FROM THE DARKNESS
By
Thomas Gilmor
Timeline: On way to New Pacifica
Author's E-Mail: 93gilmor@fissure.scar.utoronto.ca
From the Darkness
A Short Story in the Earth 2 Universe
By Thomas GilmorChapter 1
Day 368The sun was bright as it reflected off the sand with enormous intensity. The temperature, already a stifling 40oC, was still climbing and the maximum would not be reached for another two hours. The past two weeks were by far the hottest ever encountered on G889. But for one small boy his heart was cold and his world black as night. Not even the glaring sun pierced his world. Lost in thought he wasn't paying attention when Danziger called for the routing six hour break to rest in the shade and charge up the batteries for the long night trip.
It had been three months since his mother fell ill and was put into cold sleep. He missed her terrible and he had fallen into a deep depression. He also felt guilty. His mother had sacrificed everything to bring him to this planet in hope of a cure. And now it appeared that she had also sacrificed herself. Yale had discussed with Julia about using drugs to let him overcome his pain but the doctor had resisted and argued that he just needed to grieve. Morgan, of course, pointed out that Devon was not dead and the boy should just grow up. However, to a child that had depended on his mother his entire life, to him she was gone.
The members of Eden Project began setting up tents to provide some shade through there wasn't much here in the middle of the desert. Morgan was complaining about the heat and how thirsty he was. Morgan Martin had changed in the past few months, however it was only noticed recently. After the incident with Devon, he had not agreed that Danziger should be leading the group. Morgan thought that with his expertise, being a government agent, he was better suited for the job as leader. However, he was outvoted -unanimously. He'd been quite upset that not even his wife of two years (plus 22 in cold sleep) had supported him. Slowly though Morgan was coming to see the group's point (which was still a bit of a novelty for him.) He had managed to cause more trouble for the group than any other member, well...except for the "Julia working for the Council" fiasco. The "old" Morgan had never bothered to think in terms of the "good of others", now this planet was even changing *him*. He knew he could no longer just act for himself. Since the number of members in Eden Project had dwindled by three so far, now more than ever the group had to function as just that, a group. Their very survival depended on it.
The adult members of Eden Project met in the large tent while the kids had already been bedded down for some much needed rest. Danziger and Baines were in the process of unfolding a large map while decided on their next course of action.
"OK, if we keep up this pace for the next week we should be clearing the desert and entering a grassland zone. From there it is only another 3500 km to New Pacifica. Another half year to go," Danziger stated tiredly.
"What about the vehicles? They've been through a lot of wear and tear. I don't belittle your maintenance skills but come on, there is only so much they can take and only so much you can do," Morgan demanded, walking in late after setting up his own tent.
"I've got them this far. They'll hold," John muttered disapprovingly. Morgan, although less selfish, still had a long way to go on his scepticism.
"Has there been any Terrain activity Alonzo?" asked Julia.
"No, this region has been extremely quite. I haven't had a dream in over a month. Perhaps there are no Terrains here or they stay away from this part of the planet. Why?" Alonzo replied.
Julia sighed, "I'm concerned about Uly. It's three months now and I am definitely reading lowered Serotonin levels in his hypothalamus but his connection to the Terrains makes his 'depression' different than any other I've encountered. I was wondering if the Terrains are involved with it somehow."
"I doubt it. I would have heard from them by now."
"Well maybe we should keep him busier; help stop the self dwelling, the doubting and the insecurity. He should pull out of it... with time," Bess offered with genuine concern.
"He'll pull through. He's a tough kid," Danziger stated. "Now let's get some rest while the vehicles charge up."
And with that they all slowly dispersed to their respected areas, to wait out the heat.
They were on the road again by 18:00 hours, the temperature had settled at a more comfortable level and as it continued to hold relatively steady into the wee hours of the morning the group could tell they were starting to move out of the desert zone. In previous weeks, the temperature had dropped to below freezing at night while soaring during the day. It made for quite a challenge to travelling. Too hot in the day for the travel and too cold at night for the vehicles to function efficiently. The joy of journeying through a desert. At least after all this time, the group had become more adaptable to rapid temperature changes, unlike the uniform temperatures they were accustomed to on the stations.
Alonzo and Morgan were on the back of the Transrover looking at the stars. Both moons were below the horizon for a brief time. To kill the boredom, they had designed a star chart with the help of Yale. They had finished the actual plotting of all the stars just four days before. They tried giving names to the new constellations, but neither of the men were too imaginative and they left that up to the kids. Besides, as Alonzo pointed out, they all had names from Earth, they just didn't look the same here on G889. True had come up with some unique names and she had tried getting Uly to help out. On the good days (or nights) he would, but mostly he would just sit and stare off in the depths of space.
On this night, Morgan wore a puzzled look on his face as he turned to question Alonzo. "Check the chart, Declination 20 degrees, Right Ascension 2 hours, 22 minutes, 1 second, 55 arc seconds."
Alonzo looked up the coordinates on the map. There wasn't anything plotted there. The nearest star was almost a degree to the north which he told Morgan.
"Then take a look at this!" Morgan pointed emphatically. "There's a new star!"
Alonzo looked through the binoculars that were handed to him, "I see it, okay I'll add it."
As Alonzo turned to add it to the chart, Morgan got more excited, "No you don't understand. I charted that region before and there weren't any stars there!"
Alonzo gave Morgan the look he was famous for. "It isn't a new star Morgan, you either missed it or it's a cephiod."
"What's a cephoid?" Morgan asked while squinting through the binoculars.
"It's a star that varies in it's brightness at a regular interval, usually anywhere between three and 100 days. Since we've been charting for the past sixty days, it must be very faint, otherwise we would've seen it before. It will disappear soon, but I'll add it to the chart anyway."
Morgan didn't say anything but once he was set in his thinking, he wouldn't change his mind. To him it was a new phenomena, never seen before so he hunted down Yale the next day to double check what Alonzo said was true (or more importantly to prove that Alonzo was wrong).
"Cephoids are very numerous in other galaxies and they provided a means to early astronomers to help calculate the distance to different star systems. In the end, they helped to determining the size of the universe and ultimately the age of it. They vary in periods from three to 100 days, so the peak luminosity should occur about 50 days from now; if it is on the high end of the scale, " Yale informed Morgan.
"Can it be some new phenomena?" asked Morgan.
"I doubt it. Man had been in space for the last two hundred years. Although we probably haven't seen everything, it is unlikely that this is some new phenomena. It is most likely a cephoid," replied Yale.
"Can it be a new star?"
"Possibly."
"How can you tell?" Morgan eagerly blurted.
"I can check my star charts to see if I have any cephiods stored in my memory in that region of space; please wait....." Yale's eyes seemed to focus inwards as he analyzed his data base. "..I don't have any record of a star in that position, however I was only programmed with the major star groups, not all of them, so it could still be an unimportant cephiod.
"Is there any way we could tell if it is?" Morgan inquired.
"If the luminosity continues to increase then begins to decrease, it is a cephiod. If it remains about constant, then it could be a new star," Yale admitted.
Morgan thought to himself, "I just have to wait and make further observations."
The nights went by and the star which Morgan had called Morgan's Star continued to increase in luminosity each night. He realized that if he announced this to Alonzo he would be admitting he was wrong. Something Morgan didn't usually do. So he kept quiet.
Day 430
The group had passed out of the desert, through the grasslands and they were now travelling through a more temperate area filled with broad leafed trees. Some even reminded Bess of oak. However there were still patches of grassland here and there. Yale explained to the children during their lessons that the transition of biomes was the same that had existed back on Earth. That was, before the deforestation, the burning of tropical forests and grasslands for agriculture. Something that was doomed to fail as soon as the population expanded. The change in biomes allowed travelling during day light and sleep during the night. Back to normal. Or as normal as one could get on this planet.
Julia had created a new anti-depression drug and had started administering it to Uly. The drug had made a difference but Bess liked to take credit for his change and argued that really didn't need them. But no one argued that Uly was starting to get on with his life.
As night settled on the camp, Bess had fallen asleep but Morgan had found that sleep eluded him. Bored, he slipped out of his tent and looked up at the sky. The second moon was just going beneath the horizon, then all the stars came out. It had been some time since Morgan had checked on Morgan's star. He didn't see the point in it after he knew he was wrong. But he had nothing else to do so he decided to wait and check on his star until he got sleepy and he proceeded to dig out the binoculars and the star chart. Perched on a hill just out side of base camp, he scanned the sky for the star. The first time he looked for it, a giant cumulus cloud covered it but it was moving fast enough and there weren't many of them anyways so he soon got a good view of it. He was startled, he could not believe his eyes! He couldn't understand what he was seeing. The star had grown! Not in it's size really, but it's luminosity had jumped by a factor of four. A million things ran through his head, "It wasn't a cephiod but did stars keep getting brighter?" He wasn't an astronomer but he didn't think they did. "What was it?" Suddenly he jumped up and started running back to camp. He knew what it was, it was so easy! It was the colony ship! He ran into the camp yelling and getting everyone out of bed.
"What is it Morgan?" John growled roughly, clearly annoyed as he rubbed his eyes, "This better be important."
"It is!" exclaimed Morgan.
By this time everyone had gathered around him in the middle of all the tents. Morgan started babbling, "Remember when I started the star chart?" People nodded in recollection. "Well, I saw this star that hadn't been there before and I thought I discovered a new star. But after talking with Yale and Alonzo they told me it was just a cephiod. But the cephiod with the longest periods known are 100 days. That means that it gets brighter for fifty days then it fades away. Well it has been almost 70 days and the star has continued to get brighter! By a factor of 4!"
"So?" asked Baines, who was obviously annoyed that he was awakened by some stellar observation. His bed was far more appealing than astronomy.
"Don't you see? It's so obvious! It's the colony ship. It's moving toward us!" Morgan exclaimed.
This set off a fury of discussion, all at once and everyone had become extremely excited until Alonzo had interrupted: "it could be a nova or a super nova."
"Unlikely, given the fact that the star has increased it's luminosity over such a long period of time," pointed out Yale.
"Wait a minute. The colony ship is not scheduled to arrive for another 300 days. Would it be visible now?" Danziger asked.
Yale pondered the question. "No.. it would not be visible for another 280 days, until it starts decelerating. The ship is far too small to be seen at this distance."
"Well then they're early!" Morgan said, getting quite frustrated.
"Not possible under the status they left the stations. There is no way that the colony ship could go any faster that they were scheduled to," Alonzo corrected.
"But we got here faster, and we left at the same time!" Morgan argued.
"That's because we were hauling such a smaller mass. We had less inertia. They don't have the energy to get to the same speed we did. It's physics. It just doesn't work!" exclaimed Alonzo.
"Then what is it?" inquired Bess.
Everyone looked around and there was silence. The eerie silence that no one wants to break. After a minute Morgan realized what he had actually discovered.
"Oh my God! Someone else is coming!"
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.
Chapter 3
The stranger was about as tall as John with slick black hair that would obviously not be kept for long in that manner on G889. He was clean shaven and wearing casual clothing, similar to those many of the group would wear after work on the stations. He appeared to be between twenty five and thirty years of age and he walked in a manner that one got the impression that he was very confident.
"John Danziger," the stranger stated "glad to make your acquittance," as he stretched out his hand for a hand shake.
John didn't extend his hand. "Who are you?" he demanded with the fierce stare that John was famous for. Baines and Walman gave the same glare but they lacked John's talent of it. They made up for their lack of intimidation by jostling their Magpros, clearly a threatening gesture.
"I see this planet hasn't changed you a bit John. There is no need for those weapons," the stranger replied lifting his arms to show he meant no harm as the wind started to mess with his finely placed hair.
"I'll be the judge of that. Now who are you?"
"Let's put it this way. See this craft behind me? It is equipped with quantum lasers. If I had wanted to destroy your merry little camp I would have done so by now. So please put down your weapons."
John glanced over to Walman and Baines and nodded. The two men lowered their weapons somewhat reluctantly and switched them off. He returned his attention to the stranger.
"That's better."
"Look mister, I don't know what your game is but I want answers!" John was clearly becoming frustrated. He didn't like being in a position that left him virtually powerless. This stranger seemed to know him and that gave him the upper hand.
"And answers I will give, but only to Devon. Where is she?"
"She is no longer with us," John stated.
"She's dead?" questioned the stranger.
"In stasis until we have the medical facilities required to cure her condition. Until then you will have to talk with me."
"Fine. Let's talk. We have a lot to discuss."
Danziger and the stranger had been in the main tent for over an hour talking. Alonzo and Yale had spent most of this time examining the vehicle the stranger had arrived in. Uly had come up behind them.
"Is that a HR-7 Landing Vehicle?" asked Uly.
"It sure looks like it on the outside," replied Alonzo as he started examining the wings. "It has the ability to rotate it's wings between a horizontal or vertical position which allows takeoff and landings in any terrain."
"Uly, do you remember from your lessons what aircraft the HR-7 was designed after?" enquired Yale.
"Uh...... was it the Spitfire?" replied Uly clearly not expecting an academic question. He was a little annoyed that this exciting event had to be ruined by an academic lesson.
"No. You are a few decades ahead. It was the Harrier," corrected Yale as he brought up a holographic image from his wrist.
Alonzo interrupted Yale. "Take a look at this." Yale turned off the hologram and made his way around to the wing that Alonzo was examining. "Those types of generators aren't used on commercial HR-7s."
"Quite correct. Those are Schmitte nuclear fusion reactors as far as I can tell from the exhaust outlets surrounding the wings. Schmitte reactors were too expensive for commercial use, only the very powerful and rich used these, and even then seldomly.
Before any more comments could be made they all turned around to hear Julia raising her voice. She was trying to draw everyone's attention to the main tent. John and the stranger were emerging.
"His name is Stewart Camil," John started as all of the group had gathered in the main tent, including the children. The children were kept to the back of the tent with Yale, Stewart was in the middle of the circle with John.
"He claims that he and his group are sympathizers of Adair's cause. He knew that the government officials on the stations were covering up the true fate of the Eden Project," said John.
"That's correct," stated Stewart. Stewart was wearing normal civilian clothing. Much to clean, it was obvious that he hadn't been trekking across the planet like the rest of them. "When we heard on the nets that your ship had been destroyed we were devastated. A friend of mine, Maya Ribison knew Dyson Blaylock and she decided to find out what really happened to Eden Advance. Let's just say that she befriended him and found out the true fate of your ship. A little later she also found out that Alex Wentworth had been 'programmed' to sabotage the ship when it arrived at G889."
"Maya and myself along with 20 others formed Eden Two secretly. I used my life savings and arranged for another transport ship to come to G889."
"But why?" inquired Bess.
"To help you!" he exclaimed "We didn't think that any of the cargo would have survived reentry. We half expected to find you scattered across the planet with very little supplies or worse! We were fairly certain that we wound find you all dead. We felt that it was unjust for the 250 colony children to arrive to the planet without a functional colony."
"What about the colony ship?" asked Alonzo "You must have passed it on your way."
"We did. It will arrive on schedule. We were able to overtake the colony ship due to our small payload and our newly developed faster fusion generators. Eden Two is here to help. With the vehicles we brought we can transport all of you to where your communication dish landed in New Pacifica. We can have you there by sundown tomorrow if you like."
A furious cheer broke out as people hugged each other. Only Danziger, Yale and Alonzo stepped back. When things settled down a bit Morgan directed a question at Stewart.
"How do you plan to get all of us there by tomorrow?"
"We have HR-7s that will relocate you to where your communications dish landed."
"Even the vehicles?" asked Baines
"No, it would be best if you leave them behind," stated Stewart.
"Wow, John do you believe this?" asked Baines.
But before John had the time to answer Yale cut in.
"How did you get the stations to give you level 7 clearance for this little endeavour?"
"Well we made up a story that we were relocating our families to the stations surrounding Mars. But once we approached Mars we accelerated and changed course for G889. We certainly pulled this over their eyes. So what do you say? Do we start moving tomorrow?"
John stepped forward. "I think it is best if you return to your ship while we think over your proposal."
"Why wait? What is their to discuss?"
"If there is one thing I learned on this planet, that is to think things carefully before making decisions of this magnitude."
"I understand John but remember we have new vehicles waiting for you at New Pacifica, but I'll come back tomorrow." With that he took his leave of the group and made is way to his HR-7. Shortly there after the ground shook with enormous intensity as the spacecraft headed up away from the atmosphere to the depths and darkness of space.
"What do you make of him John?" asked Heller.
"I don't know. Something doesn't sit right with me," John replied.
"Oh come on Danziger! You always have some suspicion with everyone and everything! We finally have something good happen on this planet we should jump on this!" exclaimed Morgan. "Come on John this means you can go home!"
"No, John's right," interrupted Alonzo. Morgan was clearly hurt that Alonzo was not agreeing with him. Alonzo of all people should have been jumping at the opportunity to get back into a space craft.
"When Yale and I were checking the HR-7 we noticed that the engines it was equipped with were not standard issue," continued Alonzo. "The HR-7 was equipped with Schmitte reactors that are ridiculously expensive. Although if the main craft were suited with these it would explain how they got here this fast."
"Yale? How does the rest of his story fit?" asked John.
"Stewart Camil was an acquittance of Dr. Valdez and he did process a large sum of money. Maya Ribison was a level six government agent and she also fits the profile that he detailed. His story is plausible," Yale answered.
"You see! I told you we have nothing to worry about. Let's go!" Morgan demanded.
"Morgan, hush up. Let's think this through honey. We don't want to jump into something we don't understand," stated Bess.
"Well we did that when we came to this planet!" replied Morgan. "Who else is with me. Who wants to go now?" bellowed Morgan clearly becoming very frustrated.
It was clear that no one was sure. The effects of travelling across half the planet were evident. They were tired. This would make their lives much easier, but at what cost? The one sure thing they knew was that the vehicles they had worked, and they were roadworthy. It would only be two months to New Pacifica, they had come so far on their own merit.
The debate raged into the night but eventually they had formed a consensus. When Stewart was to return the next day they were not willing to leave yet. They wanted some reassurance that this was a genuine offer. They would ask if Alonzo could go up and pilot one of the HR-7's to locate the missing cargo pods and then to meet with the others on the main ship. Only then would they agree to be moved without their vehicles. Or perhaps they could find someway of transporting their vehicles to New Pacifica.
Chapter 4
The sun rose on the landscape as the group slept. It was soon time to wake up, Stewart was due to arrive at any time. The breeze blew softly and quietly through the leaves of the large dominating trees. The air that moved towards the tents carried a sent that was recognizable yet unfamiliar at the same time. As if time had caused the nose to forget. But sometimes the mind is quick to remember; this was proven by Pavlov and his experiments hundreds of years before.
Morgan had stumped out of his tent at the same time as Alonzo.
"Is that the smell of bacon?" inquired Morgan, his tastebuds ready to explode.
"It certainly smells like it," Alonzo answered.
Within the next minute or so the rest of the group was out of their respective tents salivating at the scent. They looked towards the clearing, the HR-7 was there, motionless as if it had been there all along. The aroma though was coming from the north. Slowly and cautiously the group made its way in its direction. In a small clearing they soon saw Stewart over a thermal heater with enough bacon and eggs to feed the entire group. As they approached he turned;
"Well who's up for breakfast?"
"Oh this is great, a real meal!" Morgan exclaimed as he ran towards the cooking meal. He almost stumbled on a log in his haste. Alonzo approached Stewart,
"How did you get the HR-7 down without us hearing?" he asked
"Stealth mode. Quieter than a whisper."
Alonzo gave a quizzical look to John and Yale. Stewart picked up on it and added, "Hey, Eden 2 was wealthy, what can I say? How about some chow?"
The group sat on the ground as Stewart dished out their breakfast on new plates.
"So when do we begin? Stewart asked.
John was sitting opposite of Stewart and quickly finished his mouthful before starting. "Actually we want to talk to you about that."
"Oh."
"We don't want to appear ungrateful but we have had a number of bad experiences on this planet and we want to proceed slowly."
"What do you mean?"
"We would like Alonzo to pilot a HR-7 and meet your crew and then use it to help locate and possibly retrieve our missing cargo pods." John was testing Stewart. If they could retrieve the pods they could move their vehicles.
"You will need something larger than an HR-7, more like a ZX2."
"Is that possible?"
"It might be. I will have to talk with the others. Why don't you make this easier on all of us and just let us take you to New Pacifica?"
"Look, we are appreciative for your help but we have survived this far with what we've got. That's the deal."
"Fine. I'll be back." Stewart stormed off in the direction of the HR-7. It took off without a sound and glided into the heavens.
"What was his problem?" asked Baines.
"Maybe he is just insulted," offered Morgan "We really are being a pain in the ass. I mean.."
"Stuff it Morgan. If he's got a ZX2 that means he could transport the vehicles. He's not telling us the whole story.
The day passed and Stewart did not return that day. It wasn't until noon the following day that he arrived. He landed in the same clearing he had landed before. The group had gathered just on the edge of the clearing, Stewart approached.
"We have agreed to your terms John, but I still fail to see why you are being so difficult. We have one ZX2 available. Only 7 of your 15 pods survived and remained intact. You will require more than one pilot to load the pods onto the ZX2. You and your crew will board the ZX2 from the Mother Ship."
John responded, "Why then don't we move our vehicles?"
Stewart obviously was expecting the question and didn't crack a sweat, "Because our scans of them show that they have about a month left in their service life. There is no use hauling around junk."
John was insulted but he was able to hide his emotions, "I knew they were in a state of deterioration, but I didn't think it was that bad."
"Well they are," smiled Stewart.
"Alonzo and Baines will join you," John nodded to the two of them indicating for them to go. The expression on John's face looked as if to say, "Be careful, keep your eyes open."
Uly and True were in the main tent with the rest of the group. They had the job of placing markers on the map that depicted the location of the cargo pods. The group had decided it was best to first locate the pods with an areal reconnaissance to check if they were intact and only then would they start to load the ZX2.
Uly turned to John, "That's the last one," as Uly had placed the marker on the map in Copus where the last cargo pod was found.
"See I told you," stated Morgan coldly, "Stewart was telling the truth about the pods. Now why can't you trust him?"
"You know me Morgan. I don't trust anyone," Danziger replied with cold stare. Danziger was obviously referring to the first meeting he had with Morgan in which Morgan had deliberately, out of cowardice, took one of the escape pods as the ship crashed. Leaving John and True to find another pod in order to escape.
True had come up beside her father, "Dad, can Uly and I go out and play?"
"Sure."
True and Uly looked at each other and started to run out of the tent.
"But stay within the perimeter!" he yelled after them.
"We will!" they both replied in tandem without stopping or turning back.
True had devised a new game to occupy themselves. It involved them both laying on the ground staring at the sky. To be more precise, the clouds. They used their imaginations to identify them as objects. The winner was the one with the most elaborate story behind the object.
"That one," pointing to a cloud "looks like a wolf from Earth," said True. "It had escaped from the Station Zoo and was hiding in an empty tool locker. At night it prowled the corridors outside the Public Mess Halls waiting for some unsuspecting passerby to feed on." True ended her story with a grow and a howl.
"My turn," said Uly clearly excited. He paused and thought. Slowly he lifted his hand to point to a cirrus cloud just coming over the horizon. "That is the Wildebeest of Upper Calonia. He has six arms which shoot spiral tentacles to catch it's prey. They slowly drag it's victims, usually a Grendler into it's mouth. Acid from its forked tongue devours the Grendler as it howls in pain. Once the Grendler stops it's cries it then swallows it whole."
"Uly!" yelled True. "I thought we agreed that you were not supposed to use monsters that eat people all of the time!"
"Fine. You just don't like me using them because then I would win. Fine you go." True pointed to a very small dark cloud that was very high in the sky. It seemed to be growing a bit. "That one looks like one of the creatures that live behind black holes. As soon as you spot it, it grabs you. As it grows it holds you tighter and tighter as the world around you becomes darker and darker." She paused, then screamed! It was the high pitch whine that she was famous for.
Before Uly could ask for an explanation the ground in front of them exploded blowing dirt into his face. Great pulses of energy streamed from above.
The two on patrol, Magus and Walman, started firing their MagPro's wildly into the sky. What was once believed by a child to be a small dark cloud was actually a large dark assault aircraft. The rest of the group started running out of the tent. Those with MagPro's took a defensive position and opened fire.
Others ran across camp to the vehicles to get more weapons. The plasma bolts fell like rain. With each explosion more of their base was destroyed. At first some of the group took refuge near the vehicles but they quickly moved away, the shelling was too intense.
John was running through the battlefield trying to locate his daughter. Debris were flying everywhere and he often fell. A plasma bolt smashed ten feet in front of him and the explosion sent him wheeling. He looked behind him in time to see a plasma bolt hit the main tent. Nothing was left. He moved forward but each time he did he was repelled by a volley of plasma bolts. He slowly recognized the pattern. If he moved forward, a charge would follow, knocking him down.
He looked up to see that now there were three aircraft, all HR-7's and one descended before him, between True, Uly and himself. The other two aircrafts hovered above, menacing over the base that was left in shambles. The door to the HR-7 opened and John was not surprised when Stewart walked out of the craft with a weapon in hand.
"Good to see you again John," he smiled.
"What do you want? Who are you?" John demanded.
"Oh come on John, surely you've figured it out by now." He chuckled and moved towards the children.
"Stay away from them!" John yelled.
"Or what?" Stewart laughed. John charged at Stewart with pure adrenaline yelling "Run!" to the kids. Immediately a charge was fired at John and it exploded a few feet in front of him. Uly and True were terrified, they bolted but no sooner than they had started, Stewart fired his weapon at Uly, stunning him and knocking him to the ground. Stewart walked, then leaned over and threw Uly over his shoulder.
As he entered his ship with Uly in hand, Stewart turned to John, who was stunned but not seriously injured.
"I've got what I came for John. You've done a good job, keeping him safe for so long. Now you don't need any of this." Stewart said as he pointed around the camp that smouldering fires surrounded.
The door closed and within moments the HR-7 rose and turned in to an attack formation. John shouted "Everyone get away from the vehicles. Run!"
Morgan had moved back to the Transrover after Stewart's HR-7 had landed. He was standing on the roof screaming, firing his MagPro widely at the lead ship.
"Morgan move it now!" John yelled.
The ships moved in closer, Morgan stood his ground. It wasn't until he saw the green glow around the firing chamber did he jump and run.
The HR-7's made short work of the camp. The Transrover was the first target followed by the Dunerail, the medical tent and finally the smaller tents. With each explosion a piece of their collective hearts was ripped away as despair slowly took over and sunk in. After the last shot was fired the three HR-7's turned to leave behind a smouldering mound of debris.
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.
Chapter 6
The Stealth ship had been found in Cargo Pod 7. It wasn't on the official inventory and the group did not understand the purpose of having a stealth vehicle on a trip to a supposedly uninhabited planet. It must have been Devon, maybe she was more prepared for the unknown on G889 than others had thought.
The Stealth ship had the ability to deflect incoming sensor wavelengths from other ships. It emulated common natural wavelengths which gave the appearance that it was part of the landscape. But to do so it had to remain within 200 meters of the planet's surface. Even for Alonzo this type of flying was a challenge.
The cockpit was enlarged and there was no distinction between this area and the transport room, probably to ensure instantaneous communication between the pilot and the passengers. To the group it was like coming home after two years. The sound of walking on metal, the vibration of the deck plates as the ship moved. The stale air pumped into the room through the vents from the recyclers. The group did not think about it much then but they did not welcome the experience as they might have had a few months after crashing on this planet. It was familiar and it did feel like a home, but it wasn't where they were meant to be. They discovered that they, as humans had finally returned to their roots, the earth on G889.
Alonzo brought the group up to speed on the latest events. Danziger attempted to return the favour by explaining what had happened on his end but the Terrains had done a pretty good job of doing that already. They approached the mountainous area cautiously from the north and carefully slid down the south slope and entered a hover mode. To the groups surprise there was a complete circle of Terrains awaiting, staffs in hand.
Alonzo proceeded to lower the ship and land it. Smooth as ever. Alonzo was definitely worth the money Devon had paid him. John started to get up but Alonzo turned,
"Actually John were not done yet."
"But I thought...." babbled John.
"You'll see."
After about a minute the Terrains lifted their staffs. Morgan battled his instinct to jump up and say "They are going to attack." But Morgan knew his friend well. They were in good hands.
The staffs pulsed with energy and a blinding light was released. They all turned from the windows as the light pierced their eyes. They were all occupied with the sudden blindness that none took notice of the rumbling noise that accompanied the light. When the lights effect wore off Bess jumped up and exclaimed,
"We're underground!"
Morgan was clearly dumbfounded "How did they do that?"
John turned, smiled and said "We don't know much about anything they do."
The group got up and left through the primary airlock to where Baines was standing waiting for them. He looked surprisingly calm considering his numerous phobias of the various life forms on this planet. Baines just nodded and moved his head to the left to indicate that he wanted the others to follow the tunnel to the left.
The group fell in line and moved through the narrow tunnel one at a time. Julia was in the front and when she reached the end of the tunnel she exclaimed in joy.
"You got all of this?"
There was no reply. The group looked around the giant chamber, roughly the height of a twenty story building and it stretched for about a thousand meters in each direction. It was filled with equipment from the various cargo pods. Although they did not have all of their equipment, they knew they could definitely start their colony with this stuff.
A Terrain appeared from the floor in front. A few seconds later the entire group of Terrains that were on the mountain side were present. John turned to Alonzo.
"So old man, are you going to tell me what's going on?"
"Let's sit first," and Alonzo motioned for everyone to sit on the ground around them. The Terrains crouched into their squatting position.
"The Council wants control of this planet and they know that the planet will reject them eventually. We were told this from Elizabeth. It comes down to DNA. We have very little in common with this planet and Julia can attest for that. The differences in DNA make it impossible for us to be integrated into this biosphere."
"So are you saying we give up?" asked Heller.
"No, of course not because that all changed when the Terrains healed Uly. What makes Uly the bridge between humans and this planet is his DNA. If the Council can duplicate what the Terrains did to Uly to themselves, they would have control of this planet."
"But that would be very hard to do. When I tried injecting Uly's DNA into my genetic makeup it backfired," attested Heller.
"That is why the Council is so desperate."
"What are you saying?" blurted Morgan "Are you saying we are all just going to die but Uly?"
"In theory that would be the case. That is why most humans have died since being on the planet," Alonzo replied.
"What about Mary and Sheppard's group. They survived and what about Gaal?" asked Bess.
"Gaal probably survived by exploiting the Gredlers in some manner. Perhaps he was not here long enough. We can survive for ten to twenty years until our biosystems no longer tolerate the environment. But Mary's and Sheppard's cases are different. The Terrains, as we know, have unique abilities on this planet and they can alter the genetic code of the food we eat. Thus making it possible for us to survive. They can do this for as long as they want and this is what they have done with Mary and Sheppard's group."
"That's great and all, but how is this going to help Uly?" added John clearly wanted to get on with the business at hand.
"Uly is a part of the planet now since he is part Terrain. The Terrains are all interconnected through the planet and Uly's place in their link is growing weaker. If Uly is killed off world, not only will part of the planet die as well, but it would remain permanently incomplete," continued Alonzo.
"The Terrains are collecting on Devon's deal with them. The Terrains know now what the Council represents to them, an end of their way of life. What we must do is get Uly and neutralize the Council. In return the Terrains will ensure our food supply and that of our direct descendants to a form that is suitable for us."
Alonzo finished and looked around the group indicating that he was done. Walman seized the opportunity, "That means we will always be at the will of the Terrains! We do something they don't like, they cut off our food supply!"
Julia cut in before anyone could say anything, "I think it's more of a mutualistic relationship. We scratch their back and they scratch ours so to speak."
Walman was ready to offer a counter argument but John stepped in, "We can debate the theoretical aspects of this later. This won't help Uly. Let's get going."
Chapter 7
The planet screamed. From the depths of the planet poured lava as volcanoes blew dark dust in to the air. The ground shook and jolted as it moved. Fissures developed and entire landscapes laid to waste as they slid into oblivion.
On the oceans the waves stretched to the sky and crashed against the rocks with the intensity of thunder. The sound almost compared with the real thing that echoed high above, in the ever growing cloud masses. Lighting stuck the land faster than the eye or computer could comprehend. Fires flickered and then came to life, devouring anything in its path. The occasional one was put out due to the rain or the damaging tornadoes that swept it's fuel out of it's way.
Back on Earth these were called Natural Disasters, Freaks of Nature. They were uncontrollable, unpredictable and deadly. But here things were different. The light from the sun dimmed to complete darkness that resembled nightfall as the thick black cloud of dust and water vapour covered the planet. Surprisingly though every living creature survived. After a fire would consume its fuel and move on, a new tree would be in its place with a growth rate thousands of times above normal until it reached the age of the previous tree. Within minutes the landscape returned to its undisturbed state.
Here on this planet these were Natural Disasters of a different kind. They were not unpredictable or uncontrollable and they were not deadly; or not to those things indigenous to the planet.
Fire swept through their old camp that they had laid to ruin. Anything left that was not already burnt, burned and was consumed. The fire was deadly to those not from this world.
"Sir, I think you should take a look at this." exclaimed a young crewman from behind the sensor station of the Council ship.
Stewart Camil casually, full of pride and confidence strolled over to the young crewman.
"What is it?"
"The entire planet is clouding up."
"You weren't brought on this mission to bore me with weather reports Crewman. Now back to your job before I reassign you to Mess Hall."
"But Sir you don't understand. The entire planet is clouded over. There isn't as much as a centimetre of clear sky!"
"That is peculiar. What is it's cause?"
"Unknown Sir."
"Well find out!" he dictated as he turned around to return to his command chair
Just as Stewart had finished giving the order the intercom system buzzed. "Medic to Bridge, Medic to Bridge."
"Stewart here, go ahead."
"Sir the boy has started acting very peculiar."
"Specify 'peculiar' Doctor."
"Well Sir, he is making clicking noises and nodding his head side to side, and well Sir somehow he is burrowing through the metal floor."
"Damn you. Has he escaped?"
"Negative sir. As soon as it started we employed the reinforced steel deck plate counter measure."
"Hold on I'll be right there," He turned to his second in command, a short plump middle aged woman. "Keep an eye on things up here." She nodded in acknowledgement.
Stewart made his way to the elevator and proceeded to descend four levels. The bride was located at the uppermost of the twenty levels. The Medic Room was located on the fourth floor. The doors opened and he proceeded down a straight corridor. He turned left and then walked into the Medic Room.
It was a light but low intensity blue coloured room. Very typical for a Council Medic Room. Camil was clearly upset that the boy had started to act this way. He turned to the Chief Medic who had alerted him on the bridge, "Report."
"No change in his condition. Out of the blue he started moving and clicking," said the Medic. The Medic was grey on the sideburns and a small bald spot was developing on his crown. He looked around 45 to 50 years of age.
"I warned you! It's the Terrains!" stated the second Medic that had been standing beside the Chief. Stewart turned to her,
"You have been warned of this before Jodi Russel. You are a member of the Council. We state facts, not opinions. This is your last warning before we jettison you off into space! Do I make my self clear?" screamed Cameron in outrage.
Jodi responded calmly, "Perfectly sir."
Stewart turned to the Chief but said nothing.
"Actually sir, I would have to agree with Russel. There is no plausible explanation for Uly's behaviour."
"Well then what do we do?" replied Stewart coldly.
"There is nothing we can do. We drug him and experiment on him. Hopefully we learn what we need to."
"Then proceed as you suggest. Remember Doctor, failure is not an option." Stewart turned and left the Medic Room.
Stewart retraced his steps that he had taken a few minutes ago and made his way up to the bridge. He had just stepped into the elevator and its doors closed when the entire ship jolted and shuddered. The impact knocked Stewart to his knees. He stood up and directed the elevator to proceed to the bridge. The ship jolted again. This time harder. He was knocked down again. He was off balance and his knee jabbed into is abdomen knocking the breath out of him.
The elevator doors opened to Cameron crouched over in a fetal position. He quickly composed himself despite of the pain and humilation. "What in Blazes is going on! Report."
Before his second in command had a chance to answer a third jolt hit the ship which knocked all of the bridge crew out of their seats.
The crewman, Max, who had previously been barked by Camil struggled to his panel. "It is growing stronger!"
"What is?" demanded Camil.
"The planets magnetic field. It has been repolarized and its intensity has grown exponentially," replied his second in command.
"And the jolts?"
The crewman turned to look at Cameron "It is the ship passing through the magnetic field."
"Well move us away from it you idiot, full speed," ordered Camil.
Max didn't have time to respond as the forth jolt hit and rocked the ship. From the back a panel exploded and flames jumped up to meet the unfortunate young man standing there.
"Why haven't we cleared the magnetic field?" demanded Camil as he struggled to climb back into the Command Chair.
"It's following us," reported his second in command.
"What? That's impossible!" exclaimed Camil. "A planet can not just change its magnetic field."
Max turned, "Well sir, this one can."
A fifth jolt rocked the ship however this time it did not let the ship go. The Council Ship fought, it's engines expended more fuel in the next few minutes than it had on its entire journey to G889. Alarms rang throughout the ship.
"If we fight the magnetic field we will tear ourselves apart!" exclaimed Max.
"What would happen if we followed the magnetic field?" inquired Stewart clearly exhausted of any ideas to fix this situation.
"We would be dragged into the planet sir. And that's where we are headed."
"Don't give up so quickly crewman. Keep trying."
"Yes sir."
From the side panel another alarm went off and a computer voice added a message:
"Warning, two unidentified vessels approaching."
"What!" cried Camil, "Who in God's name can it be?"
"It's Eden Project Sir, and they are contacting us."
Alonzo was piloting the lead ship, a HR-3, Baines was just behind piloting the secondary ship. John was up with Alonzo with Magnus and Morgan, both with MagPro's in their lap.
"Morgan. Open communications to the Council Ship." asked John.
Morgan wasn't one for taking orders but for once he didn't mind. A government agent he was, an army person he wasn't.
"Visual V.R. lines are now open.." a few seconds passed "they are responding."
Cameron's bruised face appeared on the screen in the lead ship. "You don't look to well there Stewart," John said with a smile.
Stewart was clearly very angry "Is this your doing John? I swear you'll pay for this!" he shouted.
"I don't think your in any position to make threats Stewart. Return the boy without harm and we will convince the Terrains to let go of your ship."
"And if I don't? You're going to let this ship crash? I don't think so John, not while Uly's on board, so go to hell!" Camil cut communications.
"Well so much for the diplomatic route. Magnus, have you determined where Uly is?" asked John.
"According to our scans, and the information the Terrains gave Alonzo he is on the fourth level from the top, deep in the interior."
John opened a communication line to the other ship. "Okay troops this is pay dirt. Remember to keep away from the escape pods in case the Terrains are successful in getting Uly to one of them. Proceed."
John cut the transmission and ordered Morgan to start firing the primary laser cannons. They struck just below the Council's own cannons. The secondary ship also opened fire, careful to watch for the escape pods and the primary ship.
They concentrated their fire on the third deck on the opposite side of the bridge. Baines maintained a respectful distance and provided cover fire for Alonzo. Alonzo piloted the HR-3 close to the Council Ship and manoeuvred it to be along side the three meter hole they had carved out with their blasts.
Alonzo was able to manoeuvre the ship so that the airlock of the HR-3 just covered the hole. Morgan, Magnus and John made their way to the air lock, he looked at Alonzo, then back to the group, "Let's go."
Fire was spreading acrose the bridge as panels exploded. The fire suppression system had become overloaded throughout the ship and it was unable to keep up.
"They are boarding us sir!" cried Max.
"Any progress on getting our weapons back on line?"
"Negative sir it's no use, we are going down!" yelled Max.
Stewart was silent for a moment. He seemed reluctant to accept the inevitable. He tapped on the communication line "Bridge to Medic. Have the boy brought to escape Pod 1 and wait until I arrive."
All that came back from the Medic Room was a muffled "Understood."
Cameron nodded to Max as he opened a general communication line to the entire ship; "All stations, listen carefully. This vessel is going down. Please report to the nearest escape pod with as much equipment as possible. Set the pods to rendezvous at Alpha One. I repeat..." Cameron repeated his message the second time and as soon as he had finished Max and the entire bridge crew moved to the elevator. From there they proceeded to deck two where some of the escape pods were located."
"Grab the kid Jodi, you heard the order," barked the Chief Medic. Jodi had moved to the opposite end of the Medic Room to retrieve something from beneath the counter.
"Council Member you were given an order! We don't have much time," he yelled.
"I know." Jodi turned with a miniature MagPro in hand aimed at the Chief Medic.
"What.... what is the meaning of this Jodi?"
"You said it yourself asshole! We are running out of time. You know as well as I do that there have not been any non Syndrome births on Earth in the past seven years. The human race is going extinct."
"That is why we need to secure the boy! Let's go!"
"I don't think so," she said waving the MagPro. "If all of you would start using your genetically altered heads you might figure out what is actually happening here! The planet is responding to us taking the boy. We have lost! Can't you see!"
The Chief Medic just stood there blinking. He was obviously trying to figure a way out of this situation but he couldn't find any.
"The only way to save the thousands of people already on their way here is to return the boy to his group, to the Terrains!"
"You're mad!" he exclaimed and he lunged for her. A small but bright blue steam of energy poured from the weapon intercepting the Chief Medic in mid pounce, it ripped through him as he crashed on to the floor.
John was surprised with the relatively little resistance he had encountered thus far. He soon came to understand though as he heard the general evacuation orders. Most had headed to the evacuation pods on deck two just as John had predicted.
They had turned the corridor and plasma bolts had screamed over their heads just missing all of them. The set up in a triangular formation behind the bulkhead firing at their aggressors. Alonzo came in through the Gear.
"John, the ship is going down."
"Well tell your Terrain friends to slow things down a bit until we get off this sinking piece of metal!"
"I can't fly and communicate with them at the same time! If I do I risk losing our position, or worse, destroying our ship!"
John cursed under his breath, "Understood."
The firing eventually stopped and they proceeded cautiously to the next bulk head, then to the elevating device that would take them down one level to where they believed Uly was kept. John and Morgan had taken the far side while Magnus had taken the nearside of the elevating device. Their MagPros were running low on energy due to the prolonged fire fight.
The doors swung open and John ordered Magnus to stay behind to keep their escape route clear of any disgruntled Council Members. Morgan and John proceeded the to the deck beneath them. They both stood with MagPro's ready for what ever lay beyond the doors.
They opened and Morgan fired. The bolt exploded in the far wall of the corridor.
"Morgan! Why did you fire!"
"I thought I saw someone! I swear," sputtered Morgan.
"Be more careful next time. Come on lets move!"
They proceeded to the Medic Room and they cautiously entered the room and saw a plasma bolt fly across the room and rip an middle aged gentlemen through the gut. He crashed to the ground with a loud thud.
Morgan and John raised their weapons ready to fire on Jodi who hadn't yet noticed their arrival.
"Don't move!" John yelled.
Jodi turned and fired and the bolt of energy screamed over their heads. Morgan fired back to provide cover for John who raced across the room to remove Uly from his shackles. The flying debris from Jodi's shot made John's task more difficult. Uly was no longer in his Terrain state but he clearly looked in shock but managed to say:
"Stop she tried to save me!"
Morgan looked at John as if to ask "Well do I fire?"
John had Uly in is arms and he settled him down.
"Who are you?" John asked as he turned to face Jodi.
Jodi who had been hiding behind what was left of a Med Bed stood up from behind the bed. She tossed her weapon towards them to indicate that she was no longer a threat.
"My name is Jodi. You better hurry and get out of here. It won't be long before this ship starts to burn up in the atmosphere."
John smiled. Picked up her weapon and handed it to her. Morgan's eye's bulged from their sockets when he did this. But John knew what he was doing.
"Let's go," he said.
The four of them made their way back to the elevator. The computer was now stating the time remaining until the ship entered the atmosphere. They had about forty seconds. They emerged on deck three, Magnus was just before them with her weapon ready.
"Move it people!" John yelled.
John had Uly in is arms. Magnus ran ahead and Morgan and Jodi pulled up the rear. There was no resistance at this point. Anyone they met in the corridors was to consumed with the thought of saving their own lives than to worry about the intruders. As they turned the corner Morgan radioed to Alonzo,
"Open the doors we are coming in!"
They bolted through the airlock which quickly closed behind them. Alonzo didn't wait for a second. He saw that they had all returned safely albeit with an extra person and he quickly moved away from the Council Ship. No sooner had he cleared the ship than it started to burn up.
"That was too close," said Alonzo relieved while wiping the sweat from his brow. They all turned to look out the window. There was silence. The Council ship fell into the darkness of the clouded planet below with a reddish white glow as it burned.
Epilogue
Two days had passed since their ordeal. Soon after the Council ship had crashed the planet returned to normal. The Terrains said their farewell in the usual manner. They transported the group and all their belongings to the surface and then disappeared.
Julia had confirmed what Jodi had said. Uly was fine. The Council did not yet have time to preform any of their experiments, for that they were relieved. The group had welcomed Jodi, first with a bit of scepticism but eventually they came around, just as they had with Julia.
The group had decided to make way to New Pacifica come first light the next day. But tomorrow would be a different day than any other spent on this planet. Tomorrow they would fly in the ZX2 to their destination and start the work they had originally hoped to start nearly a year and a half ago.
Surprisingly no one had taken up camp in the ZX2 tonight. They all grabbed some spare tents from the cargo hold and pitched them. Even the Martins. The planet had truly changed this group of individuals. Strangers at the beginning, nothing in common. And at the end? A group of friends bound together by love.
John walked away from the campfire and Julia walked up beside him. She knew John well enough that he was reflecting on what had happened and what it all meant.
"What's on your mind Danziger?" she questioned.
He did not turn. Rather she had to walk around him and confront him. They were now a considerable distance from the camp and the others had respected the two's decision to leave the camp fire.
She looked at him and his eyes were streaming with tears. "What is it?"
He wasn't sobbing, there were both tears of sorrow and of joy. He turned and looked her in the eye.
"Look at us. Look at what we have accomplished, this little band of people. We were able to overcome all of our personal differences and struggles."
"And we have always come out on top John," replied Julia
"We have. But we have danced along that line so many times Julia. If what Jodi says is true, with thousands of colonists on their way. Are we still going to be able to stay on the right side of the line? Or will be forced to cross it?"
"We can only do our best. From the darkness of our souls there either comes darkness or light. That's how I've started to look at it. We've done it here and we will continue to do so John. We are humanities second and last chance. And we won't blow it."
"And what if the Council survived the crash, what then?"
"Our light must be strong enough to burn away the hatred and greed that lies within their souls."
The two stood in silence pondering the words that were exchanged. The light of the campfire was distant but shadows danced along their backs. The stars twinkled as if they mimicked the flames of the campfire. Here on this planet the fires of their souls would always burn bright.
-The End-
If you liked this story email me (Thomas Gilmor), I would love to hear from you.
NOTE FROM ARCHIVER: Thomas probably won't be available at his E-mail, because he just ended school, and his account will be terminated.--Andy
This text file was ran through PERL script made by Andy. Original text file is available in Andy's Earth 2 Fan Fiction Archive.