Legacy of Ages: The Colony

Chapter 48

Roz waits at the spot she has picked out far from the activity on the edge of the plateau. Ship after ship approaches and lands one at a time, using its anti-gravity engines to make a hole the proper size for the base of each ship to fit snugly into. The displaced rock and soil are being sent about two miles out into the forested area of the plateau and dropped, making a huge mound of rubble.

The very last ship to land is the one Roz has been waiting the longest for; the one that Siad is on. It has taken most of the day, but by suppertime the Farm Habitat is coming to rest in the hole it excavated the farthest from the cliff edge in the center of the half circle of ships.

Unlike the ships on the other side of the plateau, most of them don't drop their protective shields because of their delicate environments. They instead extend a tube out about twenty feet from the shields at four points around the perimeter of the protected area.

The moment the Farm Habitat sends out its plastic tube to the back of the ship, Roz is there waiting for Siad to exit. The crowd of people leaving the ship to walk around on the surface makes it impossible for her to enter through the tube, so she waits for him to leave. It takes almost an hour, but finally Siad steps through to see his mother waiting. Roz opens her arms as her eyes start to tear up as she moves towards him to give him an emotional hug. "You have grown so tall and big, in the last two years." She looks him over from top to bottom. "I have missed you so much. I have the Hermes sitting a short distance away, so we can go to my house that I have carved from the rock face of the cliff. It even has a balcony that looks out over the clouds in the canyon."

Roz starts to move away, but Siad doesn't follow her, so she stops and turns around looking puzzled. "What is wrong, don't you want to spend some time together, after being apart for so long."

"I have been instructed to wait for Lev and the leaders of the ships to arrive. They want to talk to you first before we go anywhere," states Siad flatly.

Roz doesn't know what to say to her son. It is obvious that he has been greatly influenced by his father and Lev, to what end she can't imagine. "What have they done to you? Have they hurt you?"

"No, they have told me the truth about you working for Shaba and why you didn't contact me for years at a time," screams Siad angrily.

Roz is taken back by the force and underlying meaning of his words. "I was in a sleep chamber for the first year and a half and could not call till we got here to the planet six months ago."

He is about to fire back a remark, but Lev and a group of older men exit the tube and move over to join them. Lev smiles at Roz smugly. "I hope we are not interrupting a happy reunion."

Roz turns on him with fire in her eyes. "What have you been telling Siad; he does not want to be with me anymore. I did everything you asked of me."

Lev turns deadly serious. "Yes, you did very well. The only problem is that you had to be forced into doing what we asked of you. I don't think you will fit into the plans we have for our new home." He turns to a tall well-built guard beside him. "Take Roz in the Hermes and drop her off close to the cities on the other side of the plateau, where she can join with the traitorous Shaba and his band of bleeding hearts."

The guard moves aggressively up to her and pushes her away from the group. She resists and reaches out to her son. "Siad, please come with me. They will only make you do things you really don't want to do."

Siad smiles back at his mother. "But I do, Mother. My father and I will be part of the new order here on Olympid. We will have positions of importance."

Roz can only stare opened mouthed at her son as the guard grabs her arm and pulls her towards the Hermes sitting a short distance away. The guard enters the ship pulling a non-combatant Roz with him. She sits down at the small table in the back, trying to make some sense of what just happened. The guard sits in the control chair and effortlessly lifts the Hermes into the air and speeds off across the forest of the interior. The only course correction is to avoid the huge pile of rock and debris a couple of miles from the landing site.

Roz looks at the pile of rubble and thinks about the amount of natural forest that has been destroyed for no other reason than Lev and the rest don't care, because there is so much land for them to use, anyway they want.

She begs the pilot to drop her off at the old base camp that her and Ela had set up all those months ago. The guard shrugs his shoulders, as if it is of no consequence to him where she wanted to go. He lands the ship a short distance away as Roz gets up to gather the few things, she has in the ship that are hers. The guard grabs her arm instead and pulls her towards the small airlock before she can grab any of her things. She tries to protest, but he is much stronger than she is and forces her out the airlock to land on her side in the dirt.

Roz cries uncontrollably as she lays there and watches the Hermes and her life lift off and return to the other side of the plateau. A man that Roz recognizes as being one of the leaders of the ships that landed with Shaba approaches and offers to help her up. She takes his hand and stands before brushing herself off, trying hard but with little success to put on a strong face in front of everybody that has gathered to see what has happened.

Roz looks around at the staring faces before turning back to the man that helped her as his name comes to her. "Joel, do you know where Ela or Shaba might be?"

Joel turns and points to the face of the cliff. "Shaba and his family are having a meal in Ela's quarters at the base of the cliff."

Roz walks through the crowd and stops over the down tube to the quarters that Ela has used since they arrived on the surface. She uses the Way to move down the tube, but it takes a moment and some extra concentration to get it to work. "Am I that upset that I am having trouble connecting with the small Nano Machines?"

Ela looks up startled as Roz enters the main room of her private quarters. "Roz, what are you doing here, I thought you would be rejoicing with the other group, and their success at dividing the people."

Roz starts to cry uncontrollably again. "They have turned Siad against me. His father has convinced him that I was only acting like I enjoyed helping them, and the real problem is that he is right. I only did those things to protect Siad, and now I have lost him forever."

Ela can see that Roz has been cruelly used and rushes over to comfort her with a big hug. "Don't worry, you will always have a home with us here in Olympus."

Roz hugs her old friend back and sniffles as she gets herself back under control. "I will never work for them again. I hope Siad will see that one day and come back to me."

Shaba stands up and approaches, placing his hand on her shoulder. "I am sure he will. He is still very young, and he is your son, he will come around and see what the Pro Land Party is doing to the people and the planet."

"I hope so," says Roz, as she sits down in a chair and looks out the window at the beauty of the canyon floor.