August 21st 2190
Unknown location
Dr. Mobius woke up early one morning. The blinds on his windows opened automatically opened to let the sunshine in. He stretched and got dressed. On the bridge, he did as the admiral had suggested he do. He manned a console himself and tried to locate a terrestrial planet. After a few hours le located a small dip in the nearby star's gravitational pull. It seemed to be wobbling across the screen. This could only be a planet tugging at the star's gravity. He called the Admiral to check it out. "Well, it certainly looks small enough to be a terrestrial planet. It's right in the planet's habitable zone. I'll relay orders to the fleet to travel to that location. This is looking good.
With the fusion engines at full power, they were able to come within 9 million kilometers of the planet's orbit. They waited for roughly ten hours before a sphere could be seen coming straight at them at around 30 kilometers a second. The light from the sun showed them all they needed to know.
The planet reminded them of their own homeworld that they last saw only a few short days ago. All mouths on the bridge dropped. Fredrikson said, "It looks just like Earth!" And so it did. North America was connected to Europe and South America was broken apart in a few pieces. Australia was just a circular island but the rest of the world looked indifferent.
"What does this mean, Mobius?" "Well sir, this may sound crazy but I believe this may be an alternate Earth. We had theories in High School that there was multiple universes that could each represent a timeline in its own right. What happened to this Earth we will probably never know anytime soon." "Well, we might as well conduct an atmospheric evaluation so we can clear for landing."
A crewman took the liberty of completing the task. "Sir, it looks like the planet has a Hydrogen/Oxygen mix of an atmosphere. It is fully breathable." The Admiral smiled. There was hope after all. He turned to the doctor. "Well, son, what are you going to call it?" Matthew looked at Fredrikson. "What do you mean, sir?" The admiral jerked his head in the direction of the viewport. "You found it, Matthew. You get to name it."
Matthew didn't need to think about it. "I'm going to call her Mobius after myself. I don't know why but I think it's a fitting name." Fredrikson shrugged. "It may be a little self-obsessed but I like the sound of it too. Planet Mobius. Has a nice ring to it."
The rest of the colonists were informed of the discovery and morale was rekindled again. They would find a new home yet. They would give parents and children a chance to be a family and start anew on a world that hadn't been touched in hundreds, thousands, maybe even millions of years. Donny was excited by the discovery naturally and went to go see Matthew, who was down in the lab.
Matthew was spending the day trying to get some simple words out of Mindy. She was showing good progress as usual. Her hair had just started to grow but barely stood out more than a few centimeters. Her arms and legs have also begun a phase of change. She was developing joints, which was a big leap in evolution.
"Matthew." Mobius spoke to the squirrel. Who gave a small squeak: no joy. He tried again: "Matthew." But again all he got was squeaks. "You have absolutely no idea how idiotic you look right now." Donny said smiling. Matthew laughed. "She is responding to my words however we're not getting very much more than that." "Really? What have you been trying to make her say?" "Matthew." "Well that's your problem. It's too big. You need to start out with smaller words like Yes, No, Mommy, Daddy, and so on." "But I'm not its father." "Yeah but you need to start from somewhere."
Matthew told Donny "well if she continues to grow I'll have to keep her in a larger area. I think there's small living quarters for her available?" "I wouldn't know. She seems too small for one right now. Anyways, you many want to get ready for a landing on Planet Mobius. Catchy name by the way." Mobius stood up and said, "It was the first thing that popped into my mind. I wasn't thinking." Donny smirked. "Well I like it." "You do?" The younger man nodded. "Of course I do. I also heard that Ensign Aaron likes it as well." "Patricia?" "I'm not lying when I say that." Donny then walked through the door and it closed behind him.
He looked at Mindy. Her eyes had changed. From their original darkness they turned into a bright green with human-like quality. "Well, should I go?" He asked the squirrel. She made a movement that might have been a nod. He decided that he needed a look at his new home. She tossed an acorn towards Mindy and walked though the door as Donny did.
The transports cut through the atmosphere in fiery streaks. The colonists looked out the windows to see the clouds rush above them. After a flight time of ten minutes, they finally saw a great green meadow. Them men, women and children gasped with wonder. The pilot even lifted up his faceplate to make sure he wasn't dreaming. Nobody on board had ever seen that much green before. The Transport banked and slowed to a stop. It lowered landing tires and touched down on a large hill. The engines were cut and the passengers unstrapped themselves. A Marine coded open the door and it slid up. The colonists got their first whiff of the sweet Mobian air. The sun was shining bright yellow in the prefect, cloudless, sapphire blue sky. Nobody had ever seen anything like it.
Mobius stood on the tallest point of the hill overlooking a valley with waterfalls. Don walked up beside him. "It's so beautiful." He told the doctor. "Yeah I know. Hard to believe we found this place by accident." Donny asked a question. "Sir, if this is Earth, where are all the people? I don't see anyone." "Well, that's anyone's guess, Donny. We could be anywhere in time and space. Perhaps on this Earth all the humans went extinct or left. Maybe there never were any humans on this world. We may never know."
Matthew felt strange exhilaration while walking on Mobius' surface. Near the landing site was a forest that seemed to stretch on for miles. In the wide-open valley he consulted with Admiral Fredrikson.
"Sir. This seems to be a good place to set up the colony." Fredrikson took a look around. He looked slightly different in civilian clothes. "Well, explain to me why you think so?"
"Well," Matthew began, "We're in a wide open area. That means that there will be plenty of sunshine to harvest for solar power since there are not too many trees in this valley. Those waterfalls over there can be a source of power also and much more importantly, a source of water on the planet. The surrounding mountains can provide us with minerals should we need them as well. And the woods can provide us with food and lumber. We have seeds on the ship so we can grow a fairly large amount of crops."
Fredriskon nodded. "Very well. Do you have a structure arrangement plan?" Mobius shook his head. "Not yet, sir. I believe that there's more than enough prefabricated structures aboard to accommodate a million people?" "You'd be right doctor. Do you have a name for this colony? Is it something that has 'Mobius' in it?" The doctor shook his head. "Actually, no. I noticed a large amount of knotholes in the trees. I think it would be safe to call this colony 'Knothole'." Some colonists sniggered including Donny. Maybe it was stupid-sounding to them but Matthew thought it was brilliant. Quite a damn good first try for naming a planet and colony.
The citizens of Knothole couldn't go down to the planet right away of course. They had to be inspected for any infection encountered in space and they needed to get their address. In the first three weeks in orbit, people were sorted into their areas and they went down in small numbers. The Knothole colony had grown in three weeks. Already there were close to 300,000 citizens in homes. Many were already growing crops with genetically enhanced seeds. Roads were constructed and eco-friendly cars were already loaded off the ships and roaming the streets. In the center of it all, was the Mobian Government Center.
Matthew Mobius was officially the governor of Mobius. However, he refused to be known as that since he never really fancied politics. He hand-picked some other colonists to deal with internal affairs and law-enforcement. Not that it mattered very much. Knothole was actually a very peaceful little town. There was barely any sort of pollution given off, crops were plentiful, and research was booming.
Matthew was, as always, occupied with the study of the developing anthropomorphic animals. Mindy was his primary research subject. At over 3 weeks since the storm, Mindy had grown substantially and was now the size of a newborn baby. Her joints were fully completed in development and her human stature began to take shape. Her hair had also grown out and was short just as Matthew had predicted. By this stage she had actually learned to speak somewhat. Her voice was high and squeaky, close to the original version before the storm. She could say simple words such as Yes, No, Hi, Bye, and short sentences. Her spine hadn't developed yet so she was still hunched over. Also, Matthew had requested special clothes be made for Mindy since even early in her evolutionary process, she had developed a very strong sense of modesty. Most mammals other than humans had more than two breasts also. Mindy went from having six to two in a week. Her tail was probably her most distinctive feature. It had grown with her to about a foot in length. She had a special room in the Government building that had light pouring in from a skylight and a tree to climb in.
Matthew was doing work on a young wolf cub that was trying to get used to having different types of teeth. He was a fairly big cub and was speaking very well, quite a progression. He spoke with a growling accent but with the voice of a seven-year-old child "It's sort of weird. My momma tells me that it's all because of that storm. Is it right, doctor?" Mobius laughed. "That's right. You'll get used to it eventually. I also see that your speaking skills have gotten better. Have you been practicing?" The cub gave a short bark. "Yeah. Some of the men with guns bring in a box that speaks. They put something flat in it and people sing. Is it magic, doctor?" Mobius smiled. "In a few years you'll know. All right, your teeth are looking good. Try to get Doctor Hibbert to help you brush often." "OK, thank you!" the cub barked and slid down from the table. He couldn't walk upright yet though so he waddled out the door into the arms of a black doctor. Ensign Aaron walked into the room.
"Seems you're having fun with the animals, doctor." He dropped his Tablet on the table and spun around to see her. "Oh, Patricia! Glad to see you! What's the nature of this visit?" She smiled. "I actually wanted to see how Mindy's doing. I hear that she's acting like a daredevil in the tree now." Matthew chuckled. "Well you got that right. She's obviously inherited my daredevil genes. I never really used them though."
They walked down the hall to Mindy's room. There were also some other rooms with both young humans and anthros. Some were watching TV broadcasted from the colony ships in orbit; a raccoon child was flipping through a book. It was easy with the opposable thumbs he already possessed. And a young girl and a pretty vixen were playing 'Patty-Cake' in an effort to educate the young furry in human leisure. Suddenly they reached the squirrel's room. She was lying on her cot. When she saw them at the door she leaned up and said. "Hi, Matt! (She could only pronounce 'Matt'), Hi, Miss Tritia ('P's were hard for her right now)!" "Hi, Mindy!" Aaron called to her.
In human age, Mindy was only about 12 but acted like she was 5. "Hey, wanna see me do a trick? The man with the gun at the door taught it to me. He said it was a flip!" He glanced at the Corporal by the door who shrugged and said, "What was I supposed to do, she was bugging me all day and she was cute." Matthew shook his head with a smile and saw the First-Generation Mobian perform a flawless flip in the branch and landed on her bare feet. Matthew turned to Patricia and asked her, "Hey, Patricia. Are you doing anything tonight? I was hoping that we could go and get a drink and maybe some dinner. I know a great little restaurant just off Main Street. To his surprise she smiled.
"My shift ends in 3 hours." Meet me at the barracks and we'll go from there. She walked out of the room. For the first time in a long time, Matthew Mobius felt like a teenager in love again.
All the way across space and time, Earth had long discovered the absence of Doctor Mobius and the fleet. It was simply a matter of sending radio transmissions to the cluster where they were supposed to end up. When this failed, all major telescopes were pulled out of orbit and were directed towards the cluster but to no avail. There was no sign of the colony vessels in the surrounding 20 light years.
The United Nations had no choice to accept that they were either hopelessly lost in interstellar space, trapped forever in Mobius' Slipstream, or dead. For the public safety, the gate was closed off following inquiries. Perhaps they would send a rescue team or perhaps they would not. It would all be decided with time. But until then, all of the men, women and children lost in the far reaches of the Universe would be known as 'Mobius and the Lost Million' This title would stay with him for over a millennium.
