Space Hoppers - Dance of the Guinea Pigs

by Jayne Bartholomew

  Garet, to whom sobriety had crushingly returned after the alarm was sounded, was talking to someone monitoring a screen to her right. The crew worked efficiently at whatever it was they were doing but kept glancing across at the large screen. Sarah turned to someone with pearlescent skin and almond eyes[3] whom she’d heard called Brelt.

  “Is this going to be dangerous?”

  “I doubt it. We’ve been told that there are three small Pirate ships on the attack and the firepower on ours is amazing. Leader-One will be in charge of this battle so he’s in Control-room One in the second quarter. Usually the Visitors would be expected to go with him; are you sure you’re in the right quarter?”

  “I think so, at least, no one indicated I wasn’t. Anyway, you were saying?”

  “Well, we’ll just hang around long enough to make sure that the other ship is safe. This quarter is mainly the entertainment part so it’s unlikely that we’ll get involved too much. Our fighters have just been sent out though, in case.” She bit her lip nervously. “I’m the Liaison Officer on this part so if there’s anything you need just let me know.”

  “Thanks.” Sarah turned back to the screen, “What are we supposed to be looking for? I don’t see any other ships on the screen.” She had the feeling that no one else did either, as there was a lot of scrutinising machines taking place and crew members looking increasingly frantic. The screen had started to pan left.

  Suddenly there was a flurry of activity from one side of the control room and a hush fell. A crew member stood aside and Xander got up to read the screen they were monitoring.

  He took out a small silver pebble-sized object and spoke into it. “Leader-One, there is a large mass moving from behind the planet. Do you have a reading?” He waited a moment for the response that fed into an earpiece he was wearing. “Repeat last command.” Another pause, “Affirmative”

  Xander walked back to the chair and pressed a button on the left arm rest. The screen divided up into sections that relayed the ship’s status.

  “What’s going on now?” Sarah asked Brelt as various crew members started giving instructions into pebbles.

  “Well, each person here has responsibility for part of the operation. See that one over there?” Sarah looked towards a blond male monitoring the right-hand side of the screen. “He’s responsible for the weapons on this quarter so he’s moving the gunners into position through instructions on his intercom. There’s going to be a fight and Leader-One is giving preparation orders.

  “Before it starts, the quarters are secured to make the separation faster, things get tied down, hazardous equipment is generally switched off. Just precautionary measures, of course. If the Pirates got hold of this ship it would be a major feather in their cap and Leader-One would rather see the ship destroyed than let that happen. Nothing to worry about though, it’s just standard procedure. You stay here, I’ve got responsibilities myself that I need to attend to.” Giving her a reassuring smile, Brelt left to help her crew mates.

  As they approached the planet Sarah could feel the ship slow but she still couldn’t see anything else on the screen. Then, from behind the planet, coming very fast, what seemed like hundreds of small shapes of different varieties came towards them. More and more sped into view and behind the preliminary attack were assorted larger ships. The largest stopped some way back, waiting like vultures.

  The Pirates were met by the Kaor fighter vessels, small round balls that bounced around like ping-pong balls and the battle commenced. Blasts of light flashed between the fighter planes so fast that it was impossible to see how many ships were on each side or even who was winning. Xander stood, fists clenched and helpless, in the centre of the bridge, while the first part of the battle raged outside. More enemy vessels flooded out from behind the planet.

  Swiftly the blur of fighters became sparser and it was easier to make out the two sides. The Kaors fought bravely and with skill but it was becoming clear that they were woefully outnumbered. The first of the larger vessels came towards the ship.

  “Fire when ready,” ordered Xander.

  Sarah now began to understand the logic of having four fully operational, equally distanced quarters on a ship this size as a frenzy of light blasts aimed at one of the larger enemy ships. Each quarter had several weapon stations that could cover a large area. One blast destroyed a fighter and a cheer went up, however a convoy of enemy ships was approaching and already she had felt the floor quiver several times. The largest ships had started to turn towards them. Brelt came back and stood beside her, her tunic dirty.

  “Are they going to blow us up?” Sarah asked.

  “No,” said Brelt. “They want the ship and they’ll try to damage it enough to leave us stranded but not enough that they can’t repair it. The first things they’re going for are the weapons, that’s why they keep trying to attack particular points on the ship.”

  “What happens if they win and take the ship?”

  “They only want the ship, not the contents,” Brelt said grimly.

  Red lights started flashing from around the Control room and three high-pitched tones sounded. The tannoy came on again “Ship separation to commence in thirty seconds. All crew to remain at their stations. Ship separation to commence in twenty-five seconds. Fighters are in dock. Lock down commenced. Ship separation to commence in twenty seconds…”

  A voice called out, “Hold on to something!” Sarah grasped one of the railings on the deck and tried to hold onto Monty with her free hand. She tightly closed her eyes. Monty lay down, looking around the deck with interest.

  “In five, four, three, two, one.” There was a gentle shudder.

  Sarah opened an eye tentatively and looked down at Monty. “Do you think that was it?”

  The largest enemy vessels had formed a semicircle and the detail on their ships was starting to come into view as they approached. Looking out at row upon row of them, it dawned on her why it was that there were so many different shapes and sizes. These were ships that had been stolen from other battles such as the one they were in now. She couldn’t get the thought out of her head that there were rather a lot of them.

  The section with Leader-One commanding had been the first to move away after separation and was now surrounded by the Pirate fighter planes. A burst of flame suddenly exploded from the trapped section’s fighter dock and the entire section swung wildly around, their weapons firing randomly as it did so until it was head-on with Xander’s section and shooting at them.

  “Open a slug hole[4] – NOW!” Xander shouted.

  There was a grinding, juddering motion and this time Sarah and the other crew members were thrown to the floor. A flash of green went past the front of the bridge and she realised that she hadn’t heard the ship firing in the last few minutes. She had hit her head hard on the monitors behind her as she fell and before she lost consciousness she wondered bleakly what happened to the unwanted contents of the captured vessels.

  The Pirate commanding the attack smiled in satisfaction as the escaping section disappeared.

  Monty licked Sarah’s face and nudged her hand with his paw, whimpering. He was pushed aside by Xander who quickly checked her pulse and examined the rapidly expanding bruise on her forehead. He hadn’t noticed her inert form at first in the panic of going through the slug hole. Lifting Sarah’s head gently onto his jacket he stroked some hair away from her eyes. As Monty nudged Xander with his nose the officer moved the dog’s fur in the way he had seen her doing. The big dog looked at him for a moment then offered Xander his paw. Xander solemnly accepted and shook it.

  “Am I interrupting some sort of male bonding?” Sarah croaked out and stroked Monty who was trying to sit on her legs. She looked at Xander and put her hand on his arm. “Are you all right? You look a bit rough.” She took a clean tissue from a discrete pocket on her dress and dabbed a trickle of blood from behind his ear. Slightly embarrassed, he reached up to take the tissue from her and as his fingers brushed her skin something pass
ed between them. For a brief moment, Sarah felt she had remembered something but it flashed by so quickly that she instantly lost the memory without having the chance to look at it. He appeared not to have noticed.

  “I have to check on the others. When you feel ready to get up, please go to Med-crew. I will send someone over to see you later.” He walked off.

  “Well, he’s got time for you anyway.” She looked at her friend and groaned as he moved his bony bottom on her legs into a better position. Around her the crew were moving slowly, some with bandages, others with darkening bruises. She tried to move but her head throbbed and light exploded in her vision. Brelt walked past and Sarah caught her leg.

  “Are we safe now?”

  “We went through a slug hole into another sector. All we have to do now is work out where we actually are.” She bent down and helped Sarah to her feet. “That’s the problem with the holes, they change so much we could be anywhere and it takes so much electricity from the engine rooms that it will put one of them out of action for weeks. There’s loads of uncharted territory, wouldn’t it be exciting if we were in a completely unknown area and spent years trying to find our way back?”

  “No, it would not! Don’t you want to get home again?” Sarah was genuinely shocked.

  Brelt shrugged. “I suppose it depends on what you call home. For me, I am home, but of course it’s different for everyone. I’m sorry, I have to go to the flight deck to see a friend who was involved in the space fight. Can you make it to Med-crew on your own?”

  “Sure, I’ll go in a minute, thanks; you carry on. I’ll be fine.” Sarah looked at her and tried to concentrate on bringing the two blurry outlines of Brelt into focus.

  The idea that she would never be able to go back to Earth had not, until now, even occurred to her. Sarah tried to search within herself for feelings of fear and homesickness but felt none. She reasoned that the shock of the recent space battle was interfering with her reasoning. Of course she wanted to go back. Why wouldn’t she? There was so much for her on Earth. True, she didn’t have a boyfriend, but there was plenty of time. Money was tight admittedly but somehow there was always enough for a sandwich and a dog biscuit. She tried to remember if she’d paid the rent yet. She had good friends that she could depend on in times of trouble. Name one that doesn’t have fur, said a treacherous part of her mind. Her globe-trotting parents could be relied upon to send a postcard at least once a month, or every two if they were busy, but she was sure they thought of her. Sometimes, anyway.

  Actually, now she came to think about it, did she want to go back?

  Xander took up a position in the centre of the room. He adjusted his uniform and cleared his throat. “Crew, as you know we have been through tough times before and come through. This will be no exception. As soon as we know where we are we will head back to Kaor and regroup with the other quarters, which I am confident will have escaped.

  “Even though we may be light years away from our loved ones we will never give up hope. Even if it takes us years and it is our children who make it back we will never give up. We will intrepidly go where…”

  “Hey, isn’t that Tarroc? Look, you can see the four moons. Dudes, we’re in the two-five-eight sector!” Garet, his three eyes bright, was bouncing up and down on his tentacles.

  Xander peered at the viewer looking vaguely disappointed. “Oh. Well done, Garet. Right, crew. Plot a course to Kaor. Yanis, Danti, Martyn and Eshalong take control. Those who can still walk help those who can’t to Med-crew. I want a full report from all conscious senior crew by the end of today detailing who is on the ship and damage sustained. Let’s go, everyone, there’s a lot of work to do.” He turned and spotted Sarah. “You definitely need to go to Med-crew.”

  “No, I don’t. Look - up and walking.” She got to her feet and nonchalantly brushed dust off her evening dress, which seemed rather out of place now. “Resilient creatures Earthlings. I feel better already.” I could probably safely stand here without swaying as long as the railing’s behind me but please don’t let me pass out, she prayed silently.

  “Leader-One, could you look at this please?” Yanis called from behind a monitor. “We’ve picked up something unusual on one of the nearby planets.”

  Xander turned back to Sarah. “I’ll see you later after you’ve been looked at by Med-crew.”

  She nodded and waited until his attention was on someone else before tottering back to her pod.

  Heading down the intricate maze of corridors, she noticed markings on the walls. She had no intention of going to Med-crew, even if she had known where it was, and so was walking slowly along the corridor. Although the walls looked completely plain, if she concentrated, she could make out subtle shapes. Each corridor had a different symbol halfway down along one side of the wall, and though she didn’t recognise what they were they felt unthreatening at least, and would make finding her way around much easier.

  Safely inside the privacy of her assigned area she spent some time gazing out at the void where the forest used to be in the centre of the ship. Instead of trees she was currently looking at a vast metallic wall. She supposed that when they were in a secure area again the energy field could go up and there would be stars to look at. Her astrophysicist education had consisted solely of the lesson that stars are the bright shiny things above her head. She was almost certain that there was probably more to it than that so the view could potentially be quite fascinating. Sarah wondered if there was someone on board who could explain the basics to her.

  Monty came up to her seat on the balcony and put his head in Sarah’s lap. Her hand automatically slipped down and stroked his shoulders. The Doberman moved to her side and sat next to her, facing the metal shield. Monty loved travelling to new places and sniffing out new scents. If his companion had decided to take a trip then it was fine by him. He lived for this type of excitement.

  Giving the metallic shield one last look she slipped back into the pod and started picking things up and straightening her few belongings. She took a couple of aspirin and lay down, lost in her thoughts. Doctors had always made her feel uncomfortable; she’d been lucky enough to have enjoyed sufficient good health not to have to go to hospital and when she was younger had managed to avoid school check-ups. She wondered why; it wasn’t so much a phobia, it was just that she didn’t trust them. A couple of aspirin would take away the thudding and she had some cream for bruising in her bag. One aspect to not wanting to see a doctor was that she always had to keep a well-stocked medical bag with her whenever she went out. She frowned as she heard water running.

  “Monty, are you in the shower again?” The water stopped. Of course he wasn’t in the shower, Sarah smiled to herself; she must have hit her head harder than she thought. The body drier started. “Monty?”

  Monty slunk out of the bathroom and slipped onto the balcony smelling strongly of roses.

  “You’re using my shower gel?” She put a hand up to her aching forehead. Oh good, she thought, now I’m delusional. Sitting on the edge of the bed Sarah allowed herself to lie down and rest against the cool of the pillow. How is it supposed to go next? And when she woke up she found that it had all been a dream. She felt herself slowly drift away. Good dream. Must remember some of this when I wake up.

  A persistent buzzing noise started up from somewhere to her right. Did I set the alarm too early? She put out a hand to hit the top of her clock, unbalanced and fell off the side of the bed. The jolt brought her to full alertness. Being unfamiliar with the layout of the room, she could see the door outlined in cracks of light and almost tripped over Monty on her way to it. When she eventually found the correct button the door panel opened leaving her staring vacantly into the corridor.

  A polite cough drew her eyes lower. An extremely short, rather tubby, crew member stood to attention.

  “Leader-One requests audience. I take you. Your head bleeds.” He gave a little half bow. “Lieutenant Garth Fader. At your service.”

  Sarah stared
down incredulously at the diminutive figure and tried not to look at the comb-over effort on his bald spot. “I’m sorry, what did you say your name was?”

  “Lieutenant Garth Fader. Leader-One meeting Visitors. See who remains. Apologies for inconvenience.”

  “I thought Leader-One was on one of the sections that separated?”

  “Xander Mantac promoted.”

  “Um, right.” She waved him into the room where he came face to face with Monty’s halitosis.

  “Here,” she reached into her bag for a bone shaped biscuit, “toss him one of these, they’re supposed to be good for his breath. They say ‘you are what you eat’ which is great if you like all the healthy stuff and I really do try and keep his snacks fresh and organic but unfortunately he’s a pig and he eats like one. Give me a second to get ready and I’ll be right with you.” She found the light switch before heading into the bathroom.

  In the mirror above the sink she discovered a thin line of blood had crusted down the left hand side of her face, caused by a shallow cut just above the hairline; one eye was going a deep purple and her hair had declared war on itself and was sticking out at odd angles. She wondered if they’d had previous experience of Earthlings or whether they would just take this in their stride. Earthlings? Yes, of course. Colourful creatures, aren’t they? And such interesting hair styles…

  Lieutenant Garth was also experiencing difficulties. In one hand he held an extremely large eucalyptus-smelling biscuit and he was acutely aware that watching this biscuit was a creature whose mouth could comfortably swallow his hand by accident. It was starting to salivate. Monty let his mouth hang open to pant with excitement and the Lieutenant tried not to stare at the powerful teeth pointing in his direction.