* * * *
“Alec, put on a suit.” Clay said.
After the past fifteen minutes of talking with Jodi, Alec had found himself quietly staring out the window at Jessie.
“What? Why?” He complained as Clay dragged him to the back room.
“I think we can fit the escape pod in our cargo hold.” Clay said. “We’ll need to open the doors… and there’s a chance we’ll lose our air.”
“Ready?” Clay’s voice came through Alec’s suit radio. After nearly twenty minutes of wrestling with their suits, they were finally in position. Alec did one last check for any loose equipment that might be sucked out into space once the doors opened.
“Everything looks good from here.” he responded as he held tight to the door. He felt himself lift slightly as Clay turned off the artificial gravity.
“Here we go.” Clay said. Immediately the doors began opening. Seeing them open made Alec think of what alligator jaws would look like from the inside. The view of the Milky Way was beautiful, but the sight of Jessie staring out the window of the escape pod made it dim by contrast.
“There’s still atmosphere. It looks like our shields are holding.” Alec said. The anti-gravity shields were meant for protection, and it was only speculated that the shields could hold atmosphere… until now.
“I’m reducing power to the shields.” Clay said. They hoped they could reduce the shield power enough to let the ship in while still holding on to their limited air supply. The ALEC’S DREAM backed towards the pod while Alec swam toward the open doors. The pod pushed away from them.
“It’s not enough, you need to reduce shield power more.” Alec said. A moment later the pod slowly began working its way in. He reached out and grabbed it.
“The pod is smaller than we thought.” Alec said. It didn’t even fill half the cargo bay. “We could fit two of these in here.” Making sure it was safely inside he said. “We’re in…you can close the doors.” He was shaking at the thought of seeing his daughter. Gravity pulled at him as he quickly positioned himself for a perfect 2 point landing.
Jessie was out of the pod before Alec’s helmet was off. He wrapped his arms around her, his face buried in her hair.
“There’s someone wanting to talk to you.” Clay walked up to them with a walkie-talkie in hand.
“Mom…” she began.
“I’ll see you later.” Jessie finally said handing the radio to her dad.
“Let me finish up here… then we’ll head home.” Clay said from his pilot chair as both Jessie and Alec turned in time to see him firing their blaster at the last ship keeping the portal open.
“NO!” Alec and Jessie said together as the ship was blown to pieces leaving the black stone portal base slowly spinning away. The portal itself deflated like a balloon until it was the size of a small car.
“What?” Clay gave them a puzzled look.
“We need that portal...” Alec started to say.
“It’s their one technology that’s of any interest to us.” Jessie finished her dad’s sentence for him.
“Can you match the spin of that thing?” Alec asked as he reached for another hanging space suit. “Put this on.” He handed it to Jessie.
“We’ll need to make some room first.” Alec said looking at her escape pod.
Soon the solar system and Milky Way were tumbling around them while the once tumbling black stone now floated level to them. Jessie and Alec pushed the escape pod out the open doors. They watched it disappear in the blackness.
“We’re ready.” Alec said.
Clay slowly rotated the ship, lining the stone up with the open doors. Just like with the escape pod, he backed the stone into the cargo bay. As soon as it was safely in, the doors closed and gravity returned.
“Is it safe?” Alec asked Jessie looking at a balloon sized distortion floating above an exact replica of the portal stone on the Seeker ship.
“Wait a sec.” Jessie said as she brushed her hand over the side of the stone and pulled out a black obelisk… like the one Eugene used to activate the portal on the Seeker ship. The stone base crackled as sparks washed across it… the small distortion disappeared with a light popping sound.
“Are we done?” Clay asked getting up from his pilot’s chair… the ship now accelerating back to Earth. “There’s just one more thing…” he walked over to them and wrapped Jessie in a bear hug trying to keep his tears from showing.
“How long have you been up?” Alec saw how tired Jessie looked as they sat at the galley table.
“I don’t know, maybe a day or two.” She had some small cat-naps but her last really good sleep had been after Leland’s healing in the Cheorgh cave.
“It’ll be at least a day before we get back to Earth, so I think you should get some sleep.” Alec looked at the dark bags under her eyes. “But maybe you should take a shower first.”
“Dad!” she stomped her feet indignantly before heading for the ships shower.
Chapter 30 ~ Home
Alec's Dream Page 76