“Why?”
“We just adjusted his strength and I want to make sure it’s not too much.”
“Fine.” Finch extended his arm. Buster placed a grip on him. The grip tightened some but not too much.
“Commander Finch, your pulse is sixty-eight, blood pressure, one-ten over seventy, oxy pulse, one hundred percent, and blood alcohol level is at point zero two. Seems you are in good shape this evening.”
“Thanks.”
“My blood alcohol is a point zero seven,” said Rey.
“And that means you’re cut off.” Finch waved a finger. “I’ll leave you two to your new friend.” He turned to walk back onto the ship, wanting to double-check with Nate who was working on finding the other ARC. As he entered he heard Sam talking.
“You’re not going to bed, are you?” Sam asked.
Finch stepped back and looked up. “What are you doing up there?”
“Working on the main cells.”
“Nothing is wrong is it?” Finch asked.
“No, just tweaking to make it comparable to Lola. I don’t want to rely on a slow charge.”
“Excellent. Thank you very much.” Finch walked on board. He spotted Nate at the computer table. “How’s it going?”
“Good. Very good,” Nate replied. “Taking into consideration what Mr. Lane told us about the ship he saw heading northwest, I started looking at our images.”
“And?”
He changed the image on the screen and pointed. “I think that’s it. That’s an ARC. There’s lots of trees but if I zoom in”—he expanded and zoomed in on the view—“that looks like a fence. If you look close, this isn’t a road. Looks like a path the ARC made when it landed.”
“Crash landed?”
“I don’t know. But we can set down there and take off from there. What do you think?”
“Hard to tell. It’s pretty pixelated.”
“I’m ninety percent sure it’s the ARC,” Nate said. “It’s four hundred and fifty miles northwest. Definitely have to take the ship.”
“That was the plan. Hopefully that’s it. We’ll know tomorrow.”
“Then what?” Nate asked. “We leave again.”
“Absolutely. We make another jump. And hopefully end up”—Finch leaned into the screen—“some place better than all this.”
“It’s Earth, how much better can it be? I’m all for going back through again. It would be better if we could pick where we end up though.”
“Nate, that’s half the fun. Spin the Androski wheel,” Finch said. “Where we stop, nobody knows.”
“And you think that sounds fun?”
“It’s been very interesting so far. Hasn’t it? Set a course, my friend.” He gave a tap to Nate’s shoulder. “That’s where we go tomorrow.”
He left Nate alone to finish what he was doing. Finch wanted to check in with Sam one more time before relaxing for the night.
The next day would be interesting and, Finch was sure, their last day on Earth-75.
TWENTY-FIVE
There was no doubt in Finch’s mind that the ARC was damaged on landing. It may not have crashed, but it came in rough. Hard enough that it slammed into the ground with enough force to make a shallow crater.
Finch noticed the crater when he brought the Omni down to land. He avoided it, touching down right after.
The landing was easy and he allowed his ship to coast until they closed in on the ARC. He carefully turned the ship around ready for when they took off again. It was tricky, but it was something Finch was getting good at.
Finch made a lot of deductions.
There wasn’t a road there when ARC touched down. Something made them have to land.
From what Finch could tell, the ARC, after making impact, slid nearly two thousand feet, clearing the trees and anything in its path as it pushed a mound of dirt.
That mound was now a hillside covered with grass; the end of the ARC nestled against it and had become part of it.
It was quiet.
Dead quiet and any hopes of finding ARC residents were crushed as soon as they laid eyes on the vessel.
It had been abandoned for a short span of time, not years, by the looks of it. A fence had been erected around the area, though not a large one. All along the radius there were cottages, the prefabricated housing units carried on the ARC. Small four-room, easy to assemble shelters. Three barns and what looked like fencing for animals had been set up too.
The grass was only two feet high. But the biggest telltale sign was the rust and exterior wear on the ARC itself.
Two of the bay doors were open. One near the font and the other toward the back.
“It’s massive,” Rey said.
“Yeah, it is,” Tucker replied. “They were building one right on my grandfather’s property. I remember how big it seemed then.”
“How do you want to do this?” Nate asked Finch.
“I want to find the commander’s log. It has to be in there somewhere. Either his quarters or the deck. Nate, why don’t you check out what’s on the other side of that hill.” Finch pointed. “Sam and Tucker, you look around the housing units and farm area. See what you can come up with.”
“Gotcha,” Tucker replied. “And if it’s alright you with, after we’re done, I’d like to take a look inside the ARC. See what one looks like.”
“Absolutely,” Finch replied. “Keep your radios on. Let’s find out what happened to everyone.”
The crew divided up, with Finch and Rey headed to the ARC.
Finch had never been in an ARC, but he had seen the virtual tours of the models. He knew what to expect. He aimed for the front bay doors because he was certain that was the main entrance. In every photo and model, entering the ARC was like entering a cruise ship. With high ceilings and a wide-open atrium that was made to look like an outdoor experience.
The passenger rooms circled the area and were stories high.
Such wasn’t the case when Finch stepped in.
Gone was the beautiful vision he had in his mind.
The trees were dead, the swings on the playground lay on the ground. Windows to passenger rooms were smashed and broken and many of the doors were open.
The fountain that was at the center
