Alpha 1472 (10 page)

“He has just asked you what he can get for you. Say this,’ what do you have”

J.D. did what he was told and the man read out a list of things that he had,

“well my friend it seems that you have found the local pub, say this ‘I’ll have a glass of your best please’ and lets hope that the coin you found is enough to pay for it”

Within minutes J.D. was drinking the most disgusting drink he had ever had but for some strange reason he found himself enjoying it. The banter continued inside for the entire time that he sat with his drink; there was much laughter and a fair amount of protestation albeit from one voice. He finished the beverage, which left a strange taste in his mouth, stood up and placed the cup where he had been sitting, beside it he placed the coin and walked away from the tavern to see what else he could find. The innkeeper went out to collect the empty pot and collect his pay, whether it was enough or not was irrelevant J.D. didn’t stay to find out.

“Listen guys, the captain thinks that you have done enough for today and wants you to return to base so, make your way back as soon as you can” As soon as he heard Travis, J.D. immediately started to backtrack through the town and began to head back to the shore. The heat of the sun had begun to die down now and as he walked he found time to reflect on the day as he began his journey back to the shuttle.

Mary asked for a translation to allow her to make her departure from her host, she had had a nice relaxing day which had bought a welcome break from the close confines of the last few days Aaron had turned out to be the perfect companion he was kind and welcoming. They had spent most of the day at his house, after returning with the goats he had corralled them into a field and then had taken Mary to meet his wife, Beth and their newborn child who they had named Luke. Mary could see that they were a loving, content family who had been eager to entertain their guest in the best way they know how, and although the language barrier was a problem, it did not stop these people from accepting her into their home.

The house was simple, it consisted of two floors, downstairs was virtually two rooms one which was open to the outside and another which to all intent and purpose was nothing more that a store room. The upstairs section of the house was also two rooms one room was where the family slept and the other was where they lived, cooked, and spent most of their day. Mary had been entertained for most of the day on the roof section which was covered by a rough canopy which gave much needed shade from the searing heat of the midday sun. On the roof there were a few rustic built chairs and a table, and throughout the whole house the walls were bare save for the few pots and pans in the kitchen area and the few trinkets which had been attached here and there to break up the starkness of the decor. She almost didn’t want to leave she felt really quite comfortable with these people and thank
s to the sporadic translation she was receiving, had managed to gain quite an insight into the day to day life of a local herder, but the time had come for her to take her leave of them and so she made her excuses and having received her translation she told them that it was time to go and she thanked them for their hospitality. They in turn invited her to return at any time. Aaron offered to walk her back to the place where they had met but she declined, thanked them once again, took her leave and started back to rendezvous with J.D.

As she approached the beach she could see J.D. leaning against the rock formation they had first seen when they came ashore. She waved at him and he waved back and said hello, and although they were still quite a distance apart the novelty of the earpieces still held a great fascination for them both. Walking across the sandy beach, she was in no hurry, she could talk to john and at the same time
, enjoy these last few moments before returning to the shuttle. The closer she came to the sea the stronger she could hear the homing signal in her ear, it was not uncomfortable but it was there. They chatted for a while and then decided that it was time to return. They walked along the sea line and as they did so the signal became stronger and faster until it reached a pitch and speed that told them that they had reached the place where they had left the escape pods. After carefully looking around to see whether they could see anyone, they walked into the sea, located the pods and placed their feet back into the foot controls. As soon as their feet were properly located the homing signal stopped and the platform rose to the surface. They then manoeuvred the pods back out to sea raised the sides and started back to the shuttle.

Joseph walked into the tavern for his usual daily few drinks. He looked no different from any of the other men here, but when he arrived nearly all of the customers greeted him with a friendly wave or shook his hand. He had made his way through the crowd of people
in the inn and he had already noticed that there were more people here than there would normally be. He thought that maybe they were celebrating something that he had forgotten or had not been invited to, either way he was a little confused by the fact that his quiet afternoon sabbatical had been invaded by all of these people. Of course he knew all of them, but to find them here at this time of day was most unusual.

“Busier than usual Joshua” he said to the innkeeper,

“Morning Joseph, the usual is it” Joseph nodded his head and waited for his drink and an explanation for all the people.

“Yes, its great for business, I must get old Eli to come in every day he is really funny”

Joseph was now more confused than before. Joshua composed himself and told him to listen. He turned around and leaned on the bar with both of his elbows and grasped his fingers together around his stomach.

“Eli, Eli, Joseph is here now tell him what you have been telling us”

Joshua handed another drink to Eli and encouraged him to recount his adventures.

“Oh Joseph, you should have been there, I’ve never seen anything like it before in my life.”

At this, the entire bar broke out into fits of laughter.

Eli was known to drink a little and it was generally accepted that since he had arrived in town he had been very secretive about his past. No one knew if he had any family or where he came from. He was an inoffensive sort of bloke who had got to know people around town and had chosen this particular inn to spend as much free time as he could. He lived alone on the outskirts of town and for a living he would do almost any work that was offered to him on a casual basis. His hygiene was probably not the best, but all in all he was accepted for who he was.

“Joseph, it was like nothing I’ve ever seen. I left here last night and, ok, I probably did have one more than I should have, but I wasn’t drunk. I know when I’ve had enough but last night I was just merry. It was a hot evening and I wasn’t ready to go home, I just needed to go for a short walk to clear my head so I could get a good night sleep. I was supposed to be at Joab’s smithy this morning to work for him today
.”

He looked over at Joab who raised his glass in agreement and laughed.

“I didn’t go because I never got a wink of sleep last night after what I saw. I went out through town past my house and walked down to the sea. I wasn’t going to be long; I only had a little oil in my lamp. Anyway I got to the beach and I sat on the big rock, you know the one I mean, the one I always sit on when I’m thinking. Well it wasn’t long before I fell asleep. I suppose I’d been out for about…well not long when I woke up and my lamp had gone out, but it was a clear night and the moon was full so it was still kind of bright out there so it didn’t matter. But the thing is… I saw something that was not of this earth, I don’t know what it was but it was definitely not from here.”

At this there was more laughter which Joshua interrupted and said,

“Hold on, hold on, fellows, please Carry on Eli” Eli took a large mouthful of his drink and continued.

“Listen, I know you think that I am a little nut
’s and that it sounds stupid, but I know what I saw. It was fantastic. I woke up and just sat there staring at the sky there wasn’t a cloud up there it was as clear as anything, it was beautiful all of the stars twinkling in the night. Then I saw it. At first I had no idea what it was in fact I still don’t. So I sat there and watched at first I thought it was just a shooting star but as I watched it got bigger and bigger and it was coming towards me. I was starting to get worried then all of a sudden it changed direction and started to go in circles and as it did it set on fire, not for long just a little while. And the light from the fire lit up all of the sea and then it went dark again. There was a long cloud where it had been and for a while I lost sight of it. When I saw it again it was heading straight for the sea. Then suddenly there was a great splash and it was gone. I think its down under the water somewhere but I don’t really know”

By the time he had finished his story the entire bar was in uproar, for most of them it was the funniest thing they had ever heard.

At this Joshua went outside. He was gone for a few minutes, and then he returned to pour a drink for a customer who had stayed outside. When he returned for the second time he stood back next to Joseph and asked if he had missed anything whilst he had been serving the stranger, Joseph said that he hadn’t and Joshua told Joseph about the newcomer outside. “A really strange man with an equally strange accent, probably from out of town”

He then turned his attention back to Eli.

“So Eli, what exactly did it look like then” he asked.

“Well…
its hard to describe it was like… erm…like…like a chariot, yes that’s it like a chariot on fire, screaming through the sky”. This description bought about the loudest round of laughter yet. He continued,

“Yes screaming through the sky heading towards the sea and when it hit it was like a hundred pure white horses jumping for the sky”

By now the laughter was louder than ever and Eli had realised that he had got a captive audience and if he milked the situation he could get free drinks all day and by now his imagination was kicking into high gear. He needed to prolong this situation and so he started to elaborate.

“And then…
and then I found myself being lifted by a strange force into the sky, towards the heavens. I could not resist, I fought but it was useless, I just carried on going up. I could see all of the town and the next. I shouted and shouted but no one heard me. It must have been hours before the great unseen hand bought me back to the shore and set me down on the beach. I was so frightened I just ran and ran. I even left my lantern on the beach” he paused for a while, thought to himself and then said out loud, “must get a new one…” he continued, “and the next thing I knew I was sitting outside waiting for Joshua to open”.

Everyone in the bar just laughed, Eli knew that he had gone too far with the hand thing but he had said it now and he already felt too foolish to even try to take it back.

“I know you don’t believe me and I’m not asking you to, but I know what I saw and I tell you, it was not of this land, it was something beyond anything we know about, and I for one am going to be watching everything from now on”
With this the innkeeper went outside again to see if the stranger required any more to drink. When he returned he had a big smile on his face, he went back behind the bar and spoke to Joseph.

“Today just gets better and better”

“How come” asked Joseph,

“Well you kn
ow the stranger I was on about outside, he only had one drink and look what he left for payment”

He flipped the coin in the air put it between his teeth and then slipped into his purse.

“Oh happy day”

Both Mary and J.D. had taken time to shower and freshen up after returning to the shuttle and were now seated, alongside the rest of the crew, around the monitors in the cockpit. It was a relaxed atmosphere for a debriefing session each of them had drinks and snacks on their tables and
for the moment they were engaging in friendly chit chat which continued until Captain Daniels joined them and bought the meeting to order.

“For a first outing I think we have had a highly successful day, however, reviewing the data and watching the playback from both cameras there is one major area of concern that we need to address. In this region there seems to be a people who to all intent and purpose seem to be the indigenous inhabitants of this land. From Mary’s experience and the general outlook of things observed by J.D. they seem to be a peaceful, pre industrial race, with no signs of any technology whatsoever. The general consensus among the crew is that these people, if we do no provoke them, will cause us no problems. But the other ones that you nearly fell foul of J.D. are a bit of a mystery at the moment. They seem to be the law givers of this nation, their uniform type of dress would indicate either some form of police or military organisation exists here and so we all need to be on our guard when we are interacting with anyone here. Don’t forget we do not know the laws here and I don’t want any one falling foul of them. Worst case scenario would be being taken into custody and missing our departure. We only have one chance and we can’t afford to wait for anybody.

Both Mr Hatch and Mr Watkins have now deployed the signal booster dish which is now floating sub surface directly above us and now we have direct contact with home. The signal is not as good at the moment as we would have hoped but Mr Hatch assures me that it is possible to further boost the signal and will resume work on this problem after this meeting.