The return. Chapter 7

The Earth had been under surveillance for 20 years, analyzed, photographed, scrutimixed, examined, until the Lunar government decided it was ready for a manned mission to land on the surface and start a settlement as the initial task of repopulating the planet. The mission was authorized, the team was selected, the rockets were refueled and provisioned, and the return date was set. The whole moon colony was excited, and everyone was glued to their comuter screens as the rockets landed, and humans walked on the surface of the home plant for the first time since they fled several hundred years ago. The mission team had pinpointed the verdant valleys of Southern Africa, in what was once KeaZuluNatal, South Africa, as the best place on Earth to restart humanity. It was beautiful, and warm, the air tasted fantastic, and it was so liberating to walk around unsuited for the hostile environment of space. Everyone back home on the moon and Mars hung on every word the team reported. They couldn’t wait to be repatriated. Well, maybe not everyone. Surprisingly quite a few people did not want to abandon their life on Mars or the moon. They had only known life there, had adapted to life in space and that was their life. It was not broken, why fix it?

Space X was the biggest civilian employer both on Mars and the moon, building, repairing and maintaining rockets and satellites along with asteroid mining and exploration. There were several other civilian rocket companies that between them employed most of the citizens there. They saw no reason to abandon their houses, their warehouses, their business infrastructure. They saw Earth as just another planetary body they could incorporate into their business plan. The future was in space.

So the slow methodical shuttle of residents from Georgetown, Mars to the new colony on Earth started. Biuldings were built, using CGI technology and robots to do the hard work. And fields were plowed in preparation of the first planting. With that in mind the first settlers were farmers and engineers to run the machinery and robots. Seeds and plants were taken from the Martian farms, and replanted in germination beds in greenhouses. Even though the temperature was mild, nighttime and winter was still cold.

The Indian colony was approached and offered to be evacuated, and everyone accepted the offer, especially when they found out where on Earth they were being resettled to. Southern Africa before the eruption had the second largest population of Indians after India. Their historical leader Mahatma Gandhi lived there. They were going home.

Eventually everyone who wanted to resettle was gone, and Georgetown was reduced to about half its size, but it was still a viable colony, self run, self sustaining, and filled the people who wanted to live there and were tied to the stars.

‘The focus next shifted to the moon. The colony was never going to be abandoned, it was too valuable as an outpost of the military, and as a strategic forward base for future space exploration into the future. Humanity was a space faring people. Space X and several smaller corporations had already explored planetary bodies in the solar system like the moons of Jupiter and small mining colonies had been started with regular travel between the moons and the Lunar home base occurring. The Earth colony was just one more less hostile environment to settle, with historical and ancient roots. If noting else, it would be a fabulous tourist location to go to on the workers yearly vacation schedule. By planning correctly, there was money to be made.