Teardrops In The Night Sky (Steven Gordon series) (6 page)

Brian swung back to the monitor, ‘how is she, is she alive?’

Malcolm was fiddling with the switches, ‘there's something wrong, I’m losing the picture.’

The screen went blank with Malcolm frantically tried to fix it as Brian screamed over his shoulder.  Then a young Scientist burst into the room.

‘It's gone,’ he burst out breathlessly.  It took a bare second for the operators to get the jist of what he was saying and to start pressing buttons.  Brian dipped from consol to consol, but each told the same story, only one ship remained, bobbing gently on a cushion of air.

Chapter 12

T
hey were right to have been cautious.  The Centre for Scientific Research into Space had always been their first choice.  Years of waiting and listening to Earth communications had finally led them to this spot on the Blue Planet below.  Then for many years they had eavesdropped on the communications emanating from the centre.

It quickly became apparent that this was the only site on Earth that came anywhere near grasping the complexities of deep space travel.  It also had one other major advantage, it would be difficult to conceal their arrival, but still the humans had tried.

The large inflatable hanger had been easy to dispose of. They had watched with relief as pictures of them were beamed across the world.  They had believed this would afford them some form of security.

Never before had they came across a planet of such cultural diversity.  Their own planet of origin had only one culture, one people and one race.   

Although they were spacecraft and machines, they were of a complexity that man had never achieved.  Each had feelings and experienced emotions.  Although both ships were identical in shape and size, their programming was gender based to fit with the builder races complicated mating rituals.

There were always two ships built at a time, one male and one female.  As the ships were mated so were their crews.  Although there were male and female in both crews, the captain of one was always mated to the captain of the other.  The male in the female ship and vice versa.  They believed this gave an even balance to all decisions made.

When they were travelling to preset coordinates, the ships always flew in tandem, linked together.  This allowed free and easy access to all mated couples including the captains.  Only separating for landing manoeuvres or when indulging in exploration.

As time passed and the original captains retired, the ships were handed over to the oldest offspring and their mate.  Younger children had to have their own made for them when they were mated. 

Both ships were now in a quandary.  It wasn’t the first time ships had lost one or even both their captains, but there had always been a mated couple on board both ships that could take over the running of them until they reached home.

The situation they were in now was totally alien to them.  They could not return home.  Both were less than a generation old.  All of the captain’s children had died with their parents.  There was no one to be handed down to.  Their situation was totally unprecedented. 

It was only now they were beginning to comprehend the situation that truly faced them.  When they first began to view the television programs from space family virtues had been strong.  Reassured they had concentrated on technical matters.  Now it seemed as though society had begun to breakdown.

Of course they knew what they were offering the human race and they could have made a simple request, but until they were joined they were unable to communicate with the outside world, and once they were joined it would simply be too late.

They in reality could do very little now but try and direct as best they could.  Only allowing the humans access to one of them had caused them to move cautiously.  It had suited them well. 

It was decided he would be the first to welcome them.  In truth he was left with little choice, for she was still fixated by her first contact and adamant that she would make that human her first choice of heart.

He had been perplexed and still was.  For he had felt no empathy with any human that he had came into contact with so far and their primary scanning of the human brain had left him in great doubt as to the suitability of a human host. 

As the days had begun to mount, they had been lulled into a false sense of security.  The whole planet now knew of their existence, and the scientists that prowled his decks every day had been taking things easy, never pushing the boundaries of their knowledge.

Today everything had changed and it had caught them by surprise.  They had been aware of the shift in power in the past few weeks, knowing intimately what was happening inside the building.  Neither of them liked the new leader that was now directing things but also knew there was little they could do about it.

However the humans seemed to be doing little more than they already were.  She had been concerned about the treatment that her human was receiving; he had been trying to calm her when they became aware of the assault in his engine room.  He cried out in surprise.

‘What's wrong?’ she asked.

‘They are trying to break into my main drive coupling.’

‘How can they do that?’

‘I don’t know, they’re using crude tools to smash their way into the compartment.’

‘They can’t know it’s the main drive coupling, what are they thinking?’

‘I think they have somehow surmised my systems are less well protected there.’

‘Can’t you stop them?  They will cripple you if they remove it.’

‘No I don’t think so.  There's something else wrong here.  The new commander seems to be in charge, yet everyone’s trying to stop him.’

‘Do you think he has exceeded his authority?’

‘I believe so.  He has smashed almost all their viewing devices and is brandishing a weapon at anyone who tries to stop them.’

‘Then you must.’

‘How?’

‘There is only one way, you must take off.  Surely then they will then realise the folly of their action.’

‘Yes
, I can activate the forward viewer.  They will be able to see that and stop what they are doing.  Oh!  They have the panel off.’

‘You must go quickly before it’s too late.’

‘Yes, no wait, oh no.’

‘What is it?’

‘He has just shot the mother of your human.’

‘Oh no, has she expired?’

‘No I don’t think so but she is down and badly hurt.  What will I do?  She needs help but they are already close to damaging my coupling.’

‘You have no choice.’

The power up sequence took only few seconds.  In the blink of an eye he was out of the Earth’s atmosphere and heading towards the outer planets.

In the engine room
Doctor Sales stood over the prostrate form of Mary Gordon, the gun pointing at her head.  The mad glint in his eyes had fully formed and a dazed Mary knew she only had a few seconds to live. 

A body slammed into him, ‘what the hell do you think you’re doing?’ 

Doctor Sales slid across the floor but managed to hold onto the gun.  Her rescuer turned to two scientists cowering in the doorway, ‘get her out of here now.’

The two men bowed to the snap of authority in the man’s voice and scurried over.  They dragged Mary unceremoniously from the engine room.  Outside they picked her up and rushed for the bridge where there was a medical kit.

Sales got to his feet trembling with rage and pointed the gun towards Mary’s rescuer.  Undaunted the man advanced on him, ‘shoot me Sale’s and you can do your own dirty work, and before I hit the floor you’re gonna find out what it feels like to be a fence post.’

Sales head whipped around to find his two friends behind him with raised sledgehammers.  Sudden fear snapped him back to sanity and he lowered the gun, ‘just get on with it Myers.’

Myers nodded to his companions and they went back to the open panel.  One of his men donned a heavy pair of gloves and tentatively shoved his hand inside.  He searched the whole compartment before announcing.

‘I think I’ve got something.’

Myers nodded, ‘give it a tug and see if it comes out.’

There was a flash of light and the man was thrown across the room.  His smoking corpse came to rest against the far wall but in his hands he held the burnt out remains of the drive coupling.

As the dazed men staggered to their feet a scientist burst in, ‘for God’s sake don’t touch anything, we’re in outer space.’

Chapter 13

A
stunned silence echoed around the control room.  On the monitor, the single remaining ship slowly floated across the car park until it was central.  Colonel Howe was the first to recover.  He put his hand on Malcolm’s shoulder and spoke gently, ‘do you know where it’s gone?’

Malcolm jumped at the softly spoken words, ‘no sir, no I don’t.’

‘Can you find out?’

‘I can try.’

‘Good man, that’s your top priority, get everyone on it and I want the tapes from every camera on the ship in the briefing room as soon as possible.’

‘Yes sir.’

Colonel Howe led the stunned and distraught Brian away.  As Brian reached his new office he burst into tears.  Colonel Howe sat him down and fetched a coffee.  He didn’t even see it.

Colonel Howe took a deep breath, ‘ok Doc that’s enough.’

The cold tone in his voice made Brian look up, ‘what?’

‘At th
is moment in time, we have one alien ship with your wife aboard missing.  We saw her go down but I’m sure she was only wounded.  We won’t know for sure until we review the tapes or find them and regain contact.  You are now the headman in charge here.  You have more chance of putting together what happened here than anyone else.  We need you right now Doctor and more importantly so does your wife, so pull yourself together.’

Brian took a deep breath, ‘yes your right Colonel, but I have something to do first.’

Colonel Howe frowned, ‘is it important, can’t someone else handle it?’

‘Not unless you fancy telling my son someone just shot his mother.’

Colonel Howe’s shoulders slumped and he relented, ‘no Doctor I don’t.  That’s a new one to me; normally I have to tell the mother’s someone shot their son.’  They left the office side by side.

Steven lay quietly in his small cell.  Buzz sat uncomfortably at his seat by the window.  Eventually the silence became too much for him.

Buzz tapped on the window, ‘how you doing buddy?’

Steven turned his head towards him, ‘just thinking Buzz.’

‘What about, your mum?’

‘Aye,’ Steven was silent for a moment, ‘do you realise this is the second time I’ve lost her.’

Buzz winched, ‘how do you mean?’

‘I lost her for the first time after the accident.  You know, when I came to I didn’t have a clue who she was.  For all I knew she could have been a complete stranger, in fact she was a complete stranger.’

Steven shook his head, ‘it
took me years to get to know her again, to build up the trust that’s supposed to be natural between parents and children.  She never gave up on me Buzz, not for a second and until I see her in a coffin being lowered into the ground, I’ll never give up on her.’

Buzz felt tears well up in his eyes and rubbed them to disguise it.  They were silent again for a while, until again, Buzz was unable to stand it.

‘What do you think your Dad’s doing?’

‘Trying to find her I suppose.’

‘Do you think he’ll have much hope?’

‘Don’t know.’

‘At least he promised to get you out of here.’

‘It will be good to get out.’

‘Yeah, I’ll drag you up to the canteen for a decent cup of coffee.’

‘That will be great.’

Buzz’s spirits fell a little more at the lack of enthusiasm in his friend’s voice.

Brian Gordon hovered over the shoulders of the operators.  Malcolm turned to him, ‘that’s everyone reported in
Doctor Gordon.  There is no sign of them within the atmosphere or in Earth’s orbit.’

‘Then start searching farther out.  How long until all observatories are manned and
online?’

‘About an hour, would you like me to tell those on standby to begin the search?’

‘No, I don’t want anyone going off half cocked.  I want a single thorough, coordinated search.  Inform them of the situation and thank them for their patience.’

‘Ok.’

He went over to where General Archibald was monitoring some of the other operatives, who were trying desperately to contact both ships.

‘How’s it going General?’

The General stood up straight with some effort, ‘Doctor Gordon.’  The General was still in Civilian clothes.  He had been enjoying a rare day off with his grandchildren when Sales had made his move.  ‘I have been able to enlist the help of almost every radio dish on the planet.  They are now beginning a systematic search of the sky’s to see if they can pick up any signals from the ship.

As for the one that’s still here, there's no response as usual.  Why do you think it took off like that?’

‘You saw the video footage General.  It looked like Sales and his team had been able to uncover a panel of some kind.  I can only presume it was trying to prevent them from doing anything stupid.  If it took off under me I would think twice about going any farther.’

‘So why hasn’t it came back, do you think they may have damaged it in anyway?’

Brian sighed, ‘I honestly don’t know General.  It is possible.’

‘The President concerned, they may have kidnapped
Doctor Sales.’

Brian’s face took on an angry cast, ‘Sales is an idiot.  I’m sure if aliens had captured him it wouldn’t be long before they jettisoned him out into space and you should tell the President that to
o.  Now what did he say about my son, can we release him?’

The General grimaced, ‘I’m afraid he’s still going with Sales advice, he is to stay in confinement.’

Brian took a step forward threateningly, ‘I’ll give you a piece of advice General.  There's nothing wrong with my son, I know it and Sales knew it.  You know it and the President knows it.  If you haven’t got him out of there in two hours I’m going down to get him out and I will kill any man that gets in my way.’

Brian strode off angrily.  Colonel Howe followed but stopped for a second to talk to the General, ‘he means it sir and I know for a fact he’ll do it.’

‘We can stop him easily.’

‘I don’t think we can sir.  Remember his son is a member of the security forces here and very popular.  They will follow
Doctor Gordon’s lead.  I’ve already heard mutterings, especially after Doctor Sale’s treatment of him and his parents.  They’re ready to bust him lose and from a personal point of view I agree with them.  I won’t order my men to stop them sir.’

‘I don’t like the tone of your voice Colonel.’

‘I apologise sir, but I won’t get my men involved in a blood bath because some grudge Doctor Sales, holds against the Gordon family.  He’s been cleared a dozen times by every test under the sun and he only touched the outside of the craft.  Sales and many of the scientists have been inside the same craft without any protection whatsoever.’

The General let go a deep breath, ‘yes you
’re right Colonel.  I’ve argued the same point with the President myself, but it’s got me nowhere.  He seems to hang onto Sales every word.’

‘Sales isn’t here now sir, we are.  I think you had better tell him to reappraise the situation.  Our best bet sits with
Doctor Gordon and we had better keep him sweet.’

‘I’ll try again Colonel, but if he refuses we’ll just take it into our own hands and release him, but I’ll try the diplomatic approach first.’

Howe caught up with Brian in the canteen nursing a coffee, making suggestions to members of the team trying to make contact with the craft outside.

The news over Steven lifted his spirits a bit.  When the other men left Howe asked him what they were going to do now.

Brian put down his coffee, ‘we’re going to send someone outside to make physical contact, see if it opens for us.’

‘The chances of that
Doctor?’

‘Probably nil to none existent, but if we don’t try,’ Brian left the rest of the sentence unsaid.

Howe nodded his understanding.

An hour later they were standing on the roof watching the scientists approach the ship.  At first it just flew up out of reach, but as they persisted it began to react very differently.

The first man to touch it received a mild electric shock.  They gradually got stronger until one man was thrown a few feet across the car park.  Brian had rushed off to stop them before someone was killed.  Colonel Howe had decided to stay and get a little fresh air.

It was then Greg and Rex passed him laughing at the scientist getting shakily to his feet.  It annoyed him.

‘I’m glad somebody finds something amusing in all this.’

Greg flushed with embarrassment, ‘sorry it just looked kinda funny; he wasn’t really hurt.  I mean you think they would have taken the hint by now.’

Howe and Rex eyed one another warily, ‘that’s the dog that took out one of your own security guards isn’t it?’

‘Yeah that prick Sandiman; he pointed a gun a Stevie.  Well Stevie and Rex are good pals so Rex took him out.’

The Colonel frowned as something began to tingle in the back of his mind.  A thought not fully formed began to push its way through.  He decided to give his instinct rein.

‘I thought you sent the Dog after this Stevie?’

Greg flushed again, ‘yeah well it was Stevie… you know?’

‘No I don’t know.  I thought all the dogs here were grade one.’

‘They are and Rex was top dog, but … well it was Stevie.’

Howe shook his head, ‘tell me.’

‘Well,’ Greg scratched his head, ‘Stevie’s a bit simple, and animal’s; smart ones like Rex anyway seem to realise that.  Rex knows Stevie would never do him any harm.  If you know where I’m coming from.’

‘I think so, I’ve heard of that sort of thing.’

‘Yeah well Rex and Stevie just seemed to hit it off.  You want to see them sometime, Stevie babbles away at him and he sits and yips back at him.  You’d think they were sitting having a conversation, it’s a bit weird.’

Colonel Howe nodded, ‘and why was this Sandiman pointing a gun at him.’

‘Stevie was touching the ship, saying that it did seem to come down and touch him.’

The tingling had turned to full a blown ringing, Howe backed off, ‘right that was why, ok thanks eh …’

‘Greg, Greg and Rex.’

They watched him hurry off.  Rex looked up at Greg with a questioning look in his eye.  Greg answered him, ‘that’s one tough cookie boy.  I think we’d both have a problem with that one.’

Half an hour later Colonel Howe switched off the portable TV screen and popped out the video of Steven’s original statement to Buzz.  In front of him was Steven’s uniform in a sterile plastic bag and a copy of his records.  He absentmindedly rubbed the award ribbon for bravery above the jacket pocket, which had been lovingly sewn on by his mother.

He decided he needed a little more information.  Taking the uniform with him he went down and cornered Buzz.  Excited that his friend would s
oon be freed the normally tight lipped man quickly filled in the gaps in Howe’s knowledge.

Leaving the uniform with Buzz, Howe decided it was time he went to see the General.