Chapter 12

Virtually the entire tribe of Celestialites came out to the open ground in front of the temple to welcome home Scott and his squad. Most were surprised to see them back so soon and even more surprised to see the strangely dressed man they had with them.

David and Beckie made their way to the front of the crowd and greeted the squad.

"It's good to see that you're still in one piece all of you. We didn't expect you back for a while yet. Come on, tell everybody what you have achieved!" suggested David.

Scott looked at the expectant faces and was suddenly nervous. He was fine at the prospect of battle, but talking to such a large group was a different matter. He cleared his throat and then haltingly described how they had blown up the gantry and the subsequent ambush of the men who had come after them.

"And we found that they were carrying this man. As you can see — he is dressed differently to anyone we've ever seen. The Stellarites thought he was important enough to capture and I thought the best thing was to bring him to you for questioning," Scott finished his story, relieved.

The tribe buzzed with excitement. Their enemy's work on a space craft had been dealt a serious blow and Scott and his small squad had overcome a much larger force into the bargain. The captive merely added some mystery and spice to what was already a gripping story.

David put his arm round Scott and Alice and pulled them in tightly.

"You have done well, all of you. Well done and again, I thank God that you're all back safely. Let's take our friend here over to my house and try to find out who and what he is."

Beckie also hugged the members of the squad now, as they all began to walk towards David and Beckie's house. The assembled tribe sent up a cheer for Scott and his team. Their story was already being discussed and the people were talking about them as heroes.

Each of them replicated a cold drink once they entered the house and Simeone watched with interest, surprised to see such advanced technology in use. His curiosity got the better of him and he had to ask.

"How is it that you come to have replicators?"

David studied the stranger and thought about the question. Asking it only made sense if the man somehow found it a surprise to find replicators in use.

As far as he knew, everybody was aware of replicators, from the very first time the twins had extracted one from the pod that had been found. Why would this man be surprised he wondered?

"Everybody has a replicator, why does that surprise you?" David asked.

"Life on this planet must have started with nothing forty-three years ago. How have you managed to go from that to the advanced technology that I see around me?"

"You speak with some knowledge, yet also sound almost like an outsider looking in. Why is that?" asked Beckie.

"I am not from this planet," answered Simeone.

"Who are you? What are you? And why are you here?" asked David.

Simeone knew that time was rapidly running out. The WS Scout would almost certainly be reaching P73197 very soon.

"My name is Simeone. I am the pilot of a Woden seeding ship, the same ship that seeded this planet forty-three years ago. I am your father, I am everybody's father. I gave you all life all those years ago!" said Simeone.

He was hoping to make a dramatic impact, but he wasn't expecting the reaction his statement caused.

David walked up to him and slapped him hard across the cheek.

"How dare you! How dare you come here and make such a claim! Everybody knows how life began on this planet — God created all things. Only he has the power to give life. Are you denying him his rightful place?" he demanded.

Simeone was stunned. God? What nonsense was this? Everybody knew there was no such thing. Religion was almost a forgotten thing on Woden — it had died out centuries before. How could this man be claiming such a far-fetched thing?

"There is no God. There was an accident when I was carrying out the seeding and some of my DNA must have contaminated one of the pods. I gave life to you all," he repeated.

David's face grew red with anger. Simeone's words were the worst form of blasphemy he had ever heard.

There had been a few isolated incidents over the years that he had had to deal with. One man claimed that the holy book made it clear that men should share their partners with others. He interpreted God's message that David should build him a tribe as being an exhortation to breed as quickly as possible. The man had begun preaching at the temple that God meant them to have as much sex as they possibly could.

David shouted the man down and gave a lesson in which he made it clear that God's words were not for others to try to interpret for their own ends — that was blasphemy. He suspected the man of having lecherous designs on other people's mates and that he was trying to use the holy book for his own ends. The man had been severely reprimanded.

Simeone's words were a much worse a sin than that however, to deny the very existence of God? That could never be allowed. All of the people gathered in David's house were outraged. They had all seen the evidence of God's existence with their own eyes, had heard God speak when he had intervened to help them during the attack on the settlement.

"Fool! Do you think your words carry any weight here? All of us have seen the evidence that God exists. You may well have carried out the seeding of this planet, but our being here is down to God and him alone. His is the glory! Take your words back, declare your faith in God!" cried Scott.

Simeone could see the anger on every face around him. He couldn't for the life of him understand how so many people could suddenly believe in such an outdated concept as God. It was clear that his words had turned the people against him to the point where he was starting to feel worried about his safety once more.

"The people on this planet seem quick to violence. On Woden we would have a much more civilised discussion when we differed in our opinions," he tried to placate them.

"Opinions! This is not about opinions, this is about faith! This is about the Lord our God! That is not something that can be discussed — it simply IS, " shouted David.

Simeone felt himself shaking with fear once more. The aggressive nature of these people was simply too much to take.

Fergus and his men carried some of the bodies back to the caves — Adam's foremost amongst these. Other members of the tribe were ordered to return to the site of the ambush to recover the remaining bodies and they were laid side by side, in rows, on the flat ground at the foot of the hill where the caves were located.

Each body was covered by a blanket, folded back so that the faces were visible. The sight of twenty one of their relatives lying dead before them was deeply upsetting for the entire community.

A line formed and people shuffled past the bodies to pay their respects. Most paused for a few moments to stare at the cold, dead face of Adam. None of them could believe that he was gone. They all knew he was one of the first of their kind and he had been such a force in the community that it was a dire blow indeed to lose him.

Elizabeth and Thomas were the worst. Of the eight original twins, they were now the last two to remain at the caves. Rebecca had died before they even knew her, David had been banished and then Ben and Sarah had vanished. Then Hannah had ascended before their eyes up into the sky. Now Adam was dead.

Elizabeth had retrieved the 'present' that Hannah's note had told her was hidden in the jar of rice. She had gasped when she found the silvery-white nugget, but until now she had not had the courage to try to use it.

In despair at being the last of the original twins left, Elizabeth now decided that the time had come for her to change that. She would use the nugget to try to contact Ben and Sarah.

Her feelings were mixed. She had been too scared to use it before, as she somehow knew that what had happened to Hannah was connected to the metal. On the other hand, she had used the nugget once before and on that occasion she had found herself linked to Ben and Sarah while they had sex. That remained the most enjoyable experience she had ever had and now as she prepared to use the metal again, she wondered if she might not have the chance to re-live that moment.

Thomas had retired to his workshop and Elizabeth made her way to their cave. She retrieved the little silvery-white nugget from its hiding place and lay down on the bed. She held the metal tightly in her fist and closed her eyes.

Ben felt a tingling sensation and realised that someone was trying to form a link with him. He reached down for the little pouch hanging at his waist and held it in his right hand.

He sensed immediately that it was Elizabeth who was using the nugget he had left behind for her at the caves. Ben decided not to link straight away, but instead to 'visit' the caves to get an idea of what Elizabeth might want. He switched to his 'worldview'. From high up above the planet, he was just about to zoom down to see why she was using the nugget now, when his attention was grabbed by something else.

There were two new ships orbiting above the planet!

All thoughts of Elizabeth disappeared as Ben concerned himself with finding out what was going on. He shifted his perspective inside the first of the ships, the smaller one, and searched through it. Try as he might, he couldn't find a trace of anyone on the ship and he wondered what that meant.

When he moved to the larger ship — it had WS Scout on its side — he found a different story. This ship was bustling with people, hundreds of them.

Ben shifted his perspective yet again until he found his way onto the bridge of the ship. He listened in to the conversations that were taking place in an effort to find out what was happening.

"Scans show the WS Clarion is currently unmanned, Sir," said Hansa.

"So he's shown his hand completely now has he? Simeone has joined his offspring on the planet's surface! Well, he'll just have to face the same fate as the others," said Marlon.

"Sir, my scanners are also picking up an emergency beacon from the planet's surface. It seems that the pilot of the WS Reaper must have managed to get away safely."

Marlon's face didn't register the annoyance he felt. With the pilot of the first ship somewhere on the planet, he would need to send men down there to rescue him if possible. His hopes of killing those who had attacked the first ship without having to endanger his men had just evaporated.

"Lieutenant Beegs, prepare an armed party to go down to the surface. We need to rescue the pilot of the Reaper if at all possible. Remember that these people have already shown a propensity to violence so don't take any chances. It goes against our ways I know, but we are at war and I want you to order your men to shoot to kill if they are attacked."

Beegs looked extremely uncomfortable with his orders, but he came to attention and saluted the Captain.

"Aye, aye Sir. How many should I take?" he asked.

"These people can be no more than savages, despite the fact that they somehow managed to build and launch missiles. I think a hundred of our men should be more than enough," answered Marlon.

"Should I tele-port down to where the emergency beacon is located first, Sir?" asked Beegs.

"If our scanners say the area is safe, then by all means check out the escape shuttle. The pilot may have left a message for us," agreed the Captain.

Ben had seen and heard enough. The intelligence he had gathered was staggering.