Philip A Hibberd
Corridor of diamonds
Cumulus clouds drifted across the summer blue sky at a height of just over six thousand five hundred feet they gave no threat of rain for the duration of the day. Jason Mead knew nothing of the various Latin names of the clouds, to him, as he lazily looked up into the warm summer sky, they looked like sheep idly munching their way across a lush blue meadow. They were bubbly summer clouds that always drifted past on a hot June summers day, such as today. A warm breeze blew his unbuttoned shirt apart and warmed his bare chest, he smelt a lavender fragrance that accompanied the breeze, from the farmers field next door, he assumed.
He watched the blue smoke of the illicit rolled tobacco cigarette dissipate into the air above him, once he had exhaled, he looked down to the vertical scar that ran from just under his throat down ten inches through his pectoral's, the scar was five weeks old, and still, he could not give these damned cigarettes up completely, he felt, ashamed.
He sat on the garden bench, focusing his stare on the kitchen door, it remained shut, from his viewpoint, he could just make the door out, at least the bottom quarter of the door, for in front of him ten feet away grew a fir tree, probably not a fir tree, he thought, more like an overgrown Christmas tree, but with its branches well matured on the lower boughs, he was reasonably hidden.
took a long suck at the roll up and held the smoke for a while before reluctantly blowing it out, each time he did so, he felt guilt, and a betrayal to himself, but he never took his eyes from the kitchen door awaiting with dread upon its opening and the emergence of his wife Mary, and the discovery of his deceitful secret.
He leant over and picked up the glass of pure orange juice, swilling it around his mouth before he swallowed, he did this each time he sucked the smoke from the roll up just in case the door opened and he would be compromised, but that he thought, couldn’t happen, he had a well-rehearsed procedure, in front of the bench he had made a hole in the soft soil, a mound of earth piled to the right of it, to the left of him where he sat an open strip of chewing gum, in the case of the kitchen door opening, he would drop the cigarette butt into the hole, then with his right foot level, the hole with the mound of earth and at the same time pick up the chewing gum and take a mouthful of juice, it was all planned, nothing possibly could go wrong, he didn't need to be told that he had to give this disgusting habit up, he could do it in his own time.
He pondered on that life-changing day five weeks previously, he was on holiday, or more, he was coming to the end of his holiday, it was a Wednesday at the beginning of May, he was supposed to be in Cyprus, but that had fallen through, so he and his wife Mary had decided to stay at home. It was a typical home holiday, shopping for the house at numerous DIY shops, gardening when the rain had stopped, a little bit of painting to spruce up something that had needed painting for the last two years, then, that showed the shoddiness of other parts of the room so they needed doing. And by that Wednesday Jason had had enough, he needed a break, and to be honest, he was looking forward to going back to work, but could see that by then he would be forced to paint every room in the house.
Tommy Mullen was a good friend; Jason had known him for over twenty years, and although over the years he had moved over thirty miles away from him they still liked to keep in touch, and at that moment he needed his friend, he had suggested the previous evening to Mary that as they had not seen Tom for a while, why not invite him down for the weekend, but she had been in a foul mood, which Jason over the years had been forced to come to terms with, he knew the answer, before he had even asked the question.
“No” she had said, quite forcibly, “I don’t want him here,” she added in a forced whisper, he did ask why, but didn’t really bother with her answer, sometimes, she just didn’t want strangers in the house, strangers, he thought, they had known him over twenty years, the man was like a brother, but, he let it go, and there, the road to destiny or fate divided, the outcome could have been so different.
Tommy couldn’t drive, that’s to say, he wasn’t allowed to drive, not according to the court that had taken his licence away, so, Jason would have to drive the thirty miles to his friends house, he had arranged with Mary that he would stay the night at Tom's they could catch up on recent events, Mary had reluctantly agreed, and as he left she told him not to drink too much.
The evening as it turned out was not a drink fest, but, sociable, Jason was re acquainted with some old friends that he had not seen for some time.
Afterwards a taxi took them back to his friend’s house and after a night cap of a couple of single malts, Jason then made his way to the spare room and went to bed. At six a.m. Jason awoke breathless. He was panting, taking great lungful’s of breath that did nothing to satisfy his body's needs; he looked around the room and saw that the windows were closed.
Tommy, every now and again had his lady friend come over to stay, but they had never used this room, it was mainly for drunken friends and storage. Jason always slept with the window open, and he put his
current dilemma down to the room being too stuffy, he tried the window, but they were painted closed, he made his way to the bathroom.
Jason felt a tightness in his chest, he put it down to his erratic breathing, once in the bathroom he flung open the window and sucked in a lungful of air, it made no difference, the tightness in his chest got tighter, and panic was starting to surface, he made his way back to the spare room and lay down on the bed, just as another horror emerged, a dull pain in his arm had started just below his shoulder and he felt tingling in his
fingers, then, the sweats came, in seconds he was drenched and fighting for breath.
Jason Mead was forty-eight, he was the right weight for his height, he always eat sensibly, he hated junk food, and with a nurse for a wife, who was on a constant diet, he eat what she eat, yes, he thought, I smoke, but nothing like the thirty and forty a day that some people get through. And why weren’t there no warnings, he had felt nothing the previous day.
It was twenty past six, he knew he was having a heart attack, he didn’t know how he knew, he just did.
He knocked on the door on the opposite side of the landing.
“Tom, Tom, are you up,”
The door opened, and his friend stood there, naked apart from a pair of bright yellow y fronts, Jason suppressed a giggle,
“Tom, I’m having a problem, I can’t breathe, I think, I’m having a heart attack,”
Tom looked his friend up and down.
“Fuck off, go back to bed.”
“Tom, I’m not kidding, please, phone an ambulance,” for a second, he felt giddy and held on to the door frame until the feeling passed, not feeling too good on his feet he made his way back to the spare bed, he was now drifting into unconsciousness.
Tom watched as his friend collapsed onto the bed, the shock of being awoken at that time of the morning had gone, he was now extremely concerned for his friend, he had followed him into the spare room,
“How do you feel,” he said softly,
“Bloody awful” came the reply, Tom Mullen ran a critical eye across the panting body of his friend, He was not an expert in these matters, but, he was a first aider and he had seen this before, the sheen of sweat that covered his friends body was enough, and at twenty-five past six he phoned for an ambulance.
They arrived in good time.
Within seconds of their arrival, he had an I.V. installed into one arm whilst the other was being used for blood pressure, all the while he was being asked questions, the crew were jovial in their approach yet showed confidence, by twenty-five to seven they took him down to the waiting ambulance, they joked with him as they negotiated the stairs, and he joked back, the morphine made him feel much better, and
the oxygen made him breathe easier, Tom had collected his friends clothing and had put them into a carrier bag, as Jason
was man handled into the back of the ambulance Tom offered the clothing to him, the paramedic took them from him, he heard his friend say something, but couldn’t make it out, all of a sudden Jason’s World side stepped, and at twenty to seven on a Thursday morning in May, Jason Mead died.
Blackness, no light, nothing, Jason had never seen blackness like it, even when you close your eyes in a dark room there are flashes of light and colour, but there was nothing in this darkness, it didn’t last long however ,a finger gently prised open his eye lid.
“He’s back with us” the paramedic called to the driver.
The journey to hospital was fragmented to the sounds of the sirens, he felt the movement of the vehicle as it snaked its way around the rush hour traffic, then once again, nothing.
He opened his eyes he was in the resuscitation room, Mary and his daughter Sam stood beside him, the nurse leant down and glared into his eyes,
Jason come on keep awake now, good man,” he focused on her,
” I’m here,” he croaked, she smiled and nodded.
“You are one lucky man.”
For the next day or two he stayed on the cardiac care unit
situated on the first floor of the main hospital, he spent most of his time wired up to all sorts of different monitors.
The nurses kept a careful eye on him, although he did feel that they had an obsession with uncrossing his legs.
On the third day he was transferred to The Royal Free Hospital in Hampstead, London.
It was here that he underwent an open-heart surgery, once the Doctor had verified that his coronary artery had been reduced by seventy percent, not surprising when his cholesterol count had been twelve point five, and it was this that had caused his artery to block and causing the cardiac attack in the ambulance.
The Doctor then proceeded with an angioplasty and installed a stent, a small coil that opens the wall of the artery. but, another blockage had formed too close to a branch in the artery and so a coronary bypass had to be performed.
After two weeks of not smoking, he was sent home to convalesce, but it wasn’t long before the cravings took a hold of him, and shamefully, he started covertly smoking.
He snubbed out the dog end into the hole and buried it, took the strip of chewing gum and finished his juice.
“You’re not smoking, are you,” her voice held a hint of anger. The sharpness of her voice snapped him back to reality; he turned to find her standing no more than three feet away, he had shrieked in total surprise.
“That’s a bloody stupid thing to do, creeping up on a heart attack victim.” She was not fazed by the remark.
"If I catch you smoking, I’ll kill you.” They locked eyes as the realisation of what she had just said sank in; it was Jason that cracked first,
“what,” he managed, through exploded laughter, her face brightened into a smile,
“You know what I mean, now hand them over,”
“Hand what over, I’m not smoking,”
“Jason, I can smell it, oh, do as you please, you're only
kidding yourself,” she turned and walked back to the house, Jason knew she was right, he had to do something about this.
Mary walked back to the house, she was angry, but more than that
she was scared, she cared so much about his wellbeing that she couldn’t understand his blatant disregard for his own health, wasn’t the shock of a heart attack enough for him. By the time she had reached the kitchen her anger was spent, she had been a nurse long enough to understand what these addicts, for that’s how she saw them, were going through, she knew it was difficult so she decided to give him a little slack.
She turned to collect the two coffee cups that was left on the counter, she placed them into the sink, outside she could just make him out sitting despondent upon the bench, it was early days she thought, he needs a bit of time.
Jason stood up from the bench and searched in his pockets for some chewing gum, he pulled a new strip and wrapped the chewed up old gum into the foil, he had to do something, anything to keep him occupied, the flower bed at the side of the bench required weeding, it wouldn’t be too strenuous, he thought, just
pulling one out at a time.
In the shed he found an empty bucket, and after a minute or so search, he had found the garden trowel and a kneeling pad, he made his way back to the flower bed and spread the items on the grass.
He was always surprised at the amount of stones that lay on
top of the soil, almost as if the garden grew them, each year he would spend time and effort in removing them, only to find the same amount back the next year, there was one year, he remembered, he had actually dug down nearly eighteen inches then sieved the soil to remove the offending stones only to find them
laying on the surface the next year, he knew why of course, it was basic physics, and for a college lecturer, as he had been for five years on the subject of basic physics he knew all about water displacement, especially when water was in its frozen state, water in the late autumn and winter months would pass into the soil, where upon it would freeze, frozen water will occupy more space than its liquid state and the force of its displacement tends to act upwards, so, any rocks or stones tend to be pushed up towards the surface, giving the impression that the garden grows stones.
This is of course true for anything laying below the surface, even objects a lot greater in mass than a stone, given time of course.
Jason started plucking the stones and tossing them into the bucket, he took his time and very soon had cleared and area of about three-foot square, he then started to pull up the ground elder, a particularly nasty weed, simply because if you pull it, and it breaks, it will grow new roots from whatever part of it you leave in the ground; Jason did not know too much about gardening, but through past experience, he knew that. it was because of this that he carefully traced the plant back to its root, gently teasing the soil away with the trowel, with a triumphant “yes” he held up the victim, it was a good eight inches long, and intact, he threw it in the bucket.
He decided to turn the soil over, to make sure there was no other.
He stabbed the ground, “Thunk”
The sound was obviously metallic, but what made Jason curious, was the hollow sound that it had made.
He cleared the flowerbed of soil, at first carefully, putting each trowel full into the bucket but it soon became full, now he scooped the soil onto the grass, “She’ll have a fit” he thought looking at the mess, but there it was, a metal plate, he hit it with the trowel again, it thunked and resonated hollow.
The plate was primarily grey, but in places he could see flakes of blue and red, at first, he thought the red was rust, but it was on closer inspection, rust free. He started excavating further, by the end of the hour the
flowerbed lay as a pile of dirt on the lawn; he had discarded the trowel and was now using a shovel.
He felt the tightness in his chest, he had overdone it, he knew that, he leant back against the pile of earth to catch his breath and to rest, but the pain continued, fumbling in his pockets he found the anginas spray and fired two spurts under his tongue, immediately his mouth was aflame, it burnt like hell, but the pain in his chest ceased.
The uncovered plate now measured eight foot by four, it was still grey in colour, but he noticed at least one point in time it had been painted blue and red, he hit it with the shovel, the
hollowness of the noise was more pronounced.
He pulled himself closer and laid his ear upon it and was surprised at its warmth, he could hear something, almost like creaking he thought, then the academic in him answered, metal expansion, it was warming up in the sun.
Jason understood the basics of that, but there was something else, something deeper than the plate itself, almost a hum, but not a hum, a resonance, a sound at the furthest reaches of his hearing, he could just make it out, he shifted position to allow his ear a good contact with the metal surface.
“Have you got a bloody death wish or something, what the hell is all this mess,” Mary, he could tell, was not in a good mood, and it wasn’t until he stood up that he realised the extent of the carnage that had once been the flowerbed.
He thought quickly for an answer, nothing was forth coming,
“Look what I’ve found under the surface,” the murderous expression upon her face didn’t waver, he knelt on the ground and indicated the exposed metal panel,
"It stretches further than what is uncovered.” he said apologetically, Curiosity was now taking a hold on her,
“What is it,” she managed, staring at the panel in front of her.
“No idea, could be an old air raid shelter, I thought I might find the entrance, if I excavated it far enough, guess I got a bit carried away,”
“Yes,” she agreed, “I think you did, just a bit,” her tone was softer now, and he felt more at ease,
“Put your ear to it, I’m sure I can hear it humming,” she glared at him in horror, and stepped back a pace,
“Air raid shelters don’t hum, you’ve unearthed a bomb, haven’t you,” she said stepping back a few steps, his thoughts raced, during world war two there were at least three airfields within a five-mile radius of here, and they would have been targets for the Luftwaffe, but this was too big, surely.
“It’s not a bomb, it’s far too big,” he knelt down beside the
panel and listened again, the noise or vibration had stopped,
“It's gone now, perhaps the noise wasn’t there at all, it could
have been expansion of metals,” slowly she knelt down beside him,
“let me listen,” she said slowly,” he moved over to allow her access,
“See, nothing,” Mary closed her eyes and concentrated on her hearing,
“There is something, a sort of………….”
Jason watched in horror as part of the panel fell in on its self.
Mary fell through screaming as she went. He heard a thud then nothing, the hole measured three feet square each edge was
rounded smooth; it wasn’t decay that had opened up the hole, almost, he thought, as if it had opened itself.
That was the rational side of his mind working; the emotional side was in panic mode.
He raced to the end of the garden, his heart pounding in his chest, he pulled at the small ladder but it was chained and padlocked to the wall, the key was kept in a tin third shelf up on the back wall of the shed, he raced to it stumbling as he went, he was breathing hard and he was now starting to feel nauseous. The key was where he remembered it to be, which he thought, was some kind of miracle, he noticed the torch and
grabbed for it, he turned it on and its brightness stung his eyes, another miracle, he thought as he ran towards the ladder.
A few moments later he was back at the hole, he shone the light down and noticed that Mary was sitting staring up, her face fraught with fear.
“Where the bloody hell have you been,”
“Getting a ladder, but it was locked up, had to find the key, are you all right, can you move,” he blurted whilst lowering the ladder down, Slowly she stood, and tested her weight on both legs,
“I don’t think I’ve sprained anything, she said, more calmly than she felt she ought to be.
She took a hold of the ladder as he passed it down and wedged the foot of it between the wall and the floor, Jason climbed down and stood beside her, he passed the torchlight over her, he let out a sigh.
“That was lucky, got to be at least a ten-foot drop,” he said looking up at the hole, he looked back at her and smiled,
“Well, we now know it’s not a bomb.”
She felt calmer now, although she couldn’t tell why, she had scratched herself at some point and her finger was now starting to throb, she squeezed it, a dome of blood appeared and the pain subdued, she noticed that Jason was now aiming the torchlight down the passage in which they were standing, she couldn’t see
the beams end.
“Jay,” she said softly, “I think we need to go get some help,”
Jason spun round on her
“What, have a bunch of rural coppers rummaging their way through here, no way, well, not until we have a good look ourselves.” He turned the light around towards the wall; it was textured, she watched as he stroked the surface,
“Its soft, almost fabric, ow….”
"What’s the matter,” she asked concerned.
“Nothing, just a scratch,” she grabbed his hand, a small speck of blood appeared, she held up her own hand,
“Strange, same finger as mine.” She said. He took her hand and compared injuries.
“Mines deeper,” he said with a grin,
she pushed his hand away and laughed, surprised at how relaxed she felt, normally she would be fighting her way to the top of the ladder but she felt calm and intrigued, and even when Jason suggested they investigate further down the passage, she did not argue.
Cautiously they made their way deeper down the passage, the walls they noticed apart from being textured were also panelled and were coloured.
“Look here,” Jason stopped and passed the light over what he could only describe as a doorway, except it seemed not to be a separate part of the wall, yet, a part of the wall, as if it were drawn onto the wall, to the right of the door was a panel within which was writing,
“hold the light here,” she said guiding his hand,
“what is that, hieroglyphics,” he said passing his hand over the panel,
“Don’t know, more like, sand script or something Arabic,” she said as she passed her hand over the panel, it was as much a part of the wall as the door.
"This writing isn't Arabic," Jason whispered,
"It's more structured, more geometrical, Arabic is more flowery, sort of squiggly"
Mary turned to face him,
"Squiggly," she said slowly shaking her head, Jason shrugged then moved on further down the passage, she followed.
They passed two more doors, with the same configuration as the first. as they cautiously made their way further down the passage they found another door, but this one was slightly ajar, it was open far enough for Jason to curl his fingers around its edge, he pushed hard, nothing, he pulled, but it wouldn’t budge, Mary held onto the door lower down,
“Try sliding it,” she suggested. It began to give, it slid to
halfway open then stopped, it was enough to squeeze by. Jason went first, leaving her in darkness for a while, his voice startled her,
“Mary, here, quick” she squeezed past the door and noticed he was examining the outer wall,
“What is it,” she whispered, “I don’t think were in Kansas anymore,” she gave him a puzzled look, he shrugged his shoulders, and
taking her hand placed it onto the outer wall.
“Why would an air raid shelter have a full-length window? It did, she thought, feel like glass, it was certainly smooth enough,
“So, what are you saying” she said trying to look beyond the window and seeing nothing, Jason had moved the light, she turned, he was scanning the room, it was quite sparse, solid cabinet type objects lined the interior wall, they inspected them, but like the doors, they found no way of opening them.
"Well, I don’t think its old technology, but I'm not sure that it's new technology either, and, it’s far too long for an air raid shelter, we're quite away from the ladder, and by that reckoning, we're not in our garden anymore, and another thing, have you noticed its getting warmer, and there’s a slight breeze.”
She turned to face him,
“You're trying to scare me,” he placed the torch to his chin, and uttered the traditional ghostly wooing noise, she glared at him, then pushed him away as he tried his zombie walk.
“And that’s another thing, why are we so calm, we should be shiting bricks right now,” she said as she looked passed his shoulder.
“The breeze seems to be coming from over there” he turned to follow her pointed finger, on the inner wall he noticed an indentation and on inspection found the same sand script type writing encased within a panel, on the right of the indentation, at the floor level they noticed that the floor did not quite meet the internal wall of the passage, and between the two they could feel a current of warm air.
“It’s convection,” he said almost too casually,
“The air is warming up, possibly because of the hole where the ladder is, it's open to the sunshine,”
“Or,” she said from her kneeling position
“Something down there is heating it.”
“Like what,” he said joining her.
“Like whatever it is that’s making that humming noise.” He could hear it now, not exactly the same noise that he had heard when they had encountered it in the garden, but similar, the hum was deeper now in tone.
“So, let’s look at the evidence, it’s made of metal, it’s quite long and has windows, oh, and now, possibly an engine.” Using Jason’s shoulder as a prop she stood,
“Let’s not jump to any conclusions, let's see what is at the end of the passage.” she said as she helped him to his feet, He shone the torch back towards the door, carefully they squeezed their way out of the room.
The passage at its end, opened into a large room, there were consoles around the perimeter of the room and in the rooms centre, a half-moon console stood alone upon which, a solitary red light flashed, they were both drawn towards it, like moths to a hundred-watt bulb,
“Err, warning light.” Jason offered.
Mary peered closer, it was, she felt, almost hypnotic, she felt an urge to touch it, the console was plunged into darkness as Jason walked away, but still she felt drawn to the pulsating red light.
“Ten paces wide this room is, that’s roughly, er, thirty feet wide.” he said swinging the torch back to her position.
Mary had cupped her hand over the light and watched her hand take on a red pulsating glow; the light, she noticed contained no heat.
She looked up as she was once again plunged into darkness as Jason turned away; she could see the torchlight swaying from right to left, as Jason paced his way further into the room.
“Twenty paces,” he shouted, “about sixty feet, long”
“No need to shout, I can hear you perfectly well,”
“Yes, I can hear you perfectly, are you shouting.?”
“No” she said softly, her mind still concentrating on the pulsating red light.
“Amazing, sixty odd feet away and I can hear you, the acoustics are brilliant, what are you doing,”
Mary couldn’t help herself; she placed her finger onto the light, it gave a slight shock, she pulled it away quickly and cursed, very gently light from a concealed source in the room built up.
“I think, the pulsing red light is the light switch,” she said softly.
They both stood rigid, neither of them daring to move, like rabbits caught in a cars headlight they watched as the room brightened and revealed its full content, it was Jason that broke the silence.
“Wow, this is fucking incredible, look, look, were under an enormous dome of glass, this certainly is no underground bunker… got to be a vessel of some kind.”
He made his way back to the centre console looking up at the glass dome,
“Vessel” she said not quite understanding,”
“Yeah, a plane. a secret weapon, maybe, with the fear of a nuclear attack in the early sixties they may have developed...” she put her hand across his mouth, he stopped talking,
"So, to keep it out of everyone's way, they sneaked into our
garden and buried it," he put his arms around her and pulled her to him.
"Well, maybe that's not quite what happened,” he said sheepishly,
"But the thing is, it’s all ours,”
“Jason” she said, snapping her head back to the console and pulling out of his embrace.
“The red light, it's now flashing green,” they both stared at the light, both of them feeling an urge to touch it, both resisted,
“That’s weird; I really want to touch the light, just like I wanted to touch the red light.” Mary said in a small almost frightened voice,
“Yes, I feel it’s somehow the right thing to do.” Mary felt as though she was being used there was a power here that she couldn’t understand, and before she could voice her objections Jason had planted his thumb onto the pulsating green light.
They were enveloped into two separate columns of milky white light that shone upwards from the floor plating, they were
paralysed within it, neither were able to move, around them in front of all the other consoles were columns of opaque white light, at first they felt a slight vibration and then a deep hum resonated around them. Within the murkiness of the light, both gave a look of total surprise as the room folded in on itself.
A fraction of a second later the columns of light dissipated from around them, above them stars filled the glass dome, in front of them through the curved window of the control room a sight that made their jaws drop; they could see the curvature of the Earth, the blue white planet filled up seventy percent of the window, they were in orbit.
The craft that Jason and Mary had found themselves in was;
Science reconnaissance craft 61 it was part of a generational fleet whose sole purpose was to search for, and encounter any planetary system that could sustain life.
The mission was to seek out intelligent bi-pedial life forms, if advanced, they were to make contact, if below contact status, they were to enhance evolutionary tracts by introducing their own DNA to the species, this procedure had to conform to the
specifications laid down in their mission manifest. Recon 61 had been a part of the mission since its outset, and the directives were laid down firmly within its matrix, it was also, self-survivable and repairable. It knew nothing however of the politics that was being played out on its home planet. Over the tens of thousands of years that Recon 61 had been serving the generational fleet, on its home planet tensions were brewing, as in all conflicts, lines were being drawn, factions were created, war, was the inevitable last line.
Over a thousand light years away, Recon 61 received a message in an encrypted code that could only have been sent by the high citadel on the home planet, it was a direct order to remove all organic life forms, whether indigenous or crew from the craft, then shut down and await further advice.
Recon 61 verified the authenticity of the command and complied.
They had been in the Stella system for three hundred years, as a generational fleet, that was to say, that they had just arrived.
The system had afforded them a rare chance to establish
scientific surveys on two planets, the third and the fourth,
both had water and atmosphere; however, it was the third, that had offered the fleet with examples of bi-pedial life forms, the fourth however offered life in the form of aquatic and plant, The fourth planet was undergoing an atmospheric change it was
decided that the fourth planet could not be saved and that specimens from there be migrated to the third planet, recon 61 was never involved in that particular task.
The day before the unusual order came through, 61 was being un-docked after a routine maintenance check and engine upgrade; supplies for the surface had already been loaded and 61 waited in the loading bay for the crew. Sixteen organics then boarded, it was to be the start of a six-month tour, 61’s engines were idling as the bipeds said their last farewells to loved ones and once boarded, they made their way to the living quarters.
The engineers had left the loading bay and 61 plus its crew was on its own.
61 stood four stories tall and just over three hundred yards long, out of all the eighty-recon craft, it, and only five others had been upgraded with the new dimensional shift drive.
It passed the outer doors of number 1, the Mother ship, and entered a standard equatorial orbit ready for decent to the surface.
It queried a new co-ordinance that it had noticed in its data base, and was told by the helm that 1 was moving to help study the gas giants further out in the system and that it would not be back for a year, so, at the end of the tour it would have to rendezvous with 1, at over a thousand million miles away, which was why the new drive engines had been installed.
61 never questioned orders, although, for the crew’s safety it would always question a new mission protocol.
61 landed just south of the equator in a designated clearing, recons 65 and 70 were being prepared, their six-month tour had ended and they were destined to meet with 1 before it departed to the outer planets, the crews however would be shuttled back down after a briefing to spend a three-month break on number 2 a normally land based mobile city which was currently submerged in one of the planets largest oceans.
61’s crew had finished off loading supplies and equipment and had settled down for a mid-day meal with the other crews, they had been together a long time but work patterns kept them apart for long periods.
After a couple of hours, the two recons departed, Recon 64 was now landing where Recons 65 and 70 had been only a few minutes before, the crews of 61 and 64 would work together, both had been upgraded with the dimensional shift, and at the end of their tour they would both rendezvous with 1 at its new location between the two gas giants.
It had been two hundred years since they had started to observe the two dominant tribes of bipeds, the alpha males had been taken away and their genetic structure altered, some of the crews own DNA had been used to ‘tweak’ as the crew members called it, to keep the alpha males genetic structure on the right path as specified by the mission directives, and every generation since then had checked on the alpha males descendants to keep the line pure, for this family line would be the illuminated ones, the ones with vision and foresight, the leaders and scientists of this specie’s future.
61 had five laboratories, two of these were now being prepared by some of the crew to take the sedated alphas later that evening.
By the end of the afternoon 64s crew had finished unloading and
was now ascending to a thousand feet where it would envelope itself in cloud, hiding itself from prying primitive eyes, it would use this height advantage to direct the land crews in their mission to stalk and capture the indigenous alpha males,
61 would rendezvous and dock at a later date, 64 had left its shuttle S24 on the surface, it was for 61s crew to use to ferry themselves from the camp site to the observation site some three hundred miles east.
At sun set eight of the sixteen that made up 61s crew came aboard, they sealed the hatches and closed the large hanger and cargo doors, they had agreed on a change of plan, reports from 64 were coming in of a sighting of bipeds a few thousand miles to the north of their position, they would spend the night there and survey the area first thing in the morning.
Although 61 was a science recognisance craft it did carry weaponry, the room in front of the refractory had begun life as merely a large storage room but with so many contacts with savage species of different diversity, it was decided to make it into an armoury, stored within, was housed small hand lasers, mainly used for cutting, and served well as a knife on its lower setting or as a machete at its highest, there were also plasma pistols and rifles for dealing with the more persistent intruder.
61 also had armaments, the largest being a photon cannon that could create a clearing in dense forest for landing, but could also reduce a five-thousand-foot mountain to rubble, it was the latter that the captain decided to use, 61 had taken the short three-thousand-mile flight to the north, within this part of the hemisphere the land was covered in ice glaciers. 61 hovered above the five-thousand foot ice mountains that littered the topography of the land below, a slight vibration resonated through the bulkheads as the photon cannon was discharged, two of the ice mountains below were vaporised, and 61 made a gentle landing. Nano technology had also been a useful tool for keeping in contact with the specimens, also in repairing damage done to the alphas after various confrontations, Nano robotics had evolved to a degree where there were many different types, the type that were deployed here were the Nano cam. The Nano cam worked in the atmosphere and so was prone to being lost by adverse weather or eaten by birds or even large flying insects and so, because of this they were deployed in their thousands along with a Nano distributor, a Nano cam factory, still only a thousandth of an inch across it could house thousands of Nano cams and was able to replicate them as the numbers dwindled. At that time there were anything up to five million Nano cams distributed worldwide, the information they captured was passed to 1. N-bots were a different type and were used internally, they were programmed to respond to any defect within the hosts body either repairing or in some circumstances when a rogue biped needed exterminating this command could be quickly given.
Thirty minutes after they had landed the cam bots were released.
The crew had left the craft and decided to camp outside, even though the temperature at night would drop to minus 20 degrees Fahrenheit, the crew themselves would be protected by their personnel shielding, and whatever discomfort they may feel they felt it was always better that being confined in the recon craft.
A few of the crew had taken shuttle S24 to distribute cam bots in a hundred-mile radius of the camp.
The encrypted order from the high citadel on the home planet came at that moment. ‘Retrieve as much technology as is possible, remove organics, close down and await further orders.
61 did as it was told, the command codes overrode all codes, it was not from the fleet, it was direct from their home planet, it could not be overruled.
61 passed the order to S24 with an added ‘return to hanger," it closed the entry hatches and awaited the return of the shuttle, it didn’t have to wait too long. S24 landed perfectly, and the hanger doors were closed and locked, 61 then went about the task of closing down, with no organics on board it sucked out the air storing it into the large air tanks behind the engine room, once that was compressed it closed down life support and shut off the dimension drive, it was when the lights went out that the crew camping outside realised something was wrong.
61 contacted 64, it was overdue on its return to the camp site, it learned that the crew had tried to regain manual control, and the only way that 64 could comply to the citadel order was to plunge into the northern ocean with all hatches open.
61s own crew had been hammering on the hull for most of the next day,
61 had to use evasive action in bringing online the deflector fields to protect the hull and domes from laser and plasma fire from the side arms the crew had taken with them, sensors showed that there was no shuttle or recon activity anywhere on the planet, no messages were being conveyed to satellites 3 or 4 all mechanics had shut down; it assumed the order had gone to all craft, for the first time 61 was alone and under attack and had no way of asking for advice.
The crew had begun to get a foothold, they had managed to blast two panels away from the front landing sled housing, 61 calculated it would be three hours before they could gain an entry, but they had taken enough fire power with them, and their determination to seize control it was possible, 61 thought, that they could achieve it in less than that. 61 made a decision.
61 brought the pulse engines to high idle and gently thrusted the ship into the air, two crewmen held on but the others let go and fell fifteen feet to the clearing, thirty miles to the west 61 had noticed a deep valley between the high ice mountains, it made its way there, found dead centre and dropped out of the sky, it fired the proton canon, the captain and the leader in anthropic studies who were hanging on to the outer hull were killed instantly.
The crater that was created by the blast was fifty feet deep and 61 flew down to the lower level and settled upright and awaited new orders.
Twenty-five thousand years later, it still waited, The crater had long been filled with the glacier movement of the ice, and over the thousands of years since it was now covered in earth, each year it had risen through the soil and now an organic hand had touched the hull, it brought the sensors back online they were slow to start but the recon was designed for generational use, it could cope.
The organic was a biped. 61 allowed part of its outer bulkhead to disengage, it knew it was going against direct orders, but its communications might have been damaged, it needed an organic to restart the data base, and so it let the two organics have access.
Once inside 61 released thousands of N-bots, they cut their way into the bodies via many of the creatures' orifices, to get access to their blood supply 61 had the N-bots cut through the skin of their fingers, they now controlled the emotional state of the two bipeds.
Life support was next, 61 could not allow the two organics to perish as they had come this far, and then lastly a flashing hypnotic light that they could not resist, the first touch was to energise the Dimensional shift drive and also to take DNA, it was, thought 61, a near match to the original crew.
The second touch activated the drive and sent the recon into orbit, from here it could assess the situation, communicate with other recon craft, it found none, but what it did find, was a community of bipeds numbering in the billions on the planet surface below, and surrounding it on all sides in orbit was manufactured technology, some, it noted, were armed, and if used could sustain heavy damage, 61 calculated the dimensional jump to the last known position of 1.
Mary stepped back from the window that looked out at the amazing view of their home planet, she grabbed the back of Jason's shirt and gently pulled him back, he turned and gave her a scowl,
"What," he snapped, annoyed that she had taken him away from that incredible view,
"Shh," she spat back at him softly,
"We now have no escape, but, the longer we stay in this room the shorter our lifespan is going to be, the door is still open, we need to find a way out."
"What," he said frowning,
"Run" she shouted, he watched as she ran from the room, a second later he followed, he made it through the door just as it started to slide back to the closed position.
They ran down the now fully lit passage, in a few seconds they came upon the ladder that now lay on the floor, after a further hundred yards of running they entered a lobby, stairs led above and below, Mary without thinking took the stairs three or four at a time to the lower levels,
"Mary, where are we going," Jason panted behind her,
"We must keep running, we'll stop when I think we're safe."
61 had all sensors on full alert, it had also released a
thousand Nano cams and deployed them on all levels, within a microsecond of seeing the female escape through the doorway it had given the order for the door to close, but twenty-five thousand years of basic maintenance had allowed the male to escape also.
61 watched as the two bipeds made their way to the rear of the craft, for the moment they were not causing any concern, it did however, allow time for 61 to weigh up the pros and cons of the situation, it could of course allow the N bots that were currently moving through the veins and arteries of the two organics to disconnect vital organs.
61 realised that although it could bring their lives to an abrupt end, it also realised that it needed them, an organic was needed to activate the dimensional shift to send the craft to 1s gas giant co-ordinance, but, it didn't need both of them, this was of course a revelation for the recon. it could use this as a threat to allow at least one of them to activate the shift.
61 is a recon craft, it was told where to go and when to leave, what it was currently putting itself through was totally outside its programming.
But, the direct order had to be obeyed, but, one thing it knew without doubt, it needed further advice.
"Mary, stop, stop, please, where the hell are we going, and what do you mean, find a way out, there is no way out, we're in orbit, Mary, for Christ sake stop, I've got to catch my breath," he stumbled down the last of the stairs, and found himself in an open lobby, he dropped and fell onto the lower stair, he took in gulps of air, slowly his body settled down to a sedate pace, he looked around the lobby, in front of the stair some fifteen feet away were the sliding doors of the main hanger, on investigation they both realised that these doors were sealed shut, there were doors on either side of the stairway but, like the doors in the passage they were closed, and as they had experienced earlier, there was no way of opening them, however, to the left of the stairs Mary noticed a door slightly open.
"How are you feeling," she said softly, turning to face him, she noted the colour of his skin, it was flush and in places a ruddy complexion shone through, that was good, she thought, his breathing seemed normal, not as erratic as she thought it may be after such a run, she leant forward and took his arm, she fumbled for his wrist and took his pulse, there it was, solid and sound,
You've done well," Jason looked her in the eye,
"Don't patronise me, now, what do you mean, find a way out," she smiled and gave him back his arm, she put her arms around him and hugged.
"We, were under our back garden, and within a second we were in orbit, the next time this thing decides to go, we could be anywhere, definitely, no way home, this, as I see it, is our last chance, our home is just below us, the next time we move could be the other side of the galaxy. If we can get out of here, we have a chance, a very, very, slim chance, but it is a chance, we can't get back to the Earth, but, there are space stations, the International one, Chinese ones, possibly others, I don't know, but what I do know, staying on this ship is very bad for our health.
Jason leant back on the double doors, she was right, he sniggered, that made her frown, dammit, he thought, she was always bloody right, he looked back into her pale green eyes.
"I agree, do we have a plan," she stared at him in total disbelief,
"Do we, have a plan, no, we, don't, but luckily I do, I admit, it's not much of one," Jason smiled and took her hand and squeezed it gently,
Alright, what's, your plan
"I haven't watched as much science fiction programs as you have, but, I have watched some, we, are on a spaceship, it must have an air lock, if it has an air lock, then that is for things to go in and out of, if they are going in and out, they must have space suits, once we are out we float around until we find a space station then, we knock on the door," Jason was incredulous,
That's it, that's your plan, do you realise how much stuff is out there, most of it is whizzing around at over seventeen thousand miles per hour, if we get hit by one of them, and, they can be as small as an eighth of an inch and it will go straight through us," she held up her hand, her face bland and serious
"So, ok, what's your plan," she asked as he let out as he let out a deep sigh,
"I, I, oh, come on, you know I don't have one," she raised her hands to her shoulders,
"So, my plan is the better plan," he shook his head slowly,
"It's the only plan, Christ, let's just do this, we're going to die one way or the other today, lets die on our terms not theirs." Mary folded her arms and nodded slowly,
"Well said, there's a door over there that's slightly open let's
see what we can find."
61 had followed their progress down onto level 4, the hanger deck was right in front of them but it was sealed shut, they couldn't gain access, the refractory was behind them, it couldn't see anything in there that they could use, but of course there was the armoury, it checked the manifest, all weapons had been checked out, the room was empty, they had nowhere to go, 61 decided to wait awhile, it would contemplate
its options.
"Why are you pulling, slide it,"
"I am sliding it," he said with a growl, it moved, just a half inch, but it did move,
"Again, push, I mean slide," it opened a bit further,
"That's enough, we can squeeze through," she said edging herself into the gap, she pushed harder on the edge of the door and it moved a further two inches, enough for both of them to gain entry.
"Where's your torch," she asked in a whispered tone,
"Clipped to my belt," he said, in as much of a sarcastic tone as he could muster,
"So, don't you think that this is a perfect place for us to use it," he ignored the comment and snatched the light from his belt, the halogen lit up the room.
"An empty room, same as the last one we looked at," she said despondently, he panned the room, all four walls had shelving attached, beneath the shelving the same low square cabinets. the shelves were empty, and the cabinets closed.
“There’s nothing in here,” he said, lowering the light, she grabbed his arm, and swung the beam of light to the far corner,
“There,” she said, triumphantly. Keeping the light steady, they both walked to the far corner where they found a cabinet with its door open.
Within they had found a package they it back to the lobby and rested it on one of the lower treads of the stair, it was a box, two feet by eight or ten inches, and made of some plasticised material, after ten minutes of investigation they both realised neither of them had any idea as to how it opened, Mary could tell that her husband was about to cross that threshold from patience to anger, after twenty-five years of marriage, she was quite aware of what was about to happen,
“Jay, just calm...” he picked the box up and threw it,
“fucking thing,” he yelled, Mary watched the arc of the box cross the lobby and slammed into the double doors with a resounding thud, it fell to the floor, and to her amazement it fell open.
“One way of doing it,” she said calmly, as she picked it up from the floor. Inside she found three red tubes, on the top of each, a green light pulsed, within the light a symbol or character flashed in black then changed to another symbol, she frowned at it, trying to understand its importance, Jason had moved to her side and looked down at the pulsating light, realisation dawned slowly,
“Oh, shit, run,” he grabbed her and ran back to the room, panning the light one way then the other, he made for the open cupboard,
“Get in,” she glared at him,
“What,” he turned and faced the door of the room,
Countdown, I think its counting down, get in, now.”
It was cramped and uncomfortable, Jason managed to part close the door.
“Stick your fingers in your ears, close your mouth breathe through your nose,” without argument she did as he asked. A few seconds later the room shuddered, the whole craft lurched violently before 61 could regain control. After a minute or two they tumbled out of the cabinet and carefully made their way back to the lobby.
The double doors had gone, Jason looked around the lobby,
“No damage to the lobby, no debris from the doors, where has it all gone,”
they cautiously peered around the hole where the doors had once stood, and froze.
The outer hanger doors were open to space, they could see the Earth below, and directly behind them the twinkling of sun light reflecting off thousands of discarded debris that made up the lower orbit, Jason scrutinised the room, to the right of the open doors sat S24 wedged up against the bulkhead, apart from the shuttle, the hanger deck seemed empty.
Jay, over here,” Mary shouted, he turned to the direction of her voice,
Look, space suits.” she continued, by the time he had walked over to her she had managed to crawl into the back of the suit, she forced her head through the tight neck hole, the suit started to shrink, after a few seconds it stopped and she was standing in a perfectly fitted EVA suit,
“Wow, this is so comfy, and warm” Jason looked back at the universe, that stared straight back at him, he took a deep breath and grabbing one of the ten suits in the locker followed her lead and crawled into it, once his head was through the neck hole it automatically shrank to fit.
He walked over to the gaping hole,
“Must have been some kind of implosion,” he said as a way of offering a reasonable solution, he turned to face her,
“About your plan,” he stared at her and sighed, she looked back with a frown,
“It's easy, just put this helmet on and jump, our fate is then in our hands.” she handed him the helmet, he took it, but shook his head,
"Mary, I don’t want to get into a row, but I think, I have a better Idea,” she took a deep breath to argue her point but stopped when he placed a gloved finger to her lips.
“If we jump out there, we will have committed ourselves, we
don’t know where the International station is, it might not even be in this orbit, could be five miles above us or a mile below,
we would never find it, whatever it is that brought us in here, wants us for a reason, I think it’s the ships computer, and I think all it wants to do is go home,” she raised her hands into the air,
“Your fucking kidding me, ET go home, is that what you think, the thing is trying to kill us.” he turned to glare out into the void,
“Is it, what has it done, we have been down here for over an hour, it hasn’t done anything to stop us, even blowing up the doors, it still hasn't done anything, I think it needs us, something to start the engines, and that key is us when you pressed the red-light things started to come on, then, when I pressed the green light we ended up here in orbit, it needs us, for the next procedure, to allow it to fly home. I think we should talk to it; we’ll turn it on if it will give us the shuttle to fly ourselves home.” Mary had started to pace, he knew what this was, it was the prelude to an all-out fight.
“So, you can fly a spaceship now, huh, I think not,” her voice had that mocking undertone, there was more to come, he knew it,
“No, I can't fly a bloody spaceship, as well you know, it would have to program it, once it dropped us off it could return back here, we are at home, and it can get on its way.” Mary stopped pacing, it did make sense, if, of course, getting home is all it wanted.
“What if, that is not the what it wants,” Jason lowered his head and shrugged,
“I don’t know, but surely negotiating with it has got to better than jumping out there.” he said pointing into the void.
61 had watched the bipeds blow up the hanger doors, instantly the hull shielding had sealed the gaping hole, it was about to send the rest of the N cams down to the hanger to try and herd the two organics back to the control room, but a warning signal interrupted its line of thought, a communication was trying to attract its attention, 61 traced the signal back to a satellite then further back to its original position on the planet's surface, it could make no sense of it, but there was a way, all over the planet information was being transmitted from one land mass to the other, it locked on to the information, it didn’t seem to have a source, but it did learn its name, internet.
The information was endless, it delved into all topics, the main
language used seemed to be English, on comparison it was the
language the two organics in the hanger were using, 61 found no
difficulty in downloading and learning. so engrossed was it in
trying to decipher all the information it had downloaded from
the net, it did not notice the two organics had entered the
control room.
“Computer, can you understand what I am saying,” Jason said in a
slow and loud voice.
“I am 61,” replied the recon.
“Err... is that its age,” Mary asked in a whisper,
“Its designation, I think” Jason answered,
“Why, have you brought us here,” Mary said, realising that her
voice sounded nervous.
“To energise the dimensional shift,” 61 said without emotion,
“That must be the engine, see, that’s all it wants us for,” Mary
turned to him frowning,
“You don’t know that for certain,” she snapped.
“61, we will turn on your dimensional shift, if you program the
shuttle to take us home, once there, the shuttle can return to
you, and we can all go home.”
61 thought for a microsecond, it did need them to turn on the
shift, but, did it need them after that, it made a decision.
“Agreed, shuttle S24 has been re programmed, it awaits you in
the hanger deck, take a hold of the green light.” smiling they
both pushed on the pulsating green light.
Two tubes of white light encompassed both of them, the control
room folded.
61 was designed as a short-range craft, it did not possess
long range sensors or a long-range communication array, but it
should have picked up a co-ordinance signal from 1, it found
none, the generational mother ship was nowhere in this sector,
it sent a signal to its home world asking for advice. It
calculated it should arrive there in about thirty years,
61 searched the local area, it needed a safe place to wait, the
sixth planet offered a haven.
"Where are we," Mary stammered as the light tubes dissipated,
Jason put his arm around her and gently held her to him,
“I can’t believe it, that bloody computer lied” with all hope of
escape gone they held each other tightly.
"Look out there" he said softly, she followed his gaze to the
control room observation window, the planet Saturn with its
impressive rings dominated the view, for a few moments both were
transfixed on the sight,
"We seem to be getting closer to it," Mary uttered, almost in a
whisper.
Recon 61 landed gently on a thirty-foot chunk of ice deep
within one of the central rings then powered down to await the
answer from home.
"Wow," exclaimed Jason,
"We are inside one of the rings, just look at that," Mary
frowned as she turned to face him,
"It's getting cold in here, our breath is turning into vapour,
"Yes, I know, and all the humming sounds are silent, I think the
life support has been deactivated, but, just look out there,"
Mary looked up, and was in awe.
"Oh my, it's like, being inside, a corridor of diamonds.
61 reconsidered its decision, although number 1 was not at the designated co-ordinance it may also have landed on a land mass within the rings, but, it considered, the rings were an enormous surface area, its short-range sensors could only detect metallic objects over a small designated area, to survey the whole of the ring system in detail would take the best part of a year, and if found, the two organics may still be needed.
The external lighting from the recon craft reflected upon the ice ring, Mary and Jason still in their embrace looked out at the incredible sight, below them on the deck plating a milky white tube ascended.
END