Gaia’s Children by Lawrence Buentello

Space is big.

So big that if you are a colonist on a new planet, there is essentially no hope of a rescue.

The Colony Organizers are responsible for discovering candidate planets, analyze the planets’ suitability, “seed” them with a human population and to support that colony as best they can. 

But when that support can take decades to arrive you best be prepared to make due..

When Persephone crash lands on the colony world of Aeolus, her mission to help repopulate the colony, with improved DNA, is threatened.  She is the only member of the crew to have survived.  Most of the ship was destroyed beyond use.  However the ship’s AI and part of the surgical suite remained useful.

With these limited resources she does her best to help a dying colony that does not want it.  They’ve not only fallen into a Darwinian situation they have written his ideas into law.

This was a sad story of hope, circumstance, despotism, and points of view colliding. 

I was taken into the story by the immense isolation described here.

Wonderful work indeed. 

You can read the story online at Compelling Science Fiction:  http://compellingsciencefiction.com/index.html