City of Cathay, in the 98th Year since the Landing (Y.L.)
Sometimes I wonder what my grandmother saw when Kiannon came into view. A blue planet, similar to Earth, but all of the continents in the wrong places. There were multiple arable continents surrounded by a warm sea, a temperate climate and no sentient species. The first colonists must have thought they had discovered Heaven. So many other planets had been reviewed and found wanting for various reasons: Biological threats, No oxygen or just environments too hazardous for humans. After hundreds of years of deep sleep, they began to wake colonists up.
The history of the landing on Kiannon was recorded by the first colonists. The planet had been named, sight unseen, after the President who had approved our launch. We were one of the few Motherships that made it off the planet before the planet fell silent.
Our grandparents were still in the Sleep when the Mothership captured the first scans from the planet. When the Mothership woke the colonists to show them a new planet, they were still children of Earth. When they landed, they expected the colony to last for thousands of years. They called themselves the Founders. Three generations in, it’s hard to tell whether we are still living according to their principles. Principles that seem crystal clear when first written can be misinterpreted or repurposed when they are passed down. I’ve been reading through their records to help guide my decisions as we approach our 100th anniversary. Very little has changed from the first leader of the Founders Sect to myself, but we are still fighting the same battles.
The Founders Sect is as strong as we ever were. Every Mid-summer's Festival, we remind the grandchildren of those colonists why we had to leave Earth. We try to squeeze in the original commitments of the Founders. They wanted to be better stewards over this planet than they had been of the Earth.
Unfortunately, those that oppose us (I hate to think of them as enemies, we have to survive on this planet together) are just as determined to live without considering the planet as a partner. Those descendants (now part of the Ascendant Group Party) are bickering with us over resources in Cathay. I keep reminding myself that we are all Children of Kiannon. But that story is for another day.
- Rei Benjamin