‘Volitaire say goodbye. It is time to leave now. Iit is time to pack.’
The little girl kissed Mars on his cheek and made him turn bright red. ‘I will see you back on Earth.’
Mars just nodded. He did not know what to say or do until Halley came over and hugged him. The two families parted and said goodbye for the last time on the space station.
Mars was brought a snack and the plate placed beside him. He reached down for the ham sandwich, picked it up and munched away. Robo who lay at his side began to make pining noises; begging for the remaining chocolate bar. It was one of his life like qualities, which made Mars fond of him.
Robo had been his constant companion since arriving in the living quarters he followed the boy all over the space station even though the dog did not need walking his animal like behaviour mimicked a live canine. On many occasions because of the dog’s programming he could be seen running after wild birds in the ECO zone, disappearing for hours into the wild grass until he found an object to play with or a trophy to show his family.
Over the last few months, Mars had become closer to the dog, even allowing it to sleep in his cabin. The two had developed a close bond. Robo somehow knew his master needed to be protected, from the dark shadows of figures that had started to watch over them. This loyal friend was an extra pair of eyes and ears when danger in the form of Gonzalo's guards was around.
Mars continued to eat his sandwich, patted his companion and tickled the dog’s chin as it settled beside him, shuffling into a lazy posture next to his master. The boy again bit down and chewed on his sandwich whilst peering out of the cabin window into the enormous black void surrounding them. He always felt a reassurance that the human race was not alone, somehow he knew that one day humans would eventually find a habitable planet in another galaxy. He did not know why, but recently he had more dreams of exploring wonderful exotic lands. Suddenly he felt drowsy and yawned.
As he daydreamed, his focus was eventually captured by the twinkle of moving objects in between the stars. Shinny metal objects that seemed to jump from one star to another were spacecraft travelling on their journey toward Maverick. It was the fleet sent by IGE to assist in the evacuation and repatriation of personnel to Earth. Their appearance glowed gold and orange as the sunlight reflected from their structures. One of the crafts was a Galactic holiday cruiser; they would pick up tourists and cargo never to return. With realisation, he feared he would never see the world of his visions.
He yawned again and looked at Robo beside him, he was tired from all the tension on the station and exhausted from squabbling with Capella. He lay back and starred at the ceiling and began to drift off to sleep.
An hour later Mars woke with a jolt from his deep sleep, for a moment he was disorientated; his sleepy head was fuzzy. The boy looked around the room and sensed that something did not feel right, so he climbed down from his bunk to investigate the living quarters and find his companion. Seconds later a whoosh and a large bang occurred above the living quarters, the cabin shuck with a tremor. He appeared from the bedroom with a look of puzzlement and concern on his face. ‘What was that?’ he asked as he walked unevenly into the living area.
His mum raced around the room grabbed her workbag before hurrying toward him with Capella by the arm; she had a shocked look on her face. The com's monitor and their community cards were flashing red to alert them. A voice announced over the speaker ‘ALARM - EVACUATE - FOLLOW SAFETY PROCEDURE TO ASSEMBLY POINT.’
‘Quickly, we have to get out of the living quarters,’ she said whisking her two children to exit their cabin. Robo clawed at the door whilst Halley punched the lock for the door to slide open. Mars could see the dog’s instruments immediately analyze the temperature of the corridor, the air quality as his hearing tuned into the groaning structure of the space station. The dog stood motionless as it assessed the situation, all of its instruments were calculating a safe exit as if he were on a rescue mission on a stricken vessel, his electronic eyes change from cool grey to a deep red colour, it was an alert a sign of danger.
In a moment of panic Halley grabbed her children’s arms and started leading them towards the lifts at the end of in the corridor, she instinctively followed the stations safety procedure. Robo however, growled in an aggressive manner at their movements. They were placing themselves in real danger. In all the commotion, Halley ignored the dog and continued onto the large metal doors, while Mars looked back at his trusted friend. Robo who tried to attract their attention to the danger of using the lift jumped up and down and moved from side to side reluctant to move a paw further in their direction. Something was wrong. Mars wriggled free. ‘Wait mum! The dogs trying to tell us something,’ Mars pleaded with his mum, as the dog’s eyes now glowed a fierce red.
Halley pressed the lift’s button, before turning to summon Mars, she screamed as Robo came bounding down the corridor like a possessed animal to confront an intruder. A second later Robo jumped and forcefully bit down on Mars’s arm, pulling at the material of his uniform and dragging the boy away from the lift an inch at a time. Mars struggled to stay on his feet, as his four-legged friend dug his hind legs in to pull, further and further away from his mum and Capella. When some distance had been created between the boy and the lifts, the dog let go of Mars and ran to get Halley; at first she resisted, but as he pulled at her uniform she finally realised that the dog was leading them away from danger. Seconds later another loud bang sounded above their heads, and the shockwaves in the corridor knocked them to the floor. Halley and Capella fought back the fear as they stumbled to their feet and ran towards the dog, in the distance the escape pod read for evacuation only. It was their only means of escape. As they quickly ran towards it, fractured service tubes hindered their exit with steam and air seeping from the ceiling panels. The group eventually made it along the smoke filled corridor over debris to the orange and white chevrons of the escape pod. Eventually Halley punched in the emergency code 999, and the airtight seal loosened its vacuum. ‘Get inside!’ she shouted.
When the escape door closed and locked, the pod was jettisoned as an explosion ripped through the living quarters, flames gushed down the corridor in a blinding flash and slammed against the door of the space station. Where the escape pod had just been, there was an inferno which glowed through the hatch window.
In a manner of seconds, the distance rapidly grew between the pod and the space station. The Magellan’s who had no time to brace themselves had become catapulted around the padded interior; they had been initially weightless before falling into a heap on the floor. Mars could now see that poor Robo had taken all the weight of them on his back legs. As a result the dog's ball joints and fluid pipes were damaged.
Mars hurriedly pulled himself and Capella to their feet where she looked in her bag to find a truly annoyed Sweeney. His ruffled feathers did nothing for his odd appearance. Halley patted Robo on his back in a sign of appreciation for what he had just done. He lay at an angle, with sad grey eyes. She patched him up to stop the fluid leaking all over the floor, with plasters from the first aid box found on the wall.
A whole five minutes of shock passed before Halley asked if the children were all right. They just nodded and continued to look out the window back toward Maverick. The stations spheres grew smaller and darker. It was becoming lost against the sparking stars and the black backdrop of deep space around it. Suddenly there were bright flashes from the station, it looked as if there were a multitude of explosions coming from the terminal bays.
‘Oh my god.’ Halley responded as yet more brilliant light appeared.
‘Perhaps the stations under attack.’ Capella said.
A moment past before Mars reassured them. ‘Look it is not an attack or explosions, look the lights are tracing their way in various directions across the galaxy.’
‘Yes and two are heading in this direction.’ Halley’s voice rose, as one light adjusted its flight and narrowly missing their escape pod.
&n
bsp; ‘What are they doing?’ Capella was angry about the situation. ‘Why are they trying to kill us?’
‘Do you think they are missiles?’ Halley questioned as a second light danced along the flight path of the pod.
‘Brace yourselves, it is going to hit us.’ Mars announced as the light shone brightly into the pod.
There was a loud bang and all the lighting was knocked out. A crack appeared, in the window of the door as the pod was once again catapulted deeper into space.
‘Well it can not have been a missile or we would have been blown into pieces.’ The pod spun around, and Mars now felt sick to his stomach.
‘Perhaps it was a rescue droid. Have you or Wolfe been working on anything like that recently?’ Halley asked.
‘This is absolutely brilliant! We are going to be killed by a rescue droid. Can nobody do anything right?’ Capella announced.
“It’s not a droid but maybe it was a probe, they always light their path as they navigate.’ Mars pointed to another series of lights zipping along between nearby stars.
Halley looked on the wall for control panels and saw a joystick and other gauges to manoeuvre the craft. She thought for a moment about steering the small capsule back toward
Space Recall - Star Warriors Page 9