Living Under Ice

Living Under Ice 9

The day for the first play finally arrived.  Everyone involved had worked hard to make it a reality.  Silicon chairs had been set up in the recreation room since the theater was not yet ready.  That evening everyone came to watch.  Even the A.I.’s were there.  A special patch was made with new sensors so that Compassion could watch right beside Timothy.  A remote patch was also set up so that Samurai could watch from orbit.  The play was timed so that it would end at Supper-time and The Cook and his helpers had prepared a huge feast in honor of the first real social event of the new colony.

The play was really funny.  The acting was nothing like the professional acting on the vids, but that made it even more special in some ways.  The funniest time was when Talon got his sister, Tablitha tickled to the point that she couldn’t finish her line.  They had to wait a full three minutes before the laughter died down enough to continue.  You just couldn’t have a real experience like this watching a professionally made movie with near miraculous special effects.  It didn’t matter if it were an old-fashioned two dimensional movie or one of the more modern kind with complete virtual reality.

Everyone left the improvised theater laughing and interacting together which was just what Kyle had hoped for when he first thought of writing a play.  Most of them had been strangers when they got on the ship.  Now they were becoming a group.  Over time, he hoped they would become like an extended family.  The terrorists had struck their ship, but they were far away from them now.  In some ways, this ball of ice floating around a star had become a haven.  It would be as good as they made it.

They all filed into the restaurant area where all of the tables had been arranged into one large oval table with space in the middle of it.  They were covered with a white tablecloth and the dishes looked like fine china.  The table was formally set and everything looked perfect. Everyone sat down to their name tag with younger ones on one end and everyone else arranged in a way to help them get to know each other better.  Surprisingly, even the cook and his helper sat down.  Normally they served everyone else, but not today.  They were all seated at a completely empty table.  It was a mystery really.  There was a nice arrangement of living flowers in the middle space.

Kyle got up and gave a brief speech.  “We hope you all enjoyed the play,” he began.  “We wanted to do it as soon as you all arrived, but things don’t always work out as planned.  That is an understatement as far as the situation we have found ourselves in here in this remote part of the galaxy.  I hope today will be the start of a tradition among us.  Today I have seen something great.  I have seen the start of a community and the early beginning of an extended family.  Cook has arranged a special treat for us all.  I’m sure you are as mystified as the one next to you why we are all at an empty table.  I will leave the explanation to Cook who is something of an old movie fanatic.

Cook stood up nervously then gave a smile as he spread out his arms.  “Let the feast begin”.  In seconds, food appeared all over the table starting at one end and rapidly filling it to the other end.  Samurai did it all using the Q-T device, of course.  Everyone was familiar with the device, but it had never delivered food to them like this before.  Smiles, laughter, and scattered startled squeals rang out.  In little time at all, the idea sank in and everyone began to reach for food from the platters in front of them.  Some of the last of the meat was being served.  Cook had saved it up until now.  The sheep embryos were already in incubation, but it would be a long time before there were enough to use any for meat.  The same thing was true with the eggs.  They were under incubation.  Fish and shrimp had been placed in tanks along with all the food animals and algae.  They would be ready sooner than the mutton, but still there would be a long time to wait for food like this again.

One of the packages recently found was addressed to a pet store on a large planet.  It had embryos in stasis of Compy puppies.  They were a breed designed for current living conditions.  Their aggressiveness was low.  They were small with short hair that was hypoallergenic.  And they were fun loving, intelligent little dogs.  They were designed from a mixture of various breeds of the past.  There were also eggs from certified genetically diverse blue macaws.  Each dog embryo and each bird egg had its own pedigree and was carefully preserved in stasis.  There were enough of each for every family that wanted one.  Not everyone is an animal lover, so not all of them would be taken out of stasis.  That could be done over time as new genetic diversity was needed in the colony.

One farmer had a set of two hundred duck eggs addressed to him and also preserved in stasis.  There were also fifty swan eggs in the same package.  Diversity of animal life on the colony was looking up. 

Another set of three bee hives was also discovered along with an entire accompanying collection of flower seeds known for attracting bees and making delicious honey.  The only bad thing was that these bees had stingers, however, they were a certified non-aggressive species.  Their bee venom also had therapeutic uses as the accompanying electronic literature explained.  The electronic data that came with the bees also had electronic patterns for printing out hives and bee keeping equipment as well as a wealth of information about their care and biology. Timothy found it all quite interesting since it was all data that was outside his normal knowledge.

After a while, Talon started to find himself getting bored again.  He was getting cabin fever.  The twins shared his ennui. They started scheming together about ways to ease the boredom.  Going up on the surface was out.  The space suits would allow it, but their time use was limited and there was nothing up there anyway except just mile after mile of flat, dull looking ice.  There was nothing more than an occasional crack to get excited about.  On the other hand, there were places that they had not been that would be interesting.  They all agreed that it would be fun to explore the areas of the habitat that were not finished yet. 

They spoke to Timothy about their idea first.  He was programmed to be sympathetic, but with limits.  Timothy said it would be technically possible for them to do this.  He had manufactured suits available with self-contained air and oxygen packs.  They could easily be monitored while they were in the unfinished parts and could be quickly brought back with the Q-T device if anything happened.  He wasn’t sure about what purpose there could be to their going there however.

“Why do we need a purpose?” Johan asked Timothy?  It will be fun!

“How about this for a purpose?” Eliza added.  “We will be looking at the areas from a human perspective and can give you and Samurai advice about any modifications that should be made.”

“We would give you continual reports,” Talon added with a wink to the others.

That convinced Timothy that the trip would not only be worthwhile, but also worth points.  Still, he insisted that they get their parent’s permission first.  They would need to start in the early morning if their parents approved it.

Getting the parents to approve the outing was a little harder.  At first they insisted that an adult should go along, but the three of them resisted that idea firmly.

“We could even ask the other teenagers our age to go along,” Talon said.  “That way it would be a group bonding experience.”

“You mean Kindra,” Eliza accused him.

“Well, not just Kindra, but also Hans and Orchid,” Talon quickly added wondering why Eliza all of a sudden didn’t want Kindra to come along.

Finally the adults consented.  They knew the habitat was limited in space and was no doubt boring to the teens.  They were also concerned about the three teens mentioned who did not know the others as well.  This would be a good chance to integrate the group better.

The other three agreed to go along.  They were bored as well.  It was an easier sell with their parents since other parents had already agreed to the outing.  All of them went to one of Timothy’s sensor input areas where he used lasers to measure them precisely for the suits they would wear the next day.  He would print them that night.  Talon couldn’t wait.  He wondered if it would be hard to sleep that night, but in the end he drifted right off to sleep.  He had a feeling that tomorrow would be more important than any of them could know now.