Cassandra and the Unknown World E-Book

Petri Luosto

• Herausgeber: Books on Demand
• Kategorie: Gesellschafts- und Liebesromane
• Sprache: Englisch

Seitenzahl: 349

Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2016

Beschreibung

A seed ship arrived to the planet Eden 20 years ago landing the planet. The robots from that ship then built a colony in there. The spaceship itself carried both egg cells and sperm with it. The egg cells were fertilized. Now, 20 years ago the first class on humans inside that spaceship have reached the age of 16 years. They were brought up and educated by the robots. Now they will leave the spaceship to explore a strange new world.

Leseprobe

Class 1

Women

Cassandra, an astrobiologist, long blond hairs, blue eyes, athletic body

Hera, The Manager of the Colony, dark hair, blue eyes, slim

Penthesilea, a soldier, dark skin, large, dark hair, dark eyes and well trained body

Hippolyta, The Leader of the Soldiers, blond hair and green eyes

Iphito, a soldier, Asiatic appearance

Aegea, a soldier, brown hair and blue eyes

Otrera, a soldier, very blond hair, eyes dark and light brown (heterochromia)

Themis, a farmer

Rhea, a farmer

Phoebe, a farmer

Tethys, a farmer

Theia, a farmer

Ariadne, a toxicologist, biochemist, short, thin, dark hair and blue eyes

Erigone, a biochemist

Brizo, a biochemist

Manto, a biochemist

Theonoe, a biochemist

Arachne, an engineer, red hair, blue eyes, short and sturdy

Cyane, a mechanist

Daphne, a mechanist

Dryope, a mechanist

Arge, a mechanist

Aceso, a doctor and a biologist, Asiatic appearance

Artemis, a doctor and a biologist, dark hair, green eyes and pale skin

Gaia, a geographer, dark hair and green eyes

Men

Zeus, The Manager of the Colony, light brown hair, blue eyes, sturdy

Achilles, a soldier, blond hair and blue eyes

Heracles, The Leader of the Soldiers, dark hair, dark eyes, dark skin, the strongest person

Theseus, a soldier, amber coloured eyes and brown hair

Hector, a soldier, dark hair, blue eyes

Jason, a soldier, Asiatic appearance

Iapetus, a farmer

Cronus, a farmer

Coeus, a farmer

Oceanus, a farmer

Hyperion, a farmer

Dionysos, a biochemist

Icarius, a biochemist

Laocoon, a biochemist, dark hair, pale skin and dark eyes

Mopsus, a biochemist

Telemus, a biochemist

Daedalus, an engineer

Aristobulus, a mechanist

Philon, a mechanist

Dinocrates, a mechanist

Metagenes, a mechanist

Asclepius, a doctor and a biologist, blonde hair, blue eyes and pale skin

Paeon, a doctor and biologist, dark hair, dark eyes and dark skin

Eratosthenes, a geographer, light brown hair, blue eyes and pale skin

Orpheus, a dead astrobiologist

Mr. Silva, a tracked robot for exploration

Table of Contents

Eden Prologue

Chapter 1.

Chapter 2.

Chapter 3.

Chapter 4.

Chapter 5.

Chapter 6.

Chapter 7.

Chapter 8.

Chapter 9.

Chapter 10.

Chapter 11.

Chapter 12.

Chapter 13.

Chapter 14.

Chapter 15.

Chapter 16.

Chapter 17.

Chapter 18.

Chapter 19.

Chapter 20.

Epilogue

Somewhere very far away in the future…

Eden Prologue

It is an early morning. An astronomer David Smith sat in his office and turned the coffee maker on while he was watching the monitor in his office in Turku, Finland. He was a tall and a slender man who brushed his blonde hair. He was overseeing the Exoplanet Seeker satellite on his turn together with astronomers from Britain, Canada, Japan and Australia. He had a protected connection to the satellite´s server which was in USA. The satellite orbited the Sun in the Earth´s Lagrangian point in which Earth´s gravitational pull equalled Sun´s gravitational pull. The satellite had found dozens of new planets but up to this point they were either large gas giants like Jupiter or small rocky planets like Mercury which were too hot for the life based on carbon.

Smith oversaw the satellite since last night. He was tired and a bit irritated but his mind became clearer when he saw the picture of his wife Aino. He was a planet seeker astronomer who was ambitious and curious. He knew that a part of his job was being patient. He had personally found several planets orbiting different stars. Some of his discoveries have been confirmed but the rest still waited for the confirmation. Smith knew that the large telescopes on the surface of Earth were useful but their problem was the atmosphere which filtered away much of radiation and light from the starts. Discovering planets next to the stars was a very difficult task like seeing a flame of the candle next to the large spotlight with distance of a kilometre or so. It is easy to see to light from the spotlight but the same time it covers the light from the candle. It was much easier for the satellites to detect very weak sources of light or surfaces reflecting lights than observatories located on the surface of Earth.

At least one unknown planet orbited the star Kappa 1 Ceti. Smith knew that several large gas planets orbited that star from further distance. However, the gentle wobbling of the star around the centre of gravity point indicated that there were probably more planet orbiting the star and those planets remained undetected. Smith had calculated that one possible planet orbiting the star would emerge between the star and Earth in any day now which would mean that they could evaluate the size of that planet. Smith had used a computer model on the Kappa 1 Ceti system and it supported the assumption that the planet exists. It would mean that they should check that possibility, Smith thought.

Smith hoped that the planet would come between the star and Earth so that they could also evaluate the composition of the planet´s atmosphere. They knew the patterns of that star´s light very well. When the planet comes between the star and Earth then some of the star light would travel through the planet´s atmosphere and finally coming to Earth. The molecules on the planet´s atmosphere would leave their marks to the light from the star.

The satellite could be able to analyse that mark when the original composition of the star light is known. However, there were three weaknesses in that method. First they should have a well-defined target. Secondly, there should have a known source of light behind the planet by the satellite´s database. Thirdly, the source of light should be as close at the planet as possible that no other source of light could mess the star light from that source.

Smith made another pan of coffee. During the night he drank several pans of coffee to stay awake. Overseeing the satellite was very boring job because he had watched the monitors for hours. He had used his time to send text messages to the other astronomers. Other astronomers had answered him quite diligently except the Australian one.

Suddenly, there was an alarm on the monitor. The satellite had detected that the brightness of Kappa 1 Ceti had decreased slightly. Smith´s first thought was if this is the planet he was looking for? He felt the conflict between being excited and being sceptical. He felt that now he was fully awake and didn´t need to cup of coffee. He remembered how he had predicted the existence of that planet according to the computer model and calculated when the planet will reveal itself. According to his calculation the planet should have revealed itself a day earlier. It would mean that there was something wrong in his calculations or the satellite just now detects the decreasing brightness of the star. Smith quickly looked at his calculations at the monitor but he couldn´t find what was wrong.

Smith glanced at the monitor and at the same time the computer stated to define the discovery based on the planetary system model. The task for the computer was to calculate how well this discovery correlated with the model. The computer both calculated the model and analysed the light from the star. It took couple of moments for the computer to confirm the fact that the mysterious planet on the model actually existed. Smith knew that he has been correct on his calculations.

Smith realized that the computer was able to determine from the light the distance of the planet from the mother star and the composition of the planet´s atmosphere. He noticed that the planet orbited the star on the so-called “habitable zone”. According to the computer the composition of the planet´s atmosphere was about 80% nitrogen and 20% oxygen. In addition to that the mass and the size of the planet were comparable to Earth.

That is not a certain observation, Smith thought. If the computer was correct on the analysis, then he had found the first planet which can maintain life. Smith knew that, this observation must be confirmed first. If other astronomers can confirm this observation, then he had indeed found the first planet which can maintain the life based on carbon like Earth can. If that is true can humans can theoretically live in there.

Smith knew perfectly well that this observation was very interesting. He checked that both the computer and the satellite worked as they should work in order to eliminate the possibility that there was something wrong the equipment. Smith thought if the computer interpreted the light and the radiation from the star correctly. Smith noticed that other astronomers had send him messages congratulating him. However, the Australian astronomer didn´t send a message while everyone else congratulated Mr. Smith. They have the same information which Smith saw on his monitor. Then Smith quickly replied on those messages and observed how the computer continued the validation calculations.

“Are you here? You were at home last time three days ago. I have clean clothes to you”, a female voice said. Smith turned around and he saw his wife, Aino Toivonen and he nodded. His wife much shorter than he, slender and she had a dark hair. He was also an astronomer but she was specialized on observing the Sun.

“Come and see what the satellite has discovered”, Smith said with enthusiastic voice and with his hand told Aino to look at the monitor.

“There is a planet orbiting Kappa 1 Ceti on the habitable zone and that planet can sustain life based on Carbon?”, Aino said with a clear surprise on her tone and asked: “He you confirmed that information?”

“I am doing that now”, Smith replied and stated: “It seems to be a genuine thing but it needs to be confirmed. If it will be confirmed, then I have found the first planet which can sustain life.”

“I am certain that the you would be remembered for a long time”, Aino said and then asked: “Have you though how people would reach that planet?”

“That planet is about 30 light years away. Reaching it would take centuries or even millennia. One option would be to send there a spacecraft and the allow the robots to bring up people in there”, Smith explained.

“You mean the “Embryo Space Colonization” -theory?”, Aino noticed.

“Yes. Reaching the level of technology that theory demands will probably take at least couple of centuries”, Smith wondered aloud.

“Why did you choose that theory? Wouldn´t generation ships be better option for long distance stellar exploration and colonization?”, Aino asked curiously.

“The trip would take too long by using generation ships, perhaps even millennia. At the same time, the needs of the passengers like food, water, oxygen and shelter should be provided. Living the whole life from birth to death would require a lot of mental spirit”, Smith explained.

“Would it be possible to extend the life span of the people?”, Aino inquired innocently.

“That is possible in theory but it will not remove the basic needs of the people”, Smith replied concisely.

“Is it possible to use cryonics to put people in sleep?”, Aino suggested.

“That could work in theory but waking them up would be difficult because water tend to crystalize when it freezes and it will break the cell structure”, Smith noted bluntly.

“How about travelling fast than light?”, Aino proposed, again innocently.

“Then we should deal with the Einstein´s theory of relativity. Remember that the energy is as much as the mass multiplied by velocity squared. The speed of light is a very high figure and squaring it would make it even much larger. There would be the same problem with energy regarding the wormholes”, Smith replied.

“Hah hah. My teasing was successful”, Aino said laughingly.

“I suspected that much. When you are so smart then would be kind and tell me why did I choose the Embryo Space Colonization – theory?”, Smith asked with slightly annoyed voice.

Many things such as the robotics, the artificial intelligence, the artificial wombs and the computers which will endure centuries or even millennia and the power sources of those ships should be available for that kind of mission”, Aino stated and then quickly continued: “One should not forget biological and ethical issues such as the preserving of DNA material and the question whether it is ethical to allow robots to bring up people. Also there is a question about which values will be taught to the children. Have you thought about the name for that new planet?”

“What do you think about Eden?”, Smith asked enthusiastically and said: “It must be a paradise compared to the other planets which have been discovered earlier.

1.

The bell rang and the pupils came to the classroom. There were 49 of them. They were all 16 years old. There were 25 girls and 24 boys in the classroom. Originally, there were 50 of them but one boy died in an accident 2 years ago. That boy was meant to be her companion. The pupils had tables in front of them, altogether 25 of them which meant that one table was for two pupils. Each row and column had 5 tables. During the class she looked outside and there is a bright weather out there. Looks like that Kappa 1 Ceti shines so brightly. That is the strange name for a star which shines on the sky. They call that star as Kappa.

They don’t have human as a teacher but their teacher is a robot and that robot´s name is Mr. Erudio. They see him as a person but in fact he is just a machine. He is around 1,5 meters tall and he has wheels for moving. Their school and residential building is designed that it is possible to move in there by using wheels. They have many elevators in that building. They were told that those elevators were made by the leading elevator manufacturers in the Earth.

Her name is Cassandra and she has long yellow hair and blue eyes. She is also quite tall and her body is slender and muscular at the same time. She is very fit physically. Her plans for the future are to study the biology of this planet. If they want to live in this planet, then they need to be able to exploit all the local natural resources. At this moment, they have less than 800 people at their ship because every annual class has no more than 50 people. Soon, 17th annual class will be born and at that point Cassandra´s class, the first class, will be out and making this planet habitable.

Suddenly, Cassandra´s thoughts are disrupted when Mr. Erudio asks her: “Cassandra, do you remember what is the theme of this class?” Cassandra thinks a short moment and answers:

“The theme of this class is how we ended in here, this planet.”

“You are correct Cassandra. Today´s topic is that how and why we ended in here. This year, it has been 6482 days, 18 years, since our spaceship arrived this planet which we call as Eden. The first class, you are now 16 years old. You are coming to the age to leave the safety of the spaceship and start exploring Eden. Before that it is good for you to know how you ended here and what you can expect to meet out there”, Erudio said.

One boy, Laocoon raises his hand and asks: “How are we here and how have we travelled from the Earth? I have never seen elder people. How old can people live?”

Laocoon has dark hair, pale skin and dark eyes. He is slightly taller than Cassandra and a bit sturdy. Physically he is strong but his endurance isn´t that good.

Mr. Erudio answers to Laocoon´s question: “Those are quite complex questions and I cannot give you a direct answer, however I know that in good circumstances people can easily live over 80 years old. The best answer for our origin is to watch the documentary film that I have planned for our class.”

After saying this Erudio pushed a button in his teacher´s table. The white screen lowers and he tunes down the lighting in the classroom. Then he pushes other buttons in order to get the documentary film ready to be shown. Then he says: “After this documentary film we will discuss about it and another class will be used go through the Eden´s local environment again.”

Cassandra thinks that this is very expected because they are going to be the first class which will be allowed to leave this building. It is funny in a way that they don´t know what their school looks like outside. There is a joke that their school looks a like factory. There are some machines for production so they know what the word factory means. They have also seen pictures about factories as well. However, they don´t know if that factory claim is true. Cassandra knows that they have been kept indoors for 16 years. It was said that this was for their own good. During that time, they have received the basic education and then they have been trained for their assigned jobs. All of them have also trained to have some basic military training as well. The most important exception are the soldiers who are trained to kill.

When Cassandra pondered this, the film started. The name of the film was “Looking the Extra Terrestial Life”. They knew that their origin was from the place that they call as Earth. They know that this is planet which is in another solar system some 30 light years away.

The document starts and it mentioned that the first exoplanet was discovered in 1988. The next thing to mention is that to the beginning of the year 2016, some 2047 exoplanets were discovered. Cassandra quickly calculated in the paper. She divided 2047 with 28 and the result was around 73. She thought that discovering 73 planets per year on average was quite an achievement.

After this the documentary focuses on the methods to discover new planets. The center of gravity method is mentioned and the documentary tells that it is not the same point that the center of the star. Because of this, the astronomers see the star wobbling and this reveals that the star does have a large planet orbiting it generally very close. It is possible to see this movement from lightyears away.

In Cassandra´s ears that sounds quite unbelievable because if discovering new planets is so important then wouldn´t it be the best idea to send satellites to find them? Earth´s atmosphere will not disturb satellites looking for new planets in any way.

Soon after this, the document tells that an American astronomer David Smith years later discovered a planet orbiting Kappa 1 Ceti in the Goldilocks zone which allows the water in that planet to be in the liquid form. This planet was named as Eden because it was the discovered planet first that may be able to support life as humans knew it. If the planet would be closer to the star, then it would be hotter and the water would simply vaporize and if the planet would be farer then the water would freeze to ice. As a technology to detect new planets, Smith used new satellites designed for that task. Cassandra realizes that Smith quite tall and he has got yellow hair which seems to be slowly turning gray. However, Smith then started to tell about problems regarding space flight between stars.

Mr. Smith very enthusiastically tells that his group of astronomers estimated that the planet orbiting Kappa 1 Ceti was roughly as large as Earth with similar mass. Their preliminary analysis on the atmosphere indicated that the atmosphere contained mostly nitrogen and oxygen. According to Mr. Smith the relation between them was that there was around 80% of nitrogen and 20% of oxygen. The technology that his group used couldn´t give any more detailed information. According to Mr. Smith, this means that there are probably plants which can either photosynthesize or chemosynthesize in that planet. Finally, he said that Eden looks like a very promising candidate to colonize if humans can somehow travel that 30 lightyears distance.

Mr. Smith said that it would be very difficult to send a spaceship with hundreds, maybe thousands of people to travel the distance of dozens of lightyears. As a biology expert, Cassandra knew that a group of that large would need a lot of food, water, shelter and oxygen. In space, they should be able to produce all of that by themselves and the spaceship should be self-sufficient. It would take centuries or millennia to travel that kind of distances which means that dozens of generations would born and die during that journey without seeing Earth or Eden with their own eyes. Mr. Smith mentions that these are the reasons why he is so skeptical towards manned flights between stars.

Then Mr. Smith started to talk about an alternative theory to travel that distance. His idea is to use either fertilized human egg or frozen egg and sperm fertilizing them after arriving to the target. They would be allowed to born and then to develop as adults after the ship would have arrived its destination. According to Mr. Smith, this of course requires that human eggs and sperm could be protected from the changing temperatures, cosmic radiation and injection of energy from different stars. Those human eggs and sperm would be the most important material during the journey. Suddenly Cassandra realized that this was how they arrived to Eden. That also explains why they are the first class. They were fertilized and they have no information about their parents. Cassandra is very displeased about the fact that they are possibly carrying inheritable diseases in their genes but they have no information about that.

Their basic education was that they were taught to write, to read and to calculate. At the same time, their robot teachers observed what special interests did they have. Cassandra was always interested about animals and plants. That is why she was chosen to specialize in biology and later in astrobiology, which means that she has professional education to handle unknown plants and animals. In practice, it means that Cassandra should be able to determine if plants and animals they discover could be useful or harmful for the colonists. That is a challenging task because when they will start the colonization of Eden then there will be demand for Cassandra´s skills. Cassandra knew this when she watches out of window and saw robots treating fields and more distant forest.

At this point, Cassandra´s thoughts focused on the documentary. Mr. Smith continued telling about the space travel concept. He told about risks sending genetic material from Earth to the other planet. Then he mentioned that one very important issue to deal with would be the inadequate training or language in the foreign planet. Another issue would be to create a cultural background for the colonists. Cassandra thought that they at least avoided that risk. They have 49 people in first class, who are well educated and well-trained. At this point, they are kept isolated from younger groups because they are ready to leave the building and it may be difficult to explain why they can leave and the younger classes must stay. Larger group may have advantages but only if all members of the larger group are well-trained. Cassandra knew that they are going to need well-trained labor force once to step outside. In the future, one thing in the training is that older generations will share their experience with younger generations. This also means that they could move robots from training facilities to the field in order to help building and maintaining the Colony.

After this Mr. Smith started to talk about how that spaceship should bring autonomous robots because they job would be to build the early colony and colonial infrastructure. Upbringing people so that they are able to work efficiently would take at least 15 years if not more. He was right about that and even if 49 members of the first class are well educated, they are still excited. They are going to enter a new and an unknown world which they should learn to know, so that they could live in that world. Robots have provided them a little information because it seems to be that most animals tend to avoid robots because they make so much noise. This most likely means that local animals use their hearing to avoid predators and it would be quite difficult to hunt them. Cassandra presumes that one way to drive away local animals is to use noise against them. However, the local predators probably have very good hearing and the noise may guide them to the colonists.

Mr. Smith talks about artificial wombs. According to him, they are not yet ready but progress in their development looks very promising. Cassandra knew that this is very important issue using the genetic material and in multiplying the population in the new world. Cassandra knows that the colonists do not have plans to reproduce by themselves. The reason for that is the fact that there are only 49 people outside soon and they all will be needed as labor force for the Colony. Cassandra knows that her task will be travelling near the Colony with some cartographers and guards.

They mission will be to understand the geographical, geological and biological environment bit farer from the Colony. Cassandra knows that it will be a very difficult mission but if they want to survive in this planet them someone got to do it. Because of that Cassandra does have some combat training and she knows how to use firearms. Humans are not very fast or very strong. That is the reason why humans favor firearms. Another reason is that one can use firearms to scare off attacking predators.

Then Mr. Smith again disrupted Cassandra´s thoughts and he started to talk about the importance of how the spaceship computers should be very durable so that they would remain operational for many millennia from the beginning of the journey for Earth to the arrival at the target planet. Then they should be used to help building up the Colony and the first generations of colonists. Listening Mr. Smith made Cassandra to think that the computers can be maintained by the robots. In practice, this would mean that computers would notify the robots that there is something wrong in the computers. After the notification, a robot specialized in fixing computers would be sent to repair the detected problem. If there would be a problem with programming, then computers should be able to fix that on their own. Cassandra knows that the spaceship doesn´t have one large computer but a connected network of computers. Most of the computers are turned off because they are either broken or they are in reserve mode. The principle is basically the same that humans use only a small portion of their whole brain capacity.

The propulsion of the spaceship is also very important from Mr. Smith´s point of view. Without a good propulsion, the spaceship cannot move fast enough and that would put the whole operation in jeopardy when the ship starts to broke up. Luckily that didn´t happen to them, Cassandra thought. She doesn´t have training regarding spaceship engines because she doesn´t need that education at Eden. Their education is supposed to be pragmatic and the ultimate goal for education is to help them building a new home for them at Eden, so that the Colony and the colonists will flourish in the future. That is the reason why their education is focused that kind of skills.

The most important issue for the whole project according to Mr. Smith was to find exoplanet which would be able to support life. He told that the most promising candidate for this is the planet orbiting the star Kappa 1 Ceti. However, no other astronomer research group have yet confirmed his group´s discovery. Despite of this, Mr. Smith and his group are hopeful that they are going to find a new planet around this star or from another promising star.

At this point, Cassandra starts to think that is their colony the first human colony outside Earth? Are they the first people who are allowed to step on the surface of an exoplanet? According to Mr. Smith, that seems to be the case. Mr. Smith tells that the spaceship sends a success signal to Earth when it successfully arrives to the designed destination. Cassandra realized that their signal will arrive to Earth in 12 years in the future and it will take at least 42 years before the response signal will reach Eden. Cassandra thought that the space is very wide indeed. She pondered that what kind of place Earth was? She has seen pictures and video clips about Earth and animals in there. They do have utility animal and plant DNA in their spaceship. The function of that DNA is to make their life easier in this planet.

After this Cassandra realized that there was a newscaster. He was excited to tell that the first ships from Earth starts its journey to Kappa 1 Ceti. According to him, the name of ship was GHR-873. The acronym GHR meant “Galactic Human Redeployment Project” and 873 meant that this ship was launched from Earth in 2873. The newscaster added that all previous attempts to send ships to colonize foreign planets have failed and this ship will probably be the last one that they will send. This meant that humans have earlier sent colony ships to colonize other exoplanets but they all have sent fail signals to Earth for some reasons.

Suddenly Cassandra realized that this was their ship. She remembered to see GHR-873 markings around the ship. Then she didn´t know what they meant but now their meaning is clear to her. She knew that they are going to be the vanguard of humanity in this new planet. In a way, it is a very great honor but it also gives them enormous pressures. Cassandra knew that she will have big pressures because her job is to define the environment where they are going to work and to see potential threats to the Colony and colonists. She knew that unknown animals, plants, mushrooms, bacteria and all the stuff they have produced should be identified. The goal for Cassandra is to know the local nature as well as possible. Cassandra knew that the air outside is breathable and that the colony uses the local water supply. If there is oxygen in the air, then it is a product of photosynthesis.

Cassandra started to remember the basic formula of photosynthesis for the early stages of her biology studies. Six molecules of water, H2O, join six molecules carbon dioxide, CO2. This happens in the plants chrolophyll and it is powered by the sunlight. The result is a simple sugar molecule C6H12O6 and six molecules of oxygen, O2. It took some time to memorize that but Cassandra knows it instantly. It seems to be that the process is not limited in Earth and it works in that way also in Eden. That is an encouraging information because we are going to be at the mercy of the nature once we leave the ship, Cassandra thought. From Cassandra´s point of view, the only bad thing was that the boy, who died, was another astrobiologist and Cassandra´s companion. When he is gone, all the responsibility in astrobiology for one year is in Cassandra´s hands. He died 2 years ago which meant that the person replacing him would not have enough time to study both biology and then specialize in astrobiology. The replacing person would be able to study the required amount of biology but not much more than that.

The whole biology and astrobiology education altogether took 10 years for Cassandra and she knows that there are going to be 2 astrobiology specialists on the second class but their education isn´t finished yet. For the next year, these 48 other members of the first class will trust on Cassandra´s astrobiology skills. This is why Cassandra´s security is very important because in a short run, she is going to be irreplaceable. At the same time, she must travel and collect plant and animal samples. What plants and animals they can use as food or exploit in order to help the Colony? What animals and plants should be avoided or destroyed? If their small Colony wants to survive then they should be able to harness all available resources. Cassandra knows that they were taught that this planet is for them. They should both cultivate and preserve it.

Suddenly Cassandra realized that the class is going to end. Her robot teacher says to her: “Cassandra, do you want to stay here or do you want to fulfil your assigned task out there?”

Cassandra´s answer was to stand up and get her stuff. After the class those 49 pupils are guided to the large hall where they wear their special outdoor suits. That suit is normally white but it does have camouflage settings which means that it will blend in the environment. They also received their firearms. Cassandra´s firearm is an assault rifle for her back and a pistol for her belt. In addition to that she also a handheld scanner to gather samples and information. She can also use that scanner to take pictures and clips from animals in their natural habitat. After that they move to the next chamber which is between them and the surface of Eden.

When all of them have been equipped they will form a square which has 7 rows and 7 columns. They waited that the door between them and the living quarters in the spaceship closes. After that the outdoor started to open and the rays of the Kappa shined to the hall. They seem to be bright yellow and they irritate eyes as well. Cassandra loses her eyesight for couple of seconds and then her brains start to process the environment again.

The leader of these 49 former pupils order them to march out. Cassandra is on the last column which moves. She saw how all other six columns started to move first. After that the seventh column also started to move towards the door. Bright light shined through the door and momentarily Cassandra was almost blinded. Despite of that she walks through the door.

2.

They took small and short steps but the meaning of those steps were very important to the people of Eden. When Cassandra walked out she was blinded by the bright light that shined from the open door directly to her eyes. Now when she was outside her eyesight started to slowly recover after being momentarily blind. When Cassandra´s eyesight returned she started to notice things about the environment outside. Her first notice was the buildings around their spaceship. When Cassandra was inside the ship she didn´t spend her to think about buildings which the robots of the colony had built. When outside she thought that those buildings will be both residential buildings, offices and warehouses for them.

Then she looked at the open field which surrounds the spaceship and the colony. She saw some robots on the field planting crops. She knew that agriculture will be an important way for them to produce food. That is why they need to make it to work as soon as possible. She knew that the ship brought grain seeds and embryos of different kind of domestic animals from the Earth. The plan is to melt them, let them grow and then exploit them. In the ship, there is equipment to grow up people from fertilization to the adulthood, so there will be a way to do the same with the domesticated animals as well. It will take time but Cassandra knew that they will have a lot of time. They cannot leave this planet even if they would want to leave it.

Cassandra saw that on the other side of the wide open field there was forest. Cassandra´s quick glance told her that the forest was most likely a mixed forest between broadleaf trees and coniferous trees. She knew that existence of that forest as long as she has lived. In real life that forest looked so majestic and awesome with tall trees. Cassandra wonders what resources, possibilities and dangers are in that forest.

That forest will be her new area to work because she needs to collect as much information from that area as possible. The more they know about the environment the better because it makes easier to exploit local natural resources. They have a small community in this planet and that is why they are going to need every advantage that they can get. Cassandra remembered that they teacher robots told them that this planet was meant to be their new home and their mission is to create the facilities for humanity to live in here. In practice if they want to survive they need to harness the resources of this planet to serve them. She knew that this will be a long process but luckily for them they do have all the information they need stored in ship´s computers. They need to apply that information when they start to build the infrastructure of the Colony.

Cassandra´s thoughts are disrupted and she realized that the briefing starts outside. Now, there are two people in front of them. Those two people are their leaders; Zeus and Hera. Their duty is to organize the Colony in this planet. Zeus had light brown hair, blue eyes and he was quite stout man. Hera had dark hair, blue eyes and she was quite slender. Cassandra knew that those people were very bright and they were trained to lead the people and to manage the Colony. They were probably the best people among the colonists in both leading people and managing things.

Other people were in the half circle in front of Zeus and Hera. They were starting the briefing. First they spoke to the ten soldiers. There were five female soldiers; Penthesilea, Hippolyta, Iphito, Aegea and Otrera. The male soldiers were Akhilles, Heracles, Theseus, Hector and Jason. The common nominator for these ten is that they all are very fit and they have good nerves. Physically they are all tall and strong people. Cassandra knew because of their size and strength anyone of them could defeat her in the fight. They are trained to fight and to kill if necessary. Their primary function is to provide security for the Colony and the colonists. Because of this they do have the best equipment. They all need to arrange the defence of the Colony because they are the security experts.

Penthesilea, “Penthe” was a dark-skinned tall woman who had dark hair, dark eyes and very well trained body. She had a very good sense of humour and she was very talkative as well. Cassandra had always worked well with Penthesilea. Cassandra knew that she is interested about the world outside the Colony. She taught Cassandra combat skills and in return Cassandra told her about various things about local biology. Cassandra noticed that Penthesilea was very intelligent person who wanted to learn more. If she wouldn´t be a soldier, then she would have been an excellent biologist. Because of this Penthesilea will probably be one of the soldiers who will escort Cassandra outside the Colony.

Hippolyta looked like very different that Penthesilea. She had fair hair and green eyes. Her body looks surprisingly poorly trained because she preferred to wear loose clothes. She is very tall and Cassandra knew that in real life she was probably the best trained female soldier. Hippolyta was also the leader of the female soldiers because she did the best in the training. She was very intelligent and she had no sense of humour. She had the reputation to follow the rules to the letter. She was also very strict on herself as well.

Iphito looked like an exotic Asian female. She had pale skin and dark hair. Physically she was well-trained like the rest of the soldiers. As a person she was quiet and she respects other people. She was probably the most courteous of the soldiers. People respect her because of her quiet and pondering character. If she would be more talkative and more energetic then she would have a very good chance to gain new friends easily. Even now she is one of the most liked people in the whole group.

Aegea was tall and she had brown hair and blue eyes. Physically she was very fit like the rest of the soldiers. She was probably the most charismatic and the most talkative of soldiers. Other people said that she can gain friends everywhere. Because of that she is one of the most popular people in the group. She had a very good sense of humour and she can easily tolerate humour aimed at her as well.

Otrera was as tall and as fit as the rest of the female soldiers. Her hair was very fair and she was exceptional character because one of her eyes was dark brown and another one was light brown. Even when her eyes have different colours that does not hinder her work at all. As a soldier she was a tough as the rest of the female soldiers. She did have a very bad habit to boast her achievements loudly. Because of that she wasn´t very liked but people respect her skills.