~~~~~~~~~~
After Billy and Lieutenant Hirst and her remaining crew member had entered the ship, Billy directed them to the bridge.
"OK, now you can see what this thing looks like inside. Over there is what looks like a weapons control room. There are stations for six, which suggests that this thing means serious business" said Billy, pointing at the door marked "ARMILOJ KONTROLO."
Before Sarah could reply, Billy went on "If you think this is bad, you need to know that this place seems to be some kind of hub between two parallel universes. While that may seem far fetched, Will and I have been onto the other side. This device lets you switch between them just by pressing the button on top."
"Why should that make any sense and who’s Will?"
Will realised that his original idea of introducing Will as his cousin just wasn’t going to work, now that Will was trapped in the alternate universe.
"You’ve seen this ship. It’s not Navy and the signs are all in a language that isn’t used in this system. As the Sergeant will soon discover, there’s what looks like a large stockpile of weapons in the rear hangar area. Will is from yet another alternate reality and is my doppelganger, apart from a few minor details such as hair and beard. I have a photo here, taken in our comm room on ‘Roid 2"
Bill showed her the picture on his data communicator.
Sarah looked carefully at the picture and compared the eyes, nose and mouth between Billy and Will, in line with her training. "You do look remarkably similar apart, as you say, from the hair and beard. How did he get here?"
"We have no idea. In his reality, they have a communications centre in the same place we do. Although it’s designed slightly differently, they’re essentially the same. I had a callout saying the lights had come on and the sensors showed someone was present. When I got there, he was on the floor. He wasn’t wearing a suit, there wasn’t one in the place, nor was there a ship on the ‘Roid that he could have arrived in. He said that he had been knocked unconscious. He was still out when I got there. As we discussed things, we realised that he wasn’t from this reality. While we came here looking for where they were transmitting the news feeds, we haven’t seen anything that looks like a communications centre where I’m assuming the data will be processed."
"OK. Is there any way you can show me the other reality?"
"It could be dangerous. As far as Will and I could tell, the layout and what-not are near enough identical between realities. What that implies is that, if we can find a nice quiet corner somewhere where we can hide ourselves, we can have a quick look and, hopefully, get back here without being spotted. I suggest that we find a pile of containers or shelves to lurk behind. We might even find a storeroom in the ship we could use. You won’t need to see a lot to get the picture. What I suggest after that, assuming you agree, is to get to know the layout of this base. If Will has been taken prisoner, they will have him in a cell or something. No idea where they would be, though, as we’ve only seen a small part of the base."
"OK. Seems reasonable. Let’s have a look around the ship. If what you say is true, then their version of the ship will probably be busy."
With that, they left the bridge and were starting to look for somewhere they might hide, when Sarah’s radio burst into life "Lieutenant, take a look at this. There’s enough weaponry and ordnance for someone to attack Columbus and do some serious damage to the station!" It was Sergeant McDowell reporting on his investigation into the rear hangar. His comm unit sent an image from his suit camera to Sarah.
"I see what you mean, Sergeant. You can get back here now" replied Sarah. "Billy, you weren’t kidding when you suggested we take a look."
"I didn’t realise there was that much. Will and I didn’t get much chance to take a good look. On top of that, we’re communications engineers, not military bods, so wouldn’t know that there was that much stuff in there but what we did see scared the hell out of us. When we were trying to get out of there, Will bumped into me and that’s when it all fell apart."
"I suggest we split up. I’ll meet you on the bridge in ten minutes."
"OK, no problem. I’m happy to let you have a look. It might help inform you as to where we go from here."
About two minutes after Sarah left him, Billy opened a door and discovered a food storage area, with food boxes piled high near one corner that he felt they could hide behind. Having satisfied himself that this looked a suitable hiding place, he reorganised the boxes to create more hiding space, then returned to the bridge. He called her and told her where to find him, so that he could show her his findings.
"I think that looks suitable. What do reckon?" he asked.
"I agree" responded Sarah. She called the others on her radio. Once they had all congregated outside the storeroom, she said "Sergeant McDowell, I want you and Harling to guard this door and make sure that we’re the only ones who get back here and, if there’s a problem, can provide backup. We’re only going to have a quick look, so don’t expect to be gone more than a few minutes. Norgrove, I’d like you to go back to the bridge and see if you can see how we might fly this thing. From what I can gather, the language is Esperanto. Your suit translator should be able make sense of most of it. You’ll need to make up some labels so the rest of us can cope with it. The translator may not be able to handle everything, so you may need to fill in a few blanks. Parsons, see if you can find a galley. I could murder a coffee."
"You heard the Lieutenant" ordered McDowell, looking at Harling, Norgrove and Parsons. Norgrove, Parsons vanish."
Addressing the Sergeant and Harling, Sarah asked "Any questions?"
"What exactly might we be expecting, Lieutenant?" asked Harling.
"If I knew, I’d tell you. All I know is that if we’re spotted, we might not be alone and may need your help. If we don’t return within ten minutes, I want you to call HQ and get some real backup. I want this place destroyed. It won’t help us but might stop any attack before it happens. If we don’t get back in time, while you’re waiting for the navy, remove these ships and get as much ordnance as you can onto the planet’s surface. If need be, use the ordnance to blow the place. If we’re trapped on the other side, so will they, at least for now. If there are no more questions, we’d better get moving"
"Ma’am. Good luck" replied McDowell.
Billy and Sarah re-entered the storeroom and crouched behind the pile of food storage boxes. Billy pressed the button and the world swirled briefly. They could hear distant voices but they were too indistinct to make out what was being said.
The storeroom was dark, with the door now closed.
"Let’s take a peek" whispered Sarah.
"Better get out your firearm before we leave here. From past experience, these guys don’t seem overly friendly" whispered Billy by way of response.
As Sarah opened the door slightly and peered out, she saw the back of a man walking away from her, arguing about something into a communicator. As he was speaking Esperanto, she had no idea what the argument was about, nor did she want to. As he disappeared into a doorway further down the corridor, she heard a voice shout "Oi, vi en la provizejo" from not too far away.
She turned to see a dark haired man walking towards her then, as she didn’t react, he started to run towards her, trying to pull a weapon from its holster on his waist. He shouted again as Sarah ducked back inside the storeroom. From behind her, Billy saw him turn, too late, still running, towards the door and falling against it. As Sarah was still close to the doorway, she was sent crashing to the floor by the impact, with the man landing on top of her.
"Shit! Get us out of here, Billy" she shouted.
Billy pressed the button and the room changed, and Billy saw a confused pair of cops looking at them.
"Get him" called Billy, without hesitating.
Without thinking, Sergeant McDowell shot the assailant in the shoulder.
As the man groaned on the floor, the Sergeant went over to him, removed the weapon and bound his w
rists and ankles.
"It won’t kill you. It will hurt for a while, though" he said to the man.
The man looked back, uncomprehendingly.
Looking at the Lieutenant, he said "Not being sure what to expect, I set it to light stun. If anyone DID follow you through, I assumed we would want to be able to interrogate them. So what did you find, Lieutenant?"
"We didn’t get to see a lot but we saw or heard two individuals, including this one. Bearing in mind this is likely to be a fairly quiet part of the ship, I hate to think how many of them there are on board. Let’s get matey here to the bridge so we can ask a few questions of him."
The Sergeant and Harling bent down and lifted the man to his feet. He groaned as the arm near the wound was grabbed.
As they entered the bridge, Sarah pointed to an empty chair and said "Sergeant, fasten him to that and we’ll see what we can find out. Norgrove, how’s it going with this ship?"
"Standard-looking controls, Lieutenant. Although the layout is different to what we’re used to, there shouldn’t be a problem flying it. I’ve made some labels in English to show what’s what, so we don’t have to keep translating the originals."
"Good work. Now I need your translating skills over here, so that we can ask this character a few questions. Can you set it to speak Esperanto, not just translate labels?"
"No problem, Lieutenant."
"Parsons, did you find a galley? That coffee I mentioned earlier is looking even more tempting."
"Yes ma’am. It’s just off the main access corridor, a few doors down. Should I get something for our guest? Anyone else want anything?"
"I think something cold for our friend here. I don’t fancy anything hot being thrown in my face."
After the other three officers told him what they wanted, Parsons disappeared off to the galley.
Looking at the prisoner, she said "OK, simple things first. What's your name? I am Lieutenant Hirst.
The translator repeated the question. "OK, simplaj aferoj unue. Kio estas via nomo? Mi Leŭtenanto Hirst.
The prisoner glared back at her but gave his name as James Meredith.
This is going be a long session, as everything has to be translated from what both she and James Meredith said, thought Sarah.
Shortly afterwards, Parsons returned with a tray of drinks and handed them round, with the Sergeant releasing one of the prisoner’s hands, so that he could have his drink.
Harling, can you see if you can find a brig on this ship so we can keep the prisoner safe once I’ve interviewed him?" asked Sarah.
"Yes, ma’am."
Around an hour later, Harling returned and informed Sarah that, while he couldn’t find an official brig, he had found a room that could be used for the purpose where the prisoner could be observed through a window into the adjacent corridor. The only thing lacking was toilet facilities but these were available a couple of doors away from the room. He did, however, remind Sarah that they could always use the brig on their ship, although they would need to find a spacesuit for their prisoner.
"I think we’ll use the room on this ship for now but I’ll review that when we’re ready to move these ships outside. It would be helpful if you could see if there are any suits anywhere on board. I would expect there to be some to allow any damaged suits to be replaced. Now we’ve had this interruption, a short break for our prisoner and I would be helpful. Parsons, can you take Billy and rustle up some more drinks and cold food for us all, including Mr. Meredith? Biscuits or similar will be fine. Another cold drink for Mr. Meredith."
Two hours later, Sarah felt that she had managed to extract as much information as she needed for now, so decided to have a break both for the prisoner and for herself.
"Norgrove, can you and Harling take Mr. Meredith to the room we’re going to use as the brig and give him some food and a drink? On your way there, invite him to use the toilet facilities. Harling, stay behind and keep an eye on him. Norgrove, once you’ve finished there, can you go across to the other ship and see if it looks like this one inside? I would hate to find it was different. While you’re there, you’ll need to sign up those controls as well, so that we can fly both ships. Sergeant, can you join Billy and me so we can sort out some kind of plan? I need to get my head around this before I call the Captain and seek backup."
As Norgrove was releasing the prisoner, she spoke into the translator, so that he understood what was happening.
He nodded to her, by way of acknowledgement, as he was taken away by the two officers.
Looking at the Sergeant and Billy, she said "If what the prisoner told us was true, we should be able to get Will out of there fairly easily. My main concern is that we risk letting the hounds of hell loose upon us. Any thoughts?"
The Sergeant spoke first "Seems to me that the first thing we need to do is to get these ships onto the surface and lock them down, along with our ships. If they can’t use them, they’re stuck here until they can get more ships through from their universe. If nothing else, we can slow them down, even if we can’t stop them on our own."
"For myself, I would also like to be able to help Will get back to us" added Billy.
Over the next half hour, Sarah, the Sergeant and Billy identified several matters they felt needed addressing and worked out a rough plan for dealing with them. At the end of their discussion, Sarah said "Billy, can you see if Parsons could use an extra pair of hands? Sergeant, can you see how Harling is getting on with the prisoner and then see if Norgrove needs a hand with the other ship? In fact, it would make sense if you can to get the front doors open and get that thing out of here, along with moving Billy’s ship. We can move the others once you get back. You don’t need to go far, a kilometre will be fine. Use our ship as a shuttle to bring Parsons back to the base and then get him to fly Billy’s ship out to the parking zone. Once you’ve finished with those, we can move this one out of the way as well. That will just leave our ship on hand should we need it. "
"Will do" said Billy, disappearing out of the door, followed moments later by the Sergeant.
Having set up a recorder, Sarah sat down in the Captain’s chair to record her report for HQ. Knowing they wouldn’t believe her, she decided that she needed to show photographs of the base, the ship they were on and the recording made of her interview with James Meredith, as well as how and why they had him in their custody. She decided that the Captain needed all the information she had, so included Billy’s references to Will in the report.
Having recorded her report, she sent it to her Captain. Because of the distances involved, it would take an hour or so for him to get it and have the chance to review it and let her know his decision.