Chapter 3
An hour later, resting on a sick bay bed, Will was pleased to see a small group of visitors approach him.
Billy moved forward "Am I pleased to see you again, Will. Let me introduce you to a few friends. These are Lieutenant Sarah Hirst of the police and Major Auryn Truran of the marines. Between them, they got you out of the other universe."
"You had us worried back there, getting shot like that" said Auryn, holding out his hand to Will.
"Glad to have you here, Will" said Sarah, also offering her hand.
"I must say, I’m really happy to see this universe again. I’d be even happier to get back to my own universe, but can’t see that happening any time soon."
"Thanks to you and Billy, we’ve been able to thwart an attack on the system. Although we know that the problem may come back, we now have a lot of information that we didn’t have before, as well as an ability, we hope, of catching them before they can do any damage here. Their leader’s office had loads of data in it that will keep our intelligence section busy for quite some time. We also have a device that will let us visit their universe but finding anyone to volunteer to be the one to go there isn’t going to be all that straightforward!" said Auryn.
"You mean the office of the Exalted General Willem Gott. Can’t say I took to him" replied Will "So, what happens now? While I guess I’m stuck here, I have no job, no money and no identity."
"Once you’re up to it, I think a debrief is in order, so we can learn what you picked up over there. We also have a prisoner ourselves when Billy and Sarah went through to have a quick look, as well as their two spaceships, which our military designers are no doubt anxious to have a look at. I think we can get you started, at least. I think we can probably sort out a reward that will give you a bit of money" said Auryn.
"And I think we ought to be able to get you an ID and some accommodation at Columbus. It won’t be classy but at least it will be somewhere you can call home until you can get yourself sorted out. We ought to be able to sort out some sort of a job though it isn’t likely to be exactly what you’re used to."
"Wow! Thank you guys" was all Will could say.
At that moment, Doctor David Fullerton approached and asked Will’s guests to leave "We just need to give him a final check and then he’s all yours" he said, ushering them towards the door.
"OK, no problem, Doc. Will, once you get out of here, there will be a guide outside who will escort you to the Captain’s office. He would like to meet you" said Auryn, as he left the sick bay.
Half an hour later, Will was outside the Captain’s office. His guide, Tom, knocked on the door. There was a call from within "Enter".
As he entered the Captains office, Will was struck by how opulent it was compared to the rest of the ship they had passed through from the medical centre. That said, he also noted how subdued it was compared to the office of General Gott.
"Welcome, Will. Pleased to meet you. I’m Captain George VanDelden." Said the Captain, holding out his right hand in greeting.
"Hello Captain. Thank you for asking to see me. I’m intrigued as to why, though."
"I thought it would be good to see who has put us through the last few hours of action and, at the same time, thank you for helping us become aware of the invasion that we were, in the circumstances, completely unaware of. Please take a seat. Would you like a drink?"
"Coffee, white with no sugar would be lovely, thanks" replied Will, feeling slightly confused.
The Captain called his Steward "Two coffees, please, Henry. Mr Hunt would like his white with no sugar." Turning to Will, he said "from what I understand, you have had quite an exciting few days. I’m sure that over the next few days our Intelligence team will want to have a detailed chat with you about the people who held you captive. Before then, it would be most helpful if you could give me a quick run-through. To keep it simple, I won’t ask questions until you’ve finished. Take as long as you like. This isn’t a formal interview but it will be recorded. Once Henry has brought you your coffee, please run through what has happened. It would be helpful if you could give as much information as you can. Although we think we have stopped the invasion for now, we need as much information as we can to make sure that this is the case. A lot of lives are potentially at stake."
At that moment, Henry entered carrying a tray with two coffees and some delicious-looking food. Will realised just how hungry he felt and decided that he needed at least one sandwich inside him before he began.
An hour and a half later, he had told the Captain everything he could about how he had been transported into this universe, how he and Billy had gone to Astraeus 5, found the two ships and the rear hangar, how he had been captured and what had happened in the other reality, including his, thankfully brief, interrogation by General Gott, and the Captain had asked several questions seeking clarification on several points.
Satisfied that they had exhausted everything for now, the Captain said "Thank you, Will. That was most helpful. Now, on a lighter note, we need to get you some papers and some means of surviving here for a while. Unfortunately, we can’t publicly reward you. In fact, your experiences of the past few days and the fact that you’re from another reality must remain strictly confidential. If this information became general knowledge, there would be more questions asked than we would want to answer. There are only so many ways of denying something. I gather that your background is in communications, similar to Billy’s. I can offer you a job on this ship if that would be of interest. Good communications technicians are, curiously, hard to get hold of. I must warn you, though, that that would mean having a haircut and your beard trimmed. If not, we may be able to sort something out with something on the station, though that may open a can of worms that may be best left sealed, at least for now. Either way, we can provide you with some funds for you to get set up here but that will take a couple of days to finalise."
"It’s all been a bit of a shock to the system, Captain, so I’d like to think about it a little before I agree, although it sounds interesting. I wouldn’t mind a change of career but I would have preferred to have done it in my own reality. Is that OK?"
"Yes, I understand. That’s not a problem. I would like to return you into the care of Major Truran for now, as we will be arriving at Columbus shortly and I should be on the bridge."
The Captain called Henry again "Henry, please ask Major Truran to come and escort Will to his office."
"Yes, Sir" replied Henry
A few minutes later, Auryn arrived to collect Will and took him to his office two floors below the Captain's.
As they entered, Will was pleased to see both Billy and Sarah were there. Auryn ushered Will to sit in the remaining empty chair.
"OK, folks. Our priority is to come up with a cover story as to why Will is here. I’m also authorised to give both Will and Billy a reward for finding out about the invasion. Without their involvement, we would by now be fighting a war that we would have started very much on the back foot."
Before we start, some food would be in order. Although I gather you had a snack when you were with the Captain, Will, I would think that you would be looking for something a bit more substantial. He pressed the communicator button on his right shoulder and a few minutes later, two navy personnel brought in a large trolley laden with all kinds of food and laid it on the table in Auryn’s office. Once the two personnel had left, they moved to the table and started to eat, discussing the cover story the while.
After two hours, they all agreed that the story they had produced seemed to be the most likely to arouse the least level of suspicion when they landed back at the station. For now, pending his decision regarding the Captain’s offer a job on the ship, Will would wear the uniform of a Navy Communications Technician.
As they left the office, Will was taken to the storeroom by a young marine and they chose a suitable uniform for him to wear. Will changed clothes as soon as he could and took his non-naval clothing to put on Bi
lly's ship. As he arrived, Billy was there to greet him.
"Sarah and her crew are about to return to her ship. She didn't think it would look right if she landed with the navy. She said she would meet up with us again as soon as she can, once we’ve landed." explained Billy, as Will approached him.
"Oh, OK. I'd hoped to thank her for all her help but I guess it can wait. Did she say where she would meet us?"
"No, but I gave her my contact details, so she can get in touch. I need to get going, or I'll be trapped on board. I’ll meet you at the Navy dock, and we’ll go on to my place from there. If I’m not there in time, just wait. OK?"
"Understood. No problem. See you shortly."
Five minutes later, Billy's ship left the hold and flew in a gently curved trajectory, so that he could approach the company docks on the other side of Columbus.
As they approached, Billy called the port and told them he was on his way to dock at the company dockings and asked if there was anything he needed to know about regarding other traffic. there was some routine traffic, there was nothing unusual that required him to wait or take a different trajectory. Having docked thousands of times on the station since he started work for the company, he pulled into the dock he usually used and killed the engines.
Having docked cleanly, Billy quickly shut down his ship, grabbed his bag and ran to the Navy dock, three levels below the civilian docks and further round the station. As he arrived at the entrance to the dock, he could see Will standing there and rushed to meet him.
As Will looked around at the docking lobby, what struck him was how similar, yet how different it all looked compared to Shackleton. Now he was outside the naval docks, the lobby was a public area and the colour scheme, the wall and floor coverings and even the lighting design were different to what he was used to. It was almost as if he had gone to a different space station that had been built using the same plans as the ones used for Shackleton but which had been decorated by a different interior designer. In effect, that was what had happened, except that it occupied essentially the same location in space.
If Will thought that there were lots of differences between the two dock areas, what he saw when he cleared the doors of the docks area surprised him even more. Instead of the dull colours he was used to on Shackleton, Columbus was a riot of colour, with deep red flooring, brightly coloured doors and walls and a white ceiling. Just to add to it all, the lighting was much brighter than the much lower-level lighting on Shackleton and there were moving advertisement signs along the walls, along with localised music and voices to go with them, making it even louder than he was used to. He was glad he didn’t have a headache but he thought he might get one before he got used to the bright colour scheme and the high level hubbub. All he could say was "Wow."
"Different to Shackleton I take it?" replied Billy.
"And then some. Shackleton is all greys and beiges and the adverts are silent, unlike this place. I might need sunglasses" said Will, shielding his eyes from the unaccustomed colour scheme.
As they walked along, Will spotted someone he knew well and shouted "Hi there, Frank. How’s it going?"
The man addressed was somewhat surprised, as he didn’t recognise either the bearded man hailing him, or his companion. He was also somewhat taken aback that the stranger seemed to know who he was. In the circumstances, he felt that the safest thing was to carry on walking as if he hadn’t heard the call.
"Hey Frank. What’s the matter? Still rattled that you missed the big party?"
Frank started to walk even quicker. Billy, realising what had happened, put his hand gently on Will’s arm. "Whilst he may be a ringer for the Frank you know, he isn’t the same person. He clearly hasn’t a clue who you are or what you’re talking about. Better drop it before he calls security."
"This is going to take some getting used to" said Will quietly, realising that Frank was moving away as quickly as he could without drawing attention to himself. Will called after him "Sorry, there. Thought you were someone else."
As they rounded a corner, Billy nudged Will and said "I think you need to remember that you don’t actually know anyone here. If you just think of yourself as a visitor, you’ll be OK. It’s not going to be easy, as a lot of people here are likely to have doppelgangers in your reality."
"I’ll try but I can’t guarantee that it’ll always work. If I have a memory lapse, you might need to cover for me."
As they reached the central hub of the station, Billy moved towards a group of elevators that would take them to the residential section.
A few minutes later, they arrived at the residential level that Billy and his family lived on. "Just down here, Will" informed Billy "We’ll be there in about five minutes."
As they walked down the wide corridor, they were passed by people going both ways using a variety of means of transport, from anti-gravity cycles to powered roller-skates, as well as the occasional jogger. Will was surprised how many people there were in what would have been a quiet area on Shackleton.
Just as Billy had predicted, they arrived about five minutes after leaving the elevator. As Billy opened the door, there was a loud childish scream of "Daddy!" Will assumed it was from Peter.
As he entered the doorway, Billy picked up the wriggling child, who had wrapped himself around his father. Billy introduced him to Peter "Hey there buddy. I want to meet my cousin Will."
"Hello Will. Do you want to play my computer game?" responded Peter.
"In a moment, Peter. I’d like to say hello to your mum first, if that’s OK"
"Oh, OK" replied the excited child, pleased that he had someone different to play against. With that, he dropped down from his father’s arms and ran into the apartment shouting "Mummy, mummy, daddy’s brought someone home with him. He’s going to play Lunar Buggy with me"
With that, Kate came out of the living room. "Hello, dear. Who’s your friend?"
"Hello, love" said Billy, kissing his wife on the right cheek. This is my long-lost cousin Will. He’s en route to the Tharl system."
There was a slight look of disbelief on Kate’s face but she accepted the explanation, at least for now – after all, the visitor looked similar to her husband, albeit one with a lot more hair.
"And where are you staying whilst you’re in the neighbourhood, Will? she asked.
"The Navy has some quarters I can bunk up in but they won’t be overly luxurious."
"Could he stay here? It would be a bit of a squeeze but I think Peter would enjoy Will’s company. He could sleep on the fold-up settee" asked Billy. Overhearing the conversation, Peter ran up to the three adults and pleaded for Will to stay. Kate was forced to agree, albeit reluctantly.
"Thanks, both. It’ll give us a chance to get to know more about each other. I need to go back to the Accommodation section and sort things out, as well as get my stuff, not that there’s a lot – I always like to travel light" Will lied, knowing there was no luggage and he had no idea where Accommodation was.
"I’ll show you the way back there" Billy offered, recognising the problems that Will faced.
After saying their goodbyes to Kate and Peter, Will and Billy left the apartment and returned to the elevator. As the door closed, Will turned to Billy and said "Thanks for the support there, Billy. I really needed it. Where’s a good place to get some clothes and a bag to put it all in?"
"I know a good place. It’s not too expensive either, which is just as well, as I doubt you will be able to pay for anything, as your accounts back in your reality don’t exist here and the funds Captain VanDelden mentioned won’t be available for a couple of days. You can pay me back when you get access to your account."
An hour later, both men had bought what they thought would be enough to convince Kate that Will had come equipped for a short holiday and returned to the apartment.
As before, they were greeted by an excited youngster "Are you able to play with me now, Will?" he asked, enthusiastically.
"If your mum and
dad don’t mind, sure, Peter. You’ll have to show me how to play the game, though, as it’s a new one on me" replied Will, picking up the youngster and carrying him through to the lounge.
When they got to the lounge, Peter squirmed to the floor and ran to get the two controllers they would need to play the game.
"You need to press this button to go forward and just turn the wheel to go in the direction you want" Peter explained, passing the other controller to Will.
"I’ll set you up" said Peter, with a smirk. He pressed a button on his controller and two hologrammatic buggies appeared in the air in front of them. Will noticed that Peter had chosen a very masculine buggy for himself, with a rather large alien in the driving seat, whereas he had selected a very feminine mauve buggy, driven by a twenty-something blonde-haired young woman in a flowing pink dress for him.
"That’s an interesting avatar you’ve chosen for me, young man. Are you trying to put me at a disadvantage?" asked Will, smiling at Peter.
With as straight a face as he could muster, Peter said "No, I just thought you would like this setup."
"Hmm, I’m not so sure myself" Will said slowly, feigning anger.
As the game progressed, Will started to get the hang of how the game was played, although he regularly crashed or ran off the edge of the course into a crater, or into a deep ravine, so needed rescuing by the game’s breakdown shuttle on an all-too regular basis.
After about half an hour, he found that he actually won a race, much to Peter’s irritation. Pacing the floor, the boy kept saying "It’s only a game. It doesn’t matter if you don’t win" over and over but looking as though he’d lost his favourite toy. As Will was simply trying to do his best and actually survive the course, he found this faintly amusing, not realising just how competitive a seven-year old could be.
As the results became more evenly matched, Will was somewhat relieved when Kate came into the room and announced that it was dinner time and told both Peter and Will to clean up and move to the table for dinner.
The smell pervading the apartment of cooked food reminded him that he was hungry but Will was a little nervous about having dinner, as it would give Kate an opportunity to quiz him. At first all went well and Will started to relax and enjoy the meal. Without warning, as they were finishing a rather tasty dessert of a selection of ice-creams, Kate asked innocently "What’s the Tharl system like, Will?"
Having never even heard of the system before today, he knew he would have to be somewhat vague about his response. At the same time, he knew he could neither lie outright, nor admit the truth.
"I gather that it’s much the same as this system. The main planet in the system, Ohio, is very similar to New Oregon. Because I have a job that keeps me off-planet a lot of the time, I’ll also be living on a space station, called Shackleton. Even though it has a lot in common with Columbus, it seems slightly smaller and is much less brightly coloured. I would even go so far as to say that it’s a bit drab in comparison." replied Will.
"One thing intrigues me, though. One of my cousins is in the navy and has to have a regulation haircut and has to be clean shaven, so I’m intrigued by your long hair and beard" responded Kate.
Will knew this would come up, so was able to answer with the reply that had been worked out on the Sea Lion "The Ohio planet-dwellers are deeply religious and men must wear their hair long and have a full beard. Women have to wear their hair long as well. When the base was first opened, one or two men did go down clean shaven but it seemed to offend some of the locals, to the extent that there were some serious injuries to naval personnel, so it was decided that we should try to blend in as well as we could. Any new male recruits to the base are only allowed to go down to the planet once they have at least a passable beard. If anyone’s hair isn’t long enough, male or female, they can be fitted with wigs until their hair is long enough to go without. Men are allowed to wear what they call a full set in the Navy, but these days few do. I was told to let my hair grow long when I got the transfer, to speed up my ability to go planet-side once I get there" He hoped that his "explanation" would sate her curiosity.
While Peter had been very quiet throughout the brief discussion, he suddenly asked if Will could play another game with him before he had his pre-bedtime shower. Will and Billy were both relieved by the distraction and, before Kate could speak, Billy said "Sure, Peter, until your mum and I have finished the dishes but be kind to him. He’s had a tiring day."
Peter grabbed Will’s hand and dragged him back into the living room, before thrusting the game controller into his other hand. As they sat down, Will asked Peter what he had been doing that day.
"Being cute" was the odd reply.
Slightly bewildered, Will replied "Okay, I guess that makes sense. So, what are you expecting to do tomorrow, apart from going to school?
"I don’t know. I can’t tell the future!" was the slightly incensed response.
Bemused and amused, Will had mixed feelings about playing another game with the excitable youngster but at least it staved off any further awkward questions from Kate for a while. A short while later, when Will was starting to feel the pressure of playing the unfamiliar racing game with Peter, Kate entered the room and said to Peter "When this race ends, dear, it’ll be your bedtime. It’s already later than normal and you have school tomorrow."
While he didn’t deliberately crash, Will tried hard to let Peter win without the young boy realising it. A few minutes later, a reluctant seven year-old was led away. Before he had gone more than a couple of feet, he asked if Will could read to him once he was in bed.
"If he doesn’t mind, dear" replied Kate "Then it will be lights out and you settle down for sleep. You’ve had plenty of excitement this evening. Is that OK?" she asked him. "Yes, mummy" he said, unsure whether to be pleased or not, as he normally played quietly in his room until he was actually tired, rather than because it was bedtime.
Realising he needed to say something, Will said that he would be happy to read to Peter.
After about ten minutes, the pyjama-clad boy came into the living room and pulled Will towards his room. It had been a long time since Will had been into such a room. He had thought his room was unkempt but realised that, in comparison with Peter’s, it was positively tidy. The main problem, in Will’s limited experience of such things, was simply the sheer quantity of stuff that Peter had in there. Almost every surface, including most of his bed, was awash with a wide variety of toys and books.
After looking round briefly, Peter picked up a book ‘The Adventures of Space Explorer Jim’ then pushed it into Will’s hands. Quickly reading the synopsis, Will discovered that it was about a boy who had accidentally found himself alone in a spaceship, without any adults around. On his adventures he met several aliens and made lots of new friends, as well as getting the better of some space pirates, before returning safely home. He made sure there was a clear space for him to sit down on the bed, then invited Peter to sit next to him, so that he could read the story to him.
Even though the story was quite long, he finished reading it after about fifteen minutes and then called Kate and Billy into the room, so that they could make sure that Peter actually went to bed. As he left the room, he saw a reluctant child crawling under the bedclothes and put his head on his pillow. "Goodnight, Peter" he said. "Goodnight, Will. Thanks for reading to me" replied Peter.
Feeling suddenly quite weary, Will left the others and went into the living room to sit down.
He awoke with a start. The room was dark and he was covered with a duvet. He had obviously been more tired than he had realised and either Billy or Kate had covered him. He looked at the clock and discovered that it was 02:00. He’d been asleep since 20:00.
He laid down and snuggled into the cosy bedding and promptly fell asleep again.