eternity:founding_the_colony [Princess]

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====== Founding the Colony ======

===== The First Days =====

HABITABILITY REPORT - ETA HELION b

Atmosphere:  Human Breathable
  * 60% Nitrogen
  * 17% Oxygen
  * 10% Argon
  * 8% Helium
  * 2% CO2
  * 2% Hydrogen
  * High particulate content

Life:
  * Plant-like organisms
    * Initial studies suggest that these gain their energy via a cold fusion process, utilising atmospheric hydrogen.
  * Herbivores
    * Mainly arthropod-like organisms.  Shells are generally softer than Earth based equivalents, due to apparent lack of predators.
  * Microfauna
    * No signs of infectious ability in humans

Genetic coding is not DNA based.  Appears to use a 6 base system of acid base pairs for equivalent functions, but more study required.

Life appears to be otherwise biocompatible with Earth life - though suggest amino acid supplements.

Researchers' notes:

"To repeat an overused phrase, it's life, Jim, but not as we know it.  The light from the sun is pretty hazy, and not really strong enough for photosynthesis - but that should be pretty simple to clear up with the tech we have.  The twilight on the surface means that all the local life looks like something out of an old movie - with no pressure to absorb visible light, or to use light to attract or repel, everything is just shades of grey and silver.  There's something trippy going on in the plants - we can tell they're getting energy, and can tell that hydrogen goes in and helium goes out, but even the physicists are scratching their heads over how that actually works!

"In any case, it's habitable enough as is that we can finally get some ground under our feet."

----

Almost before the planet had been confirmed safe, the first ships landed.  Exhausted survivors of Earth splilling out into the hazy light, falling onto the ash-grey fields with sighs of relief.  It wasn't grass under their feet, those weren't bees and butterflies stirred up by their hands, but they were a lot closer than many of them expected to see again.

The first priority was to get everyone shelter. Captains [[Daniel Milton]] and [[Aaron Phillips]] quickly saw to re-purposing what remained of the salvage, and getting it built into rudimentary housing.  Bunks were brought out of every ship, and arranged into the ramshackle rooms.  As soon as the biomass of the planet had been declared as probably safe to eat, great vats of stew were prepared - fortified with enough algae to make up for the nutrients lacking in the local life, but the most variety that most of the people had had in months.

All the while, work was undertaken to salvage the equipment from the Resurrection, so that the terraforming could begin.

----

An extract from //A Geography of Terra Libre, 1st Edition//

The landmass is divided into five continents.  After much debate, these have been named as follows.

Terra Nova is the largest landmass - covering almost a full quarter of the planet's surface, but with an irregular shape which means that no point is more than a few hundred miles from the ocean.  The initial landing was made here - in the shadows of a mountain range that is becoming known as the Teeth.  Climate is generally temperate - prone to occasional heavy rains, but these are abating as the terraforming process reduces the amount of atmospheric dust.

Ichabod((named due to someone pointing out its resemblance to a flipped table)) is the second largest.  Generally dry and warm, there appears to be little life here.  Models from the Resurrection show that once terraforming is complete, this landmass will make ideal farmland - without local life stripping the resources, the soil is incredibly rich.  Proposals are already being drawn up to create a continent of automated farms, which should be able to feed the global population until we're all packed shoulder to shoulder.

While the author does not approve of the name of the third largest landmass, it seems to have stuck.  Fuckno is so named due to the many volcanoes which dot its surface, belching out the thick smoke which causes the global haze that so many have remarked on.  While there is little hope that this continent will ever be habitable, the ample geothermal power will more than make up for the relatively weak sun, and lack of suitable fissile material so far detected.

Notosia is the fourth largest landmass.  Due to the high amount of biomass detected here, and its isolation from the other continents, it is proposed that this location remain as a preserve of the local wildlife.

Finally, the island chain of New Leyti completes this list of major continents."

===== Terraforming =====

As the equipment salvaged from the Resurrection began its work, the effects were immediately apparent.  Pumping water vapour into the atmosphere made it rain constantly for weeks, but when the clouds finally cleared, the sun shone through brighter than ever.  Still far duller than Sol, but enough to reduce the need for artificial lights.

That evening, another feature of the planet became clear.  People rushed from their homes in fear as the sky lit up in an array of colours, fearing that the Apparitions had found them, but the true cause was much more wondrous.  As the winds of the nebula cascaded against the outer layers of the atmosphere, aurora a thousand times more intense than anything seen on Earth danced across the sky.  Those who spent too long gazing in astonishment soon learned that the UV component was just as strong, but with various medical facilities set to produce sunscreen, that problem soon abated.

With this new source of light, life on Terra Libre quickly settled to its 28 hour day - 14 hours of sunlight, followed by 5 to 9 hours of the far brighter light of the aurora, and then darkness until the next sunrise.

The lands around Landing were cleared of local plantlife, and seeded with plants from the gene banks.  A special area, named Eden, was set aside for those few houseplants which survivors had nurtured all the way from Earth.

Over the next few months, the landscape of Terra Nova was transformed into a pale simulacrum of Earth - with all manner of plants and animals carefully reintroduced((after some significant paring down of the list to ensure as little risk as possible to the small population)).

----

Extract from //How the Bees Came to Bee//, a children's book

Izzy liked bees *picture of [[Izzy Valentine]] with a beehive*

And the bees liked Izzy *same picture, with bees flying out of the hive forming a heart shape*

But Izzy didn't like everything about bees *anatomy of a bee, with thumbs up pointing to the wings, body, and legs, and thumbs down pointing to the stinger*

So Izzy fixed the bees! They didn't need those nasty pointy stingers any more, since there was nothing for them to sting! *Izzy hard at work in a lab, mixing together brightly coloured bottles*

When Izzy released her new bees, everyone was happy! All the honey they could eat, and no risk of a sting! *a honey themed street party*

But then Izzy's bees did something amazing - something no-one thought possible.  When Izzy's bees met the native Terra Libre cees, they swarmed off together and soon the bees came back looking just a little like the cees! *picture of a group of bees, and a group of cees((native Terra Nova arthropods, squat and striped silver and black, with four legs and two pairs of wings)), then overleaf a picture of a bee with two sets of wings, striped yellow, black, and silver*

Everyone was amazed - but the honey tasted better than ever, so everyone was happy! *picture of Izzy smiling with a jar of honey - the honey is blood red, and coats her mouth and hands*

===== The Founding of Landing =====

The first colony, Landing, quickly grew and expanded.  [[Industry]] and centres of [[politics and justice|government]] sprang up - providing the materials the grow the town, and the leadership to manage the growth.  While some of humanity's pioneer spirit remained, the tech taken from the Fleet meant that this was no bleak frontier - much of the work was just in figuring out where to direct the automated mining and farming operations, and in planning the layout.  As the town grew, so did the population - whether from some primal drive to repopulate, or simply wishing more to share the joy of their new freedom, the birth rate skyrocketed - with IVF requests to the Landing Hospital nearly exceeding its capacity, prompting several upgrades.

In a few years, the colony became a bustling town, with constant improvements being made.  Humanity had survived everything the universe could throw at it, and once again began to flourish.
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