The Venus Trap

by Paul Byatt

  Lasers scanned for more pitiful human attackers most of whom were dead or severely injured, thrusters simultaneously moving on an intercept to the tiny drones attempting to infiltrate the sky above it whilst its own drones rammed the defenceless Relays dropping like stones through further human targets. It derived no satisfaction from the death and destruction that it had weaved so quickly, instead it felt repugnance at what it had been forced to do. A microscopic portion of its awesome intellect had been released to analyse the attack and Angel panicked momentarily as it fully realised what it was facing; these were simply distractions for the ‘Checkmate’ move! It began a direct tight beam transmission to its twin.

  And then the second and third bombs, cunningly hidden, went off.

  The End

  Epilogue

  Thia was sat as strapped in as tightly as the rest of them on board the ship. She could hardly move her arms and legs but her head was free to glance at her fellow shipmates. She felt the presence of her mother to her right and, to her left, that of the Colonel. Opposite her were her friends and their families, people whom she felt she had shared so much with.

  To her far left sat Juanita and her mother and to her opposite, far right, sat Mr James and his new girlfriend, Chef. Like many around her they were both grinning like Cheshire cats, holding hands somehow through the restraints that were a necessary part of this trip. Thia paused to smile at the look on her teacher’s face. He was wide-eyed at the sight that now unfolded in front of him; that of a diminishing Earth. There was no sign of fear on his face, instead it was enraptured as would a small child’s at something so amazing it defied all that you had previously thought to be true.

  As she spied the shrinking planet below them through the small window in the hull, Thia once again stole a look at the face of her teacher. There was the biggest smile she had ever seen, breathing that was laboured under the stress of ascent as he tried to laugh with sheer unadulterated joy and with a small stream of tears falling unashamedly down his weathered face. He returned the look and, impossibly, smiled even wider through the fall of cascading salt water.

  Thia grinned back even as her view of her former home receded beneath her own tears of wonder. The voice of an angel cut through her reverie, “Ladies and Gentlemen, we are now clear of Earth. Welcome to outer space. Time to the Gate will be six hours. People, get ready for a journey you will never forget.”