The horses approached the ship slowly, Colton lead their small convoy with Emmett at his left along Julian and Kaleb behind them, on his right was Evelynn with Rocco and Ashley behind her. Behind all of them, three wagons full of workers guarded by a handful of archers. all this was merely a precaution as the sun shone brightly on this day. The metal hall of the spacecraft sat quietly with the military moving around quickly, the ship was repaired with a colash of materials. The workers ensuring there head officers that it was a temporary patch to a much bigger plan and they had nothing to worry about.
Once the group had entered the small camp, Tyson quickly approached the crew, “Commander, glad to see you.” He stated helping him off of his horse.
“As I am to see you, can we get a sit-rep?” He asked calmly.
“No loses tonight, none of the monsters approached us at all. Guess they learned their lesson when the Drakin fell. With Reid and Zayne, Mateo’s worked out a plan, he just needs the help of the workers and a quick chat with all of you. Also, we had some troops have a look around the site yesterday and they found something else that may be worth checking out. We’ve brought it inside the ship, in the bridge, Wes is guarding it now. I suggest you check with Mateo first though… and have Julian on stand by.”
Colton smiled and nodded looking at Julian, “I suppose you have the stick?”
“Yes sir.” He responded.
“Good, off we go then.”
Tyson nodded and lead the group into the crashed ship. They traveled through its narrow hallways and down into the science lab. The workers remaining outside the doors while the senior officers entered.
Reid and Zayne stood over a holographic figure being projected from a large pad below it. On the other side, a rapid inaudible muttering could be heard coming from the thing wrapped in the flesh suit covered by lab gear. The group entered slowly with Kaleb, Rocco and Ashley keeping their distance, the other two science officers turning with the sound of their feet tapping against the cold floor.
“About time you guys showed up, the bastard went crazy! Now all he does is this, and we almost had his damn plan!” Zayne shouted angrily as he stepped to side revealing a small wire frame image of a machine.
“Calm down Zayne, we’re almost done figuring it out. Perhaps we just need to-“
“Step back and let us do our work.” Colton stated, nodding to his medic.
Julian got down on his knees and pulled off his backpack. He rummaged around it a bit and then pulled out a small wood stick wrapped around with a small fabric having a name written in tiny letters and a few pills. Julian handed the stick to Emmett and then the three men walked around and looked upon the human shaped prison once more. It was bent over forwards with its knees tucked against its chest holding its head with its hands clutching it tightly.
Emmett got down slowly, with Colton doing the same sliding beside the cage. Emmett frowned looking to Colton who gave a slight nod and looked back at the thing keeping their friend caged. He then looked up and nodded at Julian as they were ready to begin.
Emmett slowly tapped the creature with the stick and put on a plastic smile to keep the illusion. Its hands shot away from its face plastered in a Jester like grin and giant eyes staring down the man, still rambling.
“Hey… buddy, remember this?” Emmett stated, talking in a father like voice. “First time to that park on Down’s street, you climbed up that tall oak tree just so you could have this little treasure. Our first treasure... as a family.”
The creature swiped the stick from him and eyed it closely spinning it around rapidly until stopping and pulling off a bit of the fabric and looking at the message written. The cage looked at it a bit more and then unraveled more of the fabric revealing the full message. The creature continued looking down at it and continued its rambling, a minute passed and slowly the strange words began to slow and become clearer, another few moments past until finally the full message could be heard.
“Mateo Terrow’s first visit to the park, a branch from the tallest oak to commemorate the visit of the families most… prized… possession. Forever to hold our… love.” The creature stated, releasing the broken man from its clutch.
Mateo silently held the stick in his hands, then dropped it to his side and began leaning against Colton who let him in, holding his friend close as he cried against him. Emmett bit his lip and slowly picked up the stick, wrapping the fabric back around and handing it to the medic who exchanged it for the pills. Colton remained still, holding himself composed quietly as he needed to be strong for his scientist. Finally, the man pulled himself away from his Commander and turned to Emmett who gave him the pills and he quickly took them.
“You ready sir?” Colton asked quietly.
“I can be, though I’ll need a minute to myself.” Mateo responded.
“Take all the time in the world, once Reid and Zayne know, they can explain it as well as you can.”
“Good,” Mateo stated standing up with Colton and Emmett, Julian hiding the branch behind his back and moving to his bag letting it gracefully glide through the air and into the pouch which he then zipped up.
Mateo stood in the spot which he was held prisoner, he faced the hologram and around him stood the crew and senior officers. “Right, so I’ve been looking around the ship and realized that there is no real way of getting it back to base. We can’t fly it because the engine room it was destroyed on landing and we sure as hell can’t carry it. Then I asked myself, why can we carry it? It weighs who knows how much but based on its size and materials there is no chance our entire town could carry it. Humans are just too flimsy, but to a machine, its child’s play. This ship is incredible, I mean it has all the bells and whistles. Including a replicator, picture a giant 3D printer that creates working components rather than just plastic pieces that serve for some odd purpose.”
“You’re rambling a bit,” Reid interrupted.
Mateo paused a minute and then collected himself. “Right, the plan is to use this replicator to create a gang of robots which, if they can carry five hundred pounds each, they’ll be strong enough to carry this back to the town.”
“How do you expect us to do this? We only have a body model, which is basically a silhouette and we have to program these things, which by the way takes time!” Zayne asked.
Mateo looked down at the hologram pad and chuckled, before reaching down to the model and tapping it. Below it a red circle appeared around it and Mateo spun it around, revealing a fully designed model, he then moved his hand up and snapped his fingers having a keyboard appear. Mateo rapidly typed, having information stream into the model until finally a green thumbs up appeared above the hologram.
Zayne looked at him astonished. “How did you do that? You went nut’s an hour into the night!”
“I recall both of you stepping out at that time. When this… condition occurs I work much faster than usual. I finished most of work and was preparing to show it off… of course that didn’t happen but still, the droids are ready to be printed. We just need the men to attach what’s been waiting in the replicator for the past nine hours and we’re ready to go.”
“Excellent work… you may take your minute now.” Colton stated, “The rest of you, next stop the bridge. I want to take a look at this… orb?”
“Uh, that’s correct sir.” Tyson stated, leading them out of the science lab with Mateo following, only to then head in the opposite direction and the workers heading into the lab.
Ashley caught up to Colton and pulled on his arm, “What exactly was that with Mateo, and why did the stick and pills fix him?”
“It isn’t a pretty story lass, I suggest you leave it for another day.” Emmett stated.
“They have a right to know,” Colton responded looking to the builder who sighed and nodded. “The week the reset occurred, Mateo had just lost his father. The funeral was held the day of the reset. Everyone he had for him, everything he needed all in the same place. He brought the stick with him for emotional support that day, it was the fondest memory of him and his father.”
“He was planning on leaving it in the casket, thought it would be the finest way to honor the man.” Emmett added, “Of course the reset happened and he woke up in the wild. Now just imagine this, you’ve lost someone close to you and you go to a funeral for them. Then everyone at that funeral is wiped off the face of the earth, no point in denying it. We had seven people all working on the same floor of the same building, when the Reset happened, all of them woke up together in the same area.”
“It’s assumed to be a defensive state to keep away the pain, he lost everything. According to Emmett, the first time it happened the episode ended when he found the branch after it fell out of his pocket. He became obsessed with keeping it safe so Emmett took it away in his sleep and only brings it back when this happens. The pill is a stabilizer I was able to create with the resources available… It helps him get back to himself quicker.” Julian finished.
“Mateo is fragile, yet he’s a genius and without a doubt one of the most important people in our town. If he could, he’d probably work himself to insanity over and over again, the only reason we have researchers with him is to keep him in check.” Colton finished.
The room remained silent from that point until they made it to the makeshift entrance. Kaleb then sighed loudly, “Sir, must I accompany you this time. I would be much more use making sure the job outside is being done correctly.”
Colton looked at him and shook his head, “Not a chance, with what you’ve been trying to get away with behind my back I should lock you in the brig. If however, it actually is a concern then, Emmett, please settle our old man’s nerves.”
The builder nodded with a wide smile and exited the ship while workers approached with large metal beams and other components. Behind them Mateo approached.
“I heard something odd was found last night. Can I come with you Commander?”
Colton nodded at that, then the group walked through the metal corridor up into the large bridge, there Wes stood with a rifle, in front of him sat a large green flashing orb.
“Captain, how was your trip to our allies base?” He asked.
Evelynn smiled, “Good Wes, how were there troops?”
“They didn’t get in my way… Ashley, what’s different with you?” Wes asked quickly shifting his head to the girl.
“What are you talking about?” She asked.
“You seem calmer, quiet even. Colton what’s happened to her? what did your people do to her?”
Colton gave a strange look to the security officer, and then shook his head. “We’ve done nothing, now let’s focus on the big green rock on the table here alright?”
Wes eye the Commander for a moment, then nodded his head. The group wrapped around the table Colton standing across from Wes with his men filing in on the left while Evelynn stood on his right with her group on the right. The only thing different was Kaleb standing away from the table looking around the bridge.
“What are we dealing with here?” Evelynn asked.
“The sphere appears to be man-made, being carved of emerald with electronic components inside of it. The only way we’ve been able to access it is by doing this.” Wes stated, tapping the top of the device. The stone pulled back a bit allowing a red hologram to open rapidly displaying code and odd symbols.
“We haven’t been able to identify the writer of this text but we are still looking into its origins. What we can tell is that this is a homemade selection, meaning it’s an independant language created and used for individual purposes. We should be able to isolate its writer in a matter of-“
“I’ll save you the trouble Wes.” Rocco interrupted, he reached up at the symbols that flashed and as they popped up, tapped them in specific places as they appeared until the screen changed to a green access granted.
“You wrote this Rocco?” Evelynn asked.
He nodded, “One of the tasks that was given to me was to write some security software that would be impossible to crack. Because there wasn’t much to do up here I created my own programing language over the course of time we were among the stars. Nothing on earth was exposed to it besides the ones who asked for it so no other cyber specialists would be able to break it.”
Mateo quickly reached up at the screen and swiped pass the screen to the main screen. “Detonation time, 2:15pm on July 19th…2077…”
“Wait what?” Tyson asked.
Mateo swiped again, this time a world map was shown with twenty seven green dots scattered across the globe. One had a little text box stemming from it, “Charge 13, location Oregon, United States of America.”
“Sorry Commander… that’s impossible. I was in England when the blast occurred.” Julian stated.
“I was in Ontario so there.” Colton added.
Mateo swiped once more. “Results, project was a success, The Wild’s Domain launched… what the hell is this?”
Colton looked at the screen, reading over those three words over and over again until the man’s voice rang over them. He then turned around slowly and saw Kaleb quietly attempting to leave. All Colton saw was red at that point.
When Colton came back he saw himself holding Kaleb against one of the steel panels with Wes and Tyson trying to pull him away and the others pleading him to stop. Julian was digging in his bag, probably for something to put him to rest while Ashley just looked at him with fear. Kaleb had a sinister smile on his faces, along with a bit of blood and bruising.
As quickly as he could, Colton released the man and allowed himself to be pulled away.
“Colton, what the hell has gotten into you?” Evelynn asked with concern.
He looked up at her, then back to Kaleb, “Him… he was involved, he caused this damn mess!”
“How can you be sure?” Tyson asked looking at Kaleb.
“Go on… say it you bastard.”
Kaleb looked at the company in the room and then laughed, “Look at all of you, every young gun in this room. In fact besides me, I believe that the eldest man in our colony is about Thirty-two, but hey who am I to deny what the forest wanted. I must say though, for a good man you sure enjoy taking company with demons. You even fell in love with one of them!”
The group remained confused while Colton stood tall, being freed from the two men’s grip. Ashley quickly slid beside him and they all looked at Kaleb.
“The only demon in this room is you, now tell us how you did it!” Colton stated.
“Better yet, why?” Mateo added, clenching his fist.
Kaleb laughed hard. “Oh children, this is what we call a new beginning. We are patrons to the earth and her kin, while all of you dogs would rather see her burned alive. Of course we weren’t just hippies yelling loudly at the government, we were scheming and creating. It took fifty years, fifty long years of planning and building and forming but after that, all it took was the flick of a switch.”
“God, is he going mad or what?” Wes asked.
“Me, mad, never! In fact I must thank all of you for without running all of those tests and creating all those programs this could have never happened.”
“What on earth are you talking about Kaleb?” Evelynn demanded.
“Sure, the first two years of testing probably made some sense. However, the lock program and the population narrower on top of the resources list… didn’t any red lights go off? No, we didn’t fund your program. We just paid off some of the suppliers, they would never see what their work would achieve but they won’t be forgotten.”
The Captain collapsed realizing what Kaleb was implying. Wes dropped down to her side along with Rocco, Kaleb then looked over to the Commander.
“How does it feel, knowing that you had the bastard who caused her death as the one you consulted with on everything?”
“How does the device work and what the hell happened to all of the other people?” Mateo shouted.
“It was an atomic bomb essentially, only rather than making the planet unlivable it rejuvenated it. We burned all the manmade structures and used the energy from the Solar flare to heal us rather than kill us, considering how most of the world was built upon high-rises, it worked successfully. Everyone was wiped off the face of the earth for at least five minutes, but then those who were lucky were put back, relatively close to one of our nodes. Those who we deemed unfit, well they were converted into oil, air, even a beast. Perhaps she was brought back as a Stalker, therefore you may have been her killer.”
It took all of what Colton had not to kill him where he stood. If he was even slightly related to the reset, then he was their best chance of survival. “What are those beast.”
“A mutation of animals in the region, except the Stalkers, they’re from man. So as the good doctor stated, those Ravengers are based on wolves and the Drakin, merely a Lizard that we made much more deadly.”
“How the hell could you have accomplished all of this? There is no science here!” Mateo stated.
“We had money, we had teams working on this project for years. I don’t give a damn how they did it but it worked!”
“I’ve heard enough, we’re going to get this ship back to the base. Then you are going to make a public apology. Finally, you are going to tell us everything you know about this new earth. Then you can find a new home you old bastard.” Colton stated looking around the room for approval, which was given in unison.
“Why did they follow you, out of all people? I have the most knowledge, I have the experiences, yet they rallied behind you. No matter though, you’ll be dead soon, as with the guards, the town, and this ship wreck.”
“How do you plan to do that?”
“We are in The Wild Domain, anything is possible… let Valkyrie strike down on you.” He muttered.
Colton paid him little attention to him, he turned and left the ship needing some air. As he exited the ship he noticed large poles being attached to the hall while the large machines awaited their positions.
He continued walking until he was in the center of the courtyard where he simply collapsed to the ground. So much had occurred and the young Commander began to find the weight pushing him down. He pulled at his hair and rubbed at his face in frustration. This continued until Ashley slid down beside him, she said not a word but simply held him close.
“They’ll notice.” He whispered.
“Your sanity is more important than gossip.” She replied.
Colton wrapped his arms around her, delicately running his hand through her hair. They remained for a moment until she pulled away only to come back and kiss him for a moment. They knew everyone was staring, and they didn’t care.
Finally she pulled away and looked him in the eyes, “Any better?”
He nodded, before they stood up. “Emmett, what do you have?”
The builder looked shocked that his friend sensed his presence, and then approached them. “Well the posts are in place, and the machines are ready. According to some notes that there ‘lovely’ scientists gave us, when we start moving we’re going to need to shut down the ship completely.”
“So no shield and probably no guns.”
“Yep.”
“Right, how long until we leave?”
“Twenty minutes, give or take.”
“Alright, then get to work.”
“Yes sir.” Emmett responded, leaving them in peace.
Ashley looked up at him, “I suppose we should go and tell the others?”
