Chapter One

Now what?

Perkins put an old fashioned pair of binoculars to his eyes and scanned the horizon out the main port, then moved to the side windows.  "Am I missing something?" he mumbled.  "Where the hell is the settlement?"

Wiz shrugged.  "This was the landing site; we followed the beacon right down."

"Let me look."  Romo stood beside Perkins, his cameras zooming in and his mind magnifying the images he saw, searching for details.  "I see vehicle tracks, but nothing else nearby."

Wiz took off his headset.  "We're getting traffic from the other pods.  Everyone's okay, but they're starting to get nervous."

"I don't blame them," Perkins said.  "Frankly, I expected . . ."

"What?" Romo asked.

"Well, first, I expected a welcome of some sort, and second, I expected a settlement.  Where is it?"

"What was it supposed to look like?" Wiz asked.

Perkins paused.  "You know . . . I'm not sure.  But it was supposed to look like . . . something."

"Didn't you humans bother to research this before coming out here?" Romo asked.

"We were in contact," Perkins defended.  "We got the signal, but frankly, no, we didn't have much to do with the colony construction.  That was Plymouth Group."

"Surprise!" Wiz laughed.

"Nobody arranged to meet us?" Romo prodded.  "There was no specific communication?"

Perkins looked to Wiz.  "Well?"

"No, we did, but I was maxed out dealing with the landing.  I know Kirchner was supposed to make a lot of those arrangements . . ."

"Where is he?"

"Pod twelve, I think."

"And he didn't say anything before he settled in for the landing?" Perkins asked.

Wiz sighed.  "I talked to Plymouth, yes.  They were there, at least, and they confirmed the landing site."  He paused.  "The last signal I got was rather cryptic.  They were trying to get us to land a few hours earlier, but we couldn't do that because we'd have been in darkness."  He shook his head.

And then there was an unexpected silence as the engines cycled down, causing the console lights to dim.  The navigation screen darkened along with many of the other displays that had been active for several months.  The familiar hum of the ship was reduced to the whisper of the life support fans.  But then came another surprise.  Everyone felt an unnatural lift as the gravity systems shut down.  More quiet now.  Even the sound of the wind outside and their own breathing became easy to discern.

Perkins looked at the remaining systems on his status panel, then out the forward window at the empty landscape.

Wiz nodded.  "Life support on internals, fuel cells, batteries.  Power conservation mode.  Everyone else should be losing gravity, too.  Well, not all gravity, but . . . Well, we're all going to weigh a whole lot less."

"We knew that would happen."  Perkins snatched up his headset and worked the com panel.  "Attention!" he called.  "We've heard from some of you already.  Please be patient as we make contact with the ground crew here.  Report any major failures, but expect the temperature to drop a bit.  Run heaters in power conservation mode."

He then adjusted the frequency on his display.  "Plymouth group!  Anyone listening?"

There was a crackle in response.  "Hello?  Are you Daniels?"

"No, this is Captain Perkins.  Daniels commanded one of the resupply missions."

"Oh, yeah, that's right.  And . . . wait a minute, this is a local call for you, isn't it?"

"Who is this?"

"This is Lee . . ."  There was a pause while another voice echoed in the background.  "Yeah, we're coming out to get you.  Just sit tight for a few hours."

"What?  A few hours?"

And then the other voice took over, more gruff and seasoned.  "Perkins, this is Rusty.  We mentioned in our last transmission that we don't work outside in full sun.  If you look out your window, you'll see that the sun is directly overhead.  All outside movement is confined to twilight.  As you're probably not used to the nights here, we'll be coming to get you as soon as the sun hits the edge of the valley.  Please sit tight until then."

"And why is that?"

"Radiation protocol.  I'd suggest you stay under cover yourselves.  Move to the center of the room, shutter any windows, things like that."

Perkins exchanged glances with Wiz and then turned to Romo, who also shrugged.

"Is there a radiation problem?" Perkins asked.

"That's affirm," Rusty confirmed.  "It's cumulative.  We choose to stay inside."

"Inside where?"

"Inside.  We'll advise you when we're ready to pick you up.  Please be ready.  Out!"

And then the com grew silent.

"Did he just hang up on us?" Wiz asked.

Perkins nodded.

"I guess we've got a few things to learn about this place."

And then a particularly cold breeze blew a cloud of dust across the main port, causing the ship to shift ever so slightly in its resting position.