There seemed to be nothing to indicate that anything out of the ordinary was about to change our lives forever, on that sunny afternoon, with the wispy white clouds floating above the vivid green landscape.  The song of the skylarks and the soft hum of bees carrying out their pollen seeking duties weren't loud enough to distract me as I lay in the long sweet grass, reading a book.

My mother would have had a queen sized fit if she'd realised that I'd sneaked an adult book from the shelf, but I figured that at ten, I was old enough to leave Enid Blyton and other kid stuff behind me.  I was going to have to grow up fast, and I wanted to be ready for anything that fate was about to throw at me.  Close by were the remnants of my solitary picnic lunch, the chicken bones and breadcrumbs attracting the attention of a pack of foraging ants.

Lazily I turned a page, and this miniscule distraction from the account of the Black Duke's dastardly pursuit of the lovely Lady Lucinda allowed the thought to drift into my mind that this was the last time I would ever be totally alone in my hillside hideout.  My eyes welled with sudden tears and, the Black Duke's evil machinations forgotten, the book tumbled from my hands as I groped for a handkerchief.  

As I blew my nose, I recalled what Dad had warned me to expect after tonight's last sleep in my soft bed with the duckling bedspread protecting me against all the monsters roaming the night.  Mum had always insisted that there were no monsters in the night, and I now knew this to be true.  The monsters were abroad in the sunshine, where they could see our torment the better.

Tomorrow my family, like all the families living in our rustic little villages, would be driving out on our loaded transports, converging on the great river one hundred kilometres to the south.  Amid a great deal of confusion, we would all be loaded onto makeshift ferries, to be towed across its broad expanse.  Once we reached the other bank, we would join the flood of vehicles from all over the province, to continue our trek south.

After three long days on the road, snaking along in an enormous convoy, we would arrive at our intermediate destination, Challenger Field spaceport, where the slim silvery needles of the giant space rockets awaited us.

When I had asked Dad why we had to leave our homes and travel to a new planet that had no farms and villages, no bees to hum around the blue cornflowers, and certainly no familiar birdcalls, his face had become red and angry looking.

'Blame the blasted Government!' he growled.  'When the Kandaskan scout ship appeared in our skies three years ago, those idiots saw it as a threat, and shot it down with our meteor guard missiles.'  I thought he was about to explode with anger as he continued his tirade.  'When they examined the wreckage, they discovered that it was on a peaceful trading expedition to Earth.  It should have been the start of a partnership that would have benefited all humanity, but by then it was too late.  The crew had managed to get word to their mother ship before they crashed.'

'What did they tell it, Daddy?' I asked.      

'They said that we were a backward savage people, but that our planet would make a good trade base for their ships.  The mother ship bombarded all our defences, then when we were helpless, they landed and sent for reinforcements.  They told us we had five years to get off the Earth, and now we have to look for other planets to colonise before their main fleet gets here.  I don't know what we would have done if our space exploration programme hadn't been so far along.'   He sighed, his anger burnt out for the moment.  'If we hadn't already constructed so many colony ships, we'd have been wiped out.'

'Can't we fight the Kandaskans and tell them to go home?  There are more of us than them.'

In a couple of years they will outnumber us, so we can't fight them all.  It's better for us to make a home on a new planet than to fight a war we can't win.'

'Why can't we go to Novo Terra to join the colonists already there?'  I asked in my youthful innocence.

'There are too many of us, and they have no room for so many new colonists.  We will have to aim for a planet circling a star in Orion's belt.  You know the three stars in a row that you see when you look at the Constellation Orion?'  When I nodded he said, 'The star on the left of the three is going to be our new sun.  It's called Betelgeuse.  Can you say it?'

'Beetle juice? ' I giggled.  'Do they crush beetles up there to get the juice out?'

Dad ruffled my hair.  'You're a little young to understand,' he told me, smiling fondly.

'I'm not too young! ' I exclaimed indignantly.  After all, I was almost eleven, and my teacher called me precocious, though Mum redefined that as 'proper little madam'.  'Well, what is it like then?'

'They probably don't even have beetles up there anyway.  The Hayward expedition last year reported that the fifth planet from the sun is habitable, but a bit cooler than the Earth.  It's a bit bigger too, with a stronger gravitational field, so you'll weigh more.'

'Will it be much like Earth?'  I persisted.

'It has a yellow sun, blue skies, water and ground vegetation, so in some ways, yes.  There are many varieties of strange creatures that we will have to learn to live alongside, and we'll be taking lots of seeds and animal embryos with us, so within a few years it will become more like Earth, though it will be very strange at first. 

'We'll be living in our ships for a long time until we can get enough compounds built to keep our houses and farms safe if the wildlife is too wild.  No more skulking in the long grass pretending you don't hear your mother calling you for your chores!' he teased.  I was mortified to learn that he knew of my secret hideaway, though on later reflection I realised that my Dad was old and wise and, like God, knew everything. 

'I'm sure you and your friends will soon find enough nooks and crannies in the ships,' he grinned, pretending not to notice my blushing cheeks.

'Are all the humans going to live on Betelgeuse?' I asked.

'Nobody's going to live on Betelgeuse,' he told me.  'It's a star like the sun, so we'll be living on the planet that weve named Paradise.  And no, we can't fit what's left of the human race on an undeveloped planet.  We'd all starve before we got ourselves organised.  Some ships will be heading for a star in the bowl of the Big Dipper.  The first ships have already landed on the planet Welcome, at Proxima Centauri, and on two other planets at Tau Ceti.  They sent word through sub space radio that they are settling in, though it's been difficult for them to adapt.

'We aren't the last to leave.  There are still many ships left to leave before the Kandaskan deadline.  They will be going to other planets, and some will be in space for many years before they find a habitable world.'

Dad went on to explain how whole generations might live and die on some of the ships before they found a new home, but I couldn't grasp the enormity of this concept, and instead felt sad at how the whole human race was being split up and scattered across the galaxy.

I tucked the handkerchief back into my pocket, and stood up to begin my last journey down the hill to the little stone farmhouse with the yellow roses growing around the door.  Out of habit, I stooped to pick up my rubbish, then decided it could stay put.  I wouldn't be coming here again, and if the Kandaskans didn't like it, they could pick it up themselves. 

Unencumbered, I took my first step in the human Diaspora.