Editor Note: 
     Though the 3rd story in the book, this is actually the first story I wrote for the book, and tells the story of what happens once the colony ship reaches the planet it was going to, and the many problems, and solutions found, once they land.

Colony Ship ‘Gambler’:
Launched: 1200hrs, 
         Wed., March 15, 2473 Universal Earth Date

     The 13th colony ship to launch, we left Earth with 2000+ colonists and crew.  For almost nine years we had traveled in space before orbiting HIP 74389 planet 4, 128.869 light years from Earth!  The power needed to launch us through a manmade worm hole to bring us even that close to a planetary system was tremendous, and only available on one planet - Earth.  The technology was not good enough yet to put ships closer to the stars we traveled to.  This was a one way trip, so travel back was not possible. We were here to stay.

     The probe, one of more than 400 sent out by Earth toward G2V type stars, that had led Earth to dispatch the colony ship to this particular planet, had sent back long range pictures of a star system with 12 planets.  Sensors indicated that the 4th planet had a suitable oxygen-nitrogen atmosphere.  But long range sensors and cameras had malfunctioned early in the mission, and long range pictures of the planet were useless. 

     After the probe landed on planet four, the cameras showed lush vegetation, but there were no indications of animal or indigenous life that could be seen.  The probe ceased functioning completely a few days after it landed, but it was assumed that this planet would be similar to the 11 other earth-like planets that had been found and colonized, and that it would contain suitable animal, plant, and aquatic life to provide food and supplies for the colonists for the first few years until the colony was sufficiently established.

     They were wrong.  About a lot of things.  Lucky us, #13. 

..........................  But, once close enough to observe our new home, we discovered it was engulfed in an almost planet wide storm with winds and rain of hurricane strength unknown on Earth, or any of the other human inhabited worlds.   There was only a small landmass of a few thousand square miles not already covered by the storm. 
     As we would discover later, this was the landmass/continent that the initial planetary probe had landed on.  It had landed in one of the quiet periods.  The probe ...................
     The last five years as we approached and our sensors could view HIP 74389-4, we watched in disbelief as even this one land mass was covered briefly by the storm.  Briefly? Try 14 planet days!  And the storm occurred every ..........................  Each time, the continent would be wiped clean of vegetation by the ferocity of it.  

Sun., July 6, 2481 UED
     After over 8 years 3 months of travel, we were finally orbiting our new home.  One of the storm cycles had just ended a few days ago.  
     The first decision we had to make was when to land.  As Commander, that was my decision to make.  And since we did not have a choice, but must eventually land, the only question was when.  I decided to wait until we had more information on conditions on the planet.  We still had plenty of resources on the ship, and did not need to rush into a decision we might later regret.
     Power for our stay in orbit was ........................

     The colonists and crew have adopted a new calendar for this world.  It was decided to stay with 12 months per year, and 7 day weeks.  Each month will have 34 days, with January and July each having 35 days.  Each year is 410.1666 days long, which means that every 6 years an extra day will be added to one month.  It was also decided that Jan 1, 0001 - 00:00 AM, NWD  (New World Date), will be the day and time the first person actually sets foot on Whadawedonow.  The time will be adjusted so that at our landing point sunrise will be at 6AM local time.  Our plan is to set foot on our new home world at sunrise!

     We are already adapting to the 26 hour day of WDWDN.  The colonists also decided to stay with a 24 hour clock, adjusting it to match our new home world.  Each hour would contain the equivalent of 65 earth minutes.  Not much of a change.

Tues, Jan 4, 2484, UED

     Today, Tuesday, January 4, 2484 Universal Earth Date, we will finally land on WDWDN.  It will become our Monday, January 1, 0001 when we set foot on Grumble for the first time.  Our new calendar, and Earth’s, will never again be this close.  For every 12 days that pass here, 13 days will pass on Earth. 
 We will become the 14th human occupied planet - IF we survive.........

Thur, Feb 32, 0001 NWD (New World Date)

     The storm has returned!!  We had only a few minutes warning.  Not enough to get to the shuttles and return to the ship.  We saw no indication of anything other than seasonal storm activity  from the time we were able to view the planet as we approached beginning 7 years ago, until now.  This is a very serious problem we had not planned for, nor do we have a fallback plan - for those of us caught on the planet.  The unprecedented magnitude of the storm makes it impossible for us to use the shuttles to return to the ship.  It was not supposed to return until about June 20th.

     Gambler informs us that this storm, as seen from orbit, is by far the strongest we have witnessed so far on Whadawedonow.

     Activity on the surface, other than in the 2 caverns, is impossible.  We will just have to wait this out.  I guess we will get to live on the surface under storm conditions about 124 days earlier than planned.  But at least our entrance shields are holding, and protecting us from the storm.

     We have enough food and water stockpiled in both caverns to hold us for 3 or 4 months.  If the storm lasts longer than that............. 

END OF EXCERPTS