Alec's Dream

by Dave Birchbauer

  “Hi dad” Sofie floated in front of the main view screen. Clay’s picture smiled down at her.

  It took a few seconds before he acknowledged. “Hi Sofie”

  Dolores squeezed into the display. “How are you doing? Are you OK? How is the ship doing? I miss you.” It all came out in a single breath… her look of concern saying it all.

  “Hi mom, we're doing just fine. This is incredible. The view of Earth is beautiful and you should see the moon. We’re almost there.” Sofie did a small back flip while waiting out the transmission delay.

  “We can see it on our monitors. It is beautiful.” Clay added.

  “According to Jade, we won't be able to talk to you once we're on the other side, but she said it shouldn’t be for long.”

  Jessie pushed off the back wall, spinning upright before reaching Sofie. “Hi Mr. and Mrs. Matteson” She said doing one more spin.

  “Hi Jessie, see you later Sofie.” Dolores waved as she stepped aside to make room for Alec and Jodi.

  “Hey Jess, how does the inertial dampening feel?” asked Alec.

  “You can't feel a thing. It’s like were standing still. According to Jade, at the rate we accelerated we should have been squashed flat as pancakes. I wish you guys were here with us.”

  “I wish we were there too.” replied Jodi.

  The comment took Jessie by surprise. “Really? I never thought you were interested in space mom.”

  Alec piped in “Why wouldn't she? She’s been taking a back seat to everything we've been doing for the past year. She deserves a space vacation more than anyone here. So does Sofie’s mom.”

  Jessie felt her eyes getting watery “Gee mom, I never thought about that. Now I really am feeling guilty....”

  Leland interrupted. “We'll be passing over to the far side in a couple of minutes, so we'll be losing our com link. Sorry about cutting your conversation short.”

  Jessie grinned at seeing how hard it was for Leland to be nice.

  “We’ll talk to you on the other side; we'll be here waiting for...” The screen went fuzzy, then blank in the middle of Clay’s goodbye.

  “Bye guys.” Sofie said to the empty screen. Jessie gave her a gentle push and they drifted to the front windows where they turned their attention to the moon’s surface drawing near.

  “I thought the other side of the moon was always dark?” Jessie asked. Sofie’s 'what a dunce' look made her wince.

  Phyllis attempted to explain “The other side of the moon, or far side, is not always the dark side of the moon. It’s all about which side of the moon is facing the sun, or facing away from the sun.”

  “So as the moon spins, the other side gets lit by the sun.” Jessie said after some thought. She cringed as Sofie rolled her eyes. Now she just wanted the conversation to be over with.

  Phyllis, undaunted, continued. “There is a phenomenon where the moon spins at the same rate it orbits the Earth, so the same side of the moon always faces the Earth, therefore the far side of the moon always faces away from the Earth. But as the moon orbits the Earth, its angle to the sun changes, causing the lit side of the moon to move a little every day. We don’t really notice the moons orbit because the Earth is also spinning which allows us to see it every night. But what we do see is the different phases of the moon, as you noticed that the moon was only half lit on the way out here. That means that the far side of the moon is also half lit.”

  “So every day the moon orbits the Earth” Jessie concluded.

  “The moon circles the earth every 28 days; the Earth makes a full spin once a day.” Sofie corrected before Phyllis could. “That’s why there’s a full moon once a month.”

  “There is?” Jessie scratched her head looking back at them.

  Phyllis finally said. “Just trust us that we’ll have light half way across the moons backside.”

  “So what we're looking at is the far side of the moon... and it’s lit.” Jessie said relieved that the explanation was over and turned her attention back to the moon’s surface shooting past just a couple hundred miles below.

  “We'll be entering the dark side soon.” Leland pointed toward the beautifully lit moonscape fading to blackness ahead of them.

  “Does the moon have a moon?” Jessie was a little hesitant in asking, not wanting another lecture. Everyone curiously looked ahead at what she was looking at… hanging high above the moon’s horizon was a small moon.

  “No… the moon doesn’t have... a... moon.” Leland said softly, half to himself. He grabbed hold of the controls, slowing the ship. “This is wrong, very wrong. Phyllis, can you magnify on the main screen?” A small moonlike object appeared on the display.

  “Wow, look at that ship!” Sofie said in a hushed voice almost as though she was afraid she could be heard by it. “It looks like it's made of rock.”

  Leland brought the ALEC’S DREAM to a full stop.

  “What are those things sticking out of it?” Jessie pointed to metal spikes encircling the ship.

  “They look like conning towers.” Leland answered.

  The ship, if it really was a ship, was shaped like an elongated baked potato. Its skin pockmarked and cracked. One end was flat, like someone had cut a slice off. There were four equally spaced rings of metal posts encircling it. In a way, they looked like studded dog collars. The two rings near the ends had smaller studs, while the studs of the two inner rings were much larger; those were the ones Leland thought looked like conning towers.

  “How big is that thing?” Phyllis asked Jade.

  Jade looked at the radar on her console. Jessie drifted to hover behind her. With a few light touches to her console, Jade transferred the display to an overhead monitor. It showed a large oval shaped blob at the top of the screen. A few more touches to her console and gridlines overlaid the display.

  “According to my calculations, it looks to be about 30 miles long.” Jade choked. “And about 8 miles in diameter”

  “What are all those other blips?” Sofie pointed to a horde of dots scattered across the bottom of the screen.

  “I don't think it’s anything, probably just ground clutter off the moon.” Phyllis dismissed. As though on cue, more dots broke from the flat end of the egg shaped ship.

  “Or maybe not... Leland? Jade? What do you guys make of those? I'm getting a bad feeling about this.”

  “Definitely not clutter, they're moving independently and in unison, with intelligence, definitely ships, yup, definitely ships.” Jade sounded rather proud of herself for coming up with that conclusion. “Oh, ships! Those aren't ours, are they? Leland?” She gave their commander a worried look.

  “Everybody, back in you seats. Buckle up.” Leland locked his control panel in front of him. Jessie was the last to reach her seat and by the time she was buckled, Leland was already accelerating forward, in the direction of the giant ship. He descended until it felt like they were flying just inches above the moon’s surface.

  The radar image on the front screen now showed a circular grid with the ALEC’S DREAM in its center. The mysterious ship could be seen above them; with dots, dozens of them, all closing in.

  The ship lurched in conjunction with a dull echoing thud. Jessie reflexively grabbed the arms of her chair. Leland’s fighter pilot reflexes kicked in as he banked sharp left then rolled back to the right. After straightening out she noticed that one of the dots were flying next to them.

  “Damage report!” His tone made Jessie realize they were in real danger.

  Phyllis examined the ships systems from her copilot console responded. “All systems green. Shields are still up.”

  “That was an attack!” Leland growled. “We’re not even armed.”

  The ship flying next to them looked much like a fighter jet. It had small stubby wings and a bubble shaped cockpit. There were no visible engines other than the exit hole at the rear of its fuselage. It was black and the crimson markings on its side looked like a cross between Russian alpha
bet and Egyptian Hieroglyphs. The wings were trapezoidal in shape, wider near the body, studded with many strange looking devices, some obviously missiles, yet others looked to be straight out of a science fiction movie.

  “Can you zoom in on the cockpit?” Leland asked Jade. The main screen displayed an image of the alien ships pilot. They couldn’t glean much since he wore a gray helmet with a black faceplate. But they could tell he was humanoid, with 2 arms and normal looking hands. If anything; the fingers seemed a little longer than normal... but that could have been because of his suit.

  Jessie reached for her seatbelt and looked expectantly at Sofie. Sofie shook her head in a silent ‘no’, her face pale. Jessie’s buckle clicked open and she silently floated to the side window to get a firsthand look at the alien pilot. He looked back and lifted his facemask. She saw curly locks sticking out his helmet over his forehead. She thought he looked pretty, almost girlish. He grinned, showing slightly crooked teeth before dropping his facemask back down. The ship shot upwards. Jessie pressed her face against the window to watch its maneuver as it attempted to position itself above them for a clear shot. Thanks to inertial dampening, Leland brought the ALEC’S DREAM to a full stop. The alien ship continued speeding ahead while releasing one of its missiles… which passed harmlessly by, a few thousand feet in front. The alien ship, now to their front, slowed. Jessie could see the pilots head turning… frantically looking for them.

  Taking advantage of the pilot’s confusion, Leland accelerated, overtaking the fighter and passing just a few feet above it. Once in front, he quickly descended, in a move to cut it off. The surprised pilot took evasive action banking right and downward. Unfortunately he was too close to the moon’s surface and hit it hard where it tumbled, breaking apart. In the middle of its third roll, it exploded, not like a normal explosion, but with a flash, bright as a sunburst that quickly shrunk and disappeared leaving nothing but a trail of broken fighter parts strewn over the moon’s surface.

  Jessie wanted to cheer but held her tongue, noticing everyone else in the cabin remained silent. She looked around to see Sofie worriedly staring at the front monitor showing more ships closing in on them from above and behind.

  The blur of the moon’s surface let Jessie know that Leland accelerated again, still heading in the direction of the giant ship. She looked questioningly at Leland.

  “It’s the shortest route to the other side. Besides, they have us blocked off from behind.” he said concentrating on the view ahead.

  Jessie looked at the radar again. The sky in front was clear and they seemed to be outrunning the ships chasing them. Just as she was beginning to think they were going to make it, more dots began blinking into existence from behind the giant ship. They were being surrounded. She looked at Leland again, he kept flying. Then without warning, everything went black.

  “We just passed into the dark side.” Jade said to the startled crew.

  “Get back in your seat.” Leland barked to Jessie. She realized she was the only one standing... or floating, and flew back to her seat. Sofie helped pull her in. Without warning Leland stopped the ship making Jessie and Sofie reflexively grab the arms of their chairs.

  “I swear, every time he stops like that I feel like we’re going to shoot through the front window.” Sofie whispered.

  With the ship hovering just a few hundred feet above the moon’s surface, Leland began rotating it while searching the darkness. After about a third of the way around, he found what he was looking for and accelerated downwards. Fear gripped Jessie. She knew how close they were to the surface… and there was nothing but blackness out front. All they could do was trust him. A large dark spot, like a pool of ink, began growing in the darkness until they were engulfed in it.

  Leland let go of the controls and turned off the cabin lights. Jessie and Sofie still held tight to their chair arms.

  “Hey I think we’re stopped.” Sofie noticed.

  The ships inertial dampening had left them with no feeling of acceleration or deceleration, and without being able to see any movement outside, they hadn’t realized that Leland ‘skidded’ to a stop, right below the lip of a crater.

  As their eyes adjusted to the darkness they were able to make out their new parking spot. The crater wasn't large, but it was deep with its sides extending above the moon’s surface forming high ragged ridges. Somehow Leland had spotted this small crevice just below the craters lip where they now hovered, concealed from their pursuers… at least for now.

  They sat quietly in darkness, the glow of the monitors reflecting off the walls and their faces. Leland unlocked his console and pushed it aside. Turning to the girls he said. “We should be able to hide here for a while and think.” He gave Jade and Phyllis a hand signal. They gave him a confused look. He leaned his head in the direction of the girls… emphasizing his hand signal. Jade and Phyllis finally got his point and jumped to comfort the girls.

  “Before anyone panics, we should first feel pretty good about what we've discovered.” Leland started.

  Jessie hadn’t even thought about panicking, but now that Leland brought it up…

  “I was there when the hull shield was being tested, and I've watched it take heat, cold, lasers, infrared and explosives. We took a hit from a missile and didn't even get a scratch.”

  “I didn’t hear any explosion?” Sofie said, her fear draining a bit.

  “Sound can’t travel through space; it needs air or something solid.” Phyllis answered.

  “But how come we heard anything at all?” Sofie remembered the dull thud. Phyllis didn’t have an answer.

  “Sound can travel through space, if the space is dense enough.” Jade answered. “You see, I helped Jessie’s dad develop the shields. They’re made by creating two bubbles with the gravity inductors; one inside the other. When we expand the inner bubble to nearly the size of the outer one, the space between the two bubbles is squeezed until it becomes very dense. The compressed space between the bubbles can keep matter and even energy from passing through; depending on how dense it is. That’s why we call it a ‘density shield’. What we heard was sound reverberating through that compressed layer of space surrounding the ship. It’s kind of ironic, but the stronger we make the shield, the more sound it will let pass.

  “How come we felt that bump?” Sofie looked questioningly at Jessie. “I thought we had that inertial dampening thing, didn’t it work?”

  “The inertial dampening is interconnected with the ships drive controls, it reacts to our own movements based on the controls but it doesn't react to movement not caused by us. It isn't smart enough.” Jessie felt like giving a smug look but thought better of it.

  “We need to make contact with Earth; do you guys have any suggestions?” Leland asked.

  Jessie wondered why he was asking them. “What can Earth do?”

  “Yea, we're stuck up here with thousands of ships trying to shoot us!” Sofie added. Jessie could hear panic start to grow again in her voice.

  “Sofie, don’t worry too much about those ships. I was trying to keep track and counted only about 30. With all our moving around, it just looked like there were a lot more on the radar.” Jade said trying to comfort the sniffling Sofie.

  “But what can Earth do?” Jessie asked.

  “There is another ship back at Big Sky that’s a twin to this one.” Phyllis replied. “If we can contact Sheldon, he’ll be able to equip it with some weapons.”

  Jessie looked at Sofie who wiped her nose with her sleeve. Then, as only close friends can do, they came to an understanding without saying a word.

  “We're ready to help. What should we do?” Sofie turned to Leland. There was no more sniffling.

  Leland expression softened. “Being stuck on this side of the moon we need some way to make direct contact with Earth. Do you have any ideas?”

  After thinking about it, Jessie timidly spoke up. “When we were in the back storeroom, I noticed a spare radio and some space suits. I could p
ut the radio in one of the suites and link it up with the suit radio.” Jade, Leland and Phyllis stared back, curiously waiting for her to continue.

  “Well, the suit has enough power to last… well, forever. Maybe we could figure out how to guide it away from the moon... and ah… out to where it could communicate with earth. We could talk to the suit... and the suit would retransmit what we send. I think I can wire up the spare radio to the suit radio so it could retransmit both ways.”

  Jessie began feeling stupid again as everyone just stared at her. “I know… it’s a stupid idea... OK, I'll shut up.” She said awkwardly.

  “Kid, if you can wire up a suit... that's brilliant.” Leland beamed, so did everyone else.

  “You know, I've got that remote control we used to get past the security cameras in my backpack.” Sofie realized she just gave away one of their secrets. “Oops… Sorry Jessie.”

  Jessie just shrugged. “I think I'm getting out of the sneaking around business from now on.” Sofie nodded vigorously in agreement.

  “What are you thinking about doing with that remote?” Jade asked, having an idea of what Sofie had in mind.

  “Maybe we could use the remote control to fly the suit past those ships to get clear of the moon.” Sofie unbuckled from her chair.

  “I think we have a plan! Jade, Phyllis, you and the girls get the radios and suit ready, I’ll work out the antennae problems.” They were already in the back storeroom before Leland finished giving his orders. He looked around the empty bridge, shrugged and followed.

  It wasn't long before Jessie and Jade had the spare radio wedged into the suits helmet. Sofie and Phyllis were testing the remote controls by flying the helmet-less suit around the ship; like a headless ghost.

  “We need a better camera. It’s too hard to control the suit with the view from this stupid camera. It only points straight ahead.” grumbled Sofie about the suit camera mounted on its shoulder.

  “The ship is full of cameras, inside and out. Just take one.” Leland looked up from his antenna assembly. “As a matter of fact, grab two. It might be a good idea to put a camera on the antenna... to give us a ground view.”

  “Jade, is it possible to connect the camera controls to the suits radio?” Phyllis asked holding out the one she just scavenged off the wall from the mess area. Jade studied it. Jessie looked up from her soldering inside the suits helmet. “That's easy, I suppose you want me to wire up the mounting motors too.” She asked, and then returned to her work without waiting for an answer.

  Four long hours later, a droopy eyed Jessie sat on the bench in the back cabin looking at their modified spacesuit floating in the room’s center. Leland, fitted in another suit, stood next to it holding his makeshift antenna.

  Leaning against the door jam with her arms crossed, Phyllis observed. “You look like a modern day American Gothic...” To Jessie’s confused look she added. “You know the painting with the farmer and his wife holding the pitchfork?”

  Jessie overheard Jade giggle over the speakers.

  “Funny Phyllis, let’s just get this done.” Leland’s growl came through the same speakers.

  He turned to the airlock mounted on the back wall. A strange location for an airlock since a normal ship would have its engines mounted along the back. But the ALEC’S DREAM gravity plates rimmed the outer edge of its flat back side… leaving most of the rear wall usable for other things.

  Jessie watched Phyllis wrangle Leland and his antenna through the airlock door. It took Leland another 5 minutes to wrestle the antenna outside.

  “We need to tell Sheldon to make these doors bigger on the next model.” Leland sounded out of breath. “You can send my partner out whenever you're ready.” He was referring to the remote controlled suit still floating in the center of the room. Jessie helped Phyllis guide it into the airlock then bounded to the front cabin to watch Leland and his antenna fly up and over the lip of the crater; a coil of wire trailing behind.

  “You're new best friend is in the airlock” Phyllis said taking her seat at her copilots console.

  “Do you see anything?” Phyllis’s asked looking up at the wire leading into the darkness above them.

  “It’s too dark to tell. I think I see flares from their engines, but nothing near us.”

  Jessie could feel the tension in the bridge as they waited for Leland to finish. Finally his voice came over the speakers. “There… this should hold.”

  Jessie and Sofie ran to the window in time to see him breach the darkness, straightening the coiled wire as he drifted down. He waved as he passed, then disappeared below the ship to attach the cable to the interface jacks used by the ground crew.

  “Are you getting anything?”

  “Nothing yet… wait, there it is.” Jade responded as the main view screen flickered before displaying a crisp picture of the moonscape.

  “I had to break the retaining clip off of the connector in case we need to make a quick escape. It’s a little loose. I hope it doesn’t fall out… how is it now?” Leland’s asked.

  “Still looks good.” Jade responded after the picture flickered. Working the makeshift controls, they were rewarded with the view of the moonscape panning to the left, then to the right. “Controls work fine.”

  “Looks like I’m done here.” He said. Phyllis bounded to the back cabin to help him in.

  Later, as Leland returned to his pilot’s seat, Jessie moved to the front window to look at the empty suit staring back at them from outside.

  “Jess, look we’re on TV.” Sofie said.

  Jessie floated back to her seat to watch the main screen showing the view from the suits camera. Leland nodded and Sofie worked her remote. In response, the suit drifted up. At the same time, the view from the suit camera showed the ALEC’S DREAM dropping into darkness.

  Jessie could do nothing but sit nervously and watch the monitors. Phyllis controlled the suits camera and Leland the antenna’s directional motors and camera. As the suit crested the craters rim, the monitor showed the darkened moonscape with the makeshift antenna embedded in the dirt. A similar view of the moonscape was provided by the antenna’s monitor.

  The plan was to fly the suit back in the same direction they came from. Back into the lit side of the moon and into space; clear of the moon and in radio range of Earth. Their hope was that the small size of the suit would slip past whatever the aliens use for radar.

  Hours passed as the suit slowly made its way above the moon’s rough terrain. They took turns manning its controls. It took nearly 7 hours for it to finally edge past the moons horizon giving a partial view of the Earth.

  “Just what we hoped for, we have a direct line of sight to mission control. We won’t have to wait.” Jessie heard relief in Leland’s voice. The realization of what he said made her feel disappointed in herself again. It never occurred to her... if their home would have been on the other side, they would have to wait a half a day for the Earth to spin around.

  Jade switched the main screen over to the communications display that showed the words ‘no signal’.

  “This is the ALEC’S DREAM, please reply” Jade repeated. After only a slight delay, the screen flickered then displayed unrecognizable pixilated figures. Jessie anxiously stood behind Jade. “Mom! Dad!” Sofie’s yell echoed hers as the 4 fuzzy silhouettes sharpened into images of their parents.

  “Jessie, Sofie? Are you there? Can you hear us? Please, are you there?” The jumble of voices came from the screen. In her excitement she stepped forward a little too hard causing her to almost fly into the monitor. Sofie grabbed her ankle just in time.

  “Thanks Sof.” She said settling to the floor.

  After a few seconds, the look of relief on their parent’s faces let them know they were receiving their picture. Before Jessie or Sofie could say anything Leland cut in. “We may not have much time; we’re hiding on the moon’s surface in order to avoid hostiles. Repeat, there are hostiles out here. At present, we are safe. The sh
ip has not sustained any damage and all passengers are safe and sound.”

  They waited out the communications delay.

  “What hostiles? Sofie? Jessie?” Clay's face now filled the screen.

  “We're fine Dad, we want to come home!” Sofie yelled.

  “There is a large ship, approximately 30 miles by 8 miles in size, positioned behind the moon. We have seen it being used as a base for smaller fighters.” Leland continued. “We are hiding and would like some assistance from the Doppelganger.”

  Sheldon’s image replaced Clay’s. “Leland, are you in imminent danger? How long can you hold out?” His long thin nose looked as though it would come right through the view screen. He pushed his hands through his dark hair while waiting out the delay.

  “We’re safe for now, no telling when or if they will find us. We've taken a hit with no damage. Our gravity drives and inertial dampening give us an advantage.” Leland responded. “We have air and supplies to last at least a week. If needed we might be able to make a run for it, but with the size of that ship, they may have more armaments than we want to deal with.”

  “We'll have the Doppelganger up within 24 hours if it’s the last thing I do. I’ll also notify the authorities… through my private channels, of course.” Sheldon needed to be careful since their little escapade around the moon was not sanctioned by the military, or the government. But he did have high level contacts within the military.

  “Jessie, are you OK?” Sheldon’s surprised face disappeared from the screen as Jodi shoved him away. She reached out her hand as if trying to touch her.

  Jessie stepped closer to the screen. “We're OK mom, Mr. Leland is a really good pilot, he's almost as good as Sofie and he hid us in a crater and...” Jessie whimpered as the screen went blue. The words 'no signal' glowed across it. “No... mom!” She looked back at Jade who was working at the controls trying to restore the link. She looked up shaking her head.

  “Sorry, it looks like…” Her face went to stone as she saw the monitors.

  Jessie turned to see what she was staring at just as the ship lurched. Pieces of moon rock and dirt fell past the windows. The ship rocked again. The suit and antenna screens went blank, but not before they saw 3 alien fighters, weapons firing, heading straight for the antenna camera.

  Jessie let Sofie drag her to their seats as Leland locked his control panel in front of him. Another jolt hit as they strapped in. Leland accelerated out and up streaking past the attacking ships, straight towards the giant asteroid ship above. The fighters were fast, faster than Jessie thought. They caught up to them by the time they reached the big ship.

  “Wow, how fast did we accelerate? And they caught up to us?” Jade mirrored Jessie’s amazement.

  “They must have inertial dampening.” Jessie thought out loud.

  “Then why do they need rockets?” Jade wondered. “If they had anti-gravity technology, then they definitely wouldn’t need rockets. Their physiology must allow them to handle that level of acceleration… at least for a short time.”

  They all went silent as Leland skimmed above the rock-like surface of the giant ship.

  “Why so close?” Jessie croaked.

  “They won’t fire missiles at us while were this close… I doubt if they want to hit their mother ship if they miss.” Leland said not taking his eyes off the monitor. Just as he finished his sentence missiles began raining down, exploding on the surface all around them. “Or maybe not…” he added and began taking evasive action zigzagging across the surface. “Jade, look for a clear path away from this beast, if we can get past these fighters we might be able to outrun them. I think it’s about time I test out the full speed of this ship.”

  “There's another dozen ships coming at us from ahead.” Jade said. “I can see a path up and out, but we need to get around this group coming at us first… sorry.”

  Without acknowledging, he suddenly changed course for the base of one of the monstrous conning towers.

  “Look at the size of that skyscraper.” Sofie stared at the tower that would have dwarfed any building on Earth.

  As they neared the towers base, more ships circled around from the other side cutting off their exit, leaving them with nowhere to go. Jessie squeaked and gripped the arms of her chair as Leland changed direction straight down into a small crevice that seemed to form out of nowhere. It was barely wide enough for them to fit.

  “Why do you think I headed for the towers?” Leland afforded himself a chuckle even while navigating the small canyon at breakneck speed. Missiles exploded on the surface above, strewing rubble, rocks and dirt around them.

  “Hold tight everyone. I’m hoping this canyon will take us to the far side of that tower. If I’m right, we just might come out behind them.” He said without diverting his attention. To Jessie’s and Sofie’s distress, he hadn’t slowed much after entering the crevice. The stark contrast of light and dark playing off the rock outcroppings and turns of the canyon made it feel like a carnival ride. Out of nowhere, two missiles entered from above hitting the walls just ahead. Two expanding plumes of rock, dust and debris erupted and if it wasn’t for Leland’s trained reflexes and the ships anti-gravity technology they would have been destroyed. Stopping, he reversed and moved closer to the right wall where he parking behind a small outcropping. The walls in front of them continued to slowly crumble. Some debris floated up and out into space, but most floated towards the canyons floor. As more of the rock separated from the wall, they saw a dark opening exposed. Without hesitation, Leland flew straight for it. The crew held on, not from acceleration, but more from fear of where he was taking them.

  “Whoa, isn't this kind of dangerous?” Phyllis whispered to Leland. In the silence of the ship… they all heard her.

  He continued plowing through the debris cloud. “It’s a calculated risk, if they figured out what we were planning, it’s a good bet we’ll be met by a welcome party when we get out of this canyon... unless they thought we were destroyed by the blasts.” He smiled. “I’m sure they’ll be looking for wreckage when we don’t show up. Hopefully we can get far enough inside that little cave where they can't find us, and uh, well, and that we don't get buried.” he whispered to Phyllis not thinking the girls could overhear. But they did.

  He turned on the exterior lights as they entered the darkness of the cavern. As powerful as they were, they were not bright enough to see the back of the cave. He kept moving farther in.

  “How deep is this cave?” Jade asked getting out of her seat to float behind Leland. Sofie and Jessie unbuckled and drifted next her.

  “Look” Sofie pointed at the back wall as it came into view. What they saw was a jagged hole. It looked like a broken entrance into a subway tube with uneven edges and smooth curved inside walls. Leland came to a stop just outside to examine it. As Jessie carefully floated to the window for a closer look Leland slipped inside without warning.

  “Why... why, are we going in? Can't we just sit quietly at the back of the cave?” Jessie looked back at him.

  “If we were able to see the cave, they will too, and if they do, we'd be sitting ducks with no way out. This shaft has to lead somewhere. With our anti-gravity drives and shields we should easily be able to get through this, there's no way those fighters could even think about following. I think luck might be with us.” He didn’t mention the lights he saw near the caves opening.

  The tube seemed to go on forever with many twists and turns. Jessie quickly lost her sense of direction, not knowing up from down or left from right, being able to only see a few dozen feet in front of them.

  “There!” Sofie pointed at a small dot of light to their front.

  “Hold on, I’m going to exit at full speed. It’ll give us a head start in case they’re waiting for us.” The small dot of light quickly grew larger… a definite sign that Leland had already accelerated. Jessie was the first to realize something was wrong as they exited, Leland was the second.

  “Sto
p!” She yelled. Leland didn’t need her warning as his reflexes brought them to a stop just outside the tunnel’s exit. They immediately knew they didn’t exit the ship as they stared at the unexpected scene around them.

  Chapter 10 ~ Help from Home