Fiona.
Thes, an ancient alien word for freedom, was the first planet that humans had colonised in the era of space exploration and colonisation that had come early to some thirty thousand brave members of the human race. The humans were mostly from Japan, Korea, Australia and New Zealand; a group that had mainly been recruited under the auspices of a marketing group that had dealings in all four countries. Escaping wars and other man-made disasters, the CEOs of several international corporations and forward thinking scientists had looked to populating the stars almost three hundred Earth years ago. Thes was the first and most successfully colonised by a group of adventurous scientists and their families.
The planet had not been found on their star maps. In fact not even the star was known to the astronomers of old Earth. The group of travellers had found many things in contradiction. What is and what was fact as dictated by the inferior technology of Earth was definitely in conflict.
A travelling band of interstellar scientists and ambassadors had encountered them after several years in travel. The alien group had mentally scanned the humans and had materialised in the middle of blank space and hailed them. "Brothers of the Warrior," they had called them and had promised them assistance in their journey. Upgrading the crude engines they found on the ships and providing other wondrous tools and instruments that had only been dreamt of in science fiction they had guided the fledging space faring race to a suitable planet.
The hastily recruited human ambassadors and the representatives of a variety of alien species had spent many days and nights discussing their situations. The aliens provided knowledge and data freely and without condition. The humans in turn tried to express how much this generosity meant to them.
A blue robed priestess, a follower of the Chrysalis Order she told them, accepted their attempts at thanking their new friends. "You have come far, my brothers and sisters, it is time for you to feel thes and lay down your troubles. A time to rebuild and redefine yourselves in the cosmos."
When asked what thes had meant the woman had smiled. "It is a slip of the tongue, my apologies. It is from an ancient phrase from my home. Thes na Klein. Freedom and Love. It is what we wish to all who gather in peace."
So the ambassadors had named their new home in honour of this ancient blessing. Its formal name was Thes na Klein but it had been shortened to simply Thes. Freedom.
Once they had established themselves in the new solar system they had begun to receive visitors from other worlds. Soon the new human colonists found themselves working with a variety of different species and governments. It was a time of great contentment.
There was only one worry in the back of the early colonists' minds. Those that were supposed to come after them, the second and third waves, never came. It was almost a hundred cycles after they had fled angry government officials and rabid protestors that wanted to take their hard earned places on the first ships before any news arrived. Several dozen ships of a similar design to their first ships had been found destroyed with no survivors. The ships it seemed had been sabotaged and had exploded from detonations inside the vessels and not from any attack from another species. It was news that was met with great sorrow. Seemingly they had been fortunate to leave when they did. No longer did the scientists look to the skies in hope that those they had left behind would soon arrive.
Since coming to Thes the scientists had dropped all Earth time references. Thes rotated on a twenty-eight hour day and took 400 days to revolve around its yellow star. The planet had a small inclination, slightly less than three degrees. Therefore there was no appreciable difference in northern and southern hemisphere seasons. They decided to break the year up into three seasons, coinciding with the changes that occurred to the planet on its slight elliptical orbit. Harvest, Planting and Fallow. Hence they began to refer to years as cycles. A cycle being the time it took to not only revolve around the star but also the time to turn through the seasons. Each of the seasons had a temperature variation of about ten degrees Celsius while the Harvest season experienced a little more rain in the south and the north getting most of its rain in the Planting season.
The months were no longer named after old gods or artificial counting methods that confused many logical scientists because of the root meaning being lost in the rearrangement of the calendar thousands of years ago. The months were sequentially numbered Firstmonth, Secondmonth, Thirdmonth, etc.
They made the months into periods of 40 days. The forty days into 4 ten-day periods. The term week was preserved, it was now expanded to include the extra three days. The work days were also simply numbered. Sixday and Sevenday were reserved for tidying up the stuff that was done through the work week and sporting events. Restday and Funday were a weekend type arrangement for leisure and family gatherings. Endday was, as its name suggested, the end of the period. It was a time for getting ready for the next ten-day period.
There were no religious holidays. Religion was practiced by people who did not have faith in themselves. There was no God, as such, it was hard to believe the old lies about man being created in his image when everything from beautiful silver winged angel like beings to telepathic beetles had landed on their new home world and said hello. This small group of humans whom had dared to venture out into the blackness had been welcomed by the most diverse set of aliens that anyone had dared imagine. None of them believed that some God had created them either. All believed that they had evolved from lesser beings. If someone had created them well that was fine. They could trace their roots back to ponds, mud pits and, in some cases, the energy of the stars themselves. Universally it was a feeling that we are who we are and if you don't like it, better learn to in a hurry.
The new residents of Thes did celebrate several milestones. They still liked the ending of the old cycle and the beginning of a new one. The changeover occurred at the end of Harvest and heading into Fallow. It was a ten-day long festival of visiting family, remembering friends and past lovers and for meeting new ones and lastly, giving gifts.
Other celebrations throughout the year included the landing of the first of the ships. The meeting of the first new species on their new home and sadly, the great tragedy of the Cannindale.
The Cannindale disaster was named after an exploration ship that had inadvertently been destroyed by a friendly group of aliens whom had settled on the planet, Queba IX, in the next solar system. The ship had been crushed in a gravity well when they had been ill-directed towards it by the Queban authorities. They had not realised that the ship had not been built to repulse the gravity effects as theirs were. Three hundred precious humans had been killed along with a similar number of other species that were eager to learn and explore with the newcomers.
The memorial was not a sad affair. Some speeches were made by the dwindling number of survivors. There had only been thirty of them. Fortunate to have been on the pilot ship with some Queban officials or were planet-side when the tragedy unfolded. A presentation of a small token of sorrow and apology from the Queban ambassador. A gesture that was heartfelt but unnecessary. However, it seemed the Quebans liked to be reminded that they must always ensure that they ask all the right questions before they advise another species. It had almost become a codex for the gentle beings. Not just for the Quebans but for all of the cosmos. Many similar disasters and even potential conflict had been averted by applying the rules of 'does everyone know what is happening and how the other feels about it'. The rules did not just apply to travelling ships. It was applied to business and trading deals, marriages between species and exploration of new worlds. The disaster was celebrated as a milestone by many more than just the species that had been directly affected.