Chapter Five : Unexpected Visitors

Jonathan did not waste any time getting back to his home base. He knew it was basically futile to hurry, but he did not want to spend any more time than he had to living on a planet alone. The sooner could get a message back to Earth, the better.
The beginnings of a colony that made up his home base looked exactly as they did when he had left them, weeks ago. Thr trip back had been entierly un-eventful. Perhaps the only interesting thing that Jonathan took note of was the fact taht Norman had started to ride in the cab of the cover along with him. Jonathan knew that it was just a psychological way of keeping himself from going crazy, but he talked to the creature quite a lot. Although not much of a conversationalist, Norman was a good companion to have. The vauge communications of different walking paterns never ceased to surprise Jonathan. He was constantly amased at the sheer level of intellegence that the small animal held. It was nothing like anything he had ever seen before. Even the most intellegent animals on Earth came nowhere near Norman. Octopi, although very intellegent, never associated with anything unless they were eating it. Dolphins were friendly, and although they could do some tricks that showed that they were inntellegent, it was nothing like this. Even Chimpanzees, who could learn sign language, didn't seem able to understand as much of the language that Norman did.
"Hey, Norman, maybe I should teach you how to play chess." Jonathan suggested when they were almost back to the home base. Norman sat mute. Perhaps he was sleeping. The physiology of the creature was very mysterious, Jonathan could make little sense of it.
Upon arrival at the base, Jonathan started construction of a probe taht would allow him to send a message back to Earth. The basic component was the faster than light engine from the Starfish. Jonathan used solid rockets from the stores, originally intended for weather satellites, as his main propulsion. He welded on a storage capsule that he could put a message into. The message include letters to family, specifically his brother, technical data on the status of the colony, his situation, and the telemetry from his trip outside of time. hopefully they would be able to send some sort of rescue with that information. To be on the same side, Jonathan recorder the information in several differnet mediums, and sealed them in different compartments.
The probe took a few days to build. What took even longer was the programing for the firing of the engines. jonathan spent days with the calulations and programs, running simulations in the landing pod. It took him quite a while to become satisfied with the results. When it was finally ready, Jonathan had to wait unil the right time of day to send the small frankenstien ship on its way.
He watched the rockets burn up into the upper atmosphere. "Well Norman," he said, still staring up into the atmosphere. "Now we wait. How about that game of chess?"

It took a while to communicate the rules of the game to Norman. He was a quick learned for an animal, but still not as fast as people. The chess board was found in the stores for the future colony. Norman did not prove to be much of an opponent, but it still gave Jonathan something to do. The creature wound his way between the peices and move his with his nose. Jonathan soon learned that three taps on the board meant check, and one time, four meant checkmate. It felt strange playing such an old game with a small creature from another world.
Jonathan knew that a reply from earth would most likely take over a month, if one ever came at all. he was very surprised one day, in the middle of a good game of chess with Norman, to hear the sound of a shuttle engine whining in the atmosphere. Abandoning the game, he ran outside and switched on the landing lights for the landing pad. He stood, scaning the skies for any sign of the ship. The sound was unmistakable, a high pitch whine with a deep bass thrumming.
It made no sense that they had replied so soon. It had only been two weeks since the launch, the probe should only have just arrived at Earth. Still yet, the ship sent should never have had a shuttle.
At long last, it came into view. It sounded like a shuttle, but it looked nothing like any Jonathan had ever seen. For one, it was bigger, and a lot more sleek. If anything, this shuttle looked more advanced than anything he had ever seen.
It landed gently on his pad, and the ramp descended out of the belly of the craft. A man rushed out. "What are you doing here, man! What are you, crazy? Where is your ship?"
Jonathan looked stunned. What kind of a recue was this?
"You know that this planet had been slated as hosting a pre-industrial intellegent race, right?"
Jonathan stood mute. He understood the words, but they made no sense. What was this man talking about?
Norman glided out beside Jonathan. He was dragging an energy bar with him.
"You started communication with one of the creatures? He domesticated it?"
"I was stranded. It found me. What was I supposed to do?" Jonathan retorted.
"That's it man. You're under arrest. What family are you with?"
"Family?" Jonathan asked.
"Don't play dumb with me, buddy. You and your little pet are coming with me, and you've got a lot of explaining to do to the Spacing Commision. You should know the laws."
"What are you talking about? I got sent off course. How did you get here?"
"How do you think?" The man drew some sort of weapon out of is holster and pointed it at Jonathan. "Now, get in the shuttle. I'm taking you back to Port Orfeous."