Banished! — 13: Preparing the Boats

Designed initially as a rocket ship to cross a vast expanse of space, then operating on a planetary ocean with the appearance of a misshapen submarine lying upon the water, the ship now resembled nothing more than a large and growing larger flat raft.

As Carson stepped from the airlock onto the newly installed extenders, he had the impression of being on solid ground. The extenders already stretched one hundred yards in every direction from him, interlocking in a manner that smoothed out the natural rhythms of the sea.

Looking near the horizon to the northwest, he could see that the extenders of the Balboa now were nearing half-completion, dwarfing the ones on his own ship. To the northeast, Carson was surprised to see that the Abdullah had yet to begin that important job. Were they having mechanical problems? The Captain hadn’t mentioned it if they had. As he thought about it, he realized that Matt hadn’t much of anything to say about the other two ships. He found that strange and worrisome. Everyone on this planet that was so new and different to them needed to work together, especially to get things off to a good beginning. They still knew so little about this place.

Turning toward the back of the ship, where the rockets still held fuel that could be used to move the ship to another location if an emergency required it, Carson…