Passage

by Thorby Rudbek

  “Can you follow?” The pilot leaned across Isaac so he could be heard.

  Latt looked at Isaac and got his confirmation before adjusting the Inducers. “Thiss is tricky; we may…” He stopped, concentrating on the task of keeping their long craft more or less upright while persuading it to rotate as it fell forwards. The clouds suddenly were close, and then the dense white stuff was all around, paralyzing Latt. Just as he was about to compensate for a perceived tilting, they burst through into the gloom below.

  “We’ve got to have more lift!” Isaac shouted as he saw the helpful Blue Fox ahead and above them, but staying just below the cloud cover.

  “It’ss too dangerous!” Latt responded. “We might lose more.”

  “We’ll hit the ground!” Isaac pointed ahead at the trees rushing up.

  Latt rapidly raised the front end and applied more power. “They are sstarting to overload!” He cut back on one and compensated with another as a town came into view ahead. The Hornet started to descend in front of them as the airfield came into sight. Latt continued to juggle with the Inducers, using them in turn to prevent burn-out, causing the craft to sway and the passengers to feel like they were on an out-of-control roller-coaster, about to jump off the tracks.

  Isaac sat powerless, exchanging occasional glances with the Canadian flier beside him as the runway spread out before them.

  “Hold on!” Latt shouted as the tarmac rushed up. “I’ll try to sslow our descent ssome more.” There was a series of bangs as several Inducers suffered catastrophic overload and failed, then the rear end of the Railcar touched, causing it to bounce. Frantically he cut power at the back to stop the craft from tumbling; a moment later they bottomed out, and the sound of Hybralloy scraping across asphalt filled the air. Latt shut down the remaining Inducers, and the gravity field settled into the old, familiar one that Isaac, Ruth and Terry had grown up within, tempered by violent vibrations like those due to four flat tyres at highway speeds.

  The Railcar continued it headlong slide, however, seemingly undeterred by the friction with the runway. Ahead, a hanger loomed solidly across their path, for the runway had disappeared with alarming alacrity. Its doors stood closed, but it was obvious to all the Railcar occupants that they would not stop before reaching them.

  “We are going to crash right through those doors!” Latt announced grimly.

  Isaac reached over and started manipulating the controls; Latt immediately understood his intent and helped switch the remaining functional forward Inducers to give a horizontal field. They were pinned back into their seats by the force of the gravitational effect he had created, and seconds later the hanger doors shattered as the distorted gravity field went through like a shock wave, immediately preceding the Railcar. Moments later they struck something solid, and their headlong flight and uncontrolled slide were finally over.

  Latt flipped a master switch, cutting power to the Inducers, and the constant sensation of planetary gravity sank over them again like a heavy, comforting blanket.

  Isaac brushed the pieces of Transplyous and other assorted fragments off his legs and looked up. A huge propeller hung above the open front end of the Railcar; to the left was the crumpled forward fuselage of a Hercules transport plane. He turned to ascertain that Ruth was all right, then spoke to the pilot.

  “That’s two of your planes we’ve wrecked!”

  “I think this event will prove to be more important than any number of conventional aircraft.” The man smiled easily. “Allow me to introduce myself; Flying Officer Harold Morton of the Royal Canadian Air Force.” He glanced up at the damaged plane. “Noisy beast, anyway.” He unbuckled himself and got up. “We should probably get out of here, just in case there is a fire.”

  Isaac touched Morton on the arm as he prepared to climb out over the front.

  “We have a door at the rear, remember?” He led him back.

  Harold smiled as he recalled his own descriptive words from a few seconds before his aircraft had been crushed against the unyielding underside of ‘Wonderloaf’.

  Latt and Ruth were loading Terry onto a makeshift stretcher; Harold Morton waited and picked up the rear end as Latt finished covering up his friend.

  “Yes,” he agreed. “It’s chilly out there, even at ground level, that’s why they call this place Cold Lake.” He grinned at his own joke and continued pleasantly by introducing himself to Latt. He rested the slightly raised end of the stretcher on his knee while he offered his hand to the grey-haired man with the startlingly blue eyes.

  Latt looked at him, uncertain of how to proceed. Finally he took the hand in his. “Latt Jusstinalss, from Rhaal.” He hesitated, then turned his back and picked up the front end of the stretcher. The travel-worn survivors trooped out through the airlock doors that Isaac had just opened, after overriding the interlocks. As they emerged into the hangar, a fire truck rolled past and stopped near the damaged C-130 aircraft, and a long line of jeeps, trucks and other military vehicles pulled up, blocking off their exit from the hangar.

  As the troops disembarked and formed a cordon, a frightening assortment of rifles and machine guns all aligned towards the wreckage, Ruth and Isaac stood uncertainly at the head of their procession. The arrival of an ambulance broke the spell, and they walked confidently towards it. The armed personnel backed off to allow the ambulance into the hangar space; the paramedics came out, carefully took over the carrying and expedited the movement of Terry into the warmth of the interior.

  Flying Officer Morton found himself next to Isaac as Ruth remained with Terry and disappeared inside the ambulance. “He looks pretty bad; what happened to him?”

  “Laser attack by the new mega-enemies of Earth,” Isaac explained briefly. “My friend Latt here saved his life, brought him back to safety.”

  Latt looked uncomfortable. “Terry would have done the ssame for me; in fact you could ssay he did,” he ended obscurely, referring to the motivation Terry had given him, which had encouraged him enough to attempt the impossible and find his way back over miles of hostile, sand-blasted territory after the Controllers had lasered their six-wheeled truck almost in two.

  “Ah, here comes the Base Commander!” Harold began with some relief, as the situation felt increasingly uncomfortable. “He’ll get rid of this display of military might as soon as he gets the picture.”

  “I just hope he doesn’t ask for Latt’s passport!” Isaac joked, fervently wishing for someone with flexibility and imagination, so that the feeling of imprisonment would soon be over.

  Latt looked at the troops with a look of total incomprehension on his face, noting that the weapons they all possessed were still trained on him and Isaac, and even their comrade-in-arms, F.O. Morton. “Ssurely they know we are not the Controllers,” he began, turning to the Canadian pilot. “We have come to help them defend Earth against the Enemy; how can they think we are dangerous?”

  “You really are from Someplace Else, aren’t you?” Harry Morton suddenly saw the pieces of his strange puzzle fall into place. I’ve met a genuine alien! The Man Upstairs has many worlds, I see that now…

  Chapter Nine

  Mind over Energy: the ultimate power – Penchetan

  “Well,” Richard began a little uncertainly as he took the left-hand seat once more, “I guess we know enough to try out a short trip now.” He looked over at Karen, who was staring at the orange ball that showed on the right-hand side of the forward viewscreen, far away from them after the second move to a higher orbit, which they had made just the day before.

  “I wish the mathematics of space flight weren’t so difficult,” Karen commented finally. “But you’re right, even at this distance I’ve seen enough of that thing to last a lifetime. Let’s move to the second planet and see if we really figured it out right.”

  Richard nodded in agreement and took the small, yellow sphere with black hexagonal patches in his left hand once more. With his right he powered up the Drive to a higher level than he had ever attempted befor
e, and pushed forwards firmly until his display indicated he was at twenty five percent of available power. He looked up in time to see the orange planet slide off the right-hand edge of the viewscreen, and glanced down to see the orbit display reform into a system chart, showing their present course and the other planets. He grinned over at Karen. “So far, so good!”

  Karen leaned closer and examined their trajectory on the panel. “Does this give you an indication of the other planets’ velocities?”

  “No, at the speeds we will be moving, I don’t need to incorporate that until we are about halfway there; then I’ll be able to see how significant that aspect of the calculation would be.”

  “But you could display that, too, if you wanted to?” Karen persisted.

  “I tried it and found it looked too cluttered on the screen; I like to keep it simple.”

  Karen dropped her line of questioning and got up, stretching as she looked out at the stars. She reached up and pulled at the silver ring that held her hair at the nape of her neck. It shimmered in her hand and reformed into a short rod, allowing her hair to spread over her shoulders and slide around onto the front of her soft and silky blouse. She looked over at Richard and raised one eyebrow slightly.

  Richard pushed the ball forward some more and thereby raised the power level to fifty percent. He watched the display adjust to show the new trajectory, almost perfectly straight towards the small planet he had chosen for his test. “You’re right, of course,” he said, responding to her unspoken comment. “We may as well have a rematch. It will be hours before we get there. Perhaps all this vector mathematics will have improved my play enough to give you a real challenge!”

  As Karen took his hand he noticed the ring sparkle on her finger. A moment later they had reformed in the Moss Room.

  “I’ll be out before you!” Karen teased as she ran off towards the Pool Room she habitually used.

  Richard ran through the wall into the pool at the opposite end and dived in, having previously programmed his outfit. He was able to jump out less than a minute later and run an experimental hand through his hair to confirm that it was dry enough. It’ll get wet with sweat once I start trying to keep up with Karen, he admitted wryly to himself as he patted the pendant under the thin material of his tee shirt.

  Sure enough, she had already managed to return to the Moss Room, and had just completed transforming it into a squash court as he stepped out in his shorts, tee shirt and court shoes. “How do you move so fast?” he wondered out loud.

  “I have to keep that a secret, so you don’t sink back into your standard ‘women always take forever’ attitude,” Karen joked.

  Richard strained to contact that part of her mind which seemed blurred to him, knowing full well that Karen was using his curiosity to persuade him to make the most of his mental gifts by giving him something worth struggling for.

  “Very good!” Karen exclaimed. “I can really feel your mental probe testing my defences. Let’s see if you can keep it up while we play!” She served the ball, and Richard had to jump to return it, because it moved so fast.

  “No fair!” he gasped. “How am I supposed to concentrate on two things at once?”

  “Girls think two things at once twice over.” Karen hammered the ball back and Richard dived to contact it, sliding into the wall as he attempted to keep it in play. Somehow he succeeded, and Karen had to move fairly fast to save the point.

  Richard got up and watched as the ball rolled back from the third rebound. “I give up,” he cried as he dropped the bat. As Karen watched his emotional display with disbelief, he fired off his strongest attempt so far.

  “Wait a minute!” Karen exclaimed, suddenly concerned; then she realized he had tried to distract her in order to break through. “Did you get it?” she cried excitedly.

  Richard grinned, then shook his head. “I thought you’d fall for that one, you being the naïve, innocent thing that you are.”

  “You’re forgetting I’ve got most of your memories floating around in my head, too! I remember when you and Colin played that trick on––”

  The interior of the squash court dimmed momentarily and then the lighting resumed its uniform, bright coverage. Richard looked at Karen and without a word more they stepped back into the Control Centre, where orange flashing lights filled the central panel. What really caught their attention, though, were the seemingly numberless rocks that were flying past them like huge snowflakes past a speeding car at night.

  Much more substantial. Richard slid into his customary seat on the left as Karen dropped into the centre one. As they looked forwards once more, a rock the size of a small car vaporized just before it hit the Scout Craft.

  “Wow!” Karen murmured. An orange light before her started to flicker, and the adjoining display indicated to her that the Structural Protection Field was overloaded. “Look out!” she shrieked.

  Richard grabbed the yellow and black ball and yanked it sideways; the next rock flashed past, barely missing them. He reversed the effect as another boulder appeared almost dead ahead, just avoiding another blow. “See if the laser can be used to vaporize those beasts before we lose that S P Field,” Richard suggested as he glanced down at her display.

  “It’s not powerful enough to do the job,” Karen protested as she scrolled through the offensive options displayed before her. “Wait a minute!” She sounded excited as she powered up something from the display while Richard continued his frantic dodging. A moment later, violet beads of energy flickered into view just ahead of their craft; Karen adjusted the controlling purple sphere that had materialized before her, and the strange pulses connected with one of the rocks as it neared them. A blinding flash of white light covered the spot, and another followed as Karen hit a bigger asteroid further back. As the light faded away from the second hit, they could both see that the rocky, house-sized lump had vanished completely.

  Karen unremittingly blasted the asteroids as they drew near; she worked the weapon more continuously now, and the beads of light appeared to hang together until they seemed more like lengths of glowing rope, or fluorescent fire hoses, rippling with the force of the water flowing through them. The control seemed designed with her in mind, as she felt the confidence of a marksman, which normally comes only after months of practice. Asteroid after asteroid vanished in a blaze of light as they were punished for daring to approach the ancient Scout Craft. Karen grinned fiercely. Now her Citadel had a sting beyond anything she had previously conceived of.

  As time dragged on, however, she found that either she was tiring, or there were more and more asteroids hurtling towards them.

  “No!” Richard shouted as he continued to dodge, but now tried to keep moving upwards between the asteroids and pull backwards on the control sphere between each hasty manoeuvre, while Karen took out those which got too close. “It’s because I haven’t done anything other than dodge from side to side; there aren’t more of them, it’s just that we were still accelerating until just now!”

  Karen felt her heart rate jump as another, smallish rock slipped past her violet annihilator and splashed into vapour, seemingly feet in front of the screen. Just at the bottom edge of her field of vision she was aware that the warning lights had gone completely out, indicating that the Structural Protection Field had failed. She scanned ahead for the next asteroid, dreading its approach, but incredibly there were none in sight.

  “Keep watching!” Richard exhorted her as he got up. “There might be a few more. I just moved us out of the plane of the planets; I should have realized that was another good reason for the way we departed from Earth. There’s a fairly sparse asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter, but it didn’t occur to me that there would be one in this system, too – one that’s a lot more crowded as well!” He had pulled out a couple of replacement Macrals while he spoke and was activating the diagnostic system with a desperate sort of haste.

  Karen scanned the forward viewscreen, but saw no more of the deadly rocks. “How
long will it take to repair that S P Field?” she asked as Richard bent down by her knees and removed a faulty component from the lower section of the display.

  “I think I’ve got it,” he replied as he got up and restored the power to the system. “Yes! It’s working again. I guess it isn’t designed for anything that big,” he concluded, as he finally had time to run over the events of the past few minutes in his mind. “That sure is a powerful thing you found; is it anti-matter?”

  “It’s called the Negatruction Beam weapon. According to the computer,” Karen paused as she called up the description: “The Negatruction beam is a tuned, self-focused blend of negatively charged particles and waveforms surrounding small quantities of anti-matter. Apparently the blend produces an electromagnetic field that maintains the coherence of each pulse and protects the anti-matter while in transit. Once the anti-matter comes in contact with the target, it is turned into pure energy.”

  “What could stand against that?” Richard breathed in amazement.

  “I guess that is just the kind of weapon that Ed Baynes was afraid we would have,” Karen said quietly.

  Richard nodded in agreement, stunned so much by the true power of the violet beam of energy, now that he had time to consider it, that he was temporarily bereft of speech.

  “There must be something else which is designed to protect against the impact of asteroids,” Karen reasoned, once they had got over the initial shock of their discovery. “Otherwise travel between planets would be too hazardous. It would be crazy to rely on the marksmanship of the Negatruction Beam operator to protect your ship from such a routine and continual hazard.”

  “You’re right,” Richard agreed as he plotted a new course parallel to the original one, but safely outside the thin disk of space that was more likely to contain further solid matter. “Unless they had you!”