Mulier Unit 05-22-E: Part 2 - Welcome to Novum

by Freya Gersemi

©Copyright 2025 Freya Gersemi. All rights reserved.

No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, including photocopying, recording, or other electronic or mechanical methods, without the prior written permission of the publisher, except as permitted by U.S. copyright law. For permission requests, contact freyagersemi@gmail.com.

The story, all names, characters, and incidents portrayed in this production are fictitious. No identification with actual persons (living or deceased), places, buildings, and products is intended or should be inferred.

Book Cover Design by ahorsewithnoname

This book is, of course, dedicated to:

AlexFourways, my friend and tireless supporter.

Figjamkiss, who has recently changed his title to copy editor, is my essential right-hand man.

ahorsewithnoname, publisher and another essential element of the growing Freya Empire.

Thank you, all!

Foreword

My first science fiction story, “Mulier Unit 05-22-E,” is currently outselling all of my other stories by quite a wide margin! So, I thought a follow-up was in order. And I enjoyed writing the first one. Fiction is one thing, but the whole “completely fake and made-up fiction” is kind of a whole new level! It’s fun!!

Keeping with the vibe of the first story, this is more in the classic “pulp” sci-fi style. There are some places where you just have to take the information at face value. If “completely fake and made-up fiction,” sometimes things just… are.

Anyway, I hope you enjoy this second part of the Mulier Unit 05-22-E saga. And I have every intention of more parts to come, so stay tuned!!!

Chapter 1 - “Welcome to Novum”

“We’re going to need some shelter,” Oriella pointed out the obvious as she handed the solar-powered Omnus 14-3 to Adam. “You’re the man. Build us shelter.”

“And you’re the woman. Go get us some food.”

“Here.” Oriella tossed him a Cibus7 nutrition bar from her backpack. “Now you got food.”

“Ugh,” Adam frowned, but started to unwrap the bar anyway. He then deftly touched some keys on the Omnus and the screen brightened with text. “This says that an unmanned supply ship will be arriving sometime in the next few days. In the meantime, there are some caves…” he looked past the small clearing that they were in, then pointed to a mountain range about ten kilometers upriver. “Somewhere over there.” Then referencing the Omnus again, he added, “It looks like the terrain is fairly even along the river. We should be able to walk it in less than three hours.”

Oriella finished her own Cibus7, took the wrapper from Adam, and stuffed them both into an outer pocket of the backpack. “Well, are you ready?”

Nodding, Adam picked up the canvas duffle bag, while Oriella strapped the backpack over her shoulders. “Let’s go,” he said. The shimmering aquamarine of the lazy river was bordered on both sides by compacted sand and sparse low-growing grass, making their travel easy. “These grassy plants are called Gramen Viridis,” Adam read off the Omnus’ screen. “They are an edible perennial grass indigenous to this planet.”

“I guess we get to name the planet,” Oriella stated as she plucked a few blades of gramen, studied them for a moment, then cautiously placed them into her mouth and began to chew.

“How is it?” Adam asked.

With a slight tilt of her head and a wrinkling of her nose, Oriella shrugged.

“It says that everything organic on this planet is edible. With differing levels of palatability,” Adam said. “And the planet is already named. ‘47415244454E,’” he slowly read, making sure that he had each and every number correct.

“We’ll never remember all of that. At least I won’t,” Oriella complained. “Besides, that’s not catchy at all. I mean, if we’re going to start an entire new society,” she rubbed her still-flat belly, “we’re going to need a better name for our home.”

“I don’t know how only two people can create a new society…”

“Oh, I’m sure that more people will show up. You know how Earth’s government likes to control everything. They’ll never run out of people that they need to get rid of for some reason or another.”

But Adam wasn’t so sure they would be getting any new neighbors anytime soon.

“How about Novum?” Oriella asked.

Adam arched his eyebrows and gave a slight, not necessarily disagreeing, frown. It did have a certain ring to it.

“Novum is Latin for ‘new,’” Oriella explained.

With a smile, Adam nodded. “That works for me.”

“Okay then, Mr. Renovare. Welcome to Novum.”

“And Mrs. -” Adam faltered. “We never got married.”

“Do we need to?”

Adam stared at Oriella in dumbstruck awe as he realized the obvious. “No… I… I guess we don’t.”

“Since we’re the ones starting this whole thing,” Oriella swept her arms in a grand arc, “then we get to make all of the rules. I say the first rule is that we can do anything that we want to do as long as it causes no harm. Kind of like the Hippocratic Oath, but for everyone.”

Adam smiled. “That sounds great to me.”

“Then I’m going to take your last name, Mr. Renovare. And I declare us married.”

“Mr. and Mrs. Renovare, supreme rulers - and sole occupants - of Novum,” Adam boasted to the alien sky.

Oriella’s face beamed as bright as the sun hovering over the horizon.

“We need to keep going, Mrs. Renovare, if we’re going to make it to the caves before it gets too dark.”

“When is sunset?” Oriella asked. “It seems like the sun has moved across the sky, but almost parallel with the Earth - with the Novum.” She furrowed her brow. “That sounds weird.”

“We’ll get used to it,” Adam answered, tapping some keys on the Omnus. “Oh, this is curious!”

“What?” Oriella shielded her eyes to scan the distant horizon of their new world.

“The sun never gets any higher than forty degrees above the horizon from here. From where we landed.” Then he added, “And daylight ranges between fourteen and sixteen hours depending on the time of year. Well, fourteen and sixteen Earth hours. It’s incredibly temperate on Novum. It rarely gets above twenty-five degrees Celsius during the day and rarely drops below ten at night. This is a paradise!”

“Our paradise.”

“So, we don’t know how much daylight we have left, I guess.”

“Not until we figure everything out,” Oriella stated. “But, if the sun rarely gets too high up in the sky, then that means that twilight - morning and evening - will be extended. It must be winter here because the sun has gotten nowhere near forty degrees up. I would estimate that even when the sun starts to touch the horizon, we would have a good two or three hours of usable light.”

“Who knew my wife was a mathematics genius?”

“Engineering genius. I worked for Vivus.”

“Yes. And as we walk, you’re going to have to tell me exactly how you tricked an entire corporation into thinking you were a mulier unit and not a human being,” Adam said. “That all sounds rather implausible.”

“It does sound far-fetched, but it was surprisingly easy to do,” Oriella started as they walked side-by-side along the shore of the gentle river. “Oh! What are those?” She pointed to a few small brightly-colored fish swimming upstream as if to accompany the two newcomers on their journey.

Pulling the information up on the Omnus, Adam told her, “It looks like they are ‘Reinbounagi’ or ‘Rainbow Eels.’”

“They’re pretty.” Oriella stopped to look at them and they paused, too, languidly swirling in the soft current. “Are they dangerous?”

“This says that nothing on this planet has been found to be dangerous to humans,” Adam reported. “In fact all of the animals here are herbivores.” Oriella crouched down at the very edge of the water to peer at the eels. The five eels slithered closer and looked back with oddly intelligent eyes. Suddenly, the fish became overly agitated and then hurriedly swam back downstream and away from the humans. “Oh. Actually,” Adam continued reading, “it looks like there’s one creature on this planet that seems to be carnivorous.”

Oriella stood back up and looked at Adam.

“But the evidence is almost anecdotal. It’s been named a ‘mirinmar.’ It’s believed to be a large land-dwelling serpent.”

“What do you mean ‘anecdotal,’ Adam? I thought the probes that had explored this planet cataloged everything.”

“This says that just as they were lifting off to return to Earth, one of the cameras caught something in the brush,” Adam read. “After they studied the footage, they determined that - based on some of the physical characteristics that they could make out - it must be a large carnivorous creature similar to an anaconda on Earth.” Adam looked at Oriella. “On Earth, there have been zero reported anaconda attacks on humans. Here,” he turned the screen towards her, “the mirinmar is estimated to be between eight and twelve meters long and if it’s anything like an anaconda, we should be totally safe.” Adam tried to sound reassuring.

“I guess…” Oriella reluctantly assented. “I mean, the probes were here exploring for almost five years. If they only saw this thing once, it must be rare. Yeah,” she started sounding more confident. “We may never even see one. Or it may have just been a shadow or a glitch in the video surveillance equipment.”

“Right. Right.” For some reason, Adam felt less confident. Putting the Omnus into its case and changing the subject, he said, “Come on, let’s keep going. And you still need to tell me how you cleverly outwitted everyone at Vivus.”

As they started walking, Oriella began her tale. “We were in the same class in school, and I had such a crush on you. You were always so handsome, darling.”

“Um-hmm,” Adam replied, a bit embarrassed.

“Remember that time in Geometry Class when you had to go up to the board and draw five different types of quadrilaterals?”

“Yeah. I think so.”

“But you couldn’t remember a rhombus?”

“Mmm.”

“You turned bright red!” Oriella exclaimed. “But you looked so cute. What was that, fourth grade?”

“I think so,” Adam responded.

“Who was our teacher? Do you remember his name? He was tall with a bushy mustache and glasses.”

“I don’t remember his name.”

“Anyway, I had such a crush on you. I always did, Adam,” she said, reaching for his hand.

Still embarrassed about being reminded of his awkward childhood, Adam prompted, “So, back to Vivus…?”

“Right. So, when I started there, I was just a technician,” Oriella continued. “Do you remember that red checked shirt that you always wore in seventh grade? That looked great on you.”

“You already explained all of that,” Adam impatiently complained. “I want to know how you arranged everything to end up in my house.”

“You know,” Oriella stopped short and turned to face Adam, “you need to learn how to have a conversation instead of just demanding what you want.”

Adam looked at the ground, sheepishly. “I’m sorry. I just… I got used to living on my own, I guess, and… not really interacting with other people… I’m sorry.”

“No. It’s fine. You liked being alone and I… just selfishly pushed my way into your life.”

“And I’m glad that you did,” Adam admitted. “I hadn’t realized how alone I was all of that time.”

“You liked being alone.”

“To an extent.” Adam smiled at Oriella. “But I like being with you more.”

“Well, it’s just us now.” Oriella spread her arms to indicate the entire surface of the planet that was their new home.

“I never wanted to be alone like this,” he replied.

Reaching out to take both of Adam’s hands in hers, Oriella told him, “Neither did I.”

Adam nodded solemnly.

“It’s kind of funny that you were banned from Earth for having sex with an android - for falling in love with an android - an android that was assigned to you because you hadn’t yet fallen in love with a woman - and you actually didn’t fall in love with an android. You fell in love with a woman,” Oriella said with a small chuckle.

“Yeah. That’s hysterical,” Adam mumbled sullenly.

“Adam Kiran Renovare!” Oriella yanked her hands from his. “Whatever happened happened. I’m sorry that it was my fault -”

“No. Don’t -”

“Yes! This is all my fault.” Tears started to form in the corners of her eyes. “I’m sorry. I’m sorry that I screwed up your life.”

“Oriella -”

“But you know what?” She continued, “I wouldn’t have changed what I did. We’re together. That’s all that matters to me.” Tears began pouring down her cheeks. “I’m sorry. But I hope that someday I can atone for what I did to you. That you can forgive me.” Then she quietly added, “That I can be enough for you.”

“Oriella.” Adam took the trembling woman into his arms. “There’s nothing to forgive. If banishment from what little I had on Earth - if trading it to have you - was the only price, I would gladly pay that every single second for the rest of my life.”

Oriella sniffled. “You are paying that price every single second for the rest of your life. You should have waited for the fire sale.”