Chapter 13
All those who had remained at the camp excitedly greeted Major Modaley’s party when they re-entered the camp.
‘Whoa. You all look as if you’ve just opened your hoped-for toy on your birthday, so you’d better fill us in.’
‘First, you know the good news about a response, at last, to the radio message. The potentially bad news is that the Cornishman seems dead. The crew of the Dark Horse will be investigating the ship when they get to it, they said. That means they should be getting to the Cornishman any time now’ replied Han Zhu.
‘Oh, that’s not good’ replied the Major, who had a lot of friends on the ship. He tried to be the professional Marine but was clearly struggling with this news when Jill Blake said ‘We don’t yet know what happened, Major. We’re trying to be positive about the last piece of news.’
‘OK. Good. Right, I’m going to call the Dark Horse and see what’s happening. Anyone who wants to is welcome to come with me. This is too important to exclude anyone’ replied the Major, as he headed towards the shuttle.
At the shuttle, he picked up the microphone to transmit ‘Dark Horse, Dark Horse. This is Major Sunil Modaley calling. Do you copy?’
‘Good Afternoon, Major. This is Lieutenant Taro Strowgger on NS Dark Horse. The Captain is currently asleep and has given orders not to be disturbed until he comes back on shift. Do you need help?’
‘Yes, Sir. We’re marooned on the planet and without your assistance have no means of getting off. The party consists of eleven individuals, a combination of Marines and scientists, along with a communications expert. Are you able to advise on the Cornishman?’
‘Thank you, Major. We will be arriving in orbit in about two hours and will then send a party of Marines across to the Cornishman to find out what happened. We’ll also send down a shuttle to collect you and your party. I’m afraid that, initially, you will need to be put into isolation. Since Private Blake advised that it seems that some kind of fatal illness affected the settlers, we need to check you over before you’re allowed to mix with the rest of our crew. With that in mind, the shuttle party will be fully suited at all times until you’re on board and in an isolated part of the ship. Unfortunately, we don’t have the medical facilities on board that we would need to fully check you out, so you’ll need to wait until you return to our base before you can be properly checked over.’
‘I understand, Lieutenant. I appreciate your concern but none of us has been sick since we got here, so whatever killed the settlers seems to be long gone. I hope your base isn’t too far away, or it could prove a long flight. As a matter of interest, how did you get here? We thought we were alone out here.’
‘It’s a complicated story, Major but we’re from another version of this system. I’ll explain more fully when you’re on board. Physically, our base is very close to our current location, so your stay on the ship should be very short.’
‘Not another one! The radio guy I mentioned also said he was from another reality. He turned up out of the blue about a month ago. I must admit, I didn’t really understand what he was on about. Seems like he might have been telling us the truth!’
‘How do you mean, another one?’
‘The radio guy who sorted out this thing says he’s from another reality. Can’t say I totally fell for the explanation but I guess he may have been telling the truth after all.’
‘I look forward to meeting him when you all get on board. The shuttle will be with you in around three hours. If you can be prepared that would be helpful but I appreciate that this may not be long enough. We can return later to pick anything up you leave behind.’
‘Yes, Sir. We’ll pack what we can. To be honest, if I don’t see this place again, I’ll be happy!’
‘I’m afraid I can’t guarantee that, Major but you may not recognise that part of the planet when we make the jump back to our reality. The accommodation and food are likely to be a whole lot better!’
‘Sounds good, Sir. We’d better pack. Modaley out.’
‘Before you disappear, Major, where exactly are you on the planet?’
‘Ah, sorry about that, Sir. Too excited about getting out of here. We’re close to a range of mountains and a large lake. We’re relatively close to the equator. We’re close to the town the settlers created when they landed but it’s obscured by trees now. If we send up a flare, would you see it?’
‘Are you in daylight at present?’
‘Yes, Sir. It’s now late afternoon, our time.’
‘OK, Major, we know roughly where to look. We were here a month or so ago and spotted the township. We were doing some exploration of our own but were only here for an hour or so. A flare would just make sure. We’ll monitor where we think you are.’
The Major turned to Private Adams and asked him to send up a flare.
‘Got you, Major. I can confirm that you’re where we thought you would be. The nearest decent landing site near you seems to be on the lakeshore. When you get there, can you travel East, by that I mean right when you get to the lake, in case you use a different way of describing East. The landing site is about a mile from where the river you’re near enters the lake. Please leave any weapons behind. They won’t be allowed on board.’
‘No problem, Sir. We’ll start packing and will set off to meet the shuttle shortly. Just in case, I’d like to keep a couple of weapons with us until we’re picked up, just in case we need to protect ourselves while we wait. We haven’t come across anything we’ll need them against but old habits die hard. We’ll hand them over immediately to your crew when they land. Modaley, out.’
Turning to the rest of the team, the Major said ‘You heard the Lieutenant. Time to bug out. Only take what you can carry. Anything we can’t carry we dump in the shuttle. Adams and I will each keep a weapon. The rest go in the shuttle. You’ve got two hours, then we’re out of here. I don’t want to keep the shuttle crew waiting.’
They managed to pack most of their things but there were a number of vials and fragile items that they would have to return for, as well as the larger camp items, including their sleeping gear. The pile in the shuttle wasn’t as tidy as the Major would have liked but at least it was safe and could be easily removed later.
Three hours later, they were sitting around the landing site when the shuttle descended and landed on the beach. The shuttle door opened and revealed two armed and fully-suited marines. One stepped forwards and said, via the speaker on their chests ‘Let’s get you out of here. We’ll save the introductions and explanations for when we get back to the ship.’
Major Modaley and Private Adams approached the two marines and offered the hand weapons they had carried to the pickup point. That done, Sunil gestured to the rest of the party to enter the shuttle. Needing no further bidding, everyone got on board, dumped their stuff in racks along the back wall of the shuttle, sat down in one of the seats and strapped himself or herself in. Within ten minutes, they were airborne.
As they disembarked, they were greeted by a further group of armed and fully suited marines. One approached them ‘Good day, folks. Welcome to NS Dark Horse. My name is Sergeant Jane Willmore. Please call me Jane. On board the Dark Horse, I’m afraid that you’ll be restricted to the mess hall but you’ll be pleased to know that food and non-alcoholic drinks will be provided, so we hope that your stay on board won’t be too uncomfortable. Toilet and washing facilities are just off the mess, so I’ll show you there first, so you can clean up. We’re expecting to get back into our own reality within the next few hours or so, so these restrictions should all be short term. When we get back to our home, you’ll be debriefed. Oh, before I forget. You may notice that most of the corridor signs are in a foreign language. This ship was captured from a base in another reality and the people there speak a language called Esperanto. The important signs have an English version nearby, so you shouldn’t have any problems. Any questions?’
‘Hello, Sergeant. I’m Major Sunil Modaley. First of all, I think I speak fo
r us all when I say that we’re all grateful to the Captain for rescuing us from the planet. Will we get the opportunity to meet him, so we can thank him personally? I don’t know about the others but I’ve never heard of this Esperanto language.’
‘In due course, I would expect him to try get to meet you. At present, however, he’s currently overseeing a mission to the Cornishman, to discover what happened to stop them communicating. Don’t worry about the language, I’m sure you’ll get to know more about it in due course.’
‘Understood, Sergeant. I for one like the sound of some decent food. We’ve been struggling along on limited rations for several months. Lead on. I look forward to hearing what happened to our ship.’
‘OK. If you’re all ready, please follow me. Please leave your bags here. I’m afraid we need to search them and isolate them due to the risk of pathogens you may have brought up from the planet. You’ll get them back after we dock. I hope you understand’ announced Sergeant Willmore, turning towards the mess hall.
‘We understand, Sergeant. To be honest, I’m just looking forward to washing in hot water and some decent food. We’ve been roughing it for the last year or so, so these alone will seem like luxuries’ replied the Major. Everyone else nodded in agreement, being relieved they were no longer on the planet. Having been on either this ship, or one just like it, Will was interested to see it in action.