Rebirth Page 39

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  On reaching Persephone, the ships went into a brief orbit before slipping through the atmosphere, the noise blasting out of the large and powerful engines that were needed to land such a heavy craft, and allow it to take off again, scaring away any wildlife that was around. The starship quickly manoeuvred towards its landing site, previously chosen on the planet`s surface, and settled down so smoothly one would think that it was just a shuttlecraft rather than the gigantic colonist ship that it was.

  Six months before the Constellation had dropped off a construction crew on Persephone, they only had small cabins provided for their living quarters. They had also brought with them many of the things needed to set up a modern colony; large earth moving machines, sewer pipes, a sewage station, a large quantity of solar panels, and a water desalination plant, for the chosen landing site was only one mile from the sea. This would work in tandem with a water purification plant, which would purify the water from the nearby mountain streams brought to the new township by miles of pipework. During the time that the Constellation had been away from Persephone, the entire new township had been laid out below ground. The sewer system had been installed, drinking water was laid on for all of planned buildings in the township, a solar panel park had been set up in a desert region some two hundred miles away and even now, the necessary power lines were being laid underground to connect with the township. The township buildings, the farms, the workshops, the small medical centre and the school would all be built by the colonists, with the help of the construction crew. The amount of investment that the Church put into colony worlds like Persephone was enormous; this is why the colonists had to agree that all trade was conducted through the Church and by way of its starships. It was the only way possible for the Church to be able to finance new colony worlds, without a return from their investment there would be no more new colonies set up on this scale by the Church, or probably even by Earth.

  There had not been the same amount of investment on Orion as it was primarily a missionary planet aimed at converting the native people to follow the true path, and it had grown very slowly into the township of today. Even here, all trade went through the Church, and so new worlds were constantly being financed.