SUNGLASESS AND ROCKETS Part 2: The Machine

THE FOURTH PASSENGER

The unusual announcement made the pilot and I exchange marveled looks.

"Earth?" Lucas questioned.

"It's blue and it has clouds..."

A painful moaning from Lucas made me give up the idea of turning backwards. The hand squeezing his chest was trembling.

"Are you okay?" I asked.

Obviously, the answer was no.

"Yes, there's no problem." He leaned over the control board. "I will try to communicate with one of my satellites..."

I concurred.

Actually, there wasn't much we could do for the wound, and then I looked behind. Darwin was watching through an end of the polarized rear window.

"I don't believe we are too far," he murmured. "Perhaps you could try it with some base on Earth..."

The high pitched whistle was heard one more time.

"We are isolated," the pilot replied. "Are there any continents in sight?"

"Yes," Darwin answered. "The only thing is that there are plenty of clouds..."

He moved leaving the end of the window in the open. A shiny blue curvature showed up by the corner.

"That's Earth!" I exclaimed.

We were close. A few hours away. I straightened up to see better and managed to observe a white area.

"I think we are in the area of Asia or South America..." Darwin informed. "There are a lot of clouds... "

"Perfect," the pilot panted. "Let's take our places."

I turned around alert.

"We can't go to Earth with the big SVM."

"That would be fatal," Darwin seconded. "It could still be active..."

The pilot adjusted his belts slowly.

"I just needed to know how the panorama of Earth was...I think the moon must be close..."

If the panorama on Earth hadn't changed much, it meant that the moon wasn't very far from its old orbit...

"Of course," I agreed and began to buckle up my seatbelts. "The moon shouldn't be that far."

Lucas agreed.

"Earth still has a chance..."

Once the moon regained its orbit, the Earth would finally be out of danger.

"Keep your eyes open," the pilot went on. "I'm going to turn the ship around..."

I got comfortable.

"Here we go!"

The tip of the ship started to move in an arch. I leaned forward. A body as big as the moon would be easy to find, especially if it were close.

The stars passed by slowly...

Something bumped against the fuselage and the stars stopped.

"What was that?" Darwin inquired.

I saw the pilot out of the corner of my eye. He had leaned over a monitor without letting the rudder go.

"It wasn't the fuselage."

I looked at the screen of the mechanical arm. The image had worsened.

"The SVM is still at—"

A couple of dry blows at the rear of the ship interrupted me.

"We're stuck to something," Lucas said tuning the radar, wrapped in a snow layer. "But..."

"Stuck?" Darwin questioned. "To what?"

I raised my eyes and searched. I thought I detected a dark shape in the distance. I pointed out immediately.

"There's one..."

A spark sprouted from the stain. It wasn't a stain. It was a Vampire ship.

"A Vampire!" I shouted. "There!"

"There above!" Darwin jumped. "They're in the arm!"

The utterance made me look. An astronaut was passing by a lateral window.

"Hold on!" Lucas yelled.

Among a terrible screech, the ship made a violent turn. Another astronaut passed by the front windows.

"They have the SVM!" the pilot exclaimed.