When the darkness cleared, Jerrix heard Tarra’s voice calling him.

“Are you awake yet?”

He opened his eyes slowly and saw a thick belt around his waist. He quickly realised that they were tied to a gurney.

“I seem to be okay. Must be getting old. What a fool I have been.”

“We seem to have walked into this,” Tarra said. “Who are they?”

“Racketeers I think. Must be using this planet to store their ill-gotten gains.”

A hidden door slid open, and a short thin bloke in a dark outfit walked in. Jerrix closed his eyes in disbelief.

“Well, well what do we have here? Jerrix Tau.”

“You know this vagabond?”

“I had him imprisoned for theft. How did you escape this time Praner?”

“Bribed the guards’ friend. After what you did to me, I have a good mind to throw you to the plant life.”

“You can leave Tarra out of this. She is innocent.”

“You are far from innocent though.” Praner paused. “We picked up the debris field. Did you survive that?”

“We were lucky enough,” Jerrix replied. “Two from two thousand.”

“So what do I do with you Jerrix? Any suggestions?”

“Try letting us go,” Tarra suggested.

“No can do. Your friend here would inform you know.”

“It’s my public duty.”

“You never change. We will have to take you with us, that’s all.”

“Back to your base I suppose.”

“I’ll keep you there until we figure out what to do with you.”

Jerrix sighed as the figure turned and marched back out.

“Seems we are stuck in here,” Tarra muttered.

“Only until we reach that base of theirs. Then perhaps we can do something.”

After a seemingly endless time, the craft reached its destination and the friends were released at gunpoint.

“Try anything and it is curtains,” Praner warned.

With arms raised, they left the craft and found themselves inside a landing bay. Three other similar craft were parked alongside. Jerrix looked up and noted the open roof. A weapon tip pushed him forward.

They were manhandled into a lift and taken down one level, before being thrown into a small cell. Before the door slid shut, Praner smiled.

“This will keep you both on ice for a while.”

The door closed and they gazed upon the white painted blank walls.

Jerrix saw Tarra looking around.

“No bed. Not even an air vent. We will suffocate in here.”

Jerrix placed his fluffy ear against the door and listened.

“I think our captors have gone.”

“So what?” Tarra shot back. “We can never leave. It is finished.”

Jerrix turned and asked calmly, “when did you know me to give up?”

She pointed to the door.

“That device of yours does not work on those doors. We are trapped.”

“You think so Tarra? Let me have that Kirby grip of yours.”

Looking puzzled, she handed it over and watched as he knelt at the door. He was muttering to himself as usual.

“If I can push this far enough I might just sever the beam.”

She watched him inserting the Kirby grip into the crack and gently push. The door opened with a sudden whoosh and he looked out.

“Now come on. We have one chance at this.”

Handing the plastic back he dashed towards the lift and punched in the correct floor. He had expected alarms to go off but all was silent as the door slid open.

They slipped out and spotted two armed guards pacing the floor. Jerrix pulled out his device and reset it. Then he pointed and fired. The guards collapsed and they dashed to a scout craft.

“Don’t worry about them Tarra. It’s only a mild coma.”

He dashed up the ramp and activated the retraction before entering the flight deck.

“Strap yourself in, this may be bumpy.”

Only then did claxons sound as the cat brought the ship to life. He hauled the joystick back and guided the craft upwards and into the open air. Once clear, he fired the boosters and aimed for the outer darkness of space.

“Back to the space port?” Tarra asked.

“Where else? I only hope they are smart enough not to follow.”

As they entered orbit, the craft pulled away until Jerrix spotted blips on the defence screen.

“They are coming after us. Damn fools.”

He activated thrusters and pulled the stick hard over. Tarra felt her stomach pull as the scout craft swung around until it faced the oncoming vehicles.

“Activating laser bolts,” Jerrix muttered.

He took aim and unleashed a storm upon his enemies. One of the craft exploded as the two others peeled off.

Jerrix flew theirs straight through, dive-bombing into the atmosphere.

“What are you doing?”

“Taking out their base Tarra. This time Praner will not escape.”

The craft dived out of the clouds and unleashed bolts at the open roof. As explosions tore the base apart, the craft peeled off, heading back into space.

When they broke through the atmospheric lid, they found themselves under heavy fire. Jerrix rolled the craft, swinging away before aligning once more. Then he let rip, tearing apart the second antagonist.

The third opened up, bolts shooting overhead as the craft dived. Then he turned again and fired a further salvo, until the enemy vehicle detonated.

“Now we go home.”

Tarra remained silent with shock. She had never seen him like this and to be honest, did not like it.

Jerrix took the craft into deep space as they headed homewards. Hours later, they landed at the spaceport and reported the loss of PX 116 to the authorities. A short stroll returned them to his waiting ship.

Tarra watched her friend activate the controls that would take them home in silence. The four cat statues stood at the cardinal points, as silent as she. He pulled the lever located behind the north one and the galactic image appeared over the waist high metallic dome.

Two lights were flashing, as he walked to the east statue and hauled the lever down. They transferred at once. She watched as he opened a drawer, handing back her old clothes.

She took them and nodded.

As she walked out his voice called back, “don’t forget me Tarra.”

The young girl turned slowly.

“Forget you Jerrix Tau? No chance of that.”

He followed her out and watched as she stared at her mom’s hillside home with its wooden exterior.

“You could say a pin-point landing,” he muttered.

“Quite brilliant,” she said softly.

“What about your mom?”

“Oh, I have that worked out already. I needed solitude.”

Jerrix laughed as she looked at him.

“Tell you what Tarra. One day we shall meet again when our trips
together seem like a fairy tale.”

“Let’s do that,” she whispered.

He waived with a ginger paw and turning, wandered back inside. Tarra watched the faint green glow fade from view.

She saw her mom in the garden and ran towards her yelling. The startled woman looked up.

“Where have you been?”

“I needed time on my own mom. Back now though.”

She threw her arms around the grateful woman and closed her teary eyes.
---
Andy Sarson had been waiting at Norwich station for a while now. Driving through the manic traffic so that he could earn his daily crust. It had started to rain then, small droplets at first you understand. Then the heavens opened and a veritable monsoon broke over the Viking city.

He stared across at the familiar red building. Its exterior facade always reminded him of a great Victorian market, not the place for embarkation. He could imagine the great steam trains arriving here and truly wished he had lived then.

This was the twenty-first century of course. Old Britannia was at war again with her old ally the US. A different kind of war this time. No bombers pounding the city, leaving a trail of rubble in their wake. He was thankful for that.

The pounding rain hid the approach of two tall gents dressed in grey and black suits. He only noticed when a fist tapped the side window.
He leapt out and through the hail of water opened the passenger door. The gents were thankful.

“What a terrible night,” Andy said calmly. “Where to?”

“Postwick, and please hurry. We are late as it is.”

He kicked the car into gear and headed onto the main Yarmouth Road.
In his mirror, he saw the gents clearly. The first wore a yellow tie and grey suit while his companion wore a black suit and outrageous green tie. Both were clean-shaven. As most males were today.

He weaved the taxi through the rain and nightmarish traffic. Dodging parked cars was one thing, trying to avoid hitting speeding oncoming cars was quite another. Why they drove like maniacs he could never work out. Perhaps they had a death wish?

The taxi reached Thorpe village without incident. To the right, boats no longer used lined the far bank. Many of them converted to houseboats. Andy loved that quiet style of life. On their left stood the church with its clock tower. Gothic looking and rather spooky, he shivered as he always did.

At last, he reached the roundabout, which was quieter than normal. He avoided the left turn, which took him to the industrial estate as he did the second turnoff, which took him to Yarmouth. It was the third he was after.

The rain continued its hellish noise as he pulled into Oak Lane and slowed the vehicle. He was almost there.

The grey suited gent tapped his wet shoulder.

“This will do, we can walk the rest of the way.”

Andy stopped the vehicle on this quiet track outside Postwick village. He glanced at the metre, which told him ten pounds was due. Like everything else in life, petrol had rocketed.

“That will be...”
---
A sickening falling sensation suddenly enveloped him. The familiar taxi seemed to fade and become blurry until his vision was restored.
He was standing in an endless sea of golden sand. He gazed at the dark green sky and saw an impossible sight. High in the heavens floated a small-ringed planet, the ring floating from pole to pole.
He was gobsmacked. Then he realised that his clothes had changed to. He was wearing a silver suit with a blue star emblazoned on the front. His leather shoes had been replaced with a pair of moon boots.
He scratched his head in absolute disbelief.

“Alien abduction simply does not happen in Norwich,” he muttered. “That’s just plain silly.”

He slapped his cheek twice, which hurt a lot. However, his surroundings remained stable. He also became aware of the terrible heat, which caused the air to shimmer in the near distance.

He swung around a full circle to get his bearings but only sand could be seen. He did see huge dunes just ahead and with nothing else to do, he headed straight for them.

As he trudged along, his boots sank up to ankle length in the soft sand, which made the going fairly tough, even for him. At last, he started climbing. Rivulets of sand ran down the dune as he ascended towards the domed summit. The exertion caused him to sweat buckets and he realised he needed to find water. As he reached the summit, a welcome sight appeared.

The silver glint of a huge lake. He stopped and simply stared. Dark hills lay in the distance beyond the sand’s reach and the lake looked quiet and tranquil. He stumbled down the dune, finally losing his footing completely. He rolled violently down the side until he finally came to a halt.

Stumbling to his feet, he wiped the sand off and struggled to the water’s edge. He stopped at once. Was it safe to drink? For all he knew it could be lethal to his human system. He argued with himself about the pros and cons. If he did not drink, he would die. That was fairly obvious. In the end, he had no choice.

Kneeling, he cupped his hands and slowly dipped them. Praying quietly. To his relief they did not burn nor char.

“It’s not acidic then.”

He raised his palms to his lips and dipped his tongue gingerly. The liquid tasted sweet, which surprised him. The flavour seemed to remind him of pale white wine, a favourite of his. Satisfied that it would not kill him, he drank his fill until he noticed a rather peculiar effect.

His head began to throb and his senses began to blur once more. He scrambled to his feet and gazed at the distant hills. He had to reach there, that much was certain. Somewhere on this strange world there had to be life.

Hopefully humanoid at least.

He trekked off, following the lake edge until reaching the northern perimeter. Then he scrambled over a low dune and once more battled through the gripping sand. He saw no sun but he was damn sure that the heat was rising. Looking back, he saw steam rising from the lake. It would soon boil.