Chapter 2Waking Up
Aziz looked at the screen on the wall of their cramped cabin. “Rania, why don’t we go for a walk in the promenade. There’s so little space in here. It would be good for you to get out.”
“After sleeping for four and a half years, I’m still a little groggy. You go without me. I’ll just stay here and rest for a little longer.”
“I think I should check with the doctor about you. Everyone else on the ship seems to have woken up fine.”
“Don’t you dare, Aziz! He might insist on me staying on the ship. Then they wouldn’t give you the farm. And who knows what they'd make you do.”
“You better come to lunch today or the doctor will come here without being asked.”
Aziz did go for a walk. He wasn’t the only solo walker, but almost. He also felt isolated by his skin color. His guess is that less than ten percent of the passengers were North African descent, maybe much less. Everyone around him looked classic French to him. Of course, everyone spoke French; French is the national language of Nouveau Gaul.
He worried about Rania. A lot. It seemed like the sleeping sickness. It was the only explanation he had, even if he didn’t want to admit it to himself. There’s no cure for it. As far as he knew, it’s always fatal. The representative from the foundation had explained this; when they turned everything in you off for hibernation, there was a very minimal risk that it wouldn’t turn back on properly. It didn’t feel very minimal to him right now.
Of course, if it was sleeping sickness, she was right. They needed to hide her condition as best they could. They would take everything away from him if she couldn’t make it down to the surface. There were awful rumors about what happened to people who didn’t hack it on a colony. He had no idea whether they were true or not. Very little information got back from the colonies except through the foundation, who wanted it to seem like wine and roses up here.
Not producing children was one of the ways of failing. The foundation wanted a growing population on each colony, just in case something more happened on Earth. We’d already killed off eighty percent of the people. Killing the last twenty percent seemed all too plausible.
Despite her condition, Rania made it to lunch. And the mandatory meeting afterwards. She didn’t say much and he could tell she barely had the energy to be there. But she powered through with her determination. Getting married and coming here was her idea. The foundation promised that the racism and Islamophobia rampant at home would be non-existent in Nouveau Gaul. But she’s still forbidden to wear a hijab.
And not much of anyone talked to them. Looking around the large mess hall, this was true for most of the North Africans. If Rania was healthy, she would have forced their way into some conversations. But she wasn’t. Given that, the isolation was actually a blessing right now.
As people finished eating, the foundation’s representative stood up and started speaking to the room.
“There’s been a change in how your first few months will go. As we were all told, we expected that you would each be issued a tent upon arrival where you would live until your house was finished. But the existing colonists have decided to be more welcoming. Each of you will be hosted by a family. That family will be a neighbor in your new home and at least one member of the family will be working in a similar role to one or both of you. Your hosts will serve as your introduction to your new life here in Nouveau Gaul.”
A murmur ran through the room. Everyone felt the excitement. Everyone except Aziz.
“It sounds like we are being welcomed with open arms. Please return the sentiments. Be gracious and understanding of their lives that we are dropping into. All your host families will have young children. I’m sure help with childcare will be appreciated. You’ll each receive a message describing your host family and giving you a schedule for shuttling to the planet. Congratulations and welcome to Dorado.”
“You’ll make new friends right away, Aziz. That’s good,” Rania said.
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They waited for most of the room to clear before heading back to their tiny cabin. Rania laid down while Aziz looked at their screen, quickly finding the message with their details. “Marianne Laurent, children Pierre (3TY), Genevieve (1TY). What does TY mean?”
“Terran year. A year here on Dorado lasts 542 days. You really didn’t read any of the stuff we were supposed to, did you? You’ve got to do better about that moving forward. There’s so much to learn.”
“I promise I will,” he said, realizing that she meant that he needed to do it without her.
“Traditional French,” she said, “I hope that’s not a problem. And I wonder what happened to her husband. He must be gone less than two years, presumably dead. Although I guess divorce is possible.”
“Well the colonists are taking us into their homes. They must be happy to see us.”
“I’ll bet they chose to take us like we chose to stay with them. For all their grandiose promises, this is no democracy. They were told to shelter us. I just wonder why.”
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“It also says our shuttle is at 11AM two days from now,” he added, changing the subject.
“As soon as the first shuttle leaves, I’ll stop going to the mess hall. With the confusion of people leaving, I don’t think my absence’ll be noticed. And I’ll save my strength for getting down to Dorado and to Marianne’s.”
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Within a few hours of the meeting, had docked with the orbiting station — a reconfiguration of what remained from , the first ship to come here. The first new colonists walked through the docking tunnel and towards the shuttle port.
When the time came for Aziz and Rania to depart, she struggled to keep up with the pace demanded by their escort. But she managed to not fall too far behind and said nothing. Once they were on the surface, she didn’t think they’d bother to take her back to the ship. And Aziz’s position in the colony should be secured.
She thought she knew what to expect when they landed. It would still be a small village. Her estimate was the population was probably somewhere close to three thousand for the entire plateau (and the planet). They would be taken to the southeastern corner of the plateau, where their farm would be. Really Aziz’s farm. She did not expect to ever see it become productive. And he’d work it alone; she wouldn’t be here to bear any children for him.
Despite her careful consideration of what lay ahead, Rania was still jarred by what she saw. As the shuttle descended, she watched through the portal, seeing the plateau emerge from the thick foliage of the surrounding jungle, with its surreal mottled red and green. The plateau was just a spear point of the vast flat plain beyond it. Past the plain were mountains, far in the distance. She recognized the shape of the plateau from maps she had seen of it when they were being recruited. To either side, she saw other incursions of the plain into the jungle, each with their own distinctive shapes.
But the plateau, their new home, had patches of green and obvious man made structures, instead of the scrub land of the plain beyond or the other mesas. It was easily distinguishable from the natural environs everywhere else. She could see more and more details of the hand of man as they came in to land.
At a first glance, the village, with dirt roads and horses, seemed more out of an old American Western movie. She knew that this was the technology that would be employed, but knowing and seeing are different experiences. And the buildings were all wrong for the old movies. Or anything else she’d ever seen. Most of them were built with an exposed rough hewn timber frame. Weird plastic looking sheets, mostly a strange yellow-ish orange, with an occasional green one, stretched from timber to timber, forming all the walls. The roofs were covered with solar panels. A few large structures were concrete domes, all an ashy light gray in color.
They landed on a raised platform, really just a huge dirt mound, next to one of the concrete domes. Two horse drawn carts awaited outside the dome. The twelve new settlers, each carrying a personal bag, were escorted into the big dome. The escorts directed each couple to a different pair of people. Aziz and Rania sat a table opposite a man and a woman.
“Welcome to Dorado. It’s Aziz and Rania, right? I’m Jacques Piton, a member of the Nouveau Gaul Plateau council and this is Marie,” the man said.
“Marianne. Marianne Laurent,” the woman corrected him.
“I knew that Marianne. I just misspoke.”
Rania noticed Marianne rolling her eyes at him. Jacques Piton never seemed to notice.
“I see that you two are on a halal diet. There are no pigs on the planet, so that shouldn’t be a problem here,” the man said to Aziz, oblivious to the others.
Aziz spoke up, correcting the man, “There’s more to halal than not eating pork.”
Rania immediately added, “But we'll manage just fine, I’m sure.”
“I’m sure you will. We left all the bigotry behind on Earth. None of that here,” the man claimed.
Marianne glanced at him like he’s from a different world. Rania trusted her reaction much more than the politician’s words.
The four sat in awkward silence as the other new arrivals left two by two.
When they were alone in the large room, the other three all looked at Jacques. He said, “One wagon is delivering the in town settlers. The other is taking a new couple to the northern edge. When they return, they will take you and your possessions back to Marie’s homestead.”
“Marianne.”
This time Jacques shook his head. Rania didn’t know if he was more frustrated with his mistake or her insolence at pointing it out.
After more awkward silence, a woman came in and called “Aziz and Rania Gharbi?”
Jacques stayed seated while the other three stood up. Rania said, “It was nice to meet you, Councilor Piton.” She nudged Aziz, who reached over to shake hands with Jacques. The two newcomers and their host headed outside. Aziz and Rania climbed onto the front of the wagon, tossing their personal bags in back. A large container already occupied most of the back. Marianne climbed up on a large dark brown horse and started off before they’d settled.
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Marianne seemed trustworthy, Rania thought. She’ll tell them what she thinks and what she knows, without trying to sell them a bill of goods. But Rania didn’t trust her not to hate them, not to be a bigot. There was a lot of that in the world they left behind. It’s naive to believe that it wouldn’t take a ride on a starship just as easily as the other luggage had.
Traveling at little more than walking speed, the ride took the better part of an hour. Too long for Rania to sit up for the bumpy ride. Finally, the driver pulled the wagon to a stop in front of an isolated small house. It had the same construction style as the smaller structures in the village, a visible rough hewn timber frame with large sheets of orange plastic stretching between it. A single door, framed with more lumber, was visible in the center of the front and several windows cut through the wall, each covered in a clear plastic.
“Time to get your crate off the cart,” the driver said.
Aziz looked at Rania, and she shook her head no. Aziz stood next to the driver and tried to push the large container.
“She’s going to have to help, too. I don’t think we can move this alone. I admit I don’t really understand your people’s ways, but here, everyone has to work, man or woman.”
“She’s not feeling well right now. Can we try it ourselves?” Aziz asked.
“I can help.” A woman stepped out of the front door. She was tall, taller than Aziz, and looked strong.
She hopped up on the wagon gracefully, introducing herself as she did. “My name’s Eleanor. I live down the road a bit. I was here taking care of Marianne’s children while she was in town.”
“Pierre and Genevieve, right?” Rania asked.
“Yep,” Eleanor answered and started pushing with the other two.
Soon the container slid off the back of the wagon, thudding to the ground loudly. Rania gingerly climbed off the front of the wagon.
“Give her a hand,” Eleanor said, “I have your bags.”
“Thank you,” Rania said to the driver, who had started riding off as soon as everything and everyone was off the wagon. The driver waved an acknowledging hand but said nothing. As soon as she was off, Rania collapsed against Aziz and he helped her slowly walk into the house, Eleanor held the door open for them.
