Rocket Fuel By Andrew McEwan
Copyright 2012 Andrew McEwan
Smashwords Edition
Cover design by Andrew McEwan
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I come from a land in thesun-bright deep,
Where golden gardens grow,
Where the wind from the north,becalmed in sleep,
Their conch shells never blow.
Moore
1st Part: MOTHERTUG
Their faces were not all alike,
nor yet unalike, but such asthose
of sisters ought to be.
Ovid
One - The Happy Monkey
Okay, wind up the elastic band, weare GO...
Morgan pressed the button and thelight winked off. He spun in his chair before the glitzy console,whistling, tuneless, the tight air squeezing his sound, killing it.
Frozen Hound peered over hisshoulder and yawned. Morgan stroked the dog's wet nose.
The minutes sidled past.
Fourteen. Fifteen, and the lightcame back on. Morgan, known as Lumping Jack, frowned.
‘Something not right,’ hesaid.
The dog paced in circles, tailbetween legs.
The console died, echoing theengines, the ship's drive not only cut but paralysed.
The HappyMonkey,Morgan's guppy, wound down its vacuous spiral to rest...
‘Permission to come aboard.’
‘Permission denied.’
‘I have a warrant for thearrest of Dr Henry Grey.’
‘On what charge?’
Pause. Then,‘Murder.’
Lumping Jack and Frozen Houndshared a bowl of cheese-flavour crackers...
The brand was one with which shewas familiar.
‘They're really pushing thisstuff,’ she commented to nobody in particular. ‘Cheese-flavourYum-Yums, bacon-flavour Yum-Yums, banana-flavour Yum-Yums - really,Morgan and his dog have a terrible diet.’
‘Really...’ said Sally.
‘Yeah,’ Kate replied, nudgingher sister. ‘I thought you were asleep. Did I wake you? I'm sorry;I was reading.’
‘I can see.’
‘I don't know why I bother. It'sall Byron's fault, he got me hooked.’
‘Kate.’
‘What?’
Sally turned, over. ‘Shut up.’
They faced each other across thedark expanse of a fibrous carpet, its tangled pile like charredgrass. Morgan smiled his jolly smile and folded his arms, rested hisweight on one hip, said, ‘Please, no autographs.’
Kate Droover fell asleep. When shewoke, groggy, the comic's lurid colours over her face, Sally wasgone, vanished. The dim cabin closed about the emptiness, disguisingit, but Kate knew in her heart that Sal was in trouble.
She swung her legs from under thecovers and dropped lightly to the metal deck, its warmth - faintlypulsating - comforting beneath her as yet drowsy toes.
‘Sally?’ She keyed the door.Nothing happened. ‘What the...’
Everything was quiet; too quiet.
Pause. Then,‘Murder.’
Lumping Jack cursed. Frozen Houndswitched herself off. One of the dog's ears stood erect and Morganblew in it, folding the extraordinary animal in on itself, hiding itin a space that was no space, a universe inside out...
There was anexplosion. Screaming in her brain was a host of squabbling bats,feral creatures with one eye. The cabin door slid open, theair-pressure keeping it shut expended in a single languid kiss.
Kate shook her head in an effortto clear it and ran into the black corridor, its walls undetectable,its floor slick with condensation.
Someone caught her arm and yankedher through a jagged rent, the cooling teeth of which tore the skinof her upper arm and shoulder.
‘Slow down!’ came the order.
‘What's going on?’
‘Quiet...listen.’
Kate freed her arm and stood.After a moment she thought to hear dripping - water or blood. ‘Whatis it? Sal? Monica?’ She fumbled in the uncompromising dark but wasalone.
The dripping stopped. As if a taphad been more firmly closed, she told herself, and shivered.