Chapter 2

That was the last Sarah said. She breathed her last.

As tears formed in my eyes, I heard a rustling sound behind me. I turned to look and four men stared at me.

They were indeed human!

"It said you would come," the lead man said.

I looked back at Sarah then at the strangers.

"Help me!" I pleaded.

The four men descended on Sarah. They checked and examined her, but they could only confirm what I already knew.

"I am sorry," the lead man said. "She has died."

I cried. It was only now, now that she was gone, that I knew how much I truly loved her. To the strangers' credit they sat silently, like a good friend does, until my tears abated.

"We will give your companion a proper ceremony," the lead man said.

"Thank you," I choked out.

"Jason, Robert," the man said.

"Careful," I said to the two as they picked Sarah up.

"We will," said Jason.

"Come, Alex," said the lead man.

"How do you know my name?" I said shocked.

"You are the one." He pointed at the insignia on the sleeve of my uniform.

It was then that I noticed the sleeve on his shirt. It wasn't the same exact insignia, there were differences, but the similarities were too uncanny. There was no doubt they were linked.

"Who are you?" I asked.

"I am Stephen."

"What are you doing here?"

"We saw you come down."

Neither response was what I was looking for.

"What people are you?" I asked.

"We are your people," he said with an unmistakable look of confusion.

I couldn't seem to get a straight answer.

"We shall take you to our village," said Stephen.

The fourth man, his name was Evan, discovered John in the escape pod. He and Stephen carried him back.

"I might need to come back to my ship," I said before we headed out.

"Of course," said Stephen. "We will assist you in any way."

"Thank you."

Stephen led the way. It was evident in how he turned this way and that way that he followed a path, but it was indiscernible to me in the deep jungle vegetation. I guessed we walked for about half an hour. The weight of Sarah's and John's bodies was no strain on my companions. The four men were strong.

"How did you get to this world?" I asked.

"From our founders," Stephen said.

"And who were your founders?"

"The five."

"The five?"

"Yes. Is there a reason you are testing us?"

We suddenly walked into a large clearing and my questions left me. The clearing was so dramatic in the middle of the jungle trees that I instantly knew it was purposefully created. It would have taken a long time to do this. We walked another ten minutes or so, on a pathway through fields of wheat, corn, other planted vegetables, and low growing fruits such as berries.

Finally, we came into their village. There were many wood buildings that were evenly spaced in a grid-like manner. We walked by the buildings until we reached the center where there was a stage and many wooden benches. This was likely the town meeting area.

There was something incredibly strange about the stage. In the background of the stage were gleaming white metal pieces. The metal pieces were torn, fragmented and scarred and they were undoubtedly from a spaceship. As strange as that was to see, it was the arrangement of the chairs and tables on the stage that was the strangest. It reminded me of the bridge of a spaceship. Ship bridges looked pretty much the same no matter the size of the ship and this stage was unmistakably a bridge.

I turned around and noticed a large contingency of people were behind us. It was normal for them to look curiously at the stranger, but I still felt uncomfortable. The people were old and young, male and female. They were a cross-section of all ages.

"How many people live here?" I asked.

"We are 250 people now," Stephen said proudly.

Jason and Robert laid Sarah on the ground drawing my attention.

"We shall revere your companion and have a ceremony to honor your arrival tonight," said Stephen.

"I want to see where you bury her."

"Of course, sir. May I show you to your home? It has been ready and waiting for your arrival. I hope it is to your liking."

I had many questions, but they could all wait. I followed Stephen to a building on the other side of the stage. It was similar to the other buildings which I assumed were homes, but it was four times the size. It was by no means a big building but compared to the others, it was huge.

The interior was all one room. A large bed against the back wall dominated the room. There was a cooking area, a table with chairs, and many cabinets. The arrangement of furniture once more gave me the impression of a ship bridge.

"We will immediately change anything as you so desire," Stephen said.

"This looks good to me," I said.

"So you are pleased?"

"Yes. Thank you."

Stephen's expression looked like ... was it relief? It would be an odd response, but it did look like that. He opened a cabinet and took a wooden box off the top shelf. He brought it to the table.

"The Text," he said.

I came over. He opened the box and took out a book. I pulled a chair out and sat down in front of it.

The paper was yellowed and fragile. I carefully opened up the cover. The first page said, "The Log of Alexander Thurman". It was dated just over 200 years ago.

"Thank you!" I said enthusiastically. Here would be the answers to many of my questions.

"Would you like some food or drink, sir?" he asked.

"No, thanks." I probably should be hungry, but I wanted to get to reading.

"So I shall leave you alone?"

"Okay. See you later."

As soon as Stephen was gone, I read through the book.

The small 5-person exploration ship Neptune VI was struck by a surprise meteor storm. The two men and three women were fortunate to discover this planet. Their damaged ship crashed but all survived. It was evident that the 250 people living here were the descendants of the original five.

Alexander detailed their early struggles and successes. One woman died a few years after arrival when she fell and struck her head, but she had already given birth to three children. Alexander was confident that they would be found and rescued one day but he was reasonable enough to live like they would be here forever.

There was a knock on the door several hours later.

"Come in!" I said loud enough for whomever to hear.

It was Stephen. He looked at me reading the log.

"You have come just like the Text said you would," he said.

"What do you mean?" I asked.

Stephen turned a couple of pages and immediately pointed at a sentence.

"One day they will come and find us," I said, reading it out loud.

"We are honored with your arrival, Alex."

"How do you know my name? You never answered that."

"You are Alex," Stephen said. He leafed to the very end of the book.

I read it. It said, "I will return."

The sentence was obviously incomplete. The "r" and the "n" in "return" were written sloppily like he was in a hurry then had just stopped. I got the impression his log entries became more infrequent as they settled into regular life. If writing was less a priority, it was reasonable that he never came back to this entry.