suddenly one figure detached itself from the mass and headed our way with hand raised. I held out my hand to stay my people and likewise walked forward with arm raised.
As we met the very human like creature pulled off its mask and facing me was a human male, around forty, who said, in a broad American accent, 'You are Commander Tom Chandler?'
I nodded dumbly, unable to speak.
'I'm Captain James Chandler . . . your son.'
The shock of his words slammed into my brain with almost physical force. Here was my son, five Earth years younger than me! The world spun around and all sight and sound faded. Next came floods of tears as the solid wall around my heart dissolved and I clung to him, my rock; my salvation.
Later that evening in the midst of great celebrations and rejoicing James explained that in 2205, five years after our departure, a way of harnessing dark energy from space had been found enabling spacecraft to travel beyond the speed of light and that in 2239, when he had just turned forty, an expedition had left Earth to resupply Gliese and bring more colonists as Earth was failing fast. He was to be in command. The journey had taken fifteen years in stasis. His convoy was the vanguard for a mass exodus of Earth planned over the next millennia.
My soul came alive and my heart was flooded with love! My son and his wife were here to stay along with their ten year old son; my grandson.
I thanked God for my second chance of happiness.
Life on Gliese had suddenly become wonderful! Now all I needed to complete my joy was a wife and I had just the woman in mind!
