Your assumptions are spot on Vin. April is obviously very annoyed at the ongoing overt influence of the Deep Council. I'm sure things will change soon but I'm still contemplating three different endings to the story so even I don't know for sure yet.

Let's see where it goes eh?

Chapter 75

The Path To Where?

The three quarter moon shone brightly on the road, helping Jack Sumner to find his way back to El Centro. Even though he would occasionally stumble, it was much easier for him to walk in the dark than it would be to cope with the hot sun. The evening breeze came from the north and it carried the smell of smouldering wood. It also brought with it a fine black ash, aggravating Jacks eyes and lungs. He had only completed about one third of his journey when the headlights of an approaching pickup truck appeared in the distance, filling his heart with a sense of genuine relief. The truck carried Cid and his daughter Haley, and they were both surprised to see him.

"What the hell are you doing out here at night?" Cid asked as Jack gulped down a flask of water.

"Walking and getting cold" Jack smiled "Reeds little plan worked too well and I managed to get myself ejected from the bunker in only a few hours."

"Well that's one piece of good news in an otherwise disappointing day. Haley and I are just on our way to give the initial damage report to the Colonel. You can come with us but we'd better hide you in the back when we get there."

"Won't I get found when they bring out the first of the supplies?" Jack asked with concern.

To his surprise, Cid and Haley just laughed ever so slightly.

"This is just the first step" Haley said as they all climbed into the truck.

"Tomorrow morning we'll take the injured up to the bunker where they can rest and receive better medical care. Then some of the people currently working inside will leave early to make room for them and they'll bring the first of the released supplies back to us" Cid informed Jack.

"And then the rebuild can begin" Haley added "But there has never been a disaster as big as this one in my lifetime so I have no idea how long it will take to recover."

"We should have food production in full swing in six months" Cid informed her "I just hope the supplies in the bunker last the distance."

"There may be an alternative to starting again here" Jack hinted "but we'll talk about that when we get back to El Centro."

Calla looked back with fascination as the asteroid 16 Psyche slowly became nothing more than a tiny point of light in the distance. The true vastness of space was made perfectly clear to her when she realised she could no longer tell which white dot was the massive chunk of metal she had just left, and which ones where more distant stars in her field of vision. Rather than keep staring back at her departure point, Calla decided to look forward by returning to a nearby computer terminal where she had been studying information about the autonomous machines the MTV crew had left behind.

"Star Cruiser" Calla corrected.

Don't start with that again... Mavis.

"I'll be good" she smiled weakly.

"Who you talking to?" Blue asked as he floated back from the flight controls in the Orion capsule.

"The split personality of a psychotic hack" she replied.

"Oh... okay" Blue wisely decided it would be best not to pursue the subject anymore.

"Where you headed off to now?" Calla asked.

"Dad's sending a report back to Earth with a full rundown of what we got done on 16 Psyche. I thought I'd write a few notes to Sarah and the others and attach them to the file before he sends it."

"Hmm... I should probably do the same" Calla thought "But before you go, I was looking at this maintenance file on the machines your sister and I worked on."

"Yeah she said the extra pair of hands was a big help" Blue noted.

"Good of her to say so, but I have to admit I could hardly keep up with what she wanted me to do."

"I wouldn't worry about it too much" Blue smiled "Abby and I grew up with those things; I was helping to build them back at the Railgun and she was using and maintaining them over on Mars. Truth be told, I'm really impressed by the way you've kept up."

"Ah; it's good to see you've learnt how much I like to be praised" Calla grinned "But I was wondering if you could explain something to me."

"Whatcha got?" Blue asked.

"It's these converters that change the current from the solar collectors. It may be a silly question, but what is the difference between alternating current and direct current?"

"One alternates and the other one doesn't" Blue explained.

Blue thought what he'd said had showed a fair amount of wit, but it still earned him a playful elbow to the gut.

It was well after midnight before the pickup truck arrived back in El Centro. Everyone was tired but Cid was particularly looking forward to resting his head, having just driven all the way to the bunker and back. Unfortunately there would be no sleep yet because he and his passengers arrived back to find a small group of discontented people surrounding the Bull Ant, making the One and All crew members on board very nervous. The Rockhopper Penguin of Confusion flew overhead, landed in front of Cid's feet, staring menacingly at everyone in front of him.

"WHAT THE HELL IS GOING ON HERE?" Cid shouted as he strode over towards the crowd.

"These people can't be trusted Cid" a mean looking man with a sledge hammer barked "You didn't see what went on last week in the bunker. That Captain Branson kept trying to tell us what to do and he ended up siding with the guards against us."

"Of course he did, that was the plan" Cid shrugged "Hasn't Shifty told you all about it yet?"

"Shifty has gone home to check on the damage to his farm; he didn't tell us anything."

"When I get my hands on that kid... it was all a con you idiots" Cid steamed "Captain Branson wanted to find what was going on in the bunker and hopefully what had happened to his friends. The plan was for him to be augmentative with us while being agreeable with the guard's in the hope they would recruit him; and it worked. I can't be the only one here who is more than a little curious about what lies beyond the refineries in there."

"Why didn't you tell us what you were doing?" Mr. Sledgehammer barked.

"Look... I'm sure most of you could have gone along with the ruse without any trouble, but because it would only take one person to give the game away, we decided to keep it to ourselves and not tell anyone else until Reed was safely inside" Cid explained.

"I even took a fist to the jaw to help convince the Colonel" Jack added.

"That's all well and good, but how do you explain this?" a woman from the crowd called out, walked up and gave Cid a small familiar looking package.

"Where did you get this?" he asked.

"It came from them" she pointed at the defenders of the Bull Ant.

Jack wasn't sure what the problem was but everyone looked more than a little upset.

"We gave them some of our food stocks" a worried voice called out from the Bull Ant "We thought it was the right thing to do but now they're really upset."

"I hope you can explain this" Cid said and he did not look happy.

"It's a freeze dried food pack" Jack explained "The may not look very appetising but they really are quite tasty when you're half starved."

"I know what it is, they come from the bunker; we take in fresh food, it cooked, processed and turned into these things for long term storage. Because they can last for many years, it's all we'll have to eat until we can get the crops going again. The real question is how did you get it out of the bunker?"

"Our food packs didn't come from the bunker" Jack tried to explain.

"Then where did they come from?" Cid asked firmly.

Jack knew Professor Adisa did not want all the details about the Railgun in Sumatra to become common knowledge when they had first arrived, but he was sure the time had come to confide in these people; so he told Cid about Calla and her accidental discovery. He went on to tell him about the young man who had spent his entire life underground and of Doctor Sarah Spencer the new head of the Railgun Complex, who had provided Captain Branson with the same type of food packs as would be send into orbit inside large capsules, along with electronic and machinery parts for the Mars colony.

He told them about the Oil Tanker that held no oil, but was instead was used as a method of smuggling equipment across the world without being found by the Earth First Alliance. He then finished off with Professor Adisa's desire to try and track down the truth about who had locked his people up for so long, while Sarah Spencer organised a new plan to build human colonies in the Asteroid Belt, thus saving more people from the inevitable destruction of Earth; whether it came in one year's time, or a hundred.

"Why did you keep all this a secret from us?" Cid asked when Jack was done.

"If word spread too far about the Railgun still being operational, the EFA could hear about it and try to stop them. Professor Adisa and Doctor Spencer were quite adamant that we should be very careful who we talk to. If I didn't feel I could trust you now, I would not have told you any of this. I was serving on an aircraft carrier fifteen years ago when the Professor and some of his team arrived by helicopter to be transferred onto cargo planes for their trip to the Railgun Complex, and we all considered them to be heroes. Risking their lives against the EFA, helping to save humanity through the Mars Project, and all the time knowing they would be staying behind with the rest of us to die if the big one hit. I can tell you this for sure; Captain Branson and I were mightily pissed when you called Professor Adisa an EFA spy and took him away, but I can accept now it was all just a mistake thanks to that list you got from whoever is running things in that bunker."

"If we went to this Railgun Complex... is there any chance we could get off this doomed planet too?" someone in the crowd asked.

"I honestly don't know but I'll tell you something for nothing; I wouldn't even consider taking any of you to see Doctor Spencer unless I was sure you wouldn't cause any trouble for her. But if you're willing to take your chances with the rest of us while helping her to make the whole thing work... well... we'll see how we go."

A murmur ran around the group as everyone considered this new information.

"Listen up" Jack continued "When we came across the Railgun Complex, we were not just a single ship; we were a small flotilla of refugees. The people we met in Sumatra gave us all the help we could ask for. Adisa and Spencer didn't try and make deals, they just gave us food and a safe place to stay, and then asked for our help later. It was perfectly clear to us that we were under no obligation and although I had my doubts about Doctor Spencers ability to pull off her Asteroid Belt plan, in a very short time I grew to trust her integrity and that is why the Captain and I agreed to bring the Professor half way across the world just to satisfy his curiosity."

Some people began to discuss their possible future in small groups while others got right to the point.

"How many people can you ship carry?" one asked.

"The One and All could only take a few more, but there is another ship sitting half out the water in San Diego Harbour. If we could get it off the beach, refloat it and fix the rudder, you never know what we may be able to do."

Jacks revelation set everyone talking loudly for a few minutes until Cid managed to get their attention once again.

"HEY!" he cried out "Two very important things you're all going to have to remember: firstly you have to be very sure not to let anyone in the bunker know any of this, and secondly we still have to get the crops re-planted."

"But why rebuild if we can leave instead?" someone noted.

"You don't know for sure if we're going to leave; I know you're all excited about this but we haven't got that raider ship refloated yet, and we have to make the bunker guards think everything is still normal out here. I don't know what they'd do if they found out about what we've been discussing here tonight."

Cid was right when he said everyone was excited. A week ago most of them would not have considered leaving their home for something as uncertain as a Railgun in Sumatra, but after the devastation they had all just gone through, very few even thought about the possibility of staying behind. There was a very big reality check though when Jack told them all what to expect should they succeed in making it to the Railgun.

"Don't expect to arrive in Sumatra one day and leave Earth the next. When we left to come here they had just started extending the Railgun and building the machines needed to work in space. The people I left behind were training, building, farming, and doing all kinds of laborious tasks in preparation with no real idea when, or even if it would happen."

"Then why did they want to get involved?" Haley asked.

"I don't know how big your bunker is here, but the underground complex in Sumatra is huge. We drove around inside and I'm sure I only saw a small part of it. For all intents and purposes, it was a better home than anything we'd seen before."

"So we could all live inside?" Cid wondered.

"Most of you could; they even had massive vertical farms that would knock your socks off. Compared to limping across the ocean looking for somewhere safe we knew did not really exist, working for Doctor Spencer was a good deal; a very good deal indeed."

With another near disaster averted, the people of El Centro dispersed to find somewhere to spend the night. Almost half the buildings had been rendered unsafe by the recent meteor strike and several had even been totally destroyed by the fires that had followed. With Jacks permission, Haley and Cid followed the aging sailor back inside the railway car atop the Bull Ant tracks.

"Ah Mr. Sumner, welcome back and... and warm greetings to your friends too" a very odd little man greeted them.

"Hello DeGroot" Jack replied "Have you been in here all this time?"

"M-most of it sir... but not when the meteor came, oh no" DeGroot shook his head "Too high... yes definitely too high up here so I took shelter underneath one of the tank tracks."

"The ol' self preservation instincts took over huh?"

"Oh yes sir and it was just as well because the side of the vehicle facing north took quite a bit of damage. But these old railway carriages were built strong... yes... very strong indeed."

Jack climbed back down to the ground and walked to the other side of the carriage and found DeGroot was right about the damage. The side of the railcar looked like it had been set upon by an automatic rock thrower. There were even a few pieces of metal embedded in the stainless steel.

Cid gasped when he saw what had happened but was surprised the carriage had held up so well. Just then a small light bulb lit up the inside of his head.

"Hey Jack... I know this may be asking a lot, but could we borrow this thing for a few days? Maybe even a week or two... or three at the most."

"What have you got in mind?" Jack asked.

"While you were inside the bunker today, we did a quick search of the district. We found a lot of people in a pretty bad way and some who didn't make it; far too many for my liking. Tomorrow I was planning to send out a few trucks to do a more detailed search for survivors but with the carrying capacity of this unit, plus that remote controlled flying camera you used back on the west road, we could keep all the trucks here where they're needed."

Jack thought about what he and Reed had planned for the near future and soon came to the conclusion that it was a request he could easily grant.

"It could take weeks, or even months before we hear any news from Cap'n Branson, and I'm sure he would agree to your request."

"You people are either really helpful, or you're playing a really long con game that'll bite me in the butt when I least expect it" Cid nodded.

"Nice to know we've got you worried" Jack grinned "Now let's get some sleep so I can continue with my nefarious plan in the morning."

"Is he joking dad?" Haley asked with concern.

"I guess we'll find out tomorrow" Cid replied as he looked for comfortable looking seat to stretch out on.

Okay... here comes the bad news.

This will be the last post for December. I've had some minor health issues and work has gone nuts in the Christmas rush too (everyone wants a mini bus). Still writing on most days so I'm planning to finish the story and then post the last of it in January.

Look out for the 2017 Snoggletog story; I think it will be called "How to upset a Shield Maiden."

Bye for now, Marty.