Take me to Your Leader - 3. Take Me Chapter 3

“Welcome Brett Hamilton, to the Star Cruiser Amixorp, named after our home planet in the Alpha Centauri B Star System,” a voice said as I was led into a large room, where there was a large U-shaped table, with six chairs behind them and each chair was occupied. “My name is Revilo Leri, I am the Ambassador of the Outer Domain, on my right, is His Excellency Grand Duke Lord Sucram Opi, Chancellor of the Outer Domain Council, the remaining people seated are members of the OD Council. From now on you will be known as Treb Sua, which is a translation of your Earth name,” one of the men at the table said to me.

I was about to ask something but was stopped when the Chancellor himself spoke. “ We have been watching you from close and afar for some time now young man, you have great talents, and on Earth, you would achieve great things, but we have better plans for your future,” he said to me. I bowed because I thought it the best thing to do, before speaking. “Your Excellency and Lord Ambassador, I am honoured that you have chosen me to take on the challenges that you want me to take, but may I first ask where this Star Cruiser is located?” I asked.

The only woman that was seated at the council table stood up and walked over to a wall behind her and pressed a button, moments later the wall changed from a dark colour to almost clear and at first all I could see was dark space with a few stars beyond, then suddenly a planet appeared. “That looks like Saturn,” I said sounding shocked, as I stared at the planet up close for the very first time. “That is correct, you have been in space for the past six hours, and we can get you back home before daylight, but maybe drop you off at a more remote location, so we don’t attract too much attention.

Treb Sua, we the Council would like you to be our Earth representative, and this is to remain a secret from everyone on Earth and over the remaining few years that you will be attending university, we shall give you additional learning challenges. First to learn about our history and our language, which is not that much different than English, as well as learn more advanced technology than what is available on Earth. We will be providing you with additional training from time to time when the timing is right.

We are aware that you have several holidays during your university studies, with mid-semester holidays that last seven days, as well as mid-year holidays that go for two weeks. We ask that you plan nothing during these times, so that you may continue your training with us. Would you be prepared to do that for us?” the Chancellor asked me. “Your Excellency, it will be a great honour to be able to do this, to have the opportunity to spend time out in space like now, without the restrictions that are in place on Earth,” I responded giving a short bow.

“That is excellent news to our ears. We will be providing you with a few items so that we can keep in touch, that have been disguised to look like an ordinary item from Earth. Firstly a watch, that has several features. Apart from telling the time, it is also a communicator so that you can get in contact with the Star Cruiser, and is get in contact with you, which will be in the form of a vibration mode instead of a sound. The watch can also be used as a tracker when you need to find your way to the collection location or to get back to where you were earlier.

We have also designed an item that looks like an Earth-made Lap Top Computer, but it is much more than that, as it will be your education and training tool for the coming years, so learn more about us as well as learn about all the amazing new technologies you are going to be able to use. As you can see, we are currently heading back towards Earth, so just relax and enjoy the ride, we will be passing by several of Saturn’s moons shortly which you may enjoy seeing. Ambassador Revilo Leri will take you to a comfortable place where you can watch everything that we pass by on the way back,” the Chancellor said, and I gave a bow before following the Ambassador out of the room.

A few moments later, we arrived in a large lounge room, with wide windows giving an excellent view of the outside, “I can’t believe that I am here in space looking at Saturn and its moons,” I commented, “That moon there is Tethys, and we have a settlement located there, which is where we have been based for some time now, and it will be the location of a lot of your space flight training and learning about our history, language and culture. It takes approximately four hours to travel from Tethys to Earth, so you won’t need to worry about being so far away out in space and it taking a long time to travel.

We will be dropping you off on the sand dunes, about two and a half kilometres south of where we collected you earlier, so to keep a low profile, we will be keeping in regular touch, I will be back when it is time for you to leave, in the meantime enjoy the view, and on the table there you will find your new personal items, which will only operate for you and no one else, so have a look and get to know its functions while we are travelling,” the Ambassador said before leaving the room. I thought about what the Ambassador about where I would be dropped off and calculated that it would take me about 45 minutes to walk back to the campsite, which I didn’t mind, as it was all good exercise, as I looked over the watch, which was very similar in design as to my watch, which I slipped into my pocket and put the new one on my wrist.

Time seemed to fly past literally, as we zoomed past the other two planets in the solar system, before reaching Earth, as it came closer into view. We suddenly made a deviation, which I was not sure what that was about, just as I felt my new watch vibrate, and looking down at the screen, “Five minutes to departure, coming to collect you now,” the message read, and a few minutes later the Ambassador appeared. “All ready to go?” he asked me, and I nodded yes.

“The sudden deviation that you noticed was to avoid detection by the International Space Station and several Satellites that have cameras facing out to space. It gets a bit tricky avoiding them most times,” the Ambassador said to me as I followed him out of the room. I was handed a backpack, which I placed my new laptop computer inside and I saw a few other items in there, which I would check out later.

“Like in the movies, this is a teleporting device, no need to worry, as it is exceptionally safe. See you again soon,” the Ambassador said to me as he guided me onto one of three pads and moments later, I was standing on the edge of the beach, and across the bay, I could see the Point Sinclair Jetty, which is the direction I headed towards.

“Wow, no one would believe me anyway, just as well that I am keeping it secret from everyone,” I commented to myself, as I felt my watch vibrate. “We heard that. Stay safe and see you soon,” the message on the screen read, which made me look up where I saw a distant cloud trail, or was it exhaust smoke from a UFO? This thought made me laugh out loud, as I concentrated on walking towards my destination, firstly on the gravel road near the jetty, then on the gravel road to the campsite.

“Where on earth have you been, we were beginning to get worried about you,” Dad said to me when he saw me approaching the campsite, while Mum was making sure the little ones were eating their breakfast. I smiled at the choice of words that Dad just said, “I couldn’t sleep, so I went for an extra long walk down the coast where I came across a large salt lake near the beach. I think I must have walked about fifteen or so kilometres,” I replied.

After eating a light breakfast, I had a shower and went to bed, as I was now feeling tired from the long walk back from the drop-off point, and I made sure to hide my new belongings, so they could not be found. When I finally woke up a few hours later, it was late in the morning, and there was no sign of the family anywhere, with Dad’s vehicle gone.

I found a note on my kitchen table – “Gone for a day trip further along the coast, we will be back late afternoon. Make sure that you eat some lunch and leave a note if you are going for a walk or paddle. Mum & Dad,” I smiled when I read this, as I glanced at my new watch, which had a new message. “Slept 3.25 hours,” which made me groan. Making sure that there was no one around, I returned to my camper trailer, closing up the door and the windows, before retrieving my newest belongings, and I spent some time looking at each item.

Similar to an iPad, the Electronic Information Board or EIB for short, had a whole heap of documents for me to look at, and I began to read the one titled ‘Learning the language’. I stopped a while later to make myself some sandwiches and a glass of juice, before getting back to my reading.

When my watch vibrated with a new message, it read – ‘Parents Vehicle Approaching’, which made me jump up, gather everything, and put it back in its hiding place, and once that was done I raised the shades on the windows and unlocked the door before I began to clean up the kitchen from my lunch. I was just finishing drying my dishes and cutlery when the vehicle came to a stop and my siblings jumped out and called out to me.

“What adventures did you guys get up to while you were away?” I asked them, as I stepped out of the camper trailer, still with a tea towel in hand, which I hung up to dry. “We went to Flowers Bay,” Myles announced, “No silly it is Fowlers Bay,” Kristy said to correct the mistake. “It was a bit over one hour drive away, but it was nice to see,” Mum commented, and they have a jetty there too,” Anita added.

“On the way back from Fowlers, we took a bit of a shortcut onto Booree Corner Road, where we came across some very remote farmland. We stopped by the side of the road when we saw a farmer doing some work on a boundary fenceline, and we were invited to the house for some afternoon tea, with the farmer’s wife - Annie was delighted to have some visitors, and we were treated to a delicious afternoon tea. Afterwards, the farmer – Joe took me and the kids on a farm tour, leaving the ladies at the house to chat,” Dad said to me.

“Poor woman was starved of company and able to chat with someone, I felt very sorry for what she has to go through in such a remote location. I think I will send her a care package, to help boost her morale a little bit,” Mum added, “That’s a great idea dear, maybe we can do that while in Port Augusta on our return journey,” Dad said to Mum, who smiled and nodded.

“The farm was very flat and quite bare of trees, just some low shrubs was all that you could see as far as the sea,” Anita commented, as Mum nodded her head in agreement. “Maybe we can do something for them before we leave the area? How about we provide them with a caravan camping dinner for them?” I suggested. “Brilliant, we can do that the day before we are due to leave the area,” Dad responded.

“All I have to do is to decide what to cook them with what we have in our supplies,” Mum said, as she grabbed a notepad and pen to make some notes. “I saw a couple of frozen roast chickens in my freezer, that may be better than all the beef that they probably consume,” I suggested, “Good thinking dear, can you go and tell me what else you have in the food supplies, so we can make it a real big feast,” Mum suggested.

“There was another farm on that road, just before we reached the highway, maybe we can invite them along too,” Dad suggested. “I think we will need to make a quick shopping trip to Penong just to get a few items since we will have extra people,” Mum suggested, “Well in that case, Brett in the morning you can look after the little ones, while I take Mum to Penong, and while she is there I will make a quick trip to that other farm, to invite them to come along to the dinner,” Dad said to me, and I nodded in agreement, knowing I had no choice in the matter.

The following day, we all went to Penong, where I would keep my siblings entertained, we explored the windmill museum, which had lots of different-sized windmills, as well as old farm machinery, and went to the general store to assist Mum with the shopping. When asked what Mum was buying so much food for, Mum explained that she had visited a remote farm recently and the farmer’s wife was struggling with the remoteness, so Mum is going to cook a big meal for the farmers and any neighbours that want to come along,

“Excuse me, I just overheard your conversation. My name is Dorothy and I am the regional president of the Isolated Children’s Education Association, I think what you are doing is brilliant, and I would like to pitch in. Let’s take a seat outside and have a discussion about this,” the lady standing nearby said. A few moments later, there were a dozen women gathered, to discuss this event, which Mum had planned to take place in two days. I took the siblings to wander around the street some more, to leave them to their community meeting.

When we returned half an hour later, the women were laughing about something, and I later learnt that one of the women gathered, was from the farm at the top end of Booree Corner Road, that Dad went to visit, I also learnt that it had been agreed to hold the bush dinner at their property. A quick phone call to that farm, to let Mr Gregson know that the women in town were organising everything and that the dinner would be at their farm. In just 24 hours, the small group of women had arranged dining tables, chairs, tablecloths, crockery and cutlery, generators and power cords, flood lights, BBQs, firepits, and everything else that was needed for this Bookabie Camp Dinner event.

We returned to Point Sinclair campsite, where we quickly packed up camp and moved to the Gregson farm, where we had been invited to stay for two nights, leading up to this event, where Dad and I were kept very busy with setting up everything. When Annie and Joe were invited to attend the event as our special guests, they were shocked that something had been arranged so quickly and agreed to attend the event at their neighbour's farm.

Someone even had a few dozen kerosene lamps, which were placed 50 metres apart from the highway down towards the house and sheds 1.6 kilometres away, to light the way to the event, and they almost went the whole distance, which was a surprise. With our temporary campsite set up behind the house, we were a good 200 metres away from the shearing shed where the event was being held the following evening.

The Gregsons were happy for us to park behind the house since we were self-sufficient, and they even accepted our invitation for them to have dinner with us that first evening. The following day, we were flat out working to get everything finalised, with the start time to be at 6 pm, a good hour before sunset. We knew of about twenty families that would be joining us for this event, and everyone local was asked to bring along a dish to share with everyone, to guarantee that we had plenty of food for everyone.

At 5.30 pm, we already had several locals arrive, so Dad and I began to light up the Kero lanterns, starting from the house end of the line and ending at the highway, and looking back at the long line of flames, it was quite a sight to see, especially with the setting sun in the background, which I took a few photos before we drove back to the house to have a quick shower and get changed.

Someone had brought along a sound system, so there was loud country music coming from the shearing shed already, and there were several fire drums and pits scattered around stacked with firewood ready to be lit to provide some warmth. Someone had provided a gumboot, to cold coin donation to help cover some of the costs of the event, and at 6.15 pm we were surprised to see a Police Van and a St John Ambulance First Aid post from Ceduna had arrived at this event.

“Good evening, we heard that there was an event here that may need some assistance, so where do you want us?” the Police Senior Sergeant asked Dad and me, as we were manning the entry gate so to speak near the house. After a quick look around, Dad suggested that they park in front of the Machinery shed nearby, where they would have shelter from the winds, and also some power if need be and it was just a short 150-metre stroll away from the shearing shed and yards, which looked like have not been in use for quite some time.