The Colony

Was the moisture of his old apartment shaped like that? He had tried to perfectly reproduce it on his newfound home in the Colony, but Tomas Bayo wasn't sure. His new home was nearly an exact reproduction of the old apartment, if he could rely on his memories. Wasn't the living room a bit more spacious? Anyway he did not need too much for living, there or in Earth. The creators of the Colony, the Nek, provided tools for designing the inside of their homes to their liking. Tomas didn't understand the predisposition of most of humans on the Colony to feign wealth. In the end, all human's homes had the same size, at least on the outside.

Tomas Bayo was lying on his small living room's couch, with a notebook supported on his chest and a pencil hanging from his mouth. Rubbed his hair, increasingly scarce and sigh when realized that he spent the last half hour trying to remember how was the old moisture of his apartment in Zaragoza, the Earth. Nervously, he ordered his hair and cracked his knuckles, he rapidly got up to reach his whiskey. Big mistake: he was only forty two, but already had disconfort on his back. With a curse he finished reaching his drink and took a sip. Settled on his modest couch and looked around, trying to get a sign. The only thing he achieved after a glance of the replica of his old apartmen on Earth was a hard hit of homesickness. Did he done the right thing? Leaving Earth under the pretext of a new opportunity and getting away from his past was the best for him? Maybe he could have fixed things with Beatriz, but last fight wasn't encouraging him to think that.

Barely a month and a half had passed since they broke up, just the week before the strange incident on Earth. An alien spaceship landed on Earth, unleashing all existing alarms and global panic, at least for a few hours. The creatures who approached the earthlings named themselves Nek, some short of humanoid grasshopper which look very unfriendly. But, suprinsingly, especially for humans that have a fixation with sci-fi movies, they didn't brought despair and destruction to their beloved planet. The Nek species had a project to offer to all human willing to accept it: a place to start over and coexits with other species of the entire Universe.

Any thorough person continued distrusting Nek's race and his imposing ship, but some people, like Tomas, decided to give a thought to the idea. After all, what has he to lose? His business importing and exporting went bankrupt because of his bad decisions and, on top of that, his girlfriend Beatriz left. According to her, he didn't paid enough attention, she wanted to start a family with someone who didn't spend fifteen hours a day working. “And when you return home is to talk on the phone or lock yourself in your office” She recriminated. What did she expected from him? His business were his life and he was watching it fading away in front of his face. Another sip of his coup, remembering the discussion.

Abandoned by his girlfriend and his company being bankrupt, Tomas was lost in life. He decided to accept the offer two days after the spaceship entered the Earth's atmosphere. The moment he received the eviction order he knew, he'll go with them. Tomas wasn't a social person on Earth, didn't even have contact with his parents and as an only child, didn't have anyone to dissuade him to embark on that journey with the self called Nek aliens. Seeing the human's direction in the recent years, (poverty, corruption, economic crisis, hunger…) there wasn't anything for him on Earth.

And there he was, in the reproduction of his old apartment in Zaragoza (including humidity) with a blank notebook and an off-center mind. He shook his head to get rid of the Earth's memories, to think about his old company and especially about Beatriz wasn't doing him no good. He settled on his couch trying to concentrate on his goal, but he only managed to start thinking about his current situation.

Truth be told, deep inside of him he was fascinated about the idea of being in a strange planet with creatures of other places. There was something on Tomas telling him over and over that most part of the decision of going to the Colony was that fascination, but he kept telling himself that this new start was his only chance of moving on. After a month on that strange planet his fears faded away. Just a few hundred thousand humans went to the artificial planet which they called The Colony (every specie named it in different ways) and the worst thoughts invaded him when he left Earth. What if the intentions of the Nek were different than they said? What stupid madness made him think that, if not even an one percent of the humanity accepted the proposal, was because of their dependency to the current system? Almost every leader of Earth publicly refused the proposal and distrusted the aliens, and most people agreed. As Tomas had seen on the board of the ship which would took them to the artificial planet, the people who agreed to take that trip was very varied, but they had something in common. People without money, suffering hunger, with no home… but there was no one like Tomas Bayo. In fact he could had lived on Earth for a while and probably find another job. It could be said that his savings were pretty high compared to the average, although he didn't cared about the money. His austerity caused large savings. With those thoughts in mind he realized that, in fact, it was because of that fascination he took that adventure, towards a new world called the Colony. Every creature there received them with enthusiasm and once they adapted to the singularities of that world, they found themselves in a new home filled with richness and any amenities you could thought of.

And there he was, Tomas Bayo, a man on his forties, with less and less of his beloved black hair and the old Arnette glasses. He was holding his hatchet-faced head as he watched his first work on the Colony, his apartment. After the welcome tour around the Colony, the Nek shown them the designated human zone. For Tomas was strange that they wanted to split especies in the artificial planet, racism crossed his mind, but everything got explained when a human asked the tour guide. Apparently the artificial planet could be as big as the Nek wanted, and every time a especie was annexed one zone gets prepared with the features of the especie's home planet. Looking trough his curtains, Tomas could only marvel about the Nek's technology, creating a world like that out of nowhere. Once all questions were answered about the human zone, they gave each of them some sort of capsule. Apparently they contained human homes. They shown a projection to teach them about that technology, everyone was pleased. The Nek developed a technology that allow them to reproduce in a easy way any especie's habitat that they studied. What begins as a simple home could become a five floor chalet, grouping houses could transform on an apartment flat, even mansions. The Nek guide insisted that even though they knew homes were really important for humans, the new population should try not being greedy.

The different human communities reached an agreement regarding the location of the new homes and they began constructing, if that could be called like that. Nek's technology made all very comfortable and everything seemed to be reduced to holographic images and thoughs for shaping the new home. Of course, most built mansions and dream houses. Tomas decided to recreate his old place, he didn't need much for living. He had noticed that his apartment block partners (some also prefered smaller places) were avoiding him like he was crazy. What was wrong with living in an apartment like he had in Earth? Either way Tomas wasn't a social person, so he couldn't care less about what other people think. Althought the constant and elusive looks started to affect him, he was under the impression of being judged all the time. Trying to dispose his increasing anger, he finished his whiskey drink. He looked to the kitchen shelf, bottles were getting short on his private pantry, and according with what he heard, there wasn't any production of alcohol going on like in Earth. According to the communities of the Colony, having a drink with similar flavor (another great thing of the Nek's technology, they could copy and reproduce any food) was enough. This created a lot of controversy among humans because alcohol was eliminated on those copies, but it was allowed to carry anything you could to the new arrivals at the Colony. Tomas had not been very farsighted about alcohol, because he didn't used to drink.

Enough drinks, he decided, and tried to focus on his notebook. He was tapping on the sitting room's table with his pencil, trying to concentrate and shape that thing on his head. A project, that was all in his mind. Most humans dedicated to settle in the Colony after their arrival. That wasn't for Tomas, first thing he did was to get informed about the Nek's technology. Aparently the artificial planet was created five hundred terrestrial years ago, but it was really different according to the records he read. At first only his creators live on the Colony, the strange aliens grasshopper shaped called Nek. Tomas didn't know for sure how they did it, but as he know they developed a technology to understand and even visualize in a more friendly way any creature of other worlds. That was the first official project of the Nek race, the named viewer. Thinking about that invention he couldn't help looking at his hanger near the main door of his house. There it was, his own viewer. Obviously, the first thing Nek did was provide the new habitants of the Colony viewers. It was a small device that you put behind your ear (if you were a human) and automatically translated any movement, sound or other kind of communication to human language. It didn't matter if the viewer's carrier was English, French, Spanish or even from a distant planet called Kohran, the viewer had a one hundred percent of success. The Nek in charge of giving the viewers explained that it had another function. Pressing slightly the device will change every living being appearance, giving them a more friendly image to the viewer's user eyes. Most humans used this function all the time so they won't feel so threatened by those two metter high grasshoppers who called themselves Nek. For Tomas that function was totally stupid, who wasn't curious about the appearance of the other species on the Colony? He did only use his viewer when leaving home (that was very often) and never activated the visual function: he was only interested on the things his new neighbors had to say.

He didn't have time to inquire in the different communities to satisfy his curiosity, he had a project to write. Every project was stored on a big central building (if you could call that a building) of the Colony. Humans called it the Library. In fact that building wasn't that much like the libraries of Earth, but the concept was similar. Every idea that was registered got stored there, through a hologram system. Not every project were carried out, but most intelligent species were fascinated by the reasoning of his planet partners, so they decided to store them. Tomas knew that a project being carried on depended on some short of poll, but he didn't understood it completely. The Library was open to anyone who wanted to take a look and get documented. Tomas had read nearly two hundred projects, but barely understood twenty of them. His intention was to inquire about the process done on other projects so he could get inspired for his own project, but the reasoning of other species was very different. Luckly he could count on a curious Colony's habitant, named Nekdhan, manager of the Library by his own will. He didn't understood that either, you don't have to do any work to provide for yourself but choose to spend the entire day in the Library answering doubts and helping visitors? He felt overwhelmed about the Nek reasoning, maybe he'd inquire about their culture later, when he had a chance to talk with Nekdhan. The alien was very helpful, specially with the understanding of how things worked around there. He was a little ashamed to admit it, but Nekdhan was the only living being that Tomas could call friend on his new home.

He was feeling the past few weeks a empty feeling. He knew that inside of him was an idea to help the entire humanity on the Colony. A project that would make his arrival significant to the artificial planet. As he knew, some projects were developed by humans, but he thought that calling those things projects was wrong. The records show him some amazing projects: architectural application, based on mind impulses and holograms; the de-contamination, small gadgets which reminded him to squirrels, were responsible of cleaning everything on the Colony and keeping it free of polution; molecular trip, apparently a Selhar's habitant developed some way of traveling between far points in an instant. The list was a thousand long of amazing projects. Howhever, humans tried to adapt old habits from old Earth to the Colony, being most of those projects accepted without hesitation. The first one and more outrageous for Tomas was the personalization, that was a glorified cosmetic surgery. A group of architects were studying the way of giving his part ot he Colony the shape of a big Earth city, something like New York. With that idea some sub-projects were created, like placing automated shops and some short of a monetary system (which you wouldn't have to work for, but with limited incomes). The people of the Colony didn't understood the money system, but after some tweaks accepted it. Tomas was under the impression that the human planners weren't innovative and were committing the same mistakes of Earth. Only time would tell if the system proposed by humanity wasn't against the Colony's spirit and end up like in the old Earth, crazed by the monetary system, corrupt by power. It wasn't very likely of the Colony letting things go that far, but Tomas had his doubts.

In any case, Tomas Bayo knew that in his mind was a project bigger than all of that. Something innovative that would bring wellness and, of course, recognition from his human compatriots to Tomas. But there he was, still laying in his couch inspired by his old apartment with an empty page on his lap. He rubbed his temples trying to organize his thoughts, but in vain. He was powerless in that blockade, anxiety was increasing. Looking to his alcohol stash, thought about having another drink, but immediately chided himself for his weakness against writer's blockade. He wouldn't find answers in the bottom of a glass, not even if it contained whiskey. He got up and set the notebook on the table next to his couch, leaned on it and wrote the title which will lead to a brain storm: How to help humanity on the Colony.