Okay, just so you’re up to speed here, in the past week the updated version of OutBound was posted, then sections 5.11 and 5.12 of this series. You’d probably find yourself more than a little confused if you read the current section without picking off the other two first. If you never got through Hyperion, Agamemnon, and Nostromo you’re going to lost. If The 88th Key and Come Alive mean nothing to you, so will this storyline. OutBound has, of course, no connection with the TimeShadow series. The section you’re reading now was only around four pages single spaced, so not a long one – as these things go. If you are all caught up, have fun.

Time for a cup of tea? Maybe, especially if you’re not all caught up.

Music? Try Red Bandana by Randy Newman for a grin. Need something lighter? Dear Boy, by Paul and Linda McCartney ought to take you there.

Okay, hang on…

5.13

Callahan was tired of zero-G, of the almost non-stop nausea that had troubled him since his first moments on Hyperion, yet the feeling he’d experienced on Pak’s ship had been even worse. The smell had gotten to him within moments of his arrival, even in the medical section, a smell best described as something trapped between a pair of moldy old sneakers and a bowl of parmesan cheese – maybe that had been sitting out in the sun too long. The smell had grown worse as they’d passed by the sleeping quarters on Pak’s ship, which he’d passed on his way out to the shuttle. The bathroom facilities on Pak’s ship were surreal too, engineered for people nine to twelve feet tall, so he’d felt like a kid again, with his good foot dangling several inches over the floor. Of course…when he sat some kind of suction flush mechanism starting whirring away, the fluttering ‘air’ rippling across his nether regions, and that had made it almost impossible concentrate. Callahan felt grateful that his stay on Pak’s ship was going to be relatively brief.

Yet somehow the smell inside their shuttle was even worse. Sardines in rotting eggs, he thought…

Then he’d craned his head and managed to look out the window above his seat as the shuttle lifted off, and he finally saw the entire length of Pak’s ship, a good enough view to see the firepower under his command – and then he’d felt Ripley leaning with him, trying to catch a glimpse of her own.

“That’s a big ship,” Harry muttered under his breath.

“I don’t see any drive mechanism, and no fuel tanks,” she said, her voice barely above a whisper. “And why keep your shuttles and attack ships outside the ship?”

“How long do you think it is?”

“Hard to see…no reference out here…maybe five, six thousand feet long…”

Callahan nodded. “Looks like a mile to me, at least. There must be a thousand of these shuttles docked on this side, too.”

“Yup.”

“He told me he was going back to his homeworld to get more ships…”

“Who did?”

“Pak.”

“Oh. Right. He’s their leader, right?” she asked.

“Yeah. What was that sensation, after they sealed the door…?”

A third chime sounded.

“We’d better lean back now,” she said…

…and as the feeling of distortion returned, Callahan closed his eyes and leaned back into the seat. Then the real fun started.

“Dear God, what is that smell?” he cried as he opened his eyes – and when he saw Ripley flashing hash in a barf bag he smiled. Then it hit him, and he brought his own bag to his face.

Then as quickly the wave of nausea was over, the weird distortions, too, so he leaned forward again to see out the window…

The shuttle was rolling relative to the moon, the lunar terminator momentarily visible overhead until it rolled out of view, and Callahan shook his head as another bout of nausea hit. He shut his eyes and felt the dizziness wash over him, so he opened them again and stared at a hatchway – anything fixed, not moving, anything to get his inner ear to settle down.

Then he saw the walls of – Hyperion’s? – hangar deck sliding by, following by a brief sensation of slowing – when air pumps began cycling air, equalizing pressures inside the cabin.

Then he and Ripley felt the shuttle being secured inside Hyperion’s hangar deck – yet there had been no sensation at all when the ship actually landed – but as soon as the airlock hissed open Ripley stood and left him sitting there. He didn’t know why, but she’d looked agitated and in a hurry…like she’d been upset by something she’d just learned.

‘What did I say that might’ve upset her?’ he asked himself. ‘Something about what I’d seen on that ship, wasn’t it? The insect like thing, laying eggs? And she called it a queen…?’

MacKenzie came floating inside the shuttle and seemed annoyed. “You coming, Callahan? Or are you waiting for a formal invitation?”

“We in a hurry today, Spudz?” Harry said, equally perturbed.

“You could say that. Come on, let’s get out of here.”

“But I like the way it smells in here. Do we have to?”

MacKenzie shook his head and pushed off, heading back out to the hangar deck, so Harry slipped out of his harness and pushed off, hitting his head and knocking an elbow on the way out – and then he saw Ellen Ripley floating near her father, and judging by her hand movements she was upset. 

Patty, the med tech who’d been by his side the last time he was on Hyperion, resumed her position next to him as he exited the shuttle, and she offered her belt with a smile. “Hang on,” she said, as the little mini-thrusters on her shoes puffed, and just like that they drifted over to MacKenzie – and all those admirals.

And it was Spruance who started off asking questions this time.

“Did you get a good view of Pak’s ship?” Spruance said, his eyes sharp and direct.

Harry nodded. “I did, and so did she,” he said, pointing to Ellen Ripley.

“Describe it to me,” Spruance snarled, his eyes boring in like lasers.

“My guess? Main hull about a mile long. Lots of infrastructure in the center. Huge. I mean, huge. Maybe a thousand shuttles visible, but here’s what I don’t get. I didn’t see a hangar deck. The shuttles were parked in rows on a deck outside the hull, and they’re connected to the main ship with something like docking tubes. And those are interesting too. They work using air pressure. When we were standing in the airlock before we went down the tube to the shuttle, the chamber pressurized before it opened, so when it finally did open the air pressure shot us down the tube. It was hardly noticeable at first, but I’ve been thinking about it…”

“Did you see any planets nearby?”

Harry nodded. “Just a glimpse, but yes I did. I thought I, that his ship was in orbit near Saturn, but I saw another large planet nearby.”

“What kind of planet?” Captain Ripley asked, as he and Ellen joined the conversation.

“Probably a gas giant,” Harry said, “but it was way too close to be Jupiter, and the sun was too close.”

Ripley sighed. “So…they’re either in another system, or this system in a different time reference.”

“What else, Callahan?” Spruance said. 

“Sir?”

“Do you have any idea who snatched you away?”

“No sir, not really.”

“What do you mean by not really, Harry?” MacKenzie said gently, moving closer now.

“First thins first?” Harry said. “Pak wanted me there, wanted me inside the Gray’s ship, I felt him with me as soon as I was in their ship.”

“Whose ship?” Spudz asked.

“The Grays. But he wanted me inside without them knowing I was there.”

“How’s that?” Nimitz said, also coming closer.

“Well, sir, it seems I can slip through both space and time, sir. Without a sphere, without using the piano, the harmonics I’ve been…”

“And the Grays couldn’t see you?” Spruance asked, interrupting Callahan.

“No sir, not directly. There was some kind of microorganism inside the walls of their ship, and they reacted to my presence, and that tipped off the Gray, and Sorensen.”

“And Hitler,” FDR said, suddenly floating into the thick of the conversation.

“Yes, sir. And Hitler.”

“So,” Roosevelt continued, “it seems this Adler Group has all the ability to move through time that we have…”

“And there’s something else, Mr. President,” Captain Ripley said. “The Grays have the organism, sir.”

“That thing the Weyland-Yutani group harvested?” Nimitz barked. “Are they that idiotic?”

Ellen Ripley thrust forward, joined her father. “Callahan saw a queen, so the Grays are breeding an army on that ship.”

Roosevelt rubbed his chin, felt around his pockets and gave up momentarily. “So, if I understand all this correctly, if the Grays have formed an alliance with the Adler Group, that ties them to Leonidas on New Sparta, too. Is that about right?”

“Yessir. And that,” Chester Nimitz said, “means the Grays are no longer neutral observers.”

“One more question, young man,” Roosevelt said to Callahan. “You said Pak wanted you inside that Gray ship because you can slip through time without aid? Is that correct?”

“Yes, Mr President. He said only a few humans possess the ability, so far.”

“And Pak, and I suppose by extension his people, cannot yet do this?”

“That was his inference, sir, but frankly I’d be reluctant to take that as fact.”

Roosevelt’s eyes twinkled a bit, and he nodded appreciatively. “Yes, just so. Now, back to the immediate problem. That girl going after the Bismarck, what do you know about her, Mr Callahan?”

“Her father was a friend of the family when I was a kid, but I didn’t meet her until years later.”

“And?”

“She was running from him at the time. She was always afraid of him.”

“What else do you recall about her? Any husband? Boyfriends?”

Callahan thought back to Hawaii. That computer geek from Seattle, the sailor. What was his name? “Yessir, I can think of one. His name is Henry Taggart.”

“Alright,” Roosevelt continued, “now let’s consider Miss Sorensen for a moment. She ran from her father once, which implies she had not yet taken sides with him. And yet, now she has. We need to understand why, Detective, and, well, then we may need to intervene in some way. Have any ideas how you might go about that?”

All eyes turned to Callahan, who simply shrugged. “I didn’t know Taggart all that well, sir…”

A bright flash.

Spatial disorientation, nausea, instant feelings of despair.

Callahan pushes off the med tech; he turns and fear reaches into his gut.

He sees a translucent pink sphere, and unlike the sphere’s that visited his house on the cliffs above the sea, this sphere is pulsing with energy. With purpose. This sphere is gigantic, too, and menacing.

Then in the next instant an immensely tall, birdlike creature emerges from the sphere, and it must be twenty feet tall, maybe more. 

Pink feathers, pale pink tinged with red along the edges of its feathers. 

A not quite human face, yet with an owl’s amber eyes, short arms tucked in below massive, outstretched wings. Humanoid legs, yet short, gripping talons for toes. Callahan doesn’t know why but he senses the creature is female, and as she steps out of the sphere she looks directly at Callahan, and she smiles when she sees Harry.

“You seek Henry?” the pink owl asks.

Callahan looked around the hangar deck and it hit him. No one was moving. In that flash, he realized, time had stopped, and then he understood she was speaking to just him. “I do.”

“You must come, then. There is not much time, and we have much to do.”

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