Budd is now 3 years old. Florence and I can't wait to see what he wants to grow up to be. Iris is now 13 years old and is getting better and better at her dancing. A mother and I couldn't be more proud of her. We are so happy she got to choose what she wanted to do.
We haven't found a suitable home yet to lay roots. But we have faith that we will. We can't live on this ship forever. Humans were not meant to rome. Not to be cooped up out of ship.
We have seen many planets with breathable atmospheres on them. They just weren't suitable. Not like Earth was ideal for us. But there had to be that "one" out there.
Funeral planets were farther along enough past the primordial stage that Earth was when it was in one. Banishment planets we're planets that were a little further along than funeral planets. But at least 1500 years or more. Plus they had no alien life on it. (Other than you one-celled organisms.)
There were plenty of funeral planets along the way. Some of them had moons. But thankfully I didn't have to banish that many people. Maybe one or two in my time.
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The year of the uprising was really hard on people. Some people still talk about that time 3 years ago. I am so glad that nobody got caught. I didn't want to have to banish anybody. If we had gotten caught I don't know what would have happened.
I for one was scared. I was always thinking that something was going to go wrong. That somehow somebody was going to say something. They never did though. If my wife had ever been implicated somehow. My job would have been lost. I don't know what I would have done.
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There has been talk that we will never find that place to come home. I am even beginning to wonder. Sometimes I wonder if we should just land on the next banishment planet, and make home there. Instead of banishing somebody. Have them make a home from themselves on that particular planet should we settle for that planet and call it home?
It would have been better than not finding one. At least in my mind anyway. Should we keep traveling? I'm getting old and would like to see Iris and buds settle down somewhere and have a family. I don't want to see them grow up on this god-forsaken ship forever.
But wherever it happens to be. I want my children to be happy most of all. I just wanted to be on a planet somewhere. Anywhere..
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I think that I am the oldest person ever on this ship. My son is turning 10 years old and my daughter is turning 20. Iris has turned into a beautiful woman. She continues to surprise me.
Iris is continually dancing. She's always making people happy. She is looking more like her mother everyday. If only Florence was around to see it. Florence has been dead for 3 years now. She died when a heavy shelf fell on her in a nearby storage room. That storage room was the same room that her first headquarters were in. Ironic I know.
It is against the law to keep ashes of any kind. Whether it be a pet or a loved one. We gave her a beautiful service and buried her on a planet. We left that system 7 months ago.
It was a request of Budd's that we stay in viewing range of the planet. So I circled the system and what periodically passed the planet or just so Bud could say his goodbyes.
My first officer was getting wise to what I was doing. So, I had to leave the system in Florence behind forever. It broke my heart to tell Budd what I had to do. Budd cried for a week.
I think if Budd had been old enough. He would have stolen the shuttle just to get back to her. Budd what's a mama's boy through and through.
I am ecstatic today. But told me what he wanted to do when he grew up. But said that he wanted to be a starship Captain like his dad. He wanted to be the best Captain "ever."I couldn't believe my ears. I was going to have a successor. I wasn't going to be the last Lidesky to Captain this ship.
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Hey.. my name is Budd Lideski. I am the son of the great captain Patrick James Lideski. I am 18 now. I just started my career as an intern to the new captain, Mark Tufton. Mark is a great guy. An awesome family man.
Mark was a very good first officer. As a Captain though.. Mark needs to learn a bit more. But he is only been on the job for a short time. The last Captain was killed in combat. (Yes I said combat)
Newest combat when Dad was captain, yes but Dad didn't talk too much about it. He figures that everybody knew so there was no need to talk about it. Besides.. dad was a good negotiator. So there wasn't that much combat to talk about. But there seem to be more now that Dad was gone. Mark needed to step up his negotiation game.
Iris stopped dancing after Dad died. She decided to intern at the doctor's office. Irish decided she wanted to become a nurse. Then maybe someday become a doctor.
I am not sure that I like to changes that Mark had made to the roster. I get that he wants to run things his own way. But it feels like he is taking what little of my dad there was, away.
When I become captain. I am putting things back to the way they were. But I don't need to start worrying about that.
Besides, I have been hearing rumors. Rumors that a planet to settle on may have been found. I may not get that chance to become captain. If this plan at works out. I have to figure out what else I want to do with my life. Being a captain is all I have ever thought about doing. I've never had a backup plan.
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The planet turned out to be in a two-star system planet the planet was far enough from its parent Stars to have water. The only difference was though. The planet had an orbit of 32 hours. Other than that though everything was just about perfect with this planet.
After a week of surveillance of this planet. We found a place to land. We sent out a signal to the other ships in our fleet and they gradually trickled in. We settled upon this planet and built a new society for ourselves. We named this planet after the place where the ocean was hit by the meteor and had set off the sleeping super volcano.
That ocean was the Atlantic ocean. So.. this planet's name was Atlantia. I had suggested that the planet be named after the first captain of the ship that found this planet. But it didn't go that way. My suggestion just fell on deaf ears.
It took about 7 years for every ship to find its way to its new home. But they all did. Everybody was scattered about in different places on the planet. But that is because every ship landed in a new area of the planet.
Wherever you landed is where your colony made it home. Seeing how there were several new colonies. We had to come up with a new system of communication with each other. Communications did get set up. We had to build towers just to do so. Everybody kept in contact by sending letters via airways. On the ship, it was over the intercom. So this was much better.
If Dad was still alive. I think he would have loved it here. How everything is so lush and green. How the skies are always so blue. But there was an occasional storm. The waters were always so blue too. And for that matter, I think Mom would have loved it here too.
I figured out what I wanted to do. Now that we were settled in. I was going to be the first colony leader. Every colony needed one. And I stepped up to be that leader for the my colony. I was happy.
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