Space Recall - Star Warriors Read online

ideal base for him to explore from, soon he had a worn grey space suit on and venturing out into the dangerous space terminal though a disused air lock. Mars entered the terminal from behind skips which contained raw samples that awaited analysis in Halley’s lab, he sifted through them one by one until he found fossils among fragmented pieces of stone. He laid his findings on top so she would find them.

  Mars stealthily moved on to the loading bays and examined the latest series of service robots and activated one while it remained restrained in its crate. He would see it soon in teams that worked on the Eco Zone Farm. He passed by the departure terminal being careful not to be sucked out to space in the wake of an outgoing vessel and sat for a while watching Wolfe’s fitters in the maintenance bay, refitting new engines to a craft. Mars wondered on until he came to his favourite place in the terminal, the quarantine bays. No unauthorised personnel were allowed inside, however he knew the security code to enter. Once inside he was able to see the craft that brought him to this outpost in space, it was the only thing that could return him to his homeland wherever that may be. He took a few steps toward it and watched as it reacted to his presence. The silver ship as if by magic began to glow and hover above the ground, in appreciation of the many painstaking hours he and Wolfe had spent refitting so it nearly looked like new. The sight always made him smile and wonder if he would ever be able to fly in it.

  No sooner had he wandered around the craft was it time to make his way back to his quarters, he would come back soon with Wolfe to finish off the last remaining tweaks that would see the craft reborn from a wreck.

  Mars left all the noise behind as he re-entered the old locker room. He took off the spacesuit and hung it back in the locker before banging the door shut. There was a thud as the next locker’s door opened, there before him was a spacesuit with a motif. He looked more closely at the sleeve and discovered with some alarm a multi-coloured flag with his tattoo set within it. How long had it been there? Who did it belong to? He was not the only alien on the space station.

  Mars put the suit away and returned to his cabin before he was missed. Halley would be awake soon and he needed to get changed. On the cabins wall to his right he pressed the buttons, which retracted his bunk and opened units where his uniforms were stored. All of his clothes were laid out, neatly packed together in vacuum bags he reached above his head and collected a warm wear top, some bottoms and a new pair of socks. He opened the bags and pulled his clothes out, each piece had a soft flexible feel, extremely durable and almost impossible to damage. The material they were made from was a modern insulation fabric, designed to protect the wearer from extremely cold temperatures. All garments had the IGE logo and his new name printed on them along with the trademark lime pastel colour, which signified Mars, was part of the scientific community.

  Mars liked the feel of the garments; each seemed cool but warmed instantly to his body temperature as the material slid over the contours of his body. ‘How do they make these so comfortable?’ Mars bent over collected his dirty clothes and carried them into the hallway; the lighting adjusted and became brighter as the sensor picked up his movement. He slid the clothes into a hatch market laundry, and walked back toward the living area. Here was everything you needed to spend a day away from the space station’s grinding way of life. A food dispenser, an interactive console combined all entertainment and communications, in the form of a wall mounted wafer thin screen that was surrounded by comfortable chairs.

  He pushed a few buttons on the food dispenser to receive his breakfast a full cereal bowl and thought about the mysterious spacesuit. Was it possible for someone to sneak onto the station? Once here could anyone survive hiding in the ducting or had they managed to become part of the population here as he had? It excited him that there could be someone from his home planet. He would have to investigate but for know he would keep it to himself.

  He broke away from his thoughts, his attention caught by an alert coming from the console on the wall, the display read:

  EVE SYSTEM, MAVERICK Space Station, Temperature 38 degrees: 07.30hrs JANUARY 20, 3050. Mars could see the communicator menu flashing with an alert about incoming mail.

  A message for Dr Halley Magellan from Wolfe Magellan began, ‘Will be home approximately ten hours.’ Mars put his breakfast down on the table and rushed off excitedly to wake his mother and sister.

  ‘Quick get up! There’s a message from dad! Come and have a look!'

  At that point the whole Magellan household was awake, excited and full of energy in anticipation of their fathers return. Mars’s mum, Halley got out of bed quickly and ran over to the console display, whilst Capella dragged herself yawning and scratching her head as young teenagers do. She dragged her feet on the floor and then stuck her tongue out at Mars as she passed him by to get herself a fruit juice.

  They settled down before viewing the video message together. ‘Just to let you guys know the container ship I’ve been working on is due to be re-commissioned, we’ll be setting off for Maverick in approx one hours time. I will see you guys in about 10 hours, signing off Wolfe Magellan.’ His bearded rugged face disappeared from the screen.

  Halley looked at the details, the message was dated 22.00 hrs JANUARY 19, 3050. Oh my god. ‘Wolfe’s going to be home real soon kids,’ she informed them.

  Not long afterwards Mars heard Wolfe swipe his way into the quarters, he had his away bag slung over his shoulders and a large box in his hand. He put the box down in the passageway, as everyone rushed towards him with smiles on their faces.

  In his deep voice he spoke, ‘Now then kid’s, I did not mention it before, but I need to tell you there’s going to be another addition to the family,’ he laughed, and knelt down to the box and turned it around. ‘I could not resist salvaging something from the cargo on that vessel, and here it is an engineering robo dog,’ he said proudly as he pointed to the box.

  ‘Don’t know what Sweeny’s going to make of that,’ Capella said sharply looking over to her bedroom doorway. The canary coloured quail made his entrance with territorial chattering towards the brown box. When the family gathered together for breakfast, Sweeney stayed to investigate the box in greater detail.

  After a quick drink, of coffee Wolfe sat down in front of the communicator and quickly processed the paperwork for the materials and personnel used on the mission. It had taken his dad’s team of Astro-technicians five days to repair the damaged engine conduits and relay new communication cables from the main controls to the engine of the stricken vessel. The final day onboard was spent putting the ship through its paces before passing the vessel space worthy for return into cargo transportation. Eventually he typed in his final message. ‘A COMPLETE SUCCESS - see detailed documents for materials and costs associated with the project.’

  Wolfe accessed his latest communication, frowned whilst reading a message. ‘A decision from MSE about space exploration is due to be released this week, and the outcome does not look favourable,’ he paused for a moment and then continued. ‘That might be the last recovery mission I’ll be sent on, before we’re recalled to Earth.’

  He turned to his family and put his previous worries aside. ‘Your mother and I have both been working so hard. I think everyone deserves a break today.’ He insisted they should have some recreation time together as a family, so booked a block of time in his diary for the weekend. ‘Mars we’ll go to one of your favourite places in the restricted zone, for a swim a dive and a picnic.’

  Mars was overjoyed at the prospect of visiting the Eco Zone and quickly rushed off to gather his swimwear and towel. ‘This is going to be a lovely day after all.’

  Before they left on their excursion, refreshments were ordered from the cafe Expresso, a mixture of sandwiches and dips along with snacks and drinks. Wolfe adored Italian cuisine and knew the olive skinned owner Giuseppe extremely well, an authentic Italian who had been brought up in Sorrento on the Italian Riviera close to the Isle of Capri. Minutes later they were organis
ed, Wolfe brought along two compact space oxygen bottles and the diving tubes. They added a small wind up portable radio, which could be tuned into the stations channels, a good magazine, to help Haley relax on their lazy day of fun.

  Mars opened the doorway and stepped outside into the corridor, showing a row of doors that were their neighbours. Maverick was a Quad Type II Space Station, of four spheres. The busiest sphere by far was the one they were walking through. The residential, recreational and IGE office Zones were all located here. It was home to three hundred permanent personnel.

  They made their way down in the lift, which would take them down to the central area of the sphere. When they exited the lift an artificial skyline appeared in bright contrast, and they sheltered their eyes from a mid summers day. Before them lay a state of the art continental town centre with one main street and narrow side streets, it had a variety of buildings from the four floors of a bakery to the tallest hotels high rise blocks towering above them that accommodated space tourists on their cruise through newly navigated solar systems. The remainder of the town comprised of a town hall - this was the first floor of IGE offices, a cinema, bowling