‘Indicate the length required, and I will have it dispatched to you.’ The Captain had been listening to their every word.
‘Half a metre should do the job,’ shouted Arki.
‘There is no need to raise your voice to an unnecessary level, you may damage your vocal cords. As mentioned earlier, my audio circuits are in full working order.’ It would seem that the Captain had entered wholeheartedly into the game of words with Arki, much to the amusement of the others, and Brendon in particular.
They sat around on whatever piece of equipment that would support their weight, Brendon being moved on from three of his chosen sites by Arki, explaining that they didn’t want to do any more repair work just now. Arki let him rest on the forth one as he could see that one more move and Brendon would probably explode.
In due course, a small box like device came rushing out of the hole in the chamber wall to skid to a stop behind its larger brother.
‘Here’s our piece of metal.’ said Glyn and looked around to see who would retrieve it from the box. No one moved, feeling quite comfortable where they were after the exertion of stuffing the filter material back into the vat.
Three pairs of eyes swung around to look directly at Brendon, he wasn’t having a good day.
‘Oh, all right, I’ll get it.’ he said reluctantly.
‘That’s good of you,’ said Arki, ‘you can have my next two rations of fried egg, if we ever get any more.’
He wanted to say, ‘Thank you.’ but didn’t, as he wasn’t sure if Arki’s kind offer was just another jab at his size.
With two pushing the reluctant filter material back into the vat, it was just possible to slip the metal bar into place, and when the pushing rods were withdrawn the snowy white material remained in place.
The joint sigh of relief must have been heard by the Captain.
‘You have done well. Check there are no protruding edges by offering the patch plate up to the vat. Hammer in any protrusions, and when you are sure that the plate fits snugly against the vat you can apply one of the adhesives to the vat, and the other one to the mating face on the plate. Carefully offer the plate up to the vat, being sure that it is in exact alignment with the hole it has to cover, and press into place. Hold it in that position for seventy five seconds, and it can then be released. The job will be done.’
Glyn felt he ought to hammer in the one section of the rent which stuck out from the edge of the vat, and picking up the power hammer he offered it up to the protrusion.
‘I think you have to press that little button.’ Brendon had decided to have a go at Glyn for a change, as there was more chance of scoring a point or two.
Glyn thanked him in such a way that he didn’t know for sure if he was really being thanked at all, and proceeded to press the afore mentioned button. Again nothing happened, or nothing he was aware of. Arki suggested offering the hammer up to the rent again, not knowing what else to say, and the hammer came alive, Glyn nearly dropping it in sheer surprise.
The hammer screamed a series of pounding blows against the thick metal of the vat wall, and it flowed back into alignment like soft dough.
‘Before you put the adhesive in place on the vat, let me mark the outline of the plate.’ Brendon offered, genuinely trying to be helpful.
‘Now that is a very good idea.’ said Arki, and he really meant it.
With the two part adhesive applied to the vat and the repair plate, the four of them juggled it into position and then held it in place for the prescribed time.
They stood back to admire their work when the voice of the Captain instructed them to collect up their tools and equipment and return to the lift.
‘How do we know that it will work?’ asked Arki.
‘When you are in the safety of the lift chamber I will power the system up, and if all is well, you will be returned to the upper levels. If another fault shows up, I will ask you to wait here while I ascertain what it is, and supply the necessary materials to correct it.’
They piled back into the lift, Brendon being very careful to keep his feet out of harm’s way when the trolley was pulled in after them, and the door closed.
The four of them listened intently for any sounds which might indicate a problem with the air plant. The lift gave a sudden jerk, and they were on their way up to the main quarters.
‘What worries me,’ said Arki, ‘is that these breakdowns are increasing in frequency, so does that mean the whole ship is about to fail? And if so, what will happen to us?’
‘I’d rather not think about that.’ said Brendon, and they all agreed on that point.
For the next two weeks there were no other emergencies, just general maintenance jobs, some of which were no doubt required, while others were questionable as to their real necessity.
Glyn returned to the book room at every opportunity to continue reading the diary he had found so interesting, but was dismayed when the entries of the second author terminated with no explanation. Perhaps he had died of old age, and told no one of his work.
A third writer had taken up the work some long time later, but was more concerned with thoughts about himself than general information about the ship and its progress. He found it boring to the degree that he actually fell asleep at one point, and turned to the last entries to see if anyone else had added something of importance to the chronicle. They hadn’t, so he returned it to its place on the shelf, and began studying other books at random.
Glyn became fascinated with one book in particular, a study of the plants of old Earth. He had no idea that such diversity had existed on his home world as he was only used to those found in the hydroponics gardens, and of necessity these were somewhat limited in variety.
When he mentioned this to Arki, he too became interested, but they had to visit the book room in turn as there was only one breathing apparatus.
As time went on, Arki became more interested in things mechanical, as he though it might prove useful if things went wrong on the ship and the Captain was unable to help them with repairs.
The friendship between the two was really put to the test as the interest in their respective subjects grew and a new spate of minor breakdowns began to eat into their spare time.
Glyn had taken to visiting the book room in the evenings, not caring if anyone noticed his absence in the general activities which took place then. It suited him, as Arki’s partner was a little less tolerant of such evening excursions, she not being so preoccupied with things maternal.
This new arrangement gave him plenty of time to study the books, Mia hardly ever commenting on his late return.
She was only just noticeably pregnant, but Arki reckoned it was most likely due to wind, as the chef had taken to producing copious amounts of beans with every meal, and in an ever increasing variety of colours and textures.
All went well for some time, until one evening, while the Captain was telling them how they would soon be approaching a new star system, he began to stutter. After the first gasp of dismay from those assembled around the eating table, there was total silence, interspersed with crackles and grunts as the Captain bravely tried to carry on with the good news. Finally, there was a loud click, and the audio system went dead.
The minutes dragged on until Brendon ventured with, ‘Do you think he has died?’ Glyn gave him a withering glance knowing full well what might have happened.
‘I’m sorry about that, there was a small fault in the audio system, all is well now.’ and the Captain signed off for the evening. Glyn and Arki feared otherwise, but everyone else seemed happy with the explanation.
Glyn decided to spend the evening with the others for a change, as he somehow didn’t want to be along in the book room just now.
The evening drew to a close, everyone said, ‘goodnight.’ and went to their respective cabins for a good nights sleep. And then things went really pear shaped, with a vengeance.
Reality
A series of violent shudders rippled throughout the ship,
as if a giant hand had shaken it. This, plus the persistent ‘peep-peep’ of the general alarm ripped Glyn from his sleep as it did the rest of the travellers. It was the one sound he dreaded to hear above all others, as it meant there was big trouble ahead.
He tumbled out of his bunk, yelling to Mia to do likewise and donned his clothes as fast as possible.
Above the noise of the alarm, there sounded a series of sharp crackles followed by instructions for all to assemble in the eating room at once.
‘This is an emergency. This is not a practice drill. This is an emergency.’ was repeated over and over again until Glyn felt like screaming some obscenity at the hidden originator of the tormenting sound.
They both scrambled out of their cabin at full speed, nearly knocking down another frantic pair who were rushing past the doorway at the time.
The foursome soon picked up others as they raced along the corridor, all heading for the eating room and wondering what catastrophe had befallen them now.
As they entered the room Glyn tried to make his way over towards Arki, the lights dimmed, brightened, dimmed again and then went out completely.
A series of screams rent the air, almost drowning out the emergency warning, and Glyn yelled at the top of his voice,
‘QUIET. Quiet everyone. Listen out for further instructions. There’s no point in screaming your heads off.’
Just then the emergency lighting came on, not as bright as the standard lights, but enough to see the terrified huddle of people and general details of the room.
Glyn continued to force his way through the frightened group and finally reached Arki, saying as quietly as possible ‘I don’t think that was the Captain’s voice, so what’s happened to him?’
‘Maybe his circuits have popped at long last, and this is a backup system. I don’t like the sound of it, something really serious has happened this time and we’ll have to take over, somehow.’ Arki didn’t sound too convinced about the latter.
The general panic gradually subsided now that light had been restored, and the milling crowd collected into little groups, nervously trying to figure out what had happened to the ship.
The alarm suddenly stopped its persistent noise to be followed by a low level series of clicks and whistles, something was trying to get through to them.
‘Please check that every member of the ship’s company is present, there must be no exceptions. I will contact you again in a few moments.’
‘Now that wasn’t the Captain, so why has this other voice taken over?’ asked Arki, not really expecting an answer.
Glyn had already begun counting heads, nine men, nine woman and six children of various ages, all the ship’s members were present in the eating room.
After what seemed like hours rather than minutes to the waiting assembly, the audio system began its chorus of squeaks and whistles again, and then a new voice broke through.
‘Please remain calm, everything is under control. All adults present will be issued with a backpack containing water, food concentrates and a selection of implements which are considered to be useful for your continued survival. Instructions will be found within the packs.’
‘Where’s the Captain?’ shouted Arki in the pause before the next sentence could be uttered from the sound system, but the system either didn’t hear him, or refused to answer.
‘When you receive your packs, put them on your backs and then await further instructions. You have three minutes.’
‘We must have reached our new home.’ someone said, more in hope than anything else.
‘I doubt that.’ Glyn said in an aside to Arki, who nodded in agreement.
A panel slid to one side at the end of the eating room, and a series of backpacks tumbled out onto the floor. Everyone had expected the food hatch to produce the promised packs, and had gathered around it in anticipation.
After much fumbling and helping each other, the packs were in place, and everyone stood around waiting for the promised instructions.
‘A series of blue flashing lights will guide you to the embarking point. Follow all instructions exactly, do not hesitate, they are for your continued survival. Proceed to the embarking point now.’ There was a loud click and the audio system went dead, followed by the eating room door opening of its own accord.
Arki was the first to put his head out into the dingy corridor,
‘It’s a bit dim out there, but the blue lights are flashing away merrily.’ he tried to sound as cheerful as possible, although he didn’t feel it.
A strange sense of calm had come over them all, and they trooped out into the corridor in an orderly manner, much to Glyn’s surprise.
The trail of flashing blue lights led the party to the far end of the ship, as they knew it, and then they were confronted by a blank wall, the last blue light being on the wall itself.
A deep rumbling noise could be heard, and then a section of the wall slid to one side with a grating sound which put everyone’s teeth on edge.
‘Looks like a lift, OK, everyone in,’ Glyn called out, realizing that if one of them took charge it would help to keep the others calm.
‘Enter the lift chamber ahead of you now.’ the mechanical voice intoned, but half of them had already done so.
With their backpacks on it was a tight squeeze to get everyone into the chamber, and Arki had to push the last person in, wriggling himself in as the wall section slowly ground back into place.
The lift began its descent with a shudder, and then stopped with a jerk which would have sent everyone sprawling if they hadn’t been so tightly packed together. The high pitched whine of a pump went up several octaves, and then there was the screech of tortured metal as the lift broke free from the obstruction and continued its journey downwards.
With a dull thump the lift chamber arrived at its destination and the back wall slid noisily to one side revealing a dimly lit passageway.
A gust of cold air rushed in along with a damp and dusty smell, and this brought forth several comments from those who usually reserved their eloquent verbal skills for the chef.
‘Proceed along the passage until you reach the far end. You will then be given new instructions.’ This time the voice echoed around the box-like enclosure of the passage, distorting the words until they were hardly recognizable.
Obediently the little band of humanity stepped out of the lift, and began the long walk into the distance, the dull lights of the passage giving no idea of how far they would have to travel, or where they were going.
Several lights in the roof had failed, and this along with the hollow sound as their feet struck the floor gave the journey a very unreal feeling, especially to Glyn, who for a brief moment wondered if one of his dreaded nightmares had returned.
‘I’m sure the temperature has gone down since we entered this horrid passage,’ someone commentated, ‘I feel positively chilled to the bone.’
There was no answer to the comment as no one could think of anything sufficiently erudite to say.
A little while later, hoping to break the hollow monotonous sound of their echoing footsteps, someone else suggested ‘I suppose this leads us to a smaller space ship which will take us down to the planet’s surface, the main ship being far too big to land.’
‘I doubt that very much.’ Glyn thought to himself as he trudged along, not really knowing why he thought it.
They came to another blank wall, and the whole party ground to a halt. Before anyone could make any facetious remarks, the mechanical voice boomed down at them from a speaker in the roof above.
‘Please pay extreme attention. Follow these instructions exactly. Do not hesitate. Move together as one unit. Keep together at all times. In a moment a door will open and a long walkway will be seen ahead of you. Go along this until you come to an open vehicle. Board the vehicle, and it will complete the journey for you. That is all.’
With that, a motor started up and with a grating sound which set everyone’s teeth on edge again, the end wall
slowly drew back. Before them, the narrow walkway with its trellised steel sides disappeared into the blackness beyond with no indication of where it would lead them.
As they quickly walked out onto the beginning of the steel ramp, a united gasp went up at what they saw, followed by ‘Good God, we’re out in space, we’ll all die, we won’t be able to breathe.’ from the quavering voice of Brendon.
‘Don’t be so stupid,’ retorted Glyn, ‘if that were the case we’d all be dead now. I think this is some kind of illusion.’
They were surrounded by the velvet blackness of space with its countless millions of diamond white twinkling stars. Above them glowed a giant nebula, its misty outlines sprinkled with tiny pin pricks of starlight shining through the haze at its edge.
‘Well, if that don’t beat all,’ exclaimed Arki gazing around in stunned wonder, ‘we saw this from the observation room.’
Before anyone else could comment, the stars did a final twinkle and went out, the total blackness of space rushing in to stifle any further words which may have been offered.
Before the wail of terror could really get under way, it was cut short as the cavern’s maintenance lights flickered on.
Glyn looked back to see just what they had come from. Above him towered the massive bulk of what they had all assumed to be their space ship, carrying them to a new life on a distant world.
In reality it consisted of a vast series of boxes, joined nose to tail, the whole ugly conglomeration being supported on massive stilts. Dotted among the stilts at ground level were more giant boxes, housing the hydroponics gardens, air cycling machinery and other devices needed to sustain life in the living quarters above.
The whole massive contraption was in turn dwarfed by the size of the cavern in which it lay. Somewhere in the distance a motor started up, the high pitched whine echoing around the vast cavern like a soul in torment.
As they turned to look in the direction of the sound, there was a blue white flash followed by an explosion, and seconds later a shower of fine metallic particles rained down upon them. Fortunately no one was hurt, only frightened.
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