Baronhawk's Nest

It was difficult but necessary. One of those decisions that many of us watchers ask ourselves about but try not to think of. I sat on my seat in front of the control panel and watched through the main view screen as the entire colony burned to ground.

For good measure, I flicked my finger upon the controls to send down another rain of incendiary bombs to wipe clean any trace of the colony, making sure that everything is reduced to cinders.

10,000 lives lost. Another failed experiment. They never listen to reason. Don't they understand. I am only trying to make a better life for them out here. I only want to save them from themselves.

They never listen. Rules are rules for a reason.

Well, its back to the drawing board.

I am not going to have a substandard colony on my hands. Any colony I set up must be perfect. Perfect... or it should never be at all.

I signaled the colony ship to thaw out another 10,000 colonists and send down another batch of factory bots to construct a new colony on Eden.

Tomorrow I shall begin again. hmm... I might have to signal earth for another colony ship with a fresh shipment of bots and colonist. They don't seem to make 'em like they used to. The bots beak easily and the colonists are getting more useless by the batch.

The job of a colony overseer is never easy. But it is our duty to ensure that everything is perfect, and it is all done right. Everyone wants a good colony, but nobody wants to do the work. Except us watchers.

Some balk at the cybernetic enhancements that watchers go trough to ensure that they can survive the rigours of interstellar travel without being transported in the cryo capsules. The necessary modifications to allow a watcher to survive the long periods needed to seed and colonize a world. Indeed with the enhancements, a watcher is almost immortal.

Some say that the person inside the shell of a watcher is no longer human, devoid of feelings, devoid of... soul. But then, that is the purpose of a watcher. To keep the eternal watch. To seed the cold stars with the warmness of life and seed the human genome to the dust of stars themselves.

It is a hard job, a noble duty. One that I am sworn to upkeep. Whatever the cause, whatever the price. No matter how many colonists and bots it would take, the costs are immaterial. I WILL have a string of perfect colonies in the Beta Irridani cluster before next comet fall!