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A. K. A. The Alien
series 2
Lindsay Tomlinson
Copyright 2014 Lindsay Tomlinson
License Notes
The right of Lindsay Tomlinson to be identified as the author of this work has been asserted in accordance with the Copyright, Design and Patents Act 1988
cover copyright: ermess - Fotolia.com
DIAMOND FLOOR
13
Table of Contents
2.1. The Evil Alien Entity
2.2. Stopping the ship
2.3. The portrait of Technician Maroun
2.4. Going to Munro
2.5. Getting a new job
2.6. The appendicitis potential
2.7. The Tarset experience
2.8. The old witch
2.9. Always mention the tumour
2.10. On choosing a new name
2.11. Do not borrow watches
2.12. The solution to the solution
2.13. The pretty little stones
2.14. The uses of half a chair
2.15. The healed heart
2.16. Designing my own death
2.17. It was nothing
2.18. The diamond theft
2.19. The reducing coupling endfeed
2.20. The shape-shifter hypothesis
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2.1. The Evil Alien Entity
Captain Munk was not happy that I had returned to the Bonaventure. She ordered me via Commander Nichols - since she did not like to deal with me face-to-face - to leave her ship and go back to the John of Dublin.
I refused.
She referred me to the Agreement, and the bit about obeying all orders.
“But if I obey her order I will have to leave the ship,” I pointed out to Lieutenant Shue, who had the unenviable task of persuading me to go away. He was junior enough so that if the Evil Alien Entity turned vicious on having its will thwarted and killed him the loss would not be too great.
“That’s the general idea.”
“But I don’t want to leave.”
“The Agreement says -”
“The Agreement says the crew of the Bonaventure will help me study humans.”
“And we did help you. We helped you onto the John of Dublin.”
“And I have now finished with the John of Dublin and have come home.”
Lieutenant Shue paused at my use of that word, but made no comment.
“We are not going to be doing anything interesting,” he tried. “We are simply returning to base.”
“Then I will return to base, too.”
“That would not be appropriate.”
“Why not?”
“You have to remember we have never met any ... life-form ... like you before. There is ... concern ... about allowing you onto a settlement with such a large population until we know more about you. A lot more about you.”
“Hence the scientists on the John of Dublin.”
“Exactly.”
“So if I co-operate with them, I’ll be allowed to go to Camp Munro?”
He hesitated, but then risked it. “Maybe.”
“Maybe?”
“Maybe.”
I considered. “Captain Munk wants me to return to the John of Dublin, right?”
“Yes.”
“And I don’t want to go.”
“Apparently.”
“So what we have here are two opposing positions which are incompatible with each other. However, neither side is going to change their mind. What we need here is some other way of resolving the stalemate.”
“And your suggestion would be ..?”
“How about we toss a coin?”
“We are not going to toss a coin.”
“Throw a dice?”
“Nor throw a dice.”
“Draw straws?”
“No.”
“Rock-paper-scissors?”
“No.”
“One potato, two potato?”
Lieutenant Shue stood up. “I’m leaving now,” he said.
And he did.
2.2. Stopping the ship
Captain Munk was determined to assert her authority and have her own way, and the next day she stopped the ship dead. I did not take any notice at first since I was occupied planning a new series of portraits of the crew. I had left the first behind on the Bonaventure when I transferred to the salvage ship, but Sundae Lelaurie had collected all my artwork and carried the lot across to the John of Dublin for the scientists to study, so I had to start again from scratch. This time they were going to be a unified set of half-length pen and wash sketches.
It was only when Commander Nichols sent a crew member to fetch me that I wondered why we had come to a halt.
“Why have we stopped?” I asked Eddy Tokti, but Eddy Tokti was too terrified of being in my presence to risk talking to me.
Commander Nichols explained. They would no longer co-operate with me because I had refused to stick to the Agreement. The ship was going no-where with me on board.
Commander Nichols had a beard. The hair on his head was black with a few streaks of grey, but his beard was grey with streaks of black, plus a couple of patches of white. I had been thinking about experimenting with a beard - letting it grow slowly to avoid startling Lieutenant Shue - but had always thought it would be plain brown. Maybe I could go for something a lot more adventurous. Grey, or white, or ginger, maybe. With stripes.
“Are you listening to me?” he asked.
“Oh yes,” I said. But not for long. He started in on the blah-blah-blahing, so I put an ‘I am taking this all in’ expression on my face and tuned him out.
On reflection, I concluded that I had, after all, signed the Agreement and was going to have to leave the Bonaventure. On the other hand Captain Munk had neglected to specify for exactly how long I had to leave the ship. I would go away for a day or so and then come back, and then, as I had fulfilled my part of the Agreement, they should be duty-bound to uphold theirs.
Captain Munk would not be happy but she couldn’t complain I hadn’t obeyed the Agreement.
So I left the ship. I may have neglected to tell any-one I was going, but after a thorough search or two of the ship, they would probably eventually work it out for themselves.
2.3. The portrait of Technician Maroun
Captain Munk summoned Commander Nichols and Lieutenant Shue to the conference room for a private meeting. The meeting was about me, but as I was not technically on the ship in a corporeal form, I decided it would still count as a private meeting even if I sat in.
The first part of the meeting involved them talking about my disappearance and the fact that I had not yet made an appearance on the John of Dublin. Captain Munk seemed unduly glum by the news I was not on the salvage ship, although I could not understand why she had ever come to the conclusion I would go back there.
Eventually, after much needless discussion, Commander Nichols turned to Lieutenant Shue. “You have something to show the Captain?”
Lieutenant Shue pulled out a sheet of paper from a file and laid it down on the table. It was the portrait I had done of Culinary Specialist Sanborn. He pulled out another and carefully positioned it by the first. This was of Technician Maroun. I was not quite satisfied with its composition and thought perhaps I should have another go at it. If Lieutenant Shue would stop stealing pictures out of my room.
“‘Ben’ has started on another series of crew portraits, ma’am,” Lieutenant Shue explained. “He told me this time he was going to show the crew doing something characteristic of either their working or their social life.”
“So?”
“This is his portrait of C. S. Sanborn, drinkin
g in his mess. This is his portrait of Technician Maroun, stripping down a D-17. ‘Ben’ has an eidetic memory, and would only need to see these scenes for a few seconds to be able to record them. But, apart from the fact he did not have permission to be in either place, no-one can remember ever seeing him on either occasion. He has been moving round the ship unseen.”
“Then it is just as well for him that he is no longer on my ship.”
“There’s a good chance, ma’am, that he’s remained on board, just in a form we can’t recognise.”
“I wish I could understand his obsession with my ship,” Captain Munk grumbled.
“It seems to be simply that we are the first humans he’s ever seen, ma’am.”
“Other than the Invincible,” she replied sourly.
“Yes, ma’am.”
“I was just wondering whether, if he’s going to be on the ship, it would be better that he’s here officially, and therefore visible more often than not?” Commander Nichols suggested.
“Oh, Lord. If he’s on board my ship, he absolutely has to be visible at all times,” the Captain said. “But then I don’t want him on my ship at all. I want him off.”
“Ma’am,” Lieutenant Shue said, in sort-of agreement. A type of ‘yes-but-no’ voice.
“Yes, ma’am.” And now Commander Nichols was using it, too.
“So, in effect, this is already solved,” Captain Munk said.
Lieutenant Shue looked like he was about to say ‘it’s really not going to be as easy as that’, but in the end he sat back in his