The Event Series (Book 3): The Archive and Beyond

by Thomas Larson

  Up in the front there was a kind of cab, it was like in an RV but there was no steering wheel, or controls, it was designed for just sitting and watching the stars go by.

  RRqil explained that the controls were all handled by Readpad 37 (Winston). The device was plugged into the escape pod and was voice activated. But the only tasks that it could do were things like temperature control, lights, and Sat-Communications, it could not steer the pod.

  Overall it was comfortable, and the seats and bed had modifications that were made for us. I have forgotten that the QUalz stand, sitting to them is not something that they do comfortably, the tails got in the way.

  I have a good feeling about the pod; I think we will get down to Earth in one piece.

  We headed back in time for dinner. It was the usual mush. And then we just sat, quietly holding hands looking out the view port as the Earth and the Moon lay in front of us.

  July 21st.

  It was a long tedious day, and boring as hell. We stood by as Krezz and his crew battled with a group of navigation engineers on some issues with the pod. I am not even sure what the battles were over, it was a flurry of clicks and flailing arms. The shades of the little lizard men varied in the course of the exchanges.

  Finally about evening meal time it was finished. Krezz came and told us that the pod was loaded and ready to go. We had 250,000 doses of the cure on the pod and they were finally safely secured and protected if there should be a water issue with the pod.

  I wondered about that ‘water issue’ and remembered that there was something about one of our early space flights, Apollo or Gemini, in which the capsule filled with water and sank.

  “What time we leave tomorrow?” I asked.

  “We are still not quite certain yet, that was the basis of the chat with the navigation team. They have not yet finalized their calculations. They have it narrowed down, but there is about a 5 minute variation in their numbers, so the time is still being figured out. But it would appear that if you are here ready to get in at 9:50 you will be fine.”

  “How critical is the 5 minutes?” asked Asuna.

  “The landing will take place in the ocean, but the problem is they are not able to determine exactly where in the ocean. It will depend on the angle that you approach your satellite; it is a complex set of numbers and variables, if they hit it perfect you will be in what you call Lake Erie, if they have it all wrong, well you could end up in the middle of your Atlantic Ocean.

  I chuckled, “Very precise calculations, Asuna,” I was not so confident on the Lake Erie although that would be the best spot, closest to our camp.

  We were both disappointed that KHriz and HYlon had not invited us to dinner one last time before we left; I wanted to thank them for the stay. We were told that they were still on another plane. This time I really wanted to know what that meant, but no one would or could give me an answer to that other than that they were not on the Sky Crystal.

  They didn’t forget us though, they had given word that we were allowed to use their room, and food supplies for a last night meal on the ship. After looking through the options we decided on canned baked beans and Vienna sausage, I laughed as I blended them into a pot, and made a ‘Beanie Weinie Casserole’.

  I was never able to figure out why there was such a tendency on the part of our little scaly friends to eat such low budget foods. But they did relish it, Spam, Beef-a-Roni, and cheap, sweet wines. I am thinking that it was all that they could find in the most recent visits, but I think that they had been eating like this for some time, maybe it had something to do with the guests that they brought on board. But at this point it didn’t matter it was better than the standard mush and tomorrow, hopefully, we will be back on terra firma and eating, well I guess that will depend on where we land.

  July 22rd

  It was not the best sleeping night, Asuna and I talked about where we might land, what we might find and what the future might hold.

  “They’re not expecting us, we’ll be months early” she said.

  “I know, and that is fine, we could end up needing a month or longer to get from where we touch down up to the camp.”

  And so it went, what ifs, hope that’s, and maybes filled the night.

  We walked into the pod area exhausted and a little cranky. There was a bustle of final preparations going on.

  “You have made it on time. The navigational team has determined the best time to leave that will use the gravitational well of your companion rock to place you down as close as possible to home.” Krezz said. “You should be in the pod in 17 minutes. It will be launched in 25 minutes.’

  “Krezz, Can you call everyone together?” I asked, I was grumpy, needed a coffee, but had something I wanted to say.

  “Of course,” he sounded a little confused.

  When everyone was assembled I stood between Asuna and Krezz, RRqil was close by also.

  “Friends, my little QUalzian friends, you have done so much for us, and for my people back on the Blue Water Marker. I want to thank you, and tell you how grateful we are for your help. You are good people, folk, bless you all.” I actually teared up a little, but that was because I was tired.

  There were clicks from Krezz and RRqil that translated what we said and suddenly the entire group bowed to us.

  “They are honored to have known you, as are Krezz and I” said RRqil. “You have done much for us also, especially Krezz and I. We will name our first hatched after you or Asuna.”

  “Now you honor us, and I hope the first hatched is a girl.” Said Asuna, smiling.

  Hiccups and grimace from Krezz, RRqil and even Brimk, who had been standing close by.

  It became a little awkward for a few moments then I broke the silence, “Hey, we are burning daylight here, let’s get this show on the road, Nick has some deer stew waiting for us.”

  Asuna and I climbed into the ship, the little escape pod, and with the help of a few QUalz buckled in and got ready. Then they were gone, the door closed.

  Moments later I felt movement, we were on some form of conveyor heading toward a hatchway. Then grinding, a whoosh and holy shit, it was an E ticket ride, surrounded by the black void of space as we were hurtling toward the moon. I began to feel light-headed and I am not sure if it was by plan or g forces but we did not awaken until we were in low Earth entry. We could see ground below us, miles below us, and we could see that we were approaching what appeared to be Central America. We were way further south than had been planned.

  The Caribbean Islands flashed by as we dropped; there was no way of telling how quickly. Then we were over Open Ocean, still dropping, there was a little shutter as the small slowing rockets fired to reduce our speed. I guessed we were now about 4 or 5 miles above the ocean, looking good for a water landing, still slowing and dropping.

  Still a mile up I think and on the horizon I see land, still a ways off, but land. This could be bad I thought. Asuna saw it also and there was some muttering in Japanese that probably was akin to what was in my mind.

  Then a whoosh, and a lift as an airfoil opened to further slow us down, it was so sudden and extreme that it took the wind out of us.

  Then we were down, with a reasonably gentle splash. We made it, and that was the good news. The bad news was that by best guess we were somewhere in the South Atlantic near the African coast.

  It was late in the afternoon that we landed. I asked Winston for a location check. It took him a little while to give us an answer. The problem was that he is no longer fully connected to the computer on the Sky Crystal. He could contact the ship for some information but the link was slow, and growing slower as time goes on.

  “Winston, is there a way that you can use the orbiting satellites to determine our location?”

  “Yes, I can do that, I just need one reference satellite and then I can, yes, I have one, I am calculating. I have a location; we are at 22.3654 by -19.9137 degrees using your earthly reference system of Longitude and Latitude. That locates us be
tween the Azores and the Canary Island, 129 miles west of the continent called Africa.” His answer came over an intercom speaker rather than directly from him.

  “Great, just great, and I am guessing that since the escape pod couldn’t really maneuver in space it is not movable here on Earth,” I mumbled.

  “That is correct, we are unable to move from this spot, although we are moving, slowly, and seem to be moving southeast,” said Winston.

  “Probably the tide or the wind, we’re moving, but have no control over where we are going,” said Asuna.

  “Would you like me to try to contact one of the transmission streams that I am monitoring?”

  “Wait, what? You are getting messages?” I asked, shocked at that statement.

  “Yes, Tom, I have been monitoring a number of what appears to be submersible vehicles.”

  I was excited, “submarines, we call them submarines? Are there any close? Are they speaking English?”

  “I detect several that are within 1500 of your earth miles. Three speak English, one speaks Russian and one speaks French. I can contact any of them on their transmitter device wavelengths. The nearest one is a Pittsburgh.”

  “YES! YES! Call them, and if they answer let me speak with them.” I shouted, this was wonderful, we may get home yet.

  Moments later there was a voice on the intercom. “This is Captain Thomas W. Katzung of the USS Pittsburgh. We have received your distress call, how may we be of assistance?”

  Stereotype or not he had a Southern twang. Why is it that sub captains always sounded like they are from Alabama I thought to myself?

  “I, we, wow, it is going to be a long story, but we are stuck in the ocean, can’t go anywhere, and need a ride.” I stammered.

  “We don’t get rescue calls much anymore, not many survivors out here, there are some on land we communicate with though.” The voice drawled.

  “That is good I guess that means there are people left. We have a cure! We can save them, and you.”

  “A cure, really, and I believe you why?”

  “Captain, I can understand your skepticism, I probably would think I was full of shit too, but okay, let me try this. If I was some floating refugee would I know that besides your sub there are 4 other similar vessels within 1500 miles of me, 2 more American, one Russian, and one French? I also know that of the ships in question, yours is the closest.”

  A little hub-bub in the background and then the intercom voice said, “Okay, like you said, it’s a long story, so I think we’ll just mosey on over and see what you have to say. But just for the record, it is one more American and one British sub with the French and Russian boats.”

  “Thank you, you will be pleased you made the trip, and so will we. Do you have our location?”

  “Yes, your English friend has given us the information. We will be there in about 42 hours. But do me a favor, don’t call anyone else, we are all friendly toward each other out here right now, and I would like to keep it that way. If you have a cure, well, it could change the friend’s game and that would not be good. Captain Katzung out.”

  “Well ain’t that a kick in the head! Help is on the way.” I smiled at Asuna.

  “You trust them?” she asked.

  “I think so, and really, what else can we do?”

  “Good point,” but I could sense a little concern in her voice.

  July 23rd

  Boring day, we’re just floating up and down like a bobber on a fishing line. I hate waiting and we have another day to go.

  A little sun bathing, a little reading, and thank you KHriz, we have some real earth food on this pod. Beef-a-Roni it is.

  As we lay out tonight in the darkness, it was what I guess they call a new moon. It was beautiful, the sky, the stars, millions and millions of them. I wonder how many others have life on them, well, actually near them. Although I guess there could be some kind of energy being able to live on a star.

  It is so peaceful right now.

  July 24th

  No ship, no hanging outside, it rained all day, bored.

  July 25th

  “Winston, how close is the Pittsburgh,” I asked, we still had a while to wait.

  “I show that the Ship is about 187 miles away.”

  “About 187 miles?” I laughed.

  “Yes, I can make it more precise if you wish.”

  “No Winston, 187 is fine, so we are still waiting for a while.” I said while in the back of my mind thinking, I like the peacefulness and really this would not be a bad way to spend the rest of our lives, but we have business.

  We laid under the stars on the top of the pod tonight, it was so nice, we could see the storm off in the distance, the flickering lightening, it was beautiful.

  We woke up about 2 AM, we were getting wet. The storm had moved over us. We climbed down into pod and for the next hour the sea was actually a little rough and the rain was heavy. We were sealed in, so nothing could happen.

  July 26th

  We slept a little later than we usually did this morning and when we popped open the hatch we were not alone. Sitting off about 200 yards to the north was the Pittsburgh. I’m no expert so I couldn’t tell what class of sub it was, other than big, and black.

  “Ah Winston, how long has the sub been sitting there?” I asked, a little miffed that he had not let us know it had arrived.

  “The vessel arrived 37 minutes ago. Captain Katzung asked where you were and when I told him you were both not awake. He told me to give a call when you had awakened. I just notified him that you are now awake.”

  “And?”

  “Captain Katzung is now standing by on the communications line.”

  I glared at Winston, and Asuna laughed. “Captain, good morning, it was kind of you to allow us to sleep in.”

  “Not a problem, I would like to send a couple of zodiacs your way to secure your vessel and bring it alongside.”

  “Sounds good to us.”

  About 30 minutes later we climbed onto the deck, I guess it is a deck, of the Pittsburgh. I never realized how big these ships really were. We were greeted by a thin balding man with a scruffy beard in his 40s. He was not overly tall, and seemed in very good shape. As we approached, he offered his hand. He was in standard navy khakis as was another beefy officer and behind them were six armed men in blue cammo.

  “I am Captain Thomas Katzung of the USS Pittsburgh, you are welcome aboard. This is my Exec, Commander Gaines.” If I did not mention it before, he had the perfect southern accent.

  Asuna jumped in here, snapping to attention, “Corporal Asuna Yagami, Japanese Defense Force, Sir!”

  I looked at her, wow, that was unexpected, I had forgotten about that aspect of her. I had come to think of her as another of our group of campers besides my wife.

  “At ease corporal, we are not so formal here anymore,” smiled the captain.

  I grinned and accepted the hand shake. “Glad you came to get us, my Russian is a little weak, and French, well never learned it.”

  He laughed, and then suggested we go back to the pod so we could show him the inside and where the cure was stored. Really, there was not much reason to not to trust this man.

  We transferred the cure from the pod to the sub and then the Captain, Commander Gaines, Asuna and I talked about what to do with the pod. They really had no way to take it onto the ship and there was nothing remaining aboard that would be of use to us, except for Winston, of course. He was coming with me.

  In the end we decided that the best thing to do was to tow it behind us and beach it on one of the islands in the Azores just in case there was something of value that we aren’t thinking about. It was that or just sink it. I think that would be a waste, and in the new world, we don’t waste.

  In the process of doing all of the loading and moving about we did not have much of a chance to talk to the Captain. Surprisingly, he didn’t grill us about the cure or how we had obtained it. I found that curious in itself. When I started to tell him abou
t the little friends we called the QUalz, both he and Gaines looked around quickly and said we would talk about that a little later, in private.

  It was dinner at the Captain’s table, now that was interesting, but actually been there, done that on the Sky Crystal. We actually looked like we belonged there. The quartermaster had given us some uniforms that fit, the basic navy BDU. I had forgotten how good Asuna, excuse me, Corporal Yagami looked in uniform.

  It was nice to have real food, fresh fried fish with spices and tartar sauce, and canned vegetables. It was so good, better than anything I have had since the world ended, and at the end of it coffee, real coffee.

  There were a number of officers, the XO, the Doctor and a couple others at the table with us. The conversation seemed oddly restrained, I mean, if I had this strange couple who showed up in the middle of the ocean in a ship made from alien technology with a cure for the disease that killed most of the world, I would have a question or two. But no, it was all very plastic, benign, and avoided the elephant in the room.

  After the plates were cleared away and the room emptied out of the assorted officers that had dined with us we sat for a bit. Only the Captain and Gaines stayed.

  Finally, the Captain looked at us both, very intently and simply said, “Tell me the story.”

  Asuna and I looked at him, then each other, and then back to him.

  “Okay, guess that is the best way to do it.” I answered and we started at the beginning, the clicks on the radio receiver, the arrival of Krezz and his ship, our going to the Sky Crystal. We told all, well almost all we could. I avoided the other abductions, they didn’t seem important.

  We explained the idea of the cure and how it would prevent people from turning after they died, and that with the cure, over time, those already changed would fall to immobile bags of bones. But the living, they would just die natural and stay dead.