From the Darkness by Thomas Gilmor

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From the Darkness
Chapter 2

All eyes turned to Julia and Morgan.

"Who is it now?" demanded John.

"Hey, do you think if I was in on this I would have told you about this star?" Morgan said defiantly as he turned his head to Julia. Morgan still wasn't comfortable with her after she had drugged him and tied him to a tree almost a year ago.

"I don't believe this!" Julia yelled. "Have I not proven myself to you? What in God's name do I have to do to prove where my loyalties lie with this group? I can't believe that you are accusing me!" Julia stormed off. Alonzo ran after her as the group just stood around clearly dumbfounded and quite ashamed of themselves.

Everyone had gathered around the fire when Alonzo and Julia came back to camp. John was the first on his feet. He shifted his weight from one foot to the other while try to gain his characteristic control; it wasn't coming easy. By the time John was able to lift his eyes to meet Alonzo and Julia, they were surrounded by the group; not in an intimating way but rather in a loving and caring manner.

"Look, this is not easy for me," John paused. "I'm sorry. I wasn't thinking, none of us were. It was a stupid comment. You have proved your loyalty time and time again Julia. Our lives have always rested in your hands."

"It just hurt John. It really hurt."

John had no reply. Clearly John had not been in this situation before and he was unsure what he should say or do next.

"Come, sit down," offered Bess. Julia and Alonzo made their way beside Bess and they all sat around the fire. "Julia, look we're all sorry. I hope you can find it in your heart to forgive us. Give us a second chance."

"Well she should after we gave her one after she had sold us out to the Council!" blurted Morgan.

"Morgan!" yelled the group and Bess shot him a glance as she nudged him in the chest with her left elbow.

"Rest assured Mr. Martin I will be as gracious as you and the others," replied the doctor.

"Good," said Morgan as he stood up and paced in this typical fashion.

"Now that is taken care of, what are we going to do now?"

"You're going to sit down for starters," replied John. Morgan still had that ability to get under people's skin, particularly John's. "Okay, something is heading our way. We have to find out how far it is and when and where it's going to arrive. Suggestions?"

"We could use night observations to determine the wavelength of the object," stated Yale.

"Go on."

"If we assumed that this object is a ship it's light source has two possible origins. The first is internal power."

"But that wouldn't make it visible from here," Alonzo interrupted.

"Right. Thus it must be reflecting light from the G889 Star."

"I don't see how this can help us," interjected Cameron. He was distraught about this news as anyone, but the one thing he had learned since landing on this planet was that there was very little one could do to change your fate on G889.

"Objects that move towards us will have compressed wavelengths compared to an object at rest. It is called a red shift since the observed light becomes redder. As the object moves in our direction we could measure the red shift and get a good approximation of it's course and it's speed."

"How do we do it?" asked John.

"We would have to take readings for the next few nights. The more we get, a better picture we get of where it is going and where it has come from."

"Do we need to stop travelling or can these measurements be done on the road?"

"It is possible to compensate for our movement, we would get a more precise measurement if we stopped. However that is not necessary. Alonzo, Morgan and I can adjust the proper equipment on the Transrover. We should press on John."

"Agreed. Let's hit the sacks troop. There is nothing more we could do now."

Not many got sleep that night. People were talking, speculating on the object, what was it? Why was it coming? Baines, Morgan and Bess had got into a vocal discussion in the Martin's tent. It had clearly disturbed John as he had slowly made his way over and muttered just four words. "Just go to bed."

The sun rose again the next day as it had done so since the beginning of time. The members of Eden Project were clearly weary. They packed the tents, loaded the vehicles and continued on their long trek to New Pacifica.

Uly and Bess were riding in the Dune Rail behind the Transrover. The group had decided to increase their speed a bit, although they weren't sure why they were hurrying so much. New Pacifica was still a whiles away.

"There coming for me, arn't they?" asked Uly.

Bess, with concern and surprise on her face turned to him. "Why would you say that Uly?"

"I don't know. I had a dream last night."

"Was it a dream from the Terrains?"

"No."

"Well then do you want to tell me what it was?"

"My mom was in it. She told me that she loved me and that I should hide. All she said was that they were coming."

"Who was coming?"

"I don't know, maybe the people in the spaceship?"

"Did you see this in your dream?"

"No."

Bess wrapped her arms around Uly, much like his mother used to do which comforted him. But this also triggered a memory which made him sad. "Uly, you just had a bad dream. It's normal. You're just scared of what is coming, we all are."

"Who do you think it is?"

"I don't know Uly. I don't know. But I'm sure we will find out soon enough."

The Transrover swayed while it bounced over the rough terrain. It didn't look like this stretch of the journey would be challenging. All the maps indicated a relatively flat surface. What was missing on those maps were the numerous one foot holes scattered across the landscape. John had stopped the group for a few minutes to analyze their current situation. It was determined that the holes were not a threat to the vehicles. However for those who were on foot it made travelling treacherous. If someone accidentally got their foot stuck while walking they ran the risk of breaking a leg. Most of the group doubled up on to the vehicles to make travelling easier.

Morgan, Yale and Alonzo were in the Transrover making some modifications on the binocular apparatus they carried. Alonzo had dug out his old crutches to construct a tripod to mount the binoculars.

"Are we sure we can get what we need from this thing?" asked Morgan.

"Yes Mr. Martin," replied Yale as he rolled his eyes. It was obvious that Morgan had asked this very question more than once.

"That should do it," stated Alonzo as he finished tightening the screws that would keep the tripod locked in place.

What they had constructed looked a little like an ancient video camera mounted on three sticks that were triangulated to hold the apparatus. It looked extremely funny but they were sure that it would work. All that remained was to set it up at nightfall and connect it to the Transrover computer system.

Yale got on his Gear and radioed John who was up front with Walman and True.

"We are all done back here John."

"Good. Darkness falls in a few hours. Take a break guys and get some rest. You will have lots to do once the sun sets."

John had called for the vehicles to stop an hour before sundown in order to get some power stored in the batteries for the next days travel. The crew had worked to set up camp like they had done so many times before and Alonzo thought he could do it in his sleep. John was helping to unload the water tanks from the Transrover as he approached him.

"John, what are we going to do if this object turns out to be something we don't like?"

"I don't know Alonzo. I really don't. But we'll get through. We always have," John replied giving Alonzo a quick glance and a smile.

Morgan, Yale and Alonzo spent an hour setting up the apparatus. Baines didn't understand why it took so long since they had already constructed their 'telescope'. The first problem was to identify the area in which the telescope should be set up. The star was low in the sky, close to the horizon which meant finding a suitable location was difficult. The second problem was finding enough cable to attach the telescope to the Transrover systems.

It was a cloudy night which made star hunting a difficult task. It took most of the night until they got a decent window in which to make their measurements. When the three of them returned to camp they were surprised to see most of the group, except for the Danziger's waiting at the camp fire.

"What are you doing here?" Yale accused, more so at Uly than the rest of the group. "I told you that we have to get many measurements before we can tell where this thing is coming from. Now all of you go to bed!"

With their heads slightly lowered and faces flush with embarrassment the group made their way to their tents. Some stayed up and peered into the blaze of the camp fire. There was only silence and the rustle of the leaves to comfort them as they drifted off into sleep.

As the days passed the group no longer waited outside their tents for the astronomers to come back. However there were talks, many of them, but they were held privately in various tents. It was the fourth night and Yale, Morgan and Alonzo returned from their observations but this night they did not go to bed. They returned to the main tent and started working with the computers to analyze what they had learned. Their worked continued until both moons had risen and set.

After breakfast the next day Danziger called for a general meeting instead of the usual packing of the tents. "As I understand, Yale and company have some news to share with all of us."

"We're in trouble," blurted out Morgan. Alonzo gave him a glare and immediately he felt himself blush.

"We have finished our observations. We are certain that it is a space craft heading for G889 from Earth."

There was silence.

"As of last night it was two days away from entering the G889 system." As Yale explained a holographic image was displayed from his arm. "As you can see, they will reach an orbit, similar to the one we were in before the crash within three days. From there they can land anywhere on the planet. From our estimates the ship is significantly larger in comparison to the advance scout ship that we arrived in."

"What are we going to do?" asked Julia as she stood up slapped her hands on her thighs and then pulled them through her hair. Panic and worry grew and a hundred conversations arouse at once. There had been a hope among the group that this was a normal cosmic event they had discovered a meteor or a comet. But now that hope was destroyed. The only question that remained was, are they friend or foe?

"Quite down, quite down!" John yelled trying to focus the group. "We have to proceed carefully. There are three possibilities. One; who ever they are don't know we exist and don't care, two; they know of us and are here to help or three; they know they we are here and they are here to harm us."

"What if 'they' are here to harm us? We should hide and hopefully whoever they are won't bother with us," suggested Morgan.

"What is that going to prove?" yelled Magnus from the back of the tent. "We will have to show ourselves sometime, what then? I doubt they are only going to be here for a few months!"

"Then we should be prepared to fight!" yelled Walman raising his MagPro into the air.

"Woe," said John. "We are speculating. This might be a good thing, but we should be prepared for any of the three possibilities. Right now I want everyone to gather as many weapons as possible and make sure they are charged. We set up a permanent camp here until we know exactly what we are dealing with. And we wait. If they have hostile intentions it is easier to defend ourselves with a permanent base rather than a moving one."

The next three days were the longest that anyone had encountered on this strange planet. The group had stopped using their Gear. Their transmissions could be picked up by the incoming spacecraft, thus giving away what they were doing. They did monitor all communications though, in hope of catching some type of communique from the coming space craft.

It was the third day and there had been no sign of any ship. The previous night Yale and Alonzo reported that the craft could no longer be located by their telescope. It was a general consensus that the ship had changed to a polar orbit to avoid detection from the ground.

Boredom crept in. The kids played but since their movements were restricted to the camp grounds they fought more frequently. Morgan tried to become lost in VR and had actually succeeded in getting Bess to join him. It didn't last long once John found out. Morgan was mad but John had made sense. They did need people to guard their base and be prepared if first contact was made.

Morgan was on guard that day as the rest of the group, minus himself and Baines gathered in the main tent for lunch. Baines was patrolling the south perimeter, Morgan the north. Morgan was tempted to use his Gear to complain of the boredom. Upon reflection though he came to the conclusion that it wasn't such a good idea.

A dark shadow appeared and it seemed that a solar eclipse was occurring. But Morgan knew that was impossible, there wouldn't be one for another two and a half years. Yale had previously calculated that fact on one of the long boring days locked up in the biodome. He looked up and squinted into the sun. He couldn't make anything out so he lifted his binoculars and added the U-V protected shaded lenses. He heard Baines yelling "Perimeter alert! Something's coming down!" at the top of his lungs. And Morgan could see it. A large metallic object was descending towards their location.

John burst out of the main tent along with most of the group, many with MagPros in hand. The others ran for the weapons tent and they took up a defensive posture. Yale remained inside the tent with the frightened children. Yale could hear Uly crying "They're coming for me." He tried to comfort him but it was no use.

The craft descended to a small clearing just south of the camp. It was small, no larger than the Transrover. It was longer than it was wide and was sleek black with only a few windows in the front. The metal was extremely shiny and the glare almost blinded the group. The side had markings that read "EDEN TWO".

Bewildered by the markings John approached the craft with Walman and Baines flanking him on each side, MagPros charged and targeted. From the side an opening in the craft appeared and the door opened to reveal a shadow. From this shadow emerged a man that made his way towards the group.

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