Everyone pitched in. Despite being mission one Commander, the crew were treated as equals. Yes, they did need a hierarchical command structure to make sure things got done well, but all information, communication and decisions on this mission, on all ships, were open. There were no secrets. Every crew person on every ship had access to all the same information as the commanders. This is why there were no slackers on the crew, the mission was a shared vision and every member of the crew was self-driven to help achieve mission success.
Aisha shouted as she saw a con-trail out to the west of their position. As everyone looked up, a second, and then a third con-trail appeared as the ships of Mission Two began re-entry.
Sensors locked on, and auto tracking cameras zoomed in on the second fleet in order to record everything that happened.
Russell and Aisha held hands as they watched the atmospheric burn, and they imagined Owen calmly calling orders around the flight deck. His partner, Indah, was at the helm. Indah, regarded as one of the free world’s best fighter pilots, was actually flying all three ships from her position. The Gamma Cygnus Three mission, had only been able to lure three pilots of her calibre to join their ranks. Indah, having been trained by the Royal Australian Air Force, had jumped at the opportunity to join a positive rather than a destructive mission. While she loved to fly, especially fast and powerful jets, she had hated having to fly as a war time pilot. Even though the RAAF’s philosophy was one of defence, regardless, it always meant that someone had to die. She just couldn’t handle that any longer. When Evan Matson, now her brother in law, had approached her with a very vague outline of the mission parameters, it had taken her about two seconds to say yes.
Now, here she was, directly piloting the ‘Mission Two’ Command ship, the Endeavour, while remotely piloting the other two ships, Beagle and Fram, with their precious cargo of settlers in stasis. Right at the moment, she was responsible for the lives of three thousand two hundred and ninety seven people, their equipment and supplies, small herds of plains animals, from Goanna to Kangaroos, Meer Cats to African Elephants, tiny Superb Fairy Wrens to Wedge Tailed Eagles.
She dared to give Owen a quick glance and a wink and said, “No Pressure, Right?” The entire command deck, erupted in laughter, which helped them to focus and relax into their roles. The ship started to vibrate from the outer hull’s contact with the atmosphere. Despite being supremely confident in her abilities, Indah reminded herself that none of these ships had ever been piloted through atmosphere before. They were all way too large to have been launched out of Earth’s gravity, so they had been built in orbit, with every part, crew member and even their internal atmosphere, having to be shipped up to orbit in smaller shuttle loads. Therefore, all they had were computer simulations, and countless months of simulator time and flight deck crew training. This was a one-shot thing, once safely on the ground, the ships were to become settlement facilities, they would never fly again.
She forced herself to focus as their targeted landing site slowly appeared over the horizon, it looked like the planet was rolling towards them. Her hands flew over the controls of three identical cockpit set ups. Despite the fact that much of the work was done by highly advanced computer control, Indah had to be ready for manual flight at any moment if things started to go wrong.
Despite the massive three hundred and sixty degree optical display that filled the walls, ceiling and deck of the command module, Indah never looked up from her station. Starships are not flown visually, there is no point.
The command deck, or bridge as it is traditionally known, is not at the top or front of the ship with a nice window to look out of. It is actually in the most secure location, in the centre of the ship, in a highly secure, virtually impregnable module all of its own. Even life support was kept completely separate from the rest of the ship. If they were attacked, or a hull breach occurred from an impact from space debris, the command module could remain functional and in control of the ship. While this gave greater opportunity to recover from a bad situation, Indah chuckled to herself that really all it meant was that they would be the last ones to die.
Owen was now watching a feed from Russell’s ship, ‘The Jack Matson’, which showed the con-trails of their three ships approaching from the West.
Another feed was showing vision of a pod of dolphins swimming away from the ship, revelling in their new freedom, one of the dolphins even had a camera strapped to it giving a live view from within the pod. “That is way beyond cool,” He said.
Back on the viewing deck of the Jack Matson, Russell and Aisha were watching the pod swim away with their own amazed eyes.
There was a loud noise behind them, like a crack of thunder. At the same time, the pod of dolphins became quite agitated, the feed from the dolphin camera was just a swirl of dark shapes and bubbles in the water.
The crew had to duck, as a massive dark shape raced over head at great speed. They were soaked with water as its aerodynamic wake lifted a column of water over the ship behind it.
As they lifted their eyes up over the deck rail again, they were just in time to see a single dolphin take a mighty spiralling leap into the air, directly in front of the dark speeding shape. Then, what looked like a swirling portal, opened in front of it, and it flew straight into it. With a tremendous crack that produced a shockwave across the water, the portal, the dolphin, and the dark flying shape, were all gone, as if they had never been there at all.
Russell turned to the crew, before he could issue the order, crewman Jones announced, “Slow Motion replay coming up on screen now.” They all looked down at their tablets. They didn’t capture the video from behind when the shape appeared, but they could see the dark outline of a winged flying shape as it went over head. When the water covered the camera, they couldn’t make out any further detail. Crewman Jones changed the feed to replay from the Dolphin’s camera. They all gasped, as in slow motion, they witnessed the lead dolphin glistening in the sunlight as it spiralled into the air, trailing sparkling water droplets behind it. Then the gaping jaws of a terrifying beast appeared in frame and snapped the dolphin out of the air. The massive sparkling blue scales of the beast’s body filled the frame and just as quickly was gone.
They all looked at each other in a mix of terror and awe. A smile appeared on Russell’s face as he leant back against the rail. In the distance he could see the dolphin pod leaping and frolicking in ecstatic joy, celebrating the return of Druk, The Thunder Dragon.
Suddenly, two holograms appeared on the deck before Russell and Aisha. They were the holograms of Owen and Evan. Because the real Owen was sitting, strapped into the command chair on the bridge of the Endeavour, he floated in that same position as a hologram. It looked weird and they all chuckled a bit at the sight of it. But the conversation was exciting. They all tried to talk at once, and while Owen and Evan had more important things to be doing right now, they couldn’t resist being part of this occasion.
Once the gabble quietened down, Evan began to speak, and what he said was broadcast to the entire fleet.
“I think we can all say now, that regardless of what happens from now on, this mission has been a success. We can honestly say that the legend of The Thunder Dragon was as real as we hoped it was. It also means that things are progressing back on Earth, and hopefully this means that the device has been activated and the kids are now safe. If not, at least we now know that there is one massive blue sparkling dragon there to help them.” Cheers of excitement and relief erupted all around the fleet, high fives and tears of joy were shared. Indah tried to blink away tears of joy as she tried to focus on her job of landing the fleet. She shut off all external feeds to her station, she couldn’t afford to be distracted like that again. The last thing she wanted was to turn a glorious occasion like this into tragedy.
Owen interrupted them. “I have to get back to the bridge, let’s have a ‘Hollo Conference’ once we are all down safely. See you in a few hours?” With that, his hologram disappeared.
/> Evan turned to Russell. “I can’t believe that it’s true, we’ve all achieved so much. We’ve finished deploying the nano satellite network and are now launching the last signal relay station.” Evan knew that Owen would still be listening in. “So, by the time we all get together, we should be able to contact Earth and get an update from Dad or Fifteen. I’m so worried about the kids. What they’ve been going through while we have been so busy getting everyone planet side, I feel guilty not being there.”
Russell looked Evan in the eye. “I wish I could give you a big hug right now mate. But you have to know that everything we have done, every sacrifice we have made as a family, is paying off. It will all be worth it. I now have a very good feeling that the mission back on Earth is going well, Druk’s appearance is proof of that. Get your focus back on getting your fleet down safely, and in a few hours, we will know.”
“You’re right,” Evan agreed, “There is no reason to think that things are anything other than going well. But I am sure you feel the anxiety of not knowing as well.”
“Anyway,” Evan continued, “We are forty nine minutes from our de-orbiting burn, nothing much to do until then, we are ready. Congratulations on making it down safely brother,” He said with a huge grin.
“I won’t accept any congratulations until we are all down safely mate,” said Russell.
“So, what do you call yourself now that you’re not an ‘Earthling’,” Evan smirked. “Gammon? Cygnet? Triplet?” Now laughing out loud, Aisha cut in and said, “Well, keep in mind that the sun is actually ‘Gamma Cygnus’ and ‘Three’ just means that we are the third rock from the sun.”
“I think we should allow the first person born on Gamma Cygnus Three to decide that one. I will always be from Earth, and therefore, an ‘Earthling’. I’m sure over time, a new name will emerge,” said Russell.
Aisha piped up again, “That will take a long time then, something will occur organically way before a child is old enough to invent a new name. Maybe it will be better to control the process and then let the entire population vote on a list of suggestions. My suggestion, will be ‘Soom’.
Evan raised an eyebrow, “The Tibetan word for ‘Three’?”
“Yes, exactly.” Said Aisha with a huge smile, “Then we could be called ‘Soomians’.”
“Or ‘Soomlings’” said Russell.
“Or ‘Soomarians’, said Evan, starting to laugh.
Starting to cackle out of control now, ‘Soomanians’,” said Russell.
Then suggestions started coming from all over the fleet, “Soomavakians, Soomanic, Trisoomian, Soomelier, Soomyan.”
“Soomwegian,” said another crew member. You could hear the uncontrolled laughter now coming from all over.
And then it happened, an alarmingly hilarious but booming voice cut through the chatter and said, “From this day hence, though shalt be referred to, as the ‘Soomish’.”
No-one was really sure who said it, but Russell had to grab Aisha’s arm as she nearly fell over the rail laughing. Trying to get control of her uncontrolled laughter, she finally managed to gasp out, “Seriously, why didn’t anyone warn me not to work with Australians. You all just turn every tense or important situation into a joke. Soomish? Seriously? Oh, I just know that that’s going to stick with you sick and twisted people.” She collapsed onto the deck, still laughing, and the entire fleet laughed with her, even the ones who were supposed to be flying starships through the upper atmosphere.
Chapter 31
“And In Those Eyes He Saw Fear”
David could see a dim light ahead. He picked up his pace a little, conscious that the candle he was holding, the second one, had burned right down to almost nothing. It was actually starting to get quite hot in his hand, but he knew that if he put it out, he wasn’t going to be able to light it again. Hopefully the light ahead was going to be the actual end of the tunnel.
It felt like he had been walking for hours, there had been two other direction choices to make, the staff had guided him on both occasions. It felt as if he had walked so far that he would be emerging on the opposite side of the mountain. If that was even possible, he didn’t know.
Slowly the greenish light became bolder and larger. It felt like this must be the end. He stopped, suddenly aware that this could be another trap, and he shouldn’t rush to the end. But he could hear Grandpa Jack’s words, “think of everything as an adventure.” He hurried on.
David took more notice of the floor and walls, looking for traps, but finally, the little stub of a candle got too hot in his hands. Hot wax had already dripped all over it, burning him, he was sure. He could put up with that. But this pain was now too much, and he dropped what was left to the floor and the tiny flame went out. The green light from the end of the tunnel appeared to be enough to guide him now, so he stepped carefully, and finally emerged into a massive cavern that was open at the top.
The cavern was filled with tall green trees, and palms that were stretching on very thin trunks towards the light, high overhead. It was the leafy canopy that was causing the light to make everything appear green. David took a deep breath and stepped out into the light, a sense of relief and calm washed over him.
The cavern floor was paved with cobble stones, except for where the trees and palms emerged from the floor. The walls also appeared to be man-made. There were rooms and balconies with ornate hand carved balustrades. High up towards the opening to the sky, the walls were highly polished, which David realised was to reflect the sunlight down into the cavern, improving the natural light levels. He was astonished once again, at the beauty of it. He wondered if this was where his Grandfather had stayed all those years ago, following his failed attempt to activate the device.
Exactly in the centre of the cavern, among the trees, was a simple roofed structure. It had four corner posts with an ornately decorated roof. The carved details of dragons and other creatures he didn’t recognise were covered in highly polished gold. A few metres away on each side, stood a smaller version of this Pagoda, housing a large prayer wheel each.
They were turning independently, ringing a small bell at each turn. The gentle sound resonated around the cavern in a very soothing way. Unlike the prayer wheels at the base of the mountain that were powered by the small stream, David couldn’t see what was causing these ones to rotate.
David walked across the cobbled floor towards the central pagoda, he couldn’t help but look up toward the light. His foot caught in an uneven cobble stone and he fell forward and went sprawling across the floor. His staff went flying towards the pagoda.
David’s face smashed into the hard stones and then bounced painfully back up again. He looked up through the pain and saw a boy in monk’s robes sitting cross legged in the middle of the pagoda. The child had caught his staff and was holding it in one hand above his head. The young monk had not opened his eyes, he appeared to be meditating serenely. It appeared as though he had caught the staff with his eyes closed.
David walked up to the edge of the platform that the monk was sitting on. He was unsure as to whether he should step up onto it or not. The monk had not acknowledged him at all. David felt compelled not to speak, he felt as if he shouldn’t interrupt, but he had to move forward, and well, surely the staff had interrupted what he was doing already.
He lifted one leg to step up onto the platform when the young monk spoke.
“Please remove your shoes David.”
David hesitated, then sat down on the edge of the platform to take off his shoes. As he did so, he noticed one of the cobblestones was glowing a strange green colour, just next to his left foot, he gasped.
“Oh, you want this staff back now, don’t you?” the monk said. “You shouldn’t have thrown it at me so carelessly.”
David was about to respond, to defend himself, when he noticed that every cobble stone glowed green when his bare feet touched them.
He stood up, and then stepped onto the platform walking directly towards the monk. He reache
d out and said “Thank you for catching the staff when I fell over. I really appreciate it.” With that, David simply took hold of the staff. For a moment, he thought that the monk was not going to let go, but suddenly he released his grip, almost as if it had burned him.
There was a mighty crack of thunder overhead which caused David to duck down it was so loud. It reverberated around the massive cavern. He noticed that it caused the monk to open his eyes. And in those eyes, he saw fear.
David stepped back down onto the cobble stones in order to look past the pagoda roof, the light was still just as bright, there were no clouds. A shadow, the shape of a bird flashed across the polished upper walls in random, dizzying patterns that David realized were reflections of the one shadow.
He looked down and saw that the entire cobble stoned floor was now glowing that luminescent green.
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