by Steve Simons
"Wow! that is a big beastie!" Exclaimed Ed.
"She sure is impressive, isn't she?" replied Edward and continued, "Our task is to carry out the minor course corrections and ensure the sensitive parts of the machine are kept clear of obstructions."
There were two people already in the control area of the mining machine. Edward gently tapped the shoulder of the tallest of the two. He nodded in acknowledgement of the signal, adjusted some controls, then both of the people in the control area turned around and Ed got a shock as he recognised Jenny's face. He stammered, "Hello Jen... Jenny what are you doing down here?"
Jenny replied, "I could ask you the same, but I can guess the answer, this is my Dad by the way, Dad this is Ed, the one with the new air sleaker and this Ed is Grakeon, my Dad."
Ed, instinctively put out his hand for Grakeon to shake it, but then realised that Grakeon only had one arm, the left one. Ed was about to withdraw his hand, when Grakeon gave it a hearty, yet slightly awkward shake with his left hand. The way in which he skilfully did this indicated that he was used to people not realising that he only had the one arm. Ed heard Grakeon say, "Pleased to meet you", through his headset.
Grakeon seemed to be about the same age as Ed's father, although it was actually difficult to judge someone's age when they were wearing the mine's protective gear. Ed was going more by the lines on Grakeon's face, than anything else. Grakeon had a kindly face. Thinking back to the events of last night when Jenny had said that she was going to be in some trouble for getting back so late and her Father liked her to be in before sunset normally; Ed found it difficult to imagine the man before him getting really cross. Ed felt that even though he didn't know Grakeon, there was something quite likeable about him, whether the feeling would be mutual, Ed was not sure.
Ed introduced his Dad to Grakeon, Edward put out his left hand and the handshake looked a lot more normal, although none-the-less a hearty one. both men were heard to say, pleased to meet you. Then Grakeon showed Edward the controls of the machine, whilst Jenny told Ed what he needed to do, she stood behind him at times and Ed really enjoyed the contact as Jenny reached round him, to point to particular controls. Whilst Ed tried to concentrate on what Jenny was saying, he could not help but drift back in his mind to last night and he found himself again wistfully thinking, "I wish I had kissed those lips of yours," as he stared into her eyes, appearing to be paying close attention to what she was saying.
Jenny had gone silent as she returned Ed's stare. This time around there was none of the awkwardness of yesterday's earlier encounters. Suddenly both Ed and Jenny were aware that the chatter that they had heard in the background of their own conversation had also died. They looked at their respective fathers and instantly both Ed and Jenny went bright red. Even though they were wearing helmets, their faces were unmistakeably red, deep red.
Both fathers looked at each other and smiled. It was Grakeon who was first to speak, he said, "I think someone will be wanting to put in an extra shift, looks like your lad needs some extra coaching." then to Jenny he said, "No need to rush back, Elcesior and I will be watching the game this afternoon and I know you just get bored. See you later." Then he turned his attention back to Edward and cheerily says, "Really nice to meet you" He nods towards the mining machine and says, "Treat her gentle eh?"
"Oh I see the....." replies Edward and nods towards the machine, then continues, "Be a pleasure to use a bit of quality kit. Enjoy the game, I'm going to catch it latter, just couldn't turn up opportunity to earn a few credits."
"Well, more than pays for the sports subscription eh?" asked Grakeon and he turned and left the machine and mining area. He didn't once turn back, obviously focused on getting away to watch the game.
Ed watched as Grakeon headed off up the mine, he felt guilty that he was holding Jenny back and said to her, "You don't have to stay you know, I think I can manage."
Jenny replied, "Oh...... don't you want me to stay? I just thought...."
They are disturbed by Edward as he says, "When you've made up your minds who's staying and going, can we get on with the task in hand?"
Ed apologetically said, "Er.... yes.... sorry." Then to Jenny he said, "I could do with the help, if I'm honest I wasn't really paying full attention to your explanation of what to do."
Jenny delighted that she could show off her expertise now, set about demonstrating the machine's controls again. This time Ed was paying closer attention.
Edward left them to get on with the task, but every so often he glanced round to watch the pair as it reminded him so much of his early days when he'd first met Maria. Edward found himself drifting back in his fond memories, between bouts of concentration when course corrections were required.
~~~~ Later ~~~~
"How did you get on with securing the safety gear then Paul?" asked Ed.
"Not a problem, I told you my man had his finger on the gear. I hid it in the back of the equipment store. How did the mine duty go? Heard you bumped into an old friend." replied Paul.
"Well not so old." said Ed, his eyebrows rising and a big grin forming on his face.
"I gather it was just as much a surprise for Jenny." said Paul.
"How did you find out?" asked Ed.
"Some brothers just can't keep secrets." replied Paul.
"Don't I know it, should have guessed it was Elcesior. When are we going to take another look at the the secret factory?" asked Ed.
"Well if we go during daylight, we may not be able to find it again and in any case we might be spotted." replied Paul.
"True, true. Suppose we could pretend we're going out on a double date and head off late afternoon like Jenny and I did last time. suggested Ed.
"I'll just have to invent a girlfriend for the night then."said Paul.
"What about Felicity?" asked Ed.
"Just hope the word doesn't get back to Felicity or her boyfriend or I'll be dead meat." replied Paul, then he continued, " I'll just pop out and sneak the safety gear into the Airsleaker's carrier."
Ed replied, "OK. and I'll just go and keep the SC's busy chatting about mine and Dad's, er.... mining experience. If I drop into the conversation about meeting Jenny that'll keep the FSCs occupied with twenty questions."
Paul sneaked out to the equipment store, whilst Ed set off for the entertainment room and found his parents already chatting about the encounter with the Fluerescens clan. Ed decided to skip his involvement, made the pretence of picking something up and darted straight back out again.
~~~~ Later ~~~~
The air sleaker came to rest behind a group of rocks, the factory was in clear sight, but the rocks offered a fair degree of cover and protection.
Ed asked Paul, "Did your mate do something about ensuring the radios in the headgear can't be picked up by this lot?" He pointed in the direction of the factory.
"Yes he has changed the frequencies. He said he used scatter frequency transmitters, that not only scramble the signals, but also transmit for random periods on various frequencies, sometimes using two or three at the same time. so not a chance of being understood, even if someone does pick up the signals and because of the frequency spread they'd have difficulty in tracing the signals." replied Paul.
"Wow, he's thorough!", remarked Ed.
Ed and Paul changed into the safety gear, hoping that they weren't already too close, although they couldn't smell anything out of the ordinary before putting on their suits.
"Oh excellent," exclaimed Ed, "I see you have brought some gas analysers."
"That was my mates idea, I thought it was a good one. He also included gas capture units so we can take samples to the authorities or whoever we decide to disclose our findings to." replied Paul.
"OK excellent work, let's go for it, but be careful not to be seen." said Ed.
They edged their way round the rocks closer and closer to the factory, stopping every so often to test the air for gasses. Eventually they got close enough
to get some interesting readings and samples. Paul suddenly noticed that his suit had some grey and green powder on it, when he told Ed, he suggested they take samples of it before packing the suits away for de-contamination processing. Then moved even closer to the factory and noticed some containers that were covered with some form of sheet material. Paul, lifted one corner of the the sheeting and crawled under it. He was gone for about a minute. Ed was about to go in to see what had happened, when he saw the sheet move as Paul was about to emerge. Ed suddenly caught sight of someone heading towards them, he ducked out of sight and called to his brother to stay put and explained why. He heard Paul, whisper, "That was close, I was about to emerge from, the sheet when you spoke."
Ed waited for what seemed like an eternity, before carefully peeping round the rocks. The person was still in sight, but with his back to Ed, he was retrieving something from another stack of boxes near to where Paul was hiding. Ed updated Paul, telling him not to say anything, in-case he gave himself away.
Ed waited again for quite a while before peeping again, when he did look, the person appeared to have gone. However, Ed was taking no chances and kept looking around in the hope that he'd catch sight of the person on their way back to the factory, but nothing could be seen. He called Paul and suggested that he carefully emerge from his hiding place, whilst Ed keep watch. Shortly afterwards, the sheet moved and Paul emerged, he kept low down and scouted round the rocks, eventually ending up by Ed.
"Any sign of Herbert?" asked Paul.
"Who's Herbert?" asked Ed
"The Herbert who came out for more supplies of course." replied Paul.
"No nothing, hopefully he's disappeared back inside. Did you find anything useful under the sheet?" asked Ed.
"Well actually yes, three things. One of the boxes was damaged and I managed to retrieve some tubes of some sort of liquid. I also noted the markings of the boxes, including some form of organisational logo. I've captured it all in my e-reader." replied Paul.
"Well I think we've done as much as we can here, time to retreat back home." said Ed.
They sneaked off round the rocks, back in the direction of the Airsleaker. When they arrived back at the air sleaker Ed asked, "Should we keep the suits on or take them off now."
Paul replied, "Best to keep them on for now, as we don't have the decontam units with us and might be affected by whatever the suits have been exposed to."
Ed agreed and they climbed aboard the Airsleaker. Ed took off carefully, keeping the air sleaker low down and behind rocks wherever possible. However, they got nearly to the entrance to the canyon when they heard the engines of other airborne vehicles. Paul turned round and to his shock and dismay say two vehicles heading in their direction.
"We have company, you'll really need to earn your pilot's licence now and avoid being followed." said Paul to Ed.
Ed replied, "OK hang on this could get rough, will need to drop in some sudden swings to get round corner quickly. How far do you think they are from us?"
Paul looked round and guesstimated the distance between them and the nearest chasing vehicle, he reported back to Ed that he thought they were about 300 metres and possibly closing.
Ed increased the speed, swung through the entrance to the canyon and headed immediately to the right, then swung violently upward above the canyon entrance and in a "U" turn headed to the left. Paul heard him say, "That might fool them, they will assume we've continued in the same direction we were heading when we left the canyon."
They stayed high up and swung off to the right down another side path, once they entered this, it became more like a fully enclosed tunnel with only a few vertical shafts leading up. The tunnel took quite violent turns to the left and right, at one point Ed thought they were going to crash, as the walls closed in and left only about 8 centimetres either side of the Airsleaker. Due to Ed's skill he managed to make it through the gap.
"Where does this lead?" asked Paul.
"It comes out a couple of kilometres north of our original entry point." Ed replied.
Well there's one thing for sure, those craft following us wouldn't get through that last gap. Great flying by the way." said Paul.
"Thanks, I thought our number was up on that one myself. The other craft, definitely wider than ours then?" asked Ed.
"Yep, they sure were. Mainly due to the weapons on the sides." replied Paul.
"I don't like the sound of that last bit." said Ed, "hang on tight this next bit looks a bit rough, some swinging about needed, I think we'll slow up a bit now."
Ed eased back on the throttle considerably and then violently swung to the right and upwards, followed by an immediate downward and left roll. Then they swung to the right and immediately left. Paul suddenly said, "What is that noise?"
Ed delayed answering the question as he consulted the Airsleaker's instrument panel. Then he replied, "Oh it's OK, its actually the sound of our engine, being reflected back to us by one of the small side crevices."
"Are you sure its not a cave collapse or the engines of the other craft?" asked Paul.
Ed consulted the instrument panel again, but confirmed that he was absolutely sure.
After quite a lot of darting about to left right up and down, they eventually emerged out onto the open plain. Ed flew to the nearest rock group and halted the air sleaker for a while, whilst he checked his navigational equipment. Then declared that all was clear and it would be safe to return home, but he still took the precaution of flying low and darting between rock groups, until they reached the open lands. Once again he halted for a while checking his instruments and then doing a visual scan of the skyline, although it was difficult to see much as it was quite dark now, even with the two moons in the night sky. Ed was about to set off, when he caught sight of something gleaming in the distance, then something else quite close to it. Ed reversed the air sleaker behind the group of rocks.
Paul nervously asked, "What's up?"
"I think I've seen something moving in the distance, could be the pursuers on the other hand might be nothing at all, I'm taking no chances, we'll hold up here for a while. " replied Ed, then he turned off the air sleaker and its instruments.
"What did you do that for?" asked Paul.
Ed replied, "In-case they are tracking our instrumentation. We'll rely on visual observation for a while until we're sure it isn't the baddies."
For the next half hour Ed and Paul took it in turns to peer round the rocks and check for any signs of the the other craft. They had several sightings, which seemed to come ever nearer, then suddenly headed off back towards the main rock outcrop, obviously returning to their base. After a further 15 minutes of waiting, nothing further was sighted, so Ed said, "OK. lets go now. Where did you put the decontam units?"
Paul replied, "I hid them in that small outcrop behind our place."
"OK. I'll head straight for that first, we can clean up the suits and Airsleaker, get changed and then head home." said Ed as he started the Airsleaker.
Soon they had reached the decontam units. Paul had kept an eye open for the the other craft and luckily there were no further sightings.
Soon they had decontaminated the suits and the Airsleaker. The suits were packed in the decontam units and the samples bagged up for lab analysis.
"Homeward bound then clan boy." said Paul.
"Am I tired after all that, I could sleep for a week!" responded Ed.
Paul reminded Ed, "Don't forget about our cover story of double date."
"Oh yes I'd forgotten all about that." said Ed.
They quickly discussed their imaginary dates, so they wouldn't be caught out by the SCs. However, they needn't have worried, the SCs were well into a drama cast and just nodded at the two boys in acknowledgement that they were back safe.
"See you tomorrow clan boy" said Ed to Paul.
"Get ya Zees." replied Paul. He sneaked the samples into one of his hiding places and settled down for the night
.
~~~~ Later ~~~~
"Sub-Zero Ed, off for your Tastiday?" said Paul.
"Must have food." replied Ed
"Easy clan boy, catch you afterwards, we can look at the notes on my e-reader and see if we can find anything useful on the Galcomnet." suggested Paul.
"OK whatever you say, just let me get my Tastiday." replied Ed
The two met up about 20 minutes later in Paul's room. He already had the Galcomnet up and running and was about to start the searches. After a short while, their Dad poked his head round the door and asked, "searching for new games?"
"Well actually we're looking for some clues to get us past a tricky level of that game we were playing the other day." replied Ed.
"Oh yes, hey that's the description of a chemical compound isn't it? Is it some sort of chemical weapon threat?" asked Edward.
Paul and Ed were so shocked at the fact that their Dad, whom they normally thought of as being such a "stuffer duffer", had picked up on what they had discovered so quickly.
"Well it is isn't it?" asked Edward.