The Protagonist Speaks

Dear readers, tonight with us is an interplanetary settler, from a group of humans which escaped Earth. He’s here to tell us about exploration expeditions with centuries old technology, with survival of the species hanging in the balance.

Tell us a little about where you grew up. What was it like there?

I was one of the first children born after we landed on the planet we named Imagine! Our ‘Generation Ship’ was taken apart to form our habitat, where I lived my first twenty years. My childhood was pretty happy and uneventful. Went to school every day and learned science. Ate meals in the dining hall with the whole community. Worked out in the recreation center in the evenings.

Did you have any favourite toys as a child? Any cherished memories?

I really liked the building toys we had in school for our “creativity breaks”. We really didn’t have many toys of our own, because we didn’t have much room in our quarters, especially because I had to share a room with my two younger brothers.

Memories – The only thing that stands out was the day my friend Pritz showed up with a baby Beast that he’d met out on the plains. That was pretty cool. When it grew up Pritz taught me how to ride it!

What was your job?

When I graduated from school I was assigned to Maintenance. It was pretty boring. Changing lightbulbs. Fixing broken toilets – pee-uw! I was glad to get away from that.

What are you doing now?

I’m proud to be part of the first expedition into the mountains since the one twenty years ago when my father died. The colony desperately needs resources, especially metals, so we are following the creek up into the mountains to see if we can find where the ore-bearing stones in the creek are coming from.

What did you first think when you found the remains of the helicopter?

The first thing I thought was that maybe we’d find my father’s corpse in it! I was scared to look. But when we got all the creepers off it, there were no remains there. Also, no clue as to what happened to him.

What was the scariest thing in your adventures?

The first night we were camping out, I started wondering if there were any large predators watching us. Pritz assured us that the Beasts would give us some warning if anything dangerous came close. But I kept glancing over my shoulder when we were sitting around the campfire. But so far, so good!