TAU CETI Forgotten Colony Rodzil LaBraun © 2021 Rodzil LaBraun All rights reserved. This book or any portion thereof may not be reproduced or used in any manner whatsoever without the express written permission of the publisher except for the use of brief quotations in a book review. This is a work of fiction. All characters, names and locations are a product of the author’s imagination. Any resemblance to real people is purely coincidental. Any references to real people or locations are used fictitiously. Chapter One Chapter Two Chapter Three Chapter Four Chapter Five Chapter Six Chapter Seven Chapter Eight Chapter Nine Chapter Ten Chapter Eleven Chapter Twelve Chapter Thirteen Chapter Fourteen Chapter Fifteen Chapter Sixteen Chapter Seventeen Chapter Eighteen Chapter Nineteen Chapter Twenty Chapter Twenty-One Chapter Twenty-Two Chapter Twenty-Three Chapter Twenty-Four Chapter Twenty-Five Chapter Twenty-Six Chapter Twenty-Seven Chapter Twenty-Eight Chapter Twenty-Nine Chapter Thirty --Chapter One-- I was a bit uncomfortable with the decision not to bring a breather mask. I had never stepped onto any planet without one. The lovely Doctor Sophia insisted that the air here was well within all parameters for safe breathing. She had taken sufficient time after landing to thoroughly test for micro-organisms that could affect our bodies. A simple vaccine with nanites was created and inserted into our bloodstream to ward off problems and signal alerts to her if something new and unexpected breached our defenses. A small pack of pressurized ship standard air was included in our gear to provide twenty-minutes-worth of comfortable breathing should we hit a problem or even panic unnecessarily. As any interplanetary traveler knows, the chemical content of the atmosphere was only part of the equation. Scents, moisture levels, and so forth, could have as much of an impact on comfortable breathing. Our landing location was surprisingly arid, virtually a desert. The sand was packed hard as rock in many places. Other areas had deep drifts of loose grains that could suck your leg right in. From the look of things, the wind only blew in one direction, forming the most hazardous footing on the east side of rock formations. Our faces and hands were unfortunately exposed to the elements. Wearing gloves or any kind of shield would give us away as foreigners quickly. That needed to be avoided for the mission's sake. Ultimately, that was the reason for leaving breathers behind. Our weatherproof, bulletproof clothes had been adapted to match the fashions of the nearest town, except for the women. From our observance in orbit, nearly all of them wore dresses regularly. The lone female in our landing party dressed like one of the guys for safety reasons, so protocol called for disguising her sex instead. Haisley was not particularly fond of that, despite never having worn a dress in her entire life. Her luscious long blonde hair was pinned up densely behind her head. Plants along our way would fall over when faced with a stiff breeze. Then, moments later, they would rise again. It was a built-in defense mechanism, apparently. From the look of the sand drifts, the wind speeds could get quite high. Without the ability to seek cover like an animal, the plants survived by adaptation. It was very peculiar to see in action. Thick stalks suggested that they could even rise up through a layer of blown sand. Crabs of various sizes could be seen scurrying this way and that occasionally. Instead of walking sideways or forward they could move in any direction like a spider. No other life was spotted until we got closer to the city. We had landed three kilometers away to avoid detection, then cloaked the ship. It wouldn't go completely unseen if someone were close enough to see the shimmering field of dow-mirr technology. Cloaking didn't make it entirely invisible. Letting someone on this planet see our ship could be a mission breaker, so we needed to park it significantly away from foot traffic. Three weeks we had spent in orbit around Tau Ceti Four before choosing an acceptable landing location. Much of that time was used to observe their civilization from above. The largest city was chosen as the target for our mission. That was protocol unless there were other factors involved. Vicious storms had passed through this section of the lone continent a few times since we arrived at our orbiting distance. The next two largest towns had the same weather pattern, though, so that didn't change anything. We all worked for Sol-Rey Company based on Luna, the lone moon around our home planet, Earth. Though that world was nearly dead now, most of humanity still clung to the area. Mars and Luna combined to hold over ninety percent of known human life. It was difficult to census accurate numbers since colonies had been formed in other star systems a hundred and fifty years ago. Then came the first Galactic War. That's what they called it at the time anyway. It only involved humans and spanned just a few systems. Intelligent alien life had not been encountered until much later. The vast majority of destruction had taken place in the populated sections of the solar system. The war managed to deplete resources and destroy so much of mankind's recent accomplishments. It was a huge step backwards for our people. Any colonies established in faraway systems were thereby cut off from supplies for more than a century. It was just over the last decade that any effort was made to reconnect with them. Unfortunately, most sites did not survive long on their own. Those few that did were often adversarial when confronted with people intent on reclaiming them. With military assets stretched so thin across the vastness of space, individual companies took on the project of reestablishing contact. It was a first come first serve situation. Beat the competition to anything of value and you could claim it. That was the decree anyway. But it was difficult to get legal support when you reported an infraction. Larger, stronger companies would swoop in and take over without rights to do so. If a colony proved to be substantial, the military would get involved. By then, though, the stronger force had already secured their position. So, the Sol-Rey company changed their tactics. They invested money on research to get them to distant stars faster than the others. Instead of using force to claim lost colonies, they would negotiate treaties and trade agreements. Company resources were vast but transporting across light years took time. Lopsided deals were easily obtained when colonists had no idea of the true value of their assets. Much like the Wild West of the United States, people needed to take measures to protect themselves. For that reason, we were officially part of the Sol-Rey private militia. Six of the eight crew members operated on that basis and followed the lead of our commander without hesitation. Tau Ceti was my third assignment. The first went terribly sour. The company then gave orders to pull out since the targeted colony had truly little value in monetary terms. The second went extremely well and earned me a good bonus. If it hadn't, I might not have been given another chance. Astronomical amounts of funding went into recovering these lost colonies. Positive results were expected whenever possible. Both of my previous missions were bubble colonies, though. That's what we called them, whether there were actual atmospheric bubbles or not. It meant that they needed a structure to maintain their breathable air. They only expanded their territory when they had resources to build another bubble. Often, their mines and crop fields existed outside of their domes, and unsecured. We had the option of negotiating deals, constantly raiding their facilities, or providing security to prevent others from doing it. In return for security, we received a portion of what we could have just taken to begin with. But it was a better way of doing business and prevented the needless loss of life through revolts. Tau Ceti was looking to be quite different from the first two in several ways. Humanity had spread out across a continent larger than the size of Australia. They could live and breathe anywhere, so they had the ability to fortify wherever they wanted. No population control either. We were looking at a colony that had grown beyond the term. This was almost like first contact with another species, only they were still human like us. The question was how much had they clung to their past in their new environment? Our mission was to reestablish contact and forge an amicable relationship that could be grown into whatever the company saw fit. We ourselves didn't do any raiding or negotiating. That wasn't our job. We gave the company a report on what there was to be had and how to get it. Then we stepped back until called upon again, whether to assist or move on to a new project. It paid well due to certain inherent risks. Facing a deadly encounter was considered a low percentage chance. But that varied dramatically depending on the hazards of the planet and the receptiveness of the people. Revealing our origin and true nature was to be avoided until a full assessment had been done. The goal was to announce who we actually were just before the next Sol-Rey ship arrived to take over. The crew of that vessel had a different mission that did not include blending in with the locals.