HELIOS

Chapter 15

    Sitting in the command chair with Mandy at my side I graciously accept Jah-jahní's invitation to travel to her home world, on behalf of the Helios's crew. I shut down my screen after finishing with Jah-jahní. "God I hope you know what you're doing." She says turning leaving the bridge; I look around the bridge and all crew there are looking at me. Some have excitement written all on their faces, others undecided and the rest fear. I made announcement before contacting the Mahjah-tu ship, so things are moving exactly as I thought they would be.

    "Back to your duties everyone." I Command. "Mr. Meyers you have the bridge."

     "Aye sir." Meyers is a good  capable officer, so as I leave the bridge I know the ship is in solid hands. I move as calm as I possibly can, but I need to clear the air with her. I head down to the officers deck and stop in front of Mandy's quarters, and I raise my hand to knock on her door, but I hesitate. For the first time since we reunited I'm not sure of our relationship.

She's not being reasonable and I get a strange vibe that I haven't felt... well not since Africa when I told her I was accepting reassignment. We argued for hours; in the end I left with broken heart because she didn't even want to discuss anything more. I stand up straight and buck up and knock on her door.

    The door opens; Mandy looks at me and steps aside making room for me to come in.

    "Ant" She closes the door. "Why are you willing to take this risk? She asks. It's a good question, though it's not easy to explain a gut feeling.

    "Mandy listen, it's hard to tell you what I'm feeling." I sit down on the edge of her bed. "I don't have a good feeling about seeking out the guilty party as we are now, I mean...

      "Your afraid."

      I look up at her not to surprised at her. "Hell yes I am!" I glance away from her. "But not why you think." I Stand up and move to her desk and I pick up a picture she has lying on top of it. It's old and slightly faded though it's unmistakable. It's us when we were together in Africa; I even remember the day this was taken. I smile at the memory. "I can't send this ship on a useless chase and the Mahjah-tu are our answer."

    She looks at me with searching eyes. "Why are you so sure of them?" She asks.

    I shake my head still holding that picture. "It's a gut feeling and I have no way to really explain it, I know this is right."

    She nods. "Ok Ant." She steps up to me. "I trust you; I will follow your lead." She takes the picture and smiles at the memory. "This feels so long ago doesn't it?" She puts it down and puts her hand on my face. "You've always told me that you would bring this ship and its crew back home, so I'm holding you to it!"

   I pull her to me and kiss her and she holds me tightly as we embrace each other. We separate slightly and she smiles at me. "Well Captain, I think you have a ship to command."

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The Mahjah-tu explained that they will tow us via a tractor beam, which is something that we would love to have one day. For now we only dream of that kind of technology. They're going to pull us through a space fold jump; we don't have this capability either. It requires a tremendous amount of power to do it and we have nothing at this time that can produce it. This ship shakes a bit as the beam grabs us and I look around at the bridge crew, who are all nervously looking at each other. "Steady now." I order and they all settle down focusing on monitoring the ships system.

    Through the main forward view port I see the main engines of Tôhl-tanak engage and I feel the Helios move in sink with the Mahjah-tu vessel. Suddenly a bright flash of light emanates from the bow of the Tôhl-tanak causing a literal rip in the fabric of space. I grip the arm rest of the command seat and watch as the Mahjah-tu ship enters the black hole, with us in tow. There is a collective gasp from the bridge crew as we enter the black maw that is looming in front of us. Everything is dark, pitch black, I can't even tell if we are moving because there is no reference point to tell. Another flash and stars appear once again in the view port; never have I seen such blackness, so when the stars twinkle out there. The whole bridge sighs in relief as we come out of that place.

I see the Tôhl-tanak's engines in front of us. I look around not being able to recognize any constellations out here. "Helm do you have a bearing? What's our location?" I ask.

"Well." He starts looking at his instruments and rechecking them again. "If I'm reading this right then... we are on the other side of the Galaxy." He checks again. "Sir." He adds. Damn; we're not in Kansas anymore.

"Ok everyone run a full system checks, I want to know if there any hiccups on this ship." I feel a hand on my shoulder and I turn and look up seeing Mandy smiling at me.

"So how's it look?" She asks.

"We're on the other side of the Galaxy."

"Really?" She looks out to the stars in the view port. "So this is their planetary system." A planet appears off on the port side of the ship. It has a similar look to Earth; not exactly like Earth, but it's green with blue oceans as well. The land masses are different and are varied however, no less beautiful. "It looks like home doesn't it?" Mandy's face is full of wonder at going there. We are closing in on this planet and I'm lost in thought at the amazing discovery... for us anyway.

"Captain."

I'm pulled out of the near trance. "Yes lieutenant."

"The Mahjah-tu ship is haling us." She says.

"Thank you, patch it through to my screen please." Jah-jahní's image appears on the screen. "Captain, how are you?" I ask.

She smiles and inclines her head. "Welcome to our home world. Soon we will reach the main port; once there you will be sent to the quarantine section, as will we so don't feel singled out. This is standard procedure for everyone upon returning form a deep space mission." She explains to us.

"This is good to hear otherwise I might have been upset." I chuckle a bit and I feel Mandy bump me in the arm. "Just kidding; I mean no offense." Jah-jahní laughs softly at my attempt to make light of the situation.

"Yes." Jah-jahní says. "All will be well and I will see you soon." The image on the screen disappears. Well this is it we are in another place, another world about to meet the leaders of a new people. I wonder how they will receive us; my hope it goes as well as it did with Jah-jahní, or this is going to be a long trip back home.

"Well Mandy, I guess we need to break out our class A uniform again." I remark.

"It definitely seems so, and we have to be in our top behavior." She adds. "Humanity will be judged by our actions here and if we are seen as inferior I think we will pay a price." That last part is not comforting to contemplate at all. We must make friends here or we won't survive as a species. The powerful always have the advantage over the weak; it's no different on Earth; I mean when the European settlers came with their more advanced society the indigenous people of the Americas stood no chance. Nothing against the Europeans, but it's just the way it is.

Thinking about the Mahjah-tu and how advanced a society they are, though  I get the feeling that they won't harm us. I wonder if they want an ally that is more apt to be accepted by the majority? I guess we'll jumó off that bridge when the time comes, but for now let's see what we can learn.