Chapter Two

Helena had only just fallen into a deep sleep when she was awakened by the chirrup of her comlock on the bedside table. She was used to snapping awake for emergencies and she came to her full senses with her feet already touching the floor.

"Helena," John said brusquely. "We need you in Command Centre now."

"On my way." She slung on her dressing gown, grabbed her emergency kit, and half-ran the short distance between the living complex and the command complex. It was quarter past one and the corridors of Alpha were deserted, so there was no base-wide emergency.

Command Centre was almost empty too, but John was waiting for her. As soon as she entered he took her arms and his expression made her heart sick.

"Helena, I'm afraid there's some very bad news and I didn't want to tell you over the comm. Eagle Four has rendezvoused with the refuelling Eagle and Douglas Mullins has come back alone - something's happened to Maya."

"Something? What?"

"From what Bill can make out, she was disintegrated - destroyed - Mullins said that there was nothing left."

Helena sat down.

"Douglas wasn't in a fit state to talk to us, he wasn't making sense," said Alan. "We have to go out there and find out what happened for ourselves."

"We're preparing Eagle One for immediate launch," said John. "Get ready as quickly as possible and meet me there."

Helena stood up then stopped at the door. "Where's Tony? Has someone told him?"

"He's already helping in the landing bay. But Helena - we haven't told him everything, just that Mullins came back without Maya and that it looks like she's in trouble."

"That's just going to make the shock worse when he does find out."

"As far as I'm concerned, Mullins hasn't said anything that makes sense. Until we get to the rendezvous point and talk to him ourselves we haven't got any information. I'm not going to pass on what Fraser says Mullins says. It's a twenty-four hour journey out there and there's no point in causing him unnecessary pain."

"All right," said Helena, dubiously. She ran back to her quarters, changed into her uniform, and was in the landing bay within five minutes.

It was a long, tiring, tense journey to meet Eagle Four. Nobody said very much. John and Tony took turns piloting, but Tony would not leave the cockpit to sleep. Helena spent most of her time in the back of the ship, trying to rest and finding the long hours unbearably tedious. Because they did not discuss it, she managed to keep thought and feeling at arm's length until they connected with Eagle Four.

"Okay," said Tony, as soon as they stepped through the airlock. "What's the story?"

Douglas Mullins looked composed now, but Helena sat down beside him and gave him a quick examination. His complexion was very pale and the skin underneath his eyelids was anaemic-looking.

"I'm okay," he said, pushing her hand aside.

"Have you had anything to eat?"

"He threw it up," said Bill Fraser, his arms folded.

"That was hours ago, I'm okay now."

"Mullins," said Tony, "what the hell's happened to Maya?"

Douglas's eyes flicked between John and Tony, and he chose to address the Commander. "We found the source of the signal, it was a small planetoid no bigger than the moon. There was a great big red cross marked on it, and we went in closer but the Eagle's landing controls were taken over - some remote system just guided us into a docking bay, a huge one, built for much bigger ships. It was a base, but it was abandoned - everything was working, the lights were on, there was atmosphere, normal gravity, there were just no people. The technology was fantastic, but we didn't know what some of it was for - and we found a room with man-sized cubicles in it - and Maya got in one to look at it - and one of us must have done something, because the door shut - she was shut inside. She tried to get out, she was scrabbling at the door, and I went to try the control panel, but before I could get there, the cubicle was filled with some kind of ray - it was a blinding light, it stung my eyes. She was paralysed by it - I saw her screaming, but I couldn't hear her - she clawed at the door - it seemed to last forever - then blood splattered over the inside of the door and she was - gone. Completely destroyed. There was nothing left of her." His voice, which had begun to shake, died away.

Helena glanced up and saw that Tony's face had gone white. He grabbed at Douglas, pushing him half off his feet. "Why didn't you stop her?"

"Tony, back off," said John sharply, interposing.

Douglas had stumbled back against the wall, unresisting. Helena took his arm and made him sit down, and Tony turned away from them all.

"It all happened so quickly, Mr Verdeschi. She was my superior - it was her decision to look into the booth - she was the one in command."

"Douglas," said John, "just tell us what happened after that."

"I ran."

"You ran," said Tony.

"To get help. There was nothing left, there was nothing I could do."

"How did you get the Eagle out of the base?" asked John.

"There was no problem, as soon as I fired the thrusters the same automatic mechanism took over and I was guided out."

"How far is this place from here?"

"About six hours."

"Okay. Bill, take Eagle Four back to Alpha. Douglas, you come with us."

"John," said Helena, "I don't think Douglas is really up to it."

"No, doctor, honestly, I'm fine. Commander, I want to come. I was there - I can show you."

John nodded, and they made the arrangements to transfer the crew in silence. There was no longer an atmosphere of urgency.

Tony took the pilot's chair after Douglas had set in the flight path to the same co-ordinates that Eagle Four had followed. Taking her lead from a glance from John, who followed Douglas into the back of the ship, Helena knelt down beside Tony and said, "Tony - I want you to go and get some rest. You've gone without sleep for over twenty-four hours now, you're in no condition to pilot."

"It's not likely I'll be able to sleep, is it. I might as well be here, doing something."

"I'll give you something to make you sleep. We've got six hours until we get there."

"No thank you."

"Tony, as Chief Medical Officer I could order you to go off duty. Killing us all because of an error you might make through exhaustion - that isn't going to help Maya."

" I don't feel tired. I'll tell you when I do. Just - leave me alone."

Lacking the heart to press it further, Helena stood up to go back through.

"Can you believe he just ran away, left her there?" said Tony suddenly. "It's been thirty hours now. We could be too late."

"Tony - if what he says happened is true - no matter when we get there, we'll be too late."

"Well, I won't accept she's dead unless we find her body."

"You may have to. We may all have to. I know how hard that is."

"She disappeared, he said. Doesn't that mean she could have reappeared somewhere else?"

Helena said nothing, keeping her hand on his arm. She could feel the muscles, locked hard.

"It was just a routine reconnaissance mission," he said, in a different tone. "I didn't think anything of it. Before she left, we were just chatting about nothing - I can't even remember the last thing she said to me. You never know, do you."

Helena felt tears threatening, and the urgent necessity of keeping her composure forced her to leave him. John and Douglas were looking through star charts on the screen. She shook her head.

"Douglas," said John, "can you take over the flight. Tell Tony to co-pilot, and that's an order from me."

"Yes, sir."

"And don't mind him - you know, it's personal for him. Nobody blames you."

"Commander - to be honest, I blame myself. She wasn't sure about going down there in the first place, and I didn't wait for her order. Then we got caught by the automatic system - "

"You couldn't have known what was going to happen. Go on."

"Yes, sir."

When the door slid shut behind him, John sank down beside Helena and said, after a moment, "I still wonder whether I did the right thing, promoting Tony. I've no doubts about his general abilities, but he just hasn't learned to control himself. There's no way he should lash out at someone like that."

"John, under the circumstances - "

"That's not the point, I need a second in command who can keep a cool head no matter what kind of pressure he's under. In situations like this, he comes close to being a liability. I would probably have come out here anyway - I owe it to Maya - but I feel I had to, to make sure Tony doesn't do anything stupid. We can't afford to lose him too."

"John - "

"I know." He put his arms around her.

She tried to cry, but she was unable to release her grip. For some time she lay with her head against his neck, absorbing his warmth. "Tony said to me just now - you never know. Don't you see we have to do it? If this doesn't convince you - "

"I was thinking just the opposite. If Maya had a child, it would just have lost its mother."

She drew away.

"Our life is too precarious," he said. "Sometimes, when we go for weeks like the last three months with nothing happening, it's easy to be lulled into a sense of security, almost of normality. It's an illusion. If we had children, we would raise the emotional stakes tenfold. It's hard enough as it is for us to stay objective. We don't operate professionally any more, we're all too involved with each other. What are the Commander and the Chief Medical Officer doing way out here, beyond communications range? I said it was to keep Tony reigned in, but I'm emotionally involved too."

"I don't think that's wrong."

"I don't know. If we had children, we'd be vulnerable to anything that wanted to attack us."

Helena shook her head. "At least we'd have a life. Oh, I can't talk about this now."

After a moment, John said, "Maya was hardly more than a kid herself. I felt responsible for her, I felt her father gave her into my care."

"Don't speak about her in the past tense. We don't know yet."

John pulled her against him again, and they passed the rest of the miserable journey in silence.