It always had been my dream as a boy to someday be a great explorer and make an important scientific discovery. I had no greater chance to fulfill that dream than at the scientific exploration and research outpost of the remote planet, Colony 9. For nearly twenty years I worked in the D.S.R.M. (Disease and Simian Research Ministry), and at first, I felt fulfilled in my job. We had created new plants and new animals, and I truly thought we would be able to solve the problems of hunger and disease in our own solar system. I knew, however, that dream would never be realized.
The D.S.R.M. was a government research institution that was made up of a dedicated staff, meant to be responsible for research and development in several scientific disciplines. The best of the best, sent from Earth, on a long Earth-moon journey, were selected to be the research and development staff of the D.S.R.M. The D.S.R.M. staff and scientists were, themselves, authorized and allowed access to the rest of the colony. It was, themselves, an internationally recognized diplomatic mission. Because of their religious affiliation, they had a special rule of separation that specified they could not be subjected to any government-imposed military conscription. This was meant to prevent religious discrimination.
This rule did not prevent them from giving instructions, however, to the military, and making mission and decision making recommendations to the civilian population. The job description for the D.S.R.M. staff was to research and provide development of new pharmaceuticals and technology to the D.S.R.M. in order to fulfill their mission with the D.S.R.M. mission statement, which was to assist in the creation of a new human race, free of disease and poor health. The D.S.R.M. was to oversee the day-to-day development and operations of the colony, and was responsible for the welfare of the colonists. The D.S.R.M. was to represent the colonists, form necessary diplomatic relationships, and was to maintain order in the colony.
In recent years, the human population of the colony had grown to two hundred thousand, and there was no specific plan that addressed the rapid population growth. Crime, disease and unrest were becoming a serious problem. The human population, under the direction of the D.S.R.M., had outgrown the capabilities of the colony and, as a result of the accumulating issues, they had not been able to control it.
The D.S.R.M. had an emergency response team called the D.E.A.M. (Defense, Emergencies, Alien, Monitoring), which was made up of crack troops from the military colony that had been created for defensive purposes. The D.E.A.M. had several officers that were put in place to monitor the security of the colony in the event of attack, or to protect the colony if it was under terrorist attack. The D.E.A.M. was under the command of the D.S.R.M., but that command could be taken away if the civilian government declared martial law. This was not an unlikely scenario, as several colonists had been attempting to subvert the lawful authority of the D.S.R.M. at every turn.
The job responsibilities of the D.E.A.M. were primarily diplomatic, enforcing order, and going on patrol and ambushing those who broke the laws of the colony. It was their job to keep order, preventing crime, handling any trouble that might arise in the colony and to see that no harm came to the non-military colonists.
Nothing quite like it existed in the entire solar system that had only continued to grow in its population. The colony was essentially ruled by the D.S.R.M. and, with that rule, the D.S.R.M. had, without provocation, begun to impose harsh restrictions on the colony. It seemed that they had taken to anger and frustration at the level of crime that had ensued, and began to tighten up all restrictions on the colony. The restrictions had included the implementation of specific social laws, which prevented a lot of forms
of supply and basic access to food, water, clothing, money, technology, etc. Things that have been a typical and sudden practice in all colonies. Without giving any pre-plan of what they intended to do, they restricted and limited any kind of supply to the colonies.
Of course, such a move by a colony administrator, which was strictly a government function, would not be tolerated by the D.S.R.M. themselves, nor would it be tolerated by the D.E.A.M. The colony could be, for all intents and purposes, converted into a proper military colony, had the D.S.R.M. called for military forces to come and handle the situation. This was the worst-case scenario, as that may very well mean that the D.S.R.M. would be forced to declare martial law over the colony, which, in turn, would mean there would be no special liberties granted to any religion.
The situation was still pending, and no final actions had been taken by either the D.S.R.M., the D.E.A.M. or the civilian government. It seemed inevitable that the colony would either be under martial law, or attempt some form of suicide or isolation. There was speculation on what the underlying reasons for the actions were, as the D.S.R.M. itself had their own separate intelligence staff and had expertise in technological development, biological research and the development of medications from raw materials. They had also been the first to discover the only source of the virus that destroyed a colony of human settlers on one of our own moon bases.
I was the D.S.R.M. research manager, and I was also the director of the colony itself.
My work was important bureaucratically, but more importantly, my research was important personally. My goal was to find the way to make the colony self-sufficient, and I knew that, at some point in my career, I would be invited by the D.S.R.M. to help them develop their own pharmaceuticals base. I wanted to be a part of that endeavor, especially as I could view that useful endeavor as a chance to bring back the dream and hope that I had as a boy, to be a great explorer.
I was a dedicated and honest individual, and I took my job very seriously, so I worked hard for my pay. I had never been a particularly lazy person, but over the years in the D.S.R.M. colony, I had learned to achieve a sense of balance in my work and family life. Some of the new restrictions had been necessary, however, as they had helped save the lives of many of the colonists. Some of the restrictions included a reduction in water consumption for the reason of keeping people hydrated and healthy, as well as limiting the amount of raw materials and technology that could be used without first being tested on a small scale by their development team before delivering it to the colonists.
I had needed to attain a semblance of balance in my life, as I was the husband of a total of five wives, wives that I had married when I was in my early thirties. By the time that I was thirty, I was already beginning to feel I needed to provide for my growing family, so I married my fifth wife, the most recent, and quickly had her six children. It seemed like a good idea at the time to me. The first two wives I had divorced, and did not need to renew them as I was still child-bearing age. The two youngest wives were divorced because I had married and was not a viable or safe candidate as a man in the eyes of the religious. I had not yet had any children with my second wife, so he and I had been married longer. As my oldest child, she was looking for a man to settle down with and be a better provider for her.
I could tell that she was looking for someone better, and I had to admit that she was probably right in picking out her husband. It was not that I was not a good provider, or that she was not a compassionate woman, but that I felt I had grown a bit lazy in my career. I had not been trying very hard as of the last four years, and I had put on some extra weight that I should have been more concerned about. She was looking for someone who was going to make her a better companion and brother to her children. She was looking for someone who was going to be more sharper in his job, and more financially stable. She was looking specifically for a man who was going to be their financial and family provider.
I had not been on my best behavior in recent months, as I had not been working hard at my job. I was not really trying very hard to attain a rise in the administrative side of my career, as I was engaged in other, more important endeavors in my life. I was deeply invested in the colonization of the moon. The moon was a veritable gold mine, but there was a great cost that was associated with that. Not only was there the expense of the construction of the colony itself, of establishing the necessary complex infrastructure to support the colony, but there was the cost of the capital to establish the colony. There was also the cost of settling the colony. Once the colonists were settled, there was all of the work that needed to be done to establish the colony.
The moon was a bountiful planet, but it was not in our solar system. There were literally billions of planets that we could settle. Our moon base was one of many moon bases on different inhabitable moons in our own solar system. We could even go to the other planets in our solar system. We could settle our own planet in an easy and controlled setting impossible to accomplish here.