Author's Note:
This is my first attempt at a non Harry Potter fiction. We'll see how it goes. Of course, I don't own the canon characters of Stephanie Meyer, but I do own the original characters. This is just a prologue to see if it gets any interest and if anyone would like me to continue with this idea, so PLEASE leave feedback. Thanks!
Prologue:
In the year 2200 of the common era, the inhabitants of Earth achieved the ability to travel at near the speed of light. In the preceding two hundred years, dozens of habitable planets had been located by astronomers. By 2250, a number of groups with special interests or needs had built spacecraft to take them away from their homeworld in the solar system in search of empty planets to colonize.
Vegetarian vampire-kind, having almost unlimited means, lacking the need for a number of "human comforts", and led by the Cullen Coven was one of the first groups to leave. Carlisle felt that it was only fair to open their colony to members of all species, and in the end, the vampires were accompanied by a number of werewolf packs and humans who were not afraid of the non-humans, but eager to live in a diverse colony.
Fifty years of exploration at high speeds, resulted in the discovery of a planet with a variety of geographies and a plentiful supply of hunting quality animals. Most importantly, it was empty of anything close to sentient life. The colonists from Earth would not be intruders on anyone's society, and xenobiologists projected that the colony would have a minimal impact on the planet's natural evolutionary processes.
They began their calendar at Year 1 and using astronomical data from aboard ship were able to determine the length of a year to last 300 days, each consisting of 30 hours. The total colony only consisted of 2200 individuals, 100 vampires, 100 werewolves, and 2000 humans. When they spread out over the entire planet, they found themselves with more than a little elbow room. Vampires and werewolves, having the ability to travel at high speeds under their own power, tended to settle further off from the human settlements, but usually within range to interact with humans. In order to reflect the attitude of freedom the planet's founders wished to perpetuate, the planet was named Libertas.
In the fifth year of colonization, something extraordinary happened. Esme Cullen became pregnant. It was astonishing and despite years of research, the best Carlisle would ever be able to surmise was that since Libertas was nowhere near overcrowded, 'Mother Nature' demanded the propagation of the species. Esme was the first, but not the last vampire to become pregnant.
Despite the unchanging nature of vampires, women's bellies would stretch over the course of ten months. A good deal of instinct was required during delivery and all deliveries were conducted via a crude sort of C-section, but no women were lost. Fostering a growing sense of community each passed on personal knowledge to other vampires around Libertas. However, just as suddenly as the reproductive process began, it stopped. One hundred years, four generations after Esme gave birth to twins Adam and Zackary, the fertility of every vampire woman on the planet appeared to end. In the end, the vampire population exploded to about 500 in just over a century.
Vampire children were entirely new territory for both vampire and the werewolf leaderships. They knew that turning a child was disastrous. They knew from Renesmee what a hybrid was like. There was no precedence for an actual child vampire. In the end, fears were unfounded. The children aged physically like human children, but perhaps a bit faster emotionally and mentally. When they reached their late teens and early twenties chronologically, their growth slowed to a halt. In general, Carlisle believed that girls matured to the age of twenty-one and boys to the age of twenty-five before settling into their immortal forms.
The vampire children of the Cullen Coven, in addition to Adam and Zackary, included children from Rose and Emmett as well as Jasper and Alice. Rose, of course was overjoyed to find herself the mother of Jonah, Liam, and Violet, and Emmett proved to be quite a competent father even if his methods were different than those he learned from Carlisle. Alice and Jasper first had twins Evelyn and Emmalynn before welcoming a little boy Alice would always lovingly refer to as her little soldier. Jasper thought a proper name was necessary and called the boy Robert.
Bella and Edward, however, were never blessed with more children. They considered themselves quite lucky to have Renesmee, though, and thoroughly enjoyed the prolonged experiences associated with being a loving aunt and uncle.
A half millennia has passed since the founding of Libertas and Bella finds herself with a minor mystery on her hands, because unless she was mistaken, she was with child again.