by Andrew Gates
“Commander!” the voice said in response. “What a relief! You’re alive!”
“I am. Commander Faulkner is here too. She was just married only a few hours ago.”
“Hello, Lieutenant,” Linda greeted.
“Who is he talking to?” asked a voice in the background. It sounded like a kid.
“Commander Grey, Commander Faulkner, I’m glad you’re both alive. Congratulations on your wedding, Commander Faulkner… or is it White now?” replied Ryan Stone, ignoring the kid altogether.
“It’s still Faulkner,” Linda replied. “Anyway, Lieutenant, let’s not waste time with formalities here. There is important business to discuss. For starters, what is your status?”
There was a brief pause, followed by a long exhale. It seemed this Ryan Stone character needed to collect his thoughts before answering this question.
“That’s a tough one, ma’am,” he started. “We’ve been on the surface for a few days now.”
“The surface?” Sandra Walter repeated.
“Affirmative. The surface,” the man replied. “Contrary to what our data suggested, the atmosphere is perfectly livable here. We have been exploring freely without the need for an HPE or breathing gear for a few days now.”
“How did you come to this determination?” Commander Grey asked.
“I didn’t make the discovery, sir. Another group of survivors discovered this long before I did.”
Another group of survivors. That could explain these footprints.
“How many of you are there, Lieutenant?” Commander Faulkner inquired.
“15,” the man replied. “But only six of us are Navy.” He paused. “Perhaps I should start at the beginning and tell the whole story.”
“Tell us,” Sandra ordered.
He was going to tell us, you moron. You don’t need to order him.
“Let me get some help from one of the other survivors,” Ryan said. “Give me a second.”
Sanja could hear shuffling and dialog in the background, but could not specifically make anything out. After a few seconds, another voice came on the radio.
“Hello Atlantic Station, this is Daniel Georgopolis,” the new voice greeted.
“Hello Daniel, this is Commander Peter Skylar of the Atlantic Federation Navy. Unfortunately you are not speaking to the station right now. The station has been destroyed. We have retreated to a last resort shelter deep inside the seabed.”
There was a pause on the other end, followed by a deep breath.
“Damn, that’s tough news to hear,” the survivor replied, “but it makes sense.”
“I hear you have a tale to tell,” Commander Skylar said.
“That’s right, quite a tale,” the man continued. “It all started during the destruction of the city. I joined with eight other survivors. Together, we took an escape pod to the surface during the mantis attack.”
“The what?” Sandra Walter asked.
“The UBE attack, sorry,” the man corrected. “We’ve taken to calling them mantises. In any case, nine of us reached the surface alive. On our first day here, we discovered that the atmosphere was fine.”
“That’s remarkable,” Jordan Grey added. “Any ideas as to why?”
“Well, yes. We have a pretty strong theory,” Daniel answered. “Let me give you a bit of background. In addition to the air, there is a lot of vegetation and animal life up here. The most significant discovery is that we’ve found a UBE city, road and spacecraft. It seems like the creatures live here on the planet.”
A city. The UBEs have built a city. Those words were frightening.
“A spacecraft you say? So they came from another world and settled?” asked Linda Faulkner.
“Perhaps, but if they did, it was a long time ago. The cities are old. The vegetation is old. The atmosphere is safe. The creatures’ biology seems to pair with that of the planet. They can breathe here, survive in the pressure here, see our light, move in our gravity… it’s like this was their planet all along.”
Sanja remembered coming to that same conclusion when her team analyzed the UBE body after Invasion Day. But she did not know what to make of it at the time.
Heads nodded all around in the dark room. It seemed many people here also remembered these details from Sanja’s presentation.
“What are you getting at, exactly?” inquired Commander Skylar.
“Well, to put it simply: we think we’ve been underwater for a lot longer than 200 years. With this kind of evolution, it has to be in the thousands. A surface historian here thinks potentially tens of thousands,” he said.
This statement caused a lot of confused looks around the room.
The man’s hypothesis seemed like a big conclusion to jump to, but Sanja did not know enough about this to really know any better.
“That’s a pretty big claim,” Jordan Grey added, saying exactly what Sanja was thinking. “Who is this surface historian with you?”
“Her name is Iris Vitneskja,” the man replied.
“Iris Vitneskja?” Sanja repeated in astonishment.
Eyes turned to her. The President stood up.
“Dr. Parnel? What are you doing here?” he asked, pointing her way.
Shit, I shouldn’t have said that.
“I’m attending a meeting, sir. Same as you,” was all she said. Sanja knew she was one remark away from getting kicked out of here.
“When this meeting is over, I’d like a word,” President Ortega said. Then he sat back down, wiped his face and motioned to Commander Skylar to continue.
Sanja was glad she had not been kicked out, but she dreaded hearing whatever Ortega had to say when this was all done.
The commander wasted no time getting back to it.
“So the UBEs live on the surface, the atmosphere is safe and the station has been underwater for thousands of years. You’ve made an awful lot of discoveries, Mr. Georgopolis. Anything else?”
“Yes. We’ve encountered something odd, something we can’t figure out. There are footprints on the ground. They look human, but we haven’t seen who these prints belong to yet.”
“We’ve discovered the same thing from probe footage. We’ve found a set of 23 tracks along a stretch of the coast. Have you encountered this?”
“Not on the beach, not yet. It couldn’t have been us. We don’t have that many in our group.”
“How many are in your group, exactly? The other man said there are 15, but you said there are nine,” Sandra Walter added.
That may have been the most logical question she’s ever asked.
“Yes, nine in my escape pod, six from another. So we have 15 in total. Ryan came from a different pod than I did. My group has been on land for a bit longer.”
“So no theories on where these 23 other people came from?” Commander Skylar asked.
“No. None,” the survivor answered.
The room was quiet for a moment.
“Is there anything else you’d like to report?” Linda eventually inquired.
“We’re in pretty bad shape. Two of our party woke up this morning with some severe symptoms. We have limited food and supplies. I don’t suppose you could help us on that front.”
“We are also limited down here. We’ve been cut off from our food production. We’re just living on rations now,” Commander Skylar replied. “Sorry, but we can’t help you. We need to save as much as we can down here.”
The thought made Sanja shiver. She didn’t like thinking about what would happen once the food ran out.
“I understand,” the man said back. There was a certain sadness to his voice.
“I have a question,” Sandra Walter added, butting in. “How did you all manage to access the escape pods? They were being reprogrammed at the time, weren’t they?”
“We had help from someone who knew how to access those pods,” the man explained. “His name was Tracey Saljov.”
Sanja did her best to hold in her astonishment this time. She remained quiet, though
she wanted to shout his name. Tracey Saljov, she thought. So he had a role to play in this all along. The woman clenched her fists in frustration. Iris Vitneskja and Tracey Saljov were working together right under my nose. How could I have been so blind to trust that traitorous woman?
A few people in the room turned to look at her. It was no secret that she hated him. Sanja tried to act composed. She would not give these people a show. Baltir is probably giggling like a stupid child right now.
“Tracey Saljov? You mean the fugitive?” Commander Skylar asked.
“Yes, the fugitive. He is also the father to one of our survivors, Ophelia Saljov.”
I thought she was transferred to her mother’s custody.
“You’ve made a lot of wild claims, Mr. Georgopolis,” Commander Skylar said in response. “Forgive us if we do not believe you right away. We will discuss the possibility of your theories among our team down here.”
“I understand, but believe me, I know what I am seeing up here,” the man replied. He paused for a few seconds. “Would you like to speak to Ryan again?” he eventually asked.
“Yes, that would be great. Thank you, sir,” Commander Grey answered.
“You’re welcome. I hope this was helpful for you,” he said.
There was a pause once again as the microphone changed hands. Sanja could hear more static. After a few seconds, Ryan returned on the radio.
“Ryan Stone,” the man said as he returned.
“Lieutenant, your partner made some pretty audacious claims,” Commander Grey said, getting right to it.
“I know,” he replied. “I heard the whole thing. This may surprise you, but I can verify everything he has said. I trust this man and vouch for him. I have seen a lot of these things firsthand.”
“Including the UBE city?” Sandra Walter asked.
“Negative. That was one thing I did not see. But I believe Mr. Georgopolis.”
People in the dark room each turned to look at one another. It seemed everyone was skeptical.
“Tell us your side of the story, Lieutenant,” ordered Commander Faulkner.
For the next 30 minutes, the Navy man went into thorough detail about everything he and the other survivors had encountered over the last few days. He spoke of the first meeting between his group and Dan’s, of reaching the third escape pod full of supplies, of their limited food and water, of some sort of floating farm, of a massive triangular spaceship above their heads, even of the treacherous Tracey Saljov and their escape from the station. It was a lot to take in all at once. Sanja questioned entire parts of the story at times, yet she remained as interested as ever.
When the Navy man’s story was finally over, the others in the room were all quiet. The hum of the computers and the static of the radio were all that could be heard. Just by breathing, Sanja felt like she was disturbing the tranquility of it all.
Sanja tried to piece together everything this man had said. Going through it, she had to admit, it all matched up to the things she discovered from her own investigation. The glowing orb that attacked the Cassidy prototype heated up the water to produce steam on the surface, the same type of steam found on the floating farm. The fact that UBEs lived on the surface would explain why their biology seemed to have evolved to match that of the planet. The Atlantic Station having been underwater for thousands of years also explained the evolution of the English language across the other two stations. The only thing that didn’t match up was the mysterious footprints. That still remained a mystery.
“And remind me again, how long have you all been on the surface?” Sandra Walter eventually asked after he had finished telling the tale.
“My pod’s crew has been here for… probably a week now. The others, a few days longer.”
A week. They’ve uncovered so much in such a short time.
“Well… does anyone have any further questions?” Commander Skylar asked after a few moments.
The room was silent. Most people had already asked their questions during the Navy man’s story. Sanja had a few questions of her own, mostly about Tracey Saljov and Iris Vitneskja, but she dared not ask them now.
“Very well,” Commander Skylar eventually said, “then it looks like we have heard enough. Thank you for your testimony, Lieutenant. We have a lot to talk about down here. We will be in touch again tomorrow.”
“Understood,” the lieutenant replied. “I look forward to our conversation tomorrow.”
“Roger that and have a happy New Year,” Peter said.
“Is it the new year?”
“It is!”
“Forgive me for not knowing. It’s been hard to keep track of the days up here.”
“No apologies required. You and the others have a lot to deal with. I understand,” Commander Skylar replied. “Until tomorrow.”
“Until tomorrow.”
All noise stopped in an instant. It seemed Ryan Stone had walked away from the radio. Baltir hobbled up to the computer and pushed some buttons. Sanja did not know what he was doing, but she assumed it had something to do with the radio too.
All eyes turned to the commander. He was the center of attention once again. The man did not seem to know what to do in this moment. He stared back at the crowd and cleared his throat.
“Well… that was certainly unexpected,” Peter Skylar said, rather candidly.
“We have a lot to discuss,” added Jordan Grey, stepping in. “When Commander Skylar organized this meeting, we did not plan to communicate with survivors on the surface.”
“Yes, yes,” Commander Skylar agreed, finally finding something to say. “This was originally supposed to be a much simpler affair. We were planning to share our theories on the surface footprints. But with all we have just learned, it is probably best to rethink some of those theories.”
“Agreed,” added Commander Grey.
“I think so as well,” added Faulkner.
“Then it’s settled,” the President said. He stood up. The room got quiet as he buttoned his suit jacket and faced the audience. “If anyone here publicly shares what we’ve learned today, you will be put on trial for treason,” he said. The words were heavy. “The last thing the FCP needs are more complications.”
“I think we all know the severity of such an action,” Jordan Grey added. “This group is not new to top-secret information.”
The President glared at Sanja.
“Very well,” he said, still keeping his eyes fixed on her. “Then you are all dismissed. One of the commanders shall be in touch to schedule our next meeting.”
There was a brief pause before everyone suddenly made their way to the exit. Sanja lingered as people pushed her way around her. She knew these next few minutes were not going to be fun.
Once the room was slightly emptier, she moved forward. She stopped about a meter before the President and stood still, just waiting for the rest of the room to clear. After a few seconds, all that remained were Sanja, President Ortega, Sandra Walter and a few guards dressed in white. Dammit, why did Sandra Walter have to be here for this? The woman had an annoying smirk on her face, as if she took pleasure in seeing Sanja told to remain after the meeting like a misbehaving student told to talk to the teacher after class.
“Sanja, how did you get here?” the President asked, getting right to it.
She looked him directly in the eyes. She would not act shy and weak in front of him.
“Commander Grey thought I could provide some valuable insight,” she answered honestly.
The President took a deep breath.
“But you were not invited. This meeting was arraigned by Commander Skylar, not Commander Grey. He did not have the authority to admit you,” he said.
“I’m aware of that,” she replied.
The President rolled his eyes, as if expecting this answer.
“If you knew you weren’t supposed to be here, then why did you come?”
“I feel as if I have been left out of the loop since the city was destroyed,” she
explained. “I was curious to see what our naval intelligence has uncovered.”
“You’ve felt out of the loop because you’ve been intentionally removed from the loop, doctor,” the President replied. “You weren’t even supposed to be in the FCP!”
“Not everyone on that list made it down here. There is ample room for me,” Sanja argued defensively, though ample was perhaps not the best word to describe it.
The President seemed unfazed by her words. She could tell that behind his tired expression, he was upset with her.
“The FCP was meant to include everyone essential for our survival,” the President explained. “Government officials, Navy leaders, great minds, people of power and influence-”
“And what about these guards?” Sanja interrupted, motioning to one of the Navy men standing at attention.
Sandra Walter stood up and glared at her.
“Please do not interrupt the President,” she explained.
Ortega held out his hand, motioning for his chief of staff to calm down, though the expression on his face showed that he agreed with her. Sandra Walter took a deep breath and sat back down.
“These guards may not be people of power, but they were some of the lucky few chosen to join us. Their presence is essential,” he explained. “They are exceptions to the rule.”
“Then consider me another necessary exception,” Sanja said. “I may not be a high ranking official or head of Atlantic Station operations, but I can help.”
“You’ve done enough meddling,” the President quickly responded. “Do I need to remind you of the mess you caused in the station trying to hunt down Tracey Saljov?”
He had to say that name.
“As I recall, you granted me all necessary power to conduct my investigation as I saw fit,” Sanja retorted. She was surprised how easily he seemed to forget his own words.
“You overstepped your boundaries, doctor. As I recall, I granted you permission to conduct an investigation, not lock up a poor man and pull station resources into capturing him after his escape.”
“Then perhaps you should have been more clear in expressing what constitutes as ‘necessary power,’” she replied, not letting up.
