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would
not be needed for some time, not until the ship’s crew was expanded
and habitats were built to accommodate LonRi’s new clones or even
some unspecified alien inhabitants. TekLet had little to do and her
guilt when around the harried crewmates had brought her low. The
stresses of the voyage would build over the generations and lead
the ObLaDa crew to some unfortunate decisions and tragic
behavior.

 
     
     
    Chapter 7 Cathia
     
    Intense light and vivid colors
coated the rolling hills of the Cathian high plains. Yellow, gold,
and silver blades and tall windblown stalks were blown in waves
during the double sunlit days and throughout the long cloudless
summers. Broad bands of large orange plants added their vibrant
hues to the valleys that spread across the landscape of this
extraordinary land. Water flowed over numerous steppes as it came
down from the hills and small dams broadened the meandering waters
of the plains before the streams emptied into the sands where the
last of the their moisture sank into the barren ground. Narrow
paths cut through tall plants to connect the villages and farms
that were home to the tough, stocky Cathians. This rugged species
lived along the foothills and broad plateaus that lay between the
endless dessert and the pestilential ocean shores of the planet
Cathia.
    Much and little had happened
during the twenty-five centuries that had elapsed since the start
of the Outward Voyager’s mission. They had closely surveyed 173
solar systems and discovered 62 life-harboring planets, of which 42
had been sampled. Only 16 had what might be called intelligent
beings, some of which were too large or fragile to capture. They
had, however, collected ten of these species, seven of which still
survived. Even so, the ObLaDas were disappointed. The idealistic
crew that had launched the Outward Voyager, each one intent on
discovery and filled with wonder, had been succeeded over the
generations by a specialized compassionless company of
tradition-bound operatives. The current list of ObLaDas had become
preoccupied with their single-minded goal of discovering populated
planets and conducting experiments on the life forms that they had
captured. They had no regard for the beings that they
kept.
    So far, none of their aliens had
made any progress in the sciences. They displayed only a minimal
ability to grasp mathematics beyond simple arithmetic and were
logical only to the point of being annoying. Training, attempts to
further education, and purposeful breeding were all being pursued,
so far without success. Through all of this, the ObLaDas had become
steadfast, intolerant, and uncaring stewards. They ignored their
captives’ wellbeing to the point that their callous behavior
distorted and suppressed the very attributes they were so eager to
find.
    This was all a prelude to the next
unfortunate decision. The ObLaDas were intent on traveling along a
promising stream of mainline stars that were of the optimal age to
contain life and were relatively close together. Unfortunately, the
trajectory needed to reach the next star in this series was at a
low angle from the entry path to the planet Cathia. The ObLaDas
launched their planetary probe, restarted the Outward Voyager
propulsion system, and initiated the star rounding along the outer
edge of the solar system. All went according to plan, but by
traveling at undiminished speed and orbiting at maximum centripetal
force, as much as the ObLaDas could withstand, they would approach
the preferred departure angle to the next star in only
seventy-eight days. A complete rounding of the solar system would
consume another eleven months. The ObLaDa leaders did not want to
waste that much time.
    The planetary probe quickly
located an organized and reasonably sized species; one that would
be of value to collect and study, or so the controllers decided.
The very limited time allotted to the mission would not allow the
probe to adequately define the aliens’ living