Into the Dust Storm

by Logan Brookfield

  ‘Vincent, let me go, please. They’ll never know if you just let me slip away,’ Max said.

  Vincent shook his head. ‘No can do, you know the rules. Let’s go back to the town and we’ll sort it out down there.’

  ‘So, we’re prisoners? We have to go with you?’ Carl asked.

  ‘Nope, but you’ll understand we have security protocols and that we work hard to protect what we have. Come to the town and we’ll process this incident and have you on your way within a couple of hours. We’ll also replenish your canteens and give you some food. We’re not barbarians, you know.’

  Carl looked at Amy. He felt uneasy with the situation, which wasn’t anything like he’d been hoping for. Sanctuary promised to be a place where you could live in peace and survive. A place to live as free people, able to contribute to a just and fair society and live a natural and fulfilling life. Perhaps these were pipe dreams but it was something he’d hung onto for so long, the thought of it being unreal terrified him. But they both needed somewhere to stay, particularly now with a baby on the way, and anywhere with resources and civil people would be better than living in the dust.

  Carl nodded. ‘We’d appreciate a place to rest and the chance to replenish our supplies, thank you,’ he said hesitantly, knowing that the heavily armed man gave them little choice.

  Vincent used his rifle to point the way. ‘Let’s get you down there then, and we’ll get you processed and have you on your way soon. Oh, and one last thing…I’ll need that revolver from your waistband. We don’t allow civilians to carry weapons around the town.’

  Carl took the pistol from his waistband and handed it over. He now felt more vulnerable than ever but knew he had little choice. This was either going to be the worst decision he’d ever made, or the best, and only time would tell.

  Chapter Five

  Edmond and O’Connor walked past the two guards at the entrance to the medical lab. Sitting on a nearby table, near to the pods, were three men and one woman. They were shivering and covered in a clear slime liquid and wrapped in silver blankets. Edmond looked inside the first pod and saw an outer layer in the shape of a human, like a cocoon made of gel, which had burst open allowing the occupant to escape.

  ‘I can’t believe it. They weren’t featureless anthropoids, after all. The crew was intact inside those sacks waiting to hatch out,’ Edmond said, placing his glasses on the end of his nose.

  O’Connor stepped forward and approached the older male. He looked about 45, with short greying hair and a short beard. ‘My name’s Captain O’Connor of the Lasell, welcome aboard what’s left of our craft. Who am I speaking to, please?’

  The man pulled the silver blanket tighter around him in an attempt to stop shivering and rubbed his eyes to remove the gel-like residue that covered most of his body. He remained silent and appeared to not hear or understand the question.

  Edmond looked at Doctor Russell. ‘What happened?’

  Doctor Russell shook her head. ‘We checked on them this morning, nothing much had changed although there was some increased brain activity and the muscle spasms were increasing. We left the lab to take an inventory of our supplies and returned about an hour later to this situation. It looks like they were being kept alive, healed even, within those cocoons. Whether it was the gravity drive of the Lasell that woke them up or it’s just a coincidence, I don’t know. Either way they’ve all emerged from their pods like this.’

  ‘Have they communicated at all?’ Edmond asked.

  ‘No, nothing,’ the doctor said. ‘We’ve given them blankets to keep them warm as they can’t seem to maintain a stable body temperature, even in this heat.’

  Edmond took a step forward. ‘Can any of you understand what we’re saying? Can you attempt to communicate with us so we can get you the help and information you need?’

  The female looked at the older male then back at Edmond. She was slim, in her early thirties with high cheek bones and short black hair. She coughed and spat out liquid onto the floor in an attempt to clear her lungs.

  ‘I think she understands but she’s struggling to communicate,’ O’Connor said.

  Edmond pointed to the jug of water on a nearby worktop. ‘Would you like some water? Can we get you anything else?’

  The female took a deep breath. ‘My name’s Janelle,’ she whispered, coughing several times, trying to clear her throat. ‘I’m the second in command of the Frobisher. Our mission was to…’

  ‘It’s OK, Janelle. Please take your time. I’m Edmond, the leader of what was once the Cloud people, but now we’re a collection of survivors from our ship, the Lasell. Breathe, take your time and tell us what happened, please.’

  Janelle’s head hung low as she gulped in as much oxygen as she could to feed her starving lungs. ‘The details are fuzzy…it’s difficult to recall exactly,’ she said, trying to raise her voice, but the effort was too great and she paused to breathe in more air. ‘We left the planet on time; our mission was to travel as close to light speed as we could…then return when many years had passed on Earth and attempt to rebuild humanity. It was a gamble, a backup plan in case those left on the planet died out.’

  Edmond nodded. ‘Much the same as our mission, you were going to use time dilation to time travel. However our mission was cut short because someone within our own ranks decided to destroy everything we’ve worked so hard for.’

  ‘Are we under arrest? I notice that your guards are pointing their weapons at us and have their fingers on triggers,’ Janelle asked, taking deep breaths in between.

  ‘Not at all,’ Captain O’Connor said, waving to the soldiers to lower their weapons. ‘But you have to understand from our point of view, we had no idea what was going to hatch out of those cocoons…and we’re still not certain what we’re dealing with, so please forgive our precautions.’

  Janelle looked at the armed guards then her eyes flicked between Edmond and O’Connor. ‘Our course was plotted in advance and everything was going smoothly, until the ship’s computer detected a signal and deviated from our course, reducing our speed near the edge of a pulsar.’

  ‘What signal?’ O’Connor asked.

  ‘A distress signal…hidden amongst the pulse of electromagnetic radiation. We cleaned it up, scrubbed all the noise from it and found it originated from a satellite. No more than thirty feet in diameter, we could barely see it on our screens. It was just a small bright speck against the backdrop of the pulsar.’

  Edmond stepped forward. ‘Then what happened? I appreciate that you and your remaining crew must be exhausted, but we need as much information as we can. Then I think you should rest while we formulate a plan to survive our current predicament.’

  Janelle nodded and rubbed her eyes. ‘The captain wanted to investigate further, but I and most of the crew were against it. It was a risk that we didn’t have to take and it wasn’t part of our original mission. We had thousands of souls on board, all hoping for a new life. The ship was still in good order and all we needed to do was cancel the alert and instruct the computer to get us back underway.’

  ‘Did you manage to decipher the distress signal?’ O’Connor asked.

  ‘Yes, we did, but it wasn’t a distress signal…it was a warning…from you, Captain.’

  Captain O’Connor pointed to himself. ‘A warning from me? How could that be? We never left orbit; our ship was destroyed. When we recovered you and your crew from the Frobisher many years ago, we hadn’t even got a viable form of transport. The Lasell was undergoing a major upgrade and refit; it never went anywhere and neither did I.’

  Janelle shook her head. ‘I don’t know, Captain, I can’t explain it either, but you told us you were Captain O’Connor and you were the sole survivor of the Lasell. You were barely alive inside an escape pod and every other crew member had perished along with your ship, and you warned us to stay away, to leave immediately and not to attempt a rescue.’

  ‘Then what happened?’

  ‘We aborted the rescue mi
ssion, cancelled the computer’s alert and reignited our engines. Then our problems started. Our engines failed and we started to get pulled towards the star. We lost all our main systems and managed to enter a request for the main computer to return home, just before the blackout.’

  ‘So you lost all power?’ Edmond asked.

  Janelle nodded. ‘All power, yes…but we all blacked out after that, as far as I’m aware. The next I know is we’re waking up here, back on Earth, sometime in the future talking to you. None of it makes sense. Did the Frobisher and anyone else survive?’

  ‘Unfortunately not,’ O’Connor said. ‘The Frobisher appeared on our scanners, heavily damaged and limping towards Earth. Somehow the ship’s computer had actioned your last request to return home, but with no known means of power as the engines and the ship were heavily damaged. We guided her in and put her in a stable orbit. When we entered the ship we found it mostly abandoned and damaged with no sign of life at all, except for yourself and the others who we found in the bridge area.’

  ‘Were there six of us?’ Janelle asked.

  Yes, there were. One died as we prepared to leave orbit and one perished upon landing back on Earth, I’m sorry to say. So, it’s just you four left from the original crew of over two thousand. ’

  ‘What year is it?’

  Edmond looked at O’Connor then back at Janelle. ‘It’s 2417, you’ve been missing for over fifty years.’

  Janelle shook her head. ‘That’s not possible. What about my mother. What about my family?’

  Edmond removed his glasses. ‘I’m afraid I’ve no reliable information about your family. If there is any such information it’ll be in the archives of the Crystal City. But that’s probably not the best place for us to be right now, at least not until we can survey the current situation. Your family would have considered you lost and would have held a funeral at which you would have been given full honours in recognition of your service and sacrifice.’

  ‘And here I am, risen from the dead in some bleak future where everyone I know is gone,’ Janelle said, placing her head in her hands.

  Edmond nodded slowly. ‘I’m so sorry, this must be a lot to deal with I know. We need to find out why you’ve been cocooned for so long and what physical and mental changes have taken place. You were kept alive without any noticeable aging, and there must be a reason for it. However there are more pressing concerns. We must leave here soon and find resources and shelter or we’ll all be dead.

  Chapter Six

  The group walked down the well-used track towards the main gates of the town. As they got closer it became clear just how well protected the place was. The walls were made from steel sheeting, about three times the height of a man and precision riveted to iron girders, which were then partly buried in concrete in the ground. It created a barrier that nothing could breach and provided the occupants with a ring of steel to protect against whatever it was they were afraid of. The tall gates were also covered in metal so it was impossible to see inside until they were opened. Either side of the gates was a sentry tower containing two heavily armed men, who looked down on the approaching group. As well as their rifles, they had large-calibre machine guns mounted on rails that could quickly and easily spray the whole front area of the settlement with lead.

  ‘That’s a lot of hardware for paradise,’ Carl whispered.

  ‘Sure is,’ Amy said. ‘I wonder who they’re afraid of.’

  One of the men in the guard tower signalled with his hand and the gates creaked and groaned then slowly started to open, at first just a crack giving a sliver of a view, which widened to reveal the town within.

  The group followed Vincent through the gateway into what was an unexpectedly pleasant scene. Small but well-kept cottages were adorned by window boxes full of flowers and lined a wide street. People were everywhere, going about their business in what was clearly a thriving community. On the right was a blacksmith, hammering a piece of red-hot metal into shape. Just down from him was an old lady with white hair weaving baskets on her front porch. She looked up and gave Amy a warm smile as she approached.

  ‘You’d think he’d stop making all that noise on such a nice day wouldn’t you, dear?’ the old lady said.

  Amy smiled back as she walked past, not sure how to respond.

  As they got further into the town, the single-storey dwellings turned into double-storey buildings that looked like a mixture of houses and businesses.

  ‘See, I told you there was nothing to worry about,’ Vincent said.

  Carl and Amy looked at each other and continued to follow.

  ‘Max, you’re quiet. Are you OK?’ Amy asked.

  ‘The town’s grown since I was last here,’ he mumbled.

  ‘When were you last here? It looks a nice place to live so far,’ Amy said.

  ‘I’m not sure, it must have been before…’

  ‘Welcome!’ a man bellowed, striding from one of the buildings towards Carl with a hand outstretched. ‘I’m Elias and I’m the mayor…welcome to our town.’

  Carl accepted the hand and shook it firmly. Elias was in his forties, with medium-length brown hair and a neatly trimmed greying beard. His pockmarked and tanned skin made him look like someone who had spent a lot of time outside. His smart dark suit with a dark shirt open at the neck gave a more businesslike look.

  ‘Thank you,’ Carl said, keeping hold of the hand. ‘I’m sorry if we’ve trespassed or caused you any problems, we were looking for Sanctuary. Have we found it?’

  Elias gestured with his hand. ‘Vincent, please lower your weapon, you’re making me and our guests nervous.’

  Vincent nodded, stepped back a couple of paces and slung his rifle over his shoulder.

  Elias placed his hands on his hips and shook his head. ‘It’s no inconvenience whatsoever, you’re very welcome here. Please allow me to show you around,’ he said holding a hand out, palm up, towards the centre of town.

  Carl started to walk. ‘Thank you, we could do with some water and maybe a little bit of food and then we’ll be out of your way. Is this the sanctuary that the road sign is directing people to?’

  ‘Nonsense, you’re not in our way at all. There’s a sandstorm coming,’ Elias said, nodding towards the sky to the east. ‘You won’t want to be outside in that. Stay here and fill your bellies and take what supplies you need, you can leave in the morning if you wish…but before you do leave, please take time to look around. If you like what you see, please consider staying longer, and to answer your other questions, yes this is the sanctuary the sign is pointing to…welcome to Hope Point.’

  Amy smiled. ‘So we’ve made it, we’re safe. I can’t believe we’ve managed to find it. Do you have any others from the Crystal City here?’

  The mayor continued to lead the group down the main street, past shopfronts and dwellings. ‘We have many people from many different places here. Their stories and their journeys are remarkable and most stay with us and help build our community. We are always happy to accept those who wish a better life and who can contribute…now, while I think about it, Vincent, please take Max and process him.’

  Max looked down at the floor and his shoulders slumped as Vincent took his arm and led him down a side street.

  Max stopped and turned round. ‘Thanks Carl and Amy, it was nice meeting you. I’ll see you in paradise…once we find it, but it’s not here,’ he said as Vincent pulled him away.

  ‘What’s going to happen to him?’ Carl asked. ‘He’s been really helpful and we’d never have found you without his help. What does he mean...paradise isn’t here?’

  ‘He didn’t want to return here, what is he afraid of?’ Amy added.

  Elias stopped outside a double-storey house. ‘He’ll be fine. What you probably don’t realise is that Max has comprehension difficulties. What I mean by that is that ever since he was young he’s struggled to learn and to communicate effectively, this makes him quite vulnerable.’

  ‘He seemed fine to us. He’s be
en living alone for years without any issues,’ Amy said.

  Elias nodded. ‘Like you say, he was alone. He gets stressed when he’s around too many people and you might have noticed he’s a little…well, how can I say…distant and socially awkward sometimes. Don’t worry, we’ll take good care of him. Vincent’s just going to debrief him and get to work easing him back into a useful role in our society.’

  ‘So, how long have you been here? We didn’t think there was anyone else outside,’ Carl said.

  Elias laughed. ‘By outside you mean outside the walls of the city you call Crystal, I presume. There isn’t much outside to be honest. There are pockets of survivors like us and I was aware of the big city. But they were never interested in reaching out to us and making friends, so we took precautions and made it hard for them to find us,’ he said, opening the front door to the dwelling and inviting them in.

  Inside was a clean and well-furnished sitting room with soft cream-coloured sofas in the middle, surrounding a small coffee table. In the corner was a desk and a large leather chair. Other rooms off a hallway had the doors closed but it was obviously a place where someone lived in comfort and also worked.

  ‘Welcome to my humble abode. Please, take a seat and I’ll get you some tea. You must be starving too,’ Elias said.

  Carl and Amy sat on the large sofa, which seemed to swallow them up amongst the cushions like a giant, soft bed. The mayor brought over a tray with three china cups and a pot of tea.

  ‘What did you mean when you said you took precautions against the big city?’ Carl asked.

  Elias poured from the pot. ‘We picked you up well before you saw our town, so we were able to send Vincent out to check there wasn’t any threat. We also allowed you to see the town from a distance. You see, we have an elaborate defensive situation here, partly inherited from the ancients and partly developed by myself. You’ve heard the term smoke and mirrors before?’