Major Mwangi: The Whole Thing so Far - Uncorrected

Chapter 1

They sat on a bench, a man and his son. It was a bright sunny day in the park. People were walking their dogs, dogs were chasing balls, kids were flying kites and there wasn’t a cloud in the sky. Everyone looked happy.

“It wasn’t like this in my day,” the man said taking out a small silver case from his coat’s inner pocket.

“What?’ the young boy asked turning towards his father. He had been watching a pair of kids who were feeding ducks by the pond.

“In my day there were fat people and thin people. People who had everything and people who had nothing. His father said taking another swig from the small metallic case.

“What do you mean, dad?” The kid asked with infinite patience like someone who had \experience talking to people who did not make sense at times.

“You wouldn’t understand. In my day there was something called money. The greatest thing ever created. You either had it or you didn’t. And once you had it, oh boy once you had it,” he took another swig, “there was nothing that you couldn’t do.”

The boy looked at his dad for a while then got back to watching the kids who were feeding the ducks. The three boys wore matching clothes as if they had come from choir practice at the church. They had small pieces of bread in their pockets which they threw into the water where the ducks were. Each time a boy threw a piece of bread the 5 or so ducks would scramble for the one piece. This seemed to amuse the boys who though they had enough bread in their pockets, they chose to only throw to the ducks one piece at a time.

The man’s implant informed him that someone was calling him.

"Major Mwangi?" the voice at the other end of the line asked.

"Yes?" the man answered.

"We have a situation..."

There was suddenly an awkward silence.

"Yes, continue" Major Mwangi said.

"I'm sorry. Sir but the colonel told me to ascertain first whether you were sober." the voice said.

"Tell the goddamn colonel not to waste my time." Mwangi answered vehemently if only to hide the fact that he was feeling a bit tipsy.

After a brief silence the caller continued. "Sir, we've lost contact with the SS Harbinger."

"What do you mean you've lost contact?"

"It was passing through sector 33 on its way to answar when we experienced some interference and then... Then.."

"Then what captain?"

"You better come in and hear this for yourself sir."

This was bad. There was a pretty big black hole smack in the middle of sector 33. What the captain of the ship, his old friend Njogu, had wanted there was a mystery to him. And as is always the case when things went wrong they always called him.

"Great" he muttered touching behind his ear to end the call.

"Come on son, let’s go".

Chapter 2

The center for space travel was located in Limuru on the outskirts of Nairobi. It was a large blue building that had a blocky appearance. While it only stood at two stories high, the bulk of the building stretched 15 floors below.

Mwangi arrived at the massive gate in his old beat up Peugeot. A military police lieutenant came to his window looked in then snapped a salute recognizing him.

"Welcome sir" he said as he gestured to another MP at the gatehouse. The barrier was dropped and major Mwangi drove through.

On his way in he noted colonel Odhiambo's black Citroen and general Mathenge's blue Toyota parked at the front. This was bad. Very bad.

The famous inventor Dr. Mbogo started all this back in 2022 when he discovered hypertime. It was the discovery of a lifetime. It could get a space ship practically anywhere in the universe almost at the snap of a finger.

"Dad are we going to see the 'mwari' his son asked excitedly. ”Are we?"

The mwari was the first ship in human history to fly through hypertime. It was Dr. Mbogo's ship.  In 2024, on the mwari’s third mission the ship had disappeared without a trace. It was still the mystery of the century almost 70 years later.

"No son. Not today. Daddy's got to work."

They entered into the reception area. The room was painted green with a desk that divided the room in half. On the far end of the room stood a bank of elevators. One would have wondered what a two story building needed an elevator for. Behind the desk sat a female sergeant who looked up momentarily when Mwangi and his son walked in. Mwangi walked past the sergeant to the elevators and pressed a button to summon the elevators.

There was a row of seats facing directly to the reception area. Three people sat in them. Two men and a woman all in black suits. They seemed to be fixedly staring at spots. Each blankly staring at a different part of the reception room. Mwangi shook his head. These people had the eye contacts that acted as a little computer so that anything that they looked at could literally be turned to a monitor.

The elevator arrived with a crisp military ding and he and his son walked in. There was a row of numbers on the elevators wall from 1-22. Mwangi pressed 13. This was the operation center where all communication with Kenyan ships in space came in. The elevator stopped at level 6 and Annete walked in. Or lieutenant Koki from the engineers corps.

“Hey Major!” Koki greeted him, “and who is this?” She said in that cute way she talked. She bent down to smile broadly at his son.

“I'm captain Mbogo pilot of the mwari,” his son announced. Mwangi smiled. His son never talked to anyone except those he liked.

“Wow,” Koki replied. She stood up and snapped a mock salute and we all laughed.

The elevator dinged and showed that they had arrived at sub level 13.

“Ok see you captain,” Koki said and smiled at major Mwangi as she passed by him.

Chapter 3

Captain Njogu felt something move. Felt was a weak word. He sensed something move, somewhere. This confused him a bit. If he felt it or sensed it or whatever, it must mean that it touched his body somehow. But that was not he felt. His mouth felt heavy and light at the same time. He tried to talk.

“Obed,” he tried calling his first mate. No one answered. But something strange was going on for when he had called out he had felt his voice move across time and space.

The last thing he remembered was seeing something else flying in hypertime with him. A light. This was scientifically impossible. The theory of hypertime rested on the fact that time was an extra dimension. And once a ship crossed over to this dimension or warping as it was popularly called an observer on the ship couldn’t see any other thing other than the time flux lines. There was nothing in the time dimension. But he had seen it right there, bright as day.

He tried moving again. But as with before he felt strange. As if he was everything all at once and nothing at all. Whatever it was that was happening or wherever it is that he was, he knew one thing. That his friend Major Mwangi would get him out of it. He was sure of it.

The operations center was in chaos. Everybody was talking all at once. The analysts were trying to get their points across, the mid-level staff were trying to make sense wile General Mathenge and the colonel looked as if they were ready to run away from all of it. As Major Mwangi started walking towards the front where a huge screen stood displaying sector 33 the room fell gradually silent and everyone looked at him. He was the head of the emergency operations center.

“Son,” He said. “Why don’t you go to daddy’s office and wait there.” His son nodded and ran to his office. Major Mwangi turned to face the room which by now was completely quiet and a look of relief had come over general’s Mathenge’s face.

“Now, I don’t know what is going on here, but I will have order.” Captain Haraka. Bring me up to speed.”

“Sir”, the Captain started. “About 16 hours ago the SS Harbinger took off from the Mbogo Memorial Space port. Its destination was the planet Jumbwa. The ship successfully went into hypertime at 1100 hours,” the captain continued in crisp military tone. “”The ship maintained contact with base station. At about 1600 hours we received………”

Major Mwangi tuned him out. It was funny how captain Haraka looked. He had big eyes and a small nose with a mouth that looked slightly feminine. He wore standard issue fatigues, desert special with the space ship insignia on his shoulders. While delivering his speech he stood erect with his hands clasped at the small of his back, his voice monotonous and well-articulated.

This reminded him of a mad man that he had once seen while waiting for a bus one day. At the time he had asked himself why most mad men congregated where normal folks were. Areas like bus stops, markets were full of them. And why mad men were considered mad. On that thought he had looked more closely at the madman. Firstly his dark brown trouser was dirty and his dark blue shirt was torn. He had big eyes and a small nose and he had held an empty water bottle in one hand and an old shirt in the other.

In most circumstances there was nothing wrong with this. He could have been easily confused with someone coming from a job digging trenches or something. But what was it that made this mad man mad? And because Major Mwangi thought he was mad was it him or the Major who was mad? He had then concluded that it was his actions that made him mad. In particular, he greeted everyone he saw regardless of whether he knew them, and he would walk around the same spot over and over again. His actions seemed to have no purpose. Purpose. Purpose was what then differentiated mad men from sane men. For sane men had a purpose for every action that they did. Didn’t they?

“Major Mwangi! Major!” the captain dragged him back from his thoughts. Apparently he had finished summarizing the situation for him.

“Yes, okay, thank you captain.” He did not know what to say next and the whole room seemed to be expecting something from him. So he decided to be mad.

“Captain Haraka, you are now in charge. Keep attempting communication and try gamma wave detection.”

“Yes Sir!”

“And prepare the SS Hamoud, I’ll be flying her out to section 33 myself.”

“Come again Sir”, Captain Haraka shakily said.

“Do I have to repeat myself captain?”

“No sir!”

And with that Major Mwangi walked out much to the dismay of everyone.

Chapter 4

Captain Njogu came to again.  He groggily looked around wondering for the umpteenth time where he was. But something was different this time and what he saw surprised him to his core. There it was: Earth in all its blue magnificence. He was passing over it like an astronaut stranded in space. How was he doing this with no space suit on?  He looked on forlornly. Somewhere down there was his family. How he missed home. His wife and his son somewhere there may be looking up, wondering where he was. He wished so much that he was with them on the ground.

The something happened. All of a sudden he was whizzing past clouds and air and birds heading towards the ground at frightening speed. ”Oh god” he thought. I can’t survive re-entry without a parachute! He started panicking. Then he saw where he was headed; right towards the roof of his house! And then just as suddenly as he had started he stopped and landed upright in front of his house. His wife who was at their kitchen garden, wearing her floral green dress that she liked to wear when digging, turned around as if she had heard something. She turned around slowly until she was completely facing him. Wide eyed, she raised her hand to her mouth and caught her breath.

“Njogu?”

The bay doors opened smoothly as Major Mwangi walked in to the space ship hangar. Then he stopped.

“Bloody hell!” he exclaimed as he turned around. He had almost forgotten that he had a son who was in his office at that moment. He turned around and almost smacked into a captain.

“Sir!” The captain saluted.

“At ease.” Major Mwangi replied. What is your name son?

“Samson Sir.” Well Samson is the SS Hamoud ready?

“Yes Sir.”

“Ok. I’ll be right back.”

Major Mwangi started walking towards his office. His son’s mother had died during childbirth. Njeri was a beautiful courageous lady. And he had been a better man then. They had met at a church that he had frequented in his early years. Back then he had been a young lieutenant straight out of military school and she was a student at a nearby university. You could say that it was love at first song for the first time he had seen her she was standing at the front of the church singing. They had exchanged numbers a while later.

Afterwards he had been transferred to a different area but they had kept in touch.

He reached his office. His son looked up with those bright eyes of his and asked

“Where are we going?”  

“Sector 33.” He replied.

“Isn’t there a black hole there?”

“Yes.” He said continuing to walk back to the hangar, his son behind him.

“Dad!”

“Yes?” He said looking around.

“What about school on Monday?”

“We’ll be back by then.” He said turning around only to smack right into Koki.

“Where are we going?” She asked.

“To sector 33.”

“Why?”

“Captain Njogu is stuck there.”

“Yes I had heard about that. Isn’t there a pretty big black hole around there?”

“Yes.”

“Ok.” She started following them.

Major Mwangi turned around and asked, “Where are you going?”

“With you,” she answered.

“No you’re not Lieutenant.”

“Ok then. I’ll just go back to General Mathenge and ask if minors are allowed on ships going near black holes.”

Major Mwangi looked at her for a while and then said. “Ok. Let’s go.”

The three of them walked back to the hangars in silence. When they arrived the captain stepped out of a brand new SC-43 and said: “She’s all ready for you sir.”

“Is it really you Njogu?” His wife asked removing her gardening gloves.

Njogu couldn’t believe it either. Minutes ago he had been in outer space and now here he was home at last.

“Yes it is me.” He answered.

“Ho-how, they told me that you got lost in space?”

“I don’t know either my dear.”

His wife rushed over to hug him, tears of joy streaming down her face. But as she brought her arms around him they went through him as though he was made of air.

“What” she said. “Why can’t I hug you?” She looked grief stricken and afraid all at the same time.

“I-I don’t know, Njogu said trying to inspect himself.” He looked at his wife. She looked white as ash. He tried moving towards her, his arms out trying to comfort her but she took a step backward, scared.

“Jackie...” he called to her grief stricken.

“no, no” she said tearfully. “What is happening to me?” Tears started streaming down her face and she said. “Get away from me ghost!” and she run back to the house.

How could he do this to the woman he loved? Njogu asked himself. I wish I could talk to my friend Major Mwangi. Suddenly he found himself flying out of earth at break neck speed. Ahead of him he saw an SC-43 flying away from earth. “No, not again!” he thought to himself. “I can't leave my family again.”

And just as suddenly he found himself flying back to earth towards his home again.

Chapter 5

Three days into their flight the captain announced that they were near where captain Njogu's last transmission came from. Throughout their journey his son had oohed and ahed at everything. From the way the flux lines looked at hypertime to the beautiful colorful shapes that dust aggregations made. They had even seen a blue star once when they had dropped out of hypertime to inspect an anomaly with one of the drive compressors. Koki mostly kept to herself although once she had come to his quarters to borrow something, he couldn't remember what.

Major Mwangi took a swig from his little metallic bottle just as the ship came out of hyperdrive.

“We are here.” The captain announced.

All around them was darkness. This was deep space. The middle of nowhere. Although he couldn't tell this to anyone, space scared him. But his son seemed to be in his element.

“Anything on the scanners?” Major Mwangi asked

“No sir.”

Get one of the shuttle pods ready, I'm going out there.”

“Yes sir.”

“Please dad, can I come with you?”

“No son, stay in the ship.”

The shuttle was made ready and he flew out of the ship from bay door 2. Out there was complete darkness. He looked at his controls. He was now 300 meters from the ship. He accelerated and the ship moved faster. He looked again at the controls and he was now 1 km away from the ship. All the while he continued peering uselessly into the darkness as if he could have spotted anything. Suddenly he did spot something. A light. Off in the distance. He silently shuddered. He could have sworn that the light stared back at him. He turned the shuttle and headed towards it.

Closer and closer he got. He checked the controls again. He was now 20 kilometers from the ship and he was going at normal speed. This surprised him for he seemed to be getting closer to the light at a faster rate. Unless... “No” he thought to himself. The light couldn't possibly be moving towards him. But then again, you never know. He activated the scanners. There was still nothing being detected. Something was wrong.

He stopped the shuttle. The light was still heading towards him. He quickly turned the shuttle around and accelerated towards his ship.

“Captain” He shouted into his communication apparatus” “Captain!”

“Yes sir'” The captain replied.

“I'm coming in hot. Get ready to go into hypertime immediately”

“Yes sir, standing by.”

Major Mwangi couldn't see behind him so he was hoping that the light wasn’t gaining on him. After a minute or so he saw the ship, bay door two open. He aimed his shuttle towards it and no sooner had he entered than the bay doors closed and the ship went into hypertime. He let out a sigh of relief.

Later, up on the bridge the captain asked him what he had seen. As he was about to tell him, all the warning lights and alarms that the ship had went off. He felt himself flung against the outer bridge door. The last thing that he saw before everything went black was a bright light.

Maj0r Mwangi came to with a start. He was disoriented. His vision was first to come before all other senses. He looked for his coat and started patting it down looking for his bottle.  He didn’t find it. It must have fallen, he thought and he started looking round for it. It was then that he noticed that he wasn’t alone. A person sat at the corner of the room. The room was approximately 4 feet across by 5 feet wide. It was painted a kind of old grey that was used in the early 2000s. There were various equipment here and there with a clear plastic tubing coming from his arm.

The man who sat in the corner had a thoughtful look to him. And he seemed kind of familiar.

“My-my son…” His mouth felt heavy as he said this. “Where is my son?”

“Your son is fine.” The man said. “He’s in the next room. I’ll go call him in a minute. But first I have to talk to you.”

“Where is my bottle? A little metallic flask about this big.” Major Mwangi said showing the man the size using his hands.

The man stood up and handed him his flask. And Major Mwangi took a swig.

“What’s your name?”

“Major Albert Mwangi. Kenya Air force, space division.” He said.

“What year is it?”

“What do you mean what year it is?”

“We have to ask this to make sure that you are not disoriented.”

“Its 2118, October 13.”

The man looked at him steadily. Major Mwangi was sure that he had seen him somewhere. Or may be a picture of him.

“Let me be honest with you.” The man said. “My name is Dr. Mbogo and the year is 2017. October the 13^th. You and three other people suddenly appeared out of thin air.  They called me…”

“Holy cow!” Major Mwangi interrupted him. “Your him aren’t you? The famous scientist Dr. Muturi Mbogo?”