From the Ship's Computer you can get a wide range of information, from Anatomy to Web Design with Homestead. Access online libraries and reference materials.  Our very own Ship's Library is a growing collection of stories (Star Trek, fantasy, sci-fi, online novels etc.) by our Captain.

The Seed

  "The Seed moved slowly through space aimed at a planet billions of light-years away.  Speed is a relative term when you are in space.  They traveled on the edge of the Now, but the speed seamed slow to the Seed, and the Keepers.  The same moment of now exists on one side of the universe as on the other side of the universe in the same moment.  By traveling on the edge of the Now the Seed was dragged through space by the very fabric of time itself.  There still was a time lag depending on the speed the Keepers called for.  It was hard on the Seed to travel at full speed in the Now, so the Keepers let the Seed sleep.  Thereby, they conserved the Seed's power."

  "It was all very technical, and the target planet was a world covered by water.  The composite metal alloy skin that made up the Seed was impervious to almost anything.  Traveling in the Now warped space so that you could go from one point in space to any other point in space in any given amount of time.  The cold fusion reactor still consumed material in producing power that sustained the engines that created the field that enabled the Seed to travel in the Now.  That took a lot of power to do, and there still was a range limit due to the fact they could never achieve unlimited power with the fusion reactor of the Seed.  Power was carefully regulated.  The Keepers would need energy latter for landing."

  "Traveling from edge to edge of a galaxy would only take a couple decades, and the Seed was not going that far.  Still, it was a long time to the Keepers.  They were locked inside the Seed as were many other things.  The knowledge of the 'what,' and the 'how,' of the creation of all things in the world were contained inside the Seed."

  "As the Seed reached the outer edge of the planetary system it began to slow.  Thin sheets from the outer hull opened up like pedals of a flower to catch the sun's rays and slow the Seed.  The Keepers began to reconfigure the power output of the fusion reactor.  The Seed began to send out roots even before it reached the New World.  A root took hold of each of the eighteen moons.  Some roots stayed in space.  The rest were spread across the waters of the New World as the Seed landed.  Sixteen years after the launch, the Seed finally reached the target world."

  "The Keepers then began the task of growing the trees that became our world."  Pe Sun smiled at the children.  "And that is the way of seeds," he told them.

  "Tell us what happened to the Keepers," Ta Mora asked brushing a strand of black hair out of her eyes..  She always wanted to know about the city of the Keepers.  "Tell us about the city, Pe Sun, tell us about the city."

  Pe Sun should have known better than to encourage the child, but he was old and getting older.  He loved the girl like the daughter he never had.  None of his sons seemed overly interested in learning the healing arts as Ta Mora, and she remembered everything he taught her too.  His sons had all chosen to be Keepers much to his regret.  "The Seed opened up and began to seed the world with life," he continued.  "Even as one seed can produce a great tree; so the Keepers did to this world creating the forest in which we live.  They built upon the waters of the planet a great city made of the first trees and it became a great island upon the water.  Two other Seeds and their Keepers came and two more great island cities were built.  It took a long time before the world was covered by the great trees we call our home."

  "It was six generations from the time of landing before the world was covered with trees and the forest came to be.  We became proud, and we did not know the world as well as we thought we did.  It was in the seventh generation from the time of the landing, in the time of the joining of the moons, when the trees began to walk, and the world was flooded.  The Keepers, the People, and the monsters all sought safety in the tops of the trees."

  "The Keepers' great cities were destroyed in a single moment. They were punished for their pride.  Many of the People no longer followed the ways of the Keepers after that.  The time of the joining of the moons has come eight times since.  This is why the Keepers builder smaller cities today.  We help the Keepers when they ask us for help.  In a way we are Keepers too. We watch over the great herds and take care of the forest in this we are Keepers of the Great Circle of Life.  We study the ways of the Keepers and the knowledge they keep to better understand our world.  Some of the People go live with the Keepers from time to time, and help preserve the knowledge of the Makers of the Seeds.  It is something I may do when I am old and too tired to climb about in the trees anymore."

  "You'll never be too old Pe Sun," Ta Mora said.  He just smiled at the child.  Pe Sun knew he was already too old.  She was the reason he had stayed as long as he had, or he would have retired and gone to live with the Keepers long ago.  The child wrapped her little arms around his giant claw the best she could and hugged it to her.  "You'll never be to old," she said again.

  Tears started down all four of his eyes.  "That is the end of the lessons for today.  Tomorrow we will work on reading, writing, and counting."  He stroked the child's hair with his other claw.

  Ta Mora stayed after the other children left.  She was Pe Sun's special student; it was expected that she would stay.  Ta Mora was small for her age and had taken up the study of the healing arts under Pe Sun at a very early age.  That was seven years ago.  Now, she was fifteen going on sixteen on the verge of being a young woman.  Pe Sun had promised her that he would take her to study with the Keepers when he retired.  Like today he hinted that he would be retiring soon.  He had given her all his medical books just a week before; a prelude to his retirement when she turned sixteen and could leave home if she wished.

  It would have surprised Pe Sun to know that she had already read all the books he gave her.  It was one of her many talents she had not told Pe Sun about because it did not seem important to her.  Some of those talents would have frightened Pe Sun if he had known about them...