posted 01-21-99 11:04 PM ET     

"Miracles are the norm."
-Pope John Paul IV
-Vatican City, 2023
-Datalinks

Where to start? Time flies, I suppose, when you're building a new human society completely from scratch. Can it really be fifteen years since our pod it the
hilly soil of Eye of Planet. Can it really be fewer than sixty since my eyes last caught sight of Earth? No, it is an eternity. Enough has happened to keep the
historians busy for millennia at least. Here are my memories, it written form, of some of these world-shaking events.

-Just outside of Gaia's Landing
-M.Y. 2100
-Planetfall +2 weeks
-Dr. H. Aveer, Xenobiologist

There was quite a stir in Gaia's Landing. For one thing, everyone had finally stopped complaining about living conditions. Half the population had been moved
into the mutant trees, and it would only take a few more days to finish the switch. We were somewhat undecided whether that was a good thing, but the
results of preliminary tests had done something to calm our fears.
But the main reason for the excitement was the loss of Exploration Parties I and II. Three days after Party I had set out to explore the northern area, we
had lost all communications. They never returned. A secod party was dispatched to search for them, armed with the vast majority of weapons in our whole
pod. The same mysterious end struck them, as well. Skye decided that, until the situation was cleared up, no one could leave the makeshift dome except
qualified personnel. This included the farmers who were slowly seeding Planet's fertile soil with Earth plants, as well as the miners who were doing preliminary
searches for important minerals. It also, as a matter of fact, included scientists whose work was 'vital to the continuation of the colony.' While my work
wasn't that vital, I was anxious to start exploring the Chironian ecology. After bothering the neccesary departments for a while, the growing Gaian
government decided to give me a temporary pass for outside excursions.
Thus, early one morning, I gathered a portable chemical laboratory. A few specimen jars, (you never know) a shredder pistol, (again, you never do know
what's out there) And left the dome's protected environment. My suit made it king of clumsy to walk anywhere, but I eventually reached my destination, a
particularly thick patch of fungus behind a ridge. From there, the landscape looked refreshingly alien. The tops of the small hills blocked the lit dome of the
base, and xenofungus seemed to spread for miles around.
I began looking at a particularly interesting clump when some movement caught my eye. An illusion. I did a couple of chemical experiments, and suddenly
saw it again. Intrigued, I approached.
There, sitting on a camoflauging spore of xenofungus, was arguably the strangest spectacle humankind had ever seen. It wasn't a worm. It was more like a
snake, long and slithering. But it wasn't a snake. Its 'head' looked more like a sea anemone or something.
Radiating from the center came weird, indescribable things that made it look like a jellyfish.
[i]Animal life![/i]
I took my specimen jar, and noiselessly aprroached it. Then, without warning, the thing leaped up and stung me.
I think.
I never saw the thing move, and yet it perceptably injured me. These things move fast.
With my self-preservation instinct flaring up, I pulled out my shredder pistol. When I was turning it on, I accidently fired at myself! I let out a scream of pain.
Wait a second. The safety switch was still in the 'Off' position. It couldn't fire. Besides, one doesn't often survive a direct pistol shot. I looked at the alien.
Suddenly, it didn't seem so innocent anymore...
As I leveled my pistol to aim, I felt another intense blow against me. Nothing had happened. The alien worm was sitting there, minding its own business. It
hadn't moved a muscle.
I looked around frantically. There was no one around. Suddenly, my mind felt an intense pressure, like it was being melted into component atoms, and...
And I fought it back. I stood up straight and said "Mind Worm, you cannot harm me. Your stings are imaginary. I will stand up to you. I will not allow you to
kill me."
The mind worm raised its watery tentacle in what looked vaguely like a salute.

Whoareyouweareplanetmindwhyareyouhere wheredidyoucomefromwillyouhurtuswhatareyou doingknowyouofplanetssecret scareyouforplanetwhatbeyouwhootherswe MINDWORM.

My mind took the full flood of information at once. I looked at the creature in awe. "Are you telepathic? Are you sentinent?"

whattelepathicwenotknowtelepathic wenotknowearthwordswenotknowearthculture yeshehavemindyeswetalkwithmind yesweusemindallcanusemindwejustknowhow
wejustseemind.

"We are Earthlings. We come in peace." I had always wanted to say that line, since my earliest days of study on Mars. Yet it now seemed strangely
inadequate. "We need to get to know you, Mind Worm," I told the creature. We humans are here to stay. Come back to the dome with us. As I said that, I
sudden;y felt an empathic bond, as if the Mind Worm and I were one and the same.

wecometodomewithyoulongweseedomelongwewonder whatindomeyoulivetheredomebadtoomuchoxygen toolittlenitrogenyoufriendsohgoodhappywe!

posted 01-22-99 08:38 PM ET         

H. Aveer
Xenobiologist
Gaia's Landing
M.Y. 2100
Planetfall + 2 weeks

I will tell you right now that it was worth the horrors of psionic combat just to see the look on the security guard's face when I arrived back at the Landing. He was a young man, probably in his mid-twenties, and would much rather have been doing something else. When he saw me returning, followed by a horde of alien insects, it must have been too much for him. He sounded the alarm, and a half hour later I was at the top of our tree-tower, in Ms. Skye's office.

"What is going on?" she asked
"These are my newest specimens. Mind worms, you could call them. Native to Planet. I'm pretty sure they can do stuff telepathically."
"These...bugs, you're letting them into this dome? For all we know, it could be the last group of humans left alive, and you let in these... aliens... without my aprroval?"
"Certainly not, Ms. Skye. I let no one in. They let themselves in"

For a long time, Skye had been one of the foremost animal-rights people on Earth. She had participated in the March on London in 2058, and had been the leader of a non-profit save-the-animals group. But alien worms? Perhaps this was too much for even her to take.

"They let themselves in? They LET themselves IN? Doctor, I regret treating our new home this way, but until we discover that they aren't dangerous, our little friends will have to stay outside the dome. For all we know, these could be the most deadly form of life since Ebola."

"Forgive me for contradicting you," I replied,"but they're far worse."

She began to say something, and then stopped. A look of pure terror crossed her face, and I saw her slowly let out a scream. The Mind Worm sitting on my shoulder remained motionless through the whole episode, but you could see that it was exerting itself.

PLANETMINDWE!GREATANDMIGHTYAREWE!
YOUHELPWE!THISOURWORLD! WELIVEHERE!
WESTAYHERE!WEPOWER!WEMIND!

When Deirdre regained some type of sanity, she stopped and stared.

"I'm unbelievably sorry," I stammered. "I'll try and get them to go as soon as possible. Please, forgive us...."

"Wait." said Skye. "Keep the thing here. You're right. It is horrible. It is worse than Ebola. So keep it."

"I don't understand." I replied.

"Look," responded the Lady of the Gaians. "Our pod left the Unity just before the end came. I've been trying to get everyone to work and believe in our cause, thinking we're the only scrap of humanity left. But the truth isn't so simple. The Unity had seven pods. Through various sensors that I've so far managed to keep secret, I've learned that [i]all seven[/i] of them took off. Granted, three or four could have used the wrong trajectory, or even drowned in the middle of the ocean, but that still leaves a few other groups to compete with."

"Compete? We came from the Unity. We'll stay in unity."

"If only things were that easy. However, some of the others simply won't listen to reason. I have no doubt that Zakharov, for example, will be as unethical here as he was on the starship. They're all going to come after us. And when they do, we'll have the most horrible power known to mankind on our side. Worse than H-Bombs. We'll have the terrible psionic terror of that...thing to command. And we'll use armies of the things, until all Chiron is Gaian."

She went on, but I didn't listen. Two weeks after Planetfall, and already humans were trying to kill each other. Voltaire was right...

posted 01-23-99 03:48 PM ET         

"On Alpha Centauri, we have a new tool. Say goodbye tothe Bronze Age. Forget about the Computer Age. We're now in the Mind Age, where grey matter is the strongest tool."
-Anonymous Empath
-Chiron

*

-H. Aveer, Telepath/Empath/Xenobiologist
-Gaia's Landing
-M.Y. 2101
-3-41-101

upupmuchhappeningmuchhappening
lostgoingoneveryoneexcitedallup
upandout!

I woke up with a start to see Demon, the 'Alpha Worm' in the boil I had found, hissing on my shoulder and yelling telepathic things into my head.

outoutcomeoncomeonnotimetowaste!

"Go back to sleep. It's six Chironian hours until Alpharise and almost ten 'til Betarise. Tommorow's a big day. They're going to examine you in the labs. You'll need your rest. Go back to bed"

mustgothingshappeningstuffgoingon

I sighed and hastily dressed myself. The clock near my bed read 2:67. We had tried to keep time relatively similar to the way we had done it on Earth, but there obviously had had to be a few changes.

everyoneoutwakeupnottiredgogo!

I descended the staircase through thirty levels of living wood. The banister I was holding on to had not been installed by some engineer, but rather coaxed from the body of the tree itself by the new profession suracing on Chiron: bio-architects. The mind worm on my shoulder was constantly hissing and bothering me. At last I reached the roots of Sycamore Tower (We had named our few bio-wooden structures) and left through the door.

hurryhurryfasterfasterorwemissit!

"Miss what?" I asked Demon.

POD!POD!POD!POD!POD!

The pods! The Unity had kept most of its supplies in heat protected pods. They were supposed to land near the city Garland would have built so that we could all have more than enough of everything we needed. But the Unity spun wildly of course, and the pods fell all over the place. In fact, many of us had assumed that they were still in the doomed starship. But one, at least, had escaped the starship's fate.
"Which way?" I asked the alien.

roundroundroundstraighthereturngo!

In five frantic minutes, I had reached a small back alley of the base, where a group of about ten people stood around a large, green, faintly glowing object. One of them was Deidre.
"Skye! What's going on? What are you doing?"
"[i]Shhhhh[/i]" everyone said at once. Then a man in a black suit said.
"This is top secret. You have seen nothing. Go back to bed."
"Wait," Skye told him. "He can be trusted. He's the telepath. And that thing on his shoulder is the infamous Mind Worm."
Everyone was quiet for a moment, and then the man informed me:
"We've got a Unity pod. Exploration Team VII found it and brought it home. The whole thing's being covered up, because, well, some of the pods had..."
Skye quieted him. "We are in the process of removing the lock. If you would like to stay, you are welcome to watch."
There was a shout of triumph by one of the men at the pod. The green armor then fell open to reveal...a bizzarre three foot high communication device. The Roman numeral three was painted in gold on the top portion.
"Pod to pod communicator," remarked an engineer. "Just in case one of the pods landed a little off. This one connects with pod three. See the yellow light on top. The fact that its on shows that the remaints of its Pod III counterpart are up, running, properly maintained, and supplied with energy. Pod III, hey, wasn't that Yang's pod?"

There was a moment of silence. Then Deirdre
approached the communicator.
+"Deirdre Skye, Lady of the Gaians, calling Chief Of Security Sheng-ji Yang. Come in, Sheng-ji Yang..."+

posted 01-23-99 04:29 PM ET            

A message had been recieved from Skye, and nobody had been entirely sure how to respond. This was the first issue that had come before the Governing Committee that hadn't been resolved in relatively short order. Debate raged, and there was nothing worse (in Gordon's opinion) than debate. Decisions should be made, not argued over. It grated on him even more that he didn't know what the decision SHOULD be. The Committee had selected Gordon to make contact with Skye and her pod, reasoning that the responsibility belonged to Gordon's organization. Gordon couldn't follow the logical gymnastics that had placed the responsibility with the Intelligence Corps, but at least it was a solid decision, with no superfluous dissembling about who needed to take action.

Gordon had asked Zale for his opinion on the matter, and recieved a brief reply: "Skye is obsessed with environmentalism, and has few other priorities beyond that. She and her followers are likely to be easy to manipulate, since the environmental movements of Earth never achieved any real political power. They are likely to suffer from an ideological 'inferiority complex' which causes them to underestimate their own position, and seek allies to prop up the percieved weakness of their cause. Since the environmental movement seeks to 'make right the mistakes of the past', they may be sympathetic to our own progressiveness in the areas of political and social development. Keep Skye and her representatives away from Labyrinth Mining Station at all costs. The agressive mining going on would likely offend their ecological sensibilities."

Elijah Gordon went to the communications center, cleared his throat, and activated the communicator. The repeating message from these so-called "Gaians" was cut off in the middle, and Gordon began to respond.

posted 01-23-99 04:56 PM ET         

*

"Well, what do you know?" asked the mysterious man who I finally recognized as Major Yul, head of Gaian defense systems. "The thing works."

The rest of us stood there in silence. Then, the government officials there finally decided what to say back.

+- We are overjoyed, Pod III, to learn that more of the humans on the Unity have survived. While we are disappointed in Chief of Security Yang's inavailability, we are glad to finally have a working communications channel between the two centers of human habitation on Chiron. To cement our friendship, we would like to eventually transmit to you the incredible data we have learned about this planet. You may find it extremely interesting, as it reveals incredible facts about Centauri Ecology. Meanwhile, we would appreciate some knowledge on your status. Having been enclosed in our own little domed world for this Chironian year, it is important to us to know about the happenings of your group of people. Tell us of Yang's society, so that we may learn from its mistakes and rejoice in its triumphs. Tell of your history, that we may help each other cross this dark period of habitation on the new frontier! Skye out.-+

posted 01-23-99 07:29 PM ET         

-H. Aveer, Empath/telepath/xenobiologist
-Sycamore Tower
-Gaia's Landing
-M.Y. 2101

"Thus, we can be certain that this will usher in an era of cooperation and mutual assistance." finished Skye, speaking to the entire Gaian nation. But things were not as rosy in reality as the speech made them sound.

-2 hours later-

In the Gaian cabinet, an emergency meeting was going on.

"You say that the Hive lied?" asked Skye.
"There's no other explanation. The data they give on the area marked 'A' on the map just doesn't agree with Unity survey data. Yang doesn't know that the Unity's maps were stored in our pod. We don't have enough data to make a good map, but we do know that this isn't one. Besides, we've analyzed the computer files and found traces of alterations here. We don't know exactly what they're trying to hide, but we do know there's a problem," said the chief geographer.
"What do you recommend we do?"
"I say we make an ultimatum. Give us the real map or we stop transmission on the ecology files immediately."
"Are you sure this is warranted?" asked Al-Jayr, the newly appointed director of foreign affairs. "We just contacted them. Better to let them think we're fooled, but keep a watchful eye. I used to know Yang. He's paranoid and crazy. If he's got something to hide, he'll hide it. If he knows we know anything here, he'll freak out."
"So what are you recommending?"
"I say we go feed the communicator to mind worms or something. We have a partially correct map, and we're still preparing our ecology files for him. When we meet again, we'll just say the thing failed naturally. Meantime, by then we'll be organized enough to scout out whatever weapons of mass destruction he's hiding against us."
"You really think he's against us?"
"You can't speak reason with Yang. He'd much rather annhilate us then think that we'd be able to crack his precious security systems. The guy's a madman."

Deidre thought for a few seconds and then, before she could change her mind, shot a red-hot blaster bolt at the Unity apparatus.

4 hours later

"And this, my friends, is the tragedy. Just when we're ready to ally with a fellow mation, or communicator fails. Such is the fickle way of nature. Meantime, I say we devote every possible effort to making another such device."

posted 01-23-99 07:49 PM ET            

"I suppose you were right that your did not posess the skills of a diplomat."

"Apparantly so, sir."

"It is unfortunate that we have no-one else who does posess those skills. When we built our society here, 'politicians' were not welcome. It would seem that they had some use after all."

"It would seem."

"All in all, though, I think the benefits of a politician-free society outweigh the costs, wouldn't you agree?" Yang smiled.

"Yes, sir," answered Gordon, slowly realizing that his failure was not as great as it seemed.

posted 01-23-99 11:44 PM ET         

"Humanity has managed not only to survive, but to thrive. Here on Planet, Manifest Destiny holds as true as it ever was in America."
-Deirdre Skye
-The Flowers Preach
-2112

-Dr. H. Aveer, Xenobiologist/Telepath/Empath
-The Flowers Preach
-M.Y. 2112

If you had asked me what position I expected to hold on Planet, the last thing I would have told you was Commander of Psionic Forces.

But here I was, in the new colony, in just that position. Yul had assigned me, as the human link to Demon's Boil, to serve as the military protection of a whole base. Twice, invading mind worms had tried to crush our efforts at expanding human influence further. Twice, I had convinced Demon, who had a better idea of what humans were like than these 'savages' of his species, to fight them off. Now, we had finally created a prototype synthmetallic force to fight off the aliens. I was on our rover to Gaia's Landing, the capital, where I had heard there was a new assignment waiting for me.
The rover proceeded at 130 kph speeds through the alien landscape. Here and there, I shuddered as I saw a few patches of xenofungus in the distance. If our party was destroyed by the mind worms hidden therein, we would hardly be the first.
We began to move more quickly as we reached the road. The formers created in the Landing's infant industries had been trying to connect the two bases, but had only been able to reach about halfway.
I was surprised when the rover turned from the road and proceeded through a hidden path through the hills surrounding us. When we actually plowed through some fungus, I almost protested, but decided to keep my mouth shut.
In the middle of a plateau about halfway between the bases, a tiny camp came to view on the horizon. There were five or six little tents, and a huge...thing towering over them.
I was even more surprised when Skye herself came to greet me.
"Dr. Aveer. You may be wondering what we're doing on a secret outpost in the middle of nowhere."
As a matter of fact, I was wondering exactly that.
"For various reasons, we've decided to build a new base here."
Shock raced through my mind. It was less than a year since the first saplings of biowood had been planted in The Flowers Preach, and now another base was on the way?
"My Lady, I apologize for contradicting you, but this is a desert plain. I see none of the formations that show minerals, and it's pretty obvious that no plants will grow here..."
"Do you see that object?" the leader asked. "That's not ours. We never made it."
"Yang's come this far north since we blasted the reciever?"
Skye frowned. I probably wasn't supposed to know about the real fate of inter-faction communication, but it wasn't too hard to figure out.
"That's one possibility. The other is that-no human made it at all. Bring Demon up to it and watch what happens."
Without my saying a word, the mindworm boil approached the huge tower. I felt a blazing heat in my brain, a mere runoff from that searing Demon.

whatthisthisstrangewhatheat
mindbeingboiledandbroiledand...

And when the dust cleared, as the saying went, each mind worm in Demon's Boil had grown noticeably bigger, and Demon himself was more confident.

strongarewe!greatarewenow!
monolithhelpgrow!
monolithhelpfight!monolithhelpthink!

I stood for I while, pondering the infinite mysteries of an unexplored planet. Then, I said:

"Skye, I was wrong. Demon and I will do every thing in our power to keep this monument from falling into the wrong hands."
"Good. Then behold the makings of our next base, Nessus Shining!"
In her hand, she held the seed of a biowood tree. She raised it, kissed it, and planted it in Planet's fertile earth.

Gaian Map

...0000000000...........00000000000
.....0000000000000000000000000.....
.....0000000000000000000000000.....
...000000000 00000^!000000000000000
....00000000000000000000000000......
....00000000000******00000000.......
.....0000000000* 00*0000000........
......000000000*0000*000000.........
......000000000******00000..........
...........0000000000...............

Where:
0=land
.=water
*=crater rim
=Gaia's Landing
= The Flowers Preach
^=Monolith
!=Nessus Shining

Maps from CGA
"Move over, National Geographic.

posted 01-24-99 03:10 PM ET         

*

-Dr. H. Aveer, Xenobiologist/Empath/Telepath
-300 Km. west of Nessus Shining
-M.Y. 2115

"So you're the empath who I got stuck with?" the admiral asked me.
"I'm the only Empath on all Eye of Planet, I responded cooly.
"Empath? EMPATH? We wouldn't need a $%@! empath if we had real ships! $^#* bureaucrats in the Landing. Flexibility, I tell them. We need flexibility to keep control of Planet's seas. But do they listen? No! So I'm stuck on a giant floating rock..."
"Excuse me," I reminded him, "but that 'rock' is the only thing atanding between you and many kilometers of unbroken ocean."
"And don't I know it. That's the worst part, havin' to be thankful to a %^&!@#$ alien rock. I shoulda' gone with Santiago. She tried to get me to join, y'know. They all wanted the only admiral on the Unity. But no! I had to go to Deirdre tree-hugging Skye and now I'm commanding an alien rock!"
"Isle of the Deep." I corrected.
"I don't care if they call it zucchini! It's all the same. A bunch of coral without a single gun on the whole thing. Back on Earth, I commanded half the African fleet. My flagship was the [i]Cheetah[/i]. Eight hundred huge guns it had, eight hundred. And now, I'm on an alien rock. Just my luck. No one to fight here but Yang's people, and we're at peace with them, and couldn't find 'em if we wanted to. %@&^#* this alien $%#^#!
I was getting really annoyed with his attitude. From a comfortable cruising speed of thirty knots, the Isle *Leviathan* came to an abrupt stop, flinging the admiral against the wall of the cabin.
"Let's see your Cheetah do that." I challenged.
"*&*&(& Planet!" he remarked. There was suddenly a cry from the deck.
"Land ho!"

FFFFFFFF#######FFFFF#########FFFFFF
##FFFFF#########FFF###########FFFFF
###FFFFF########################FFF
###F FF####### ################FF
#####FFFF#####################FFFFF
#####FFFFFFF##############FFFFFFFFF
######FFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFF
##############FFFFFFFFFFFF##FFFFFFF
##############################FFFFF

1 hour later

We stood on the deck as the New World of Planet came into view. I saw its beautuful rivers and sloping mountains and asked:
"Are the Gaians worthy of this?"

posted 01-26-99 05:52 PM ET            

Map of University territory:

----0000000--00000000000000000000000000000000
------00000---0000^000000000000000000000000-
--------000000000^^^000000000000000000000000
------------0000^^^^^0^^00000-00000000000000
--------------00D:^^^^^^^^00000^0000000000000
-------------000^^D:^^^^^0^00000^000000000000
----------G-000):00^^^^^^^^^^^^0^^00000000000
------------000000^^^^0^^^^^^^^^0000000000000
--------------000000^^^^^^^^^^^^^000000000000

Where D: 's=University bases
0's=land
-'s=ocean
^=mountin range
G=Gaian fleet