Mission Orion: The Travel through Time

Chapter 30 | Base Four

"What do you mean?" I asked him, making eye contact. The blood had dried up and his hands were tied up as soon as we boarded the aircraft. "I told you, Captain. You'll get to know about everything very soon." He replied, making a desperate attempt at smiling. That was the exact same words people used before Leo was killed.

"Rithvik!" Montwik called out from the bridge of the ship. I took one last glance at Schrotanic and walked over to Montwik. "What?" I asked him. "It's been twenty-four hours since you hit the bed. All your crewmates are asleep, Emanta included. You should catch some sleep too." He said. "You think I can sleep after all this?" I asked him. "Rithvik, I swear that I didn't know they were going to do this to Leo this soon. I knew the plan, of course. But, it was scheduled for after a week. The surprise attack on the base and the arrival of kenjah changed the schedule of things. I didn't have the faintest clue that this was going to happen whilst I was gone. And I understand the anger your friend, Reneesh, holds against us. But he has to understand that this is how things are supposed to end. It's high time this has to end, Captain. It's time for the end of the war." He said. "Yeah, I get it. I'll try talking with Reneesh about this. But the death of Leo. We will forever hold it against you, Montwik. There's no letting go, there's no forgetting it. You and your friend Schrotanic, are responsible for the death of Leo. But, I shot him with my own hands... I can't forgive myself too. The three of us killed him.." I said, with my eyes suddenly moistened with tears. "You didn't kill Leo, Rithvik. We killed him. You saved him the torture of him going through the process. I know how the program works. Leo would be fully aware of what's going on around him and what he is doing, but there wouldn't have been any way he could control it. It would have been plain torture, Rithvik. It was for the best." He replied. "Why him? Why not me? Why not Reneesh? We both are captains of our ships. Why not us? Why only Leo?" I asked him. "All the time you spent in the white rooms. People been observing you and understanding more about the relationships between all the crew mates. In the end, after two days of observation, a report was prepared that Leo was emotionally attached to both the Captains, Reneesh and you, and that it would be the most effective if Leo was the subject. It was concluded that selecting Leo would emotionally shatter the crew, especially the Captains." Montwik replied, not making eye contact this time. "Well then, you succeeded in it, the emotionally shattering part." I replied, my voice cracking up from the grief. "I'm sorry, Rithvik." Montwik said, for the millionth time. "Hm." I replied, not knowing what to say. "Go sleep now. You need to have some rest. The next few days are going to tiring." He said.

I nodded and got up from the seat. I walked up to the bunks were the rest of the crew were sleeping. I walked over to Anna and sat down beside her. I held her hand and took it up to my forehead. I started with three people whom I could trust, and now I'm down to two. I couldn't lose another. I kissed her on the forehead and got up and lied down on an empty bed. Schrotanic was in another and I made sure that the door was locked. I closed my eyes and tried to sleep but I couldn't. The moment when I shot Leo kept playing in my mind. I shifted from side to side on the bed, not able to sleep. The grief of the past and the anxiety of what was going to happen in the future. I kept thinking about thungs until sleep finally found me. And weirdly, I had no dreams.

I woke up to the sound of Reneesh and Anna talking with each other. "You guys can talk a bit more softly. There's no need to shout as if the world is ending." I grumbled in my sleep. "Well, the world IS ending and we're supposed to save it in case you forgot, dumbhead." Reneesh replied. "Yeah, right. Forgot, my bad." I replied. I was so sleepy that I didn't know what I was even talking. "Where are we now?" I asked Reneesh, rubbing my eyes. "One hour out from the base. And by the way, Montwik said that the slintheads back at the base, still didn't realise we're gone." He replied. "That's good, seems that these guys aren't so bright as we though." I said. "Probably. C'mon. All of the crew are already at thr bridge. Get your butt of the bed and get ready. You, the CAPTAIN, shouldn't look so shabby when people see you at the new base." He said, sarcastically.

I got up and got ready as soon as possible and was walking towards the bridge. I suddenly bumped into Emanta in the narrow corridor. "Sorry." She replied, blushing. "Why are you blushing?" I asked her, raising my right eyebrow. "I am not blushing." She replied. "You are." I said. "I am not. We are landing shortly and Montwik wants you at the bridge." She said, looking away. "Okay." I replied. "You have to go back, by the way. There's no way we can cross each other in this narrow corridor." I said. She chuckled and walked in front of me to the bridge.

"This is Warrior One to base. Carrying special package from Base One. Attempting Horizontal landing. Ship aligned with the landing strip." Montwik talked into the headset. I strapped myself to the seat beside Reneesh and waited for the aircraft to land. "Well, here we are, landing in another base. We're trusting the guys who tried to kill us yesterday. If anything goes wrong, It's on you. You're the captain, right? I lost the right to be a Captain the second my ship blew up. So captain, please do lead us to victory." He said. "Yeah, I know it's on me. But believe me, it's worth the risk." I replied. Anna looked over at me and smiled. I smiled back. Souvik and Konrad too took their seats beside me and strapped themselves in. Emanta was back at the controls and was preparing the ship for landing.

We finally landed after ten minutes and we were waiting for the pressure to equalise before stepping out. Montwik informed us that most of this base was underground as this was mainly am offensive base and was the backbone of most of the offence operations. Most of the warplanes and jets were harboured here and were dispatched from here. This base had the biggest armory and ammunition depot when compared to the rest of the bases on this planet. Montwik also said that the defence system of this base was far more advanced than Base Number One and that most of the operations here were top secret. He said that the others would have no idea that we were being hidden here. He also said that it wouldn't be long now for the people back in the other base realise that we had escaped. The door finally opened and I stepped out second, after Montwik and there was a man, in a uniform similar to that of Montwik and Schrotanic waiting for us outside.

"Welcome to Base Number Four, your new home. I am Profus, the leader of this base." The man said, extending his hand out for a handshake. "I'm Rithvik, Captain of Orion Four." I said, returning the gesture. "And this is Reneesh, Captain of Orion Five." I said, pointing to Reneesh. "Oh yes, the ship we blew up almost endangering the lives of two people." He replied, smiling. "Weird how these guys talk about blowing up things like they're breaking toys." Reneesh muttered, rolling his eyes. "Thanks for the wonderful gesture where you tried killing me." Reneesh said, extending his hand out for a handshake. Montwik scratched his head and Profus seemed a bit taken aback. "He's just weird." I told Profus, referring to Reneesh. "No problem, you'll meet weirder guys in this base." Profus told Reneesh as they shook hands. "Prof, why don't we take the humans down to the base and talk there? The kenjah can use the satellites and search for us." Montwik said. "Oh sure. I'll make sure that Warrior One is taken underground too. I love how you stole Warrior One out of all ships. " Profus said, as we walked towards a building with no more than a single floor. "It was a personal favourite." Montwik replied, smiling. 

We made our way into the building and there was nothing in it except an elevator. Profus scanned his badge near a scanner near the elevator and the scanner also seemed to make an Iris scan. The door hissed open and we stepped inside. The door closed and the elevator started moving downwards with a jerk. The elevator was moving down for quite a few seconds which led me to wonder how deep this base was. "The base is almost four kilometres below the surface. Makes it safer this way. And this elevator will not work without a special pass which only a few possess." Profus said, as if he were reading my mind.

The elevator came to a stop after a few seconds and the door hissed open once again. "Wow!" Souvik exclaimed as he took a wide look outside the elevator. There were huge pillars which the floor to the ceiling, which was very high. The room, if you could call it one, was huge and was divided into parts with glass. There were huge structures hanging from the ceiling. There were a few small models of ships and stuff like that hanging down. The place was bustling with people. It was a wonderful view. "Let's get moving, people." Profus said. "You'll have a lot of other things to be awed at."

**