//------------------------------//
// Chapter 6-Lost in Translation 
// Story: Thomas and Friends: New Frontiers 
// by The Blue EM2 
//------------------------------//

It was a dark room that Izzy found herself in a few hours after capture. The lights were swaying and swinging about, which made seeing what was going on rather difficult indeed. She blinked a few times to try and figure out where she was. But the room itself was yielding no clues whatsoever. They could be anywhere in Britain. Or maybe outside Britain.

"Strictly speaking, Mr. Narrator, Northern Ireland isn't in Britain. It's in the United Kingdom."

Isaac looked over in confusion. "Izzy, who are you talking to?"

"The narrator," Izzy replied. "He claimed we might be anywhere in Britain or outside Britain, but Northern Ireland isn't in Britain."

Aurora sighed. "Not exactly helping, Izzy. Perhaps cut back on the random humour and focus on trying to escape?"

"That won't be an option," said a voice, and a group of men walked in. Each of them clad in the same uniforms as before. "We saw what you were trying to do. Quite how you managed to slip through our security ring I don't know, but it also doesn't matter. PHALANX has been ordered to hold this area, and when people want something done they hire PHALANX."

"You really must be desparate if you're stealing old boxes," Isaac said sarcastically. "Not enough oil rigs to guard?"

The lead speaker leaned in. "Don't speak unless spoken to."

"But you just spoke to him before he spoke!" Izzy said.

"That applies to you as well."

"As you never said whom you were addressing, that could theoretically apply to all of us."

The lead speaker sighed. "Not important. What we want is those documents. What was in the box?"

"I don't know," Isaac said. "Your men found us before we could open it. Besides, I'm pretty certain shooting children is a crime."

"It's not a crime to line up a laser sight on them," said a soldier in the background.

"Implied force is sometimes more effective than actual force," said another.

"I'll do the talking from here," said the lead speaker. "What were you doing in the Giant's Causeway?"

"You answered your own question a while back," Aurora replied. "The box. Which none of us have looked in."

"That's useful," said another voice. "Boomer will like this. These three did our work for us."

Suddenly, there was a noise from the door, and a group of people broke into the room. The range was too short for the guards to use their weapons, and so they resorted to hand to hand combat as their attackers closed in. Three of them went for the trio tied up and sliced open their bindings before leading them away. "This way! We have the element of surprise!"

Those who were engaging in close quarters broke off as alarms began to blare throughout the facility. They were led down a series of featureless, identical looking corridors, probably designed to make escape hard as all the routes looked the same. At last, though, they exited into a vehicle bay, where several large offroad vehicles were waiting.

Izzy recognised the markings on the side. "Hey! It's the LLF!"

The crew scrambled onboard, and drivers and crew took their positions and reversed out of the facility at speed, before racing along and crashing through a fence. They flew along country roads, with the coastline opening up on their side.

"Do we have the package?" asked one of them.

"Yes," said another. "Box and Moonbows are secure and safe."

After a bit more driving, the vehicle pulled up at a building, and the cars were unloaded. Everything was taken inside and placed safely and secure. The Moonbows were directed to sit, and they did.

"Can somebody please explain what's going on?" Aurora asked.

One of the men then removed his helmet and visor. He smiled as he adjusted his beard. "Feels good to get those off. Concealing my identity is vital, but it is a pain at the same time."

Izzy's face lit up. "Alphabittle!"

Alphabittle smiled. "Hi Izzy. Looks like you and your parents got yourself into a bit of a sticky situation." He turned to address Isaac. "You three looking for the Lost Engine?"

"How did you know?" Isaac asked.

"We have a good network of connections," Alphabittle replied. "The LLF is interested in finding it too. We've got a team working on decoding whatever documents we can find on the Lost Engine, and this is rather personal too."

"How?" Aurora asked.

"Because Boomer wants it himself. I assume you three have had run-ins with him?"

"One of the people back at the other place mentioned a Boomer," Izzy said. "I take it he's a bad guy."

"Yes," Alphabittle replied. "He's trouble. Back in the day he caused havoc on the railways, and with the Lost Engine's power he'd be virtually unstoppable. We're working on finding the engine as fast as possible, but we've hit a stumbling block. The documents found in that box you found have been recovered and scanned, and we're currently trying to decode them."

"I'm assuming there's a snag," Izzy said.

"Correct," Alphabittle sighed. He showed them the scan. "The document is in Sudric. That's the native language of Sodor, a goidelic language that's a close relative of Cornish and Welsh. If we can translate it that would be really helpful. The only problem is none of us speak it, and the number of Sudric speakers is in decline. It's not like Welsh where you can find large numbers of fluent speakers. This is a real pickle."

Izzy had an idea. "What about Argyle?" she asked.

"He's a photography professor, not a linguist," Isaac said.

"When I first visited Falmouth, I noticed his study was absolutely full of things related to Sodor. It's possible that he has knowledge of the language as well, seeing as he seems to know everything else there is to know about Sodor."

Alphabittle nodded. "It's worth a shot. Get logged into your email and send the scan to him as soon as possible."





Meanwhile, the Bernina Express pulled into Samedan after a long journey from Tirano. Sunny, Argyle, and Goldie all got off and collected their baggage from the baggage car. "Thanks for the trip," Argyle said to the guard.

"Thank you for travelling with RhB," the guard replied. "I wish you a safe onward connection to wherever you are travelling."

Sunny dragged her rolling case along the platform, stunned at how busy this station was. "How many trains are there?"

"This is the junction for lines to St. Moritz, Scuol-Tarasp, and Brig. We'll want the last of those for the Glacier Express."

There was a loud crack as the engine of the Bernina Express pulled away to be replaced with another, and a local train for the Engadine Line rattled past and onto the main. It seemed very busy here. All they had to do was wait for the Glacier Express to arrive and they could get on their way to Brig.

Suddenly, Argyle's phone buzzed. "Just a second, I've got an email." He flipped through his apps until he had it. "Ah, it's from Izzy, and it's a scan of a document... in Sudric."

"Izzy's found something?!" Sunny said.

"Sure looks that way. I need to translate this, so hold on a moment."

There was a whistle as the new Bernina Express engine was attached to the train, and it pulled away towards Chur. Moments later, another horn sounded and a passenger train pulled by a large red box pulled in, with large panoramic passenger cars behind it. The side boards and markings proclaimed the service to be the Glacier Express.

"That's our train!" Goldie said quickly. "Hurry, Argyle!"

Argyle put his phone down. "We need Coach D. That's right next to the dining car if that helps." The trio scrambled onboard after the train stopped, with more passengers boarding.

Sunny had dropped off their bags before getting onboard, and walked back up the train to rejoin her parents before departure. She found them jokingly consulting the menu and seeing what was on it.

"I'm not sure what many of these things are," Argyle admitted. "Local delicacies, perhaps?"

"Plausible," Goldie replied. "The descriptions sound nice though."

There was another horn blast. "Could all passengers for the Glacier Express to Zermatt please board now. We are booked for departure."

A few minutes later, the train was on the move. Argyle had been working for a bit longer when he finally decoded the message.

"I've got it!" he said. "The document contains some numbers, which won't be of any use as I can't make sense of them. They also contain a clue as to where to go next."

"And that is?" Sunny asked.

"Australia," Argyle replied. "I'll notify the Moonbows and update them on the situation. We might need to send some more people there before we do anything else, though."

Little did he realise, another figure was watching from the mountains. "Are the assets in position?" he asked. "We spring the trap at Landwasser."