Landaus rightly thought it should be he who piloted the alien craft. It was he after all who had the command experience. His ability to perform under pressure was above question. On this point he would get no argument from his tiny crew. He could not however deny to himself what he hid from others. The fact was he had been in charge for so long that he had forgotten how to admit his shortcomings. These shortcomings were mostly theoretical for he had not until recently been so tested. Though he had kept his cool in the heat of it, he was bothered by the prospect that if so challenged a second time he might not rise to the occasion. Though these thoughts challenged his confidence, their point was a mute one, for the opportunity to find out was upon them. For here was a new and unfamiliar challenge. His compatriots had the luxury of not sharing his doubts. They would imagine the coming voyage as a forgone conclusion. He envied their blissful ignorance as he ran through an improvised checklist. Though he could not be entirely sure, he sensed the time had come to stop pondering and start acting. He gave the order, "Alright lets button up this bird and get in the air before we've been spotted." He turned toward his young son who had dutifully followed and looked upon him. Possessed there within his child's frame resided now the specter of Amida. Landaus did not flinch for it was from him he would now call upon for his assistance. "Amida are you there? We are here upon the ship. We are ready to, as you say, "make the leap." I call on you now, for I am far from familiar with these controls."
Ibsen came and stood beside his father. He put his small hand gently on his father’s shoulder. In that instant his eyes closed involuntarily. Then they began as if in a waking dream to roll and flutter about beneath his eye lids. Just as before,a voice that was not his own emanated from his mouth. "Landaus your feelings of doubt do you a disservice; for you have shown great courage over these last days. What I can show you now pales to what you already possess."
From the tips of Ibsen's fingers a pale blue pulse of bio-electric energy, coursed first over the surface of his body, and then onto his father's. Landaus was still as the storm hovered there just above his the surface of his skin. It floated there, painlessly accessing the internal tendrils of his nervous system. There the others witnessed in astonishment what could only be described as a kind of psychic transference. Deep within the folds of Landaus' brain the bioelectric energy tapped into the seat of his consciousness. There then the data regarding everything from the basic concepts of flight to the inner workings of the guidance system were passed into the vault of his subconscious mind. Just like that he now held there a knowledge that he had not before possessed.
Once the transference was complete the boy's hand lifted from his father’s shoulder. Landaus opened his eyes to find that on the control panel before him he suddenly knew intimately every switch and gauge. With a new confidence he intuitively grasped the control wheel. Scanning the boards, to his right and to his left he accessed the ships controls. He was hitting switches and buttons on both sides at once as if he were a journeyman pilot. Orders now rolled coherently from his mouth. "Grunhuf, secure the bulkhead doors we need to prepare for pressurization." Grunhuf looked on bewildered and said, "I'm sure I don't know what a bulkhead door is. Maybe you could come and show me."
"There's no need for that. Just pull the outside door closed until it clicks. Then close the inner door down tight behind it. The flashing red light will then turn green. That's how you know it's secure. Can you do that for me?" In truth Landaus did not quite understand how he had known, but know he did.
Needing to feel useful Grunhuf responded without hesitation. "I think so." He inspected the door situation and all were present and accounted for just as Landaus had stated. He gave the door a healthy shove. With a loud clunk the internal door locked and sealed itself. The light went from blinking red togreen. "The door is secured Landaus."
"Good, I'll commence pressurization now." He hit a series of buttons and the hull began to resonate with the humof vacuum pumps. Soon their ears began to pop as the ships internal atmospheric pressure equalized. Landaus next had to raise his voice over the sound to be heard. "Ibsen, why don't you and young Leif go down below and check the fuel containment gauges? Make sure the pressure reading indicator is safely within the black. After that you can check the rest of the controls in engineering. Once we get that squared away we'll be ready for takeoff so hurry back." They nodded rather than shout a response. Down a small laddered they clambered into the below deck where many of the auxiliary controls resided. They easily found where the set of gauges and their accompanying valves resided. Here was where adjustments to fuel mixtures for specific atmospheric conditions could be made. However they had found that all was as anticipated. If need be these adjustments could be made from the controls before him. A wise captain however would not trust electronic sensors alone if he didn't have to. Satisfied that the sensors he monitored read true and were adjusted to the proper fuel mixture for Earth atmosphere, he called the boys back up into the cabin. "That's good work boys now get back up here and ready yourselves for takeoff."
Soon the deafening sound waned as the pump's auto shutoff was engaged. He called out to Xora. "Xora I'm going to need you to tend to our prisoner. Make sure he's secured before you belt yourself in." She looked across the aisle at the unconscious corporal and shouted back to the Colonel, "I'll do my best Captain." She gestured to Grunhuf and the pair wrestled the flaccid corporal into the vacant flight chair closest to them. Using the safety harness and a length of rope he was tightly bound. After they had finish properly securing him a half panting Xora called out, "The prisoner is secure."
"That's good work, now find yourself a flight suit and get buckled up." He looked down at all the indicators on the display screen. All systems were working as anticipated. He called out through overhead audio. "I'm going to need for you all to find yourselves a flight suit and belt yourselves securely in. I'm planning on blasting out of here in five minutes time."
Just then Grunhuf scrambled back into the cockpit and proclaimed excitedly, "We've got company! The sound of those pumps must have gotten us some unwanted attention." Landaus stood from his command chair and looked out through the crystalline window. There below a small contingent of guards and onlookers assembled.
"They're confused now, but soon they will have caught on. We have got to break camp as soon as possible. Get to your flight chairs we're going in thirty seconds." The makeshift crew dropped what they were doing and scrambled to find their places and secure their safety harnesses. He called out to them one by one. Each in turn responded that they were secure. "There's no time for flight suits we have to launch; on my mark, initiating primary thrusters in ten seconds." With the base rumble from below intensifying, he began the hard count, "Ten-nine-eight." The pre-launch alarm flashed and sounded. With so little time remaining before engine start, they could not now abort it. For those who stood on the ground outside the flashing display of the alarm was enough for them to take serious heed to its warning. Soon they were all taking cover. Back in the cockpit, as the count neared zero Landaus unlocked the firing mechanism. He waited holding his raised hand above the main engine start button. When the count reached zero he slapped his open hand down onto the button. In that instant a thunderousroar of even greater magnitude than the one before shook them to their very cores. To those who witness the blast off for an instant the nighttime turned to day when the rockets ignited ina brilliant flash.
At first the ship rose slowly as it struggled to gain momentum against the relentless forces that called it back down to earth. Driven by the powerful thrusters, the effects of gravity weighed heavily upon them. Pressed tightly into their flight chairs the crew and passengers could barely lift a finger. Landaus however by necessity struggled to maintain attitude controlas his hands moved sluggishly in the wake of the increasing drag. Higher and higher into the sky the ship climbed as the ship's increasing momentum outpaced the forces that held it to earth. Landaus looked askance through the port side view screen and he co
uld see that at this point the ship was at about several thousand meters of elevation and climbing. Though they were far from out of the woods yet at least the burdensome shaking had finally begun to level out. On cue the onboard sensors automatically initiated the retraction of the landing fins back into the fuselage. Slowly the maneuvering rockets began then to fire in short bursts correcting the ships attitude for atmospheric escape. The lights upon the control board began to flash signaling the OK for the firing of the primary nuclear engine. With one last bit of hesitation his hand again hovered over the control switch. Whatever trepidations he may have had were swept away as he initiated the fusion rocket. With a force many times more powerful than the crew had previously felt, the ship with a mighty roar cracked the plain of the sky. Suddenly the Earth below them was slipping away as the ship rode upon an incandescent shock wave.
Ananda, who until that moment had been obsessed with first his plan and then the job immediately at hand was suddenly startled from his concentration. Having been frustrated by the distraction, he left his work station behind to investigate the cause of the thunderous sounds. It took him a mere moment to recognize the sound and thunder for what it was, mighty rockets punching a whole up through the sky. Upon this recognition he dropped his tools to the floor and rushed out from the great hall towards the outer gate where others had already gathered. He soon found himself outside standing amidst a large group of people whose eyes were now fixed skyward. Matching the angle oftheir gaze he looked upward. To his utter amazement, he was forced to watch helplessly as the alien craft rose upward in a cloud of hot gas and dust just beyond the edge of the city gate. With the glow of atomic fire illuminating his face, he could see the alien ship cutting a gaping hole high up into the starless night. He stood there for a moment staring in shocked disbelief and without words. A fury born of ages past welled up from deep within his soul. His body shook as tension rose to a crescendo in his throat. His mouth formed into a hideous grimace through which he fought back his own thundering cry. He held this grimace tightly in the vice of his jaw until the shaking had stopped. He began to gather himself together. Within a moment all outward emotion had been sequestered. Behind the façade his secret thoughts raced through his mind as he tried to figure out just what he had done wrong. It was for him unprecedented that he had not foreseen the move of this unknown opponent.
The ship that had been slated to deliver his new weapon had been hijacked. All that then remained to show for his trouble now was a dull ringing in his ears. He had been bested though for the moment he could not fathom by whom, how or why. He wrestled with the question. Over and over he played out the full gamut of possible scenarios in his mind. Each time he was likewise drawn to the same set of conclusions. He slowly began to realize that either he had committed a grave tactical error by underestimating these humans, or that there was another like himself meddling in their affairs. Had these humans truly evolved? Was his work here on Earth nearing its end? The facts for him didn't seem to add up. He realized that there must be some part of this puzzle that is still suffering under the influence of an induced amnesia. He would be forced now have to alter his tactics. There however would be little time to think, for time was a luxury he did not possess. He foresaw that the time until a full scale invasion drew shorter by the minute. Ananda determined as he was, would leave his work in the great chamber there unfinished. He surmised that the key to these discoveries would require him firstly to find out who among them had thwarted his plans and only then would he find another way to defeat his enemies. One bit was patently obvious. It would then have to be upon the Earth where the decisive battle would take place. How now in the short time remaining he wondered could such a plan be manifest? The answer he surmised may be closer at hand than he had imagined. Making a realization he spoke out loud, "The crystal room, the answers must lie buried there in its memory." He knew that time was quickly running in short supply. He knew however that the crystal room no doubt would hold such answers.
The others looked on still staring up as the light of the fiery speck of the departing ship grew dimmer in the distance. Before them he could not yet express his true self so that anger he swallowed it whole in one painful gulp. With a deep breath his eyes opened and once again he displayed a veil of tranquility. It was then that he left them there where they stood. As the distance between himself and his human allies increased, the subtle power which he had held over them had begun to dissipate. Without the words and gestures the spell cast by a mere whisper of suggestion was broken. As if waking from a stupor one by one they came again to control their own minds. As if lost in time most could not fashion from their senses a recognizable chain of action to account for the last day. Most were left confused possessing only disjointed imagery for memory. Nor could they remember what had brought them to that place.
Hurtling toward the deep blackness of space the Alien craft slipped through the outer boundaries of the atmosphere at tremendous speed. As the fusion rocket tore at the bounds of force that had held it, the effect of pressure and gravity on their fragile human bodies was made evident. Landaus struggled to remain conscious as the intensifying forces forced the blood in his head downward. Before him the vision of the world collapsed into an ever shrinking point of light, and then darkness.
He awoke some time later afloat, midway between what had been the floor and the ceiling, confused at how he had ended up here. He had passed into unconsciousness and now floatedin the weightlessness of space. He twisted his body around toward the cabin window. There before him in its entirety was the great glowing orb of the Earth filling the cabin with its reflected light. A more splendid sight he had not before seen. Caught in the vision of its raw beauty, he was momentarily dumbfounded. He watched as the great circle of fire that was the sun rose now at two o'clock above the Eurasian steppes, casting its golden light upon the land. An arch of light usurping the shadows as it moved across the face of the Earth as it spun almost imperceptivity on its axis. For a moment he watched mesmerized in its beauty as great swaths of golden light glinted now off the face of the water below.
Suddenly he remembered he was not alone. His son was here and his safety would allow no time to dwell on such wonders. Kicking with his legs from the ceiling, he pushed himself back down toward the command chair. He secured his belt and took a quick view at the monitors. From the diagrams presented on the view screen he could tell that the ships orbit was a stable one. He watched as the point of light that represented the ship swept around on a great ellipse along the polar axis. Although this was a good thing he was troubled by how they had made it this far. He realized that while he was in an unconscious state the ship had somehow auto negotiated a stable orbit. He looked around and the others were still safely secured in their harnesses. How was it so he wondered that he alone was floating about freely within the cabin? A vague memory then rose to the surface. He remembered now. Just as the curtain of darkness wasabout to be drawn before his eyes he made a realization. Without the benefit of the flight suits they could not hope to arrive in a conscious state to orbit. He had in haste made a grave error. To account for this he was forced to act quickly. He undid his harness so he could access the auto pilot command panel that resided just beyond his reach. Somehow in the closing moments of consciousness he had managed to program a stable orbit intothe navicomputer.
One by one the others awoke from their pressure induced daze. Xora unbuckled herself from her harness and floated effortlessly upwards. She was amazed when shestepped off from ceiling and found she had sent herself hurtling toward Landaus. An instant later he had caught her, but her momentum sent them both crashing toward the floor. Landaus took the brunt of it hitting his head on the metallic floor. He let out a plaintive "Ouch" but for a tiny lump he was fine. She on the other hand found herself no worse for wear though a little embarrassed safely within Landaus's arms. It was somewhat awkward for both of them, so Landaus tried his best to make light of it. "Well lady Xora how do you find weightlessnes
s? It seems you've already mastered it."
She not appreciating his meager attempt at sarcasm shot back. "Unhand me this instant." "Your wish is my command good lady." He released her and she began again floating upward. This was so far out of her experience she was startled by what was happening. With a look of startled confusion on her face he shouted out, "What is going on? Why am I floating?"
Surprised he knew the answer he responded. "I too have never experienced anything like this but somehow I know what it is. Perhaps this knowledge was imparted to me along with the flight tutorial I received from Amida. It would seem that effects of the Earth's gravity are cancelled out by our orbital momentum around the planet. Gravity is still affecting us, for we are right now in controlled state of free fall."
By now all save the prisoner were free from theirharnesses and were floating about the cabin. All it would seem had survived their ordeal unscathed. Landaus calledout to Grunhuf, "Grunhuf awaken our prisoner. I should talk to him he has a stake in this too. Grunhuf made his way over to the corporal and shook him heavily. His eyes opened wide with surprise. "Wake up soldier the colonel wants to speak with you." Landaus too made his way over to the constrained soldier and spoke to him. "Corporal you've had the misfortune of being in the wrong place at the wrong time. You need to understand there has been a coup of sorts and any orders you were following up until this point were illegal. As your rightful commander I am giving you the opportunity to make things right for yourself and volunteer after the fact for this mission. I know you didn't ask to or agree to be here but you are here nonetheless. I would much rather prefer to not waste the energy spent keeping eye on you. So what do you say? If we untied these ropes are you going to cause us trouble or toe the line?"
A Paradox in Retrograde Page 21
