Highhaven Adventure

By Shiloh Garnett

Darla Crofton was very happy when her family was picked to be on the colony ship Magellan. It was a chance for them to start a whole new life on a world far from Earth. Highhaven the new planet was called, and it was very much like Earth. Before they could land on its surface, there was trouble. The Survey Team of eight people left by the first expedition had disappeared. Not a trace of them could be found. Darla was afraid that they would have to return to Earth, but the decision was made to stay and the shuttles begin ferrying people and supplies down to the surface. Highhaven is everything Darla could hope for, but after the Magellan leaves to return to Earth, a strange star ship comes into orbit overhead and the colonists are faced with the possibility that they might have to fight for their new world. Did this new ship have anything to do with the disappearance of the Survey Team? And what did they intend?

An exciting science fiction adventure for young adults.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Running Wolf Books
• Release date: Jan 21, 2020
• ISBN: 9780463253229

Shiloh Garnett

Shiloh Garnett lives in Solana Beach, California. She has a BS in Biology as well as an MS and MBA. She works as a consultant to the biotech industry. She has two grown children and three grandchildren.She began writing as a hobby, influenced no doubt by her husband who has written over a hundred books, and found that she enjoys writing for young adults. So far, she has written two juvenile novels: “The Phantom Wolf” and “Highhaven Adventure.”

Book preview

Highhaven Adventure

by Shiloh Garnett

Published by Running Wolf Books

Copyright 2010 Shiloh Garnett

All rights reserved

No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed or transmitted in any form or by any means except by prior and express permission of the author. This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, organizations, places, events and incidents are either the product of the author's imagination or used as an element of fiction. Any resemblance to actual persons living or dead is entirely coincidental.

This ebook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This ebook may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each recipient. If you’re reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then please return to your favorite ebook retailer and purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author

Also by Shiloh Garnett:

The Phantom Wolf

Table of Contents

Chapter I: Highhaven

Chapter II: Going Home?

Chapter III: A New World

Chapter IV: An Important Job

Chapter V: First Kill

Chapter VI: The Emerald Hills

Chapter VII: Visitors

Chapter VIII: The Lake Camp

Chapter IX: Visitors in the Night

Chapter X: Attack!

Chapter XI: Altair and Aliens

Chapter XII: Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner

Chapter XIII: Community Meeting

Chapter XIV: Showing off Our Lake

Chapter XV: Another Star Ship

Chapter XVI: Element 124

Chapter XVII: Invasion!

Chapter XVIII: Communicators

Chapter XIX: Second Attack

Epilog

About Shiloh Garnett

Chapter I: Highhaven

I first saw SAO 159841C from the forward observation viewport as we approached it. It was a blue-green disk, half the size of the moon as seen from Earth. I could vaguely make out continents of green and pale tan intermixed with the blue of ocean and white of clouds. Off to the left was its star, SAO 159841, a bright orange-yellow disk that hurt the eyes to look at it.

SAO stands for Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory star catalog, and 159841 is the number of this star in that catalog. The C indicates the third planet counting out from the star. The star was first explored by a Dr. Melissa Myers of the 15th Exploration and is therefore called Myers’ Star. The planet, however, was named Highhaven for some reason no one ever explained to me. But that did sound like a good name. I was very eager to see this planet because it was going to be our new home. Probably for the rest of my life. I was also a little bit afraid. This was, after all, one big step into the unknown.

The astronomers told us that this star was not too dissimilar to our sun, and Highhaven was close enough to being another earth so we could walk around on the surface without special suits of any kind. There was already a survey team living there. What they did not openly tell us was that colonizing a new planet was always a hazardous task. The Space Authority does not like to admit it, but there have been colonies that failed. And even those that succeeded had problems. Look at the Sand Sharks of Betterman’s World.

Mom and Dad had applied for a colony team without really expecting to be picked. But when the email came offering them slots on the Myers’ Star colony, they took it immediately. Earth is vastly over crowded, as you probably know. There are shortages of everything. The very air is often so bad you have to wear a filter just to go outside. There is always a little war going on somewhere. Dad calls them brush wars for some reason. Usually they are over resources; you know, water or oil or fishing grounds. Mom puts it very well when she says, Too many people, too little Earth.

As the big day approached, I was so excited at the idea of leaving all that behind for a new world. And scared, too. It is such a big change. Everything I knew was being left behind. All my friends, my school, even the tiny apartment we lived in. Mostly, I would miss my friends. Actually, I already miss Nancy and Ramona and Mashacko. I promised I would write to them, but a letter or disk would not be taken back to Earth until the next supply ship came, and they told me that will not be for another year! Which meant it would be at least two years before the letter reached them. I did plan on writing a diary, however.

We were told that there was no means of communication back to Earth because radio waves, travelling at the speed of light, would take over 500 years to reach the Earth. When I heard that, I realized just how much we would be on our own on this new world.

Mark was the one taking it hardest. He really did not want to go. He carried on so, fussing and arguing and telling us he was going to refuse to get on the shuttle. But when you are only fifteen years old, you pretty much have to do what your parents tell you. I really hoped he would get over it, but Highhaven was in sight and he was still sulking.

The first time I looked at Highhaven, it was only a quick look. Other colonists wanted their turn at the viewport and I had to give way. The next day I went back again and it was not so crowded. The blue disk was larger then, almost the size of the moon back on Earth. It floated there in space, so peaceful looking and calm, against a background of stars that did not twinkle. We were lucky, they told us, to have a planet so Earth-like. Some of colonies are sent to freezing worlds, or worlds that resemble Death Valley all the time. Some have native life that you have to constantly worry about. They told us to imagine a human being set down in the middle of Africa without knowing anything about the land. How fast would you learn about lions and cheetahs and poisonous snakes?

Would Highhaven have dangerous animals? A shiver went down my spine at the thought.

I tried to get Mark to come with me to look at our new home, but he refused. I know from experience that he could sulk for a very long time. He could also stay mad for longer than anyone I knew. I could only hope that once he got down on the surface he would find some things to interest him and get over feeling sorry for himself. He would not say, but I think there was a girl he was getting a crush on that he would never see again.

There really was not much for us to do at that point. It would be two days before they would begin shuttling colonists down to the planet’s surface. Our turn would come a day after that. We went into orbit around Highhaven and the crew was very busy. There was a great deal to do now that the Magellan was finally there. The propulsion system had to be shut down, all kinds of systems to be checked out, and then they had to contact the Survey Team on the ground to let them know we were there. Some of the crew who I used to be able to talk to about star travel were all now too busy to take the time to chat with a colonist. There always was a gap between the crew and the colonists. They were the ones who made it all possible. They would be going back to Earth after we were all on the surface. They were the special ones. I had heard them use the term grounder to describe a colonist. And I do not think they meant it as a term of respect.

I heard about the problem right after dinner on the day before the first shuttle was to leave. We were in a close orbit and it was really interesting to watch the colors and shapes drift slowly by below, and to wonder which of those landmasses would be our new home. I was checking my bag for the tenth time to make sure I was not forgetting anything when Dad came into our tiny cabin. I could tell from his face that something was wrong.

Dad was an electronics tech. He was good at his job and could fix or rig most anything that had electrons flowing through it. That was probably a good part of why we were chosen; skills like his would be needed on a new world.

Mom and I immediately went over to him to ask what was wrong.

They’ve put the shuttle schedule on hold, he said. There’s some problem. Of course, no one on the flight crew is saying a word. Maybe only the command staff really knows.

We’ll just get there a day or so later than planned, Mom said. She was always the optimist. Dad always said that if we were about to crash into a sun, Mom would find something good to say about it.

You’re probably right, dear, Dad admitted. But his expression did not seem to agree.

Dad is a big man, a bit over six feet tall and over two hundred pounds – not much of it fat. He liked to say that he had big bones and bigger muscles. It was from him that I got my freckles.

Maybe I should introduce myself. My name is Darleen Susan Crofton. But for some reason everyone calls me Darla. Dad says that Mom simply started calling me that at first and everyone else followed suit. My dad is Thorton Howard Crofton, but you must not call him Thorton; he hates that. Terry is the name he usually goes by. Mom is Susan Dracillia Crofton nee Benedict. Mom taught me that little nee thing means her name before she got married and changed it to Dad’s Crofton. And then there is Mark. His full name is Mark Monty Crofton. I once asked Dad where they got the name Monty and he said it was the name of an old and good friend of his.

I am thirteen and Mark is fifteen. He is beginning to fill out and I suspect he will be at least Dad’s size in a few years. I love Mark, really I do. But sometimes he is hard to put up with. He can as stubborn as any person I have ever seen, especially when he thinks he is right. Of course, often he is not right, but he can still out-stubborn the best of them even when faced with facts.

We were some of the lucky ones: we had a cabin. Tiny as it was, it was still a little privacy, which is better than the unmarried colonists. They had to sleep in large rooms, twenty or so in the same room. Space, you see, is very limited on a star ship. Most of the ship was fuel and some kind of motor they called a Twister. I have no idea how it works, but it allowed us to travel very fast. Dad said that we were traveling faster than the speed of light. I forget just how fast that is, but it really is pretty fast. Dad said that it was not too many years ago that scientists thought nothing could travel faster than the speed of light. But they were wrong. Which was good. If it were not for whatever it is the Twister does to the time-space continuum, it would take years and years to get to even the nearest star. I like that term, time-space continuum. I have no idea what it means, but it sounds terribly important.

I remember when the trip started. We pushed out of Earth orbit and got pointed the right direction. Then the Twister turned on. Boy, was that a weird feeling! It made me feel big, like I was a balloon all blown up. But also it made you feel like you were being turned inside out. But that was just what they call the Transition. After that, we were cruising