The Botany Bay Journals

[PoliteSuccubus]

Be a Pioneer!

This will be an unmediated story thread with no real story line. Just post as you will, in diary/journal format, about what you think your PC would be going through if he/she/they were to settle in a new planet AKA Ray Bradbury’s
“The Martian Chronicles”.

Come settle in beautiful Botany Bay! A newly opened planet with currently less than 100,000 people living on it
world wide!

Risk Factor T4 (roughly the equivalent of uncharted America, but without the native population) largest predator
roughly the size of a mountain lion.
Year 420 days (42 ten day weeks, seven 8 week months)
Weather: Temperate with no polar ice caps, lands largely covered with forest and prarie. Five continent. Space Port
located at Century City, at the mouth of the New Thames River, along the coast of the Apollo Sea.

Levels of Entry:
A person may bring as much as he or she can carry included in the price of transport. A person may elect to owe the
colony the frees incurred by his/her transport by working off the cost of transport before being released to
homestead. A person may pay for his/her own transport and extra shipping costs for any items. A person cannot
vote in elections until said person has served for at least two years of civil service on Botany Bay or aboard. Such
persons who have served will receive a 1/3 discount. A 1/3 discount will also be given to professional persons
deemed desirable by the colony. (see list on page 149 of the Codes and By laws of Settlement).

Requirements: Physically and mentally fit with no genetic defects or transmittable diseases. Total commitment.
There will be no going back. Common language: English. Must complete a series of inoculations without ill effect.


Join the Adventure TODAY by contacting your local BBI office!~

 

[PoliteSuccubus]

Sarah, age 14

Dear Dairy;

Well, I won my bet! I told Steven that Mom and Dad had been planning a big surprise, but he said I was full of
beans. But tonight they invited everyone to dinner so that was: Steven and his wife Bethany, Marc back from
school just for this dinner, Aunt Zoosie with her new boyfriend (I heard Mom and Dad fighting about this and Mom
said they were getting married but hadn’t announced it yet, so Dad said he could come) and my Coz’s Richie and
Sammie, and of course us: Mom and Dad, Jake, Beth and me. Pete doesn’t count because he was sleeping already
and I doubt ten month olds get votes in family meetings.

So, we are all sitting there around the table and Dad holds up his glass and announces that he’s retiring early and
that he and Mother (he calls her Mother) have decided to migrate out to a new planet. After this stunner he tells
them that he wants them to come with us. There was a lot of “Oh, your kidding” from Zoosie. And Steven said “But
Dad, you can’t” and Bethany looked confused. (They haven’t been married very long, so I don’t think she feels right
just butting in like the rest of us yet) Bill, Zoosies boyfriend, said something like “If I were younger I’d jump at the
chance” which is BS because he’s younger than Dad by a year, and Mom and Dad are still young enough to have
babies. Dad, of course, tried to win them over with fast talk and maps he’d gotten some somewhere that weren’t out
for the public yet. He had facts, figures and dreams. While Dad tried to convince everyone Mom puttered about in
her quiet way she has, clearing one set of dishes and setting out the coffee and dessert.

Finally someone asked her, I think it was Zoosie, what she thought. I was busy staring at the maps. All rivers and
hills and strange markings...and no roads or towers or windmills except around the main city and the few pitifully
small towns that satellite it, mostly up and down the coast.

“Emma, what do you think of this foolishness?” Someone asked.

“We’re going. It’s that simple.” Mom said in the voice that to a stranger seems all nice and reasonable, but to those
of us who know Mom it’s her “Case closed.” voice. “Now it’s up to you all to decide if your coming or not.”

Jacob stayed up, but I went to bed. He likes to watch people fight, and he’s waiting for the day Mom loses.

Morning: I guess Mom didn’t lose. One of the great things about my Mom and Dad is if my Dad can convince my
Mom of something she’ll back him 100%, and while he might back down if pressured enough, she never will. They
make a great team. So, I’m out of regular school and am now going to take special classes. I’ve got map reading, first
aid, cooking from strach, child rearing...and shots. We all have to get shots. Marc hasn’t made up his mind. Bill
flat out said NO, but Zoosie has that look in her eye that Mom gets sometimes. So I know she’s weighing Bill against
how much she wants to go. Steven and Bethany said they’d talk it over. He’s almost done with school as a
engineer. Marc just started school, but the dont' have any colleges up there yet.

Mom came and talked to me and told me that I can choose to stay, that at 14 I’m only a few years from my majority,
and it would be unfair to take me from everything I knew and what plans I might have made for myself to go across to
another world totally different than the one I came from. She gave me a book called “The little house in the big
woods” about a girl to help me imagine what be like there on Botany Bay. I asked about Jake and she said that he’d
be coming. At 10 he’d be able to adjust, and hadn’t really made plans for himself yet.

It makes me feel bad that they would automatically take Jake but give me the choice. Like they don’t want me to go
as much as Jake. So I told her I’d think about it and when she left I threw the book across the room and didn’t come
out for breakfast.

Time to go. Write more later.

 

[PoliteSuccubus]

Sarah, age 14

Dear Diary;

Today we practiced how to make fires. Frist we had to turn off all the safety features. I never realized how wired a place could be to protect us from ...well, everything. In story books I read about candles, and fireplaces, and oil lamps and bonfires, but it wasn't until today that I realized I personally have never seen a flame.

When we get to Botney Bay we won't be protected from anything. Fire, flood, animals, insects, and crimmals will be able to wipe us out totally at whim. It's a very sobering thought. Our instructor told us that really the only thing between us and death once we leave the main cities is our knowlege and our friends and family.

So all day we practiced making fires out of scraps of wood with matches, scraps of wood with other scraps of wood (which made everyone's hands sore), we learned how to light a wood stove and a coal stove, we learned how to fill, trim and light an oil lamp.
We learned about fire saftey, hazzards and frist aide.

It was very hot work. But flames are very pretty, and our instructor said that different woods burn different ways, for different amounts of time, and had different smells. We talked about cureing wood and where to find coal.

Zoosie is coming, but Bill isn't. They broke up over it and she came over and cried all over Mom, but basically she said that there isn't really any oppurtunity for her kids here except to become cororpate drones. Zoosie isn't sure if she'll migrate with us to the spot Dad's chosen, or wait in Century City until she meets someone. Mom confessed that THAT's what she's worried about with me. I'm at that age where I will be thinking of boys, and soon after getting married. What if no one suitable settles near us?

A hard little lump in my heart just broke over hearing that.

We struck a bargain that if no one suitable comes along by the time I"m 18 I'll go to Century City for a while.

Mom's surprized I've desided to come, but, what if I was the only thing that saved them out there? They need their friends and family to watch their back and I need them. They are my family, and the thought of them being lightyears away from me just breaks my heart. Even if it scary.

 

[PoliteSuccubus]

Sarah, age 14

Dear Diary;

I am simple too tired to write much. Very big day at school. We had like a fair thing with prizes for stupid games like hauling water, firelighting, cooking on the stupid wood stove.

I won a solar flashlight with built in compass for berry picking the most in five mintues. My fingers will be forever purple.

Mom gave each of us kids a large satchel and a trunk. Everything we can fit into it we can take. Everything else is getting sold. And Dad's friend, the one who gave him the map, is coming tomorrow. He's a Lt. who was on the survey team.

Everyone else will be coming too, and Mom's making a pie out of my berries.

Sleep now.

 

[PoliteSuccubus]

Sarah, age 14

Today was great. I didn't have to go to school I didn't get in a fight with Jake once today and Bram came to dinner.

Bram. Isn't that a cool name?

He's about Stevens's age and tall and has dark hair and dark eyes that twinkle. He talked about how beatiful Botney Bay is as a planet and how the goverment there has already set aside lands and made development rules so it won't get overrun like Earth did with pollution and gunk.

He flirted with all of us girls, Mom, Zoosie, Pete's wife Beth and ME! I blushed the most, of course, but I tingled right down to my toes.

After dinner we cleared the table and he laid out huge paper maps. Getting used to paper is funny. This diary is paper and the ink blots and stuff and when I spell something wrong I have to cross it out or leave it there, but this a journal of my adventure, and I want people to be able to read it and we won't have a lot of tech out there for a long time.

So, the maps are laid out and Bram says there's a dozen more than excellent spots depending on what we want. Timber, grazeing, farm land, mineing..........

We all put in our two cents over what we want and Dad listens to all of it and Bram does too and makes suggestions. Bit by bit the choices narrow. Steven wants to farm, so he want's farm land. Dad wants a mix of timber and grazeing or farm land. Mom wants deep running water in case of drought, which Bram doesn't think is likely since Botney has a high rainfall pretty much planet wide. Mom points out that the climite might change with colonzaions, and he can't falut her there when thinking long long term. Zoosie doesn't care much, but likes the idea of a river or creek by her front door. Marc isn't coming, he wants to get his degree here and then maybe join us. (This makes us all sad in a way, but I respect him for his desion. I know it makes him sad.)

Out of three sites that fit our requirements one was to hard to get to overland, one didn't have a lot of room for expantion due to cliffs, and one was by the fork of two rivers with forest on one side and paire on the other about 550 klicks from Century City.

The one that was too hard to get to was the one we wanted the most. It was perfect in a lot of ways, but when Bram and Dad and Steven began looking at routes to get there...it was a no go. So we all pretty much agreed for the third site.

Useing a pencil Dad mapped out our parsels. He marked out 300 acres (the size allowed by the goverment for new claims) on the forest side, but Mom over ruled him and moved the property line over the river. She said that rivers move, and it's better to have it actually ON the property from the get-go rather than use it as a boundry. So it was more like 250 acres of forested land, and 50 acres of river valley. Zoosie marked out the same size and shape next to ours and Steven, after consulting with his wife, lay his marks so that his property fronted both of theirs and then went deep into the praire. (I really need to learn to spell that word!).

Jake got to pick a parsel too, but he won't be old enough to claim it until he's 18. I'm only four years away from that, so I picked on on the other side of Mom and Dad's.

Sammie, Richie and Jake don't get to pick anything, because it'll be years and years before they are old enough and by then people might have caught up to where we are.

Bram showed us some packing tips so we could get more stuff into our trunks, which was really helpful. The little hairs on the back of his arm kept brushing my hair and tickled in a electric sort of way I've never felt before.

Later~ I just found out. Tomorrow we begin our shots. Ick.

 

[PoliteSuccubus]

Sarah, age 14

I dont' feel like writing today. The shots HURT and everyone is feeling sick.

 

[PoliteSuccubus]

Sarah, age 14

I am finally feeling better enough to eat again. The shots made everyone sick for about a week. But we all recovered. The baby frist, of course, and he drove us all nuts by being healthy and bouncy and into stuff while the rest of us just wanted to sleep and never clean up after him.

Zoosie hasn't been around much, she's been taking speical classes on stuff that intrests her. I don't know much about it, but I heard her talking to Mom the other day about how she, a single mom with two kids under 13 wasn't going to run a farm and stuff. So she was looking into other things. I'm curious about what those are, but when we move into the compound, I'll have plenty of time to find out.

The compound is the next step. After we are all packed (more about THAT in a mintue!) we move out of our house and into the ISC. Immergartion Service Compound. It's the last stage of prepareing us and giving us a chance to change our mind. We ALL have to live in ONE 12 foot by 60 foot room with NO walls. We can hang curtains up if we want, but NO WALLS. And the bathrooms are in another building OUTSIDE the one we will be living in.

Dad says that if a colonlist can't take this one tiny hardship here on earth, how are they going to manage bigger ones a thousand light years away? Which didn't sound so bad until he told us our ship won't be taking off for FOUR MONTHS.

Four months of living in one room. With my mom and dad and brothers.

On top of that we are only taking with us what is in our carry on. Our trunks go into storage and we won't see them again until we reach our homestead! That will be like more than a year, I think! So I took everything out and I had to ask myself: Will I need this in a year? Can I live without it for a year?

I don't know how Mom can make those choices, because she's not just packing for herself, but for the baby and our household too. I"m just packing for ME.

Dad was getting ready to buy a bunch of stuff to go with us, but Bram went over his list and told him what could be gotten on Boteny Bay for cheaper. I mean, it might actually cost more there, but with the shipping charages...it ends up cheaper.

And Zoosie said she was paying for herself. She used to be a bioengineer and had her own money from that, and her husbands death benefit. So that gives us extra money, because Dad was going to pay for her and my coz's too.

Marc's been around a lot. Helping and wavering back and forth between coming now or not. I do and don't want him to come. He's a outstanding Nanoware programmer, and when is Botney Bay ever going to need that? But I will always need him as my nearest and dearest brother.

Mom's calling me.

Goodbye for now, dear diary. PS: YOU will never go in the trunk!

 

[PoliteSuccubus]

(OCC)

If anyone is reading these, won't you PM me and let me know what you think so far? Thanks.

 

[Abraxas Winterlight]

you already know I like it, i'm just trying to get into a writing frame of mind

 

[poohlive]

Here you go.

 

[PoliteSuccubus]

Sarah, age 14

Oh Dairy;

It's been a hard, hard day. We are all packed and everything we didn't pack is being sold. Strangers came into our house and went through our things and it was just horriable.

Mom is taking the table and chairs her grandmother gave her because they can be broken down, but the hutch and the sideboard are much to massive and were sold.

It gives a hollow feeling to see other children pick through your clothes and toys and...oh it makes me cry. Our houseing unit is on the market, somewhat reduced for quick sale. When it sells we will be moving to the compound and all of our personal things we haven't sold will be doanated.

I would have rather donated all my things than have these people look through them and desiding what was good enough and what wasn't. Then people who would be happy to have them would. My pimple faced brother did better than me, he told his friends how much to save up to come get and pay for what he wanted them to have. So his things largely went to people he wanted to have them.

And they all say that they will join him in the fronteir when they get old enough and they run through the house pretending to be great explorers. Got on my nerves but Dad says that really there are a lot of things they could be frist at in a new world. Then he started in on Lewis and Clark and Bird and people like that.

I desided to go see a vid and while I was there I saw Nance and some of my old school friends. I didn't wave to them, and they pretended not to see me.

I feel like running away from home, but at the same time, like home is running away from me.

 

[PoliteSuccubus]

Sarah, age 14

Dear Diary;

I am going to try to be analitcal and not emtional and just report the facts.

We've moved to the compound and there are about 1,000 other people here. We are in D quad which is four long buildings set together in a square with the public facitlites in the middle. Like a small park for the kiddies, the store that only sells raw foods, the mass bathrooms and the phone banks.

We can go into town when ever we like, the the main compound doors close at midnight and you can't get back in.

Our living arrangement is a room 12 foot by 60 foot and smells of whomever lived here before. They liked onions and brunt their meat a lot.

Near the door is a stove for cooking and a refridgeator.

There are also cots, tables, chairs.

Each of us only has our satchels.

We will be here for four months.

Mom and Dad are hanging the privicy curtains and Pimple face is beginning to get a clue that we are really living and this is the future.

The end.

 

[PoliteSuccubus]

Sarah, age 14

Hate it.

Hate the food, hate the weather, hate the walls, hate the curtains, hate the bed, hate my family, hate the smell, hate the playground, hate the idea, hate my hair, hate the zit on my chin, hate the way I can hear everything everyone does, hate the bathroom,

This is a icky terriable place and a icky terriable idea


IS THIS HOW THE REST OF MY LIFE IS GOING TO GO!!!!!!!!!!

I might as well off myself and save the fare!




Later

I feel better now. Sorry about all the hate.

 

[PoliteSuccubus]

Dear Diary;

I know it's been a month since I wrote last. It's been a month of big adjustments.

They only sell raw food at the store here. So you have to buy it and take it back to your apt. and MAKE something out of it or eat it raw. We've done both.

Mom's frist bread batch didn't rise so we cooked it anyway and had bread brick. Her stew turned out ok. But she brunt the meat so horriably it set off the alarm. And our poop smells different now.

I've made a few friends my age, but I try not to get too attached. It's not like we know when we will see each other again. There's this one group tho, they are going all together and setting up their own town. Six familes and some odds and ends.

Dad is taking a lot of vet classes and comes home smelling like animal wastes more times than not. But I think we are all loseing our nose for the clean. When I go out into the city now I can't tell any different, but when I come back and smell the compound I can. I can't explain it now.

It's just werid.

Joel's here for me. Got to run. Bye.

 

[PoliteSuccubus]

Dear Diary;

Our names have been posted, we will be leaving in three weeks.

I'm scared. So today I went to say goodbye to Earth. I wandered around my old haunts and stuff, visited some friends who acted weird around me, took some pix on my memory stix to show my children and grandchildren where they came from.

I didn't buy anything, tho. We've already got our allotment filled. I lied. I bought a lot of candy and brought it back and shared it with everyone.

Everyone's acting strange. Frantic in a strange way. Not overtly frantic, but still...something in the quirky way they act and talk.

We sleep for six months and are awake for 72 hours, then sleep again. For about six or seven cycles of that. Joel and I will be on the same wake schedule. I guess you could say he's my boyfriend. We hold hands when no one's looking. His father is going to open a publishing place. They make books. He's used up a lot of his space allotment for presses, paper making machines and memory stix of texts. Joel knows how to make paper and set up the presses. He's almost 16.

The bad thing is that his family is settling in the city, or in one of the small towns springing up around it if the land is too dear. So, after we head out I won't see him again until I turn 18. But Mom says that we can send short messages to each other via the pings. But, we only send a ping once every six months. We are working on making up a code so that one word stands for a sentence, so we can write a long letter via a short one.

Steven and Dad have been taking a lot of animal courses and have bought some fetus to bring with them. Horses and llamas and stuff. Steven is practically a certified vet already with all the intensive study he does; and Dad isn't far behind.

Zoosie is bringing BEES. Can you believe it? She's bringing bees and herbs and stuff like that and fruit trees. She can't bring any wind borne seed bearing plants, it's against the planet rules, but they've OKed bees! She's going to use her degree to brew up teas and honey and home remedies and stuff. She says that when we are first getting started the extra variety will be good and that by the time civilization catches up to us her orchards should be grown enough to sell the extra.

Oh, and Mom has signed us all up for swimming. Even Peter, and he's not quite two years old yet! She said that since we will be living near open water we all need to know how. I sorta do, but there is a lot of difference between a pool and a running river. In fact, I can't say I've ever SEEN a running river. Just fountains.

Got to go, Marc's come to dinner. At least nothing is burnt this time! It's hard to burn stew.



Later~ Marc is coming! I can't believe it! He dropped out of school and is joining us! I won't see him til we get there tho, because he'll be on a different rotation! Mom told Dad to keep his spot open, even though it cost extra, and as usual she was right! But he doesn't know anything like we learned! Am I happy? Am I sad? Am I worried? I don't know.

I'm going to go tell Joel.