~~~~~~~~~~
As Will’s eyes became accustomed to the darkness, he realised that there seemed to be a low building a hundred metres from the antenna.
"It looks like there’s a building over there" he said pointing in its direction.
"You’re right. I thought this place was unoccupied. Obviously wrong, there. In this light I’m surprised you could see it, as there’s no heat being radiated from it and it’s trying to hide in the rocks. We might learn something from it. If nothing else, we’ll see where the signal is being sent" he said, turning in the building’s direction.
A few minutes later they were standing in front of a drab-looking building, the rear of which was hidden underground. It looked like it had been made from some form of concrete, topped by a pair of sloping roofs. It had a large, obviously heavy door running most of the building’s width. They noticed, however, a small access door to the left of this large door and headed towards it.
"Don’t you think we should wait for Security to turn up?" asked Will, feeling slightly nervous of entering the building, fearful of what might be in there.
"We’re in the middle of nowhere. What could go wrong?"
"Just saying. If nothing else, they ought to know there IS a building here. While they can find the ship, they might not spot this place."
"Good point. OK, I’ll give them a shout." With that, Will changed the frequency of his suit radio to that used by the local police and told them about the building and the direction of it with respect to the ship.
"They have a cruiser on its way, which has five personnel on board and should be here within the hour. Right, let’s see who or what there is in there." said Billy, turning to the door. A few seconds later, Will and Billy were inside.
"Odd, I would have expected an airlock" said Billy.
Although their suits were equipped with head-height lights, they did little to dispel their first impression that they had entered a very large space. Will looked around the door, to see if there was something that resembled a light switch. A few feet from it was a grey circular knob that seemed to be what he was looking for. As he turned it, a number of lights flickered on. Around the sides of the large space were a number of work benches and racks. At the far end was another large door, similar to the one they had passed through on the way in. What dominated the space, however, was a pair of large navy blue spaceships. "Wow, this place is HUGE" he exclaimed.
"I’d like to have a closer look at that ship" said Billy, pointing towards the nearest. "I don’t know about you but I’ve never seen anything like that before."
"No, neither have I. But then again, I hadn’t seen anything like your ship either until today. What I can say, though, is that this is not something that a hermit is going to use. They look like they can carry a few hundred people, at least" replied Will.
As they moved round to the side of the ship, Billy saw an image of a pale blue circle, with two planets enmeshed within it, with some large white lettering running around the outside, saying "PROMETHEUS" on the side. Along each side and on the nose were what looked like weapons, although neither had any ideas as to what they were, never having been this close to a military spaceship before.
Towards the rear of the ship was a ramp, at the top of which was a massive airlock that looked like it could accept up to fifty people at a time. As they approached the top of the ramp, they could see, next to the inner door, a sign above a large red button, which said "PREMU POR COKLO AIRLOCK" that they took to be the button for closing the outer door.
As the inner door opened, Will suggested that they try to find the cockpit or, judging from the size of the ship, the bridge. Fortunately, the ship’s systems seemed to be automatic and the lights were illuminated, so they didn’t need to use their suit lights.
The airlock seemed to have been cycling air, so Billy announced "I’ll just see if the air’s breathable in here. It will save our own supplies" then, checking the gauge on his left wrist "Looks good. We can take our helmets off. We’ll be able to see better as well."
As they walked down the corridor, they were struck by just how many doors there were, on both sides.
"Let’s have a look in one or two of these doors. There may be clues in them that help us build a picture of what this tub is for" suggested Billy, as he approached the nearest door. As the door opened, the lights inside came on and they could see what looked like a bunk room, with bunks for twenty or so people. There were large signs along one wall, which said "GLORO AL LA VENKINTO!" in the upper left corner, with a stylised image of a soldier of some sort, holding a weapon high in the air.
"I think we need a photo of that. I’ve no idea what it says but it looks like something warlike" said Billy, as he recorded an image of the sign.
As they advanced down the corridor, they saw a sign that said "PONTO" and decided to follow the arrow beneath it.
At the end of the corridor was a wide doorway, with double doors barring their way. However, as they approached the doors, they opened from the middle outwards and they could see that they had reached the bridge.
"I guess that "PONTO" means "BRIDGE" in this language" said Will, looking around the various controls and consoles "Better get more photos."
Towards the rear of the room, adjacent to the one they had entered through, Billy spotted another sign saying "ARMILOJ KONTROLO" and said "that could mean "ARMS CONTROL. Worth a look?"
"I see what you mean. Definitely" responded Will, heading towards the door after Billy. As they entered the room, there were seats for six, with monitors in front of each, as well as control panels below, complete with a variety of icons, which looked like they could control a whole battery of weapons.
"This room definitely needs photographing. Then, I suggest we’d better get out of here. Don’t want to overstay our welcome" said Billy, taking several photographs.
"I’m going to have a look around these racks and what-not. They might give us a clue as to who these things belong to" said Will as they left the ship. With that, he walked over to the side of the hangar. Most of the racks and benches simply had tools and equipment on them, which appeared to be for maintaining space ships. As he approached the rear corner of the hanger and rounded a large rack, he saw an open door.
"I’m going to call the cops again. They should be here shortly but they need to know about this. I’ll send them the pictures I’ve taken, so they can see if the ship’s in their database or can contact the navy to see if this is part of their fleet" said Billy. With that, he called them and told them what they had found and sent them the pictures he had taken.
Before they could reply, Will called him "Hey, Billy. There’s another door back here. Might give some more clues.”
As Billy rushed towards him, Will went through the door. The light came on as Will entered the room. The room looked like an office. There was a desk in the middle, with a computer monitor on it, along with a keyboard built into the desktop, so that it could be used in vacuum and whilst wearing a spacesuit, if necessary. Along the rear wall were shelves containing ornaments, lumps of rock and crystal and a photograph of a snow-covered mountain, with the title "Tango Monto En Vintro." Will was surprised that, despite what looked like state of the art spaceships in the hangar, the equipment here looked positively old-fashioned compared to what he was used to. Someone had obviously tried to personalise it a bit with the ornaments, although it didn’t detract from the overall starkness of the room.
As Billy approached the room, he realised that the door could be sealed air-tight if necessary, as the door was several centimetres thick and had edges that overlapped those of the door frame. As he came into view, Will said "What do you reckon to this lot? It looks antiquated to me."
"It’s not exactly cutting edge is it? Reminds me of the first computer I had as a kid but even that was more advanced than this one. I guess that whoever owns this place has either been here a while or else it does what they want and they haven’t felt the need to update it.
Have you had a look through that door?" Billy said, nodding towards the door in question.
"No, not yet, I was trying to get my head around this room first" replied Will, moving towards the door being referred to.
Billy paused and held up his right hand and said "Hang on a sec., getting a message from the police." A few moments later, he said that They’ll be landing in about five minutes. They also asked that, before we explore any further we wait for their arrival."
"Let’s have a quick look through here and see if there are any further clues as to what’s going on. What I don’t understand is that this place looks good to go, yet seems deserted. At least, we haven’t seen anything that would suggest current activity, despite the data feed coming over here and the ships out there" said Will, as he disappeared through the door.
As he went through the door, more lights came on. The room was at least a hundred metres long and fifty metres wide. Down one side was a variety of weapons, stacked neatly in racks. Along the other side was a collection of personal shields, amongst a number of crates, some with the lids ajar, some closed. Like the other door, the door out of the room also looked like it could be sealed if necessary, even if it wasn’t at the moment. Upon leaving he room, he moved towards the large doors adjacent to it and realised they were for a massive airlock, which hadn’t registered with him on his travels through the hangar.
"Oh, my God. There’s enough weaponry here for a small army" said a stunned Billy behind him.
"I really, really don’t like the look of this" replied a worried-looking Will, as he backed into the office he had just left. As he entered the room, he reversed into Billy who, in turn, bumped the rack next to the door. A small box fell to the floor, which he bent to pick up.
The world suddenly changed. They became aware that there was activity in the large room they had just left. Will looked carefully around the edge of the door and was stunned to see the rear hangar full of people busying themselves, wearing black military-looking space suits.
"Don’t look now but the place is crawling with military types."
"What? How?" replied a disbelieving Billy, trying to see what Will was referring to. Once he had taken a look of his own and had confirmed what he had been told, Billy eased back into the room and walked carefully towards the door into the hangar and looked out carefully.
"This one’s full, as well. Now what do we do? We seem to have jumped into yet another reality."
"We can’t stay here too long. We’re going to be discovered sooner or later. Whoever this office belongs to is going to come in here" replied Will.
Will realised they weren’t alone. In the corner of his eye, he had spotted movement a few metres behind him. He looked round quickly and saw one of the black-suited individuals heading towards him, his mouth moving. In his suit, Will couldn’t make out what he was saying, although he could only assume it wasn’t something he would either want to hear or would understand, being in the language of those from this reality.
"Billy, we’ve been spotted. Better get out of here, now!" shouted Will, as he ducked back into the room.
"Oh shit, that’s all we need" responded Billy, running towards the other door.
Will followed as best he could but, in his haste, ran into the corner of the desk, which, with the lower than familiar gravity, was enough to send him crashing headlong to the floor.
As Billy ran into the now occupied hangar, he dived behind a shelf rack, so that he could, he hoped, keep out of sight of the people milling about in the hangar.
He looked back, but couldn’t see Will. As he started to return to the office, Will called out "Keep going Billy. I can’t get away from this guy. I tripped and before I could get up, he pulled a weapon on me and there’s no way I can get out of here."
"I’ll see if there’s anything I can do" he replied. Knowing he had few, if any, options, Billy edged back towards his hiding place, aware that it would only buy him a few minutes of safety. He looked around him for some kind of weapon but getting to anything he could see would have meant him being clearly visible to those in the hangar, so he crept along the outside wall, keeping as low as possible and hoping he wouldn’t be spotted.
As he moved along the wall, he was keeping a close eye on someone nearby, with their backs to him at the moment, hoping they wouldn’t turn around and spot him, when he lost his footing and fell over. As he put his hands out to stop his helmet hitting the ground, he must have bumped the small box he had picked up earlier. He had put it in one of the small pockets that were attached to the outside of his suit and were used to carry spares and tools when he was working in airless environments. As he picked himself up, his heart was beating faster than he had thought possible, hoping his fall hadn’t been noticed. As he looked up, he looked straight into the midriff of someone.
"Oh, hell!" he muttered, slowly standing up, raising his hands into a surrender pose.
Once he had stood up, he realised that, rather than looking at one of the black-suited strangers, he was looking at someone in a police suit.
"What ARE you doing?" asked the cop.
"Sorry, I tripped."
"What were you doing down there anyway, and what’s with the hands?"
"This is going to get complicated. Can we go somewhere we can talk without having to use a radio? I suggest we go into one of the ships, since they have breathable air in them. By the way, I’m Billy Hunt" responded Billy, holding out his right hand to the officer.
"Yeah, OK. I’m Lieutenant Sarah Hirst. Before we do, though, we’ve looked through our database and those things aren’t in it" she said, nodding at the two ships.
"I suggest you put someone in to guard them from intruders and send someone into there and remove as many of the weapons that you can" replied Billy, pointing towards the back of the hangar.
"What for? This place is deserted except for us."
"You’ve presumably seen the photos. By the time I’ve explained what else we’ve seen, you’ll understand why."
"OK, I’ll play along, for now. Sergeant, can you have a look through there, taking Norgrove with you, and let me know what there is back there?"
"Yes, Ma’am."
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