

# Loner in Space

Steve Simons

Smashwords Edition

Copyright 2009 Steve Simons

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~~~~~~

INDEX

Chapter 1 – The Loner

Chapter 2 – Is This Place Dangerous

Chapter 3 – The Unpredictable

Chapter 4 – Strange

Chapter 5 – Trapped

Chapter 6 – In Trouble

Chapter 7 – And There's More

Chapter 8 – From Torment to Adventurer

Chapter 9 -Ever Wished You Hadn't?

Chapter 10 – Are We There Yet?

Chapter 11 – I Hope You Don't See Me

Chapter 12 – A Boy Has To Do

Chapter 13 – Escape, But Escape To Where?

Chapter 14 – Challenge

Chapter 15 – Harm
Chapter 16 – Understanding
Chapter 17 – Home, But At What Cost?

Chapter 18 - What Can A Mere Boy Do?

Chapter 19 – As IF That Isn't Bad Enough

Chapter 20 – Care

Chapter 21 – Making Arrangements

Chapter 22 – Friends Stick Together

~~~~~~

Chapter 1 – The Loner

The bell sounding in the corridor, is at once the welcome indication that the day's torture is over and at the same time, an warning that other trials are about to begin; well at least for Paul it is. Paul both likes and hates school. The science and technology lessons are interesting, the maths on occasions can be interesting, but as for the rest, Paul had no interest in nouns, adjectives, past rulers trials and tribulations or come to that the materials that make the local hills as distinctive as they are. Then there are the school bullies. These guys have less interest than Paul, in learning stuff, even if some of it could be useful to them, when it comes to their turn to leave school and get a job. Their favourite pursuit, seemed to be the making of others lives as much of a misery as possible. They took great delight in getting out of the classroom as quickly as possible and waiting for their victims outside the school and intercepting them before they got to the bus or gate. Then threaten the individuals, in order to extract some money, goods or even some completed homework, that has not been handed in yet.

On this occasion Paul is quick off the mark, having entered the classroom last, he had found himself sitting right near the door, so when the bell sounded, Paul had his books packed away in double quick time and was out through the door before the usual suspects, even had the chance to leave their desks. Paul heard the teacher remark, "Keen tonight aren't we Simpkins?"

Paul did not pause, he had a goal and that was to get as far away as possible before being challenged and held to ransom by the 'big four' as they liked themselves to be known. Paul reaches the gate so early his heart skips a beat as he sees that it is still closed, he hopes, he hopes..... yes the caretaker is there unlocking the shiny new padlock, the third fitted this term. No doubt this one will find itself also being forcefully removed, as had the previous ones. Despite increased police patrols, the school authorities had not found out who the mysterious padlock removers were. Paul arrives at the gate panting and wheezing, as if he had just run a marathon.

The caretaker, slowly removes the padlock and slides the lock mechanism back. Its almost as if he's in league with the big four, as if he's being deliberately slow.

Paul nervously looks around himself, no sign yet of the four, but they'll be here any moment. "Come on!" Paul mutters under his breath, as if it will encourage the caretaker to speed up.

The caretaker smiles and asks, "In a hurry to get home young man?"

"You could say that." replies Paul.

"It's OK for some, I still got to stay around here until five." says the caretaker.

Paul thinks to himself, 'the fact that you've probably done nothing much all day, I suppose counts for nothing.' Paul had seen the caretaker several times during the day, he had been sitting and reading a book in his garden, which is next to the playground. Paul replies, "Yeah life is tough eh, I got stacks of homework to do before I can do anything else. Me Dad insists."

The caretaker pauses a moment in thought, as he remembers the joys of homework. He hated it in his day. He replies, "Yeah that's tough after a day of lessons and I've heard they give you far more these days than they gave us."

Paul suggests, "Sounds like we should form a mutual appreciation society."

The caretaker is not sure if this young man is being sarcastic or if he means what he has just said. Giving him the benefit of doubt, he swings the gate open and says, "Good night and good luck."

Just then Paul spots the big four heading towards the gate. They seem to be occupied in hassling someone, however, Paul is taking no chances, he utters, "Thanks mister, see ya tomorrow." The he starts running towards home and safety. He hears the caretaker mutter, "Someone should do something to those four troublemakers." He also hears one of the big four shout out, "Tomorrow Simpkins, tomorrow!"

Paul is so glad that he has escaped one more time.

~~ Later ~~

Paul's father, a rather worried looking man, with short grey hair and not much of that to speak of; walks in through the front door. He looks even more worried as he catches sight of Paul putting on his coat ready to go out.

Paul says, "Oh hello Dad, just off out to play."

Paul's Dad asks his nightly question, the one that Paul knows will be asked before anything else, "Done your homework?"

Paul smiles and replies, "Yes of course,first thing I did when I got home Dad. Well second actually if you count making a snack."

"What was it today then?" asks Paul's Dad.

"What the snack?" asks Paul.

"No the homework you dosey....." replies his Dad, not finishing his sentence.

Paul says, "Trigo something, basically maths."

"Oh trigonometry, couldn't see much point in it when I was your age, but it comes in handy I can tell you." replies his Dad.

Paul had lost count of the number of times his Dad had used this or a similar phrase. He was half expecting the usual lecture about how his Dad applies his scholarly knowledge in his job, but no tonight it wasn't forthcoming. Instead his Dad just told him not to get into mischief and not come in too late as it was school tomorrow. As if Paul needed to be reminded of that!

Paul promises to be back at a reasonable time, then sets off out the door. Whilst his Dad sets about taking his coat off and preparing some tea. As an afterthought he asks Paul, just before he disappears, "Will you be wanting something for tea?"

"No, its alright I had something earlier." replies Paul. Just then, his Dad enters the kitchen and sees the sink piled up with a pan and several other items.

"So I can see, never heard of washing up then?" asks Paul's Dad, although he doesn't actually expect to get an answer to his question. Sure enough the closing door confirms he is not going to get one either, so no disappointment there.

It was such a shame, that Paul's relationship with his Dad had degraded to such a level as this, they were little more than passing ships these days. Ever since Paul's Mum had died, he and his dad had just not been able to get on with each other. They kind of tolerated each other's presence. So long as Paul did his homework, didn't get into any trouble, his Dad seemed to be quite happy. They both missed Paul's mum, she always seemed to be the glue that cemented family together. She was the one that could put smiles upon their faces. Now neither Paul nor his Dad spoke of her, or shared their happy memories. Paul once thumbed through the photo album looking back at pictures of happier days, when the three of them did things together. All his Dad could say when he found Paul looking through the album was, won't bring her back, nothing can do that, best accept that she's gone lad.

Today Paul, put all thoughts out of his head about his Mum and come to that his Dad. He had other things in mind. He was off to explore a bit of the woods that had previously been out of bounds. Until they started building the new houses, the land had been considered as private and was well fenced off. However, now that the builders had moved in, they had removed some of the trees and that wasn't all they had removed, they had also taken down some of the fencing. This granted easy access to Paul. He was eager to explore. He knew that apart from the old guy in the hut at the front entrance to the site, there would be no-one around. Paul had discovered an easy way to get onto the site without alerting the night watchman. Paul's entrance was to the rear of the site, off of the main road. Yes he had to make sure that he didn't get spotted by passing cars, but as this wasn't a very busy road, that was the easy part. Paul soon found himself under the cover of the big trees, thrashing at the undergrowth, with the old broom handle that he'd brought along with him, specifically for this task. The fact that there was so much undergrowth, was a clear indicator that this was undiscovered territory. If there had been people travelling along this route, it could not have been for a number of years. Something had told Paul that this would be a route that would take him to something interesting. He could just 'feel it in his bones', as his uncle Jim would often say.

Paul had come prepared, he had a torch and various other equipment, he had even brought a mini first aid kit and emergency food supplies, if you could call a couple of bars of chocolate and a packet of crisps emergency food.

Paul had now been walking for half an hour, it would soon be time to think about setting off back. Although as he thought about that fact, he dwelled on the fact that he had been slowed down on the outward journey by all that undergrowth, the journey back would be much easier as the path had been cleared. So he reckons he can stay out here for at least another 15 minutes.

Suddenly Paul catches the glint of something in the light of his torch. Whilst it was not dark, Paul had turned on his torch to take the edge off of the fact that it was getting darker.

Paul heads towards whatever had reflected back the torchlight. There are some brambles in his way, he thrashes about for a bit, then gets his pocket knife out and sets about cutting the more stubborn branches, being careful not to snag his fingers on the thorns.

Soon Paul has a considerable swathe cleared. He advances forward and notices that there are some branches piled up. He sets about removing these, as he does so, there are tantalising glimpses of something shiny below the twigs. Suddenly as he pulls a largish branch away, the light from his torch catches something and there is a low rumble sound and the metal below the few remaining branches, slides to the right, exposing a dark hole.

Paul glimpses at his watch, more than fifteen minutes have passed since he last looked at the watch, he knows he must head back home now, or he will be in trouble. But the attraction of this newly revealed place is very strong. As Paul moves, his torch catches whatever had caused the metal to slide open and the rumble resumes again, sliding the metal back into place. Paul instinctively picks up some of the twigs and sprinkles them back over the metal to hide it again.

Paul sets off back in the direction of home, determined to come back again tomorrow.

~~~~~~

Chapter 2 – Is This Place Dangerous?

Paul is glad that he had no homework to do tonight, it means he can get back earlier, to whatever it is that he had found in the woods, the previous night. He was so glad that his Dad had not noticed him sneak back into the house last night. His ploy of pretending that he'd just come down from his bedroom to get a drink, had worked well, when his Dad came out of the lounge and was a bit startled to see Paul in the hallway. Paul had heard his Dad get out of his chair and head towards the lounge door, so grabbing the glass that he'd strategically placed in the hallway, earlier, before he went out, made it look even more realistic that he had just come down. Well his Dad was fooled anyway.

Back to today's events, Paul has packed some food that he is going to take with him, to his new den. Yes he is planning to make the place that he has found, his new den. He had previously had a den down by the stream; that was, until the big four had discovered and wrecked it. Anyway not worth dwelling on that, they would not find out about this den. Paul's house and locality was well off of their stamping ground. Thank goodness.

Paul checks that he has all the stuff he thinks he'll need and sets off, being careful to ensure he locks the house. He forgot once and there was hell to pay. He was not allowed out for a fortnight. So he is absolutely sure, that is not going to happen again. The door is securely locked and he left the hall light on to make it look like there was someone home.

Soon the gap in the fencing is reached and Paul sets off again for the pathway that he had cleared the previous day. Paul had done a good job, although the pathway was not that obvious, he could see it and managed to get back to the pile of sticks in pretty fast time.

It does not take long before Paul's clearing efforts expose the shiny metal again. Paul reaches for his torch, at first he thinks he has left it at home, as he can't find it, then suddenly he feels the smooth cylindrical shape in his pocket. Soon it is emitting its bright beam. Paul hopes that he can trigger whatever slid the metal open yesterday. His wish is soon granted, after a few sweeps with the torch, the rumbling noise can be heard again. Paul leans forward to peer into the now open black tunnel that lies before him.

Suddenly Paul loses his balance and falls forward. He is about to let out a scream for help, but stops himself, thinking that it will draw attention to himself and to his discovery. He manages, as he is falling, to throw himself to one side and instead of falling into the tunnel, he manages to grasp the side of it and steady himself. He awkwardly eases himself into the tunnel, where he finds some steps. Once stable, he swings the torch around himself trying to make out what is in the tunnel. At first it seems like he is standing at the foot of an almost circular structure, but then he notices that one side has a flat surface, a doorway. Paul looks around for something that he can again trigger with his torch. After much swinging backwards and forwards, also up and down, Paul's torch must have found the trigger point as the inner door now rumbles open. As it slides to a halt, there is a somewhat echoy sound. There is a rather musty smell emerging from the now open doorway. Cautiously, Paul, advances through this second doorway, he is somewhat surprised when he finds that the door just stays open, he had expected it to close of its own volition. The other side of the door is a corridor leading deeper into whatever this place is. As to the latter, Paul is keen to find that out. He advances down the corridor swinging his torch from side to side as he goes. There are objects strewn around on the floor, none of which are familiar. Paul can see that ahead of him are doors leading off to the right and the left. He cannot wait to get to the first of these, but he must go slowly as there may be any number of things that could make him slip or trip. The first door still seems to be a tantalising distance away from Paul.

When Paul reaches the door he is most disappointed at what lays behind it, basically nothing, it was obviously intended as a cupboard for storing things, but precisely what things, was a well guarded secret, as the cupboard is now empty. Although come to that, it may have never contained anything in the first place. Disappointed, Paul moves on to the next door and this time he is delighted to find a room that appears to be somewhat like a cabin, that you see in pictures of ships, there are two rectangular holes in the wall that faced Paul, the lowest of which had some sort of fibrous material in it, that looked almost like an ancient threadbare cloth. Possibly at one time it was a blanket, but it certainly could not be used for that purpose now. It looked as if it would fall apart if you touched it. It had that cotton candy look of candy floss, as you pull it off of the stick or out of a bag. Paul steps into the room, again fearing that the door will close, only this time, his fears are confirmed, as the door slides silently back into place, trapping Paul in the room.

Panicking, Paul desperately looks around for some sort of door trigger panel. Suddenly there is a bang noise as if something has been dropped either inside or outside this place and the sound echoes throughout this place making Paul as nervous as he could possibly be. Perhaps whoever owns this place has returned. He must get lout of this room and quickly! As Paul looks around the room for something to trigger the door to open again, he notices that there are two more rectangular openings in the opposite wall to the first. Paul's search becomes ever more desperate, when suddenly the door starts to slide open. Was this as a result of his actions, or is there someone outside waiting for him to emerge. Paul waits silently, listening, straining to hear, to hear anything. Then he hears a sort of high pitched whine, regular in its delivery, as if generated by a machine or electronic circuit. The more he listens to it, the more he becomes aware that he thinks he could hear it when he first entered this place, but with his excitement and apprehension as to what he'd find, he had not noticed the sound then. Paul cautiously emerges from the room, back into the corridor. If the earlier sounds that he had heard when captured in the room had been made by someone who's place this was, there was no sign of them in the corridor. Paul decides to proceed further down the corridor with caution, keeping an eye out for anything that would indicate that there was someone else around. Although that was a bit difficult in this gloomy corridor, lit only by Paul's torch.

Soon Paul reaches the next door, he notices there are brown patches on the floor, also on the door itself. He repeats the torch waving activities, whilst also nervously looking up and down the corridor, in-case the flickering light from his torch attracts any undesirable attention. His attention is rapidly brought back to the door as it slides open. Something is emerging from the now partly open doorway. It is heading straight for Paul. For a brief moment he does not know what to do, he is rooted to the spot in fear. Trying to figure out if whatever is approaching is a threat, or purely responding to the call of gravity. Paul decides to take no chances and heads at speed for the entrance. As he reaches the doorway to that cabin that he had become a temporary prisoner of, there is a loud clatter noise. Paul briefly glances over his shoulder expecting something or someone to be in hot pursuit. However, he sees a pile of something had fallen onto the floor in front of the now fully open door. Paul slows up, looks again over his shoulder and is relieved to see that whatever it is, has stayed where it had landed. Paul stops retreating and cautiously heads back to the now open doorway and whatever has fallen out of it. Prepared to again retreat at speed, if needs be.

When Paul reaches the pile of stuff, he gently kicks it just to make sure it that it is not alive. There is no reaction apart from a bit of the pile yielding to Paul's shoe influence. Paul breaths a sigh of relief. He examines the pile more closely, it appears to be some sort of clothing. Paul looks through the doorway, there is another of these things hanging up and sure enough, it looks more like... more like.....space suits! Are they space suits or some sort of protective clothing, perhaps there's something dangerous down here that requires anyone who gets near it to wear one of these suits? Perhaps its whatever is making that strange noise.

Paul steps over the suit on the floor and proceeds on down the corridor, towards the next door, being careful not to trip over the objects strewn all over the floor and also keeping an ear out for any extra sounds, in-case there is someone else down here. Paul jumps and rapidly looks around him as he sees the walls light up. Has someone thrown a light switch? Should he make a run for it and get out of here quickly, before he is trapped? He stops walking and continues to look up and down the corridor, in anticipation of one of the doors opening.

After what seems like an eternity, Paul is at the same time relieved and disappointed that nothing happens. Paul decides to carry on down the corridor, perhaps the lights coming on was simply triggered by some sort of presence detector. He has now reached the next door, a bit of torch waving results in the door sliding open.

Result! Beyond the opening door the room appears to be lit and there are the backs of two chairs and beyond those, what looks like a large screen or window. It is difficult to tell which. Below that is what looks like a desk or control panel. Paul looks round the room, there are some things laying scattered on the floor. Paul carefully and quietly kicks one of them into the pathway of the door, he doesn't want to get trapped in here, so is hoping that by placing this item in the doorway will prevent the door closing, in the same way that lift doors won't close if you put a hand or foot in their way. Paul steps round the item on the floor and enters the room, half expecting one or both seats to swing round. He approaches cautiously. Then jumps as he hears the door start to slide shut. He dashes back towards the door, but he need not worry, his ploy had worked, the door gently touches the item and opens again. Paul quickly looks back round to the seats, expecting to have attracted the attention of whoever is sitting in them. But no they do not appear to have moved. Paul approaches the seat to the left of him and again, he is fully prepared to make a run for it if necessary.

Paul reaches the seat and is relieved to see it is empty, as is the second chair. However, the nearest chair is covered in brown patches, as are parts of the desk before it. The desk looks like a control panel of some sort, but there are no knobs or switches. Instead there appear to be glass bumps and black glass panels. The area nearest Paul where the brown stains can be seen, seems to have suffered some damage, two of the black panels are cracked and covered in brown patches and some of the bumps look as if they have seen better days. The whole desk looks quite complicated. Paul tries pushing some of the bumps, then tries to move them from side to side, but no luck they are fixed firmly in place.

After looking closer at the items scattered on the floor, Paul cannot figure out the purpose of any of them. They appear as if they had been dropped and left in a hurry where they had fallen. Paul decides to abandon this room, it just is not going to reveal its secrets.

Paul decides to leave the item in the path of the door, it won't hurt and will save him the effort of triggering the door opening mechanism, if he wants to come back here to investigate further.

The next door reveals a small room with some sort of equipment, which again has the glass nodules on it, but also rectangular holes in it and two of the black glass panels. Nothing really exciting here. Paul moves onto the next door and as it opens, Paul is somewhat more excited, as this is the source of the noises that he could hear. There are lights flashing and strange symbols on its black screens. There are several banks of lights that are rising and falling in some regular patterns. As this is the last door in corridor, Paul comes to the conclusion that this must be the power source or if it is a space craft, it could even be the engine or computer that controls this place. Paul stands for quite a while watching the lights, fascinated by their patterns. His mind racing to make some sense of the whole thing.

Paul glances at his watch and realises that he must head back home. He heads back up the corridor, kicks the item out of the pathway of the control room door. Then heads back towards the exit at speed. He is only slightly startled when the the wall panel lights go out, confirming his presence detector theory, this is closely followed by the closing of the control room door. Paul is a lot more relaxed now about being in this place. He even bends down and picks up the suit that had fallen on the floor and hangs it back up. As he walks away the door slides shut.

~~~~~~

Chapter 3 – The Unpredictable

The Xbox seems to be particularly slow starting today, but isn't that always the way when you are in a hurry? At last, here it is, the first screen Paul wants, he switches to friends list and is relieved to find that the person he wants to talk to is online. The screen reads 'Zlaxmaser365', Paul knows him by his real name of Zack. Paul often plays games with Zack, even though the Zlaxmaser is twice Paul's age, Paul is 11. The two of them have become good friends, Zack is at university doing some research, in the field of electronics and whilst a lot of his work is rather hush hush, those parts that aren't, fascinated Paul and they often have long conversations about Zack's work, whilst blasting things up in a game and enjoying both activities at the same time.

Drat! The Zlaxmaser is in a game with someone else. 'Typical when I want to talk to him privately.' thinks Paul to himself. He decides to get on with his homework instead, although it is not due in, until two days time, he might as well get it out of the way. He just hopes Zack is not going to take too long. Paul gets out his books and the homework sheet. The sheet seems to make no sense at first, after the third reading, the pieces start to click into place and Paul gets ripping into it. When he next checks his Xbox, he finds that Zack has signed off. This isn't going to be Paul's night. He just hopes that Zack isn't annoyed at the fact that Paul wasn't on the Xbox yesterday, for their usual game. They both looked forward to it as a wind down at the end of their frustrating or busy days. Paul settles down to finish the homework, but becomes increasingly frustrated, as he has come across a series of questions he just cannot figure a way of answering. The more he strains to work it out, the worse it becomes. He checks the Xbox again, still no sign of Zack. Paul's mind is still buzzing with all that he had seen at the den yesterday, he is desperate to discuss it with someone he can trust.

Paul decides to take a break and fix himself a snack.

On returning to the Xbox later, Paul is delighted to see that the Zlaxmaser is back. Paul hurriedly picks up his headset and calls up Zack. Despite Paul's fears, Zack seems delighted to hear from Paul

Zack says, "Hey good buddy what you been doing? I missed you, you OK?"

Paul replies, "Yes I'm fine, wanted to talk to you about something I have found...."

Then Paul tells Zack all about his den and the things he has seen. Zack is very enthusiastic about Paul's discovery, as well as quite concerned as to who owns it and what it is used for. He wonders if whoever owns it still goes there, the fact that Paul had found the device at the end of the corridor, still operating was rather suspicious. Zack suggested that if it had been some sort of abandoned research facility,he would have thought that everything would have been turned off. Paul suggests that maybe that device has to stay on in order for the doors to work. Perhaps it is just ticking over so to speak.

Zack suggests that Paul set up some form of movement detector that counts the number of people passing a particular point, that way Paul will know for sure if he is the only person who visits the place. Zack asks if Paul can get some photos of the place, especially close ups of the control room desk and those other two devices. Paul tells Zack that he will go back again tomorrow and see what he can get, then they discuss a device that Paul can use to detect if anyone else is entering the den. Paul remembers that he had an electronic kit somewhere in his cupboard and it might be able to do what Zack has suggested. He searches for a while then suddenly comes across what he was looking for. Zack guides Paul through the process of construction and testing. Sure enough Paul ends up with a device that not only detects someone passing by it, but also counts how many times. Paul says he will find something to disguise the device later.

The conversation turns back to the control panel and the things strewn around on the floor. Despite Paul's quite accurate description of some of the items on the floor, neither he nor Zack are able to figure out what they are likely to be used for. As for the control panel, Zack suggests that it sounds like the glass beads take light in and use it as control signals. He says he is basing this on the fact that the opening of the doors was triggered by light. Zack suggests that Paul test this out a bit more with his LED torch next time he is at the den, but to be careful to only trigger one thing at a time, so that Paul can observe the effect. Paul says that he wonders why his sample tests in the control room had no effect. Zack suggests that maybe the glass beads were too dirty and needed to be cleaned up. Paul plans to take some damp wipes with him tomorrow. This reminds him of the brown patches that he had seen. Zack suggests these could be leakage of some sort from some device that had been carried into the area. Then Paul suggests that maybe someone had been injured and it may be blood. At that thought, Zack suggests that Paul wear some gloves when he does the cleaning up just in-case. Then Zack back tracks on himself and suggests that this may all be too dangerous and maybe he should report his discovery to the police in-case there had been a murder or something like that.

Whilst the mention of a murder makes Paul somewhat uneasy, he protests, saying that it is his discovery and there was no way that he is going to hand the whole thing over to the local police. In any case the local police are useless, they couldn't even solve the mysterious padlock destroyer case. This would be well beyond them. Zack suggests that Paul discuss the matter with his Dad. To which Paul says, "He wouldn't be interested at all." Zack suggests that Paul's Dad would be really concerned if anything bad were to happen to him.

~~ Later ~~

Paul asks Zack, "So did you get the photos alright?"

Zack replies, "My e-mail nearly deleted them as it thought your email address was some sort of spamming email. What on earth made you choose that name and provider?"

Paul says, "Well my Dad insists that I don't use my real email address, except for family and school stuff, so I signed up for one of those temporary things and I was a bit stuffed for a username."

"Yeah but terminator99? I thought it was one of those bot things that pass nasty viruses and nearly deleted it myself." informs Zack.

Paul replies, "Yeah yeah, anyway what did you make of the pictures any use?"

Zack is silent for a moment then says, "Thanks just what I needed.... oh down there will do..... oh my pal the one I told you about."

Paul is about to interrupt as he is wondering what Zack is talking about, when he gathers that there must be someone else in Zack's room. He wonders who it is and whether they are trustworthy. As there's now a break in the conversation at the other end Paul asks, "Who's that with you? Is it OK to continue talking?"

Zack laughs and says, "Oh yeah sorry, its Kirsty, she just fixed me something to eat. Kirsty is OK with our secret, she's an Aero major."

Paul in a surprised voice, asks, "What's one of those when its at home?"

Zack says, "Oh sorry, that's uni talk for Aeronautics expert. Kirsty is working on a special project for NASA, all hush hush at the mo, but connected with shuttle replacement technology, nod nod wink wink."

Paul replies, "Oh in that case she'll be used to keeping quiet about something like this."

Zack says, "Yep sure is good buddy, she's seen the photos and like me she's convinced that what you've got there is some sort of sophisticated light controlled panel, the darker panels are display panels, as evidenced by the photo of that thing-a-my at the end of the corridor. What was that Kirs?.... Oh Kirsty says she has to commend you on the quality of the photos by the way. She said that it couldn't have been easy. What we have to do now is identify what the control panel operates."

Paul replies, "Der. Tell me something I don't know."

Zack asks, "Did you manage to clean up in there, like we discussed?"

Paul says, "Yep, sure did and I wore the gloves etc. like you suggested. I kept samples of the brown stuff, in-case it is a murder investigation site as you also suggested."

Zack says, "Hey you are good. Did you have a chance to test out any of those glass bumps?"

Paul asks, "What with the torch you mean?"

Zack confirms, "Yeah that's right."

Paul replies, "No I was a bit late getting there, setting out the intruder detecting system, taking the photos and cleaning up took up all my time. I'm going back tonight, so I'll be able to report back to you tomorrow."

Zack asks, "Could I ask a favour, if you come across any of the circuitry that's a bit damaged, can you send it to me?"

Paul says, "So long as it isn't too heavy, I haven't got a lot of money you know."

Zack agrees, "OK that's fine with me, shame I can't send you anything. Hey actually I can, I can set up a Paypal account for you. I'll sort that tonight and let you have the details tomorrow. I think that's all for now, isn't it?"

Paul says, "Yep I think so. Until tomorrow then?"

Zack says goodbye and wishes Paul good luck and tells him to take care in-case there is someone visiting the den.

Paul gathers up the things he'll need for his trip to the den. Nearly forgets to take his door key with him, suddenly remembers and darts back into the house, fetches the key. The familiar sound of his Dad's car can be heard. 'Oh dash it!' thinks Paul to himself, as he was hoping to get away long before his Dad got home. Should he try to make a quick break for it and dash off before his Dad gets a chance to open the car door? Paul decides to have a go, as he re-opens the front door he sees he's too late, his Dad is already out of the car.

Paul decides to bluff it, with, "Hi Dad, finished my homework and just off to a friends house, been invited for tea."

Paul's Dad asks, "Oh right, who is this friend, have I seen him before, where does he live?"

Paul, stunned that his Dad is showing any interest at all, says nothing at first, as his mind races like mad seeking an answer to the question, it is like a swan paddling like mad whilst above water it glides. Paul replies, "Its a new boy who has just transferred into the school, I thought I'd make him feel welcome and in return he invited me to his house, its down near those new houses."

"Have you got an address?" asks Paul's Dad,

"He did tell me, but I kept forgetting it, so he just told me to meet him at the entrance to the building site." replies Paul, wondering why his Dad was suddenly taking such a great interest in him.

Paul's Dad asks, "Why didn't you write it down?"

"Couldn't, we were walking between classes." replies Paul hoping this will put the matter to bed.

Instead, Paul's Dad suggests, "Couldn't you have written it down once you got to the next class?"

Paul thinks, 'He's a slippery one alright, got every angle on this, still I've got to persist.' Paul replies, "Dad you don't know what its like at school these days, as soon as you're in the classroom the teachers want to get on with the lesson, they don't have any time to waste."

"OK, I get your point, just be careful and don't stray off anywhere else right?" asks Paul's Dad.

Paul nods and replies, "OK Dad, just going to....." Paul pauses as he tries to remember if he'd given a name of the boy he's supposed to be seeing, then remembers that he had not given a name and continues, "to Keiran's house." That was a distinctive enough name that he's bound to remember.

Paul's Dad says, "Not too late mind."

"OK Dad, see you later." replies Paul and he departs in the direction of the building site. Well at least he appears to have a legitimate reason for going there now.

~~~~~~

Chapter 4 – Strange

Paul is now back in the den , he enters the place rather cautiously, checking to see if there is anyone around. Paul reaches the first of his movement monitoring devices, he almost missed it as he'd disguised it so well. He checks the reading and it shows that no one has passed by it, at least the reading is identical to the one that had last appeared on the device. So unless the invisible man had been down here, no-one apart from Paul has been visiting this place. Paul breathes a sigh of relief and can now relax. Although he thinks to himself, that he'll just check the detector at the other end of the corridor in-case there is another way in and out of this place that he is not aware of.

When Paul reaches the second detector, he is most alarmed to find that its count had increased by one, so someone has been down here. Paul is once again nervously listening out for unusual sounds. It is then that he notes that he had not heard the high pitched sound that had been emitted by that cupboard at the end of the corridor, the last two times that he had been here. Someone must have been down here and switched something off. Paul proceeds with caution to the control room door, which is closed. Should he open it, or if there is someone down here will it alert them to his presence. What oh what should he do? If he does nothing, he won't find out if this place is being visited, if he does something he may stir up trouble for himself. Having discovered that the second detector had picked up someone and the high pitched noise has gone, someone must have been down here. Paul is very tempted to sneak off, before being discovered himself. Yet the adventurer within him is very curious as to who owns this place and what they have been doing down here. Paul bends down and picks up something off the floor that he feels he could use as a weapon, should the need arise.

Paul reviews the situation, he does not want to be trapped, so he decides to check out that room at the other end of the corridor first, the one that appears to be a cabin of some sort. He sneaks past the control room door, alert to the fact that someone could emerge from it at any moment. He manages to get past it without incident. Nervously, Paul keeps glancing back at the control room door. After much tension and what seems like an eternity, Paul reaches the cabin door. He triggers the glass bump and as the door slides open, Paul checks both up and down the corridor, but there is no change. He quickly glances into the cabin itself and everything seems to be in the same place it was last time he had been here. OK that room is clear, nothing for it now, but to be extra brave and go for the control room. If there is anyone in there, they are bound to have heard the cabin door open and now close.

Paul takes a few deep breaths, before creeping back towards the control room door. As he approaches he keeps a careful listen out for the least little give away sound which would indicate someone the other side of that door.

Suddenly there's a noise behind him, he swings round expecting to see someone at the main entrance, instead there is nothing. Then there's that noise again, its..... its ...... a flapping noise. Paul looks up and he can just see the wings of a bird flapping the other side of the doorway. The bird had somehow found its way down into the entrance chamber and was trying to get back out. Paul walks quickly but quietly back towards the door and tries to coax the bird to change its direction, he shines his torch upwards towards the upper doorway. The bird continues to panic for a bit then, catches sight of the area that Paul's torch beam is shining at. The bird turns its attention to reaching that spot and soon finds its way into the open air again.

Paul again breaths a sigh of relief as calm descends upon the den again. Paul turns his attention back to the control room door, he is soon approaching this again, his torch swinging at his side as he quickly walks back to the doorway.

Suddenly, to Paul's horror, he hears the door sliding open. There is someone inside after all. Paul darts back towards the entrance, looking repeatedly over his shoulder, whilst also at the same time concentrating on making good headway towards the entrance. He had forgotten the items strewn on the floor, as he trips on one and finds himself heading towards the floor. 'Why now?' he asks himself.

As he hits the floor, he manages to spin himself around to face his attacker, only to find....... the corridor is completely devoid of anyone. Perhaps they are as nervous as Paul is.

Paul picks himself carefully up off of the floor, watching all the time, the somewhat vacant doorway leading to the control room, expecting someone to emerge at any time. Then suddenly the door slides shut, making Paul jump.

Paul decides, no matter how fool hardy, he just has to find out if there is someone here. So pushing all caution to one side, he boldly walks up to the doorway, sweeps his torch across the door trigger, he clutches tightly to his weapon and waits for the worst to happen. He doesn't have to wait long, as the door slides open fairly swiftly. To reveal the two chairs, the same clutter on the floor that Paul had seen before, nothing appeared to have been moved. The control desk appeared to be undisturbed.

Paul suddenly thinks, 'perhaps the person is hiding behind one of the chairs.' He glances to the floor, but no legs appear below the chairs apart from their own central supports. If there is someone hiding there, they would have to be small. That thought spurs Paul to walk into the room and check the chairs, if the person is that small he is sure he could defend himself against them, should they turn nasty. His confidence is rewarded, as he sees that there is no-one in either chair. Then the thought occurs to him that they could be hiding below the control panel. He quickly ducks down and shines his torch under the desk. He is glad to see nothing there, apart from a panel half hanging down.

'OK that puts all thoughts of someone hiding down here, to bed.' thinks Paul to himself. He turns his mind back to the mystery of the detector at the back of this place having recorded someone passing it. Suddenly Paul bursts out laugh as he realises his own stupidity, the person who triggered the device was him!

Paul relaxes again and decides to get on with what he has come here to do, find out what the controls on this panel actually do, that is if they still do it. Paul decides that he will close the main entrance door, that way if anyone attempts to enter he will hear them and have plenty of time to react.

Once the door has shut Paul heads back towards the control room, on his way, he remembers that the noise that had been previously coming from the end cupboard if that's what you'd call such a small space, had ceased since his last visit. Paul decides to take a look and see if he can solve that mystery. He reaches the door, triggers it and it obediently opens to reveal the panel with displays and lights as they previously appeared. No obvious changes here, equally no noises being emitted. So the mystery continues to exist. Paul wonders if it had been some sort of intruder alarm that he had inadvertently managed to reset on his previous visit. Anyway the important factor is that there appear to be no threats to stand in Paul's way now. No-one has visited this place in the last few days and it is highly likely that no-one is likely to visit it in the near future.

Paul closes the door and returns to the control room. He decides to get down on the floor and examine that open panel a little closer. He sets his tools down on the ground, then remembers that the door was likely to close itself shortly, he certainly does not want such a distraction to make him nervous again, so kicks something in the path of the door. As it happens his action is just at the right time, as the door starts to glide shut, then changes its mind.

Mind at ease now, Paul turns his attention back to the control panel. He gets down on the floor and eases the partly open panel fully open and shines his torch inside. Bad move! There is a sudden rumbling sound. Paul quickly gets up off the floor to check what has happened and see if he can what he has triggered now. At first it is not obvious, then suddenly he catches sight of small glimpses of light coming from one of the large black panels on the wall, the other side of the control panel. He catches sight of something metallic moving, it is the other side of the glass. So he was right this is a window and he has triggered the shutters.

Paul wonders how he can continue exploring the interior of the control panel without accidentally triggering anything else. Then decides to shine the torch towards the back wall and rely on the light bounced back. His plan works, whilst it isn't ideal he can just about make out the stuff behind the cover. It appears as if someone has been trying to either do repairs or vandalise the system, as there appear to be some sort of fibres hanging down, not attached to anything, or at least not at this end of the strands. As Paul looks around higher up into the panel, he can see several small pipes hanging down, these are about the same size as the fibres, or at least the holes are. Paul come to the conclusion that the pipes must lead up to the glass bumps on top of the panel itself. Perhaps the glass bumps were no longer triggering properly and whoever owned this place, needed to trigger things in a hurry, but to pull masses of these fibres out seemed to be daft, how could they know which ones to trigger, they must have been desperate or carrying out sabotage.

'Well one problem, solved.' thinks Paul to himself, Zack wanted a bit of the circuitry, this looks like it, or at least the control panel end of things. Paul gets up and looks down at the control panel, to see if the damaged part can be removed. He finds that there are discrete parts of the control panel, but the things keeping these sub-panels in place do not have conventional screw heads, they are unlike anything Paul has seen before. He is totally mystified as to how he is going to remove these things. In desperation, he tries every tool he has brought with him, but no luck. He even tries a bit of, what did his uncle call it? Oh yes 'Brute force and ignorance.' Paul's version of this involves a screwdriver and hammer. Unfortunately even that fails.

Paul turns his attention to his original mission, which was to see what the glass bumps on the control panel trigger. He had brought some masking tape and pens so he can mark up each glass bump after he has tested them. The first bump is disappointing, nothing happens, despite repeated attempts, it stubbornly refuses to do anything. Paul gives up and moves onto the next one and is stunned at the result. There is a strange sound, flash of light, followed by a loud explosion. Paul can see that the area immediately in front of the window now has a largish cavernous space whereas before it was a collection of branches and soil.

Paul wonders if the explosion as alerted anyone nearby that there is something strange going on in the woods. He decides to quickly label the glass bump as 'Weapon', pack his stuff away and get out of here before anyone has a chance to discover him here.

Paul soon finds himself covering over the den's entrance with the branches again. He quickly looks around to see if there is any evidence of the explosion in front of the windows. Luckily the area is so overgrown that it is not obvious where the cavernous area has suddenly opened up. For a moment Paul catches a glimpse of light. He remembers that the window covers are still open and the light in the control room could be seen up here. The lights must have now gone out though as it is no longer visible. Paul will need to disguise that area better if he returns again. He darts off through the woods, watching carefully for any signs of people coming to investigate the explosion.

As Paul is heading towards the back of the building site, he suddenly hears the crack of a twig. He instantly stops and looking out for any sign of someone in the vicinity. If only he could tell what direction the sound came from. It was vaguely to the left of him, but apart from that he could not tell the exact direction. No matter how much he strains to hear any further noises, Paul hears nothing more. He waits a while longer, not wanting to wait too long though in-case he is discovered. He decides to press on and soon finds himself at the gap in the fence. He pauses a while watching out for any traffic, but at this time, there is none.

When Paul reaches home, he is shocked when he enters the hallway and his Dad walks towards him from the kitchen. Paul's Dad asks, "Are you OK? You look like you've had a fright."

Paul, surprised yet once again at his Dad's concern answers, "Yes, I just got a bit spooked up, I thought someone was following me home, so I put on a burst of speed."

"Did you see someone then?" asks his Dad full of concern.

"Er, no, no I didn't see anyone, it was more a feeling than anything else." replies Paul.

"I get that sometimes, especially if I am tired. Perhaps you've over done things today. Anyway, did you have a good time at, what was his name?" asks Paul's Dad.

"Keiran's, yes his mum did spaghetti Bolognese and we played on his Xbox." replies Paul, he had hurriedly thought of one of his favourite meals.

"What and you are not covered in sauce? What happened?" asks his Dad.

Paul simply replies, "Napkins."

"Well there's no need to be rude I was only asking." replies his Dad with a big smile on his face.

Paul is worried now, what has happened to his Dad, the man before him has to be an imposter, he certainly isn't behaving like the Dad that Paul knows too well. This man is almost like the Dad Paul knew when his Mum was still alive.

~~~~~~

Chapter 5 – Trapped

Zack cannot believe his ears, as Paul relays the previous evening's events. Zack says, "Hey good buddy this sounds far too dangerous, that weapon meant serious business. Trigger the wrong thing and you could end up blowing yourself sky high." I think its time to hand this over to the authorities. What does your Dad say about it all?"

Paul replies, "He doesn't know anything about it and that's the way its going to stay. There's no way I'm handing this over to anyone, this is my project and I'm sticking with it."

Zack admires Paul's courage and enthusiasm, but at the same time is concerned that he's in over his head, after all he's only, how old did he say he was? Zack just can't remember, but he knows that Paul isn't very old in the scheme of things, especially given the potential dangers he is now facing. There is no way that Zack can just sit back and let Paul continue with this, his conscience won't allow him. Zack continues to try to convince Paul that he has to stop and not to return to that place, it just sounds far too dangerous.

Zack is most surprised when he hears Paul suddenly cave in and agree that he will talk to the police about his discovery.

Paul then changes the subject to a problem that a friend of his is having trying to open something with damaged screw heads in it. Zack suggests that provided his friend gets permission from his or her parents, they could use one of these rechargeable drills and simply drill the head away, then the cover will slide off the screw shaft. Paul thanks Zack for the advice and turns the conversation to a funny occurrence that had happened earlier in the day at school, then they chat about a game that Zack had played with someone earlier that day. The person concerned was known to them both as being a 'right royal pain' as Zack put it. Apparently this person had cost the team a victory that seemed to be 'in the bag' at least until, they came on the scene.

Zack and Paul settle down to a quick blast 'em up game and are joined by others. After about an hour of such game play, Paul decides to quit. He is wondering why he hasn't heard his dad's car arrive, then remembers that he'd muttered something about being late back as he had a late meeting. Paul fixes himself something for tea, watches TV for a short while, then sets about gathering the things he feels he is going to need. One of those things he is going to need, is his Dad's rechargeable drill, which luckily had been left plugged in charging up. Paul fetches a selection of drills from his Dad's toolbox and sets off for the den.

~~ Later ~~

The journey to the den had been rather tense, Paul kept an eye open for anyone paying close attention to him and anyone in the vicinity of the woods. Typical that any other day, he would encounter only 2 or 3 people on his way to the woods, yet today the area seems to be buzzing with people. Paul wonders if last night's explosion had attracted more attention than it appeared at the time. When he arrives at the entrance to the building site, he realises why the increased activity. The first show home was open and the locals were curious and lets face it...... just plain nosey, as to what the new places were like.

Luckily the increased presence of people didn't extend to the back of the site where the entrance to the wood was.

Paul thinks, ''Typical that my exploration and experimentation has just reached the interesting phase and that just happens to be the very time that people turn up to examine the houses that are being built nearby.'

Soon the entrance to the den is reached. Paul checks carefully for any sign of disturbances to his camouflage, but there are none. To the untrained eye, it still looks like this place was of no interest at all, just another path through the woods and not a well trodden one at that.

Paul has the doorway cleared in no time at all. He then turns his attention to the area where the lights had appeared above ground. He gets down on his stomach, carefully leans down through one of the holes in the branches etc. that are covering the area. He finds a secure place where he can place the wireless web camera that he has borrowed from his uncle Jim. Then he sets about more efficiently covering the area with branches, bracken and leaves, so the lights from the control room can not be seen above ground. Paul opens the door to the den, it seems a lot quieter than previous times. The oil, that he had squirted into the tracks, had obviously done the trick. The least noise he makes the better, especially with all those people milling around the building site.

Next Paul turns his attention to getting inside and closing the door, then he checks the intruder detection devices, no sign of visitors apart from himself.

The control room seems a lot more inviting than his last visit. The fact that Paul is assured that there have been no other visitors helps. As he empties his bag and comes across the electric drill, Paul hopes that this place has good noise shielding, so his efforts are not heard outside. Paul busies himself with laying out everything in a logical order, that he thinks he is going to need, before getting to work. His action plan, is to try and remove that damaged panel first, then continue his experiments with triggering the glass bumps. He had placed the web camera outside, so he could keep an eye on the exterior of this place, in-case any of his triggering affects things outside, that he cannot see from here.

Soon Paul is trying to drill out the first screw head. The particular drill bit that Paul has chosen was pretty useless. Paul swaps it for a slightly larger one, that looks altogether in better shape. Paul's decision is soon rewarded, as the drill bit bites into the metal and the curly swarf spirals away from the drill bit itself. Paul is enjoying the experience so much, he forgets that he only needed to go the depth of the screw head. He suddenly realises that he has gone too far and turns his attention to the other screws. Now why had he not thought of doing this earlier, it makes the job so much easier. Soon, the control panel plate, is so loose that is starts to make a rattling noise. Paul presses his other hand down on the plate itself, to keep it still and quiet. Every so often, Paul stops, to check that his efforts were not raising any external interest, but he can neither hear nor see anything adverse.

The plate is soon totally free. Well that is, apart from some of the fibres were still attached to the underside. Paul decides to try and break then off rather than detach them, so that Zack will be able see what the fibres look like. Mind you, that is easier said than done, the fibres seem to be pretty tough and do not want to snap. Paul remembers that he had brought some wire cutters. With a lot of hand hurting squeezing, he manages to cut the fibres off.

Having removed the panel, Paul puts it safely in his bag. The next job involves the laptop and connecting it to the web camera, so that he has external eyes. Speaking of which, as Paul glances out of the window, he catches sight of the little red LED on the web camera, for a moment it looks like a little eye winking out there.

The laptop, a present from Paul's uncle Jim, had come from his Uncle's place of work, whilst not the highest of specifications, it was pretty good. The only down side of getting it from that source was the fact that when they wiped its hard drive, they had also removed the operating system, but between them, Paul and Jim had put a free operating system, called Linux, on it. Jim had downloaded it and showed Paul how to install it. Paul was now pretty handy at using it, he had even done some programming and written scripts. In fact it was his script writing skills that had got him a reputation as a thoroughly good guy, from some of his online gaming pals. Anyway back to the matters in-hand, Paul soon has the laptop up and running. The connecting of the web camera is surprisingly easy. It seems strange to watch himself from outside the den. Of course he has to wave at the camera, if only to assure himself that the person on the screen is him.

Paul looks at the layout of the glass bumps on the control panel, trying to make some sense out of the layout. After much consideration, he decides to concentrate on those bumps that are in the centre of the panel between the two chairs, but start at the back of the panel and work down. Working on the basis that whoever designed this place was likely to have put the important controls nearest the operator and also the most important between both chairs so that either operator can reach them easily. Paul does not want to trigger anything noisy, as it will attract unwanted attention.

Grabbing torch in one hand and damp wipe in the other, Paul cleans his first target bump then sets about triggering it. The result, makes Paul jump in shock. The exterior of the den is suddenly bathed in light and everything out there can been seen as clearly, as if in daylight. Paul triggers the bump again and the lights go out. Paul writes out a label "Ext Lites" and sticks the label below the bump. Paul suddenly has an idea, grabs the laptop and sets about mapping out all the bumps on the control panel. He uses a spreadsheet to do this. Then counts the number of bumps across, that the external lights had been found. He enters the description "Ext Lites". Then he works out the position of the weapons that he'd triggered yesterday. He colours the cell bright red and enters "Weapons".

Paul continues the exercise of triggering the bumps. Some do nothing, whilst others do some strange things like set off sounds in other places within the den. One bump causes a previously unknown opening to appear in the wall, revealing some sort of container. When Paul investigates further, he finds that the liquid within the container is quite warm, it also has a sweet smell. However, Paul does not trust it enough to want to taste it. He removes the container from the opening, which then disappears, as fast as it had appeared in the first place. Paul places the container in a safe place on the floor, thinking that he could carry out some form of experimentation on it at a later stage, to see what it is likely to be.

Paul glances at his watch and realises that it is getting late, so decides that he must stop now. He is about to record his latest finding, but what should he call the secret container issuing panel, without knowing what is actually in the container? He decides to call it "Drink M/C", after all it was a liquid, sweet smelling and quite warm at that.

Next Paul packs everything away that he is likely to need at home, but everything else, he leaves here. Well after all, no-one else seems to be coming here, even if they do come back they will see from Paul's stickers that he has been here.

Now comes the decision, does he retrieve the web camera or leave it in place? As it isn't his and is only on loan, Paul feels obligated to retrieve it, even though it will probably be difficult to do now he has improved the camouflage over the area in front of windows of the den.

Once the den is all closed up, Paul leaves the laptop and bag on the path and gingerly crawls over to the area where he had placed the web camera. However, he mis-judges how far out it is and suddenly hears a cracking sound. He finds himself hurtling down into the hole in front of the windows. Luckily the lights have not gone out in the control room, so the area is lit up. Paul checks himself and finds the only damage is a few bruises on this right arm. Luckily the ground is soft and his fall was somewhat interrupted by branches etc. on his way down. As he looks back towards the control room, he is astounded at the sight that meets his eyes. Whilst he had seen it over the web camera, it had not been clear enough to make this much sense. What stands before Paul is clearly some sort of craft, it looks like a cross between some sort of submersible craft and a flying saucer.

"Crikey!" exclaims Paul to himself, "This is a bloomin' space ship, I knew it was special, but not that special.."

As he looks back in the direction of the hole that he had fallen through, Paul catches sight of the winking Web Camera, high above him. Paul wonders how he can get up there to rescue it, come to that how was he going to get out of this place? Paul sets about surveying the edges of the hole. Most of the edges are disguised by the now scorched branches and undergrowth that had grown up around them. It is impossible to tell what the ground is like below that undergrowth. Paul reaches into his pocket to fetch his torch, but is most disappointed to find that it isn't there any more. It must have fallen out of his pocket when he fell. Paul starts to walk back to where he had fallen, when suddenly the lights in the control room go out, leaving Paul in the dark. Apart from the faint light seeping in from the hole, Paul is totally in the dark. He will have to rely on touch to find the torch, without it he does not have a chance of finding his way out of here. Paul steps gingerly forward, as he puts his foot down, something touches the toe end of his shoe. Paul withdraws his foot in shock. Was it a branch or something living? Paul waits in anticipation, but nothing happens. He decides to venture out again in search of the torch. Paul gently swings his left leg in front of him, hoping that it touches the torch, without kicking it further away from him. His first six sweeps are fruitless, when suddenly his toot touches something, that is there one moment and gone the next. "Drat I've kicked it." exclaims Paul more in whisper than anything else. He advances towards the spot where his foot had made contact. He sweeps his leg around again, being even more careful and slow in this motion, but nothing is found. He advances again, repeating his actions, when suddenly his foot touches something, but this time it does not move. Paul carefully reaches down and nervously touches whatever he has found. It does not have the feel of his torch though, instead it is rather bumpy, rough, hard, cold and an odd shape. Paul comes to the conclusion that it is a stone.

Whilst bent over like this, Paul decides to do a quick sweep with his hand. He is most shocked that the first thing he touches is rather slimy and moves away from his hand. He withdraws his hand quickly, then attempts the sweep again, but a little further on from his previous encounter. He touches something rather warm and feels it move away from him. There is a somewhat metallic rolling sound. Paul is convinced that this is his torch. Paul grasps at the object and lifts it up, sure enough it rises with his hand. Paul feels along the length of the shaft and finds the switch. As the light is emitted, Paul breathes a sigh of relief to have light again. His relief is somewhat short lived as the light of the torch catches, what he had touched, before the torch. It is a toad, which seems as shocked as Paul, as it jumps and heads away from him. However the shock is not over, as Paul catches sight of something shiny to his right. He quickly walks over to it and recognises that it looks just like the material that those suits had been made of, the one that had fallen on him when he had first gone into the den. Paul moves closer. Sure enough it is one of the suits, but what is it doing here? Someone else has been here and taken the suit out of the craft, but why leave it here?

~~~~~~~

Chapter 6 – In Trouble

Paul examines the suit more closely, he does not really want to touch it, so he finds a loose branch and uses it to poke at the suit, part of which collapses as the stick touches it. Paul notices that this suit has some boots with it. They appear to be attached to the bottom of the suit, as he flicks one of the boots with the stick, Paul notices that the leg of the suit moves with it. But there appears to be some resistance to movement, as if there is something inside. Paul turns his attention to the globe at the top of the suit. At first it does not want to move. Paul eases the stick down the side that is away from him and flicks it upwards. The globe suddenly spins over, making Paul jump as he sees what is inside, it looks like a face. Not a recognisable face though, rather leathery in appearance. There are what look like four eyes, but no nose and the mouth was like no mouth that Paul had ever seen. It was somewhat smaller than normal and the lips, if lips you could call them, were considerably larger than normal. There was no evidence of any hair, nor ears, come to that.

Paul reaches the inescapable conclusion that what he has discovered was not of this world. He has discovered some form of alien. 'Some form of alien', the words run through his mind again. He can't believe it, he, Paul had found an alien. How cool is this? Zack will never believe this. Shame he doesn't have a camera on him. That is ironic, above him somewhere is the web camera, but the laptop is still on the surface so to speak, both out of Paul's reach right now.

So his den is a spacecraft and this thing before him in the suit is or should that be was, an alien, but what were they both doing here, in the woods. Had the space craft crashed? Had this alien been outside searching for a way out of this hole, just like Paul?

Then the thought struck Paul like a bolt of lightning, if the alien couldn't get out of here, what chance does he have of ever getting out of here? Paul panics, he must get out of here, he can not end up like the alien, he must not end up like this. He looks down again at that leathery face. He wonders what had actually killed the alien, was it being trapped down here, or was it connected with the crash? If there had been a crash. Apart from the brown stains and the one broken panel, Paul had not seen any other signs of a crash.

Anyway this was not getting Paul out of his current predicament. He turns his attention back to searching for a way to climb back to the surface again. He spots an area of undergrowth that just seems to be covered in ferns, he hopes there are no hidden holes. He steps gingerly amongst the ferns and makes his way cautiously up the slope. Once or twice he steps on uneven ground and nearly trips. As Paul has to proceed cautiously, it takes him quite a while to climb up to a level that enables him to retrieve the web camera. He can see that he is not far from the surface now. Paul picks his way cautiously upwards and soon emerges above the cover of the branches. Before retreating from the area, Paul quickly covers over the hole that he had fallen through, to keep prying eyes away.

Paul gathers up his belongings and thanks his lucky stars that he has managed to escape the same fate as that alien down there. Paul heads off for home.

~~ Later ~~

What is it with Paul's Dad, he just has the knack of being in the hallway whenever Paul arrives back. His dad takes one look at Paul's dirt covered clothes and exclaims, "Just look at what the cat dragged in! What on earth have you been up to? Why are you coming back so late too?"

'Well give us a chance to answer the first question.' thinks Paul to himself. Then he replies, "Sorry dad, Keiran and I were playing a game in his garden and we got a bit carried away. Sorry about the mess."

"Mess, that's your school uniform young man. Carried away? What the heck were you two doing re-enacting world war one in the trenches?" asks Paul's Dad.

"Er something like that, sorry. I forgot to change before I went out." replies Paul.

"How the heck am I going to get the dirt out of that uniform?" asks his Dad.

"Be a good test for that new washing liquid you got the other day, see if it lives up to its claims, if it doesn't we can sue them eh?" cheekily suggests Paul.

Surprisingly his Dad follows Paul's lead as he says, "You have a good plan there young Paul. What am I going to do with you?"

Paul is silent, expecting the worst. Instead of which, his dad smiles and puts out a hand and says, "Come here you rascal. Let's get you changed and into your pyjamas. Then I can get your clothes into the washing machine. Have you..."

Paul expects the usual question of , 'have you done your homework'. Instead his Dad asks, "Have you had something to eat? Only I was going to get a takeaway up at the Chinese, rather than bother to cook anything."

Paul decides to chance his arm and replies, "Well..... I did have a snack earlier, but nothing that you could call a substantial meal."

Paul's Dad says, "OK we can't have you starving can we? You get changed and don't get that dirt anywhere, whilst I pop up to the Chinese, fancy anything in particular?"

Paul thinks for a moment, then replies, "That sweet and sour stuff that we had with mum that one time was nice."

"Sweet and Sour it is then and I'll get fried rice as I know you prefer that. Fancy trying some seaweed?" asks his Dad.

"Seaweed! Sounds disgusting!" replies Paul.

"It isn't I assure you. Fancy trying it? Oh I'll get some between us and if you like it you can have some. How about that?" asks his Dad.

Paul definitely thinks that something weird has happened to his Dad now, this man is far too reasonable to be his Dad. Perhaps he has been replaced by an alien. Paul replies, "OK, that sounds good to me...... thanks Dad."

With that Paul's Dad smiles an even wider smile, turns and walks out the door. Paul waits for the car to start up, but it doesn't. He can't be walking? surely not?

Paul sneaks the rechargeable drill back to its charging cradle and puts the drill bits back in his Dad's tool box. Then bounds up the stairs towards the bathroom, once divested of his clothes, he cannot wait any longer to check if his Dad did walk or take the car. He looks out of his bedroom window. Spots the roof and boot of his Dad's car still on the driveway. He has walked, now that is totally out of character.

Paul looks up and realises that he is being watched from a bedroom window across the street. He can just make out the long dark hair, as the face darts back behind the net curtains. Paul suddenly remembers that he is stark naked and his bedroom light is on. He cannot believe his bad luck, that new girl opposite has seen him in his altogether. He's usually so careful about things like that. He should have listened to his Mum, she said it would be best to have net curtains up at his window, but oh no he knew best and he can still remember kicking off about it the day after they had moved in to this house. He had caused such a rumpus that his Mum had given in just for the peace and quiet. She never pursued the matter again, well apart from that time when she almost got caught herself darting out of the bathroom with a dinky hand towel wrapped around her, as she'd forgotten to take a bath towel in with her. Paul's bedroom door and curtains were open, potentially exposing her to full view of the street. Luckily there was no-one around. Paul can still remember her kicking off about it, until Paul and his Dad had protested that it was her own fault for not taking a bath towel in with her. Paul smiles at this remembered moment. The returns to his own dilemma, he quickly pulls the curtain, only to briefly see that dainty face peeping round the net curtains again. Paul has mixed feelings, he's at once ashamed to have been caught out and at the same time, felt quite good that she even wanted to take a second peek at him, most girls didn't even glance at him.

Paul returns to the bathroom, pyjamas in hand. Should he shower or just have a quick wash. He checks out the degree of dirt and settles upon a wash. He is washed, dressed and back down stairs by the time his Dad returns. He has the TV on and has settled down to watch a film.

Paul's Dad glances at the TV on his way to the kitchen and says, "Oh this one, its a classic, I think you'll like it. I can remember watching this at the cinema when it first came out. I'll just put the food on plates."

Paul suggests, "Lets not Dad, we can save washing up if we eat out of the containers."

His Dad pauses a moment, then says, "Hang it, can't be bothered to do the washing up, lets go for it. Here unpack the bag I'll get the eating irons."

The latter phrase was a favourite with Paul's Dad, he always referred to knives and forks as 'Eating irons.' Paul always assumed that when his Dad was younger that his knives and forks had literally been made of rusty iron. He couldn't quite imagine how the food must have tasted.

Soon Father and Son have settled down to enjoy a good meal and film..... together. A very rare occurrence, especially for these two.

~~~~~~

Chapter 7 – And There's More...

Paul is back at the space craft. He has decided to clear some space above the craft, in-case there is anything happening up there that the web camera could not see. Paul decides that his first task is to place the web camera somewhere safe. He is much more careful about its placement this time and marks the place, so he can spot it, but it isn't obvious to the casual observer. Next he manages to work his way below the camouflaged branches and starts clearing the area immediately above the craft, propping up the web of branches and undergrowth that were above him. At one point, Paul hears a noise, that sounds like someone is walking close by. He just hopes they have not heard his activities down here. He waits quietly, his heart beating lie mad. Stupid I know, but he wonders if whoever is out there can hear his heart beating.

There are no further sounds, so after what seems like an eternity, Paul gets back to his work. He is glad when he has finished,as it is hot work down here. He is glad that he had the foresight to bring a couple of drinks with him. He is also delighted that the first bottle is still really cold, as if it had just been grabbed out of the fridge. Paul finishes his drink and then cautiously emerges back into the open air. No sign of anyone, or anything unusual. So Paul heads for the entrance to the craft. He is soon inside, the now familiar control room. He connects the laptop to the web camera and the pictures seem even clearer today. It probably helps the fact that Paul has a better idea of what he is looking at, helps.

Paul resumes his testing and marking up routine. Noting any external reactions and there are some, especially from controls in the centre and towards the front of the control desk. He was right in his assumption that this is where the designers would put some of the most important controls. Furthermore Paul has now established that the left and right sides towards the operator's chairs, are mirror images of each other, so this craft is designed so it can be controlled from either chair. There are some minor differences, for example there are no weapons triggers on the right chair's controls, instead they appear to trigger some odd displays on the right wall. Paul wonders if these are something to do with navigation and possibly communications.

During Paul's testing of the various trigger bumps, he comes across another of those secret liquid dispensing panels. It really makes him jump when it is activated. He thought someone was entering the craft.

Paul is now working his way down the control panel in the centre. He keeps an eye on the laptop screen as he triggers the bumps. He reaches a group of display panels, he decides to ignore these, until the beam of his torch touches the edge of one of these, it lights up, he hears a click noise above his head. When he looks at the laptop, at first he cannot see anything out of the normal, but then notices that there is a slight difference at the top of the craft, as if a vent has opened slightly. Paul slides the beam of his torch up and down the edge of the display panel and he sees that his movements are replicated in terms of some sort of vent opens wider or closes down again. When he takes the torch right down to the bottom of the display, the vent closes and the clicking noise can be heard again. The other display panels in the same area as the first, cause other vents to open and close. As they do so the position of the vent is reflected in terms of a line drawn on the display.

Paul puts his torch down to note the latest results on his laptop, when suddenly the torch rolls down the panel, it rolls over and over, suddenly the button touches the desk and the light comes on, there is suddenly a strange sound, that immediately grabs Paul's attention. It isn't too loud, but loud enough to make him panic and want to stop it, in-case it attracts any attention. As his eyes scan the panel and the direction that the torch is shining. Paul sees that one of the dark glass panels has sprung into life and is emitting light. It looks just like a sound level meter and just one bar is lit. Paul notices that there is a small glass bump to the bottom of this display and the torch is shining right into the bottom edge of this bump. Paul wonders why he has not spotted this one before. He carefully picks up the torch and shines the beam of light away from the bump, but the noise continues. Paul swings the torch back, at first the noise increases as the torch beam touches one side of the glass panel. Then, as the beam swings round and shines into the bottom edge of the little bump at the bottom of the panel, the noise stops and the panel goes out.

Paul takes a closer look at the bump, when observed from above, it appears to be a part of the display, it is as black as the display itself, but when observed from panel level, looking into the side of it, Paul can see that it is semi transparent. The black covering, must protect it from accidental triggering from above. Paul wonders if it had any external effect and mentally kicks himself for not checking the web camera when all the noise was taking place. Then he remembers that he can play the video sequence back. He sets about doing this and is most surprised at the result. At the time when the bump was first triggered, there appears to be no external reaction, but when the noise had increased, Paul can see that dust and leaves are being thrown up from the area below the craft. So this is the engine control. He examines the other similar glass panels in the same area and finds that they too have these small guarded bumps. He does not dare to trigger them, in-case it alerts anyone around that there are strange goings on here.

A glance at his watch, tells Paul that it is time to pack up and get off home.

Soon Paul has retrieved the web camera and is heading towards the woods exit. He is about to step through the gap in the fence between the woods and building site; when he hears something, he stops immediately and holds his breath. The noise is coming from the other side of the wooden fence. Paul eases himself to one side and hides behind a bush his side of the fence. He only just manages to hide himself away, as he hears the noise is getting closer and just catches sight of a man with a torch in his hand. As it is just starting to get a bit dark now, the man suddenly turns the torch on and shines it up and down the path that Paul has just been walking down. Then the man swings the torch round in the direction of Paul's bush, ending up on the bush itself. The man mutters something to himself. Whilst Paul does not hear what the man actually says, he does get the drift of what is meant. The man is telling himself off for hearing things that aren't there. Paul stays stock still holding his breath so long, it feels as if his lungs are going to burst. He wishes that the man would clear off. The torch swings about for a moment longer, then is turned off and the man turns and walks away.

Cautiously Paul lets out the last remaining breath and slowly breathes in, a well needed breath of fresh air. He is careful to remain perfectly still as he regulates his breathing now and listens carefully as the man's footsteps retreat. He hears the man clearly say, "must be a deer or something like that."

Paul waits until he can no longer hear the man's retreating footsteps and then gingerly, he heads off for the gap in the fence, cautiously he checks the road and footpath, both clear, so he darts out onto the pavement. As a precaution, he crosses the road and heads down towards the building site entrance. He hopes that being on the opposite side of the road, it will appear as if he has been nowhere near the rear of the building site.

As the entrance of the building site draws near, Paul consciously keeps his head down and does not dare to glance over to the entrance. He hears a car heading down the road towards him. As it approaches, it seems to be slowing up. Cautiously, Paul glances round behind him, as he does so he can see that it is a police car and what is more its indicator is on, showing that it is about to pull up beside Paul. His heart races. He tries to recount what he had seen when he emerged from the rear of the building site, could the police officer have possibly seen him emerge from the site and woods? He had seen no cars though, the road was perfectly clear. Paul wonders if he should continue walking on or stop. As there is no-one else around, the police car must be stopping so the police office can talk to him. Perhaps the officer is only stopping to take a radio call. Paul decides to walk on. As he does so, the car stops. He can hear the handbrake being pulled on and the car door opens. Paul's pace quickens, his heart is beating rapidly as if it is trying to break out of his chest.

Suddenly Paul hears a rather stern voice say, "Excuse me lad, but can I have a word?"

Paul stops, looks round, then thinks, 'Perhaps, the officer wants to know how to get somewhere'. As he looks at the man's face, he tries to see if he recognises it, but no, he cannot say that he has seen this man before. Paul thinks, 'That's it, this is a new officer to the area and he's lost.' Paul summons he courage to ask, "Yes officer, how can I help you?"

Paul's worst fears are confirmed as the officer says, "I just wanted to ask what you are doing out here alone and so late? Where are you heading and where have you come from?"

Paul is silent for a bit, then answers, "My that's a lot of questions."

The officer smiles and says, "Well let's hope that you have a lot of answers then, shall we start with, what are you doing out so late?"

Paul answers, "I am just heading home..."

The officer interrupts with, "That's a good starting place, where would home be?"

Paul tells the officer his address and the officer asks if there was likely to be anyone at home. Paul glances at his watch, if only to give himself time to think. Then he replies, "Yes my Dad will be home now."

The officer asks Paul for his home phone number, which Paul reels off with ease. The officer notes it in his book, then asks, "Now back to my question, why are you out so late?"

Paul gaining confidence now, replies, "I lost track of time."

The officer frowns and asks, "And just what were you doing to lose track of time?"

"I was at a mate's house and we were playing on his Xbox, but I forgot to keep an eye on the time." replies Paul.

The officer's frown has turned to a smile at the mention of the Xbox. He says, "Yes I can well imagine that happening, you kids and those infernal games consoles. Right what's the name and address of this friend?"

Paul mentions a street that he knows of, says he can't remember the number, but Keiran's Dad has a white van. Paul remembered seeing a white van in the particular street, he just hopes the officer doesn't know the street and owner of the van. The officer asks what Keiran's surname is. Paul plays the 'I can't remember' card. The officer seems to be accepting Paul's explanation. He stops asking questions and un-clips his radio from this jumper, then starts talking to someone. He asks them to contact Paul's Dad and check whether he knows where his son is and in police codes he seems to ask if they can check out the address Paul has given for Keiran.

The officer smiles at Paul and says, "OK son we'll soon know if you are telling the truth. They wait for several minutes, the silence is painful. Then suddenly the officer's radio bursts out with sounds and a voice tells the officer that Paul's Dad knew that he was out visiting a friend called Keiran. They then report that they have been unable to raise anyone at the given address, but it is a valid address.

The officer smiles at Paul and says, "OK son, you're off the hook, this time, but don't let me catch you out again this late, otherwise it could be more serious." Then proceeds to give a lecture about the dangers of being unaccompanied and that there can be some pretty unsavoury characters about. He then instructs Paul to get in the car so he can make sure that Paul gets home safely.

The journey whilst a lot shorter than Paul's usual walk home, seems to take an painful eternity, mainly due to the uncomfortable silence between the officer and Paul. It was a light relief when the officer's radio bursts into life once or twice along the way. It is almost as if the officer has gone deaf, as he seems to be ignoring the radio.

Paul is relieved as the car pulls up outside his house. The front door opens and his Dad is standing in the door way. Paul wonders what sort of reception he is likely to receive. His Dad is bound not to be pleased at his son being delivered by the police.

The officer is first to step out of the car, he walks round to Paul's door and opens it. Paul gets out and walks towards the front door, not daring to look up, he dreads what his Dad is going to say about all this. As they get within hearing distance, Paul's Dad says, "Thank you so much officer for bringing Paul safely home. I was quite prepared to come out to pick him up."

The officer sternly says, "I was concerned to see him out so late and on his own. I understand you knew where he was, is that the case?"

Paul's Dad replies, "Yes he had left me a note, that he had gone to his friend Keiran's house, but I must admit I had lost track of time and didn't realise that it was as late as it is. Paul you should have rung me, I would have picked you up. Thank you so much for your concern and for looking out for my son. He really should have known better than to walk back at such a time. We will make sure it doesn't happen again, won't we Paul?"

Paul nods.

The officer, determined to have the last word on the subject says, "OK sir, no harm done this time, it appears that your son lost track of time also. Do you have a telephone number for the other child's parents? If not I suggest you get it, so you can check with them when it is getting late, or if you have any concerns about your son's whereabouts. I know a lot of parents don't like their children having mobiles, but that is another way around the problem. Although often the children ignore or don't hear the mobile ringing, or so I have been told a number of times."

Paul's Dad replies, "Good idea regards having Keiran's phone number. I don't like the idea of young children having mobiles, likewise I have colleagues at work who say they give their kids a mobile and they still find they can't get hold of them."

The officer's radio bursts into life again and this time he instantly responds. After establishing contact the officer says to Paul's Dad, "OK sir, I have to respond to this call, I'll leave the matter with you. Oh I can assure you we won't be keeping any records on this, apart from my notes, I am satisfied that you have the matter in hand."

Paul is quite relieved at the last comment, at least he won't have a Police record. He had heard that this can be a slippery slope towards being taken into the care of the authorities.

Paul's Dad says, "Thanks officer and goodnight."

The officer says goodnight and sets off for his car at speed, whilst talking on the radio. The car soon speeds off up the road, with lights flashing. Shortly afterwards it speeds past the house again, heading back to the entrance to their road.

Paul walks reluctantly to the door, his Dad steps out of the way. As Paul passes by, his dad roughs up his hair and says affectionately, "What are we going to do with you young man? Have you had anything to eat?"

Paul looks up nervously to see his Dad is smiling..... smiling, he can't believe it, his Dad is actually smiling. Paul had expected him to be hopping mad. Paul replies, "Yes thanks Dad, I did some Spaghetti on toast before I went to Keiran's."

Paul's Dad says, "I was about to do some chicken stir fry, and rice, fancy some?"

This cannot be happening, Paul cannot believe it, his Dad isn't going to chew off his ears, he's offering instead to cook for him. Paul enthusiastically says, "Well I could do with a little something."

"OK get in your PJs then and I'll get on with it." his Dad replies.

Paul doesn't need prompting twice. He bounds up to his room. He gets halfway up the stairs and hears his Dad say, "Shoes, boy, shoes!"

Now that's more like it, thinks Paul to himself. He stops takes off his shoes and throws them down into the hallway. Only to be greeted with, "Mind the glass panels, bozo!"

~~~~~~

Chapter 8 – From Torment To Adventure

The whole week of being a model son, had been torment, although Paul had managed to split the video sequences up that he'd captured of those vents opening on top of the craft. Then he had e-mailed them to Zack, in order to get his view on what Paul has found and how it might work. It had not been easy to write the first e-mail, especially as Zack's advice had been to not go back to the craft because of the potential danger. The only danger that he had faced so far, was potentially being trapped in the hole with the space craft, being grounded by his Dad or being arrested for dodgy dealings.

The reward of Paul's e-mail, was the fact that Zack's friend Kirsty, had viewed the sequences and had come back with suggestions as to how the various vent like openings should affect the craft in flight. Paul had extracted the text from the e-mail and pasted it into the 'manual' that he had been preparing. This manual showed what the various controls in the craft do. Paul had even done a drawing that showed the plan of the craft.

Paul had also used his time productively, making a circuit board, that Zack had designed. This board, will go between the laptop and the essential control fibres, the ones that control the engines and navigation.

As Paul's Dad was not expected back until late and the neighbour who had been assigned to keeping an eye out for Paul, had suddenly been called out to care for a sick relative (Paul had seen the note that she had dropped through the letter flap); Paul has decided that he can safely visit the craft again. This time he was taking no chances of being spotted and was wearing black clothes and carrying only what he immediately needs.

Paul soon finds himself in the control room again. No need to worry about the web camera this time as he now knows what all of the controls do. Paul is soon connecting the essential fibres up to his circuit board.

Paul is proud of how quickly he has it all connected up. He soon has the laptop secured to one of the chairs and it is fired up. There's a bit of a rumpus, as all the devices that are connected to it, suddenly come to life, as the LEDs flash when the circuit board is powered up. Paul is worried that all the noise may attract unwanted attention, but then remembers that with what he plans to do, he is bound to attract attention anyway.

As it is a cloudy night with no moon, Paul has decided to find out what 'this little baby is capable of'.

Paul makes sure that the floor is clear and his supplies are stowed away safely, before turning his attention back to the laptop again. He quickly turns his attention back to his manual and has a quick read to acquaint himself again with the controls. Paul fishes his torch out of his pocket, turns on the external lights and is amazed at how bright things appear. He can even make out the alien suit tucked away in the corner of the hole.

"Right lets go for it." says Paul as he stabs the 'E' key on the laptop. The familiar noise of the engines can be heard. Paul had already decided, that he would gradually build up the thrust, he stabs the numeric keyboard starting with the digit 1 and gradually builds up the keyboard, when he reaches 5, the engine is quite noisy and the craft itself is shuddering. Paul stabs 6 and he can see that it has the desired effect, as the ground slips away from the screen and Paul can see that the rate of ascent is increasing. The craft is now some considerable distance above the ground and leaving the woods well below it as it heads skywards. Paul had imagined that it would take much longer to rise up.

Paul can't believe it, the roads and cars look like dinky toys now and continuing to shrink as the craft continues to rise up at speed. Paul wonders if it is time to check out the direction controls and see if Kirsty's predictions were right. Paul decides he'll wait a while longer, to ensure he has sufficient height, in-case anything happens and the craft starts to fall, after all he is not sure if the craft had crashed and if it is actually flight safe.

The craft is now at some considerable height, so Paul decides to test out the sideways thrust engines, he eases back on the vertical thrust and presses the letter 'F' for forward thrust. Paul gradually increases the thrust and sure enough the craft starts to slide forwards. Now to try the vents and see if they behave as Kirsty had predicted. At first the craft lurches all over the place, as Paul tries to get used to the effect of his key presses. He is worried that his ham fisted efforts may crash the craft, but as time goes by, it is just like getting used to the controls of a new game, Paul gets better and better at it. Soon the craft is sweeping down over hills and rising afterwards, swinging to left then right.

Suddenly there is an annoying noise and one of the screens to the right jumps into life. At first Paul has difficulty in figuring out what the display is showing. Then as an aircraft goes screaming by in front of his craft, Paul realises that he is being, oh what's the phrase they use? Ah yes he's being buzzed by the RAF. His exploits have obviously raised their curiosity. Paul looks back at the screen, he can see now what the traces on the screen are showing. There is a second aircraft behind his craft, it appears to be simply following Paul, whilst the one that has just buzzed him, is lining itself up for another run past.

Paul reviews his possible moves, these aircraft could be armed and may do him some serious damage. He could try and play hide and seek amongst the hills, However, Paul doesn't trust his skills enough yet to do really low flying. Instead he could try and outrun them heading vertically upwards, he just hopes that the craft is not holed in any way, otherwise his air will leak out.

Paul increases vertical thrust shuts down the forward thrust altogether. He can see from the display that the craft that was aligning itself for another run has spotted Paul's intention and has changed its course, so it too is climbing. Paul piles on everything this baby has in terms of thrust and wishes he hadn't, as he feels himself getting incredibly heavy as the G forces build up. Its as if he has some really heavy weight on his head, trying to pull it down through his shoulders. His arms and legs ache with the the pulling forces. As for his chin, it feels like it someone is trying to rip it off.

'Just a bit longer.' thinks Paul to himself. He can see from the display that his craft is making amazing headway and getting away at incredible speed. Paul tries to control his arm and get it to an appropriate key to throttle back the engines. It takes incredible self control, not to mention putting up with all that pain from the G forces. After a few false key stabbings, with quite comical results, like zigzagging across the now even darker sky in a really strange flight path.

As Paul manages to ease back the throttle, he feels quite strange. There is no longer the strong pulling on his limbs, in fact his arms feel as if they are floating, like that feeling you get when in the swimming pool. His stomach feels like it has a collection of butterflies in it.

It has suddenly dawned on Paul that he is now in space. Yes that's right, he's in space, he travelled so far vertically that he has ended up in space, just like the shuttle. Paul wonders if he will see the space station whilst he is up here.

Paul remembers that he was being pursued, he looks back at the display screen that had first alerted him to his pursuers. The display has changed considerably. The traces that represent the RAF craft, are quite small and at the bottom of the screen now. Paul wonders if they have given up. He decides to swing round and head back in the direction of home so when he descends he will be in an alignment to make it easier to find home. As he looks to the bottom of the main screen, he sees that classic earth viewed from space type image.

'Crikey, I'm higher up than I thought I was.' thinks Paul to himself. As he looks to the left he can see that something quite large is slipping into view. He is now heading for some sort of satellite, or was that part of the space station?

Paul turns his attention to changing his course so he will miss this new neighbour. As the craft swings round, Paul can see that it was a satellite. He wonders if this is the one where their TV pictures come from. He half expects to see Sky Television emblazoned on the side. Whilst there are some markings, he can't make out what they are. Paul is fascinated to look over all the things sticking out of the satellite. Seems weird to be seeing this up close and to be in space with it. The stars seem so much clearer up here and there are more of them.

The earth has disappeared now, all Paul can see is space and the satellite, which is steadily swinging across the screen. The earth disc starts to slide gently back into view. Paul tries to identify the coastlines. The one in the distance is just too indistinct to be able to make out what it is. It is just like looking at a collection of hills at ground level and trying to make out which hills these are. There is a vast expense of sea before him. He wonders if he has travelled too far away and starts to panic, then realises that there's some land mass slipping into the top of the screen, it seems to be covered in white, he thinks he has seen this before in his lessons, oh what is it called? Perhaps it is the north pole. As this in turn slides away, another land mass comes into view, it is partly covered in white, this must be snow or ice. That's it, this latest land mass is Iceland, he recognises the bay where Reykjavik is, they had done a whole project on Iceland at school. As Iceland slips out of view and is replaced by even more sea, the next land mass that slides into view is recognisable to Paul, even though it is on its side, well it is compared to how it is shown on the weather forecasts, yes it is that triangular collection of islands referred to as the United Kingdom, or home as Paul knows it better.

Paul is about to navigate a course home, when he thinks to himself, 'It would be a shame to leave space so soon, after all he may never see it again, better to take best advantage of this trip, so Paul decides he'll take one spin around the earth, he may even see the space station on his way round. He wonders if the shuttle is up here also, although he can't recall anything having been mentioned in the news about it, although it only merits a short mention now and again.

There's an enormous clung noise as something hits the craft. Paul had seen nothing through the windows, so he glances at the navigation screen and he can see a line sweeping straight for the circle that represents the craft. He wonders why the warning noise had not sounded, like it had when the RAF aircraft had headed towards the craft.

Paul wonders if there are any displays that can tell him if there has been any serious damage. The thought comes to Paul, has he just hit the satellite that he had just passed by? He decides to swing the craft round to see if there is any debris behind him. Paul adjusts the controls accordingly and the view starts to change on the main screen.

After a while, what seems like lumps of rock start to appear at the edge of the screen and slip across the screen, from right to left. In the background, Paul can see the satellite, it still appears to be in good order, so perhaps his craft has just been struck by a small meteor, intercepted by his craft before heading earthwards. If only he had external cameras he could check the view to the rear of his craft. He just has to hope that no serious damage has been done. At that moment, Paul's conclusions about the meteor are confirms as he sees the largest part of the rock slide onto the screen, it is getting smaller and smaller as it heads earthwards.

Paul is not so sure about his plan to remain up here a bit longer, to take a round trip of the the earth. It seems more dangerous now. Then he looks down at the earth disc again and decides that he has got to take the one orbit, or he may regret not doing so for the rest of his life.

~~ Later ~~

Paul certainly gave the crew aboard the International Space Station plenty to talk about, as he flew around it several times. He was glad in the end that the shuttle wasn't around, they had nothing with which to chase Paul off with. Having seen the pictures at school, Paul knew what the various modules of the space station contained, he had even spotted the one that was added last month. It was really strange seeing it up this close. Paul had to make sure that in all of his excitement that he didn't forget himself and get his craft too close. The last thing he wanted to do was put his own and the lives of those aboard the space station at risk.

Paul, now having completed his grand tour, sets course for home. He is astounded however, when the craft suddenly takes a completely different course. Paul wonders if there is either a fault in the circuit board or the laptop. As he glances at the navigation screen he spots a flashing symbol, he has seen this before somewhere, now where was it? Then suddenly he remembers, it was on those suits in the cupboard. Why is it appearing on the screen now, is this connected with the fact that the craft appears to be following a course that Paul is trying to steer the craft towards?

~~~~~~

Chapter 9 – Ever Wished You Hadn't.?

To Paul's dismay, he realises that the craft is heading even further out into space. He tries to turn the craft around and head it back to the earth, but it is not responding to his laptop controls.

Paul stops using the keyboard and watches the fibre lines that are plugged into the circuit board. He can see no lights issuing forth. Just to make absolutely sure, he places something black under the circuit board. Sure enough after a number of seconds and a few course corrections, that he has had no hand in, Paul pronounces that neither the circuit board nor the laptop are misbehaving. So just what is guiding this craft away from the earth?

Paul's eyes are drawn back towards that symbol again.

Could it be, that as Paul had successfully brought the craft up here into space, clear of the radio interference of the earth that some sort of homing beacon has tripped an in-built autopilot that is taking this craft to its home?

Just what has Paul done, has he signed his own death warrant. What will the aliens, who own this craft, make of the fact that their own kin has been killed, removed from this craft and there is a complete stranger trying to hijack the craft? That is assuming that those aliens are even still alive, the craft may have travelled so far away from its home, that in the meantime the aliens have all died out. This brings the chilling thought to Paul, what about his home, if he manages to get back to it, will his father have long ceased to be alive? Will humanity even be around?

Paul knows he just has to try and take control of this craft again, but where would the override control be, that would enable him to turn off the autopilot. Unless it was one of those bumps that he had tested that appeared to do nothing. Paul turns to the laptop again and switches screens so he is looking at that massive spreadsheet that shows all the trigger bumps and what they do. He looks for the blank ones. Fetches his torch again and tests out those that are within reach, but has no luck, they still appear to do nothing. Now for the ones out of immediate reach. Before he even has time to think the situation through, Paul unfastens his seatbelt and immediately regrets doing so, as he finds himself floating upwards towards the ceiling. He forgot about the weightlessness of space.

Paul soon finds himself slammed against the ceiling and then he is heading back towards the seats again. He puts out his arms to protect himself from the impact, but the mere act of doing so, sets him into a spin and he finds himself, instead, heading for a wall, which he soon thuds into. If only Newton had got the equal and opposite forces bit wrong..... Paul is now heading back towards the side of the nearest chair. Paul gradually eases his hands into positions, that should enable him to grab hold of the chair and steady himself. His plan kind of works, he slows down and is now heading for the floor.

Paul thinks to himself, 'This could go on for hours.'

As Paul bounces off the floor, he catches sight of the screen, the earth is far away now and the moon is slipping also away from view now.

~~ Later ~~

'A whole hour, a whole hour, it took to stabilize myself.' thinks Paul, then reflects upon the fact that the remaining trigger points, were also fruitless. Paul wonders if that cupboard at the end of the corridor, contains any controls that turn the autopilot off, or was it a case that the autopilot off control, was simply broken?

Paul is somewhat reluctant to open the control room door in-case the craft has been damaged and there is no air out in the corridor now. However, the thought of being lost out here in space, not seeing his Dad any more and having no control over this craft, drove Paul on. He had to try, even if it meant that he died trying.

Nervously Paul slowly swings his torch back and forth, trying to trigger the door open bump. It is not easy trying to keep stable and swing the torch around. The trigger, seems to obstinately refuse to operate. Then the thought crosses Paul's mind, 'maybe it is programmed not to open if there is no air the other side of the door.'

Suddenly the sliding of the door makes Paul leap out of his skin, although he was aiming to open the door, the fact that it has opened now after being so obstinate, for so long, has taken Paul completely by surprise. He had hoped that he would be prepared for this moment. It dawns on him that there must be air, as he can still breathe. Paul struggles to get out into the corridor, I say struggles, as he wants maintain controlled movements. He does not want to resume that spinning motion of earlier. At first he starts to head towards that control panel at the end of the corridor, but then wonders if there are any of the boots in the cupboard where the space suits were. The boots may have been designed specially to keep the aliens on the floor.

After much struggling, Paul now knows what the loops in the walls are for, to drag oneself up and down the corridor. Paul manages to get to the cupboard where the suits are stored. He manages to stabilise himself so that he can take controlled sweeps with his torch at the door trigger, it opens after his third attempt. The suits are still obediently hanging up. Well sort of, the arms and legs are waving around a bit as if containing an octopus or similar creature. Paul manages to drag himself down to ground level and sure enough there at the back of the cupboard, are two pairs of boots. Paul carefully reaches in and pulls one pair out. Whilst they look like no boot on earth, being somewhat flatter and wider.

Paul wonders if one of the aliens had worn these boots or if they were spares just put here in-case a visitor should join the pilot of this craft. The thought crosses Paul's mind, I wonder if they have smelly feet problems like my Dad? He cautiously lifts the boots to his nose, but there is only a slight metallic smell about these boots, so perhaps they do just come under the category of spares. Paul next wonders if they will actually fit him, whilst considerably wider than his own feet, the lack of depth could actually work in Paul's favour and help keep the boots on. Paul is somewhat reluctant to take his own shoes off, but one look tells him that there would be no way that he would get these boots on without taking his own off. Reluctantly he does so and slips one foot into the alien boot. It feels somewhat strange. The lining material has kind of rivulets running down it, which make the inside feel a bit rough. This may be deliberate to help keep the boots on. Having braved one foot, Paul turns his attention to the other one. As he struggles with the second boot, Paul notices that the first is doing its job, as it is sticking to the floor. Although it feels secure, the hold is not too strong and Paul finds he can easily lift his leg. It is a bit like walking in a weak treacle solution. Whilst the boots are far too wide and his feet slip a little in terms of sideways movement, they do feel reasonably secure. The boots seem to be doing the trick in terms of providing some stability in Paul's motion.

Paul turns his attention now back to the cupboard at the end of the corridor and his search for the autopilot off switch. Paul struggles at first to walk in the shoes, but soon gets the hang of how to walk. When he reaches the cupboard, he triggers the door control and sure enough it slides open easily. The displays seem to be somewhat more animated than the last time he was here. Symbols flashing across them at a fair rate and obviously meaning a lot to someone who can understand them. This just didn't happen to be Paul. He watches for a while, hoping to spot any patterns so he can make sense of all this stuff. Apart from once or twice recognising the symbol that appeared on the space suits, nothing else made any sense. Paul wonders if it will be safe to test out any of the controls in here. He comes to the conclusion that he won't learn anything by doing nothing, so sets about triggering the most innocent seeming control. There is a beep noise, like a warning, but nothing else happens, Paul waits a moment in-case there is some sort of delayed reaction. Then he triggers the control again. He immediately regrets doing this as the lights all go out, plunging him and the craft into complete darkness. What is more, the reassuring sound of the engines has also died. Paul seems to have triggered the main fuse. Immediately Paul turns on his torch and triggers the control again and is rewarded as the lights and engine come on again. At least Paul now knows how to shut everything off in an emergency. He makes a mental note of the location of the control. He wonders if turning everything off has reset the autopilot.

Paul makes his way back to the control room and attempts to alter course, the craft, stubborn as ever, ignores his commands and continues on in its pre-destined path. Paul goes back to the cupboard and tries more trigger points, but they seem to do very little apart from make small changes to some graphs being displayed. Paul reaches the conclusion that there is nothing further he can do, but to let this craft take its pre-programmed course. He can't contact his Dad or anyone back on earth as he doesn't even know which part of the control panel deals with communications.

The thought crosses Paul's mind, that when scientists talk about taking journeys between the stars it will take many years and possibly many lifetimes. Paul just hopes that these aliens are 'just around the corner', so to speak. As he looks out of the control room window, Paul can see that the craft seems to be moving a very rapid rate now. At the start of his journey the stars didn't seem to change much at all, but now they seem to be moving past the craft at quite a speed.

Paul decides that he has had enough excitement for the time being, so he will take a meal break. Luckily he had packed some food, although not a lot, it will at least be enough to keep that rumbling at bay, or is that still due to the weightlessness?

~~ Later ~~

Paul has seen some pictures that looked a lot like the swirling galaxy that he was passing, whilst obviously still concerned as to what is happening to him and how he will get back home, Paul has become enthralled with the sights around him. It is almost like being in a dream.

Something seems to be streaking across the sky, well you can't actually call it sky out here as there is no up or down, but you know what I mean. Whatever it is, it is leaving a light trail behind it, must be a comet or something like that and the trail would be gasses being emitted from its core. It was almost like a space firework. Paul just hopes that it doesn't head towards him and his craft.

Paul wonders if there are any other space craft out here, maybe he will encounter one. If so, he hopes they will be friendly. Then he remembers the weapons that he had accidentally triggered when the craft was back in the woods.

Space seems to be so big and busy, yet at the same time, there's that vast nothingness between the stars and come to that the galaxies. The chances of running into another craft out here must be pretty slim. There is, or should that be was, obviously at least one other civilisation out here, the one that had made the craft that Paul is now travelling in. There just have to be others surely?

~~~~~~

Chapter 10 – Are We There Yet?

The craft seems to be changing course now, heading towards that big spiral group of stars that had been getting ever larger to the right hand side of the screen. Paul wonders if his destination is towards the outer edge, in the centre or even beyond the spiral. At his current rate of travel, Paul should find out soon.

Paul had managed to retrieve some of the food and drink that he had hastily shoved into his back pack.. It was difficult to eat in zero gravity and even more difficult to drink, Paul found himself wearing the globules of water, he had to carefully scoop them into his mouth. Of those that escaped, most were still floating around in the air. Paul tried to catch some in his mouth, but most even escaped those attempts. When Paul managed to swallow the globules of water, he found, he also swallowed air bubbles as well. A most strange experience.

Another change in course, the craft now seems to be heading for one arm of the spiral of stars. The craft shows no sign of slowing up though as it speeds relentlessly in pursuit of its goal. Paul hopes that the craft does not run out of fuel. Whilst the journey has been quite enjoyable and even educational thus far, it would be a shame if it ended up in Paul being stranded in the middle of nowhere. He imagines that the chances of getting a tow to the nearest star base would be next to nil.

The stars are filling the screen now, the clusters becoming clearer in terms of their detail. Another course change, the craft appears to be heading for quite a dense collection of stars. From far off, this area appeared to be sparsely populated, but as the craft gets closer more stars keep appearing.

As the craft travels ever closer to this new cluster of stars, the screen fills with even more stars. Considering this is just one arm of the spiralling galaxy, Paul wonders just how many stars are in the whole galaxy. Just how many could support life of some kind or other, it may not be life of the complexity of humans or indeed the alien who had brought this craft to earth.

Another course correction brings the craft in direct line of a large bright shining star, which, as Paul stares more closely at it, he thinks he can make out two maybe three dark spots across its surface, could these be planets in orbit about the star. Paul wonders if this is his final destination, that last course change had seemed to be aiming him directly at this latest star. Or was it just one more tantalising teaser on this long journey. Will the craft suddenly take another direction, heading around this latest star?

The craft could be attempting to return to a non-existent planet, or if it does still exist, it may be barren, no more than a dried up, or even frozen rock floating in space, with no hope of supporting any life, let alone Paul's.

But then Paul thinks to himself, 'It can't be a barren rock, after all something is calling the craft back to its place of origin, an un-supportive rock wouldn't be able to do that.' Then Paul questions his original notion that the craft was acting under some sort of autopilot control, maybe the controls had just gone screwy and he is heading to no particular place. Paul questions his thinking again, throwing into the mix, the fact that there had been several course changes, although these could be random, it felt like there was a purpose to them. Or was it just comforting to assume that this was the case? So many questions and so few answers. Paul decides that he will wait a little longer to see if the craft's wanderings have a purpose or if they are indeed random. If he comes to the latter conclusion, Paul decides that he will try and gain control of the craft again and try to return to the earth, but will he be able to find it again? So many course corrections, would he be able to re-trace his steps? He realises that he should have kept some sort of map or log of his journey to this point, however, it is too late now.

Those blobs, in front of the now much larger star, are taking better shape and form now, revealing that Paul's first impressions were right, they are planets. The largest and therefore, probably the nearest seems to be the most dull of the three spheres. This larger or nearer planet, seems to have quite grey and white colouration about it, whereas the next in size at least, seems to have much more varied colouration. The third is still too far away to make out any detail.

Another course change and the speed of the craft is perceptibly slowing. The craft now appears to be heading for the second planet, although it is still passing quite close to the first planet. Whilst fascinating to see an alien world up quite close, there was insufficient changes in the land mass to make this planet really interesting. It seemed little more than rock and possibly ice.

The craft slows again and heads on towards the second planet. Paul realises that he won't have long to wait now, if this is the craft's destination.

Another course change confirms however, that this is not the final destination as the second planet slips off of the screen again.

"Just when will this torment end ?" Paul asks himself, knowing that the answer will only come when this craft lands somewhere.

The craft now seems to be heading towards the third planet. Paul decides not to raise his hopes and to think in terms of his destination being one of those star clusters beyond this planetary system. If only the craft had not raised his hopes, by flying so close to this planetary system.

The star that these planets appear to be orbiting around, is getting somewhat brighter now. Paul has noticed however, that the colouration of the windows has changed, it is quite grey now and the closer the craft gets to the third planet, the colouration seems to increase. This affects the appearance of the planet that is ever looming closer. The colours seem to be getting duller, rather than more defined. Perhaps this is an automatic protection against the rays of this planetary system's equivalent of the sun.

As the craft gets even closer to the planet, Paul can see that the land masses are considerably different from those on the earth. The earth has some really large land masses and many smaller ones. This planet has, what one could consider as one massive land mass, but it is riddled with what seem like lakes, all interconnected by streams or rivers. This makes the land mass seem like millions of tiny islands, which are all interconnected with each other, by little causeways.

The craft is finally slowing up considerably, as it gets ever closer to the planet. This just has to be Paul's final destination. As he looks more carefully, he can see that what at once seemed like small islands, were in fact quite large and there appear to be structures of some kind on most of these, but he is still too high up to make out any detail. Various screens within the craft have been going crazy in the last few minutes and there are various sounds being emitted all around him. Paul wonders if the craft is about to go into self destruct mode. There just has to be life down there for this amount of activity to be taking place. Unless it is all automated. Now there is a thought, what if this alien race had died out many centuries ago and all that was left of them are their machines, continuing to function as if still serving their masters. What a frightening thought? What would these machines make of Paul, would he be treated as if it were the native population returning? Would the machines be able to understand Paul and come to that would he understand them. He thinks back to the noises and screen activity currently taking place and he wonders if this is the machines trying desperately to reach him, to make themselves understood, to gain the least glimmer of recognition of their very existence. Paul likens it to a little boy who falls into the ocean and encounters a whale and tries desperately to get the whale to understand what it needs in order to survive.

The ground now appears to be rapidly approaching the craft, although Paul knows that in reality it is the craft that is actually approaching the ground. Some detail of those structures is starting to become apparent. They appear to be transparent. Yes Paul can see right into them. The craft is unmistakably heading towards a circular patch of land which is itself clear of structures, but surrounded by them. There appear to be many dots within those structures, well from up here they appear no more than dots. They are too indistinct to make out any detail and purpose for their existence. Paul wonders if his theory of a planet inhabited by machines was correct. Maybe those dots are the machines?

The ground getting ever closer now and the glide path is definitely aiming towards that open patch of land, if land you can call it.

Suddenly Paul gasps for breath as he is splatted by a shower of water. "Where on earth did that come from?" thinks Paul to himself, then he is aware that he can feel the pull of gravity again and the pieces of the jigsaw suddenly slot together, 'Of course it was the water globules from the drink he took earlier. They had collected together and the sudden influence of gravity had caused the collective ball of water to fall upon me. Oh well a refreshing shower before leaving the craft will probably do me good. I just hope I don't look like a drip.' Paul laughs at the last thought.

Due to the angle of descent, Paul can no longer see into the transparent structures, so his curiosity regards those 'dots' will not be satisfied probably until the craft lands.

Paul is getting nervous now, going back over how the inhabitants of this planet are likely to view his use of their craft and he thinks through how he will handle the situation. What can he really do, he has no weapons, so he can't defend himself. He could always try the brave 'I come in peace and mean you no harm' bit that you see in the films. But if this lot are intent on harming him, he'll be shot down before he has a chance to say his classic speech. What oh what should he do?

The craft steadily heads in towards its landing pad.

~~ Later ~~

'It is dark and cramped in here, just what is taking them so long?' wonders Paul as he sits listening carefully for the least sound. Well sits, is a rather loose description, this cupboard was never meant to house anyone, especially an alien like himself. Paul's knees are bent right up, his chin almost touching his knees. He is glad that he had changed back into his shoes, those alien boots were OK in space, but not the most comfortable of things to wear. He stops himself from moaning any further and reminds himself that he has a serious task to perform, he must keep listening out for any noises in the corridor.

The thought occurs to Paul, 'Perhaps this craft is so old that no one remembers how to open the door.' Now this could be a serious consideration, that had never crossed Paul's mind when he had decided to hide away in this cupboard. He could be in here for hours if not days or months come to that.

Paul's attention turns to the somewhat muffled sound that had alerted him to the fact that something was happening out there. He doesn't have to wait long before his suspicions are confirmed. There is the sound of several heavy footsteps. It is like an army has entered the craft, as the sound echoes throughout the craft. It seems like he had taken the right decision to hide away, rather than do the 'I come in peace....' bit.

The footsteps get ever louder... ever closer. Paul's heart beats faster, he just hopes that they can't hear it pounding away. For all he knows it may be like a beacon saying, 'Here he is, in here on the floor, come and get him.'

Paul struggles to keep still, the least little sound may give him away. As always happens, the more you try to not do something, the more you find yourself having to do it. But Paul struggles to stay absolutely still. The footsteps can be heard disappearing into the control room, whilst others progress further up the corridor towards that cupboard at the end.

There are high pitched sounds coming from across the corridor and both ends of the corridor. Paul is surrounded by them. There is no escaping now. The tone of the sounds indicates some excitement. They must have found Paul's laptop and other things in the control room. Paul is glad that he had brought the food and drink that he had left, in the cupboard with him.

Oh no, Paul can't believe it, the cupboard door is opening! He will be discovered. Its all over!

~~~~~~

Chapter 11 – I Hope You Don't See Me

As the door opens, Paul is even more cautious about staying absolutely still, fearing that he will be discovered at any moment. He senses the unease in his stomach as it churns over and his heart beats even faster. Paul hopes his ploy of laying one of the suits across the area where he is sitting, looks natural enough, as if the suit had fallen off the hook, in flight or during the landing.

Drat the suit on the ground has moved, Paul can see another type of suit and what is more it is moving, it must be one of the aliens searching the ship. Paul hopes that it does not see Paul. At present it appears to be looking elsewhere, higher up in the cupboard.

Paul realises that the other suit had been moved by the alien and this in turn had caused the suit on the floor to move. Paul wonders if he should attempt to move the part that has moved, back again, so that he is no longer exposed. If he does so however, will it draw even more attention to himself?

Another alien appears beside the first, 'Oh no twice the chance of being spotted.' thinks Paul. There is an excited exchange between the two aliens, or at least Paul thinks that is what the high pitched noises are all about.

Paul finds himself feeling quite light headed now. He wonders if the aliens have poisoned the air and maybe that's the reason they are wearing the suits, to protect themselves. 'What a clever way to rid themselves of a troublesome alien invader.' thinks Paul. He is feeling even more light headed now, all he wants to do is fall asleep. He feels himself slumping to one side. The advantage of this is that it takes him out of the potential line of sight of those aliens. He just hopes that he can maintain a controlled collapse, sudden movement will instantly attract their attention. Paul hopes that this is just some sort of knock out gas rather than poison. His eyes are closing involuntarily now. No matter how much Paul tries his hardest to resist what is happening, he finds he cannot resist and he finds that he had dropped off for a short while. He is careful not to jump as he comes to again, although this is only briefly. He raises his head just enough to see that both of the aliens have now gone. He must maintain control, in-case they return. He can feel he is going again. When Paul next opens his eyes he finds that he cannot see. Paul knows that he has opened his eyes, but why can't he see. It was some form of poison after all, it has affected his sight. If that is the case though, his hearing has been affected as well, as the sound of the aliens is considerably reduced.

It dawns on Paul that the cupboard door has closed again. So he has managed to avoid detection, but what about the poisonous gas? It can't be that poisonous, after all he is still here and conscious, although he still has that light headed feeling. Paul wonders just what is causing this, maybe the aliens had pumped some sort of gas into the craft and its effects whilst not deadly are still influencing Paul's ability to concentrate and remain fully conscious. He can feel himself drifting in and out of a form of sleep. No matter how much he shakes his head it makes no difference. He wonders if he still has that can of energy drink and if so will it make any difference. Paul carefully searches through the bag of items that he had brought with him into the cupboard. He is careful not to make any sound, after all the aliens may still be in the corridor, but just not making any sounds themselves. Sure enough he finds the can, but dare he open it, the mere act of doing so may draw attention to himself. What a dilemma, just one more to add to the stack that Paul has faced recently. He feels himself drifting back into that sleepy feeling again and decides he just has to take the chance. He buries the can under the space suit that is lying on top of him. He just hopes that it will suppress the sound enough. There's a click noise then the 'shush' noise as the gas bubbles escape. Paul listens carefully to see if there is any reaction to the noise. The seconds tick by, but no reaction. The mere anticipation of problems has woken Paul up a bit more. He raises the can to his lips, he can smell that familiar sweet smell of the drink. The bubbles striking Paul's nose reminds him that this is quite a lively drink. Good job he didn't try and drink it whilst in space, now that would have been funny.

The sweet tasting liquid hits Paul's tongue and that in itself seems to have a bit of reviving effect. After finishing the can, Paul hopes that its beneficial effects kick in soon, he's fed up now with feeling so drowsy. All he can do now is wait to see what effect the drink is going to have. Paul settles down to listen out for threatening sounds again.

'Blast it!' Paul thinks to himself as he wakes again from a sleep of unknown duration. Paul continues to think, 'Well that stuff worked didn't it. What am I going to do now, I can't stay in this cupboard for the rest of my limited lifetime. Well at least it will be limited if I stay here.' Paul listens out again for any sounds, but there are none. The thought suddenly strikes Paul, 'How am I going to get out of this cupboard? The aliens would not have designed it to be opened from the inside as they would have never expected anyone to lock themselves in here, it is basically too small.' He searches around for a trigger bump, but as he had suspected, there is none.

'Oh well done boy, you have sealed yourself in now, with no way to get out again, unless a co-operative alien decides to come back again to remove something from the cupboard or to check it again.' thinks Paul to himself.

~~ Later ~~

Several minutes have past, with Paul running through all sorts of scenarios in his head, when an idea dawns upon him. All he has to do is identify the fibre that goes into the external trigger bump, pull it out and trigger it with his torch. Paul searches his pockets for his torch, not easy in a confined space, but eventually he manages to get the torch out. He struggles to get past the suit that is lying on him. Luckily there isn't a metal skin on the inside of the cupboard. The aliens obviously decided not to bother in order to cut down the weight and as this area was not intended to support life it would deemed totally unnecessary. There is a zigzag framework of metal supports running up this side of the wall. The fibre must be somewhere within this framework. It takes Paul some time to spot the fibre, it being thin and transparent, he misses it several times. It is only when he manages to change his viewing angle that he manages to spot one length of the fibre. He reaches in to grab it, his attempts are thwarted several times as the space is quite small, but eventually Paul manages to grasp the tiny fibre. Next comes the challenge of actually pulling it as it appears to be quite firmly fixed. Paul traces its path, then spots the problem, there is some sort of strap that holds the fibre close to the zigzag structure itself, the alien's equivalent of a cable tie. If only he had not left his Swiss knife tool out in the control room, he would have been able to cut through the tie. Paul follows the fibre further up from the tie and sees that it disappears through the wall a bit further up. He just hopes there will be enough fibre that he can get it to poke beyond the zigzag structure once it is detached from the triggering bump. He gently pulls the fibre, not wanting to break it. There is initial resistance, but this soon gives and the fibre comes away. Paul cannot believe his luck, the fibre is now proud of the support structure. He swings the torch around to shine right down the fibre and he jumps nearly out of his skin as the door slides open. Expecting there to be an alien guard the other side of the door, Paul quickly drapes the suit over himself, waits listens for any other sounds. There are none, so carefully he pushes the suit away and prepares to escape the cupboard. To his dismay, the door closes again. Paul mentally kicks himself, for not putting something in the way of the door. He struggles back into position to trigger the door again, the old familiar dizzy light headedness feel comes over him again. 'Oh great now this has to happen!' Paul thinks to himself, struggle as he might to overcome the feeling, he finds himself drift off to sleep again.

Just how long Paul has been asleep he just has no way of knowing, he had not checked his watch for hours. He focuses on his mission, to open this door. He finds the fibre again and triggers it. The door effortlessly slides open again. This time, Paul puts one leg of the space suit in the door's path, as he gathers his supplies together, after all these small remnants of food are the only ones he can eat for all he knows.

Paul cautiously looks up and down the corridor, no aliens in sight, although to the left, he can only see just beyond the cabin door and not up towards the craft's entrance. He quickly checks again, in-case they had placed any monitoring devices. That's when he notices that all the debris that had been on the floor before, including his own intruder detection device near that power control cupboard at the very end of the corridor, have gone.

Paul decides that he will first check out the other end of the corridor that leads to the entrance, in-case there is a guard there. Paul cautiously walks with his back to the wall in the direction of the entrance.

Suddenly the cupboard door closes and makes Paul jump. He wonders how this could have happened, after all he had placed part of the suit in the way. The as he runs through in his mind the events of the last few minutes, he remembers that he had accidentally moved the leg of the space suit, when he left the cupboard. It is then that Paul realises that he is defenceless, he should have grabbed one of the space boots, that would have given him some form of weapon. Paul makes his way back to the cupboard and triggers the bump with his torch, regularly checking that there are no aliens coming from the entrance.

After several attempts to trigger the door bump, Paul suddenly remembers that he had detached the fibre from the bump. 'Oh very clever Paul Simpkins, you've done it now you'll never get this door open now' thinks Paul to himself. Another dilemma, should he go into the control room, in search of a weapon, taking the chance that he will alert the guard if there is one; or should he cautiously check if there is a guard, taking the chance of being spotted. What should he do? Here comes that light headed feeling again. 'Not now, please!' thinks Paul. The feeling passes as Paul takes some deep breaths.

Paul decides to take the chance of being spotted and cautiously heads back up the corridor towards the entrance. He soon reaches a point where he can see right up to the entrance. The door is closed and no sign of any aliens. As Paul looks to the floor it dawns on him again that it is perfectly clear. Even his intruder alarm has gone.

As Paul looks about himself, his eyes alight upon the cabin door, 'Surely there can't be anyone in there?' thinks Paul. He breathes deeply, then advances to the door and triggers the door bump, it takes about four attempts, consequently it makes him jump when the door eventually opens. The room is empty. Even the bedding has gone. 'These aliens are thorough.' thinks Paul. He decides that his next port of call should be the control room.

The opening of the control door makes him jump even more than the others, as it happens first time and by now Paul isn't expecting it. There are the two chairs, the window, which still has its heavy grey tint. Beyond which he can see the structures that he could see from space. He hopes that the windows act like one way mirrors on earth and that the aliens can't see in. The reason for this, is the fact that Paul can see a number of the aliens!

~~~~~~

Chapter 12 – A Boy Has To Do

Paul drops to his knees, cautiously and slowly enters the control room. He cannot believe what he can see. Inside the structure before the craft, but some distance away from it, are loads of aliens. They seem to be all busy doing things. Just what, Paul can but hazard a guess, it has to be something in connection with the return of their craft. He wonders if they were expecting this arrival.

Paul has now reached the side of the first chair, whilst he was half expecting to see an alien sitting in the chair, he is most relieved to see that it is empty. To his dismay, however, he glances across to the second chair and finds that his laptop has gone! Yes it has gone, the aliens have taken his laptop and the control circuit board that was connected to it. The fibres are just hanging down from the underside of the control desk. Paul is somewhat relieved to see that the sticky labels that he had put on the fibres, that identified each one's purpose, were still there. At least the aliens had not removed them. But what good was this, his laptop was gone. No hope of escaping this planet now. At least not in this craft. Maybe there are others, perhaps he could steal one of those and get home that way. But for now, he must find a away of getting out of this craft without getting caught.

Paul sits down and looks back up out through the window and sees all those aliens again. None appear to be looking down at the craft, so perhaps the windows are performing as a one way mirror, or maybe they had just not as yet spotted Paul's movements.

Sorry, what was that you asked, I couldn't hear you due to the sound of Paul's heart as it is beating so fast and so loud. Oh what do the aliens look like? Well a bit difficult to make out any detail from this distance, but here goes: They are actually dark green in colour, their skin looks quite bumpy, they have two arms and two legs. As Paul watches one, turn round, he is amazed to count that it has six, yes six, not just the four eyes that he thought they had. As he watches them at work, he notices that they have lights at the ends of their hands, maybe these are strapped on. They have no nose, but their mouth is much larger than a humans'. They appear to have no ears. Paul notices that they seem to have similar movements to those of humans'. As he cannot hear them, he cannot tell how or, if they talk to each other, in the human sense. Although, as he casts his mind back to when he was trapped in the cupboard, it seemed as if there was some sort of high pitched discussion taking place then.

The aliens seem to be engaged in the use of their devices, which they are standing in front of. The whole scene reminds Paul of many pictures he has seen of humans using banks and banks of computers, or control panels. Perhaps they were analysing the craft's flight path and most probably checking out his laptop to see how that works.

Paul wonders why all of their buildings are transparent, even the floors. Then he wonders if it is connected with the fact that they are green and quite plant like in appearance. Something from one of his lessons comes back to him, what was it called? Paul struggles to think of the name, but cannot remember it. The principle was, light plus water, plus some green stuff equalled sugar and oxygen, oh and there was something else what was it? That gas that they put in drinks, carbon oxygen something. As you can tell chemistry is not one of Paul's strengths. Ah yes the name has come back to him, its photosynthesis. Maybe this lot have to have the light from their sun in order to live. Just in the same way that humans need food, water and air, these aliens need the air, water and sunlight, they make their own food, the sugar element. If his theory is right, that would explain why these islands are surrounded by ponds and streams or rivers. It would also explain the transparent nature of the buildings.

It was fascinating, that although these are essentially plant people, they have evolved so much, that they have developed their own technology, taking them to a level beyond that of humans. Paul wonders what had driven them to do this, when they could have stuck with a much simpler lifestyle of just hanging around the nearest pond and having a chat with each other. Then Paul thinks how boring that would be for his kind. As these aliens also have intelligence, he can imagine such a lifestyle would equally be boring. Once a creature can move around it becomes curious and has to explore. That is precisely what this lot have done, they have built space ships and gone out to the furtherest reaches, in search of other civilisations. Paul wonders if there had been other craft visiting the earth, other than the one he had travelled here in. Have these aliens been to the earth several times before, were they regular visitors, or had this been their one and only outing to the earth?

Questions, questions, but just no way of getting answers. There was no way that Paul was going to just hand himself over to the aliens, no matter how curious he was about them. He did not fancy becoming one of their experiments. What was he going to do though, he cannot stay here, now that the aliens have disabled this craft, Paul must try and see if there are any other space craft that he can borrow, to try and get home. He could always send it back again into space in the hope that it picks up the return home beacon. Paul carefully gets up to look out of the window, so he can check for alien guards. He keeps an eye on the aliens across in the building to see if any are watching him. After a good look around, Paul decides that there are no guards, at least none visible from this side of the craft. He slowly climbs down off of the control desk, as he had laid on it.

Now comes the planning part, just how is Paul going to escape all those aliens? There may be no guards, but as soon as he steps out of the craft, he will attract attention and they will come after him. Without knowing the lay of the buildings and land out there it, is going to be really impossible to plan ahead. Paul comes to the conclusion that once outside the craft, he will have to survey the surroundings and make quick decisions, as to what he needs to do. The worst possible scenario, will be that there is no escape path and once he has appeared outside the craft, these aliens will know he's still alive and will come in to get him. Paul decides not to dwell on that one. It is just not an option to stay in the craft, as soon he will run out of food and drink.

Paul kneels down again and slowly moves out of the control room. He makes sure he still has all his belongings with him, before leaving the control room itself. Then he heads down towards the entrance. As he approaches the door, the thought crosses his mind, that there may be a guard on duty, the other side of the door. Paul just wishes he had something, anything, that he could use as a weapon to defend himself, but there is nothing now, laying around in the craft, that he can use. If only he hadn't locked himself out of the suit cupboard.

'Here goes.' Paul thinks to himself, bracing himself in readiness for whatever lies beyond this door. Paul triggers the bump and the door immediately opens and to Paul's horror, there is an alien standing the other side.

Before the alien has a chance to respond, Paul throws himself at the alien, taking it completely by surprise. It was about to raise something that looks like a weapon of some sort, but Paul's action has knocked it off balance, it falls backwards, letting go of the weapon. Paul seizes the opportunity and grabs the weapon. Whilst there isn't the slightest hope that he can figure out how it works, he can at least use it in a most primitive sense. Paul swings the weapon upwards and brings it crashing down towards the alien's head. The alien's eyes show its horror at what is happening, it has recovered from falling backwards and raises its arms to stop Paul, but it is just too late. The weapon comes down hard in the centre of the alien's head. It struggles to gain control of the weapon, but Paul has already raised it again and is bringing it down. The alien's hands have grasped Paul's arms and it is trying to divert the swing of the weapon as it comes crashing down again, to strike the same area of the alien's head. The alien slumps to the floor.

Paul has the chance now, to think over the encounter. He hopes the alien isn't dead, just knocked out. Paul would hate it if he had just killed another being, although it was a case of he had to do it in order to escape. Its one thing blasting people and things up in a game and another doing it for real. Paul bends down to check the alien, but remembers, he has no idea about the way these aliens bodies work, so he cannot really check if the alien is OK or not. He must get away from here and quickly. He stands up and climbs up the ladder, to the already open hatchway. The heat hits him, like he had just stepped into the path of a full on hair drier. He also can't believe how light it is, the sunlight is unbearable at first. Paul pops his head up and cautiously looks around for more guards. In the fractions of a second and rapid head movements, Paul assures himself that there are no more guards. He quickly emerges and finds the exterior ladder and is down it quickly. When he had done the quick scan of his surroundings, he could see that the whole area was surrounded by structures, without the least sign of a break in them apart from several entrances. There was however, a pond to the right of him. Paul has already decided that he must investigate this. He realises that he still has the weapon in his hand. As he runs to the pond, he quickly examines the weapon, he notices the same brown stains that he had seen in the craft on his first visit. That was obviously the alien's equivalent of blood. Paul disgustedly wipes it off the weapon, and the realises that this really didn't achieve anything as it was now on his hand and clothes. The weapon is basically a metal tube, with some handles down the side and some familiar trigger bumps also on the side. Paul decides he just does not have the time to experiment in order to find out how this thing works, he'll just take it with him and if necessary use it as a primitive weapon.

Paul is now three quarters of the way to the pond, he looks about himself and is immediately aware that there are what look like hundreds of aliens looking at him through their equivalent of windows. As yet none appear to have come out the exits. Paul thinking about that poor alien slumped on the floor of the craft, points back towards the craft as he continues to run towards the pond. He mimes the fact that the alien has been knocked out as he goes, in the hope that the aliens will send someone to the aid of the guard. But they just stand there amazed at this thing running away from their craft.

The pond has now been reached. Paul has quickly formulated a plan and it runs like this, the pond is probably connected with the massive water system the other side of these structures. So if Paul dives into it, he can probably find his way to some sort of freedom, by navigating his way through these waterways. He just hopes that his theory about this being water is correct and that it isn't a pool of acid or something like that. The liquid appears clear enough, although it has a slight brownish tinge to it, like the water streams that you often find traversing through woods. As Paul takes a deep breath, he detects a slight metallic odour. Well here goes, he has to test the water. He decides which finger he can afford to sacrifice and prepares to quickly dip it into the water, expecting to feel excruciating pain. He hesitates, like a non-swimmer about to dive into water. He knows he must not have much time now, before the aliens come out to get him. He hurriedly takes a look around him and confirms that there are now aliens emerging from all the visible exits and heading towards him. Some appear to be armed, but most are not. 'Its now or never.' thinks Paul to himself and he quickly dips the chosen finger into the liquid. Preparing himself for the worse.

~~~~~~

Chapter 13 – Escape, But Escape To Where?

The liquid feels quite cool. Paul pulls his finger out half expecting to see it burnt, but apart from a slight brownish tinge, there is no sign of any change. Paul sniffs his finger, there's a metallic and slightly sweet smell about it. Paul looks about himself and there is now quite an army of aliens advancing rapidly towards him. He has no option but to take the plunge. He quickly pushes the weapon into his bag, takes a couple of big breaths and dives into the liquid. He plunges deeper and deeper down. Nervously he opens one eye, expecting the worst, but there are no effects. The liquid around him is quite light. Ahead but below him, Paul can see some sort of tunnel leading under the structure. It appears he was right. He just hopes with that army of aliens waiting for him above the pond, that this does not turn out to be a dead end.

Paul swims towards the tunnel and as he reaches it he pauses a moment to survey it. Sure enough it appears to head right under and through to the other side of the structure. Without further delay, Paul swims through it and out the other side. He is relieved when he emerges to the surface and can breath again.

This side of the structure has only a few curious and excited aliens peering out at Paul. Paul hopes that these aliens can't swim otherwise they will shortly be chasing after him. He surveys this side of the structure, there do not appear to be any exits facing out this way. Paul decides that he cannot hang around here, he must swim away and find some place of safety as quickly as he can, that is if there is such a place. As he faces away from the structure he can see that the shore in front of him, has no structures at all, instead it looks a bit of a wilderness, with rocks and occasional plants dotted here and there. Paul hopes the plants aren't just aliens taking a sunbathing break from their work. He decides to head towards this area of land, it is too close to the structure, so he does not plan to get out of the liquid and onto it. Something brushes past his chest. Paul glances down and sees a semi transparent eel like creature swimming around, it turns and heads back towards Paul. He decides that now is the time to resume his swimming activities in order to place the maximum distance between himself and the structure and this, this, whatever it is. It may be harmless, but Paul is taking no chances.

Despite trying not to swallow any of the liquid he is swimming in, Paul finds that he takes on-board several mouthfuls. Paul notes that it has a faint sweet taste, as if it has been laced with some sugar.

After swimming for quite a while, Paul finds that familiar dizzy feeling coming over him again. He must get to the shore before he passes out again. He can feel himself falling into that mid-state between being awake and asleep. He just has to reach the land. Paul struggles to stay awake and to keep swimming. Not much further to go and he will be there, if only he can stay awake. It is such a struggle to keep going. Paul starts to sink, then suddenly comes to again, and fights his way to the surface. He takes several deep breaths and sets off again for the land and this time he makes it, dragging himself out of the water. He just hopes that he is sufficiently away from the structures and the aliens.

The dizzy feeling takes Paul over again and this time he just cannot shake it off.

~~ Later ~~

Paul is surprised that when he opens his eyes, it is dark, he is relieved that the heat has died back and it is now so much cooler. Paul sits up. His ears, neck, face and hands feel quite sore. He wonders if it is an effect of the liquid he has been swimming in. Then Paul thinks that it can't be the liquid, if it was, the rest of his body would also be affected. The areas affected were only those that were not covered up. 'That's it!' thinks Paul to himself, 'Its this planet's equivalent to sunburn.' If only Paul had packed some sun cream. He laughs at the situation, here he is goodness knows how far away from the earth and he's managed to get sunburn out here in space. Paul takes some time to look up at the night sky and marvel at the fact that this night sky looks totally different to that at home, yet to glance up at it now, its just a collection of stars in a black sky. Then it strikes Paul that what is missing is the fact that there is no moon. Search as he might, Paul can find no sign of any moon. Although the next nearest neighbouring planet looks fairly large from here, but not as large as the earth's moon. Paul wonders if this neighbouring planet exerts any gravitational pull in the same way as the earth's moon does. If it did, there would be some form of tidal action with regard to the liquid. As Paul glances at the liquid, at first it just looks like a black reflecting surface, like a giant mirror, reflecting the light from the stars. As Paul looks more carefully he can see gentle ripples, that affect the reflected images.

Paul realises that his clothes are all dry now. He decides to have something to eat and drink. He wonders if the food he has been carrying in his bag, has become contaminated. Even if it has, he really has no option but to eat it, as there's nothing else. He doesn't know if any of the plant life around him is safe or poisonous to eat. Come to that he doesn't really know if the liquid he has been swimming in is safe or hazardous in some small measure. He settles down to eat the last few scraps that he has. He is glad that he has another of those energy drinks cans. Whilst he feels fine at the moment, apart from that background headache, he hopes that the drink will keep that dizzy feeling at bay again for a while.

There is no sound, no sound at all. On earth there is nearly always some sort of background sounds, be it insects, birds or mammals and come to that the sea, rivers or even streams. But here, nothing. Not even that familiar hum of a transformer. When it is night here, everything must just stop and rest.

Paul having finished his scrappy meal and drink finds that he wants to go to the toilet. But just where should he go? He at first thinks he could go into the lake, but then thinks it may actually be the plant people's water supply and he wouldn't want an alien having a wee in his local reservoir. So he decides to duck behind one of the larger plants and go there. The soil will probably be able to filter out any nasties. He sets about what comes naturally, but is most shocked when after a short period he hears a painful high pitched shriek. He wonders if he has hit a small animal, but there's nothing in sight. Then it dawns on him that it is the plant itself that is making the noise. Although Paul has stopped, the plant continues the noise, presumably still suffering from the wee that is seeping down into the soil. Then Paul remembers that wee contains an acid. He feels sorry for the plant now. He wonders if he should try to dilute the wee with some of the liquid from the lake. Paul sets about his mercy mission and retrieves the can that he has just drunk from. He dips it into the liquid, empties the liquid out again, after all he doesn't want to pollute the poor plant even further. As he dips the can in again, he feels something sliver over his hand. Whilst he can't see anything, he suspects its another of those eel like creatures that he had encountered earlier. Paul retrieves the can and quickly gets back to the offending spot where he had done the business, he tips out the can's contents. Then darts back to the pond again, dips it in again and again is quite surprised that something slivers under his hand. The plant settles down again as the second can full of liquid is emptied.

Paul feels much relieved that he has managed rescue the plant from his apparently thoughtless act. The problem that now exists is when he next wants to go, where should he do it, without causing any other plants pain and agony? For the time being however, he and the local plants are safe.

Paul decides that as it is cool now, he can take some time to explore this planet a bit more. He sets off in the direction of some rocks hoping that from such a vantage point he will be able to see just how far away he is from the nearest alien settlement and try and make some plans s to what he can do next. Thus far he has been avoiding areas where the aliens are based. At some stage he needs to find a new craft so that he can escape this planet. As he has just eaten his last meal, or at least the last food that he brought with him from earth, his brush with the alien civilisation will need to be sooner rather than latter.

The rocks seem to be further away than he at first estimated them to be, or is that because he feels so tired and is not able to move very fast? At last Paul reaches the rocky outcrop. He starts to climb up it. The effort it takes is twice that of walking on level ground. Paul has hardly gone any distance at all, when he finds he has to sit down again, to get his breath back. He breathes heavily, each breath seems to take such effort. It is almost as if he were several thousand feet up a mountain back at home. Paul cannot believe how difficult he finds it just to breath. He encourages himself to move on again and is soon struggling upwards again. It takes such effort to do this climb, back on earth he would have bounded up this simple slope. He cannot believe how wimpy he has become. OK he was never an athlete, but never this bad back home. Again he finds he has to sit down to rest and get his breath back. After a few minutes he sets off again. This process continues over and over again. Eventually he gets to a height that he has a reasonable view of the land around himself. He had thought that he was on a considerably large island and that he was a considerable distance from the structures that he had escaped from. However, he is most alarmed to see that whilst there is some distance between himself and his starting point, it is considerably closer than he would have liked. The other disappointing aspect is the fact that just around the corner is yet another structure that he would have encountered very soon. Paul hopes that this next structure is shielding another craft that he can steal in order to make his escape for once and for all from this planet. The thought of the fact that he now needs to walk down the other side of this hill, for hill it must be called as it is no mountain, the thought of walking down it, totally depresses Paul. But walk down it he must. Paul sets off trying to ensure that he doesn't go too fast and lose control. He is doing well, when the familiar dizzy feel overtakes him again. Before he knows it, he has tripped and falls. He tries to put his hands out to steady himself, when the dizzy feeling causes him to black out.

Paul wakes up again and is immediately aware of three things: He is no longer rolling down the hill; he is wedged into a small crevice of a rock; and his face and one arm are quite badly bruised.

Paul manages to prize himself out of the crevice. It is then that he gets the opportunity, without the rock face immediately in front of him, to see that he is back at ground level again. At least there is no more walking down the hill.

Paul sits up and decides to check the contents of his by now almost empty bag. Luckily the can of drink has escaped major damage, although it is quite dented, there appears to be no leakage. Paul holds it up to his ear, to make sure that there is no gas leaking. He catches sight of the description of contents and it reminds him of the other factor of photosynthesis that he had been trying to remember earlier, it was carbon dioxide. That was it. Paul remembers the teacher writing CO2 on the board and the teacher explaining that dioxide merely meant two oxygen atoms, whereas Paul and others thought it was entirely an element in its own right.

The only other thing in the bag now is that alien weapon. Paul fishes it out and fears the worst, however it must be well made as there isn't even a scratch on it. Looking at the weapon reminds Paul that he still doesn't know how this thing works. He looks around for his torch but he cannot find it. He must have let go whilst tumbling down the hill. Paul looks around the area where he landed then scouts further afield, but still no sign of the torch. Without it, he is stuck here, it will be no good trying to steal a craft if he has no way to control it. Still no sign of the torch. Paul is starting to get panicky now. He must calm down, it will do him no good at all to lose control. But the thought of having to climb the hill again just in search of the torch is so disheartening. Thinking about things logically, he must retrace the likely path that he rolled down. He looks up the hill and identifies the place that he had started his descent from. He notes the rocky outcrops and predicts the effect each one of these would have had on the path he took down the hill to end up where he did. There's nothing for it, but to try and retrace his steps, in the hope that the torch has not rolled far off of that path.

Paul laughs at the thought that his task would be made easier if he had a torch with him. He carefully picks his way back up the hill scanning both sides of his route as he slowly progresses upwards. Ironic really isn't it, Paul rolls down the hill and saves himself the effort of the climb down, but then because of the loss of his torch he has to not only climb down but up again, to retrieve the lost torch. Paul just hopes that he finds the torch sooner rather than later. He keeps stopping to ensure that he is still following his predicted roll down route. Again Paul laughs as he thinks, that he could always lie down and roll back down once he has found the torch. As the pain from the bruises remind him, it would not really be an advisable option to take.

~~~~~~

Chapter 14 – Challenges

With torch now in hand, Paul does not relish the trek back down the hill. Typical that the torch just had to be near the top of the hill. Paul decides to sit down and take a rest as he's out of breath again. As he sits, he looks around him surveying the surrounding buildings. He can just make out another patch of wilderness, if you could call this area of scrubby land by such a title, the other patch is off behind another of the see through buildings to the right of him. The current stretch of land narrows into a thinnish strip with streams of liquid on both sides, then it widens out again when it gets to the other side of the building to the right of Paul. He wonders if these patches of land are at regular intervals, he had not noticed them as he was coming into land, but then he was more fascinated by the structures. Paul surveys the buildings around him, there appears to be no activity at all within them. The aliens obviously sleep when its dark, no shift work for them. They are obviously not worried that Paul is going to get up to much mischief, after all he has heard no search party activity, since the sun went down. As Paul surveys the buildings and tries to appreciate how many workstations, if that is what they are; he comes to the conclusion that there must be thousands of aliens in just the small area that surrounds him currently. If it came to an all out battle, Paul wouldn't stand an earthly against this lot. His success just has to rest in stealth and his ability to move at night. If only those structures weren't transparent then he would have places to hide, but as they are, there is not a chance of finding somewhere within or just outside of the structures. His only hiding places seemed to be where there was scrub land like this. But even this was not great, if there were enough aliens searching, they would soon find him.

Paul's attention again turns to the stars as he stares up fascinated at the collections of stars. He wonders if like early man, he can make out recognisable shapes in the night sky of this planet. This occupies him for a while until he feels strong enough to attempt the downward climb. Oh by the way, Paul had identified some sort of spiral of stars that he nicknamed "The slinky constellation", named after that toy that fascinates children so much, because of its ability to "walk" down stairs.

The walk down the hill is uneventful, although painful. Paul stops several times to get his breath back. He is really glad to reach ground level again and without further delay sets off in the direction of the other structures, he hopes that he reaches these before daylight.

~~ Later ~~

There is an alien guarding the entrance, but unfortunately the entrance, has a good view right across the frontage of the building. Paul has a good look around, hoping to spot, a way to either get into the building or past it somehow, but there is nothing obvious. The causeway that leads to the building, appears to be the only way across to it and is clearly visible from the entrance. Just how is Paul going to get to the other side of that building, he can't get into it and therefore, through it. There's no obvious way around it.

Paul decides to keep behind the shrubs and head around to the other side of the causeway. It takes him quite a while, as the ground is uneven with irregular bumps and dips. Added to this Paul almost passes out once or twice. As a consequence, Paul has to take a lot of breaks to get his breath back.

Finally, Paul has passed the end of the causeway, and is now looking towards the end corner of the building. The scrubby land heads on round the side of the building and Paul decides he has no option, but to follow this scrub land further on round. He keeps behind the plants and rocks. This means that he has to climb up and down the hill, as there is no flat path, that isn't exposed to view from the building. Once or twice Paul thought that the guard had seen him, as it had turned to face Paul, stopped and appeared to be staring. But after what seemed like an interminable wait, it would turn away again, continuing its scan of the surrounding landscape. Paul is most glad when he is finally out of view of the entrance. For one thing, he doesn't need to stay behind the plants and keep following the contours of the rocky hill, instead he can follow the much flatter path near the pond.

Another bend rounded and Paul is most delighted to see another causeway comes into view and heads right behind the building. Paul cannot wait to get to the other side of the building, but he has been walking solidly for some time now, he decides that he has to take a rest before passing out again. He finds a comfortable spot beside a plant and sits down. The plant affords him some shadow, useful if one of he aliens just happens along, less chance of Paul getting spotted. Paul is so comfortable that he soon finds himself drifting off to sleep. He knows he has been asleep, as he jerks awake, something has disturbed him, but he doesn't know what it was. He cautiously looks about himself, but sees nothing out of the ordinary, or at least nothing that is exceptional here. Paul still wonders what had woken him up. Paul gets up, it takes him some time to get to his feet, he's quite stiff, that must have been some sleep. He remembers that his target was that causeway further along. Soon Paul is heading towards his target again. Suddenly he hears a splashing noise coming from the pond. He wonders whether he should back away from the pond or check out what is making the noise. Curiosity gets the better of him, especially as there's more splashing going on. Paul arrives at the side of the pond. Apart from ripples, there's nothing obviously visible. Paul stares at the liquid's surface for a while, then suddenly there's a splash and Paul just catches the outline of something darting back under the water, closely followed by something else. At first Paul thought it was part of the same creature, but then realises that the second one was heading in a different direction. Paul wonders if it was two of the eel like creature that he had encountered earlier. There is another splash further out. Paul has lost interest now and instead resumes his hike towards the new causeway.

The causeway is soon reached and Paul is delighted to see that whilst there is an entrance this side of the building, there appears to be no guard on duty. The ground, to the the left of the the other side of the causeway, rises higher than the rest of the ground that side of the causeway. Paul wonders if it is hiding anything, like a craft or two. He just has to investigate, but he knows that once he is walking across that causeway he will be quite exposed and easy to spot. Paul decides to look around for anything that he can use as camouflage. After much hunting around, Paul finds some large leaves laying on the ground, he tries them out for size, he uses the pond as a mirror to test out their effectiveness as camouflage. He is pleased with effect and decides that there is no time to waste.

Paul stoops down, raising the leaves into the desired position and heads for the causeway. He takes his time getting across, after all he doesn't want to to be spotted. Once on the other side, he surveys the whole length of the building, to make sure there are no aliens looking out. After a careful, long survey, Paul comes to the conclusion that the coast is clear. Still stooping down and using the camouflage, Paul climbs the slope. As he is reaching the top, he suddenly feels dizzy again and has to stop. It is a real strain to concentrate on keeping his camouflage in place. Suddenly he has the strange feeling that someone is watching him. You know that unmistakable feeling that you just can't put your finger on, yet you somehow know you are being watched. He carefully scans the building again, but finds it difficult as he is still feeling quite dizzy.

Paul's gaze reaches one particular window and he spots one of the aliens looking straight at him. Despite the fact that there are four eyes, looking in various directions, Paul knows that the alien has seen him and is watching intently. It suddenly dawns on Paul, that his camouflage has actually given him away. As he looks at the slope before him, he realises that there are no plants on it, with the exception of himself. He must now stand out like a sore thumb.

Just what can Paul do? Shortly the alien will stop its staring activities and raise the alarm. Paul tries to convince himself that the aliens may not be able to see well in the dark. But that sense that he had that someone was watching him, must have been based on something, other than possibly catching a glimpse out of the corner of his own eyes of the alien standing there. The alien is now moving away from the window, presumably going to raise the alarm or come out here itself to investigate. In either case, Paul cannot just sit here, he has to retreat somewhere. He decides to continue heading up the slope. Shortly he can see over the top and down the other side.

'Jackpot!' thinks Paul to himself, as he sees three gleaming circular craft similar to the one he had travelled here in. He soon finds himself running down the slope on the other side. He heads towards the first craft, changes his mind and heads towards the closer of the other two craft. The design has changed somewhat, the craft are considerably larger, the entrance is now on the side of the craft and the door trigger has some sort of coloured design so that it stands out more making it quicker to detect. The side of this craft carries some sort of fancy graphic design, which Paul quite likes the look of. He hopes, as he triggers the door, that there is no-one inside. As the door slides open, there is no movement from within and no obvious signs of anyone in the shadows. As Paul approaches the doorway, lights come on inside and make the craft feel quite welcoming. Paul climbs up into the craft and once inside he looks for the door closing bump. Which he quickly sees and manages to trigger. This newer design seems much more responsive and easier to use.

The internal layout of the craft is considerably different from the one Paul had travelled in. As he enters there are doors to the left and right and one right in front of him. The door behind him closes. Whilst Paul is slightly nervous about being trapped, he views the experience of exploring this craft as quite exciting. He decides to open the door to his left first. This reveals racks of weapons, similar to the one Paul has in his bag. Apart from a few other pieces of equipment, nothing much exciting here. Paul triggers the door to the right of him and sees a reasonable sized room with several suits all hanging neatly, with boots below each suit. There's a door at the end to the left. Paul triggers closure of both doors. Then turns his attention to the one that faced him as he boarded the craft. This opens to reveal a corridor leading to left and right.

Paul cautiously peeps into the corridor. No aliens in sight. There are doors to left and right, but only on his side of the corridor. The one to the right must lead into the suits storage area. So Paul decides to ignore that and heads off to the left instead. He is quite surprised at the spaciousness of the room that lies beyond the first door. It appears to be some sort of office or meeting room, with chairs dotted around. Paul closes the door and walks on down the corridor. As he rounds the bend, he sees that there is a door at the end of the corridor, a further two doors on the left hand side and one on the right. Paul decides to ignore the one on the right and concentrate on the two doors on the left. He has a feeling that the one to the right is just a storage area. Paul arrives at the next door on the left, when he opens this, he is surprised to see that it is a cabin, similar to the one he had seen on the previous craft, except this one has more in it, looks more comfortable and it has a window. The next door, again leads to another cabin, exactly like the first. When Paul emerges from this he has a choice, to retrace his steps and test out the door on the opposite side of the corridor or go on through the door at the end. Paul decides he'll stick to his decision to ignore the door on the right hand side. As he triggers the door at the end of the corridor he expects the worse, there may be two aliens the other side of this door, after all he had just come across two cabins. Paul is quite surprised however, when he sees that it leads to another stretch of corridor. The first door is quite some way away, but he soon reaches it and prepares for the worst. But again he is delighted to see that the room is devoid of aliens. This room is clearly the control room and has several workstations in it. Paul is tempted to explore it in detail, but decides he can do this later. He must assure himself first that the ship is empty.

The next four doors to the left of the corridor, just before yet another door at the end, lead to cabins. There is a single door to the right, which Paul leaves until last. When he opens this door, he is quite surprised at the sight that meets his eyes, there is all sorts of interconnected equipment inside. It seems to be some highly technical equipment, possibly the engines or power plant, although it is making no noise and seems to be totally inactive. There are controls on the wall beside the door. Paul can see another doorway opposite, this must be the door that he had seen in the first corridor. Paul just hopes that with the addition of this equipment, room and controls, it hasn't made the flying of this craft even more complex.

Paul turns his attention back to his exploration and checking activities. Whilst he has no idea exactly where he is in the craft, he gets the feeling that he must be getting back near to the entrance. Paul opens the door at the end of the corridor. There are three doors to the left and none to the right, but he notices markings on the wall to the right, that he had seen when he first entered, so chances are that this is back to the entrance area. Paul opens the first door to the left and finds a largish room, with several seats inside. A couple of them have screens attached to the chairs. There seem to be what seem like a couple of vending machines at one end of the room. There are some nice large windows, giving excellent views outside. The next door along leads into the suits room that he had seen earlier. So he reaches the conclusion that he has come full circle and that this little baby is all his.

Paul feels rather dizzy again, so decides to go back to the last large room that he had been in. A chance to sit down and have another drink, the last one he has in his bag. Now that sounds very final.

~~~~~~

Chapter 15 – Harm?

The touch on Paul's face is soft and unexpected. Paul's breathing is somewhat laboured again and that dizziness, despite the fact that Paul has been asleep, has not gone away this time . Which makes Paul wonder if he had only just fallen asleep and been awoken early. The touch on his face, just what was that? It must have been the cause of Paul waking up earlier than he normally would. He opens his eyes and to his horror, there's an alien standing in front of him, in fact bent over him. However, it does not look intent on doing horrible things to him, whilst its face, is not as expressive as that of a human; they say you can tell a lot from someone's eyes and it was the same with this alien. There's a little, what would you call it? A sparkle, that's it a sparkle, in its eyes. The alien appears to have a look of concern. It retracts its hand gently and slowly. That's when Paul spots the light being emitted from an oval area of one of it's figures, it has four fingers, two opposing two, rather than the single opposing thumb that humans have. Paul thought that it would seem quite strange to have this arrangement of two opposing two fingers, but as he sees the alien move its hand, it seems quite natural.

The alien stands up and seems to be making some sort of gestures with its arms and hands. It keeps making sweeping movements towards the door and seems to be indicating that Paul walk out through it. It is then that Paul sees the other two aliens behind the first. They both have weapons and they are pointed straight at..... straight at Paul!

Although Paul feels really groggy, he stands up and attempts to walk towards the door and promptly collapses. The alien closest to him, manages to catch him before he hits the floor.

When Paul next comes to, he finds that he is being carried. Again he is surprised that the alien's skin is smooth and not rough, as the bumpy skin would seem to indicate. Furthermore, Paul is surprised to see that it is daylight again. He is about to struggle, when he catches sight of the weapon that is clearly being pointed at him, by one of the other aliens following. Paul looks at the face of the alien carrying the weapon, it has a look of fear in its eyes. Paul wonders which of the other two aliens is actually carrying him. His curiosity is satisfied as they change direction and he can see the third alien carrying a weapon. So it is the first alien that he'd seen when he woke up in the craft, who is carrying Paul. He wonders where he is being taken. He hopes it won't take long as the sun is rather hot and aggravating the burnt areas of his skin.

After a while, they enter the building that Paul had walked around last night. They continue to head at speed, once past the entrance. The light becomes somewhat darker. Paul glances up at the ceiling and sees what looks like several dark pipes snaking across in various directions. Paul can feel himself being gently lowered, as his feet touch the ground, he is gently turned around and lead towards a completely black door.

Paul fears the worst, that this is some sort of chamber which will rid these aliens of the troublesome Paul. He struggles to break free from the alien's grasp. Then he catches sight of its face and he can see that same look of concern, that he had seen earlier. The noises the alien is making seem somewhat consoling. Paul cannot really understand why, but he finds that it seems rather senseless to struggle further. Perhaps he feels that this alien means him no harm.

Paul asks, "Just what are you planning to do with me?" He can hardly believe the sound coming out of his mouth, it isn't his voice at all, it sounds high pitched, more like an animated cartoon character. What is going on here? What have they done to him?

The alien points to the door and its face still seems to indicate that it means Paul no harm. It puts a hand on Paul's shoulder, just like his uncle does when he's interested in something that Paul is showing him. This is somewhat reassuring. Paul still does not know what is going to happen and whether to trust this alien or not. Paul looks at the other two aliens, still with their weapons pointing straight at him. With this threat hanging over him, he cannot see any option but to follow the friendly alien's advice and go through the door that is now open.

After all that Paul has been through, it has come to this, he is voluntarily submitting himself to whatever these aliens want to subject him to.

Beyond the door Paul can see what looks like a bed. As he approaches it he can see that it has an indentation in it, the shape of one of these aliens. The friendly alien triggers a control and the bed lowers. Paul is helped onto the bed and finds that it moulds itself to his body shape. There's some chatter between the two armed aliens. Then a sound that is like laughter.

The friendly alien looks round at them, they stop instantly. Another control is triggered and the bed rises again. As Paul stares up at the ceiling, in the gloom he can make out some sort of crystal structure that is circular. The alien's face comes into view again and it says something, but Paul is paying more attention to its eyes, then to its hands, as it seems to be explaining what the circle above him does; but Paul is none the wiser. He just feels he can trust this alien. He isn't sure about the other two though.

Paul is relieved, as the friendly alien shoos the other two out of the chamber and joins them in exiting. The door closes and Paul tries to look over at the door but finds that he cannot, as he is restrained by whatever moulded itself around him. He doesn't have long to wait for something to happen. There's a humming noise and the circular crystal lights up.

~~ Later ~~

Paul is relieved as the door opens and the bed is lowered again. He is helped to get off the bed and then lead out of the room through the open door. From there he passes a couple of workstations towards another chamber. However, this one is transparent and seems quite light inside. The door opens as they approach it. Paul can see that inside this chamber it is sparsely furnished, with only a bed a table and a chair. The table being right beside the bed and the chair is off to one side and is facing a large transparent panel, which itself looks out to a window that has a nice view, out to the liquid pond and beyond that is the scrub land, that Paul had been walking through last night.

The alien points towards the bed indicating that Paul get onto it. Again it is lowered, so that Paul finds it easy to get onto it. When he is laying on the bed, the alien raises it again. Paul notices that this room seems somewhat cooler and fresher than the outside. He takes a couple of deep breaths and feels a lot better already. He notices that the armed aliens have stayed outside, also, that the friendly alien has made no attempt to speak. Every so often it opens its mouth and seems to breath out. This is strange, as Paul does not notice any intake of breath. The alien points towards a glass of clear liquid on the table, then departs. The door closes behind it. Paul takes another deep breath, it is just as refreshing as the previous ones had been. Paul wonders why this is.

As he lays on the bed, Paul thinks about what has just happened to him, he wonders why he has not come to any harm as yet. Perhaps that room that he had just been in, had subjected him to a harmful dose of radiation or something that will kill him off. But what is this room all about? Why is he feeling a bit better now? Just what are the aliens up to? And just why did the alien point to that glass of clear liquid beside the bed? Perhaps it is the final component to kill Paul off. Paul swivels his head round, to look out the window. Quite a view, it looks out to pond and the scrub land, but there is nothing going on. Paul is quite bored laying here. He wonders whether to get up or not. Then wonders if those two armed aliens are still watching over him. He turns to face the entrance and is not surprised to see the two aliens with their weapons in hand, at the ready.

Well nothing for it, but to just hang around here and wait to see what plans Dr Greenstuff has for him. Paul smiles at the name he has invented for the more friendly alien. His breathing is much easier now. The dizziness is going away now. Paul comfortable, but bored, soon finds himself drifting off to sleep.

~~ Later ~~

Paul hears the click of the door opening mechanism, he decides to keep his eyes closed. Although his fear of what may about to happen to him, makes him want to open his eyes, he feels he may gain more information if he pretends to be asleep. Paul is surprised to hear what sounds like a radio playing. The voice is speaking English. Just what is happening here. Perhaps Dr Greenstuff has been practising his English and is trying to communicate with Paul. What should he do, open his eyes and see if it is Dr Greenstuff talking or just bluff it out. Maybe it is some sort of trap, but what and why? Paul is just totally confused. He wonders if he can get away with just taking a little peep. He carefully opens one eye, just a little. There is Dr Greenstuff standing right in front of Paul, he has clearly seen Paul's reaction. He has some sort of box in his hands. Paul wonders if the box is causing the sounds. Looking at Dr Greenstuff's mouth, Paul can see that there is no movement of his mouth, apart from the usual breaths, so chances are it is the box that's making the sounds. It is probably a recording of an earth radio station, taken from the craft that Paul had travelled here in.

Dr Greenstuff points to the box then to Paul. The alien's eyes have a recognisable look about them, just what is it? Yes that's it, a questioning look. Is Dr Greenstuff asking if this is a recording of Paul? Perhaps it is a more general question, like "Is this how your people talk?" Paul thinks this over some more and comes to the conclusion that the latter is the more likely question. Just how does Paul answer yes and make himself understood? Paul thinks this over a bit longer then he has it, he slowly sits up. At first there's a bit of fear in Dr Greenstuff's eyes, but he settles down as he realises that Paul means him no harm. Paul points to himself and then to the box and he says, "Yes that is how my people talk".

Paul is most surprised that his voice is almost normal again. Dr Greenstuff is quite excited at Paul's response. Dr Greenstuff does something to the box and the sound changes. It sounds like the voice of an astronaut. Paul hears "Roger Huston we have a green light on the cargo doors opening, awaiting full extension, before deployment of the payload can commence."

Paul nods again and says, "Yes that is a recording from our shuttle craft."

Dr Greenstuff looks rather strangely at Paul. He puts the box down on the chair then with his hands he mimes some sort of replay of something that presumably happened to their craft. Dr Greenstuff's left hand collides with his right, then the left hand seems to be dropping, whilst the right hand stays where it was.

Suddenly Paul remembers that there was some obscure news item, a few years back, in which one of the shuttles was apparently hit by some space debris, that they thought was part of an old satellite. It had caused damage to the tiles that protect the shuttle on re-entry. The astronauts had to do a series of unscheduled space walks to survey and repair the damage. So this had been caused by the alien's craft. But why had it collided with the shuttle in the first place?

Dr Greenstuff seems to be asking a question and repeating his little mime, but replaying it with variations each time. Paul gets the drift, that Dr Greenstuff is asking if the shuttle had deliberately damaged their craft. Whilst Paul does not really know the answer to that one, he suspects that the astronauts would not deliberately ram their expensive and delicate shuttle craft into some unknown UFO. Paul uses Dr Greenstuff's own hand movements to try and show that the shuttle would have tried to avoid the alien craft had it known it was there. He speaks whilst he is demonstrating this. Dr Greenstuff seems to be intently listening to what Paul is saying, whilst at the same time intently watching Paul's hand movements. As Paul is speaking, he introduces some sign language into his hand movements. He knows a little of the sign language, as there's a kid in one of his classes, who uses it. He doesn't know why, except that the teacher has said that he's special in some way or other. In his bored moments Paul has watched the kid talking to his helper and come to that the class teacher backing up what he's saying with these hand movements. Paul found it fun to try and learn them. It now seemed quite natural to use them, to try and make himself more clearly understood. Where he doesn't know the proper signs for something he is inventing ones of his own. Paul is quite surprised as the alien signs yes back at Paul. It is obviously working. They seem to have found the basis for a common language.

The conversation moves onto other things as Dr Greenstuff and Paul are really curious about each other's species and the way they live, their technology etc. On several occasions, Dr Greenstuff darts out of the room, much to the consternation of the two guards. He emerges again, with some device and sets about trying to explain what it does. At one point he brings in some sort of electronic white board that the pair use to draw things on, to try and explain better what they want to say. Paul has long since got out of bed and the conversation goes on for hours, until Paul is in some pain. He realises that it must be hunger pains, as he hasn't eaten or drunk anything since last night. This is confirmed by a growling noise issued by his stomach. Which causes Dr Greenstuff much concern. Paul tries to explain that he's hungry. Eventually Dr Greenstuff understands that Paul needs a drink, but as for the hunger bit, that just totally eludes him. Dr Greenstuff produces the glass of clear liquid, that Paul has been avoiding.

Paul decides that through their discussions, they seemed to have reached a level of trust, that Paul now feels Dr Greenstuff would not really want to harm Paul. So he takes a sip of the liquid and to his surprise, finds that it tastes like water with sugar in it. There are undertones of other flavours in it, but all in all it is quite pleasant. Paul downs the rest of the glass, his hands shaking now. Dr Greenstuff seeing Paul's state, takes the glass and hurries off to refill it. He is gone for a little while. When he returns, he hands the glass then sets about, with the aid of the white board to explain that the glass contains the liquid from the pond outside, but Dr Greenstuff had boiled, cooled and filtered the water to remove any impurities, so it would be safe for Paul to drink. When Paul has finished the latest glass, he finds that his hands are shaking far less. He obviously needed the energy from the sugar, plus the water. He wonders how he will cope with the next inevitable hurdle, how does he explain that he wants to have a wee?

~~~~~~~~

Chapter 16 – Understanding

Paul and Dr Greenstuff have been conversing for several days now, each building on their knowledge of each other's civilisation, culture and technology. There is now much respect for each other.

Although Dr Greenstuff has been regularly called away, presumably to report back his progress to his superiors.

Dr Greenstuff has even had a chance to play around with the liquid that Paul has been drinking and the pair of them have enjoyed drinking it as a fizzy pop. Dr Greenstuff figured out how to use the naturally occurring carbon dioxide that his species breath, and pressurise it, putting it into the drink. Paul and Dr Greenstuff held a burping contest, the pair of them laughing at their antics.

Towards the end of their chats, some high ranking alien has come to pay a visit to Paul. Dr Greenstuff made Paul nervous when he told Paul that this senior person was going to visit him. Paul realises the importance of the meeting and the fact that he is effectively earth's ambassador now. He just hopes that he makes a good impression and doesn't do or say anything that ruins things.

Dr Greenstuff disappears off for a while and returns with the important alien, following behind him. Paul can see that the second alien is dressed up for the occasion as it is wearing some form of metallic bandanna slung across its shoulder and chest, disappearing under its right arm. It looks as if it could be quite heavy and uncomfortable to wear. Paul makes sure that the alien sees that he has observed the bandanna. He stands as the pair enter the room, then he bows, as he's seen people do in films, when they are in the presence of royalty. The alien is startled at first by Paul's action, but then realises that this is in honour of itself. Its eyes give away that it is very impressed at Paul's recognition of its importance.

Dr Greenstuff had at first retired to one side so that the earthling and his senior could meet each other with least distraction. Then Dr Greenstuff judges that it is time for him to make himself available to do the translations. The new alien speaks and is quite surprised at how its voice sounds in the controlled atmosphere of this chamber. Dr Greenstuff waits until the other alien has finished speaking, then he starts to sign as best he can what has just been conveyed to him. At a few points he gets stuck, not knowing the signs for particular concepts or words, so resorts to using the white board. Paul joins Dr Greenstuff at the whiteboard as they converse using it. When they have finished, they rejoin the other alien, who looks most put out that it has been excluded from the exchange. Dr Greenstuff then sets about explaining Paul's response.

The extent of the conversation goes like this, the alien extends his greetings to Paul as representative of his people and hopes that his treatment thus far, whilst not ideal, has not caused him to think poorly of their species. Paul replies that he has found his treatment and welcome has been most kind and unexpected considering what had happened to their craft and the astronaut who had been controlling the craft. Paul adds that he is most delighted to have had the chance to meet them and get to know about their species and culture. In turn he hopes that he can convince his peoples that peaceful relations would be the best way forward.

The phrase "peaceful relations" had been one of those concepts that Dr Greenstuff had difficulty getting his head around, but they got there in the end. It appears that the other alien, likewise has difficulty in understanding the concept.

The meeting finishes with the senior alien telling Paul, via Dr Greenstuff, that it is their intention to try and get him safely back to the earth. He adds that he has instructed Dr Greenstuff and others to come up with a plan that would enable Paul to travel aboard one of their craft in comfort and safety, but it would have to be crewed by their own people.

Paul is most delighted at the outcome of this meeting and as a result there is a big beaming smile across his face. The alien is most distraught at first, as it had not noticed Paul's teeth until that point and thought that Paul meant to do it harm. Even Dr Greenstuff is somewhat startled at first, but then realises that Paul means well and promptly explains this to his senior. Paul reaches out to shake the senior alien's hand, as he had seen presidents and the like do on TV. Then he stops himself as he realises that his actions could be read as an act of violence. Instead he diverts his arm in the direction of one of the devices that Dr Greenstuff had placed on the nearby table. Paul picks it up and says, "I must praise you on your technology and the way you use it. We have similar technology but, you seem to be way ahead of us in many things." He signs as he says this. The senior alien must from his expression think that Paul has lost the plot and gone quite mad, until Dr Greenstuff translates what Paul has just said. The senior alien replies to Paul and Dr Greenstuff translates the reply as, "Thank you, we hope we can work together and see changes."

Paul wonders quite what the senior alien means by changes, are they planning an invasion of earth? Or does it merely mean develop peaceful relations and work together on further technological developments? Ah language and understanding, it can be difficult to reach true understanding, especially when the people's conversing have totally different languages, methods of talking, as well as different cultures. Paul could take the alien's comment as threatening, coming as he does, from a culture that fears those who are technologically more advanced. Whereas the alien may mean its comment to be peaceful. Paul decides to err on the side of peaceful intent and nods in agreement.

The meeting over, the senior alien leaves Paul's chamber and out of respect to Paul, bows before leaving. Paul copies the act, knowing that it shows equal respect.

When Dr Greenstuff and the alien have left, Paul worries that he may have said too much, especially in terms of his people's level of technology. Then he reflects on the fact that the aliens would soon discover for themselves how backward the humans really are. If they wanted to do the humans harm, they are already geared up to do so. There may be greater benefit in working peacefully. At least Paul hopes that will be the case. He recalls some of the alien encounter movies he has seen and then starts worrying about how he can stop an all out war, when he returns home in one of these space craft. The chances are that his people will think that there is about to be an invasion and attack the very craft that is trying to bring Paul home safely. Paul runs through all sorts of scenarios and things that he could possibly do to stop his people attacking the craft.

Dr Greenstuff returns and sees that Paul is rather distraught, pacing up and down, wringing his hands and talking to himself. Dr Greenstuff thinks that Paul is ill. He gets Paul to stop and they discuss Paul's fears. Between them they formulate a plan.

~~ Later ~~

Paul is surprised just how many aliens have come to this small plot of land and come to that are crammed inside the building, all looking out of the windows to see him off. Paul decides that if they can make such an effort, he should play his part and he turns and waves enthusiastically at the crowd. Not an easy thing to do in this specially constructed space suit. At first the aliens are confused as to what Paul means by this action. They at first think he is telling them to go away. Then realise that he means them well and there is a massive alien cheer and they start waving back at him. Paul's heart feels really glad that he has such strong support on his mission to bring peace between two such peoples.

In his time with Dr Greenstuff, Paul had learned that these aliens were not always as ready for war. They had started as a peaceful people. They invented weapons and armed themselves as a result of repeated raids from visiting aliens. The aliens took minerals and even took members of the plant people. The plant people got fed up with this and decided they had to defend themselves and when one of the visiting aliens managed to kill itself. Dr Greenstuff's people took its weapon apart and discovered how it worked. They managed to perfect it even more using their own materials and the visiting aliens were in for a shock when they next came for a raid.

Paul had also discovered why he had so much trouble breathing here. The air whilst it has some oxygen, hydrogen, CO2, it also has a high level of helium. The combination of low oxygen, CO2 and helium made it difficult for Paul to breath and get sufficient oxygen. It was the helium that gave him and the plants the cartoon like voice.

The transparent eel creatures in the water, serve the very useful task of keeping the water nice an clean. They digest and process any foreign matter that falls into the ponds and streams.

Anyway lets get back to Paul's departure from this most amazing planet. Whilst a short distance, from building to the space craft, it seems to take a long time as Paul waves to the assembled crowd. An alien breaks ranks and approaches Paul and presents him with a shiny necklace, with what looks like a colourful gem hanging from it. Paul stops, signs thank you and bows to the alien, who repeats the gesture back to Paul. The alien looks delighted at Paul's reaction. Another alien comes forward and presents Paul with a carved stone. Again Paul thanks and bows to the alien. There are a couple of other gifts, before Paul reaches the top of the hill that surrounds the three craft. He waves again at the crowd and then descends to the first of the space craft as guided by Dr Greenstuff.

Paul soon finds himself inside the craft. He is guided to the first cabin, the one beside that meeting room (to the left of the entrance). Dr Greenstuff helps Paul into the bed, as he feels this will be the safest place for Paul. Dr Greenstuff supervises the securing of Paul's oxygen globes. Paul looks again at the collection of globes, it seems a bit over the top, but Dr Greenstuff had told him that they were going to make sure he had plenty of oxygen in-case there were any complications with the journey and that they had enough in-case they can't land and have to bring him back. Paul was impressed at how well thought out Dr Greenstuff's plans were, he seems to be covering off all eventualities.

Now alone in his room, Paul feels quite strange. Especially as he has to wear this somewhat cumbersome suit. He was used to the "glass tank" as he called the chamber that he has been living in the last few days and having the freedom to roam at will. Paul wonders how long he will be confined to his cabin. He fully appreciates that they can't have this strangely suited up alien being lumbering around their craft at will. Now that's funny isn't it? Earlier Paul thought of these people as the aliens, now its him who's the alien. Paul laughs as he he thinks this would make a good TV games show called "Who is the Alien" or even "Spot the Alien", no the first title is the best.

"Wow that didn't take long", thinks Paul to himself as he hears the craft's engines start to work. Then the craft starts to rise. Paul wishes he could look out of the window and wave to all the aliens watching his departure, however he had been told that he has to stay in the bed for his own safety. It makes him feel like a child again. The recent days, he has felt anything but a child, he has had to be so self reliant, making his own decisions, without anyone else around to take care of him and give advice. The freedom had been great, but the worry not so great. Paul is looking forward to getting back home to his Dad, even to school come to that. Paul laughs at the last thought, 'Now that is sad.' thinks Paul.

As Paul glances towards the window, he is delighted to see that there are throngs of the aliens waving like mad at the ascending craft, each hoping that Paul can see them and that he'll wave back. Stupid as it is, Paul does wave back, knowing however that the chances that they can see him are pretty remote. The aliens continue to wave enthusiastically as they slip out of view far below Paul now.

The craft tilts to one side and Paul is slightly fearful that he might fall out of bed, but he need not have worried, the slight lip around the edge of the bed has kept him securely in. The gravitational forces are building as the craft climbs in altitude. Paul has felt this before, but it doesn't seem quite as bad as when he was piloting the previous craft, maybe these are better pilots than Paul or the craft has improved so much, or.... the thoughts keep buzzing in Paul's head. It passes the time and takes his mind off of the building pull on his muscles.

It is a relief when the feeling of weightlessness eases over Paul's body. The window is filled with stars now. Paul can settle back in the knowledge that he is heading home.

~~~~~~

Chapter 17 – Home, But At What Cost?

Paul and Dr Greenstuff had been rehearsing the transmission that they planned to make to the peoples of the earth, in the hope that it will save Paul and crew from being blasted out of the skies. The Captain of the craft, enters the meeting room that Paul and Dr Greenstuff have been using. Paul is introduced to the Captain and Paul bows out of respect. The Captain is most surprised at Paul's reaction, but joins in. There are words exchanged between the Captain and Dr Greenstuff, then the Captain bows to Paul and leaves. Dr Greenstuff explains that they are just coming up on the earth and the Captain has requested that Paul join him in the control room so he can confirm that it is the earth and also indicate where his home land is.

Paul's heart skips a beat at the thought that he has arrived home.

Soon Paul finds himself walking rather awkwardly up the corridor towards the control room. Dr Greenstuff is walking behind Paul and is carrying the oxygen globe. As they progress up the corridor they encounter one of the crew who excitedly talks to Dr Greenstuff. Who in turn tries to convey what the crew member has said, but he just doesn't know all the sign language and his first attempt is completely mis-read by Paul. He thinks the crew member had said that he didn't realise that Paul was so fat. Whereas it was, that he didn't realise that Paul was so short.

As they enter the control room, Paul sees that there are three aliens on duty. One comes across to greet Paul, presumably this is the captain. Ah yes, confirmed by the coloured sash. Paul bows, a bit difficult in the suit, but none-the-less manageable, provided you don't bend too low. The captain returns the gesture, a little unsure at first. Then he rises and chatters away to Dr Greenstuff. Whilst Paul looks out of the windows and is most delighted to see a planet looming up towards them. It is still to far away to make out any detail, but it does have a blueish tinge to it, with a hint of other colours.

Dr Greenstuff asks Paul if this is his home. To which Paul replies that it is too early to tell as yet. Dr Greenstuff relays the response back to the Captain, who seems a little nervous. Paul assures that if his people were going to attack, it wouldn't be this far out, more likely once the craft hits the atmosphere. Dr Greenstuff has difficulty at first understanding Paul's made up signs. But does get the message in the end. The Captain, meanwhile has been watching the pair with great interest.

As the craft gets nearer, Paul can see the familiar oceans and land masses become clearer and he confirms that this is the earth. The Captain gives orders and the course is changed slightly. Dr Greenstuff asks Paul to point out his home land. Paul says that presently they are on the opposite side of the globe, to his home.

Dr Greenstuff marvels at how much water there is on this planet and at how far apart the land masses are. He asks how humans manage to drink with the water being so far away from the centres of the landmasses. Paul tries to explain reservoirs, lakes and the like. But Dr Greenstuff finds it difficult to understand how this can work, surely they would quickly empty. Paul explains rain, but this is a totally alien concept to Dr Greenstuff.

After several minutes, they come up over the Americas and Paul informs Dr Greenstuff that his homeland will soon be coming up on the horizon. He warns him that it is quite small, at least from this high up in space. The Captain gives orders for the craft to slow down and asks if any course correction is required. Paul informs him via Dr Greenstuff that it is difficult to tell until they pass over the east coast of the Americas.

At last, here comes the edge of Spain, the west coast of France and Ireland, closely followed by Wales then south west England. Paul updates the Captain and it is decided that now is the time to broadcast Paul's message. He tells whoever is listening, who he is and where he lives and that he is trying to return home in an alien space craft. He requests that they don't shoot the craft down as it has come on a peaceful mission and does not want to cause any harm. The message is repeated on several frequencies. By the time Paul has finished, the craft has dropped considerably in height and has crossed the Welsh coastline and is heading for southern England. As they are coming up on the county beside Paul's, the control room seems to have gone mad. There are alarms sounding and the aliens appear to be quite busy. Paul is most worried when he sees a jet fighter flying outside the control room window. A human voice says, "This R A F Flight 265 requesting that the unidentified craft on my starboard side identify itself, you are flying into controlled airspace and you do not have a registered flight plan." There is silence for a bit, during which Paul points out that they must respond or these craft are likely to attack them. They prepare to transmit on the same frequency as the jet had made its announcement. But a further announcement is made from the jet, only this time it warns, that failure to respond could result in them opening fire. Paul explains what this means. Then makes his broadcast announcement. He declares who he is and that the alien craft comes in peace in order to bring him home. Paul expects to hear a reassuring announcement, instead he hears repeat of the earlier announcement. Paul wonders why they are being so stubborn and ignoring his broadcasts. He notices that there is still a flurry of activity and that there are more aliens now in the control room. He wonders what is going on, just what are the aliens up to?

The jet fighter breaks off and rises up at great speed. Another voice can be heard to say, "Change your course and leave this airspace immediately or we will have no option but to take action to force you to make the required change. You have now entered restricted airspace." The voice ceases.

Paul asks Dr Greenstuff if there is a possibility that his transmission had not been made, as he cannot understand his people's reaction. Paul is shocked when Dr Greenstuff says that he believes that the last transmission was not made. He adds that he does not know who has ordered this, but there is something quite sinister about to happen. He has noticed on the warning system that there are other craft from his own planet following this one. He thinks that he and Paul have been betrayed and that Paul has been used as some sort of distraction to enable them to mount an invasion.

Paul studies the controls of this craft and tries to formulate some sort of plan. He's not sure now if he can even trust Dr Greenstuff, he could easily be in on the invasion plan. But why admit that there is a plan, when he could play Paul along for longer?

~~ Later ~~

The Captain is over at the weapons station, if Dr Greenstuff is to be believed; regards each workstation's function.

Paul seizes the opportunity, dashes over to the navigation workstation. He is glad he had hidden his torch in a pocket of the space suit as it enable him to steer a course straight down towards the ground. The speed of descent is quite frightening. But it has the desired effect. The sudden change in direction has startled the aliens. Paul swings the craft upwards again and the alien on weapons accidentally fires the weapons. There is an alien craft right in their way, but not for long, as the weapons fire hits it and the craft explodes into a million pieces. The Captain yells out something. As two of the aliens attempt to grab Paul, he changes course again and the two aliens crash into a wall. Dr Greenstuff has sensibly strapped himself into the chair beside Paul's.

Again the course changes and the craft swings back upwards into space, its a bit like riding a very expensive and high powered roller coaster ride. Paul spots another craft and heads straight for it, makes a few course corrections and is satisfied, as the weapons system again fires and causes a direct hit. One of the aliens lumbers across to stop Paul. Luckily Paul sees the alien and he throttles up, to head straight out into space again. The sudden change from gravity to weightlessness completely throws the alien heading in Paul's direction. It loses its footing and heads towards the ceiling and slams quite heavily against the ceiling. This has the desired effect knocking the alien out. It is closely followed by the other two, who a short while ago had been slammed into a wall. They likewise end up knocked out. The three of them floating above the remaining two crew members, the Captain, Dr Greenstuff and Paul.

Paul changes course again, in order to see just how many invading craft have been sent. He is glad to count only five. Paul, turns and is horrified as he sees that the Captain is heading towards him. He hurriedly dips the craft towards the earth and swings the craft to the left and right as it dives at speed. Paul looks round and sees that the Captain is still steadily advancing towards Paul and is so close now that Paul thinks that his brave attempts to save the human race will soon be over.

Suddenly there's a click noise from beside Paul. He turns back in time to see Dr Greenstuff lob something at the Captain. As it strikes the captain's head with some force, Paul realises that the object is his oxygen cylinder. It is lucky that he has realised this in time. He quickly releases the tube that connects the globe to his suit. He is only just in time as he sees the rest of the tube snake off in the direction that the globe had flown. The Captain slumps to the floor, brown fluid oozing out of his head.

Paul asks Dr Greenstuff if he can tend to the Captain's injuries. Dr Greenstuff leaves the control room, much to Paul's dismay. The remaining crew members who are a potential threat to Paul, eye him with absolute fear and suspicion. Neither daring to move in-case they meet with the same fate as their Captain. There is a kind of stalemate, Paul knowing that he is outnumbered and that he has to keep eyes on the two aliens whilst also watching the remaining alien fleet.. There's an alien voice coming over the communications system. One of the two aliens by the weapons workstation moves, then thinks better of it, as Paul stares at it, as if to say, 'just you dare and see what I'll do!'

The alien is desperate to answer the call, but knows it cannot. After further thought it pulls its arm back. to its side.

Paul is relieved to see Dr Greenstuff arrive back with some sort of case in hand. He goes straight over to the captain. Paul asks if he needs any help. To which Dr Greenstuff nods and signs yes. Then he speaks to the closest of the aliens, who immediately obeys and walks over to the Captain. Paul, is somewhat relived that there's now only one alien to keep an eye on.

There's that voice again over the communications system. Paul throws the same look look of, just dare, at the remaining alien. The alien has a look of deep fear in its eyes and isn't daring to move. Paul glances over to Dr Greenstuff and the other alien, they are busy attending to the Captain's needs. Paul is in a dilemma, should he pursue the remaining five alien craft or just maintain steady flight? If he does pursue the other craft, he knows he probably won't be able to fire on them and is more likely to get hit himself. Probably best to stand off and watch them from a distance, not that Paul knows what a safe distance is, regards the weapons on this type of craft. They must be currently at a safe distance though, as there have been no attempts to fire upon them to-date.

After a while Paul's attention is turned from his continual scanning of the ships and the alien at the weapons workstation, back towards Dr Greenstuff and the other alien, they are lifting the Captain and heading off out of the control room, leaving Paul and the other alien alone.

~~~~~~~~

Chapter 18 – What Can A Mere Boy Do?

Paul and the alien at the weapons station have been alone for some time, Paul spending his time keeping any eye on the alien and also regularly checking the other craft out there. Neither had moved, when suddenly Paul spots one of the craft break ranks and head straight for Paul's craft.

'Here it comes.' thinks Paul. He alters the controls so that their craft takes a gentle dive at first, then as gravity takes effect, Paul changes course and dives more steeply. The other craft follows him down. The alarms start to sound again, but is it due to the second craft or the jet fighters seeking the two craft out? Strangely enough, Paul hopes it is the latter. He manages to identify the warning display and is reassured that it is the jet fighters who are after Paul. He waits until he judges they are close enough to be able to make a lock, then he changes course and heads down towards the ground, swinging off to the left.

Paul glances at the display again and smiles as he sees that the second craft is following his path closely. Another sound is heard and Paul takes this as his clue to change course and not before time, the leading jet fighter has released a missile. Paul gets really excited, as he sees that the second craft has followed his lead and also changed course, but as it is behind Paul, the course change has a disastrous effect, well disastrous for them that is. The missile finds the second craft and explodes causing considerable damage to the craft and it dives straight for the ground. The second jet seems to be following it down, presumably monitoring its flight path to make sure it doesn't crash into any buildings or people. Paul piles on the acceleration and climbs at rapid rate. The jet fighter tries to keep up and releases another missile.

Paul says, "You shouldn't have done that, save it for the others." It's then that Paul has an idea. He slows up and changes course, making his flight path much shallower, hoping that the missile can follow him. He takes it above the other craft, then descends over the top of them, the missile following still. There's fire from the other four craft. Paul's craft is hit and alarms sound, but the hit must have been nothing vital, as Paul finds he still has control over his craft. Paul takes advantage of this by accelerating away and upwards. The missile is still following him.

There is a sudden explosion of light points on the tracking warning display. Paul swings the craft around and shortly sees the source of the display, the leading craft has been blown to bits, it must have either moved or hit the missile with its weapons. Just what Paul was hoping for, well the end result anyway. The effect of the exploding craft on the remaining three is quite interesting, they have all separated and are dropping away from the scene of the explosion. Paul decides to take advantage of the chaos and he flies under the nearest craft, diving down. He hopes that the craft will take the bait and follow him down.

At first the craft either doesn't see Paul's craft or it is ignoring him. Then suddenly it changes course and follows him down. Paul makes many course changes, as he does not want to be the target of their weapons. He dives down even further, there's a crash from deep within their craft as something hits a wall or the floor, due to the kick in of gravity again. Paul hopes its not his friend Dr Greenstuff. He keeps an eye on the door as well as the weapons alien, the widow and the tracking display. Paul thinks, 'No wonder these aliens have six eyes, you need them for this sort of thing.'

Alarms sound again as a jet fighter comes in hot pursuit.

'Right on cue, lets hope that we are not going to be it's target. Mind you that's all down to me.' thinks Paul.

Paul is most alarmed to see that the following craft has lost it's nerve and broken off. Paul changes course also. This must be the maximum height of the jet fighter, as it does not follow them, as they rise up again. Instead it swings round in an arc presumably predicting their new flight path. Paul decides that he'll try and trick the other alien craft into following him. He buzzes the craft, passing quite close by but, from the underside. Taking a gamble on the fact that the warning systems do not warn about the presence of their own craft. Paul's craft emerges some way ahead of the craft. He maintains a straight flight path for a while, then slips off to the left. He just hopes that the fighter jet is somewhere in this region soon. The other craft seems to be taking the bait, it fires upon Paul's craft, but just at the time he changes course. Paul prides himself on predicting the craft's reaction. Paul's craft dives even further. The other craft follows and fires again. This time, it has hit part of Paul's craft. Again alarms sound. The warning screen is showing a diagram of the craft and it is flashing in the region of the room with the vending machines.

'Cancel lunch plans.' thinks Paul and he immediately changes course, as he's not going to give the other craft the chance to get a more accurate pot shot.

There's another alarm, it is the Jet fighter back again, but a little too close for comfort. It has fired a missile. Paul takes evasive action and heads upwards, hoping that he can lose the missile again. He scans the tracking display and apart from the craft that was following his craft, there are no others in range. Paul wonders where the other two have disappeared. The one that was following Paul, is now taking no chances and is fleeing the area, presumably figured out Paul's plan to lead the missile into its path. This leaves Paul out on his own, to deal with this missile. He hopes he can outrun it, like he did the last one. Paul makes the craft climb at a rapid rate and the missile follows, it still seems to be keeping up. Paul hopes that it will soon run out of fuel and continues his craft's climb. Weightlessness starts to kick in again. Suddenly there's an enormous bang and the craft becomes unstable and starts to descend, spinning as it goes down. The missile follows the craft's downward path. Paul tries in vein to regain control, but is unable to do do anything. As gravity bites again, the craft accelerates even faster. Paul realises that he must regain some sort of control. He experiments with the controls, not trying to fly the craft in a normal way, but trying short blasts of the engines, along with unusual setting of the directional and levelling controls. The missile seems to be gaining on the craft and will, if Paul cannot find a way to control its flight path, hit soon.

Paul realises that it is some time since he has turned to check on the alien at the weapons station. He quickly looks round and finds that it is frozen to the spot in fear.

Paul thinks he now has some understanding of how to achieve controlled flight of sorts. Paul applies what he has learned of the craft's current state and attempts to steer a course away from the missile. He manages to escape the missile for a few seconds, before it changes its course to get back on track. Paul tries another course change, but it backfires and brings the craft even closer to the missile. Paul quickly changes the course again, to get further away, but it takes too long to kick in and the missile just touches part of the craft, which accelerates away in response to Paul's piloting. The missile explodes, sending the craft hurtling towards the earth.

Paul tries again to regain control, but is unable to achieve any form of control. Instead the craft continues to spiral earthwards. Paul decides to go in search of Dr Greenstuff to see if there are any emergency escape measures the least being parachutes.

Paul walks over to the door and he signs to the remaining alien, that it is to stay here. He also signs that he is going to get help. Although the alien understands the first, it clearly is confused by the second. So Paul signs that he will be coming back. Then he sets off in search of Dr Greenstuff. As the control room door opens, Paul is shocked at the litter lining the corridor. There's also the rushing sound of air. Paul cautiously emerges into the corridor, but is glad to see no-one there. As he looks to the left, he sees that the door to cabin 4 is open and it seems to be the source of the rushing air noise. The outer wall must have been breeched by one of the hits. Paul carefully walks over towards the door of cabin 4 and sure enough there is a massive hole in the outer wall, charred and ripped metal edges are all that is left.

There is some bedding flapping in the wind, it is just hanging onto one of the jagged edges. There's very little else left in the cabin now. Even most of the floor has been ripped away. Paul looks back at the corridor, it is then that he notices that the right hand wall is no longer smooth, instead it has several large bumps sticking out into the corridor. No doubt caused by the instant de-pressurisation of the explosion. Paul looks back at the cabin door, there is no sign of damage to the door frame, which would indicate that the door was already open when the explosion occurred.

Paul goes back to cabin 3, the door opens to reveal an empty cabin, with bent walls and the floor has a large depression in it towards the window. Apart from this, the cabin looks normal. Paul shifts his attention to cabin 5. As the door opens, Paul is shocked to see Dr Greenstuff laying on the floor in a pool of brown liquid. Most of the walls are also splatted with the liquid. Paul rushes in to see if Dr Greenstuff is still alive. He kneels beside Dr Greenstuff calls to him, tries to move him and is surprised how easily he moves. There is no sign of life in Dr Greenstuff's eyes. There's no sign of breathing. Paul feels desperate but doesn't know what he can do for Dr Greenstuff. He rushes to fetch the alien in the control room, who is now at the navigation desk desperately trying to gain control of the craft, like Paul had tried to do. It looks up as Paul re-enters the control room, the fear in its eyes unmistakable. Paul tries to explain why he wants the alien to come with him, but the alien is desperate to stay and try and gain control of the craft. Paul convinces it to follow him. As they pass cabin 4, the alien is as shocked as Paul had been. Then when it sees Dr Greenstuff, it rushes to his side, just as Paul had done. It checks for vital signs, then looks up at Paul, the sadness in its eyes plain to see. It shakes its head and its head falls in sadness. Paul rushes to Dr Greenstuff's side. He reaches out and grabs his hand. The tears flood down his cheeks. Whilst Paul had only known Dr Greenstuff for a matter of days, a friendship bond had formed between them, quite how strong, Paul had not realised until now. He cannot believe it, Dr Greenstuff gone.

~~~~~~

Chapter 19 - As If That Isn't Bad Enough

The alien pulls at Paul, but Paul shrugs it off. The alien does not give up. Paul eventually stands up, the alien catches sight of his tears. The alien pulls Paul towards him and hugs him. Paul was expecting the alien to try and overpower Paul and he is totally surprised at the reaction, but finds it somewhat reassuring. After a few moments the alien leads Paul back to the control room and the navigation desk. They both sit down and the alien shows Paul a combination of control moves and indicates that Paul follow suit. Paul thinks that there's no harm in trying out the alien's idea. So they both set about their synchronised effort.

Paul gets all excited as he sees that the alien's idea is working, they have regained some control of the craft, it has ceased spiralling now. The alien indicates that they introduce some more vertical thrust to slow the descent speed. As the craft starts to spin again, they repeat their earlier moves and it has the desire effect. The downward descent is starting to slow now. They pile on a bit more thrust and it has the desired effect and not before time either, they were running out of height to play with. The craft is now gliding down. Paul hurriedly looks around for a landing site.

Suddenly the pair of them jump as the Jet fighter buzzes them. Paul asks the alien if it knows how to make a radio announcement, but it does not understand what Paul is saying and indicates that Paul concentrate on their navigation. Paul can see the sense in what the alien is saying. The jet fighter can surely see that they are in a bad way and couldn't harm anyone. Paul suddenly spots their opportunity to land and points it out to the alien. They do their moves again and manage to align the craft with the selected landing location. The craft glides in, Paul keeps an eye on the gradually decreasing height, as well as the heading of the craft. If only he had some idea of the horizontal speed. This is all seat of the pants flying. Paul has no idea about the craft's current stall speed or other flight factors. They just have to do what seems natural for the circumstances and so far it seems to be paying dividends.

Here comes that annoying jet again, if only it would leave them alone, they have enough to worry about concentrating on heading for their landing strip. Paul knows they are on the last leg of their journey now. Paul checks height and course. He adjusts the speed of descent as he feels its a bit too fast, he just hopes that the effect is not to increase horizontal speed. The direction is spot on. Now its just a case of waiting for the final approach.

The selected landing site comes ever closer, but seems to take an eternity to reach.

Here comes that jet again, its even closer this time.

Finally, here comes the final approach. Decent rate seems about right, course bang on. Paul judges the horizontal speed to be a bit fast, so he tries to adjust this and to his dismay, the craft starts to spin. The alien looks at Paul in disbelief, as if he had attempted to sabotage their landing. The pair work at trying to stabilise their heading again. After much fiddling about, they manage to get the craft back on course. Paul abandons any hope of slowing the craft up.

'Here we go then.' thinks Paul as they come down, he braces himself for impact and shows the alien what to do.

When the craft hits the ground, it is still moving at some speed and tries to plough up the ground. This is despite the fact that Paul and the alien have already killed the engines. The ride is rough for Paul and the alien. They are thrown about in their seats, their heads repeatedly hitting the back of the chairs. After some minutes, the craft comes to a halt.

The alien is unconscious and Paul knows that they have to get out of the craft as quickly as possible, in-case it explodes. He unstraps himself and then the alien. He lifts the alien out of the chair, does a fireman's lift type of carry and heads off for the entrance. The doors trigger easily. When Paul reaches the exit, he is most distraught to see that there is earth banked up, blocking the doorway. Paul retreats, heading back to cabin 4. The tear in the side of the ship is clear of any obstructions.

As Paul surveys the opening he wonders how he is going to get through it and the jagged edges, especially as he has the alien in tow. He just knows he has to do it though. Paul gets as near to the edge as he can. He sees what appears to be a soft patch of ground below them. It is covered in grass. Paul wonders how he can get the alien down there. He won't be able to throw him, he is equally worried that the alien may get caught on one of those jagged edges. Paul carefully puts the alien down he also decides that it is time to lose the suit that he has been wearing, especially as the air is getting rather thin now. Paul struggles with the suit for what seems like some minutes, but must have only been seconds. He is glad to breath again the air or earth. Paul then goes in search of something that he can use to lower the alien to the ground.

Paul remembers the bedding in the cabins. He rushes off to fetch this. He decides to skip cabin 5, the though of seeing Dr Greenstuff again is too much. He gathers bedding from the other cabins. Ties it together to make a long rope. Then re-surveys the ripped edge of the cabin and is glad to see a spot where there is a reasonably clear edge. Paul ties the rope round the alien's chest. Making sure that his knots are secure, but not too tight, after all he doesn't want to harm the alien any more that he is already injured. Then Paul eases the alien to the edge. He secures the other end of the rope to one of those loops on the wall (the ones that can be used in the weightlessness of space to stabilise oneself). Paul sits on the floor, grabs his improvised rope in two hands. He puts one foot against some metal that is sticking up. With his other foot, he gently pushes against the alien's arm. He hopes that he doesn't bruise the alien, he has suffered enough already. The alien's body slides over the edge. Paul tenses the rope and takes the strain, gently easing the alien to the ground. He just hopes that he has made the rope long enough. This task is quite painful as the alien is quite heavy. Paul will be glad when he feels the rope slacken off as the alien hits the ground.

There's suddenly a tearing sound. Paul lets the rope go down much faster, he just hopes he can get the alien to the ground before the rope fails altogether. It is quite tiring to keep up this rate of controlled drop. The tearing sound continues. If only Paul knew how close the alien is to the ground, he'd know just how long he has got to keep this up. Paul is worried that working at this rapid rate, he is going to mess up positioning of his hands and as a consequence the rope will slip. The chances of Paul being able to regain control would be nil if this happens. He has to concentrate on what he is doing. If only that incessant tearing would stop.

The rope suddenly becomes lose, all the weight has gone. Has the rope finally broken or better still has the alien reached the ground?

Paul gets up and rushes over to the edge, there's the alien on the ground and..... oh no..... the rope had broken, but thankfully not too high up. Paul just hopes that the alien is alright.

Now Paul has to turn his attention to how he is going to get to the ground. He looks back at the rope snaking its way across the floor. There wasn't much rope to go anyway. Paul picks the rope up and drops the remaining slack over the side. It still isn't enough to reach the ground. Paul looks for somewhere else to tie the rope that will give him some extra length, but there is nowhere else that would be as secure. Paul remembers cabin 5, he will just have to be brave and try not to look at Dr Greenstuff. His own survival is more important now.

As the door opens, Paul is most shocked to see that Dr Greenstuff has gone, although the brown patch is still where he was lying. Paul realises that the crash must have caused Dr Greenstuff's body to roll away. Typical that it should roll to the place where the bed is. Paul does not dwell on the existence of the body being near him. He grabs the bedding and runs back to cabin 4.

On reaching cabin 4 again, Paul raises the rope again and ties the new bedding securely on. When he lowers the whole rope again, he is disappointed to see that it is still some way from the ground. Paul knows he will just have to jump the last stretch. Paul lays down and slides himself over the edge. As it comes to the last bit, Paul searches for somewhere to grab onto, so he can ease himself down to the rope. He sees a ledge to his left. He reaches down and grabs hold. A pain shoots through his hand, there was obviously a sharp edge underneath that he had not spotted. What should he do, try and find another spot and run the risk of finding another sharp edge, or just stick with what he has found. Paul decides to stick with what he has and minimise the damage. He swings down and catches the rope. As his injured hand also grabs the rope, Paul sees that the injury looks and feels worse than it is. He scrabbles down the rope as quickly as he can. He doesn't want this one to break. He soon finds himself at the bottom of the rope. The gap between the end of the rope and the ground is little more than he'd like, but here goes.

Paul lands rather awkwardly and there's instantly a pain shooting up his leg. He must have broken it. Paul's attention is diverted to the sound of a helicopter. Paul wonders where the noise is coming from. He scans the sky until he sees the flying spot, heading towards them. Then he sees that there are two more behind the first. Paul tries to find a comfortable position for his leg, but it is almost impossible.

The helicopters are so much closer now. Should Paul try to stand and wave? Then he remembers how large the craft is and that it is sure to be spotted from the air, even if a quarter of it is now buried.

Paul waits until the helicopters are clearly visible. He carefully stands up, his ankle gives forth a stabbing pain, to remind Paul of his injury. He makes sure he doesn't put any weight on the ankle and waves to the leading helicopter. There is someone leaning out the side, they wave back to acknowledge that they have seen him. Paul points to himself and to the alien, repeats this, the person at the helicopter side nods and holds up two fingers, then raises a third, then a fourth. Paul shakes his head. Then the person indicates some form of gun. Again Paul shakes his head to show that they have no weapons. A line is lowered from the helicopter. The person at the side of the helicopter shouts down at Paul through some sort of tannoy system, "Please do NOT touch the line, allow it to touch the ground first, then raise it and fasten the belt around your prisoner."

Paul is surprised that it is a woman who is speaking, somehow he had expected a man. Secondly, that she thought that the alien is a prisoner. Paul shouts back that the alien is not a prisoner, but a friend and that he is injured. However, he might have saved his breath, the lady cannot hear him and just repeats her instructions about the line and putting the belt on his prisoner. Paul decides to obey and sort things out afterwards. He waits until the line drops right down to the ground, then he picks it up and hops across to the alien, carrying the line and belt with him. The lady calls down to Paul to ask if he needs help, as he shakes his head, she reels out more line, so that it reaches across to the alien. Paul has difficulty at first, getting the belt around the alien's chest. He also has difficulty figuring out how it fastens. The lady shouts out some instructions as to how the belt should be fastened. Soon Paul's alien friend is heading skywards. Paul can see that the lady is rather reluctant to handle the alien, she has even put on some gloves and a face mask. Soon the line is heading down to collect Paul.

~~~~~~

Chapter 20 – Care

Paul whilst really glad to see his father, is somewhat worried as to what he has to say about Paul's exploits with the alien craft and the fact that he'd even tried to fly it, let alone leave the earth. Paul is most disappointed that this first meeting has to be through a glass window, as he has been put in quarantine. Paul can see that rather than appearing to be angry and cross, his Dad is looking worried and concerned about Paul's well being, his first words are, "You sure had us worried, you've been gone for several months, are you alright?"

Paul replies, "Apart from some damage to my left leg, and a cut or two I'm fine thanks Dad. Have they told you anything about the alien and how he is?"

Paul's Dad tells Paul that he had knows nothing about any alien, all he had been told was that Paul had been found safe and sound.

Paul tells his Dad about the space craft that he had found and about his flight to the alien planet, then the fact that the aliens had looked after him, then tricked him into being a decoy. He also told of Dr Greenstuff and how supportive and friendly he had been, then about the latest alien that Paul had managed to rescue from the craft, about their teamwork to get the craft down as safely as they could. Paul can see that his Dad doesn't believe anything that he has been saying, he thinks that Paul has suffered a knock on the head and has dreamed all this.

One of the medical staff, a lady, clothed in some sort of protective suit, comes into Paul to check him out. She starts by looking at instruments that are attached to him. Paul refuses to co-operate, when she wants to check lines going into him and sensors attached to him. Paul insists that she tell him what they have done with the alien, he wants assurance that the alien is being well treated. He tells her that the alien needs an atmosphere of helium and CO2, also it requires water and sunlight, plenty of it.

At first the lady appears to be ignoring Paul's pleas and protests, but when he starts to tell her about the alien's requirements. She stops what she is doing and whips out a note book and notes down what Paul is telling her.

Paul says that he insists on seeing the alien to make sure he is alright. He mentions human rights, then changes this to 'alien rights'. The medic disappears off, closing the chamber carefully before she goes. A few minutes later she re-appears with an elderly gentleman with white hair and beard to match. The man, not dressed in protective clothing, but instead in normal clothes, dispenses with niceties, instead he launches straight into, "My colleague here tells me that you know what the alien needs to survive. Is this true and how do you know these things?"

Paul quite taken aback by the man's brusqueness, is silent at first. But prompted by the man's prompt of "Well I'm waiting!" Feels obligated to reply.

Paul says, "I spent several days on their planet. I found it difficult to breath, it turned out it was because of the low levels of oxygen, high levels of CO2 and also helium."

The impatient man replies, "Yes, yes, but how do you know this?"

Paul silent again for a moment or two, eventually says, "They rescued me and found that I was having trouble breathing their air, so they put me in a special chamber with high levels of oxygen. Then I spent several days communicating with one of their people."

The man resumes his, "Yes, yes, but how did you communicate? They don't talk English surely?"

Paul smiles and says, "Well actually they can, through use of sign language. We had great difficulty at first but through use of drawings, objects and then the use of sign language we managed to build up some quite interesting conversations. It was through one of these that we managed to talk about the make up of their atmosphere and also what they needed to survive. They are essentially plant people living on, oh what is the word again?" Paul racks his brains again and suddenly, as he recalls the colour of their skin, it comes to him, the word is, "Photosynthesis, that's it. They create their own food, which is a sort of sugar. The alien that I had managed to communicate, so well with, unfortunately died on the ship, he was trying to save their captain. He had helped me ward off the attack that his people were planning to attempt on the human race. The alien you have, is he OK?"

The man has now lost any sign of his impatience as he answers, "Well he's not been doing very well, but that was mainly, as we didn't understand what his body needed, but we should be able to provide for his needs now that you have helped us."

Paul asks, "Can I see him? He helped me land the craft and I owe him my life for that."

The white haired man, smiles and says, "From what I understand, you both did some saving, that was some feat getting him out of that damaged craft single handedly. Nurse, can you fetch this young man a wheel chair? I think it would be good for both of our patients to have contact."

The nurse hesitates at first, then smiles and rapidly departs, then re-enters the room somewhat cumbersomely, with wheelchair in tow.

Paul objects, "I don't need that, I can manage." He attempts to swing his legs off the bed and is reminded by the sharp pain in his left ankle that he had landed awkwardly off of the rope.

The man smiles again and says, "I think not. Independent young man aren't you? Mind you I don't think you would have survived, had you not had such a nature." The man, then turns his attention to Paul's Dad, whom he had ignored all this time.

Paul's Dad had just stood the other side of the glass wall dumbfounded at the treatment of his son and the things that had been said. So it was all true, what Paul had said, was not just a dream. Paul had flown to an alien planet and brought one of these things back with him.

The white haired man, says to Paul's Dad, "Hello Mr er."

Paul helps out with, "Simpkins."

"Yes, hello Mr Simpkins, I will fetch you shortly and you too can see the.... er.... friend that young Paul has brought back with him. Oh by the way I am Professor Heston, bio-medical specialist." The professor holds out his hand to shake Paul's Dad's hand then laughs at his stupidity, there's a glass wall separating them.

~~ Later ~~

The alien is in a transparent plastic tent like structure, there are bright lights shining down on him. Paul asks the Professor if the water in the glass beside the bed has been boiled. The Professor smiles at Paul and replies, "Ah yes, we anticipated that would be a requirement, we wouldn't want to introduce any unnecessary bugs into the equation, this poor chap has enough problems as it is."

Paul asks, "How do you think he is getting on?"

The Professor replies, "Well as I'm sure you appreciate, it is difficult for us to tell, as we know nothing really of the way their bodies work. All we do know is that he appears to be responding well to the new atmosphere and also the lighting. He appears to be more comfortable. We haven't seen any signs of consciousness returning as yet, but it is early days, as they say."

Paul walks over to the plastic tent and pushes part inwards so he can touch the closest arm of the alien. Paul reassuringly says, "Its OK you're amongst friends, we will look after you until your people can be convinced to come peacefully to collect you."

The alien's eyes seem to have a bit of a sparkle about them. Paul isn't sure if it is a trick of the light, or if consciousness is returning. Paul hears a high pitched sound and he knows that the alien is talking to him. As Paul still does not understand their language, he resorts to the only method of communication that he knows works, sign language. He requests some paper or a white board if there's one available. The nurse comes up with a pad of white paper and a pencil. The Professor suggests that she fetch a flip chart from some room or other.

Paul's Dad stands watching Paul in amazement and adoration at his son's determination to reassure this alien who has become a friend, and this, for the boy who found it difficult to make friends.

Paul is soon sketching away and signing. The alien is now sitting up and attempting to sign back.

Paul asks if there is any way that they can get some paper and pencils into the alien. The Professor nods at the nurse she takes a pad into the back of the tent and slides it into a compartment, then signs to the alien, to show him how to fetch the paper and pencils. Paul and the alien resume their conversation once the alien has retrieved the paper and pencils.

After some while, Paul looks round at the Professor and announces that they have a plan to effect the alien's safe transfer back to his own kind. Paul had established that the alien craft will not have completely left earth orbit, instead they will be waiting up there to see what happens and also be checking if any of their kind have survived the crashes. They will have detected that this alien has survived. They will be formulating plans to effect recovery. Paul said that they can use this knowledge to suggest a friendly transfer. They would need to make arrangements for the alien to make a transmission to his people's.

The Professor discusses the plan in more detail and then says that he will need to talk to 'his people to get their clearance', however he did not see any real reason for not giving it a try. The Professor departs.

Paul's Dad seizes the opportunity to congratulate his son on his achievement.

~~~~~~

Chapter 21 – Making Arrangements

The Professor tells Paul and his Dad that two of the alien craft have been spotted by satellites orbiting the earth. So the alien was right about them hanging around. He adds that arrangements are being made to sort out satellites and jets to keep an eye out for any craft that enter the atmosphere. Clearance had been obtained for making the transmission to the alien craft and a team were writing a script that the alien can use.

Paul is concerned that the speech be kept simple, mainly from the viewpoint that he has to deliver it to the alien by his often home made sign language. The Professor suggests that they get a sign language expert in to help Paul. Paul is a bit reluctant at first, he is worried about the effect on the alien and the trust that he and the alien have built up. The Professor suggests that perhaps the sign language expert could be just around, but not directly involved in the communications. Paul still has his reservations about this, but gives in.

The hours tick by with nothing happening, Paul is getting more and more impatient, but is amazed at how calm and unworried the alien seems to be.

Finally some action. The Professor comes back with a rather portly, lady with what Paul considers to be an owl like face, not helped by the extremely large glasses, that give the impression of having very large staring eyes. The lady is introduced as Daphne Wakes. She signs as she says hello.

The Professor points out that Paul can understand and talk English, it is the alien in the plastic tent who is having difficulty in understanding.

The Professor presents Paul and Daphne with the speech that has been prepared. Paul thinks that he had best explain this new person's presence in the room and also what they are planning to do. He sets about signing to the alien, who is keen to learn what is happening.

When Paul has finished, he rejoins Daphne and the Professor. Daphne starts to criticise Paul's signs and the fact that he is making up his own signs. Paul takes an instant dislike to this Daphne person, who, is she to criticise what he's doing, at least he's getting the message across. However, Daphne goes on about how important it is to standardise these things and that it won't help if the aliens can only understand Paul, what happens if they return some day and a professionally trained sign language person has to deal with them, they will be back to square one, or even worse, total confusion. Paul is still of the opinion that it is working and if it isn't broke, why try to confuse things now, attempting to fix it. Daphne reads the speech out loud, so they can all hear and consider it and how, it can be best conveyed.

Paul wonders what kind of idiot wrote this speech, it has a lot of complicated words and phrases that, even he is struggling with the meaning of. Paul objects to the content of the speech. Whilst Daphne goes on to consider what signs to use to convey it. Paul's Dad nods at Paul's specific objections as they go through it line by line. Paul thinks 'Wow amazing my Dad actually agrees that my points are right, I can't believe it.' However, he gets so frustrated at being ignored, by Daphne and the Professor, that he goes away for a moment, grabs paper and pen; comes back and starts writing.

After a while, Paul says, "How about this?" Then sets about reading what he has written. He sees that his Dad is smiling and nodding as Paul reads out his version of the speech. He gets a quarter of the way in, when Daphne objects on the grounds that he has departed from the spirit of the original speech. It is then that both the Professor and his Dad come to his defence, stating that Paul's speech is far easier to understand and far less open to misinterpretation.

Daphne is most put out by their objections and, in a huff asks them, who the linguistics expert is?

There is silence. Then the Professor and Paul's Dad look at each other and together pronounce that Paul seems to be. This is the final straw as far as Daphne is concerned, she gets up and storms off out of the room. After she has gone, the Professor remarks that she had taken the speech with her. Paul's dad says, "We don't need it do we? Paul already has it written out, don't you think?"

The Professor smiles and encourages Paul to go on. As they go through the rest of the speech, the Professor and Paul's Dad, occasionally suggest a better way to put a particular phrase. At the end there is a great feeling of achievement. The Professor says, "Now that's what I call teamwork."

The alien has been watching with great interest, as all this had been taking place, whilst he had not known what had been said, he was most interested in the reactions, especially 'when the other person had left in such a small time.' as the alien had put it.

There's a noise from behind the group, they look round to see that Daphne has returned, she has quite a sorrowful and nervous look on her face now. She meekly says that she owes them an apology and hopes that she can still be of service. Apparently her bosses had been quite enthusiastic about Paul's re-write. She pointed out that her first instructions had been to let no changes be made to the speech, but that had apparently been some hi ranking government official who had long since gone.

Paul smiles and asks Daphne how he can convey a few of the lines that they had jointly written. Daphne, who's tune has now changed, enthusiastically suggests a couple of ways, that they could be conveyed. The alien enthusiastically watches, as Paul practices.

Paul turns his attention back to the alien, smiles and signs that he should not have been watching. Daphne suggests that Paul speaks what he is saying, as he signs it, she says it helps the rest of the group and also Paul himself, as he is composing what he is saying. Paul can't see what difference it should make to him, but can see that it must be pretty boring for the others in the group watching in silence. Paul starts relaying the speech, whilst the alien writes it down in his own language. As Paul gets stuck, Daphne steps in to help him out with new signs. The whole exercise takes ages; at the conclusion of which, the alien suggests he re-read what he has written, then shape it up, so that it will make sense to his people.

The Professor decides that this will be a good opportunity to take a meal break and he arranges for some food to be brought in. He also gives the alien some fresh water. Daphne and Paul strike up a conversation about sign language and Daphne is fascinated how Paul had learned sign language and why he had decided to use it, when he had met the aliens. The conversation moves onto what the alien's world is like.

~~ Later ~~

The transmission seemed to go well, despite the alien's nerves beforehand, it seemed to flow seamlessly, he even told Paul afterwards that he felt it had gone well. Although the real test would be when and if they get a reply back, so far there had been none.

It was like waiting to be called into the dentists surgery when you know you have to have a lot of work done and you are really nervous about it. The whole team were on tenterhooks, waiting for news, any news, even if it was bad.

The phone in the corner of the room rings and they all jump in shock, especially the alien, as he had never heard a telephone before. The Professor picks it up and after a few moments, he returns to the group and announces, "Well looks like we are getting a reply now, they are going to relay it to us shortly. Paul can you tell our friend so he is prepared to translate for us?"

Paul signs to the eagerly waiting alien, who is much relieved.

A speaker in the alien's tent comes to life and relays the alien's reply. The group eagerly await the translation. As the message is quite long they have a while to wait. The alien scribbles away as he notes the message's content. When silence again befalls the speaker, the alien looks up at Paul, who eagerly asks if it is good news. The alien signs back, that they are prepared to collect him, but have specified conditions. There is much backwards and forwards discussion between Paul the alien and Daphne; as between them they try and make sense of the conditions. At the conclusion of the discussions, Paul relays their interpretation of the conditions to the Professor and Paul's father, who has also been eagerly watching and waiting, wanting to know what is going on.

The Professor leaves the room and marches off to his "people". He returns some minutes later and announces, "we have a deal, but with some conditions on our side."

The group discusses how best to communicate the new conditions. The alien makes a fresh broadcast and once again they wait for a response. Thankfully they do not have long to wait, the aliens agree to the conditions.

At the duly appointed time the alien is transferred to a specially adapted vehicle with a tent in it similar to the one he has been in. The group, keen to see this thing through, also travel in the same vehicle, to the arranged meeting place.

The journey does not take long, they end up at the top of a hill, well away from any houses and similar buildings.

Apart from the alien, who is still protected by his tent, they all pile out of the vehicle and are quite surprised that it is raining, raining hard. The vehicle had been inside a building when they entered it, so no-one had any idea that it was raining. As the vehicle's door is left open wide, the alien can see the rain lashing down, the dark cloud ridden sky and the group of previously confident and reasonably happy people, cowering under some sort of covering that some military personnel are holding up to protect them. The alien wonders what it is about this stuff coming out of the skies that has caused the changes in the people. He wonders if this stuff is harmful, as they are clearly trying to avoid it. He signs to Paul, desperate to get some answers to his question, but Paul is not paying attention, instead he appears to be listening to the rather impressive individual standing upright before the group.

The man that Paul is listening to, is in fact the commander, in charge of the ground operations of this exercise. Paul can tell that he is not happy about the rain. When he talks to the Professor, he confirms that the rain is 'hampering things'; he adds that it is advantageous from the viewpoint that it will obscure the view of 'the locals', but it also means that the military will not have clear view of the craft's approach, they will be reliant on radar and sightings from their aircraft. The commander goes on to apologise to the assembled group for the wait, he says that there had been no point in specifying a particular time as the aliens have no time reference to judge the time by, so it had been decided that the meeting would be vaguely specified as sometime during early dark time on this sector of the planet.

The small group huddled under the canvas is just hoping that the aliens interpret 'sometime' as shortly after the onset of darkness, otherwise this waiting around is going to get really miserable.

Paul glances round to see if his alien friend is OK and he spots that he is signing. Paul can't make out what the alien is saying, due to the distance and persistent rain. Paul decides to go back to the vehicle, he is watched with concern by his Dad.

The alien waits until Paul is in the dry environment of the vehicle again, before asking his questions. Paul explains that the rain is safe, but humans just don't like getting wet when they have their clothes on. Now clothes, was another concept that the aliens find difficult to understand, but then coming from a planet almost continuously bathed in sunlight and being between warm and hot in terms of temperature, they do not need clothes. As the environment in the alien's tent is kept warm, he cannot feel the slight chill of the night air. Paul wishes that the alien could feel the rain and also appreciate the drop in temperature. He will when it gets to the time for the transfer. Whilst the alien does not understand the concepts that Paul has tried to explain, he is satisfied that essentially this rain is harmless, so turns his attention to glancing skywards, whilst the sky is mostly covered in cloud, far out to the right, there is a patch of clear sky and the stars can be seen.

Paul sees that the alien's interest has been diverted and he also turns his attention to looking at the stars peeping through the general cloud cover. Soon Paul engages the alien in conversation about the two groups of stars in view, luckily he remembers the names that humans have given them. Paul sketches the star patterns out on a pad and points out the actual stars, then signs the names to the alien, who is most enthralled by this new knowledge. Both are glad to have the diversion to take their minds off of the impending meeting.

As Paul looks back up towards one star, he suddenly notices movement. He checks again, just to make sure that what he thinks he is seeing, is actually so. When the alien gets excited, it confirms that they are both seeing the same thing. Paul dashes over to the Professor and tells him what he has seen. The commander, jumps into action, glad that at last something was about to happen and that the waiting was all over; he issues orders to his troops, then gets on his radio to other surrounding units. Paul rejoins the alien and his Dad, who has now moved over to the vehicle. They all look skyward and sure enough the approaching craft is much larger now, then disappears behind the cloud cover.

~~ Later ~~

Chapter 22 – Friends Stick Together

The feeling of anticipation amongst the group on top of this hill, is almost electric. Which makes it even more of a shock when the hill is suddenly bathed in light, strong lights pointing straight up into the sky. It is just as much of a shock when the lights go out again. The group collectively wondering why the lights have gone out, thinking that something must have gone wrong. There is a long pause before they come on again. This time they all look skywards and see that there is an inflatable craft high above them and the lights' sole purpose is to light up that craft, so this was the light that the aliens were supposed to look out for. The message did not seem that helpful regards this bit. Paul and the others just hope that in all the cloudy gloom out there, that the aliens actually see this beacon. Thus far there is no sign that the craft is heading this way, since it disappeared behind the cloud cover, there has been no sign of it.

Strain as he might, Paul cannot hear the noise of the craft's engines. The alien signs his feelings of concern at the disappearance of the rescue craft, he asks if they will be able to see through the cloud. Paul explains as best he can, that clouds can be variable in thickness and that they may be able to see some of the light through the cloud. But both boy and alien actually fear the worst, that the alien craft has missed the sign altogether and is heading in the wrong direction and is by by now far away.

Paul hears the rumble sound of a jet. He smiles and looks back at the alien, who has also heard the noise, furthermore he is pointing in the direction that he thinks the noise is coming from. As Paul turns his head, in the direction that the alien is pointing, he too detects that the volume is increasing. Paul tries to explain as best he can what the noise is likely to be. At the same time, he is hoping that the aliens are not misinterpreting the jet's intention, to direct them onto the correct path. The noise of the jet increases and there's suddenly a brief flash of light as the jet flies over the area of the balloon and its fuselage and wings reflect back the light.

There is further excitement over the commander's radio. The commander announces that the craft has now been directed successfully towards them and is on its way. Paul relays the message to his alien friend who is quite excitedly scanning the skies now to see if he can see the incoming craft.

The noise of a further aircraft can be heard heading this way. This time the aircraft sounds a lot different. Paul's Dad says that it is a propeller craft, capable of going at a much more steady and slower rate.

There is a brief but distant flash of light from the clouds in front of the hill, followed by two flashing lights off to the right. The latter remain in view. Paul's Dad pronounces that what they can see there is the aircraft that is accompanying the alien craft. Paul thinks to himself, that the alien craft must think this kind of transport as very slow, considering what their craft is capable of doing.

The aircraft drones on getting ever louder as it approaches the hill, then there's a flash of light again to the left of those steady flashing lights.

The aircraft eventually flies overhead, turning as it passes over the balloon. It heads back the way it had come. Shortly afterwards, the familiar noise of the alien craft can be heard and a few moments later, the craft itself can be seen emerging from the clouds. It approaches the hill and slows up as it gets closer. The lights above start to dim and a new light shines from the balloon down to a spot on the ground. The alien craft immediately takes its cue and heads down towards the spot on the ground.

The commander can be heard speaking to a couple of his men, he is concerned as to whether the ground is even enough, the commander adds that he did not know that the craft was going to be this big. He need not have worried though, the craft settles quite happily onto the selected site, light shinning out of its windows and lighting up small shafts of ground around the circular craft. The engines die and there is suddenly complete silence, broken every so often by short bursts of speech over the commander's radio.

The jet screeches across the sky, presumably checking that the alien craft is OK.

The door on the side of the craft opens, showing the light within the craft. The silhouette of an alien can be seen in the doorway. As the ground is some way below the floor level of the craft, some sort of slope emerges from the underside of the craft

Paul looks around at the ground between his little group and the alien craft. He can see several earth soldiers, knelt, lying or crouching behind bushes, all with guns aimed at the alien standing in the doorway. Paul just hopes that none of these soldiers get either nervous or trigger happy and this whole thing end in disaster. The commander has seen Paul's face and reassures him, by telling Paul not to worry as his men are highly trained professionals, they will not fire unless they are under threat or they see anything underhand going on. He adds that as the alien is unarmed there is no threat. As the commander finishes his speech, the alien can be seen to advance slowly and cautiously down the slope. It is wearing one of the space suits like the ones that Paul had seen hanging up in the craft that he had explored.

The Professor tells Paul that it is time for their own alien friend to suit up and that a space suit had been recovered from his craft. Paul is somewhat relieved as he was wondering how they were going to affect a comfortable transfer from their vehicle to the awaiting craft. He has been trying to imagine every way in which the tent could be transported across the gap between the two vehicles.

Paul's alien friend is at the same time quite excited that he will be heading home and also nervous. Paul tries his best to convey the fact that he will need to suit up. This is helped as the Professor and one of the soldiers produce the space suit that he is to wear. The alien signs that he understands. The suit is passed to him by an airlock and soon he is suiting up. It doesn't take long. He checks the seals and indicates that he is ready to come out. The alien steps through the first door way and is about to close it, the Professor indicates that is not necessary. Soon the alien is standing between Paul and the Professor.

The fact that Paul's alien friend is about to leave him and that he may never see the aliens again dawns upon Paul, he feels quite sad about this. Paul asks the Professor if he can walk across with his friend to the craft, to say goodbye properly. The Professor in turn discusses this with the commander. The commander is against this and says it is too dangerous and an unacceptable risk to the mission. To Paul's surprise, the Professor comes to Paul's defence saying pointing out that Paul had travelled all the way to their planet and they had not harmed him then. The commander counters the argument, saying that the aliens had nothing to gain then, however now they may take Paul as hostage, to gain advantage. To Paul's surprise the Professor and even his Dad come to Paul's defence and both say that Paul's alien friend would not allow any harm to come to him.

The alien beside Paul, is concerned about the argument that is taking place. Paul breaks off listening to the discussion and explains as best he can, what the discussion is all about. The alien seems to understand what the problem is. At first he indicates that Paul stay here with the others. Then Paul argues that he has to make this stand otherwise there will never be trust between the two species. Paul says that he has to demonstrate that he trusts the aliens fully. He adds that in so doing he risks losing everything that is important to him, like his father, but it is important that the aliens understand that true friendship is based on standing together and trusting in each other and working together. The alien seems to be truly impressed at Paul's faith in him and his kind and also in Paul's courage to make such a stand and sacrifice. The alien signs that he will support Paul in his wishes, further that if things get tricky, he will defend Paul.

Daphne has caught and followed the conversation of Paul and the alien. She interrupts the debate between the commander, the Professor and Paul's Dad and she relays what Paul has said to the alien and then the agreement that the alien in turn has given to Paul.

The Professor says to the commander, "I think that is the final argument in this debate, this boy has far more courage than any of us and I think we should respect this."

The commander looks at Paul's dad and he can see see the tears of pride rolling down his face. For him, this is the final argument to accept the situation and support Paul in his task. The commander raises his radio and instructs his troops accordingly.

The alien at the craft, has stopped, it has heard the commander's broadcast and is wondering what is going on, fearing the worst, thinking that it is about to be shot at. After all the trust it has placed in these earthlings, things are about to end like this, surely not. It is relieved to see that its fellow alien is heading out towards the craft, it's path lit by a strong beam of light, coming from that thing up there above them all. The light is moving at the same pace as the advancing comrade, but what is that beside his comrade, somewhat shorter and wearing a dark suit, is this some sort of trick, is this being supposed to be unseen? Yet whatever it is, its face is uncovered and can be clearly seen. The alien tenses up expecting the worst. He is probably too far away from his craft to be able to safely run back up to the entrance, all he can do is wait, wait and see what the outcome will be. He just hopes that his comrade hiding up at the craft's entrance will be able to pick off enough of these beings to make his own death worthwhile. Maybe they can teach these beings that it does not pay to mess with his kind.

Both alien and boy walk at a painfully slow rate, in the direction of the craft. The incessant rain making it difficult to clearly see the ground and avoid the dips, making their progress somewhat jerky as they both repeatedly almost fall flat on their faces.

Both sides waiting for something, anything to happen.

The alien at the craft watches closely as it sees its comrade approach every closer, willing him on and wishing that the pace would pick up. At the same time he is wondering why anyone would want to live on a planet like this. This stuff, that is making one heck of a noise on his helmet and suit, also making it difficult to see any distance. How could anyone appreciate such a hostile environment. It makes him wonder why the earthling boy even contemplated leaving their planet to return to this awful place. He had noted that there were plants, but there seemed to be none as advanced as his species.

The boy and alien are now just over half way towards the craft. You could cut the tension on both sides with a knife. Paul and the alien are tempted to speed things up, just to end this torment as soon as possible, but they have been given strict instructions that they must keep a steady slow pace. The last thing they want to do, is trip and fall, that in itself could create a battle, as each side would believe that the other has shot them.

The radios blare to life, as someone reports that they have spotted something. The tension builds even more as both sides expect a shot to be fired. The commanders voice can be heard over the radios assuring everyone that they are not to fire, unless there is definite attempt by the alien's to fire upon them.

Paul's radio draws his attention, as the commander gives him some instructions. Paul and the alien stop a moment as Paul listens then responds to the message. The commander has updated Paul, that someone has spotted an alien sniper in the entrance to the ship, it is on the left hand side. He tells Paul to keep an eye on both the alien and sniper. Paul thinks, 'I'm nervous enough, without having this to deal with.' He acknowledges the message. They start walking again towards the craft. Paul can see the fear in the alien's face. Paul wonders what he can do to reassure the alien that no harm will come to him. Apart from smiling and he recalls what happened last time he did that; he can think of nothing, that he can do. Paul turns his attention to his friend. Paul nudges him and signs that they should be close enough now that the alien should be able to hear him. He suggests that he try and reassure the alien that he is OK and that everything will be fine as long as no-one does anything silly.

The aliens converse as the distance closes between them. The alien signs at Paul and explains to him that his fellow alien is greatly relieved to hear that Paul and his kind, mean them no harm and that like themselves, all these weapons are purely here to make sure everything goes well.

Paul is relieved to see the fear disappear from the other alien's eyes, his body stance seems somewhat more relaxed also. They can hear that the alien is relaying the message to his friend up in the entrance. There is no reply.

The distance between Paul, his friend and the other alien is now about 2 metres and closing. Paul signs to his friend that he is planning to shake hands with the alien, as a sign of peace. This will be seen by both sides and he hopes it will indicate to both sides that this should be the start of a lasting friendship. Paul's friend relays the message to his comrade and even demonstrates with Paul what will happen. His comrade confirms that he understands and further indicates that he agrees with this gesture of friendship.

As they approach even closer, Paul moves to one side, so that the handshake can be clearly seen by both sides. The radio blares into life as someone asks 'what on earth is that boy doing.' There is no reply. Paul and the alien hold out hands. The alien holds out the wrong hand, but Paul copes with this, whilst the handshake is a bit awkward it is clearly a handshake and as the area that the three are standing in is floodlight, the gesture can be clearly seen by all. Paul reaches into a pocket and draws out one of the gifts that had been presented to him when he was leaving the alien planet. Paul hands it to the alien and he takes the item, turns it over in his hands and there is a sparkle in his eyes as he recognises the item. Paul says, "Let the safe return of each others citizens be a sign of friendship and the exchange of gifts be the sign of continued good relations." Paul signs the content of his speech as best he can and his friend, after a few questions, translates the speech for his comrade.

Paul turns and shakes the hand of his friend and signs that this means goodbye, he also says that he will for a long time consider him to be his friend. Paul's friend signs back that he will some day find a way to return and visit Paul.

Paul's alien friend reaches up to his helmet and Paul hurried signs, asking the question, 'What are you doing?'

The alien signs, back that before he leaves he must find out what this stuff coming down at them, this rain, is really like.

Paul signs that it could be harmful to the alien as the rain will contain all sorts of organisms that could kill him. The alien replies, that it just has to feel this rain, in order to understand it. Whilst Paul understands the sentiment and would probably feel the same if he had encountered something similar on the alien's planet, he still has great concern for his friend's safety.

The other alien is also showing concern and it sounds like it too is trying to convince his comrade that it would not be wise to remove his helmet.

Being of strong will and having high level of curiosity, Paul's friend removes his helmet and at first the shock of feeling the unremitting rain fall upon his skin, makes him feel like putting the helmet straight back on, he persists and finds the experience quite exhilarating. He knows that if he had not done this the questions would have remained with him for the rest of his life. Meanwhile Paul and the other alien look on in shock, not believing that he had actually taken the helmet off.

Paul's friend replaces his helmet, turns to face Paul again, holds out his hand and they shake hands. The two aliens turn and walk towards the craft. Paul remains standing there watching. Then his friend seeing that he has not moved, signs that for his safety, he should move further away. Paul obeys and the two aliens walk up the slope, disappearing into the craft. Paul, having reached, what he considers a safe distance, turns and watches as the door slides shut. There is silence for a while, then the craft's engines start up and soon the craft lifts off into the air. Paul's radio buzzes with activity as the commander informs those further afield that the mission has been successful.

Paul hears a massive cheer from the soldiers and others upon the hill. Whilst he is glad that everything has gone according to plan, there is a tinge of sadness at the loss of his alien friends. He reflects on the fact that things have changed, from single friend to friends. He marvels at how quickly things can change, that now the peoples of the earth have friends out there in the blackness of space. Furthermore, Paul can take great pride, in the fact that this is mostly down to an eleven year old, down to himself.

Paul thinks, 'What can a mere boy do? A lot if he puts his mind to it.'

~~ The End ~~

If you enjoyed this book, could we suggest that you check out this author's other books, for example "The Sphere of ...." (TSOT) series, "The Gateway", or "Regenis 4 Chronicles". check out Smashwords.com to see if they are available there or check out the author's own website to see what the latest books are: www.SciFiStories.co.uk

Steve's word processor is nearly always busy working on something new, check out his website to find out what he is currently working on. There is even a podcast giving updates. You can also track what Steve is up to via twitter.com/SteveSimons.
