Stan Freeman

The Galapagos Colony Stan Freeman

In 2242, a settlement ship carrying several hundred people takes off for a distant planet but soon goes off course and becomes hopelessly lost. Eleven years pass before a hospitable planet is located.

Once on the ground, the adult colonists begin to suffer a slow wasting disease and within five years, all are dead. The young children, who are unaffected by the illness, must learn to survive on their own.

With only a few dozen pamphlets explaining basic living skills to guide them and no knowledge of human history or the sophisticated equipment that brought them there, they still manage to build a thriving colony based on a unique philosophy they arrive at on their own.

Then, two centuries later, a passing deep-space probe detects them and a ship is sent to investigate this mysterious "Galapagos colony."