by J W Murison
Beth scowled at her, ‘Have you left your bag on the floor again?’
‘Sorry.’ Her eyes were downcast.
She sat down and reached for a cereal box. A clean plate and spoon were waiting for her. She filled it and put in milk. Buzz joined them at the table.
Jodie swallowed, ‘How come everyone else has to go to space academy on the moon and you didn’t Dad?’
He sighed, ‘You aren’t really going to give up on this, are you?’
They both smirked at him. ‘I told you, the ship doesn’t want families on board after what happened last time.’
His wife put her cup down. ‘I married a security guard, not an astronaut. I chose the guy who was going to come home every night, the guy who was going to be there for me every day, every week of my life. Who would be there for our children too. Now I have you. Who are you Buzz?’
‘I have spoken to Steven a dozen times, he says no.’
‘Then speak to him another dozen Buzz. It was all fun to start with. It was fine when you were doing your thing between here and the moon. It has been a hellava ride these past few years, but your children need their father and I want my husband back. We didn’t sign up for this.’
‘Neither did I! I didn’t know what was going to happen Beth. If it wasn’t for Steven and the guys none of us would be here anyway.’
‘And you as well Dad, you’re my hero.’
Buzz felt his stress levels come down a few notches. ‘Thank you sweetheart.’
‘What I don’t understand is why you want to live for another hundred years without Mum.’
It caught Buzz flatfooted, ‘Uh! Sorry?’
‘Well those nanites in your bloodstream will keep you alive and well for another hundred years. That’s right isn’t it? When mum’s seventy and you still look forty, are you going to dump her for a new model? I mean by then I will look older than you, or the same age.’
It was something that had crossed his mind, but not something he had given all that much thought to.
Beth put her cup down. ‘You are already looking younger Buzz. What happened to those grey hairs that were beginning to show, and the small bald patch you had? It’s gone now. You have as much hair as you had when you were twenty. I, on the other hand, am continuing to grow old. I have wrinkles, grey hair and things are beginning to droop in the wrong places.’
Buzz suddenly saw it, a lifetime without his beloved Beth. He missed her like crazy when they were apart, and now she was facing growing old at home alone. Not only that, she would continue to grow old at three times the pace that he was. One day he would come home to an old woman; what would he do then? She had seen it, and now she was letting him see it. She saw it in his eyes and smiled. He smiled back.
‘Have you any suggestions on how to persuade Steven?’
‘I might have a few.’ She smiled. ‘Jodi, get yourself off to school.’
Jodie got up and put her plate in the sink, ‘Yeah, I’m just going.’
Steven’s eyes flicked open. He listened to the voice in his head before answering in the same way. His head canted to the right. Komoru lay sprawled across most of the bed, and Steven found he had been relegated to the edge. They both lay naked under a single sheet. The light streamed in the edges of the curtains. Steven got up and opened them. He let out a groan and made for the toilet. A pee turned into a shower. By the time he was finished, he felt recharged. As he left the toilet a very tired looking Komoru barged past. He heard the toilet flush and the shower come on again. He went downstairs.
He was drinking coffee by the time a wet and still tired-looking Komoru appeared. She made a beeline for the coffee, then plonked herself down opposite Steven.
‘What’s this emergency with Buzz?’
‘I don’t know, I haven’t asked.’
‘Do I look as bad as I feel?’
‘Aye ye do.’
She squinted at him. ‘You are sounding more and more Scottish every day.’
‘Am I? Is that so bad?’
‘No, just saying.’
‘That was quite a night.’
She peeked at him with a single eye through her wet hair, which cascaded down over her face.
‘Before or after we got drunk?’
‘Both.’
A small sparkle returned to her eyes. ‘That’s the first time we have both been totally smashed out of our minds. I feel awful.’
‘Ask Ico to remove all of the alcohol from your system.’
‘He can do that?’
‘Of course he can.’
She closed her eyes. It didn’t take long.
‘Oh wow, that feels better.’ She got up suddenly. ‘I need to go pee.’ She dashed off.
Steven smiled to himself, ‘That’s why I asked Babes to do it while I was in the shower.’ He lifted the cup up to his eyes. ‘We won’t tell her that though, will we.’
It didn’t take them too long to get dressed. Komoru frowned when she entered the garage. ‘Where is the car?’
‘We left it at the bar last night remember. We got a taxi home.’
A hazy memory returned, ‘So we did!’
‘Buzz only lives a few blocks away. We will walk. He can drive us back to get the car.’
‘He won’t mind?’
‘Oh hell no.’
They left the house and Steven locked it, slipping the keys into his pocket. Steven turned at the end of the drive and smiled. He was finally home.
It had been in a terrible state when they first arrived. This was the house in the States where he had spent most of his life. His mother and father had bequeathed it to him; they were happy at home in Scotland. The two ships were at the old space centre where they had first landed. Security was being handled by Buzz’s old firm. A terminal had been set up for the scientists to communicate with the ships. The whole crew was on leave.
The house had been ransacked by government agents. Windows had been broken, ‘Traitors’ had been scrawled across the walls, along with other things not so nice. It had almost broken Steven’s heart. He had immediately hired a number of firms to put it straight and paid them a ridiculous amount of money to fix and decorate the place quickly. It had taken less than a week. It was what they had been celebrating the evening before. It was almost like a new house now. The outside still needed a lot of attention and Steven was planning to have that addressed next week. Komoru already had designs for a Japanese style garden; Steven loved them. They had put the designs out to a number of landscaping firms and were waiting for a reply.
Buzz was waiting for them with a fresh pot of coffee. Steven and Komoru were immediately aware of the tension in the household. It didn’t take long for Buzz to outline his problem. It left them both stunned.
Steven found his voice, ‘So if you can’t take Beth with you, you are going to quit!’
Buzz took a deep breath. ‘This isn’t an ultimatum Stevie, nor any kind of attempt at blackmail.’
‘May I speak Steven?’ Beth asked.
‘Of course Beth.’
‘We all know about those nanites you have running around your bloodstream. One of your old scientists leaked the information. We know what it does now. You both look younger than you did before you met the ships. Yes, I know you have totally changed Steven, but your hair was thinning too and you were showing grey. It is all gone. In a few years-time Buzz will be coming home to a very old woman. I want to live as long as he does Steven. We got married to share each other’s lives. This isn’t it. I’m not asking to become a part of the crew or even live on the ship. I just want to be nearer. I know you have a place on that city ship where Humans reside. That’s where I want to be, where I can see my husband at least once a month and not this once a year if I am lucky.’
‘Beth,’ Komoru interrupted. ‘It is something we have been discussing at length. Things have changed dramatically in the past few years. You aren’t the only wife to raise this concern. We have been able to procure residences for the political staff. At this mom
ent, we are in discussions with the Modloch for the procurement of a block of homes, a thousand to be exact, and a building large enough to be used as a school. It is taking much longer than we thought it would. Bureaucracy on the Modloch home-world and the city ship is twice as bad as anything we have. There is no way to speed it up either. They are trying to give us a slot as far away from the centre as they possible can. We are bidding for a spot near the Human diplomats. That is as much as I can tell you at the moment.’
Buzz threw his hands up in the air, ‘Why didn’t you tell me?’
‘It was meant to be a surprise,’ Steven admitted.
Buzz shook his head. ‘How long Steven?’
‘A few months I think. I am worried about schooling though. Not sure what to do there.’
‘Deal with the problem when it comes up Steven. Right now, we have enough on our plate.’
‘You’re right Buzz.’
‘When are you heading to Scotland?’
‘Couple of days. I want to show Komoru around town. I also have to collect my doctorate.’
‘About time,’ Buzz smiled.
‘From there we are going to spend some time in Japan with my parents, and then a few days touring Japan.’
‘Is the house sorted yet?’ Buzz asked.
‘Finished yesterday, we went out last night and got really drunk.’ They all laughed at the revelation.
‘I think we are going to do that tonight. At the weekend we are going up with Mike, pop over to Disneyland, stay in the most expensive hotel, order a lot of room service.’
Steven and Komoru laughed. ‘Enjoy yourselves. We got to go.’
It was a slow walk home through the park holding hands. They discussed the issue that Buzz and Beth had raised. It was one they had talked about extensively. Buzz wasn’t the only crew member affected, and of course the diplomats were also beginning to put pressure on the President to acquire more property for their families as well. As Komoru had said, it was just getting through the Modloch bureaucracy.
Chapter 9
Jeb was feeling pretty smug with himself. He had spent three weeks travelling the world, a world at peace. But he had been peeved when Charlie couldn’t join him on his tour. Five days in Hamburg with his two German friends had helped him regain his balance, as he liked to call it. He had spent a couple of days in France, went through Europe, China and Japan. When news of his arrival had reached Komoru, she had invited Jeb over to stay for a few days. He had met her parents and then they had visited her grizzled old grandfather, who was a fisherman. The old man had taken to Jeb in a way he took to very few people. He invited Jeb to stay for a few days. Jeb spent the rest of his stay in Japan with the old man. Jeb fell in love with the quite fishing village, the beautiful beaches and setting sail every day to set and haul nets. He had been sorry to leave. The villagers had got to know him quite well, and Jeb had finally found a modicum of peace and tranquillity. The old grandfather had invited him over any time.
When he arrived in Scotland, news quickly spread. The King was in residence in Balmoral, and he invited Jeb to stay for a few days. On his last night there Charlie had finished his officer training. The King had invited Charlie over and the three of them had gotten very drunk. Charlie had broken every record at the officer training school, and all in a couple of days. He wasn’t a happy man though. He had been hoping for a few days off but they were scheduled back to the ship the following day. When they arrived back, Charlie staged a single man mutiny. He knew they weren’t going anywhere for at least another week, and Steven had relented. Charlie had gone home for a well-earned break to visit his parents.
Jeb hadn’t seen Lady Jane at all during their break. When she found him in the small room Komoru had designated for Charlie and his new team she hadn’t been pleased. She threw a fit when she found out Charlie had invited him onto the team to help out. Charlie had wanted Jeb to keep an eye on things while he was away. She had stormed out to go and complain to Komoru. Jeb had sat back in the comfy chair with his large mug of joe and a smug grin on his face. It had been a good leave, a fantastic leave, but it was great to be back.
Chapter 10
Colonel Howe and Beaver found Lewis in the armoury. He was concentrating on soldering something, so they pulled up some tall stools to the bench and sat and watched. When he was finished, he put the soldering iron down.
‘What you doing Lewis?’ Beaver asked.
‘Little research into de big bang.’
The two laughed, ‘Not the theory on the origins of the universe either, I bet.’ Howe mused.
‘No suh, de really big bang, without de radiation.’
Now the two were really interested. Howe reached out, ‘May I?’
‘Sure suh, it’s safe. It’s just the firing circuit.’
Howe inspected the small circuit board. ‘Looks like a board to set off a nuke.’
‘Exactly what it is suh.’ Lewis reached across and took the circuit board off him. It slid into a small black box attached to several wires from a light board. Lewis pressed a remote and a battery of lights lit up. ‘Let me seal this suh.’
‘Sure thing Lewis.’
They waited until Lewis had finished soldering it, and retesting it. He placed it to the side, then went and fetched a plastic tub from the safe. He placed shaped pieces of explosives onto the table.
‘All these come together to make a ball shape.’
‘I have seen it before Lewis.’ Both men nodded. Lewis then fetched a small box from another safe. From a drawer, he pulled out a cradle. He opened the small box and tipped out a pea-sized metal ball. It didn’t roll very well. He picked it up and placed it in front of Howe.
‘Feel dat suh.’
Howe picked it up, ‘Wow. This is heavy.’ He passed it on to Beaver.
‘Holy shit! I didn’t expect that.’
‘Dat there is an element, a metal we ain’t got on our periodic table. Aliens ain’t got much use for it suh. Ain’t even got a name. It is too dense to be of any practical use. I had de ship classify it suh, sits right alongside uranium on our periodic table. It is a little heavier atomically.’
Howe took back the small pea-sized ball of metal from Beaver. ‘What makes you think it will go boom Lewis?’
‘Been doin a bit of studying suh. Dey aliens never had a nuclear age. Dey went right past that. They don like radiation or anything radioactive.’
‘Don’t blame them,’ Beaver agreed. ‘Only man could be so stupid as to play with something so dangerous.’
‘Das right Beaver, but dey had to have something, right?’
‘Stands to reason Lewis.’ Beaver shrugged a single shoulder. ‘Was this the non-radioactive solution?’
‘Ain’t quite Beaver. Dey experimented with many different materials, some we don even know about, like this one. Every alien race that tried this material all had the same problem: shit would blow up. Dey all stopped using it.’
‘You are trying to reproduce those experiments Lewis?’ Howe asked.
‘Oh hell no suh, I’m just trying to get shit to blow up, by using tried and trusted techniques devised by man centuries ago.’
Howe laughed, ‘Do you think this will do it?’ He picked up one of the shapes. ‘This isn’t semtex Lewis.’
‘No suh, it’s a top grade Modloch explosive. It twenty times more powerful than semtex. Dey don’t make it anymore; I had to hunt for the recipe, Babes made it for me. From what I can find, it was heat and pressure that set it off. It’s hollow, Babes filled it with a liquid that gets hot very fast when under pressure. Safe all other time suh. Seems when dis goes off, there is some form of molecular dehesion takes place in de blast area.’
‘You mean rather than a big flash and blast?’
Lewis nodded his answer. His skilled hands quickly assembled the bomb. The two officers watched in awe. Wires were attached and the components and they were placed inside a globe. Lewis flipped open a panel and filled it with a thick liquid.
‘Dis i
s an oxygen rich gel, that will prevent the components and explosives freezing in space suh.’ When he was finished, he pushed it over to Howe. ‘Wanna go blow some shit up suh?’
Steven was standing drinking a coffee with one hand and reading a tablet with the other. ‘Why do we need this Colonel?’
Howe thought it over, ‘We don’t really sir. Lewis was just trying to keep his game up.’
Steven shrugged, ‘That’s good enough for me. Is there any peaceful application for this metal?’
‘Not that I am aware of sir. It’s just very heavy. Lewis did a full write up on it.’
‘I can see that. It isn’t banned or anything like that?’
‘We have done an extensive search on this metal. Nothing at all. We can’t find any archive footage of experiments done on it either sir. It was all too long ago.’
‘Do you think it will work?’
Howe shook his head, ‘I don’t know sir, but Lewis knows his stuff.’
Steven thought it over. ‘Well, he is the Chief armourer for both ships. If we don’t allow him to practice his trade, we are doing little more than belittling the man.’
‘That’s true sir, and again it may well be a weapon that our enemies don’t have. It could also be very effective against asteroids thrown at Earth, especially if it works.’
‘I am seeing the application instantly Colonel. Let’s set up an initial test. We can tow an asteroid out of the belt, place it inside and set it off. If it doesn’t work,’ Steven shrugged, ‘then it doesn’t work.’
‘Nothing ventured nothing gained.’
‘Aye,’ Steven muttered absentmindedly, his mind trying to absorb the information he was reading. ‘This is really interesting Colonel. Have you read it?’
‘I have sir, most of it was over my head.’
‘I understand most of it, but it is outside my field of expertise. What else have we got on today?’
‘We have three meetings with the defence committee, then we have to pick up Charlie from the Lossiemouth base. You have to dine with your parents as well.’
