Chapter 8: Home
"Tell me about your visit to Helena," John Koenig asked his friend. The transparent gel-like substance had disappeared and the men had gotten up and were standing in the bow of the spaceship. They presumed it was traveling slowly or had stopped; they could not feel any movement.
"How do you know…?"
"Tell me about your visit: how you managed it, and I will tell you how I know."
"Well," Victor began, "Raan had talked about the possibility of visiting Berg, so when I sat in that seat that's what I held uppermost in my mind: Helena and Thor. Even when that gooey stuff started coming down around me, I ignored it and kept thinking only of Helena. I thought of her face, her smile, her hair, her heart… just everything about her, painting a picture in my mind. I have no idea of the timeline, but I found myself in our quarters on Berg, with her. And she was responsive. We talked. I told her everything that had happened to us, and she told me what they were up to on Berg. She sends her love…"
"Vana visited me," Koenig confessed. "That's how I know. She thought it was a great breakthrough."
"I'm not sure I understand John."
"The fact that you were able to go to Helena in your mind. Vana called it a great success. She did tell me that there was a chance we could fail… in our training."
"Hmmm." The scientist rubbed his chin. "I never considered that. So, will there be tests? Like the twelve tasks of Hercules or something like that?"
Koenig did not have time to reply, for the hull of the ship opened up and the two men stepped forward. Outside was a drab grey landscape, sandy, dry and desolate. There was no one to be seen. They stood looking out at nothing until finally Victor spoke: "Do you think we're meant to get out?" The ship was hovering a few centimeters above the surface, silent and stable.
"We don't have our stun guns anymore, nor do I have my scanner. It would have been handy now," John mulled. "But there really are only two options: we're waiting here for something, or yes, we're meant to get out."
"It would have helped if we had shoes," Victor commented. The men stood in silence for a while, but nothing changed. "I'm getting out," the scientist said.
"If this ship leaves when we get out, we'll be stranded," Koenig replied.
"Yes, so… let me walk around a bit, and you stay right there," the Professor replied.
"It may even want to split us up." Koenig shook his head. "So many 'what ifs'…"
"Well, we won't know unless we do something. I'll just walk around the ship," Victor said, stepping onto the sandy surface. Koenig watched him walk away towards the stern of the ship.
"Careful, Victor!" he called as his friend disappeared around the back of the vessel. He turned his attention back to the bleak landscape before him, the grey sky dotted with a few wispy clouds. The air was still. "Breathable atmosphere," he muttered to himself. "No visible vegetation in the immediate area. No sign of life…"
"John! John!" Victor came rushing around the back of the ship, his voice urgent. He stopped dead before his Commander.
"What is it, Victor?"
"John, I think we're on earth," the scientist whispered.
Koenig's eyes grew wide. "How do you know?"
Victor gestured frantically. "On the other side. There's a burnt out shell… it looks like a car. And burnt tree trunks. And off in the distance what looks like buildings… or what's left of them."
John hesitated. "I really don't want to leave this ship. It's all we have, and if I step out and it takes off, what do we do?"
"I'll stay," the Professor said, climbing back into the vessel. Koenig nodded.
"OK, Victor. Let me go take a look." He disembarked and headed off around the ship. As he circled the back, he could see what his friend had been talking about: blackened stumps stretching off into the distance, where he could see the shells of what had been fairly tall buildings. And just a few meters from the ship the metal frame of a car, the gaping window-openings unmistakable. He made his way to it, looking inside. Blackened coiled springs, a jumble of sooty metal, but nothing else. He lifted his eyes to the buildings in the distance again, and then made his way back to the doorway in the hull silently. "I think you're right," he said, climbing back into the ship.
"But is this a future earth, a past earth, or earth in our current perception of time?" Victor asked and then answered his own question. "Based on what we can observe from a distance, it's probably an earth after 1999 and the global catastrophe… probably an earth in our current time because I don't think they would have set us down in a radiation infested wilderness…"
"But why bring us back to earth?"
"They obviously didn't want us to just see… we've seen, but we're still here. Perhaps we need to do something…"
"Perhaps we just need to wait?"
"But for how long, John? We have no food, no water."
"We have no shoes, no weapons, no other transport. If we set off towards those buildings and there is nothing there… and the ship is gone, we're even worse off. And if there are people there… and they are hostile… I don't even want to think about that…"
"One of us can go," Victor offered. "The other one can stay…" He paused suddenly, looking around the inside of the vessel. "The ship, John! Perhaps we can somehow control the ship!"
"How? There's no cockpit."
The scientist tapped his head. "Our minds, John! Isn't that what this is all about? Do you think it can be flown by thought?"
The Commander paced the vessel from front to back, carefully studying the empty space. He took a deep breath, turning to his friend. "OK, Victor, you sit in your seat. We might as well try…"
Koenig walked over to the bow of the ship, bringing up images of controls in his mind. In his peripheral vision he saw Victor take his seat. For a moment he focused on the opening in the hull, willing it to close, but it remained. Then he visualized the craft turning, swinging its nose towards to buildings. "Windows would be useful," he muttered.
"John." His friend's voice was filled with awe. "It's working… look… the trees are now to our right."
"Stand by the door, Victor, and keep an eye out for me. I can't see where I am going, but I'm going to try guiding this thing… no, wait… let me get out and set some beacons in my mind." Galvanized by his success, Koenig rushed outside and headed to one of the burnt out trees, where he snapped off a fairly straight branch before scratching around in the sandy dust for a while. While Victor watched him, he picked up something and headed back towards the spaceship.
"Brilliant, John!" the scientist exclaimed. "You're going to find north!"
John nodded while he planted the stick upright some distance from the ship. "We don't have much sunlight, but hopefully there is enough for a shadow. He studied the ground carefully and did indeed make out a faint shadow. With a smile at Victor he held up the stone he had picked up and placed it carefully at the tip of the shadow. "Now we need to wait," he said, kicking up more dirt with his bare toes. "I need another stone." Finally he found one, picked it up and headed back to the ship.
"Do you think now that we've figured out we can use the ship, it would be safe for both of us to get outside at the same time?" Victor asked.
"I'd rather not take that risk," John replied. "I'm going to sit down for a while, so if you want to walk around that's OK. Just don't go far… a radius of about 100 meters…"
"Right, John."
Koenig sank into his seat and closed his eyes. Apart from practicing working the ship with his mind, he could not figure out why they had been brought back to earth. He wanted desperately to be back on Berg, working towards the future with his people, not ever having seen that pyramid. But Vana's words echoed in his mind: if there was a chance they might fail they would simply have to ensure that they did not.
Victor paced out 150 steps from the nose of the ship deliberately and scuffed the ground where he ended up. That would be his radius, and he would walk in a spiral around the vessel, looking for anything useful. If nothing else, it would pass the time while waiting for the shadow to move. The sandy soil was slightly warm from the sun, but not uncomfortably so, and the surface was not too hard on the feet, so he set out anti-clockwise from his marker, keeping his eyes to the ground, but occasionally stopping to scan the horizon and eyeballing his distance from the ship. He felt pleased with himself when, after the first circuit, he ended up not too far from his marker and he stepped three paces closer to the ship before starting a second circuit.
On the fourth circuit he stepped on something solid just beneath the dust and dug it up. It was a glass soda bottle, intact, with the logo "Coca Cola" faintly visible. That brought a smile. Bottle in hand he resumed walking around the ship. The sixth round brought him to the shell of the car. He stuck his head through one of the window frames, looking around at the rubble that was once a vehicle. Then he looked at his dirty feet, made a decision and placed the bottle carefully beside the shell. Watching out for any sharp or dangerous metal, he pulled himself into the wreck and started rummaging around the blackened junk. When he found something he thought could be useful he tossed it outside.
"Victor! What are you doing?" Hs friend suddenly called from the door of the ship.
"Dumpster diving," he yelled back, grinning. "Is it time?"
"Yes. Let's look at the shadow, but I need you back in the ship first."
Victor climbed out of the shell carefully, looking at the pitiful pile of rusty black metal he had salvaged: some flat pieces, some twisted wire and a few cylinder shaped pieces. With a shrug he made his way back to the ship.
Koenig jumped out as soon as he was inside, squatting down to study the new shadow before placing the second stone. "OK, Victor, this stone represents east." Using another stick John drew a rough east/west line in the dirt. "Perpendicular to this line would be our north/south line…" The men looked around. "So, from the door of the ship those buildings are almost due west from us. So if I keep heading the ship the way we are facing, we'll be traveling south."
"You're not heading to those buildings?"
"Trying to steer this windowless ship between those burnt trees is too great a risk. Sooner or later the landscape should change; not every area will be this damaged. If I keep going with the trees to our west, we should be OK." Koenig walked to the nose of the ship, scanning the horizon very carefully. "There's nothing ahead of us. I have no idea how fast we'll be traveling, but since I'm going to be using my mind to focus on imaginary controls, count to say… 100… then call out. I'll try and stop and you can go and check if it's still safe in front."
Victor nodded. "Can I get my junk first?" he grinned.
The Commander laughed. "Yeah, go ahead. I'm walking around the ship one more time to check."
It took the Professor two trips to cart all the scrap metal to the ship. Koenig just stared at the few pieces, shaking his head, but the Coke bottle brought a smile. "I think you're right, Victor. We're definitely on earth! Right, let's get this thing moving. You stay in the doorway and make sure I keep parallel to those trees. I don't think we can make the door go away, and it may be on purpose so we can't fly back to Berg," he said wryly.
Koenig focused his mind again, picturing controls and after a while his friend called out: "We're moving!" The Commander closed his eyes to help him concentrate and it wasn't long before he heard: "One-hundred, John!" He visualized a stop. "I'm out!" Victor called and Koenig turned to see his friend leaping from the doorway. "Still clear in front," he said when clambering back inside. "You know John, if we place some markers and pace it out when we stop next, we could work out how fast we are going… but it wasn't very fast."
"Too much trouble when we don't really need it. I just want to get away from this destroyed area. We are going to need water soon."
Victor nodded and John returned to the front of the ship. While he had no doubt he could do his visualizing anywhere, it just helped being where a cockpit would have been. They traveled in the same way for a while, the Professor counting and calling out five more times before he returned with a slight smile. "It's changing, John. The trees are thinning out, I can't see the buildings anymore and it looks as if there are hills on the horizon."
"Stay here, Victor, let me look." Koenig needed a break. He was exhausted from concentrating, but had found it a little easier to get the ship moving the last couple of times. He took his time walking around the front of the ship and saw it too: hazy shapes on the horizon that could be hills or mountains. The blackened tree trunks were definitely thinning out, but the landscape was still dull and grey. Finally he returned to the ship.
"We're going to head to those hills, Victor," he said. "But this time we'll try a longer stretch. It looks safe in front, so… count to 500. Starting and stopping like this is exhausting."
His friend looked concerned but nodded. "We can take a break if you need, John."
Koenig shook his head. "Not until we reach those hills." By this time his visualization of the controls had been imprinted on his mind and he got the vessel moving almost immediately. All he had to focus on was holding it steady.
It was slow going but the men kept it up. They noticed too that the sun was dipping towards the horizon. After a few grueling hours they found themselves in a changed landscape, the surface now dirt, dotted here and there with green ground cover, low scrub, rocks, and ahead of them the mountains.
John licked his dry lips. "A few times more, Victor, and we should be at the foot of those mountains. Mountains hopefully mean streams. And it might be dark by then." They looked at the sun that had sunk even lower.
Victor nodded. "Great work, John. Everything is clear. Just head for the mountains and I'll watch from the door. If we get really close, I should be able to see them from the doorway." He could see his friend was exhausted.
They found themselves at the foot of the mountains as the sun started kissing the horizon. The slopes were sprinkled with trees, the leaves gently moving in a light breeze. Victor grabbed his Coke bottle and jumped out. "I'm going to look for water, John. You take a break!"
"Just be careful out there, Victor," John replied, sinking into his seat gratefully. He had a throbbing headache and closed his eyes; his last thought being hope that his friend would find water nearby before dark.
"John! John!" He woke up to his friend shaking him lightly. "Here, drink!" Victor held the bottle up to him, and the Commander gratefully took a few sips.
"It's dark out, John," Victor told him. "I marked out a compass before the sun was completely gone. Then I headed for a narrow gorge and found a little stream not far away. I left a few stone piles to show the way. And the ship gives off light!"
Koenig drained the last of the water and looked around. The ship was emitting a soft light inside. Through the door he could see the dark sky.
"No moon," the Professor remarked. "Of course it just may not have risen yet, but if we are on a post-1999 earth, there will be no moon."
"And you plan to stay up all night to watch for it?" John asked, stretching.
Victor shook his head. "No, I was just curious. I think it's better if we get some rest. I'll go back for more water as soon as it gets light. I just hope it's not full of radioactive waste. But the stream was running, so it should be fine."
Koenig nodded. He had walked to the door and stuck his head out. "It sure is quiet," he observed. "Wouldn't you expect to hear insect life? Night birds?"
"The vegetation may be recovering, but wildlife will take much longer."
"Do you have any theories yet why they may have brought us back to earth?" John asked.
"It has me stumped, John. All I can think is that we may have to do something here. If it is a post-apocalyptic earth, perhaps something only we can do to help people recover. Or perhaps find something to help us on Berg, if we can take it back with us."
"I don't know why the intergalactic council doesn't just tell us straight up what they expect of us. Constantly trying to guess their intention is depressing and exhausting."
"Yeah… I don't think teaching us survival skills is uppermost in their minds, but learning to control the ship by thought must be one goal."
"But a ship without ports to look through? It defeats the purpose, doesn't it?"
"Maybe it has invisible sensors that would stop a collision?"
"I'm not likely to try that," John muttered. "Right now this ship is all we have. If it gets damaged, who knows what will happen."
"So what is our plan of action tomorrow morning?"
"We could head parallel to the mountains, but only in one direction, so we can keep the opening facing the mountains and keep an eye on them. It seems to be a pretty long range, and I'm afraid we might find ourselves trapped if the mountains curve."
"It would be great if we had shoes so we can climb. Being higher up would give us a better idea of the rest of the environment."
"So far we've stayed at the ship's own height. I could try to take it higher until we can see over the mountains. Pressure should not be a problem yet. But flying over them… that's another story. Do you have any idea where we might be?"
"Based on the vegetation I observed, Australia. But based on this mountain range, I don't know. You're right. It stretches off in both directions as far as the eye can see and I don't immediately recall any such range in Australia."
"The area we flew through had sparse vegetation even before the war. The burnt-out trees were not tall and fairly spaced apart. Even getting closer to the mountains it was still sparse."
"So, some arid region flanked by a long mountain range to the south. I'll search the geography archives in my mind tonight," Victor grinned.
"Yeah, but get some rest too. I'm glad you found water, now if we can only find something to eat. I'm hungry."
"I don't suppose thinking about a large plate of food will work?" Victor commented dryly.
"You can always try," John grinned. "I think we're far from that stage: right now we're learning to do things with our minds. Creating things out of nothing; I just can't fathom that yet." He walked over to his seat. "Well, I'm going to try and get some sleep, Victor. Flying this thing through images took everything I had."
"Right. Me too." The scientist sunk into his seat, listening to the stillness surrounding them. Jogging back and forth from the door to the nose had made him tired too, and the Commander was correct: the uncertainty about what was going on was taking a toll. With a brief thought about Helena and Thor, he closed his eyes.
John Koenig woke to the dull sound of hammering, and for a moment didn't remember where he was. Then he remembered the ship… earth… He got up, stretched and headed to the opening through which he could see blue sky. He looked around to pinpoint the sound. About 100 meters away, Victor was sitting by a tree with his back to the ship, banging on something with a rock. John thought about calling out, but then smiled and decided to sneak up on his friend.
He had taken about five steps away from the ship when his mind suddenly came fully awake. He swung around, startled, but the ship was still there. He sighed deeply with relief. Yet he took the next few steps backwards, slowly, trying to be ready should the vessel lift off, but it seemed that even with both of them away, it would be staying put.
"Victor!" he called, abandoning his plan to sneak up. "What are you doing?"
His friend turned, looking first at him, and then at the ship. He smiled broadly when he too realized that their fear of the ship abandoning them was unfound.
"There's water by the doorway, John!" Victor called back. "And I marked the way to the stream clearly with sticks and rocks. It's really very refreshing to just go drink your fill and clean up a bit."
"Looks like you're going to need it," John laughed. His friend was covered in dirt and dust, his hands and arms black with soot. "What are you doing?"
Victor held up the object he was hammering on. It was a metal cylinder of some kind and on one end the scientist was hammering a piece of flat metal to the shape of the cylinder. "I scraped as much of the soot off this cylinder I got from the car," he explained. "These trees," he pointed with a black finger, "look like Acacias, so I found some gum and I'm trying to attach a bottom to this so we have another container, curving the flat metal up around the sides. The gum is not poisonous and should create a decent seal."
John took the crudely made object, studying it with a smile. "How many times have you struck your thumb?"
Victor laughed. "I've stopped counting. Hey, John, most of the going to the stream is reasonable on the feet, but watch out for sharp rocks once you're in the gorge."
Koenig studied the area around them for a few minutes, hands on his hips, before heading back to the ship. He noticed Victor's compass laid out on the ground, and the sticks pointing the way to the water. He grabbed the Coke bottle, emptied it in a few huge gulps and took it with him to the stream.
He watched carefully where he put his feet, but also took time to look around. The slopes were sparsely scattered with low, hardy looking vegetation. From there the mountainsides rose steeply, with plenty of bare rock face. Not hills, definitely formidable mountains. About ten minutes later he found the narrow gorge. Rock rose on either side of him as he made his way carefully from flat stone to flat stone. Finally he reached the stream, a mere trickle. Sitting down on a rock, he stuck his feet in the cool water and sighed with pleasure. It was quiet and still, except for the softly burbling stream. For a moment Vana came to mind, and he closed his eyes.
When his feet felt sufficiently refreshed he got up and decided to head a little further upstream. For a minute he contemplated walking in the stream, but it could be hiding sharp stones. He stayed beside it. From time to time he had to squeeze through a narrow opening in the rock, but after a while his effort was rewarded when he came upon a little pool. Further on the stream seemed to be slightly wider and deeper. He stripped off the black tunic and pants and lowered himself into the cold water. Once his body had adjusted, it was heavenly, and he just lay his head back and enjoyed the sensation. He let his mind drift and relax, because he knew the day ahead would be another taxing one, but finally he pulled himself out of the water. He drank as much as he could stomach were the stream fed the pool, filled the Coke bottle, tucked the clothes under his arm and started making his way back to the ship. He would dry off soon enough and could slip into the clothes by the time he exited the gorge.
By the time he reached the ship, the sun had climbed and it was getting warm. Victor's new water container was sitting on the ground next to the ship but the scientist was nowhere to be seen. John peeked inside the ship but it too was empty. "Victor!" he called, looking both ways. Some distance away to the east he saw an arm waving and headed that way. "Don't go so far, Victor!" he yelled when he could see the man. The Professor had some things in his hands and waved them above his head. John smiled and shook his head.
When the two men got together, Victor displayed his find triumphantly: a sheet of black plastic, an aluminum can and a long bone. "When I've cleaned this plastic," Victor explained, "I can line that new container. And the can… another container."
"And what are you going to do with the bone?" John quipped.
"Oh, I don't know. A souvenir? It's too long and thin to be human. It's also very light."
John took the bone and had to agree. For what looked like a long leg-bone it was surprisingly light.
"If I can figure out what it came from, it might help us determine where we are, but there were no other bones around."
John suddenly looked over Victor's shoulder with a start. "What's wrong?" the older man asked, turning too. In the distance they could see a cloud of dust. John grabbed his arm.
"Listen!"
Now Victor could hear it too, the unmistakable sound of dogs barking.
"Back to the ship!" John cried and the two men set off as fast as they could. The Professor managed to hold onto his treasures and grabbed the metal container on the fly as he jumped inside the ship. A second later Koenig joined him. They peered around the edge of the doorway. The sound of the dogs was clearer now, and amidst the dust they could make out figures: men on horseback.
"Stay back," John ordered. "They may not be friendly. I'm going to be ready to take this ship up if need be."
The dogs materialized out of the dust first; large, black creatures barking furiously while bearing down on the ship.
"Rottweilers!" Victor shouted from the doorway. "And Dobermans!"
Koenig focused his mind on the imaginary controls and willed the ship to rise. "Come on… come on," he muttered. Then he heard an unmistakable sound. Gunfire. "Get away from the door, Victor!" he yelled and focused again as the gunfire intensified. He was unable to close off his mind completely from the barking and the gunshots, but threw everything he had into his visualization of the ship slowly climbing into the air.
"That's it, John!" his friend suddenly shouted, his voice sounding strained. The dogs sounded so close they could even be in the ship, and the gunfire continued, but the ship was rising. The Commander continued concentrating on the ascending vessel, and finally, when he judged they were high enough, he focused on the ship holding position. He had to see what was going on. When he was satisfied that their craft seemed stable he turned, relieved to see no dogs inside. But his friend was sitting against the hull of the ship beside the door, blood streaming down his arm, but clutching a piece of metal and some wire, scratching on the metal sheet with the tip of the wire.
"Victor!" John rushed over, squatting beside his friend.
"Nothing, John, just a scratch."
Koenig lay on his stomach and crawled towards the doorway. He had to see what was going on. He managed to peer sideways through the opening and saw about 100 meters below the ship a group of milling horsemen with six or seven fierce dogs barking furiously, snapping in the air.
"Here," Victor shoved the sheet of metal at his Commander. Koenig took it and looked. The scientist had scratched: "We need help" into the blackened metal with the wire, and the letters stood out clearly enough, silver against the fire-scorched background. He tossed it out and then turned to his friend, taking the bleeding arm and pushing up the tunic sleeve.
The bullet had scorched a furrow about a centimeter deep and five centimeters long along the Professor's lower arm. It was bleeding freely, but Victor had been right. It was not life threatening. John let out a slow breath. "You were lucky, Victor."
The scientist nodded. "Thank you, John, for taking us up. Some of those dogs were just about ready to jump inside. They would have torn us to pieces."
Koenig dared peeking through the doorway again. The men had lowered their guns, and two men were leashing the dogs and tying them to trees. One of the men held the metal plate and waved it in the air.
"We're not armed!" John shouted as loud as he could. He poked his head out a little further, but no one raised a gun. He counted five men. One of the men waved his arms, indicating for them to come down.
"Do you think we should risk it, Victor?" Koenig asked.
"It's our best chance of finding out where we are. They may only have been hostile because of this ship. If they can hold those dogs, I say yes."
"They're tying them up."
Victor nodded. "OK then. I'll sit in the doorway and look non-threatening while you take us down."
"Tell me when we're close, Victor." Koenig took a deep breath and started focusing again, this time taking the ship down slowly. It felt like hours, but finally he heard Victor's voice over the barking of dogs and the snorting of horses.
"Close, John." He shut the vessel down in his mind and went over to his friend. Victor had his hands raised in the universal gesture for surrender. The two Alphans looked out through the door of their craft at the group of armed men and then slowly stepped out onto the dusty surface.
(To be continued…)