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Prologue
Mankind's urge to explore and
expand its frontiers finally caused another push into
the vastness of space - first interplanetary, then
interstellar. By the 23rd Century a great migration wave was
spreading from Old Terra to inhabitable
worlds which had been discovered orbiting nearby stars.
During the next hundred years colonization ships
of all types and descriptions went out to the stars,
bearing seedling colonies seeking a better life. Many
found their new homes - for better or for worse - but
for one reason or another, scores of these starships
never reached their destination. This story is based on
just such an event, the fate of a colony ship which
became lost...
The starship Warden was created
from the designs used in the United Western Starship
Cartel program, and it was laid down in the
Trans-Plutonian Spaceyards in 2277. The design was the most
ambitious ever attempted, the blueprints calling for an
oval spheroid of tremendous size using a new metal
alloy of tensile strength previously unknown. The ship
was an incredible 80 kilometers in length, with a width of
40 kilometers, and a height of just over 13 kilometers.
Additional levels above and below the central one brought
the total number of decks to 17. Warden required 11
years to complete, and it did not leave the Sol System
until 2290 because of the effort required to outfit the
starship. The vessel contained complete Terran
environments, and the colonists were not rigidly screened for
the expedition, for it was held that Warden's
accommodations would place few physical or psychological
stresses upon colonist or crewman.
The vessel was given over to large, open areas, with a simple
system of electronic locks used to insure that colonists
did not stray into command or possibly harmful areas.
With its cargo of the flora and fauna of Earth, 1.5
million colonists, and 50,000 crew members, the wonder of
the Interstellar Colonization Age set forth to found
a new world many light years from its old home.
Some one-third of the way to the planetary destination which
had been selected for Warden stretched the very fringe of a cloud
of space radiation. This cloud had been charted and analyzed, so
that Warden�s captain was aware that he was to plot a course to
avoid any possible danger. Somehow the vessel came too close to
the radiation, and the cloud contained disaster. The energy given
off at the fringes of this celestial hazard was foreign to all
previously known radiation types. It passed through every one of
the ship�s protection systems and defense screens. The effects on
the ship itself were startling. Those hit worst were the colonists,
and most of the human beings exposed to the radiation simply turned
to piles of calcium with no advance symptoms. Hard hit also were the
flora and fauna which underwent mutation if they even survived at all.
Even some of the vessel's systems were affected, and unstable,
radioactive areas were created from the cloud's radiation. The
humans who survived the initial exposure discovered too late that
life forms in their natural setting - such as the ecologically
prepared forest areas and the like - seemed to have the greatest
resistance to the effects of the radiation. A few of the crew and
colonists then took to living in the huge parks of Warden. A handful
remained who tried to restore sanity and order to the starship. They failed.
Life became a struggle merely to survive for those humans that were
left. In this struggle, all knowledge of the ship�s mission or even,
in fact, that the humans were on a ship, was lost. Ship�s systems were
maintained in a minimum operative state by the vessel�s main computer
and the robots that were operating at the time of the cloud's entrance
into the starship. Later generations of humans lost all sense of identity
with the ship regressing into a state of savagery. Life quickly stabilized
(as life has a habit of doing) with new life forms created by exposure
to the unknown radiation. The humans settled into a tribal way of life
and those few that traveled and came back told of areas where the animals
walked like men and plants were able to talk and move. The vessel traveled
on past its assigned planet with its safety systems preventing the ship�s
destruction by crashing into a planet or burning up in the sun. It is only
a matter of time until even those almost perfect systems fail and the
starship dies. Until that time, life continues to flourish and the Warden
travels on, much changed from what it once was.
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Life became a struggle merely to survive for those humans that were
left. In this struggle, all knowledge of the ship�s mission or even,
in fact, that the humans were on a ship, was lost. Ship�s systems were
maintained in a minimum operative state by the vessel�s main computer
and the robots that were operating at the time of the cloud's entrance
into the starship. Later generations of humans lost all sense of identity
with the ship regressing into a state of savagery. Life quickly stabilized
(as life has a habit of doing) with new life forms created by exposure
to the unknown radiation. The humans settled into a tribal way of life
and those few that traveled and came back told of areas where the animals
walked like men and plants were able to talk and move. The vessel traveled
on past its assigned planet with its safety systems preventing the ship�s
destruction by crashing into a planet or burning up in the sun. It is only
a matter of time until even those almost perfect systems fail and the
starship dies. Until that time, life continues to flourish and the Warden
travels on, much changed from what it once was.