The plan was to set back the first harvest in a cave that Jane had created while mining with the chem team. After the second harvest, everyone could harvest at their leisure when they needed it. Every once in a great while, the agricultural team would make a small harvest to store back in the cave. We began harvesting a month and a half after the first sprout. It was always in the back of our minds that it was a possibility that the planet could ‘shut down,’ and that we would need to have food stores for that.
The unknown was exhausting. We didn’t know what caused the ‘shut down,’ or if it was even real. All we knew were rumors. If the rumors were true, how bad would it get? How long would it last? How often did it happen? The unrelenting questions plagued me at night, but I just tried to keep progressing. If it was going to happen, we would deal with it when it came—but I was hopeful the rumor was an exaggeration. It was obvious that the planet had gone dark recently, due to the hue of the trees, but it was possible extremists from Earth had blown it out of proportion. All I knew was that I was having a blast building, and I wasn’t going to stop.
Harvesting was the fun part. Everyone on the planet pitched in. It was fun to pick the corn, collect the soybeans, and fill the baskets with wheat. The whole thing was done within a day, which was deemed ‘harvest day.’ The whole lot of us carried the harvest about a mile or two away from the field to the abandoned mining cave. The cavern provided a dry, cool place to store the crops so that they would keep longer. Shelves had been built by the architectural crew and prepared for us so we could organize. Four whole shelving units, including eight shelves about three feet deep, were filled with ears of corn and twelve large barrels filled with soybeans. Enormous baskets were lined to the brim with wheat to be processed. The community stood back in awe of the amount of food we had stored back.
“This is amazing. Thank you, Aella,” Idris said to me.
“It wasn’t all me, I promise you,” I said. Raising my hands and stepping out from the crowd, “It wasn’t me at all. It was all of you who made this possible. Thank you all so much for making this dream come true.” The echoing cave filled with a round of applause. There was hugging and crying. It was absolute bliss.
Everyone celebrated that night with a larger-than-normal meal. It wasn’t a buffet, by any means, but the extra food was welcomed gratefully. A brilliantly bright salad with fire-grilled rabbit and homemade salad dressing made from the root milk of one of the plants made for a delicious meal. A cobbler of Circadian berries came next, warm from the stone oven. The aroma of the melted berries mixed with the natural sugars to create a scent of pure ecstasy.
The next day we received a call on the softphone. Idris addressed us all at lunchtime while we ate our fresh corn on the cob and rotisserie rabbit. “They just called, Earth that is, and they have launched their first group of civilians. Should be here in about five days. Their ships are not like what we had, so it will take a bit longer,” he said.
“How many people are on the ship?” someone from the crowd asked. The collective group could be heard mumbling to their neighbor before he answered.
He paused for a few moments, “There’s around five hundred on the ship.”
Everyone was quiet. I could feel the panic that surrounded me. Garrett was sitting next to me and I could feel the sweat start to drip down his arm that touched mine. Jane, on the other side of me, began to breathe heavily.
“Look. I get it, it’s a lot of people. We're prepared, though. We have enough housing and huts to keep a roof over everyone’s heads. The nutrition team has a handle on things, we have livestock that will be producing any day now, and the fields are yielding a harvest. We will be fine,” Idris said. “I know this is a huge change, but like we said, they will have to help and provide just like everyone else here. Don’t worry. We got this.” Idris winked at us and took a seat to finish his meal.
The gathering area became so loud it was hard to hear myself think. Smith looked at me and asked, “What do you think about all this?”
“We didn’t have a choice, Smith.”
“Well, we kind of did,” he said.
“Not really. I couldn’t live with myself. Could you?” I asked, and stared him down. I eased up a bit on my steely stare, and said, “The only thing I’m worried about is them not wanting to help.”
“They’ll help. They have to. They have no other choice and they don’t want to go back to Earth, so they’ll help,” chimed in Spencer.
“All I know is, I’m not working extra for some lazy assholes,” Jane said.
THAT’S WHEN IT HAPPENED. The darkness. The sun seemed to slowly fade into dusk, but it was too early for that. The shadows from the trees around us grew until they consumed the ground. The air began to chill, even as the stars above shone brightly. Turning to gaze out toward the sun, I was surprised to be blinded by a small sliver of light until it was completely blocked out, rendering Circadia pitch black.
Once the light was blocked out, it was obvious that we were looking at the dark side of Earth. The lights of civilization shown brightly against the dark of the world. A thick haze blurred the cityscapes, which I assumed was the nuclear
