Space Colony Eve

Second story from the new colony.

First Born Colonist

Sideways Landing: This settlement had been here longer than the first official colony, the two original settlers crashing here in a damaged escape pod more than a year before the colonisation ship arrived. Over the years people who wanted an even simpler life than that in the new colonies had heard of it and made their way here and asked if they could set up home nearby. Dave and Lisa had just waved their arms wide and said 'pick somewhere'. So now there was a small but tight-knit and self-sufficient farming community that had built up over the last twenty-two years. I was approaching it for the first time, leading a pack animal, a six-legged beast called a sextoped, that carried some the tools of my trade and a few of my personal belongings. I was to be their government officer. Until now they had handled their own problems, but with the settlement increasing in size the townspeople had asked for an official peacekeeper to be sent out and I had volunteered.

It had taken a week to get here walking and riding. There were still only a few of the hover transports available and the next one scheduled to come here to 'Sideways Landing' wouldn't be coming for another month, so I had said I'd go and make a start and the rest of my stuff could follow in the transport. I had barely got past the first outlying farm of 'Sideways Landing', waving to someone working in the field, when I saw an older man and a young woman coming towards me down the track. We drew closer together until I could call out 'good morning'. The two people replied in kind and then stopped and waited for me to reach them. The man held out his hand. It was a hand that been used to hard work, but now showed signs of softening. I took it and we shook.

"You must be our new lawman?" He said with a smile.

"I am sir. And you are?"

"I'm Dave Lynton." He said simply.

My eyes widened: It was him! Former Chief Petty Officer Lynton, one of the original pair who had landed here in an escape pod.

"It's an honour to meet you sir. I've heard such a lot about you."

"A lot of it is inflated out of all proportion I'm sure." He laughed. The laugh of a man who'd heard it all before. "This is my daughter Eve." He indicated the girl stood beside him. She smiled at me and shook my hand as well. It was a very pretty smile and it lit up her eyes even more than the rest of her face. "We worked out that you'd be along this road sometime this morning and thought we should meet you." He saw the question on my face. "You've been passing the farms of our friends for two days now."

I nodded in understanding. One or two people had passed me on my way here.

"And you are?" Eve asked. Her voice was as pretty as her smile.

"Oh! Sorry. They call me Dee Fortytwo." I saw the look on their faces. "It's a long story that I'll tell you sometime."

"But that's not a name." Eve said. "That's just an initial and a number."

"Evie!" Dave said in mild rebuke.

"No sir, she's right, but it is my full name. Like I said, it's a long story." I smiled back.

"Come on then Officer Dee Fortytwo. We've about an hour and a half of walking ahead of us. You tell us your story and I'll answer any questions you have about 'Sideways Landing'."

"The first one that springs to mind is why 'Sideways Landing'?

"Easiest question to answer!" He laughed. "Because that's how Lisa, Evie's mother, and I came in, sideways across the landscape."

"That must have been scary?"

"Didn't have time to be scared, and Lisa didn't know enough to realise how close we came to ..." He tailed off as he remembered his daughter was listening too.

"Tell me about your name Mr Dee Fortytwo." Eve asked, spotting her father's sudden hesitation and deliberately butting in to cover for it.

"I suppose that's simple too in a way. That was what was written on the bulkhead that I was found next too."

"What?" They both asked in surprise.

"I shouldn't have been on that colony ship." I shrugged. "I was discovered moments before departure by one of the crew, next to bulkhead 'D42'. All the settlers were in hibernation and no-one claimed me after we landed. I was only a few days old. The alternating flight crews took care of me until I was old enough to be put into hibernation as well."

"How long was that?" Eve asked.

"Well I was about six when we landed, so, about six years."

"The two alternating crews both took turns caring for you then?" Dave said.

"That's what they tell me." I smiled.

"You don't seem worried that you have no parents." Eve seemed concerned.

"But I have. The whole flight crew adopted me. I have so many parents that it's impossible to follow all their advice. Luckily they all understand that too."

"How utterly fascinating." Dave said. "How does that qualify as a long story?"

"There is more to it than just that sir. Call this the edited highlights." We all smiled. "Can I ask why you decided that you needed a lawman sent here?"

"That's not very complicated either. As you'll have noticed, there is a bit of a generation gap on the entire colony. There are almost no adults between the ages of twenty and forty."

"Except me." I nodded. "I'm twenty-eight."

"And I'm twenty-two." Broke in Eve.

"Both due to exceptional circumstances." Dave grinned. "Anyway, all of us at 'Sideways' agreed that we were probably getting a bit old to double up on jobs."

"Dad! You're not that old!" Eve exclaimed.

Dave smiled.

"Anyway, none of us felt able to take on the peacekeeper job and our normal work in the fields or, in my case, in the store. So that's why you're here my boy."

"There can't be that much for me to do?"

"Well, not in the crime department maybe, but there other things you can do for us as a government official. Mediate perhaps, be responsible for arranging the transport flights in and out, and I believe you have some medical training?"

"Some, certainly, but I couldn't act as a doctor."

"Enough to keep someone alive long enough for one to be sent out?"

"Maybe. But I can't give you any guarantees."

He could see the doubt on my face.

"But that would be one less responsibility for one of us. It will help everyone more than you think."

"And I don't think I'd be much good at a childbirth." I was really dubious about that.

"I wouldn't worry about that too much." He laughed. "Most of the women won't want you there either!"

We went on like that the whole way back to the main settlement of 'Sideways Landing'. Me asking questions about what was expected of me, Dave filling me in on the layout of 'Sideways', and Eve making the odd comment here and there. She was an intelligent girl and what you could call 'interesting attractive' from what I could see. The clothes she wore made it difficult to tell. They were obviously made for comfort while working more than anything else, but I felt a strange (for me) affinity with her,

As we came upon the lake there were more signs of habitation more frequently. Barns and outhouses, and then farmhouses. As we approached what was obviously the centre of 'Sideways' there were a collection of what seemed to be half-finished buildings. Dave noticed my interest in them.

"Those are going to be the retirement complex." He smiled. "Most of us older folks are building them bit at a time against the time when we can't really work anymore."

"It's an interesting idea." I mused.

"It'll keep us old un's in one place. Be easier for you to find the troublemakers." We both laughed. Eve didn't though; if anything she looked annoyed or worried, I couldn't tell which. Dave stopped at the centre of the buildings. "Eve, can you show Officer Dee to what will be his station? We've been gone a while and I think I should go and help your mother in the store."

"Sure Dad. Shall I stay and help him settle in too? Then I can bring him over for dinner tonight; that's if he wants too?" She smiled at the two of us.

"That'll be fine love. Is that all right with you Dee?" I nodded. He kissed his daughter and turned toward the row of buildings that included his store as well as the community barn and what looked like a village hall.

"Come on then Mr Dee. This way." Eve shyly took my hand and led me to what was to be my new home and place of work.

When I saw it I was dumbstruck. It was the original escape pod Dave and Lisa had arrived in!

"What's the matter?" Eve asked.

"But this is a piece of history, you shouldn't just be handing it over to the likes of me."

"It's the only thing around here with a solid locking door, and nobody really uses it anymore. With the radio and everything it will be a perfect police station."

"Yes, but..."

"Don't get hung up on what it was. We use whatever's available out here."

"I suppose you're right." I sighed, seeing the logic.

"Come on, I'll show you where everything is and how it works." Eve skipped on ahead of me and opened up the pod.

The pod got its power from a windmill and a waterwheel, the power stored in the original batteries. Most of the flight controls had been removed to make room for furniture, but the bunkroom and galley had been left untouched.

"It feels nice." I said after Eve had shown me the basic outlay.

"It gets a bit warm in the summer." Eve replied. "But it stays warm in the winter too."

"I'll get my stuff from the sextoped."

"You haven't brought much, have you?" Eve said, slightly accusingly.

"Most of it will come in on the next transport. This is just enough to get started. For the next month I'm going to have to get around on foot until my bike arrives."

"You could try riding the sextoped."

"Doris? I don't think so." I smiled; I knew I'd never be able to ride the strange beast. "She'll have a nice easy life until I can arrange for someone to take her back."

"There are a couple of newer farms that would be grateful to offer her a home."

"I'd have to check that would be okay, she is colony property, but thanks."

We spent the rest of the day putting my few belongings away and re-arranging the rooms to my liking. We didn't talk too much other than asking each other questions about where stuff should go or where something was. I spent more time than I should have watching Eve; she intrigued me somehow. Probably it was because she was the first female I'd ever met that was close to my own age, or maybe it was that I knew she was the first-born, the first child born on this new planet. Eventually she noticed my stare.

"Why are you watching me like that? It's very off-putting you know?" I didn't know what to say; I didn't really know why myself. "It's because of who I am, or rather what I am, isn't it? I get it all the time, the...the reverence. The first-born!" She spat out the words like they were a curse, and then looked as if she was about to sob, but no tears came.

"Eve, Miss Lynton, I'm sorry. I shouldn't have been staring. And you're only partly right. I do feel a certain 'reverence' as you put it; but most of it is something else, something I can't describe. The only thing I can say in my defence is that I've never met a girl, a pretty girl too, so close to my own age before, so I don't know how to act. Please don't cry and please, please forgive me. I'll never do it again." I begged.

She sighed deeply, wiping her hand across her eyes.

"All right, I believe you." She looked out at the setting sun. "We've just got time to clean up before we go to dinner."

"Where?" I looked around, one thing the former escape pod seemed to lack was a sink.

"Dad set up a sort of shower for Mom under the waterfall out back when they arrived. I'll show you."

The meal was nice and homely, and delicious. In addition I finally got to meet Lisa. She was still really pretty and blushed when I said so. It was no surprise that Dave had fallen in love with her. He just laughed and Eve scowled slightly. I wondered if they knew the pressure their daughter felt she was under. But the way they still looked at her, they knew, I decided.

I quickly settled in and was readily accepted by the people of 'Sideways'. I soon found that I had a lot of spare time on my hands, the only crime as such being a spate of underage drinking amongst the older teenagers. That appeared to stop when I came upon them one evening, but I felt they had just found a better hiding place. In any case it wasn't serious, and they had been causing no trouble other than appropriating the bottles of wine from their parents. With all this time on my hands I decided to help out as much as possible. Eve had set up a nursery-cum-school for the younger children, who were delighted when I took over the class every so often. There was a Book Exchange as well and I took over the organisation of that. Additionally if anyone needed a hand and my official duties allowed me, I would pitch in and help; from stacking in the store to helping any farmer who needed a little extra hand. But mainly I helped Eve. I liked to be around her and I still didn't know why. She was the central point for the other youngsters who all adored her in one way or another. It was then that I first met Stella ('because I'm from the stars' she laughingly told me.) She was almost seventeen at that point and the next oldest girl in the village. Stella was a happy-go-lucky spirit who would have been a rebel if there had been anything to rebel against. In general she and Eve got along, but they did seem to rub each other up the wrong way at times. Stella kept calling Eve 'FB' (for 'first born') to wind her up. I asked them individually what the problem was. Eve said that she just got annoyed with Stella because the younger girl took nothing seriously and felt she was able to do whatever she wanted. Stella in turn just shrugged and said that all she was doing was trying to get Eve to loosen up a little, that she took everything too seriously.

Over the next year or so things didn't alter much. I had my first medical call out when one of the farmers had a huge sliver of wood go through his leg while he was cutting firewood, but it turned out okay. I appointed Stella as my deputy, mainly because she said she was interested in going to the main colony to learn about becoming a government official like me. She also started to flirt with me. I had a feeling that this was just another way to wind Eve up, especially as I had recently asked her to stop calling Eve 'FB'. It stopped as suddenly as it started; someone had had a word in her ear and I thought I knew who.

There were rumours starting to go around that there was going to be a big celebration in two years time for the twenty-fifth anniversary of 'Colony Day', the approximate date of Dave and Lisa's accidental arrival on the planet. The rumours seemed to make Eve more down than usual, she spent a lot of time alone, and when we did meet she didn't seem the same as she had when I first met her. Things came to a head when Dave and Lisa were invited to the colony to discuss the early preparations for the big day.

After my usual morning check to see whether there was going to be a transport arrival, I went over to the store to give Eve a hand while her parents were away. For some reason there was a small crowd milling about inside.

"What's happening?" I asked Stella, who was behind the counter. "Where's Eve?"

"No-one's seen her since last night." Stella said.

"You weren't winding her up again were you?" I asked, a bit more accusingly than I meant to.

"No, honest. We had a couple of glasses of wine together and then I left to go home. She seemed her normal self. For these days that is."

"So where is she? Where did she go?" There was a muttering amongst the crowd, but it was obvious no-one had seen her. "Well, we'd better get organised. Stella, you'll have to run the store today, the school will have to be cancelled for now."

"I can run that sir. You don't need to stop it." One of the other teenage girls piped up.

"Thank you Grace. Right, if that's sorted, I'm going to search for Eve. If any of you others see anything, get in touch with Stella. She can contact me on the radio."

There was a murmur of assent. One of the older farmers spoke.

"Shouldn't we get in touch with Dave and Lisa?"

"No! I don't want them unnecessarily worried. I can cope." I said it with more conviction than I felt, but this was the reason I was here. If I couldn't find one missing person, what was the point?

I ran back to the station, grabbed a radio and stuck a first aid kit into a back pack. As an afterthought I stuffed a warm coat and some food in as well; it had been raining last night, Eve might be cold and hungry. As I was about to leave the pod, but with no real direction in mind, there was a timid tapping on the door.

"Yes Maggie?" I asked the little girl who stood in the doorway after I had opened it.

"My sister Stella said I should come and see you Ossifer Dee."

"I'm sure she did. Why?"

"I saw something last night."

"And that was?"

"Well, the rain woke me up. When I looked out of the window, I saw the light of a fire on the island in the lake." The little girl said.

"No-one lives there do they?" I asked, slightly puzzled.

"No. But the big kids have a play camp there." She said.

A 'play camp', I thought. So that's where they go for a secret drink now.

"Thank you Maggie. Run along back to the class now, and thank Stella for me too."

"Okay Ossifer Dee. Bye!" The little girl waved as she trotted back to the village hall. With that small clue I jogged down to the lakeside boathouse and peered inside. Sure enough there was one canoe less than there should have been.

"Well, there's someone on the island then." I said to myself. I pulled a second canoe into the water, climbed in and began to paddle towards the island.

The missing canoe was pulled up onto a tiny beach. I grounded my craft next to it. Spotting what was obviously a path to the secret camp I made my way down it. The path ended in a clearing at the centre of the small island. The clearing had a home-made camp occupying most of it and there was Eve! She was laid back with her hands behind her head. At first I thought she was ill or injured until I saw something that had been missing for weeks; her smile.

"Eve?" I called out softly. "Are you all right? Everyone has been so worried."

She jumped a little and then turned to face me.

"Oh! Dee, it's you! I didn't mean to upset anyone, but I had to get away, to have some time by myself to think. It so peaceful and quiet here that I was able to forget all my troubles, but I didn't realise it was so late."

"Eve, what's troubling you? You can tell me. I, more than anyone, know how you feel."

"No you don't. No-one does. There's only one first-born and unfortunately it's me."

"I do know. I'm one of kind too, don't forget. You're letting this 'first-born' thing get on top of you. It's only a description; it's only WHAT you are, not WHO you are. Once you can get over that you'll be fine."

"But I CAN'T get over it. As soon as I manage to forget it for a while, something pops up to remind me, like this damned anniversary." She rolled over and began to cry into the grass.

I was at a loss as to what to do next; my government training hadn't covered dealing with crying females, and neither had any of my many parents. I sat beside her and began to stroke her dark blonde hair, so like her mother Lisa's.

"Come on Eve; let someone know how you feel. There are only the two of us here and I promise not to tell. Why are you so sad?"

"I should have been a boy!" She said, her voice muffled by the grass. "If I'd been a boy I wouldn't have this problem. Boys cope better."

"Well, as a boy, I can tell you, we don't. We bottle it up even more than you have. Sorry." I said lightly.

"I'd have been more help to Mom and Dad as a boy!" She mumbled.