5. First Landing
The sun — make that the star Alchibah — — on second thought, it IS now the sun — was just rising off to the east of the camp, over the river. Historian made his way outside the tent. Most of the others were still sound asleep. Jack the Blade and Andy were on duty. Presumably there were two others out back of the tents.
“Good morning, Historian,” Andy said, “Hanna and Marty are already up, preparing, or more likely sorting, MREs to find which ones resemble breakfast. There’s plenty of coffee, though.”
After a time, Zoe, Connor, and Bartlett joined them, aluminum cups filled with steaming coffee in hands.
Jack said, “I heard some pretty strange sounds out there during the night.”
Bartlett said, “I did, too, along with some rustling near the edge of the forest when I was on guard.”
“I suggest,” the Historian said, “that while many of the unarmed colonists remain here and, with their robots, continue to set things up, perhaps the rest of us need to break into small groups and begin exploring this new world of ours.”
Just then, Kara came out of the sleeping tent and, tapping her wristpad said, “We really do need to settle on a time and day keeping scheme. What the hell is the time, anyway?”
The Historian said, “It’s time to start a new world!”
