The first humans to walk on Sirius 4 were Cassidy Aziz-Portis and Gabriel Portis. They zipped over to the Sirius system from Earth to do some basic research on the atmosphere and natural resources. A quick survey of the third through sixth planets confirmed what spectrometry had determined: Only Sirius 4 had atmospheric oxygen and nitrogen in sufficient quantities to sustain life as we know it; with a little tweaking people could be living without imported sources of oxygen within a decade or so after a few oxygen-nitrogen generators were constructed – and so they were.
The discovery of imaginary power changed everything, including the speed at which pioneers could put down roots in new territory. During the first three centuries of space exploration, decades might pass between the first humans to walk a path and the establishment of a settlement. Within a year after the Portises’ survey, the first generators were rearranging the air, the central core of Sirius 4 station has been erected, and people began choosing to make their lives here. That’s the power of the ImagDrive – when the length of your journey is measured in hours rather than years, it’s a little easier to get around. Nowadays I think people take it for granted, but in those days the galaxy seemed to be a distant and unreachable place.
Into that void came, for lack of a better word, a certain breed of person, who cheerfully cooperated with other people but understood that in the end, times would come when only they could be responsible for their very survival.
Entry 57
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