Chapter 10 - Revelation

 The day started much the same as the previous one with one inescapable difference. Everyone was busying themselves with the preparations for the coming shore expeditions. The crew were obviously confused by the absence of JD and Watkins, all of them wanted to know where they were but none were to willing to ask the question. Although they were eager to find out, they were all prepared to wait to hear officially from the captain. Hatch’s voice came over the intercom to announce that it was time for the morning brief. Whatever was happening came to an immediate halt and they made their way to the cockpit to attend the meeting.

They were all seated when the captain appeared at the door of his quarters. From here he could hear the muffled sound of the conversations taking place among the crew. He interlaced his fingers and cupped them over his head which he tilted back, and although it would appear that he was looking at the roof of the corridor, he was in fact looking into space, considering how much of the present situation he should reveal to the crew. He knew that his orders were strictly need to know, but he trusted all of his crew and felt a certain amount of unease about not revealing to them the true nature of the mission. He breathed a deep sigh, and decided that at this moment it would probably be a wiser course to follow his orders and keep them in the dark for now. Collecting himself he entered the cockpit. He bid good morning to the assembled gathering and took his seat. He took a few seconds to prepare himself then he began to address his crew.

“Well...you have all obviously noticed that John and Matthew are not with us this morning. In fact, as you are all aware, they are not even on board. The fact of the matter is that they have been sent on a highly sensitive mission unfortunately, at this time, I am not at liberty to discuss with you the nature of what is happening but you need to know that this is not my decision, it is the directive from home and for now, I would appreciate it if you could just accept that this is a necessary step and if at some point in the future I can reveal more to you, rest assured, that I will.”

Having delivered this news he felt almost as if he had, by his restrictions on divulging any information, betrayed his loyal crew. It was an irrational feeling because the people who sat before him were professionals who knew that the captain’s orders were final. He handed the meeting over to Hatch, who would outline the daily schedule to the others.

“Mary we would like you to go back to the same place that you went yesterday but this time, take Anne with you.”

Anne acknowledged the selection with a gentle nod and a whispered thank you. Inside she was buzzing. Although they had only been here for a short time, the fact that others had already been ashore and she had been confined to the shuttle only able to observe via the screens, had made the waiting all the more anxious. But now she was to go and experience this new planet for herself.

“We need you to accompany Mary to visit the same people as yesterday. We need to know the physiology of these people. Try to be inconspicuous in your investigations. Do not alarm the inhabitants, take your mini kit and take as many readings and stats as you can. Mary it’s up to you to keep their attention while Anne does her job, and keep them talking so we can keep updating the translator. I will be taking over from McVie; My job today will be geology, fauna and flora. Travis will be with me and we will maintain a position near the shore base so any problems I will be nearby to provide assistance.”

He handed the meeting back to the captain who bought it to a close by saying that the communications between crewmembers had been re-routed and they would not be able to hear or contact J.D. or Watkins, and if he became at liberty to let them know anything else he would. With this the crew readied themselves for the day ahead.

Four of the available eight pods were being used on this occasion and were ready to take them to the surface. There were just two more pods sat in their housing bay positions, seeing this made her wonder once more what J.D. and Matthew were up to. Anne could feel the excitement inside of her. She wanted to giggle or scream or something but she knew that this would not be the professional thing to do. As she stepped into the pod she could feel the cold smooth floor on her feet it was a stark difference to the rough non slip flooring which ran throughout the rest of the shuttle. She played her toes on the floor as she waited to be released into the ocean. Within a few minutes the wait was over and they were on their way.

Until this point Travis had felt almost superfluous to the mission. His role so far had consisted of general duties, manning the computers, readying materials for soirees, and generally being available for anything that might need to be done. Now, however, although his role had not changed he felt that he was becoming more a part of what was going on. He had been quietly studying his fellow crewmen, becoming more familiar with their idiosyncrasies, trying to evaluate how each individual would react to a given circumstance. His was an important role within the crew, he would report his findings to the captain, assisting him in the assigning of personnel to given tasks during the mission. He was the crew psychologist and he found it easier to do his job if he kept a low profile. He knew most of everything that was happening on board, not however the whereabouts of the two absent crewmen, and this bothered him. Having taken all of this into account, he was also looking forward to leaving the ship for a while and experiencing the comparative freedom of the open air. 

Once ashore, and having submerged the pods the party split into two distinct teams. The men headed toward the lush vegetation that bordered the beach area to begin their surveys, and the women started along the same route Mary had taken the day before to revisit the family she had met. She felt that today would be more productive now that they had more of a working translation available to them. The two women chatted as they walked, generally about their surroundings, what had happened yesterday, and issues that related to women in general. They were acutely aware that their every word could be heard by the rest of the crew and as a consequence of this, most of what they wanted to talk about went unsaid except for the occasional questioning glance, and an attempt at an impromptu form of sign language. 

The morning sun felt warm against their clothing and even warmer on their bare skin as they made their way. The route was familiar to Mary but a new and exciting experience for Anne. She was taking in all of the sights and smells of her new surroundings, and savouring every moment of being here. There was no possibility of the two getting lost. The previous days journey had been recorded by the computers and was being fed to their ear pieces by the computer in a series of quieter commands by a distinctly different voice from the main translation voice.

“Travel in a northerly direction until the next command then turn due east by five degrees”

Mary heard the instruction but already she was familiar enough with the route from yesterday that she had no need to pay attention to the directions. This seemed so natural to her, so comfortable, almost as if she had found a natural second home. The computer had been switched to automatic allowing it to accept voice commands from the crew, and Mary spoke to it.

“Computer, discontinue route commands for Homer and Emmanuel” she said. A computer voice answered her. “Route commands disabled for Homer and Emmanuel” Anne asked why she had done that. Mary shrugged her shoulders and said “I just know the way, follow me”

As they approached the clearing where she had first met Aaron they could hear the bells which hung around the goats necks gently clanging as the animals grazed. Aaron immediately recognised Mary as she walked around the flock and greeted her by holding both of her hands and bowing his head towards her. As he straightened his body Mary reciprocated the bow and asked how he was and inquired as to the well being of his wife Beth. He said that all was well and invited the two women back to his house once again. On the short journey, introductions were made for Anne who was introduced as Mary’s sister. The party arrived at the house and as they walked up to the door Aaron called out to his wife who came to the upstairs window holding the baby in her arms. She beckoned them to enter and join her on the upper level. Duly, they went in. It was unusual for the couple to receive visitors twice in two days and even more rare for it to be the same stranger twice in succession, but it was a welcome diversion and Beth was glad to see them. She was introduced to Anne who immediately took an interest in the infant, Luke. As a medic she had realised that if she could examine the baby she could gain much more information in a shorter space of time than trying to surreptitiously get the information from either of the parents. They were treated to refreshments and retired to the roof top where they sat and chatted together, courtesy of the on board translators. They had been talking for about half an hour when Anne in her native tongue said “Computer, translate, May I” almost instantly the reply came into her ear. She stood up and crossed the room to where Beth was sitting and used the translation while gesturing towards Luke. Beth smiled and said of course, she then handed the baby to Anne who went back to where she had been sat and cradled the baby. Luke was no different from any other baby she had examined, maybe he didn’t have the same clean baby smell about him but he certainly was not dirty, just different.

Strapped around her upper arm was a medical diagnostic device which would allow her to take all of the readings she needed. Running down the front of her arm there was an ultra fine optic fibre which ran all the way to the tip of her index finger and as she was playing with Luke the device was taking readings from him, pulse, blood pressure, oxygen saturation and temperature. This was all well and good but she needed more. She needed to talk to Mary again.

“Mary, I need a diversion so that I can do a few more tests on Luke, so, when I cough I need you to get Aaron and Beth away. I only need about thirty seconds” Aaron and Beth had no idea what had just been said but they were, by now, getting used to the sporadic conversation and the foreign sounding interspersions that they had been hearing and so paid no undue attention to this. Mary just said OK and waited for the signal. At this stage Beth offered to refill their drinks which they both accepted. When the offer was made Anne recognised an opportunity and motioned to Mary with a cough, realising that she could facilitate Anne she waited for Beth to pour her drink. As she did so Mary feigned a slip which sent the contents of the jug down her dress. In a minor panic that she may have offended her guest, both Beth and Aaron quickly escorted Mary into another part of the house to clean and dry herself. This gave Anne the opportunity she needed. Quickly, she took an attachment from inside her garment and plugged it into the monitor on her arm she then scanned the infant from head to toe. Having done this she deftly put the device back into her dress. Next, using her index finger she swabbed the inside of the baby’s mouth to take DNA samples and finally she needed a blood sample. As the others re-entered the room she pricked the baby’s heel with a micro pipette for the sample. The prick into the heel caused Luke to cry. To cover her tracks, Anne stood up with the baby and rocked him, trying to calm him. Eventually she could not stop his distress and so she gave him back to his mother who quickly calmed her son. With all of the commotion over and apologies made they sat and talked for a further hour.

Spending time with these people was not uncomfortable, they were warm and welcoming and the two crew members were settled for the day just passing time with a nice family talking about general things that happened in and around their environment. They had found out that the military types that J.D. had encountered the previous day were called Romans, and were part of an invading force that controlled the area. They were told that the Romans were indeed to be feared and respected. This information was monitored by all of the crew, including Watkins and J.D., so everyone was now on guard should they encounter these people in the future. The only time when things became a little awkward was when Aaron or Beth would ask questions about where the two women were from and what their history was. These questions were expertly avoided.

They had been there for about five hours when they heard the captain’s voices in their ears.

“This is Daniels here. Something has cropped up that needs all of our attention. I need all of you to return to Alpha as soon as is possible, this does not apply to you John, or you Matthew. The rest of you come home now. Daniels out”

They all knew that for the captain to cut short the day’s activities meant that something big had arisen, and that whatever they were doing was now not the priority. The women made their apologies and said that they would re-visit their new friends soon but they had to be elsewhere and had to leave. Aaron and Beth seemed to understand and waved from the door as the two women started back for the beach.

The beach was deserted when they arrived, Hatch and Wheatley had returned to the ship as soon as they had received the message. They located their pods took one last look around to make sure they were not going to be detected and started back for the ship. When they arrived back in the cockpit everyone else was seated in around the centre console waiting for them.

Everyone welcomed them and they took their seats. Daniels had been the only crew on board Alpha that morning, but that had been engineered so that he could co-ordinate the situation with minimum distractions, and so that he could maintain maximum secrecy about what was actually happening. But now the time had come for him to go against orders from the home world. He knew that his orders were need to know but he considered that his crew needed to know. He trusted them and considered that if they were in the picture, then they in turn, would give him their fullest co-operation. He cleared his throat and considered the room for a second before he began.

“OK…so, you are all probably aware that something big has happened, and for the sake of the mission I think that you all need to know what it is. I have been told by the top brass that this is highly confidential and only the people directly involved should be in the picture. So in effect I am about to disobey orders and I am counting on all of you to respect that and keep this confidence to this group, even if you are questioned by higher authorities.” Having heard all of them agree to his request he continued. 

“What I am about to tell you will shock you and has the potential to rock the very fabric of everything that our society has been built on since time began.” He paused for a moment and took a sip from his cup. Then he began. “We have all been told throughout history that Alpha 106 was lost during its mission and that there were no survivors. This is not true. 106 was always meant to be a one way mission. It is true that mission control lost contact with the crew and assumed that they were lost, but there was always a chance that they managed to complete what they set out to do. No one really knew until now. Their loss was used politically to calm unrest across the world and it worked, so in a way their loss did us a lot of good. In one way I suppose there has been no deceit, but if people found out that the truth had been manipulated to achieve an end, then can you imagine what would happen?...I can’t. Anyway, the thing is, their sole mission brief was to document this planet and to keep a record of their findings for us to collect. We had no idea what we would find but it seems that our ancestors were successful and their records are here in this area. J.D. and Watkins have been dispatched to recover them but there is a problem. The problem is that it will take them up to fourteen days to digitise all of the information that has been left. You see, the original three took their brief to the extreme and have passed their mission on throughout the generations, and now there is over two and a half thousand years of documentation to collect. So what I have decided is to leave John and Matthew there to grab as much as they can and we will share the rest of the mission between us. Now, I know that you will all be taking on more than you signed up for but I hope that I can count on you to step up and allow us to complete. I know that you all have the skills to do this but I need you to pull together to make this happen.” He looked at each of them in turn and then asked if they were onside. After a few moments they all agreed and gave him their co-operation to do what they had to do. He then asked for their thoughts. After a while when they had all been contemplating what they had just been told Travis was the first to speak.

“Why don’t we send more of us to assist and get the job done sooner?”

The captain dismissed this idea saying that the rest of the mission was equally as important and that they should complete the other elements between them. At this point J.D.’s voice came into the captain’s ear.

“Sir, are you near a screen you need to see this”

Daniels stopped the conversation around the table and told everyone that he was about to open communications between all of the crew and instructed them to pay attention to the screens.

“Go ahead John what have you got”

As he spoke the screens began to show what was being seen from the cameras in the head cams of the two men from their vantage point at the mouth of the cave. The third guardian had returned. But he was not alone. From where they stood, they could see a crowd of about three hundred people making their way down the valley towards where they were. Daniels asked Hatch to see if he could zoom one of the cameras to get a closer look at what was heading in their direction, and as he did so they could see that, to all intent and purpose they were being visited by a tribe of men. They could detect no women in the gathering and all of the men were dressed in three distinct types of garb. Furthermore, they could see no evidence of weaponry apart from a few staves. There was no urgency; it was an orderly march in their direction.

J.D. asked if the captain had any orders for them and the captain said that there was no provision for this, and that they were to ‘play it by ear’ but be careful. This was not comforting to the two men who were by this time being filled with apprehension as to what the next hour would bring.

As they stood looking at the approaching crowd they could hear the two remaining guardians shouting up to them from below. Having attracted their attention they began to beckon to them to come down to the base of the cliff and greet the newcomers. They looked at each other and after deciding that there was no where else to go they reluctantly decided to leave the safety of the cave, and trust their fate to the guardians and their tribe. 

Standing at the base of the cliff face they were in two minds whether to try to make a run for their cycles or to stay and see what would ensue. As unsure as they felt, they decided to stay. They stood rooted to the spot, every fibre of their body wanted to run. Every muscle was on the verge of involuntary spasm and they were both   experiencing a feeling that they could throw up at any second. But they fought their inner demons and stayed.

The tribe approached, and as they did so they could see that they did so in three separate columns, all wearing what could only be described as a type of primitive uniform to signify the difference between them. The front of the column stopped about ten feet in front of them and stayed there until the rest of the column had caught up. When the entire tribe were lined up the leading, three men raised their hands in the air and the entire group sat cross legged on the ground. The middle of the three men, who remained standing approached J.D. and Watkins, followed by the other two. All five men stood there together for a while looking at each other. The three newcomers then fell to one knee and with heads bowed they offered their outstretched hands. Held within their hands were three translucent orange blocks. Embedded into each of these blocks was an extremely old piece of fabric. Each of the artefacts that were being displayed differed slightly from the next, but generally speaking, they were the same. As J.D. and Watkins looked down at what the tribesmen were holding the image also appeared on the screens on board Alpha. Everyone stared at the screen in total disbelief. None of the crew was prepared for what they saw. What the tribesmen were offering was the original mission badges of Alpha 106.

Chapter 11 - The Truth Will Out.