by Jim Laughter
“As for Mary, she was for all practical purposes, an empty hulk while she was involved with that computer program at the university,” Moe said. “Neither Betty or Baby could rouse her until we cut the power to the university computer and crashed the program.”
“So someone could have walked into Mary and she wouldn’t have even been aware of it,” Betty responded. “What about Baby?”
“She was asleep there by the front of Mary,” Moe answered.
“All I remember from bedtime until I woke up and went to the picnic was my dreams, but none of them were about the bundle,” Baby said.
“Did you notice anything different about the cargo hold when you woke up?” asked Moe.
“The only thing I saw was the tarp on the ground and I figured the bundle just kicked off his covers in the night,” answered Baby.
“Why didn’t you investigate?” asked Betty.
“Because Mama told me not to disturb the bundle without her permission--so I left it alone and went to the picnic.”
“Then who could have flown the bundle out?” asked Myra. “There’s no way any living thing could have gotten to him.”
“There’s your most important clue,” said Krel from the monitor on Firstas. “Since no one could have gotten in, or out for that matter without the aura detector picking them up, you can only come to one conclusion.”
“You mean we have another living ship out there lost and alone?” asked Moe, the color draining from his face at the thought.
“That’s it exactly, I’m afraid,” Krel responded. “Like with Baby, we have no idea how this one came to life.”
“Maybe understanding that might give us a clue,” added Betty. “I could have a double crew go over everything first thing in the morning.”
“You’re probably right to follow up every possible lead, but still the bottom line is we have a lost child out there and no clues of where to start looking,” Moe concluded.
Again, the room fell silent except for an occasional sniff from Mary’s speaker.
∞∞∞
I’m cold, thought the little ship. It hunkered down behind a stand of trees that failed to block the cool breeze.
Ever since it left the warm, dark place and flew up toward the light, it had felt cold. The little ship remembered something covering it which had fallen off when he first flew. He’d thought about going back for it but could not remember the way. After he had wiggled through the open thing to see the pretty lights, the bright flashing light on the tall tower with windows scared him.
Now he wanted another place to hide, someplace dark and warm. The little ship darted from building to building, shrub to tree, each time trying to hide from he didn’t know what. He felt empty and lonely inside but had no idea how to meet those needs.
Looking upward, he saw that it was darker up there, so he decided to try it. In a blue flash, he flew much higher but it was colder up here. Looking down, he saw lights everywhere except for one section off toward the horizon.
Without further thought, the little ship zipped to that region and found it covered with trees and brush. The wind was blowing here and he still felt cold. He looked around and spied the dark opening of a big hole in the side of a hill.
He found it to be warmer inside with protection from the wind. He wiggled in deeper until he brushed an old support, causing the opening of the tunnel to collapse behind him. The noise frightened the little ship and he zipped into a side tunnel and found himself in a large natural cavern.
Sensing warmth from a hot springs on the far side, the little ship settled down on a sandbar next to it, and for the first time felt less frightened. Wishing again for the cover thing, he turned off his lights and rested in the subterranean quiet.
∞∞∞
On a ship in orbit, Trooper Biston Mayne continued his watch at the detector screen. Although it seemed pointless to watch when the ship was in stationary orbit over Shalimar, he stayed at his station.
To relieve his boredom, Mayne called the officer of the watch.
“Sir, it’s getting a little tedious down here. Request permission to activate the proximity detector to give myself something different to watch.”
His commander thought for a moment. Trooper Mayne was showing promise. He called the orbit controller and cleared it for them to switch the detector array. Knowing there were two other fleets in orbit above and around them, the controller gave them permission.
The commander, satisfied with the situation, called back down Trooper Mayne. “Go ahead and fiddle to your heart’s content. I just got clearance.”
“Thank you, sir.”
He adjusted the settings to realign the detector array so it would pick up the movement of metal objects in their vicinity. At least this way he could watch the movement of ships in their landing and take-off patterns.
Observing the moving patterns of blips, each with their ship identification displayed, was a definite improvement over hours of watching an empty scope. He reached for his cup of coffee, fumbled, and nearly spilled it. Turning his head to make sure he’d set his cup in its proper place again, he only caught the momentary blur of something on the scope. He focused back on the screen and turned up the intensity but the image he thought he’d seen was gone.
Just to be on the safe side, the Trooper Mayne noted the log time on the image recorder. Sometimes these proximity detectors fluctuated at regular intervals. Noting the log would give them a timeframe reference to help make recalibration easier.
That completed, Mayne settled back and resumed his watch of the interplay of the blips on his screen. He looked again at the chronometer and was glad to note that his shift was passing more quickly now. Soon he could hit the sack for some much needed rest. Only one more day and they’d get crew leave when the ship put in for regular maintenance and repairs at the repair depot on Theta, his home world.
It had been a tedious tour and Mayne looked forward to getting home. Shalimar was pretty but still wasn’t home. It made him smile to think that in a few hours he would be asleep while the pilot flew them away from Shalimar. He’d be home soon.
∞∞∞
In the high mountains, the wind chilled and tore at the leaves still on the trees. Gusts swirled the already fallen leaves. A cougar padded silently along and arrived at the now collapsed mine entrance. Unable to find a suitable opening, it would have to find another home for the winter.
Still hunting for its nightly repast, the cougar stalked off into the thinning trees at this high elevation. Behind it the wind took on a new note as the temperature dropped even colder. Soon snowflakes began to drift down, first a few at a time and then heavier. Within minutes it became a steady fall and the wind began to lessen.
The new snowfall rapidly covered the tracks of the cougar. The wind changed direction and picked up speed. The air grew frigid and the storm blew in earnest. Weather observers would awake in a few hours to record the beginning of the first major snowfall of the year.
Within only a few hours the snow began to drift and fill the cracks and crevasses of the rocky mountainside. The trees froze into picturesque statues, and animals burrowed deeper as the first onslaught of winter’s might obliterated the collapsed entrance of the mine tunnel under an ever deepening blanket of fresh winter snow.
Chapter Five
Monday morning dawned bright and clear as usual in the weather-controlled city. The sunshine usually brightened her mood but it had no effect on Betty Ebilizer this morning. Knowing they could miss important clues due to lack of sleep, she dismissed everyone from the meeting the previous night so they could get some rest. She was afraid they were going to need it.
The night crew at the institute and the extra troopers that Empress Ane had called in continued to gather clues throughout the night. So far all they had to go on was the flecks of blue paint that Myra and Baby found on the skylight casing. They had no idea where the missing ship could have gone, or even when it may have left.
Even the
cause for the ship waking was a mystery. Betty had one team just investigating those possibilities. They’d been going through the Mary Belle since early this morning. Mary had chased wires for them for hours. So far nothing made much sense.
At least the investigation was giving Mary something to keep her occupied while grounded. Mary wanted to lift off immediately but Ane convinced her that she might disturb important clues by moving around. That Mary felt frustrated by inaction was obvious to everyone, especially to the mothers present. No one had known Mary to be so serious. This was no laughing matter.
“How’s it going?” asked Empress Ane as she walked into the office at the institute.
“Not very well,” answered Betty over her cup of lukewarm coffee. “We’ve taken our leads as far as we can, and we still have no more than we had in the first five minutes.”
“I received the reports from both Ground and Approach Controls. Neither had anything even remotely suspicious,” said Ane, helping herself to a cup of the strong but effective brew.
“I have troopers contacting all of the ships in orbit around Shalimar right now and I’m still waiting for a report from Orbit Control,” she continued with a sigh. Her voice betrayed her. She didn’t expect much success from these admitted long shots.
“Mary and the double crew have traced every wire so many times that I’m afraid their scrutiny will strip the wires bare,” Betty continued. “What about ground reports?”
“I’ve had Security check all possible leads, but even the usual crackpots had a quiet night,” Ane answered.
“I guess all we can do now is wait, pray, and hope something turns up,” Betty said dejectedly. “The person I feel most sorry for is Mary.”
Both women turned and looked through the window into the hanger. Mary rested exactly where she’d landed after Ane had convinced her not to leave. They noticed that Baby was snuggled up against the front of her mother, one mechanical arm around a landing skid and the other stroking the side of the Mary Belle. Her strokes caused an occasional scratch on Mary’s paint, but she would be repainted soon anyhow, so a little affectionate damage wouldn’t matter.
A team from palace security arrived and were soon busy dusting the entire hull, inside and out, for fingerprints or any telltale sign of foul play.
“There’s not much I can do up here,” replied Ane. “I’ll check in as soon as I hear anything new.”
“I’ll keep you posted as well.”
With nothing more to say, Betty turned to the phones to try another slim lead.
Ane rode the elevator down to the hanger and approached the nose of the Mary Belle. She didn’t enter, and was careful not to touch the hull where the security team was dusting. She just wanted to be close to her friend.
Ane heard a sound and saw one of Mary’s outside optical sensors swivel and focus on her. Although it was made of steel and glass, she thought she could read terrible anguish in the eye. She knew it was her imagination but she could swear she saw a tear glisten on the sensor.
∞∞∞
At a home somewhere in the suburbs of Shalimar City, Trooper Ched Waite’s wife rifled through the pockets of her husband’s dirty uniform, checking for change and such before sending it to the cleaners. She would have to talk to him about putting his jacket on a hanger instead of just throwing it over the back of a chair when he came home from those night shifts. She found his personal log in his inside lapel pocket and noticed some flimsy papers about to fall out. Thoughtfully, she tucked the pages back into the log completely so they wouldn’t be lost or crumpled.
She was glad her husband had the next two days off. They planned a family outing to the seashore. The tedium of his job lately had worn on him terribly. He missed being out with a fleet but she knew serving in the palace was a great honor.
∞∞∞
On Firstas, Krel called a meeting of those directly involved in the bundle project. He gave a full report, including both the full recording of the meeting he attended via remote and all that Betty was able to forward to him. Both reports contained precious few clues on the situation and offered little hope.
“And that’s the sum total of what there is at this time,” said Krel. “Does anyone have any ideas or questions?”
“Do we have a time window of the disappearance?” asked one of the men. “That might give us an idea of where to look based on the little ship’s probable speed.”
“That’s a dead-end already,” answered Krel. He realized that even on Firstas, few understood the capabilities of the little ship.
“We have a tentative time window the ship disappeared, but not a possible direction. We can only approximate the time it left to a twenty-hour timeframe. As for speed, only Baby could keep up with the new one, and her top recorded speed is over fifteen times faster than the Mary Belle.”
A low whistle issued from someone in the room and there was many a wide eye.
“I thought we’d determined we couldn’t animate the new ship like the seeming fluke of both Baby and the Mary Belle,” said another scientist.
“Then I guess we have another fluke on our hands,” replied Krel. “We have an unprecedented situation here, something that neither we nor our predecessors were able to predict.”
“What do you propose to do?” asked Ramor, who listened silently to the interplay of the assembled minds.
“Right now there’s nothing we can do,” Krel answered. “We can’t even pull Baby in on this one. She’s busy trying to console Mary.”
∞∞∞
Only a few miles away from the city in a subterranean cavern, a little ship stirred. It opened its optical sensors and saw nothing except total darkness. Then it remembered its lights and turned them on. His field of vision became awash in the most brilliant colors he’d ever seen. Reds, oranges, yellows, and more of every variation of hue and intensity.
The little ship turned and scanned its new home. It was bigger than the first dark place, but it would do. It was warm and there were no frightening lights or noises. He still felt lonely, but didn’t know what to do about it.
The little lost ship turned and examined the hot springs bubbling up from the floor. He spied several pretty pebbles in the water and hesitantly reached out a mechanical hand to take one. The water was hot but he found upon trying again that it didn’t hurt, just bubbled.
One at a time the little ship took different pebbles out of the pool and placed them on a level spot on the floor. Soon he had quite a collection and began to arrange them into pretty patterns. Many hours later the little ship unexplainably grew tired of his artwork. He extinguished his lights and settled down to do what scientists said was unnecessary for machines--he slept.
As dreams of colored pebbles delighted him, little did he know that his older sister was also settling down for the night, snuggled against the nose of their grounded and still grieving mother.
∞∞∞
In a small mountain cabin a 10-year old boy exploded out of bed and flew to the window, pressing his nose to the pane. Staring with excitement into the field outside the dwelling, he thought he would surely bust. He turned and ran to the other bedroom. Exploding through the door, his unbridled joy overflowing, he made a flying leap onto the occupant of the bed.
“Grandpa, Grandpa!” he yelled, “it snowed!”
With a groan, the old man turned over and considered the advisability of peeking out from under his quilt. He’d double-checked the tourist village the night before and felt the early chill of winter in the evening wind. After sixty years of living in the weather-controlled climate of the city, ships, and outposts, he’d jumped at the chance to retire up here in the mountain preserve.
The little cabin Gary had built was just over the rise from a mountain village. It was his dream come true. He enjoyed the chance to teach the children about his hobby of mineralogy. Posing as a miner/trapper was a perfect way to convey his love of both rocks and history to any interested party. His doctor was very happy about the improveme
nt in his health after retiring up here where the seasons came and went as the Unseen One intended.
Having been a widower for a number of years since a Red-tail attack robbed him of his dear wife, Gary endured his grieving in private. Shortly after that attack, he’d accepted a watcher position over a closed planet. Health reasons brought him home for retirement.
Then came the second tragedy, a shuttlecraft accident that made Gary’s only grandchild an orphan. Grandfather and grandson gravitated toward each other in their shared grief. Receiving guardianship of the small boy, he brought him up to the mountains to live. He’d taught the boy the curious aspects of nature and they both came to terms with their losses.
The boy jumping on the bed brought him back to the present. Gary considered his options and decided he’d better wake up before sustaining injury.
“Whoa! Hold on a minute!” he protested. “Give an old man a chance to collect his wits.”
Bobby leapt off of the bed and dove under the bed. With the sound of mock searching, the boy called out, “I can’t find any wits down here, Grandpa.”
“Then give me a chance to look for ‘em up here,” the old man replied as he put on his glasses and reached for his robe. He chuckled to himself at the playing out of a time honored game between the two.
Little hands appeared from under the bed holding house shoes and slipped them onto his grandfather’s feet. The boy squirmed out from under the old bedstead and sprang to his feet. Excitement lit the boy’s ruddy features, and although he had just recently turned ten, the keen eyes of his grandfather could already see the shadow of the man he would become.
Running his fingers through his silver hair, and smoothing down his graying beard, the old man padded over to the frosty window, led by his exuberant grandson. Sure enough, it had snowed.
The sight of a foot of fresh snow greeted his gaze. How different it was from living in either space or the city. Experiencing the changes in the seasons actually made him feel younger.
