“Henry. Print off copies of the plans for the underground complex, and give them to Paul and Steven,” he instructed.
“Then tomorrow morning, you can give Nick and Steven priority, so they can get their heavy machinery out,” he added.
“Right, Paul and Steven. I assume you will need help assembling some of your equipment, so we will make sure you have at least two more men.
Then, as soon as the Excavators and Bulldozers or whatever other pieces of heavy machinery you need are ready. Get across to that depression, and start marking it out.”
“Will do.”
“Ok, folks. Let’s turn in for the night.”
Sleep came easy for everyone that night. With all of them hoping that tomorrow would see real progress.
Chapter 32
A Helping Hand
The next morning, the crew started work early.
By 11:00 o’clock, Steven, was already well on his way to the site of the underground complex, ten kilometres from the Acarea. Having left just after the first piece of earth-moving equipment had been assembled.
Meanwhile, outside the main airlock, Captain Traven, together with Nick and Peter were busy assembling the other earthmover.
Then, just after 11:20, Traven suddenly noticed that the Acarea was in the shade. Surprised, he looked up.
“Look,” he yelled out pointing skywards.
Startled, his crew stopped what they were doing. Then, looking up, the fear of something they had seen before, flashed through their minds.
A massive blue sphere hung about three kilometres above them. However, it seemed dimmer now, compared to the last time they had seen it in Space.
They stood rooted to the spot, looking at the sphere, and talking nervously to each other.
Within moments, wondering what all the commotion was about, the rest of the crew came out of the Acarea and joined them.
They all stood there, silently watching the globe.
Nothing happened for another two minutes.
Then Traven turned to them. “It’s alright,” he told them as he saw a picture form in his mind. We wish you no harm. It seemed to infer.
He looked around, thinking that everyone must have seen what he had seen. However, none of his crew had reacted, and he realised that no one else had seen the picture.
“What are they waiting for?” Paul nervously asked.
“I think we’re about to find out,” Traven replied while feeling much better about the situation.
Then, as they stood watching the blue sphere, a circle of light suddenly appeared halfway down the curvature of the ship.
A line of tiny blue globes then exited the mother ship and started to descend, picking up speed as they went.
Then, formed a rectangular formation, and came to a halt about half a kilometre above the Acarea.
“Grief,” Alex exclaimed. “I just hope we give them indigestion.”
“Shut up.” Peter snapped as he saw that the small globes were now glowing, and crackling with energy.
Then the blue globes swooped down, and towards the Acarea.
“Inside, everyone. Now!” Tommy yelled.
“No.” Traven instinctively ordered. “Stay put.”
The blue globes suddenly diverted. Then, still glowing and crackling with energy, headed towards the rock formation in which the Acarea was trapped. Then split into six groups of four. All of them hovering above the rock formations. With three groups on either side of the Acarea.
The Globes, still glowing and crackling with energy, suddenly started crisscrossing the rock formation. Going back and forth, until everyone looking on realised that each group had cut out a boulder.
The blue globes seemed to darken in colour. Then, pushing themselves against the piece of rock they had just cut, lifted it into the air, and dropped it onto the pusher plate. Each group then returned to the same rock formation and started the process all over again.
Everyone watched intently, as the Globes went on with their task. This continued for nearly two hours until, finally, the pusher plate was completely covered by the boulders.
The globes then moved away. Joining as a single group again and headed back to their mother ship. With everyone still watching them, intently.
Finally, as they started entered the mother ship, Traven realised they were not glowing or crackling anymore.
“Well, I’ll be damned,” Joe, exclaimed, as he looked at the radiation reading he had just taken from the pusher plate area.
“What is it?” Traven asked.
“Down to only three Rems, Captain. I reckon if that globe up there lets us, we’ve got loads of time to move out and set up camp. What do you think Captain?” Joe asked.
Traven didn’t bother to answer him, as another picture formed in his mind. This time, it showed the blue Sphere leaving.
Then, as soon as Traven understood the meaning, the picture changed to show the Sphere returning.
Captain Traven tried to construct a picture in his own mind. An image of himself, nodding understanding of their message.
Nothing happened for a moment, and Traven thought he had failed to communicate.
Then, the Sphere rose up and seemed to shimmer. Then vanished, in a clap of thunder, as air rushed in to fill the void.
“Henry, did you see anything in your mind?” Traven asked, choosing his words carefully.
Henry pondered a moment.
“Something, like a picture. I assume that’s what you saw, Captain?”
“So, we both saw them. Did anyone else?” he asked.
The rest of them just shook their heads.
“Selective, aren’t they,” Paul grumbled.
Captain Traven, then thought about how he was going to tell the crew what he believed, without sounding as if he was belittling them. Then, deciding it was too hard, just said.
“It could just be that it’s simply too difficult for them to make everyone see this picture thing in their minds.
However, Henry is a blood relative of that Micky guy…so that would be easy for them. And, I’m the elected Captain, so I suppose I qualify.”
That seemed to satisfy the rest.
Steven finally reached the site for the Underground Complex, about 11:35. Then got out of his cab and proceeded to walk back and forth over it, trying to get a feel for the terrain. This kept him occupied for quite a while.
Then, curious, he glanced back and towards the Acarea. Even though he was ten kilometres away, the air was virtually pollutant free. So he could almost see what was going on with his naked eye, albeit not very clearly. Then he got his monocular out of the cab and looked through it.
What he saw then, gave him a fright. Until he realised that the small globes buzzing around the wreck of the Acarea weren’t actually attacking the ship. They seemed to be helping instead.
He tried his communicator, but it was dead.
It was apparent to him that the activity around the Acarea had indeed started while he had been travelling to this site. Nevertheless, he needed to see the globes in more detail. So went back to the earthmover, and took the large spotting telescope, from its cabin.
Using the scope, he could now clearly see that the alien globes had already managed to cover almost half of the pusher plate with rocks.
He continued to watch. Once the pusher plate was covered, the tiny globes formed a group, then flew up and towards a massive blue sphere that he could see above him.
Looking at it, through the scope, he realised it must be at least two and a half or more kilometres above him, so had to be a lot larger than he had at first thought.
The Sphere waited for the small globes to arrive, and as he watched, they disappeared inside. A minute or so later, the blue ship moved. Then vanished.
Then his communicator became active again and started beeping softly, indicating a handshake connection was now established with the Acarea. “Thank goodness,” he muttered as he made contact with the ship.
“Hello Ste
ven,” came Traven’s voice. “I expect you saw our little helpers?”
“I certainly did Captain. I thought for a moment you were under attack.”
“We did, at first. However, all’s well, now. Thanks to the blue globe ship. The Radioactive levels are way down, so we don’t need to panic about getting the stasis chambers out of the ship until we’re actually ready for them.”
“That’s excellent Captain. I’ll get on with marking out the compound, then.”
“Fine. Nick is unloading the prefabricated parts, as we speak. He’ll join you later.”
“Okay.”
“Oh, and by the way, Steven… Did you see, or sense, any pictures?”
“Pictures?” What pictures?”
“From that ship… Okay, it doesn’t matter. It seems that only Henry and I saw them.”
“Huh. Typical.” Steven replied.
“Anything else, Steven?”
“Well, if Nick is going to be a long time, it might be better if he finishes off the heavy work there, and then joins me tomorrow?”
“That makes sense. By the time he finishes up here, dusk will probably be setting in any way. And, you’ll need to be on your way back to the ship by then.”
“OK, I’ll press on, Captain,” Steven agreed, then closed his communicator.
19:00 hours and the crew, after setting a service droid to watch over things outside, had gathered in the rather damaged dining area. They were sat around a makeshift table that Nick had constructed earlier.
Tony helped Jeff lay the table, then poured a tumbler of his wine for each person. He had nicknamed the wine, Stinger. There was no alcohol in it; of course, as sugar was not available for the fermentation process, and artificial sweeteners were useless as a substitute. Jeff also set out a selection of fruit and other healthy produce from their food stock. Together with a choice of plain or lemon flavoured sterilised water.
“Sorry,” he apologised.” This is the best I can do at present.”
“It looks great to me. Apart from the supplement pills, of course,” Peter joked.
“Another week and most of the damage from Tommy’s bumpy landing will be repaired,” Jeff explained. “So, things are bound to get better.”
“What a cheek,” Tommy exclaimed, trying to defend himself. “You’re lucky to be alive.”
“Tommy. It was just a joke,” Jeff assured him.
“That’s enough,” Traven said, cutting in. “Anyway, let’s get started… After all, this will be our first real meal on the planet… Let’s drink to that.”
“Absolutely,” Peter replied. “To us, the planet. And, to you, Captain,” he said raising his glass.
“Superb vintage, Jeff,” Henry commented, as they all settled down to eating the richly deserved meal.
“What’s this fruit called, Jeff?” Paul asked. Holding it up for all to see.
“To be honest, I’m not really sure what to call it. But, it grows quickly and without too much looking after.”
“Okay. So, what did you develop it from?”
“I crossed an old fashioned variety of apple and a pear.”
“Well, whatever it is. It’s tasty anyway,” Paul replied.
“As a matter of interest, I also managed to successfully store some pine tree seeds. They were developed, then specially prepared before we left Earth. Since which they’ve been in long-term cold storage in our seed vault?” Jeff enthusiastically told them.
It’s fascinating really because it’s a complicated procedure for the trees to produce seeds…,” he added. Then continued before anyone could stop him.
“Basically, pollen’s produced by the male catkin, which contains the genetic information from the pine tree it hangs on. The pollen grain then finds …,” he went on.
By now, however, their eyes were starting to glaze over with boredom, and his words went virtually unheard.
“And, you’ll find a mature seed at the base…,” he finally stated.
“Yea, Yea. We get the picture, Jeff. But it’s bloody boring, so I hope you’re finished now,” Alex said, sounding pretty fed up. Which stopped Jeff in his tracks.
“What a waste of resources, anyway” Alex exclaimed.
“Not in the long term. Have you seen any trees, yet?”
“No.”
“Well, there you are, then.”
Once they had eaten, they sat drinking the wine. Quite happy to be quiet for the moment.
“So Captain, do you think the blue ship will be back?” Joe finally asked.
“Henry and I are both pretty sure it will return,” Traven replied. “They have to, at some time or other,” he added.
“So, you’re still sticking to this, Micky, guy’s version of events, then?”
“Yes, Peter. Absolutely.”
“Well, I have to agree. I also think they’ll be back,” Peter admitted, glancing at the rest of the crew.
No one spoke for a while. Then Peter broke the silence.
“I know you didn’t like the idea of being called, Captain, earlier, he said. “But, at the time, I thought that was the correct thing to do, John.”
“Having second thoughts, eh, Peter?”
“Absolutely not… However, going back to your original reasoning for using first names. I think that perhaps we should go back to using them, for the moment.”
We can always revert, if the blue globe ship comes back, for instance. Or, when someone needs to be put in their place,” he quickly added.
Traven was surprised at hearing Peter admit this.
Then looking at them all, asked, “Do you all think the same?”
“Well, Captain, it was better when we were using first names,” Henry said.
“But, you’ll still be in charge. Just as you are now.”
Traven was pleased. Yes, this would work, he thought to himself.
“Okay. That’s fine with me,” he concurred.
Chapter 33
Who’s escape pod?
The next day, a couple of the crew went on with the task of removing everything from the cargo bay that they needed for the underground site. Then started transporting it to the site, and offloading it.
The round trip took an average of just over an hour and a half for the earthmovers and their trailers, so it didn’t take long to transfer all the components they needed.
They had decided that number two reactor would remain operational as long as the Acarea needed power. In the meantime, Joe and Alex were working on uncoupling and making number one reactor safe, in preparation for its eventual move to the underground complex.
Although the two forward observation domes had been totally wrecked. Most of the equipment in the rear observation domes had survived, some of it being virtually intact. Now, Paul was busy salvaging what he could of the telescopes and tracking equipment.
In the meantime, Tony Mears carried out a thorough check on all the stasis chambers. Then started compiling a list of any crewmembers and colonists, currently in stasis, who had the trades and expertise that would be required in the construction, and fitting out of the underground complex.
He then added data on people, such as farmers and botanists who would need to work with, Jeff. To ensure that he could meet his remit for food production. The selected people would be taken out of stasis as and when they were needed
The need to gain more information about the local types of plant and animal life having now become urgent. Tommy and Tony had gone off on a photographic and sample gathering trip, courtesy of a four-person buggy type vehicle.
While Henry, having finished the detailed drawings for the underground complex, using the limited materials available to him. Continued analysing the data they had received from the probes, especially the information on the area around the construction site.
Although the people, who had supervised the loading of the Acarea, back on Earth, had known the order in which the equipment would most likely be used.
It was a well-known fact that things neve
r seemed to work out as planned. So, John Traven and Peter Merance were busy rummaging through the cargo bay, and logging exactly where the newly scheduled items were stacked.
“What’s this bit of gear?” John asked as he studied a strange looking helmet type object.
“I think I know,” Peter replied, taking it from him.
“Do you remember the transceivers we talked about?
Well, I’m sure this is what Captain Appleton’s medics used, to insert those transceivers in some of his crew’s brains…
I think there’s a manual on how to use it stored in the ship’s memory core.”
“Geeze. I don’t want that thing used again until we see what side effects there will be, and we won’t know that until those crew members are out of stasis,” Traven uttered.
“We’d better take it and store it somewhere that only the two of us know about. Agreed?”
“Definitely,” Peter replied.
Day 4
John Traven and Peter were with Jeff, who had started analysing some of the plant life already collected by Tony and Tommy.
Earlier, Tony had taken three people out of stasis. Kamran and Gajra Singh, and Lukas Muller. Kamran and Gajra were Indian and both had degrees in botany. Being a married couple, they had then been sent to one of the recreation cabins for a day. Giving them both some time together to get to know each other again.
Lukas was single, German, and a civil engineer. He was a quietly spoken and unassuming young man. With an athletic type of body. He had been put to work with Henry and had already gone over his plan for the underground complex. Then, having made a few suggestions, left to go to the site with Nick, both travelling on one of the earthmovers.
Acarea. A Triumph or Disaster? (SpaceFed StarShips Series Book 5): A Novel by Gerry A. Saunders (SpaceFed StarShips Trilogy) Page 24