Lair of the Sentinels

by Geoff Palmer

‘Not us,’ Tim said, and the others laughed even harder.

  * * *

  ‘I wonder if I could have a word,’ Alice said to Albert when they’d finished dessert. ‘In private.’ She moved to the seat directly opposite him.

  ‘We’ll do these.’ Em took an armful of dishes from Tim and handed them to Frank. She nodded at Albert and Alice, then said in a lower tone, ‘You lot make yourselves scarce.’

  Em still had hopes for her sister. A few days earlier — before all this talk of spaceships — Alice had seemed rather keen on Albert. So much so that she’d made him a plate of her special wholemeal pikelets. He was a sensible chap. Perhaps he could talk her round. Perhaps he could help her shake off some of the silly ideas she had.

  ‘Can’t go far,’ Ludokrus said. ‘The gloves have not much range.’

  ‘My bedroom,’ Coral said. ‘It’s nearest.’

  Out of range of the transmitters, Albert slumped a little as they went inside. Alice didn’t notice. She was fiddling with something in her bag and set it on the table.

  Albert straightened again as they reached Coral’s room and he came back in range of the control gloves. Through the open window they could hear what was going on.

  ‘Well,’ Alice said.

  ‘Well, well, well,’ Albert replied. ‘Three holes in the ground.’

  Coral sniggered.

  Tim elbowed her.

  ‘Ow!’ Albert said.

  ‘What?’

  ‘Nothing. You wanted to talk to me, Alice?’

  ‘Yes. I want to know who you are for a start. And what you’re doing at the reserve.’

  ‘I want a cup of tea,’ Albert said. ‘And some ice cream. And a bowl of cherries. And to look into your lovely bloodshot eyes.’

  ‘What?’

  ‘Nothing.’ He gave her a silly grin.

  ‘You can’t distract me, you know. I won’t let you. I know what you’ve been up to. I know everything. I know all about the spaceship,’ she leaned forward significantly, ‘and the mice.’

  ‘Pipi and Paua?’

  ‘Pardon?’

  ‘The mice. They’re called Pipi and Paua.’

  ‘Oh ... are they?’

  ‘You didn’t know that.’

  Alice checked herself. He’d distracted her again.

  ‘Look,’ she said, ‘I want to know who you’re working for.’

  ‘The government.’

  ‘Which department?’

  ‘Pest control.’

  ‘I don’t believe you.’

  Coral whispered to Ludokrus and Norman, ‘Lean him forward.’

  Albert leaned forward and said quietly, ‘I could tell you ...’

  ‘Yes?’ Alice leaned closer.

  ‘... but then I’ll have to kill you. Bwa-ha-ha-ha-hah!’

  Alice lurched backwards, startled, and fell off her seat.

  * * *

  Coral was still laughing when they reached the shortcut. Ludokrus and Norman were making Albert walk like a zombie: stiff-legged, arms outstretched, his head lolling to one side.

  ‘That was so funny!’

  ‘You shouldn’t have said that,’ Tim said. ‘You know what she’s like.’

  ‘Oh relax. Who’s she going to tell? No one will believe her anyway.’

  52 : Psst!

  Crystal Starbrite woke in the passenger seat of the green station wagon, blinked and looked around. ‘Where are we? Why are we stopping?’

  ‘Approaching the turn-off to Rata,’ Eric said. ‘Looks like there’s some sort hold-up.’

  Three cars were stopped in front of them. The lead car did a U-turn and headed back past them. The next car paused then carried on south, re-joining State Highway 6, while the third also U-turned and headed back towards Haast.

  Eric stopped in front of a police car parked sideways across the road, its red and blue lights flashing.

  ‘Sorry sir, road’s closed,’ a fresh-faced constable told them.

  ‘Accident?’

  ‘Army exercise.’

  ‘How long for?’

  ‘At this stage, till first light tomorrow.’

  There was thunderous roar as a heavy-lift helicopter came in, hovering over a field to the south, a Unimog truck swinging from a cradle beneath it. Four figures raced out the moment the truck touched down, released the cradle, and the helicopter soared away.

  Crystal leaned across to the driver’s window. ‘You can’t close a public road for an army exercise.’ She flicked her hair in case he didn’t recognise her. He clearly did.

  ‘You can if it comes from high enough up, ma’am.’

  ‘What does that mean?’

  ‘This lot are just backup.’ He gestured to the truck and troops behind him. ‘I heard the SAS went in half an hour ago.’

  ‘The SAS?’

  A ute pulled into a marked-off bay on the other side of the police car, evidently coming from Rata. An army unit sprang into action. The driver was directed out of the cab, taken to one side, searched and interviewed, while another team inspected his vehicle, inside and out. They even had mirrors on sticks, checking underneath it. Four soldiers conducted the inspection. Four more stood back, automatic rifles at the ready.

  Finally, after a radio consultation, the driver was cleared. He returned to his cab and was waved through a grassy chicane. A second policeman withdrew a set of portable road-spikes and directed the ute away from the roadblock.

  ‘Park up,’ Crystal told Eric. ‘Let’s find out what’s happening.’

  ‘I’m sorry, I can’t let you stop here,’ the policeman said. ‘I’ve been ordered to move everyone on.’

  ‘We’re not everyone. We’re the press.’

  ‘Especially the press.’

  Crystal smiled, ignored him, and undid her seatbelt. The words were like music to her ears. They invariably signified a big story.

  As she opened her door, a loud voice barked, ‘Stay in your vehicle.’

  She paused, half in, half out, and saw it came from an army sergeant who’d emerged from a field on their left. He was walking smartly towards them, flanked by a corporal and a squad of four armed soldiers.

  ‘Good afternoon ... sergeant.’ She checked the man’s stripes and smiled.

  ‘Staff Sergeant,’ he replied. ‘Now, get back in your vehicle and leave please. This is a restricted area.’

  ‘Since when?’

  ‘Since now.’

  ‘I’m sorry? Do you know who I am?’

  ‘Do you know who I am, madam? Round here, I’m god almighty. And you will do as I tell you.’

  ‘On whose authority?’

  ‘On this authority.’ He gestured to four soldiers. They circled the car.

  Crystal looked from one to the other. At the stern faces and the rifles held at the ready.

  ‘You can’t—’

  ‘I bloody well can.’

  They glared at each other. Seconds passed. Neither of them blinked. Then the Staff Sergeant stretched out an arm, checked his watch and said to the man at his side, ‘Corporal, if this vehicle’s still here in thirty seconds, have the men shoot out its tyres and detain its occupants under the Terrorism Suppression Act, 2002.’

  ‘Yes sir,’ the corporal snapped.

  ‘What?’ Crystal said. ‘The Terrorism Suppression Act? What the hell is—?’

  Eric leaned across the passenger seat. ‘Get in the car, Crystal.’

  ‘Twenty seconds.’

  ‘You can’t treat members of the press like—’

  ‘Shut up and get in the damn car,’ Eric said

  There was the sound of another helicopter approaching.

  ‘Ten seconds.’

  Still Crystal didn’t move.

  The corporal snapped, ‘Shoulder weapons!’

  She looked round and saw four armed men aiming at the tyres of their car.

  She shut up and got back in.

  * * *

  Alkemy looked around the caravan that had been their home and sighed. ‘Nothing to pac
k. Really, we need only one thing.’

  Ludokrus nodded and opened a cupboard from which he took a small cardboard box. Coral gave him a quizzical look.

  ‘I forget, we do not show you yet,’ he said. ‘Albert build her before he go missing. The reason we are come here in the first place.’

  He opened the lid, removed a fold of bubble wrap and took out a spun glass orb the size of a grapefruit. He handed it to Coral.

  ‘This is it? The Temporal Accumulator?’ He nodded. ‘It’s beautiful.’

  She held it close and saw that inside the orb were other orbs, each slightly smaller than the last. Trapped between the surfaces were moving sparks, like tiny fireflies that came into existence for a few seconds then flickered and died. Staring into its depths was like staring into a tiny swirling galaxy.

  She became lost for a moment, thinking of the larger galaxy and wondering how she was going to manage once they’d gone. Once he’d gone.

  ‘How does it work?’ Norman said to Ludokrus.

  ‘Why do you always have to know how stuff works?’ Coral said. ‘Why can’t it just be? Look at it, it’s lovely.’

  ‘Are those sparks some sort of quantum thing?’

  She sighed and handed it back. ‘I’m going for a walk,’ she said.

  Ludokrus watched her go, wondering if he should follow, but Norman was asking him about the caravan and the Cadillac and what would happen to them when they left.

  ‘I make these.’

  He took out a collection of self-adhesive discs, explaining that everything constructed by nanomachines had a telltale molecular signature. Originally designed as a safety measure in case they ever ran amok, the signature also allowed rapid identification and recycling of unwanted items.

  ‘Easy to use. Just stick and press in centre,’ he said, handing some to Norman and some to Tim. ‘Car, caravan, Artificial Albert. Bikes also. Remember, we leave them back at the resource pit.’

  ‘Oh right. Mustn’t forget the bikes. Eh Tim?’ Norman gave his friend a significant look.

  Coral’s walk took her round the rim of the crater and on to a patch of rocky foreshore where the sea surged listlessly. The tide was in and she sat and watched it a while, lost in thought, feeling the way she often felt at the end of a long holiday. But this time even more so. In a few hours, Alkemy and Ludokrus would be gone. A few hours after that and they’d be back to the old school routine, as if the last few days had never happened. And in a few weeks’ time they’d return to Auckland. The time they’d spent here, the adventures they’d had, would become a memory that grew fainter day by day.

  Already it was hard to believe half the things that had happened to them.

  Fifty light-years, she thought. Four hundred and seventy trillion kilometres. An impossible distance. Three weeks travel to those on board, but here on Earth she’d be an old woman by the time they got home. And if they returned? A hundred years would have gone by here.

  But there was one consolation. Batty old Albert — who hadn’t been so batty after all — had rebuilt the Temporal Accumulator before the Sentinels got him ...

  ‘Psst.’

  ... and Ludokrus said he’d added in whatever was needed to test his theory about countering the effects of time and light-speed travel. If he had, and if it worked ...

  ‘Psst.’

  ... maybe she would see them again one day.

  ‘Psst.’

  It wasn’t much. But it was something to hold on to.

  ‘Psst!’

  Coral turned, annoyed, surveying the toitoi, flax and bush immediately behind her.

  Nothing.

  ‘Psst!’

  That came from a different direction. Either whoever it was had moved without making a sound, or there were two of them. She got to her feet.

  ‘Psst!’

  Or three.

  ‘Who is that?’ she said, advancing a few steps into the waist-high undergrowth. ‘If that’s you guys horsing around ...’

  There was a sudden rustling up ahead.

  ‘Yeah, yeah, big joke.’ She advanced further. ‘Like I’m really fright—’

  A figure rose from the undergrowth behind her. A gloved hand shot out and clamped her mouth. Other hands appeared and dragged her swiftly out of sight.

  53 : Evacs

  ‘Jeez Crystal,’ Eric said, ‘learn to pick your battles! Men with guns trump reporters with cameras every time.’

  ‘They can’t treat me like that.’

  ‘They can under the Terrorism Suppression Act. They can throw you in jail for up to thirty days and not even give you a reason. You won’t get much reporting done from there.’

  Crystal pouted, still smarting at the sergeant’s treatment. She was a star. Nobody treated a star like that.

  ‘So what’s going on back there?’

  ‘I wish I knew. But it seems like a hell of a coincidence after everything else that’s happened.’

  Her satellite phone rang. She didn’t recognise the incoming number.

  ‘What?’ she snapped, then, ‘Oh, hello.’

  ‘It’s Alice Jones,’ she whispered to Eric, covering the mouthpiece.

  ‘No, he can’t talk now, he’s driving,’ she said into the phone. ‘But I can relay a message.’

  She listened intently for a full minute, not saying anything. Then she said, ‘All right. Look, we’ll meet you at the Old Oak Café in Haast. We’re heading there ourselves. But you should know the army have closed the road. They’re not they’re letting anyone in, but they are letting people out, so you should be OK.’

  ‘Well?’ Eric said.

  Crystal clicked the phone off. ‘She’s heading out, heading for home. She’s got some footage for us to backup her story. And apparently she’s had a death threat.’

  * * *

  ‘Where have you been?’

  The others were lounging in the sun when Coral returned. Tim sensed there was something wrong immediately. Her face was blank, like a mask, and she walked at a measured pace, like a robot. He thought she might be trying to imitate Artificial Albert, but there was no joking, no light of fun in her eyes.

  She stopped, rested her hands on the back of a folding chair, leaned forward confidentially and said, ‘Don’t look now, but we’re surrounded by a bunch of soldiers.’

  ‘What?’ Norman turned.

  ‘I said don’t look, idiot. Just get your things and pretend we’re going for a walk.’

  ‘Are you serious?’

  Coral’s expression didn’t waiver. ‘Just make sure you’ve got everything you need. I mean everything.’

  Alkemy reached for her pink backpack, the outline of the Temporal Accumulator box visible inside.

  ‘What about Alb—?’

  ‘They said to stay away from the caravan. They’ve got all sorts of stuff trained on us.’

  ‘Really?’

  ‘Really.’

  They got up, exchanging glances, gathered their things and headed for the entrance of the reserve, moving as instructed — casually but carefully. Tim glanced at his sister, still half-expecting a hoot of laughter and a cry that they’d all been sucked in, but her face remained grave.

  ‘Are you sure about this? I never heard anything.’

  ‘It’s the SAS, Timmo. I think that’s how they operate.’

  Nothing seemed out of place, even when they reached the road, but the moment they stepped into the shadow of a stand of trees, six figures emerged from the undergrowth. It was an odd sensation. A moment before, a casual glance showed nothing but stripy shade, then suddenly it was full of bulky figures in heavy camouflage carrying guns.

  ‘Nice one girlie.’ A hand patted Coral’s shoulder. It too was camouflaged. ‘Anyone else back there?’

  Coral glanced helplessly at the others before answering. ‘No.’

  ‘Perimeter Patrol,’ a low voice said. ‘Five, repeat five evacs coming your way. All minors. Over.’ There was a crackle of static and an acknowledgement.

  The first s
oldier nodded to another who jerked his head and gestured they should follow him. He moved briskly, leading them up the road towards the farm. After a hundred metres, they met with a regular unit coming the other way. Tim saw the soldiers stiffen at the sight of their camouflaged companion. He clearly commanded respect.

  ‘Can I get a couple of you guys to escort this lot back to the farm for me?’ he said.

  ‘Certainly, sir!’ one of their number snapped.

  ‘Take care, kids.’ He turned and slipped away, half vanishing against the background, even in the light of day.

  Aunt Em was pacing the veranda when they came into view, her expression a mixture of relief and What-have-you-been-up-to-now? A large khaki tent had been erected in front of the milking shed and the drive was littered with vehicles and people moving to and fro.

  ‘Army and police,’ Norman said. ‘Awesome!’

  Their escort fell back and they walked up to the house, amazed at the transformation from farm into a bustling headquarters.

  ‘I take it this is them?’ a police sergeant said to Em.

  She nodded.

  ‘Never a dull moment with you lot around,’ Frank said.

  ‘Is everyone OK?’ the sergeant said. ‘It’s all right, you’re safe now.’

  ‘Safe from what?’ Coral said.

  He ignored the question. ‘We’ll want to talk to you all later, but just take it easy for now. OK?’

  ‘Where’s Albert?’ Em asked. ‘Is he not with you?’

  ‘He’s ... gone for a walk,’ Tim said.

  Norman nudged him.

  There was a crackle of radio traffic from the tent. They could hear it from the veranda. ‘Repeat,’ a voice said, ‘perimeter secure. No sign of weapons or explosives. But we’ve found a body.’

  ‘Description?’

  ‘Male. Caucasian. Late forties or early fifties. Medic says he’s cold. Might have been here a while.’

  Norman nudged him again.

  ‘Injuries?’

  ‘Nothing obvious. Just checking for ... What the hell?’

  ‘Repeat, Tiger One-Nine.’

  ‘Tiger One-Nine. Looks like we might have a situation here after all.’

  At the third nudge, Tim whirled round and hissed, ‘What?’

  Norman didn’t say a word, just rolled eyes towards the western horizon where a faint, pencil-thin vapour trail was visible, heading their way.