Katya's World

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One hundred and fourteen years ago, humanity first touched Russalka. It was a cold, machine touch, a robot probe that had arrived in orbit and observed the tempestuous surface of that storm-wracked world. The robot and its siblings had been sent out in a great wave of expansionist hope. Earth was past the point of saturated population growth. The solar system had been explored and exploited, offering almost everything but what the humans really wanted — a new world to call home.

The robot deployed its faster-than-light communications array and relayed the data it was gathering about the world, then known only as RIC-23. Yes, its atmosphere was breathable. Yes, its temperature was bearable. Yes, its gravity was acceptable. What it couldn’t offer was the simplest thing. RIC-23 was an ocean world. But for its polar ice caps, there was not even a square meter of dry land on the whole planet. Disappointed, the humans left the robot to continue its survey while they turned their attention upon other less problematical worlds in the sector.

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