Banished! 2: Water, ho!

The colonists of each rocket ship had each voted to name their ship. For now, they were simply calling the planet New Earth, at least until they could send delegates to a common committee that would decide upon all the preliminary things needing to be quickly done, including writing a constitution and naming the planet.

The ships were less than a mile apart as they began their descent, entering the atmosphere of their assigned planet. The ships’ thrusters automatically fired and lowered crafts. No interference was required from the ship crews. They watched lights and gauges, glad that no red conditions appeared on the consoles. They had not been trained on the ship’s operations, just left to figure out what they could on their own. Luckily, a considerable number of them had been involved in their creation, construction, and testing, before being found in the “wrong” political party brought about job terminations. That had been one of the earliest banishments.

“Captain,” the Chief Engineer of the ship Eriksson said to a tall, portly man next to him, “We should be entering the water within two minutes.”

“Okay, Mr. Edwards,” the captain said. “Guess you can stop calling me that now that we’re here. I don’t think we’ll be flying this crate again. Call me Matt from now on. I won’t be a candidate for anything else. I didn’t ask to do this.”