"Father, tell me again the story of how Heracles got its ring."

"But you've already heard it many times in class, and I know I've told you it at least three times."

"But I forget things, and I want you to remember me."

"You mean, remind you. Oh very well. Now sit down and stop fidgeting, or I might just remember that I have important jobs to do.

"You must remember that our ancestors came many years ago to terraform Heracles, that is to give it an atmosphere and water to make it like the planet Earth, where mankind came from in the first place. That's what terraform means."

"Yes, and they named it after the Greek Hero Hercules, but got the name wrong. It should be Hercules," I piped up eagerly.

"No, they got it right. Heracles was the Greek Hero, while Hercules was the ancient Roman version of his name. Now, who's telling this story? Maybe I should get you to tell me it?" I shut up, and Dad continued.

"The first thing they did was to set up the rock crushing plants to release the oxygen into the air so that people could breathe. Those crushers made the planet too unstable for humans to live there, so they had to make temporary homes on the moon Phaedra until things settled down. It was a grand view from Phaedra, to look up and see Heracles hanging over our heads, and when I was a little tiddler, just like you, I was afraid that it was going to fall on me.

"Another thing they badly needed was water, so our great and wise leader Jason Phoenix devised a plan to send a huge fleet of ships in towards the sun, into the belt of Asteroids to collect two of the massive chunks of ice called icebergs known to be orbiting there. They were to attach grappling beams to them from each ship, and tow them into an orbit around Heracles, then go back for two more.
"It would be simple to mine the bergs regularly and gouge out the ice to take it down to the surface to be stored as water in massive tanks. Then we planned to eventually set up the first free flowing water on Heracles, so that we could live there again.

"The expedition was led by Captain Hector Alexander in his ship the Hermes, who was the best man to trust with the difficult job of collecting the icebergs. Even for him it was a great challenge, with over two hundred ships milling around, and three ships were lost before they managed to attach one hundred beams to each berg and begin to tow it back. It took over two years to attach them, and ten years to get them back here.

"They managed the long journey without incident, and everybody was very excited when they arrived home with so much water, but unfortunately something went wrong while they were marshalling the bergs into orbit. Instead of following each other in a chase around the planet, they ended up on a collision course, and despite everything that could be done, they smashed into each other. Captain Alexander's ship was crushed in his gallant attempt to keep them from colliding, and is still up there, circling Heracles, hidden in that ring.

"When the bergs smashed, they hit with such force that they broke into tiny pieces, and over the next four years they separated out because of the force of gravity, and settled into the thin ring that can now be seen encircling the planet."

"So it was very bad then," I whispered.

"In a way yes, but in another way, it was a very lucky thing that happened. You see, our ancestors no longer had to get heavy drilling equipment into space to mine those huge chucks of ice. They could just send up ships with tractor beams to collect the smaller chunks of ice and load them into their holds for transport down to Heracles space port.

"And now, young lady, it's time for you to get to bed, as I have a busy day tomorrow. I have to get these two gigantic snowballs at just the right angle to collide so that their bits and pieces can add to the ring, and keep the planet in water for another thousand years. And you, my space born poppet, will get your first look at your new home. Welcome to Heracles!"

© Sandy Parkinson September 2006 Word count 751