Rescue Mission to the Stars

by Philip R Benge

  ***********

  Thirty minutes later and after rousing Sarah, for Colin had given her a powerful sleeping draught rather than the mild one to ensure that she rested, they put there bags back into the shuttlecraft and got aboard. That is after ensuring that the aliens were securely tied up, for they wanted to ensure that their friend was safe, only then did they make a hurried exit of Brownwood.

  “Is Colin going to be alright Uncle John, he`s not going to get into any trouble?” David asked worriedly as they flew across a dark landscape.

  “Don`t worry David, I will look in on him after I return from Mars, to ensure that everything went off all right.” John Blazer promised.

  They arrived at the Cape just as the sun rose over the Atlantic Ocean. Sarah had fallen asleep again, and when she woke, she had a myriad of questions to ask. The sleeping draught had made her oblivious to much of what had happened. Once back on the ground they parked themselves in the offices of Blazer Space, enjoyed a series of coffees to wake Sarah up, and waited as the new crew of the Galactic Traveller turned up one by one.

  Tony Miles had been the first to arrive, his broken leg fully mended; now he was impatient to start on the adventure. He was twenty-five years in age with brown hair and a pair of large brown eyes and an ever young good looking but boyish face. He was bored with life and wanted to experience something exciting, later he could settle down to enjoy the rest of his life in normal mode. He had smiled when he saw Sarah, but this smile turned to a look of concern when he noticed the bandage peaking out from under the hem of her skirt, for she had on a skirt so that her leg wouldn`t get too warm and inflame the wound, but he got angry when he was told the reason.

  Jimmy Fielding lived near to the spaceport at the Cape, having bought a small place on the coast to live out his remaining days, only to be bored after a month of living the life of a beachcomber. He was now nearing the age of sixty-five and retained most of his hair, although it was now very grey and he had kept most of his teeth. His eyes were grey, his build slight and he only stood five feet six inches in height. He had arrived to be greeted by Barney who showed him into the office of John Blazer, which was above and to the rear of the hanger where the grey compact shuttlecraft stood. Jimmy Fielding had seen and worked with robots before, and was sure in his own mind about the pros and cons relating to the need to have them, and as far as he was concerned the cons had it by a mile. He too was surprised when he heard of the latest bit of excitement, and he tried to talk Sarah into staying behind, but she thanked him for his kind thoughts but quietly refused to give the matter a moment of her time.

  Steve Ryan had been the last to arrive at the hanger where the craft was patiently sitting since the last time Blazer had used it. Then it was to journey across to Earth`s moon on a trip that won him a brilliant scientist for Blazer Space. Now it had another one, inside of its cramped passenger cabin, Steve Ryan. His late arrival was due to a last minute errand that he had run at the bequest of John Blazer, which was to stop off at the factory partly owned by Steve and bring along six of his latest android tablets, for an unspecified use. Steve didn`t appear to be looking forward to this new phase in his already illustrious career, for he was looking very glum. He couldn`t believe that he had agreed to join David on this mad venture, but at least he would be away from Veronica Payne. Why had he fallen so deeply in love with her when he had heard the stories about her? His friends had warned him about the string of broken hearts that she had left in her wake. Well from the little he knew about this trip of David`s, it was not only his heart that would be in danger of breaking, but the rest of his body as well. Steve was tall, just over six foot, with blond hair, blue eyes and good looks, couple this to his muscular build, and he could have the pick of the ladies that were part of his and his friends scene. You might wonder why Veronica Payne had thrown him over, but the cause of their final argument was something Steve himself was still wondering. Then for her to agree to join a group who were going for a trip up the Amazon River was simply baffling to him, for it was all she could do to rough it on some of her more adventurous photo shoots. Veronica would be accompanying some of her rich spoilt friends in the company of a writer, he was set on experiencing the river and its denizens for a new book he was thinking about writing, but most people didn`t wonder why, for she had done similar things all through her exciting life as a model. Steve hadn`t noticed Sarah`s leg resting on a nearby chair, he was too taken up with his own sorrows.

  Now they were in interplanetary space and heading quickly towards the red planet, with Pete Spencer, an employee of Blazer Space piloting the shuttlecraft, and so the next phase of their dangerous adventure had begun. It was now that John Blazer told the new crew of the freighter, the Galactic Traveller, some new facts that kept them quiet in their seats while they took them in.

  “Blazer Space and Boeing Space together have improved on the defence capability of our starships. Our new energy weapon is a vast improvement on the older models, although the engines of your freighter, the Galactic Traveller, will only allow a couple of shots before you will have to recharge them or risk losing power to your engines, and leaving you helpless. I have included it amongst the improvements being carried out on the freighter for use against any space pirate who might try to intercept you. The Galactic Traveller doesn`t have the necessary power in its engines to allow you to go up against any serious opponent, and I would stress that you shouldn`t even try. We have also improved the scanning capability of starships, and as long as you are not using your engines entire energy output running or fighting, then they will operate at one hundred per cent even on the Galactic Traveller. This item will assist you the most in your search for the Blazer Explorer.” John Blazer stopped here to allow those present to take all of this relatively good news in before proceeding on with his revelations.

  “What I have to tell you next is top secret at the moment. I am only allowed to inform you now that we are travelling across to Mars. The people of the planet Earth have made contact with its first alien race.” John Blazer stopped here for the expected explosion of questions to his little bombshell.

  “You`re kidding, you must be?” Steve Ryan declared, his mouth hanging open for a few moments before he remembered to close it for a moment, before continuing with his question.

  “Where about in space did we make contact, and who made the contact, John?” Steve then saw that Sarah had her leg up on David`s lap and then he saw the bandage peeking out from under her skirt. “Are you alright Sarah; is there something wrong with your leg?” He asked and was amazed when all the others around him burst out in laughter.

  “Yes I`m fine thank you Steve, I just had a little trouble with an exploding shuttlecraft, but everything is ok now.”

  David told Steve of their adventures. Of how Sarah had been injured, and then of the attack on Colin Powers’ house. Then they returned to Steve`s original question regarding the location of the alien planet.

  “It happened in the quadrant of space you are about to explore, and first contact was made by one of my drones that was out searching for signs of the Blazer Explorer.” John Blazer said and looked towards David and smiled.

  “You see David, I too have not given up hope for them yet, and my reasons for not helping you until now were only because I feared for your lives. When I informed the government about the aliens, they asked me to keep quiet about it, for they did not want anybody to know about my findings until contact had been established by an ambassadorial party. I decided to withhold the knowledge from you until I could reasonably guarantee your safety for at least part of the time. The meeting between the ambassador and the aliens was arranged by me via the drone. Our aliens did not realise that the drone had entered their planetary system, maybe because it is small and so hard to detect, and because as soon as it detected signs of intelligent life it was under orders to ensure that the life did not detect it. I didn`t want it being destroyed before it had contacted us. It slipped into the planetary system with on
ly the barest of systems still operating, I brought the drone towards their planet at ninety degrees to their planetary axis, and it managed to enter orbit without being detected. Only then, did it spring to life and begin sending down its message to the aliens. They must have been very surprised to find out that our world had managed to slip by their defences, defences that I believe took out the Blazer Explorer. They had no choice but to respond to our overtures, a ship will leave Earth orbit in three days’ time, the Intrepid, I have arranged for the Galactic Traveller to be the only other ship that will also make the voyage, you are to carry gifts to the aliens. These gifts are also a sample of the goods that we hope we will be able to trade with them as soon as we agree diplomatic relations. This will give you the opportunity to slip into this area of space safely, but you should remember that we know nothing about these people, and all we can surmise is that they may be behind the mysterious disappearance of the Blazer Explorer. If our fears are correct, you cannot allow yourself to be caught snooping, as we have no idea what they may do to you, but after the way they treated us in Washington I don`t suppose it will be nice.” John Blazer said.

  “The Intrepid is one of the new class of space cruisers isn`t it Uncle? David asked.

  “Yes, and it also carries all of the advances in space technology made by Earth over the last year. But it will be under strict instructions not to cause any diplomatic incidents, and it will carry aboard it the Ambassador and his entourage, and being a politician he will have no problem in ditching you should it suit his aims.” John Blazer replied.

  “Do we know what these aliens call themselves yet?” Steve Ryan asked.

  “Yes Steve they are from the planet Mazere and they are Mazerens. They look very like us, as did the people who attacked us at the Washington space port, and as soon as you can obtain a sample of their DNA we will be able to confirm one way or another whether they are one and the same.” Blazer said in answer to Steve`s question.

  “This here politician, if we find that the DNA matches, what is his response likely to be John?” Jimmy Fielding asked.

  “He`s a politician Jimmy, so he is likely to look for a carpet to brush any such information under, isn`t he.” Sarah called across to him laughing which immediately caused the rest of them to join in.

  “My father always said that if a politician`s lips were moving then he was most likely lying about something, and I firmly believe that to be the truth.” Tony Miles said in a manner that brooked no argument.

  “You may well be right Sarah, Tony; for I only got the information regarding the terrorists DNA due to the fact that I resorted to blackmail, and was also owed a large favour by someone high up in the Space Department. I do not want this information regarding our knowledge of the DNA results getting out unless it will be of real use to you, I don`t want one of you revealing it because the politicians are pissing you off, understand?” The people around him all nodded to show that they accepted the restriction, although Jimmy did have a question.

  “Can we assume that the ambassador also has this knowledge, and if so can`t we speak to him about it?” Jimmy queried.

  “Jimmy, I have arranged for a DNA decoding machine to be installed on your ship, and it will have the results of the alien DNA tests already in it, all you need to get is a sample of the aliens DNA. If you find that they match, and you feel that broaching the subject with the ambassador will help you move two or more steps forward, then yes you may speak to him about it, otherwise I would advise that you all to keep quiet until such a time when you will be able to move forward by those two steps.”

  The craft landed upon the red planet, some two hundred feet away from an old freighter that had never seen so many people bustling about it. The Galactic Traveller was the last of a line built fifty years ago, and it was still going strong despite its age, and the lack of new parts for such an old spacecraft. Richard and David Charlton had to visit starship graveyards to find the vital replacement parts they occasionally required to keep the ship operational, luckily for them there one was on Mars where they kept the starship when it wasn`t in use. The ship was sitting where David had left it, inside a man made scoop in the ground, it was the last in a row of such depressions that marked this portion of the space port of Mars. A mobile clear aluminium dome had been moved along this row of depressions and now protected the starship against the worst that Mars could throw at it while it sat on the planet, it had also been pressurised so that the team of engineers could work all the more efficiently without a space suit. They were more of Blazer Space`s technicians, busy ensuring that when the starship left for deep space it would not break down. All around the ship were various parts that had been carefully removed and checked, and were now waiting to be fitted back with the seal of approval by one of the most skilled of men, a Blazer technician. Within another twenty-four hours, the ship would be ready to have its cargo put into its large hold, cargo that was already being delivered to the red planet by an assortment of interplanetary spacecraft.

  David Charlton and his small crew went aboard the old starship, David to check on the work being done to his craft, Sarah after asking where her cabin was went to it for a sleep, and the others were there to have a look at their new home for the unforeseeable future. John Blazer accompanied David to introduce him to the team of technicians, and to see for himself just how much more work was to be done before it was ready for a deep space flight into danger. The chief technician came forward to talk with them as soon as he saw them board the starship.

  “We have finished installing the two new pieces of technology as per your request Mr Blazer, and we are now checking over the original circuitry and hardware to ensure that the crew of this old tub doesn`t get any surprises, so far it has a clean bill of health. We have also replaced some of the components aboard the ship for more modern units that react faster to commands than the older hardware, and it should also make it more robust.”

  “This is David Charlton, the old tub`s owner and captain, Alan.” Blazer said grinning at Alan Beecham, a forty something whiz kid of starship mechanics. He was tall, lean, brown eyed and balding just a little; and now he smiled at David.

  “Sorry about insulting your craft Captain, for her age she is in good nick.” Beecham said by way of an apology.

  “That`s ok, she may be getting old but she can still do her job, she just needs a lot of attention before each trip, oh and call me David, captain sounds to grand a title for the pilot of an old tub.” David replied smiling at the tall technician before him.

  Alan Beecham immediately took to David, he knew that some captains could be a little touchy about insults to their craft, but David Charlton still possessed a sense of humour that the space department of Earth hadn`t eradicated just yet.

  “If you will both follow me, I will point out the additions and improvements that my team have carried out.”

  Beecham led them both onto the bridge and showed them the controls that would operate the new technology aboard the starship; the scanners that would allow David to know the intentions of any ship near enough to cause him a problem. Alternatively, it could tell him the components of a nebulous anomaly should he need somewhere safe to hide. The second piece of technology was the energy weapon that would come as a nasty surprise to anyone who might want to make unwelcome approaches, assuming that these people were not aboard a space cruiser. Then he gave David a quick how to operate them lesson, Barney of cause would be the one to give him and his crew a more comprehensive schooling in the modern technologies of the second half of the twenty second century. Just then, Jimmy Fielding came up to the three men.

  “Everything looks fine David, I`m fully conversant with the hardware aboard this ship, having grown old amongst them, so they won`t provide me with any problems, and I in turn will be able to ensure the ship does whatever you want her to do. The techies tell me that we will be ready to go well before the Intrepid shows up.” Jimmy said.

  “Great Jimmy, then all we need to do after
the work is finished, is to load the cargo aboard and await the arrival of the Intrepid.” David replied.

  “There is one other point that you should know David, the ambassador will know of your real reason for making this voyage, and from what I know of him he is unlikely to allow you any slack, the ambassador is Jules Kennedy.” John Blazer said quietly to his young godson.

  David Charlton almost fell down over this news about who would be in command of this mission, and have so much control over his quest, if he allowed him too that is. Kennedy hated his father with all of his heart, for his father had married Patricia Soames, as she was then, the woman both men had loved. When she had almost died from the complications that had arisen when she was giving birth to David, his hatred had been transferred to him. How he felt about him following the disappearance of Patricia Charlton he didn`t know, but it would hardly have improved his feelings towards him, and it would certainly make his quest all the more difficult.

  The next day Sarah called on the colony`s doctor to have him check on her leg, and thankfully he found it to be healing nicely. All it required was a little more rest and it would be as good as new. That next day their cargo was delivered to them and duly stowed away within the ship`s hold, and then the space cruiser Intrepid arrived on the following day and went into orbit around Mars. The captain of the space cruiser didn`t waste any time but immediately called them and told them to be ready to leave Mars in four hours time. Sarah took advantage of these four hours to visit the clinic for a final check up before her journey into deep space; the doctor repeated his findings of her last visit, but as she was leaving the clinic the colony`s doctor called her back to give her a present.

  “You might find this handy for the next week; it will help to keep your weight off of your injured leg.” The doctor then handed an aluminium walking stick over to Sarah with a smile.

  “Thank you Doctor, I really appreciate it, I promise to return it on our way back to Earth.”

  The doctor`s kind thought, for someone who was a stranger, put her in good cheer and she returned to the Galactic Traveller with a smile on her face. She got a little ribbing from the rest of the crew when she showed off her present, but they were now ready for lift off. After saying their goodbyes to John Blazer and his team of technicians, David took the old freighter out of the large hanger and up through the thin Martian atmosphere to rendezvous with the Intrepid, which contacted them as soon as they made orbit.

  “Captain Charlton we will lead and you will follow at your best speed, we are heading for the Pollux system where upon arrival I will then tell you of our intended final destination, understood Captain?” Their radio announced to them all.

  “Understood Intrepid, we are ready to leave as of this moment.” Charlton replied.

  During the next seven days the crew of the Galactic Traveller familiarised themselves with the ship and its components, and Jimmy Fielding ensured that he knew every nut and bolt on the ship, and especially the two new pieces of technology that he had not seen before. Barney was a great help both in explaining the workings of these two items to David and Jimmy, and in his capacity as night watchman allowing the bridge crew to sleep from eleven until four when Steve Ryan took over allowing Barney to relieve Tony Miles down in engineering for the last part of the early morning watch. Even Jimmy began to accept that Barney was useful.

  “David I have been on many a starship but up until now I haven`t come across a robot that was of any real use, here on our ship with such a small crew, I must admit that he is useful, and he has a way about him when he is in teacher mode that almost makes me like him.” This was almost a recommendation coming from Jimmy.

  “You are quite right Jimmy, Barney has turned me into a first rate navigator.” Sarah said whom being amongst the brightest of the humans aboard, was fast learning to become an excellent bridge officer, although she was inconvenienced just a little by her injured leg. Sarah helping on the bridge allowed David time for other things, such as thinking about how to proceed when they finally reached their destination.

  “Yes, Barney has become a part of the crew and one that I would be quite happy to have around, even after we find dad and his crew and can return to more mundane things.” David said as Barney appeared on the bridge having left engineering in the capable hands of Tony Miles.

  “Everything is operating satisfactory Captain.” Barney said in his metallic voice. “I will shut down for a short while I check my own systems to ensure that I too am operating satisfactory, if that is ok Captain.” Almost all of his indicator lights then began to blink in anticipation of David giving permission to proceed.

  “Of course Barney take a break, we can handle things in the meantime.” David said.

  David spoke to Barney just as if he were human; he found that it worked better for everyone if the robot was treated just like one of the crew rather than as a machine. Most of the indicator lights on Barney now turned off; there was just the low hum of whirring circuits to indicate to the humans that he was still active in some way.

  Each night saw Sarah reading her books in the ships small galley while Jimmy listened to his music on his MP3 player, when not on duty down in engineering. Tony spent his free time reading various technical books about engineering, as he attempted to get back on track towards earning his university degree, for he had dropped out as a teenager. If he wasn`t reading then he was speaking to Barney about starship mechanics. Steve and David spent their time talking over old times, that is when David wasn`t getting some alone time with Sarah, something he forbid on the bridge in case they became too absorbed in each other and not on the ships systems, and whatever was happening in deep space.

  The Intrepid was just inside the Galactic Traveller`s new sensor range as the Intrepid was travelling at the much slower speed of the freighter to ensure that nothing happened to it, as had happened to the Blazer Explorer. Soon they arrived at the Pollux system and the two ships stopped so that David Charlton could travel across to the space cruiser in their shuttlecraft to speak to Ambassador Jules Kennedy, who had some instructions of his own to give him. Sarah`s leg was a lot better now and so she travelled across with him to give him added support, for as she had said, he would need it when he spoke with the ambassador. She also wanted to practice piloting the small shuttlecraft; however, David took over when they pulled alongside the powerful ship and came to rest at its docking station. As he had said, they couldn`t afford any accidents at this point in the voyage, as Jules Kennedy would take great pleasure in ordering them home for a space department hearing regarding any such event.

  Sarah was still limping a little but she now had the use of a walking stick so this helped to keep the weight of her injured leg. They were led along the light grey painted corridors by a very young looking ensign, who finally showed them into a large room, which had a long heavy looking black, and a highly polished table, around which were matching chairs. The walls were the same colour as the corridors but had pictures of starships set along the wall. At the far side of the table was Jules Kennedy, he was sat in the middle chair and was flanked on either side by the senior officers of the space cruiser Intrepid. Kennedy looked up as David Charlton and Sarah were shown in by the nervous ensign, who hurriedly left them as soon as they were noticed. Kennedy now indicated the chairs that were directly opposite him and as soon as David and Sarah had seated themselves launched into what he must have been rehearsing for some time.

  “You know that I was against your coming along on this trip Charlton.” He declared looking distastefully at David Charlton as if he were something to be scraped off the soles of his shoes. “Unfortunately, John Blazer has many friends in high places and so he got his way. However, let me tell you now, you will follow my orders and those of the officers of this starship, or I will take great pleasure in consigning you to the brig, and send your rust bucket of a ship together with the rest of motley crew back to Earth, do I make myself clear Charlton?”

  Kennedy was a tall patrician
sort of a man with brown hair greying at the edges and grey eyes that never left the face of David Charlton, he obviously kept fit for there wasn`t an ounce of fat showing beneath his expensive grey suit. Kennedy`s immaculate clothing made David`s casual attire of jeans, blue striped shirt and leather jacket looked rather on the cheap side, although his build matched that of Kennedy as it was now almost back to normal after having lost a lot of his strength during the long time that he had spent in the coma.

  “Of course Ambassador, I never had any desire to do anything but that.” David said. “But I would like to remind you in turn that I have not only come on this trip to deliver cargo to an alien race, I am also here to find out what happened to a starship from Earth together with its crew. One that seems to have disappeared in the region of space that is directly ahead of us. Our personal likes or dislikes should not be allowed to stop me from looking for them, providing that is that I do not tread on any diplomatic toes, don`t you agree Sir?” David Charlton said in a soft voice that also managed to show his extreme distaste for the man sitting opposite him.

  “Then you had better be very careful Charlton, for I have very tender toes. You may go now; the young officer who brought you to this cabin is waiting outside of the door. He is carrying an envelope, which he will give to you. Inside the envelope, you will find a star map and details of our next port of call. We leave in exactly one hour, make sure your ship is ready or we will leave you behind.”

  Kennedy then turned away and began to speak with the captain of the Intrepid about his requirements when they reached their destination. They were obviously dismissed, so David and Sarah stood up and left the room, and were then escorted back to their shuttle whereupon they were given the promised envelope.

  Sarah took them back to the Galactic Traveller, and once back on the bridge they opened the envelope that the young ensign had given to them. They spread out the star charts on the only space available, a countertop set along one side of the bridge that ran beneath a long bank of dials that told how the ship was operating.

  “This is where we are Sarah, and here is where we are going, it should take us another five days to get there.” David Charlton said to his fiancée.

  “I will get working on our course immediately David.” Sarah said, for she was now the ship`s official navigation officer.

  Looking over her shoulder was Barney, who oversaw her work to ensure that her conclusions were correct, but this would be for the last time. Ever since they had left Mars orbit, Barney had been setting her navigational problems that included such things as not going through neutron stars or anywhere near to black holes. Sarah had picked it up fast, and Barney hadn`t needed to add anything to help her reach her course settings, which she sent from her computer screen to the one in front of David Charlton, for he was the helmsman as well as the captain of the ship.

  The next five days went by without incident. Tony Miles and Jimmy Fielding had nothing to do except to check that everything was running correctly. Steve Ryan had mastered both their newly installed sensors and their Phaser weapon, while Sarah had mastered navigation and also knew how to read what their ship`s sensors were telling them, should Steve be required on weapons. David had nothing to worry about other to ensure they didn`t run into any surprises that this sector of space might throw at them. They were soon passing a large blue white sun. It was the brightest star in a quadruple star system named Castor, and designated HIP 36850. They entered orbit about an Earth like planet that was both smaller and very much drier than Earth, it had been designated HIP 36850 AaC by the astronomical association back on Earth, but what Steve had called New Mars, as it would one day become to resemble it, sometime in its far distant future. It was not the alien`s home world, but it was the planet chosen to host the meeting between two alien races, a planet light years away from the planet Mazere.

  Steve Ryan was glued to their newly installed sensors, as the Galactic Traveller orbited around the planet to reach the position designated by their alien hosts. He found a planet that was much as Mars must have been once. Soon their designated landing site came into view on the fast approaching horizon. Their alien hosts had been busy since John Blazer had been in contact with them. Almost below them was a small town, it was set within a large desert area, but near enough to the large mountain range that ran just a few miles beyond the town`s northern borders so that their hosts could utilise the small river that cascaded down the rocky slopes and flowed to the western side of the buildings. To the eastern side of the town sunlight was reflecting off a bank of solar panels that provided some of the towns electricity requirements. To the south of the town was the space port where a multitude of craft were already parked, and as Steve zoomed in to it he saw that a large area was pegged out, presumably for the Earth ships. Steve was giving a running commentary all of the time, but now at a request by David, he had put the view shown by their camera onto the newly installed view screen that was set onto the wall to one side of the bridge and directly behind Steve Ryan. He preferred his own small monitor set into the work surface before him.

  After studying the town and the area around it, Steve zoomed back out and began to look at the desert that surrounded the small town on three sides, with the show temporarily over the others, on the bridge got back to other things. It was while he was studying an area well to the south east of the town that Steve suddenly went very still, and he bent forward and studied the view that their camera was showing him. It was a good minute before he spoke again; he had used this time to re-check an anomaly that the sensors had found. Now he was sure of what the sensors were telling him he looked across at David with a childlike gleam in his eyes.

  “I have something here David, something that could very well be the crash site of a starship. It is mostly hidden by sand, but it could be the Blazer Explorer. Whatever starship it is, it has broken into two pieces which are just one hundred feet apart.” Steve cried out in excitement, gone was the cool computer genius.

  David and Sarah looked back at the large view screen. “Just what do we have here Steve, tell me exactly what the sensors are telling you?” David asked eagerly.

  “I have studied the schematics of the Blazer Explorer, and I believe that the first part could well be engineering section of the ship, which would make the other part the bridge and living quarters. Whatever is down there is made up of the same materials that are used to construct a starship, and the crash site is only some four hours drive in our small hovercraft.” Steve said in a triumphant voice that was echoed by the others as they cried out in glee.

  They had bought the hovercraft while they were on Mars for just this sort of trip; John Blazer had chosen it for its size, for it could just squeeze inside of the shuttlecraft if all but two seats were taken out.

  Steve zoomed the camera lens into the scene down on the planet, and David could now make out the sleek silver lines of the starship`s hull. It could well be the Blazer Explorer, he thought, it must be! Unfortunately, much of the starship was buried now by the sand that the strong winds of New Mars had carried from the far off dunes, and this sand had a high metallic content within it, which stopped their attempts to get beneath it, even with their new scanners.

  “We will just have to wait until we can get there to see if it is my father`s ship.” David said although now the initial excitement was over, fear began to bubble up from his gut, fear that it was the Blazer Explorer, and that he would find the dead body of his father mummified within the sarcophagus lying down in the desert sands. Also down there would be the bodies of the other members of the crew, people who would have been his crewmates, had he not had that accident so long ago back on Earth.

  Sarah sensed the change in David and put her arm around his shoulders. “I`m sure that if that is the Blazer Explorer down there David, that your father survived the crash, it will take a lot more than that to kill Richard Charlton.” Sarah stated confidently.

  “Yes, but it is the thought of hanging about that is so galling Sar
ah, all I want to do is land down there next to that crash site and see if it is my father`s ship, and if it is then to find out whether he survived such a bad crash.” David said turning to look at the woman he loved.

  Sarah could see the pain in his eyes; hear the anguish in his voice. All Sarah could do was smile at him, and squeeze his arm. She knew how she would feel if their positions were reversed, and her heart ached for the pain that he must be feeling at this moment, a moment when he was unable to respond to the urgings of his heart.

  “If we find that the ship down there isn`t the Blazer Explorer, what will we do then?” Sarah asked.

  “Go back to my original plan and explore the route between the mining planet and there final proposed destination.”