The Last Night Chapter 16 A Beautiful Landing

  The Last Night

Chapter 16

 A Beautiful Landing

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     Terratu filled the twenty by ten -foot view screen of the ships’ forward deck, a spacious gleaming blue gray command center abuzz with people. Some seated behind glowing computers screens others standing and staring at wall mounted monitors scattered about the huge gently curved rectangular room. But of course, the main feature was the beautiful sight of the cloud -streaked blue green Terratu, a huge welcoming marble turning majestically against the black. 

  Except for the shapes of the continents, it could have been easily mistaken for earth. 

   Captain Fletch had insisted Wyatt, Martha, Forrest and Siss Sain the Doctor share the bridge with him and his crew when his ship Reliant gently drifted into orbit around the wonderous marvel of Terran and Aluran ingenuity and cooperation. 

    It had only been a year since their joint military forces had wrested the war-ravaged planet from Strion tyranny. It had taken that long to clear the planet of toxins, radiation and dangerous smoldering debris. 

   Cities had become death traps. Heavily damaged buildings, some of them skyscrapers teetered on the verge of collapse. Deadly odorless invisible clouds of Strion nerve gas had settled in the planets low lying areas turning large portions of the planets’ surface into death traps. 

   Some had likened the devastation to old earth’s current state. Not that anyone had bothered to make the long journey back there. Who in the right mind would choose to visit Hell. Therefore no one truly knew just how bad things were there now, and no one cared to find out. 

   Captain Fletch seated in his command chair and flanked by his ‘guests’ studied their reactions to Terratu. Wyatt and Siss were of particular concern to him.

   He had mixed feelings about the doctors ‘unexpected transfer request. She was what he called an alien esoteric. A great doctor, but he found her insatiable interest in old earth and her odd outdated religious proclivities, annoying at best and so far as he was concerned somewhat subversive. 

    

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    He would sorely miss her medical expertise, however her annoying comments on the beauty of God’s creation and their occasional heated debates on how everything came to be would not be missed. 

   Plus, it didn’t help he graduated from The Space Academy with her late husband Ben. He always felt their union had somehow led to his death on Terratu. Aliens and humans, no. Their very existence undermined his own sense of superiority. Then his best friend goes and marries some hooved red skinned succubus from another world and dies soon after. Yes he would be glad to be rid of her. 

   Wyatt could feel the Captains glare. He pretended not to notice. Then. 

   “So, Wyatt,” Fletch started, “Have anything to add to our last conversation?”

   “You mean your last inquisition.” Martha’s words were blunt and loud. “He answered every question.”

  “They were not the answers I was looking for.”

   “Sir,” Wyatt said, “I don’t know how I left the ship anymore than how I returned. Something weird happened. That’s all I have for you.”

  “Fair enough.” The Captain replied just before he handed Wyatt his ring. “Take this thing with you, don’t want it. Let the unknown hide out there, not within the confines of my ship. It will be good to have her, clean, I mean secure again. The four of you should report to the docking bay. Your shuttle is ready. We will be entering launch orbit soon. Good luck and goodbye.” 

   They smiled nodded and headed for the elevator located at the back of the command deck. 

 “Well, that was short but none too sweet,” Forrest said to Siss the moment the elevator door slid shut and they started their descent to the shuttle bay. 

   Martha took Doctor Sain’s hand, “You going to be alright, down there. Lots of memories waiting for you on Terratu, some good but mostly bad.”

   She smiled up at Wyatt, “We have new memories to explore, don’t we Wyatt.”

  “Yes, yes we do.” 

 

    

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    A sweet gentle breeze caressed them as they clumped down the shuttles’ clanging metal ramp. 

  “The sky is so blue,” Wyatt could barely contain his joy, “and the clouds. Feels like earth.”

  “Does it?” Siss asked her face beaming, her tentacles gently undulating beneath the suns’ soothing rays. “It must have been so beautiful.”

  “It was.” Wyatt answered without the slightest hesitation.

  Martha and Forrest traded worried looks. “You were really there weren’t you son?”

    Wyatt nodded yes, “and so were you,” as he ran down the ramp turned and looked back at the bus sized shuttle perfectly nestled on a concreted clearing amidst a dense forest of pines and oaks, whose parent trees had been transplanted from earth millennia ago. 

   A gravel road cut through the forest and ended at the edge of the shuttle landing pad. “I guess we wait here.” Forrest said when they joined Wyatt on the road. 

  “Someone will come along shortly,” Siss said.

   Wyatt was just about to speak when the shuttle ramp clamped shut. “Clear landing area.” A loud A I voice boomed from the shuttle moments before a rush of hot wind blasted from the crafts’ underbelly. They were safely removed from the launch site, but the hot blast ushered them down the path even further.

  “Walk or wait?” Wyatt asked.

 “Let’s walk.” Siss answered, “there’s only one road so no ones getting lost and I want to soak up the sun, feel the wind on my tentacles.”

  “Sounds good,” said Forrest, “ah oh, short walk. Dust cloud up ahead, that’d be our ride.”

  “Wonder how far from Candice Crown we are.”

   Forrest pulled a silver disc from his back pocket and held it up to her face. A holographic image instantly appeared above his hand. “Looks like the reassignment office in Candice Crown is about four miles from here. Wonder why so far away. Outdated security measures probably. Well, Gotta go there for we do anything else. Think I want to ride.”

   “Yeah,” Siss replied, “and they frown own unauthorized forays into the wild, at least they used to.”  “We can still meet our ride,” Martha said, “rather walk than wait.”

   Just then a bird whistled a happy tune in the distance. “No more war.” Siss sighed.