A survey of Asterhome's finished homes, schools, farms, landing fields, and receiving house, all maintained for settlers who never arrived.
Asterhome was built to receive the passengers of Orison Ark. The landing fields were marked, homes assigned, farms planted, classrooms furnished, and roads connected to the receiving house. Orison sailed, became trapped in the Cradle Drift, later broke orbit, and came down on Gogi-One. It never reached Asterhome.
No humanoid community has lived on the colony world. Its residents are caretaker automata. They repair roofs without sleeping beneath them, reset classrooms without teaching children, and maintain kitchens without eating the meals. Their work is real even though the intended users are absent.
The landing fields remain clear. Beacons still transmit approach instructions. Arrival-Road Ushers direct incoming settlers toward registration points and the receiving house. Some roads have been repaired many times without carrying a single arrival.
Housing districts were assigned to families listed on Orison's passenger records. Some remain sealed because the named household never appeared to accept the key. Homestead Menders inspect the exterior, repair weather damage, and return the house to move-in condition. They do not claim the building or open it for an unlisted guest.
Classrooms contain desks, supplies, lesson schedules, and nursery murals painted at the height of the children expected to see them. Caretakers clean each room and reset the materials. No student has completed a lesson. The schools are preserved as institutions, not used as storage or caretaker housing.
The farms produce enough food for a colony. Orchard Pruners maintain the planned tree lines. Sluicekeepers keep irrigation channels open. Ribbonfold Shepherds move herds through the original pasture rotation. Storehouses receive harvests, discard expired supplies, and prepare for an arrival that remains listed as delayed.
The table in the receiving house is literal. The Firstmeal Steward keeps the first communal meal ready according to the settlement plan. Ingredients are replaced and the place settings are reset. The meal is intended to begin the colony's shared life, but nobody on the passenger list has sat down to eat it.
Asterhome is not an abandoned humanoid settlement. It is a completed settlement that was never inhabited by the people named in its plans. The question is whether those plans may be changed for new arrivals, and who has the authority to make that change when the original receiving staff never came.
