Bigger on the inside: Space, Time Travel, Alien Criminals (A Space Time Travel Mystery Book 1)

by Alianna Smith

  Rose bit her lip. “Yeah, I can.”

  Lucy looked at her. “Do it.” Her voice was challenging, daring her, ripe with distrust. She, Rose noticed, was a girl who had a hard time trusting adults. No wonder she withdrew like this, and Mickey and Jake were bound to fail at winning her over.

  “Micks, Jake, you can go now,” Rose said.

  Mickey was about to protest when Jake nodded and clapped him on the shoulder. “Let’s go, mate. Bye, Lucy.” Mickey frowned, but eventually he turned around and the two men left Rose alone with Lucy.

  Lucy relaxed a little as her eyes followed their retreating backs. She let go of her knees and dropped her hands onto the narrow expanse of denim, where she soon began to play with the hem of her skirt. Rose sat down next to her, leaving enough space between them not to make her feel crowded.

  “’s quite a shock, seeing a UFO for the first time,” Rose said. She didn’t see the need in beating around the bush with Lucy. Mickey was right; she recognised part of herself in Lucy, or at least she remembered what being a teenager was like.

  “Yeah? What do you know about it?” Lucy mumbled.

  Rose turned around in her seat to watch the rescue team. The ship was badly damaged, so the team leader decided to have a tent erected around it for privacy. There was no way they could transport the ship through town without being noticed. Besides, the techs at the Base were still figuring out where and how to set up a hangar. They were still looking for premises outside the city so they could have some sort of landing strip and work in peace and quiet.

  “It’s not unidentified,” Rose said, turning back to look at Lucy. “It’s a Sheeryan trader ship that broke down as it passed Earth. Lucky it did, too, because we can help them. We’re the last stop for a while on their trading route to Simgaltu IV.”

  Lucy stared at her, then frowned. “You’re making that up. I’m not a little girl, you know.”

  “No, you’re not. That’s why I’m telling you,” Rose said, putting as much sincerity in her voice as possible.

  “Are they going to be all right?” Lucy asked.

  “The Sheeryan? Oh, I don’t know, depends if they were injured when they crash-landed,” Rose said.

  “I don’t think they were. I think they were more worried about their cargo,” Lucy said, a slow smile spreading over her face. She had braces, but a lovely smile, and her green eyes lit up a bit. The tension left her shoulders.

  Rose smiled softly. “I guess they were, yeah.”

  “If I had talked to them,” Lucy said, “would they have understood me?”

  “They’ve got a very sophisticated translation programme in their main computer,” Rose said. “What would you have said to them?”

  Lucy shrugged, and for a moment Rose was afraid she’d lose her. Treating her like an adult, giving her the answers she needed seemed to work, but Lucy herself was very reluctant to answer her questions it seemed.

  “It’s our job to help aliens,” Rose said. “But not many people understand them as well as we do. Most of them are very friendly.”

  “Are there many... aliens out there?” Lucy pronounced the word almost dismissively; to her, aliens only existed in stories, and most them weren’t even very good. But Rose could sense that the encounter had intrigued the girl, and that despite her sullen demeanour she needed to talk about the experience.

  “Oh yes,” she said. “The place is crawling with them.”

  “How do you know?”

  “I’ve met quite a few of them,” Rose said, hoping to God she wouldn’t ask her where or how. There was only so much information Rose was ready to share. Luckily, for the moment Lucy seemed satisfied.

  “So they wouldn’t have hurt me if I’d talked to them?”

  “Definitely not,” Rose said. “Are you all right, love?”

  Lucy shrugged.

  “I know it’s a bit much to take in. Here’s my card,” Rose said, fishing for one of her business cards and handing it to her. “You can always call me if you need to talk about what you’ve seen, yeah?”

  “So you’re not going to give me some sort of amnesia pill?” Lucy asked, reaching out for the card like a wild animal about to snatch a treat from her hand.

  Rose shook her head. “Those don’t really work. I’d like you to promise me you won’t tell anyone, though.”

  “But,” Lucy began.

  “Feel free to give me a ring. I’ll be happy to meet and talk to you. You can also send me an email. Whatever you prefer,” Rose said. That kind of counselling wasn’t part of her job. Usually, it was enough for witnesses to sign the Official Secrets Act, but when children and teenagers were involved, things became more complicated.

  “Thanks,” Lucy said, playing with the card. It was trembling a little in her fingers.

  “How about we stop off for some coffee on your way home?” Rose suggested.

  “No, I... I’ll be fine. It’s just around the corner,” Lucy said.

  Rose nodded. She pulled a pen and the paperwork out of her pocket, and Lucy read and signed it. At her tender age, her signature was legible, and so Rose gleaned her last name as she carefully wrote it down. Then Lucy glanced back at the site, which was now screened by the white walls of a tent. Right at that moment, her phone rang and she fished it out of her bag to answer it. The conversation was brief, but whatever news there was for Lucy, it must have been good because her eyes lit up and a shiver went through her.

  “Thank you for talking to me like an adult, Miss Tyler,” Lucy said as she stood and slung her over-sized bag over her shoulder.

  “You’re welcome, Miss Morris,” Rose said, smiling. “And it’s Rose.”

  “You know,” Lucy said, about to turn away to leave, “you look...” She interrupted herself as she finally recognised her.

  Rose smiled, nodding. Lucy had recognised her after all. She put her finger to her lips conspiratorially. Lucy broke into a wide smile and nodded. “Thank you, Rose.” Then she turned away and left.

  Rose leaned back and took a deep breath. That had been easier than she’d thought, and she wondered if Lucy would take her up on her offer. She had a feeling, though, that she could trust the girl, even if she didn’t contact her not to talk about what she’d seen. The sad thing was that she wasn’t going to tell anyone not because of the document she’d signed, but because chances were that no one was going to believe her if she did. A girl like Lucy would die of embarrassment at that, or be beside herself with rage.

  Rose assumed it would be the latter, because Lucy had seemed very angry; not with Mickey and Jake in particular, but with the world in general. Mickey had been right to call her a bit of a wild one, but Rose thought that he had done so for the right reason. He had also been right in comparing Lucy with her — Rose had spotted a bit of her own stubbornness, resiliency and curiosity in Lucy.

  Chapter 5

  Dave slumped onto the kitchen bench after Lucy had left. Her eagerness and impatience to meet her biological father were understandable, as was her wish to read her mother’s diaries, but seeing her like this was breaking his heart. For as far as he was concerned Lucy was just as much his as the other children were, no matter what Lucy thought about him now. He understood her need to know about her roots, and he’d do everything he could to help. But he also knew that he had to make sure that it didn’t strain the rest of the family to the breaking point; he shrank away from the idea that finding her father would tear the family apart.

  In a way that had already happened, and no matter how much he loved Rita, he couldn’t help thinking that it had been her fault that that had happened, and even before her death. It had been her idea to tell Lucy and the other children that he wasn’t her father. While Paul and Evie had been unconcerned by the news, Ewan had leapt at the chance to remind his older sister of that fact whenever he could. Although he did understand that Rita was both their mother, the fact that Dave wasn’t her father weakened the bond between them. Ewan identified mostly with Dave, because more
often than not Rita was very strict with him, and Ewan tended to act upon how he felt people were treating him.

  Dave rubbed his hands over his face. He was an only child, but even he knew the powerful bond siblings shared, and he hoped that Lucy would learn it too. He was scared of losing her as well, but he had promised to find her father, and that he had done. He just wished Anna hadn’t texted her with the news just to get her away from where she’d been. Lucy had no idea how much he trusted her not to get into trouble, whereas Anna had nothing better to do than to think the worst of her just because Rita... Well, he’d heard some ugly things that he’d rather not have learned. If Rita had wanted him to know about these things she would have told him.

  Reading her diaries had been an idea born of desperation, of the wish to help Lucy and maybe understand her better. Dave was fully aware of the fact that reading her diaries, cryptic as they were, could get him into serious trouble. They could also, however, confirm ideas he had about Rita, such as that Lucy wasn’t the product of a one-night stand. Well, apparently, it had been a one-night stand, but Rita had, for some reason, wanted Stuart to know what became of his daughter — a child he had known about from the start. Rita had told him she wanted a child when she first met him. Had Lucy really been the product of a one-off, though, or had they been together several times to make sure?

  Dave dropped his hands on the table and stood. He couldn’t believe he was thinking these things. They were none of his business; the most important thing was that he had found Stuart and could get him as involved in Lucy’s life as Lucy wanted, and he deemed prudent — not that there was much he could deny Lucy. She really was more his daughter than Tanya. He’d missed so much of her childhood because his breakup with Michelle had been so messy, with most of the blame for the failed marriage laid at his feet. Things had been rocky between them for a very long time until Samuel had come along. When Anna had implied that Lucy might get pregnant just like Tanya, he’d had to control himself so as not to lash out at Anna. Clearly, Tanya and Lucy were very different, and Lucy wasn’t running away — she was seeking help and support, and not in the arms of some boy who would take advantage of her vulnerability.

  No, he was going to lose Lucy for another reason. He was devastated already, and he was terrified of losing Evie, Paul and Ewan as well.

  Dave squeezed his eyes shut to keep his tears at bay. It was ridiculous how often he teared up these days. He was a mess, torn between his grief for Rita and his fear of being unable to hold the family together. Football practice offered some respite, but what he needed was time away from it all to get his feelings sorted. He needed someone to talk to who hadn’t known Ritasomeone to bounce ideas off of so he could get things straight in his head. Once he could be himself, he knew, he’d be able to be there for them.

  He opened his laptop and typed the email to Stuart before everyone got back from the match.

  -:-

  Lucy returned from the shops with the biscuits — his favourite ones, which she placed on the kitchen table with an almost shy smile — and the copy of one of the magazines that had bought his photos of the charity event. He had only sold a select few, keeping the more personal shots of Rose to himself. He had caught her unguarded a couple of times, and he had spent quite a while staring at the photos, and had wondered about the sadness and resignedness she had worn about her like a heavy coat. The public didn’t need to see these, and he wanted to fulfil his promise to call to give them to her to deal with them at her own discretion.

  “You met Rose Tyler?” Lucy asked, browsing the magazine. Of all the people in attendance that night, and considering who Lucy was interested in, it was curious that she should ask him about Rose. He ripped open the bag of biscuits, exploding them all over the place. Lucy sighed, gathering as many as she could and placing them on the plate he had gotten out of the cupboard.

  “Yeah, among others,” he said. Lucy usually didn’t show much interest in his work.

  “It’s a really good photo of her,” she said, pushing the magazine towards him. He pulled it close, whirling it around to get a better look at it. It wasn’t the shot he’d have chosen, but it was all right.

  “Thank you,” he said.

  “What’s she like?” Lucy asked, nibbling at the last biscuit she found on the far edge of the table.

  Dave shrugged. “She’s nice, I suppose. I haven’t really talked to her much.” It wasn’t even a lie, but he didn’t want Lucy to know about Rose. It would only complicate things unnecessarily and hurt the kids on top of that. They didn’t need to know he cried about Rita when they weren’t looking; it was enough that they wondered about it. He needed to be strong for them, to keep the family together. “Why are you asking?” Of all the people he’d seen that night, Rose seemed the least obvious choice for Lucy to talk about.

  Lucy shrugged. “Dunno. She looks a bit lost, don’t you think?”

  “Lost?” he repeated, crumpling up the bag and sitting down to have a closer look at the photo. Lost was not an adjective that had sprung to mind when he’d first looked at it, but now that Lucy had mentioned it he had to admit that she was right.

  “Yeah, she looks like she wants to be anywhere else but there. Was it that awful, Dad?”

  For a moment he was thrown by the fact that she’d called him dad, then he was just very happy that she had. “No, no, it wasn’t, but who knows? She probably has to attend this kind of thing quite often, so I can imagine it’s a bit boring for her.” He had a fairly good idea, though, as to the real reason. Rose hadn’t recovered fully from her injuries yet, and when she had received the call on the roof garden it had seemed more than welcome. Maybe it had been a call she’d expected, a call that would give her the opportunity to flee.

  Lucy nodded thoughtfully and pulled the magazine back towards her.

  “Lucy, are you all right?” he asked.

  “Yeah,” she said lightly, closing the magazine and picking it up. “I’ll go practise.”

  Dave squeezed the biscuit bag into a small ball in his hands and nodded. The violin offered Lucy some respite from the mess her life had suddenly become. She left, and a couple of minutes later her could hear her play, noting, wistfully, that she had made a lot of progress in the past weeks. If only Rita could still accompany her on the piano. They shared a talent for music the others didn’t, obviously having gotten his lack of musical talent from him — although Rita had been adamant that he had a nice singing voice, he had always thought that she had only been humouring him. his talent clearly lay in visual arts, and Evie seemed to be taking after him.

  -:-

  The notion that Rose looked lost in the photos he’d taken of her persisted. As he sat at the kitchen table after supper, he drew up the photos on his laptop to look at them. The children were all busy for once, so he felt he might as well indulge his thoughts a little. He hadn’t yet called Rose about the photos because he never seemed to have a quiet enough moment to do so. Hopefully she didn’t think he’d forgotten or even dismissed her.

  As soon as he sat down with a cup of coffee, Lucy joined him with her magazine. Sighing inwardly, he focused his attention on the screen and pretended to be working. He knew, of course, why Lucy sought him out. It was the hope that there might be news from Stuart. Another pang of fear and regret shot through him.

  He enlarged his favourite shot of Rose and looked at her. Lucy was right. There was definitely an air of being lost around Rose, along with the sadness he’d observed. The emotions made him want to reach out for her and to ask her what was bothering her. He propped his chin on his hand. Him caring for her seemed to define their relationship, if that was what you could call it at that early stage — provided, of course, they were at a stage of something at all. Was his attraction to her the same as what had drawn him to Rita? Was he feeling the need to protect or care for her? He’d been drawn to Rita by her independence and once she realized he didn’t intend to try to tie her down, she allowed herself to get close to him, but th
at need for freedom had confounded him on more than one occasion — she’d told him early on that she was adopted, and instead of seeking out close relationships as some kind of an ersatz family, she had cultivated her need for independence. The only exception to that had been Lucy. They had been so very close that sometimes they seemed more like twins than mother and daughter.

  Dave wondered if Rose was the same. But her look of being lost mingled with loss. She, too, was grieving for someone dear to her, of that he was sure. Although she had also bonded with him immediately on some deep level when he had found her in the street, she had been reticent at the restaurant. Maybe that had been because of the unwanted attention she’d received, but it had baffled him. Her trust in him had been overwhelming, and now that he thought about it, she must have confused him with someone else, a doctor. Was he the person she was missing? Or was he just a friend she’d needed to see as she lay, injured, on the rough tarmac, covered against the drizzle by his leather jacket?