Chapter 16

It's sad when you're an old hand at being called a god.

Justin hung back, Daium and Alicia flanking him as Anthony tried to talk to their newest companion in the garden. "Companion". Yeah, he was beginning to feel like The Doctor, what with strangers walking into his Tardis and being, "What the hell is this? Why is there a tree on the bridge?" It got old, quick.

"Didn't Sarah brief her at all on the way back?"

Daium shook her head, string of colored beads hanging next to her ear swinging back and forth.

"No. She just told her to get her stuff and come, then told Rinda and I what was up while the poor girl was out of the room. We finally did speak when we got to the train, and the girl freaked when she heard English."

"Maybe it was her chance to have a little power trip over her friend," Alicia muttered. One hand dropped to her belly. Justin put his own hand over hers, concerned.

"Want to sit?"

"Yeah ... yeah, I do. Mary, I'm kicking you out." The teen jumped to her feet as Justin helped Alicia over to the bench.

"Sorry! Can I get you anything?"

Alicia shook her head, not just to Mary but to Nona, who had started to come over. Butt firmly planted on the bench, she relaxed.

"Another month. This is going to kill me."

"Not if I can help it." Justin gave her shoulder a quick squeeze. His eyes went back to the newcomer. "I'm not going to let anyone hurt us."

"I'm leaving her in your care. The watch droids are going back on higher alert, and she's your responsibility. Keep her out of our way until we can use her."

Sarah nodded at Anthony. She understood. She had brought Hedva here, when she didn't have to. It was up to her to protect her friend, from herself if nothing else. She didn't Know, like Sarah Knew. Drawing her up to her feet, Sarah led Hedva away, towards the patch of grass she called home. There was so much to teach her...

"I almost forgot we had these."

Chuck picked up the rifle, feeling the heft. The Orang military issue weapons didn't feel quite right, designed for a smaller form and arm size, but he had fired them before. Weapons training had been an early time killer, and a fulfillment of Rinda's original mission. That had been long ago, though, before the garden even. Before Danny and Goldie. Hell, before he had two wives. He saw Nona pick up a small weapon, looking a bit like a submachine gun. She, too, hefted it a few times, then laid it back down on the bench.

"I can't."

Chuck nodded, understanding.

"I know, and we don't expect you to. Hell, we don't expect US to. If we need these things, we've failed oh so spectacularly. But..."

"But we have babies to protect." Alicia slammed the empty ammo pack into her own rifle, then quickly removed and replaced it. Her muscle memory was long. Tammy, standing behind Nona, picked up the weapon she had discarded.

"Count me in."

Shoulders slumping, Nona took the gun from her, shaking her head.

"That one's more my sized. Take the rifle."

"ONE HOUR TILL REAL SPACE. GET YOUR SHIT TOGETHER."

Hedva almost cringed at the sound. For all Sarah had told her, had said these were not Gods, or Daemons, hearing the Holy Words echo through the air still filled her with awe and dread. It was all so sudden! Hedva hated change. Hated not knowing what was coming. The Temple had given her ... a constant. A safe, unchanging harbor in which she could live out her life. And, now...

"It will be OK," Sarah said, voice cutting through her fear. Hedva looked at her oldest friend. So ... confident. So strong.

"How do you know?"

"I Know."

"One minute till showtime."

Anthony looked around the bridge. He was all nerves. Never, not since the first time he had tried to ask a girl out, or maybe just before a final exam he hadn't studied for, had he felt like this. Was no one else feeling it? Why were they all so calm?

Or did he look calm, too, and they were all wondering the same thing about him? That lifted his spirits a bit.

"Do we have a script yet?"

"Nope! All improv!"

"I vote we all start with a hoedown!"

"No! Those suck!"

OK, maybe Chuck and Melinda weren't all that wound up.

"Thirty seconds!"

"Make video contact as soon as we're..."

Alarms blasted through the bridge. Anthony's heart stopped. As if from somewhere else, he heard his voice yelling for the view screens.

The curved bridge walls vanished. There, in the swirling void they were poised to leave, was a wall of rainbows. It filled the entire lefthand sky, seemingly almost touching the ship. Tammy, at a console facing it, threw herself back, body slamming into the trunk of the central bridge tree. She screamed.

"God! What is it?!"

"Ten seconds!"

"Viewscreen off! Now!" The walls returned to wooden panels. Anthony's death grip on the panel edge before him loosened a bit. Eyes wide, he tried to remain in control. "I want them on as soon as we're in normal space!"

"4, 3, 2, 1, out!"

The walls vanished again, alarm still blaring.

They were floating in empty space. Before them, a blue green world. Peaceful. Beautiful. Innocent.

"I have a massive energy reading," Alicia yelled down from her sensor post up by the ceiling. "Coming from one point!"

"Try and make contact! Can we send a video signal? Get our image on their screens!" He had no plan. No ideas. They just had to stop it. Them. Anyway they could. He'd play God. Anything...

"Landing beacon detected! Heading in!"

Suddenly, silence.

The thought that first came to Alicia, up in her sensor perch, was that of the a movie fight scene suddenly stripped of dramatic music. Her body was all nerves, but the reinforcement, perhaps even the cause of that state, had vanished. It was disorienting as hell.

"What the fuck? The alarm's gone!"

Trust Melinda to state the obvious. Shaking her head, Alicia poured her full concentration on the displays before her. Windows opened and closed quickly, hands dancing over the controls.

"Energy reading ... gone." She blinked. "Daium ... check your readings." There was a pause.

"I ... see nothing."

"Yeah ... um, Anthony?"

"Talk to me."

"We just had all energy signals from the planet vanish."

The Bells dropped down through the atmosphere, passing through thin layers of clouds. Everyone, despite the lack of seats, was crowded on the bridge walkway, artificial gravity put to work to keep those standing from hurting themselves. It felt like cheating, but there was no way to keep the kids and squirrels away. This was too important.

As they broke into clear sky, there was an audible gasp. The planet below ... was beautiful. They were coming down towards a large peninsula, jutting out into a blue ocean. Its phallic quality wasn't lost on Anthony, probably the reason it had been chosen, but that thought was shoved aside by the world around it. Green forest filled the land, lush, healthy. He saw lakes, rivers, patches of grasslands. As they dropped father, flocks of birds could be seen, V formations heading mostly northward.

"Tanah..."

"Earth..."

Daium and Nona's whispers only confirmed how he felt. This ... this was home.

They continued to drop.

"Visual on the landing field."

It was in a valley, surrounded by low hills. A large, grey, concrete surface, maybe a half mile square. Three other ships occupied docking cradles, two small, less than half the size of the Bells, and a larger one roughly the same mass. No lights were flashing to indicate an authorized landing zone. That didn't concern Daium, although in a minute it would become a rather urgent issue. Her eyes were on the large, brown circle of land due north of the pad. She felt movement behind her, a black furry hand reaching out past her head towards the image.

"It's ... gone."

Sarah's voice was confused, as well it should be. Daium bit her lip.

"Did it blow up? You said things sometimes went wrong with the machines..."

"How ... why..."

"Ha!"

Mary's outburst startled everyone. Daium spun her chair to face the girl, frowning.

"Mary, this isn't..."

"They went! Don't you see?" She looked around, eyes wide with excitement. "It looks just like where the store was! I've seen the pictures, from after you guys vanished! The whole temple just went to Earth!"

The Bells settled on an empty stretch of tarmac, landing skids extended, the one empty landing cradle lacking power. It sat for a moment, silent. A small hatch at the bottom of the central body opened, from which a small R2 unit dropped onto the ground. Its top swiveled, getting its bearings. Seeing its target, it began rolling towards the collapsible portable stairs on the other side of the field, moving deftly around scattered pieces of equipment. Small connectors extending out, it plugged itself directly into the control panel, beeping happily. Those beeps stopped, replaced by one long beep sounding as much like a sigh as Chuck had been able to make it. Behind, four more droids dropped out of the ship. As they approached, the first directed them to the gangway's four corners. Clamps extended from cylindrical bodies, latching on. Slowly, the wheeled gangway began to roll.

Anthony was the first out of the hatch, stepping onto the now extended stairway, pistol in hand. After the recycled air of the past months, the cool fresh air was a shock. He paused, taking in a ragged breath. And another. It felt like spring. Early spring. Chuck moved past him, holding a rifle, repeating the ritual Anthony had started. The two men looked out across the valley. A wide path, paved with irregular, colored smooth stones, extended from the end of the spaceport, running due north. It ended, abruptly, at the start of the brown circle. It was definitely dirt, or clay, and not natural. Not quite a perfect circle, with various half circles extending out here and there, nor was the ground of uniform depth. Remembering their first explorations of the exterior of the store that stormy night, it seemed whatever had happened here had followed the same pattern, taking everything attached to the main structure plus some extra.

Moving as if in a daze, Sarah stepped out between them. Anthony moved aside a bit as she approached the railing.

"Gone..."

"Looks like it," Chuck said. His head turned to survey their surroundings. "I hear by proclaim this 'Deus Ex Machina' valley."

"Gone..."

"We've already established that."

Rinda, dressed in her military issue suspenders and skirt, joined them wearing a combat pack, rifle at the ready. Daium, with just a pistol belt, followed. Anthony nodded, looking back into the ship.

"Everyone else stay here. The five of us are going to look around a bit."

It was the empty ships that worried Chuck the most, as the five explorers slowly made their way across the tarmac. Their hulking mass, looming above them, could be hiding anything.

"Sarah, were these crewed by temple people, or hired help?"

"Temple sisters." Her dazed voice spoke with almost no inflection. "No outsider would be allowed to even know where this planet was..."

"So everyone would be inside the temple." He relaxed a bit. "Possibly still security systems on board, so we'll have to send droids in first."

"Good idea," Anthony agreed. They passed the nose of the last ship, coming up on the path. The landing pad itself was surrounded by bushes, perhaps four feet high, trimmed into a wall. There was no gate blocking their way, but instead two tall carved posts flanking the break in the bushes. Chuck looked up as they passed.