the dog.
Robo sat looking directly at her, his mouth opened to relay the message in an automated voice. ‘OUR LIVES ARE IN DANGER. ON HEARING THIS MESSAGE ALL Magellan's ARE TO MAKE THEIR WAY TO QUARANTINE BAY 1. BRING SPACE SUITS AND SMALL AMOUNT OF BIO SAMPLES. DESTROY EVERYTHING ELSE. DO NOT TRUST GONZALO OR HIS GUARDS. DO NOT TELL ANYONE WHERE YOU ARE GOING. BE HERE BY 8.30AM.
Halley reacted with a look of astonishment on her face, a moment of panic passed as she processed the information. Thankfully they had destroyed all of the samples, so they finished off their final tasks before Halley then collected their bags together.
Moments later Mars bent down to give his dog a pat when Robo’s eyes turned a dark red colour once more. ‘What now!’ thought Mars, expecting the dog to reveal another instruction, but instead Robo made a dash for the opened door. A few seconds later the dog determined to leave, had quickly sped off and vanished.
Halley who had been stood in the dogs way, nearly had her feet taken from underneath her quickly grabbed all the bags and hurried the children out of the offices. ‘We have to find space suits in the equipment centre,’ she said, dragging Mars’s by the hand.
As they entered the equipment centre, they could see before them a never-ending closet, every shelf packed with merchandise. Halley dragged Mars down to the uniform section to find his space suit. There were rows upon rows of suits all finished in lime green trim, to signify the scientific community they were members of. Eventually she found the right size, age 11 space suit. Short space walks and emergencies only! It read on the packaging.
Cappella grabbed one and Halley pushed her own and Mars’s suit into a field bag, and as a second thought she picked one out for Wolfe just in case he could not get access to his own in the terminal. The suits would be easy to hide due to the airtight bag they were supplied in.
Halley checked off a mental list of things they needed to take back to the Quarantine zone, she now had everything they needed and so she organised the family's next steps. ‘Now children I do not want you to talk to anyone on our way to meet Wolfe. I want you to stick close to me, and we need to get to the quarantine bays as quickly as possible. Do you understand?’
Mars and Cappella answered at the same time. ‘YES!’
‘Then let’s not delay, off we go,’ Halley said, as they left the equipment room and started to make their way out of the laboratories. The group passed by the main reception and across the main entrance, her watch read 7.45 am. She smiled to herself there's plenty of time.
The Magellan party made it ten feet outside of the main entrance before one of Gonzalo’s guards spotted them. He had been making his presence felt around the station all night by asking questions about them. However nobody in their major haunts had seen them since the accident in the accommodation block. Last night he had scoured the recreation block and the departure terminal just in case they decided to board one of the departing crafts, without any luck. He had taken a break at around six o’clock to get a bite to eat, narrowly missing them on his return back to the ECO Zone. Since then he had been drifting in and out of boredom on a park bench waiting as all good observers do, until inevitably something would happen. He had not been disappointed when he rose from his lookout position and began to follow the family across the winding pathway, back to where they were staying. Unwittingly they would fall into his trap and be detained like Wolfe in prison.
Mars was the first to see the lonely figure behind them, at first he thought it might be a maintenance worker checking the atmospheric conditions in the dome, but soon he sensed that the man was after them. There was something sinister about the figure, something that made him feel anxious. His reaction was to panic and get rid of the evidence he carried, without thinking he pulled his field bag off of his back and stopped at a point in the pathway which had a steep drop down to the riverbed far below, he grabbed a hand full of sample bags tore them open and threw the contents over the drop. His mother stopped and looked at him in astonishment as hand full after handful disappeared into the void.
‘We need those samples, do not throw them away,’ she shouted.
Mars stopped. ‘There’s someone following us,’ he pointed into the distance as a man stood still with arms on his hips looking in their direction.
Halley and Capella looked around as the man began to run towards them. ‘Stop.’ The guard shouted as he gained on them.
Halley reacted ignored her previous advice and grabbed the field bag from Mars. Perhaps if, she diverted his attention they might still be able to get away. She tossed the bag over the grass verge into the undergrowth far below. The Magellan's she realised had become fugitives.
‘Stop.’ The guard could still be heard shouting as they ran for their lives. It was only once they had left the ECO zone did they dare to look over their shoulders to see if the guard was catching them. To their surprise he was nowhere in sight, so they scrambled ahead with their plan and hurried along the passageways towards the Quarantine bays.
Sheriff had stayed in his position at the holding cells as long as he might before making a dash for freedom; he let his visitor Robo out of the secure unit a few moments before changing the codes to the locks. He had resisted regular attempts by Gonzalo's guards to gain access to Wolfe the prisoner, but they had threatened to use force on their next return. He had waited for a signal before daring to move; only when Robo arrived did he know it was time to make his rendezvous. He glanced both ways at the corridor as he set foot out of his jailer's lair for the last time, in his jacket he had a laser gun. It was deadly at fifty feet and he was not afraid of using it.
The incident with the Magellan's at the command post was logged at 8.00am. Commander Celestial who was on duty asked the guard to investigate the scene further and ordered him to retrieve the field bag. Gonzalo himself then tried to contact Celestial directly, but Celestial resisted meeting with the commander and at 8.15 am, locked the control room door to stall any further clamp down on the Magellan’s escape.
Wolfe was sweating as he was watched the time pass by, as yet nobody had made it to the Quarantine zone and now it was 8.25 am soon he would have to make a decision about the launch of the craft. He had made all the necessary checks and test simulated the flight on his computer. Everything was ready apart from his cargo. Eventually with only a minute to go before the imposed deadline Wolfe made his decision. The main terminal door would still be locked after the departure of the freighters last night. Therefore he could at least open the quarantine bays doors to save time.
He called Celestial. ‘Wolfe here, requesting permission to take off,’ the request was patched through to the control tower.
Celestial expecting the call moved quickly towards the only traffic controller on duty and knocked him out with a single blow to the back of his head, then took over the control tower. Whatever happened from this moment on he was going to be in serious trouble.
Celestial replied, ‘Roger that! The quarantine bay doors will be open immediately and the main doors will begin to open in five minutes.’ The sirens and red flashing light to the bay began to increase the tension. Suddenly the entrance burst open and there stood Halley, Capella and Mars before them was the hovering spacecraft.
Halley wasted no time and grabbed them both by the arms to drag them across the grey and white chevron bay towards the ship. Second’s later Sheriff also appeared at the door, he was hurt and blood ran down the outside of his right leg. He held a laser in his hand, shooting it down the corridor before closing the hatch to the bay. He hobbled as quickly as he could toward the ship and motioned with his hands to set the ship moving.
Wolfe tilted the craft to one side and the ship responded to his slightest touch, he was nearly ready to push the button for acceleration.
Sheriff dove into the hold of the ship and winced in pain as he landed on his injured leg; Halley dragged him deeper into the heart of the compartment before Wolfe closed the main door to the craft.
‘Ready when yo
u are,’ Wolfe shouted to Celestial.’ As he watched for the main departure terminal doors begin to open. A second later the red light acknowledged the initial glimmer of space as the outer terminal doors slid further and further apart. Then a large bang sounded over the headphones and the outer doors jolted to a halt.
Wolfe shouted in disbelief. ‘No, for gods sake No!’ He had heard the evidence, of the execution of a good friend. However he was determined not to give up now, he needed to muster enough courage for one last chance to save his family, and get them away from Gonzalo, before the terminal door was closed on their exit. He looked back at his wife for reassurance and took manual control of the ship. ‘Explorers of the universe, slaves to none. We are the Magellan's here we come!’ he shouted as he hit the accelerator button and pointed the craft toward the narrow opening in the terminals outer door. When the engines roared he struggled with the controls as the occupants of the craft were thrown back in the compartment. A white light flashed through the cockpit, as everyone was knocked-out by the extreme gravitational force of the acceleration.
It would be days before Wolfe briefly regained his consciousness, but when he did he blinked and strained to adjust his eyes at the sight before