Jeff sighed and took the handheld out of his belt pouch. “Austin here. Come in.”
“Irons,” the major responded curtly.
“We have a problem.”
“Speak!”
“There are no controls for the airlock. We can’t even get the outer hatch open.”
“Understood. Keep looking for a solution.”
“Yes, Sir.”
Jeff remembered the moment they had come into the airlock from outside. They’d been surprised then that there were no controls. The computer had apparently opened the hatches for them. He got an uneasy feeling.
He pressed on the talk button again. “What if the airlock can only be operated by the computer?”
Castle swung round and frowned at Jeff. “That would be pretty dumb.”
A few seconds passed before Irons answered. “If there really are no manual controls in there, it’s the logical answer.”
“Maybe there were once manual controls but they were removed when the ship was reconstructed after the crew left,” Joanne said.
“Try it,” Irons said. “Call the computer.”
Castle waved his hand dismissively. “I bet it’s sleeping again.”
Jeff took a deep breath. “Computer,” he said loudly and found himself looking upward. “Can you hear me?”
Several long seconds passed. Then the familiar crackling sound filled the room. “I can hear you, Jeff Austin. How can I help?”
Jeff blinked.
He knows my name?
Not so dumb, that computer. “Well, er…”
He fell silent. He couldn’t say they wanted to go outside to find out their position and check the computer was telling them the truth. The computer would interpret it as distrust. “Um, we’d like to use the airlock to make some measurements.”
“Measurements? What for?”
“Um, it’s routine according to our protocols. I mean, for our logbooks.”
“I understand,” the computer said.
Did he detect an amused undertone in the voice?
“So it is not an emergency?” the computer asked.
Jeff shook his head. “No. It’s not an emergency.”
“I’m sorry,” the computer replied. “While in flight, the locks can only be opened in an emergency.”
So that was that.
“Major?” Jeff asked.
“I heard. Come back to HQ,” Irons said in his usual, matter-of-fact tone.
“Understood.”
“Is there anything else I can do for you?” the computer asked.
Jeff sighed. “No, that’s all. Thank you.”
“Then I wish you a pleasant day.”
“Thanks,” Jeff replied automatically. “You too.”
The crackling sound indicated that the computer had switched off again. Something was bothering Jeff, but he couldn’t put his finger on what.
“Did I hear that right?” Castle asked. “We’re trapped in here and aren’t allowed out?”
Joanne laughed out loud. “That’s an interesting interpretation of our situation!”
“Why do you mean?” Jeff asked.
“Even if the computer let us out, where would we go?” She laughed again. “We’re trapped, whatever way you look at it.”
“Let’s go back,” Jeff said, signaling to Castle to lead the way with the flashlight.
“Still, I would have liked to know our actual position,” Joanne said.
“Maybe we’re not supposed to find out,” Castle said darkly.
8.
“So we’re trapped inside this alien ship. There’s no other way of looking at it, really,” Jeff said, listlessly stabbing at his steak with his fork. At least his headache had gone.
Irons shook his head. “I’m not too worried about that. If we really want to go outside, then we’ll go outside.”
“And how?” Fields asked.
“You should know best, Corporal.” The major pointed at the sled standing in the corner with the emergency equipment. “You packed the thing.”
Fields gave it a brief glance and shrugged.
“The emergency kit contains two kilos of FOX-7. That’s ten times enough to blow us through the outer shell of the ship.”
Jeff scratched his head. Could it work? Would the ship’s computer even allow it? Hopefully they would never get to the point where they would have to try it.
“And how do we check our position?” We have no way of finding out if the ship is really heading for Sigma-7.”
Irons nodded. “That’s true, and I would have liked to verify our position, but I’ll say it again, loud and clear. We have no reason to distrust our host. It could have just left us outside.”
“Do you think it doesn’t want us to check our position?” Joanne asked.
“It seems kind of far-fetched to me that the airlock can only be opened in emergencies,” Castle said.
“I disagree,” Irons retorted. “We have very similar protocols on our ships. In fact we should have expected it. Imagine we took a handful of shipwrecked aliens onto our ship, and they wanted to open the airlock during flight. What would we do?”
“Put them into a detention cell until we got to our destination,” Finni said dryly.
Irons had a point. Maybe they were being a bit paranoid.
“Lieutenant Green,” Irons said. “Everything OK?”
Jeff turned to look down the table. The engineer was sitting motionless in his seat and staring right through the major with glassy eyes. It suddenly occurred to Jeff that the normally loquacious Green hadn’t said a word during dinner. He obviously wasn’t feeling well. He was white as a sheet and drooling slightly from the corner of his mouth.
“Lieutenant Green?” Irons repeated.
Finally the engineer focused his gaze. “Sorry. I’m not feeling so great.” His voice was no more than a thin rasp.
“Is your headache still so bad? Do you want some painkillers?”
Green shook his head. “No, I’m starting to feel better.”
Jeff thought about his own headache, which he hadn’t mentioned to anyone. If it was infectious, then the major ought to know. “I didn’t feel too good this morning, either,” Jeff said quietly. “I had a terrible headache.”
Irons swung round to look at him. “Why didn’t you say anything? I would have sent someone in your place.”
“That’s just what I wanted to avoid,” Jeff said. “Besides, it wasn’t that bad.”
Joanne raised her right hand tentatively. “I didn’t feel too good yesterday.”
“You too?” Irons raised his eyebrows. He blinked.
“It went away very quickly.”
Irons nodded. “Well it seems there’s some kind of virus going around. Anyone else?”
Castle and Fields raised their hands.
“Yesterday,” the WSO replied.
“Last night,” said the mechanic. “I woke up two or three times in the night and nearly took a pill. But it wasn’t all that bad and this morning it had gone.”
“Then it seems to be some kid of mild infection, if nobody feels too bad,” Irons said.
“Apart from him,” Castle gestured with his thumb to Green, who was sitting beside him.
“We probably brought the virus with us from Sigma-7 and infected each other in the bomber during the incubation period.” Irons turned to Green. “Go to bed. It looks like you’re not hungry, anyway. Off with you, and have a proper lie-in tomorrow morning.”
Green nodded. “Thanks, Sir.” The engineer stood up and almost collapsed. He clung to the back of his chair with some difficulty.
“Lieutenant Castle, please bring your shipmate to his room,” Irons ordered.
The WSO was about to stand up but Green raised his hand. “S’OK. I’m all right.”
“You sure?” Castle asked.
“Sure,” Green answered, and dragged himself to the door.
“I hope we didn’t catch something on this ship,” Joanne said after Green had disappeared. “I mean, something alien.”