028: First Rubyborn

 

Chapter 28: First Rubyborn

Excerpt from the Parchment Memoirs of Orion Voss-7

As I set down with my fountain pen once more upon this parchment...

One hundred and forty-seven days after first touchdown, the first child of TRAPPIST-1e drew breath beneath the violet Carpet.

She was named Elara Voss Ruiz.

Dr. Lena Ruiz and Tomas Ruiz chose the name with care. “Elara” — the shining one — for the light of a new world. Virginia Dare Ruiz, now sixteen, stood beside her mother throughout the birth, holding her hand and whispering encouragement in the soft Martian-lilted Esperanto of the Long Burn.

I waited just outside the birthing chamber with Commander Elias J. Voss. When the newborn’s first cry echoed down the smooth lava-tube corridor, a wave of quiet joy passed through the entire vault. Then came the cheering — restrained at first, then swelling until it filled Hobbiton Vault from end to end.

Virginia stepped out moments later, eyes bright, and carefully placed the tiny bundle in Commander Voss’s arms.

Elias looked down at the infant and for a long moment could not speak. A single tear traced the deep lines of his face.

“Elara,” he whispered. “First of the true Rubyborn. Born not under torchlight, but beneath a living world that chose to accept us.”

That evening we gathered in Voss Hall. The air smelled of fresh strawberries and warm bread. Soft ruby lamps glowed along the curved ceilings, and someone had placed a small garland of carefully clipped Carpet fronds above the central table.

Commander Voss raised a cup of fermented berry wine.

“To Elara Voss Ruiz,” he said, voice thick with emotion. “And to every child who will follow. One day soon the Colony Arks will arrive — Mayflower, Speedwell, and Kalmar Nyckel — bringing new blood, new families, and wider possibilities. Until then, we guard this small beginning with everything we have.”

Virginia, standing beside her parents, added softly, “And perhaps one day there will be an Adam as well. The first Rubyborn boy, to stand beside our Elara.”

A gentle ripple of violet light filtered down through the ventilation shafts at that moment — the Carpet’s slow, ancient reply. Several people laughed in quiet wonder.

Later, in the calm of the observation alcove, Virginia sat cradling baby Elara while the infant slept.

“She’ll never know the Long Burn,” she murmured, “but she will know this world’s heartbeat instead. And when the others come… our genetic pool will grow strong again.”

I knelt beside her.

“The long chain continues,” I said. “Small at first, then stronger with every new link.”

Virginia smiled — that same small, wondering smile she had worn as a little girl pressing her hand to the torch bulkhead.

“Then we had better keep the chain healthy,” she whispered, touching Elara’s tiny fingers. “For all who are still on their way.”

Far above our burrows, the Carpet sent slow luminous waves rolling across the hills. Below, in the warm glow of Hobbiton Vault, the first Rubyborn slept soundly — a small, shining beginning beneath a ruby sun.

The torch had burned for twenty-one years. Now a quieter, more precious light had been lit.

 




 


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The Great Fleet: Voyage to TRAPPIST-1
V 3.0

NOTE: this is a unfinished Draft of a in progress work.  © Curtis Neil, May 2026

ARTISTS COPYRIGHT, Curtis Neil May 2026 

Curtis Anthony Neil/Grok 4.0/ LibreOffice. MAY 03rd. 2026 AD. MAY 08th.2026

Bakersfield, California, USA, North America, Planet Earth (Terra), the third planet from the Sun (Sol), Solar System, Orion Arm, Milky Way Galaxy



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