The two men crossed Birdcage Walk to enter the park at its westernmost footpath and turned right along the narrowest margin of the lake. There were a few furtive figures and couples, all men, in the shadows of the park. Umberto and David passed through them among muttered remarks about their purposeful stride and athletic carriage. Neither David nor Umberto were concerned for their safety, which would have bothered normal men amongst these figures skulking in the shadows. They passed over the low crossing of the blue bridge, railings dulled to grey in the weak moonlight, and Umberto walked down to the grassy edge of the lake between tall trees and willows. The lake was at its widest here as it forked around the central island off to the right. David was uncertain but followed Umberto down to the water’s edge and waited like his Gayan contact. Out on the lake, directly in front of them, a long straight edge rose across the surface lit by a line of moonlit sparkles on its crest with a deep black shadow below facing them. The edge rose higher and the water ran off like an oblong block of silent snow slipping from an alpine roof in spring. A couple of water birds squawked and fled, pattering across the water surface, and some furtive figures in the bushes watched the two men standing expectantly out in the open by the water’s edge. Moments later David was affected by a presence directly in front of him on the water. It exerted a heavy pressure on the turf directly in front of his feet but was otherwise invisible. He could still vaguely see the water and far side of the lake despite the feel of great bulk directly before him.
“Follow me,” Umberto said and stepped boldly out onto what looked like the margin of the lake and disappeared.
David Harrier stood on his own looking out across the lake gilded in moonlight. Behind him street light filtered through the trees to disorient his night vision and contribute to the dream feel. The walk this far had been different in the vacant city in the early hours but at least that had been his world, and his unexpected visitor was on David’s home turf. Now that visitor had stepped out of David Harrier’s reality and disappeared into what must be a different world. It was reason enough to take a moment’s pause to think although David knew in his soul that it was his responsibility to pursue this encounter wherever it may lead. Brigadier Harrier was nothing if not committed to his duty and he felt the urge to move before the opportunity was gone. A disembodied hand passed through the barrier of invisibility right in front of David. That hand was upturned and the forefinger curled twice encouraging David to move forward. It must be Umberto beckoning him from beyond that veil.
David composed himself and committed positively to the step forward. He was going to step boldly through rather than fall backwards into the lake like a hesitant clown. As he strode out onto the cold water and mud of the lake margins he found footfall instead on a solid ramp, some kind of loading bay, and Umberto was waiting there for him. Behind he could still see the banks of the lake and the scene through St James’s Park to the line of dark trees along Birdcage Walk. There was a boundary screen there somewhere making this craft he had stepped onto invisible from the outside.
A famous media figure who frequented the park at night had been watching the two men approach the lake edge. He was concealed under cover of shrubs close to the eastern side of the lake by the Horse Guards Road entrance. He was impressed by their upright bearing, both tall men, one angular and slim, one broad and muscular as a wrestler. They were silhouetted by the moonlight and the long view towards Buckingham Palace in the far distance. The celebrity was high on a mix of cocaine and vodka that had excited his libido and reduced his inhibitions to seek illicit encounters in the dark of the Royal park again. He had seen a few others like himself, united by their furtive behaviour, the two men standing at the edge of the lake set apart in their confident bearing. The celebrity saw the larger man step forward – he was going to step straight into the lake! And then the larger man disappeared. The celebrity knew he was not so high that his senses were betraying him. The remaining man by the lake’s edge stood briefly on his own then he too stepped forward and disappeared. The celebrity shook his head as if to clear his senses. He would love to retell this story, which would excite his media followers, but he knew that he could not without his sojourns becoming an even greater news story.
On the loading gate, Umberto welcomed David Harrier to his first encounter with an alien starship. “Welcome to our Gayan spacecraft, the very famous Maria, Brigadier Harrier. Your courage for boarding through the cloak unaided does you credit. Not many local people have ever come aboard an alien craft voluntarily.”
“You do kidnap Earth people then?” David could not contain his curiosity stemming from many years of his responsibilities and the plethora of stories on the topic.
“We don’t kidnap local people as a rule,” replied Umberto. “But we are not alone in the galaxy and there are other races without our principles that you will soon become aware of. One race in particular has been kidnapping large numbers of people for many centuries from your Earth. That is all for later, though. Right now I want to introduce my Cavallo brother; follow me.”
Umberto turned and entered a brighter alcove at the rear of the loading bay. David followed and a membrane folded shut behind him to seal the bay. There was a faint hissing as they were briefly decontaminated though no chemical or lighting change was detectable. The far wall of the alcove then opened in the reverse manner to the screen that had closed behind them to reveal a dimly lit utility section. The engineering deck, David thought immediately. Several screens integrated into the walls seemed to intuitively indicate a happy state of the ship’s systems in blue and green holograms.
Umberto took one step forward and stopped. “Join me on the pad here, it is an elevator with force field walls and it custom-sizes to fit the load. It will seem very open to you but it’s quite safe.”
David moved alongside Umberto and a piece of the floor separated around them and rose through to the floor above where it passed through without pausing. David had sight of a quiet corridor lit only by floor strip lighting. This floor was more comfortable than the bottom deck, living quarters presumably, deserted at this time. One more floor up and they emerged into a long space the full length of the ship, brightly lit in a few operational areas. The lifting floor slowed and silently integrated into the floor of the new level. Umberto waited for the floor to stop moving and then strode away through the large comfortable space with obvious familiarity. As David looked around he was struck by the easy luxury of the interior. It was furnished like a fine hotel lobby or an expensive motor yacht. The perimeter seemed to be of cream panelling exquisitely moulded around comfortable seating areas and scientific equipment set in workstations. David moved left close to a section of wall where tables and screens were embedded in the panelling. It featured whorls and lines of vanilla and ivory wood embedded with veins in shades of light olive more complex than the redwood burl panelling he had seen in Californian high-rent hotels. The grain of the wood flowed around the furniture on the walls and floor with precision so exact as to be beyond the wit of earthly cabin fitters.
Umberto noted David’s examination of the fittings. “The walls of the ship are grown from a single Ivory Vine, Brigadier. The vine was implanted when Maria was commissioned and still lives with us today in its home on the drive deck. The internal surfaces of the ship are alive, grown around the alloy exoskeleton of the ship when Maria was commissioned. The minimum amount is fabricated for structural integrity and a protective external membrane. The rest of the ship is grown around the internal components. It provides flexibility of space usage in a natural and healthy way that looks just great!” Umberto explained.
At the far end of the open space, Rafaello Pantucci rose from the command desk. David turned to see him with the lights and exterior screens of his navigation deck in the background. This was clearly the control area of the ship. “It is good to meet you, Brigadier Harrier. The very fact of your presence shows that our fellow Travellers of Dawn are making very
good progress right now. I am Rafaello; I hope my brother Umberto has not caused you undue concern in bringing you here, but there is no easy way to effect this kind of an introduction as I am sure you must be understanding by now.”
“Umberto has been the ideal gentlemen despite his unexpected visit, I must say, and as for the manner of your approach I do believe that we invited you to prove yourselves, albeit indirectly,” David replied. Umberto beamed at his brother as if he were the galaxy’s top diplomat, naturally.
“There are just the two of us Gayans crewing Maria at the present time,” Rafaello explained. “Plus the Ivory Vine of course as the only other life form onboard but the vine makes its own way without much guidance from us. It does maintain an ideal internal atmosphere, much more natural than mechanical life-support systems. You can talk with us and the ship, Maria, as well, using a communicator like the ones we use.” Rafaello handed David a chunky wristwatch of standard diver design, with luminous hands and numbers for the quarters on a black face. “This is a Gayan ripallo contained in an Earth-style watch; it is our communicator and also has built-in personal defence from many hostile threats. When you wear this you will be able to explore your way round the Maria and talk directly with the ship as well as the crew.”
David took the watch, thought briefly about the possible risks of attaching alien technology to his body, but decided he was already completely at the mercy of the Gayans on their own vessel in any event. He wrapped the Gayan watch around his right wrist as his left already hosted his own watch. In for a penny, in for a pound, he thought to himself.
“Try it out now,” urged Rafaello, “you can speak to the ship.”
“Er, hello Gayan ship Maria,” David said hesitantly over his ripallo watch, raised halfway to his mouth. Umberto gestured silently to show that there was no need to lift the Gayan communicator near his mouth for it to work.
“Hello, David,” Maria replied with a neutral accent and source located as if a fourth person were in the group with them. “It is good to welcome you on board and we hope that your visit will provide answers to your questions about us.”
“I am already impressed that you are certainly not of our own technology, er, Maria, but I suspect this whole thing could be invented by our film and gaming industry in their virtual reality department.”
“Ah, you misunderstand, David,” Rafaello said. “A guided tour of our ship is not the only proof we are providing. We have already disengaged from cover in the bottom of your lake here and are going to leave on a little trip that we think you will find convincing. If you would follow me to the control bridge and we will get under way.”
David followed the broad backs of the two Cavallos the thirty metres or so to the command area that must be in the prow of the ship. The craft was aligned with the low blue bridge across St James’s lake parallel to its port side. The forward view was north over the willows bordering the lake. Beyond was a broad swathe of undergrowth indistinct in the brown light and deep shadows of the park surrounded by the street lighting of the wide avenues of London’s Mayfair. Rafaello and Umberto took large comfortable seats behind a table glowing with screens and more holographic images. The ship was displayed in three dimensions hovering over St James’ Park lake pointing towards Piccadilly Circus, still glowing with neon advertisements in model scale as a hologram on the desk before them. The whole prow of the ship appeared to be a window; Piccadilly Circus for real was directly in front with Trafalgar Square on the right. Lord Nelson on his column was the same altitude as Maria now. He seemed to be looking past them towards Parliament and the Thames but perhaps he was glancing sideways at the starship through eyes of stone. The holographic representation was David’s first indication of Maria’s external shape, which had been invisible when he boarded. Maria was lozenge-shaped with rounded sides and ends; no wings or fins were shown on the model, which otherwise was very detailed, so David concluded the form he was viewing was Maria’s actual shape. Maria spanned almost the whole width of the broad part of the lake between the bridge and island, according to the hologram. Rafaello waved David towards a third seat also behind the table looking forward and he sat beside the Pantucci brothers.
Rafaello introduced the basics of the ship’s drive systems for David. “Maria is equipped with a DMF drive which means she is capable of warping space to travel large distances across the galaxy, easily as far as our home world hundreds of light years away and beyond in very little time. Tonight we will show you a much more localised transportation capability but I have no doubt you will find it impressive nonetheless,” Rafaello smiled, delighted to break their normal routine with a pleasure trip that would impress their guest. “The only thing to warn you of in advance is that the G-forces are beyond anything you will have encountered previously. Our ships have near-instantaneous acceleration limited only by the stress tolerances when we have living people on board. Our biology is the same as yours so you can be sure your seat and ripallo combine to protect your organs and Maria matches acceleration speeds automatically to the biometric feedback from their sensors. Maria will not manoeuvre beyond your physical capabilities. Of course, Umberto and myself are accustomed to it so we will be travelling more comfortably than usual at touring speed.”
Rafaello bent over the control screens feeding in information for a short period, then straightened in appearance of completing his preparations and sat back. They gestured David should follow suit. David relaxed into his seat in the same manner as the Cavallos. He immediately felt the seat massaging his back and firming support around his frame and internal organs. The seat then expanded and folded around his entire torso. David felt a moment of claustrophobic panic similar to his first scuba dive many years ago. He glimpsed sideways to see the same was happening to the seats of the Cavallos. In short time he was encased by the outfoldings of the seat and held comfortably close. He was completely immobile and tried hard to relax. His military training helped here; he knew he should accept superior mission control of his body when there was nothing he could do about it, so best to go along with it for now. He should conserve his energy until his initiative was returned beyond whatever was to follow.
Rafaello communicated directly into David’s ear sounding like the earphones of a mobile phone, presumably enabled by the seat and ripallo combination.“We will rotate up and take off now David, aiming to cross the Atlantic to the USA coast at New York.”
OK, thought David steadily.
Maria hinged vertically so the crew were laid back looking up into the starry night that held new significance for David’s rapidly broadening mental horizons. Maria rose and flattened again to the horizontal then turned clockwise to move to the river. She turned again to head upriver with the London Eye below to their left side. Maria floated slowly along the Thames over the London landmark buildings, heading west. The views were spectacular, the overall experience like travelling in an airship in a wetsuit. David wondered what if anything the security forces detected of their alien craft sailing gently overhead the national parliament of Westminster Palace on one side and MI6’s headquarters on the left. Beyond Vauxhall Bridge Maria climbed to a thousand feet and accelerated dramatically. Straight away they crossed the English Channel coast in a flash of streetlights that may have been Southampton. David’s sense was that the stars above were passing faster around him than he had ever seen before. The roof of the vessel had turned into some kind of window as well. The seats unfolded their passengers once stable flight conditions had been achieved and the three men could move again.
“We will cross the Azore Islands straight away, David, and next will be New York. It’s early night-time there so there will be great lights display in the city. You will recognise it all, of course, we will slow down for you to see.”
A brief time later they overflew the Azores. At this speed the DMF drive ionised the air directly ahead to open a vacuum for the passing ship. Alongside the actual skin of the craft air w
as mushing into plasma to lubricate their passing like sausage meat pushing through a well-oiled skin. Two air traffic controllers at Joao Paulo II airport at Ponta Delgada in the Azores saw tracers of light grating off the Maria at unbelievable speed and looked at each other with heavy resignation. Here we go again, was their expression, no point in reporting another strange occurrence only to be passed off as ball lightening or some such natural phenomenon.
Maria slowed as the blaze of night lights of the United States coastline around New Jersey and Long Island made a bright line in the dark of sky and sea across their eyes, starry sky above, heaving black seas below. They passed between the towers of the Verrazzano-Narrows Bridge and dropped lower over the waves in the Upper Bay, slowing to cruising speed. Both Brooklyn and Jersey shores were clearly visible with the lights of low-rise buildings and docked shipping. Liberty Island approached dead ahead. The statue was cloaked in blue illumination on a silver plinth as Maria passed in the main channel of the Hudson between the Statue of Liberty and Governors Island. The most famous cityscape on Earth, the glowing wall of Manhattan, next appeared to their right, reflections reaching out below Maria across the river. They glided by in silence, awed by the massive scale, the sheer mass of it all and the seething city life it contained. They were only troubled by a news helicopter crossing on a closing vector. Otherwise they were tourists, invisible, entirely unofficial and undocumented.
“Can they see us?” David said to the Cavallos and the ship, unsure of which would answer.
“We are invisible to the human eye if we want to be,” replied Umberto’s bass rumble,“ but Homeland Security have installed scanners capable of detecting the effects of our drive systems in their air space. They won’t trouble us as they know from experience we will be gone before they can do anything about it. This is not just a sightseeing trip, though. If you want later proof of this visit with the US authorities you can quote this precise time and course and the National Security Agency will know precisely when you were here. They will likely not tell you as much, of course, but they will know with their deadpan faces!”
Edge of Revelation Page 6