I stood there, on the white sand, staring at the plume of black smoke that rose from the island across the sea. Elysia had collapsed to her knees; Clint rubbed his hand over his helmet as if trying to rub his hair.
Zander looked at me, his mouth wide open. "Any ideas?"
"One, but even I don't like it," I furrowed my brow. Everyone looked at me intently; even Thomas didn't take charge of the situation. "I doubt we brought any sort of boat in the lander so perhaps we could, against my better judgement, go back to the insect cave and see what they had on board. If they were originally supposed to colonise this world, then surely they would have the same supplies as our second stage does."
"Getting through the pile of carcasses we left at the tunnel entrance will be a problem," Zander spoke true.
"What about the hatch on the top of the mountain?" Scarlett spoke up. "Jake left it open so we could go in that way."
Clint turned to face the rest of us. "Well we need to place the atmospheric processors somewhere before we leave, I was planning on setting them up near the settlement but now that we may not be able to transport them across the sea, I guess the top of the mountain is as suitable place as any."
"We will need to narrow down our search if we want to do this. Jacob," Thomas looked at me. "You said that most things seemed to be well preserved."
"That's correct."
"Good, we could bring the landers power module and try boot up the computers inside the mountain. Perhaps we can find some sort of manifest, stating the cargo stock holdings."
We had a plan. It wasn't the best plan and it was all based on hope but it was the only plan we had. In single file, we began the journey back towards the lander. It took us a couple of hours to get back and remove the landers power source. It took two people to carry it so Thomas and Scarlett took the weight and made a start. Clint and I carried the two atmospheric processors. Zander moved on ahead to make sure the path was clear and Elysia brought up the rear. I thanked my lucky stars for my exosuit and its environmental control. Without a suit, the humidity outside would have made the journey a lot harder than it was. In saying that, it was still a rough trek. We rotated around, each having a turn lugging the large, cylindrical power source. Once at the foot of the cliff face, we followed it along to the right until we came across a slope that we could climb up, still carrying the power module and atmospheric processors. Struggling up the hill, the fear of falling with the module kept me going, I had to reach the top. We all did. After almost an hour of solid effort, the ground levelled out and I could see the open hatch just a few meters away. Once there, we all slumped onto the ground, our chests raising and lowering with each heavy breath. We rested for just a few minutes before returning to our feet and sorting out the next stage of our plan.
"Thomas, Clint, you guys set up the processors while the rest of us find somewhere to install this power source," Zander had taken charge again and directed Elysia and myself to climb down the ladder. I climbed down first as I had already done it once before. As I climbed onto the old, metal ladder, which was now slippery with water from the storm, I saw Zander and Scarlett start tying a long piece of climbing cord to the power generator. At the bottom of the ladder the dark room was very wet. Even through the exosuit, I could feel the water lapping against my ankles. I switched on my headlamp and peered into the cryogenics bay, my eyes scanned the large room for any sign of tentacles or the black insects. A loud splosh told me that Elysia had reached the bottom of the ladder. She radioed up to Scarlett and Zander, telling them that we were at the bottom. After a few minutes, the power source appeared in the dark shaft, being lowered down. Once it was near the surface of the water that covered the floor, Elysia and I took the weight to prevent it being submerged and called for the other two to climb down. It didn't take long before the four of us were heading into the structure, Elysia and I lugged the generator while Scarlett directed Zander which way to take us. As a pilot, she was very familiar with spacecraft architecture and had a fair idea of where to look. We went left down one hallway, right down another. A set of stairs took us closer to the bottom of the rocket. Finally, we happened upon a large, bulkhead door. It was half open.
Scarlett pointed into the dark abyss. "If the power distribution core is anywhere, it'll be here."
Zander entered first and the rest of us followed. The water on the floor had subsided to just a few puddles, so we placed the power source down to have a look around. It didn't look anything like what I expected. Instead of computers and switchboards, the walls were lined with empty weapons racks.
"This looks like an armoury," I ran my fingers over the closest rack.
"This makes no sense," Scarlett rubbed her helmet in confusion. "If we came in near cryo then the most logical place to keep power distribution would be here."
"Perhaps it's because this isn't a rocket," Elysia was facing the wall near the entrance.
"What are you on about?" Zander stepped up beside her.
Scarlett and I joined them and all together we fell silent, staring at the image on the wall. Elysia had found what looked like a building evacuation plan. Along the top of the image was a sentence, which read: BUILDING EMERGENCY RESPONSE PLAN: ATLAS MILITARY INSTALLATON – ROOM 3-61
"So, this place is a military base? How long have there been people on this planet?" my brain hurt from trying to puzzle out the image on the wall.
"Guys," Zander's voice was quavering. "I've been here before."
"What?" Scarlett, Elysia and I said in unison.
"I used to be part of the security detail here."
"But this is the first time any of us have ever set foot on this world," Elysia seemed to be struggling as much as I was.
Suddenly, the realisation hit me. "Oh my god, we're on Earth?"
"No way," Elysia considered my eyes. "We were only out for a thousand years, it takes way longer than that for an ecosystem to change so much and anyway, I thought the rocket was pointed in a direction and launched. How would we have turned around?"
"We must have used the gravity of some celestial object to turn around at some point. The calculations needed to plan a flight path like that would have taken years and a lot of man-hours," Scarlett responded.
Zander laughed. "That explains why they went so cheap on the food. Nutrient paste is the cheapest and nastiest rations in the universe."
Once again, we were on our way through the abandoned facility. Zander was confident that he could find the power distribution centre now that he knew where we were. We headed back up the stairs and took a left. A soft thud made me freeze in place and look into a room on my left. A grey, fleshy wall, just like the one that had eaten me, covered one side of the small office. A body, wrapped in red string, lay on the floor, squirming. By the shape of it, the string bound bundle contained one of the scrawny lizards from the river on the first day here. The others stopped as well and we all watched the smooth black carapace of a giant insect emerge from a vent on the far wall. I stepped behind the edge of the corridor wall and watched as the insect approached the restrained lizard-like creature. A long, curved spike extended from the insect's head and lined itself up with the head of the bound creature. Just as the spike was ready to plunge into its prey, Zander raised his carbine and with a single shot, dropped the insect. I ran into the room, pulled out my knife and started to free the poor reptile. I knew what it felt like to be trapped in its situation. The moment the string broke and the lizard pulled free of its bonds, it launched itself at me and held some kind of sharp object to my throat. A strange noise, like a foreign language, spilled from the creature's long jaws. The pressure of the object held to my throat felt more likely to crush my windpipe before it cut into the exosuit. Suddenly, another gunshot rang out and my attackers head exploded.
Scarlett stood over my, a wisp of smoke rising from the barrel of her carbine. "You saved me from that snare trap and I saved you from this thing. We're even now."
Elysia helped me up and asked how my throat was feeling. Slowly, the throbbing subsided and I looked at the lifeless reptile that lay beside me. In its hand was a long piece of bone, shaped like a knife. I had saved its life and it had tried to slit my throat. I supposed that its confusion was understandable; it was a primitive creature making contact with something it had never seen before. If it had have cut me out of the red string I would have panicked as well. A little shaken up, I rose to my feet and we continued towards the power distribution centre, Zander and Elysia carried the power generator. My hands were too shaky after my near-death experience. I hoped that so far, Clint and Thomas were having better luck.
Finally, we came across the power distribution centre and located the row of power cells that lined one wall. The eight power cells were all depleted, as expected. Scarlett and I replaced one of them. Instantly, the lights flickered on and some of the computers hummed with life. Zander sat at one of the computer screens and started trying to find some sort of stock holdings record. The programs were slow and clunky, probably due to the age of the computers. It was surprising that any of them worked at all. I kept looking at the doorway, making sure that no more lizards or insects came skulking in.
"Got it," Zander clapped his hands together. "It looks like most of the sub-levels are either flooded or have no data available. There is however, a vehicle garage two floors below us. The system says that there's supposed to be several amphibious vehicles, hopefully they're still there and still serviceable."
"Sounds like a plan," Elysia shifted her carbine in her arms.
We moved a lot quicker without carrying the heavy power source around. We moved in single file down the stair wells until we found the garage. There were four olive green vehicles inside. We each set off to inspect separate vehicles. I climbed into the driver's seat and searched for the ignition. I located the button and depressed it. Nothing happened. I pressed it again and held it in. for a moment, nothing happened before the engine roared to life. I heard the others cheer and run over to my vehicle. The next step was getting it out of the garage and onto the surface. I climbed across into the passenger seat and so Zander could take the wheel. He depressed the accelerator and the vehicle inched forward.
"How is this thing even running?" I asked.
"They were designed for long term ops," Zander explained. "The idea was that one could hide a vehicle in enemy territory and leave it for years until it was needed for an emergency extraction. I only ever drove one of these once."
"Wait a second," Elysia leaned in from the backseat. "If this is Earth, then what happened after we left? Surely technology would have advanced to some degree in a thousand years."
She had a point. How was it even possible that the technology in this facility was completely unchanged?
As Zander manoeuvred the amphibious vehicle around piles of debris, I saw a speck of light. We drew nearer to the light and found a wall of fallen rocks. The bead of light was just a gap in the stones. Without speaking, Zander accelerated. The vehicle ploughed straight through the barrier and into the sunlight. I looked out the side window and could see the slope we had scaled earlier that morning. Thomas and Clint were descending at a trot. Clearly, they had heard the impact noise. Once all six of us were back together, inside the vehicle, Zander started driving towards the beach.
"Nice work guys," Thomas' smile stretched from one ear to the other. "Did you find anything else inside the rocket?"
"Well," Elysia spoke first. "It's not a rocket."
"What?" Clint's mouth dropped open.
I put my hand on his shoulder. "We're on Earth. Just a thousand years from when we left."
"No way," he responded. "There is absolutely no way that our world could change so drastically in just a thousand years. It's impossible."
"Not if time passed differently here than it did for us," Thomas rubbed his fingers together.
"You're talking about time dilation, right?" Scarlett shifted to the edge of her seat.
"Yes, I'm thinking that perhaps our trajectory curved around something massive, like the celestial objects found in the galactic core," We all nodded as Thomas spoke. "Our rocket may have only experienced a thousand years but what if tens of millions of years have passed here."
"That would explain the ecosystem," said Clint. "But, I still don't believe it. Why would we be sent on such a voyage through space just to come back here? Why not just freeze us or something?"
"I think they did that with some of the people left behind," I remembered the stasis pods I had found. "We don't seem to have a lot to go on. Hopefully someone in the cryo module will have some answers."
"Well," said Zander. "Here goes nothing."
The vehicle plunged into the surf. I held my breath, expecting to sink. Surprisingly, the amphibious truck floated. Soon enough, we were powering though the water, making our way towards the island, towards Gabby.