T'aafhal Legacy 1: Ghosts of Orion (43 page)

“So this means we can claim the planet and colonize it ourselves? I'm not sure I would want to be among the early settlers.”

“I think we'll need to terraform the plant over a period of years to prove that the contagion won't come back, Henri. But yes, those dim bulbs over at the Colonization Board have given up their claim to Paradise.”

“Initially, they seemed quite upset about the destruction of their ship,” remarked Indu Nadar, “and the slaughter of their colonists.” 

“Not really. Oh, they'll miss the ship, but the colonists? Not so much. Their real, long-term goal is getting as many human beings living on as many planets as possible. To the CB the settlers themselves were just livestock, additional gene pools to draw on if needed.” 

“I still don't understand why they sent those three sets of religious fanatics.” 

“First time out, send some expendables. Those poor people were not exactly highly sought after types. Under educated and mostly useless here on the Moon, or any other closed environment installation inside the solar system. They would always remain dependent on the state, a permanent lower class. Their presence would have eventually caused problems, so the CB decided to send 'em off to be farmers on a far away planet. Got 'em off of the Moon and they weren't gonna be missed if the colony failed.” 

“That's horrible, TK.” Indu shuddered involuntarily.

TK shrugged. “Not much compassion over there at the CB. Still, it worked out for us—we got the planet after all.”

“Imagine,” said Liong Tan, an Indonesian of Chinese descent, “controlling the wealth of an entire planet, one with much more land area than Earth. This certainly makes the company a profitable one, even if the return on investment will take some time to realize.” 

“It ain't just a planet, people. It could be dozens of planets.” 

“What? What do you mean TK?” 

“Think about it, Liong. We know of scores of planets, and a lot of them have indigenous life. This life may or may not be compatible with Earth life. Either way it can be a problem.” 

TK had everyone's attention now. After looking around the table at his fellow board members he pushed ahead.

“Incompatible means we have to displace the native ecosystem and replace it with a more benign one. Compatible means there is a chance of infection, cross breading with native organisms, and other complications. Regardless, the best way to establish an Earth colony on an exoplanet is to remove any native life and replant the place with Earth organisms.”

“And the contagion, if it can be controlled, can help do precisely that,” said Indu Nadar, as full realization dawned on her. 

“Right you are, darlin'. What we have here is a way to make spreading humanity, and all Earth life, across the Galaxy much simpler.” 

“But what about the military, won't they be wanting to classify this discovery and turn it into a weapon?” asked Norm Philips, a former Australian mining magnate. 

“Norm, there's some things too dangerous to trust the military with, and this is one of 'em. In fact, we need to keep this thing top secret.” 

“Why would you say that, mate?”

“This can be our ace in the hole. Before we all left Earth we only had a single world for everybody. With this we can have a whole passel of worlds for people to live on.”

“And we will be in a position to develop those worlds and to promote trade between them,” added Liong Tan. 

“Right you are, my friend, but only if we keep this quiet. We will proceed like we have been: building new ships, sending out exploratory missions, finding new aliens and habitable planets. Except now, when we find an Earth-like world with no indigenous sentient life, we sterilize it and plant a new ecosystem. We get perfectly inhabitable new planets with nobody the wiser.” 

“Do we know who made this contagion? Was this their intended purpose for creating it?” 

“We may never know. Whoever they were they weren't very considerate of others. They effectively committed genocide—or is it ecocide—on Paradise.” 

“They were obviously advanced, will we run into them somewhere in the wider galaxy? Will we have to fight them?” asked Liong Tan. 

“Don't know. After 10,000 years maybe they killed themselves off, or maybe the Dark Lords got 'em. For now, let's not borrow trouble.” 

TK looked around the room and saw the others were already tallying the wealth to be gained from such a scheme. In truth, Parker saw this as a way to help mankind spread to the stars, a goal he shared with the Colonization Board. To survive, humanity needed to grow strong enough to resist the Dark Lords and their minions, who were sure to return one day. If the greed of his fellow board members helped him accomplish his goal, so be it.

“So what do y'all say? Are we in agreement?”

The sly old Texan raised his hand, signaling a vote of the board. Around the table all the hands went up.

“It's unanimous,” he said with a smile. “I say we seal the records of this meeting and get back to work.”