A/N: This story is based on Robert Heinlein's "Tunnel in the Sky", and is a conclusion of a sequel that was abandoned by the writer Carpenter Servant. That single first chapter of their story "Bitter Trouble" can be found in the Books/Robert Heinlein category. You really should read it before reading this story. Go ahead - this will be here when you get back.

It was a good start to a sequel, but the writer dropped it sixteen years ago after the first chapter and did not respond to a message asking for permission to continue it. I don't like having a story that I enjoy to be left hanging (even if it belongs to someone else) so this is my first attempt to finish off someone else's work and it picks up where the first chapter leaves off.

Bitter Trouble - The Conclusion

"Captain" a voice whispered in his ear.

To say that Roderick Walker came awake instantly wouldn't be entirely true; the fact was he hadn't fully fallen asleep yet. But with an alertness that belied his posture moments before, he sat up with his hand immediately reaching down to his trusty Colonel Bowie strapped to his thigh. An inexperienced person might have yelled out or started asking questions, but Walker stayed silent and he quickly oriented himself. The campfire was lit, Arrowhead (he was already thinking of the grouping of stars by that name) had moved at least twenty degrees through Marah's northern sky from the last position he had sighted, and it was his Lieutenant Julian "Benji" Benjamin that squatted beside him and whispered with his hand on Rod's shoulder. "What?" he asked, trying to maintain the whisper.

"We got trouble, boss."

There was the planet's namesake of bitterness he had expected - just not so soon. "Report" he ordered.

"I make it to be about five hours before dawn. Jordan was patrolling the east perimeter and...disappeared, failed to check in, whatever you want to call it. No sound, no body, nothing dropped on the ground just...gone. I got Nishi to cover for me and I came to report." Hank Jordan was one of three corporals in Walker's crew and was the extra man stationed near the copse of trees.

"All right, pull the patrols in right up against the camp quietly. Pull two more people and pair them up on the side of the camp nearest the trees. Don't alarm anyone, keep on your toes, check in with each other every fifteen minutes. I'm going to get someone to quietly build up the campfire and then I'll powwow with Bill Donners first light and see what he says; I want that copse searched when it gets light enough to track; who's our best tracker?"

"Tuma, I'd say."

"I think so too. I'll get her up in a couple hours and have her check out those trees; in the meantime I want to get everyone ready to bug out; we were going to be moving on today anyway, but I want to get out in the open as soon as possible where I can see anything that's coming at us."

"Right." Benji disappeared into the night and Rod got dressed quickly, eating a ration bar he had in his belongings. He didn't want to be running on empty if he had to skip breakfast, but the trick was trying to get everyone to hurry without alarming them. He gave it some thought, and finally came up with the cover story that they needed to move while it was still relatively cool in the morning; that wouldn't be hard to pass off as the truth, since he was considering it anyway after experiencing the heat of the afternoon the previous day. Even though he had no information to go on, his mind insisted on trying to come up with various explanations for Jordan's disappearance. He needed facts, and all he had right now was the dark and an active imagination. It brought back to mind his first night on Tangaroa that he spent in the trees, resting anxiously on a branch in his survival hammock.

No, he wasn't anxious he had to admit to himself. He was scared; there was no getting around that. But as Deacon Maston had told the class before they went off and got stranded on a wild planet for years:

Fear can keep you alive when overconfidence will kill you. Too much fear will paralyze you and THAT can kill you too. Recognize it and use it like a tool.

He didn't understand at the time of course; nobody in the class did. But they sure learned it once they made planetfall. And now Rod recognized his old friend, and let the energy it gave him push him along to pack up and plan his possible actions as he worked through different contingencies. At least that kept him busy, and productive at the same time.

...

It didn't take long after sunrise before Rod noticed stirring in the Donners' wagon. Bill and Susan might be the leaders of the expedition and the chief financial backers of the group, but they weren't soft and cushy. Bill had made his money in ranching and was an expert in all things livestock; he'd spent many a predawn morning milking cows in his youth, and met his wife-to-be while she was riding a horse in something called a rodeo. Rod bode his time until Bill stepped out of the wagon and then approached the man without any hesitation. On some expeditions there had been a tense relationship between the leader of the group and the expedition captain as the two butted heads on issues of living; some of those expeditions almost failed as factions developed and more energy was spent on political power consolidation than survival.

Rod and Bill had no such problems. Bill respected Rod's experience in the area of new planet colonizing, and Rod respected Bill's financial stake and his drive to make a new life away from Earth and create the type of large-scale ranching that their home planet could no longer provide. Rod's philosophy was simple - give the customer the best start possible on the planet they chose and after he was gone they could do whatever they wanted. He would try to get them safely to a proposed settlement site, and if it was suitable he would help set up the beginnings of an infrastructure that could be expanded or modified as the settlers saw fit. When recall was sounded after six months he and his crew (at least those that didn't choose to stay - there had been some that did) would climb aboard the Ramsbotham Express and head back to Earth to get a dose of civilization and check his investments before his company would start asking when he could go out again.

So Bill thought nothing of Rod coming up to greet him in the morning. "Morning, oh Great Trailboss" Bill called out as Rod walked toward him. As Rod got closer, Bill got the distinct impression the smile on his face was forced.

"I'm glad you didn't say 'good' in front of that" Rod said as he arrived in front of his nominal boss. He quickly started to fill in Bill on what had happened but quickly ran out of facts; he had begun to list his speculations when Moana Tuma trotted up. "Tracking report" he asked her immediately.

"It looks like Jordan just...vanished. His tracks went in one direction alone and just stop, about ten feet out of the western edge of the trees. No other tracks from people or animals, no signs of quicksand, nothing dropped on the ground anywhere near the area. I scared a few of those porcupine-like animals; it looks like they hid in a small burrow in the ground - too small to drag a body into. But there's another problem."

"Oh no" Rod sighed. "Now what?"

"Nishi disappeared. He was with me, but on the way back I turned around to say something to him and he was gone. No yell, no sound, just...gone. I got back here on the double."

Rod turned his attention back to Bill. "I was going to give those trees a good search, but now I just want the party to pick up and get away from this place. No reason we can't continue to head toward the proposed site, but the sooner the better I say; I don't like the smell of it."

"I agree. I'll tell Susan and we'll talk to the others. Keep it on the QT with everyone I assume?"

"It'll be worse if everyone panics, so for now yes." Rod looked at the sky and the sun. "Officially we're moving while it's light and still cooler."

"Got it." Bill left to brief his wife and Rod organized a meeting with his crew to keep them in the loop. Fifteen minutes later it was determined that two whole wagons had gone missing with all hands during the night with the same lack of any tracks - the marks left from the wheels led up to the place where they parked for the night and that was it.

"That rules out any predator in the air" Rod told his people. "A person might get carried off, but there's no way anything I've ever heard of can carry a wagon fully loaded. And no one stole it and rode it off either."

"Could it be some sort of disintegration beam?" Benji asked, worry on his face.

"No ash or fragments left behind" Rod noted. "And it couldn't be anything explosive either because the ground around the area is undisturbed. No, this is something different. We have GOT to get away from here. Keep your eyes peeled."

As the wagons formed up in a line to leave, Rod rode his pinto up and down the line in his usual routine. As he turned to head to the front of the line, something changed at the edge of his peripheral vision and he turned to see nothing. But nothing in this case was where the last two wagons had been in line, along with one of his corporals that was guarding the rear. There had been no sound or wind; just there one moment and gone the next. He called out "Roll 'em! Ho!" and the line started moving forward. He shifted all his crew back one spot and hurried toward the front. Riding up beside the Donners wagon, he leaned over after getting Bill's attention and let him know two more wagons were gone. He galloped to the front and urged Benji to move faster. Playing follow the leader, as the lieutenant moved faster so did the first wagon, then the next and so on. Rod did a mental count as he stood and watched the procession go past. Now an additional three wagons were missing, this time in the middle; their disappearance went unnoticed by the others in the rolling dust cloud, but Rod knew. Seven wagons out of thirty, plus several of his crew; they still weren't safe. The original survey crew had spent two weeks here and nothing happened; this party was here less than a full day and already it was being taken apart. He spurred his mount into action and broke for the front to urge more speed out of the group but had a hard time catching the Donner wagon which was now racing at nearly top speed.

"Your lieutenant disappeared right in front of my eyes" Bill shouted as Rod drew even. Susan had a rifle in her hands, ready to draw on anything that appeared. "Nothing to draw a bead on" he added. Rod took the lead and headed toward their destination. After ten minutes he looked back and saw that he was alone; making a quick turnaround, he retraced his path and found nothing until a pair of wagon tracks that ended in the dirt. He sat in the saddle, both he and his horse breathing hard. There was nobody around.

Now Rod started to get mad; not the anger you feel from knowing you did something wrong and failed, but the anger that burns and gets trapped inside when you don't know what or who to get angry at. He urged his pinto forward and...

...they were both in a large room with plain white walls but a dirt floor. Rod pulled the reins for a stop and looked around. He and his horse had been transported somewhere, obviously, but where he didn't know. It didn't feel like the Ramsbotham effect he knew well enough now; even if they had been recalled, the question was why? A door slid open out of a wall and a figure emerged. Beyond the door was darkness, but the figure did not move away from the opening. The form was roughly humanoid, although what might have been a visor that covered what might be its head was solid. It was a little shorter than Rod, and somewhat thinner too with longer arms than anyone on Earth could claim.

Rod had seen a few aliens from the observers' section of Emigrant's Gap, but hadn't seen one like this before. Rod was still eyeballing the new arrival when a voice came out of a speaker on its chest.

"Welcome."

"Where am I?" Rod asked.

There was a pause before an answer came. "You are in a area design for your atmosphere needs." The voice sounded like a patchwork of different recordings for each word; Rod could make out several different voices that were drawn from, both male and female. "We wish to speak with you."

"What do you want to talk about?"

"Do you wish to remove your horse?"

Remove his horse? They probably meant dismount, Rod thought. They knew the language, but missed on a few words. "I will remain seated for now."

"Yes. In greeting I am" the voice said, before making some noise that sounded like 'crishbahbahruntha' or something similar "and my people have been to the planet before you were on. I am inside special suit for my atmosphere. You are leader of your planet?"

Leader of a planet! Hardly. But that sealed the deal - this had to be a first contact. "No. I am leader of the group that was just on Marah when...hey...where did everyone go?"

Again there was the pause before a reply; it must be a translation issue. "We sent your people back to you home for now until talk. Safe."

"You have Ramsbotham technology?"

"We have" it said followed by another gibberish sound "sender between places when ships too much time. We explore. You explore. Different planets, yes? Cooperate maybe?"

So not only was this a new alien race, but they were the first Earth had encountered that colonized other planets as well. But Rod had been toughened by his years dealing with new settlements and he adapted to the situation and hung in there. "We use different environments I guess, yes. We haven't met anyone else that colonized before now. I don't see why it wouldn't hurt to work together since it's a big universe."

"Yes. Many places. We...hide and study. Learn ways and language. We have questions you can answer?"

There was no rush - he didn't seem to be going anywhere for the moment. "Any chance of getting some food and water for my horse while we talk?"

...

The entire floor at Emigrant's Gap had been cleared of traffic while wagons, horses and people milled about in a state of confusion. The entire party that was going to colonize Marah was there, with the exception of Rod Walker. Bill Donners was still trying to explain to an official what had happened up to the point he had appeared here when there was a hum and shimmer along a wall; Rod almost immediately walked through, leading his horse. He was glad someone had the foresight to clear the area where he was stepping through and quickly figured the others had come through the same way.

Bill ran up to Rod. "I'm glad to see you're alive, but I have no idea how we got here. It wasn't Entropy that brought us back."

Another figure, Yalo Grendl of Entropy Incorporated, joined them. "Captain Walker, let me say we have no explanation about what happened; we're checking our equipment now but so far we haven't found any problems. And we haven't set up any gate on that particular wall."

"You won't find any problems, either" Rod was quick to point out. "You might say the problem was on the other end. And for the moment anyway, it seems like it's not Captain - there's probably going to be a change in how emigration works now. Also, someone has changed my title from Captain to Ambassador." Bill gave him an odd look and Rod just shrugged his shoulders. "Earth isn't the only one in the colonizing business anymore." He turned to Bill. "Those smooth-trunked trees with the red leaves? They were artificially created monitoring devices." As if on cue the suited figure of the alien stepped through the shimmer and stood on the floor where no one of their species had stood before. Rod walked up and stood beside the visitor. "May I introduce...well...I call him Crish for short. I think we're gonna need to talk to someone in charge of immigration, an engineer that can figure out how their gates use one one-hundredth the power ours do, and a really good astronomer. I think colonizing has just gotten a lot more interesting."

The End

A/N: As I said, the story that was started was a good continuation of a book I enjoyed; I didn't like to see it languish without some type of resolution. So I present this as a means to wrap it up in my normal short format without having to sit down and write a novelette. If you ever see this, Carpenter Servant, I hope you don't mind.

I actually misread the chapter that this story continues and had an entirely different idea how to finish it. When I reread before I started writing it I learned my mistake (thankfully) and used a different idea that actually fits the first part.