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 did
n’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 eyeballs 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.
“Don’t take it out on yourself Randy, it could have happened to any of us. The main thing is that you are okay. But we must keep moving. We need to find water. A lot of the elderman are weak and compromised. And that’s not including you Randy. You definitely need some water. A wound like that will have taken it out of you. So I say that we get a move on and find a nice resting spot. Once we reach the spot, we can think of a contingency plan,” the lady doctor said, turning toward Timson who was standing next to her.
He nodded in agreement.
“Okay people, you heard the lady, let’s get a move on.”
Randy got to his feet. He felt a little wobbly at first, but his equilibrium soon balanced out. He must’ve looked a state, because April came up to him and checked if he was okay.
“You sure you can move?” She asked.
Randy nodded and gave her a smile. All the smile did was remind him of the dream he’d just had. It was like he could’ve touched Earth and missed out on it. He felt bitter. Bitter that the dream wasn’t real and he was back on Second Earth, underground hiding from the fallout. He didn’t want to be here anymore. There was no here to be on. They couldn’t just live underground like rats for the rest of their lives. They needed air. They needed food. And they needed water. Randy wasn’t that optimistic about finding either of those things underground in the cave systems.
“Yeah, I can move. Don’t worry about me. It was my fault that I hit my head, so I don’t think I deserve any sympathy for it.”
April laughed.
“Well, as long as you are okay. The last thing I want is for you to end up hurt. You’re the only person I care about in here. Without you, I don’t know what I would do. So please, watch where you are going next time, yeah?”
Randy nodded, a playful grin on his face. Maybe it wasn’t as bad as before. In the dream, April wasn’t present. And neither were the rest of the colony. It was just him, him and Planet Earth. In hindsight, that’s not how Randy envisions his life. Yes – he envisions it on Earth, with the people of Earth, finally being home. But the dream was missing an integral part and that integral part was April. He was pretty sure that he loved her. But how does one go about telling a woman that you love her in a cave? So all he did was grin.
“You mean a lot to me too,” Randy said, momentarily brushing his hand on hers.
Their moment of bliss was interrupted by Timson rallying everyone to move on forward. Randy sighed and did as he was told. He followed Timson and the others, April walking beside him, watching his every step. It was nice to see the concern on her face, a concern that Randy felt was mutual. It was also nice to be walking alongside her. Every moment or so when he got the chance, he would sneak a quick peek at her beautiful face as she stared off into the distance.
The cave was dark, but to Randy there was just enough light. Just enough light to make out her features. Just enough light to see where she was heading, just enough light to get them to where they needed to be. And once they reached where they needed to be, then he was certain that there would be plenty of light – plenty of light to land a kiss on her lips.
Chapter Two
Commander Williams was searching for something within the securely locked room he was in. The others watched on as he looked for materials. Materials that he was certain were needed for his escape off the Orion traveller. The other people in the room hadn’t said much to him, bar from their leader. But even he’d grown quiet. Williams wasn’t interested in making friends. He was only interested in getting off the ship. A ship that was being overrun by a black substance. A substance that had grown into something organic. And that organic being was now haunting the corridors of the ship. It was patrolling and searching for survivors. Survivors that it intended to kill. Williams had seen it with his own eyes. One of his troops had been ripped from limb to limb. Decapitated by this thing. And he didn’t want to succumb to the same fate. So he had to act fast and find a way off this floating tin can.
The Commander hadn’t bothered asking the names of the others in the room. For a start, there were far too many of them. Around thirty to forty. He hadn’t counted though. He was tempted to ask their leader for his name, but he didn’t want it to seem like he was attempting to get on good terms with the man. Yes – Williams owed the man his life. But since finding his way inside this room, he’d become privy to the fact that the people in it didn’t want to leave. So he foresaw a confrontation at a later point. A confrontation that he didn’t want any part of. And he’d be damned if he was going to let a bunch of strangers dictate whether he lived or died. Because Williams was certain that if they remained in the room as they were, that thing outside would find a way to get to them and kill them all.
So he continued to search for the materials he would need. He wasn’t an expert or anything on scavenging, so he was just winging it if you will. But he had a faint idea of what he would need. And it became obvious to him that the black thing outside was sensitive to light. He didn’t think that bullets affected it. Because when he was rescued earlier on, it wasn’t the bullets that scared the blackness away, it was the light coming from the rifles muzzle flash. As soon as the light illuminated the room, the thing scattered and scurried away, becoming one with the shadows and disappearing into the air ducts of the ship. So Williams thought that if he was going to be able to get off the Orion Traveller, light was going to be what he needed to accomplish such a feat.
“What are you looking for in there? This is our stuff, not yours, so if you are planning on vacating the room, I suggest that you do it quickly and quietly. Leave us and our supplies alone,” their leader said, approaching him.
Williams didn’t bat an eyelid. He continued to search for his materials. This angered the man greatly. He put one hand on Williams’ shou
lder, as if to pull him away from the cache of materials in the far corner of the room. Williams jerked up and turned around to face the man.
“What the hell do you think you are doing? Don’t put your hands on a soldier! Especially one that is trying to get you and your people off this rust bucket alive! So step down and get out of my way or suffer the consequences!” Williams said, balling his fist up, ready to strike the belligerent man.
The leader nodded calmly at Williams and took two to three steps back from the Commander. He turned around abruptly and slowly walked toward his people who all seemed to be cowering away in the corner, looking on as if they were spectators at a boxing match. But this boxing match was being stopped before it even started if Williams had any say in it.
“If any of you want to live, then help me search for flammable materials. I can assure you that we will get off this ship. You have my word. All you need to do is help me assemble some makeshift torches,” Williams said, turning back around and diving back into the material pile, pulling bits and pieces out, sorting the flammable materials in one pile and non-flammable materials in another.
“Flammable materials? Don’t you think that is a little unsafe? I mean, call me stupid, but running around a derelict and disabled ship holding torches doesn’t seem like a good idea. If one of the torches falls to the floor, then the ship becomes an oven. An oven that we are trapped in. Haven’t you read the safety procedures when it comes to ships in space? The whole idea of those procedures is to prevent a fire, not start one. So good luck trying to find something to ignite a flame. You’ll be here all day,” the leader of the group said, still hanging back with his crewmates, watching from afar as Williams waded through the various materials in front of him.
Second Earth: The Complete First Novel (Second Earth Chronicles Book 1) Page 13
