Chapter 46

Aina time: 8:05 AM, day 254 of 1449

Earth time: 8:30 PM Eastern Daylight Time, Wednesday, June 17, 2043

There was a soft but solid thud of a large deadbolt locking the door behind them. Lieutenant Diaz tore her attention from the amazing room she had just entered and turned to face Corporal Johnson. "Corporal, don't try to edit, just tell me what your first impressions are, since we've entered this base."

Lynda nodded. "In a few words Lieutenant, it's been one impossible mystery after another." She walked across the large and empty dining room, gazing out at the pouring rain outside. After a moment of fiddling, she opened a large window and breathed deeply of the outside air. "Lieutenant, check this out! Impossible mystery number thirty-five! This air smells fabulous! It's so cool too!"

Jennifer walked over to the window and looked out. "I can't make any sense of what I'm seeing. I don't see any of the canyon's rim walls, so we must be facing due west. But sunset is only fifteen minutes away. Especially with all the rain, shouldn't the sky be darker?"

"Yeah, it sure should, a lot darker. It wasn't anything like this bright when we came here. And look down too. It seems this building is an enormous hexagon, sitting on a circular plateau so perfect it must be artificial, human made. But how could this building and this circular plateau not be visible from outside the Grotto?"

"That woman... Kara... Mentioned something about fake rock..."

Lynda gave a deep frown. "Well... yeah... I think the word fake was mine... This is so bizarre. My mind says no, that's not it. Fake rock?! But then again, what else could it be? And then again... Oh! This is all so impossible! And breathe this lovely air! It's so sweet and clean and cool! Were we supposed to get a cold front this evening? Could it move in so fast?"

"I doubt it..." Jennifer said softly. She took a deep breath. "Your right, this air is sweet and lovely... It brings back memories... of the parks and the forests... before the plague and all the wars..." She looked at her new watch, and her mind again began to go over the wondrous last half-hour...

After the airlock door had sealed behind them, she and Lynda had been led to a series of small chambers where they lost everything from their old existence. The eight other women from the special ops team had stripped naked with them, and then there were a number of brief but intense exposures to UV light and full-body sprays and washes that left Jennifer feeling super clean. They then joined the other women picking up fresh clothes.

There was a large selection of sizes from neatly organized clothes bins, and Jennifer thought she hadn't seen such high quality fabrics and boots in many years. She and Lynda had exchanged glances. They were both grateful but puzzled they were getting the same high-quality gear as the other women on the special ops team.

And what was perhaps the most amazing of all was how friendly and open the other women seemed. They were both kind and genuinely concerned for their prisoners' welfare. Jennifer got numerous looks of sympathy and support that she didn't understand at all. A lot of them seemed to stare with pity at the radiation lesions on her body, and Jennifer wouldn't figure out why. After all, the lesions were so common. In her experience, special ops teams just didn't act like this. Not that they weren't special ops, Jennifer reminded herself. Both she and Lynda were stunned by their healthy and athletic bodies. Jennifer couldn't remember when she last saw such a large group of people totally free from the effects of radiation and the wars.

Jennifer brought her thoughts back to the present and walked around the dining room for a while. There were two banks of windows, along two of the twelve-meter-long hexagonal walls. She strained on either side to see the rim wall, but the fog was perhaps just a little too dense. She then looked down at the new watch on her wrist. Lynda had one too. Perhaps the gifts were the most wondrous of all.

After they had picked up their new clothes with the other women, there was one final table before exiting the area. There were eight watches on the table, and each of the special ops women picked one up. Then Kara offered her watch to Jennifer, and another woman who introduced herself as Amy gave her watch to Lynda. It was an act of pure kindness, Jennifer couldn't think of how else to frame it. She stared at her watch now. Lynda saw her and did the same.

"Mine has Path Mission 1449 engraved across the top," remarked Lynda.

"Mine too."

"And look at the watch face! It's a hexagon, surrounded by blue hexagonal crystal. Is this amethyst? Remind you of anything Lieutenant?"

"Sure does Corporal, the entrance to the base from the Grotto. It was surrounded by a huge blue crystal. I've never seen anything like it. It was so beautiful, like an impossibly huge blue diamond. What could it possibly be doing on a military base?"

"I'm not sure this is a military base Lieutenant. Look at the opulence of this room! These chairs are leather! And the tables! Such beautiful woods! Look at that painting of an enormous red bird. It's breathtaking! No, wait! It's a tile mosaic! What's something like this doing on a military base? And look at these plush carpets... This place is more like a palace than a military base. Is this place a palace? And why are these people so kind to us?"

"Great questions, Corporal... Lynda... What did Kara say as she locked the door?"

Lynda shook her head in disbelief at the memory. "She was actually apologizing for locking us in! She said they'd be having an emergency meeting to decide what to do with us. I don't see how knowing this base is here can be kept such a secret though, it must be so visible now, or it will be as soon as it stops raining. Our main squad must be tracking us, and they knew where we were when we got picked up. Surely they'll be here in an hour or so... But then again... Oh, I don't know. I think I'd be more worried, except everybody here seems so genuinely concerned for us. Jennifer... Oh, sorry! Lieutenant, I don't know what to make of this at all..."

"It's okay Lynda. As long as we're prisoners, I don't mind you using my first name... This watch..." Jennifer played with some of the buttons... "Nice light for night use... Extremely well made... A commemorative watch... My gosh! Could this be real silver and gold?"

"Yeah... I think it is."

"And Kara and Amy just gave them to us. I think these were their commemorative watches, and they just gave them to us..."

"Who ever heard of an ops team getting watches for a mission to... to what? All they did was bring in two people from their own army! Jennifer, this makes no sense..." Lynda fiddled with her watch. "Uh, see the two time modes?"

"Yeah. I've been thinking about that too. The first one lights up as... 8:41 PM, with a date area saying June 17, 2043. But this second mode, it's showing 8:16 AM, and then 254 / 1449. What does that mean?"

"Don't know. The 1449 does match the engraved number on the watch."