Chapter 1: Planetfall
"And when at last we are come through the holy void, the space between stars where only God is found, I yearn to look upon a new homeworld. A verdant jewel, our first step out of the cradle. Mankind was succored and weaned by earth, a babe grown to the flower of manhood in her loving care. But man cannot stay in his cradle forever" - Chaplain Ismail Federov, Address to Landing Faculty
Descent, Melody15:00 Hours, Rotation 8-Upsilon, Earth Year 2134Down through the pale blue atmosphere of the crystalline world the lander from the Initiative streaked, the noise of her passage a gathering storm. Through wispy cirrostratus she punched in her haste, a glowing comet of red and white and orange hues making its way with alacrity to the bosom of the world below. In her wake the clouds boiled down angrily, the turbulence of her passage disturbing the tranquility above the endless crystalline plains of glittering pearl and effervescent ice. At his impact suspensor in the command chamber of the
Deliverance, Gregori's eyes were wide with awe as the world swelled to its full grandeur below.
The lakes, sky blue marked with violet. The seas, mirror smooth and like so much molten silver. It was a landscape which a man's mind could scarce imagine, let alone comprehend in its pristine majesty. And it was the gift to mankind, to the Initiative, waiting for sojourners to take their repose upon its peaceful shores.
A shuddering filled the immense monolith of gray and black, retrothrusters igniting at the pre-programmed routine of the landing cycle. The Russian's teeth rattled in his head as the reverberations filled body and blood, and then they slowly began to abate, the calamitous descent of the
Deliverance arrested by the might of volatile chemistry and the resources of a dying world. Commander Asmodev smiled wanly at the raven-haired beauty in the gray mission jumpsuit across from him, as much to express reassurance for himself as truly display affection, but his heart still sang when his wife gamely smiled back, despite the pressure of the deceleration.
An automated voice rang out through the cabin, clearly audible even above the roar of engine and atmosphere.
"Landing projected in T-minus three minutes thirty seconds, and counting."
A few more minutes, after months of orbital maneuvers following the desynch, and then they would finally have arrived. Melody, the jewel of the Tirian Expanse, in more ways than one. Mineral scans from the lower atmosphere had been virtually unusable, the crystalline crust being so filled with dense precious metals and heavy isotopes as to make deep sensing hopeless. Still, a fecundity of riches was not something for which one should not thank God, however inconvenient that situation had been from a planning perspective.
More shudders, this one slamming the Slav down into his seat again, the true end of the deceleration from orbit. All of the colonists had had to be cleared for space travel, but sure as the sun rose in the east, someone would have blacked out again. Too much excitement, and pulling a few Gs, that was a poor combination for those of dubious health.
As sure as the sun rose in the east. Luckily Melody's rotation was appropriate for that. Gregori had heard some of the other landers disembarking from the
Voyager would be heading to worlds where that would no longer be true. The Commander merely thanked the maker that the charter for the Initiative had been one of the first approved, and so the world the endeavor was landing upon was one that was, all in all, vaguely earthlike. Inhabitable, as far as he was concerned. Oh, the gravity was a few percentages higher than might be convenient, but that was an engineering problem, not one of drastic proportions.
And then it happened. A gentle crunch, and outside the tiny portholes of the
Deliverance brilliant white mountains swelled into view suddenly. They had arrived, and it was time to get to work. As the computer released the restraints, the Siberian smiled, stood up, and stepped forward to enfold his wife in the most heartfelt hug she had had in years. A new home, for mankind.
One Year LaterThe prefabs had been deployed, the small nascent settlement of Descent now a burgeoning metropolis, a tiny echo of the vast megacities of the Trans-Siberian State here on the virgin world of Melody. She had grown and thrived, the foresight of the mission to this distant world having supplied her with exactly what she needed to maintain her ongoing activities. With the basics down, and a steady stream of heavily concentrated metals and Earth-compliant foodstuffs entering the brilliant white quarters of the colonial triumph, the Commander finally approved an exploration towards the magnetic north of the beautiful crystalline world.
They had orbital scans, of course. But there were so many more things that could be learned about a world from walking it on foot, seeing it from the back of a rover. Into the low gemstone foothills the Explorers passed, their buggies and supply crawlers slowly disappearing into the lifeless but gorgeous terrain.