The Missionary Fleet

### The Last Ships

For as long as he lived, Solomon Maier had been able to protect the secret of the PPBs colony corridor, ensuring only PPB colonial ships could travel to Culmai, the world that bore half of his name. Other groups had begun building colony ships of their own, and were striking out from Earth in many directions, but Culmai was to be denied them.

After Maier's death the secret was impossible to protect, but the first vessels to attempt to travel to Culmai had returned after 15 years, their crews all reporting that they had travelled the required time, and found nothing, with star charts suggesting they were not even a tenth of the way there. More and more detailed studies of the journey of the probe which discovered Culmai suggested it had somehow been accelerated at massive speeds on the journey, suggesting Culmai was much further away than had been believed, but that some phenomenon had allowed the first colony ships to make the same trip in the same time.

They correctly theorised the existence of the energy streams that allow very fast travel in the Focus Protectorate between worlds and systems which are adjacent to such streams. They also correctly theorised that the stream between Earth and Culmai was weakening - perhaps fading away entirely. Any other craft attempting the journey would need to be a generation ship, as the journey could take as long as 70 years, not the 7 years of the original probe. What was intended to be the final ship to attempt the journey was the huge colony ship, "Varrid" stocked for decades with a crew numbering 10,000, with room for double that aboard in case the journey became trans-generational.

### The Missionaries

The Varrid was, at that point, the largest interstellar vessel ever constructed, but not for long. A growing group of religious fundamentalists were deeply troubled that all of the PPB craft that had travelled to Culmai had done so without God. The PPBs insistence that religion was another kind of pollutant that humanity had no business taking out into the stars was hugely controversial at the time, and the controversy had not faded when the last PPB ship left Earth.

Owing to the fact that atheism was a majority white-western point of view, the anti-religious requirement was considered by some to be an obliquely racist ploy to keep people of colour from humanity's future in the stars. Another new form of colonial injustice. This belief festered over the years, as each new colony ship departed, and some began to plan a way to redress the imbalance.

An interfaith group on colonial issues was convened in Lagos, the de-facto capital of a rapidly uniting African continent. Many preachers argued that the closing of the colony corridor to Culmai was proof that God had abandoned the colonists, other argued that the corridor may never have been stable, and that the colonists were all lost somewhere between worlds, adrift and alone, one ever having arrived at Culmai at all.

With no way to communicate over the vast distances it was merely assumed that the colonists were *mostly* arriving safe and sound, with no actual confirmation any had survived. The influential interfaith committee held a vote and set as policy that a missionary expedition must be mounted, to search for lost colonists, and if some had somehow made it to Culmai, to rescue their souls instead.

The vast wealth of the Pan-African Union set itself to the task of building generation ships of their own, deciding that 3 craft would give them the redundancy they needed in case of some catastrophe. If one were destroyed, one could go on and the other could return to earth to let on what had happened.

### The Ships

The Missionary Fleet was comprised of 3 vast colony ships, designed as generation ships, each able to house 50,000 people in reasonable comfort. The ships were designed not just to travel to Culmai and hope for the best, each vessel was had 10 smaller - but still massive - ships aboard, each equipped to attempt to form a colony, each capable of supporting 5,000 people. Seed ships. There was the potential for the fleet to found 30 colonies, if fortune was good to them.

The vessels were named:

> **Abraham**
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> **Shango**
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> **Brahma**
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The colonists were almost entirely drawn from Africa and Asia. Most were of a variety of religions and faiths, each assigned to the vessel with those it seemed most likely they would be able to live harmoniously. Some were not religious at all, but were in fact scientists, or adventurers, or simply seeking a new life, though none admitted to being irreligious. Unlike the PPB, nobody was submitted to a lie-detector test.

The Abraham was mostly crewed by Christians and Jews. The Shango by Muslims and a strong contingent of people who had returned to traditional African deities and practices that were enjoying a powerful resurgence in the wake of the Pan-African Union's rise in global status and wealth. The Brahma was crewed by followers of Indian and Far-Eastern beliefs. Many of those who were not of strong faith, or of no faith at all, chose to travel on the Brahma.

### The Journey

Things had started out without significant incident, but there was a curious undercurrent on both the Abraham and Shango, although both very different in their feeling. A palpable religious fervour was beginning to emerge, with each vessel containing tens of thousands of people with strong beliefs, often conflicting beliefs. It was not just the tension of religions that had competed for centuries, but the usually significantly worse tension of sectarian differences within the *same* beliefs.

There was a strong sense that something had to be done to prevent the entire journey turning into a validation of the PPBs anti-religious policy. The ships began to segregate, some more so than others, and seemed able to maintain a respectful peace, due to the fact that being generation ships, there was more than enough room to keep a comfortable distance between groups who might antagonise each other.

Somehow the peace was kept, but new tensions arose as to how to deal with first contact with Culmai if and when the fleet arrived. There were many aboard the Abraham who believed that after decades without God they would be welcomed unequivocally, the leadership of the Shango believed that whether they were welcomed or not, the godless ones must respect the authority of God, and if there were trouble God would intervene to show his power and gift the day to those who believe. The faith leaders of the Brahma crew urged great caution, believing the PPB colonists would reject them if they knew their purpose, and never even allow them to land. They would need to win over the colonists as friends first, then once they were accepted they could begin to proselytise once they were a part of the colony.

The debate raged at every inter-ship meeting, and, far from reaching a consensus, each ship became more deeply entrenched in its own views each time. The Abraham wanting an honest admission of their views and their purpose, the only honourable course of action. The Shango wanting to land without invitation, and to bring faith to the faithless whatever it took. The Brahma wanting to be cautious in every approach to a group that had gone to great pains to keep religious faith away from their colony.

Eventually this disagreement formed a kind of agreement of its own, based on the redundancy plan of having 3 ships.

The approach of the Shango was too hostile and overbearing, the Brahma too cautious. The decision was made, the Abraham would approach first and declare their missionary status in good faith, and wait for the PPB on Culmai to respond. The Shango would stay back from the initial contact and if that failed they would try to land on an uninhabited part of Culmai and start a colony of their own there. If all of those measures failed, the Brahma would depart the system and search for new worlds to colonise.

This setled, the thought of Culmai and the PPB helped keep most differences down below a level where it might cause conflict, and the colonists kept their thought on Culmai and the PPB, some thinking of them as lost souls, some as racist enemies and infidels who had kept them from their place among the heavens, and others thinking of them as a threat, who would not welcome the Missionary Fleet, and do whatever it took to prevent their landing.

### The Arrival

The boldest leaders felt their faith was rewarded, when, after 28 long years of travelling they arrived at Culmai and detected signals that proved there was life and civilisation there. Most importantly, they detected the automatic transponder signal of the Varrid, which had left Earth over 40 years ago. She had made it, and clearly been welcomed.

The next signal they received was from an orbiting vessel demanding the Abraham identify herself, the Shango and Brahma still beyond the detection range of their instruments. Captain William Mbele gave the name and registration of the Abraham, and, counter to the agreed plan, gave also the names and numbers of the Shango and Brahma. Captain Mbele was both honour-bound to the truth and, perhaps correctly, deciding that concealing the presence of the other vessels and then having them detected would destroy any trust they might be able to build.

A different voice addressed the Captain, merely identifying himself as the head of the Defence Council, he asked simply. "What is your ship's complement, and what is your intent?"

Captain Mbele told the God's honest truth.

### The Escape

The Missionary Fleet had not been built for conflict. They had no armour and no weapons. When the PPB's orbital defence force came for them they were powerless to protect themselves.

While the PPB ships were well armed, the generation ships were vast, big enough for 50,000 crew and 10 smaller colony ships. While their weapons ripped through the hulls and bulkheads easily, the amount of ammunition the Abraham alone could absorb was threatening to deplete their supplies. The decision was made to leave the Abraham to the ground-orbit missile system and let the PPB Navy ships get to work on the Shango. The Brahma was already turning tail and fleeing, there was simply no way to pursue her without leaving Culmai undefended against an attempted emergency landing by one of the nearer vessels.

Every attack was accompanied by screamed pleas from the Captains of the Abraham and Shango, telling their attackers they were unarmed, they were carrying tens of thousand of families, peaceful people, women, children, that this was murder, begging for mercy.

On Culmai the Defence Council listened in silence, already committed to this course of action, with no way to reverse it without the people of Culmai discovering what had been done.

The ground-based missile system released its payload and the pleas from the Abraham ended, she ended her 28 year journey in fire as she impacted on the far side of Culmai.

The Shango was being torn to shreds, missiles and rail-guns perforating her hull with ease, spilling her life-giving air, venting her atmosphere, and killing huge numbers of her crew. Her captain was dead, her executive officer was screaming curses and damnation on the ships attacking her, and to the Godless heathen rats on Culmai who had ordered this atrocity. Just as the bridge crew thought she could take no more the shooting stopped, not from mercy but from empty weapon racks. The Shango had absorbed every missile and projectile the PPB Navy vessels had, and survived.

She turned away from Culmai and made ready engage a super-optic jump away from the cursed world, with her executive officer screaming accusations of murder and vowing vengeance; a mortally wounded Commander named Benson Duvalier.