As they walked down the corridor, they were struck by just how many doors there were, on both sides.
“Let’s have a look in one or two of these doors. There may be clues in them that help us build a picture of what this tub is for” suggested Billy, as he approached the nearest door. As the door opened, the lights inside came on and they could see what looked like a bunk room, with bunks for twenty or so people. There were large signs along one wall, which said “GLORO AL LA VENKINTO!” in the upper left corner, with a stylised image of a soldier of some sort, holding a weapon high in the air.
“I think we need a photo of that. I’ve no idea what it says but it looks like something warlike” said Billy, as he recorded an image of the sign.
As they advanced down the corridor, they saw a sign that said “PONTO” and decided to follow the arrow beneath it.
At the end of the corridor was a wide doorway, with double doors barring their way. However, as they approached the doors, they opened from the middle outwards and they could see that they had reached the bridge.
“I guess that “PONTO” means “BRIDGE” in this language” said Will, looking around the various controls and consoles “Better get more photos.”
Towards the rear of the room, adjacent to the one they had entered through, Billy spotted another sign saying “ARMILOJ KONTROLO” and said “that could mean “ARMS CONTROL. Worth a look?”
“I see what you mean. Definitely” responded Will, heading towards the door after Billy. As they entered the room, there were seats for six, with monitors in front of each, as well as control panels below, complete with a variety of icons, which looked like they could control a whole battery of weapons.
“This room definitely needs photographing. Then, I suggest we’d better get out of here. Don’t want to overstay our welcome” said Billy, taking several photographs.
“I’m going to have a look around these racks and what-not. They might give us a clue as to who these things belong to” said Will as they left the ship. With that, he walked over to the side of the hangar. Most of the racks and benches simply had tools and equipment on them, which appeared to be for maintaining space ships. As he approached the rear corner of the hanger and rounded a large rack, he saw an open door.
“I’m going to call the cops again. They should be here shortly but they need to know about this. I’ll send them the pictures I’ve taken, so they can see if the ship’s in their database or can contact the navy to see if this is part of their fleet” said Billy. With that, he called them and told them what they had found and sent them the pictures he had taken.
Before they could reply, Will called him “Hey, Billy. There’s another door back here. Might give some more clues.
As Billy rushed towards him, Will went through the door. The light came on as Will entered the room. The room looked like an office. There was a desk in the middle, with a computer monitor on it, along with a keyboard built into the desktop, so that it could be used in vacuum and whilst wearing a spacesuit, if necessary. Along the rear wall were shelves containing ornaments, lumps of rock and crystal and a photograph of a snow-covered mountain, with the title “Tango Monto En Vintro.” Will was surprised that, despite what looked like state of the art spaceships in the hangar, the equipment here looked positively old-fashioned compared to what he was used to. Someone had obviously tried to personalise it a bit with the ornaments, although it didn’t detract from the overall starkness of the room.
As Billy approached the room, he realised that the door could be sealed air-tight if necessary, as the door was several centimetres thick and had edges that overlapped those of the door frame. As he came into view, Will said “What do you reckon to this lot? It looks antiquated to me.”
“It’s not exactly cutting edge is it? Reminds me of the first computer I had as a kid, although even that was more advanced than this one. I guess that whoever owns this place has either been here a while or else it does what they want and they haven’t felt the need to update it. Have you had a look through that door?” Billy said, nodding towards the door in question.
“No, not yet, I was trying to get my head around this room first” replied Will, moving towards the door being referred to.
Billy paused and held up his right hand and said “Hang on a sec., getting a message from the police.” A few moments later, he said that They’ll be landing in about five minutes. They also asked that, before we explore any further we wait for their arrival.”
“Let’s have a quick look through here and see if there are any further clues as to what’s going on. What I don’t understand is that this place looks good to go, yet seems deserted. At least, we haven’t seen anything that would suggest current activity, despite the data feed coming over here and the ships out there” said Will, as he disappeared through the door.
As he went through the door, more lights came on. The room was at least a hundred metres long and fifty metres wide. Down one side was a variety of weapons, stacked neatly in racks. Along the other side was a collection of personal shields, amongst a number of crates, some with the lids ajar, some closed. Like the other door, the door out of the room also looked like it could be sealed if necessary, even if it wasn’t at the moment. Upon leaving he room, he moved towards the large doors adjacent to it and realised they were for a massive airlock, which hadn’t registered with him on his travels through the hangar.
“Oh, my God. There’s enough weaponry here for a small army” said a stunned Billy behind him.
“I really, really don’t like the look of this” replied a worried-looking Will, as he backed into the office he had just left. As he entered the room, he reversed into Billy who, in turn, bumped the rack next to the door. A small box fell to the floor, which he bent to pick up.
The world suddenly changed. They became aware that there was activity in the large room they had just left. Will looked carefully around the edge of the door and was stunned to see the rear hangar full of people busying themselves, wearing black military-looking space suits.
“Don’t look now but the place is crawling with military types.”
“What? How?” replied a disbelieving Billy, trying to see what Will was referring to. Once he had taken a look of his own and had confirmed what he had been told, Billy eased back into the room and walked carefully towards the door into the hangar and looked out carefully.
“This one’s full, as well. Now what do we do? We seem to have jumped into yet another reality.”
“We can’t stay here too long. We’re going to be discovered sooner or later. Whoever this office belongs to is going to come in here” replied Will.
Will realised they weren’t alone. In the corner of his eye, he had spotted movement a few metres behind him. He looked round quickly and saw one of the black-suited individuals heading towards him, his mouth moving. In his suit, though, Will couldn’t make out what he was saying, although could only assume it wasn’t something he would either want to hear or would understand, being in the language of those from this reality.
“Billy, we’ve been spotted. Better get out of here, now!” shouted Will, as he ducked back into the room.
“Oh shit, that’s all we need” responded Billy, running towards the other door.
Will followed as best he could but, in his haste, ran into the corner of the desk, which, with the lower than familiar gravity, was enough to send him crashing headlong to the floor.
As Billy ran into the now occupied hangar, he dived behind a shelf rack, so that he could, he hoped, keep out of sight of the people milling about in the hangar.