Closer To The Core (25,000 Light-Years Book 1)

by S. Hansen

  'I was beginning to think you weren't ever going to come home from this business trip Adam.' An excitable woman barged into the house with an armful of packages that would have tipped had Stark not stopped them. She put them down on the side and turned to face Stark with a smile so wide he couldn't help but smile back.

  'Well you know me, I just can't tear myself away from the office. Thank you for collecting my packages Polly.' Polly had been the first and only neighbour to greet Stark when he moved in three years ago, she was obviously infatuated with him and was a voluntary housekeeper and package collector for him. He really just wanted peace and quiet when he got home but Polly was the one woman whose heart he couldn't break. One day he knew it would happen but something about her made it impossible for him to just tell her to find someone else. Her endlessly positive outlook on life, her soft features, pale skin and imploring steely blue eyes prevented Stark from causing her any harm.

  'Oh God, what happened to your lip?' Stark tenderly prodded his lip and considered how to respond and as he did so his eyes followed her sun bleached blonde hair down to her shoulders. He spotted a tattoo of three stars resting in the groove created by her left clavicle, he had never noticed the delicate stars before. He had found himself in his second awkward silence of the day and quickly composed himself.

  ‘Oh nothing, just timed my walking and opening a cupboard poorly.' He attempted to give her is signature dashingly handsome smile but his slightly swollen lip caused it to look a little lopsided.

  'It looks bad, you should get a doctor to look at that.’

  ‘I will.’ He opened the door for her and politely herded her out the building. The moment the door latch clicked into place an unfamiliar voice leapt from its concealed owner.

  'I thought she'd never leave.' Stark spun around while pulling out his gun.

  'Who are you and what are you doing in my house?'

  'Firstly you can put down your gun it won't be fast enough to stop me, secondly I'll tell you more about my purpose here once I've gotten you to the station.' The intruder stood at the foot of the stairs pointing some kind of weapon at Stark. He was just an average looking man but something about him was strange. Every part of Stark's body screamed that's a bad guy. The intruder looked uncomfortable as he stood in front of Stark, his dusty brown hair was smoothed back, his eyebrows were thick and cruel looking, he had a cropped full beard and his clothes were casual but worn with a great sense of formality. Everything about him seemed to exude a sense of self-loathing and superiority combined.

  Stark loosened his grip on the gun and slowly put it on to the ground, as he rose again he pressed the panic button on his watch but wasn't overly confident that help would come in time. The door opened again and Polly stood motionless as the weapon turned on her.

  'What is wrong with this woman? Why won't she leave you alone? She pines after you for three years and still she persists!!'

  'Hey! I wouldn't say it was pining,' Polly said indignantly.

  ‘You know you are the second person today who has obviously been studying me, I’m glad to see the world is finally appreciating the wonder that is me.’

  'Get her inside the house and close the door, I'll just have to take both of you for now.' Stark curled an arm around Polly's narrow waist and gently pushed her into the living room as he slammed the door shut with his foot.

  'And where are you going to take us exactly?' Stark hoped for a warmer climate, his recent work had taken him either to other parts of England or to more wintry locations.

  'Somewhere I know for a fact you have never been before.' Well that left a few countries, out of roughly one hundred and ninety five countries there were still some he hadn't been sent to. The doorbell rang.

  'You have no friends! Why is everyone visiting today? Get rid of them.'

  Stark juggled his options in his mind, he could get rid of whoever it was to possibly save them, he could buy a little more time for the backup by talking to them for a while or he could invite them in on the basis that the kidnapper probably couldn't handle three people. He estimated that it would take at least another eight minutes for backup and there was no way he could keep the conversation going that long without the kidnapper getting involved. He also guessed that it wasn't anyone he knew or cared for because like the intruder had said there wasn't really anyone else in his life. So although he'd rather save civilian lives the risk was worth it if he could just distract the kidnapper enough to get the weapon. He opened the door

  'Hello there my name is George Davis, I'm a member of your local labour political party and we'd like to count on you for your vote.' Now Stark was sure that he didn't like his guest.

  'Well George why don't you come on in and tell me why I should vote red.'

  'Oh well thank you very much, you know the door normally gets slammed in my face.'

  'Really?’ Sarcasm dripped from the single word but the naïve young man seemed not to notice. ‘Well you might not thank me in a minute.'

  As they entered the living room George dropped his pamphlets and let out a little squeal, his round features whimpered.

  'I told you to get rid of him!'

  'Oh damnation! I thought you said "Go get them". Well anyway this has all worked out for the best. I just know you are going to find what this guy has to say interesting.' His sarcastic tones infuriated the intruder further and made him impatient to be done with his task.

  'All three of you stand next to each other and hold hands.'

  George followed his orders, he grabbed Polly and Stark's unwilling hands leaving Trillan to shoot the three of them in one go. They disappeared, no puff of smoke, no flash of light, they simply vanished.

  'Why are humans so difficult?' Trillan shot himself and vanished, leaving the house empty once again. Or so he thought. Mazar dropped down from the ceiling.

  'That was weird.' Her face screwed in confusion and then relaxed as she sighed. 'This is not going to be a popular report.'

  Chapter Two: Meeting A Greek Goddess

  The three of them landed with an almighty thump and a few grunts and groans, shortly before Hajeel appeared in front of them. Hajeel was thin and not threatening at all, he had soft, imploring hazel eyes with brows that suggested a welcoming and friendly nature. His eyes widened and a smile grew across his face as he began to speak.

  'Nashana they are here, they are actually here. My first conversation with a human, this will be most enlightening, I'm sure this will be the basis for my next thesis on humans.' Hajeel was bursting with excitement and actually dribbled a little at the thought of finally meeting a member of his favourite race.

  George adopted the foetal position in the corner of the room, his fingers clenched his dark hair as he tried to block out the voices. Meanwhile Stark helped Polly to her feet, as he did so he looked around the room that consisted mainly of what he considered to be television screens and windows into something that looked remarkably like space. In the centre of the room was a large cube shaped object that Stark decided was a table. And other than the over excited man there was a calm woman with a regal face. She had long angelic blonde hair that had been elegantly coiled behind her head, tranquil grey eyes, strong cheek bones and a pleasant closed mouth smile that suggested she would always know more than she would tell.

  Instead of logically asking questions in the pursuit of knowledge, Hajeel began examining every detail of the human figures before him.

  'Nashana look, four fingers and a real human opposable thumb.' Hajeel explored Polly's unwilling hand before thoughts of internal organs surprised his mind. He looked at Polly's abdomen before unwisely saying everything he thought.

  'It would be most fascinating to study the inner workings of the human body, wouldn't you agree Nashana. Perhaps their appendix does still have a purpose and two kidneys, simply fascinating.' Stark stepped between Hajeel and Polly, pushed his finger into Hajeel's chest and stared him down. Hajeel looked as though he had just created gold. 'Nashana look at all the t
ypical signs he displays, the inflated chest and the anger in his eyes. A wonderful demonstration of the alpha male protecting his female.'

  'Who are you and what do you want?' Hajeel grabbed his hand and shook it firmly.

  'My goodness you are quite right, I completely forgot to introduce myself. You would think after so long observing Earth I would remember such conventions. My name is Hajeel, junior observer of the Hope Sector. This is my senior Nashana and you have already met my other senior, Trillan, on Earth. I'm sure he'll join us shortly.'

  So many questions rushed through Stark’s mind, as he picked through the fairly irrelevant and the completely irrelevant ones he found himself asking.

  'What is the Hope Sector?'

  'I told you he was smarter than most humans Nashana.'

  Trillan entered the room with his cruel brown eyes fixed on Stark, he could feel Trillan's eyes boring straight through his skull. Without moving his gaze he spoke.

  '“Smarter than most humans” is hardly a ringing endorsement Hajeel. Humans are still like toddlers wandering around putting things they shouldn’t in their mouths, smashing things they oughtn’t together and leaving a trail of destruction behind them.'

  Stark gave a half smile in agreement with Trillan's assessment, but quickly reverted his gaze back to Hajeel for an answer to his question.

  'Oh yes... Err... the Hope Sector, it's quite difficult to explain the exact purpose of a sector to someone who has never left their planets orbit let alone their star system. But the Hope sector is one of many sectors of the galaxy. Most sectors contain three star systems and have three observers. The Hope sector contains your star system along with the Rhyma and Ullar systems.'

  Stark's face adopted an expression that said he was thinking about all this information carefully while Polly's said Holy crap, holy crap aliens are real and they don't like us. George remained in the corner rocking himself gently and humming loudly in an attempt to block out the truth. Stark pondered the possibility that it was all an elaborate ruse, after all these supposed aliens looked for all intents and purposes human. But he felt it was entirely possible none of what he was seeing was real, including their appearance. His trained eyes began to wander and search every corner of the room.

  'I wouldn't try escaping Agent Stark, we mean you no harm but we cannot allow you to leave the station until you are ready.' Nashana finally spoke with a serene voice that halted George's rocking as he rose to look directly into her peaceful eyes. In a daze he stumbled across the floor towards her.

  'You're an angel!' He stroked her face, smiled and then fainted in front of her whilst she made no attempt to catch him. Stark completely ignored this display and continued questioning his captors.

  'Ready for what?'

  'Honestly it doesn't matter, as I doubt you'll ever be ready,' Trillan said in his arrogant manner, while Hajeel occupied himself with his unconscious specimen. Lifting George’s arm and letting it drop repeatedly.

  'Perhaps we should give our guests time to understand what they have learnt so far. We have other matters to discuss anyway.'

  Stark knew that Nashana was not exactly the good cop in this scenario but she was at least a thoughtful host. Trillan nodded at Nashana and grabbed Hajeel. As the three of them left the door slammed down leaving no obvious escape route. Polly gave Stark a half-hearted smile and knelt down to attend to George.

  'He'll be fine he just fainted. A good slap around the face will wake him up.' Stark bent over and smacked George across the face. As George's eyes opened he realised that what had caused him to faint was real, so he leapt up, ran at the wall and bounced back again. Stark restrained him for a while as Polly tried to reason with both men.

  'You know you didn't have to actually hit him. George calm down, this behaviour will get us nowhere and frankly these aliens already seem to think we are a little on the slow side. I don't think you need to give them further proof.' As Polly spoke she hugged George and he became more docile than the caged animal he had been before. George began to slump to the floor again but this time he remained conscious. Polly looked to Stark

  'What's the plan?'

  'Plan?'

  'Surely you have one.'

  'Well I don't know about you but I don't exactly get kidnapped by aliens on a regular basis, so no I don't have one.'

  'This seems like a good time to tell you that you can cut the crap. I know you're an MI6 agent.'

  'Firstly, that still doesn't prepare me for alien hostage scenarios and secondly how did you find out?'

  'I water your plants for you, you didn't think I'd have a key to your place and not snoop did you? You might want to think about moving some of that stuff into the safe in the headboard of your bed.'

  Stark smiled at Polly and realised a few things about her that had previously gone unnoticed by him. One, she was pretty smart, two, she was observant and three, she was a good friend.

  'You didn't crack the safe as well did you?'

  'I have a degree in history not breaking and entering.'

  'At least I still have some secrets hidden from you then.'

  'That depends on what is in the safe.'

  'Why? What else do you know?'

  'Your ex-wife came by once and she may have made some assumptions based on the fact I was in your house and you weren't.' Polly had held a lot of secrets for some time now, she spoke rapidly and as though she were sighing with relief to share what she knew.

  'And you didn't think to rectify that?'

  'What difference does it make? She's your EX-wife, I didn't even know you were married so I thought she cheated on you or something.' She attempted to put the words back into her mouth as they leapt away but was too late.

  'It makes every bit of difference and it certainly makes some conversations a lot less confusing.'

  Polly slumped on the ground next to George in silence, feeling a little guilty. Meanwhile Stark explored the door in a laboured and frustrated manner. After some time the frequently over talkative Polly couldn't help but open her mouth.

  'If they really are aliens why do they look human?'

  'What were you expecting? Little green men?'

  ‘Well maybe. I don’t know. At least something more unfamiliar than what they are.’ Stark continued with his battle to open a door with no handle, a pad appeared in the centre of the door so he mashed buttons until the door opened.

  'Aha! Who needs logic when random button mashing works?' As the door slid up it became clear that Stark had not had any effect on the door. A smaller, greener version of Hajeel stood in the doorway.

  'I hope this form makes you feel more comfortable Miss Webster-Hargreaves.' Hajeel smiled at her and Polly couldn't help but laugh. Hajeel attempted a laugh but it was clear to Polly and Stark that this was something Hajeel had probably never done before as the nervous titter left his lips.

  'Are your err... colleagues going to be coming back?' Stark gazed around Hajeel and through the doorway where in the background he could make out a room full of screens, each showing a different location on Earth. He recognised a few of them in the short amount of time he had to take them in but saw nothing else of interest.

  'They will come later, for now we have elected that I be the one to explain everything to you.'

  'You sure you're allowed to explain everything to us or will that offend the grumpy guy?'

  'Ahh, perhaps I should rephrase that Mr Stark. I am to explain everything that I feel is necessary for you to know.'

  Hajeel motioned the pair towards the cube in the room and swept his hand across the surface of it. A three dimensional map of the galaxy appeared above the mysterious box. Hajeel began to point out specific parts of the galaxy to Stark and Polly whilst explaining their relevance to Earth.

  'This small section of the galaxy is the Hope Sector, here is Earth and your star system.'

  As he pointed to the map it enlarged the hope sector and made its three systems examinable.

  'Over here is the Rhyma sy
stem, the dominant sentient life forms of this system call themselves Dantans. They have explored the immediate space around their home world of Drium but have since retreated back to the planet and have shown no desire to explore further.'

  'Do they look like humans? I mean, I thought you were like a human until you were... green.'

  'A fine question Miss Webster-Hargreav-‘ She cringed as he continued to use her surname and interrupted him.

  ‘Polly is fine.’ Hajeel smiled at her and continued.

  ‘In many respects yes they do Polly.' The map changed into a holographic image of what Hajeel explained to be the average Dantan. 'They are on average six inches shorter than humans and tend to have a much more muscular build, you may also note the far smaller eyes. They have much poorer vision than human eyes, when solely using vision the Dantans have no perception of depth, which is why from birth Dantans emit vocal tones to create a system of echo location.' The Dantan disappeared as the map jumped to another system in the Hope Sector.