She took the picture anyway and stepped in front of the gateway. ‘I’m not happy that this is proof,’ she commented to Myajes, who hadn’t moved far from where she had last seen him. ‘To me, this shows only that someone might be trying to make us believe the Eschiff are here. But you might want to take this with you when you return to Earth.’
Myajes came and took the holograph. He examined it for a moment and nodded. ‘I wouldn’t be convinced either, especially with what appears to be the rear end of a horse in the background.’
‘I didn’t see that,’ February commented. Somehow that statement vindicated her belief that it was a fake. She took the holograph back and looked for what Myajes had meant. Well, it wasn’t much of a horse, little more than the tail and just a touch of rump, really, although clear enough to be identifiable as a horse. It could be overlooked, as February had done, and so, apparently, had the creator of the thing. The artist had obviously chosen a place with many exotic plants, hoping they would be enough of a distraction to convince someone of its authenticity—a botanical garden, perhaps. February was convinced that it had been taken somewhere on Earth.
February handed the picture back. ‘I’ll see what else we can find. We’ll probably find out we’re in an underground bunker somewhere just outside of London,’ she said, although personally she still felt that the moon was still the most likely location. There had to be some reason it had been closed to the public.
Myajes took the picture and returned to what he had been doing.
The next item, moving from the hammock to the other side of the room, was the wooden chair sitting right in front of the gateway. It was small and was indeed made of wood. It had been positioned right in front of the gateway so that the person using the chair could see through to wherever the gateway happened to be programmed for, in much the same way that someone might sit and watch the newspaper. February pondered the reason why a chair would be sitting here in front of the gateway where it would most likely get in the way when someone stepped in or out through it. Then it occurred to her: the gateway wasn’t just a mode of transport from one place to another; it was also used as a means of communication. No wonder the hammock was out of sight of the gateway and possible incoming calls. February assumed there had to be a lock of some sort that could be applied to this end of the gateway in case the owner wanted peace.
At first what February saw on a table in the opposite alcove, she had thought was a simple country scene. An image floating about an inch above the top of a table seemed to be of a camera moving slowly through a forest.
Kitty was already looking at it, and she showed that the image had no substance at all by moving her hands across the space it occupied and not disturbing it.
There was nothing about the table to suggest there was any sort of computer or even machine on it, but something about the image seemed to scream ‘Screensaver’ at her. Computers were always of interest to February, yet there seemed to be no way to operate it, and frankly, nothing more than a superficial feeling that it might be computer-related. She spent a few minutes watching the picture as it completed a loop and then moved away from it. They only had a limited amount of time here.
‘We should probably move on from this room as soon as possible,’ she commented. ‘I want to see one of these creatures for myself as well as find that window to see where we really are.’
Next February headed over towards the wooden door and opened it slowly as if unsure of what might lay beyond, but when she caught a glimpse of what was there she opened it the rest of the way without hesitation. It was a toilet and bathroom, made in exactly the same style as those on Earth, and if anything it looked a little on the antiquated side, using water to flush away the waste matter rather than the more common waste disposal systems. More proof, February told herself, that this was the herd trying to take advantage of a Herbaht superstition.
The other door led out into a narrow corridor along which the two of them could barely walk side by side. There were metal plates underfoot, and every so often one of these would give a little under their weight and pop back with an audible ‘bop’ as they stepped off again. The walls on either side were also made of a dull grey metal, with small air vents situated every ten feet or so and doors on either side of them every seven feet. Each door had a different symbol on it, some of which February recognized from the panel next to the gateway. They almost had to be numbers of some description.
‘Sleeping quarters,’ February whispered, wishing her feet would make less noise than they were.
Kitty didn’t reply. The smell of fear was strong from her, and February wondered if they shouldn’t head back to the room so Kitty could wait for her on Mars. With every ‘bop’ that the floor plates made after the release of pressure from either of them, Kitty winced visibly.
At the end of the corridor there was a choice to go either to the left or the right along yet more corridors. The corridor to the left only went a short way and then seemed to disappear down a set of steps, while the other way curved gently to the right and out of sight.
At this point Kitty was actually shivering with fear, and that made February’s mind up. ‘Okay, we’re going to go back to the room we entered and return you to Mars. You can wait there with Myajes for my return and ensure he doesn’t get carried away and dismantle the gate before I get back.’
‘But…’ Kitty started to protest.
‘No arguments, I can smell the fear coming off of you,’ February explained. ‘You can wait for me with Myajes.’
‘If you’re sure.’ Kitty seemed a little disappointed, but also perhaps a little happy at February’s insistence.
They returned to the door they had emerged from and February tried to open it. It didn’t budge.
‘It’s locked.’ February started to worry now. There was no visible lock, no hand print reader. There had been nothing visible on the other side, and there was nothing visible on this side, nothing but a small round metal handle attached to a metal door with a funny symbol on it, but it wouldn’t move an inch.
‘Don’t play games,’ Kitty commented imploringly.
‘I’m serious,’ February told her, ‘try it for yourself!’ She moved away from the door to allow Kitty to it.
After a few seconds of just trying to turn the handle, Kitty started trying to use her weight to force open the door, but it was all to no avail.
Kitty stepped back and looked worriedly at February, commenting, ‘How do we get home?’
A second later February caught the hint of a strange and yet familiar scent on the air. She turned to face the approaching figure, aware that they had both been so busy trying to get into the room that she hadn’t noticed the scent until now. February had a problem believing what her own eyes were telling her. There was no denying it, though. The approaching figure was definitely like those in the hologram. This was no doctored hologram, though, and chances were neither was the picture she had found beneath the hammock after all. So what had been the creature that had looked like the rear of a horse?
Thoughts ran through her head quickly. They had been caught, but there was only one of these creatures; she and Kitty should easily be able to handle one between them. Then she remembered the fight with the woman who had claimed to have been Eschiff, how one-sided it had been and how Kitty had been virtually no help at all.
The figure spoke, her ears seeming to rotate a little as if picking up sounds from her surroundings. She was obviously speaking in her own language, but her voice was being translated through a small box that she wore at her waist. From this box a second voice emerged, mingling with the owner’s own voice, but also slightly louder so that it was clearer than the woman’s own voice. ‘What are you two doing here? Are you lost?’
‘Hmm, yes, we’re lost,’ February replied quickly. With their makeup on, she and Kitty must look enough like herd to fool most humans; with any luck that would go for Eschiff too. ‘We have no idea where we are.’ February couldn’t help not
icing that although the creature did have a tail, it was a tiny little thing, little more than a stump.
Kitty remained silent. The scent from her had actually changed to one of hope, though. If the Eschiff had as good a sense of smell as the Herbaht, she would probably notice this too.
The Eschiff shook her head in a manner not uncommon on Earth, and then as she spoke, the translator relayed, ‘You’re the third human that’s been found on the ship today. I knew it was a mistake to show your leaders around the vessel, too many people accidentally getting lost and turning up in all sorts of potentially sensitive areas. There’s nothing in this area for you to report back on, though, just personnel rooms similar to those you have on Lune’s colony, I’m sure.’
‘The Lunar colony,’ February commented, confirming where she was. ‘Yes, I expect so.’
‘Follow me,’ the Eschiff said through the translator. The translator didn’t convey emotion, but the words sounded as if defiance would not be tolerated. ‘I’ll show you how to get off the ship. Once you are off the ship you will not accidentally find your way back onboard. You understand? Our leaders are getting a little irritated with the liberties you humans are trying to pull. You will get the technologies we give you when we are ready and not before. You will get nothing trying to steal them.’
‘We promise we won’t,’ February assured the creature. So that was it, she thought to herself as they fell in step behind the creature. It seemed that the herd were working with the Eschiff in exchange for technology. Suddenly a lot of things that had happened lately—the persecution of the domesticated and the attack of Sou’nd and so on—all began to make sense.
They followed the Eschiff along the corridors, effectively using her as a shield when they passed others of her race, and on those occasions there always seemed to be a short greeting which their escort didn’t bother to translate for them. They weren’t that far from the airlock to the moon’s surface, but they did seem to take a slightly roundabout route as if their guide might be trying to avoid some of the more sensitive areas of the ship.
February couldn’t help thinking to herself that at least they would get off the alien ship this way. However, since the moon had been closed to all shuttles either coming or going, she had absolutely no idea how she and Kitty were going to get home from here.
39
Moon Tour
The colony on the moon was vastly different from the one built on Mars. For one thing, instead of a number of nations getting together to foot the bill, the whole thing had been financed by the U.S. Originally it had been built as a combined science station and observatory with enough room to house no more than seven people at any one time. When the decision was made to open it to the public, huge extensions were added to the existing structure in order to make it a viable option. The five compartments of the colony that had made up the original structure were turned into a kind of museum, and everything else was added on haphazardly about them. Large holes were cut into the original superstructure so the new areas could be added. The new sections were designed so that even more sections could be added at a future date without the same hassle.
Unlike Mars, the moon’s colony hadn’t been divided into different nations. Everything was built to an American standard with American taxpayers footing the bill. The colony had been opened to the world, and people from all over the world could come and work here or start their own businesses without having to go through any of the normal red tape they might have had to deal with in America itself, but those who came here had to adjust themselves to U.S. East Coast time. Also the only newspaper network feeds that seemed to be available were of American origin.
For Charles, it had been irritating to turn on the newspaper in his room that morning and have news broadcast at him which was of no interest to him whatsoever. He had wanted to know how the situation with the cats in England was progressing, but there wasn’t a single word, not even as a post script. At least the newspaper system itself worked much the same as those in England.
Charles had found himself with the day off today. An early morning call had been made to his quarters to let him know that the Prime Minister wouldn’t be requiring his services. As he had been told yesterday, the aliens had offered to show the three world leaders and a small entourage of four for each leader around their vessel. None of the fifteen humans were going to be allowed to be armed for this tour. The Prime Minister, idiot that he was, had apparently agreed to this condition, as had the other two world leaders. Each leader was so keen on making sure that the other two leaders didn’t get any advantage over them that they seemed to be willing to put themselves in potential danger.
Charles didn’t trust the aliens. Any race that felt it needed to show its strength by destroying an entire planetoid wasn’t a people that Charles would consider doing business with. At least they hadn’t asked for anything unreasonable yet. The extermination of the Herbaht was something that humanity should probably have seen to a long time ago, keeping only a few as breeding stock for pets. Perhaps the timeline the aliens had insisted on was a little unrealistic. Well, that deadline would be here tomorrow, and there was no way all the cats would be dealt with by then. France had apparently already dealt with its cats and America had managed to get all except ten or so, but there were still many thousands at large in England, and though they might only number a fraction of what they once had, there was no way they would all be dealt with by the Eschiff deadline. Either tomorrow or the day after tomorrow he would see how the aliens reacted when their demands hadn’t been met.
Charles had considered chasing after the Prime Minister and stopping him from climbing aboard the alien craft. It was possible that the aliens intended to imprison the three and their other guests as a further example of what happened when their demands weren’t met. After a few minutes thinking about it, though, Charles soon decided that it was unlikely they would do anything like that. Why would they need to? The moon colony had effectively been quarantined from the Earth. Everyone on the colony might just as well be a prisoner. If they wanted to, the Eschiff could easily bring down any craft trying to leave.
And so he had the day off, but what was there to do on a planet that had been closed to the general public? There was nothing to do in his quarters, where he hadn’t even been supplied with a holoviewa and the computer was no good for anything other than making and receiving calls. The most interesting story he could find on the newspaper was about a group of residents local to the offices of the U.S network in question who were trying to sue a road mending company for effectively closing down every street in a certain area, forcing those who lived nearby to make a ten-mile detour to travel to visit shops just one mile away. He didn’t think their suit was likely to get anywhere.
In the end Charles decided to go for a walk. He would have a look around the moon colony’s shopping center and see what might have been available had he come here when the place was open. There was also the small hope that he might bump into a certain childhood hero of his, Samuel F Goldberg.
The shopping zone of the colony was rather depressing. There were a fair number of big name companies, all with shops that were much smaller than those Charles had seen on Earth. However, the majority of the shops seemed to have been small family affairs, businesses started on the moon because the competition with the big boys wasn’t as fierce as it was on Earth. Nearly all the shops still seemed to be well stocked. The owners either hadn’t had time to empty them, or had nowhere to put the contents if they did, or hoped that their shops wouldn’t stay closed too long and that business would return as normal after only a relatively short hiatus. Charles knew that unless the owners of those small shops were somehow able to find a second income during the time they were closed, they were unlikely to be able to afford the wait. He wondered if the governments involved in this venture would pay them any kind of compensation for monies lost.
As he walked past the various shops, he couldn’t help but notice that some of the sh
ops had actually been broken into and raided of certain items. Most noticeably, the media center was half empty and all the top of the line holoviewa and music centers had been taken. What was more, the complete line of holographic games for the three dimensional computer monitors had been devastated. It was always possible that they could have been taken by people on their way off the moon in those last few days before the colony had been sealed to the general public, but considering what had been taken, Charles was pretty certain that it was the work of those on the staff of one or more of the world leaders.
He left the shopping area along a corridor that was positioned virtually opposite to the one he had originally entered to get there. Like all the corridors on the moon, it had drab grey walls and was pretty nondescript and without any real identifying marks. No doubt those that had lived here would be able to distinguish it from the others, but to Charles all the corridors looked pretty much the same. He walked along it for a short while, making fairly random turns, and headed more towards the interior of the colony.
At the end of one of these corridors he found what appeared to be a very heavy-looking door sealing off whatever lay beyond. The door came with a keypad which could be used to open it if the right combination was entered, but there was also a large easel on which sat a sheet of newsprint quality paper. On it was a handwritten message in red marker ink.
‘The rest of this corridor has been deemed unsafe. Parts of the superstructure beyond this point have begun to show signs of stress beyond safe limits. Until we can get some maintenance people in to restore it properly, the area has been closed until further notice. Thank you.’
Charles stood there for a few minutes, not so concerned with the fact that they had sealed off his route as to the fact that he needed to backtrack a fair way before he would find a different corridor to explore. Besides, he was feeling a little turned around at this point and wasn’t too sure of the way back to his quarters, or even the shopping area, come to think of it.
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