by S A Pavli
“It will only take the message a few hours to arrive, allow some days for them to prepare, and then three days to make the trip in Hyperspace,” she said. It had taken me two months make the trip from Earth, so Manera’s home planet was significantly closer to Omorphia than Earth. She took a sip of her coffee and considered it for a few seconds.
“Mmm very good,” she exclaimed “It is similar to a drink we have on Mesaroyat, but more potent.”
I smiled in appreciation, thinking that I might go into business as an importer of coffee to Hianja worlds when this is over. We drank our coffees in a pleasant silence before there was a sudden interruption from Alfred.
“Paul, I have just received a bizarre communication from Smetronis. He demands that we return Manera unharmed without conditions, otherwise he will land and take her by force. We have one hour to reply.” Manera looked confused.
“What on Earth is he raving about?” I exclaimed, somewhat inaccurately. “Alfred, inform him that Manera is not a prisoner here and we were planning to return her to the ship this morning.”
“Yes Paul,” said Alfred. Manera and I gazed at each other in consternation. She spoke to me in her language but it seems that Alfred had ceased his translating duties for the moment. I shook my head at her and tapped my comms device and she nodded in understanding. After an interminable couple of minutes, Alfred responded.
“It appears he is blocking communications. He is not replying to my message and simply repeating his demands.”
“Damn, what is this lunatic up to?” I muttered. Manera now looked frightened and angry. “Alfred, what do you think?”
“I cannot think of a reason why he should think that we are holding Manera hostage,” replied Alfred.
“Is it some sort of communication problem? If they are not receiving our communications..,” I tailed off in confusion.
“I am attempting to communicate using a number of radio and microwave bands. They cannot fail to receive them all,” he replied.
“Manera, have you talked with Smetronis this morning?” I asked, and realised before she answered that Alfred would have informed me if she had.
“No,” she replied. “Alfred, please connect me so that I can talk.”
“Proceed,” replied Alfred immediately.
Manera proceeded to harangue Smetronis, demanding that he stop broadcasting this ‘nonsense’ as she called it and talk to her. Alfred translated her demands and there was no doubt of her anger at this turn of events. We waited for some sort of response but none was forthcoming. Alfred informed us that the same message was being broadcast, and the time was counting down.
“Well,” I mused after some minutes of this and some frantic thinking. “This is some sort of ploy Alfred.”
“He appears to be fabricating a situation,” agreed Alfred.
“To what purpose?” I asked, then answered my own question. “To give him an excuse to attack us?”
“It would seem so,” agreed Alfred.
“Why?” gasped Manera “In what way are we a problem for him?”
“I am guessing that our survival from the shuttle attack is causing him a problem,” I said. “And he is fabricating a situation to finish us off. He knows that you do not agree with his conviction that human’s are to blame for the attacks, and he knows that you disapprove of his handling of the situation. With you and me out of the way, he can concoct any story he likes and no one will disagree. Is there anyone else on the ship that may go against him or his story?” I asked Manera. She considered for a few moments and answered.
“No, most of the remaining crew are junior crewmen who are not aware of what is happening. The two senior technicians who control communications and flight operations are from Smetronis’s planet Vasmeranta,” she said, and then added thoughtfully “As is the Security Chief and two of the security personnel.”
“What about the ship’s AI?” I asked. “Surely it is monitoring operations on a continuous basis and recording all communications?”
“I am unable to contact the ship’s AI,” said Alfred.
“Can they disconnect the AI Manera?” I asked.
“Yes, there is a facility to disconnect the AI if it develops a fault,” she replied. “Secondary Computers can control the Hyperspace Engine to get the ship home,” she added.
“That must be it,” I exclaimed in disgust. Manera looked shocked, as if unable to comprehend Smetronis’s duplicity.
“What now Alfred?” I asked.
“I presume you agree that surrender is not an option?” he responded.
“Certainly not!” I said emphatically “I don’t think he will accept a surrender. He’ll stage an attack and kill us all, including Manera.”.
Marena looked confused and distressed. “How can he do such a thing,” she gasped “It must be a misunderstanding. Alfred, are you sure you cannot get through?”
“I am not receiving a response on any one of one hundred and seventy three channels” responded Alfred. “Is it possible that they could all be down?” he asked. Manera shook her head in confusion.
“I think,” I began, looking at Manera, “It would be prudent to get the hell out of here. If it is a misunderstanding, Alfred can clear it up.”
“In the meantime, you should get into the shuttle and into orbit. I do not think they will attack the shuttle and risk being destroyed themselves,” suggested Alfred. I thought for a moment.
“There is one problem with that Alfred. The shuttle has a finite fuel capacity. They can harass us until we run out of fuel.”
“Yes they could,” agreed Alfred.
“I will stay here and confront him,” said Manera, her chin held high and a determined look on her pale features. “Surely they cannot murder me in front of the junior crew members?” she asked.
“They may leave the junior crew members behind,” I pointed out. “Is the Security Chief a qualified Pilot?” I asked.
“No,” she replied. “But anyone can fly the shuttle on simple manoeuvres. Just tell the Computers what to do.”
“We can’t take the chance Manera,” I said. “You and I must get away from here into hiding until we know more clearly what Smetronis is up to. The shuttle is the problem, it either fights or runs, and it can only run for so long.” “Which means we have to fight,” confirmed Alfred.
“Which is exactly what we do not want to do.” I swore vehemently. “Smetronis has created a nice little trap for us.” I thought for a few moments before coming to a conclusion.
“We must leave here and hide, as you said. Alfred must fly the shuttle and try to avoid capture. If this is not possible and he is threatened with destruction, he must disable the remaining Hianja ship and wait until the Hianja investigation Ships arrive.” I said. “What do you think Alfred?”
“I am programmed with advanced Military Tactics Paul,” he said, as if he was serving afternoon Tea on the Lawn. “The Epsilon is armed only with the surveyor missiles but is faster and more manoeuvrable than the Hianja shuttle in atmosphere. I believe I can destroy the ship easily, but disabling it without loss of life will be more difficult.”
“Do your best,” I said “But make sure you are not the first to fire.”
“Thank you for making it easier for me,” he said and despite the tension I could not help grinning. Sarcasm from Alfred!
“Good Luck Alfred, we are relying on you,” I said “Now, let’s get out of here. Manera, put on some practical clothing and walking shoes, we have some trekking to do, Sundance!” I called “You are coming with us, load up with some supplies, water and food for me and Manera, the missile launcher, guns and ammunition, power cells as many as you can carry.” The Robot scuttled in and fixed me with his large dark orbs as I spoke.
“Shall I take the heavy duty carrier Paul?” he intoned in his deep voice.
“Yes Sundance, we need as much equipment as you can carry, but we have to move quickly.”
The next fifteen minutes were a frantic bustle of activity a
s Manera and I dressed hurriedly, grabbing up spare clothes and shoes and anything we considered useful and ramming them into a couple of Hianja rucksacks which Manera had discovered from somewhere.
“Alfred, we are heading for the camp in the hills that we established. I do not think they will find us there,” I said, when we were ready to move out.
“They may think that you and Manera are on the shuttle Paul,” said Alfred.
“Yes that’s true. “ I said “In that case we will have a quiet little camping holiday. Maybe get in some fishing and work on my suntan,” I grinned. Manera was looking at me with a perplexed expression on her face “We’ll send you a postcard,” I added, and then a thought crossed my mind.
“Alfred, how are we to communicate without giving our position away.”
“We will not be able to communicate until the situation is resolved,” said Alfred. I thought about this for a while and did not like it. Manera suddenly broke in with an exclamation.
“Alfred, without you, Paul and I will not be able to talk to each other,” she said.
“Damn, I forgot that.”
“One second while I consider,” said Alfred. We waited with baited breath.
“I can download the language compiler to a secondary processor connected to Sundance. He will be able to translate for you, somewhat slowly but adequately I am sure. I will instruct Sundance to come to the ship to carry out the upgrade to his processing facilities.”
“Excellent work Alfred,” I agreed, and Manera looked relieved.
“OK, we will head off and Sundance can follow up. I know the route for the first few miles. You had better get off the ground as soon as you can Alfred,” I said worriedly.
“There is no activity from the Hianja ship at present and we still have thirty minutes until the end of the ultimatum. That should be enough,” he said.
Manera and I headed off through the rectangle of buildings and down the incline towards the shuttle, Sundance dashing ahead. I waved goodbye to the shuttle as we passed it, heading down the beach while Sundance entered the airlock. I wondered whether we would see the shuttle again, or hear from Alfred. I know he is just a Computer I thought, but I am going to miss him.
“Alfred, I guess this is Au Revoir for now,” I said “Once we get away from the Base we should cease communications?” I asked.
“Yes Paul, in fact I have been decrypting our communications for the last twenty minutes just in case they are able to pick up transmissions. From now on, switch off your communicators. Au Revoir Paul, Manera and Good Luck,” he added. “If I am able to disable their shuttle then I will be able to resume communications.”
“Communications off line now,” intoned Alfred and I switched off my communicator. I showed Manera how to switch hers off and we trudged down the beach away from the gleaming metallic shuttle with many backward glances. It was very odd and disconcerting to be disconnected from Alfred. I took his presence for granted, like a second personality he was always with me, discussing and answering my questions, keeping me in touch with everything that was going on around me. He was my encyclopaedia, my mine of information, my confidant and companion and suddenly the world had shrunk alarmingly.
As if sensing my melancholy, Manera walked closer to me, looking questioningly into my eyes. I nodded and tried to smile comfortingly. Hoisting my backpack higher up my back I strode out with false confidence. She gave a tense little smile and straightened her back, lengthening her stride to keep up
We struggled on, along the beach front for a mile or so and then headed in to the low foothills at the point I remembered. Half an hour into our trek and we heard the loud roar of jet engines. We stopped and craned our necks, catching a glimpse of the metallic triangle of the shuttle, accelerating heavily straight up, intense hot flames gushing from its engines. Alfred was giving it the gun I thought.
Sundance caught up with us after an hour, despite being heavily loaded down with supplies and equipment, and started leading the way. The terrain was broken and hilly, but easily negotiable although our route was torturous. Sundance led the way with Manera in the middle and me behind. Sundance had informed us that just before he had left the shuttle, Alfred had detected the alien flyer exiting the mother ship and heading down to the planet. Sundance had hastily left and Alfred had taken off at maximum acceleration. The conflict was on and there was no way we could know the result until we were contacted by Alfred. Sundance was equipped with an automatic carrier wave detector in the designated wave band which Alfred would switch on to alert us. We trekked on and the going started to get heavier, with some climbing over small hills and rocky inclines.
Behind Manera and climbing over a rocky wooded hill, and despite the dangerous predicament we were in, I could not help noticing that she had an exceptionally curvaceous rear end, which strained quite nicely against the silky material of her Hianja trousers. I was busy marvelling at how Nature could have created two species with such similar physiques, when there was a loud thud and I felt a painful blow to my head . The world suddenly turned on its side and then disappeared and then I was looking at the sky and something warm was running down my head and into my eyes. I groaned with a mixture of pain and embarrassment. Manera’s concerned face appeared silhouetted against the sky, followed by the insectoid features of our trusty robot.
“You have hit your forehead against a rocky outcrop Paul, Stay still and I will clean and bandage the wound,” I was not in any condition to move at that point and lay still while Sundance attended to my self inflicted wound. “Stupid Bastard Paul. Trust you to be distracted by a female bottom,” I berated myself. Manera looked concerned and squeezed my hand in support, murmuring words of sympathy in her own language, which only made me feel worse, given the cause of my distraction!
It took some minutes for me to recover, and Manera wanted me to rest longer but I insisted we move on. After he had carefully checked me for concussion, Sundance agreed and we continued our journey. Manera insisted that I stayed in the middle this time, which was doubly embarrassing, but I did not protest too much, thinking it would aid my concentration. Looking at Sundance’s metallic body was not half as distracting!
The journey proceeded without further incident and Manera proved to be very fit and strong . She did not flag or slow as Sundance maintained a very fast pace. In fact, I was probably in worse shape than her when we arrived at our camp site late in the evening.
The sun was low in the sky and it would be dark soon so we had made it just in time. The Tent looked undisturbed on its rocky ledge, protected as it was from the weather by the overhanging rock face. We helped Sundance to unload and stowed away food and supplies, including the hand gun and the rifle with some ammunition. When I offered the hand gun to Manera she shrank back in horror making little pushing away gestures with her hands and protesting in her own language. I withdrew the gun with a nod of understanding, but I made sure that it was loaded with the safety catch on and handily placed. After all, we still did not know much about the wild life of this planet and I could not believe it was completely devoid of large hungry carnivores.
After our bags and chattels were ship shape and tidy we settled down for a boring meal of ship’s rations, Manera from her own supplies and me from mine. It was difficult for us to get used to not being able to talk after the ease with which we had communicated so far. The problem was that although Sundance could translate, we could not use the communicators for fear of the microwave transmissions being detected. It transpired though that there was an alternative. This was the low frequency RF “walky-talkies” which were a backup in case the microwave links were out of action, or, as was the case with us, the relay station, namely our shuttle, was out of line of sight. These were compact clip on boxes with an earphone connection. Sundance was confident that being short range they would not be detected and so Manera and I equipped ourselves with one each. Sundance was now able to act as intermediary and translate for us. Initial attempts were amusing as Sundance had to
be instructed to modulate ‘his’ voice according to who he was translating. His attempts to emulate Manera’s voice resulted in a peculiar accent, a cross between Japanese and French! Quite exotic and appropriate I thought.
Sundance took station outside the tent and Manera and I settled down with our food, such as it was. We were ravenous though and ate heartily despite the poor quality of the food. After eating we prepared for bed, which presented a problem, namely, should we change or remain in our day clothes? It had been a long hard trek and I was hot, dusty and sweaty and a good wash and change of clothes would have been more comfortable. I suggested to Manera that we take ourselves down to the stream, which was a hundred yards from our camp, where we could wash and change, under Sundance’s protection. Despite being now pitch black outside, Manera also agreed and we put it to Sundance. He agreed but suggested that we should use as little light as possible to avoid detection.
We followed Sundance carefully down to the stream, and I went a few yards down stream and Manera a few yards up stream to carry out our ablutions. Despite the darkness, there was a moon and I could clearly see Manera’s pale shape as she splashed in the water and I tried very hard to divert my thoughts to neutral subjects to quieten the disquieting thoughts which kept intruding. The mountain stream was freezing and I did not spend too long there. Manera had come out earlier, and we both returned to the Tent and crawled into our sleeping bags, exhausted and ready for sleep. But as we crawled into our sleeping bags, my thoughts would not quieten and I did not turn off the light for the moment.
“Manera,” I asked quietly “Are you OK?” It was a pretty inane question, but I just wanted to hear her voice. She spoke in her own language and the translation came back from Sundance, who was of course always on line.
“Yes Paul,” she said. “Just a little tired.”
“Sorry,” I said hastily. “Shall I leave you to sleep?”
“That’s alright,” she replied “I would like to talk.”
“Tell me about yourself. Your family and friends, your way of life.”
