Volume XX, Issue I: Special Book Section
Josiah
By Bob Kirchman
Copyright © 2020, The Kirchman Studio, all rights reserved
Chapter 6: And there's No One There to Raise Them
An hour or so later, Allison heard voices. Then the two stepped into an open area where the remainder of their colonists stood assembled. A heated discussion was underway about the future of the colony. Men and women who had been subjugated into numbers struggled openly with the task before them of leading the colony. The two Russian doctors had tried to take charge but that had obviously gone badly. There was already emerging a faction that blamed APOLLONIUS and anyone associated with him for the present calamity. Another faction, equally as vociferous, blamed the AAR. The truth was that no one at the moment really trusted either. As Allison and Josiah stepped into their midst, they became silent.
In the reality of farming a new world, it was already obvious that there were those who labored harder than others. It was also obvious that there were those who felt their status allowed them to live off of the labors of others. Here, many miles from Earth, was a scene from the time the Pilgrims set foot in America. The ‘Common Course and Condition’ had resulted in general lack of initiative among the colonists as a group. Josiah stepped forward. Relating the story of his and Allison’s survival, he then suggested a division of labor more in keeping with the flight director’s world that they inhabited. Each colonist would be given a section of greenhouse as their own. They would be responsible for their own sector’s productivity.
Indeed, they would need to cooperate and work together, but Josiah had now insured that each area would have a responsible person over it. In doing so, he unwittingly ‘elected’ himself leader of the APOLLONIUS Colony on Mars.
Josiah then asked how so many of them were in the particular area that survived. Amazingly, all but APOLLONIUS and a couple of launch officers were here intact after an event that might have destroyed them all.
It seems that APOLLONIUS had chosen to launch his missile at the time of an important farming lecture. The whole colony turned out, concerned that they really were confused and they wanted to learn more as a matter of survival. Even the doctors showed up, skeptical of the health claims in the course’s description. They would, they thought, weigh in to discredit it. The result was that the colony itself was quite uninhabited at the time of its destruction. Had APOLLONIUS planned this? That might never be known, for he and his launch technicians perished quite suddenly in the explosion.
Ironically, the basic farming methodology for the colony was from a text known as ‘Squanto’s Garden,’ which had guided the Northern greenhouse culture. It invoked the simple methods of early farmers and avoided heavy use of pesticides.
(to be continued)
Copyright © 2020, The Kirchman Studio, all rights reserved
