Bebo

As night fell over the station, Frederic Barns began to scour the wreckage of the ruined space facility, the name Phobos painted on the outer hull. His co-explorer, Jimmy Henderson, had moved into the Security centre, making note of the footage from the recordings there and searching for the Station Maps. Meanwhile, Fred searched for whatever he could find; holo recordings, datapads, even written notes.

Breathing deeply the recycled air through the filters in his XFC Suit, he made his way around a corner and stopped dead in front of a large computer screen. It was on, but blank, with a battery symbol in the top-right hand corner.
"Jimmy," he said over his built-in helmet comms. "Can you see where I am?"
"Yessir I can, right on front of that computer, right? I think I can turn it on from here, there's a Power-Routing system nearby. Hang on."
After a minute or so, the screen flashed to life.
-Historical Data Systems Active. Enter Search Criteria.
Fred pressed a few screen-buttons, typing in a few basic codes such as "Diagnostic" and "System Scan". The only results were definitions.
"Try 'Last Known Data entry' sir." Jimmy called on the comms.
With a sigh, Fred typed it in.
-Last Known Data entry:
-Three files found. Request?
Fred typed in "Open first file".

A text-document appeared on the screen in front of him. He stared at the date atop the document. Impossible... he thought. The date on this says it was created almost two hundred years after this stations destruction... His heart pounding in his chest, he began to read aloud, recording into his wrist-computer via VoIP.

"Welcome, explorer, to the long forgotten Phobos Station, orbiting the 2nd moon of Sol 4. I regret to inform you that, if you are here as a scavenger, there is nothing of value in these databases. At least, nothing of Credit-value...

Contained within this database lies the one thing that was erased by the Government of the CNA; History. Not just history dating back to our colonisation of a new homeworld, but right back to our original home. Before our species had even evolved. And should the GAF ever get their hands on it, the entire galaxy would turn to chaos. The CNA Government, though their rule is weak and dwindling, would rise to power at the hands of the information contained in these files.

Traveller! Beware, if you view these files, you will be alerting the CNA to your location. You will be attacked within minutes of your activating either of the two latest files. And you will be left with no choice. We fled when they came, we fled to the only place we could think of at the time. But whatever you do, do not venture to Sol 3. Or you may suffer the same fate as we did."

Fred reread te document silently, wonder and hope in his mind. And finally, Frederic Barns began to playback the files.

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© 2007 Evan

It should’ve been a nice simple job. At least that’s what it sounded like on the phone. That’s what Mrs. Smarlie indicated when she showed me the basin. “It needs to be removed.” she said. Just like that. “It needs to be removed.” Sounded harmless enough, like one of a hundred other jobs I’d done over the years. Just a quick job before going home to tea with the missus. Except…it wasn’t. Not at all. Oh no, not at all.

The job started as usual. I got out my tools, and began removing the pipe underneath. Having completed that, I then knocked out the basin itself. Success! Now all that was needed was to remove the taps and nobble the water flow. Well, I got the taps off and pulled out the pipe behind them and that’s when the trouble started. A spray of water came flying out of the pipe. That wasn’t normal, not normal at all. I was sure I’d turned the water mains off. So why was it doing this? It must have been from an isolated area of the pipes that had built up over time. I had to stop it up and stop it quickly. Using my wrench, I set to work on the pipe. But it got away from me and water went flying up into the ceiling. I bent the pipe upwards but water still continued to fly out. So much for gravity! I knocked the pipe downward. No help, the floor was sprayed with water. Finally, I managed to tie the pipe up into a knot and the flow stopped.

“Phew!” I thought, “That was close”. But it wasn’t over, not by half. I had to find out what the cause of this was, get to the source and permanently stop the flow. The only way to do this was to get behind the wall. With my shoes soaked in water from the floor, I used my hammer and chisel to bang in a hole so I could get through. The hole I’d made looked fit enough for a giant mouse and I figured maybe I could explain later to Mrs. Smarlie it was all the fault of a giant mouse and still get paid! Anyway, I crawled in and looked around but I couldn’t see much, and besides, it was hard to move. So I made another hole from within the wall, above where the taps were, hoping to get more light on the problem with the pipes there. I peeked through the hole into the room, not that that helped much but just ‘cos I could. I still couldn’t really see the problem with the pipes though. I’d make a bigger hole – that was it! Crawling out again, that’s what I started to do, to increase the size of the opening I’d crawled through when “Whooosh!” - I hit the pipe and out came the water again. With more water pouring into the room, and fearful of what the water damage would cost, I frantically plunged the chisel into the epicentre of the pipe and it stuck there - but the water flow stopped! Phew! Saved again by my quick thinking!

By this time I was not to be deterred. My reputation and professional pride was at stake. I had to get to the bottom of this. No stray random pipe spraying had beaten me yet or ever would! For I was Paul the Plumber, a pipe dream to helpless housewives everywhere.

Noticing a loosened floorboard beneath me, I ripped it up and then broke the surrounding floorboards as well, which, already old, had been further weakened by the water they were now soaked in, and just as I suspected, I found the culprit. A stray pipe that shouldn’t be there. Simply cut it, that was the solution – or so I thought. So I did. And it wasn’t. And water came out of the cut pipe and shot into the aperture I’d made in the wall.

I dived into the hole in the floor trying to stop it once again, but this time I was out of ideas. Finally I got out and just stood back, looking at the pipe in frustration as the water began filling the room more and more. And that’s when Mrs. Smarlie came in and started screaming. I couldn’t calm her down, no matter what I did. Even my joke about a free indoor swimming pool wouldn’t appease her. And in her panic she had accidentally locked the door behind her and we couldn’t get out. The water ros

“Hello Sally”, said Sam, under his breath, his head lowered.
“Hello Sam”, Sally replied forcefully.

There followed a long awkward silence between them. The wind could clearly be heard blowing through the valley, jumbling the path of the snowflakes as they fell chaotically around the two of them, and was already filling their vacant footprints and the tyre treads. The numbing coldness of the air began to seep through their clothes, even though they were heavily laden with them. Both began instinctively to wrap their arms around themselves simultaneously.

“Better get moving”, Sam finally said, breaking the silence.
“Is that yours now?” Sally asked, nodding towards the snow plough from which Sam had descended just a few seconds before.
“Yes”, said Sam, brightening up a bit, “All bought and paid for now.”
“How long did it take?”
“Three years.”
“That’d be about right…Cool!”
“Like I said, I should get going.” But Sam didn’t move.
“It’s red”, remarked Sally.
“My favourite colour.”
“I know.”
“You would’ve had it yellow.”
“So you remember mine.”
Silence.
“There’s a lot I remember.”
“Do you?” Sally asked, peering at him directly for the first time.
“Yes,” Sam replied, looking up quickly and then looking back down at the snow. Sally also looked down again.
“Such as what?” asked Sally, under her breath.
Silence.
“Such as what?” Sally repeated, more forcefully.
“Such as…” Sam begun, still looking down.
“You’re hopping from foot to foot,” remarked Sally.
“Yes,” said Sam. “It’s cold.”
“And you’re nervous all of a sudden,” added Sally, getting bolder.
“What for!” Sam suddenly snapped, lifting his head immediately and glaring at her.
“Because…”
“Because what!”
“Because…oh, never mind,” she said, glancing away.
The both dropped their heads once more.
“Well…must get going. It’s cold.”
“So you said.”
“Got work to do.”
“Obviously.”
“My business – my plough.”
Still neither of them moved. Then suddenly…
“Can you give me a lift?”
“What!”
“I mean…can I go for a ride?”
By now they were both looking at each other again.
“You weren’t interested…before!”
“What’s that got to do with it?”
“Why are you suddenly interested now?”
“Well…you know…”
“Yes?”
“I’m curious.”
“Now!”
“Yes…now!”
Sam looked up at the sky and rolled his eyes.
“Oh, so NOW she’s curious. NOW she wants to know what it’s like!”
“Don’t be like that.”
Sam looked back at Sally.
“Well, I’m sorry Sally, but NOW is not the time OK? Maybe THEN was the time but not now.”
“What wrong with now?”
“It wouldn’t be appropriate, would it!”
There was a pause between them.
“Where do you want to go anyway?”
“Nowhere really, just…” Sally’s voice faded away.
There was silence once more which seemed almost like eternity between them until…
“Well, I really must be going.” stated Sam with determination.

He began trudging towards the snow plough, jiggling his legs in order to shake off some surplus snow as he moved. But in a sudden burst of energy, Sally moved, pushing ahead of him and began climbing onto the vehicle.

“Hey! What are you doing?”
“I’m going for a ride.”
“Not you’re not!” Sam yelled, springing towards her. He grabbed her by the legs as she was half inside the plough. “Ouch! Stop kicking me!”

“Let go of me. Let go of me!” Sally suddenly screamed, a loud-pitched curdle that half the valley could hear. Startled, Sam let go of her and fell backwards on the ground as Sally scrambled into the vehicle.

“What are you doing! What are you doing!” cried Sam as he saw the levers of his beloved machine being pulled back and forth. Still immobile in unbelief, being startled by Sally’s sudden actions, he heard the sound of the motor turning