Location: Forest Uplands, close to the Lee of the Stone.

Sol 8

Josh's group made an early start in the morning, wading their way through the woods towards Mr Ages' reclusive home, where the pompous old mouse inventor did all of his research in private, away from the boycotting Council of Rosebush City. In his pocket, Josh carried the finished schematic for his new glider. Between his kit's toolkit, the drogue chute canvas from his pod, and some improvisation, they'd manage.

Justin, Brutus, Josh, Elizabeth and her children, whom she'd let tag along after giving in to their pleading, made their way together towards Ages' house. Even Timmy, who was feeling much better already, seemingly recovered, was allowed to come, but ordered by his mother to wear a warm, rabbit-skin coat out of doors. With the boy joyfully riding on Josh's shoulders, they made their way along the footpath.

On the way, Elizabeth took the Rats to see the carcass of the snake that had almost devoured her, still lying in the clearing where she had first met Josh. The two soldiers stared in awe at the slain serpent, the cauterised bullet wound still visible through its charred skull. No weapon in this world, from the sharpest sword to the strongest crossbow, could inflict this kind of damage. This monster would have undoubtedly been a colossal challenge for even for an entire squadron of warrior Rats; but for someone to take this thing down single-handedly was unthinkable.

Brutus stared at the unfamiliar wound, frowning at the thought of a weapon capable of inflicting such destruction – one that was apparently still in this strange human's possession… He could not allow this! He rounded on Josh.

"How did you do it?"

"With a standard EMP, unobtanium radioisotope cell handgun, designed by NIMH Arms & Munitions Ltd," said Josh. Putting Timmy down, he took out his gun to show the Rats. They all stared blankly at the weapon, not knowing what to make of it. The device was too small to be of much use as a club and it had no visible blade with which to stab an opponent. How could this insignificant little trinket possibly have the power to burn clean through flesh and bone?

To demonstrate better, Josh disengaged the safety catch and motioned to them to stand back. Taking aim at a stone lying on the ground nearby, he fired. The ensuing plasma burst blasted a smoking hole the size of a Rat's grave in the ground, completely vaporizing the stone, and causing all the spectators to jump in alarm, utterly shocked by its lethal power.

"No bad, huh?" said Josh with a chuckle, without thinking, "Completely vacuum-proof, watertight, with infrared laser sighting for accurate targets, and capable of firing up to 20,000 EMP bursts with its atomic power cell, without the need for reloads or conventional ammo. An easy solution for any nasties that might come your way…"

"My point exactly!" snapped Brutus, suddenly lunging forward and snatching the gun out of Josh's hand. Cursing himself for not having anticipated this move, Josh nervously backed away from this fused-stick-of-dynamite of a Rat, his insides curling up, thinking Brutus was about to turn the weapon on him and blow him away. But he didn't. Instead, he turned to a nearby rock and, raising the gun with both of his ham-sized hands, he smashed it atop it like a discarded beer bottle. There was an electric buzz, a flash, and then Brutus stood there, wincing at his singed fingers, the gun lying smashed at his feet.

"You bloody idiot!" Josh shouted, bending to retrieve the smoking bits of twisted metal, which, until a minute ago, had been the one and only means he had to defend himself, now completely destroyed. Although he still had his Taser tucked in his back pocket, which he made a mental note of keeping well out of Brutus' reach in future, without a firearm, it would mean a major setback for his safety, "What the hell did you do that for?!"

"You could have used that vile thing against us!" retorted Brutus incredulously, "I refuse to allow the possibility of you hurting someone when it's in your best interests! At least now we can sleep peacefully at night." Josh was incredulous.

"You insufferable cretin!" he roared back, feeling sick and tired of the burly Rat's distrust of him simply because he was a human, fighting the urge to deck Brutus right there and then, "You really think I'd go into a murdering frenzy?! Why, I ought to knock your teeth down your throat...!" Brutus balled his fists at the threat, as if daring the human to pick a fight with him.

"All right, the matter's closed!" interrupted Justin sharply, stepping between Brutus and Josh, before a scuffle could break out, "We're better off without that weapon anyway. It could have easily fallen into the wrong hands..."

"Easy for you to say, pal," said Josh hotly, who'd seen enough dangers since he'd landed on this planet to know one should never go anywhere without a proper gun. But there was nothing he could do about it now and not wanting to make a scene in front of the children, he decided to let it slide. Right now, he had other priorities, such as finding his way back to his crew, currently waiting for him somewhere out there. He turned back to Brutus.

"You've got one hell of an attitude problem, chum, and you're really starting to piss me off! Just remember that!" They pressed on.

Ages' home turned out to be a rocky alcove close to the Lee of the Stone sealed off by a plain log wall, with a door and a couple of narrow, glassless windows for light and entering. A fence of sharp pointed stakes, presumably for protection against snakes and other wild beasts of the forest, like a fortress, formed a semi-circular barricade in front of the entrance. The old tinkerer was pacing impatiently around in his yard with the support of a makeshift crutch because of his broken leg, expecting them.

"About time!" he huffed indignantly, walking over to greet them, frowning at the sight of the children, obviously disapproving of having playful, noisy youngsters running around his workshop, but luckily not sending them off. Without bothering to return their 'good morning' greetings, he ushered them all inside.

In direct contrast to the warm, welcoming environment of the Brisby home, Mr Ages' house had the air of a workshop or laboratory where work went on no stop. A blacksmith's stone furnace with massive leather bellows and laden with ironwork stood in the centre. Around it stood several worktables strewn with bowls and jars of curious bubbling mixtures and rolls of parchment bearing all sorts of scientific formulas and design plans, which Josh couldn't make heads or tails of. The walls of the workshop were lined with shelves, stacked high with earthenware jars and bottles containing different chemicals and herbs. Clearly, Mr Ages had very little time for leisure activities.

Despite having grown up in a technologically-advanced world of nuclear power and computers, Josh couldn't help but marvel how advanced the rodents of this strange planet were. Although obviously centuries away from competing with mankind's powers of science, his own meagre tools being more advanced than everything in Ages' lab put together, they were definitely countless of evolutionary cycles ahead of their terrestrial counterparts.

Ages walked up to a rudimentary blackboard, fashioned out of a large flat stone sitting propped up against the wall. On it were crude schematics, notes, and calculations the mouse-inventor had been working on overnight in preparation for this meeting. The parachute he and Justin had salvaged lay spread out on another worktable nearby, ready to be dismantled.

"All right, let's get started, I haven't got all day. Everyone, pay attention!" he barked, with the air of a stern schoolteacher greeting his pupils for the morning class. His guests seated themselves on a bench he had set up for them in front of the blackboard. Using a stick, he pointed at a crudely drawn map of the region, with a dashed line marking a path across the desert – according to him, the same path followed by Jonathan Brisby years ago – which followed a river through the Dark Mountains, all the way to their intended destination on the other side of the mountain range.

"...As you already know, attempting to reach Thorn Valley on foot would be futile. However, if we can follow this very same route through the mountains by air, we'll be safely out of reach of any lurking bandits on the ground…" Josh rolled his eyes; Ages was trying to take all the credit for their plan to reach Thorn Valley by air. Still, as long as he let him utilise this workshop to build that glider which would get him the hell out of here, he couldn't care less. Ages went on speaking.

"To accomplish this, we'll be using a prototype, aerodynamically-sound flying machine, the full details of which will be explained to us by our new friend here." He turned to Josh, "Captain Anderson, the floor is yours. I'll help you fill in all the difficult bits if necessary…" Josh had to fight the urge not to laugh at the thought of Ages 'correcting' him, given that his knowledge of engineering was obviously far more advanced and precise than the old inventor's. Hell, the old goat didn't even know that this 'flying machine' he spoke of was actually called an aircraft! Still, he managed to keep a straight face as he took the stand.

Unfolding the schematic he had drawn up the other day, he pinned it onto the blackboard for everyone to see. Using some notes he had also prepared for this meeting, he launched into a brief description of how the glider functioned, and how they would build it. The project would require building each section of the glider individually, which would then be assembled together in a specific order.

"As far as the general design factors are concerned, there are no problems," he said, drawing arrows along the schematic, indicating the gravitational pull, air resistance, and wind drogue, "The centre of gravity will allow us to distribute our weight across the inner wing panels, creating the ballast needed to keep the craft level in flight..." Ages, he noted, was feverishly scribbling down all the physics he was describing, the wheels in his head spinning wildly with countless new scientific theories.

"To take off, we'll have to move the glider up to the top of the Lee of the Stone for a freefall. I've calculated that we'll have enough altitude to gather the speed we need to keep us aloft. Then, we just use the winds to carry us along, all the way to our destination…"

"Excuse me," interrupted Brutus sharply, "What do you mean, 'a freefall'? Ages nearly got himself killed trying to make that thing fly!» He gestured at the parachute lying on the table, «What, do you mean to get us all killed by riding that flying coffin of yours off a cliff?!" Josh sighed in exasperation. Did this dimwit oaf enjoy pointing out supposed flaws at every turn, just to annoy him? But seeing how Brutus' words had aroused everyone's concerns regarding safety, he explained.

"A parachute doesn't have the same aerodynamics as an aircraft; it's merely a domed-shaped piece of canvas designed to create drag, which counteracts the force of gravity pulling the paratrooper towards the ground, consequently slowing his fall and preventing a deadly impact," he said, "A glider can change its heading and altitude by the pilot correcting the pitch and trim in flight. And, if I may sound so blunt, I happen to be one of the highest decorated pilots in his Majesty's Royal Air Corps…unless Brutus would like to volunteer to fly us to Thorn Valley instead?" he asked sarcastically, throwing his own taunt back at the mean-tempered Rat in question. Brutus glared at Josh for his cheek but said nothing.

"So," Josh continued, "Our first task today will be to cut up the parachute into sections which will form the 'skin' of the fuselage and wing surfaces. This will have to done extremely carefully, as we have limited canvas to spare, with little margin for errors. Once we've done that, we can start work on the undercarriage, where the framework of the main fuselage will be mounted. That's where we're stuck; what we need a strong, light material for the undercarriage, to withstand the stresses during take-off and landing, preferably metal. Wood wouldn't be strong enough…"

"I think I can help you there," interrupted Ages. They all turned to look at the mouse inventor as he got up and scurried over to a cabinet in the corner of his laboratory. With Justin's help, he dragged a large crate over to the blackboard. Peering inside, Josh saw, what looked like bits of old, scrap metal. Upon closer inspection however, he realised this wasn't just any scrap metal; it wasn't iron or any material he had seen his friends use. This was something else – something he never expected to find here in a million years.

Although ancient-looking and corroded, the familiar light texture of aluminium and titanium – key materials in human engineering – was unmistakable. He was staring at the remains of a manmade spacecraft, found on the surface of a previously unknown planet light years away from Earth!

Josh felt his head spin at the mind-bogging realisation that a manmade craft had arrived on this planet before him. Where had it come from? The very technology for interstellar space travel had only been developed less than a decade ago. Picking up one of the fragments for a closer look, he realised it was some sort of landing craft, possibly an unmanned rover mission, including a severed robotic arm, some h-section from the craft's framework, as well as several miniature off-road wheels, probably from a remote-controlled rover carried onboard the lander, all definitely manmade. However, time had long since erased any markings or logos that might indicate where this craft had originated from.

"Where did you find these?"

"Me and Jonathan Brisby dug them up from the forest floor years ago," explained Ages, "There have been many such artefacts found in many places. Nobody has ever been able to identify this strange metal, or determine its origins. And you say they come from a…spaceship, did you call it? You, young man, are definitely full of surprises!" Everyone was feeling at a total loss at this new mystery.

"Are you suggesting that we've had human visitors here before and never realised?" asked Justin, also examining the junk, as they passed the pieces around, "How's this possible?" Even Josh couldn't answer him; the presence of another ship on a planet light-years away from Earth was just as mind-bogging to him as it was to his friends. During astronaut training, he had taken plenty of history lessons in space exploration and was familiar with all the old space programs and missions. There was no interstellar mission prior to his on record.

Could it be one of the old Voyagers? But, no, an orbiting probe couldn't have travelled this far in only a hundred years…

It made no sense; the NIMH-One was, without a shadow of a doubt, the first ever starship launched – the first ship with the propulsion technology capable of making a journey to the nearest star. Prior to the discovery of unobtanium on Mars, there had been no nuclear compound powerful enough to fuel a light-speed ion booster; and at the time of the Voyager program, back in 1977, it had been the stuff of science fiction. So where could all this space junk have come from? Perhaps it was somehow linked to the similarly impossible presence of terrestrial flora on this world? What was the key to all this mystery?

Looking around the lab, Josh saw Ages had quite an impressive collection of similar artefacts he had found over the years, including, what looked like, the lens from a probe's robotic camera, complete with its corroded casing, part of a spectrometer and a drawing of what looked like a cut-out from some sort of engraving plate, lying on his desk.

"What's that?"

Noticing Josh staring at his drawing, Ages hurriedly picked it up and shoved it into a drawer.

"That's part of my private research, if you don't mind," he said sternly, almost fiercely, implying that that drawing, whatever it was, was for his eyes alone. Josh frowned suspiciously; although he had only glimpsed it for a second, something about that plate had seemed awfully familiar to him. Had he seen it somewhere before? But, reminding himself that they had a lot of work ahead of them and had to get started without delay, he shrugged it off and turned his attention back to the blackboard.

They worked hard through the day. Using some twine as a tape-measurer and a marker from his kit, Josh carefully divided the parachute into sections which would form the outer skin of the fuselage and control surfaces. Elizabeth and Teresa, the tailors in the group, got to work cutting and stitching the different sections of the glider's 'skin', according to Josh's specifications. The chute's tough cords were collected in a spool by Cynthia, to be used to make the control cables, as well as the rigging for the king-post.

While Josh, Justin and Ages worked on the wooden framework of the fuselage, Martin and Timmy were assigned the task of keeping the bellows for the furnace blowing, where a bowl of molten iron sat waiting on the fire. Brutus worked alone at the blacksmith's table, making the tiniest nails any Rat had ever used before, which they'd need to put the glider's framework together.

Using Josh's laser-cutter and a hammer, they cut the bits of h-section from the mysterious probe into shape, making a sturdy frame of the glider's three-wheel undercarriage. Those bits of h-section were welded together using Josh's small hydrogen torch and some molten lead for soldering. The final touch was the rover's wheels, which were fitted onto a scrap-metal axel and bolted onto the undercarriage, to allow for a smooth take-off and landing.

The central framework and king-post were completed first. The barebones structure was then raised with ropes and pulleys and mounted onto the undercarriage, which were firmly joined together. The glider was finally beginning to take shape...

It was late evening by the time the group finally decided to call it a day and returned to Elizabeth's home for supper. Their first day of work had gone reasonably well. The frame for the fuselage and the undercarriage were finished and joined together, with the wings and rudder to follow in the morning, according to schedule. Despite having made a good start however, the day hadn't gone by without a few setbacks.

Aside from all the time they'd wasted by Josh having to explain things over and over, as well as the bossy Mr Ages constantly barking orders like a factory foreman, there had been an injury. Teresa had scolded her hand on a pair of hot tongs she had been using to pick up the bowl of molten lead from the fire.

Elizabeth sat on the edge of Teresa's bed, trying to reassure her sniffling daughter, while Josh tended to her blistered hand. There was a nasty burn on the girl's hand, which although luckily nothing serious, was awfully painful.

"Oh, Mother, it hurts…Ow! Watch it, Josh!" she cried as the astronaut sprayed disinfectant and burn ointment over the scorched flesh, accidentally stinging her.

"It's all right dear, you just be a strong girl now. Try and sleep," said Elizabeth soothingly. She turned to her friend, "Isn't there anything more you can do for her, Josh?"

"I can't risk giving her morphine," he said, bandaging up Teresa's burned hand, "It isn't rated for her age and could cause complications. The ointment should do the trick, but it will take some time."

"Well, at least that will teach you to take Old Goat's warnings more seriously in future," said Justin, smiling grimly at his goddaughter, "Like he said, these kinds of jobs are not for children." Teresa pulled a face at him.

"I'm so sorry, sis," said Martin solemnly for the thousandth time. It had been he who had accidentally scolded Teresa with the hot tongs, whilst trying to get the bowl of lead from the furnace himself, "I'm so sorry…"

"Gut up kid, your sister's fine," said Brutus, tired of all this childish complaining. Youngsters nowadays are too soft for their own good, he thought, "If you think this is bad, then look at the Exiles who roast their prisoners alive under torture…"

"Knock it off, will you!" snapped Josh, at the sight of the children's' frightened expressions, "I think they get the message without you having to give them nightmares with your gory tales!"

But poor Teresa continued complaining of excruciating pain, unable to sleep, the burn ointment needing more time to do its job. Josh was considering giving her a shot of emergency morphine and hope it didn't have any undesired side effects, when Elizabeth stepped in.

"Here, darling, let me try something your grandmother used on me on such occasions when I was little."

Sitting down on the edge of the bed, she gently grabbed her daughter by the ankles and began softly caressing the soles of her feet. Teresa's miserable moaning instantly dissolved into hysterical giggles as her mother gave her a good tickle.

"Mother, stop, I can't stand it!" she squealed, clutching her tummy from laughing too hard, yet enjoying it at the same time, the pain of her injury entirely forgotten, "Aren't I a little too old for this?"

"But it does help with the pain, doesn't it sweetheart?" smiled Elizabeth, continuing to tickle her daughter silly. Some time later, Josh's ointment had finally brought down the blistering enough to relieve the pain and Teresa was able to settle down to sleep. Tucking her siblings in as well, and giving each of them a bedtime tickle to help them sleep, Elizabeth rejoined her guests in the living room.

Justin sat chatting with Josh, who had just finished making a few final corrections to the schematic for tomorrow. The undercarriage was finished, as was the central fuselage. This just left them with fitting the nylon 'skin' onto the fuselage, mounting the wings and building the rigging and controls, after which they'd have a working glider ready to take flight…hopefully. The thought of flying again brightened Josh's spirits. With a little luck, he would soon be on his way back where he belonged. Only that inexplicable mystery surrounding the remains of that ancient spacecraft in Mr Ages' lab still eluded him…

"So have you chaps always been explorers of the stars?"

One the advantages of being Captain of the Guards was all the adventure involved when executing his duties in the service of the King, which Justin had craved for ever since he was a boy, prompting him to enlist in the Royal Garrison as soon as he was of age. Josh's fascinating stories of life as an aviator and astronaut were making him green with envy!

"Hardly, mate," chuckled Josh, sipping some hot broth Elizabeth had prepared for them, "Man has existed on Earth for nearly half a million years; but the concept of space travel was only conceived about two hundred years ago, mostly by science fiction authors, well ahead of their time," he said, remembering the works of Jules Verne, Arthur C Clark and Steven Baxter, which he used to read as a kid, and which still inspired even his own generation.

"It was over a hundred years later that mankind had finally advanced enough to make space travel real. Yuri Gagarin was the first man to fly in space; Neil Armstrong became the first man to set foot on the Moon – our satellite," he explained, taking out his HHC and showing Justin a 3-D rotating model of the Earth and Moon.

"Since then, we've been sending dozens of both manned and unmanned missions scouting all around our solar system. We even managed to set up outposts on several neighbouring planets," he went on, "But it took a further century before we were ready to fly to the nearest star – and discovered your planet."

"Only you didn't expect to find it already occupied, did you?" asked Brutus, finally joining in the conversation. Although a reasonably innocent question, Josh was sure the warrior Rat was thinking something along the lines of 'so that you can't claim it for yourselves'".

"Guess our one trillion-dollar terraforming payload we hauled all the way up here was for naught," smirked Josh, picturing the looks on their superiors' faces back on Earth when they heard that they had discovered a planet with talking, intelligent rats! On the other hand, he couldn't help but wonder, how contact between the two worlds might affect his new friends' way of life, once news of their discovery got out…

Unbeknownst to them, a serious calamity was unfolding in the children's bedroom next door. Timmy lay shivering and coughing in his sleep, his fever rising again. Although the penicillin Josh had given him had soothed his symptoms, it hadn't completely cured his pneumonia. Now, because his mother had taken pity on him and let him out of doors so soon, exposing him to the chilly air, the disease was flaring up again full-force…

Author's note: Coming up next, Jenner starts to pick up Josh's trail as well… By the way, the scene with Elizabeth tickling Teresa is based on a fanart by xxxfurryneddyxxx on DeviantArt. ENJOY AND PLEASE DON'T FORGET TO REVIEW!