**********
The long march home began later that afternoon, Mark finally allowed Susan, Penny and Ricardo to take a turn at point duty, to rest their aching arm muscles, he felt sure that the risk of an ambush had receded this far away from the Aldebran camp, luckily for them the nearest Aldebran team waiting to ambush them was many miles behind them. The next day, just as the sun was setting, they arrived at the drop off point, the place where they hoped to meet up with other colonists, and transport. Waiting under the trees they saw them, their friends had not returned to the new camp that morning, they had decided to wait, while praying for the safe arrival of their friends. After asking after Robbie they told their friends that they too had endured a moment of danger, they had been forced to hide away from an Aldebran patrol which had roared past them on motor bikes, however they had been moving so fast that they stood no hope of finding anyone as the two men had heard the sound of the bikes engines well before they had appeared and thus had given them the time to disappear. This gave Mark something to ponder over and he decided that they needed sentries posted on all approach roads so they were not taken by surprise.
As soon as they arrived back at their camp they rushed Robbie over to the makeshift clinic where Doctor Tattersall checked Robbie over.
“You did a fine job of fixing Mr Jenson up Mark; you are not aiming to take over from me, are you?” Tattersall jested.
“No, Doctor, one patient in need of my poor skills is enough for me.” Mark replied seriously.
Susan then came across to Robbie and apologised yet again for being so clumsy, but he laughed it off.
“I am all right Susan, so please do not reproach yourself, apart from Mark and Richard none of us are trained as soldiers, and certainly not Special Forces, you only served to highlight the problem facing us. We will all have to take greater care when our enemy is close to us, if we are to live through this ordeal.” Robbie assured her, he for one did not blame her; rather he blamed the Aldebrans for his injury.
Bishop Marley was not happy when he saw Robbie, who thanks to the other five members of the team was now recovering from his injury. “I am sorry Mark, but your patrol failed dismally, you only managed the briefest recce of their camp before calamity struck, you could all have died there, as it is Robert Jenson was badly injured, this must be our last such sortie until after we have given peace a chance.”
“I agree that the sortie could hardly be called a success Bishop, however we have now met the Aldebran farmers and we know that at least one of their families can be called friendly, which in turn gives us an indication as to how the other families will probably act towards us. Also we now know that our people have the strength of character not to give in when fate turns against them. They survived because they would not accept defeat. However, the next time, if you are agreeable, I will take the risks alone or maybe with Richard Rider, if he agrees to accompany me. We will be able to penetrate the enemy camp, for their troopers are certainly of a low calibre, then we can do whatever we went there for, and then return to camp unharmed.” Mark replied grimly. “You put me in charge of our defence bishop; please allow me to do it.”
“Ok, Mark, I know how capable you are and I will agree that you can operate with Richard Rider, but no one else.” Bishop Marley agreed. “For if you were to take anyone else along then they would not only endanger themselves but also you, and as I said to you before we cannot afford to lose you, for to do so might well doom us all.” Bishop Marley said.
Feeling a little embarrassed Mark could not reply to Bishop Marley`s words, he just hoped that Susan and Penny understood why they would have to stay home on his next excursion to the Aldebran base.
Bishop Marley then expanded on one of his earlier comments regarding giving peace a chance, and his words stunned Mark. “Mark, I intend to pay the Aldebrans a visit, to try to put an end to these hostilities, I am sure that with god`s help I can get through to them and avert a bloody war.”
“I just hope that they give you a chance to talk peace to them, and that they will listen. However, I must advise you that they are led by a megalomaniac who listens to no one but himself. I am afraid that the Aldebran commander will be of a similar frame of mind, and will either shoot you out of hand, that or lie to you so that you lead our people into a trap, one in which we will not return.” Mark replied vehemently before continuing on in a softer vein.
“However, Bishop, as you say, you are the spiritual leader of our colony, I will therefore follow your wishes, I will even go with you to the Aldebran base.” Mark said for he had no intention of allowing Bishop Marley to risk his life unaccompanied.
Bishop Marley was just about to argue when Mark spoke of a couple of points that had occurred to him a little while earlier, when he had been away on his ill-fated mission.
“While I was away two things struck me Bishop, first off while I was watching the Aldebran patrol as it drove away from our position out there in the forest; it occurred to me that given the speed and range of their vehicles there is every likelihood that sooner or later they will chance upon the trail that ends up here. Tomorrow morning I want to take out a small team to hide the turn off, and also to wipe out any of our tracks in the vicinity.” Mark said.
Bishop Marley face paled when he thought of the consequences of such an event, and especially if it was before he had attempted to make peace with the Aldebrans, so he hurriedly agreed that Mark should use the next day to hide their own personal animal trail from any future searchers.
“The second thing was something said to me by our two drivers, about the motor cycle patrol Bishop, they could just as easily stumbled upon this camp and who knows what might have occurred, they might even have called their base and brought all hell down upon us. We need to post sentries at each of the roads that come into our camp, so that we are not surprised, for as I have just pointed out, the result could be calamitous.” Mark said grimly.
“You are quite correct Mark, and we have the people to spare, colonists who are begging to help us fight this war.” Bishop Marley replied, his colour having gone from healthy to sickly pallid in seconds. “I will leave it up to you to arrange, but please do it soon or I will never get a moment`s peace until you do.”
Mark spoke to the colonists and soon had four forward teams of ten colonists positioned at the four narrow trails that entered the camp, three on one side of the river, to the north, the west and the south of the camp and one on the other side of the river to the east of the camp. Their task would be cold and wet at times, boring for most of the time but essential for all of the time, however they all realised this after the episode with the motor bike patrol. They were under orders to hold their fire if possible but to take out any patrol that attempted to pass by them. Mark instructed the four colonists in charge of each of the details to keep the noise down to a minimum and not to light any fires; he then took each of these men to the four guard posts and told them where to position their detail so that they did not end up accidentally killing one of their own people. The guard would be changed every four hours and would be set from dawn until dusk each day; this meant that every colonist would take at least one turn on sentry duty every other day. During the night only two guards would be set at each of the posts and they would be equipped with their smart phone with permission to use it only if they had a definite sighting of their enemy.
**********
The next day the heavens opened and the rain fell down in sheets, even so the sentries were posted, although some of them did complain, Captain Larson was charged with overseeing the four details and also for arranging for the change of guard. Mark knew that Larson`s task would not be an easy one, however he was busy with the first of his security problems, he believed that they should use this opportunity to conceal the trail and then erase any tracks that they had made in the vicinity. However, two of the colonists asked by Bishop Marley to accompany Mark did not want to go, and one of them, Joe Butcher, made his feelings known.
“We will be utterly drenched, I can hardly see a foot in front of me, put it off until tomorrow man, the Aldebrans surely will not be out on a day like this.” Joe Butcher pleaded.
“The sky to the south is clearing Joe, the rain will soon let up here. Yes we might still get a little wet, and maybe we will feel rather uncomfortable, but this weather is perfect for us. As you rightly said, the Aldebrans drones will not be up on a day like this, however that black starship that my team watched hovering over us will. We need to take advantage of this weather, not hide away from it.” Mark replied angrily.
His speech turned the tide and he and five other colonists took the two smaller tracked vehicles, and a tractor, and set off for the beginning of their trail. When they got there they found that the rainstorm had erased all of their tracks, now it was their turn to do some work, they had to conceal the narrow trail from any passing Aldebrans. The sun finally emerged from behind the rapidly departing clouds, reminding them that their time was limited, soon the sky over the Aldebran camp would clear and they would then launch their drones.
Small deciduous trees lined the main trail with plenty of vegetation growing beneath the trees, the amount of light that penetrated through the open tree canopy making it grow quite vigorously. Their narrower trail was similarly lined and it was easy to dig up two large shrubs, after all of the rain, and replant them so that the trail was no longer visible. Mark then used the tractor to haul a fallen tree of the same type of those that lined the main trail and lay it behind the two shrubs. Finally he and his team move some more large shrubs, putting them behind the fallen tree. The six men now walked onto the main trail to look at their handiwork.
“We should fill in the space behind the nearest trees on either side of our trail, to complete the job; it is the only way to ensure our privacy.” Joe Butcher said. “If we must work in the wet then let us do the job properly.” He said with a smile playing around his mouth.
Two hours later and everyone was satisfied, and it was then that they heard the sound of explosions; they were coming from the west, just a short distance away from them. Joe Butcher climbed up one of the taller trees to get a better view of the cause of the explosions, what he saw shocked him.
“Two of the Aldebran drones are back in the air and they were firing at the forest, and no more than two miles away, something must have made them think that our camp is over that way.” Butcher called down, then he hurriedly climbed back down, jumping the last six feet. “That black starship has just arrived, and it has joined in; whatever they saw will soon be blasted into so many small pieces.”
“We must move the three vehicles out of sight of anything airborne, that small hollow we passed some three hundred yards back along our trail will do nicely. We can wait there until they finish pounding whatever they have found and leave, only then can we risk returning to our camp.” Mark said grimly.
“Our people are going to hear all of those explosions; they are going to think that we are under attack.” Ambrose Patel said anxiously.
“There is nothing that we can do about that Ambrose; to return now could bring hell down upon those whom you are attempting to protect.” Mark warned.
They waited for an hour after the explosions had finally finished, during that time the drones twice flew over their heads, but thankfully, they did not find the six colonists who had concealed their body heat from the searchers by pulling their emergency survival blankets around them. They had also covered their two small vehicles in this way; the Aldebrans would have to work a lot harder to find them. When all had been quiet for twenty minutes after the last drone had flown over them, they returned to their camp to be greeted by some very relieved wives and friends. The next day Mark and Richard went out to find out what the drones had been attacking. Ten miles away from their camp they came to an area of the forest that had been partially destroyed; on investigating further they found many of the fallen trees had been home to a large tribe of monkeys, they were all dead now, killed in mistake for the earthmen.
On their return to camp they reported all that they had found, Bishop Marley sat grim faced as he listened to their report, when they had completed their awful tale Bishop Marley looked Mark straight in the eye.
“Mark, yesterday the Aldebrans made an unprovoked attack on what they assumed was our camp, it has made me realise that maybe I was wrong to order you not to commence hostilities against the Aldebran military. However, before I order you to do just that, I am still determined to give peace a chance. That being so I am going to their camp tomorrow to speak to them, for there is always the chance that they were responding to your recce, seeing it as a hostile move.” Bishop Marley said.
“Then I will accompany you, as I promised, together we will make an attempt to end this madness.” Mark replied.
“No Mark, the people will need you to lead the war against the Aldebrans, should my attempt fail, I will go alone, that way I will only be putting my own life in danger.” Bishop Marley replied.
Bishop Marley last illusion had been blown away by the attack on the tribe of monkeys, he now felt that peace was a long way off, but he was determined to at least try to make peace with the Aldebrans, even if he now felt that it might well lead to his death, for what else could a man of god do?
**********
Early the next morning, and before the sun had risen, Mark drove Bishop Marley away from the camp; many people had tried to make him change his mind. Even his own wife, Joyce Marley, who bravely hid her tears until he had disappeared along the narrow winding trail, failed to persuade him to stay, but he refused to surrender to the coming violence without at least trying to stop it. They were in one of the smaller tracked vehicles and so Mark was able to drive onto the main track without dismantling there camouflage at the junction of the trail with the main track, although he had to take the vehicle off the track and pick up the main trail two hundred yards further along it, having ensured that he did not leave a clear trail behind them that their enemy could see and follow. Mark drove Bishop Marley to within five miles of the Aldebran camp, the last part of the journey being across the prairie.
They had to walk the final five miles; otherwise the noise of their vehicle would have had every Aldebran trooper racing towards them. One mile out and they came to the gully that cut through the prairie and wound past the Aldebran camp, this was the same gully that Mark and his team had used in their ill-fated recce. The enemy starships were still lit up by their landing lights, and it was half a mile out from them that Mark stopped to speak to Bishop Marley.
“Bishop, are you sure that you want to continue with your mission, the Aldebrans will not want to know, however they will want to know where our camp is, and they will torture you to find that information out.” Mark said in an attempt to get Bishop Marley to change his mind.
“Mark, I must do this, I could not live with myself knowing that I had chosen war without first attempting to make peace with the Aldebrans. As for extracting any information out of me by way of torture, well no one knows, not even Joyce, but I have a weak heart, it almost stopped when the Aldebrans made their initial attack, torture will almost certainly kill me.” Bishop Marley declared to an amazed Mark Summers.
Mark did not know how to respond to this news, so he did not answer, instead he took Bishop Marley`s night vision goggles from him and his survival blanket.
“I had better take these Bishop, the Aldebrans might not take kindly to the fact that the goggles are of Aldebran manufacture, and obviously taken off their comrades who we killed and buried. As for the blanket, well I do not want them knowing just how we are evading their scanners.”
Mark watched as Bishop Marley walked the final half mile to the edge of the Aldebran camp, feeling more of a coward with each step that Bishop Marley took. However, Mark could not afford to hang around, he moved rapidly back along the gully towards the open prairie, evading the odd sentry guarding the small Aldebran task force. One minute later Bishop Marley surrendered himse
lf to a sentry, who was as amazed as Mark had been minutes earlier when Bishop Marley had told him of his medical condition.
**********
Bishop Marley was led aboard the North Wind by two of the sentries; Commander Oshiro had decided to interrogate him there as the craft had a translator program built into its main computer.
“Earthman, I am so happy that you have decided to give yourself up, that is how it should have been from the start, if you wanted to be treated correctly and without any harm coming to you. Now if you will help us in our efforts to have your people removed from the planet, we will ensure that while you are a guest here, that your confinement will be a comfortable one.” Oshiro said. He was smiling for he now assumed he had a good chance to successfully end his mission over the next few days, one way or another.
“I am Bishop Marley, I am in charge of the spiritual needs of my people, and I should state right now that I have no intention of betraying my people. I am here to talk peace, to arrange for our two peoples to live together on this planet.”
“Bishop Marley, if you did not come here to assist us in our task, namely organising the removal of your people off P1056, then this part of our meeting is at an end. You are part of an illegal colonisation of this planet; one long claimed by our emperor, you are hereby arrested as a spy. If you do not willingly answer our questions then we will have to get the information we require the painful way.” Oshiro said grimly, an ugly smile appeared upon his face as his mind savoured the thought.
Bishop Marley assumed correctly that the soldier was delighting in his thoughts of torturing him; it would seem that Joyce and Mark were correct and that the Aldebran leadership were barbarians. He hoped that he could stand up to it long enough, and that if he must endure such suffering that his end came quickly, for he did not know how he would cope when the pain increased beyond that which he had suffered during his lifetime. He decided to use the short time left to him to think of his life with Joyce, they had been so happy when they had been chosen to lead the New Caledonian colony.