CHAPTER 33
THE DREAMERS FROM AFAR
Up, sluggard, waste not life; in the grave will be sleeping enough.
- Benjamin Franklin
The Base was not far from the Thermans' ranch, according to the Thermans, but of course the General and Kate were accustomed to traveling hours to get anyplace at all. For urban Easterners like Bates, a couple hours’ drive was a significant trip.
Travel time to the secret base was lengthened because without an aircraft to provide cover, the Bus did very little noticeable flying. Although they did take a few off-road short cuts that involved floating over streams and driving off cliff tops, they generally flew within inches of a road surface in order to stay inconspicuous to the Ra. After all, if the enemy aliens were indeed hiding something at the Base, they could be routinely monitoring the entire area. Sandra actually drove much of the way, and as long as the Bus stayed essentially Earth-bound, she did fine.
Still worn out from the events of the last couple of days, Bates resolved that he would rest up a bit while he digested lunch, but he found napping to be a difficult proposition. First the Thermans, astounded by the Bus, felt obligated to convey that fact several times to Bates. He couldn't blame them. It's one thing to see a flying bus, and quite another to be flying in one yourself.
Next Winnebago, who still wasn't very impressed by the Bus, came up front to wake Bates again with his complaints. "What did you guys pay for this Bus thing? Millions, am I right? You Government geeks got took! Look, I have a buddy in Flagstaff who customizes vans and RVs. For twenty or thirty kilo-bucks he could make this thing livable. Carpeting all around, sofas, holographic VISICOM with surround-sound and state of the art virtual reality, vibrating fold-a-beds, built-in bars, Jacuzzi, the works. Just tell Big Luke that I sent you and he'll cut you a special deal.”
In response, Bates told Winnebago that Barns was shopping for whole-life insurance. Winnebago went looking for Barns immediately. It was a mean trick to pull on Barns, but it got Winnebago to return to the back of the Bus.
Bates dozed off again, but awoke minutes later to the sound of a discussion being held behind him in some sort of Indian language. Turning to look at the row of seats behind him, he was startled to find Kay sitting with Steve on one side and Goyahkla on the other, carrying on a three-way conversation, presumably in Ute.
Steve looked up at Bates and the two exchanged shrugs, signifying acceptance of the situation. Apparently the Team would just have to get used to Goyahkla popping in and out on them whenever he felt like it. The ghost seemed to feel like doing that much more often since Kay had arrived. The spirit's visits focused less and less on Winnebago, and more and more on the women on board, and to a lesser degree on Latanna.
As long as he wasn't massacring anyone or levitating them above burning dried antelope chips or something like that, Bates reasoned that his ghostly visitations were all right, he just wished that right now they were quieter. He went back to the more important business of nodding off, but all too soon it was mid-afternoon and the Bus had reached the Base boundary. After the Bus 'hopped' the wire security fence, Flood parked it in a stand of scraggly looking pine trees. A still tired Bates gathered the Team to plan their efforts.
"General," said Bates, "could you tell us more detail about the visit by the two aliens, and why, besides the unicorn's message, you feel that they may still be on the Base?"
"Absolutely," replied the General. Indeed the General seemed happy to at last tell the story to someone besides his daughter. "It was early one summer morning about ten years ago that it happened. It was the last days of the Air Force. I had about ten people left to help me shut down the Base. I was cleaning out my desk, when the aliens simply knocked on my door, opened it, and peeked in."
"That must have been quite a shock," commented Bates.
"I damn near soiled my shorts, son. I had heard of UFO sightings before, of course. I even met a Colonel in an O-Club once that swore that a UFO tailed his jet fighter through all the maneuvers he could muster. I told him he was full of shit. Generals used to dress down Colonels all the time, they expected it. But I was wrong. The damn things are for real."
"Anyway, the two of them just came shuffling into my office babbling ‘can't we all just get along,’ or some such, and asking if we had seen other aliens. It was a giant scaly green one and a little gray-skinned one, from the get-go obviously authentic off-planet folks."
Mel produced the photo of himself, the General, and the aliens on VISICOM.
"Right! There they are, that's them all right, Krog and Wink, the odd couple. Friendly enough folk though, I liked them.” The General smiled. "By that afternoon I had Mel Guthry with me, and things were going fine, but then a few hours later Melberg took charge. I didn't like it, and I didn't like Melberg, but he had the credentials and I had my retirement papers.
“Melberg had a tall thin, quiet, sullen, zombie sort of guy with him; his Ra friend Renson probably, based on what you told me today. The four of them simply walked off towards another part of the Base. I saw Dr. Guthery off myself, and when I returned a half-hour later, Melberg was back in my office. He told me that the visitors had gone home, but they had left a message that he, Melberg, would relay to the President personally.
“My men and I were to keep the incident Top Secret. My own helicopter flew Melberg to Salt Lake City Airport. One of my men told me later that he saw a UFO take off while I was talking to Melberg. Other than that, my men and I didn't see any of the others leave. But there were only a hand-full of us remaining and this Base is a big place, so about the only thing we knew for sure was that both Melberg and a UFO left. We search the Base top to bottom and found nothing of Krog or Wink. No trace of Melberg's tall thin companion either.”
The General pulled out a detailed map of the Base and they started to discuss the previous searches. He expressed great concern over the enormity of the job that faced the Team, as the Base consisted of hundreds of buildings spread over hundreds of acres. Bates wanted the search to be completed in less than twenty-four hours, using a search Team a fraction of the size of the ones the General had previously used to accomplish four searches that each required two entire weeks!
The General's previous investigations had been conducted by assigning each member of his search party to individual areas and structures of the Base. Base maps and building floor plans were used as the basis for assuring that every location was searched. They first focused on the buildings in the general area where Melberg and the aliens were last seen, and after that failed, the effort was expanded to include the rest of the Base.
The Base was so huge that it would take the B-Team a month to simply duplicate one of the previous searches, but Bates was undaunted. He'd seen and heard enough these last few days to believe that anything was possible. "We'll simply have to use our heads, as well as our eyeballs," he told the Team. "The General believes that he and his men have already looked everywhere. Then we'll have to try something different. Any thoughts?"
"Assuming they haven't been moved," reasoned the Governor, "we shouldn't have to search where the General’s men searched before.”
"Excellent point," agreed Bates. "If we begin with the premise that we don't have to repeat what has already been done, we're already at least a month ahead in our search, instead of months behind! That's definitely the spirit, but we have to get more specific. We have to reason this out in detail.”
"I think we should assume that we are looking for the aliens themselves, and not just clues, and we need to assume that they are alive," said Mel.
"OK," responded Bates. "That's consistent with our whole philosophy of assuming a winning strategy. Besides, dead, they could be unrecognizable atoms and impossible to find or identify, and of no use to us, except to end a useless search. But if we assume they are alive, then that connotes certain characteristics that could help our search. For instance, we know we're looking for something larger than a bread box and probably smaller than a T
oyota."
"That big guy Krog seemed as big as a small Toyota, close up!” remarked Mel. "Even Renson would have had trouble sneaking off Base with him under one arm.”
"That's what we're counting on," said Bates. “We assume they are still here.”
"A living thing has needs, like food and warmth," added Don.
"Good point, Son," responded Bates.
"But that would suggest power use," added Carbuncle. "Even if they are drugged or frozen, there would probably have to be machinery to preserve them through the seasons.”
"But why bother to hold them or save them for later?" asked Winnebago. "Why wouldn't the Ra have just wasted these guys right away?"
"I have a theory on that," interjected Barns. "I can't claim to fully understand them, but I suspect that for them to kill members of the Galactic League would be a very serious step. Just to do away with me seemed to require some sort of ceremony, and humans aren't even League members. So maybe to begin with, they would have tended to keep them alive, at least until they figured out what to do with them. And remember, the Ra do missions that last for centuries, so stashing guys for ten years might be no big deal for them.
“If so, they still could have been murdered years later, with Dannos to finally complete the cover-up of the crime next week. Maybe the unicorn's message no longer holds and this rescue is too late. Or, maybe they are still here alive, and are supposed to parish with Dannos when the rest of us do. It's just impossible to know."
"Exactly," said Bates. "We can't know, but we will proceed as though they are alive and here. But they aren't out in the open or they would have been found ten years ago. They have to be well hidden within something; maybe in something that uses power. General, how is this Base powered?”
"It isn't," replied the General. "All power was shut off when we closed down.”
"What about solar power, or other on-Base power sources?" asked Carbuncle.
"Most were removed. What little remained checked out as turned off in our previous searches."
"Yet there has to be power utilization, if they are alive!” said Bates. "If they're alive and not frozen, they must need to be kept warm. If they are being kept frozen so that they don’t decompose, their temperatures would still need to be regulated, and that would also require power. Power consumption and heat production, that's our best bet. Can we look for it somehow with the Bus?”
“We can do an infrared scan with the Bus," said Flood. "It's nice and cloudy today, so the Sun isn't heating everything up. Humidity is low enough, so air UV absorption should be low. Over-all sensor sensitivity should be pretty damn good. But it would require that we fly over the Base for quite a few minutes, and that could make us visible to our friends in space."
"Couldn't you just drive around ground-bound?" asked Bates.
"Not as effective," said Carbuncle. "It would probably take days, and the heat from the Bus, even at low power, could obscure the heat source that we're looking for."
"I've got it!” said Sandy. She held out her copilot helmet.
"Of course!” said Flood. ”Pilot and copilot helmets have self-contained infrared scopes! Not as sensitive as the main Bus sensors, but pretty good!”
"Especially when tied in with the digital image enhancement capabilities available in virtual mode!” said Carbuncle. "The helmets have built in massively-parallel image processing.”
"Yuck," said Flood. "I've been trained to pilot that way, but I never liked moving around and climbing things in virtual mode. I guess we could do the climbing part with our visors up though," said Flood.
"Climbing?" asked Bates.
"Of course!” said the General. "The water tower. That should allow coverage of most of the Base.”
Twenty minutes later, Flood and Latanna were climbing the 60 meter tall water tower. When they reached the top they put down their visors and switched their helmets to full virtual mode. Electrical currents passing through molecule-thin conductive layers in their visors re-aligned polarity of the material, causing the visors to become light-opaque screens onto which computer enhanced imagery could be projected, using input from helmet-top infrared and visual cameras.
Two hours later, they were climbing back down again, shaking their heads. They had spotted several heat sources, but none that seemed very promising. For the rest of the afternoon, the 'hot spots’ were checked out, without success in terms of locating space aliens. All of them turned out to be animal 'nesting spots'; birds, rodents, rabbits, and a pair of upset coyotes were found.
It was starting to get dark. After an encouraging morning, it had turned out to be a very disappointing day. It had been interesting work however, for those members of the party interested in wildlife.
"I was kind of disappointed that we didn't find any snakes though," remarked Elizabeth, as they walked dejectedly back towards the Bus to regroup.
"Not me," said Bates. "That rattlesnake in Arizona was plenty for me."
"Aren't there any snakes on the Base?” Elizabeth asked General Therman.
"Ha!” responded the General. "Wait till summer young lady, if there is one next year, and I'll show you some snakes! Rattlesnakes as fat as a man's arm all over this damn place! Found one under my desk once. Damn near got me. Lizards too, a half meter long. The Utes and other Shoshone especially like those roasted; food can get pretty scarce in these parts. The lizards are tasty I'm told. Taste like road-runner, which of course taste like chicken."
"Of course. But why didn't we find any then?" asked Elizabeth.
"They're endotherms, and probably hibernating too," explained the General. "So the infrared didn't pick them up.”
Bates and Mel Guthery, who had been walking behind Elizabeth and Therman, and not paying much attention to their conversation, stopped in their tracks and looked at each other knowingly. "Fudge Winkies!” exclaimed Bates.
"Exactly!” agreed Mel. They picked up their pace towards the Bus.
The others weren't entirely thrilled with the implications of Bates' latest hypothesis. But the hypothesis was collaborated by Barns, who told the Team of watching the Ra revive rats before eating them alive. The Rats were in some sort of stupor that the Ra ended by using some sort of drugs on them. It made sense for space traveling carnivores to have such a system. The Team hypothesized from this that the Ra may have also used stasis-inducing drugs on the missing aliens.
"There's a big problem with that," said Carbuncle. "If there's no machinery to keep them warm in the winter, they would surely freeze while in their stupor."
"And that would irreparably destroy body tissues," agreed Bates. "But we don't know the chemistry of their bodies and the drug. Maybe they wouldn't freeze."
"OK, if they are hibernating on drugs or something, and essentially endothermic, that explains why our infrared sweeps haven't found them. And, if they haven't been frozen, that's great. But then how are we ever going to find them?" lamented Sandy.
"The Bus infrared has better sensitivity and post-processing," said Flood. "Maybe it could still pick them up.”
"That's still a high risk proposition," said Bates, shaking his head. "If only we had another sensor!"
Just then Winnebago, who had gone to the back of the Bus while the rest of the Team discussed strategy, came up front to confront the others. He was wearing polka dot covered pajamas and carrying a toothbrush. "Hey, what gives, can't a guy catch some Z's around here?" he complained.
"It's only seven PM, Winnebago!” pointed out Latanna.
"You mean nine PM," retorted Winnebago, "Eastern standard time. That's what I go by!”
"Sorry we're keeping you up," said Barns, sarcastically.
"Oh no, it's not you guys! It's that bloodthirsty heathen that you guys were supposed to help me with. I can't get him out of the John.”
"The ghost is in the privy?" said Therman.
"You mean he's in the head?" said Flood, revealing his Navy up-bringing.
"Yep. Whatever you guys
want to call that valuable little room in the back, he's taking a shower in it.”
Led by Chief Latanna, a Team contingent went to the back of the Bus, and indeed did discover a naked two century old savage in the shower, lathering up with Zest and singing Apache words to what sounded amazingly like an Irish air. Goyahkla's voice wasn't half bad. He exchanged a few words with Latanna, then got out of the shower.
Goyahkla had an interesting way of drying off. He put his clothes on in the shower, and then walked out through the shower wall, stepping into the main Bus isle perfectly dry. A puddle of water collected on the inside shower stall wall from him and his clothes as he walked through it. He ended up standing in front of a startled Bates, to whom he handed a dry bar of Zest. "You stink bad; you next," Goyahkla said, and sat down in one of the Bus seats. "Can't sleep here."
Bates was taken aback. "Did you hear what he said?" he asked.
"Don't feel too bad," said Mel, "a lot of us are a little ripe. A quick shower is a good idea for all of us. Save some of the Zest for me.”
"No," said Bates. "Not that! First of all he spoke English!”
"Oh sure," explained Latanna. "He just avoids using it around Winnebago. It's part of the curse.”
"OK," replied Bates, "but what is he doing sitting here in our Bus again? If he wants to sleep or whatever ghosts do, shouldn't he easily be in happy Spirit Land or someplace?”
"No," said Latanna. "He says he can't sleep because of all the noise."
"What noise?" asked Bates. "Us?”
Goyahkla replied, but in Apache, as Winnebago had returned. Winnebago took the Zest out of Bates' hands and headed for the privy without a word, while Latanna translated Goyahkla's response.
"Not us. He says we are deaf, as he was when he lived. He says there is a powerful dreaming one nearby, whose dreams cry out day and night."
Bates and Mel looked at each other. "Fudge Winkies!” said a voice that sounded very much like Bates, and they both turned to stare in astonishment at Goyahkla, who was nodding and staring at the two of them with an amused look on his face.
"Barns!” said Bates. "Get me that pipe and tobacco you bought at the Wawa. Elizabeth, Kate, stand in back of me in sight of our friend the great medicine man and war chief Goyahkla. Hank, keep that idiot Winnebago in the bathroom for a while longer. Chief Latanna, would you do the honors?"
Bates handed Latanna the pipe and tobacco, which he had just gotten from Barns. It was still wrapped in heavy plastic, which Steve began to struggle with. Even a powerful man like the Governor was going to have a tough time getting off child-resistant plastic. But Goyahkla reached over and casually pulled the plastic off the pipe and off the tobacco package, without opening the wrapping, leaving Steve holding just the pipe and tobacco!
Mel whistled. "Wow! He did it again, just like he did for himself and the soap. He moved the pipe and tobacco right through the plastic! Amazing trick!”
Steve lit the pipe, took a few drags, and passed it to Bates. Bates drew in some smoke, and managed somehow to keep from throwing up. He quickly gave the pipe back to Steve, who passed it on at last to Goyahkla. The warrior spirit inhaled pipe smoke and then let the smoke blow out his ears. The fellow had a good sense of humor for a dead guy, at least.
Goyahkla stared at Bates' with his piercing eyes. Bates met his stare. It was time to talk turkey. "I think you already know what this is about Chief. Whatever feelings of pain and hate you have from your long hard life, you are certainly intelligent and perceptive. We all need your help. The white man, the yellow man, the black man and the red. If you don't help us now, and keep on helping us, in a few days there won't be any white men to hate, or Apaches that act like white men to haunt, or good people like Latanna here that now have the respect of men and women of all colors. We'll all be in the spirit world, if there still is one. Along with elk, deer, antelope, coyotes, horses, and practically every other living thing on Earth. Everything will be dead and gone forever.
"I'm not a great leader of people like you or Latanna. I'm just trying to lead a brief mission that will be all over in a few days. Then I'll be finished. So the way I see it, I have an easy job, compared to the life that you and other true leaders have had. But ordinary guy or not, somehow I've gotten a pretty tough job to do, leading this talented group of weird people. Please chief; we need all the help we can get. Right now, we want you to help us find the two missing visitors from space. Can you do that?"
Goyahkla bit the end off the pipe handed the remainder to Bates, and then spit the end out, hitting Bates in the face. Then he said a few words in Apache.
"That seems to me to be a mixed message," remarked Bates, rubbing a sore nose. "What's going on?”
"It is a mixed message," Latanna agreed. "The great Goyahkla will help us, but he still isn't terribly pleased about working with white men."
Goyahkla looked up at Janet, Elizabeth and Kate, smiled, and said something else in Apache.
"But he doesn't mind the ladies," translated Bates for himself.
"Right," affirmed the ghost, with a smile.
Goyahkla stood up and motioned the others to follow him. "I take you now to loud sleeping strangers," he announced. Then he simply stepped outside. He did so by walking right through the side of the Bus.
Moments later the rest of the Team members went scrambling outside through the main hatch, but could see nothing in the utter darkness until Hank and Flood arrived with flashlights.
"It's freezing out here, let's go back in the Bus and get our coats," said Sandra.
"Do that and we'll lose the red skin ghost!” said Hank, who was already dashing off with Latanna and Milo in the direction that they had seen Goyahkla take.
"Flood," said Bates, as he grabbed the pilot’s flashlight, "you get to your Bus instruments; I don't want to be surprised by the Ra in the middle of this. The General and I will go on. The rest of you get your coats and ours out of the Bus and follow as quickly as you can."
Bates and General Therman ran off in the direction taken by Hank, Milo, and Latanna, who had all passed from sight around a nearby building. Rounding the building, there was no one in sight. Bates turned the flashlight to the ground hoping to find footprints in the dust, but saw several sets of human footprints leading in all directions: products of that afternoon's chaotic animal survey.
Fortunately Bates and General Therman heard shouting and barking from ahead and saw a faint light shining up and reflecting faintly off the low cloud cover overhead. It had to be Hank and Milo, trying to signal the Team. From the same direction they also heard a coyote howl. As they ran around the next building they were just in time to see Hank disappearing behind the next one.
This area of the Base was like a maze, and all of the buildings were nearly identical. They would have to rely on each other to keep on the trail of the elusive ghost.
Very soon Bates was out of breath and freezing. This chase was far too much activity for him, in far too cold an environment. Twice he fell down and was helped up by the General, who was breathing a little rapidly, but seemed to be bearing up quite well compared to his younger but flabbier couch-potato companion.
"Take it easy Bates," admonished Therman. "It's the altitude; you're not acclimated to it."
Bates realized he was right. Added to the fact that he was an overweight, confirmed couch potato to begin with, the high altitude was a killer.
They heard another coyote call just ahead, and more barking from Milo. Bates had read somewhere that coyotes were actually small members of the wolf family, and had been known to attack people if sick or cornered. But it was Milo he was really worried about. Coyotes were known to often make meals of domesticated dogs. Bates reasoned that a plump Pizza fed cream puff like Milo would be a welcome addition to the diet of most coyote families, especially at the onset of winter.
At last they caught up with Hank, who was also showing the negative results of the thinner air and too many years of city living. He was bent over w
ith his hands on his knees, catching his breath. Though exhausted, the plucky old security guard gave Bates an 'OK' sign, handed his flashlight and ever present assault rifle to the General, and pointed in the direction they had been traveling all along.
Bates and the General went on, but their pace was slowing. A stiff breeze had developed that was chilling them both to the bone. Soon more energy was going into shivering, than into useful locomotion.
Just when Bates was so cold and tired that he felt that he would have to stop, the pair rounded a building, and there were Latanna and Milo, trying without success to enter a very large building through a padlocked steel door. The Governor let loose with a piercing coyote wail, which was answered from within the building by a faint answering cry. It had been Apache signals that they had been hearing all along, not real coyotes!
Bates was relieved that Milo wasn’t in danger from coyotes, but the dog looked cold and winded. Latanna must have been in phenomenal physical condition though; he seemed to not even notice the cold, and wasn't the least bit out of breath.
"Oh, good," said Latanna, when he sighted Bates and Therman approaching. “He's in there. General, do you have the key?” Therman pulled a ring from his pocket with about three pounds of identical looking keys on it, and started fumbling around with the door lock. Like Bates, he was shivering so hard that he could barely function.
In the meantime, Hank had caught up with them. "Damnedest thing I ever saw!” he panted. "That Goyahkla fella walked right through them there buildings like they wasn't nothing! Had the deuce of a time figuring if he was staying in any one of um, or just passing through.”
It took the General several minutes to find the right key. Meanwhile, Kay, Elizabeth, Janet and Don arrived with coats and blankets. Soon everyone was warming up, including Milo, who Bates held in his arms as he sat on a fold of blanket. Not for the first time, Bates was thankful for high dog metabolism. He reminded himself to give the dog a bath in the near future, however.
Everyone came to their feet when the correct key was found and the door was at last opened. The group entered the huge dark cavernous interior bay of the old aircraft hangar. From the parts strewn on the floor revealed by several flashlights, it became clear that the hangar had once housed helicopters, but was now nearly empty. Though it was a dark, deserted, spooky place, having already been haunted by Goyahkla for several days took a lot of the edge off that aspect of it for the Team. Thus after an initial period of apprehension while flashlights searched the dark interior, the hangar quickly became a welcome haven for the Team. Besides sheltering the group from the wind, the building still retained warmth from the day and from warmer weeks in the past.
Latanna gave another coyote call, and it was answered in kind from the right side of the hangar. They walked to the hangar wall. There were two doorways along the outside wall leading into rooms that surrounded the hangar bay. The doorways were about 20 meters apart. Goyahkla's answering calls seemed to be coming from behind the wall, midway between the two doors.
The General led a group into one room, while Latanna led another group into the second room. As there was no sign of the missing spirit Chief in either room, Bates had each group knock on the wall that separated the rooms. When knocking could not be heard by the people in opposing rooms, the sizes of the rooms were paced off. It became clear that the rooms were separated by a space of about two meters.
"Look, Dad," said Don, “doesn't this look like the outline if a door?” Bates and son had been examining the steel hangar wall between the rooms. Don shone his flashlight around what seemed to be the outline of a metal doorway that had been welded smoothly shut. Waist high there was a lumpy spot just within the outline that could have signified a latch or doorknob. "Look!” said Don. From the floor a few feet away from the wall Don retrieved what was left of a metal latch handle. The door end of it looked like it had been melted away.
"Well, all that melting of metal could be Renson's handiwork, all right!” said Bates. "Let's see if anyone is home.” He knocked on the hidden door using the old latch.
Immediately a hairy head popped through the door in front of him, with a loud "BOO!” It was a grinning Goyahkla, having a little fun. Bates and Don each jumped back with a shout that brought the rest of the Team running, while Goyahkla, laughing, disappeared fully again behind the door. Bates hoped that he too would still have a sense of humor after being dead for more than a century.
Soon they were all studying the door outline. "No wander my men missed this," said General Therman. "This was just a storage closet, like those others.” He directed his flashlight light-beam along the long hangar wall to point out several short, wide doors of a shape that matched the one outlined by the weld. Several were standing open. "That's a pretty damn good welding job. I'd like to know how they did it, since all the welding equipment had been removed by then.”
Bates and Mel described to the General some of the feats that they had seen Renson accomplish. They theorized that the visitors had been drugged off by Renson and Melberg and then sealed in the storage closet by Renson. Unhindered, Renson then flew away in the visitor’s space craft to dispose of it, and Melberg returned to the General, leaving the two alien victims hidden in the hangar wall.
"OK," said Bates, "how are we going to open this?”
Several of them knocked on the door and surrounding wall, including Norma, the master engineer of the Team.
"That could be a bit of a challenge, without proper welding equipment," said Carbuncle. "Flood could doubtlessly cut it open with the Bus lasers, but that would require partial power to the main engines and a nasty heat signature that could possibly be detected from space even through the hanger roof. Besides, it would be delicate work. The aliens, if they are in there, could be blown to smithereens or toasted to charcoal. However, with hand tools, if we had any, it will take many hours."
"Yow!” shouted Sandra. She had been standing with her back almost against the sealed door, when a thin gray arm, ending in a hand with absurdly long, delicate fingers, protruded through the steel door and tapped her on the shoulder! There was a sound of ghostly laughter from inside the sealed closet.
"It's one of the aliens!” said Mel. "Goyahkla is putting him right through the door, just like he does himself!”
"Of course! Like he did with the soap in the Bus! He carried it through the wall of the shower with him. This is his soap trick!” exclaimed Bates. "Quick, let's help him!”
In moments, Bates was gently holding a thin, gray, delicate alien in his arms. It was obviously the small alien named Wink from the photo, or one just like him, one of the beings referred to in the data cubes as a Haspa, the race that had for many decades been studying Earth biology.
The body was cool and slightly stiff, but seemed perfectly preserved. It certainly should have been decomposed if it had been dead for ten years. They lay it on a blanket and examined it more closely.
Milo was curious but not apprehensive. Bates took that as a good sign. No heartbeat or breathing could be detected. Either there wasn't any, or it could not be detected by the Team, none of whom had any medical training. Bates wished they had the services of Oscar or Jane.
"Here comes the other one!” shouted Latanna, as a huge, green, scaly arm emerged through the door. It took the combined efforts of all of them to handle Krog; he must have weighed at least three hundred kilos. Bates sent Don running back to tell Flood to bring the Bus; they obviously weren't going to move Krog very far on foot.
They checked the big green alien's vitals. He also showed no sign of reviving, and displayed no detectable signs of life. In summary, both aliens seemed not dead, but not alive either.
In fifteen minutes they were all in the Bus and driving out over the Base gates. "What now?" asked Barns. "The nearest hospital is probably hours away.”
"What hospital? We're going to look for Kay's healing unicorn horn!” said Bates. "Flood, head us back towards the Ranch, pronto!”
"Righ
t Boss," answered Flood.
As the Bus lifted off, Winnebago came staggering out of the bathroom. He looked terrible. He managed to stagger up the isle to Bates, totally ignoring Goyahkla and the two aliens. "What the hell kind of shower is that? You guys trying to kill me?" he asked.
"What do you mean?"
"Two minor little problems, that's all. Well, first of all, this shampoo was in there, so I used it, before I realized what it was!” He held a bottle out to show it to Bates. It was dog shampoo.
"Oh! That's mine and Milo's. It's great on dandruff, and kills fleas to boot! Sure, go ahead and use it if you want to."
"You use this on yourself?"
"Sure,” replied Bates. “Why should I bother to stock two kinds of shampoo? What's your other problem?"
"Well, when I turned off the water, the damn thing locked me in and started spinning! It could have killed me!”
"Oh, that's just the automatic spin cycle!” explained Norma. "In zero gravity there has to be some way to mop up the water before you open the doors. Otherwise, we'd have shower water floating all over the Bus."
"For crying out loud!” lamented Winnebago. "This place is nuts!” He walked to his seat, plopped down, and reclined it, apparently determined to get some sleep.
As the Bus moved through the cold December night, Bates looked back towards the rear of the Bus, where the two strange visitors from space were still stone cold dead or undead. They reclined in seats next to each other, the huge, green, turtle-headed individual actually occupying two seats.
Goyahkla was doing some sort of dance and chant in the isle next to the aliens, but this was having no apparent effect. Whatever powers the spirit of Chief Goyahkla had, restoring life to stunned aliens was not one of them.
Perhaps they really were dead, and had been for years, but their bodies were indigestible to Earth micro-organisms that caused 'decay'. Or perhaps they had just died or were now dying because the Team had disturbed them. In any case, Bates had the feeling that if they were not revived soon, they never would be.
Peering through the windows, a few snowflakes appeared in the light of the Bus headlights. More and more came down, and the wind picked up, until a venerable blizzard was buffeting the Bus.
"This must be that storm that was supposed to pass to the North of us," said the General. "Looks like the weather folks were a few hundred kilometers off again.”
"How well will the Bus hold up in this kind of weather?" asked Bates. Flood and Carbuncle didn't know. Weather was simply not a consideration in the Bus design. They were certainly in no danger of freezing, nuclear and 'conventional' Premium Fuel power, even at low power levels, would prevent that, though that would make them more vulnerable to detection by the Ra. Thankfully, they could barely hear the shrieking of the wind outside the Bus. They did have windshield wipers, though they hadn't ever been used yet. For now, Flood had adjusted the windshield defrost system to blow freezing cold air across the inside of the windows. So, far, the dry snow was bouncing off the ice-cold windshield.
But visibility was still terrible. They quickly gave up trying to follow roads by seeing them; the roads had simply disappeared. Traveling off-road across a landscape strewn with boulders, canyons, escarpments, and other features would be dangerous. To avoid such obstructions they were relying on navigation systems to stay on the road, and on a minimum powering up of the radar to drive the collision avoidance system.
More serious, the auto pilot system they had been relying on to fly inches from the road surface was inadequate in the buffeting, gale force winds. The Bus was weaving all over the road, and due to the instability, its wheels were often striking the snow covered pavement violently. Riding in the bouncing, weaving Bus was becoming increasingly uncomfortable and dangerous. To the Team, and especially to Flood, each mile seemed like ten. Flood tried manual control, but that produced little improvement and required an expenditure of piloting effort impossible to sustain for longer than a few minutes at a time.
"This is becoming unsatisfactory. We'll have to do something soon," said Flood. "Besides the wild ride, navigation is difficult. The roads are becoming invisible, and the inertial navigation system doesn't have enough accuracy to keep us centered on them.”
"What are our options Commander?" asked a worried Bates.
"First," replied Flood, "we could set down and wait this out.”
"These things usually last a couple days!” interjected the General.
"We just don't have those days to spare," said Bates. "What else is there?”
"We could fly above it, but we'd probably be sitting ducks for the Ra. Still, that way we could make the trip in minutes. Or, we could stay low, a few meters above ground level at most. We could power up the shields. That would improve our aerodynamics and stability. Our driving speed would improve considerably. Arrival would be in under two hours. But our increased power might be detectable. Bulling our way through the storm at a medium altitude would take even more power, though it would take less time. Not to mention it would still be a hell of a ride in this wind. Half an hour or less transit time. Finally, we could drive on the ground relying on our tires, slowly but surely, with a minimum power signature. I recommend we try that alternative first.”
"Go to it then, pilot!” said Bates.
They immediately had problems. The narrow, slick tires gave little purchase on the slippery road, and they still had to rely on thrusters for stability and motive power. They had gone from being a skeet ball floating on a cushion of air to a careening, skidding hockey puck on a bumpy surface. In short, it was no improvement.
Hoping they could transit the relatively short distance in so brief a time that they wouldn't be noticed, they finally elected to fly above the storm. In seconds Flood powered up all systems and the Bus shot up through the clouds. It was a wild ride, but the turbulence was brief; in half a minute they popped up through the clouds and were shooting towards the unicorn meadow. They turned off the radar to be as inconspicuous as possible, but over a hundred thousand horsepower was being expended, resulting in a trailing fiery plume that could probably be seen from the moon. But so far, there were no Ra! As the minutes went by they began to gain confidence. They were almost there!
Suddenly without warning a huge, glowing, saucer shaped space ship appeared directly in front of them! "Oops! Bates remarked needlessly."
The Governor shouted that it was the one he saw at Phoenix General, or one exactly like it! It was orders of magnitude greater in size than the ships that had attacked Enterprise City; it was obviously a Mother Ship of the Ra! As Flood's fingers raced across Bus controls in desperation, the entire Saucer flashed brighter than the Sun, and exuded a fiery blue/white tendril of lightning that shot towards the Bus!
The protective force field of the Bus flashed and coalesced at the point of energy beam impact, but the brilliant plasma stream easily cut through it and struck the middle of the Bus, which shuddered violently. For an awful moment the Plasma stream speared through the Bus, cutting a fist sized hole through upper and lower hulls and decking, and through seat 7c, which fortunately was unoccupied at the time. Mel, in 7b, was singed red on the right side of his face.
The automated protection system of the Bus shot a comparatively weak laser blast back at the Mother Ship, with no apparent effect, and the Bus dropped like a rock into the storm clouds below. The Mother Ship followed for a few seconds, then was left behind. A second, parting blast struck out from the Mother Ship, but the power of the stream seemed to dissipate rapidly over the increased distance, and the Bus also dodged violently away, such that just a glancing blow to its force field resulted, without the beam striking the Bus itself. But the first blast had already direly wounded the Bus, which, despite Flood's piloting heroics, went into a careening spin as it fell.
With a loud whooshing sound the Bus was also rapidly de-pressurizing. Only Flood and Carbuncle had pressurized helmets on, everyone else was soon breathing hard and deep with little posit
ive effect. Gasping passengers couldn't even effectively scream. Between the spinning free fall and the air rushing through the punctured hull, any objects not tied down were flying all over throughout the Bus, endangering all occupants and hampering the flight crew.
The Bus dropped like a rock through pitch darkness, tumbling down towards the ragged Uinta Mountains and death.
****