| 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 John Fuller - Biography
Another Science Fiction Short Story by
Roy John Fuller:
"The
Alien Archeologists"
Science
Fiction Short Stories
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