Beyond Scope

As the shuttle descended into the planet’s atmosphere, Commander Canton Wye struggled to maintain control. His first officer gripped his arm and tried to pry him from the doomed pilot’s chair.

“The hull is burning up, Commander; it won’t hold out against this heat for much longer."

“Move everyone to the rear of the shuttle. I’m going to try reinforcing the rear hull plating to buy us more time,” Canton replied.

The first officer hesitated. “What about you, Commander?”

Canton forced a desperate smile. “Got to guide us in, Chesta. Now get back there and look after our people”.

Chesta nodded and herded the others to the rear bay. The shuttle rocked violently as the atmosphere tore the hull apart. Canton held the ship’s nose up for as long as he could until the force of the descent was too much for his body to take, and he passed out.

Canton awoke several hundred yards from the wreckage of the shuttle. There was no way to know how much time had passed since the crash but it was still light, so it couldn’t have been more than a few of hours. He tried to stand, but the agony in his left leg told him he wouldn't be standing for a while. It was probably broken. He called out for his crewmates but there was no response.

As the disorientation began to pass, he scanned his environment. At the very least, it appeared to be a tolerable atmosphere. The sun was a safe temperature and the shuttle read no radiation during their emergency landing. There was lush, tall green grass all around him and huge trees towered over him, taller than anything he had ever seen before.

Canton managed to crawl over to the wreckage to search for a first aid pod and other survivors. He pulled away huge parts of debris and stopped when he discovered his First Officer’s lifeless body. There were no other remains of the crew; he had to believe that they might still be alive. He needed to tend to his own injuries before darkness came, and so he shuffled up against a rock to see to his broken leg as best he could.

When his leg was patched up as well as it could be, Canton continued his search. The fire from the wreckage had died down and now it was just smouldering. He decided to head for a woodland area nearby when he felt the first vibration, followed by another, and quickly a third. Before Canton knew which direction to look, a creature towered above him at a phenomenal height. Canton froze, hoping that it would not react as long as he remained still.

The noise it made was deafening. Even if it was speaking, Canton couldn’t hope to understand. It was a biped, and like him it was clothed and groomed which suggested intelligence, but its behaviour was erratic, childish. It leaned down and swept Canton up in one of its hands, his leg writhing in agony as he rolled helplessly in the palm of the creature’s hand.

Michael stared at the tiny man in his hand with wonder. It rolled and wriggled in his grip like a worm, but it definitely wasn’t a worm. It made a high-pitched moan and other sounds he couldn’t understand.

Michael smiled and poked the little creature as he studied its features. It looked strange. Its head was long and thin, its skin was oily and pale blue. It had a short tail and it squirmed even more when Michael pulled at it. He thought that his new pet didn’t like that at all.

“Michael!” His father called from the house. “It’s dinner time, come inside and wash up”.

“Okay!” he replied.

Then to his little friend, he said, “It’s going to rain soon so I’m going to bring you inside where it’s warm and dry. You can live in my hamster’s cage; he’s dead now”.

Michael turned and went inside gripping his little friend tightly in the palm of his hand.

Canton had stopped counting how many times the sun had risen and fallen since his capture. It had been more than one hundred. His health had deteriorated badly and he found it difficult to focus these days. He felt older than his years. He was much skinnier, unhealthily so, and his leg injury hadn’t healed properly since the crash, so he had been left with a severe limp.

He was often left alone for long periods of time without food or water, which made him wonder whether this was some form of torture, or simply neglect.

It was a morning like many others in captivity for Commander Canton Wye when he was woken up early by his child captor. He would poke at Canton with a stick for short time before he wandered off for the rest of the day, leaving him unattended, unfed and without water.

During these long hours Canton would wail and moan for food or water until he ran out of energy, then he would retreat to the corner of his cage to rest.

During the early days of his capture, Canton had tried several times to escape without success. Now after so long, his strength and will to continue had dwindled. He had little hope left, but he was determined not to die in captivity, he had a plan.

Over the past twenty or so turns of the sun, he had been working on a weapon; nothing deadly, but perhaps dangerous enough to send the child running to its parents. If he was discovered by the parents, it was possible that they might be reasonable enough for him to negotiate for his freedom. If not, and it turned out that the adults were as cruel as the child; it would all be over. But at least he would know.

That morning, as the child crouched down and saw Canton lying on his back, motionless, he leaned in closer and opened the hatch. As he prodded Canton’s lifeless body with his finger, Canton suddenly jerked upright and jammed a sharp stick under the child’s fingernail. Just as he had hoped, the child recoiled in pain, and ran off to its parents in tears. Phase one of Canton’s plan had worked, but the next step would be the most crucial.

Before long, the cage was dragged out from under its hiding place and Canton was finally revealed to one of the parents. The being which looked down on Canton was even larger and more terrifying than he’d imagined. Canton hoped that he would be able to communicate with it, and that it would see reason. It stared down at him, its face rigid in shock.

Michael’s father stared into the cage he’d pulled from under his son’s bed. It was no hamster. It appeared that his son had been telling the truth, that he had been keeping a tiny man as a pet in his bedroom.

“Michael, where did you get this from?” he asked.

Michael stood in the doorway of his bedroom, frowning as he nursed his plastered finger.

“It was in the garden, it was squeaking at me,” he replied.

Michael’s father picked up the cage and carried it in to the kitchen. He placed it on the table and made a phone call to a colleague at the University. All the while he never took his eyes off of the tiny man who was jumping and waving at him.

“Am I in trouble, Daddy?” Michael asked.

His father smiled and shook his head as the phone rang. “Of course not, buddy, but I’m going to have to take your little friend away; he could be dangerous. We’ll get you a new hamster, okay ?”

Michael nodded.

“Ted, its George, how are you? Good. Listen, I’ve got something you should see . . . well it’s pretty amazing. Can I bring it over this afternoon? I promise it’ll be worth your while. . . sure, see you then."

The two giant beings hovered over Canton’s cage as he stared helplessly up at them. He stood up and repeated the message he had practiced countless times before.

“My name is Commander Canton Wye, Prince of the Wye Sovereignty. I mean you no harm. My shuttle crashed on your sphere many turns ago, and I have been held captive since that time. I bear you no ill-will; I understand that the actions of one being do not represent you all. However I must insist that you set me free and allow me to contact my people. The consequences of my continued incarceration would be dire for you all, do you understand?”

“Where did you say Michael found it?” Ted asked.

“At the bottom of the garden, I had a look and also found what looks like wreckage of a tiny spaceship.”

“Amazing,” Ted replied “A being from another planet, and he’s so tiny. You know; if they’re capable of travelling to our planet then they’re probably much more advanced than we are”.

“Yeah I considered that,” replied George. “But then I thought that they’re just so tiny, how could anyone so small be a threat to us? I think we’re pretty safe. I mean, my seven-year-old son has had him in a hamster cage under his bed for the past five months, so they can’t be that tough. Look at the little guy, he looks so fragile”.

“What do you want to do with it?’ asked Ted

“Whatever you think,” replied George. “But whatever happens, I think that Michael should get the credit for the discovery, first contact and all that." They both laughed.

“Okay. Well, Amanda at the University, her husband has a connection to the Space Programme; I’ll get in touch and see what’s what."

In the following months, Canton was subjected to an endless stream of physical and psychological experiments. It only got worse for him. His health deteriorated further until nothing remained of the heroic Commander who had glided his people to safety. No one had been able to communicate with him on any meaningful level, so he remained unable to share his message of warning.

Weeks later, after Canton’s death, deep space radar detected a moving object passing the Kuiper belt. Several weeks passed before it was close enough to see more clearly. They detected a huge fleet of ships, it wasn’t clear how many, but as they got closer, scientists were able to determine that they were tiny in size. It wasn’t long before somebody saw a connection between their tiny dead alien visitor and the alien armada.

“Notify me as soon as we reach real-time communication range with the survivors." Sovereign Wye glared at the glowing blue sphere on the view screen.

“What is our estimated arrival time?” He asked.

“We will be within shuttle range of the sphere in approximately twelve turns; however we will be within communications range within the next three turns."

“I want to record a message to auto-transmit to the sphere as soon as we’re within range”.

“Very good, Sovereign”, one of the officers replied. “We’re ready to record."

“Beings of the blue sphere, I am Decaton Wye of the Wye Sovereignty. Greetings. We are responding to a distress signal, received from our people who have crash landed on your sphere. They have communicated to us that you have my son and heir Canton in your captivity. For the sake of peace between our two empires, I hope that you have treated him well. You will make preparations to release him to us unharmed within one turn of receiving this message. Failure to do so will result in your destruction."

THE END

Bio: Rory Warwick has worked as an Associate Editor for US fiction magazine Dark Moon Digest, and was most recently published in Perihelion Science Fiction. Rory also recently received an Honorable Mention from the Writers of the Future Competition.

E-mail: R.W. Warwick

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