REDISCOVERY

By Ian Holdeman

The Terran landscape could only be described as cold. Every possible connotation of the word applied; it was barren,

freezing, lonely, depressing, and a biting wind blew throughout the land. The tundra of dust and photodegraded plastic and metal swirled and danced in beautiful, lonely attempts to impress the vast expanse of desert and ghostly remnants of sprawling cities. A haunting wind blew across the world unfettered by the tall, magnificent skyscrapers that once stood proudly amidst the

hustle and bustle of human and mechanical life. The streams of air were no more interrupted by majesty of concrete, steel, and glass as the winds erosive power proved its supremacy against mans ever-continuous struggle to fit more offices, control

centers, homes, and stores into a single block of land. In the distant past, the skies above had always been one of the last frontiers on Terra. All land had been traversed; the entire surface of the expansive oceans had been sailed. The skies were the last place where man hadnt polluted the serenity of pure natural existence. As a consequence, they turned to the seemingly Well, not infinite land expanse se, of but nitrogen and oxygen air for land.

per

habitable,

conditionable,

purifiable space in which they could live out their lives. The sky is exponentially larger in than the land it surrounds, we wont ever fill the sky, they proclaimed to the land-hungry masses of Terra. Of course, the people flocked to the properties for sale, for rent, for lease. A never ending stream of Terrans took to the skies in mega towers that rivaled the altitude of many-a-small cityhopper jet. The skyscrapers eventually grew to surpass even the highest of flyers. They once said that the sky had no limit; that the people could choke the land and pack it so densely that no more could reasonably fit but that the sky would never have that problem. It may have seemed that way to most Terrans early on, but humans breed exponentially too. Soon,

geologically speaking, there were so many humans in the sky it was like an airborne ant hill. Up, down, up again, down again; the elevators sped around delivering the ants to their homes. Eventually, possible humanity some accomplished of the more what most never thought persons

and

forward

thinking

desperately prophesied; man had filled the sky. The sand made its way, in swirling calligraphy, across

plains, hills, and into caves deserted long ago. The mountains had long since disappeared from Terra and with them gone, the deep and fertile valleys below ceased to exist. The trees,

grass, and other life forgot to breathe and couldnt stop the wind and its corrosive powers. The snow covered land to the south of Terra now was blanketed in an ice so thick and so flat. There, the wind accelerated and shot up from the south; a cold army to blow the sand around in the north. The wind made its way up past the once great mountainous regions in what used to be New Zealand; past the former location of Ayers Rock, now just a barely recognizable megadune in the vast sand pit that is now Australia; north, north to the Gobi Desert of the far east, which had grown larger and larger until it met with the

RubalKhali of once-Arabia. Then, on its way around the world, the steady stream of nitrogen and oxygen blew north-west,

forward and left to the great expanse of former-Russia, and in its unceasing restlessness, moved the sand on to the rest of that deserted continent. Another wind, a stronger one, blew up from the south, this time in an opposite hemisphere. It forced its way up from the cold tundra regions of the extreme south, north to the Andean Mountains. The winds path eventually cut in two as the

beginnings of the rocky skyscrapers sliced the winds path with ease. Switching back and forth, to and fro among the peaks and valleys of the vast range of mountains and volcanoes, the wind

took the heat away from the spine of the Americas. The heat spread out in the various offshooting rivers of air that

branched off like the leaves of a corn stalk across the American continent.

Another day began in Trimni, on the fourth and closest hospitable planet from the star, NGC5139. It began like any other day, both NGC5139, or 5K as it was locally named, and its twin disc of flame, 6K, came up from opposite ends of the horizon. The suns scorching heat was left unnoticed by the planet, their rays striking no life that day. It didnt even permeate any of the small buildings huddled beside each other as they were sheltered by the high-tech solar absorbers that

protected the people busily working inside from harmful rays. Brian walked down the passage way to his barracks after

breakfast and pondered while he ambled down the hallway that he had walked countless times before. On Terra, or so say the history books, they thought their planet was flat. At one point the Terrans also believed strongly that Terra itself was the center of the entire universe. Of course, we all know how wrong they were. History books say lots of crazy things about ancient Terra and its people. Everybody knows nowadays that Terra in its eventually and the became the most solar

sophisticated

planet

neighboring

systems...key word: eventually. For a long time the Terrans were very slow on the uptake. I apparently have ancestors who were part of that group of slow Terrans. I shudder to think that, but that was back then, this is now. Come to think of it, that was waaaay back then. Over time a select few of those dull, Terran creatures discovered that education was in fact more necessary than they

all had once thought. Keep in mind that they were did not have enough foresight to see that better education was generally

beneficial to the human collective, but instead they only saw that education would give them advantages over others. Even

though it was for the wrong reasons, they rightly began a huge education-focused movement on Terra. Terra grew up after this movement caught on. It then had not just a select few superbly educated few, but its general public was composed of, relative to centuries past, veritable geniuses. Tertiary education went from being optional to

mandatory to where it didnt need to be mandatory; everybody was educated at least a degree past high school. Also, dropout rates became non-existent. The mega-boost of education injected into Terran society dramatically increased the output of

technological advances. Humanity was finally able to travel at half the speed of light, able to recreate extinct beings through DNA mapping, and able to eliminate the need for paper copies of everything. The various space programs had also all found

incredibly suitable substitutes for Terra. Over the next couple hundred years, more and more of these inhabitable planets were discovered, visited, and colonized that soon, Terra was bare. When Terra was in its heyday, just before everyone left, Trimni was a flourishing metropolis; an exceedingly busy place. The 3-D modeling that Ive seen of the city plans are

incredible. Like grey grass the structures shot into the air, sticking straight up in defiance to the strong World Four winds. Due to the than lower any gravity seen on World on Four, Terra. the Many buildings of them were were

taller

anywhere

constructed within a meter from each other in order to fit many buildings in the smallest area possible. Nobody walked between these buildings; no layman would dare escape a building. The winds were too strong in between the maze of construction that

any living being would be either blown away or, if they managed to anchor themselves to the ground, instantly killed by the dust and rocks kicked up by the harsh winds in the air from outside the city. World Fours for rocky dust and desolate that landscape would made a

perfect

setting

huge

storms

completely

blacken the sky for miles around. The common Triminian, as the inhabitants of World Four were called (due to the fact that Trimni was its only city), never had to think about these

storms. They knew about them superficially, but never really cared about it when they went about their lives in the great city. The giving fooled, a Triminians second these led a completely to what was indoor lifestyle, But never be

thought were

outside.

dont They

highly

intelligent

people.

were

astrophysicists, neuroscientists,

astrobiologists, accountants,

philosophers, technicians,

psychologists, and other

professionals of all possible occupations. Trimni once had the largest library in the inhabited universe. The public library was second only to the Universitys library.

My parents both graduated from UWF, the University of World Four, the most prestigious of all educational facilities. On the Standard Calendar, they both graduated many of their lifetimes ago, but all of the flying around space made them remain young while time passed by more quickly for everyone else. By many measures the Triminians were just as intelligent, or more so, than out the of smartest 1s, 0s, of and the late Terrans. They number

constructed,

2s

(tertiary

technology) a device that early humans could only dream about in science fiction and stories. now Of course, slang, the term Terrans for the used the a

primitive,

Triminian

gadget,

holodeck. This hologram reality simulator could recreate any image from any description, so the owners could experience life safely in whatever setting they wished. The owners could, from inside the holodeck experience, fix holes and perfect each recreation. philosophers, Of course, and a governing body of the psychologists, practice of

scientists

regulated

holodecking from a central computer in the citys center. You may be wondering the reason as to why the Triminians left their seemingly perfect lives and escaped to other planets in space. If you believe the rumors that there was a horrible influenza epidemic and everybody escaped just in time or that there was some mad scientist from whom everybody ran away, you would be most wrong. In reality, the migration away from World Four was spurred largely by philosophy. Some of the leading philosophers and some sympathetic historians at the time

hypothesized that in order to live a fulfilling life, one must be able to express himself in natural surroundings and must commune with it. A couple influential families with adventurous spirits hired teams to find them spots in the universe that would fit that order. They eventually found them, the families moved there and the fad caught on. More and more, as the idea became more acceptable, biopsychologists and other researchers came to even state that a life with time truly out of doors was physically and mentally healthier. Here in the New Trimni Academy I study psychohistory which combines macroeconomics, history, psychology, politics, and

statistics to find trends from the past and apply them to the future. Basically the study of how groups of people react in similar ways as chemicals in test tubes. This subject is my focus; the one thing around which most of my classes here

revolve. Relative to some of my friends who focused their last few years of education on more simple and refined areas like

astrophysics, my focus is incredibly difficult. Ive heard that on Terra before the second era of enlightenment students had to carry huge masses of paper on which things were written. Some of this may be just rumors to scare little primary schoolers, but some of these books apparently massed more than a kilogram! True or not, Im so glad I dont have to hurt my back carrying those around. Of course, with the lower gravity here on World Four, it would not be too horrible. In any case, the data disks we each carry around are fine with me. At the academy, we dont just narrow our scope to our

chosen focus subject at all. We have to take all kinds of other courses that, at first glance, do not look like anything we would ever need, given our respective focuses, but in the long run greatly assist us in understanding what other people talk about in the news, both scientific and otherwise. I still have to take all the traditional classes, physics, chemical physics, biochemistry, and some of their variations as well. Its a

popular story among teachers here to tell people that on old Terra, students would spend upwards of 20 years attempting to learn all of the things we learn in half that time. They tell students who complain about the work that if they were on old Terra, theyd have a long way to go until they finished it all. That scares them enough so they dont complain again for a

while. This is my second to last year at the academy and my class just finished our last exams for this academic year. Its a freeing experience to not have classes and things to constantly worry about, but in Trimni, theres not much else to do. Even though we dont live in the abandoned city, the winds outside there are still strong enough to be lethal. Besides, you can't go outside without special breathing devices anyhow; the

atmosphere close to the planets surface is mostly composed of

carbon monoxide. So, most of us spend the down-time provided by the end-of-year holiday reading, reviewing what weve learned in the past year, or just thinking. Some of the kids go off to see relatives somewhere on World Fours five neighboring moons. My relatives are farther off; far enough that visiting would take a lot more time than the holidays wish to provide for me. After the escape from Trimni, the different nuclear families in my extended family moved to various planets, luckily, in the same solar system. Now I'm not saying that I've never been outside here on this planet. for Whenever class or I need to perform like some I scientific put on the

experiment

something

that,

necessary load of protective gear and extra mass and open the security doors to the outside. Normally Im too busy to really look and embrace the and stark the contrast between vast the closed of and this

narrow

indoors

seemingly

openness

relatively small planet. But every time I go out and have a small bit of freedom from the mindless gathering of streams and streams of data, I feel complacent with life; truly happy in the little desolate colony on the little desolate rock in a little desolate corner of the universe. Sometimes I hear rumors about how, on other planets, there are vast seas of water whose opposite side cannot be seen with the naked eye or how the atmosphere is actually healthy to

breathe. These rumors are true, I know because once my parents and I visited some of their old friends on another world in the next solar system. I sometimes imagine myself growing up there or on Terra. One of these days, Id like to move away from Trimni to another place; another place with rivers, oceans,

plant life, topography, all the things you hear about in Terran history books and in off-planet news. Its all good and well for me to dream about all of that, but Trimni is my home; at least,

its where I grew up. I know all the ins and outs of our little colony; I know every corner of the academy. I remember once, my first memory, my father had taken me to work because my mother was sick. I was looking out through the viewing screen in the main passage between my fathers labs and the barracks, not particularly interested in anything, just

looking. Then, seemingly out of nowhere, all the dust and rocks, and particles, gray and brown and red all elevated as if by complete magic and swirled and swooshed and sped toward the screen. Since I was only a little one it felt as if the swirling monster was heading straight at me. Thats the only memory that has stuck with me from that period of time. My father was there with me the entire time, I remember, but he does not recall any of it. I guess I was so incredibly terrified that my brain took a vivid picture of it all. Eventually those sandstorms became more frequent and commonplace for me and for a while I lost interest in them. But now, as I venture outside more often for experiments of various kinds, Ive been drawn back towards their majesty and power. I have no memories of living on any other planets or

anything before my familys arrival at World Four. We moved here when I was around 3 (thats an interesting fact, we still use Terran years to calculate commonplace things like human age) so that makes that earliest memory to be from around 4 or so, From what my parents have told me in the past, we relocated to World Four from another planet in the solar system. It was a bit farther away from 5K that World Four; it was the 9th planet from our shared sun. When I was smaller, I would always ask about it as it was such a novel idea for me to be from a different place; almost like my parents and I were alien on World Four. I later learned, however, that nobody in Trimni is really from there as all its inhabitants were the first in the

recolonization/research effort. Thats why we moved here too. My father and mother are both scientists, a meteorologist and a chemist respectively, fields of and are here The researching goal of in this their large

respective

science.

collaboration of scientist is to eventually recreate World Four so it is livable for the next generations in the same way humans live on the other planets in the universe, with rivers, oceans, and the ability to go outside without safety suits. You may be wondering what we, as the inhabitants of a

deserted planet, eat. Supplying the colony with food is the concern of a huge committee, consisting of all of the scientists and other professionals who work here and also a select few offplanet special supervisors food from who the assist atomic with the process of importing on the

reconstruction

machines

nearby planets. There are two main methods of obtaining food in this colony. The first method is to grow it or produce it

ourselves. We have some of the finest minds here working on the research teams. They have built aeroponics labs, H 2 O production facilities, and all sorts of other machines and equipment to manufacture Triminian food. The second system for conjuring up food is importing it from other, closer planets. This is what the off-planet supervisors are for. Every member of the

committee has a say on what is brought in from the other worlds. A certain type of interesting spice, an ingredient specifically from a certain world, it all can be ordered and shipped here. To regulate this, so we dont order more than what our research grants allow, families have a certain number of these special orders that they can make. There arent any other species on World Four, and its illegal to ship meat through interstellar space, so we all eat vegetarian. The one time that I did take a short trip off-planet, to see some of my parents friends, I ate some pretty exotic foods,

or so they seemed to me at the time. I ate all the types of food native to that planet; all the fruits and edible plants, but I also had a taste of a kind of food that I never had any exposure to at all. I ate some meat. I had seen the cloned Terran cows that I presumed that the meat came from and I had to desperately try to think of other things while I chomped through the chewy meat. In the end, the experience was enjoyable as the spices and sauces made the meat very tasty. Since then, I havent had any meat and I dont know if I could eat any meat now. Not for the same reasons that I had back when I was a child, but others that I wouldnt have ever figured out back then. The first reason is that meat is muscle, and humans have the same muscle. The second is that meat, I've learned time in to digestive digest; it biology, stays takes in a

disproportionally

long

ones

digestive system for a lot longer than vegetables or fruits. Both of those facts totally gross me out.

Somewhere down below the deepest underwater caverns, twice deeper than life can naturally exist, the infobot began to swim up to the surface of the deserted ocean. It scanned for the positions of the moon, the closest planets, and the stars. It tested in vain the surrounding air for the telltale chemicals of life at sea. Nothing of the sort could be found. The sound was recorded so it could be analyzed for sound signatures of things other than the incessant crashing of waves. Humidity, air

pressure, temperature, wind speed, ultra violet ray intensity, everything checked by the infobot revealed nothing new. The

infobot took the opportunity to radio its colleagues at the top of K2 and at the top of Mount Chimborazo which took the same and more measurements from their respective locations. All had been

the same or gradually worse for a few more than two thousand years. The infobot turned about its axis and dove straight down, its infrared sensors lazily checking for any fish, squid,

mammalia, anything that may obstruct its return path to the sub station. As usual, nothing got in its way through the murky, brown black sludge of the ocean. It eventually sensed the

substation hatch and slowed its downward advance. It noticed any errors in its glide path and corrected them instantly for a smooth interception with the opening. Almost as a greeting, the hatch sensed the intruders coming and slowly opened and let the robot carefully enter the decontamination area. The infobot

slowed for a minute so that the machinery in the decontamination chamber could fully inspect the mass of probes and sample

containers and human ingenuity for foreign impurities and so it could normalize the pressure inside the chamber. All of the cleaning and checking for biological and inorganic pollution on the robot was primarily a safety measure put into place by the humans who created the system thousands of years ago. Nobody really expected there to be any hazards from Outer Earth

biological or otherwise anymore. It was all dead they thought. It was nice, though, to have the infobot cleaned every other week after each trip. For the many thousands of years since humanity left Earth a select group of purists stayed put. Behind the backs of major nations and alliances, theses radicals formed underground

coalitions and brotherhoods and made deals with not-so-prominent countries to make it possible to dig vast caves and form immense systems of infrastructure to support them under the Earths

crust. By the time the majority of the Earthlings had left to the new colony, CSE, or the Coalition to Stay on Earth, had dug

and been living several hundred miles below the surface of the planet. They stole and adapted the designs for their infobots and their environment conditioning tools from several multinational companies who had used them for years and years providing homes and workspaces for their employees in the slightly less-thanhospitable places of Earth. Of course, in those times of the highly educated, the CSE could always find a sympathetic

scientist to conjure up some device to make life under the earth a little bit easier physically and psychologically. A special type of grass was grafted from samples several types of surface grasses that could survive down below. These subterrestrial

grasses chemosynthesized in nitrogen tanks until mature enough to photosynthesize in the normal subterrestrial environment. The scientists working for the CSE also created, much like their brothers were had to in truly space, gravity so normalizers. the gravity These was

machines

never

perfected

perpetually less than the gravity at the surface. Just like with the infobots in there place were and plans working and on schematics Earth, just for gravity were

normalizers

these

notoriously poorly designed and only replaced, on their best days, maybe half of the surface gravity. These were used in corporate operation. housing They built so close bad to the underground had to sites be of

were

though,

they

totally

redesigned if they were ever to be used by humans for extended periods of time. The CSEs people, in the beginning expected to live down under the water and earth only until the rest, the

undesirables they called them, fled the planet. Many people relocated down below to escape the excited masses boarding the ships so that, in all that friction, they wouldnt somehow get caught up in the drift or scraped off of Earth in the hustle and

bustle of everybody leaving. Naturally, they only expected to live down there for a generation, maybe a little more. Then, they hoped, they could come up to the surface, and, like a bear waking up from hibernation, slowly get back to normal life. Of course, things never go exactly according to plan and when the CSE sent its infobot on its first full detailed mission, Earth did not look as they had expected a century earlier. Because the tremendous amounts of manufactured goods and building permeated materials Earthling and other artificial had all, in paraphernalia the span of that that

lifestyle

century, eroded, photodegraded, and biodegraded away into pieces ranging from sizable chunks to dust specs, the planet was not the same as they had wanted. Disheartened, but knowledgeable of the fact that they couldnt do anything about it, the children and grandchildren and, in some cases, great grandchildren stayed cooped up in the underground palaces.

My name is Sarah. My father and I are the new arrivals on Trimni, We just got here. By the Standard Calendar, I am 191 years old, but Im really only sixteen. I was born on the

transport vessel that brought my little family of two here to this quaint little planet. The living arrangements here havent taken much to get used to. The artificial light, aluminum, and purified, recirculated air are constant; not much different from the environment on the ship. It feels quite like homeEverything except the daytime. The day here consists of light blaring

through the wall panels. See, in the ship, the wall panels never displayed anywhere close to as much light as the ones at here at the camp. Here, theyre so horrid I have to come out at night or I get insane headaches.

Theres another sixteen-or-so old person here, his name is Brian. Of course, there are all the little ten year olds who were born on the ship to keep me company, but Brian is the only one who seems to like the Trimni nighttime as well. He seems like hes been here forever, the way he knows his way around. One time Brian took me on an adventure outside the

workstation. It was the first time I had ever been outside. It was also the first time I had ever even thought of getting away from the people and computers and wall panels. It was just

something I had never had the opportunity to do; we couldnt go outside the ship as it was too dangerous to do so. Even going from the ship to the base on Trimni, I didnt venture outside the protection of metal walls. So going outside in Trimni was a very big deal for me. Brian wanted me to not only see, but be totally immersed in the vastness of outside. Because I was such a night person, he took me out at twilight, so Id be comfortable but still able to see everything. I still had to take a headache pill from the base doctor. The pill that he gave me was specially designed for the headaches that they call outdoor headaches since so many people who come to the facility are in the same situation as I am. Before the suns began to go down below the horizon, we put on our mass suits and went in to the anti-gravity simulation room so we could get accustomed to the weird feeling of being pulled by less gravity. Then through the window we could see the eerie green of the Triminian twilight. Brian didnt give me any time to marvel at the sight; he tugged at my shoulder and we jumped through the portal. The suits were massive enough to keep us from flying away in the light gravity on Trimni, but they did not simulate the gravity of the barracks or the labs inside the base. Normally, I cant jump. I try, but I just can't stay off

of the floor for any length of time, but outside in Trimni, I can jump far. It was a little bit frightening during the first jump because it took me about a minute to fall back down to the ground. Once I landed, I looked around. The expanse of my

surroundings amazed me. It was one of those things that bring amazement, apprehension, and joy all at the same time. Such space to run and jump in! Wow is all I could think to say. After maybe five minutes or so, I realized that I didnt have a headache. I guess I had doubted that the pill would work so well and was expecting even a small jot of pain here and there. I was very surprised. Brian outside the told me about His the other times that he has the gone most

camp.

near

death

experiences

were

interesting stories that he told me. Once, he said, he was out helping some of the technicians fix an instrument for the

meteorologists that had been damaged during on of the sandstorms when they felt a tremble in the ground and all of a sudden they were chased into the gravity simulation room to take cover. The sandstorm lasted for days; it was apparently the longest ever recorded storm on Trimni. Sounds pretty awful to me!

Surprisingly, the equipment outside hadnt been damaged any more than it already was. Eventually, I felt the pills effects wearing off, and

since it was still a small bit light out, I had to go back inside. I told him I had had a great time and that next time we should go out at night so I could show him some cool stuff through a telescope. I told him it wouldnt be as dangerous as he thought because we would tie ourselves to a rope connecting us to base camp. He told me it was a good idea and that he had never thought of it before. That made me feel good. I was glad

to have somebody here who I could talk to besides the little ten year olds. Ive heard that sometimes people have a hard time

transitioning to life here at the base on Trimni. I heard of some people almost going crazy from the routine and the close quarters of just about everything. This is more often than not the older bunch who remember their home planets and have to really adjust to new things. For Brian, the ten year olds, me, or the other students at the New Trimni Academy, the switch from close quarters in a ship to close quarters at base, was easy. My father is the reason I was born on a ship and why I live here now. He is the reason that my entire life has been spent onboard a ship. He is a meteorologist primarily and a geologist secondarily. A while before I was born, he was contacted by the New Trimni Research Organization about a position with in the research team working around, and alongside father. who one He was of the leading and for then the

meteorologists prepared

Brians my

accepted pregnant,

himself

mother,

voyage. Soon, however, my mother found out that she was to die in the coming month so the doctors put little fetus me into a woman who was going to be on the ship with my father. And then I was born and sixteen years later I'm here. So Brian and my fathers work quite closely with each other on meteorological projects. Actually, Brian sometimes helps with their research I and with too, the but technicians apparently who its work with in the the

equipment.

would

written

bylaws of the New Trimni Constitution that minors, meaning kids under 18, can only give limited help to the researchers and professionals. I could legally help more than I do, but my

father wont let me. Im irony of probably this more qualified Im to help though, thats the more

situation.

taking

more

chemistry,

physics, and more biochemistry than hes taking two years after me and I have better grades in those classes. All hes taking are floppy classes like English and psychology. I think the working age shouldnt be defined at eighteen; it should be

determined on a case by case basis. I understand that when there are a millions and millions of children who want to work but are under the legal age, governing committees need an indiscriminant cut-off. Trimni is different though; there are only maybe forty kids in my age bracket. Surely they could individually review forty cases. Anyhow, Ill stop grumbling about it. Ive been studying astrophysics all of my life. I love it. All the time when I'm studying, I learn some crazy new fact that just puts into perspective how unbelievable enormous the

universe really is. There are so many different types and sizes of stars and theyre so far way from each other. When you look at them they look miniscule. I love how the geometry of it makes something so absolutely gigantic and distant look so incredibly tiny. I find it ironic how parents teach their little ones about the constellations when constellations do not exist. I guess little kids arent mentally developed enough to think in the third dimension of depth. It also amazes me to compare what I think is big to the size of a star that looks so small. If I think the star is tiny but then think the planet I'm on is huge, there must be an unfathomable distance between the two objects. And if I think I'm pretty small compared to the planet then I must be positively atomic compared to even a dwarf sun let alone a red giant. Just think how small must atoms be if suns are so bigWoah. Thats why I like astrophysics. Anyways, I was able to study astrophysics while onboard the ship online via the ansible machine. The ansible is the

connection between all the computer stations in the universe. I can view public information from literally everywhere else on my

computer. Even computers that are lightyears away can be sent and send information in a matter of seconds. I do not really know why this is possible or the details of the theory, but it definitely works. The basic theory is that when a philote, a subatomic particle, is split, an electromagnetic ray is created connecting the two parts the of the particle. and one This can ray can

theoretically

span

entire

universe

transfer

information along the ray almost instantaneously from point to point. But anyhow, I began studying astrophysics from various ansible-based universities at a young age. Due to the tremendous time warp we were in because of the ships speed, new theories and up to date information was sent to me constantly. I was always having to learn new concepts. It was fine by me though. When I arrived at the New Trimni Research Station, I was deeply involved in a project that created insane amounts of stress for me. It was essential for me that I be able to

continue working like nothing had ever happened; like no major shifts were occurring in my life. The ansibles allowed that to happen so incredibly smoothly. Also, the station here is

remarkably well equipped with ansible access and teaching tools. I expected a lot less.

It was boring on the ship. There wasnt anything to do there since, well, I boarded. If it wasnt for being able to constantly watch the news and the idea that hundreds of human years went by right in front of my eyes as I watched the

computer screen, I would have killed myself long ago. Watching the rest of the universe go about their business on the news stations gave me a crazy sense of immortality and power, but it was always snatched away with the thought that I was not a part of any of what was happening. My schooling didnt provide much

of a relief from the boredom of life on a ship. Geology is not quite the most entertaining subject in the universe. Memorizing formations and densities and the chemical and physical

properties of rocks is definitely not the definition of a good time. The only part of geology that was able to capture my attention at all during that voyage from hell was the subject of groundquakes. Those make my day. The destruction and chaos that ensues after they strike is a total thrill for me. The sheer power of the energy transferred through the quake is amazing. It can break a planets crust for goodness sake! What if we could harness that energy? What if we could identify how to start groundquakes? Now that would be a dangerous weapon. All this talk about power and weapons and destruction and chaos is

starting to make me sound evil. I'm not. I merely get bored out of my mind very easily. Oh, and my name is Jason. I got into geology because of my father and also the reason Im came to Trimni. He strongly suggested that I become

interested in it and pursue it in school. I dont really know why. It isnt like geologists get paid ridiculous amounts of money or anything. He isnt even a geologist. He wasnt anything of the sort, actually. Hes a computer technician with some navigational prowess. He seemed to always know where he is

aboard the ship, which is strange because every room and every hallway looked the same and the views outside every vision

screen seemed to display the same view. But anyways, my mother isnt a geologist either; far from it. She is a politician. I disagree with the policies she represents; on basically every count. Here on Trimni, she plans to advise the governor on her home planet. Advise? Psh. I know her too well. Shell pull a Pericles and try to control as much as she can; but there will be the added factor that she has absolutely no idea what the needs of her constituents may be at the time. My mom and I try

to not talk politics or philosophy or anything deep. For the most part, I dont deal much with my parents. I try my best to stay away from them, but then geology isnt much of a blast either. I try and find things to be interested in. Ansible technology was always something that captivated me and gave me rest from studying geology. In all of my studies of elementary wave physics I never thought that the magic number c, or the speed of light, could be breached. c was the upper boundary of all speeds. I found it interesting that ones mass increases as one goes faster and faster and faster. Basically, if you increase your speed to approaching c, your mass

increases to infinity. So it surprises me that information can be sent across out how the the universe ansibles instantaneously. can defy this I never really law of

figured

simple

physics, so I just kind of accepted the fact that they can. Other than that, I know ansibles back to front; I can fix them, build them, or whatever. Its a good break from rocks. Im so glad that I arrived here on a new, hyperspeed ship. This journey wouldve taken me 65 years going at the speed of the older vessels. Thank goodness my ship was one of those new ships. I seriously would not have been able to make it to Trimni in time; in time before I shot myself. My parents lived in a different galaxy than the one Trimni is in so it would have taken me almost a lifetime if I were travelling on one of the old fleet. Actually, I almost had to, or my parents almost had to. Apparently the captain of my ship (haha, my shipsure) had had the same last name as a captain on an old ship that was going to one of the moons of a planet close by and since the control computers always tie the passengers and the crews last names to the last name of the captain, some guy in charge of inputting to the computer lists switched the two captains. Man, that wouldve been hell.

So now Im at Trimni. And once again, I'm bored. Theres three of us who have graduated from New Trimni Academy so far, Sarah, Brian, and Me. Sarah with graduated I and I early from from from the the the

astrophysics intergalactic psychohistory

department geology department

honors,

graduated Brian could have

department with honors.

graduated

with honors if I really wanted to, but I got bored. So far, theres been nothing really to do here since we all graduated. If I thought I was bored before graduating, I was sadly

mistaken. There is absolutely nothing to do here. Every day we go outside the base and mess around in our free time, of which we have a lot as nobody has much for us to help with.

So there are three of us now. Sarahs a cool girl. Shes incredibly smart and I can see why she was able to graduate so early and with honors to boot. Its never happened before, but Im sure she did it. Jason is a good guy too, kind of strange and spacey, but a solid guy. We have no idea what we can do anymore. Everything has pretty much calmed down at Trimni. Yeah, sometimes we can help some of the guys in an experiment, but that only takes up a certain amount of time. It isnt like we get to do experiments all day. We explore during much of our free time. Exploring the base is out of the question as its so small that everybody knows where everything is within a matter of days after arriving of here. To we keep explore our the minds off the After

incredible

boredom

Trimni,

planet.

graduation we collaborated on projects with the aim of making our exploration safer and easier. I dug up a design from the books on Terran history that I always thought was a pretty good idea. They had these personal transport modules called cars. The idea was a good one in all respects but one really horrible component that took the Terrans

more than a hundred years to fully perfect. They powered the little things with a hydrocarbon that the cars themselves were not able to replenish. Basically, the cars ran on a highly

flammable substance that would run out depending on the size of the tank and how much of the fuel was needed to power each car. As the push for education on Terra began in earnest, they

finally refined their non-hydrocarbon fuel technology. Subatomic particles were used in most all of these technologies from

straight electric motors to ones powered by the reaction of hydrogen ions and oxygen. Anyhow, we chose the basic design of a car for our little project. To explore effectively, we knew we would have to make this car safe for roll-overs, sand storms, and high winds. We also had to make the car heavy enough that it would stay grounded when driving over bumps and miscellaneous rocks. Propulsion was not a difficult design step. We used

magnetic repulsion-attraction engine units to power our little car. Next, we installed drills into the underbelly of the car so that if we happen to be out went a sandstorm hits, we can drill spikes into the ground and stay put. Ansible and other

communication access was a must for the cabin of the car. Also, in case the cars wheels roll over anything sharp, we designed a wheel coating that works perfectly. The scientists and researchers at the base loved our final product. They encouraged us to publish it formally on the

ansibles. Of course, Sarah and Jason left that duty majorly to me, as they are straight scientists and cannot write which is totally not true. Our compact design and efficient use of space and technology and praise inside from the car brought every us world many with

commendations

practically

ansible access. It was quite a phenomenon. Anyhow, we went out to explore Trimni many times. We almost covered the entire planet. It didnt take too long seeing as how

Trimni wasnt too big of a planet. We found many geologically interesting sites like canyons and step-like patterns in the terrain. The three of us had many a captivating discussion on the formation of the many topographical interests on Trimni. My theory on the formation on the canyons is the same as the theory of erosion by fluids. Instead of water or some other liquid eroding away the rocks its the high-speed sand and dust in the wind that does the erosion. I had no idea then, but now I have an idea for the formation of the steps in the ground. Similar to how the wind and sand eroded the canyon, the winds eddies that formed after the air passed over a ledge carried the sand and dust down and back, down and back until a step was built. Jason agrees with me on both fronts and hes the geologist of the group. I dont really know what Sarah thinks, but it was too complex and Jason and I are right anyway. We made all sorts of observations. We watched the stars, tried to memorize the locations of all of the nearby planets, and looked for all of the galaxies that were within visible range. We gathered data from the tools built in to the car and made theories about the formation of Trimni, the extent to which life could not naturally exist, among millions of other things.

So Brian came up with this crazy idea for a way for us to explore the rest of Trimni. In one of his history referencers (of which he has hundreds), he found some design for a transport module that he said used to be called a car a long, long time ago. Car. Hmmmm. I always thought Brians ideas were a little unconventional; a little antiquated. Maybe hes got a bit too many history books. But anyway, we adopted this car to our own (ahem) slightly more modern world and installed loads of

modifications. Thermometers, barometers, dirt sample collectors

with temperature probes on them, ambient molecule analyzers, and loads of others were added to the thing he called a car. According to the pictures Brian showed Sarah and me, the car we ended looks completely not like what its supposed to. Its apparently supposed to look really smooth and have like, fins on the back on each side of the car. The front and back are both supposed to sport various lights of different reddish colors, presumably for some kind signaling for safety purposes. The cars on Terra were filled with luxury. Mini-fridges, consoles food filled trays, these

television

screens,

and

computer

game

antique cars. We didnt have any of that. Not one ounce of comfort. I would have kind of liked to have installed at least something to do while the other two take data or increase their knowledge of little facts about this wasteland of a planet. I really dont like it here. Here, you get into a rhythm and it never stops. Life is a pattern, a tessellation to be repeated over and over again. Sure, the activities of the day may differ some, from taking data on the densities of Trimnis crust to taking qualitative notes on the colors and types of reactions of Trimnis atmosphere with various reactive metals. Life here is so redundant. Life onboard the ship wasnt much different though. I guess I should be used to the humdrum of this kind of life. At least on the ship, the viewing screens always changed what the showed as we traveled through the stars. Also, I knew that most people my age lived similarly repetitive lives because of school,

homework, and more school. Knowing that I wasnt the only one may have cooled my need to vary my schedule. Ive been thinking of what we could all do to get away. We really need to. Sarah and Brian have to get bored of this life sooner or later. Actually, I have an idea already in the works. I came up with it last time we talked about the Terran cars. The

thought didnt actually occur to me until after we had crossed through the safety hatches out from the barracks into the

desolate landscape. I wondered to myself, Does Terra look like this? Then I eventually connected the two ideas when we got into the car: we should find out what Terra looks like. I have yet to ask them what they think about the prospect of leaving Trimni.

It was a bit out of the blue, but Jason asked Brian and me what we thought about going away on a trip to Terra. Hah. And he asked the question so casually! A trip to Terra? Thats like asking us to give up our lives hereforever. I mean, chances are if we go to Terra, we wont come back to the lives we have now. We wont be able to just fit back in! Hundreds of years will have gone by when we eventually get back to Trimni. If we ever do get back to Trimni! No. I dont like it. He wants to explore Terra, presumably doing the same

kinds of things that we do here. But there. Ive heard its even more desolate and dusty and the sun is brighter and no I really dont want to go. Ill admit I am a bit scared about the

prospect of going to Terra. It may be a little irrational, but there are some good reasons. Well have none of the comforts of base camp; we wont be able to go back if we get into trouble. What if something breaks down? There wont be a replacement for lightyears! It just isnt practical. I would hate to be even a third responsible for any one of our deaths or injuries or

mental eccentricities that we may develop on Terra. Just think, the three of us being the only life on the entire planet! Id go absolutely insane having to talk to, eat with, live with Brian and Jason forever. Theyre good people, but I wouldnt be able

to

stand

it.

And

thats

not

counting

the

shipflight

there.

Thatll take a long time too. Terra isnt just next door!

So Jason came up with an interesting idea that has stuck in my brain for a couple days. Since we seem to be on an exploring roll, so to speak, why couldnt we go to Terra and do exactly what we are doing now. It would be a lot more interesting than doing it here. Wed be taking the same kind of data but new data instead of just verification sets. The data wed be gathering wouldnt have been taken for thousands of years! What has

changed? Nobody on record has been to Terra in living memory, no, in multiple generations. What if we discover something

previously unknown? Its perfectly possible. And the history! I could bring my history referencers with me and really look at what I read about. Theres so much in the pre-space Terra that I read about that I could go and see for myself. Going to Terra is a wonderful idea. Of course, there are millions of safety and other concerns to deal with before we could ever set foot off of Trimni.

Theres also loads of red tape to get through from all the committees and such at the base. We have to obtain initial

approval by an appreciable majority of the committee on Trimni, requisition a ship, outfit the ship with our supplies, have another car built, and millions of tedious little details like that. The initial approval wont be difficult to get. Its an amazing proposal that the committee will surely be interested in supporting. Then it will be up to us to research and suggest a decent ship for our purposes. Then that has to be approved. Then we will have to get our supplies checklisted and ready to get loaded onto the ship. Then that has to be approved. Like I said,

loads of red tape. Its understandable though, its all about the safety of the Trimni researchers. Then theres the whole problem of our parents. If we

traveled to Terra and immediately came back, wed return to Trimni three hundred years after they died. I dont think Jason really minds leaving his parents, it seems like hes been

itching to get away for quite some time now. Sarah, on the other hand, is going to take some work. I can tell she really would rather not leave her father here. This is completely

understandable; shes younger than Jason and me. Im not too thrilled about the idea of leaving my parents either, but this opportunity is one of those that, if you dont take them, you regret the choice for the rest of your life. I read somewhere that Terrans used to leave their parents house at the time that they began tertiary education. Thisll be quite like that. Psychologically, leaving our parents will be a good thing in the long run. It will force us to learn independence. Sarah thinks well drive each other insane by ourselves on

Terra. Well, shes probably half right. I dont know if we will or not, but if we do, we most likely wont notice.

So Brian and Jason have been working on me the past few days. Theyve been trying to convince me to not be totally

against leaving for Terra. For the most part it has worked. Well, its a combination between them convincing me and me

naturally getting over the initial shock of resistance that I felt. I realized that we arent all that slow-witted and we could probably handle ourselves. Were pretty well off

intellectually, its not like we can't figure out how to get out of the trouble we might get into.

Theyve been trying to secretly organize everything so when I finally get over my fears, we can just hop on the ship and go, but it hasnt been very secret. Im younger than they are, but I can still get into the public records and find out exactly what theyve been doing. Actually, Ive been monitoring their actions and I'm the reason their approval requests and equipment

requisitions have gone without a hitch. If it werent for me, they would have had so many problems already with this whole process. Feigning ignorance is not hard for me. All I have to do is say something about my father or potentially getting hurt on Terra and they immediately jump to the conclusion that Im

totally against going anywhere. So what do they then think that they have to do? They try and convince me more. Im just making their lives harder. Its actually pretty fun. It also gives me something to do; to occupy myself during the long hours of

gathering data and taking notes about Trimni. We need to stop doing that everyday, and I guess the only way to get them to do anything else is to go with them to Terra. Ive already made peace with the fact that I wont ever see my father face to face again and surprisingly, I'm okay with it. At first I really wasnt but I thought of how I had really not ever had much of a relationship with him anyhow. Objectively, I decided, it wouldnt make much of a difference to either of us in the long run. Meaning, my adolescence will not be negatively affected not having my father around. It should be absolutely fascinating to see the Terran

landscape. It hasnt been even looked at for who knows how long! Completely untouched! Wow. Itll be great. I hate keeping my enthusiasm from Jason and Brian. Its pretty hard really. I doubt they would notice if I slipped up and accidentally let it

be known that I'm excited, since theyre so busy and spacey all the time. Especially Jason.

Today was supposed to be the day of our launch. Keywords: supposed to be. It was one of those days where everyone is just in a mood to not do anything. So what happened today? you ask? Exactly what you would expect from one of these days. Nothing. Today everyone got up thinking that it would be a productive day; the first day of the First Terran Expedition, but no. It was a sleepy day. And that was all. Thats all that was going to happen that day and nobody seemed to be able to do anything about it but laze around, attempting in vain to accomplish

something. The best way to get through these days is just to ignore the fact that things have to be done and not do anything. Otherwise, youll be fighting the urge to just lie down and go back to sleep all day and youll be just as unproductive as you would if you had slept. So what did I do today, being the stubborn guy that I am? I took this golden opportunity to do absolutely nothing productive. I didnt sleep either. I ended up bumming around the barracks to find something I could do on the journey to Terra. We pretty much have everything sorted out for the

shipflight. All of our equipment, doubles if not triples of our equipment, our many computers, and all of the rest of our

supplies are packed already. I just dont think theres anything in there that will be of any lasting entertainment for us. I wonder what ancient Terrans did for entertainment to relieve their extreme boredom. Brian is always a good person to hit up for everything like that. He did, after all, help us reinvent the car, didnt he?

Hmmm Car. Didnt Brian say the Terrans used to race cars? R-A-C-E-C-A-R. palindromes. without Hey, you could cool ever be thats notice written a a palindrome. or and I like that, and

Did

phrase

number

spaces,

forwards

backwards

still mean the same thing? That is a palindrome. For example, eight hundred and twenty eight and rats live on no evil star are palindromes of numbers and words respectively. I find

palindromes quite amazing because of their rarity. I talked to Brian about them once and he told me scholars used to write poems and stories in the form of palindromes. Thats crazy. You have to be a complete genius to do that, I would think. I mean, youd have to know what you wanted to say, what vocabulary youd want to use, how you could attempt to punctuate the sentences, and be writing the story from the beginning and from the end simultaneously. You would have to find some kind of optimization between grammar, vocabulary, and ideas and that its not like you just take a derivative and set it to zero. No way. Its not that easy. You dont get to have numbers. Theres no

subtraction, no simple tricks. Writing a palindrome story that makes grammatical sense, I think, should let you pass any

language classes that youd ever need to take in school and give you the highest of marks for the work you did on your

palindrome. Just making up a phrase is hard. Its definitely easier as its on a much much much smaller scale and there doesnt have to be any storyline or extravagant idea behind it, but still. I mean I could never hope to create one. So to look all smart and intelligent, I just use other peoples genius. There amazing; are other things with about the palindromes that are just

especially

number

palindromes.

Number

palindromes are special for one main reason. Take any multiple digit number and then reverse it. Then take those two numbers,

the original and the reverse, and add them together. You will then get a palindrome. If not, you will eventually get a

palindrome. Every number between ten and one hundred can do this successfully within twenty four tries. Any number! Say you take seventy eight and eighty seven; they add up to one hundred and sixty five. That and its reverse add up to seven hundred and twenty six. That and its reverse add up to one thousand three hundred and fifty three. Then finally, when you complete this last iteration of the algorithm, you reach four thousand and eight hundred and eighty four; a perfect palindrome. There are two numbers between ten and one hundred that, upon manual trials, Well, may seem like there they is one never pair reach of their

palindrome.

technically

numbers,

since we talk about the number and its reverse as a single set. But those numbers are eighty nine and ninety eight. If youre persistent, you might find out that these numbers do in fact reach their palindrome, but youd have to calculate it until the twenty fourth iteration of the algorithm. The palindrome for that set of numbers thirteen is huge; its two eight hundred quadrillion and twenty eight three

hundred

and

trillion

thousand one hundred and eighty eight. Thats mega. Doing some research on this I found that apparently, if the algorithm is repeated for enough iterations, all numbers below ten thousand or so eventually become palindromes. All numbers do this except for a few strange ones. These numbers dont seem to be connected in any logical way except for the fact that they do not make palindromes eventually. These numbers are called

Lychrel numbers. The first Lychrel number, which, when I first manually tried it out, was eighty nine, is actually one hundred and ninety six. The second highest is eight hundred and seventy nine never and then one thousand that and ninety seven. are, in Mathematicians fact, Lychrel

have

proved

these

numbers

numbers

seeing

as

Lychrel

numbers

do

not

have

any

special

mathematical meaning and theres no limit to how high they can search, but they keep trying. Its a mystery because we can never prove that there are such things as Lychrel numbers, but we also can never disprove of their existence. Isn't that neat? Something we can never disprove or prove so well always be thinking about Why is today so exhausting??

Now

all

Jason

can

talk

to

us

about

are

guitars.

His

distractibility is really annoying sometimes. He can't focus on the task at hand for any appreciable length of time. His latest craze involved some ancient musical instruments that he had me dig up designs for. He then had guitars, amplifiers, sound

quality modifiers, and wireless connectors redesigned and made from old schematics that I have access to. The thing with Jason and his guitars is that he failed to read anything about them. He failed to read that the guitars strings must be calibrated to certain frequencies that this to make certain was pitches. by all He didnt not

realize

also

calibration

means

permanent and the calibration process would have to occur almost continuously. So secretly I requested a tuner be made for him. Just so that when he finally figures out that he kind of failed, then hell be ok.

Jason made Brian order some musical devices the other day. I dont think Jason really knows what hell do with them. Oh well, thatll get him out of Brian and my way when we go out on Terra. We can't have him distracting us from our important jobs. It really is important, what were going to do on Terra. Jason just does not seem to understand that. For him, its just some

adventure, which I guess it is in a way. We will have lots of free time to explore, relax, and enjoy ourselves; that is true. But what we in do the while were there will to affect humanitys Terra as

decisions

future,

whether

reconsider

habitable or to leave it alone. But we have to have some fun on Terra, right? Im torn. My instincts tell me to look down on Jason and his distractibility and my head says that too, but there's a nagging feeling in me to let loose more of the time. Especially while were on Terra.

So the ship is really cramped. Our supplies take up a lot of room; way more than we expected. We took measurements and estimations and we were able to fit all of the supplies we had originally expected into the storerooms of the ship, but we kept adding things last minute. In the end we brought two of our cars, loads and loads of scientific equipment, beakers, graduated cylinders, scales

accurate to the thousandth place, everything. All of it had to be wrapped in aerorubber so none of it would break during the voyage. Sarah and the committee all insisted we take triples of all of our tools that and equipment. be I guess near its any a good to idea fix

considering

we

wont

anywhere

place

anything. We only brought two cars on the trip. They take up way too much room to have 3. Jason insisted we bring some

entertainment for the trip and for our stay on Terra. I dont know what non-literature entertainment he needs, but whatever it is, he packed it. Seriously, we packed his guitars! Sarah just had to bring her telescopes with her. I highly doubt shell see anything interesting that she hasnt already seen either here or on her ship voyage to Trimni. The telescopes arent small like our microscopes are. They havent changed much in principle from

the ones on old Terra they just evolved into something way more technical and complex. They see farther, clearer, and with

better color quality than anything they ever had on Terra. With all the upgrades theyve gotten bigger. In all of this stuff were taking with us to Terra, weve only packed things for Jason to do during the trip. Weve been so focused on getting to Terra that Sarah and I havent really packed for the trip. Its definitely not a short intersystem flight.

Today, we began our journey. All three of us had a tingle of excitement in our stomachs all day. We all knew we had done it thousands of times before, but we ran through checklists of all our belongings multiple times today. Every time we confirmed and reconfirmed that, in fact, everything was there; accounted for. We have everything we could ever possibly need for any scientific experiment, any safety hazard, any unforeseeable

predicament that could ever happen under our watch. Even Jason was content in having everything he needed to pass the time in his distracted sort of way. I dont think he has enough to sooth his distracted mind for the entire flight at all. Brian says I overestimate Jason; he thinks Jason will be fine. We all awoke this morning with the slogan We Fly Today imprinted on our minds eye. It was incredibly exciting, as doing new things always is. At least for me, there was also an overwhelming sense of almost disappointment that my father did not do anything to stop me from going on this mission. In fact, he barely even paid any more attention to me today than he normally does. I thought at least he would have a meal with me or stick around in the morning for a little bit longer to give me some fatherly advice. Whatever, though, Id be moving out in

a couple of years anyway; I'm just doing early what I would have done later. Im really glad weve finally shipped out of Trimni. The whole situation feels terribly momentous, as if what we are doing will be in the history books a couple of thousand years in the future. This is a significant event in future history. Cool. The barracks in our small research camp decreased in size until it was just a dot on the surface of the orange sphere that was Trimni. The autopilot zipped us up in the transport pod to where the effects of Trimnis gravity were negligible and where we would board our ship at the zero gravity launch station. Our excitement was obvious to those who met us at the station above the planet. We couldnt help but become endlessly frustrated at all of the bureaucratic rigmarole that we had to deal with

before we could fly. We had to audiosign files in triplicate, recheck all of our luggage for the final time, and do all sorts of other tedious tasks that were for our safety and legal

security. It may be surprising to some that we did not have to take any last minute crash courses in launching ships while we were stationed at the launch base. The autopilot was perfectly suited to do that job for us. Also, in case something malfunctions with both the primary and secondary autopilots, which is extremely rare, our ship is outfitted with devices that enable it to be remotely controlled by low frequency electromagnetic waves. They said that landing was the only process that would require any skill and learned abilities from our end. And the many preloaded resources on the ship could teach us that.

Ten Nine Eight Seven Six Five Four Three Two One nothing said the control center into microphones into speakers

and into the ears of the people standing around witnessing the occasion. The last bit was from the complete lack of sound as the links that held the ship in place with the launch station released their grip on the massive, silent machine. We were off. The heavy silence seemed unbearable. None of us wanted to break the sudden peace and, in some cases I think, fear that came with the start of the voyage. To our collective relief, the computer broke the silence for us. Welcome aboard! the too cheery

computer voice called, Please register yourselves in the ships computer database. With this, the last of the bureaucratic

filling in of forms was over. Brian and Sarah both got up to register but I stayed where we were near the vision screens to watch as Trimni, our home for the last while, got smaller and smaller and smaller until it became one of the many orange-yellow dots in the distance. A pattern formed between Trimni, its moons, and the surrounding planets that looked to me like the outline of a microscope. This was, however, only for an instant as our ship traveled farther and farther away and as the planets and moons all moved in their respective orbits. We were moving away from 5K and 6K so I was able to look at them straight on. They started out as huge (relative to the dots surrounding them), imposing spheres ready to roll over any of the planets that orbited it. But they too got smaller and punier and all but vanished in the deep dark blanket of space.

They couldnt be sure of the day, because they could not tell when the sun went down or came back up again. They could only guess, based on the number of seconds gone by, as to the date. And they thought it was June 26th. The infobot had just left the substation for the surface to take its measurements.

All

was

peaceful

with

the

inhabitants

of

the

substation.

Generally peaceful of course. There were the familial squabbles and minor quarrels between neighbors, but there were no real ideological or political fights to counter the peace found under the Earths crust. The infobot travelled up its usual path. Up and up some more it went until it reached the horizon and bobbed its head out of the water to look around. If it were an organic being, the infobot would be past fatigued, totally and completely

exhausted by the incessancy of completing the same trip again and again. It would cry out for something to change

dramatically, for some submarine animal to block its path, for the water to be translucent, for the air above to test positive for any sign of life. Sadly, this trip was unlike this fantasy of change. The June 26th trip for the infobot revealed nothing new, nor anything old that had come back. Since the infobot could not feel or express these emotions, it was up to the technicians in the control room to suffer the disappointment. Jon Williams felt horrible when the infobot returned with no good news about the surface. He grumbled his disappointment as he brought the robot in from the depressurization chamber and its reports flashed across his computer screen. He had been hopeful about this latest mission; hopeful that just maybe the anomalies that he saw on last missions reports hadnt just been flukes. Last time, the infobot had come back to the sub station with a significantly higher parts per million of O 2 in air reading and a similarly higher reading of carbon concentration in the surrounding water. He had heard from his supervisor that this kind of anomaly was not unheard of and that one time, a team pre-maturely acted on the same kind of data then found, when they performed the tests themselves, that the infobot had been wrong. The next week, however, the infobots readings went

back to normal. This had been an expensive process, both in money and labor and the sub station governing committee did not want to repeat that mistake. The committee then laid out a

strategy to deal with these anomalies. There would have to be a trend lasting a year or more with no more than two data points in disagreement, that show the Earth changing in some way to warrant a human expeditionary force. Jon was so optimistic

because, for the last two weeks, hed seen significant shifts from the normal results and that gave him a small bit of hope for the future of his little group of humanity.

The vital signs of the ship have stayed positive throughout the journey so far. Its been three months since we shipped off. Three whole months since I last saw anything outside that was bigger than a half of a period at the end of a sentence. Its quite a sad thing, really. Brian has taught me a lot about psychohistory, rebellion, the old Terra, and all sorts of

interesting random things that he seems to know about. He taught me about different trains rule of political how on thought, communism, of the

democracy, first can

totalitarian incorporate,

and

different the

forms

depending

regime,

differing

amounts of the latter two. He taught me about capitalism and socialism and how, for a regime to thrive, its economic system has to believe that it is capitalist but has to also incorporate some of the regulations and checks that keep the system from being abused and from hurting the country itself. He also opened my eyes to a variety of psychological concepts like selective attention and perceptual constancy. These last terms were ideas that I had always almost known but never been able to pin down and classify. Brian has also been studying Terra, past and

further past. He says hes been focusing on the histories and

stories behind large monuments. I think he wants to take a trip once we land. Jason on the other hand has not been doing anything useful at all. Hes finally getting the guitars to make noises that sound the least bit decent. For almost the entire first three months, he and his guitars produced so much awful racket that Brian and I were forced to figure out how to program the ships computer into putting a sound barrier around Jasons room. He tells us that hes on the verge of figuring out how to

distinguish when the guitar is out of tune. Brian could just let him read one of his referencers music, but about then music, and, more he

specifically,

guitar-made

who

knows

what

might do. He may play what he thinks is the right thing and actually wreck our ears with how bad it is. We havent given him any tips for fear of what he might do with them.

The

next

weeks

brought

exponentially

less

and

less

nervousness and fear about the stable-but-uninhabitable surface Earth. Jons heart lightened with the news of the week after the blip in the new trend. The oxygen levels in the air went back up, the carbon readings in the water similarly went up, also this time, the levels of fresh sediment in the surface water went down, indicative of a significant slowing of the

superterrestial winds. Of course, Jon noted, there has to have been a large lag time between these infobot readings and the actual slowing of the winds. He was right; the actually slowing of the winds, the actual oxygenation of the air, and the actual carbonization (indicating minor forms of life) of the water

began almost two years earlier. The process was slowly picking up speed. Earth had already been through one set of multi-

billion year evolutionary processes, why shouldnt it do another one? This time, Earth decided to do it faster. A lot faster. In the upcoming weeks, Jons excitement grew and diminished at the same time. It grew as the oxygen levels and carbon levels grew. It grew as the levels of fresh sediment steadily

decreased. He noticed later that this was almost exactly an inversely proportional relationship. The excitement Jon felt was also diminished in the passing of time and lowering of fresh sediment levels. With every continuance of the apparent trend, his amazement and incredulity dulled the same way the sense of touch dulls when its exposed to the same stimulus for an

extended period of time. The more the data followed the trend, the more he was assured that his predictions would be accurate. As a budding scientist and a dabbling mathematician, he came up with an equation to model the rate of change of the earth. dh/dt=kh. The rate of change of habitability is proportional at any given moment to the habitability at that given moment. His computer then was able to take his modeling equation, give it some data, let it gobble it up, digest it, and, by the some electronic process of elimination, excrete a graph of

habitability as a function of time. This graph excited Jon. The computers graph predicted the normalization of the earths atmosphere and surface temperature predicted the complete restoration to pre-colombian conditions within a relatively short time frame. Unfortunately for Jon, Earth would not see the beginnings of the restoration of

civilization until a long time after his death. He was, however, going to be around when the computer model deemed it safe to travel up to the surface to explore.

The

once-fierce

winds

above

the

middle

of

former

North

America showed distinct signs of slowing as they blew across the dusty desert plains towards their destinations. The air became the tiniest bit less dense with particles of rock, sand, and ancient shell. The color of the sandstorm clouds lightened the slightest time. The hue. These storms by also the became winds less ferocious their over

dunes

created

slowed

constant

transfiguration. It became more and more possible to stand on a dune without being quickly engulfed in sand. Though it wasnt as if there were any humans there to try it. On the opposite side of the planet, in what so many

centuries ago was called The Philippines, the airstream let up so much that there it seemed, in comparison to other winds, it had turned into a mild breeze. A tint of green lashed at the shores of the islands; the algae thriving quite nicely in the warm climate. The presence of algae was a big thing for Earth. The planet had not seen organic life in thousands of years.

Much to our surprise, Jason hasnt been the one annoying us. Its the on constant nerves. lack of things done to do that that is really have

getting

our

Weve

everything

we

enjoyed. A couple months ago Brian found some ancient games where you use cards with increasing values from 2 to A. Why the order starts at 2 instead of one or zero none of us had an answer for. And we likewise couldnt figure out what A stood for. At first I thought it was the beginning of the alphabet and thats why it was more valuable than the number cards. Jason quickly pointed out that if that were the case there would be B cards and C cards and so on, which is a good point. Its just something well have to take at face value, not confuse

ourselves with, and get used to.

Brian showed us some games that were really easy to get the hang of. This one game called go fish was one of those. In go fish every player is dealt seven cards and then they take turns guessing about what other cards are in other peoples sets of cards. The object of the game is to get pairs of cards so they guess about is whether their opponents have the same number of letter as you. Its not too clear whether the true goal in this game is to get the most pairs or to run out of cards first. It seems kind of open-ended. I guess since its such an easy game to understand and play, you can add rules to make it harder. We learned to play more complex games as well. Games where one group of cards, Brian said they were called suits, are

deemed through a round of betting to be whats called a trump suit. These games required more skill and generally, if you thought hard and remembered the cards played during the course of the game, you could pretty much be certain of whether you would win or lose in the beginning. If, as was the case during many of the long lazy days, we felt as though we were too tired from the drivel of ship life and did not want to think very hard, we would play games like go fish but on most days that we played card games, we would play the harder games. The harder games are a lot more fun to play I think because they required active participation. You have to really watch what's going on, which cards have been played, what strategy you should use, and so on. Some of the names for these games were pretty odd. None of them seemed to really relate to the game. Pinochle, Bridge, Rummy? Where did those come from? We learned some gambling games too. They were apparently played with an ivory cube, but as we kind of live on a

spaceship, we dont have one of those. Instead, Jason programmed a random number generator for numbers from one to six. Jason did

an exceptional job with this, he left it open ended so we could program in different parameters if the game called for the added results of two dice for example. Some of the games called for certain cards to be drawn from a hand of a certain quantity. For these kinds of games, Jason was nice enough to program in some code for conditional probability. Brian and I have read basically every piece of literature that we could get our hands on that wasnt handbooks or

technical manuals and even some of those made their way onto our reading list. Ive learned more about ancient Terra than I ever would have in a university class, and thats saying a lot

because those classes are incredibly difficult. Brian and the books he has recommended me have taught me loads of stuff and about could Terran probably culture. be Their as pastimes a are

interesting

studied

separate

anthropologic subject. So many of their sports involved great risk to life and limb. They jumped off of bridges with only a rope attached to them, they raced cars at speeds that are

definitely deadly, they did so many things that, with a single mistake, would kill them. And these were their sports! No wonder Ive always heard that the Terrans were a stupid race of people. I do find it odd though that these things were sports but the Terrans also called such things as croquet a sport. Its so tame compared to the other ones. I found that odd. Anyway. Jason didnt have the same problems with boredom as we did. Remember all the toys and guitars and stuff that he brought, well, bringing all of it has paid off for him. Hes been bored, but definitely not as bored as Brian and me. Im a bit envious of his foresight. The good thing is, he isnt rubbing our faces in it and getting as annoying as we predicted. For the most part, at least, hes stayed within his soundproof room when he practices his guitar and plays his video games.

I actually think Brian is going to crack and ask Jason for something to do. Ive seen him looking the external display screen with a sort of longing when Jason plays his virtual

reality games. I dont blame Brian at all. If he doesnt ask Jason Im sure hell go insane.

Deep in the heart of the African continent the trees swayed in the gentle wind. The few trees above two meters bent slightly with a groan where the others looked up at them jealously. They were the few trees in existence. The pioneers of complex life. They broke what was left of the wind and slowed it further, making it even more conducive to life. The patches of grass down wind from the trees turned from sandy yellow gray to faint green to full deep grassy emerald. The trees brought up water from deep under the ground. These were not going to be blown away easily. They slowly grew up and sheltered even more infant

trees. The baby trees grew and grew and provided shelter for other baby trees and so on and so forth they grew, sheltered, and grew some more and eventually created the first oasis in the second era of life on Earth. A ways west, on the coast of the once-Atlantic Ocean, the water eroded the sand away from the rocky coast. Instead of blowing fresh sand to where the sand was just washed away the water succeeded in replacing the sand. This happened over and over and a million times over again and a stream then a creek then a river was created. On the banks of this river, plant life thrived. Across the ocean, a miraculous thing was about to take place. High in the sky, clouds formed. These were not the usual clouds; clouds of yellow thick sand. These clouds were white. They were puffy. They were bulging with water; just waiting to

burst and rain down with optimism and white lightning. Moving at considerable speed, the high altitude winds pushed the storm above the eastern North American coast. The lightning shot down and made its first contact with the Earths surface for a

geological age. The sand on the surface froze in the form of glass chucks of an infinite number of shapes and designs.

So Jon came up to me yesterday with some interesting news. We get to go up and explore Earths surface in about two weeks time. Well, according to his model that he made fifty three years ago, it should be safe for us to go up there. Im Peter, Jons supervisor. I approve things he does and whatnot. Ive only been on the job for a couple weeks and its really awesome that I get to go up to the surface. Im told Jon realized this trend, the normalization of the Earths surface whatevers,

early. The old supervisor I'm sure wanted to see this little expedition through, but Hannah died about a month ago. I didnt know her. But I think the only real reason that Jon is still here on the job is this trip. He really wants to see the results of his trend in real life and not just as an inference from a bunch of data.

We had the most eventful day of probably our entire lives today. Our ships internal navigator led us directly through a field of asteroids! Jason noticed in the middle of the night when he was up doing something. According to him, he panicked first and did not know what to do. But then I guess he rushed into our rooms one by one and violently woke us up. I see why he did that, but the ship knows where its going. It probably

calculated the orbits of each of the asteroids in this group

before we even began this journey. This new type of spacecraft is the safest that theres ever been. But, Jasons just worried and thats understandable. But I am glad he woke us up. My old texts on Terra say there was a distinct belt of asteroids in Terras solar system. Depending on where we are in our journey, we could very well be near to our destination. Yeah, its about the right time for us to be almost there so I'm sure it was the Kiuper Belt. The Terran solar system wont take but day or so for us to traverse. I'm so happy were practically finally there. I was going crazy. I had nothing to do except play the occasional card game and book to read. I was even contemplating trying my luck at Jasons guitar setup. But anyways I just have to wait a single day and then well start our work on Terra. I can last that long.

Report to the launch station. I paged a command to Jon. Almost immediately, the response came. Im coming up. This is the big day. This is the day we get to go up to the surface; the day Jon has been waiting for for fifty years or so. Soon there was a knock on the station front door. Jon was the last of the crew to arrive. Some of the engineers had to fix some last minute problem that they found with the something or other with the wiring in the cockpit of the submersible. They said it would only take ten minutes and it had been seven before Jon walked in. As chief supervisor I get to sit in the cockpit with the captain and Jon and watch our rise to the surface. It will be quite the epic journey to the atmosphere.

Cmon, hurry up Jason! Well leave you up here on the ship if youre not here soon! I couldnt wait to get down to the surface of the Terra and Jason was just throwing a wrench in the gears here. Casually, Jason walked in. Late. I guess thats just his way of doing things. Anyways, Of we got into we the pod and

initiated

the

escape

sequence.

course,

werent

really

escaping in the sense that we needed to get away quickly, but the escape pod was the only safe way to get down to Terra through its atmosphere. It also had better landing capabilities than the main ship. We had a lot of room in the pod as our crew was so small. The pods are usually made for full crews of twelve space

officers not three skinny scientists. Earths gravity pulled us down to Earth faster, faster, faster until we were burning up in the atmosphere. The heat did not affect us at all; we could just see its power from the window screens. This seemed to scare Sarah but Jason was fixated with the view. Soon we landed on a great sandy plain with dust and gritty particles flying around in a greeting. So whos going first? Sarah asked, but Jason was already getting up to open the hatch to go outside.

The

door

that

separated

the

launch

station

from

the

passenger cabin opened and closed after we went through. It was happening. I was finally going to see Earth. Ive been waiting so long for this! Heck, humanity has been waiting so long for this! I cant wait. The sub travelled extremely quickly up to the surface. The pressure difference accelerated the vessel to such a speed that it shot out of the water when it burst its way above the surface of the ocean. The stunned captain and crew waited in shock as

human eyes witnessed the majesty of the skies from below for the first time in millennia. As they started to settle on the calm sandy brown ocean, the captain started the engines. They needed to find someplace to beach their craft and explore. It didnt take long to find the distinct bulge on the horizon that signifies land. When it was found, we changed our course and headed directly for it. The sub had powerful engines so it flew through the water like air. On the beach, I was the first to step onto the sand. The sky was really over powering, like a big blanket that I couldnt get rid of. I guess living indoors all my life has made me a little unprepared for this. I shuffled through the sand for a while whilst the crew checked the submarine and their instruments. Keeping within

visible range of the crew and the captain I ambled over to a patch of ground that looked strange compared to its

surroundings. It looked darker and fluid, almost as if it were a tiny version of the ocean. As I approached, I saw what it was. It was a stream. Just like in the stories mothers tell their children before bedtime at home. On the banks of the stream the faintest shade of green showed in the brown wet sand. I looked up to tell the others and something caught my eye. Nobody had gone farther inland than I so I was surprised to find three figures in the distance. They hadnt noticed me so I took the opportunity to sneak back to my captain and his crew. I quieted them all down and pointed to the still visible figures. It looked to me that they were in a huddle, possibly discussing some issue. The crew and I were told quietly by the captain to crouch close to the sand. I couldn't follow orders. I was transfixed by the thought that other humans, at least they looked like humans.

Suddenly, one after the other they pointed into the sky.

Jason stepped out onto the sandy plain and winced at the suns intensity. There was only one sun on Terra but it was sure bright. I ventured outside second and I had to coax Sarah out slowly; she was a little nervous at the thought of being outside without special gear on. Shortly, we were all outside ogling at the horizon in front of us and how far away it was. Terra seemed to go on forever. We hiked for a couple minutes and then Sarah called a meeting. We need to figure out what we need to do now that were down here and when we need to do it. First, I say we should return to the main ship and get all of our supplies, then I think we- Jason was pointing at something in the sky. A large rock from somewhere in the Earths solar system had gained tremendous speed. This rock was huge. At several tens of miles wide and solid iron, there was not much that could stop its forward motion. It zoomed closer and closer until captured by Earths gravity. It pulled the rock into the planets thick atmosphere which then pushed back on it. The friction between the meteorite and the air was so powerful, that the iron became red hot. Some of the outer layers were forced off of the iron chunk, but it could not be stopped. In one second, there was a stream with new fresh grass growing on its banks. In one second, there were humans; part of a species that had not seen its home planet in thousands of years. In one the rediscovery of Earth occurred twice by two races of humans. In the next second, they were gone.