Vila reached back into his toolkit for an adjuster. The work was fiddly, because the delicate instruments were hard to manipulate in his clumsy gloves.
He made the modification to the tool, and applied it to the outer edge of the next limpet mine, at the point where it had attached to the Liberator. The mine was a flattened sphere with odd blotches across its surface. Vila didn’t know if this was alien writing or some kind of design. Whatever it was, they were different on each of the mines. He had successfully detached a couple of the devices, and found that these alien things were not just clamped to the surface, they had managed to dig themselves in. Once he had prised each mine away, he saw the Liberator auto-repair kick in as it began to re-cover the outer surface, and the ship’s protective skin began to reform. Until then, auto-repair seemed unable to dislodge these foreign bodies.
Vila kept up a commentary on what he was doing. In part this was so that Jenna understood what he was up to – she could take over when he needed a break. But mostly, it was to keep his own spirits up, and not to think too much about the implications of what he was doing. In the middle distance, a patch of hull was brilliantly illuminated as one of the mines exploded. He dreaded that one of the other, nearer devices might explode beside him. Or worse, in his hand.
He tried to concentrate on this latest one. There was a click beneath his fingers as he pried it loose. ‘That’s another one done.’ He flicked it up and away, so that it vanished into the darkness. There was something very satisfying about flinging them into space. He shuffled along a few metres and removed another one.
Jenna had patched Avon in to the communications, so that they could keep him informed of progress. ‘How’s it going?’ his voice asked in Vila’s earpiece.
‘Ten down,’ Jenna’s voice replied.
‘Two hundred to go,’ added Vila.
‘There’s certainly plenty of this alien ordnance up here,’ agreed Jenna. ‘That explosion scattered it over quite a wide area.’
Vila twisted his head and shoulders to take in a wider view of the hull. ‘Are you getting these images, Avon?’
‘Keep your head still. It makes the scan easier.’
‘OK. How’s that?’ Vila bent back to face the hull, and paused over the nearest mine. He remained motionless for several seconds, to allow his suit sensors to capture the data. ‘See the marks they leave? They’re burrowing into the outer hull.’
‘Like ticks on an animal,’ suggested Jenna.
Vila didn’t like the suggestion. He shuffled along on his hands and knees, and began to apply his tools to the next one. ‘Avon, I hope you’re getting all of this. Have you worked out what’s powering these things yet?’
‘Orac is analysing your scanner data. He might have something.’
‘Or he might just be sulking.’ The limpet mine clicked out of its slot. Vila tugged it free, and cast it away into the darkness. He flexed his fingers inside his thick gloves. ‘Oh, it’s going to take forever. My hands are starting to spasm already.’
‘Let me have a go,’ suggested Jenna. ‘I’ve seen how you do it.’
Vila shunted sideways so that he could see her properly. He was usually reluctant to let others do his job, let alone explain to them how he worked his magic. But at the moment, his professional pride hurt less than his cramped fingers.
He cautiously held out the tool he had been using. ‘Be careful with this,’ he said. ‘It’s a sub-atomic probe. Can be dangerous.’ He indicated a limpet mine to her left. ‘Use it on that one there.’
Jenna waggled the probe in her gloved hand and her helmet moved from side to side as she considered several options. ‘Which one?’
Vila gestured with one gloved hand. ‘There. The one that’s…’ He stared at the limpet mine. ‘The one that’s moving!’
His helmet prevented him from rubbing his eyes in disbelief, so he blinked several times to dispel the illusion. It did not. He let out a little cry of alarm. Two of the blotches on the flat round top of the limpet mine had sprung up. They rotated, as though searching for something. Or, Vila thought, like a pair of eyes.
‘It’s looking at us!’
Jenna shuffled aside, and bumped into Vila. He clutched for a handhold, terrified of being dislodged from the hull and floating off into space – where, no doubt, the limpet mines he had thrown overboard would be waiting, peering at him with their eyes on stalks.
Vila saw more movement in the corner of his eye. Several of the alien devices had sprouted legs, and begun to sidle sideways, scratching the surface as they dragged along.
‘They’re all starting to move,’ Jenna said.
Right across the hull, the limpet mines were popping up antennae. Some had short, stubby protuberances that barely broke the surface. Others had longer, more slender feelers stretching curiously into the vacuum.
Revealed by the lights in her helmet, Jenna’s eyes were wide in amazement. ‘D’you know what I think, Vila?’
‘That it’s time to leave?’
‘I think that these aren’t just bits of ordnance left by the aliens,’ she continued. ‘These are the aliens!’
Vila gulped. The sound was disconcertingly loud inside his helmet. ‘They’re burrowing into Liberator, ready to explode. Avon?’
The brief pause seemed to last forever.
‘Answer, Avon! These things have all spotted us.’
‘What is it?’
‘Trouble, that’s what! We’re surrounded by alien suicide ticks!’
There was no pause this time. Avon had obviously seen the sensor readings from their hull suits. ‘You should get back inside, Vila. Now.’
‘Oh, d’you think so?’
‘Orac says he’s worked out how dislodge them all.’ Avon sounded muffled, as though he had his head buried in something he was working on. Unless he was hiding under a table. ‘We’re going to reflect our radiation flare shield back onto the hull.’
‘Very clever,’ said Vila.
‘Very dangerous,’ Avon told him.
Even as Avon spoke, Vila felt a tremor underneath his body. The hull was vibrating. The audio channel on his earpiece crackled like sizzling bacon. ‘When were you planning on doing this, Avon?’
‘No time like the present.’
The alien limpets nearby quivered and clung to the hull. Vila decided it was a good idea to do exactly the same.
‘It’s working!’ shouted Jenna in his ear. ‘Look, Vila – at the far end.’ He followed her outstretched arm. ‘The aliens are detaching from the hull.’
It was an autumn leaf fall in reverse. At the farthest part of the Liberator‘s scarred exterior, limpet mines came loose and floated off like specks until they vanished into space. One of them, as it span away, exploded in a magnesium flare of light.
‘So much for them,’ Vila told Jenna. ‘But what about you and me? What happens when the flare shield reaches us?’
‘Like I said…‘ Avon’s voice was calm but insistent. ‘Get back inside.’
Avon’s words were starting to vanish into the comms background crackle. Vila could still just hear Jenna’s urgent voice. ‘Vila! We have to get to the airlock. Now!’
He twisted to look back at the doorway in the middle distance. A crowd of alien creatures bristled and shivered, and started to converge on his position.