The Outer Moon (A Sapphic Sci Fi Adventure)

Chapter 31

"Do you have the final list?" Vanessa asked Yasmin over the comms a month later. Yasmin was back in Earth's solar system with Zay and Nash in a pair of the larger ships, and one smaller one, and their first order of business was to get messages to the 150 people that had been chosen from the remaining list. It was easier now, knowing what kind of skills were necessary, so making the choices took less time. In a perfect world, they would have just taken thousands of people, but that might have overwhelmed the Antuhsas, so this was better. No doubt that could be done later if it was necessary.

Vanessa took over all of these communications, because Pepper was struggling more with their babies now. Yes, babies. It had taken time to get an ultrasound to look at the babies with the new medical gear, but Lily finally figured out how to do it. The first order was to do ultrasounds for all of the pregnant women, and that told Pepper and Vanessa that they were having twins. Vanessa was thrilled, but Pepper's belly was not.

Emily already had hers, a gorgeous little boy they named Percy in a nod to the Greek hero Perseus, just because they were all living in New Atlantis. The best part was, when Emily gave birth the bed knew, and reconfigured itself around her to aid the process, and Emily breezed through it. It was like the best epidural ever. It put Pepper and the other pregnant women at ease, that they would be able to handle the births of their babies too. It also sparked yet another surge of women wanting babies since they knew the births would be easier.

"Yep. I have the list and the email is already typed up. As soon as we're near one of the Wi-Fi satellites, we'll send it." That was one of the good things about human advancements, in the last decade Wi-Fi had become global, even in orbit, so it was much easier to communicate. "I'll grab whatever news I can as well."

Vanessa nodded grimly at that. Since there was no communication with Earth, they had no idea of the things that might have been going on there in the months since they'd left. Considering the turmoil that the planet had been in at that time, it might be good to understand what was still happening so they could adjust their plans accordingly. If that meant bringing a bigger fleet to get more people to their new world in a hurry due to deteriorating conditions, then so be it. They could even bring the gigantic Aspis if need be.

"Excellent. Hopefully, the people you bring back can tell us their perspective too." Since the people that they were sending emails to would come from at least eight different countries, that might help in getting a good look at the world through multiple lenses. With the discovery that the headsets could help learn languages, they were less picky about the common language requirements, and sent some of the helmets along on the ships for people to learn on the way back. Some of the people they were hoping would arrive with the new group were physicists, and so they were inviting half a dozen, and some astronomers to take a look at the new stars that were visible. They had brought mostly scientists to help get the colony going before, but now they needed people to help research the items that they were discovering on the old Atlantean planet, as it was hoped that they could recreate the power sources with access to the spare parts and schools. As well as Lexi had adapted, they were hoping for high school and college students too since their minds would hopefully be ready to learn quicker.

Everyone just hoped it would work.

Back in the Cancri system, having the new Antuhsas pilots allowed for faster exploration. They had already been able to explore the remaining fox ships easier with their small size, and it freed the humans like Emma up to explore the cities on Iluyanka more. She was using her new larger ship now, and exploring buildings with Macey, who was little Rosie's mom and was a teacher back on Earth. With the small number of kids that were on the planet, they only needed a few teachers for now, so she helped Emma down in the ruins while the others were in their new school helping the students through the studies.