Earth Legend Read Online Free

people in each. That's what they called
the clusters of housing units or whatever the colonists and crew
lived in. I also knew that babies could only be conceived as space
and resources allowed, a necessity on a ship of limited size and
capacity though the ship could hold ten times the number of people
going into space. They'd deliberately planned for future population
growth. Pets, too, were limited, though they were allowed. Food
would be grown on the Destiny but I didn't remember where it would
be grown or how. Greenhouses? Terrariums? Container gardens? My
knowledge was woefully lacking.
    I followed the colonists and we all headed
for what looked like a huge tube that ran down the center of the
ship. I remembered reading that the center tube was the part with
no gravity so it was used for transportation among other things.
Once in the tube, we all grabbed straps and were pulled along at a
decent clip. Most of the tube was opaque, filled with cubicles and
offices but every so often we'd pass a clear area.
    The first time it happened I almost puked.
The ground was miles below. I looked every which way to avoid
looking down but even up was down in the tube. The Destiny was
huge, ten miles across and fifty miles long. I'd read the numbers
but they'd meant nothing to me at the time. Now they did. I
swallowed a few times and concentrated on the tube itself and the
other colonists and gradually forgot the ground so far below.
    We slowed as we reached a tube that branched
off from the main one. It was an elevator. A handful of colonists
let go of their straps and drifted towards it. Then they punched a
button and it started down. But most stayed where they were. Soon
we reached a second such tube and more colonists left. They were
all headed to their new homes.
    If I stayed where I was, I'd end up at the
other end of the Destiny and there wouldn't be any more elevators
to take me to ground level. I didn't know what might be waiting for
me at the end and I didn't want to know, which meant I'd have to
pick a village and go down the elevator with a group of colonists.
I'd have to pretend I belonged and hope they didn't know the
difference.
    When we reached the next elevator, I let go
of my strap and floated to it along with a few dozen colonists.
Rather, I tumbled and was grabbed by a man with a lazy grin who
could be my grandfather. "Not got your space legs yet?"
    "Nope." I tried to be nonchalant.
    "It happens. Took my grandson a while to get
his, but he made it." He swung me around and plunked my feet on the
floor of the elevator and put my hands on the straps that would
keep me from flying aimlessly about until gravity kicked in and
kept me in place. I couldn't wait.
    He looked like he was enjoying the ride,
doing a double somersault before settling down with a strap of his
own. He looked like a nice guy. The first I'd met since reluctantly
joining the colonists. "You remind me of my grandfather."
    "I remind everyone of their grandfather." He
grinned again and held out a hand. "Wilkes Zander at your service
and I have three real grandkids waiting for me down there and
anyone who needs a grandfather can call on me any time."
    "I might do that," I managed, figuring out
why he was there with other elderly people heading out into space.
Remembering something I'd read and not paid attention to at the
time. That every family and every colony needs grandparents.
    As gravity took hold, my stomach settled and
I began to think I had a chance after all. The elevator sides were
clear, I could watch the ground rushing towards us and I held my
breath because it looked just like home. Like Earth. Green growing
things as far as I could see and fruit trees in bloom. It was
beautiful.
    "Lovely, isn't it?" Wilkes Zander looked
proudly around. "No place on the real Earth is prettier."
    "It's just like home."
    "It is home, girlie. It's your new home and
you'll never be homesick for Earth as long as you're on the
Destiny."
    All that green would sicken