There were no doors set into the sides of the rear hangar, so it didn’t take long for the other two pairs to join Billy and Sarah in the large office.
“Sergeant, I would like you, Norgrove and Parsons to search this room for intel. Looking around, there would seem to be plenty here. See if you can get any information on their plans for our universe.” Turning to Harling, she said “Harling, I’d like you to join Billy and me, so we can look down the other end of this corridor.”
With that, she left the room, trailed by Billy and Harling.
As they passed the airlock, they again started to open doors. When they reached the door at the end of the corridor, they realised they had found the cells.
“Wonder which one Will’s in?” said Billy. “Once we get in here to investigate, we’ll just have to hope we get lucky. Fortunately, there aren’t that many cells. Let’s just hope there aren’t too many prisoners in here if we get it wrong.”
“If we can wait ‘till night time, we might find them asleep” suggested Harling.
“That would be true if we knew when their days and nights were. Whilst we use one set of time rules, they may use something completely different for all we know” pointed out Billy.
“Our prisoner might be able to help out. If nothing else, his timepiece will tell us what time it is in his universe. That would give us a fifty fifty chance of hitting night-time if we chose a time that would either be afternoon or early morning” said Sarah. “On the other hand, the sooner we can clear this place out, me included, the happier I’ll be.” Bending to talk into her radio, she said “Sergeant, how’s the intel search going?”
“We’ve already gone through most of the furniture and are getting ready to take the computers, so should be completed in ten to fifteen, Ma’am.”
“Good news. OK. I think there’s a limit to what we can do at this end. We’ve found the cells, so know where to look for Will. Sergeant, we’ll join you in a couple of minutes, so we can get everything ready for the navy.”
An hour later, they had transferred all the intelligence they could carry onto the patrol ship. Norgrove and Harling were taken to the two the enemy ships, in case they needed to be moved in a hurry. Norgrove was also guarding the prisoner, who had remained on board due to the lack of a suitably-sized spacesuit.
As the Sea Lion approached the planet, Major Auryn Truran was keen to get off the ship. His marines were ready and itching for some action. For far too long, it seemed, they had been training but hadn’t seen anything more exciting than supporting civilians undertake various scientific surveys for several months and they were getting bored, with minor arguments regularly flaring up into full-blown fights. All he needed was the go ahead from Captain VanDelden as soon as they were close enough for the bay doors to be opened to let them out, so they could get to the surface and see what all the fuss was about. Whilst the briefing he had had an hour or so ago talked of alternate universes and an attack on the system, he was sceptical. It all seemed somewhat far-fetched to him.
His thoughts were interrupted by a radio call from the Captain “Major, we’re three minutes from the LZ. The cops already here are using standard police frequency six and know we are about to land. I’m advised that they have taken two enemy fighters to a point about a kilometre from the landing zone and I’ve suggested that, now we’re here, it would be best if they were airborne and brought into the vicinity of the ‘Lion.
“Yes, Sir. All noted” replied the Major. Now that he knew they were about to arrive, he instructed his troops to embark onto the landers filling the landing bay. Each lander could hold twenty troops and the ship had five landers on board, which he thought should give him more than enough firepower should there be a problem.
Shortly after the final marine was on the landers, the large bay door slowly opened and they were, finally, able to head for the surface.
It seemed that almost as soon as they had set off, they landed and the lander door opened to reveal the doors to the hangar, which had been left open after the two fighters had been flown out. He jumped onto the ground and ran across to the hangar as fast as the low gravity would allow, where a small group of people were waiting. As he approached the group, one of them said over his radio speaker “Major Truran, I presume?”
“Lieutenant Hirst?” he replied, holding out his right hand.
“Am I pleased to see you, Major. This is Billy Hunt and these are Sergeant McDowell and Officer Parsons” she said, pointing in turn to the relevant figure. “Officers Harling and Norgrove are in the two fighters you have been informed of. Norgrove also has on board our prisoner from the alternate reality and I’m anxious for him to be released into the Navy’s care. You will need a suit for him, though, as none of ours fit him. I don’t know what you’ve been told but there are three immediate priorities. Firstly, we need to rescue Will Hunt from the alternate reality, remove what ordnance we can from this base, then close this gateway to the alternate. Did the Captain share the details of the interview we had with our prisoner?”
“Yes, Lieutenant, he did. I have to say, I found it hard to take in the very concepts involved and don’t fully understand the concerns you have for this place. Whilst we should have known about this base, it seems deserted and doesn’t appear to pose much of an imminent threat.”
“Looks can be most deceptive, Major. I can assure you that the threat is most real and needs addressing as a matter of some urgency. This base forms the epicentre of a sort of bridge between two alternate realities and those in the other reality are preparing for an attack, which could take place at any time. The immediate priority is to rescue Will, however, so we can get him back here safely. Just to confuse matters even further than they may seem already, Will is from yet a third reality and is an alternate to Billy. An image of Will with Billy was included with my report.”
“Do you know where he is?”
“Not for certain but we do know the layout of the base and our prisoner seemed pretty sure that it is identical to the one in the alternate. He’s an engineer who was involved in the design of it and oversaw elements of the building programme and this was of great importance to him. His argument was that otherwise there would be the risk that anyone passing through the gateway could finish up inside a wall or floor or outside the base entirely. Not very reassuring to the troops making the trip! As regards Will, we have found the cells and have been working on the assumption that he is likely to be in one of them. However, not only do we not know which cell but we have no idea what the level of security there is on the other side. We will need to go in hot and ready to lock down the prison corridor as soon as we have made the trip. I don’t want anyone injured, though, so I would suggest stun settings only. We’re trying to get Will, not kill off his guards.”
“That shouldn’t be a problem. We have some stun grenades that our suits are immune from but which will knock out anyone within thirty metres. Is that enough of a range? It does mean that you won’t be able to join in the fun on the other side, as your suit won’t give you any immunity from the grenades. We’d just knock you out with the guards.”
“The corridor we found is less than that, so they should be OK. If any of the guards are in a cell, would they be affected?”
“If the door is open, yes, but if it’s closed, then it depends on what the door is made of. If they’re metal, it may work — it depends on the door. If it’s an energy field, the stun grenades won’t get through it. We would have to pick them off using our stun rifles.”