To The Stars (The Harry Irons Trilogy) (44 page)

Kathleen moved to the farthest part of the bridge, as far away from the alien as she could get. The creature cocked its head to one side and studied her. Blane was ignored.

After a moment of study, it took a small device from its belt and held it pointed at Kathleen. She refused to move.

The alien took another step forward. Kathleen pressed against the far bulkhead and slid down the wall, trying to make herself as small as possible. The creature squeezed the handle of the device and a bright beam of light jumped from the barrel hitting Kathleen square in the middle of the forehead.

She felt no pain. She felt nothing at all. Her fears were suddenly drained from her as if the beam of light pulled all emotion out of her. She no longer wanted to run and she no longer cared what happened. The young woman willingly got to her feet and walked past the alien. Without stopping to look back, she stepped through the portal.

Don't worry, Kathleen, I'll think of something.

Kathleen didn't answer.

*

In an equipment room adjacent to the hanger bay, Harry pulled on his EVA suit. Just outside the door, Fagen inspected the weapons he'd chosen. He decided against taking the projectile firearms: they were too dangerous to use inside a pressurized environment. Instead, he chose a handheld gun that, upon activation, discharged an energized plasma field. It worked by releasing an enhanced electrical charge toward whatever lay in the gun's sights. Years ago, law enforcement agencies on Earth used similar weapons to disperse crowds and to stun criminals into submission. After numerous deaths, the weapons were deemed to be too quirky in their handling and were seldom used anymore.

Fagen stuck his head through the hatch and held up the pistol.

"Ever used one of these before?"

Harry peered at the weapon and shook his head. "What is it?"

The commander looked at it. "It used to be called a taser; it releases a burst of plasmic electricity. Many years ago they were upgraded and modified to include a selectable range of power." Fagen tossed the weapon to Harry.

Harry caught it and turned it over in his hand. It was small, smaller than a conventional firearm. At the business end, two prongs stuck out. The handle fit snugly in the palm with the fire button directly below the thumb.

"You only get three shots before it loses power. With any luck, it may hold two more shots, at a considerably lower power. So, don't waste your shots."

"Do you think we'll have to use it?"

"Are you kidding?"

The intercom sprang to life with Nadine's voice. "Edward? Are you there?"

Fagen punched the intercom. "Yes, I'm here."

"How long is this going to take? We're getting some pretty high radiation readings here."

"About forty more minutes to suit up, then we'll head out."

"Well, what are we supposed to do here? Wait for you until we fry?"

"You heard the briefing. It'll take us an estimated fifteen minutes to get to the alien ship. I don't know how long it'll take to find a way inside, if we can find a way. Once there, we'll do our business as quickly as possible, I'd say about thirty minutes. Then it'll be another fifteen minutes to get back to the Magellan. Is that what you wanted to hear?" Fagen's voice dripped with sarcasm. His patience with the navigator was growing thin.

"So you estimate an hour?"

"It's only an estimate, to ."

"Well, using your estimate, does that mean that if you don't show up after an hour has passed, then Bill and I can take the ship out of orbit?"

"Look Nadine, you're going to have use your own discretion. I don't know what's going to happen once we get over there. If all goes well, it shouldn't take more than an hour. If we run into trouble, it could take longer. What do you want me to say? Leave us if we don't make it back in an hour?"

"Yes, that's exactly what I want you to say. I want you to say it clearly so that my recorder picks up every word. I don't want the Corporation to hold back my bonus because of you."

"You're a stellar human being, Nadine. If you don't hear from us thirty minutes after we enter the ship, you're free to do whatever you want. If Bill's up there, tell him to come down here and check us out."

Fagen snapped the intercom off.

"Nadine's getting antsy," said Harry.

"I just hope the ship's here when we start back."

"Bonner will keep a cool head. He won't let her do anything rash."

Fagen nodded and punched the intercom again. "Any radio bursts, any comms?"

"Negative," came Nadine's reply.

Harry looked at Fagen. "You think he's dead?"

"There's no way to know until we get over there."

Bonner stuck his head through the open hatch. "Ya'll ready?"

"Nearly," said Fagen. "I told Nadine to wait an hour before taking any action. So if we're not back, she'll tell you I said it was alright to leave, but I'm telling you to use your own judgment."

The engineer nodded gravely.

Fagen turned to Harry. "Ready?"

"Ready as I'll ever be."

The men shook hands and wished each other luck, then Harry and Fagen climbed into the airlock.

Chapter 39

Exposed in the span between the two spacecraft, the astronauts warily approached the alien ship. An opaque force field shielded the interior of the hanger bay from view and prevented them from gaining access at the one place they knew about. Without success, Harry searched the smooth lines of the ship in hopes of finding another entrance.

Fagen positioned himself at the edge of the hanger bay and waited for Harry to join him. Both men searched along the perimeter for exterior controls that would allow them to switch off the field and enter the craft. They were unsuccessful.

"Got any ideas?"

"I thought we'd find an emergency airlock or something."

"Well, we haven't checked the other side," said Fagen.

"How about I go to the left and you take the right. We'll search the hull and meet on the opposite side."

"Sounds like the only choice we have. Leave this channel open so we stay in voice contact."

"Will do," agreed Harry.

"Let's move, we're wasting time."

"Roger," said Harry and he began his search.

Harry fought against the idea that they were performing an exercise in futility. After all, all the preliminary scans of the alien ship hadn't turned up anything that looked like another entrance. They had to find a way inside. If they didn't, he would never see Kathleen again.

The hull was dark and smooth, appearing to be an alloy of polished metal or even a type of ceramic. It wasn't entirely smooth. At places, protuberances dotted the exterior. Harry stopped and inspected one. It was as wide as the span of his arms and raised from the surrounding hull maybe four or five centimeters. In its center was a dark, convex glass plate. Harry moved closer until he was no more than two feet away. Quite unexpectedly, like an eyeball, the glass glowed a dull red and shifted in his direction.

Alarmed, Harry moved away. The glowing glass eye rotated and followed his movements. As Harry continued his search, he saw similar formations and finally decided they were viewports. If that was indeed the case, then Harry grimly noted that the aliens knew the two Earth men were there. So much for surprise.

He continued to work his way around the craft with the glass eyes monitoring his progress. Fagen was out of sight, but occasionally he called to Harry to ensure all was well. He'd also found similar viewing devices, but no hostile action had been taken as yet.

Harry moved on, crossing the hull toward the aft portion until he reached the elevated nozzles of the drive section. Up close, they were large, not as large as the drive nozzles on the Magellan, but still large enough to enter and float inside without touching the walls. Louvered doors prevented him from going any farther and he reversed his direction, exiting only seconds after he'd entered.

He beat Fagen to the opposite side and continued his search. A disappointing two minutes later, he attempted to call Fagen on the radio. There was no response. He repeated the call, but silence was the only answer. Hoping that Fagen had merely encountered a problem with his radio, Harry quickly crossed the hull and headed toward the stern. The glass eyes swiveled and followed his movements.

As he paused at the bow, Harry looked first down one side of the ship and then the other. There was no sign of Fagen, he had simply vanished. Somehow he had gotten inside, either by his own devices or with the help of the aliens. Harry reasoned that if he'd found a way inside by himself, he would have called. That left only one other alternative: Fagen had been taken captive.

Harry drifted in the vacuum of space. Below him, the clouds of Mia Culpa painted the upper atmosphere. Gaps between the clouds revealed blue ocean and, in the far west where the cloud cover broke, Harry could see the wide, reddish expanse of desert that covered most of the continent. The forests and the coastline were obscured, but Harry knew they were directly below him, and somewhere a small tribe of primitives sat around a campfire and talked about the strange creatures who had visited them and forever changed their world. Briefly, Harry wondered what might happen to the natives, but he already knew. The radiation from a nova would wipe them out, as well as all life in the forests. It was really too bad, they didn't stand a chance.

Forcing the thoughts from his mind, he turned his attention back to the ship. He was sure that somewhere along the hull was a seam or a hidden door, and Fagen had disappeared into it, taken by the aliens. He went back over the area previously covered. Although the small glass sensors traced his movements, there was no other sign of life, nothing to show what had happened to Fagen.

Eventually, he completed the circuit and once again floated outside the opaque force field. He pushed against the field. It gave way like a slab of rubber, pushing back with equal force. Harry floated away and was forced to use his airjets to stop. He glanced at the time. Thirty-two minutes had passed since he and Fagen had left the Magellan's airlock.

*

Inside the hidden airlock, Edward Fagen had difficulty in breathing. The light that had caught him still held him in its grip. It happened too quickly to avoid. He'd seen the seam as it opened but the ray had caught him square and paralyzed him on contact. From that point, it drew him into the airlock and closed behind him.

The beam of light held him firmly, crushing the air from his lungs. He was unable to move even his eyes in their sockets. The inner seam parted and still the light bore down on him.

He fought to maintain consciousness, but by the time the first alien reached him, he was out.

The creature took Fagen by the wrist and dragged him out of the airlock and into an access tunnel. Fagen banged into the walls as he was pulled along. They passed through an open mechanical hatch and took a right that led them to another seam in the bulkhead. The alien passed a stubby three-fingered hand over it and the seam parted.

As he was dragged through the parted seam, Fagen began to come to. He felt the alien gripping him by the wrist. His arm and shoulder were twisted. Then, through his viewplate, he saw the struggling form of Kathleen upon a bright silver examining table.

He didn't struggle and the creature, assuming he was still unconscious, continued to pull him along. Kathleen, however, did see the alien pulling the suited man.

"Harry!" She mistakenly called out. "Harry!"

Neither the alien nor Fagen responded. Kathleen struggled against the straps that held her to the table. The alien who attended her turned to face the disturbance. In a very humanlike manner, it placed its hands where its hips should have been and angrily barked at its passing comrade.

Without replying, the alien adjusted its grip on Fagen and continued to drag him to the opposite side of the chamber and through yet another hatch. Fagen, still groggy and partially paralyzed, faintly heard Kathleen's screams as they stopped in a smaller anteroom.

The creature dropped Fagen's arm as he took a deep breath. A tube dropped from the ceiling and attached itself to Fagen's helmet. In the next moment, Edward felt an increasingly intense electric discharge. His discomfort didn't last long: a sudden surge of power knocked him back into unconsciousness.

*

Blane, still sitting in the control room, witnessed everything via data transmissions from the ship's own sensory system. The thought of intervening by disconnecting himself from the computer and rushing to the aid of his companions never crossed his mind. If it couldn't be done by computer and servos, it wasn't worth doing. That was the one habit he held dearly throughout his life, his guiding dictum. As a result, he'd grown fat and weak, but attained mastership at manipulating data.

By means of the ship's sensory network, he'd watched Fagen and Harry as they approached from the Magellan. When Fagen was snatched, Blane, with his usual objectivity, passively witnessed the event. Now he watched Harry as the linguist floated in space just outside the hanger bay.