Rachel takes the phone off me, taps it a couple of times, then she holds it up for me to see, “Tap there.”
I scan around again and shortly afterwards we are seated on the ground together looking at the phone’s screen.
“What do you think?” I ask.
“Looks quite fuzzy, could be it, on the other hand it could be some sort of heat haze.”
“Well I can see nothing else, and it is in the right direction.”
We take our break, share the food and drink.
~~0~~0~~0~~
Confirmed, the arrow we left on the ground, we can see it clearly now. The tunnel, looks far less like a heat haze.
Rachel says, “It’s amazing that Phil and Gavin have managed to keep the tunnel running all this time.”
“Certainly is. Hey a though just occurred to me.”
“What?”
I continue, “I wonder if Phil and Gavin have seen one of those giant slugs cruising by?”
Rachel smiles, “That would have been a shock.”
“Nearly there.”
“You have this unerring knack, of stating the obvious Bill.”
“More self-motivation, than anything else.”
“What more motivation do you need than to see our arrow and that the tunnel is up and running?”
“Be ironic if having reached this far…”
Rachel interrupts me with, “Don’t say it Bill I can read your mind, don’t even go there!”
“Tempting providence, or something like that?”
“Something like that.”
“Well it would, wouldn’t it?”
“I said don’t and I meant it.”
Reaching the mouth of the tunnel is such a relief, especially when we see Phil and Gavin waving like mad at us.
Rachel ignoring Phil and Gavin bends down and when she stands up again I can see she has an unbroken pod in her hand.
Phil is giving a big thumbs up then indicating something, whilst Gavin disappears from sight.
Rachel soon has the pod open and we are both delighted to see the communicator inside and it is apparently undamaged. Rachel soon has it turned on.
I look down the tunnel and can see that Gavin has returned and also has a communicator.
We hear Phil ask “Where are your suits? You O.K.?”
Rachel replies, “One question at a time Phil, the suits are back at the city, as for us being O.K., we are alive at least.”
“Where is Anile?”
Rachel silent for a moment, then replies, “Sorry Phil bad news there I am afraid, he’s dead.”
“What ‘appened?”
Rachel hands the communicator to me. I tell Phil what had happened, at least starting with our encounter with the machines in the city, leading up to the contaminated food and the encounter with the alien leading to Anile’s death.
Phil showing no emotion over Anile’s death, asks, “Why are you not wearing us protective suits?”
“The machines insisted that we take them off and what with Rachel’s kidnap and me trying to find her, we didn’t have the opportunity to put them back on. In any case we had been breathing the atmosphere and eating the food, so whatever damage could happen would have happened.”
Phil silent for a moment, then says, “I think you have summed up dilemma right there. The suits were not only to protect you, but also to protect us back ‘ere. Whatever you ‘ave taken on-board so to speak, you’d be bringing back with you.”
Phil’s words hit me like a sledge hammer!
I had not even given the matter a thought. We have been in two alien environments, this planet, the city and then the alien ship, all without the protection of our suits. We have breathed the air, touched the soil, ate the food and touched a lot more besides.
“How the ‘ell am I going to explain to authorities what has ‘appened to Anile?”
Rachel replies, “We can tell them Phil.”
Phil, head in hands replies, “You’ve missed point Rach, you cannot come back lass, you’re as contaminated as you possibly could be. We don’t ‘ave us facilities to bring you back and keep you in safe place, so as you don’t infect us all back ‘ere.”
“Couldn’t you talk with the authorities and see if they can help us, they may be able to provide some form of isolation facilities?”
I come to Phil’s rescue, “To achieve what Rachel? For us to live the rest of our days in some form of isolation ward? We would probably never be allowed out, plus the very risk of us being back home is too great a risk to the world, let alone the humans. We could bring about an ecological disaster!”
Rachel’s face, as the full horror of the situation dawns upon her.
~~0~~0~~0~~
Chapter 22 – Five Years On
We survived, more than that…
Rather than feeling like we have been isolated, we feel as if we are a human outpost, probably the only representatives of the human race in this sector. It has almost been like early settlers in a foreign land.
Thinking back to the time when we realised that there would be no possibility of return, to the Earth for us; we were devastated at first, still wondering whether we would, or even could survive, given all that we had been exposed to. We took each day as it came, not knowing whether it would be our last.
Phil and Gavin kept us supplied with water and food, plus other essentials.
We had decided at an early stage that we needed to “come clean” about the project, us being stranded here and Anile’s death. There was an official enquiry into Anile’s death, with a hearing conducted via the tunnel. We are “visited” by officials every now and again, we have chats either via the tunnel or the comms device that Phil and Gavin had invented and yes it works well.
We started with a temporary tent structure, but that got blown away one day, when a really strong storm blew up. So Phil sent us some materials to build a permanent shelter, well more like a house, at least it is now, that we have our family; a boy a girl and another on the way. But I jump ahead of myself.
We were lucky in that some of the seeds that Phil and Gavin sent us, took well to this soil. The officials sent us some equipment so we could more efficiently survey the land. Their aim being to gain more information about an alien planet, in the process we discovered some water right near our encampment and dug some wells. The water was alright for the plants but needed some processing before it was fit for us to drink; it contained some minerals that in enough concentration would have killed us. The boffins back home came up with a processing plant, which Phil and Gavin sent to us in parts. As it runs from solar power, apart from periodic cleaning of the filters, it pretty well looks after itself.
More iols arrived and at first there were tensions between us and them. When they discovered our encampment and the fact that we had food that was much better than theirs, they sent the machines to raid our fields. The authorities back on Earth sent us some weapons to defend ourselves. We felt guilty about blasting up the machines; after all they had been good hosts to us, when we had visited them.
The iols soon realised that they could not afford to lose any more machines as replacements were not possible, their home planet was too far away to send for spares, as it was the number of iols sent here were only a few. We subsequently found out that it cost so much in terms of resources that the final craft that had been sent, was the last that would ever be sent. So the raids ceased.
One day a lone iol visited us with the intent of setting up some form of trade. You may think to yourself, what did the iols and machines possibly have that would be valuable enough to trade? They offered us some of their decorative artworks and also one of their machines to work in our fields. For the sake of peace, also because we loved their art work and could do with the help anyway, accepted their offer. We had more than enough food.
We now have a very good trade relationship with the machines and their “iols”. More of the machines help us tending and processi
ng the crops and iol community is growing.
We found another use for the fighting arena, we now put on joint entertainments. Rachel and I taught the iols how to enjoy acting, in return they taught us their songs, both sides now speak a combined language that I call “Germanish”, a cross between English and German.
There have been exchanges of ideas and information between the officials (back on Earth), the machines and the iols. The whole thing worked out really well in the end.
As for our tunnel equipment, it is now financed by the authorities as a means of conducting experiments on an alien planet. Every so often new experimental packages are sent to us. The officials were so taken with the possibilities of our invention that now they are carrying out their own experiments, but in a much more controlled and safe way.
There is even a family planning to make the one way trip, they are planning to settle out here with us. We met them a few times now, via the tunnel. He is a teacher, she is biologist and they have two children, both girls, they are slightly older than our two. We are looking forward to them joining us, so are the iols, especially as the family are into sports. I can see even wider use of the arena now.
All that sparkles may not be…. But sometimes it can be really good.
The End – or is it?
©2012 Steve Simons
~~ The End ~~
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