Deep Space Dead by Edward Chilvers Read Free Book Online

their way down to the arboretum where further instructions will be given.”
    Of course most of the colonists had packed long before now. Most were already gathered in the arboretum for they knew the landing was imminent. Although she was still very angry with Sol, Arianna had nonetheless arranged for Ambra to spend the morning with him as a means of making up for the other day. It was a small step towards making peace with the man but Arianna could not afford any running arguments at a time like this, especially with Jak as busy as he was.
     
    From the bridge the atmosphere was nervous and thick with expectation. Admiral Kalp remained calm as she directed her charges to make landing. A great cheer erupted as the starship broke the surface of the clouds and the first real sight of the virgin land came into view. The entire landscape was lain out before them. Rivers ran like veins through the unbroken plains and forests all the way to the mountains with the sea to the south the clearest shade of blue anyone had ever witnessed.
     
    When the Tula IV was twenty thousand feet above ground the pilots began the detachment of the doughnut from the rest of the ship. Different parts of the starship subsequently came apart, clicked together and then hovered gently towards the ground. Living quarters became apartment blocks, storerooms became independent warehouses; there were offices and factories and barns and outbuildings, ready-made lumber mills and farmhouses too. The bridge and a few administrative sections, the council quarters and engine rooms now linked round to attach to the arboretum which would remain as the town hall and power station until the city proper was established. This was not the last of the detachment. Over times the layers of the arboretum fields would be dispersed and lain out along the plains in order to assist with the first crops. Before that ditches and irrigation would need to be dug.
     
    Now the arboretum was completely lowered on to the ground. The great glass screen that had protected them from the oblivion of space was rolled back and the artificial air and venting systems were turned off. The plants and flowers within breathed their first natural air and the colonists felt it upon their faces and inside their lungs as well, the first proper air they had experienced in years, and for the children it was the first proper, natural breath of their lives.
     
    Now they all lined up at the gangways and prepared to disembark. The children who had been born on the starship were the first down the platform, being slowly lowered down with Admiral Kalp, as was the age old tradition. When they were a metre from the surface Ambra, in her excitement, climbed over the protective gate and, despite attempts to stop her, leapt down to touch the hard ground beneath and was thus the first person from the Tula IV to set foot upon this strange new world. Nobody really minded that much. The children ran around and breathed in great gulps of healthy, natural air. Arianna breathed deeply too, loving the way the scent of the forests mingled with the gentle breeze. The engineer Bratten Jorg was joined by the city planner Jung Pepp and together they looked out at towards the plains and forestry, the rivers and the mountains beyond and already they were mapping out roads, houses, shops, reservoirs, power stations, fields and islands. Everywhere people were hugging and kissing their families, running about and even on occasion getting down on their stomachs to kiss the virgin ground. Some people started to celebrate with their families, others wanted to make plans straight away. Arianna just wanted to walk barefoot atop the lush guard and feel the warm breeze upon her face as she planned for the rest of her life with Ambra and Jak.
     
    As one of the Council, Arianna and Ambra would remain around the arboretum in one of the few apartments still attached to the main body of the starship. A little later that evening she went