YOU WILL BE VISIBLE ON THE LEFT BY SEVENTEEN ENEMY PERSONNEL WHEN YOU
ROUND THIS CORNER, COMMANDER.
“What support can you give us, Marshia?” breathed Parker.
ONLY INTELLIGENCE AT THE MOMENT, COMMANDER.ROTATING HIGH FREQUENCY
DEFENCE SHIELDS MAKE ACTIVE PARTICIPATION TOO UNPREDICTABLE.
“ Three to one odds, ” thought Parker. “ No problem. ”
He punched the air with his fist motioning the troopers behind to advance to the left and spread out. Parker’s heart beat heavily in his throat, his eyebrows grew tense,nerves sang as he ran forward and left, keeping low. “ God, I love this, ” he thought.
The corridor opened into a large round room. Along the wall, figures in red overalls stood facing screens and consoles. Fully engrossed in their activities, even the figures a few yards from Parker and the six heavily armed troopers failed to notice the uninvited guests. Apart from the sounds of fingers frantically tapping on keyboards, along with a strangely familiar beeping noise, everything was eerily quiet. In the centre of the room a large, grey, dull metallic cube revolved slowly.
“FREEZE!” bellowed Parker. “Nobody move! If you want to live, stay exactly where you are!”
“ Why is it, ” thought Parker, “ that every time you shout freeze or die at someone they turn round and look at you?”
The grey cube rumbled something incoherent while spinning to face the source of the demand. The red overalled figures did the exact opposite of Parker’s recommendations and sprang forward to form a human shield protecting the cube. Impenetrably black visors reflected Parker’s own image back to him. They were all unarmed, each figure assuming the readiness stance of a different self-defence discipline. It crossed Parker’s mind that it looked like there had been a major misunderstanding and that they were, in fact, playing “Freeze”.A playground game where players assume daft poses and exchange places with the “Freezer”.
Anyway ...
Parker adopted a casual stance, lowered his weapon and lifted his own visor so they could see his eyes.
“Gentlemen,” he began, “and possibly, ladies?”
No response.
“And not forgetting,” Parker looked over at the large grey cube which, now that he looked properly, appeared to have some kind of domed head with eyes and a mouth, “you?Sir?”
The domed head spun round checking to see if Parker was talking to someone behind him.
“Me?” rumbled Colin.
“Yes,” continued Parker, “we need to work this out quickly because – well obviously ...” Parker gestured to the heavily armed troops beside him.
“Obviously what?” rumbled Colin.
“Well, obviously my heavily armed, highly trained, disciplined and lethal comrades here will cut you and your - if I may say, rather shaky - companions to pieces.” Parker indicated one red overalled individual who was having some difficulty maintaining his chosen position of standing on his left leg while pointing his right toe and both index fingers at the ceiling.
“That is where you would be wrong. On two counts,” rumbled Colin.
“No time to chat.” Parker’s tone was unmistakable.“On your KNEES! Hands on HEADS!NOW!”
No one moved.
Parker levelled his weapon at the head of the nearest figure. “On three,” he commanded. “One ...”
“There is a bomb,” rumbled Colin.
*
Phoenix watched the main monitor screen where Twip’s ship attempted to break free of Marshia’s Quanta-Gravitonicgrip. Vick and Streemly had discovered this phenomenon, a recent addition to Marshia’s arsenal, where an object, surrounded by this field, would be able to travel as far and as fast as it liked, even at light speeds and jumps through hyperspace, but the field would “ sproing” (a technical term coined by Streemly) the object back to wherever it started.
Vick, when pushed by an inquisitive engineer to described the Quanta-GravitonicField, said, “Like being stuck inside an infinitely stretchable balloon which assumed its original shape – with you still in it milliseconds after you tried breaking free by firing a hamster from a cannon at the balloon’s skin.
“The hamster, assuming it survived the acceleration trauma, would feel as though it gradually slowed down coming to rest very gently inside the balloon’s surface. To the cannon firer, the hamster would appear to hit the balloon wall, stretching it out into the distance, before sproinging back. To an observer outside the balloon the cannon would fire and the hamster would instantly appear, probablycrapping its poor little self, at the balloon wall.”
To which the engineer responded, “What’s a hamster?”
*
The field around the hemispheric ship shuddered and shimmered in a myriad of coloured patterns like a male cuttlefish fruitlessly flirting with a tartan tea-cosy.
“How are we doing, Marshia?” ask Phoenix watching the screen intently.