The Bookwyrm

Chapter 2

The next day, at 1155 hours ship time, Ali’ri found herself strapped into the shuttle that would carry her to the planet’s surface. It was currently attached to the hull of the Boundary’s central shaft, allowing cargo, supplies, and people to board it. Ali currently sat in the passenger area at the top of the craft, which was roughly triangular with wide wings for atmospheric travel. The passenger area consisted of rows of seats, similar to the planes she’d flown on while on a planet’s surface, though these were designed to keep passengers secure during launches and re-entries. The cargo area of the shuttle was somewhere beneath them, being loaded with various goods that would be beneficial to the colony they were heading to. 

 Her few personal possessions were also somewhere in the shuttle’s storage compartment; everything else would be provided by the colony. Some of her most valuable possessions were digital, anyway, and stored in her Personal Virtual Network, which she could access essentially anywhere. 

The Boundary was currently above Elysium’s nightside again, and the passenger area was only dimly lit. Her viewing port, which was located above her seat, displayed the gentle arc of the milky way, slowly moving as the Boundary circled the planet.

On every world she’d ever visited, Ali had been able to see that band of stars and gas from the night sky. The constellations were different on every planet, of course, so each night sky was unique. But all of them were unified by that band, that cloudy path in the sky. It served as a testament to how small humanity was in the universe; even with an almost countless number of stars within their reach, they had only scratched the tiniest portion of the proverbial iceberg, only explored a miniscule fragment of the entire galaxy. And the galaxy itself was only a tiny speck in the vast ocean of the universe…

Such lines of thoughts were common for those who traveled the stars. But Ali never let it deter her. Besides, she wasn’t too concerned with what was far out there, beyond what she could ever hope to see. Her work was on worlds that were real, worlds that were beneath her feet. And humanity’s tiny corner of the universe had plenty of wonder and beauty for a single lifetime. 

The shuttle wasn’t too full yet, but boarding procedures were still occurring. Each person in the shuttle was dressed the same way as her, in the standard ISCA flight uniforms traditionally worn during official travel. The color and patches of each uniform identified the wearer and their position. It was a nice system, and the uniforms weren’t uncomfortable. Ali didn’t mind them. Though on the surface uniform regulations were essentially nonexistent, considering it was a civilian colony world. 

Ali noticed as Ez boarded the shuttle and started walking down the aisle. She noticed Ali strapped into her seat and gave a friendly wave, but didn’t decide to sit next to her, which part of Ali was a little relieved at. 

Ali absentmindedly rubbed her arm where her immunity battery had been injected a few hours earlier. In the years following preliminary colonization efforts, almost all of humanity had received genetic enhancements to their immune systems that provided molecular hardware capable of producing artificial antibodies designed for alien infections. The immunity batteries were tailor made for each planet, and gave that artificial hardware the genetic information needed to produce the necessary proteins. Ali had received one for every planet she’d visited, and they would always be a part of her, wherever she went.

After a few minutes, an unfamiliar woman sat next to her. Ali’s sense of discomfort from the previous day was almost perfectly replicated. 

Why do people keep sitting by me?

“Hey,” the newcomer said as she strapped herself in. Her Uni had an accent that was distinctly Central, further confirmed by her freckled tan skin and brown eyes. Ali wondered which of the Unity’s worlds she was from. Her straight brown hair was pulled into a bun, easy to handle in null-g. Ali’s curlier hair was treated similarly. 

“You’re Ali’ri, right? Ali’ri Moa’ana?”

“Yeah, I am,” Ali replied. 

“I thought so,” she said, smiling slightly. She held out a hand. “I’m Tessaya Freewater, molecular biologist. Call me Tess. I think we’ve been assigned to the same hab unit in our colony.”

I probably should have checked that list a little closer, Ali thought to herself. 

She shook her hand. “Nice to meet you.”

“Of course!” Tess said, smiling a little wider.

They started an absent chat, mostly carried by Tess, about the biological prospects of the planet, especially the rampant bioluminescence. Ali listened politely as Tess speculated on the chemical mechanisms behind it; whether they all used similar chemical pathways or whether there was variance between organisms, whether the proteins used were the same as on other planets, what kinds of advantages such bioluminescence gave…

Ali was very interested in that last point, personally. What ecological benefit was there for such a vibrant display, and for so many different species? The preliminary reports on Elysium’s biosphere weren’t incredibly detailed (that’s what the second wave of scientists was for), and so reading them had raised more questions for Ali than it had answered them. 

Tess seemed to be in the same position. “They haven’t done any deep surveys of the jungle areas yet,” she was saying, “and so there isn’t enough chemical data for me to do any preliminary analysis…do you think they’ll let us go into the jungles?”

“I don’t see why not,” Ali said. “We’re field biologists. That’s where we get our data. Why else would they bring us here?”

“I guess that’s true.” Tess seemed to grow excited. “I can’t wait to get down there.”

A chime rang through the shuttle’s cabin. “Looks like you won’t have to wait much longer,” Ali said. 

A voice came on over an intercom unit that had them ensure they were securely fastened, and gave them a now-familiar rundown of the shuttle’s safety systems. Ali glanced around and noticed that the passenger area was a lot fuller than it had been; not completely full, there were only two or three dozen people, but fuller than it had been.

A few minutes after the intercom message ended, the shuttle detached from the Boundary. It spun lightly in space, revealing Elysium’s ring system shining in the sunlight, then its majestic surface. Their orbit had taken them to the dayside while they’d waited. The shuttle drifted away from the Boundary for a few minutes, then spun again, providing a view of the larger ship; it looked almost like a flower; a long central stem accented by the flowering petals of the habitat pods at the front, and the thick engine system at the back almost reminiscent of bulbous roots.

The shuttle continued to drift closer and closer to Elysium. From the windows on the sides of the passenger area, Ali could make out its horizon growing straighter as they neared the surface. 

“Any minute now…” Tess said beside her.

Right on cue, an automated voice filled the cabin: “Prepare for thrust in three…two…one…”

Ali was pushed back in her seat by an invisible force as an almost deafening rumble filled the cabin. Even though the shuttle probably had tiny gravity drives, powered by Starshaping tech, to fine-tune the descent and remove the need for atmospheric thrusting or some way to increase drag, it still needed to lose a lot of velocity before it could enter the atmosphere. Thus, an engine burn in the direction opposite the shuttle’s orbit.

After a long  moment, the shuttle stopped thrusting, and Ali once again felt weightless in her seat. Then it spun on its axis. Its nose dipped away from the planet’s surface, positioning the heat shield in an effective position. The planet’s horizon filled the shuttle’s windows, looming as large as the anticipation before the plummet.

“You ready?” Tess asked.

Ali couldn’t help but grin.

The blue fog of the atmosphere slowly filled each and every viewport of the shuttle as a sense of vertigo overtook Ali. The black expanse of space above began to give way to the deep blue of the upper atmosphere as the shuttle began the long plummet to the surface. Slowly but surely, the blue of the thickening sky was overtaken by the wave of red and orange that engulfed the shuttle, a fiery cloak formed due to the sudden resistance of the atmosphere against the shuttle’s hull. 

The cabin began to rattle, shaking back and forth as the turbulence of entry assaulted the craft. Ali let herself enjoy the ride; the first one was always daunting and somewhat unpleasant, but as anyone who’d visited multiple planets could tell you, the experience grew on you. Apparently someone else on the shuttle had a similar experience, because a whoop sounded through the passenger cabin. It sounded like Ez.

Eventually the turbulence slowed and came to a stop, and the shuttle angled its nose back down to continue the rest of the descent at a slower pace. Granted, “slower” was still very fast for atmospheric flying. They were shooting across the sky, high over an expansive blue ocean covered in patches by fluffy white clouds. It was a familiar sight on many worlds, including the one Avi hailed from; but it wasn’t the oceans that made a planet alien. It was what they hid.

After a moment the ocean gave way to cliffs, then a landmass covered in greenery and strange trees and rock formations. Ali thought she caught glimpses of animals, traveling in herds along a river, though she couldn’t have been sure. 

Not just the jungles that have secrets, then…she wondered how much of the plain's life glowed in the night.

The rapid descent only took a few more minutes, until finally the ship fired its maneuvering thrusters to slow its speed the last few increments, before finally coming to a hovering standstill above the planet’s surface. It released its landing gear and gently brought itself down, before finally settling and powering off its engines.

The voice of the shuttle’s pilot sounded through the cabin. “We’ve landed outside of Frontier Colony 9, in the southern region of Continent 2 of the planet Elysium. Please unstrap yourselves and head to the boarding ladder at the back of the shuttle.”

Ali did so and followed Tess out of the isle, slightly shaky from the rapid descent. The ladder at the end of the passenger compartment led to the back of the large shuttle’s hangar area, which was packed with crates, supplies, and even a few vehicles. There was only a small area for the group to stand, as the slanted door was still closed. 

“Please wait a moment while we finish landing procedures,” the pilot’s voice said over the intercom. “We’ll have the door open in a minute. When the warning lights flash, please step away from the door, and clear the way so unloading can begin. Also, be very careful not to touch the shuttle’s heat shield. It is still hot from entry.”

Tess stood beside Ali as they waited, scanning the supplies filling the shuttle. She frowned.

“Hey…” she said, pointing at some of the vehicles secured by strong clamps to the floor of the cargo area. “Are those…”

“Skels? Yes, indeed they are.”

The two of them turned to see Ez approaching them.

“Skels?” Tess asked. “I thought everyone called them MESUs.”

“Modular ExoSkeletal Units. ExoSkels, or Skels for short. Depends on who you ask. And I’m from the military. We always picked the cool names for things.”

Ali studied the machines. They were tightly folded into a form that looked like a wheeled ground vehicle, though unlike any car or rover she’d seen anywhere else. It had a roughly triangular shape in this form, and thick wheels that only barely showed under the metal. They were painted a simple grey with red accents. It was clear that the vehicle wasn’t always in this shape, however; it looked clearly assembled from another form, with parts that clearly were simultaneously designed to be in other positions. Ali saw what looked like a large mechanical hand folded up on the side of one of the vehicles.

“Of course, calling them MESUs doesn’t work so well if you go to a planet where they speak Japanese or something similar,” Ez said.

Tess frowned. “Why’s that? Does it mean something rude?”

“Not rude, just…slightly awkward.” Ez smiled. “Though some of the soldiers did call them ‘dolls’...”

Tess looked only more confused. “I don’t get it.”

“That’s ‘cause you don’t speak Japanese, girl!” Ez said, clapping her on the shoulder. Ali was glad to see Tess looked about as awkward as she’d felt during her first interaction with Ez.

“But anyway, ISCA apparently is supplying the Elysium colonists with a whole bunch of the latest models. Partially for testing purposes, but also for exploration and defense.”

Ali turned to her. “Defense?” Exploration made sense; using adaptable mechs to explore the gigantic megaflora of the planet’s bioluminescent jungles made more sense than trying to get a large land vehicle through. But defense…?

“You read the reports, right? I was talking to you about it yesterday,” Ez said. “There are some big beasties down here, bigger than anything we’ve ever seen.”

“Well, yeah,” Tess said. “Low gravity, high oxygen…this planet is about 1 standard radius, but much less dense. We’re getting a fair bit less than one g here, and a lot more oxygen than normal. Life is going to get big.” Genetic alterations in humanity now allowed people to survive without much trouble in environments with greater gravity and oxygen differences from Earth, but such differences still had notable effects on the biosphere.

“Well, yeah,” Ez replied. “But even for those numbers, the life here is really big. And we don’t know if all of them would leave us alone. So, in the case that our lives are on the line, and we have to go toe to toe with animals bigger than any that ever walked on land anywhere else…you’ll be glad to have a giant human-shaped machine on your side.”

It was the dilemma of all colonies on planets with vibrant biospheres. Humanity knew how to live in harmony with life now, and spent months and years learning how to build, grow, and thrive on new planets without harming their biospheres. Population levels were usually kept below one or two billion people per planet, and even then were concentrated in cities. Planets that had been inhabited for centuries developed rich cultures that knew their world’s life as well as the old people back on Earth had known its life, and lived in perfect harmony with them.

But there were always times where life on a planet was dangerous. And so ISCA policy said that if a specific organism needed to be eliminated for the protection of living people, defensive action could be taken. Such a drastic decision was usually only either made after much deliberation and the lack of a better option, however, or in the heat of the moment with lives on the line and no time to consider carefully.

Ali nodded. “Makes sense.”

The conversation turned to other topics, and Ali listened as Ez and Tess got to know a little more about each other. She’d always been quiet, and she’d preferred listening to speaking. Maybe that’s why she’d made such a good scientist.

Eventually, lights around the door’s seams began to flash, and a warning noise sounded throughout the chamber. Slowly, the door lowered into a ramp, letting in bright sunlight and a wave of humid fresh air.

Ali closed her eyes and basked in that feeling.

How long has it been since I’ve breathed fresh air?

The last planet she’d been on had an atmosphere with far too much ammonia gas, and had temperatures that were constantly below freezing. She’d had to wear an EVA suit every time she stepped outside. And she’d only been on starships and space stations in the intervening time, filled with recycled air. Healthy air, to be sure, but sterile, too clean.

But now…this planet had an atmosphere breathable by humans, and preliminary tests had found no harmful particles or microbes. This air was safe to breathe, and it was beautiful. The scent of dirt, of grass, of pollen, of life…it assaulted her nose with a welcome cacophony. She took a few deep breaths, savoring the sweet atmosphere.

She and the rest of the passengers exited the landing ramp. Her first step on Elysium sank into the ground slightly, the soft soil and alien grass settling beneath her foot. It was a sensation she hadn’t felt in a long time. She took a few more steps and blinked as she walked into the sun’s bright rays. The alien light kissed her face, brought warmth and life. She basked in it for a moment.

Small hoses had emerged from the hull of the shuttle and were spraying the heat shield to cool it off externally. Clouds of steam rose from the hull. Even without the ambient heat of the shuttle, though, the environment was still hot; this was a tropical portion of the planet, near the equator.

Ali scanned her new environment. The area immediately around the shuttle was clear of any obstacles; it resided within the colony’s protective fence, and no indigenous animals would be able to make it past that. Ali couldn’t see the colony itself; a view of it was obstructed by a large hill that stood between it and the shuttle’s landing site. She assumed by the dirt road leading to the landing site that a few land vehicles would come to pick up the shuttle's supplies.

Because the hill blocked the view to the north, Ali walked around the shuttle and turned her attention south. What she saw was magnificent.

An enormous plain lay in front of her, stretching to the horizon. It was filled with life, all of it alien, all of it beautiful. Trees with unique canopies, strangely twisting trunks, and leaves that were tinged slightly purple dotted the grassy landscape. Herds of animals moved and shifted across the area. Ali spotted several species of grazers, with varying sizes and structures. Some were small, roundish, and only had four legs; others were almost twice as tall as a human and had six. There were signs of predators, too; lone creatures with sleek skin that ducked and hid in the green grass, packs of smaller creatures that encroached on the space of some of the herds.

In the far distance, there were giants. Huge creatures that walked on six legs and had long, craning necks, reminiscent of the brachiosaurus of Earth’s ancient history, though the general body structure was where the similarities ended. They were too far for her to get a better look.

There were flying creatures, too; flocks of feathered animals that Ali couldn’t get a close look at, but landed in and around one of the wide rivers that covered the plain. Portions of it would occasionally move, darting into the air as a mesmerizing swarm before resettling again once whatever had disturbed them had passed. 

It was all so familiar, somehow, but also not. The structures were the same, the patterns. The way organisms interacted. But it was the nuance; what was different, what was new, that interested her. That’s why she came to these worlds.

The vast plain was dotted with alien rock formations, shaped in ways she’d never seen before. Past the grassy flatlands were a series of strangely shaped mountains, far to the south, that extended to the east, forming a border between the miles and miles of grassy flatland and whatever lay beyond them. She wasn’t a geologist, and didn’t completely understand the mechanisms that would allow such strange formations, but one thing was for sure; they added a measure of alien beauty to the landscape that she couldn’t ignore.

“Quite a sight,” Ez said, stepping up beside her. 

Ali nodded. “It really is.”

A group of the colonists had formed behind them, taking in the view. Ali heard their remarks, their sounds of wonder. It was one thing to have read the files about a planet, and another thing entirely to gaze upon it with your own eyes, walk on its surface with your own feet.

After a moment, the sound of ground vehicles approaching brought them out of their awed gazing. 

“Hey, you lot!” the pilot called. “Come on! They’re here.”

The colonists - somewhat reluctantly, in a few cases - walked over to the caravan that would bring them to their new home on Elysium.

Ali stared at the alien landscape one more time, feeling the wind blow across her face, listening to the calls of distant creatures.

“Kid? You coming?”

She turned to see Ez looking at her, a bit of a smirk on her face. As if to say you’re going to have a long time to stare at this planet, so get a move on.

Ali turned back to the landscape one more time. 

This was her world now.

“...Yeah. Yeah, I’m coming.”