Member-only story
A Decent Land: An Anthology of Arks #9
Brief biographies of the first forty ships to arrive in the system Mammaria.
Part One of this anthology is available here. Links to the remainder of A Decent Land can be found in this collection.
41. Scout
If you see the bright green eyes of Scout grow larger in your sky, visit local monuments; prepare to say goodbye. Take the time to honour your surroundings. Breathe, and feel the grass. Swim in lakes or ponds nearby; marvel at the wildlife. You may survive arrival, but your planet will transform. We’ll stamp its every acre to our liking, then we’ll leave.
Don’t despair. The land will benefit from our improvements! Efficient crops, a filtered ocean, peace and quiet in the streets… Invasion has advantages, to patient hosts of our fair fleet. Perhaps we’ll catch you hiding underground throughout the process, and bring you up to meet the family (and fit your chains). Your race will like the trip through space, we promise; ask the mermaids. Foolish is the pilgrim who believes us, or defends their home.
Logistically, The Scout commands the other Analysis vessels; The Nose, the Scoopers and — of course — aquatic reconnaissance teams. It waits and watches, ordering subordinates to their set positions, ominously hanging — like a moon — in careful orbit. Finally, when all reports are filed, Scout itself ejects a group of pioneers (to assess without machines). They crawl, upon their hands and knees, through alien environments; naked, but for scant supplies we leave aboard their pod.
Several teams are sent to disparate districts of the globes we find. Many die from strange infections; others meet the native fauna, hungry for a novel taste (or scared of our advancement). An animal’s aggression is a pointless waste of energy. How could they conceive of our great journey — countless lightyears ‘cross the cosmos — culminating in the moment when they catch a scout? We let them taste the blood, and maybe share it with their children. Possession is immediate to beasts; they cannot understand. Our empire will eat the ground beneath them, claim its continents and harvest the endemic grain for future generations.
