Trial by Ordeal

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  Ray Connors saw Tyler enter the ship through the air lock and greeted him. Ray was almost sixty years of age now and thinking about retiring from the space game, although whether he really would was unlikely. He had a rugged face that could never have been called handsome, but he still possessed his lean build, and although hardly muscular he was still quite fit for his years, he was almost six foot tall, had grey eyes and his hair now was taking on the same colour.

  “Tyler how are you, did I see the family with you earlier on?” Tyler ignored the greeting and instead got right to the point.

  “Ray, do we have enough of a crew aboard to be able to go on a long flight right this minute.”

  “Yes Tyler, Jean is in the galley with the two engineers from Earth, and we have Craig Fowler up on the bridge, and if you are coming too, well you can handle anything on the bridge if need be so yes, we are ready for anything, why?” Ray asked a little bemused at the way Tyler had not returned his pleasantries.

  “I will explain as we go Ray, first take the Defender over to my village, we are going to pick up Appolon and Tryon there and hopefully Cimon and Argo, and as I said, I will fill you in on the way.”

  Ray and Tyler rushed up the stairs towards the bridge, and at the top of the stairs they met Jean.

  “Jean we are taking off now, Tyler has an emergency happening right this minute so we will take off as soon as engineering is ready.”

  “Ok Ray, nothing too serious is it Tyler.” Jean asked.

  “Yes it is bloody serious Jean, please help me out and prepare to get us out of here this instant, and when we are moving come up to the bridge and I will fill you both in with the details.”

  Jean left Tyler and Ray thinking that it was the first time she had ever heard Tyler swear, or seen him look so desperate; it really must be serious and personal too.

  The Defender was soon flying through the long valley that separated New Eden from the southern half of the continent, and Jean felt able to leave the new crewmembers alone in engineering to come up onto the bridge. The crewmembers were on loan from the space fleet of Earth, as Orion was always chronically short of local men who were willing to travel away from their families on space missions, let alone ones of an extended duration.

  Jean Connors was almost fifty years old with auburn hair and hazel eyes; she had managed to hold onto her slim figure and still looked quite young and very beautiful. She stood five feet five inches in her bare feet. Jean had spent most of her adult life in space getting in and out of trouble, now she couldn`t think of living any other way, or without the man she was still in love with, Ray Connors.

  “Well Tyler what on earth is the problem this time?” A worried Jean Connors asked.

  “An alien starship has kidnapped Caroline and my three children, they said that I must travel to their planet, go through some sort of portal and rescue some would be President, only then will I get them back.” Tyler explained grimly.

  “Tyler, why can`t they rescue this politician themselves?” Jean asked amazed at Tyler`s words.

  “They have tried and failed, a mystic told them that only I can possibly save him, oh and no one who has ever entered into the portal has ever exited it, and that includes some robotic machines, it is why I refused to go on the mission originally, it seems they won`t take no for an answer.” Tyler replied.

  “Do you want to try and find Paul Divine to come along as crew Tyler?” Ray asked.

  “Better not, I only have to go near to his house to give Alice Divine a near heart attack, she is so sure that I will take him to his death one day, the trouble is that on this trip she could well be right, maybe you two had better think twice about coming along.” Tyler said grimly. Ray immediately answered his friend`s suggestion.

  “Where is this planet? As soon as we have Caroline and the kids back we can return in the Freedom and teach them a few manners.” Ray asked.

  “On the other side of the galaxy Ray, we have to journey through some vortex in space to get there; it will supposedly only take one day to complete the whole journey. Tyler was slowly getting control of himself, but his deep fear for the safety of his family remained, firmly embedded deep within him, and slowly eating away at him.

  “I will send a message to David Reynolds on the Freedom, Ray, and tell him that we will be missing for a while from this part of the galaxy. I will ask him to send a light space cruiser to the spiral arm of Perseus until either he returns to this sector of space or we do.” Tyler said.

  “Aye, otherwise Orion and the other planets along the spiral arm might go without protection for quite a while.”