Chapter 2:
Establish and Arrival

The bus dropped the four off at Orchard beach around eight that evening. The moon was just starting to come out as they stepped onto the white sands. "So this is Orchard Beach," Terry said. "Not bad." He looked at the moonlight in the ocean. "It's so peaceful."
"That's because even the seagulls don't come here," Vu said, setting the cardboard box down. "Help me with this, will ya?" Terry smiled and helped him tear it apart, revealing the equipment within.
"Great," Terry said. "Now what?"
"Now," Shivana said, kneeling beside it. "We program it to do it's work and float it out into the water. It'll do it's job." She started tapping at the controls and watched the screen. "Okay, we're set." She stood up. "Bring it to the water and shove it off." Vu and Terry picked it up, walked it over to the water, and shoved it out into the ocean.
"Now what?" Mallory asked.
"We wait. It'll sink with a flourish soon enough. All we have to do is hide out until morning." Suddenly, there was a loud splash from far off shore. "And that was it."
"So we just wait?" She nodded.
Terry sighed. "So let's set up camp. It'll be here to pick us up in the morning."

None of them were able to sleep. They watched the shore like it was where the arrival of Tobias and the others would occur. They watched it straight through the night, for the straight ten hours. Then, in the wee morning hours, they saw it. A small submersible vehicle appeared on the edge of the beach. "That's our ride," Terry said.
"Yep," Mallory said. "Vu, Shivana, go make sure the coast is clear."
"Of course," Vu said. He and Shivana stepped out from the hiding place onto the beach. They went out a bit, looking in all directions, before turning towards the two and waving them on. The wolf and hedgevixen moved forwards quickly, almost as if they were sprinting towards the vehicle. The four sped over to it and took a look.
"So how the hell do we get in?" Terry asked. With those words, the glass dome that covered the interior opened up.
"Please step inside," a voice told them. "This will take you to where you need to be."
"Well, what else is there to do?" Shivana asked. She climbed in. "You guys coming?"
"Of course," Vu said, following her in. They looked at Terry and Mallory. "Well?"
"We're coming," Terry said. They looked around. "To think, this may be the last time we're on dry land for a long while. They climbed in with their human companions. The dome closed down on them, sealing them in. The vehicle started up and moved into the water, heading deeper and deeper into the depths.

*******

Julia had to keep her promise to Allen. They had relatively the same lunch break, and met up in one of the nicer mess halls. There, they picked a seat by the windows and had a semi-decent meal. "It costs a lot of our ration points," Allen said, stabbing the piece of meat on his plate with a fork. A big piece was peeled off and promptly put into his mouth. His tail started to sway happily. "But, damn it, it's worth it."
Julia smiled. "Yeah," she said, taking a bite of her own meal. "Thank you for taking me here." She looked out the window at a passing planet. It sat there, its green atmosphere and gray clouds blocking any view of the land below. "I wonder."
"About what?" Allen asked.
She looked away towards a second planet - nothing but barren rock. "I wonder what the human world is going to be like?"
He nodded. "I've been wondering about that too."
"So what are your feelings on it?"
He chuckled. "It's going to be one of two things. They're either going to have the exact same atmosphere we do, or it's going to be something damn similar to it. Don't forget, Isthus' 'best friend' was breathing well last time he was spotted."
"That is a good point." She sighed and looked out at a third passing planet. It was almost just like her home - huge, with fluffy white clouds, blue oceans, and green land masses. "I miss home."
He nodded his agreement. "We can never go back, you do know that, right?" She shut her eyes and nodded silently. He picked up on it and put his hand on hers. "I'm sorry. We can only hope that the human planet will be just like home."
"I hope you're right about that," she said weakly. "For all our sakes."

*******

Tobias was waiting patiently in his ready room when they all came in. He had called a meeting amongst his friends. He waited quietly as they all entered and sat down at the large table that had been set up, Crash and the Elite guard on one side of the table, Kaitlyn, Swift, Mink, Xuon, and Myst on the other, with Samantha sitting right next to him. Once he was satisfied, he smiled. "Thanks for coming out this early guys," he said. "I hope the night treated you well."
"Most of us are going back to sleep after this," Crash said.
He chuckled. "All right. I'm not going to stop you."
"Thanks."
"Why did you call us here?" Swift asked.
"Well, for one thing, I wanted to give ya all your assignments until we get to Earth. Am I allowed to do that?"
Mink chuckled. "You are."
"Gee, thanks for the encouragement, Mink." He grinned. Everyone smiled. "Well, I see it this way, if we use your individual quirks, we can make this trip extremely comfortable." He looked at a note pad. "We'll start with the obvious ones. Wrench, you're in engineering." The fox nodded. "Hack, you're working with all the computer equipment on the ship."
"Aye," the panther responded.
"Xuon,"
"Yeah?" the lizard asked.
"You're in the lab with Kaitlyn. I want you two to work on developing equipment we can use on Earth."
"Aye," Kaitlyn said for the two.
"Now, the not-so obvious. Psycho and Mink."
"Yes?" Mink asked.
"I want you three to work security for this ship."
Everyone looked at him. "Uh, Tobias," Myst said. "Is that the wisest thing?"
"Why not? Mink is very disciplined. He can keep Psycho in line."
"Ah..."
"And besides, you're going to be working with Kaitlyn and Xuon from time to time. We need you to design a couple of prototype weapons."
He smiled. "Thank you, Tobias."
"Swift, Bomber."
"Y-yeah?" Bomber said, snapping out of a trance.
"There is a psionics lab on this ship. I want you two working operating there. We'll be giving periodic checks to the crew to see if anything comes up."
"Why Bomber?" Swift asked.
"I want him checked out. And besides, you can't do everything by yourself, can ya?"
"Point taken."
"Crash, you're my number two man." He smiled and nodded.
"What about me?" Samantha asked.
"Well." He gave her a hug. "Besides being my wife, I want you to work with personnel. Ya know, keep morale high and what not."
She smiled and nuzzled his cheek. "Sounds fine."
He smiled and looked at the other around the table. "Are there any objections?" They all shook their heads. "Any questions about anything?"
"One thing," Kaitlyn said. "What is Earth like?" His expression almost literally fell off of his face. "Tobias."
"I...it's only faint memories. I couldn't tell you exactly."
"We understand," Hack said.
"No you don't. Believe me, you don't." He leaned back in his seat. "I don't know how to put it into words. If I could, I'd show you what faint memories I have left."
Swift shook her head. "I would offer some help, but I'm not strong enough to do take it and give it to everyone here. Kaitlyn would have to be in the medical bays for the first two weeks of this trip."
"I wouldn't ask you to do that." He sighed. "Don't worry. I'll figure something out. You may all go."

*******

The submersible arrived at the new base fifteen minutes later, some 300 miles off shore. It docked with the relatively tiny, one room base and allowed them into the main compartment. Their senses were immediately assaulted. The walls were lined with wires and panels, lights and buttons, all with some purpose of their own. Monitors displayed various system reports, including the outside conditions, the immediate base status, and anything else that was important. "Wow," Terry said. "You guys did this well."
"Thanks," Vu said, moving to one of the monitors. "So what's the first thing we should do?"
"Tobias did say that the details of our mission were programmed into the main computer," Shivana said. "Try to access that."
He nodded. "Computer." The monitors suddenly all turned white. A face appeared on each.
"Welcome, Vu, Shivana, Terry, and Mallory," it said. "I am Sara, digital entity for this base. Tobias has programmed in some instructions for you. Would you like me to play that message now?"
"Yes, please," Mallory said.
Sara smiled. "It's okay. You do not have to be polite with me. It doesn't bother me. Message playing." The largest of the screens went blank for a second.

It lit up with Tobias' face in no time. He smiled for a second before starting. "Before you guys say anything, no I can't hear you and I cannot answer any of your direct questions. I'm just a simple video I programmed in so you guys wouldn't go insane trying to set up."
Terry chuckled. "At least he's considerate."
"There is a lot to say. So let's start off with what's really important. Your mission is simple. We don't know when Isthus is going to arrive and start raising hell. We estimate it'll be two weeks before he arrives and another two until he starts to push onto the planet. We can't confirm it, but you've got four weeks to establish a base. Defend as much as you can and gather information. After you start getting confirmations of Isthus' activity, I advise you start preparing for our arrival. We've got four, maybe five medium sized ships arriving. I trust you guys know what to do. We're going to need a lot of storage and personnel space. You've got nine months Earth time after Isthus starts blitzing until we arrive.
"Now, Vu and Shivana should have some sort of a knowledge of the different facilities you guys can use to expand the base. I advise you get a communications control room and array up as one of the first four things you should build. There are also some special pods to this base that were included."
"What's he talking about?" Vu asked. "The box looked like any others we've developed."
The screen lit up with a computer animated overview of some sort of a lab. "Since Vu and Shivana were just about scientists back here, we have included both a research lab for their use and a psionics lab for when we arrive. I suggest that you don't set up the psionics until eight months from now. You're really going to have no use for it."
Another display showed up. "We have also included an advanced robotics lab for you to use. Once you decide to set it up, it will start to design prototype robots for you to use, as well as manufacture them. Don't count on it, however. It takes a lot of time for it to produce even one of it's prototypes."
"So what good is it?" Terry asked.
"Trust me guys, just set it up. We will need the stuff it designs to help us create weapons for it." The display shifted again. "Also, you're going to need a lot of supplies. I'm only guessing you set up under water, so we've included an underwater mining base for you guys to set up and gather things. We don't know what's down there, but we know it'll be useful." The display shifted back to his head. "Sara has a full knowledge of the different facilities. She'll help you plan."
His serious attitude suddenly softened. "I also have one favor to ask of you guys." He hesitated a bit. "I need you to go find my mother, Kari, and bring her down to the base. I don't want anybody from my family except for her down in that base." He took a deep breath. "I'd really appreciate it, guys. Please. Do that for me." He shook his head. "You've got your mission. Sara has any additional information you may need. Good luck guys. See ya in ten months." The screen went blank.

Sara's face reappeared. "Well, are there any questions?" she asked.
"One," Terry said. He smiled. "Where do we start?"
"Tobias has programmed in a basic floor plan for starters. You can review it, change what he has, and then add onto it after it's been established."
Mallory yawned. "Sounds good."
"You guys didn't get any sleep," Sara inquired. "Did you?"
"We were up all night waiting for the arrival for the sub," Shivana said. "We could use a few moments of sleep."
Terry looked at them. "You three find somewhere where you can get some sleep. I'll handle the construction of the base." He looked around. "Well, whatever looks comfiest..."
"Don't worry," Vu said, going over to one of the panels. "There are emergency bunks in the wall." He opened the panel to reveal four beds, all line up in one row. "We can handle ourselves."
"Okay. Get some sleep. I'll set this up."

*******

Julia found herself running down the corridors of the ship one day. It had been about a week since Isthus had last asked her his own version of "Are we there yet?". There had been a little accident with an asteroid belt and they were horribly off schedule. Why Isthus had given the battlestation order was beyond her. She ran into Allen while she was running for the bridge. "What's going on?" he asked.
"If I knew, I wouldn't be running," she told him. "Where are you heading to?"
"Bridge."
"Good. We'll find out together." They turned a corner and ran into another of their crewmates. The rat fell on his rear end. He held his head and looked at them.
"Oh, Julia, Allen," he said, a sort of nervousness playing in his voice. "Didn't see ya there."
"Don't knock it," Julia said, offering a hand to help him up. "Where are you off to, Benjamin?"
He smiled. "Engineering, as usual. They need someone to stand in for Allen. I overheard Isthus say that there was something important going on."
"Thanks," Allen said. "You better hurry up. You know how that one coil in the engine likes to be if ignored." Benjamin nodded and hurried along. "Something important going on." Allen looked at Julia. "Do you think we've gotten there on time?"
"Let's hope." They continued on their way.

The bridge was teaming with life. Faces she'd known all her life were intermixed with faces she'd never seen before. All were talking amongst themselves, waiting for whatever Isthus had called them for. They didn't have to wait for much longer than they were expecting. Moments after Julia and Allen arrived, Isthus walked in and stood in the middle of the bridge. Everyone silenced and looked at him. "Thank you for all coming," he started. "I have some good news for you." He nodded to one of the helmsmen. The big viewer that stood behind Isthus lit up, revealing a planet. It was a blue planet, with green and brown land masses dotting it's surface. "Ladies and gentlemen, meet the human world, better known as Earth. We will be reaching there tomorrow. The first part of our mission is complete. Now we begin the second phase. When we reach orbit, we will start construction on an orbital command center. It will serve as a temporary base until we can establish a stronghold on the surface. In addition to that, we will be sending in scouting team." He looked directly at her. "Ensign Julia."
"Sir?" she said, a slight quiver in her voice.
"Since you are the best pilot in this group, you will be taking one of the first scout vessels down to the surface to do a little investigating. Knowing Lone Wolf..." He stopped a moment to curse silently. "...He would have notified his people somehow and they would be establishing defensive perimeters. We need to know what's going on down there."
"Aye sir."
"All you have to do is make a short, half an hour flight and cover as much land as you can. That shouldn't be a problem, now should it?"
"No sir."
"Good." He turned his attention to Allen. "Engineer Allen, since you have a good deal of expertise with space craft, you and a number of others will start designing and construction of the starbase. It needs to be something that can be converted into a defense station. Your team will be waiting in conference hall D in three hours. You will start designing tonight."
"Aye sir."
Isthus looked around. "This is it people. We begin our assault on Earth soon. Victory will be ours!" There was a generalized cheer from everyone gathered. They all waited for a few seconds before trickling off into the rest of the ship.

"Well," Allen said, holding his glass up to the light so he could inspect it. "This may very well be our last meal together in a long while." He took a sip from it. "I'm gonna miss these lunches."
"Yeah," Julia said, taking a bite of her meat. "It's gonna be difficult finding someone else who is willing to pool their ration points with me for a decent meal we can both enjoy." She sighed. "We will try at every opportunity to get together, right?"
"Of course! I'm not that mad." He put the glass down. "Well, since we might not be seeing each other for a while, I want to give you this, ya know, just to make sure you don't forget your ol' buddy." He slid a cheap looking chain over to her.
"Allen!" She took it up. "I don't know what to say."
"Took me a lot of sneaking about to get the parts and to forge that thing, but it was worth it. Solid titanium."
"Thank you." She started to put it on.
"And I've got one more thing to go with it." He reached over and took it from her. "The boys down in supplies were kind enough to make me a spare copy of my dog tags." He slid the tiny metal plate onto the chain. "Now you'll know who gave it to you."
She smiled. "I'll get my dog tags and add them too. Thank you Allen."
He smiled. "My pleasure." He got up. "I better go find my boys so we can start designing this station." He picked up his tray and whatever was left on it and started to go. Julia got up and gave him a hug. He chuckled and hugged back as best he could. "I'll try to see you. I promise."
"I know. See you when the thing is finished." She let him go and he walked away. She held the chain tightly in her hand. She looked at it for only a second before fixing it around her neck and sitting down to finish her meal.

*******

Kaitlyn refused to let old habits die. That night, she was found in Tobias and Samantha's quarters, chowing down on Tobias' latest vegetarian dish. It was finished off quickly, because they all knew there was much to discuss. The plates were left on the small coffee table as they all relaxed on the couch. "So what's Earth really like?" Kaitlyn asked.
Tobias, who had Samantha cuddled in his arms, sighed. "Like I said," he responded. "It's only vague memories."
"Well," Samantha said. "What kinds of vague memories are they?"
"It's mostly a blur, since I've fallen in love with your planet. I can tell you, it's nothing like Pack. There isn't much left of what nature we began with. You can thank industrialization for that." He took a deep breath. "It's mostly cities where the people are crammed in tighter than....hmm, can't think of something to compare it to."
"I see," Kaitlyn commented. "So it's basically Raider territory."
"No. At least Raider territory has clean air. Well, in comparison to what Earth's like, anyway." He stroked Samantha's arm. "But I'm not worried. There's still some places that are nice to visit."
"Good. I don't want to be cooped up in a city for the whole time." She chuckled. "So what are you two love birds planning on doing for a honeymoon?"
"A honeymoon?" Samantha said, a bit surprised. "Oh no. We can't. Not with this going on."
She grinned. "Think about this, we've got ten months until we arrive on Earth. That's ten months with nothing to do except plan and rot." The two looked at each other. "Man, if I were you two, I'd figure out something to do."
"She's right," Tobias said. "She's absolutely, one hundred percent correct."
Samantha smiled. "Well, what do we do tonight?"
"Each other?"
She giggled and pushed him away. "Oh stop it! You are too much!" He smiled and got her into a bear hug, kissing her gently. "But that does sound like a nice idea."
"I'm glad you approve."
"Stop it you two," Kaitlyn said. "You're starting to make me jealous."
Tobias grinned. "Well, since you and Psycho are two of the same tree..."
"No. I'd rather make love to a barbed iron spike."
"Tobias," Samantha said. "Let's not be cruel. We will eventually have to invite her into one of our little sessions."
"You're into that?" he asked.
"We've done it once before. Remember Oasis?"
"That's true." He nuzzled her neck. "But it will have to wait. I mean, we're not even a month old couple."
"I guess you're right." She leaned on him. "Give Kaitlyn a kiss an apologize for that."
He smiled, leaned over and kissed her. "Sorry, Kaity. I know I shouldn't have done that."
She smiled. "Tobias, you two are a married couple. Do whatever you want. I'm no longer playing watch dog to Samantha." She grinned. "But when you do decide it's time to include me in your follies, don't hesitate to ask."
He chuckled. "I won't. You know that." He gave her a second kiss and hugged Samantha. "But that does raise a couple of questions."
"Like what?"
"Well, for one thing, all we're going to see for ten months in the inside of this ship and each other. We're going to have to figure out something to do during our free hours to keep us from going stark raving mad."
"Well," Samantha said softly. "I am the personnel director. I can figure it out." She yawned. "I'll work on it tomorrow."
Kaitlyn got up. "I can see that you two are tired. I'll leave you to your sleep." She took the plates and put them in the sink. "See you two tomorrow. Enjoy your evening."
"Good night, Kaitlyn," Tobias said. "Sweet dreams."
She smiled. "I'll try." The door shut behind her as she went back to her quarters.

She stood in front of her bathroom mirror. It was like the last time she did this. She touched the mirror at about the place where the dark gray stripes ran across her sides. She sighed. "I promised that we'd take the time to figure these things out, Tobias," she said sadly. "Why didn't I take that opportunity?" She sighed and stared at her nude figure in the glass. "I guess I'll have to do it alone." She turned around slowly and crawled into the bath she had prepared for herself.