Chapter 7

We dubbed our new world "New Atlantis". Colonizing a new world was certainly exciting and I intended to fully enjoy each new experience; but I didn't want to just leave earth sitting there either. I think that we'd certainly gotten their attention and anything that we could do to open their eyes up to the possibility of alien cultures, star travel, and planetary colonization would certainly be worthwhile.

During a rather lengthy planning session with Vargas I stumbled onto an idea that should serve to keep the people of earth focused on the stars rather than on any squabbling currently being fostered by petty diplomats. Man had traveled to the moon and back on many occasions but had only sent probes To Mars. What if we no longer cloaked our activities on the red planet? How would the people of earth react to the comings and goings of thousands of space vessels to their nearest planetary neighbor? I knew that if we revealed our activities on the moon it could certainly be seen as threatening; but Mars was farther away and as long as the traffic between Mars and the moon remained cloaked, it would seem that Mars did indeed contain intelligent life without revealing our activities on the moon. People would naturally wonder where all of those starships came from and where they might be traveling to.

One other facet of the plan that made it so easy to embrace was that all we needed to do to set it in motion was turn off our cloaking devices. I had Vargas put the plan in motion the same day it was conceived.

Though the first wave of colonists was already heading to our new home our recruiting efforts on earth had never ceased. Rather than repeat the mistake of over populating a single world our intention was to colonize several worlds. We had been fortunate enough to find a planet ideally suited for our purposes allowing us to begin the process of colonization upon our arrival. The new knowledge I had gained via the learning AIs left me with a desire to learn as much as possible about the new solar system our new home was located in as well as discovering everything we could about the two nearby solar systems. Studying the three solar systems helped us in more ways than we had anticipated. In addition to helping us locate many sources of precious metals and rare elements, we also discovered three additional planets with the appropriate gravitational, atmospheric, temperature, orbital, and seasonal characteristics necessary for the support of human life. Interestingly enough none of these were home to any life form — not even at the single cell level.

From my studies of the alien knowledge contained in the learning AIs databases I knew that Terra-forming a world was a time consuming operation. I hoped to recreate another Earth; a younger more virginal world capable of sustaining the myriad forms of life existing on our planet of origin. For this purpose I requisitioned the creation of six new AIs. The initial task appointed to this newly created team was to develop an appropriate methodology for terra-forming the most promising of three planets into Earth's twin — though not an identical twin. The AIs were given the use of any ships or equipment they might need. They had the monumental task of studying all of the complex interweaving of Earth's plethora of ecosystems and life forms as well as determining how to replicate these in a sustainable manner on another planet.

My ambitions were not small; colonizing multiple worlds, sustaining them, and providing for their defense required enormous amounts of resources and manufacturing capacity. The enormous manufacturing facilities on Mars were able to meet the demand created by my many simultaneous ventures. The specialized mining drones kept a steady stream of raw materials flowing into the manufacturing facilities while a steady supply of manufactured goods flowed out in the direction of the new colony and the new terra-forming project.

In addition to the shipyard in full production on the far side of Earth's moon, I now had several hundred thousand drones building a ship yard on the planet we had set aside for the purpose do to its proximity to the asteroid field rich with the appropriate metals and minerals. This shipyard was much closer to New Atlantis than the one on Earth's moon was. The first project for this shipyard would be to build the New Atlantis Starship Fleet. Every ship I had ordered built so far, along with every one I ever planned on building, would be able to serve in both military and civilian roles.

My other ship yard would now focus on building a fleet to protect Earth. It was our intention that we would protect earth from any hostile contact as we waited for the planet's population to mature to the point where they could join us in my proposed federation.