The Bookwyrm

Chapter 1

Standard Date: February 4, 1978 SE

Orbiting FS11-277c “Elysium”

The planet spun like a fragile globe against the endless black. Its glassy surface held swaths of white clouds, drifting in unseen winds, broken up by majestic views of deep blue oceans and vibrant continents, mottled brown and grey and green. Lots of green. 

A lively little world, Ali’ri thought to herself.

It had been discovered several years earlier by telescopes in neighboring systems, and spectroscopic analysis had shown that it was likely an Earthtype, which the Council of the Worlds of Humanity found great interest in, as they always did. An FTL voyage was sent out from Gruenwelt, the closest inhabited system, though in this case it was a Council expedition, rather than one from the New Europe Unity, as it would have been under standard procedure. Once the voyage made it to the system eleven years later, a wormhole path was formed, linking the new frontier to the rest of the Worlds. Exploration and colonization efforts began soon thereafter, governed by the Council’s Interstellar Surveillance and Colonization Agency, or ISCA.

Eight months later, they called in the second wave of scientists, and the first wave of official colonists. Ali’ri had finished her general ecology paper on her last world and gotten it published, and had been starting to find another place to survey, when the invitation came by ansible. She accepted it immediately. The previous world she’d been on (which had been affectionately nicknamed “Yeti” until an official title was decided) was cold and inhospitable, and she was eager to start working on an Earthtype planet again.

It feels like so long since I’ve seen an ocean.

Ali currently stood in one of the habitat pods on the interstellar ship, the CPS Boundary, that had brought her to the system. Unlike the ships created specifically for slow FTL voyages, the Boundary was designed only for inter-system travel. The wormhole network effectively connected every single star system that had ever been visited by a manned expedition, whether those systems were part of the Council or not. Even if it took a few hours or days to travel the space between wormholes in any given system, you could easily reach anywhere in the explored galaxy within only a few weeks. 

The Boundary consisted of a long central shaft with protrusions at several points. The ship’s habitat pods were connected to spinning portions near the front of the ship; the rotation gave the illusion of gravity, pulling passengers  away from the center of the ship. While the engine was activated, the pods would fold against the hull of the central shaft so that “down” was instead the direction of the ship’s thrust. It meant occasional periods of weightlessness while the ship changed configurations, but it also meant that everything in the pods wasn’t suddenly falling the wrong way while the ship traveled. Actual gravity generators were extremely expensive; Starshapers, the people with the mysterious powers that allowed such impossible technologies, were incredibly rare. As a result, any technology that derived from Starshaping became a luxury, to be used sparingly. Unless, of course,  it was absolutely necessary for society to function, such as the wormhole system or the ansible network. 

The Boundary was currently in its centrifugal configuration, orbiting the new world. From the viewing port, Ali watched the planet’s horizon enter her view as her habitat pod spun. The planet had a strangely thick ring system, which was rare for rocky worlds, and Ali was able to get a glimpse of it before the planet exited her view entirely. She sat there in the common room of the pod, waiting for the planet to come back into view. It wouldn’t take too long.

The pod continued to spin, revealing the world’s surface again. Ali tried to familiarize herself with it: the pattern of its continents, the color of its oceans. It would be her home for at least the next few months, and the life on its surface would become the center of hers. As a planetary ecologist, her services were valuable to preliminary exploration and colonization efforts; understanding the way the life of a planet structured itself was a great insight to potential colonists. It was important to know what plants and animals could be used as resources, and what lines to draw to make sure that no damage occurred to the planet’s natural environment. Humanity had learned that lesson almost two thousand years ago, before Starshaping, back on Earth.

Ali’s ponderings were interrupted as someone sat beside her. The common area wasn’t empty, but it was quiet; most people on the ship were packing or otherwise preparing to venture to the surface. Ali wasn’t expecting a companion, and it caught her off guard.

Her new company was Ilezbet, a former United Council Military soldier who had retired and joined ISCA as a surveyor and security detail. Ali recognized her from some of the meetings they’d attended as members of ISCA’s survey efforts. The woman had told everyone to call her Ez.

She was tall; at least a good head taller than Ali, and had pale skin that meant she was probably from the New Europe Unity, or perhaps one of the worlds in the Central Unity. She spoke Uni with a slight accent that Ali couldn’t place. 

“It’s quite a sight, isn’t it?” Ez said, gazing out at the planet’s surface.

Ali nodded. “Yeah.” The view of a planet from space was always mesmerizing. It wasn’t her first time seeing such a view…but it never got old.

They sat in silence for a moment, a silence that, at least to Ali, felt quite awkward. 

The fragile globe spun out of their view again, exposing the blackness of space. Ez chose to break the silence at that point. 

“You’re from Namaka, right? Greater Pacific Unity?”

“Yes,” Ali replied simply.

“I thought so,” she said, leaning back in her chair. “Never been, though I’ve heard it’s beautiful. I did have a training stint on Bahura, though. That’s as far as I’ve been into Greater Pacific.”

“I didn’t realize UCM did training on Bahura.”

“UCM does training everywhere. Every planet, even our good old Earth, has environments that are hostile to human life. Soldiers need to be ready to survive those situations. And the coral planet had some specific environments that they wanted us grunts to be ready for. At least in my group.” She smiled wistfully. “I actually had fun there. The locals were nice, at least, and the reefs were beautiful. I went through a lot worse in my rookie days.”

Ali nodded politely. Despite being from the capital planet of Greater Pacific, she hadn’t actually been to any of the other worlds in the Unity. After she’d passed the ISCA tests on Namaka, she’d done training on a few specific planets across the Council worlds, and then all her professional work had happened exclusively on frontier worlds.

“So…” Ez continued after a moment. “If you’re from Namaka…do you have the tattoo?”

“The Auala tattoo?” 

“That’s what it’s called,” she said. “I couldn’t remember. But yeah, that’s what I’m talking about.”

Ali slid up the right sleeve of her jumpsuit slightly to show the black ink of an intricate Polynesian tattoo on her upper arm. It started several inches above her elbow and continued all the way to her shoulder, wrapping around to her back. Her clothing preferences usually covered most of it, but it was always there, a testament to the trial she’d overcome. Her specific tattoo was patterned after ocean waves, which shifted into a pattern reminiscent of a galaxy’s arms as it went up her arm.

Ez grinned when she saw the tattoo. She looked pleased.

“Well,” she said. “If we really are assigned to the same colony, I feel a lot better now.”

Ali frowned as she rolled her sleeve back down. “What do you mean?”

“I had a few friends back in the army with those tattoos. And they were the best of the bunch. Better than me, even. I guess going on a voyage like that gets you ready for just about anything.”

“I’m not a soldier,” Ali said.

“Sure, but you’re still an explorer. You know how to use a weapon, right?”

Ali hesitantly nodded. Combat training was required for certain ISCA personnel, especially ones doing fieldwork like Ali was. Some planets had dangerous wildlife, and science groups needed to be able to defend themselves.

The surface of the planet swung back into view, this time tinged orange by the setting sun. Their orbit was taking them into the shadow of the planet, over the nightside.

“You read the reports. There’s quite the collection of megafauna down there,” Ez said, gesturing towards the window. “Not all of them are going to be friendly.”

“They don’t need to be,” Ali said. “It’s their home we’re entering. It’s up to humans to figure out how to live with them, not the other way around.”

Ez looked at her for a moment, then chuckled. “You’re right. I guess that’s my soldier mentality coming through. Still, I’d rather not get eaten down there.”

There was another pause as the sun vanished over the planet’s horizon, everything going dark. The common room’s lights automatically brightened slightly to compensate. 

“Besides, that tattoo isn’t just a sign of physical strength, right? It means you’re good at what you do. Especially if you’re a field biologist, I suppose.”

Now that the sun was hiding behind the planet, Ali got a good view of the nightside of the surface. On most frontier worlds, it was impossible to see anything, unless you were near the poles, where the auroras glowed. Over habitable planets, the artificial lights of human settlements could be seen in the designated areas, though in most areas those were carefully dimmed or controlled to prevent harmful light pollution. This world didn’t have that population yet.

But, despite this, there were faint glowing lights outlining the shapes of the darkness-shrouded continents, and swirling in the invisible currents of the oceans. The lights looked white from space, but Ali knew they were made of multicolored bioluminescent hues; blues, greens, pinks, yellows, all coming together to form a remarkable tapestry that could be seen even from space. The jungles and oceans of this world had more bioluminescence than any biosphere yet discovered in the universe. Ali could scarcely wait to see them up close.

The two stared out at the lights of the night until the planet once again swung out of their view, exposing the infinite tapestry of stars, now visible in the shadow of the planet.

“I don’t know if you heard, but they finally decided on a name for this place,” Ez said. “They just announced it. It’s called Elysium.”

Ali thought for a moment, then nodded in approval. “It fits.” This planet was a paradise. Perhaps a dangerous one, but a paradise nonetheless. 

And she couldn’t wait to uncover its secrets.

They watched Elysium rotate in and out of view two more times. Then Ez stood up and stretched.

“Nice talking to you…uh…remind me your name?”

“Ali’ri.”

“Ali’ri. You’re a good kid. Quiet, but we can work on that. I’ll see you around; I’m pretty sure we are assigned to the same colony, which means we’ll be working together at least a little bit.” She smiled and gave her an informal salute. “Can’t wait to see what you get up to down there.” Then she turned and left, the door to the common room sliding shut behind her.

…She’s a strange one, Ali thought to herself.

She leaned back. Ever since she left Namaka, making connections had been difficult. She’d had friends in the academy, but once she started her work for ISCA, she usually wasn’t on a planet for more than half a year. That didn’t lend itself well to making long-lasting friendships.

Maybe things would be different this time around. Though she didn’t know how to feel about Ez of all people reaching out to her. It was kind of strange that she’d called Ali “kid”. Ali was twenty-nine, and though she was definitely still at the start of her lifespan, considering people now lived to over two and a half centuries in many cases, she still felt like “kid” was a bit of a strange thing to call a professional scientist.

An alert popped up in the corner of her eye. She’d had her Iris turned off, so it must’ve been important. She blinked three times to acknowledge the notification. A line of text appeared in her vision.

Ali’ri Moa’ana, you are scheduled to head planetside at 0900 Ship Standard tomorrow. Please make all necessary preparations. Plan to meet at docking port A2 at 0800 tomorrow for departure procedures.

Ali stood up. It wouldn’t hurt to start getting ready now. She made her way out of the common room and to her quarters.

Tomorrow, her work would start.