Arthur and the Andarran Rescue

by Craig Speakes

  ‘Are you sure?’ He asked, reaching for the panel and bringing the ship’s engines online.

  ‘Yes! I saw its spine – I’m sure of it!’

  ‘What about Yan?’ Arthur called to the Major. ‘Are we ready?’

  ‘No, but we can’t risk waiting. There aren’t any rockets left and we’ve nothing else to throw at it. We’re going to have to chance it – now!’

  Arthur raised the ship out of the water as Yan ran onto the bridge.

  ‘We need to keep her speed steady. On my signal,’ he shouted as the ship gained speed. ‘Okay, that’s it! Hold it… Keep this course and speed!’ He ran to the front of the cabin and signalled through the window for Luca to start firing. Arthur watched the first shell hit the wall of water as the ship lurched from side to side in the heavily churning waves closer to the falling roof. He held on to the console with all his strength, several times almost being thrown into the panel behind him.

  ‘We’re shifting course!’ yelled Yan as a deep swell in front of them caused the ship to spiral, funnelling them downwards. ‘Keep her straight, we need to get out of this whirlpool!’

  ‘I’m trying! I can’t control the sea, can I?’ He shouted back, frustrated, sensing that keeping the speed steady wasn’t going to help them break free.

  ‘If we hold this speed, we’re going to get sucked in!’

  ‘Wait!’ yelled Yan, grabbing his pencil and a small bit of paper from his pocket. But there was no time to wait. Arthur could feel it. He knew that if he didn’t force the ship into overdrive, then they were never going to get out. Without hesitating, he engaged maximum speed and the ship lurched forwards with such a force that it shot upwards and over the rim of the swirling mass of water, landing several metres further on from the swell. It was enough to cause the engines to stall. Arthur wrestled to get them back online as the vessel was tossed around like a cork. The pause, however, gave Yan much-needed time to redo his calculations, and he ran out to explain them frantically to Luca in the plasma turret.

  Having managed to find a way to drain the engines, Arthur had them working again several minutes later.

  ‘We’re back online!’ He called out.

  Yan signalled for Luca to begin firing. Arthur watched the effect of the shells exploding in front of them, clearing a temporary tunnel through the waterfall.

  ‘Keep her at two-thirds speed!’ instructed Yan.

  Not long after, they broke free of the collapsing roof and into the calm of the surrounding Spice Sea.

  ***

  The ship was kept a short but safe distance from the plunging waters whilst it was decided what to do next. Everyone agreed that it was likely the Solarians might still be searching for them, and that even if the search had been called off, there were enough enemy spies on the Spice Sea to make it hard for them to go anywhere without being seen. This was, after all, Gravis’s ship, and it was well known. On top of that, the ship had been damaged by the ice wall and a number of key systems were no longer functioning. It was Luca who suggested that they set course for the traders’ island of Getti, which lay several hundred kilometres to the north-east of Orca. There, she said, they might be able to trade the ship for something less conspicuous.

  ‘But don’t be under any illusion that traders are any better than those they call pirates. The line is so thin that often it is the pirates who feel as though they have been cheated by the actions of the traders,’ she said, smiling. ‘But we must find new transport, and the northern shore is too far to make without being seen.’

  ‘Don’t you think there will be Solarians waiting for us there also?’ asked Arthur. ‘I mean in this port you suggested.’

  Luca nodded. ‘It is possible, of course,’ she said, ‘but it is also possible they now believe we perished in the roof collapse. Usually, such collapses are heavily concentrated, and without the calm zone in the middle that we were lucky to find… without that, we would surely have broken apart, I am certain.’

  ‘Lucky?!’ piped up the cat. ‘We almost became a monster snack!’

  Arthur flicked his ears.

  ‘Ouch! I was just saying!’

  ‘Listen to what she’s telling us.’

  Luca continued.

  ‘So I suggest that we hold our position here, near the collapse, until darkness is upon us, and then make for Getti. The collapse will interfere with the scanners of other vessels and lower our chances of being seen while we wait.’

  Everyone nodded in unison. It was the only plan they had.

  Twilight was still a number of hours away and there was not much to do except sit and bide their time. Despite the cold, the pale Andarran sun filtering through the translucent ice roof above them lifted their spirits. Arthur stayed on deck for much of the time. He found that there was something comforting in being able to see what was happening around them. He was not the only one. Sky and Margot, as well as the Major and Captain Schmidt, also chose to stay on deck to keep watch, whilst Yan, Sava and Luca conducted a detailed assessment of the condition of the ship.

  Too tired to talk much, for a while each of them sat lost in their own thoughts and feelings. Arthur’s mind drifted this way and that. He felt too tired to sleep or to think about everything that had just happened. He tried to turn his mind to happier things.

  ‘What are you thinking about?’ asked Sky, finally breaking the silence.

  ‘Nothing, really. Maybe a bit about fishing,’ he smiled. ‘I remembered a story my dad told me about a time he went boat fishing with his father. He said he was about nine, I think, and anyway, he’d managed to get his line in a big tangle and his father had spent an age getting it untangled. By the time they reeled the line in, he had ten sardines on ten hooks. His father reeled his line in next and hadn’t caught a single one.’ Arthur smiled. ‘I guess I remember that he promised to take me boat fishing with him.’

  ‘A keen fisherman, eh?’ said the Major, coming out of his own reverie.

  ‘I guess… but I’ve never been sea fishing.’

  ‘Sea fishing! Yes indeed, that’s real fishing. None of that fishing-in-ponds-full-of-carp nonsense,’ enthused the Major. ‘It reminds me of a time off the coast of Australia. A rather lively tiger shark, as I remember…’ And the Major began to recount his own fishing adventures from different places he’d been seconded to as a member of the Special Forces regiment.

  As he listened, Arthur realised that he still didn’t know much about the Major, only that he came from a long-established military family. He would occasionally tell them about humorous happenings from one or other of his postings, but it was clear that he didn’t like to talk about what he actually did in his job.

  After the Major, it was Margot who surprised everyone by telling them about her trip to climb Mount Everest, and how at one stage she’d been within reach of the summit, no more than a few hundred metres, when bad weather had unexpectedly moved in and she’d been forced to go back or risk freezing to death on the side of the mountain, like so many others before her.

  ‘It was the most frustrating experience of my life,’ she said. ‘But if we ever get back to Earth, I’m going to do it again, you can be damn sure!’

  As night fell, the Strelkan glided smoothly over the water, shadowing the roof collapse as far as possible, before losing its cover and heading out across the open sea towards Getti. Arthur kept the speed steady, in order to make it look, to anyone watching their radar screens, as if they were in no hurry to be anywhere.

  9

  Getti

  The bright lights of Getti could be seen from a long way away, like a shining beacon in the suffocating darkness. Above the town the ice roof glowed and shimmered in its reflected lights, creating a halo-like effect.

  ‘It looks surreal,’ said Margot.

  ‘What I don’t understand is how it’s possible to build a town under this ice roof at all. I mea
n, we’ve seen what can happen,’ said Sky.

  ’Yes, true,’ nodded Margot.

  Sava grinned at them. ‘Your questioning is wise. Indeed, Getti has known several homes in its history.’

  ‘Oh, really?’ asked Sky, sounding fascinated. ‘Couldn’t they just find a way to stabilise the roof or something?’

  ‘To halt the forces of a planet requires much. We learned many cycles ago that it is better to live in harmony with nature than to try to bend it to our will. No good can come of it, as time has proven. Perhaps you have learned this where you come from?’

  Margot laughed ironically.

  ‘We like to do things the hard way,’ she said.

  As the ship approached the port, everyone except Luca and Sava moved below and armed themselves. With the lights turned off in their cabin, they gazed out of blackened windows as the boat entered the bright and lively harbour and tied up at a vacant berth. Almost immediately, they could hear a number of voices all trying to talk at the same time. At one point, it sounded like an argument had broken out between Sava and several of them.

  ‘Activate your plasma rifles,’ whispered the Major, his rifle flicking into life with a low humming sound. The others followed suit and waited to see what would happen next. In the end, the voices calmed down and Luca left with them. Presently Sava came down to tell them that they had found someone who might be interested in the ship.

  ‘It sounded like you were arguing,’ said the Major.

  ‘Yes, it is so,’ confirmed Sava. ‘It took some time to convince them that Gravis would no longer be coming after whoever acquired it.’

  ‘I can see why that might upset potential buyers,’ he grinned.

  Arthur continued to gaze in wonder at the town and its blaze of lights and colours. After the drabness of Sa and the grey mountain halls of the Nira valley, Getti really felt like another world. Even from inside the ship, they could hear raucous laughter and shouting, singing and music. Everything felt so strange and enticing. Here, too, towers rose high into the air, but in this town each and every tower and window shone brazenly, beating back the night. Arthur had the feeling that beneath the changing ice roof, on a sea in which dwelled the likes of the Levanon and murderous pirates, the nights here were like celebrations of having made it through another day alive. No one knew or wanted to know what the next day might bring.

  ‘I wonder why, out of all these buildings, that building is so dark,’ said Sky.

  Arthur gazed towards where she was pointing.

  ‘It is likely a Solarian trading post,’ said Sava. ‘ During the time of peace, they built many of them on Andarra.’

  ‘Oh. Do you think they still use it?’

  ‘It is most probable. And it is best that they do not discover that we are here, or leaving Getti will become difficult. The Solarians have no need to keep an army here; here, it is easy to purchase whatever help may be required.’

  ‘Сan you smell that?’ asked Captain Schmidt a while later, interrupting a tense conversation about why Char had tried to sell them out. Everyone turned to look at him. ‘Come on, really, can’t you smell it?’ He continued, without noticing the puzzled looks on their faces. ‘Cooking!’ He said. ‘It’s cooking and it smells fantastisch!’

  If it hadn’t been for the need to remain quiet, they all would have burst out laughing.

  ‘It’s true – now that you mention it, it does smell good,’ piped up Margot. ‘Anyone else feeling starved? What do you think, can we risk it?’

  ‘Risk what? Ordering a takeaway?’ mused Captain Schmidt.

  ‘Well, maybe not a takeaway, but if Sava doesn’t mind, she could maybe find a way to bring something back for us. I mean, if it’s her, it doesn’t have to look suspicious. These traders must take food and supplies back to their ships all the time. That’d be normal, right?’

  This time, all eyes were on Sava, trying to guess her reaction.

  ‘Would it be possible?’ asked Sky.

  Looking uncomfortable, Sava reluctantly agreed.

  ‘I will try to find something, but you must stay out of sight,’ she said before choosing her moment to leave carefully.

  ‘Smells like fish and chips,’ ventured the Major, after Sava had opened and closed the bridge door, wafting more cooking smells into the cabin.

  ‘They definitely eat better than their cousins in the mountains. Any more of that tasteless porridge stuff and I was sure that I was also going to start changing colour!’ said Margot.

  ‘Major…’ whispered Sky, who had been keeping watch by the window for Sava and Luca.

  ‘What is it, lass?’ He asked.

  ‘Um, there are five cloaked figures hanging around near the boarding ramp to our ship.’

  The Major picked up his rifle and moved quietly over to the window next to Arthur. As he did so, there was a sound of movement on the ramp and then on the deck above them, making everyone freeze. They could then hear them trying to get through the heavy bridge door. A few minutes later, the sounds stopped altogether.

  ‘Okay, that can’t be good,’ said the Major after several more minutes had passed without another sound. ‘Could be they’re setting a trap for Sava.’

  ‘Then we need to think of something fast,’ said Arthur. ‘Sava is coming back along the pier.’

  They had no way to warn her about what was lying in wait back on board the Strelkan. Anticipating that the hooded figures would likely make Sava open the door to the bridge, the Major, the Captain, Yan and Arthur took up positions behind the control panels whilst Sky and Margot waited in the corridor just in case they came in another way. The plan was to allow the pirates to enter the darkened bridge. The minute they turned on the lights, they would find themselves surrounded and hopefully give up without a fight. The last thing anyone needed was for the sounds of a plasma fight to draw attention to the ship and to themselves.

  Arthur crouched low behind a panel next to Captain Schmidt. As they waited in silence for the moment to strike, he could hear the Captain breathing calmly. Arthur, on the other hand, could feel his own breathing was anything but calm. He tried to take deep breaths and relax whilst straining to hear what was going on outside. Presently he heard Sava climbing up the boarding ramp. She took several more steps towards the bridge door when there was a commotion and the sound of voices.

  ‘Remember, hold your fire until they get the lights!’ called out the Major in a low whisper.

  The exchange of words stopped and was followed by a pause.

  ’Hold it!’ whispered the Major again.

  With a swooshing sound the door opened. In a reflection Arthur was able to see the outline of Sava and the cloaked figures behind her. Sava entered and stopped abruptly.

  ‘Wait!’ She said. ‘Something does not feel right.’

  Strange! thought Arthur, hearing what she’d said to them. Surely she wouldn’t talk like that if she was being forced against her will.

  ‘Major? Keeper?’ She called out cautiously.

  Arthur wondered if it was a trap.

  ‘Rise!’ ordered the Major.

  Arthur followed his lead and raised his rifle in the direction of the newcomers.

  ‘It’s okay!’ Sava called out and she flicked on the lights, instinctively taking a step back and raising her hands when she saw the plasma rifles pointed at her and the figures behind her.

  For several tense seconds, no one knew quite what was going on. It was one of the shadowy figures who broke the silence.

  ‘Do you not recognise friend from foe any longer?’ He said, cautiously stepping forward into the light and throwing back his hood. His voice sounded familiar. ‘Come, come – have these cycles on Andarra left you as wild as the mountains here?’

  ‘Insuro!’ gasped Arthur, lowering his rifle.

  ‘Yes, my friend, it is I. I am glad to see that you still reme
mber me and our adventures together.’

  ‘Insuro!’ cried Sky, appearing from the corridor. Forgetting herself, she ran up and hugged him.

  ‘I am glad to see all of you whom I remember looking well. And I am very glad to see you, Keeper,’ he said, grasping Arthur by the forearm.

  ‘You must excuse the nature of the welcome,’ said the Major, who was next to grasp forearms with the Treskan President.

  Insuro bowed slightly, ‘you were right to be cautious. The Port of Getti is not renowned for its friendliness.’

  ‘But what are you doing here?’ asked Arthur, desperate to know.

  ‘Come, let us not discuss such matters here. Let me introduce you to my companions. I believe that you are already acquainted with Sezan.’ The blue alien removed his hood and bowed.

  ‘Sezan!’ cried Arthur, feeling very happy to see him, and remembering how he had cared for all of them before they had come to Andarra.

  The cat, who’d been sleeping in Arthur’s pack below, had heard the sound of friendly voices and decided to investigate. Arriving on the bridge, he jumped up on to the control panel next to Arthur and turned to find he was suddenly face to face with Sezan. The cat sat bolt upright and stared in absolute horror at him.

  ‘Oh, fish – I’d forgotten about you!’ He meowed, his fur standing on end.

  Insuro, who had watched the cat’s arrival, laughed. ‘My dear Sezan, our little friend here, as I recall, has it in his head that you might harbour secret desires to make a meal of him, should the opportunity present itself.’ The cat scowled as several of the group, including Arthur, couldn’t stop themselves from laughing. Sezan looked at the cat calmly.

  ‘Fear not, Cat, my race are not eaters of meat, you may be assured. We are healers of the flesh, not tasters of it.’

  The cat, who was by now feeling very uncomfortable, lowered his eyes away from those staring at him and began to nod his head vigorously.