Location: Forest Uplands, close to the Lee of the Stone.

Day 8

Josh's group made an early start the following morning, wading their way through the woods towards Mr Ages' reclusive home, where the pompous old mouse inventor did all of his research in private, away from the xenophobic, boycotting Council of Rosebush City. In his pocket, Josh carried the finished schematics for his new glider and the tools from his kit that they'd need. Between his laser-cutter, multitool, Swiss Army knife, some duct tape, parachute canvas, cord, and some improvisation, they'd manage.

Justin, Brutus, Josh, Elizabeth and the children, whom she'd let tag along after giving in to their pleading, made their way together towards Ages' house. Even Timmy, who was feeling much better already, seemingly recovered, was allowed to come along, but ordered by his mother to wear a warm, rabbit-skin coat out of doors. With the boy joyfully riding on Josh's shoulders, they made their way along the footpath.

On the way, Elizabeth took the Rats to see the carcass of the snake that had almost devoured her, still lying rotting in the clearing where she had first met Josh. The two soldiers stared in awe at the slain serpent, the cauterised bullet wound still visible through its charred skull. No weapon in this world, from the sharpest sword to the strongest crossbow, could inflict this kind of damage. This monster would have undoubtedly been a colossal challenge for the two of them - or even for an entire squadron of warrior Rats… But for someone to take this thing down single-handedly was unthinkable.

Brutus stared at the unfamiliar wound, frowning at the thought of a weapon capable of inflicting such destruction - one that was apparently still in this strange human's possession without their knowing… He could not allow this! He rounded on Josh.

"How did you do it?"

"With a standard EMP, unobtanium-radioisotope-cell powered handgun, designed by NIMH Arms & Munitions Ltd," said Josh, as he put Timmy down, and taking out his gun to show the Rats. The two soldiers stared blankly at the weapon, not knowing what to make of it. The device was too small to be of much use as a club and it had no visible blade with which to stab an opponent. How could this seemingly insignificant little trinket possibly have the power to burn clean through flesh and bone?

To demonstrate better, Josh disengaged the safety catch and motioned to all of them to stand back. Taking aim, he fired, blasting a smoking hole about the size of a Rat's grave in the ground nearby, causing his group to jump in alarm, utterly shocked by the lethal power.

"No bad, huh?" he said with a chuckle, without thinking, "Completely vacuum-proof, watertight, with infrared laser sighting for accurate target hits and capable of firing up to 20,000 EMP bursts with its atomic power cell. Sure takes care of any such nasties that might come your way…"

"My point exactly!" snapped Brutus, suddenly lunging forward and snatching the gun out of Josh's hand. Cursing himself for not having anticipated this move, Josh nervously backed away from this fused-stick-of-dynamite of a Rat, his insides curling up, thinking Brutus was about to turn the weapon on him and blow him away. But he didn't. Instead, he turned to a nearby rock and, raising the gun with both of his ham-sized hands, he smashed it atop it like a discarded beer bottle. There was an electric buzz, a flash, and then Brutus stood there, wincing at his burned fingers, the gun lying smashed at his feet.

"You bloody idiot!" Josh shouted, bending to retrieve the smoking bits of twisted metal, which, until a minute ago, had been the one and only means which allowed him to be in control. Now the weapon was completely destroyed. Although he still had his Taser tucked in his back pocket, which he made a mental note of keeping well out of Brutus' reach in future, without a firearm, it would mean a major setback with regards to his safety. "What the hell did you do that for?!"

"You could have used that vile contraption against us!" retorted Brutus incredulously, "I refuse to allow the possibility of you hurting someone when it's in your best interests! At least now we can sleep peacefully at night…" Josh was incredulous.

"You insufferable cretin!" he roared back, feeling sick and tired of the burly Rat's distrust of him simply because he was a human, fighting the urge to let his fists fly and deck Brutus, "You really think I'd go into a murdering frenzy?! Why, I owed to knock your teeth down your throat...!" Brutus balled his fists in warning at the threat, as if daring the human to pick a fight with him.

"All right, the matter's closed!" interrupted Justin sharply, stepping between Brutus and Josh, before a scuffle could break out, "We're better off without that weapon anyway. It could have easily fallen into the wrong hands..."

"Easy for you to say, pal," said Josh hotly, remembering the incidents with the snake and the spider, which would have claimed the lives of Elizabeth and Cynthia if it hadn't been for his gun. But there was nothing he could do about it now and not willing to make a scene in front of the children, he decided to let it slide. He turned back to Brutus, "You've got one hell of an attitude problem, chum, and you're really starting to piss me off! Just remember that!" They pressed on.

Ages' humble home turned out to be a cave in the side of the Lee of the Stone, sealed off by a log wall, with a door and a couple of narrow, glassless windows build into it. A fence of sharp pointed stakes, presumably for protection against snakes and other wild beasts from the forest, formed a barricade in front of the entrance to the cave. The old tinkerer was pacing around his porch impatiently, smoking a pipe, limping around on his busted leg with the support of his makeshift crutch, expecting them.

"About time too!" he huffed indignantly, walking over to greet them, frowning at the sight of the children, obviously disapproving of having playful, noisy youngsters running around his workplace, but luckily not sending them off. Without bothering to return their 'good morning' greetings, he ushered them all inside.

The interior of the house consisted of one big rock cavern in the side of the cliff, lit by flaming oil lamps. In contrast to the warm, hospitable atmosphere of the Brisby home, Mr Ages' house had the air of a serious workplace about it. A blacksmith's stone furnace with massive leather bellows stood in the centre, surrounded by several rough worktables strewn with bowls of curious bubbling mixtures and rolls of parchment of all sorts of scientific formulas, which Josh couldn't quite place. The walls of the room were lined with shelves, stacked with earthenware jars and bottles containing different chemicals and herbs. An assortment of crude tools, mostly for carpentry and ironwork, lay scattered around the messy workshop. Clearly, Mr Ages had very little time for leisure activities.

Despite having grown up in a technologically-advanced world of nuclear power and computers, Josh couldn't help but marvel how advanced the rodents of this strange planet were considering, with skills in farming, tailoring, pottery, metallurgy, and even certain elementary science. Although obviously centuries away from competing with mankind, his own meagre tools being more advanced than everything in Ages' lab put together, they were definitely countless of evolutionary cycles ahead of their terrestrial counterparts.

Ages walked up to a rudimentary blackboard, fashioned out of a large flat stone sitting propped up against the wall. On it were crude schematics, notes, and calculations the mouse-inventor had apparently been working on overnight in preparation for this meeting. The parachute lay spread out on another worktable nearby, ready to be dismantled.

"All right, let's get started. I haven't got all day. Everyone, pay attention!" he barked, like a stern schoolteacher to his pupils, as his guests seated themselves on a bench he had set up for them in front of the blackboard. Using a stick, he pointed at a crudely drawn map of the region, with a dashed line marking a path across the desert - according to him, the same path followed by Jonathan Brisby years ago -, following a river canyon through the Dark Mountains, all the way to their intended destination on the other side of the mountain range.

"As you already know, attempting to reach Thorn Valley on foot would be futile. However, if we can follow this very same route through the mountains by air, we'll be safely out of reach of any lurking bandits on the ground…" Josh rolled his eyes; by the sound of it, Ages was trying to get all the credit for his plan to reach Thorn Valley by flying. Still, as long as he allowed him to utilise this lab to build that glider which would get him the hell out of here, he couldn't care less.

"…To accomplish this, we'll be using a prototype, aerodynamically-sound contraption, the full details of which will be explained to us by our new friend here." He turned to Josh, "Captain Anderson, the floor is yours. I'll help you fill in all the difficult bits if necessary…" Josh had to fight the urge not to laugh at the thought of Ages 'correcting' him, given that his knowledge of engineering was obviously far more advanced and precise than his. Hell, the old goat didn't even know that this 'aerodynamically-sound contraption' he spoke of was actually called an aircraft! Still, he managed to keep a straight face as he took the stand.

Unfolding the schematic he had drawn up, he taped it onto the blackboard for everyone to see. Using some notes he had also prepared for this meeting, he launched into a brief description of how the glider functioned, and how they would build it. The project would require dividing the construction into several stages, each of which would have to be done in a specific order over the next few days.

"As far as the general design factors are concerned, there are no problems," he said, drawing arrows along the schematic, indicating the gravitational pull, air resistance, and wind drogue, "The centre of gravity will allow us to distribute our weight across the lower wing panels, creating the ballast needed to keep the craft level in flight..." Ages, he noted, was feverishly scribbling down all the physics he was describing, the wheels in his head spinning wildly with countless new scientific theories.

"To take off, we'll have to move the glider up to the peak of the Lee of the Stone for a freefall. I've calculated that we have enough parachute canvas to make the wing surfaces large enough to keep us aloft, using the wind, rather than an engine, to carry us along…"

"Wait a minute," interrupted Brutus sharply, "What do you mean, 'a freefall'? Ages nearly got himself killed trying to make that thing fly! Do you mean to get us all killed by having us ride that…that flying coffin of yours off a cliff?" Josh sighed in exasperation; did this dimwit oaf really enjoy pointing out supposed flaws at every turn, just to annoy him? But seeing how Brutus' words had aroused everyone's concerns regarding safety, he explained.

"A parachute doesn't employ the same aerodynamics as an aircraft; it's merely a domed-shaped piece of canvas designed to drag, counteracting the force of gravity pulling the paratrooper towards the ground, consequently slowing his fall and preventing a deadly impact," he said, "A glider can change its heading and altitude by the pilot correcting the pitch and trim in flight. And, if I may sound so blunt, I happen to be one of the best pilots there are…unless Brutus would like to have first go when we're ready and find out for himself?" he asked sarcastically, throwing his own taunt back at the mean-tempered rat. Brutus glared at Josh for his remark but luckily refrained from commenting.

"So," said Josh, after he had finished explaining the design to his audience, "Our first task today will be to cut up the parachute into sections which will form the 'skin' of the fuselage and wing surfaces. This will have to done extremely carefully, as we have no excess nylon to spare, to compensate for any mistakes. The second task will be the undercarriage, where the central framework of the fuselage will be mounted. Now, this is where we're stuck; what we need is a strong and light material for the undercarriage, preferably metal. We could use wood, but it would be too heavy…"

"I think I can help you there," interrupted Ages. They all turned to look at the mouse inventor as he got up and scurried over to a cabinet in the corner of his laboratory. With Justin's help, he dragged a large packing crate over to the blackboard. Peering inside, Josh saw, what looked like bits of old, scrap metal. Upon closer inspection however, he realised this wasn't just any scrap metal; it wasn't iron or any material he had seen his friends use. This was something else - something he had never expected to find here in a million years.

Although ancient-looking and corroded, the familiar light texture of aluminium and titanium – the key materials in spacecraft design - was unmistakable. He was staring at the remains of the fuselage of a manmade spacecraft, found on the surface of Nimh-Beta!

Josh felt his head spin at the mind-bogging realisation that a manmade craft had set foot on this planet before. Where had it come from? When had it arrive here? Picking up one of the fragments for a closer look, he realised it was from some sort of landing craft, possibly an unmanned rover mission, including a severed robotic arm, some h-section from the craft's infrastructure, as well as several miniature off-road wheels, probably from the remote-controlled rover carried onboard the lander, definitely manmade. However, time had long since erased any markings or logos indicating where this craft had originated from.

"Where the bloody hell did you find these?"

"I dug them up from the forest floor years ago," explained Ages, looking utterly dumbstruck at Josh's words, "We keep finding similar artefacts in many places. But nobody has ever been able to identify this strange metal, or determine its origins. You say it comes from another…spaceship, did you call it? You, young man, are definitely full of surprises…" Everyone was as puzzled at this latest mystery as Josh.

"Are you suggesting that we've had human visitors here before and never realised?" asked Justin, also examining the junk, as they passed the pieces around. "How's this even possible?" Even Josh couldn't answer him; the presence of another ship on a planet light-years away from Earth was just as much a mind-bogging mystery to him as it was to his friends. During astronaut training, he had taken plenty of history lessons in space exploration and was familiar with all the old space programs and missions. And currently, he was at a total loss as to linking this junk to any past mission on record.

Could it be the old Voyager-One? But, no, an orbiting probe couldn't have possibly travelled this far in only a hundred years…

It just made no sense; the NIMH-One was, without a shadow of a doubt, the first ever manned interstellar mission - the first spacecraft with the propulsion technology capable of making a journey out to the nearest star. Prior to the discovery of unobtanium on Mars, there had been no atomic compound powerful enough to fuel a light-speed ion rocket engine; and at the time of the Voyager-One, it had been the stuff of science fiction. So where could it have come from? Was it somehow linked to the similarly impossible presence of terrestrial flora on this world? What was the key to all this mystery?

Looking around the lab, Josh realised Mr Ages had quite a collection of similar 'man-made' artefacts he had discovered, including, what looked like, the lens from the probe's onboard camera, part of the spectrometer and something that looked like a drawing of a cut-out from some sort of engraving plate, or something like it, lying on his desk, where he had been examining it before they arrived.

"What's that?"

Noticing Josh staring at the drawing, Ages, muttering a curse, hurryingly picked it up and shoved it into a drawer. "That is part of my...private research, if you don't mind…" he said sternly, almost fiercely, implying that that drawing, whatever it was, was for his eyes alone. Josh frowned suspiciously; although he had only glimpsed it for a second, something about that plate had looked very familiar to him. Had he seen it somewhere before…? But reminding himself that right now his priority was getting started on the glider, not pondering on mysteries he didn't have the time to answer, he shrugged it off and returned to the blackboard…

Using some twine as a tape-measurer and a marker from his kit, Josh carefully divided the parachute canvas into sections which would form the surfaces of the wings and control surfaces of the glider. Elizabeth and Teresa, the tailors on the team, got to work cutting and stitching the different sections of the glider's 'skin', according to Josh's specifications. The chute's cords were collected in a spool to be used to make the stick-and-rudder control cables, as well as the rigging for the king-post.

While Josh, Justin and Ages worked on the wooden framework of the fuselage, Marin, Cynthia and Timmy were assigned the task of keeping the bellows in the furnace going, where a bowl of molten iron sat waiting for pouring. Brutus worked alone at the blacksmith's table, making the tiniest nails any Rat had ever used before, which they'd need to put the glider's framework together.

Using Josh's laser-cutter, they cut the bits of h-section from the mysterious probe into shape, making the frame of the glider's three-wheel undercarriage; these bits of h-section were welded together using Josh's small hydrogen torch and some molten lead for soldering. The final touch was the rover's wheels, which they bolted onto the end of the legs, to use for take-off and landing.

The fully assembled undercarriage was then placed in the furnace, allowing the heat to slowly weld all these components firmly together, reinforcing the structure. Once the central framework and king-post were assembled and mounted, the glider would finally begin to take shape...

It was late evening by the time the group finally decided to call it a day and returned to Elizabeth's home for supper. Their first day of work had gone reasonably well, with much more of it awaiting them tomorrow. But between the efforts of the five adults and the children combined, so far, Josh thought they had made good progress. Despite having made a good start however, the day hadn't gone without a few mishaps.

Aside from all the time they had wasted by Josh having to explain things over and over again and with bossy old Mr Ages constantly barking orders around like a factory foreman, it had been a really hard day indeed. Also, there had been a few injuries. The worst of all was Teresa, who had scolded her hand with a hot pair of tongs used to pick up the bowl of molten lead for soldering.

Elizabeth sat on the edge of Teresa's bed, trying to reassure her sniffling daughter, while Josh applied dittany to her blistered hand. "Oh, Mother, it hurts so much…Ow! Watch it, Josh!" she cried as the astronaut sprayed the dittany over the raw, scorched flesh, stinging her.

"It's all right dear, you just be a strong girl now. Try and sleep," said Elizabeth soothingly. She turned to her friend, "Isn't there anything more you can do for her, Josh?"

"I can't risk giving her morphine," he said, bandaging up Teresa's burned hand, "The dose isn't rated for her age and could cause complications. Some ice would do nicely, but where can we find any around here…?"

"Well, perhaps that will teach you to take Old Goat's warning more seriously in future," said Justin, smiling grimly at his goddaughter, "Like he said, these kinds of jobs are not for children." Teresa pulled a face at him.

"I'm so sorry, sis," said Martin solemnly for the thousandth time. It had been he who had accidentally prodded her with the hot tongs, trying to get the bowl of lead from the furnace, scolding his sister in the process, "I'm so very sorry…"

"Gut up kid, your sister is fine," said Brutus, tired of all this childish complaining. Youngsters nowadays are too soft for their own good, he thought, "If you think this is bad, then look at the Exiles who roast their prisoners alive under torture…"

"Knock it off, Brutus!" snapped Josh, at the sight of the children's' frightened expressions, "I think they get the message without having to listen to such gore!"

But Teresa continued moaning, complaining of excruciating pain, unable to sleep, the dittany needing some time to do its job. Josh was considering giving her a shot of morphine, when Elizabeth stepped in, "Here darling, let me try another method your grandfather used on me on such occasions when I was little."

Sitting down on the edge of the bed, she gentry took her daughter's ankle and began softly caressing the soles of her feet. Teresa's miserable moaning instantly dissolved into hysterical giggling as her mother gave her a good tickle.

"Mother, stop, I can't stand it!" she squealed, clutching her tummy from laughing so hard, yet enjoying it at the same time, the pain of her injury entirely forgotten, "Aren't I a little too old for this…?"

"But it does help with the pain, doesn't it sweetheart?" smiled Elizabeth, continuing to tickle her daughter silly. Some time later, Josh's dittany had finally brought down the blistering enough to relieve the pain and Teresa was able to settle down to sleep. Tucking her siblings in as well, and giving each of them a bedtime tickle to help them sleep, Elizabeth joined her guests in the sitting room.

Justin sat chatting with Josh, who was busy making a few last-minute corrections to the schematic for tomorrow. The undercarriage was finished and so was the framework; this just left applying the nylon skin on the fuselage and setting up the rigging and controls, after which they would have a working glider ready to take flight…hopefully. The thought of flying again soon brightened Josh's spirits. With a little luck, he would soon be on his way back where he belonged. Only the mystery surrounding that ancient spacecraft in Ages' lab still eluded him…

"So have you chaps always been explorers of the stars?" One the advantages of life as Captain of the Guards, was all the adventure involved in his job, which Justin had craved for since he was a boy, prompting him into joining the Rats' Military Training Corps. Josh's stories of space travel utterly intrigued him. The astronaut, who was beginning to warm up to the young Rat and eager for some pleasant conversation to take his mind off things, set aside his work.

"Hardly, mate," he chuckled, sipping some hot broth Elizabeth had prepared for them, "Man has existed on Earth for nearly half a million years; the concept of space travel was only conceived about two hundred years ago, mostly by science fiction authors, well ahead of their time," he said, remembering the works of Jules Verne, H.G. Wells and Edgar Rice Burroughs, which still inspired even his own generation. Out of the corner of his eye, he noticed Brutus sitting alone by the fire, sipping his own broth, seemingly uninterested in chit-chatting, yet Josh could tell, he too was listening intently to everything that was been said.

"It was over a hundred years later that mankind had finally advanced science enough to make space travel possible. Yuri Gagarin was the first man to fly in space; Neil Armstrong became the first man to set foot on the Moon – our satellite," he explained, taking out his HHC and showing Justin a 3-D rotating model of the Earth and Moon.

"Since then, we've been sending dozens of both manned and unmanned missions scouting all around our solar system. We've even managed to set up outposts on several other neighbouring planets," he went on, telling them "But it took a whole century before we were ready to fly to the nearest star – and discover your planet."

"Only you didn't expect to find it already occupied, did you?" said Brutus, finally giving in and joining in the conversation. Although a reasonably innocent question, Josh was sure the warrior Rat was thinking something along the lines of 'so that you can't claim it for yourselves'.

"Guess our 100-million-dollar terraforming payload we hauled all the way here has been for naught," Josh replied, smirking in amusement, picturing the expressions of their superiors back on Earth when Fitzgibbons reported that they had discovered a planet with an intelligent civilisation of humanoid rats. On the other hand, he couldn't help but worry how contact between their worlds might affect his new friends' way of life, once news of their discovery got out…

Unbeknownst to them, a more serious problem was arising in the children's bedroom next door. Timmy lay shivering and coughing in his sleep, his fever rising again. Although the penicillin Josh had given him had soothed his pneumonia, it hadn't completely eradicated it. Now, because his mother had taken pity on him and let him out of doors so soon, exposing him to the chilly air, the disease was flaring up again full-force…

Author's note: Coming up next, Jenner starts to pick up Josh's trail as well… By the way, the scene with Elizabeth tickling Teresa is based on a fanart by xxxfurryneddyxxx on DeviantART. ENJOY AND PLEASE DON'T FORGET TO REVIEW!