Danilo Clementoni - The Writer

"He said to press that button there," said Jack indicating the button. "Then the system would do everything by itself."

“What shall I do, shall I press it?” asked Elisa hesitating.

"Go on, what do you think is going to happen?”

The archaeologist pushed the button and, perhaps exaggerating the words a little too much, said "Hello? Anybody there?”

She waited but didn’t receive an answer. She waited a little longer, then tried again. “Hello... Hello... Petri, are you there? I can’t hear anything.”

Elisa waited a few more seconds then spread her arms and shrugged.

“Press the button again,” suggested the Colonel.

They tried repeating this process several times, but the communication system failed to give them even a measly rustle.

“Nothing doing. Perhaps something really did happen to them,” whispered Elisa as she removed the H^COM from her head.

“Or perhaps they still haven’t arrived within this thing’s range of action.”

The Colonel hadn’t finished his last sentence when a strange noise from outside caught their attention.

“Jack, look” exclaimed Elisa amazed as she looked out of the tent. “The spheres... They’re being reactivated.”

With their hearts in their mouths, they both ran outside and, to their amazement, saw the virtual landing pyramid that was again taking shape. Their friends were returning.

"See they didn’t explode," said Jack greatly cheered-up.

"Perhaps they forgot something.”

"The important thing is that they're okay. Let’s try and keep calm. We’ll soon find out what really happened.”

The landing procedure went ahead without problems and, in no time at all, the large figures of the two aliens appeared on the descending platform.

“Hello guys,” bellowed Petri, waving his big hand above his head.

"What on earth are you doing here again?" asked Jack, as the two aliens were carried down to ground level by the moving structure.

"We were missing you," replied Petri jumping down from that sort of lift, even before it had touched the ground, immediately followed by his travelling companion.

"We were worried" said Elisa finally reassured. "We witnessed a strange event that occurred on the moon a little while ago and we seriously feared that something terrible had happened to you.”

"Unfortunately, my dear, something terrible really did happen," said Azakis with a forlorn air.

"There you are, I knew it," exclaimed Elisa. “A little voice inside me kept telling me so. But what happened?"

"It all happened really suddenly.”

“So, are you going to tell us? Come on, don’t keep us on tenterhooks. Just tell us everything, now.”

"Our spacecraft no longer exists," Azakis announced all in one breath.

The two terrestrials looked at one another for a moment, absolutely stunned. Then Jack spoke, saying "Are you joking? What does ‘no longer exists’ mean?”

"It means that, right now, the biggest piece of the Theos could quite easily fit on the tip of your index finger.”

"But what happened? And the rest of the crew, where are they? Are they all well?"

"Yes, they're fine, thank you. Right now, they’re on the other three shuttles and very soon they’ll be here too. If you don't mind, we will set up an emergency structure around here and we’ll try to organise ourselves somehow."

"But of course, that's not a problem," said Jack. "We’ll give you all the help we can. You don't even need to ask."

“So,” blurted out Elisa who could no longer hold back her curiosity. "Are you going to tell us yes or no what the devil happened up there?"

"It's rather a long story," said Azakis seating himself on an upturned tin pail. “Make yourselves comfortable.”

After about ten minutes, the alien had pretty much told them the whole story. From the loss of the remote-control system, to the attempt to deactivate it. From the recklessness of having given up on its recovery, up to the sudden reactivation of the instrument which had then caused the launching of the self-destruction process.

"But that’s shocking," said Elisa appalled. “Whoever can have caused a disaster like that?”

"Probably," said Azakis, “somebody must have found that strange object and began to study its features. Then they must have found some information among all the data we downloaded onto your servers and, somehow, managed to turn it back on, so causing the result we now know.”

"For crying out loud!" exclaimed the Colonel upset. "It seems such an absurd story... And, knowing the danger of a device like that, you didn’t do anything to recover it?”

"It was my fault," said Petri, joining in the discussion. “I thought I’d completely deactivated it and that no terrestrial, even if somebody did find it, would be able to reactivate it.”

“And yet it happened,” said Jack. "Do you have any idea where it was lost?”

"We honestly thought we’d lost it while retrieving the Zenio crystal but, most probably, it must have ended up somewhere else, that was much more crowded. There was no one at all down there.”

“Zak, I’ve had an idea,” said Petri standing up. "I think that if I worked on it a bit, I might be able to backtrack and trace the moment the remote control was unhooked from your belt."

"It’s not all that important now, but I must admit I too am a little curious about it."

“Good. So first of all, let’s try and inform the Elders about our situation and as soon as we're organised a little, I'll try and retrieve this information."

“Elisa,” said Azakis. "Unfortunately, the only H^COM we had was destroyed with the Theos. Would you kindly lend us the one we left you before we took off?”

"Do you mean the helmet? But of course. I’ll get it for you straight away."

"Unfortunately, the situation is serious,” whispered Azakis turning to the Colonel, as soon as Elisa had moved far enough away to be out of earshot. "Even if we do manage to contact the Elders, the chances we can get back to our own planet are virtually nil now. "

“But can’t they send someone to pick you up? Hasn’t Zaneki also got a ship like yours?”

"Unfortunately, the engines installed on his ship are considerably less powerful than the ones we had on ours. That’s why he had to leave almost immediately after Kodon’s passage. If he hadn't, he wouldn’t have been able to reach Nibiru anymore, because it was moving rapidly away. We were able to stay here much longer precisely by virtue of our experimental engines. Unfortunately, the Theos was the only ship in our fleet with that type of engine. The production and installation of two more new ones like that could take a lot of time. A lot of ‘our’ time."

"You mean you might have to stay here until Nibiru’s next passage?”

"Here it is," said Elisa as she came hurrying back towards them.

"Unfortunately, yes Jack," said Azakis in a whisper, as he rose to take the H^COM helmet that the archaeologist was holding out to him.

“Thank you, Elisa” said the alien as he put it on. “Let’s see if it works.”

"Actually, we tried it ourselves, but we didn't manage to talk to anyone."

"That’s my friend’s work," commented Azakis looking towards Petri. “Nothing he does ever works.”

“Nice as always,” said Petri with a serious air. "I'll remember that when you ask me to fix your bathroom.”

“Oh yes,” exclaimed Elisa smiling. “I remember only too well how your bathrooms work. A truly unforgettable experience."