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Cell Five
Posted By: Murcu<tomasomurcu@hotmail.com>
Date: 8 May 2005, 2:51 PM
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After all the formalities were done with, marching off the ship in ceremony formation, and finding out where they were to stay, and when to be where at what time, they were given free leave. Cornell had found out that he wouldn't have the chance to explore, because his platoon would have to be report to him three times daily, and he to his Lieutenant, Lt. Hopewell.
Hopewell was another one of those people who had family in the CDD, but he wasn't nearly as respected as the general. Most of the regiment regarded him as weak and lazy, and rumors said that he had bribed his way into rank. Hopewell did do his best, however, to try and win back the hearts of his men, and as far as Cornell knew, he was an honest and just person.
The town they had stopped in was called Frentic. It was underdeveloped, and one hundred percent human. However, the population had been living here undisturbed for so long that they had heavy, foreign, accents, and their language was gradually slipping farther and farther away from English.
The buildings here were constructed mostly of wood and cement, but there were occasional metal buildings, and even a few of clay laying a short way outside of town. The entire look of it was backwards. Something from one of the many movies set in the American Republic era. Once they were all dismissed, Cornell made his way over to Private Long and a couple of others. "Hey, Sergeant," Long said, a smile spreading across his young and hairless face.
"Private Long," Cornell nodded at him as a greeting. "How about we go look around town?"
"Sure, Sarge. Ya' mind if Thompson comes long?" he said, still smiling, as he raised his arm and pulled Private Jeremy Thompson into their conversation.
"That's fine," Cornell said quickly. "Either of you ever been here?"
"Are you kidding?" Long said, "I never even left my planet until I joined the forces! What about you Thompson?"
"No. My Uncle has been here though. But I think he was on the other side of it. Says it's a nice place. Good people."
"Well, let's go look around, then. Check out the stores or something. Who knows, maybe we'll find some women..." the Sergeant said, winking at the two men. They both smiled, but to Cornell they looked like fake, business smiles. He didn't mind.
He led the way as they made their way through the now flooded streets. Only one regiment had been let out in each town, so that the people living here didn't feel overwhelmed; but even with one regiment there appeared to be too many people for this small town.
The streets were paved with clay, not bricked, but smooth red clay, as was the fashion in most sparsely populated planets like this one. As they followed the red streets down, passing a few stores that looked to have too many visitors already, Long noticed that the windows here looked as though they were made of real glass. They were dusted over and looked old. On Earth, nearly all windows had been replaced by a new variation on plastic that 'repelled dust' and always stayed 'crystal clear'. He laughed silently to himself at how old fashioned a lot of these places could be.
The first store he walked into had a middle aged woman working the desk and it apparently sold special types of sweets which were supposed to be unique not only to this planet, but to this town. "Good morning," Cornell said to her, waving politely.
"Gawming," she said, nodding quickly at him. "What woodoo like to haff?" Her thick accent poured out as she spoke, and it was amazing anyone even understood her. Cornell looked down through the glass case and then back at her. "What's in these things?"
"Pard?" she asked, holding her hand to her ear.
Cornell asked again, slowing it down and speaking clearly.
The woman gave him a short wave and her face reddened. She turned away and walked in the door behind the counter, and came back with a younger woman. She said something to her, and then the woman spoke to Cornell. "What is it you're asking?" She could speak correctly, but her accent was strange and still very foreign.
"I just wanted to know what these were made of," Cornell answered, relieved to be able to speak normally. He looked her over slowly as he spoke; she was an attractive woman probably in her early twenties with dark blonde hair which she had tied loosely up into a bun at the back of her head. Her eyes were a dark green, almost brown, and she wore a long tight dress that looked to be made of the planet's equivalent of wool.
"It's mostly just sugar and Dren bread," she paused for a moment, looking at him, "You do know what Dren is, right?" Cornell shook his head, and looked at Long and Thompson for help, but they both gave him blank looks. "It's our planet's biggest export! It's a lot like the original Earth bread, but this doesn't need yeast to grow, and tastes a little different." Cornell told her that he'd like to try some. She handed him a small round piece of it, which looked a lot like a cake.
It turned out to be good, and when he was finished, he went back inside to order another, and found that the woman was just getting off work. She met him at the doorway and asked if he had liked it. "It was great! I can't believe we don't get that stuff on Earth."
"No, it's on Earth," she said to him, "It's just pretty expensive, and mostly common in Asia and Europe."
"You've been to Earth, then?" Cornell said, raising an eyebrow.
"Yeah, I was an intergalactic trader. In fact, Dren is our biggest export because of me," she said proudly. "But... I didn't make much money from it, because I was never very good at that sort of thing. That's why I'm working in a little shop now. Less stress." She smiled at him and he was about to speak, but Thompson and Long walked in an interrupted.
"Sarge, what's taking you?" Long said; then seeing the woman, smiled at him and slapped him on the back. "Hey, we're going to go look around town some more, we'll see you later!" On that, he turned around and disappeared around a corner.
After a brief and awkward pause, it was Cornell to break the silence. "Um.. My name's Steven, nice to meet you."
"Hi there, I'm Ada." She reached out and they shook hands. "I have to walk a few blocks down to get something from a store for my mother. Would you like to walk with me?" her cheeks flashed red for a moment as she asked, but when Cornell smiled and nodded, they returned to normal.
On the walk home, Ada explained the history of the planet and town to Cornell, telling him that it had been chosen as an ideal location for humans because of how alike it was to Earth. Not only that, but the planet was completely uninhabited, yet there were hundreds of little manmade caves and rooms with metal walls that would be perfect for staging a military defense in case of a Covenant attack. Apparently, when those places had first been discovered, people had tried to figure out what they were for, or some trace of who had made them, but instead all they came up with was the knowledge that these structures went far underground into the planet.
The idea of unexplored caves and caverns excited Cornell, and as she spoke his imagination came up with a million possibilities of what the caves could hold. She mentioned that one thing had been found- a small blue orb with an indented silver piece running through the center. When she said that, Cornell's face turned pale. Guilty Sparks.
After a minute of speechlessness, Cornell managed to stammer out a question. "They... That's all they've found?" She nodded. "And what... or how much exploring have they done?" his face suddenly showed a million wrinkles that hadn't existed a moment before. He was terrified.
"Well, not much until recently," she started, looking concerned, "but now they've got a few hundred people exploring the caverns. Word has it that recently they managed to find something else. No one knows what yet though. We'll have to wait for them to come back. Not that they'll be coming here. They launched the exploration from the main city- Pattonton. I don't know when they're scheduled to be back but I think it's soon. Maybe it's already happened. I'm not sure."
Cornell didn't have time to explain to her what was going on. He gave her one last look, then turned around and started running back to town. "Where are you going?" she yelled to him, a bit insulted.
"I'm sorry! I have to go!" he replied, throwing a wave over his shoulder at her.
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