by David Lund
“Well,” the crinkled face man said, in the Friiist language. “I would have thought you’d be more pleased to see an old friend.”
“Blayal?”
“Yours truly. Now, let’s get you out of here!”
27
“What do we do?” Lindsey asked, looking over at Videem, who was still shaking, unable to get warm. He was manoeuvring the ship but seem to be having trouble concentrating on anything else.
“We ignore them and hope for the best,” it was Michael who answered. He noticed Caitlin looking at him, probably thinking about his poor leadership skills, he knew he was. It was a terrible plan, but he couldn’t think of anything else to do but to keep going. In any case, Videem continued on, either because he agreed with Michael’s plan or because he couldn’t think of anything else to do.
Another warning came through the speakers from the Friiist, telling them they would be fired on if they didn’t stop immediately. Then there was a large klaxon sound and the doors to the hangar bay began to close. Videem took the vessel to its maximum speed and they just managed to squeeze through before the doors banged shut with a loud thud. They sped away from the underwater base quickly. But unfortunately for them, they found themselves pursued by several Friiist submarines seconds later.
The ship shuddered violently as they took a hit.
“Videem!” Michael cried.
The ship took a sharp, vertical dive as Videem steered them towards the depths of the ocean. It was an impressive craft, Michael hardly felt the change in direction, either because the ship was so well designed or because he was concentrating hard on the sensors and the ships following them.
Videem’s manoeuvre had managed to lose most of the enemy but Michael could see a large alien ship closing in on them. It was a least twice the size of their own stolen craft, and seemed to be faster. They could only assume the weapons were more powerful too. Videem still hadn’t spoken, but Michael knew that he too could see the approaching vessel, so he resisted the urge to shout at him to do something, and let him concentrate.
They dived deeper and deeper. The sensors indicated that they were now over seven hundred metres deep. The Friiist were having no trouble keeping up with them, and Michael was sure they would fire in the next few seconds. He didn’t know how much damage their vessel could take, but he doubted it would last long in a battle with the giant following them.
But after a few tense minutes, they were still alive. The Friiist weren’t getting any closer but weren’t backing off either. They were obviously following them. The problem was that they could not head straight to the deep underwater station with them on their tail. Not that they knew where this station was. But it would be a hell of a lot simpler to search without being followed everywhere. Maybe the Friiist had suspected what they were going to do. What other reason was there for stealing one of their ships? They had seen them, and they knew the Henfor were inside their atmosphere, they must know. Michael was afraid they would double their defences around this
underwater construction, if it existed.
They had to succeed. Michael reminded himself that two of his men were down there somewhere, possibly being tortured. With a gulp, he remembered there was also a possibility that the others – Jean, Franck and Jal – had been captured too. But no, they were with Gareen, a skilled commander, they would be all right. He could not let himself think of these things. He needed to concentrate on their own situation.
“Videem, they’re on our tail.” The alien had noticed this and managed to nod. He seemed to be feeling slightly better but had yet to speak. Caitlin and Lindsey were also scanning the instruments.
“What can we do?” Lindsey asked. “We can’t go to their underwater site without them following us.
We need to get rid of them.”
“Yes, but how?”
“We need them,” Videem said suddenly. “I counted on this, we need them to find this sanctuary of theirs. We won’t be able to without their help.”
“And you think they’ll just lead us to it?” Caitlin said, derisively. Videem shivered violently, still cold, before answering.
“No, but they will help prove the place exists.” He cranked up the heat a few degrees before explaining. “By now, they believe we are looking for this place, I am certain of that. There is no other reason for us to be underwater, on their planet. However, they don’t know for sure that we know for sure that it exists.”
“What?” Lindsey asked confused.
“There has never been any proof that this underwater station exists, it’s only a theory. They aren’t destroying us because they want to see what we do.”
“Okay, but how does all this help us?” Michael asked.
“If we look as if we’re searching, they will probably destroy us. We need to make out like we only wanted to steal one of their ships.”
“To what end?”
“For it’s technology,” Videem said simply.
“And how do we do that?” Caitlin wanted to know.
“By heading to the surface.”
“What good will that do?”
But Michael thought he understood.
“If we go to the surface, they’ll believe we are just stealing the ship. Can this thing fly?”
“Yes, I believe so. The Friiist design their ships to serve several purposes.”
“Why didn’t we just steal a spaceship then?” Lindsey said.
“Because although they are designed to be multifunctional, it is doubtful that a ship designed to be
used in space would be able to go as deep as we need. However, their ships that operate in the sea would often need to be space crafts as well, as the Friiist mainly live on colonies around their planet.”
“So we go up and fly to a different location and then go back under?” Lindsey asked.
“Yes.”
“But what’s to stop them following us even in the air? Especially as we appear to be stealing one of their submarines.”
“The craft that is following us is large and will be clumsy in the air.”
“What about other ships?” Michael asked.
“I believe there is an Earth expression,” Videem’s mouth widened in one of those crazy Henfor smiles. “We’ll just have to wing it!” And with that, he changed the ship’s direction from a steep dive to a steep climb.
Once again, Michael barely felt the change in direction, and they climbed rapidly. Their pursuers also changed direction and had no trouble keeping up with them. He could see them on sensors, not getting any closer, but not backing off either.
They broke the surface only a few minutes later and kept going up. They rose to about four hundred metres, high enough to manoeuvre but still low enough that they shouldn’t be picked up by any control stations or radars. Videem took them into a sweeping arc to see if the other ship would follow, which they did, falling back slightly. Videem saw this as them having trouble keeping up with the smaller craft in the air. He took a sharper turn, the nifty vessel having no trouble making the almost one eighty turn in mid air. The Friiist vessel shot past them and turned, once again, in a sweeping arc, unable to make the same sharp turn.
“We’ve got them. We need to leave quickly before they call reinforcements.”
As he spoke, Videem made another sharp turn and rose slightly higher, then timing it perfectly, he dove under the other ship, and dropped them back into the water. He immediately swerved hard to the right and went down as quickly as he could.
The other vessel had no chance of following and soon, they were out of scanning range.
Hopefully they would be left alone for a while.
“Now, if you were a huge secret underwater building, where would you be?” Caitlin mumbled.
*
They didn’t run into any trouble for the next couple of hours, but had no luck in locating any buildings. They were as deep as they could go, floating only a couple of metres above the ocean floor. It was very dark down here and even the pow
erful headlights located on the front of the ship
were not much use. They had to rely on their sensors to make anything out.
Caitlin voiced concerns that the structure they were looking for might be hidden from their sensors, but Videem vetoed this idea by simply explaining that there was no reason to hide a building so hard to find in the first place from their own sensors, on one of their own ships.
“The problem is that it could be anywhere on the planet.”
This was what worried Michael the most. How big was the planet? At least as big as Earth. It could take them weeks, months or even years to find this place, if it existed. They were sailing blind at the bottom of the ocean. They were searching in the deepest ocean on the planet, where, the Henfor believed, was the most likely place to hide such a construction. But the ocean itself was bigger and deeper than the Pacific Ocean.
As Michael reflected gloomily on this fact, he noticed Videem stiffen slightly and do something that resembled a frown.
“What is it?” Michael asked, standing up.
“A ship. But -” He stopped, obviously confused.
“What?”
“It’s a Henfor ship. It’s the Henfor ship the others were using.”
“But, that’s not possible, you said -”
“I know what I said, but unless these readings are false, it’s them.”
“Can we contact them?”
“Captain,” Caitlin warned. “It might be a hoax.”
“If we can see them, they can see us.” He turned to Videem and nodded. The Henfor opened a channel.
“This is Michael Edwards, state your identity.”
“Captain,” came the reply. “It is I, Gareen. We were worried you were a Friiist team, we were preparing to attack you.”
“Gareen! How is this possible? Is everyone okay?”
“Captain,” came Jean’s voice. “We are all well. We were attacked but managed to escape.”
“How?”
“It was Jean, he was brilliant,” it was Jal this time. “We were chased into a ship graveyard where we managed to hide, then Jean had the idea to salvage parts from one of their ships to make ours resist to the pressure.
“It was nothing,” Jean said modestly. “We ‘ave been searching the bottom of the ocean ever since.”
“Great work, Jean. Did you find anything?”
“Sadly, no.”
They exchanged news about the locations they had searched, and although both Gareen and
Videem insisted they split up to cover more ground, Michael flatly refused, not wanting to separate his team again. He was more frightened of losing them than ever before. They were so deep in enemy territory, he thought it was too dangerous. No, they would search together.
They continued on, skimming the floor and searching with both ships this time. Michael wanted to hear everything that had happened since they had separated.
The other team hadn’t had any problems getting into the ocean, but after that, they’d immediately run into trouble. The Friiist ship that had detected them had been on its own though, and when they had managed to hide in the graveyard, they had faked an explosion by detonating and old ship.
They hadn’t seen anybody else since then.
It wasn’t until several hours later that the group finally found something. The sensors on both ships had picked up a huge structure, several kilometres away. They stopped long enough to make out the readings.
It was the construction they were looking for, and it was absolutely massive. Bigger than anything any of them had ever seen before. It was several kilometres across and at least five hundred metres high. They couldn’t hide it that well after all. However there was one rather big problem.
The structure was surrounded by several hundred Friiist vessels.
28
James stood in front of the house, wondering what he was doing. But deep within himself, he felt it was important. It was a cold January day, and the trees in the front yard were barren. James linked the absence of leaves to the depression inside the house that stood before him. The people within its walls were surely not in a good state of mind. James hoped what he was coming to say would bring back some of the hope they had lost. Then again, he reminded himself, he might make it much, much worse.
He took a deep breath and walked slowly up the driveway. On either side of him, the yard was unkempt, the grass was long overgrown and the hedges needed serious trimming. There was a child’s swing near the front of the house, which looked as if it hadn’t been used for ages; the metal bars were rusty and creaked in the gentle breeze
The house itself was beautiful. It was a large Victorian style place, with two floors and a thatched roof. James could see light coming out from the downstairs window, where he knew the large kitchen was. He hesitated on the doorstep, took another deep breath and rang the doorbell.
After several seconds, the door opened and revealed a women in her late thirties. Her long blond hair was slightly wild and there were heavy bags under her bloodshot eyes. She look like someone who had cried all there was to cry, and had no tears left. She was still wearing a dressing gown, as if she had recently got out of bed.
“James,” she croaked. “What are you doing here?” She stood aside to let him in. Glad to be out of the cold, James entered the hall and removed his coat. He turned to face the women.
“Alice, I’ve come to talk to you about something important. About Michael.” Alice Edwards drew in a sharp breath at the mention of her husband’s name, but said nothing. “Where’s Jade?” he continued, referring to their daughter.
“She’s at a friends. James, what about Michael?”
James fumbled nervously with his hands before answering.
“This is a bit delicate. Maybe we should sit down.”
“Of course,” Alice replied nervously. “Would you like some coffee?” And without waiting for an answer, she led the way into the kitchen.
They had recently had it done. James could remember coming round, several months ago for a dinner party to celebrate the new kitchen. It had been finished with beautiful black worktops and brand new units. It was a bit of a mess now. Dishes lay strewn over the dark work surfaces, and there was dust and cobwebs in every corner. Alice was obviously suffering, along with the housework.
They sat at the breakfast bar, and James was served some weak coffee. He gulped some of it
down quickly, wondering what the hell he was doing here. He had been expressly forbidden to talk about this to anyone, but if there was, even the slightest chance that Michael was still alive, surely his wife should know? If he let her believe there was a chance of saving him…
No.
James suddenly felt a very strong desire to leave. He could not give this poor women hope, only to have it taken away from her if Michael really was dead. What had he been thinking? Alice was staring at him, obviously waiting for him to tell her this important information about her husband.
Stalling, he drank more coffee.
“James,” Alice croaked again. “You said something about Michael.”
“Yes. I -” He grasped for something to say. He couldn’t tell her. “I was wondering how you were coping. We haven’t seen each other much since – Well, you know.” She sighed and her body relaxed. James realised she had been tense, as if she expected to hear some more bad news.
Although, what could be worse?
She looked down into her coffee, staring at the fumes from the scalding drink.
“It hasn’t been easy. I’m still not sure I really believe he’s gone. After all, he wouldn’t even be back from Mars yet, even if everything had gone to plan.”
James had not forgotten this fact. They were due to return in February. That would be another difficult day for Alice and her daughter. Or maybe not. James had already made his decision. He was going after the Interstellar. He was going to try and save its crew. He had already told John as much.
“And how’s Jade?”
“She doesn’t say much. I don’t think she’s accepted yet, either.” He nodded, not sure what to say.
Thankfully, she changed the subject.
“How is work?”
They talked for a while about TEC and many other mundane things. It was about an hour later when they stood on the doorstep of the house, James pulling on his heavy coat to protect himself from the cold outside.
“Thanks for dropping by.”
He looked at her intently, still doubting.
“Take care of yourself, Alice.” He hugged her briefly and walked straight to his car, without looking back.
*
The next morning, James found himself sitting in a chair on the bridge of John’s ship. It was a
small, square room, with just three work stations. One for John; Tim, their pilot, and Isobel, a science officer. There was an extra seat for James to sit in. He didn’t have a station as he was only coming along to give them advice on space travel. Or so John said. Of course, he intended to do more than that. He wanted to play his part in the rescue of his ship.
The walls of the bridge were painted a deep red, which somehow made James think of impending doom. He could not shake the feeling that this was going to be a one way trip, however much he wanted to save his friends. He just could not see how they could fight against an alien race, obviously more powerful, and more technologically advanced than they were. That is of course, if they weren’t obliterated in the passage of this artificial wormhole. John’s confidence did nothing to soothe his fear.
Below him, throughout the ship, were fifteen other men and women, making sure all of the ships functions were working at peak efficiency. As John had said before, it was not an exploration vessel, but a war ship. It had been equipped with vicious weapons, including a nuclear missile launcher, which John assured him he had no intention of using but was ‘just in case’.
James was not pleased about this, he didn’t think using violence would save their situation at all.
They were not going to beat this foe by using brute force. They needed to think things through, but John seemed to be past that. James knew he wanted to save his father, but he knew there was very little chance that the man was still alive and he suspected that John was more out to get revenge on the people who had taken his father from him. He was worried that the man was unstable, which was another reason he believed he needed to go with John. He thought he would be able to stop him from doing anything rash.