Yang nodded. The lab assistant looked younger than his forty years, and was one of the youngest of the first generation of settlers. He had come to New California at age twenty, had spent half his life here and settled in surprisingly quickly. Right from the start, he had helped Marlene to plan and expand the colony and had proven to have a real talent for logistics. Yang was also very popular in the colony, and many people believed he would be voted President at the next election if Marlene didn’t run again.
“Good,” said Sammy. “Then the first load is complete. The other vehicles are ready too. Let’s get going.” There was a loud crash behind them, and Sammy turned around sharply. “Robert! You have to secure the pallets better. If the planks break, we’ll have problems building up the new camp.”
“Sorry!” called the young Cashmore. He jumped down from the truck bed of his vehicle and heaved the parts that had fallen down back into the vehicle. Carrie Phillips helped him.
Sammy shook his head. “Nineteen years old and a head full of shit.”
Russell grinned. “Were you any different?”
“I guess not. Okay, let’s get going to the sphere. Has the planet we’re visiting got a name already?”
“Not an official one. Christian referred to it several times yesterday as Asylum.”
Sammy shrugged. “Kinda fitting. In any case, we’ll set up the depot and the first tents. That’ll take about five hours and require several transports, because we won’t be able to fit everything in the sphere. I suggest you go first so that you have some time for your reconnaissance.”
Russell nodded. “Good plan. Jenny and Cashmore are already on the way to the transporter by foot. I’m actually still waiting for Drew. She wanted to come with me to get an idea of the geology of Asylum.” He looked around. “I don’t know what’s keeping her. She should have been here ages ago!”
Sammy looked up briefly from his checklist. “Perhaps he can tell you where she is.”
Russell looked around, confused. “Who?”
“Harris!”
Russell turned around and saw Ben trudging toward them. He was wearing a threadbare, beige army uniform, and a heavy olive-green backpack. He had shouldered his automatic rifle. His stony face didn’t bode well.
“Hi, Ben. Everything okay?” Russell jumped out of the driver’s seat and walked over to him.
Ben stopped an arm’s length from Russel. “Two things, Harris! Now listen up!”
Russell gave him a puzzled look. What’s this about?
“First: If you want something from my wife, you come to me first. Got that?”
Russell blinked. “I only asked her if she wanted to accompany us on our expedition. We could do with a bit of data about the geology of Asylum and it isn’t dangerous at all.”
“I don’t give a damn! Next time you come to me, got it?”
Russell could see that Ben was simmering with rage. His face was red and his nostrils were quivering. Russell raised his hands conciliatorily. “Calm down, Ben. It’s okay!”
“Second: Tell your wayward son to keep his hands off my daughter!”
This is getting better all the time! It hadn’t escaped Russell’s notice that something was going on between Jim and Cathy Hawke. He wasn’t bothered by it and surely Ben must also be able to see that they were both adults and could decide for themselves who they started seeing.
“Now listen, Ben, I . . .”
“I don’t give a shit what you have to say on the matter. I want your son to stay away from my daughter!”
Sammy acted as if he were busy with the checklist, but his shocked face revealed what he actually thinking.
“I will not dictate to my son who he can and cannot see,” said Russell. “And if I get to hear that you’ve been pressuring him, don’t expect me to take it lying down!”
“Are you threatening me, Harris?” Ben’s voice trembled, he clenched his fists.
“I’m not going to let you treat me like this, Ben! If you can’t stand me, that’s fine. I can live with that. But don’t start making other people suffer because of it. Your wife and your daughter are both adults and perfectly capable of making their own decisions. Leave them alone!”
Ben pursed his lips, his face was twisted with anger. For several long seconds the men confronted one another. Ben’s facial muscles twitched. Russell’s glance fell on Ben’s weapon.
He wouldn’t hesitate to shoot me if he had the chance!
Suddenly the former lieutenant grinned. “You know what I’m looking forward to, Harris?”
Russell was silent.
“In a few weeks’ time, you’ll be lying in bed gasping for air, while your cancer eats up your lungs bit by bit. In the end you’ll suffocate to death after you’ve wasted away to a skeleton,” Ben hissed. “While your family stands beside your deathbed crying their eyes out, I’ll be standing next to them laughing. And you know why, Harris? Because you’ll finally be getting what you deserve!”
Ben turned on his heels and marched off.
Russell stared after him, stunned. He’d had to take a lot from Ben over all their years on New California. But for him to outright wish him a horrible death came as a shock. Ben would never forgive him for preventing a return to Earth. Not until one of them was dead.
Sammy lowered his checklist. He was open-mouthed. “My God. I knew that Ben didn’t like you, but I didn’t realize that he actually hated you!”
After a few long seconds, Russell shook his head vigorously as if he wanted to free himself of the words that had been flung at him. Then he climbed into the driver’s seat of the jeep. “Let’s go,” he said quietly.
During the drive, Sammy made several attempts at starting a conversation, but Russell just sat brooding behind the wheel. After twenty minutes on the bumpy track, they reached the transporter.
Dr. Cashmore and Jenny were sitting on the grass in front of the sphere. With them were several second-generation colonists, including Eric Grant, Anthony Neaman, and Edward Grazier.
Sammy jumped out of the vehicle and began divvying up the work. “Robert! Unload the pieces of the containers and lay them out in front of the transporter. Neatly please! Maxwell, you can help me get the supplies from the jeep!”
“Where do you need them?” asked the tall blond boy. The son of Dr. Lindwall was too thin for his height and his gangly limbs made Russell think of a puppet.
“Put them in front of the transporter. Cover the stuff with a plastic sheet so that the sacks stay dry, in case it rains.” He turned round to Jack Neaman. “After everything’s been unloaded, drive back and get the next load. And don’t mess around! All clear?”
“All clear,” said Jack.
“Great. I’ll go first with Russell, Jenny, and Cashmore to get an idea of the planet and decide where we’ll set up the camp. Carrie, you come with us!”
The seventeen-year-old with the cropped hair nodded.
Sammy turned round to Russell. “Shall we?”
Russell took his rucksack out of the jeep and hurried over to the transporter. He laid a hand on the black shell and stepped inside. Something was bugging him, but he couldn’t work out what it was, and then he was distracted by Sammy, who came in behind him.
“Can you write down the code for the target planet for me somewhere?”
Russell nodded and took a piece of paper out of the chest pocket of his combat uniform. “I almost forgot. I’ve got the code here.” He gave Yang the piece of paper with the alien signs, and Yang put it in his pocket. Then they went up the steps they had installed the day before. With the next load, they would take along some more steps to replace the retractable ladder in the target sphere.
Russell opened the inner sphere.
“We could take along a first load of supplies,” suggested Jenny Baldwin.
Sammy shook his head. “No, I want to check out the place first and then I can think about the order in which we’ll take the stuff over.”
Dr. Cashmore closed the wall of the sph
ere behind him.
“I’m scared,” said Carrie.
Russell turned to her. As he looked into her anxious face, he realized that nobody from the second generation had ever been transported. Since the trip to Mars fifteen years ago, the transporter had been taboo. The children knew about the trips in the transporter only from their parents. Of course the youngsters knew about the sphere, which was located not far away from the colony in the woods, but nobody had expressed a desire to be transported. Most of them were scared of it, and some of them had even been afraid of entering it on the annual school trip to visit it. One exception had been young Cookie Shanker, who one day had declared to his friends that he intended to take a trip in the transporter the following night. Luckily the adults had got wind of his plan. In a hurry they had gathered together all the children and shown them horrible photos of the victims of the first transport attempts. The photo of O’Brien disintegrated by the sulfuric atmosphere had had a shattering effect. Obviously the images were still fresh in Carrie’s mind.
“You don’t need to be afraid. We know the target planet and there are no dangers there.”
“Will the transport hurt?” asked Carrie.
Russell laughed quietly. “No. You won’t even notice that anything is happening. Perhaps a slight jolt. Like in an elevator.”
“What’s an elevator?”
“Oh, of course. Well, let’s just say, you won’t notice anything!”
Carrie nodded slowly. Russell smiled at her again and stepped over to the console. He stuck out a finger to set the code of the target planet.
What the hell . . .?
He blinked in irritation.
“What is it?” asked Dr. Cashmore and came up beside him.
Russell pointed at the black surface. “It’s not showing the code. Usually you can see the code of this sphere. Now there’s nothing!” Carefully, Russell tapped on the field, but nothing happened. “It’s not reacting at all!” He tried with more force—but again without success. “I’ll try to make mental contact with the intelligence of the sphere.”
As he spoke the words, he suddenly realized what had irritated him when he entered the sphere. He hadn’t felt any pressure in his head, like he usually did. He closed his eyes and focused, but he could feel immediately that it wouldn’t work. He had always concentrated on the dull pressure in his head, which eventually established the telepathic communication. What should he do now?
Can you hear me?
No answer. There was nothing from which he could form an answer.
Can you hear me?
It was pointless.
Russell opened his eyes. “Nothing!” He shook his head numbly. “The sphere is dead!”
Jenny looked at him with big eyes. “I thought these things have existed for millions of years. They can’t just give up the ghost overnight.”
Russell raised his arms. “Yesterday it all worked perfectly—the transporter and the communication with the sphere. I just don’t get it.”
“Maybe the thing just needs to be charged,” said Carrie.
“No, that would contradict all the experience we’ve ever had with the transporter!”
“What can we do?” asked Dr. Cashmore in a hoarse voice.
Russell stared at him. He felt numb.
“Nothing!” He blinked. “Absolutely nothing!”
“The thing is dead,” said Sammy bitterly. “And I have a feeling it’s going to stay dead.”
Russell bit his lips. “The transporter is our only chance of escape.”
“We could still flee into the mountains,” said Jenny, despairingly.
“We don’t have enough to eat for everyone. We’ll die in the mountains,” said Dr. Cashmore.
“Well then I guess that’s that,” whispered Russell. “We’re dead!”
Chapter 31
Drew was sitting in Marlene’s office when Ty Grazier came strolling in. He blinked in surprise. “Where’s Marlene?” he asked.
“She’s gone home to get some rest. You’ll have to come back later,” she said flatly. The fight with Ben had rattled her. She had spent the whole morning lying in bed crying, before finally pulling herself together and coming here. Her laptop had broken some time ago and Marlene had offered her use of her computer to do some calculations. Drew was still feeling wretched and was finding it hard to concentrate.
“Doesn’t matter. Wasn’t that important, anyway,” said Ty with a dismissive wave of his hand. He hesitated. “Is everything okay? You look pretty under the weather.”
She avoided looking him in the eyes. “It’s nothing, I’m okay.” But as she spoke, tears welled up in her eyes.
Ty walked up to her tentatively and pulled up a stool. “It doesn’t look that way.” He took her hand.
Drew was about to pull it away, but the gentle touch felt good.
“Ben?” whispered Ty.
She wanted to shake her head, but didn’t have any strength left to lie. She nodded slowly.
“Honestly—why do you put up with it?”
“You don’t even know why we argued,” she said with a flash of defiance. What did it have to do with him?
“No, I don’t know, and that’s neither here nor there. Whatever it was, it’s no reason for him to treat you badly all the time.” He hesitated. “Or to hit you.”
She looked up and had no idea how to respond. Did he suspect? Or did he know?
He looked at her intently. “The whole colony knows,” he said quietly.
She started to sob. She could feel all the resistance inside her collapsing like a house of cards. “I’m always trying to do right by him, but it’s never good enough. No matter what I do, he always finds a reason to quarrel.”
Ty didn’t speak. Drew had never spoken about her problems with a man before. She didn’t know why she was doing it now, but it felt good and she had always liked Ty. It was true that he could be a bit full of himself, but he was always in a good mood. In the early days of the colony they had been good friends and he had always made her laugh. Then he had got together with Ann, which had caused her a stab of jealousy, despite the fact that she was together with Ben. Their friendship had petered out, but if there was anyone in the colony with whom she could speak openly, it was Ty. The dam had broken and it all came gushing out like a waterfall.
“Ben was always short-tempered when something didn’t go his way. I knew that when we got together, but he also always gave me a feeling of security, especially after we were stuck on this planet. When the children were born, he was a really good dad, and for a long time I thought I’d made a good catch. But for the last few years, I simply haven’t been able to do anything right. Cathy became rebellious when she hit puberty, and he blamed me for encouraging her, which simply wasn’t true. She has a strong character, that’s all, and I can’t do anything to change it.”
Ty moved closer to her pulled her head to his shoulder. His warmth felt good.
“It’s not your fault,” whispered Ty. “Stop blaming yourself. He simply has no right to abuse you and it isn’t your duty to put up with it!” He was silent for a moment. “I knew a woman once. An incredibly pretty woman who I fell in love with at first sight. She was full of joy and saw only the good in other people. She loved her work and above all she knew what she wanted from life.”
He looked deep into her eyes. Drew was a little surprised by his frankness, but she had guessed at the time that he had wanted more than a platonic relationship. But it had never turned into more, not least because at the time she hadn’t wanted to jeopardize her relationship with Ben.
“I haven’t seen that woman for a long time,” whispered Ty. “I would love to see her laugh again.”
For a long while she said nothing and just looked into his big, blue eyes. “Why didn’t you say anything back then?” she said at last in a husky voice.
He shrugged and smiled uncertainly. “I never had the guts—and you were already taken.”
His face was nearly touching h
ers. Drew pulled back. Ben would kill her! On the other hand . . . It had been such a long time since anybody had made her feel desirable. She briefly felt an impulse to ask Ty how his wife was doing, but then all resistance melted away and their lips met.
Chapter 32
“Thirteen wotans! They’re starting to approach the observation post,” whispered Ernie Lawrence, without looking up from his night vision device.”
Eliot, who was sitting beside him on the floor of the lookout polishing his weapon, stood up and leaned over the railing. “I can see them. The light from that crazy moon is bright enough. Thousand-five-hundred feet away. Shall I raise the alarm?”
“No. Let’s wait and see what they’re up to.”
“Jesus Christ, it almost looks as if they were running in formation.”
Ernie nodded. “Yes, a V formation. The leader’s at the front. The others are following at a distance of six feet behind and the same distance to the side.” He switched the device into infrared mode and zoomed in. Red flickering shapes against a black background. It made the animals look positively demonic. As if Satan himself had sent out his hounds of hell to attack them. Ernie adjusted the focus. “There are more of them on the edge of the forest. But they’re not moving. It looks as if they’re watching the vanguard advance.”
“Maybe those beasts are more intelligent than we thought.”
“We don’t really know anything about them, except that they could be the death of us. But we know even less about the other monsters. In any case, I prefer wotans to snipers. Another six-hundred feet to the first barrier!”
“What should we do?” Eliot balanced his weapon on the railing and got it in position.
“We’ll wait.”
“It doesn’t look like an attack. Jesus, what are they planning?
Ernie was silent.
“Should I ring the alarm bell?”
“We’ll wait,” said Ernie sharply.
“Damn, I hope you know what you’re doing!”
“Three hundred feet.” Ernie put the night vision device to one side and picked up his own weapon from the floor. “You take the leader at the front.”
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