The silence is unsettling, but why? I suppose the fact being that back home no matter where you go you can hear something, whether I be some sort of insects or the rustling of a gentle breeze, but here NOTHING.
Chapter 5 – Like Waves
We had tried to resume our sleep, once the unbroken items had been collected around us, but memories of giant slug creature and fears of it, or something worse visiting us; plus in my case fear that Anile was right about the inadvisability of me removing my helmet and breathing in something that would ultimately kill me off; all lead to us just resting. I had put my helmet back on having achieved my aim of cooling down.
We lay on the ground, staring up at the stars wondering how far we are away from home.
The daylight, when it returned, was as fast at appearing, as it had been, disappearing last night. I came to the conclusion that this was due to the angle of ascent of the…. and here came the shock bit, not a single sun, but two of them! That was the reason it was so bright here in the day. We had not seen the two suns, yesterday as they are one behind the other, and too bright to look directly at during the day. It is only as the two suns rise, that we can look through the atmospheric haze and see that there are in fact, two discs. As for the darkness of night, no moon, so no sunlight reflected back, just the faint light of the stars.
Breakfast, if breakfast you can call some pretty tasteless, nutrient saturated fluid. Breakfast over; we get up collect the undamaged pods.
Putting the memories of the night behind us; we set our sights, once more on the ever larger shapes, with their dark ominous background of the mountains; in the hope of finding something good there.
Rachel fishes out the distance meter and after a short pause, announces, “Well providing this thing didn’t get damaged, it reckons we only have just over seventeen Kilometres to go.”
I mutter, “Just under forty yesterday then.”
“What?” Rachel asks, then resumes, “Oh yes, I see what you mean.”
“About three hours, if we keep up a steady pace.” Anile adds.
We set off and start at Anile’s good steady pace, but the lack of sleep and struggles of last night, soon seem to take their toll and we get slower and slower. I seem to be hotter than yesterday and after about an hour, I protest and insist that we take a rest. Rachel stares at me through my helmet, it is a look of concern. Anile asks, “What is it Rachel?”
“I think Bill is running a temperature.”
“I will check.” Anile pulls out the health monitor, stabs at it several times, then announces, “Crikey! 41 degrees! Surprising, that he could still walk!”
“We have to bring down his temperature somehow.” Anile says.
“The ice sticks, have we still got any intact?” Rachel starts searching through the pods.
Anile joins her, whilst I enjoy the fact that we are no longer walking.
Conscious now, of the fact that I do feel rather hot and a bit, a bit what is the phrase? Hazy, no that’s not it, but the sunlight gleaming across the green sandy soil, is certainly hazy, shimmering, making the outlines of the shapes that we are heading towards, making them quiver, like looking at pebbles, through the waves of the sea.
There is something else, something, something….. I can feel sleep lapping over me, like waves, the comforting waves of some tropical island beach.
I try to fight it off, I must stay, must stay….. stay something….. but what, the waves of sleep lapping over me, ever more persistent.
I hear a familiar sound, but cannot place it, I am being lifted… something touches the back of my head a sort of dragging feeling. Then it is gone, I am laid down, my head falls into, into sand.
There is something else, but what?… the waves of sleep take me, just for a moment…. then shock! It is cold, so cold, like I have been shot.
I hear Rachel in a muffled voice say, “It seems to be working, wow that is fast, I need to wrap it in something.”
The pain is ebbing now, I can feel the waves of sleep, slipping up upon me again, like a blanket, slowly being pulled up over me. Suddenly I feel it again, the cold, but this time, not so sharp, more of a comfort than a pain.
Something, something else…. The thought runs through me, repeating over and over again, I cannot shift it, but then the waves of sleep lap over me and I am gone.
Chapter 6 – Reaching an Understanding
I feel myself drifting back, drifting back into consciousness, I catch a sound, then I am aware of the light again. The waves lap back over me, taking me with them. My periods of being aware, then awake again, get longer and longer. I see Rachel looking down at me, she smiles. I weakly smile back at her.
I don’t hear the words, but I catch the meaning, as I see Rachel’s lips move. I nod.
Anile’s muffled voice says, “That’s much better, 38 degrees now. We need to get moving soon, we have been here for a good couple of hours.”
Rachel asks, “Isn’t it too soon, we have only just got his temperature down?”
Anile ignores the question and asks, “Can you walk Bill?”
I do not know, but having understood Anile’s concerns, I am keen to find out if we can resume our journey. I sit up, it takes a deal of effort, but feels quite good. My head is still a bit woozy, I just hope I don’t collapse when I stand up.
Rachel says, “Careful Bill, don’t rush it.”
Anile helps me up. I realise that I haven’t got my helmet on. I wonder where it has gone, but cannot be bothered to ask, as I need my full concentration on getting up and staying up. I can feel myself swaying, like a flagpole, in a strong wind.
Rachel looks sympathetically at me as if willing me to succeed.
Anile says, “It looks like you are over the worst of it now, I did warn you about taking your helmet off. Your body’s defences seem to have fought off whatever had affected you.”
Rachel bends down and scoops up some of the pods and hands them to Anile, whilst he continues to steady me.
Then Rachel picks up my helmet and gently puts this over my head and fastens the seal. She resumes picking up the remaining pods and stands the other side of me, she eases my arm round her neck and the three of us start to walk off. It is quiet an effort at first, but we soon get into the rhythm.
After a while thoughts start buzzing around in my head, I remembered looking across to whatever we are heading for and thinking something….. What was it? There was the haze, behind which the shapes of what we are heading for, were being distorted… I remember thinking that there was something else, something other than the shapes that had become so familiar. But what was that something else?
What did I think I had seen? Was it a hallucination, brought on by the fever, or was it real?
I scan the horizon carefully as we walk along, but all I can see are the familiar shapes.
“You ok?” Rachel’s muffled voice asks.
“Yeah, I thought I saw something earlier.”
“When?” Rachel asks.
“Don’t worry, it was probably just the fever.”
Anile excitedly says, “No, no you were right, look over there.” Anile points to the right and sure enough on careful examination I can see it, getting larger by the second and kicking up some dust by the looks of it.
“What is it?” Rachel asks.
I reply, “Unless I am mistaken, looks like a vehicle of some sort and it is heading straight for us, at speed.”
“What should we do?” Asks Rachel.
“There is nothing we can do, we are out in the open, there is no shelter and whatever that is, it either knows we are here or is just coincidentally heading this way. Perhaps whoever lives at the city is sending us a welcoming committee or maybe just a lift.”
We watch as it comes ever closer, making no sign of deviation from its course. I just hope on hope that whoever is driving that vehicle has good intentions.
I think about the consequences of three aliens ending up in one of o
ur military places, it would probably not end well. I must think positively, if only for the sake of Rachel and Anile.
~~o~~o~~
Gavin looks up from his screen and says, “Hey, I know they say exercise is good for ya, but you’ll wear the floor out if you pace up and down much more.”
Phil pauses and replies, “Yer I know but it ‘as been over 10 hours now.”
“They did say they would be gone for about 30. You’ll wear yourself out, well before they are due back. Ya should’ve gone to sleep last night. I’m just a tad worried about these fluctuations in the power supply; I did say we needed a better scrub circuit than this cheap trash. There seems to be some heavy stuff on the same feed as our supply.”
Phil resumes his pacing, “Can us keep tube open and stable enough t’ maintain connection?”
“I think so, but I ‘ave not liked some of the peaks n troughs I ‘ave been seeing.”
“Perhaps us ought to see if we can lay our ‘ands on a better stabilizer. Sometimes ya can get really quick delivery if it is in stock. I will see what I can do.”
“The spec I suggested is on your desk.”
Phil changes direction and heads towards the open door, “OK keep a close eye on things I’ll be back as soon as I can.”
“Yeah, yeah, don’t worry Anile and Rachel are my mates too you know.”
~~o~~o~~
Now that this vehicle is so much closer, I can see that it seems to be running on tracks, three of them by the look of things. The shape of the vehicle is pretty irregular though. It is still difficult to make out any detail. There does not appear to be any windows and as far as I can tell no obvious weaponry, but then what passes for weaponry here, might look quiet innocent to us.
As I look round, I see Rachel has the distance meter in her hand, I call out “Hey Rachel put that down, it might look like a weapon to whoever is driving that thing. We don’t want to start a war.”
Rachel lowers it instantly, “I didn’t even think about that.”
“Did you get a reading?”
“As it happens, yes, its 2 Kilometres away.”
I can hear Anile mumbling some figures and he suddenly announces, “It is only about one and half metres high, one metre long, and about three quarters of a metre wide, by my estimation.”
“Darn, that’s a really small vehicle, too small, to provide us transportation back to the city.”
Anile offers, “Perhaps it is some form of recon mission to check us out, before attempting to retrieve us.”
This latest revelation just makes me feel even more uncomfortable about the situation. “You are probably right.” I say, hoping to reassure Anile and Rachel.
“That’s a shame; I was hoping it would save us the long walk.” Rachel says.
~~o~~o~~
Phil enters the cubical with a piece of paper in hand and he is studying it carefully, he looks up and says, “Can you believe it?”
“What, the price, or delivery timeframe?”
“Both, the earliest I can get delivery is in two days and as for the price, well bang goes our pay this week!”
“Seriously?”
“Yes, I even offered to collect, but they said it would be no faster.”
“I meant our salary, surely it can’t cost that much?”
“Like I said we need high spec and earliest delivery.”
“But a week’s salary? I’m sure I can do something with the one we have, but I’ll have to take it offline for a while.”
“How long?”
“Probably a couple of hours.”
“I don’t really want to switch it off, in-case we can’t re-establish connection.”
“Hey Phil, that’s daft, we ‘ave managed every day for the last week.”
“Yeah I know, but us don’t know if it were to exactly same point, every time.”
“A few metres shouldn’t matter.”
“But a few Kilometres would make difference between ’em finding tunnel or not.”
“If we have any more serious power outages, it might shut us down altogether and they’ll be stranded anyway.”
“Can ya guarantee that thee can fix it in two hours?”
“Pretty much.”
“What does that mean?”
“Don’t start a stopwatch, I might be a little over or under on my estimate.”
“Have we got all of parts?”
“What we haven’t got I can probably get from Ryan.”
“What Ryan at us Campus?”
“Yeah, he’s still on our payroll.”
“No he isn’t, never ‘as been.”
“I meant our Friday drinking payroll, he owes us big time.”
“Much as I hate t’ admit it, I think ya right, but it just seems so disloyal to turn off us kit and break us connection.”
~~0~~0~~
Now that whatever is heading towards us is so close, we can see that it isn’t a vehicle, unless its occupants are really small. It looks more like some sort of robot, sent here to check us out.
The device, silent, apart from some sort mechanical noises as it bounces off of the odd sandy slope, stops about three metres from us. We were right about the three track propulsion. Above which is a cylindrical section about half a metre tall, then a rectangular section with curved edges and several arms emerging out of this segment. The arms held vertically and close to the casing, it is difficult to make out exactly what is at the end of the arms; it all kind of blends in with the arms themselves, although I get the impression that there are different fittings on each of the arms. Quite how many arms there are, is also difficult to figure out. The whole, is quite confusing. Above this are three black dull spheres on a shiny metallic circular collar. I know it is circular as the spheres are rotating slowly. Almost as if this thing is scanning us.
An ominous silence; the silence of something built for stealth missions; the silence of something built for death.
Nothing about this thing seems to be reassuring, it is quite disconcerting, unnerving.
We are in no position to make a quick retreat if things get nasty. One movement from us, could be our last. Yet we cannot continue this stalemate forever.
It is quite a shock when the thing starts to emit noises, they sound just like speech, but I do not recognise the language.
“Arrrh ich zu mach-in od zu iol orig-eine. Var dest orig-eine”
The thing repeats the noises, then waits again in silence. Presumably waiting for our response.
Anile says, “Sounds like a statement, or possibly an instruction. Do you think it wants us to follow it?”
I reply, “I don’t know, it is making no attempt to turn or move, so probably does not want us to follow it.”
Rachel asks, “Could it be a question? Some of it sounds a bit like German.”
Rachel might have something there, I thought I had recognised some of the sounds or words. “If it is a question, what could it be asking?”
“I think the first part was asking if we are machines.”
I suggest, “One of the words sounded like ‘origin’”
Anile says, “You could have something there, it repeated the word twice.”
“If we work on the basis that it starts to ask if we are machines, maybe the middle bit asks if we are… what’s the phrase?”
“Not machines?” Anile asks.
“Thank you professor, no that wasn’t the phrase I was looking for, I mean something like human.”
Rachel suggests, “Biological?”
“That’s it! It said something like ‘or iol’ Maybe that means biological.”
The thing speaks again, “Zu iol orig-eine. Var dest orig-eine.”
I look at Anile and Rachel and say, “As it has no change in tone, it is difficult to tell if it is making a statement or asking a question.”
“Exactly.” Anile agrees.
I turn to the thing and say, “Zu iol origin,”
The thing immediately respond
s, “Nein ich mach-in origin, zu iol.”
Rachel takes us all by surprise as she replies, “Ya, ya, ich bin iol origin.”
The thing turns slightly, so that it is now facing Rachel and contines, “Var dest origin?”
“I think it is asking where we come from.” I excitedly offer.
Rachel, now the preferred spokesperson, at least on the part of this machine, replies, “Ich dest origin, the earth.”
The machine pauses a while as if thinking this one over, then asks, “Var dest origin die ert var bis.”
“Ich kann Sie nicht verstehen” Rachel replies.
The machine then says, “Welt zu haus ge brauchs fertig fer de masters. Zu masters.”
Rachel turns back to us and says, “Well all I caught out of that was something about world for us and something about masters.”
“See if you can get it to take us to the city.” I suggest.
“Hey that’s easy for you to say, but I haven’t a clue how to describe the city.”
“What about pointing to it?” Anile suggests.
“Not a bad idea.” Rachel replies. Then she turns back to the machine points to the city and says, “Nehmen zu uns dort.”
The machine is silent for a bit and replies, “Ya steigen auf.”
“I think it has agreed to take us, lets follow it.” Rachel suggests.
The Machine repeats, “Ya steigen auf. Steigen auf.”
Anile says, “Unless I am mistaken, it wants us to climb onto it, if it wanted us to follow it would have said something like ‘Komanzee’”
I suggest, “Yes, although not quite right, I think it is Komm mit mir.”
The machine replies, “Komm mit mir, steigen auf.”
Rachel says, “After you, I am not climbing aboard that thing without being absolutely sure that is what it meant, after all, it might take our actions as being an intention to attack it.”
Not feeling 100 per cent sure that I am right, but convinced enough to give it a try, I suggest, “Well it clearly doesn’t want us to follow it otherwise it would have simply turned and marched off and expected us to follow it. Here goes.” I grab one of the arms and hoist myself up onto the platform above the tracks. The machine makes no attempt to repel my attempt to climb aboard, instead it repeats, the phrase “Yes, Steigen auf. Climb onto it.”
Soon we are heading at speed across the sandy soil and heading straight for the city or whatever it is.