America One: War of the Worlds (20 page)

He hadn’t seen the surviving space craft surrounded by the same blue shield they had given to the Earth
Matts
so many centuries ago, and he had been shocked a few years later to see
Tall People
on his own planet.

Now these
Tall People
were standing in his very own command center, and telling him that they knew about
Gook
. He suddenly wanted to see the globes outside in the Globe Room, to see if the reinforcements were on their way, the same reinforcements he had asked for 15 years ago. He tried to peer over the shoulder of the very tall metal
Tall Person
, who could think like him, and the man immediately saw his movement.

“No, sorry Commander Fob, your globes are now ours,”
he heard the tall metal person think to him, and then to the other metal person.
“Mars, can you find something to blindfold the commander with, until we get a suit on him and out of here.”

“You had better bind his hands behind his back”
VIN stated to Mars in English, a language the commander didn’t understand.

“Ryan, it seems that the commander knows about the incoming flights from Europa,” stated VIN.

“I think it important to find out what is in the rest of this base,” replied Ryan. “Are you sure he doesn’t understand English?”

“I don’t believe so, but I’m nearly there,” VIN replied as he watched his son rip off a piece of a space blanket and begin wrapping it around the
Matt’s
eyes.

“I think as soon as we dress these kids, we need to leave here,” stated Ryan.

“Joanne I need to sedate the commander. Do you have anything in your box of tricks, Doc?” asked VIN. Joanne nodded that she had.

“Commander Fob. I will allow you and these three children to live, if you answer my questions truthfully,”
carried on VIN thinking in
Matt
and looking at the commander’s face who couldn’t see him back.
“If you answer my questions correctly, I will also ask our commander to declare peace with your people on the white planet. We know your spaceships are coming to this planet. We count 16 ships.”
That made the commander relax slightly and the muscles of his face relaxed into a twitch a grin for a split second, thought VIN. He continued verbally in
Matt
. “Since you have 16 spaceships coming here, that means that your forces in the white planet have 16 less ships, and that will help our fleet of ships heading there right now. We knew about your base out there a long time ago, and since you attacked us here on the red planet, my commander felt it would even the battle if we attacked your white planet first. Also there is nothing left to attack here on this planet. Are you ready to answer my questions?”

Commander Fob said nothing for a few minutes. His head was still swimming from the 15 years of sleep, the cold of the nitrogen, the bad news, and he needed to think clearly.

“I am ready,” the commander replied softly.

“Why did you attack our base when we asked your astronauts for peace?” VIN asked.

“You
Tall People
tricked us many years ago on the blue planet. We came in peace to visit you from the white planet. We couldn’t find our tribe we left on your planet. The green and cool area we always visited them was a hot dry desert, so we looked into the cooler areas to the south. There we found tall, dark people, who tried to kill us every time we tried to talk to them. We found a few people who looked like us, and we met with them. They did not speak our language, although they spoke one much the same. These short dark people couldn’t tell us anything about our people, so we headed north of the new desert. Here tall white people like you sent their animals they rode on to attack us. They attacked us every time we landed. They killed several of us, and then we moved to set up a base on the same land you come from.”

“How do you know this?” VIN asked quite socked at this. These
Matts
had lived on the North American continent 3,000 years ago.

“My ancestor, Commander Hoo documented these travels in our history scrolls,” replied Fob. “They lived on this land for two generations, setting up a base so that they could find the tribe we had lost. They never found them, and were repeatedly attacked by the local people, killing many on each side. We grew to hate all the
Tall People
on the blue planet, and our tribe vowed to attack them wherever we found them. We left the blue planet and set up this base. My ancestor, Commander Gut was the first commander, my father the tenth and I was the eleventh.”

“And this is your command center?’ asked VIN. The
Matt
nodded. “If you had your spacecraft here, and your command center here, why did you build such long tunnels?”

“We needed the water I think you have already found underneath, and the metals we needed to manufacture our base and spaceships was a long way from here. So we had to join the two areas up, and this base was made of two areas: the command center with the water, and the metal section with the builders. My ancestor, the fifth commander completed the tunnel when my father was very young, like that boy you first brought out of the chamber. That is my brother’s son, and my brother died flying one of our spacecraft you destroyed.”

Slowly the other side of the story came together to those listening. There wasn’t much to do apart to make sure the children were warm, and the suits recharged.

“So you attacked the base we
Matts
lived in because the
Tall People
had attacked you on the blue planet?” asked Roo. He had returned several minutes earlier, once he had calmed down, and as the commander had begun his story.

“It is in my orders to do so, from my ancestors who built this base, and we must continue to do so until either we are all dead, or you leave us alone,” was the commander’s simple reply.

“These
Tall People
only want peace,” added Roo. “My wife, that tall women sitting there was the ruler of that area you lived in. Now a younger person rules, and she and I, Ruler Roo have come here to rule our
Matt
base on the red planet. Does that mean you will always attack us, until we are no more?’ Roo asked the commander.

“Yes,” replied the Commander. “We must do what it states in our history scrolls. My people on the white planet, many thousands of them with many spaceships have the same history scrolls, and we must do what our ancestors say.”

“What happens if we leave you alone on the white planet, and you leave us alone on the red planet?” asked Ryan, who hadn’t spoken to the commander before.

“If it is one day written in our history scrolls by the Ruler, then it will be so for our future generations,” replied Fob.

“So which side of your base was the largest?” VIN asked trying to keep control of the situation.

“Of course that side,” replied the commander. “This side was for all flight commanders, inventors, our pilots, and family only. The other side was for miners, builders, teachers, young pilots, and ranks lower than Commander.”

“So the other side had more space ships than this side,” VIN asked.

“No,” Commander Fob replied.

“So that was why we destroyed 27 ships on the second attack, and when I lost my arm?” Mars injected, his father looking at him but staying quiet.

Commander Fob stared at the younger man. He was puzzled. The younger man showed him his metal arm as proof of the battle.

“I destroyed none of your crew,” Mars stated. “I was flying an Earth
Matt
ship. Actually I was flying Commander Joot’s spaceship. He was a good friend of mine, the
Matt
commander your brother killed in the first attack,” Mars stated.

“That ship has no weapons,” Commander Fob replied.

“Correct commander. Your brave pilots from the other side knew that it was a
Matt
ship, but still they shot me down.”

Commander Fob shook his head. “They were only to attack
Tall People
spaceships, not our own, and there were not twenty-seven ships, unless new ships had arrived from the white planet.

Nobody said anything for a few minutes, then one of the children groaned, and the two medics attended the boy.

“So how many of your people died in here? We only counted 5 bodies outside?” VIN asked.

“You are correct. Our flight commanders and two inventors. The rest of my crew, and pilots died in the explosion. Forty in all,” was Fob’s reply.

“And the second explosion?” VIN asked.

“Were there any survivors?” Fob asked.

“No,” replied Mars.

“Forty-five pilots, 21 builders of spaceships, 21 growers of food, 21 miners of metals, 20 children and I believe 3 teachers of the children, soon to be Inventors. My wife was one of the growers of food, and she and I were separated when the explosion occurred. I have said enough, do what you want of me and the children, and I hope our ships arrive from the white planet and kill you all. Even you Ruler Roo, who has taken a
Tall People
wife.”

VIN nodded, and Joanne smiled at the commander kindly when she gave him the sedative.

“I’m not angry with you commander,” she stated in perfect
Matt
. “I just hope you all forgive us one day for all our bad deeds against your people. What I am giving you will make you sleep, and Ruler Roo and I will make sure the three children live.”

Being a small man, the sedative meant for somebody of VIN’s size, the commander was asleep seconds after Joanne gave him her speech.

“It’s time to get out of here,” stated Ryan in English. “Well done Noble family, at least we know what we are up against us from next door. First we need to get these children, ourselves, and both shuttles back to the Retreat. It seems the lines of communications have been broken from here. I’m sure he is scared to communicate telepathically since you guys will hear what he says.”

“I would have heard the commander thinking to the others,” replied VIN. “He didn’t try, I believe.”

“At least we know that there must be still enemy spacecraft on this plant,” added Mars. “We only destroyed seven in the second battle.”

“And 137 Matts, minus the killed pilots, could still be alive” added Maggie.

I only remember seeing one single seat fighter during the battle,” stated Mars.

“It had a yellow nose in front of the pilot?” VIN asked.

“Jonesy and I blew one up with a yellow nose and so did Allen Saunders in
SB-I
during the first battle. He wrote it in his report,” stated Maggie.

“Talk to me Maggie, you are ex-Air force. What do the numbers represent, the difference between pilots and ships? They don’t tally,” asked Ryan.

“We have two flights of 16 ships heading towards this planet. It seems the commanders fly single seat aircraft. That means two wings of seven, each with a flight commander,” Maggie replied. “Fob stated that there were flight commanders here, and who died in the explosion. The first battle was only five ships. I assume Fob’s brother was the flight commander. Why he had four spaceships including his when they come in flights of seven, I can’t tell you. Maybe repairs were going on, or parts were needed with two of his ships, but I think a nearly two dozen aircraft in the hangar blowing up certainly must have added to the explosion. The explosions we saw when their aircraft blew up were certainly very powerful explosions. They must have several craft in the other section. It sounds like only one flight commander was there at the time of the explosion. He died when they attacked Mars and the others. The other one died here. All I can say Ryan is that there are still too many aircraft over on the other side with maybe one commander to lead them. Whether they can fly or not is not a number I want to attack, with two shuttles.”

Chapter 9
 
A New Home for Many

It took a whole day to get everyone back to the shuttles. The children were given a tiny sedative to keep them asleep and they were dressed into the spacesuits.

By the time this was done, Max had completed a full three-hour rest period, and he headed down the tunnel with the train.

Jonesy had reached the Retreat, was collecting three more crewmembers to help carry the gold and had just enough fuel to do one more trip to the tunnels and back.

The first group were ushered into the cavern, fully suited up when Max arrived and opened the door. Patricia, Maggie, Joanne and the three children literally spilled out of the cavern when the door opened, each holding a child.

Luckily, no damage was done to any of the suits, and VIN, Roo, Ryan and Mars had no choice but to wait in the closed command center for the air pressure to return. Their suits needed recharging.

Max took Joanne and the smallest child up first. Joanne lay on her back on the forward carriage and held the child in her arms as Max guided them up the tunnel. There Saturn was ready to carry the child back to the shuttle. Joanne followed, saw the others still carrying the gold squares into the cargo holds, and began work as her suit was freshly charged.

Max returned with the canister Saturn had carried to the tunnel with the extra suit, and this time he returned with Patricia and the next child. Saturn was back on the flight deck, but gave Patricia help over the intercom where to take the child.

Maggie was next, and Max completed the three journeys in two hours 10 minutes. He had just time to head down one more time.

Again he had to open the door to the cavern. He passed in the canister and Mars, pushed out by his father, was carrying the sleeping
Matt
Commander in Roo’s suit. Roo would have to wear an adult suit on the way up. It was far too big for him, he wouldn’t be able to walk in it, but he was to be carried by VIN and his powerful metal limbs.

Max headed up for the fourth time showing Mars how the girls how he had done it. Once at the tunnel entrance Max headed into the shuttle with Commander Fob while Mars headed over to Joanne and Maggie both helping with the gold carrying.

His suit was fresh, he was happy to be outside again. It was a nice Martian morning, and the weather clear. The piles of cut up blocks of gold were growing. At the moment there were only four of them carrying a block between two people back to
SB-IV’s
cargo bays. The shuttle’s cargo bays were nearly full, and once both shuttles were filled, they would swap places with the two shuttles above. This was meant to happen on Day 5, and they were already a day behind.