Three Short Stories (and excerpts from a long one)
By
Trevor Holcroft
See more at .... trevorholcroft.me
This ebook contains the following stories...
A Passing Ship in the Night
Astro Visits Earth
(from Adventures with Astro the Alien)
Abigail and the Cuddly Monster
(from The AMAZING Adventures of Abigail and her MAGNIFICENT Magic Bed)
SPACE OPERA: On the Shoulders of Giants (excerpts from the novel)
If you would like to find out more....
Look up Trevor Holcroft at - Create Space, Amazon and Kindle and also at trevorholcroft.me)
Some stories available on Smashword.
A SHORT STORY
A Passing Ship in the Night
As soon as Henry kissed me, I knew my wife would be mad as hell. His tongue was all over me...
...
Huh? Well his wet paws were the problem ...
...
Hmm? Mud all over my trousers, she hates it. But Henry y’know, he was just pleased to be off the leash. If only I hadn’t bothered ... I should’ve ... look who’s he, what’s going on here now?
...
I think it certainly is my business ... look, this was nothing to do with me ... you’re the ones who ...
...
OK! It’s simple ... I took the goddam dog for a walk. That’s it, can I go home now?
...
No surprise there ... OK, there’s this wooded rise at the back of the house, I take ... took ... Henry up there all the time. The other night was no different. Well ... that’s the way it started.
...
Huh? Well, we’d just got to the tree line and Henry was just happy ... sniffin’ around ... happy.
...
No, it was quiet. And then ... then ... it ... well, I never saw Henry behave like that before.
...
Can a dog be hypnotised? Anyway, just then ...
...
No, not a sound, a ‘feeling’, a feeling inside, the weirdest sensation. It ... oh Henry, you’d think he would’ve ... I should’ve put him on the lead, if only I’d put him on the lead ... but ...
...
No, not a brave dog, but for some reason he just went on deeper into the wood. And then the sound, the feeling, got stronger ... coming from beyond the trees.
...
Well I could have turned back, but Henry came racing back, sort of demanding I follow him. So I did. And then we came through the wood onto the other side. There was just a ridge, the wood ended and just beyond that there is the ridge line. And there it was.
...
Think? Truth is I didn’t think anything for a while.
...
Right, yeah...well ... the best way to describe it was like a giant spinning top, but it wasn’t actually spinning, right? The bottom was really pointed and I clearly remember the pointed end was just touching the ground, not in it and not above it ...
...
Grey, it was whitish-grey and no marks at all, just a smooth circular, yeah, just an inverted cone.
...
No...no, no landing legs at all, it was nothing like that moon-lander thing.
...
Yeah, ‘ha ha’, no flashing lights, very funny and no musical sound track either ...
...
And no doors, no windows. No steam rising, no engines visible, no burn marks on the grass, no bulges, no aerials ... just a smooth, grey, inverted ... gravity defying ... cone.
...
Yeah? Well it was, ‘defying gravity’. A neat trick, pity we ... yeah well never mind.
...
Nothing happened, Henry just bounced around and then settled down behind me and the ‘noise’, the ‘feeling’, gradually faded away ... to nothing. Peaceful.
...
You bet I did. I took out my cell phone but there was no signal. There should’ve been ... but, there you go, nothing. I guess then it started getting to me ...
...
Of course I knew what it was. It was obvious wasn’t it? But then just as I was thinking of grabbing Henry and putting him on his lead, just as I was ... then it happened.
...
The outline of a door, well just appeared, like it had been, ‘embossed’ in the hull. Next thing there was this opening, never saw a door, I can’t figure it even now, a dark, black, opening half way up this grey-white inverted cone. And, wouldn’t you just know, this ramp came extending down from the door.
...
Don’t ask me, I’ve no idea how it worked. But then I had this silly thought that maybe the narrow pointy bit was where the engines or power was and the big area up top was where the, the ... ‘people’ were. I mean with our rockets it’s the opposite.
...
Well nothing happened for a little while but then ... then this figure appeared at the door.
...
Tallish.
...
Henry? He was quiet, not a whimper. I can see why you’d be interested. If I didn’t know better I’d have said he was purring. But then, then this guy ... well I’d say he was a guy anyway ... started down the ramp.
...
Looked like he was wearing some sort of spacesuit, no helmet but a grey space suit. He was greyish as well; grey elongated features, pretty human-like. It was an elongated biggish head, tiny dark eyes, no nose to speak of and a small circular, pouting, sort of mouth.
...
Bald. He started off walking down the ramp, he looked kinda elegant, longish legs and arms; he moved real graceful. Calm. And then he stopped, him looking at me and me looking at him ...
...
I’d say about ten yards. And then he opened his mouth and that’s what did it for me. Up until then, I don’t know, but when he opened his mouth ... Ahh, like you know in all the movies you see these alien guys? They do ‘em good these days, they come in all colours, green, blue, purple, anything; and they can have noses on the top of their heads and wavy antennae and all that and sharp pointy teeth? It’s great what they can do these days. But as soon as they speak, well that gives it all away ‘cos no matter what the colour of the skin, inside their mouths it’s the same pink as ours. Eyes is the same. Because they’re actors in make-up and that’s what gives the whole game away.
...
I’m coming to it. This alien guy opened his mouth and inside ... it was GREY! It was real, not some actor in a costume. It just hit me and I just realised where I was and what this was and what he was. Suddenly everything was ‘real’; his suit, his grey skin, even his eyes, everything was real. As soon as he opened his mouth I suddenly saw the whole thing different.
...
He didn’t say anything at first. He opened his mouth and closed it. He just looked at me and around behind me, he gave a good look to Henry, and then he looked off to his left and off to his right and then back to me.
...
Well, he turned and looked back up the ramp and... kinda ... shrugged ... and then turned back to me.
...
Then? He spoke. I just couldn’t believe my ears. He said, ‘Take me to your leader.’ In English! How come he ...
...
Nothing! I swear I said nothing. Look how was I supposed to know the President was 250 miles away in the wrong place?
...
Oh, the Alien was in the wrong place ... Well that makes it OK I guess.
...
Well then he held out this thing he’d been holding ...
...
Like a coffee pot, maybe a little fatter at the base. And without the spout.
...
That’s all I know, like a coffee pot. Shiny, I don’t ...
...
He held it out an’ he said, ‘Cold Fusion.’ I swear that’s what he said, ‘cold fusion’. Does that mean something?
...
...
I said ...
...
OK, OK, can you tell your ‘man in black’ to put his shades back on and calm down?
...
Well, he just said it again and looked around again.
...
Nothing; I guess I was still struck by all this being ‘real’. And then, I really wish he hadn’t done this, then he held out a hand palm down and then turned it palm up. He had real long fingers ...
...
To me it looked like an appeal, kinda hurrying me up y’know? Well I wish he hadn’t done it because Henry... well Henry saw and misunderstood. He got real excited, like a release, he must’ve thought he was being called an’ he just bounded over before I could stop him.
...
No, I don’t think this alien guy knew what to make of it. And Henry just started skipping in excitement ... I swear I was just about to call him when ... well he gets excited meeting new people ... he ... he ... just cocked his leg and ... pissed all over this guy’s boot.
...
It was just his boot, I swear ... OK, it was a tall boot.
...
Well our alien friend jerked his head up and looked at me and those tiny eyes ... I don’t know how but now they were wide, yellow and circular wide like saucers ... with little dots in the centre. But ... but then there was like a sizzle. And him and me we both looked down at his boot and it was ... melting! He looked at me again and then those saucer eyes suddenly squinted tight shut and we both looked again and we could see the grey skin underneath! Dammit ... then it started to blister!
...
He just started hoppin’ all over and gave a howl! Boy what a noise, Henry jumped away and started a howlin’ too. Well that did nothing to help.
...
He just looked at me and his eyes blew up big and saucer sized again and gave another howl. That mouth which had started off small and pouty was huge, it filled half his face. He just hopped around giving these howls and Henry hopped around him howling just the same, like it was a game, and I was waving and shouting to call him to me.
...
No, it was too late. This grey guy’s howl turned into a real high shriek and that had a real effect on Henry; he bounced away and gave a real mad bark and snarl. Well that’s what did it. Old ‘Mr Grey’ is hopping around still and he produces something from somewhere and starts waving it around.
...
Like a pepper pot. But it sure wasn’t.
...
Well Henry barked at him and he howled back and then he pointed this thing at Henry and ...
...
It was the brightest flash, sharp ... not even sure if I saw a beam. Henry was just blasted up in the air, looking like an X-Ray and the only thing that came down ... was a pile of smoking bones. I loved that dog ...
...
Well he just turned to me, hopping around on his one good leg, and he waved the ‘pepper pot’ and the ‘coffee pot’ at me.
...
I thought, ‘My turn next’, but he just waved ‘em both around, like he was confused. And then he just turned around and hopped and hobbled up the ramp. He turned back at the door and hollered something, couldn’t make it out.
...
No, it sure wasn’t English ... He just waved this coffee pot thing and then the door ‘shut’ an’ the ramp drew up.
...
It just flew off, just this humming and then it shot off real quick into the distance and I was just left with Henry’s steaming bones. Look it’s not my fault you messed all this up, it’s time you ... Look, can’t the President call him back?
...
Not returning his calls? Ahh ... Can I ask a question?
...
What is this ‘cold fusion’?
...
Now no need for ...
...
So ... so? You messed up the difference between Paris, Illinois and Paris, Kentucky with some stupid alien! Hey, what he doing? No! No, I want to go home! You have to let me ... you can’t do this! It was NOT my fault! Come on, take these cuffs off-a-me! I want to go ...
...
...
ADVENTURES with ASTRO the ALIEN
Astro Visits Earth
Astro the Alien was sitting at the controls of his little blue and white saucer shaped spaceship when his ears wiggled and he realised he was exited.
Certainly one reason was it was the first time his mother had let him fly off in his spaceship on his own; but the other was that he was heading for the mysterious planet Earth.
‘I’m very exited, Bobbo’, he said.
Bobbo was Astro’s little alien pet, and a very funny pet he was. Bobbo was also bouncing up and down in excitement. Bobbo, who was covered in pink and purple swirly hoops, did a lot of bouncing as he had no feet or even legs at all; he was ball shaped and squished and bounced everywhere. But that was not the funniest, most alien thing about Bobbo, because he had two yellow, stalky, trumpety things coming out of the top of his head which he used to both hear and smell with. But even that was not the most alien thing about Bobbo, because Bobbo had just one big eye that he could swivel all the way round his ball shaped body.
This meant that as Bobbo was bouncing along he could look back at where he had come from. Bobbo did not do that very often though as he found that if he did, he kept bumping into things – and he did not want people to start calling him ‘Bumpo’.
Astro was a jolly looking slightly plump figure with sparkling eyes and just four fingers on each hand; but it was clear that Astro was an alien because he was blue all over, even his spacesuit was blue. He had a happy smiling face with three blue wavy hairs growing on the top of his slightly egg shaped head and he had small blue ears which wiggled when he was exited.
‘I’ve never been to Earth before, Bobbo,’ continued Astro, ‘I wonder what it we will find?’
Bobbo gave a ‘Squeek!’, and not for the first time Astro wondered where it came from. Astro carefully piloted his little spaceship into the Earth sky – which he thought was a beautiful shade of blue – and looked down from high up.
‘That looks a nice place down there,’ said Astro, ‘That green bit of land surrounded by all the blue water.’
Bobbo bounced his agreement.
‘The pointy bit at the bottom looks quite windy, and the squiggly part at the top looks cold.’ said Astro, ‘Lets look at somewhere in the middle.’
Astro brought saucer shaped spaceship closer down to hover over a big, wide river where there were lots of tall buildings all around.
‘Nowhere to land here’ said Astro, ‘let’s go further along.’
So Astro flew further up the river and the buildings got fewer and the river got narrower and the ground got greener. Eventually Astro came to somewhere were the river dropped down over a small waterfall and a little footbridge crossed over it. They saw some little boats all tied up alongside the river bank where people were sitting eating sandwiches and drinking lots of different coloured drinks. Astro could see some smaller versions of these people feeding some fluffy little animals floating on the river.
‘They must be Earth children,’ thought Astro, and then he said to Bobbo, ‘Let’s find a flat bit to land on.’
Astro looked around and saw a house with some flat green grass all around it and thought it looked OK. Very carefully Astro landed on a brown gravely area next to the grass.
‘Right,’ said Astro, ‘let’s go and explore.’
Astro and Bobbo walked down the ramp of their spaceship (actually, Bobbo bounced down) and they looked around. Then they got a sudden shock as a big slobbering four-legged black ‘thing’ came racing round the corner, its ears flapping and its tail wagging madly as it ran up to them. It jumped up and down at them and was going ‘woof, woof’ and was really determined to give them a lick with its big wet pink tongue. Bobbo had to bounce very high to avoid being licked, but this only seemed to encourage the big black tail wagging animal to jump even higher.
Just then a small boy with blond hair and a red shirt and blue jeans ran round the corner with his eyes staring wide in amazement and ran up to them.
‘Get down, Jasper!’ said the little boy. ‘Hello, I’m Oliver; this is my dog, Jasper. I live here. Who are you? Where have you come from?’
Jasper stopped jumping up and slobbering around and slumped to the floor.
‘Phoo, I’m tired anyway with all this jumping’ Jasper thought, ‘I’ll just watch what is going on.’
Astro looked at Oliver who was a little bit shorter than he was and tried to remember all the little boy’s questions.
‘Well I’m Astro the Alien,’ he said, ‘I come from AstroWorld, it’s a little planet hidden behind the far side of the moon, and this is my pet, Bobbo, and this is my spaceship.’
‘An alien!’ squealed Oliver, ‘A spaceship! Can we go for a ride? Oh please, please take me for a ride in your spaceship, I’ll be very good!’
Just then two more figures came round the corner. One was Oliver’s Mummy and the other was Oliver’s little sister, Abigail.
‘Spacelop, spacelop … Oliver!’ tweeted Abigail. Jasper went over to Abigail and gave her a lick.
‘Poo, poo, Jathsper.’ said Abigail.
Oliver ran over to Abigail and said, ‘It’s a ‘spaceship’ Abigail, not a ‘spacelop’!’
‘Now Oliver, Abigail’s only two.’ said Mummy.
‘I’m only two,’ said Abigail.
‘Now who is this new friend of yours, Oliver?’ said Mummy. She was noticing the little blue and white spaceship and how close it had parked next to her little red car, ‘It’s just as well Daddy is out fishing or this little spaceship might have got his car all dirty.’
‘Oh Mummy, this is Astro the Alien and this is his pet Bobbo and he has come from a planet the other side of the moon and this is his spaceship and can I go for a ride, I will be very good.’
‘Oh I’m not sure,’ said Mummy.
‘Oh please, Mummy,’ said Oliver, ‘just for a little trip. Jasper can come and look after me.’
‘Oh I don’t think you’re old enough to go flying off in spaceships, even pretty little blue and white ones. And besides it will soon be tea time.’
‘Oh Mummy!’ Oliver pulled a face and folded his arms in disappointment.
Abigail was playing with Bobbo, much to Jaspers amazement. Bobbo was bouncing around her and every now and again bouncing over her head.
‘Bobbo, Bobbo.’ she laughed. Abigail liked playing with bubbles so playing with Bobbo was a special treat.
‘Well I don’t know’ said Mummy.
‘We could just go for a very short ride,’ suggested Astro, trying to be helpful, ‘to a nice little seaside place I know on AstroWorld. It’s not far.’ Astro had another thought, ‘And just so you feel safe you can call my own mummy to tell her what’s happening’
‘What's her name?’ asked Mummy
‘Mrs Astro’ said Astro.
‘Perhaps a short journey then. But you must be back for tea and I would expect you to eat it all up.’ said Mummy.
‘Oh I will, I will.’ said Oliver.
‘What's your telephone number Astro?’ asked Mummy as she prepared to take it down.
‘Its 07958277181519502212599812237 … 6’
‘My, that’s a long telephone number.’ said Mummy.
‘Well,’ said Astro, ‘I do live a long way away.’
‘Oh of course!’ said Mummy.
Mummy went away to telephone Mrs Astro and after a while she came back and said, ‘Well I have spoken to Mrs Astro – she sounds like a very nice lady – and we think it will be all right if you go for a short trip’
So a little while later, Mummy and Abigail watched as Astro, Bobbo, Oliver and Jasper clambered up into the little blue and white spaceship. It was very crowded so it was just as well they were not going far. There was a humming noise and a glow from underneath the spaceship as Astro took off. He was very careful to avoid Mummy’s little red car. Abigail was sniffing in disappointment.
‘Go spaceship. Abigail want go spaceship,’ she said.
‘No! Not this time Abigail,’ said Mummy, ‘you’re just a little bit too small.’
‘Only two.’ said Abigail, who puckered up her bottom lip glumly, ‘Buttons, Abigail want choco button’
Mummy gave a sigh, ‘Oh dear,’ she said.
Up in the spaceship the journey did not take very long which was disappointing for Oliver as he was finding the whole thing very exiting, all the buttons levers and knobs in the cockpit looked very interesting to Oliver but he resisted the temptation to press any. They arrived at AstroWorld eventually but from high up there was not much for Oliver to see as the planet seemed to be covered by mysterious wisps of purple, green and pink clouds.
‘Ah, here we are,’ said Astro, ‘it didn’t take us long. We can have a quick visit and still get you back for tea.’
The little blue and white spaceship landed on by the sea, a beach sheltered by trees and rocks. Everyone got out and Oliver opened his eyes wide in amazement; everything everywhere was a different shade of pink and purple. Well, everything except the sun which was still yellow through a hazy sky, which itself was a lovely shade of a pale green.
Oliver looked around. The sea was a pale pink and it rippled against a purple sandy beach. The nearby trees had a dark purple trunks and branches but the leaves were all manner of shades of pink. And the rocks! The rocks were all different stripy shades and shapes of purple and pink.
‘Oooh!’ said Oliver, ‘this is nothing like Earth.’
‘No,’ said Astro, ‘this is what ‘alien’ looks like. In fact even people on AstroWorld think this place looks strange. Why not collect some purple sea shells from the beach and pick some pink leaves for to your little sister. Then we can head back home in time for tea.’
So Oliver dashed around with an exited Jasper keeping him company. He collected a surprising range of different coloured shells and leaves and soon he had quite a collection which he put into a blue bag that Astro gave him.
‘Well time to go now.’ said Astro, ‘we can always come back another time. Come on Oliver, come on Jasper, come on Bobbo.’ But suddenly Astro looked round and became very worried.
‘Bobbo! Bobbo! Where are you Bobbo?’ shouted Astro. Oliver looked around and Jasper stood still, all puzzled. But Bobbo was nowhere to be seen.
‘Oh no’ said Astro, ‘Bobbo has disappeared. He has wandered off and got lost. We might never find him.’
‘Oh no we will be late for tea now,’ said Oliver, ‘Mummy will be cross with me.’
‘What can we do?’ wondered both Astro and Oliver.
Jasper looked at them both very seriously, ‘Oh dear’, he thought, ‘this is no good.’ Then Jasper sniffed and gave his nose one of his regular little twitches. Oliver noticed this and had an idea.
‘I know,’ he said, ‘lets see if Jasper can find Bobbo!’
‘How?’ said Astro.
‘He can sniff him out. Jasper find Bobbo,’ said Oliver, ‘find Bobbo.’
Jasper gave his nose another twitch. ‘Sniff’ went Jasper, ‘Sniff, sniff.’ Jasper went over to the nearest tree and had a good sniff. Astro and Oliver looked on hopefully as Jasper sniffed all around the little blue and white spaceship. ‘Hrrimph, snuffle’ went Jasper as he sniffed other trees and moved further out to the pink and purple stripy rocks.
‘Oh, I don’t want to miss my tea.’ said Oliver.
But just then Jasper’s tail started to wag furiously. ‘Snuffle, snuffle. Woof, WOOF!’ barked Jasper as he jumped on a little purple and pink rock, which suddenly leapt high into the air and gave a loud high pitched ‘SQUEAK!’ The rock bounced down and both Astro and Oliver could see a single big wide eye spinning round in it! The ‘rock’ was Bobbo!
‘Oh Jasper, well done!’ said Oliver, ‘You have sniffed out Bobbo.’
Astro went over to Bobbo who was now looking crestfallen with his big eye looking downcast. A weak little ‘Pheew’ came out from somewhere.
‘You fell asleep in the rocks, Bobbo,’ said Astro, ‘that was silly. Look the rocks are all stripy pink and purple and YOU are all stripy pink and purple. We could not see you. We nearly had to leave you behind.’
‘Squeek’ said Bobbo sadly.
‘Never mind, what a good idea Oliver. Jasper saved the day.’ said Astro.
‘WOOF, WOOF’ said Jasper and licked away at Bobbo’s long wibbly wobbly ear trumpet nose, all of which tickled Bobbo and made him squeak with delight this time.
‘Come on.’ Astro hurried everyone back to the little blue and white spaceship and took off again.
Back on Earth, Mummy was waiting for Astro and Oliver to return.
‘Well its time for tea now,’ said Mummy, ‘they had better be back soon.’
‘Back soon.’ said Abigail, who was clinging to Mummy’s leg.
Mummy and Abigail went outside and looked up – and there right on time came Astro’s little spaceship.
Once again Astro carefully steered it down to land outside Oliver’s front door.
‘Here Oliver,’ said Astro, ‘don’t forget all the souvenirs you picked up for Abigail.’
‘Thank you Astro’, said Oliver.
‘Can I call again, now that I have found a new friend on Earth?’ asked Astro, ‘I am sure we can have lots of other adventures.’
‘Oh yes please. Bye-bye for now Astro. Bye-bye Bobbo’ said Oliver.
‘Woof woof’ said Jasper.
‘Bye-bye.’ Oliver, said Astro, as he waved to Oliver's Mummy.
Oliver and Jasper ran across to meet Mummy and Abigail. Oliver gave Abigail the bag of presents and Abigail looked in and squealed in delight,
‘Pink … purple!’ she said.
‘We had a smashing time’, said Oliver, ‘everything was pink and purple and then Bobbo got lost and then Jasper sniffed and found him and I will tell you all about it before I go to sleep tonight.’
‘Well,’ said Mummy, ‘its time for tea now. Look – wave to Astro!’
Oliver, Abigail and Mummy waved away as Astro took off in his little blue and white spaceship, and Oliver stood happily waving even when it was a tiny dot in the sky.
Up in the spaceship Astro realised he was still exited.
‘What a fun day it’s been Bobbo,’ said Astro, ‘I can’t wait to come back and have another adventure with Oliver.’
Bobbo gave a couple of squeaks and a happy Astro steered his little spaceship back to his planet hidden away behind the moon.
The AMAZING Adventures of Abigail and her MAGNIFICENT Magic Bed
THE MONSTER UNDER THE BED
(Illustrations available with the full book)
Once upon a time there was a little girl called Abigail. However although Abigail was quite bright and fearless and inquisitive for a five year old she was still afraid of the dark and sometimes she woke up in the night after dreaming of monsters hiding in the dark.
One day, hoping to help Abigail sleep more comfortably, Nanna and Gramps brought Abigail a present. It was a bed, a proper bed not a cot. Abigail was delighted and as it was being unpacked she learned that it was not brand new but had once belonged to ‘Great Aunt Amelia’.
‘It’s been in our loft for ages,’ puffed Gramps.
‘Great Aunt Amelia travelled the entire world exploring,’ said Nanna, ‘she brought this bed back from somewhere far far away’.
‘It’s what we call a family ‘heirloom’, Abigail,’ said Gramps.
‘Yes, she left it to us and there was a note with it saying we should pass it on to a very deserving little girl,’ said Nanna,
‘That’s me,’ said Abigail.
‘Yes the note said it was a ‘magic’ bed,’ said Gramps, ‘so it must be very comfortable.’
Mummy, Daddy, Nanna and Gramps got together and after quite a lot of confusion they assembled the bed and put it in place against the far wall of Abigail’s bedroom. Abigail thought her new bed was wonderful and was very pleased with herself to be sleeping in a proper little bed and not a cot. However it still did not stop Abigail worrying about all the monsters that might be lurking about at night and in the dark. Until that is, one day ...
Abigail’s Mummy was busy taking clothes in and out of the washing machine, and in between she was doing the ironing and getting dinner ready and tidying up all the toys on the floor ... and then dusting and hoovering. So she really was ‘quite busy’; Daddy was at work and her brother Oliver was at school.
This meant that Abigail was left to play on her own for a while. This was not normally a problem because Abigail loved to play with her doll’s house or cook pretend meals with her toy cooker and utensils. She had a wonderful imagination. But just this once Abigail became bored and so excited was she with her new big bed that she thought she would go upstairs to play and jump around on her bed with her favourite cuddly toys. So Abigail rushed upstairs and ran straight into her bedroom ... and ... well, and there she received the most sudden of surprises. It was so surprising that she just stopped and stared. Because there, jumping around on the new bed – her bed – was the strangest thing she had ever seen.
The ‘strangest thing’ stopped with a jerk and stared back at Abigail as well.
‘Oh dear,’ it said ... ‘hello.’
Abigail continued to stare. The thing on the bed was just about the same size as she was; but purple; with blue blotches. It was shaped something like a cross between a frog and a fly with clumps of short bristly hair, dizzy eyes and a big, dribbly, mouth with quite sharp looking teeth. It looked horrible. It looked mean. It looked like a Monster.
‘Who are you?’ asked Abigail.
‘I’m a monster,’ said the ‘froggy-fly-like’ creature.
‘Oh no,’ cried Abigail, ‘are you going to eat me?’
‘Oh no,’ said the monster, ‘I don’t eat people, especially not little girls. Whatever gave you that idea?’
‘But you’re a monster, said Abigail, ‘and monsters eat little girls.’
‘I am not that sort of monster,’ insisted the purple creature, ‘I am a softy cuddly monster.’
‘A softy monster,’ queried Abigail, ‘so you won’t eat me then’?
‘No,’ said the monster, ‘but it’s not easy being a softy cuddly monster. I don’t like scaring people. I am always telling the other monsters that it is better to eat marshmallows than little girls. But very often they just laugh at me.’
The monster looked a little sad now and not at all scary.
‘I’m Abigail,’ said Abigail, ‘who are you?’
‘My name is Clarence,’ said the monster, ‘you caught me by surprise; I thought you were playing downstairs with your mummy.’
‘Where have you come from,’ asked Abigail.
‘I have come from under your bed,’ said Clarence, ‘It’s a magic bed you know, it takes you to MonsterWorld, which where I live. Sometimes I like to come to other places like this and explore and play outside MonsterWorld.’
‘Oh,’ said Abigail, ‘can I go under the bed and visit your world as well?’
‘Well only if you follow me and if you are good. And you will have to come straight back if your mummy calls you,’ said Clarence.
Abigail had a thought, ‘Will any monsters eat me in MonsterWorld?’
‘Oh no,’ said Clarence, ‘not if you are with me and my friends. In fact we monsters much prefer marshmallows.’
‘Monsters like marshmallows?’ exclaimed Abigail.
‘It’s our favourite food,’ said Clarence. ‘You know,’ he added, with a wink of one of his dizzy eyes, ‘even monsters who like to think they are really big bad monsters prefer eating a marshmallow to a little girl.’
So Abigail crawled under her new magic bed and followed after Clarence. Amazingly, instead of bumping her head against the bedroom wall, Abigail emerged out from under a table in Clarence’s garden.
‘This is my magic table,’ said Clarence ‘would you like some marshmallow pie?’
‘Oh yes please,’ said Abigail as they seated themselves at the table.
Clarence served up some pie. Just then another monster came out into the next door garden. Clarence gave him a wave.
‘That’s my next door neighbour, Lionel,’ he said to Abigail.
Lionel was not really like Clarence, for a start he was blue with purple blotches. He also looked genuinely cuddly – in fact he looked a bit sleepy. Clarence and Abigail went over to the garden fence and said ‘Hello’ to Lionel.
‘Why are you looking so tired, Lionel?’ asked Clarence.
‘I did not sleep very well,’ said Lionel, ‘I was afraid there may be some naughty, squealing little girls hiding in the dark about to jump out and scare me.’
‘Well here’s a lovely little girl who has come to visit me and look around MonsterWorld,’ said Clarence.
Lionel gave a nervous jump.
‘I only want to eat marshmallow pie,’ said Abigail – please have a piece.’
Lionel gave a nervous jump again but cautiously took a piece.
‘You see Lionel,’ said Clarence, ‘there is no need to lie awake at night.’
Abigail tried to look like she did not squeal at all, though secretly she knew she did – sometimes.
‘I suppose not,’ he said with a nervous smile at Abigail, ‘well thank you for the pie – I must dash.
Abigail and Clarence were left to finish their pie.
‘Our marshmallows are very tasty aren’t they?’ said Clarence.
‘Much tastier than little girls,’ agreed Abigail hopefully.
‘Oh yes,’ said Clarence, ’and I grow them myself. I am the local expert at growing marshmallows – I regularly win prizes at the Village Show.’
After finishing the last crumb of pie Clarence took Abigail to the front gate of his garden so she could see a little bit more of MonsterWorld.
There were a number of other monsters walking the streets, Abigail saw at once that all the monsters were all different from each other in shape size and colour and that everywhere in MonsterWorld was very blotchy. One or two monsters looked miserable and some a bit scary, but most seemed to be actually quite friendly. Clarence noticed two particular monsters and waved at them; they came towards Clarence a little bit reluctantly.
One looked like a very grumpy little dinosaur and the other looked as if he was day dreaming – all three of his eyes were looking blank.
‘Hello Clarence,’ said the grumpy one.
‘Hello Horace,’ said Clarence, ‘what’s the matter?’
‘Grmp, my prime, my very best, marshmallow plants have had an attack of pink-fly,’ said Horace, ‘the whole crop is ruined.’
‘Oh dear,’ said Clarence, ‘that means you will not be able to enter your home grown marshmallows in the Village Show this year.’
Horace looked even grumpier.
‘You had such great hopes of winning,’ went on Clarence.
‘Bah – I’ll never beat you at this rate,’ said Horace, ‘I told Gerald here to spray them with ‘Pink-Fly-Repellent’ while I was on holiday ... but he forgot!’
‘Why was that Gerald?’ asked Clarence.
There was a silence.
Gerald was looking up at the sky with two of his eyes and down the street with his other.
‘Umm, hello Clarence,’ he said at last.
‘Hello Gerald,’ said Clarence patiently, ‘I was asking why you didn’t spray Horace’s marshmallow plants?’
‘Umm, what marshmallow plants?’ replied Gerald.
‘Doh! You see what I have got to put up with?’ said Horace, ’What a fine mess he has got me into.’
Clarence did his best to look sympathetic.
‘Come on Gerald,’ said Horace, ‘we have to go shopping for more marshmallow seeds.’
‘Umm, why do we need more seeds, Horace?’ Gerald asked as they walked off.
Abigail and Clarence went back to the magic table.
‘What a shame for Horace,’ said Clarence, but he could not resist a giggle. Abigail joined in but just then a voice could be heard calling out from underneath the table.
‘Abigail! Abigail! Where are you Abigail?’ It was Mummy!
‘Mummy!’ called out a surprised Abigail.
‘Where are you Abigail?’ came back Mummy’s voice.
Abigail looked around at the blotchy landscape, ‘I’m here,’ she said.
‘Come on Abigail,’ said Clarence, I will show you back. Now remember as long as I am on the other side of your wall, under your magic bed, you will be safe in the dark – you will not have to worry about staying awake.’
‘Not like Lionel,’ said Abigail.
‘No,’ said Clarence, ‘you will be safe from monsters.’
‘And monsters like marshmallows anyway,’ said Abigail.
So Clarence gently ushered Abigail underneath the table and in a twinkling Abigail found herself poking out from under her bed in her own bedroom.
‘Where have you been Abigail?’ asked Mummy as she came hurrying back into the bedroom, ‘I have looked in here already.’
‘I was under the bed,’ said Abigail, which was quite true but Mummy was puzzled.
‘I looked under there,’ she said.
‘I was with a softy cuddly monster from MonsterWorld,’ said Abigail, ‘he lives under the bed. It is a magic bed isn’t it?’ went on Abigail, ‘He eats marshmallows not little girls.’
‘Well how wonderful,’ said Mummy, who was wondering which of Abigail’s many cuddly toys laying scattered on her bed was a softy monster, ‘but it’s time for your tea – come along.’
Later that evening Abigail was settling down in her new bed. She had been thinking a lot since tea-time.
‘Mummy can I keep this bed until I am bigger?’ she asked.
‘Of course,’ said Mummy.
‘Will you sell if it gets too small for me?’
‘We might,’ said Mummy who continued to tuck in Abigail, ‘or we might store it in the loft.’
‘Well please will you leave a note with it saying it is a magic bed,’ pleaded Abigail, ‘for a special little girl?’
‘We will if you insist,’ said Mummy, ‘but just settle down to sleep.’
As Abigail settled down Mummy had a quiet look under the bed but it was simply shadowy.
‘Hmm ... a bit blotchy,’ thought Mummy.
A little later Mummy peeped round the door to check on Abigail who was sound asleep. Mummy smiled, but before she closed the door she looked at what she had brought upstairs with her and then gently placed a marshmallow on top of Abigail’s dressing table.
Sundry Exerpts From...
‘ON THE SHOULDERS OF GIANTS’
Inside the Hercules’ cockpit the door opened and Bradley staggered inside to be shocked by what he saw. Fortune jerked in surprise.
‘Who the blazes are you? I said “Abandon Ship”.’
Bradley ignored the comment; the urgency was clear and he was too busy assessing the situation. ...
‘You’re going t’need ‘elp if you’re stain’ Captain,’ answered Bradley, ‘Strewth, look at all the tanks ventin’ and no boosters!’
‘Warning: Self-sealing systems ineffective.’
Fortune was completely mystified by the newcomer, he knew only of the official load crewmen, but he filled in the blanks nonetheless. ‘Boosters refusing to answer. No main engines, no...’
‘Warning: unsustainable landing configuration.’
‘She said it. No automatics, we’re heading in.’ he continued.
Bradley was already working the controls. It was immediately clear to Fortune that he was familiar with them.
‘This is an H-2B. We can route the landing boosters through the emergency thruster controls.’ Fortune gave Bradley a shocked look and examined the diagnostics and the controls afresh; this information was completely new to him and he thought he knew everything about the ‘H’ Series transport. Bradley could not resist a naïve insubordination, ‘How many hours you got on a ‘2B’? Anyway I’m on it.’
Fortune inwardly gaped as he realised he has never flown a “2B” – the very latest model, so new in fact that... Fortune forced himself to give an update. ‘Using attitude controls, but we are coming in way too hot.’
Bradley worked feverishly at a keypad to reroute controls. ‘You have ventral boosters.’
A relieved Fortune applied the boosters, he began to balance the ship and against the odds managed to control re-entry speed; the vibration of the ship and the burning of its panels faded. The odds of of the ship peeling apart in the thin Martian atmosphere lessened, but neither crewman were taking bets on making a safe landing.
‘It’s having an effect ah, we are not maintaining height, but the descent is slowing.’
‘Danger: Unsustainable fuel leakage.’
The ship responded sluggishly but the cockpit displays showed various tanks still venting their contents.
‘We’re losing fuel, Captain,’ said Bradley.
Fortune had to balance burning fuel with the danger of it running out before they made some sort of landing. Between them they juggled controls to give their ship some attitude and flying ability. The surface came up closer but surely now there was time to pick out some sort of landing place, somewhere where they might get down in one piece, if only they can keep power to the boosters. Bradley examined the radar, the nav screens and the landscape below; their enforced out of control re-entry had brought them down in the mountainous area well short of Mars Central.
‘We’ve got a ridge of mountains ahead, Captain,’ said Bradley, ‘it’s looking too high.’
The flightpath of the Hercules was heading steeply down and heading for a landscape quite unsuited to a safe landing; a mountainous wall loomed ahead. Fortune examined their forward sensors and looked out through the cockpit window.
‘We have a gap, 30 degrees starboard.’
‘Danger: Unsustainable fuel leakage.’
‘Nag, nag nag,’ uttered Bradley. Why did they have to make those tinny voices so female?
Fortune tentatively banked the giant transport and the thin atmosphere gave its crude lifting body shape some support.
‘We need to keep those boosters,’ said Fortune, ‘we are not getting enough lift.’
‘You are getting the lot, Captain, but we haven’t got much fuel.’
The ridgeline loomed nearer as the ship continued on its 3-dimensional downward track. Fortune and Bradley calculated the angles as there was nothing else they could do but watch as the ship with its boosters on full power squeezed it curving course over, barely over, and between the gap in the mountain peaks. Bradley found himself looking up at mountain tops on his right hand side and held his breath, expecting to hear the crunch and vibration of the transport’s stub wing connecting with a projecting rock; imperceptibly the ship edged away, this skipper must have eyes at the back of his head, thought Bradley. They were through; Fortune and Bradley looked at each other in shock and hope. Fortune eased back on the booster power and offered the best encouragement he can think of.
‘We’ve a computer with a mind of its own, we’re running on vapour and this thing is flying like a brick, but we’re still flying.’
Fortune looked down on the Martian plain below. The landscape dipped down and widened out from the gap in the ridge; it looked for all the world has if it had been chiselled out by a giant waterfall. It opened out into a large, almost circular, flat bottomed crater. The likely scenario was that eons ago the mountains had held back a vast quantity of water which had poured through the gap and streamed down to form a circular lake.
‘That’s it now, we have somewhere look, opening out from the gap in the ridge; it’s an ancient lake bed, there has to be space there before the rim line of the crater.’
‘I’d have preferred some sand dunes, Captain.’
Fortune centred the ship up on the great circular plain and dropped down to his chosen spot on the ancient lake bed. He needed the ship to fall more quickly now or else risk impacting the far lake rim but then the boosters would need to work overtime to slow their fall.
‘Warning: Unsustainable fuel leakage.’
The ship continued its glide and Fortune took a breath and initiated the landing sequence; a succession of warning light clicked on to announce the process of automatically lowering the landing gear.
‘Advisory: Landing gear failed to deploy.’
A red light flashed in confirmation. For a ship the size of the Hercules the heavily damped landing gear was essential.
‘Why am I not surprised at that?’ announced Fortune, then turning to Bradley, ‘Repeat on manual switching.’
‘Negative effect ... still negative, the gear is ...’
‘Warning: Landing gear failed to deploy.’
‘Use emergency override circuits.’
‘That’s negative emergency circuits.’
‘Danger: Abort the landing attempt.’
‘Keep at it we need that gear.’
‘Still negative emergency circuits, Captain.’
‘Urgent: Abort the landing attempt.’
‘Fire explosive bolts on my mark, I will pull up with boosters 100%... 2...1...Mark!’
Boosters increased their force lifting up the ship; Fortune and Bradley look anxiously.
‘Negative explosive bolts!’
‘Repeat!’
‘Warning: Proposed landing is compromised.’
‘Still negative ... no explosive bolts. No gear, landing gear still retracted.’
A frustrated Fortune used the boosters again to slow decent, but it was clear they were approaching too fast and too steep.
‘Advisory: A sub-optimal landing configuration has been selected.’
Their only option now was a crash landing, but then the boosters splutter ominously and the ship begins to drop more rapidly.
‘Ventral thrusters - fuel reading zero,’ said Bradley.
‘We are losing shape,’ said Fortune.
‘Warning: Brace for severe...’
‘Shut up!’ Bradley cursed the warning voice and hammered the ‘VOICE WARNING OFF’ switch. ‘She’s remindin’ me too much of the missus.’
Fortune and Bradley stoically, grimly, eye the onrushing landscape. Bradley foresees them going in nose first, we’re dead if that happens, he thought. Fortune hits various buttons.
‘We need to get the nose up, we need the engine pods to take the shock. Full vectors! It’s all we’ve left.’
‘It won’t be enough,’ said Bradley with a shake of his head.
.....
Diamond’s driver smiled, the Doctor had his quant old fashioned ways, which ha, usually led him into a fuming intolerance but Green always found he got on well with the old Doctor. The rather self satisfied announcer continued.
‘...is led by former child prodigy Professor Elizabeth Beacham...’ Diamond now stiffened and listened intently as the commentary continued, ‘...who as newly appointed Chief Engineer of SpaceForce is bringing reality to the vacuum energy discoveries of her mentor, and three-time Nobel Laureate, Lord Diamond. This controversial programme...’
Now Diamond became irritated, only controversial amongst idiots he thought. He clicked off the TV with an angry gesture and slumped back; the young girl had done well, recovered well, for herself. Still no one was indispensible even if he had needed to replace her with four new young mathematicians. Diamond paused in his thoughts and pulled out his MiniSlate to calculate his itinerary.
‘I’ll buzz you when I’m free, Green,’ he said and continued talking half to himself and with a weary sigh, ’Estimates Committee ... hmmm, Interplanetary Dinner ... Still,’ and here an unforced gleam came into his eye as he reflected on a line in the report, ‘“three-time Nobel Laureate”, I do like it when they say that.’
Diamond laughed with his driver and then with a quick nod he exited the car and made his way to the surface entrance of Hanger 15. ‘The Future Starts Here’ read Diamond and he laughed inwardly; people like me are the future. The world’s bureaucracy was fond of such little homilies, Diamond again snorted inwardly as he remembered UNIPOL’s own facile effort. The entrance to SpacePort itself carried the suffix, ‘Gateway To The Stars’. Stars, such arrogance thought Diamond, the prospect of reaching the stars, the impossibly distant stars, was...astronomic. Diamond stalked through the building foyer in a self absorbed mood which the staff had grown to recognise. As Diamond passed through Reception he absently showed his ID from ‘The UN Research Institute - Searching for Progress’.
....
The office which overlooked the hangar floor of the Hangar 15 building was not especially spacious and its only current occupant, Commandant Sir Curtis Leighton took in his surroundings easily as he stood by its single desk. The office had a large window wall at one end; this area also had a lounging chair and small coffee table. Otherwise the office was a plainly decorated, rather soulless, work environment; a computer system on the desk, screens of various sizes and purposes on one wall, a holographic plan projector in one corner and ancient, and clearly much prized, reference books populating the lounging area. Sir Curtis cautiously poked at sheaves of printouts lying on the plot table; the wide spaced hieroglyphics were interspersed with scribbled jottings. The jottings were one of the few clues to the activities of the occupier; but not the only clue, one wall was dominated by a whiteboard which in turn was full of equations. Sir Curtis studied the equations and tried to persuade himself that if someone could only talk him through them then their inner logic would all make sense. But Sir Curtis also knew that these symbols were another language, the language of another world. In places he saw that the symbols had been clearly rubbed out and replaced and in other places it seemed that a whole new thought process was overriding the previous. The final symbols looked to have been overwritten several times. Are numbers behind everything? What would happen when science discovered the ultimate number? Sir Curtis was stumped; no translator would ever get it through to me, thought Sir Curtis, we just have to rely on these scientists for their insights.
He turned to sit at the desk which unlike the jumble of equations was uncluttered, neat and tidy with no sign of much formal use, no notes on scraps of paper, no jottings, no well thumbed note books; the only objects of note on the desk were a photo of a kitten alongside a simple rag doll perched against an angle-poise lamp which shared their space with a built in TV monitor. Sir Curtis realised he needed a vital update and switched on the TV. To his disappointment the channel was broadcasting the same news programme which unknown to him Diamond had also been watching. The self satisfied commentator continued.
‘...Boardman, the President of the Royal Institution, indeed has sparked a major controversy by claiming the programme was “wrong-headed, wrongly motivated and wrongly timed”.’ The commentator paused with a glib smile, ‘And now Sport.’ Sir Curtis sat up. ‘The First Test against Australia was halted today by snow flurries...’
‘Always the same, just when we...’ with a bad humoured hiss of irritation Sir Curtis switched off the TV.
He stood up again to work off his irritation and had a brief moment pondering the photo and absently picked up the doll as his attention wondered back to the lounging chair; yes this would be where she would sit and relax, where Professor Elisabeth Beacham would exercise her great mind and solve the vast engineering problems associated with controlling the energies of quantum space and idly running vast calculations over in her... Sir Curtis stopped his pondering and returned sat down heavily on the corner of the desk; he noted again the absence of notes and jottings, Sir Curtis realised that someone with Professor Beacham’s rare qualities would not need them. What about the equations? He looked again at the enigmatic doll he was still holding. Far too much rested on the enduring properties of Professor Beacham’s mind and he cared not to think what might happen if that mind started to lose its...
Sir Curtis’ reverie was interrupted as the door slid open to admit Professor Elisabeth Beacham and Colonel Jack Fortune.
....
However all these features were already hard wired into Fortune’s sense of perception, his gaze was taken straight towards the central feature of the hangar - the cobalt blue, loosely labelled ‘Q-Ship’, with its registry number prominently displayed on its aerodynamically sculpted half glazed nose – ‘H3-M35’.
The ship was still split into its three component parts, with a small working space in between each. Things had moved on; as Fortune had earlier implied, the last time Fortune had seen this ship it was in nearly a hundred parts. Now it sat on its three assembly rigs, all but ready to be put together into a whole. It sat in front of a series of large rings and Elisabeth duly noted that they were easily large enough to accommodate this Q-Ship. These rings carried on through the remaining length of the hanger where they disappeared into a tunnel. Fortune stared long and hard at the tunnel and the rings, the launch rings, the superconducting, diamagnatron, levitating launch rings; if those rings failed there was no project. Elisabeth too looked at the rings, they will work, she thought, I have faith in Singh.
Fortune spotted a movement and he pointed to the rest of their party as they arrived on the hangar floor. ‘You’ve been lucky with Jules.’ he said absently to Elisabeth.
As they looked down they saw that Jules was clearly familiar with the various scientists and assembly technicians; he had been very busy here during the weeks of Fortune’s absence.
‘He’s a tower of strength; brilliant at practical diagnostics.’ replied Elisabeth.
There was abundant scope for further conversation but Elisabeth was struck dumb and Fortune too kept any further thoughts to himself. Sir Curtis let the long pause linger but guiltily he made no further effort at matchmaking; cruel fate had decreed to him that these two people needed to be concentrating on their work not each other.
....
The hangar floor was a busy place and Wing, Jules and Bradley were circumspect as they walked around the gleaming blue ship. They arrived at the nose which held the cockpit with its ‘glazed’ upper surface. Bradley had been busy since his new appointment, busy on simulators, busy at computer screens, busy visiting component suppliers, but he had not until now seen all of the individual parts assembled in the sum of their glory.
Bradley was more than a flight engineer and quasi navigator/co-pilot, though he had demonstrated all those abilities in attempting to stave off the crash on Mars. He operated at a lower level that the high flying officers; he had his ear to the ground and knew what was going on in the minds of the warrant officers who, as everyone knew, made SpaceForce tick and he rapidly built up a web of contacts that overcame the various obstacles that someone, some-force, somewhere was discretely placing in the path of the development of the Q-Ship. Jules and Wing could only marvel at the perception that a battered and sand covered Jack Fortune had displayed recognising Bradley’s talent. Bradley knew a good ship when he saw one and he was impressed.
‘It’s bigger than I wuz expectin’.’
All three stepped back to review the lines of the ship. Beyond the sleek half glazed nose it had an aerodynamic lifting body shape, oval in cross section and shaped to give lift like an aerofoil; this was a craft designed to fly in space and in an atmosphere. The forward part of its long midship section was topped by a glazed canopy to match its half-glazed nose; a few strategic points along its side were punctuated with modest elliptical windows. The small airlock door towards the rear of the amidships was open and the access steps were dropped down from the soffit of the hull. Beyond that were the stub wings which curved seductively up at their tips; neatly sculptured into their roots and snuggled into the delicately curved underside were the air scoops for its powerful multimode variable geometry ramjet/scramjet engines. The whole of the menacingly black topped rear section was taken up with the ‘Quantum Drive’, the vacuum energy engines. The engine’s field generators and induction grids were visible in an arc stretching from wing root to wing root over the curved top sides of the engine bay, where they were pierced by twin stabiliser fins, and at the very rear were the outlets of the quantum flux plasma tubes. To Jules it would be the most beautiful artefact ever created by man once it was fully assembled; would it turn into a great artifice he wondered.
‘Eh bien Brad, it carries up to seven and monitoring equipment; it is not a little test plane,’ Jules glanced at Wing, who glared back ‘like the “Red Arrow”. And you know the engines probably are bigger than a ship like this really needs.’
‘They are there to be tested,’ said Wing.
Bradley led them round again to the sleek nose and this time he noticed the registration letters, ‘H3-M35’ stencilled onto the nose just below the cockpit glazing; he gave them a thoughtful look.
‘Did I ever tell you about my Uncle Herman?’
‘Brad you’re always tellin’ us about your Uncle Herman.’
‘Qui, he was the one who climbed Mons Olympus, n’est pas?’
‘Yeah Brad and then he went the other way, all the way down to floor of Hebes Canyon. You could say he topped and tailed Mars.’
‘Yea well, the ship he first landed on Mars in is pretty famous in our family; see look ... the registry number, if you switch a couple o’ numbers around and, well squint...’ Bradley paused, ‘I think I got a notion for the Colonel or mebbi the Prof...’
Wing and Jules stopped and stared at Bradley who had become curiously agitated.
....
Download this book for your ebook reader.
(Pages 1-42 show above.)