Theos spacecraft - The gift

      â€œWe must go back down," said Colonel Hudson to the two aliens. “I need to make some phone calls and I really don’t think it’s possible from here."

      â€œI wouldn’t be too sure of that," answered Azakis smiling. “You know, if good old Petri seriously puts his mind to it, he can do things you can’t even begin to imagine," and he gave his companion a pat on the back.

      â€œCalm down, calm down," answered Petri waving his hands in the air. “First of all, define the concept of ‘phone call’."

      Jack, a little surprised at the apparently trivial question, turned towards Elisa who, first shrugged her shoulders then, indicating the Colonel’s pocket, said candidly, "Show them your phone, no?"

      With a quick movement, Jack took out his smartphone. It was a rather dated touchscreen. He had never liked following the absurd tendency of always having the latest mobile phone. He preferred to have something to hand that he knew, without always having to waste a lot of time learning all the new features.

      â€œI’m not an engineer," said Jack as he showed it to the alien, "but with this thing, we are able to talk to another person who has a similar one, simply by dialling their number on this keypad."

      Petri took the phone and observed it carefully. “It must be a one-to-one transmission system, similar to our hand-held communicators."

      â€œWith the only difference," added Elisa, "that every time we use it, it sucks a whole lot of money off us."

      Thinking that his limited knowledge of their language would not allow him to grasp all its concepts, Petri decided to ignore this last statement and continued to analyse the object he was holding in his hand. “I shall need a little time to understand how it works."

      â€œSure, take your time," replied Elisa disconsolately. “After all, it’s not like there’s a planet about to crash into us."

      Petri looked at her perplexed then, seeing as he hadn’t caught on to that quip either, decided to say no more. He simply shrugged his shoulders and slid into the nearest internal transfer module where he disappeared within a few seconds.

      â€œWell, presuming it is possible to get your mobile to work from here, how were you thinking of proceeding?" asked Elisa, while desperately trying to recover from the weakness caused by the lack of oxygen and the thousand emotions she had been through over the last few hours.

      â€œInitially I’d thought of contacting Senator Preston, General Campbell’s direct superior. But as he has never been very convincing in my view, I’ve decided to go down a different route to get to the President."

      â€œDo you think he might also be involved?"

      â€œThose two devils have never been truthful with me. Rumours have been going around that Preston is even implicated with some decidedly disreputable arms manufacturers. I don’t trust him at all."

      â€œSo?"

      â€œSo, I shall speak directly to Admiral Benjamin Wilson. He was the President’s right-hand man for several years and he was also a very good friend of my father’s."

      â€œWas?"

      â€œUnfortunately, my father left us almost two years ago."

      â€œI’m sorry..." whispered Elisa gently caressing his left arm.

      â€œWilson held me on his knees when I was a child. He’s one of the few people I trust blindly."

      â€œI don’t know what to say. No matter how well you get along with him, I think it’ll be difficult to get him to swallow a story like this over the phone."

      â€œI could always send him a few photos of the view of his city from up here."

      "With our short-range sensors," remarked Azakis, who until then had remained on the sidelines, "we could even tell him the beats per minute of his heart, in real time."

      â€œPlease don’t joke about it," exclaimed Elisa, emphasising what she was saying with a gesture of her hand.

      â€œDon’t you believe me? Watch this then."

      Through his O^COM, Azakis made the view from above of the doctor’s base camp appear on the giant screen. In a few seconds, he enlarged the image to bring her laboratory tent into full view.

      â€œWhat you are seeing..."

      â€œIs my tent," exclaimed Elisa before Azakis could end the sentence.

      â€œExactly. Now watch this."

      All of a sudden, it was as if the tent’s cover had disappeared and she could see all the objects inside it perfectly.

      â€œMy desk, my books ... incredible!"

      "If there were someone inside, I could show you the heat generated by their blood flow and therefore I could also calculate their heartbeat."

      Decidedly satisfied with the demonstration he had given them, the alien began to wander proudly around the room.

      The Colonel however, who still had not recovered from his astonishment, suddenly seemed to have been hit by a thunderbolt and exclaimed crossly, "What do you mean ‘if there were someone’? There must be someone. Where the devil are the two prisoners?"

      Elisa moved closer to the screen to get a better look. “Perhaps they’ve moved them. Can we have a complete view of the rest of the site?"

      â€œYes, no problem."

      In a few seconds, Azakis started running an overview of the camp. The sensors scrutinised everywhere but there was no trace of the two prisoners.

      â€œThey must have escaped," said the Colonel laconically. “This means we’ll be finding them under our feet again before long. Luckily the General was taken to a safe place by my men. Those three together are capable of doing more harm than the devil himself."

      â€œIt doesn’t matter," said Elisa. “We’ve got much bigger problems to worry about right now."

      She had barely finished the sentence when the door of internal communication module number three opened. An attractive girl stepped out of it, with soft, sinuous steps. She was holding some sort of completely transparent tray in her hands, on which there were different coloured containers.

      â€œLadies