Two hours later, Sarah felt that she had managed to extract as much information as she needed for now, so decided to have a break both for the prisoner and for herself.
“Norgrove, can you and Harling take Mr. Meredith to the room we’re going to use as the brig and give him some food and a drink? On your way there, invite him to use the toilet facilities. Harling, stay behind and keep an eye on him. Norgrove, once you’ve finished there, can you go across to the other ship and see if it looks like this one inside? I would hate to find it was different. Whilst you’re there, you’ll need to sign up those controls as well, so that we can fly both ships. Sergeant, can you join Billy and me so we can sort out some kind of plan? I need to get my head around this before I call the Captain and seek backup.”
Whilst Norgrove was releasing the prisoner, she spoke into the translator, so that he understood what was happening.
He nodded to her, by way of acknowledgement, as he was taken away by the two officers.
Looking at the Sergeant and Billy, she said “If what the prisoner told us was true, we should be able to get Will out of there fairly easily. My main concern is that we risk letting the hounds of hell loose upon us. Any thoughts?”
The Sergeant spoke first “Seems to me that the first thing we need to do is to get these ships onto the surface and lock them down, along with our ships. If they can’t use them, they’re stuck here until they can get more ships through from their universe. If nothing else, we can slow them down, even if we can’t stop them on our own.”
“For myself, I would also like to be able to help Will get back to us” added Billy.
Over the next half hour, Sarah, the Sergeant and Billy identified several matters they felt needed addressing and worked out a rough plan for dealing with them. At the end of their discussion, Sarah said “Billy, can you see if Parsons could use an extra pair of hands? Sergeant, can you see how Harling is getting on with the prisoner and then see if Norgrove needs a hand with the other ship? In fact, it would make sense if you can to get the front doors open and get that thing out of here, along with moving Billy’s ship. We can move the others once you get back. You don’t need to go far, a kilometre will be fine. Use our ship as a shuttle to bring Parsons back to the base and then get him to fly Billy’s ship out to the parking zone. Once you’ve finished with those, we can move this one out of the way as well. That will just leave our ship on hand should we need it. ”
“Will do” said Billy, disappearing out of the door, followed moments later by the Sergeant.
Having set up a recorder, Sarah sat down in the Captain’s chair to record her report for HQ. Knowing they wouldn’t believe her, she decided that she needed to show photographs of the base, the ship they were on and the recording made of her interview with James Meredith, as well as how and why they had him in their custody. She decided that the Captain needed all the information she had, so included Billy’s references to Will in the report.
Having recorded her report, she sent it to her Captain. Because of the distances involved, it would take an hour or so for him to get it and have the chance to review it and let her know his decision.
Will was taken to the back of the rear hangar and through an airlock. Once through, the guards removed their helmets and gestured for Will to do the same. He wasn’t unhappy to do so. Whilst he had worked in space a long time, he had always felt that spacesuits were more a necessary evil than a pleasant experience and he always tried to be fully suited for as little time as possible. As he removed his helmet, he took a deep breath. Whilst the smell wasn’t unpleasant, the air recyclers were clearly not fully coping with the various odours brought about by human habitation in a closed environment.
Helmets removed and clipped below the power pack on their backs, the guards moved him down a corridor towards a large, imposing door.
One knocked on the door and waited patiently. Eventually, a loud shout was heard from within and one of the guards opened the door and they all entered. Behind a large desk stood a stern-looking individual. The man had a shaved head and a thick, grey beard. Two circular gold earrings were inserted into his left earlobe. He wore a dark grey military uniform, with no markings other than the insignia the others had on their shoulders. He didn’t look like someone to be messed with.
Two of his guards stood, weapons ready, just behind Will. The other guard moved in front and to one side of him, saluted, then said to the man “La spiono, Ĝenerale, kiel ordonis.
The man moved from behind the desk and stood in front of Will, looking him up and down . Apparently satisfied, he suddenly punched Will in the stomach and shouted “KLU VI ESTAS? KIEL VI RICEVIS EN MIA BAZO?
Will doubled up in agony. It took him a few seconds to recover his breath before looking blankly back at the man, not having understood the question.
The man moved towards him, staring menacingly. “MI DEMANDIS AL VI DEMANDON. RESPONDU AL MI. NUN!” he shrieked, grabbing Will by his spacesuit collar and moving his head to within a few inches of Will’s face. He was so close, that Will could smell the man’s last meal.
“I have no idea what you’re saying. I don’t speak your language” replied Will, trying desperately not to appear intimidated.
The man stepped back, away from Will. Addressing the room he said “Ha! The spy CAN speak, after all! Now, I asked you how you got here. Now you can understand the question, perhaps you can answer it. Start by telling me your name. You will call me Sir. Before you answer, you should know that I am Exalted General Willem Gott.” Whilst the man’s English was excellent, he had a distinct accent that Will couldn’t quite place.
“My name’s Will Hunt. I don’t entirely know how I got here. I was on Astraeus 5, looking for minerals, when I found a building I didn’t expect to find. Somehow, I found myself being chased by one of your men and was captured” Will lied.
Will was taken by complete surprise when a guard hit the back of his head with the butt of his rifle, sending him forward.
“What was that for?” asked Will, rubbing the point of impact, trying to regain his composure.
“You will always address me as Sir. Failure to do so will mean further blows to your head. Is that understood?” answered the General, who continued “Your suit has the name Galacticomm on the sleeve. That doesn’t sound like the sort of company name I would have expected on any kind of mining or survey company uniform. I think you’re lying. Trust me on this, I don’t like people lying to me” came the menacing response
“OK. I’m a radio communications engineer and Billy and I found a signal being transmitted from a nearby communications centre to here and were intrigued as to why. Sir.” There was an edge to the way Will said ‘Sir’. It sounded almost insulting, like you might get from a fawning shop assistant, who somehow made the word sound more like they had said ‘Cur’.
The General didn’t seem to notice. Whilst his English was good, he was clearly not experienced enough with the language to detect nuances in the way words had been used. In his noticeable accent, he continued “Now, that wasn’t so difficult. The truth is so much simpler. As you can see, ignoring me leads to pain and suffering. So, only you and this Billy came here?”
“Yes, Sir. But we haven’t found out where the data was being sent, or why.”
“I assume that you have managed to work out that you are in a different reality. The explanation for the datastream is very simple. We wanted intelligence on what was happening in your reality and our techs found that this was a simple way of doing so. We have been monitoring your transmissions for some time. Your free press even seems happy to provide details of naval movements within the system. Most obliging of them. Now tell me, what happened to your friend, this Billy.”