Alice parked across the road from the Old Oak Café and told the apparently empty car that she wouldn’t be long. She locked up carefully and crossed the street.
The moment she entered, she saw that Eric and Crystal weren’t waiting for her. Only three tables were occupied. An elderly couple, a family group, and a man on his own. Alice checked her watch, took a table from which she could keep her eye on her car, and ordered herbal tea.
It was delivered by a chatty waitress. ‘You just missed all the excitement. We had a TV star in here. That one from the news. The one that’s in all the magazines.’
‘Crystal Starbrite?’
‘Did you see her?’
‘I was supposed to be meeting her here.’
‘Really?’ The waitress looked sceptical.
‘How long ago did they leave?’
The girl glanced at the wall clock. ‘Fifteen minutes, maybe. Looked like they were in a hurry.’
Alice took out her cellphone and switched it on. Now she’d returned to civilisation it was working again. It beeped immediately. A missed call. She listened to the voice message.
‘Hi Alice. Eric here from Nine News. Guess you’re still on the road and have your phone off. Look, we have to dash out for a bit, but we’re staying in town tonight. We’re at Archer’s Hotel on the main road. Grab yourself something to eat and drink — say it’s on the Nine News account — and we’ll see you in an hour or so. Something big’s going on down here, and you could be our key witness.’
Alice replayed the message then looked up at a flutter of noise outside. She was just in time to see a helicopter rise from a field behind the town and head south.
* * *
The last view Tim had of the Eltherian ship was of the ramp withdrawing and the hatch slamming shut. A second later, still stunned by the ferocity of the attack, he was racing away with the others.
At first they headed for the hut, but when a white-hot fragment the size of a fist punched right through both sides leaving nothing but two smoking holes, they changed their minds. Norman, in the lead, dived into the low trench formed by the dry stream bed. The others followed. It was, at best, a marginal shelter, but at least they were out of the direct line of flying fragments.
‘Everyone OK?’ Ludokrus gasped.
Tim, who’d been trailing them, found the others staring at him in horror.
‘What?’ he said, then looked down at his jacket. There were two blackened holes in it; one front, one back, just below his left arm pit. ‘Whoa!’ he said, raising his arm to prove — partly to himself — that the fragment had passed straight through the fabric. ‘I never even felt that.’
Another burst of fire. Another wave of searing fragments whistled overhead. They crouched lower.
There was a brief lull. Up the valley, the Sentinel ship rose higher, seeking a more commanding position, then the firing recommenced. Five fiery fingers jetted out in parallel from the five barrels of the centrally mounted gun, all focussed on a single spot.
Tim risked a peek and was surprised to find the Eltherian craft was still there.
‘Why doesn’t it do something?’
‘She is lifeboat. No attack. Only shield.’
As the next wave came in, he saw the shield’s deflection profile a metre proud of the ship’s surface, a shape that matched its smooth contours.
‘Why not fly off then? At least get out of the firing line.’
‘Lifeboat mission is to rescue. If danger, other ships should defend. But those we do not have.’
During the next lull, Tim checked again. The shield’s outline was now partially visible, illuminated by five glowing dots that matched the five parallel lines of fire.
‘How long can it hold out?’ he asked.
‘Not long,’ Ludokrus said.
Another barrage started, targeted squarely at the five weakened points in the shield. They began glowing amber.
Fragments of energy shrapnel whizzed overhead, sizzling as they struck the ground, each one another knick in the rapidly depleting shield. All they could do was cower in the ditch and await the ship’s imminent destruction. Then what? Tim thought. Then where would the Sentinels direct their fire?