Ed grimaced when he saw the co-ordinates for the vaccine pick-up. He’d hoped it would be a little more remote than a corner of the NASA airfield in Florida.
‘Can you stay watching the Gabriel while Linda and I shuttle down for the pick-up?’ he asked Andy.
‘So long as you don’t go to the pub,’ he replied, sitting down onto a bridge couch, replacing Linda as pilot.
‘I don’t think there’ll be room in the car park,’ said Linda, tossing the POK to Andy. ‘And don’t go anywhere or do anything silly while we’re gone.’
‘Would I do that to you?’ said Andy, slipping on the POK and closing his eyes.
It seemed as if the GDA had stopped searching for them since being detected but Linda took no chances and cloaked the shuttle before it left the hangar. She took a very slow flight into the atmosphere so as to not attract any attention by way of a big, fiery insertion trail. The shuttle dropped down over the Caribbean, slowing and scanning to avoid any commercial or private aircraft. It was late at night so air traffic was light as she cruised over the coast and approached Kennedy Space Centre.
‘Hello, home,’ said Linda as they flew over the accommodation area, turned and landed about a kilometre away from the actual rendezvous location. They were a little early so they sat, watched and waited.
A motorcycle appeared from the administration area and circled around the accommodation buildings. It stopped and the rider sat, checked over his shoulder, then peered out over the airfield. After waiting and checking his watch a couple of times, the rider kicked the bike into gear and continued down the perimeter road, finally stopping at the rendezvous point, and turned the bike off.
Linda lifted the ship as quietly as she could and drifted across the airfield to the now-standing rider. She turned the shuttle so the airlock was facing the rider, away from any buildings, and settled the ship as quietly as possible. Scanning the area thoroughly, she dimmed the cabin lights, opened her eyes and gave Ed the nod.
He hit the airlock control and waited as it powered up. The steps materialised.
The rider was about twenty metres away, staring at the doorway that had seemingly appeared out of nowhere, and slowly started walking towards the ship.
Ed jumped down and met the rider at the foot of the steps, who was fumbling with his helmet strap.
‘Hello, Edward. Welcome back,’ said a smiling James Dewey.
‘Administrator Dewey,’ said a surprised Ed.
‘Call me James, please.’
‘Okay, James it is.’
‘Can I see this wonderful ship?’
‘Of course you can. Come on up.’
‘Hello, Linda.’
‘Hi, boss,’ said Linda, keeping her eyes shut, closing the airlock and taking the shuttle up to seventy thousand feet.
‘Whoa, well I’ll be,’ said James, staring out the front screen. ‘That’s unreal.’
He peered around the cabin with interest. ‘Where’s Andrew?’
‘Piloting the Gabriel. What with all these battle cruisers lurking around, it’s getting a trifle crowded up there,’ said Ed.
‘This isn’t the Gabriel?’
‘This is just one of the little shuttles,’ said Linda. ‘Gabriel, can you hold the ship here for a while?’
‘No problem, Linda,’ said Gabriel.
‘Who was that?’ said James, now sounding confused.
‘Gabriel is the sentient computer system that runs the mothership – and the shuttles if we need them,’ said Linda.
‘…and provides us with everything we need,’ said Ed.
‘This just gets better, better indeed.’
‘I’ll give you an example,’ said Ed. ‘Who’s your favourite female movie star?’
‘Err, why?’
‘Humour me.’
‘Old or new?’
‘Either.’
‘Err – Rita Hayworth – one of the sexiest women ever, but I don’t see what that—’
‘Why, thank you, James. That’s so sweet of you to say,’ said Rita as she appeared in front of him, wearing a very sexy, long, blue dress. She gave him a big hug and a kiss on the cheek.
‘Err – thanks,’ said a very shocked James Dewey, dropping his helmet on the deck with a clunk.
‘You know, you really didn’t need to bring a crash helmet, James. I’ll be very gentle with you,’ said Rita, slowly running her tongue over her lips.
‘Thank you, Gabriel. I think James gets the idea,’ said Ed.
Rita gave a little wave, blew James a kiss and disappeared.
‘What just happened?’ asked James after a short pause, looking a little stunned.
‘An example of the technological advances we now have access to,’ said Ed. ‘They call that VDM – or Biomatter Spacial Reforming – and don’t even think of asking me for the mathematical equations for that. I wouldn’t know where to start. There’s sentient computer systems, tractor beams, the AVF drive, which is an anti-gravity light drive, the Alma Drive, which is their much improved jump drive, a TV field, or artificial gravity field and weapon systems that’ll make your hair curl.’
‘I’ve already been in conversation with the President regarding the new space technology. He’s asked me to put together a team to start building some ground rules on how we operate and license the new advances. But – shit – now it’s going to be even more critical.’
‘While you have the GDA close to hand, it might be the time to ask them about membership,’ said Ed. ‘I feel it would be prudent for Earth to be inside that alliance rather than trying to go it alone.’
‘I totally agree. Perhaps you could ask the Gabriel to give me an idiot’s guide to the workings and history of the GDA.’
‘It’s in your inbox,’ said Gabriel.
‘Shit, already?’
‘Don’t forget you have something for us.’
‘Ah, yes, of course, of course.’ James rummaged around in his jacket pocket and extracted a small plastic box and handed it to Ed. ‘I hope these help your friend.’
‘So do we,’ said Linda. ‘He saved our lives so we owe him.’
Linda retook control of the shuttle from Gabriel and gently brought the ship back down to land beside James’s motorcycle.
‘Next time we’ll take you further and you can see the starship,’ said Ed.
‘I’ll hold you to that – hold you to that I will,’ said James. ‘And good luck finding your murderer.’
‘Thanks, James, and give our regards to the President. We’re all looking forward to that invite to the White House,’ said Ed as James walked down the steps and over to his bike.
He followed him a moment later. ‘You might be needing this,’ he said, handing James his crash helmet.
‘Quite right, quite right,’ said James. ‘You know, I nearly went for a walk without my helmet on Mars, but we never told anybody that.’
‘Your secret’s safe with me,’ called Ed as he climbed back into the shuttle and closed the airlock door.
‘He would make a good ambassador at the GDA, you know,’ said Linda as they soared back up towards the Gabriel.
‘I was thinking the same thing. They’d all think their translators were faulty, though.’
Half an hour later, under instruction from Gabriel, Ed injected the antivirus into the auto-nurse, which in turn slowly administered it to the patient.
‘How long before we know?’ asked Linda.
‘The auto-nurse will assess the body’s reaction to the serum and, if it appears to be working, will start the process of bringing him out of the coma,’ said Gabriel. ‘It could be minutes or take several hours.’
‘Okay, I’ll go and plot a course to Krix’ir,’ said Linda and she disappeared out of the medical suite.
‘Gabriel, can you produce some clothing for me and Andy that will go unnoticed on Krix’ir? Also, some local currency. We’ll need holo images of the four-freighter crew from the island’s security imagers and some sort of non-lethal weapon we can use to subdue the suspect.’
‘Is that all, my lord?’ asked Gabriel in a very formal voice.
‘No,’ said Ed. ‘A nice large glass of Petit Chablis chilled to eleven degrees please.’
‘Do this, do that. It’s worse than being married.’
‘How would you know? Aren’t you supposed to be gender neutral?’
‘He’s been a whinging old rat bag for years,’ said Phil, in a very soft voice.
‘Shit! Phil, you’re awake. You’re alive!’ said Ed, running over and staring at him, where he lay still sealed inside the auto-nurse.
‘Guilty on both counts,’ said Phil, opening his eyes and squinting at the brightness of the lighting.
‘You don’t know how glad I am to see you.’
‘How are you, though? Weren’t you affected?’
‘No, none of us were.’
‘So, just me then?’
Ed looked away.
‘You’re crap at hiding stuff,’ said Phil. ‘Tony, Mike and Steve didn’t make it, did they?’
Ed shook his head and stared into space. Phil looked up at the ceiling for a while.
‘I’ll miss those idiots,’ he said, a tear running down his cheek. ‘We’ve had a lot of fun over the years.’
‘We miss them too,’ said Ed. ‘But the others are going to be thrilled you’ve come back.’
The auto-nurse unsealed and opened.
Phil lay there for a while until, with Ed’s help, he climbed out and stood shakily.
‘How we doing, Gabriel?’ said Phil.
‘Better now. Very good to see you back.’
Ed explained the last few days’ excitement to Phil on the way to the bridge.
By the time they got there, he was fully up to date and he almost got mobbed by Linda and Andy. He finally slumped onto a bridge couch, put on a POK and had a look around. He watched the satellite recordings from Panemorfi and studied the evidence regarding the freighter crew and its sudden demise above Krix’ir.
‘You believe one of them is still on Krix’ir?’ said Phil, looking at the holo images of the four men.
‘Yeah, and it’s one of those four,’ said Ed.
‘You really want to go there and find him?’
‘Yes, don’t you?’
Phil nodded slowly and looked up at the three faces looking back at him.
‘Gabriel, can you plot a jump to just outside the Krix’ir system and we’ll use a cloaked AVF drive to move in close?’
‘Linda’s already plotted the jump so we’re ready to go.’
‘Been playing with the big boy ships while I was away, have we?’ said Phil, smiling at Linda.
‘I had to do something while you were lazing around in bed,’ she said.
Phil laughed and looked around at the three grinning faces. ‘Gabriel, you may jump when ready.’