by J W Murison
Of course now the questions began to come thick and fast. Kelly answered them as best he could, ‘hey I don’t understand it all OK! I am in the same damn boat as you all are. I was fighting on a hill in Korea, then I'm up here with you lot.’
Lady Jane cleared her throat, ‘excuse me Sergeant Kelly, but if we were the cream of humanity being sent to a far flung distant world, then why on earth were you there?’
He found himself grinning, ‘I never said you were the cream of humanity only perfect specimens of it.’
She smiled in that infuriating way of hers, ‘same question.’
He laughed, ‘I woke up after they kidnapped us and broke free. I managed to kill a few of them before they knocked me out again. I was being sent to their home world as some form of punishment. To be experimented on by their military.’
‘I see, so you are in fact a criminal.’
He laughed again, ‘no kitten, I'm a soldier and as these people are our mortal enemies I was simply doing my job.’
‘My name isn’t Kitten sergeant it’s Lady Jane, please try and remember that.’
‘What were they going to do with us?’ Asked a Finnish guy.
‘From what I can gather they were either going to breed you or mush you up into a paste to extract some kind of enzyme from you to make a serum so that they can survive in our universe.’
He shuddered, ‘sounds awful.’
‘So what now?’ Asked the Irishman.
‘Glad you asked bud. These people who have rescued us are in desperate need of help and I told them we would pitch in. It’s the least we can do to thank them for saving out lives. They are working their asses off to save the rest of the people in those sleep chambers. These people are pulling thirty hour shifts, having a few hours sleep and doing it all again.’
‘How the hell can we help Sarge? Their technology is well beyond us, Lady Jane there had never even seen a bloody vending machine before,’ snorted the Irishman.
‘We won’t be doing anything sophisticated, but tell me what year you all from?’
‘1976,’ the Irishman told him.
‘1923,’ cried out Lady Jane in alarm.
‘67’
‘99’
‘86’
‘63’
‘2010’
‘72’
‘And I'm from 1950,’ admitted Kelly, ‘the year is now 2023.’
‘Oh my god I'm over a hundred years old,’ squeaked Lady Jane.
They all had a good laugh at her expense, it was a lot for all of them to take in and someone suggested another hot drink. The Irishman wanted a whisky but that was out so they settled for another cuppa. When they had time to think it over Kelly decided it was maybe time to move on.
‘For you guys who have been kidnapped in the past ten to twenty years I doubt if the transition will be all that hard, for some of us it’s going to be a lot harder. I have been awake a day longer than all of you and have found out that I still have family at home that know of me. I suspect you all might be the same. I'm sure the captain will do his best to find out. For now though we have a job to do.’
‘Really, I hope it isn’t manual labour,’ Lady Jane raised an eyebrow.
Kelly grinned, ‘listen kitten, we weren’t the only people who were kidnapped.’
‘Abducted,’ interrupted a very pretty Greek girl from the 70’s.
‘What!’ growled Kelly.
‘Aliens abduct people, not kidnap them,’ she shrugged.
‘Let’s not get technical,’ Kelly growled, ‘there are a thousand others like us and over a thousand dead. The crew are bagging up the dead and preparing the living for transport back to Earth in their sleeping units. However there is evidence that there were a lot more than that once. There is a room where prisoners were stripped before being stuck in a sleeper. Off that room there is a deep hole where their clothes and personal belongings were thrown, and your own of course. To find out how many people were actually taken we need to get into that pile of clothing and sort it all out. We will be looking for people’s identities that kind of thing. Everything will be bagged. I have been told the clothes will be recycled. There will also be items like this.’ He slapped the Tommy gun, ‘you find something like this you call me over and I will deal with it. Be careful, anything at all you are unfamiliar with give me a shout.’
‘Wait a moment,’ Lady Jane hesitated, ‘what did you mean by our clothes?’
‘Exactly what I said; you went into those sleeping units naked.’
‘I was naked,’ she squeaked.
‘Oh yeah!’ he grinned.
‘Oh no, you did not look!’
‘I most certainly did kitten.’
She was shocked and furious, the French girl giggling didn’t help her temper either.’
‘You are a beast and I am going to report you to the British consulate.’
‘You are a long, long way from a British consulate Lady, now let’s move our asses, we got a lot of work to do.’
They followed him off the ship to the room which had already been prepared for their arrival. The nanobots had rearranged the room so that the there was only two long tables. A large machine stood down one end at the centre of the room.
Kelly hesitated, ‘OK, this is different.’
‘Then let me explain.’ A feminine voice spoke in their ears. More than one of the jumped in surprise.
‘Who the hell is this?’ Kelly demanded.
The voice was soothing, ‘please do not be alarmed, I am the ship you were on but a moment ago.’
Kelly frowned, ‘I heard you could talk but I thought you had to be plugged in or something.’
‘That is true however as everyone is very busy I had a small transmitter implanted into the ear pieces that you now wear so that I can guide you in your efforts and explain what needs to be done. I will transport large piles of clothing into the middle of the room. There are small black boxes on the table. If you put any items you find into the small box they will be sealed and labelled with any identification you find. Simply read out the name of the person if you can or lay any identity against the end of the box and it will read it. Sergeant Kelly will deal with any arms and munitions that you find. Please lay any such weapon on the top table sergeant and tell me what you wish done with them. Once the clothes have been searched for any personal items and have been removed please slide them along to the end and simply push them into the machine at the end. I will do the rest from there.’
‘Don’t you want us to try and piece the clothes together to see how many people there were?’ Asked the Greek girl.
‘That will not be necessary.’
‘Then how will you know how many people have passed through here?’
‘I will simply count all the shoes and divide them by two. That should give me a rough estimate of the amount of people who have been processed.’
Kelly grinned, ‘yeah that’s smart.’
‘I also realise that many of you have been out of touch with the happenings on Earth since your abduction. I have substantial files on Earths history; please feel free to ask any question of me you wish.’ A large pile of clothing appeared in the centre of the room. ‘Gloves have been provided for the handling of the clothes.’
‘Let’s get to it folks.’ Kelly grabbed a pair of gloves and slid them on, grabbed a pile of clothing and placed them on the table; he began to rummage through them.
‘Oh I think I'm going to be sick,’ moaned Lady Jane picking up the tiniest of piles. A few minutes later she held up a skimpy garment, ‘what on earth are these?’
‘Ladies underwear,’ supplied the grinning Finn.
With a squeal she tossed them away and they began to laugh.
Chapter 13
They stepped out of the airlock onto the thick black dust. Colonel Howe and Cookie held a long pole in front of them. Buzz looked up and the colossal battle cruiser, ‘this things bigger than the empire state building.’
For an hour they had f
lown above it but none of their scanners had penetrated its shields. Despite Babes protests that they were on a fool’s errand, they had decided to try and penetrate the ships shields on foot. Colonel Howe pushed the pole towards the invisible shield. A buzzer sounded and the two men began to put a bit of effort into it. The whole exercise was futile; even trying to push the long pole through the black dust and penetrating the shield from below was a waste of time.
Steven looked up at the ship with a sense of disappointment, ‘ach well it was worth a try I suppose.’
Cookie tapped him on his shoulder, ‘maybe not sir, look!’
A light had appeared in the darkness about a hundred meters away. ‘I am detecting a break in the force field my heart.’
‘OK everyone back on board and Babes, take us down to that light.’
‘Yes my heart.’
‘Is this wise?’ Cautioned Colonel Howe.
‘Looks like a clear cut invitation to me old boy. Who knows how they may react if we are rude and just fly away.’ Tapper grinned in the manner that normally infuriated the colonel but Steven could see the doubt in his Howe’s eyes.
He made his decision, ‘I have to agree with Tapper. Obviously there is someone alive on board that ship and that has to be an invitation. They may require assistance.’
Howe nodded, ‘yes sir but I'm quite sure they aren’t expecting us.’
‘That is true colonel, however I believe we are now committed.’ He turned to the others, ‘I now want military only on this mission. Buzz do you want to come?’
‘You couldn’t hold me back man.’ He laughed, ‘a chance to meet a real alien.’
Steven felt his spirits rise, ‘in that case Mr Meyers you have the bridge. If anything goes wrong get the hell out of here.’
‘I understand captain but I doubt if you will have communications from inside that shield.’
‘If they start charging weapons Mr Meyers.’
‘Yes of course captain.’
‘Do not try and fight.’
‘I won’t sir.’
Babes sat down and they stepped off again. Cookie was in front with a hand held device, ‘there is a small corridor through the shields sir.’
Steven tried to quell his excitement and fear, ‘gentlemen, everything we have achieved so far pales into insignificance with this moment. We are about to make history in a manner only dreamed up by fiction writers. Please don’t shoot anyone unless you really have to.’ The chuckled at his humour.
‘Aye well my arsehole is already beginning to pucker at a rapid rate of knots,’ Cookie added to a howl of nervous laughter.
‘I bet dey leave Cookies comment out of de film,’ Lewis added to more laughter.
‘Stop pissing around and get your heads wired on straight,’ Howe growled. ‘Move out Cookie.’
‘Yes sir. One giant step for man, one giant leap for Scotland,’ Cookie laughed as he stepped through the shield. Steven couldn’t help himself grinning while Howe could only shake his head. They moved through the shield and the moment they were through it closed. Steven felt the connection lost with Babes. His heart began to beat faster. A large airlock opened in front of them. Cookie never hesitated he simply walked inside. The rest followed.
There was no joking now, ‘keep your weapons slung low and your fingers off the trigger,’ Howe warned.
The outer-door closed and after a minute the interior door opened. They entered and a flashing light like the ones Babes had, beckoned them in the right direction. Cookie was monitoring the atmosphere as they followed the pulsating light. ‘No one remove your helmets, this corridor is filled with a noxious gas.’
‘Do you know the type of the gas Cookie?’ Steven asked.
‘Looks like corpse gas captain.’
The reason for the gas soon became evident. Black swollen bags began to appear in their hundreds. ‘Looks like they are using this tier as a graveyard,’ Howe mused. The ever-faithful Beaver who marched at his side like a taught bowstring only grunted in agreement. Huge doors appeared that they would speculate on later but the pulsing light drew them on. It ended at what was obviously an elevator and they entered it. The door closed and it began to move. Steven was sure that he felt it move sideways as well as up and down. He struggled to increase the saliva flow in his mouth as it had dried up. He knew he was perilously close to panic. They had all seen pictures of this race and knew their reputation.
He took a step into the unknown and walked onto the bridge. There were creatures at consoles and Steven immediately noticed that they were unarmed and sighed with relief. One barked a warning and a huge seat that had its back to them spun round. A big ugly giant of a creature called out in alarm and stood, as he did so his arm dropped to a pistol and tried to draw it. The men backing Steven whipped their weapons up. The creature froze.
‘Hold your fire,’ Steven warned them. The creatures at the consoles rushed forward but they never attacked they simply placed themselves between their captain and kicked up a din. Their captain barked a command and they shut up.
‘You aren’t of the builder’s race.’
‘No we aren’t, we are from a planet called Earth.’
‘How did you come to be in possession of those ships?’
‘They came to us and offered their service after they lost their crews.’
‘Then they must be young ships.’
‘They are; first generation.’
The creature nodded, ‘I have heard of such things happening but never seen it until now. That will explain why the ships carry decent weaponry. I was curious, I thought a crew of builders had finally grown a pair of helois. I am captain Gairloch of the Modloch battle cruiser Burning Wind, who are you?’
‘I am Captain Steven Gordon of the Planet Earth.’
‘Take your helmets off and reveal yourselves properly.’ He barked a command and his men slinked back to their posts. With a nod Steven and his men lowered their weapons and removed their helmets. Gairloch grunted, ‘you are a very small and ugly race.’
Steven studied the face of the creature before him; it was huge, dressed in a black uniform with strange badge like decorations on it. His face was brutal with tusks and two wicked looking horns where its nose should be. The skin was multi-coloured going from grey to a brown colour up the middle of the face. ‘To our eyes you aren’t exactly pretty either.’
It grunted and the pistol slid home, ‘what is it you wish of this ship?’
‘We were going to try and salvage it for the defence of our home world.’
It nodded in a very human manner, ‘it is a very desirable ship but it would do you no good, you could not cross the barrier, every race would hunt you down and kill you.’
‘We are not from your universe, we are from this one.’
He roared something then calmed down again, ‘your people can survive the death from this sun.’
‘Yes of course.’
‘How many inhabited planets are there?’
‘Just the one in this solar system.’
It grunted again, ‘then who do you need to defend yourselves from?’
‘From a race from your universe. They have been travelling to our world and abducting our people to try and develop a serum to protect themselves from our sun. Now they have succeeded they intend to invade. We do not have a space fleet capable of defending our planet.’
The captain nodded, ‘you have no fleet because there are no other inhabitable planets you need to defend yourselves from.’
‘That is correct captain.’
‘I understand your wish to have this vessel, you thought us dead?’
‘Yes we did.’
‘What will you do now, attack us?’
‘No we will leave you in peace.’
‘When the last of us dies the ship is rigged to self-destruct.’
‘Thank you for that warning. Before we leave is there anything you or you crew require that may make your time pass a little more comfortably.’
‘No, we have supplies enough.’
‘Then we will leave you in peace sir, thank you for this opportunity to talk.’ The beast barked something and sat down. ‘Let’s get out of here gentlemen,’ Steven ordered.
‘They don’t have any blue grass or blade wine do they?’ Came a shot from somewhere in the room to a roar of what the humans thought may be laughter. Even the captain thought the remark funny.
Steven saw an opportunity and seized it, ‘we have continents covered in it,’ he shouted back.
The captain’s laughter turned to a snarl, ‘it is illegal to sell blue grass.’
Steven turned on him, ‘what you call blue grass we call savannah grass. It grows wild on the great plains of Africa and feeds the wildlife there. It is a native species of grass to our planet. Seeds were stolen from our planet and sent to your universe. The proceeds from which are being used to build a fleet to invade our planet. A little ironic I know but those are the facts. As for it being illegal; well not here, not on our planet and not in our universe. Our species are not part of any formal treaty or organisation and recognise no authority on this side of the barrier other than our own.’
He had all their attention now and he could see the captain frowning with concentration. ‘If indeed the blue grass is native to your planet then of course it would not be illegal, even by our own treaties and laws, but why would a species let such a commodity grow wild?’
‘It is only a commodity if it is of any use to a species. Our species only have one stomach, there is no commodity in grass, we cannot eat it.’
The captain slid forward on his seat, ‘that would explain why your race is so small. Do you have a lot of grass on your planet growing wild?’
Steven shrugged, ‘thousands of different varieties. ‘
‘No wonder a species from our universe wishes to invade. Can you provide proof of what you have been saying?’
‘Exactly what kind of proof would you like?’