Prologue

Synopsis of Genesis Logs

 

Capt. Nick Johns, a wounded and quadriplegic U.S. Marine of the Iraq war, encounters assertive government officials, who, unbelievably, recall him to active duty to serve humanity.  Spirited off to Area 51, he meets the president, where he learns Earth will face total destruction from a massive asteroid, but the government had secretly initiated the Genesis Project to save the human race from extinction.  Shockingly, the president asks him to volunteer his brain to provide the spark-of-life to the shipboard computer and become the captain of the spaceship, Genesis, for a two hundred year deep-space flight to colonize a new habitable planet called New Earth.

With the unexpected death of the original brain donor, Capt. Johns escalates to the top slot on a carefully screened shortlist of potential donors, all quadriplegic with proven resistance to depression and demonstrated self-sacrificing values.  The scientific team of experts and fellow voyagers scramble to make their launch window and hurriedly brief him on the major aspects of the project: the discovery of the asteroid, security of the top-secret project, use of alien technology, Light Wave Drive, location of the target planet and planned astrological route, brain interface and extension, etc. 

The briefings were comforting and informative but not actually required.  Once he reluctantly agrees, the doctors extract his brain and install it into the core of the human brain cell computer, where his mind extends into the computer, and the Genesis becomes his new body.  He remains Capt. Nick Johns, but he also becomes the Genesis.  His intellect expands exponentially, and he knows everything…all the scientists’ research, background of the project, and all stored knowledge of the human race.

Too soon, the world discovers the imminent doom and plunges into chaos, resulting in total anarchy and global nuclear war.  Fortunately, the Genesis launches seconds ahead of an Al Qaeda nuclear attack designed to prevent the salvation of the human race.  Genesis rendezvous in orbit with the only other surviving escape vessel, The Hope, a much less sophisticated project developed by the Japanese.  The Genesis takes control of the Hope and launches into deep-space towing the Hope with an umbilical attachment, where they witness the asteroid’s impact and destruction of Earth.

Nick’s intellect mushrooms during the voyage, driving him to the point of insanity.   He finds emotional release through a developing friendship and, ultimately, unexpected love between himself and the beautiful Akiko, the director of life support.  Capt. Johns devises a plan to escape his cerebral prison and physically be with Akiko by cloning his DNA and, through his heightened intellect, telepathically live through this clone body.  Akiko volunteers to host the clone embryo to term, but her body begins to reject the infant, forcing it to be taken early.  Unfortunately for her, Akiko refuses to allow the infant to be taken until her body has been severely damaged.  The infant, Nick, survives, but Akiko’s body hovers near death and must be placed into cryogenic hibernation, while he works on a way to cure her and bring her back to him.

Genesis reaches Alpha Centauri, the first of six planned jumps in the long journey, to discover an alien race known as The Enlightened.  The aliens are far more advanced and will not allow humans to settle.  The aliens instantly transport the Genesis forty light years to the second planned hop, Trianguli Australis.  From here the Genesis resumes its original journey.

At the young age of three, Katy comes into his life.  Katy, the accidental daughter of his doctor and the Genesis’ engineer, comes into the control room and begins visiting with Nick’s holographic image and wins his heart.  With the loneliness of command and the loss of Akiko, he quickly accepts this new friend.  Katy and his clone are about the same age and the only children on board.  Nick begins living through his cloned body, playing and eventually grows up with Katy.  After years of being constantly together, they fall in love and become lovers, yet he still loves Akiko.  Both accept this fact.

Nick discovers that Akiko’s replacement over life support has virtually destroyed the on board ecosystem she designed and created.  In his anger, Nick forgoes his adult and authoritative holographic image and fires the acting director using his cloned physical body, learning a valuable lesson... command is a state of mind, not a physical domination. 

One of the Hope’s engineers and closet Islam extremist becomes a constant nemesis to Nick’s authority and secretly organizes a mutiny.  Like the extremists of Earth, he schemes to sabotage what he perceived to be an escape from Allah’s destruction of the human race.  When the armed terrorists take command of the control room, Nick flares the lights, temporarily blinding them long enough for his team to kill the mutineers.

Through the scientists and doctors, Nick continues to work toward bringing Akiko back to full health.  Together they conduct stem cell research and develop an Immortality Gene, which miraculously brings Akiko back to healthy life...an immortal life.

Love always finds a way to survive.  The assertive little Katy will not be denied.   When Akiko shows signs of reviving, Katy decides to go into cryogenic storage, charging Nick with the task of convincing Akiko to accept a menage a trois.  This turns out to be easier than he thought possible, and they eventually become a threesome.

Mid-journey the entire Genesis Project almost collapses in failure when one of Nick’s artificial hearts fail.  Through quick response of the emergency team, they narrowly avert the disaster, but this launches the team into converting the artificial organs to modular human organs.  

Most of the department heads had taken the Immortality Gene (IM).  At thirty years old, it became Katy and Nick’s turn to take the gene.  Unfortunately, of all those that took the IM gene, only the inventor’s body, Cdr. Taka, rejected the gene.  Katy’s body became the second to reject the gene.  These two were destined to eventually die of old age…the only ones.  Nick and Akiko would not accept losing Katy to old age, while they lived immortal lives.  Nick and the scientists develop a plan to slightly modify the DNA and clone Katy and Taka so the altered bodies would accept the IM.  They also invented a brain interface that would slowly copy their memories and essence into the clones.  This effectively creates new versions of the same people.  One version dies of old age, while the immortal clones live on with all the memories of their donor.  

A black hole is discovered in the last leg of the journey, threatening also to doom the project.  The crew applies extraordinary effort to deviate their course to by-pass its gravitational pull.  Nick is required to make some hard decisions and sacrifices many sleeping souls in cryogenic storage to save the Genesis, thus alienating himself from the crew.  He realizes this is why he was chosen…to command! 

They avert the Black Hole and survive, but regrettably, the course modification takes the Genesis beyond its ability to correct and dooms the project to failure.  Science having failed to save them, they turn to Divine Intervention and bring the Chaplin out of cryogenics to lead them in this effort.  They begin praying and are miraculously transported to their final destination by The Enlightened, leaving the reader to decide if it was Divine or alien intervention. 

The story ends with the Genesis and Hope in orbit around Genesis Prime planning the colonization of their new home on Mount Olympus, the home of the Immortals.  This, of course, will be the sequel.

 

 

CHAPTER 1

(Introduction)

 

Private Log of Captain Nick Johns

 

If I have learned anything from my over 300 years of life, it is the absolute certainty that humans cannot be trusted to govern themselves.  Humans by their very nature are self-destructive, and given enough time they will destroy themselves.  I wish I had known that when President McIntosh had asked me to serve him, humanity, and as he put it: “Hell, Nick I’m asking you to serve the world and keep humanity alive.”  I’m still mad at him for asking me to commit to serving humanity and keeping it alive.  Amazing, since he has been dead for over 270 years; he died along with the rest of humanity when Earth died. 

I should have realized this was an impossible task when humanity turned upon itself and destroyed all life on Earth, even before the asteroid exploded the already dead planet.  I should have remembered Humanity’s history as filled with never ending wars.  Hell, I was even a Marine in one of those wars.   Who was right, and who was wrong?  It doesn’t matter; humans look for an excuse to war, and people died.  That very fact should have told me that humans are destined to have strife and war.  Maybe the radicalized Muslims were right and it was Allah’s will that no humans escape destruction.  They said the asteroid was sent to destroy the wicked and the Genesis Project was an abomination.

I should have realized this was an impossible task when we had an attempted mutiny on board Genesis en route to our new home on Genesis Prime, and we only had less than 75 people on the awake team.  I couldn’t even prevent it.  Well, I did prevent the mutiny; I killed them.  But, the fact that conflict between humans, even with a small population, is inevitable; it’s human nature.

I should have realized this was an impossible task when we met the highly evolved aliens, The Enlightened.  They tried to tell me that our species couldn’t interface with them because of the destructive emotions humans demonstrated such as lust, pride, greed, conceit, vanity, jealousy, covetousness, etc.  They transported us 40 light years away from them before we could corrupt their minds.  I should have listened more carefully.

I should have realized this was an impossible task when I was assassinated.  That certainly surprised me, but I dare say it surprised the plotters and assassins even more to discover that I had a spare body for just such an event.  

I really don’t want to sound so cynical.  Of course there are good humans that control their emotions and are kind, caring, benevolent, and work for the common good of all; but they tend not to defend themselves and become followers, letting others lead.  Unfortunately, the bad ones seem to float to the top and influence the sheep followers.  I have learned from my mistakes and will never allow this to happen again, and I have the power.  Some think of me and refer to me as a god, and many even call me Zeus.  Certainly I have many god-like powers, immortality being only one of them.

Me and my staff created the immortality gene (IG) to restore and save Akiko.  I would have done anything to save her.  We have since injected this IG treatment into the awake team staff and some of the more key personnel necessary for survival on Genesis Prime.  I have since decided to provide this option sparingly.  Immortality in some could become a burden to my command in later years; immortal years are forever.  No, I have decided to bestow immortality only to those loyal to me and have proven themselves dedicated to the common good of all.  I certainly don’t need any immortal psychopaths or self-centered narcissists to deal with over time.

I believe I am one of the good ones, and I think I have shown this to be the case over and over.  As Marine Captain Nick Johns I sacrificed myself to save my men and was rewarded with a life as a quadriplegic; as Captain of the Genesis I saved the lives of all on board numerous times; and I have kept the Genesis Plan and humanity alive.  None of this means anything though, because it doesn’t really matter if I’m one of the good ones or not; good or bad I carry the responsibility, thanks to the president talking me into assuming the control and salvation of the human race.  I committed myself to this task, and now I have no choice.  I will save the human race, even from itself, even if I have to kill some of them to do it.  I am no longer interested in saving or even trying to work with psychopaths or bearers of evil.  No, I am only interested in working with those that promote the common good, and to do that they must serve me...at least follow my instructions and rules. 

My children have asked to read my logs.  This is why I am reviewing them to see if anything should be skipped, but I have nothing to hide.  Most of it is, however, boring, since so many uneventful years are documented; therefore I am skimming over the logs and eliminating much of the useless or redundant entries.   The file for publication will be this reduced and rendered version.

 

Introduction to the Public Genesis Prime Logs

 

To those of you awakening that went into cryogenics before leaving Earth, an unbelievably lot has happened since we launched, and the good news is that you survived!  Some did not, but you did.

As predicted, the Earth was destroyed by an asteroid a few days after launching, and we are the only survivors of Earth.  Earth may have died, but we brought all the history and knowledge of the human race with us.  This knowledge and history still lives through us.

We were joined in orbit by another escape ship, Hope, from Japan.  They came under our protection and authority and are welcome members of our new society.

The biggest shock will be discovering that a minimum of 132 years have passed, and we have arrived at New Earth, which has been renamed Genesis Prime.  Let me put 132 years into perspective in this way.  Doctor Rossen and Linda Clark, two of the major designers of Genesis, had a child on board ship.  This girl, Katherine (Katy), grew to adulthood aboard Genesis, was educated with numerous doctorate degrees, had a full 50 year career organizing and planning the colonization of Genesis Prime, and eventually she died of old age at the advanced age of 123.  Does this put 132 years into perspective? 

Now before you become confused, there is a Katy now in charge of the colonization on Genesis Prime.  She is a complete doppelganger clone of this original Katy, both mind (memories) and body.  She was simply too important to our survival on Genesis Prime to lose.  Dr. Rossen, Dr. Taka, and myself made this happen.

We launched from Area 51 on July 8, 2015, but only minutes before a terrorist atomic bomb exploded.  Minutes before this happened we worried about a last minute worker’s revolt, not unlike everyone wanting to get on the last lifeboat of a sinking ship, but we were saved from this by an impromptu address from President McIntosh.  After hearing it I vowed to immortalize his last words. 

This happened over 132 years ago, but I remember it vividly as if it happened yesterday.  President McIntosh stood outside on the ramp of Air Force One and pointed toward the ship for emphasis and said, “Genesis, we who are about to die salute you!  You carry with you our future, our hopes and dreams…all that we are and have ever been.  We gave you life, and you are our child, and we sacrifice our lives so our child might live.  As long as you live we will live in your memory.  Like Genesis of the Bible, in the beginning…this is our new beginning.  May God bless this new beginning.”

“I am not leaving.  I will stand with you and defend our child!”  He stood tall and erect and full of defiance.  The crowd began to cheer, and I cheered with them.

You might also be interested in knowing that we are not alone in the universe.  We even used alien technology in the construction of Genesis, and without it we would not have survived the long, arduous voyage.  The government kept the knowledge of aliens a secret, but there is obviously no reason to keep this a secret now. 

During the long voyage we met another race of highly evolved aliens, The Enlightened.  I won’t say they were particularly friendly, but they did help us along the way and cut 40 light years off our scheduled trip.  They again helped us during the final leg of our trip.  Without their assistance we would have surely failed.  Some will say it was Divine Intervention, and it may well have been.  Either way, we are here now.

If you want to know more about the voyage, a reduced copy of the “Genesis Logs” is available for you to read and study detailing the entire voyage.

As you rejoin the living there are a few things you need to know.  The colonization of Genesis Prime will be governed under military control, and I, Admiral Nick Johns, am the supreme authority.  I am in command, and you will follow my rules.  My second in command is Capt. McCullah, which you may remember as Major General McCullah.  All Genesis citizens will fall under a department head (Cdr.).  The rest you will learn as we go along.

 

 

CHAPTER 2

(Orbital Survey of Genesis Prime)

 

Genesis Prime Log: 12 Feb 0001

 

Our last log entry in the Genesis Logs was dated 11 Feb. 2147, but we decided to start a new dating system to completely separate our journey on Genesis from our colonization on Genesis Prime.  Since we arrived at our new home planet of Genesis Prime we wanted to start fresh, starting at year 0001.  Everything now would be a new experience from this point. 

Since so many new faces, awake from cryonics, were at the last staff meeting, I decided to conduct this meeting in a more formal setting.  These newly awake would, of course, be the department heads choice picks for their other key positions, but for the most part would have absolutely no idea who I was or most of my key staff and department heads.  They had been given my brochure and maybe a little indoctrination from their department head but very little more.

The main staff members were gathered around my dome housing in the open Control Room, where we usually met.  The large open upper dome area surrounding the central control area was filled with attendees.  For maximum effect I adjusted the entire dome area of Wonder Metal to transparency, allowing a spectacular view of Genesis Prime to provide the backdrop.      

There were many gasps when Genesis Prime became visible, filling the view out of the clear dome.  Afterwards the audience fell into total awed silence.  Genesis Prime was very much like Earth with vast blue oceans, and five large land masses.  White clouds floated and swirled on the planet surface in various stages of weather conditions.  It was easy to see areas of dense, green, tropical forest along the equator and also some arid deserts on some of the continents.  All and all, it was a very impressive display that required few words.

I flared my holographic image to life at twice my normal size.  Actually, I did it for effect and enjoyed the reaction.  I then waited for the audience to settle and spoke, “Hello ladies and gentlemen.  I am Admiral Nick Johns commanding this successful expedition... so far.  I am also this young man sitting in the front row.”  I stood up in my body and waved to the crowd.  “In time you will understand, but for now accept it as fact.” 

“I won’t bore you with any details of our long voyage to get here and the hardships.  This information is available through numerous sources, and it will be up to you to find them.  What we will be concentrating on is what you see out the dome.  This is our new home, Genesis Prime, and you are awake because we will be landing soon and you have been chosen for specific functions and tasks by your department heads, which I will introduce shortly.”

“I’m sorry for the confined quarters, but Genesis was never designed to support this many awake personal.  You won’t have to endure the crowding much longer, but I can assure you that it will be even worse once we land, but improving your living conditions is your responsibility to correct.  Again, your department heads will assign your job function.”

“The red-headed man in the distinguished red blazer in the front row you may remember as Major General McCullah.  He was in charge of the Genesis Project on Earth, and since we are here, he did an exceptional job.  He is my second in command with the rank of captain.  His title is First Officer and speaks with my authority.  He is also head of Security and is in charge of keeping you alive.”  First Officer McCullah stood and also waved at the crowd.”

“The lady sitting next to him is Cdr. Katherine Lynn Clark, and she is managing the colonization on Genesis Prime.” Katy stood so the crowd could see her.  “She coordinates the department heads as it pertains to anything relating to our activities on ground after we land.  She is the go-to girl on Genesis Prime and answers only to First Officer McCullah and myself.  Cdr. Clark is highly educated and has more doctorate degrees than we have time to list.  Suffice to know, she is well educated in many fields and can answer your questions.  She has spent over 50 years organizing this colonization plan, which she will soon begin to unfold for you.  You would be wise to listen to her and follow her suggestions, instructions and orders.”

“Cdr. Akiko Mitsuhara has been in charge of Life Support on board Genesis and has kept us all alive.  She will be responsible for food production for our colony, among other responsibilities, which will become obvious as we go along.  Take a bow, Akiko.”  Akiko also stood and waved.

“Cdr. John Rossen, Doc, wears multiple hats and responsibilities, but he will head up the medical facilities, with his assistant from the Hope, Cdr. Takashi Ishiguro.  Gentlemen stand up.”

“Cdr. Linda Clark is in charge of engineering and construction with assistance from Hiroshi Tsuji of the Hope.  This is a big job and will encompass much effort and time.  Linda, Hiroshi, stand please.”

“Cdr. Hyung Rae Kim is our astronomer and astrophysicist and has the honor of having named Genesis Prime.  Humm, since we are already here Kim is out of a job.  I guess we may have to get him to help Cdr. Clark.”  The staff burst out laughing, even Kim and many in the audience that had only a vague idea what I was talking about.

“These officers are department heads and my key staff, and I wanted you to meet them.  In the future there will be others as needs dictates.  I see Lt. Bill Boland of Engineering, Lt. Naomi Sami of Life Support, and the big man there is SgtMaj Andy Gomez of Security.  There are many more you will meet in time.”  As I introduced them they stood, holding an arm in the air to be noticed.

“Cdr. Katy Clark will present a general overview of the planet and our plans for colonization, but due to the lateness of the cycle I think we better wait until tomorrow.  Plus, we have some other tasks to attend to first, namely the assignment of everyone to a department head.  I will forfeit the floor and allow each department head to organize you into groups for additional instructions.  The last thing I want to do is welcome you back to the human race, what remains of us.  It is up to us to restore the human race and keep alive the dreams and aspirations of all those that lived before us and are now dead.”

I let my holographic image vaporize, ending the initial formal introduction and instructions to those newly awaken.  I continued to observe the crowd through my visual centers.  They looked scared with wide-eyes, but I could hardly blame them.  Much had happened since they had gone into cryogenics.  Billions of humans and Earth itself were still alive when they went to sleep.  Now they awake in a new century with a bunch of strangers and realize that everything had changed.  In retrospect these volunteers probably should have received more counseling prior to entering cryogenics.  Oh well, it’s too late now.

While I continued to observe, each department head went to the podium and read off a list of names, claiming them within their department.  They also scheduled a time and place for their group to meet, where they would provide more information and instruction.  The larger groups scheduled the control room, which would take several cycles.

The general went first and his list was a short one.  First Officer McCullah had always been General or Mac to me in informal communications.  Actually, the general had no list at all.  He had awakened all one hundred of his Marines and they already knew where they belonged, because he had personally recruited them. 

The other department heads had not been so lucky.  They, of course, had their recruited staff, but they had been limited because of available chronic chambers, which the bureaucrats had insisted on filling randomly, apparently, since many had no training or purpose  During our near catastrophe with the black hole I was forced to forfeit 1150 chambers including the souls occupying them.  As unfortunate as it was losing 1150 souls, I screened each occupant’s bio and prioritized them, eliminating some of the bureaucratic mistakes.  I chose to keep trade skills such as construction workers, brick layers, mechanics, farmers, etc. over politicians, lawyers, the elderly, professionally unemployed, and those that were rich and had obviously bought their way on board.  I tried to keep all the skilled labor and those that could contribute to the common good of all in a new colony.  So, I guess what I’m saying is that I tried to increase our odds of survival, certainly through the first few years.

 

Genesis Prime Log: 13 Feb 0001   

 

In our quarters before our next gathering, Akiko and Katy were at odds with each other, which hardly never happens.  Katy wanted to orbit a few more days to gather more data about Genesis Prime, but Akiko voiced her concern about feeding this many people.

Akiko said, “We have got to get all these awake people on the surface.  Our life support can’t handle this many people.  We will crash our sewer system, water treatment, oxygen delivery.  We are already tapping into our backup oxygen supply.  Nick, our whole ecological system will fail, not to mention the amount of food we are going through.  We have to find native food and get crops in the ground if we are going to eat next year.”

I had to take sides with Akiko on this issue, but I could appreciate Katy’s concerns.  So, I said, “Two, we have to respect Akiko’s concerns.  They are serious.  But, we can talk to Kim and Linda about launching an observation satellite so you can continue your research.”  I cheated because I already knew Kim had plans to launch three orbiting satellites.  “Will that work?”  I guess it worked, since they both gave me a hug and we went off to the early cycle meeting, where Two was scheduled to give a presentation.

I often call Katy Two, especially in private, as do most of the staff that watched her grow up.  I still remember the first time I saw her as a fiery little red-head of three years old.  She announced her name was Katherine Lynn Clark (Katy).  This Katy we call Two is the exact clone of the original in memories and body, thus the nickname Two.  She is in essence the same Katy.

Two was by no means nervous with the large group, quite the contrary.  She seemed to enjoy the attention and took the podium like she owned it and began, “For all the new attendees, I am Cdr. Katherine Clark, and I manage the colonization on Genesis Prime.   After several days of orbiting and studying Genesis Prime by all the department heads, I have consolidated the data and am now ready to give an initial report.  I wanted to remain in orbit for a few more day and study the planet in more detail, but Cdr. Mitsuhara informs me that with so many awake we are over stressing the ecosystem, so we must land soon.”  Two winked at Akiko.  “As most of you know, we learned about this planet and its location from retrieved alien files, which obviously were correct.  Cdr. Tsuji deciphered more of the files en route.  From these files we learned more about Genesis Prime and the aliens.  We now know the elusive aliens who visited Earth also visited here, and thanks to the decrypted files we now know why.  The aliens were mining ores, apparently rare in the universe, but found in sufficient quantities on Earth and Genesis Prime.” 

“You may wonder why I am giving you a history lesson when I am supposed to be talking about colonization.  Well, these aliens may still be mining Genesis Prime, which makes Genesis Prime a potential hostile planet and significant to our colonization.  The second reason may shock you.  The aliens relocated humans from Earth, apparently for slave labor to mine these ores.” 

“So, any significant indigenous life here should be human, which has been confirmed from our orbit observations.  We have not identified any other forms of intelligent life that could be alien.  This does not mean they are gone, only that we can’t detect them.  The alien files tell us that the Earth humans were transported here from the 3rd Century BC, and from observation of the planet we see no signs of advanced technology to indicate they have advanced much beyond that time in Earth history.  The unanswered questions is ‘Why not’?  But, due to their apparent lack of advancement, they will most likely be somewhat primitive and frightened of us, which could also pose a potential danger.  We don’t know what kind of relationship these humans had or may still have with the aliens and in either case would probably consider us the alien invaders on their world.  That is the potential danger and reason for the location of our landing and initial colonization site.” 

“We have identified the native population centers, which are surprisingly few and scattered, and we have chosen an easily defended location distant from these native human populations.”         

“As you observe Genesis Prime through the dome you can easily identify the five major continents, and if you look toward the center of the three continents now facing us you will see a land mass in the center between them.  This is our chosen location to land and colonize.”

The land mass was not really large enough to qualify as a continent, more like a large island.  I was trying to get some perspective on the size of the Island, and in Earth’s perspective it would be approximately the size of Oklahoma without the handle.  

Katy moved to the console and hit a few buttons and the outside dome changed from transparent then to an opaque before a large portion became a video monitor, complete with an outside camera view of Genesis Prime.  She began zooming in on the island, which slowly began to fill the monitor section.   As the zooming continued, the audience could see dense tropical forests covering over half of the southern end, along with steep rugged mountains cutting the island in half east to west.  Toward the northern end of the island, the terrain changed to rolling hills and open plains broken up by spatterings of dense forests.  The picture enlarged on a section of the northern coastline with tall hills surrounding a large naturally protected harbor being fed by a large river.

Directing attention to the map with a red laser pointer, Katy continued, “According to First Officer McCullah, this natural harbor and surrounding mountains provides a perfect defensible location for our settlement.  The harbor can support our future shipping to outlaying colonies, fishing and industrial activities.  Here on this tallest rise,” she paused, again pointing with the laser, “is where we propose to land the Genesis.  We call this Mount Olympus, since if discovered by the indigenous humans we will surely be considered gods.”  She stopped, smiling, while the laughter exploded.

Before waking the new attendees from sleep I had cautioned the staff not to say anything about the Immortality Gene.  Getting the gene was not going to be an automatic entitlement; it was going to have to be earned.  Katy had remembered and didn’t mention that we had named Mount Olympus, because it would be the home of the immortals. 

Katy continued, “From this vantage point, we can defend the settlement spread out on both sides of the mountain below and also the harbor.  The ship's laser on the top of Genesis can defend against anything approaching from ground, sea or air.”

“In addition to the shipboard laser, we propose to move the second laser to a permanent location, here, adjacent to the Genesis’s location.”

The laser mounted on the bottom deck would have been useless once the Genesis landed.    Linda and the general had come to me with that recommendation, and I readily agreed. 

“We also propose to use some of the spare parts we have aboard to build a third nuclear power plant deep inside caves in the mountain.  If there are no caves, we will build them.  Initially the plan calls for tying into the Genesis’ power plant.  It is large enough to supply electrical power to a city much larger than we will have for many years.  The Genesis has never used more than a tenth of the available potential from one plant, and I might mention that we have two power plants on board Genesis.”  

“We can thank the aliens for identifying the locations of mineral deposits on the planets.  Many are on the larger land masses but accessible for mining.  This is where the shipping comes into play.  Our harbor is ideal for receiving ore from ships that we will construct.  The good news is that there is an abundant supply of minerals on Genesis Prime to make Wonder Metal for much of our construction.  Initially, however, much of our construction will be made from stone from quarries here (pointing).  Lasers should work well to cut the stone, which we already designed and built en route.”

Katy superimposed a layout of the complete settlement over the video on the monitor, complete with docks, buildings of all kinds, defense walls, gates on both sides, fields, factories, utility distribution, etc.  There were multiple levels and a complex system of roads, stairs, and railways interconnecting them.  Ironically, virtually all roads eventually led to Genesis on Mount Olympus.  I could see the vast work in the planning.  The buildings were labeled, and I could clearly see military barracks, housing, sewage plant, water treatment plant, refineries, a hospital, a community center, a large cafeteria, motor pool, church and even a cemetery.   It was a totally well-thought-out design of a complete operational city.  I knew she had thought of everything.  I was impressed.

Katy did not go into a question segment and went directly into her closing comments.  “I will leave the plan on the monitor so you can study it with your various department heads.  We will be landing ASAP, so I suggest you use what time you have available to learn about your new environment while you can.  It will be tough on the surface for a while, and I’m talking about tents, MREs, latrines, no electricity, and danger.  Be ready to suck it up.  The good news is that the climate is tropical, so no freezing.”

Before breaking up, Linda asked one final question, “Do you have a name for the island?”

“I was reserving naming it to solicit suggestions,” said Katy.

“Good.” Linda said, “Might I suggest Atlantis?”

There was no necessity to wait for other suggestions, everyone loved the name.