Story prompt from BeyondSol, Contests and Prompts, July 2022: "Your ship is charting new territory. Tell us something you find in a short story."

Story word count = 1990

A thousand disk-shaped ark-ships, carrying a thousand souls each, sailed the interstellar abyss in precise formation. Seeking sanctuary. Seeking a new home.

'Convert or perish', the Covenant High-Priest had said. So, the people did as we always did when offered this choice — they killed the priest and fled.

About every twenty generations, this happened. To us, conversion was loss of self, a kind of death. The nano-bots created centuries ago revolutionized medicine, drastically improving health and longevity, but they also had a sinister side. The emerging Covenant, a totalitarian regime that pretended to be a religion, subverted them to control the population.

A new Era of Man, they proclaimed with righteous fervor. To be sure, much of the outward wickedness of mankind ended — false pride, selfish ambition, petty greed, destructive wrath. Darkness exists in us all. But it came at far too high a price, that which makes us truly human — joy, wonder, love, and even free will — all traded away for mindless obedience.   

They called us the Faithless — lost peoples condemned to wander the cosmos for our sins. But we had a different perspective. Freefolk, we called ourselves — fully human and unshackled from the chains of false dogma.

The Covenant could not allow such heretics to exist. But as before, the incomprehensible vastness of interstellar space was our ally. Even with space-warping faster-than-light technology, it still took years to travel between even adjacent star systems. That gave us enough time to pack up and seek a new home, further away from the Covenant's influence.

It tore my heart to leave my home world. After all the terraforming work we had done, it seemed a shame to abandon it. But that was better than facing the Covenant. Some disagreed, choosing to stay behind.

Turning up the lights, I tugged on a pair of loose pants and sat down in the combination living room/dining room/kitchen. Our shipboard cabin was tiny compared to our old home in the forest, but it was comfortable enough.  

As I scrolled through the star maps, slender fingers traced a gentle line up my arm and past my shoulder, sending tingles down my spine, and a warm moist breath tickled the back of my neck. When the fingers reached my lips, I grasped the hand attached to them and placed a kiss on it. I wondered if the Covenant devout ever knew the sensuous pleasures of a lover's touch.

Elara, my wife, embraced me from behind, nuzzling her head against my neck. "Whatcha' doin'?" she purred.

"Couldn't sleep," I answered.

In this time of flight, we chose to look forward, placing our bets on new beginnings. Just yesterday, we discovered Elara was pregnant with our first child, something we long prayed for. The implications still swirled in my mind. Also, today was the day that the long-range survey probe I piloted, the Sojourn, would reach its destination, and if everything looked good, perhaps our future home world. Maybe.

I spun around in my chair and allowed my eyes to scan up Elara's body, taking in every centimeter, starting from long legs, past willowy curves, to her angular face, deep green eyes, and just-got-out-of-bed mussed auburn hair. This vision never failed to excite me. "I like that outfit."

"Silly," she cooed. "I'm not wearing anything."

"Exactly."

She swung her hips toward our small bedroom. "Come back to bed. It's not time to get up yet."

Sighing, I said, "Don't think I could get back to sleep."

Elara swiveled her head around, glancing over her shoulder and pursing soft lips into a seductive 'O.' "Who said anything about sleeping?"

When we finally got out of bed, Elara was already late for her job tending the onboard agriculture systems. Each ark-ship was its own self-sustaining ecosystem, and she had an important job regulating the balance. Grabbing a meal-bar and leaving a quick kiss on my lips, she dashed out the door.

To work off my remaining nervous energy, I went for a jog. My favorite running path meanders along the outer rim, circling the Ark Utopia Dream and providing stunning views of the stars. I ran past the open dining hall, the tables now mostly empty, and weaved around the walkers, exchanging greetings along the way.

The path took me past the Commons to the hydroponic gardens, where fragrant humid air tickled my nose. Lined up in orderly rows, bushy plants reached high toward the suspended lights, while silvery fish churned the long rectangular ponds, thinking that I might toss in some food like others do. As I hoped, I caught Elara's eye as she tended the plants and blew her a kiss. 

At the appointed hour, I made my way to the Surveyor Flight Control Center, finding a small crowd waiting for me, all of them friends. Casting my gaze among them, I put on a smug grin and lifted my nose in faux nobility. "Ah, my fan club is here. Please form an orderly line for autographs."

Liam, my flight coordinator and supervisor, let out a snort. "Shut up and hook in, Noah. We're not here for you."  

True, the star of this show was the Sojourn. Eighty-two years ago, my little boxy starship, one of many, set out on a grand mission to explore unknown parts of the galaxy. Not restricted to preserving passengers, it flew faster than the ark-ships. My father originally piloted her, but after he died, the responsibility fell on me. The quantum entangled transceiver that linked him to the Sojourn was transferred to my head, connected via my internal com implant. Thus, I instantaneously guided my ship across unimaginable distances without physically being on it, seemingly a loophole to the universe speed-of-light limitation.

"Well, pop my ego bubble," I groaned with a half-grin.

I slid into a reclining chair, the only furnishing in the cubical, save for a row of wall-mounted display panels. Liam lowered a translucent half-tube over my head — the data conduit. I am always in contact with the Sojourn through the transceiver, but the data conduit allows a much greater bandwidth and records the information for later study.

An unexpected gentle touch on my cheek invoked a shiver. But then a familiar whisper set me at ease and on edge at the same time. "Hey, stud."

I turned to find Elara with a wry grin, wearing her green work overalls with her hair tied back in a ponytail. Heat flared from the point where she touched me. "Hey. Thought you couldn't get off work?"

"I snuck away," she said. Besides our personal connection, Elara had a professional interest as an exo-biologist.

The first close-up images from an unknown world always attracted onlookers, perhaps more so now with the abrupt departure from our previous world. Also, no other suitable planets had been discovered. Presently, we just wandered aimlessly in space, desperately seeking direction. The Arks had become our foster mothers. Loving though they may be, we all yearned for a real mother, a nurturing home world.

So, expectations were high.

The Sojourn took a different path than the other survey probes - flying through a wide expanse of radiation and charged particles that were remnants of a supernova. Just today, it had settled into orbit and began surveying a promising unknown world. A nervous tingle crawled down my spine to my gut. Soon, we shall see if the gamble paid off.

"Activate," I commanded the conduit.

I held my breath as sensory input flooded my mind. The Sojourn became part of myself — spectral sensors my eyes; magnetometer my ears; accelerometers my balance; particle sensors my touch; chemical analyzers my smell and taste. Data gushed in much faster than I could absorb, but the conduit buffered and recorded it all.

"This... This is incredible." I muttered between lost breaths as the images resolved in my mind.

Liam pushed past Elara to my side. "What do you see?"

"See for yourself." I pushed an image of the planet to a view-screen, filling the display in vivid colors.

Communal gasps spread among the on-lookers. It was so much better than we hoped based on earlier long-range spectral scans. Lush green lands, white-topped mountains, and deep blue seas peeked out between fluffy swirls of clouds on the planet below. Bright ice capped each pole. It didn't take any further analysis to realize this world overflowed with life.

"It's beautiful," Elara said, breaking the silence.

At once, a typhoon of queries broke out as the on-lookers crowded closer, but it all blended into an incomprehensible ruckus.

I raised my hands, quieting them. "My friends, be patient. I'm still sorting the data out."

Eventually, numbers flashed across another view-screen as I shared information of most interest, archiving the rest. The planet orbited a stable G-type yellow-dwarf star at a habitable distance. A fairly strong geomagnetic field protected it from cosmic rays that might otherwise strip the atmosphere or damage life. A large tidal-locked moon stabilized the planet's axial tilt and created tides, these also conducive to life. There were no energy signatures or unnatural geometries that suggested any sort of advanced civilization. From this view, it seemed perfect.

Glancing at Liam, I said, "Shall we take a closer look?" He nodded approval.

With a single thought, the Sojourn launched a probe. The crowd hushed in nervous anticipation as it plunged into the atmosphere like a meteor. At the appropriate altitude, the tiny robot shed its protective shield and took off on its own, flying about on wings like a dragonfly.

Elara froze in rapt attention, squeezing my hand as new visuals and data scrolled across the screens. The atmospheric pressure and composition were like our own, with no toxins or excessive radiation, and gravity was near ideal. The probe confirmed abundant life as it flew over a lush grassland mixed with tree groves and flowering herbaceous plants.

She huffed a breath, pointing at the visual screen, exclaiming, "Animals! There is animal life."

In the distance, large, four-legged fur-covered beasts meandered within the swaying grass while bird-like creatures flew circles above. Gasps burst from the crowd as a curved beak suddenly appeared, dominating the visual feed and snapping at the little robot. After a flurry of tumbling images and flapping brown feathers, the bird departed, and the probe regained its orientation. Vertigo surged through my mind, since through the link, I sensed everything. Fortunately, the probe was not very tasty.

"Can you do a microbial scan?" Elara asked in a rapid, airy voice, shaking my shoulder. "Maybe in that water hole over there?"

I grinned. "Someone's excited."

"Just do it," she whispered back, smacking my arm.

Under my direction, the little probe landed on a mudflat at the water's edge and extended a micro analyzer. "Hmm," I pondered as some analysis results came in. "Fresh water, although turbid with suspended particulates."

As the micro-images scrolled across the view screens, rich with microbial life, the murmuring crowd came even closer.

Elara practically vibrated with glee. "Look! Some form of crustacean, like a water flea!" As the magnification increased, she spouted, "Diatoms! And that one looks like a Paramecium. And eukaryotes. Oh, zoom in on that filament algae-looking thing!"

With further magnification, Elara mumbled. "Classic cell membrane, chloroplasts, and... there is a DNA nucleoid." She gasped. "It is Spirogyra algae! But an ancient form."

She turned to me. "This world is perfect. As if we were made for it..."

We both audibly sucked in a breath. Could it be?

The Home World fable told of a planet where humanity began, now abandoned and lost in the turbulent millennia of stellar expansion. Some scoffed, but based on genetic diversity models, many scientists believed it true.

"What?" Liam said, shaking me.

I reached out and stroked Elara's belly, where out child grew within. Smiling sweetly, she covered my hand. This world was decades away, but perhaps our children will call it home.

"I think this is the Home World. We found Earth."