Sometimes I get the feeling every few chapters could lead off with the words "And this is where the story really starts." This is one of those chapters.

Chapter 16

Paradigm Shift

Back in his office, Professor Linton Adisa read through the short conversation thread between himself and Sage; a man he had never completely trusted. He shook his head and sighed as he stood, picked up a tablet computer and literally trudged towards the door, pausing only to consider his reflection in a mirror.

When the day had begun he had felt so alive with the first launch of a new cycle going so smoothly, but now he felt old and he looked old; he also felt like somewhat of a fool for allowing himself to be so easily tricked. One of the department heads stood anxiously outside the doors to the AV room and smiled with relief when Linton finally rounded a corner and came into view.

"I'm glad you're here Professor, there are all kinds of rumours and theories going around about the sudden appearance of this girl."

"Of course there are" Linton Adisa smiled "after all this time, it could not be any other way.

Linton had been so caught up with the news about the ship Calla had brought to his attention, he had neglected to think about the answers to the many questions his friends and colleagues were bound to ask. This meeting was going to be unusual to say the least. As he entered the room, the first thing he noticed was everyone had huddled around Doctor Willow Pascal, one of the people who had pursued Calla through the Assembly Area, to engage in a little bit of rumour swapping. Fortunately Calla and her escort were nowhere to be seen. Their absence did not concern Linton because he wanted to have a word with the group before they tried to interrogate the poor girl. He walked to the podium on the left side of a blank screen and flicked on several switches.

"Please take your seats" he addressed the room "I have decided to turn on the external feed so I would like ask everyone in the complex to temporarily cease whatever it is they are doing and find the nearest monitor."

He waited a moment until most of the movement and chair shuffling had died down, and then began to speak; everyone was surprised to hear his normally strong voice was somewhat shaken.

"The importance of this morning's launch has paled into insignificance in light of the arrival of our visitor from the surface, but her arrival also pales when compared to the news she has brought to us."

As he spoke, Doctor Spencer led the children inside and they sat down near the door.

"To paraphrase an old saying, fasten your seatbelts everyone because his is where it all gets complicated."

He took a deep breath, sighed heavily and breathed in again.

"The information Calla Linwood has brought us suggests the situation on the outside is nowhere near as bad as we have always believed, although it is still far from perfect. We still have much to learn, but based on what the young lady has told me so far, I believe the war with the EFA may have ended many years ago and it seems the worst of the war didn't even reach most parts of the southern hemisphere."

A rumble of voices arose as those in the room expressed their obvious astonishment, confusion and disbelief to each other.

"Maybe things just settled down after the last of the colonists left Earth?" Doctor Quill Vieira called out when the noise subsided a little.

"Please everyone... please calm down" it took half a minute for the impromptu discussions to die down allowing Professor Adisa to continue.

"I do not yet have any answers to your many questions."

Linton could tell the main topic of discussion was, how long ago could they have safely reopened the complex and ventured outside; was it five years, ten perhaps or could it have been fourteen years and eleven months? Amos Hooke was the first one to put voice to some fiery accusations.

"Well the Mars Colony Council must be partly responsible for us being in the dark for so long because they knew we were locked away and have never given us any news about the situation on Earth. And they have been sending one way communications here since the day we were sealed in" the angry engineer stated.

"I REFUSE TO JUMP TO ANY CONCLUSIONS" Professor Adisa thumped the podium "We have no way of knowing for sure, if anyone on Mars is even aware of what has been happening on this planet, but I must admit it, things just don't feel right to me. I'm sure there is more to uncover and I insist we do not rush into doing anything rash until we learn more."

"So do we just stay here, keep on launching supplies and hope for the best?" another department head asked.

"No, we are not sending anymore units into orbit in the near future."

"Look, I understand everyone is upset about this" Doctor Vieira noted "but can we be sure we are not putting people's lives at risk on Mars, if we shut down even for a short time?"

"I have at least two more things to tell you" Professor Adisa sighed again; he hated bringing these upsetting revelations to his friends "Those watching via the monitors can't see her but sitting on the other side of the room from me is Calla Linwood; the girl who stumbled across us this morning. She has told me that three members of her family came here by boat and landed next to... a large ship."

It took a while for the significance of Linton Adisa's words to sink in but instead of more talking, everyone in the room just sat in stunned silence while the Magpie of Heart Stopping Shock trotted around the room and admired his handy work.

"What are the chances this is our ship?" Doctor Willow Pascal asked.

"I am 99% sure it is our ship" Linton replied "Calla says it's a huge tanker with support legs on the sides. Before I came here to talk with you all, I took the liberty of contacting Mars; I told Commander Sage that we had exhausted our supplies."

"But we've still got enough for about eighteen months or so" Amos Hooke interrupted again.

"Yes I'm sorry to admit it but I lied and told him that we were now out of commission permanently unless we could get replacement supplies from the ship; and so I informed him we could make an attempt to find and salvage the vessel even though I knew it was only about thirty kilometres away."

The whole crowd began to look very confused.

"Sage told me the same thing we were told fifteen years ago; the ship had been lost at sea and no salvage was possible. I also suggested to him that we leave the complex and seek help at launch sites in North America and Europe as well as the other Railgun sites, but he insisted we should stay put down here" Professor Adisa stated.

Silence hung in the room like a dark shroud but Calla could not understand why. She did not know who this Commander Sage was or why the people here seemed to put so little faith in his words.

"Sage seemed adamant about us hiding for the sake of our own survival. He thanked us for our efforts and our incredible achievements over the years in near impossible conditions and effectively said it was now finished."

Willow Pascal tried to get her head around it all "Does that mean you intend to follow his advice? And I have to ask; if the ship is close by, why wouldn't Mars Base want us to use the equipment on board? Could it be possible Mars has been self sufficient for a long time now and they never bothered to tell us?

"I'm beginning to wonder" Amos noted "Some of us have sacrificed forty years of our lives for this project; was any if it even necessary? Why would he lie about the ship and conditions on the surface?"

"Once again people, I don't have all the answers yet but I know for sure Mars did need the supplies and equipment we were sending when we went into lockdown. Sage did not seem upset or worried about us shutting down, but he did not appear to be happy about us leaving Indonesia. It's normally not easy to correctly gauge someone's mood from what they type, but I feel sure I'm on the money this time.

Calla leant over and whispered to Sarah Spencer "Did that person just say that you've been down here for forty years?"

"No but some people here have been working on the project for that long."

"So how long have you been living underground?"

"Only the last fifteen years" Sarah replied.

Calla considered what Sarah had said; she was thirteen years old and could not imagine what it must have been like to have spent her entire life in this gloomy place.

"I know many of those listening to us throughout the complex will have thousands of questions and comments, but I would like to request quite strongly, for you send them to your department heads by text. For now I propose that we concentrate on making contact with Calla's father on the surface while some of the engineering teams beginning preparations to re-open the surface tunnels. I don't intend to stay down here any longer than it will take to get the doors open."

That last proposition from Professor Adisa had the greatest effect on everyone, for although they had always known survival on the surface was possible and achievable, they had also held the long term belief that opening up the ramps to the surface, was a guarantee of their eventual destruction from one of many possible sources.

"Are you sure that's a good idea?" Doctor Quill Vieira asked cautiously to a general murmur of agreement.

"To be honest, no" the Professor replied "but in light of what's happened, I am no longer willing to just stay down here in fear. We now know that some of what we were told was untrue, so what else might we discover? I want to find out."

The truth is, this is one of those chapters that needed to be included to get information from character to character but because not much else happens, these bits can be pretty dull. This is why I will post the next chapter tomorrow to give the story a little more pop.

Maybe I could have shortened this chapter to one sentence:
Linton called a meeting, told everyone the ship was outside... and they were all a bit miffed.

Don't forget to tune in for the next chapter, for that will be where the story really starts.