“I’m picking something else up, Sir. I tried to ping the location of the pod, but the atmosphere of the planet is playing havoc with my terminal. The signal bounced off the horizon. Unfortunately, I can’t get a location on the pod just yet. But I did pick something else up. Eight clicks above us. A large hauler. The Orion Traveler!” the coms guy said.
Williams smile faded and he put his hands on the controls. Without giving his crew any warning, he put the ship into manual mode and hit the thrusters. The nose of the ship pointed up as the Commander changed the trajectory of the craft. After a few seconds, the view from the outside changed. The planet dipped a little, and now all they could see was the bulbous tip of the blue planet. As they pulled up, a new sight greeted them. It was a ship. A large ship. But something was wrong. It was completely dark. No lights. No movement. Nothing. Just blackness, like the power was off.
“Engine failure?” the recruit said upon laying eyes on the ship.
“That thing is massive, there would have to be some catastrophic engine failure for it to just lose all power like that,” Williams said.
“The Commander is right. A ship like that has many back-up systems in place. When one thing goes, another kicks in. That’s how they’re built. Plus, the ship’s power isn’t drawn from the engines. It’s drawn from the cells. I find it hard to believe that both of those systems could fail at the same time,” the coms guy said, fiddling around with his screen, swiping on various scanners while attempting to get the Orion’s vitals up.
“Why don’t we hail the ship?” the recruit said.
“I second that, and seeing that I’m the Commander, I thought of it first,” Williams said.
The coms guy nodded and swiped some more on his screens. He then attempted to gain a connection with the ship in front of them. The blackness of it was truly frightening. It was as if the ship was covered in oil, but everyone on board knew that space was a dark place. So that must have been why the ship appeared to be so dark.
“I can’t seem to get an answer, boss,” the coms guy said.
Williams shook his head.
“Why?” he asked.
The guy did some more swiping and tried again.
“Seems like the hailing system on both of our ships are being blocked by something. I don’t like this at all. Something just doesn’t feel right,” the coms guy said.
“Shit,” was all Williams could say. Truth was, it was just that. Shit. They were in a galaxy that was two and a half million light years away from Earth. They had no way of knowing where the precise location of the pod they were sent to rescue was. And now, to boot, their hailing system was down. But there was more bad news.
“I think our coms are fried,” the guy said.
Williams turned around.
“What do you mean fried? How can that be?” he asked.
The guy looked nervous. A sheet of sweat was covering his face as his fingers tapped rapidly on the screen, trying to find some answers.
“I don’t know, sir. Maybe the jump gate affected them somehow. Knocked them off sync?” he said, still scrambling for answers on the screen.
“God damn it. If the coms are out, then we cannot call for backup. And if we can’t call for backup, then the rescue mission is at risk. Something happens down there, then we’ll be the ones needing rescuing! I just can’t let that happen,” Williams said.
The crew mumbled amongst themselves until one of them spoke up.
“Does that mean we ain’t going to shuttle down to the planet, and search for the survivors?” one of the crew members asked.
Williams sighed.
“We won’t be able to find any of them if none of our coms work. So we might as well sit on it for a while. Get things fixed, and then do what we were sent here to do!” Williams said.
There was a brief moment of silence. And then one of them spoke.
“But how do we fix the coms unit? We don’t have any raw materials. This was only supposed to be a quick mission. We haven’t packed accordingly.”
Williams shook his head. He closed his eyes for a second and thought things through. His mind was racing at a million miles a second. His head felt like cotton. The commander was unsteady on his feet. All this pressure was starting to grate on him. This wasn’t what he signed up for. He needed to get a handle on things, or before he knew it, his crew would be climbing on the ceilings.
“The ship!” he said, pointing out of the window toward the Orion Traveler.
“What about it?” the coms guy asked.
Williams turned around to face his crew, who all looked as if they were about to crack. The fear of not being able to contact home was a very real fear indeed. It was the sort of fear that would eat most men up. Consume them. Destroy them. And in space, contact was everything. Without their coms, they’d be destined for doom. The commander was sure of it.
“We dock. Once on board the Orion, we can fix the ship,” Williams said.
The coms guy stared at the Commander and frowned.
“I thought we were here to rescue their crew members, not the other way round! Besides, the ship has gone dark. Something doesn’t add up. If the power isn’t working, then we won’t be able to dock!”
Williams shook his head.
“That’s what we’re doing, okay? If you have a problem with that, then you can hitch a ride back to Earth on the Orion,” Williams said. He turned back around and walked up to his controls. He turned the thrusters on, and realigned with the ship in front of them.
The Commander had a knot in his stomach. His guts were churning, and that undeniable feeling of uneasiness settled in. His coms guy was right. Things didn’t add up. The lights on the Orion were off and the ship had no signs of life. God only knew what lay in wait for them in there, but it was the only choice the Commander had.
It was that, or turn back around and leave both the Orion and the pod on the mystery planet behind.
Williams didn’t make a habit of leaving people to their deaths. The ship slowly made its way toward the unknown. As the Orion became closer, the signs of danger became more apparent.
“What the hell happened here?” the recruit asked.
Nobody answered. There were no answers to give. Just questions. Questions that by the time this was all over and done with, would be answered.
And sometimes, just sometimes, the answers beg even more questions.
L.D.P. Samways
Second Earth
Part Two
Chapter One
Randy Gustoff’s eyes were glazed over. He had no idea where he was, or what had happened. The last thing that he remembered was doubling over in pain. A sharp, hot, severe piercing pain had ruptured through his core. But that was then, and this was now. And now he was in a daze. Randy could hear people’s voices. From afar, but they sounded near enough. They must have been in the room. In the same room that he found himself in at that very moment.
But the question remains: what happened?
Gustoff wasn’t usually a frightened man. In fact, he thought of himself as a brave man. Not quite heroic, but he’d never backed down from a fight in his life before. But it seemed as if the fight was over. And this was the aftermath of the fight. Something didn’t feel right at all. Gustoff knew something bad had happened. Why else would he be in such a confused state? For all he knew, he could actually be dead. Maybe he was close to being dead? On death’s door, moments away from breathing his very last breath. But it turns out that he was alive and well. His breathing was shallow but consistent. He could feel his heart beating faintly in his chest as he lay there on the bed staring up at the ceiling. He was still in the colony. In one of those huts that the Elderman had built.
“What… What am I doing here?” Gustoff wheezed, searching for the right words but finding it increasingly hard to get them out as he lay there in pain. All Gustoff could see were shadows. And they were closing in on him. From his left, and is right. It was as if they were descending on him from above. Lik
e a flock of blackbirds swooping down toward him.
“He’s awake,” a voice said as someone's head craned into view. The person was staring at Gustoff. They had a pitying look on their face. As if for some reason they felt guilty. Like they were the reason that Gustoff was lying on the bed, writhing in pain.
“Can you hear me?” The shadowy figure said as it bent in closer toward Gustoff. Randy could smell a strange odour and it was getting stronger and stronger. Like a burning log. Right under his nose. It was a familiar scent. A familiar smell. And then he remembered. It all came crashing back to him, like an untamable torrent birthed from the sea. Its waves of memory crashing against his cranium. Bringing light to the darkness that filled the void inside his head. Things were becoming clearer with every second that passed. The burning smell was from the Aston family’s home. The hut that was destroyed by the so-called fallen star.
“You… You are from the fallen star,” Gustoff said, trying to sit up. But a gentle yet firm hand held him down, attempting to stop him from rising to his feet. The shadowy figure now had a face. A human face. A woman's face. But that’s where the similarity ended. He didn’t recognise this face. And he’d been in the colony long enough to know who was who. And he’d definitely been in the colony long enough to know all the adult faces. It wasn’t as if people just turned up out of nowhere. But this woman, this woman had come out of nowhere. Or at least, that’s how it seemed to Randy.
“The fallen star… what an idiot,” Gustoff said, ignoring the gentle hand on his chest and pushing himself up into a seated position on the bed. He looked around the room and noticed a few unfamiliar faces. They were staring at him, uncertain and untrusting. They appeared just as frightened as Gustoff.
“The fallen star?” The woman asked, gently pulling her hand away from his chest. She had a caring air about her. Like it was her job to look after the infirm or the sick. But Gustoff was not infirm or sick. He’d been shot. With a gun. And according to the last thing that he remembered, it wasn’t from one of his own people. The bullet had come from somebody else. And he had a feeling that the somebody else he had in mind was in this very room.
“Yeah, the fallen star, what a stupid thing to say. I’m not usually such an idiot, but on account of me being shot and waking up in a strange room with strange people I don’t recognise, I’ll put that stupidity down to tiredness or a momentary lapse of judgement,” Randy said as he clicked his neck and stretched on the bed. The people in the room still had untrusting looks on their faces. They still had an air about them, an unfamiliar air about them. And it seemed as if they shared Randy’s ill-conceived notions about the company they were keeping.
"Where are you from?" One of the unfamiliar voices asked him. The strange voice belonged to a face that was just as strange to Gustoff. That face was getting closer to him, the sound of footsteps gently echoed off the walls around him. Gustoff’s eyes widened as a man came toward him. The man was wearing some sort of fancy spacesuit. A spacesuit that Gustoff had read about in an instructional manual that he’d found in one of those crates. The crates in the church. The same place where they kept all the other relics of the past. Gustoff’s heart began to pound in his chest as the realisation of what was happening to him came crashing down, much like the so-called fallen star on the Aston families hut.
“Where am I from?" Gustoff said, staring at the man as he approached him. Randy’s fists clenched tightly at the thought of getting within a hair’s breadth of the approaching man. Gustoff was nervous. And the nerves were getting the better of him. What was he to do? Just sit there and allow this unfamiliar person to get close to him?
“It doesn’t matter where I’m from; all I need to know is where the hell you guys are from. You’re not from our colony. I haven’t seen you guys around. You’re from that ship. The fallen star. The one that crash-landed on one of our huts killing a family of four. So it doesn’t matter where I’m from because I don’t have any explaining to do. Remember, you’re the guys that came crashing into our colony. So the question is, where are you from?" Gustoff said, getting off the bed and coming face-to-face with the unknown man staring at him.
Gustoff looked the man up and down. He took in every inch of the guys clothes. The weird flag on his right arm. Embodied and stitched into the fabric. But, that wasn’t what was catching Gustoff’s attention. The only thing that was gnawing at Gustoff was the fact that he was the only one in the room. The only one that he recognised, which was silly really, because it’s not like you can just recognise yourself. But Gustoff was fully aware that he was the only one from his colony inside the hut. Everybody else was foreign to him. Three people. Two men, one woman. Three alien beings. They may have looked like Gustoff, but Gustoff knew that they were not like him at all. Not one bit. They were imposters. He was sure of it.
“We don’t mean you any harm," the female said, the one that had been tending to him as he’d woken up. She had a strange accent. Come to think of it, they all had a strange accent. Everything about this was strange. The way they spoke, the way they walked and the way they seemed to be hiding something.
“If you don’t mean me any harm, then tell me where the hell April is," Gustoff said.
The woman looked at him and grimaced. At least, Gustoff thought she’d grimaced. But their faces were hard to read. It was like they were wired differently. They had a certain way about them. A way that deeply disturbed Gustoff.
“We don’t know anybody called April. In fact, we don’t know a whole lot about this place. You’re right, we did crash-land onto your colony, but we did not intend to do so. Our ship lost power above your atmosphere. Before we knew it, we were hurtling toward the ground. We did all we could to avert disaster, but we were certainly not expecting to see a colony of living beings on this planet. Especially a colony of creatures that seem to be just like us," she said, walking toward Gustoff and sidling up beside the man in the spacesuit.
None of this was making Gustoff feel any better. As far as he was concerned, they were all untrustworthy. Usually, Gustoff didn’t have much trust for the people of the colony. And to make things worse, these people, these so-called people in front of him, the ones that look and talk like him but act so differently than him and the people that he’s used to cohabiting with, these people were even more untrustworthy. Randy couldn’t just trust anybody. There wasn’t a magical switch that he could turn on for these imposters. They’d have to prove themselves to him. Show that they were telling the truth and that they truly didn’t mean him no harm.
“This doesn’t make any sense. Are you telling me that you are not from this planet? That you look like me, talk like me, but aren’t the same as me?" Gustoff asked, taking a few steps back. He felt a little woozy. He couldn’t think straight. The room seemed to be spinning. Was this it? Was this first contact?
“I’m not sure," the man in the spacesuit said, he took a few steps toward Gustoff and extended a hand. “But, whatever this is, whatever you are, we are going to get through this together. We mean no harm. You mean no harm. It is clear to see. As clear as day. And honestly, it would be a shame to ruin such a monumental occasion as First Contact."
Gustoff looked at the man in the spacesuit. He didn’t have any head protection on. His face was visible. Gustoff could see the small wrinkles on the corner of his eyes. Crows feet flowing up his cheeks. Deep indentations of time passing him by. A blueprint of history on his face. A map of the past. The man still had his hand out, extended for a shake. A handshake that Gustoff was not sure whether he could partake in. He didn’t trust these people. He had no reason to. It could be a trap. The colony itself was small, throughout the years, the colony had been all that Randy knew. The colony had been all that anybody knew. For no one in the colony or outside of the colony, if there really was an outside, had met. Gustoff didn’t know if there were more people out there. In the past, a few individuals had explored the region. But the colony itself was on some sort of Island. Quite a large island, but not
so large that there were unknown locations. Every inch of the place had been scoured for life. All that remained were the seas. The high seas that surrounded the island. But the mass of land was on a cliff. A four hundred foot drop was what stood in between the colony and further exploration of their home planet. It was the perfect fortress. A fort that protects them from the unknown, and, unfortunately, it also protects them from progress.
“You say that you mean me no harm. That you come in peace. But you shot me. I took a bullet. A bullet that was fired from one of your weapons. Please explain to me this; if you mean me no harm then why bother shooting me?"
The man nodded his head. He smiled. His hand was still extended for a handshake. But, instead of waiting for Gustoff to reciprocate, the man put a gentle hand on Gustoff’s shoulder and squeezed tightly. He was trying his darnedest to instil some sort of confidence in Randy. He was fully aware of the situation that they faced in front of them. No fuel cells. No backup generators. No way to get back to the Orion Traveller. So they were stuck. Stuck on a planet inhabited by people that acted and looked like them. Human beings at the far end of the Andromeda Galaxy. The first ever humans found outside of the Milky Way Galaxy, outside of Planet Earth at that! How did they get there? Who was responsible for them? And what would become of them once Earth found out?
“I apologise; I did shoot you. But our weapons have been taken away from us. It was agreed that we remain disarmed if we are to stay here. The eldermen have been welcoming to us, even though they seem to be a little out there in their ridiculous beliefs. They appear to think that we are angels of some sorts. But we’re not. We only have one mission, and that’s to get back to our spaceship. It’s stationed in orbit above your planet. But we’ve lost contact with them. And with your help, hopefully, we can get in contact them. Once we do, maybe, just maybe we might be able to figure out what the heck is going on here, because I know for a fact that this is big. Finding you here on this planet, and all the people outside, outside these walls, these primitive thatched walls, means that there may be more of us out there in the Universe. More humans. More planets. More chances of finding the missing link," the man said, extending his hand once again.
Second Earth: The Complete First Novel (Second Earth Chronicles Book 1) Page 6