Oli, A Very New Moon

by Carl Derham

  *

  When they awoke the next morning and entered the bridge, the three Throgloid ships were occupying the entire screen.

  “They've found us! Shields up! Or whatever you do.” shouted Oli.

  “We're three million kilometres from their current position Oli,” said Robbie, unable to conceal the hint of stupid boy within his voice. “They have no idea that we're here. I was waiting for you to wake before making our presence known.”

  The Image Refraction System had been developed for use in inter-planetary games of hide and seek, but was now proving very useful indeed.

  “Oh that's alright then,” said Oli, ignoring the sniggers from everyone else.

  The screen in the control room was filled with a magnified image of the three ships. They were small in comparison to Cranus. They could have put all three in one of the cargo bays, but they were bristling with armoury. Every inch of the ship’s outer shell was taken up by ominous-looking, long pointy things. They weren’t beautifully streamlined like an Annenian ship; the superstructure was the shape of a watermelon. They looked more like big ugly jet black bugs that crawl around the floor of the Brazilian rainforest, looking for an unsuspecting insect to devour.

  Whilst everyone was finishing their breakfast, Robbie brought the ship around behind them and assumed the same course and speed, five hundred metres behind the rear ship. Oli thought that Robbie was either very confident or had big hairy brass circuits.

  “I’m going to disengage the IRS so that they can see us.”

  Robbie opened a channel to the bridge of the lead ship. The boss Throgloid appeared shocked as he caught his first sight of a Human on his screen. Oli wasn’t sure, but he felt in the expression of the Throgloid captain, that he was disgusted by the sight. Pot-kettle, thought Oli.

  “Hi, er…I’m Oli and I’m a human. I would just like to say hello and it’s very nice to meet you.” Oli was smiling his ‘I just want to be your friend’ type of smile. It usually made everyone warm to him immediately, but he could sense that this one was going to be tough. Without warning, the three ships opened fire with barrages of lasers, missiles, some blue stuff that neither Oli nor Robbie could place. Every piece of ordnance bounced harmlessly off the shield surrounding Cranus. The screen was lighting up like a millennium eve fireworks' display and everyone whooped and hollered with every new visual effect. The last thing that the Throgloid captain expected to see on the faces of his victims, were looks of elation and this was obviously having an adverse effect on his demeanour. Everyone was glued to the screen as all three Throgloid ships turned around to face Cranus. Each ship had three spikes, a third of the length of the ship projecting from the front. They began to arc plasma until a jagged circle of blue light spat and jumped around the front of the ship. This was then directed to a point on the nose of the ship and Oli held his breath as this impressive-looking display was released in a single flow of energy towards Cranus. The screen turned blue as the charge was deflected around the outside, harmlessly into space. Oli and his friends had frequented many clubs and festivals. They had witnessed many spectacular light shows with the very latest laser technology, but this was way beyond anything that they had ever laid eyes on. They were whooping and hollering as the arcs of light bounced around the ship, disappearing into space as a wispy trail that appeared to be alive. When one barrage of light ended, Oli could see that the ships were gearing up to fire again and he stepped towards the screen and raised his hand.

  “Look, can you just stop shooting a minute? I just want to talk with you, let’s see if we can become friends.”

  Oli could hear the echo of his words coming through the screen. But it wasn’t English, it was slobber gurg. The Throgloids were hearing this strange creature talking to them in fluent Throg.

  The shooting stopped and the Throgloid captain raised himself up out of his chair with his enormous arms, and strode up to the screen, his eyes fixed on his quarry. Oli thought that if first impressions really did count for anything, then this guy should do something about the green drool swinging from the corner of his mouth.

  “I want the ship.” The computer translated the words of the Throgloid Captain in real time. Everyone had to look away from the screen to conceal their laughter, because Robbie had given this giant slobbering monster the voice of an eight-year-old girl. Oli put his hand in front of his face as though he were rubbing his eyes, and at the same time was biting his bottom lip to prevent himself from collapsing in hysterics. It took him a little while to compose himself. He looked over at the others and all of their shoulders were gyrating in stifled laughter. When he felt he could contain his mirth, he turned to face the screen again, fully aware that he was grinning from ear to ear.

  “Well, you can’t have it. It’s not yours.” Oli was aware that he had sounded like a Sunday school teacher who was refusing to give back to a naughty boy, the chewing gum he’d stolen from his smaller classmate. With this, the captain drew a short version of the Grax, only about a metre long and sliced off the head of his second in command.

  “Eww!” said Oli in disgust. The girls screamed and looked away from the screen. Oli heard the translation of his exclamation in the screen monitor. “Eeeeaaaawwx.” Pardy had flown off and was hiding behind the central control panel, safe in the knowledge that her ancestors had made the right decision regarding these foul creatures.

  “Look, why don’t I come over and we’ll talk about this man to Throgloid over a glass of beer?”

  At first, Robbie had doubted the wisdom in this plan, but Oli had convinced him. Obviously the drone would accompany him and Robbie had assured him that it was perfectly capable of looking after itself. Robbie would hold the Throgloid ship in a towing beam, so they couldn’t run off with him inside. At the first sign of trouble, they would get out of there and hightail it back to Cranus. The Throgloid captain gurgled something which immediately translated as, “be my guest,” the corner of his mouth curling up into a revolting sneer. He held out both arms in a welcoming way, but the main image to draw Oli’s attention was that of the three Throgloids in the background removing the decapitated corpse.

  Oli wanted assurance that the Go-ring would work against anything, so Robbie got the drone to shoot at him with a pulse rifle from three metres away. The pulse rifle could punch a hole through a small moon from five hundred kilometres. He didn’t feel a thing, and all of a sudden was looking forward to the adventure. Everyone gave him a big hug and Sara gave him an extra special kiss on the cheek, which brought a smile to his face. He’d always had a soft spot for Sara but one of his main rules in life explicitly forbade fooling around with friends. He’d seen too many friends fall out over swapping partners. But that was a really lovely peck on the cheek.

  A flap opened in the left arm of the command chair and a pair of earplugs appeared.

  “Put those in your ears Oli. They’ll translate the slobbering gurgling mess into a discernible language.”

  Oli was getting the impression that Robbie really didn’t like these guys, if in fact it was possible for an AI to harbour bad feelings for anyone. Robbie positioned Cranus alongside the lead battle cruiser and extended a docking passageway to the airlock. He locked the towing beam to the hull of the Throgloid ship. Oli and the drone walked along the tube to a round door that was at least three metres in diameter. The door split down the middle and the two halves disappeared into the wall. He thought they either had some really big furniture to move in here, or else these Throgloids were rather large. Oli had never done anything remotely brave before in his life, but he was slowly starting to understand the effect that an invincibility ring and control of the most powerful star ship in the galaxy could have on a guy’s confidence. They stepped into the airlock, which closed with a menacing thud behind them. The next door rotated and opened and they were confronted by a group of five Throgloids, all armed with scary looking guns. They were big buggers. The tallest one was about two and a half metres tall. He gurgled and it was imme
diately translated in his earpiece by the voice of Donald Duck as “Follow me.” He turned to the drone and asked Robbie to give them a more appropriate voice, because he didn’t want to spend the entire meeting stifling laughter. It was only then as he composed himself that Oli noticed the smell. It made him think about walking through Billingsgate fish market at the end of a hot summer’s day when there had been an ice shortage. One of the Throgloid guards whispered a gurgle to another, and the translator just picked it up.

  “Poo!”

  Oli looked at them in disgust as if to say, how the hell can I smell worse than Billingsgate? They walked down several dimly lit corridors. They obviously hadn’t discovered gargite. The lights in the ceiling gave off a dim glow that could only be described as dirty light. They never saw the sun on Throwgus due to all the smoke and dust kicked into the atmosphere from the centuries of fighting, so their eyes were not accustomed to bright light. Eventually they reached the bridge. The door rolled open and stood there waiting, was the captain with his arms folded and a full length Grax leaning against the wall next to him.

  Oli was expecting a shabby looking bridge with badly constructed consoles and no comfortable chairs, the way that all the enemy ships appeared in Star Trek. But it was a magnificent-looking bridge. Every wall was covered with gadgets, computer screens and the whole place was decked out in a deep red carpet. He was impressed and immediately congratulated the captain on his outstanding bridge. The crew of the bridge had all halted their tasks and turned to face the Human. He heard sniggers coming from every corner of the room.

  “You are very brave, Human. I am Commander Grrghracksh.” Names didn’t translate particularly well.

  “Well not really. I just think that it’s preferable to talk face to face.” As he spoke, the drone translated into Throgloid.

  “Your ship is obviously very powerful and I want it,” said the Captain.

  “Well like I said before, you can’t have it. I’m sorry but that’s the way it has to be. Now you seem like a reasonab…” He stopped. The Captain had picked up his Grax. Oli watched in horror as the massive weapon glinted in the dim light. He obviously spent a considerable time polishing it. Without any question or hesitation, the Captain swung the mighty weapon through the air, bringing it down with all his force onto Oli’s head. As he was completing his swing, the Captain was confused as to why this weak little creature wasn’t making any effort to dodge the blow that would surely slice it in two. I must be really slow as well as puny. Oli closed one eye in a little wince. He knew that the ring could fend off a pulse blast, but this Grax looked rather nasty, but he didn’t back away or cower. He just turned his head slightly and pushed his chin into his neck. With his open eye he saw the broken piece of sword spinning off to the corner of the room where it embedded in the wall. The Captain let out a gurgle as the shock reverberated up through the hilt and into his arm.

  Ouch! thought Oli, as he remembered the cold winter sports days at school where he had to play hockey. He hated hockey so much. The act of hitting that rock hard ball would send shock waves through the stick and into his icy fingers, where it would slowly vibrate its way up his arm. He gritted his teeth in sympathy for the captain.

  “What kind of trickery is this?” he gurgled, inspecting the jagged remains of his priceless antique Grax. He had taken it in battle from a great Magi warrior, who with his last breath had told Grrghracksh to use the weapon well as it once belonged to the General Argrashank, possibly the most feared of all Throgloid warriors and founder of the Magi tribe. Oli felt sympathy for the Captain as he watched the broken Grax fall from his trembling hand.

  “It’s not trickery. I’m just a lot tougher than I look.”

  Without any hesitation or thought, the Captain launched his football-sized fist at Oli’s face, and Oli heard the crack as three of his eight fingers snapped like twigs.

  “Look,” said Oli, as the captain cradled his damaged hand and made a sound similar to ‘argh!’ “Can't we just sit down with a beer and talk about this?”

  The Throgloid Captain gestured with his good hand to a door on one side of the bridge. He had to get this impressively powerful foe off the bridge before he humiliated himself in front of the crew. Oli, the drone and the Captain entered the captain's quarters. Ed and the crew panicked when Oli left the bridge because they could no longer see them. Then Robbie switched from the viewer on the bridge of the Throgloid vessel to the view from the drone, and they all breathed a sigh of relief. In the room, Oli found a round jet black table and four high-backed chairs. Filling the walls were photos of battles and the victims of those battles, but the centre spot on the wall was reserved for a shelving unit made from shiny metal and glass. Each shelf had a highly polished skull on it with a banner across the top written in Throgloid. The Captain noticed Oli looking at the skulls and proudly gurgled, “The skulls of the greatest warriors in history and others that I have conquered. Maybe there's room for a Human skull soon.” His broad grin revealed a set of razor-sharp, yellow teeth.

  They sat at either end of the table and a Throgloid entered with a tray containing two glasses filled with an amber liquid with a white head. Oli felt reassured that beer was a galactic staple diet. He took his glass from the tray and raised it to the Captain.

  “Cheers,” he said.

  The Captain waited for the translation and then gurgled something which translated as, “your head on a stick.”

  Charming, thought Oli, raising his glass to his mouth and tilting it to sample the ice cold brew. But instead of sliding down his throat, the beer, unable to pass the force field poured down his front and onto the floor.

  “Oops, slight drinking problem,” said Oli, flicking the liquid onto the floor.

  From the corner of the room, Robbie’s voice appeared from the drone.

  “The ring detected poison and so prevented it from passing.”

  Oli looked at the captain then at the drink, then he glanced over at the skulls, then he looked over to the drone that was waiting by the door. He shrugged his shoulders, shook his head and sighed, realising that it was pointless trying to reason with the Captain.

  “This is getting us nowhere. Look, you can’t come to Earth, you can’t have the ship and if you ever come and bother us again we’re gonna blow up your star along with your planet.”

  The Throgloid Captain had stood up and was cradling his broken hand in his other one, looking down at Oli in bewilderment. He let go of the broken hand and with the other reached under the table and pulled out a handgun the size of a wildebeest. Without any warning, he pointed it at Oli’s head and fired. Everyone on Cranus gasped. The Captain watched in dismay as the projectile ricocheted from the head of this ludicrously powerful creature and hit one of his prized trophy skulls, shattering it into hundreds of tiny pieces. He roared with anger and the door flew open.

  “I mean it,” said Oli. “Robbie wanted to just blow the star without warning and then come and turn you all into the tiniest battle fleet in the universe, but I want to give you a chance. Bugger off back to Throwgus and don’t come back this way again. Oh...and…ah...sorry about your skull…oh, and your hand…and I’m really sorry about your sword.”

  Oli waited for the drone to finish the translation and turned to the door. There were two guards who'd burst in when they heard the Captain’s roar, but they stopped in their tracks as the Captain held up his hand to them. Finally, he’s getting it, thought Oli. The drone joined Oli’s side and they stepped towards the door. They’d only taken one step when they were halted by an invisible wall. Oli put his hands against the unseen barrier and started feeling for an opening. He quickly discovered that he was confined within a cylindrical force field and as he turned to face the Captain again, he saw him grinning across the width of his enormous head.

  “You’re my prisoner now,” he growled. “I might not be able to kill you, but I can keep you here until you agree to give me the ship.”

  When Oli was just a grommet at the
tender age of six, his mum and dad had taken him on a weekend by the sea in Bournemouth. He was exploring the rock pools when he stumbled upon a small cave at the base of a cliff. It wasn’t really a cave, just a small hole big enough for a small child of about six to slide in between the two boulders that blocked the entrance. Unfortunately, once inside the hole, he could neither turn around or back out and so he became stuck fast. He was only in there for a few minutes because his screams would have alerted the residents of the local graveyard. He was pulled from the cave by a kind gentleman who calmed him down and delivered him back to his mother. As a consequence of this minor foray into pot holing, Oli hated enclosed spaces. Not to the point where he was afraid of lifts, but if he felt trapped in any confined space he would immediately begin to panic, and even though he couldn’t see the walls of his prison, he was aware of how small it was and could feel himself starting to sweat. He turned to look at the drone, hoping for an answer but the drone was busy surveying its surroundings.

  “What are we going to do?” cried Sara. “We can’t go in there to rescue him without any rings.”

  “Leave it to the drone,” Robbie assured her.

  Oli was now looking up at the point on the ceiling on which the drone had fixed its gaze. Directly above them was a spotlight the size of a saucer. Oli looked back at the drone to see its head begin to dissolve and drift like smoke towards the light. The very fact that the drone was acting, calmed him down considerably. As the first nano-drones reached the light, Oli heard a smash and shielded his eyes as the tiny fragments of glass showered all around him. He looked back to see a trail of black dots migrating from the remainder of the drone. In a matter of seconds the entire drone had dissolved and disappeared into the ceiling.

  The Captain, finally realising that the drone had found a way out of the capture tube, raised his cannon again and started shooting at the ceiling indiscriminately, blowing holes in the structure all around him. His gun suddenly started clicking. Ha! thought Oli. Out of bullets? But he was concerned about the drone. He didn’t know how much punishment the nano-drones could take. He felt sure that some of them would have been destroyed by the gunfire. Everyone in the room was staring at the ceiling in anticipation, when suddenly, through every hole that the Captain had so kindly provided, poured streams of black mist. The mist fell to the floor and gathered in front of the captain who was furiously reloading his gun. No easy task with only one hand. He fumbled and the bullets fell to the floor as the mound of drones began to grow. The Captain fell to his knees, scrambling to pick up the bullets and forced them into the chamber. He managed to load three bullets and raised the gun towards the drone that had now formed its normal humanoid shape. With one rapid movement that just appeared as a blur to Oli, the drone knocked the gun from the Captain's hand, floated off the floor and grabbed the Captain around the throat. In the same split second, the Captain found himself pushed against the back wall with his huge feet dangling a metre from the floor and the razor-sharp point of a long sword resting against his temple.

  “Drop the force field please Captain,” requested the drone in a voice that was so calm that it could have been requesting the wine list in a swanky restaurant. The Captain gurgled something which translated in Oli’s earpiece as exactly the same noise that he’d made. Thinking that the translator had packed up, Oli tapped his ear, but then it dawned on him that the sound of a person being throttled must be the same in every language.

  “I think you’re killing him,” Oli suggested.

  The drone relaxed its grip slightly and reiterated its command.

  “The controls are on the table,” wheezed the Captain.

  Without releasing its grip or lowering the sword, the drone floated back to the table with the Captain in tow. There was a control panel at the head of the table and the drone positioned the captain so that he could touch it. Then it tightened its grip again, just to let him know what would happen if he didn’t follow the demand to the letter. He typed in a command and Oli, who had been leaning on the invisible wall with both hands, fell forward and just managed to stop himself face-planting the edge of the table. Everyone on the bridge of Cranus cheered.

  “We’re going now,” said Oli. “And I mean it! I never want to see you again.”

  The drone’s sword morphed back into an arm and, rather than relaxing its grip on the Captain’s throat, it gave a little flick of the wrist. From Oli’s viewpoint it looked like the sort of flick that you would employ to shake water from your fingers before placing them under a hand dryer. The Captain flew across the room and ended up in a heap in the corner.

  “Easy tiger,” said Oli, content that he was in the right team.

  “Wait!” gasped the Captain, as Oli and the drone were heading through the door. Oli turned and looked at him.

  “You’ve defeated me. Aren’t you going to eat me?”

  “Eurgh! Thanks all the same, but I’ve been snacking all day and I don’t want to spoil my appetite for dinner,” said Oli.

  He turned and retraced his steps to the airlock, followed by the drone. Three more Throgloids who hadn’t heard about the events on the bridge decided to have a pop at Oli on his way back. The Throgloid medical centre had a busy day with broken hands, broken toes and one cracked skull. The airlock door swung open and Oli rejoined Cranus, leaving behind him a ship full of very confused barbarians. When they reached the airlock on Cranus, the docking tube was withdrawn and Robbie released the tow on the Throgloid ship. Oli looked out of a little round window and saw the Throgloid ships make a U-turn and disappear.

  Everyone was waiting for them outside the airlock. They’d seen the whole thing on the screen and as Oli entered the ship, they all gave high fives and hugs and cheered at the tops of their voices.

  “Well Oli, they’ve gone for now,” said Robbie, not wanting to interrupt the celebrations, “but I can assure you, they will be back. I still think we should have permanently deleted them.”

  Oli had achieved what he’d set out to achieve. He’d frightened them off. They now knew that they were no match for Cranus. The problem was solved without a drop of blood or slime being spilt, except of course, for the poor first Officer.

  During the journey home, they all decided to explore the rear of the ship. This was the accommodation section of the giant vessel and comprised five decks with cabins, bars, games rooms and everything the crew and passengers would require for a long journey. At the entrance to the accommodation decks there were signs containing strange writing, pointing in all directions. Oli didn’t want to disturb Robbie, who was at this time engaged in a rather tricky game of four-dimensional galactic Larssy, a game that was similar to chess, but utilised thirty billion pieces covering three million planets throughout a single spiral arm of the Milky Way galaxy. The playing area was a simulated version of space-time and the playing pieces could occupy any planet at any point in time from the Big Bang to the present day. It was Robbie’s own invention. He’d never yet managed to win.

  Luckily for Oli, each one of the signs had a picture accompanying it so they could get a rough idea of its purpose. One depicted a bed, another a cup and another portrayed something that Oli didn’t recognise. It was simply a wavy line with a cross through it. So they decided to follow that one, being neither tired, nor thirsty. They walked down several corridors with Pardy in her usual position on Oli’s shoulder and were guided by a sign to take a large service elevator down. There was only one button in the elevator, so Sara pressed it. Psst. The doors closed and they began to descend. Down and down they went into what must have been the lowest part of the ship. When the elevator came to a gentle halt, the door flew open again to reveal a large circular room with a desk to one side and several doors leading away from it. Oli walked over to one of the doors and peered through the little round window. Inside were several cylindrical containers on legs. Each one was about two metres in length and half a metre wide. He was expecting the door to psst open, but it didn’t. So he gave it a littl
e push, but it didn’t budge. It appeared to be locked. Alongside the door was a small square glass panel, protruding from the wall and tilted at an angle so that it faced Oli.

  “Put your hand on it Oli,” said Pardy. She’d seen a similar one in Annenia. Of course, the parrots had never been able to open it, not being in possession of hands. Oli placed his hand on the panel and a green light passed from top to bottom of the screen, like a photocopier. Next thing, psst, the door opened. Oli turned to Ed and blew the top of his two fingers, saying, “access all areas.”

  They walked over to the first pod and looked in through the glass top. It was empty, but Oli did notice how incredibly comfortable it appeared. He instinctively reached for a flush-mounted handle situated at the end of the tube and pulled it. The top half of the tube separated into two equal parts. With a gentle hissing sound, the two parts moved out fractionally and then folded around the outside of the cylinder, coming to rest underneath and leaving the open half of the tube accessible. The interior of the tube was constructed from a soft padded material. Oli ran his hand down the inside, closely followed by everyone else. It was padded all around with the softest material they had ever felt. Smoother than silk and softer than down, a combination of velvet with a topping of meringue.

  Pardy had flown off to the other side of the room to examine another pod. She landed on the glass top and was staring into the chamber.

  “Oli,” she said, beckoning with her wing for Oli to come over. “There’s someone in this one.”

  “No way!”

  They all rushed across the room except for Julie, who had kicked off her completely impractical shoes and had one leg in the open pod, about to climb in. They peered into the top of the pod, and sure enough, they could just make out the hazy shape of a face. The face was obviously not Human, but similar. The being had no hair but it had two eyes, a nose and a mouth. In fact, Oli thought, a very cute nose and mouth. There was a sort of mist covering it and in the glow of the lights the figure assumed an angelic appearance. He couldn’t see clearly and he used the sleeve of his denim jacket to clear the mist, only to discover that the moisture was adhered to the inside of the glass. He could make out the shape of the body and it seemed to be clothed in a blue sheet. He immediately remembered the toga party that he’d had for his sixteenth birthday, when they all went to a club wrapped in bed sheets with laurel wreaths on their heads. What a night, and when Julie and Sara decided to swap togas on stage for a bet…

  “Erm, Oli,” interrupted Pardy, “I think we’d better tell Robbie about this.”

  “Oh yeah. Er...Robbie?”

  “Oh Damn and blast,” came Robbie’s reply.

  “Sorry buddy; bad timing?”

  “You could say that Oli. I just lost half the galaxy to a giant black hole created by flying a ship laden with Graviton Generators into the heart of a star. Anyway, what can I do for you?”

  “Did you know that there’s a person down here in a box-type thing?”

  “That’s a hibernation suite Oli, and no, I did not know.”

  “How could you not know Robbie? You’re in control of the entire ship, wired into every working part. How could you possibly have missed the fact that there’s a hibernating person down here?”

  “You’ve got me there Oli. I can only assume that whoever it is, and I can tell you now that it is an Annenian female, must have put herself in there after I was transferred to the small ship after Cranus was placed into sleep mode. Once the hibernation gas is injected into the pod, it becomes completely autonomous. It doesn’t require any power or maintenance. The occupant remains dormant until the re-initiation sequence is entered. I must admit though, this is the longest period of time that anyone has remained in stasis.”

  “Wake her up then!” begged Julie.

  “I can’t do that Julie. She will be infected with the virus and there is no cure. We’d be waking her up to die.”

  “Well I guess you’d better stop fart-arsing around with four-dimensional universes and start working on a cure!” said Oli, peering into the glass-topped cylinder longing to meet the only surviving Annenian in the Galaxy.

  They split up to search all the other pods in the many rooms on the deck that also contained pods, but she was the only occupant. Sara, who had a great talent for drawing, was perched on the pod in a horse riding pose, sketching the Annenian girl. She never went anywhere without her sketch pad and had thousands of pictures, dating from early school to the present day.

  One of the rooms on the same deck was a med-lab, and on entering, Oli found two pygmy-sized drones working on a cure for the illness that had wiped out an entire civilisation. They still had all the samples and data. The surviving scientists had continued working right up until the very end. Maybe she was one of the scientists, thought Oli.

  “Maybe she was one of the scientists,” said Pardy.

  Oli gave Pardy a questioning glance out of the corner of his eye.

  They made their way back to the bridge and Oli asked Robbie to give them an in-depth knowledge of the anatomy and social activities of the Annenians. They sat down in the bridge and Robbie gave them a presentation on the big screen. Everyone had chosen their favourite positions around the star consul and they were sticking to them. Sara had adopted the communications position, which was slightly ironic due to the fact that she was utterly hopeless at replying to messages or returning calls. Julie had unwittingly chosen the navigation console which was equally incongruous, as she could rarely find her way out of her own flat. Whenever they planned to meet anywhere as a group, Sara would always rendezvous with Julie at her flat and go with her to the destination, otherwise everyone would be waiting for hours while Julie ended up on the wrong side of town. Ed was currently making himself comfortable with his feet up on the engineering position. The last time he had tried to perform any kind of engineering task was to change the oil in his scooter, which subsequently blew up because he had filled it with antifreeze instead of oil. Jay was fully aware of his position on the bridge; he was in charge of passenger entertainment and general well-being.

  The Annenians were physically, very similar to Humans. In fact, they had placed a significant amount of their own DNA into the dumb creatures on Earth. They breathed roughly the same combination of gasses, give or take a few parts per million oxygen and nitrogen. They had only three fingers and a thumb on each hand and four toes on each foot. Their skin was considerably paler than a Human’s. Sara, who had pale skin and blond hair, had always hated the fact that she couldn’t tan like everyone else, but she suddenly felt an affinity with the race that had created humanity.

  The Annenians ate, laughed and partied like it was 49,999. Something told Oli that when Robbie found a cure for the disease and they woke up their sleeping guest, they would get along just fine. But that, of course was why Robbie had chosen Oli for the job. His character bore the closest resemblance to an Annenian that he had ever found. Robbie did warn them that they shouldn’t build up their hopes too much about finding a cure. Many scientists and AIs, equally as powerful as Robbie had worked on finding a solution, without any success.

  “Do what you can buddy,” said Oli.

  They returned to the hibernation deck, which Oli discovered was used by Annenians who had a fear of flying. They climbed into a pod each and fell into a deep dreamy sleep, blissfully unaware of the bug-like object attached to the underside of Cranus.