“My king, the explorers have returned,” his captain announced, a few days later, as he entered the Cuyler’s tent on the camp.
“What did they find?” he asked, getting up.
His man pulled a portable screen from his bag and after a few touches on it, he started to display the images to the king. “There are huge trees all over the place. We can use the wood to build provisional homes, but we’ve also found the existence of a gray metal that the builders think could be utilized in construction as well. As for food, several vegetables are edible as well as these beasts.” He showed the king the image of a massive furry beast with a long horn on its forehead. “Their meat seems to have all the proteins we need, and there is also fish in the sea and rivers we can eat. Not all of them, but several.”
“That’s a relief.” Cuyler sighed. “Are there animals that might become a threat to our people?” he asked.
“There are some beasts in the woods, but they are no match for our drogons. We just need to be careful with the children while we’re not fully established,” the captain informed, showing him some furry beasts with fangs and claws that walked on their four paws.
“Capture a few of those meat animals and establish a refectory for everyone. It will be easier for now if we concentrate the food in one place. That way we'll control what the people eat, and there won't be nasty surprises.
“Very well, my king.” Igor nodded.
“I need to talk with the builders. Building shelters is urgent, but I would rather have permanent houses built and not temporary ones,” he explained.
“I’ll send them to you, my king.”
They needed to be rational on the use of the planet’s resources since they had no idea how long it would take them to replace them.
The builders arrived a few minutes later, and they brought with them samples of the wood and the gray metal they had found.
“Tell me about them.” He asked his men. “Judging by the size of the trees, I would dare to say they take a long time to grow up. Using them to build our houses might not be the wisest decision since we don't know how cutting them down, would affect the place's ecosystem," one of the men explained. "On the other hand, we found massive amounts of this metal. It seems to absorb the heat from the sun, so I’m sure we could use it to build the houses for our people.”
“How fast do you think you can start building with this metal?” he asked, considering the possibilities.
“At least a couple of months,” the man admitted. “We need to study it and find out for sure how strong and stable it is.”
“We can’t wait that long. We have no idea how cold this place can get, and we need to give people safe shelters,” he concluded. “But, since most of our population is composed of single men, we’ll build small apartment buildings for the established families and quarters for the men.”
“That would reduce enormously the number of trees we would have to cut down.” The other man said. “If we cut them with order and never clearing areas completely, the impact shouldn’t be that significant.”
“Perfect. Gather as many men as you can and start building them as soon as possible.” The king ordered. “Make sure to use the best locations for the construction. We might be in an urgent situation, but I want these structures to last.”
“Yes, of course, my king. With a few preliminary studies, we can use this metal to at least build the structures, to make them more resilient and more stable. We’ll have the plans ready for you to inspect as soon as possible,” the man assured him.
“Very well. I have other men working on the power plants that will provide you and finally the houses with all the energy you might need. We had to make several adjustments to them since the sun here isn’t close enough to provide with the amount of energy the plants required,” he informed the men.
“We’re aware of that, and we’re sure we’ll soon be able to use other energy sources, like the wind, a constant in this place,” one of the men said. “We’ll do our best to have our people comfortable, my king.”
He nodded, and both men left his tent. Cuyler ran his hand through his hair and sighed. He had never felt so alone in his life than in the past weeks. He missed his brothers and his sister, the only family he had left in the universe and admitting he would never see them again was harder than he thought.
Their parents had succumbed to one of the strange diseases brought by the dying sun, and now he had been separated from his siblings and what hurt him the most was not knowing if they were alive or not.
He was aware that most of his men were under the same circumstances as he was, but there wasn’t much any of them could do, at least not for now.
A soft gong announced the night meal was ready. Taking a deep breath, he headed to the vast refectory to eat. He had soon discovered his people found solace in his presence during the meals, so he tried to be there for all of them. Things were very hard for his people; they had lost everything, their homes, their planet and all their possessions, but they were especially hard for those who had left behind their families as well, and he knew exactly how they felt.
After selecting the best location for the city, the construction began. With the machinery, they had brought from their home planet, along with all of the men available, it took them less than a month to build up homes for everyone.
Cuyler insisted that the palace would be the last structure to be built and after a few protests, his men followed his instructions. By the time they started building the palace, the builders had discovered the best way to use the metal they had called greridius. By mixing it with grounded stone and sand, they could build the entire palace with it. Cuyler insisted on having a huge palace, capable of hosting thousands of people in case of need, so the construction would take a few months.
Meanwhile, Cuyler would live in a small house near the vessel, and he also asked his men to build him a cabin up in the mountains, a place where he could be alone and rest from all his problems.
Now, that they were established and people started to go back to the lives they had before, the lack of women amongst them was even more acute. After so many months with no contact whatsoever with other vessels, people had lost hope of ever seeing their families again, but that meant they had another problem on their hands: finding mates for all his men.
The problem resided in the fact drogons couldn’t mate just any female. For the mate to be perfect and fertile, each male and female had to find their soulmates. So far, that hadn't been a problem, but now, with a population of mostly males, they would have to find mates on other planets.
He let out a sigh, running his fingers through his long, platinum hair, as he looked at the hill where his palace was being built.
“Don’t you think it’s time for you to name our planet?” Igor, his captain, asked him, from the chair he was sitting on.
“I’m sure it already has a name. We should go and ask our neighbors.” He replied, with a scowl.
“Our explorers returned this morning. There are no other intelligent beings in this solar system.” They had discovered earlier that none of the other planets had oxygen in their atmosphere. “So, it’s your job to name it, my king.”
“We could call it Zuvrak, to honor my father, don’t you think?”
“Yes, it’s the perfect name. King Zuvrak was one of our best leaders.” His man agreed. “I’m sure everybody will agree with me.”
"Then, Zuvrak it is." He took a deep breath before he mentioned the problem worrying him these days. "We'll have to send some explorers to visit other solar systems, and other galaxies as well." He announced.
“Do you still have hopes of finding the other vessels?” his friend asked him, with a concerned tone.
“No, I have to admit I don’t. But we need to find females or this planet will lose its population in no time.” He explained, turning around and sitting down at his desk. “All of our females are mated, and most of them can’t even bare more children. Finding compatible females is imperative.”
“Yes, I understand. But do you have any idea where we can start looking? For all I know, none of the species we knew were compatible with us.” Igor asked, with a frown.
“I know, and even if they were, we have no way to go back. We need to explore this side of the universe and hope we’re lucky enough to find at least one compatible species.” He explained.
“Who do you have in mind for this search mission?” his friend asked.
“I need you to be the captain of the exploration vessel. Between the two of us, we’ll recruit the best men for the job and leave as soon as possible.”
“Are you planning to come along?” Igor asked surprised.
"I feel it's my duty. I can leave Endre in charge while we go searching. He has been my main counselor for a long time, and I'm sure I can trust him with my people," Cuyler explained, rubbing his eyes, feeling a bit tired.
"Yes, I believe it's a good idea. Everyone appreciates Endre."
“Prepare everything. We should leave as soon as possible,” he ordered, concluding the meeting.
If he was leaving the planet for a while, then he had a few things he needed to take care of.
Igor left his office, and he immediately started planning everything.