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"Maldor Prime, New Eden"
by
Roy Fuller
(c) Copyrighted 2009 by
www.cybersci-fi.com
Maldor Prime, often referred to as the "ass end of the solar
system" was NOUS's
latest attempt at prison control. Two hundred male prisoners
that were considered to dangerous for Earth prisons were
deported to Maldor by the New Order Of The United States or
NOUS Member's executive order.
Other than the deported prisoners, the
only other humans on Maldor were forty seven male terra farmers
that came on the original ship from Earth. Also known as
settlers, these hard working dirt farmers were considered
experts at growing food and making water.
The terra farmers are so good they can grow tomatoes on the
side of a rock. Terra farmers lived alongside the exported
prisoners on Maldor without fear. It was in everyone's
interest that the settlers were as happy as possible so they
would continue to produce the only food source.
The prisoners
mine the tunnels until all the precious minerals are
exhausted. Then the terra farmers take over the
tunnels and convert them to agri-tunnels. The tunnels become their own environmentally
controlled greenhouses with a little help from the terra
farmers. The terra farmers have mastered the art of
agri-hydroponics. The settlers rarely visit the tunnels
during the mineral mining process and likewise the prisoners
rarely visit the agri-tunnels after they are converted for
food production. The inmates nor the settlers have
any modern weapons for hunting or defense. Weapons for
hunting are not needed as there are no indigenous life forms
on Sierra. The settlers did transport a few smaller domestic
animals during their migration to Sierra such as chickens
and hogs, however feeding the animals in the early years
after their arrival proved to difficult. Maldor is so dry
its almost impossible to grow anything. Partly because
there's no rain but mostly because the soil is sterile.
A meteor hit a thousand years ago and sterilized the soil
and then blew out enough dirt to block some of the sunlight
from the already light starved distant world. There is a
light atmosphere but the air must be supplemented with a
special cocktail prepared by the settlers. O yeal, the
settlers are the atmospheric experts as well.
"Billy, got a second", Kevin
said over the intercom system interconnected to all the mine
shafts that the settlers had bored into the rocky
subterranean world of Sierra. Kevin Mitchell was the newly
elected leader of the settlers.
"Kevin, this is Billy.
I'll be there as soon as I can. Anything wrong?"
"Billy, I just want you to look
at something we uncovered this morning in one of the
tunnels. Pick up Jake at the equipment shack and ask
him to bring the bio recorder. Meet me in tunnel 7D."
Jack said to Billy as he examined the contents dropped off
by one of the tunnel workers.
Jake Martin was the settler's
top electronics specialist. He kept all the electronic gear
working that was used in growing the food in the tunnels.
The settlers discovered shortly after arriving on Sierra,
that the best way to grow plants was to utilize the tunnels
used in the mineral mining. Once a tunnel was mined
out they would set the tunnel up as a hydroponics garden.
They used wind generators and solar panels to generate
electricity for their working and living quarters, but they
also used it to run the lights necessary to cultivate plants
for food.
"Jake, grab the bio
recorded and meet me at the entrance to tunnel 17D", Billy
said to Jake as he passed the entrance to the fully decked
out electronics equipment shack at the mouth of the enviro
tunnels.
Billy didn't stay
around to chat with Jake. He was anxious to see what Kevin
had discovered in the latest mine shaft being converted.
Billy had overheard Kevin mumbling something about pieces of
wood that the workers had encountered. Billy had never seen
wood on sierra before. All the housing quarters were
constructed of a poly mineral that was derived from some of
the local mining materials. All the trees and plants on the
surface of the moon had been destroyed during the asteroid
impact.
The settlers are a handful of
people that didn't agree with the political and economic
conditions on Earth. They hated the pollution and the taxes.
The rules and the regulations. They liked their chances
better with the deported prisoners on Maldor than with the
humans back on Earth. The terra settlers were highly trained
at survival in harsh conditions and were dispatched to new
worlds to find ways to mine and colonize them. They were
accustom to living in isolation and capable of adapting to
whatever conditions they encountered. Life on sierra
was difficult, but they had the opportunity to make their
own laws and set their own moral standards. They had the
opportunity to mold this world into the peaceful
surroundings they had wanted back on Earth but were unable
to because of politicians, criminals and dictators.
"Kevin, Jake's on the way
with the recorder, what did you find?"
"Billy the workers ran
into something that fowled them up, here's a sample. I swear
it looks like a branch from a tree or maybe a root."
"That makes no sense at all
Kevin, tunnel 7D is currently over 200 ft deep." I
don't think tree roots would be able to penetrate that deep,
and more importantly there are no trees on the surface of
Sierra." "Is it possible that roots still remain
underground intact after hundred's of years with the surface
barren of trees and plants?" Billy was thinking out loud and
Kevin heard his comments, but said nothing.
"What we found in the tunnel is
not an isolated root. We hit a solid wall of roots. It will
take us hours to clear the tunnel before we can continue
digging." Kevin sounded to Billy. "We need a working party
of several men to give us a hand cutting the debris away."
"Have Jake test the sample to
confirm my analysis. I'm going to the site to take a better
look at the situation. When the helpers are ready have
them report to the location." Kevin shouted to Billy as he
headed back into the dimly lit shaft.
By the year 2010 the earth
was infested with terrorism, disease, worldwide pandemics,
racism, economic depression, violent crimes, abortion, war,
dictators and hunger. Earthlings became infatuated with
violent sporting events such as wrestling, boxing, football,
marshal arts and big game hunting. Internal social
destruction resulted from all the violent TV programming,
movies, and unbelievably graphic computer games. During the
last half of the 21st century lawmakers enacted a
sterilization program on all prisoners with sentences of 25
years and more. Society believed to eliminate future
criminals it was necessary to make sure current criminals
couldn't pass on their genetics to others. All the deported
prisoners on Maldor were sterilized before leaving Earth.
They were also subjected to new sex therapy treatments to
subdue their sexual desires. In theory, the deported
prisoners would not experience any more sexual tendencies.
The settlers had sworn off sex many years before leaving
Earth. They believed that sex was responsible for much of
the crime, social unrest and disease on Earth. In the
23rd century with advanced stem cell applications, gene
splicing and DNA decoding few people ever resorted to sex to
make babies anyway. Before anyone could have a child back on
Earth, they had to undergo extensive testing for
compatibility, DNA forecasting to determine if any of the
parents had any genetic faults that could affect the child,
psychology testing and extensive background checking. It had
been determined in the 22nd century that the best way to
filter out the bad elements of society was to start with a
proper conception. If you have undesirable genes, a
questionable background or non compatible religious
believes, then you would not be granted a birthing
certificate. Scientist and medical researchers had come up
with safer and more enjoyable ways to have a sex anyway.
Most disputes were between the
prisoners and rarely involved the settlers. It was
usually over property boundaries and mineral rights.
Although the prisoners were not citizens of Earth any
longer, they did have rights under the Sierra manifest to
own property and any minerals found on the property
belonging to them. The deal was that the prisoners were
being exiled to Sierra and since it was determined that
Sierra was a sterile world without any pre-existing life,
they could set up their own rules and regulations to govern
Sierra. No one from Earth had any plans to visit or support
the settlers or prisoners on Sierra in any way. The settlers
were allowed to bring basic tools and testing equipment
necessary for mining the local minerals, but were not
allowed to take any weapons or advanced technologies that
would aid them in leaving Sierra. Earth was not interested
in the minerals that orbiting satellites had determined
existed on the distant moon. The residents of Sierra had
full rights to anything found on Sierra, however they didn't
possess the advanced technology to export the minerals.
So everyone stockpiled their minerals for now hoping to find
a way to sell their nest eggs eventually.
"Billy, you got to see this!
Meet me at vent shaft 4, tunnel 7D. Bring Tom and
Philip." Kevin said to Billy. "We've hit the
mother lode!"
Tom and Philip were responsible
for maintaining the plants in the mining shafts. They
spent their days attending to all the plants needs to ensure
there would be food for everyone. Tom and Philip were
hydroponics specialists and with the right light
combinations and ventilation shafts could grow almost
anything in the abandoned mine tunnels and ventilation
shafts. They had spent the last two years adapting the
tunnels to the unique requirements of the plants. Water was
scarce but they had brought enough to get the enviro tunnels
up and running. All the precious water invested in the
growing tunnels were recycled with little loss.
Billy gathered Tom and Philip
from another tunnel they were working in and escorted them
to tunnel 7D. When Kevin arrived at the bitter end of
tunnel 7D the workers were cutting away at the mass of
gnarly roots blocking the tunnel. After several hours
of cutting and hacking away at the root system with knives,
axes and picks, they were finally able to carve a small
opening into what appeared to be a massive living cave.
"Kevin!" One of the workers said
loudly.
"Come look at this. It's a huge
underground cavern and it's filled with exotic plants of all
kinds. And there's light!"
"Plants?" Kevin responded
back. "Are you sure? Light?"
Kevin examined the small opening
that pierced the massive cavern. He stepped inside and could
feel the dense condensation and the sweaty humidity was
unbearably high. The cavern looked to be over 100 feet high
and continued as far as he could see ahead. The cavern was
completely filled with green vegetation and a few small
trees. There was even a small clear creek trickling through
the gigantic cavern. Kevin crawled back through the small
crevice entryway with the help of another worker and reached
for the radio strapped to his hip.
"Billy." Kevin said over
the hand held intercom. "Put together a small team of
6 men to explore a cave we excavated at the end of shaft 7D.
Tom and Philip will want to see this as well. Bring some
ropes, knives, picks and some sample collection sacks and
meet us at vent shaft 4, tunnel 7D in 30 minutes."
Kevin, Billy, Tom, Philip, Jake and
another worker entered the lush cavern and explored for
several hours. Kevin decided it would be better to return
with a fully equipped expedition with the necessary
supplies for several days to continue searching the cavern.
During the extended expedition
they found indescribable plants, trees, fresh water and even
signs of insect life forms. They had hiked for days and
discovered many miles of plant filled passages and even a
small lake with a beautiful waterfall. It would take the
team days to analyze all the specimens collected and to
determine which plants were edible and which contained the
ingredients of life and/or death. No one could offer a
reasonable explanation for the plant filled caverns but
everyone was excited about the possibilities it presented.
That night Kevin, Billy, Tom, Jake and
Philip sat around a table in the mining shack and discussed
their futures. Should they reveal the cavern discovery
to the prisoners? How important would their relationship
with the prisoners be now that an infinite source of food
and water had been revealed. Would the prisoners respect the
settlers as much now that they didn't need to depend on the
settlers for food and air? And what about Earth. Conditions
back on Earth had improved in the 23rd Century, however food
production was poor and it was becoming more difficult to
feed all the hungry people. Atmospheric deterioration, soil
and water pollution had limited the farming efforts on Earth
to producing only for the wealthy. Everyone else was
expected to eat the commercially available organic food
supplemental and drink recycled water. Earth could
definitely use another Garden of Eden. Maybe this time
everyone would work together to preserve mother nature and
cultivate a non-carbon society without the side effects of
pollution, drought and hunger.
Regardless of the decisions the
settler's made that night regarding their new discovery,
there was little they could do to help the people back on
Earth. They had been exiled to this barren world and
forgotten with no means of inter planetary communications
and no means of escape. The folks on Earth considered the
deported explorers a disease and had no desire to hear from
them again. The settlers had accepted their fate to migrate
with the prisoners and had denounced life on Earth in favor
of a new start on Sierra.
The biggest problem the settlers
and the prisoners faced now was a dead end generation.
The newly discovered Garden of Eden had potential to supply
generations of children with unlimited food and water,
however there were no women on Sierra to bear their
children. There would not be another generation after they
died to pass on their beliefs, family history or their
genes. There would be no one left to harvest the
bounty of the newly discovered underground paradise once the
settlers and prisoners had expired. Once again the humans
would be cast out of the Garden Of Eden as in the original
Earth Bible tale, except this time no one would survive to
tell the story.
The End
 Roy
Fuller, Short Story Writer
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