by M. D. Hall
‘All…’ began Jane.
‘I hadn't finished!’ Emily burst in. ‘The papers can't be discoverable by Te’an scanning technology, and we need enough money to get us through, now I've finished.’
‘All that has been arranged, with the exception of where we put you,’ came the instant reply. ‘We think you would benefit from experiencing Te’an transport, to get a feel for what you would persuade others to give up.’
If Emily felt foolish, she gave no hint.
‘We have arranged two adjoining rooms in a hotel, adjacent to the shuttle terminal. Early tomorrow morning, you will depart for TeCorp headquarters. That is where the ceremony, marking the Te’ath/Earth alliance, will take place. Identification, and funds will be waiting for you in the room.’
Addressing Emily directly, she added. ‘When you have accessed your computer, and have determined your course of action, show it to Jon, he needs to see what you have planned,’
Jon knew there was no point in asking her to explain that comment, but was puzzled by one matter. ‘Why is the ceremony not taking place in the White House?’
‘Because, the other three world leaders would not countenance the use of a building that was symbolic of one, particular nation. TeCorp has offices all over the world. It is international, and politically their head office and plant are more acceptable.’
‘Why are you giving us so little time?’
‘If you are to succeed, more time would not help you. In fact, it would be a hindrance and most definitely lead to your capture by the Te.’
Jane paused. ‘It appears you have no more questions.’
Her statement was greeted by silence.
‘Very well.’
With that said, both Emily and Jon were gone, leaving the Custodians alone.
∞
The Custodian Jon had named Jane had other projects she needed to ensure were not being neglected. Some of the others would say that she should allow matters to run their course in this sector. The view she shared with her companions, was that matters were not quite so straightforward.
These particular humans were a race of contradictions: capable of terrible cruelty and violence, yet showing glimpses of great promise. Their potential was so much greater than the sum of their parts and, there was the not inconsequential matter of the incursion. Opinion on that, again, was divided not as to the consequences, but rather the importance of the consequences. Nevertheless, some who watched were content to let this play out.
Decisions had been made, and what was now unfolding had to happen, so much depended upon it.
Alf had joined in her musing. While it would be unpardonable for him to read her thoughts, uninvited, she opened her mind to him and he responded. ‘We knew what the others would say, but we are resolved to proceed. They will be as well prepared as their forebears.’
‘That may only achieve a temporary respite,’ Jane replied. ‘As you are drawn to this species, I wonder whether you will let that blur your judgement and, perhaps, be tempted to interfere again?’
‘Indeed, I am fond of them, but even the rebel in me will only go so far.’
Another mind joined them. ‘There is still one thing we have not tried that may make the difference.’
Alf responded. ‘That puts us in a precarious position. It is unlikely we would be able to persuade the others to stay their hand, if it led to intervention. We run the risk of being forced to withdraw completely, this race being destroyed and the incursion proceeding unhindered.
The third mind replied. ‘They have withheld their thoughts from us, we cannot foretell their actions.’
‘I prefer a cloudy outlook to the clear alternative,’ Jane responded.
The third mind asked. ‘I agree. We proceed?’
Jane replied. ‘We proceed.’
Alf, as ever, deferred to his companions, and said nothing.
Δ
One moment Jon was in the chamber with the Custodians, the next he felt grass under his feet and was standing just outside the ring of huge stones that were Stonehenge.
He looked around. The place was deserted, not just the site but the surroundings, as far as he could see, no visitors, no staff. It was as though the Custodians had ensured they would be alone.
From the position of the Sun, he estimated the time to be around nine in the morning. It was May, and the sky was just as it was when Nathalie’s plane had taken off from Manchester, how long ago was that? The pair of them were alone in this place at the beginning of an idyllic spring day, and for just a few minutes they simply stared at the prehistoric edifice.
His young companion interrupted their reverie. ‘Not big on goodbyes, are they?’
Jon smiled.
Emily was also smiling, but for a different reason. He followed her eyes and looked down, he was still only wearing the clothes he had gone to bed in. ‘Jane can’t be serious, I can’t walk around like this!’
‘Jane?’
’She said they don't need names, so I helped them out…Jane and Alf.’
‘You didn’t tell them?’
Jon nodded.
‘That is just so…you’ve gone up a couple notches in my book,’ she looked up at the sky, then at Jon, ‘but that isn’t getting you any trousers. She put her forefinger and thumb close together and brought them up to her eye. ‘Maybe you peed them off, just the teeniest bit, but surely they’re not that petty?’ Cupping the same hand to one ear, she answered herself. ‘Seems like they are, cos’ it sounds like nothing’s coming.’
Jon did not see that this situation had a funny side. ‘If they overlook clothes, what else have they missed.’
‘Don’t panic…Jane,’ she shook her head and smiled, ‘said we would have some money so, when we get to our next destination, I’ll buy you a clean T shirt and boxers, I might even stretch to some slippers.’
‘I certainly hope you’re right, about the money that is. For now, we need to get a move on.’
Jon had visited Stonehenge several times over the years, and each time had felt a tingle of excitement. Now he wondered whether he had been sensing the Artefact, without knowing it. But that kind of feeling was not uncommon in such a place. People had similar experiences at Glastonbury Tor, Hadrian’s Wall, the Pantheon and usually wondered whether they were sensing the myriads who preceded them, or were simply cranking their imagination up into the stratosphere.
If only he had known about the Artefact earlier, explored his feelings more closely. Obviously, the Artefact did not think the time was right, on any of those occasions and nothing he could have done would have changed that. But I would have had more time, he thought.
Emily was regarding him quizzically, and he told her what he had been thinking. She shook her head and, for the first time, looked serious. ‘You can't let yourself, or me think that, if we do we’ll just freeze. Look at us, we’re hardly the stuff they make movies about, we're not heroes, but we've been given a job and it's going to be hard enough, without second-guessing ourselves about what might have been. We may as well sit here and wait the whole thing out. Is that what you want?’
Without pausing for breath she went on. ‘That girlfriend of yours, not to mention your family and friends, they and all the people you've ever met and never will meet, are relying on us to get our heads down and just do the job,’ she was standing, hands on hips, eyes flashing.
He looked at her and laughed. ‘You’re absolutely right!’ he said. The tension broke and she joined him. ‘Okay, Jon-ath-on, what do your super senses tell you?’
‘Super senses?’
‘Well, that’s why they picked you, isn’t it?’
‘They tell me nothing, and it’s Jon,’ he replied, but then, as if his actions were about to make him a liar, he walked towards then through the larger Sarsen stones, stopping some way inside the east of the Sarsen ring. He got on his knees and dug into the soft turf with his hands. Just below the surface, he felt something small and hard, covered in a soft material.
Emily walked over to him. ‘Is that it? Doesn't look like much.’
Jon looked at her, not knowing what to say, she’s right, he thought, it’s not very impressive. He gingerly removed the object from its wrapping, as if afraid it might break. For that moment, he forgot it had remained intact for thousands of years. He handed the wrapping to Emily, who held it like it was a dead rodent.
What lay in his hands appeared to be black obsidian, very light, with rounded corners. He checked to see if it would open, and found nothing to suggest it was anything other than solid. Strangely, the object was warm but not in an unpleasant way. In fact, it felt quite comforting, like holding a human hand. It then began to glow faintly, but steadily. While the object was small, he knew it contained immense power, not because Jane had told him, he just knew.
‘Can I hold it?’
He had been staring at the object in an unfocused, but totally relaxed way that reminded him, of when he was younger; he would sometimes stare out at the middle distance, thinking of nothing in particular, and for just a few seconds be totally immersed in the moment. He looked at Emily who was standing with her hands held out. ‘Come on, dozy.’
‘What?’ he replied, feeling a little disoriented.
‘You've stood there, staring at that thing for over fifteen minutes!’
‘No, I haven't, I've just handed you the cover,’ he replied, defensively.
‘Nope, it's been a quarter of an hour, maybe longer.’
He looked down at the device, then handed it to her.
The moment she touched it, the glow died. ‘Oh,’ she said, obviously disappointed. ‘Maybe it doesn't like me.’ She went on. ‘This better be a case of good things in little bundles, because it doesn't exactly fill me with confidence.’
‘You'd better hand it back then,’ he replied. Surely, I'm not feeling protective towards it, he thought.
Emily had lost interest, and gave it straight back saying as she did so. ‘Don't suppose I had it for very long?’
‘No,’ he replied, smiling.
‘Clearly, you're the chosen one,’ she emphasised ‘chosen’ with what she intended to be a theatrical bass voice, and failed miserably, while still managing to sound very funny. They both laughed.
‘Where to now?’ she asked.
Δ
Whether by coincidence, or prompted by her words, the two of them found themselves standing in the living area of an enormous hotel suite. ‘Now that's the way to travel,’ exclaimed Emily. She walked over to a panoramic window. ‘I don’t like these guys, but it’s pretty impressive.’
Jon followed her and saw a collection of buildings, no further away than the length of a football pitch. They were laid out in a series of sweeping curves and, from what he could see, there was not a single straight line or angle in sight. The windows were seamless, the colour of bronze and bore no reflection whatsoever. He counted six buildings in all, each connected to the other by an arched corridor.
Surrounding the buildings, and extending away from them was impossibly green and lush grass. However, the most impressive sight of all was a glimpse, over the tops of the buildings, of the anti-grav transports, themselves. Even on television, Jon had never seen so many arrayed in one place. In a little less than six hours, he and Emily would board a ship just like one of these, and take a journey to the place where they were about to change the fate of the human race, if they were lucky.
The only time he had seen a Te’an ship, this close, was at the airport with Nathalie, and that was just using the existing buildings, with only a few anti-gravs on display. What struck him now, was the sheer splendour of the Te’an undertaking, and this was merely the tip of the iceberg. The scale of the task ahead loomed up, threatening to engulf him. These people have laid waste to planets. How the hell are we supposed to get past them to the President, and why would he listen to us, even if we did? They’ve already got all the birds in their hands, there aren’t any left in the bush! He turned back to Emily, whose brow was furrowed. After Stonehenge, I can’t let her know what I’m thinking, it isn’t fair. ‘You’ve seen the Te’an city, haven't you?’ she nodded, and he looked at the buildings again. He could see why she was puzzled. ‘Maybe they thought the structures we saw would look too…’
‘Alien?’ she suggested.
‘Perhaps,’ he answered. ‘It could be that this is all meant to calm us: soft, gracious lines. Baddies don’t build like that.’
‘I suppose.’
He changed the subject. ‘I’ve never been in one of those,’ he pointed at the collection of ships.
‘Snap!’ Emily answered.
‘Do you know,’ he added, ‘we have to travel from York to Manchester for Nat to catch one of those things…’
‘Nat?’
‘Nathalie.’
‘You’ve got a thing for names, I bet she loves you for that one.’
‘She hasn’t said anything,’ he answered defensively. ‘Anyway,’ deciding it was best to move on, ‘they were supposed to have one of these ports in every city, but there’s none in York, Leeds, Newcastle…’ he could see her looking at him as though he was insane.
‘You’re joking, right?’ her eyes had grown even larger. ‘We’re on the verge of trying to bring all this down, and you’re complaining that you have to drive your girlfriend to Manchester?’
He was convinced she now thought he was an idiot, which was fine, as long as she did not suspect what he had really been thinking. ‘You’re right, sorry.’
‘Got it out of your system, then?’
He just nodded, but then said. ‘It’s all pretty impressive.’
‘It certainly is,’ she replied, ‘and we don’t have any cavalry.’
There was a silence in the room while they each thought about what lay ahead, then Jon brought himself back. ‘We’d better find your computer.’
‘No problem, it’s behind you,’ she said in a chirpy, youthful kind of way.
He turned and, sure enough, there was a large, slim screen with a keyboard, cordless mouse, and nothing else. ‘I expected something bigger and meaner, and where’s the rest?’
‘The what?’ she asked, quizzically.
‘The box that makes all those bits work.’
‘Oh, it's incorporated into the monitor. Don't worry, I know this model and it’ll work a treat.
‘I didn't know, sorry.’
‘Well, aren't you lucky I'm here?’ she retorted, before adding, as an afterthought. ‘Stop saying sorry!’
‘Right.’ He then picked up a brochure prepared by the hotel, which he handed to Emily. They were north east of Los Angeles. Where there was once nothing, there was now a small, but prosperous town. Swiftly, it grew to accommodate hotels, restaurants and leisure facilities supporting the anti-grav port, and was serviced by smaller craft from the city. It was common knowledge that each of the major cities would have vast ports, utilising the older airport spaces in the mid-term. Until they had been converted, these smaller facilities were taking up the slack, and most people believed they would remain useful, even when the larger ports were fully operational.
Of all the places to send them, it made no sense to Jon why the Custodians put them here. Emily handed back the brochures. Now it was Jon’s turn to wear a furrowed brow. ‘Why are we here? There are ports a lot closer to TeCorp headquarters.’
‘It makes sense, if you think it through.’
Jon’s face told Emily she would have to explain. ‘The flight time is minutes, wherever we are. What if the Te are able to monitor people, just popping up nearby. There has to be a reason, and it makes sense that being this far out is to stay off their radar.’
He said nothing, and the furrowed brow remained.
‘You’re not convinced,’ she shrugged. ‘It doesn’t really matter, does it?’ She changed topic. ‘Give me an hour and I can find everything we want. Go and lie down, I’ll let you know when I’m ready.’
Before he had a chance to ask the obvious question, she went on. ‘I can hack anything. I know, you hear that from kids everywhere, but I really can,’ she continued. ‘Yes, it’s illegal, but we aren't going to get caught, and even if they did catch us, it’s the least of our problems. I’ll find the precise whereabouts of the President and his aides, their itinerary and where we’ll get to them. We also need a way in, and that’s where the id’s come in.’
All he could say was. ‘Oh, all right then.’
What seemed to be seconds later, he felt his foot being jostled. Opening his eyes, he saw Emily standing at the bottom of the bed, smiling. ‘All done,’ she said. ‘I just need your input.’
For a moment, he had no idea what she was talking about, then it came back to him; he was to look at the screen when she had finished. Hauling himself to the edge of the bed, he rubbed his eyes. ‘I'm only just realising how long I’d been without sleep, and it’s too long.’
‘It’s less than me, so don’t expect sympathy. Now, take a look at the screen.’
He stood up, too quickly, and feeling the pain in his right thigh - Jane’s first aid was only temporary - ambled over to the large computer screen where he saw the itinerary Emily had mapped out, as well as the identities they would adopt on arrival. Turning to her, he asked. ‘Are you sure about this?’
‘Pretty sure,’ she replied, ‘I don’t think there’s another way in.’
‘How certain are you these plans are accurate?’
The look she returned said it all.
His eyes widened as he began to absorb what was on the screen. If they did not get to the President until the signing ceremony, everything they said and did, would be aired around the world, live! He decided not to tell her how he was feeling, and tried to keep his panic under wraps. Fortunately, the amount of information in front of him, dragged his mind away from this latest revelation.