Episode 64
What time is it?
It was a beautiful sunny morning. Colt lifted his head up from his bed. Ramrod II had better beds – a little bit larger and more comfortable to sleep in.
"Yaaaahhh" Colt yawned and stretched. "Hey, Robin? Where is everybody else?"
He stood up and looked out his window. Everyone was outside, chatting.
"Oh, they're always early birds... Gotta rush and get out there... I don't wanna miss a bit!" Colt got out of his bed. He jumped into the shower and then rushed out to dress up, then he skipped the coffee and stormed out to greet his friends. Everybody was sitting on the grass, cracking jokes and enjoying the gorgeous weather.
"Good morning everyone! What time is it?" Colt opened his conversation.
"Yuma time, or Alamo time?" Robin chuckled.
"Earth time, please..." Colt insisted.
"A... let me think... By the position of the sun...I would say it's about... noontime...?" Jesse lifted up his eyebrows...
"No way, did I sleep until noon?" Colt was upset.
Everybody started laughing.
"That's alright, Colt. You had a rough day yesterday," Fireball patted him on his back.
Jesse's parents were there too. They had woken up earlier and traveled through the forest to where the Star Sheriffs had their ships parked.
"So where should we go today, mom?" Jesse continued an earlier conversation.
"Let's go to the Geneva site. We left some unfinished excavations there," she answered.
"Do you still have fuel for traveling around Earth?" Saber Rider asked Jesse's parents.
Travis turned to him and said: "We exhausted the original fuel. When we arrived here, ten years ago, we were almost desperate we were not going to make it, I mean, ...to land on the planet. But fortunately, we did. And then, once we got here, we used the emergency water-solar engine, which works just fine for moving around here. It's enough to take us to where we want to go on the planet. But, as you all know, it cannot replace the turbo supply of the hyperspace engines. We remained stuck here, on Earth, unable to jump the space to get back home. I still can't believe you guys are here, and that we are talking to you. Jesse... until this day, we never stopped worrying about you, blaming each other for this unforgivable error of not planning our mission properly..."
Jesse sighed and looked at his father through the corner of his eyes: "I used to think you left me because you cared more about your work..."
Travis lowered his head in guilt... "We do care about you, Jesse..."
Jesse continued, interrupting his father: "But as I grew up, I got more and more convinced you faced some trouble somewhere along the way and you were not able to return. But I never lost hope. I knew how advanced you were with your research. I always imagined you arrived to a beautiful and mysterious place, and you found all the answers to your questions."
"Oh, Jesse..." his mother sighed. " We never stopped thinking about you... We were so worried about your future, what will happen to you, what career path you will choose... We missed all the important decisions in your life... At some point, we even broke up, we lived separately for about a year, because we were getting into constant daily fights about who's to blame for this failure..."
"Ma'am, some things are just happening for a reason... I think... Maybe it needed to be this way, so we can find you..." said Colt, patting her on the back.
"Maybe... So, what did you do after we disappeared?" she asked Jesse.
"Umm, I left high school and went to the Cavalry Command..." he replied hesitantly. He didn't want to open this conversation.
"And you became a Star Sheriff!" his father exclaimed in excitement. "See, I told you, Sylvia, he found his way through!"
Jesse didn't reply. He blushed in embarrassment and looked down. Everyone around kept quiet, in an attempt cover him up.
"You didn't get into some kind of trouble, did you?" Sylvia asked. After all these years, she was still his mother, and she knew exactly how to read her boy. That look on his face was quite eloquent.
"I... umm... I actually did..." he scratched an eyebrow and squinted in abashment.
"How bad was it?" Sylvia looked at him with that mother look you can never forget.
Travis was frowning also. But he was rather in disbelief, than anything else.
"Well, ma'am, bad enough to stir up the entire dimension... I would say he was the second worst enemy I ever had, after Nemisis," Colt broke the silence.
April rolled her eyes and threw Colt a long glance. "Seriously, Colt, did you really have to break the news the hard way?" she thought to herself. Colt saw her look and shrugged at her. He could not keep his mouth shut about this. Even if he had just shaken hands and made peace with Jesse, the past was still there, biting back at him.
Sylvia gasped and looked at her son in anger: "What in the world did you do? I know you used to be quite a sassy boy when you were young!" then she turned to Saber Rider and asked him: "Did he go to prison, or what?"
"No, Mrs. Blue, he didn't," Saber Rider chuckled. "And he is a good fellow now." He tried to keep the information to a minimum.
"A good fellow? What does that mean?" she insisted.
"He's not with the Outriders anymore, he is with us, the Humans!" Robin naively tried to explain, but she only made things worse.
"Out-Riders?" Sylvia yelled in fury. "You... betrayed us for the Outriders?"
"He did, and he went on to become Nemisis's second in command, for a few years," Fireball continued. "He was quite an enemy; he almost got me killed one time, not to mention leaving serious bruises on Colt, several times. Quite a thorn in our side. We almost lost the war with Nemisis, because of him...". Obviously, Fireball was still bearing a grudge against Jesse, and it was easy to see that. Jesse looked at Fireball and saw the anger sparks in his eyes. He realized he had to still work on improving his relations with the Star Sheriffs.
"Yes, quite a rival he was," Saber Rider added, with a respectful chivalry. "But, it all ended very well for all of us, as he is back on our side," he tried to calm down the conversation.
Jesse looked at Saber Rider with a thankful look. He felt that he could become true friends with him. Perhaps Saber Rider pays a deep respect to him, because he saved his life.
"How can something like this end very well? I would never forgive such a behavior! You should be behind bars now, son!" Travis suddenly became very mad.
Jesse held his head in his palms and looked down. Then he looked up again, at his parents: "Sorry, mom, dad... But I do have an explanation for all of this mess..."
April stood up and started talking: "I know it's hard to ingest so much news about your son in such a short time... But there is indeed an explanation, and I'm sure you, as scientists, would understand it."
"I wonder what that explanation would be... Please enlighten us..." Sylvia replied sarcastically and crossed her arms on her chest.
"Now, I know what April is going to tell ya', but ma'am, believe me, it all comes down to... love..." Colt made a prankish face and patted Sylvia on her back.
"Oh, you... dangler! Always in need of another leg-pull!" April threw a few little fist punches into Colt's shoulder.
"Don't mind him, Colt's like that all the time..." Robin rolled her eyes.
"Auch, that's my bad shoulder, don't touch it!" Colt jumped away.
"I guess my son broke your shoulder, didn't he?" said Sylvia, with another sarcastic glance at her son.
"Yeah, that's alright, it's almost healed, just the pain has to go away..." and Colt looked at Jesse.
"Probably the pain in your heart has to go away, too..." thought Jesse to himself. "I get it... cowboy..."
Travis looked back at April with a curious look. Jesse had exactly his father's eyes. "So, ...what's the mystery behind our son's criminal record?..." asked Travis.
"It actually all comes down to a virus, invented by Nemisis, and Jesse was contaminated with it," April started explaining.
"A virus?... How is that possible?" Travis was taken by surprise.
"Yes, a virus that turned Jesse almost into an Outrider. He even had the ability to jump dimensions... Meaning... vaporize... like the bushwackers..." Colt explained.
Sylvia stared at her son with a flabbergasted face: "How did you get contaminated?..."
"I never knew I was... until I was told so... by Nemisis himself..." said Jesse. "Some sort of bugs or nanobots or something..."
"Wow, that Nemisis is unbelievable! I thought we took him down. When we left, ten years ago, there was no sign of him. How did he come back?" Travis was confused.
"My father defeated him, 16 years ago," Fireball spoke. "But he was able to survive and transfer his brain to a computer, so he came back as a cyborg, more powerful..."
"Oh my...! And he started playing with viruses..." Travis concluded.
"With small bugs, but also with big bugs, like Renegade units..." Fireball replied.
"So you were a Human-Outrider sort of mix, for a while... Were you still able to have feelings? Outriders are notorious for being very insensitive..." Travis looked at his son.
"I was... having a lot of human feelings, actually..." and Jesse looked at April. She blushed.
"See, I told you it all comes down to love!" Colt squeaked in joy.
"Oh boy, here we go again..." Fireball covered his face, embarrassed by Colt's behavior, while everyone else was sniggering.
"How did you get treated? I mean... I hope you are not still infected, are you?" Sylvia asked cautiously.
"No... I'm not..."
"See... I keep telling you it's all going to come to love, and you still don't believe me! Listen how he got treated!" Colt was victoriously rubbing his palms.
Jesse scratched his head in abashment. Sincia and Claudia were giggling behind him.
"Okay... shall we try to hit the road to Geneva...?" April tried to steer the conversation away.
Everyone started laughing. Sylvia saw April's red cheeks and figured out that pushing this story too far would bring some embarrassing conversations, so she said:
"Alright, I get it, I get it! I'm done with questions," she raised her hands up. "One mystery at a time, right Travis?"
"I'm kind of dying to know how you got treated in the end, but we can have a conversation in private later, right?" and he looked at his son.
"Yeah, dad, whatever..." Jesse mumbled, in a low voice.
"So..., should we all take our ships to get to Geneva?" Prince Roland interfered.
"Right, let's each take our units, come on everyone!" Saber Rider stood up.
All of them got up and rushed to their ships. Sylvia and Travis went to their own ship and they all took off.
They were all flying above the clouds... The trip was really fast, just a few minutes and they arrived above what looked like a lake.
"This looks so pretty! Look, there are some very tall mountains, in the distance," Sincia pointed with a finger.
"Yes, indeed. Now, let's find a place to land..." Saber Rider was scanning the area.
"There is a little spot where we usually land ," Travis indicated a coordinate on the map. "I'm sending you the location."
In a few minutes, all ships were landing. They all got out and Sylvia went ahead of everyone:
"This way! We have to walk a little bit through the woods. Come!"
"Where are we going?" Colt asked.
"This place we wanted to show you," Travis answered.
"Can't wait to get there! I like mysterious stuff!" Colt rubbed his palms.
"Speaking about mysterious things, how did you guys find the two wormholes to arrive in this dimension?" Jesse asked his parents.
"What do you mean two? There's only one!" Travis exclaimed.
"That's impossible, we came through two passages! We had to go through the Outrider dimension to get here!" Colt replied.
Sylvia scratched her head: "You found a different way? How is that possible?"
"Mom, do you remember giving me that coin a long time ago?" Jesse asked.
"Yes, an ancient artifact. We never figured out what it was used for," Travis replied instead.
"Well, we humans had one, and Outriders had another one..." Saber Rider interrupted.
"Outriders had one? But, but... but they are aliens, another species, how did they …?" Sylvia was astounded.
"They are a branch of humans that got separated from us, when they left this planet, apparently. They adapted to their new dimension, that's why they have a different DNA structure and they can vaporize," Jesse explained.
"Unbelievable!" Travis jumped up in joy, while they were walking down a trail in the woods. "Sylvia, another mystery solved!"
"Yes, dad, and the coin is a key that fits into the Moai heads on planet Yuma. They show the map of the Terra dimension and the path to get here. The Outriders also have Moai heads, and their coin activated their own maps. That's how we got here. But how in the Universe did YOU get here?"
"Wow! Totally different than our path! We traveled outside the New Frontier. We exited through the eastern sector and went beyond the border of the Frontier. In the X45 galaxy, there is a little planet that showed signs of human activity. We found a small community there, living in a semi-ancient civilization, totally unaware of the existence of other humans in the Universe. They gave us quite a welcome, they thought we were Gods sent from above... They brought us to this awkward castle, on top of a mountain, and asked us to revive the God living in that castle... What they were referring to was actually an ancient robot, part of a dismantled space ship. We found data recorded on a platinum disc inside it; we managed to download all the data from the robot and found maps leading to a wormhole, and here we are right now... We found also some images and names of the people that used that robot. Apparently, they discovered the hyperspace turbo power to travel intergalactically. They used it to find this planet and establish a base there, after they fled from Earth."
"Interesting... So that means that there were several groups that left Earth and spread in different directions..." Fireball concluded.
"Here we are, we arrived," Sylvia interrupted the conversation and pointed out to a rusty metal disc that was coming out of a massive concrete structure, covered in moss and ivy.
Everyone looked up at this building that was blocking their advance through the forest. The disc had several concentric discs underneath. The size of the disc was impressive: a few stories tall.
April jumped in front of everyone, holding a scanner in her hand: "I am detecting activity inside! There might be something in there!"
"My leapin' lizards! What is it?" Colt held his hat in his hands.
"I don't know! I can't really tell. This metal wall is very thick, I can't tell if it's a biological activity, or just a reflection from the metal structure..." April replied.
"How do we open this?" Prince Roland looked up.
"That is the magic question..." Sylvia replied. "We've been scanning this thing, we tried to drill into it, but we really don't have anything powerful enough to penetrate it."
"I say we throw a little gunpowder under it!" Colt raised his hand.
"Oh, Colt, always ready to blast something!" Robin puffed in anger.
"We believe it's a vault, with a sort of a cipher... But it's so old that the rust stiffened the locks. We have no means of unlocking it..." Travis was sad.
"Yes we do!" April jumped.
"Are you thinking of the same thing..." Saber Rider looked at her.
"I think we can use..." April continued...
"Ramrod!" all four Star Sheriffs exclaimed.
"But what about the cipher code? How can we figure that out? Even if we use one of the Ramrods, we still need to dial the code!" Jesse was pessimistic.
"Remember the numbers we heard over the radio transmission? That was the year when the war took place... I think..." Prince Roland said. "I remember we heard two thousand five hundred and sixty three... Let's try that combination..."
"Alright! Let's do it, chums!" Saber Rider exclaimed in excitement. They all rushed back to one of the ships. They all entered Ramrod II, which had the most powerful engine.
After everyone got inside, they activated the Ramrod transformation sequence.
"Let's see what this little doll can do!" Colt was enjoying the moment.
"See, Colt? We can use more peaceful methods," Robin lashed out at him.
"I think we need to pour some lubricant fluid on it, before we even try to open it up," Jesse suggested.
"Right, let's try to use some of the fluid from Ramrod. I have some extra reserve in the back," April typed something on her keyboard. Ramrod made a turn in the air and some traps opened behind it's engines on its back. The oil poured right on top of the vault. The dark oil revealed the numbers engraved on the metal structure.
"Guys, I see the numbers. Let's move the dials and see what happens..." said April.
"Activate the dynamics control..." Saber Rider ordered. "Easy..., let's move the first disc..."
Ramrod II was using its hands to rotate the different discs and to dial the numbers... 2...5...6...3...
"It's not moving... This last one is stuck... Ugh..." Fireball was frustrated.
"Try a little harder... Use both hands..." Saber Rider suggested.
"Ughhh... Easy... That's it! Hey, I felt a jolt in the door... Is it... un...locked...?" Fireball whispered. Claudia was holding his hand tight...
"Guys, it's open! The vault is open! Let's pull the door!" April exclaimed.
Sincia was holding her breath. Robin came next to her and they were both looking out the window with a frightened curiosity...
Ramrod II slowly pulled the vault door... A dim light emerged from inside the vault.
"Light inside? There is someone in there! How is that possible? Who could survive for twenty-four thousand years?!" Colt was astonished.
Fireball stood up from his seat and rushed to the window: "I cannot believe it!"
Prince Roland turned around and rushed to get out the door.
"Prince, stop!" Saber Rider grabbed his arm. "We have to land Ramrod somewhere safe, behind the entrance, then proceed with caution. We don't know what might come out of there... Colt, you come with me and we'll scout the inside. Everyone else stay here."
"Right..." the Prince replied.
"Be careful, Saber Rider..." Sincia rushed to hold his hand.
"I will, don't worry Sincia!"
"I'll be back, Robin!" Colt kissed his girlfriend on her cheek.
"Watch out, Colt!" she replied with a worried look.
The giant Ramrod robot walked carefully around the entrance, then kneeled and slowly turned back into the ship form. Saber Rider and Colt emerged in their jet packs. Everyone inside the ship was holding their breath, in expectance of the news.
"Colt, you take the left side, I'll cover the right," Saber Rider instructed his colleague.
"Right, Top Sword. We've got to be very careful..."
The two Star Sheriffs slowly walked toward the entrance, holding their guns up.
Travis opened the comm-link and asked them: "Saber Rider, Colt, please use the least amount of force, if possible. We want to keep everything intact."
"I will do my best, sir!" Colt replied, with an amused voice. Then he started walking slowly toward the entrance. The vault door was cracked open. Colt came from behind it, while Saber Rider was coming from the opposite direction. "Do you see anything, Top Sword?" Colt asked Saber Rider.
No response from the Star Sheriff leader.
"Hey, Top Sword, what do you see?" Colt popped his head from behind the vault door, and looked at Saber Rider. But Saber Rider was mute. He had a stunned look on his face... "Wha... what is it? What...?" Colt jumped out and pointed his gun inside the opened door. "Whoaaaaa...!" Colt exclaimed in a big surprise.
"What is it, what do you see? Tell us! Guys!" April yelled over the comm-link, after hearing Colt's interjections. Everyone stood up inside the control room at Ramrod. They all felt shivers down their spines. Colt's "whoa!" could mean anything, good or bad...
"Better come and take a look at this, amigos!" Colt started talking.
"This sounds like Colt discovered more gold than he ever dreamed of!" Fireball laughed. "Is it a gold mine, Colt?"
"Gold doesn't even face the discovery we have made today, gentlemen!" Saber Rider finally spoke.
"We are coming, Top Sword, wait for us!" Fireball's impulsive nature rushed him to go out there.
"Better stay there until we deem it safe for you to come!" Saber Rider said.
"I'm not waiting any more minutes!" Travis stood up. "I'm going in!"
"Me too!" Sylvia stood by him.
"We're all coming!" Prince Roland decided.
The footsteps of the Star Sheriffs were resonating inside the tunnel. A tunnel that had been silent for twenty-four thousand years.
"Whoaaa...!" was the exclamation of the day. Each new person entering the tunnel was having the same reaction... After Saber Rider and Colt entered, Prince Roland followed, then Fireball with Claudia, Sincia and Robin... then Jesse, April, Sylvia and Travis.
The structure they entered in was a giant underground gallery. The width of the tunnel was big enough to hold Ramrod inside. It was going far deep... and there were guiding lights along the ceiling. The core of the tunnel had some wires and special tubes, traveling all along its length. On both sides, there were some walkways and railings. They all started walking inside, cautiously. From time to time, a blue flashlight would travel along the central tube, like a directional light, guiding them toward the inner part of the tunnel.
April was studying the tubes with keen interest. She whispered in amazement:
"I think this is a particle accelerator... This looks like a sort of a research facility..."
"Accelerator? Like when I accelerate my Red Fury racer?" Fireball childishly asked.
"Yes, except that the particles inside this thing are circulating at the speed of light," April smiled back.
Suddenly, the tunnel enlarged and the tubes led to a central spheric structure. The room was fairly dark, illuminated only by the blue guiding lights coming out of the tubes. The large room was continuing farther deep, suggesting that the tunnel was not finished and this was just an intermediary hub.
"Huh?!" Colt jumped. "Guys, I thought I heard something! Listen!"
"Aahhh!" everyone was startled. Suddenly, the lights in the room turned brighter. The sphere in the middle commenced a series of pulsating flashlights.
"Incroyable!" a voice inside the room made everyone jump out of their skin.
Out of the blue light coming from the tubes and sphere, a human shape formed in front of the visitors.
A old man with a white beard and a white smock stood up as a hologram in front of them.
"Bienvenue! Je m'appelle Gustave," the hologram started speaking.
"What does he say?" Colt frowned.
"I think he said his name is... Gustave," Prince Roland tried to understand.
"Yes, that's exactly what he said. He also welcomed us in here," replied Sylvia.
"How do you know, mom?" Jesse asked.
"Because for the past ten years, we learned several of the languages spoken on Earth," his mother explained. "We deciphered their languages while reading the ancient data stored on their discs and memory chips."
"Mom, can you translate?" Jesse asked.
"I will try," said Sylvia.
"So this particle thing is alive!" Colt jumped in terror. He looked up at the giant sphere and felt his gun.
The hologram started walking around the room, guided by the light coming from inside the sphere. He started talking again. Sylvia and Travis were translating:
"I am Gustave Hassim, the artificial version of my creator, doctor Hassim. He built me so that I can take care of this ark, until someone will arrive here and open the door."
"Artificial version?" April raised her eyebrows...
The hologram turned to April. She jumped back... Was this thing intelligent?
"Yes, artificial version," Gustave replied back to April, in her language.
"Hey, you can understand our speech?!" Jesse came next to April.
"J'apprends pendant que vous parlez," replied Gustave.
"He said he learns while we speak," Travis translated.
"Yes, while you speak, I learn your language."
Everyone was flabbergasted. Gustave smiled. He started talking again, while Travis and Sylvia were translating.
"I have been waiting for you, for so many years," Gustave began.
"Twenty four thousand years! I bet you got bored in here!" Colt felt empathetic.
"More precisely, twenty-four thousand one hundred and ninety-seven years, sixty-three days and thirty minutes" Gustave said, without blinking.
"You sure could tell us the seconds and milliseconds too," Colt laughed. "So what's your main activity here, I mean, what do you do every day, you read the news or what?" Colt became ironic.
Sylvia didn't want to translate the last part. Gustave understood, though. He laughed out loud.
"I like your humor... Mr... I didn't get your name..." said Gustave, politely smiling.
"I'm Colt! I'm a Star Sheriff. And these are my friends..."
Everyone introduced themselves.
"Sir, we are a team of Star Sheriffs and we came here with our friends. We travel from very far and we finally managed to open your vault here. You seem to have been trapped here for quite a while," Saber Rider started speaking.
"From very far? How far are you coming from? Australia? New Zealand? You seem to have an accent that resembles Australian. So, maybe there were survivors there and you started a new colony? What's out there?..."
"Oh, so you have no idea what is out there?" Travis asked in disbelief.
"This facility is self-contained. It has enough power to generate and re-generate for many hundreds of thousands of years. We locked ourselves up here when the bombings began... And since then, there is no connection to the exterior. I kept hoping someone would discover us, but I guess we got buried under so much debris from the atomic explosions that... this place was forgotten forever... What has happened on Earth in the past twenty-four thousand years?"
Sylvia looked at Gustave with a sad face, and tried to deliver the news in a gentle manner: "I'm sorry, so sorry to say, but there is nothing out here on Earth... Just trees and insects... I'm very sorry..." Sylvia replied.
"Nothing...? Are you sure? No survivors?" Gustave leaned his head down in profound sorrow... After a few minutes of silence... he asked: "So where do you come from, if there is nothing on Earth?"
"We come from an inter-galactic colony called "The New Frontier", many millions of light-years away from here.
Gustave was silent. He did not say a word for a few painful minutes.
"We are humans, though, and we found evidence that our ancestors are from your planet," Jesse tried to revive the conversation.
"Millions of light-years? That means my friends survived out there!" Gustave came back with a joyful face.
"Your friends? They left Earth? When?" Travis asked.
"They left a few days before the bombings began. Our partners at NASA created a few space ships that implemented our technology, a revolutionary acceleration system, based on our particle research here at CERN. We called it the "warp" power, based on some science-fiction terminology. We never tested it before, and this was a hit-or-miss thing..., we rushed to finish it before it was too late. We never knew what happened to the travelers, if they survived, if the technology actually worked or not, because the war interrupted everything. We sent them out there, in the hope that humanity will survive somehow and regenerate, despite its self-destructive nature. We created a second ark here, at CERN, and we isolated it as well as we could, so that we could wake up some time in the future..."
Everyone looked at each other with big eyes. So it was true, humanity was indeed coming from Earth!
"Unfortunately, the enemy stole our technology, too... I hope he didn't get too far, but I have a feeling he did..." Gustave continued.
"What was the name of your enemy?" Sylvia asked.
"He was King Gengizze, from the kingdom of Antarctica. He formed a retreat there, in the most hostile environment on Earth. Without the knowledge of other nations, he built a powerful base, with servers and rocket launching sites. He was hacking all our systems, constantly, and he allied himself with the most corrupt countries in the world. From there, his powerful alliance declared war on the civilized nations, and it all culminated with him blasting Earth."
"Gengizze? Travis, wasn't that the name we found on that little planet in the X45 galaxy?" Sylvia turned to her husband.
"That's right! So he did manage to reach our dimension! He is the one that started that isolated colony! So he survived!"
"So, he must have found that planet when he tested his ship, and then, knowing that he had a place to run, he blasted Earth and then took off...!" Claudia inferred.
"That's right! Jerk!" Colt clenched his fist. "He must have taken his family and friends with him, and they formed that galactic colony there. Good thing they stayed there and didn't interfere with us!"
"Monsieur Gustave, you talk like there is more of you here! Where are the rest?" Prince Roland changed the topic.
"Oh, yes, I almost forgot! How can I forget such an important thing? This is the scope of this ark."
"Ark? I thought this was a research facility," April wondered.
"It used to be, it is called CERN, or Conseil Européen pour la Recherche Nucléaire; but when the tensions and wars erupted, we started preparing ourselves for anything, so we re-purposed parts of these tunnels. Let me turn on the lights..." Gustave raised his hand as if pushing some buttons. Suddenly, the tunnel got brighter, and deep inside it, hundreds of rows of vertical chambers appeared.
"Vapor chambers!" Colt exclaimed! "You guys are putting people in vapor chambers!"
"I think this is a different technology, Colt," said Saber Rider.
"I have been maintaining the proper functioning of this facility for all these years. I have been keeping them here in cryogenic state, so they can start anew, after someone would find us. And here you are, ready to meet my friends!" Gustave was very happy.
"Who are they?" Sincia asked.
"Many of them are researchers that worked here at CERN, we have some students from MIT and many other famous universities, that were doing their internships here; we also have some political figures and dissidents from different countries around the globe, also friends of ours who wanted to save their children, so they sent them here... We also have people that were desperately trying to run from war and destruction. It was a very tough call... We had thousands of people that wanted to come here, but we only had a limited number of chambers... So we we secretly transported many of them to our NASA base, where they took off in the warp-powered ships. And there were still billions of others who didn't make it to any of these two options... The desperation in the last days was heartbreaking..."
A moment of silence followed.
"How many chambers are here?" Robin started walking in the direction of the cryogenic lockers.
"We have built three thousand cryogenic chambers, and I am proud to say I was able to maintain all of them functional. Only a few of them had some malfunctions, the people woke up, but I was able to convince them to go back to sleep."
"Three thousand! This sounds like a lot!" Colt was amazed. "What about yourself, Doctor Hassim, are you in one of these chambers, too?"
Gustave lowered his head. "No, I didn't want to... I figured I could just transfer my consciousness into this computer, in order to keep this ark going... I stayed inside here and I passed away a few years after the war. I was already very old, and very tired of all this crappy life... Eh... here... this is my tomb..." he pointed to a stone on the ground.
"But you are alive in this computer..." April replied. "It must be a very awkward feeling to see yourself die, but still be aware of your own self."
"It's awkward, indeed, but I got used to it. I have much more brain power now, and the speed with which I calculate things is unbelievable. I never get bored, there is always something else to think about. I actually discovered some new physics laws, and figured out the wormhole theories... I inferred the existence of other dimensions..."
"This sounds like the opposite of Nemisis! He was always bored to death! Ha ha!" Fireball laughed.
"Who is Nemisis?" Gustave was curious.
"Never mind... Nobody. The evil version of you..." Fireball replied.
"Hey, they are starting to wake up!" Robin exclaimed, while she was looking at a few cryogenic chambers.
"I initiated the revival sequence on the first batch of humans. These are the MIT students," said Gustave.
The icy fog inside the chambers was evaporating. A swooshing sound was indicating that the chambers were slowly warming up the bodies.
After a while, the first person opened his eyes. He was a young man, with a short black hair and green eyes. Saber Rider opened his door.
"Aaaaahhh..." the guy yawned, like woken up from sleep. But then he suddenly jerked in surprise: "Whaaat the... heck...?" He was talking in English, yes, that old English from Earth.
Saber Rider's appearance was not quite very familiar to him. He had never seen an armor suit like that before, in real life.
"Cool suit man! Whoa... I must be still dreaming... I've been reading too many comics lately, I'm seeing Iron Man everywhere..."
Sylvia translated... Everyone started laughing.
"No, you're not dreaming..." Saber Rider replied.
"Wha... what language is that?... You seem to be talking in English, but someone gave you a couple of prunes and you are chewing on them while you speak," the guy replied.
Again, laughter around... The guy was scratching his head in confusion.
Another chamber opened. A girl with beautiful long hair came out. She looked around and shouted in excitement: "Hey, Steve! Over here, I'm awake too!"
"Alysha, hey, what's up?"
"Whazzup, maaan?" another guy appeared from a third chamber.
Soon, there was a big crowd of young people, hugging each other in excitement. The joy of reunion was preventing them from noticing the Star Sheriffs around. Until the green-eyed guy, Steve, turned around and started talking again to Saber Rider: "So, you're not from here, I assume..."
"I'm from the New Frontier..." said Saber Rider.
"Wow, wow, wow, man! Yo, yo, check this suit out!" another guy looked at Fireball's shiny red-and-white pilot suit. A bunch of girls quickly gathered around him and started touching his armor in curiosity. Claudia was taken by surprise by this avalanche of admirers for her boyfriend. She felt proud of him and started saying: "He is a car racer, he is the winner of the Galaxy Grand Prix!"
"Wow, how fast does your car go?" the guys were already fans.
"As fast as Claudia's," Fireball laughed. "She is a car racer too and we won the Grand Prix together."
"Won't you look at this! You must be a cowboy, right?" a girl looked at Colt with admiration. Colt suddenly became very proud of himself. Robin chuckled, next to him: "He's the best sharpshooter on the New Frontier."
"Wow, can't wait to see you give us a demonstration!" one of the guys exclaimed.
"Cool, man! Bro, you rock! How did you guys find us? Are you guys from the liberation army?" another kid, with lots of piercing and a colorful print on his T-shirt, asked Jesse.
Sylvia and Travis were having a hard time translating their conversations from English. Some colloquial words were not quite familiar to her. But she did understand the last two questions.
"We found you through archaeological research..." Sylvia replied, trying to find the words in their language. "And, no, there is no liberation army here..." she giggled.
"Archaeological research? What are we, ancient artifacts?..." Steve laughed.
"I think you are an ancient ruin..." a girl gave him a nudge.
"You're a total fossil..." another guy cracked up.
"So this is how archaeologists look now?" one of the girls looked at Jesse, with keen interest. She had beautiful blue eyes and black long hair. She walked around him and touched his blue chest plate. She seemed to be very confident and bold. Jesse was watching her in amusement, as she was circling him. Lots of girls used to like him when he was at the Cavalry Command, so he was used to flirting. But, this time, he felt like he was a sort of a museum piece that she was admiring. She boldly touched his long sideburns: "Super-hair! I used to dye my hair blue when I was in high-school. You look wicked nice, dude! What hair salon gave you this awesome blue-green shade? And this haircut is sooo funky!" She was genuinely curious about his hairstyle.
April cleared her throat, just to make the girl aware of her jealous female presence around him... But the girl was too attracted to his looks to even notice April around. So, April looked at Jesse and crossed her eyes in frustration.
"I didn't dye it. That's how... it grows. I'm Jesse, Jesse Blue, and I'm not an archaeologist, but my parents are," and he tried to friendly shake her hand.
She jumped back, frightened. "You don't dye your hair? It just grows blue, like that? What are you, an alien?"
Travis and Sylvia came close to their son and laughed: "We don't dye our hair, either."
"Where are you coming from, people?" the students asked.
"They come from very far away in the Universe, from a different galaxy," Gustave started speaking.
"Proffessor!" all the students exclaimed.
"Yes, it's me. I'm here with you, as I promised..."
"But you are a hologram..." someone was disappointed.
"I'm still with you, nevertheless. And these people are my new friends. They travelled from far, far away."
"Did you just say... another galaxy...?" a kid asked in disbelief.
"Another dimension, actually..." April corrected him.
"Woo-hooo! So I was right, professor, I told you my calculations were right! I knew there were other dimensions!" a girl jumped up in joy.
"Mmm-hmmm", Gustave nodded in approval.
"So... you are all scientists?" April's eyes were glowing in interest.
"Yes, we are students, we are here at CERN for internships," said one the girl.
"I am a scientist, too. My name is April Eagle," and she shook her hand.
"So, if you guys come from another dimension, you are true aliens! I'm Beth, from Planet Earth," she replied with a big chuckle.
"So aliens look like us, huh?" Steve was sarcastic.
"We are actually descendants of your people, from this planet, Earth..." Prince Roland replied.
"Descendants? What year are we in?" Steve gawked at him.
Gustave spoke: "We are precisely in year twenty-four thousand seven hundred and sixty, AC."
"Twenty-what?" one of the guys popped his eyes as large as teacups.
"That's right, you heard it well, buddies... Welcome to the future!" Fireball laughed at them.
"Dude, no way, we slept for twenty-thousand years?" Steve threw a friendly fist at another student.
"Not just twenty, but twenty-four thousand, seven hundred and..." Gustave tried to correct him.
"Whatever, man," Steve interrupted him, "what difference does it make now, extra four thousand seven-hundred and some crap? Buddy, we're the oldest people on Earth! I feel old, hold me, I need a cane, someone help me..." Steve started goofing around. His friends started mimicking him, holding their bellies and humping themselves.
Everyone was laughing. Sincia looked at Saber Rider in joy... She felt that their discovery and rescue mission was now a crucial moment in the history of humanity. Saber Rider held her close to him and kissed her forehead.
Prince Roland felt an awkward urge to depart himself from the noisy crowd and take a walk around the premises. He was feeling lonely... Everyone had someone dear next to them... Jesse had April, Fireball was holding Claudia's hand, Colt had his hands around Robin's waist, and Saber Rider had just given Sincia a kiss on her forehead... The kids were hugging each other, some of them seemed to be couples and they didn't shy away from kissing each other... But himself... he was lonely, and he could not keep that royal stance for too long, in these conditions. He always had to act proudly and exhibit that nobleness, as his father and mother taught him at the Royal court... But... this was too much... His family had tried to introduce him to a lovely duchess, a few months ago, but he didn't like her. Plus, he was mature enough to make up his own mind about whom he liked! Why in the Universe was his father supposed to decide whom he should marry?
The Prince walked along the corridor, gently touching all the cryogenic chambers, as he was passing by them. With the corner of his eyes, he spotted a pair of closed eyes, through the fog of a frozen window. He got closer... Oh, those were two very beautiful eyes...! He wondered how beautiful they could be when they would open... Gustave, who was supervising all the chambers, noticed that the Prince was looking at the girl in that chamber. A short computer decision and … swoosh!... the revival procedure began... Slowly..., the fog went away... and some beautiful lips showed up from inside... An oval shaped face of a rose-cheeked girl revealed itself in front of him... Prince Roland leaned with his hands on the window, watching the scene develop. Slowly, she started breathing. After a while, she gradually opened her eyes... She was in a sort of semi-consciousness state. The Prince was admiring her beauty, captivated by her curly sandy-blonde hair. She finally looked up... The Prince could not resist giving her a big smile, from the other side of the window. She smiled back with a charming shy look, then tried to move. The Prince realized he was holding the door closed, because he was leaning on it. He stood aside and opened the door, slowly. She tried to step out of the chamber, but she was very dizzy. He tried to grab her hand, but she was feeling so faint that she could barely stand up. Her knees gave in and she leaned on his chest.
"Vous-etes tres jolie..." the very shy Prince Roland tried to speak to her in the old French he knew from school, as an introductory sentence.
She looked up at him and smiled again.
"Je m'appelle Roland, je suis le Prince du Royaume du Jarre," he said.
"Mein Name ist Princesse Marleine..." she seemed to understand what he had said, but she replied in German. She tried to lift herself up, as he was holding her.
"She is our dear Princess of Liechtenstein..." Gustave's hologram walked close to them.
"You are a Princess?" Roland looked at her in astonishment.
"Yes, she is the youngest daughter of the Liechtenstein Royal family," Gustave explained in Roland's language. He was beginning to learn pretty well the New Frontier's vocabulary.
"What... what language are you speaking...?" she asked Roland in her German language. "Whe... where is the kingdom of Jarre?" she tried to raise her head up from his chest.
"Far away from here, in a beautiful place..." said the Prince, after listening to Gustave's translation.
"Proffessor Hassim..." she turned to the hologram, "did anyone survive outside?"
"No, your Highness... I'm sorry..."
She started crying and sobbing on the Prince's chest. He tried to cheer her up:
"Mademoiselle, there are many many of us here who are happy that you are alive and well... See, look around..."
Indeed, all the crowd gathered around them, in curiosity. Colt winked at Prince Roland, unaware of any etiquette, just happy that the Prince was holding a girl in his arms.
She recognized the faces of the students. She smiled back at them and everyone saluted her:
"Welcome back, your Highness!"
She was finally feeling better. She went and hugged every one of them.
"So this is it, that's all there is left of humanity..." she concluded, looking around.
"Ma'am, what are you talking about? There are trillions of us out there!" Colt started talking.
"Trillions?... What do you mean...?" she was confused.
"We've spread across galaxies and dimensions. We populated hundreds of planets since your friends left Earth."
"Wait, we populated other dimensions...? What... what year are we in? What time is it? How much did I sleep for?" she rubbed her eyes in disbelief.
"We are in year twenty-four thousand seven hundred and sixty, AC," Gustave explained again.
"Whaaaatt?" the princess was flabbergasted.
"Okay... here we go again..." Fireball realized that the "whaaat?" question will be heard over and over and... over... again that day.
"Yeah, it sucks..." a student replied. "But you know what? I can't wait to see what's outside! How did Earth evolve in twenty thousand years?"
"It's all green and bushy!" Colt happily cleared it up.
"Oh, that's good, so nature did survive! I was worried that we would find ourselves on a Martian soil..." Alysha was enthusiastic.
"Just a part of it survived..." Travis came into the conversation.
"How much of it... did survive?..." another guy asked.
"Some trees and plant species..., like ferns..." Sylvia started listing them...
"Mosquitoes..." Colt recalled his latest enemy.
"Dragonflies...!" Sincia chuckled.
"Yeah, man, we've got a lot of work to do, then!" said Steve, patting another buddy on his back.
"Right! Let's go!" his friend turned around and started going in another direction. He seemed to be seriously engaged in his mission of starting this new task that Steve suggested.
"Wow-wow, where are you going? Come back! We're not starting right now. Chill, man! Relax, enjoy the day! Take it easy..." Steve pulled the guy's arm and brought him back. Everybody started laughing uncontrollably. The poor kid had a disoriented face. He seemed to be the type of nerdy guy that took everything too seriously.
"He's a biologist," explained Steve. "He worked on putting almost all known embryo species and stem cells of animals into suspended animation."
"Wait, did you guys just say you have animals here too?" April stared at them.
"Yeah, we called this "Gustave's Ark", because he came up with the idea of keeping as many embryos and germ cells of animals and plants as we could. They are all chemo-frozen, we just need to start the process and turn them on, and... watch them grow! And we'll have animals again!"
"Absolutely, we shall bring life back on our Earth. But first, let's bring back to life all our friends..." said Gustave, while he activated another row of cryogenic chambers.
"Incredible, this is sooo awesome! Who built this?" Steve, the green-eyed MIT student asked, looking at the Ramrod as they all walked out of the tunnel, into the open air.
"This blonde lady here did. She's the engineer," Colt pointed at April with his thumb.
"Wow, you're not kidding when you say you are a scientist!" Steve told April.
"Yes, chums, she means business..." Saber Rider proudly replied.
Step by step, one by one, people started emerging from the tunnel. Gustave had a little robot on wheels that he used as a proxy to move around and leave the tunnel.
All three thousand people lined up to exit the tunnel... It was a very long line... But the beautiful light outside and the green leaves were giving everyone the feeling of a fresh start. Some people were hugging each other, others were crying, because they were missing their lost loved ones.
Lots of "if"s and "why"s were spoken around. Lots of stories shared, lots of memories and questions. The only ones able to partially answer their questions were Travis and Sylvia..., who were surrounded by a huge crowd, demanding details about what happened on Earth in the past twenty-four thousand years. They were particularly interested in what happened right after they were put to cryo-sleep. Some were interested in the fate of their families..., if they had been able to leave Earth and travel out and make new colonies...
Of course, the Star Sheriffs had to give a demonstration of Ramrod's capabilities. The challenge phase was the attraction of the evening. A lot of children also wanted to visit the inside of their ships. All in all, the evening was a hit.
As the day was coming to and end, all the people realized they had no home to go to... so they all started going back into the CERN tunnel. There was plenty of space there... but no food... Another problem came up now... Food... Where were all these people going to get food from?
"We need to bring food as fast as we can here..." said April, while she was talking with her friends, in the kitchen of one of the Ramrods. It was late at night and they were preparing to go to sleep. Prince Roland brought Princesse Marleine with him. She seemed to be the last survivor of her royal family and she had no place to go. She somehow felt a warm connection with this man... He was the first human to see when she opened her eyes and his joyful presence was a much needed support. Although 24 thousand years had passed, her painful memories were as fresh as yesterday.
"I think we need to find a quick source of food. I heard there is still fish. There is a very big lake here, called Lac Lemain," Marleine said.
"Yes, we should use our fishnets, " said Travis.
"I have some fishnets and fishing rods, too!" said Colt in excitement. Right here on Ramrod!
"Then we can try to use them! Tomorrow, on Lac Lemain! We can also look for some roots and other such things..." Marleine was trying to find a solution. She was feeling the responsibility of a leader on her shoulders.
"Yes, and in the meantime we'll bring humanitarian convoys of food, clothes and other necessary aids for everyone," Prince Roland added.
Marleine gasped. She realized that Prince Roland was actually going to travel really far out in space to bring aid. She felt an enormous gratitude.
"I would like to invite you on this trip, and see my kingdom, Princess Marleine," proudly said the prince.
"Chums, we have to decide who stays here and help, and who will travel back to our dimension to bring the supplies"
Colt lowered his head... He missed his parents... He didn't even have the chance to speak with them after the rescue... Saber Rider saw his sad look and said:
"I propose that Colt and Prince Roland go back. Colt, take the Bronco Buster inside the Royal starship. Robin, you will join Colt. Princess Marleine, would you like to join Prince Roland and meet his father, King Jarray?"
"I would like to, it will be an honor!" she replied with no hesitation.
"Alright, chums. Meanwhile, we will stay here and help all the people settle and find food, until help arrives. What do you say?"
"We are all for it!" everyone approved.
Join us in our next adventure of Saber Rider and the Star Sheriffs!
