Out of the blue an elderly man dressed in the uniform of an admiral of space command suddenly appears standing at the entrance to the cave.
"You are here, what brings you?", Mitra asked.
"The particle I take it?", guessed captain Maguire.
"You are right", captain Sydney Maguire, known for your unorthodox attitude to operational procedure. At the same undenial one of Space command's finest officers".
"That's me right down to a T", admitted captain Maguire.
"I got that information during my brief interaction with your ship's computer".
"I 'm impressed admitted captain Maguire.
"It has almost limitless processing capacity", captain Lucinda standing beside captain Maguire whispered to him.
"But that is not why I am here", the man in the admiral's uniform", announced.
"When we created you, we never imagined just how effectively you be able to project your personality hologram. This is just amazing", remarked captain Lucinda visibly impressed.
"You created the particle", inquired. Mitra the admiration evident in the tone of his voice and facial expression.
"Yes", they are my creators the man in the admiral's uniform admitted turning to Mitra.
"And thank you captain Lucinda of the science directorate. But it is now safe for you to leave. Your presence on this alternative Earth was provisional to save your ship from being destroyed before it could re-enter the Oblivion zone. The astroid was too close to your starship. It left me no other viable choice. I therefore had to make a deliberate calculation to strike it at a particular angle. That way the force of the blast send you to this reality for safe keeping until I could safely send you home".
"Safe from what?", captain Lucinda inquired.
"It is complicated, you would not understand", replied the figure in the admiral's uniform.
"Captain I shall transmit the co-ordinates to the Sandawana's computer to get you through the Oblivion zone and take you home
"That's fine with me, there is nothing more for us do here anyway. It is time for us to leave", said captain Maguire.
"We shall not stand in your way. Our warriors will accompany you back to your vessel', replied Mitra.
"We have one request", said captain Lucinda.
"Anything, just name it", challenged Mitra with a pleasant smile.
"Can we have our kit bags back along with all the specimens which your warriors conficated from us", requested captain Lucinda.
"Of course", said Mitra with a gentle nod to the commander of the warrior who snapped his fingers. The requested items promptly brought and laid at captain Lucinda's feet by warriors who automatically melted back into the background after obediently fulfilling the request.
The other members of the research team stepped forward to pick up their belongings.
"I take nothing is missing?", Mitra inquired watching the research team members picking through the items to identify their belongs.
"It's all there, thank you", captain Lucinda confirmed with gratitude.
"Good", Mitra replied warmly. The warriors are ready to escort you, whenever you are ready.
"Thank you but that will not be necessary. I have activated the locater function on my device", announced captain Maguire. "A shuttle ", a much smaller vessel will be coming to pick us up".
"This shuttle, it is coming here?", inquired Mitra with a note of concern in his tone as the other elders and warriors eyed him with what appeared to be suspicion written on their faces.
"It is simply a mode of transport that helps is to get around much faster", captain Maguire felt compelled to explain to ease the tension.
"I am only concerned that it will not be able to find this cave because it is well concealed and not easy to find. That is by design to keep out predators".
A warrior burst into the cave as they were talking and spoke hurriedly with the warriors commander.
The commander quickly walked over to where Mitra and captain Maguire were talking.
"Sorry to disturb you my elder, I have news if the utmost urgency", announced the warriors' commander.
"Speak", Mitra urged calmly.
"A strange object is hovering outside the cave", said the commander.
The communicator in captain Maguire's hand crackled and he touched the answer icon on it.
"Captain the shuttle's instruments are picking up your signal strongly. However it seems to be coming from the mountain".
"There is a cave in the mountain. You are to land at the base of the mountain. You will see us shortly we are coming out".
"That thing he is talking about...", Mitra commented with reference to the warriors' commander.
"That is the shuttle, if you have no objections we shall take our leave", announced captain Maguire.
"Of course, we won't stand in your way", remarked Mitra calmly.
"Thank you said captain Maguire, and he lead the research team out of the cave. Once again for the second time since their arrival on the planet, the feel of the sun in their skins was amazing. Following the trail winding down alongside the mountain with its confusing twists and turns, they quickly lost track of the cave and it's entrance. A detachment of warriors escorted them to ensure that they would get to the bottom of the mountain safely. They walked in silence just taking in the fresh air, feeling it energize their bodies. Though that could have been from the excitement of returning to the Sandawana and finally getting off the planet.
The sight of the shuttle waiting for them at the base of the mountain was the most wonderful thing captain Maguire and the research team had seen since the beginning of their odyl. It seemed to give them a renewed boost of energy making them break into a run for its hatchway as it opened.
Moments later they were happily strapping themselves into the shuttle's heavily padded seats. Giving in to the exhaustion their bodies felt they all but one promptly fell asleep for the short flight for to the starship. When the shuttle finally docked on the Sandawana in the cargo bay the whole team was happily in slumber land.
Captain Maguire deciding to let them sleep disembarked from the shuttle and proceeded to the bridge to take command.