The Chronicles of the Milky Way Galaxy : Gaia

Chapter 10 : Gaia

The third planet of the Solis system, Solis-C, which was nicknamed "Gaia," seemed
to be a utopia for humans to settle on. The crew began waking up while the ship was
orbiting the beautifully blue and green planet at relatively slow speeds.

The head geologist, Hellen, with uncontrolled excitement, was organizing her
team. "We have the suggestions fed by our systems people. We need to see the
potential landing sites and choose fast. Margaret, please isolate our searches to
places near river deltas with close proximity to both mountains and forests. We will
need materials for our settlement."

Trying to help as fast as she could, Margaret said, "We don't have
subterranean data yet. I can isolate potential places, but I can't say for sure that there
will be metal veins close by."

"Then let's choose our top picks, and within a couple of passages, we should
be able to get some underground information if we selectively scan those," said
Hellen, full of confidence.

"I am on it," replied Margaret while working with her team.
Once all teams were working on their projects, Alex gathered the leaders to
talk to. "Finally, we are gathered all together. I will have to ask this before anything
else: Have you realized that we did it? We did it! We made it safe and sound. The
Hera worked!"

"I knew she would," said Gakuto, smiling and shaking his head.

"Then why were you shaking in fear when we met, like a thousand years
ago?" teased Konoya.

"That never happened," replied Gakuto.

Alex interrupted. "Right. So now we are here. At our new home. Hypatia, what
can you tell us about the solar system?"

"Well, when we left Earth, we were joking about this system been engineered.
We might have to begin thinking about that again, only this time seriously. There are
five planets that are habitable, with Solis-C or Gaia being the closest to what we
would engineer for ourselves. All five have oxygen, all five have life. Not advanced
enough to broadcast signals though. All five are moonless, and there are nearly no
asteroids roaming between them. The chances of a naturally occurring solar system
like this are astronomically low. Finding one so close to Earth is ... nothing short of a
miracle."

Everyone got skeptical for a second until Alex broke the silence. "We will
soon be ready to descend. Before we go, I would like to share with you some
information." His seriousness made everyone focus. "Before our communications
with Earth were severed, I received information that Earth was facing an increasingly
larger number of problems. They even sought our help to combat them, which either
way I think it was a desperate attempt. Now we have a decision to make, but first,
Margaret will give us the whole picture. Margaret?"

"Here is the problem. Earth has been broadcasting again. We believe that

they never stopped. We have a forty-year delay now, but we are still seeing an
increasingly complex signal arriving."

Gakuto smiled. "So, they made it. The Earth should be habitable now. And
what marvelous technologies are they going to share with us?"
Margaret looked at him with her lips pressed together. "They are not."
Everyone looked at Margaret, who continued. "Everything is encrypted in a way that
we cannot decrypt it."

"Well then, send them an unencrypted message and ask for the key or for a
new channel where we can communicate," argued Gakuto.

"Well, that's the thing. We have, and they never replied. We think they have
purposely kept us cut off," replied Margaret.

"Now," said Alex, "we need to decide if we will be sharing our findings with
them. We can just as easily encrypt all our transmissions and hide our discoveries."
"I don't see any reason to do that," said Gakuto.

Konoya broke her silence. "Actually, do they know we have arrived safe and
sound?"

"Yes, they do," replied Jain.

"Then we should cut them off. The chances of them contacting us will
increase if their curiosity increases. As long as they are receiving all our news, they
might never open channels with us."

Jain started moving her head in agreement. "I think Konoya is right. We
should keep our communications encrypted until they open an unencrypted channel
first. We have been broadcasting all the way till here."

"Then we agree that this is the plan?" said Alex, who saw the room agreeing.
"Konoya, please update all communicators with new encryptions. Let's head back to
the crew to prepare for our landing."

Twenty-four hours pass with everyone preparing for the landing. The suitable
areas have been thoroughly scanned, and the crew is finally ready for their descent.
They are all waiting for Alex's order to enter the "Arrow," which will take them to the
surface.

"This is it," said Alex, "we are finally ready. I believe that everyone has read
the reports of the ground team and of the analysis of the planet. In brief, the planet
Gaia has a radius of 2.1 times that of Earth. Its gravity is 1.24 times higher, which
means that although you might not feel it since your nanobots will take the extra load,
items around you will fall faster, tools and structures will age faster, and other daily
changes. The days here last about thirty-three hours and twenty-one minutes, so we
will all have to get used to this cycle. Everyone will take his own pass in making that
happen. A year here lasts 44.26 days or about 61.5 days back on Earth. There are
no seasons for us to mark the beginning of the first year, and therefore we will mark
the first day as the day of our landing. Today. Lastly, we have no data to see the
effects of ... anything, really. Everything is new, so anything you feel is wrong,
anything you think is important, you need to report it." He took a deep breath. "Good
luck to us all."

The atmosphere was quite calm. It was as if none really understood that they
would be entering a new world. The cheers had ended, and the seriousness of the
work ahead was all the thinking was about. Everyone had specific tasks to perform,
which would go on until the safe establishment of the city. The idea that they were an
invading species colonizing another world had not passed through anyone's mind ...
yet.

The ground team had sent a message that everything was clear for the
descent of the crew. Once the Arrow was fully loaded, the 250 people it could fit sat
on their seats and began their fifteen-minute journey to the planet's surface. The rest
of the crew, along with their machinery, would land in single-use capsules of twenty-
five each that would be salvaged for materials after their use. After the Arrow landed,
Alex and Jain were the first ones out.

"I can't believe my eyes," said Alex while holding Jain's hand.

"This is paradise," said Jain. "You brought us to paradise." She turned and
kissed him.