The proposal was greeted with relief. Vincent asked if he should begin preparing the drone. Jim told the ship, “Yes. That is a very good idea. Let us know when you are ready to launch—and can you concentrate on getting your shrink ray working? Claire and I want to introduce you to Adar.”
“The ship regeneration and resizer systems are rated high priority. The ‘shrink ray’ will be functional in eight hours and fifteen minutes.”
Jim smiled at Adar and said, “I can’t wait to see your face when we take you inside.”
Something occurred to Jim, and he asked for clarification. “Vincent, how come you’re just now mentioning a surveillance drone? I could have used it during the test.”
“I was testing your skills and ingenuity. Providing assistance would invalidate the results.”
“Oh yeah. I guess so.”
****
The evening grew late, and Claire began to yawn. When Jim found himself holding his hand over his mouth to stifle a yawn, he suggested they get some sleep.
The old family summer home Adar occupied was full of history. The furnishings were varied, and everything came from another era. Adar loved it and kept the old place clean and well maintained.
There were four large bedrooms, and Adar led them to one. “You can sleep here tonight. I changed the bedding, and the bed is large enough for two.”
Claire corrected him, somewhat flustered. “I’m sorry, Adar, but can I get a room of my own. I have only known this man for a short while.” She looked at Jim and said, “Sorry Jim, maybe someday. If you’re lucky.”
Jim hid his relief with a huge smile. He would like nothing more than to know her better. She was funny, good looking, smart, and very desirable. Still, these things take time, and he was not ready either. “I respect your decision, madam. Perhaps another time?” He finished with a wink, and it was her turn to laugh.
It was a restless night for the partners of the alien ship. They took comfort in the knowledge that an artificial intelligence from another world was here to help. With Vincent’s assistance, it should be possible to fulfill the mission.
Vincent spent the night programming the drone and performing repairs. He allocated extra resources to repairing the resizer so the humans could rejoin him. He was anxious to return to the mission, secure the objective, and begin the journey home.
His companions’ set-up an electric spotlight to shine on him and help speed the repairs. His solar cells traded the light for energy and used it to increase the rate of repair. He was alone on a strange world, in a hole in the ground, and helpless. This was not the plan he formulated on his two-year trip to Earth. There was only so many things he could do while healing—and he was getting bored.
As soon as the resizer system came online, he would inform James Thompson. There was much they needed to do.
Chapter Ten
Adar rose at first light and prepared breakfast. It was a concoction of coconut and eggs of his own design with a small glass of orange juice. “The coconuts come from the island, the eggs from the hen house by the garden, and the precious oranges shipped from the mainland. I am allowed a small stipend every month for gardening supplies and food.”
He apologized, “It is close to the time I get my pay. Unfortunately, the money does not last the entire month. This meager fare is all I have to offer.”
The food was surprisingly good, and his guests complimented him on his cooking skills. Jim commented, “The coconut eggs are great, and I have not had orange juice this good for years. The concentrate does not compare to the real thing.”
Claire drank hers while nodding in agreement.
Adar left for work to maintain the illusion of normalcy. “I will try and learn what the guards are saying. I am hoping they think you left the island. Regardless, you would be wise to stay away from the windows and remain quiet. I will return for lunch and see how you are faring.”
After he left, Jim and Claire descended the steps to see Vincent. The exterior damage caused by the lucky bullet was almost gone. They marveled at the slow transformation of the ship as the nanites performed their work.
“How long until we can come inside, Vincent?” asked Jim, “We need a couple more of these badges, and I’d like to see the surveillance drone.”
“Two hours and twenty-two minutes remain before the system is operational. When the time comes, I will need to be moved somewhere there is more room. This space is too small for a safe transformation.”
In the center of the house, there was a cozy library without windows. Jim and Claire decided the small, cluttered room was a good place to spend the time waiting. Jim found an old, unused drawing pad and a pencil and started a drawing. Claire searched the shelves for books about the estate.
Jim asked, “This is the first chance we’ve had to talk in a while. Are you sorry you met me?”
“No. Yes. I’m not sure. It’s been a lot to accept. I was just becoming comfortable with the life I had, and then you showed up and turned it upside down.”
“I’m sorry,” Jim replied. “It was not on purpose. I could say I’m sorry for getting you involved, but that would not be entirely true. I am glad you are here. What I’m sorry about is that I didn’t leave you much of a choice.”
Claire returned the book she was flipping through and pulled another from the shelves. “Oh, I don’t blame you. You are doing something brave and unselfish, and I want to help. It’s just that my life has been a roller coaster of ups and downs ever since my husband died. I was beginning to get used to being alone.”
“You loved him didn’t you?”
She lowered herself into a chair. “Yes. I did. We met in high school, and I was in love from the start. He was my soulmate, and always knew the right things to say. We married after graduation, and I was allowed thirty years of real love. In that regard, I was very lucky.”
“What happened?”
“One day I woke up with the man I loved, and the next day I did not. Ben came home early from work with a headache. He called me and said he was going home to lie down. When I got there, he was face down on the bed. I thought he was sleeping. He wasn’t.
Her stare was distant, focused on memories in the past. “He was the picture of health, with a contracting business that kept him active and fit. He never complained of headaches or even feeling sick. They told me he had a brain aneurysm that burst. I never got a chance to worry or plan for his passing. Needless to say, it came as quite a shock.”
“That must have been hard.”
“I have a saying now. You live until you don’t. Life is a gift, and it’s too precious to waste.”
“I didn’t have it as bad as you. I only got divorced.”
“Were you married long?”
“Twenty-five years. I thought I was happy for most of it. I guess not. I started drinking pretty regular at the end. After six beers the world looks better.”
“Are you still drinking?”
“It’s kind of funny—I don’t seem to need it like I did. Come to think of it; I’ve had maybe six beers all month.”
She smiled. “I guess we are both in the process of recovering when this happened.”
Jim smiled in return, “Isn’t life funny? Are you ready to save the world?”
She neither smiled nor frowned. With determination in her eyes, she said, “No—I’m not ready—but I will.”
During their conversation, Jim would look at her while she talked. The rest of the time he spent drawing. When they left the library, he closed the pad and returned it to the shelf where he found it. The subject matter made him want to complete the piece later if possible.
****
Adar returned for lunch, and it took all three of them to get Vincent upstairs and into the living room. “We must hurry. It will seem suspicious if I stay here too long,” explained Adar.
They set him down in an open corner and moved the required distance away to wait.
Jim glanced at Adar and asked, “Are you ready for
this?”
It was obvious he was nervous. “It will not hurt?”
Claire and Jim’s eyes met, and at the same time they said, “No.”
“Well, other than the burning of the skin,” added Jim. She slapped his arm and laughed.
Adar’s half-smile changed to a frown, so Claire tried to reassure him. “You feel a little warm—that’s all. It does not hurt.”
Jim addressed the little spaceship, “Okay Vincent. Bring us down to your size.”
The warmth produced by the beam of light was temporary and only lasted a few seconds after the transition. Not enough to make you sweat, it was more like a warm blanket. Adar fell to the floor after the downsizing stopped, and peered around dazed.
“You were telling the truth!” he exclaimed.
They stood under the full-sized spaceship, with the ladder leading up waiting one-hundred steps away. Rather than waste time talking, Claire and Jim helped Adar to his feet and ushered him into the ship. The interior was bare like it was the first time Jim entered, except for the two armchairs. On a round table next to one chair lay two new badges. A single large screen displayed the oversized living room they just left.
“Vincent, meet Adar. He saved your life.”
Barely audible, the background noise returned. “Most scientists contend I do not possess life as you regard it. It is a query I have considered extensively. However, I understand your meaning. Thank you, Adar.”
Adar shuffled his feet, and answered with a sense of awe, “Umm…you’re welcome?”
Jim picked up the pins and the table melted into the deck. He handed one to Claire and one to Adar. “These will stick wherever you put them. Put them on your shirts, and we’ll never be out of touch.” He forged ahead, “Where do we stand, Vincent?”
“You are aboard the Vincent…”
“I know that. I mean ship’s status.”
The buzz disappeared, and he returned to his normal operating parameters. “The resizer is online, and the cloaking system restored. I have programmed the drone and prepared it for launch. Propulsion system repairs are proceeding as scheduled and will be online in twenty-two hours.”
Vincent directed them to an oval outline that appeared on the back wall that extended out to reveal a shelf. On the shelf rested something resembling a giant housefly. It was six inches long with a black block for a body and a small hinged head with shiny black eyes. The imitation bug had antennae like a real fly, and to complete the image, translucent webbed wings were folded back against the body.
“I have programmed it to infiltrate the house. We can place it anywhere and receive real-time audio and video of its reconnaissance.”
Claire walked around the craft and remarked, “This is perfect. We will be the proverbial fly on the wall! Do the wings work?”
“The flapping wings, with the assistance of a propulsion unit add to the illusion of an earth bug.”
Jim was anxious to get moving. They needed to move this rescue mission along and get far away from Mister Smith and his island. “What are you waiting for, Vincent? Go ahead and launch the drone. Nobody notices a fly until it becomes a pest.”
The ship responded, “As you wish, James Thompson.”
Claire had a suggestion. “We could call it Max.”
“Why Max?” asked Jim.
“You know—the sci-fi movie from the late seventies with the robots named Vincent and Maximillian. It’s a classic.”
He remembered an evil red robot and a good little one. “I’ve seen that movie. It had good special effects for its time. All right, Max it is. Only—he’s a good robot.”
Two halves of a two-foot circle slid aside in the ceiling behind the chairs. Adar stepped over and looked up. “It is a tunnel to the outside,” he said. “Vincent has many surprises.”
The wings unfolded, began flapping frantically, and the fly lifted off. It spun three hundred and sixty degrees and then raced up the tube. A second later, the almost silent drone was gone, and the hole in the ceiling melted away; as if it were never there.
The hull around them changed, and a wall of view screens divided into twelve-inch octagons came alive and wrapped around the chairs.
“This is the view from the drone. The visual system is modeled after the eyes of an earth fly and allows for a three hundred and twenty degree field of view. I picked this insect to imitate because it is so common. On your planet, this small impersonator is the perfect tool for surveillance.”
“You don’t have flies where you come from?” asked Jim.
“We have similar insects only around the equator. Unfortunately, many species have died off elsewhere.”
“How will it get out of the house?” Claire asked.
Vincent’s voice was confident. “The autonomous craft can follow the air currents and tiny changes in temperature. It will find a way out.”
The ship’s prediction proved correct, and Max found a barely open window. It escaped to the outdoors and immediately gained altitude. The flight pattern was erratic, adding to the illusion of a lone fly on an everyday mission. The tops of the palm trees grew smaller as the craft made its way to the mansion on the hill.
Within minutes the large main doors of the house came into view. Max landed on the frame of the opening and waited for someone to open the way to the interior. Now they had to wait.
“I must return to work,” remarked Adar. “If I stay too long, someone might notice I am not working. Will you be all right here? You are in plain sight and in the main room of the house.”
Vincent replied, “After you leave and when you are at a safe distance, I will activate the resizing beam. We are cloaked right now, and if we don’t activate the propulsion system, the thermal scanners used by Jack Smith’s security team won’t register our presence. After your transformation, I will reactivate the cloak and disappear from the human visual spectrum.”
Adar glanced at Jim and held his hands out. “What did he say?”
Claire giggled, and Jim replied smiling, “Go outside to where we started, and Vincent will make you big. After you leave, we will become invisible and unable to detect…unless someone physically bumps into us. Go ahead and return to your work. If anything happens, we can contact you through the badge. We’ll talk more tonight.”
Adar nodded, waved an uncertain goodbye, and turned to leave. The hatch opened, and before he stepped through, he turned around to look back through the opening and paused to absorb the view inside the spaceship.
The senior Syrian had seen many things. However, this was by far the strangest.
****
Adar carefully lowered himself down the ladder, his head moving around to take in the familiar surroundings now giant sized. At the bottom of the steps, the carpet fibers under his feet were massive, and for a moment he was tempted to remove his shoes and feel it with bare feet. Adar changed his mind when he realized his shoes would stay little, while he would become big, and he needed his shoes.
Inside the ship, he had not felt small. Out here, he found it hard to believe how little he was. Polished furniture towered over him on both sides. In a state of controlled disbelief, he walked out to the place where he was made small. When he stood where he had only thirty minutes earlier, he turned to the ship and waited. A bright light enveloped him, and the warming began. When he dared to open his eyes, he was again a full sized human and free to do as he pleased. The ship flickered and disappeared. In his ear, he heard Vincent say, “Thank you for your assistance, Adar Malik. You are a credit to humanity. Complete today’s labors, and when you return, we will formulate a plan of action. Above all else, say nothing about us.”
Adar walked away shaking his head, and mumbling, It is too late to do anything else.
****
Claire sat down in one of the armchairs, and Jim and lowered himself into the other. While they waited for the ship to be repaired and Adar to return, Vincent conjured a pot roast with a ration of sliced bread that rivaled the wares of a fine bakery. Th
e two crewmates ate and made wild guesses about what they would find inside the mansion.
They watched the guard pacing before the front doors until two men arrived. Their interest picked up when they recognized the thin man and the goon that chased them from the museum.
The thin man said, “Open up, Davy. We’re here to see the boss, and we ain’t got all day.”
One of the guards was fumbling with the locks, and intent on his task. He muttered, “If he didn’t have so many locks to open, you would already be out of my hair. Just hang on a second.”
When the front door opened, the two men entered. Before the guard closed the door, the surveillance bug slipped inside.
“We are in, now we will…,” began Vincent.
Claire and Jim shushed him. “Let’s see what we’re dealing with,” suggested Jim.
The entranceway was expansive, with marble floors and dark, intricately trimmed wood paneling adorning the walls. Old portraits of all sizes kept watch over all that entered. A dual carpeted staircase wound up each side to a balcony on the second floor, where a silver elevator occupied the center landing behind ornate railing.
The visuals from Max were hard to follow while he was in motion. Luckily, to appear true to form, the bug landed often. When it stopped flapping its wings, they were treated with a clear bug’s eye view of its surroundings. Max followed the men into a dining hall located to the left of the extravagant entryway. At the end of a long exotic wood table sat Jack Smith, eating from a plate of food. Behind him stood two unsmiling security guards. He looked up when he saw them coming and asked, “What took you two so long? I expected you yesterday.”
The thin man pulled back a chair and sat down next to his boss. The big guy looked hesitant and then sat in a chair across the table. The table was set for one.
Vincent Page 10
