Latt and Isaac stared at each other for what seemed like two full minutes, while the others stood like effigies in a wax-works museum, afraid that the slightest move might sway Latt in his decision-making, might persuade him to turn away from them. Then, finally, Latt nodded slowly and distinctly.
“I will help you in your fight againsst the hated and feared Controllers.”
Terry stepped quickly up and slapped their new ally on the back. “Good man! Good man,” he said repeatedly.
“I kind of thought you would.” Isaac clasped Latt’s hand firmly and breathed a sigh of relief, as he knew their chances had just increased from non-existent to almost measurable.
Ruth enthusiastically kissed him on the cheek, despite the remaining portions of her rapidly dissipating uneasiness about her strange jailer-turned-friend. None of them could stop smiling; they did not realize it, but a unique kind of comradeship had just been born. Latt flushed with pleasure at their response, which had the effect of changing his complexion in a somewhat startling way.
Once the initial excitement of the collaborators had died down somewhat, Isaac gestured for them to sit down again on the low benches on either side of the table where he had been working on the computer. “So, Latt, was that noise and the gravity variation we experienced a few minutes ago due to the departure of the Controllers’ ship?”
“Yess, the Drive createsss a disssturbance in the gravity field around the sship; that’sss how it workss.”
Isaac nodded, pleased that his theory was correct. “And we have how long? When’s the earliest you think they’ll return?”
“The trip to Earth takes about five of your hours,” Latt responded, pondering. “They will need ssome time to determine ressultss… I think that will take at leasst another twelve hourss… then they will sssleep for the normal amount of time–”
“How long is that?” Ruth interrupted.
“Oh, yesss. You have never lived on Rhaal.” Latt realized that what was obvious to him was a total unknown to all of his new-found friends. “A day there iss about forty of your hourss... ssso that explainss why they sssleep for sso long.”
“So you’re saying it’ll take them ten hours to travel, twelve to do the experiment, and a further, what? Twelve to sleep?” Isaac concluded.
“No, a normal sssleep period isss more like ssseventeen of your hoursss,” Latt corrected.
“That’s only thirty-nine hours; a lot less than the four days you mentioned,” Terry calculated. “Not much time to figure out anything.”
“They might take longer,” Latt reminded him.
“But we can’t rely on it.” Terry sighed.
“That iss true,” Latt admitted.
Ruth looked at Isaac, noticing a certain hint of impatience in his appearance. “You have a plan, don’t you?”
Isaac smiled. How easily she reads me now. “I do. But for it to work I’ll need you all to help… especially you, Latt.”
“I have sssaid I will help… ssso I will.”
“Sorry, I didn’t mean to imply that I doubted you,” Isaac apologized. “As there isn’t much time,” he continued quietly, but with great intensity, “I’ll just give us all different tasks, so we can maximize our efficiency. If anyone can think of any better ideas, or even just different ones, let me know.” He looked around and saw that they were all waiting for him to continue. “Terry and Ruth, you check out the entire facility and see what our resources are; Latt and I will do some sharing of technology... see what we can come up with.”
Latt reached over and tapped Terry on the shoulder. “There’ss a terminal in the other area which will give you a lissting of the thingss that are sstored there.” He started walking with him towards the exit. “I’ll be back in a sshort time, when I have explained to Terry how to ussse it,” he informed Isaac.
Ruth stayed back with Isaac. Once the other two had left the room, she hugged him and smiled uncontrollably, excitement bubbling out of her. “I can’t believe the change in Latt; he’s like a different person. Do you think there’s something in the Controllers’ food that he was allergic to? Maybe some drugs to keep them easy to handle?”
“I think it’s something more fundamental than that. Remember, there was something in that food that almost killed us. He’s probably been eating that stuff for years and built up some kind of immunity to the poison in it.”
Ruth nodded her understanding and agreement.
“I can’t help thinking these aliens must be very different to us - look at this furniture, for example.” Isaac gestured vaguely towards the low, wide tables scattered around the laboratory, and the even lower benches. “No one would build anything this impractical for people. Then there’s what Latt said about their immense strength. When there’s time, I’ll have to ask him about their physique and physiology.”
“He said ‘monstrous hands’.” Ruth shuddered as her imagination came up with some horrific images. “Do you think we would have got used to the food eventually?” Ruth asked hastily, changing the subject.
“I think you’d have to be introduced to it slowly, over a period of years, or it would kill you. That must be how Latt got used to it.”
“No.” Latt had returned and broke into their conversation. “I have eaten thisss food ssince I wass a very ssmall, an unfinished little…-”
“Baby,” Ruth supplied helpfully.
“Yess,” Latt nodded, his eyes focused somewhere beyond the confines of the dome. “Life on Rhaal, the ssmoke and the heat, the consstant hunger, the consstant fear, ssicknesss, desspair... even the journey here and the time while you three were ssick. It all sseemss like a dream, now.”
Isaac moved slightly to scratch his chin.
Latt focused on him, and his look became concentrated once more. “Terry knowss how to usse the terminal, now,” he announced.
Ruth squeezed her husband’s hand and hurried off to help her second-best friend, still wondering about Latt’s release from what seemed to her to be the modern-day equivalent of the spell that put Sleeping Beauty out of action. Though he’s not exactly beautiful!
“For a moment there I wondered if Latt would refuse to help us,” Terry commented as she entered the room. He thought how pleased he had been when Latt had confirmed that the computer-like devices were only terminals to a ‘server’, as it meant that they could not miniaturise circuitry to the extent that he had first concluded.
“I know. So did I.” She shook her head wryly, her brown curls swinging freely, in response to his expressed relief about Latt becoming their ally. “He seemed to think we don’t have a chance of winning.” Ruth looked around, taking in the stacks of equipment and boxes, and she smiled as she noted the toilet facilities, like the ones in each of the sleeping domes, immediately inside the doorway.
Terry did not comment.
She peered down to the far end of the long room and saw the airlock door. “What’s that?”
“I think it’s the exit.”
Ruth shivered as she considered the anonymous planet that waited for them outside, and the totally dissimilar beings who would return soon and kill them all without a second thought, once they discovered their nascent rebellion. “Let’s get started.”
“It’s a pretty good system,” Terry explained, as she sat down next to him in front of the terminal. “Latt analyzed television broadcasts and used them to create a translation dictionary.” He pushed a key, and a display of columns of words came up.
Ruth leaned forward and was surprised to see that all the words on the left side of the screen were in English.
“I’m just waiting for it to finish converting the inventory into our language.” The machine beeped, as if in response to his comment. “Ah, I think that means it’s done. If you could write out the codes for each item, with the English name, I’ll try to find them in these boxes.” Terry waved his hand at the stacks on both sides of the room.
“Sure, I always wanted to be a warehouse secretary,” Ruth grinned. She pull
ed the box she had been sitting on closer to the screen. “This looks like a standard sort of TV; their technology must not be much more advanced than ours.”
“Don’t forget that ship of theirs with its anti-gravity drive, or whatever Latt called it,” Terry reminded her.
“You’ve got a point there.” Ruth looked around for something to write with. “You wouldn’t happen to have a pen, or…?”
Latt stepped lightly and almost noiselessly back into the room. “Just pussh the key that iss above the otherss, then you will get the lisst out on paper.”
Ruth jumped slightly as his voice had come from right behind her. She turned around and smiled a little nervously. “Thanks!” But Latt was already gone.
Terry chuckled, so Ruth pushed the key and watched the paper slide silently out.
“Good job he told us that; I never could have copied these symbols.” She showed Terry the incomprehensible script next to the first item, which was labelled ‘illumination replacement’.
“Yep, I see what you mean… that’s probably a light bulb, you know.”
“Maybe, but I haven’t seen any light bulbs here, just those pyramid things… perhaps it’s a laser or something.”
“We should be so lucky. Okay. I think I have those symbols memorized. I’ll look in this stack; you try that one.”
Ruth compared labels on the boxes in her stack for a while. “The first three symbols are usually the same,” she concluded, after checking again on the printout.
“Yep, I noticed.” Terry had moved on to a second stack. “Eureka!” He pulled down the box he had just found and excitedly struggled to open it.
After a moment, Ruth came over and tried to help. “There’s probably instructions written right on the side… if we could just read the lingo.”
Terry nodded briefly, frustration starting to show on his face as his efforts were proving to be futile.
This time they both jumped as Latt’s voice sounded unexpectedly from right behind them.
“There’ss a green patch on the top of each container; just pressss the patch and the ssidess will open up.”
“Thanks, Latt,” Terry added quickly to the retreating figure of their new friend as Ruth grinned in turn at his reaction.
Several hours later, Terry and Ruth completed their survey of resources and returned to the laboratory to find Isaac and Latt kneeling on the floor, surrounded by stacks of what looked very much like floor tiles. A further scan of the large dome showed that this perception was essentially correct, as the floor now had holes, or cavities, scattered around, where before all was smooth. Latt was adjusting some kind of controls on a compact device, mounted in one of the cavities below the floor, the existence of which had been revealed by the removal of the tiles.
“What’s up?” Ruth queried.
“I’m just learning that theoretical physics can be very practical. What did you find?” Isaac gestured at the large object she was carrying.
Terry was studying the inventory that they had just finished checking and missed the gesture, so he interpreted the question more generally than Isaac had intended it. He held up the list.
“Everything that is listed in the computer was there… diagnostic tools, something that sounds like a plastic welder, emergency light units, replacement lights, ‘eliminator’ power plant spares- two complete sets, transport components – that means parts for a small buggy, or truck – and associated transport power plant, and a large selection of electronics modules for life support and auxiliary systems.” He paused to catch his breath. “Nothing that remotely resembles a weapon, though.”
“There’s this infrared laser”… Ruth reminded him as she staggered the last few steps and placed the bulky device on the table next to the kneeling pair with a sigh of relief.
“Yeah, but it would take about ten minutes to kill someone with that… if they obliged by standing still for that long.” Terry guessed.
Latt got up and walked over to examine the greyish cylinder. As he picked it up with the ease of familiarity and turned it around in his hands, he spoke with some interest. “I’d forgotten that there wass one of thesse in ssstock.” He popped open a section in the middle of the device, somewhat like the revolving chamber on an old-fashioned six-shooter. “I thought it wasss worth checking, but there iss only the infrared generator in here.” He showed the others that the interior consisted of compartments for four small modules, but that only one of the compartments had anything in it. “One small vissible ssynchronized light generator would turn thisss into a powerful weapon.”
“We’d call that a laser, also.” Isaac stretched, and his stomach growled noisily.
Ruth giggled. “Perhaps we should eat something before that turns into a formidable weapon,” she gestured at her husband’s stomach. “I’ll cook.” She looked around. “…where do you keep all the food, Latt? I didn’t see any back there.”
“It’ss outsside,” Latt explained shortly. He handed the laser to Isaac as the professor got up and held out his hands for it.
“Interesting. This is kind of heavy…”
“Normally it iss attached to a ssstand.” Latt saw that his point had been accepted. “I think I ssshould sshow all of you what it iss like out there, jusst in casse…”
They all nodded in agreement, though Ruth looked a bit apprehensive.
Latt led them into the utility room and down past the stacks of boxes to the far end. He helped them all into fluffy suits and checked that they could still move their limbs easily. Once he had donned his own, he explained the breathing apparatus.
“Thiss ball goess into the pocket on the front of your coverallss.” He handed a sphere to each of them in turn. “The dissplay on the front sshowss the amount of air sstill in the ball.”
Ruth squinted down at the metal sphere and tried to rotate it to see the indicator.
Latt helped her and pointed to the glowing zero on the surface. “When the ring iss nearly complete, like thesse sshould all be, the air will lassst for four hourss. If you look carefully, you will ssee a ssmall break at the top of the ring.” He lifted it so that Ruth could get a closer look; she nodded once she had found the feature. Latt checked the other spheres and equipped himself with one, then added a tube and mask to the only protrusion on the surface of his sphere. Finally, he did the same for each of them in turn. “You jusst put the strapsss over your head, after putting up the hood of your sssuit, and breathe deeply in and out twice. That ssshould sstart the flow of air to the massk.” He put his own one on and gestured for them to do likewise.
“There issn’t room for uss all to go at once,” Latt explained, lifting the mask temporarily. “I’ll take Ruth through, and you two can follow once we are outsside.”
Isaac and Terry nodded, after the merest hint of hesitation.
“Watch through the window in the inner door. The procedure iss very sssimple, ssso you sshouldn’t have any difficultiess.” Latt thumped the brown bulge next to the door; the door slid silently up and out of the way. He guided Ruth into the airlock. “If you can’t figure it out, I’ll come back in and bring you through one at a time.”
“And leave me out there!?” Ruth squeaked, pulling her mask off as she was about to settle it onto her face.
Isaac and Terry both struggled unsuccessfully to stifle their laughter.
“No, not if you don’t want me to,” Latt assured her with a smile.
That’s probably the first time he’s ever had the opportunity to be a part of a real teasing, even if it was unintentional, Terry mused as the door closed with a slight hiss. Both of them watched through the window as Latt activated the depressurization cycle.
“Wonderful what a half-dozen Salisbury steak dinners will do for a guy, isn’t it?” Terry quipped to cover his nervousness.
“Yes, he’s a different person now, isn’t he?” Isaac replied absently as he watched his wife through the transparent panel.
“Mood food,” Terry said succinctly, but his friend was
too preoccupied and didn’t catch the neat phrase.
Ruth gulped as the air started to flow into her mask; it felt cold, like the wind off the glaciers in the snow-bound peaks of the Rocky Mountains where she had been hiking with Isaac a few weeks before.
Latt leaned against the outer door and it slid up out of sight. He stepped out and turned to beckon Ruth; she followed him reluctantly, and found herself standing on what looked to her like a demolition site or a mason’s yard. All around there were rocks of varying shapes and sizes, and sand, sand between the rocks, on the rocks… sand everywhere.
She looked up and thought she could see a few stars glowing feebly through the strangely coloured sky, then the scene suddenly looked familiar to her.
This looks like Mars! What was his name, that lecturer in Planetary Geology from the University of London? He showed us pictures that looked just like this, taken by those two Viking landers, when we went to that neat historical lecture series. She jumped as Latt tapped her on the shoulder and turned her a little to the left.
“There’sss the food.”
Ruth laughed as her eyes found the trailer. It looks like there’s been a mix-up of props on some Hollywood set! Harry Paxson’s trailer sat rather forlornly amid the rubble, its tires mere strips of rubber. The tractor was, of course, nowhere to be seen.
“Latt, do you know how far we are from Earth?” she asked finally.
“I wasss never allowed into the Control Room during flights.” He shook his head. “They kept me locked up in the Utility Room. If they ussed the full Ssstar Drive, we could be many light yearss away. Alternatively, if the entire flight wasss in normal sspace, we could be only a few hundred million of your miless from your planet.”
“Yes, this looks familiar,” Isaac declared, his voice exuding a sense of barely controlled excitement.
Ruth grabbed his hand and held it tightly as he stepped up beside her. “It looks like Mars, doesn’t it?” She gestured at Latt. “Unfortunately he doesn’t know how far we are from Earth.”
“Yes, we heard,” Terry said, then chuckled as he spotted the trailer.
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