Chapter Eighteen: Return to Norton

The plan was simple for one main reason; it worked. It was how Grinder had managed to get aboard Captain Fortworth's ship; it was how the realists travelled from world to world. It was a crude system but it was effective and the idealists rarely caught on to the system.
The realists would hide in the cargo containers aboard a ship - preferably one with a small crew - and ride out the journey to another planet. It was how Marcelle's messages had first spread from Vaudeveldt.
If the realists needed to make the ship go to another destination - like Grinder had - the coudl use a form of hypnosis to get the idealists to change their course inadvertantly. This type of travel was dangerous because it exposed the realists. If one of the crew members was not with The Mind, they might be able to fight off the realist stowaways.
This was how Grinder Marcelle and Jonathan had planned to get back to Earth. Andy had demanded that he go along, and there was no reason to deny him. He knew more about the history of the colonies, specifically teh military portions, than anybody else in the party, and his position was justified.
The only issue with the getting into the city and thus the spaceport. Because of the military presence, Vaudeveldt's capital city of the same name was under a high amount of scrutiny. Sneaking was the only option, and there were walls around the city.
"Our best bet is one of the smaller gates, for pedestrain use," Marcelle told the three men accompanying her. "We are going to be disguised as prospectors. We will, of course, all have fake drivers liscences that will identify us as citizens of vaudeveldt. They'll be real citizens, so computer data checks should be okay, just hope that when they card us, it'll be data check only and not photo."
With the equipment they needed, they set out. The disguise of prospectors was perfect, they'd be able to carry a lot of equipment and food without suspicion.
Jonathan noted that they took a different route to the city than they had when they made attack against the junk yard. They walked along the ridge of the low mountains that the realist base was hidden among. Marcelle turned to him at one point and smiled. She said, in reference to the route, "It'll kick up a lot of dust, tire us out a little. The disguise will be that much more convincing."
They marched through the night along the rocky hills - thats all they really were - with the stars overhead. The sky here was almost frightfully dark at night. There were two small irregualar moons in orbit that did not provide any kind of real lighting.
It was dawn when the reached the walls of Vaudeveldt. There were two gaurds in the gate that were looking very lax. It was almost the end of their shift.
"Good morning" one of them yawned. He blinked heavily a few times and then asked "coming back from prospecting?"
"Yes, we are." Marcelle answered as she pulled out her ID. Jonathan, Grinder and Andy followed suit.
The first gaurd looked at the cards and smiled. "Hey, man, you've got the same name as my cousin." He said to Andy.
"Well, uh, imagine that," Andy said, quickly folding the card into his pocket.
"You're clear," The second gaurd told them. She waved them through the gate lazily.
"Oh, hey!" The first gaurd said just as they were about to get through. The party tensed up, and anticipated what might happen next. "Did you find any good places to settle a town?"
"Yeah," Grinder said, realxing. "There was a good one over in the moutains. A little hard to spot, though."

In the early morning hours of Vaudeveltd, the party moved about without nay sort of complications. The spaceport was easy to locate, it was basically at the centre of the city. There was only one ship heaving out that night - a small military escort vessle returning to it's homebase on the Tapert family's homeworld. It had theoretically been escorting some noble of the family. It was perfect for what the party needed, a small crew and it was travelling alone.
the only difficult part would be getting into the cargo bay. It was always difficult. Snooping around the spaceport, the four people managed to find their window of opportunity. There were crates being loaded into the ship in a few hours, filled with basic military supplies that needed to be taken back with the ship.
They worked feverently to get enough equipment out of the crates to fit their bodies in, but it was difficult work without being noticed. They could not simply replace the crates, they were already marked for shipment.
Time was running out and they had no option but to cram into the crates when there was barely enough space for their bodies. Grinder and Andy shoved themsleves into one crate. Marcelle and Jonathan sealed the crate and crawled into their own. They adjusted the lid as best they could form inside, but there was no way they could seal it properly.
It wasn't long before they heard the crunch of wheels on the ground near the crates.
"Oy, this one iddn't sealed right!" a voice said.
"Fix it up quick, like, man. We don't have time to report it to the administration," a scond voice replied.
"Right-o." There was a hammering, and the last slant of slight that had been illuminating Marcelle's face was cut off. Jonathan could no longer see anything, but he felt the closeness of everything around him. Especially Marcelle.