It was hot in the bedroom, an old fan spun lazily above her sending slow pulses of air across her body. With each pulse she felt herself sinking slowly into the mattress. Turning her head she looked out onto the balcony and saw him standing there. He was hazy as though he might melt away into the summer night

“Sam, honey, come back to bed” she felt her voice rise out of her throat and float across the thick and sleepy air.

“Sweetheart, I’m lonely. Is something wrong?” Her words seem to stretch out in front of her, slowly drifting across the distance between bed and balcony.

“Sam, what’s going on?” he was too far away now and the air was too thick, her voice struggled to reach him.

“Sam? … You’re scaring me” The fan grew louder and pressed her deeper into the mattress.

“Sam…Sam!” She could barely force the words out of her mouth, the air was so heavy, the hum of the fan had continued to pulse louder and louder until now it was almost deafening.

“Sam! Sam!” she was screaming and yet he did not move.

“SAM!”

Margaret Cole was suddenly aware that she was cold. Colder than she’d ever felt in her life, her ears buzzed and vibrated with no discernable pattern. She tried to open her eyes but everything was black, or where they even open? She felt as though her body was supported by an ether enveloping it, buoying it up. She was vaguely aware that she had features, first eyes, then a tongue, lips, a head, a neck, a chest. Gradually she felt her consciousness slip back into the old familiar shell of self.

“Try to relax Captain” a voice was suddenly there with her, though faint and far away, “it’ll take several minutes before your eyes will start working again. We’ve got you in a low light environment and we’ll gradually increase intensity as your body adjusts.”

The Captain was soon aware of the fuzzy outline of her chief medical officer standing over her.

“All of your vitals are normal Ma’am, with your permission I’d suggest moving to your regular quarters and trying to get some rest.” Margaret felt her tongue lying fat in her mouth and coaxed it into motion.

“I’ve been asleep for twenty goddamn years, Maxwell, I think that’s enough.”

Maxwell shrugged, “Suit yourself Captain. We’re currently waking up the rest of the command staff, should take another couple of hours then we’ll move on to engineering from there.”

“What’s the timeline for my ship to be fully operational?”

“Three days ma’am”

 

 

Margaret Cole woke up screaming, sweat drenching her shirt though she kept her cabin a crisp 69°. It was the same dream again she’d had when she was under, it’d been repeating itself several times since she’d been unfrozen. And always it was the same, she called her husband’s name and he never responded. Strange, she thought, that it was so vivid and so predictable. She’d never been one to dream, sure nonsensical images and moments here and there but nothing like this. She remembered reading once that people sometimes dreamed when moving to new places, like foreign countries, and Kepler-62e was certainly foreign.

“Computer, status report,” she activated the ship’s Integrated Command Center as she rose from her bed.

“Good morning Captain, all systems are fully operational.” She looked at the digital trip readout in her desk, less than two days left until the ship would be in orbit around the planet. So far she’d managed to keep the whole thing together, but then again getting there was never going to be the hard part.

“Captain I do have a message for you from Warrant Officer Jackson in engineering, shall I read it to you?”

“Sure thing eye-see”

“ ‘Captain, request that you issue a water hold notice for the next 4 hours so that my guys can fix a backup in the filtration system. I’d also like to go over a few modifications to the system for use planetside that I’ve been working on. If you can stop by engineering it’d be much appreciated.’ End message.”

Margaret sighed, “Put out a water hold notice effective immediately and extending for the next four hours, also let Jackson know I’m on my way.”

 

“Did you purge the outgoing lines?”

“Naturally that was going to be my next move, Captain”, chief of engineering Blake Jackson, smiled up at her, “you know I took a trip in college to Tijuana, dirty water’ll end your trip faster than a dance with the wrong state schooler’s girlfriend”

“Charming anecdote Jackson, just fix the damn thing” Deck 6, closest to the ship’s massive engines and heart of the ship was a purring, pulsing mass of wires and pipelines. The entire deck seemed to be in perpetual motion as staff hustled about, supplies and machinery shuttled past on anti-grav platforms, and hundreds of mechanical spiders scurried about the equipment repairing and maintaining the multitude of systems that kept the albatross afloat.

“While you’re here Captain, as I mentioned in my message, I wanted to go over some changes I’ve made to the planetside water system. The current system is set to combine free hydrogen and oxygen from the air and condense it into water, but I see that as a huge waste of energy considering we’ll be on a planet that’s almost 85% water. Why not just tap the oceans?”

“Look Jackson, we don’t know exactly what we’re getting into here, scans indicate that these are liquid oceans likely similar in composition to those on Earth but there are any number of complications that could arise from drinking the stuff.”

“With all due respect ma’am our systems are more than adequate to filter out any contaminants, by the time we’ve run the stuff through all of them it’s no different than the stuff churned out by the aerial condensers, pure, honest-to-god H₂O.”

“Very well, Jackson. We’ll start with the aerial condensers as planned then gradually introduce ocean water, first to the crops then livestock and finally on a staggered basis to the human population.”

“Thank you ma’am. With the energy savings from this we’ll likely be able to greatly speed up the rest of the colonization process.”

“That’ll be all Jackson, we’re two days out, I need you prepping the landing craft. You’re dismissed.”

 

“I want to take a moment to address the people of this ship before we touch down tomorrow.” Standing on the ship’s bridge Cole could see the surface of Kepler 62e below her. The vast blue punctuated by rafts of green evoked in her images from her first time up as a cadet, only this was different, the blue was slightly the wrong shade, too green, she saw a ripple pass over the entire ocean, a massive tidal wave? She blinked and it was gone. Speaking to the entire ship’s complement of over 15,000 souls she remembered to compose herself. As far as she was concerned this was humanity and she was to be their prophet in these strange and alien lands. “Though the journey has seemed short as you may know this is the longest and farthest away from home humans have ever traveled. While we slept over 1,200 years passed on Earth. What we left behind has been lost to time, if, by some miracle, humanity has survived on Earth it is not as we had left it. Empires have risen and fallen, continents conquered and reclaimed several times over,” Margaret paused; everyone on the ship knew the numbers when they signed up but she doubted they really grasped what it meant. “Our mission was never simply about exploration, no, we carry with us the memories of a species. Humanity may have failed on Earth but as a testament to our resilience and ingenuity we live on. Tomorrow marks the beginning of something new, our new lives as pioneers, as colonizers, as the first of many who will cultivate our new home, who will tame it, shape it, and touch its every corner. Though we have traveled far, we are home”

The first ship to descend from the Albatross carried a small detachment of engineers, scientists, and security personnel. Although all preliminary scans had indicated the planet was habitable Captain Cole had felt it prudent to dip a toe in the water first. The first away team was slotted to land on the beach area of a medium sized landmass, small on Earth but relatively large for the vast oceans of Kepler 62e. From the ship’s command center Cole watched the away team’s progress.

“This is Lieutenant Marshall we are nearing the planet’s surface.

As it continued its descent the ship passed through a thick cloud layer, the wisps flowing past the windows. Suddenly the clouds stopped and the planet’s surface stretched out endlessly below the ship. The island containing the landing zone was visible as a thick green mass ringed by a white sand beach. The gradation of the island darkened green from the beach until it was thick and solid in the middle. As the ship descended its occupants could see small grasses and shrubs growing on the beachhead separated from the treeline by a long and open meadow. The center of the island was a dense and tangled mass of trees, towering hundreds of feet in the air and crossed by thick lattices of vines. The leaves of the trees were as wide as trucks and hung heavily over the many layers of undergrowth.

“LZ appears clear, I’m bringing her down,”

The ship’s engines swung vertically and lowered it to make contact with the planet’s surface, the alien grasses bent back from the force of it. With a slight shudder the craft made contact and was securely in place on the surface. Across the Albatross thousands watched on thousands of screens, their breath held in rapt attention, some fearing that the craft might suddenly be swallowed up by this strange planet.

“We have contact with the surface. Scans confirm the atmosphere is breathable and temperature is a balmy 73°. We’re preparing to exit the craft now.”

 

The next several weeks saw a flurry of activity on the ship and planet. After several more teams had been ferried down to the surface an initial base camp was established on the plains between the sea and jungle. From this station the ship’s science teams conducted vigorous sampling of the native flora as well as the soil, air, and water. It was discovered that the initial island was linked to many nearby land masses of varying sizes by barely submerged land bridges. Upon these were constructed a series of bridges and highways upon which vehicles, supplies, and personnel could easily travel between them. Crews set about clearing the land on the central island and establishing it as the primary disembarking point for crews coming from the orbit on the Albatross. Specially designed rigs weighing several tons and towering several stories in the air plowed across the forests, cutting at the old trees with whirring mechanized scythes and digesting and combusting the plant material to power their advance. Within a day the central island had been cleared of the thick vegetation and a large composite landing pad was laid down at the center of the island. On approach from above it gleamed silver and bright in the sun, a dark jewel surrounded by the blue-green sea. In a similar fashion nearby islands were cleared and various buildings were established. Each island was devoted to a specific sector, food production, construction and repairs, research, living space, population management, security, until the immediate area surrounding that first landing was a gleaming network of nodes and highways, branching and sparking in the night like neurons.

From orbit in the Albatross Captain Cole observed the progress of her mission. It had proceeded without a hitch and morale was higher than she had expected. It seemed that this new world was quite suitable to the pioneers. Four months to the date of the first landing, Margaret Cole decided to move major command to the surface of the planet. A skeleton crew was left on the Albatross to maintain a position in orbit and monitor both external threats to the planet and continue planetwide scans to check for environmental anomalies that might threaten the settlements on the surface. As she looked at the planet from the bridge for one last time Margaret felt that she was still in a dream, that before long she would return from space and find her home as it had once been, her husband waiting for her at their door, the path lined by last year’s daylilies.

“If this is your first time down, Captain I suggest you look out the window,” Lieutenant Marshall’s voice crackled in her headset. As the shuttle broke through the cloud cover Margaret leaned over and peered out the small port window. The sea stretched for miles below her and was crossed and bisected over and over by gleaming black and silver connectors over which rumbled all manner of mobile platforms and vehicles. The sea was dotted with platforms extracting samples and water to extract the hydrogen and oxygen for use in powering the settlement. As she turned away from the window her eye caught a darkening area under one of the platforms, but it was instantly gone.

“Commander Preston will be meeting us at the airfield, Captain. All of your personal belongings will be transferred to your quarters while he briefs you.”

“Thank you lieutenant. By the way have you ever noticed anything strange in the water while flying up here?”

“Sure, sometimes I guess ma’am. But even flying on Earth you’ll see all kinds of shadows if you’re up here long enough, the sunlight’ll bounce off the water any number of funny ways.” Perhaps, Margaret thought as she looked back out the window, but this felt more deliberate.

As the ship touched down there was, as expected, a detachment of officials waiting at the airfield. At the head of the column was Commander Preston, his graying hair and beard cut short and his uniform immaculately pressed. By this point the colonists had abandoned protective suits, the air had been declared fully breathable and free of any potentially deadly microbes.

“Captain Cole, it is truly a pleasure to finally have you planetside,” Preston reached forward and smartly shook the Captain’s hand.

“If we are to make this world out home Commander, we must fully commit to it. And to be frank I was feeling a bit left out way up in orbit.”

“Indeed ma’am, I can assure you that you will find life on the surface most suitable, we have taken every care in establishing your quarters in the main operations center and as I’m sure you’ve read in the reports initial progress of colonization is proceeding precisely as planned.”

“Wonderful Commander. Before I arrange my belongings in my quarters I desire a tour of the settlement, I assume to be led by you.”

“Yes Captain, right away ma’am.”

 

That night she dreamt again. It was the same dream as always, her in bed, her husband standing at their balcony. Again she cried out for him and again he ignored her. She screamed his name and suddenly his head turned to the side, he had heard her! She was frozen still as he turned the rest of his body to face her, and it was truly him, his features just as they had been that night so many years ago. He opened his mouth as if to speak and—BZZZZZZZ

She jerked awake to the sound of an alarm, “Computer, status.”

“You’re presence is requested immediately by Doctor Maxwell in the medical center, Captain.”

“Tell him I’ll be there stat.” She leapt out of bed and threw on her working uniform and rushed outside to catch a jeep. As they barreled down the highways, illuminated by fluorescents and surrounding on all sides by the black sea she played and replayed her dream, why after so long had it suddenly changed?

As the jeep approached the medical center Margaret saw that something serious had happened. Aerial platforms whisked about overhead and the voices of men and women yelling out filled the air. Illuminated by the massive lights of the center she saw perhaps fifty bodies, some moving, some already bagged laying about the plaza in front of the center. Medics and enlisted men rushed about with stretchers ferrying the wounded inside the center. As she approached the center she was greeted by Maxwell and a dark looking Commander Preston

“Captain, as you may have noticed we have a problem on our hands. Four of our floating generators were taken down last night, casualties are high and the survivors aren’t much help.”

“The Commander is right,” Maxwell gestured to the bodies around them, “We’ve managed to account for about 57 of the four hundred or so personnel that were stationed on the platforms. Almost all of them are injured, they have burns of some kind over much of their bodies and are in most cases catatonic. Those that are functioning are speaking nonsense.”

“Captain, we cannot know at this stage whether or not this is a natural occurrence or an attack by some native life form, although I suspect the former. The men keep babbling on about how the sea rose up and swallowed the platforms, carrying everything down with them. Those that survived did so only by grabbing nearby personal floatation devices.”

Margaret was steely eyed in the artificial lights, “Maxwell, I want you directing your personnel to get the wounded inside. Preston, direct rescue efforts to see if we can fish anyone out of the water. I’ll confer with our science teams and see if they’ve picked up anything.”

Margaret’s head was swirling as she rushed with a detachment of soldiers to the science division located on a nearby island. If these tsunamis were going to be a regular thing how was Kepler 62e any better than Earth? When she arrived at the station the chief biologist was waiting outside.

“Captain, I’m glad you came, I heard about the disasters at the platforms. Whether it was biogenic or purely a mechanical process in the environment is of course the primary question,” Doctor Samantha Greene was sweating in the midnight heat.

“Exactly Doctor, I need to know whether my guys are going to go after this thing or if there’s even something to go after. If we can’t keep the generators stable this whole mission falls apart.”

“Well Captain, as you may have heard the planet is unique in its lack of any visible life forms, our biologists have been unable to find even the smallest microbes, hence why it’s safe to breathe the air and drink the water. We’re looking at a whole ecosystem composed solely of the plants on the islands and an apparently sterile sea. Even the plants don’t seem to function like the ones on Earth, we’ve taken samples into the lab and they die almost instantly, regularly wilting in transit. I’ve received reports from the global monitoring systems team that prior to the destruction of the generators they witnessed an electromagnetic surge in the areas immediately surrounding the platforms. As eyewitness accounts confirm sea level rose drastically in these areas and subsided almost as quickly. Frankly I’ve never seen anything like it, as far as I’m aware there are no analogous processes on Earth.”

“Keep working on it Doctor, I need to know what this thing is and if we can somehow protect our people against it.”

“Yes ma’am, I understand.”

Captain Cole turned and walked away, she needed answers and all her staff seemed to have were more questions.

 

He was standing there, again as he always was and when she called his name he turned.

“I’m here darling,” his voice was soft and warm in the night.

“Oh Sam, I’ve missed you terribly,” Margaret sighed as he came to the bed and wrapped his arms around her.

“You found me, my love. It had been so long and I had been so lonely,” he whispered in her ear as he kissed the soft skin behind it, pushing her hair out of the way with one hand as his other slipped behind her lower back. She moaned as he pulled her in close towards his body, she felt his skin, warm against hers. Her body shivered and perspiration dampened her skin, her hair, and the bed as he ran his hands over her. He kissed her deeply and with both hands stroked her back. He felt wet and warm, his hands seemed to flow over her. She felt him enter her and she cried out, she was gasping for breath but his tongue pushed down her throat, it was wet and she could not breathe, she felt her entire body tighten and then it released and he poured over her as she shuddered and collapsed in his arms. It was dark and she could feel him all around her, she felt as though she were floating. Opening her eyes she saw that though she wore nothing she was not naked, the word no longer seemed to hold meaning for her. She looked up and Sam was standing there, hand in hand with her children who had perished with him in the tsunamis.

 

On the Albatross the ship’s censors registered a planetwide spike in electromagnetic activity, alarms buzzed all across the bridge. But there was no one there to answer them. On the surface the islands had disappeared, the blue-green sea stretched for thousands of miles, the surface shimmered and pulsed as thousands of lights illuminated and were extinguished below.