Space Colony: The Founding

First in a series of loosely connected stories about a space colony. This first tale was written as a stand-alone piece, but the setting gave me another idea....

*****

One: Space wreck

The bulkheads were failing one after the other, we couldn't keep pressure in the spaces around the meteorite hit. I told the captain and he ordered us to forget it, to abandon ship. I told my damage control party to evacuate, but leave the closest escape pod for me. I was going to give the rest of the crew time by sealing the doors behind me as I went. I reported to the captain one last time, telling him my intentions. He wasn't too happy, but could see my logic. He wished me luck and then boarded the bridge pod. I was sealing the last door, next to the final escape pod, and could hear the bulkheads collapsing one after the other, getting closer and closer as they failed, each one quicker than the one before it. I dived into the last pod and slammed the airlock shut behind me. The ship imploded as I hit the release. Some fragment or other smacked into the escape vehicle, throwing it away from the rest of the escape pods. I was thrown around the cabin and hit my head. I blacked out....

---

I awoke with a groan. The pod had stabilised and I was lying down on one of the bunks, a medi-pack across my forehead. Puzzled, I sat up carefully. What was going on? I was supposed to be the only one here, everyone else should have abandoned before I got to the airlock. I caught a movement to my left and turned to see what it was. There was a girl I'd never seen before checking the instruments. I swung my legs out of the bunk and attempted to stand. I was still a bit groggy however, and staggered before I caught hold of something, the edge of the bunk I think, and steadied myself. The girl must have seen me and was suddenly beside me.

"Steady, that was a really bad smack on the head."

"What happened? And more importantly, who are you and where did you come from?"

"Well, in the order you asked, we hit a piece of debris as we released, which span us out of control and away from everybody else." She grinned matter-of-factly. I was mesmerised by her blue eyes. "Secondly, I'm Lisa Hughes." She faltered for a moment. "As for where I came from." Now she looked down, the smile slipping from her face. "I've been here the whole voyage. I'm a stowaway."

"A stowaway? How? Everything is checked." My legs seemed steadier now so I stood.

"I'm good at hiding." She shrugged.

"All right, it's too late for repercussions now. What's our status?"

"As far as I can tell, we were batted away at least ninety degrees from the others, and the radio is out I think. I haven't looked at anything else; I don't know enough to say what is or isn't working." I started to walk towards the controls but my legs were still rubberery. Lisa caught me and helped me to the pilot's chair.

"One thing I have to ask." I said as I slid into the seat. "Why didn't you eject earlier?"

"You were still out there, buying time. I thought I should wait for you."

"You'd have been safe if you'd left me." I stated flatly.

"I might have been here illegally, and I admit I've done many things that I shouldn't, but I couldn't just leave someone to die." She looked crestfallen.

"Sorry, I didn't mean it like that. It's just my job to assess risks and act on them. Logically, you should have gone." I paused. "I'm glad you didn't. I probably would have stayed too, logic isn't everything." I ran my eyes over the controls. All the readouts appeared fine. I tried shifting the direction we'd been sent in, but nothing happened, the stick barely moving.

"I tried that." Lisa said from her standing position behind me. "It felt like something was jamming the steering."

"I think you're right. In which case, we'll have to hope we don't run into anything head on."

"You can't fix it?" She asked worriedly.

"Not from in here. Whatever we hit left something stuck in the glide fins."

"You mean we'll just keep going until we hit something?" There was a sense of astonishment in her voice.

"I don't think it will come to that. Hopefully it will work loose when we hit a planet's atmosphere, at least enough to give me landing control."

"And that's your plan? Wait until we hit something? Brilliant!" She snorted and crossed her arms.

"Well unless you have a space suit hidden somewhere so I can go outside, yes."

"What about the radio?"

"Could be anything, I'm not great at communication systems." I had a look at the automatically updated supplies list. "Some of the food and water are missing."

"I had to eat something while I was hiding here."

"I suppose you had to have food, but there seems to be a lot of water gone. That'll just mean we have to be careful, we don't know how long we'll be in here. Ration the food and water. No unnecessary wastage."

"What do you mean by that?"

"No washing for a start, we use the sonic shower instead."

"What? That's not the same. I like a proper shower." She looked at me with a frown and a pout.

"Tough, it wasn't me who used up a third of the stored water!" I snapped back. My head was hurting from the crack I'd got earlier again and it made me sound angrier than I was.

Lisa turned and stormed off to the main bunk room. I sighed. I knew I had been harsh, but I had to make her see the reality of the situation.

---

The next couple of days were pretty tense between us, neither of us speaking more than a bare minimum to the other. Lisa thought I was being too draconian, I thought she hadn't grasped the problems we had. She spent most of her time in the bunkroom where it was obvious she had been stowed away, occasionally going into the galley or coming to see what I was doing. I had tried easing the controls one way then another then a third way, just to see if I could get any movement. The joystick eased a little, but not enough to regain any sort of control. It was obvious they needed some sort of jolt to free up properly. That however was impossible from inside.

I had worked out a rationing system with the computer, mainly for the water and we were both sticking to it. The later part of the second day I noticed that Lisa had missed a meal. Deciding that we couldn't go on like this, I went to the galley and got her rations and then took them to her.

Lisa was lying on a bunk, reading the emergency manual for the pod. She looked up as I came in.

"I brought your food. We don't need to skip meals yet." I said with a grin, hoping that was the right conciliatory tone.

"Thanks." She said taking the proffered plate. As she ate I took the chance to look at her properly for the first time. She had a pretty face, sometimes obscured by her curly dark blonde hair. The loose jumpsuit she wore hid her figure fairly effectively, but there were hints she might be a bit of a stunner.

"Find anything in the book?" I asked.

She looked suspiciously at me.

"I don't know." She stared straight at me with her blue eyes flashing. "Are you teasing me?"

"No, absolutely not." I waved my hands. "It's been a long time since I had to service one of these, I may have forgotten something." I sat next to her. "So, what have you found out?"

"Well these pods are fitted with lots of useful bits and pieces if you're stranded on a planet."

"Such as?"

"There's a small bio pod that lets you grow food when it's deployed, a water purifier, some basic tools, things like that."

"But nothing that can help us until we get onto the ground somewhere?" I asked hopefully, maybe I'd forgotten something.

"I haven't found anything, sorry."

"Not your fault. I should have remembered the manual as well." I sighed. "My first command, and I have no control. Great."

"Don't be too hard on yourself. Thanks to you everyone else got clear in time." Lisa rested her hand on my knee. It felt comforting. "We'll just have to hope you're right about the controls when we do reach a planet."

"Well they do seem to have loosened up a little now. Not enough for any major manoeuvres but when we see a planet I should be able to edge us towards it."

"Will we make it?" Suddenly Lisa looked scared for the first time. The hand on my knee clenched tighter. I took it and held it, turning and looking into those mesmerising eyes again.

"I'd be lying if I said it was going to be easy Lisa, but we can still get out of this alive, although we may need some luck."

"Thank you for the truth." She took her hand back. "I've just realised, it's been two days and I haven't asked you your name."

I laughed.

"Chief Petty Officer Dave Lynton at your service, m'am." I said, giving a mock salute. "Now, eat up. And then brush up on all the emergency landing procedures, you may have to put some of them into use."

"Yessir." She gave me the first grin for two days and saluted back, although it was with the wrong hand.

---

We had been plunging through empty space for a week when Lisa saw a planet, a blue planet, on the scope. Blue meant water and oxygen. The jammed controls had loosened enough for gentle steering, so I edged our escape craft towards it. We had decided days ago that when a suitable planet came up we would take our chances and try to set down on it. The little pod got closer and closer to the planet. With a bit of a struggle I managed to get onto an approach that wouldn't just bounce us off the atmosphere. Lisa put up the heat shields. Then we were through into the upper stratosphere. The craft heated up. I kept jiggling the controls to try and free them up some more; it seemed to be working, but we were still too fast to make a safe landing. With a little more control I tried to put us into a stall pattern to lose some speed. It helped, but not enough.

Lisa spoke for the first time in two hours.

"Should I deploy the emergency drag sail? Or are we going too quickly?"

I hesitated for a moment. I'd forgotten about the big metal drag chute the pod had, but would it work? Or would it just rip off?

"Do it! And then cross your fingers. And everything else."

The huge metal plate deployed with a loud clang. The deceleration was massive, throwing the pair of us about in our seats even though we were strapped in. The pod started to respond to the controls for the first time since its launch. The strain on the drag sail was immense though, it wasn't intended for such drastic manoeuvres in an atmosphere. After a couple of minutes the connections gave out and we lost it. But it had slowed us enough so that I had gained enough control over the pod as long as I wanted to go down.

"Lose the heat shields too!" I ordered.

Deftly Lisa jettisoned the heavy shields and opened up the vis-screen.

"Now look for a landing spot."

"As opposed to a crashing spot?" Lisa grinned. "How about there?" She pointed. "Open ground, water, some vegetation to slow the crash."

"I see it." I eased the pod around. "You're not supposed to enjoy crashing you know?" I grinned despite our situation.

"Sorry, I'm new at this." She grinned back.

"Brace yourself, we're going in." I aimed our little craft at the middle of an open expanse of ground. Under normal conditions I would have hovered and selected a soft landing in an appropriate area, but I wasn't able to be fussy. As we got closer to the ground I eased the nose up and started to dump the last of the momentum. Just before the tail hit the ground I levelled out again and we finally touched the ground. We slid across the plain, getting closer and closer to the forestry. I wondered if I could slide us around. I hauled on the joystick one last time and our faithful escape craft slewed around until the tail bumped gently into a tree.

I slumped in my seat.

"That was not fun." I stated tiredly.

"You mean that wasn't a normal landing?" Lisa laughed. I looked over at her. She was as dishevelled as I was, but her eyes were shining brightly with relief. "Never mind Sir. They say any landing you walk away from is a good one."

"Are you being insubordinate Miss Hughes?"

"Me sir? No sir." We both burst out laughing. It was obviously relief after the harrowing landing. Lisa unstrapped herself and leant forward, checking out the instrument readings. "Definitely got oxygen, and water. Shall I deploy the bio pod?"

"You might as well. We'll have to test to see what native plant life is edible."

"Oh! There's a thing for that too."

"Okay. Find it later. I want to open the hatch and see what sort of planet this is." I held out my hand to Lisa. "And I think we should do it together." She blushed, but took the proffered hand.

We stood on the threshold and looked out on a new landscape. Apart from the scar left across the plain by our abrupt arrival it was unsullied by anything. A pure clean world. As we stepped out I was determined to keep it as much like this as possible. Lisa clutched my hand tightly.

"It's beautiful." She murmured. "I hope we don't spoil it just by being here."

"No, we'll try and leave it like this." I smiled at her. "So no detergents when you have a shower." I pointed towards the stream which ran over a low cliff in a gentle waterfall. She grinned and then ducked back inside, presumably to find a towel. I left her to enjoy herself and followed the stream for a mile or so, paralleling the line of our landing. It ran into a lake. There I found the first sign of life on our new home: Fish snapping at insects. I wondered what other animals there might be here. As if in answer two birds swooped low over the waters surface. There seemed to be enough here to support us if we were never found. I turned and made my way back to the pod, collecting some firewood on the way; might as well make a start I thought.

---

Night had fallen and the sky seemed full of unfamiliar stars. The fire crackled noisily. I had caught two fish and the smell of them cooking was drifting over the camp. Lisa was lying on her back, hands behind her head, looking up at the stars. She looked content and at peace for the first time since I'd met her. Two moons were rising, bathing the land in an ethereal glow.

"How far from the normal space lanes are we?" She suddenly asked me.

"I'm not sure. Pretty far I should think. We didn't pass any navigation beacons on our way here, so we could be here a while."

"I don't think I mind; it's so nice and quiet here." She sat up. "We will be all right, won't we?"

"There's more than enough to live on, I haven't seen anything big enough to trouble us, I think we'll be fine for as long as it takes." I stroked my chin; I hadn't shaved in a week. "But I'll have a look at the radio and the emergency beacon tomorrow and see if I can get them working."

"No rush." She lay back down and resumed her gazing at the multitude of stars.

"Fish is nearly ready." I said after a while, twisting around the stick they were impaled on. Lisa didn't answer, she was asleep. I sighed and took the cooked meal from the flames, laying them on a plate. As I picked at one I took the opportunity to look at Lisa. I had been right; she was a stunner, everything in perfect proportion, and these beautiful eyes! I shook myself. This was no time to be falling for her. Other things needed to be done. I lay back myself and started to list them in my head, but they would all have to wait until tomorrow.

---

I awoke in the cold light of the morning by the remains of the smouldering fire. Lisa wasn't where she'd fallen asleep. I looked about, worried that I'd been wrong and some creature had taken her in the night. And then I heard a yelp followed by the sound of laughter coming from the waterfall. I went towards the sounds a little cautiously, unsure what I'd find. I peered over the scrub bushes.... And stopped and stared. Lisa was stood naked under the falling water, her back to me, obviously revelling in the feeling as it cascaded down over her. I hurried away, ashamed that I'd been sneaking up on her, more ashamed that I had seen her unclothed.

The rest of the day I worked hard at all the things on my mental list, scared to talk to Lisa. I'd already decided to never tell her. Eventually though she became curious and trapped me as I slid from the pod roof after fixing the homing beacon.

"Have you been avoiding me today?" She said, wagging her finger under my nose. "You have, haven't you? Why?"

"I....I've been busy, fixing things. You know, the beacon?" I pointed back up to where I'd come from. "Connection had come loose."

"I thought that there was no hurry? Come on, tell me the truth." She stood back a moment. "Is it something I did or said last night?" Now she looked worried again.

"No, Lisa. It's me." My earlier decision melted in the light of her eyes. "This morning I woke up and couldn't see you around. I panicked a little and then heard you in the waterfall. When I saw you it was all I could do to turn away. I'm sorry."

"You got uptight about that? Perhaps you better install a curtain."

"Good idea..."

"I'm kidding, idiot! And it's about time you washed too."

"I've been using the sonic shower."

"That's not proper washing, that's just agitating molecules. Now go and stand under the water." She pushed me up the hill. As I bemusedly made my way there she called out again. "If you're lucky, I may come and scrub your back!"

---

Our lives settled into a regular pattern. Lisa would tend to the bio pod and then go and collect some of the edible plants and fruits we'd discovered. I'd catch one or two fish and then head off into the forest to see if there were any animals we could eat or possibly domesticate. After a month we had found some chicken-like birds and had set some traps. I had checked those daily too. Anything we had caught I returned to the pod. It wasn't long until we had more than enough to sustain us, and I decided to remove the traps. I still made sure I was out of the camp when Lisa had her shower: I didn't want to repeat that embarrassment, although she had laughed it off. After our initial distrust we were getting along fine now and I didn't want to mess things up by doing or saying something inappropriate. Lisa seemed to be born to this sort of life; she revelled in it. That surprised me. She'd appeared to be some sort of spoiled brat, dependant on modern comforts, but I was so wrong. She had adapted better than me, a damage control officer whose whole job was make-do-and-mend.

---

And then it happened. A month or so after the crash (I still refused to justify it as a landing) Lisa had discovered some grain that could be ground and turned into bread and we were celebrating her discovery by having egg on toast.

"That was so much better than any other toast I've ever had." I said, brushing the crumbs away.

"Home-made always tastes better." She replied with a certain satisfaction.

"I've got to ask Lisa, why are you so good at this outdoor stuff? Most women I know hate anything outside."

"I've been hitching and stowing away since I was fifteen, nearly ten years ago. I wanted to see the galaxy, and not just from inside a ship, so I just got used to living rough. Although I do admit home-comforts are nice sometimes."

"You are an amazing girl, you know?" I moved around to her side. "I don't think I'd have got as much done if it hadn't been for you."

"Can I ask a question now?" She asked. I nodded, it only seemed fair. "Have you got a girl somewhere?"

I wondered where that one came from, and where it was leading.

"Not at the moment actually. Any reason for asking?"

"Well..." She looked down and then gave me the blue eyes. "We've been here over a month and you haven't made a move on me. So I figured you must have someone." I shook my head again. "That leaves me with: you don't like girls, or you don't find me even slightly attractive." I was dumbstruck momentarily. "And I know neither of those is true after the waterfall incident." She carried on. Now I turned red and looked away. "So what is it? What is keeping you from kissing me?"