by Steve Simons
"Older Brothers, don't you just love them, they always want to be in charge", thought Paul, but he nodded in agreement. They stealthily set off in their separate directions only to meet up again in a few moments at the emergency exit. Paul had arrived first and was working on the the door alarm.
"Well," he whispered to Ed, "we certainly don't want our capturers to know that we we no longer wish to remain as their guests and this is the exit we chose to take...... OK lets go. The door opened quietly and the external lighting was only a bit better than the internal. The two boys were through the door in lightening quick time and the door closed again.
"Lets hope no-one notices that the door lock had been opened." remarked Ed.
"Should spring back into its locked position." replied Paul.
"Lets hope that no-one heard it." said Ed.
They looked quickly around and Ed saw what looked like a air sleaker parked up by another nearby building. He tapped Paul on the shoulder and pointed to the Airsleaker. They ran to it and Ed was soon checking it over to see if he could override its security lock, he looked at Paul in desperation.
"Can you fly it, looks like a much earlier model than yours?" asked Paul.
"Yeah I can fly darn near anything apart from a broomstick, I just can't crack the security lock." replied Ed.
"Leave that bit to the expert." Paul took over the control panel and after a very few seconds had the thing buzzing with life. "There you go boss over to you."
Ed took over checked a few things and then announced, "OK climb aboard we have go for flight, plenty of fuel and despite its age it is in pretty good nick according to the service log."
They climbed aboard and were shortly heading skyward. As soon as they got above the building, another two vehicles were chasing them.
"Hold on tight this is going to get rough!" shouted Ed, missing the comforts of his home head gear and protective clothing.
Chapter 10 - Where To?
Ed and Paul climbed aboard the air sleaker and were shortly heading skyward. Another two vehicles were chasing them as soon as they got above the building.
"Hold on tight this is going to get rough!" shouted Ed, missing the comforts of his home head gear and protective clothing.
Ed headed towards a set of taller buildings to the right, he accelerated and swung round the back of the nearest, there were several buildings behind it. Ed found the first gap between the buildings swung left into it, then did a nose dive straight for the ground, levelled off then swung violently right into a tunnel, hoping that the other end wasn't blocked. The navicon system seemed to be indicating that it was clear and luckily it was. When they emerged from the other end, he swung violently to the left, saw three buildings to the right, the middle of which was much lower than the other two, Ed swung the air sleaker upward and over the middle building. Ed could see from the navicon screen that he had not managed to shake off the pursuers, one had just turned onto the street they had just left, the other seemed to be racing on ahead, trying to find an intercept course.
Ed headed straight for the ground again, pulled up and at the same time banked to the right and headed through an arched tunnel way between two buildings. When they emerged, he headed straight up the facing street, saw a tall building ahead, and planned to swing left around it. When he glanced at the navicon screen to see what his pursuers were up to and also check for any obstructions, he saw that one was quite far to the right of him behind two sets of buildings, which seemed to be providing good cover. The other had missed his nose dive through the tunnel and instead was heading up over a building further down the street. Far from feeling smug this would enable the latter pursuer to catch up some time. Ed changed his plan and instead swung up over the nearest building to the left. He stayed at that height and swung over the next street and building opposite. He caught a glimpse of the nearest pursuer as they swung down over the building and into the street that Ed had just left.
Meanwhile the other pursuer had changed direction, detecting that Ed was heading away from them. Ed swung immediately right checked the navicon screen and decided to dive down and go through the next tunnel between buildings, which was on the left, he crossed the next street diagonally at speed and then turned sharply into the next tunnel to the left. He braked hard once inside and came to a complete stand still, then turned off the lights. He was hoping that the pursuer's had not spotted his use of the tunnels. Their vehicles seemed too wide to use the tunnels themselves, but he knew that would not protect him and Paul. He had no idea now where the pursuers were as they had disappeared off his navicon screen every time he used these tunnels. Ed was banking on the fact that the same probably happened to their screens. He would appear as a temporary blip whenever he emerged from one tunnel and slipped into another. He had to hand it to Paul, as he kept absolutely quiet and had managed to stay on the air sleaker, despite only Ed knowing, which way it was going to lurch or swing next. They waited for what seemed like an eternity, obviously the trick had worked, as they had heard nothing from their pursuers. Ed turned on the lights again and gently pushed forward, accelerated across the gap between buildings and darted into the next tunnel opposite, whilst glancing at the navicon screen. There was a slight persistence of the latest traces of their pursuer's positions. One pursuer was a about six buildings away to the south, the other was about two blocks to the east of them at nearly the same latitude or row line as they were. Ed decided that it was time to make a break for it, he turned right after emerging from the tunnel. Then he darted right down the next available tunnel, this time not pausing, but instead heading straight across into the next tunnel. He turned left when he emerged.
Ed took quick note of the positions of his pursuers, he switched to a detailed map, studied it for a few seconds, spotted some form of drainage or air supply tunnel. There appeared to be no covering, so he decided to chance using that. He turned off his navicon screen, as he was hoping to double back behind the second pursuer and throw them off his scent, he swung round the back of the next tall building, turned off his lights and headed diagonally northwards behind the following tall building.
Ed shouted to Paul, "How wide do you think their vehicles are?"
Paul replied, "I'd estimate about one and half to one point eight metres at the most."
Ed replied triumphantly, good because I estimate this tunnel is no more than a metre. They're stuffed!"
Just at that point he dived straight down into the tunnel and slowed up. As there was still a bit of distance to the nearest pursuer, he could afford to put his lights back on. He soon had the air sleaker purring along at just above crawling speed, as he took his bearings and looked around the tunnel.
"What is this place?" asked Paul.
"Its an old air duct by the looks at it, the map shows its about 6 kilometres long and goes right under the densest part of the built up area. We can poodle along down here, whilst we make up our minds where to go." replied Ed.
"What's happened to the navicon system?" asked Paul.
"I turned it off as that's how they were tracking us, without it they are blind, we just disappeared off their maps as if we'd exploded." said Ed.
"But surely they will guess we've gone down this tunnel?" asked Paul.
"Well they may do, but there's so many buildings close together in this area with tunnels between them that they may assume we're holed up in one of those tunnels. As every time we dipped down into the tunnels between the buildings we disappeared off their maps. I know this as they disappeared off of mine every time we went through one. I'll be really cautious when we emerge from the other end just in-case they've sussed what I've done. " said Ed.
Ed stopped the air sleaker for a short while and listened to hear if there were any sound evidence that the pursuers had followed them down the tunnel. However there were no sounds at all apart from some local wildlife that had made its home here and made the boys jump when it suddenly decided to scurry up th
e tunnel. Ed decided all was clear and set off again.
The further they travelled, the straighter the tunnel became and it also flattened out, so Ed was able to increase the speed again. The 6 kilometre journey seemed to take an age, so they were glad to see some faint light ahead. Ed stopped the air sleaker some distance from the entrance, turned out the lights and they dismounted. They carefully walked towards the entrance stopping and listening every so often, but could hear nothing. As they got to the entrance they heard some form of transport rush by. They ventured forward cautiously and it turned out to be a Transvec Tube a little way off. There were no buildings in close proximity, apart from a bit of ruin immediately in front of the tunnel entrance. The boys scanned the ground and sky for any evidence of waiting vehicles or people, but there was nothing.
They went back down the tunnel.
Sylvie was almost at the space port, when she got the report from the safe house guarding system that its security had been breeched, it had managed to snatch a video clip of the character that had subdued and abducted Paul, before it failed. As onward transmission to Sylvie's comms device was the duty of a more remote part of the system it was able to forward a status report and the video clip. This immediately put Sylvie on a higher alert plane, whilst she also had her doubts about the earlier call about Edward being on his way, she had no choice but to react to it, the chains of command being what they were, the person who had contacted her was higher up the chain than Sylvie. This all made her more nervous as it meant that her own organisation had now been infiltrated and that the enemy was within as well as outside.
Sylvie decided to go ahead with the attempt at pick-up in-case she could learn anything new about the enemy. She knew she could do nothing for Paul, as by the time she got back he'd be secreted away somewhere that she didn't have a chance to find.
The space port was as busy as ever, people mulling around either waiting for an outgoing flight or like her awaiting to meet people off an incoming one. She checked the information boards, the flight was due in on time, so she had twenty minutes to kill. She decided to go to a caf? and have a drink. Whilst there, she used her comms device to check that the flight details were genuine. That was when she received her second shock of the day, there was no scheduled flight for that time of day. Sylvie double checked using several sources but they all confirmed the same thing, the whole thing was a trap. Sylvie switched her comms device to stealth mode and attempted to contact Richard. Surprisingly he came back to her very quickly, she went through the usual protocol to check his identity to ensure it really was him and was delighted to find it was. She told him the latest news about Ed, Paul and the in coming flight trap. He knew about Ed but not Paul and obviously not about the trap nor their colleague's involvement with the enemy. He told her that he was delighted to inform her that they had secured Edward and that they were both on their way to Jedhaed. There was a pause in communications for a while, Sylvie took the opportunity to sip her drink and try and relax.
When Richard came back, he suggested that Sylvie go to safe house alpha four. He stressed that he did NOT want her hanging around the space port and did not want her trying to find out anything more about the local enemy. He was also most disappointed that their own organisation had been infiltrated, he told her that he'd personally be taking over as her co-ordinator, that she should make no further contact with the local ring, as far as they were concerned she'd just disappeared. Luckily the safe houses don't show who's using them only flags up that the house is in use and the agent should select another one. They signed off.
Sylvie quickly finished her drink. Did the usual quick scan to ensure she wasn't being watched or followed. Then headed out of the space port in the direction of safe house alpha four. All the time she kept a watchful visual and electronic scan for any signs that she was being followed or observed. There were absolutely none, so if they had intended on picking her up, they were probably going to do so when she turned up at the flight arrival area to so call "pick up Edward and Richard". Sylvie darted into nearby building, found a toilet, changed her clothes, shoes and emerged through another exit. She headed off to safe house alpha four.
~~~~ Later ~~~~
Ed and Paul were deciding what to do next. They decided that they had best get as far away from the area as possible, but the problem was go where? The Airsleaker's maps weren't that helpful and did not have any local knowledge. The boys decided that they needed to stay away from areas where there were lots of people, but equally they needed to go somewhere where their uncle was likely to find them. Then Paul suggested that as their original remit included going to the temples they might as well go there. Ed argued that they may be spotted as the place was likely to be heaving with people. Paul suggested that unless these goons had prior knowledge of the meeting place, why would they assume that the boys would head for the temples, after all they had never been to the planet before. Ed thought the situation through and decided it was worth a try, in any case, there was a higher chance that their uncle would find them at the temples. Then Ed decided to have a quick look at the storage compartment of the air sleaker in-case there was anything useful to them. As it happened there was quite a bit of food and what is more it looked as if it had only just been purchased, it was still wrapped in the shopping bag. They decided they'd wait before having any. Ed mapped the route to the Temples and they cautiously set off on what was going to be a long journey.
Paul nervously kept an eye out for other vehicles, but being in the early hours of the morning the only things running were the Transvec tubes and an occasional personal transport. Every so often Paul asked Ed if he were OK still to fly. The response was always the same, better flying like this than the earlier ducking and diving.
They stopped off after a couple of hours to grab a drink and a quick snack, then they were on their way again. It was strange travelling across a foreign planet at the early hours of the morning, Ed and Paul could just make out outlines, no details or colours of structures, wildlife, plants or landscape.
Paul was relieved to hear Ed say, "Not far now, about 40 kilometres straight ahead."
When they were about ten kilometres away, they started to see the temple structures, which were relatively easy to make out as the land all around was perfectly flat with hardly any other buildings around. They could occasionally make out a glint off of the Transvec tube heading towards the temple complex main entrance.
Ed was consulting more detailed maps to plan where they would land and hide the Airsleaker, whilst he was doing that, he glanced at some information about the temples that may be useful to them.
The closer they got the more spectacular the complex looked.
~~~~~~~~
Chapter 11 - Sunrise at the Temples
Ed consulted more detailed maps, to plan where they would land and hide the Airsleaker. There was a large parking area to the north of the temple complex, but a lone air sleaker parked there would stand out like a sore thumb. Ed knew he needed to find somewhere more discrete, but equally a lone vehicle parked at the chosen location shouldn't look out of place. Ed found the ideal location, some form of utility building, part of the catering and cleaning area. There were several storage alcoves, one of those was bound to be a suitable area. Ed nodded to himself, then in-between checking for obstacles and other craft, he checked out other useful information about the temple complex.
As they approached even closer, the temple complex became more spectacular. The boys could see that the buildings covered one heck of an area of land, but it was also pretty tall in places. From a distance it looked like a story tale palace with its towers stretching up into the early morning skies. The closer they got, the single mass appeared more like a collection of discrete, but related buildings, all surrounded by a high wall.
The pass phrase that Paul had used to Sylvie had described well the effect that the two moons rising above the temples had on the whole structure. "Th
e temples are like passageways to the celestial domes." The moons looked as if they were integral parts of the structures and that the whole complex had been built as an entrance way to these special domes. As they sank below the horizon though, their effect diminished considerably, but the rising sun took over with its spectacular lighting effects, casting long shadows behind the complex, whilst the buildings themselves were lit initially with very strong streaks of red and orange, which were gradually giving way to streaks of yellow light. The gold highlights at the tops of the towers really caught this light and made the most of the opportunity to show off their splendour. The fort like edging of the lower walls, looked strange as they had been painted with stripes of blue, green and bright red. The blue and green seemed to fade into the background, making the gaps between the raised segments seem much wider than they actually were. At random spacing there were paintings of strange looking creatures. These stood out particularly well as they were in gold and really caught the glint of the early morning sun. It was almost as if these characters were holding a ritual early morning dance.
Ed and Paul knew from their extensive reading on their flight to Jedhaed, that the painted figures represented the gods and the important mythical and historic characters with whom they interacted on the planet. Apparently there were complete scenes painted at the tops of the walls, each representing a particular historic or mythical event. The full scene could be seen in normal daylight and would be pretty spectacular due to the vivid mix of colours, which were apparently as vibrant today as when first painted. However, under the current lighting conditions and at the distance that Ed and Paul were viewing the painted figures, only selected figures stood out. It was quite fitting that these would be the key characters involved in the scene depicted. It was as if the sun were playing some sort of editing effect upon the scenes and playing back only those deemed as the most important in the story, to appear at this stage. As if it were the start of a film and only the staring actors names were appearing on the opening credits of the film.