MAGENTA SUN 27/10/2005

MAGENTA SUN 27/10/2005

~~~~~~~~~~~

It was her three o'clock. She more or less agreed with why it had to be here but she didn't like coming to the tower all that much. She crossed the car park in the drizzling rain, the hood of her anorak up, a plastic bag held in one hand.

It was a regular housing scheme tower for people in the lower wage bracket or on benefit, except for the top three floors which were empty.

Empty except for one very special inhabitant.

She used her pass card to buzz in through the security doors and into the lobby. As luck would have it, a young couple had just come out of the lift door, pushing a baby buggy and they held it open for her.

She entered the lift carefully standing in the middle of it to avoid the gobs of spit on the walls, and pressed the button for the seventeenth floor. In her pocket, an electronic pass card gave a small beep. This would alert the buildings facility officer that she was heading for the top floor, which was off limits to everyone else in the tower. The lift was always a disgrace, always vandalised and she hated taking it.

She juggled her shopping bag from one hand to the other then nervously took a packet of cigarettes from her anorak pocket. She took one from the packet and the lighter which was also there. She then lit the cigarette and took a few puffs before the lift arrived. She expected the door to her three o'clock appointments flat to be open and it was. About two inches ajar, that boy just never locked his door she reflected, he was used to no one coming up here.

She opened the door and pushed it shut, the cigarette still smoking away in her right hand. The lad at the sofa in front of the TV looked up at her as she entered and with a smile put down the Playstation controller he had been holding.

He was about average height for a twelve year old. He had sandy brown hair, which looked very much as if it had been cut at home. He looked ever so slightly chubby, from all the sitting around and never getting outside, but his natural energy kept his face from ever getting fat. He had an honest and open expression.

'Hi Penny' he said.

She drew on the cigarette then replied, 'Hi Jas'.

She knew he was twelve years old but he could pass as being a little older, it was more to do with how he composed himself than anything else that made him appear a bit more mature.

'This place is a tip as usual I see. How can you make so much mess in just two days?'

The lad laughed and shrugged as she went over to the window and threw open the curtains.

'Why do you never let any light in?'

'It shines on the TV screen.' he replied matter-of-factly.

She sighed and opened the window, then paused to look out of it for a second. She always enjoyed the view from up here, right across the river to the Bridge of Don. She could see her house from here.

Grandview Tower was well named. You couldn't see them from this window, but the other two towers, Highview and Inzencratz did not have such commanding positions of the river.

She stubbed the cigarette into an ash tray on the windowsill and went into the kitchen.

The lad leaned over to the anonymous black box cabled into the TV on the long wide table at the back wall and switched it off. He always enjoyed Penny visiting him and went to lean on the door frame of the kitchen while she did his dishes.

'Gareth hasn't been today.'

'That man is an arsehole.' she stated. Gareth was the boy’s councillor.

He laughed then said, 'You don't have to do them you know.'

'Huh', she grunted over her shoulder, 'Don't even bother trying to pretend you were going to do them Jasper Hugo.'

'What did you bring me?' he asked, changing the subject.

'School books. In the Tesco's bag there.'

He went over to the bag on the hallway table and took some books out of it, nodding at the titles. Suitably advanced.

'I don't see why I can't go to school. I would be no bother.'

Jasper had a mild accent for Aberdeen, but still, when he said ‘don’t’ I sounded more like ‘dinnae’ and when he said ‘no’ it was ‘nae’. Penny was English.

Penny's reply drifted through from the kitchen, 'The government would never allow it, you know that,’ then quietly she added, ‘Not after what happened in Hull.’

'That was in the seventies. I wasn't even alive then! That's not fair.'

'I know poppet', Penny said as she came through into the living room drying her hands on a tea-towel, ‘But that’s just the way it is.’

Her hands dried, she lit another cigarette. She then crossed the large living room and opened a cupboard door. She nearly picked up the Hoover but looking at the floor decided against it. She picked up a duster and a can of furniture polish instead.

Jasper had sat down on the sofa again and said,

'It's not fair what ‘The Sun’ said either, it's like we are paedophiles or something. Naming and shaming us.'

'You shouldn't read that paper dear', she replied as she dusted the room.

'Huh', he returned and grabbed a newspaper from behind the sofa, 'It says here that if it wasn't for the Home Office the paper would name under-sixteen’s as well.'

'They better not!' she gasped, 'And where did you get that from anyway?'

'It, ah, blew in the window'

'A likely story' replied Penny.

'Well', he said hoping his lie wouldn't get him into trouble, 'It says there are three under sixteen’s in Aberdeen. I wonder who they are? There are twenty-five in London, six in Edinburgh. None in Glasgow apparently.'

'I should think that's just a pack of lies, Jas.'

'Well, do you just visit me? Or do you visit the other two and just don't tell me?'

'No dear. They would never let someone get that much exposure. Now let me see your homework.'

She sat down beside him and lit another cigarette as he got books and jotters from under the coffee table. They went over his studies together but after an hour or so Jasper started his questioning again. Penny was well used to it.

'But Penny. It said there are no matures in Aberdeen. So that would mean if my parents are alive then they don't live here?'

'Jas. Who is to say they are the same as you?'

'Yeah, but, the Discovery Channel said that it’s much more likely, you know, for my kind, when they breed...', he gave up and blushed.

'Since when did you get the Discovery Channel. Was that facilities again? I bet you it was him that gave you that paper as well.'

'You know I get all the channels Penny! Anyway, it was a documentary about the Magenta Sun. Since we are learning about it in history right now it seemed a good thing to watch.'

'Oh yes. Very good then. Well done.'

Jas smiled smugly. 'Yeah. It was all about how it all kicked off after World War Two. It was about the birth of the Magenta Sun and how it affected the planet. How the scientists fired a rocket into space that caused the Sun. It was all very interesting.'

'Good. Well I will expect Friday’s history homework to be exceptional then.'

Jasper groaned.

'Hey hey hey!' he cried, thinking of a way to change the subject , 'Me and Kentang are going to get married!'

Penny laughed, 'Oh really?'

'We were talking about it last night. When I am old enough, I will go to Indonesia and we can get married in Bali.'

Penny laughed again, 'Will I be invited?'

'Of course!'

Jasper's flat had three spare bedrooms and he had turned one into his study. Besides his book shelves he had three computers all lined up in a row on a long desk. One was for every day use, e-mails and chatting, one was his web server and the last was his gaming machine.

He lived a very full social life via the internet and various internet games and chat rooms. He had formed a very deep relationship with a little girl from Java whose father owned a carpet business and was very rich. They had met on an internet game and had been the firmest of friends for about a year.

'I think I will have to convert to Islam though. I don't really know what that means', he went on.

'Oh, oh well, you have a long time to figure it out.'

'I suppose so...you know, I have never told her, you know, that I live here like this...'

Penny, anxious to cheer him up, patted him on the shoulder,

'A fabulous wedding though! That's fantastic! Oh! That reminds me. I've got this for you as well.'

Penny had put her anorak over the hanger in the kitchen and went to get something out of the pocket.

She took out a magazine and tossed it to him.

'Oh cool!' he exclaimed, 'Heat!'

'Don't let Gareth know I got you that.'

The young lad quickly flicked through it, hungry for celebrity gossip.

'I knew it!' he said, 'Jennifer Anniston is marrying Captain Thunder.'

'Hm, well, he might be better for her than Brad Pitt. Or Uber-boy or uber.. whoever it was.'

'Over-Sultan'

'God help us. This American celebrity fad of dating superheroes. It's ridiculous.'

'It's better than Europe. We just hound them here.'

'I expect so.'

Penny rose and put on her anorak. She then took Jaspers latest batch of homework and put it in her plastic bag. She went over to the window and looked out.

'Rain's off.'

She sighed and lit a cigarette.

'OK, well I think I’d better head off. It's after six. I won't be in tomorrow, but I will get here earlier on Friday. Around lunchtime. I will go past Morrison’s. Anything special you want for you’re tea on Friday?'

'Nah...'

'Ok honey, well you have plenty to keep you going 'til then. Just eat more of the veg.'

'Yes Penny.' he replied, not looking up from his magazine.

Penny ruffled his hair and left, shutting the flats front door behind her.

'And keep this locked!' she shouted through the letter box.

After he had read the magazine he put on his coat and crossed the square landing to the next door flat.

It was empty but as no one had ever lived there and never would while he was up here, he had moved a lot of his own stuff in. As far as the rest of the residents were concerned the top flats were part of a battered wives refuge project and they were prohibited to come up beyond the fourteenth floor.

As his condition meant he had to be alone most of the time the government had provided him with lots of stuff to keep him occupied. The toys that he had outgrown he moved into here. He volunteered to give them to charity as he didn't want them, but Penny said that that was forbidden.

He had drawn all over the walls in this flat as any bored kid left to himself might do. Paint splatters and doodles of comic strip characters brightened the place up.

The room he was heading for had a balcony. It had lost its railings and was potentially dangerous, but he didn't mind. He liked to go out and stand on it as the sun set. Besides, at this time Kentang was in bed, she wouldn't be awake until his midnight. As always when he stood on the empty balcony and looked across the city he was overcome with a desperate loneliness. The double life he lead on the internet, where he pretended to be normal, helped a little and he sometimes left the flat at night to hang out with the estate kids although he was not meant to. Infact Penny would have a fit if she knew he was leaving the flat.

He let out a very deep sigh. He was so lonely. He wondered if he might try and sneak out tonight.

He wondered if there was any point. As often happened when he stood on the balcony and looked out he was overcome with a sudden wave of despair. The life that he led would suddenly look to him as something meaningless and empty. Sometimes he got the feeling that he should just...

'Oh, to hell with it all!' he cried and stepped out off the balcony and onto nothing but air...

...and floated! Flying gently on the cool autumn breeze he headed for the beach. Better to land where people couldn't see him. Flying for Jasper was very far away from the sort of thing superheroes like Captain Thunder did. It was a big effort for the boy, like swimming in space. He had to exert himself to move through the air and he tended to float and bob rather than streaking across the sky the way he wished he could. He was never much good at gaining altitude either.

It was impossible for him to fall and he sometimes wondered what falling must be like, although he sometimes had nightmares about it. Jasper didn't fall any more than someone could fall through water. He just bobbed.

As he headed towards the beach he looked up at the darkening sky. The street lighting below him meant that the stars could not show off their lustre so well, but the moon could clearly been seen. And in the sky at the moment, not too far away from it, near the Belt of Orion was the Magenta Sun, like an after image left in the eye when you’d glanced at the real sun. A dark round bruise in the heavens.

Sometimes when he got to the beach he changed his mind as to what he wanted to do. He had set off with the intention of finding Teddy Pom-pom or Carl in the park, but then he thought again.

The air was warmer now and he felt like just enjoying the sensation of flight. He headed for the golf course to catch some of the night time thermals and besides it was getting too late for the park.

It had long been known that as they reached puberty 'specials' were prone to.. well.. explode. They could take out a house in a very bad case. The doctors had diagnosed Jasper as low risk, but after the tragedy of Hull were twenty children died in an explosion in a class room, children like him were completely cut off from other kids.

Nobody knew Jasper could fly though. He thought he might have other powers too. He had a sort of feeling that he might be indestructible but he had never had the courage to put this theory to the test. A few weeks ago he had cut himself with some nail clippers and it had really hurt. But he wondered what would happen to him if something really bad happened. Also he sometimes wondered if he might be able to influence people in some sort of mystical way, but that might just be a combination of coincidence and wishful thinking.

He pulled a hat out from his coat pocket and put it on. It was cooler up here. He now had enough height to get onto the links tower block roof. It was about eight o’clock and very dark now. This was a great place to star gaze.

He landed and went to sit on the edge of the high roof, a child doing something that would make any parent scream in concern.

Sometimes it was good to be alone, but most of the time he craved company. He had asked for a pet in the flat but that was forbidden as well apparently. You could blame the crusaders at the Sun for that one. No pets for the special children. He fed the pigeons that landed on his kitchen windowsill though.

After awhile looking up at the sky and thinking various thoughts and fantasies about his life and his mysterious parents he decided to go and find a thermal that would give him enough height to get home.

Later he had a bath and then went to bed. He lay and read some more of the Heat magazine. It was all about celebrity matches with superheroes these days. Jasper loved it.

Being a costumed vigilante crime fighter just wasn't done any more. It was so eighties. Now they never wore Lycra or went after super-villains. Instead they tended to hang around with Hollywood starlets and at movie premiers.

There was a short article at the back of the magazine that poked fun at someone who was a bit of a throwback though. 'Captain Zed'. He still wore a costume. He had a mullet haircut in the picture they showed.

Jasper didn't see why Zed had a costume as he appeared not to fight crime any more. Although the article did poke fun at him, it did admit he did a lot for pre-pubescent 'special' children charities and was a UN good will ambassador.

Not all 'super-babies' were lucky enough to be born in America where they were pretty much assured a celebrity lifestyle when they came of age. While Jasper had a lonely life of solitude here in the UK, it could be a lot worse. In the Soviet Union, if the stories were true, as soon as a super-baby was born it was taken by the KGB to a special camp to be bread into a super soldier. This was blamed for the continuance of the Cold War and the fact that the long hoped for collapse of the Soviet Union had never came. Jasper didn't know what most of that meant, but he didn't like the idea of being in a camp. Still, the KGB super-soldiers did have really really cool uniforms.

In a little boxed out picture at the bottom of the article was a picture of Captain Zed in his hey-day. He was a real Cold War Warrior back in those days, with Gamma Flight one of the hundreds of super teams around then. The picture showed him and Gamma Flight fighting a giant killer robot in Vietnam.

Jasper didn't know where that was but the Giant Killer Robot was awesome. The Soviet Union didn't make or use them anymore which was a real shame thought Jasper. They had signed something called the 'Non-Proliferation of Giant Killer Robots Treaty’ and they few remaining ones were museum pieces.

The soviets just stuck to nuclear bombs now.

Back then though, they had whole armies of super-villains. The article lamented that back in those days things were much simpler and you knew who the enemy was. Nowadays your enemy was just some poor deluded young suicide-bomber with a backpack full of explosives and a passage from the Koran tied across his forehead.

The need for superheroes had past. Now Tony Blair said the country needed 'Better Intelligence.'

Jasper wished Tony Blair wanted more superheroes and then he could be the UK’s best one when he grew up and the Prime Minister would give him a medal and he wouldn't have to live all alone at the top of a tower block anymore.

Jasper sighed and flicked the magazine to another page. Apparently Judge Justice, another American superhero, was trying to get the constitution changed so that superheroes could enter into politics.

Every country forbid them to do this as they could use there powers to influence people. Politics. Boring. Jasper put the magazine down and went to sleep.

He woke up again around midnight to talk to Kentang, which he usually did until morning. Indonesia was six hours ahead of the UK. After that he always went back to bed to sleep until lunch so it was an even bigger shock to him when something that had never happened before happened.

Someone he didn't know came to his door.

'Hello?' Hello? Anyone in?'

Groggy with sleep, and wearing just a pair of pyjama bottoms and a t-shirt he went to the door.

'Who are you?’ he asked in befuddlement.

'I'm Peter, a friend of Carl's. So it is you! You do live here all by yourself!'

Peter was a tall thin boy of about fourteen or fifteen. He has sunken eyes and the beginning of a scraggy black beard. He wore a camouflaged parker and smelled of refuse.

'Huh?'

'Haha! This is great! The Sun is going to pay me a fortune for this!'

'Wait a second!' gasped Jasper, as he realised what might be going on.

'I mean. You’re Jasper Hugo aren't you? You’re one of "them"'

'No I'm not. Who told you that?'

Peter tried to look in the flat, but Jasper held the door.

'Carl did. He said you had told him.'

Jasper groaned. He didn't know why he had told Carl about his secret life. They had started talking about parents one day and Jasper had told him he didn't have any. When he tried to explain who exactly looked after him he released he would have to lie to conceal the truth. But then he had wanted to tell Carl. Infact he was desperate to tell someone about his strange live at the top of Grandview tower. But now his lapse was coming back on him.

'I made it all up. It's nonsense. How did you get up here anyway?'

'Dude. It makes sense. At the top a tower, away from everyone else. I took the stairs.'

'Facilities didn't stop you?'

'Haha, man. I came up the garbage chute. That was awesome. Listen don't worry.

I'll split the money with you, how about that. Sure, split the money ok? The Sun is gonna give me thousands! This sure isn't a safe house for battered women - let me come in and have a look!'

'No!', yelped Jasper.

Peter held up his hands.

'Hey! Cool. Don't do any of your weird voodoo on me man.'

'Just get out of here! I don't want anyone up here! You'll get in big trouble being here!'

Jasper caught the other lad off guard and pushed him away. He then slammed the door shut and locked it.

The letter box opened and Peter looked through.

'Take it easy. Let me in huh? Or will I just get a Sun reporter here now?'

'Get lost! I'm calling the police!' lied Jasper. There was no phone in the flat.

'Ah. Ok then. Coolio. I'm off-ski. Be back later though!'

With a laugh he let the letter box shut. Jasper rushed over to the door and listened. He tried to stop his heart from thumping so he could hear. He heard the door to the utility room open and close, then a clattering sound as the metal door of the rubbish chute opened. He then heard a lot of cursing

and clattering - which very much sounded like a skinny teenage boy clambering down a rubbish chute.

'Penny is going to kill me!' cried Jasper as he rushed to his room to get dressed.

Penny was going to kill him and they find out he was leaving the flat for sure. He might get away without it being found out he could fly, but they would be watching him like a hawk from now on.

But first things first. Revenge. He would go and vent his anger on Carl.

Carl did usually go to school, but if he was quick he could get him as he went to his parents for lunch at one of the links towers.

Snarling with anger Jasper threw on his coat and went through to the next flat, first checking to make sure that Peter had really gone.

Jasper looked over the balcony to check that no one was looking. It was raining again so the street outside was quiet. Hopefully he would not be noticed and besides who would think it was a boy floating to the ground? With his black coat on and from a distance someone would rub their eyes and think it was amazing how much like a person that bin bag looked like as it wafted to the ground.

Once he was on the ground he was just another little kid and no one would bat an eye-lid although the might wonder why he wasn’t in school.

He had traded some of his more easily transported unwanted toys for a bike, which he kept locked up in the shed next to the tower block. He unlocked it and jumped on and headed across to the beach and the links towers.

They were called the links towers because they had been built on the links, the name for the strip of land peculiar to Scotland that lay between the beach and the mainland, where the Scots tended to build their golf courses. Carl lived in Yale Tower and usually went through the small play park to get to and from his school.

It took Jasper about fifteen minutes to cycle there. He had to cross King Street which was a main road and very busy. He didn't really like being out during the day, but at least the rain was keeping people in doors. He wasn't thinking about it right now, but when he did, he thought his day time agoraphobia might be due to his fear of .. well .. exploding in public. Exploding in his flat would

be bad enough but exploding in public would be terrible. Everyone would think he was a suicide bomber. Maybe his agoraphobia would leave him when he reached puberty and he was no longer such a risk. He sometimes wondered though if his chain-smoking social worker hadn't permanently passed on her ideas of what was and was not 'the done thing.'

As he suspected, Teddy Pompom was in the play park, sheltering under the wooden slide and climbing frame. She was sending text messages.

She was about eleven and was called Teddy Pompom because her name was Edwina and she had two massive bunches of curly black hair on either side of her head. It took more than mere rain to make them sit down too. Unlike Carl, Teddy Pompom didn't often go to school. She was a bad girl.

'Hello Jas', she said as he cycled up. She gave him a big smile.

'Hi Teddy Pompom. You seen Carl?'

'He's not at his mums. She's in the hospital again. He's having dinner with his auntie.'

Teddy Pompom was Aberdeen born and bread. Her ‘not’s were ‘nae’s, her ‘with’s were simply ‘weh’s. 

'OK.', Jasper nodded. Carl’s aunt lived back the way he had come, along the river and in one of the long squat council estate buildings west of Grandview.

He made to head off on his bike, but Edwina said,

'You going over there?' she folded her phone in two and put it in the pocket of her pink anorak.

'Can I come?'

'Sure if you like.' Jasper didn't know it but Edwina had a massive crush on him, 'Where’s your bike though?'

'Over there.' and with that she vaulted over the slide and got her bike from where she had hidden it.

Together they cycled off towards the Donmouth nature reserve and the path through Seton Park that would take them to Carl’s auntie’s house. It was going to take about half an hour to get there and all through the journey Teddy Pompom kept up a continues prattle. Jasper didn't really listen but he caught enough of it to realise it was about ring-tones and who she thought was going to win Big Brother.

As they got nearer, Jasper looked at his watch and took a detour.

Teddy cried out behind him, 'Carl's auntie's house isn't down that way you know!'

'I know,' Jasper called back, 'but he will have had is dinner by now and will be going back to school.'

Just then he spotted another cyclist coming the other direction through the park. It was Carl.

Carl gave them a friendly wave as they approached and stopped to shelter under a tree while the others came up.

As he approached Jasper realised that all the anger had left him and he stopped his bike to lean over the handle bars.

'Carl.'

'Hi Jasper.'

'Carl you got me into big trouble. This boy called Peter came to where I live.'

'Oh! Oh!', replied Carl, 'But I never said anything. He must have got it from someone else.'

Teddy Pompom, who could never not join in a conversation, said,

'Why? Why are you in trouble Jasper? Who is Peter? What's the big trouble?'

'Shh Teddy.', said Jasper calmly, 'It can only have come from you Carl. I .. well.. I suppose it was my fault really..'

'I never said anything Jas,' pleaded Carl.

Carl was taller than Jasper and a little older. He had ginger hair and a tiny bit of ginger fluff was just beginning to grow on his chin.

'And anyway, Peter is a waster. Nobody is going to believe him. He's a liar anyway! I never told him anything about you or what you said.'

'What did he say?', begged Teddy Pompom, 'Jas, tell me what's going on pleeeeeeeeeese!'

'Oh it doesn't matter Teddy', sighed Jasper, 'Maybe they won't believe him. Penny is going to kill me though.'

'Who is Penny?' asked Teddy Pompom hoping from one foot to another.

'Teddy. For god's sake stop interrupting!', cried Jasper in irritation.

'Sorry Jas.'

'Look, I mean..’ said Carl, ’Peter doesn't know what he's talking about anyway. His father is a drunk and his brother is in the jail. My auntie said so.'

Carl continued to talk, but Jasper was suddenly distracted by a very strange feeling. There was yet another series of tower blocks along this part of the river, just between the park and the banks. They stood alone in the blank green space of the park, somehow out of place, as if the town planners had thought it was a good idea to plant big stone structures in the middle of a football pitch-like expanse of grass.

'Jasper?' queried Carl as he realised he was no longer being listened to, 'What is it?'

'Do we know anyone that lives in that tower?' asked Jasper, pointing to the nearest tower of the three.

'Nah, that one's condemned Jas, no one lives there.'

'Oh', Jasper was about to forget about it but again he was drawn to the building. It was like he had been caught by a fishing line. He started to feel very uneasy.

'Jas?' asked Edwina nervously.

'Wait a sec guys.' he pushed off on his bike and cycled across the grass to the nearest wall of the tower. He touched it. It seemed normal, but something within Jasper was humming.

'I have the strangest feeling about this', he felt as if his teeth were all jiggling up and down in his mouth. Suddenly he knew he had to be up there, to see what was going on in this tower block. Something was up there.

'Carl', Jasper said as he got of his bike, 'Sorry, I have to do this. Get off your bike and make like you are going to bunk me up.'

Carl did as he was bid and laced his fingers together and crouched down. Jasper put his foot on the sling of Carl's hands and took hold of his shoulder.

'But where are you going Jas? You are against nothing. You'll just fall.'

'No I wont', and with that Jasper leapt up and floated gently upwards. After a few floors he looked down to see the stunned rain soaked faces of Carl and Teddy Pompom looking back up at him, there mouths open. He looked back up again as he ascended quickly to the top of the building.

He then pushed off the side a bit to look in one of the windows.

What he saw he couldn't quite explain at first. He thought he was looking through the window into a massive black mirror. But then the round black disk got smaller and an edge of blue and green appeared around it. It then dawned on Jasper that he was looking into a gigantic eye.

The air trembled and the building shook. The pupil of the eye focused on him and the iris narrowed.

Whatever it was, was giving Jasper its full attention.

The building trembled again and a big chunk of masonry dislodged and fell from it, thumbing into the wet grass below with a fleshy ‘thunk’.

Startled, Jasper willed himself downwards as quickly as he could. As he touched down he ran for his bike, which would be a much quicker means of escape than flying.

The other two, although in a state of total bemusement didn't need to be told to run for it. The building before them was collapsing in ruins. Bits of breezeblock and brickwork were falling from its sides to crash into the pavement and grass below.

When they had reached a safe distance they turned again to look at what was happening, and just then the whole side of the tower facing them began to collapse and tumble down onto the green.

A great cloud of dust billowed outwards and rushed towards them as something titanic emerged from the hollowed out building. With a roar, a huge ape creature, nearly as big as the building itself pulled again at the chains on its arms and brought another wall down.

Jas and his friends didn't notice as they watched dumbstruck, but people were beginning to come out of the other buildings either looking on in astonishment or running for their lives.

The ape let out another huge ground shaking roar and stepped from the buildings ruins, pulling off chains that looked like strands of thread in comparison to his huge bulk. It shook itself off then seemed to pause for a moment to sniff the air and rain.

Just then a policeman ran up to the children, talking into a radio on his lapel. As he approached he put his radio down and cried,

'You lot better get out of here. Get as far away as you can.'

They looked at him in dumbfoundment.

'You hear me? Get out of here!'

They jumped back onto the saddles of their bikes again and cycled off towards the links again as fast as they could.

There was an almighty crash and lots of screaming behind them and Jas looked over his shoulder to see the ape stumbling into another building, making it lean dangerously over towards the river.

'Where are we going Jas?' panted Edwina.

'I dunno. Maybe we should go warn people at Carls flat.'

There was another crash. The ape was following the path by the river, almost as if it was following them. It crushed a parked car like someone stepping on a shoebox, setting of its car alarm.

'We’re in its path', gasped Carl, 'Let’s go down King Street!'

They were all going too fast as they got to the top end of King Street and they all swung out into the road. Cars angrily beeped their horns at them and a bus driver was even beginning to get out of his cab as they turned into the left hand lane.

But his shout of anger turned into a scream of terror as the ape took its next few shuddering steps right over the roof of Lidl’s Supermarket and into the car park of the Hungry Horse Pub.

As they cycled down the pavement towards the city centre, they already began to hear the sirens of police cars. Behind them they could hear nothing but carnage. It sounded like the beast was picking up cars and throwing them around.

'I'm knackered. I can't go one!' groaned Carl. He freewheeled into the forecourt of the Esso petrol station.

'I dunno,' panted Jas, 'We shouldn't stop.'

Carl jumped off his bike and ran pell-mell into the petrol stations shop, a Tesco-Metro, and dove behind a rack of crisps and chocolate. Jas and Teddy Pompom were right behind him.

There was a lot of screams and shouts, and sounds of sirens. Carl put his hands over his ears and tried to make himself as small as possible.

Jas shot Edwina a worried glance. She looked pale and was shaking.

'Wow' was all she could manage, 'That was mental.'

She reached out and took a Mars bar from the display and unwrapped it.

'Teddy! That's stealing!' said Jasper reproachfully.

'What?' she replied indignantly, 'I eat when I'm nervous.'

'What do you do when you’re terrified?' asked Carl from his huddle.

'Wet me self' came the prompt reply.

Carl groaned, 'I think I've already done that...'

'Shh! Listen!' said Jasper. They all listened.

'What?' hissed Edwina.

'I can't hear it? Where is it? Even the screaming has stopped.'

Carl unwound a little and looked around the stand.

'I can't see anything.' he said, 'There is a lot of smoke up there though.'

Sirens whizzed past, unseen on the road.

'This is super villain stuff', groaned Carl, 'Aberdeen must have a super villain.'

Edwina looked at him, her eyes as wide as they could go.

'That's bad.'

'Yeah, ' nodded Carl, the expert, 'When Poland had theirs, it shut the whole country down. My dad said if we were to get a super villain then it would be worse than foot and mouth.'

Jasper turned to him, 'Worse than foot and mouth?'

'Yeah. My dad said when a country gets a super villain, then it’s worse than foot and mouth, bird flu and suicide bombers all rolled into one.'

'That thing is worse than bird flu Carl.'

'My dad says that it’s not the super villain itself but the way the government over-reacts. They close everything down and then they start to..' Carl said the next bit as if quoting verbatim '..infringe on our civil liberties.'

'What’s that mean?' asked Edwina.

'It means they can throw anyone in the jail if they feel like it, ' answered Jasper 'You know, if they think you are a minion of the super villain or something.'

'Yeah', said Carl, 'They will quarantine Aberdeen for sure. Maybe all of Scotland. Then we will have martial law and curfews. That’s what my dad says.'

'What’s a curfew?' asked Edwina

'I think it’s a sort of wheel clamp' replied Carl.

'We need a super hero to fight the super villain' said Edwina 'Wait a minute, Jasper flew! Are you some kind of superhero Jas?'

'Umm.' Jasper mumbled.

'He's not Teddy. He's a immature. That's right Jas?'

'Huh? You knew? You didn't tell me?’ she hit him on the arm and took a vicious bite from her chocolate bar.

'Well...'

A distant crunching sound startled them all into silence. Then another one, this time closer.

Then there was a rush of crunching ground shaking judders, each closer and louder than the next until there was one last mighty bone jarring smash.

It took a moment for them to come to there senses and to shake all the confectionary off that had fallen from the shelves above.

Carl nervously looked round the corner of the stand.

'What's there?' asked Jasper.

Very quietly Carl replied, 'Its..right..outside.'

The glass at the front of the shop all shattered in and screaming they all bolted for the toilet door. They crammed inside and jostled each other about.

'Not in here. It’s too small!' cried Jasper in desperation, pulling them out.

There was another door in the short corridor before the toilet and he opened it. Concrete steps lead down. They leapt down them and into a small stock room. There was more thumping and breaking sounds from above. It sounded like the ape was pealing the roof off the petrol station shop.

All together they huddle under a desk right at the back of the stock room. More pounding sent showers of dust down onto the floor and then the strip light above flickered out and it was all dark. The ape was creating so much noise and mayhem above they could hardly hear themselves as they screamed and screamed.

Then daylight started to show from above as a huge hairy hand reached into the hole it had made, pushing the stockroom shelves out of the way as it groped around.

At the end of the arm they could just see the narrow eyes of the ape as it looked down on them from high above.

There was nothing Jasper could do as he had nowhere to go. As the ape grasped his leg and pulled him from the hole he yelped and struggled, but it was futile. In an instant he was dangling fifty feet from the ground upside down and in utter confusion.

He was too terrified to scream any more and he could hardly make out the world as it swung around at crazy angles, the wind and rain whipping around him.

He was turned towards the ape and he looked again into its huge dining table sized eye. It sniffed him.

Jasper was frozen in terror as the giant ape inspected him and the blood was starting to rush to his head. The ape stumbled as its foot got caught on the hole it had made and almost dropped him, if it had been possible Jaspers stomach would have tied itself into an even bigger knot.

Something whooshed past him. He tried to twist round to see what it had been but couldn't see anything. The ape seemed confused too and looked round. Jasper, twisting crazily in its grasp as he was swung about, felt like he was going to be sick. He also felt as if his leg was about to come out of its socket.

Another ‘whoosh’, and this time a glimpse of something purple and green. This time Jasper managed to follow it with his eye and saw a figure come to a halt and hover in the air above him and the ape by about thirty feet. It was some kind of super hero in a garishly coloured costume.

'Put him down you brute!' shouted the man.

The ape grunted.

The figure raised its fists and flew directly for the beasts chin. There was a whooshing sound followed by what sounded like a sledgehammer hitting an anvil that had been covered in a rug.

The ape roared in anger and Jasper was flung about again as it waved its arms around.

It swatted at its attacker but the super hero was too quick and nipped in again and again to pound it on the chin.

Sometimes Carl could here a voice say,

'How you like them apples?' in an American accent.

Again the ape was struck but this time it flailed so much it lost its grip on Jasper and he was hurled off into the air. He zoomed across the sky, barely having time to think, ‘this is the fastest I have ever flown’, before something else had him in it grip.

'Gotcha buddy!' said the costumed hero as he caught him.

Jasper was in too much shock, pain and confusion to say anything. The man looked him over for injuries as they set down on a nearby roof.

Jasper gasped and said, 'I know you. You’re Captain Zed. But you don't have the mullet. And you're hair is short and grey.'

'Huh, a wise ass punk kid' grunted the hero as he put Jasper down, 'Grey hair is good enough for George Clooney.'

As Captain Zed made to take off again Jasper cried,

'Wait! There are two more people in the basement. I mean. My friends are right underneath him!'

The ape was standing directly on top of the petrol station. As Jasper looked down at its feet he saw Teddy Pompom stumble from the wreckage and then make a run for cover across the street.

'Carl is still in there!'

'Right right' said Zed as he flew off.

He flew between the ape’s legs and down into the hole. The ape did an almost comical one-legged hop as it was nutmegged but then was soon getting on its knees again to reach into the ruined shop.

But in an instant Captain Zed was out again, holding a small dusty and tattered body.

Captain Zed had just enough time to put Carl down and say,

'Sorry, he's dead', before the ape was attacking again, reaching up onto the roof. Zed punched its hand down and out of the way and made it stagger back to the station forecourt.

'No', said Jasper as he knelt down to his friend.

But Carl wasn't moving at all and he looked all black and covered in rubble dust.

'Carl?' he cried, 'Carl!'

Jasper didn't know what to do. He knew in films that when your friend was dead you were meant to cradle his head in your arms. But he didn't think that would do any good. But then he remembered that you were meant to put people into something called the recovery position. That was only for people who had nearly drowned or something like that, but he did it anyway. After all he didn't know if Carl was dead for sure.

As he wondered what to do next he was knocked from his feet by a truly massive explosion. Jasper was knocked completely senseless and crazy with terror again. But somehow a survival instinct took over and he threw himself behind a large air vent. Next there was an inrushing of air, and then all Jasper could hear was the shrill buzzing of his own ears. He looked round from the air vent and saw that the petrol station had exploded. The ape was ablaze from head to foot and flailing its arms around while Captain Zed hung in the air ready to strike again. The scene before him was already a very bizarre imagine, but it now felt even more strange due to the fact that it was taking place in silence.

The ape, flailing its great arms all around, began to run towards the sea, down Orchard St, past the football stadium.

Jasper watched as it half demolished the Beach Ballroom as it leapt into the waves of the North Sea and began to thrash around. He couldn't see Zed anymore and guessed he was keeping pace with the monster. A police helicopter flew over his head, and then another, marksmen hanging out of the doors. They went directly towards the ape and started circling it. It seemed to be the end for the creature as the police began to get mobilised. They Beach Boulevard was full of police cars and fire engines.

Jasper looked down at his friend and fell to his knees again. He didn't have an ounce of strength left. As he slipped out of consciousness he saw two men in green jackets burst out of a door on the flat roof and come towards him and Carl. They had big first aid kits with them and as one of them leant over him he read the word 'Paramedic' on the front of his coat.

They were speaking to him, but he couldn't hear a word they were saying. He let his head roll back and shut his eyes. I will just shut my eyes for a moment, was the last thing he thought.

It was a week later. There was nothing but Aberdeen and the ape’s attack on the news. It was a story that was going right around the world. Speculation was non-stop as to whether a super-villain was involved and if so then who. Or maybe it had been a terrorist plot. Tony Blair promised to leave no stone unturned in the search for a culprit.

All Jasper did was watch TV now. They kept watch on him twenty-four hours a day. There were cameras in nearly every room in his flat. He supposed this was his 'civil liberties being infringed'.

He liked to pretend he was on Big Brother.

They hadn’t taken his computers away though. Grown ups were idiots when it came to computers. So as much as possible he talked to Kentang on the internet. She had heard all about the attack of course and like all little boys Jasper couldn’t help but brag to her about how he had been rescued by a super-hero. She was amazed and very impressed. He kept his own secret as always, but there was still plenty of story to tell. It resolved her all the more for them to get married as soon as possible.

Nobody came to see him anymore, not Penny, not anyone. He wondered how long he would be left here.

There was food for months though. After the attack he had been taken to the hospital by the paramedics but when he told the doctor who he was and his name went into the computer, it wasn’t long before two government men came to quietly take him back to the flat. He was physically fine, but utterly traumatised. He hoped they would let Penny come visit him soon.

He was even dutifully doing his homework for lack of anything better to do when there was a knock on the door.

'Penny?' he asked as he bounded over and opened it.

'Ah, Hi’ said the man dressed in the plain brown suit that stood there.

It took Jasper a moment to realise who it was.

'Captain Zed.'

'Jee whizz.' said Zed as he stepped in, 'This is where they are keeping you? This just ain’t right'

Jasper couldn't think of anything to say.

'Well now.' continued Zed, 'I gotta tell you. Your friend is ok. Well, he's in intensive care. Your other friend, Edwina. She's fine.'

'Oh', gasped Jasper, 'That’s wonderful news'

Zed paused and there was a pregnant silence.

'I don't suppose. Silly really.' said Zed slightly embarrassed, 'I've been in press conferences all day. Can I use your restroom?'

'Oh, of course. Right through here.'

Jasper showed him to the toilet and then went into the kitchen and quickly began to make a pot of tea. As he got the biscuit tin down he reflected that he was behaving like a little old lady who never got visitors.

The kettle was boiling as Captain Zed came into the kitchen.

'Oh no, that’s ok. They said I was only allowed five minutes. Just to pass on the good news.'

'Time for a cup of tea though surely? I'm afraid I don't have much of a selection of biscuits. Penny used to bring me variety packs, but there seems to be just custard creams and bourbons. And well, I ate nearly all the custard creams.. There are two left but you can have them.'

'That's ok Jasper. A cup of tea would be wonderfully British. And a bourbon would be fine.' the man sighed ,'This just isn't right. Keeping you a prisoner like this. There wasn't a camera in your bathroom, but that must be the only place I haven't seen one.'

Zed nodded up at the camera screwed to the kitchen ceiling.

'Oh I don't mind' said Jasper as he handed a cup of tea to Zed, 'As long as Carl and Teddy are all right'

'Well, I'm not going to stand for it. I've already called the president. This is human rights violations.'

It took Jasper a moment to take in the fact that the President of the United States now knew about him.

He then said, 'Gareth explained that to me. I'm not really human I think.'

'If someone told you that then they are a dam liar!' fumed Zed, 'I'm sorry, pardon my French. This is a disgrace. You know kid, I was your age when the Magenta Sun first arrived. I was a ‘human’ kid just like you. I look younger than I am eh? Nobody thought in terms of who was human and who wasn’t back then. Things have certainly changed now though. Well, I'm getting Amnesty International involved here and anyone else I can think of.'

They both sipped at their tea.

'I don't mind really.' shrugged Jasper, 'I will be mature soon enough then things change.'

'That's not the point. Don't worry, it's not you I'm mad at. It's your government. You've been watching the news?'

Jasper nodded. He had been doing nothing else.

'We'll find out where the super villain is and get him. I will be in Aberdeen a while I think until we sort this all out. Your Prime Minister won't like it, but I have so much UN backing they can't do anything about it. I'll help you every way I can.'

Jasper nodded, 'What about Penny?'

'Yeah, they won't let her come up to see you just yet although I know she would like to.'

Jasper nodded again.

Captain Zed drank the last of the tea from his cup and set it down on the draining board.

'I had better get going. Meeting your mayor at six, or whatever you call him here. Lord Provice.'

Jasper followed Zed to the door and has the man turned to leave his final words were the best Jasper could have ever hoped for

'I will be back tomorrow. And for longer next time, that's a promise.'

Jasper shut the door and sat down on the sofa. If it was nearly six o’clock then it was time for the news. He let out a big breath he hadn't realise he had been holding and switched the TV on.

(G176 20/09/2013 Fri via Roll20 - JF(GM), AP)

USS VOYAGER CASE FILES #83693 - PAUL KIRK -

This case study details Star Fleet Officer Paul Kirk. At the point Voyager entered the Delta Quadrant Kirk was an Ensign.

Below are notes gathered from interviews with Ensign Kirk and other members of the crew.

After completing training at Star Fleet Academy, Ensign Kirk's first posting was at Deep Space 9 as a security officer.


INFORMAL LOG ENTRY #1


(G176 20/09/2013 Fri via Roll20 - JF(GM), AP)

DAY 1 : STARDATE : 48315.6 (2371)

While sat at his guard post his commanding officer arrived and told Ensign Kirk he had received a subspace message
that was routed to his datapad. He was to respond to it at once.

Ensign Kirk then found a private spot and viewed the recording.

The recording showed a vulcan who identified himself as Lieutenant Tuvok. He went on to tell Kirk that he was
required for a covert mission against the Maquis. He was to replace another Starfleet officer who matched his
description (which had been given to the Maquis) and Tuvok assessed that Kirk had the correct training for the
job.
He was finally told;
'Meet the Maquis rep at the town of Vanelish, a bar called Sally's Bar in two weeks on the planet Volon II. You
will find transport waiting for you on Deep Space 9. A merchant vessel called 'Janek's Pride'. Get your gear ready
and report there at once.'


Kirk did so and disguised as a civilian he boarded the vessel.

DAY 2

'Janek's Pride' leaves DS9.

While on board Kirk built up his cover by berating Starfleet to all that would listen.


DAY 16

'Janek's Pride' arrives at Vollon II spaceport. Ensign Kirk travels to Vanelish and then on to 'Sally's Bar'

Here he meets with the Maquis fighter, B'Elanna Torres. She buys him a drink and asks him many questions, checking
out his story.

Not fully trusting him, but deciding to take him anyway, she tells him that they need to wait for two weeks for
the ship 'Val Jean' to arrive and that her commanding officer, Chakotay, will interrogate him further.

In the mean time she challenges him to 'show his skills' at shooting on a rifle range behind the bar.

Torres had arranged a hotel for the next two days. They shared a room, posing as man and wife. Kirk took the sofa.

On arrival at the hotel Torres flopped down on the bed to take a nap so Paul went into town and bought some more
weapons and armour with his savings. He noticed that the town was full of cheap bars and seedy brothels but that
it did not seem to have a problem with crime.

He had 10 credits worth of drink at a bar then headed back to the hotel where he ate and then went to the room
to sleep. On entering he saw Torres sat on the bed using her datapad which she then hid.
She sniffed and said
'You've been drinking.'
'Got to enjoy the down time' , he replied
'You have the wrong attitude for the Maquis.'
'I'm not in the Maquis.'
Torres shrugged 'You're a piece of work anyway. Don't worry, Chakotay can sniff out a spy.'

Kirk grunted and went to sleep on the sofa.


DAY 17

Torres was out on her own business for most of the day so Paul spent some time on the rifle range.

DAY 18

Today Torres and Ensign Kirk took a hired car up into the mountains and were picked up by a shuttle.

Onboard the 'Val Jean' Kirk met Chakotay who interviewed him. He was told he would help out in engineering.
He was also introduced to Tuvok who was also an undercover Starfleet office, posing as a Maquis.

As luck would have it Tuvok was also his bunk mate and communicating by datapad on an encrypted channel
the vulcan told him that they were on their way to Nivoch where he hoped a starship called USS Voyager would
intercept and capture the 'Val Jean'. In the meantime they were to prepare sabotage around the 'Val Jean'.

At dinner Kirk met and talked to Kurt Bendera.

When the opportunity presented itself Paul looked at the some of the ship's computers. They appeared to either directly
taken (or stolen!) from Starfleet.

In the evening he bunked down and talked to Tuvok about the mission.

DAY 19

Now on a 12 hour shift, Paul woke at 6 am, breakfasted at 7 am and reported to engineering shortly after.

Although not a software expert he was adept at computer use and was tasked with tracing a software fault in
the second phaser bank. He traced the fault and fixed it in four hours.

He was then assigned the task of checking all the Jeffrey's tubes for leaks, operation and safety interlocks.

This took him up to shift end at 7pm.

At dinner he sat with B'Elanna and Seska.

Back at his cabin Tuvok told him, 'You need to get your hands on some explosives.'


DAY 20

0700  - Paul reported for duty and was told to man a weapons console.

0900  - He pointed his tricorder at a replicator to see what security it had. However, doing so, he set of
a security alarm so he skulked back to his station.


1400  - Paul found another replicator and examined it. It appeared to be a standard Starfleet machine with
    all the usual safety standards and reporting protocols.
   
    His plan was to replicated 'Mercury fulminate', a highly volatile substance. Very easy for a replicator
    (much easier than say - a ham sandwich) but guarded by many safety protocols that would have to be
    overridden.

1900 - Back at his bunk Paul received a hack from Tuvok for overriding the security systems of replicators and
       downloaded it to his Tricorder. It would not be easy to use, but possible.


DAY 21

0700 - Today's task was to check over a shuttle craft for faults using various diagnostic tools.
       Left alone to do this he got straight to work on a nearby replicator and downloaded the hack that Tuvok had
       given him.
      
However the replicator threw up an error and just at that moment a crewmember named Jackson came up behind him.
'What the hell are you doing to that replicator? Stand aside!'
Paul tried to hide his tracks with his Tricorder.
'What are you doing? Put that tricorder down!'
Jackson then used his own Tricorder to assess the situation.
'Trying to hack the replicator eh?'
He then drew out his phaser and placed Kirk under arrest, summoning Jarvin and Yuri to take him away.

Paul next found himself in a small cell, held in by a forcefield. After a few hours Chakotay came in to talk to
him. Paul attempted to bluff his way out of trouble but Chakotay was having none of it and said,
'You were trying to make an explosives. I think you are a federation spy.'

And that was the end of the day for Paul, having failed to be a saboteur he was at least still alive and had not
given any information up about Tuvok.

DAY 22

0600 - 'Val Jean' is attacked by a cardassian ship.

Paul felt the whole vessel make several massive lurches. Later in the day B'Elanna came down to his cell and snarled
at him,
'Starfleet spy! For some reason, we are now in the Delta Quadrant!'

.

Tall tales in Space. (5641 words)(12/05/2008)

To give credit where it is due. The idea for this story game from a short story 'PLUS X' by Eric Frank Russell. Other than a similar plot though this is 100 percent my own work.

Tall tales in Space. (5641 words)(12/05/2008)

Rewton woke up with a start, then as his brain became a bit more active, he let his head fall back to the ground. He new he wasn’t going anywhere.

‘I need a cigarette.’ he said to himself and closed his eyes again.

Eventually he groaned, rubbed his eyes and sat up. He was still in the same small metallic cell he had been in for the last week. Well, a week possibly, he had no way of telling the time these days. Not that he had ever had a watch or anything so primitive as that in the past, but all the cybernetic implants and diagnostics that the advanced human race was born with in this age had ceased functioning since his capture. He had not only lost the power to tell the time, but his motion sensing and direction finding abilities were also impaired. Still, all Naval Personnel were taught to function without them, to deal with situations just like this.

So. Captured. Rewton shuffled himself over to a wall and leaned his back against it. He had nothing to do but reflect. In space, armed forces personnel are rarely captured. Usually when a ship is hit, its destruction was pretty quick. There is no such thing as survival pods, not this far out and working alone. There would be no point. Rewton, as the chief technician on his ship, the Hermes, had been testing the Enviro-suits when the attack had happened. An enemy destroyer had then scooped him up. To his knowledge he was the first human prisoner the Illusians had taken.

It was a new war, but was not wanting in blood shed. After only six months of conflict a lot of lives had been lost. Some of them had been people that Rewton had liked. The Illusians seemed to be either new at the art of war or were very brutal. They attacked military and civilian targets with equal ferocity. They were as likely to destroy a hospital as anything of military worth.

The Illusians had slaughtered many human colonies with big bombs fired from space. They didn’t seem to understand humans, and appeared to want to clear them out, the same way a man would wipe out an ants nest. There was little to no diplomacy. There were no surrenders on either side and, as Rewton had already reflected, they seemed to take no prisoners. He often wondered at the reason why he might still be alive.

His cell was pretty bare. He slept on the metal floor using his shirt and trousers as a pillow. It was quite hot in here so he just wore his shorts. There was a large barrel of drinking water, and another bucket for him to go to the toilet in. There was a console in one wall but he had been told not too touch that. The light was dim, from a strip above him, about eight feet up. There were no windows and one door. He suspected there would be a camera watching him somewhere but he could not detect it.

He sat on the floor and looked at the console and wondered what the alien looking keypad might do. It looked like a typist’s nightmare, with enough keys for five pairs of hands and looping spirals of sensors and contact pads around the main area.

Time passed and he drank some water. Some more time passed and he relieved his bladder in the bucket, gazing at the strange console in thought as he did so.

He was leaning against the wall not thinking of much when the door opened and an Illusian walked in. Walking was as good as any word for the slow movement of a four legged alien with three arms and more elbows than Rewton could count.

The Illusians that had captured him had no means by which to communicate with him. He had not been addressed since his arrival but by gesture they had made it clear that he should not touch the console. He was surprised then when the Illusian seemed to say to him,

‘Hello, Rewton.’

He didn’t think Illusians could be considered good looking by anyone’s standards. They had a metallic quality to their skin. It seemed to be optional, or was decided by some process unknown to Rewton as to how many eyes and arms they had. This one had three arms, all ending in a clump of long fingers and jointed with probably a dozen elbows each. This one also had eyes to the number of six all clustered at the base of its head underneath a huge horn, or maybe some kind of snorkel. There appeared to be no mouth or ears. Its long low squat body had a stocky leg at each corner.

‘Ummm.. hello..’ He answered and scratched his stubbled chin.

The alien proceeded to produce a box from one hand and put it on the floor. The box was metallic and appeared to have a small speaker set into it.

‘From this box, we may communicate. You would not be able to understand my real name as it is composed of a series of modulated high frequency radio waves, but I have decided you may address me as Isaac.’

‘Oh right.’, replied Rewton.

‘First, formal statement of intentions and purpose. I am your interrogator and my function is to talk to you.’

Rewton didn’t know how to respond to this so waited in silence.

‘Tell me Rewton, do you enjoy passing water through your body?’

Rewton coughed in surprise, ’Well, enjoy may be the wrong word. I need to drink water or I will die.’

‘Yes, and you consume the packets of proteins and carbohydrates that we captured from your ship.’

‘Yes.’

Isaac seemed to consider this, although his face, or where a face might be, was so alien to be unreadable. He lowered himself down on his hind legs.

‘Communication protocols, runtime error, sequence, oh , oh sorry.’, Isaac's attention was suddenly drawn to the small box on the ground.

He started to say something, but a no more than a squawk came out of the box.

The alien considered the box for another moment, tilting his large head around like a dog looking at a bone. He then extended a long arm and cuffed it.

‘Mental note to self. Examine interpreter routines. Better.’

Rewton was utterly confused.

The alien then continued.

‘What purpose do the dead cells on your head serve?’

‘Huh?’

The alien extended an arm and touched Rewton's hair.

Rewton pulled back and said. ‘Er, none, it just grows there, its hair. Keeps my head warm.’

‘Biological. You have technological items within your body. These grow in you also?’

‘No, these are implants.’

‘Your hair serves no purpose connected to your implants?’

‘Err .. no.’

Isaac seemed to consider this and rocked back on his hind legs.

‘You have smaller hairs on your body, these are biological products of your evolution, maybe you evolved from more hairy animals. Animals that had a cold environment.’

Nothing in the modulation of the speech keyed Rewton into whether it was a statement or a question, but he answered, ‘Yes. You are right.’

Isaac seemed happy with this and tilted his head.

‘Well,’ Rewton blurted, ‘I don’t know if you understand what interrogation is all about, but these are not very important questions.’

‘You are probably right,’ replied Isaac, ‘But you are very alien. Has it been explained to you that you must not attempt to touch the console?’

‘Ah, yes.’

‘And you will not touch the console or in any way at all interact with it?’

‘Ah, no, no I won't touch it.’

‘I have had to learn my job quickly. I have learned as much as I can from broadcasts and communications with your species. This is a new method of learning information. And a new method of communication. Disturbing air molecules to cause vibration. Picked up from sound sensors. Most odd. Tell me about your race.’

‘What do you want to know?’

Isaac rocked back on his hind legs and slowly rubbed his elbows together then touched them together, much as a man would steeple his fingers.

‘Tell me about the U.P.’

So, Rewton started to talk about the United Planets. He saw no real purpose in hiding such basic facts and had never been trained in interrogation techniques or how to handle alien encounters. He was still a bit shaken up from watching all his friends die on the Hermes, and besides, like many of his race he was a free thinker and a bit of a pacifist.

In a fairly relaxed voice he revealed the following facts to his captor;

The UP, the United Planets, or sometimes the UFP, the United Federation of Planets depending on what area of space you lived in was a loose collective of several hundred planets and orbitals as well as a few thousand deep space facilities. It was all run from a central committee on a rugged planet orbiting Kochab, a star 126 light years away from Terra, the birthplace of mankind. How this came to be Rewton explained. As the human race, still fragmented into different factions explored the stars around them, such as Proxima Centauri, Tau Ceti, Wolf 359 and Ross 128 they met a more advance civilisation, the Tasters, coming the other way. By then Terrans had developed faster than light travel, the Tasters while older and more powerful still relied on generation ships to spread there genes around the galaxy. Here Rewton's knowledge of history got a bit vague, he suspected they may have had religious beliefs that disallowed travelling faster than light, as once you understood how to manipulated wormholes it was, while not easy, certainly doable.

There were wars at first, but soon the two cultures merged, with the seat of power on Kochab (known locally as My'her). Mankind flourished and spread throughout the Tasters Empire like a virus, soon taking over everything. One by one, the Tasters on the central committee were replaced by humans. Over the next few hundred years mankind came to totally dominate the empire and the U.P. was born.

But Taster ideology, politics and some religion remained. The style of government that suited such a wide area of space was known as ‘enlightened communism’ by some and ‘tyranny’ by others. The central committee was now in essence immortal due to longevity treatments and cybernetics. The duma had sat in session and not been dissolved for the last two hundred and fifteen years. No committee member had been replaced in over three hundred. The CC were more machine than man.

Freedom in the UP is restricted, Rewton explained, more so on some planets than others. Each planet has a governor in residence whose job it is to ensure tribute flowed back to Kochab.

Political officers on every planet in the UP watched over and guided the local councils and soviets encouraging correct political thinking. Capital punishment was encouraged, but not enforced on every system. Not everyone was happy with such a draconian style of government, but not much had changed since the days of the Tasters and seemed unlikely to with the CC so firmly installed.

And what had happened to the Tasters?

They had all vanished in a mass exodus four hundred years ago to the 'second arm', Terra, Kochab, even the Illusians, being in the third arm of the galaxy.

A very totalitarian communist style regime, yes, but one suited to the situation and much more enlightened than any form of government in history.

Certainly an improvement on the nearest alternative.

Rewton came to a natural stop in his monologue. He had done all the talking except for the occasional question from Isaac.

Isaac rolled back on his hind legs and said

‘Yes, tell me about the Empire.’

The human nodded and said , ‘The Empire. It’s like a nightmare. Out past Ross 154, about 100 light years towards galactic centre. Our border touches theirs there. I suppose we have always been at war with them. The only bits that we have ever seen are the slave planets. The actual empire itself is said to extend for hundreds and hundreds of light years, maybe all the way to galactic centre.’

It was funny, thought Rewton, like a ghost story for children, the Empire seemed to exist to scare the member planets of the UP into line. Like medieval stories of the devil, the fear of the dreadful alternative kept them all together.

Isaac seemed to wave a well elbowed arm in a gesture that might have meant Rewton was to continue.

‘Well.’, Rewton shrugged, ‘It could be all propaganda, I don’t know. I have seen pictures of who the rulers of the Empire are supposed to be. Big black nasty spiders, but you never get one on the border, we only hear stories from prisoners and released slaves. The tip of the Empire that we can see from our border maybe goes about a dozen systems deep and all of them are slave planets. In the war we fight other humans or genetic soldiers. We call the Empire Spiderspace.’ , Rewton shrugged, ‘What can I say? For us humans, it's our worst nightmare.’

He then chanced his arm,  ‘Those ration packs you found off the Hermes, did you happen to find any cigarettes as well?’

Isaac rubbed two of his elbows together for a while then said

‘I believe it is required that when I leave the room I must say goodbye. Goodbye.’

The alien rose up onto its legs and left.

‘Ah goodbye.’, replied Rewton with a half hearted wave.

He felt so awkward about the aliens attempt at manners and the interrogation, if you could call it that had given him a lot to think about. He walked around the room for an hour to stretch his legs.

After Rewton had slept he sat up and looked at the console. They obviously don’t understand human nature very well anyway, he reflected. Why not touch the console. What will happen? Is it electrified in some way? I suppose this is the nearest thing they could find to act as a cell for me? Perhaps an operator worked here doing whatever that console does. Do they understand that maybe my word that I won’t touch it is maybe not enough to stop me from doing so? They talk like computer programs.

Rewton doubted if he was terribly representative of his race anyway. His people, the people that lived on the man made satellites around Tau Ceti were a bit more free thinking and open minded than most in the UP. He had been conscripted into the Navy and when his term was served he would leave. He had seen many battles in the three years he had been in service but he would never be a military man. In two years assuming he was still alive and free, he would go back into civilian life. Maybe go back to Tau Ceti and get a job in one of the tech modules.

The next day, or what felt like the next day, Rewton could no longer stand the boredom of being locked in the cell and started to fiddle with the console.

He started to press keys at random, then pocked about on the odd looking sensors and swirling areas they felt like jelly to the touch.

He had expected a shock, but nothing seemed to happen. After a few more random key presses some of them suddenly lit up. One of what may have been a display area brightened, then went dark again. Without thinking he gasped and pulled his hands up to his chest.

Just as he was slowly lowering his hands back down to the console the door opened and Isaac lumbered in.

‘It was explained to you that you are not to interface with the console.’

Like a guilty school boy Rewton stepped back and put his hands behind his back.

‘Ah yes.’

‘Yet you did so.’

‘Sorry.’

Isaac moved up to the console and with clicking elbows extended several of his seemingly endless supply of fingers pressed several keys.

As he did so he said,

‘You understood the command when it was issued and yet a fault occurred. Your processing may be corrupt.’

‘Well ...’, began Rewton.

Isaac seemed to finish what he was doing, turned to the human and said,

‘This is a makeshift cell. The console is for an operator to monitor and control nanode fuel consumption on the base. You could have caused some serious damage.’

Rewton was amazed, ‘But why put me here, I am your enemy!’

‘Your processing was not seen as faulty.’

It began to dawn on Rewton that he was being treated like a piece of broken programming. He hoped that they were not going to debug him as harshly as he had done to some of the systems on the Hermes.

‘Why have a console at all? I thought you communicated via radio waves?’

‘Correct. For lights, doors, terminals and data stores. But not for secure systems.’

‘I understand. Humans can get implants to do these things as well.’

‘We are made like this.’, Isaac said as he left the room, ‘Goodbye.’

Very shortly after that, two more silent aliens arrived and dismantled the console.

Some time later was awoken from his thoughts by Isaac entering the room, giving a tantalising view of the corridor beyond, bearing an empty bucket, some food and the communications device.

‘Hello Rewton.’

‘Hello Isaac.’, he replied.

The whole of that day, as it felt anyway, Rewton had to eat two meals during it, the interrogation continued. Mostly it was about military matters. Early on Rewton found that he could deny knowledge of something and Isaac would take it as gospel that Rewton did not know anything about the subject under question. He knew a great deal about the weapon systems that had been on board the Hermes, as the chief technician it was his job. But once he had said to Isaac he knew nothing about it, as far as the alien was concerned, that was that. He was willing to answer more general questions, and occasionally he would ask one of his own, which Isaac would always answer in some way. Rewton had never been interrogated before, but he felt that, on the whole, Isaac was pretty hopeless at it.

Over the course of the day he learned a few interesting facts about his alien captors.

The Illusians were an escaped robotic race, their masters being long since dead. Certainly it was hard to tell by looking at them, they look more like large beetles than robots.

In terms of their own race, they appeared to be very adaptive and fairly peaceful. Any one Illusian could do the job of another one after only a few days training. It was also hard to imagine how one of these great hulks could get angry at another one. There seemed to be so little for them to argue about.

There is little crime, in fact they didn’t really understand the concept of crime. Occasionally an Illusian would behave in a manner dangerous to another. The wrong doer was seen as faulty and was ‘dismantled’.

They favoured democracy as the main mode of politics, Isaac could only explain the human races politics by their primitive modes of communication. He though Rewton very backward.

They communicated with each other via radio waves which had meant that someone had had to design and build a device to communicate with humans. Their large brains were apparently in their torsos.

The next day they talk about politics. Rewton argued that galactic communism is the only way to run a nation as big as the UP, but Isaac argued that democracy (something that humans saw as outmoded), freedom and leniency were the best way. This conversation went on for some time and Rewton got the feeling that Isaac enjoyed it.

The conversation gradually worked its way back onto more recent events and up to the destruction of the Hermes.

‘Tell me again how was it you came to survive?’ asked Isaac.

‘Lucky I guess. I was outside the ship, testing a suit. I still had a full tank of air when you nailed the Hermes.’

‘What is luck?’

‘Luck, you know, er.. liked I had a guardian angel looking after me.’

‘A guardian angel. What is that?’

‘Hmm, a spirit. A supernatural entity that watches over you and protects you.’

‘Do all humans have this?’

‘No ah, well. Hard to say.’

‘That is very interesting.’ ,mused Isaac.

The day after that Isaac brought up the Empire and Spiderspace again.

‘From overheard transmissions I have learned this human phrase,’ he said, ‘The enemy of my enemy is my friend.’

‘Sure yeah. Make friends with a bunch of nasty evil super-alien spiders.’

‘Evil is a human concept.’

Rewton sighed and leaned back, ‘They can’t be reasoned with. Don’t let me stop you though. They treat all other species as cattle. The pictures and newsreel I have seen.. I mean, they recycle human dead and feed it back to them. Not just humans though, other races too. Bread to be numerous and highly expendable. Working in mines, on farms or bread to be soldiers. If population gets to high on a planet, they just kill people off.’

‘That isn’t the correct way to deal with sentient beings.’, contemplated Isaac.

‘You said it pal.’

Rewton knew the UP could only withstand the Empire partly because of the vastness of space, and partly because of a slight technological edge on the side of the Terrans, but if the Empire and the Illusians were to get together? That would be the end for the UP wouldn’t it? He couldn’t see how they could fight two united enemies at the same time. He groaned inwardly, there wasn't much he could do about that where he was at the moment.

Another day, another talk. Isaac lent back on his hind legs, something that Rewton had began to think of as the Illusian version of how a human might lean back on a chair, then said,

'So, explain to my why we are at war?'

Rewton shrugged, 'Simple, you attacked us.'

'We attacked a base they you established on a barren moon in a star system that we inhabit.'

'According to the 1414 treaty we had every right to be there.'

'A treaty we know nothing about.’ replied Isaac

For about the thousandth time, Rewton wished he had a cigarette.

'Well, this is the way things happen. We are at war.', he said eventually.

Isaac contemplated this for a while, then said,

‘Tell me about the worm hole technology that allows you to travel faster than light.’

‘I don’t know anything about that, I just fixed the chicken soup machines.’ Rewton lied.

‘You’re aware of the dangers inherent in worm home travel?’

Rewton shrugged, ‘I don’t know.’

Isaac didn’t seem to mind Rewton’s reticence, and in fact was willing to share some information with his captive,

‘Illusian ships use anti-matter drives to go at very nearly the speed of light. We do not bend and crush the same way a human might under the forces of great gravity. The expansion of our race has been slow, but up until now it has not seemed to matter as we are very long lived.’

Rewton merely nodded and Isaac continued,

‘Up until now, that has not seemed to matter. But against a race like yours. Each unit is short lived, but the whole is driven by an inexorable drive for expansion.’

Rewton smiled and held out his hands in an apology, ‘It’s not my fault.’

‘Fault,’, replied Isaac, ‘Yes. Something is at fault here.’

Isaac sometimes seemed to talk to Rewton like he is a computer program he was trying to debug.

‘My superior as been discussing with me the idea of dismantling you. He is of the opinion we would would gain more information from you than by diagnostics.’

‘Oh really’, gulped Rewton, ‘I.. I don’t think that would be a good idea.’

‘I agree’, replied Isaac, ‘Communication through sound waves has revealed a lot to me over the last week. Even so, there will come a time when we have discovered all there is to know via this method. At some point we will need to reverse engineer you. Goodbye.’

Isaac stood and departed, leaving Rewton alone and very worried indeed.

‘Think man, think’, said Rewton to himself, biting his fingernails as his cigarette cravings hit hard.

He can lie, he knew that. Isaac, and presumably all Illusians seemed to find it very hard to tell the difference between the truth and a lie. They probably never lied to each other, he could see it, in such a well organised society.

Rewton thought back to the conversation’s he had had over the last week with his interrogator.

‘I really ,really don’t like the idea of being reverse engineered.’

He thought over all the conversations he had had with Isaac, surely there was something he could use.

He leaned over and opened a ration pack. There were some biscuits inside, they didn’t taste great but they reminded him of his childhood. They were called ‘Berty’s Originals’ although he had no idea why. They were sort of star shaped and looked a little like a human with either four arms or wings. When he had been a child they had all said how much the shape of the biscuits were like little angels...

Rewton smiled, he had had an idea.

Isaac entered to find Rewton had been busy. The human had been drawing on the wall with foodstuffs, a complicated circular design made from tomato sauce and chocolate spread. The human sat under it, his legs crossed and his arms held out on his knees, the index finger of each hand touching the thumb of the same hand. He was emitting a low humming sound.

‘What are you doing Rewton?’, asked the alien.

Rewton opened his eyes and stopped humming,

‘I am communicating with my Berty of course.’

‘What is a Berty?’

‘My guardian angel. It saved me, remember I told you?’

‘Your luck?’

‘Well yes. Now I am asking my Berty to send help for me.’

‘It can do that?’

‘Of course. Bertys are supernatural. They can travel space and time with ease. They are all powerful.’

‘Is it here? I cannot see it.’, said Isaac scanning the room with his six eyes.

‘Bertys are invisible.’

‘I cannot detect it by any means.’

‘Berty’s are non-corporeal.’

‘I don’t understand.’

‘Listen’, said Rewton, making it all up as he went along. ‘All humans have two components. They have a physical component, their body, and a supernatural component, their Bert.’

‘You are faulty.’

‘No. You cannot prove that what I am saying is not true. An invisible, non-corporeal entity that can travel through space and time to aid its host body cannot be disproved.’

‘You are correct. Please stop communicating with your Berty now.’

‘Too late. I have finished.’

Something occurred to Isaac as he wrestled with the idea of truth and lies,

‘If what you said is true, then why were you the only survivor of the Hermes? Didn't all the other humans have Bertys?’

Rewton had to think about that , ‘Ah.. they did. They were saved. That is why you found no human remains.’

‘Yes. Or it could have been because the ship was completely vaporised.’

‘It cannot be proved either way then.’

Isaac paused for a while, possible communicating with its fellow Illusians.

‘Goodbye.’ He said finally and left the room.

Rewton fought the urge to laugh, but let out a big sigh or relief none the less.

He hoped that little performance was enough to keep them interested in him for a while longer. Whenever the words ‘reverse engineer’ came up next he would make up something else just as silly.

A week passed, and Isaac did not come to see him. Rewton was beginning to think they had forgotten him, but finally he got not one but two visitors. One was Isaac, whom he recognised by his limb configuration and one was an Illusian he didn’t know.

Isaac placed a small machine down on the floor of the room and an image flicked into life.

‘Please watch this.’ ,he instructed.

Rewton saw what looked like the bridge of a star ship with a human sat on a seat close up to whatever was recording. He looked about in his fifties, was black haired and had a pencil thin moustache.

An electronic voice said,

‘You are Ambassador Krinn of Terra?’

‘Yes I am.’

‘I am a councillor of the Illusian Joint Committee for the Conduct of the War. You may refer to me as Jacob.’

‘Right.’, said the human curtly.

‘We have made contact with you to discuss certain things of concern to both of our races.’

‘Go on then.’

‘We wish to discuss the moon on the first system of..’

Here the recording appeared to be cut because it obviously skipped forward. A lot further forward in fact because Krinn seemed to need a shave, had obviously not slept in a long time and was nervously smoking a cigarette butt that had nearly gone out.

‘One more question on human biology’, droned on Jacob, ‘Can you confirm that all humans are part of a pairing between a physical body and a supernatural entity that is both invisible and non-corporeal and that can travel through space and time.’

‘What?’

‘Known as a Berty?’

‘You’ve lost me there buddy.’

‘Or as a guardian angel.’

Krinn’s face was blank, but then it dawned on him and he smiled, ‘Ohhhh riiiight. Sure guardian angels. We’ve all got them. Well known fact.’

Rewton watching, had to stuff his fist into his mouth to stop laughing. He felt like if he ever met Krinn he would give him a kiss.

‘Known to humans perhaps. Illusians are purely physical beings. It has often been a point of discussion by Illusian philosophers on the subject of the make up of biological beings but we have never gathered any empirical evidence on the matter. We are beings descended from machines, we know this, we know who made us, we know the limits of our being. We do not know the limits of sentient biological beings.’

‘Right, well, you’d better know about the .. ah.. pixies as well. They are like guardian angels but they are not linked to every human .. they, ah, go around doing good deeds.’

Careful thought Rewton, don’t over do it. But Jacob seemed to be swallowing it.

‘Are pixies like guardian angels?’

‘Very much so’ replied the Ambassador, ‘They serve a similar purpose.’

‘I see, what can you tell us about..’

The recording was cut here. Rewton looked up at Isaac.

‘Well?’, he said.

The other Illusian spoke,

‘This information has made the Joint Committee for the Conduct of the War reconsider its strategy. We cannot conduct a war against beings that have a supernatural component in their make up. It has been decided that a cease fire will be offered to your military leaders and the terms of our surrender will be discussed.’

Rewton went pale and was almost quivering with excitement,

‘Really? And me?’

‘A U.P. ship is already on its way to collect you.’

The unnamed Illusian rose and left the room, Isaac stayed.

‘Really, Isaac? I can go?’

‘Yes. When the J.C.C. got independent verification of Bertys, they decided there were now too many unknown factors and that pursuing a course of conflict was untenable.’

‘I’m.. I’m amazed.’, said Rewton. He couldn’t believe his story had in effect stopped the entire war.

‘Be glad. You and I, we do not like to see killing. This is the best for both our races.’

Rewton looked the alien in its six eyes, but could see nothing. No sarcasm or hidden meaning in his words?

‘Do you.. I mean, you personally, believe everything I said?’

‘Why would I doubt you? What does it serve to make statements that are not true?’

Rewton pulled on his lip, ‘Well, the war’s over for a start.’

‘I think that answers your question admirably then. Please follow me. Would you like to see the rest of the base before your fellows come to take you away?’

Sometime later Rewton met Ambassador Krinn, as he boarded a diplomatic vessel that was taking them back to Kochab.

‘Bertys huh?’, grunted the Ambassador.

‘Pixies?’

‘Ha! What can I say? You are the hero of the day though. You’ll have a big reward coming your way.’

Rewton smiled and said, ‘I would trade it all for one of those cigarettes in your top pocket.’

Krinn offered him one and even lit it.

Rewton took a long hard drag and blew a big cloud of smoke up into the gangway.

‘Don’t let the captain catch you smoking here though, he’s pretty old fashioned about that sort of thin.’

‘Reckon I’ve earned it,’ replied Rewton in between puffs.

‘You think they really fell for it. They believe in Bertys now I mean?’

‘I guess so. But I think one of them, Isaac, was beginning to suspect. But I don’t think he liked the war, so it suited him. Maybe they would have ended it anyway and I was just in the right place at the right time.’

‘Maybe that was just your Berty looking out for you?’, smirked the diplomat.

Rewton laughed, ‘You know, my mother always told me never to tell lies.’

‘Well, she’s going to have a hard time swallowing this story I think. Come on, I’ll show you to your cabin.’

Work Blog 12

Offshore Europe at the AECC , 04/09/2013

So today we decided to pop along to the Offshore Europe exhibition. I'd never been
before, although I have done other trade fares. So, with the flex-time booked, off
we went!

I actually live within walking distance of the AECC but we decided to try the car
park, which turned out to be a field about the same distance away as my place!

But anyway, it was a nice sunny day. In we went and started going from stall to stall.
Each hall was massive and I lost count, but I think there was five or six halls.
What started as collecting the occasional freebie from a stand soon lead to carrying
away three bags each of loot ;)

Mostly pens, a few cups, planners and other bits and bobs. Unusual items included
a rubber duck, a Chinese lucky charm, a back scratcher and a portable coat hook
thingy. The stands I found the most interesting where the island ones. We stopped to
chat to some Falkland Islanders and some Faeroe Islanders.

Aker's stand was a suitably impressive two floored structure and we went up for a
cup of coffee. There we saw the most coveted freebie of the whole exhibition, the
legendary Lego manifold!

There was lots of other interesting things to see and do, but we had started to
run out of time, so after a game of 'hunt the car' we made it back to Kirkhill
before lunch.

It was a pleasant day out and very interesting to see just how massive and global
the oil industry is. Of course we all knew that already, but to see it all laid
out in front of you is very impressive.

I might rent out my spare room next year, apparently people have been making a fortune...

Work Blog 11

Aker Bowling Night - 30/09/2013

Another event in the Aker social calendar. It's going to be a busy end of the year
in actual fact, which is a good thing.

Tonight was the Aker Bowling Night. I've been to one of these before and this one
was of the same standard. A couple of drinks upstairs with the gang, then downstairs
to the lanes to start bowling.

I was a team with my usual lot, there was seven of us, and there were quite a few
other teams as well. I think there was about 70 people there but I could be wrong.

A bucket of beers/alco-pops were put on the tables, then plates of chicken wings, pizza
slices and onion rings - yum!

I lost track of the scores even in the first frame, not being very competitive and then
bowed out of the second frame completely due to having to answer an on-call call!

After that we had a shot on the dodgems (free) and got taxis into town.

About six of us then proceeded to paint the town red, with visits to Bar 99, Revolution,
(not Espionage due to one of our party being slightly too tipsy - a gentleman from another
department, we are all too sensible of course!) then the Moorings.
I'd never been there before but it reminded me of some of the places I used to go to when
I went out in Edinburgh. Dark, dingy, full of heavy metal kids and the like. Not unpleasant
though and a nice enough place to be in for a while.

That was the last place we went to though and after a visit to McDonalds it was home
time and a long stand in a taxi queue. Home by half three ;)