JL-
The Travelers: Prologue
It was a mission that had been in the
planning for years, ever since the meteor.
The planet of Arlytia had been bumped out of its orbit from the
impact. It hadn’t gone flying into
unknown space, but with each passing season it was slowly moving closer to the
sun. Temperatures were rising. Water was disappearing. Plants had shorter growing seasons. And that was all in addition to the mass of
land that had taken the meteor’s direct hit, which left about a tenth of
Arlytia unlivable and unusable.
Eventually the planet as a whole would not support life and the
Arlytians themselves would become an extinct race.
But this was a race of people not known
for giving up, and ones who fought for their way of life and way of love. Once the planet’s eventual demise was
realized, the older generation began to bring up and train the younger to be
their people’s hope and answer for a fruitful future. Intense teaching in
farming techniques, water purification, building, and innovation were started
at a young age. Survival lessons,
knowledge of the body’s physical anatomy, record-keeping, and sciences were
part of their tutoring. Along with
these, an intense respect for their culture was ingrained in the children. Stories and music and art that had been
forgotten and all but lost were brought back to life in young hearts and
minds. Morals, laws, and esteem for one
another were encouraged, and rebellion was dealt with—not cruelly, but quickly
and as fairly as possible.
Thus, a generation was prepared from
infancy to develop a new world for their parents and for their children.
It was the best of this generation--eighty
men and forty women--and all between eighteen and twenty-one, who were now only
hours away from leaving their home planet for good. They would spend several weeks
braving space and all its dangers to reach Neveah, a planet that shared
Arlytia’s two moons, and from the research that could be done at a distance
appeared to be a promising planet for their new world.
These hundred and twenty young people
would be the first to step onto Neveah’s soil, work to till the ground and tame
the land, and prepare a place of safety and haven for those who would come
after them. They’d been simply nicknamed
The Travelers, but their hope was
that their travels would result in a new homeland.
Scientists and
astronomers who had been studying Arlytia’s changing orbit were estimating that
the planet could have as few as thirty and as many as sixty years left in it to
safely hold its people, so this mission had a very explicit time schedule. The Travelers hoped to have Neveah prepared
for permanent residents within five years.
If they couldn’t, then they would have to take a chance on another
planet of which they didn’t have as much knowledge. It was risky and dangerous, and everyone knew
the future of a world depended on them.
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