door did not intervene, but looked on sympathetically. He nodded his head in agreement at Gonzalo's men as they left the cell. The figure closed the door on a solitary prisoner. A prisoner who had been left on his own to consider his future. Wolfe now had time to plan revenge. Wolfe settled down for the night and propped his sore head against a foam pillow. He played with the gap in his teeth and looked around the grey padded cell. ‘Was this really his fate?’ he wondered, as the lights adjusted and the holding cell became dim and deathly quiet.
What will Halley think when she finds out? Will she be able to cope with the children on her own? Will they imprison the rest of the family? A million thoughts rushed through Wolfe’s mind as he became overwhelmed with frustration. But what could he do against a man who wanted to destroy him? I’m not beaten yet! He thought as he rolled over on the cell bed and closed his eyes. His body and mind were exhausted; some rest might help him think straight.
In the early hours, a vision like a dream approached him; Wolfe had been disturbed by the air lock to the cell as it opened with a slight hiss. He peered over his shoulder from his bunk and out of the corner of his eye spied the shadow of his friend Celestial; appear as a silhouette on the cells wall. Wolfe swung himself around on the bed and rubbed his eyes to clear his vision.
Before he could say a word Celestial's worried frown preceded the tale he was about to tell a respected friend. ‘I’ve come to offer you a way out of this trumped up charge,’ he said. ‘You have to listen to me before it is too late for you to get off this station. I’ve just overheard terrible plans for your family if you try to battle against Gonzalo. It seems the Commander has a motive in trying to blackmail you. He plans to use you and Halley to get to Mars. It is startling but from what I’ve just overheard in the command tower a third party named Templar knows that the boy is an alien from another world, and they plan to use him and you the Magellan’s to find it. Unless you start to work for Gonzalo, he has got the go ahead to seize the boy and bring him back to Earth. You, Halley and Capella, are to meet with a tragic accident in the final hours of the space station.
‘Ah! That could explain why there’s wired explosives dotted around the station,’ Wolfe said angrily.
‘Now we know what he is trying to achieve, I can try to guarantee your safe passage, before Gonzalo takes control of his shift in the next four hours. It is the only way to keep your family away from his evil scheming.’ Said Celestial.
Wolfe looked him in the eye with disbelief, the future of his family had been put in eminent danger, and only he could save them. ‘I need a miracle to get out of this mess, can you look the other way so I can gather everyone together?’
‘What do you have in mind?’ Celestial enquired as he sat down on the bunk beside him.
‘It’s a risk, but I’m left with no choice. Mars and I have been working on the salvaged alien ship in, the quarantine zone and the structure and flight controls have been repaired, if I can get it powered up it would be our best option of escape,’ he continued. ‘We would be able to smuggle the alien plants and seeds from the labs to hide the evidence and cover our trail.’ He nodded to convince himself of the elaborate plan.
‘It might work if I can get your craft out of the departure terminal in time; otherwise I might have to distract Gonzalo with some wild goose chases,’ Celestial scratched his head for a moment.
‘My trusted prison guard Sheriff will make sure no-one gets access to the cell, that way we will be able to get more time out of Gonzalo before he gets access to the prison,’ Celestial pointed to the other shadow listening from the cells entrance. ‘But you must take him with you when you leave, because I can not guarantee his safety when they find out he has helped you.’
Wolfe agreed and nodded and with a shake of their hands, Wolfe was free and at large in the Maverick space station.
As the sole figure left the cell Celestial called out. ‘Be careful and watch your back, if Gonzalo ever finds out I overheard his secret communication; I will be in considerable danger myself. This will only work if you stay invisible from his guards, stay away from the recreation zone there are lots of cameras there.’
With this in mind Wolfe the engineer made his way down the corridor of the secure unit and entered a door labelled utilities, it was the room, which connected all of the life support and energy cables to the holding cells. He had fitted out this part of the station himself and knew that at the other side of the door was service ducts. If he used these ducts carefully then he could navigate his way back to the quarantine bay without setting foot in the main thorough ways, avoiding any contact with the general population would mean that Gonzalo could not track his movements.
Wolfe typed in his generic password to unlock the door. IIt vibrated and made a buzzing noise, as its magnetic seals opened. Now Wolfe was able to enter one of the main arteries of the station. Once inside he turned and looked for a maintenance box, which would contain the tools he needed. Wolfe walked over to the box and opened it, inside were first aid items, a flashlight, a short piece of securing rope, some screw drivers a bolt cutter and a small laser cutter. He took the flashlight out and turned it on before slinging the box over his shoulders and wearing it like a backpack, he would keep it to use later.
Now he was out of sight he needed to double-check his bearings, the torch shone brightly as he changed the direction and angle of the beam to scour the way forward. He could see the different coloured pipes, which contained the energy and water supply, and above his head was communication bundles secured together. Everything was how it should be, a solid and well-maintained alternative passage to access all of the station, he shone the torch ahead of him searching into the distance the light hopefully illuminating his way back to his family.
Wolfe made significant progress until he came to an intersection where a lot of service pipes grouped together, Again he found some explosives, which needed disarming. He analysed their position and thought about the other explosives he had found, these have been placed not to fabricate the family's death in an accident, but to blow up the station. The journey had now taken him an additional 30 minutes to navigate through the maze of ducts but eventually he arrived at the Quarantine Bays. Wolfe typed in the access code to gain an entrance into the large hangar, which contained the repaired spacecraft. He closed the heavy metal door behind him and once again entered his generic code number to lock it.
Wolfe turned off his torch, took off his maintenance pack and left it on the floor by some filters and boxes. In front of him was the spacecraft he had spent every single spare minute of the last three years repairing, he was about to find out if it had all been worthwhile. This like no other time in his life did he need all of his experience as an engineer and fitter. His only chance would be to bring life back to a craft, which could rescue them from their enemy.
The engineer stood admiring the lines of the craft and its silvery reflective shell, if this were an automobile it would be a Porsche. The racy lines, the promise of power from the crafts engines, combined with aerodynamics and elegance. He ran his hand on the smooth surface of the wing before ducking under its delta shape minding not to bang his head like many times before. He entered the white clinical space of its belly, he smiled and turned into the cockpit, in front of him were the refitted controls of the flight system. He had devoted months simulating the controls to the craft in a computer program that had written, he patted the controls with words of encouragement. ‘You will soon get your chance to sparkle, and show the whole galaxy the wonders of a new age of space travel.’
Wolfe looked at his watch it was 6.30 am, and there was little time left before Gonzalo would take up his shift commanding the station at 9.00 am. I must warn my family he thought as he made his way over to the exit of the bay and looked into the corridor, which would lead him back to Halley and the children. He looked both ways before darting along it and into the safe haven of the quarantine office. Unexpectedly the room was dark and quiet, instantly he sensed somethin
g was wrong and quickly turned on the lights. To his shock the room was empty. ‘Hell, where is everybody?’ he cursed
In the office minutes earlier Halley had woken Mars at six o’clock, it was early, and the boy was still extremely tired from the previous days traumas. He yawned and stretched out his arms as a shiver ran though his body. He looked around the room and climbed out of his makeshift bed, Cappella was already awake, and Sweeney was scurrying around picking at bread crumbs left over from last nights meal but, there still was no sign of Wolfe.
‘We have to go to the Labs this morning,’ his mother said. ‘There are some documents that need archiving and the plants need to be incinerated. If you two could help me, I’ll be able to finish work early and then we can spend some time in the park,’ she smiled.
‘OK, but what about dad?’ Mars asked.
‘I expect he has been busy fixing yesterdays maintenance problems. I do not think we will see much of him this week.’ She shrugged.
‘We could leave him a message on the monitor and then he can catch up with us later. If he is busy it is best to let him get on with the shutdown,’ she added.
Mars had a better idea. ‘Why