Loner in Space

by Steve Simons

  OK get in your PJs then and I'll get on with it. his Dad replies.

  Paul doesn't need prompting twice. He bounds up to his room. He gets halfway up the stairs and hears his Dad say, Shoes, boy, shoes!

  Now that's more like it, thinks Paul to himself. He stops takes off his shoes and throws them down into the hallway. Only to be greeted with, Mind the glass panels, bozo!

  ~~~~~~

  Chapter 8  From Torment To Adventure

  The whole week of being a model son, had been torment, although Paul had managed to split the video sequences up that he'd captured of those vents opening on top of the craft. Then he had e-mailed them to Zack, in order to get his view on what Paul has found and how it might work. It had not been easy to write the first e-mail, especially as Zack's advice had been to not go back to the craft because of the potential danger. The only danger that he had faced so far, was potentially being trapped in the hole with the space craft, being grounded by his Dad or being arrested for dodgy dealings.

  The reward of Paul's e-mail, was the fact that Zack's friend Kirsty, had viewed the sequences and had come back with suggestions as to how the various vent like openings should affect the craft in flight. Paul had extracted the text from the e-mail and pasted it into the 'manual' that he had been preparing. This manual showed what the various controls in the craft do. Paul had even done a drawing that showed the plan of the craft.

  Paul had also used his time productively, making a circuit board, that Zack had designed. This board, will go between the laptop and the essential control fibres, the ones that control the engines and navigation.

  As Paul's Dad was not expected back until late and the neighbour who had been assigned to keeping an eye out for Paul, had suddenly been called out to care for a sick relative (Paul had seen the note that she had dropped through the letter flap); Paul has decided that he can safely visit the craft again. This time he was taking no chances of being spotted and was wearing black clothes and carrying only what he immediately needs.

  Paul soon finds himself in the control room again. No need to worry about the web camera this time as he now knows what all of the controls do. Paul is soon connecting the essential fibres up to his circuit board.

  Paul is proud of how quickly he has it all connected up. He soon has the laptop secured to one of the chairs and it is fired up. There's a bit of a rumpus, as all the devices that are connected to it, suddenly come to life, as the LEDs flash when the circuit board is powered up. Paul is worried that all the noise may attract unwanted attention, but then remembers that with what he plans to do, he is bound to attract attention anyway.

  As it is a cloudy night with no moon, Paul has decided to find out what 'this little baby is capable of'.

  Paul makes sure that the floor is clear and his supplies are stowed away safely, before turning his attention back to the laptop again. He quickly turns his attention back to his manual and has a quick read to acquaint himself again with the controls. Paul fishes his torch out of his pocket, turns on the external lights and is amazed at how bright things appear. He can even make out the alien suit tucked away in the corner of the hole.

  Right lets go for it. says Paul as he stabs the 'E' key on the laptop. The familiar noise of the engines can be heard. Paul had already decided, that he would gradually build up the thrust, he stabs the numeric keyboard starting with the digit 1 and gradually builds up the keyboard, when he reaches 5, the engine is quite noisy and the craft itself is shuddering. Paul stabs 6 and he can see that it has the desired effect, as the ground slips away from the screen and Paul can see that the rate of ascent is increasing. The craft is now some considerable distance above the ground and leaving the woods well below it as it heads skywards. Paul had imagined that it would take much longer to rise up.

  Paul can't believe it, the roads and cars look like dinky toys now and continuing to shrink as the craft continues to rise up at speed. Paul wonders if it is time to check out the direction controls and see if Kirsty's predictions were right. Paul decides he'll wait a while longer, to ensure he has sufficient height, in-case anything happens and the craft starts to fall, after all he is not sure if the craft had crashed and if it is actually flight safe.

  The craft is now at some considerable height, so Paul decides to test out the sideways thrust engines, he eases back on the vertical thrust and presses the letter 'F' for forward thrust. Paul gradually increases the thrust and sure enough the craft starts to slide forwards. Now to try the vents and see if they behave as Kirsty had predicted. At first the craft lurches all over the place, as Paul tries to get used to the effect of his key presses. He is worried that his ham fisted efforts may crash the craft, but as time goes by, it is just like getting used to the controls of a new game, Paul gets better and better at it. Soon the craft is sweeping down over hills and rising afterwards, swinging to left then right.

  Suddenly there is an annoying noise and one of the screens to the right jumps into life. At first Paul has difficulty in figuring out what the display is showing. Then as an aircraft goes screaming by in front of his craft, Paul realises that he is being, oh what's the phrase they use? Ah yes he's being buzzed by the RAF. His exploits have obviously raised their curiosity. Paul looks back at the screen, he can see now what the traces on the screen are showing. There is a second aircraft behind his craft, it appears to be simply following Paul, whilst the one that has just buzzed him, is lining itself up for another run past.

  Paul reviews his possible moves, these aircraft could be armed and may do him some serious damage. He could try and play hide and seek amongst the hills, However, Paul doesn't trust his skills enough yet to do really low flying. Instead he could try and outrun them heading vertically upwards, he just hopes that the craft is not holed in any way, otherwise his air will leak out.

  Paul increases vertical thrust shuts down the forward thrust altogether. He can see from the display that the craft that was aligning itself for another run has spotted Paul's intention and has changed its course, so it too is climbing. Paul piles on everything this baby has in terms of thrust and wishes he hadn't, as he feels himself getting incredibly heavy as the G forces build up. Its as if he has some really heavy weight on his head, trying to pull it down through his shoulders. His arms and legs ache with the the pulling forces. As for his chin, it feels like it someone is trying to rip it off.

  'Just a bit longer.' thinks Paul to himself. He can see from the display that his craft is making amazing headway and getting away at incredible speed. Paul tries to control his arm and get it to an appropriate key to throttle back the engines. It takes incredible self control, not to mention putting up with all that pain from the G forces. After a few false key stabbings, with quite comical results, like zigzagging across the now even darker sky in a really strange flight path.

  As Paul manages to ease back the throttle, he feels quite strange. There is no longer the strong pulling on his limbs, in fact his arms feel as if they are floating, like that feeling you get when in the swimming pool. His stomach feels like it has a collection of butterflies in it.

  It has suddenly dawned on Paul that he is now in space. Yes that's right, he's in space, he travelled so far vertically that he has ended up in space, just like the shuttle. Paul wonders if he will see the space station whilst he is up here.

  Paul remembers that he was being pursued, he looks back at the display screen that had first alerted him to his pursuers. The display has changed considerably. The traces that represent the RAF craft, are quite small and at the bottom of the screen now. Paul wonders if they have given up. He decides to swing round and head back in the direction of home so when he descends he will be in an alignment to make it easier to find home. As he looks to the bottom of the main screen, he sees that classic earth viewed from space type image.

  'Crikey, I'm higher up than I thought I was.' thinks Paul to himself. As he looks to the left he can see that something q
uite large is slipping into view. He is now heading for some sort of satellite, or was that part of the space station?

  Paul turns his attention to changing his course so he will miss this new neighbour. As the craft swings round, Paul can see that it was a satellite. He wonders if this is the one where their TV pictures come from. He half expects to see Sky Television emblazoned on the side. Whilst there are some markings, he can't make out what they are. Paul is fascinated to look over all the things sticking out of the satellite. Seems weird to be seeing this up close and to be in space with it. The stars seem so much clearer up here and there are more of them.

  The earth has disappeared now, all Paul can see is space and the satellite, which is steadily swinging across the screen. The earth disc starts to slide gently back into view. Paul tries to identify the coastlines. The one in the distance is just too indistinct to be able to make out what it is. It is just like looking at a collection of hills at ground level and trying to make out which hills these are. There is a vast expense of sea before him. He wonders if he has travelled too far away and starts to panic, then realises that there's some land mass slipping into the top of the screen, it seems to be covered in white, he thinks he has seen this before in his lessons, oh what is it called? Perhaps it is the north pole. As this in turn slides away, another land mass comes into view, it is partly covered in white, this must be snow or ice. That's it, this latest land mass is Iceland, he recognises the bay where Reykjavik is, they had done a whole project on Iceland at school. As Iceland slips out of view and is replaced by even more sea, the next land mass that slides into view is recognisable to Paul, even though it is on its side, well it is compared to how it is shown on the weather forecasts, yes it is that triangular collection of islands referred to as the United Kingdom, or home as Paul knows it better.

  Paul is about to navigate a course home, when he thinks to himself, 'It would be a shame to leave space so soon, after all he may never see it again, better to take best advantage of this trip, so Paul decides he'll take one spin around the earth, he may even see the space station on his way round. He wonders if the shuttle is up here also, although he can't recall anything having been mentioned in the news about it, although it only merits a short mention now and again.

  There's an enormous clung noise as something hits the craft. Paul had seen nothing through the windows, so he glances at the navigation screen and he can see a line sweeping straight for the circle that represents the craft. He wonders why the warning noise had not sounded, like it had when the RAF aircraft had headed towards the craft.

  Paul wonders if there are any displays that can tell him if there has been any serious damage. The thought comes to Paul, has he just hit the satellite that he had just passed by? He decides to swing the craft round to see if there is any debris behind him. Paul adjusts the controls accordingly and the view starts to change on the main screen.

  After a while, what seems like lumps of rock start to appear at the edge of the screen and slip across the screen, from right to left. In the background, Paul can see the satellite, it still appears to be in good order, so perhaps his craft has just been struck by a small meteor, intercepted by his craft before heading earthwards. If only he had external cameras he could check the view to the rear of his craft. He just has to hope that no serious damage has been done. At that moment, Paul's conclusions about the meteor are confirms as he sees the largest part of the rock slide onto the screen, it is getting smaller and smaller as it heads earthwards.

  Paul is not so sure about his plan to remain up here a bit longer, to take a round trip of the the earth. It seems more dangerous now. Then he looks down at the earth disc again and decides that he has got to take the one orbit, or he may regret not doing so for the rest of his life.

  ~~ Later ~~

  Paul certainly gave the crew aboard the International Space Station plenty to talk about, as he flew around it several times. He was glad in the end that the shuttle wasn't around, they had nothing with which to chase Paul off with. Having seen the pictures at school, Paul knew what the various modules of the space station contained, he had even spotted the one that was added last month. It was really strange seeing it up this close. Paul had to make sure that in all of his excitement that he didn't forget himself and get his craft too close. The last thing he wanted to do was put his own and the lives of those aboard the space station at risk.

  Paul, now having completed his grand tour, sets course for home. He is astounded however, when the craft suddenly takes a completely different course. Paul wonders if there is either a fault in the circuit board or the laptop. As he glances at the navigation screen he spots a flashing symbol, he has seen this before somewhere, now where was it? Then suddenly he remembers, it was on those suits in the cupboard. Why is it appearing on the screen now, is this connected with the fact that the craft appears to be following a course that Paul is trying to steer the craft towards?

  ~~~~~~

  Chapter 9  Ever Wished You Hadn't.?

  To Paul's dismay, he realises that the craft is heading even further out into space. He tries to turn the craft around and head it back to the earth, but it is not responding to his laptop controls.

  Paul stops using the keyboard and watches the fibre lines that are plugged into the circuit board. He can see no lights issuing forth. Just to make absolutely sure, he places something black under the circuit board. Sure enough after a number of seconds and a few course corrections, that he has had no hand in, Paul pronounces that neither the circuit board nor the laptop are misbehaving. So just what is guiding this craft away from the earth?

  Paul's eyes are drawn back towards that symbol again.

  Could it be, that as Paul had successfully brought the craft up here into space, clear of the radio interference of the earth that some sort of homing beacon has tripped an in-built autopilot that is taking this craft to its home?

  Just what has Paul done, has he signed his own death warrant. What will the aliens, who own this craft, make of the fact that their own kin has been killed, removed from this craft and there is a complete stranger trying to hijack the craft? That is assuming that those aliens are even still alive, the craft may have travelled so far away from its home, that in the meantime the aliens have all died out. This brings the chilling thought to Paul, what about his home, if he manages to get back to it, will his father have long ceased to be alive? Will humanity even be around?

  Paul knows he just has to try and take control of this craft again, but where would the override control be, that would enable him to turn off the autopilot. Unless it was one of those bumps that he had tested that appeared to do nothing. Paul turns to the laptop again and switches screens so he is looking at that massive spreadsheet that shows all the trigger bumps and what they do. He looks for the blank ones. Fetches his torch again and tests out those that are within reach, but has no luck, they still appear to do nothing. Now for the ones out of immediate reach. Before he even has time to think the situation through, Paul unfastens his seatbelt and immediately regrets doing so, as he finds himself floating upwards towards the ceiling. He forgot about the weightlessness of space.

  Paul soon finds himself slammed against the ceiling and then he is heading back towards the seats again. He puts out his arms to protect himself from the impact, but the mere act of doing so, sets him into a spin and he finds himself, instead, heading for a wall, which he soon thuds into. If only Newton had got the equal and opposite forces bit wrong..... Paul is now heading back towards the side of the nearest chair. Paul gradually eases his hands into positions, that should enable him to grab hold of the chair and steady himself. His plan kind of works, he slows down and is now heading for the floor.

  Paul thinks to himself, 'This could go on for hours.'

  As Paul bounces off the floor, he catches sight of the screen, the earth is far away now and the moon is slipping also away from view now.

  ~~ Lat
er ~~

  'A whole hour, a whole hour, it took to stabilize myself.' thinks Paul, then reflects upon the fact that the remaining trigger points, were also fruitless. Paul wonders if that cupboard at the end of the corridor, contains any controls that turn the autopilot off, or was it a case that the autopilot off control, was simply broken?

  Paul is somewhat reluctant to open the control room door in-case the craft has been damaged and there is no air out in the corridor now. However, the thought of being lost out here in space, not seeing his Dad any more and having no control over this craft, drove Paul on. He had to try, even if it meant that he died trying.

  Nervously Paul slowly swings his torch back and forth, trying to trigger the door open bump. It is not easy trying to keep stable and swing the torch around. The trigger, seems to obstinately refuse to operate. Then the thought crosses Paul's mind, 'maybe it is programmed not to open if there is no air the other side of the door.'

  Suddenly the sliding of the door makes Paul leap out of his skin, although he was aiming to open the door, the fact that it has opened now after being so obstinate, for so long, has taken Paul completely by surprise. He had hoped that he would be prepared for this moment. It dawns on him that there must be air, as he can still breathe. Paul struggles to get out into the corridor, I say struggles, as he wants maintain controlled movements. He does not want to resume that spinning motion of earlier. At first he starts to head towards that control panel at the end of the corridor, but then wonders if there are any of the boots in the cupboard where the space suits were. The boots may have been designed specially to keep the aliens on the floor.