From the Darkness by Thomas Gilmor

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From the Darkness
Chapter 5

The sun was bright and Alonzo thought he was in heaven, again. High above the ground he had taken the ZX2 from the primary ship. The primary ship was about two thirds the size of the soon to arrive colony ship. The ZX2 took up half of that volume.

Alonzo and Baines met very few of the Eden Two Group while on board. Two men greeted them when they disembarked from Stewart's HR-7. But they said little and Baines had the feeling that they were security. Security for what? They couldn't figure that out. Everyone on this ship had supposedly volunteered their savings and their life in order to aid Eden Project. What did they have to worry about that would require security?

Alonzo and Baines had no trouble operating the ZX2 and a perfect departure was accomplished from the Mother Ship. Alonzo's record was still perfect.

Most of the day they spent ensuring that the data they were supplied with was correct. It had been. All of the cargo pods listed as intact were found and from the air they were judged to be in good condition. That was almost unbelievable since every pod they had found in the past year and a half had been robbed. They had radioed back their final cargo pod some time ago.

Alonzo and Baines still had an uneasy feeling about the entire thing. Something was up. Alonzo had a 'feeling' that he said was coming from the planet itself. And that feeling was one of danger. Baines and Alonzo had decided to use some ZERO units to help load the contents of the cargo pods onto the ZX2.

They had finished loading 7 of the 8 cargo pods. Their inventory listed these to contain medical supplies, vehicles, clothing, food supplies and shelter material. They were on their way to cargo pod number 10. Alonzo was surprised that the group hadn't found pod 10 on their trek to New Pacifica. It was only twenty kilometres from the sanctuary that they had found Sheppard's group. Alonzo was nearing Sheppard's area when he screamed and slumped onto the floor. Baines, in shock was able to remain composed and he managed to change the fight control over to his panel. He then put the ship into hover mode so the ship would maintain its current position.

He turned to Alonzo. "Alonzo what is it?" he yelled. Baines wasn't sure if he could hear him or not. "Damn, what is it?"

Alonzo did not answer but he turned and twisted has if having a nightmare. As quickly as it had began, it ended and Alonzo came to.

"Are you alright man?"

"Yeah, but not for long. Move!" Alonzo jumped up and dashed down the corridor and slid into the access elevator. Baines followed yelling questions as he went along.

"What the hell is going on?"

Alonzo did not answer and he continued going through corridors and access tunnels. Finally in the cargo area behind one of the bulk heads he ripped open a control panel. Baines panting behind him pulled up and peered in.

"Oh my God!"

Alonzo ripped the bomb from the control panel. It was armed and set to go off within the minute. He rushed to the back of the pod.

"Open the hatch!"

Baines pulled down the emergency hatch lever with all his might. It was tight and it stuck but eventually it slid down with a high pitched noise of metal grinding against metal. The access door started to open. Alonzo threw the bomb out of the ship through the opening. He turned to Baines.

"Get back to the Control Room and move us away from that thing!"

Baines, clearly tired but with adrenalin pumping through his system ran back to the access elevator with Alonzo behind him. It took a full thirty seconds to reach the Control Room. He didn't even think of his directional heading, he just flipped the switch and turned thrusters on full.

Alonzo hadn't reached his chair and the force of the sudden movement knocked him to the ground. Before he had a chance to get up they heard a quite explosion and a small shockwave gently rocked the ship.

"Damage?" asked Alonzo.

"None, but that was close," he replied.

"Closer than you think."

"Terrains?"

"What?"

"When you collapsed it was the Terrains wasn't it?"

"There's no fooling you kid."

Their tears had stopped flowing but the anger that burned within them had not been extinguished like the fires on the ground had. For most this was a new emotion. Something they had not yet experienced. Everyone had faced anger but not on this level. Their blood boiled, how could they do this?

The campsite was unrecognizable. Where there had been tents there laid empty holes with wisps of smoke rising to the sun every so often. Where once vehicles had transversed the landscape lay millions of pieces of scrap metal. Nothing was salvageable. Nothing was even recognizable. Their hearts had sank and drowned as hope had been conquered by despair.

There were no fatalities in the fighting. Although it wasn't much of a fight since their blasts had no effect on the HR-7's armour, it had been a very lopsided battle. There were a few minor injuries, nothing serious. Heller was thankful for that since all over her medical equipment had been destroyed. All were accounted for except Baines, Alonzo and of course Uly.

The first order of business was to contact Alonzo and Baines. But they could find not one single Gear that was intact. All of them had been damaged in the fighting.

"Now what?" asked Magnus.

"We look for food and shelter before nightfall," stated Danziger. He was thankful that True had been uninjured in the conflict with Stewart.

"That's it? Aren't we going to do something?" asked Morgan.

"Like what? We have no supplies! John is right, food and shelter are our priority now." replied Julia. "All we can do now is pray that Alonzo and Baines are alright."

"Unlikely. Whoever they are probably booby trapped the ZX2, if there ever was a ZX2," Yale stated.

To that no one debated. True still shaken turned to her father, "Who were they dad?"

"The most logical conclusion is that it was the Council," stated Yale.

"It would make sense. Only the Council and Station Authority knew that Eden Project had escaped the stations. The Council already had scout ships out here 50 years before that not to mention the penal colonists. We must have represented some type of threat to the Council's plans," concluded Julia.

The group talked about it. They speculated on their objectives. They agreed that the Council was trying to gain control of the planet. That was obvious with the abduction of Uly. They knew the only way to control the planet was through him. Without Uly, the planet would reject them. They continued the talk around the fire they made to keep warm and Yale had brought up a very interesting point:

"All of our conclusion are based on the premise that the Council knew what was happening on this planet since we have been here! They could not have known everything that we have done here without some type of help!"

"What about Reily?" asked Heller. "He certainly knew a lot of Uly and his link to this planet?"

"But it wasn't," The voice came from between the not to distant trees. Alonzo stepped forth from between them. Cries of joy and laughter erupted from the group as they ran towards him. It ended in a large bear hug. After the embrace Julia, still holding his arm asked, "But how, who...?" she stumbled on the words.

"It's a long story and we don't have much time but it was Sheppard's sister, Katrina that had been communicating with the Council while they were on route to G889. Apparently Sheppard or the Elder had no idea that this was happening. The Council promised to grant Katrina a new life in the Council Colony if she aided them in securing Uly. Katrina used the hibernating Terrains for her communications but she was able to keep that knowledge from the Terrains. The boy had found this out some time ago but said nothing. He only spoke when the Terrains approached the Elder's group regarding Uly's abduction.

"Uly is connected to the Terrains and they felt him being ripped away from the planet. I don't know how the Terrains did it but they were able to find out everything the Council had in store for us. Stewart and his crew came out of cold sleep as soon as we crash landed on G889. They wanted to keep up to date to what we were up to but it was some time until we met up with Sheppard's Group. It was then that Katrina informed the Council about Eden Project's progress."

"How did you survive? Surely the Council had something in store for you. We were bombarded with plasma discharges," asked John.

"While going for Pod 10 the Terrains aggressively warned me of the bomb the Council had planted on the ZX2. Baines and I narrowly disposed of it. We scanned the rest of the ship. One more bomb was found which was also disposed of. We were informed of your situation and the Terrains are willing to help."

"How are they going to do that. The Council is in orbit!" scoffed Morgan.

"That is where we come in. I have brought a stealth vehicle from one of the pods .."

"The pods! You've got the cargo?" asked John trying to conceal his excitement.

"Yes, well most of it. The Terrains have secured what we have not yet picked up."

"You are wise for a man your age!" exclaimed John.

"We've got to move quickly if we want to save Uly. The Terrains are waiting with Baines."

Rejuvenated with hope when at the edge of despair the group quickly made way to the stealth ship.

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