He almost refused for the sake of chivalry but then They'd been colleagues at the s.p.a.ce Tracking Station for remembered that chivalry wasn't hip; he nodded, grinned eight months and lovers for four. Vijay had unfashionable and found himself yawning again.

hopes that one day Holly would cease to be Miss Kidd and 'OK. What time am I on in the morning?'

become Mrs Degun. But, like saying 'man' at the end of his He never checked the roster. Holly, who used to find that sentences or admitting that he preferred Peter Noone to Jim infuriating, now thought it rather endearing. She looked at 22 23.the clipboard which hung on the wall by the main display Vijay, something about staying where nature intended or screens and rubbed the sleep out of her large green eyes.

about parts of London resembling Calcutta.

'Er... eleven... eleven to nine. Yeah. Same as last Thursday.

Hawthorne's resentment was firm, clear and diamond Cooper's on too. Then Hawthorne at four.'

hard. If Mr Wilson had any sense, he used to mutter, he'd 'Oh, Christ.'

deport the lot of them.

Holly smiled sympathetically. 'Think yourself lucky. I've Holly sighed and looked at the clock. It was two in the got Hawthorne right through Sat.u.r.day while you're off morning. She drank a little more coffee and glanced at the enjoying yourself.'

ink tracers which measured the radio waves from the stars Vijay pulled her towards him and kissed her. Around they monitored. The thin line of green ink was straight and them, the instruments whirred and ticked soothingly. Holly unperturbed. They were on the lookout for pulsars, mainly - wrinkled her freckled nose as Vijay's moustache brushed this year's great discovery - sweeping the heavens for likely against it.

sources.

'Enjoy myself?' said Vijay, laughing. 'In this place?'

The ink tracer continued on its placid path. Smooth as a 'Well, get yourself over to York or somewhere. How about knife through water.

the Brontes' house?'

Holly went to the window and gazed up at the brilliantly Vijay shrugged. 'Been there, seen it et cetera. Besides, how lit disc of the radio telescope which towered above the can I enjoy myself if you're not around?'

station. There were few stars visible in the murky black sky.

Holly pulled away, blushing a little in spite of herself.

She recognised Gemini and part of Taurus. Then a little of Again that reluctance, thought Vijay, that reticence...

Orion, the constellation on which they were presently 'Go to bed,' said Holly. 'I'll see you tomorrow.'

concentrating. But it rapidly vanished under a blanket of Vijay picked up his lab coat and nodded. He turned as he greasy cloud.

reached the door to the interior. 'Keep smiling.'

Yawning, Holly moved away from the window and, more He disappeared into the darkness.

through a desire to avoid starting work than any real need, Holly sat down in Vijay's chair and rubbed her face. She walked into the corridor to make herself some more coffee.

really did wish Vijay didn't have the day off on Sat.u.r.day.

Outside, the rain lashed the great parabola of the Dr Hawthorne would be breathing down her neck all day.

telescope, bouncing off into the guttering and cascading Another interminable shift of doubles entendres and down the stained concrete walls of the station.

sarcasm from that nasty, rat-faced man. Always patronising.

Always smiling that sickly smile.

A mile away, in the village, Win Prudhoe spent her first 'You must pay more attention, Miss Kidd, you really night alone in forty years.

must,' said Holly to herself, imitating Hawthorne's funny, high-pitched voice. Then he'd probably get in a dig about 24 25.Trevithick awoke with a start. His gaze darted about the his nostrils till he felt the room shuddering and blackening room as he took in the familiar shapes, still enveloped in around him.

thick darkness. The chair with his trousers laid across it and the old wardrobe with the wonky door were still there, but Holly looked at the clock. It was still ten past five. She there was something wrong.

must've looked at the thing a dozen times and there seemed It was only when a sharp gust of freezing air wafted into to be no difference. Clockwatching, she thought. Naughty, his face that Trevithick noticed the window. His heart began naughty.

to slam against his ribs and he felt a great tide of adrenaline Ten past five. December 23, 1968. G.o.d, it was nearly pulse unpleasantly to his head.

Christmas. A fact which had totally escaped her until she'd Slowly, with great deliberation, Trevithick folded back the looked at the calendar instead of the clock. The exhausting top blanket and tiptoed softly across the room. He clicked routine at the station had numbed her to the pa.s.sage of time.

on the light.

Once, she would've been all excited, preparing presents and A huge hole had been smashed in the thick pane of the puddings. But all that was back in Wales with Uncle Louis.

window and the curtains hung in shreds, swinging from the The only festive spirit she could imagine inside Hawthorne broken rail like gibbet corpses. The shattered gla.s.s rattled as and Cooper was a couple of gla.s.ses of sherry.

a stiff breeze from the moor ebbed and flowed against it.

Holly could remember playing s...o...b..a.l.l.s with her Uncle Trevithick licked his suddenly dry lips and sat down Louis, using a pair of his old pit socks instead of gloves.

heavily in his chair, crumpling the trousers he had so Little bobbles of snow clung to the wool. She'd pulled a face.

carefully laid out. His eyes moved quickly from the 'They are clean, you know, flower,' Louis had said, devastation around the window to his bed and then back laughing in his big, barrel-chested way.

again. He could see the pool of yellow light from the same Their breath hung in the air like smoke. After several streetlamp. Nothing there now. He glanced at his old bra.s.s s...o...b..ll fights their hands were red raw and cold as alarm clock. Half past four.

marble. Warming them by the fire induced a delicious And suddenly there was a voice. A shocking, twisted tingling pain, soon sorted out by a little ginger wine. Then rattle of a voice, like dead air expelled from the lungs of a there would be steamy stuffing smells and the King on the drowned man.

radio. The last bits of rationed chocolate left over from the 'Night... shade...' it hissed. Chuckling, chuckling.

morning's gluttony would be consumed as Uncle Louis'

A dreadful smell - a rancid stench like bad meat - blasted tuneless singing drifted in from the kitchen...

through the smashed window. Trevithick felt his head Holly sighed. That was all such a long time ago. It made becoming insanely light, almost as if it were about to leave her think of another Christmas. Her first without James.

his shoulders and fly away. He felt sick and dizzy all at once.

And how Louis had comforted her as she wept into his Then the chuckle came again and the fearful stink rose up in cardigan, orange firelight glowing around them.

26.27.'It's all right, Holly, love, it's all right. Shhh now...'

Holly checked her files and joined Hawthorne.

A klaxon wrenched Holly from her thoughts, its violent 'Erm... quadrant...'

screech echoing through the station. Holly stood up too 'Come on, woman.'

quickly and banged her knee against the console.

'No change. It's Orion. Same as before, Dr Hawthorne.'

'b.u.g.g.e.r!'

'You haven't changed the scan?'

The klaxon wailed at her accusingly. She whirled around, Holly shook her head. Hawthorne whistled. 'I don't trying to locate the source of the emergency. The banks of believe this. Get on to Cooper would you?'

lights twinkled on in innocent placidity and the ink-tracer 'Righto.'

continued to draw its steady line.

'Where's Sabu?'

Holly dashed to the window and strained to make out Hawthorne shot a nasty look up at Holly. She took a anything in the gloom. Still the klaxon blared on.

sharp intake of breath, almost wincing at Hawthorne's Theoretically, it should only be triggered by a breach in the transparent racism.

security fence. Holly swallowed. There was no way she was 'Vijay's asleep. I relieved him.'

going out there on her own.

'Did you now?'

Without warning, the ink-tracer began to oscillate crazily.

Holly ignored him. She turned her attention to a stream of The line broke up, rose and fell, creating an astonishing printout which was piling at her feet.

pattern of curves and waves in a seizure so rapid that the 'Why's the klaxon going?' she said distractedly.

pen could hardly keep up with it. New information flooded Hawthorne shook his head and tapped a series of figures through the monitors. Screens flared with light and energy.

into the console. 'I don't know. Why don't you find out?'

Dr Hawthorne tumbled into the room, a heavy jumper Holly let out an exasperated sigh and stalked off towards over his pyjamas and his steel-rimmed gla.s.ses hanging off the internal phone. Shaun, the new security man, should've the end of his nose. He struggled to get the wire arms reported in by now.

hooked over his ears.

Holly called Dr Cooper, who was none too pleased to be 'Kidd! What the h.e.l.l do you think...'

woken up, and then Vijay shambled into the room, his face He swung his head towards the ink-tracer and then over slack and drunk with sleep.

to the screen which crackled with data.

'Holly? What's going on?'

'Grief!' he said, swallowing hard. 'Where's all this coming She hugged him, grateful for an ally, and led him back from?'

into the main room.

Holly looked at him dazedly. The klaxon was still blaring 'We're getting ma.s.sive emissions on the feed. Piles of data.

in her ears.

I've never seen anything like it. Tons of the stuff.'

'What?'

Vijay shook his head as if to clear it and opened his eyes 'I said, where's it coming from? Which quadrant?'

wide.

28.29.'Why's the klaxon...?'

Out of the corner of his eye, Vijay saw something move; a Holly turned him towards the double-doored exit and hunched shape scuttling just out of the reach of his torch-patted his backside affectionately. 'I don't know. Why don't beam. He shuddered. There it was again. Just out of sight you find out?'

like a glimpse of summer lightning. He began, Vijay sniffed resignedly and pulled on one of the thick unconsciously, to chew his fingernails.

parkas which hung by the doors. The klaxon's screech was In the light from the torch, a huge rent was visible in the beginning to get on his nerves. Why hadn't Shaun done mesh of the fence, the steel wire peeled back like the skin of something about it? It was his job to see to the thing, after all.

an orange.

Privately, Vijay sympathised with the security man. It couldn't be much fun patrolling the perimeter fence every night. Things were so quiet he often wondered why they had security at all.

'It's just that nothing ever happens around here, Mr Degun,' Shaun's predecessor used to say. 'And what's the point of me walking around when we all know that no one would dream of breaking in?'

He'd finally left and gone off to work in an open prison somewhere down south. Very much the same line of work, Vijay thought, smiling.

Vijay opened the doors and stepped out into the hallway.

Within a moment, he was outside. The icy wind blasted him full in the face. Darkness swallowed him whole.

Freezing rain was once again lashing across the moor in great, sweeping waves. There were still a few lights on in 'Shaun?'

the village and Vijay recognised the bedroom light in The His voice sounded feeble and strained. The rain hissed Shepherd's Cross. Distractedly, he wondered whether Betty back at him.

Yeadon was having another of her sleepless nights. There Vijay began to move back towards the station but didn't was a lot of gossip about how ill she'd been looking.

feel able to turn his back on the fence. The wind howled Lawrence, though, never said a word. Just grinned.

through the gaping hole.