High Priority Package
"Imagination will often carry us to worlds that never were. But without it, we go nowhere."
- Carl Sagan
"Antigua, my dear, you appear to have outdone yourself this time."
Barbuda leaned back in his chair barely able to conceal his excitement. He dragged his fingers through his long, grey hair. The fine strands shone with an almost silver-like sheen from years of careful grooming and conditioning.
"Tell me, what else have you discovered?"
As chief overseer of the Gateway project, he had insisted that all direct communications from the field be routed through him first. Northlander's had not set foot on southern soil in well over twenty thousand years. The enormity of the achievement is hard to put into perspective. Suffice to say that very few people would understand the sense of accomplishment that Barbuda now felt, save perhaps a man like Gene Kranz who successfully directed the Apollo 11 mission to the moon in an era long since forgotten. Barbuda would never know who Gene Kranz was nor for that matter, what the Apollo Program was. Knowledge of space had long been lost to the Northside. Precious little electromagnetic radiation could filter through the Northland sky. Apart from the sun, the Northland sky was devoid of anything of interest.
Now there were five Northland rangers scouring the strange land that for thousands of years may as well have been another planet. The fact that one of the explorers was his own daughter gave him little cause for concern. He knew how well she could look after herself. In fact, he had struggled to find others who came close to matching her qualifications for the role. Antigua was a highly capable scientist, but more importantly, she had more field experience exploring the Northland badlands than anyone else. She had extreme survival training that had been tested to the limit on numerous occasions while her passion for martial arts had served her well when negotiations with the small nomadic tribes that populated the badlands failed.
"Other than the human, there isn't much that seems out of the ordinary father."
Antigua was speaking from inside the small survival dome that marked the southern entrance to the Gateway. Radio communication was impossible through the Firewall so she and the other Rangers would have to return to the survival dome to use the wired Commrig to report in. The dome offered protection from the scorching sky above but the ambient temperature within was still well above forty degrees centigrade. She was eager to report her news but was in no mood to hang around longer than was necessary.
"I'm still collecting data for my final report on the fauna and flora. I only returned to inform you of this... man. He's alive but without medical attention he will probably die from blood-loss or infection. I had to remove one of his legs. The wound is cauterized and I have administered antibiotics, but he will need to be cared for."
"Very well. Load him into one of the return pods." Barbuda knew she was eager to get back out and he was just as eager to examine the specimen of Southern humanity. "Make sure he is properly sterilized before you initiate the launch procedure. I will inform Britain that his crew will be receiving a high priority package."
Antigua signed off. She had maneuvered the man off Argentum's back and with some difficulty manhandled him into the dome. He was still well dosed and did not stir.
She stuck her hands under his armpits and dragged him over to the sterilizing booth that stood beside the return pods. The pods were designed to be an emergency return system for a single occupant. Gingerly, and with some distaste, she removed the remains of his clothing. Blood and gore aside she was appalled at his lack of basic hygiene. Soap was clearly a luxury this man was unfamiliar with. Using the hose from the booth she sprayed him down and doused him in the cocktail of chemicals that were used to ensure that Southland microbial life didn't accidentally contaminate the Northland. Things were bad enough in the Northland as it was. The last thing they needed was an uncontrollable infectious outbreak so strict quarantine protocols were put in place. When the Southlander arrived on the Northland, he would be kept hermetically sealed from the general population for a minimum of six months while undergoing extensive testing and analysis.
Once satisfied that she had taken sufficient precautions she bundled him into the pod, sealed the hatch, and slammed the trigger. The pod shot into the Gateway vacuum tube with a hollow thunk and was catapulted away. The pod's refrigeration system kicked into high gear with a low-frequency whir as it began the eight-hundred-kilometer journey through the Firewall.
"I hope they work." She said to herself as she watched the pod vanish past the survival dome wall. "You're the first living person to try one of them out."
"Hey Argee, you there?" She said, activating her Comm-link to the robotic horse, "Any news from the other Rangers? I'm just getting static in here."
"I'm still picking up long-range transponder response signals from Aurum and Plumbum." Argentum was docked in the domes external stable which provided battery recharging and minor hardware maintenance functionality. "No logs or reports have been uploaded by any of the other Rangers yet."
"Okay," Antigua replied.
She was not surprised. It was unlikely that any of the other Rangers would have made contact with the Southland survivors yet. The five of them had headed out from the dome in various directions. Hers had been due south. She and Argentum would have reached the habitable zone a lot sooner and were therefore far more likely to have made contact before anyone else.
"I'm not going to upload my field report yet." She said. "Do me a favor Argee, stick a detailed log of our activities up on the system. Just the raw data with a timestamp if you don't mind. I'm sure the folks back home are dying to get some data to analyze. No sense keeping them waiting."
"Would her Royal Highness like me to iron her petticoats while I'm at it?"
"Har Har, horse!" Antigua replied smiling inwardly. She was really starting to like her new equine companion.
