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It was four months after David Charlton and Sarah Jane Hardin had vowed to go it alone that David finally had acquired enough money to finance his deep space voyage. For a mysterious buyer had purchased his home at an extremely inflated price, for the buyer simply had to have it together with all of its furniture and trimmings. It was now that he had the necessary finance available that John Blazer invited them both back to his penthouse apartment.
“Well if you two mad young people are still so determined, then I suppose that I too must help. David you must leave for Mars as soon as you have a crew, and one that doesn`t mind a little danger; have you any ideas as to who you will take along on this perilous trip? You will require two engineers plus someone to help you on the bridge.” Blazer said in a weary but resigned voice.
“Well I thought Jimmy Fielding in engineering. He is a veteran of space travel and he is also a friend of both my father and Peter Reynolds, I think he will agree to one more space trip before he retires. Sarah of course, Sarah can man the communications and also help out generally, her MIT education will be extremely useful should anything go wrong when we are in the middle of nowhere.” David said smiling at his girlfriend who smiled back at him. He did wonder at what had brought about this change of heart in his Uncle, but he didn`t question it at this moment in time.
“Tony Miles is getting bored working for the Preminger freight business, I am sure that he would welcome a little excitement, he could help Jimmy in engineering. Steve Ryan is a wizard on computers and so he can help me on the bridge.” David said satisfied with his selection. He looked across at the older man who had done so much already for his family, and even more so for him, and hoped that his proposed team would also satisfy him.
“Well as I just said David, I am willing to assist you, first let me introduce you to Barney; I brought him along in case you were both still set on your quest.” Blazer said. He then turned and called out towards the door behind them, it was to a room, which he used as an office. “Barney would you come out here please.”
A retro looking robot came through the white gloss door and stood looking down at Blazer. His outer appearance was of polished titanium, he stood seven feet tall with the usual two arms and legs his head was cylindrical. He had a slit of a mouth for appearance sake, and even a nose that allowed him to ‘smell’ although it operated far better than a human nose as the robot could detect any chemicals in the air and identify them immediately. His eyes were a little beady, and like his nose were far superior to the eyes of a man, being able to see microscopic objects as well as objects at a distance. His ears were almost normal to look at but as expected were able to hear the pin when it dropped.
“Barney knows everything there is to know about starships, and will be able to assist you should anything need fixing He will be your other man on the bridge, when he is not assisting the engineering department. He will be indispensable to you in one other way; he will also be your night watchman. This will allow the bridge crew at least to sleep during the night, rather than having to make you split your small crew into separate watches.” John Blazer said.
“Uncle, I don`t know what to say, except thank you.” David hadn`t hoped for even the help of a robot, never mind one as useful as Barney would be, so he was surprised and delighted, and even more so when Blazer carried on.
“David if you think that I would allow you to leave on your quest without doing more than just give you the use of Barney, you are very mistaken. You can borrow my small interplanetary shuttle; it will be large enough to get you and your crew as far as Mars. You can take it with you, for it will also allow you to transport down to the surface of any alien planet without you having to land your freighter, unless you are certain positive that it is safe to do so. You cannot allow the ship to fall into unfriendly hands and the shuttle is compact enough to fit inside of your freighter`s rear hold.” John Blazer.
“If they are the sort of aliens to be interested in my father`s old freighter, then we hardly have anything to worry about Uncle.” Charlton said with a quizzical sort of smile on his face that seemed to say to Blazer, are you ok Uncle John?
“Of course they wouldn`t be interested in the freighter as it is David.” Blazer said in annoyance. “But together with Boeing Space, Blazer Space has just recently come up with something new, something that my operations on Mars are in possession of; they are the latest and best of the technologies of Earth. I hope that they will keep you both safe and increase your chances of returning to Earth. Oh there is also something else that not many people on Earth know about, but you will only learn about it when we are on course for Mars.” John Blazer smiled at the two young people, but he suddenly looked older than even he was as his fear for his godson and his fiancée returned.
“There will be no one to come and get you once you get beyond the Pollux system, I hope to god that I am not assisting you to your deaths, the loss of your father was bad enough.”
David glanced across at Sarah as he searched for words that would reassure his godfather, but found that he was unable to think of any. For almost a minute all was quiet as the three humans tried not to think about what might happen, only the humming coming from Barney broke through the silence, and David wasn`t sure whether the robot was actually humming or whether it was just his components whirring away. Finally, John Blazer broke the silence.
“As soon as you have spoken to your proposed crew, and they have agreed to join you on your rescue mission to the stars, have them meet you at my headquarters down at the Cape, which is where my shuttle is currently parked. David, be sure to tell them that this is a top-secret mission, and that it is imperative that nothing is leaked to their families, wives, girlfriends or friends about it. We cannot afford to have news of your expedition reach the ears of the people who attacked us before.” John Blazer declared now fully resigned to the mission that his godson was set on.
“We three plus Barney will take my terrestrial shuttle over to my lodge in the Rockies first thing in the morning, there we can get lost until your crew is ready to leave.” John Blazer announced David and Sarah.
“Just what sort of advanced technology are you speaking of Uncle?” David Charlton asked. However, Blazer told him that he would have to wait until he was on the way to Mars. Once there he would find that the technicians of Blazer Space were already hard at work installing them into his father`s old and very tired freighter.
The rest of the day and most of the evening was filled with David tracing the current whereabouts of his proposed crew, and then phoning them. All of them were on Earth, and through various flukes of chance, all of them were available, and they had all agreed to join him on his self-imposed quest, one filled with the risk of danger and a lot of uncertainty.
When Tony Miles had returned from his latest trip, which was a local space hop taking freight out to the moon Ganymede, he had broken his leg and so been laid up. His ship having already departed on a long distance hop out to Alpha Centauri from there it made a circular trip delivering freight to the nearer colony planets. This all meant that he was currently out of a job. Now he was fit and ready to start work but with no work in the offing.
Jack Fielding had been enjoying some time on Earth, after spending so much of his life in the engineering departments of so many starships, and so he was temporarily out of a job, but through choice.
Steve Ryan was a very old friend of David`s having met him at university. He was also a very successful self-employed computer genius, and usually very busy on some project or another. Hard work allowed him to finish his latest contract for Boeing Space early, and so he was open to other offers, David Charlton was lucky in that he called at the right moment in time. Why Ryan decided to agree to join such a risky mission he didn`t say, but for whatever reason had induced him to leave his life of ease, David could only be grateful, whatever it was.
Sarah had managed to get the Dean of MIT to agree to a temporary leave of absence; luckily, the
summer break was almost upon them. However, he was a little annoyed that she had refused to tell the reason why she wanted the time away from the university; this was because of the secrecy that covered everything to do with their quest. He had however insisted that she take along with her, for light reading a number of books relating to advanced theoretical physics, these were to ensure that she didn`t fall behind the rest of the students, and she had to promise to read them each and every night.
His crew would be ready to leave in just two days, so John Blazer took David and Sarah out to his terrestrial shuttlecraft, which was parked on the small landing pad beside his penthouse apartment, and they all looked forward to spending those forty-eight hours enjoying the beauty and the quiet of the mountains. The small craft took off from the top floor of the skyscraper and moved up and away from the other tall buildings that littered the skyline. As they did, David saw two men appear on the roof of the nearest skyscraper building, and he immediately saw that they were armed with heavy Phaser rifles. Before he could respond to them the two men opened fire on their craft, and powerful bolts of energy whistled by their craft.
“It must be those bloody aliens again David, this is what I was afraid might happen as soon as you spoke about your rescue mission to the stars.” John Blazer cried out as he veered away from the building where the two Mazeren assassins were standing. However, even as they put some distance between them and their attackers, one of the powerful bolts of energy struck the shuttlecraft, exploding against its rear hull and throwing David and Sarah painfully about. John Blazer though had already braced himself for such an eventuality, and he managed to keep control as he piloted the craft away from Washington and their attackers.
“We will have to skip our quiet forty eight hours in the Rockies, David; our two friends back there will more than likely make that their next target. Instead we will stop by an old friend of mine, he`s a naturalist who lives just outside of the town of Brownwood in Texas.” John Blazer announced as he altered course away from the Rockies and headed south.
Sarah swivelled round so that she could look to the rear of the small craft, and she saw that a jagged hole had appeared in the metal hull. She then turned back but immediately felt something sharp dig into her hand as she rested it on her leg. David had turned to her as she let out a small gasp, to see blood on Sarah`s hand, it had come from her leg for a small piece of the hull of the shuttlecraft was sticking out of her thigh and blood was beginning to drip onto the floor.
“My god your hurt Sarah, Uncle John we need to get Sarah to a hospital immediately.” David cried in panic.
“I`m alright David, don`t fuss so.” Sarah said as she passed out. John Blazer looked across at Sarah and for an instant felt a wave of panic rush through him, but he was an old soldier and quickly smothered his emotions.
“Barney you take over here, and increase our speed to maximum.” John Blazer ordered his metal friend who was sitting in the co-pilot`s chair. He then left the pilot`s chair and moved back to join the others. He pulled out a pocket knife and carefully cut the leg of Sarah`s jeans so that the part of her thigh that was injured was exposed and after a lengthy inspection declared himself satisfied.
“David, Sarah should be alright for a little while, it doesn`t appear to be bleeding all that much.” Blazer pulled a large cotton handkerchief from out of his pocket and gave it to David.
“Put this around the piece of metal and try to hold the handkerchief firmly against the wound, but don`t attempt to pull out that piece of metal David, it will only make the bleeding all the worse. I`ve already told Barney to increase our speed to maximum so we should be at Brownwood within an hour. Colin is a veterinarian, one that specialises in surgery, so he will be able to look after her. If we land anywhere else it will only give our attackers time to get on our trail.”
It was a long journey for David but he felt a lot better when Sarah regained consciousness after just ten minutes.
“Sorry about fainting, it was silly of me, the shock of seeing the piece of metal in my leg I suppose.” Sarah said but then she felt the pain caused by David trying to stem the flow of blood, for in doing so he was pushing the wound against the jagged piece of metal.
“Damn you David what are you trying to do to my leg? Just stop it please, that bloody hurts.” Sarah protested angrily.
“I`m sorry Sarah, I was just trying to stem the flow of your blood.” David said apologetically.
“Well it`s stopped now so let go.” Then Sarah saw the damage Blazer had done to her jeans. “And what have you been doing to my new pair of expensive designer jeans?” Sarah demanded angrily.
“Uncle John had to cut your jeans about so that he could check your leg to see how it was. We are still heading for Brownwood; Uncle John says that his friend Colin Power will be able to fix you up.” David Charlton said smiling down at his fiancée.
“How long before we get to Brownwood?” Sarah asked, a smile coming to her face as she realised that David had in fact been trying to help her. She now realised that her leg hurt quite a lot, with or without David`s supposed assistance, and she felt decidedly queer. She moved the blood soaked handkerchief away and looked once again at her poor leg. The blood did appear to have stopped seeping out, thanks to David`s help, she looked up sheepishly.
“Sorry for shouting at you David, but you were hurting me, and I`ve only worn these jeans the once.” Sarah looked decidedly sorry for her display of anger and reaching up towards him pulled his head down for a quick kiss that stopped when a spasm of pain went through her leg.
“That`s ok sweetheart, I`ll buy you a new pair as soon as we can get to the shops” David promised. He reached down, gently squeezed her hand, and then looked at her wounded leg with the jagged piece of metal sticking out defiantly.
“If we ever meet those two men then I promise you that they will pay for hurting you my darling.” Sarah looked up at his sad face and smiled, but before she could reply, John Blazer called back to her.
“We should be at Brownwood in under an hour, can you hold on that long or do you want us to find you a doctor now?” Blazer asked just a little concerned for the young woman.
“And be delayed by a lot of questions from the authorities, as well as putting the aliens back on our trail, I will wait to see your friend, but thank you John for asking, but I think that I can last out, but how on Earth did they learn about our proposed trip?” Sarah Jane Hardin asked thoughtfully.
“They probably heard about the sale of David`s house, and decided to investigate.” Blazer answered. He felt more than a little guilty about Sarah`s wound, had he financed the trip initially their attackers would never have found out.
“You’re probably correct John. I think I will get a little shuteye, it might make me feel a little better.” Sarah replied and closed her eyes to attempt to get some sleep, and hoped that her leg wouldn`t be quite so painful later.
David also thought that his godfather was correct, but it didn`t make him wish that he had not started on his quest, his father was still out there, somewhere, and it was his duty to find him, alive or dead. Although Sarah’s injury did make his conscience eat at his vitals as he once again looked down at her injured leg and the blood soaked jeans.
They landed at a large house that stood in its own grounds some ninety feet from a narrow dirt track. Apart from the house, there was nothing else to see. A gardener, Mr Chavez, kept the area around the house tidy, and the gardener’s wife acted as housekeeper to the aging scientist Colin Powers, who lived there. John Blazer had decided to keep their visit a secret even from Powers, as he didn`t want to take the chance that their attackers might be listening in over the airways, and so tell them their new destination. He landed the shuttlecraft onto the dusty area at the rear of the property to see an angry Powers appear at the door demanding to know who was disturbing his peace. When John Blazer appeared from out of the shuttlecraft, Powers stopped complaining and welcomed them into his house, while John Blazer explained why the
y had dropped in.
“So you see Colin we need you to tend to Sarah, and we need a place to lie low in for the next couple of days, can you help us?” John Blazer asked, although he already knew the answer. There was ample room, and Mrs Chavez was soon put to making up the beds so that they would be ready for their unexpected guests. David carried Sarah through to his Colin`s small animal surgery, where he put her on a long metal table used by Colin Powers when he tended to sick or injured animals. Colin first inspected the wound and then he picked up a bottle of antiseptic.
“Right this might hurt just a little Sarah but it will clean the area around the wound.” Satisfied that he had reduced the chances of infection, Colin Powers next looked at the cause of her injury.
“Right well I will first give you a shot of something to numb your leg and then I will take out that nasty piece of metal in your leg, thankfully Sarah it has missed anything vital.”
Colin now injected Sarah with a local anaesthetic and after giving it time to work Colin carefully pulled the fragment of metal from out of her leg. He then applied some more of his antiseptic and put in some of the newest dissolvable stitches to close the wound. Finally, he added a dressing to keep the wound clean.
“You are looking a little pale Sarah, probably shock as you don`t appear to have lost too much blood, even so you should take it easy for a day or so, and keep warm. You will have to visit a doctor`s surgery to have them check your wound to ensure that it is healing ok. I will put you on a course of antibiotics to stop any infection, but apart from that take Paracetamol for any pain you might get. Try to stay off your feet, in fact just keep your leg up for a while to help it heal, and to ensure that you don`t tear your stitches.” Colin ordered his patient.
“Thank you Colin, it feels a lot better already.” Sarah said, as she smiled her thanks at the aging veterinarian.
“I`ll give you a mild sedative to help you sleep at night, in case your leg hurts, it will help you mend.” Colin said to Sarah. He wanted to ensure that she got enough rest so that her leg would heal all the quicker.
The Chavez`s were sworn to secrecy, and the shuttlecraft parked inside of the only other building on the property, a large barn built by the previous owner who had kept a small herd of cows and a few chickens. The next two days went by without anymore-unwanted guests making a violent appearance. David tried to use the injury to her leg as an excuse to have her remain on Earth, but Sarah was having none of it.
“They must have a clinic on Mars that can check my leg out, and we can rest over there if need be until the doctors give me the all clear. There is no way that you are leaving me behind.” Sarah stated defiantly.
Colin gave Sarah her sleeping draught to help her sleep, and then they all settled down for their final night at Powers` house. It was in the early hours of the morning that Colin Powers burst into David`s room.
“There is someone prowling around outside David, I think that there are at least two of them. Now we don`t usually have that sort of trouble here in Brownwood, so I`m guessing it might be your friends back for a second go at you.” Powers whispered.
David crawled out of his bed swearing under his breath as he quickly pulled on his jeans. He then pulled his hand Phaser out of his travel bag and followed Colin Powers down to the front room, where he looked cautiously out of the front window for signs of anyone. Immediately he saw the shadows moving out by the front gate.
“Yes Colin, I see them you go and rouse Uncle John, tell him we might be in for some more trouble. I will keep watch down here.”
Colin disappeared up the stairs and minutes later returned with John Blazer who carefully looked through all of the windows for signs of the prowlers.
“I don`t see any signs of life David, are you sure that you saw someone?” John Blazer asked. “Hang on I see them now, what are they up to David, why didn`t they just come shooting?” John Blazer wondered.
“Maybe they can`t decide what to do, well why don`t we make it easy for them Uncle John?” David said smiling.
“Just what do you mean by making it easy for them David, are you volunteering to become a live target?” John Blazer queried anxiously, for he was worried in case this was exactly what his godson meant to do.
“No Uncle John, I just think that we should make their intentions clear to us, so that we can shoot them.” David said. He looked across at an old-fashioned coat stand that stood by the door and then he smiled at the others. “Hang a moment I think that Colin has the ideal prop.” With that, he took off his belt and tied it around the base of the coat stand, which was of the variety that came with wheels.
“Ok every duck down because I`m about to turn on the light on the far wall so that our friends outside can see in here just a little clearer.” With the light turned on David tugged on his belt and pulled the coat stand across the area of floor that could be seen from the windows. Outside Leor Amharic and Retz Pula saw the light turn on through the curtains, but the curtains stopped them from seeing anything more than a few indistinct shapes. They did see a figure moving across the room, and Leor Amharic didn`t need to think things over any more. He pulled his heavy Phaser rifle to his shoulder and fired a powerful energy bolt that whistled angrily through the air and destroyed the glass of the window, put a large hole into the curtain and finally exploded against the coat rack knocking it down out of sight of the two Mazerens. They quickly followed this up by charging towards the house, Leor Amharic crashed through the broken window while Retz Pula rushed in through the unlocked front door. Both looked wildly around them as they stood their immobile for a second, before crashing to the floor. John Blazer took out Leor Amharic and David fired at Retz Pula. Both hand Phasers had been set on heavy stun, just in case the two assassins had donned body armour but it was now plain to see that they hadn`t. They both lay on the floor, still grasping their Phaser rifles, and both dead to the world.
“Well Uncle John what do we do with them now?” David inquired of his godfather. Colin answered him.
“Don`t you worry about these two jaspers David, you all head to the Cape right now. As soon as you have left, I will phone the local sheriff and tell him I have caught me a couple of housebreakers. I`m sure that these two jaspers won`t argue about it, far better for them to be thought of as armed intruders rather than assassins.” Colin Powers said.
“It doesn`t seem right though to let them off so easily John, they are probably the same ones who killed that man in your apartment block, as well as trying to shoot your shuttlecraft down and kill anyone they found in Colin`s house.” David complained. “Surely we come up with another plan, something that will punish these two killers to the fullest extent of the law?” David wanted to know.
“They`ll be punished all right David, they shot at me didn`t they, in fact they tried to kill me for no apparent reason. The judge down here will make them wish they had stayed away from Texas, he lost his only son the month before last to a couple of killers down from the city for an easy buck, he won`t forget that when he sentences these two aliens.” Colin said smiling at his friends.
“How come you were up and about at such an hour Colin?” John Blazer asked of his friend.
“As you know John, I keep a few chickens, but just lately some varmint has been stealing their eggs. Therefore, I have made a simple alarm system from some of my equipment I use for keeping track of the local wildlife. Our two friends here must have tripped it when they entered the grounds around my house, and that is what alerted me to their presence.” Colin replied.
“More importantly Uncle John, how on earth did they track us down?” David asked.
“There can only be one answer, somehow they managed to put a tracer on my shuttlecraft, and we will have to find it before we leave here in case there are anymore of their friends in the country.” John Blazer said and marched out of the house and into the barn. It didn`t take them long to find it, it was on the underside of the hull and only inches away from the jagged hole.