CH50
The Sun Rises had been in orbit for almost a week now and Alexis, Kate, Turner and others were now in the recreation room (largest open room for them to spread out in on the ship), looking over photos of the scans that had been made.
"We need to pick a site to land at and set up camp for our future first city." Turner tells them all.
"This spot here looks to be the best location." Someone suggests. "It's a lot like Tellus and we know what to do there."
"Obviously if we go too far north or south it will be colder. We need to stick to the equator, say along this area here somewhere." Suggests another.
Everyone is silent for a few minutes. "What pumpkin?" Kate asks Alexis. Kate has seen the look on her face and knows she has something. "It's ok sweetie you can tell us." Kate tries to get her to say what is on her mind.
"Tellus is mostly desert with little food; it's why we are here. Not a good place to be growing food. And if the winters are harsh we could all starve, and it looks like we are into summer already. See how everything is all green. Full green, not early green.
We are going to need to plant crops now if we want a fall or early winter harvest. Or a very large amount of greenhouses. And we will need some of those anyway.
I like this spot." And Alexis points getting everyone to look.
"Tell us why pumpkin, it's ok." Kate urges her to continue. Kate knew if she was older Alexis wouldn't be this shy so Kate needs to coach her to talk.
"Well, … This mountain range here will keep the moisture trapped on this side. That's why the other side looks less green. Not desert, just not as green. … This river here probably has a lot of little streams connected to it and this river ends in this really big delta here.
Mountains means snow which will melt keeping the streams and river from drying up. This big valley here could be used to grow crops. …We could go up river and cut down trees and float them down the river and cut them up for what little we might need them for.
It's close enough to the ocean we could go fishing to supplement our food source, and the river probably has fish in it. And these woods here probably have wildlife in it for us to hunt and set traps." Alexis stops talking and shrinks waiting for her idea to get shot down.
"Like the summer home, only bigger?" Kate thinks she gets why Alexis likes it. Getting Alexis to nod her head. "What about winter pumpkin?"
Alexis shakes her head. "Too far south for a hard winter, except in the mountain range. And we could build a tunnel thru the mountains for a train to get to the other side out into this area …. Someday."
"Comments?" Turner asks.
"The delta will be too soft to build on, how do we reach the ocean for these, …. Fish?"
"Boats, down the river and out into the ocean and back again. Solar powered or with sails, or both." Alexis answers.
"We don't have boats of that size. No data or knowledge on how to build them."
"I do." Alexis answers.
"Pumpkin?" Kate didn't want her to think she had to solve every problem. Not that Kate thought Alexis would lie.
"It's all on my flash drive you gave me mom." Alexis answers.
Kate kneels down and wraps Alexis in her arms. "Oh pumpkin, I knew you were a genius. I just never, …." Kate trails off, and then kisses Alexis for good measure.
"I guess that answers where we are going to land. Let's get the shuttles packed and pack our gear. We should be able to get our feet wet in a couple of days." Turner dismisses them all.
"I should be going with you." Rick didn't like being left behind like this.
"I'll be fine dad. I've got mom and Detective Cain is also armed." Alexis points out.
"I know but I'd feel better if I was there with you." Rick isn't whining, but it's getting close.
"We'll be fine Rick. Besides if you go that's one more person I have to keep my eyes on." Kate steps and gives him a quick kiss.
"Doesn't mean I have to like it." Rick relents, like he really had a choice.
"We'll be back before it gets dark." Kate and Alexis step into the air lock.
There are two shuttles on board and both are being used to transport people and supplies.
One lands closer to the delta with Cain for security and the other lands closer to the tree line with Kate for security.
"Remember, no one goes anywhere alone, for any reason. Period." Kate reminds them.
"Come on pumpkin let's see what we can find." And Kate and Alexis head for the river's edge first.
It turned out to be a pretty good sized river. It wasn't the Mississippi, but still it was big and looked deep.
"Mom all of this looks familiar somehow." Alexis is looking around.
"Those trees look like White Fir trees." Alexis points into the deeper section of the forest. "And those look like Elm and Birch trees." Alexis turns to look elsewhere.
Alexis tries to look far up into the mountains. "Those way up there look like Lodge Pole Pines and Ponderosa Pines."
Alexis turns to look down into the Delta area where the other shuttle landed. "And those down there look like Orange or Peach trees." Alexis walks away from the river and out into the valley like area between the trees and the coast line.
"Mom, these are Lilac. Those look like Godecia. That way over there looks like Black-Eyed Susan." Alexis was confused.
"Mom, I don't understand. These are all plants from Earth, but we're not on Earth. Are we?" Alexis turns to look at Kate.
"No pumpkin we're not. You saw the gas giant before we landed just as clear as I did. …. Are you sure sweetie?" Maybe it was a distant cousin or something.
"No, it's Lilac." Alexis is convinced and picks some of it and smells it. "Here, smell." Alexis offers it to Kate.
"I'll have to take your word for it pumpkin." Kate didn't know what Lilac smelled like.
Suddenly a group of birds came bursting out of the trees and swooped out into the valley and then back into the trees, only somewhere else.
Kate had her hand with her weapon up, active and pointed that way in a heartbeat. Nothing was going to hurt Alexis if she could prevent it.
"Something spooked them mom." Alexis warns her.
Kate scans the tree line with her eyes. Kate takes the binoculars out of her case at her waist and hands them to Alexis. "Tell me what you see."
Alexis takes them and starts looking, fiddling with the zoom. "I don't see, … wait got something. It's moving slow like it's hunting something close by in the woods. It looks like a really big cat. Female lion maybe? …. But in the woods?" Lions were not in woods. They used tall grasses to blend in with.
"NO, CAN'T BE?" Alexis sounds shocked. Alexis keeps watching.
"Can't be what pumpkin?" Kate wanted her to keep talking.
"Gimme a minute, I want it to turn a little." Alexis tells Kate. "Come on, turn your head, just a little. … Please? Mom won't shoot you." Alexis talks to herself or the cat as if that would help.
Actually Kate hoped she didn't have to shoot it, but if it went after Alexis, whatever it is, Kate was definitely going to shoot it.
"Just turn your head a little." Alexis watched it stalk something. "Make a noise mom. Growl at it or something." Alexis asked hoping that would get it to turn its head their way.
So Kate let out a loud growl.
Alexis saw it jerk its head their way. "YES. …. Wow, would you look at the size of those teeth!" They were smaller than the pictures she remembers, but still pretty big.
Then Alexis caught sight of something bounding away. "Was that a deer of some kind?" Alexis comments.
Kate saw the movement of the deer running away but still didn't see this cat Alexis was talking about. And she didn't like how Alexis was impressed with the size of its teeth.
Then suddenly Kate did see something big run after the deer.
"WOW, look at it move!" Alexis was impressed. Problem was so was Kate, just for a different reason.
It was gone in a flash. "What was it pumpkin?" It sounded like Alexis knew what it was.
Alexis lowered the binoculars. "I've only seen pictures and they've been extinct for years, but it looked like a Saber-Tooth Tiger!" Alexis tells Kate sounding impressed.
The most obscure member of the Smilodon family was the small (only 150 pounds or so) Smilodon gracilis; the North American Smilodon fatalis was slightly bigger, and the South American Smilodon populator was the most imposing Saber-Tooth of them all, males weighing as much as half a ton.
(Kate and the team find out later from Lucy) And based on Alexis's and Kate's sighting it was the Smilodon gracilis or about 150 pounds worth of cat.
"Well it's gone now. Come on pumpkin we still have work to do." And Kate takes her binoculars back and scans the area to check on the others.
Each team met at their respective shuttles to discuss where to go next, while they ate their lunch. They still had a lot of space to cover in just this area.
Alexis wanted to look for a stream in the woods that emptied into the river. Then later they could trek upstream to check its source. And get samples for testing to see if it was safe enough to drink as is or did they need filters? This would tell them where they could put the main storage tank everyone would get their water from.
Alexis and the team found signs of native (?) wild life all over. It took a few days but they finally settled on where to build their first building.
It was going to be a lodge like structure with communal sleeping out in the open with no individual room. It was going to be pretty big and round. There would be two main ways in with little storage rooms all around the outside wall with access only from inside.
A sunken area right in the middle, also round, was going to be a big fire pit. They would get their warmth in winter from this and it was also going to be the cooking area.
The smoke would go out a cupola at the top that would prevent rain from getting in and allow the smoke from the fire to get out.
Since no one wanted a dirt floor it meant they would need a crawl space to elevate the floor off of the ground and a solid footing to put the support beams on.
They would place windows with wood shutters in-between the storage rooms to let light in.
It would be a lot of work, however Roy had ordered the entire ship's crew to take turns in construction, including himself. Besides he wanted to see this planet for himself.
They did their best to only cut trees down further up river and float them down to the site where they started putting them to use. The laser made it easy to cut boards out of them for the floor, the roof and some of the walls as well as the interior walls of the storage rooms.
The outer walls were made out of solid logs. "Just like the log homes on Earth." Rick had mentioned.
However Rick's primary task had been going out hunting with either Kate or Cain. Mostly Kate. To not hunt the area they were building in they used one of the shuttles when it wasn't being used to ferry people or supplies to and from the ship.
Rick also became the lead cook since he had the only practical experience.
Alexis and a few others would go with them but not go far. All they did was search the local area where Rick and Kate did their hunting for fruits, vegetables and nuts. They were soon filling their storage rooms with the non-perishable things they found.
It struck Alexis, Rick and Kate as odd that everything was an Earth plant. Even the animals they were hunting were Earth like.
Rick still didn't understand how a Saber-Tooth could still be alive after all this time. They were extinct.
Rick had high hopes for seeing real dinosaurs, but he never did. Saber-Tooth but no dinosaurs? Weird.
Alexis now had a large selection of plants to work with from a few areas of the planet/moon and her and a few others and started a very large garden not far from the lodge.
What Alexis was really craving was a greenhouse. She wanted it to get started so she could expand what they were planting and eating.
Everyone on ship had to watch Alexis, Rick, Kate and or Martha eat it first before they would touch it. Everything was different from what they knew. Watching Rick butcher what he and Kate came back with wasn't easy for a lot of them.
Sure they had food on Tellus, it's just that like people on Earth who ate it from a package had never seen it done this way. Kate had only just killed it moments ago and while Rick butchered it for the meat, there was blood and guts everywhere.
What Rick didn't use, which wasn't much, he took out into the forest and left it for the scavengers. Always going back to the same spot over and over. And each time he went what he left would be gone, every little piece.
It took them three months to build their lodge. They learned fast that building a round building with logs was difficult, very difficult. So only the first 6 feet or so was built using logs, after that they switched to using cut wood except for the supports. It had a large open beam ceiling.
While the roof was being built the rest of them switched to building the water tanks. These were built around the sides of the lodge allowing rain water to run off the roof and into the tanks. Sealing the tanks took some ingenuity and in this case it came from Lucy.
It hadn't rained much the first two months. However the third month just as they were finishing the roof felt more like a monsoon season. It rained for days on end. When it did stop it gave them a chance to find and fix the numerous roof leaks.
Of course the first thing that got built was the first outhouse. They dug a trench, Rick dubbed it the slip trench, since if you were part of the digging team, you slipped and fell in numerous times. Then the building was built with cheap doors and they used cloth to allow privacy between the seats.
There was only the one outhouse but plans were for there to be another one a little on the other side of the building. You would go out the back door and either turned right or turn left to get to one of them. At the moment you were going to get wet if it was raining, but they had plans for that too.
Alexis had literally staked out a spot for a green house or houses. Her idea was to build the first one then keep adding on till she had one very long greenhouse with doors that separated each section from the other. Then build another just like it next to it.
At the end of three months Kate's pregnancy was showing and she was slowing down and taking more naps and getting up later. Alexis had made it her mission to make sure Kate was comfortable and well fed.
Kate still went hunting with Rick but that was slowly be cut down and would end totally soon. Also the Sun Rises would be leaving soon. They had a lot of dry storage space but what they didn't have was freezer space or anything like it. And without Kate and her weapon Rick had resorted to more primitive measures. The bow and arrow.
Alexis had found him a Bay California type Laurel locally for him to use. Then on one of their trips to other areas to hunt for game Rick and Kate came back with apples. The next time they came back from there Alexis asked Kate to cut one down using her weapon and bring it back for Rick to make another bow out of the wood. So now he had two bows.
Captain Montgomery was standing near the fire pit with everyone that was staying gathered round.
"You have a nice sound structure that should last you for years to come. I'm taking one of the shuttles up to the Sun Rises and going back to Tellus. It'll take about one month. The idea behind this project is to restock the Sun Rises and come back with a load of supplies.
Solar panels for power, wind turbines for still more power, glass and structure for the greenhouses, and the basics for you to create your first food freezer, along with a multitude of other things. I anticipate that this will take about one month. With another month to travel back here.
After that by the time the Sun Rises is back at Tellus the next ship will already be on its way or just leaving. Supplies in should be monthly after this three month wait.
I know each of you volunteered for this and these first three months with no support is going to be the hardest time for you. We need for this colony to succeed so my ship will be back here in three months.
Detective Beckett you be careful. That will be the very first baby born on this planet and I'm kinda looking forward to being the first ship captain to ever perform a marriage. So if you go and get yourself killed I'll be very, very mad." Roy however was smiling when he said it.
"Yes sir, … I mean no sir." Kate blushes a little.
"The fuel on the shuttle we are leaving behind is limited so be careful with its use. And little miss Alexis, the information you shared with us from Earth is going to get put to good use back on Tellus. My personal thanks, and make sure these people get fed." Roy tells Alexis.
Alexis blushes. "Thanks, I'll do my best."
