SEEDS OF DEATH
The ship drifted through space towards it's ultimatedestination, just as it had for the last five thousand years, loosingmomentum at an almost imperceptible rate. It had been slung from it'shome system by a device that made it accelerate at half the speed oflight, trusting that the momentum would carry the ship to it's finaldestination.
The captain observed the control panel showing everyimportant system of the ship, and a visual display of the outer hull.The sheer scale and scope of it amazed him every day. It was agenerational ship, designed to hold and sustain more than 7,000families and had done so for the last hundred and fifty generations.It had been a monumental project and had taken the last of theresources their world had to offer. The ship that had gone first, tenthousand years ago had been almost as big, but it had been easier forseveral reasons. Of course there had been more resources to use, andalso it was a terraforming ship, completely unmanned. It was sentahead at slightly greater speeds to get there in time to make theirnew home world habitable for their arrival.
He knew that the world of his ancestors was nowcompletely uninhabitable, and as a result the people now on board andunder his care were the last of their species. Their destination wasfarther away from their home world than he could imagine, but it hadbeen the only planet suitble for terraforming that they had foundwhich didn't already have seemingly intelligent life on it. They werealmost there now, and it was a good thing, because he knew that theship couldn't maintain them for much longer.
The planning that had gone into this ship and thismission had been an exercise in extreme precision. Every speck ofwhat they would need once they arrived at their new home had beencalculated, and it was all put aside in storage compartments thatcould not be accessed by anyone for any reason until they reachedtheir destination. Then the computer would give him the codesnecessary to unlock them. The ability to grow food, re-climate water,and repair the ship had also been calculated and would be sustainablefor exactly the length of time they would need to reach their newhome. Everything had been considered, calculated, and accounted for.There were even strict guidelines for reproduction and lifespan, sothat the population could be maintained to within fifty people.
The only fuel on board was to slow the ship, and thengain and maintain orbit of the new home world while people andsupplies were ferried down. The entire endeavor had taken hundreds ofyears to plan and thousands to implement, from the first piecemanufactured to this exact moment. The captain, soon to be the lastin a long line of captains, knew that today they would be able to seetheir new world. They would be able to scan the solar system that wasapproaching and make sure that the terraforming ship had done it'sjob.
His entire life, and in fact the lives of everyone onboard, had been spent training for this day. He had been schooledfrom the enormous archive which held the entire history of his peopleand everything that they had learned from the time he couldcomprehend anything, just so that he could understand how importantthis was, and also how imperative it was that they not let the samemistakes be made a second time.
He closed his eyes and remembered a conversation thathe had had with one of his instructors when he had advanced enough tobe aloud to ask questions. The planet that had been chosen had beenalmost perfect, he knew that, but the neighboring world had been acloser match in many ways. He had asked why that planet hadn't beenchosen. This instructor had obviously known that this question wouldbe asked. He was sure that every captain born on board had probablyasked the same question.
