Location: Summit of the Lee of the Stone.
Sol 7It was early morning on the seventh day on Nimh-Beta that Josh found himself making his way up to the summit of the Lee of the Stone with Elizabeth, to set up his transmitter. Leaving the children sleeping peacefully back at the farm, she and Josh followed the narrow footpath running along the side of the rock hill, all the way up to a flat point on the top.
From up here, they had an excellent view; the green lush stretched out for miles in every direction, with the edge of the desert barely visible in the distance. Below them, smoke rose from the chimney of the Brisby farm and Auntie Shrew's house, which were practically invisible, easily blending in with the landscape because of their subterranean, camouflaged architecture.
Josh stood admiring the stunning view; such a pristine landscape was extremely rare back on Earth anymore, where over three quarters of the natural environment had long since been overrun by the effects of human impact. Turning to his friend, he saw her nervously backing away from the edge, shuddering at the sight of the long drop beneath them. He smiled at her uneasiness, remembering how she'd clung nervously onto him during the entire walk up.
"Scared of heights?"
"Terrified," she mumbled, grasping the lace of her cape in anxiety, "I can't even climb the barn ladder without getting goosebumbs…" Josh chuckled.
"Don't worry. Half the rookie pilots I've trained with have this problem. It passes after a therapy session of about a hundred rides up a 500-storey skyscraper in a glass elevator, and then doing a bungee-jump from the roof…" Elizabeth visibly shuddered at the thought of such an acrophobia 'therapy session', burying her face in her hands in fright. Josh sighed, realising he had taken the joke a little too far.
"I'm sorry, didn't mean to scare you," he said, pulling her close and kissing the crown of her head. Elizabeth smiled weakly at him, "It's all right, Josh, Jonathan always used to tease me about it too. At least the children don't have this problem." Josh had no doubt about that; after observing Martin's antics in the field yesterday, he knew the children were as comfortable with heights as acrobats in a circus. But this wasn't the time to be clowning around.
Opening up his kit, he unpacked the emergency transmitter. Fitted on a small tripod, the little ball-shaped transmitter opened up, much like a flower opening its petals, as Josh pressed a button, revealing its mechanical innards: a small hexagonal casing from which extended two miniature solar panels, which would keep the transmitter's battery charged, and two mismatched antennae – one aerial for suit-to-transmitter relays and the other a satellite dish for transmissions. Tilting the panels towards the sun to get power and making sure the dish was properly aligned, he took out his HHC.
Typing in various rapid commands, he activated the device remotely, setting up a two-way transmission between his suit's taccom and the transmitter. Doing a quick diagnostics check, he began scanning on every frequency for any radio signals in the air. At first, there seemed to be nothing within the transmitter's 150-mile reception radius; all voice channels were silent, the data receptors reading nil. Switching to a lower frequency, he tried again. Then, suddenly, he picked up something.
Ping...ping...ping...
Situated about 115 miles to the north, was a homing signal, faint but definitely there, blinking on his HHC navigation screen. A quick transponder signature identification check confirmed it was what he was looking for.
"Blimey, they're already here!" said Josh, staring at the NIMH-One's transponder signal. His crew had made it to the surface and were probably out looking for him at this very moment! Switching over to voice transmissions, he sent out a distress signal.
"Mayday, mayday! This is Captain Anderson to NIMH-One Control. Control, do you copy, over?" There was no answer; the radio was dead silent, save from some mild static. Confused, he enhanced the frequency and tried again, "Repeat, NIMH-One Control, this is Captain Anderson, declaring an emergency! Alpha Scout is down; pilot stranded. Requesting rescue and recovery. Please confirm, over." Still nothing. What the hell was going on here?
"Can't they hear you?" asked Elizabeth, to whom Josh had briefly explained how radio technology worked, as she watched her friend continue to fiddle with his gadgets.
"It doesn't make sense," he said, trying yet another frequency, but still not getting anything. Likewise, there were no tracking signals from any of the ship's pods that should be airborne by now, homing in on his signal, "According to this, the NIMH-One's definitely out there, but no one's answering," he said, pointing towards the northern horizon, "What's wrong with those chaps? Is everyone at Control taking a coffee break or something?"
It made no sense. According to mission regulations, there always had to be a 24-hour watch on the flight deck, with shifts divided evenly between the crew, keeping the communications station manned around the clock, in case of an emergency. To be unable to receive an answer because of an unmanned radio station, and on Commander Fitzgibbons' watch nonetheless, was unthinkable.
As he turned to look at Elizabeth, he noticed, all of a sudden, she was looking terribly alarmed about something, realising where Josh had been pointing at. She gestured towards the northern horizon, where Josh said he was picking up the signal from his ship.
"What's the matter?"
"Josh," she muttered in a low voice, "The only thing out there is Thorn Valley – the place my husband had gone looking for when he disappeared…"
Before Josh could inquire what this Thorn Valley place was, suddenly, both of them were caught off-guard by the sound of voices coming up the hill – and it wasn't the children following them.
Hastily grabbing his gear, he and Elizabeth quickly took cover behind a large boulder, just as two strangers appeared on the scene. One was a tall, handsome-looking rat, wearing a medieval-style soldier's tunic; his companion was an aged, pudgy mouse with thick spectacles, resembling a nerdy scholar of sorts. The two of them were carrying a large bundle of some bright fabric and cord, which looked somewhat familiar to Josh…
"…Come on, Justin, you feather-head! Stop playing about!" snapped the old mouse at his companion, who was amusing himself by pulling comical faces behind his friend's back, as they carried the bundle along. Elizabeth gasped in surprise as she recognised the newcomers.
"That's my neighbour Mr Ages," she whispered, pointing at her irritable mouse neighbour, from whom, Josh remembered, she had been seeking medicine for Timmy the day they had first met, "And that's Justin, Jonathan's old friend from Rosebush City." Josh however barely heard that last part as he suddenly recognised the bundle of nylon and cords Mr Ages and Justin had dragged up here with them.
"I say, that's the drogue chute from my pod!"
Sure enough, as they unfolded it, he clearly saw the NIMH-One's logo painted in red on the nylon. That could mean only one thing: the Rats had discovered his wrecked pod and had salvaged it for inspection. They were picking up his trail faster than he thought. Did they know he was here? How many of them were out here? His worrying thoughts were cut short however, as he noticed what the pair were doing.
The mouse called Mr Ages had donned a makeshift harness fashioned out of reeds, to which the cords of the parachute were securely attached. Apparently having figured out what the chute was for, the old inventor was going to experiment flying with it.
Elizabeth watched in confusion as the pair prepared the parachute, unaware of the danger of what they were about to do. But Josh, who knew something more about the physics of aerodynamics, realised they were headed for trouble. The chute was designed to slow down a 20,000-lbs spacecraft during an emergency landing; but for Mr Ages' small size, the enormous drag would be far too much. Without the proper weight to balance the load, the chute would go into a spin when it unfolded and send him plummeting to the ground. What's more, the Lee of the Stone was nowhere high enough for a safe jump by parachute.
All of a sudden, Josh found himself torn between breaking his cover, to warn that crazy old mouse that he was going to get himself killed with his experiment, or else staying put and not revealing himself to any witnesses who might give him away. Elizabeth and her family had proven themselves trustworthy; what if those two newcomers didn't prove to be the same? What if they turned him in to the Rats?
Looking, he saw Ages take position on the edge of the cliff, about to take a run and jump. Behind him, Justin held the folded-up parachute at the ready, preparing the throw it open into the wind. The Rat seemed to have reservations regarding the feasibility of Mr Ages' experiment as he muttered at his companion, "I hope you know what you're doing, you crazy old goat."
"Never underestimate the grand principles of science, dear boy," replied Ages pompously, apparently having no second thoughts about his experiment not going terribly wrong, "My prototype will revolutionise our research beyond anything we've achieved so far."
"Your prototype?" asked Justin, raising an eyebrow, his amused expression suddenly turning serious, "This thing didn't just arrive here on its own, you know. And I, for one, would like to know to whom – or rather what – it belongs to…" From his hiding spot, Josh felt his guts twist up, realising that the Rats were indeed looking for him. Ages, however, seemed completely unconcerned as to the origins of this alien contraption, impatient to carry out his experiment.
"Finders keepers, dear boy," he said dismissively, tucking away his spectacles in his tunic and tightening his harness, preparing to jump, "All right then, on the count of three. One, two…!"
Josh's mind was racing. In another second, Ages would be plummeting to his death; and if he tried to stop him, he would inevitably be revealing himself to that fellow Justin, who, for all he knew, was one of the Rats hunting him down. But, glancing at Elizabeth, who gasped with fear, also realising what Ages meant to do, he made up his mind. His friend would never forgive him if he knowingly let her old neighbour kill himself.
Suddenly, together, they burst out from their hiding spot. "Hey, you, wait! Stop!" Josh shouted, sprinting towards Ages, "Don't jump…!"
"…three!"
Caught by surprise at the sound of a strange voice, Justin turned round and spotted his late friend's widow, whom he'd secretly always had a soft spot for, running towards him, seemingly in greeting, "Oh, hallo, Biff, no time no see…" he said, but froze in mid-sentence as he caught sight of Josh running right behind her, thinking this strange creature was chasing her.
It happened so fast; one instant, Josh was sprinting towards Ages, to grab him before he went over the edge, and the next he found himself facing the tip of a drawn sword, level with his throat. Justin's expression was fierce and menacing.
"Stay back, you foul creature!" he growled dangerously, "Just touch her, and I'll run you through…!" Meanwhile, Elizabeth, whom Justin had swept protectively behind his back, as if to shield her, was trying to break up the imminent conflict.
"Justin, no, it's all right! He's a friend…!
"Help!"
In the confusion however, they had all completely forgotten about Ages, who, startled by this unexpected interruption, lost his balance and went plummeting over the edge of the cliff. It was only thanks to the trailing parachute Justin had dropped getting snagged on a protrusion which kept him from slamming onto the jagged rocks below, instead leaving him hanging several feet in the air, the wind slamming him hard against the cliff face like a marionette on strings. His cry of pain as the impact broke one of his legs diverted everyone's attention back to the cliff.
Hurrying over, they saw the old mouse hanging suspended by his harness in the air below, battered and groaning. With Justin not taking his eyes off Josh, they all grabbed hold of the chute, before it could tear loose, pulling the dazed – and very pissed off – Mr Ages back up. The expression of shock and amazement on the swearing mouse's face, as he came face to face with a real flesh-and-blood human was unbelievable.
"Great Jupiter, woman!" he was shouting indignantly, "What do you mean by sneaking up on us like that? Can't you see we're in the middle of something important here…?!" He suddenly fell silent, petrified at the sight of Josh, who was holding him up by his collar. In another instant, his amazement gave way to fear.
"Put me down, you…you…you bloody human!" he bellowed, thrashing around in a panic.
Before Josh could oblige however, he felt a shadow loom over him from behind. He spun round, just in time to see another, larger Rat, fearsome and burly as a bull, also wearing a soldier's tunic, spring at him in a surprise attack.
Josh barely managed to dodge the first blow of the Rat's razor-sharp battle-axe, which came swinging towards his head, instead slamming hard into the ground. Before Josh could draw his gun and defend himself, the furious Rat, with lightning reflexes, retrieved his weapon and swung again. And this time, the aim was true.
The wooden handle struck Josh's skull with the force of a baseball bat. The last thing he heard before his world faded to black was both Elizabeth and Justin screaming, "No, Brutus, don't kill him…!"
Author's note: Sorry this chapter came out so short, but I think leaving it hanging on a cliffhanger between chapters creates a good flow of suspense in the story. Enjoy and please review!