Back here on Earth, it had been thirteen years since the launch of Star Shot fleet. Everyone on Earth was anxiously waiting for a positive response from the fleet. The bots had been updating Earth on their journey status. People knew the fleet made to the Alpha Centauri, and we knew the fleet made the descent, and now we were waiting to see if any bots made it live to the surface of Proxima b. Given the huge uncertainty of the final descent, an exact time for receiving a signal was unknown. It could happen any time now, or it could never happen, if none of them made it.
Kyler was now the department chair of the Star Shot mission. He and his team had been actively monitoring the receiving device, 24/7, for the entire last 6 months on the fleet maneuver in descent. They know 21 out of 300 bots eventually went down to the surface, and now he hoped at least one can contact Earth.
Beep! Beep!
They receive an incoming signal. The team jumped to their feet, and fixated their eyes and ears to the monitor:
"This is P17/3, calling from Proxima b. I got good news and bad news for you. Which one you want to hear first?"
The team looks at each other, puzzled:
"Why would it ask us a question? It knows that an answer would take 8 years to reach there, right?"
After a long silence, Kyler was getting impatient and shouted at the screen:
"All right! Give us the bad news first!"
The team looked at Kyler and chuckled.
"Sure Kyler, the bad news is, all other bots perished, and there's no coffee plants or anything similar to coffee on the surface of this planet. But the good news is, I am alive and well here on Proxima b! That's all you need, right?"
Everyone erupted in joy for a long awaited successful landing on the planet. After cheering congratulations to each other, they looked at Kyler skeptically, and then said, "how can you carry on a conversation with something 4 light years away?"
Kyler, trying hard to keep a straight face, looked back at everyone, then shrugged.
"Don't look at me! How am I supposed to know?"
And then, he could no longer contain his joy, and burst out laughing:
"Haha! I got you guys! I per-programmed this line into the bots nine years ago. They would ask this question, and pause for a minute, and say the next line. It would still say the exact same thing even if no one replied."
People laughed, some rolling their eyes.
The bot then said,
"OK, here is a nutshell: The planet is tidally locked with synchronous rotation, meaning one side is permanently facing the sun and the other perpetually dark; The planet is two and a half times the mass of our Earth but only slightly larger, meaning gravity is twice as much as on Earth. It has a moon about the same size as ours; the terminator zone is very temperate and habitable; the atmosphere is twice as dense as that on Earth, but oxygen level is only at 10% and nitrogen at 89%, the rest 1% is similar to that on Earth. Vegetation is abundant, and they use infrared, in addition to all visible light to conduct photosynthesis. Animals are in slightly different forms, but most of them are at or below reptile equivalent level. Human settlement is feasible, yet given the sparse concentration of oxygen and a stronger gravity, only the most fitted individuals can survive on this harsh environment. It would be up to your own judgment to send humans here. By the time you receive this message, I would be able to, along with my clones, finish constructing a teleportation receiving terminal ready to receive anything you wish to send over. And of course, I will keep you updated from now on, on a regular basis so you will know my progress. And I expect to hear back from you, about 8.4 years from today."
The whole world was jubilant at the news. Pictures sent by P13/7 showed an awe-inspiring beauty of the planet landscape, immediately driving mankind into action to try to colonize this alien world. The plan was to teleport Earth crops and domesticated animals there first, to make sure there would be food when we would send humans there. Given such a long distance between the two worlds, human teleportation would essentially be a one way trip, and anyone volunteered to go live on Proxima b would essentially be leaving Earth forever. To ease people's fear, all volunteers would only be sending a clone copy to Proxima b, with their original selves still remaining on Earth.
And hence, NASA elected to teleport Earth animals and plants here to see how well they adapt. Nine years later, NASA confirmed that they started to take a foothold. Most Earth plants did not grow very fast on Proxima b due to lack of sunlight, but animals adapt very well there: chickens, cows and goats soon adapted to eating insects and plants on Proxima b. There are a few natural predators on Proxima b, the apex one is a crocodile shaped reptile, reminiscent of the dinosaur age on Earth. Just like reptiles on Earth that do not have good stamina, they largely depended on surprising attacks to catch their prey, and it was rather easy for Earth birds and mammals to outrun them if there was enough distance in between.
After confirmation of a thriving Earth animal presence on Proxima b, NASA called for volunteers to settle on mankind's first exoplanet. There was no shortage of volunteers and NASA only accepted healthy individuals, age 20-30, as candidates to be teleported. Eventually they choose five hundred men and five hundred women, some were couples but many were singles, to be the first wave of settlers.
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Alien Singularity
Science FictionWith advancement in science and technology, we eventually succeeded in colonizing Proxima b, an exoplanet. But human settlement on Proxima b encountered a deadly alien species, and a battle of life and death occurred.
