The Colony Called Beyond

By Michael L. Anderson

The Colony Called Beyond tells the tale of thirty scientists were invited and hired to work for a multinational company on earth that owned a colony in the Kuiper Belt. The scientists make the trip to the colony called Beyond and soon find out that their beautiful living quarters and village were more like a prison. They must use their abilities in science and technology to break out of the prison or they will starve. Join their epic search for freedom as they struggle to survive among illegal cloning, inability to communicate with their comrades on Earth, and even a bit of romance. The reader will learn that cycles of life and cycles of the universe shall go on forever.

About the Author
Michael L. Anderson was born in the great big town of Doniphan, Missouri. He grew up on a farm and learned to work from an early age. He always wanted to be a writer but struggled for many years because of his dyslexia. He graduated from high school and joined the Navy, where he spent time in Vietnam. He then spent a year exploring the Mediterranean islands and countries.
When he returned to the states, after being a ship’s photographer for two years, he was finally able to enter the U.S. Navy School of Photography in Pensacola, Florida. He went on to college, where he double majored in art and biology and minored in both psychology and history. He then taught school in Greenville and Williamsville, married his lovely wife, and moved back to Poplar Bluff, Missouri. He enjoys writing stories and had written newspaper articles over the years and now write a newsletter for the Vietnam Veterans of America in Poplar Bluff chapter 1056.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Dorrance Publishing Company
• Release date: Apr 11, 2024
• ISBN: 9798886835977

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Acknowledgements

This book is dedicated to the memory of Ben Bova. I wish to thank my friend in Spain for being my reader and making suggestions that have made the book even better. Any similarity, of people, places, or events is strictly coincidental. This book was created from my imagination and my point of view.

I believe that people are people, and that we have a great future ahead of us. I have lived in this world long enough to know that things go in cycles. So I also believe that the universe also goes in cycles.

Michael L Anderson

Chapter One:

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End of the Journey

The ship, which brought us out to the far reaches of the solar system and to the colony named, Beyond, carried 30 scientist and some workers. The scientist were to find the cause and the source, of the strange fingers of light which moved about on the far horizon against the darkness of the Kuiper Belt, 100,000 miles beyond the orbit of Pluto.

The journey had taken nearly 10 years, but we knew nothing of the time, for we were in the small cylinders in cryogenic sleep. Robots had steered the ship, avoiding the asteroids, planets, and all the other debris left over from the creation of the solar system. It was finally time to wake up and begin the work. It would still be three months before we reached the colony. The ship which had carried the scientist this far looks something like an axle with two wheels. One near the front and the other about midway down the axle. The first wheel nearest the front of the ship, was small and was filled with equipment that was need at and by the colony.

The second wheel in the middle of the axle held the sleep chambers and the human habitat and living quarters.

When the machines finally awakened the sleepers, it felt to them as though they could not move, pain went all through their bodies and they could not talk, so they lay there looking at the ceiling for over an hour. Finally, a robot came by and gently lifted Edgar to a sitting position. It gave him something to drink and took his vital signs, as it held Edgar. Feeling slowly came back into his legs and arms. He moved a finger, then a toe. Edgar wiggled his hand and lifted it up to his lips. His other arm slid back onto the bed to help hold him in the sitting position. Finally, the robot turned around and lifted him to a standing position, Edgar felt as though he weighed a ton, and his legs gave away. The robot held him there and kept him from falling.

As he looked around the room, there were other robots with other scientist, and they seem to be having the same problems as he. It was almost as if they had to relearn how to use their muscles, and to learn how to walk, again. That first day was tough on them all. They did get to eat a hot meal. The hot food seemed to help them revive and revitalize their systems.

After the meal, they were taken to their room and allowed to sleep in a warm bed, covered with an electric blanket.

Come the morning of the second day, everything seemed to be back to normal and the memories of the pain and suffering from that first awaking faded quickly. It was now time to work, time to study the snowballs, some the size of the earth’s moon and the remnants left over from the creation of the solar system. The alarm clock had awakened Edgar at 06:30, by first turning on the lights in the room and then the wall screen. There was some kind of old action movie on with two robots whose names were numbers and letters, 3CPO and R2D2, or something like that. Edgar commended the computer to shut the screen off and went to the closet to get one of his uniforms, he was still wearing a floor length hospital gown and they only came in two colors, olive green or white.

He opened the closet and found six uniforms blue with white stripes on the collars. His name was over the right-hand pocket and the insignia of the company, Twinkle Bright Industries, which he was now working for, over the left pocket. He picked the one on the right, took it out and quickly pulled it on. It was formfitting and made to stretch in all directions. he then reached down and picked up the pair of shoes sitting in the bottom of the closet. He found socks in a drawer on the left-hand side of the closet and went to the bed to put them on. After dressing, Edgar headed for the mess hall. Intelligent robots stood behind the steam table and dished up the food, onto a tray, of course. He had to let them know if he wanted a particular item or not. At the end of the line. The tray was handed to him and he had to carry it, to the table. At the table, He was met by a server robot, which had a menu screen suspended between two post. Would you like coffee, tea, milk, or juice? It asked in a flat monotone voice.

Coffee and juice, Edger answered, quietly.

What type juice, and how do you want your coffee? It asked back in the same monotone voice.

Orange juice, please, and just plain black coffee, hot, he answered while unwrapping the silverware. The server robot turned and left the table. Edger looked around the room, he was the first one there.

After a few minutes, the server robot, returned with his hot coffee and orange juice. He quickly lifted them from the built-in server tray and place them on the table behind the food tray. He ate slowly, while watching the door, waiting for some of the other scientists to arrive. They came in one by one, some, still looked groggy, while others looked bright eyed. First a man followed by a lady came to the table. They had not had time to talk before being frozen, so these two were total strangers.

May we sit here with you? the man asked with a deep baritone voice.

Yes, be my guest, Edgar answered, quietly, I am Dr. Edgar Miles. Astronomer. What is your name?

Paul, the man answered.

And my name is Nan, the lady spoke, followed by a big smile. The three ate with not much else being said. There would be plenty of time to talk in the days and months ahead.

Edger had been assigned to the colony for the next three years.

I am excited to finally get back to work, Edgar spoke as though talking to himself.

There’s not really anything for us to study. The ice balls are not creating the light, I saw a few pictures, back on earth, and the lights just looks like the Aurora Borealis. There is nothing to study in the ice balls. There have been enough of them brought back into the solar system to Mars, and the Moon colonies to know what they are made of. Water ice, small metal asteroids and some methane gas, Paul answered.

Then what do you think causes the light. Photons do not turn in to electrons that I know of? Edgar asked.

Well, you realize that it is the gravitational poles that causes the aurora borealis back on earth. So I figure it’s probably something like that, causing the light displays out here, Paul again answered.

Nan had sat quietly so far, just listening to what the two men were saying, Well, don’t you think that the sun would have poles, also, and they would generate an Aurora somewhat like the one that we see over the North Pole, back on Earth?

Leave it to a woman, to sum everything up in one sentence. Now we have nothing to work on at all, Paul remarked with a snide little snicker.

Edgar just laughed to himself and sat quietly eating the rest of the food on his tray. There’s got to be more to it than the sun, having a North and South Pole, he thought to himself. And I’m the one who’s going to find the answer.

Nan, was a very pretty young lady with long dark curls falling down her back. She was an interracial mix, but her skin was a light brown, and She had eyes that were green. As with most hybrids, she possess the ability to think clearly and was very precise with her answers.

Paul, on the other hand, seemed very set in his ways. He was tall, and of northern European descent. He had light brown hair, very white skin and blue eyes that were so sharp that it seemed they could pierce right through you.

By the way, Paul, what is your degree in? Edgar asked.

I was wondering when you would get around to asking me that. I’m an agricultural engineer, and it’s my job to work on the farms, raising food for you smart guys, to eat, he finished his statement with that deep baritone laugh that echoed all through the cafeteria.

Edgar now look at Nan, And what about you? he asked, almost afraid of what the answer might be.

Me, I am in astrophysics, but I like flower gardening also, she stated in that quiet but gentle voice.

 I guess, then that we shall be working together, Edgar replied smiling while looking at Nan. I hold a degree in astronomy and astrophysics from the University of Missouri at Columba, he stated, as he held out his hand in greeting.

She took his hand and look deeply into his eyes, smiling. Her hand was warm and soft. With that he got up and carried his tray to the garbage bin, scrape, what food was left, off into a sink, and placed the tray in the dirty dishes rack. He then headed for the lab. The labs was on the other side of the hibernation chambers. Beyond that was the ship’s bridge and administration quarters. A yellow light and sign was posted on the ceiling above the doors, going into that area. Letting everyone know that it was off-limits.

He entered the astronomy control room, which was located on the forward side of the big wheel. The lab had a large window which they could use to look outside. At the moment, the window was covered by a thick steel sliding guard plate for the crews protection. There were four workstations, but only two had controls for The big telescope that was now located in the nose of the ship, ahead of the first wheel.

Even if the window was open, there was no way to see the nose of the ship, because the front wheel had a steel cover on its backside. The ship had been constructed to become a part of the colony, upon arrival. It would not be going back to earth. The telescope in the nose of the ship, would be detached before rendezvous with the colony. Once the ship was attached to the colony, The scientists could disconnect the controls, for the telescope, and move them to the new labs that had been built inside of the colony. There they could reconnect them, and all the data would be readily available throughout the colony that the scientists had collected in their final months of travel.

Edgar sat down at station one, the computer sense his presence and turned on. The colony was reflecting the starlight and a strange blue, white light glowed from the far horizon. The colony seem to be covered with tiny white diamonds that sparkle, much like the stars. This can’t be right, he thought to himself, The colony should be much further away than it is, we’re only a few days away. He checked the radar reading and it confirmed that his judgment was correct. The ship was only four days away from the station. So, then he checked the time, to be sure that it was correct. It matched his multi-function device exactly. But we were to have three months to study the snowballs and the light, he wondered. What happened, why were we awakened late? Edgar then checked the Ships Database.

Database of Colony: Beyond: Dimensions: the colony is 12 miles long, 5 miles in diameter, a double walled cylinder - (a large cylinder with a smaller cylinder inside). The colony contains twelve villages plus the Administration Park between village four an eight, and a mausoleum between villages, ten and eleven. Each village contains a park with a small river, and a lake. They both are part of the water recycling system. Heat and power are provided by a fusion a generator.

The Generator was salvaged from a previous station. Day light is provided by three large globes containing ten thousand LED lights, they are guaranteed to last five hundred years. The streets are lighted by LED streetlights which are hidden by day, and rise up from the sidewalk from Dusk to Dawn. The colony is in an orbit 100,000 miles beyond the orbit of Pluto in an area known as the *Kuiper Belt. The light or heat reaching the colony from the sun is too small to light the area. The Sun is eight times brighter than the evening star, as seen from Earth.

Depending on the location of the colony, along its orbit and Earth along its orbit, messages from Earth or to Earth, take anywhere from 14 to 36 hours, one way. *Kuiper Belt: is a circular disk in the outer solar system much like the Asteroid Belt. It extends from the orbit of Neptune, at thirty astronomical units to approximately 50 Astronomical units from the sun, Sol. It is similar to the asteroid belt, but is far larger and twenty times as wide. It was found to contain large balls of ice and other minerals.

History of the colony, Beyond: The World Government, needed a recruit training station for its Space Force, and a place for its early warning system, Star Watch Program. They built a small station, 100 years ago, consisting of a large wheel, ½ mile in diameter and 300 feet thick. The center of the wheel, was a large sphere, which contained two docking ports for large ships and four docking ports for small ships, the ports were built between the four spokes. The sphere was 500 feet in diameter, containing airlocks for each docking port and emergency gates for each of the four spokes. The World Government, close the station, fifty-five years ago. Reason: too far out to be of much use.

Don Jenkins, owner and president of Twinkle Bright Industries, purchased the colony, forty years ago. He needed a station In the Kuiper Belt, where he was collecting water from the snowballs, to be sold to the Moon, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn colonies, and to the miners in the Asteroid Belt. He decided to enlarge the colony but found it easier to totally rebuild. Several designs were looked at and thrown away. He decided on a design for the colony, based on humanitarian reasons. **

**Humanitarian Reason for Building the New Colony: Don Jenkins, recruited one hundred children off the wasted streets and took them to the colony to live. The children came from three different cities, he tried to place them into only one of the twelve villages. The three gangs fought for control. After several children had been killed, Jenkins decided to make it more like a Boot Camp. He talked with several of his military friends, both men and women. He convinced a few to go out and taking charge of the children. His dream was to teach the children: discipline, give them a good education and then bring them back to earth, to rejoin society.

Don chose a leader: He needed someone, to be a leader. So, he checked his database, and found Mrs. Bryce, she was coming up through the ranks very quickly. A note attached to one page, Danger, this woman gets her way, by using information about her coworkers. Don Jenkins, pulled her out of his office staff, and sent her to the colony called, Beyond. She monitored, and designed a lot of the structures inside the colony. She has been in charge for thirteen years.

Parts of the Colony: The colony contains soil that was