The third planet of the Solis system, Solis-C, which was nicknamed “Gaia,” seemed

  to be a utopia for humans to settle on. The crew began waking up while the ship was

  orbiting the beautifully blue and green planet at relatively slow speeds.

  The head geologist, Hellen, with uncontrolled excitement, was organizing her

  team. “We have the suggestions fed by our systems people. We need to see the

  potential landing sites and choose fast. Margaret, please isolate our searches to

  places near river deltas with close proximity to both mountains and forests. We will

  need materials for our settlement.”

  Trying to help as fast as she could, Margaret said, “We don’t have

  subterranean data yet. I can isolate potential places, but I can’t say for sure that there

  will be metal veins close by.”

  “Then let’s choose our top picks, and within a couple of passages, we should

  be able to get some underground information if we selectively scan those,” said

  Hellen, full of confidence.

  “I am on it,” replied Margaret while working with her team.

  Once all teams were working on their projects, Alex gathered the leaders to

  talk to. “Finally, we are gathered all together. I will have to ask this before anything

  else: Have you realized that we did it? We did it! We made it safe and sound. The

  Hera worked!”

  “I knew she would,” said Gakuto, smiling and shaking his head.

  “Then why were you shaking in fear when we met, like a thousand years

  ago?” teased Konoya.

  “That never happened,” replied Gakuto.

  Alex interrupted. “Right. So now we are here. At our new home. Hypatia, what

  can you tell us about the solar system?”

  “Well, when we left Earth, we were joking about this system been engineered.

  We might have to begin thinking about that again, only this time seriously. There are

  five planets that are habitable, with Solis-C or Gaia being the closest to what we

  would engineer for ourselves. All five have oxygen, all five have life. Not advanced

  enough to broadcast signals though. All five are moonless, and there are nearly no

  asteroids roaming between them. The chances of a naturally occurring solar system

  like this are astronomically low. Finding one so close to Earth is … nothing short of a

  miracle.”

  Everyone got skeptical for a second until Alex broke the silence. “We will

  soon be ready to descend. Before we go, I would like to share with you some

  information.” His seriousness made everyone focus. “Before our communications

  with Earth were severed, I received information that Earth was facing an increasingly

  larger number of problems. They even sought our help to combat them, which either

  way I think it was a desperate attempt. Now we have a decision to make, but first,

  Margaret will give us the whole picture. Margaret?”

  “Here is the problem. Earth has been broadcasting again. We believe that

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  they never stopped. We have a forty-year delay now, but we are still seeing an

  increasingly complex signal arriving.”

  Gakuto smiled. “So, they made it. The Earth should be habitable now. And

  what marvelous technologies are they going to share with us?”

  Margaret looked at him with her lips pressed together. “They are not.”

  Everyone looked at Margaret, who continued. “Everything is encrypted in a way that

  we cannot decrypt it.”

  “Well then, send them an unencrypted message and ask for the key or for a

  new channel where we can communicate,” argued Gakuto.

  “Well, that’s the thing. We have, and they never replied. We think they have

  purposely kept us cut off,” replied Margaret.

  “Now,” said Alex, “we need to decide if we will be sharing our findings with

  them. We can just as easily encrypt all our transmissions and hide our discoveries.”

  “I don’t see any reason to do that,” said Gakuto.

  Konoya broke her silence. “Actually, do they know we have arrived safe and

  sound?”

  “Yes, they do,” replied Jain.

  “Then we should cut them off. The chances of them contacting us will

  increase if their curiosity increases. As long as they are receiving all our news, they

  might never open channels with us.”

  Jain started moving her head in agreement. “I think Konoya is right. We

  should keep our communications encrypted until they open an unencrypted channel

  first. We have been broadcasting all the way till here.”

  “Then we agree that this is the plan?” said Alex, who saw the room agreeing.

  “Konoya, please update all communicators with new encryptions. Let’s head back to

  the crew to prepare for our landing.”

  Twenty-four hours pass with everyone preparing for the landing. The suitable

  areas have been thoroughly scanned, and the crew is finally ready for their descent.

  They are all waiting for Alex’s order to enter the “Arrow,” which will take them to the

  surface.

  “This is it,” said Alex, “we are finally ready. I believe that everyone has read

  the reports of the ground team and of the analysis of the planet. In brief, the planet

  Gaia has a radius of 2.1 times that of Earth. Its gravity is 1.24 times higher, which

  means that although you might not feel it since your nanobots will take the extra load,

  items around you will fall faster, tools and structures will age faster, and other daily

  changes. The days here last about thirty-three hours and twenty-one minutes, so we

  will all have to get used to this cycle. Everyone will take his own pass in making that

  happen. A year here lasts 44.26 days or about 61.5 days back on Earth. There are

  no seasons for us to mark the beginning of the first year, and therefore we will mark

  the first day as the day of our landing. Today. Lastly, we have no data to see the

  effects of … anything, really. Everything is new, so anything you feel is wrong,

  anything you think is important, you need to report it.” He took a deep breath. “Good

  luck to us all.”

  The atmosphere was quite calm. It was as if none really understood that they

  would be entering a new world. The cheers had ended, and the seriousness of the

  work ahead was all the thinking was about. Everyone had specific tasks to perform,

  which would go on until the safe establishment of the city. The idea that they were an

  invading species colonizing another world had not passed through anyone’s mind …

  yet.

  The ground team had sent a message that everything was clear for the

  descent of the crew. Once the Arrow was fully loaded, the 250 people it could fit sat

  on their seats and began their fifteen-minute journey to the planet’s surface. The rest

  of the crew, along with their machinery, would land in single-use capsules of twenty-

  five each that would be salvaged for materials after their use. After the Arrow landed,

  Alex and Jain were the first ones out.

  “I can’t believe my eyes,” said Alex while holding Jain’s hand.

  “This is paradise,” said Jain. “You brought us to paradise.” She turned and

  kissed him.