Chapter 7 – Aliens

AT LENGTH a message came from Captain Moon, inviting Jacqui to present herself, not in the vicinity of Midwich as she had expected, but at RAF Northolt, not far from Heathrow Airport. Autumn was already well advanced, and a steady cold drizzle was falling as she made her way there, wrapped in a warm overcoat. As she had already guessed, she found waiting for her, not a car, but a helicopter. Captain Moon greeted her on the tarmac. She seemed in a more affable mood: gone was the formality of the meeting in Joyce's flat, and Helen insisted that she and Jacqui were now on first-name terms.

"We've got the go-ahead, Jacqui," she explained. "This is the only way to get to Midwich. All ground access has been sealed off. I received the report that you'd been seen on the footpath next to the fence, but it doesn't matter—you'd never have found out anything. And I've been given permission to reveal some more to you, before we fly." She gestured to Jacqui to follow her into a small building.

There, she took out a smartphone, busied herself with entering several passwords, and then handed it to Jacqui. A video was running.

Jacqui could see a small room apparently flooded with water a few inches deep. In it three worm-like creatures, light grey in colour, were slowly moving about. Some sort of eel, she supposed. Different lengths: the shortest was about two feet long and the longest just over five feet. Occasionally the longest one would raise one of its ends, which was most curiously adorned with a sort of flare—like the bell of a trumpet. Jacqui noticed that the other end of the creature had an identical flare. The rest of its body seemed to be roughly triangular in cross-section, about three or four inches across.

"We've dubbed them 'Trumpet-Eels'," said Helen, "and given them names. At first we thought of them as worms, so we call the long one 'Wiggy', the medium, 'Wally', and the short one 'Weeny'. Sorry about the names—I'm sure you'd have come up with something better!"

Jacqui examined 'Wiggy's Trumpet-ends: both of which were now raised out of the water and apparently pointing at the camera. The inner surfaces presented some sort of mottling, but there were no orifices that she could see. Maybe they were some sort of sense-organ. In a little while the video came to an end.

"Just before she gave birth, the girl-Child did give us some instructions. It was the first time any of them had spoken for some years. Her offspring would have to be provided with water of a certain salinity, and an atmosphere slightly enriched in CO2. Apart from that, they would need no feeding, and they would produce no waste. She urged us to look after the progeny, promising that they would do us no harm if we took the usual precautions.

"When the 'Eels' were—er—born, the obstetrician was so taken aback that he fainted, I'm afraid. But it appeared to be a simple delivery. There was no umbilical and no placenta. The girl didn't seem to have anything wrong with her, afterwards, but as you know she and the two boys all died soon after. The girl didn't show any signs of 'bonding' with the progeny, which were immediately taken from her and placed in the habitat we'd prepared."

At this point a young man came into the building—evidently the pilot—and announced that he was ready to take off. So Jacqui and Helen followed him to the helicopter, carefully ducking under the rotors which were already spinning, and boarded.

The flight was a short one. As the aircraft came in to land, Jacqui thought she could make out Trayne below, and then the boundary fence surrounding Midwich: a complete circle. Various buildings were scattered inside the area bounded by the fence, with one larger cluster which she guessed was Midwich itself. Indeed, the helicopter set down gently on what she assumed had once been the village green, although it was now tarmac'd over.

Midwich was a dismal affair. Grandad had described the village meticulously in his account, and Jacqui thought she could recognise some of the buildings surrounding the 'green'. The church was still in good repair, although boarded up like all the rest of the buildings, many of which were in a state of decrepitude: some of them had even partially collapsed. There was still the War Memorial, carefully tended with a wreath lying against it and surrounded by a small circle of grass. The roads leading out of the village were blocked off with heavy gates. Jacqui was almost in tears as she recalled Grandad's account of a pretty, thriving village full of peaceful folk... until...

But Jacqui had no time to explore what remained of the village, since she and Helen were hustled into a waiting jeep and driven the short distance to what she assumed was Kyle Manor, the Zellabys' former home, passing en route through yet another security gate.

Inside the Manor, they were given a briefing, mainly for Jacqui's benefit, by the Sergeant on duty. The aliens were much the same as they had always been, he told them. In thirty-five or so years that they had been kept there, they had shown no sign of growth nor indeed any other physical change. They could not speak or communicate in any other way. It was not even known if they could see or hear. But it had been determined that they could project the duress field as the Children had done, so the gadolinium shielding was essential. The Sergeant then led them into a smaller room in which there were a number of curious suits with helmets, almost like space-suits but not quite so bulky.

Jacqui rummaged around until she found a suit that seemed to be more or less her size, and took off her coat. Realising that she would also have to take off her skirt, she glanced at the Sergeant. "Ahem...if you wouldn't mind..." The Sergeant nodded and courteously turned his back, while Jacqui stripped off her skirt and clambered into the suit, which was a tight fit but not too uncomfortable, though awkward to walk about in. Helen, who had already suited up, pointed out an obvious button inside the helmet and showed her how it fitted on with a bayonet fixture. Jacqui put on hers and pressed the button, and instantly Helen's voice came through on the suit radio.

"Right, Jacqui, if you're ready we can pay our guests a visit. Don't expect much. And don't worry about your helmet visor: the plastic is also doped with gadolinium and it will protect you." She led the way out of the house and to a smaller, windowless, square outbuilding with a flat roof, heavily armoured apparently with steel plates.

"The building is shielded inside with a layer of gadolinium, walls, floor, ceiling, everything, which are then tiled over. It's about knee-deep in water, but you can safely wade into it. The CO2 level is slightly higher than normal, but it won't harm you, so we don't have oxygen kits on the suits." As she spoke Helen was working the mechanism of a sort of airlock with steps leading up to it. It had double doors, both presumably lined with gadolinium. She closed the outer door once they were inside, then opened the inner door. There were two or three steps down into a shallow pool...

The three Trumpet-Eels were weaving their way lethargically around the pool, but they immediately appeared to sense the entry of visitors. They became more active at once, and the longest one, 'Wiggy', wriggled rapidly towards them. It placed itself sideways-on to the two women and reared both its Trumpet-ends out of the water, pointing them specifically towards Jacqui. She wondered if she was recognised as being a 'newcomer' and hence more 'interesting'.

Clearly the Eels had some sort of sensory perception.

"That's all they do," came through from Helen on the radio. "They won't talk to us, and they don't seem to hear messages spoken to them. They just look at us with their strange 'eyes'—if they are eyes. I wish I knew what they're thinking—if they can think. Are they intelligent? They seem to be."

"Have you tried showing them pictures? Or text?"

"Yes. Also music. No reaction at all. As I've said before, we're stumped."

They did not look in the least dangerous. Could they really exert the duress power which had wreaked so much havoc in Midwich, all those years ago?

"Helen, could I possibly have a few moments alone with them?" asked Jacqui. "The big one—Wiggy—seems to have taken a 'liking' to me, at any rate."

Helen thought for a while. "All right, Jacqui," she said at last. "You'll still be able to contact me on the radio, while I'm outside. If I don't hear from you in two minutes, I'll be back." She opened the inner airlock door, climbed the steps out of the pool, and closed the door behind her.

Jacqui crouched down until her head was level with the creature's 'Trumpets'. At once the Eel flexed its body until one of the Trumpets was almost touching the visor of her helmet. Then it made a couple of jerky movements to left and right, before retreating once more.

Jacqui sensed at once what it was meaning. It was asking her to take off her helmet. Dare she? If the creatures then attacked her, used their duress power on her perhaps, well, Helen would be back in a couple of minutes, in her helmet, and could rescue her. She had to try it.

She stood up and gingerly took hold of her helmet, twisted it to the left to unclasp the bayonet, slowly lifted it off her head, and placed it on the ledge surrounding the pool. At once all three of the Eels became agitated. They twisted their bodies into a circle, bringing both Trumpets almost together, like a torc, then immediately straightened out again; then they repeated the action but twisting in the opposite direction. They repeated this twisting and untwisting movement several times.

It was not a pleasant sight. 'Like an earthworm that's just been cut in half by a spade', Jacqui thought. She stood absolutely still, looking straight ahead, and waited to see what would happen.

And something did happen. The Eel dubbed 'Wiggy' raised both its Trumpets high out of the water, and pointed them straight at her head. She seemed to hear thoughts inside her head which weren't her own thoughts—somehow they were thoughts impressed upon her mind from outside. At first they were confused and indecipherable, but within ten seconds or so, she could discern a clear message:

"Why have you come here?"