won’t even notice.
“More planetary mass is good, and it’s one reason we selected this world. More mass means more inner heat, a thinner crust, plate tectonics, a spinning iron core. That core produces a healthy magnetosphere, so there is plenty of shelter from radiation, both from the M-sun’s flares and from cosmic radiation. And you can see the evidence of the plate tectonics for yourself. Lots of mountain-building, and active volcanoes.” She pointed to the horizon. “See the layer of dust and ash up there? Volcano smog. Plate tectonics keep a world young. The good news is that this world, being more massive, will keep its inner heat longer than Earth. Earth III will stay young, long after Earth itself has seized up and turned into a bigger copy of Mars.
“And there is life here. We knew that from the spectroscopic studies we did of the atmosphere from light- years away. There is photosynthesis going on in the oceans. On the continents, you can see there are bands of different vegetation types working out from the subsolar point, adapted to the lower light levels. We think we’ve seen living things even in the twilight band, around the rim of the daylit face, at the terminator. Like trees maybe, straining up so their leaves can catch the last scraps of light. That’s something for you to find out, some day.”
She looked around, an earnest, exuberant woman, testing to make sure they understood the nature of this gift she was presenting to them. “So you have a sun that will last a hell of a lot longer than Sol, and an Earth that will stay young too, and more worlds to explore. We couldn’t have found a better refuge for your children, for mankind, stretching off into the distant future.
“This is the Ark. After a voyage of forty years, here is your Ararat.” She stepped back.
But she was met by silence, and blank looks. Perhaps the world she had given them was simply too strange.
Then Holle came forward, her face tough, determined, her eyes sunken. Everybody was silent and stock still, save for a few wriggling children. Even little Hundred seemed to be paying attention. Holle’s grim expression was racking up the tension. Helen suddenly realized she had no idea what Holle was about to say.
“Thanks, Venus,” Holle said. “So much for the good news. Now we have to talk about landfall. We have a problem.”
95
“Most of you don’t even remember how the Ark was when it was launched. There were two hulls, called Seba and Halivah. And we had four shuttles, each capable of taking around twenty-five people down to the target planet. We launched from Earth with under eighty crew, a bit less than the design limit. We figured that we would have plenty of capacity in the shuttles, even allowing for a few births along the way.
“But it didn’t turn out that way. You all know what happened. We got to Earth II thirty years ago, and split up. Seba went back to Earth, taking one shuttle with it. We used another shuttle to land the colonists who opted to stay at Earth II. That left two more, for us to take to Earth III-but we lost another on the way, during the Blowout.” A few of the older people glanced at Wilson, who hung defiantly in the upper section of the hull.
“So we arrived here,” Holle said, “with just one shuttle. The shuttle is basically a twenty-five-seat glider; it’s only equipped to make one trip, one descent to the surface. The design was like that to save weight. It can’t take off again and return to the hull…”
Helen’s anxiety tightened. She had known there was a problem with shuttle capacity since the aftermath of the Blowout. But back then landfall had been years away. Holle, tough, autocratic, always kept a lot of her decisions and deliberations secret. Helen had trusted Holle to come up with a solution in time. Now, it seemed, that trust might have been misplaced.
“I’m sorry,” Holle said bluntly. “We tried everything we could think of to improvise some other way of getting down to the planet’s surface. The trouble is that heavy gravity, the thick atmosphere. There will be a ferocious frictional load as any entry craft dumps its orbital energy. The shuttle is designed to cope with that; it has a properly engineered heat shield. Nothing we could lash up comes close to that capability.” She paused, and there was silence, save for a baby’s sleepy murmur. “You need to understand clearly. We got you here. We came all this way, and some of you will walk on Earth III. But I can’t take you all down to the surface.”
“And what of the rest?” somebody shouted.
“I’ll stay with you,” Holle said immediately.
“You’ll stay with us to die? Is that the deal?”
“Nobody’s going to die.” Venus pulled her way forward so she was beside Holle. “We just won’t leave the ship, is all. We will go on. The ship is still functioning, it has water, air, power. And we can still use the warp generator-”
“Zane’s dead.”
“We can trigger the warp bubble without Zane.” Holle forced a smile. “We can go wherever we want.”
Max Baker drifted forward. “Some are going to make landfall, some will stay here. Twenty-five of us will go down, I guess. Who, Holle? How will we decide? Is there going to be some kind of ballot?”
“No,” Holle said firmly. “We don’t have that luxury. We have to get this right. I’ll decide-I have decided.”
A kind of collective murmur ran around the hull. Holle always stuck to her decisions, and implemented them in every last detail. Everybody old enough to understand what was being said knew that their fate was already determined.
Holle’s expression softened. “And you’re wrong about something else, Max. The number’s not twenty-five. Twenty-five’s not enough. I went back over Project Nimrod’s original design documents. Twenty-five individuals don’t provide enough genetic diversity for a viable human colony. Well, we found a way to take more than that. We think we can carry about forty. That still might not be enough, but it may be the best we can do.”
Max snapped back, “How?”
“We rebuild the shuttle’s interior. We install new couches… Max, we take children. That’s how we fit in forty. It will be a ship full of children, with three adults to manage the landfall and help them through the first years.” She looked around. “That’s why I’ve been encouraging you all to have kids these last years, frankly. I always feared it might come to this, if we didn’t find a miracle solution to the shuttle issue, and we haven’t.”
Helen could feel the tension rise in the hull as Holle’s basic logic sunk in.
She kept talking. “I’ve selected a list of children from the ages of two up to fifteen. Thirty-seven of them, most of them ten and under. No siblings, to maximize diversity. And no relation to the adults. There will be no mothers, fathers, brothers, sisters. Just as when we launched from Earth, in fact.” She glanced around. “You older ones, I picked you carefully, it’s going to be hard for you. You’ll have to help the adults manage the little ones as you establish the colony. The shuttle is full of gear to help you get through the first months: inflatable habitats, freeze-dried food packs. But it will be tough work. There will be ground to be cleared, and-”
Max challenged her again. “You’re sending very young children away from their parents. It’s inhuman.”
“Of course it’s inhuman,” Holle said steadily. “Everything about this mission is inhuman.”
Magda pushed forward. “You have no kids of your own. You’re only half alive yourself. That’s how you come up with cruelty like this.”
Holle, flinching, took a breath. “I’m sorry it’s come to this, Magda. I’ll announce the full list later. I’ll speak to the parents individually first. But, look-your Sapphire is on the list. She’s the youngest in the shuttle crew, she’ll be the youngest person in the whole world. Think of that-”
“You murderous bitch, you won’t take another baby from me!” Magda threw herself away from the wall. There was an eruption of shouting, of anger, people grabbing at Magda.
Holle waited by the pole until the commotion had subsided. Then she said clearly, her amplified voice booming, “The adults.”
Again she was the focus of attention, in silence save for Magda’s wretched sobbing, and the thinner cry of an upset child.
Holle said, “These three have to be the core of the first days, weeks, months-a core of expertise, and of discipline until the older children can take over. I’ve selected them for necessary competences, and, with one exception, for experience of Earth. I don’t want everybody on that shuttle to freeze the first time they step through the hatch and onto a planet.
