The Alliance in Peril

by Peter Lewis Atkinson

  Ellie shouted out, loud enough for everyone to hear, “We are going to see some steam locomotives.” She looked towards Alenna who was now aware that she had correctly guessed our destination.

  Alenna confirmed by saying, “Yes Ellie we are going to visit a heritage steam railway.” There were screams of excitement from the children and they started counting down the miles, shouting out the distance to go each time they came across a sign depicting the distance to our destination.

  As the coach entered the car park, which was adjacent to the station, the children could see a large green engine with a tender quite clearly through a chain link fence. The coach parked up. This is where it would stay until we returned later in the day. The driver had brought a number of items to entertain himself, such as a novel and some movies to watch on the on-board entertainment system The children were very eager and did not waste very much time getting off the coach and running up to this wire fence. The engine then blew its whistle and with a gush of steam from its pistons and blasts of smoke from its chimney started to move off. Some of the younger children became scared and ran back to their mother's, whereas the older girls watched with excitement. It passed the station on the far side track and proceeded to travel around two hundred yards beyond the station before coming to a stop. We all now entered the station. Alenna and I went up to the ticket office window and we were recognised straight away.

  The woman behind the window said, “We have been expecting you. You will see six carriages when you enter onto the platform. Turn left and your carriage for the day is the one at the furthest end. It has reserved signs on the windows. You can travel up and down the line as often as you wish. The line is only twelve miles long and at the end is the depot. This is where our collection of loco’s and rolling stock is situated. And this is where you will also find our museum and exhibition centre. I am sorry, but our restaurant is closed due to refurbishment. We do have a fish and chip van which will be arriving later in the morning and will stay until late afternoon. Some light refreshments are available from our souvenir shop. I do hope you all have an enjoyable day.”

  Alenna replied, “Thank you for your kind words.” I just smiled and put my hand up as to thank her as well. We proceeded through the door to the platform.

  The adults had hold of the younger children for safety. I said to the older girls, “Don’t stand too close to the platform edge.” We walked along the platform to our carriage and some of my family then started to climb on board. There were a few people gathered in front of our coach, just standing there, facing towards the green loco that had stopped further up the line. The loco now started to back up, having switched lines and was approaching our carriage. Suddenly those of us who had not yet boarded the train seemed to be surrounded by what I could only describe as train enthusiasts. As the train drew closer, they gathered in a group just in front of our carriage in anticipation of where it would stop.

  “What are those people doing?” asked Alenna.

  I replied to her, “They are eager to see the loco close up and watch as it is coupled to the carriages”

  “Let’s get on the train,” said Alenna.

  We climbed aboard and sat down. River who had already started looking around to make sure everybody was present and correct, suddenly shouted out, “Where are Ellie, Jessica and Rachael? They’re not here!!!”

  I jumped up and made for the door with both Alenna and River following close behind. I looked towards the engine, which had now almost reached us. I could see my three daughters. They were so engrossed in watching the loco that they had been oblivious to the fact we had left them on the platform alone, with a large number of teenage males. The teenage males were fixated on the loco, so much, that they had not noticed the girls.

  I said to Alenna and River, “Don’t say anything, just follow me.” We went and stood behind the three girls. The three were unaware that we were behind them until I put my hand on Jessica’s shoulder and said, “Time to board the train.”

  “Oh please dad, can we watch the loco a little longer? It’s so exciting,” replied Jessica.

  I looked at Alenna, she nodded, so I said, “Ok, just a little longer.” Alenna looked around and then smiled to herself. I said to her, “What are you smiling at?”

  Alenna bid me to take a few steps away from the girls and whispered in my ear, I did not know what to make of the situation of the girls being alone. If they had been a little older and had reached marrying age, I would not have known what the protocol would have been.

  I said, “They were not entirely alone with those boys, look!” I pointed towards three elderly women sitting on a bench. “The chances are that one or more of them was married and without their knowledge, they had chaperoned them for us. Anyway, we are on Earth and allowances have to be made. Come to think about it, as we are on Earth, you have to abide by Earth rules and customs and not Alkarr’s.”

  Alenna replied, “Yes I did notice the three elderly women, which is why I smiled. I have decided that it will be your responsibility to keep an eye on the three eldest girls for the day and River will assist you, she can also be your chaperone.”

  I said, “Fine, I don’t have a problem with that.”

  We watched the loco as it slowed and stopped. My daughters tried their best to look into the cab but it was quickly surrounded by the teenage boys and men, so instead watched the loco being coupled up to the carriages.

  I was uncertain as to when the train would be leaving so I said, “I think it’s time to board and take our seats.” I made sure the three girls had boarded before I did. After a tally to make sure everyone was indeed present, we awaited the train’s departure. Five minutes later the whistle blew. We could hear a hiss of steam and then the carriage made a jolt in a forward direction. A cloud of dark smoke passed the windows, a small amount of which entered the carriage, through the now open windows. Some of the family were a little concerned, while others were more amused by it.

  Alenna said, “Is that supposed to happen?”

  I replied, “You did open the windows a little too soon, it is a quirk of steam trains. Once we get going it should diminish. Unless we go through a tunnel in which case we will be inundated with smoke if a window is left open, but don’t worry there are no tunnels on this short line.” The train gathered speed, if you can call going at twenty-five miles per hour speed, clickety-clack as we went over some points.

  The children were let’s say, somewhat noisy, due to being in a heightened state of excitement.

  “Faster, faster,” screeched Ellie.

  “Sorry to disappoint you Ellie but this is as fast as the train goes,” I said in a meaningful way.

  Ellie was not satisfied with my reply and by the look on the faces of some of the other children, they were not either. Ellie continued with, “I could run faster than this, why is it so slow?”

  I shook my head and said, “No Ellie you could not run that fast. The speed is a little deceiving. Although the train could go a lot faster, it is not allowed to. It is travelling at the maximum speed permitted on the line.”

  They all eventually settled down and enjoyed the journey, commenting on things as we passed, such as a derelict station, a level crossing with cars waiting, cows and sheep in fields. We stopped at a small station or rather a halt, but no one got on or off, so I had no idea why the train had stopped. Opposite the station, in a field, were some young girls’ riding on horses, jumping over poles.

  My daughters seem to take too much interest in this activity for my liking, Misty said, “That looks fun, please dad, can we have a horse?” She was not the only daughter to ask.

  My answer was short and blunt, “No, definitely not!”

  Misty tried again, “Please, please dad, we can look after it.
”

  I replied, “Where would we keep it? We can’t take it home to Alkarr. Anyway who would look after it while we are away on cargo runs?”

  “We could keep it on the cargo freighter,” replied Misty.

  I sniggered before saying, “You know that would be impossible, a horse is far too big. Besides, they poo everywhere, so no, you can’t have one.” I glanced at Alenna before saying, “Perhaps, at some time we may be able to visit some riding stables and you can have a go at riding a horse.”

  “Tomorrow, can we go tomorrow?” asked Misty.

  I replied, “Sometime, does not mean tomorrow. Anyway, we leave Earth tomorrow.”

  The train moved off to continue our journey. We soon arrived at the end of the line where the depot was situated. On display were a number of old locomotives that you could walk around including one which had steps up to the cab and you could even stand on the footplate. When the family had seen enough we visited the small museum. This was just a fairly large single room. They had managed to cram a lot of exhibits into this room ranging from photos of how the line was during its heyday. Locomotive names from long gone locos, station names, miniature live steam trains and some stationary steam engines. The exhibition in the next building consisted of a model railway layout; it was well constructed. It had scenery, tunnels, marshalling yards and a town in the centre and also incorporated a mountain line. It even had a waterfall with real water cascading from it. Several locos were running at the same time, stopping here and there. They were all cleverly controlled by a computer, so as not to crash into each other. By now we were ready for our lunch and we were lured towards the fish and chip van by the smell.

  Jenna said, “That smell is so divine, it makes my mouth water.” The others agreed.

  There was a short queue, Alenna said, “They have cod, haddock, plaice, huss and skate. I don’t know what we should have, Jake what do you recommend?”

  I replied, “The cod, of course. Cod tastes the same as fracken and you like fracken”

  Alenna nodded and said, “Cod it is.”

  Our family is large now consisting of twelve adults including myself and seventeen children, though several including the twins were too young to have fish and chips. I don’t think we were too popular with those other families that had queued behind Alenna. Her order was large and took quite some time to complete

  Most accepted waiting, but one impatient young guy made a rude comment saying, “B****y aliens, they come here and they think they own the place.” Others in the queue turned round to look, Alenna did not want to make a scene and ignored his comments. But unfortunately, River was close by and heard. River took no nonsense from human men. She always had a trick or two to discredit them. She was very forward in her determination to intimidate the person concerned. If I did not know better, I would conclude she revelled in the chance to do that. River went up to the guy and stared at him; she did not blink. Everyone in the queue was watching and the guy was aware of that fact, he went red in the face and put his head down in shame. River without uttering a single word during the episode turned around and walked away from him.

  Once served, we then sat down and occupied most of the seating in the picnic area. All the adults with the exception of River and me had occupied two picnic benches. A number of adults had the youngest children sitting on their laps. Another bench was taken up by eight children. The final three picnic tables had already been taken by other families. This left a number of my family with nowhere to sit. We sat down in the only place we could, on the grass, with River sitting back to back with me and the rest of the older children copied us likewise. Children have a habit of leaving a mess in their wake. So after we had all finished eating the delicious fish and chips, River and I made sure that the area was free of litter. The thing I find most annoying when visiting public places is that there is always somebody taking pictures of us. They have no respect for privacy, some of these pictures end up in the papers. Perhaps I should have a word with the Prime Minister to see if anything can be done about it. The train had been going back and forth all morning between the station where we joined the train and the depot and it was almost ready to leave again.

  Ellie said, “Can we go to the souvenir shop now?”

  Alenna had different plans, so announced, “We need to board the train now. We have paid for the carriage for the day and I want to get our money’s worth out of it.”

  A number of the children also wanted to visit the souvenir shop, so Ellie again said, “What about the souvenir shop, are we leaving without visiting it first?”

  Alenna replied, “Yes, Ellie we will visit it, but not now. We will go there after we had another journey on the train. So, everyone, we must now hurry, we need to board the train right away!”

  We all filed through the gate to the platform before boarding the train. Alenna and Jenna checked to make sure everyone was present and correct.

  Jenna concerned said, “Were are Yarkeli and River?”

  “They were both behind us when we passed through the gate,” I replied.

  Jenna opened the carriage door to look back along the platform. There they were. They had four children surrounding them, each of whom in turn was passing the pair small books to sign. That was a first, autograph collectors, wanting River and Yarkeli to sign their books. When finished, River and Yarkeli walked towards our carriage. Suddenly a whistle blew. We could see a guard holding up a red flag. I have never seen Yarkeli run. She could really move when she needed too, reaching the door of our carriage ahead of River who arrived just a couple of seconds behind her, in the nick of time. As we slammed the carriage door closed we heard two blasts on a whistle, while at the same time the guard raised his arm to hold up a green flag. The train then moved off, only this time we were at the back of the train. The loco was now pulling the train, running backwards. Nearly all the daughters had gathered to look out of the windows on the side where they had seen the girls riding horses.

  Jett cried out, “We are approaching the station!”

  They were very disappointed this time as the train did not stop. Misty shouted, “The horses are still there, but the girls have gone.”

  Jett commented, “Perhaps they have gone home for a meal.” Within seconds we had passed the field. The girls looked a little disappointed. I said nothing as I did not want to encourage them. We continued until we reached the destination of the train.

  “Don’t leave the carriage,” ordered Alenna, “We will be travelling back to the depot.”

  The daughters watched from the windows as the loco passed on the other line. It would again back up to and couple on to our carriage. All they wanted to do was look out for the horses again, but there was no change on last time.

  Alenna announced, “We will be staying at the depot for a short while, just long enough to visit the souvenir shop. After that, we will travel back on the train to re-join our coach for the homeward journey back to our cargo freighter.”

  There was a rush to the door to exit the carriage on arrival. Alenna shouted, “Wait!” but hardly any of the daughters listened to her. River and I had to run after the three eldest girls, as they were my responsibility,

  “Stop you three,” I shouted towards them.

  They did stop and turn around, but Ellie shouted back to me, “Hurry up dad, you’re so slow.”

  I shouted back to her, “Less of your cheek girl, you will wait for me.” By the time River and I had managed to catch up with them, we were both out of breath, which made me feel so old. I continued with, “Don’t run off again, or you will be in trouble.”

  I made them walk with us the rest of the way. The souvenir shop was full of the usual things such as mugs and key fobs etcetera, depicting the heritage line. It soon became
apparent what they all wanted. Like some sort of magnet the daughters had gathered around a display of a number of train sets. I am not sexist, I do not see any problem with a girl wanting a train set, after all my sister used to play with mine.

  Ellie again said, “It not just for me mind you, but can we please have a train set, please dad.” She pointed at one and said, “That set there.” Ellie was pointing to a set with a train which without doubt, was probably the most famous, ‘The Flying Scotsman.’ Now a train set that had just an oval of track would soon lose its interest fast. So I also picked up a track extension kit, comprising a passing loop and a siding. Now I had to somehow sneak it past Alenna, even though she would be paying.