The Portal

by Andrew Norriss

  And that all he had to do was wait until Uncle Larry came back and told him what it was.

  CHAPTER EIGHT

  At four o’clock, when Daniel got back from school, William had tea ready for him in the kitchen, with bread and butter on the table and eggs boiling in the pan. He had the idea that, if things were as normal as possible, it might help his brother not to worry about what had happened to their parents and why they had apparently been left to look after themselves.

  Not that Daniel looked worried – except possibly by the fact that he had to go to school while William stayed at home. After wolfing down his tea, he went straight outside and sat happily on the back step to dissect the body of a dead mole he had found on the playing field at school.

  He looked as if he hadn’t a care in the world, thought William, and he realized with a start that his brother had never once asked why their parents had left so suddenly or when they might get back. Daniel seemed able to accept everything that had happened and simply get on with life – and William rather envied him.

  At half past five, he went down to the station to do the bricks and found there was a message for him from Brin, the station manager on Q’Vaar.

  ‘Hi there!’ The burly, bearded figure was displayed this time above the desk in the pantry. ‘Larry tells me you’re looking after the station on your own until Wednesday, and I just wondered if you wanted a hand. I can come right over if you do. Let me know, eh?’

  William briefly considered accepting this offer, but decided in the end to say no. There was another passenger due the next day but he thought he could manage her quite easily on his own, so he recorded a message for Emma to send out with the next bricks, saying thank you, but he was fine.

  Back upstairs, he found Daniel sitting at the kitchen table with a straw.

  ‘I’ve got to do a “How it Works” in class on Wednesday and I thought I’d do lungs,’ he explained, when William asked what he was doing. He blew through the straw and the tiny viscous sacs he had taken from the mole inflated on the table. ‘What do you think?’

  William remembered Daniel’s teacher as a small, nervous woman who was frightened of spiders.

  ‘Looks like a winner to me,’ he said. ‘Go for it.’

  The bricks came through at 3.49 a.m. and afterwards, when William went back to bed, he found it difficult to sleep. It was nearly seven before he finally nodded off and the alarm rang twenty minutes later to wake him up to get Daniel ready for school. After his brother had left, he thought of going back to bed, but instead went down to the station to check that all was ready for his second passenger when she arrived that afternoon.

  Checking everything was ready took most of the morning, but this was mainly because, halfway through it, William found the torch that Hippo had left on the desk in his room and asked Emma what the trader had meant when he said that it ‘lit up’ shields.

  ‘A shield,’ Emma explained, ‘is a device that renders the carrier invisible to the normal band-width of radiation. Shining the torch on them, however, will give a reflection that enables you to see them.’

  What this meant was that if you were carrying a ‘shield’ you were invisible, but that if someone shone the torch at you, they could still see where you were. Intriguingly, it turned out that there were several ‘shields’ in one of the drawers of his father’s desk in the pantry. They were green, egg-shaped objects, rattling around amongst the pens, the paperclips and a roll of sticky tape – and when you held one in your hand you became invisible.

  William thought the shields were more interesting than the torch, and he took one upstairs so that he could try it outside. Even though there was no one around, it was an oddly exciting sensation to walk through the farmyard knowing that he couldn’t be seen. Birds flew round and ignored him and he got close enough to a pigeon on the ground to touch its back.

  Daniel, he thought, would kill to get his hands on one of these.

  Mrs Hepworth, William’s second passenger, was supposed to arrive at three o’clock that afternoon, but a message with the bricks that arrived shortly after two said she had been delayed and would not be arriving until ten o’clock that night.

  When she did arrive, it was not a happy visit. She was a tall, elderly woman and almost the first thing she asked was that William take her outside.

  ‘I know it’s night-time,’ she said, ‘but you’ve probably got some night goggles around the place, haven’t you? I’m particularly anxious to see an owl.’

  William, however, had been reading the Station Manager’s Manual that afternoon and discovered that it was strictly against the rules for any passenger through the Portal to leave the station and go outside. Why no one had mentioned this before he did not know, but the manual was very definite that, on a restricted planet, nothing must be allowed to give even the slightest hint of the existence of the Federation. Anyone allowing this to happen was liable to the severest penalties.

  ‘You’re saying I can’t go out at all?’ said Mrs Hepworth.

  ‘I’m sorry,’ said William, ‘but those are the rules.’

  ‘Well, in that case I suppose I have no choice, do I?’ Mrs Hepworth gave a sniff and walked through to the sitting room, clearly very angry.

  William called in occasionally during the next six hours to ask if she wanted anything to eat or drink but the answer was always the same. Mrs Hepworth did not want anything and simply sat, staring out at the picture of the night sky through the windows until it was time for her to leave, still visibly upset. William was upset as well. He had enjoyed meeting General Ghool and Hippo White and now…

  Now he was mostly very tired. When Mrs Hepworth left at four in the morning, he was finding it difficult to keep himself awake, and he had just finished clearing up and was about to go upstairs to bed when Emma informed him that an emergency brick had arrived with a request from the medical centre on Riga that he stand by the Portal until further notice.

  It seemed there had been an outbreak of plague on Tychel – a mutation of a dangerous bog virus – and the medical researchers on Riga were working round the clock to find a cure. When they did, it would need to be sent to Tychel as fast as possible and all station managers were asked to stand by their Portals, ready to send it on the instant it arrived. This was one of those occasions when even seconds might count.

  There was no indication of how long William would have to wait, though Emma said it was unlikely to be longer than six or seven hours. If the cure didn’t come before then, she said, the people on Tychel would all be dead anyway. In fact, the cure came through shortly before seven and William sent it safely on its way. After that, it was time to go upstairs, wake Daniel and send him off to school with his packed lunch – making sure it was in a separate box from the one with the mole’s lungs.

  Ten minutes later, as William was climbing gratefully under the bedclothes, the front door-bell rang.

  ‘Morning!’ said a cheery-looking man in green overalls when William opened the door. ‘Patio doors.’ He gestured with his thumb to the van behind him where another man was already unloading pieces of white plastic. ‘Is your dad in?’

  William hesitated. ‘Dad’s working.’

  ‘Well, if you could let him know we’re here,’ said the man, ‘then we’ll get started.’

  ‘You… you’re going to fit them now?’

  ‘That’s the plan.’ The man smiled happily. ‘Any chance of a cup of tea?’

  ‘Oh,’ said William. ‘Right.’

  ‘One with sugar and one without,’ said the man and then added, as William turned to go, ‘No school today then?’

  ‘I’m off sick,’ said William.

  ‘Yeah…’ The man looked at him. ‘You don’t look too good. You should take it easy.’

  ‘Thank you,’ said William. ‘I’ll try.’

  The next bricks arrived at 10.32 a.m. and brought another message from Brin on Q’Vaar.

  ‘How are you managing?’ asked the figure in the hologram. ‘
I know you’ve had a busy night but are you all right? Let me know, will you?’

  William was about to record a reply for Emma to attach to the next bricks when the station computer informed him the workmen were looking for him upstairs.

  The man fitting the patio doors wanted to know if the fascia board should overlap the bricks or not. William had no idea what a fascia board was.

  ‘What do you think would be best?’ he asked.

  ‘Well, if it was me,’ said the workman, ‘I’d have it like this.’ He held up a piece of plastic against the brick. ‘But you’re paying. It’s your choice.’

  ‘Let’s have it like that,’ said William.

  ‘You’re sure?’

  ‘Positive,’ said William.

  And it went on like that all day. As the hours passed, William found it harder and harder to stay awake and by four o’clock, when Daniel got back from school, he was so tired it was getting difficult to understand what people were saying.

  ‘Mrs Catterall fainted when I showed her my lungs,’ said Daniel, throwing his bag on the floor, ‘and two people were sick. There’s a van outside. What’s going on?’

  William explained about the new patio doors and Daniel asked if he could have the old ones so he could break all the glass in them with a hammer. William was still trying to work out the best way of saying no when the phone in his pocket vibrated.

  ‘You have a passenger arriving shortly,’ Emma told him.

  It took a moment for the news to penetrate through the fog in William’s brain. A passenger? Another one? Without any warning?

  ‘How shortly?’ he asked.

  ‘Arrival expected in two minutes,’ said Emma.

  Moving hurriedly down the hall to his father’s office, William wondered who it could be. Perhaps it was Uncle Larry, coming back earlier than expected with news. Perhaps, he thought briefly, it was his parents…

  But the figure that came up through the Portal was not Uncle Larry, nor was it his parents. It was a short man with a head of dark curly hair and a big black beard that William was sure he had seen before but couldn’t remember where.

  ‘Sorry to arrive out of the blue like this,’ the man said as he stepped out of the Portal, ‘but I really was quite worried. And when you didn’t answer my message this morning, I thought I’d better come over.’

  William suddenly remembered who the man was. It was Brin, the station manager from Q’Vaar.

  ‘I… I’m fine. Thank you.’

  ‘Really?’ Brin looked at him closely. ‘How much sleep have you had in the last two days?’

  William tried to think. There had been a few hours before the bricks arrived on Tuesday… or was it Monday? What day was it today? He struggled to remember…

  ‘I thought so.’ Brin placed a stubby hand on William’s shoulder and led him towards the lift. ‘Come on, you’re going to bed.’

  ‘I can’t yet,’ William insisted. ‘There’s men doing the doors and I’ve got to make sure Daniel doesn’t…’

  ‘I’ll look after Daniel,’ said Brin firmly. ‘Bed. Now.’

  CHAPTER NINE

  The following morning, after more than twelve hours sleep, William was feeling a lot better. He came down to the kitchen to find the station manager from Q’Vaar standing at the sink, vigorously cleaning the taps.

  ‘Hi there!’ Brin gave him a cheery smile. ‘How’re you feeling?’

  ‘Fine, thanks,’ said William. ‘I’m sorry about…’

  ‘Not your fault at all,’ said Brin briskly. ‘Larry should never have left you to manage on your own. Running a station is not a one-man job. He knows that as well as I do. When things start piling up, or you fall ill, or there’s an emergency, you have to have two people on a station. You have to!’

  ‘Yes,’ said William. ‘I was wondering if my brother…’

  ‘Nothing to worry about there,’ said Brin reassuringly. ‘All under control. I gave him break-fast and Larry took him down to the bus.’

  ‘Uncle Larry’s here?’

  ‘Got in last night,’ said Brin. ‘And I told him! Leaving one person in charge of a station is asking for trouble, I said. Especially when that person is –’

  ‘Did he find my parents?’ interrupted William. ‘Does he know where they went?’

  ‘Ah… no… well…’ Brin put down his cloth and turned to face William. ‘It’s not good news there, I’m afraid.’

  ‘Why? What’s happened?’

  ‘Nothing. Well, nothing we know of…’ Brin looked slightly embarrassed. ‘Larry doesn’t have any news about your parents, because he didn’t find them.’

  ‘But he said he would!’ William was puzzled. ‘He said there had to be a trace!’

  ‘Yes, well, he can explain that one to you himself.’ Brin dried his hands and crossed the kitchen. ‘He said to bring you down as soon as you were awake. Come on!’

  Uncle Larry was in the pantry down at the station, dictating a report to Emma. His face lit up when he saw William, but beneath the smile, William thought, he looked both tired and worried.

  ‘Brin’s right,’ he said. ‘I didn’t find any news of your parents. I’ve been up and down both the other lines out of Byroid V and there wasn’t even a whisper. It’s like they were never there.’

  ‘But you said it was the only place they could have gone –’

  ‘I did.’ Uncle Larry nodded his agreement. ‘And I still can’t understand it. There was only a very narrow window in which they could have travelled, you see. The Portal at Byroid V was down for six hours that day. You saw them before you went to school, they weren’t here when you got back, so the only time they could have gone anywhere was between about eight o’clock and ten. You’d have thought with only two hours to check –’

  ‘No,’ said William. ‘No, they can’t.’

  Uncle Larry frowned. ‘Can’t what?’

  ‘They can’t have gone in the morning,’ said William, ‘because they were still here then. At least Dad was.’

  He told Uncle Larry about the entry he had found in his father’s logbook down in the work-shop. Uncle Larry wanted to see it for himself and they all went down to look.

  Sitting in the swivel chair at the workbench, Uncle Larry stared at the entry on the page for some time without speaking. ‘If this is genuine,’ he said eventually, ‘then they can’t have gone through the Portal at all.’ He looked thoughtfully at Brin. ‘And you must be right.’

  ‘Right about what?’ asked William.

  ‘Brin thinks your parents might have gone on a little trip. Out beyond the farm.’

  ‘I thought you said if they’d gone anywhere outside the farm, Emma would know?’

  ‘Normally that would be true,’ said Brin, ‘but your dad was very clever with machinery.’ He gestured round the workshop. ‘It was his hobby. I reckon, if he wanted to override the fence circuit, he was smart enough to do it.’

  ‘But why would he want to?’

  Uncle Larry gave a shrug.

  ‘Station managers sometimes get fed up with having to stay in one place all the time,’ said Brin. ‘Maybe your parents decided to go out for a meal together, or take a trip to the cinema –’

  ‘The cinema?’ protested William. ‘They’ve been gone nearly a week!’

  ‘The possibility Brin has in mind…’ Uncle Larry was thoughtfully examining his fingernails. ‘…is that, while they were out there, they had some sort of… accident.’

  An accident! William wondered why he hadn’t thought of it before. Of course. They could have gone out for a walk, been hit by a car, taken to hospital…

  ‘Should we call the police?’ he asked.

  ‘Can’t tell the police,’ said Brin firmly. ‘Far too risky.’

  ‘But –’

  ‘I’m afraid Brin’s right,’ said Uncle Larry. ‘We can’t afford to have the police involved but, fortunately, that’s not the only way to find out what happened. I’ll send a dispatch to the Admiral in charge of the Federation
Security Forces that ensure this planet’s isolation. They’ll look into it for us. And I promise you, if anything happened out there to your parents, they’ll find out about it.’

  ‘They’re very thorough,’ said Brin. ‘And if your parents were using shields or anything, the FSF have got the technology to track them down.’

  ‘How long will it take?’

  ‘Depends,’ said Uncle Larry. ‘A few days, perhaps a week.’

  ‘Which leaves us the question of what to do about William while they’re looking,’ said Brin. ‘Because you can’t leave him to manage the station on his own. He needs someone to help him and you can’t –’

  ‘Yes, all right!’ Uncle Larry interrupted rather testily. ‘I think you’ve made your point on that one.’

  *

  When Uncle Larry went off to meet with Federation Security – he disappeared, quite literally, into thin air somewhere over the front lawn – Brin and William went back down to the station.

  ‘I thought I’d go over some of the duties of a station manager,’ said Brin, ‘in case Larry missed anything out.’ And for the next three hours he gave William detailed instructions on the care and maintenance of a Star Portal.

  Brin’s instructions were nothing like the advice Uncle Larry had given. There were no vague statements of how it was ‘mostly common sense’ or how, if there was a problem, he should ‘ask Emma’. According to Brin, there were very definite rules about how passengers should be treated, when and how you should talk to them, rules about what food they should be offered and a lot of rules about hygiene and cleaning. Brin was very big on cleaning.

  While they worked, he also gave William a brief history of the Portals and the Federation. He told him how the first human civilizations had spread, in great colony ships that floated between the stars for generations, in their search for new worlds. He told him how the process had speeded up when the first Star Portals had been built, even though they could only transport people at the speed of light – and then of the discovery of time-tunnel technology and the gates that could send you to another world in an instant.