The Second Wave Read Online Free

past
shrubberies and over roots, through lianas that hung between trees
like curtains. No animals were about. Not another soul was in
reach. The only sound was the soft squishing her bare feet made
when they sank into the mossy ground with every new step.
    Finally the trees stopped, and she stepped
out into a clearing to watch the last of the sinking sun burn
behind the tree tops. Then it was just her and the darkness again;
only this time the darkness brought silence. Perhaps, it occurred
to her, silence was a bad thing. It told her what she had feared
before and now knew for certain: Everyone was gone.
    When the sun rose again the next morning, she
continued her exploration. Her body ached, especially her head.
That, and that she was unaccustomed to walking slowed her down and
made her steps uneasy. What she was looking for she didn’t fully
understand until she came to the end of the forest and found
strangers. Thinking back, she realized she must have heard them
before but didn’t recognize their voices. Everything was different
now that she was out of the darkness.
    She froze on the spot. Just looked. They
spoke to her, but their words meant nothing. They were uttered in a
language she didn’t know. Her head hurt. One of the strangers
pointed something at her, so incredibly slowly she almost missed
the movement.
    The Goddess fell.
    * * * *

Chapter 6: Going Through
    Not even an hour after Doctors deLuca
successfully reopened the wormhole again, General Fatique stood in
the wormhole chamber next to Captain Emily Eleven and her team of
six. The protectors were in full gear, ready to go through and
check on the colony and the settlers. Nothing might have happened.
They had, after all, decided on the planet as Alpha Site due to its
almost non-existent wildlife, and the colony was designed and
prepared to function autonomously. But after the gateway had opened
up again, there had been no messages waiting for them, and so far
no one had tried to come back through. The settlement was a good
hour's march away from the arrival spot; the colonists may not have
noticed the reopening. But Fatique wanted to be absolutely sure
everything was in order and everyone was fine.
    Captain Eleven was no stranger to the
wormhole. She had been through before, when they first started to
explore new planets. So had her team. Six protectors in their
twenties, youthful but skilled. They all knew Eleven from the
training academy in Winchester; they trusted her implicitly. More
importantly, the trust went both ways. They were an outstanding
team.
    Eleven shook Fatique’s hand. “Whatever
happened, sir, we’ll find out.”
    “Thank you, Captain. And give Victoria
Rochester her father’s greetings. Heath’s been worried about her
and her family.”
    “Of course.” Eleven gave her team permission
to go. Then they turned towards the wormhole, whatever its name was
today, and marched through.
    It was morning, just after eight o’clock on
Earth, but on Alternearth the sun was high in the sky, indicating
it was already around noon—it was another reality, certainly, but
the planet and the solar system were pretty much the same, meaning
the days and years of Alternearth were about equal to those on
Earth.
    Eleven and her team arrived in a meadow. The
grass was ankle high, interspersed with flowers in full bloom, some
shrubberies and lone trees here and there, all of which looked
eerily like Earth’s once lush landscape. Behind was the beginning
of a thick forest, and from the left they heard the peaceful
gurgling of a creek, making its way through the landscape. The sky
was cloudless and blue. A perfect day.
    Behind them the wormhole closed noiselessly.
Fatique would reopen it in four hours to allow the team’s return.
And while on the Earth side an almost unbelievable array of
technical equipment, computer monitors and gadgets was used to
create the gateway, nothing of the sort could be found on this
side. The wormhole disappeared, and nothing