Aurora (The Exodus Trilogy) Read Online Free Page A

vigilant eye out for balders, terrible furry beasts taller than a human being, with sharp claws, fangs the size of a man's arm, and an aggressive demeanor. There had already been several balder attacks, and although no one had died yet, it was only a matter of time before someone was taken unaware by the frightening predators. There could be other dangers lurking in the forests outside human control as well, since the area was largely unexplored. So on a couple of occasions, when he’d walked too far out, armed men had caught up with him in their quad bikes, and brusquely told him to go back to safety. He’d complied, but it still irked him in a way he recognized. He had a problem with anyone telling him what to do, and he wanted to explore this new world for himself.
    So one day, he decided to take matters into his own hands and venture out into the unknown by himself, whether the military goons liked it or not. He started watching the patrols, and noticing their habits and routines. It turned out they varied their schedule every four days, but by observing their routines for two days, he could easily anticipate where they would be at any given time for the next two days. After that, he was able to go wherever he wanted, as long as he planned it a couple of days beforehand.
    One day, out beyond the perimeter, he encountered a creature he’d never seen before. Its short fur covered most of its body, which was a deep burgundy, with dark brown stripes, and a long wagging tail. Its head held two saucer-like eyes, a wide snout, and large rounded ears, and it didn’t appear to have a mouth at all until it screeched in a high-pitched voice; three short shrieks, as if telling him something urgent. Then it cocked its head, and it seemed to Kenneth that it was waiting for him to answer. He was too entranced to even think of trying to communicate with the creature, and after a few seconds passed in silence, the creature bounced off. Kenneth thought it looked funny. He didn’t think it was dangerous, and he was fascinated by its apparent curiosity and the way it seemed to try to communicate with him.
    After a while, he had sat down to rest and have a snack. He didn’t have a lot to eat; the rations were enough to sustain them, but not a lot more, and it would take some time for the colony to be self-sufficient. For now, they were still reliant upon provisions brought down from the Exodus. He unwrapped a high-concentrate energy bar, and bit into it. It tasted of honey and butter, with a hint of chocolate. As he chewed on it, he thought back on when he had been a young man, and realized that he’d actually come quite far. If he’d known back then what lay ahead, he wouldn’t have believed it. But still, the young Kenneth Taylor would probably have been fascinated by all this. It was NASA astronaut, combat fighter pilot, and national hero John Scott who had first set foot upon Mars, but it was the man who had followed Scott, Oliver Reynolds, who had been Kenneth’s big hero. Dr. Reynolds, the geologist and second man to walk the surface of the red planet. And while Scott went on to tour the world, and eventually won himself a seat in the Senate, Reynolds had slowly disappeared from the spotlight as he went back to academia to pursue his greatest interests. Both heroes in their own ways, but somehow Kenneth had resonated more with the quiet academic than the brash jock. And then, after building a career of his own, with no prospects of ever fulfilling his true dream, he’d ended up here, more than forty light years into deep space. The dream of his youth, only a million times further. The bitter parts of it, such as leaving a doomed Earth were always there, and then there was the issue of government… But even so, he had reached so much farther than he’d ever dreamed.
    Of course, after every man, woman, and child in the first permanent human settlement outside Earth had perished, and the history books were rewritten to fit the