Space Hostages, page 11
Tony, aware that he was being stared at, suddenly looked up. His eyes and Brylo’s locked in embarrassed surprise. They had hardly spoken to each other since the last quarrel. ‘I won’t be the first to drop my eyes,’ thought Brylo.
Tony, still staring, said, ‘You wonder why, don’t you, Brylo boy?’ and laughed. His eyes glittered with malice and amusement. Brylo could think of nothing to say in reply.
‘I wonder why myself,’ said Tony. He dropped his eyes and Brylo know that he was lying, or about to lie. But why?
‘I want to be the bright boy at school, that’s what it is,’ Tony continued. ‘Bright like Brainy Brylo. There is Brylo the Brains, and there’s Tony the Terrible Turk. That’s it, isn’t it Brylo boy?’ He laughed.
‘I’ve heard it all before,’ said Brylo, flatly. ‘Why don’t you just shut up?’
Tea time for Teddy Bears,’ said Tony, in a completely different voice. ‘Time to listen with mother. Eight o’clock, get it?’
He nodded at the clock on the wall. There were footsteps outside, then all the children crowded into Control. At eight in the morning and at eight in the evening, the children spoke to their parents at home, on Earth. Brylo found it difficult to find words. So did Billy Bason and Spadger. The rest, though, just rattled on, talking about the food they had just eaten, or not forgetting to feed the rabbits and has the tortoise come home yet?
Di, however, spoke as if she were appearing in a very up-to-date documentary play about Parents and Teenagers and the gap separating them. She made her voice sound as if it were perpetually shrugging its shoulders. ‘Are you really all right, Di darling?’ said her mother with more than a hint of tears in her voice.
‘Yeah, I’m all right, why shouldn’t I be?’ Di answered, shrugging off the question.
‘We pray for you every night, your dad and me …’ said the voice, the tears very close.
‘That’s nice,’ said Di, deliberately leaving a vacuum at the end of her words. And so it went on.
Tony either refused to speak to his parents at all, or used the talk as a way of advertising himself to the world.
‘Are you all right, Tony?’ said his mother (all the mothers began with that question).
‘Everything’s well under control on the ship,’ replied Tony, ‘I’ve got nothing to report that need cause any anxiety …’
‘But are you all right, you yourself, Tony?’ said his father.
‘Well,’ answered Tony. ‘The ship takes a lot of running. But we’re all in good spirits and looking forward to a safe return.’ He looked around the other children in Control as if expecting them to murmur agreement. Some of them actually did. ‘Love to all of you from all of us,’ he said finally; and Brylo was interested to see his cheeks flush slightly. He knew that was the wrong not to strike, thought Brylo. It was too slick. It sounded too like a commercial …
They left Ashley until last because the did not like to watch him and could not bear the sound of his mother’s voice. As it mounted towards tears, then hysteria, they silently left Control without looking back at the stricken figure of Ashley, hypnotized by his mother’s moanings and sobbings and endearments and beseechings. Generally, she was cut off when the time ran out at the very peak of her hysteria.
‘It must be flippin’ lovely in the studio, dealing with her,’ said Tony. ‘You know what? we’re safer out here!’
Eventually, Sandra would go and get Ashley and lead him, tear-stained and shaking, back to his nest among the consoles in Communications. She hated this beyond all the many jobs she did.
‘You’re tired out, aren’t you, Brylo?’ said the voice of Harry Baines from Earth. ‘Well, you’ve had a pretty gruelling time of it over the last day or so. But do you realize that you’re nearly there? It’s a fantastic operation they’ve got going on the Moon Station in your honour … Look, I’ll tell you what, you get yourself something to eat and drink and then sit back in a comfortable chair and listen to some of the tapes I’ve got. It’s all stuff that you ought to know about, but on the other hand you don’t have to understand it and work it yourself. Not like the extrapolaters, eh, Brylo?’
No, not like the extrapolaters, thought Brylo. Not like them thank goodness. They had been an endless solid grind, repetition after repetition, dummy run after dummy run … He asked Sandra to send him in some food and drink, and settled down in the biggest chair.
‘All right, here we are again,’ said Harry keeping his voice bright and breezy. ‘Now, I promised you these tapes about Moon Station and I think you’ll find them fascinating, Brylo, fascinating! For instance, I’ve a few feet of tape here – not too much, Brylo, just the guts of the thing – from the men who started the Station. Karmesin, Strauss, Professors Debrosses and Lutter from France and Germany … and our own Professor Highan, of course, and the Japanese professor who helped so much with the environmental side. None of us could pronounce his name but it sounded something like “Eyespecs”. So we called him that. Are you receiving? Over.’
‘It’s all right, Harry, you don’t have to dress it up for me,’ Brylo replied. ‘Let’s get on with it. I’ll bet you are as tired as I am. Over.’
‘All right, Brylo,’ said Harry Baines, in his usual pleasant but decisive voice. ‘As you say – let’s get on with it. Now, about the conditions you may expect approaching the moon. You’ll be able to use your TV of course, and you’ll have no trouble at all with visibility. No fogs or clouds or anything like that. The gravitational pull of the moon is nothing like so strong as Earth’s, so you will select the computer settings we have already discussed. We needn’t do all that again, thank heaven. We’ll skip all the procedures for landing the ship – you must know them better than I do by now – and talk instead of the conditions you will meet on landing. first, the surface. It really is ideal, Brylo. Very few areas on Earth offer anything to approach it, for two reasons. First, it doesn’t matter if you miss by a hundred miles or so – no cities, no worries about hitting anything …’
So I was right, thought Brylo. They are afraid of what might happen if we made a duff landing on Earth.
‘… in fact, you can’t very well miss the target area we have selected, it is several hundred miles wide in one direction. And it will be a soft landing. Better even than water …’
Brylo’s attention wandered. He looked across to where Tony sat. But Tony was not there!
Brylo interrupted Earth with the Call button and said, ‘I’m sorry, Harry, I’m going over and out for ten minutes. There is something that I want to attend to here. Over.’
He switched off, got up and stared at Tony’s vacant chair.
This was the first time, the very first time, that Tony had ever failed to listen to every word of Harry Baines’ instruction. He had to find out why.
He found Tony in the ‘VIP lounge’. Tony was sitting in a big leather armchair with a bottle of wine perched on one of its arms. Di sat on the other arm with a wineglass in her hand. When she saw Brylo, she gave Tony a drink from her glass and giggled. Tony felt embarrassed.
‘Don’t say old Brylo the Brain is going on the vino!’ said Tony.,
‘Here, have some out of my glass!’ said Di. She flapped her eyelashes at Brylo with mock sauciness and offered him the glass.
‘Watch it, Brylo! She’s after you!’ Tony yelled. He was not drunk. Brylo could see the solid, unflinching malice in his eyes as he clowned.
Brylo took no notice of the glass and said, ‘You weren’t there.’
‘Where, Brylo boy?’
‘In Control.’
‘He missed you!’ squawked Di, hooting with laughter. ‘He’s a case!’
‘Why should I be in Control, Brylo boy?’ said Tony. ‘Control with a capital C, that is. I’m in control anyhow. Get it?’
‘He’s a wizard with words,’ said Di, nuzzling Tony.
‘You weren’t there. I thought something might have happened to you,’ said Brylo. He was beginning to feel foolish.
‘Oo, that would have been a worry, wouldn’t it?’ said Di. ‘Tony die, Brylo cry. Inky, pinky, ponky!’
‘Something come up, then?’ said Tony innocently. ‘Something the Captain ought to know about? We haven’t run into a tram, or something, have we?’
‘I didn’t feel a shock,’ said Di. ‘But that’s because I’m a shocker! Aren’t I a shocker, Tony? Aren’t I?’ She poured herself more wine and spilt a dark patch on the leather.
‘No, seriously Brylo boy,’ said Tony, taking no notice of Di. ‘What were they on about? Was it the moon? Was it about landing on the moon?’
‘Yes,’ began Brylo – then realized that Tony was playing with him. For how could Tony have known?
‘Good place to land, the moon,’ said Tony. ‘Old Harry Baines said so. The great git.’
‘How did you know?’ said Brylo, trying to keep his voice steady.
‘Miracle of electronics,’ said Tony. ‘Bet you couldn’t say that, Di. Go on, try: Miracle of electronics!’
‘Mirrick – mickle of …’
‘What miracle of electronics?’ said Brylo through his teeth.
‘Oh, this,’ said Tony. He lifted up a transistor radio, hidden by the arm of the chair. ‘Good radio, this. Best transistor I’ve ever seen. Must be a new model. Gets Earth just like that, even on the frequency you and Harry Baines use. Of course, it works only one way, I can hear either you or Harry. I prefer old Harry. Talks a lot of sense, old Harry. Except when he goes on about the moon …’
Brylo put a hand up to his head, saw that the gesture had been noticed, and wished he had not made it. What was it all about?
‘I’m sorry, Tony, I don’t get it. So you’ve found a nice little transistor radio and you know what Harry Baines was saying. All right, now what?’
‘I didn’t hear what old Harry was saying,’ said Tony. ‘Only the first bit. Then I switched off.’
‘All right, you didn’t hear. So what?’
‘Flippin’ moon …’ said Tony. ‘Raving on about the flippin’ moon …’
‘Who wants to go to the moon?’ giggled Di.
‘Look – stop messing about. You’re not drunk, Tony …’ began Brylo.
‘Not so thunk as you drink I am!’ said Di.
‘What’s all this about, Tony?’ said Brylo, trying to sound calm but succeeding only in sounding desperate. ‘What’s so marvellous about the radio?’
Tony leaped to his feet and poked his head close to Brylo’s. Then he yelled: ‘IT WILL MAKE THE KIDS LAUGH!’
He’s gone mad, Brylo thought. He even looks mad!
‘Make ‘em roar!’ hooted Tony. ‘There’s old Brylo the Brains locked up in Control, working away at the radio, right? OK. Then there’s old Brylo making a fool of me – me! – because he got the radio going and I didn’t. Oh yes, I admit it – I must have looked a right Charlie after that meeting … but you wait till I just pull out the old transistor and get them the Light Programme! Who’ll look a Charlie then?’
‘You mean, all this is in aid of making the kids laugh? Simply so that you can say “Look, I’m cleverer than Brylo, I can get Earth on a transistor”? asked Brylo, astonished. Tony did not answer. He walked up and down, poured himself another glassful of wine and drank it at a gulp.
‘Look, Tony, I don’t like you either. If you want to make a fool of yourself by playing charades with transistor sets, do it and be happy. All I care about is getting this ship to the moon …’
‘He’s doing it again, Di!’ said Tony. ‘The moon! Old Brylo and the moon! What’s all this chat about the moon, Brylo boy? What makes you think that we’ll end up on the moon?’
‘Because that’s where the Moon Station is and that’s where the landing is going to be!’ shouted Brylo. ‘Surely your precious transistor made you understand that?’
‘Moony, Loony,’ said Di, winking at Tony. Brylo felt lost.
Then Spadger rushed in. ‘They’re calling you, Brylo!’ he shouted. ‘They want you on the radio! Come to Control, quick!’
Chapter 31
Brylo and Tony ran to Control to encounter a double disaster and the beginning of a third.
The TV screen spattered with spark-like traces, telling them that they had run into another patch of cosmic debris: and the voice of Harry Baines over the loudspeaker was barely audible over the mad racket of interference. they could just distinguish the repeated words.
‘Come in, Brylo! Come in, Brylo! Over!’
Brylo flicked a switch and began sending to Earth. ‘Harry, this is Brylo. Harry, this is Brylo. Are you receiving? Over.’
After a pause – less than two seconds now – the voice from Earth replied. ‘I heard you, Brylo. Just. I will test, starting now. One, two … five … seven, eight, nine …’ The other numbers were blotted out by the shrieks and howls of gunshot noises of the interference. Brylo raised an eyebrow at Tony, flicked the switch, and replied to Harry: ‘Harry, this is Brylo. Brylo speaking. your test gave me “one, five, seven, eight, nine”. That is bad. Reception is bad. I will test, starting now …’ Like Harry, he spoke the numbers one to ten and awaited Harry’s check-back.
‘This is Harry, Brylo … Harry speaking. I received only “four, five, six” and “over”. Doesn’t look too good, Brylo …’ Brylo and Tony picked up a few words and sentences that made some sense: ‘sunspot activity … Mount Palomar reports solar … worried about damage to the ship …’
Brylo replied briefly and asked for instructions. The strain of listening through the noise to Harry’s voice hurt his head.
Harry said, ‘We’re bringing you in, Brylo. Bringing you into Moon Station as quickly as we can. No more lessons, repeat no more lessons and instructions. We must get you out of the belt of debris …’
Brylo glanced at the TV screen. The trails of sparks were frightening. He noticed that Tony’s eyes were shifting from the sparks to the red lights, still unlit, and back again.
Harry began to shout a series of instructions, repeating each three times. Brylo had no time to be frightened of their meaning. He merely obeyed them. A quarter of an hour later, Harry went off the air for a few minutes to consult with his advisers. Brylo thankfully cut off the radio entirely.
But the usual silence did not greet him. Instead, the sound of thunder filled the Control cabin. ‘Look …’ said Tony, pointing at the desk lamps. The pools of light they cast were shimmering and shivering.
‘We’re going at a fair old lick?’ he asked.
Brylo checked the dials in front of him. ‘We’re going pretty well flat out on the space drive – the nuclear reaction drive. And we’ve turned. We’re going like – like I don’t know what. I suppose it must be as fast as anyone has ever travelled …’
‘That’s why we’re vibrating?’
‘I suppose so. Just listen to the noise … And, of course, we’re not travelling in a straight line – although I don’t know if that makes any difference. We’ve changed course.’
‘Changed course!’ said Tony. ‘You mean we’re not heading for the moon?’
‘Oh, yes, we’re heading for the moon all right – but they’ve put us on an arc, a curve. I suppose they want to get us out of the debris belt.’
‘But they’re still heading us for the moon?’ said Tony, thoughtfully. He muttered something that Brylo did not catch, then looked hard at the TV screen. The sparks were still intermittently filling it, and Tony made a face. ‘Try the radio again, just for a second.’ Tony switched on. The noise was as bad as ever.
‘I don’t think they’re connected – the debris and the noise,’ said Brylo. He found it difficult to keep his eyes off the dull red dots of the warning lamps. He expected, every moment, that they would light. And then –
Earth flashed them. Brylo switched on the radio and the thunder of the reaction drive was once again flooded out by the din from the loudspeaker. They heard little of what Harry said, but what they did pick up made them exchange glances.
‘Eight hours!’ whistled Tony. ‘In eight hours, he said! We’ll be hitting the moon in eight hours!’
‘Not hitting it,’ said Brylo, with an uneasy laugh. Tony thought, then said: ‘Dead right, Brylo boy! That’s one thing we won’t be doing!’
Before Brylo had time to try and work out what Tony could have meant, Harry was on the radio again and Tony had left the room.
Chapter 32
Tony held a meeting in his cabin. Everyone attended. He told them, clearly and without his usual dramatics, that they might be landing within twelve hours. He explained the difficulties they were having with communications and cosmic dust. He told them what they were to do as soon as the landing signal, a siren that sounded in every part of the ship, was sounded: they were to come to his cabin, sit in the chairs, and use the straps fitted within the chairs to secure themselves.
‘We’ll try it now,’ he said. ‘Each of you go to a leather chair. No, it doesn’t matter which one, Spadger. But when you’ve chosen your chair, remember it and go back to it when the time comes for landing. Right you’ve all got chairs? OK, put your hands in the holes in the arms and you’ll feel the straps and buckles. No, don’t fiddle about – let’s start again, watch me!’
He showed them how to wear and fix the straps, which were very like a full harness car safety-belt. Brylo noticed that he remembered every detail of the straps – which part of the harness went on first, how the locks operated, just how tightly the straps should be secured. I wonder if he’s been practising? he thought, then decided against it, and realized yet again what a good brain and memory Tony had.
‘All right, the release.’ Tony hit the buckle and the harness fell apart. ‘Now, we’ll all do it. Sandra, you can do Beauty’s when the time comes, and Billy, you can make sure Ashley’s all right. Brylo, you and me will be in Control, but we might as well get all the practice we can, so let’s go through it.’
He’s even being tactful, thought Brylo. Not making Ashley look small. Not trying to make me look a fool …
