"Holy shit, Sir! Have a look at this." Called the duty operator.
"What is it?" asked Lieutenant Jill Carson. She put her coffee cup down, pushed back her chair and hurried to stand behind the operator.
"We have movement at Sierra One, there are people."
Jill watched in amazement as a large group of people began streaming into the surveillance camera view. The surveillance camera was attached to the quad-copter drone, parked on the first of the rafters supporting the roof of the hall in the Sierra one compound. The copter was tucked under enough to protect it from the worst of the weather but was also located where the morning sun could keep it charged.
Monitoring the surveillance feed from the copter was one of the responsibilities of the duty operator, but due to the lack of anything interesting occurring during the previous six months, it had become a bit of a joke. There were logged entries of bear sightings, woodpecker sightings and even a mountain lion, but until now, no people. Someone had even attached a note to the top of the monitor stating "Due to technical difficulties, the discovery channel is out of service, please enjoy the test pattern, service will resume soon." Someone else had added, "Beer reward, for sighting Bigfoot. Ah, sorry no beer."
Jill dialled Major Kawalski's mobile but received the expected no service error. She shouted out to the only other member of the HQ staff currently on duty, "Private East, quickly, run and tell the General and Major Kawalski that there are people at Sierra One. They will be in the new HQ up at the Castle."
Jill felt a bit bad for sending her, Private Jane East was at least six months pregnant and just starting to get to the clumsy stage. Unfortunately there was no-one else and the coms problems with new HQ located inside the sanctuary had not yet been resolved.
Private East, shouldered her weapon and ran for the door,
"Jane," Jill called after her, "I didn't mean you had to literally run," "Yes sir, thank you," a relieved Private East replied. She hurried from the veranda onto the muddy road leading up the hill to the Castle.
Passing through the entrance to the Castle, Jane had to hustle to one side in response to a beep from an incoming Hummer. As it whispered past her, she recognised her friend Robyn McCallum driving the vehicle with Sergeant Wills in the crew seat. Jane gave them a wave as Robyn turned the vehicle into its parking bay between a couple of the new shipping container offices. Robyn climbed from the vehicle, called a greeting and made a ribald comment about her baby bulge. Jane flipped her a response and they both laughed. Jane continued up the compound to the Sanctuary entrance, upon getting a response from the duty sentry to her query concerning the whereabouts of the General and Major Kawalski, she headed inside. Just inside the sanctuary entrance, saluting as she passed Lieutanant Yoi in deep discussion with the Axell twins, Jane made her way to the HQ offices. The HQ had been newly constructed from a couple of large converted containers, now situated back against the cave wall at the top level of the cavern.
Reporting to the duty NCO Jane was ushered into Major Kawalski's office. Joe looked up and raised an eyebrow in her direction as she came to attention and saluted, "Hello Jane, what brings you here?" he asked.
"Sir, there are people at Sierra one," she blurted out, quickly regaining her composure, she stood tall and saluted again. "I mean Sir, Lieutenant Carson couldn't get you on the phone so she sent me to inform you and the General that the drone camera has detected people entering the Sierra One compound."
"Has it indeed," came the voice of General Stuart from behind her.
"Sir, yes Sir," she affirmed. She tried unsuccessfully to stand even straighter and saluted again.
"At ease soldier," the General said kindly, "Joe, get the girl a chair," he commanded.
Once Jane was seated, General Stuart sat on the corner of Joe's desk and looked down at her. "Now Jane, give us the story." he asked. The General listened intently while Jane recounted what she knew. When she had finished, Joe called for a Sergeant to get them a vehicle and when it arrived, he helped Jane into the back and with the General on board, drove out of the cavern toward the old HQ, startling Kai and the twins as he sped past.
"What the fuck is that all about?" asked Arthur. The group watched the Hummer race out of the compound down to the town square and slide to a halt outside the old HQ.
"Probably found out about the brewery Sally and her cohorts have setup at the farm," said Kai dryly.
"Whatever," added Edward disinterestedly, "back to the coms, I still can't figure out why we can't get the radio and phones to work in the HQ, the distributed antennae should work."
"Maybe we need to rig up another exchange and antenna outside the cavern and run land line into the HQ and forget mobile phones inside." added Kai, "What does Specialist Stankovic say again?" he asked.
Edward replied, "He thinks it should work and is still trying to figure it out, he is still down there somewhere crying over his meters." He pointed over his shoulder towards the back of the cavern. They were debating their options for a work around, at least until Specialist Stankovic could solve the problem, when, in response to a nudge from Edward, Kai realised Sergeant Angela Wills and Private McCallum were waiting patiently to report in.
"Angela, how did it go?" he asked.
"That culvert task is finished now sir," Angela reported, I have sent the platoon back to the wire defences for the rest of the day."
"Ok, well done, knock them off early if you think they deserve it, no better still organise a game, see if Mary's platoon is up for another humiliating defeat."
"Thanks Sir, I will do just that, will you be joining the team?" Angela asked.
"Unfortunately not today, we have to solve this phone problem." Kai told her.
"Ok, good afternoon sir" She said as she saluted and headed away.
Robyn, who had been standing back as her Sergeant and Lieutenant talked, excused herself and requested permission to speak as Angela walked off.
"Sure Robyn, what is it?" Kai asked as he held up his hand to interrupt the twins.
"Well sir, I couldn't help but overhear you talking about the mobile phone and radio signal in the cavern, and if I might add my two bits."
"Sure, go ahead," Kai offered. The twins looked interested.
"Well the distributed antenna don't work because they just interfere with each other's signal because of intermittent interference nodes, what you need is a leaky feeder cable." She said nervously. "I'm surprised Mr Axell didn't put one in when he built the cavern, him being in IT and communications that is," she added hurriedly."
"What is a leaky feeder cable? sorry, I'm Arthur Axell, Mike's best looking son, this ugly prick is my brother Edward," Arthur introduced himself and Edward, "I'm sorry, your rude boss hasn't introduced us, and you are?" he asked.
Robyn blushed with embarrassment, she should have known the Axell twins. "I'm Private Robyn McCallum, I'm sorry, I really didn't mean anything bad about your dad," she stuttered.
Kai looked bemused as Edward pushed Arthur out of the way.
"Don't take any notice of this uncouth Philistine, he has no manners, and of course you didn't, now Robyn, do you mind if I call you Robyn?" He continued without waiting for the requested permission. "Tell us about this leaky cable thing."
Robyn looked to Kai for permission to talk, and on his nod, she explained. "Antenna don't work very well in caves and tunnels, so we use special coaxial cables with lots of gaps in the outer insulation to allow the signals to escape. We use, sorry, used to use these radiating cables installed along the roof of road tunnels to provide radio and phone coms and GPS to the cars in the tunnels."
"How do you know this?" Arthur asked amazed.
Robyn looked nervously at Kai. Kai interrupted. "Robyn has a degree in communications engineering and was contracted to a tunnel construction company before getting bored and joining the military as a driver signaller. I'd say she knows this shit and I'm embarrassed I didn't think to ask her before this. Robyn, you wondered why Mike Axell didn't install a leaky cable, maybe he did, if so where would we look?"
"We used to run them in a conduit along the roof of the tunnel, so if there is one here, it will be in," She paused and looked up, squinting against the lights. "That conduit up there." She pointed at a white conduit attached to the roof and running the length of the cavern.
As they were tracing the conduit back to a junction box, Specialist Ian Stankovic re-joined the group. Robyn greeted him and in response to his query, quickly filled him in on the situation. He swore in embarrassment at not having thought about the radiating cable and helped the twins drag a crate over so Robyn could reach a junction cabinet on the cavern wall near the entrance. On opening the cabinet it was obvious to both Robyn and Ian that there was indeed an installed radiating cable and it was terminated in the cabinet, only needing the signal generator to be connected to be operational.
"Shit, how did I miss that?" Ian asked no-one in particular, "I have the signal amplifier interface back in our container, this could be working before diner with a bit of luck."
"Well I'll leave you to it then, oh and while you are at it, why not move the telephone base station from the old HQ to the top of the new guard tower." said Robyn. She felt more than a little smug, but tried hard not to show it.
"Thanks for spotting that, I'm really embarrassed for not thinking of the leaky feeder, thanks again," replied Ian.
As Robyn started to head out of the cavern, Kai was amused to see the twins rush to catch up to her and accompany her out of the compound. Kai thought that reporting the good news to Joe and the General at the old HQ would be as good an excuse as any to try and find out what had put a hair up their arses. He stepped it out toward the town just as a light rain began to fall again.
He stepped onto the old HQ veranda adding to the muddy boot prints on the bare wooden floor. Inside, he was met by a press of officers and civil admin staff, even the Mayor, all looking at the large screen feed from the copter at Sierra One. Kai looked across the crowd to locate Jill but she was in deep conversation with Joe so he asked one of the civilians what was going on.
"There are people at the first Sanctuary" he said.
"Shit, for real hey." Kai responded and pushed through the crowd toward Joe and Jill. Behind him, word must have got out as more people were crowding on the veranda and trying to push into the building.
"Excuse me Sir," he interrupted, "Should we try to clear the civilians out?"
"Arr Kai, yes, we had better do something, hang on,"
Joe turned to one of the HQ NCOs "Corporal, do we have a spare large screen or projector or something that we can run this feed to?" he asked.
"Yes Sir," the Corporal replied.
"Would you please set it up on the veranda so all these people can watch without crowding in here." Joe directed.
The Corporal grabbed Private Jane East to assist and set about moving the screen, speakers and projector from the briefing room out onto the veranda. Kai finally managed to corner Jill for an update on Sierra One and after stealing a quick kiss from her, reported the progress with the phones at the cavern to Joe. Outside a fair crowd had built up in the square in spite of the drizzling rain and the excitement running through those present was palpable. This was their first chance to see the descendants of the friends they had left five hundred years ago and curiosity was high.
Once the screen was setup, there was a short delay while the video feed was mirrored, then at the urging of the Mayor the crowd quietened down enough to hear the audio from the smallish speakers. When the HQ had cleared of all but the essential staff plus a couple of other hangers on like Kai, and the door closed, it was also possible to hear the audio feed from Sierra One. The HQ staff all dragged up chairs, some from the briefing room, and settled down to watch the proceedings. The General, to release some of the tension in the room asked. "Ok, who has the popcorn."
The wide angle lens of the copter's camera showed a slightly distorted view of the Sierra One compound from the front of the hall toward the main entrance. The main gates were dragged fully open and propped back by something the resolution of the camera didn't reveal. There were groups of people, mostly young adults by the look, making their way into the compound, they seemed to be having a good time, joking, pushing and greeting each other, certainly not like they were going to church. There were no beards and they were all wearing what looked like brightly coloured loose fitting cotton or linen trousers, all of the same design, but there was no such uniformity when it came to their shirts, such great variety of styles, colours and brevity were evident. One very obvious absence was that of weapons of any sort, though in the background, outside the entrance, and difficult to make out due to the wide angle lens, there briefly appeared a sentry holding a spear.
"Can we pause this feed?" asked General Stuart.
"Not live sir," answered the operator, "We have it recorded so if you wish, I can pause it by switching over to the recording, we would have to loose some of the stream doing that though."
"No, just note the time and we can look at it later, carry on." the General directed.
Joe interrupted, "The numbers seem to have slowed, have you been able to count how many people have gone into the hall?"
"I have counted four hundred and eighty, give or take a few, and there may have been a dozen or so go in early, before I started counting," reported the operator.
"Can we turn the camera around without starting the copter or alerting those people?" asked Joe.
"The camera can rotate two hundred and seventy degrees, it is inside a bubble so it shouldn't attract any attention," the operator said.
"Ok," said the General, "Let's see if we can checkout what is happening in the hall, and ramp up the volume, see if we can hear what they are saying."
The vision on the monitor panned around, they saw the length of the rafter the copter was sitting on and a close up of how the shingles were attached to the roofing timbers then the inside of the hall slid into view.
At the far end of the hall, one of the great doors of the cavern was open just far enough for people to move through, but not so far that the camera could see in. On the stage, the altar was covered with piles of fruit, vegetables, containers of grain and liquids and a large dressed pig carcass. A couple of middle aged men wearing the same trouser style as everyone else with long sleeved shirts but all in grey, and what looked like grey Trilby style hats were fussing about the altar and chatting casually. The audience or congregation, it was uncertain which, were generally finding seats or talking and laughing with friends or generally just milling around. This didn't look like any sort of religious event that any of the observers had attended. The operator amped up the volume but the general chatter and noise in the hall made it impossible to hear individual conversations or to identify the language used.
One of the men on the stage banged a gavel a couple of times on the edge of the altar and the noise subsided, there was a period of shuffling and scraping as those not yet seated scrambled for a seat while those who missed out moved to the sides of the hall to positions from where they could see the altar. When the hall had settled, the man with the gavel moved to the lectern to the left of the stage while his colleague stepped off the back of the stage and retreated into the cavern. The man at the lectern gave a couple of final bangs of his gavel to get the audience attention before he began to speak.
With the silence in the hall, the microphone was able to pick out the words clearly.
"The Mother, Father and Daughter welcome you all to this three hundredth equinox ceremony in honour of the Mother. In their name we thank you all, and acknowledge the distances some of you have travelled to honour those of your clans and communities who could not make the pilgrimage at this time."
The man continued. "I now have a great surprise for you, for the celebration of this the five hundredth anniversary of the Salvation and three hundred years since the end of the Wars of Freedom when our ancestors became aware of the Mother, Father and the Daughter. The Pope himself has made the pilgrimage and will be delivering the keynote."
At this the hall went wild, people standing on the pews and clapping and cheering. The noise went on for a good five minutes. The excitement was equally high in Sanctuary Two, in the town square the crowd had grown to include just about everyone not performing vital activities, and even some of those had downed tools to be present at this historic moment. In the HQ, the excitement was based on being able to understand the language spoken in Sierra One, It was clearly English, heavily accented but fully understandable with a smattering of strange words. Even the unfamiliar words were mostly understandable due to their context in the dialogue.
The noise from the hall reached a crescendo when an older man, unusual for his wispy grey beard and wearing the same grey clothing as the man who opened the ceremony exited from the cavern and carefully climbed the steps to the stage. He waved, pointed and acknowledged his way to the lectern, more like a politician or a rock star than a Pope, there he shook hands with the first speaker and took to the lectern. The Pope raised his hands in the universal signal Popes have used since forever and waited until the crowd had settled.
"Now I know you all can't wait for the celebrations to start." At this the cheers started again. The Pope once again waited for order to be restored and then continued. "But you know you have to sit through a sermon and you are unlucky enough this year, to have to have it from me."
Again he had to wait for the noise to subside.
"Seriously now, we must remember why we are here this day. It is the Equinox, it was on this day five hundred years ago, that the wrath of the Gods was visited on the world to punish the Americans, and on that day our blessed ancestors were protected by the Father." He paused and the audience responded with. "Thank you Father for our salvation." The Pope continued. "You all know the story, but it behoves us to hear it again and really think just what it means to us as we make our way through this life. We must never forget the lesson of the punishment the Gods handed out to the Americans."
"In the beginning the Americans were beloved by the Mother, she nurtured them and helped them grow and multiply and the Americans looked after the Mother, protecting her mountains, her forests and her seas and the Mother loved them. The mother saw that in the cold of winter the Americans froze and she taught them to use the coal from her body to heat their houses, but the Americans began to use her coal for other purposes. However, the Mother loved them still and allowed them to do it."
"The Americans multiplied and built great cities all over the world and created wonderful machines to do what ever they wanted. At first the mother still loved them, and did everything she could to help them. She even offered them some of her blood to use in their magic for the good of all people. After a while, the mother began to feel sick. She realised that the Americans had become terrible parasites and were stealing her blood for the magic that made their machines run. The Americans had became so powerful they were even able to violate the Daughter Moon and laughed at the mother when she begged them to stop. The mother was angered and tried to stop the Americans by making the earth hot, this did not stop them, she tried making the earth cold, this did not stop them either, the Americans had become too powerful. She tried making the earth too wet, then too dry to prevent the Americans making her sick, but they were too strong for the mother and laughed at her."
"The mother then asked Father Sun to help her, but Father Sun loved the Americans and refused to believe that they could make the Mother sick and ignored her plea for help. The Mother, in desperation, then asked another sun to help. This sun did not know the Americans so he agreed to help and he devised a plan to rid the Mother of the Americans. Father Sun, on discovering the plan from the Daughter Moon, warned his favourite, one of the Americans' slaves called Rodge."
"Rodge warned his friend, another slave called Axell and together they secretly built this safe sanctuary behind me, for our ancestors, the Blessed People, who hid here from the wrath of the other sun. Some of the Blessed People couldn't fit in the sanctuary, so they fled to the forbidden fortress and disappeared from human knowledge. The other sun smote the Americans for the Mother and wiped them from the earth, but Father Sun's favourites were safe in their sanctuary and survived the wrath of the Mother."
"At first, the Mother did not like the Blessed and sent an army of the Cursed to destroy our ancestors, but relented at the last moment and allowed the Blessed to prevail and send the Cursed back to their own land in defeat. Some of the Blessed soon forgot about the Father's gift and the Mother's forgiveness and viewed the Sanctuary as a fortress where they could become kings to rule over the lands of the Blessed. The Blessed rose against those who would be Kings and threw them down and exiled them to live with the cursed."
"At that time the church stepped in and decreed no-one shall ever live at the Sanctuary, it is to be used for the great celebrations of the Mother, the Father and the Daughter and as a refuge against aggression."
"We must never forget, praise be to the Mother, the Father and the Daughter." The Pope concluded. The audience responded with the same words and then the Pope held up his arms for silence.
"The church thanks you, the Blessed for your contribution to the feasting, this is one of the most generous offerings I have seen, as you can see from this sample laid out on the altar. While you have been listening to me, our priests have been preparing the food and drink in honour of the Mother. But before you go out to celebrate, can I have some help to take these offerings to the cooks?"
"Now for the part you have all been waiting for." The pope spread his arms to encompass the audience, "We are the Blessed and blessed indeed are the children conceived during this festival, go forth and celebrate the Mother."
"The Mother," responded the audience.
The Pope stayed long enough to bless the food from the altar and to help load it into the volunteers' arms, he then retreated to the Cavern. The people had started streaming out of the Hall when a shout went up and one young man pointed directly at the camera.
"Fuck," muttered Joe. "Get it out of there, now?"
The operator activated the copter but lifted it too fast and one of the rotors clipped the roofing and it dropped out of control to the floor. Before the operator could recover it a huge hand covered the camera and the video was lost.
"Shut it down, and kill the Video," ordered the General, "but leave the audio recording on."
"Done Sir," the operator replied.
The audio feed continued transmitting the babble of excited and frightened questions. There then came a loud authoritarian voice demanding silence, and access to the thing. "What is this thing?" the voice commanded.
"I don't know, I saw it perched on the rafter and it tried to fly away, it hurt a wing and fell to the floor and died, but it doesn't look like a bird." The voice of a young man said. There was a pause then another voice, that of an older man broke the silence.
"The Americans! The prophecy has come to pass, we are in great danger, I warned the Pope and the Carls and now the Americans are back." The noise level began to rise.
"People, let's not jump to conclusions, besides there are interpretations of that prophecy that say the people prophesied to come after five hundred years are not Americans but the lost Blessed ones and they will save us not destroy us." Said the voice of the Pope, "Now Carl Statish please bring the device into the inner sanctum, everyone else enjoy your celebrations and honour the Mother as she deserves."
The audio fell silent and soon the only sound was that of footsteps, a door closed and the sounds died out and the signal strength dropped to a flat line.
"Sir, we have lost contact, the copter is probably inside their Sanctuary now," The operator said unnecessarily.
"Will the audio still record inside the Cavern and will we be able to retrieve it if it comes back into the light?" asked General Stuart.
"Yes Sir, if there is any life in the battery that is," the operator answered.
"Good then, notify me immediately it happens."
The General stood and left the HQ, followed by Joe and the rest of the officers not on duty. Outside, the people of Sierra Two were still lingering in the square in excited groups. When the General and Joe emerged, someone called out, "General Sir, what do we expect to happen now, are we safe?"
The general came to a stop in the middle of the road and waited while the people formed a circle around him, "Our initial assessment is that Sierra One is a religious centre and the people are there for a ceremony, it sounded to me like they were there to make love not war. So in answer to your question, yes we are safe, remember Sierra One is more than a week's horse ride away and we will be keeping a close eye on them. Sanctuary Two has no secrets so you will all be kept informed, don't worry we will have plenty of warning."
With that he parted the crowd and strode back up to the Sanctuary and the sun dropped over the mountain behind the compound.
That night the atmosphere at the Thermae was definitely one of excitement, Joe was accosted by groups of civilians seeking reassurance and by soldiers seeking action. Nudity was by now such a non-event, that no one thought it odd for a senior military officer, fully naked standing with his family also fully naked, to hold an impromptu briefing to hundreds of also fully naked civilians in a steamy shower block. After reassuring the people, they rejoined Brian, Jean and the kids, then soon after, Charlie, Kai and the Carson sisters also joined them.
"If this keeps up, we will need more showers," observed Mary.
Pulling rank, Mary secured a block of shower roses for the group. After their ablutions, they all adjourned to the Mess as a group and squeezed into one of the larger tables. It was noisy and with the two children and baby, chaotic but fun. Kai sat between Jill and Sally laughing and flirting with both of them, when Sally leaned forward towards Mary, "Hey Mary, Jill tells me that you military are now practicing with the swords and spears and shields, is that right?"
"Yes, that is right," Mary replied, "We have enough spears, swords, bows and arrows and shields to outfit a medieval army, and as our guns won't last forever, we thought we had better get everyone up to speed with the weapons of the future."
"Is it true, that in the olden days, everyone like the farmers and peasants and blacksmiths and women had to know how to fight?" Sally asked.
"That is sort of true, for some cultures like in Europe the peasants made up the bulk of the armies, but not generally the women. In some Northern European cultures, however the women also fought along side the men, and in ancient Greece, well you have heard of the Amazons, they are reported to have been very ferocious and fought naked." Mary answered.
"So," Sally paused, "Wouldn't it be a good idea if us farmers and anyone else who was interested, also learnt how to fight with swords and stuff?" She asked with the innocent smile of a lawyer tricking a confession from the accused.
"Oh, clever," observed a grinning Joe, listening to the exchange. "What about it Mary? Do you want some more students? I can take you off active duty for a while." he asked.
"It probably is a good idea, I'll ask General Stuart about it first though."
Kai coughed to get attention, then under the smirking gaze of the Carson sisters,
"I,"
"We," interrupted Jill.
"I mean we have an announcement," continued Kai, reddening, "I am moving in with Jill and Sally."
There was a pause while the others all looked at each other, then the silence broke with congratulations from everyone, including Little Joe who while not sure what was going on decided that it was something he should add his congratulations to as well.
"So, there seems to be a bit of it going around," Jean added, "I heard that Arthur and Edward have both moved in with your young driver, Robyn".
"Really" said Mary and Kai together,
Mary continued "Who told you that?" she asked.
"Well actually I saw them from the back door the other evening as they were moving in and Edward confirmed it later on," Jean admitted.
"Wow," exclaimed Mary as she glanced toward Charlie who was studiously not paying attention to the conversation, then back to Joe who was focusing intently on his potato bake.
"I thought she was a little off at physical training the last couple of days, and those two sneaky pricks made out they didn't even know her just the other day." Kai observed dryly, trying not to notice the studied indifference on the other side of the table.
"Oh and what about General Stuart and Mayor Sloan, or Trasky and one of your boys Charlie? asked Mary mischievously.
"Just to change the subject," Charlie broke the thread, "Sally, how is that brewery coming along, we have been a year without alcohol and I think it is time to break the drought."
"You would think we would have had the foresight to pack some home brew kits hey," observed Sally. "So far it has been Temperance League three, drinkers none, all our attempts to date have been bad smelling failures, who would have thunk that making beer was so hard. Don't despair but, there is still hope, hey Joe? One of your patrols to the South has found a plantation of old Olive trees and grape vines growing wild, a real garden of Eden. There must have been vineyards down there back in the day." She continued.
"That is correct," confirmed Joe, "and some of Sally's people have checked it out and reckon they can be made productive easily and processing olives and making wine is something we do know something about."
"Yesy indeedy," Sally concluded, "Olives, cheese and wine on the menu by the end of the year.
"Well don't give up on the beer though," begged Charlie.
"No alcohol and a year with no crime or violence," observed Jean.
Brian stopped fussing with the baby long enough to join in. "A full year, hell the colony has come a long way when you think of it. I was up at the truck park the other day, it is like a mini industrial suburb, all those containers are now like workshops, there are the weavers and spinners, the blacksmiths, the mechanics and even a group of potters have set up a kiln there. Now that the forest is safe, the wood cutters are making a huge pile of fire wood there too. It really is amazing," he concluded.
Jean agreed. "There has been a swag of babies too, but now that, our medical supplies are just about gone and I'm worried we might start losing babies and mothers at birth because of it."
"This is how it is going to go," observed Joe, "First things start running out, then equipment stops working and we slowly adopt a more low technical life style."
"We are all hoping that the preparation Mike Axell and your dad put into this colony was enough for our survival," said Sally Carson.
"It will all come down to how everyone works together. That depends on how successful they were at selecting people who can deal with the predicted challenges and how we collectively deal with the unexpected challenges. That then boils down to how we educate the next generation to survive. And that is what keeps me up at night." Brian concluded, effectively killing that thread of conversation.
"I suppose we have to get this one to bed." Observed Mary, watching Little Joe yawn and stifling her own. "Ok, lets go mister, bed time," she directed at Little Joe.
"Can Aunty Charlie come too?" he asked as he climbed down from the stool.
"Sure I can," answered Charlie.
She picked him up for a hug. Mary and Charlie said their good nights and with Little Joe between them, each holding one of his hands headed for the door, leaving Joe to struggle after them carrying their bags and towels.
"Yes well, who are they kidding," Jill giggled after them, then blushed as Jean gave her a stern look.
"We have a signal," the duty operator called, "The copter is transmitting again."
"Can you activate the camera?" Lieutenant Miller asked as he dialled Joe's number.
"Yes Sir, and I am now downloading the recorded audio."
Joe was enjoying a family breakfast with Mary, little Joe, Charlie, Jean, Elle and Baby Rodger when his phone rang. By the time he slapped his egg and beans between two pieces of bread and bolted to the old HQ, the operator had the copter's recorded audio downloaded and the camera and the live audio feed activated.
"Have you called the General?" he asked as he slopped coffee on the operations desk.
"I have sent a runner sir, he wasn't answering," the duty officer reported.
"Probably should have sent them to the SALs," referring to the Thermae in military terms, "he is most likely having a shower. Now fill me in, what is happening?"
"The copter is back out of the cave, and we have a good feed. The battery has about ten percent left, enough to fly to the relay tower," reported the operator.
Joe was half listening, his attention was taken by the video feed. The video feed indicated it was placed upside down on the altar in the hall. "Can it take off from this position?" he asked.
"It should, but it would be slow and would probably be caught before it gets high enough to flip upright," the operator reported.
"Shush, what are they saying?" commanded Joe urgently.
The audio feed was slightly distorted and at a low volume but understandable when everyone was quiet. The video showed a couple of clean shaven middle aged men standing looking down at the copter, behind them was a young man with the look of a soldier or warrior. The warrior was urging the older men to kill the thing, while the closest elder, and Joe was sure he was the man who had earlier on introduced the Pope, peered into the camera pod and suggested that they should tie it up and see what it does. Those options didn't cheer Joe. "We really need to try and take the copter back before they kill it or tie it up," he observed.
Mary, who had arrived soon after Joe and had been watching quietly from the background spoke up. "Does the copter have a speaker, I mean can we transmit sound to it? she asked.
"Sure sir, the microphone is here on the console, just press the talk button and talk," the operator said.
"I have an idea that may give us enough time to get the copter airborne," Mary said, "If we scream into the mike, they may be startled enough to give us a window, what do you think?" she asked.
"Worth a try, how loud is the speaker on the copter?" Joe asked.
"Loud enough to give them a fright," was the answer.
"Well we had better hurry before they make a decision," observed Joe.
The operator held up a finger to indicate silence, clicked on a button on the screen and counted down silently from three, on go, Joe, Mary and Lieutenant Miller all screamed at the top of their voice into the microphone. The sound had an immediate effect, the man peering at the copter jumped back, bumping the warrior behind him off balance while the copter gave a shudder, spun on the spot then lifted into the air. The operator was able to fly it upside down close to the roof, well out of reach from the ground, flip it over and guide it out the front of the hall through the gap above the rafters.
The warrior recovered first and hefted his hunting knife after the copter, but cursed as his knife missed and wedged high in a junction of roof and rafter. The copter, with camera still streaming, crossed over the wall of the Sierra One compound and made a wide pass over the camping area. The feed showed people engaged in sporting activities, feasting and drinking, congregating around cooking fires and generally socialising and relaxing in groups. With the battery level in mind, the operator then sent the copter on an indirect course for the phone tower hill. After twenty minutes of fast flying, the copter was resting on the ground next to the phone tower, recharging in the morning sun.
Joe and Mary and Lieutenant Miller were still discussing the recharging time with the operator when General Stuart barged into the room followed soon after by a flushed soldier, obviously short of breath.
"What has happened? I left instructions to be notified immediately the copter became active, why wasn't I called earlier?" he demanded angrily.
A visibly shaken Lieutenant Miller explained that he had immediately sent the runner to his house then up to the Sanctuary to fetch him.
"Ah," the General relented, "I was having, um, breakfast with the Mayor, next time check her house, I may be there," he added sheepishly. "Well enough of that, fill me in," he demanded.
Joe and Mary left it to Lieutenant Miller to brief the General and to the duty operator to explain when the copter would be back in their hands. The operator did report that the audio from its time in the Sierra One's Sanctuary had been downloaded and it could be listened to now.
"Ok, Lieutenant, send someone to fetch the civil administration, they will need to hear this so they know we aren't keeping secrets from them." General Stuart ordered, then followed with, "Now I need a coffee, Joe and Mary, come with me to the mess so we can have a bit of a chat about what has happened."
Over coffee, Mary started "They have seen the copter and surely they must know it isn't some sort of animal, they will be on their guard now."
"I think we need to risk the recon drone on a wide area search, as far East as Fort Jones or even more, we need to know what we may be up against." General Stuart suggested.
"This might be a good time to bring up a request from the civilians," Joe said.
"Hmm?" asked the General with a raised eye brow.
Mary jumped in "Some of them have been watching the sword and shield training and have asked if they can receive some training with the weapons as well. I can set it up and I'm sure Sergeant Trask and a couple of the section leaders would like to be involved as well."
"What about injuries? Your people are highly trained and they are always getting hurt," The General observed.
"Well I suppose we can start them off with non contact spear and bow drills and then for fun, shield wall training," offered Mary.
"Well, ok, just take care to not hurt anyone then," the General conceded.
"Thank you Sir," returned Mary.
"Now let us hear what the Sierra One people have decided about the copter." General Stuart stood led them back to the old HQ.
When they returned to the old HQ, Mayor Sloan and a couple of other members of the Civil Administration were already present and seated.
"Righto son." General Stuart directed at the operator. "Let's hear it."
"Sir," replied the operator.
He clicked on the play button. The audio was clear and it was obvious the first speaker was that of the man who had introduced the Pope at the start of the ceremony.
"What is it,? Is it alive?" Voice one asked.
"Let's just take it inside the meeting room where we can discuss it in private," Said a voice obviously belonging to the Pope.
"Where could it have come from, who put it up there?" A second unknown Voice asked.
The Voices fell silent while footsteps were heard then, after the sound of a door closing there was a loud clunk that the listeners interpreted as the copter being placed on a table.
"It seems to be some sort of machine, but it is the smallest machine I have seen, and what does it do?" Voice two asked, then continued slightly agitated. "The legends of the Americans, talk about magic machines, maybe this is one, could the prophecy be true?"
"Don't jump to conclusions Keem," advised the Pope, "If this belonged the Americans, where has it been hiding for the last 500 years, and why has it turned up now? "
"Maybe they have returned as the prophecy says," Voice two countered.
"You know as well as anyone the prophecy is open to interpretation, we don't know if that is what it means," answered the Pope patiently.
"What do you think it does, it is so small and it doesn't have any weapons?" Voice one asked.
"Maybe it was sent to spy on us," answered Voice two.
"How can something so small do that?" Voice one asked in return.
"Do you think it flies, do you think those are little wings on the corners?" Voice one said.
There was a bumping and scraping noise, followed by. "It doesn't look alive," from Voice one. A loud rattling noise and static, then loud bump erupted from the speaker, "There is nothing in it, if it was alive it is dead now," Voice one continued.
"Don't hurt it, I have to think about what it means and why it appeared to us now, it might be a sign of something, I will need to consult my colleagues. Leave it here and keep the door closed in case it is alive," The Pope instructed.
There was a sound of the door opening and closing.
"This has got to be the Americans, where else can it come from? That old fool can't see what is in front of his eyes." declared Voice two.
"You might be right, we should send a team to the forbidden fortress to see if the Americans have returned as the prophecy foretells." agreed Voice one.
"I think you are right, and if they are there we must prepare for war, we must strike while they are not prepared and remove them from the Mother," Voice two declared angrily.
"You know we can't do that, it is forbidden to attack without provocation, the church will not allow it. We have to be attacked first," Voice one advised calmly.
"You are blind too, your stupid church rules will doom us all. We will send the scouts and when they report back, you will see that the Americans are dangerous. They destroyed the world once and we can't let them do it again." Voice two practically shouted.
"We will have to wait until the ceremony is over. We can't take anyone away from the Celebration of the Mother," observed Voice one.
"I will organise with the commander to send out a scout team in two days time. I hope we can agree that there is no need to inform the church until the scouts report back," suggested Voice two back in control.
There was the sound of knocking on the door followed by the sound of the door opening, "Father, you summoned me?" said a third voice from the distance, The voice matched that of the warrior who threw the knife at the escaping copter.
"Arr yes, Carl Jon, could I have a minute with my son, I haven't had a chance to talk to him about the ceremony yet," asked Voice two formally.
"Of course Carl Statish, I have a belated appointment with a supplier of beer, I shall leave you in the hands of the Mother, good afternoon, and to you young Geo," said Voice one followed by the sound of the door closing.
"Geo, we are in grave danger, I think the Americans may have returned, and that idiot Pope can't see the danger, the bumbling idiot Carl Jon can't make a decision if his life depends upon it, and it does." Carl Statish informed his son.
"Jon has however agreed that we need to send a scout team up to the Forbidden Fortress to see if the Americans have returned to there as the prophecy foretells."
"When do you want my team to leave? Should we wait until after the Ceremony of the Mother? " Geo Statish asked his father.
"Don't get ahead of yourself, son," the Carl said, "I have a different task for your team and it requires total secrecy. How far can you trust your Commando?" he asked.
"They are all totally loyal to the clan, and to you father. They will keep a secret, I trust them with my life," Geo stated with pride obvious in his voice.
"Well, I am going to give the honour of scouting the Fortress to Carl Jon's Clan Gra'am scouts," started the Carl.
"But father," interrupted Geo, "my team would.." His voice stopped and the Carl continued.
"I want your team to follow the Gra'am scouts without being detected and if the Americans really are back, I need you to intercept and kill the Gra'am scouts before they return, if the Americans don't. When they don't return, I will dispatch you and your Commando to find them, you will bring their bodies back and report that the Americans are back and that they killed Carl Jon's scouts. Clan Gra'am will force Carl Jon to support the destruction of the Americans. With him on side the other six clans will follow and our total strength, combined with surprise will give us an easy victory. Can I entrust your Commando to that task?"
"You know you can father, mere scouts are no match for the Clan Bento commando. If the Americans have returned, you will have your war."
"Good, don't mention this to your team just yet, go and enjoy the ceremony, the Mother be with you and may the Father guide your hand." The Carl concluded.
"And for you as well father," Responded Geo, as the listeners heard the sound of the door opening and closing then silence.
"There is a bit more later, just before we rescued it." advised the operator. He scrolled through the audio file's flat wave form until it again recorded activity. Clicking on play, it started with the sound of the door opening.
"It must be dead, it hasn't moved," observed the voice of Carl Jon.
"Bring it outside," said the voice of Carl Statish, "See if the fresh air can stir it, just be careful it doesn't escape."
The speaker played the sound of footsteps, the closing of a door and after a short period the clunk as the copter was dropped on the alter.
"That is all sir," reported the operator as he clicked on the pause button.
"When can we expect to get the copter back?" asked Joe.
"It is fully charged, I can fly it back anytime now, it will take about two hours flying time," answered the operator.
"Do it," ordered the General, "Madam Mayor, I will let you know what we come up with and feel free to inform the population what we have found out today, but word it so everyone is reassured that we are doing everything in our power to avoid a war." With that he ushered the civilians out of the HQ, patting a worried Mayor Sloan's arm reassuringly as she left.
"Ok folks, back up at the Sanctuary HQ operations room after lunch," ordered General Stuart, "We have some planning to do."
He strode out the door after the Mayor.