Spaceheim

By May Koliander

It’s 2220 on exoplanet Zingu. What is left of humanity faces peril again after escaping from a dying Earth. The new colony, Arcana, is split in two. The former Tellurians (the Nats) live in ArcaNat while the cyborgs and robots are housed in ArcanArt, among the production units. And now the rift between these two parts of the colony is growing. The Nats need to act fast as the threat of a machine take-over which would seal humanity’s fate comes to light. Fortunately, before their departure from Earth some 140 years ago, scientists had foreseen the possibility of such a situation and drawn up a solution. The only hang-up is that the key to the problem is hidden on planet Earth in a Spanish monastery, in the long-lost past. Will the Nats manage to overcome all the obstacles, defeat the machines and ensure our species’ survival ?

• Language: English
• Publisher: May Koliander
• Release date: Apr 17, 2019
• ISBN: 9782970088288

May Koliander

I was born in the States, the outcome of an Oklahoma - Pennsylvania love story, but bred in Europe. My taste for stories started a long time ago with Mom reading to us every evening for hours and giving us free access to the stash of Classics Illustrated a mile high she had thrown into the great ocean liner trunks along with other artefacts, such as vegetable peelers and pie tins, when she decided to cross the seas with her brood. As we grew in years, we graduated from Uncle Wiggly, Uncle Remus and Pogo to the great epics and then on to the world's classics. I still remember my brother's laughter when we got to The Pickwick Papers and must confess I fell asleep during most of The Brothers Karamazov, but was totally enthralled by War and Peace. I sometimes try to draw up a list of my most loved books, something like a top ten. It would read - today - like this : Lolita by V. Nabokov War With The Newts by K. Capek God's Grace by B. Malamud Anna Karenin by L. Tolstoy La Soif et Autres Nouvelles by Ivo Andritch Ferdydurke by W. Gombrowicz The Barsoom Novels by Edgar Rice Burroughs The Things They Carried by T. O'Brien Le Testament Français by Andreï Makine A Good Man is Hard to find and Other Stories by F. O'Connor Us by E. Zamiatine Frankenstein by Mary Shelley Of course, it's easy to remember the works that have marked generations. However, we don't only feed on 'literature' - there are myriads of other books out there of a less lofty nature that we have read and thoroughly enjoyed, but whose titles or authors have faded from our memory. So, the big blank space in the middle of the list is for all those writers whose work has given me countless hours of excitement and pleasure - writers of genre fiction. One day, however, the unthinkable happens - you reach for a book and after a few pages, you let if fall back down. It's not what you wanted - the shoe doesn't fit - so you pick up another and it happens again... Then there's only one thing left to do - sit down at your computer and start writing...

Book preview

SPACEHEIM

Can Mankind Dodge the Dodo’s Doom ?

May Koliander

Copyright 2019 by May Koliander

Smashwords Edition

Cover design : © Margaret Rainey – The Book Cover Designer

All rights reserved.

ISBN 978-2-9700882-8-8

Also by May Koliander

Welcome to Freakdom

Freaky Pearl

Freak Away !

Quicksands

Love Code

The Cave of Treasures

Genewise

Contact : [e-mail]

www.koliander.ch

"We are ourselves creating our own successors. Man will become to the machine what the horse and the dog are to the man."

Samuel Butler 1863

Quoted by Michio Kaku

Contents

Prologue

The Age of Wonder

The Age of Despair

SAVU – The Age of Hope

Chapter 1 : 2220 – Arcana

Chapter 2 : 2220 – Trouble in Paradise

Chapter 3 : The Age of Despair

Chapter 4 : The Age of Wonder

Chapter 5 : The Age of Despair

Chapter 6 : 2220 – ArcanArt

Chapter 7 : The Age of Hope – The Holy Braid

Chapter 8 : The Age of Hope – The golden heart

Chapter 9 : 2220 – Soul searching

Chapter 10 : 2220 – The kitty

Chapter 11 : The Age of Wonder

Chapter 12 : 2220 – It’s a dog’s life

Chapter 13 : 2220 – Kanell reports

Chapter 14 : The Age of Wonder

Chapter 15 : 2220 – Following the heart

Chapter 16 : 2220 – Getting wise

Chapter 17 : The Age of Wonder

Chapter 18 : 2220 – Investigating among blooms

Chapter 19 : 2220 – Coming close

Chapter 20 : 2220 – The telepath

Chapter 21 : The Age of Wonder

Chapter 22 : 2220 – Buried secrets

Chapter 23 : 2220 – The den

Chapter 24 : The Age of Wonder

Chapter 25 : 2220 – Fate

Prologue

The hourglass spins on its axis imprisoning time in a loop…

The Age of Wonder

In the dim church, the gothic altar piece was suffused with an unnatural light. Eyes widening, Brother Anselmo approached cautiously. As he beheld the source of the radiance, he fell to his knees, joined hands shooting up to the sky, in praise of the Almighty for the miracle before him. God, in His infinite bounty had blessed the monastery, presenting it with the gold heart-shaped reliquary of the Sacred Braid now resting on the brocade altar cloth. The Holy Lock, said to have been cut from the Savior’s head when he was nailed to the cross, was placed by Helena, emperor Constantinian’s mother in a precious gold casing. But this holiest of relics disappeared after the sack of Rome and for centuries brethren all over the world had been actively seeking it, to no avail. And now here it was, gently glowing, in the Church of the monastery of Santa Maria la Real. It was a great boon. It would serve to heighten the renown of the monastery, attracting even more pilgrims from of the steady flow headed for Santiago. Brother Anselmo rose slowly to his feet and leaned over the golden relic, not without a slight twinge of guilt at being solitarily enjoying its heavenly beauty when he knew he should already be on his way to inform the Abbot. This miraculous gift was a sure sign of the Lord’s pleasure at having the Spanish church send Him so many new souls after he had granted the Americas to the Crown. Rubbing his dry hands together as he hurried through the great halls, Brother Anselmo reflected with awe on God’s infinite wisdom. Indeed, the Holy Lock had been given to the very monastery where Christ’s mother had appeared to one of the first kings of Spain, before the Mores had been chased out of the realm. This year – 1555 – would be celebrated far into the future. Brother Anselmo began to tremble, overcome by the gratitude he felt at knowing that Spain had been chosen by God to prosper and rule, and to be living in this great age of hope and expansion.

The Age of Despair

The many plagues of Egypt were once again upon mankind and he had brought them upon himself, unaided. Under the cloak of the notion of progress and the sacrosanct goal of universal happiness, greed had advanced stealthily within the modern age until the hold of religion slackened enough for the rise of individualism to feel free to brazenly unveil its corrupt face. Then, unfettered by outdated moral considerations, the age of manipulation took off in earnest. Endlessly churning out glossy pictures of iconic individuals living the good life, it relentlessly bored into men’s consciousness the need to fulfill every craving and buy ever more of the goods spewing out of factories where workers toiled blindly, exposed to health hazards for a minimum wage.

Two centuries of unchecked pollution began to take their toll well before the end of the 20th century regardless of the alarm bells that had been ringing for decades. For who was ready to heed them ? Short-sighted politicians had the upper hand – each man fighting for his wallet, each country bent on coming out on top – the world was up for grabs. Indeed, why should I begin imposing restrictions in my country while my neighbors go for it like there was no tomorrow ? Alas, the expression would prove only too accurate for soon there was indeed to be no tomorrow for the planet… To modern man living in climate-controlled buildings, the weather was just background noise, something one checked out before organizing a garden party, and not the whole story. Too late did it become known that weather and climate were crucial to civilization and social stability. Geologists deemed 1950 a turning point. From then on, the atmospheric chemistry was modified and there was change in the air. Catastrophic change. The blanket formed by dioxide and methane soot, to name only two of the substances trapping the sun’s heat, set off global warming and a modification of the weather patterns, making the jet stream derail. The self-feeding mechanism was riding on a roller-coaster, spiraling out of control. Ice melted, releasing ever more methane as well as organic chemical pollutants which entered the food chain. The acidic seas rose, driving millions of people away from their homes and livelihood. Diseases spread and wildlife extinction rates accelerated as hurricanes, floods and large-scale fires raged across the face of the Earth.

By the middle of the 21st century despair was reaping what it had gleefully sown – nowhere was safe any longer, and when not falling victim to famine, drought, armed bands or epidemics, people committed suicide in swathes. And countries, instead of uniting to overcome the hardships raining down on them when faced with ever decreasing resources, squabbled. More destruction, waste and deaths came about in the pointless skirmishes or full-fledged wars governments waged with one another as the planet teetered on the edge of the abyss…

SAVU – The Age of Hope

In great secrecy, quite early in the 21st century an organization naming itself SAVU – standing for Save Humanity – was formed by a cluster of dedicated men and women, many of them top scientists from all over the world, who despaired of ever seeing the increasingly eroded nation states acting together to deal head on with the demographic, environmental and societal disruption global warming was engendering. These individuals decided to do things their own way. The idea was first spawned by scientists – biologists, neuroscientists, chemists – working in the field of artificial intelligence and nanotechnology. Government money for fundamental research was fast drying up. What threatened governments urgently needed to carve out territories in the face of the erosion of nation-states and international borders, were products such as drones, exoskeletons and landmine clearing robots all based on existing technology. To ensure funding, the members of the budding SAVU organization had no alternative but to take their vision and grand plan to business tycoons whose money came essentially from digital companies. The plan was bold but simple. Seeing that planet Earth was careening towards its destruction, if humanity was to be saved, they judged that mankind had to emigrate, just as hordes of men had done many times in the past millennia. The first step towards this goal would be to complete the super intelligent computer they were already busy working on. While keeping the machine under stringent security measures, they would use it first to make money on the still functioning stock market and then to fully develop the technology necessary for interplanetary travel. This involved probes to check out habitable or quasi habitable exoplanets, fission rockets, and the perfecting of a technique of suspended animation so the first humans to be sent out would survive a lengthy trip in good shape.

SAVU functioned like a secret society or a sect – those who rejoined its ranks were passionate about achieving the common goal and ready for great sacrifices. Little by little top scientists stopped publishing anything of interest and once out of the limelight, just vanished, not that anyone was really taking notice any longer. Some even took advantage of a hurricane or a tsunami to disappear, their tearful spouse deciding to move out of town after a few months to try to get over his or her grief, but secretly repairing to the SAVU stronghold based in a remote area of Kazakhstan.

By 2050 SAVU had sent probes into space and selected an exoplanet it would take no more than two years to reach and where life would be sustainable without the human genome having to be tweaked too dramatically to ensure adaptation to its environment. Excitement grew as the finishing touches were put to the rocket’s engine.

The planet chosen was Zingu and the prospective settlement would be named Arcana.

Chapter 1

2220 – Arcana

Would the new toy designs shimmering on her screen catch the children’s fancy ? It wasn’t always easy to know what kids would take to – some were averse to anything too reminiscent of school and Look-and-Learn classes. And being able to summon up virtual animals with the apps on their wristors tended to spoil them, forever rising their expectations. Solia got up thoughtfully. She too as a child had always preferred toys or games that allowed enough space for her imagination to soar. The Tellurian farm animal set might nevertheless be a good idea – it wasn’t gender specific – and astonishingly, none as detailed had yet been produced. Arcana had cows, sheep, pigs and chickens all genetically modified to adapt to their new home and which were taken great care of as they were a precious gene pool. The cows’ milk served both for food and to produce casein-based cloth. However, most of the meat consumed by the colonists was cloned so precious fertile land didn’t have to be given over to pasture for large herds of ruminants. For all the other Tellurian farm animals, Solia had had to delve into the settlement’s archives. Conditions on Zingu had improved over the decades thanks to the terraforming boost given by the first arrivals. And animals could now be penned outside with lesser fear of radiation, but when checking out the archives, she realized that the beasts on Zingu differed considerably from their Tellurian ancestors. What had been dubbed the Mighty Mouse gene ever so long ago by the pioneers of genetic research back on the Mother planet, had helped both men and animals deal with the planet’s gravitational field which was slightly larger than the Earth’s. This, however, resulted in creatures that were larger than their ancestors, and in the case of the animals, much shaggier. The cows’ coat was 10 inches thick and the sheep’s slightly bluish wool stood up on end making them look like giant hedgehogs. And Solia knew the geneticists were still hard at work recreating different useful species, using the gene library, to make life more enjoyable – keeping in mind, however, the risks the introduction of a new creature could entail for the planet’s ecosystem.

But now it was HugTime and in less than ten minutes, she had to be at Moiria House where the children would be eagerly awaiting the adults. Solia couldn’t help wondering which of the children gathered there were hers. She had technically been mother to two already, but carrying a child was still very chancy and wouldn’t be safe for a few more generations, so for the time being, it was invitro fecundation and artificial maturing in womb-like reservoirs. The new generations were brought into the new world according to a master plan. Every two years or so a new Genebatch was started and the kids were raised in age groups, babies sleeping three or four to a nest in the vast dormitories. Solia shivered as she recalled a scene from one of the old Tellurian films she had pulled up from the archives. Some poor woman waddled about her home, trying to carry out her daily chores, hampered by a huge bulge sticking out of her middle section. Perhaps bearing a child wasn’t really something to look forward to, after all…

The winds on Zingu could blow with near hurricane force without much advance warning so all shucks or individual houses were powered by a hydraulic arm which allowed them to move between the surface of the planet and a snug underground casing where the gales couldn’t harm them. Before pushing the switch that would send the oval shuck down, Solia gazed at the lightning balls fitfully dancing on the horizon against the dark backdrop of the hills. She would miss the view when she changed shucks next year, but Zingu’s most valued rule was Save & Share and it was only fair that all should be given access to the better locations.

She threw a dark blue wrap around her shoulders and opened the door giving onto the underground feed, composed of both an automated mover system and a sidewalk. All shucks were placed on concentric circles around the heart of the colony which was composed of a cluster of large translucent domes. Solia chose to walk rather than jump on the conveyor belt. After five generations on Zingu, the former Tellurians now called Naturals or Nats still had problems adapting to the stronger gravity and everyone was encouraged to exercise as much as possible. There were very few people on the feed, apparently her neighbors weren’t up for HugTime today. Hoping she wasn’t going to be late, she checked her wristor – she was in room C but luckily had a few minutes to spare. Room C meant the five and six-year olds. As she came up to the door of the common building that would give her access to room C, she recognized friends and a few colleagues and was happy to see, from yards away, that Kyan her mate was assigned to room C too today. He was a giant of a man even by