“It seems the ranks of Miltech have been compromised” said Jeremy, as he held the rifle that was pulled off Bills’ dead accomplice.

He flipped the rifle in his hands in a playful motion almost mockingly going along with Bills defiance. He was stood in the holding cell that housed Bill while Ro and I stood back by the door waiting for the interview, or rather interrogation to begin.

“Now let’s get this moving you ‘ole Willy Billy. I thought you’d stay a good boy after your beating on our arrival to Salvation.”

Bill snarled and stared at Jeremy, getting ready to talk until the noise of the rifle clapping against Jeremy’s hands stopped as he gripped it tightly. In one fluid motion Jeremy raised his arms and swooped down, bringing the butt of the rifle across Bills face. Leaving him in a daze.

“Argh, I didn’t even say anything yet” groaned Bill.

“Just a bit of a taster for ya if you don’t tell me who gave you the Miltech rifles.”

Bill started to settle into a villainous laugh before he turned his attention over to me. “I knew I should have left you back on Earth.”

Before I had a chance to say anything, another crack filled the room as Jeremy brought the butt of the rifle down again, this time on the wound on Bills leg.

“You’re not too smart if you think it’s just one of ‘em givin us them guns” mocked Bill.

“All I need is the first—“

“Major Lewis. SecMajor is requesting you and Sergeant Ro join her in her office immediately.” Interrupted a Miltech officer, met with a nod by Jeremy.

Not wanting to lose his stride with the interrogation, he told me to go with Ro in his place and see what Henderson wanted.

A slight rumble through the ship made both Ro and I lose our footing as we made our way to the dedicated Miltech deck. When we made it up there the overhead lights started flickering in tandem with the shakes and I already new what that was about, the anomalies, but this felt different. It was consistent grumbles instead of sharp little events.

“Carter why do you always happen to be in these meetings, aren’t you still just a private? Said Henderson as we entered her office.. “By the way, good job down on main last night.”

It did feel nice for once to have Henderson give me a compliment for once, even if it was hidden within an insult. She had called us up to brief us on a transporter called Haven that had a similar event like Salvations, making a massive jump in a blink of an eye, putting us within a closer proximity than that of the others left behind.

“Are we going to check on them? Or is the Mortifera going to go out there? I said without barely taking a breath and gaining an inquisitive look from Henderson.

“Why do I have the feeling you want us to go to the Haven?”

“Nothing important, I just might know some people aboard is all.” I said trying not to draw any more attention to the suspicion that both Henderson and Ro showed.

“Well they are still too far for us to rendezvous with but we should cross paths with the Haven in about a years time, two at most.”

It wasn’t what I wanted to hear at all. I couldn’t be certain but I had a strong feeling that I did know people aboard Transporter Haven, two in fact. Alice - my wife, and, Lilly - my daughter. Despite the warning from our friend Eli, and as selfish as it was, Alice and I had accidentally fallen pregnant and we decided it was meant to be and were blessed with a little baby girl, Lilly. Each year It broke my heart every day seeing my little girl happy and celebrating her birthday while in the back of my mind I knew that each birthday also brought us closer to the deadline for evacuation - one we didn’t have a seat on.

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When both their names were drawn in the lottery it had brought me to tears, it was a heavy burden of regret lifted of my shoulders. I was relieved although destroyed at the thought that I was more than likely going to be left behind. I did everything I could to get them both to the Ferry on time. It’s where I got some of my worse injuries during the last five years - ensuring they were safe.

SecMajor Henderson didn’t just call us up to her office to inform us of the Haven however. She wanted Ro to go out in the Velox recon ship again. Since working together with Captain Lee to put the Salvation into the path of more anomalies she had became aware of the ships he had been seeing since our jump. The crafts had been getting more frequent and and we were running into more ‘turbulent’ space. After successfully requesting that I join her in the Velox, we made our way off the Miltech deck and down toward the Mortifera that was docked below Salvation.

Arriving at the lobby we noticed a small group formed near a viewing window, excitedly chattering and pointing. As we got closer Ro turned to me with a look of confusion over her face as she started to fall backwards.

“What the he—“

“Wha—Woah”

A tingling sensation filled my stomach and I quickly felt unbalanced, my arms acted like windmills trying to keep me upright but I fell backwards too. My eyes slammed shut in anticipation of hitting the ground, but, it didn’t happen. I peeled one eye open and suddenly I knew I had been in this situation already. The ships gravity had failed. Both Ro and I tried to orientate ourselves out of our spins while the blaring announcement started.

“caution—caution— anomaly…

Prepare for sudden reinstatement of gravity”

That can’t be good I thought as I managed to stabilise myself against the nearest wall. Like a swimmer I pushed myself off the wall in a diving motion, aiming for the floor to get myself as close as possible to the ground before gravity restored. Unlucky for me, and in typical fashion, it restored mid-dive. A warm numbness had spread across my face, complimented by an metallic taste.

Slowly the ships gravity began to restore, and after a few sighs of relief, everyone began to get to their feet again. I had pinched my nose to stem the bleeding trying to clean myself up before Ro noticed.

Our reprieve from the assumed anomaly only lasted a few minutes before an intense pressure took hold. For a moment I had thought it was just me experiencing it, from yet another head injury, until I saw Ro. She had dropped to a knee and had her arms across her head as the pressure started to get unbearable. I shuffled my way over to her and put myself over her in a big bear hug. The pressure had become too much at that point that my vision started to tunnel. I felt Ro’s body fall limp right before I submitted to the pressure and once again blacked out - five for five.

I groaned as I pushed myself up off the floor, still not used to it though I had done it a handful of times now.

“C…Carter. Uhh look at this” said Ro, as she stumbled over her words.

“Wait, what… we’re back home?” I said loosely in a daze as I walked over to her and caught some blue and white framed in the window.

“Uhh.. I didn’t think we left a healthy planet or one that looked like this, did you?

She was right, we didn’t, and it definitely didn’t look like that. A pristine world with deep blues, sweeping array of greens, and pops of brown and whites. It all looked like the Earth we not long left, beside one glaring difference. There were only two very large land masses that extended from either pole of the planet which were separated by an ocean sized river and had little specs of islands scattered throughout.

I was almost certain that we had been put straight into one of the so called anomalies, but how did it work, how did we jump again but seemingly into a perfect orbit around this planet.

“Is this - is this real?” I said in a soft spoken state of shock.

“I think so Carter, and that’s not the only crazy thing… check this out.”

Ro waved her hand, calling me in for a closer look as she had her head placed against the window. She was trying to look across and was pushing her finger against the glass.

“Can you see it Carter!?”

“Uhm no!?” I said while thinking that Ro might of hit her head a bit harder than me because she was starting to sound more crazy.

“Ready…wait for it… look, now!”

A glimmer of light flashed, then another, and another. They were faint but definitely there. They were reflective surfaces. More than likely constructed rather than natural according to Ro.

“Well what are they then?” I asked.

“Well, they gotta either satellites or ships. Have to be. Let’s get up to the bridge and see if Captain Lee can’t let us look through their scopes.”

We made it to the bridge where Captain Lee let us in, rather reluctantly. It was only due to Jeremy and Henderson already being there that he allowed it. Trying to play it cool we went for a casual speed walk over a sprint when we went over the the navigation section of the bridge to take a look over their screens and scopes. Taking the controls, I zoomed in on one of the flickers of light. I couldn’t believe it, it was a huge ship similar to the size of salvation but had a strange design.

“Are they transporters?” I asked with hesitation.

“No, all transporters look the same as Salvation. They could be private but I still would doubt that.” Said Captain Lee.

“Well… who’s ships are they then?”

“None of ours..”

I looked around at everyone, hoping for answers but all I got was the same look telling me what I had been thinking. These weren’t ships made by humans.