Eden's Chronicles (part 1 – Reaching the goal): Takes place after 'All
About Eve'; Devon is still in cold sleep and the rest of the group travels
to New Pacifica.
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Voice of Bess: "It's been 9 months since we crashed on this planet. Several months since we lost Eben and had to leave Devon. Luckily we've lost no one else but the journey has been difficult. Supplies are very low; we've found some native food that is edible and has sufficient nutrients to sustain us. We are keeping the Spirolina for when we can't find food. Julia continues to analyze everything we come across in case it can be used for food, medicine or a cure. She has not given up on finding a cure for Devon's illness, although due to the travel schedule she can no longer stay up half the night doing research. Things have been tough, tougher then even I thought things would get. Sooner or later our luck has got to change for the better."
"Hey, Mazatl, it's about time we head back or Julia will have our hides." Baines commented. He and Mazatl were several miles ahead of the main group on a routine scout in the dunerail. They were looking for a clear passage as well as a suitable campsite. Their scout had been discouraging since no edible vegetation or water supply was found.
As Mazatl swung the vehicle around, both he and Baines caught site of the sun reflected off metal. "We better check that out."
The two scouts headed for a small ridge. When they reached the ridge, they were amazed at what they saw. Down a slight incline, nestled in small shrubs, was the VTO, short for vertical take-off aircraft. The men exchanged a high-five and headed towards the aircraft. They decided to get a better look before informing the rest of the group, in case the VTO was beyond repair. A quick surveyed showed the aircraft was intact. As Mazatl contacted the group, Baines entered the aircraft. He was met by a strong odor, reminiscent of a grendler.
By the time the remainder of the group joined the scout party at the VTO, Mazatl had removed some of the debris while Baines ran an instrumentation check.
Alonzo rushed towards the aircraft and was met by Baines in the doorway. "Looks like we won't be walking. " A cheerful chorus rang out from the group. " Instrumentation checks out fine. I accessed the logs, and it appears that the autopilot had been activated and the landing site was merely when power started to get low. Luckily the VTO has a collision avoidance mechanism and the aircraft landed safely. Not sure what activated the autopilot but I'm guessing that a grendler did, the stench in the aircraft supports a grendler having been in the ship at some point."
"Will we be able to take all of our supplies, including the transrover?" Magus asked.
Alonzo answered. "Sure. This VTO was designed for internal planet transportation of cargo so is large enough to transport the crew and all our merger equipment to New Pacifica. "
Another shout of joy went out among the Advance team.
"Man, I can't believe it" Danziger said with something akin to surprise.
"You're not happy we found the VTO and we'll be in New Pacifica probably around this time tomorrow?" Alonzo queried.
"No, I'm happy about that. It just that I can't believe she was right. After everything we went through and she is still right."
"What are you talking about? Who was right and what were they right about?" Morgan asked.
"Devon. When we crashed on this planet, she said we'd be in New Pacifica in 9 months and still have 17 months to set the colony up. Well, we've been here 9 months and tomorrow we'll be in New Pacifica. So that means she was right. " Danziger paused and considered something. "Of course, if anyone ever tells Devon I said she was right about anything, I will deny it."
That caused the group to laugh. Some had given up hope that Devon would ever be cured but Julia hadn't nor had Bess, Yale or Uly. What Danziger believed was unknown to his traveling companions but for Uly's sake everyone spoke optimistically.
That night, they camped near the VTO. Baines and Alonzo ran additional diagnostics while Yale planned the loading of the cargo. It had been a long day so they decided to wait until the next morning before they actually loaded the aircraft.
As they sat near the campfire that night, Denner asked Cameron "Do you think Jenna made it?"
"Don't know, but I hope so. She wasn't one of the bodies found at the 3rd pod. So she might have made it. " Cameron replied.
"Who's Jenna?" True asked.
" Jenna Rawlings. She's a medical technician that spent a lot of time on Earth dealing with poisoning, famine, etc due to the pollution. She was also involved in transporting people and processions when an area became unlivable – that's where she learned to fly. She joined Eden Project 3 years before launch – she said she wanted to see what a healthy planet looked like. She would have been the Advance team's pilot as well as helped set up the hospital." Denner replied.
"We only found 5 bodies at the 3rd pod. The pod had 13 seats. When I tried to get in with True, Pam told me that is was full. So that means that there were at least 13 people on that pod. Maybe more, after all, we had 15 on our pod." Danziger stated.
"Do you think that there could be survivors still out there?" Denner asked.
"Maybe not all of them but maybe some of them survived. Of course, your pilot friend may have never made it off the ship, or survived the penal colonists, winter, zed, Eve's virus…"
"Stop, we get the idea. But Jenna aside, given what John said does anyone think some of our team may still be alive?" Denner questioned.
"Most of our group survived so there isn't any reason to assume that others didn't survive as well." Julia replied. "Most of our group was the ops crew, that meant that the other pod would have been made up of mostly colonists. They received training to live planet side, some of them had medical backgrounds, and others had botanical backgrounds. They could have survived."
"So do we go look for them?" Bess asked.
"First we get to New Pacifica and see what's there. Then we go hunt for our pods, while we're at it, we can look for other survivors." Danziger stated.
Everyone agreed with the plan. "Devon had always hoped we would run into some of the survivor's from the 3rd pod." Yale indicated. "She believed that they would have headed towards New Pacifica."
"They probably did but without the vehicles they would have had a lot more flexibility in their route. " Danziger replied.
"Who knows, they could have found a spider tunnel and be waiting for us at New Pacifica with the colony already started." Alonzo realized that he was getting the children's hopes up so he continued. "Although more then likely they still walking."
"They probably would have started heading southwest." Cameron suggested.
"So unless we pick up a transponder signal, we'll start our search in the south west." Yale offered.
Shortly afterwards, all but the night guard headed off to bed. Everyone was eager to reach New Pacifica.
Voice of Bess: "Transportation to New Pacifica, the prospect for finding more members of Eden Advance. I would say our luck has finally started to turn around."
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END OF PART 1
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Voice of Bess: "It's been 9 months since we crashed on this planet. Several months since we lost Eben and had to leave Devon. Luckily we've lost no one else but the journey has been difficult. Supplies are very low; we've found some native food that is edible and has sufficient nutrients to sustain us. We are keeping the Spirolina for when we can't find food. Julia continues to analyze everything we come across in case it can be used for food, medicine or a cure. She has not given up on finding a cure for Devon's illness, although due to the travel schedule she can no longer stay up half the night doing research. Things have been tough, tougher then even I thought things would get. Sooner or later our luck has got to change for the better."
"Hey, Mazatl, it's about time we head back or Julia will have our hides." Baines commented. He and Mazatl were several miles ahead of the main group on a routine scout in the dunerail. They were looking for a clear passage as well as a suitable campsite. Their scout had been discouraging since no edible vegetation or water supply was found.
As Mazatl swung the vehicle around, both he and Baines caught site of the sun reflected off metal. "We better check that out."
The two scouts headed for a small ridge. When they reached the ridge, they were amazed at what they saw. Down a slight incline, nestled in small shrubs, was the VTO, short for vertical take-off aircraft. The men exchanged a high-five and headed towards the aircraft. They decided to get a better look before informing the rest of the group, in case the VTO was beyond repair. A quick surveyed showed the aircraft was intact. As Mazatl contacted the group, Baines entered the aircraft. He was met by a strong odor, reminiscent of a grendler.
By the time the remainder of the group joined the scout party at the VTO, Mazatl had removed some of the debris while Baines ran an instrumentation check.
Alonzo rushed towards the aircraft and was met by Baines in the doorway. "Looks like we won't be walking. " A cheerful chorus rang out from the group. " Instrumentation checks out fine. I accessed the logs, and it appears that the autopilot had been activated and the landing site was merely when power started to get low. Luckily the VTO has a collision avoidance mechanism and the aircraft landed safely. Not sure what activated the autopilot but I'm guessing that a grendler did, the stench in the aircraft supports a grendler having been in the ship at some point."
"Will we be able to take all of our supplies, including the transrover?" Magus asked.
Alonzo answered. "Sure. This VTO was designed for internal planet transportation of cargo so is large enough to transport the crew and all our merger equipment to New Pacifica. "
Another shout of joy went out among the Advance team.
"Man, I can't believe it" Danziger said with something akin to surprise.
"You're not happy we found the VTO and we'll be in New Pacifica probably around this time tomorrow?" Alonzo queried.
"No, I'm happy about that. It just that I can't believe she was right. After everything we went through and she is still right."
"What are you talking about? Who was right and what were they right about?" Morgan asked.
"Devon. When we crashed on this planet, she said we'd be in New Pacifica in 9 months and still have 17 months to set the colony up. Well, we've been here 9 months and tomorrow we'll be in New Pacifica. So that means she was right. " Danziger paused and considered something. "Of course, if anyone ever tells Devon I said she was right about anything, I will deny it."
That caused the group to laugh. Some had given up hope that Devon would ever be cured but Julia hadn't nor had Bess, Yale or Uly. What Danziger believed was unknown to his traveling companions but for Uly's sake everyone spoke optimistically.
That night, they camped near the VTO. Baines and Alonzo ran additional diagnostics while Yale planned the loading of the cargo. It had been a long day so they decided to wait until the next morning before they actually loaded the aircraft.
As they sat near the campfire that night, Denner asked Cameron "Do you think Jenna made it?"
"Don't know, but I hope so. She wasn't one of the bodies found at the 3rd pod. So she might have made it. " Cameron replied.
"Who's Jenna?" True asked.
" Jenna Rawlings. She's a medical technician that spent a lot of time on Earth dealing with poisoning, famine, etc due to the pollution. She was also involved in transporting people and processions when an area became unlivable – that's where she learned to fly. She joined Eden Project 3 years before launch – she said she wanted to see what a healthy planet looked like. She would have been the Advance team's pilot as well as helped set up the hospital." Denner replied.
"We only found 5 bodies at the 3rd pod. The pod had 13 seats. When I tried to get in with True, Pam told me that is was full. So that means that there were at least 13 people on that pod. Maybe more, after all, we had 15 on our pod." Danziger stated.
"Do you think that there could be survivors still out there?" Denner asked.
"Maybe not all of them but maybe some of them survived. Of course, your pilot friend may have never made it off the ship, or survived the penal colonists, winter, zed, Eve's virus…"
"Stop, we get the idea. But Jenna aside, given what John said does anyone think some of our team may still be alive?" Denner questioned.
"Most of our group survived so there isn't any reason to assume that others didn't survive as well." Julia replied. "Most of our group was the ops crew, that meant that the other pod would have been made up of mostly colonists. They received training to live planet side, some of them had medical backgrounds, and others had botanical backgrounds. They could have survived."
"So do we go look for them?" Bess asked.
"First we get to New Pacifica and see what's there. Then we go hunt for our pods, while we're at it, we can look for other survivors." Danziger stated.
Everyone agreed with the plan. "Devon had always hoped we would run into some of the survivor's from the 3rd pod." Yale indicated. "She believed that they would have headed towards New Pacifica."
"They probably did but without the vehicles they would have had a lot more flexibility in their route. " Danziger replied.
"Who knows, they could have found a spider tunnel and be waiting for us at New Pacifica with the colony already started." Alonzo realized that he was getting the children's hopes up so he continued. "Although more then likely they still walking."
"They probably would have started heading southwest." Cameron suggested.
"So unless we pick up a transponder signal, we'll start our search in the south west." Yale offered.
Shortly afterwards, all but the night guard headed off to bed. Everyone was eager to reach New Pacifica.
Voice of Bess: "Transportation to New Pacifica, the prospect for finding more members of Eden Advance. I would say our luck has finally started to turn around."
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END OF PART 1