Terradox Beyond by Craig A. Falconer

Author:Craig A. Falconer [Falconer, Craig A.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2019-02-26T22:00:00+00:00

seventeen

Shortly after the artificial sun rose over Terradox the following morning, the entirety of the colony aside from a small number of core operational staff gathered for a farewell ceremony in honour of the few among them who were set to undertake the one-way trip to Arkadia.

Everyone on Terradox had been automatically eligible for a place, but the comfort of their current lives and the uncertainty of what lay beyond combined to ensure that the take up from their number had been very low. The same was true of the Venus station, which like Terradox housed only the families of highly qualified researchers who had naturally already been vetted prior to their arrival.

Holly and Dimitar had always made it very clear that pre-vetted researchers were free to head for Arkadia, partly because neither Terradox nor the station could safely harbour any resentful colonists; in this regard it was deemed unfair as well as unwise to hold people to long-term research contracts they may not have signed if they’d known that an opportunity like Arkadia would present itself.

Both were delighted that the vast majority of the populations under their respective leaderships had opted to remain in place, and even their rivals in the Rusentra boardroom had to acknowledge that this point spoke well of the jobs they were doing.

The farewell ceremony currently underway in front of the temporary grandstands in Terradox’s Romotech Production Zone wasn’t the first of its kind, what with a permanent human presence having been established on Arkadia shortly after Chase Jackson’s first visit and with a handful of former colonists having joined teams from Earth in making the trip. It was, however, by far the grandest.

The scale of this particular ceremony owed not only to the fact that today’s departure to Arkadia would be the last, but also because of exactly who was leaving.

The Ferrier sitting outside Terradox Central Station would soon carry six colonists to their new home, and not just any six. Although it had been on the cards for many months, the reality was only hitting some colonists now that they would soon be without all four members of the Kohli family, the inimitable Bo Harrington, and, perhaps most irreplaceably, the widely adored Chase Jackson.

While Bo was set to be reunited with his own family in an orbital rendezvous before their landing on Arkadia and the Kohlis were of course travelling together, a common topic of hushed conversation among the crowd was that Chase’s parents hadn’t wavered in their decision to stay on Terradox. This was good news for the colony given that both Christian and Jillian’s contributions rested on a pedestal almost as high as their son’s, but everyone understood the emotional strain that his imminent departure must have been placing on all three.

Prior to today, the largest farewell ceremony had been for a small Arkadia-bound crew which included Chase’s travelling companion on his initial scouting mission to the new world — Rachel Berry, who had already settled on the new world three months earlier and was well into her work in its Shipyard.

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