Gliese

By elveloy

Prompt: "Come to Gliese," they said. "Be part of humanity's greatest adventure." That was before we found out what can go wrong with terraforming. But the worst part came later (prompted by jinnis)

I woke with a mouth as dry as dust, a throbbing headache and eyes glued shut. What had happened? Where was I? Who was I? My brain felt thick and sluggish, struggling to make sense of things. Even more alarming was the fact that when I tried to rub my eyes, my arm wouldn't obey. I couldn't move. Before I could slide into full blown panic, someone spoke.

"Just be patient," murmured a low mechanical voice. A damp cloth wiped over my face, removing several layers of gunk.

"You've been in cryosleep, Stella. Congratulations! You've survived the process, but it's going to take some time before you recover from the effects."

Stella! My name was Stella. Images flashed back and forth in my head, random and seemingly unconnected. A woman's face. A picture of a red planet that wasn't Mars, and certainly wasn't Earth. A seductive voice inviting, "Come to Gliese! Be part of humanity's greatest adventure!" Gliese?

A straw was slipped between my lips and I tried to suck. A few drops dribbled into my mouth. Blessed water.

"Just lie still for the moment and try and relax," the voice continued. "I'm going to give you another shot." I felt the prick in my arm, even before the voice had finished. "This may sound odd under the circumstances, but try and get some sleep. You'll feel much better when you wake up."

To my surprise, I did manage to drift off. Though why I should be tired after what must have been a few centuries of unconsciousness, I didn't know.

The next time I woke, the robot was right. I did feel much better. For a start I could open my eyes. I was still lying in the cryo-capsule but the lid was raised and I could look around the vast chamber, filled with row upon row of capsules like mine. Robots moved from one to the next, tending to the occupants. There must be several hundred of us. One thousand and fifty to be precise. The number popped into my head, a memory from the briefing I had attended before the flight. I noticed some of the capsules remained with lids closed and I wondered how many of us had failed to survive the journey.

I swallowed.

How many years had passed? To me it felt like only a day or two since I climbed aboard the shuttle, to be transported up to the spaceship Nova Ark, but I knew centuries must have passed. Everyone I had known on Earth would be long dead, and their grandchildren and great-grandchildren.

Despite the fact that I had been desperate for a complete break from my previous life, and from Max in particular, it was still a sobering reflection.

Two sleep cycles later, I had regained most of my mobility, if not my fitness. That would take more than a few brisk walks around the ship.

They had waited until Nova Ark was only days from our destination before rousing us, just enough time to allow us to regain sufficient strength to function, but we would have to wait until we were on the surface to regain muscle mass.

I had seen images of Gliese before we left Earth, but nothing had prepared me for the sight of it, live on the viewscreen. A majestic orb, reddish brown in colour with wisps of white cloud wrapping around it. Terrestrial planets accessible from Earth were few in number, and those which had the basics to sustain life—atmosphere, water and oxygen—even rarer.

Images of the surface showed pillars of rock, twisting and spiralling into fantastic shapes. Volcanoes, both active and dormant, formed small chains around the globe. A small, smooth plain came into sight as our orbit continued, the only place I'd seen so far not covered by rocky sculptures.

Gliese was a blank canvas to make our own, the promos had claimed, but as I gazed at the images on the viewscreen, I saw an alien landscape full of wondrous shapes and textures. Not blank at all. Except for the shiny plain, looking for all the world like a circular scar on the skin of the planet. I wondered about the anomaly, and then I realised what had caused it.

We had. Fusion bombs dropped centuries ago by the first scout ship. I recalled our briefing. Three fusion devices had been exploded on the surface, as close to each other as possible, flattening everything and preparing a space for future human settlement. The small plain was to be our landing site, where we would construct our domes and build our colony. But it wasn't that section which drew my eye.

I stared longingly at the rocky surrounds. An alien world. It was bound to be full of wonders and mysteries.

I could hardly wait to get down and explore.

A month later, the colony was finally taking shape.

Everyone not busy with the shuttle, had been pressed into construction service and now rows of domes for domestic dwellings occupied one side of the main street and warehouses and commercial buildings the other. Large greenhouses surrounded the entire complex and would eventually become the sole source of our food.

Nova Ark remained in orbit above us, the shuttle making frequent trips to bring down supplies and scavenge everything that was possible. Who knew what might come in handy in this world, where everything we had taken for granted no longer applied?

Ours was a one-way journey.

So far, all our energies had been toward establishing our settlement, there had been no time to explore anything beyond the perimeter of the crater but now I was ready to change that.

My heaviest boots, my water bottle and makeshift hiking poles, and I was ready.

I heard footsteps hurrying behind me and I turned to greet my new friend, Mari. Her face was creased with worry.

"Don't go too far, Stella," she warned. "You could easily get lost in there."

"You could come too," I invited, though I knew what her reaction would be.

Sometimes it worried me, how content most people were to stay within the confines of the crater, as if they feared to venture forth and leave the familiar. Hardly the daring, pioneer spirit I had expected to find amongst those prepared to settle a new world.

Mari grimaced. "Not on your life. All those twisted columns give me the creeps. They're so tall, it's like being in a maze. Just make sure you can find your way out!"

I held up a small, white stone. "I intend to mark my way."

She gave me a dubious look. "Well, go if you must. But be careful!"

I left her and her anxious face behind, striding across to the broken rim, my heart already lighter at the thought of exploring.

Picking my way through the rim of melted rock and shattered boulders, I eventually found myself in what I thought must be the natural Gliese. Twisted columns reared up around me and I had to clamber over some of the smaller ones to make any headway. There were no paths, at least none that I could see. 

Once out of sight of the crater, it was easy to see how one could quickly become disoriented. Carefully, I marked a cross every few metres with my white stone. From space, the rocks had seemed a uniform brown, but closer up, I could see shades of umber, taupe and caramel. The trek itself was interesting and demanded my attention, but I confess the lack of anything to see apart from rocks began to pall.

The nuclear devices had done their best at terraforming, but the area they had cleared for us was scarcely more than 10 kilometres in diameter. Fine for the present, but what were we going to do when the colony was ready to expand? We could hardly detonate any more fusion devices. I supposed we would just have to tackle it the old-fashioned way, with picks and hammers. Not something to look forward to.

I found a spot that was relatively flat and sat to have a rest and drink my water. Unlike the blue skies of Earth, Gliese's star was a red dwarf and that gave the skies here a reddish tinge. I found myself longing for a glimpse of blue, something I'd always taken for granted... until it wasn't there. I was debating whether to head back or continue a little further when something moved at the edge of my vision.

I spun around, startled. What could possibly be moving out here? A piece of rubbish from the settlement? But that was unlikely, as all waste was very carefully stored for recycling. I stared hard at the spot where I thought I had seen movement, but there was nothing there, nothing but rock. I must have imagined it. Rocks didn't move and there was no animal life on this planet. Not until we arrived. No life at all, not even lichen, though that would change once the spores we'd brought took hold.

My eyes must be playing tricks.

That decided me. I'd been out here long enough, time to head back to base. Carefully, I retraced my steps, counting back the white crosses I had made to mark my journey. Fifty-nine, sixty... Puzzled, I stopped and stared around. If I had counted correctly, I should have been back at the crater's rim, able to see our settlement in the distance, but all I could see were more tall rocks. And if I had miscounted, there should have been another white cross ahead of me, but I couldn't see one.

Idiot, I scolded myself, you must have waited a bit too long to mark the first cross, you were too preoccupied, staring at the surroundings. Uneasily, I pushed forward. It couldn't be far.