by Carl Derham
*
It was 6pm in Cornwall, and Stephan was making a cup of coffee. The kitchen window of his uncle’s cliff-top house had stunning views east across the village and across the undulating scrub land beyond. But this evening there was an unusual addition to the scene. He didn’t make anything of it at first, but as he was filling the kettle with water he suddenly realised that there was a light in the sky. The full moon was rising over the hill that he fondly remembered tobogganing down as a child, and the second light was directly in the centre pane of the flaking, old sash window. At first he thought it must have been a reflection in the glass, but as he scrutinised closer, he could see the irregular shape of the object. People all over the world, well the half that was experiencing night at least, were looking skywards, bamboozled by the new object in the sky. The news stations were quick to pick up on it, and several observatories had already confirmed that it was in fact a second large body in orbit around the earth.
Stephan turned on the television just in time to catch the start of the news. There was a picture of the asteroid and the presenter was interviewing an astronomer called Professor James Farringdon. He could confirm the distance and size of the object, but when questioned about its origin, he had to admit that at the moment they were unable to explain the phenomenon.
“Does it pose a threat?” asked the presenter, in the usual annoying manner that journalists always try to find a threat in any story.
“No. It appears to have settled into a stable orbit, travelling in the opposite direction to the Moon.”
Oli was watching the news and was pleased with the outcome. At least no one would be panicking now plus it might give them something else to concentrate on for a while, rather than the usual nonsense.
“Right then Robbie me old mucker,” said Oli, clapping his hands together as though indicating a job well done. “How about teaching me how to fly this tub?”
“Oli, I really don’t think that referring to the ship as a tub is going to achieve your desired conclusion.”
Oli and Pardy looked at each other and Oli made his ‘oops’ face. He explained that it was a term of endearment and that he really did love the ship. With that, a previously concealed section of the control panel silently glided out towards him revealing many more controls. This lower control panel was curved to fit around the chair so that Oli was suddenly surrounded by all manner of fun-looking gizmos. Two joysticks popped up on either side of the seat so that they were perfectly positioned for Oli to hold without moving. They looked as though they were made from glass, and Oli felt that if he gripped them too tightly they would surely shatter.
“Well!” exclaimed Oli. “You kept this a secret, didn’t you?”
“I anticipated your Human desire for, shall we say, hands on technology and constructed this human interface before you came on board the ship,” said Robbie. “The left stick controls the speed and the right one, pitch and yaw.” Robbie explained. “You don’t need to worry about anything else for now. “
Oli was more than familiar with the concept of pitch and yaw.
“If you let go of the left stick,” Robbie continued, “the ship stops dead. They really are quite sensitive, so you only need to make very small movements. The ball on top of the right stick controls the roll. Use this to roll the ship left and right. The scale of the throttle control is set by these ten buttons.” A row of lights just to the right of the throttle lit up in sequence: three blue, three yellow, three black and one red.
“The first button is for flying within an atmosphere and incorporates a throttle range of zero to twenty thousand kilometres per hour. I would greatly appreciate it if it remained on this setting for now.”
Oli turned and gave a little wink to Pardy, who lowered her head into her feathers and giggled. The space in front of the screen lit up with figures and a grid, floating in mid-air in front of the screen. They were transparent and allowed Oli to see the screen clearly, but he asked Robbie to remove them since he didn’t have a clue what they meant. Pardy had climbed onto Oli’s shoulder. She was slightly nervous as though she were a passenger in a car with a first-time learner driver, but Robbie had assured them both that if Oli screwed up, he would step in and take over. He also assured them that his reactions, even after such a long time, were sufficient.
Oh, so he’s swearing now, thought Oli. He’ll be smoking next, and then I suppose he’ll get into designer drugs and grow long hair.
Oli gripped the two joysticks. They were five thousand kilometres from Earth so there wasn’t really anything to hit. He edged the throttle stick forward gently…Nothing. He’d actually accelerated to 800 kilometres per hour, but there was no sensation of movement. He pushed it a bit further and then decided to try the right stick. He moved it to the left and the earth appeared, flying in from the left of the screen to fill the whole screen. Oli panicked and let go of both sticks.
“Do not fret Oli. Even at maximum velocity on the first setting it’ll take us fifteen minutes to reach the earth from here.” Then in a very quiet voice, he added, “I’m not an idiot.”
Oli locked his fingers together and pushed them away from him in the manner that a concert pianist might do before attempting to get to grips with a Rachmaninoff concerto. He grabbed the sticks again. This time he pushed the throttle all the way forward, waited a few seconds and gently moved the right stick to the right. The earth disappeared from the left of the screen and the stars began streaming across. Pardy let out a little high pitched “whee.” A three-dimensional hollow image of a sphere appeared to the left of the screen with a flashing red arrow next to it. This, Robbie explained, showed him where he was in relation to the nearest large astronomical body. As he continued to turn, the holographic image of the earth appeared from the side of the screen and moved around behind him, floating through the control room.
“Cool.”
He kept the stick slightly to the right and in a few seconds, the earth appeared from the right of the screen. When it was centred, Oli straightened the right stick and it stayed in the middle of the screen.
“Can I have a speedo in kilometres per hour please Robbie?” Oli asked. A red transparent 20,000 appeared at the bottom centre of the screen. “Ta,” he said, not taking his eyes from the screen. He moved the right stick until the earth was in the left corner of the screen and hit the second blue button. The speedometer instantly changed to 50,000, and the earth began to rotate. As it moved out of the screen, Oli would move the right stick to bring it back until he found the angle to keep the planet in the same position. He hit the next blue button and the figures on the screen jumped to 150,000 and a barely audible “ugh,” came from all around. Oli could feel Pardy’s claws digging into his shoulder. The earth was now rotating at a fair speed and he had to make constant adjustments with the right stick to keep it in the same position. He put his thumb on the roll control and moved it to the right. The earth disappeared out of the bottom left of the screen and a holographic version of it appeared under the consul. He straightened the steering and pushed the stick forward. The earth appeared again, this time at the bottom of the screen.
“Fantastic!” he said, feeling that he was truly getting the hang of it.
Pardy was itching to join in and had climbed down his arm and was intently eyeing the line of buttons. Yellow was after all her favourite colour, so she decided to go for the first yellow button.
Just at that moment, Oli had decided to head straight towards Earth, to see how long it took to get there at this speed. He pitched the nose down so that the planet was directly in the centre of the screen.
As though someone had flicked a switch, one second the screen was filled with the blue, white and green of the earth, the next second there was just green. Oli let go of the joysticks and let out a yelp. As he looked at the green screen he could make out a shimmering movement.
“What's that?” he quizzed.
“We jumped to sub-light and are currently two metres above a la
rge redwood tree in southern Canada,” answered Robbie, not a hint of panic in his voice. “Fortunately, someone was paying attention.”
“Pardy!” Oli grinned as he noticed her standing next to the buttons, with a parrot version of sheepish spread across her face. He lifted her back to his shoulder and suggested that maybe she should leave the driving to him in future. Robbie straightened the ship up. They were in the middle of a forest that stretched to the horizon in all directions.
“It’s a pity we don’t have any music,” said Oli.
“I have files of every piece of music that’s ever been put on the web Oli,” said Robbie. “What would you like to hear?”
Oli’s taste in music was legendary amongst his friends. His musical palate could never be described as genre-specific. It all depended on his mood and the activity in which he was engaged. One minute he could be listening to banging trance and the next, Beethoven and Tchaikovsky.
“I think maybe some heavy rock would suit the moment,” Oli said. “Ahm…AC/DC!”
Suddenly the control room was filled with the enamel-chipping sound of Angus Young’s guitar. Oli recognised it immediately.
“Highway to Hell,” he grinned. “Good choice.”
He asked Robbie to turn it up to the required deafening level and felt Pardy’s claw begin to tap on his shoulder. Ah he thought, another convert. He flicked the speed back to the first blue button and eased the throttle forward. They flew out of Canada and down into the USA. Robbie was trying to jam the multitude of radar signals, but it was impossible to block them all. It was one of the busiest hours ever for NUFORC, the National UFO Reporting Centre. Robbie actually congratulated Oli on his handling of the ship. He flew down the Grand Canyon at 2000 kilometres per hour and Robbie only had to step in twice to stop them from hitting the cliffs and being smashed into a million pieces. Oli was having the time of his life. He had dreamt about doing this for years, usually when he was asleep, but quite often also, when he was awake. Pardy was enjoying the music and Robbie had obviously acquired some of Oli’s musical taste because he’d assembled the drone, which was now performing a fairly passable air guitar at the back of the control room.
“I want to go out over the ocean,” said Oli, pulling lightly on the stick to move them out of the canyon. “Which way to the Pacific?”
A floating three-dimensional compass appeared on the screen with a flashing red number 270 to the right of it. Oli turned the stick to the right and the flashing red number moved around the compass. When it reached the top, it stopped flashing. Oli straightened up the ship and accelerated to five thousand kilometres per hour.