“Tell them it was a trick of the light.”
Thirteen
“You failed to bring back the Cadovoan.”
The voice was slow and almost conversational, but the effect it had on the kneeling form prostrate in front of it was dramatic.
Simon was in a Control room facing the vision screen, his head was bowed and his skin was clammy with fear. An image loomed over him of a white long-haired guinea pig that was being stroked by someone wearing a tan suit. Only the lap of the guinea pig holder was visible.
“Sornath had been killed when Engine Room One was destroyed, Commander. It was extremely unexpected and I was not onboard at that time.”
“I meant the other one.”
Simon looked up at the screen. “The other one?”
A hand passed over fur revealing a black diamond collar. “Our reports show signs that there is another on the ship who can also mind-touch.”
“She’s a human but I saw no positive sign that she was able to do that. I tried to bring her back for you, my lord, but there was a struggle on the planet and she was hurt.” Simon was now clearly shaking. “I tried to keep her alive long enough to bring her here but there was too much blood loss and she died.”
The room seemed to darken as the shadows lengthened.
“You failed me.”
Simon looked up at the screen, his eyes wet with tears threatening to spill. “Please give me another chance, I swear I won’t fail you again, I’ll do anything, anything. Please?”
“No.” The guinea pig turned its head towards the pathetic human and hissed.
The screen flicked off but instead of revealing the star system beyond there was only darkness. Simon whimpered and pulled his coat tighter around him as the temperature dropped. The shadows connected and snaked towards him. He twisted around and used his feet to back-pedal away from the dark fingers inching towards him on the floor and on the walls, then twisted again, only to find more behind him.
As the darkness closed over him he screamed.
Fourteen
As soon as the bus docked in the landing bay Xander was running towards the Control room. On the way up Brelt had informed him that although the Pirates were not advancing they were changing their positions and the stance was aggressive. He hadn’t expected it to be anything else.
The large screen showed ship upon ship surrounding them. The Pirates had formed an impenetrable wall.
“This was all planned,” Sarah told Xander. “First the ambush, which made you go down a slug hole that was programmed to leave you near a planet the Pirates knew you wouldn’t be able to resist going down to for research. That led to the sabotage and Simon’s pick up. They wanted Sornath alive but after the handover they thought they’d settle for me.”
“Why go to all that effort to pick up Simon?” said Garet.
Xander looked around at the ships and then turned back to the crew. “Because he was a shade.”
“A shade?”
“I thought it was just superstition but it’s said that when the Light was created a Shadow was formed. The Light chose a Keeper and the Shadow created shades.” Looking down he said quietly, “I chose not to believe it because it always seemed unfair that the Light only got one guardian and the Shadow made as many as it wanted.”
“Xander lad, this isn’t the time to be moping around discussing folklore. Do you have any practical advice for the crew right now or shall I just go back to engineering and activate my contingency plans?”
“We can’t assume that Simon didn’t plant a listening device on the intercom, the Pirates have known everything we’ve been doing so far so I don’t want anyone using the intercom until I say so. Sarah, go down to my pod and pick up the plans that are on the desk. I’ve been looking at some of the ways we could improve on our weapons system and there might be something we could try.” She ran off with Monty hard at her heels. “Garet and Lingor, I want you to ensure the crew secure their areas. Brelt, inform Med-crew to be on stand-by. Garth,” the Lieutenant saluted while Xander scrambled around for something to say, “tell Rayine to make sure the ovens are off and the fires extinguished. Everyone else, I expect you to look busy. We’ve got a battle to win, the Pirates aren’t going to take this ship!” There was a cheer from the crew surrounding the controls.
Booker detached himself from the side of the room. “Nicely done,” he said quietly.
“Thank you.”
“You haven’t got a clue what to do next, have you?”
“Not the faintest idea.”
“I’ll go back to engineering then, shall I?”
Xander nodded. “Don’t activate anything until my command. Keep the crew busy, I don’t want any of them to have time to think about what’s going to happen.”
“Right. I need about fifteen minutes.”
“You’ve got less than ten.”
Sarah raced into Xander’s pod and went straight to the desk. Monty stayed by the door, sitting to attention.
There was nothing on the desk, but she caught sight of some paperwork under the pink crystals so went over to the small table it was on. As she approached the crystals started to glow with a soft pink light.
She hesitated, then trying not to touch the rock she took a corner of the paper underneath it and pulled. It didn’t move an inch. She took one of the folders and tried to nudge it out of the way. Nothing. Not holding out much hope she reached forward with her eyes shut and picked up the crystal to move it out of the way. It lifted easily, she was surprised to find that it only weighed a few pounds, and then suddenly she was surrounded by the pink light.
Too shocked to even think about dropping the crystal she could only stand and stare as figures became visible in a circle around her. The outlines of men and women at work on other ships slowly came into focus and soon they were all facing her; some looked as though they were commanding, others were having a drink or standing alone, as if on their way somewhere.
The tallest spoke first.
“My name is Seeker Darlon. Identify yourself.”
Sarah was dumbstruck.
“Who are you? How are you using the crystal?” Seeker Darlon looked confused and seemed to have problems seeing her clearly.
“I’m sorry, I didn’t mean… I was just trying to get to some papers under the paperweight.” She could feel herself blushing with embarrassment. “There’s a Pirate attack coming towards our ship and there’s too many of them for us to hold off for long. Xander asked me to get something for him.”
“You are on Xander Mantac’s ship?”
“Yes. Could you use a slug hole to come and help us?”
“Slug holes are unstable and it can take days to find one that pinpoints an exact location. They’re attracted to planetary movements, the bigger the movement the easier to open. Has there been anything significant in your sector?”
“A LIP exploded a few days ago, would that be enough?”
“Enough? It would be like a beacon in the dark! I will make contact with the others and we will be with you.”
“Thank you.”
The light in the crystal faded and was gone.
Xander was in his chair panning the viewer from left to right and barking out instructions when Sarah returned.
“Xander, the strangest thing has just happened.”
“Have you got the paperwork?”
“Yes, here. Listen though, when I went to get the stuff from the table I had to move…” She could see he wasn’t listening as he leafed through the sheets of paper.
“You’ve got the wrong papers!”
“I took all the papers you had out!”
“You need to go back and look through the cabinets then, I’m sure I put them somewhere.”
She deflated. “That’s complete rubbish, isn’t it? I bet you know where every single scrap of paper is that you might need. Don’t you?”
He pointed to the screen and the mass of ships. “Kind of busy now, Sarah. If you can’t find the paper
s could you at least go around making sure that things are secure please?”
“I’m not going to pretend to be busy just for the sake of it.” The ships started to turn towards them. “So this is what a famous last stand looks like, is it?”
“Are you mind-touching right now?”
“I don’t really need to, do I? There’s hundreds of them and only one of us, no bookie worth his salt would place odds on us. Xander?”
“Yes?”
“Simon said they just wanted me for my mind and didn’t care about the rest of me. If it comes to it, please don’t let them take me alive.”
“It won’t come to it, I’ll think of something.”
“But if it does.”
He looked at her and his eyes flickered. “If it comes to it and we’re boarded by Pirates and my gun’s run out of power and my body’s drained of blood and I’m on my dying breath then fine. If, and only if all that’s happened then fine, I won’t let them take you alive. OK?”
“OK. By the way, when I touched the pink crystal in your room I saw lots of people and had a conversation with a tall one who said that he’d help.”
Xander pinched the bridge of his nose. “You’re adding this as a ‘by the way’? Would you care to fill me in on the whole conversation?”
“Well…”
On the screen dozens of slug holes opened up pouring ships out of them. As soon as the ships were clear of the holes they engaged with the enemy. Fleet after fleet of ships came firing at the Pirates.
Xander got to his feet and took out his intercom, “Fighters ready. On my command, engage the enemy at will. Go, go, go! Make this a day to be proud of!”
A stream of small fighters flooded out of the ship and started a dogfight with the Pirates. Blasts of energy shot from the fighters onto the bigger ships causing explosions and blasts.
A thought occurred to Xander. “Booker, report.”
“Almost ready, just one or two more bits to put in place and then we’re set.”
“Booker, we have back-up. Repeat, we have back-up. Abort your current mission. Repeat, abort your current mission.”
“But I’m almost done!”
“We don’t need the ship booby-trapped now!”
“Are you sure you don’t want me to carry on just in case? These battles can turn at a moment’s notice, you know.”
“Booker, whatever you’re doing stop it and reverse everything you’ve done so far. Got it?”
There was grumbling from the intercom, “Fine, OK? Max, put down the nail gun, looks like we’re not going to need it any more. Probably best not to go into the kitchen for a while.”
“We can handle that. Although I’m not going to be the one to tell Rayine.”
“Well, better put the whole of Level Four off limits really.”
The intercom went silent and there was nothing left to do but watch as the Pirates were beaten back. The larger ones that had waited at the back retreated into safety but those that were slower were shown no mercy and were destroyed.
A section on the larger screen pulsed in the Lights Academy sequence and Xander stood in front of it so that the cameras could set up video conferencing.
A being with a face like a walrus that he recognised as a Seeker flickered into focus.
“Xander, you dog! We had a report that you were hoarding the Pirates in this section and refusing to share the fun!”
Xander laughed. “There’s no hiding anything from you, Weni! How in Light’s name did you manage to get here so quickly?”
“Some information on slug-hole manipulation came my way and I thought now might be a good time to try it out. I’ve never seen so much firepower in one place!”
“Trust me, Weni, we’re grateful for every trigger-happy, bounty-hunting one of them!”
“You need to be aware that we’ve retrieved quarters three and four of your ship but quarter one isn’t out there, I’m sorry, my friend. When this is over though, you must come aboard and we’ll celebrate this victory. Until then!”
The screen flickered out leaving Xander and the crew to watch the Pirates being destroyed.
Fifteen
As Kaor came into view Xander looked around the crew that had gathered in the Command Centre and felt a glow of satisfaction. We did it, he thought, we got the team to its destination, and with only one casualty. Garth, bald and resplendent in an orange robe with a beatific smile and incense sticks was handing out flowers. Garet, now wearing leg splints by order of Med-crew, seemed to have started a punch bowl in the corner to celebrate the wedding of Derek and Brelt. Already a lively queue was lining up through the corridor outside. There was no sign of the happy couple. We did it, he thought again. I have no idea how, but we did.
Sarah and Monty fought their way through the conga line and passed Lingor and Tutt-tutt who were involved in a vicious game of what looked like chess to stand next to where Xander was looking out.
“You’re not really going to send me back to Earth now, are you?” she said.
“As I said before, the orders are that all Visitors must return to their home planets at the first opportunity.” He looked down at her crestfallen face and again stared out of the window. “However, there are complications. I know the Cadovoans are sending a delegation to Kaor to talk to you and my superiors would like to ask you about the handover. After the dust settles I’ve suggested to my superiors that you accompany me on my next trip out.”
A serving android passed by with a plate of aperitifs. Xander took two and handed one to Sarah.
Sarah looked up at him. “To take me back?” she asked.
“No.”
“I like the sound of that plan.” She looked around them. “You know, you’ve very relaxed for someone whose Control room has been turned into some kind of luau.”
He shrugged. “The war has started and they all know that things won’t be quite the same again. We’re only a day out of Kaor and as soon as we dock they’ll be involved in battle preparations. As long as all the streamers and fairy lights are packed away by the time we get back to the planet I can’t honestly say I mind.”
Sarah dropped her hand to stroke Monty’s head. “What do you think will happen now?”
Gazing down at the planet coming into view he thought carefully and pulled Sarah towards him.
“I’m not sure.” He looked around the Control room. “But I bet it’s going to be interesting.”
* * *
[1] Not the very beginning of time obviously because the first few zillion years were unbelievably dull.
[2] Depending on which planet or species it could be wedding, funeral or yonkle3 ceremony.
3 Coming of age event on the planet Slovec involving burgleberrys, the most powerful hallucinogenic fruit in the galaxy.
[3] Her species believed that their planet was like an oyster that had thought the original life forms were a piece of grit and so made them into pearls. Their religion says that when they die their soul is valued as precious and accepted back into the planet.
[4] Like a wormhole but slower.
[5] A small diminutive race that would expand to more than six times their normal size when provoked. Known for their excessive temper and skill at snooker.
[6] Ship bartenders were highly skilled crew members, chosen for their ability to remember a multitude of recipes, for having a monosyllabic name and for knowing when to mind their own business. A talent largely undeveloped in most group cultures.
[7] Namdols are friendly unless provoked which, can be done by yawning, sneezing, twitching, making loud noises, pointing a thumb in their direction, hopping on the left foot and failure to remember birthdays.
[8] It’s a female thing.
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Space Hoppers - Dance of the Guinea Pigs Page 23