The longer I sit at my desk, the more convinced I become that I really do need a short break before we get started. When I spoke to Argus earlier, he sounded really excited. I had resisted the temptation to pop over to the ship and see for myself, but I did look at his report from final approach.

In terms of colouration and appearance from space, the new planet of Verus looked so much like Earth that it was almost a test to tell the difference. I really felt that I needed to look very closely at the continental outlines to be sure which one I was looking at.

From a couple of million kilometres out, it looked to be alive and vibrant. Preliminary scans and analysis confirmed what we had been seeing for the last fifty years and more. It was an almost perfect Earth-analogue in the same way that it’s star so closely mirrored Earth’s own Sun. We hadn’t detected any markers that we thought might suggest civilisation, but the atmosphere was clearly breathable and there were strong signs of carbon-based, chlorophyl-cycle plant life.

Argus was going to take the Mona’s Isle into a fairly low orbit and I’d told him that I’d join him on the ship as soon as I’d had a few days off. Once we all finally started the real exploration, I didn’t intend to keep dashing back to Sevrin or Earth. I planned for the exploration team to mostly stay on task until we had a preliminary report sorted out.

I guess it was my grandpa, Aidan, who had given me the idea that I wanted to work for the exploration department. Dad had never really been interested in the whole thing and took what seemed to me to be a pretty mundane administration job. It didn’t seem to be in keeping with his outgoing, surfing and sporting personality, but he really seemed to enjoy the counterpoint, I guess.

When I was old enough to listen to my dad telling me about his being present at the launch of the Mona’s Isle, I was intrigued, much to his chagrin. From that day on, I spent every possible minute with his parents, quizzing my grandpa endlessly about his work on the gateways and the possibilities of exploration.

Grandpa was now in his nineties and he and Granddad were nominally retired. That didn’t stop both of them from having a keen interest in my work and the exploration program in general. On a planet with lower gravity, fewer diseases and modern medical care, they were both active and healthy with an expectation of twenty or thirty years ahead of themselves in a comfortable retirement.

I now tended to split my time between Earth and Sevrin, but Sevrin was home and always would be. I have to admit to liking the bigger surf and the lower gravity. The main offices and training facilities for the Exploration Division were, however, located in Florida on Earth.

We had to do most of our physical training on Earth, anyway, in anticipation of dealing with higher gravity situations during our exploration. We managed to do a little work on a slightly higher rotationally induced gravity platform in Earth orbit, but I was never sure that this would be enough once we got to Verus.

Dad had infected me with the surfing bug from a very young age, but I had found less and less time for it in recent years, particularly as the ship had approached her destination. Surfing was, however, my tension-releasing mechanism and I expected that it would continue to be so.

I’d moved quickly through the ranks of the division until I found myself nominated to be the lead on the first landing on Verus. My scientific background as a biologist was seen as a major advantage for a first landing situation.

 

When Grandpa and Granddad had finally officially retired, they did something that was still a little unusual for our modern society. They moved from a pretty standard apartment to a totally separate, fully detached, single-storey house well away from the centre of Eastleigh and right on the coast. It was just far enough north to be at the point where the almost endless sandy beach gives way to a rocky, deeply wave-beaten coast.

I have to admit that I love it, it suits them both perfectly and they have more than enough space to welcome an occasional visitor. The surfing is superb and the solitude can be a great comfort. The grounds are extensive and the sandy beach almost private.

I guess I can understand this need to finally get away from it all. Grandpa in particular often talked about the fame that his scientific advances had brought and just how much he hated being in the limelight. Granddad had been by his side throughout, but they both now deserved to keep out of the public eye and enjoy life.

Granddad had found a passion for his garden, mixing species from Earth, Sevrin and even the other colonies whilst being careful that they weren’t invasive. Most of Sevrin’s plants looked odd to the human eye, but somehow, Granddad managed to make them work as part of an integrated whole and it was charming.

As my cab drops me at the end of the public road, I lift my small bag on to my shoulder and begin to walk up the path towards the house. There’s no fence or gate, it just sits far enough back to be private and the only sign that it isn’t wilderness is the change in vegetation. I can already hear the sound of a good surf breaking away to my right and I can feel the subconscious lure of the waves in the back of my mind.

As I near the house, I spot Granddad Jordan standing just off the path deeply involved in some pruning. As I approach, he turns and draws me into a firm embrace. “Oh, Peter, you’re earlier than we expected. It’s great to see you.”

I wrap my arms around him and hug him back. It has been months since I had last visited and I now feel a bit guilty about that. I’m a little over two metres tall and tower over Granddad’s 1.85m Earthly frame. “It’s so good to be here again. It feels too long since my last visit, Granddad. I’m sorry that I’ve been too busy to come over sooner.”

“Nonsense, Son. You have a job to do and we understand that. Anyway, you’re here now and that’s all that matters. Aidan has been on edge all day, waiting for you to arrive. He wants to go surfing and I won’t let him out there on his own!”

“Doesn’t he get enough surfing without me here, then?”

“Yes, of course he does. Martin brings some of the youngsters this far up the beach regularly enough. I think they would surf together every day if they got the chance.” Granddad drifts into an introspective moment before continuing. “I have my garden and Aidan still loves the sea. It’s worked out pretty well for us over the last seventy years or so.”

“And Dad?”

“Yes, we see him sometimes. You know they don’t get on as well as they once did. I feel that I should just bang their heads together and tell them to sort themselves out, but some things are better left alone. That’s especially true as we approach our second century. Have you seen him recently?”

“Not for a while. You know how it is. Much the same between us as it has always been. He never wanted me to join the Explorers and it has pushed a wedge between us. That might be the root of his differences with Grandpa as well, I’m afraid.”

Granddad takes a few moments to absorb this thought, but then he simply smiles. “Grandpa is in the lounge. Why don’t you go in and take him down to the sea for an hour. I’ll finish this pruning and then make us some lunch in a little while. Put your stuff in the guest room.”

“Thanks, Granddad. I can hear the sea and it is calling to me. It’s been quite a while.”

I pick my bag back up off the grass and hurry into the house, pausing as always to stare in reverence at the Nobel medals in their display by the door. They’ve been a fairly constant reminder throughout my life of just how influential and important my grandparents have been. The now simple fact that I was in my office on Earth less than an hour ago is all down to them.

It gives me pause to think that, in just a few days’ time I may be the first human to step on to another new world.

Grandpa Aidan is sitting in the lounge in his favourite chair by the picture windows, gazing out towards the shore and the surf. He seems so lost in his thoughts that I am reluctant to disturb him, but he turns at the sound of my arrival and rises to greet me.

“Don’t bother,” he tells me as we hug one another.

“Don’t bother what?”

“Don’t apologise for being away for so long. I’m sure you’ve already done so with Jordan on the way up the path and that’s all either of us need. You’re here now and that is more than enough.”

“Argus always tells me how perceptive you are, Grandpa. It’s good to be here and the surf looks like it might be fun.”

“I don’t need to be perceptive to know that that overly protective husband of mine told you I was waiting for you to be allowed onto the water!”

“No, but let’s get going. It’s been long enough that I’m probably as eager to get out there as you are. Get ready while I put my bag away and find my suit.”