Chariot 3: Conception
Chapter 67 – Unexpected

Uncountable years had passed since the Nibirian crew, enclosed in the capsule that had just crossed the galaxy, left Earth. However, for the sake of those working at the Nibirian Space Agency, only a few hours had elapsed since the launch of Chariot 3.

“What was the true purpose of their mission? I deserve to know it!” Her voice trembled. Inanna hit her hands against the table and then turned her tearing eyes towards Sharur Khun.

“Inanna, they left for something greater than anyone could ever do. Something greater than us.” The Commander strove to turn his thoughts into words.

“What was the mission? Why have we not heard from them? I deserve to know!” She sobbed.

“Their mission was…” The Commander pondered for a second, choosing the words to give her the yet worst part of the story.

“…to hand their ship to the authorities on Earth back on the terrestrial year of 1947.”

“Earth? There is no Earth. We both know that! They have been long extingui…shed.” She felt strange and so did Sharur Khun. Conflicting memories of same topic seemed to suddenly flood her mind.

They looked at each other. Confused. “They made it…Earth still exists.”

Sharur Khun stepped forward and hugged her tight, noticing what the success of their mission would mean.

Inanna fell into tears.

Giving up, she closed her eyes. “You knew they would never return didn`t you?” Inanna`s voice trembled as she finally lost her hopes. “You knew it!” She shouted

“I am sorry but I did not. No one did.” His thick voice replied.

“How would they return without a ship?” She enquired her superior, desperate for an answer.

Beep. Beep. Beep.

“Inanna. What is that?” The superior enquired after listening to the unexpected beep coming from the panel behind her.

“What?” Inanna opened her eyes while trying to dry the tears with the back of her hands.

Beep. The sound seemed stronger and so did the green light that blinked once before it disappeared.

“That!” Sharur Khun pointed to the light.

Inanna took her seat back and carefully processed the incoming data. “This makes no sense.”

“Why? What is this?” Sharur Khun started to become impatient.

“This signal…is from Chariot 3…” She sounded skeptic.

“They are back…they are back!” Sharur Khun got closer to her table without hiding the excitement.

“…but that is not Chariot 3. That is none of our ships. In fact, I do not even recognize that technology.”

“How far is it?”

“About to enter our orbit. It is extremely fast and it does not seem to be slowing down.”

“Attention all crew and medical personnel, proceed to your emergency stations. We may have a forced landing.” His thoughts were broadcast to the entire Agency Headquarters.

“Medical personnel? What about the defensive personnel?” Inanna seemed concerned.

“Do you want us to shoot our crew down?” The Commander asked her sarcastically as he run out of the room.

Confused, she pondered for a moment and then decided to get rid of the cowl that covered her head.

Alleviated, she touched her smooth and round head that could finally breathe. Her baldness just accentuated the beauty of the Martian traces on her face. With half of a smile on her face, she dropped the cowl on her chair and run down the steps after the man that had just left the room.

“It is time to wake up.” They all heard the warm, almost childish voice of Sonicoon as they slowly regained their consciousness. V-Nus and the others opened their eyes and felt as if they had just fallen asleep. The excitement run live over their bodies once they saw their reddish home planet posing ahead.

Everything felt normal except by a slight numbness still present in their bodies.

“Entering orbit.” The capsule`s voice updated them.

Shoffer and V-Nus looked around in the pointless search for any sort of commands. “Should we not be slowing down.” They enquired together.

At that instant they were already watching the clouds of their planet rapidly passing by the vertiginous windshield. An increasing vibration could be felt throughout the cocoon shaped capsule.

“I am…sorry.” Sissy sound a bit embarrassed. “I may not have designed an actual landing gear.”

“What?” Flumen, Cai Yiu, Shoffer, and V-Nus asked all together, turning their necks on her direction.

“What did that suppose to mean?” Flumen`s left hand accidently held Cai Yiu`s arm as he tried to hold himself tight against the seat.

Annoyed, Cai Yiu gave him a look, pushing his arm away.

“30 seconds to landing.” The voice of the operating entity advised.

“Do you call it landing?” V-Nus could not believe what they were about to do.

Although they could not see through the cloudy skies, it was evident that there was land somewhere near them.

As they continued to descend, V-Nus wondered what year that would be? How long they would have travelled for? Would that be too late or too early for him to see Inanna again?

“We are close!” Shouted Shoffer as he finally saw the land underneath. He could not avoid wondering where they would land as he stared at the dimension of the city underneath.

Sonicoon finally opened a group of flaps above its hull, giving the cocoon a diagonal trajectory. The nose of the capsule was lifted, pushing its stern back down. The crew immediately felt the decrease of their speed, and with the angle, V-Nus could no longer see what awaited them ahead.

As she run off the building, Inanna saw her Commander standing with a small group of N.S.A. agents, all staring towards the sky. She took a deep breath and walked towards them, stepping over the large field of red grass.

“There.” Said the Commander, pointing towards a black dot that exited the clouds.

“Prepare for impact.” Sonicoon alerted the crew.

“Activating magnetic pulse in 3, 2, 1.”

All the five members of the crew heard the strange noise that followed the magnetic discharge, literally pushing them back a few meters before the capsule continued to fall towards the ground.

Flumen and the others felt the first impact before the capsule started to skim over the terrain.

Inanna could not hide her preoccupation as she watched the strange looking capsule sliding over the field on her direction.

Inanna`s frightened state, combined with her desperate curiosity, did not allow her body to move.

Luckily, at the same pace her eyes began to tear, the strange craft started to slow down, until it finally reached a full stop, not much farther from her shaky legs.

The medical team run towards the strange capsule and so did Inanna.

As their high levels of adrenaline slowly returned to normal, the five occupants started to feel the momentary dizziness caused by the hibernation which blended with the body ache resulted from the forced landing.

Sissy`s back felt a ‘real’ pain for the very first time. Undoubtedly worse than she would have ever expected it to be.

“I hope you had a pleasant journey.” Said Sonicoon.

The flaps of the cocoon shaped capsule retracted back to their initial position all at once, and its hatches finally opened, allowing the fresh Nibirian air into their lungs.

Still feeling dizzy with the descend, Flumen jumped off the ship silently cursing it like he had never cursed before, and threw up on his boots. “I am not flying ever again. Ever!”

Cai Yiu got off, laughing out loud for the first time since the mission had started as he watched the embarrassing moment his friend was going through.

“Thank you, Sonicoon. Thank you so much.” Said Shoffer as he stood on the capsule and walked towards its aft.

“Please call me Son.” The craft replied.

Shoffer turned around and rolled his eyes, trying to figure which part of the capsule he should give a look, still unsure what the ‘son’ idea meant.

And there was Sissy, still in her seat, recovering from the mixture of excitement among many other things that all felt new to her.

Shoffer extended his hand which she grabbed without hesitation. Their flesh touched each other for the first time, a moment that neither of them would ever forget. His strong hands lifted her off Sonicoon, she placed her arms around his neck, and her clumsy chin hit his face.

She smiled for the first time. Naturally.

Their lips slowly found each other until they kissed.

V-Nus woke up after losing his consciousness with the crash, as usual. His head was pounding. He looked around and found himself alone in the empty vessel. “I`m fine. Thank you everyone for waking me up.” His ever sarcastic tone would never change.

His hands reached the edges of his hatch and he prepared to get off the capsule.

“V-Nus!” Inanna shouted as she climbed the capsule and jumped in through the hatch he attempted to get off from.

“Ough!” V-Nus yelled as the young Martian woman landed on the top of him.

“Why did you take so long?” She asked.

“Trust me. It took much longer for us than it might have taken for you.” He smiled.

Without understanding, Inanna punched his chest and laughed, before giving the love of her life a vigorous kiss.

V-Nus kindly held her away for a moment. “Sonicoon.” He called.

“Yes, Sir V-Nus?” The capsule`s entity promptly replied.

V-Nus smiled while giving Inanna a funny look. “Would you please close all the hatches and place yourself on hibernation mode?”

“Yes, Sir.” All hatches of the cocoon shaped capsule immediately closed while the others walked away from the landing area.

Noticing the absence of his Martian friend, Flumen looked back at the capsule and then towards Cai Yiu Hun. “Should we not help V-Nus out? He is still in there.”

Cai Yiu Hun nodded his head, laughing at his friend`s ingenuity. “I am fairly certain he needs no help.”