IMAGINATION'S PLACE
FICTION
JOURNEY TO THE LIGHT
By; Speaker Gerald Polley
All rights reserved.
Chapter 31
Several hours later she found herself standing
nervously outside a storage area, her husband beside her in full
uniform. "I really think," he commented, "you ought to put on
something more military, at least a uniform. You don't have to wear an
insignia or anything, but just show your authority."
"I'm not military!" Carol answered, "I don't know
anything about military! You're the military. Whatever you
suggest I will follow. Now come on! These poor people probably
think they're gonna be shot or something. Let's go talk to them."
The guards opened the door and they walked in.
The people inside jumped up and formed ranks. "Attention!"
someone cried, "Officer on the deck!"
"Stand at ease!" Carol's husband cried. "If you're
suffering from suspension sickness in the name of The Lords, sit
down! Commanding officer, please!"
A young man walked over briskly, came to
attention and saluted in the Spiritist way. Carol's husband
answered but the young man remained at attention and continued to
salute. "Answer the salute!" Carol's husband snapped.
Clumsily Carol answered. "At your service, ma'am!"
the young man snapped. I understand your concern. But I
assure you, we have no intention of carrying out the orders we have
been given. As a matter of fact, after due discussion our
intent is to offer the commander of the asteroid ship our services as
security. If he would accept us, ma'am. We could not, under
any circumstances, follow the orders that we have been given! I
am sure those who gave those orders are now in deep shit up to their
nose and more is about to be dumped on them."
"I'd say so," Carol agreed. "We have a means of
instantly communicating with Earth. We understand there is a
small battle occurring at military headquarters. The current
commander is being replaced, and he doesn't want to be replaced.
The new commander is having to forcefully evict him!"
"That would be," the young man snapped, "Warlock
James. I would imagine our old commander wishes he was someplace else
right now. Ma'am, if there's any way we could talk to the commander of
the asteroid ship I'm sure we could convince him of our good intent and
our loyalty."
"I need some sleep!" Carol answered. "We'll
take you over in the morning. In the meantime the door will be
unlocked, the recreation center is down and to your right. I ask that
you go no place else, unless it's to the medical center which is to
your left. By the way, what's your name, son?"
"Boone, ma'am!" the young man answered, David Boone."
Carol grinned. "I'm glad you didn't say Daniel," she remarked.
The young man returned her grin. "That's my
brother, ma'am!" he answered. "Always has to be a Daniel every
generation in the Boone family. Tradition, ma'am! If you have a
moment, ma'am, Warlock Crocker would like to pay her regards. You
did one of her family a service."
"Most certainly!" Carol agreed.
The young woman came forward, saluted, and then
extended her hand. Carol took it, studying her name tag. "Please
ma'am, don't ask!" the young woman managed. "Yes, my name is
Betty but I'm the world's worst cook!"
Everyone around laughed. "An absolute untruth!"
Warlock Boone put in. "You want to try her apple dumplings, ma'am, and
her Mulligan stew. Camp cook has tried and tried to copy it and can't
get it."
Carol sensed something. She was beginning to
smell something. Suddenly the doors opened and the winged being from
the ship strolled in and slowly looked around the room. "Ah!
Yes!" he snapped. The young fighting people quickly came to their
feet as he approached. One of the young women seemed to try to
back away. "Stay!" the winged being snapped. "Yes! Yes,
indeed! Come with me, young lady!" He turned and looked at the
Warlock. "With your permission, sir!"
"What's going on?" the Warlock asked.
"She's not the original occupant of this body," the
being answered. "She needs to be removed and the original occupant
would like to have it back! But I assure you, we have no
intention of harming her."
"Whoa!" the Warlock managed. "Fighting person!"
"You have all been very kind to me," the woman
answered, "If I choose to fight I would prefer to do so where I would
do you no harm."
The winged being grinned. "I guarantee you,"
he snapped, "you will do no one any harm. Now, come along!"
The woman sighed. "You're just like him, you know, just as obnoxious, just as arrogant!"
The winged being grinned again. "He was incapable of
arrogance," it answered, "just as I am." He pointed to the door.
The woman shrugged and headed out.
"Do you need any assistance?" Carol asked.
"No," the winged being answered, "I'm quite capable."
When the doors closed again the Warlock went "Woo!"
"Yeah!" his assistant answered. "I was going
to mention that to you. People were beginning to notice the smell."
Carol shook her head, bid everyone good evening and
went and got some sleep. The next day she loaded the officers
into a shuttle and took them over to the asteroid. As soon as
they were leaving the shuttle Warlock Boone went over to one of the
modules. "You have got to tell me," he insisted, "how that
hatch works! No mechanism, no visible opening! How in the
hell does it work?"
The module looked at him for a moment and then
bobbed up and down. "I understand what you request," it finally
managed. "All material has a lot of space in it. The atoms are
spread far apart. Where the entrance ways are, the matter can be
told to pull itself together, creating an opening, becoming
denser. When a vehicle has left or entered it returns to its
original state, closing the passage."
"Whoa!" the Warlock gasped. "Really
interesting! A very useful technology! Wouldn't want to get
stuck in here with no way of opening that thing!"
"You would not be uncomfortable!" the module assured, "but egress would be impossible."
Boone nodded. They went up the platform and the commander greeted them warmly.
"I have been talking," he announced, "to your
superiors. They tell me you are able and loyal, and if I wish, at my
service, that you will, if there should be hostilities between us,
return to your own people, before committing any aggression against
me. I find this most acceptable. I could use some help
around here. Now, I believe this is yours."
The young woman from the night before
approached. Her uniform looked freshly cleaned and pressed.
There was another woman with her, a golden woman. She, too, was
in the uniform, but not a golden one. It was made of similar
material as the other woman's.
"I ask you," the asteroid's commander continued, "to
look after the other one, to treat her the same as one of your
personnel, give her exactly the same duties, and expect exactly the
same behavior. If you do not get it, I assure you, I will deal
with it, but I assure you you will have no problems."
Warlock Crocker spoke up. "We'll have plenty
if she continues to look at Boone like that!" she snapped. "Don't
even think of it, lady! He's already spoken for!"
Everyone laughed. The winged being came
up. "Perhaps I could provide companionship," he suggested.
The golden woman looked like she'd sink into the floor but finally managed, "If it would be appropriate."
"Good!" the commander answered. "Now, if
you'll excuse me, we have some problems. We've got to get some
areas ready to put our charges back down on the surface. Finding
uninhabited water areas is difficult, but some of the colonies did not
survive, and we should soon have them all relocated. By the way,
if you had tried to attack them you would've got some nasty
surprises. Even your ships making high attacks would have been
in danger They are capable of defending themselves
rather nastily."
He stopped speaking for a few minutes. "Incoming message!" he snapped. "For you, madam!"
"Oh!" Carol sighed. "What now?"