Zaden

BEGIN

The Omimiri galaxy. In a ship, thousands of light years away from my home planet, my blue speck, Earth. Footsteps loudly approached my rather small, steel, green and white cabin.

"Captain Njoku, Captain Tobi Njoku!"

"What is it man?" I asked, as I yawned and scratched my head and belly simultaneously.

"Open the door first, Captain!"

"Maybe I should have used my thick, dark skin, to blend in the darkness instead of answering," I thought

I tugged on my military bracelet to put on my uniform; my green and white camo shirt and trousers, black cap, and enormous black boots. Wow! Carrying and wearing all these must have been a real drag in the early days. Imagine washing, ironing and putting on clothes for five minutes, no way! I'll prefer just walking naked.
I opened my door.

"Captain, Commander Grace is waiting for you at the portal terminal"

"Why? Una for don leave me go na"

"No sir, you know that it's because of your skills that your toxic attitude is being tolerated, right?"

"Is that how you should talk to your Captain?" I replied with a fake frown, after listening to a pipsqueak reprimand me.

There was a pause for a slight second, before we both started laughing as I tapped my short friend, Ade, on the head.
Ade, my wonderful fair skinned pipsqueak, with good muscles. Ever since I left him in the height journey, seeing him now feels like Im looking at a huge muscular rodent, very funny.

"Dude, abeg! Stop na!" said Ade, as he struggled to get my hand off his head.

"Okay bro, I'm sorry" I replied as I chuckled

"But seriously, Tobi, we need you now more than ever. Africa needs you; Nigeria needs you. Heck! The world needs you."

The whole world needed me? That made me uncomfortable.

A few minutes later, we both arrived at the terminal. Ade moved back to his position amongst the troop. Everyone stood at attention as I slowly paced towards the Commander.  I felt like the boss.
I easily towered over everyone. As for my commander? She had an immovable presence. Her muscular build wasnt helping in reducing her dominant presence. All that was left was maybe a scar across her eye to complement her ebony looks, or maybe an eye patch, because those eyes were menacing

"Captain Tobi Njoku, if you weren't the nation's hero, I would court-martial you".

"I'm very sorry Sir!" I shouted while at attention.

"Get back in line!"

"Yes Sir!"

We all stood waiting for the usual speech before starting our mission, the commander walked slowly around us before stopping right beside the portal.

Here it comes, I told myself as I waited.

“Troopers, just two years ago, Africa, Nigeria, shocked the world. We became the progenitors of space exploration. The white man got to the moon, but we reached for the stars."

Everyone shouted with unison, "Awoo".

"Earth has a major problem, over population, we need a new home. The Heros platoon, you have but one mission, secure planet Zaden, subdue or eliminate any hostile in your way, do you understand?"

“Sir, yes sir!" we all shouted

With that she left the terminal. The engineers prepped the trajectory. My troopers waited with excitement.

I stared at the humongous metal circular object bound with wires, with the engineers running around and checking for any errors. Finally, it started up. A dark energy twirled at the center. It went on for a few seconds and then stopped, revealing the image of the planet. It zoomed in after showing the atmosphere, and then zoomed in to the ground. The scientists were right, the place looked just like Earth, with trees and grasses like a rainforest, but ten times larger. It felt like we were about to visit a mystical world of giants and dragons. 

"Captain it is time", said one of the troopers

I turned to my troop and shouted

"Troopers, what do we have to say!"

"MOVE, BEFORE WE MOVE YOU!"

Excited, we all moved through the portal to begin our mission, to turn Zaden to the new Earth. It was one step for man but a big step for Africa.

We got through, I looked around and signaled to the team at the other side. We performed some final check up on our equipment and tools. Yeah, the air was breathable. The fact that it was ten times bigger than the earth didnt really sink in, until that moment.

"Captain, can you hear me?, one of the engineers asked"

"Loud and clear"

"The bracelet of every troop member has been updated. On the interface, there is a Nigerian flag icon, click on it to contact us, Captain"

"Okay I understand, anything else?"

"Well don't lose your bracelet, without it we cant contact or locate you easily, dont forget this planet is ten times our home. Who knows how many years it will take us to find you all sir?"

"O...kay, anything else"

"Nothing else sir, just make us proud like the last time."

"Roger that"

The portal closed, and I was left alone with my troop of thirty-five men and fifteen women, fifty strong troopers. 

"Everyone switch to your exploration suits", I instructed

We turned to our bracelets to select the configuration of the newly developed “Zaden exploration gear”.

Technology is just dandy. One moment we were in basic army uniforms, the next we were wearing thick carbon fiber suits, with jet boots, that are controlled by hand. It was really cool, except for one drawback. Everything uniform was only in green and white. That moment, I was like Come on, green and white again.

We took to the skies, or better yet we went as high as we could, to easily locate a suitable camp area. After a while of flying, we located a good camp site to set up all our utilities and structure.

"Captain how long is this mission." Asked a female trooper behind me

"You guys dont know?"

"Yes sir, we do not"

"Oh! Its for two years"

A lot of surprised sounds echoed behind me, which made me laugh. So, as we landed, I looked back to everyone again and smiled.

"Welcome to Zaden, our new home."