STICKY

Robert Paisley

Published: 2010
Tag(s): "science fiction" adventure humour

Chapter 1 New Chapter

   I saw the rattlesnake about half a millisecond before its fangs sank into my calf. I had a brief impression of a dark brown blur with a gaping mouth before the pain hit me. It must have liked the taste because before I could react, the bastard bit me again. I yelped and jumped back, my feet scrabbling on the loose stones as I scrambled backwards up the side of the gully.  The snake slithered away, almost indistinguishable from the rocks littering the ground. I froze, watching the rocks where it had gone in case it came back for another go at me. Finally, satisfied it had really gone, I let my breath out with a whoosh and lay back against the sloping sides of the gully. I twisted my leg so I could see the damage. Just above my heavy walking boots, two sets of small punctures oozed blood.  Just my luck to walk onto the only rattlesnake that didn’t know it should have rattled when I got too close to it. I remembered with some regret a fellow traveller at the tourist lodge who had plied me at great length with un-requested tips and winks of how to survive in the desert. He’d assured me that there was no danger from rattlesnakes.

“They’re more frightened of you than you are of them,” he said with a certainty that brooked no argument. “If you hear a rattle just back off and they’ll leave you alone.”

He even produced a guide book to prove it. Obviously this particular rattlesnake hadn’t read the damn book.

I looked at my calf again. The pain was starting to become rather too intense for comfort. I tried to remember what I’d read about treating snakebites. I seem to recall using something called an ACE bandage but for the life of me I couldn’t remember what it was. I did remember a tourniquet shouldn’t be used, but I wanted to restrict the flow of venom, so I took off my belt and tied it loosely round my leg above the puncture wounds. I pulled my pack off my back and dug out my mobile phone. For a second I couldn’t remember the number of the tourist lodge I’d stayed at two nights ago, then I remembered I’d keyed it into the phone’s memory. The phone rang and rang, finally somebody answered.

“Hello, Hapsnall tourist lodge, Mary Whetherall speaking, how can I help you?”

“Oliver Nesbitt here, I stayed with you two nights ago, I’ve just been bitten by a rattlesnake.”

There was a short silence from the other end. “Are you sure?”

I suppressed the urge to shout ‘Well it looked like rattlesnake  and it sure bit like one.’ Instead I answered as calmly as I could. “I’m absolutely certain. It bit me on my leg about five minutes ago. I’m about two or three miles from Corbetts Lake in a shallow gully. I need antivenin.”

She was silent for a minute while she worked out the distance. “You’re about thirty miles from us. It’ll take us more than two hours to reach you in the four by four, it’s rough country, can you hang on?”

I winced as the pain in my leg got worse. “Yeah, I can hang on, get here as quick as you can.”

“We’ll send someone right away. Don’t move, it’ll only spread the venom. Have you put an ACE bandage on?”

“No, I haven’t got one, I’ve tied my belt round my leg.”

“OK, don’t tie it too tight. Don’t lay down, keep your leg below your heart and don’t move about, OK?”

“Yeah, I know about that,” I replied.

“OK Mr. Nesbitt, just hang on, we’re on our way. Leave your phone on, we’ll transfer your call to the four by four. When you hear our vehicle you can guide us to you.”

She must have covered the mouthpiece of the phone because I could hear muffled shouts before the phone cut off abruptly. I tried to make myself comfortable by leaning on my pack but it kept slipping sideways it so I put my arms through the straps and locked the buckle across my chest. The main thing was to keep calm. I thought I’d read somewhere that a rattlesnake bite is rarely fatal unless you are a child.

Or old.

Or susceptible to the venom.

Or you go into shock.

Or you have heart trouble.

Or you can’t get any antivenin.

There were quite a few exceptions to the non fatal bit in the book as I recalled. I tried to relax, wondering if I came into any of the categories. I wasn’t old, twenty eight isn’t old. I was fairly healthy if you discounted the odd drink and my twenty a day cigarette habit and hopefully the antivenin was on its way. The pain in my leg was getting worse.

I shivered, suddenly feeling hot and cold all at once. The landscape tended to shimmer now and then. I didn’t think it was only the heat, I  was starting to feel rather light headed. I felt thirsty, but when I tried to undo the buckle of my pack to reach my water bottle, my fingers wouldn’t obey me.  I rested my head back against the pack and looked up at the sky. It was a cloudless blue. I idly wondered if that was the last thing I was going to see. I thought ruefully that if I hadn’t won the lottery I would be safe in the experimental engineering department of Howe and Brooks, precision engineers, not sitting alone in the Arizona desert with rattlesnake venom coursing through my bloodstream.

         At school, I’d belonged to the model engineering club where I’d made steam engines, model diesel engines and the like. When I left school I went to see my careers officer.

“Get an apprenticeship lad and you won’t go far wrong,” he said, shuffling his job cards in his pudgy hands.  Perhaps I should have ignored his advice. His wisps of hair stuck up like he’d stuck his fingers in an electric socket,  his suit was a dusty black with shiny curled lapels and his tie looked like he’d washed it by banging it on river stones. He was hardly a shining example of a man at the top of his profession. I didn’t take in all he was saying because whenever he spoke, his ears waggled. I just managed to contain my fit of hysterics until I’d left the room.

            Anyway, I joined good old Howe and Brooks as an apprentice toolmaker. After five years as an apprentice and seven years as a fully qualified engineer, I won the lottery and walked out of the place without a backward glance. Now was my chance to see the world. I decided to start with America, a place I’d always wanted to see.  I would to take my time and back-pack my way round the country. I had the very best equipment and most of the time I camped out, but if I fancied a bit of luxury I would stay in the best hotels. They sometimes looked a bit askance when I walked into the reception in my dusty hiking gear, but funnily enough their mood rapidly changed after a credit check when they discovered I was a millionaire. If I fancied less luxurious surroundings, I would stay in a tourist lodge as I had two nights ago. I’d been wandering around for nearly four months now, flying or bussing to where ever the fancy took me. A few weeks ago, I’d taken the bus from Los Angeles and worked my way west. I’d visited Lake Havasu City, to see the re-built London Bridge and then took various buses north towards the Grand Canyon to walk the Bright Angel trail. I’d got off the bus so I could stop off at Corbetts lake.  I’d read the lake was known as a good place to visit. The only large body of water for miles around, it was supposed to attract hikers like ants to a sugar lump. I wondered if I’d ever see it now.

A clatter aroused me from my daydreaming. I looked down and realised I’d let go of  the mobile phone. I picked it up and put it in my shirt pocket. The effort brought me out in a sweat, the phone felt as heavy as a brick. I was lucky, if it had fallen a few inches further, it would have rolled down into the gully and in my present condition, I don’t think I could have gone after it. The gully was a dried up river bed and according to the map, it led straight to the lake. I wondered how often there was water in the gully. If I wasn’t found, the next time it flooded, my desiccated corpse would be washed  into the lake, not a happy thought. The sides were about ten feet high, sloping gently up at a shallow angle from the bottom. I wondered if I should try and climb to the top so the people from the tourist lodge would find me easier, but even the thought of it brought me out in a sweat again, so I put the idea out of my head.

After what seemed an age I thought I heard the sound of an engine labouring along in low gear. I reached for my phone.

“Oliver Nesbitt here, are you from the lodge?

No answer.

I took the phone from my ear and looked at it. As

I tried to focus on the phone, the buttons seemed to move about on the handset. I realised I’d automatically turned the thing off after calling the lodge. I turned it on and put the phone back to my ear. It seemed to be getting heavier.

“Anyone there?” I asked, completely ignoring the fact the phone hadn’t rung.

Still no answer. I couldn’t hear any engine noise now, maybe I’d imagined it. I put the phone back in my shirt pocket, shut my eyes and slumped back against my pack.

       A rattle of rocks next to me snapped my eyes open. That damn rattler was back for another bite.

I tried to lift my head but my neck muscles didn’t seem to work. I shut my eyes and waited. Nothing, perhaps I’d imagined the noise. My head was really swimming now, the effort of trying to raise my head hadn’t helped at all. I remembered a game I’d played with friends as a child. You held a broom stick against your forehead with the other end on the ground. You ran round the broom stick until you were dizzy and then tried to walk in a straight line. Nobody ever could. Anyone who tried it always ended up weaving sideways like a drunk with jelly legs. I usually ended up head first into the flower bushes, much to the annoyance of my father. My head felt just like that now.

        The sunlight burning through my shut eyelids suddenly darkened. With an effort I opened my eyes. Above me, a figure was standing between me and the sun. Another figure joined the first. I tried to focus but the figures wavered as if they were under water. It must be the people from the lodge. I tried to nod and smile up at them but it was too much effort. I shut my eyes and everything drifted away.

Chapter 2 New Chapter

   I slowly opened my eyes. I was no longer sitting slumped against my pack, but lying flat on my back. Two dark brown eyes swam into view. There was something strange about them but for the moment I couldn’t work out what it was. Then I hit me, the eyes were too far apart and they were moving from side to side. I blinked in an effort to focus my eyes. Suddenly I realised what I was seeing. Two large brown nipples on two large brown breasts wavered in front of my face. I lifted my gaze and a brown face surrounded by a shock of black hair came into view. A woman. A naked woman. She looked about thirty, her smooth skin was covered with tiny drops of perspiration.

“How are you feeling Oliver,” she said. “You’ve been out for days, we didn’t think you were going to wake up.” 

“What, where am I, why aren’t you wearing clothes.” I wasn’t exactly coherent. As I moved, I realised I wasn’t in a hospital bed, I could feel sand under my hands.

She lifted my head and held a plastic cup to my mouth. “Shush, drink this.”

The cool water tasted good and I started to feel more alive. She took the cup away and lowered my head back down. She sat back on her haunches and stared down at me.

“Feeling better?” She idly brushed away the sand where it had stuck to her knees.

I nodded, slowly collecting my thoughts. “Are you from the tourists lodge, did I get the antivenin?”

She shook her head. “No we’re not from the tourist lodge.” She paused. “We realised you’d been bitten by a snake, we saw the bite marks and we guessed it was a rattler. We hadn’t got any antivenin. All we could do was keep the bite wounds clean and give you water when you occasionally came round. You were in and out of consciousness  for days. I think you were lucky, they were probably dry bites, or at least the snake didn’t inject a full load of venom.” She paused. “Of course, they might have treated you. Anyway, we’re glad you finally made it.”

“They?”

She waved her arm as if brushing aside my question. “Don’t worry about that for the moment, just be glad you’re back with us.”

“Us?” My conversation skills were not at my sparkling best.

She waved her arm around. “There’s twenty one of us. Now you’re back with us it’s twenty two.”

I heaved myself up onto my elbows and looked around. A group of men and women surrounded me. Some fat, some thin, a couple wrinkled but mostly about my age. Some of the men had hair longer than the women. I saw a few pony tails, on the men that is, not the women. Not one of them had a stitch on except for the decorated hippy hair bands on some of the men and women. Only one of the older women had something on. She was wearing one of my shirts. The shirt was much too big for her. Her crêpey brown legs hung down from the hem, interrupted by a pair of kneecaps like knots in cotton. Her feet had the most remarkable set of bunions I had ever seen. From her head down she looked like a parachute with a couple of brown cords hanging out the bottom. I hadn’t realised legs could be that thin. A few of them nodded at me and a couple lifted their hands in greeting. They told me their names which I promptly forgot and for some reason, what they did for a living. Advertising and the arts seemed to be the most popular occupation. The desert heat shimmered about causing my vision to blur. It was too much to take in. I lay back down, the effort of raising myself had made my head swim.

“What the hell is going on,” I croaked. “What are you people doing in the desert without any clothes. What am I doing here. Why aren’t I in hospital?”

She gave a grim little smile. “We’re naked because we were all round the pool when we were taken. God knows where the nearest hospital is, and we’re not in the desert”

That was plainly untrue. I could see the sand and scrub stretching away into the distance and the sky was a cloudless blue. One word  she’d said finally penetrated.

“Taken?”

She shook her head. You’re not ready for that, lie down and sleep for a while. When you’re ready, we’ll bring you some food.”

 I shook my head which was not a good move, it made my brain feel it was about to explode out of my ears. “No food , I just want to know what’s going on. What are you doing in the desert without any clothes.” I had a sudden thought.  “My name’s Oliver Nesbitt by the way.”

She nodded. “Yes, we know. We found your name in your passport. I’m Natalie Taylor.”

“OK, Natalie, are you going to explain now?”

She took a deep breath. “Well,” she said, “We’re all members of the Summer House Ranch. It’s a sort of naturist colony. We used to come to the ranch on our vacation to live free from the restrictions of city life.”

Oh ho, I thought to myself. I’d heard about those sort of places. A load of out-of-date hippies indulging in love, drugs and rock and roll.

She must have read my mind. “It’s not what you think, we’re not a bunch of hippies indulging in love, drugs and rock and roll.  Most of us are professional people with good jobs who just want to lead an alternative life style for a few weeks. I’m a nurse for instance. It’s just our way of relaxing.”

I looked around again. I’d never seen so many out-of-date hippies in one place.

“I wasn’t thinking anything,” I lied. “For a start why am I here in the desert and not in a hospital.”

“As I said, we were round the pool, having lunch, the rest of the group were back at the ranch.” She paused.

I nodded encouragingly, “Go on,” I said. God, was she ever going to get to the point.

“This thing came over. It was big as an aircraft carrier, bigger. It stopped right over us, about fifty feet up. A cloud of green fog came out the bottom of it and that’s the last we remember. We woke up here.”

“In the desert,” I said.

She shook her head. “No, I told you, we’re not in the desert.”

I decided to humour her. “It looks like desert to me.”

He face hardened. “Believe me it’s not. They’ve recreated the conditions they found us in.  We have a swimming pool, tables and chairs, bottles of drink and tuna and sweet corn sandwiches.” She gave a shudder. “Plenty of tuna and sweet corn sandwiches.”

“Why tuna and sweet corn?” I asked. It was a stupid question considering what she’d just told me, but my mind wasn’t firing on all cylinders.

“They were the only ones left,” she said. “We had a variety of sandwiches but all the others had been eaten. Not many of us like tuna and sweet corn.”

I shook my head. “Sorry but I’m not taking this in. Can you explain again just what you’re talking about.”  I think she started talking but her voice faded into the distance as I passed out again.

Chapter 3 New Chapter

   When I woke up, I felt a lot better. My head felt relatively clear and my leg hardly hurt at all. Someone must have noticed my movement, because a moment later the brown woman walked over and sat down beside me. She was still naked.

“I remember you,” I said. “I’m sorry, I’ve forgotten your name.”

“Natalie Taylor,” she said with a smile.

“Hello, Natalie, I’m Oliver Nesbitt.”

She smiled again. “Yes we know. I think we’ve been through this conversation before. How are you feeling now?”

I thought about it for a moment. “Well, my head has stopped going round and my leg hardly hurts. All in all, not bad.”

I levered myself up on my elbows and bent my leg so I could look at my calf. The puncture marks had gone, but where they had been was a large discoloured bruise. I suddenly realised I was starving.

“I’m starving,” I said.

“OK, back in a minute.” She stood up and walked out of my vision. She came back with a paper plate with sandwich on it.

“It’s only tuna and sweet corn I’m afraid. It’s all we have. I’m not giving you too much, you’ll only sick it back up. Eat it slowly.”

She helped me sit up and propped my backpack behind me. She put the plate on my lap and a cup of water next to me. I bit into the sandwich. It was delicious, cool tuna, sweet corn and mayonnaise, seemingly straight out of the fridge.  I drank the water and slowly ate the sandwich, watched by twenty one pairs of eyes. Natalie sat in front of me, watching me eat. When I’d finished, I  handed the plate back to her.

She stared at me. “Now, how much of our previous conversation do you remember?

I frowned, trying to remember. “Not much, I seem to remember you hadn’t got any clothes on because you were round the pool, is that right?”

She nodded. “Some of it. You don’t remember anything else?”

I shook my head. While we were speaking the group of people drifted over and sat in a circle round us. A grey haired man shuffled nearer, his pot belly almost touching the sand. His pony tail hung casually over his left shoulder.

“How you feeling fella, you gave us a nasty fright when you were dumped in with us. We though you were going to die. Natalie here and Royston have been looking after you, looks like they pulled you through. I’m Graham Johns.” He held out his hand.

Mechanically, I shook it. “Dumped?” I asked.

He nodded. “That’s right dumped,” He pointed over his shoulder. “Right through there.”

Natalie put her hand on Graham’s arm. “He doesn’t know yet, Graham. I tried to explain when he came round last time but I don’t think any of it stuck.”

Graham sat back. “Oh, sorry. Do you want to tell him or shall I.”

Something tickled my memory. “Hold on,” I said. “Has this got anything to do with an aircraft carrier and green fog?”

Natalie let out a short laugh. “Not an aircraft carrier. I said it was as big as an aircraft carrier. The green fog came out of the bottom of it and covered us. Then we woke up here.”

“We thought we were back at the pool,” said Graham. “But then someone noticed the Ranch was missing, it’s almost next to the pool, we should have been able to see it easily. That’s when we started getting worried.” He paused for effect. “I realised something was wrong almost straight away,” he added portentously, “I know this area like the back of my hand, so I knew we weren’t at the Ranch.”

I glanced down at one of my hands and thought what an absurd saying that was,  I didn’t know the back of my hands at all. I brought both my hands together and compared them. Even the veins on my hands were different from each other. They could have been anyone’s hands. I came out of my musing when I realised Natalie was speaking.

“Sorry what?”

 “I was just saying, Richard started running in the direction of the ranch,” said Natalie. “As he topped that slight rise over there,” she waved her hand in a direction vaguely to my left, “He ran into a wall.”

A man with a nose swollen like a purple balloon nodded in agreement. It contrasted nicely with his fair hair that hung down each side of his face.

“Id bloody hurd too,” He delicately touched his face, “I fink I broke my dose. I’m Rid Nascod byd the way”

I nodded with what I hoped was a sympathetic smile and then looked in the direction Natalie was pointing. “But the desert goes on for miles,” I said. “It’s almost flat as a pancake, you can see right to the horizon.”

Graham shook his head. “It’s all an illusion, we’re in a circular room about thirty yards across.” He looked up. “How high do you reckon that sky is?”

I looked up. The sky was blue with a few white clouds near the horizon. The sun was too bright to look at. I shrugged. “It looks like sky to me.”

Graham got up. “Watch,” He picked up a small stone and threw it up. It hit the sky with a thud and bounced back onto the ground. He sat back down. “What looks like the sky is a roof about twenty feet up. It’s a very good illusion, we even get stars at night.”

“Id’s like a fim sed,” added Richard through his broken nose. 

 “Richard builds film sets,” said Natalie quietly, by way of translation.

“Bloody hell,” I said.

“Quite,” replied Graham. “We said a lot more than that when we realised where we really are.”

“Where? I asked. Already a suspicion was forming in my mind.

“We’re inside that thing,” said Graham. “They must have scooped us up and put us in this big room. We’d been here for about a day when a door opened in the wall and a bunch of animated stick insects brought you in and dumped you on the sand. We were too shocked to do anything. Before we could move, they’d gone back through the door.”

“We looked at the wall, but there’s barely anything to see,” said Natalie. “Just a faint line which you’d never notice unless you knew what to look for.”

“I know it’s a lot take in at one go,” said Graham. “But that’s our situation, it’s best you know straight away.”

I did my best to quell my rising panic, after all I am English, stiff upper lip and all that.

“You’re taking all this very calmly,” I finally said after a few deep breaths. “If it had been me, I’d be running around in circles like a demented chicken.”

“Believe me, we did,” replied Graham. “A lot of the women had hysterics and the men tried battering their way out at the wall until they realised it was a waste of time.”

“So all these stories about alien abductions are true then,” I said.

Graham shook his head. “No, I reckon most of them are kooks with an over-active imagination or just self delusional folk with a tenuous grasp on reality.  If our experience is anything to go on, anyone abducted doesn’t come back.”

This was a lot to take in. I sat silent for a while. Finally, I looked at Graham.

“Why do you think we’ve been taken then?”

Graham shrugged. “We could be specimens for a zoo collecting expedition, or destined for a meat packing plant. I rather doubt the latter. For a start there’s not enough of us and most of us haven’t got enough meat on us to make a decent hamburger. One thing I’m sure of, they don’t see us as civilized beings. They made no effort to contact us. They just rounded us up like wild animals.”

“Hamburgers,” exclaimed a man in the circle sitting round us. He was so thin, I could count his ribs. His pony tail had come askew and his hair was hanging half over his face. “You never said anything about hamburgers.”

Graham sighed. “Don’t worry William, I was only speculating, it doesn’t mean a thing.”

William didn’t look convinced. “Yeah, maybe.” He shook his head and slumped down. “Hamburgers,” he whispered. “We’ve had it.”

Graham whispered to me out of the corner of his mouth. “William is the worrying kind, don’t take any notice of him. He’s also a bit put out at being though of as a wild animal.”

“Right,” I replied slowly, glancing at William. “But it doesn’t answer the question. What about me, I wasn’t naked when they found me, what about my clothes and backpack. They must have realised I wasn’t a wild animal.”

“Who knows what their standards are,” said Natalie. “They may be so far advanced than us, we’re all animals to them. We think they may have treated your rattlesnake bite, but that’s no more than we’d do if we found a sick animal.”

“You think that’s why I survived then?” I asked.

She shrugged, “Could be, a dry bite wouldn’t have put you out for a couple of days and without treatment, the least that would happen would be you’d loose your leg, that’s what rattlesnake venom does to you.”

I looked around. “They must have planned this in advance, you don’t build a swimming pool in five minutes and they wouldn’t bother with all this if we were going to be eaten.”

Graham raised his eyebrows. “What makes you think we’ve only been on board for a few days, we could have been kept on ice for ages while they built the swimming pool.” He looked at his watch. “All our electric watches don’t work anymore, only the old fashioned clockwork ones and they’d run down.” He paused. “How long do you think it takes for a watch battery to run down. We could have been on ice for ages.”

“What like some sort of suspended animation?”

Graham nodded. “It could be years since we were taken, we’ve no way of knowing.” He paused. “On the other hand, it could be whatever they use to pick us up zapped the watch batteries.” He shrugged, “I don’t know, take your choice.”

I was silent for a moment while I digested this thought. His mention of watches prompted me to look at mine. The digital face was blank. I shrugged and  looked up.

“So what happened next?”  I asked.

“We tried contacting them, to let them know we weren’t animals”

The speaker was another hippie type with hair so long I’d mistaken him for a woman from the back. Until he turned round that is and I saw the beard and other male appendages.

“Hi, I’m Jeb Wood,” he said.

“He’s a computer expert,” interrupted a curvaceous woman standing next to him. She wound her watch bracelet round and round her wrist with a nervous intensity. “He’s ever so clever.” She moved her blond hair from her face and made cows eyes at him.

Jeb coloured slightly and stepped slightly away from her. “Yeah, that’s right, I design computer games.” He waved his hand dismissing the subject. “What I was saying was, we tried to contact whoever did this to us.”

“How?” I asked.

“I assumed we could be under observation so I cleaned a patch of sand smooth and drew Pythagoras’ theorem in the sand. The theorem is the square on the hypotenuse of a right angle triangle……..,”

“Is equal to the sum of the squares on the other two sides,” I finished for him, just to let him know I wasn’t a complete dummy. “Yeah, I’m familiar with Pythagoras. So, how did you convey the formula.”

“After drawing the triangle and then the squares on the sides, I put a big O in one square and an X in the other. In the hypotenuse I put an O and X together.”

I nodded. “OK, that should have conveyed the meaning to them if they were watching, so what happened?”

Jeb shrugged. “So far, nothing. No reaction at all.”

“When did you do this, I mean how long have they had time to see the diagram,” I asked.

“The second day we were here,” replied Jeb.

“So that could mean we aren’t under observation or if we are, the diagram means nothing to them,” I replied.

Jeb nodded. “My thoughts exactly.”

            “We’ve got to do something, we can’t go on like this,” said a new voice. The man moved towards me. He was middle aged and nearly bald but to make up for it, he had the most ferocious mat of body hair I’d ever seen. “Hi there, I’m Royston Howard. We’ve been here for nearly six days now according to my watch.” He flashed a gold Rolex almost hidden by the hair on his arm. “Before we were taken we had a variety of sandwiches in a blue cool box. So far, all they’ve given us is a blue cool box full of tuna and sweet corn sandwiches. If it goes on like this for too long, we’re going to suffer from vitamin and mineral deficiencies. Man does not live on tuna and sweet corn sandwiches alone. I’m a doctor,” he added sagely, “I know about these things.”

I remembered now Natalie telling me about the sandwiches.

“Are you telling me that because there was only tuna and sweet corn sandwiches left in the cool box, that’s all they give you to eat.”

Royston nodded. “That’s right, and we don’t like tuna and sweet corn much.”

There was a murmur of agreement from the small crowd.  A lone voice piped up. “I do,” The dirty looks he got from the people round him made it clear he was in a minority.

“The food comes in an cool box regular as clockwork through a trapdoor in a rock” continued Royston.  “Each time we hope it’ll be something different, but no, it’s always tuna and sweet corn.”

The elderly woman wearing my shirt nodded in agreement. The woman with the watch stopped winding the bracelet round her wrist so she could look at the dial.

“If they keep to schedule, another box is due in a few minutes, they’re very regular, you could set your watch by them.” She laughed with a succession hiccupping whoops, the noise fading to small squeaks as she ran out of breath . She sounded like an asthmatic cat trying to bring up a fur ball while biting on a mouse. I could now understand Jeb’s discomfort at being the centre of her attention.

The women wearing my shirt raised her eyebrows. “Don’t mind Emily, she always laughs at her own jokes,” she said.

I struggled to move myself. “Help me up,” I said to Natalie. “I’ve got to see this for myself.”

Natalie and Royston helped me to my feet. Once I was upright, I felt dizzy for a second, but it soon passed. “Lead on,” I said.

We walked past a collection of plastic tables and chairs round a small swimming pool. Next to the tables were a pile of blue cool boxes.

“They don’t ask for the empties back then,” I said.

Royston shook his head. “If they keep us here long enough we’re going to run out of space. Three boxes a day, it soon mounts up.”

We continued past the boxes until we came to a large rock, seemingly sticking out of the sand. On closer inspection I realised it blended seamlessly with the wall. The wall was coloured to match the sand and half way up, a horizon line cut the wall in half. From ten feet away the illusion was perfect. I couldn’t see any sign of a trapdoor on the rough surface.

“Now what?” I asked.

“Just keep watching,” said Natalie. The crowd of us stood in front of the rock and waited while the artificial desert heat slowly fried my brains.

“About now,” someone said.

Almost on cue, a door slid open in the rock, exposing a small chamber. A metallic ramp shot down to the sand like a chameleons tongue. A blue cool box appeared in the chamber and slid down the ramp to land with a thump in the sand. Almost immediately, the ramp retracted as fast as it had come out and the door slid shut.

I looked at Natalie and Graham. “Is that it, no other contact?”

Graham shook his head. “Nope, during the day, one cool box every four hours, that’s it.”

“Has anyone tried climbing into the hole, it must be a way out of here.”

Natalie shook her head. “You didn’t get a good look at the hole, we’ve had plenty of time to study it. It’s just a square chamber with no way out except towards us. Anyway, the cool box almost fills the chamber and by the time it’s slid down the ramp, it’s too late, the ramp goes back in and the door shuts.”

A man bent down and opened the box. He was younger than Royston and had the sort of muscles that only come with extensive exercise. He was one of the few men in the group that didn’t have shoulder length hair. “Guess what,” he said in mock surprise, “Tuna and sweet corn sandwiches.”

“Oh bugger,” moaned Royston, “I can feel my vitamin deficiencies growing already.”

The man picked up the cool box and turned to me. “I’m Peter Jefferies by the way, come on let’s have something to eat, you can wash away the taste with a  Scotch.” He paused. “Or would you prefer bottles of iced water, we have that too.”

“Scotch, you have Scotch?” I asked in amazement.

Peter nodded.

“What about the sandwiches, are they just ordinary sandwiches,” I asked.

“Yup,” replied Peter, “Each one in its own little wrap, just like the ones back home.”

I remembered the sandwich Natalie had given me when I woke up.

“Where on Earth do the stick insects get all that from,”  I wondered, “I can’t imagine a room full of stick insects making sandwiches just for us, and what about the Scotch, is it real?”

Peter lifted the bottle out of the cool box and showed it me. A label with a well known brand of Scotch whiskey was stuck to the bottle.

“And  they’ve been delivering this three times a day since you’ve been here?”

Peter nodded again. “So far.”

I thought for a minute. “Well, they must have the most incredible store of supplies or  they’re  making it here. The water I can accept, but sandwiches and Scotch, the mind boggles.”

The mention of water brought to mind a small discomfort that had been growing steadily.

“Um, before I drink anything, where do you er, go. I haven’t seen any toilets.”

Peter pointed to another rock ten or so yards away. “Behind there, be careful where you dig, we all use that area.”

Behind the rock, I carefully scraped a hole in the sand, grateful I still had my hiking boots on. As I pushed the sand aside with my boot, I hit a hard surface, the sand was only about six inches deep. What the hell. I peed into the hole, watching the sand slowly absorb the water, wondering idly how long it would be before the place became uninhabitable. As I zipped up my shorts, I looked round the rock and realised apart from the woman wearing my shirt, I was the only one with clothes on. I thought for a moment maybe I should undress in a show of solidarity but then thought sod it, the naked Natalie was far too attractive to face undressed. There were quite a few attractive females in the crowd, it would be too embarrassing to lose control in front of all that naked flesh. I walked back to Graham with another thought on my mind.

“Graham, it’s ok having a pee, but what about having a dump. There’s no paper and nowhere to wash my hands afterwards.”

Graham grinned. “Do what the Arabs do in the desert old son, only eat with the right hand. You know what the left hand is for. Scour your hand in the sand and then go for a dip in the pool. The water is constantly changed so the pool stays clean.”

“Bloody hell, this is awful,” I replied.

Graham nodded. “Sure is,” he said with a grin.

Natalie joined us. “Oliver I’ve been thinking about your spare clothes. Some of the girls are very light skinned. If they find they’re having a problem with the sun,  perhaps you could donate some of your clothes and the spares in your pack, I’m sure they’d appreciate it.”

I nodded. “Yeah, I can do that.”

The mention of my pack reminded me I hadn’t looked in it since my arrival. I walked over to where it lay on the sand and pulled it open.  My one man tent and sleeping bag, my spare shirts, shorts and underclothes were all still there, neatly folded along with my passport and maps of Arizona. My small collection of tinned food, the camping gas stove, my cigarettes and lighter, all the cooking utensils and my wind-up shaver were gone. I rubbed my chin, feeling the bristles rasping against my hand. I was going to look rather scruffy in a few days, I thought ruefully. I was one of those unfortunate men who’s beard did not grow evenly. I tried to grow one once, but gave it up after a girlfriend casually remarked all I needed was an old raincoat tied up with string and a bottle of meths and I’d look just like the winos inhabiting the less salubrious parts of town. I shaved straight away after that and never attempted to grow a beard again. I tapped the pack and looked at Natalie.  “My tins of food are missing, I suppose you ate those.”

Natalie shook her head. “No the only thing we’ve taken is one of your shirts, we took it for Mrs. Bennet, she was suffering from sun burn. She’d only just joined us the day before we were taken and she hadn’t had time to get acclimatised. We haven’t any sun cream for her and a lady of her age has very thin skin. We didn’t think you’d mind.”

“No, that’s no problem,” I replied. I then had a thought. “If you didn’t take the food, that must mean your stick insects must have gone through my pack and taken the tins. Tins are manufactured goods, and what about my cigarettes and lighter and my cooking utensils, surely they must have realised I wasn’t a wild animal.”

Natalie shrugged. “Who knows what they thought, all we know is they brought you in and dumped you on the sand.”

The thought of my missing cigarettes suddenly upped my craving for one.

“I could really do with a fag right now,” I said.

Natalie’s eyes widened.

“You’re not gay, are you?” she asked.

The question caught me by surprise. “Gay, no I’m bloody well not,” I answered, “What made you ask that?”  Then the penny dropped. “Oh, when I said I could do with a fag. That’s slang for a cigarette in England.”

She laughed, “Oh, for a minute, I thought,” she waved her hand, brushing the thought aside.

“Someone said America and England are two countries divided by the same language,” I said.

“Oh yeah, who was that,” she asked.

I shook my head. “No idea, but it was probably someone very clever.”

She thought for a minute. “Do you think that’s true, I thought we both spoke the same language.”

“Well our pavements are your sidewalks, and our roads are your pavements. Our biscuits are your cookies, and as far as I can tell, the word fanny has a totally different meaning depending which side of the Atlantic you’re on.”

“So what does fanny mean in England,” she asked.

I told her.

“Goodness, I’ll have to be careful what I say if I ever visit England,” she said with a smile. Her smile dropped as she looked around. “Not that there’s much chance of that.” she added.

I dug into my pack to see if anything else was missing.

“The bastards have taken my camera,” I said, “There were about four months of pictures on that. They’ve taken my wallet as well. It had all my money and cards in it.”

Natalie smiled. “Perhaps they want to raid your bank account,” she said.

“Wouldn’t do them any good,” I replied, “I only keep about a thousand pounds in the account. When it gets low, I transfer more money from another account. My bank manager arranged that for me, just in case I got robbed.”

Natalie nodded. “Good idea,” she said. She looked at my pack. “Anything else missing? We don’t know what you started with so it’s no use asking us.”

I dug into the pack again. “Let’s see,” I said.

The plastic water bottle was in its pocket next to my compass. I shook the bottle and heard a small rattle.

“They’ve left me some water,” I said, “but they seemed to have taken everything made of metal.”

I looked at the compass. The needle resolutely pointed in one direction. “That’s north,” I said.

Natalie grimaced. “Yeah, north of what,” she replied.

I shrugged and put the compass back in the pack. “It might come in useful if we ever get out of here,” I said.

She looked up with a start. “You think that’s possible, most of the others seem to have given up once they realised where we are.”

I thought for a moment. “Well we got in here somehow, it should be possible to find a way out. What we’d find outside this room is another matter.”

Natalie nodded. “What we need is help from International Rescue,” she smiled. “You know, that old television program with the puppets.”

I smiled back. “Yeah we could call them up.” I paused. “That’s a point, what happened to my mobile phone,”  I patted my shirt pocket, “I seem to remember I’d left it in here.”

“It’s in the bottom of your pack,” replied Natalie. “As soon as we saw it in your pocket, we tried it. It wouldn’t work, there was no signal.”

“What, the battery was flat?”

“Oh no, the battery is OK, we just can’t receive a signal in here.” Her face fell. “Or we’re so far away from Earth the signal can’t reach us.”

“Funny, the watch batteries have run down, but my phone battery still has a charge.”

Natalie shrugged. “Just one more strange thing. In the situation we’re in, it’s par for the course.”

I nodded glumly, “Yeah.” I paused wondering how to broach a sensitive topic. “Natalie, while I was out, how did I, you know, pass water and wot not.”

She smiled. “I had to strip you so you didn’t soil yourself. I washed you all over regularly to try and keep your fever down. When you started coming round, I dressed you again. I though it might be a bit of a shock if you woke up with no clothes on.”

“Oh right, I’ve no secrets from you then.”

Her smile faded. “I was very professional, I am a nurse you know.”

“Sorry no offence meant.”

She gave a mock curtsey. “None taken.”

Chapter 4 New Chapter

   I explored our small enclosure with Natalie by my side, I was pretty well recovered and reasonably steady on my feet, but I didn’t mind if she wanted to continue to nurse me.  I walked round the wall hoping for something to satisfy my curiosity, but all I saw was sand, a few scrubby plants and some large rocks. The rocks were about six feet high and didn’t look like anything I’d seen before in the desert. I turned to Natalie.

“I’d been hiking through the desert for a couple of days before I was picked up, but I’ve never seen rocks dotted about like this. I think your stick insects have got their geology mixed up.”

Natalie smiled at me, walked to the nearest rock and bent down next to it.

“Watch,” she said.

She put her hands under the rock and lifted one side right off the sand.

“They aren’t real, the rocks are hollow, just something to keep the animals happy in their cell.” She dropped the rock back onto the sand.

I tapped the rock. “Are they all like that?” I asked.

She nodded, “All except the one the cool box comes out of,” She gave a short laugh, “That one’s as solid as a rock.” She kicked at one of the scrubby plants. “They’re made out of some sort of plastic, the whole place is a fake.”

“You called this place a cell, surely it’s more like an animal enclosure.”

She shrugged. “We’re stuck in here and we can’t get out, that’s a cell in my book.”

“Yeah, I suppose you’re right,” I said.

I looked around. The view was hardly stimulating, I wondered how long I’d have to spend in this place. My exploration round the cell was the first time I’d walked any distance since I’d woken up and the sweat was pouring off me. The stick insects had really gone to town when they’d re-created the desert they’d found us in, if anything I thought, they’d overdone it a bit with the heat. I’d already stripped off my shirt, leaving my tee shirt on and stuffing the shirt in my pack.  As we walked back to the tables, Natalie waved her arm at the rest of the group round the pool.

“Now you’re back with us, I suppose I ought to let you know who we all are. I know they told you earlier but I don’t suppose much of it stuck, you were pretty well out of it,”

I didn’t tell her it wouldn’t be much use, I was terrible remembering names, but I nodded in agreement anyway.

“You already know Graham and Royston of course, and Richard you must remember.”

I nodded. “Yeah, his broken nose is rather memorable,” I replied with a grin.

She smiled. “Jeb is the one that did the diagram in the sand and William Hastings is the one with the long hair and the ribs like a xylophone. Peter Jefferies is the one with the muscles, I think he was training for the Mr. California competition.” She paused. “Not much chance of that now, of course. The two elderly ladies are Edna Bennet and Doris Ash. Edna is the one wearing your shirt, the curvy blond with the watch is Emily Hillson and next to her is Lisa Drake and Adam Dowel.”

Her hand was pointing back and forth as if she was a teacher counting her charges in a playground. I was hopelessly mixed up by now, but Natalie ignored my glazed look and carried on.

“On the other side of the pool are Tony Williams and Susan Armatige and the little girl next to them is Mary Scottia. Mark Rice is sitting in the chair behind her. She looked around. “Now, who’s left.” The finger pointing started again. “ Right, over there is David Iverson and Amy Jackson and the three laying on the sand behind them are Carol Edwards, Pamela Roach and Jennifer Pauli. Carol’s the tall one and Pam is the one with the red hair.” She turned to face me, “That’s it, now you know us all.”

I didn’t have the heart to tell her that I’d forgotten most of the names already but nodded. “Right,” I said, “got it.”

As we returned to the pool, I let my eyes wander over the group. It was funny, I already had grown used to seeing all of them naked and almost accepted it as normal. Until one of the girls did something like bending over a cool box to take out a sandwich for example.  I had to jerk my head around so I wouldn’t be caught staring, but the hot rush of blood to the loins as a result of the view made me glad I’d decided to keep my clothes on.     

The days passed in a mind-numbing haze of boredom with only the arrival of the cool boxes to break the monotony. The empty boxes mounted up until they became a nuisance so they were moved away from the pool to the edge of the room. When the night came, the temperature didn’t drop like a real desert, so  there was no relief from the heat. Natalie, Royston, Graham, Richard and myself, sat together, endlessly discussing our situation and what we could do about it. The trouble was, we had virtually no idea where we really were and what the future held for us. I’d expected some of the younger men to join in, but they seemed to have lost interest in escaping. Every now and then they would disappear behind the rocks with one of the girls for half an hour or so, reappearing with flushed faces. I reckon Peter Jefferies had squired most of  the young women in the group. Emily seemed to follow Jeb around like a stray cat that had found someone to feed it, but as far as I could tell, they didn’t go behind the rocks like the others. Richard hadn’t joined in the fun, perhaps he thought his broken nose and bruised face would seriously hamper his chances with the girls. He now had a kaleidoscope of blues, purple and browns that covered half his face. I think Royston and Graham stuck together because they were the oldest men in the group and Natalie for protection. She’d already had to rebuff the attentions of some of the younger men. After the last incident, Graham moodily reflected that the law of the jungle was developing. After that Natalie rarely left our company. Royston regaled us with, to his mind, amusing anecdotes from his doctors practice. After a couple of days, it became a bit wearing, but we put up with it for the sake of group harmony.

            Edna Bennet had spent her time wandering around the sand, digging little holes here and there, only joining the group when the food boxes arrived, but after a few days, she came over to our little group. We shuffled round on the sand to make room for her in the circle. She sat down and looked at us in turn.

“I’ve heard you talking off and on, any luck with your escape plans?” she asked.

“Not so far Mrs Bennet,” I replied. “Any contributions would be welcome.”

She smiled. “Call me Edna my dear, I don’t think we need to be formal considering our circumstances.”

“OK, Edna it is,” I replied. “Got any ideas?”

She lent forward, a conspiratorial look on her face. “Well as a matter of fact I have,” she said.

We all lent forward.

“I’ve been doing a lot of thinking,” she began.

Graham nodded. “Yeah, we noticed you’d been very quite, we thought maybe the frolics going on behind the rocks were upsetting you.”

She waved a hand in dismissal. “Oh, I don’t care about that, its no worse than the things I got up to in my younger days.”

The thought of Edna Bennet cavorting naked behind the rocks was rather unsettling. I tried to put the image out of my mind.

Edna continued. “When we first landed up in here, some of us tried to prise open the door Oliver had been brought through and the one that delivers the cool boxes.” She looked around. “We had no luck did we.”

Graham nodded in agreement.

“We tried the walls and the floor with the same result, sharp stones barely scratch what ever it’s made of.” She paused. “But, we haven’t tried the roof.”

We all looked up.

“Edna,” said Natalie, “the roof is twenty feet up.”

Edna pointed to the pile of cool boxes. “We’ve already got quite a collection of those. I reckon in a few more days we’d have enough to reach the roof if we piled them up.”

“Hang on Edna,” I said, “what makes you think the roof would be any easier to get through than the walls or floor.”

“We were all in shock when we were brought here, we were over-whelmed at what had happened. We were so shocked we haven’t really thought about the technology surrounding us.” She pointed at the roof. “What we have here is an advanced version of the son-et-lumiere shows I’ve seen in the past.”

“Son-et-lumiere?” Queried Richard. His diction was improving as his nose healed.

“Sound and light show,” replied Edna. “We were so awestruck by the illusion of the sun moving across the sky and the stars at night, we never thought about what was behind it.”

“So, what is behind it?” asked Natalie.

“Projectors,” said Edna. “The shows I’ve been to have a number of projectors throwing their pictures onto a screen or a roof.”

“Like a planetarium,” said Royston.

Edna nodded. “Exactly. Now I’ve done some prospecting and I haven’t found any projectors in here so they must be above the roof shining their pictures down so we can see them. You realise what that means don’t you.”

We all looked blank.

“The roof must be transparent, otherwise we’d never see anything,” she said, “that means it must be either glass or a transparent plastic, and therefore easier to break through,”

“It could be made of metal,” I said,” though in all my engineering experience, I’ve never heard of a transparent metal. You could be right Edna.”

Natalie clapped her hands in delight. “Edna, you’re a genius.” She looked around the group. “How come none of you thought of that.”

We all shrugged.

“Dumb, I guess,” replied Royston. He looked at Edna. “How did you come up with this idea anyway?”

“I told you, I’ve been doing a lot of thinking,” she replied. “In my younger days, me and my late husband ran an architectural business. That’s why I don’t think the roof would be unreasonable strong. The walls and floor yes, but the roof would be just as strong as it needs to be. Plus the fact it’s way out of our reach. I think whoever made this place would only make the roof strong enough to support itself. It could be their big mistake.” She paused. “If they regard us as animals, it might not occur to them we could make use of the cool boxes. That could be another mistake they’ve made.”

“There is one problem,” I said. “We could be under observation. If your stick insects saw us trying to break out, they could try and stop us.”

“You’ve got a point there,” said Graham. “But think about it. During the day we just sit around the pool or eat. Well, some of us anyway. At night we sleep. I bet my bottom dollar if we are under observation, they would have got used to our routine by now. It’s only human nature to take things for granted, I bet they only look on us at intervals.”

“They aren’t human,” said Royston dryly. “Anyway, they could have automatic equipment watching us.”

“Well I think it’s worth taking a chance,” interrupted Natalie hotly. “They didn’t take any notice of Jeb’s diagram, it’s been days since he drew it, to me that says they aren’t watching us. Anyway, what else can we do, just sit here and wait for whatever they’ve got planned for us?”

I nodded in agreement. “I’m with Natalie on this, We’ve got to take a chance. If we try it at night we’ve got a better chance they won’t be watching us. Grahams point about them getting used to our routine is good, even if they are stick insects.”

So it was decided, we’d try to break out. All we had to do was convince the others it was a good idea and then wait until we had enough cool boxes to reach the roof.

Chapter 5 New Chapter

Clic

CHAPTER 5

The next morning the blue cool boxes arrived as usual. When everyone was gathered round the tables slowly masticating their way through the tuna and sweet corn sandwiches, Royston tapped on a table to get their attention.

“All right folks, could I have your attention for a minute?”

The group looked at him expectantly.

“We’re all pretty certain of our situation here,” began Royston. “What I’d like to know is, do you want to get out of here.”

“I should think that was obvious,” retorted Peter. “What makes you think we don’t want to get out.”

“Well, it seems to me, some of you seem to think your recreation activities are more important,” said Royston rather pompously.

“Huh?” said Peter.

“I think Royston means some of you should think less about shagging each other and more about getting out of here,” said Graham.

Peter smiled sheepishly. “Well, it it’s a good way to pass the time, there’s nothing else to do around here.”

I noticed a few of the girls scowling at him, I think his last remark had seriously reduced his chances of future romps behind the rocks.

“Anyway, leaving that aside, Edna here has come up with a plan for escape. Does anyone want to hear it?” asked Royston.

The group nodded vigorously, their heads bobbing up and down like a bunch of nodding  dogs in a car rear window.  Edna sat forward in her chair and outlined her plan of escape. As she talked a few heads turned to look at the pile of cool boxes piled against the wall. Emily fiddled with the watch on her wrist. She looked up.

“Do you know, I think that could work, it’s the first bit of good news I’ve heard since we got here.” She let out one of her braying laughs. “What do you think people, shall we give it a go?” She jumped up and down with excitement. All she needed was a couple of pom-poms and she’d look just like the football cheer leaders I’d seen on TV. Then I changed my mind. The cheer leaders I’d seen were all wearing clothes, Emily’s nudity added a certain extra something.

“Shall we give it a go,” she said again.

The nodding started again.

“Well, thanks for the vote of confidence Emily,” said Edna, “the rest of you are nodding your heads, is that a yes?”

The group gave a little cheer, and with one voice shouted, “Yes.”

“I think we all agree with Emily,” said Peter, “we’ll go with Edna’s plan.”

“We should all spread out and search the ground for sharp stones,” said Edna, “if we can find flint that would be perfect, but if they’ve recreated the desert where we were taken from, I don’t think we’ll find any.”

“Why not?” asked a girl. She was rather plump with a dark all over tan.

“Wrong sort of geology, Lisa,” replied Edna.

“You’re a geologist too?”

Edna shook her head. “No Lisa, but when you get to my age, you tend to know a little bit about everything. Take my word for it, I don’t think you’ll find any flint.”

It seemed Edna had spoken, we wouldn’t find flint. Natalie had told me Lisa’s  name and I’d promptly forgotten it. I repeated it in my mind a few times. Lisa, Lisa. I knew it wouldn’t do any good. I was sure by the next day, I’d have forgotten again. It was my one weakness, Ask me to quote the sine rule in trigonometry and I could reel it off pat. Names were another matter. Friends of my parents were just faces to me, it could be embarrassing to meet them in the street, desperately trying to remember who the hell they were, when they so obviously knew me.

         After an hour or so of searching the group arrived back at the pool with their collection of stones. We piled them on a table and separated them into two groups. 

I pushed one group to one side.

“I don’t think these will be any good, too soft and crumbly.”

We checked the other pile of  stones, Edna was right, there were no flints but some of the stones were hard and when hit, broke with a sharp edge.

Royston picked up a stone and tossed it gently from hand to hand. “We’ve entered the stone age folks,” he said with a grin.

I looked at the stone he was tossing into the air and wondered what were our chances of cutting through the roof. As I pondered that question, another thought rose to the front of my brain.

“I’ve just had a thought.” I said.

It must have been the way I spoke that stopped everyone talking. They all looked at me expectantly.

“A good thought or a bad one,” asked Royston, dropping his stone.

“Could be bad,” I replied. “Supposing this place is air tight, keeping our breathing air in. There could be a vacuum on the other side of the roof.”

Richard whistled, or tried to through his bruised face. It came out like a peep from a rusty tin whistle. He gave up on the whistle and nodded his head.

“If there is a vacuum and we cut a hole in the roof.” He spread his fingers in a sharp gesture. “Poof, all our air goes out the hole.”

“Christ,” said a girl with bright red hair.

I surprised myself by remembering her name. It must have been Pamela’s red hair that jogged my memory.

“I wouldn’t think that’s likely,” said Jeb. “If Edna is right, there’s a lot of equipment above our roof, whoever runs this ship would hardly want to work in a vacuum.”

“You’re probably right,” agreed Graham. “On the other hand there doesn’t necessarily have to be air up there. We don’t know what the stick insects breathe. It could be methane or something.”

“Can we breathe methane?” asked Emily.

Royston raised his eyes to heaven “Not for long,” he said sagely.

I had a thought. “What about when the stick insects brought me in, Were they wearing breathing gear. If they were, it could indicate they don’t breath air like we do.”

Royston gave a short laugh. “How could we tell Oliver, they looked so weird, they could have been wearing Halloween masks for all we knew.”

“You all call them stick insects but you’ve never really described what they looked like, were they really like insects?” I asked.

Royston thought for a moment. “You’ve got to realise we only saw them for a second or two. There were four BBJ’s, holding each of your arms and legs.”

I held up my hand, interrupting him. “Hang on, BBJ’s? I asked.

Royston smiled. “Big Brown Jobs, the others thought they looked like stick insects, so I went along with it. Anyway, they came out of a door in the wall and dumped you down. Before we could react, they’d turned round and gone back through the door. We all rushed over to you, at first we thought you were dead. Then we thought to look at the wall. The door they’d come through was barely visible, if you hadn’t known it was there, you would never have noticed the faint line in the wall.”

“Yeah, but what about the stick insects, what did they look like?”

Royston pursed his lips and lent on a table as if he was about to start a lecture. “Well, they were tall, well over six feet and very thin and they walked upright. They had two sets of arms, the upper arms where ours are and the other arms,” he briefly touched the side of his chest, “about here. They had  a thin elongated head. That’s why we called them insects, because of the extra arms. I didn’t notice much else.”

“We couldn’t tell if they were wearing clothes or not,” added Peter.

“That’s right,” said Natalie. “They were brown and sort of knobbly, it could have been tight fitting clothing, we couldn’t tell from the short time we saw them.”

“But you think they were alive, they weren’t robots or something,” I asked.

Graham shook his head. “They looked alive to me,

I think we were seeing the things running this ship.”

They all looked at me. “So what do we do,” asked Peter.

I took a deep breath. “ I think it’s worth a try,” I said. “I think we should risk it.”

They all nodded slowly. So it was agreed, we’d try to break out.

       When the last cool box of the day arrived we casually piled the box with the others against the wall. Each box was about two feet square so, so we already had quite a pile on the sand. We built them up like a staircase against the wall and stood back estimating how many more we’d need to reach the top.

“I reckon another couple of days should do it,” said Royston.

I tried climbing up a couple of steps. The boxes wobbled alarmingly under my feet. I backed down the steps onto the sand.

“I think we should build them two deep,” I said.

“I wouldn’t want that lot collapsing if I was near the top.”

“That’d take another six or seven days,” complained  Peter.

“So what,” replied Graham, “we’ve got all the time in the world.”

“You don’t know that,” said William gloomily. “We could be only days away from the meat packing plant.”

We all looked at each other. The fact Graham didn’t think it likely we’d be turned into burgers didn’t seem quite so reassuring now.

“Perhaps one deep would be all right,” I said, rapidly changing my mind.

“It might be better if we dug down through the sand and started the pile on the  hard surface,” said Edna, “The boxes wouldn’t wobble so much then.”

As usual, Edna was right. After half an hour of dismantling our steps and scraping away the sand, we were ready to start building again. By the time the steps were rebuilt it was nearly dark. The ‘sun’ had sunk below the horizon and the sky was a deep purple dotted with small clouds. I looked up.

“You’ve got to hand it to them, they put on a good show.” I said.

“I’d like to hand those bastards my fist in whatever they use for a mouth,” replied Peter sourly. “I reckon I could break one of those stick insects in half with one hand.”

“They may be bastards,” retorted Graham, “But they’re clever bastards. Look what they’ve done to us.”

“I wouldn’t advise attacking them if they come in here again,” interrupted Edna, “We don’t know how they’d react.”

Looking at Peter’s expression she elaborated. “How would you react if some animals you’d captured turned out to be dangerous. You might consider getting rid of them and capturing a new lot.”

Peter nodded slowly. “Yeah,” he said, “you’re probably right.”

On that cheery note we all hunkered down on the sand and went to sleep.

Chapter 6 New Chapter

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CHAPTER 6

Three days later the stack of cool boxes were within three feet of the roof. As I was the only engineer among the group, I was volunteered by the rest to go up the steps and see if the roof could be cut through. I cautiously climbed the boxes, trying to ignore the wobbling plastic under my feet. I kept my chest close to the wall until I reached the top, then slowly squatted

down. I pulled a stone from my pocket and reached up. The stone made a mark in the roof and as I scraped harder, I could feel I was making a fair size groove. After half an hour, my arms were aching so I climbed back down.

“Well?” Queried Natalie.

“It is plastic,” I said with a nod at Edna. “I can make a groove in it, but it’s going to take some time to cut through.”

“I’ll take over if you want,” said Peter, “But I don’t fancy climbing all that way with a sharp rock in my hand.” He looked pointedly at my shorts. “You could lend me your shorts while I’m up there. Then I could stick the rock in the back pocket like you did.”

I didn’t fancy that at all. I had noticed he wasn’t too careful about washing after his romps.  My shorts would be in intimate contact with his bits that had seen too much action. I shook my head.

“I’ll follow you up and pass the rock to you when you get to the top, ok?”

He shrugged. “Yeah, ok,” he said.

The boxes took our combined weight easily. When he reached the top, I took the rock from my pocket and passed it up. Then I made the mistake of looking up. Even in the starlight, I could see Peter had a bum like a hairy gorilla. Not a sight I wanted to see. I hastily looked away, nearly tipping myself off the boxes as I jerked my head round. Peter looked down at me.

“All right?” he asked.

“Yeah, just slipped a bit that’s all,” I replied as nonchalantly as I could. When the boxes stopped wobbling I climbed down.

We took it in turns through the night, taking about half an hour each. Working in such a cramped position with our arms above our heads, half an hour was about all anyone could manage. All of the women in the group except Edna took part but only one of them asked me to follow her up and pass her the rock. Doris introduced herself quite formally as she asked if she could have a go at cutting the plastic, which was rather surreal considering our situation. Doris was nearly as old as Edna, so I kept my gaze firmly downwards as she took the rock from me. By the end of the night we had a furrow about two feet long and had almost scored our way through the plastic. It fell to me to make the final cut through. I cautiously worked the sharp point of the stone through the plastic and put my ear to the hole. There was no whistle of escaping air and when I sniffed at the hole, there was no smell of methane or other nasties, we seemed to be in luck. I looked down at the upturned faces, a sea of grey smudges in the phoney starlight. I raised my hand with my thumb up. A few arms waved back at me. A couple of cheers rang out, cut off quickly by the rest of the group hissing them into silence. I nodded back at them and reached up again. I put the point of the stone in the furrow and holding it in both hands, scored down the length of the cut, breaking through the plastic. We only needed three more cuts like that and we’d have a square opening to whatever lay above the roof.       

       We slept during the next day, recovering from our nocturnal exertions. We woke in the late afternoon and waited impatiently for nightfall. Each night we managed another cut in the roof and as the time came to complete the square, our anxiety rose. Had the stick insects noticed what we were doing?      

The third evening after we’d started cutting, we sat in a group discussing what we would find above the roof.

“I don’t think we should cut right through,” I said, “The plastic is flexible, we can fold it up like a trapdoor. We can pull it back down during the day, that way it won’t be so noticeable”.

Natalie nodded. “Yeah, if the stick insects do come in, a big hole in the roof might attract unwelcome attention. They’re less likely to see anything if the hole is almost closed.” She punched my arm. “Good thinking Ollie.”

She must have hit a nerve because the pain went right down to my little finger. I tried to pretend it didn’t hurt.

The sun finally set and we started on the final cut. After several hours one of the girls came down and announced the plastic was almost through. She was a tiny girl, barely five feet tall. She was covered in sweat from her exertions. She sat down on the sand with a thump.

Natalie ran over to her and put her arms on the girls shoulders. “Mary Scottia, didn’t I tell you not to over exert yourself.”

Mary looked up. “I want to help, I can’t leave it all to the others.”

Natalie patted her shoulder. “You’ve done enough, we’ll take over now.” She stood up and walked over to me and held out the stone she’d taken from Mary.

I nodded at Mary as I took the stone from Natalie. “Is she all right?” I asked.

Natalie shook her head. “Mary has just recovered from glandular fever, she came to the ranch to convalesce.”

I frowned. “Some convalescence,” I said.

Natalie nodded. “Anyway, we can’t be morbid, we have work to do. Or you do.” She slapped me on the back. “Git up them stairs.” 

I smiled and put my foot on the first cool box.

“Wish me luck,” I said.

Mary had been a bit optimistic in her evaluation of the depth of the cut. It took me half an hour hard scraping before I could feel the plastic moving. I gently pushed with my fingers, flexing the panel upwards. I pushed harder and the panel folded up like a trapdoor. I stuck my head through the opening and looked around. About six feet above my head, a smooth surface reflected the pale glow from the roof.  After a couple of minutes, I climbed back down.

“Well what did you see?” asked Royston.

“Nothing,” I replied. “There’s a space above our roof and some sort of upright next to the hole, but it looks like there’s nothing much else up there.”

“No projectors?” asked Edna.

I shook my head. “It’s too dark to make out any details, the only thing I could see were the stars on the upper surface of our roof, maybe we’ll see more when the daylight comes,”

Edna sat down, a puzzled look on her face. She looked up. “I was certain there’d be projectors above our roof,” she said. “If there’s not, what is making the sun and clouds we see during the day and the stars at night.”

I shrugged. “Can’t help you there, Edna,” I replied.

“Hold on,” said Jeb, “You could see the stars on the upper surface?”

I nodded.

“And no lights on the upper roof shining down onto our roof?”

“Nope.”

Jeb thought for a moment. “I reckon the roof is a TFT,  the images must be in the plastic in our roof.”

We all looked blank.

“TFT?” queried Natalie.

“Thin film technology,” replied Jeb, “Like a flat screen computer monitor.” He looked up at the hole in the roof. “Hang on a minute, I want to check something.”

With that he scrambled up the steps and in the dim light we could see him examining the plastic flap. After a few moments he climbed back down.

“I was right,” he said with a grin. “The trap door is blank because we must have cut through the connections, but the rest of the roof is like Ollie said, stars shining on both faces.”

Natalie stood with her hands on her hips. “So where does this get us. Any nearer to getting us out of here?”

The grin vanished from Jeb’s face. “I was just interested that’s all,” he said.

I held up my hand as Natalie was about to speak again. “Jeb, how advanced is that roof compared to, say one of our computer monitors or a flat TV?”

Jeb shrugged. “I dunno, it’s more advanced, but not that much. The computing power behind it pretty standard, I bet I could write a computer program that would replicate a day and night illusion.” He paused and waved his arms round the cell. “Not on a scale as big as this maybe, but I could duplicate it.”

Natalie fixed me with a steely eye. “Is this just boys techi talk or is there some point to this conversation.”

“I think it gives us an idea of the level of development the stick insects have.” I replied. “I reckon they’re not more than fifty to a hundred years ahead of us. They’re not supermen. It gives us an idea what we’re going to be up against if we break out of here.”

“Only fifty to a hundred years?” asked Royston. “Come, come, the thing that flew over us must be more advanced than that.”

I shook my head. “We’ve gone from the first powered flight by the Wright brothers to landing on the moon in one persons life time. I know that for a fact. My old Nan was born in 1902. She was nearly eighty when she died. Just think what she could have seen if she’d lived another fifty years.”

Emily’s face fell. For a second she stopped fiddling with her watch.  “Oh Oliver, I’m sorry about your Nan.”

I stared at her and realised she really meant it. “It’s all right Emily, it was a few years ago, I’m over it now.”

Her face brighten. “Oh good,” she gushed. “I’m so glad Oliver.”

I realised then that Emily wasn’t the sharpest tool in the box, still her heart was in the right place, so I suppose that was something. I noticed Natalie was smiling at my reaction to Emily’s commiserations. I walked over to her and spoke quietly in her ear.

“Don’t think I’m being unkind, but Emily doesn’t seem quite as bright as the rest of you. I thought you said you were all professional people.”

“We are,” she replied. “Emily’s fifty year old boy friend is, but I’m afraid Emily isn’t.”

I nodded with understanding.

“He was back at the ranch when we were taken. Poor Emily, I think he was regretting bringing her here. After a couple of days he started ignoring her. That’s when she transferred her attentions to Jeb.”

I noticed Jeb was still trying to keep his distance from her.

Royston clapped his hands to get our attention. “We’ve done all we can for tonight. I vote we get some sleep now and have a good look at the roof in the morning.”

There were general nods of agreement and we spread out to find sleeping room.

Jeb yawned and stretched his arms till his joints cracked. “I’ll go for that,” he said. He lay down on the sand and relaxed. He was very relaxed. He only twitched slightly as Emily lay next to him.

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Chapter 7 New Chapter

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CHAPTER 7

The next morning after we’d finished our breakfast, it was voted only two of us  should climb through the hole and see if it was safe for all the others. The group thought an engineer was the best profession to decide this, so I was elected to be one of the first up. Jeb volunteered to come with me. With the rest of the group gathered round the base of our staircase, I climbed up the boxes, pushed the flap of plastic up out of the way and stuck my head through the hole. Now the sun was shining, I could see by reflected light that the topside of our roof wasn’t smooth. As far as I could see, it was crisscrossed with beams about four inches wide, dividing the roof into panels about three feet square. At the junction of each beam , an upright strut stretched up to the surface above my head.  I ducked my head back out of the hole and examined the underside of the roof. The beams were invisible from below, only a faint line showed at the junction of each panel. Jeb came up the boxes behind me.

“What can you see?” he asked.

As I explained the layout of the roof to him, I could see he was impatient to see for himself.

“Climb through the hole,” he said. “See if it’ll take your weight.”

I looked back at him. “And what if it doesn’t,” I replied. “It’s a long way down.”

“Go on,” he urged, “Don’t be a sissy.”

Not wanting to be labelled a sissy, I levered myself up through the hole until I was standing with a foot on each beam. I realised we’d been lucky in our choice of position, we’d cut right in the centre of one of panels. I gingerly put one foot on a panel while hanging onto an upright strut. The panel didn’t even bend as I put my full weight on it. Jeb’s head came through the hole.

“See,” he said, “It takes your weight easily.”

“Well, thanks for using me as your guinea pig.” I replied sourly. “What would you have done if I’d gone through the roof.”

He grinned up at me. “I’d have jumped out of the way of course. What else.”

I grinned back at him and shuffled over to give him room to climb out of the hole. We both looked around. The upright struts and the glow from below gave the whole area the look of a ghostly forest. The air smelt musty and every surface was covered in a thin layer of dust. I revised my earlier thought about  a forest, the place was more like an unopened mausoleum. Jeb nodded at something and began walking across the roof. He stopped and knelt down. He beckoned me over to him.

“Look, this panel’s got a handle.”

With that he grasped the handle and pulled. The panel clicked and opened presenting us with a view of the upturned faces of our party. Jeb waved to them and shut the panel. He sat back on his haunches with a frown on his face.

“Maybe I shouldn’t have done that.” He said at last.

“Why not?”

“Did you notice that little click as the panel opened, it might be an electrical switch. It might have set off an alarm somewhere.”

I thought about it for a moment. “Only one way to find out,” I said.

I pulled the panel open and looked at the edge. “Look,” I said.

Set into the edge was a simple ball catch, like you’d find on any cupboard door back home.

Jeb grinned in relief. “We’d better be careful all the same, we don’t know what we’ll find up here. Anything we do could set off alarms to the stick insects.”

“It looks like a simple observation door to me,” I said. “Perhaps it’s used for maintenance or something. Anyway it’s too late now to worry about, let’s look around while we’re up here.”

        The surface above our heads curved sharply down to become a wall, the base lining up with the outer wall  of our cell. It was if we were living in a giant bell with an artificial sky near the top of the bell and us poor buggers scrabbling about in the sand at the bottom. As we followed the wall we realised it didn’t follow a curve but was flat. About thirty feet further on we came to a slight angle in the wall. Jeb stared across the roof.

“Do you know, I think our space is a hexagon.”

I followed his gaze and realised he could be right.

“It doesn’t show when we’re down below,” I said, “It looks round, but from up here….”

“We’re in a bloody bee hive,” exclaimed Jeb suddenly, “It’s the easiest way to join a load of cells together, with round cells you’d have lots of wasted space.”

I suddenly saw the implications of what he was saying. “That means there could be a lot more of these cells. How big did you say this thing was?”

Jeb spread his hands. “It was bloody huge, It could hold hundreds of cells like the one we’re in. With a bit of luck we might find other civilized beings who were picked up by mistake, like we were.”

“What makes you think we were picked up by mistake,” I asked.

Jeb thought for a moment. “Well I don’t, but if they were after animals it could be they picked us up because we weren’t wearing clothes.”

“I was,” I said, “And they picked me up.”

“Ah yes, but you had bare legs, they might have thought your shirt and shorts were part of your skin,” replied Jeb triumphantly, as if that fact had clinched the argument.

I shook my head in mock despair. “I think you’d better stick to designing computer games.”

Jeb grinned. “Anyway I still think it’s worth trying to find if any other captives are civilised beings.”

“What and join forces in an escape attempt,” I said.

Jeb shrugged. “Something like that,” he said airily.

“Apart from not speaking each other’s language, how will we recognise a civilized being when we see one,” I enquired.

Jeb waved aside such minor details. “We’ll work out something,” He stared at me intently. “I think it’s definitely worth a try,” he said.

Jeb was working hard, trying to sell his idea to me, but privately, I didn’t think we had a hope of finding anything like he was suggesting. As a salesman, I didn’t think he could sell hot shit to a starving fly, but I decided not to labour the point.

“That’s the spirit,” I replied. “Right, onward and upwards, let’s see what we can find.”

We followed the wall, stepping round the struts, until we came to another angle and half way along the new flat we saw a door set flush in the wall. It was rectangular with rounded corners. The bottom of the door was about six inches from the floor. The surface seemed smooth with no way of opening it. Jeb ran his hands over the surface.

“Can’t see or feel a handle,” he said.

“Maybe the handle’s on the other side,” I replied. “Perhaps the only access is from the other side.”

“That don’t make sense,” retorted Jeb, “Supposing the door shut behind whoever was in here, how’s he going to get out?”

“I agree, it doesn’t make sense.” I said, nodding my head. “Following your logic, there must be a way of opening it from this side.” I cracked my knuckles. “Stand aside, let an engineer take a look.”

I ran my hands over the door surface and then tried near the edges. Right at the top I could feel two small depressions. With my reputation as an engineer at stake, I let my fingers slide into the depressions. I was expecting to find buttons of some sort but I couldn’t feel anything moving under my fingers. I settled my fingers so they were completely in the depressions and to my surprise, the door bounced open and inch or two. I waggled my hand, trying to get rid of the pain in my fingers where the door had knocked into them. After a few minutes, the pain subsided enough to let me slide my hand in the gap between the edge of the door and the wall. I pulled the door further open, the door was so beautifully balanced, it only required the slightest effort.

“See,” I said, “It takes an engineer to open an alien door.”

“Just luck, that’s all,” said Jeb. He paused. “Who’d have though they’d put the handle at the top of the door. The logical place would be opposite the hinges.”

I grinned at him. “I told you, you need an engineer to open an alien door.”

Jeb grinned back at me. “Yeah, right  Mr. engineer, by the way, how’s your hand.”

I rubbed my fingers. “The pain has almost gone, if you must know,” I replied ruefully. “We better remember to withdraw our fingers a bit sharpish if we’re going to open any more doors. Anyway, now we’ve got it open, are we going to stand here or go though it.”

Jeb nodded. “We go through it of course.”

“I’ll let you go first,” I said. “Us sissies are scared of doors when we don’t know what’s on the other side.”

“Only one way to find out,” replied Jeb. He grasped the edge of the door and pulled it fully open. We both stuck our heads through the opening.

“It’s just like in here,” he said.

He was right. A crisscross of floor panels stretched out of sight with upright struts leading up to the curved surface above.  As we were about to step through the doorway, I held Jeb back.

“Hold on, I want to see if there’s a handle on the other side of the door.” I felt along the inside of the door and found the same little depressions at the top of the door. “Yep,” I said, two little dents, If the door shuts, we can get out.”

We pulled the door open until it was right back against the wall and stepped over the sill. We advanced cautiously across the panels until we came to a trap door just like the one in our cell. We knelt down and opened the trap a crack and peered through.

“There’s something down there,” breathed Jeb.

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Chapter 8 New Chapter

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CHAPTER 8

The floor below looked remarkably like our cell, with sand covering all the area we could see. Rocks and small shrubby plants dotted the sand here and there.

“I can’t see anything,” I said quietly. I realised we both were whispering.

Jeb pointed. “Look, just to the left of that large rock.”

Next to the rock a long shape was just visible half buried in the sand. As I got used to the different colours of the sand, I realised there were dozens of the shapes, all half buried.

“Not much movement,” I said, “Perhaps they sleep during the day.”

“Let’s wake ‘em up,” replied Jeb, and before I could do anything, he hallooed down through the trap door. The results were surprising and spectacular. All the shapes wriggled out of the sand and gathered under the trap door.

“Urgh, they look like overgrown wood lice,” I said.

“We call them pill bugs where I come from,” replied Jeb.

Whatever they were, they must have heard our voices because two of them reared their front parts off the sand and squirted a stream of liquid at us.

“Hey,” exclaimed Jeb, “Did you see that.”

“I could hardly miss it,” I replied. “Lucky for us they didn’t squirt very high. Supposing they’d hit us, it could be nitric acid for all we know. We’re going to have to be more careful in future.”

Jeb nodded in agreement. “I think we can call this one a bust,” he said. “To me they’re acting just like animals.”

The creatures were now all waving their front parts at us looking for all the world like a field of wheat waving in the wind. I nodded. “ Even if they are intelligent they couldn’t help us, they haven’t any  hands, OK, let’s explore some more.”

We shut the hatch and retraced our way back to the door. As we passed through I looked back frowning.

Jeb looked at my face. “Something worrying you?”

“I was just thinking, we can shut the door from our side just by pushing it. How would we close it from the other side, there’s nothing to pull on.”

Jeb shrugged. “So what, why should be worry about that.”

“If we go exploring, leaving doors open all over the place, supposing one of the stick insects comes up here, they might get suspicious.”

“So you think we should close the doors behind us,” replied Jeb.

I nodded.

“So what do you suggest,” asked Jeb.

“We’ve got to try closing the door from the other side.”

Jeb looked alarmed. “Hold on, that means we’ve go to be on the other side of the door. Supposing we close it and can’t get it open again. We’d be stuffed.”

“Only one of us need be on the other side,” I replied.

Jeb stared at me. “Well I don’t fancy that, I’m not volunteering.”

“Come on,” I chided, “Who’s the sissy now,”

Jeb’s face hardened. “When it comes to locking myself on the other side of that door, I’m a sissy, I don’t mind admitting it. You’re the engineer, I think you should do it.”

After all my boasting at being an engineer, he had me there. I reluctantly nodded. “OK, I’ll do it then, first let’s see if you can open the door from this side.”

I pushed the door and it swung smoothly until it was nearly closed. Then it stuck. Despite both of us pushing it, the door would not close onto the jamb.

“Oh Christ,” exclaimed Jeb, “We’ve broken it.”

I stood for a moment looking at the door, then I had an idea. I put my fingers into the depressions at the top of the door. The door closed as if an unseen hand had pulled it from the other side.

Jeb stared at the door. “Well I’ll be dammed.” He turned to me. “How did you work that out?”

I shrugged. “A lucky guess. When I put my fingers into the depressions the door opened. I guessed maybe the same action would close it.” I nodded at the door. “Now you try, see if you can open it.”

Jeb put his fingers into the depressions and the door bounced open again. I tried to suppress my laughter at the look of triumph on his face as he turned to me.

“Well, we know it works for both of us,” I said, “Pull it open, and I’ll see if I can shut it from the other side.”

I stepped through the door and pulled the door almost shut. I peered at Jeb through the opening. “Give it a count of ten, if nothing happens, open the door from your side.”

Jeb nodded at me and with some trepidation, I put my fingers in the depressions. The door pulled shut and I was alone on the other side of the door. I held my breath and put my finger back in the depressions. To my relief, the door bounced open. I pushed it open enough for me to step through and smiled at Jeb trying to hide my relief the thing worked.

“See, nothing to it.”       

“Yeah, well I’m still glad it was you trying it and not me,” replied Jeb. He pointed through the door. “I’ve just had a thought. You know, this looks just like the roof of our cell. We could easily get lost if we go through any other doors we find.”

“What do you suggest then,”  I asked.

“Let’s go back to our cell and see if we can find something like chalk. Then we could mark our way back with arrows on the wall.”

I nodded. “Good thinking Batman.”

Jeb looked startled. “What?”

“Batman,” I said by way of explanation.

Jeb still looked puzzled.

“Oh come on,” I said, “You must have read Batman comics when you were a kid. Robin was always saying ‘good thinking Batman’ in them.”

Jeb shook his head. “Some guys suffer from arrested development,” he said with a laugh.

Once the door was shut we hit the first problem.

“Which way did we come in from,” asked Jeb.

I thought for a moment. “I think we walked up to the door with the wall on our right hand side,” I said. “Yes, I’m sure it was on our right. So that means we go left to find the hole we made in the roof. I take your point about getting lost. Fancy wandering up here for days getting thirstier and thirstier. Come on let’s get back to our trap door.”

So us two intrepid explorers retraced our way round the wall until we reached the hole we’d cut in the roof.

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Chapter 9 New Chapter

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CHAPTER 9

As soon as we reached the bottom of our steps, we were surrounded by the group all asking questions at once. I looked at Jeb. Now we were down in the daylight, I could see he was covered in dust, his eyes looking like a couple of ping-pong balls in contrast to his black face. I smiled to myself until I looked at my arms, both were black as coal. I batted at my clothes and almost disappeared in my own private dust storm.  Jeb ignored the demands from the group and  jumped into the pool to wash off the dust and after a moments hesitation, I stripped off and joined him. I climbed out of the pool and beat my clothes on a rock to remove the dust. The questions were getting more demanding as the group waited impatiently for Jeb to climb out of the pool. He finally emerged and sat down on one of the pool side chairs. While I was dressing, Jeb held court.

“Right,” said Jeb, waving his hands to still the clamour, “ Let’s sit down and we can talk.”

They all sat round the pool with their feet dangling in the water while Jeb and I recounted what we had found in the roof.

“So you’re saying we’re not the only ones captured in this thing,” said Royston.

“It seems that way,” I replied. “We only looked into one cell, but it could be there’s a lot more.”

“I wonder what the chances are we could contact some of them,” mused Graham.

“I thought of that,” said Jeb. He glanced at me. “Ollie here doesn’t think much of the idea.”

“I’m not dismissing the idea completely,” I replied. “I just think the difficulties are enormous. For instance how could you tell if a three toed scaly whatsit is intelligent or just a wild animal. You could end up being eaten as something’s dinner if you got it wrong.”

“Did you try talking to the three toed scaly whatsit?” asked Emily.

“Emily, I was only using a three toed scaly whatsit as an illustration, ” I replied as gently as I could, “I was using it in a hypothetical situation.”

Emily’s eyes widened. “Hypotheticals, did you try talking to them as well?”

Natalie touched Emily’s arm. “Emily, forget about hypotheticals, what Ollie is saying, the three toed scaly whatsit doesn’t exist, it was just an example.”

Emily smiled in relief. “Oh that’s good, so we aren’t going to get eaten as something’s dinner then.”

Natalie shook her head in despair and jumped into the pool. As she surfaced she glanced at me. “I was loosing the will to live,” she said. “I had to cool down, I think the heat is getting to my brain.”

“It is very hot,” agreed Emily, and jumped into the pool next to Natalie.

Natalie climbed out, leaving Emily slowly cruising up and down with a determined  doggie paddle. She walked over to me and nodded at Emily.

“Do you think she’s putting it on, or is she really a typical dumb blond.”

I studied Emily now floating on her back, her breasts sticking out of the water like two bulbous pink tipped life jackets. I shook my head. “If she is putting it on, it’s a bloody good act. I think she’s for real. You can see why her boy friend brought her here, her assets are rather obvious.”

Natalie raised her eyes heavenwards. “Trust you to notice that.”

I grinned back at her. “I could hardly miss them could I.”

She glanced down. “Makes us normal girls feel a bit inadequate.”

“You’ve got nothing to worry about,” I said. “If anything, Emily is a bit overblown for my taste. In contrast you  look pretty good to me,” I said, “In fact the whole package is rather pleasing.”

Natalie looked at me, quizzically. “Are you hitting on me?” she asked.

I was confused for a moment at her question, then I grasped her meaning. “Would you object if I was?”

She smiled and shook her head. “Not a bit.”

“That’s alright then,” I replied rather lamely. “Are you free, I mean you’re not married or anything,” She paused for a moment before answering. “No I’m not married,” she waved her arms around, “Not that it matters in this situation. What about you, married or a girl friend?”

“Not married. I’ve had girl friends back in England, but nothing serious.”

She moved closer. “You don’t mind an older woman then?”

I studied her face. “You can’t be that much older than me,” I paused. I was on really dodgy ground here. If I over estimated her age, I could be in trouble.  “I’m twenty eight, you can’t be more than five or six years older than me.”

Natalie smiled and punched me on the arm. She must have hit the same nerve, the pain went all the way down to my little finger again. “Good guess,” she said, “I’m thirty four.”

“Well, there you go then,” I replied, trying to ignore my tingling finger, “Hardly any difference at all.”

Natalie put her hand on my hip. “So what are we going to do about it.”

I looked around. “Well, I don’t fancy going behind that rock.” My hand was hardly hurting now.

“Ollie, you’ve gone up in my estimation. That shows really good taste.”

“Call me old fashioned, but I like my privacy, I am English you know.” I added by way of an explanation.

She nodded. “So do I, especially in those situations.” She paused. “It’s funny how things change. A few moments ago we were friends, now suddenly it’s changed into something rather more intimate.”

I smiled. “Well, the circumstances we’re in has something to do with that. The usual courting ritual has been rather curtailed. Couples usually get to know each other a bit before they see each other naked. I saw all of you as soon as I opened my eyes.”

“Don’t forget, I looked after you when you were unconscious,” she said.

“Oh, right. We’ve no secrets from each other then.”

“No, no secrets,” she said.

Where this conversation would have led I never did find out. Jeb came over and grabbed my arm to get my attention. It was the arm Natalie had punched. The tingling in my hand started again.

“I’ve sent the others out looking for chalk. If we can find some we can really start exploring,” he said excitedly.

Natalie and I stepped apart. “Oh, right, thanks Jeb,” I said, turning my arm away from him.

Natalie hid her annoyance at Jeb’s interruption well. “Come on,” she said, “Let’s go chalk hunting.”

To my disappointment, Jeb came with us, so we kept our talk confined innocuous subjects. It wasn’t all bad though, when Jeb was looking the other way, Natalie would bend down rather provocatively giving me an excellent view of her rounded bottom.

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CHAPTER 10

After an hour or so, we had collected a large pile of chalky stones, enough for everyone to have several pieces each.

“So what’s the plan,” said Peter.

I thought for a bit. “I think we should all go up and spread out. If you all draw a line with an arrow at intervals pointing back to our cell nobody should get lost. What do you think?”

“It’d be better if we went in groups of twos or threes,” said Graham, “Safer that way.” He paused. “Especially for Emily” he said to me quietly.

“Christ, yes,” I replied. “If we let her out on her own, we’d probably never see her again.”

“Emily can come with you and me,” said Natalie. She looked at me and winked. “I take it we are going together.”

I grinned at her. “I wouldn’t want it any other way,” I replied.         

         Everyone teamed up in buddy groups as we lined up at the foot of our stairs.

“One last thing,” I said. “Remember we told you about the trap doors in the roof. Don’t open any of the trapdoors too far, try not to attract the attention of anything down below.”

A man down the line spoke up. “If we don’t attract their attention, how are we going to know if they are intelligent or not?”

I looked down the line, trying to identify the speaker. He was a short stocky man, with dark hair. He already had the makings of a substantial beard. “Sorry, I’ve forgotten your name,” I replied.

“Mark Rice,” he said. “ No problem about forgetting my name, we haven’t spoken much. What I was saying is, if we don’t attract the attention of anything we find, how will we know if we’ve found an intelligent being?”

“Good question,” I replied, desperately trying to think up an answer. “Look, we can make a note of anything that looks interesting and then we can go back and have another look.”

Mark raised a quizzical eyebrow. “Make a note?” He patted his chest. “I seem to have forgotten my note book.”

That was all I needed, a sarky bugger. While I was trying to think up a witty retort to throw back at him, I was saved by Peter.

“How about chalking it on a wall,” he said. “That should be easy enough, even for you.”

Mark’s face flushed red, he turned to face Peter with clenched fists. I detected a certain amount of bad blood between these two, perhaps Peter had stolen one of Mark’s girls. I tried to calm the situation.

“Look, just use your imagination, none of us know what we’ll find up there. Just look for anything that has hands or something like that.”

“Monkeys have hands,” snapped Mark. “I would want to put my trust in a monkey.”

Peter scowled. “For Christ’s sake, give it a rest, you know what Ollie means. Or are you just trying to be a horses arse just for the sake of it.”

That seemed to do the trick. Mark shut up.

I waved my hands to quieten the buzz of conversation that had risen.  “Jeb and I only found one door up there, there may be others further round the walls. I suggest some of you go round the wall and see if there are any other doors. It’ll save us all having to go through the one door we found.”

Natalie spoke up. “Are we going to stand here talking all day or are we going to explore.”

“We go,” I replied.  I put one foot on the first step then turned round as I thought of something else. “One other thing, make sure you’re back before it gets dark, you won’t be able to see your chalk lines once the light goes.”

Natalie pushed me gently on the back. “Enough, let’s go.”

Encouraged by Natalie’s hand, I started up the stairs, the rest of the group following me in single file.

      It took a while to help everyone through the trap door. Once we were all on the roof, I led them round the wall to the door Jeb and I had found and gave the group a quick demonstration on how to open and close the door. The group watched in silence, only broken by the occasional sneeze. The dust was everywhere.

“There may be other doors in this roof,” I said. “Some of you could search round the walls and see what you can find.

Royston nodded at me. “I’ll try for that.” He glanced at his two companions. “OK?” Carol and William nodded back. I felt pleased with myself, I’d actually remembered their names. Carol was the tall willowy type with long black hair. She stood a good six inches above all the other girls. Perhaps that’s why I’d remembered her name. Royston led his companions round the wall almost on tip-toe. He seemed to be taking my warning about attracting the attention of anything below very seriously. Only the slight squeak of the chalk as they drew their line on the wall betrayed their presence.

        Natalie, Emily and I stepped through the door with the rest of the group and started walking alongside the wall. Before long we came to another door. I opened it and stood aside as our group filed through. We watched them disappear into the gloom.

“Right, let’s walk round the wall and see if we can find another door,” I said.

We continued round the wall and after a couple of feet, found another door.

“It looks like there’s a door on every wall,” I said, putting my fingers in the depressions in the door. The door swung open and we stepped through. It only took us a minute to find the twin of the trap door we’d found in the other cell. I gingerly opened the flap.

“What can you see?” whispered Natalie.

I was disappointed. It looked just like the previous cell Jeb and I had seen.

“Take a look,” I said, shuffling out of the way.

After a second Natalie moved out of the way so Emily could look down. She shut the flap and looked at me.

“I couldn’t see anything, just sand and rocks,” she said.

“It’s very similar to our place and from what you’ve told me, the same as the one you and Jeb saw,” said Natalie.

I nodded.

“It could be similar environments are clustered together,” mused Natalie. “You know, desert in one area, jungle in another and so on.”

“Sounds, reasonable,” I replied. “Let’s have another look, see if there’s any life down there.”

There was. After a while we noticed small brown lizard like creatures hopping about, almost merging with the colour of the sand and rocks. They didn’t look very intelligent to me.

“Oh well, let’s move on and try again,” I said.

        We passed through a succession of doors and when we looked down through the trap doors we saw a familiar landscape of sand and rocks. Occasionally there would be clumps of greenery, rather like small bushes or shrubs breaking the monotony of the sand. The inhabitants of these cells ranged from tiny lizards to multi-legged dog sized bugs that scuttled about on the sand.  After about the sixth trap door, Emily looked at her watch.

“It’s getting late, you did say we had to be back before dark, Oliver. Shouldn’t we go back now?” She shivered. “I don’t want to be up here when it gets dark.”

“What time to you make it then?” asked Natalie.

Emily looked at her watch again. “It’s nearly five o’clock, It gets dark at six.”

I was impressed. Emily was showing a foresight I hadn’t expected of her. “One thing, Emily, how did you know how to set your watch, I was told all the watches had run down.” I looked at Natalie for confirmation. She nodded.

Emily frowned in concentration. “Royston showed me how,” she began. “His Rolex had stopped  so he wanted to re-set it. He rolled a paper plate into a tube and stuck it in the sand. When the shadow vanished he said that was when the sun was overhead so he called that twelve noon. That’s how he set his watch. I set mine so it was the same as his.” She nibbled her lip. “That’s how I know it gets dark at six o’clock.”

“Well good for you, Emily,” said Natalie. She looked at me. “I think we should take Emily’s advice and start back.”

We slowly retraced our path, following the line and arrows on the wall. When we reached the hole we’d cut in our roof Natalie held me back so Emily could go down first. Once she was out of sight, Natalie spun me round and gave me the yummiest series of kisses I’d received since old aunt Freda had slobbered all over me when I was ten years old.

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CHAPTER 11

Once back in our cell, we saw the food deliveries has continued while we’d been away.  Two cool boxes lay on the sand in front of the rock, so we dragged them over to the tables. We were covered in dust and dirt from our exploration in the roof so Natalie and Emily jumped into the pool to clean off. Taking a deep breath, I quickly stripped off and joined them in the water. This time I took my clothes in with me and pounded them against the side of the pool to remove the dust. We sloshed around for about ten minutes and then climbed out. As I bent down to put on my clothes, Emily called out.

“Nice butt, Oliver.”

I quickly pulled on my pants and shorts without waiting for the desert heat to dry me or the clothes before turning round. Both girls were looking at me with amused grins on their faces. I put on a pretend stern face.

“Behave, Emily,” I said, pointing a finger at her, “Jeb wouldn’t like you looking at other men.”

She looked startled. She turned to Natalie.

“Do you think he’d really mind?” she asked.

Natalie took her arm. “No,” she crooned.  “Oliver’s just joking. Come on, let’s have something to eat.”

Over the next half hour, the rest of our group trickled back in groups of twos and threes. They slowly backed down the steps and jumped into the pool to wash off the dust. Once they were clean, they  joined us at the tables and finished off the food. We were all starving, even tuna and sweet corn sandwiches tasted good, the unaccustomed exercise had given us all an appetite.  After the food was gone, a silence descended on the group, broken only by the occasional burp. I was puzzled, I’d expected everyone would be anxious to tell what they had seen, but everyone seemed down and subdued. Then I realised I felt the same. We’d found nothing but sand and overgrown bugs, with lizards as the single variation. Not what we’d expected at all. It looked like the others felt the same.

Royston was the first to break the silence. “OK people, we looked through about six trap doors. All the cells we found were similar to this. We saw big bugs, little bugs and something that looked like a bald parrot with six legs and no wings. Anyone else do better?”

Peter raised his hand. “I was with Amy and David, we saw much the same.” He turned to Amy. “We checked what, about four trapdoors?” Amy nodded.

“All we saw was sand, rocks and bugs.” Peter gave a brief smile. “No bald parrots.”

Amy and David nodded agreement. Sitting together, the two of them could have been twins. The both had the same long hair and Californian toned bodies.

David chimed in. “That’s right and sometimes the cells seemed empty, we couldn’t see anything moving at all.”

I briefly outlined what Natalie, Emily and I had found. And then everyone was talking at once. The upshot was, every one had found big and little bugs. Our brown lizards, Royston’s bald parrot and the bugs that had squirted at us on our first exploration, were the most exotic animals found.

“So where has this got us?” said Richard. He slumped down, his multicoloured bruises making his face seem more mournful than ever. “All we’ve found is cells just like this one, what use is that.”

“Surely you’re not giving up already,” said Edna. “I’m surprised at the lot of you. I’ve been adding up how many cells we all visited. I make it less than thirty. Now we know from the size of the thing that came over us, it could hold a lot more than that. We’ve probably only scratched the surface of the total number, there could be hundreds of cells to look at.”

“The whole ship wouldn’t all be taken up with cells Edna,” I said. “You’ve got to have room for engines and crews quarters for instance.”

Edna shook her head. “Oliver, you didn’t see it, it was huge, I reckon there’d be room for at least a couple of hundred cells the size of this one.”

“She’s right Ollie,” said Graham. “It was huge.”

“Well I for one am not giving up. We can try again tomorrow,” I said. “We can follow our chalk lines so we won’t go back to cells we’ve visited before.”

“I’m not thinking of giving up,” replied Richard. “I’m just disappointed that’s all. I don’t know what I was expecting to find, I just thought it would be more than sand and bugs.”

“What like some exotic maidens beckoning you down to join them?” joked Peter.

Richard smiled. “What, with my face. The state it’s in, they’d run a mile.”

A dark haired girl stroked his hair. “I think it’s very attractive, you look lived in darling.”

There was general laughter. “Jennifer Pauli,  you’re a bit of a kook,” said Peter.

“Even kooks have a right to their opinion,” replied Jennifer. She turned to me. “Right, Ollie?”

It seemed everyone knew my name. I’d completely forgotten her name was Jennifer, she was just one of the hippie  type girls I’d seen going behind the rock with Peter.

I nodded at her. “Absolutely right.”

As I looked at her, I realised her dark hair was getting darker, her face going into shadow. We’d been so busy talking, we hadn’t noticed the sun going down.

“Time for bed, folks,” announced Royston. “Tomorrow’s another day, let’s get some shut-eye.”

There was general agreement and the group spread out to find sleeping room. As I flopped down on the sand, Natalie lay next to me. I was glad I still had my shorts on. Since we had become more intimate, I was now more aware of the curves and contours of Natalie’s body. My shorts would hide any suspicious bulges as a result of this greater awareness. I had another reason for being glad of my shorts.  I’d noticed when morning came, the first thing most of the group did was to spend several minutes swiping the sand from their bottoms.

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CHAPTER 12

The next morning, the cool box arrived with it’s usual regularity. We sat down and ate our breakfast and once we’d eaten as much as we could stomach, we set off up the steps again. With Natalie and Emily, I passed through a succession of doors and peered down innumerable trap doors. The results were always disappointing. Bugs, bugs and more bugs crawling about in the sand, I was getting fed up with the same monotonous landscapes. It was at about the eighth door we came to that we found something different. A square plate was fixed to the door covered in strange symbols. We all stared at the plate.

“Wow,” exclaimed Natalie, “This is different, I wonder what it means.”

I shrugged. “It could be the equivalent of a men’s room sign for all we know. There’s only one way to find out, shall we open the door?”

Natalie nodded, “We have to, we’ll never find out otherwise.”

I put my fingers in the depressions. “OK then, here we go.”

The door opened just like all the other doors we’d gone through. We peered through the opening wondering what we’d find. It wasn’t another cell. On the other side of the door was a box-like compartment about ten feet square with a door on the opposite wall. The floor was covered with tiny holes. Small grills ran round the wall just below the ceiling. The whole ceiling glowed with a yellow light. We cautiously stepped inside and approached the second door. I put my hand up to the top of the door and looked at Natalie. She nodded and I put my fingers into the depressions. Nothing happened, the door remained firmly shut. I stood back.

“That’s the first time that’s happened,” I said.

“Perhaps the first door has to be shut first before this one will open,” said Natalie.

I thought about it for a minute. “You could be right,” I replied. “There may be animals that could get out if both doors were opened. It could be dodgy opening that door.”

Yeah, but if you only open the door a crack, if anything nasty tries to come through, you can always shut it again.”

“You think it’s worth a try?”

Natalie nodded, “Yeah, go for it.”

I shut the door we had come through and walked up to the second door. I put my fingers into the depressions and waited. The door remained shut.

“Nope,” I said. “Still won’t open, nothing’s happening.”

But something was happening. I felt a breeze on my back, and cold air was coming up through the holes in the floor.

Emily stood on one foot, clutching herself. “It’s getting cold Oliver.”

She was right. It was also getting hard to breath. I suddenly realised where we were. The room was an airlock. Whatever lay behind the door did not use air like us. The air in the room was being replaced by whatever was needed on the other side of the door. I ran back to the first door and frantically put my fingers in the depressions hoping it would reverse what ever was happening. It didn’t.

Emily looked at me in alarm. “Oliver, what’s happening, I can’t breath.”

Natalie was looking at me with her eyes wide, she clutched my arm in panic.

The flow from the floor and the grills in the wall were increasing, the noise almost drowning out my voice.

“Try and hold your breath,” I shouted, “I’m going to try and get our air back.”

The girls nodded and slumped down onto the floor. I hoped I was right and the second door had to be opened and closed before the automatic machinery would reverse the process. I held my breath and ran back to the second door, my fingers ready by the depressions. The air in the room was getting hazy now as whatever gas was being pumped in, filled the room. The flow from the grills and floor stopped abruptly and the door bounced open.  I put my fingers into the depressions and the door slammed shut, but not before the room was flooded with a white vapour that had poured through the open door. I waited for the ventilation to start up again but nothing happened. My head was starting to swim and it was hard to think. The urge to take a breath was almost overpowering. I suddenly realised the machinery would not let the gas that had just come into the room flood into the air breathing part of the ship, the first door must be activated before the gas would be replaced by air. I staggered over to the door we had come through and put my fingers into the depressions. The effort was the final straw, I had to breathe. My mouth opened as I gulped in a convulsive breath. I could feel my lungs filling, but it did no good. I slumped down to the floor next to the girls and tried to stay conscious.

“Come on, Ollie, wake up.”

I felt a gentle tapping on the side of my face which did nothing to help my pounding headache. I opened my eyes. Natalie and Emily stared down at me. I tentatively took a breath. The air felt fresh and clean.

I looked around. I was laying on the floor of the room, the door was half open.

“You saved us Oliver,” croaked Emily, “What happened to us?”

I levered myself up. “Let’s get out of here first,” I replied.

The girls helped me to my feet and we stepped through the door. I put my fingers in the depressions and to my relief, the door closed. Just the short walk through the door had left me wheezing like an old man. I sat down on the floor with my back against the wall.

“Christ, that was close, I only realised at the last minute what was happening.”

“What did happen,” asked Natalie. “The last thing I remember was you shouting at us to hold our breath.”

I looked up at her. “That room is an airlock. On the other side are animals or something that doesn’t breath our air. When we tried to open the second door, the room replaced our air with whatever it breathes on the other side of the door.”

Natalie nodded slowly. “I understand that, but why didn’t it stop when you pressed the first door?”

“Think about it. If one of our Sticky friends was going through the airlock, the automatic machinery would be programmed to follow a procedure. Once the first door was shut and the second door activated, it would be assumed that Sticky would want to go through the second door so our air would be taken out and replaced before the second door opened. The process works in reverse. Sticky comes back through the second door, shuts it and activates the first door. Then our air is put back in before the first door will open.”

Emily nodded, “We were lucky then, if it had been something like cyanide we’d still be laying in that room dead. Whatever gas came into that room doesn’t appear to have harmed us. It was probably something like carbon dioxide, we couldn’t breath it, so we passed out. As soon as the air came back in, it revived us.”

Natalie and I looked at each other in amazement. Then we looked at Emily. She realised we were staring at her.

“What?” she said, staring back at us.

“You understood what happened in there?” asked Natalie.

Emily nodded slowly. “Well, sort of,” she replied. “Oliver explained it, didn’t he.”

I rubbed my forehead trying to come to terms with what Emily had just said. Up to now she’d acted with all the intelligence of a headless chicken. How did she know about cyanide and carbon dioxide gasses? My musing was interrupted by Emily giggling. 

“Sticky, I like that,” she said.

Natalie’s head turned. “What?”

Emily giggled again. “Sticky, Oliver called them Sticky. It sort of puts them in their place.”

I shook my head in despair. We’d just got out of the room by the skin of our teeth and here she was giggling because I’d called the aliens a silly name.

Natalie held Emily’s arms. She stared into her eyes to hold her attention. “Emily, we were nearly killed back there, didn’t you realise that?”

Emily shrugged. “Oh yes, but I knew we’d be alright, Oliver is with us.” She made her cows eyes at me.

With mounting alarm, I realised Emily was in the process of transferring her attentions to me. I promptly forgot about what she’d said, it must have been fluke. She was still the same old Emily.

“Well thanks for the vote of confidence Emily,” I said, picking my words with care. “You can tell Jeb all about it when we get back.”

“Do you think he’ll be interested?” she asked. “I sometimes get the feeling he avoids me.”

“Nooo,” I enthused, “I’m sure Jeb will be fascinated to hear about your adventures.”

“Right, if you think so, I’ll tell him.” She stared at me, her wide blue eyes framed by her blond hair. “Are you really sure?”

“Absolutely,” I replied. “I’m sure Jeb thinks very highly of you.” I said this with a perfectly straight face, ignoring the voice of my conscience telling me what a bastard I was for dropping Jeb in the shit.

Natalie lent down and grabbed my arm. She looked at me and shook her head, her eyes raised to heaven. “Come on, we’ve done enough for today, lets go back.”

I held Natalie back. “Hold on, we ought to try and remember that mark on the door. We don’t want anyone else trying to open one like it.”

Natalie’s eyebrows raised. “You think there are more of them?”

I nodded. “Could be, who knows.”

She turned round and studied the plate on the door. “It’s complicated, we’ll never remember it, we’ll have to write it down on something.”

“Well, we have chalk, all we need is something to write on. My clothes are no good, the chalk will just rub off.” I grinned at her. “It’s no good trying to write on my back, the chalk wouldn’t show up.” I paused. “I wouldn’t mind trying to write on your back, it might show up for a while but I don’t think it would last.”

“Quite right,” smiled Natalie, “I don’t think I’d make a very good blackboard, I can think of better things you could be doing behind my back. Anyway, I’ve got a better idea.” She squatted down and tapped my foot. “What about your boots.”

I sat down and took off one of my boots and turned it over in my hands. The sides came up over my ankles so there was a reasonable size of leather on each side of the boot. I nodded at Natalie.

“Let’s give it a try.”

Natalie scraped the piece of chalk on one of the upright beams until she had a point, and with me holding the boot against the door, she copied the curls and swirls of the sign. She looked at the boot and the sign, comparing the two.

“There, that’s the best I can do. Just be careful putting the boot back on and try not to scrape it on anything on the way back.”

I sat down and put the boot back on being careful doing up the laces so they didn’t rub on the chalk marks. I looked up at Natalie. “We’ll copy this onto the wall of our cell so every one can see it.”

Natalie nodded. “Right, let’s go back. At least we’ve got something new to tell the others rather than a load of bugs and sand.”

As we walked along to the next door, I took Natalie’s arm and whispered in her ear. “What better things could I be doing behind your back?”

She smiled at me. “You’ll find out. Just wait till I get you alone.”

“What’s that? called Emily, trailing along behind us.

“Nothing Emily,” we both said together.

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CHAPTER 13

Climbing down the stack of cool boxes almost felt like coming home. We staggered over to the rock where the cool boxes had come through and dragged a box over to the pool. We had the place to ourselves, it appeared we were the first ones back.

We cleaned ourselves in the pool and this time I noticed Emily kept her eyes turned away from me until I was dressed again. It seemed my joke about Jeb not wanting her to look at other men had hit home harder than I had intended.

“Tuna and sweet corn sandwich anyone,” asked Natalie. She opened the box and we reluctantly picked up a sandwich. As we were eating, I noticed Natalie kept looking at the cool box staircase.

“Something wrong?” I asked.

She put down her sandwich and shrugged. “I keep thinking of what you said about there being more doors with airlocks behind them. If anyone else goes through that sort of door, they might not be as lucky as we were.” She looked up at the hole in the roof. “I’d have thought there’d be more of us back by now.”

I thought for a minute. “What’s the time Emily?”

Emily studied her watch. “It’s nearly half past five, Oliver. Is that all right?”

I reassured her. “Yes, nothing to worry about Emily.” I hoped to God I was right.

About quarter of an hour later people started descending the steps. I did a quick head count as they came down, and to my relief, all our group descended the steps. They washed the dust off in the pool in what had become a sort of routine and pulled the other two cool boxes over to the pool and started eating. Graham sat beside me and raised his plastic cup of water in a silent salute.

“Well,” he said, “find anything interesting?”

“You don’t know the half of it,” I replied. “We almost got ourselves killed up there.”

Graham lent forward. “Christ, what happened.”

I quickly gave him an account of the airlock and the strange panel on the door.

“I better explain to the others before it gets dark,” I said.”

I took off my boot and nodded to Natalie to follow me to the wall. The rest of the group stopped eating, watching with increasing curiosity as we copied the pattern from my boot to the wall. By the time we’d finished the whole group had crowded round us. I turned round to face them. I tapped the wall behind me.

“If any of you see a door with a square plate with this pattern on it, don’t open it, we did and it nearly killed us.”

There was an excited clamour of conversation demanding explanations. I waved my arms for silence and when the noise level dropped, I explained what had happened to Natalie, Emily and myself.

“I think it might be a good idea not to open any doors with a plate on them,” said Royston as we walked back to the pool. “There could be anything on the other side.” He stared at us. “How do you feel, any ill effects from the gas that came into the room?”

“Not as far as we can tell,” replied Natalie. “We were a bit dizzy and we all had a pounding headache. Mine’s going away now.” She looked at me and Emily, her eyebrows raised in question.

I nodded, “Yeah, my headache is nearly gone.”

“Mine too,” said Emily.

Royston felt our wrists one by one. “Your pulses are about normal, I suggest you three take it easy tomorrow, let us do the exploring.”

“Oh, I feel alright,” said Emily. She looked at Natalie and me. “We can go out tomorrow, can’t we?”

Natalie shook her head. “Emily, Royston’s a doctor, he knows what he’s talking about. I think we should do as he says and rest up tomorrow.”

Emily’s face fell into a pout. “Well, I feel alright. If you don’t want to go, I’ll go with Jeb, he won’t mind.” She looked at Jeb sitting on the other side of the pool. “You won’t mind will you Jeb.”

Jeb half choked on his sandwich and manfully rose to the occasion.

“Er, no Emily, you can join our little party, I’m sure Tony and Sue won’t mind.”

They looked a trifle glum at the prospect, but said nothing. They both slowly nodded their heads. They both looked like generic hippies. The only difference was Tony had a pony tail as well as the beaded headband worn by both of them.

Emily turned back to me and Natalie. “Are you sure you won’t mind me going off and leaving you on your own?”

I caught Natalie’s glance. “No, not at all Emily, you go off, we’ll be all right,” she  said.

“Really,” insisted Emily. “You’re not just saying that.”

Natalie looked briefly at me before she turned back to face Emily.  “No we really mean it, you go off, we’ll be fine.”

Emily smiled, “Both of you?” she said.

Natalie now had her jaw clamped shut as she tried to control her grin.

“Yes both of us, Oliver won’t mind, will you Ollie,” she said through clenched teeth.

I nodded in agreement.  No, I didn’t mind one bit. If no-one else decided to have a rest day, it looked like Natalie and me would have to spend the whole day together, alone.

The next day everyone did leave. As soon as the last naked buttock disappeared through the hole in the roof,  Natalie and I sat looking at each for at least a second before we moved. Now, being a gentleman, I’m not one to kiss and tell, suffice to say, Natalie and I shagged each other’s brains out for most of the day.

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CHAPTER 14

As the day drew to a close, the cell slowly filled up as our group descended the steps. Natalie and I had pulled the cool boxes next to the tables ready for them, so after their dip in the pool, everyone made straight for us. There was a general hub-bub of conversation as everyone gathered round the boxes and pulled out a sandwich and drink. Royston sat down next to Natalie and me.

“How do you two feel, did you rest up?”

I nodded. “Yeah, we had a very relaxing day,” I said straight faced.

“I can see that,” replied Royston. “Natalie is positively glowing and you’ve got your tee shirt on inside out.”

 “Well, you know, we were alone,” I began rather lamely.

“Oh don’t mind me,” said Royston, “I’m probably a bit envious, that’s all.”

I  smiled at him. “You haven’t thought of trying your luck with one of girls then?”

He shook his head. “Not much point. The old plumbing doesn’t work as well as it used to.”

I was startled by his revelation. In England we didn’t talk about such things. “I’m sorry to hear that Royston,” I commiserated. I quickly glanced at Natalie. She was sitting straight faced.

“Oh it’s not all bad,” he replied, “Sometimes a puff of steam comes out, but most of the time, all it’s good for is going to the john.”

I couldn’t help laughing at his remark. I quickly apologised.  “Sorry, but I’ve never heard it quite described like that,” I said.

He shrugged. “No use fretting about it.” He rose to his feet and slapped me on the back. “Anyway good luck to the pair of you.” He gave me a broad wink and walked away, chuckling to himself.

I turned to Natalie. “Did you know about that?” I asked.

She shook her head. “I think we better keep it to ourselves,” she said.

I nodded in agreement.

A little later Royston came back with Graham. He looked tired and fed up.

“No luck again today,”  said Graham, swirling the water around in his cup. “Just the same as yesterday, bugs and sand. Some of us have had enough, they think we’re wasting our time.”

“What do you think,” I replied.

“Hell, I’m for going on,” replied Graham, “anything’s better than sitting around here all day. Who knows, we might get lucky.”

Royston nodded in agreement. “I think we should make the most of it. Sticky could find our hole in the roof at any time.” He took a long drink from his cup. It looked half full of whiskey. Maybe he needed a lift after his revelation to Natalie and me.

I smiled and tried to lighten the atmosphere. “Sticky, you’ve been talking to Emily.”

He smiled back. “Yeah, she told us what you called them last evening. Kinda suits them. Every one’s calling them that now.”

I thought for a minute. “What you said about Sticky finding the hole, I don’t think it’s very likely, it’s filthy up there. I don’t remember seeing any footprints in the dust, other than our own.”

“That’s a good point,” admitted Royston.

“So how many of us want to drop out,” I asked, changing the subject.

Royston shook his head. “I don’t know, about half of us I guess.” He threw his empty cup into the cool box. ”Perhaps some of them might change their minds after a night’s sleep, we’ll see in the morning.” He stretched his arms above his head. ”I’m going to get some shut eye, see you in the morning.”

He moved round  the pool until he came to his patch of sand and lay down. As he did so, I suddenly realised we all chose the same patch of sand to sleep on every night. It was almost as if we were trying to claim something for ourselves, as if the routine would bring some sort of normality to our alien environment.

            The next morning as we ate our breakfast, a general discussion broke out. Royston was right, about half of us thought the exploration was a waste of time.

Edna was scathing. “We’ve only been exploring for a few days and you’re wanting to give up already, what’s the matter with you.”

Carol put her hand up.

“Well Carol?” asked Edna

“We’re fed up with crawling around in the dust  up there,” said Carol.  “All we see is sand and bugs. There’s no way out up there.”

“Well, I think it’s worth it,” I said, “the next door we open could lead us to just what we want.”

Carol raised her eyebrows. “And what would that be?”

I shrugged. “I don’t know Carol, it could be anything. I’m sure we’ll know it when we see it.”

She sniffed. “It’s alright for you, you’ve got your clothes on.” She lifted her foot. “I’ve got bruises from banging into the beams up there.” She rubbed her shoulders. “And I get covered in dust. I’m filthy by the time I get back here.”

I could see that was true. She had been one of the last ones into the pool last night and although the water appeared to be constantly changed, it seemed she had paused as she was climbing the ladder to get out of the pool. The dust and dirt from twenty odd people hadn’t had time to be sucked away, so she had a nice tide mark round the top of her legs. I thought with a slight tinge of nostalgia it resembled stocking tops. 

Edna interrupted her. “So how many of you think the same way as Carol,” she asked. “Can we have a show of hands?”

About ten or so hands were raised.

Edna raised her eyes to heaven. “OK, you lot can sit down here with your asses in the sand,” she ran her eyes round the group, “at least we’ve got some people who aren’t giving up.”

“That’s not fair,” said a voice from the group. I recognised the speaker, it was Mark Rice, the sarcastic bugger who’d bugged me on our first days exploring.

“Just because we don’t think it’s worth going on up there, it doesn’t mean we’re giving up,” he added.

Edna faced him with her hands on her hips. It made my shirt stick to her thin body like a wrap round a stick of celery. “So what else do you suggest?” she asked.

Mark waved his hands round. “We could try breaking out of here. I know we didn’t have much luck before, but me and Adam think if we have another go at the door in the wall they brought Oliver through, we might get lucky.”

The man sitting next to him nodded in agreement. I presumed that was Adam, he was a very quiet person, I’d hardly heard him say more than a few words since  I’d arrived here.

I tried to be conciliatory for the sake of group harmony, “Mark has a point,  it’s worth a try. We’d be attacking the problem from two directions instead of one.”

I think Mark was feeling rather isolated being the centre of Edna’s scorn. He flashed me a grateful look.

“Yeah, well, thanks,” he mumbled.

“We’ve still got our collection of sharp stones we used to cut through the roof, if Mark and his friends can open the crack in the door a bit, we might be able to lever it open.” I nodded at Mark. “What do you think.”

Mark nodded back with a new enthusiasm. “I’ll have a damn good try.”

Emily bounced over to Natalie and me and grabbed us both by the arms.

“Can I go with you two?” she asked, “I don’t think Jeb was happy me being with him yesterday.”

Natalie took pity on her. “Of course you can, Emily, Ollie and I would love you to come with us.”

Emily clapped her hands in delight. “Oh good, the three muskrats are together again.”

“I think you mean the three musketeers Emily,” I corrected gently.

“That’s right, musketeers,” replied Emily serenely. She lifted a clenched fist. “All for one and one for all,” she said, showing an unexpected knowledge of Dumas’ famous novel. After a second, Natalie and I repeated the gesture. Somehow, it seemed churlish in the face of Emily’s enthusiasm not to.

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CHAPTER 15

There was a bit of a delay while the people who wanted to carry on exploring milled about sorting themselves into new groups. 

 “OK,” said Edna, “If everyone’s finished eating, let’s split up and do our thing.” With that she marched to the steps. She looked back over her shoulder. “Coming Ollie?”

“Right behind you Edna,” I replied heartily.

Edna was first up the steps, my shirt billowing around her thin shoulders like a deflated balloon. I was right behind her. I was careful not to look up, there are some sights a man of my age should not see.

Natalie, Emily and I followed our chalk lines and retraced our path back to the door with the markings. Moving along to the next cell, we had our next big surprise in two days. We stood in silence staring.

“Well, well,” said Natalie, “two doors, whatever next.”

I studied the doors. “No markings on either of them.” I stepped up the nearest door and put my hand up to the depressions. I looked back over my shoulder. “Well folks, do we give it a go?”

Natalie and Emily nodded, then Emily raised her hand.

“Oliver, can I open the other door?”

I shrugged, “I don’t see why not,” I replied. “Natalie and I will have a look through this one, then we’ll see what you have got.”

Emily smiled broadly and skipped over to the other door.

My door bounced open and we looked through the gap. The familiar sight of roof panels and struts met our eyes. We pulled the door fully open, stepped through and walked across the panels until we found the trapdoor. Pulling the trapdoor open we looked down on sand and little grey bugs. I let the trapdoor close and sat back on my haunches.  

“Sticky seems to have a one track mind when it comes to collecting,” I said. “It makes you wonder about us. Why did they pick us up?”

Natalie laughed. “Perhaps they think we’re big bugs.”

“Hmm, if they do, they’ve got an infestation on their hands, the bugs are out.”

A shout from Emily interrupted us.

“Oliver, Natalie, come here quick.”

Natalie and I looked at each other in alarm. Emily’s voice had a ring of panic about it. We ran back through the door and looked through the door Emily had opened. She was standing just inside the door.

She pointed. “Look,” she said.

She was standing on a small landing. Stretching down away from us was a flight of steps.

“Emily, you may have hit the jackpot,” I said. “This is the first real change we’ve found apart from bugs.”

“Don’t forget the funny room with the gas,” she reminded me.

“Well, OK, the second real change,” I replied.

The steps were covered in dust like the rest of the spaces above the cells. I studied the floor for footprints. “Doesn’t look like these steps have been used for  a long time,” I said.

“Is that a problem?” asked Emily.

I smiled at her. “It means there’s less chance of us meeting a Sticky coming up while we’re going down,” I said.

Emily looked down the steps. The soft glow from the ceiling above the steps showed the flight turned a corner about ten feet down. Emily shivered.

“Going down, we’re not going down are we?”

“Of course we are,” said Natalie.

“But there could be anything down there,” protested Emily.

“And that’s what we here to find out,” replied Natalie. She looked at me. “Right Ollie?”

I nodded. “Absolutely,” I said and stepped through the door.

Our eyes quickly became accustomed to the dim light as we warily descended to the corner. I slowly put my head round the wall.

“What can you see?” whispered Natalie.

“More steps going down,” I replied, “Ready troops?”

Both girls nodded so we started down. Every ten feet or so we came to another corner. After the first few corners I realised we were going down a giant spiral staircase. At the sixth corner I stopped.

“I reckon we’ve come down about sixty feet, this thing must be bloody huge,” I said.

Natalie nodded. “I told you, bigger than an aircraft carrier.”

 We continued downwards and after rounding two more corners, the steps ended with a level corridor that stretched for about ten feet or so. At the end was a door. We slowly approached the door and stood in silence for a minute. I put my ear to the door but could hear nothing. I was worried. What was on the other side? For all we knew, it could be a dining room full of Stickys having their lunch. I looked at the girls.

“Do we open it?” I whispered.

“What have we got to loose,” answered Natalie. “We’re relatively free at the moment but we were captives before we opened the roof. If the Stickys find us we’ll just be captives again. Go on, open it.”

I put my fingers into the depressions and the door obediently swung open.

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CHAPTER 16

I peered through the small opening. I could hear a faint hum in the distance but no cries of Sticky alarm. Emboldened, I pulled the door further open. The room was in semi darkness but even so we could see it was huge. Unidentified shapes covered the floor, some almost reaching to the ceiling high above us. Narrow passageways wound round between the shapes. We stepped through the door and slowly walked down the nearest passageway. At the far end of the room, a dim light showed in the gloom. There was a heavy smell in the air. With a sudden shock, I realised I recognised the smell. It reminded me of the machine shop at Howe and Brooks. I looked again at the shapes surrounding us. The feeling of identification was tantalising, I could almost recognise what they were.

“I know what this place is,” I whispered to Natalie.

She raised her eyebrows in astonishment. “What, how?” she queried.

“It’s the smell, and those shapes. They’re machines. This place is a machine shop, probably for maintaining the ship.”

Natalie stopped and faced me, her hands on her hips. “Ollie, have you lost the plot? How can you recognise anything in this place, we’ve never been here before.”

 I waved my hand round. “These shapes, I can almost recognise them. Look, that thing over there, it could be a milling machine if you squint a bit.”

Natalie raised her eyes to heaven. “I wouldn’t recognise a milling machine if I fell over one in the street.” She paused. “Ollie, are you sure, remember where we are.”

“I’m sure,” I replied. “I don’t care how clever the Stickys are, in a ship as big as you say this is, there’s  bound to be things that go wrong or break or wear out,  They’d have to have some way of repairing bits and pieces.”

Natalie looked doubtful. “Well, I don’t know, that’s a lot to deduce from some half recognised shapes.”

“Not only that,” I enthused. “It’s the smell. It reminds me of machine oil. I don’t care where we are, machines need lubrication.” I held up my hand before she could speak. “I know what you’re going to say, Sticky machines might not need lubrication, but you can only go so far with frictionless bearings and the like. This place is filled with machinery, and some of them need

lubrication. I can smell it.”

Natalie smiled. “Actually, I wasn’t going to say anything of the sort. I’ve never heard of frictionless bearings. I was going to suggest you might be mistaken, that’s all.”

I shook my head. “I don’t think I am,” I replied, “Let’s explore some more, see if I’m right.”

Natalie gave me a condescending smile. “OK, Mr. engineer, lead on.”

We crept along the passage, dwarfed by the towering machines surrounding us. About half way down the room, the machines grew smaller in size.

“Now that I almost recognise,” I whispered. “That thing over there could be a lathe.”

Emily looked where I was pointing. “What’s a lathe,” she asked.

“It’s a machine for cutting metal. The metal is rotated and a sharp tool is pressed against the metal, cutting bits off it.” I swung my arms around, outlining the machine. “Look, there’s the end that holds the metal and that bit there is a moveable carriage that holds the cutting tool.”

Natalie looked doubtful. “Why would the Stickys have anything you would recognise, they’re totally different from us.”

I shook my head. “Natalie, I don’t care how different they are, if you want to shape a bit of metal, there’s only so many ways you can do it. Agreed I can’t recognise most of what’s here, but I do know what that is. It’s a lathe, I’ll bet my bottom dollar on it.”

While we had been talking, I hadn’t realised Emily had wandered off. I turned as I heard her footsteps pattering back towards us from the end of the passage. As she came nearer, I could see she was trying to run silently on tip toes. It was quite a sight to see, everything was bouncing, she was definitely a girl who needed a bra and knickers. She skidded to a halt in front of us and grabbed my arm, her mouth open as she panted for breath.

Natalie held her shoulder. “Emily, what’s wrong,” she asked as she recognised the girls distress.

Emily gulped for air and pointed down the passage. “Stickys,” she panted.

I pulled the girls back into a shadow at the side of the passage. “Where?” I asked in a frantic whisper.

Emily pointed again. “Down there, right at the end. I could see a light so I walked towards it so I could see better. As I turned a corner, I saw a Sticky standing by one of these things.” She waved her arm around at the machines surrounding us.

“It didn’t see you, did it” asked Natalie anxiously.

Emily shook her head, her blond curls bouncing round her ears. “No, it was facing the other way.” She paused. “It was different from the others we saw, this one’s blue.”

“What? what do you mean blue. Was it a different type of Sticky,” asked Natalie.

Emily shrugged her shoulders. “I don’t know, I only had a quick peek, but it was definitely blue.”

I looked at the two girls. “What do you reckon then, shall we have a look?”

Natalie grabbed my arm. “Quietly,” she whispered.

I nodded and with the girls trailing close behind me, we crept silently down the passage towards the light. As we moved further down the passage, the light grew brighter. As we approached the corner Emily had spoken of, we stopped and I peered round the bulk of the machine. Twenty feet in front of us, a Sticky was working one of the machines. I’d heard Royston’s description,  but now I had a chance to see one in the flesh so to speak. It was tall and very thin. Royston was right, it did have four arms, one set under the other. At the end of its thin legs were what looked like hooves, or they could have been weird shaped shoes, it was too far away and the light was too dim to tell which. It’s head was almost the same size as the thin neck that stuck out of what looked like a one piece covering. As it turned its head, I could see it had two little button eyes and above them, either some sort of bushy antennae or very long eyebrows. The head below the eyes tapered to a snout with a small mouth at the tip. The skin was smooth and brown. The head reminded me of something I’d seen, it wasn’t a stick insect and for a moment I couldn’t think what. Then it came to me. I remembered a friend at school who had a ferret for a pet, the head looked just like that. It had its back to us as its four arms spun handles and pressed buttons. I was debating what to do next when the Sticky turned off the machine. The humming noise died away and the lights round the machine went out. The only illumination left came from small lights set in the ceiling so we could just see the Sticky walking up the passage. It went though a door at the end of the room and shut the door behind it with a clang. We all looked at each other.

“Phew,” breathed Natalie, “Lucky for us it went away from us.”

“I wonder where it’s gone,” said Emily, “We should go, supposing it comes back.”

“Not likely,” I said, “I want to see what’s on the other side of that door. We’ll give it a minute or so then we’ll have a look.”

Natalie raised her eyebrow. “Do you think that’s wise, we’ve been lucky so far. We don’t want to push it.”

“Come on,” I said with as much enthusiasm as I could muster, “Where’s your sense of adventure. You were all for coming down the steps, what’s changed your mind.”

Natalie shrugged. “I don’t know. Maybe it’s seeing those things again. They give me the creeps.” She lent towards me, putting her face next to mine. “We must be careful, I don’t want anything to happen to you Ollie.” She smiled. “We’ve only done it once, I’d like to have the chance of doing it again.”

I patted her shoulder. “I’ll be careful all right, I don’t want anything to happen to you either. I’d like to try it again too,” I added.

Emily turned round. “Try what again, Oliver?” she asked.

“Nothing Emily,” replied Natalie and I together.

Emily grinned at Natalie. “I know, you’ve been doing it, haven’t you,” She clapped her hands in delight. “How lovely. I always thought you had a thing going for Oliver.” She smiled again. “I was right.”

Natalie put a finger to her lips. “Emily, shush, remember where we are.”

Emily looked wildly around as if she had just realised she was naked on an alien spaceship. “Oh, yes, sorry,” she whispered.

I thought I’d bring this conversation to a close before Emily made more noise. We’d waited long enough, there was no sign of the Sticky coming back. I gestured to the girls.

“I want to have a look at that machine it was working on, wait here for a minute.”

With a quick look at the door, I quickly walked over to where the Sticky had been standing.  The machine in front of me made no sense at all, I couldn’t make head nor tail of it. I shrugged and turned back to the girls.

“Let’s have a look through that door, what do you say?”

Natalie shrugged. “Yeah, you’re right, we come this far.”

The door was different to all the other doors we’d seen. This one had an honest to goodness handle at one edge. I gently eased the handle down and pulled the door open an inch. The room on the other side was big, but nothing like as big as the room we were in. The room was brightly lit so I could take in all the details in one glance. No Stickys were visible which was a relief, so I pulled the door open further so Natalie and Emily could see in. To our right was a long row of pegs and hanging on them was what looked like blue overalls.

Emily pointed. “So that’s why it was blue,” she exclaimed, “It was wearing blue clothes.”

I nodded. “Exactly, I reckon they’re protective overalls. I used to wear something almost the same when I was working. You need something to keep you clean when you’re working with machinery.”

We walked further into the room looking at the row of overalls. The row seemed to stretch for ever. I could see Natalie counting under her breath. She turned to me.

“There must be thirty or forty overalls hanging there. Do you think there’s that many Stickys working here?”

I looked back through the door and nodded. “That workshop is huge and its full of machinery, I reckon you could fit at that many in there.”

Natalie turned to the row of overalls again. “We could take some of them for ourselves. They’d probably never miss a few.”

Emily turned her nose up in disgust. “I’m not wearing something a Sticky has worn.  They might have some horrible disease.”

“She’s got a point,” I said.

“What about those,” said Natalie, pointing.

Emily and I followed her pointed finger. Further down the room, were rows of large wire cages, full of blue overalls. We approached the cages and Emily  pulled an overall out. She dropped it with a muffled squeak and stood in front of the cage waving her hands as if she was drying her nail varnish.

“What’s wrong, Emily,” asked Natalie.

“It was warm,” she replied, pointing at the overall.

“It’s probably the one the Sticky was wearing,” I said.

“That’s what I thought,” said Emily, “Yuk.”

“Well, it proves they’re warm blooded, they’re not insects.” I said. I picked up another overall and pulled at it. The material was stretchy and had a strange slippery feel like a super smooth nylon. The front was closed like the seal on a freezer bag. It was also stained and smelt of oil. I shook my head.

“These are no good, they’re dirty.”

“These aren’t,” said Emily, lifting an overall out of a cage further down the row.

“She’s right,” said Natalie.” She gestured at the rows of cages. “Dirty ones in here, clean ones over there.”

I looked at the cages, trying to estimate how many overalls they contained. There were four cages with clean overalls and they were packed tight.

“I reckon we could take a few out of each cage, enough for all of us,” I said. “If we don’t mess up the piles too much, nobody will notice they’ve gone.”

Emily and Natalie nodded and before I could say anything else, they’d each pulled an overall out of the cage and pulled it on. The effect was startling, especially on Emily. The overalls made to fit a Sticky frame were a tight fit on the girls and could not be closed down the front. I’d got used to seeing them naked, but seeing them half dressed with their breasts bursting out of the front of the overalls, heightened the fact they had nothing on underneath. Once they’d rolled up the legs and sleeves, they looked ready for a stroll down the King’s road, even if there was a bit too much flesh on display.

 Natalie did a twirl in front of me.

“How do I look,” she asked with a smile.

I smiled back. “The extra arms add an exotic touch, apart from that, you look good enough to eat,” I replied. “

She pulled the lower sleeves round her waist and tied them in a bow at the front. She did a quick bump and grind. “You’d have to peel the wrapper off first,” she replied with a grin. She held her hands up. “Before you get too frisky, don’t you think we should explore some more.”

I reluctantly nodded and together, we walked to the end of the row of cages.

Just past the last cage was a door. Unlike the last door we had come through, this door had depressions just like the doors in the roof. As we crowded round the door, Natalie put her hand on my arm.

“That Sticky came into this room, it could be on the other side of that door.”

I looked at the door. “You could be right.” I took a step backwards. “Let’s not risk it. The fact this door hasn’t got a handle may be significant. It could be only Stickys with permission can come through it.” I nodded back at the machine room. “You know, no entry for unauthorised personnel. We had places like that back home.”

We silently backed away from the door and continued down the length of the room. At the far end the room widened out. Facing us was a seemingly endless row of racks holding long metal looking rods of different sizes and shapes. I looked at Natalie.

“Material store,” I said.

She raised and eyebrow. “You reckon?”

I grinned at her. “If you’re gonna make something, you’ve got to have something to make it from.” I waved my hand at the racks. “Raw material store. What else could it be.”

We walked along the racks, looking for anything we could pinch that might come in useful. Some way along, I saw what looked like nylon rods about an inch in diameter. I pulled one out for a closer look. The rod was about six feet long and light and rather flexible.

“Might come in handy,” I said.

Natalie looked at me, not convinced. “Oh yeah, and what do you think you’ll do with it, threaten the Stickys and make them take us back home.”

I hefted the rod in my hand. “I hadn’t thought of that, though it might be useful fending off a wild animal if we happen to open a wrong door,” I replied.

She grinned and pulled a rod out of the rack. “Ollie, I’m sorry I ever doubted you.”

Emily took one look at us and quickly pulled out a rod for herself.  She held the  rod tightly in both hands and looked round.

“Can we go back now, It feels a bit creepy down here.”

I looked down the row of racks. There was no other way out of the room except the door we had come through and the closed door and we’d decided to leave that alone.

“Yeah, OK, Emily, let’s go back.”

We walked back to the door, picking up a pile of overalls from the cages as we went and retraced our path back to the stairs.

         When we returned to our cell, the others fell on our pile of clothing like a pack of wolves. Edna handed my shirt back to me with a smile of thanks then pulled on the Sticky overall. The thin Sticky clothes fitted the thinner members of our party quite well, for others the fit wasn’t quite all it could be. Graham struggled to pull the overall up his legs and over his belly. After much grunting and swearing under his breath the finally managed to pull it on. His stomach poked through the front opening like a sausage that had been cooked too long and had burst through its skin. He tried unsuccessfully to close the front, finally bowing to the hopelessness of the situation. He tied the lower arms in front of his stomach, dropped his hands and sighed.

“Couldn’t you have got a size larger?” he grinned.

“Sorry, Graham,” I replied. “One size fits all. Only in your case, it seems one size doesn’t.”

Graham patted his stomach and his grin became broader. “You can say that again, still its better than nothing.” He pulled at the front of the overall. “It’s nice having clothes on again after all this time, being naked is all very well, but I like to choose when to take my clothes off.”

I nodded as I watched twenty odd people stretching and dancing about in the sand at the novelty of wearing clothes again. Even the people who had wanted to give up exploring had a new enthusiasm to continue. They’d had no more luck breaking through the door than the first time they’d tried it. It seemed our exploring parties would be at full strength again. I touched Grahams arm and pointed at the cavorting going on around us.

“You know if we are being watched, this should bring the Stickys running. All of us suddenly turning up with blue overalls, they’re going to wonder what’s going on.”

The grin dropped from Royston’s face. “Christ, I hadn’t thought of that. The next few hours should be interesting.”

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CHAPTER 17

They were not. The next few hours being interesting that is. Nothing happened as we ate our evening meal, anxiously watching the wall in case a hoard of Stickys came pouring through.

“Well,” said Jeb round a mouthful of tuna and sweet corn, “I reckon that proves the Stickys aren’t watching us. We’ve been sitting here for what, an hour and nothing’s happened.”

Tony nodded. “Another thing, for the last couple of days this cell has been empty while we’ve been up in the roof. Surely if they were watching us they’d have noticed that.”

Susan nodded. “Well, that’s some comfort. Every time I came back down the steps with Jeb and Tony, I was worried we’ll find an armed guard of Stickys waiting for us.”

“It does seem strange though,” said Edna, “I can’t imagine a zoo run by humans, capturing wild animals and then completely ignoring them. Supposing we all died or got sick or something.”

“You can’t judge them by our standards,” replied Royston, “remember they’re Stickys, not human.”

After that, the conversation died away. Everyone sat silent, with their own thoughts. I think Royston’s remark had reminded us that what we jokingly called Stickys were in fact aliens and despite our forays in the roof, we were  totally in their power.

            The next morning our exploring parties were at full strength again.  Going up the steps after breakfast was another new experience. Apart from making sure we didn’t poke each other’s eye out with our rods, I found myself staring at Emily’s blue clad rump on the steps above me. It quivered and wobbled inside her overalls in a totally hypnotic way. As I guiltily looked away, I caught Natalie giving me a penetrating look. Once we were through the trap door she punched my arm. She hit the nerve again. I wish she’d stop doing that.

“I saw you looking at her,” she said, looking fierce.

I decided the only way out was to confess. “Sorry, Natalie, I couldn’t help it, everything was moving. We have a saying in England, something on the lines of two ferrets fighting in a bag.”

Natalie grinned. “OK, I’ll forgive you just this once. In future though, if you’re going to look at anyone’s bottom, it had better be mine.”

Emily, a few paces in front of us turned round. “Ollie, what was that about a bag?”

“Nothing Emily,” replied Natalie and I together.

            After our several days of exploring, the chalk lines we had drawn on the walls seemed to stretch for miles. We finally came to the end of a line and started round the wall looking for the next door. Once we were through, we walked across the panels to the trap door. We took one look and sat back on our heels staring at each other. The cell below us was not a sandy desert, but had an almost jungle like appearance compared to what we’d seen up to now. The trees or bushes or whatever they were, grew to about four feet tall and almost covered the entire area we could see. Between the bushes, a thick scrub like foliage covered the ground. Towards the edge of the cell was what looked like a small pond.

Natalie peered down through the trap door again. “This is more like it,” she said with satisfaction, “it’s the first real change of scenery we’ve seen since we’ve been up here.”  She looked up at me. “This is the third new thing we’ve found. We seemed to be the lucky exploring party, none of the others seem to come up with anything as good.”

I nodded. “Yeah, apart from nearly getting killed, we’re doing fine”.

“Stop complaining, this is progress,” said Natalie, punching me on the arm. It hurt, I really wished she’d stop doing that.

Emily put her head down through the trap. “I can’t see anything moving down there,” she said, disappointedly.

I squeezed my head next to the girls. If there was anything down there, they were keeping pretty quiet, there was no movement in the bushes and no noise that I could hear. We sat for about five minutes but nothing happened. I sat back.

“Well, if there is anything down there,” I said,  “They’re not showing themselves, shall we move on?”

Natalie nodded and stood up. We walked away from the trap, but Emily didn’t move, she stayed crouched down looking through the trap, her blue clad rump sticking up in the air.

“Coming Emily?” said Natalie.

“Just a minute,” she called, “I want to try something.” With that, she lowered her rod through the hatch and started waving it backwards and forwards.

“What are you doing?” asked Natalie with some exasperation.

Emily turned awkwardly to face us. “I’m trying to attract their attention,” she said.

“Attract what?” I asked, “have you seen something?”

She shook her head. “Not yet.” As she turned back to the trap door, her knees slipped on the panel and she fell flat on her face. “Oh bugger,” she shouted.

“Now what,” I said.

She turned to face me. “I’ve dropped my rod, its sticking in the ground right below me.”

Natalie raised her eyebrows to heaven. “Come on Emily, leave it, you’ll never get it back.”

Emily shook her head and squirmed over the trap door so her head and arms were through the opening.  Her voice came faintly through the trap. “I think I can reach it,” she panted. She squirmed even further into the opening.

Natalie and I looked at each other alarm. With one thought, we started forward, but before we had taken two steps,  Emily disappeared through the trap door with a startled shriek .

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CHAPTER 18

I beat Natalie to the trap door by about half a second and looked down. Emily lay on the ground only inches from her rod which was sticking upright next to her. She was lucky she hadn’t impaled herself. Natalie put her head through the trap and called down in a stage whisper.

“Emily, are you all right?”

“Why are you whispering?” I asked.

She looked at me. “I don’t know,” she replied. She shrugged and shouted at Emily as loud as she could. Emily didn’t move, I was really scared, she could be unconscious or even dead. Even though she could be trying at times, I had grown fond of her, and to have her die far from home in an alien ship was too much. Then, to our relief, she started moaning fitfully, her head moving from side to side.

“Oh, oh,” said Natalie.

Emily had finally attracted the attention of the residents of this cell and I didn’t like the look of them. They were bugs, but not the usual one’s we’d seen up to now. These were big as small pigs and what I really didn’t like was the mouthful of fangs between large pincers and the way they were steadfastly approaching the half unconscious girl. They looked like a cross between a scorpion and a giant wood louse. It took me only a second to decide what I had to do.

I turned to Natalie. “Go back to our cell, get help, get as many as you can. Make sure they bring their clothes with them, we’ll need them for a rope.”

Natalie looked at me, her eyes wide. “What are you going to do?”

I threw my rod down next to Emily and swung my legs over the side of the trap, “I’m going to keep those thing off her until you get back.”

I lowered myself down, swinging myself sideways as I dropped so I wouldn’t land on Emily. I landed with a thump onto the ground next to her. The drop was further than it looked from the trap door but luckily the soft vegetation cushioned my fall.  I looked up, Natalie’s face stared down at me.

“Go,” I shouted.

She nodded and disappeared.

The bugs were closing fast so I picked up my rod and smacked the nearest one between its fangs. It made a furious clicking noise and raise its pincers. I used the end of the rod and poked it hard. The bug backed off, but the others were still coming. I nudged Emily with my foot without taking my eyes off the approaching bugs.

“Emily,” I shouted, “Wake up.”

I felt her stir behind me. “What?” she said.

Relief flooded through me, at least she was conscious. “Get up and grab your rod, keep the bugs away from us,” I shouted.

I risked a quick glance round. She was on her knees, using her rod to lever herself upright.

“Oliver, what happened?” she wailed.

“You fell through the trap door and knocked yourself out,” I replied. “Stand with your back to me and whack any bugs that come near.”

She finally got to her feet and I felt her back press against mine. As I fended off a couple of bugs that had approached too near to us, I could hear the thuds as she dealt with the bugs coming from her side.

“That’s my girl,” I said encouragingly, “Just keep the buggers away from us.”

The bugs had backed off for a moment so I turned to face her. “How are you, are you all right?”

She pulled her hair to one side. The side of her face was scratched and bloody. She would probably have a nice bruise later on, she appeared to have landed on the only hard piece of ground in sight. “I think I hit my head,” she said.

“You certainly did,” I replied. “Can you stand and keep those things away from your side?”

“I think so,” she faltered. “Oliver, how are we going to get out of here. We can’t keep those things away for ever.”

“Don’t worry,” I said soothingly, “Natalie’s gone for help. We’ll be out of here in no time.” I said that with more confidence than I felt. If anything happened to Natalie on her way back, we could be down here for days before someone found us. And what help she could bring would depend on how many people were back in the cell. Emily and I could be in for a long wait.

            The bugs were coming at us again. I did a quick count, there seemed to be about twenty of the things, which strangely enough worked in our favour. The bugs got in each others way, not all of them could get at us at once. I could feel Emily behind me, swinging her rod in circles, her breath rasping in her throat.

“Emily, don’t swing the rod, you’ll only wear yourself out,  poke them in the mouth, its more effective.”

“OK, Oliver,” she panted.

By constantly circling, we managed to keep the bugs away from us. Each time we hit one, it would back off, but there was always another to take its place. We just couldn’t hurt them enough with the rods to drive them away. Their skins seemed almost amour plated, the rods would just bounce off if we hit them on the body. I thought the mouth parts with the fangs would be more tender which is why I’d told Emily to poke at them, but it didn’t seem so. A direct hit on the mouth would drive them back, but only temporarily. They were so single minded at getting to us, they lurched forwards again. I started wondering just how long we could keep this up. The heat in this cell was oppressive, much hotter than our cell. I felt as if I was in an oven. The sweat ran down my face stinging my eyes and blurring my vision. The bugs were relentless, as fast as I knocked one back, there always seemed to be another coming at us. I risked a quick look round. We were almost under the trap door and about ten feet from the side of the cell. I really wanted to stay under the trap door, so we could be within reach of rescue, but we were too exposed, it was time to move.

“Emily,” I shouted,  “We’ve got to move, start edging towards the wall. If we can reach it, we’ll only have the bugs facing us from one side.”

I was facing the wall at the time and as a bug approached me, out of frustration and anger, I pulled the rod back and swung it in a half circle at the bug, the rod bending almost like a whip. The rod hit the bug on its side with an impact that nearly wrenched the rod from my hand. My anger had paid off, the bug was knocked clean off its feet onto its back. It lay there with its legs waving in the air, its body arching in an attempt to right itself. I could see it would succeed in a few seconds, but during that time, there was a gap in the circle.

“Run,” I shouted and grabbed Emily’s arm, pulling her towards the wall. In a few strides, we were clear of the circle of bugs and had a few minutes rest with our backs to the wall before the bugs had formed a semi-circle in front of us.

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CHAPTER 19

It seemed we had been fighting the bugs for hours, but it couldn’t have been more than twenty minutes. I didn’t dare ask Emily to look at her watch, neither of us could take our eyes of the bugs for a second. I kept glancing up at the trap, hoping to see signs of our rescuers. I could see Emily was tiring fast, she couldn’t last much longer. I had serious doubts I could fend off the bugs for more than a few minutes without her help.

“Hey.”

I looked up. Hanging head down out of the trap door was Peter Jeffries. I nodded at him and whacked a bug that had come a bit too close while I’d been distracted.

“We’ve made a rope from the overalls,” he shouted. “Hang on.”

He disappeared back into the roof and after a few minutes a line of blue overalls tied together came snaking down out of the trap. Now all I had to do was work out how to get back under the trap door without being eaten. Emily and I would have to get through the bugs, then I’d have to tie Emily to the rope, she was in no condition to climb the twenty odd feet to the trap door. Somehow I was going to do that while fending off the bugs at the same time. In the condition I was in, it seemed hopeless.  Someone up in the roof must have been thinking and come to the same conclusion.  David dropped down with Natalie’s rod in his hand and started laying into the bugs with gusto. Being fresh, he had an immediate effect, bugs were scattered left and right and after a few minutes, he’d cleared a path for us to the trap door. I yelled at Emily and we ran like a couple of kangaroo rats, swerving round the pincers that lunged at us and jumping over the wriggling bugs trying to regain their feet. I flashed a quick grin at David as we reached the rope. The end was already tied in a loop and it took only a second or two to drop it over  Emily’s shoulders. As soon as the loop settled round her waist, she was hauled bodily off her feet, clutching the rope with one hand and her rod in the other. Peter hadn’t paused for a second, as soon as he’d seen she was secure, he started pulling her up, his muscles bulging with the strain. In a few seconds, Emily was through the trap door.

I turned to David. “Thanks for that,” I panted.

He grinned. “First bit of excitement I’ve had since we got here.”

He was interrupted by the end of the rope smacking him in the face. “Go on,” he said, “up the rope.”

I held my rod by the end and flung it vertically upwards. My first shot was out, it hit the roof and bounced back down in front of me. I was luckier with my second shot, it sailed through the trap door. David swung his rod in a circle, the bugs were coming at us again.

“Go,” he shouted, “I’ll be OK.”

I went up the rope like a rat up a drainpipe. As I neared the trap door, Peter reached down and pulled me through. As I cleared the trap door,  David’s rod sailed passed me to land with a clatter on the panels. I looked down. David was already half way up the rope. Peter and I reached down and pulled him up the last few feet. We all collapsed on the roof, laughing hysterically at our narrow escape.  The laughter stopped abruptly as Peter pulled up the rope and  we saw the shredded end where the bugs had clawed at the overalls.

“Christ,” exclaimed David, “If I’d known they could do that maybe I’d have thought twice about going down there.”

“I’m bloody glad you did,” I replied, “we’d never have made it without your help.”

“Think nothing of it,” he replied airily. “Rescuing maidens is all in a day’s work for me.”

“Well, thanks,” I said, “I’ve never been called a maiden before.”

“I meant Emily, of course,” he said, “Talking of Emily, how is she?”

We walked over to where Emily was sitting down surrounded by people. Natalie had her arms round her.

“How is she?” I asked.

“She’ll be OK,” replied Natalie. “She’s shaken up, but that’ll pass.”

I realised Emily was really shaking. I squatted down in front of her.  “All right now?” I asked.

Emily looked up. “Oliver, I was so scared down there.”

I patted her shoulder. “You did very well, you knocked those bugs for six, I saw you.”

Her face brightened. “Did I really Oliver,” she asked

I nodded. “Absolutely,” I said firmly. “Jack the giant killer couldn’t have done better.”

Natalie shook her head. “Emily, what were you thinking of, there must have been ten feet between you and the top of your rod. How did you think you could reach it?”

Emily shook her head. “We went to such a lot of trouble getting the rods, I didn’t want to lose it.”

“Can’t blame her for that,” opined David. “You did the same. You took time to throw your rod up through the trap door.”

I nodded. “Yeah, I suppose you’re right. It’s the only thing we’ve managed to get for ourselves apart from the overalls. I don’t know if we dare go back to get any more.” I paused as a thought came to me. “Hang on, you did the same, you nearly speared me up the ass when you threw your rod up through the trap door.”

He grinned. “Same as you mate, I didn’t want to loose it.”

“Here, look at this,” cried Amy. She and Mark were looking through the trap door. “Look at the bugs.”

We all gathered round the opening and looked down. The bugs were tearing up woody shrubs and piling them under the trap door. The pile was already several feet high and growing by the minute.

“Bloody hell,” exclaimed Peter, “the bastards are trying to get out.”

David looked thoughtful. “Maybe we’ve under estimated them.” He looked at me and grinned. “This could be signs of intelligence, You said we’d never know if anything we found was intelligent or not.” He pointed down the opening. “I reckon this is signs of intelligence.”

Peter harrumphed. “More like they want to get at us so they can tear us to pieces. I for one don’t fancy waiting around to find out.” He looked around, “What do you reckon people?”

“I agree,” said Amy, and with that she firmly shut the trap door.

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CHAPTER 20

We were a weary lot that slowly climbed down the steps to our cell. As we sat round the pool, the closeness of Emily’s escape hit home to us.

“You must never do anything like that again Emily,” said Natalie in her best house mother voice. “What if Oliver hadn’t been around.”

Emily looked suitably contrite. “I’m sorry, Natalie, I only wanted to get my rod back.” She looked at me. “It was terribly brave what you did, coming to my rescue.”

I shrugged, trying to act nonchalant. 

“She’s right Oliver,” said Natalie, “You were brave, you could have got yourself killed along with Emily.”

“I didn’t have time to think,” I said. “I could see those bugs coming at Emily and I just acted on instinct not bravery. Anyway, I couldn’t have done it without David and Peter. David cleared the way for us and the way Peter pulled Emily up, well, she went through the trap door like she was going up in a lift.”

Peter grinned. “The weight training finally came in useful,” he said.

Natalie punched my arm. “Don’t you go acting the stiff upper lip Englishman on me,” she smiled.

I managed to keep up my nonchalant act in spite of the pain in my arm. That bloody nerve, she hit it unerringly every time. Also inside I was shaking. I remembered too well the tears and gashes in the overalls where the bugs has attacked them with their fangs and pincers. What if we’d been unable to keep them away from us, they’d have torn us to pieces. I was suddenly angry with Emily for putting me in such a dangerous position, conveniently forgetting it was my decision to jump into the cell. I looked up as some of the rest of our group slowly descended the steps. Royston and Graham saw our huddled group and came over to us.

“What’s wrong?” asked Royston.

“Emily nearly got herself killed,” said Amy. “Ollie nearly went the same way.”

Royston’s eyebrows shot up to what would have been his hairline, if he’d had any hair that is. He squatted down in front of us.

“Are you hurt or injured?” he asked.

I shook my head. “Emily’s got a bruise on her head, I’m all right, just a bit shaken that’s all.”

Natalie gave him a blow by blow account of what had happened. When she’d finished she sat back on her haunches and looked at me.

“This is the second time in as many days that we nearly got killed, we’re going to have to be more careful in future, ” she said.

Royston sat back with a thump. “You can say that again,” he murmured. He suddenly looked up. “Did you say the cell with the big bugs was covered in vegetation, not sand.”

“That’s right,” I replied, “It looked like bushes and stunted trees, there was a pond as well.”

“That’s a good sign,” he said with satisfaction. “It looks like we’ve spread out far enough with our exploring to get past the cells with a desert environment. If we go a bit further, who knows what we might find.”

“Yeah, something that could really eat us,” said Peter. “When I was pulling Oliver through the hatch, I could see those things tearing at the bottom of the rope David was climbing. I wouldn’t fancy meeting anything much bigger.”

Amy rolled over onto her back and waved her legs in the air.“ Look what they did,” The bottom of her trousers were shredded up to her knees. “It was my overall that was at the bottom of the rope,” she added un-necessarily.

Graham nodded slowly. “Royston has a point though. Think, up to now all we’ve seen is sand and bugs. If we explore further out, the cells may get more like Earth environments, we might find some beings we can communicate with.”

“Before they eat us,” replied Peter with a grin.

 By now, the rest of our party had come back to our cell and were crowding round us. There was a murmur of conversation as they discussed what they had heard.

“I think this gives us a good reason to go on exploring,” said Edna. She looked around. “What do you think?”

There were nods of agreement. Our narrow escape seemed to have been forgotten, the fact we had found a new type of cell had given us all a new enthusiasm to continue exploring.

    The next few days passed relatively uneventfully. As our circle of exploration widened,  it took longer and longer to find new cells, after a full days exploring, our entire group only managed to look into about five or six cells. The cells we now looked into were jungle or savannah environments, with small animals dotting the surface. The animals were totally unrecognisable, they were nothing like the animals back home, but the fact that as our circle of exploration widened, the animals seemed to be larger, gave us hope to carry on. Natalie and I hoped we’d could have done some exploring on our own, but Emily always seemed to be with us. It was very frustrating, we were either in the cell with all the others or exploring with Emily tagging along, is seemed fate had conspired we’d never to be alone together.

            On the fifth day after our escape from the bugs with the claws, Natalie, Emily and I were making out way back through the doors when we had a shock. I stepped through a door and looked for the chalk lines with the arrows showing the way back to our cell. There was nothing. I frantically checked each side of the door. Nothing.

“We can’t have gone wrong,” I said, “We’ve followed the lines right up to this door, there must be lines in this cell.”

“None of our people would have rubbed them out, I’m sure,” said Natalie.

Emily shuddered and gripped her pole so tightly her knuckles shone white. “Could the Stickys have done it, do you think?” she asked in a whisper.

I bloody well hope not, otherwise we could be stuffed, I thought.

“I doubt it Emily,” I said in my best reassuring voice. “Look there’s only our footprints in the dust, if a Sticky had been here, it would have left footprints.”

What I didn’t say was the tiny feet I’d seen on the Sticky in the machine shop would hardly make a mark in the dust.

“So what do we do?” asked Natalie, “It’ll be dark soon, if we don’t find our chalk lines before dark, we’ll be in trouble.”

“We’ll spread out,” I said, with more confidence than I felt. “There should be six doors in this cell . We know this one’s not good, so we’ll open all the other doors, and see if our chalk lines are in any of the adjoining cells or on the walls next to the doors. That’ll do for a start.”

Natalie stared at me. “And what if we don’t find any lines, Ollie?”

I shrugged. “Then we’ll think of something else.”

            We spread out round the walls, opening the doors as we came to them. The first two I came to had no chalk lines on the walls either side of the doors. When I opened the doors, there were chalk lines on the inside walls of the adjoining cells, but the arrows on the lines pointed towards the doors, so I continued round the wall to where Natalie was.

“Any luck?” I asked.

She shook her head. “Nothing next to the doors and the arrows on the chalk lines inside point to the door.” She paused, her brow furrowing. “Someone in our party has come through these doors, so theoretically, there should be lines somewhere in here with arrows leading to the next door out.” She shrugged,  “Let’s see what Emily has found,”

Emily was on the far side of the cell and as we approached her we could see she had just shut one door and was marching resolutely to the last door. She stopped at the door and looked back at us and waved.

“Found it,” she shouted excitedly. “Chalk lines with arrows.”

Relief flooded through me, our troubles were over. Just to show how wrong I was, the door next to Emily suddenly bounced open. Startled, Emily stepped back as the door was pushed further open. I was expecting one of our group to come into the cell, but what happened next rooted us to the spot. It wasn’t a human that stepped through the door but a Sticky.

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CHAPTER 21

Natalie and I froze, our backs pressed against the wall. Emily was half hidden behind the open door, if she didn’t move I thought, the Sticky might not see her. The Sticky had some sort of instrument in its hands and appeared to be studying it intently.  As it stepped into the cell, Emily moved. She stepped out from behind the door and swung her pole like a broadsword. She must have put all her strength into the swing, we heard the impact as it hit the Sticky’s head from the other side of the cell. The Sticky dropped as if it had been pole-axed and lay motionless on the floor. Natalie and I stared at each other in amazement for a long second. Then we both ran to where Emily was looking down at the Sticky with a satisfied look on her face. We staggered to a halt looking first at the Sticky and then at Emily. She smiled at us, leaning casually on her pole like a curvaceous Little John of Robin Hood fame. He was rather good with a quarter staff as I remember.

“That’s got it,” said Emily.

“It certainly has,” panted Natalie. “Is it dead?”

Emily shook her head. “Don’t think so, it’s moaning a bit.” She swung her pole in front of Natalie as she started to bend down over the Sticky. “Don’t touch it, there might be something on it that tells its friends what’s happening to it.” She pointed to the instrument the Sticky had been carrying. Small coloured lights flashed on one face. “We’d better not touch that either,” she added.

Emily was acting way out of character and seemed to have taken control of the situation.

“I agree with Emily,” I said to Natalie, “I think we should touch nothing and get the hell out of here and back to our own cell before that thing wakes up.”

I took a quick look through the door the Sticky had come through in case there were more of them. Nothing else was in sight, just a chalk line with arrows pointing away from the door, hopefully pointing back to our own cell. The chalk lines next to the door were hardly visible, they faded out a few feet from the door.

“What about him,” said Natalie, pointing at the Sticky. “We can’t just leave him there.”

I shook my head. “Look Natalie, I know you’re a nurse but this is not the time to let your instincts to help take over from good sense.” I grabbed her arm. “Come on, we’ve got to go.”

She reluctantly followed me through the door and as soon as Emily was through, I put my fingers into the depressions and shut the door. As we followed the chalk lines, I urged the girls to go faster.

“Why are we hurrying,” panted Emily, “I knocked it out, it won’t follow us.”

“I was thinking about what you said,” I replied. “The Sticky was dressed in some sort of suit, there’s no way of telling what sensors were on it and that instrument it was carrying could have recorded everything that happened for all we know. We’ve got to get back to our cell and warn the others.”

Natalie nodded. “You think there might be more Stickys wandering about up here?”

I nodded. “That might have been the only one, but for all we know there could be dozens of them up here. Christ knows what would happen if any of our mob ran into one. I reckon the Stickys have woken up to the fact that doors have been opening and closing up here, that’s why the Sticky was up here.  If it didn’t see Emily, it won’t know what happened. If we’re lucky, the Sticky might wake up with a headache and maybe it’ll think it hit its head on the door frame.”

I paused.  “On the other hand, if it saw Emily just before she hit it, we’re buggered.”

Emily shook her head. “It couldn’t have seen me, Oliver, it was looking away from me when I hit it.” She looked at me for reassurance, her eyes wide. Her moment of decisiveness had passed, she was back to the old Emily again.

“Well that’s something,” I said. “But the fact it was up here could mean the Stickys think something is going on and that could instigate a full scale search. If there is a search, the chalk lines could lead them right to our cell.”

I opened another door and closed it after we were through into the next cell.

“I’d hate to rub out our lines, it would be a pain,” protested Natalie, “we’d have to start all over again to get past the desert cells.”

We hurried round the wall of the cell, following the arrows, our conversation  paused for a moment while I opened the next door, shutting it after we were all through. So far all the arrows on the chalk lines were leading us back to our cell. At each door I opened, I let out an inward sigh of relief as I saw the lines on the wall.

I picked up the conversation with Natalie. “I’d hate to rub them out too, but it might come to that,” I replied.

“I’ve been thinking,” replied Natalie. “It might not have been the Stickys that rubbed out the lines.”

“It would be nice if that was true,” I said. “What gave you that idea?”

Natalie paused for a moment, gathering her thoughts. “It could be one of our group didn’t bother to complete the line round the wall,” she said.

“That would be stupid,” I replied, “They all know what could happen to them if they got lost up here, they might never find their way back to our cell.”

Natalie shrugged. “People do stupid things,” she said, “we’ve been exploring for so long, I think people forget just where we are.”

“Where are we then?” asked Emily, her head swivelling round to face Natalie.

We stepped through a door and I saw the open trap door in the roof panel ahead of us.

“We’re nearly home Emily,” I said. I slapped her on her rump. “Go on, git through that trap door.”

Emily giggled and ran ahead of us. She was still giggling as her head vanished down through the trap door. Natalie raised her eyes to heaven. God preserve us she mouthed.

            We descended the steps to find Richard’s group sitting by the pool. His group consisted of Edna and Mary so they were often the first ones back as Edna was quite elderly and Mary was still recovering from her bout of glandular fever. Mark was the fourth member of the group and between him and Richard, they looked after the two women. They looked up in alarm as we ran over to them.

“What’s wrong,” asked Edna.

We quickly told them about the Sticky we’d found in the roof.

“We’ve got to hide the overalls,” I said. “If the Stickys decide to have a look at us, we can’t be seen with their clothes on.”

“And our rods,” added Emily.

“Yeah, right, the rods as well,” I agreed.

Edna started pulling off the overall. I could see she was reluctant to be naked again. Being an elderly woman, she obviously didn’t like displaying her body to the younger members of our group, which made her choice of a holiday at a nudist resort rather puzzling.

 “It’s better if you take it off,” I said, “You won’t stand out in the crowd then.” I said trying to be encouraging..

 “What about you?” asked Natalie, “I know they brought you in here with your clothes on, but what you said about Edna could equally apply to you.”

I thought about it for a minute. I certainly didn’t want to be singled out if the Stickys came searching, but I’d got used to wearing my clothes. I made up my mind, my modesty would have to be sacrificed.

“Yeah, you’re right, better if we all look the same.” I quickly undressed and pushed the clothes into my backpack. My boots wouldn’t go inside so I half buried them under the pack.

Mary wriggled out of her overall and stood clutching it in both hands. “Where can we hide it,” she asked.

“Bury it,” said Natalie. “We all sleep in the same place each night. We’ll scoop out the sand and bury the overall, then when night comes, we can lay on top of it. We’ll do the same with our rods.”

I nodded, trying not to stare at the girls as they stripped off. After seeing them clothed for a few days, they seemed more naked than ever now. To make matters worse, now I didn’t have my shorts on to hide any embarrassing reactions.

            As the rest of the group arrived they immediately saw something was wrong. They had got used to seeing us with clothes on, now, even I was naked. It didn’t take long to tell them what we had seen in the roof and in no time at all, the rest of the group had stripped off and were hurriedly burying their overalls in the sand.

Doris’s exploring party  was the last down the steps and ignoring the sight of people frantically digging in the sand,  they rushed over to me.

“We’ve got some important news,” announced Doris.

I shook my head. “Can it wait Doris, we’ve got an emergency here.”

“This is important, Oliver,” she turned to her companions, “Adam and Lisa think so too.”

They both nodded furiously.

I interrupted her flow and told her about the Sticky in the roof. As she opened her mouth, I held up my hands.

“Doris, please, save it for later. It’s more important you get that overall off and buried. The Stickys could come in here any minute.”

She reluctantly nodded and started stripping. The overall was such a tight fit it took her several minutes of grunting and stretching before the overall lay on the sand.

            We dragged the cool boxes over to the tables and ate some food. Most of us were so nervous, the sandwiches stuck in out throats. As we ate, I could see heads turning towards the wall where the Stickys had come through last time.

The light was starting to fade. As we lay down on the sand, I looked around.

“Everyone made sure their overalls are completely buried?” I asked. There was a lot of shuffling around and nods as our group double checked. I  sat down and casually glanced up and nearly passed out. The steps, leading right up to our trapdoor. Any Sticky coming in would see it straight away. How could we have overlooked something so big. I jumped up.

“The steps.” I shouted. “We’ve got to close the trapdoor and dismantle the steps.”

Everyone was on their feet as I ran to the steps. I climbed to the top and pulled at the plastic until my fingers in the gap prevented me pulling it further down. To me, the gap seemed as big as the Grand Canyon, but it would have to do. I backed down the steps and started throwing the boxes to the ground. 

“Scatter them about,” I shouted.

The group ran to  the boxes and threw them away from the wall. From my lofty position, they reminded me of ants collecting sugar grains. I backed down the steps,  pushing the boxes down until  the pile of steps were only about five feet high. I jumped to the ground and started throwing boxes away from the wall. Peter did the same on the other side and in a few minutes, we’d cleared the area. Others in our group carried them further from the wall,  scattering them over the sand.  Richard and Mark kicked sand into the hollow where the steps had been and smoothed the sand clean.

“Jesus Christ,” exclaimed Peter, “How the hell did we miss that.  It would have been a dead give-away.”

“Probably vitamin deficiency,” said Royston, wiping the sweat from his face. “We’re probably not working at full efficiency. I told you, man does not live on tuna and sweet corn sandwiches alone.”

“Amen to that,” said Peter, with feeling.

As we returned to our sleeping places, Natalie banged on a table for attention.

“Is there anything else we’ve forgotten,” she shouted. “Think.”

The group looked around, their faces screwed up in concentration. Suddenly Jennifer pointed at the wall.  “The chalk diagram,” she shouted.

“Christ, yes,” shouted William, “Imagine what the Stickys would think if they saw their writing on our wall. We really would end up as hamburgers.”

As he was speaking, Richard and Pamela had run to the wall and were rubbing furiously at the chalk marks. Graham walked over with a cup and dribbled water onto the faint chalk marks remaining. He wiped his hand over the wall and stood back.

“OK, everyone?” he asked.

“Yeah, can’t see it from here,” said Carol.

“What about your boots,” said Natalie to me, “Is the diagram I drew still there?”

I hastily dug the boots out of the sand and rubbed the faint traces of chalk from the sides of the boot.

“I think that’s everything,” I said. “Can anyone think of anything else we may have forgotten?”

Everyone slowly shook their heads.

“OK, I think we should lay down now, it’s almost dark,” I said. “If the Stickys do come in, for Christ’s sake don’t move.”

We all lay down. I half buried my pack and used it as a pillow. All was quiet except for the soft rustle of sand being moved as we carried out the nightly ritual of adjusting the sand to accommodate the bumps and hollows of our bodies. Natalie lay on her side facing me, the artificial starlight shining in her eyes. I  winked at her, trying to show an optimism I didn’t really feel. She gave me a faint smile and reached out and squeezed my hand.

Nobody else moved,  I didn’t think we were going to get much sleep tonight.

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CHAPTER 22

We’d been laying for about two hours when I heard a faint noise. I opened my eyelids a crack and stared through the fuzz of my eyelashes. Shapes were moving towards us, Sticky shapes.

I thought there were about ten of them as they slowly advanced into the cell.  They seemed nervous, they were bunched together and even though I’d never seen any of their hardware,

I knew what they were carrying. Weapons, wherever they come from, have their own particular character and although they didn’t look like assault rifles, the way the Stickys carried them left me in no doubt. The Stickys were carrying weapons.

            They walked slowly round us, stopping at each motionless figure on the sand. One loomed over me, the thing in its hands pointing at my head. I concentrated keeping my breathing even, trying to look and sound like I was sound asleep.  Even though my eyes were almost closed, I could now get a really good look at it. The Sticky wasn’t as thin as the previous one I’d seen, this one appeared to be wearing what looked like full body armour. Pouches and containers hung from belts that criss-crossed its chest. The head was enclosed in a dark helmet which tapered to a round point at the front. Large goggles on the front of the helmet reflected starlight. It reminded me of the gas masks I’d seen in old war films. The second set of arms were about six inches down from top arms and were shorter. These held a small box which the Sticky seemed to be consulting at intervals. At the end of the arms were what looked like a squirrel’s paws. I couldn’t see this thing eating acorns, I thought grimly.  It prodded me gently in the ribs and I grunted with what I hoped sounded like a sleeping man being disturbed. It prodded me once more then moved out of my line of sight. I didn’t dare move my head, I just lay there trying to work out what they were doing from the scrunching noises of their feet in the sand.  They must have stayed in our cell for about half an hour, circling about, examining the walls after they’d finished looking at us. Finally, they all trooped back through the door in the wall. Nobody dared move. For all we knew, they could have left a guard on the door, we lay there listening for any noise that could mean we still had Stickys in the cell with us. After about an hour, I saw Carol slowly lift her head a fraction. She was nearest to the wall and by raising her head she could see where the door was.

“All clear,” she whispered, “they’ve gone.”

We all rose and clustered round the pool. We were all shaken and some of the girls were in tears. Natalie sat next to me and clung to my arm. Unfortunately, Emily was clinging to the other arm, so I couldn’t give Natalie my full attention.

“Is everyone all right?” asked Royston, “Did any of the Stickys hurt you?”

“It prodded me a couple of times,” said Mary, “Then it moved away.”

“Me too,” said Carol.

“It only stayed with me for less than a minute,” I said. “Did they stay with any of you for longer. Did they pick anyone out for special examination?”

There was a general shaking of heads.

“Well, that’s good, it looks like they were just carrying out a general check,” I said with relief.

“Looks like we’ve stirred up a hornets nest,” said Pamela, “I think we’d better give exploring a miss for a couple of days.”

“I agree,” said Graham, “The Stickys could be prowling around and up in the roof for some time, better give them time to cool down.”

Peter opened a cool box. “I for one could do with a drink.” He pulled a bottle of Scotch from the box and undid the cap. He poured a generous slug into a paper cup and tossed it back.  “Anyone else?” he asked, holding out the bottle.

At once he was surrounded by a sea of hands holding out paper cups. He carefully dispensed the drink into each cup like a man in a lifeboat dolling out the last of the water. We sat back on the sand, cradling our cups.

“Well, we got away with it,” said Pamela, “Perhaps they haven’t seen our chalk lines.”

David nodded slowly. “You could be right. I’m pretty sure if they’d seen them, it would have led them straight to our trap door. As far as I could see, they didn’t check the roof at all.”

“Did anyone see them looking at the roof?” asked Graham, “Individually, none of us could see all of what they were doing, but between the lot of us, we should be able to tell if they showed an undue interest in the roof.”

We looked at each other. There was a general shaking of heads.

“That’s good,” exclaimed Emily. “So we can start exploring again.”

“Not a good idea, Emily,” I replied. “Didn’t you hear what Graham said. The Stickys could be up in the roof for days. Until the Sticky’s are satisfied we had nothing to do with the one you knocked out, we better lay low.”

“I don’t think so,” interrupted Doris. “I told you we had some important news.” She took a deep breath. “Last evening just before we came back, we discovered a flight of steps. Steps going up not down.”  

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CHAPTER 23

There was a stunned silence. “Up did you say?” I asked.

Doris nodded firmly. “And that’s not all. At the top of the steps we opened a door into a corridor. Adam crept along a short way until he came to another door. It led to a short corridor and at the end, well,” she turned to Adam. “Tell them what you saw.”

“Any of you been on the flight deck of an aircraft?” asked Adam.

There were a few nods.

“I never have been,” continued Adam rather ungrammatically, “But I’ve seen them on TV so I know what they look like. This room looked just like that.” He spread his arms. “The control panel, or whatever it was, covered half the wall. It was covered with screens and knobs and levers and there were seats along the front of the panel, they looked like overstuffed dentists chairs.”

“Bloody hell,” exclaimed Peter, “This really is something.”

“You think that’s where they pilot the ship then?” asked Jennifer.

Adam shrugged. “I don’t know, but whatever it was, it was so complicated, it must control something.”

“What else was in the room?” asked Amy.

Adam shook his head. “I don’t know, I only had time to have a quick look through the door, all I saw was the control panel.”

“Hold on,” interrupted Royston. “You’re saying you went through a door at the top of the steps, into the Sticky’s part of the ship?”

Adam nodded.

“What about breathing, did you notice any difference in the air?” asked Royston.

Adam shook his head. “No, it was just regular air.”

Royston smiled broadly. “That means the Stickys breath air just like we do. This is the most incredible luck, it means we can move freely about their part of the ship. All the same you were lucky,” he added. “It could have been methane or something the Stickys breathe.”

“And you can’t breathe methane for long,” said Emily firmly.

I think we all had the same thought, but it was Royston who put it into words.

“If we could get into that room,” he said slowly as the thought gelled in his mind, “and take control of it, maybe we could convince the Stickys we’re not animals.”

“A sit in,” laughed Susan, “That should show ‘em.”

“We don’t know how much time we have,” said Doris,” the Stickys could find our trap door at any time, I don’t think we should wait. If we’re going to do anything, I think we should do it now.” She looked at me. “That’s why I was so anxious to tell you Oliver.”

I was contrite. “Sorry, Doris, after Emily whacked the Sticky I was scared they could come into our cell any minute. Anything else just went out of my mind.”

“How far away is the door leading to the steps,” asked Graham, “ if we went now, could you find it in the dark?”

Lisa laughed. “Easy, it’s in the second cell to this one.”

“What?” exclaimed Graham.

“That’s right,” said Doris. “We were coming back when we realised there was a door we’d overlooked in that cell. We opened the door, just on the off-chance there might be something interesting and there they were, steps going up. Even though it was nearly dark, we just had to go up them.”

“How far up?” asked Peter. “I mean, how many steps.”

Doris thought for a moment. “About twice as far as the average house.” She turned to Adam for confirmation.

He nodded. “Yeah, about twenty feet or so, I would say.”

“I think that gives us a clue about the control panel,” I said. “Twenty feet up would put it right on top of the cells if you allow for the thickness of the deck space and whatever machinery is above our roof. It could be the environmental control for all the cells, or at least some of them.”

Jeb nodded his head. “Makes sense to me,” he said.

“So what do we reckon folks,” said Graham, “do we wait or do we go now.”

I’ve never heard anyone shouting in a whisper, but that’s what we all did. It was unanimous, we’d go now, all of us.

            This was going to be an all or nothing venture, so we had to be sure what we were going to do. A quick conference was called for.

“We should put our overalls back on,” said Royston, “apart from the fact I don’t fancy coming face to face with the Stickys in the nude, If we’re wearing clothes, it’ll improve our chances of being taken for intelligent beings, not animals.”

There were nods all round.

“What about supplies?” asked Pamela, “we could be stuck in that room for some time.”

“I’ll empty my backpack,” I said. “We can take all the bottles of water and any sandwiches we have left in that. Anything I can’t get in the pack, we can carry.”

“What do we do once we’re in the room,” asked David, “We can’t just sit there.”

They all looked at me.

“What?” I said.

“Well you’re the only engineer among us,” said Natalie with a grin.

“Give me a chance,” I replied, “I haven’t even seen the room yet.”

“You said you recognised the machinery in that room down the stairs,” replied Natalie, “Out of all of us, you have the best chance of working out what the control panel is for.”

I shook my head doubtfully. “I dunno,” I said. “If it’s a load of computer controls, I reckon Jeb would be your man.”

Jeb looked up in alarm. “Hold on,” he exclaimed, “I haven’t seen the room either.”

“The best thing would be for both of you to check it out,” said Royston. “You’re going to have to do something that will attract the attention of the Stickys. The rest of us will stand back and let you do your thing.”

There were more nods all round. I ruefully looked at Jeb, it seems we were elected.

“Right,” said Royston, “Let’s get dressed and make a start.”

In the dim light, the white naked bodies started disappearing as the group pulled their dark overalls back on. First the legs, then the body merged with the darkness as the overalls were pulled up, until finally, from a distance, it looked like a load of disembodied heads moving about in the dark. I thought idly that if the Stickys were watching us, that would give them something to think about.

I pulled on my shorts, tee shirt and boots, and dumped the contents of my backpack onto the sand, putting my mobile phone, compass and passport in my shorts pockets. The clothes I could do without, but I was loathe to part with the compass, my parents had given it to me as a going away present. I didn’t want to loose the phone either, I had a lot of numbers keyed into the memory and I didn’t want the bother of  loading them into a new phone if I ever got back to Earth.

I suppose that was a bit optimistic of me, but the steps Doris had found had buoyed up my spirits.  I thought the passport might come in handy, if I could show it to the Stickys, a printed document with my picture in it, along with the compass and phone, might be enough to convince them we weren’t animals.  Then I remembered the items that had been taken from my backpack, they were manufactured items too. I debated for a second, then thought what the hell and put the passport in my pocket.

            Some of the group had been searching through the cool boxes for anything we hadn’t used and within a short while I had a collection of 

bottles of water and sandwiches in their wraps. I stuffed as many as I could in the backpack, the rest I left next to the backpack to be carried by the others.  It took a while to collect all the empty boxes and rebuild our steps, but about two hours after the Stickys had left us, we were ready to go.

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CHAPTER 24

As I climbed the steps, I had a last look round. The tables and chairs round the pool looked like forlorn white ghostly skeletons in the dark.  The only movement was the rippling of the water in the pool as it was changed, the artificial starlight braking up into tiny points of light on the surface. Hopefully, this would be my last view of the place. Once we were all through the hole in the roof, we let Doris take the lead. We crept quietly round the wall until we came to a door. Doris tapped the metal.

“This is the one,” she whispered.

She opened the door and we all filed in. Ahead of us, at the end of a short corridor,  a flight of narrow steps led upwards to a door at top. Natalie pushed me towards the front and we started to climb the steps. When I reached the top, we were all strung out along the length of the steps. I beckoned Doris to come up next to me.

“Which way do we go once we’re through the door?” I whispered.

Doris looked blank. “Hang on,” she said, “I’ll ask Adam.”

She beckoned to him and after much shuffling about, he squeezed past the line of people and worked his way to the top.

“Which way?” mouthed Doris.

“We go left once we’re through the door I think,” he whispered.

I was worried. “Think, don’t you know for sure?” I hissed back at him.

“We were in a bit of a hurry,” he protested. “We wanted to be back before it got dark.”

“So what’s on the other side of this door?” I asked.

“A corridor about eight feet wide,” he said. “There’s doors at intervals on the opposite wall, but when I went along the corridor, they were all closed. There was only one door open on the left hand side and that’s the one I looked through.”

“Lisa and I stayed in the doorway,” whispered Doris.

“Right, so through this door and turn left. How far along to the door you went through,” I asked trying to get the layout in my mind.

“About thirty feet,” replied Adam.

“And there were no Stickys about?” asked Jeb shuffling up the steps next to us.

Adam shook his head. “The lights in the corridor were very dim, there was nobody about.”

“Could be ships night,” opined Jeb. “I’ve heard they do that on cruise liners, perhaps the Stickys do the same.”

I thought for a moment. “Well, it’s still night down in our cell, perhaps it’s the same up here.” I reached for the depressions in the door. “Only one way to find out.” I looked round. “Ready people.”

There were furious nods from the group on the steps. Emily, some way down the steps raised her fist and mouthed ‘one for all’. I smiled at a her and with some trepidation, I shouldered my pack into a comfortable position and put my fingers in the depressions. The door bounced open.

            We had to back down a couple of steps so we had room to pull the door open. Once it was back against the wall, I put my head round the opening tightly clutching my rod. What I though I would do with it was another matter, but both Natalie and Emily had both brought their rods with them. It gave us some comfort to have a weapon of any description with us. After seeing what Emily did with hers, we knew they could be effective. When my head was fully round the door opening, I looked quickly to the left and right. Adam’s description was right. The corridor was in semi darkness, the only illumination coming from small lights set into the ceiling. They reminded me of the down-lighters in my parents kitchen. The floor was covered in a black textured rubbery surface. Opposite was a row of doors, just like the one we had opened, all shut. Most importantly, there were no Sticky’s in sight. What they would have done if they’d seen us didn’t bear thinking about, so I didn’t. I stepped over the door sill and slowly walked down the corridor, the rest of the group following in single file. I looked back. We looked a right bunch of desperadoes. With no way to shave or cut our hair, us men looked a right bunch of pirates. The girls were not much better, they hadn’t seen a hairdresser for months by my reckoning, their hair was in tangles like Medusa’s locks. Still no Stickys in sight. Again, Adam was right, after we’d walked about thirty feet, we came to an open door. I stopped and looked at it. Unlike the other doors in the corridor, this door was coloured a vivid yellow, with Sticky swirls and curls covering half the surface. I turned to Adam.

“You never said anything about that,” I said pointing to the pattern on the door.

Adam shrugged. “I didn’t think it was important,” he replied.

“After what happened to us when we went through a door with Sticky writing on it, I’d have thought you might have mentioned it.”

“Are, yes, but this door hasn’t got a plate on it like the one you told us about,” said Adam. “Anyway, I went through the door and nothing happened to me,” he added as if that settled the argument.

“What’s wrong,” whispered Natalie moving up behind me. “Why have we stopped.”

“The door,” I said, “Remember what happened last time we went through a door with Sticky writing on it. I’m wondering if this is such a good idea.” I had a sudden thought. “Adam, did you shut the door?”

Adam shook his head. “Nope, I just went down that short corridor to the room with the control panel, then I ran back to where Doris and Lisa were waiting for me.”

“See,” I said. “Adam never shut the door. Nothing happened to us until we shut the door in that room. Who knows what might happen if we shut this door. It could be a garbage dump for all we know, we could be shot out into space.”

Natalie shook her head. “Not very likely, that would mean the control panel would go out with us,” she paused, “Wouldn’t it?”

I thought for a moment. “O Kaaay,” I said slowly, “Just for safety’s sake, we’ll leave this door open till we’ve had a good look round the control panel.”

I stepped over the sill and walked down the corridor. It was narrower than the corridor we had just left, only about six feet wide. After about twenty feet, I came to another open door. This one was also bright yellow and covered in Sticky writing.

“You never mentioned this either,” I said to Adam accusingly.

Adam shrugged. “Didn’t I, I must have forgotten.”

I raised my eyes to heaven and shook my head. “If we all get killed, I’ll never forgive you,” I said with a grin.

He grinned back. “I don’t think I’ve forgotten anything else.” He pointed past the door. “The control room is through there.”

I followed his pointed finger. Another six feet down the corridor was yet another bright yellow door, this one had a large window in the top half. Once through the last door, we emerged into a long narrow room with an arched ceiling. To our right was the control panel Adam had described with two large chairs in front of it. In front of the door was an open space and to the left, were a double row of padded seats, arranged in pairs down to the far end of the room. The walls were covered in what looked like small doors or hatches. If it wasn’t for our strange surroundings, we could have been inside a rather modernistic aircraft. It took a moment or two for all the group to pass through the door, but soon we were all milling about, examining the room. Jeb and I made for the control panel.

            Up to now, we’d never heard a Sticky make a noise. This one did. As I walked round one of the overstuffed chairs in front of the control panel, closely followed by Jeb, the Sticky leapt up from the base of the control panel with a loud shriek. It dropped a handful of metal objects that scattered over the floor and before Jeb and I could react, it scrambled for the door, jumping over the sill like an Olympic hurdler.  Jeb and I looked at each other in amazement, then we both ran for the door. The Sticky was running for its life up the corridor, all four arms pumping furiously. A few seconds later it disappeared through the door at the far end.

“Bloody hell,” exclaimed Jeb.

Everyone else was rooted to the spot.

“How the hell did we miss him?” asked Peter.

“He was down by the control panel, hidden by the chairs,” I replied. “He must have heard us, we were making enough noise when we came in. Perhaps he though if he kept his head down, we’d go away.”

Jeb bent down and picked up the things the Sticky had dropped. He weighed them in his hands “These look like some tools of some sort. It looks like he was working on that,” he said, pointing to an opening near the bottom of the control panel.

“We could be expecting the Stickys any minute now,” said Graham, “It might be a good idea to lock ourselves in. If we leave the door open, they could rush us.”

“Bloody good idea,” retorted William, “I don’t want to be turned into hamburgers.”

Before I could react, He pushed past me, pushed at the door and put his fingers in the depressions in the top of the door. The warning died in my throat as the door pulled itself fully shut. Then things started happening.

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CHAPTER 25

I stepped forward and stared through the window in the door, half expecting a hoard of Stickys to come charging down the corridor. There were no Stickys in sight, but more worrying, the door in the corridor was closing, all by itself. The door hesitated a fraction as it neared the door jamb, then pulled itself shut with a lurch. Suddenly, the air was filled with a shrieking noise that made us all nearly jump out of our skins. Then the whole room started vibrating followed by loud clangs and thumps that echoed through the walls. The control panel, which up to now had been dark, suddenly lit up with multicoloured lights. Screens set between the lights flickered into life, with weird symbols appearing and disappearing.

“What the hell’s happening,” shouted William.

The short corridor suddenly filled with vapour that temporally blocked my view out of the window. When it cleared, I could see the end of the corridor was moving away from us. As it moved further away, I suddenly realised it was us moving, not the corridor. The room lurched, making us all stagger. The view through the window grew dark, the darkness only broken by the light in the corridor shining like a small bright oblong in the blackness. The light in the corridor grew smaller and smaller and as it shrank to a dot, other scattered lights came into view. I began to make out a shape in the dark and then I realised what it was. What I was seeing was the side of the Sticky’s ship and our room was moving away from it at an increasing speed.  What the hell was happening? Then the realisation hit, me and for a second, I couldn’t breathe. I’d remembered thinking the room looked like the inside of an aircraft when I first stepped through the door.

“Jesus, we’re in some sort of ship,” I shouted. I turned to William. “And you’ve just launched us.”  I looked wildly around, taking in the control panel and the rows of padded seats. “Bloody hell, I think we’re in a Sticky lifeboat.”

            The shrieking noise shut off as suddenly as it had started, it stopped so abruptly my ears rang in the sudden silence.

William stood with his eyes wide, shaking his head. “I only shut the door,” he shouted. In the silence, his voice filled the room. He looked shocked at the volume of his voice. “I only shut the door,” he repeated quietly.

Richard joined me at the window. “What makes you think we’re in a lifeboat” He waved his arms round, “This could be anything.”

“Look at this place, look at the lines of seats,” I pointed at the window. “Look through there, we’ve left the Stickys ship, what else could we be in?”

There was a collective gasp from the group as they rushed to the window.

Adam stood next to me and peered through the window. “We could be in a survey ship,” he said, “You know, rather than land the big ship, the Stickys could send down small ships to check out any planets they come to.”

“They had no trouble bringing their big ship down when they collected us,” said Royston, “I think Oliver is right.”

By now a crowd had collected round the door, all trying to look through the window.  I peered over Mary’s head. The huge shape of the Stickys ship hung before us. It was barely visible, I could just make out its shape from the starlight shining round the edges and the sprinkling of lights scattered on its side. The sight of the stars brought it home to me we really were on a spaceship. In the confines of the cell, I knew we had been taken, but seeing the Sticky’s ship hanging in space in front of me was mind blowing. We’d escaped from our cell alright, but not quite in the manner I’d visualized.

“Christ, it’s huge,” I breathed.

“I did tell you Ollie,” said Natalie, ”Bigger than an aircraft carrier.”

“Well, now we know, I was completely wrong, the control panel was nothing to do with the cells environment.” I said glumly.

Natalie stroked my arm. “Never mind, you can’t be right all the time.”

“If we are in a lifeboat, where’s it taking us?” said Susan. There was a rising note of panic in her voice.

“If this is a lifeboat, it should do what lifeboats do. Get away from a sinking ship and wait for rescue,” said Graham.

“The Sticky ship isn’t sinking,” retorted Mark, “I think all we can do is sit tight and wait for the Stickys to come for us.”

The floor lurched under our feet again and then we were all trying to stand upright as an unseen force tried to push us towards the end of the room away from the control panel.

“What’s happening,” shouted Tony, hanging on to a seat back.

“Get in the seats,” I shouted, as the force increased.

We all scrambled for the seats, filling the first six rows nearest the control panel. As each of us sat down,  a padded ‘U’ shaped arm folded down from the top of the seat, pinning our chests against the backrest. They had this sort of thing on the roller coasters I’d been on, which worried me. The arms on the roller coasters were there to keep you in your seat, so it looked like we were in for a bumpy ride. I was still wearing my backpack and I could feel the buckles digging into my back as the arm forced me against the back rest. I tried to resist the pressure, thinking about the plastic bottles of water in the pack. If they burst I’d have a soggy mass of wet squashed tuna sandwiches inside the pack. The force increased again, pressing my back into the seat. Emily had jumped into the seat next to me. She struggled to turn her head against the increasing acceleration force pinning us to the seat backs.

“What’s going to happen to us, Oliver?” she cried.

I shook my head. “I don’t know, Emily. If we are in a lifeboat, we should be all right, lifeboats are designed to save lives, hopefully, Sticky lifeboats should do the same.”

Then the green gas started coming out of vents in the ceiling.

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CHAPTER 26

I woke up with a pounding headache. I was no longer pinned to the backrest, the  padded arms had risen back to the top of the seat.  I looked groggily around. Next to me, Emily was moving. There was a sudden stirring in the seats as everyone else started coming round. They looked around with glazed eyes, complaining bitterly.

“My head,” whispered Jennifer, “what happened to us?”

“It’s like the worse hangover I’ve ever had,” said Susan shakily.

Jeb rose slowly to his feet. He pointed at the control panel. “Look,” he said.

We all looked. Previously, above the control panel had been a blank wall. Now large sections of the wall had slid upwards exposing windows and through the windows, we could see a planet. I stumbled out of my seat, dumped my pack on the floor and lent against the front of the control panel with the others, craning my neck to get a better view.

“It’s Earth,” shouted Amy, “we’re home.”

We’d all seen the pictures from space that NASA had shown on TV, and at first glance, it did look like Earth with blue seas and white fluffy clouds obscuring most of the surface. Then we started noticing the differences.

“That’s not Earth,” said Peter, “I’m sure of it, I can’t make out any of the continents.”

“Then what are we doing here?” cried Amy, “Why did it bring us here if it’s not Earth?”

There was a silence, nobody could answer her. We all stood mesmerised at the view through the windows as the planet slowly circled beneath us. Whatever planet it was, we were in orbit around it. William finally broke the silence.

“All I did was close that door, why should that have made the lifeboat take off.” he said plaintively, obviously still feeling guilty about shutting the door.

“I’ve got an idea about that,” said Jeb.

We all looked at him.

“Remember the Sticky we surprised.”

We all nodded, we could hardly forget it.

“He was working on the control panel,” continued Jeb.  “I reckon he’d disconnected something. Maybe some sort of interlock that normally would prevent the lifeboat taking off.” He nodded at the control panel, “It seems dead now, all the lights have gone out.”

“He did go up that corridor at a fair old clip,” I said. “Perhaps he knew what would happen if we closed the door. He would be trapped in the short corridor between us and the next door. If the lifeboat took off, the corridor would be open to space. That would make him rather short of breathing air.” I snapped my fingers as I suddenly  realised the cause of the vapour I’d seen. “That door between us and this door is an airlock. That vapour was the air rushing out into space. I reckon we’ve set a few alarm bells ringing.”

David looked at me quizzically. “What makes you say that,” he asked.

“Well, by now, the Sticky must be screaming to his mates about a lifeboat being taken over by a load of animals and also it must have registered on some one’s control panel. I can’t believe a lifeboat could be launched and nobody noticing it. And then there’s the loss of air.”

David shrugged. “So what,” he said.

“I can’t believe the Sticky’s would want to waste air like that, I reckon the air should have been taken out of the airlock before the lifeboat broke away. I think we may have screwed things up,

I don’t think this lifeboat is following procedure.”

I paused noting the sceptical looks on the faces round me. “Well, anyway, that’s what I think,” I finished rather lamely.

Tony was nodding slowly. It looked as if I had one convert. “If you’re right, that could mean we’re in a lifeboat that’s not properly working,” he said.

“Well, it’s done all right so far,” said Adam. He pointed at the window. “It’s got us to this planet.”

“Yeah, but we didn’t do anything, except close the door.” protested William.

Adam pointed to the two padded seats by the control panel. “Those look like pilot’s seats to me. Why did it start without pilots?”

Tony nodded again. “Good point, but what if the pilots couldn’t get to this lifeboat, perhaps the lifeboat would start by itself.”

“This can’t be the only lifeboat,” interrupted Graham, “A ship the size of the Sticky’s ship must have dozens of lifeboats, if I was organising it,  there’d be a pilot assigned to every lifeboat. There must be dozens of Stickys that could pilot a lifeboat.”

“You didn’t organise it,” replied Pamela, “The Stickys did.”

“That’s true,” agreed Graham, “Even so, it seems logical to me to have a pilot to each lifeboat.”

“That’s all well and good in a perfect world,” said Edna, “But in an emergency, anything could happen. You could have a lifeboat full of Sticky cooks or something, they wouldn’t know what to do, would they. The lifeboat would have to do it all for them.”

“But surely just shutting the door wouldn’t be enough to start the lifeboat,” said William.

Jeb shrugged his shoulders. “There may be a panic button on the control panel, something every Sticky would know about. If the Sticky had disconnected something, perhaps that was why shutting the door was enough to start the launch.”

“That shrieking noise,” said Adam, “I reckon it must have been a warning, telling us the lifeboat was taking off.”

“So that would explain why the Sticky got out of here so fast. He knew what might happen,” said Peter.

 “You’re all calling the Sticky a he, it could have been a female Sticky for all we know,” interrupted Susan.

Peter raised his fist in the air. “Yeah, rights for female Stickys.”

“Ah shuddup,” replied Susan tartly. She made a face and stuck out her tongue at Peter.

That exchange brought quite a few grins among the group. Even though Susan was a dyed in the wool feminist, I’d noticed back in the cell, it hadn’t stopped her going behind the rock with Peter any less times than the other girls.

David leaned against the window. “If that’s not Earth, I wonder how far from Earth we are,” he said.

“I’ve an idea about that,” said Royston. “My watch has stopped, My watch is automatic, as long as I’m moving it keeps going. If I’m not moving, it should go at least five days without winding.” He paused for breath.

We all looked at each other in dismay. It looked like Royston was going to give us a lecture on the innards of his Rolex watch.

“It looks like I haven’t moved for at least five days,” continued Royston.  “It makes me  wonder how long it took to get us here.”

Emily looked at her wrist. “Mine’s stopped too,” she said.

“The gas,” said Graham. “You remember when we were picked up. The cloud of green fog that came out of the bottom of the ship. I reckon it’s the same gas that came out of the roof there.” He pointed up at the ceiling.

“But why gas us?” queried Natalie.

“I think the gas put us in some sort of suspended animation,” replied Graham. “Think about it, if there’s a long journey time, it means we don’t have to eat or drink, it saves supplies. We could have been out for months for all we know.”

“Sounds logical,” agreed Royston, “Only that gas was meant for Stickys, why did it affect us.”

“You’ll have to ask them that,” replied Graham dryly.

Emily crossed her legs.” Months,” she exclaimed, ”No wonder I want a wee so badly,” She looked around. “I can’t see a powder room anywhere.”

“If we knew which button to press, it might open a door to a powder room,” said Pamela. “But knowing our luck, anything we did touch  would probably be the self destruct button.”

“We’ll have to find something,” said Carol, “I could use a powder room too.”

A couple of the girls nodded. “And me,” they said with one voice.

“Go to the end of the room,” said Peter with a grin, “we promise not to look.”

“Bugger that,” scowled Susan, “I’ll hold it, I’m not that desperate yet.”

“So what happens now?” asked Lisa. “Alright, it’s brought us to this planet, now what, how do we get down?”

“Do we want to go down,” asked Peter, “we don’t know what we’ll find down there.”

“Well it must have brought us here for a reason,” said David.

“Well, I think my original idea is best,” said Mark. “Sit tight and wait for the Stickys to come and find us.”

            It looked like we’d have to. We circled the planet a number of times, moving from daylight to night over a period of about an hour and a half. Royston and Emily re-wound their watches so we had some measure of time passing.

I suddenly remembered my pack. I squatted down and fumbled with the fasteners and opened it up. All the water bottles were intact and the sandwiches were only slightly squashed. I opened a wrap, peeled back the top layer of bread and sniffed.

“It smells all right,” I said, “If we’d been travelling for days like Royston said, surely they’d be stinking to high heaven by now.”

“The gas,” exclaimed Graham. “ If it put us in some sort of suspended animation. It might have had the same effect on the sandwiches too.”

I offered the opened sandwich to him. “Want to try it, it’s your theory.” I grinned.

Graham took the sandwich from me. He stared at it for a moment, then took a bite. The expression on his face was something to see, as if he expected to be struck down the second he swallowed. He took second bite. “Tastes all right,” he said.

“The effects of food poisoning don’t show for at least an hour,” said Royston. “I think we should wait before any of us try the food.”

“What, wait and see if I keel over?” said Graham.

Royston nodded. “You can be our guinea pig,” he said, straight faced.

After about two hours Graham was still in the land of the living, so we broke out the sandwiches and water and had a picnic sitting on the floor in front of the windows.

“We ought to ration the food and water,” I said as I put the half empty water bottles back in my pack, “We’ve no idea how long we’re going to be up here.” I noticed most of us had only sipped at the water. It seemed Emily wasn’t the only one feeling hydraulic pressure in the bladder.

“A lifeboat should have provisions in it,” said Edna.  “If this is a lifeboat, they’re used in an emergency. In an emergency the Stickys wouldn’t have time to bring food and water with them.”

“That’s a bloody good thought,” said Graham, “What would the Stickys have done for food and drink.”

Mary pointed to the doors and hatches covering the walls. “There could be food and water in those,” she said.

“Yeah, Sticky food,” said Richard, “Would it be any good for us?”

“Bugger the food and drink,” said Pamela, “Find us a powder room.”

“Well, let’s see what we can find,” said Peter. He walked over to the nearest hatch and fumbled with the handle. He turned back to us. “It won’t open,” he said.

“Perhaps it’s a toilet with a dead Sticky locked inside,” said David with a grin.

“Let an engineer take a look,” said Jeb, nodding at me with a grin. “He found out how to open the doors above the cells.”

I walked to where Peter was standing and examined the hatch. There was a handle of sorts on the bottom edge, but when I tried it, it wouldn’t turn. Then I remembered the holidays I’d had as a child and my uncle’s small boat. The hatches on his boat were designed so they wouldn’t open in a rough sea. What we were in was hardly a boat but I reckoned the principle was the same.

I pressed the handle inwards and it turned smooth as silk.

Jeb let out a loud guffaw. “See, I told you so,” he laughed.

The hatch door was hinged at the top so I lifted the bottom edge until it was folded up above the opening. It clicked and stayed in place, there must have been a magnet or something to hold the door open. To our relief, there wasn’t a Sticky corpse sitting on the throne, instead there was a bundle of what looked like bright yellow rubber tubing. Peter pulled it out of the hatch and shook it out. It looked like a set of long john underwear with an extra set of arms. I pulled out a gas mask helmet just like I’d seen on the Stickys that had come into our cell. In the back of the hatch was a collection of webbing and what looked like scuba diving bottles.

“It’s a Sticky space suit,” I said.

We stuffed them back in the hatch.

“Can’t eat that,” said Peter, “Let’s try another one.”

We stepped a couple of paces to the next hatch when suddenly the control panel lit up again. A chirping noise that slid up and down the scale came out of the panel. The sound reminded me of the starlings round my parents bird table. We all swung round in alarm.

“What now,” said Graham.

The chirping stopped for a moment, then started again.  It carried on for several minutes and abruptly stopped for good. Or so we thought. A minute later, it started again. It went on like that for about a quarter of an hour, finally it stopped for good.

“I reckon that’s Sticky language,” said Adam. “There’s certain phrases repeated over and over again.”

“You think they’re contacting this lifeboat by radio?” asked Jeb.

Adam shook his head. “No, it’s more like a tape being played in a loop. When a person repeats phrases over and over, there are differences in spacing, these are much too regular to be normal speech.”

“Are you sure about this?” I asked. “It just sounded like a lot of noise to me.”

“I’m sure,” replied Adam. “I’m a record producer, I know what a tape loop sounds like.  The noise went on long enough for me to recognise a pattern. Whether it’s in English or Sticky, a loop has a characteristic quality.” 

“I wonder what its saying,” I mused, “It could be something important.”

“Well you’ve got me there,” replied Adam, “Your guess is as good as mine.”

We soon found out. There was a final burst of chirping, then the lights started flashing on the control panel. The floor lurched and the view through the windows changed. I ran to a window and looked out. The planet was getting bigger.

“Back to the seats,” I shouted. It seems we were about to land on the planet.

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CHAPTER 27

We’d all seen film of the space shuttle returning to earth, with the flames shooting past the shuttle’s windows, so we were all expecting a rough ride. As it turned out, it was nothing like that. The lifeboat descended smoothly with no drama, until we were flying at the height of an ordinary commercial aircraft. We rose from the seats and crowded round the windows. Beneath us, a vista of green passed by, looking like an aerial film I’d seen of the Amazon jungle.  We’d been flying like this for about half an hour when Carol pointed.

“There,” she shouted.

Ahead of us a white cube stood out starkly against the green of the jungle like a sugar lump on a plate of spinach. The lifeboat dipped suddenly, making us stagger then the ride smoothed out again. The cube grew larger as we approached and at first we thought we were going to land on the roof. We didn’t, the lifeboat slowed to a halt and hovered about half a mile from the cube.  From that distance, the cube appeared to be about twice the size of an average house. There the resemblance to a house ended. The roof was flat and the walls a featureless white that reflected the light from the sun. Then we realised we were dropping. The lifeboat pivoted until it was facing square on to one of the cube’s sides and landed gently, flattening the trees and bushes. On the side of the cube facing us, we could just see the familiar shape of a Sticky door. Next to the door a square outline about the size of a garage door was visible. The cube appeared to be some sort of building. We all looked at each other.

“Now what?” asked William.

“Look’s like journey’s end folks,” said Pamela.

We stared out of the windows, expecting a load of Stickys to come out of the door, but nothing stirred. Then the chirping started again, making us all jump.

“It’s telling us to do something,” said Adam.

“Yeah, but what,” said Mark.

Then the door opened.

We all stood, transfixed, waiting for our air to rush out. Finally Royston put his head round the opening and sniffed. He turned back to us. “Smells like air to me,” he said.

I looked out of the door. We were about twenty feet up. Below the door sill, a ramp covered with the same rubbery texture we’d seen on the Sticky ship,  extended down to the greenery below. I sniffed. The air was hot and humid, with a heady mixture of scents. Noises from below indicated there was some sort of animal life in the jungle. I turned back to the group. 

“It looks like we’re being invited to leave the lifeboat,” I said.

The group crowded round the door, looking uneasily at the jungle surrounding us.

“There could be anything out there,” quavered Mary.

“Maybe we should go to that building,” said Lisa.

“What, through that,” said Mary, pointing at the jungle.

“Do you think there might be a powder room in the building,” said Emily plaintively, “I really do want a wee.”

I walked back to the windows above the control panel. Our height above the ground gave me a clear view of the foliage between us and the building.

I went back to the door and peered round the edge.

“The jungle where we’ve landed and around the building is not as thick as the rest of it,” I said, waving my arms at the greenery. “It shouldn’t be too hard to reach the building.”  I pointed. “Look, you can see a definite line where the trees, or whatever they are, had been cut down, I reckon at one time, this area and round the building had been cleared.”

“What, you mean the jungle has grown back?” asked Peter.

“Could be,” I answered.

“If this is a landing area, surely the Stickys would have kept it clear,” said Mark.

“That could mean this place hasn’t been used for some time,” said David.

“Or there’s no-one here, to keep it clear,” added Graham.

“Well no-one has come out of that door,” said Jennifer, “Perhaps there’s nobody at home.”

“Then why did the lifeboat land us here? questioned Mary, “Why land us next to an empty building.”

“I hope it’s not empty,” retorted Carol, “I want a wee too, even Stickys must go to the toilet, there must be something in there we can use.”

“If we’re going to go, we better go soon,” said Graham. He pointed out the door. “The sun’s going down, If we are going, I’d rather go in daylight.”

I looked out the door. The sun was low on the horizon, casting long shadows across the jungle. There were still a few doubters but in the end it wasn’t good sense or bravery that pushed us out the door and down the ramp, but the pressure in our bladders.

            Natalie and Emily surrendered their rods to Peter and Jeb and the three of us walked slowly down the ramp. It was about eight feet wide and the rubbery texture gave us a good grip for our feet. We stood at the bottom in knee deep foliage, looking around. Nothing nasty came at us but I could still hear rustlings and noises in the undergrowth. My boots gave me some comfort, but my bare legs felt very vulnerable. I still remembered that damn rattlesnake. I looked up at the faces peering through the door. I beckoned them down.

“Come on,” I shouted, “it’s safe, nothing’s happened to us.”

They came down the ramp in groups of twos and threes until we were all in a tight bunch at the bottom of the ramp. Mary was the last to come down the ramp and as she stepped off the end, the ramp started to withdraw back into the lifeboat. We all turned in panic and William tried to jump back onto the ramp. It didn’t do any good. As the ramp withdrew into the side of the lifeboat, he was forced to jump for it. He landed with a flurry of arms and legs, making a fair sized dent in the undergrowth. The ramp disappeared as if it had never been there. Peter helped William to his feet. “Well, we’ve got to go to the building now,” he said pointing up, “The bloody door’s closed, we can’t get back in even if we could climb up there.”

We looked up, he was right, the door was shut tight.

“How did it know we were all outside,” asked Amy.

“There must be sensors or something that counted us out,” said Jeb.

“Well, it’s made our minds up for us,” I said, “We’ve no choice now, we head for the building.”

“Unless we want to spend a night in the jungle,” said Graham ominously.

“No bloody likely,” retorted Susan, “Let’s not hang about, let’s make for the building.”

            I had a quick talk with Peter and Jeb and we set off. Jeb and I led the way, beating down the foliage with our rods, with Peter at the back of the line as a sort of rear guard.  When we had gone a short distance, I looked back. The lifeboat, if that’s what it was, loomed over us as big as a Jumbo jet. It was shaped like two cylinders stuck together, the lower cylinder much larger than the upper one. It reminded me of the pregnant guppy, the plane that NASA used to transport rockets. There the resemblance ended. There were no wings and at the back, there was a lattice-like construction that reminded me of a Celtic knot. I couldn’t see anything that resembled rocket motors. There was no sign of the windows we’d looked through, it looked like the lifeboat had shut itself up tight. Was that to stop anything living in the jungle from getting in? The thought spurred me to walk faster.

            Natalie and Emily were close behind me with the rest of the group strung out in a line. I looked back at the line of people struggling through the greenery. We looked a right sorry bunch.

“We’re like the lost tribe of Israel,” I said to Jeb.

“We should have a name then,” said Jeb.

“What, the no-hopers,” I suggested.

Jeb grinned and shook his head.

“I’ve got a better one,” he replied, “It involves a bit of a story, want to hear it?”

“Fire away,” I replied.

He tilted his head in the manner of one gathering his thoughts. “Right, back in Africa, in the old days,  there was a tribe of very small people. Now these people lived in an area of very tall grass, the grass was over seven feet tall.”

I  knew the joke but I encouraged him anyway. “Go on,” I said.

As Jeb continued his story, my thoughts wandered. What had we got ourselves into this time I wondered. Could we get into the building or would we have to stay outside, with all the unseen danger that could represent. And if we did get in, what then? I mentally shrugged and put the thoughts aside, que sera sera, whatever will be, will be and all that. Jeb was nearing the end of his story, he’d been spinning it out for maximum effect. I turned to him and smiled, waiting for the punch line.

“When the first white man discovered this tribe, he asked them what they were called. Do you know what they said?” He raised a questioning  eyebrow.

By this time Natalie and Emily were breathing down our necks, anxious to hear the end of the story.

“And what did they say,” I asked straight faced.

“They said warthefucawi,” replied Jeb, his face breaking into a broad grin.

I smiled at him and nodded. “Yeah, good name, It just about sums us up,”

Natalie gave a snort of amusement. Emily looked puzzled.

“That’s a funny name for a tribe,” she said.

Natalie held one hand up high. “Emily, tall grass seven feet high,” she held the other hand low down. “Little people living in the tall grass, now do you get it?”

I could almost hear the gears going round in Emily’s head as she thought it through. He eyes widened.

“Oh, I get it,” she said at last. “They didn’t know where they were.”

“Near enough,” gurgled Natalie.

They say a good story is nearly as good as a lift and by the time Jeb had finished his story, we were more than half way to the building. Our first impressions had been wrong, as we neared it, we realised the building was huge. A quarter of an hour later, we arrive at the door, unscathed from our trek through the jungle. We all gathered in a huddle round the door. Close to, I realised the outline I could see from the lifeboat was another, larger door. Lisa banged on the wall with her knuckles.

“It’s made of metal,” she said.

“What, you’re knocking to be let in?” joked Doris.

“There might be some one at home,” replied Lisa hotly.

“I don’t think so,” I said. “With that bloody great ship landing right in front of the place, if there was any one here, I can’t believe they wouldn’t have come out to see what’s going on. I’m sure the place is empty.” I looked at the two doors.

“Which one, big or the small?”

The unanimous vote was for the small door. At the top was the two familiar depressions. I glanced round and with the encouraging nods from the group, I put my fingers in the depression. The door opened.

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CHAPTER 28

The inside of the building was dark as a tomb. Jeb and I stepped through the door, trying to make out any details in the gloom. Strange shapes surrounded us with a familiar smell in the air. Not another bloody workshop, I thought.  Natalie poked her head through the door and stepped over the sill. As her foot touched the floor, lights in the roof started flickering to life. Natalie stepped back in alarm.

Jeb and I both spun round.

“Whoa,” exclaimed Jeb in surprise, “What happened there.” He looked at Natalie.  “Did you turn on the lights?” he asked. “You didn’t see a light switch and touch it, did you?”

Natalie shook her head. “I didn’t do anything,” she protested.

I knew what Jeb was thinking. When entering a dark room, it’s almost an automatic reaction to swipe at a light switch next to the door.

“Must be an automatic system,” said Jeb.

“You reckon,” I said.

Jeb nodded. “Heat or sound sensors. As soon as anyone comes in here, the lights come on.”

“I wonder what else will start up,” I wondered.

The rest of the group, emboldened by the lights, spilled through the door. We stood in a tight bunch by the door as the interior slowly brightened.

Graham gestured to the jungle outside the door. “It’s getting dark out there. Shall we shut the door, we don’t want any beasties coming in with us.”

A few of us nodded and he pulled the door and put his fingers in the depressions. The door shut with a thud.

            We looked around. The room was large and square with a high ceiling. The floor and the walls gleamed dully with the sheen of semi-polished metal. I was right about a workshop. In a railed off area to our left, the same sort of machines we’d seen on the ship, covered the floor. To our right was a large door, big enough to run a car through, with smaller doors either side.  Ahead of us, between the railed off area and the doors, was a small square room and next to it, a set of stairs going up.

“Can’t see a toilet,” squeaked Emily, “I’m going to have to go soon.”

The sound of a muffled shriek from one of the girls spun us round. Standing by one of the doors was a Sticky. The whole group of us instinctively backed up against the wall. Peter, Jeb and myself stood at the front of the group, our rods held out. The Sticky stared at us, not moving. A long minute passed.

“What’s it doing,” whispered Natalie behind my ear.

“Nothing,” I whispered back, “It’s just standing there.”

“I’m going to try and talk to it,” said Peter quietly.

“How, you don’t know Sticky language,” I mouthed back at him.

“I’m going to try and show it we’re not dangerous,” he replied.

Peter stepped forwards and with exaggerated gestures, laid his rod on the floor. He slowly walked towards the Sticky, his hands held out. It still hadn’t moved. Jeb and I clutched our rods more tightly wondering what would happen next. When Peter was about six feet from the Sticky, he let out a laugh, which was the last thing we were expecting. He turned round.

“It’s not real,” he shouted. “I can see right through the bloody thing.”

We surged forwards until we were standing in a half circle in front of the Sticky. Peter was right, up close we could see the image was semi-transparent, the edges wavering slightly. The image was dressed in a bright yellow one piece overall type garment, with pockets all over the chest and down the legs. It’s head stuck out of the collar like a snake looking out of a bucket.

“It’s wearing the same sort of suit we found in the lifeboat,” I said to Peter.

“It’s a hologram, or something like it,” shouted Jeb excitedly.

Then the image started making the same chirping noises we’d heard on the lifeboat. That made us all jump and step back a pace. As the chirping continued, the image turned it’s head as if it was looking at us, which was slightly un-nerving.

“Whoever it’s supposed to be talking to, it’s giving out a lot of information,” said Jeb.

“I’m sure it’s something we should know about,” said William gloomily.

The chirping stopped for a minute, then started again. The image turned, pointing first to the machines and then to the doors next to it. Then it pointed up the stairs. The chirping went of for another few seconds then stopped. The image froze in the same position as when we first saw it. After a second or two, the image slowly faded away. We all looked at each other.

“Well, what was all that about,” said Jennifer.

“Welcoming committee?” guessed  Mary.

“She could be right,” said Graham. “It was pointing to various parts of the building, maybe it was telling us what there was in here.”

“Let’s explore,” I said. I turned to the rest of the group. “Hang on for a minute.”

I walked over to the railings and looked at the rows of machines. I beckoned Natalie over and after a moments hesitation, she walked over to me, closely followed by Emily.

“What do you think,” I asked her. “Do you reckon these are the same sort of thing we saw on the Sticky ship.”

Natalie lent on the railing and looked around, squinting her eyes as she tried to recognise any familiar shapes. Finally she nodded.

“They do look the same ,” she said.

I nodded. “That’s what I think too. It’s a machine shop for making or repairing things.”

“It’s a bit of a long jump to that conclusion,” replied Natalie.

“I think Oliver’s right,” interrupted Emily. She pointed. “Look, there’s one of Oliver’s lathes.”

Natalie and I both stared at her in amazement.

“How do you know about lathes, Emily,” I asked gently.

Emily lifted her head defiantly. “You described one to us, don’t you remember, just before I saw the blue Sticky.” She pointed again. “Look, there’s the end that holds the metal and that bit there is a moveable carriage that holds the cutting tool.”

“You remembered all that, I’m amazed,” I replied.

As Emily looked at me, her face changed to the wide eye look she usually had.  “I’m sorry Oliver,

I didn’t mean to boast or anything,” she faltered.

“No, no,” I protested, “I’m very proud of you, I didn’t think I was that good a teacher.”

Emily smiled back at me. As we walked back to the others, I was deep in thought. Which was the real Emily. The wide eyed blond bimbo or the decisive, clear thinking action girl. I remembered when she’d hit the Sticky, she’d taken charge of the situation, warning us off touching the unconscious alien. And now, not only remembering how I’d described the lathe, but recognising the machine. As far as I knew, she’d never been in a machine shop in her life. How did she do it? My train of thought was interrupted by Emily giggling.

 “What’s funny?” I asked.

“Warthefucawi,” she giggled. She looked at me. “Little people in very tall grass. Where the fuck are we, geddit.”

Oh Christ, it had only taken her half an hour to see the joke Jeb had told.

“Yeah, that’s it Emily,” I said tiredly, “You’ve got it.”

Natalie raised her eyes to heaven as we rejoined the rest of the group.

“Well,” said Peter, “Was it the same stuff you saw on the ship?”

I nodded. “Yeah, it looks the same. Natalie and Emily think so too.”

Emily flashed me a beaming smile.

“OK,” replied Peter, let’s explore some more. What do you think, up the stairs or down here.”

“Let’s start down here and work our way up,” I replied.

“We could split up,” said Mark, “Do both lots together.”

Some of the girls shook their heads violently.

“No fear,” said Carol, “I vote we all stick together.”

“OK,” I said, “Let’s see if we can open these doors.”

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CHAPTER 29

We gathered round the doors looking for the depressions the Sticky’s seemed to use on nearly all their doors. We couldn’t see any.

“There was one door in the Sticky machine shop that had an ordinary handle,” I said, searching the front of the door nearest to me. “But I don’t see anything like that either.”

“There must be a way to open them,” retorted Edna, “Otherwise why have them here in the first place.” She laid her hand on the door for emphasis. “There’s got to be a way in.”

As she removed her hand, the door slid upwards with a whoosh. We all jumped back, startled.

“Wayhay, good going Edna,” laughed Susan. “Now try your magic on the other doors.”

Edna touched the large door between the two smaller doors. That door too, slid upwards. She walked to the last door and after a second, all the doors were open.

            The centre door was large enough for us all to walk inside. We stopped just inside and looked around. We were in a large room with cabinets and cupboards round the walls. Against one wall were half a dozen wheeled trolleys stacked with strange machinery. In the middle of the room were three very Earth- like wheeled stretchers. The walls, floor and ceiling reflected our images like mirrors. The cabinets and cupboards were also made of the same mirror like material. Natalie walked over to the nearest cupboard and pulled open the door. There were no fancy tricks, the door had a handle and when Natalie pulled it, the door opened. The cupboard was lined with shelves holding metal cans about the size of a bean tin. She took one down and after some fumbling, opened the lid. She poured a handful of bright blue pills into her hand. She looked at us and then at Royston. He nodded back at her.

“Through there,” he said.

            On the back wall of the room was another door the same size as the one we had come through. Royston touched it and the door slid upwards. We looked inside. Every surface was the same mirror-like material as the first room. In the centre of the room was a large table, with more trolleys and machinery round the walls. Suspended above the table was a complicated bank of apparatus. Between the coils and cables, what appeared to be the shiny globes of spotlights were visible.

Royston pointed back at the first room. “ER,” he said. He spread his hands, encompassing the second room. “Operating theatre.” He looked at Natalie. “You agree?”

Natalie nodded. “Makes sense to me,” she said, “What else could it be?”

“ER?” I asked.

“Emergency room,” replied Royston. “Where patients are first treated.”

I nodded with understanding, belatedly remembering the American TV program of the same name. “We call them casualty departments in England,” I said.

“A badly injured Sticky would first be given treatment to find the extent of its injuries and then, if needed, operated on in there,” explained Royston.

Natalie nodded in agreement. “That’s why there’re no handles on the doors, to prevent contamination. A Sticky touches the door with its elbow, or whatever and the door opens.”

“Why should a Sticky ER and operating theatre be like the ones we have back home?” asked Amy, “They’re nothing like us.”

Royston shook his head. “Stickys are the same general shape as us. They walk upright with the head at the top of the body. Forget differences such as the extra arms, they’re near enough to us to need the same sort of equipment. If they looked like an octopus for instance, who knows what this place would look like. They don’t, that’s why we can recognise this place. I’m sure I’m right.”

“If a lifeboat landed here after a real emergency and there were wounded Stickys on board, this is where they would be treated, is that what you’re saying,” asked Doris.

Royston nodded.

“Wait a minute,” interrupted Jeb. “Remember what Edna said about a bunch of Sticky cooks piling into the lifeboat. If that happened and there was no pilot, we reckoned the lifeboat would take off by itself.”

We all nodded, wondering where Jeb was going with this.

“The same could happen here,” he continued. “Supposing there were no doctors in the lifeboat, who treats the patients?”

We all looked blank.

“Hold on, I want to try something,” said Jeb. He walked over to the table and climbed onto it and lay down.

“Now imagine I’m a badly injured Sticky, who’s going to treat me? I think………”

Whatever he was going to think was interrupted by the apparatus above the table suddenly coming to life and descending down to stop about six inches from his chest. The lights came on with a brilliance that half blinded us and a jet of green fog enveloped Jeb’s face. Cables snaked out and wrapped round Jeb’s body. A needle entered his chest and we could see his blood rising up transparent tubes.

“Get him off of there,” screamed Royston.

We surrounded the table, tearing away the cables. As soon as Royston and Natalie had pulled out the needle, Peter and I reached under the apparatus and slid him sideways off the table, half dropping him onto the floor. Royston pounced on him, searching for a pulse in his neck.

“The bloody fool,” he muttered over and over again.

The apparatus, deprived of its patient, rose back to the ceiling, the cables retracting back to their original positions. The lights went out leaving me with orange after-images dancing in front of my eyes. The rest of the group stood in a stunned silence in a circle round Jeb.

Jeb groaned and started coming round. After a minute or two, with Royston supporting him, he was able to sit up. I pulled a bottle of water from my pack and handed it to him. He took a long drink and put the bottle on the floor between his outstretched legs. He grinned faintly up at us.

“What the hell were you thinking of,” stormed Royston. “You could have got yourself killed.”

Jeb coughed. “Just trying to prove a point,” he said weakly. “No doctors to treat the patients, so the operating theatre does it for them.”

“The point wasn’t worth risking your life for,” scolded Natalie, “Why didn’t you tell us what you were going to do.”

“I didn’t think it would be as dramatic as that,” replied Jeb, rather abashed.

“That’s a sort of mechanical doctor up there,” said Royston pointing the apparatus hanging above the table. “I can’t imagine what it would have made of you if we hadn’t got you off the table. God knows how our physiology differs from a Sticky. It would think you were a Sticky with the worst case of disease and injuries it had come across.”

Susan laughed, “It would wonder where your second set of arms had gone for a start. Supposing it had tried to sew a second set on.”

“You’d have been a hit with the girls,” giggled Pamela. “Imagine, you could fondle bosoms and butts at the same time.”

Peter helped Jeb to his feet. “Let’s get out of here, we don’t know enough of what’s in here to be safe,” he said.

“I agree,” said Graham. “We’ll have a quick look through the two other doors and then maybe try up the steps.

I helped Peter support the still wobbly Jeb out of the operating theatre back into the main hall. We approached one of the two other doors cautiously and peered through the opening.

“There’s no need for us all to go in,” said Royston. “I’ve a good idea what we’ll find.” He nodded at Peter and me. “Go on, have a quick look round and tell us what you see.”

Peter and I hung back.

“Care to share,” I asked.

Royston struck is best lecture pose. “If I’m right, there’ll be beds in there, for Sticky patients to recover in.”

“Just beds,” said Peter, “No machinery that’s going to grab us?”

If Royston had lapels on his overall, I believe he would have held them.

“In my professional opinion, no.” he replied.

Peter and I dumped Jeb on the floor and stepped through the door. A short passage-way opened out into a large room. Along each wall were rows of oblong  flat surfaces standing about two feet off the floor. It looked like a dormitory.

Peter looked at me. “Well, he was right, beds. Let’s try the other door.”

We emerged back into the hall. As we walked past the front of the ER room, Peter nodded at Royston.

“Beds,” he said.

Through the second door was rather different. A long corridor stretched in front of us with doors on each side. Each door opened onto a small room containing one bed. A bank of equipment hung above the end of each bed. We tried half a dozen doors, but each one was the same. We walked back out.

“Lots of rooms,” I said to Royston, “A bed in each one.”

“Isolation, for badly injured Stickys,” said Royston. “Not so badly injured patients in the other one.” He nodded with satisfaction. “Yes, that’s just how I would have laid it out.” 

“So what we have here is a hospital,” said Graham.

Royston nodded.

“Why have a hospital here,” said Richard. “It can’t be the Sticky’s home planet. We all saw it when we were coming in, it’s all jungle. Where are the Sticky cities and roads?”

“Rescue base,” said David suddenly. We could almost see the light bulb above his head as the idea blossomed.  We all looked at him.

“I’ve been thinking,” he said. “This could be a rescue base, like a glorified Alpine rescue hut. Look, we know the Stickys breathe air just like we do. So they set up a rescue base on this planet because it’s got air they can breathe. A lifeboat heads for it and lands next to the base.”

“You can’t guarantee you’d be near this planet if there was an emergency,” objected William. “A lifeboat could be launched millions of miles from this planet. It could take forever to get here.”

“There may be more than one planet like this,” replied David.

“So you think there could be more planets with rescue bases like this one dotted all over the place,” said Tony.

“And we headed for the nearest one,” said Susan.

David nodded. “Could be,” he said.

“Well, it’s a good theory,” said Peter, “On your reckoning, if we’d been nearest to the Sticky’s planet when we launched, that’s where we’d have landed.”

David shrugged.

“There can’t be that many planets with air we can breathe,” objected Lisa.

“How do you know,” retorted Adam, “There could be hundreds for all we know.”

“If that’s the case, do the Stickys know where we are,” I wondered. “Logically, they’re going to come looking for us if they do.”

“I hope they do,” said Royston. “Our sandwiches aren’t going to last long, Unless we can find some Sticky food we can eat, we going to be very hungry before long.”

“Right, let’s not hang about then. Let’s explore some more and see what we can find,” said Graham.

“I hope it’s a powder room,” said Emily.

We headed for the stairs, carrying the still wobbly Jeb between us.

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Before attempting the stairs we looked at the small square room. It was open at the front with no doors on any of the walls. David and Tony stepped inside and looked around.

“There’s no way out except the way we came in,” said Tony.

“Ha ha,” cried David. He pointed to a small plaque set in the side wall. He looked at us with a large grin on his face.

“I can’t read Sticky writing, but I know what a button with an arrow pointing up and another with an arrow pointing down means. This is a bloody elevator,” he said.

“Don’t touch it,” I shouted as his finger hovered over the up arrow. “Let’s see where it goes to first.”

David pulled his hand back and clenched his fist. “Obviously, it goes up to the next floor,” he replied.

I shook my head. “There’s nothing obvious about it. If you want to touch that button, you’re on your own mate. Me, I’d rather wait and see what’s upstairs.” I could see he was still anxious to press the button. “Remember, what we thought was a room with a panel controlling the cells turned out to be a lifeboat. I really would wait if I was you.”

David stepped back from the wall. He nodded slowly. “Yeah, perhaps you’re right. OK, we’ll try the stairs first.”

            The stairs went up for about fifteen feet, then did a right angle turn. After another five or so feet, we came to another turn.  Peter and I went up the last ten feet, our rods at the ready, with Jeb close behind us. At the top of the stairs we emerged onto a large central hall, brightly lit with an illuminated ceiling, with doors on the end and side walls. Next to the stairs was the twin of the room downstairs, but this one had no floor. Looking down, we could see the top of what looked like the roof of the room on the ground floor.

David looked at me accusingly. “There you are, an elevator, I told you so.”

I stepped back from the edge. “It doesn’t look like the Sticky’s go in for much health and safety,” I said indicating the open lift shaft. “For all you know, the lift could move so fast, it could break your legs. The Stickys might be able to stand it, but maybe we couldn’t.”

“Well, I think you’re being overcautious,” replied David. “I’m going to try it.”

Before any of us could say anything he’d run for the stairs and disappeared out of sight. A minute later the lift appeared with David looking very smug inside it.

“See, nothing to it,” he said.

“OK, I was wrong,” I admitted, “But I still think you were crazy to try out Sticky technology unless you’re sure of the results. We’ve had enough shocks already.”

David grinned back at me. “Well, OK, I admit I might have been a bit hasty, But you’ve got to admit you were wrong about the elevator,” he said.

I grinned back at him. “OK, you bastard, I’ll say it again, I was wrong and you were right.”

Natalie stood in front of me with her hands on her hips.

“Are you boys going to stand there arguing, or are we going to explore up here,” she said. “Us girls need a powder room and so far you men haven’t been very successful finding one for us.”

Graham put his hand up. “Excuse me miss,” he said in a little boy’s voice, “I’d like to find a powder room too.”

The burst of laughter from the group broke the tension that had been building up. Probably that was Graham’s intention, I thought.

I looked round the walls and did a quick count. There were twelve doors. These doors had handles just like the one we’d seen in the Sticky machine shop.

I swept my hand round the hall, “Take your pick,” I said.

The group spread out heading for the doors.

Peter opened the nearest door. “More beds,” he said.

I looked in. The room wasn’t as big as the dormitory downstairs, but the lay-out was the same. The room was empty except for ten beds, five down each side of the room. The whole ceiling glowed with a yellow light. What surprised us was the large window on the end wall.

“I didn’t see any windows when we came to the building,” I said.

“Me neither,” said Peter.

I had a thought. “I’d like to have a quick look outside,” I turned to Peter. “Want to come and watch my back?”

“I’ll come,” said Emily quickly.

I pursed my lips. “I don’t know, Emily. Look around, this whole building seems to be made of metal. It could be to stop any beasties out there from breaking in.”

“I can handle beasties,” she replied quickly. “I handled the Sticky all right.”

I glanced at Natalie. She raised her eyes to heaven and nodded slowly.

“OK, Emily, get your rod from Jeb,” I said.

She bounced over to Jeb and almost snatched it from his hand. “Ready,” she said.

“Maybe I’d better come too,” said Peter, “Just in case.”

Emily’s face fell. “There’s no need, she pouted. “I can protect Oliver from anything out there.” She stood next to me with her rod held at high port.

Oh dear, I though, it looked like Emily was transferring her affections to me. I wondered how that would go down with Natalie. I leant over to Peter.

“Just hang back a bit,” I said quietly, “we don’t want to upset madam Lancelot here.”

He grinned back at me and nodded.

“OK, folks, we won’t be a minute,” I said, and turned for the stairs with Emily almost treading on my heels. I don’t think she noticed Peter a few steps behind us. At the bottom of the stairs, we quickly crossed the floor to the door. I put my fingers in the depressions and the door opened.

I felt a slight relief, I was wondering at the back of my mind if we might have been locked in. It was fully dark outside, with just a sprinkling of stars in the sky. I stepped over the sill and walked a few paces away from the door. I looked up. All round the top of the building, windows blazed with light. Emily joined me, staring up at the windows. She jumped as Peter walked up behind her.

“Well, they weren’t there when we first arrived,” said Peter, ignoring Emily’s scowl.

“Any Stickys landing nearby are going to know somebody’s at home,” I said.

Peter nodded thoughtfully. “Yeah,” he agreed. “Seen enough?”

“I have,” said Emily.

“Right, let’s go back in,” I said.

            We shut the door behind us and climbed back up the stairs. When we reached the central hall, the rest of the group were milling about, criss-crossing the floor between the doors. It looked like a suburban wife swapping party in full swing, with the neighbours nipping in and out of each others homes.

“Come and see what we’ve found,” shouted Natalie, emerging from one of the rooms.

I followed her inside. The same mirror bright surfaces met my eyes. The middle of the room was nearly filled with what looked like large square cabinets. More cabinets covered the walls with what looked like worktops underneath them. Edna was standing in front of one. She waved at us and beckoned us over.

“Look,” she said.

She pressed something on the front of the cabinet and looked at me expectantly.

I looked at the cabinet. Nothing appeared to have changed. I looked at Edna and shrugged. “What?” I said.

“Put your hand over the top,” she said. “No, not your right hand, your left hand.”

Wondering what difference it made which hand I used, I followed her instructions. As I put my hand over the top of the cabinet, I suddenly felt my watch grow uncomfortably warm. Then it grew hot. I snatched my hand back.

 “It’s a cooker” said Edna with a grin, “We’ve found the kitchen.”

“That’s an induction cooker, we have these back home,” I said, “That’s not so advanced, I told you the Stickys aren’t too far ahead of us. How did you find it?”

“William did, while I was fiddling with it, he happened to put his hand over the top. His watch strap glowed red hot for a second.

“Christ, that must have hurt,” I replied.

Edna nodded. “It certainly did. Luckily we’ve also found a Sticky sink with taps so he put his hand under cold water. He’s all right now,” she added. She turned and pointed. “Look, I’ll show you.”

She led us over to a large bowl set into one of the work tops. Above it was a spout. I couldn’t see any way of turning on the water.

“Watch,” said Edna.

She put a hand under the spout and water poured out. As soon as she withdrew her hand, the flow stopped. The bowl was perfectly smooth with no drain in the bottom. I wondered what would happen when the bowl was full. I looked again, there was no trace of water in the bowl. I tapped the spout.

“We have these back home too,” I said.

“We only get cold water,” she said, “We haven’t found a way of getting hot water yet.”

“Edna, you’ve done marvels,” I said. I took off my backpack and put it on the floor. “If you find anything like a ‘fridge or freezer, can you put the sandwiches in it, they won’t last for ever in the pack.” 

I’d heard of this sort of tap, but this was the first time I’d seen one. I put my hand under the spout just for the novelty of seeing the water gush out and disappear in the bowl. 

“What about a powder room,” said Emily from behind me. She had a hint of desperation in her voice. “If you don’t stop turning that water on, I’m going to wet myself or burst.”

“Follow me,” said Natalie.

“You’ve found one, thank goodness.” said Emily. She nearly knocked me over in her eagerness to get out of the door.

We followed Natalie out of the door and across to the other side of the central hall. She opened one of the doors opposite the kitchen. I just had time for a brief look inside before Emily pushed passed me like a rugby full back and slammed the door shut. There was a brief rustle of an overall being torn off, then what sounded like a fireman’s hose being directed into a tin bucket followed by a plaintive sigh of relief. A few minutes later, Emily emerged with a smile on her face.

“That’s better,” she said. She turned to Natalie. She waved her hands in the air. “There’s nowhere to wash my hands.”

Natalie gestured over her shoulder. “Next door, it looks as if the Stickys like to shower, there’s plenty of water in there.”

As Emily ran to the next door, Peter and I entered the toilet room. Along the back wall were six holes in the floor, with a horizontal rail attached to the wall in front of each hole.

“They don’t seem to worry about privacy, then,” I said.

“Who cares,” said Peter, “At least we can have a piss at last.”

I stood over the hole and looked down. A few inches below the top of the  hole was a shiny bowl, just like in the kitchen. There was no drain that I could see. I unlimbered the old man and directed a stream into the hole. Next to me, Peter was doing the same. He tilted his head back with a contented smile on his face.

“Ah, that’s a relief,”  he murmured.

It had been some time since I’d passed water and the stream went on and on. I could have gone when we were in the jungle, but the thought of what might creep up on me had put me off. A man is at his most vulnerable with his knob in his hand. I was worried I’d fill the bowl up and was expecting it to overflow at any minute, but somehow the water never filled the bowl. When I’d finished, there was no trace of water, the metal sides were smooth and dry as if I’d never used it. Peter had noticed it too, in his bowl.

“Weird,” he said.

I wondered briefly how it would perform if I’d had a dump in it. I shrugged the thought aside. “Let’s wash up,” I said.

We walked to the next door and went in. A shout greeted us. Emily wasn’t there but Lisa was.

“Hey, watch out,” she shouted. She was naked, standing under a stream of water that came out of a hole in the ceiling. She did the thing all women seem to do when caught naked, she covered her breasts with one arm and shielded her privates with her other hand.

Peter laughed. “What’s the matter, you’ve been naked in front of us for weeks, you didn’t mind then.”

“You took me by surprise, that’s all,” she said. She relaxed her pose and put her hands up to her hair, running her fingers through it to allow the water to reach her scalp.

I looked at the hole in the ceiling above her and looked down the room. I could see five similar holes spaced out in the ceiling. In line with each hole, a small rail was fixed to the wall. I couldn’t see any taps or anything to control the water.

“How do you turn the water on,” I shouted above the roar of the water cascading over her.

She ducked her head out of the stream. ”What?”

“I said how do you turn the water on,” I repeated.

“Just stand under a hole, the water comes out,” she replied and ducked back under the stream of water.

I should have remembered the spout in the kitchen, the shower obviously worked in the same way. I reached gingerly forwards until my hands were under the hole. I wanted to just wash my hands but the damn water wouldn’t start until my whole body was directly under the hole. Then I got drenched. It wasn’t a shower, more like standing under a mini waterfall. The water soaked into my tee shirt and shorts before I could move.

“Good move,” laughed Peter, “We usually take our clothes off before  having  a shower,  I don’t know what they do in England, but that’s the usual way in America.”

“Ha, ha,” I grumbled, trying to ignore the grins of Peter and Lisa. I quickly stripped off and laid my soaking wet clothes and boots out of the range of the water. I didn’t think the soaking would hurt my boots. If the manufacturers guarantee was to believed, they could go over Niagara falls without damage. Thinking of my boots made me look down, expecting to see a puddle round my feet. There wasn’t.  The floor was the same sort of shiny metal like the bowl in the toilet. In spite of the amount of water cascading over me, the water vanished as soon as it hit the floor. I ducked my head out of the stream of water and looked around for anything resembling soap. Lisa noticed my movement.

“Soap?” I asked.

“There’s no soap,” she shouted above the roar of the cascade, “I think there’s something in the water, the dirt just rolls off you.”

I nodded and stepped back under the shower. The water was comfortably hot as I turned slowly, luxuriating in the flow. I’d washed in the pool back in the cell, but the water in the pool was only lukewarm, it wasn’t the same as a proper hot shower. As I turned, I noticed Lisa staring at me, a particular part of me.

“What?” I asked.

She smiled. “It’s the first time I’ve properly seen you naked, I was on the other side of the room when we stripped off before the Stickys visited us,” Her smile turned into grin, “Not bad.”

“Saucy minx,” I said, turning my back to her. I was just in time. The intense interest of a naked, soaking wet woman not three feet from me had prompted an inner stirring. I couldn’t allow that to happen. Especially when Peter was only a couple of feet on the other side of me. Added to that,  if Natalie walked in and found me at attention, who knows what might happen. I stepped out of the shower and pulled on my shorts. They were a bit clammy, but they would have to do. I looked around.

Lisa stepped out of her shower and guessed what I was looking for.

“It seems the Stickys like to stay wet,” she said. “There’s nothing to dry yourself on.” She wiped the water off her body, her hands moving in long strokes up and down her flanks. She stared at me intently.

“I can handle that, us Englishmen are well hard.” I joked. It was the wrong thing to say.

“I noticed,” replied Lisa with a grin. “Don’t worry, I won’t tell Natalie.”

It seemed I had no secrets anymore. Luckily, Peter was still under his shower, with a bit of luck, he hadn’t heard the exchange.

“Right,” I blustered, “I’m going to see what the others have found. They’ve found a  kitchen, maybe they’ve found some food we can eat.”

“Right, see you,” replied Lisa, “Mister hard Englishman,” she added.

I hurried out, her giggles fading out as I shut the door. I looked around, the central hall was almost empty, so I padded over to where Natalie was talking to Graham and Royston, leaving wet footprints on the floor.

“Where is everyone?” I asked.

“They’re all in the kitchen searching through the cupboards,” replied Natalie. “Edna found some tins of grey powder in the kitchen. She’s mixing some of it with water, to see what we get. The others are seeing what else they can find.”

“What, you think it might be Sticky dried food?” I asked.

She nodded, “Could be,” she said.

“On the other hand, it could be the equivalent of Sticky scouring powder,” said Royston glumly.

“So who’s going to be the lucky volunteer to take the first taste,” I said.

“We haven’t got that far,” said Graham. “I won’t be me, I haven’t forgotten how you conned me into eating that sandwich. Anyway, even if it is Sticky food, we don’t know if it will be any good for us.”

“What about the other rooms,” I asked. “While we were downstairs, you’ve had enough time to look in all of them.”

“Mostly bedrooms,” said Graham, “But there’s one room you may be interested in. I’d have asked Jeb, but he’s still very weak. He’s having a lie down at the moment,” he added.

“Right, lead on,” I said.

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Royston opened the door and stood to one side so I could see inside. At the end of the room, a large blank window almost covered the wall. In front of the window were half a dozen seats, arranged in a semi-circle facing the window.

 “It’s not a window,” said Graham, waving at the wall, ”You can’t see out.”

“We all think it looks like a movie theatre,” said Natalie.

“What for just six Stickys,” I replied, “That doesn’t make sense.”

Something tickled my memory. At Howe and Brooks, one of the upstairs  offices had been converted to a video conference room, so engineers and managers could talk to overseas clients using the internet and a big TV. All the chairs faced the TV screen. The only difference between that room and the room in front of me, were the chairs were arranged round a table at Howe and Brooks. I backed out of the room.

“I think it’s a video conference room,” I said. “I reckon that window is some sort of TV screen so any survivors can call for help. If we knew how to turn it on maybe we could speak directly to the Stickys.”

“Well, wouldn’t that be a good idea,” said Natalie, “I would say help is what we need right now.”

I shook my head. “What would you do if you were a Sticky and you found yourself facing a bunch of animals on the screen. I don’t think it would be a rescue party they’d send, more like a bunch of armed Stickys to recapture us.”

I could see Natalie wasn’t convinced.

“If the Stickys could see we knew how to turn on the TV, surely they’d realise we weren’t animals,” she protested.

Royston pulled us away from the room and shut the door. “Oliver could be right or he could be wrong,” he said, “We can’t decide this just by ourselves, I think we better have a meeting with the others to decide what to do.”

Natalie shrugged and followed us as we walked over to the kitchen.

            When we entered the kitchen, the place was a hive of activity. There was so much going on, it put my anxiety about the room with the screen out of my mind. Susan was nearest to the door and she looked up at us with a grin.

“See what we have found,” she said, holding up a metal bowl. She nodded at one of the cabinets. “It’s full of bowls and things. Sticky cooking tools are almost the same as ours.”

I stepped next to her and looked into the bowl. An off-white lump of doughy mixture lay in the bottom.

“This is the grey powder Edna found,” she said. “We think it’s a sort of bread. As soon as we mixed it with water, it turned into this. I’m going to cook it now and see what we get.”

“What else have you found,” asked Natalie.

“All sorts of things,” replied Susan. She nodded her head at the others. “Over there.”

David, next in line, grinned at us. “We found some cans,” he said. “It took a while, but eventually we found how to pop the lid.” He held out the can. Inside was what appeared to be some sort of vegetable.

“Is it edible?” asked Royston, eyeing the green strands doubtfully.

“I tried one,” said David, “But it was like a piece of string. I’m going to cook it and see if it gets any better.”

We walked round the room, looking into the various bowls and cans the group had found. None of the contents looked particularly appetising but if it was food, we’d have to try it.

Mary was standing at a cabinet, pounding at something in a bowl. “We found a freezer,” she said, nodding her head at a large door behind her. “We’ve found all sorts of things in it, I’m trying to break up some of them now. By the way, your backpack is in there.”

I nodded my thanks and looked into the bowl. Greyish chunks of something lay surrounded by scraps of ice.

“What is it?” I asked.

She shrugged. “God knows,” she replied. “It could be meat.”

“I don’t think we should eat any meat,” said Royston. “There could be proteins in it that might poison us.”

“You could say that about anything we find here,” replied Graham. “Those things that look like vegetables could be as edible as poison ivy to us.”

Royston pulled a face. “Yeah you could be right,” he said gloomily. “We’re going to have to be very careful……….”

He was interrupted by Lisa bursting through the door.

“Hey,” she shouted. “The movie theatre’s come on.”

We all froze.

“What?” exclaimed Graham.

“I’d just come out of the shower room when I heard a noise in the movie theatre room,” explained Lisa.  “When I peeked round the door, the screen’s on and there are Stickys on it.”

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We all rushed for the door, nearly colliding with Peter who was just coming in.

“Hold it,” I shouted, “If we can hear the Stickys, maybe they can hear us. If we’re going near that door, for Christ’s sake let’s do it quietly. There’s a big TV screen come on with Stickys on it,” I added for Peter’s benefit.

Every one stopped in their tracks as the implications of what I said struck home.

“Lisa, how far did you open the door?” I asked.

She thought for a second. “Just a crack, I didn’t open it hardly at all.”

“Thank Christ for that,” I said. I had a crowd round me now, all demanding explanations.

“Look,” I began. “If we let the Stickys know we’re here, they’re going to think their wild animals have taken over the place.” I looked around. “What do you think they’ll do?”

“Try and re-capture us,” said Peter, slowly.

“Right, and how do you think they would do that,” I asked.

There was a short silence, broken by Graham.

“They’d probably use the same gas they used when they picked us up,” he said.

I nodded. “Right again,” I said. “We’d have no defence against that. Our only chance is not let the Stickys know who we are. We’ve got to make them believe there are Stickys here.”

“OK, so how do we do that?” asked Mark.

I tried to marshal my thoughts. “Look, I think the Stickys know somebody’s here, they must have instruments that show this place has come to life.” I waved my arms round the room. “This building was dead quiet until we came along. Now the lights have come on, we have hot water, the Sticky hologram appeared and now, I can see you’ve got the cookers working. I can’t believe the Stickys aren’t aware of all this. I’m sure that’s why the TV screen has come on.”

“That’s all very well,” said Jennifer, “But how are we going to convince them we’re Stickys.”

“I think we should just keep our heads down and not go anywhere near the room with the screen.” I replied. “Hopefully, a rescue party of Stickys will come here.”

“I can see a problem with that.” interrupted Doris. “Supposing the ship we came from has put out a warning to other Sticky ships. Then they’d know it was us here and not a bunch of Stickys waiting rescue.”

“You’re assuming the Stickys have more than one ship then” asked David.

Doris nodded. “I do, I can’t believe they’d only have one ship.”

Graham nodded agreement. “The ship we were on had life forms from all over the place. To me that makes the Stickys the equivalent of our Victorian ancestors roaming the Earth looking for new species. I wouldn’t be surprised if there are dozens of ships roaming about, seeing what they can find.”

“So if we’re lucky, any Sticky rescue party might come from another ship and think we’re a bunch of Stickys,” said Adam.

“If we’re lucky,” said William gloomily.

Carol frowned, “Yeah, but what if we’re not lucky,” she said.

“They’ll come in mob handed looking for trouble,” said Adam.

“So, we’re going to have to make preparations for both sets of circumstances,” said Royston, looking straight at me. “What do you suggest Oliver?”

I realised every one was looking at me. “Hang on,” I blustered, “Why me?”

“You’re the only engineer amongst us,” replied Royston. “None of us have the faintest idea how to work any of that machinery downstairs.”

I shook my head. “I’m sorry to disappoint you, but I don’t have any idea either. Anyway, I don’t think the machinery will be any help to us,” I paused as I saw frowns appearing on the faces looking at me. “But if they’ve got a raw materials store like they had on the ship, we might find something we can use as weapons.” The frowns faded somewhat and the mood lightened.

Royston nodded with satisfaction. “There you go, you’ve thought of something already.”

Natalie punched me on my arm. “I knew you’d come up trumps, Oliver,” she said with a smile.

I leant casually on the nearest cabinet, trying to ignore the pain in my arm. That girl could make a bloody good living as a boxer, I thought ruefully.

“OK, what’s the plan?” asked Amy.

I thought for a moment. “Well first I think we should wake up Jeb. It would be bad news if he wanders into the screen room,” I said.

“I’ll go,” said Emily.

I nodded at her with some relief. It seemed I was just a passing fancy, she was back on poor old Jeb again. She darted out of the kitchen and returned a few minutes later, with Jeb hanging on her arm. She eased him back against a cabinet so he could sit down.

“How are you?” inquired Royston.

“Alright I think,” replied Jeb, rather hoarsely. I don’t know what that stuff was, but I think the effects are almost worn off now.”

Royston harrumphed.  “Well, that’s something. Anyway, we’ve got some news for you. It appears the Stickys are trying to contact us.”

Jeb’s head came up. “How, where?” he asked.

“Graham and I found a room which at first we thought was a movie theatre. It has seats facing  a big screen on the end wall. Oliver here thinks it’s a video conference room. It seems he’s right. The screen’s come on and Lisa saw Stickys on it.”

Jeb’s eyes lit up. “Wow,” he exclaimed. “What are they doing?”

Lisa shook her head. “No idea, I only peeped round the door. As soon as I saw them, I shut the door and ran here.”

“We’re hoping they didn’t see Lisa,” I said. “If they didn’t, hopefully the Stickys  will think we’re a bunch of castaway Stickys, we don’t want them to know it’s us in this building.”

“Yeah, but surely the Stickys will know it’s us that took the lifeboat and that it landed here,” protested Jeb. “It could be Stickys from that ship that will come looking for us.”

I shrugged my shoulders. “We’ve been through this conversation already. We’re hoping any Sticky rescue party wouldn’t be coming from the ship we were on and won’t know about us.”

Jeb thought for a moment, then looked up. “You know, on reflection, you could be right. If a Sticky ship had an emergency that needed the lifeboats to be launched, they’d hardly be in the position to send out a rescue party.” He thought a bit more, his brow furrowing. “There might be some central organisation do deal with this sort of thing. It could be whoever the Stickys send here could be something like our coast guard. They’d get an SOS and head for this planet to help survivors. They might not know who we are.”

“If that’s the case, they’d be sitting ducks when they came in here,” said Peter. “We could capture them easily as they come through the door.”

“Hold on,” interrupted Pamela. “You’re talking about capturing the Stickys, then what?”

“We try and convince them we’re intelligent beings, not animals,” I replied. “Remember, that was our original plan when we decided to take over what we though was the control room.”

Pamela frowned. “Yeah, and we made a right old mess of that, didn’t we.”

“We got away from the ship,” said Lisa shortly.

“By accident,” retorted Pamela.

Edna waved her hands, trying to calm things down. “Easy girls. Accident or not, we still escaped. If we can think of a way to capture the Stickys without harming them, we should go along with Oliver’s plan, and convince them we’re not animals.”

So it was my plan now,  I thought, as I realised everyone was looking at me again.

“All right, let’s go downstairs and see what we can find.” I said.

“I’ll stay here with Susan, David and Mary, if you don’t mind, Oliver, I think we’re making progress with the food, “ said Edna. “If we’re going to be here for any length of time, we’ll need it.”

“I don’t mind if it’s all right with them,” I replied. The three nodded and walked back to the bowls they had been working on. The rest of us made for the door. As the rest of the group made for the stairs,  I made a quick detour to the shower room and put on my tee shirt and boots.

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Mindful of the conference room, I crossed the central hall in silence and caught up with the group and descended the stairs. We walked over to the railed off area and ducked under the rails. As I straightened up, I held up my hands.

“For Christ’s sake don’t touch anything,” I said. “We don’t know what it would take to start these things up.”

The group took my warnings seriously. Stickys were tall and very thin. The passageway between the machines was obviously designed for them, it was only about two feet wide. The group shuffled between the machines sideways, with their arms held closely to their bodies as if the machines were covered in wet paint. At the far end of the room, the familiar racks of odd shaped rods came into view.

“Raw material store,” said Emily with satisfaction. She gave me a knowing smile.

As I walked along the racks, my mind was not on what was in front of me, but on Emily. She’d done it again, acting way out of her usual character. Halfway down the racks, I spotted rods similar to the one’s we’d taken on the ship.

“Aha,” I exclaimed, pulling out a rod. “These will do.”

I  pulled out the rods and handed them out. There were enough for everyone, so I took some more. “Won’t do any harm to have a few spares,” I said.

They stood in a semicircle round me holding their rods.

“OK, so what do we do with them?” asked Carol.

“We’ll have to think about that,” I replied. “Let’s go back upstairs and try to work out some sort of plan.”

            Back upstairs, we called Edna and her helpers in the kitchen and  we all went into the nearest bedroom. I closed the door so there was no chance of our conversations being heard in the conference room. There was enough room for us all to sit on the beds. It was the first time I’d actually sat on one, up to now, all I’d done was just glance through the doors. What appeared to be a hard surface, was softly resilient.

“I could get used to this,” giggled Susan, wriggling on the surface.

Natalie tried to look stern. “Behave yourself, you wanton hussy,” she smiled, softening her tone of voice.

“Just testing,” replied Susan, casting a lingering look at Peter.

Graham raised his eyebrows to heaven. “God help us, they’re at it again,” he said.

Susan sat up with a jerk. “Only joking.” She looked at me. “Down to business, eh Ollie?”

I nodded. “Right, down to business. Now has anyone any ideas how we’re going to capture the Stickys when they come in?”

“Whatever we do will depend on how many, there are,” said Richard. “If there’s more than about ten of them, we could be in trouble.”

“All right, so we’ve got to make sure there’s not more than we can handle,” I said. “We’ve got to think of a way of splitting up a crowd of them.”

There was a dead silence.

“Anyone?” I asked.

“What about the elevator,” said David. “That wouldn’t hold more than about ten Stickys. If we could get them to come up in that, we could catch them when they reach the top.”

“Yeah, they’d see us and go straight back down again,” objected Mary. She gave a shiver. “Then we’d all be for it, they’d come up the stairs at us.”

“She’s right,” agreed William. “There’s nothing to stop the rest of them coming up the stairs and turning us into hamburgers.”

“Bloody hamburgers, he’s at it again,” whispered Graham under his breath.

“Alright,” I said slowly, trying to gather my thoughts. “What if we fixed the stairs so they couldn’t use them.”

“So how do we do that?” asked Doris. She looked straight at me.

I shrugged. “I have no idea yet. We’ll have to have a good look at the stairs and see what’s possible.”

“One thing,” interrupted Edna. “Whatever we do, we mustn’t harm the Stickys. If we do, any chance of us being taken for civilized beings will go out of the window.” She looked around. “Everyone agreed?” she added.

There were nods all round.

“All right, so we get them to use the elevator, what’s to stop them going straight back down again as soon as they see us,” said Tony.

“There’s only two buttons in the elevator,” said David, “One for up and one for down. If somebody kept their finger on the up button, maybe the elevator wouldn’t be able to go back down again.”

“The buttons in the lift wont be available to us once the lift has gone up, Did anyone notice if there are buttons on the wall?” I asked.

There was a general shaking of heads.

 “That’s something we’d have to check out,” I said. “If there are and it works, we’d be able to control the movement of any Stickys in the lift.”

“Doesn’t that mean someone has got to be downstairs when the Stickys come in,” said William with a shiver.

I nodded. “Yes, I suppose it does.”

“I’ll do it,” said Mary.

We all looked at her.

“Do you think that’s a good idea,” said Royston. “You can’t be fully recovered from your glandular fever yet.”

Mary shook her head. “No, it’s all gone, I feel fine, I want to do it.”

“It could be dangerous, you know,” I said.

“No more than you lot facing an elevator full of Stickys,” she replied. She half rose from the bed and spread her hands. “Look, I’m the smallest person here. It’ll be easier for me to hide when the Stickys come in. All I have to do is press the up button as soon as they’ve gone up in the elevator,” she looked at me. “Is that right?”

I nodded.

“Supposing only a few of the Stickys use the elevator,” said William. “The rest of the Stickys would stop you going near the elevator.”

“Then I won’t come out of my hiding place,” retorted Mary.

“You’re looking for problems that might not happen,” said Royston. “Buck up, William, try to be positive.”

“I just don’t want to be turned into hamburgers, that’s all,” replied William quietly.

Carol patted him on the shoulder. “Don’t worry, darling, there’s not enough meat on you for a decent hamburger,” she poked him in the ribs. “They might get enough for a few spare ribs though.” She laughed. “God, I could eat a good Chinese meal right now.” She looked straight at William and licked her lips.

William shied away from her. “You’re disgusting,” he said hotly.

“Come off it, William,” soothed Doris, “Carol was only joking.”

Graham clapped his hands. “Enough, enough. If you two will give it a rest for a moment, we do have rather more pressing matters to discuss rather than Carol’s appetite.” He looked around. “Anyone got any objections if Mary pressed the elevator button?”

There was a chorus of no’s.

“OK, that’s settled, Mary presses the button,” said Graham.

Mary sat back on the bed with a satisfied smile on her face.

“I think we should try David’s idea about the elevator before we do anything else,” said Mark.

“I agree,” I said. “if we can control the lift, at least that would be one problem solved.” I looked at David. “Do you want to try it, it was your idea.”

He nodded. “OK, will you come down with me?”

            We all left the room and gathered round the lift. David and I stepped inside and David pressed the down button. The lift descended smoothly and came to rest on the ground floor. We stepped out and searched the wall either side of the lift, looking for buttons.

“Nothing here,” I said. “I’ll go up in the lift, perhaps the lift is covering the buttons. There must be some, otherwise how could you get the lift to come down.”

I stepped into the lift. “As soon as the lift reaches the top, see if there are more buttons on the inside wall. If there are, keep your finger on the up button. Then we’ll see if the down button works or not,” I said.

He nodded and stepped back.

I pressed the up button and as soon as the lift had stopped at the top, I pressed the down button. Nothing happened, the lift stayed motionless.

“You’ve found a button?” I shouted.

David’s voice came faintly from below. “Yes,” he shouted.

“OK, let go now,” I shouted back.

A second later, the lift took me back down to the ground floor.

“There’s a panel with buttons just inside the entrance,” said David.  “As soon as the elevator started up, I reached in and pressed the up button. It worked didn’t it,” he said , with a grin all over his face.

I nodded. “ It certainly did.” I paused, thinking.  “I’m worried. That open lift shaft and now buttons inside the lift shaft, Stickys certainly live dangerously. If you pressed the down button and didn’t get out of the way a bit sharpish, you’d be squashed flat. I wonder what other booby traps lay in wait.”

David shrugged. “We’ll just have to be careful, that’s all.”

I looked at the width of the lift. “I thought we could maybe jam the button with one of the rods we found, but the lift is too wide. It looks like whoever presses the button will have to stay here.” I said.

David shrugged. “If all the Stickys are in the elevator, that wont be a problem. If there’s any left down here, we wont be able to reach the elevator anyway.”

“Yeah, you’re right,” I replied. “Let’s go back up to the others.”

            Once we’d reached the top, the group gathered round us.

“Well, we’ve all seen David’s idea with the lift buttons works,” I said. “The next thing is to see what we can do about the stairs.”

“Why do you keep calling the elevator a lift,” complained Emily. “It confuses me.”

“It’s what we call them in England,” I replied, “In England, an elevator is a moving staircase.”

She nodded, her blond curls bouncing round her face. “Oh,” she said.

Doesn’t take much to confuse her, I heard someone mutter. Again, I tried to work out what made Emily tick. Most of the time, she acted as if she was as dumb as a box of spanners, but there were times when she showed flashes of a much cleverer woman. I mentally shrugged the problem aside as I realised someone was talking to me.

I turned to face Graham, “Sorry, what?”

“I said, if you could sort out the elevator, you’d look at the stairs,” he said, “Are we going to do that now?”

“Yes, right now,” I replied.

            We all trooped down the stairs and stood at the bottom looking up. The stairs up to the first bend were made of metal grids with a hand rail fixed to the wall on each side. At the first bend they entered the floor above us and changed to solid metal treads and risers.

I ran up the stairs to the first bend and looked up. I suddenly realised just how thick the floor was. Peter and Jeb had followed me up.

“That floor must be at least fifteen feet thick,” I said. “Whatever could be the reason for that.”

“Equipment to run this place,” said Jeb. “Unless they put it under the ground floor, there’s no other place it could go.”

“So how do you know it’s not under the floor then,” said Peter.

“I just seems logical to me,” answered Jeb. He waved his arms round. “This place is just like a huge tin can, with everything needed in it. All the Stickys had to do was clear a patch of jungle and drop this building into the cleared space. That’s how I would do it. Otherwise, they’d have to dig down to take the basement.”

I nodded slowly. “I reckon Jeb’s right. At least we’ve learned one thing.”

Peter looked sceptical. “Oh yeah, and what’s that,” he said.

“We don’t drill holes in the floor, otherwise we might find all our home comforts vanishing.”

Peter laughed. “We wouldn’t want that to happen would we. Come on, let’s get back down and see how we can stop the Stickys using the stairs.”

We walked back down again and I stood looking at the stairs, trying to work out how they were made. I couldn’t see any way they were held together, no nuts, bolt or rivets were visible. It was if the stairs had been made in one piece.

“Well, I can’t see anything we can undo to take them apart,” I said.

“Can we cut them?” asked Adam.

“If we had some tools,” I replied. I looked up the flight. “It would take a long time to cut through that lot.”

“The Stickys could be here any minute anyway,” said William. “We might not have time to do anything.”

“Look, if you’re so worried about the Stickys, why don’t you go upstairs and keep watch out of one of the windows,” said Mark testily.

William looked at me.

“Do you think I should?” he asked.

I nodded vigorously, anything to get rid of him. He was such a mournful character, I felt he was bringing the whole group down.

William nodded and started climbing the stairs. When he was halfway up, Mark called to him.

“Make sure the window you’re looking through is above the door we came in,” he said. “Chances are, the Stickys will land opposite the door the same as the lifeboat. You wouldn’t want to be looking out the wrong window.”

William nodded. As he took another step, Mark called to him again. “Make sure you don’t go near the conference room.”

He nodded again. “Oh right,” he said. He turned and vanished round the corner.

“Right,” I said. “Let’s have another look at the machine area. There might be some tools we can use.”

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We walked to the machine area and ducked under the rails. I didn’t think the machines around us would be any help, so we walked to the far end to the raw material racks.

“What are we looking for?” asked Adam.

“Anything that looks like a saw or cutting equipment,” I replied.

Next to the racks were five large doors set into the wall. I pulled open the first door and found the inside filled with shelves about a foot apart. On the shelves were shiny objects wrapped in what looked like cling film.

Graham pulled one out and turned it in his hands.

“I wonder what this is,” he murmured.

I reached into the cupboard and pulled out an object that had been sitting next to the one he’d taken. It was heavy, with shiny surfaces that reflected the light. Sticking out from one end was what looked like a short pipe. When I held it against Graham’s object I realised they looked very similar. I looked into the cupboard again. All the objects on that shelf were the same. I examined the other shelves. Stacked on each shelf were other shiny objects wrapped in film. Each shelf held a different type of object.

“Spare parts,” I said.

Graham looked at me quizzically. “For what,” he said.

I laughed. “Christ knows. They could be booster sprogs for the giggle pin for all I know. Whatever they are, I reckon they’re spare parts for something.”

“Can we use the giggle pin?” asked Emily.

I was saved having to explain to her by a shout from the other side of the room.

“Hey,”

We swung our heads round. Peter waved to us, calling us over to him.

“Look at this,” he said, patting the apparatus next to him.

We all gathered round him.

“What is it?” enquired Mary.

“It’s an oxyacetylene set.” said Peter. “I’m the manager of a car dealership, I’ve seen stuff like this in the workshops. This looks just the same.”

He wasn’t quite right. I knew what an oxyacetylene set was, in fact I’d used that sort of equipment when I was a Howe and Brooks. The thing Peter was leaning against looked vaguely  familiar. A large flattened cylinder was mounted on a trolley. Hoses led from the top of the cylinder to a handle with a nozzle. Peter looked at me.

“What do you think?” he said.

I nodded slowly. “Well apart from there being only one cylinder, to outward appearances, it does look like any oxyacetylene set I’ve used. What it really is may be another matter.” I had a thought. “Have you found any sort of mask or protective clothing?”

Peter shook his head. “No, as soon as I saw this, I called out to you.” He waved his hand at the cupboards, “Maybe they’re in one of those.”

While we had been talking, the rest of the group had pulled open the rest of the cupboards and were standing in front of the open doors looking puzzled. I walked over to the nearest cupboard.

“Any luck,” I asked.

Pamela shook her head. “We don’t know what we’ve found Ollie. I think you had better have a look.”

Inside the cupboard were rows and rows of what looked like hand tools. I could vaguely recognise something that looked like a screwdriver, there was a handle and a shiny rod poking out of the handle, but the rest were like nothing I’d ever seen.

“They’re similar to the things the Sticky dropped on the lifeboat,” said Jeb. “You didn’t pick any of them up, but I did.” He waved his hand at the racks. “I’m sure these are the same."

I nodded. “You could be right,” I agreed. “Any luck with the rest of the cupboards?”

Jeb shook his head. “Just more of those objects wrapped in film.”

“So that just leaves the thing Peter found,” I said. “If it is an oxyacetylene set, it’s the only thing we’ve got to dismantle the stairs with.”

“Well, let’s try it,” said Jeb.

            The trolley was heavy, it took three of us to pull it through the machinery to the railings.

“Now what,” said Adam, “it’s too heavy to lift over.”

We looked at the railings to see if there was any way of undoing a section. There wasn’t, the railings seemed to be in one piece, just like the stairs.

“How the hell would the Stickys get this past the railings?” asked Richard.

We all looked at each other and shrugged.

“OK,” said Peter looking at me, “You’ve used one of these things. Now’s the chance to see if this is an oxyacetylene set.”

It seemed I was elected. I unwound the hoses from the cylinder and made my first discovery. They were more like heavy duty cables rather than hoses. On the handle, instead of the round knobs I’d expected to see, were a row of four buttons. There were no markings on them and they were all the same colour. I looked around at the group.

“I don’t think this is an oxyacetylene set,” I said. “I don’t know what we’re dealing with here, I think you all better stand back a bit.”

They all ducked under the railings and backed away from me. Only Emily and Natalie stayed next to me.

“I think you’d better move back girls,” I said.

They both shook their heads. “If you’re going to be in danger, I think I should share it with you,” said Natalie, giving Emily a hard look.

Emily nodded her head. “Me too,” she said. She raised her fist. “All for one,” she said quietly.

“All right, but stand behind me, don’t get in the way of the nozzle,” I said, rather touched at the girls concern.

The girls stood back as I squatted down and pointed the nozzle at the nearest rail. I touched the button nearest to the nozzle. Nothing happened. All right, I thought, let’s try the other end. When I touched the button furthest from the nozzle, again nothing happened. Feeling rather frustrated, I pressed the second button and a  blue light appeared at the end of the nozzle. I peered at the end of the nozzle. It wasn’t a flame, just a blue light. I put the nozzle against the rail but nothing happened. With a what the hell attitude, I pressed the third button. This time the I could see the metal of the rail was melting where the blue light touched it. After a second or two, I could see I was making a fair size hole in the metal rail. It was working, but it would take forever to cut through the rail. There was one button left. I had an idea what that was for but when I pressed it, nothing I was used to prepared me for what happened. The blue light suddenly lengthened to about a foot long which lit up the whole room. The rail was cut through like it was a piece of cheese. Each rail I held the nozzle against was cut through in an instant. In a short time, I’d cut enough to allow the trolley to pass through, the pieces of rail falling to the floor with a clang. Now, how the hell do I turn the thing off, I thought. I pressed the fourth button, thinking it might be an on-off switch but to my horror, the blue light lengthened again.  The whole room was flickering with blue light, I could see the group shielding their eyes from the glare. Funnily enough, I wasn’t affected at all, there seemed to be a distortion in the air between me and the end of the nozzle that prevented me being affected by the light. I held the nozzle away from me and tried to think. The first button. When I pressed it, nothing happened, perhaps it was a master on-off switch. Hoping I was right, I pressed it and to my relief, the blue light went out. I sat back and let my breath out with a sigh of relief.

Natalie punched me on the arm. “Well done Ollie, you’ve cracked it,” she cried. I nearly dropped the handle as the pain shot down my arm.

The rest of the group rushed over, looking at the smoking ruins of the bits of rail on the floor.

I looked up at Peter. “Whatever this is, it’s not oxyacetylene,” I said.

He nodded, looking at the cut ends of the rails. “It does the same job though,” he said with a grin.

“Let me show you,” I said, holding up the handle. “The first button is an on-off switch. The second button makes a little blue light appear. It doesn’t do anything, I think it’s just there as a guide. The third button is for welding and the fourth is for cutting.”

Peter studied the handle. “You’ve worked that out already. Wow,”

I accepted his praise modestly, neglecting to tell him of my panic when I couldn’t turn the thing off.

Peter frowned. “If it’s not oxyacetylene, what the hell is it,” he said.

I shook my head. “I have no idea, but whatever it is, its something electrical. I could smell the ozone when I was using it.” I gestured at the flattened cylinder. “I don’t think there’s gas in there, more likely some sort of electrical generator.”

Peter brightened. “It’ll do the job on the stairs though, won’t it.”

I nodded.

“Well, let’s do it,” he said.

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We dragged the trolley over to the foot of the stairs.

“We’re going to have to be careful how we do this,” I said. “You know the old story of the bloke sitting on the tree branch he was cutting off.”

“No, what’s that,” enquired Emily.

I sighed. “If you’re cutting off a branch, you don’t want to be sitting on the branch, do you,” I replied.

Emily screwed up her face while she thought about it. “No, I suppose you don’t, ” she said finally. She looked up. “What’s a tree branch got to do with the stairs,” she asked.

Natalie took Emily to one side. I could hear her quietly explaining the value of not cutting the part of the stairs we were standing on. Emily came back over to me and smiled. “I’ve got it now Oliver,” she said.

I smiled back at her wondering how she’d lived long enough to grow up. Then I thought of her curvaceous figure and doll-like face. I suppose a girl that good looking doesn’t need brains, there’d always be some bloke who would look after her. I put the thought to one side and studied the stairs.

“What do you think,” said Jeb, standing next to me, staring up the flight.

“We can start cutting at the bottom and remove, say, two or three steps at a time as far as we can reach. Then we can cut the top away,” I said.

Jeb frowned. “Why not just cut the lot away in one lump,” he asked.

“I’d thought of that, but it might not be a good idea. If the stairs are in one piece, not only will it be hard for us to move them out of the way, but the Stickys could also put them back in place. If the stairs are in bits, they may not bother and just use the lift.”

“Good thinking Batman,” grinned Jeb.

            I started cutting the first stairs. The blue light made short work of the metal and before long, bits of stairs were littering the floor. The

 group dived on them and dragged them away to hide them by the raw material rack. We’d chosen that position because it was as far away from the stairs as we could get. As I worked, I heard muffled curses every now and then as somebody grabbed hold of a hot end by mistake. As I cut higher, I had to be careful because the blue light cut through the metal so quickly, the treads would fall almost before I could jump out of the way. At the highest point I could reach, Peter and Adam held the steps in place while I did my cutting and lowered them to the floor once the cut was finished. Once the final jumble of metal had been moved out of the way, we all stood looking at the devastation we had made. On each wall, the ragged ends of the rails and stairs stuck out like stumps. In places, there were furrows in the wall where I’d not been too careful with the torch.

“Bloody hell,” whispered Richard, “What a mess. The Stickys aren’t going to like this.”

“We haven’t finished yet,” said Peter with a grin. He pointed up. “We’ve still got the top bit to do.”

We dragged the trolley into the lift and rose to the upper floor. It was a bit hairy bumping it down the first two flights of stairs until we reached the top of the bottom flight. There was about six feet of stairs left, so I squatted down and started cutting. I’d already cut away the bottom of the flight so as I finished the final cut at the top, the stairs dropped to the bottom with a crash of tangled metal.

William burst out of the bedroom door and came running up to us, his eyes wide. “What happened, have the Stickys come,” he yelled.

“Shh,” said Graham with his finger to his lips. “We just been cutting the stairs away,” He paused.  “Nothing for you to worry about.”

He said it in exactly the same tone of voice I used to my parents cats when they were startled by a strange noise. Which pretty well summed up his opinion of William I thought. I turned away from William and looked at the wreckage at the bottom of the stairwell.

“Do you think we should go back down and cut that lot up,” I said to no-one in particular.

Graham shook his head. “I can’t see the Stickys trying to climb through that lot, I’d leave it where it is.”

I nodded in agreement. “Yeah, I think you’re right,” I replied. “All we’ve got to do now is wait for the Stickys to come for us.”

“I vote we go back and finish the sandwiches,” said Royston. “They won’t last for ever so we might as well eat them while we can.”

“Good idea,” agreed Carol, “I’m starving.”

            We trooped back to kitchen and I retrieved my pack from the freezer. Piled up next to it were the sandwiches I couldn’t get in the pack. We went to the nearest bedroom and I handed the sandwiches out. There was enough for three each. We had to wait for the sandwiches to thaw out, so we passed round the bottles of whiskey Peter had brought. Royston opened his wrap and sniffed the contents. He looked up.

“Well, they seem alright, let’s take a chance.”

I sat eating my food, thinking this was the strangest picnic I’d ever been on.  Doris rolled her empty wrap into a ball and yawned.

“I could do with some shut eye,” she said.

Now she mentioned it, I also felt tired. We’d been up all night and the work of cutting and moving the staircase had been hard work. I noticed a pale light coming through the window next to me.

“Look’s like dawn coming up folks,” I said.

“We better not all sleep,” said Adam. “Supposing the Stickys came while we were all out.”

“We could take it in turns to keep watch,” said Graham.

I raised my arm, “I’ll take the first couple of hours,” I said.

“Best to have two people at a time,” said Royston, “It’ll help keep each other awake.”

“I’ll sit with Oliver,” said Natalie.

I nodded at her and we stood up.

“We’ll go to a bedroom over the doors,” I said. “Give us a couple of hours, then send some one else, OK?”

To a chorus of goodnights, Natalie and I left the room. We went to the bedroom directly over the downstairs door and walked to the end of the room and looked out of the window. In the dawn light, we could just make out the shape of the lifeboat below us. Natalie stood next to me with her arms round my neck. “Alone at last,” she said quietly.

I rubbed my hands up and down her back and nuzzled her neck.

Do you really think we can convince the Stickys were not animals,” she said.

I nodded slowly. “I hope so,” I replied, “It’s our only chance of getting back home.”

She unwound her arms from my neck, looking at me with wide open eyes.

“Getting back home, you think they might take us back?”

“I bloody hope so,” I answered, “Otherwise all this will have been for nothing.”

Natalie kissed me briefly on the cheek and sat on the end of bed, gazing out of the window. I put my hand on her shoulder. She looked up at me and slowly shook her head. Her mood had suddenly changed. Alone for the first time in weeks and now she was making it very clear she didn’t want to talk or be disturbed. I mentally shrugged at the vagaries of women and sat quietly next to her as she stared out of the window. As the light outside brightened, the ceiling lights slowly faded out. We’d better learn how to turn them on and off, I thought idly, otherwise we’d have to sleep with the lights on all night. Natalie was very quiet for the two hours we were alone together before Mark and Susan came in to relieve us. Perhaps she was overwhelmed at the prospect of going home, at least I hoped so.

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CHAPTER 36

The experiments with the Sticky food didn’t go well. After some heroic efforts by Edna and her helpers, they managed to produce some lumps of what looked like doughy bread and a bowl of stringy green vegetables.

“What do you think,” she asked as we all gathered round the cabinet, peering into the bowls.

Royston looked doubtfully at Edna’s offerings.

“Have you tried tasting any of it?” he asked.

Edna shook her head. “None of us have tried it. We thought we’d wait for you, Royston. You’re the doctor.”

“Hmm,” murmured Royston. He stuck a finger in the bread and broke a tiny piece off. He put it gingerly to his mouth and tasted it with the tip of his tongue. After some hesitation he put the piece in his mouth and chewed, a thoughtful look on his face. Finally he swallowed.

“Well?” asked Edna.

Royston shrugged. “I doesn’t taste of anything, it’s weird, there’s a total absence of flavour.”

“What about this,” said David, holding out a bowl full of what looked like green worms.

“What are they,” enquired Royston. “Animal or vegetable.”

“I don’t know,” admitted David. “When I found them in a can, they looked like bits of green string, I assumed they were vegetables. When I added water and heated them up, they turned into this.”

“I don’t think Royston should try them,” interrupted Natalie. She indicated the bowl of bread. “He’s tried one thing already, I think someone else should try the greens.” She looked at the bowl with distaste.

“How about you David,” said Susan. “You cooked them.”

David looked startled for a minute, then relaxed. “All right,” he said slowly. He dipped into the bowl and lifted out one strand.

I thought even more it looked like a green worm.

He repeated Royston’s performance by first touching it with his tongue and then taking a small bite. His face screwed up and he suddenly bent over and  turned away retching, one hand hanging on to the cabinet for support. After a minute, he turned back to us, wiping his mouth.

“Christ, it was bloody awful,” he said.

“Well, that’s out,” said Graham. “Anything else?”

Mary shook her head. “I got what I thought was some meat from the freezer. But when I thawed it out, it went into a sort of mush. It didn’t look very edible to me.”

“We didn’t dare try anything else,” said Susan. A lot of the cans we opened had things in them that we couldn’t recognise, so we thought best leave them alone.”

“So that leaves just this bread,” said Royston.

“If it is bread,” said Graham.

Royston shrugged. “Well, it didn’t taste of anything but it had the texture of bread. I think it is a food.” He held up his hand. “Before we get carried away, I think only a few of us should try it and see what happens.”

A silence descended on the group. I could see there was a distinct lack of volunteers.

“Look, I’ll be one as I’ve already tried it. I just want a couple of you to try it with me,” said Royston.

Mark put up his hand. “All right, I’ll give it a go,” he said.

“Yeah, OK, me too,” said Lisa.

Royston nodded with satisfaction. “Good, I suggest we all try a couple of mouthfuls and then wait at least twelve hours to see what happens.” He looked around. “The rest of you will have to go hungry I’m afraid, but you won’t come to any harm. Just remember the rule of three.”

“Remember what about the rule of three,” complained Richard, “I’ve never heard of it.”

Royston assumed his lecture theatre pose. “It’s quite simple,” he began. “You can live three minutes without oxygen, three days without water and three months without food.” He paused. “We have plenty of water. If you feel hungry, fill up with water.”

            With nothing else to do, we all sat around waiting. We took turns at the window, looking for arriving Stickys, the rest of us relaxed on the beds in the various rooms. About thee hours after the bread tasting, we heard a door bang. I got up and went to the door of our room and looked out. Doris, Carol and Amy were running to the toilet door.

“What’s happened,” I asked.

Carol nodded at the door. “It’s Lisa. She was sitting on the bed chatting to us, when she suddenly got this funny look on her face. She jumped up and ran for the toilet.”

As I approached the door, I could hear what sounded like hot porridge being poured into a bowl accompanied by a loud retching. After a long wait, the door opened. Lisa stood there white faced and trembling.

“I don’t think the bread is………” she began faintly. She clapped her hand to her mouth and ran back inside, slamming the door behind her. The retching started again. It took a little longer for her to emerge and by this time, the whole group were gathered round the door. Lisa stood in the doorway hanging onto the handle.

“Jesus,” she exclaimed, “That stuff cleared me out. I didn’t know which end to put over the bowl.”

“How do you feel now.” I asked.

She gave a faint grin and rubbed her stomach. “Empty,” she said and shuffled next door to the shower room.

We all looked at Royston and Mark.

“Anything?” asked Natalie.

“Not yet,” said Royston, “Though judging from Lisa’s reaction, it could come any time soon.” He raised a questioning eyebrow at Mark.

Mark shook his head. I feel a bit queasy, but I thought it might be nerves. I don’t know now.”

“We better keep the toilet door clear for you,” joked Pamela.

It took another hour or so for the reaction to hit Royston and Mark. It was just as violent as Lisa’s. Luckily, they weren’t both affected at the same time. It would have been rather embarrassing if they’d been next to each other, squatting over the hole, hanging on to the rail with white knuckles and gritted teeth as they strained their greens. One by one, they emerged from the toilet room looking shaken.  When they came out from the shower room after cleaning themselves up, we returned to one of the bedrooms for a conference.

“I don’t think we can trust anything we find in the kitchen,” said Royston gently massaging his stomach.

“We better hope the Stickys come soon then,” said Graham, “Otherwise we could starve to death waiting for them.”

I shook my head. “If the worst comes to the worst, we can go into the conference room and attract the Stickys attention. That should bring them running.”

“But that would let them know it’s us here, not Stickys,” said Jennifer. “I thought the plan was to fool them there are Stickys here. If we warn them, all we’ve done will be for nothing.”

“Yeah, they’d probably recapture us and put us back in the cell we started from,” said William.

“Better than being dead,” said Amy.

I held up my hands. “Hold on, I only meant that as a last resort. I’m sure the Stickys know this place is occupied and they’ll come to see what’s going on.”

I turned to Royston. “Was that true what you said, about surviving three months without food?”

Royston nodded. “That’s what the books say, mind you, I’ve never tried it myself.”

I looked at the group. “What if we give it a month. If nothing happens, then we try and attract the Stickys attention.”

Mary looked at Royston. “A month without food. Do you really think we can do it?”

“Oh, I didn’t say we won’t feel hungry,” replied Royston, “But I’m sure we can survive a month.”

“A month,” said Peter mournfully. “It makes me nostalgic for a tuna and sweet corn sandwich.”

Susan slapped him on the back of his head. “Shut up about food, you unthinking bastard,” she said with a grin.

Peter rubbed the back of his head. “Yeah, right. Nobody mentions food from now on, let’s make it a rule.”

“Before the rule starts, can I mention a nice thick steak with all the trimmings,” laughed Adam.

He disappeared under a pile of girl flesh. He yelped as the girls pummelled  his back. “OK,OK,” he yelled, “I won’t say another word.”

They climbed off him and he struggled to his feet and flopped down onto a bed. I could see the dimples on his Sticky overall where the girls had dug their nails in and resolved not to mention food to anyone. It appeared the girls were taking the lack of food very seriously.

            With nothing to do, the days passed slowly. We all drunk gallons of water to keep the hunger pangs at bay. We also spent a lot of time in the toilet room getting rid of it. So we could all have a bed each, we separated into different bedrooms. There was a constant change over of people between the rooms, we only had one topic of conversation, but when a person from the other bedroom came in, at least they brought a new viewpoint on our situation. After six days, the conversations began to dry up, we had talked ourselves out. We lay on the beds, some sleeping, some awake with our own thoughts. In desperation for something to occupy my mind, I decided to take the lift downstairs and inspect the machinery. I’d thought Natalie might want to come with me, at least we’d be alone down there, but she didn’t want to come. She had become more and more distant since we’d sat together in the bedroom looking for the Sticky ship, now she hardly spoke to me at all. I wondered if she was regretting our fling when the others had left us alone in the cell. I was rather hurt, but decided to say nothing, perhaps she would change her mind. Emily on the other hand was eager to come when I announced my intention of going downstairs.

“I’m only going to have a look around, Emily, do you think it’ll interest you,” I asked.

She nodded, her blond hair bouncing round her face. “Yes, Oliver, I really think it would,” she replied.

I looked across the room at Natalie, but she wouldn’t look in my direction, seemingly deep in conversation with Royston. I made up my mind.

“Ok, Emily, if you want to come, let’s go.” I said rather loudly.

Emily bounced over to me as I stood up. She grabbed my arm and as we walked to the door. Natalie didn’t even look in our direction.

Emily and I took the lift down and walked across to the machinery area. We carefully walked passed the sharp cut off ends of the rails and threaded our way past the shapes surrounding us. There wasn’t anything like as much machinery as we’d seen on the ship so after half an hour, we’d seen the lot.

“Well Oliver, what do you think,” asked Emily.

I shrugged. “Apart from that one that looks a bit like a lathe, there’s nothing here I recognise,” I admitted.

Emily looked up at me and smiled She patted my arm. “Never mind Oliver, you’ve done a lot for us, We don’t expect you to work miracles.”

We were standing in front of the cupboards near the material rack as she said this. She turned and gestured at the racks. “You found us our weapons.”

As she turned, somehow she caught the front of her overall on the handle of the cupboard. The cupboard door swung open, nearly pulling Emily off her feet and in the process, yanked Emily’s overall open at the front, pulling off her shoulders. She stood there, naked to the waist, looking at me.

“Oh dear,” she said. She made no effort to pull her overall back on.

Thinking the overall had trapped her arms,  I stepped forward to help her ease it back up over her shoulders. As I reached for the overall, Emily giggled. I suddenly realised this was the closest I’d been to her if I discounted our time when she’d fallen into the bugs cell and then I’d been a bit preoccupied to take notice of her curves. Clutching the sides of her overall, her breasts were only inches from my hands. Emily giggled again and shook her shoulders so her breasts wobbled from side to side.

 I felt a sudden rush of  blood to the loins.  “Behave,” I said, trying to put on a stern face. I eased her overall over her shoulders and pulled the front together as far as I could, hiding the twin temptations before me.

Emily looked disappointed, had she wanted me to make an advance to her? I had a sudden regret that maybe I’d missed an opportunity. I’d had no chance to be alone with Natalie since that day in the cell, and surrounded by half naked women bulging out of the Sticky overalls, had put my libido into overdrive. My conscience held me back. I knew if I’d done anything with Emily, it would have been like taking advantage of a child. In spite of her obvious sexuality, as far as I knew, she hadn’t been with any of the other men. Even though she’d constantly followed Jeb around, I’d never seen her do anything but give him admiring looks.  She must have read my mind.

“Oliver, I don’t think Jeb likes me very much, will you be my friend,” she said. A little frown line appeared  between her eyes.

“I thought I was your friend, Emily,” I replied.

“Yes but will you be my special friend,” she said. “I’m sure you and Natalie are an item, but I need a special friend.” She looked as if my answer was the most important thing in the world at that moment.

What could I say. I nodded. “Yeah, OK Emily, I’ll be your special friend.”

She stood on tip-toe and kissed my chastely on the cheek.

“Thank you Oliver, you’re a gentleman,” she said with a smile.

I smiled back at her. “You’re welcome,” I said rather lamely.

On the way back to the lift, I had a thought. Had it really been an accident when she’d caught her overall on the handle, or had she done it on purpose. If I had gone further, who would have been taking advantage of who?

            When we got back upstairs, nothing had changed, it seemed everyone was in the same places as when we had left. Peter spoke to me.

“Find anything interesting?” he asked.

“No, nothing,” I replied with a straight face. I glanced at Emily, but she was talking to Carol, seemingly ignoring me.

“Oh well, I suppose it was worth a look,” replied Peter, “There’s bugger all else to do round here.”

“Yeah, it was worth a look,” I agreed. “Who’s on lookout duty?”

He thought for a minute. “Jeb and Amy, I think. They’re due for relief soon.”

I nodded and slumped down onto a bed and tried to relax. I thought about Emily. She had a body to die for, she had curves in places where most girls didn’t even have places. The only trouble was in her head. Over and over, she had demonstrated she wasn’t very bright, showing a childlike bafflement in the most ordinary situations. But what she’d done in the machine room was anything but childlike. Had she planned it or was it really an accident?  I inwardly sighed. Oh well, I tried to put her out of my mind. The chances are, it would never happen again. Then something happened that really put Emily out of my mind. Jeb burst into the room.

“The Stickys are here,” he shouted.

We all jumped off the beds as if we’d had a fire cracker shoved up our arses. We rushed for the bedroom overlooking the door and looked out of the window. Next to the lifeboat, a colossal shape was landing, flattening the jungle for what seemed miles around.

“Oh Christ,” exclaimed Graham. “It looks similar to the ship that picked us up. There could be a thousand Stickys in that.”

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CHAPTER 37

We watched in silence as the Sticky ship slowly settled onto the ground. I felt a hand steal into mine and grasp my fingers. I looked round, thinking it might be Natalie, but it was Emily who smiled up at me. I gave her a brief smile in return and turned my attention back to the window. The Sticky ship sat solidly on the ground as if it had been built there. I had to strain my neck upwards to see the top of it, the sides were almost out of view from our window. The lifeboat sitting next to it looked like a toy in comparison. Suddenly a beam of light shone from the ship straight at us, making us all wince. Just as suddenly, the light went out.

“They could be coming out at any moment now,” said Tony.

I realised he was right. I turned round to Mary.

“Are you’re sure about going downstairs and pressing the lift buttons? I asked.

She lifted her chin, and nodded. “Yes,” she replied rather shakily. I think the arrival of the Sticky ship had rather unsettled her.

“If the Stickys walk to us it could take them at least half an hour. But they might use some sort of transport, they could be here in minutes, maybe you better go now. Go down in the lift and wait at the foot of the stairs. We’ll call down to you if we see the Stickys coming.”

“Supposing they don’t come today,” interrupted Edna, “Mary can’t stay down there for ever, just waiting.”

She had a point. I tried to think of an answer.

“We need at least two people ready to press the buttons,” said Adam. “I’ll volunteer if you like. We can take it in turns.”

Mary nodded. “Good idea.” She turned to the door. “Keep watch for me, I’m going to the toilet first.”

“Take a bottle of water with you,” said Doris.

Mary nodded and left the room.

“As well as keeping watch by the window, we need a couple of people across the hall and one standing at the top of the stairs to pass the word to Mary,” I said.

Without being asked, Peter and Richard left the room. Adam followed them. He turned at the doorway. “I’ll stand by the stairs,” he said.

“If we can trap the Stickys in the elevator, what do we do next,” asked Amy.

I thought for a minute. “We could stand in a semicircle round the front of the lift with our rods pointing at them. With a bit of luck, that should make them stop. What we do next depends a lot on what the Stickys do.”

I suddenly realised the rods were scattered among the various bedrooms we had been occupying.

“We better round up all the rods and lay them in front of the lift so they’ll be there when we need them.” I said.

Susan and Carol nodded and ran out of the room. Ten minutes later, they arrived back breathless.

“All done,” panted Carol.

I nodded.

“Now all we can do is wait,” said Graham. 

            Nothing happed that day. As night fell, we grew more nervous. Would we see the Stickys coming in the dark? Someone had discovered how to turn out the bedroom lights so we could now see the Sticky ship rather than our own reflections in the window. It was some help, but there was still the nagging fear the Stickys could arrive without us seeing them coming. The night seemed endless but slowly the time passed. Eventually, the light outside brightened and we breathed a collective sigh of relief that we hadn’t been surprised in the night. The day wore on until the sun was nearly overhead, the Sticky ship appearing to be almost sitting on its shadow.

“Oh oh,” said Jennifer, straightening up from where she’d been leaning against the window, “Something’s happening.”

On the side of the ship facing us, a door had opened about fifteen feet up from the ground. We watched as a ramp extruded itself down to the ground. I felt a rising excitement as my heart rate climbed. Then we saw a number of Stickys appear in the doorway.

“How many, can you see?” asked Carol.

“Wait until they start down the ramp,” said Graham, “It’ll be easier to count them.”

We watched in silence as the Stickys started down the ramp. We were all counting to ourselves. The outcome of the next half hour or so would depend on how many there were.

“I make it nine,” said Graham.

There was a murmur of agreement.

With a gut wrenching realisation, I was suddenly aware we were all just standing there watching, doing nothing but watching.

“Mary,” I shouted, “is she downstairs?”

Jeb put his hand on my shoulder. “Steady, Batman. As soon as the door opened she was out the room like a shot. Adam is at the top of the stairs and Peter and Richard are outside ready to pass on the word.”

I nodded at him with relief. I was so fixed on the view outside, I’d not seen them leave. I turned back to the window. The Stickys were now half way down the ramp. We watched them as they made their way to the bottom. When they were all off the ramp, it retracted back into the ship, just like the ramp on the lifeboat.

“They haven’t got any transport,” said Jeb with satisfaction, “Looks like they’ll be walking.”

“They’ve got a lot of stuff with them,” said Pamela, “Does any of it look like weapons?”

“What I’d give for a pair of binoculars,” muttered Graham.

All of the Stickys had large packs on their backs and most of them carried bags or boxes in their hands. They stayed in a group for a few minutes and then they started walking towards us in single file.

“This is it folks,” said Tony.

“Tell Peter to pass it on, they’re coming,” I said.

Tony ran out of the door and we could hear him talking excitedly to Peter.

I walked away from the window and picked up a rod. “Time to get to the lift.” I said.

We all picked up our rods and left the room. I handed a rod to Peter as we walked across the central hall.

“Is Mary ready?” I asked.

Peter nodded. “Adam called down to her, she’s hiding behind one of those big things in the machinery area. We’d already worked out a good place. She’ll be all right.”

            We stood in a semicircle in front of the open lift shaft with our rods pointing at the opening. Peter, standing next to me lent over.

“When the Stickys arrive, if you don’t mind, I’d like to try something.”

“What?” I whispered back.

“Something to try and make the Stickys know we aren’t dangerous animals. I want to lay my rod down to show them I’m not armed.”

“Yeah, but the rest of us will be,” I replied.

“Don’t you think it’s worth a try,” he said.

“Pete, anything you can think of is worth a try. Why did you ask if I’d mind, I’m not in command or anything.”

Peter grinned. “I just thought I’d say in case you had something in mind to do.”

I grinned back at him and shook my head. “At the moment mate, my mind’s gone blank,” I said.

“They’re coming,” whispered Natalie, “I heard the door open.”

I nodded and smiled at her, it was the first thing she’d said to me in days.

A seemingly endless time passed, then we heard the lift start. I gripped my rod a little tighter and looked round the group. Their faces had the same white, pinched look as mine probably had. Suddenly the Stickys were there, facing us in the lift.

“OK,” I whispered to Peter, do your stuff.”

 Peter took a couple of steps forward. Using the same exaggerated gestures he’d used in front of the hologram, he laid his rod on the floor and took another step forwards with his arms held out sideways. We all waited, hardly daring to breathe.

            The nine Stickys stood silently in the lift looking at us. The all carried bags and metal cases. They were dressed in the same sort of suit we’d seen on the hologram. None of them looked armed.

One of the Stickys stepped forward with its arms held out, mirroring Peter’s gesture. It only needed a few more arms, I thought and it would resemble one of the Indian gods.

We stood looking at each other for a long minute then the Sticky spoke

“We help”. It said.

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CHAPTER 38

 We all looked at each other in shock. Peter turned back to me,

“Did you hear that,” he hissed.

For a second I couldn’t speak, I just nodded. “It spoke in English,” I whispered finally.

Peter turned back to face the Sticky. “You speak English.” He said.

“I speak your talk new,” said the Sticky slowly, “We help. Food, clothes.

There was a clatter as we all let the end of our improvised weapons fall to the floor. The Sticky pointed at us.

“Need food. Our food not good for you.”

It turned and gestured to the Stickys standing in the lift. They marched forwards, put four metal boxes on the floor and stepped smartly back.

“Your food,” the Sticky said.

Peter and I stepped forwards and opened one of the boxes. Inside was a blue cool box. Peter turned at me with a quizzical look on his face.

“Want to bet what’s inside,” he said with a grin.

“At wild guess, I’d say tuna and sweet corn sandwiches,” I said, returning his grin.

I was right. The cool box was full to the top with sandwiches. Peter and I handed them out, and within a minute, we were all stuffing our faces.

I nodded to the Sticky. “Thank you,” I said round a mouthful of sandwich.

The Sticky returned a very human nod back to me.

“Drink in box,” said the Sticky, pointing to another cool box.

I noticed it used its upper arms to gesture with and wondered idly how it stopped the lower arms getting in the way.

Graham touched me on the arm to get my attention. I was so focussed, staring at the Stickys, the touch startled me. I swung round, thinking something was wrong.

“How did they know?” he said quietly.

“Know what?” I asked. And almost immediately realised what he meant. Somehow the Stickys had learnt our language and brought us food. They must have known about us before they got here. I stepped forwards until I was in front of the Sticky that had spoken to us. The Sticky was an imposing figure, it stood nearly seven feet tall and was as thin as a garden hose. I looked up at it.

“You knew it was us here, not your people?” I asked.

The Sticky nodded. “Is so,” it said briefly.

“How?” I asked.

“Watched on escape ship and here,” replied the Sticky.

 “You could see us,” I asked.

The Sticky nodded. “Also hear. Learn your language from that.”

This was a lot to take in. It seemed we’d been under observation the moment we’d stepped into the lifeboat.

“Our language, how long to learn?” I asked.

The Sticky was silent for a moment before it answered me.

“Language, word for your talk?” it said.

That wasn’t quite right, but it would do for now. I nodded. “Yes,” I said.

“I learn,” it paused. “eight of your days,” it said.

Eight days, that was incredible. The Sticky language we’d heard was so different from ours, the Sticky in front of me must be a very clever character.

I gestured at the other Stickys. “All of you learn?”

The Sticky waved his arms in a swimming gesture. It seemed to be the equivalent of us shaking our heads.

“Me only,” it said. “You tell me, I tell them,” it said, pointing at the other Stickys, standing silently behind it. “They animal keepers.”

“Animal keepers, vets?” I said.

“Your word for animal keepers, vets?” asked the Sticky.

I nodded.

Graham stepped next to me.

“What is your name?” he asked.

The Sticky looked puzzled. Already I was learning to recognise subtle changes in the Stickys face.

“Name?” it said.

Graham tapped himself on his chest. “Graham,” he said slowly. He turned to me and tapped my arm. “Oliver,” he said.

I could almost see the understanding on the Stickys face.

It pointed at Graham. “Graham,” it said.

Graham nodded furiously.

The Sticky pointed at me. “Oliver,” it said.

I nodded. The Stickys seemed to understand a nod, perhaps it was almost an instinctive action among species.

“I (*********)  it chirped.

Graham and I looked at each other in dismay. We’d never get our tongues round that.

“I don’t think we can say that with our mouths,” said Graham.

The Sticky was silent for a moment. “Choose name,” it said. “I answer to it.”

By this time the group were all gathered behind Graham and me, fascinated by the conversation.

“I think it wants us to choose a name for it,” whispered Edna from behind my back.

Susan smothered a giggle. “Don’t say Sticky,” she said quietly.

My mind went blank. Try as I might, I couldn’t think of a single name. I was saved from further brain work by Royston.

“How about Greg,” said Royston. “It’s short and it’s not any of our names.”

“It might not be a male Sticky,” whispered Jennifer.

“Under the circumstances, I hardly think that matters,” replied Royston rather pompously.

Graham looked around. “Everyone all right with Greg?” he asked.

There were nods all round.

“I rather think it suits him,” giggled Susan.

Graham turned back to the Sticky. “Will you answer to Greg?” he asked.

“Greg,” it said slowly. “Yes, short word, easy say, easy remember.”

While this was going on, I ate another sandwich glad to have something in my stomach. I don’t know why, but the  food made me think of Mary. Perhaps the sudden rush of nourishment had kicked my brain into gear. She was still downstairs, still hungry and probably with her finger on the up button. She wouldn’t have a clue what was going on, we could all be dead or captive for all she knew.

I caught Adam’s attention. “Tell Mary it’s all right, she can come up now.”

Adam’s eyes widened. “Christ, yes, I’d completely forgotten about her.”

He ran to the top of the stairs and called down.

I thought I’d better warn the Sticky that we’d need to use the lift.

“Greg,” I said.

Greg turned to face me.

“We need the lift to go back down to bring up one of our group.”

Greg nodded. “The one hiding, yes, use lift.”

I gaped. “You knew?” I spluttered.

Greg nodded. “Know everything.” It said cryptically.

“How?” I asked.

“Told you. Watched on escape ship and here.” Greg waved its arms round, making it look more like an insect than was comfortable.

 “Why are we talking here,” interrupted Royston. “Wouldn’t we be more comfortable in one of the bedrooms.”

Greg nodded. “Sit down, yes. Sit down and talk.”

We were interrupted by the lift suddenly vanishing down the shaft. A few moments later, it reappeared with Mary in it. Her mouth dropped open as she saw the solid wall of Stickys who were still standing in front of the lift. She backed to the rear wall of the lift, unsure what to do.  Natalie beckoned her over and she gingerly slid past the line of Stickys and joined us. Peter handed her a sandwich.

“Tuna and sweet corn,” he said with a grin.

He nearly lost his fingers as Mary snatched it out of his hand. She fumbled with the wrapper and stuffed the sandwich into her mouth.

She swallowed. “Christ, that’s better,” she said.  She looked at the open boxes on the floor. “What’s been happening? Did the Stickys bring the food?”

Graham nodded.

“They say they’ve come to help us,” said Natalie.

Mary looked startled. “You mean they’ve talked to you?”

“One of them has,” replied Carol. She nodded in the direction of Greg. “We can’t say its name, so it told us to chose one for it, It’s called Greg now.”

At the mention of its name, Greg turned.

“Go sit down now?” it asked.

Mary jumped at hearing Greg speak, nearly choking on her sandwich. Carol patted her on her back until her coughing fit passed.

“Makes you start the first time you hear it talk, doesn’t it,” she said with a grin.

“Come on,” said Royston. “Let’s go and sit down.”

We nodded and walked to the nearest bedroom with the Stickys following us.

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CHAPTER 39

We all crowded into the room and once we were all seated, we looked expectantly at Greg. Now it had a name, I didn’t feel I could go on referring to him as an it. Whatever sex it was, I mentally called him a he. He sat on the end bed facing us. There were only ten beds in the room, so some of us had to share a bed with a Sticky. I noticed the girls crowded together on a couple of beds so they wouldn’t have to share with a Sticky, so it was left to us men to do the sharing. The one next to me sat down and turned his head, staring at me with its little button eyes. My head only came up to his shoulders, but this close I could see what I’d thought were bushy eyebrows were more like feathers. As it stared at me, the feathers twitched. The Sticky’s skin was smooth and covered in a light fuzz, like a peach. The skin colour of the group of Sticky’s varied from light coffee to dark chocolate. The Sticky next to me was one of the darker type. Racial differences, I wondered, or just the difference between light and dark haired humans. The Sticky touched my arm and laid one of its hands on the bed. With it’s lower arm, it gently tugged at my arm, indicating I should do the same.  Feeling rather apprehensive, I laid my hand next to the Stickys. The Sticky bent its head down and looked closely at my hand. It looked at me and nodded, then it took my hand and manipulated the muscles. It opened and closed my fingers, one at a time and bent my thumb into my palm.  Then it held out one of its hands for me to inspect. I’d thought previously, the Sticky’s hands reminded me of a squirrel’s paw, now I could see it up close, I realised I wasn’t quite right. To my knowledge, squirrels didn’t have two thumbs, one on each side of the hand, but the  four fingers ending in short black claws were very squirrel like. I copied the Sticky’s examination, not sure what I was doing, but hoping it looked good to the Sticky. When I had finished, I let go of the Sticky’s hand and nodded at it. The Sticky stared at me a moment longer, nodded at me and then turned to face the end of the room where Greg was sitting. Greg had said his companions were vets, so this Sticky had obviously wanted to satisfy its curiosity about us strange beings. Just as long as the examination stuck to hands, I thought. A silence settled in the room as Greg sat upright and swung round so he was facing all of us.

“Now we talk,” said Greg.

We all lent forwards in anticipation.

“You should not be taken,” said Greg. “The (*******) who decided has been removed. Should not have visited your planet, (*******) also been removed.”

Royston put his hand up. “Could you translate that a bit clearer. What has been removed?”

“Animal keeper, a vet,” said Greg. He glanced at me and nodded. I took it as a thank you for teaching him a new word.

“A vet?” asked Royston, rather astonished.

Greg nodded. 

 “A person that cares for animals?” persisted Royston.

“Is so,” said Greg.

“So are you saying the vet that ordered us taken has been removed from his position,” said Royston.

“Is so,” repeated Greg.

“And the other word you said, something else has been removed,” asked Royston.

“Command of ship,” said Greg briefly.

“So you’re saying the commander of the ship was also removed from his position,” pressed Royston.

Greg nodded, “is so.”

Royston was nothing if not persistent. I decided to interrupt before he asked for yet more clarification. I had a question I was burning to ask on a subject that had been bothering me from the time I was first taken.

“Excuse me,” I said. “I can understand why all my friends here were taken, they had no clothes so they could be mistaken for animals. I was dressed with my back pack. Can you tell me why I was taken?”

“Odd number,” replied Greg. “Wanted breeding pairs.”

Bloody charming, I thought, treating us like prize heifers.

“So it was a zoo collection expedition,” interrupted Graham, looking pointedly at William.

“Zoo?” queried Greg.

“A place were captive animals are kept,” explained Graham.

Greg nodded. “Is so,” he said.

“Breeding pairs,” said Royston thoughtfully. “You recognised the difference between us as two sexes?”

Greg nodded. “Same as us, two sexes.” He waved his arms around. “All males here.”

I heard Peter whisper behind my back. “I’d like to see what their females look like,” he said.

“You dirty bastard,” whispered Tony, “You’d shag anything.”

“Oh no, I’d only choose a pretty one,” replied Peter.

The pair of them erupted into a fit of giggles.

I decided to bring the subject back to more pressing matters for me.

“But what about my backpack.” I said heatedly,  “It was full of manufactured objects. Surely they must have realised I wasn’t an animal.”

“Big mistake,” said Greg.

“Bloody right,” I muttered.

“What is going to happen to us now?” asked Royston.

“Go home,” answered Greg.

There was a ripple of excitement round the room. We all looked at each other hardly believing what we were hearing. Smiles broke out all round. The only person who did not seem pleased was Natalie. If anything, she seemed distinctly upset.

“When do we go home?” asked Doris.

“Not now, soon,” replied Greg.

“When,” repeated Doris.

Greg was silent for a minute. “Six more of your days,” he said finally. “Ship come, take you home.”

Jeb cleared his throat. We all turned to him.

“You said you knew everything, can you explain?”

“Watched you on ship and in here,” replied Greg. “Learned your language, very hard. Guessed you not animals.” He pointed at me. “Saw Oliver using (*******) to cut down stairs. Animals do not wear clothes. Animals do not use (*******).”

I presumed the strange chirping noise he made was describing what we thought was an oxyacetylene torch.

“So all the work we did cutting down the stairs was for nothing,” I said, feeling rather foolish.

Greg waves his arms in denial. “Not for nothing. Gave us clue you not animals.”

“How sure were you?” asked Peter.

“Almost sure. Had to take chance,” said Greg.

“Wow,” exclaimed Peter. “So when you faced us, we could have been dangerous animals, for all you knew.”

“Is so,” said Greg.

“Were you armed?” asked Peter.

Greg lifted his arms and looked at them. “Arms?”

“Weapons,” said Peter. Things to defend yourself with.”

Greg nodded with understanding. “Me, no. Some others yes.”

Peter tapped me on the shoulder. “That took some guts, imagine, for all he knew, we could have attacked him on sight.”

I nodded. My respect for Greg went up a notch.

“What are you?” asked Susan.

“Explain more,” said Greg.

“You said you learned our language in eight days. How did you do that?”

Greg nodded. “Taken from (*******) for this task.”

Susan looked puzzled at the untranslatable part of  Greg’s speech.

“Taken from army?” she asked.

“Explain,” said Greg.

“Army, men who fight with weapons,” said Susan.

“Not army,” said Greg.

“Taken from a place of learning?” asked Edna.

Greg nodded. “Is so.”

“I bet he’s a professor of some type. Probably a linguist,” said Edna to Graham, who was sitting nearest to her.

“So they took him from his college or university and conscripted him for this job,” said Graham. “I bet that was a bit of a shock for him.”

“Much shock,” agreed Greg, who had been quietly listening.

“You’re a brave man,” said Edna.

The feathers above Greg’s eyes twitched. With amusement?

“Not man, but welcome sentiment,” he said.

I noticed his command of our language was improving by the second. To my knowledge, nobody among us had ever used the work sentiment. Where had Greg learned it from?

“What happens while we’re waiting for the ship?” asked David.

“Repair damage,” answered Greg.

I immediately felt guilty. “We’re sorry about that, we wanted to make sure you realised we weren’t animals. We wanted you to use the lift.”

Greg nodded. “Correct, you not animals.”

“Who will do the repairs,” asked Jeb. He indicated the Stickys sitting quietly on the beds. “Your men?”

Greg made the denial motions with his arms. “Crew from ship, technicians.” He pointed to the Stickys. “These are animal carers, vets.”

Jeb laughed. “Vets, you brought vets with you?” He obviously hadn’t been listening when Royston was pressing Greg on the subject of vets. Unfortunately for Royston, a lot of people did that.

“You could have injuries. Our vets more chance of helping than our carers,” replied Greg.

Jeb grinned. “Yeah, I suppose so. We’re built a bit different to you.”

Greg nodded. “Is so.”

“When you repair the damage, can we help,” I asked. “We did the damage, we’d like to help put it right.”

Greg nodded. “I ask technicians, if they say, you can help put in new stairs. We know you can use a (*******).

Carol put her hand up. Greg turned to face her.

“I’d like to ask a question,” she said.

Greg nodded.

“When you come out of the showers, how do you dry yourself. After washing, we’re all walking around soaking wet.”

Greg’s feathers twitched. “Lift rail. Water stops, hot air.”

Carol raised her eyes. “Lift the rail, as simple as that.” She looked at the other girls. “We never thought of that, did we,” she said.

“Were do you come from?” asked Adam. He looked at Carol as if her question was rather trivial. He’s got a lot to learn about women I thought, they deal with necessities and leave the more exotic problems for later.

“Long way,” replied Greg.

“Why did you visit Earth, was it to collect animals?” asked Graham.

“Earth your home?” asked Greg.

Graham nodded.

“Us not visit,” said Greg. “Other ship, collect specimens.”

“Where did you come from then?” asked Adam.

“Our home,” replied Greg. Very hurry, much rush. Only have your food for a few days. When ship arrives, more of your food. And clothes,” he added.

I had a thought. “When did you first know about us?” I asked.

“When contacted at home,” said Greg. “Went to ship straight away and took off. Had to learn your language on the way here.”

So it took them at least eight days to get here. If he had been watching and listening to us, they must have some means of transmitting pictures and sound faster than light. Christ if only we could collaborate with them, what could we learn.

“You can send pictures and sound faster than the speed of light?” I asked.

Greg nodded.

“Can you travel faster than the speed of light?” I said.

Greg’s feathers gave an almighty twitch. He nodded. “Einstein not right,” he said.

Einstein, how the hell did he know about Einstein. We all sat back, looking at each other. What Greg had just said had knocked the breath out of us. With the exception of Emily maybe, we were all educated enough to know the significance of what he’d told us. There was a long silence while we all pondered the ramifications of his disclosure.

“So what happens now?” asked Royston, bringing us back to the present.

“Go back to ship, report,” said Greg. “I come back if you wish.”

We all nodded. Somehow, Greg’s presence had cheered us up a lot more than we would have thought.

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CHAPTER 40

Greg rounded up the other Stickys and left the building. When he’d gone we all sat around looking at each other.

“Did you hear what he said about Einstein?” said Graham.

I nodded. “Yeah, how the hell did he know about Einstein,” I wondered. “It’s pretty mind blowing stuff when you think of it. Greg not only knows about Einstein, but he also knows his theories.”

“I wonder what will happen when they take us back. Will they stay and contact our governments,” mused Royston.

“If they do, they could put NASA out of business in a second,” said Jeb. “Just think, we could go to the stars.” His expression was like a peasant girl seeing an image of the Virgin Mary.

“Let’s get back home first,” said Tony. “I for one, am not counting my chickens.”

“Don’t you think Greg was telling us the truth?” asked Jennifer.

Tony spread his hands, “How can we tell. It might be just a ruse to get their animals back for all we know.”

“Well I don’t think so,” cried Emily hotly. “I think he was telling the truth.”

She seemed close to tears.

I took her by the shoulders. “Look, Emily, we all want to go home, we just can’t take anything for granted, that’s all.”

“Emily wasn’t convinced. “Well I think he is telling the truth,” she repeated quietly.

She walked to the end of the room and sat on a bed, staring out of the window.

I walked over to her and put my hand on her shoulder. She looked up at me with those baby blue eyes.

“Emily, I didn’t mean to upset you; we’ve just got to be careful. We could be in a very dodgy situation you know.”

She patted my hand. “I know, Oliver, I just want to go home, that’s all.”

She withdrew her hand and turned back to gazing out of the window.

            The next day, the technicians from the ship arrived with prefabricated sections of staircase. We all stood watching as they arranged the parts at the bottom of the stairwell. I felt a touch on my back. I turned round to see Natalie staring at me.

“Could we talk Oliver,” she said.

“Yeah, sure,” replied, glad she had at last decided to stop ignoring me. I stepped back from the group.

Natalie shook her head. “Not here, up stairs.”

“OK,” I said and followed her to the lift. A few minutes later, we were in one of the bedrooms sitting next to each other on the bed.

“Something’s up,” I said before she could speak. “You’ve been ignoring me for days. What is the matter?”

She sat with her eyes downcast, with both her hands clasped together in her lap. Finally she looked up.

“Oliver,” she said hesitantly. “I have a confession to make. I’m married with a baby.”

I couldn’t speak for a moment. “But you said,” I began.

“ I know,” she interrupted, “But that was when I thought there was no chance of us going home. I thought I’d never see them again.”

She burst into tears and leant forward and buried her head on my neck. “I’m so sorry Ollie, I didn’t mean to lie to you.”

I patted her back, trying to soothe her. “It’s OK,” I said quietly.

She sat up and wiped her eyes. Ollie, I do love my husband, I just thought I’d never see him again. You were so nice to me and I found myself falling for you.” She wiped her eyes again. “I’m all mixed up, but now we have a chance to go home, I’ve got to go back  to my husband and baby.”

I felt a bit mixed up too. It was going to be hard to loose Natalie. Apart from the fact she’d cared for me when I was first dumped in the cell, she was a sweet girl with a lovely nature. But I realised her decision was made.

“Natalie, if you’d wanted to stay with me, I would’ve been over the moon with that. But with a husband and baby , I don’t think you can avoid the obvious decision, you have to go back to them.” I said.

She nodded slowly and took a deep breath. “I’d made up my mind a couple of days ago. I just didn’t know how to tell you.”

“Yes, I could see you had something on your mind. I just didn’t realise what.” I had a thought. “How come your husband wasn’t with you at the ranch.”

She shook her head, “You won’t believe it, but he was due to join me the day after we were taken. You know, pressure of work. ”

“Ouch, that was bad luck,” I said. And the baby?”

She gave a slight smile. “She’s only one year old. She was staying with my mother. It was going to be the first time Douglas and I would have some time on our own since she’d been born.”

I felt a pain in my gut. “OK,” I said slowly. “I promise I won’t say a word. As far as I know, only Emily, Royston and Lisa are aware of anything between us.”

“I can speak to Lisa and Royston,” said Natalie.

“OK, I’ll speak to Emily,” I said. I’m sure I can convince her not to say anything.”

Natalie nodded. “She’ll do anything you say. You know she fancies you like mad. It was only the fact she thought you and me were an item that held her back.”

“What Emily,” I said, “What makes you say that? I thought she was stuck on Jeb.” My mind flashed back to Emily’s performance in the machine room. Now things were becoming a bit clearer.

Natalie shook her head. “A girl knows these sort of things. Take it from me, Emily is in love with you.”

I thought for a moment. “So how do you feel about that,” I asked.

She shrugged her shoulders. “It has nothing to do with me now,” she said. “It hurts a bit, but I’ll get over it.”

“So what do we do now?” I asked.

She lent over and kissed me softly on the cheek. “We’ll remain good friends. I’ll always have a soft spot for you Ollie, but that’s all.”

I kissed her back. “OK, good friends it is.”

I tried to put a brave face on it, but inside, I was gutted. The only thing in favour of a break-up was, I wouldn’t have to put up with her punching my arm every time she thought I’d done something worthwhile. I don’t think my arm could have lasted a lifetime of punches from Natalie.

“I need to speak to you about something else” I said. “Do you remember what Greg said about breeding pairs. That day in the cell when we were alone, we had no contraceptives, could you be pregnant?”

She shrugged. “I could be,” she said, quietly, “I haven’t had a period since we were taken.”

Christ, I thought, how would she explain that to her husband.

She touched my arm. “I could be, but I don’t think I am. None of the other girls have had periods either. Even Emily and to my knowledge, she hasn’t been with anyone.”

I was startled. “What, none of them?”

She nodded. “None of them.” She smiled. “Perhaps the Stickys put something in the water.”

            We were interrupted by someone calling my name. I patted Natalie on the shoulder and looked out of the bedroom door. A Sticky was standing by the lift. When it saw me, it called again.

“Oliver,” it said.

For a second, I thought it was Greg, the I realised it’s skin colour was different from Greg’s.  The Sticky beckoned me over, all four arms working together. I couldn’t get out of my mind how like an insect that movement was. I turned back to Natalie. She smiled at me.

“Look’s like your friend wants you,” she said.

I smiled at her and ran my finger down her cheek. “I’d better see what it wants. See you later, my very good friend.”

Natalie smiled back at me. “Go on, go, before I change my mind.”

I walked across the hall to the Sticky. It stared at me.

“Oliver?” it said. The question in it’s tone of voice was unmistakable.

I nodded.

It pointed at the lift, indicating I should go into it. I nodded back and followed it into the lift. The Sticky pressed the down button and a few seconds later we were at the ground floor. The Sticky grabbed my arm, which for a few seconds, gave me the creeps. It pulled gently, pointing to the staircase parts laid out on the floor. We walked over to the crowd of Stickys moving the parts on the floor. One of them turned to me.

“Oliver,” it said. It was Greg. I hadn’t recognised him until he called my name.

“Did our friend here get your name right?” he asked, “Did I teach him correctly?”

I laughed. “Yes, Greg, he did very well. Does he speak our language as well.”

“Only one word,” replied Greg, “just your name.”

“Oliver,” said the Sticky standing next to me.

I nodded at him. “Yes, Oliver.”

The Sticky looked pleased with himself. I found I could recognise quite a few Sticky expressions now.

“So why am I here?” I asked Greg.

Greg pointed. “(*****) is chief technician. He says you can help with stairs.”

“Right, what does he want me to do?”

“He show you,” said Greg.

He turned to the Sticky and chirped at him for several minutes. The Sticky chirped back. They turned to me. Whatever they had been saying to each other, the conversation was over. The Sticky beckoned me over to the staircase parts and touched two pieces. He touched his top pair of hands together. Just to be sure I’d got his meaning right, I pushed the two parts together and imitated the Stickys gesture. The Sticky nodded. He turned away from me and chirped to the other Stickys. Two of them pushed the torch trolley over to me. I unwound the cables from the trolley and bent down next to the stair parts. I broke out in a sweat when I realised all of the Stickys had stopped work and were gathering in a half circle behind me. A couple of Stickys herded the rest of our group together and moved them against the far wall. It looked like I was going to have an audience. For a minute, I forgot the sequence of buttons to press, but then I remembered. I pressed the button furthest from the handle and then the next one. To my relief, I was rewarded with the little blue light at the end of the nozzle. Taking a deep breath, I touched the third button and the blue light started melting the metal where it touched. Trying to remember everything I’d been taught about welding, I moved the light along the join, making a small puddle of molten metal that quickly solidified. The only thing that worried me was I had no filler rod to dip in the molten puddles. When I reached the end, I switched off the torch and inspected the joint. It looked all right, but would it satisfy the Stickys. I felt the reputation of Earth engineering was at stake. A Sticky bent down and ran an instrument along the joint. The instrument made a quiet buzzing noise. Was that good or bad? Finally, the Sticky stood up and nodded at Greg.

“Well done, Oliver, you are now an honorary Sticky technician,” said Greg.

Sticky. He knew we called them Stickys. I felt a chill down my back. “We didn’t mean any disrespect,” I managed to get out.

Greg waved his arms. “The word means nothing to us. It’s as good a word for you to use as any other.”

I felt I had to explain. “On Earth there are animals with six limbs like you. You reminded us of them, that’s why we called you that name.”

“Just a name, technician Oliver,” replied Greg.

I suddenly realised what he’d said. “My work was OK?” I asked.

Greg nodded. “OK,” he said.

My God, I thought, he picks up our idioms fast. My thoughts were interrupted by the Sticky with the instrument. He came over to me and patted me on the shoulder. He pointed to another set of parts and gestured at the torch.

OK, I thought, let’s see if I can do another joint. I picked up the torch. When I had finished, the Sticky ran his instrument over the joint and looked up and nodded. The Stickys behind me all chirped like a flock of birds and waved their arms.

“They are congratulating you Oliver,” said Greg. They are quite surprised that you can use the (******).”

I smiled. I’d never been so pleased at passing an exam in my life.

            That evening when the Stickys had gone back to their ship, we all sat in one bedroom, eating our evening meal of tuna and sweet corn sandwiches.

Everyone was anxious to hear what had happed. The Stickys had kept them all well back while I was working, so I explained just what I’d been doing with the torch.

“It’s different from the welding I’m used to,” I said finally, “The metal the Stickys use seems to flow and fuse together.” From the blank faces, I realised I was losing my audience, so I decided to cut short the technical details.  “Anyway,” I added,  “I seemed to have passed their test.”

“I don’t know if you realised it Oliver, but I think a lot more depended on your performance than your reputation as a welder,” said Royston.

“What do you mean,” I asked.

“I think you passing their test confirmed in their minds that we are not animals.” said Royston.

“You think it was that important,” I said, rather startled at his suggestion.

Royston nodded. “I think the sole reason they agreed to let you help was to see how intelligent you were and by extrapolation, the intelligence of the rest of us.”

“Bloody hell,” I said, “I’m glad you never said any of this before I started. I’d have been so nervous, I could have buggered everything up.”

Royston smiled. “That’s why I didn’t say anything until now,” he said.

“Does that mean the Stickys are definitely going to take us home now?” asked Jennifer.

“I think it’s almost certain,” said Royston.

“And it’s all down to Oliver,” said Emily with a beaming smile. She looked across at me. “Well done Oliver,” she said.

“Well thanks Emily, but we’re all in this together you know. I only did one bit.” I said, rather embarrassed at her enthusiasm. I caught Natalie’s eye. She gave a imperceptible nod and solemnly winked at me.

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The Stickys didn’t ask for my help any more as they rebuilt the stairs. Perhaps Royston was right, it was a test after all. I didn’t feel confident enough to put it to Greg so I kept quiet about it. To pass the time, we watched the building work. Whether it’s men digging a hole in the ground or a gang of Stickys rebuilding a staircase on an alien world, workmen will always find a crowd of onlookers.

Greg had assured us there were no nasties outside, so some of us passed the time exploring outside the building. I was doing this more and more often when I wanted to be alone with my thoughts of what might have been with me and Natalie. On one occasion as I stepped through the door, I heard a shout behind me. It was Emily.

“If you’re going for a walk, Oliver, can I come too. I don’t really like being outside on my own,” she said.

I’d wanted to speak to her about Natalie, but hadn’t had a chance, there always seemed to be someone else about. This seemed to be an ideal opportunity. “Yeah, OK, Emily,” I said, “come along.”

She grabbed my arm and smiled at me. “Thank you Oliver, I feel safer with you,” she said.

She was silent as we walked along the side of building. When we turned the first corner, the shouts of the other members of our group who’d come outside faded away. We could have been on our own on this planet for all we could hear. I tried to work out how to tell Emily about Natalie and me. She beat me to it.

Emily looked up at me. “Can I ask you something Oliver,” she said.

“Sure,” I said.

Emily nibbled her lip. She always seemed to do that when she was nervous. “Um, Oliver, is there something wrong between you and Natalie. You hardly seem to talk to each other. I thought you two were an item.” She paused. “Oliver, don’t think I’m being nosy or anything,  I don’t want you to think that.”

“No, that’s all right Emily,” I replied. “I’m afraid Natalie and I are not an item any more. A few days ago, she told me she was married. She thinks we should be just friends from now on.”

Emily’s eyes widened. “Oh I am sorry Oliver,” she said. “If she’s married, why were you and her an item in the first place?”

“Like the rest of us, Emily, she didn’t think she’d ever get home. Now we are going home, it changes everything.”

Emily squeezed my arm. “Never mind Oliver, you’ve still got me.” She smiled and raised her fist. “One for all, Oliver,” she said.

I smiled. ”Yeah, one for all Emily,” I said tiredly.

She shook my arm. “Cheer up Oliver, we’re going home,” she said, trying to rouse some enthusiasm in me.

She was right, so why was I feeling so depressed? I suppose it was the thought of losing Natalie. She was everything a man could want. I thought enviously about her husband, wondering what he was like. Lucky bastard.  We strolled on round the building. The Stickys had cleared an area round the building so we were walking on what was almost like a park with cropped grass. As we approached the second corner, Emily let go of my arm and skipped across to where the greenery was still growing. She pulled a bunch of large leaves from a bush and stuck them through the lower arms of the overall where she’d tied them round her waist. The leaves hung round her waist like a skirt. She pirouetted.

“What do you think Oliver,” she shouted.

“Very sexy,” I said. Almost at once, I regretted the remark.

Emily sidled up to me. “Do you really think so?” she asked archly.

“Absolutely,” I said heartily, trying to remove any sexuality from my remark.

She bounced away from me and took the leaves from her waist. Holding the leaves above her head, she skipped and danced in a circle like a small child. After a minute or two, she stopped dancing and sat down and started tying the leaves by the stems to form a circle.

“Now what are you doing?” I asked.

She smiled. “You’ll see. Turn your back Oliver.”

I sighed and turned away from her, expecting her to wrap the leaves round my shoulders or something. After minute, she called out to me.

“You can turn round now.”

I slowly turned wondering what she was up to.

“Dar-dar!” she cried.

My mouth dropped open. She had taken off the Sticky overall and was wearing nothing but the leaves round her waist. They barely covered her bottom and as she pirouetted, the blond triangle of her pubic hair flashed into view. I’d seen Emily naked for weeks before we’d found the overalls, but the effect with the leaves was something altogether different. She looked like a woodland sprite dancing in front of me.

She giggled. “Is this sexy, Oliver,” she said.

She was now imitating a south sea island hula girl, with her hands above her head and her hips swaying from side to side. I had a quick look round, just in case anyone else was witnessing her performance. Thankfully, there was no-one in sight, we were completely alone. She pranced up to me and put her arms round my neck, her breasts pressing against my chest. She started swaying her hips again, humming a tune to herself under her breath.

I was very tempted to take what was on offer, but she seemed more childlike than ever. I just couldn’t take advantage of her. “Emily,” I said.

The tone of my voice must have registered with her. She unwound her arms from me and stepped back a pace.

“Aren’t I pretty enough, Oliver,” she said. Her bottom lip was quivering.

“You’re very pretty Emily,” I replied. “But,”

“But what,” she said. She seemed near to tears.

“I’ve only just broken up with Natalie,” I replied as gently as I could.

Her face fell. “Oh,” she said faintly. Then she brightened. “But if we give it some time, then we could be more than just friends, we could be special friends,”  She looked up. “Couldn’t we?”

Greg had said the ship to take us home would be here in six days. Two of those days had already gone. I wasn’t sure how much time Emily was talking about, but surely she wouldn’t think four days was enough. Emily was extremely pretty, but living with her was another matter. I didn’t think I could bear people laughing at her behind her back when she came out with one of her bizarre questions. I still remembered the time when she’d asked Royston if we could breathe methane. I nodded.

“Yeah, give it some time, Emily.” I said.

She clutched my arm. “Good,” she said with satisfaction. “I’ll wait.”

“You’d better put some clothes on,” I said.

She stripped the leaves from her waist and pirouetted again. She winked at me.

“Is this even sexier Oliver,” she said with a smile.

How I resisted then, I do not know. On one hand, I felt very proud of myself, on the other, I wondered if I was being a bloody fool. I growled at her. “Get them clothes on,” I said with a grin.

Emily pulled on the overall and clung to my arm again.

“Shall we go back now,” she asked.

The moment had passed.

“Yeah, let’s go back,” I said.

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CHAPTER 42

When we got back to the door, we found Graham waiting.

“Ah, there you are,” he said.

“Yes, here we are,” chirped Emily.

“What’s up?” I asked.

“Greg wants to look at your clothes,” he said. “Something about working out what we need.”

That sounded mysterious. “Where is he?” I asked.

Graham gestured with his thumb over his shoulder. “Upstairs in the central hall. He’s got a load of equipment with him.”

“Right, let’s go,” I said.

Greg was standing in the middle of the hall, fiddling with some apparatus when we emerged from the lift. He looked up as we approached him.

“Oliver,” he said. “Would you stand on that.” He indicated a metal plate on the floor. 

“What’s it for?” I asked.

“I want to measure your clothes. Our clothes not good for your people.”

I shrugged and stood on the plate.

“Shut eyes please,” said Greg.

I shut my eyes and waited, wondering what would happen next.

“Open eyes now, finished,” said Greg.

“Is that it,” I asked. “What did you do?”

Greg fumbled for a word.

“It’s a laser scanner,” said Graham. “We could see green lines going up and down your body.

“Laser scanner,” said Greg, “Is so.”

“Have you measured everyone else already?” I asked.

Greg waved his arms. “No need, measurements taken of you.”

“But we’re all different sizes,” I said. “My clothes won’t fit anyone else.”

“Different?” queried Greg.

“Yes,” I replied. “Some short, some tall, some thinner than others.”

He almost tutted. “Have to measure all then,” he said.

That made me wonder. How could he have missed the difference between, say Mary and Graham. Apart from being male and female, Mary was at least half the size and weight of Graham. We went down in the lift and rounded up some of our group who were watching the rebuilding work. Carol and Susan went outside to find the rest. Eventually we were all assembled in the upper hall. Some of them looked rather suspiciously at the apparatus, but once I’d explained what was going to happen, they lined up to be measured.

“Say name,” said Greg, as they took their turns on the plate.

I walked into one of the bedrooms to be alone, but Emily followed me. I sat on the bed and stared out of the window.

“What will you do when we get home?” she asked.

I shrugged. “I haven’t thought about it,” I said.

In the hall I could hear the names being called out as the group were measured.

“Say name please,” said Greg

“Lisa,”

“Next, name please,”

 “Tony,”

“Next, name please,”

“Edna,”

The voices faded into the background as I tried to concentrate on what Emily was saying.

“I would really like to stay with you,” she said.

“What about your family, won’t they want to have you back after all this.” I said.

“I’ll see them, but it wont be the same as being with you,” she replied.

“Haven’t you got a someone back home” I said. “I thought I’d heard you had a boyfriend back at the ranch.”

Emily shook her head, her curls swinging round. “No, Oliver, he was just an ordinary friend. Not friends like you and me.”

Oh Christ, I thought, she is determined. How the hell was I going to let her down gently. I didn’t have a girl back home and my months hiking round the States had hardly given me time to make any long term relationships. I would like to be with someone,  but Emily didn’t fit the bill. Although she had a figure like a Playboy centre fold, I needed someone I could talk to. I didn’t think I could go through life explaining things to her.

“It’s good we’re friends,” I began.

“Maybe special friends,” interrupted Emily.

I started again. “OK, special friends. But we don’t know what will happen when the Stickys take us back. If they do,” I added.

Her eyes widened. “You think they might not?”

I shrugged. “We’ve only Greg’s word, we’ll have to wait and see what happens.”

Emily grabbed my arm with a nervous intensity. “We should stay together, Oliver. Especially after what we’ve been through.”

What the hell, I thought, make her happy. I nodded. “I’ll do my best,” I said.

She smiled with satisfaction. If she was happy, I decided to leave it at that.

            At the end of the fourth day, the new stairs were in place. Greg took his team of technicians back to their ship, leaving us on our own.  The next day he was back. He called us to a meeting in one of the bedrooms and sat waiting until we were all settled.

“I have something to ask you,” he began. He seemed reluctant to continue.

“Is it bad news?” asked Mary.

“Not bad news,” replied Greg. He paused. “Our carers would like to examine some you.”

There was a silence in the room. We all looked at each other.

“You mean your doctors,” said. Royston.

Greg nodded. Doctors, carers, yes.”

“Why?” asked Edna.

“You are different from us, yet nearly the same,” replied Greg.

 “I’m a doctor so I can understand your interest,” said Royston. “What would this examination entail?”

Greg’s feathers twitched. “Not touch, just look, with machine.”

“Well, I don’t mind volunteering,” said Royston. “But I’m hardly a perfect specimen of our species.”

Greg nodded. “Need two sexes. To compare,” he added.

I could see the girls looking at each other. I wondered if any of them would volunteer like Royston.

Greg could sense the reluctance. “Examination not hurt, just look,” he repeated.

I could see the girls were still not convinced.

“Where would this exam take place?” asked Natalie.

“On ship, machine too big to bring here,” replied Greg.

“Sounds like a scanner of some sort,” said Royston.

 “All right, I’ll volunteer,” said Natalie. “I’m a carer like Royston,” she added.

“I’ll volunteer as well,” said Royston.

Greg pointed at me. “Would prefer Oliver,” he said.

“What,” I exclaimed.

“Oliver worked the (*****), we would like to examine his brain.”

I didn’t like the sound of that. “Will my brain stay inside my head,” I said.

“Examination not hurt, just look,” repeated Greg again.

Everyone was looking at me.

“Look’s like you’re elected Ollie,” said Peter with a grin.

Greg looked at me. “Yes?” he asked.

I felt the pressure mounting on me. If I backed out, I’d look a right scaredy cat. I took a deep breath.

“OK, I’ll do it,” I said.

Greg pointed at Natalie. “You are a different colour to the others. Are you a different species?”

Natalie looked flustered. Royston stepped in to save her any embarrassment.

“She is the same species as all the rest. Only her skin colour is different. Everything else is the same.”

Greg pondered this for a moment.  “We would like to have examples of both colours,” he said.

“What the hell, I’ll go with Natalie” said Lisa.

Natalie flashed Lisa a grateful look.

“Your skin colour is nearly the same as Natalie,” said Greg, looking at Lisa’s dark tan.

“That’s the result of exposure to our sun,” said Royston.

“And Natalie?” asked Greg.

“Her skin is naturally brown,” said Royston.

“But same species?” said Greg.

Royston nodded firmly. “Same species.”

Greg nodded. “Accepted, thank you.”

“When do you want to examine us,” asked Natalie.

“Now, if ready,” replied Greg.

Best get it over with, I thought. “OK, Greg, lead on,” I said.

            We followed Greg across the cut scrub walking quickly to keep up with Greg’s long strides. At the bottom of the ramp, we looked up. The open door was some fifteen feet above our heads.  The ramp angle was quite shallow so we had no trouble climbing it and eventually we reached the door. Inside was a brightly lit corridor.

“This way,” said Greg.

As we followed him down the corridor, I felt a hand clasp both of mine, nearly crushing my fingers. Natalie and Lisa on each side of me, were hanging on for dear life. We passed groups of Stickys as we walked. They stood to one side and watched us curiously as we passed them. Every one of them seemed to be cast from the same mould. All were tall and very thin. The only difference we could see was a slight variation in their skin colour. The lifts on the Sticky ship also had no doors, which was a bit scary because a number of Stickys were already inside and we had to stand close to the opening. We rose about ten levels and after leaving the lift we had a short walk down another corridor. Greg ushered us into a room filled with machinery. A long metal table stood in the centre of the room. 

A team of Stickys waited for us. There was something different about two of them and for a moment, I couldn’t work out what it was. Then as they moved towards us, I noticed they were slightly smaller than the other Stickys I had seen. Also, down the front of their chests they had six small bulges in their clothing. I realised I could be seeing female Stickys for the first time.

Just to confirm, I pointed. “Your females,” I said to Greg.

He nodded. “Is so,” he replied.

He turned away from me and chirped at the assembled Stickys. They chirped back to him for several minutes. The conversation stopped. Greg turned back to us.

“I have been given my instructions,” he said. I thought I detected some humour in his tone of voice.

“The doctors would like you to undress so they can take images of you. Then they want you to lay in the machine so they can examine your inner structures.”

We looked at each other. We’d come this far, what the hell I thought. I slipped off my boots, pulled my tee shirt over my head and dropped my shorts. Next to me, the girls were taking off the Sticky overalls. The Sticky doctors surrounded us with small instruments in their hands. I wondered what the Stickys thought about the size of my manhood. Then I thought what the hell, a Sticky wouldn’t know if I was well endowed or not. For all I knew, the Stickys might have an old man the size of a pencil. That would make them jealous. On the other hand, they might be endowed with one the size of a horse and were secretly giggling at me in their own language. My one consolation was, I would never know unless I asked Greg and I wasn’t about to do that. On of the Stickys touched my shoulder and pointed down to my feet.  I guessed what it wanted and nodded. It bent down and examined my foot, bending the toes up and down in a similar manner to the vet that had examined my hand. The Sticky took off its shoe and put its foot next to mine. It only had two toes, it was more like a furry hoof than a foot. The sticky looked at me and twitched the feathers over its eyes. I recognised that gesture now, the Sticky was amused. The girls were getting the same treatment. Much to the girls embarrassment, the Stickys seemed very interested in their breasts. One of the Stickys spoke to Greg.

Greg turned to Natalie. “She would like to know if you give birth to live young and if so, do you feed your young with these,” said Greg, pointing at her breasts.

Natalie nodded. “Yes to both questions,” she said.

“And you?” asked Greg turning to Lisa. Lisa wasn’t as well endowed as Natalie, perhaps the Stickys thought only humans with big breasts could feed children. Christ, I thought, what would they have made of Emily.

Lisa nodded as well.

The Sticky spoke to Greg again.

“She would like to know if you have multiple births,”

“One is the usual number,” replied Natalie. “Sometimes two or three, but mainly one.”

Greg translated that back to the Stickys.

“Do your people have multiple births?” I asked, glancing at the row of bumps on the female Sticky’s chest.

Greg nodded and then translated to the Sticky.

The Sticky was still for a moment, then with a few short movements, she undid her clothes and pulled them down until they were in a roll round her waist. She turned to face Natalie and Lisa. From where I was standing, I could see three small teats down each side of her chest.

Greg spoke to Natalie. “I told her that you are a carer on your own world. She is inviting you to examine her,”  Greg’s eye feathers twitched. “Call it professional courtesy.”

A Sticky touched my arm, indicating I should follow it. It led me to the table and gestured to me to lay down. For a second, absolutely nothing happened. Then, the sides and ends of the table folded up, enclosing me like a coffin without a lid. I had a moment of panic as I thought a machine similar to the one that had descended on Jeb would do the same to me, but after a minute, the sides folded back down and the Sticky touched my arm, indicating I could get up. All the time I’d been on the table, Natalie had been deep in conversation with Greg. I could hear her asking questions which Greg translated to the half naked Sticky and then relaying the answers back to Natalie. Then it was the girls turn to be examined. The female Sticky pulled her top back up as the girls took turns on the table. When they had finished, Greg walked over to us.

“My colleagues would like to thank you for your cooperation,” he said, “Most instructive.”

The Stickys were all nodding at us.

We nodded back and pulled our clothes back on. We followed Greg back through the ship to the door at the top of the ramp.

“There’s no need for you to come with us if you don’t want to.” I said. “We can find our own way from here.”

Greg nodded. “The ship should be here tomorrow, I will see you then.” He gave a brief nod and returned inside the ship.

As we walked down the ramp, I turned to Natalie.

“You were having a right old confab with that Sticky female, what were you talking about?”

“It’s sad,” said Natalie. “Do you know the Stickys have multiple births and most of the babies die before they’re a week old. They were amazed when I told them we usually only have one. And even more amazed when I told them the size of a human baby.”

“Why is that, are Sticky babies bigger or smaller than a human baby?” I asked.

“Think rat sized,” said Natalie.

“Christ,” I said.

We were silent all the rest of the way back to the building.

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CHAPTER 43

We woke up the next morning with a rising sense of excitement. Today, the ship was coming to take us home. We all took turns in the shower room, the men at one time and the women later on. It was funny, now we were going home, a sort of modesty was developing, even though most of the group had seen each other naked for weeks. After a breakfast of the usual tuna and sweet corn sandwiches, we all went downstairs and out of the door. We all spread out in a group near the door, some laying on the grass, others leaning against the building wall. The sun was still low in the sky, but it was already pleasantly warm. I sat down with my back against the building and tilted my head back. I shut my eyes and relaxed, feeling the sun’s warmth on my face. I felt someone brush my arm as they sat next to me. I opened my eyes.  It was Natalie. She gave me a slight smile and lent against my shoulder. I laid my hand over hers and gently stroked her hand, I still felt a great affection for the girl, but I was careful not to let it show too much. She’d made her decision about us, I didn’t want to complicate things. To my slight embarrassment, Emily plopped herself in front of me and leant against my knees. She turned her head to face me.

“All right if I sit here, Oliver?”

“Yeah, it’s OK, Emily, I said.

She smiled and turned her head back.

Several hours passed and the temperature slowly rose. We chatted among ourselves to pass the time, mainly speculating what would happen when we got back to Earth. Peter walked over to me and sat down.

“I meant to ask you, how did you get on with the examination?” he asked.

I gave him a quick run down of what had happened in the Sticky ship. “And the Sticky females looked almost the same as the males,” I finished.

“What no difference at all?” asked Peter.

I thought for a minute. “Well the two I saw were slightly shorter, but apart from that no.” Then I remembered the bumps on the females chest. I lent across to him. “One thing Pete, if you’re a breast man, you’d love the female Stickys. They’ve got six, three down each side of their chests.”

Peter laughed. “No thanks, apart from the fact I don’t fancy seven foot tall aliens, two tits are enough for me.”

Natalie, raised her eyes to heaven. “Men,” she mouthed.

Suddenly Jennifer pointed excitedly.

“There,” she said.

We all looked up in the direction of her pointing finger. A tiny dot was visible in the sky. As we watched, the dot grew larger and larger until we could start making out details. It kept growing larger and I suddenly realised just how big the Sticky ship was.

“Jesus Christ,” whispered Peter, “It’s bloody huge.”

It was. It was twice the size of the ship Greg had come from. It seemed impossible a thing that size could fly without any visible means of support.

Peter turned to me. “I know you reckoned the Stickys were only about fifty years ahead of us. I don’t know so much now.”

I nodded. “I think you’re right,” I admitted. I gestured to the ship, now hovering about a mile up. “It’s as if the Empire State building suddenly took flight. Christ knows what sort of engines you’d need to lift a thing like that.”

All of us stood up as the Sticky ship slowly descended and landed next to Greg’s ship. The tall trees were crushed like matchsticks under a tank as it settled onto the ground. The Stickys on the ship didn’t waste time. Within a minute of the ship landing, a hatch opened and a small machine flew out. It sparkled in the morning sunlight, looking for all the world like a drop of mercury. It landed next to the ramp of Greg’s ship. A couple of Stickys got out of the machine and hurried up the ramp. We looked at each other.

“Now what happens?” said Amy.

“Now we wait,” said Carol. “What else?”

            We waited for about an hour. Then we saw a Sticky coming down the ramp. It walked towards us, its long legs striding through the scrub. It stopped in front of us and nodded. It was Greg

“Go home now,” he said, without any preamble. “Follow me.”

“Do we need to take any food with us?” asked Royston.

Greg waved his arms, “Your food on ship, and clothes,” he replied.

There was nothing we’d have to go back inside for, everything we owned was on our backs. I thought briefly of my backpack, but I’d taken everything I wanted out of it, so I followed the others as Greg led us across the scrub. At the ramp he halted.

“I go home now,” he said. “Others come from ship, take you home.”

“Hold on,” exclaimed Graham. “How will we understand them, do any of them speak our language?”

Greg waved his arms. “Not speak your language, but you will understand them.” With that, he nodded and started up the ramp. He stopped when Royston shouted at him.

“Greg, we’d like to thank you for your help,” he said.

Greg nodded. “Help given freely, no need for thanks.” He nodded again and continued up the ramp and disappeared inside the ship. I felt a slight unease when the ramp retracted and the door closed.  My unease became alarm when I felt the ground quiver under my feet. The others had felt it too. We all scuttled back away from the ship as we felt the ground quiver again.

“Bloody hell, it’s taking off,” shouted Jeb.

We backed away even further, wondering what would be a safe distance. Then I realised I could see daylight between the bottom of the ship and the ground. The ship rose a silently as a balloon, until the whole underside was visible. It continued to rise, becoming smaller and smaller until it was lost to sight against the brightness of the sky.

“That was impressive,” said Adam thoughtfully.

“Impressive, I’d call it scary,” said Susan. “Seeing something as big as that lifting off the ground right in front of us. Greg could have warned us.”

“After that little demonstration, I’d put the Sticky’s a thousand years ahead of us,” said Peter, with a glance at me.

He was interrupted by a shout from Doris. “There’s a Sticky coming from the other ship,” she said excitedly.

            We all swung round. We’d been so absorbed watching Greg’s ship take off, we hadn’t noticed the door opening in the other ship and the ramp coming down to the ground. The Sticky was half way down the ramp, by the time I’d looked round. We stood in silence as the Sticky walked up to us. It was dressed in the same sort of suit that Greg had worn, but round it’s waist was a small box held by a belt. The Sticky stopped in front of us and did something to the box with its lower hands. Greg’s voice came out of the box.

“Follow me,” it said.

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CHAPTER 44

“You speak English?” asked Royston.

The Sticky looked nonplussed. It fiddled with the box again.

“Follow me,” the box repeated.

It turned and started walking back to the ship. We shrugged at each other and not knowing what else to do, followed the Sticky. I wanted to see what that box was. Surely Greg couldn’t be giving us directions by radio. I upped my stride to catch up with the Sticky. I tapped its arm to get its attention. I pointed at the box. The Sticky stopped and swivelled round so I could see the box. On the face of the box was a small screen.

“Follow me,” I said as clearly as I could.

The Sticky pressed a button on the box and the swirls and curls of Sticky writing appeared on the screen. The Sticky pressed another button.

“Follow me,” came the voice from the box.

I nodded, and the Sticky resumed its march to the ship.

“What was all that about?” asked Jeb.

“It’s that box the Sticky’s got on his waist. I thought at first it was Greg giving us directions by radio, but then I thought that was impossible, so I wanted to look at that box. I think Greg recorded directions in English and the box shows the equivalent in Sticky writing. The Sticky just presses the right button to give us whatever directions it wants. We’ll see if I’m right if we get more directions.”

Jeb raised an eyebrow. “Ingenious,” he said.

            At the top of the ramp, we crowded into a corridor.

“Follow me,” said the box, so we dutifully followed. The Sticky led us along a series of corridors until we came to a side door. We followed the Sticky into a large room. On the floor were a number of metal cases. The Sticky fiddled with the box at its waist.

“Your clothes,” the box said.

The Sticky pointed at the metal cases. It walked over to them, flipped the catches and opened the lids. We gathered round the cases and peered inside. Inside a plastic bag, I could see a tee shirt, a pair of shorts and two hiking boots. There was a label on the outside of the bag with Sticky writing on it. These must be for me, I thought and lifted the bag out of the case. Underneath, was another bag with identical contents and under that another bag, with the same contents as the first two bags.

Carol pulled a bag from one of the other cases. “Look’s like we’ll all be dressed the same as Ollie,” she said, with a grin.

Graham pulled another bag out. “Any names on any of them?” he asked.

Carol studied her bag. “Yeah, in Sticky writing,” she said.

“Mine too,” said Mary, holding up another bag.

“So how do we know which is which,” said Pamela, “Greg measured all of us with that laser thingy, so they should have sent the right size for all of us.”

“Easy if you can read Sticky writing,” said Edna, “I think someone forgot to write the English equivalents.”

“Well I won’t be able to get into anything made for Mary,” said Graham, “So I reckon we’ll just have to try them on and see what fits.”

The next minute, the room looked like a church jumble sale, with piles of clothes laying in heaps as we went round from pile to pile trying to find one that would fit us. Graham found his clothes relatively easily, they were the largest of the lot. Mary, being the smallest person in our group, also found hers. The rest of us were somewhere in between and it took a lot of swapping back and forth before we were wearing clothes that would fit us. When I transferred my mobile phone, compass and passport to my new shorts I realised just how worn my original shorts had become. Once the last person was dressed, we piled the Sticky overalls into the cases and inspected ourselves.

“We look like a bloody hikers convention,” grumbled Graham, trying to pull his shorts out of the crack of his arse. His shorts were not a good fit, They were snug round the waist and hips but the legs were rather too long. They flapped about his knees as he walked. All he needed was a pith helmet and he’d look like a Victorian explorer trekking through the dark continent. The girls, now they were wearing tee shirts, found their assets were on display in a rather bouncy fashion, much to the appreciation of us men. The Sticky overalls had been quite stretchy and had held the girls in place. The contrast between the overalls and the tee shirts was very obvious. I did my best not to stare at Emily, but it seemed her tee shirt exhibited some sort of magnetic attraction which my eyes found difficult to resist.  Royston seemed immune to this and walked up the Sticky that had been standing patiently at the door while we sorted out our clothes. He raised his shoulders and spread his arms with his palms up. If the Sticky was Jewish, I thought, it would understand Royston perfectly, but I wasn’t betting on it. To my surprise the Sticky seemed to understand. It turned in the doorway.

“Follow me,” said the box.

We trooped after the Sticky down a number of corridors and into a lift. We crowded against the back wall, anxious about the open entrance as the floors slid past. When the lift stopped, we all got out with an inward sigh of relief. After short walk down another corridor, the Sticky stopped by a door. It pressed the depressions in the top of the door and stood back and ushered us through. Ahead was another corridor which seemed to lead to a dead end. We followed the Sticky to the end and stood waiting, wondering what was going to happen next. The Sticky touched a button and part of the wall opened, the two sides sliding away from each other.

“You live here. Eight of your days. Go home then,” said the box.

We filed through the door and stopped dead as the door closed behind us.

“Bloody hell,” exclaimed Richard, “we’ve been tricked.”

We were back in our old cell.

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CHAPTER 45

“He’s right you know, look there’s our trapdoor in the roof,” said Peter.

We all looked up. The trapdoor which we had laboriously cut, had been sealed, but the outline was still visible. The tables and chairs were just as we’d left them, grouped round the swimming pool. The only thing missing was the pile of cool boxes against the wall.

“That bastard Greg,” said Tony bitterly. “He was leading us on all the time.”

“Maybe not,” said Carol, “Look.”

Against the far wall, two square extensions jutted out into the cell. Both had doors on their front walls. The doors had handles, not the depressions we had come to expect on Sticky doors.

“I don’t remember those being there before,” murmured Edna. “I know I’m getting on, but my memory isn’t that bad.”

We gathered round the doors as Adam pulled one open. He looked in and turned back to us with a grin on his face.

“It’s a shower room, just like the one in the building,” he shouted.

I opened the other door. “It’s a toilet room,” I said. “The Stickys must have put these in when they decided we weren’t animals.”

“That’s all very well,” objected Carol. “But why put us back in here. I thought we’d have cabins or something.”

 “Sticky cabins might not suit us,” said Jeb. “Anyway for all we know, the Stickys might all sleep in one room. Remember the rooms we saw in the building, no private cabins there.”

“There was downstairs,” said Amy.

“Are, yes, but we figured they were for badly injured Stickys. All the rest had multiple beds,” said Royston.

“They probably thought we’d be more comfortable here,” said Natalie, “You know, back in the surroundings they found us in.”

“Whatever,” said Graham. “I don’t think Greg deceived us, I think we are going home.”

“We’ll know in about eight days,” said William gloomily.

            We settled down to a routine of chatting during the day and sleeping at night. As before, the cool boxes came out of the door in the rock every four hours. We all took lots of showers, just for the feel of the hot water on our bodies. With no need to make escape plans, the days passed slowly. As we were eating our evening meal on the sixth day, the door in the wall opened and the Sticky with the box round its waist came into our cell.

We all looked up in surprise.

“Attention please,” said the box.

If ever there was a superfluous remark, that was it. The Sticky couldn’t have had more attention from us if it’d unscrewed its head and kicked it around like a football.

“You go home next day,” the box said.

We all exchanged smiles.

The Sticky fiddled with the box for several minutes, then it looked up.

“Attention please,” the box repeated. “Your home has many satellites and telescopes. Will see us coming. We must land and leave fast. You must be ready to leave ship as soon as ship lands.”

“We’re ready now,” said Peter.

The Sticky fiddled with the box. Obviously, Peter’s statement wasn’t in the program.

“First thing in morning, follow me,” said the box.

“We follow you,” repeated Graham clearly.

The Sticky nodded and went back out through the door.

Jeb turned to me. “Do you remember asking if the Stickys will be staying to talk to any of our governments.” He grinned, “Doesn’t look like it, does it.”

“It looks like they want us off the ship in a hurry. I wonder how we’ll do that,” I said.

“Parachute?” suggested Richard, straight faced.

“I bloody hope not,” said Susan, “I’m not jumping out for anybody.”

“We might not have a choice,” replied Richard.

“No point speculating, we’ll find out tomorrow morning,” said Royston.

We didn’t get much sleep that night. I was trying to think how we could get twenty odd people down a fifteen foot ramp in a hurry. I might make it in a couple of seconds, but Edna and Doris certainly couldn’t. Come to think of it, Graham wasn’t the fittest person in the world, I’d never seen him move at anything more than a slow walk. What had the Stickys got in store for us?

            The next day, we were all up before the artificial sunrise. We all had a quick shower and gathered round the wall where the door had opened. About half an hour after the sun had risen, the door opened. The Sticky beckoned to us.

“Follow me” the box said.

We followed the Sticky down the corridor in a tight bunch. We automatically seemed to crowd together for mutual comfort. The Sticky led us down a corridor to a lift. This time we were going down, not up as before. When we left the lift, we had a short walk down yet another corridor to a room. The room had the same mirror bright surface that the kitchen had in the building. The centre of the floor was marked out in a square with bright yellow lines. In the centre of the square were a stack of water bottles. The Sticky fiddled with the box.

“Stay inside lines, hold bottle each,” the box said.

As we shuffled forwards, I thought about the transporter in the old science fiction programs I’d seen on TV. If the Stickys had one of those, my fifty years was way out. They could be thousands of years ahead of us.

The Sticky moved back to the door.

“Sit down, stay inside lines, do not move,” the box said.

Royston cleared his throat. I suspect, like me, his mouth had gone dry.

“Go home?” he said loudly.

The Sticky nodded. “Go home,” the box said. The Sticky backed out of the door and closed it firmly.

As we sat down on the floor,  each of us clutching a bottle of water. We instinctively moved closer together until we were bunched up in a tight little group.

“What happens now?” asked Amy tremulously.

I felt a faint vibration underneath me, then the floor opened and I was falling.

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CHAPTER 46

For a second, I was in free fall. I could hear the girls screaming, then suddenly, I landed. I realised I’d only fallen about six feet. I’d landed in what appeared to be a thick mulch of greenery and for a second, I just lay there, waiting for my stomach to catch up with me. I looked up. The Sticky ship was already a dot in the sky, growing smaller by the second.

“Jesus, they might have warned us,” shouted Tony. He struggled to pull himself from the depression he’d made when he’d landed.

I looked around. All the group appeared OK, apart from the shell-shocked look on their faces as they climbed to their feet. We were surrounded by tall trees and dense undergrowth. Where we’d landed was an area of compressed vegetation as big as four football pitches stuck together. It looked as if the Sticky ship had briefly touched down with its tremendous weight and crushed everything flat. I suppose that was something to make up for the shock of being dropped out of the bottom of the ship, I thought and mentally offered qualified thanks to them for providing us with a soft spot to land on.

“Where are we?” cried Amy.

“It doesn’t look much like Arizona,” said Lisa.

“I suppose this is Earth,” said Pamela.

“Must be,” said Graham, “Why would the Stickys put us anywhere else.”

“It looks like they’ve dumped us in the first spot they came to,” opined Graham, “I reckon they were glad to see the back of us, we were too much trouble.”

I nodded to myself, remembering the fall from grace of the ship’s captain and vet.

“Yeah, but where are we?” repeated Amy.

I had a thought. I dug my mobile phone out of my pocket and turned it on. Much to my surprise the screen lit up. The battery was nearly flat, but that it had any charge left in it at all after all this time was miraculous. I moved the phone around. The signal strength indicator jumped up.

“I’m getting a signal,” I said, amazed that the phone was working at all.

“How?” exclaimed Carol, “we’re in the middle of a bloody jungle.”

“Who cares,” said Peter, ”if it’s working we must be on Earth, go on, call someone up.”

Yeah, good idea, I thought, but who to call? I thought a bit more and then scrolled down to my parents phone number. I pressed the call button.

“It’s ringing I said.

The group gathered round me expectantly.

My father’s voice answered. “Hello?” he said hesitantly.

“Hi dad,” I said, “It’s Oliver.”

There was a stunned silence on the other end of the phone.

“Oliver, is that really you?” My father’s voice was breaking, he seemed near to tears.

“Yeah, It’s me dad,” I said.

My father cleared his throat.

“I saw you name as the caller on my phone, but I couldn’t believe it. Where have you been son, you’ve been missing for six years. We thought you were dead.”

I heard him shout to my mother.

Six years! I nearly dropped the phone, but I hadn’t time to waste on speculation, the phone could pack up any second, I had to tell him what had happened to me.

“Dad, you won’t believe this, but I was picked up by aliens along with about twenty people in Arizona. We’ve just been dumped back on Earth.”

“You were with them?” asked my father. “The people taken at the ranch?”

“You know about them?” I asked, hardly able to believe what he’d just said.

“Oliver, the whole world knows about them,” replied my father. “The people left behind at the ranch videoed the whole thing. It was over six years ago, it was the most incredible news ever broadcast.”

“Dad, we’ve only been gone a couple of months,” I said. “Are we talking about the same thing.”

“The Summer House Ranch abduction, It was in the news for months. Son, where are you?”

“I’ve no idea, dad. The Sticky ship just dropped us here, wherever we are.” I looked around again. “We seem to be in a jungle. It could be Africa or Central America for all I know. It’s bloody hot, we could be somewhere near the equator.”

“Sticky?”

“It’s what we called the aliens, dad. Look, my phone battery is almost out. I’ll try and get home as soon as I can.

“All right son, we’ll be……..”

My father was cut off in mid sentence as my phone battery died.

I turned the phone off and  put it back in my pocket. “That was my father,” I said to the anxious faces surrounding me. “He says we’ve been gone for over six years.”

“What,” exclaimed Graham. “It can’t be, we’ve only been gone for a couple of months, three at the most.”

I shrugged. “That’s what he said. He’s got no reason to lie to me. He said the people back at your ranch videoed the whole thing, you lot being taken that is. The whole world knows about us.”

“Time dilation,” shouted Jeb.

We stared at him.

“Look, we reckon we’ve only been away for a few months, but back on Earth, six years have passed,” said Jeb excitedly. “It’s one of Einstein’s theories. The faster you go, the more time slows down for you. We must have been doing a hell of a speed at some time.”

“You reckon that’s why my father says I’ve been gone for over six years then?” I asked. I remembered something about what Jeb was talking about, but I didn’t have the facts at my fingertips as he obviously did.

Jeb nodded, “I’m sure of it,” he said.

“Didn’t he also say the people at the ranch videoed the whole thing?” asked Susan.

I nodded.

“So we won’t have any trouble people believing us,” she said. “I was worrying when we tell our story, people would think we were a bunch of nuts. We could’ve ended up in a loony bin surrounded by psychiatrists.”

I noticed Emily gave a start, but thought nothing of it.

Doris looked around. “What do we do now, we’re surrounded by jungle.”

“Find some water, I think,” said Royston. “These bottles of water won’t last for ever. Then try and find some people with a phone.”

“How are we going to find water in this lot,” said Amy waving her arms to encompass the surrounding trees.

I wished I’d gone back for my backpack, If I’d filled all the bottles we had, we’d have water to spare. Still, I consoled myself, I didn’t know the Stickys would drop us in a jungle, I’d been assuming we’d be put down in Arizona, where we’d been taken from in the first place. The thought of water brought a memory to the front of my brain.

“Water flows downhill,” I said, vaguely remembering a program on National Geographic. “If we go downhill, perhaps we’ll find water.”  Then I remembered something else from the same program. “If we can find water, there’s a good chance we’ll also find people. In this sort of jungle, people tend to live near water.”

Graham looked around. “Good theory Ollie, but the ground round here seems as flat as a pancake. I can’t see any downhill slopes from here.”

“Climb a tree,” said Carol. “Then maybe we’ll be able to see where we are.”

“There might be snakes up trees,” said Mary with a shudder.

“Snakes are more scared of us that we are of them,” pronounced Royston in his best lecture posture. “If we make enough noise, they’ll stay away from us.”

I wasn’t so sure about that. A snake that hadn’t been scared of me had got me into this position in the first place. That damn rattler, I thought.

“OK, which tree then?” asked Peter.

We all looked around.

“What about that one,” said Lisa, pointing to a tree about half a mile away from the edge of the clearing. The treetop stuck out like a pylon from the rest of the jungle.  We looked around again.

“That looks like the best bet,” said David.

“OK, let’s do it,” said Graham. We should be able to walk to it in about ten minutes.”

            We walked to the edge of the clearing and looked at the wall of jungle facing us. It looked impenetrable. How on earth would we find our way in that, I thought.

I could see us getting lost after we’d taken a few steps. Then we’d never find our way back to the clearing, never mind the tree. Then it came to me, I was being stupid, I had the answer in my pocket. My compass. I took it from my pocket and took a bearing on the tree.

“If we walk at 130 degrees, that should take us straight to the tree,” I said.

The group looked at me in amazement.

“Where did you get that from?” asked Mark.

“I’m a hiker, remember? Hikers always carry a compass,” I said, rather smugly.

Emily tapped me on my arm. “Well done, Oliver, you’ve saved the day again,” she said with a smile.

I smiled back at her. “I don’t know about that, we’ve got to climb that bloody tree first,” I said.

“Right, let’s stop talking and go,” said Royston. “Peter, you’re the strongest among us, will you lead with Oliver, we’ll follow behind you,”

Peter nodded and we all lined up at the edge of the clearing. I took a deep breath and pushed my way into the thicket.

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I’d often wondered why explorers vanished in the jungle, never to be seen again, now I knew. We’d only gone a few yards when the canopy closed over us. It became dark, even though when we were in the clearing, the sun had been shining brightly down on us. It was also hot and humid, the sweat was pouring off me and we hadn’t been going for more than a few minutes. As I floundered through the bushes, it seemed every biting and stinging insect and every sharp thorn was waiting for me. In ten minutes, my legs were a mass of bites and scratches. I realised the truth of the old saying ‘you can’t see the wood for the trees’. The trunks grew so close together, it was hard keeping a straight course. Every time I looked at the compass, we seemed to be straying off track. Half a mile. I should be able to walk that in about ten minutes, even at a gentle walking pace. Not in this lot.  I revised the time Graham had estimated. More like ten hours, I thought. I looked behind me. Edna was having a hard time, If it wasn’t for Richard supporting her, I don’t think she could have carried on. We needed both hands to push our way through the thicket and after several of us had dropped our bottles, someone had the bright idea of tucking our tee shirts into our shorts and slipping the bottles down the front of our tee shirts. It worked well, although it gave the girls a rather peculiar bust line.

            It took us over an hour to reach what we thought was the right tree. The top disappeared into the canopy, so we had no way of knowing for sure if it was the right tree or not.

“I think this is it,” I said, as we all collapsed in a heap on the ground.

Adam eyed the massive trunk doubtfully. “How the hell are we going to climb that?” he asked.

He had a point. The nearest branches were at least twenty feet from the ground.

Richard got up and disappeared round the back of the trunk. “This way,” he shouted.

I heaved myself to my feet and walked round the trunk to join him.

“There you go,” he said pointing up.

Hanging down from the upper branches were thick vines. Peter and David joined us.

“Who’s going to do the Tarzan bit then,” said David.

Peter flexed his considerable muscles. “I’ll go if you like,” he said.

I took my compass out of my pocket and passed it to Peter. “If you see anything that might help us, take a bearing on it,” I said.

He nodded and put the compass in his pocket. “OK, rivers, lakes or signs of people. Whatever, I’ll look for the nearest, I don’t think we can march very far in this stuff.” He took his water bottle from his tee shirt and passed it to me.

The lowest vine was eight feet from the ground, so David and I boosted Peter up until he could reach the bottom of it. He climbed up a few feet.

“OK?” I shouted.

“Yeah, OK,” he shouted back and began climbing. In a few minutes, he was out of sight.

            We were all tired but we couldn’t sit down for long at the base of the tree. A few of us tried but soon jumped up swiping at their shorts. It seemed the ants in these parts had a fancy for human bottoms. It was over an hour before we saw Peter sliding down the vine. He dropped to the ground and almost collapsed. His tee shirt was torn and soaking with sweat. We ran up to him.

“Christ,” he said quietly, “that was hard graft.”

I passed him his bottle and he gulped a drink, his Adam’s apple bouncing up and down as he swallowed.

“Anything?” asked Graham.

Peter nodded. “I could see a river to the west, ” He looked tiredly up at me. “I took a bearing, but I don’t know if it’ll do any good, it looks a bloody long way away, at least five or six miles.” He passed the compass back to me. “275 degrees,” he said.

My spirits sank. “It’s taken us over an hour to walk about half a mile,” I waved my arms around. “How on earth are we going to walk five or six miles in this?” I said.

Nobody said anything, I think we were all appalled at the thought of trying to walk five or six miles through the jungle.

“So what do we do?” asked Carol.

“Go back to the clearing and wait,” said Jeb. “That’s all we can do.”

We heaved ourselves back to our feet.

It took us almost an hour to walk back to the clearing. We stumbled from the thicket and collapsed on the ground. There were no ants to disturb us this time, whatever the Stickys had done, it seemed to have removed all the local wild life.

“I think you should try your phone again Oliver,” said Jeb.

“No use, the battery’s dead,” I replied.

Jeb shook his head. “It’s worth a try, sometimes batteries recover. We may get a minute or two out of it.”

I pulled the phone out of my pocket. “All right, I’ll give it a try. Before I turn it on, who do we dial?”

We all sat silent for a minute, then Jeb’s face lit up. “NASA,” he said. “If anyone can find us, it’s those guys.”

“I don’t know NASA’s number,” I said gently, not wanting to dampen his enthusiasm. “Even if the phone does come back on, I’ll hardly have enough time to call directory enquiries.”

Jeb grinned. “I know the number of their publicity department. I should do, I’ve called them up enough times.”

I passed the phone to him. “Do it,” I said, with a grin.

Jeb took the phone and pressed a button. The screen lit up. “It’s on,” he said. He rapidly punched in a series of numbers. “It’s ringing,” he whispered. His head came up.  

“Oh, hello, this is Jeb Wood, one of the Summer House Ranch abductees, the aliens have dumped us all back on Earth.” He rattled that out, all in one breath. He listened for a second.  “No I’m not joking, check the records, you’ll find my name in there. The ship landed about an hour ago, check with your NEO program, they must have seen it. I can’t talk for long, my phone battery is nearly dead.” He listened for another few seconds. “OK,” he said.

He took the phone from his ear as the light faded on the phone’s screen. “Made it,” he said with satisfaction.

We all lent forwards, “Well?” said Edna, “Don’t keep us in suspense, what did they say. I suppose they didn’t believe you.”

Jeb nodded. “Right, they were very suspicious, they must have received a million crank calls over the last six years. Anyway, they said they’d check with the NEO program and if we were genuine, we should stay in the place we were dropped. They’ll send someone to find us.” He paused and smiled. “I reckon he said that so if we were a bunch of kooks, we’d just sit wherever we happed to be until we got fed up waiting and went home.”

“What’s the NEO program,” asked Susan.

“Near Earth Object program,” replied Jeb, “It’s a bunch of people at NASA that look for asteroids that could come near to Earth. They check the orbits to see if any of them are likely to hit us.”

“Do you think the Near Earth Object program would see the Sticky ship?” asked Royston.

Jeb nodded. “A thing that big, I don’t know how they could miss it.”

 “How come you know NASA’s number?” asked Carol.

“I try to use their advanced projects in my computer games,” replied Jeb. “It gives the games a feeling of authenticity. I’m always calling them for updates, that’s how I remembered the number.”

Peter slapped Jeb on the back. “I wish you’d tried calling them before I climbed that bloody tree,” he said with a grin.

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Now all we had to do was wait and see if somebody at NASA had believed Jeb’s phone call. I sat and started pulling thorns from my legs, I noticed many others were doing the same.

Susan pulled out a particularly long thorn with a wince. “Look at the state of my legs, I’ll have wear trousers for a week,” she complained. She twisted round. “Can anyone help, I can’t reach the ones on the back of my legs.”

Amy shuffled round to sit next to her. Susan lay on her stomach so Amy could reach the thorns. She began pulling them out with the tips of her fingers.

Peter looked up from his own thorn removal operation. “You can do me next, if you like Amy,” he said with a grin.

“And me,” said David.

It turned out we all had thorns in our legs and backs we couldn’t reach. After a while we were all at it, pulling thorns out of each other. We looked like a troop of chimps grooming each other. We’re in the right place for it, I thought.

Emily patted my on my back. “I think that’s it Oliver, can you feel any more?”

I turned my head, “No, that’s great, Emily, thanks.”

She had been just as attentive since we’d got back to the clearing but somehow, her manner had changed. She seemed more self assured. Perhaps it was because we were back on Earth,

I mused. She also wasn’t so sexually explicit, for which I was grateful. The thorn removal over, I lay back with my hands behind my head and stared up at the sky. I wondered if any passing planes would notice the great swath of flattened vegetation we were sitting in, but as the time passed, no planes appeared, so it seemed a forlorn hope.

Emily lay next to me with her head propped up by her arm.

“How long do you think we’ll have to wait, Oliver?” she said.

“I don’t know, Emily,” I replied. “Hang on.” I sat up and called over to Jeb.

He looked up.

“If NASA has seen the Sticky ship, how fast do you think they’ll react,” I asked.

“Yes, I wonder how long we’ll have to wait,” said Doris, looking around. I don’t really like it here”

“Yeah, right,” agreed Amy looking suspiciously at the surrounding jungle.

Everyone looked at Jeb.

“Well,” he said slowly, gathering his thoughts. “I reckon the Near Earth Objects project will already have seen the Sticky ship, the whole place should be like an upturned ants nest by now. If their publicity department pass on my message, things should move pretty fast.”

“Supposing they don’t,” said Mark. “They still might dismiss it as a crank call.”

Jeb shook his head. “I don’t think so, not with them receiving my phone call within a couple of hours of the Sticky ship landing. It would be too much of a coincidence to ignore.”

“They could still think it was a crank call though,” said Mary. “If someone heard the news of the Sticky ship, they might think some nutcase called because of it.”

Graham shook his head, his pony tail swaying from side to side. “The news would hardly have time to get out. NASA would be checking and double checking before they released any news. Anyway, that’s how it worked at my radio station.”

“I didn’t know you had a radio station,” I said.

He grinned. “You never asked,” he replied.

 “It’s getting dark,” said Mary, looking at the lengthening shadows. “What are we going to do if we’re not found before nightfall.”

“We could move right to the centre of this cleared area,” said Tony. “At least then we’d be as far from the jungle as possible.”

“Let’s see if we can make a barrier,” suggested Peter. “Maybe we can break off branches and stick them in the ground.”

A couple of us walked to the jungle edge. After ten minutes we returned empty handed.

“No good,” I said, “the only branches we can break are too thin to be any good.”

“Right, let’s move to the middle,” said Royston.

“We spent an uncomfortable night huddled together in the middle of the cleared area, listening to the night noises coming from the jungle. My imagination was working overtime, trying to work out what was making the various noises I heard.

When morning came, we were dog tired, most of us had only slept fitfully, none of us had dared fall completely asleep.

            We spent all day sitting around with no sign of rescue. The second night was as bad as the first, with none of us getting much sleep.  The sun rose on the third day and the day wore on, it became hotter and hotter. We drank sparingly from our bottles, knowing once they were empty, that was it. Most of us were slumped in attitudes of dejection and apathy. Every now and then, one of us would catch somebody’s eye, and give a wan little smile. By the time it was late afternoon we were really hungry and thirsty. I looked at the people sitting round me and realised how little I knew about my companions, despite being cooped up with them for several months.  

I decided to see if I could rectify the situation, we needed something to cheer ourselves up.

“Right,” I said, “To pass the time, we’ll have a quiz. I want you all to give me a potted description of yourselves in twenty words or less.”

A few heads came up. They didn’t look over impressed with my idea. Thankfully, Peter did.

“OK, Oliver,” he said, with a grin,  you start.”

I’m Oliver Nesbitt, lottery winner, hiker. How’s that?”

Adam put his hand up. “Adam Dowel, record producer.”

“Lisa Drake, I own an art shop,” she said.

Doris smiled. “Doris Ash, I used to be a secretary, I’m retired now.”

Susan nodded at me. “Susan Armatige, I’m an artist.”

This was going better than I thought, everyone seemed eager to participate.

“Tony Williams, I own an art gallery,” he said with some pride.

“You and Susan ought to get together then,” said Jeb. “You could both make a fortune if Susan did a bunch of  paintings of the Stickys.” He paused. “I’m Jeb Wood, I design computer games, but I think you all know that.”

Mark rose to his knees. “Mark Rice, I’m a graphic designer.” He sat back down again and looked at Mary sitting next to him. She took up his cue.

“Mary Scottia, I work for the local government,”

“Oh yes, what do you do?” asked Peter.

Mary smiled. “Well, part of my job is sending out the tax declaration forms,” she said.

Peter recoiled from her in mock horror. He held up two crossed fingers. “Get thee behind me Satan,” he hissed.

Mary laughed and slapped him.

“Ouch, right on a thorn,” winced Peter. He looked round. Who’s next?”

Richard raised a finger. “Me. I’m Richard Nascot, I build film sets.”

“If anyone wants an authentic set of a spaceship, you’ll be the man,” joked Graham.

Richard nodded. “Yeah, that’s a thought,” he said.

Edna nodded at me. “I’m Edna Bennet. I’m retired now, but I’ve done too many things to tell you in twenty words.”

“Tell us one then, Edna,” said Natalie.

“Well, my late husband and I used to run an architectural business,” replied Edna.

“Oh, that’s right,” said Natalie, “I remember now, it was your idea to cut through the roof of the cell.”

Edna nodded. She seemed pleased Natalie had remembered.

“So if it wasn’t for Edna, we wouldn’t have got out of the cell,” chimed in Amy. “Good for you Edna. I’m Amy Jackson by the way, I work in a bookshop.”

David put his hand up, but before he could speak, our attention was diverted upwards. A jet screamed overhead and disappeared before we could react.

“Christ, that was low,” said William, “Do you think it could be looking for us?”

“If it was, we should know in the a very short time,” said Royston. “Look, there it is again.”

The jet passed us again, this time a couple of miles away.

“I think it’s doing a search pattern,” said Tony.

We all sat looking up, waiting for the jet to reappear. But it didn’t.

“Do you think it saw us?” asked Carol.

I shrugged. “There’s no way to tell Carol. Though with the cameras they have these days, they should have been able to pick us out.”

“No use worrying about it,” said David. “Either they have or they haven’t, we can’t do anything about it. I’m David Iverson.” He smiled at Susan,  “I’m an artist too.”

Peter cleared his throat. “Right, let’s get this over with in case the jet comes back. I’m Peter Jefferies, I’m manager of a car dealership.”

The next few names came in double quick time.

“William Hastings, advertising assistant.”

“Carol Edwards, I’m PA to a company director.”

“Royston Howard, I think you all know I’m a doctor.” He looked at Pamela. “Your turn,” he said with a smile.

“I’m Pamela Roach, I’m a publishing assistant.”

“Great,” said Carol, “You can publish a book I’m going to write of our adventures.”

“You’re going to write a book?” asked Pamela, “Are you an author?”

Carol laughed. “No such luck. I only thought of it just this minute, when you told us you were in publishing.” She looked around. “Who’s next.” She suddenly cringed. “Whaat?” she cried.

The jet passing over us was so loud, we instinctively ducked. It was so low, we could see the pilot in the cockpit. The sun, low in the sky, reflected pink on the fuselage as it banked and circled us. Four more jets joined it, circling at the same low altitude. High above, we could see more jets circling above us.

“Wow, Super Hornets, screamed Jeb.” He jumped up, waving his arms. “They’re carrier based fighters, they’ve found us,” he shouted.

We all stood up, waving at the jets, a sense of excitement rising in us.

“They believed you after all,” shouted Peter, trying to make his voice heard over the roar of the jet engines.

“They sure did,” shouted Jeb.

The jets circled over us for about a quarter of an hour. From across the jungle came an unfamiliar sound. It was almost on us before we heard it over the noise of the jets. It looked like a twin engine plane with the engines stuck on the end of the wings, but the propellers were huge. In fact they were so big, I couldn’t see how the plane could land at all, the propellers would hit the ground while the plane was still in the air. I wondered what the hell it was and what it was doing here. I couldn’t see how it could land on a runway and it certainly couldn’t land here. Then the plane slowed. The engines started tilting until the propellers, instead of facing forwards, were now facing up. It had changed into a two rotor helicopter.

“They’ve really laid on the goods for us,” yelled Jeb. He pointed up at the plane, now slowly descending a few hundred yards from us. “That’s a Bell Osprey, the navy’s only had them for a short time.”

I stared at the plane. “I’ve never seen anything like it,” I said in amazement. Things had certainly moved on in the six years we’d been away.

            The Osprey landed, and as the rotors slowly wound down, the tail ramp dropped down. Two men in a white suits came out of the plane. The suits covered them completely, their faces were not visible, being hidden behind a shiny transparent cover. It made them look a bit creepy.  They dragged a large metal container from the plane and carried it towards us. The container looked heavy, the men were struggling to half carry, half drag it across the ground. They stopped some distance from us and dropped the container onto the ground.

“Attention please,” said a voice.

I could see one of the men had a loud speaker fixed to his belt.

“My name is Doctor Cameron, I’m a flight surgeon with NASA. Please follow my instructions precisely. In the container  you will find plastic bags containing a biological isolation suit for all of you. Take a suit and completely strip off all the clothes you’re wearing. Put on the suit. Once you have done that, put your clothes in the plastic bags. Seal the bag and write your name on the label with the pen attached to the label. Put the bags back in the container. If you understand, please put up your hands.”

We looked at each other in puzzlement and slowly raised our arms. I don’t know what I had been expecting on our return, a joyful welcome maybe, but not this. It was almost as bad as being back on the Sticky ship, receiving instructions from a talking box. Feeling rather intimidated, I walked to the container and lifted out a bag. I noticed Cameron and his companion had backed away from us as we approached the container. I went back to where I had been sitting and slowly stripped off. I took the suit out of the bag and shook it out. It was a zippered plastic overall with a respirator fixed to the hood. It was all in one piece and with gloves and feet attached. I pulled it on, ducked my head inside the hood and zipped up the front, being careful to keep my wedding tackle out of the zip. The front of the hood was a clear plastic bowl so I could see quite well. Below the bowl a respirator stuck out under my nose. I could see all right, talking might be another matter. I could feel the soft plastic all over my body as I moved, a fetish would pay good money for a suit like this, I thought.

Next to me, Emily was putting on her suit. “Why are they making us do this, Oliver, do they think we’re contaminated or something?”

I was quite startled. Contaminated was the longest word I’d ever heard her say.

“I don’t know, Emily, it could be,” I replied through the respirator.  “Remember the men that came back from the moon. They put them in quarantine for days, just in case they’d brought back something nasty with them.”

Emily nodded, she could obviously hear me quite well. “Yes, you’re probably right,” she said, and pulled the hood over her head. She looked nervous, her eyes were wide as she looked at the plane.

“Relax,” I said. “We’re as good as home now.”

She nodded jerkily and smiled, I could see her eyes crinkling through the plastic.

“We never finished the quiz, did we,” I said, trying to take her mind off the strange events surrounding us. “You never said what you do for a living.”

“I’m Emily Hillson,” she said, which I thought was a bit superfluous, seeing that I’d known her for months.  She lowered her eyes. “I don’t do much,” she said quietly.

I immediately felt sorry for her.

“Cheer up Emily, I don’t do much either. I’m a lottery winner, remember.”

She squeezed my arm.

I stuffed my tee shirt, shorts and boots in the bag, scribbled my name on the label and put them back in the container. When all of us had put our bags into the container, Cameron walked over, shut the lid and locked it.

In our suits we looked like actors in a really cheap science fiction B movie. The effect was emphasized because all the suits being the same size, none of them really fitted us. Mary’s suit hung in folds on her like a snake shedding its skin, while Graham’s suit strained at every joint. We stood in a group near the container wondering what Cameron would ask us to do next.

He nodded towards the plane, “Right, people, into the plane,” he said.

“I think you ought to know, our clothes were given to us by the Stickys,” I said as I approached him.

“The what?” said Cameron, raising his eyebrows. He didn’t look so bad now I could see his eyes.

“Stickys, it’s a long story, but that’s what we called the aliens. They copied my clothes, so we could all have something to wear when they brought us back. They might not look it, but they weren’t made here.”

“Right,” said Cameron slowly. “So you’re saying your clothes were made by the aliens, that’s very interesting.” He paused for a minute. “I don’t suppose you have your old clothes so we can do a comparison.”

I shook my head. “No, they were worn out,  I left them behind, but I know exactly what make they are, you can easily buy the same things for comparison.”

Cameron nodded. “OK, I’ll make a note of that and see it’s passed on.”

“One more thing,” I said. “My passport, phone and compass are in the shorts pockets. I’d like to have them back sometime.”

“That won’t be up to me,” replied Cameron. “If you have to loose them, I’m sure you’ll be given brand new replacements. OK, get aboard now, let’s get out of here before it gets dark.”

There were a row of seats facing inwards down each side of plane. There were only two round windows on each side of the plane so I sat next to the nearest one and buckled the lap and shoulder straps. Just like being in a car, I thought.  Emily sat next to me and fumbled with the seat straps. I lent over and buckled her in.  

“All right?” I asked.

She nodded jerkily as if she wasn’t quite sure.

One by one the rest of the group climbed aboard and sat down. Cameron and his companion pulled the container up the ramp and clipped it to the floor. Cameron’s companion shuffled between our knees to the cockpit and sat down, Cameron closed the ramp and followed his companion to the front of the plane. I saw him say something to the pilot as he bent over the pilot’s shoulder. I noticed the pilot was also wearing the same all-over suit that we were wearing. The pilot nodded and Cameron returned to the cabin and sat down.  Seconds later, I heard the engines rev up and we lifted off the ground.

“Where are you taking us?” shouted Royston above the roar of the engines. He lent forward to hear Cameron’s answer.

The noise of the engines lessened and when I looked out of the window, I could see the propellers were now facing forwards again. Down below, the flattened area of vegetation stood out like a scar on the landscape. Within seconds, we had left it behind. The engine noise settled down to a steady drone, we could hear ourselves speak again.

“We’re taking you to a carrier, we’ve got a holding facility there for you,” said Cameron. “Don’t worry, everything’s been taken care of.”

“Where are we,” asked Graham, “We have no idea where we were dumped.”

“We’re off the east coast of South America, in Amapa, about ten or so miles from the coast,” replied Cameron. “That’s part of  Brazil,” he added.

Graham nodded. “We had no idea. We looked for a town or village, but all we could see was jungle and a river,”

“Yeah, that’s the Rio Cacipore,” said Cameron. He dismissed it with a wave of his hand.

Carol lent forwards. “Why all the jets, you frightened the life out of us.”

The Brazilian air force were looking for you as well,” said Cameron. “Once we’d found you, the jets were there to make sure we had no interference. The Brazilians are complaining like hell about us over-flying their air space, but fuck ‘em, You’re our people, we’re taking you back and no-one is going to stop us.”

I grinned behind my respirator. I was beginning to rather like Cameron’s style.

“What about Oliver,” said Royston. “He’s English.”

Cameron looked around, trying to identify me. I raised my hand.

“For the time being, he’s an honorary American,” replied Cameron.  “We could hardly leave him behind, could we.”

Is that a step up or down, I wondered. A few days ago, I’d become an honorary Sticky technician, now I was an honorary American.

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CHAPTER 49

After about five minutes flying, we passed over the coast, leaving the jungle behind us. The sea was a sparkling blue with a slight haze on the horizon. After another ten minutes, we began to fly in a wide circle and down below, I could see the aircraft carrier, its wake shining like a straight line drawn across the water. We sank lower and lower and the plane slowed. I watched in fascination as the engines rotated so the propellers were facing upwards again. After some manoeuvring, we were hovering over the carrier flight deck. The Osprey slowly sank down until we touched. At last, we were back with our own people, now I really felt I was home safe.  Cameron got up and walked to the rear of the plane. He lowered the ramp and waved to us.

“Everybody out,” he shouted.

We filed out of the plane, blinking in the evening sunlight after the relative gloom of the interior of the plane.  A loud cheer and clapping greeted us, it seemed half the carrier crew were on deck. It was a scene reminiscent of the American astronauts returning in the late sixties. I noticed the men were staying well back from us as Cameron led us across the flight deck. Up against the tower on the side of the deck was a large container. As we approached, I could see the doors at the end had been welded and sealed shut. Cameron led us to the other end of the container. There, a door with a square window had been set into the end wall. Next  to the door was a square panel with a glass hatch set in the centre. On the roof, I could see what looked like six air conditioning units.

 “This will be your home for the next few days” he said. “We’ve got to put you in quarantine until we’re sure you haven’t brought back any viruses or bacteria from space,” 

Mark looked along the length of the container. “What in there?” he asked.

Cameron nodded. “It’s our version of an MQF,” he said. Seeing Marks puzzled expression, he explained. “Mobile quarantine facility. We couldn’t use the ones’ that were used during the moon flights.  Apart from the fact they’re scattered all over the place, they’re over forty years old, so NASA had to come up with a quick alternative. A modified container was the best bet. They worked round the clock with the modifications and brought it here.”

“Christ, they must have moved fast,” replied Mark, “We’ve only been back a couple of days.”

Cameron nodded. “You better  believe it. Top priority all the way. In you go, I’ll explain things later.”

“Is this really necessary?” asked Royston. “I’m a doctor and I can assure you none of us has been sick the whole time we were away.”

It appeared he’d decided not to mention his reaction to the Sticky food.

Cameron shook his head. “Sorry doc, it’s not down to me. Once we’re off Galveston, you’ll be flown in the container to the AQF at the Johnson space centre for a full check up. Once they’re satisfied with you, you’ll be free as a bird.”

“AQF?” queried Royston.

“Astronaut quarantine facility,” said Cameron.

Royston shrugged. “Oh well if we must, we must. I admit, I was half expecting something like this.”

William swung round. “What, you never said,” he cried.

“William, you’re a born worrier, why should I give you one more thing to worry about,” replied Royston.

Cameron chivvied us along. “Come on, in you go. The quicker you’re in and this door is shut, the quicker you can get out of those suits. There’s food and clothes inside, but there are no beds I’m afraid. Adding the weight of the filtration, containment and air conditioning, plus all of you, we’re nearly at the weight limit for the Chinook that will lift you off the carrier when we reach Galveston. You’ll have to rough it for a bit. It’ll be cramped, but you won’t be in there for very long.” He paused. “One more thing, we’d appreciate it if you tried to limit your use of the toilets and shower. There are containment tanks behind the toilet and shower room. We made them as big as we could in the space available but they’re not infinite. For that reason, the shower is limited to two minutes at any one time. It won’t start again until a minute has passed. I know it’s not ideal, but we couldn’t risk the containment tanks filling up.”

“You mean we can only have a two minute shower?” asked Susan.

Cameron shook his head. “If you’re prepared to wait a minute, you can have another two minutes. We put the restriction in just to remind you the capacity of the tanks is limited, OK?”

Susan shrugged, “I suppose it’ll have to be.”

We filed through the door. As I waited my turn, I felt a touch on my back, it was Emily, she was right behind me, sticking to me like glue. Just before I went inside, I looked back at the Osprey. It looked half the size it was when it landed. The propellers had folded back on themselves and the  wings had swivelled so they were in line with fuselage. Bloody glad that didn’t happen while we were flying I thought. As I watched, the plane vanished from sight as a large section of deck sank down.

            The door shut behind us with a thud. The room was bigger than it looked from the outside,  about thirty feet long by eight feet wide, I suppose. The walls and roof were painted white, it looked a hurried job, even from where I was standing, I could see the bare metal showing through where the painters had missed bits. The floor was covered in carpet, screwed down with metal strips round the walls. Along each side, a low shelf was welded to the wall. The brackets supporting the shelves divided the surface into individual seats with, unaccountably, a set of seat belts fitted to each one. Under each shelf was a stack of inflatable mattresses. A string of lights down the centre of the ceiling provided illumination and between the lights, I could hear fans whirring behind grills set in the ceiling. The only daylight came from the window in the door we had just come through and two small portholes on each side wall. Cameron had said they’d had to move fast, this place had the unfinished look of a very hurried job. Next to the door, I could see what the panel on the outside was for. It connected to a large box like structure with a hatch on the front, which stuck out into the room. Through the window in the hatch we could see trays of food covered with film. I could see a toilet and shower room at the far end of the container. Only a  curtain separated it from the rest of the room. Carol lifted a pack from one of the seats

“Clothes here,” she said.

That seemed to be a signal for us all to unzip our suits and pull down the hoods.

A voice from a loud speaker startled us.

“Your food will be delivered through the transfer lock next to the door. Weight considerations prevented us from installing a kitchen area, so all food and drink will have to come through the lock. I’m afraid we’re limiting your diet so any food you eat won’t compromise your examination when we reach Houston. To get you started, you’ll find a light meal and drink on trays. It’s nearly dark, I suggest you all get a good night’s sleep, we can talk again in the morning.  If you want to talk to me, press the button on the hatch door, I’m on twenty four hour call.”

Peter pressed the button. “Is that you Doctor Cameron?” he asked.

“Yes it is,” came the reply.

Peter nodded. “OK, just so I know who I’m talking to.”

“Right,” said Cameron, “I’ll leave you in peace to get settled in. Remember, if you want anything, just press the button. I’ll talk to you later.”

William was looking around.

“I don’t like this,” he said. “Supposing the ship sank, we’d be like rats in a trap, we wouldn’t stand a chance. We couldn’t all get out of that little door in time.”

“Oh for goodness sake shut up,” shouted Carol. She pulled her hood back and bared her teeth at him. “Do you think this bloody great aircraft carrier is going to sink in five minutes? One more word out of you and I’ll eat you.” She closed her teeth together with a snap.

William sat on a seat and shut up. I think he was really afraid of Carol. After all, she was at least six inches bigger than him.

Carol’s mention of food had reminded me I hadn’t eaten for three days. My rumbling stomach was another reminder. 

“I think before I do anything else, I’m going to have some food,” I said.

“Good idea,” agreed Susan who was leaning against the hatch. She turned  and pulled the hatch open. She reached in and lifted out a tray. It looked like the sort tray they used for aircraft meals. She sat on a seat and pulled off the film covering the tray. She picked up a sandwich and started putting to her mouth. She stopped dead, with the sandwich just under her nose.

“Arrrgh,” she screamed. “Guess what’s in these bloody sandwiches,”

“Oh no, you must be kidding, it can’t be,” cried Pamela.

Susan nodded. “It bloody is, they’ve given us tuna and sweet corn sandwiches.”

At least half a dozen of us dived for the button.

            Cameron was most apologetic when Royston explained to him at great length what our diet had consisted of for the last two or three months.

“And that’s all they gave you to eat?” he said with some astonishment. “Right, I’ll arrange for more food to be sent in to you. What would you like?”

“Anything as long as it’s not tuna a sweet corn sandwiches,” replied Graham.

Susan shoved the tray of sandwiches back into the airlock and slammed the door. A minute later, we saw the outer door open and a man in a white suit and mask stuff them into a plastic bag and take them away. Within half an hour, the door opened again and a stack of trays were loaded into the airlock. As soon as the outer door was shut, we pulled open the inner door. We dived on the trays and tore off the film. I first emptied the bottle of orange juice down my throat. It went down like water into sand, I was so dry. My mouth filled with saliva as I bit into a sandwich. It was filled with scrambled egg and was such a change from tuna and sweet corn, I felt quite light-headed as I ate it. When we had all finished, we put the trays back in the transfer lock.

“I like this,” said Doris, “No washing up.”

All the seats had a pile of clothes on them consisting of a light track suit, socks and soft slippers. When we’d all changed, we stood wondering what to do with our white suits and masks.

Royston pressed the button.

“Yes?”

“We’ve changed our clothes, what do we do with the white suits?” asked Royston.

“Put them into the transfer lock,” said Cameron. “Every thing you touch must go back through there for quarantine containment.

“What about clothes,” said Edna, “We can’t wear the same clothes for weeks.”

“You won’t be in there for weeks,” replied Cameron, “if you need to change, we’ll send bags in for you to put your dirty clothes in. Put them through the lock as well. We’ll send you clean clothes when you want.”

“Roger, over and out,” replied Royston.

I smiled to myself. Perhaps Royston fancied himself as an astronaut as well as a doctor, Next, he’ll be saying affirmative instead of yes, I thought.

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CHAPTER 50

After the meal, I felt quite tired, I hadn’t had much sleep the previous nights, I was too worried about wild animals sneaking up on us in the dark. All the mattresses were flat so before I could get my head down, I had to pump one up. I lifted up a mattress and after some searching around, found the attached foot pump. I started pumping, the action reminding me of the time when I was young, pumping up my uncles inflatable dinghy.

It seemed I had given everyone the same idea and soon, we were all pumping away, looking like some mad dance troupe practicing our routines. The pumps made a hoarse whistling sound on the up stroke as they sucked in air and soon the room was filled with what sounded like a hundred mice being tortured to death. When my mattress was firm enough for my liking, I flopped down and relaxed with my hands behind my head. Emily pulled her mattress next to mine and lay down with her knees curled up to her chest.

“How long do you think we’ll have to stay in here?” she said.

I thought for a minute. Geography had never been my strong point. Cameron had said we’d been dumped in Brazil, I had no idea how far Galveston was from Brazil. Somehow, I didn’t want to confess that to Emily.

I shrugged. “Cameron said a few days. I suppose that’s how long it’ll take us to reach Galveston.”

“Hmm,” she said. “I suppose it also depends on how  fast the aircraft carrier can go, doesn’t it.”

I smiled. “Yup, the faster we go, the quicker we’ll get there.” I paused, hoping Emily didn’t think I was taking the piss out of her and then on reflection, I thought, would recognise it if I was. She really was an odd girl, walking through life with a child like wonder, briefly dispersed with flashes of intellect.

“I’m going to sleep now Oliver,” she said. “Will you wake me if anything happens.”

I touched her on the arm. “Nothing’s going to happen, Emily. “We’re being looked after by the American Navy, they’ll make sure nothing happens to us.”

She gave me a brief smile and closed her eyes. In minutes, her breathing slowed as she fell asleep.

I was tired, but I found I couldn’t sleep, my head was buzzing, thinking about the last few months and what was going to happen to us now. Cameron had mentioned the Astronaut Quarantine Facility, what was that place and how long would they keep us there? Supposing they found alien bugs in us, would they ever let us out? Somebody turned the lights out and soon all I could hear was the sound of gentle breathing as one by one, the rest of the group fell asleep. I didn’t realise it, but I soon joined them.

            I woke up with the sun streaming through the portholes. I sat up and stretched. I wasn’t the first one up, I could see the end curtain was closed and hear the sound of running water. I suddenly thought there’s twenty-one other people in here and they’re all going to be wanting to use the toilets and shower. I jumped up and walked to the end of the container. As I reached the end, the curtain pulled back and Carol stepped out. She was naked and when she saw me, she gave a small gasp, jumped back into the shower room and pulled the curtain across. She stuck her head round the edge of the curtain, pulling the plastic tight round her. “I didn’t know anyone else was up,” she said

“Carol, if I didn’t know what you looked like naked by now, I never will.” I said with a laugh.

She smiled back and  nodded. “I  know, but somehow it seems different now we’re back home. It was all right at the ranch and when we were taken, but now, it doesn’t seem right to walk about naked in front of each other.”

I realised she was right, our natural modesty was returning.

“Well, there’s no changing rooms, so I’ll just have to turn my back while you get dressed,” I said.

“No, sod that,” she said, I’ll get out of the way, you use the shower.” She picked up her clothes where she’d left them in a heap on the floor and stepped out of the shower room.

Well, there goes modesty, I thought. I realised we’d have to get used to being naked in front of each other again. With twenty two people crammed into a room thirty feet by eight, it would be hard to avoid it. As soon as she’d moved out of the way, I stepped inside and pulled the curtain and quickly stripped off, There were two toilet cubicles facing me which could have come out of any public convenience and next to them, separated by a thin partition, a shower stall with a curtain. Next to the shower stall was a small sink and a pile of towels on a shelf. I used the toilet as quietly as I could and stepped into the shower.  As I stood under the jets of water, I wondered about the next few days. To avoid the inevitable queue for the late risers, some would start getting up earlier and earlier to get first go at the shower. Once the idea caught on, by the end of a week, some of us would be getting up in the middle of the night. I could already hear a queue forming outside the curtain.  I dried myself, dressed and pulled back the curtain. Tony was the first in line.

“Morning,” I said as nonchalantly as possible, wondering if everyone had heard me at my ablutions. Us English are rather sensitive about that sort of thing, well I am anyway. Tony nodded back, stepped inside and pulled the curtain. I walked along the side of the queue, nodding at the faces as I passed and had almost reached my airbed when a tremendous fart ripped through the air. There was a general cry of protest and the people nearest the curtain stepped back a pace.

“Christ, whoever did that must have been hovering a foot above the pan,” observed Peter with a grin.

A minute later, the curtains opened a fraction and Tony stuck his head through the gap.

“Sorry,” he said in a very small voice.

I think the change from eating only tuna and sweet corn to the food supplied by the carrier’s kitchen was having an effect. My own stomach was feeling rather tender, though luckily without the dramatic consequences that had happened to Tony. The next few days were going to be interesting, I thought.

            The days passed in a rather surrealist fashion, with the meals the only break from the monotony. One thing about the American navy, they did feed us well even if the menu was rather bland, I think we all put on a few pounds every day. Apart from Cameron’s voice, we were completely cut off from the rest of the world. Because the container was up against the carrier tower, the view through the portholes on one side was a solid wall of grey metal.  Through the other portholes, we could see a view of the flight deck and beyond that, the sea. That never changed, not even a boat to add some interest. None of the crew came in sight of the portholes, I suppose they had strict orders to keep clear of us. The man who supplied us with food and collected our empty trays was dressed in a biological isolation suit, so all we got from him was an occasional nod of greeting.

            On the fourth day, Doris who was idly sitting looking through one of the portholes, jumped up.

“I can see land,” she cried.

We all gathered round the two portholes. In the distance, I could see a dark blue line on the horizon.

The loudspeaker came to life. “As you might have realised, we’re nearing Galveston,” said Cameron’s voice. “We’ll be winching you off in a couple of hours.”

After an hour or so, the carrier slowed and I could see we were cruising a couple of miles off shore. Suddenly, out of nowhere, we were surrounded by boats, lots of boats. They varied from small speed boats to large cruisers and I could see a couple of coast guard boats keeping them away from us.

“It seems we have a reception committee,” murmured Royston.

 Jeb pressed the button. “What’s with all the small boats?” he asked.

After a second, Cameron’s voice came over the loudspeaker. He  gave a small laugh. “Everyone wants to see you come in, you’re the biggest news for years.”

“How do they know about us, we’ve only been back for a few days,” said Mark.

“The TV and papers are full of nothing else, you may not realise it, but you’re big news,” replied Cameron. He paused. “Right, now I have some instructions for you. If any of you want to use the toilet or shower, do it now, because before we can winch you up, we’ve got to disconnect you from the ship’s power. We have back-up batteries to power the air conditioning system, but not enough for the water and drainage pumps.”

“How long will we be without toilets?” asked Edna, looking distinctly uncomfortable. Her stomach was still protesting at the change of diet.

Cameron was quiet for a moment. “Say an hour to disconnect you and attach to the Chinook. It’s only about a twenty mile flight to the Space Centre so that’ll add hardly any time at all. Umm,  at most a couple of hours, just in case we have delays.”

“And how long did you say before we’re disconnected?” pressed Edna.

“A couple of hours,” replied Cameron. “I’ll give you a warning half hour before we disconnect you, OK?”

There was a rush to the toilets.

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CHAPTER 51

Cameron was as good as his word. Half and hour after his cheerful “Half an hour folks,” the lights dimmed and went out. Only the quiet whisper of the fans remained, but we’d go so used to them, we hardly heard them anymore.

We waited, wondering what was going to happen next. Then we felt the container suddenly lurch sideways away from the carrier tower towards the centre of the flight deck. Progress was painfully slow, we moved in a series of lurches with many minutes wait between each move. It was like being at the cakewalk at a fair ground. We stood still between lurches, with our legs apart, trying to anticipate when the next one would come.  I wondered idly what we were moving on, I didn’t remember seeing any wheels under the container.  I could hear faint shouts and commands through the walls of the container and then we all looked up as a series of clangs and thumps came from the roof.

The loudspeaker came to life. “I want you to sit down with equal numbers on each side and buckle yourselves in.” said Cameron. “The airlift should be smooth, but we don’t want to take any chances. Please do it now, we’ll be lifting in a few minutes.”

Now I knew what the seat belts were for. We divided ourselves into two groups and followed Cameron’s instructions.  My view from the porthole prevented me from seeing the Chinook, but when the engines started I could certainly hear it. The roar of the Chinook’s engines came a second before we felt the container leave the deck. Emily sitting next to me, clutched my arm, her eyes wide.

I lent over to her. “Nothing to worry about,” I soothed, “The American Navy do this sort of thing all the time.”

She smiled and nodded. I just hoped to God I was right. If the cables slipped or broke while we were over the sea,  the impact would probably drive our backbones up through our skulls. If we survived that, we’d drown as the container sank like a brick as the water poured in through the air conditioning vents. Over land wouldn’t be much better. They’d have to dig us out of the hole we’d make if we dropped from any height.

            We rose to about a five hundred feet and headed inland. Cameron was right, the ride was smooth with virtually none of the swinging about I was half expecting. I could see that Galveston was on a long narrow island. Beyond the island, I could see a large bay with a road bridge connecting the island to the mainland. Looking down, I could see our shadow rippling across the water. Suddenly I was aware of other shadows on the water.

I pressed my face against the glass and craned my neck so I could see behind us. I realised we had an escort of over half a dozen helicopters.

I could only see three from my vantage point, but from the shadows, I could tell there were more on the other side of us.

As we passed over the coast to Galveston city, I could see the streets were packed full of people, their faces a white blur as they looked up at us. Brilliant white flashes sparkled along the streets as thousands of camera flash guns were fired. In a moment, we had left Galveston behind and were heading over the bay. We headed over to the left side of the bay and flew over the mouth of a river with yet another road bridge crossing the water.  In the distance, I could see a collection of buildings and guessed our flight was almost over. My guess was confirmed when I felt the motion of the container slow. We hung in the air for a moment, gently swinging, then we were dropping. The Chinook placed us in what appeared to be a car park, close to a building. A crowd of white suited figures stood in front of the building and one of them ran over to us and stood by the door. He tapped on the window, held up a lead with a jack plug on the end and stooped down below the level of the window. After a few crackles, his voice came over the loud speaker.

“You can unbuckle now, but please don’t attempt to open the door. We’ll be taking you out of there very soon.” He pulled the lead from the container and walked back to the building. It seemed he was a man of few words, it would have been nice if he’d given us a little more of an explanation of what was going to happen next. Almost immediately, we heard loud bangs from the roof, which I guessed were the cables from the Chinook being disconnected. A large door opened and a small vehicle came out from the building, pulling a large bundle of plastic on a trailer, the white suited figures slowly following. When they reached us, they unloaded the plastic and started pulling at the sides. The plastic bounced open to form a long tunnel, with hoops every few yards to hold it open. The white suited figures pulled the end of the tunnel which stretched like a Slinky and pushed it against the end of the container. I couldn’t see what was happening, but I guessed they were attaching it to the end of the container. Nothing happened for a while, then we saw a man approaching us from inside the tunnel dressed in the same sort of suit we’d worn in the Osprey.  He opened the door and put his head through the doorway.

“OK, folks, will you follow me please,” he said.

“Dressed just as we are, we don’t need suits?” asked Royston.

“Just as you are will be fine,” the man replied. He stepped back from the doorway, inviting us to follow him.

We rose from our seats and filed out through the door. The tunnel was a milky translucent plastic so we couldn’t see much outside as we stepped over each hoop in turn. The tunnel led us inside the building and down a short corridor to a room. It was a medium sized lobby with doors round the walls. The whole place smelled of fresh paint. When we were all inside, the man who’d led us through the tunnel shut the door with a thud. We stood in a tight group by the door, wondering what was going to happen next.

The man turned to us and nodded. “I’m Surgeon Commander Stone, welcome to the Johnson Space Centre,” he said. I could almost hear the capital letters as he said it.        

“You’ll be comfortable here,” continued Stone,  “This place was designed to house shuttle astronauts returning from space. Usually there are about seven so we had to make some rapid modifications to house all of you. There’re twelve bedrooms with showers, a  conference room, a laundry, a kitchen and a medical centre. Some of the bedrooms are converted containers, they’re a bit primitive but they’re adequate.” He paused while we took all this in. “New clothes will be provided and food will be passed through a transfer lock similar to the one in the MQF. If you would like to choose a partner, you can go to your rooms and shower and change. We’ll leave you alone for a couple of hours to settle in, then I’m afraid we need to give you all a medical examination. That will take several days.”

“How long before you know we’re all right?” asked Graham.

The man shrugged. “Depends what we find. Be prepared for weeks rather than days.” He held up his hands, as we all started asking questions at once. “Look, you’ve all had a long day, we can put off the exams until tomorrow. Give it an hour and we’ll all meet in the conference room.” He pointed to a door. “You can meet the medical staff and I’m sure they’ll answer any questions you have.” He pointed to a open door leading to a corridor. “Your bedrooms are down there, why not make yourselves comfortable and we’ll see you in an hour, OK?”

We nodded and followed Commander Stone down the corridor. He went through a door at the far end, leaving us milling about wondering who to chose as a partner. My choice was made up for me. Emily touched my arm.

“Us two together, Oliver?” she asked.

I wondered how the others would take this, but then put the thought aside. Apart from the fact it wasn’t anyone’s business but mine and Emily’s, from the way the group were pairing up, most of the younger men and women had decided to share a room with each other. The exceptions were Royston and Graham and Edna and Doris. As they were the oldest members of our group, I suppose that was the reason they’d decided to share. I noticed Natalie had gone into a room with Jeb and tried not to imagine them together. Emily touched my arm again to attract my attention. I realised I hadn’t answered her.

I nodded. “Yeah, why not, Emily,” I said.

She rewarded me with a beaming smile.

            The bedroom was quite sparse, it seems we had chosen one of the converted containers,  but it had everything we needed. Against one wall were two beds, with cabinets on either side. A radio was fixed to the wall between the beds. A door led to a bathroom with a toilet and shower stall. A table and chairs stood against the wall opposite the beds and above them, a TV sat on a shelf. On each bed was a pile of clothes, similar to the one’s we were wearing.

“I’m going to have a shower,” said Emily, heading for the bathroom. She emerged ten minutes later surrounded by a cloud of steam. She hadn’t bothered to dress.  She glanced at me as she picked up the clothes on the bed.

“You don’t mind me being undressed, do you Oliver? After all we spent several months together like this.”

“Fine by me,” I said as nonchalantly as I could, trying to keep my eyes from her glowing skin, still beaded with drops of water.

“If you’re finished in there, I’ll have my shower,” I said.

She nodded so I picked up the clothes from the bed and went into the bathroom, shutting the door firmly behind me. Above the sink I saw a razor.  I pounced on it and quickly removed my scruffy excuse of a beard. Then I used the toothbrush and toothpaste. After several months without a toothbrush, I felt a whole lot better having minty breath again. After I’d showered, I felt almost human. I dressed and rejoined Emily in the bedroom.

“Conference room?” I said.

She nodded, so we left the bedroom and walked to the conference room. The conference room wasn’t what I expected. Instead of rows of seats, comfortable arm chairs were arranged in a curve facing a large window set into the wall. The chairs had low tables next to them. Edna and Doris were already there, talking quietly to each other. They looked up as we came through the door.

“This is a change for the better,” said Edna, ”And all at the government’s expense.”

“I hope you’re sure about that,” replied Doris, “We might get a bill for all this when they let us out.”

Edna grinned. “Just let them try, it was their fault we were picked up in the first place.”

I was puzzled. “How do you work that one out Edna?” I asked.

Edna’s grin became broader. “Control of our air space. The Stickys came down as if they owned the place and our government did nothing to stop them. I reckon they owe us money.”

The door opened and Carol and Mark came in closely followed by the rest of the group. We sat down and made ourselves comfortable and waited.

A door opened in the room behind the window and five figures came into the room. They sat down, leaning their elbows on a table. Commander Stone was sitting in the centre. He tapped a microphone on the table in front of him and cleared his throat.

“Can you all hear me?” he asked. Receiving a chorus of replies he continued. ”Right now you’re all here, we’d like to tell you what’s in store for you, after that we’ll answer any questions. Just in case you’ve forgotten, my name’s Commander John Stone, please call me John.”

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CHAPTER 52

“I think you all realise the necessity for all this,” began John. “If any of you are carrying alien bugs, we just can’t afford to let them escape into the community. I’m afraid the medical procedures we want to put you through will be as thorough and comprehensive as we can make them. Most of them will be painless, but some will involve a certain amount of discomfort.”

“Now tell us the bad news,” said Tony.

There was a ripple laughter round the room.

Graham lent forwards. “We are all American citizens and we expected something like this, but Oliver here,”  he waved his hand at me, ”Is a British citizen. I wonder, what is the legal position about holding him here.”

That was something I’d never thought about, I’d just gone along with the rest of the group, grateful at being rescued.

“Well, we have contacted the British government,” said John. They’re happy to let us include Oliver with the rest of the group. However, if he insists on leaving and going back to Britain, they could carry out the same procedures, but it would mean flying him to Porten Down and would involve extensive quarantine and containment procedures, it makes more sense to do it here.”

I nodded, “I agree, I said. “Anyway I’d rather be with the rest of the group than be stuck in some sealed room on my own. I’m just glad to be back on Earth and out of the jungle. The legal side never entered my head.”

John nodded.

“What are the medical procedures,” asked Royston. “As a doctor, I have a special interest.”

John turned to the person next to him. “Janice Long is a doctor from the CDC, that’s the centre for disease control at Atlanta. She and some of her colleagues have flown here especially.” He paused, “Janice would you oblige?” he asked.

Janice sat forwards. “OK folks, it’ll be like this. We’ll take samples from every part of you. That’s blood urine, stool, skin, etcetera. You’ll be put in a scanner to see if we can detect any changes to your internal organs or bones. We’ll culture your samples to see if anything unusual turns up. That is what will take the time, we don’t know how long it might take for something to show up.” She smiled through the window. “We’ll try and be gentle with you, but please bear with us if we have to put you through some uncomfortable procedures.”

We sat back looking at each other. Well, I thought, I can’t say they weren’t being honest. Even though, from the look on our faces, none of us were looking forward to the next few days.

“Anything else?” asked John.

My mind went blank, I couldn’t think of a single question to ask. From the silence in the room, the others felt the same way.

“OK,” said John, getting to his feet. “We’ll leave you alone for the rest of today. To help you settle in, we’ll send some food in for you so you won’t have to cook for yourselves. We’ll see you at oh-nine hundred tomorrow morning in the conference room. There’ll be no breakfast, I’m afraid, you can eat afterwards.”

The five nodded to us and left the room. We sat around chatting for about half an hour when a bell interrupted us. A loud speaker came to life.

“If you would go to the transfer lock, you’ll find a chicken dinner for all of you. We’ve contacted your families so we know none of you will object to that. Don’t put the plates and utensils back in the lock, put them in the kitchen. You can use them for the meals you cook for yourselves. ”

We rose and headed for the door. In the lobby, a door marked transfer lock caught our attention. Inside, was a large glass door and when we opened it, the delicious aroma of cooked chicken greeted us. We carried our plates to another room, handily marked dining room and sat down round a large table. All was silent for half an hour save for the champing of jaws. I could have done with a cup of tea to finish with, but I had to make do with the orange juice they had included with the meal. There was one thing my enforced absence had done for me. I had been without cigarettes for about three months and I found the craving for an after dinner fag had almost left me. After we had finished our meal, we took the plates to the kitchen where we washed and dried the plates. Then, as if by an unconscious decision, we all went back to our rooms. It had been a long and tiring day and we wanted to be fresh for the uncertainties of the next day.  Once back in our bedroom, I used the toilet and while Emily was taking her turn, I used the opportunity to strip and get into bed. The space centre hadn’t provided us with any nightwear, so I pulled the covers over me and tried to relax. Emily came out of the bathroom and  took her clothes off as if it was the most natural thing in the world. I lay there, trying to ignore the nubile figure stripping off her clothes a few feet away from me. Emily sat on my bed.

“Can I sleep with you tonight, Oliver,” she said. “I must admit, I’m a bit scared about tomorrow.”

I should have said no, but she took my hesitation for permission and in a trice, Emily climbed under the covers.

“You sure you don’t mind?” she asked. She lay down, staring at me with her big blue eyes, like a couple of sapphires.

“No, I don’t mind, Emily,” I replied as impassively as I could.

“Good,” she said with a smile and snuggled against me. She pressed her head into the curve of my neck and then I felt a warm thigh pressing on me as she moved her leg onto my thighs. So there I was, naked with a equally naked Emily pressed up against me. I lay still as a statue wondering if I should take what was clearly on offer. It was just my conscience wouldn’t let me, Emily was so child-like and naïve it wouldn’t be right. I tried to ignore my inner voice telling me to go for it, but with a great deal of will power, I managed to keep my hands to myself. Eventually, I fell asleep. When I woke the next morning, she was still entwined round me. I slowly disengaged myself and slid out of bed. I looked down at her. She lay there like a china doll, her blond hair tousled round her face. She really was a lovely girl, if only she had a brain I thought with frustration. I went into the bathroom and had a cold shower. It didn’t work, I still felt frustrated.

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CHAPTER 53

We were all in the conference room at nine o’clock sharp. Shortly after nine, John came into the room behind the window.

“We’ll take you alphabetically, five at a time,” he said without any preamble. “The rest of you will have to wait your turn. In the transfer lock, you’ll find orange juice and to help pass the time, some papers. Needless to say, you’re front page news.” He started calling out names.

“Susan Armatige, Doris Ash, Edna Bennet, Adam Dowel and Lisa Drake, will you come to the medical centre please.”

The five got up with apprehensive looks on their faces and left the room. I was in for a long wait. Being that my name began with a ‘N’ I was going to be way down the list. It had been like that all my life. I used to envy the children at school who’s names began at the front of the alphabet, they were always chosen first.

Peter stood up. “Let’s get those papers, see what they’re saying about us.”

“Good idea,” enthused Pamela, “I always wanted to be famous.”

She left the room and returned minutes later with an armful of papers. There were enough for all of us to have one each and soon the only sound was the rustle of turning pages. The paper I had proclaimed in large letters, ‘THEY’RE BACK!’ right across the front page. Below the headline was a picture of the container hanging under the Chinook as it crossed over Galveston. Inside were the usual grainy pictures of our group, probably obtained from our various families. I noticed they’d spelled my name wrong, I was now Olivia Nosbitt. At least they’d got my sex right, my picture showed me looking real butch in my hiking gear, probably one of the pictures I’d sent back home during my travels. Emily’s name was wrong too, the last time I looked, Emily didn’t begin with a ‘D’.

We swapped papers for an hour or so and then the next five were called in. It was quite late in the day when my name was called, by then we had all read every word in the papers so we were just sitting around idly chatting.

            I left the room with four of my group and we stood in the lobby wondering where to go. A light over one of the doors started flashing ‘MEDICAL’, so we headed for that. Jennifer opened the door and put her head round the opening. She looked back at us. “This is it,” she said.

We followed her in. The room was packed full of equipment, some of it looking distinctly dodgy to me. Along one wall were five curtained cubicles, with a person standing in front of each one. They beckoned us over to them and as I approached the nearest one, I realised the doctor I had chosen was a woman. She was wearing a shiny all over suit that included a hood but she only had a surgical mask and glasses on her face.

She smiled at me, her brown eyes crinkling behind her glasses. She glanced down at a clip board she was holding. “Hello, I’m doctor Standing, you can call me Vivian. Can I have your name please.”

I told her my name and wondered if I should call her doctor or by her first name Vivian, as she’d asked. What the hell, Americans are an informal bunch, even Commander Stone had insisted we call him John, so I decided on her first name.

“You’re not wearing a biological protection suit Vivian?” I asked.

She shook her head.  “We can’t work in those suits,” she snapped on a pair of rubber gloves. “We need to be able to feel what we’re doing, those suits would prevent us from examining you properly.”

“Aren’t you worried about contamination, everyone I’ve met up to now has either been wearing a suit or been behind glass.”

She smiled. “We’ll just have to take our chances, won’t we.” She ushered me into the cubical and pulled the curtains. “Take off all your clothes and hop up onto the bed. The quicker we start, the quicker we’ll be finished.” She smiled again. “We’ve got every incentive to get this over. Until it is, we’re going to be in quarantine as well.”

That startled me. “You mean you’re stuck here until they give us the all clear?” I asked.

She nodded. “Come on, off with those clothes.”

The funny thing, I’d always felt more comfortable with a female doctor than a male one. If anyone was going to handle my bits, I’d rather it be a female. Imagine if my old man started misbehaving while I was in front of a man. At least I’d have a good excuse if the doctor was female and even vaguely attractive. The exam started normally, with her sounding my heart and lungs and then prodding me all over. Then she looked into my eyes and ears. Then it got a bit intrusive. She stuck what looked like a cotton bud up my nose in my ears and then, horrors of horrors down the end of my old man and up my arse. Each bud was put in its own little pot. She used a hypodermic the size of a drainpipe to take blood.

“We’ll be taking blood every day,” she said, “We’ll give you a call when we want you.” She noticed me staring at the hypodermic cylinder. “Don’t worry, it won’t be as much as this.” She capped the cylinder and pulled a large pot with a lid from a trolley next to the bed. “Now, I’ve been told you last ate alien food about six or so days ago, is that right?”

I nodded. “We ate the night before we were brought back, we were dumped early the next morning, we didn’t have time to eat then.”

“That’s what I’ve been told, just checking I’d got my facts right,” she said. She opened a drawer and lifted out some tubing. “There’s a good chance you still have some of that food in your gut. We know exactly what we’ve given you to eat since you’ve been back, so we can separate it from the food the aliens gave you. I’m going to give you an enema to recover it.”

I eyed the tubing in her hand rather apprehensively. “Are you,” I said.

She nodded. “It’ll be a big one, I’m afraid, I want to completely clear you out.” She said this with the same breezy manner as if she was just going to take my photograph.

I sighed. “Better get it over with then,” I said.

The enema was nothing to write home about. When she’d finished, she handed me the big pot. “The toilet’s at the end of the room.” She smiled. “Try to catch it all. When you’ve finished, lock the lid down tight, have a shower and come back here.”

I slowly slid off the table, feeling like a water filled balloon. I put on a gown she held out for me and shuffled down the room to the toilet, with my arse hanging out the back of the gown. I held my sphincter shut tight as a duck’s arse, I didn’t fancy dropping the lot before I reached the bathroom,  The romance of space travel, I thought, If my friends could see me now. I emerged from the bathroom with shaky legs and re-entered the cubicle. Vivian looked up from her notes.

“All done?” she said brightly.

I could only nod.

She held up a large flask. “I’d like you to pee into that, we need a urine sample. We’ll need one of those every day, I’ll give you a pot, you can bring it in with you when you come to give blood. Then she handed me another small pot with a screw on lid. “I’d also like a sample of semen,” she said.

I looked at her rather startled. “What here?” I asked faintly.

 She smiled. “You can do it in the bathroom, or if you prefer, I can help you with it here,” she said.

Christ, I thought, what next, was she offering me a hand job? “How?” I asked hesitantly.

“Back on the bed, and lay on your side,” she said.

I lay down wondering what was going to happen next.

“Put the container over your penis and relax,” she said.

I followed her instructions and lay there, feeling less relaxed than I’d ever felt in my life. Then I felt something cold up my arse. There was a tingling sensation, then bam, the pot was suddenly filled and I hadn’t even had an erection.

“Bloody hell,” I gasped, half sitting up, “What was that,”

She held up a shiny rounded cylinder and grinned. “Rectal stimulator, works well, doesn’t it.” She took the pot from me and screwed on the lid. She poured some of my urine into another pot and stuck a label on each one and put them in a box, with no more emotion than if she was labelling jam.

“Right, lay down again,” she said.

I lay down and she stood over me. “I’m going to take some spinal fluid. It may sting a bit, but the important thing is not to move while I’m doing it, OK?”

She was right, it did sting a bit. I lay still as a statue, thinking about the needle, just millimetres from my spinal cord. I don’t  think I’d have moved a muscle if a bomb had gone off in the room. After that it was almost plain sailing. She took scrapings from under my nails, though I wondered why, as I’d washed and showered at least three times since arriving at the space centre. Using a tool rather like a potato peeler, she peeled away a square inch of my skin from my forearm. This hurt a bit, but trying to keep up the reputation of the English as a stiff upper lip nation, I did my best to hide my discomfort. The last thing was to pull out several hairs from my head. By now, she had quite a collection of pots containing  my assorted bits. She stood back.

“Is that it?” I asked.

“For now,” she replied. “Tomorrow we’ll look inside you under the scanner. OK, you can get dressed now.” She paused. “Is it true all the aliens fed you was tuna and sweet corn sandwiches?”

“Bloody right,” I replied. “I often wondered where they came from. I hardly think there were a load of Stickys with blue hair nets making sandwiches for us.”

She smiled. “I heard that’s what you called them, I’ll be interested to read all about them when we have your de-briefing notes.” She tapped the pot containing my hairs  “You may not realise it, but these hairs could be the most important thing I’ve taken from you. They could tell us a lot. We’re hoping they’ll give us a record of what was in the food they gave you.”

She looked at my hair which had grown considerably during my time with the Stickys.

“Your hair is long enough to have a record of what you ate before you were taken and during your abduction. It’s almost like a tape recorder of what chemicals went into your body.”

“You can tell that just from examining my hair?” I said.

She nodded. “Hair grows at a regular rate. Hopefully, we’ll have an almost week by week record of what you ate.” She put the pot into a box with all the other pots. “Right, off you go, I’ve got more of your group to see.”

I pulled back the curtain. “OK, Vivian, I’ll see you tomorrow.”

She nodded at me and I left the Medical room. On the way back to the conference room I thought of what she’d told me. It seemed the medicals were only part of it, de-briefing would be coming next and they could go on for days. I wondered how long it would be before I got out of here.

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CHAPTER 54

Back in the conference room, the people who had gone before me were back.

“That bloody needle,” complained William, “I reckon he took a couple of pints out of me.” He rubbed his arm in a melodramatic show of pain.

I didn’t ask him if his doctor had used a rectal stimulator. In fact, I decided to say nothing about it at all, to anyone. There are some things that are best kept between a doctor and patient.

            It was late in the day before we were all back from our examinations. We left the conference room and remembering that John had said we could eat after the examinations, we looked in the transfer lock. A pile of groceries lay inside, so we took them to the kitchen. There were too many of us to all work in the kitchen, too many cooks spoil the broth and all that, so David volunteered to do the cooking. It turned out that he was an expert cook and with a few of us to help him, rustled up a commendable meal. We ate like starving rats, I reckoned we’d all had a go with the rubber tubing and the large pot. We sat round the table after the meal discussing what the next few days would bring.

“My doctor mentioned de-briefing,” I said. “I wonder how they will do that. One at a time or all of us together.”

“One at a time, I should think,” said Royston. “You can’t get a good history if everyone’s talking at once.”

“My doctor has already asked me if I could draw the Stickys when I told her I was an artist,” said Susan.

“Funnily enough, so did mine,” said David. “It seemed to me, their biggest regret was that none of us had a camera with us.”

Peter snapped his fingers. “I bet your phone had a camera built in,” he said, looking at me.

“Sorry, you loose the bet,” I replied, “All my phone was good for was talking and texting. I just never got round to upgrading to a more fancy phone.”

 “Even if Oliver’s phone had a camera, we had other things on our minds,” said Graham, “Like being abducted by aliens for instance.”

“It’s lucky it didn’t have a camera,” said Jeb. “If we’d used it, the batteries would have been flat by the time we got back, we’d have never been able to call for help.”

“I still don’t know how we did that, right in the middle of a jungle” said Carol.

“Just be glad we did,” said Doris, “otherwise we could still be there.”

A few nodded. “That’s true,” said Edna. She got up. “I’m for my bed, it’s been a long day.”

It was a general signal for us all to get up. We went back to our rooms with a chorus of goodnights echoing along the corridor.

            After Emily and I showered, we got into bed. I thought she might use her own bed for tonight, but no, she slid in beside me. Luckily, I’d taken the precaution of keeping my track suit bottoms on, I didn’t want a repeat of the previous night when it had taken all my will power to control the old man.

“I prefer sleeping with you Oliver”, she said, when I asked her why she wasn’t using her own bed. “You don’t mind do you?”

I shook my head, “Not at all Emily,” I said.

I turned out the lights and lay there thinking. It looked like I was going to be with Emily for at least the rest of our stay in the space centre. But was that so bad? She had a gorgeous body, even if her mind hadn’t quite kept pace with it. What would happen when we finally left here, I put to one side. No use crossing bridges, I thought. My ruminations were interrupted by Emily’s leg moving up and down across my thighs. It appeared this definitely was her preferred way of sleeping. I did my statue bit and eventually, I heard her breathing slow down as she fell asleep. If they keep us here for any length of time, I thought, I’ll be half dead with frustration by the time they let us out.

            The next day was much easier on the nerves. They led us one at a time to a large room containing the scanner. I lay down and they clamped my head and slid me into the scanner. Then they asked me, to my mind, a lot of daft questions and flashed pictures at me. I suppose they were trying to see if my brain was still working. I thought idly what they would make of Emily, then put thought aside, it wasn’t worthy. I was in the scanner for about an hour before they finally let me go. Back at the conference room the others were sitting around, either waiting their turn or talking about what they had just experienced. When we were all back, John came into the room behind the window.

“Good afternoon folks, I hope your experience of the last two days hasn’t been too painful.”

After receiving assurances from us that we were all fine, he carried on.

“Tomorrow, we start the debriefing. We’ll talk to you one at a time, to hear your stories. Before we start, move one chair closer to the window and push the rest of the chairs to the back of the room. That way, the rest of you can talk quietly among yourselves without disturbing the person being interviewed.” He paused, looking down at notes on the table in front of him. “Now I hear a couple of you are professional artists. If we provide you with pens and paper, could you draw anything you saw that may help us?”

David and Susan put up their hands and nodded.

Jeb put his hand up. “I design computer games. If you could give me a computer with my software, I could give you some images of what we saw.”

John made notes, then looked up. “That would be very useful. After you were taken, all your belongings were taken back to your parents house. Hopefully your computer and software will be there.”

Jeb nodded and relaxed back in his seat.

“I design film sets,” said Richard. “I’m not a professional artist, but I can draw, it’s part of my job, I could help out there too.”

John smiled. “Better and better. We seemed to have been lucky with the talents your group have.” He looked down at his notes again, then at me.

“Mr, Nesbitt, you are an engineer I believe.”

His mention of my name right out of the blue, startled me.

“That’s right” I replied.

“Have you a degree or any other qualifications?” he asked.

“I haven’t got a degree or anything like it,” I replied,  “But I did serve a five year engineering apprenticeship and I’ve had a few years experience after that.”

John waved his hand. “British engineering apprenticeships are well thought of, anything you can describe will be very useful to us.”

I felt compelled to defend myself in case they were expecting me to describe how the Sticky spaceships worked.

“You must realise, I couldn’t make sense of most of what I saw. Anything I can tell you will be at most, intelligent guesses.” I said.

John smiled again. “Intelligent guesses will be fine, we’re not asking for miracles.”

I nodded and sat back in my chair with relief. I hadn’t realised it, but when John had called my name out, I’d perched on the edge of the chair as if to take flight.

Natalie and Lisa, both put their hands up. Lisa looked at Natalie and nodded.

“Lisa and I were examined by the Stickys,” said Natalie.  “A couple of them were female and one of them allowed me to examine her. If we tie up with Susan and David, we could give you pictures of what a female Sticky looks like.”

John looked startled. “They examined you? Was this forced?”

Natalie shook her head. “No, they asked us. They were very curious about us because as one of them said, we are nearly alike but different.”

John’s eyes widened. “They spoke English?”

“One of them did,” replied Natalie. “We think he was a professor or something. From what he said, he was picked up from his university or whatever, purely to learn our language.”

John quickly scribbled more notes. “Thank you for that. We’ll go into this in more detail when we interview you.”

“Oh, by the way,” interrupted Natalie. “They examined Oliver too. We think they were curious about him because he could use their equipment.”

John’s head swung round to face me. “What equipment was that Oliver?”

“I was a sort of welding torch. I used it to demolish a set of stairs in the rescue base so the Stickys would have to use the lift.” I paused. “It’s a long story, I’ll tell you all about it later.”

John’s smile was almost beatific. “This gets better and better,” he exclaimed. “Wait ‘till the rest hear about this.”

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CHAPTER 55

With nothing to do for the rest of the day our group split up. Emily and I went back to our bedroom, leaving some of the others chatting in the conference room. As this was the first free time we’d had during the day, I turned on the TV, curious to see what American news services were saying about us. Because we were being kept away from the public, the news services were desperate for any new slant on the story. Most of the time, it seemed to be repeats of what had been said before. Most spectacular were the shaky video shots from six years ago of the Sticky ship over the Ranch. The green fog coming out of the bottom of the ship was clearly visible. The group instantly collapsed as the fog hit them. The ship settled down on them like a chicken sitting on her eggs. When the ship rose, the people had gone. The video panned up as the ship rose from the ground, to disappear from view. There were numerous shots of the container hanging under the Chinook and lots of footage of the Summer House Ranch where the group were taken. There were numerous interviews with our parents and relatives, but what made me sit up was seeing my parents in their lounge talking about me. My parents looked strained, I think the publicity was getting to them. After the interviews they started giving a brief history of the group. Suddenly the picture changed and rock music blared out of the TV. Emily sat on her bed holding the TV remote. She looked at me rather guiltily.

“I don’t like that program, Oliver, do you mind if we have music instead?”

“Well, I was rather interested,” I replied, “Don’t you want to know what the rest of the world is saying about us?”

She shook her head. “I rather have the music instead,” she stared at me with those big blue eyes, “Please Oliver?”

I shrugged. Why not, I thought, it’ll only be for the time we’re in here, I can catch up with everything when I finally get out. “Yeah, OK, Emily, you can have your music.”

She jumped off the bed and kissed me on the cheek. “Thank you, Oliver, you are good.”

Too good for my own good, I thought and then wondered if I would get out of here with my hearing intact after weeks of heavy metal booming out of the TV. Some time ago, it had came as a shock to me when I realised I no longer knew or cared about the contents of the top twenty. I took it as a sign I was growing up. At nineteen, I mourned the passing of my youthful years. I suppose I was a bit of a pratt then, hopefully I was more mature now. I took the remote from Emily and turned the music down to a bearable level.

“Are you going to be all right with the de-briefing tomorrow, Emily” I asked.

She nibbled her lip. “I was wondering about that,” she replied.

I tried to be encouraging. “It’s nothing to worry about. Just tell them what you saw and what we did. If you don’t know the answer to any question they ask you, just tell them you don’t know. OK? it’s as simple as that.”

She nodded jerkily. “All right, Oliver, if you say so,” she said.

I felt really sorry for her then. She’d been pitched into a situation which she just wasn’t prepared for. I sat next to her and put my arm round her shoulder. “Don’t worry about a thing. If you’re not sure of anything, just say Natalie and I were with you at the time and they would know, OK?”

She nodded. “Yes, you and Natalie were with me and they would know. All right, Oliver, that’s what I’ll say.”

I hoped to God that was enough. I hated the thought of Emily being shown up as dim-witted when she was questioned.

            The next morning, we all assembled in the conference room. We pushed one chair up to the window and pushed the rest to the back of the room. Royston was the first person to be interviewed but the microphones were turned down so low, we couldn’t hear the questions or Royston’s answers from where we were sitting. I suppose that was deliberate, I supposed they wanted to hear each persons account without collaboration from anyone else. A bit pointless, I thought, we’d been together for months, if we’d wanted to make up a story, we would have had plenty of time to get our stories straight. Eventually, it was my turn. I sat down on the seat by the window and nodded a good afternoon to the three people behind the glass. They introduced themselves as professors Grey, Melcovitch, and Parker. Grey sitting in the centre seemed to be their spokesman.

“May we call you Oliver?” asked Grey.

“Please do,” I replied.

Grey nodded. “Right, good news first of all. Later on, you’ll be able to talk to your parents. You must realise, it’s taken some organisation to bring twenty-two sets of relatives to Houston, that’s why we couldn’t do it earlier. We thought it better to bring every one here rather than link them up all over the country and in your case, from Britain. We’ll arrange a link to the conference room. If you want privacy you can have the room to yourself during the link.”

I smiled. “That is good news,” I said. “I only had time for a brief message to my father before my phone died on me. They must be worried about what’s going on.”

“Oh, they’ve been fully briefed on your every move, Oliver, they know you’re safe.”

I nodded. “OK, thank you for that,” I replied.

“Now we know how the group from the Summer House Ranch were taken, but we’re not so sure about you. Can you explain?”

So I told them about the rattlesnake and how I’d woken up in the cell. The story of how we’d cut our way through the roof, our escape in the lifeboat and landing on the planet took longer than I thought it would. They were most interested in the Sticky technology I’d seen, especially the Sticky welding torch. I described the Stickys as best I could, adding details I’d seen of the female Stickys.

“Natalie and Lisa can give you a better description,” I said. “They examined a female, I only saw one from a few feet away.”

Grey nodded. “Thank you Oliver, most succinct. Now, we’ll finish with you for today, we may come back to you later, with your permission.”

“No problem,” I answered.

“Have you any questions for us?” asked Parker.

I though for a moment. “Um, the Stickys told us because of Earth telescopes and satellites, they were going to land and take off very quickly. Did the Near Earth Object program see the Sticky ship? Was that why you found us so quickly. Oh, by the way, I suppose you know why we called them Stickys.”

Grey nodded. “Doctor Royston told us, yes. The Near Earth Object program did see the ship. It came down over the mid Atlantic and then went off our radar. We picked it up again when it left Earth very shortly afterwards. When your father received your phone call, he immediately told the police who’d been investigating your disappearance, you’ve been gone for over six years you know.”

I nodded.

“The British police contacted the American police who had been looking for you. It was assumed at the time, you had died in the desert.”

Melcovitch lent forwards. “Do you remember a person called Mary Whetherall?”

“The name does ring a bell,” I said, “But I can’t recall exactly why.”

“She was the last person to speak to you before you were taken,” said Melcovitch. “She was the owner of the travel lodge.”

 I nodded. “Oh yes, I remember now,”

“They looked for you but of course they never found you. It was assumed you’d wandered away from where you had said you were and died. The search went on for days, you know. Your disappearance wasn’t connected to the ranch abduction, it was over a hundred miles from your position.”

I nodded.

Grey took up the conversation again. “The sighting of the ship and the phone call to NASA coming almost straight after the call to your father, really stirred us up. When you phoned your father saying you were in a jungle, that gave us a possible location where to look for you. Satellite imaging found the patch in the jungle where the ship had landed. The rest you know.”

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CHAPTER 56

The de-briefing went on for days, with me and the others being called back to clear up some point or another. Lisa asked for some modelling clay and made a foot tall statuette of a male and female Sticky. Jeb finally had a computer and a load of equipment passed through the transfer lock. He set it up in the conference room and scanned in Lisa’s models and transferred them to his software. In a couple of days, we saw what appeared to be living and breathing Stickys on the screen. Over the following days, a picture of our cell appeared, closely followed by the inside of the rescue base and the inside of various parts of the Sticky’s ship. Jeb was obviously a whiz on his computer. We all chipped in, suggesting details that Jeb had missed and in short order, he’d added them to the picture. Everything he did was sent to the centre’s computer so they’d have a permanent record.

            A highlight was when we were contacted by our families. Because of the number of us, we’d only have fifteen minutes each. By unspoken agreement, we all decided to keep our conversations just between us and our families, though I thought privately the centre would probably be recording them. A TV with a webcam on top was placed on the shelf behind the window so we had vision as well as sound. When my turn came, I pulled my chair up to the window and checked my image in the small picture in one corner of the screen. My parents image suddenly filled the screen.

I waved, “Hi mum, hi dad,” I said.

For a second they didn’t speak. My father lent forwards. “It’s so good to see you son, how are you feeling?”

“Couldn’t be better,” I replied, “They’re treating us like royalty in here.”

He nodded, his face breaking into a broad grin, “You can’t believe how good it is to see you, we thought we’d lost you for good.”

“You used to send us pictures every couple of days,” said my Mother. “When they stopped coming, we got worried. After a week we were frantic. The police contacted America and we were told you’d gone missing. They searched for you, but couldn’t find you. We didn’t know what to think.”

“I’m sorry mum,” I replied rather lamely.

She waved her hand in dismissal. “Oh it wasn’t your fault, I know that. After a couple of years, we finally thought you must be dead. Seeing you again is like a miracle.”

“Tell us what happened,” said my father.

“I was bitten by a rattlesnake, I passed out and the Stickys picked me up. Dad, it would take hours to tell you everything. When I come home, I’ll tell you all the grisly details. What about you and Mum. Are NASA treating you OK?”

“It’s wonderful,” gushed my mother. “They flew us out here first class and put us up in a wonderful hotel. We’ve met a lot of the other relatives of the people who were taken with you.”

Including Natalie’s husband? I wondered.

“What about the press, are they bothering you too much?” I asked.

My father shook his head. “No, that’s why NASA gave us the choice of coming over. They said we’d never have any peace if we stayed at home. They’ve kept them away from us. We can talk to them if we want, but most of us here want you back with us before we even think about talking to the press.” He looked over his shoulder. “Our times almost up son, we’ll speak to you later,”

I waved at them and the picture faded from the screen.

            The de-briefings carried on for a few more days until we really had nothing more to add. After that, we just had to sit about, waiting for the test results to come back. The only variation in our routine was the fifteen minute talk with our relatives. About four weeks after our arrival, we were called to the conference room. When we were all seated, the door we had just come through opened and John walked in. We all looked up, startled.

He stood just inside the doorway and held out his hands. “No suit,” he said with a grin, “You’re all clean.”

We all broke into wide grins and then cheered till the ceiling shook.

“No alien bugs at all?” asked Royston.

John shook his head. “Either the aliens you met were very healthy or if any bugs did get into you, they couldn’t survive and died off very quickly.”

“How was our general health,” asked Royston. “Living on a diet of tuna and sweet corn sandwiches, I was worrying about vitamin deficiencies.”

“You all are remarkably healthy,” replied John. “No deficiencies of any kind.” He paused. “By the way, it wasn’t tuna and sweet corn you were eating.”

We all looked surprised at his remark, considering we’d been eating the things for the last three months.

“They seemed like tuna and sweet corn to me,” said Richard.

A lot of us chimed in, agreeing.

John shook his head. “It might have looked and tasted like tuna and sweet corn, but it wasn’t, From the analysis of the samples we’ve taken from you, it appears to be completely artificial.  It looks like the aliens cooked up some sort of concoction that looked like something you would eat. There’s a lot of chemicals in it, it seemed the aliens didn’t want you to get sick.”

“Sticky chemicals?” exclaimed William, his eyes widening. “They won’t do anything to us, will they.”

John smiled. “Not unless you’re a female. We found chemicals similar to our contraceptives in all your blood samples. They were tagged to only affect the females, we’re still working out how they did that.  We don’t think there’ll be any long term affects, the levels are dropping fast now you aren’t eating Sticky food.”

William didn’t look at all convinced.

I quickly glanced at Natalie. She caught my glance and gave me an imperceptible nod.

“Hold on,” said Royston, we were told we were picked up in equal numbers of male and females as breeding pairs. If they wanted us to breed, why feed us contraceptives?”

“Obviously they didn’t want you breeding on the ship,” replied John. “It’s obvious when you think about it, they must have had limited space or facilities.” He paused and smiled. “Anyway, that’s all behind you now, you can forget about it. We’re sure none of you have been affected in any way.”

“Now what,” asked David.

John pursed his lips. “Well for a start, we’ll take you somewhere more comfortable and then fit you out with some new clothes. You can hardly meet your public in tracksuits.”

“Public?” queried Susan.

John grinned. The whole world’s press is camped out there waiting to speak to you. We’d like you all to give a brief press conference this evening and then you can go home with your families. How you deal with the press after that is up to you.” He paused for a moment. “We have advisors who will tell you how to handle the press. I don’t know if  you realise it, but all of you have the chance of making a lot of money if you handle it right. The press and TV will pay a fortune for your stories. Our press officer will brief you to make sure you get the best deal. Our press conference will be mainly to introduce you to the press and answer a few questions. I advise you not to give too much away at this stage, remember what I said about the value of your stories.”

“Bloody hell,” whispered Mark.

I think we all felt the same way.

            John led us out the back of the building into a small bus. It felt strange to be on the outside again. I breathed in deeply, after being inside for over four weeks, the outside air felt fresh and clean. We drove out of the space centre to a hotel with a group of police motorcycle escorts. Once on the road, a fleet of cars and motorbikes followed us, with men hanging out of the car windows using their cameras. They couldn’t get too close because of the police outriders, but a picture of the back of the bus was better than nothing, I supposed. The hotel had been cordoned off and as we stepped down from the bus and walked into the entrance, we could see the flashes of cameras in the distance. We all had a room each. I’d only been inside for a minute when there was a sharp knock on the door and a man came into the room.

“Good afternoon sir, I’m Roger Hargrieves,” he said, “I’m here to fit you out with some new clothes. Now what would you like?”

I’d never been a snappy dresser and for the last three or four months, I existed in shorts, tee shirt and hiking boots. “What do you suggest?” I asked.

He stood back and looked me up and down with his hand on his chin. After a minute he looked up. “How about a nice dark blue suit, double vent back, button three, notched lapels. A blue and white striped shirt with matching tie and Gucci loafers. How does that sound?”

I smiled at his enthusiasm. “Like a million dollars. I’ll take your advice.”

He gave me a beaming smile. “Very wise sir, when meeting the public, it’s always sensible to look your best.”

He paused for a moment, studying me intently. I knew what was coming.

“Were you really abducted by aliens, sir. You hear so many of these stories, but this time, well I don’t know, NASA seem to take this seriously.”

I nodded. “It’s all true. Me and about twenty others. It was quite an experience.”

Hargrieves nodded. “Yes, I expect it was sir. It’ll be something to tell my partner, he’ll be very interested when I tell him I’ve met another real live spaceman.”

“Another spaceman?” I said.

“Oh yes sir. My firm dresses all the astronauts when they have their press briefings.” He shook his head sorrowfully. “If it was left up to them, they’d turn up in jeans and a sweatshirt. Right I’ll be off to see the others. Lot’s to do, you know.”

“Hold on,” I said, “Don’t you need my measurements.”

He shook his head. “When the doctors examined you in the scanner, they took all the measurements I need. Don’t worry, the suit will be a perfect fit.”

With that he gave me a brief nod and left the room.

            It was only mid afternoon so I had plenty of time before the press conference. I had a leisurely shower and sat and watched TV. I couldn’t really concentrate on what I was seeing, I was wondering what was going to happen in the future. From what John had said, my life for the next few months would not be my own, what with the natural interest of press and anyone I happened to meet. Then I thought about Emily. Since we’d parted company after getting off the bus, I hadn’t seen her. Would she forget about me, now we were back? It would be better if she did. She was a lovely girl, but as soon she opened her mouth, the image was ruined. I hoped to hell nobody asked her anything difficult  during the press briefing. I had grown fond of her, despite her limitations and I would hate to see her make a fool of herself  in front of the world’s press. My thoughts were interrupted by another knock on the door. That was quick, I thought, my clothes are here already. I called out ‘come in’ but it wasn’t Hargrieves that came in, but a girl She walked across the carpet, holding out her hand. She was carrying a bag in the other hand. I rose from my chair and shook her hand. She held my hand for a moment and looked at my hair.

“My name’s Loretta, I’m here to tidy you up.” She pointed to one of the dining chairs round a table in the corner of the room.

“Sit down on one of those, we’ll see what we can do to make you presentable,” she said with a smile. 

She put her bag on the table, pulled out a large plastic sheet and laid it on the floor. “Put the chair on that,” she said.

I carried a chair over to the sheet, placed it in the middle and sat down. She worked fast. As soon as she’d covered me with another sheet, she started cutting. “Any particular style? she asked.

“Just not too short,” I said, not daring to move my head. I could hear the scissors clipping away near my ear like a frenetic cricket.

She was finished in less than ten minutes. “There, all done,” she said, brushing the loose hairs from my face. A few minutes later, she’d packed her things and was ready to go.

“Right, I’m off,” she said, “I’ve a few more of your friends to do before the press conference.”

“What, you’re doing them all?” I said.

She shook her head. “No, there’s a team of us. Some for the men, some for the girls.” She gave me a wave and left the room.

I went in the bathroom and looked in the mirror. She had worked so fast, I was fearing the worst. I was expecting to see a severe GI haircut, but to my surprise, my old barber back home couldn’t have done a better job. I had another shower to get rid of the odd hairs that had fallen down my back and went back to the lounge and sat down. My behind had barely touched the seat when there was another knock at the door. Now what, I thought. I got up and opened the door. Another girl stood in the doorway. I nodded at her and invited her in.

“Hello Oliver, I’m June Brierly,” she said. “I’m here to give you some tips on how to handle the press conference.”

I indicated a chair. “Sit down June,” I replied,” And tell me what to do to stop me making a chump of myself.”

She smiled. “No chance of that Oliver, from what I’ve heard, you’re a pretty level headed person.”

“Glad you think so,” I replied. “Anyway, I’m all ears.”

It was pretty simple stuff really. Don’t volunteer, keep it brief and don’t talk for too long, summed up most of what she said. Then she got to the interesting part. She gave me lots of tips on how to play one paper against another. TV rights were a separate issue. By the time she’d finished, I felt much more confident I could handle the media scrum that was bound to follow my return home. She left after about an hour and shortly after Hargrieves returned with a plastic bag over his arm. He laid the bag on the bed as reverentially as if it contained the Queen’s coronation robes and left the room. New underclothes and socks were tucked into a pocket at the side of the bag so I would be dressed in new clothes from the skin out. When I was suited and booted, I looked at myself in the wardrobe mirror.

I could hardly recognise myself from the scruffy individual that had been picked up from the jungle. Then I heard yet another knock at the door. This time it was John Stone. He looked me up and down.

“You’ll do,” he said with a grin. “Ready for your press conference?”

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CHAPTER  57

John led me to a lift and we descended to the ground floor.

“The rest of your friends are already in the conference room lobby.” he said. He held a door open. The door led to the lobby filled with people. For a second I didn’t recognise my companions. The men were all dressed as I was, Hargrieves must have been a very persuasive talker. Even Jeb, the hippiest of hippies was dressed in a dark suit with his hair neatly tied back. We all looked like a group of business executives at a convention. I spotted Emily in the crowd. Her hair and make-up were immaculate. She was wearing a dark skirt and jacket with a white blouse showing between the lapels. Black high heel shoes graced her feet. She looked an entirely different person from the girl I left a few hours ago. A few of them noticed my arrival and waved and smiled at me. John left me and walked over to June Brierly. She nodded at John and he raised his voice to be heard above the chatter.

“Everyone ready?” he asked.

There was a murmur of agreement. 

“We’ve laid out a long table at the end of the room, with room for us all,” said John. “June and I will sit at the centre and start the conference and try to field any awkward questions. If you’re questioned directly, remember what June said. Short answers, try not to go into too much detail.”

He held open a door and shepherded us through. The door opened directly behind the centre of the table and as we filed through, June stood in the doorway and divided us with a touch on our shoulders so we had equal numbers either side of the door. We shuffled along between the back wall and the table until we all had a seat. As we came through the door, the whole room lit up with a blaze of flashlights which left me momentarily nearly blind. I sat down and waited as my eyes slowly regained their sight. It was not a bad thing really, if I’d realised how many people were in the room in front of us, I might have had a severe case of stage fright. As it was, my slowly clearing vision gave me time to get used to the sight of all those eyes and lenses staring at me. After a minute or two, the flashes lessened in intensity, but I still could hardly see the crowd in the room because of the glare of the television lights.  John and June made some introductions and then the questioning began. We were all questioned in turn, answering essentially, the same story. One reporter asked me if it were true we were all naked during our time with the aliens. I answered quite truthfully that I was fully clothed throughout and the others were wearing clothes as soon as we found some. He seemed disappointed with my answer, perhaps he was expecting me to admit to wild orgies while we were in captivity. The conference went on for about an hour, until we had run out of things to say. Mindful of June’s advice, we kept our answers to the bare minimum, so eventually, even the most dedicated reporter realised they were not going to get any more details.

John interrupted one persistent reporter. “Ladies and Gentlemen, I think we’ll wind this up now, these people have had a long day and they are still coming to terms with what they’ve experienced.” He stood up and motioned us to follow him.

I left the conference room with some relief. As we passed through the door into the lobby, I came face to face with a crowd of people. With a start, I realised my parents were among the crowd. My mother rushed over and flung her arms round my neck in what was a most unusual display of emotion. She stepped back and held me at arms length.

“Let me look at you,” she said.

“I haven’t changed, mum,” I said, “I’ve only been gone about three months,”

She shook her head. “It’s been six years for us. I can hardly believe you’re back.”

My father came up to me and warmly shook my hand. “Welcome back son,” he said.

We stood looking at each other for a moment. I thought my parents looked older, but with the strain they’d been under, I wasn’t really surprised.

“You look thinner, son, you need feeding up” said my mother. “We’ve got tickets for home, we can leave whenever you like.”

“Sound’s good, Mum,” I replied. “First, I’d like to introduce you to my friends.”

All our group were talking excitedly to their families, I noticed Natalie surrounded by a group of elderly people. She was holding the arm of a black man about her own age. Clinging to his leg was a small girl. I walked my parents over to her. She saw me coming and turned in my direction.

I nodded to her. “This is Natalie,” I said to my parents, “She looked after me when I was bitten by a rattlesnake.”

My parents shook her hand. “We’ve a lot to thank you for,” said my mother.

Natalie smiled and waved her hand. “I didn’t do that much, we had nothing with us remember. I just kept Oliver hydrated and washed his wound.”

My mother shook her head. “Don’t belittle yourself, my dear, you helped my son, his father and me are very grateful.”

My father standing next to her nodded in agreement.

Natalie gestured to the man next to her. “This is Douglas, my husband and these are our parents.”

We all shook each other’s hands.

“So you’re the snake bite man, Natalie’s told me all about you,” said Douglas.

Not all about me I hope, I thought to myself. I nodded. “That’s right,” I replied, “I was unconscious for about three days after I was dumped in the cell. Natalie and Royston looked after me.”

“Royston?”

“Doctor Howard,” I explained. “In our situation, we were all on first name terms pretty quickly.”

He nodded with understanding. “You were in good hands then, Natalie’s a good nurse, I know that from experience.”

“Are you a doctor? I asked.

Douglas grinned. “Good lord no, I met her when I was in her hospital with an appendicitis.”

As I was speaking to him, I noticed the little girl peering round the back of his leg.

I bent down slightly. “Hello there, what’s your name?” She promptly backed round behind Douglas’s leg.

Douglas reached down and lifted her up in his arms. “This is Jasmine, our daughter, she’s a bit shy with all these people around.”

“Oh, yes, I remember Natalie telling me she had a daughter,” I looked at Natalie, rather puzzled. “I thought you said she was only one year old when we were taken.”

“She was,” said Natalie, “To us, we’ve only been away for a few months. Back here, we’ve been away for over six years, remember.”

Suddenly it clicked. I realised I was seeing a graphic example of the effects of time dilation.  

“At the moment, she doesn’t know who Natalie is.” said Douglas. 

Natalie nodded, looking distressed, “I’m going to have to get to know her all over again.”

My mother touched her arm. “Oh, my dear, how awful for you,” she said.

“The last six years have been hard,” said Douglas. “As the months passed, I began to loose hope I’d ever see Natalie again. I thought I’d be bringing my daughter up on my own.” He held Natalie’s hand. “Now she’s back, we can be a family again.”

My mother who was rather more sensitive to atmosphere than I was, exchanged sympathies with Natalie and Douglas’s parents. She pulled my arm. “I think we should leave Natalie and Douglas alone, they have a lot of catching up to do.”

“We’ll keep in touch,” said Natalie, “NASA have promised to give our addresses to each other when we’re settled.”

We all shook hands with each other and parted. I guided my parents through the crowd, introducing them to members of our group. At the edge of the room, I saw Emily talking to a middle aged man. Was this the boyfriend she’d come to the ranch with, I wondered. As we approached her, I noticed Emily looked rather nervous.

“Hi Emily,” I said, “I’d like you to meet my parents.”

Emily shook their hands in turn and murmured a polite greeting.

“Were you taken at the ranch?” asked my mother. She’d met so many people, I think she was getting confused between the abductees and their families.

“That’s right,” replied Emily, “I was at the ranch with all the others. It was quiet a frightening affair.”

Mother nodded. “Yes, I’m sure it must have been.” She turned to the man standing next to Emily. “You must be her father, you must be pleased to see her back.”

I inwardly winced. What was Emily going to say about that, I thought.

The man smiled and waved his hand in dismissal. “No, I’m not her father. I’m James Cabling, Doctor Hillsons’ head of department.”

Mother smiled at Emily. “Oh are you a doctor? Oliver never said.”

Doctor, Emily? I was speechless. Oliver never said, because Oliver never knew, I thought furiously. Now I knew what the ‘D’ stood for in the picture I’d seen in the paper.

“She’s one of the brightest psychiatrists on our staff you know,” continued Cabling.

I swung round to face Emily so fast, I heard my neck click. The colour had drained from Emily’s face.

“Doctor Hillson?” I said, with a rather pointed emphasis on the doctor.

She nodded. Before she could speak, her companion tapped my arm.

“She was doing a paper on alternative lifestyles.” He gave a booming laugh. “Well, she’s got enough material to fill a book. You can’t get more alternative than being abducted by aliens.”

My parents seemed very interested in what he was saying. While they were engrossed in conversation, I took the opportunity to whisper to Emily.

“I think you owe me an explanation,” I hissed.

Emily nodded her head. “You do, Oliver, but not here.” She touched my arm. “Oliver, I will explain, can you put aside any disillusionment you may have of me until I can speak with you?”

The Emily I thought I knew would not have used a word like disillusionment, she wouldn’t have known what it meant for a start. I realised I was seeing a new Emily.

“When?” I asked.

She shook her head. “I don’t know. It will be a little time.” Her grip on my arm became tighter. “I promise I will explain everything, can you live with that?”

I shrugged. “I suppose I’ll have to,” I replied.

We were interrupted by Cabling tapping Emily’s arm.

“We better make a move, we have a plane to catch, you know,” he said.

Emily nodded and shook my parents hands. She lent over and kissed me chastely on the cheek. As she did so, she whispered in my ear.

“I will explain,” she said.

“She seems a nice girl,” said my father as Emily and Cabling left the room.

“Yes,” I replied thoughtfully, “She’s a very nice girl.”

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CHAPTER 58

It took a while, but eventually, we returned to England. A police escort was waiting for us and we were rushed through customs with barely a pause. We could hardly push our way through the airport building for the crowds waiting for us. If it hadn’t been for the police I think we’d have been there all night. We were whisked to a waiting car and driven smartly off. I still hadn’t had my passport returned so it was just as well the police were there. I could imagine the scene, me, without a passport, being questioned by the customs.

“You have no passport sir, can you tell my where you’ve come from, sir,” they would ask.

“An alien space ship,” I would answer, quite truthfully.

“Of course you have sir, would you come with us please,” they would say, making circular motions at their temples with their fingers. I’d probably end up in the cells or a loony bin.

            The drive to Wiltshire took several hours, but finally, the fleet of cars turned into my parents drive. The policeman in the lead car got out as we approached the front door.

“We’ll leave a couple of officers on duty tonight, sir,” he said. “I’ve been told there’ll be some government people down to see you tomorrow.” He tapped the side of his nose. “Just to put you in the picture.”

I shook his hand. “Thanks, I appreciate the warning,” I said. “It was too much to hope I’d be left alone,” I added.

The policeman grinned. “You’d better believe it,” he said. “Right, we’re off, see you.”

He returned to his car and with a cheery wave, drove away.

The two policemen on duty at our gate helped us through the crowd camped in the road outside our house. There were at least half a dozen vans with dish aerials on their roofs, surrounded by a crowd of reporters, some standing on steps so they could see over the heads of their colleagues. At the door, I turned to them.

“I hope you’ll appreciate we’re very tired, I’ll speak to you in the morning, if that’s all right with you.”

A general clamour broke out at my remark. I held up my hands. “Look, I’m sorry, but we’ve had a long journey and we need our sleep. I will talk to you in the morning.”

We went inside and closed the door, shutting out the noise outside on the road. I collapsed into a chair and kicked my shoes off.

“How about a nice cup of tea,” said my mother, heading for the kitchen.

I smiled to myself, things were almost back to normal.

            The next morning, I woke in the relaxed state that came from sleeping in my own bed again. When I’d won the lottery, I’d bought a house on the outskirts of the town my parents lived in, but my parents had kept my bedroom as it was when I’d left. At the moment, my house was empty save for a few sticks of furniture. I’d bought it because it happened to be the type of house I’d fancied and was for sale at the right time. I’d put off furnishing it until I’d fulfilled my ambition to travel. I turned over and stretched. When all this fuss is over, I’ll move in, I thought, I’ve had enough travelling to last me for a while. The noise outside the window gradually penetrated my brain. When I got out of bed and looked out, I could see my mother handing out tea and sandwiches to the reporters. Good for you, I thought, keep the press sweet. When I’d washed and dressed, I decided I couldn’t put it off any longer. I went outside to meet the press. As I stepped through the front door, a blaze of flashes greeted me. I wondered briefly why they were using flash guns in broad daylight and put the thought aside as I braced myself for the barrage of questions. I was outside with the press for about half an hour when two large cars swept up to our gate. Half a dozen men got out and as they approached our gate, the police on duty saluted them. The men pushed forward and the press parted like the Red Sea to let them through.

“Mr. Nesbitt?” asked one of the men. I thought the question was a bit superfluous as most of the literate world knew who I was if the papers I had read were anything to go by.

I nodded, and indicated the door. “Come in,” I said.

When we were seated in the lounge, the men introduced themselves. Two of them were dressed in military uniforms, three were scientists and their spokesman was a civil servant from some sort of technology ministry.

I didn’t bother to try and remember their names, because I had an idea these wouldn’t be the first group from the government I’d meet.

“We’ve had a briefing from the American government,” said their spokesman, “But we’d like you to tell us as much as you can remember.”

So I told my story again. The briefing I’d gone through at the Space Centre gave me a good idea what they wanted and by mid afternoon, they had put away their notes and mini recorders and were ready to leave. The civil servant paused in the act of packing his briefcase.

“One last thing, Mr. Nesbitt, would you be prepared to undergo a medical examination?” he asked.

I shook my head. “Absolutely not,” I said, remembering the previous medical I’d gone through and not wanting to repeat it. “Contact the Johnson Space Centre, I had a thorough medical there, they’ll have all my records.”

The man frowned. “That could make things difficult. We need to know you’re not contagious. Your freedom could be limited until we’re sure.”

I was startled, that sounded like a veiled threat. “What, don’t you trust the American doctors?” I asked rather pointedly.

“I’m sure they’re competent, but we need to make sure for ourselves,” he replied rather haughtily.

My blood started to boil. “I know,” I said, “Let’s go outside and tell the press you want to restrict my freedom as you put it, unless I agree to your demands.” I was getting even more angry now. I pointed a finger at him. “If you try anything, this is the last interview you’ll get from me. I’ll bugger off back to America and that’ll be the last you’ll see of me.”

He stepped back, waving his hands in a placatory gesture. “No, no, Mr. Nesbitt, it won’t come to that. I’m sure the records of the medical you had in America will be sufficient.”

I had him now, I don’t think he expected me to bite back so harshly. They say travel broadens the mind. I’d done more travelling in three months than this bastard had done in his life. I nodded.

“Right then, let’s hear no more about medicals and restricted freedom, OK?”

He nodded jerkily and cleared his throat. “You will agree to more interviews?”

“Yes, but I think we’ll call it a day for now,” I stood up. “I’ll see you out.”

Just for the hell of it, as soon as they had gone, I repeated word for word what he’d said to the press outside. Bloody civil servants, I thought, that’ll show ‘em.

            It took weeks before the press decamped from outside my parents house. I had numerous private interviews with the press and arranged a lucrative contract with one paper for my exclusive story. I don’t know what they thought they were buying, because forgetting June Brierly’s advice, I’d been rather too free with the press previously, so most of the details were already published. TV interviews and innumerable requests from documentary makers flooded in and in desperation, I hired an agent to speak for me. He fended off the worst of the pressure and also suggested I write a book of my experiences. On the face of it, it seemed like a good idea, but the thought worried me, not having a literary brain cell in my head. It was actually easier than I thought it would be. I just put my thoughts into a mini recorder and a ghost writer cobbled it together. I learnt later a lot of ‘celebrity’ books were written that way. After four months, the clamour died down to the extent I could go shopping in the town without too many people staring at me. I arranged for my new house to be decorated and furnished and then moved in. It was OK living with my parents, but now I wanted the privacy I couldn’t have living with them. I installed a computer and in a short time, I was in contact with most of the abductees. Lisa sent me a beautiful statue of a Sticky she’d made, which took pride of place on my mantelshelf. The only person I couldn’t contact was Emily. She wouldn’t answer my e-mails and when I searched for her name on the internet, only the information that was already public knowledge was available. Unlike the rest of us, there was nothing about what she was doing now or what her plans for the future were. She seemed to have dropped completely out of sight. After I while, I resigned myself to the fact I’d never see or hear from her again.

            One evening, about six months after my return, I was watching a documentary about the ranch and the abduction. I noticed the film made a lot of use of Jeb’s computer graphics in the show. Good for him, I thought, he’d really made a name for himself. It made me  wonder what I was going to do with the rest of my life. I was getting restless and wondered if I could start travelling again. Now the excitement of our return had died down, I could probably travel anonymously as I had done before all this had happened. A ring of the doorbell interrupted my musing. I tutted to myself, another bloody reporter. I thought they’d have given up on me by now. I heaved myself out of my chair, walked down the hall and opened the door. Standing on the doorstep was Emily.

“Hello Oliver,” she said.

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CHAPTER 59

I stood there for a moment, just staring at her. Then I stood back and beckoned her in, not sure what to say to her.

She gestured at a car waiting on the road outside my house. “I’ve got my cases in the car, do I bring them in?”

“Yeah, sure, why not,” I replied, and followed her back down the path to the front gate. I lifted her cases out of the car while she was paying off the driver. Back inside, I put the cases down in the hall and shut the door.

“You took your time,” I said, “It’s been nearly six months since I last saw you.”

She nodded. “I know, Oliver, I had things to do, things to clear up.”

“Come through into the lounge,” I said. “Have you eaten?”

She nodded. “At the airport.”

“Coffee then?”

She nodded again. “That would be nice.”

We were circling each other like a couple of stray dogs, not sure what to make of each other. There was none of the cosy familiarity that had existed before. She followed me into the kitchen and lent against the worktop while I made the coffees. I took the cups into the lounge and we sat down facing each other.

“Right, let’s get one thing straight,” I said. “Are you really a doctor, and a psychiatrist?”

She nodded. “I did seven years training at medical school and another three years training on top of that.”

I shook my head. There was such a contrast between the smart, confident looking woman in front of me and the air head who’d accompanied Natalie and me on the Sticky ship. I was having trouble getting my head round it.

“So why the act,” I asked. “You behaved as if you only had five working brain cells. Didn’t you know what people were saying about you behind your back?”

“Of course I knew,” she replied. “But once I’d started it at the ranch, it was difficult to drop the act.” She paused and drank some coffee. “It was only meant to be a working holiday at the ranch for a couple of weeks, our abduction rather changed things. My stay at the ranch was the final part of the research I’d been working on for about eight months. Anyway, I decided to carry on with the act in the hope I could finish what I’d started. I know that might seem wildly optimistic considering our circumstances at the time, but I thought if we ever did get back home, I could publish my work.”

“The paper that man at the press conference talked about,” I said.

She nodded. “The ranch was the perfect place to gather data. I was a bit hesitant at first about taking my clothes off, but if I wanted to fit in, it was something I had to do. It was all right after a while, I got used to it.”

“I still don’t understand why the dumb act.” I said.

She gave me a brief smile. “You’ve got to agree I’ve got the figure and face for it. People don’t put on a false front if they think I’m so dumb I won’t know what they’re saying or doing.” She paused. “I’m not being conceited when I say I know I’m good looking. It isn’t always an advantage you know, sometimes it takes a while before people take me seriously. In this case, I took advantage of my looks.”

I sighed. “Well you fooled me, you fooled all of us.” I said rather accusingly.

“I can only apologise Oliver, I didn’t mean to hurt your feelings. I tried to think of a way of telling you once we were on our way home, but I couldn’t come up with anything.”

“So you hoped it wouldn’t come out at all, is that it?” I asked.

She shook her head. “I was planning to tell you later. Professor Cabling rather spoiled that plan.”

“So what was all that about with Jeb. When I first arrived in the cell, and for most of the time afterwards, you wouldn’t leave him alone. Then you switched to me, what was all that about.”

She took another drink of coffee before answering. I didn’t have to be a psychiatrist to realise she was using the pause to gather her thoughts.

She put down the cup. “When we were taken, most of the men and women got together almost immediately.” She held up her hand. “I’m not criticizing, they were free spirits who thought they were never going home. I didn’t want to join in, so I attached myself to Jeb.”

“Didn’t Jeb want to, you know,” I said.

She shook her head. “Jeb’s gay. He doesn’t keep it a secret, he just doesn’t advertise it to the world.” She lent forwards. “I’ll tell you confidentially, he hoped you might be gay, I had to set him straight on that one.”

That shook me rigid. I remembered the time Jeb and I first explored the roof above our cell. I tried to think back, but I couldn’t remember anything he said or did that would’ve given me a clue about his sexuality.

“Well thanks for that,”  I said. I had a thought. “If Jeb didn’t advertise he was gay, how did you know. And how come you were so sure I wasn’t gay?”

She smiled. “I’m a psychiatrist, remember? Jeb finally told me in so many words I had no chance with him, but he allowed me to tag along just for appearances sake. I was sure you weren’t gay and that was confirmed when you got together with Natalie.”

“But what about when you came on to me, was that for appearances sake. I’m thinking of your little stunt with the leaves and climbing into bed with me at the space centre.”

She stared at me. “I’ll be perfectly frank with you Oliver. I fancy you like mad. When you and Natalie got together, I realised I couldn’t do anything about it. Once you and she had broken up, that was a different matter.”

I gave a short laugh. “Well, your dumb act backfired on you. At first, I was cut up about me and Natalie breaking up. I was always fond of you, but as we spent more time together, it grew a lot stronger. But because of your act, I just couldn’t do anything about it. At the time, I felt I would be taking advantage of someone who wasn’t that bright.”

She nodded. “I realised that and that strengthened my affection for you even more. I must confess, I was seeing how far I could go before you made a move on me. The fact you didn’t just made me fancy you even more.”

That gave me something to think about. I was silent for a moment as I mulled over what she had just said. A thought came to mind.

“If you fancied me that much, why wait so long to see me again,” I asked. “It’s been nearly six months since we got back.”

She smiled. “I wanted to finish my paper, after all that had happened, I felt I just had to complete it.” She held up her hand. “You won’t find it in any best sellers list, just a couple of scientific journals.”

“I’d have thought anything written by one of our group would be a best seller,” I replied.

She shook her head. “No chance of that. I wrote it under a pseudonym on Professor Cabling’s advice. We wanted the paper accepted on it’s merit, not just because I was one of the Summer House Ranch abductees. A couple of sayings are the other answer as to why I waited so long. Absence makes the heart grow fonder and out of sight, out of mind. I had to decide which applied to me. I had to be sure my feelings for you were not because you were, in my opinion, the best male in our small group. I had to see if my feelings were just as strong for you once I was back in normal society, with a large group of available men.” She paused. “The fact I’m here should show you which decision I made. I just hoped I hadn’t left it too long.”

“So your feelings are just as strong,” I said.

She nodded.

“What if I’d taken what you were offering on the planet and during our spell in quarantine, would that have changed anything?” I asked.

She shook her head. “No I don’t think it would,” she answered.

“More fool me, then,” I said rather bitterly.

She jumped up and sat on the arm of my chair. She rested her hand on my shoulder. “Never say that, Oliver. Out of all the people in the cell, you treated me the best, you never patronised me even though you must have thought I was really dim, you even rescued me when I fell through the roof.”

“Was that part of the act,” I asked.

 She shook her head. “No that was for real, I could have kicked myself for putting us all in danger, I don’t know what I was thinking of.”

I waved my hand in dismissal. “We can’t always be in control of the situation,” I said. “By the way, you almost gave yourself away a couple of times. I was starting to wonder about you, you know.”

She nodded slowly. “I only ever picked that up a couple of times.  When we got out of that room with the gas and when we were looking at the machinery when we first went in the rescue base on the planet. I realised I’d been a bit too knowledgeable about the machinery. That’s why I pretended to suddenly get Jeb’s story about the little people in the tall grass, to put you off. Perhaps I’m not such a good psychiatrist as I think I am.”

I patted her hand. “Don’t say that, Emily. I think you’d be good at whatever you set out to do.”

She smiled. “I wasn’t that good at seducing you, was I.”

“You could always try again,” I said with a grin.

She lent forwards, “So I could,” she whispered. “Do you want any more of that coffee?”

I shook my head.

“Let’s go to bed then,” she said.

            Emily stayed the night and the next day as well. Being a gentleman, I’m not one to kiss and tell but, well, you can guess the rest. After a week it seemed the most natural thing in the world that she should move in for good. A few weeks later, she sent her resignation to her university and a few months after that, we were married. The papers made a bit of a splash of it at the time, but it soon faded from the headlines. Then we had a good long talk about what we would do with the rest of our lives. I still had the rest of the world to explore and the money to do it with. I never did get my camera back so I had all those places to re-visit and pictures to take so I’d have something to look at when I was old and grey. Emily was as enthusiastic about it as I was, so we set off together. The only thing we resolved to do, was to stay clear of ranches in the desert. One abduction was enough in anyone’s lifetime. They say lightning never strikes the same place twice, but we didn’t want to push our luck.

                                 THE END

Copyright © 2010 Robert Paisley

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