I spent most of the morning on the phone. I rented a car and a trailer. Avry, meanwhile, sat in front of the computer, looking at all sorts of things. When I wasn't busy, I just laid on the bed next to her and watched her learn more and more about our world. Time passed quickly, so noon came quickly as well.
„Hey!” I said into my phone after Andrex finally picked it up.
„H-Hey…” he answered in a sleepy voice. „It’s already that late?”
„Yeah. We can get the shuttle if you are ready.”
„Yeah… Yeah. Pick me up, I will get ready in the meantime,” he said and hanged up.
I sat on the bed for a minute without saying a word. The plan I'd been hastily putting together was in motion, and so far it seemed to be working.
“I hope our luck won’t run out,” I whispered under my nose and when Avry looked at me I just said: “Let’s go.”
We only took our tablet with us on the trip. Hidden in my bag, of course. We took a taxi to the car rental. Everyone at the rental agency was kind and attentive to us. I attributed that to the phenomenon, but I wasn't sure. In any case, Avry's appearance was not questioned.
The rental car was a large four-wheel drive SUV with a very large flatbed trailer. The trailer had a tarpaulin, which I was glad it was that size, because it meant we didn't have to think about how to cover the shuttle.
By half past one we were at Andrex's. Andrex appeared at the door with a sleepy head, but was a little surprised to see the trailer.
“I see you didn’t care about money this time,” he said.
“It’s no time to worry about stuff like that,” I said a bit martyrlike.
“Right. Then let’s go.”
The journey to the village, which took approximately three hours by train, was considerably longer by car. The traffic was not good and the size of the trailer made it difficult to travel very fast. The journey was uneventful, but Avry enjoyed every moment of it. She took in the scenery and occasionally asked what was what.
Slowly but surely, we arrived in the village around 7pm. By then it was already dark. The forest road was narrow. Here and there we had to be very careful not to let the branches hanging down tear the tarpaulin, which was not easy in the dark, so it took another half an hour to struggle up to the clearing where I spent my first night.
“We are finally here,” I sighed with relief then woke up Andrex who slept almost all trip.
“We are already there?” he asked.
“Yes, but actually no. We still need to walk a bit,” I said. “So let’s go, hopefully we can finish while it’s dark.”
We set off up the mountain. Unlike last time, we weren't here for sightseeing, so we made relatively fast progress. We walked in silence, as if preparing for something and listening for anyone walking around.
“Where can we take the shuttle?” I asked from Andrex, breaking the silence.
“To the northern launch site. I know a few guys up there, the rest we will solve there. I didn’t tell them everything.”
“I see.”
The rest of the way was also done in silence. No one was in the mood for conversation. This time, there was no more gawking, and we moved at a brisk pace. Still, it was a good couple of hours before we reached the shuttle at the end of the path.
“Finally here,” I sighed again, resting my hands on my knees.
“And… where is it?” Andrex asked in a doubtful voice.
“It should be somewhere around here,” Avry said and holding her hand out in front of her, she headed in the direction the shuttle might have been.
After a little search she successfully found it. After a bit more search she successfully found the opening device as well. The door opened.
“Holy shit,” said Andrex in a surprised voice and he rushed to the door to peek inside.
“You will have time to look around. We need to go. We should get back to the car while it’s dark. Avry, can you fly it?”
“Of course,” she said and entered the shuttle.
Once Avry had settled into the right-hand seat of the shuttle, she leaned to the left and, after a little fiddling, removed part of the cover from the bottom of the centre panel, which contained an insultingly high number of buttons. Beneath the casing was a series of switches, potentiometers and a few other flickering things. Avry looked at them for a while, then, as if remembering something, fiddled with the panel. We waited breathlessly to see if it would have any effect. The effect, fortunately, did not fail. The machine began a low, low, low rumbling sound, and then, with some light appearing at the bottom, it slowly lifted off the ground. It came to a stop at a height of about ten centimetres, which it maintained with slow, small wobbles.
“Could you turn off the stealth mode? It’s better if we see where to hold it and what sizes we are working with.”
“Alright,” Avry said shortly.
Again, there was a bit of tampering, but it took much less time. The camouflage first became blurred, fading here and there, then disappearing in waves from the bottom up. The shuttle's appearance surprised me a little. Although I couldn't see the whole thing at once in the lamplight, I was somehow expecting something much more futuristic and larger. The bottom was a solid black, roughly down to the bottom of the door opening. The top was a darker grey. On the larger solid area on the side was the Proxomus emblem, followed by two digits I could only guess were a zero and a two. Below these was a text that I could not read. In various places on the body of the shuttle, but symmetrically, there were openings and holes which could have been openings for its engines.
I stepped to its side and gave it a little push. It moved surprisingly easily for its size. Avry's description was right. It couldn't have been much heavier than three tons. But I guessed the size wrong. I didn't get the size very wrong though, it was about four metres long, about two metres high and one and a half metres wide. It was rounded in all directions, tapering towards the nose.
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“Will it fit the forest path?”
“It needs to. We will see.” I said.
I went around the shuttle and started to orient it towards the path. Andrex joined me. Avry gave advice from the other side on where to push and how far. By the time the structure reached the trail, it was clear that it would not fit. We could only hope that the scrub covering the forest floor would give way enough to squeeze it through to the road.
The bushes made things considerably more difficult, but we managed to squeeze through to the fork, where it was easier to go on the wider road. There was no visible damage to the shuttle's hull, but most of the soot had disappeared.
It was dawning by the time we got back to the car. We did indeed make better progress downhill, but lost a little time at the start. Getting on the trailer, fortunately, was much easier. It just about fit. Avry stopped the contraption, which slowly settled onto the trailer. The runner took the load with a creak, but held on.
“Can you get out?” I asked Avry.
“I will manage,” she said, and after a brief struggle she appeared at the end of the trailer.
“Well, then let’s go,” I said and started closing the tarpaulin.
“Aren’t you tired?” Andrex asked.
“I don’t feel it,” I said honestly. “At worst case we will switch.”
“Okay,” Andrex said then entered the car with Avry.
After I was done in the back, I joined them and we started our journey to the northern launch site. Going through the forest road was very difficult. The considerable extra weight and bad roads caused more problems than on the way here. It took much longer to get down to the village. But from then on, our progress was faster.
It was afternoon when we arrived. As we turned off the access road, the steel structure of the launching pad was already visible from behind the wooded lane. The trip was a merry one. Avry and Andrex had a good chat about general and space-related topics. I would join in the conversation now and then, or they would call on me when they saw I was tired. Whichever was necessary. By the time we got to the gate I could hardly keep my eyes open.
While Andrex arranged our entry, I stepped out for a while to freshen up. I wanted to get my thoughts together. Avry also got out and walked over to me.
“We are progressing well,” she said quietly.
“Yeah, but the hard part is starting now. And now that we are here, I feel less and less like we can pull it off.”
“If we can get into the ship then our job is half-done already. The smart people will help us with that.”
“I very much hope so.”
“Alright, we can go!” Andrex shouted. “Hangar 4, straight ahead, then the fourth on the left behind the main building.”
We got back in the car and headed for hangar four. The facility was pretty deserted for someone who should have been on standby. Here we saw only one person, the parking lots were half empty, and only one or two transport vehicles were weaving through the roads connecting the buildings.
“There are not a lot of people here,” I noted.
“Yeah. They are only doing research here now, officially. Launches are done by the other sites, so this is all the people you need here,” Andrex gave us a detailed explanation.
“But the launchpad is still working, right?”
“Should be, but it hasn’t been used in the last 10 years, I think.”
Then we arrived at the right hangar. They were waiting for us. The door was open enough for us to comfortably enter the hangar. A man in his fifties gestured to us where we should stop. I followed his instructions and parked the car at the designated spot. The hangar was terribly lit and almost everything was white. In the middle was a vast empty space, with various tools, tables and structures lining the walls. At the far end was a tiered shelving system. And on the side where we were, there was a glazed two-storey unit that looked like an office unit, which didn't reach the top of the hangar.
“Sorry to start with this, but is there somewhere I can lie down? I am very tired.” I got to the point.
“Erm, of course. We can do something,” he said, a bit surprised then he extended his hand. “My name is Ozcar. I will show you where you can rest a bit. Follow me.”
Avry and Andrex stayed behind, and Ozcar and I made our way towards what we assumed to be offices, then through several doors and down a corridor to what looked like a lounge. The room had comfortable armchairs, a coffee machine and a sofa with a TV and games console. We stopped at the latter.
“There is no better option available,” said Ozcar.
“It’s perfect, thank you.”
I took off my coat, and as soon as Ozcar turned out the door, I fell asleep.
Suddenly I woke up from my dream. It was about ten o'clock at night. With great difficulty I woke up and rubbed the sleep from my eyes. The room was dark, with only some light filtering in from the corridor. Fortunately, the light switch was lit, so I found it without any problem and turned it on. In the light I saw my saviour. The coffee machine towered invitingly in the corner, occasionally making a muffled click to indicate that it was always ready to make a person's life better. I didn't hesitate any longer, so I went to it and took advantage of its services.
After a brief black savoury, I set off to find the others. I successfully found my way back to the hangar. The shuttle had already been unloaded and was being taken to a group of devices along the wall. I saw Andrex and Ozcar immediately, standing with their backs to me and talking next to the shuttle. However, Avry was nowhere to be seen. Around the shuttle, seven people I did not know were milling about. I didn't spend any more time looking around, I headed towards them.
“Hello!” I greeted them when I got there. Some of the people in the rush looked over, and I nodded to them.
“Ah! The sleepyhead!” said Andrex.
“Haha. What’s up?” I asked with a more serious tone.
“You have come up with a rather ill-conceived and dangerous plan,” Ozcar began. If we can manage to manually control the shuttle, it might even make it to the Proxomus. I said it right, didn't I?”
“Yes. And yes? I'm glad to hear that. Is there a solution to how we leave the atmosphere?”
Yes. We have a medium-lift cargo missile in case we need immediate assistance for a coordinated operation. It's always on standby.
“That’s good news,” I said happily, the hard part went better than I thought. “How long is it likely to take?”
“It takes two days to launch the rocket, and two days if we can finish the shuttle by then. But, it's hard to say, because we've never had this technology before. It's true that we've had the chance to work with alien technology in the Cooperation programme, but this is much more complicated than that.” Ozcar wanted to continue but a woman waved to him. “If you’d excuse me,” he said and left.
“Who's going to drive this?” I asked, really just to myself, but Andrex heard me.
“Huh? Avry, no?” he said in a surprised voice.
“I was originally thinking of you. That some kind of remote control with a semiconductor could be possible. Or, in person, but the shuttle only fits two people inside.”
“Are you kidding me?!” Andrex said angrily. “I've done a lot of your stupid things in the last few days, but I'm not going out there. That's for sure. And don't expect them to pack a remote control for this. You'll be lucky if you don't die in a launch on a rush operation.”
“Okay, okay, alright,” I sighed. “Where is Avry?”
“Sleeping in the car,” Andrex calmed down a little. “Back to our topic. If you're lucky, they can program most of the trip into this thing. But only if they figure out it works.”
“Then there is hope?” I asked optimistically.
“Looking around, I lost all hope a long time ago, but the hell knows. Andrex said and approached Ozcar. “I will keep them company for a while. You go and check on our Sleeping Beauty.”
I nodded, then turned around and started walking towards the car. Avry was in the back seat, curled up in the fetal position, asleep. I didn't really want to disturb her, she should also rest. So, on a whim, I walked out of the hangar through the normal-sized door next to the huge door.
The air has cooled down a lot compared to yesterday. My thin jacket was almost too thin for this weather. The night was dark and quiet. Most of the workers at the facility had already gone home. “What will become of us?” I wondered.