There may be forty-five soon-to-be Carduans on Ship Eighteen, but they are fourteen weeks away from Cardua. Ship Nineteen has only nine Carduans on board.
Somehow these nine need to find a place to live and make it habitable, find sources of food and water and devise methods of defending themselves from the many predators living on Cardua.
Who Are These Carduans?
Three are ship officers. They know how to fly a space ship and not much else.
Six are young people ranging from ten-year-old Tico to seventeen-year-old Hirs. Their backgrounds vary, but they are young. They do have skills learned from their parents or experiences.
Supplies Are Needed
The advantage Ship Nineteen has is that it was a cargo flight. Those six young people were overflow from the passenger ships ahead of them. There are lots of crates filled with useful things packed on the ship.
The disadvantage is that these people don’t know how to use many of the supplies. There are solar panels and electrical supplies. No one know how to set them up. There are cooking supplies for a restaurant. No one knows how to cook.
Lygo does know about sewing and has lots of supplies originally destined for a shop she was opening with her mother, a seamstress. Tico knows some carpentry and there are lots of supplies originally destined for a furniture shop his carpenter father was going to open.
Finding Their Skills
Only nine Carduans face a new world filled with plants and animals that tower over their mere four inch height. Each must find their skills and find ways to use them as part of a team.
As far as these people know, they are alone. Their former lives are only memories. All of their friends and relations are now memories.
There may be only nine Carduans, but they must overcome their pasts, their griefs, their ignorance and become a group to face this new world. That is the only way they will survive.