Loner in Space
Steve Simons
Smashwords Edition
Copyright 2009 Steve Simons
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~~~~~~
INDEX
Chapter 1 – The Loner
Chapter 2 – Is This Place Dangerous
Chapter 3 – The Unpredictable
Chapter 4 – Strange
Chapter 5 – Trapped
Chapter 6 – In Trouble
Chapter 7 – And There's More
Chapter 8 – From Torment to Adventurer
Chapter 9 -Ever Wished You Hadn't?
Chapter 10 – Are We There Yet?
Chapter 11 – I Hope You Don't See Me
Chapter 12 – A Boy Has To Do
Chapter 13 – Escape, But Escape To Where?
Chapter 14 – Challenge
Chapter 15 – Harm
Chapter 16 – Understanding
Chapter 17 – Home, But At What Cost?
Chapter 18 - What Can A Mere Boy Do?
Chapter 19 – As IF That Isn't Bad Enough
Chapter 20 – Care
Chapter 21 – Making Arrangements
Chapter 22 – Friends Stick Together
~~~~~~
Chapter 1 – The Loner
The bell sounding in the corridor, is at once the welcome indication that the day's torture is over and at the same time, an warning that other trials are about to begin; well at least for Paul it is. Paul both likes and hates school. The science and technology lessons are interesting, the maths on occasions can be interesting, but as for the rest, Paul had no interest in nouns, adjectives, past rulers trials and tribulations or come to that the materials that make the local hills as distinctive as they are. Then there are the school bullies. These guys have less interest than Paul, in learning stuff, even if some of it could be useful to them, when it comes to their turn to leave school and get a job. Their favourite pursuit, seemed to be the making of others lives as much of a misery as possible. They took great delight in getting out of the classroom as quickly as possible and waiting for their victims outside the school and intercepting them before they got to the bus or gate. Then threaten the individuals, in order to extract some money, goods or even some completed homework, that has not been handed in yet.
On this occasion Paul is quick off the mark, having entered the classroom last, he had found himself sitting right near the door, so when the bell sounded, Paul had his books packed away in double quick time and was out through the door before the usual suspects, even had the chance to leave their desks. Paul heard the teacher remark, “Keen tonight aren't we Simpkins?”
Paul did not pause, he had a goal and that was to get as far away as possible before being challenged and held to ransom by the 'big four' as they liked themselves to be known. Paul reaches the gate so early his heart skips a beat as he sees that it is still closed, he hopes, he hopes..... yes the caretaker is there unlocking the shiny new padlock, the third fitted this term. No doubt this one will find itself also being forcefully removed, as had the previous ones. Despite increased police patrols, the school authorities had not found out who the mysterious padlock removers were. Paul arrives at the gate panting and wheezing, as if he had just run a marathon.
The caretaker, slowly removes the padlock and slides the lock mechanism back. Its almost as if he's in league with the big four, as if he's being deliberately slow.
Paul nervously looks around himself, no sign yet of the four, but they'll be here any moment. “Come on!” Paul mutters under his breath, as if it will encourage the caretaker to speed up.
The caretaker smiles and asks, “In a hurry to get home young man?”
“You could say that.” replies Paul.
“It's OK for some, I still got to stay around here until five.” says the caretaker.
Paul thinks to himself, 'the fact that you've probably done nothing much all day, I suppose counts for nothing.' Paul had seen the caretaker several times during the day, he had been sitting and reading a book in his garden, which is next to the playground. Paul replies, “Yeah life is tough eh, I got stacks of homework to do before I can do anything else. Me Dad insists.”
The caretaker pauses a moment in thought, as he remembers the joys of homework. He hated it in his day. He replies, “Yeah that's tough after a day of lessons and I've heard they give you far more these days than they gave us.”
Paul suggests, “Sounds like we should form a mutual appreciation society.”
The caretaker is not sure if this young man is being sarcastic or if he means what he has just said. Giving him the benefit of doubt, he swings the gate open and says, “Good night and good luck.”
Just then Paul spots the big four heading towards the gate. They seem to be occupied in hassling someone, however, Paul is taking no chances, he utters, “Thanks mister, see ya tomorrow.” The he starts running towards home and safety. He hears the caretaker mutter, “Someone should do something to those four troublemakers.” He also hears one of the big four shout out, “Tomorrow Simpkins, tomorrow!”
Paul is so glad that he has escaped one more time.
~~ Later ~~
Paul's father, a rather worried looking man, with short grey hair and not much of that to speak of; walks in through the front door. He looks even more worried as he catches sight of Paul putting on his coat ready to go out.
Paul says, “Oh hello Dad, just off out to play.”
Paul's Dad asks his nightly question, the one that Paul knows will be asked before anything else, “Done your homework?”
Paul smiles and replies, “Yes of course,first thing I did when I got home Dad. Well second actually if you count making a snack.”
“What was it today then?” asks Paul's Dad.
“What the snack?” asks Paul.
“No the homework you dosey.....” replies his Dad, not finishing his sentence.
Paul says, “Trigo something, basically maths.”
“Oh trigonometry, couldn't see much point in it when I was your age, but it comes in handy I can tell you.” replies his Dad.
Paul had lost count of the number of times his Dad had used this or a similar phrase. He was half expecting the usual lecture about how his Dad applies his scholarly knowledge in his job, but no tonight it wasn't forthcoming. Instead his Dad just told him not to get into mischief and not come in too late as it was school tomorrow. As if Paul needed to be reminded of that!
Paul promises to be back at a reasonable time, then sets off out the door. Whilst his Dad sets about taking his coat off and preparing some tea. As an afterthought he asks Paul, just before he disappears, “Will you be wanting something for tea?”
“No, its alright I had something earlier.” replies Paul. Just then, his Dad enters the kitchen and sees the sink piled up with a pan and several other items.
“So I can see, never heard of washing up then?” asks Paul's Dad, although he doesn't actually expect to get an answer to his question. Sure enough the closing door confirms he is not going to get one either, so no disappointment there.
It was such a shame, that Paul's relationship with his Dad had degraded to such a level as this, they were little more than passing ships these days. Ever since Paul's Mum had died, he and his dad had just not been able to get on with each other. They kind of tolerated each other's presence. So long as Paul did his homework, didn't get into any trouble, his Dad seemed to be quite happy. They both missed Paul's mum, she always seemed to be the glue that cemented family together. She was the one that could put smiles upon their faces. Now neither Paul nor his Dad spoke of her, or shared their happy memories. Paul once thumbed through the photo album looking back at pictures of happier days, when the three of them did things together. All his Dad could say when he found Paul looking through the album was, won't bring her back, nothing can do that, best accept that she's gone lad.
Today Paul, put all thoughts out of his head about his Mum and come to that his Dad. He had other things in mind. He was off to explore a bit of the woods that had previously been out of bounds. Until they started building the new houses, the land had been considered as private and was well fenced off. However, now that the builders had moved in, they had removed some of the trees and that wasn't all they had removed, they had also taken down some of the fencing. This granted easy access to Paul. He was eager to explore. He knew that apart from the old guy in the hut at the front entrance to the site, there would be no-one around. Paul had discovered an easy way to get onto the site without alerting the night watchman. Paul's entrance was to the rear of the site, off of the main road. Yes he had to make sure that he didn't get spotted by passing cars, but as this wasn't a very busy road, that was the easy part. Paul soon found himself under the cover of the big trees, thrashing at the undergrowth, with the old broom handle that he'd brought along with him, specifically for this task. The fact that there was so much undergrowth, was a clear indicator that this was undiscovered territory. If there had been people travelling along this route, it could not have been for a number of years. Something had told Paul that this would be a route that would take him to something interesting. He could just 'feel it in his bones', as his uncle Jim would often say.
Paul had come prepared, he had a torch and various other equipment, he had even brought a mini first aid kit and emergency food supplies, if you could call a couple of bars of chocolate and a packet of crisps emergency food.
Paul had now been walking for half an hour, it would soon be time to think about setting off back. Although as he thought about that fact, he dwelled on the fact that he had been slowed down on the outward journey by all that undergrowth, the journey back would be much easier as the path had been cleared. So he reckons he can stay out here for at least another 15 minutes.
Suddenly Paul catches the glint of something in the light of his torch. Whilst it was not dark, Paul had turned on his torch to take the edge off of the fact that it was getting darker.
Paul heads towards whatever had reflected back the torchlight. There are some brambles in his way, he thrashes about for a bit, then gets his pocket knife out and sets about cutting the more stubborn branches, being careful not to snag his fingers on the thorns.
Soon Paul has a considerable swathe cleared. He advances forward and notices that there are some branches piled up. He sets about removing these, as he does so, there are tantalising glimpses of something shiny below the twigs. Suddenly as he pulls a largish branch away, the light from his torch catches something and there is a low rumble sound and the metal below the few remaining branches, slides to the right, exposing a dark hole.
Paul glimpses at his watch, more than fifteen minutes have passed since he last looked at the watch, he knows he must head back home now, or he will be in trouble. But the attraction of this newly revealed place is very strong. As Paul moves, his torch catches whatever had caused the metal to slide open and the rumble resumes again, sliding the metal back into place. Paul instinctively picks up some of the twigs and sprinkles them back over the metal to hide it again.
Paul sets off back in the direction of home, determined to come back again tomorrow.
~~~~~~
Chapter 2 – Is This Place Dangerous?
Paul is glad that he had no homework to do tonight, it means he can get back earlier, to whatever it is that he had found in the woods, the previous night. He was so glad that his Dad had not noticed him sneak back into the house last night. His ploy of pretending that he'd just come down from his bedroom to get a drink, had worked well, when his Dad came out of the lounge and was a bit startled to see Paul in the hallway. Paul had heard his Dad get out of his chair and head towards the lounge door, so grabbing the glass that he'd strategically placed in the hallway, earlier, before he went out, made it look even more realistic that he had just come down. Well his Dad was fooled anyway.
Back to today's events, Paul has packed some food that he is going to take with him, to his new den. Yes he is planning to make the place that he has found, his new den. He had previously had a den down by the stream; that was, until the big four had discovered and wrecked it. Anyway not worth dwelling on that, they would not find out about this den. Paul's house and locality was well off of their stamping ground. Thank goodness.
Paul checks that he has all the stuff he thinks he'll need and sets off, being careful to ensure he locks the house. He forgot once and there was hell to pay. He was not allowed out for a fortnight. So he is absolutely sure, that is not going to happen again. The door is securely locked and he left the hall light on to make it look like there was someone home.
Soon the gap in the fencing is reached and Paul sets off again for the pathway that he had cleared the previous day. Paul had done a good job, although the pathway was not that obvious, he could see it and managed to get back to the pile of sticks in pretty fast time.
It does not take long before Paul's clearing efforts expose the shiny metal again. Paul reaches for his torch, at first he thinks he has left it at home, as he can't find it, then suddenly he feels the smooth cylindrical shape in his pocket. Soon it is emitting its bright beam. Paul hopes that he can trigger whatever slid the metal open yesterday. His wish is soon granted, after a few sweeps with the torch, the rumbling noise can be heard again. Paul leans forward to peer into the now open black tunnel that lies before him.
Suddenly Paul loses his balance and falls forward. He is about to let out a scream for help, but stops himself, thinking that it will draw attention to himself and to his discovery. He manages, as he is falling, to throw himself to one side and instead of falling into the tunnel, he manages to grasp the side of it and steady himself. He awkwardly eases himself into the tunnel, where he finds some steps. Once stable, he swings the torch around himself trying to make out what is in the tunnel. At first it seems like he is standing at the foot of an almost circular structure, but then he notices that one side has a flat surface, a doorway. Paul looks around for something that he can again trigger with his torch. After much swinging backwards and forwards, also up and down, Paul's torch must have found the trigger point as the inner door now rumbles open. As it slides to a halt, there is a somewhat echoy sound. There is a rather musty smell emerging from the now open doorway. Cautiously, Paul, advances through this second doorway, he is somewhat surprised when he finds that the door just stays open, he had expected it to close of its own volition. The other side of the door is a corridor leading deeper into whatever this place is. As to the latter, Paul is keen to find that out. He advances down the corridor swinging his torch from side to side as he goes. There are objects strewn around on the floor, none of which are familiar. Paul can see that ahead of him are doors leading off to the right and the left. He cannot wait to get to the first of these, but he must go slowly as there may be any number of things that could make him slip or trip. The first door still seems to be a tantalising distance away from Paul.
When Paul reaches the door he is most disappointed at what lays behind it, basically nothing, it was obviously intended as a cupboard for storing things, but precisely what things, was a well guarded secret, as the cupboard is now empty. Although come to that, it may have never contained anything in the first place. Disappointed, Paul moves on to the next door and this time he is delighted to find a room that appears to be somewhat like a cabin, that you see in pictures of ships, there are two rectangular holes in the wall that faced Paul, the lowest of which had some sort of fibrous material in it, that looked almost like an ancient threadbare cloth. Possibly at one time it was a blanket, but it certainly could not be used for that purpose now. It looked as if it would fall apart if you touched it. It had that cotton candy look of candy floss, as you pull it off of the stick or out of a bag. Paul steps into the room, again fearing that the door will close, only this time, his fears are confirmed, as the door slides silently back into place, trapping Paul in the room.
Panicking, Paul desperately looks around for some sort of door trigger panel. Suddenly there is a bang noise as if something has been dropped either inside or outside this place and the sound echoes throughout this place making Paul as nervous as he could possibly be. Perhaps whoever owns this place has returned. He must get lout of this room and quickly! As Paul looks around the room for something to trigger the door to open again, he notices that there are two more rectangular openings in the opposite wall to the first. Paul's search becomes ever more desperate, when suddenly the door starts to slide open. Was this as a result of his actions, or is there someone outside waiting for him to emerge. Paul waits silently, listening, straining to hear, to hear anything. Then he hears a sort of high pitched whine, regular in its delivery, as if generated by a machine or electronic circuit. The more he listens to it, the more he becomes aware that he thinks he could hear it when he first entered this place, but with his excitement and apprehension as to what he'd find, he had not noticed the sound then. Paul cautiously emerges from the room, back into the corridor. If the earlier sounds that he had heard when captured in the room had been made by someone who's place this was, there was no sign of them in the corridor. Paul decides to proceed further down the corridor with caution, keeping an eye out for anything that would indicate that there was someone else around. Although that was a bit difficult in this gloomy corridor, lit only by Paul's torch.
Soon Paul reaches the next door, he notices there are brown patches on the floor, also on the door itself. He repeats the torch waving activities, whilst also nervously looking up and down the corridor, in-case the flickering light from his torch attracts any undesirable attention. His attention is rapidly brought back to the door as it slides open. Something is emerging from the now partly open doorway. It is heading straight for Paul. For a brief moment he does not know what to do, he is rooted to the spot in fear. Trying to figure out if whatever is approaching is a threat, or purely responding to the call of gravity. Paul decides to take no chances and heads at speed for the entrance. As he reaches the doorway to that cabin that he had become a temporary prisoner of, there is a loud clatter noise. Paul briefly glances over his shoulder expecting something or someone to be in hot pursuit. However, he sees a pile of something had fallen onto the floor in front of the now fully open door. Paul slows up, looks again over his shoulder and is relieved to see that whatever it is, has stayed where it had landed. Paul stops retreating and cautiously heads back to the now open doorway and whatever has fallen out of it. Prepared to again retreat at speed, if needs be.
When Paul reaches the pile of stuff, he gently kicks it just to make sure it that it is not alive. There is no reaction apart from a bit of the pile yielding to Paul's shoe influence. Paul breaths a sigh of relief. He examines the pile more closely, it appears to be some sort of clothing. Paul looks through the doorway, there is another of these things hanging up and sure enough, it looks more like... more like.....space suits! Are they space suits or some sort of protective clothing, perhaps there's something dangerous down here that requires anyone who gets near it to wear one of these suits? Perhaps its whatever is making that strange noise.
Paul steps over the suit on the floor and proceeds on down the corridor, towards the next door, being careful not to trip over the objects strewn all over the floor and also keeping an ear out for any extra sounds, in-case there is someone else down here. Paul jumps and rapidly looks around him as he sees the walls light up. Has someone thrown a light switch? Should he make a run for it and get out of here quickly, before he is trapped? He stops walking and continues to look up and down the corridor, in anticipation of one of the doors opening.
After what seems like an eternity, Paul is at the same time relieved and disappointed that nothing happens. Paul decides to carry on down the corridor, perhaps the lights coming on was simply triggered by some sort of presence detector. He has now reached the next door, a bit of torch waving results in the door sliding open.
Result! Beyond the opening door the room appears to be lit and there are the backs of two chairs and beyond those, what looks like a large screen or window. It is difficult to tell which. Below that is what looks like a desk or control panel. Paul looks round the room, there are some things laying scattered on the floor. Paul carefully and quietly kicks one of them into the pathway of the door, he doesn't want to get trapped in here, so is hoping that by placing this item in the doorway will prevent the door closing, in the same way that lift doors won't close if you put a hand or foot in their way. Paul steps round the item on the floor and enters the room, half expecting one or both seats to swing round. He approaches cautiously. Then jumps as he hears the door start to slide shut. He dashes back towards the door, but he need not worry, his ploy had worked, the door gently touches the item and opens again. Paul quickly looks back round to the seats, expecting to have attracted the attention of whoever is sitting in them. But no they do not appear to have moved. Paul approaches the seat to the left of him and again, he is fully prepared to make a run for it if necessary.
Paul reaches the seat and is relieved to see it is empty, as is the second chair. However, the nearest chair is covered in brown patches, as are parts of the desk before it. The desk looks like a control panel of some sort, but there are no knobs or switches. Instead there appear to be glass bumps and black glass panels. The area nearest Paul where the brown stains can be seen, seems to have suffered some damage, two of the black panels are cracked and covered in brown patches and some of the bumps look as if they have seen better days. The whole desk looks quite complicated. Paul tries pushing some of the bumps, then tries to move them from side to side, but no luck they are fixed firmly in place.
After looking closer at the items scattered on the floor, Paul cannot figure out the purpose of any of them. They appear as if they had been dropped and left in a hurry where they had fallen. Paul decides to abandon this room, it just is not going to reveal its secrets.
Paul decides to leave the item in the path of the door, it won't hurt and will save him the effort of triggering the door opening mechanism, if he wants to come back here to investigate further.
The next door reveals a small room with some sort of equipment, which again has the glass nodules on it, but also rectangular holes in it and two of the black glass panels. Nothing really exciting here. Paul moves onto the next door and as it opens, Paul is somewhat more excited, as this is the source of the noises that he could hear. There are lights flashing and strange symbols on its black screens. There are several banks of lights that are rising and falling in some regular patterns. As this is the last door in corridor, Paul comes to the conclusion that this must be the power source or if it is a space craft, it could even be the engine or computer that controls this place. Paul stands for quite a while watching the lights, fascinated by their patterns. His mind racing to make some sense of the whole thing.
Paul glances at his watch and realises that he must head back home. He heads back up the corridor, kicks the item out of the pathway of the control room door. Then heads back towards the exit at speed. He is only slightly startled when the the wall panel lights go out, confirming his presence detector theory, this is closely followed by the closing of the control room door. Paul is a lot more relaxed now about being in this place. He even bends down and picks up the suit that had fallen on the floor and hangs it back up. As he walks away the door slides shut.
~~~~~~
Chapter 3 – The Unpredictable
The Xbox seems to be particularly slow starting today, but isn't that always the way when you are in a hurry? At last, here it is, the first screen Paul wants, he switches to friends list and is relieved to find that the person he wants to talk to is online. The screen reads 'Zlaxmaser365', Paul knows him by his real name of Zack. Paul often plays games with Zack, even though the Zlaxmaser is twice Paul's age, Paul is 11. The two of them have become good friends, Zack is at university doing some research, in the field of electronics and whilst a lot of his work is rather hush hush, those parts that aren't, fascinated Paul and they often have long conversations about Zack's work, whilst blasting things up in a game and enjoying both activities at the same time.
Drat! The Zlaxmaser is in a game with someone else. 'Typical when I want to talk to him privately.' thinks Paul to himself. He decides to get on with his homework instead, although it is not due in, until two days time, he might as well get it out of the way. He just hopes Zack is not going to take too long. Paul gets out his books and the homework sheet. The sheet seems to make no sense at first, after the third reading, the pieces start to click into place and Paul gets ripping into it. When he next checks his Xbox, he finds that Zack has signed off. This isn't going to be Paul's night. He just hopes that Zack isn't annoyed at the fact that Paul wasn't on the Xbox yesterday, for their usual game. They both looked forward to it as a wind down at the end of their frustrating or busy days. Paul settles down to finish the homework, but becomes increasingly frustrated, as he has come across a series of questions he just cannot figure a way of answering. The more he strains to work it out, the worse it becomes. He checks the Xbox again, still no sign of Zack. Paul's mind is still buzzing with all that he had seen at the den yesterday, he is desperate to discuss it with someone he can trust.
Paul decides to take a break and fix himself a snack.
On returning to the Xbox later, Paul is delighted to see that the Zlaxmaser is back. Paul hurriedly picks up his headset and calls up Zack. Despite Paul's fears, Zack seems delighted to hear from Paul
Zack says, “Hey good buddy what you been doing? I missed you, you OK?”
Paul replies, “Yes I'm fine, wanted to talk to you about something I have found....”
Then Paul tells Zack all about his den and the things he has seen. Zack is very enthusiastic about Paul's discovery, as well as quite concerned as to who owns it and what it is used for. He wonders if whoever owns it still goes there, the fact that Paul had found the device at the end of the corridor, still operating was rather suspicious. Zack suggested that if it had been some sort of abandoned research facility,he would have thought that everything would have been turned off. Paul suggests that maybe that device has to stay on in order for the doors to work. Perhaps it is just ticking over so to speak.
Zack suggests that Paul set up some form of movement detector that counts the number of people passing a particular point, that way Paul will know for sure if he is the only person who visits the place. Zack asks if Paul can get some photos of the place, especially close ups of the control room desk and those other two devices. Paul tells Zack that he will go back again tomorrow and see what he can get, then they discuss a device that Paul can use to detect if anyone else is entering the den. Paul remembers that he had an electronic kit somewhere in his cupboard and it might be able to do what Zack has suggested. He searches for a while then suddenly comes across what he was looking for. Zack guides Paul through the process of construction and testing. Sure enough Paul ends up with a device that not only detects someone passing by it, but also counts how many times. Paul says he will find something to disguise the device later.
The conversation turns back to the control panel and the things strewn around on the floor. Despite Paul's quite accurate description of some of the items on the floor, neither he nor Zack are able to figure out what they are likely to be used for. As for the control panel, Zack suggests that it sounds like the glass beads take light in and use it as control signals. He says he is basing this on the fact that the opening of the doors was triggered by light. Zack suggests that Paul test this out a bit more with his LED torch next time he is at the den, but to be careful to only trigger one thing at a time, so that Paul can observe the effect. Paul says that he wonders why his sample tests in the control room had no effect. Zack suggests that maybe the glass beads were too dirty and needed to be cleaned up. Paul plans to take some damp wipes with him tomorrow. This reminds him of the brown patches that he had seen. Zack suggests these could be leakage of some sort from some device that had been carried into the area. Then Paul suggests that maybe someone had been injured and it may be blood. At that thought, Zack suggests that Paul wear some gloves when he does the cleaning up just in-case. Then Zack back tracks on himself and suggests that this may all be too dangerous and maybe he should report his discovery to the police in-case there had been a murder or something like that.
Whilst the mention of a murder makes Paul somewhat uneasy, he protests, saying that it is his discovery and there was no way that he is going to hand the whole thing over to the local police. In any case the local police are useless, they couldn't even solve the mysterious padlock destroyer case. This would be well beyond them. Zack suggests that Paul discuss the matter with his Dad. To which Paul says, “He wouldn't be interested at all.” Zack suggests that Paul's Dad would be really concerned if anything bad were to happen to him.
~~ Later ~~
Paul asks Zack, “So did you get the photos alright?”
Zack replies, “My e-mail nearly deleted them as it thought your email address was some sort of spamming email. What on earth made you choose that name and provider?”
Paul says, “Well my Dad insists that I don't use my real email address, except for family and school stuff, so I signed up for one of those temporary things and I was a bit stuffed for a username.”
“Yeah but terminator99? I thought it was one of those bot things that pass nasty viruses and nearly deleted it myself.” informs Zack.
Paul replies, “Yeah yeah, anyway what did you make of the pictures any use?”
Zack is silent for a moment then says, “Thanks just what I needed.... oh down there will do..... oh my pal the one I told you about.”
Paul is about to interrupt as he is wondering what Zack is talking about, when he gathers that there must be someone else in Zack's room. He wonders who it is and whether they are trustworthy. As there's now a break in the conversation at the other end Paul asks, “Who's that with you? Is it OK to continue talking?”
Zack laughs and says, “Oh yeah sorry, its Kirsty, she just fixed me something to eat. Kirsty is OK with our secret, she's an Aero major.”
Paul in a surprised voice, asks, “What's one of those when its at home?”
Zack says, “Oh sorry, that's uni talk for Aeronautics expert. Kirsty is working on a special project for NASA, all hush hush at the mo, but connected with shuttle replacement technology, nod nod wink wink.”
Paul replies, “Oh in that case she'll be used to keeping quiet about something like this.”
Zack says, “Yep sure is good buddy, she's seen the photos and like me she's convinced that what you've got there is some sort of sophisticated light controlled panel, the darker panels are display panels, as evidenced by the photo of that thing-a-my at the end of the corridor. What was that Kirs?.... Oh Kirsty says she has to commend you on the quality of the photos by the way. She said that it couldn't have been easy. What we have to do now is identify what the control panel operates.”
Paul replies, “Der. Tell me something I don't know.”
Zack asks, “Did you manage to clean up in there, like we discussed?”
Paul says, “Yep, sure did and I wore the gloves etc. like you suggested. I kept samples of the brown stuff, in-case it is a murder investigation site as you also suggested.”
Zack says, “Hey you are good. Did you have a chance to test out any of those glass bumps?”
Paul asks, “What with the torch you mean?”
Zack confirms, “Yeah that's right.”
Paul replies, “No I was a bit late getting there, setting out the intruder detecting system, taking the photos and cleaning up took up all my time. I'm going back tonight, so I'll be able to report back to you tomorrow.”
Zack asks, “Could I ask a favour, if you come across any of the circuitry that's a bit damaged, can you send it to me?”
Paul says, “So long as it isn't too heavy, I haven't got a lot of money you know.”
Zack agrees, “OK that's fine with me, shame I can't send you anything. Hey actually I can, I can set up a Paypal account for you. I'll sort that tonight and let you have the details tomorrow. I think that's all for now, isn't it?”
Paul says, “Yep I think so. Until tomorrow then?”
Zack says goodbye and wishes Paul good luck and tells him to take care in-case there is someone visiting the den.
Paul gathers up the things he'll need for his trip to the den. Nearly forgets to take his door key with him, suddenly remembers and darts back into the house, fetches the key. The familiar sound of his Dad's car can be heard. 'Oh dash it!' thinks Paul to himself, as he was hoping to get away long before his Dad got home. Should he try to make a quick break for it and dash off before his Dad gets a chance to open the car door? Paul decides to have a go, as he re-opens the front door he sees he's too late, his Dad is already out of the car.
Paul decides to bluff it, with, “Hi Dad, finished my homework and just off to a friends house, been invited for tea.”
Paul's Dad asks, “Oh right, who is this friend, have I seen him before, where does he live?”
Paul, stunned that his Dad is showing any interest at all, says nothing at first, as his mind races like mad seeking an answer to the question, it is like a swan paddling like mad whilst above water it glides. Paul replies, “Its a new boy who has just transferred into the school, I thought I'd make him feel welcome and in return he invited me to his house, its down near those new houses.”
“Have you got an address?” asks Paul's Dad,
“He did tell me, but I kept forgetting it, so he just told me to meet him at the entrance to the building site.” replies Paul, wondering why his Dad was suddenly taking such a great interest in him.
Paul's Dad asks, “Why didn't you write it down?”
“Couldn't, we were walking between classes.” replies Paul hoping this will put the matter to bed.
Instead, Paul's Dad suggests, “Couldn't you have written it down once you got to the next class?”
Paul thinks, 'He's a slippery one alright, got every angle on this, still I've got to persist.' Paul replies, “Dad you don't know what its like at school these days, as soon as you're in the classroom the teachers want to get on with the lesson, they don't have any time to waste.”
“OK, I get your point, just be careful and don't stray off anywhere else right?” asks Paul's Dad.
Paul nods and replies, “OK Dad, just going to.....” Paul pauses as he tries to remember if he'd given a name of the boy he's supposed to be seeing, then remembers that he had not given a name and continues, “to Keiran's house.” That was a distinctive enough name that he's bound to remember.
Paul's Dad says, “Not too late mind.”
“OK Dad, see you later.” replies Paul and he departs in the direction of the building site. Well at least he appears to have a legitimate reason for going there now.
~~~~~~
Chapter 4 – Strange
Paul is now back in the den , he enters the place rather cautiously, checking to see if there is anyone around. Paul reaches the first of his movement monitoring devices, he almost missed it as he'd disguised it so well. He checks the reading and it shows that no one has passed by it, at least the reading is identical to the one that had last appeared on the device. So unless the invisible man had been down here, no-one apart from Paul has been visiting this place. Paul breathes a sigh of relief and can now relax. Although he thinks to himself, that he'll just check the detector at the other end of the corridor in-case there is another way in and out of this place that he is not aware of.
When Paul reaches the second detector, he is most alarmed to find that its count had increased by one, so someone has been down here. Paul is once again nervously listening out for unusual sounds. It is then that he notes that he had not heard the high pitched sound that had been emitted by that cupboard at the end of the corridor, the last two times that he had been here. Someone must have been down here and switched something off. Paul proceeds with caution to the control room door, which is closed. Should he open it, or if there is someone down here will it alert them to his presence. What oh what should he do? If he does nothing, he won't find out if this place is being visited, if he does something he may stir up trouble for himself. Having discovered that the second detector had picked up someone and the high pitched noise has gone, someone must have been down here. Paul is very tempted to sneak off, before being discovered himself. Yet the adventurer within him is very curious as to who owns this place and what they have been doing down here. Paul bends down and picks up something off the floor that he feels he could use as a weapon, should the need arise.
Paul reviews the situation, he does not want to be trapped, so he decides to check out that room at the other end of the corridor first, the one that appears to be a cabin of some sort. He sneaks past the control room door, alert to the fact that someone could emerge from it at any moment. He manages to get past it without incident. Nervously, Paul keeps glancing back at the control room door. After much tension and what seems like an eternity, Paul reaches the cabin door. He triggers the glass bump and as the door slides open, Paul checks both up and down the corridor, but there is no change. He quickly glances into the cabin itself and everything seems to be in the same place it was last time he had been here. OK that room is clear, nothing for it now, but to be extra brave and go for the control room. If there is anyone in there, they are bound to have heard the cabin door open and now close.
Paul takes a few deep breaths, before creeping back towards the control room door. As he approaches he keeps a careful listen out for the least little give away sound which would indicate someone the other side of that door.
Suddenly there's a noise behind him, he swings round expecting to see someone at the main entrance, instead there is nothing. Then there's that noise again, its..... its …... a flapping noise. Paul looks up and he can just see the wings of a bird flapping the other side of the doorway. The bird had somehow found its way down into the entrance chamber and was trying to get back out. Paul walks quickly but quietly back towards the door and tries to coax the bird to change its direction, he shines his torch upwards towards the upper doorway. The bird continues to panic for a bit then, catches sight of the area that Paul's torch beam is shining at. The bird turns its attention to reaching that spot and soon finds its way into the open air again.
Paul again breaths a sigh of relief as calm descends upon the den again. Paul turns his attention back to the control room door, he is soon approaching this again, his torch swinging at his side as he quickly walks back to the doorway.
Suddenly, to Paul's horror, he hears the door sliding open. There is someone inside after all. Paul darts back towards the entrance, looking repeatedly over his shoulder, whilst also at the same time concentrating on making good headway towards the entrance. He had forgotten the items strewn on the floor, as he trips on one and finds himself heading towards the floor. 'Why now?' he asks himself.
As he hits the floor, he manages to spin himself around to face his attacker, only to find....... the corridor is completely devoid of anyone. Perhaps they are as nervous as Paul is.
Paul picks himself carefully up off of the floor, watching all the time, the somewhat vacant doorway leading to the control room, expecting someone to emerge at any time. Then suddenly the door slides shut, making Paul jump.
Paul decides, no matter how fool hardy, he just has to find out if there is someone here. So pushing all caution to one side, he boldly walks up to the doorway, sweeps his torch across the door trigger, he clutches tightly to his weapon and waits for the worst to happen. He doesn't have to wait long, as the door slides open fairly swiftly. To reveal the two chairs, the same clutter on the floor that Paul had seen before, nothing appeared to have been moved. The control desk appeared to be undisturbed.
Paul suddenly thinks, 'perhaps the person is hiding behind one of the chairs.' He glances to the floor, but no legs appear below the chairs apart from their own central supports. If there is someone hiding there, they would have to be small. That thought spurs Paul to walk into the room and check the chairs, if the person is that small he is sure he could defend himself against them, should they turn nasty. His confidence is rewarded, as he sees that there is no-one in either chair. Then the thought occurs to him that they could be hiding below the control panel. He quickly ducks down and shines his torch under the desk. He is glad to see nothing there, apart from a panel half hanging down.
'OK that puts all thoughts of someone hiding down here, to bed.' thinks Paul to himself. He turns his mind back to the mystery of the detector at the back of this place having recorded someone passing it. Suddenly Paul bursts out laugh as he realises his own stupidity, the person who triggered the device was him!
Paul relaxes again and decides to get on with what he has come here to do, find out what the controls on this panel actually do, that is if they still do it. Paul decides that he will close the main entrance door, that way if anyone attempts to enter he will hear them and have plenty of time to react.
Once the door has shut Paul heads back towards the control room, on his way, he remembers that the noise that had been previously coming from the end cupboard if that's what you'd call such a small space, had ceased since his last visit. Paul decides to take a look and see if he can solve that mystery. He reaches the door, triggers it and it obediently opens to reveal the panel with displays and lights as they previously appeared. No obvious changes here, equally no noises being emitted. So the mystery continues to exist. Paul wonders if it had been some sort of intruder alarm that he had inadvertently managed to reset on his previous visit. Anyway the important factor is that there appear to be no threats to stand in Paul's way now. No-one has visited this place in the last few days and it is highly likely that no-one is likely to visit it in the near future.
Paul closes the door and returns to the control room. He decides to get down on the floor and examine that open panel a little closer. He sets his tools down on the ground, then remembers that the door was likely to close itself shortly, he certainly does not want such a distraction to make him nervous again, so kicks something in the path of the door. As it happens his action is just at the right time, as the door starts to glide shut, then changes its mind.
Mind at ease now, Paul turns his attention back to the control panel. He gets down on the floor and eases the partly open panel fully open and shines his torch inside. Bad move! There is a sudden rumbling sound. Paul quickly gets up off the floor to check what has happened and see if he can what he has triggered now. At first it is not obvious, then suddenly he catches sight of small glimpses of light coming from one of the large black panels on the wall, the other side of the control panel. He catches sight of something metallic moving, it is the other side of the glass. So he was right this is a window and he has triggered the shutters.
Paul wonders how he can continue exploring the interior of the control panel without accidentally triggering anything else. Then decides to shine the torch towards the back wall and rely on the light bounced back. His plan works, whilst it isn't ideal he can just about make out the stuff behind the cover. It appears as if someone has been trying to either do repairs or vandalise the system, as there appear to be some sort of fibres hanging down, not attached to anything, or at least not at this end of the strands. As Paul looks around higher up into the panel, he can see several small pipes hanging down, these are about the same size as the fibres, or at least the holes are. Paul come to the conclusion that the pipes must lead up to the glass bumps on top of the panel itself. Perhaps the glass bumps were no longer triggering properly and whoever owned this place, needed to trigger things in a hurry, but to pull masses of these fibres out seemed to be daft, how could they know which ones to trigger, they must have been desperate or carrying out sabotage.
'Well one problem, solved.' thinks Paul to himself, Zack wanted a bit of the circuitry, this looks like it, or at least the control panel end of things. Paul gets up and looks down at the control panel, to see if the damaged part can be removed. He finds that there are discrete parts of the control panel, but the things keeping these sub-panels in place do not have conventional screw heads, they are unlike anything Paul has seen before. He is totally mystified as to how he is going to remove these things. In desperation, he tries every tool he has brought with him, but no luck. He even tries a bit of, what did his uncle call it? Oh yes 'Brute force and ignorance.' Paul's version of this involves a screwdriver and hammer. Unfortunately even that fails.
Paul turns his attention to his original mission, which was to see what the glass bumps on the control panel trigger. He had brought some masking tape and pens so he can mark up each glass bump after he has tested them. The first bump is disappointing, nothing happens, despite repeated attempts, it stubbornly refuses to do anything. Paul gives up and moves onto the next one and is stunned at the result. There is a strange sound, flash of light, followed by a loud explosion. Paul can see that the area immediately in front of the window now has a largish cavernous space whereas before it was a collection of branches and soil.
Paul wonders if the explosion as alerted anyone nearby that there is something strange going on in the woods. He decides to quickly label the glass bump as 'Weapon', pack his stuff away and get out of here before anyone has a chance to discover him here.
Paul soon finds himself covering over the den's entrance with the branches again. He quickly looks around to see if there is any evidence of the explosion in front of the windows. Luckily the area is so overgrown that it is not obvious where the cavernous area has suddenly opened up. For a moment Paul catches a glimpse of light. He remembers that the window covers are still open and the light in the control room could be seen up here. The lights must have now gone out though as it is no longer visible. Paul will need to disguise that area better if he returns again. He darts off through the woods, watching carefully for any signs of people coming to investigate the explosion.
As Paul is heading towards the back of the building site, he suddenly hears the crack of a twig. He instantly stops and looking out for any sign of someone in the vicinity. If only he could tell what direction the sound came from. It was vaguely to the left of him, but apart from that he could not tell the exact direction. No matter how much he strains to hear any further noises, Paul hears nothing more. He waits a while longer, not wanting to wait too long though in-case he is discovered. He decides to press on and soon finds himself at the gap in the fence. He pauses a while watching out for any traffic, but at this time, there is none.
When Paul reaches home, he is shocked when he enters the hallway and his Dad walks towards him from the kitchen. Paul's Dad asks, “Are you OK? You look like you've had a fright.”
Paul, surprised yet once again at his Dad's concern answers, “Yes, I just got a bit spooked up, I thought someone was following me home, so I put on a burst of speed.”
“Did you see someone then?” asks his Dad full of concern.
“Er, no, no I didn't see anyone, it was more a feeling than anything else.” replies Paul.
“I get that sometimes, especially if I am tired. Perhaps you've over done things today. Anyway, did you have a good time at, what was his name?” asks Paul's Dad.
“Keiran's, yes his mum did spaghetti Bolognese and we played on his Xbox.” replies Paul, he had hurriedly thought of one of his favourite meals.
“What and you are not covered in sauce? What happened?” asks his Dad.
Paul simply replies, “Napkins.”
“Well there's no need to be rude I was only asking.” replies his Dad with a big smile on his face.
Paul is worried now, what has happened to his Dad, the man before him has to be an imposter, he certainly isn't behaving like the Dad that Paul knows too well. This man is almost like the Dad Paul knew when his Mum was still alive.
~~~~~~
Chapter 5 – Trapped
Zack cannot believe his ears, as Paul relays the previous evening's events. Zack says, “Hey good buddy this sounds far too dangerous, that weapon meant serious business. Trigger the wrong thing and you could end up blowing yourself sky high.” I think its time to hand this over to the authorities. What does your Dad say about it all?”
Paul replies, “He doesn't know anything about it and that's the way its going to stay. There's no way I'm handing this over to anyone, this is my project and I'm sticking with it.”
Zack admires Paul's courage and enthusiasm, but at the same time is concerned that he's in over his head, after all he's only, how old did he say he was? Zack just can't remember, but he knows that Paul isn't very old in the scheme of things, especially given the potential dangers he is now facing. There is no way that Zack can just sit back and let Paul continue with this, his conscience won't allow him. Zack continues to try to convince Paul that he has to stop and not to return to that place, it just sounds far too dangerous.
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