Space Recall - Star Warriors

by Mikey Robert Simpson

disappeared below him breaking the urge to catch it. Out of the corner of his eye he saw his fathers net bag on the lake floor below. Suddenly a wave of fear gripped him, had his father been dragged away into the service tubes?

  Mars’s breathing began to get heavier the more anxious he felt, as his gasps for oxygen increased the bubbles of air became a steady stream above him. He looked to his left and right, moved back from the drop and scoured the reads, but there still was no sign of Wolfe. He knelt on the lake floor and thought for a moment, made a fist with his right hand and punched the sand in frustration. He was unsure of what to do.

  He only had ten minutes left before making his ascent, so he had to consider his options carefully. Should he go back to the last place he saw Wolfe? Look in the drop below or go for help? He briefly considered, but only one made sense. He turned towards the open water, leaving the safety of the reed bed to claw his way down the coral face and look for Wolfe in the channel below. His legs kicked hard, and the flippers propelled him deeper. He past an overhang, then proceeded on towards the net bag that might offer clues to help him find Wolfe.

  Some distance later when he grabbed for the bag, he realised he was caught in a sharp current, that was pulling him dangerously close to the service pipes in the distance.

  As he held onto the net bag, the boy felt a sharp pinch at his fingers. Surprised he looked more closely at the shapes within it, and realised there were two lobsters eyeing him from their captivity. Was this why his father had led himself away from the reeds, had he too been attracted to catch this tasty alien speciality for tonight's dinner? He fought the current then successfully held onto a boulder sticking out of the soft sand, behind him his dangling flippers showed how strong the current was. He soon realised that he could not possibly swim to safety. He shook his head in disbelief and then looked at his watch to see time was running out, time which should be used for his ascent to the surface.

  Suddenly sand clouded the water as the stone in the lakebed dislodged and he began tumbling backward, he struggled against his descent into the service tubes tumbled and knocked his facemask off his head releasing bubbles all around him. Once again he reached out to claw at the lakebed, his fingers searching for any solid anchor point to hold onto. Seconds later the boy felt his leg being pulled, and his body yanked sharply. His face screwed up as he anticipated pain, but none came. Instead, he felt something being pushed into his mouth. He gasped as air rushed into his empty lungs. Behind him was the blurred silhouette of Wolfe; he felt strong arms around him and sensed a mixture of security and anger. The boy gathered himself together and then punched his father as hard as he could on the arm shouting bubbles at him. Wolfe who appeared a little shocked pointed toward the coral reef along the spheres wall, here they would find total safety.

  Together they struggled against the current, pulling themselves along the jagged rock of the overhang. The further away from the service pipe they swam, the easier it was to breath and the more they started to relax. A few minutes later they had made it to the reef and knelt on the lakebed to get their strength back. The relief was short lived as Wolfe looked at his watch and tapped at its dial. A look of horror spread across his face, he quickly signalled with his hands toward the surface, the air in their tanks was quickly running out. Wolfe removed both their weighted belts before grabbing the boy’s arm to start their ascent. Soon they were making considerable distance and rose past the overhang of the reef, Wolfe reached out and grabbed a hold of a net bag he had secured with a reed. Within it were Eve lobster’s, Mars looked at his father disapprovingly. Wolfe tugged at Mars’s arm pulling him upwards; they kicked vigorously with their flippers towards the surface.

  The deep blue haze lightened to blue and then azure as they neared the surface, but as safety came into sight Mars tapped Wolfe anxiously and pointed to his mouth, his air had just run out. Wolfe urgently pushed his mouthpiece into Mars’s mouth to offer him some air, before grabbing to loosen the straps on his tank, quickly ejecting it into the depths below. Fifteen meters from the surface, both divers scrambling frantically with their hands and feet attacking the water above them like sprinters running towards the finishing line.

  Mars could feel his lungs burn and his arms and legs ache as the muscles pushed clear water behind to propel him nearer to the surface, he sent fish scattering as he punctured the waters surface, thrashing around gasping for air as his body screamed for oxygen, his body exhausted from its efforts. He inhaled a mouthful of water and coughed uncontrollably until he had cleared his airways.

  The two divers eventually made it to the waters edge, as they approached the beach they noticed Halley with concern on her face, she gave a helping hand and pull her two boys out of the water. They both fell into a heap on the beach, Halley looked puzzled by the bag of lobsters.

  ‘Mars I’m sorry for the scare back there, I do not know what came over me, I should have stayed with you,’ Wolfe apologised.

  The boy contained his anger; he remembered how he too had been attracted to the lobster. ‘That's OK but they better be the best tasting lobsters of all time,’ he said with a dry voice as he shuck uncontrollably.

  ‘You boys look like you need to rest,’ his mum ruffled the boy’s hair, annoyed at what had just happened. She turned towards Wolfe and folded her arms to show her disapproval. ‘You should know better than to take risks with the boy, WHAT’S GOING ON?’ she asked.

  Wolfe grimaced. ‘I took my eye off the boy for a few minutes to investigate the water pumps, something did not look right and once I approached them I could see explosives had been placed on them. I managed to disarm them but that put Mars in danger,’ he said, a little out of breath. They began to walk back to their picnic area.

  ‘Sounds like there's foul play here!’ Halley looked shocked at her husband’s discovery.

  As they came closer to the picnic laid out on the rug, they could see that the plates of food looked sparse. Mars shouted over to his sister, ‘What’s happened?’

  ‘Don’t shout at me!’ she replied, looking down at Sweeney who was busy fighting off some of his newfound friends, who had been feeding on bread but ignoring the meat filling.

  Mars chased the birds off before looking around at the debris left on the paper plates. He could only salvage a small piece of chicken with some cold pasta and salad. He opened a sachet of soda and guzzled it down, finally quenching his thirst, before he sat down in the warm sunlight to devour his meager lunch.

  Wolfe and Halley had an animated discussion about the explosives find. ‘Why had they been placed there? By whom? And when?’ Halley asked.

  Mars chewed a piece of chicken and then answered. ‘I found an unusual spacesuit this morning, it had an icon on it.’

  Halley frowned. ‘Have you been wandering around the space station again?’ She did not approve.

  Wolfe interrupted. ‘Go on tell me where you found it.’

  ‘It was in the disused changing rooms in the space terminal. It fell out of a locker.’ Mars gestured.

  Halley was angry, ‘How many times do I have to tell you that it is too dangerous to go messing around there.’ She folded her arms.

  ‘What did the icon on the uniform look like?’ Wolfe asked, pleasantly surprised by the boys sense of adventure.

  Mars pointed to his back, ‘Like my tattoo.’

  ‘What!’ Halley asked.

  ‘My Tattoo.’ repeated unaware that he had shocked his companions.

  Wolfe who had studied the tattoo at length, looked on thoughtfully. ‘Does the suit work? Have you tried to use it in the terminal?’

  Mars answered, ‘It looked quite worn, I did not think it would be worth the risk.’

  ‘It would appear that someone from your race has tracked you down.’ Wolfe acknowledged.

  ‘Does this have anything to do with the explosives?’ Halley asked.

  ‘Why would they want to blow the station up?’ Wolfe added to the discussion.

  ‘Surely if they made
it this far they would want to protect the boy.’ Halley tried to calm their nerves.

  ‘I think I might have already met him.’ Mars anxiously added to the conversation.

  “What do you mean?’ Halley asked.

  ‘A man confronted me on the way here, he gave me a disk but then disappeared.’ He pointed to the console in his pocket

  ‘Wolfe looked at Mars’s pocket. ‘Well we always wanted to know what that was for, at least now we know there is a connection to your homeland.’

  ‘What did this man look like?’ Halley asked.

  ‘It’s strange but I can not recall, although he had unusually coloured eyes.’ Mars rubbed his face.

  “What like yours? Did he wear a IGE uniform? How old was he? She wanted to build a profile.

  ‘I’m sorry but I can not remember, my mind has gone blank.’ A puzzled expression crossed his face.

  ‘Perhaps he is a space tourist, we will need to get every visitor checked out, I will talk to Celestial tonight to try and resolve this mysterious figure.’ Wolfe acknowledged Mars contribution to the series of unravelling events.

  ‘Until we find him, you will have to stop wondering around on your own!’ Halley made her point.

  The engineer had an anxious look on his face, swung the bag of large lobsters by his side. He wondered how he should handle the situation. Should he panic and call an emergency meeting?