Helium 3.0

Helium 3.0 - Chapter 13

‘Any recordings, Loren?’

‘I’m on it,’  Loren rummaged through the ruined equipment until she found what she wanted.  ‘Hey, look at this.’  They all crowded round a screen while Loren flicked through scenes of everyday activity in Central Control, most of which seemed to require a lot of sitting around watching graphs on screens.  She scanned for the start of the attack.

‘That must be it,’ Mervyn said, pointing out his Father as the crew on the screen ran for the secure room.  Moments later every alarm in the place went off.  Then chairs, cups, pens, and magazines shot upwards, in fact, anything not screwed down disappeared from view.  A lunch box bounced off the camera on is way out.

‘There goes the dome,’ Loren skipped the recording forwards until the crew emerged again silently and fully clothed in space suits.  No air meant no sound, and with the air would have gone all the heat.  The cosy control room had suddenly become a hostile environment, requiring full survival suits.

Mr Bright crossed to a cabinet, unlocked the door and started handing out photon blasters.  He handed out half the weapons, though, a quick glance confirm the still open weapons locker was now stripped bare.

The crew took up defensive positions round control and waited.  After what seemed like ages, to the watchers and must have seemed much longer to the defenders, everyone suddenly started shooting at targets off screen.

Mervyn thumped the console in frustration, ‘Is there any footage from camera’s covering the entrance?  I want to see who they’re fighting.’

Loren paused the battle and scrabbled through the ruin of the console, ‘Sorry, Merv, these are the only images that survived the conflict.’  Without waiting for his comments, she restarted the battle.

The watchers gasped as a blast threw his Mervyn’s Father across the room.

‘Oh Mervin,’ Aurora grasped his arm.  In shock or to comfort him?  This seemed out of character for the feisty Aurora, maybe there was a softer side to her they were yet to see.  Then Mervyn felt guilty, his attention should be on his Father not on trying to figure out Aurora.

Mr Bright lay quite still as the battle raged around him, then, ever so slowly, he clambered to his feet apparently dazed, but otherwise unhurt.  Mervyn sighed in relief and Aurora released her grip on his arm.

The fight soon ended: the defenders fell back to the secure room, then threw down their weapons in surrender.  Mervyn didn’t know what he should feel - in one sense he should be pleased his father had survived, but in another way he felt ashamed they had lost the battle.  If he were honest, he just felt an overwhelming numbness at the who situation.  Perhaps it was too soon to feel individual emotions.

‘Now we’ll see who they are,’ Loren watched the screen intently.  A grey suited figure edged through the main door and pointed a blaster at the camera.  Suddenly, the screen blinked out.

‘Hey, what happened?’ Mervyn demanded.

‘Shot out the cameras.  Someone didn’t want to be seen,’ Loren said.  ‘Now we’ll never know who did it.  Do you think it might have been marauders?’

Tarun waved them to silence, ‘Shh, I heard something.’

Mervyn made for the door, ‘It must be the Principal.  We’d better go.’  He didn’t want to be caught rummaging through a crime scene before the real investigators had a chance to lock the area down.

‘A noise.  It sounded mechanical.  Over here.’  Loren followed the line of Tarun’s finger, then tiptoed towards the secure room, which is a manoeuvre hard to achieve in a full spacesuit.  She peered cautiously through the door, then screamed as something suddenly shot out the room, clunked off her helmet, and whizzed past, ‘What was that?’

Mervyn recognised it immediately, ‘A spybot,’ he shouted.  ‘Don’t let it get way!  It can’t go far unless it connects with the delivery rocket.’

The friends dived after the fist-sized ball as it flitted round Central Control.  Without their spacesuits they might have stood a chance.  Instead, they blundered after the droid, always one step behind.  Eventually, it escaped through the shattered roof.  Moments later a small rocket streaked through the shattered dome.

‘There goes your evidence,’ Tarun panted.

Mervyn sat down to catch his breath, ‘Why would someone leave a spybot on Starlight?’

Tarun shrugged, ‘To see whether they got away with their raid.’

‘It certainly reacted to something we said,’ Loren offered, ‘I guess whoever raided Starlight will shortly know we’re on to them.’  They watched the rocket as is streaked away.  ‘If only we knew where it was headed.’

‘Don’t give up yet,’ Aurora called, ‘there’s a sled right in its path.’  Mervyn tagged the sled first.

‘What do you want, Bright?’  Mervyn’s heart sank.  Of all the people who could have been in that sled, why did it have to be De Monsero.  He was tempted to say ‘Nothing ,’ but you never knew your luck until you actually tried something.  So he gave it shot, even though he was pretty sure of the outcome.

‘De Monsero, there’s a spy droid heading straight for you.  Grab it with your robot arm.’  For a moment all went silent.

‘Nothing coming my way, Bright.’

‘It’s coming straight for you,’ he could clearly see the rocket’s trail streaking towards De Monsero’s sled.

‘Nothing on my sensors -- must be heavily shielded.’

‘You don’t need sensors, go to visual.  I can see it from here.’

‘Nothing in my line of sight, Bright.’

‘But you must see it, De Monsero,’ Mervyn shouted in frustration, ‘it’s practically on top of you.’

‘Are you calling me a liar, Bright?  Because if you’re calling me a liar there will be consequences.’  Mervyn punched the wall in frustration, what is it with De Monsero?  Desperately he tried to think of another option, but he knew it was hopeless, the spybot was as good as gone.

‘Well?’ Tarun asked.

‘Says he can’t see it.’

‘What?  But if he stays where he is it’ll crash into him.’

‘Let’s hope it does,’ Loren hissed, ‘at least we’ll recover the spybot.  De Monsero’s sled remained Stubbornly on station as the rocket skimmed past within a hair’s breadth.

‘Wow, that took courage,’ Aurora said releasing her breath.

‘Something just passed my sled, Bright.’

‘Yeah, an invisible rocket.  I’m surprised you felt it, you…..’  Mervyn cut the connection before De Monsero could hear what he thought of him.  He didn’t really care whether De Monsero heard or not, but insulting the heir of a great house on an open channel was sure to bring trouble for his friends.

‘Now what?’ Loren asked.

Tarun looked confused, ‘Can’t we just tell someone about the spybot?'

‘Yeah right, Tarun,’ Mervyn said, ‘and who is going to believe a bunch of kids?  Especially kids who are not meant to be here.  We had better go before the Principal arrives.’

Back on Academy One, Rufus De Monsero went out of his way to avoided Mervyn for the next few days.  Inevitably their paths had to cross at some point.