Chapter 13 Return to Paradise: First trip
As the car touched down on the surface of Mobius just outside the forest, Aaron and Sam doubted that they had landed in the right place at all; nothing looked familiar to their eyes. Where the castle they had seen last time they were on Mobius had stood was now an egg-shaped structure, which was partially completed. Rising from the newly placed structure was a cloud of smog.
"What happened? We were here only five days ago!" Aaron noted as he dug around the car for Nicole. He had forgotten that he had connected it to the cars computer system and unplugged it from the port in the dashboard. Sam promptly took the computer from Aaron.
"Nicole… what can you tell us about the new structure?" Sam asked. Two of the computers lights blinked as it attempted to connect with the GPS network.
"Insufficient data. Cannot connect to GPS network. Will attempt to hack into remote computer system to retrieve data." Nicole said as the computer flashed several messages across its display. After a couple minutes of silence, the computer spoke again. "Connection established to Robotropolis mainframe… retrieving GPS data… data retrieved… accessing data…" Nicole then displayed a three-dimensional map of the planet before zooming down to their current location. "You are here. Robotropolis is here. Distance to city from present location: five miles." Nicole said as small points of red light appeared on the map indicating what the computer was saying. Aaron tilted Nicole towards him.
"What's inside and beyond the forest?"
"That information is restricted. It can only be accessed by my original owner." Nicole replied.
"Robotropolis? It's impossible… improbable… unbelievable!" Neile exclaimed, listening to the computer and looking around.
"Dude… it's not only possible, but we're here. Believe it… we're on Mobius, a little over five miles from Robotnik's command center and about three miles away from Knothole village." Aaron explained in short to Neile who still did not believe it. Sam closed the computer and went over to the car where Aaron joined her shortly.
"Where should we setup camp? From what you told me the other night, we don't wanna get too close to Robotropolis or Knothole, so where should we camp?" Sam asked, sitting down on the edge of the drivers seat.
"I think the safest place to camp would be inside the forest… we can leave the car parked outside of the forest and just cover the car with something. Where we are right now, we're between Robotropolis and Knothole; if we go north or west, we risk being seen on Robotnik's radars, if we go east, we risk being seen by Knothole. Our best bet is to stay here and hope our luck holds for our camping trip." Aaron said as he opened all the doors and started pulling the camping supplies out. The three of them set the camping gear around the perimeter of the car and eventually got the tent and the small cooking stove set up.
By the time they got everything setup and arranged, it was nearing dusk and all three of them were getting hungry. On Aaron's decision, they broke out the snacks that Aaron had brought with. Aaron had Sam and Neile throw the wrappers and garbage in an empty bag and put it in the car to minimize their impact on the area. As for the car, Aaron and Neile were able to camouflage the car with whatever they could find and once they were sure it was satisfactorily hidden, they got ready for bed, and climbed into the tent and eventually fell asleep.
All night, Sally slept restlessly. Her dreams kept revolving around Robotropolis, her former home. The dreams consisted of visions of what had come to be called 'The Betrayal'. In the dreams, Sally saw the takeover the same as it had really happened, except she kept seeing fleeting images of other humans hiding behind the courtyard pillars. The images of the other humans were unlike the humans she had seen in the history books; these humans wore different clothes and had different hairstyles. In the dream, the humans had set up a camp of sorts just beyond the forest.
When Sally awoke from the dream, she told Julayla of the dream.
"Well, what were your feelings about the dream?" Julayla asked after a moment of silence. Sally thought about it a little bit before answering.
"Well, I'm not sure. I think it had something to do with Robotnik, but why were there three of them?"
"That I cannot say… it could be a sign of things to come. That or it is a sign of things as they are right now. I would suggest looking around the forest and checking if the dream has any basis in reality." Julayla answered. Sally thanked her and left. Immediately, Sally went in search of Sonic and found him waiting by the pond for that days power ring.
"Sonic… can you take me to the forest border?" Sally asked.
"Yeah, once I get the ring. What's up?" Sonic asked, turning his gaze from the pond to Sally and back. Sally sat down on the fallen log that lay at the edge of the pond and explained her dream and what Julayla had said to Sonic. As she finished talking, Sonic reached out and caught the ring. "Alright… we can go. Grab my shoulders and hold on, 'cause here we go!" Sonic said. Sally grabbed Sonic's shoulders and they left to the edge of the forest.
"Aaron and Sam, my sensors indicate something heading this way. Advice: seek cover." Nicole said as the computer generated a holographic map of the area with a point of light where they were and one speeding towards them. Aaron ran back to the car and quickly dug through the bag that he had brought with looking for the camera he had with. Once he found it, he closed the car door and ran back to where Neile and Sam were hiding. Aaron had the only good vantage point from which he was able to see what came into the clearing he was watching.
In the clearing before him were a squirrel and a hedgehog, both of which were walking on their hind legs. As quietly and quickly as he could, Aaron snapped several pictures of them at varying shutter speeds and angles.
"Sonic… you see anything strange about this clearing?" The squirrel asked with a slightly European accent. The hedgehog glanced around the clearing before answering.
"Notathing… should there be?" The hedgehog asked in an almost northern accent. The squirrel walked over closer to where the car was hidden and then turned around and walked over to where the hedgehog stood impatiently tapping his foot. Aaron wished he had a video camera with him so he could tape some of what he was seeing. Out of the corner of his eye, he could see Sam inching closer to him amongst the trees. He motioned for her to go back to where Neile was standing but she did not pay attention to him. Neile was leaning against the tree rapidly sketching in a notebook.
"I'm not sure… Julayla suggested I come out here and look to see if anything was different between this and my dream, and so far I haven't seen anything out of the ordinary. You want to head back to Knothole?" The squirrel asked Sonic.
"Only if you want to, Sally. I'm not in any rush." Sonic said with a mischievous grin. Sam was finally standing next to Aaron watching Sonic and Sally. She motioned for the camera and Aaron handed it to her. She looked through it and played around with the focusing mechanism until she got it where she wanted it.
"Okay… there's nothing out of place here. The dream must have been trying to tell me something else… I'll have to ask Julayla about it again when we get back. Let's go." Sally said before wrapping her arms around Sonic. Once he was sure she had a good tight hold of him, Sonic took off running at full speed around the forest until they were out of sight of Aaron, Sam, and Neile. Once the three humans were sure that the animals were gone, they came out of hiding.
"Neile… you still doubt anything?" Sam asked. Neile looked up from his hastily drawn sketch.
"All I'm going to say is I wanna see those pictures when they get developed. That and I wanna get a closer look at these creatures before I'm sure about anything." Neile said as he looked from his drawings to Aaron and Sam. Aaron was glad he had the foresight to camouflage the car, tent, and camping site the other night when they had arrived.
"Okay… we'll walk to Knothole, but remember… no contact. We can't come into contact with them unless absolutely needed… if we do, we'll be putting too much at risk." Aaron said as he tossed a few things into a pack and slung it over his shoulder. Sam tucked Nicole in one of the outside pockets and Neile stuffed one of his many notebooks inside Aaron's pack before leaving. By Aaron's estimate, the walk from the car to Knothole would take an hour if they hurried. Once they made it to Knothole, the first thing Aaron did was use up the rest of the roll of film he had started by sneaking around the perimeter of the village and snapping pictures where he could. Once the film was used up, Aaron came back to where Sam was waiting. Neile was no place to be seen.
"Sam, where'd he go?"
"He said something about having to see this for himself. I tried to stop him, but he just pushed past me." Aaron rolled his eyes.
"Great… which way did he go?"
"Towards the village. What would he be looking for?" Sam asked.
"Easy… he'd look for anything he can get his hands on. Come on… we've gotta find him!" Aaron answered as he slung his pack over his shoulder and led Samantha into the forest. She followed close behind as they worked their way closer and closer to the village, hiding behind trees and shrubs when needed. Finally, they reached the village. From where they were, they could hear part of a conversation between two of the animals in the village.
"Where ya go off to, Sally-girl?" Bunnie asked as Sally got back to the village. The children were outside playing and running and having fun. Sonic and Tails were chasing each other while the rest of the children watched and chased after the two.
"Had a dream this morning… just had to check it out and think it over. Nothing serious." Sally reassured Bunnie. She still could not help but feel that the dream had some kind of basis in reality. Sally shrugged her shoulders momentarily before taking part in the games the other children were playing. Aaron and Sam sat at the edge of the village surveying it, looking for any signs that Neile was hiding someplace inside it. After searching amongst the shadows and looking around the edges of buildings for twenty minutes, Aaron was sure his friend was not in the village someplace. He went back and reported this to Sam.
"Well, what can we do? You said we couldn't have any contact with the animals here." Sam asked. Aaron shrugged his shoulders.
"I dunno… I think the only thing we can do is wait it out. Eventually, I'm sure he's going to need food and a place to sleep, so we should just wait back at the car for him. If he doesn't show up by tonight, we might have to make first contact with the animals." Aaron answered. He and Sam began the three-mile walk back to the car and camping site as night began to fall. By Nicole's estimate, they had at least three hours before daylight drew to a close. Sitting around the campsite, Sam and Aaron talked about what they knew about the planet and its residents. By the time night fell heavily on the forest, both of them were getting sleepy. As the night wore on, Sam dozed off first and Aaron soon followed suit, unable to keep his eyes open anymore.
When he woke up in the morning, the campsite was still the same way it was when he had fallen asleep the night before. Neile still was not back to the campsite, so Aaron began planning how he could manage a first contact. After about forty minutes, Sam woke up and climbed out of the tent.
"Hey Aaron. What're you doing up so early?" Sam asked, digging through the cooler of food for something to eat.
"Couldn't sleep… just thinking mainly. Neile isn't back yet, so I'm not sure what we should do."
"You mentioned something called first contact yesterday… what's that?"
"That's when we make contact for the first time with another race. But, I hope we can find him without having to make contact with the natives." Aaron went back to the car and dug the small butane stove out to make a quick breakfast. After the breakfast, Aaron and Sam began the process of trying to plan out what they were going to do to locate Neile. With the help of Nicole, they were able to map out a route through the forest to the borders of Knothole. From Knothole, they had also a route laid out that would take them to the outside of Robotropolis and then back to the campsite.
"Okay… let's leave. We should be able to make it from here to Knothole to Robotropolis before dark. If we don't find him by then, we'll make first contact." Aaron said. At that, they left for the village and arrived within an hour. When they arrived, the village was empty. Aaron and Sam both snuck around to the huts and peeked in each one and eventually decided that there was no one in the village. Once Aaron was sure that his friend was not in the village, he and Sam left for the city of Robotropolis.
(End of Chapter 13)