Chariot 3: Conception
Chapter 56 – The final wait

A few hours had elapsed. The crew of Chariot 3 felt the temperature dropping and the wind increasing at the pace the moon rose above the landscape.

Cai Yiu`s attention was then caught by an almost imperceptible noise that seemed to be moving far away. “Can you hear that?” He asked.

“Hear what?” Shoffer and Flumen asked at the same time. Their impatient tone strove to hide the seldom annoyance that began to involve their bearings.

V-Nus crouched, his palms touched the ground, and as his ear approached the earth, he closed his eyes.

As his ear finally reached as close as it could before touching the soil, memories of his past came back to his present past.

“You can`t see, but you can hear it. That…is the sound of the nature talking to you. That…is the voice of nature.” The aged voice replied.

The elderly and wise looking man talked to him looking deep onto his eyes while his long white beard touched the earth as his face aligned to the kid`s face, both as close as they could to the ground.

“Describe me what you hear.” Asked the man.

V-Nus opened his eyes, back from a flash of the past. He felt emotional for a second.

“I hear more than one engine. Probably six…no…seven land vehicles travelling fast on our direction. Five heavy cars and another two light ones.”

“What is their estimated arrival time?” Shoffer asked with a slight tone of an inevitable sarcasm on his voice.

“Fifteen minutes if they keep their current speed.” V-Nus sounded precise with his forecast, and he was.

The others started to hear the rolling wheels shortly after that. It became rather clear that their hopeless wait was close to an end. Whether good or bad they did not know.

Flumen turned his eyes to the side and so did the others at the pace the noise of the vehicles could be heard without much effort. At that point, they all had a visual of the artificial lights that bounced up and down as the vehicles moved throughout the uneven terrain, illuminating the last minutes of the night that started to dissipate.

The strong excitement that involved the Nibirian crew standing a few meters ahead of Chariot 3 was almost overwhelming. Although they all seemed excited about whatever would come next on their paths, Captain Shoffer had much more fulfillment in his mind to think about.

“Be ready. I will be back soon.” Shoffer`s mysterious, at the same time refined thoughts talked to V-Nus as he passed by him with a concerned look into his eyes.

Without a chance to reply, V-Nus just nodded his head and looked over his shoulder wondering where Shoffer was going.

As he serenely approached Chariot 3, Shoffer raised his tendering hand. His palm touched the scratched and worn out looking surface of the lifeless ship.

“Sissy…I am not sure if I will ever see you again, but I guess you knew that since the beginning. You knew that no matter what happened, it would not end well, didn`t you?” Shoffer`s hand continued to touch the metallic surface of the ship following its contour until he lowered his hand back close to his body, awaiting for an answer that he would not have.

“Good bye and safe path” were his words as he watched his shadows being projected against the hull of Chariot 3 by the headlights of the vehicles that enclosed behind his back.

“Freeze! Nobody move!” The voice sounded as harsh as the sudden breaking of the wheels of the seven military vehicles that stopped on a semi-circle formation positioned around the crew.

The cloud of dust lifted by the rubber wheels was at its least “unpleasant” as Flumen would have described it.

Captain Shoffer slowly turned around and carefully measured the group of well-equipped soldiers getting off their Jeeps and trucks, cocking their rifles, and pointing them all against him and his crew.

Most of them displayed a surprised look on their faces as if they were staring at beings from outer space which for Shoffer was perfectly acceptable due to the obviousity of the circumstances.

Shoffer slowly walked towards the man who seemed to be the senior officer standing in front of the two lines of soldiers, ironically, the only one who did not care to have a helmet on. Shoffer imagined that perhaps he was the only one who knew if there was ever a threat from outer space, helmets were likely to offer no help.

On his right side, a man who Shoffer assumed to be the second in command presented a rather calm, and at the same time excited, expression. On his left, Flumen dedicated his attention to the intellectual looking individual, the only person absent of a gun or any uniform who he assumed to be some sort of scientist or expert in some field, perhaps “alien invasion”, thought Flumen. “Or even the Earthian version of myself” Flumen silently practiced bit of the unusual sarcasm he was learning from V-Nus.

“My name is Captain Shon Shoffer, I represent the Nibirian Space Agency and I am here on a mission of peace.” The brave Captain spoke as he stood in front of his crew. His clear words, almost absent of any accent – due to the functionality of his BCI – sounded reasonable and somehow relieving to the platoon that still had all their unwelcoming arsenal pointed at them.

Along with him, the Martian and the two other Nibirians raised the palm of their right hands on a formal Nibirian salute.

The American Captain performed the traditional U.S. Army salute “I am Captain Cavitt of the 509th Bomb Group of the Eighth Air Force Roswell Army Field and I am here to ensure you are taken under custody and your aircraft is packed and sent to the Roswell Army Air Field Base after you.”

“These are Sargent Rickett and Doctor La Paz.” Flumen felt awarded with his correct assumption although no one else would know about it.

The senior officer could not avoid looking at the flying saucer behind the not so alien looking crew – how he would have described them – while talking to their leader. In fact, Cavitt wondered for a second, whether they were really from outer space or just from beyond the enemy lines.

“I understand what your procedures are, but please note that our mission objective was to land at Area 51, however due to a series of…” Shoffer paused…”complications, we force landed here.”

“I see. You seem to have been under pretty bad combat out there. We have already found the other crafts or whatever was left from them. You may still be suffering of an aftershock or something like that. We don`t have such a base called Area 51, but trust me, you will have a lot of other things to talk about once you reach RAAF.”

“As you wish Captain.” Shoffer replied.

“Captain Shoffer, is there any leak or sort of radioactive failure in your ship that I should be concerned of?” Captain Cavitt enquired as he walked pass the Nibirian group, incapable of hiding the amazement in his expression. Looking at every inch of it was like looking at the future. Without having even entered it yet, that was all way beyond anything he had ever seen or imagined before.

“No, Chariot 3 is safe, although…”He hesitated “…completely lifeless. We do not utilize any sort of nuclear or radioactive fuel at the moment.” V-Nus replied, becoming impatient with the wait.

The curious Captain immediately turned back to him and enquired. “At the moment?”

“It`s a long story, we`re using anti-matter as power source, but we had to re-design our engine due to some…technical difficulties.” V-Nus tried to be short.

“Understood. And who are you?” Cavitt`s increasing interest was evident.

“This is V-Nus, our co-pilot and also engineer. This is Cai Yiu Hun and that is Flumen.”

“Engineer? I am sure they will keep you very busy at the base.” V-Nus felt a discomfort and remembered of his dream, wishing his Captain had not released that detail.

“Sargent Rickett will assist you to your transport so you can depart to the RAAF for questioning.” The Sargent stepped ahead and politely – for a military – showed the way to the truck that awaited them.

Shoffer and his crew started to walk towards the dark green truck that had its engine on just as it waited for its cargo.

“Hey Captain!” Cavitt shouted as he was about to enter Chariot 3 through the opened fissure. “Don`t worry. I will take good care of her.”

Shoffer nodded his head and boarded the back of the truck after Cai Yiu. That was his very first time abandoning a ship, and that obviously was not an ordinary one.

“All right everyone. Listen up! We need to move quickly. I want all trucks loaded and everyone out of here before dusk!” In silence, Shoffer and his crew heard the orders of Captain Cavitt as their truck departed the scene on an eighty miles journey to the Roswell Army Air Field.

“Sir, yes Sir.” The platoon replied to the command out loud.

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