“Good day to you, Mr Blackmore,” came the voice from the recording. “I regret that it has taken us this long to get in contact with you, and I regret that Miss Phipps was unable to reveal her true identity before today,”
Annie turned and smiled at Blackmore.
“but we have been finalising the plan to minimise casualties.”
“Causalities?!” said Blackmore, shocked. He wasn’t expecting casualties.
“Just listen!” hissed Annie.
The General continued. “In 14 months this colony will pass through the Tain system. In particular it will pass by a planet called Trixatin. This is a paradise world, but the people are very private. They like to hide themselves away and don’t share their technology. Unfortunately they have technology that the Eyeglass want. Technology that will better the Human race.”
Blackmore nodded in agreement. This was the way that they worked.
“Sadly the Trixatins have used their technology to hide their world away. It has been masked by a device called the Shroud. A device that creates a fake - albeit extremely real - landscape or world around the one already there. We need this technology. This is where you come in, Blackmore.”
Blackmore straightened himself up, ready to hear about his mission.
Some time later Blackmore and Annie were sat in the canteen. Annie wasn’t eating, but Blackmore was busy going through a bowl of rice.
“We need to get a move on,” said Annie.
“I’m hungry,” said Blackmore. “It’ll all be alright. I’ve already erased the database. None of the colony know about the planet being restricted.”
“Then we need to convince the colony to allow us to separate from the others.”
“I know that as well. That’s already been dealt with,” he said, shovelling more rice into his mouth. “Tointon’s been convinced. We’re just waiting for clearance from the colony commander.”
Annie sighed and got up. She crossed over to the porthole and looked out across the star field. “This had better work.”
“Relax,” smiled Blackmore. “You heard the general. It’ll go without a hitch.”
“Just as long as the kids are safe,” said Annie. “I don’t really give a toss about the rest of the staff on here. I just want to make sure the children aren’t hurt.”
Blackmore looked at her curiously and put his spoon down. He leaned back in the chair and folded his arms. “What made you join up?”
Annie looked back at him and smiled sadly. “My parents died when I was a kid. I was left alone on one of the Mars colonies. I had to grow up with this young couple who were desperate for kids. Called themselves the Farrington’s.”
“I take it you didn’t like them?”
“No. They always seemed…distant. Like they didn’t really have any interest in me.” She crossed back to the table and sat down. “So when I turned 15 I ran away back to Earth. Hitched a ride on a supply ship. That’s when I met the General. He took me in and taught me all about the Eyeglass.”
“Conditioned from being young, then?” smiled Blackmore.
“It’s not like that,” said Annie. “He just opened my eyes to the rest of the universe. Made me realise that we had to look after our own kind.”
Blackmore nodded as he finished the last of his rice. “I always loved to read about them. Working for the better of the Human race. They were like intergalactic heroes to me. They got in touch with me a few years ago. My father was always very keen on me joining up too.”
“How come? I mean, how come they came after you?”
“I guess they knew I’d shown an interest in them. If you do too much reading up on them then you’re bound to get noticed.” Blackmore took a sip of his water. “They didn’t take me on board permanently, though. Just got me to do a few little jobs. This is the first time I’ve actually joined them.”
Annie sighed. “And this is it now, Magnus. Get used to it. You’ll go from job to job, picking up the wages and bettering our race. Enjoy it.”
Blackmore smiled, but she could tell that Annie wasn’t entirely convinced about what she was saying. She almost certainly wasn’t as confident as she had been an hour or so ago.
Blackmore stood in the engine room. He could feel beads of sweat running down his face. The ship had been diverted to allow the kids some fresh air on Trixatin and they were in low orbit. He knew the next step in the plan and this was going to be the hard part.
He looked at the control panel in front of him and frowned. He was sure he’d learnt the correct procedure, but he wasn’t entirely sure now he was faced with the task.
A crackle came over the intercom.
“What are you doing, Magnus?” came Annie’s whispered voice.
“I’m, erm, I’m just making sure I get it right.”
“Well hurry up. We need to make sure this crate crashes on time. We have a date with this Doomclaw, remember?”
“I remember,” said Blackmore, remembering back to the video message from the General.
He flicked a few switches on the control panel and the hum of the engines died down. He then opened a panel below the main console and went inside.
It was a mess of wires and circuits. Blackmore consulted a schematic he had with him and then returned to the wires. He used a small, pen-like device to sever them and switch over a few circuit boards.
After a few minutes he stood up and closed the panel below the console. Now the engines were completely silent and a voice came over the intercom.
“We’ve got a fault in the main engine room. Our engines are down,” came Hideo Sanada’s voice. “can someone go check it out?”
Blackmore pressed the talk-back button and spoke. “I’m already down here. I was doing a bit of maintenance. Looks like it’s a fault with the portside engine. It’s knocked the other out as well. I’m going to have to get inside the engine and find out what’s happened.”
“Then please take care,” came Tointon’s voice. “I’ll radio the rest of the fleet. Maybe they can send a tug to pull us back in.”
“No,” said Blackmore quickly, “the children need this trip. I’ll get it fixed in no time. No need to bother the rest of the fleet. They‘ll only demand we return to the rest of the group.”
“Okay, but if you haven’t got it fixed in twenty minutes, I’m calling it in. You know if they get too far away they won’t come back for us if we have any problems.”
“I know,” said Blackmore as he made his way towards the back of the engine room.
He opened a panel near the floor which led to a small, ventilation duct. He crawled into it and made his way through the narrow passage on his belly.
This passage led through the structure that was connected to the portside engine. After a few more metres he emerged into a large, tubular section. This was where the core of the engine was. Normally it would have been suicide to have come in here, but now the normal, glowing red core of the engine was dark and cold.
Part of the way down the engine tubes sat Blackmore’s lifeline - the blast suit. It resembled a normal spacesuit, but the General had told them that this suit would protect him from explosions. Annie had smuggled it on board and transmatted it in here. He had told him that there was always a small risk that it wouldn’t work, but that Annie would be there to continue the mission should he fail.
That didn’t really comfort Blackmore, though, and this was the part of the mission that was really worrying him.
“Anything, Blackmore?” came Tointon’s voice over the intercom again.
“Not yet,” said Blackmore, as he scrambled into the suit.
“Well hurry, man!” said Tointon urgently.
“Will do,” said Blackmore as he sealed up the suit.
Next to where the suit had been was a small, dome-shaped device with a single button on top. It was an explosive. The General had told him where to put it and that he would have thirty seconds.
Now the glass on the helmet’s visor was steaming up as he began to sweat. Blackmore sighed, gathered himself together and placed the explosive beside the engine core.
He was now starting to have doubts. This was crazy. What if it didn’t work? He had been told that the ship would remain relatively undamaged and would begin a spiral descent towards Trixatin, being dragged into the atmosphere and crash land softly. He also knew that he would be blasted out of the engine remains and also be pulled into the atmosphere.
But it didn’t help how he was feeling right now. He was scared. Terrified. But it had to be done.
He pressed the button on top the explosive and a digital readout started counting down from thirty. He ran as fast as he could away from the explosive’s location and then crouched down against the curved wall of the engine housing. He watched as the small readout counted down, but was unable to make out the numbers in the distance.
It felt like 30 minutes instead of 30 seconds. For a moment he wondered if it had failed, and then….
There was a huge sound and a blinding light. Magnus Blackmore felt himself be blown away from the explosion and through shards of fractured metal. He was then aware that he could no longer feel anything. He was floating.
He started to panic when he realised that he had not closed his eyes to shield them from the explosion. All he could see was a white blur with blotches of darkness flickering around.
Eventually his vision started to clear. All around him was blackness and glittering stars. He started to panic again. He’d never done any kind of space walk before, let alone be blasted out into space.
He tried to get his bearings and slowly turned himself. Below him was the light, brown surface of Trixatin and he could see the Pythagoras slowly spirally down towards the surface, it’s portside engine splintered and trailing smoke and fuel.
He remembered what the General had said and activated the small rockets on his back. They propelled him towards the planet. At this moment in time Tointon would have been trying to communicate the colony fleet, but he had rigged the circuits so that the explosion would have knocked out communications as well.
The planet grew closer and closer as he watched the Pythagoras enter the atmosphere and disappear through the grey clouds.
He followed and when he hit the atmosphere he soon became aware that the rockets were starting to die. Blast suits are designed to protect you from explosions, but they can also become damaged. Obviously the rockets had taken a pretty bad hit.
Soon he found himself soaring towards the planets surface. He tried to get himself upright, but it was no use. He was falling faster and faster. He had already passed the spiralling Pythagoras.
There was nothing for it. He had to activate the emergency parachute. He pressed a button on his arm and a large, silver parachute emerged from the back of the suit. Blackmore was pulled back as the parachute unfurled and his speed was abruptly stopped.
He started to relax as he slowly floated down to the surface.
Finally he hit the rocky ground and rolled onto his back, the silver material of the parachute slowly falling and covering him. He pulled it away and watched as the Pythagoras disappeared behind some sand dunes.
There was a huge thud that echoed for miles around as the ship hit the ground.
He lay there for a long time, looking up at the grey sky. He couldn’t believe he’d actually survived that.
He was about to get up when a shadow loomed over him. It was the shadow of a huge, seven foot dog.
“You must be Doomclaw,” said Blackmore.
“And you must be Blackmore,” growled the animal. “The General said you’d be coming.”
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