A terse silence settled on the recently awoken students and the haggard survivors who had manned the ansible relay station. Slash sat, his back to one of the recently opened pods, trying not to let his worry and fear show. Alex, Vora, and Mac mostly tried to forget he was there. Whenever his eyes locked with theirs, they quickly looked away.
Mostly, everyone kept their eyes on Dixon, who stood silently with his arms crossed in the center of the ansible relay station. Dixon's expression was mostly blank, but his eyes continued to wander over to Slash, not looking away when their eyes met. Slash was used to seeing an edge of contempt under Dixon's expression, one that nearly everyone else missed and that was usually directed toward him. But this expressions felt different. Was it Slash's imagination, or was there almost a hint of respect in Dixon's eyes as he gingerly rubbed the red hand marks around his throat?
"Should we go outside?" A mousy girl offered.
"No," Alex said, taking the opportunity to take charge. "No. We'll wait here. We don't know what they're planning. Let's not forget, this ship, our journey, all of it is supposed to be a secret."
Slash dusted himself off and stood.
"He's right. Returning to the homeworld might be a blessing for us, but it's a nightmare for them. This is a problem they need to contain. We don't know what orders they've been given if we attempt to exit the ship. We'll wait for them to board or contact us."
Alex nodded hesitantly, as if not quite sure if he should accept Slash's support. Slash wondered if it was fear that had motivated him to do so.
When the comm signal echoed in the following silence, several people in the room jumped. The solitary green light blinked on the panel board as Alex approached it, gingerly resting a finger on the 'open channel' button. After looking to Vora Veer and Mac for any input on what he was about to do, Alex opened the comm channel.
"Ansible Relay Station this is Commander Jacoby of HQ Forces. Please respond."
There were cheers from many of the students in the relay station, but Slash, Vora, Alex, and Mac all had blank expressions. Had they not heard what Alex and Slash had just said? Dixon, looking from the relieved students to the four who were clearly not, realized something was off but said nothing.
"HQ, this is Ansible Relay Station," Alex said.
"Roger that, Relay Station. Please open the front ship bay and prepare to be boarded."
"Yes, sir."
But when the comms switched off, he looked to the other people on the ship. He looked around for a moment, again giving anyone the option to object. Then entered the sequence to open the bay doors. It was only seconds before they heard the stomping of boots and the shouting of orders as HQ Forces entered.
Six armed men and women in all black with faces covered in gas masks and rifles at the ready entered the vessel and fanned out in a semi-circle. Behind them came a man in military uniform, presumably Commander Jacoby. He entered and looked around at the terrified adolescents appraisingly.
Slash's mind began to race as his thoughts searched desperately for a way out if things went south. For all they knew the military intended to make this their grave, destroying all evidence of the homeworld's wormhole containment experiments rather than taking the risk that any of them, now returned, might let the secret loose.
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It was clear that Alex was thinking something similar. He had slowly, under the pretense of backing away frightened, maneuvered his way to the light controls. If so much as a round went off, he would likely plunge everything into darkness.
Dixon took a more measured approach. The idea that they would survive a confrontation with trained combat personnel was ridiculous. Or maybe he felt sure that they would not be hurt for some reason?
Commander Jacoby walked up to Dixon, looking down as the boy sat with his legs crossed on the floor. After several moments without a word he stepped back to address the entire group.
"I know you all have a lot of questions," he said, pacing back and forth. "As you can imagine, we have some of our own."
Ripples of relief spread everywhere in the room. The fact that he was talking to them was a good sign, right?
"You'll all be debriefed and submit detailed reports about your experiences. But, before that, you'll be fed, clothed, and get the chance to rest. Right now I know you'll be wanting to contact family, but until we get a handle on things I am afraid that will not be an option. And as I said, you'll all have a lot of questions. For now keep those to yourselves. You'll be escorted by these men and women to your temporary quarters for the night. Try to get some rest. You might need it for the day ahead."
He surveyed the group once more, then turned to leave. he stopped and whispered something into a soldier's ear while looking at Dixon, then left without another word. Two of the soldier started barking orders.
"Alright! I need everyone in two rows. We've got a decent trek ahead of us folks, and we need to beat dusk."
As Dixon moved to get in line, one soldier laid a hand on his shoulder. "Not you. You come with me." Dixon said nothing, but when the soldier left the ansible station he followed.
Slash, Alex, and the others from their small close-knit group were sure to stay near each other in the line. When they entered the fresh air outside of the relay station, even escorted by armed guard, Slash couldn't help but break out into smile. As well designed as Nexus was, it was no equal to truly open space.
Slash was pretty certain that they were on Aurora. It wasn't dark enough to see the waving, multi-colored sky lights that would make him sure, but the blue-green forest ahead of them was a dead giveaway. Despite the semi-hostile vibe the armed men were giving off, this moment in time felt like a break, albeit one that seemed as though it could be shattered by act of adolescent stupidity. While it was true that the military personnel were there to protect them, it had also been made clear implicity by Jacoby that they were there to protect the secret of the wormhole.
Right now they were still useful. They hadn't been debriefed, and the military would be anxious to extract every last drop of relevant information from them. The questions was, what then?
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