by Gary Weston
Raven sighed. ‘I’ll try to remember that when she’s threatening me with physical violence when she gets here.’
‘If she hurts you, she’ll have me to answer to. Just let her rant and rave and swear at you. Smile a lot.’
‘Like this?’
Joy shook her head. ‘That’s smiling? Did you miss the memo on how to do it?’
‘I was away that morning. Easier to let her hit me.’
Chapter 302
The time had come, and Captain Karma Casey’s freighter landed perfectly on its designated pad. The look Raven got from Casey as she walked down the ship’s ramp with Shannon Thorne one side and partner and father to Shannon, Sam Thorne the other side, could have either froze him to the spot, or fried him into a pile of soot.
‘You take Shannon, Sam. It seems I have to swear at Tagg Raven a lot.’
Sam didn’t say anything, knowing Karma would have all the choice words for Boss. As he took Shannon away, Casey let rip.
‘I know you’re Boss, Tagg. But like I keep saying. I am not D S I. And neither is Sam, these days.’
Boss said, ‘Karma. This is just a quick collection job. A probe. About to smash into some rock’s moon, it seems. The last probe from Earth.’
‘Earth? But that must be centuries old.’
‘Sort of. A hundred and fifty years old, give or take. And still working.’
‘Yeah? Jeez. And you want me to…?’
Raven said, ‘Go pick it up and drag it back here. General Millet is already three days out, and he’ll stop the probe crashing until you get there. You go out into sector seven, pick up the probe and bring it here.’
Casey studied familiar grey eyes. ‘No. There’s something missing. Out with it, Tagg.’
‘Nothing, really. Just…’
‘Tagg!’
‘Well. There could be a few unknown alien types out there. I’m thinking unlikely…’
‘Tagg Raven. We have unknown lifeforms out there?’
Raven said, ‘One or two. One made contact with the probe. But that’s not what this mission is about. We are not engaging alien lifeforms on this trip. We go grab the probe, find out what we can about them, then, if they seem all lovey-Dovey, we ask them here for a beer.’
‘Why do I always fall for this crap?’
Raven said, ‘Because you love me. Not my idea. Joy told me.’
‘I love you?’
‘In a peculiar way, she said. Oh. She also said not to hurt me.’
Casey went over to Raven and grabbed him, planting a kiss on his lips. ‘Yes, I love you, in a peculiar way. That’s because you’re peculiar. And no. I won’t hurt you. I’ll arrange with Commander Gordon to get my ship ready to go in two days, I’ll go get your probe.’
‘Hrmm! Ok. Thanks, Karma.’
* * *
‘She didn’t hit you, I see.’
Raven said, ‘No, Joy. In fact she kissed me. Right on the lips.’
‘Did she indeed. A good job we’re all spoken for. So. She’s going?’
Raven nodded. ‘In two days. I mentioned about the lifeforms out there.’
‘I bet she wasn’t thrilled about that.’
‘Not too much. But I told her that the chances of meeting anything new was pretty remote. Her freighter has a cannon, so she isn’t going unarmed.’
‘Is Sam going with her?’
‘No idea. I’ll let them sort it out themselves.’
Chapter 303
Captain Mick Dorran pointed at the screen on the flight-deck. ‘We should intercept the probe with about eleven hours to spare.’
General Millet said, ‘It could be tight. That equipment Commander Gordon supplied us with will take a couple of hours to fit to the probe.’
Captain Vickie “Shorty” Millet asked, ‘Is the probe still on track to hit that moon?’ She knew it looked impossible based on what they could see on the screen, but the trajectory had been exhaustively checked.
‘Watch this,’ said Aristotle Frogmorten, touching a sensor. The screen showed a speeded up extrapolation of anticipated events. The planet and the small moon moved along its orbit in its position from its solar system’s sun. It was the fourth and last planet in that system. The probe slammed into the moon.
‘Pretty conclusive,’ said Millet. ‘But if it did miss by a small margin, would it hit the planet?’
Jackie Cracker, a trim attractive young woman and fellow scientist and casual girlfriend to Frogmorten, said, ‘Not based on our calculations. Things do become a little more unpredictable once Scortrax strikes the moon. The moon is too small to have much of a gravitational pull, so Scortrax should catch the moon a glancing blow and then probably bounce away and continue, wrecked, back out into space.’
Aristotle added, ‘Or just be a tangled mess on the moon.’
‘Not if we get there first,’ said Shorty. ‘That planet? Any sign of life?’
‘Just a dead rock,’ said Dorran. ‘Too far out to sustain life. An atmosphere high in carbon monoxide. Average temperatures near the equator at about sixty below. Negligible water.’
‘Frank,’ said Shorty. ‘We should have gone there for our honeymoon.’
‘Yeah. It sounds wonderful. Come with me, Shorty. I’d like to look at that equipment Commander Gordon issued to us.’
Leaving the others, Millet and Shorty passed through into the hold at the rear of the small fighter. All the hand weapons were stowed there, plus all other equipment thought useful on a mission. The new gadgets were strapped down tight.
‘Quite neat, really,’ said Shorty.
‘Small, but quite powerful,’ said Millet. ‘Basically, it is in two halves. The power and propulsion pack with variable jets. And this is the clever stuff with which we control speed and direction. We control the probe to take it away from the planet and moon, and enter the coordinates to meet up with Captain Casey. By doing that, we should shave a day or two off her flight and turn her around that much sooner.’
‘She’ll be happy about that. I wonder if she had a go at Boss.’
Millet grinned. ‘Probably. Well. Nothing much to do but kick back until we get there.’
Shorty went to the hold door and locked it. ‘I can think of something we can be doing. Come here and kiss me, you big lug.’
Chapter 304
‘You, little lady, will be needing a new spacesuit as soon as we get back,’ said Karma Casey. ‘Are you sure it isn’t too tight?’
‘No, Karma,’ said Shannon. ‘Can I have a pink suit?’
‘Good grief,’ said Sam Thorne, already on the pre-take-off checks. ‘Pink? What a horrible idea.’
‘But we all look the same in blue. And that’s a boys colour.’
Karma ruffled Shannon’s hair. ‘Regulations state light blue unless it’s D S I, then it’s dark grey with the white stripes on the arms and legs for visibility when space-walking. Now. Come on. Let’s get buckled up. Commander Gordon is ready to get us away.’
Shannon allowed Karma to strap her into the seat that had been modified for her size. She was spending as much time in space as she was on the ground. Not that she got to skip lessons. They were all programmed into the freighter’s computer and she was carefully monitored by either her father or Karma. She made up for lost time with her friends on Home whenever she got the chance.
Karma sat in her seat next to Sam and strapped herself in.
‘Take off in two minutes,’ said Sam, glancing back at his daughter. There came the familiar subdued, muffled roar of the take off and landing thrusters, and the slight sensation of movement as the freighter turned for take off. Sam waited for the plasma injectors to reach the correct temperature, then they were away on another adventure.
‘That’s it,’ said Sam. ‘The computer’s doing…’
‘The boring bits,’ said Shannon, unbuckling. ‘I’m hungry.’
Karma said, ‘We did leave in kind of a rush. Come on.’
They sat and ate together, just your average family heading o
ff into deep space. Shannon asked intelligent questions about where sector seven was, what the mission was about and how long it would take to get back Home. Karma and Sam answered her questions, and before they realised, it was time for Shannon to go to bed.
‘Can the computer tell me a story before I go to sleep?’
‘Ok,’ said Sam. ‘But not a long one that takes forever.’
Shannon went to the bathroom and got ready for bed, then Karma took her to her cot-room.
‘What sort of story do you want?’
‘One about dogs.’
‘Dogs?’
Shannon nodded. ‘I read about them. They used to live on Earth, before everything got dead.’
‘That’s true about dogs on Earth. But not all the dogs died. Some ended up on Mars.’
‘I know, Karma. We have just been there, you know? We learned all about Mars. How it was all turned green. But those dogs are all wild ones. Not pets. That’s what I’m talking about. I’d call my dog Spot, like in the book I read.’
‘Ok. Computer. A story about a dog called Spot. Not a wild dog.’
The almost female voice said, ‘Spot was a not wild dog who was the pet of a girl called…’
‘Shannon,’ said Shannon.
‘Shannon,’ agreed the computer.
Karma dimmed the light and closed the door as the computer told the story of Spot.
Chapter 305
‘Tilly. You weren’t here,’ said Raven. ‘Besides. I didn’t need you on this trip.’
‘Tagg. I was only visiting my parents. I’d have hurried back from Tryzon.’
‘It’s because Captain Dorran had to go off without you, isn’t it? You two are still…you know? Aren’t you?’
‘Yes. No. Maybe. That’s why I went to Tryzon alone. What’s that got to do with anything?’
Raven said, ‘Nothing. It doesn’t change anything. So, you two fell out? Sorry. Nothing to do with me. I didn’t need an agent on this trip. They’re just going to get a probe from sector seven.’
Tilly jabbed Raven with her finger. ‘A new alien lifeform has made contact with that probe, and there’s info of two different planets. Hello? Deep Space Intelligence? A bit of a clue there, I’d say.’
‘No, Tilly. No contact. Not this time around. We will carefully find out all we can from the probe before even attempting to contact them. If, and I stress the word if, if I send a mission at all to contact them, I may or may not send you.’
‘Of course I would go. It’s my job. It’s what I do.’
Raven said, ‘Your job is to go on what mission I tell you to go on. My job is to decide what that mission is.’
Tilly Jordan and Tagg Raven stared awkwardly at each other. Raven was the Boss, Jordan his top agent. They had also been lovers, many years before. Considered starting a family together, until that fateful day when a drixolate runner had shot away half her face. There was a depth of feeling that ran through the pair of them, deep; loving feelings that would always forever more just be unanswered questions of what might have been.
Tilly had feelings for Mike Dorran, a man who made her laugh, made her feel special. A man she knew she could never love the same way she had loved, loved, Tagg Raven. She had tried to move on and been in some ways, unsuccessful in doing that. When she had visited Tagg and Joy at their home, as a friend, not a D S I agent, seen Tagg with baby Dixon, seen the loving glances and touches between Tagg and Joy, and she had felt pangs of something she’d rather not feel, and smiled with her lips put together in a hospital laboratory.
The two of them together in Boss’s office, it was supposed to be all about business. Professionalism. Boss could do that easily with the other agents or the D S I Military. He could do it most of the time with Agent Tilly Jordan. Most of the time. That he loved Joy Dainty and Dixon was without doubt. And yet…That vestige of love remained locked away in their hearts, and, on occasion, although Raven would never admit to it, made him more protective of Tilly Jordan than anyone else in the D S I. Boss’s were obliged to send agents and the military into situations fraught with danger, with very real possibility of being hurt or even killed.
‘Boss. Don’t wrap me up in cotton wool. It was my decision to return to active duty. Don’t take that away from me.’
Boss nodded. ‘Fair enough. I still have to weigh things up based on what, if anything, turns up on that probe. Not just your well-being, but for everyone. Everyone sent on any D S I mission has to be going for a reason. If the information discovered suggests anyone going back into sector seven, each individual will be considered for that mission. You included, Agent Jordan.’
Tilly nodded, but didn’t smile. She went to the door, paused and looked back at him. ‘You’ve changed, Tagg.’
Boss shrugged. ‘I’d be surprised if I hadn’t, Tilly. Both professionally and personally. This job is guaranteed to change anyone.’
Tilly said, ‘Keep me in the loop with this thing, please, Boss.’
‘I will.’
Agent Jordan left Boss sitting in the famous green leather chair, his elbows on the matching green leather topped desk.
Chapter 306
Days passed and General Millet with his ships piloted by Captains Dorran and Luppino, were closing in on the probe.
‘No doubt about it, Sir,’ said Dorran. ‘That probe will smack right into that moon if not stopped.’
‘Take us along side and match its speed, Captain,’ said Millet. ‘Captain Luppino. Match speed five miles behind us.’
‘Got that, Sir,’ replied Luppino.
Millet said, ‘Shorty. Are you and Lieutenant Croxfort secured to your lines?’
‘Yes, Sir,’ said Shorty.
‘Right. Cannon shooters. Are you ready?’
Chief shooter, Gagenjet Singh replied, ‘Shooters ready, Sir.’
‘Ok,’ said Millet. ‘We’re not expecting trouble out here, which is usually the time trouble shows up. Have your radar scanning at maximum range.’
Captain Dorran said, ‘We’re alongside and matching speed with the probe, Sir.’
‘Shorty. We’ll open the outer airlock door in thirty seconds. Check suit status.’
‘All good, Sir,’ said Shorty.
‘Same here, Sir,’ said Lieutenant Croxfort.
‘Outer airlock door opening in ten…five…and open. Good luck.’
They had perfect images on their flight-deck screens of Shorty and Croxfort using the vacuum of space to manoeuvre the two pieces of equipment over to the probe. In their weightlessness, it took little effort to get out of the airlock and by using their backpack thrusters, were right on target with the probe.
Shorty said, ‘This thing is showing its age. It’s had a few minor dings now and then.’
‘It’s still working,’ said Millet. ‘That’s the main thing.’
Dorran said, ‘Ten hours and seventeen minutes until impact.’
‘Thanks for that, Captain Dorran,’ said Shorty. ‘Ok. Almost on top of the probe. Come on, Lieutenant. Put your back into it.’
‘I’m right with you, Captain.’
A nervous General and his small crew watched the proceedings on the flight-deck screens, apart from the shooters, alert in the laser cannon turrets. Just in case..
‘Ok,’ said Shorty. ‘Aristotle. We’ve temporarily tied lines to the probe and to the new propulsion units. What do we do now?’
‘Disconnect the probe’s solar powered propulsion system. That’s the unit at the rear of the probe, between the two thrusters. There’s a panel you need to remove to access it.’
‘I see it. It won’t budge. Hang on. It’s turning. I knew all that arm wrestling would come in handy one day. I’m in.’
‘Careful,’ said Frogmorten. ‘We only need to disconnect the power supply to the thrusters, not shut down the whole probe.’
‘I knew that,’ lied Shorty. ‘There’s a circuit breaker.’
‘Just the one?’
‘Yes. Remove it?’
‘Err�
��Sure. Why not?’
‘Aristotle?’
‘Any lights inside there? Liquid crystal?’
‘Four. All green.’
‘Green is good. Remove the breaker.’
Shorty said, ‘Here goes. Breaker out.’
‘And the lights?’
‘Three green, one red.’
Frogmorten sighed with relief. ‘That’s a good thing. I think.’
Millet glared at the ginger scientist. ‘You think?’
‘We didn’t have all the plans of the probe,’ said Jackie Cracker. ‘We did well to get what we…’
Lieutenant Croxfort said, ‘Wait. Something is happening. Shorty. Quick. Grab hold of something. No, not me, the probe. Grab the probe.’
Dorran gasped, ‘The thrusters are firing up. Shorty, get away from…’
‘Woooh!’ yelled Shorty, ‘I’m not losing this damn piece of junk now.’ Shorty undid her safety line and wrapped it around part of the probe and Croxfort followed her lead.
Millet screamed, ‘Shorty. What the hell are you doing?’
‘We have to stop this thing taking off,’ said Croxfort, trying to stay calm.
Shorty yelled, ‘Too damn late. Hang on tight, lieutenant.’
Millet was horrified to see the old probe blasting towards the moon with his wife and Croxfort hanging on for dear life. ‘Shorty. What’s happening?’
‘Woooohh!!! Ok. We either get the new propulsion system in place or we go crashing into that big rock over there.’
‘Just let go of it, you nut-job. The probe isn’t worth you two dying over.’
‘We can do this, Frank. Captain Dorran. How long to impact at this speed?’
‘Twenty-three minutes. You can’t do it. Get off that rock and I’ll pick you up.’
As the ancient probe sped towards the moon, Shorty said, ‘You go, Lieutenant. I got this under control.’
‘I’ll remind you you said that, as we plunge to our deaths. Come on, Shorty. We can do this.’
‘Thanks. The new thrusters are supposed to go on the back where the supposedly dead ones are. The controller on the top.’
‘But we can’t put it on the back with already working thrusters.’
