“That's a little strange, don't you think?”
“Yeah ... I suppose, but they think differently to us. Why they react the way they do is beyond me. Despite their advanced technology, they are unbelievably lax. I figure these local guys are the dregs of their service, sent out here to get them out of some general's hair.”
“I still don't get it.”
“To them, we're a bit like ants, I think. You see ants running about, and they can bite, invade your home and so on, but you don't post guards against them, and you don't worry until they become a nuisance. When you spot a solitary ant, you ignore it. We are their ants!”
“What are ants?” Echo asked.
After eating, Ben stripped off his flight suit, and wearing only his shorts, stretched out on the mattress. With his eyes closed, he attempted to relax and listened to his companion moving about. After a while, he opened his eyes again. The flames from the stove illuminated the cabin enough to show Echo sitting on the side of the cot.
He watched her in the flickering half-light. In particular, he liked her eyes, deep pools into which any man might fall. In the shadows, they were invisible but he had seen them during the daylight hours.
Accepted, she was a civilian survivor and therefore his responsibility, but her affect on him persisted nonetheless. Despite the sense of duty pecking at the back of his skull, he realised that, depending on his crew, the two of them might be the only humans on this world, and in a short time both of them might be captured, or worse.
Dark eyes reflected the dim light from the stove back at him. Echo seemed small and helpless, with a vulnerableness born not from lack of ability but from uncertainty. In a crisis, this beautiful young woman behaved as if she was invincible, yet with a complete lack of awareness of her own capabilities, she was still insecure.
“You alright?” he asked.
“Yes, fine ... you?”
“Yeah, good ...” In Ben's brain, something clicked. Echo's eyes were set on his face, and he realised her fascination for him. “You can come over here if you want.”
Echo hesitated as her inner voice urged her on. She needed the touch of another person, someone to hold her. She didn't want to be alone any more. Despite a deep-seated lack of self-confidence, she slipped her shirt over her head and cast it aside. In what she hoped was a seductive manner, she unbuttoned the front of her shorts and let them drop to the floor as she approached Ben. She wore no underclothes, and sensed his eyes exploring her nakedness as she drew closer. Unable to believe she was actually doing this, she knelt on the edge of the mattress.
Ben's eyes widened as she approached. “Are you sure about this?” He raised himself on one elbow. “This is what you want?”
“Yes! Don't you?”
“Very much, but ... you don’t seem so certain.”
Shit! Echo caught her breath and started to rise again.
Ben reached out to stop her, realising he had said the wrong thing. “No, I'm sorry. Please, stay. I would like that.”
She stopped and studied his face, wondering if he could read her thoughts. He was right in doubting her, but there was something else in those eyes. Her father had looked that way with her mother. It was the look of desire.
She moved closer again. As she sat down beside him she realised she wanted to do this, not because of the need for rescue, but for her own sake. After four years, she knew the meaning of loneliness. She would see where the night took them, and let fate take its course.
Later, she burrowed into Ben's arms, talking about how she had survived alone all those years, and the moment she first found him in the cabin. Ben listened attentively, his affection growing for this strong and independent, yet self-doubting young woman. After she fell asleep, he lay awake for hours, gazing up into the darkness of the roof space, wondering where this would lead.
Chapter 08
Echo had no idea of the time. Light filtered in through the window and tried to sneak past her eyelids as she resisted opening them. For long, dreamy moments, she laid motionless, body pressed hard against Ben's, aware of his steady breathing. With her head on his chest, she listened to his heartbeat. The sound was mesmerizing, something she had not heard since childhood.
“You awake?” Ben whispered.
“Yes. I thought you were still asleep.”
“I was, until a minute ago. How are you this morning?”
“After last night? Wonderful! I've never done anything like that before.”
“Like what?”
“Sex, stupid! I've done it before, obviously, but I was just a kid then.”
Ben turned his head and gazed at her. The girl's honesty and openness appealed to him, so unlike some of the women in his past. She was childlike in many ways, completely lacking the social mask worn by virtually everyone on the prime worlds.
“Did you enjoy it?” Echo asked. “I mean ... I wanted you to, but I sort of lost the plot.”
Ben propped himself on one elbow and considered the beautiful creature lying beside him. “You have no idea what an attractive woman you are do you?”
“I ... never thought ... Me?”
“Take my word ... you're stunning ... amazing!” He stretched, eased himself to his feet and walked across to the window. “I think we slept kind of late.”
Echo screwed her face up. “I’ll probably get pregnant now,” she joked.
Ben let out a short, sharp laugh. “That's not going to happen” he assured her. “Spacers are 'fixed' to prevent it.”
“How do you mean?”
“Our ships have mixed crews, male and female. Sex is acceptable as long as it’s discreet, and the rules are followed. The last thing you want on a warship is a pregnancy: the risk from radiation is dangerous for the child, and it takes a trained and skilled operative off-line for months. The medics give us injections to eliminate the problem.”
Echo caught only part of the explanation, her attention locked on Ben's first few words. “Women are on your ships?”
“Yeah, of course. At least a third of flight officers are female.”
“On your ship?”
“Yes, one ... Sherri, our communications officer ... best in the service.”
Echo sat on her haunches and stared at him, a blank expression on her face. Never had it occurred to her there were other women in his life, or that he might be involved with somebody, perhaps even married. In her naiveté, she never thought to ask.
Ben grinned. As usual, her deepest thoughts were on display, 'writ bold' across her face. “No, I'm not with her or anyone else at the moment.”
Something went thud in Echo's stomach as she breathed a sigh of relief. Desperately she looked for a way to change the subject. “So ... how does a woman get into your space fleet?”
Before Ben could answer, a dull thud hit the cabin. The ancient structure rattled audibly as powerful shock waves made the old timbers shudder. “Sonic boom!” he said, rushing to the door with Echo following closely.
High above the forest canopy, the visiting warship arced across the lower end of the valley towards the ocean, rising into the clouds as it moved away. Within seconds, it disappeared into the upper atmosphere.
“That's my queue,” Ben said. “I'm going back down to the mine tonight. Time to check my ship.”
Echo's heart sank. “Do you honestly think your crewmates will still be there?”
“No, that warship almost certainly took them, but I have to make sure. Besides, we still need my boat. I can fly it alone if I have to.”
As he walked away, Echo realised they were both still naked. In as calm and dignified a manner as possible, she followed. A week ago, she would not have cared.
For the rest of the morning, she sat on the veranda, watching Ben. From a small tree, he cut a long, stout pole and then whittled a sharp tip on the end with his commandeered knife. “Home defence,” he explained, thrusting it out in front like a spear. “Gives me a longer reach.”
“Really?” Echo tried not to soun
d too cynical.
At one point, Ben asked to borrow her crossbow, but she refused him. The weapon was the one thing she would not part with. Found years ago in one of the houses of the town, it was her only effective hunting tool; continued survival would be difficult without it.
After the batteries in her laser weapons had drained – she never did manage to find where her father kept the recharger at the mine – she practiced with the bow for days to be able to hunt well. She could fire a bolt with more accuracy than a pistol blast, and did not intend to lose it when the monsters captured Ben and took him away from her again.
After noon, he sat down beside her. “I'm leaving now. I'll go down to the airstrip to see if I can reach my ship. Are you coming with me?”
“No, I'm not!” Echo responded without thinking. “You shouldn't go either! I don't want you to go. Not after ...”
“I'll be fine. I’m only going to reconnoitre, and I'm planning on being super careful, trust me.”
“They'll still catch you. I managed to avoid them for years and I won't throw that away now. You should stay here!”
The second she spoke, she knew it was a mistake. Reluctant as she was to accept it, she understood that, as a military officer, Ben had no choice. If he succeeded, they could leave this dreadful place, but if he failed, she would lose him forever and remain trapped on this miserable world. Her biggest fear was not capture, but being alone again. “Can’t we just grab the ship and leave?”
“Yes, we could, but the odds are the Tolleani would bring us down again with that device of theirs; I have to find and destroy that before we can get away. Also, I can’t leave if there is any chance my crew are still there.”
“I'm sorry. I'll go with you as far as the outcrop. That's all! You're still an idiot though!”
“Accepted. I'll find you again on the way back out.” Leaning across, he ran his fingers through her hair. “I will come back, but if anything happens you'll just have to rescue me, won't you!” A grin spread across his face as he leaned in and kissed her lips, then rose and headed towards the water.
Echo climbed to her feet and followed, but try as she might, she could not stop the lump from rising in her throat again, or tears from welling in her eyes.
She and Ben stopped on the ridge above the two enormous Quonset hangars, looking down over the low earth berm that separated the airstrip from the border stream and the surrounding forest.
The office and crew-accommodation blocks by the far gate appeared deserted, but Echo knew better. Nearby, a single, grey tollean spaceship squatted in the haze, its crew nowhere in sight.
“One of the ships is gone!” she said.
“Yeah, it must have left with the cruiser, or we would have heard it. Makes my job easier!” Ben lifted up for a better view and pointed towards the fence. “My boat is still there, next to the hydrogen tanks.” The nose of the black ship was visible, protruding from behind the nearest hanger.
“Do you think it's still all right?”
“Don't know! Should be, as long as the hull is still sealed. They can't touch it from the outside, and that reactor won't fail for years.”
“Can you turn it off?”
“The charge? Yeah, with this,” He slapped a hand over the roundel sown to the breast of his coveralls. “A small device under here lets the ship recognise my presence. All covert operation flight suits are fitted with them. The power will shut down for ten seconds if I comes within two meters of the external console, long enough to punch in the disable code.”
Echo peered down at the airfield. “Lucky they didn't discover it when they caught you.”
“Wouldn't have made a difference. Not enough time for them to figure out the sequence. Do you know what's inside those hangars?”
“Nothing much. There’s an old spaceship in the big one, but it doesn't work.”
Ben's eyebrows arched. “What sort of ship?”
“Don't know ... a little one. It's been around as long as I can remember. I used to sneak in and play in it as a child ... until my dad found out, then I copped hell. What now?”
“Now we wait for sundown!”
“You really think you can get away with this, don't you? There are dozens of those monsters down there. You can't get them all with a stick and a knife. They’re going to catch you!”
“I don't have to ‘get’ them. I just need to check the ship. I'll sneak into the compound later and wreck whatever is in the little building with the antennae. Then I can look for my crew, and try to steal the data storage disk from the laboratory. No one guards the antenna, and there is only one sentry at the lab at night, so all I have to do is overpower him, take his rifle and keep my head down. I don’t intend to barnstorm the compound. They won't catch me, alright?”
“If they do, I'm coming down after you!”
Ben turned towards Echo. A bright pink hue flushed across her face. She was serious; despite all her protests, she would come to his rescue at the risk of her own life. He had not realised he meant so much to her?
Long fingers of shadow spread across the complex as Ben scrambled down to the stream. Keeping as low as possible, he crawled up the embankment and looked across to his ship, standing isolated and unguarded in front of the hanger. The lack of a guard was illogical, but he had long ago given up trying to understand the inhuman mind of the Tolleani.
As night advanced, a light came on, a single dim bulb illuminating the ground between the administration buildings, the solitary tollean spacecraft and the scout cars. The glow extended only part way across the field, sufficient to bathe one side of the terran craft in half-light, leaving the hangars in virtual darkness.
Derelict machines stood like silent sentries around the edge of the strip. Ben crept through the shadowy monoliths and edged up to the rear of the largest hangar building.
Despite his assurances to Echo, he was not confident of being able to pull this off without being caught or killed. In Space, he was a master at his craft, but this was outside his comfort zone. His confidence was a macho bluff to set the girl’s mind at ease, but he suspected that perhaps it had the opposite effect. He knew he should have been more honest with her.
Along the outer wall of the hanger, a small side door provided a way inside. A faint light broke the blackness of the interior, leaking in to the cavernous space through a half-closed door in a far back corner.
Ben cursed beneath his breath; one of the Tolleani was working there. That complicated matters. Once his eyes adjusted to the darkness, he made a quick survey of the hangar. It was almost empty, containing only the 'little' ship Echo mentioned, and a few ground vehicles.
The craft was a fleet lifeboat, a standard emergency vehicle designed to carry passengers to safety on the nearest planetary surface. How it got here he could not imagine, but from its appearance, it had been out of service for a long time.
In the almost total darkness, Ben could see little inside the cabin, but these boats were familiar to him. All ships carried them, and all followed a similar layout. Unable to see in the faint light filtering through the shuttle's windscreen he felt around for the control panel. The system was dead, unused for decades.
Satisfied the alien in the back room was still unaware of his presence, Ben grabbed a heavy screwdriver from a nearby workbench and retreated to the door. Once outside, he jammed the tool through the hasp of the exterior lock, hoping it would slow the guard if he chose to follow.
Making the best of the shadows, he sprinted to his ship and crouched by the forward landing strut. Across the airfield, all was quiet: nothing moved by the administration buildings or the alien spacecraft. Hunched low to the ground, trying hard to be inconspicuous, he crept beneath the main hatch.
The exterior consol sat behind a panel below the entry port, the boarding ladder having withdrawn on activation of the security system. Ben moved closer, taking care not to touch the hull, until a red light on the panel flickered to green and the consol opened silently.
Seconds later, satisfied his beautiful vessel remained untouched and ready to fly, he hit the re-set button and ducked back to the cover of the landing gear. The ship appeared safe, the only visible damage a slight buckling of the hastily extended skids, sustained during the slide across the tarmac. So far, all was going to plan.
Echo maintained her vigil, sitting in darkness on the hillside. Legs drawn up to her chin, she wrapped her arms around her knees, and waited. Her stomach churned with a dread feeling. Something was wrong!
Instinct told her this expedition must end in tragedy, but Ben had ignored her misgivings. As intelligent as he might be, it occurred to her he did not think things through as well as she expected of a fleet officer. Perhaps 'duty' trumped sense, she thought.
He gave the impression of total competence in everything he did, and presumably, in his own environment, it was true. Here on the ground the wisdom of some of his decisions seemed doubtful.
A faint movement drew her attention. She could barely make out Ben's small figure crouched in the shadows by the forward landing gear of the black ship, and subconsciously held her breath. Battling to ignore her fears, she again tried to put a precise finger on why his actions troubled her so.
Unbidden, the confrontation in the town rushed back into her mind. If the monsters came looking for her, she could still move to one of the other settlements. The tolleani never went there, and if they did, she could always hide in the caves that riddled the mountains along this coastline. If Ben failed...
A deep sense of despair returned as she realised her plans were an illusion.
Ben's arrival changed everything. This man was a focal point, a lifeline to which she had chosen to attach herself. He represented the one chance of escape from this exile. Moreover, she had promised she would go after him, if necessary.
Solitude's End Page 7