Billy looked across at Will “Before we carry on, fancy a bite to eat to go with the drink?”
“Sounds good. What’ve you got?”
“How about a stew — there are some packs in the freezer?” Will nodded his approval. Billy went over to the freezer, removed a pair of stew packs and pulled the tab on the lid that made them heat up. A few seconds later he said “Grub’s up. Have a seat and we can get acquainted. If you open that drawer by the coffees, there are some spoons we can use to eat this.”
Will got the spoons and picked up the drinks, taking them across to the small table that Billy was putting the stews onto.
Once they had both eaten, Will was feeling much better.
“What intrigues me is that I got knocked out and seem to be somewhere different. Do you have a view screen or a window so I can look outside?”
“You’re not the only one who’s intrigued. We’re on an asteroid in the middle of nowhere. You don’t have a ship, so couldn’t have flown here unless someone brought you and cleared off. There’s also no sign of a suit, so unless this is some kind of prank where you got so drunk at a bachelor party and your friends thought it would be a laugh to drop you off here, then I’m also at a loss as to how you got here. Added to that is the remarkable resemblance you have to me. It’s all a bit of a mystery at the moment. There’s a viewscreen behind that rack” he said, pointing to the rack in question.
They both went over and stood in front of the viewscreen, where Billy said “Screen on”. The screen came to life and they both saw the view outside the base.
Will was stunned by what he saw. “Whoa! That looks like the view from Commbase 3. There’s Shackleton over there” he exclaimed, pointing to a small space station circling a nearby planet. “Can you change the view from here?”
“I can connect to different cameras, if that’s what you mean. That’s Columbus, though, not Shackleton” said Billy, switching to other camera views.
“Can you zoom in on Shackleton, er, I mean, Columbus?” asked Will. As Billy did so, Will realised that it didn’t look right. The station he was looking at had more levels, had extra port jetties than Shackleton and there was much more space traffic than he was used to seeing.
“This is getting scary now. I was in Commbase 3 but this isn’t the same room as there. On top of that, with that close-up view, that doesn’t look like Shackleton. It’s as if everything has been completely rebuilt whilst I was out cold. I don’t understand why there are references to Galacticomm either. Galactic Comms owns this building. What I really don’t understand is how I got here, only to be woken up by someone who looks like he could be my brother.”
“Either you’ve had some kind of breakdown or there’s more to this than meets the eye. What’s the last thing you can remember from before I found you on the floor?”
“All I can really remember is that, when I opened the door into the ops room, there were sparks flying everywhere. As I came into the room, there was an almost overpowering smell of burnt electronic components. Then I was thrown by an explosion and hit my head. It all happened at once, so I didn’t get a chance to take it all in.”
Will noticed a row of four cupboards that the staff used to store personal possessions and which had a number of images on the front. Most he didn’t recognise but did spot one with a younger version of Billy, flanked by a pair of older adults, a male and a female, looking very proud, as he wore what looked like a graduation outfit. As he looked more closely, he realised that the older couple looked exactly the same as his own parents, apart from their hairstyles and clothes. Like Will, Will’s father had a beard and moustache, albeit neatly trimmed, whereas the man in the image was clean shaven. Just to add to the strangeness, they were flanked by a young man and a teenage girl, who looked like they could easily pass for his own siblings.
“Your parents look like mine. Weird, or what” he asked Billy.
“Sorry, miles away. You say your parents look like mine? Now that IS a coincidence.”
“I’ll show you” said Will removing his comm device from his pocket. He flicked through and found the holographic image he was looking for and showed it to Billy.
“OH. MY. GOD, I see what you mean” said Billy by way of response “They’re pretty much identical. I reckon they could each pass as a pair of twins. The other two look much like my own brother and sister, Alan and Susan.”
“I think there are too many odd things going on here. You think you’re in Commbase 3, the local station is Shackleton and we’re in the Aquarius system, even though I know we’re not. Added to that, we have family who look as though someone has edited the pictures to make their hairstyles and clothes look different, never mind the fact that, hair and beard apart, we could pass as twins. I think it’s about time that we got to know more about each other. My full name is William Robert Hunt. I was born on the Columbus space station over there. I’m 37 next January. The planet Columbus is circling is called New Oregon and we’re in the Lincoln system. My parents are called Jim and Eliza” said Billy.
“Wow! My full name’s William Richard Hunt and I’m the same age as you. Shackleton goes round the planet Ohio in the Aquarius system. As far as I can tell from here, Ohio looks identical to New Oregon. My parents are called James and Elizabeth. Just to add to the coincidences, my sister is called Suzanne and my brother is called Allen.”
Beth Somers had been trying to get hold of Will, without success. She called Melvyn Smith on the commnet.
“Hi Mel. Will was sent to have a look at a problem at Commbase 3 and got there about an hour and a half ago. I was expecting him to call in and give me an update on how it was going up there half an hour ago. I’ve been trying to call him since then but he hasn’t responded. I tried to look at the base using the cameras but can’t see him, although the one in the equipment room isn’t working, so he could be in there. Shortly after he arrived, I got a warning that showed that all the comm systems had gone down there, not just the in-system ones that he had gone to work on and had to switch things around to maintain coverage. Knowing he was there, I left it ‘cos I assumed that he had had to kill the power to all the comms, but now I’m wondering if something more serious has happened. I’m getting worried about him. Before we call Security, can you go see if he’s OK?”
“That’s not like Will. He’s pretty good at keeping in touch. I’ll just put the finishing touches to this job and will be off as soon as I can. Should be about quarter of an hour, tops, in finishing, if that’s OK” replied Mel, also starting to worry about his friend and colleague.
If anyone didn’t call in when expected or didn’t reply to calls from anyone in the team, then one of the others would go and try to find out what had happened. If no-one was nearby, they would call Security and ask them to check on them. Often it was simply that the team member was stuck in a cable conduit or they had left their comm unit somewhere they couldn’t reach quickly. Whilst there was a limit to what could be done if there was a medical emergency, each Commbase had a Medkit that could cope with most minor emergencies. If there was a real emergency that was beyond what the medkit and their medical training couldn’t cope with, each Commbase was also equipped with a statis chamber that could be used to put the injured person into suspended animation but that was very much a last resort.