Part 27 - The Answering Machine
April 7th 2007 00:48
Charging to the control room, Hu yelled to Ru, “What do you mean, ‘there are 42 molecular bombs on board’?”
Over his shoulder Ru replied, “Well by the sounds of it there are now only 36, but we still have a fair supply of genetic grenades and string disruptor lasers.”
“Enough for what?” To her it sounded like enough to destroy themselves in one great big bang if they stepped in the wrong place or hit the wrong button.
“For whatever, you know; things!” he hollered between pants.
“Did you bring these weapons on board?” Hu was especially displeased
“Yes!” he said. When Ru was younger he spent his time buzzing around small moons in his flyer taking pot-shots at asteroids. One day the asteroid he was shooting turned out to be a bus-load of pensioners being ferried from the planet to a waiting holiday liner. There were 16 fatalities. Ru didn’t spend any time in custody, his family was lucky enough to know people in high places, and officially the whole matter was an unfortunate accident.
Ru had been long way down the path to self destruction when La tamed him with his ideals and values of living peacefully and quietly. It seemed he was instantly cured of his childhood fixations of shooting and guns. Hu was now wondering if he really had changed. He'd brought weapons on a mission of peace.
“Was Bo aware of these weapons you brought on board?” she asked.
“Yes, of course. She knew the dangers of deep space as well as anyone.”
“But I’m the captain of this ship now. Why didn’t you tell me about them? What other secrets have you kept from me?”
He slowed down to let Hu catch up then stopped running all together. “There’s nothing you don’t know. I wasn’t keeping this from you; I simply forgot about it.”
“We’ve sat here in this ship for two thousand years and, in all that time, during the quiet moments, the time when we couldn’t think of anything to say or the times we were just hanging about together, it never crossed your mind, not once, to let me know we’ve got enough weaponry to destroy half this planet?”
“We really don’t have time to talk about this now…” he began.
“I think we do,” Hu interrupted.
“No we don’t, we’ve only got seconds to get to the control room and send out the rescind signal to those missiles so they don’t blow up what ever it is the ship thinks is up there.”
“You mean they didn’t go off by accident?”
“No, the ship is programmed to protect us from any interference from our Galaxy. Those missiles had to have fired because someone from ‘The Cream for All’ has come and found us.”
They both shot hallway again. When they arrived at the control room Hu was first to see the message on the monitor screen.
“Oh heck! What’s a DisQuientian Star Cruiser doing here?”
Ru looked at her, pale faced. “DisQuientian? Are you sure?” he peered at the monitor.
“Yes, it’s in orbit!” Hu confirmed.
Ru had stopped listening and moved to another monitor, his eyes were scanning through log files scrolling across the screen.
“What are you doing?” Hu said. “Send the rescind command!”
He continued to scan the files. “Hang on,” he said, “I need the correct code from the log, otherwise they might detonate while still in the planet’s atmosphere.” He watched the screen for a moment longer and said, “Press the blue button to the left of the number pad then enter these numbers.” Hu did as she was told then Ru called a series of numbers. She repeated them and entered each one into on number pad.
When the sequence was finished Ru gave the command, “Enter!”
Hu hit red Enter button and it crumbled under the weight of her thumb. She said, “I can’t believe it.”
“What happened?” Ru asked.
“The Enter button, it’s broken.”
Ru ran to her side. He looked at the crushed button then at the main monitor screen. “The sequence didn’t get sent.”
“Can we resend the sequence from one of the other keypads?”
“No, it’s too late. The missiles are out of range. We may very well have destroyed the only other survivors from our world.”
Not ready to concede defeat Hu asked, “How long before they hit the target?”
“Another eight minutes, perhaps six.”
Almost leaping over Ru’s head Hu crossed the room to the ship’s radio. “We’ve got to warn them.” She stabbed at the Radio’s communicate button, a little more delicately this time, but the radio didn’t respond. “What’s going on, is everything falling to pieces?”
“Look!” said Ru, “The flashing light, someone’s left us a message!”
Hu gently pressed the rewind button, then play. There was a short beep before a very familiar voice came out of the dashboard’s speakers.
“Bo, sweetheart, it’s Dadda and Mumma come to save you sweetums!” said the voice of Ga Gantuar, oozed like treacle. “Have you been eating? I hope you’ve been sleeping with your orthodontic plate, you don’t want crooked teeth,” he was interrupted by his wife.
“Bo, what are you doing here? Call us as the minute you get this message!”
Hu stared at the answering machine, “We’re in big trouble.”
Over his shoulder Ru replied, “Well by the sounds of it there are now only 36, but we still have a fair supply of genetic grenades and string disruptor lasers.”
“Enough for what?” To her it sounded like enough to destroy themselves in one great big bang if they stepped in the wrong place or hit the wrong button.
“For whatever, you know; things!” he hollered between pants.
“Did you bring these weapons on board?” Hu was especially displeased
“Yes!” he said. When Ru was younger he spent his time buzzing around small moons in his flyer taking pot-shots at asteroids. One day the asteroid he was shooting turned out to be a bus-load of pensioners being ferried from the planet to a waiting holiday liner. There were 16 fatalities. Ru didn’t spend any time in custody, his family was lucky enough to know people in high places, and officially the whole matter was an unfortunate accident.
Ru had been long way down the path to self destruction when La tamed him with his ideals and values of living peacefully and quietly. It seemed he was instantly cured of his childhood fixations of shooting and guns. Hu was now wondering if he really had changed. He'd brought weapons on a mission of peace.
“Was Bo aware of these weapons you brought on board?” she asked.
“Yes, of course. She knew the dangers of deep space as well as anyone.”
“But I’m the captain of this ship now. Why didn’t you tell me about them? What other secrets have you kept from me?”
He slowed down to let Hu catch up then stopped running all together. “There’s nothing you don’t know. I wasn’t keeping this from you; I simply forgot about it.”
“We’ve sat here in this ship for two thousand years and, in all that time, during the quiet moments, the time when we couldn’t think of anything to say or the times we were just hanging about together, it never crossed your mind, not once, to let me know we’ve got enough weaponry to destroy half this planet?”
“We really don’t have time to talk about this now…” he began.
“I think we do,” Hu interrupted.
“No we don’t, we’ve only got seconds to get to the control room and send out the rescind signal to those missiles so they don’t blow up what ever it is the ship thinks is up there.”
“You mean they didn’t go off by accident?”
“No, the ship is programmed to protect us from any interference from our Galaxy. Those missiles had to have fired because someone from ‘The Cream for All’ has come and found us.”
They both shot hallway again. When they arrived at the control room Hu was first to see the message on the monitor screen.
“Oh heck! What’s a DisQuientian Star Cruiser doing here?”
Ru looked at her, pale faced. “DisQuientian? Are you sure?” he peered at the monitor.
“Yes, it’s in orbit!” Hu confirmed.
Ru had stopped listening and moved to another monitor, his eyes were scanning through log files scrolling across the screen.
“What are you doing?” Hu said. “Send the rescind command!”
He continued to scan the files. “Hang on,” he said, “I need the correct code from the log, otherwise they might detonate while still in the planet’s atmosphere.” He watched the screen for a moment longer and said, “Press the blue button to the left of the number pad then enter these numbers.” Hu did as she was told then Ru called a series of numbers. She repeated them and entered each one into on number pad.
When the sequence was finished Ru gave the command, “Enter!”
Hu hit red Enter button and it crumbled under the weight of her thumb. She said, “I can’t believe it.”
“What happened?” Ru asked.
“The Enter button, it’s broken.”
Ru ran to her side. He looked at the crushed button then at the main monitor screen. “The sequence didn’t get sent.”
“Can we resend the sequence from one of the other keypads?”
“No, it’s too late. The missiles are out of range. We may very well have destroyed the only other survivors from our world.”
Not ready to concede defeat Hu asked, “How long before they hit the target?”
“Another eight minutes, perhaps six.”
Almost leaping over Ru’s head Hu crossed the room to the ship’s radio. “We’ve got to warn them.” She stabbed at the Radio’s communicate button, a little more delicately this time, but the radio didn’t respond. “What’s going on, is everything falling to pieces?”
“Look!” said Ru, “The flashing light, someone’s left us a message!”
Hu gently pressed the rewind button, then play. There was a short beep before a very familiar voice came out of the dashboard’s speakers.
“Bo, sweetheart, it’s Dadda and Mumma come to save you sweetums!” said the voice of Ga Gantuar, oozed like treacle. “Have you been eating? I hope you’ve been sleeping with your orthodontic plate, you don’t want crooked teeth,” he was interrupted by his wife.
“Bo, what are you doing here? Call us as the minute you get this message!”
Hu stared at the answering machine, “We’re in big trouble.”
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