Second Earth:
Part Four
L.D.P. Samways
Text © 2016 by Luis Samways
All rights reserved.
Cover Design by The Purple Book Co.
Luis Samways has asserted his right under the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988 to be identified as the author of this work.
This book is a work of fiction and, except in the case of historical fact, any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, is purely coincidental.
eBook edition first published in April 2016
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Contents
Chapter One
Chapter Two
Chapter Three
Chapter One
The man in the suit sat there, staring at his computer screen. His head was hurting badly. One of those tension headaches. It was constricting his brain, wrapping itself around his face, pressing down on the bridge of his nose, moisture finding its way into his eyes. From afar, to the passer-by, the man would probably look like he’d been crying. But no tears had left his tear ducts, in fact, crying was the last thing he wanted to do.
The man wasn’t sad – nor was he distraught. The only feeling he was experiencing was anger. Anger at how Earth had let the people on the Orion Traveller down. Just because this particular man wore a suit didn’t mean he was void of feelings. He had plenty of feelings. Feelings that on a daily basis he would have to suppress, just in case they bubbled over and reached the surface.
If they did reach the surface, he feared that he would lose his job. If the powers that be knew how he truly felt, how he had doubts about the future of The Company and the people that ran it, not only would his job be lost, but his life would probably be lost as well. But this man was a patient man. He knew that even in his position, sitting behind a desk, staring at a computer, he could make a difference. He may not be the richest or the most influential member of The Company, but he was an asset nonetheless. And one day, the man would make his power known to the rest of them. And it would be nothing like their power.
For their power is a power that is drenched in darkness. It is a power that is rotten to the core. And power like that is only good for one thing, and that is being overthrown. Power like that and the people that possess it don’t last long in the thick and thorny political climate that has encumbered Earth. If the people knew what depths the men in suits had gone to in covering up the actions of their organization and what lies they had spilled, then the public would revolt.
And this man wasn’t stupid; he knew that no amount of power or money could defend or shield The Company from over nine billion angry and scorned members of the public. But there wasn’t much that this man could do at this moment. Starting a revolution took time. And even when everything deep down within his core was telling him to do something now, he knew that the longer he left it, and the more atrocities that were committed, the harder the impact of the revolution would be.
The sad fact is that people tend to only react at the very last minute. He’d seen it a million times before, governments of the past defecating on the hopes and dreams of its citizens. And the citizens take it like the timid beings that they usually are. But then, something magical usually happens. Something magical that shines a light that the people of all Earth’s nations can see, even from their homelands thousands and thousands of miles away. Deep blue seas divide them in reality, but in spirit, they have never been so close. And then the people rise, torches high in the air, a blazing light, shining for all to see, and then they act, tearing down the fabric of corruption that has cradled them from birth to death. That is when you act. That is when a revolution is effective. It takes time. And time is what this man had.
He remained seated in his chair, swivelling side to side, staring at the blank screen in front of him. He was waiting for something. He’d heard rumours down the office grapevine that something big was about to happen. He obviously already knew what that big thing was. The people in his office would never come to know; they’d probably think that it was some sort of restructuring. People being let go. Jobs being lost. Cutting and saving wherever possible.
The corporate motto; cut fast and save big. It’s something that The Company believed in wholeheartedly. People were numbers and numbers were what made everything tick. Pluses and minuses, if the numbers weren’t green, then they’d be dealt with accordingly.
And then he saw it. A message popped up on his screen. It was an email - an internal memo - only for the selective elite group of The Company. He was a privileged member, seeing that he held no wealth or no actual power. He was just a man in a suit, in an office, doing his job. Inputting data and reading results. Spreadsheet after spreadsheet. But there were many people like him. Many who hide in plain sight.
They possess something that most humans on Earth do not. And that is intellect. And not in the sense that books or lecturers can teach, but intellect that is far and wide. Intellect that stretches to the ends of the Earth and to the bowels of deep space. It is an understanding, an understanding of the bigger picture. And it is people like him, people that hold a certain knowledge of the Universe, be it big or small, that are invited to be a part of The Company.
There are thousands of them. Thousands out in the open. Thousands going on about their daily business. But none of these people reach the table. None of these individuals sit at the meetings. So the memos sent to the worker bees of The Company were important. Without those emails, then the men on the outside, the men that aren’t rich or powerful, wouldn’t know what was going on within The Company.
So this particular man was not looking forward to opening this very particular email. He already knew what had happened. Somebody that did sit at the table - that did have a lot of money, and a lot of influence had sent him a message a few hours ago detailing his worst nightmares. He’d told him about the people on Second Earth, and how there was a rescue mission to recover the crewmates of the Orion Traveller.
But unfortunately, that mission had failed. And a rescue pod had gone AWOL. So naturally, to save their own skin, The Company had decided to nuke the rescue pod. The man knew that the only reason they’d nuked the pod was because this so-called Second Earth had intelligent life on it. Intelligent life that was and is human. So he smelt a cover-up. He wanted to know exactly what was going on. He wanted to get to the bottom of this and get to it fast. But he wasn’t stupid. To get that close to the people in-the-know would be hard. But he had a plan. A plan that would rock The Company to its very foundations.
A smile broke out across the man’s face as he read the memo. It was a standard affair. The memo detailed the destruction of the pod ship. It detailed the fact that the so-called resource was being retrieved. It also detailed the fact that the memo was top-secret, and any attempts at copying it would result in the offender’s immediate termination. These were all empty threats to him. For he had a trump card, a wildcard if you will. He knew people. People that could get him to the Andromeda Galaxy. People that could form a team, a team with a sole purpose and that purpose was to rescue every single person on Second Earth and bring them back home. And once they were back on Earth, then the man could expose The Company for what they were.
And that was lying bastards.
The man’s cellular phone rang. He picked it up on the second ring. His guy was calling. Right on time. The smile was still on the man’s face. He couldn’t help it, even if he was in plain sight, in front of many workers, in many cubicles, his smile could not be hidden. For it was the first smile of many. Victory
has a way of making a man smile. Success is the cousin of hard work and determination. And it is with these things that this man earned his smile. He held the phone to his ear and cleared his throat.
“I was expecting your call,” the man said, not even attempting to lower his voice.
“Well, I’m glad that you are happy to hear from me. I take it you know that the deed has been done and that the higher-ups in The Company ordered the nuclear explosion on Second Earth?” The voice on the other end of the phone said, it was distorted and robotic, which was standard procedure on private cell phones these days. Especially for high-ranking political figures. And the person he was talking to was very high-ranking and very political indeed.
“Oh yes, I heard. And I take it that you are going to do something about it?”
There was a pause. It wasn’t a long one, but it was sufficient enough to make the man nervous. Was his contact having second thoughts? Was this a setup? Was he in danger right now? The man found himself looking around the room, his eyes flickering from left to right as he watched the other workers in their booths, typing away. But his paranoia was interrupted by the sound of the man on the other end of the cell speaking.
“Yes, I am going to do something about it. But the question is; have you got the stones to bring this thing down to its knees?”
“You know what they say; don’t throw stones at a glass house.”
The man on the other end of the phone began to laugh. His laugh sounded strange. It was deep and husky on account of the voice manipulating software that his caller was using.
“Good. Then it is official. The ship leaves in an hour. I’ll have forty men on that ship waiting for you. They will be armed. And they will be well-trained. I suggest that you make your way down to the dockyard and meet your new crew. Then I’m afraid that it is all up to you Captain Hutchison.”
The line went dead. Hutchison put his phone away. The smile hadn’t left his lips yet. And it probably wouldn’t for a very long time. The time had come to finally take his suit off and show his true colours to the world. At heart, Hutchison was a Captain. And now he had men. Men that would start a revolution. Men that would bring to light the horrors that the government had been trying to cover up. But there was no covering this up. And there was no leaving two ships worth of men to die in space. And there certainly was no leaving a colony of people on a brand new planet to deal with nuclear fallout brought on by the evil men at the roundtable he once longed to be part of.
Hutchison got up, tossed his mobile into the drawer, locked it and walked out of the office. No one really noticed him leaving. To be honest, no one really noticed him at all. He was a ghost. A ghost that was about to have a new lease of life.
Hutchison would command his ship, his new ship, The Phantom, to victory.
A victory that would cost The Company dearly.
***
Everything was hazy like a dream. In fact, it was a dream. Randy Knew that none of this could be real. It just didn’t make sense. One minute he’d been in the cave with the others, and the next he found himself sitting in the Captains seat of a ship. And not just any ship, but a ship approaching planet Earth. Gustoff was a scientific man and knew when his mind was playing tricks on him. But that didn’t stop Randy from enjoying the moment. And that is exactly what Randy was doing, enjoying the moment like it was his last.
He knew that this was a dream, but he didn’t remember how he’d come to experience it. Randy didn’t remember hitting his head on the jagged rock in the cave. And he didn’t remember falling flat on his back, knocking himself out cold. The dream he was experiencing now was a direct result of that head trauma. But Randy was oblivious to the danger he was in. He was oblivious to the fact that his blood was clotting, and he was at risk of an aneurysm. But luckily for him, the good lady doctor from Earth was seeing to him. She was bandaging his head up and cleaning his wound.
Many of the colony members surrounded her, gasping in horror as they watched blood trickling out of Gustoff’s skull. It was quite a cut. It would need stitching. But Randy was too far gone in his dream to even feel the needle entering his skull and fastening his skin back together again. The lady doctor had found some vine and was using it as stitching wire. She had shredded it so it was thin - yet the vine was strong - so it would suffice.
Randy’s body may have been in the cave, under the colony, on Second Earth, but his mind floated far beyond the Andromeda Galaxy. In fact, his mind was on board a ship approaching Earth. And as Randy sat there, enjoying the brilliant view of the big blue planet, his head began to ache. Flashes of what’d happened to him started to trickle into his subconscious. He groaned as he sat in the captain’s chair, hands on the controls, slowly bringing the ship within distance of Earth. Even though Randy knew this was a dream, he was enjoying the sights in front of him. And somehow, he knew how to control the ship – how to get the ship to its destination.
Destination Earth.
The way the stars twinkled at him, the way Earth welcomed him, the feeling of finally reaching civilisation was overwhelming him. Randy didn’t want any of this to end. He was fighting the urge to wake up. He was trying to forget the bump to the head, and the pain that he was feeling. But as the seconds passed, as they do so quickly in dreamland, he began to rouse from his unconsciousness. As he blinked, he saw the lady doctors face, staring down at him with a warm smile, welcoming him back to the land of the living. But when he blinked again, he was back on the ship, approaching Earth.
He decided that he wouldn’t blink anymore. He was going to reach Earth if it was the last thing he did. So he stared at the blue planet, its shimmering sea on the surface below shining back at him, reflecting off his eyes. It was such a wondrous sight, a sight that he’d dreamt of for years and years… Ironically. Randy knew that he’d have to wake up soon. He knew that he couldn’t stay asleep forever. But it didn’t mean that he wasn’t going to enjoy every last second of this.
It had been a very long time since Randy had smiled. But he found himself smiling now. Ever since the pod ship had landed on Second Earth, his life and the life of the colony members had been turned upside down. There was no rewinding the present. But he hoped beyond hope that this dream would one day become a reality. His smile didn’t leave his face as he stared at the blue planet, second by second the ship was becoming ever nearer to the surface. All he wanted to do was feel what it was like to enter the atmosphere of a brand-new planet.
He wanted to experience the jolts and the vibrations. He wanted to feel the g-force binding him back into the chair. Gustoff waited and waited for the ship to enter the atmosphere. And as he did so, he glanced at the stars as they shone back at him. Such beauty surrounded him. It was marvellous. A marvellous sight that he’d envisioned for years while reading textbooks. Books that had apparently come from planet Earth.
And there he was, finally coming home. They’d sent a package to Second Earth in the past, and now Randy was sending himself home. But the smile began to fade on his face as Earth started to become smaller. It was as if the ship was going backwards. Randy protested and groaned. He was waking up. And through the window of the ship, Earth was replaced by the face of the lady doctor staring down at him. He tried to fight it, but he was coming back. And his dreams were slipping away.
Tears began to roll down his face. At first they were warm, but then they became cold. Cold with regret. Cold with anger. It wasn’t fair! He needed to see Earth. Needed to experience it. Even if it was in a dream, he needed to see what it was like. Because he knew that once he woke up there wouldn’t be much hope left. All there would be was fear. Fear and darkness. He didn’t know how much more he could take of it. Being underground and cowering away. But he had no choice. He belonged in the land of the living. Dreamland would have to wait for Randy Gustoff.
“Randy, Randy… Wake up!” A voice said as Randy opened his eyes.
Almost immediately, a sharp shooting pain rippled across his face. It felt as if his ey
eballs were being yanked from the inside of his head. He tried to sit up but a gentle hand stopped him from doing so. It was déjà vu all over again. He swore that he’d experienced this before. And then it came back to him, like a bolt out of the blue.
“Have I been shot again?” Randy asked, feeling at his chest for any bullet wounds. But it wasn’t his chest that was hurting, it was his head. And oh boy did it hurt.
“No Randy, you haven’t been shot. You hit your head pretty hard though. I had to improvise and stitch you up. You went out like a light. You looked like you were dreaming!” The voice said, which Randy was now able to pinpoint to the lady doctor from Earth.
Randy blinked a few times and then his eyes focused. It was true, he was back on Second Earth. He was back underground in the caves. And he was back with the other colony members.
“Son of a bitch,” Randy said, sitting up.
This time the lady doctor didn’t try to stop him from getting up to his feet. She stepped back, trying to give him some room. The rest of the colony members were staring at him, some of them had concerned looks on their faces, while the others were just morbidly curious. Randy knew his worth to them. And he knew that he wasn’t worth much. But maybe some of them had changed their minds. Maybe now they didn’t see him as a madman. But he would never forget how they’d treated him, that was for sure.
“I’m a walking accident,” Randy said, feeling at his head.
It felt bruised and bumpy. The bumps belonged to the vine stitching. By the feel of it, she had done a very good job. But unfortunately, there were no pain meds here. There was just sucking it up and getting on with it. And that’s all that Randy could do. Because they surely couldn’t stay there, standing around like idiots, waiting for the fallout to catch up with them. The air was toxic on the outside, nearly as toxic as the stares he was receiving from the elderman.
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