Telstar 4

Chapter 8.

Chapter 8.

The rain continued for days on end. The guests had no choice but to prolong their stay as the shuttle would have been unable to dock in such a downpour.

The Colony itself seemed to be water-tight but there was a leak in the vehicle bay. Harvey had managed to seal most of it with the use of a welder but he could not seal around the door and water continued to seep in. Either he or Sia mopped up throughout the day, often with the help of Riley and Tony.

The two pop stars hadn't lost their enthusiasm for the Colony at all, in spite of being stuck inside. Susanah, too, often sought out Sia's company but Henry was even more reluctant to let his wife go off on her own than he had been at the start of the holiday. He was bored and constantly complaining. The other guests and the personnel avoided him as much as possible. Only Commander Erik Storr and, for some reason, Arno made the effort to be civil towards him.

Sia went into the vehicle bay to take over mopping up. "Harvey, I swear if I have to listen to one more of Mr Bently's complaints I'll just walk out of here and take my chances. I don't know how Susanah can live with it!"

"Lighten up, Sia. He might be a totally different person back on Earth."

"Yeah, as if I'd believe that."

"Anyway, it's part of your job to be pleasant to the guests. All the guests not just the ones you like."

"Okay, Harvey. Point made...but it's really, really...."

"All personnel to Control Room. All personnel to Control Room." The siren blared throughout the Colony signifying some kind of emergency.

Harvey and Sia both ran from the vehicle bay heading straight towards the control centre of the Colony.

Erik and Arno were frantically scanning the monitors trying to discover exactly where the problem was.

"What's going on, Commander? If this siren doesn't let up soon it's going to cause panic, at least among the guests." Sara burst into the Control Room just behind Sia and Arno.

"We're trying. We're trying." It was unusual for Erik Storr to be so visibly worried.

"There!" Arno pointed at a monitor on the left hand side of the room. "The intake vent for Sector C. It appears to be blocked somehow and is over-heating."

"Shut it down, Arno."

"Okay, Commander." As soon as Arno pressed the switch the siren ceased wailing.

"I can still hear that damn thing even when it's stopped." Sia shook her head in an attempt to stop the echo inside her head.

"Well, I guess we're going to have to find out what the problem is. Harvey, Sia, go get the emergency inspection kit and we'll head on over to Sector C and get this sorted out."

"Can you see anything yet?" Erik called out to Harvey who was leading the way through the venting tunnel.

"Nothing yet, Commander. The intake vent is just about to come into view......." Both Sia and Erik could hear Harvey's sudden intake of breath. "What the hell......Look out, you two! There are some sort of bugs heading your way and they are big."

A large insect, about six inches long, headed down the tunnel. Erik dodged it, Sia reached up a gloved hand and swatted it away. As soon as that one passed, another two followed.

"What are they? And where have they come from?"

Erik radioed Arno and told him to seal the venting system for the whole Sector. These bugs, whatever they were, would cause chaos if they were to get loose in the Colony. He, Sia and Harvey would just have to stay sealed in with them until the bug had all been contained or destroyed.

"The intake fan is absolutely covered with the things." Sia said as she and Commander Storr finally made their way to join Harvey. "I don't suppose there is any kind of bug spray in this kit."

"I doubt it as there had been no evidence of their existence. Just see what you can find. And hurry, Sia. There's more and more making their way in every second."

In the end they settled on attaching a fine mesh on the inside of the vent. The holes were way too small for the bugs to get past. But they were still left with the problem of what to do with the angry specimens that they were trapped inside the tunnel with.

"How about we fry them," Harvey suggested. "We could turn up the flame on the welder torch."

"No. Too risky." Erik Storr said. "We could blow the whole place up or set the tunnel ablaze."

"I say hit them. It doesn't matter what with. Just knock them to the floor and stamp on them.

The three of them spread out, armed with an assortment of items they removed from the emergency inspection kit. None of the items were meant for bug swatting but anything solid would do.

Sia was armed with a torch in one hand and a wrench in the other.

"These things are fast," Harvey yelled as one flew past him straight towards Commander Storr.

"Vicious too," Sia yelled. "I just got stung."

Eventually all the bugs were grounded. One of the least squashed specimens was placed in an isolation box for transportation back to the lab. It wasn't until they were making their way back through the tunnels that Sia collapsed.