Saturday 29 December 2007

Executive Decision

Meddlethwaite had tasted success. It mantled him with warmth and awe. The dammed thing worked!

Hurriedly he cast around for something to try in it. The ashtray! He pushed it into the transmitter and hit the go button. The computer tapes started hunting and the power indicators swung over as the ashtray disappeared in a burst of pale blue light to re-assemble instantaneously in the receiver receptacle at the other and of the room.

He was still staring at the ashtray when the woman came in. Small, dark-haired, she was not beautiful but possessed an indefinable presence that made her the envy of others.

"Evelyn", he said. "It works. Look, I've just transported the ashtray and that tea cup across the room." Meddlethwaite was excited. His face was flushed. "I wired in the fujitron chamber you brought this morning - and I couldn't resist it. I gave it a go - and look." He pointed dramatically to the receiver. "We'll be famous" he cried.

Evelyn smiled slowly, warmly. "I'm glad", she said.

"Is that all you can say", cried Meddlethwaite. "It's stupendous."

With a quick movement she brushed aside a strand of hair hanging over an eye. "Look" she said. "I have no time to waste. I want you to disconnect the transmitter portal from the transmitter itself and hook it up to that cable lying on the floor. Do it quickly", she said peremptorily, "and then come next door." The door swung closed behind her. Meddlethwaite was confused - and silent. The woman had been totally unaffected by success. She had worked like the devil and had finally come up with the answer to the problem. The machine worked - and she hadn't turned a hair.

Savagely he attacked the wiring and an hour later he had the new cable attached.

"Come here", she said as he entered the room next door. Meddlethwaite stopped in his tracks. She was adjusting a stainless steel cabinet and in an intuitive flash he recognised it for what it was - a transmitter - much bigger than the experimental model he had used next door.

Silently he approached the cabinet. "Get in", she commanded. "What the..." cried Meddlethwaite, far too late, as she pushed him suddenly into the cabinet - and the door clicked shut behind him.

Meddlethwaite was still screaming when the blue light enveloped him.

But he stopped when he felt his body slammed together and he looked out through the porthole at the grassy plain and the distant forest. He felt fine, except that he was frightened - more frightened than he had ever been. He fought to control his panic. The door would not open. And then he saw her.

It was Evelyn. She darted into his restricted field of vision. He blinked because she was clothed in a silver metallic overall. Her dark hair swung as she suddenly stopped, turned in her tracks and fired the thing she carried in her hand. The two horrible creatures chasing her, half man half ape, fell to the ground. Meddlethwaite heard nothing until she opened the door of the cabinet.

He stared at her wordless. "Come on out of there" she said carelessly. Meddlethwaite was overcome by a great sense of calmness. "Why should I?" he asked.

She stared back at him and started tugging at a zip on her coverall, "Because you've got work to do," she said, her eyes suddenly dancing. "The Galactic Executive have decided for a reason I really cannot discern that you, friend Adam, are the first of the Homo Saps."

PENNED BY BGP (Late 1950's or early 1960's)

One of my father's short stories, found among his papers after his untimely death in 1990. Click on the images below to see scans of the original typed pages:

Executive Decision - Page 1

Executive Decision - Page 1

Regards, MAlfaRK

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