Ground Control To The Beer and Flies – Close Contact of the Oceanic Kind.

‘How’s he doing?’ asked the Captain, walking briskly into the bar.

‘He’s doing much better,’ said Nicole, looking up at the Captain with a reassuring smile.

‘Good, good,’ went on the Captain, ‘we need to decide what to do with those capsules down there.’

‘How’s the navigation system, is it back up and running now?’ inquired Scott.

‘It’s touch and go,’ replied the Captain, ‘since we shut the lid of the monolith capsule the main systems appear to be back up and running again.’

 

The Doctor was slowly coming round from his slumber – his confused eyes glancing around the crew gathered about the table where he lay.

‘Doctor, are you feeling okay now?’ asked the Captain.

‘What happened?’ said the Doctor, ‘the last thing I remember was being in the storeroom.’

‘That’s right, we carried you up the stairs,’ explained Scott, ‘you seemed to go blank, do you remember, we found you staring at that monolith in the capsule.’

‘Oh yea, I think I remember that,’ said the Doctor, ‘where is that monolith now?’

‘It’s still down in the storeroom, it seemed to disrupt the ship’s navigation and communications systems!’ I said, trying to fill the Doctor in on the recent action.

‘Come on guys,’ said the Captain, ‘give the Doctor a minute to come back to himself, Scott, grab the good Doctor a drink, brandy isn’t it?’

‘Uh, yes, please,’ replied the Doctor, getting himself up from the table, and settling himself in a chair, ‘that’s better,’ he sighed.

 

***

 

A few hours later the Doctor was fully alert.  The ship was cruising slowly through the Pacific ocean, making a bee line for the USA.  There had been a heated discussion in the bar as to what to do with the capsules, particularly the one with the black monolith inside it.

 

‘We’ve got to ditch that capsule,’ insisted the Captain, ‘we can’t risk knocking out the ship’s radar, navigation or communications systems again.  Remember, we’ve got millions of dollars of loot in the store rooms and we can’t afford to be stranded out here.’

‘But it’s priceless,’ explained the Doctor, ‘it could be one of the most valuable finds in human history!’

‘Even so, Doctor,’ cautioned the Captain, ‘it’s dangerous, and it could put our whole vessel at risk!’

The sun was setting over the vast expanse of the ocean outside the porthole windows of the bar, casting a glittering dazzle of color across the choppy water.  The Beer and Flies vessel continued its journey across the Pacific as the crew debated their next course of action.  Eventually, it was decided that the capsule that contained the bizarre monolith should be cast overboard in a raft.

 

It’s future would be returned to the hands of fate and despite the appeals of the Doctor the crew had cast their votes and the decision was final!  The Doctor lounged moodily in the bar while Scott and David built a raft on top deck.

 

***

 

Several hours later, the crew had gathered on the top deck of the ship to watch the capsule be cast adrift into the ocean.  Once the capsule had been secured to the raft it was lowered down into the water with a sense of solemn ceremony.  The monolith was certainly one of the strangest treasures that the crew had found to date and yet it’s unexplained interference with the ship’s systems meant that it was far too dangerous to keep on board.

 

The Doctor watched on as the raft began to drift away into the closing night.  It slowly bopped away from the ship and disappeared into the darkness.  The crew, for the most part, returned to the bar while the Captain and Kyle went back up to the bridge to plot the pirate ship’s route to the Western shores of the USA.

 

***

 

A few minutes later, as the Doctor stood on deck he saw a bright light in the sky approaching from the East, the direction of Ball’s Pyramid.

‘Captain, Kyle, you better get down here!’ he shouted up at the bridge, ‘we’ve got company!’

Kyle called to the crew in the bar using the ship’s intercom, and soon the whole band were standing on deck, watching the light in the sky.

‘What is that?’ I asked.

‘No idea,’ said the Doctor, ‘it’s too quiet for a helicopter.’

The light hovered in the sky a few hundred metres from the ship.  Then a large, blue search light appeared from the bottom of what appeared to be a disc shaped craft and began scanning across the ocean.

‘What’s it looking for?’ asked Nicole.

‘I think we all know what that’s looking for!’ said the Doctor, ‘it must be the original owners of the capsule, come to pick up that monolith!’

‘Captain!’ shouted the Doctor, ‘can we get that search beam onto that thing over there?’

The Captain, on the bridge, turned on the high power beam and moved it upwards, pointing at the light in the sky.

Hanging silently in the air was a huge UFO, the blue light searching the waters.

The blue light stopped and the crew could see the raft, floating in the waters.  Another, more intense, beam came on at the base of the UFO and it slowly pulled the raft and its contents up into the air.

‘Are you seeing what I’m seeing?’ asked David to the rest of the crew.

‘Yes, no doubt about it,’ replied Scott.

 

The UFO, which was a circular craft, having picked up the raft, started to move upwards into the sky.  Then, in an instant, a mere blink of the eye, it accelerated directly upwards and vanished.

 

‘That monolith must have been emitting a signal,’ confirmed Scott, ‘and I think we got lucky that it wasn’t on board the ship when they came to pick it up!’

 

***