Chapter 17
“There is no land above the level of the water.” George informed them.
Where the hell did the people live then? Unless they were looking at a planet peopled by seals or porpoises - why not?
Carl's Hud displayed the point of the radio transmission. The sound was simply a sequence of pips, just like the time signal, except they were not regular. After a couple of minutes he realised the sequence was being repeated.
“Any chance that's an emergency transmission from another space ship or something like it?” Carl suggested, in a questioning tone.
“There is that possibility but I think not.” Said George.” I have visual on it now.”
“The screen began zooming in, and slowly a spot in the water could be picked out. This spot increased in size until a ball could be made out, looking as if it was on a medium sized tower, protruding from the water.
“Looks pretty fixed, and from the state of it I'd say it's been there some time.” Pat commented.
Indeed, the ball was quite tatty and had certainly been there for some time, obviously the signal was not an emergency call, Carl mused, perhaps more like a non-directional beacon.
“Most probably an NDB,” Pat mirrored Carl's thoughts,” wonder what kind of beings operate it?”
“Any info in your records of life near here George?” Queried asked.
“Absolutely nothing registered.” George answered.
“Well, what do we do, have a look or sod off?” Pat asked.
“Well,” Carl started,” we could drop down and have a look. No harm in that.”
“I register no force fields in place.” Informed George.” I can recognise power fluxes from well below the surface of the water. Perhaps there are cities on the bed rock.”
“That's a possibility,” Carl agreed,” Let's go down and have a look.”
With that Pat took Shadow down in a gentle dive, which started at about five hundred miles altitude and came into the hover a couple of hundred feet above the ball, after only three minutes.
The ball was very large, about four hundred metres in diameter and was indeed in a very poor state of repair. It was generously streaked with the red tracings of, what could only be, rust.
As they sat there, having a careful look down, the signal from the beacon stopped.
“Looks like we've been noticed,” Pat spoke the obvious,” we'll wait and see what else happens.”
So they sat there for ten more minutes, nothing happened.
“The atmosphere is a Nitrogen/Oxygen mix, about one point five higher than our present pressure and more rich in the oxygen factor.” George supplied.” I have only the smallest of methane readouts, so there is very little life of your configuration here. Some, but not much.”
To their surprise the ball suddenly began to unfold, much like the petals of a flower. The 'petals' also unfolded and eventually there was a circular platform nearly nine hundred metres in diameter.
“That was neat,” said Carl,” I think we'll stay here though. What do you say Pat?”
“Fully agree with that.”
The pad was pretty well segmented at the centre, so it was difficult to make out where an entrance was, if any.
The waiting carried on, so they sat back and took in the scenery before them. Didn't take too long to do that, blue sky, a few black clouds with heavy rain falling down in thick grey columns. The sea was blue. Apart from that, they only had the rusty tower and pad.
“Something’s happening.” Pat said, leaning forward.
The centre of the pad was opening, like a camera aperture, nicely round and getting quite large. It stopped at about thirty metres in diameter, a curve of steps were visible, with a handrail, circling down the side of the tube. Carl quickly checked the pitch of the steps.
“The steps are our size.” He said, obviously quite relieved at that finding. At least they weren't to be treated to a load of monsters jumping out at them.
What they were treated to were two men and one woman, very recognisable as of Homo Sapien. They couldn't have looked closer like the Shadow crew if they had come out of their mould.
“Would you like to speak to them.” George asked.
“Why not? Put them on the speaker.” Carl replied.
“Carry on, you are connected.” George informed him.
“Morning all. Hope we find you in good health.” He said.
That made them jump.
“Volumes not too high, is it George?”
“No Carl, it is quite normal for the distance involved.” George advised.
“Sin ren do mer, ant perong ister vangal diam?”
At least they could talk in their mode.
“Carry on talking you lot, George is on the job.” Said Pat.
“Sunam peradar mintag you verbondid and come varg.” More rubbish words.
“Nearly there,” said George,” their word pictures are quite clear.
“A little more you lot.” Said Carl.
“Reck do not vanter you, but noos of your vinbins are understand-able. We ask you to come down. We mean you no harm.” They said.
“99% there.” George said.
“We understand you would like us to come down?” Carl enquired. Are you not worried as to our intentions?”
“Yes, please come down, and no, we are not worried. We consider you could have done your worst a long time ago.” Said the older of the two men.
The woman had moved behind him, as if she were a little afraid. Carl couldn't blame her, they must have looked rather ominous, up above and all black and that.
“We will come down to you,” Carl said,” please make room for our ship.”
The welcoming party literally dived down the hole, only their faces were visible above the edge of the access hole.
“Over to you Pat, don't hang us too near their access, we may overpower them with our size.”
“Right there, but we ain't that big.” Said Pat.
They smoothly lowered down until they were barely touching the platform surface. They were now well away from the edge of the platform, which stretched well away from Shadow, even though Pat hadn't placed them too close to the entrance.
“Wonder how many of them there are?” Said Pat.
“Good question and how come there's no land, these people haven't been amphibious for millions of years. Funny situation really.” Carl noted.
“That's surely true,” said Pat, in one of his literary moods,” I'm takin me cutter, just in case.”
“Same here.”
They moved out of the cockpit and walked to the doorway. The blank exterior surface of Shadow had been maintained prior to arriving at the deck opening and now the door slowly moved from black to clear. It was only the shield surface, after all.
“Can't see 'em now.” Said Pat.
“Most probably a bit scared we were going to cause some damage,” Carl offered,” let's just walk over and go down the steps.”
They did just that. As they arrived at the first step, there were several sharp intakes of breath and three faces disappeared into a covered area of the stairway, a little lower down.
“We're not goin' to hurt you,” said Pat,” purely a social visit.”
With that they began to slowly move down the open stairway. Just below the covered stairway was the older man.
“Welcome to our planet gentlemen,” he said,” I am sorry for the cautious way we approach you. You are very much strangers to us. We did not realise there were other people like us in the universe.”
“We thought the same, about other people that is,” Carl answered,” I'm Carl and this is Pat.” Turning to Pat.
“I am Rolf and my friends are Jank and Naneen,” he replied,” come up and meet the visitors.” He called down the stairs. The other two came into view, the girl appeared to still be very dubious of their intentions.
“Hello Pat and Carl.” They both said together.
So, they were now talking. There was no o
ther approach as far as contact was involved. Carl felt he was a bit slow there, thinking he should have held out his hand.
As if reading Carl's mind, Rolf offered his hand, which Carl took and they shook in standard English style. That was a relief, adding a degree of confidence all round.
“Please,” said Rolf,” come to the lift and we can enter our city.”
Ah, now we are getting to it, Carl thought, a city! On the bottom of the sea floor he presumed, but was wrong as usual.
The lift was about thirty metres across and circular, the walls were furnished with a leathery-look finish and the floor felt, and looked, like cork. There was no view to the outside and both Carl and Pat studied the locals, they were reciprocating.
Their clothing had the look of the Roman Toga, made of a leathery material similar to the wall coverings. They were all about l50 cm. tall and pretty well muscled, even the girl. She was quite pretty and Carl judged her to be about 25 to 30 years old. The men looked about 30 and 50. They had fair hair and short beards. All fairly normal European stock really.
“Where are you from?” Jank asked neither of them in particular.
“If we told you, it wouldn't mean a great deal,” Carl said,” but from a planet with much land and sea. Not like this planet, all water.”
The lift came to an abrupt halt. The natives jumped from the sudden stop and it must have been evident that Carl or Pat didn't waiver an inch. They had noticed the fact and looked very surprised but said nothing.
The scene, when the lift door opened, was a little different from what Carl had expected. Apart from about fifty men with obvious firearms, the height of the chamber they had stopped at was only two meters from floor to ceiling.
Rolf stepped forward, towards the armed men.
“The arms are not necessary.” He insisted.” Please put them away.” Turning back, he said,” I am most sorry but it was a precaution, I hope you understand?”
“That's alright,” Pat said,” s'long as they don't try to use them, they'll be the losers if they do.” That was Pat's fighting talk.
“I'm sure we would have done the same thing.” Carl assured Rolf.
By this time the guards had moved away and placed their firearms in racks, just outside the entry door to the lift room.
The floor, walls and ceilings were unpainted solid rock, pretty rough too. There seemed to be a sort of impermanence to it all, but the landing stage on the surface looked pretty aged, funny...
“Please, Pat, Carl, come this way, we will go to somewhere a little more comfortable.” Said Jank, leading them out of the lift room and along a winding tunnel. There were many branches off and many faces watching, they all greeted them with 'hellos' and smiles, Carl even began to relax a little.
It was noticeable, wherever you looked, that there was a guard with a firearm situated at each branch of the tunnel.
“You have a lot of active guards here,” said Carl,” any trouble?”
“Yes,” said Rolf glancing up,” we have serious problems that have been getting worse and worse over the last five years. Please, in here.” Rolf motioned them through a doorway.
“Mind your heads, the doors are a little low, for safety block-off.” He informed them.
The doorway was a little low at that, not low enough to actually have to duck under but low enough to make you duck,....if you follow.
“Just about your size.” Carl said to Pat.
“Shut yer mouth you long streak of piss.” Was the laughed reply.
They had entered a fairly large room, about twenty by twenty metres but still with the low ceiling.
The walls, ceiling and floor were again bare rock. Perhaps they had run out of paint!
There were composite looking tables and chairs but they were offered a couple of slung leather chairs to sit on, nice and comfortable too.
“Would you like a drink or food?” Jank asked them.
“Got any beer?” Asked the typical Irishman.
“Yes, we have, would you like a large or small measure.” Rolf replied, he pointed to the 'glasses'. Big was about one litre and small about half.
“Small for me please.” Said Carl.
“Same here.” Agreed Pat, giving Carl the eye.
There was a fairly large gathering of people, all looking intently at the two crew, a little disturbing.
“You ok George?” Carl murmured.
“Oh yes Carl, have no fear, I hear you perfectly well. You are two thousand feet below the surface of the water and one thousand feet into the rock strata.” George replied.
Carl didn't bother to answer, he could see a minute look of relaxation on Pat's face though. It was reassuring to hear George. Carl couldn't think why. After all, he was purely a voice.
Their beer was served up and they both took a swig.
“Quite stable,” George informed them,” only slight adjustment is being made.”
That was good news, the fact that their shields were a super atomic filter, nothing, but nothing, could get through to harm them, not even pure poison, it would be transformed passing through the shield.
Rolf watched them take their drink and raised a glass of his own to us.” You seem remarkably trusting of us.” He said.
“We have no fears as to your intentions,” Carl remarked,” it's pretty obvious you are honest and hardworking people with no grudge against us.”
This was well accepted, there was a murmur of approval all around the room, with many smiling faces.
“I'm most interested to know how you have succeeded to exist on a planet with no land.” Carl commented.
“It's quite simple really,” Jank said,” this is not our home planet. That, I am afraid, suffered a direct hit from an enormous meteor some two hundred years ago. We had to journey here and drill our way into this rock shell during the fifty years prior to the strike. It is not an easy life and it is getting worse.”
Not at all a happy picture, they could see.
“How do you get your food when you're living under the sea?” Pat queried.
“All our food is from the sea, including all vegetation. It was a hard struggle to prepare new plants that would live here. Hybrids from our home planet, but we did succeed. The beer you are drinking is one of the products of our sea farming.”
Carl hadn't thought about the beer! It was a very good brew, halfway between Lager and Brown Ale, with a sting to it.
“We'll have to get you some of our beer to taste,” Pat offered,” you'll like it. This is bloody good as well.”
Their hosts seemed to have relaxed somewhat. They were now not on the edges of their seats but leant back, listening and watching the proceedings intently.
“What made you pick a water world?” Carl asked.
“There was no choice,” one of the other people in the room spoke up,” this was the only other planet in our system with an oxygen atmosphere and we could not get to another star system. Our ships are far too slow.”
“It must have been a problem to get started here.” Carl suggested.
“Not too much of a problem,” Jank replied,” we set up floating islands around the building of the lift shaft. Once the shaft was set into the rock for a thousand feet, we could remove the water, put in the equipment and start our drilling operations. As you say though, it is a hard and hazardous life, but at least we saved our entire population.”
“How many's that?” Pat asked.
“Only just over two million but we are barely maintaining that level. We are hoping to locate another world and develop a space-drive to shuttle our people there but we cannot locate that world. I fear we will have to accept life here, on Water, our planet's name.” Rolf laughed.” The name started as a joke but it's stuck ever since.”
“Seems very apt.” Said Carl.
“What do you do with all the rock from the passages?” Pat enquired. Good point!
“That is being used to raise the sea bed, to eventually produce land,” Rolf explained,” this area is
the shallowest part on Water. Everywhere else is well over three thousand feet deep, it takes an awful lot of rock to fill that in. We are winning though. Only fifty miles from this location we are some one hundred feet from the surface, over a ten square mile area. Another two years should see our first land structure, if we survive that long.” He finished on a low note.
“Why do you say that?” Carl asked.
“We have been invaded by the Neft.” Rolf said.
“Befax 4.” Came the startled voice of George.” No wonder they have guards everywhere, these are a known and fearful beast.”
“You listen to something?” Jank said, in a puzzled voice.
“Yes,” Pat replied,” we are in constant contact with our ship, which has identified your Neft as a species we know as Befax 4.”
“You know of our Neft?” Said an incredulous Waterian.” How can you know of it and how far have you come from and why haven't we seen you before and where do the Neft come from and..........”
“Tomlin, please,” Rolf interrupted the tirade of questions,” one at a time, not all together.”
“It's most probably too difficult for us to explain everything to you,” Carl said,” Pat and myself know nothing of the Befax 4 but our ship dates back a million or more years. It has memory banks with your Neft in them.”
“But how did it know it was the Neft, our Neft, if it knows it as Befax, whatever you said, we hadn't described it.” That was Rolf with the very astute question.
“It is just a very intuitive ship,” Carl explained, lamely. He didn't want to let on about his speech picture seeing. It would all get too involved. He now had a picture of Befax 4 on his Hud.” The Neft are four legged, short at the back legs, plus two scaly well muscled arms, hairy all over, with a short thick neck and a mouth full of teeth.
It was an eight foot high Hyena with Herculean arms and Jaws-type shark teeth. It was a bloody nightmare. Yellowish in colour, with dull black stripes. Its four feet being full of sucking-type pads with retractable claws. The Waterians did need guards.
“You have the Neft to a tee.” Said Rolf.” Where does it come from?”
“There is a star system about twelve light years from here that had that animal as its prime inhabitant. It most certainly didn't show promise as an intelligent creature.” George filled us in with very rapid speech.” It is amazing in one sense but not in another, it has been a long time since then.”
Pat explained where Befax 4/Neft came from, to the Waterians, and there was an explosion of confused talking. The Waterians, what a name, were all of the impression that the Neft were part of the planet Water. They had never considered that they had come from another system.
Tomlin spoke up, in slower vein than before.” This is a most serious development, and I am sure I speak for all the council here assembled, when I thank you for this information. Our problems are now far worse than we ever before considered.” Tomlin was still a bit of a fast speaker.” It was always thought that these creatures were semi-intelligent due to their methods of attack and joint operations. Now, however, we realise they are super intelligent, to travel 12 light years and to attack us on this most inhospitable world. What can their object be?” He turned to the Shadow crew, as if maybe they would be able to provide him with an answer. Unfortunately they could, due to George.
“The Yil found Befax 4 to be animal domesticators. They gathered any wild animal and kept them in packs for food.” George stated.” Could it be that that is their purpose here?”
“We have a nasty answer to that Tomlin.” Pat said.” Do you really want to hear it?”
“Of course,” Tomlin and a few others said together,” any information, no matter how horrible will only help us.” Tomlin ended.
“It's thought they are after you for the purpose of food. They're flesh eaters.” Pat provided.
“So that's their purpose,” Rolf murmured,” we had wondered about that theory. It is good that you have cleared that up for us. The problem is no worse than it was, except that there could be more of them on their way from their home world. Not a pleasant thought.”
Likewise Carl didn't like the idea that they were the bringers of bad tidings of no great joy, but the Waterians seemed to be taking it all in their stride.
“How do your Neft get at you?” Pat asked.
“They drill into the tunnels silently, from above, allowing no water leakage,” Jank explained,” then they form into a pack of about fifty, and silently and efficiently kidnap and kill as fast as they can, then they leave before too many of their own are destroyed. They usually make off with more than a hundred of our people in any one raid; sealing the breach. The last raid was two weeks ago. We fear another in the coming week. It is time, they are quite regular.”
“What is the extent of the drillings you have here.” Pat queried.
“We are now well into our three thousandth mile, only this morning. There will be a muted celebration in two hours time.” Rolf replied.” Although we do not have too much to be happy about, we have lost too many of our people over the last five years.”
“Carl, Pat, I have no alien craft in the area of Water, a most unusual name, but I do have a sighting seven days out.” Came their adviser, George.” It is from the Befax 4 quadrant and it can only be them, I also have many more craft travelling towards Befax 4 and many more on their way here, at 14 day intervals behind the nearest one.”
Their Huds came up and they had a three dimensional representational display of the surrounding interstellar space. The Neft craft were highlighted, and their track.” Thanks George,” Carl mumbled,” s'pose I'll have to pass on the news.”
“Gentlemen,” raising his voice above the chatter,” we have located your next invasion ship. It is seven days out from Water. I'm, sorry to have to be the one to pass on this depressing news.”
Cries and groans of despair came from the assembled masses.” They never give up.” From an elderly Watarian.
“We'll get the buggers,” Pat stated, with great volume,” we'll blow the bastards away. I'm tellin you the truth I am!”
Pat's Irish lilt always came to the fore at exciting moments.
“You're damn right Pat,” agreed Carl,” we bloody well will,” and in a lower murmur,” shall we invite a few of them onto Shadow to talk it over?”
“Bloody sight more comfortable than here, let's get a couple of birds as well.” Pat's eyes were lit up.
“Not right now,” objected Carl,” not only would Kate object, but the time's not right.”
“You miserable old sod,” Pat bounced back,” she ain’t even here.”
“That's not the point.”
The Water people, no - it had to be correct - the Waterians, were attentive to this reposte and were trying to get a word in, edgewise.
“Explain yourselves,” urged Rolf,” please.”
“It's just that we think we have the means to deal your Neft a deadly blow,” Carl answered,” could a few of you, or your War Council or something, come with us and be our guests, aboard our ship?”
They all, as one, leapt forward to have the opportunity of the visit.
“Order gentlemen please,” shouted Rolf,” I will go, with Jank, Trestin, Gard, and Olaf, we will take a further four of the security guard.” That was final, the silence was ear piercing, obviously Rolf was one of the big league.
So it was that their initial visit came to an end, a very abrupt end. Rolf couldn't get them into the lift quick enough. It was understandable when you consider what the Befax 4 looked like and the death toll they had been inflicting on Water. Over seventeen thousand Waterians had been killed or were missing, for such a moderate sized community that was a large proportion.
After leaving the stairway they led their guests into Shadow and were pleased to find the lounge had sprung some extra seating area. There was plenty of room for the five Waterian Councillors to lounge in plush comfort. Carl noticed, with a little surprise as they entered Shadow, that a solid-l
ooking partition wall had sprung up, blocking off access to the cockpit. George being his secure self, as usual, why - Carl didn't know. There was nothing they could harm.
They didn't begin straight away with the war-talk but, after Trestin had been invited to deposit a 'gift' into Shadow's toilet system, their guests were offered some good old Brunei-style beer, they loved it. They also each got stuck into a portion of nosh and obviously thought it was great. Well it was.
After half an hour of idle chatter, Pat suggested they get down to business, unusual for Pat. He's usually more interested in a few 'more' beers than serious talk. Carl wondered why and then he realised, the sooner the talking was over the sooner he could approach the bird situation again. Only a guess, but Carl would bet it was a pretty accurate one.