Standing on the
glass-encased balcony, protected from the strong high-altitude winds and bitter
cold, Captain Scarlet looked thoughtfully toward the valley far below his feet.
This was a remote enough area of the Tibetan plateau, with only one small
village settled just down the side of the steep mountain, almost directly
beneath the large power complex set on the flank of the mountain. Barely a
hundred souls inhabited that village, almost all of them workers at the dual
energy plant which almost all of Tibet had relied on for power for the last ten
years. It had been an interesting and revolutionary concept by engineers,
combining wind turbines and solar panels to create a new form of power supply –
one that would be reliable, totally clean, and about as infinite as the sun and
winds themselves. In the early days of the project, many people didn’t believe
it would succeed – rather thinking that it would be impossible to put together
the two systems and to make them operate smoothly as one. That was clearly a
major challenge, but the engineers took it on, backed by United Asian Republic
and Tibetan officials alike, who obviously believed in the project.
With good reason, since it
worked.
It worked so very well, in
fact, that the Tibetan authorities had decided to expand the use of that form of
energy over all of the country. It would only be another couple of years, before
this would become the only available source of power in all of Tibet, replacing
all the other sources previously used.
Consequently, the energy
centre had grown considerably, until it covered the entire side of the mountain
on which it had been built. Other, smaller plants had been built all over the
country, to be linked to this central one, in order to answer the increasing
demands for energy. The production system was so reliable, that Tibet had even
started to sell electricity to the neighbouring states, thus generating income
that could only profit the people. Aside from minor problems that were quickly
taken care of, with all the efficiency of the Tibetan people, everything was
working like clockwork, and nobody imagined that any major difficulty would ever
come troubling the quiet, stable situation.
That was counting without
the Mysterons.
The threat had come the
previous day, relayed, as usual, to Cloudbase’s speakers, while all the officers
were busy with their last-minute preparations for the upcoming Christmas
celebrations, just a few days from now. ‘The
roof of the world will collapse and darkness will fall all over the entire high
country.’ It had only taken a couple of hours for Spectrum to realise
that the threat was directed at a Himalayan state – and barely a few minutes
afterwards to narrow the field to Tibet, whose unique source of energy – however
reliable it might be – made it far too vulnerable if that energy should ever
cease to exist.
The central energy plant
was the most obvious target for the Mysterons, and so Captain Scarlet had been
dispatched to the facility to keep watch over it, with only a handful of
Spectrum security guards. No one had been allowed to come armed with any weapon,
and that fact was annoying Scarlet greatly. No matter that the strict Tibetan
law forbade any firearms on its territory, particularly on Government land, and
especially not held by foreigners.
Granted, Scarlet fumed,
the Tibetan Non-Violence Act was an admirable one. Ever since the country had
gained its full autonomy and had subsequently freely joined other independent
states in the United Asian Republic, under the guidance and teaching of the
Dalai Lama – the ever resourceful head of state and religious leader - there had
been no quieter or more peaceful territory on the surface of the Earth, with one
of the lowest crime rates ever to be registered.
But the Tibetan
authorities didn’t seem to realise the gravity of the situation, nor accept
Spectrum’s assurance of just what kind of threat the Mysterons represented. The
Mysterons didn’t care about non-violence, and the universal peace proclaimed by
the Dalai Lama’s teachings – for them, all humans, all life on Earth, were to be
destroyed. But trying to convince the Tibetan authority of that was next to
impossible.
“It looks to me, Captain
Scarlet, that your previous worries about the safety of this power plant were
groundless.”
Scarlet slowly turned on
his heels at the sound of that gentle voice. The director of the plant, Kunchen
Norbu, had entered the terrace and was presently approaching very quietly, a
faint smile playing on his rounded face. He was at least two heads shorter than
the Spectrum captain, and that difference was quite obvious when he stopped
right next to him to look out through the large window.
“Isn’t it a peaceful
panorama?”
Scarlet could only agree
with that statement. “It is very peaceful, Mister Director. You have a very
beautiful country. And it’s to keep it peaceful and beautiful that I am here, as
you well know.”
“You will forgive me,
Captain, but I will repeat myself by saying that I am not convinced of the
necessity of your presence,” Norbu retorted, his quiet tone not leaving him. “We
are a peaceful people. Surely, your… ‘Mysterons’ must know that.”
“They do not care
about peacefulness, sir,” Scarlet replied. He paused for a second. “Their…
definition of ‘peace’ is not the same as ours, I’m afraid.”
“Don’t they know we don’t
involve ourselves with the politics of outside countries?”
“Again, sir, with respect
– they do not care. All they care about is to crush their enemy.”
Norbu shrugged. “Tibet is
no-one’s enemy, Captain.” Obviously, he was thinking the Spectrum officer was
greatly exaggerating, and deliberately darkening the image of the Mysterons, to
show them in the most evil light possible. The minute he had set foot in the
centre, Scarlet had the definite impression that the director was
under-estimating the seriousness of the Mysterons’ menace – or that, maybe, he
was convinced that, on realising Tibet’s non-violence principles, they wouldn’t
carry out their threat.
“Mister Director,” Scarlet
said patiently. “Remember what they did to Director General Xian Yoh, a couple
of years ago. They destroyed his plane on take-off, and there was hardly
anything left of him. The same went for his entire staff – they knew nothing
about the Mysterons and had never acted against them. They were all killed by
the Mysterons.”
Norbu lowered his eyes.
“Director General Xian Yoh was a very wise man… His death meant a great loss to
all of the United Asian Republic.” Scarlet simply nodded briefly to that
comment, in silence. “Were you present when he died?” Norbu continued.
Scarlet hesitated
slightly. “I was,” he said finally. “And I tried everything in my power to save
him. All of Spectrum did. Without… success.” He didn’t want to tell Kunchen
Norbu how deeply involved he had been with the operation, nor that he still saw
it as his greatest failure – for it had been him who had made the final
desperate attempt to save the Director General. It had been his first ‘death’ on
duty since his return from Mysteron control, and although the events had served
as a proof of his loyalty and dedication to the fight against the aliens, he
still had a most bitter taste from the experience. He didn’t like to dwell on
it. Nor did he want to talk about it much. He hoped that Norbu would not ask any
more questions.
As a matter of fact, he
didn’t have time, for Scarlet suddenly started to feel nauseous. He visibly
paled, and swayed on his feet, catching himself against the wall to get his
footing back. Norbu made a step forward to help him, and was surprised to see
the captain’s face covered with sweat.
“Are you feeling all
right, Captain Scarlet?” the man asked with concern. “You look sick… I hope you
have not caught a cold?”
Scarlet didn’t answer the
question, and looked around in confusion. He wasn’t ill, it was his sixth sense
telling him of the presence of a Mysteron nearby. But where? He and Norbu were
the only people on the terrace right now… He gave a suspicious stare at the
small man. He wished he had been allowed to bring a Mysteron Detector with him,
but even that had been denied, because the tool looked too suspiciously like a
weapon; so to avoid a diplomatic incident, it had been decided to leave it in
the SPC, with the real weapons. That was a terrible mistake - to have
come in the middle of the danger zone unarmed.
That was the trouble with
dealing with less-than-cooperative authorities.
The threat didn’t appear
to come from Norbu… Then, where…?
From the corner of his
eye, Scarlet caught sight of a man who was passing by in the corridor beyond the
large arch leading to the terrace. He was walking at a rather quick pace.
Gently brushing aside Norbu’s helping hands, Scarlet strode to the arch and
looked in the departing man’s direction, narrowing his eyes at him.
“That man…” he murmured.
“That’s Palden Sangye,”
Norbu informed him, “our chief technician. He’s been with us since the
beginning, and knows everything there is to know about the plant.”
“He would know how to stop
it from operating, right?” Scarlet asked, stepping into the corridor, with the
obvious intention of following his suspect.
“Palden…? Surely, Captain,
you’re not implying that he could be in league with these…‘Mysterons’ of
yours? Palden is totally trustworthy!”
But Scarlet wasn’t
listening to Norbu’s protests. With a determined step, he walked down the
corridor, his pace quickening as he approached Sangye. Norbu was following
behind, as quickly as he could, trying to keep up with him.
“Captain Scarlet, I must
object… Palden is a firm follower of the Dalai Lama’s way…”
Scarlet would have
preferred it if Norbu had stayed quiet. As it was, his outburst attracted
Sangye’s attention and the man looked over his shoulder to see the Spectrum
officer approaching him…
… And then he broke into a
run.
“Damn!” Scarlet muttered.
He gave chase. He left Norbu behind, still protesting that, if his trustworthy
technician was fleeing that way, it was, quite reasonably, because the Spectrum
captain had scared him away.
Scarlet could have told
Norbu that no matter how faithful and trustworthy a person had been to a cause,
whenever the Mysterons had need of that person, they would make sure he would be
totally devoted to their cause and nothing else. He could have told him
that Palden Sangye was not the same man anymore, that the man Norbu knew had
been killed and replaced by a Mysteron duplicate… and that the teachings of the
Dalai Lama had very little influence on this new Sangye’s actions. He would have
little respect for them.
Because Scarlet was
certain, beyond a single doubt, that he was chasing a Mysteron agent and that
this Mysteron agent was intending to destroy the Power Centre.
He lowered his cap
microphone. “Cloudbase, this is Captain Scarlet. Am in pursuit of Palden Sangye,
senior technician at the power plant. Suspected Mysteron agent. Notify all
Spectrum personnel on the premises to apprehend him.”
“S.I.G., Captain,”
the voice of Colonel White answered. “Keep him in sight, and be careful. We
must not let the Mysterons carry out their threat. That could have devastating
consequences for the people of Tibet and their neighbours.”
As he was about to reply,
Scarlet realised that Sangye was heading toward a maintenance door leading out
of the Centre. He swore under his breath. He had vainly hoped that he would be
able to catch up with the suspect before he could escape or that - at least -
Spectrum security guards would reach him in time and help in his capture.
“Scarlet to Cloudbase! The
suspect has left the building. Am giving chase!”
He pushed the door and
went outside, as oblivious to the cold winds as the man he was pursuing.
Sangye’s pace had quickened very significantly, and he was now running down a
steep and treacherous footpath down the side of the mountain, his footing
assured as only a man having the knowledge of the ground could have. Down below
was the village Scarlet had been watching earlier. The Spectrum officer would
have given anything for a gun, if only just to wound his prey and slow his pace.
Grumbling, he followed suit, running as quickly as Sangye, careless of the
rolling stones and unsteady ground under his boots, driven only by his
determination to catch up with the man he was now more sure than ever was a
Mysteron agent.
He had no intention of
letting him get out of his sight…
High above the Tibetan
plateau, Spectrum Helijet 223 swooped through the clear air. Watching the barren
terrain below them was not exactly the most interesting job he’d ever been given
to do, but Captain Grey had an enviable ability to get down to even the most
boring jobs with thoroughness. Next to him, Harmony Angel was humming to herself
as she directed the craft up and down the valley with precision. She was rather
enjoying herself. Usually, it was either Melody or Symphony who got to fly the
helijets, and it made a nice change to have nothing more complex to worry about
than running out of fuel.
“One more sweep should do
it, Harmony,” Grey said, breaking into her reverie with a smile.
“Of course, Captain,” she
said in her lilting English. “I take it there are no signs of any trouble?”
“No, there is nothing to
report, Harmony – which is all to the good, of course. If anything happens to
this central power plant, the whole country and those in the immediate
neighbourhood could be condemned to some very cold and dark nights.”
The Chinese Angel nodded
stoically. “It is true that progress benefits everyone,” she said thoughtfully,
“but sad that traditional ways are also lost. There was a time when the people
would have known other ways to light and heat their homes, Captain.”
“Yes, you could say that,”
Grey agreed with some hesitation. “But follow it through to its logical
conclusion, Harmony, and we Americans would still be living in log cabins and
drawing water from streams and wells.”
She gave him a
disbelieving glance and opened her mouth to argue, but - with a mental shrug -
she closed it, her thoughts remaining unspoken.
Grey raised an eyebrow and
sighed. Holding a conversation with Harmony could be hard work. Of all the
Angels – and even of all the officers from Cloudbase senior staff – she was the
quiet one. Even to the point of seeming withdrawn. She didn’t like to involve
herself in any debates. Not that she didn’t have opinions, but she preferred to
keep them to herself and couldn’t see the point of arguing over any subject. It
wasn’t just worth quarrelling with friends. Harmony was a gentle and kind soul –
a very intelligent and feminine woman, whom everybody appreciated, and respected
very much.
The helijet swerved around
at the end of the valley and began its journey back towards the power plant for
the last time. Still nothing to report. Harmony was looking down towards the
village below, with curious eyes.
“Captain Grey,” she asked
suddenly, “I have wondered what is that building… the largest one in the
village?”
He consulted his map. “A
hospital run by the World Government’s Health service. See, another example of
the advantages of progress?”
“Most assuredly,” she
agreed and fell silent again.
Grey waited a few moments
and when he was certain she wasn’t about to speak again, he returned to his
survey of the ground below them.
A flashing white light on
the onboard radio indicated to Harmony that Cloudbase Control was contacting
them. She flipped up a small lever, and the voice of Captain Magenta – who was
presently manning the communication console on Cloudbase – made itself heard
through the speaker:
“Helijet 223, Captain
Scarlet is in hot pursuit of a suspected Mysteron agent who has just left the
Power Plant and is heading down to the village. Request immediate assistance.”
“S.I.G.,” Grey answered
quickly. “Come on, Harmony, let’s move. Let’s not let this one get by us!”
Harmony acknowledged the
order with a grim nod, and the helijet veered toward the village.
The air so high up was
difficult to breathe, and Palden Sangye was more used to it than the Spectrum
agent who was pursuing him down the slope of the mountain. From where he was,
Scarlet saw his quarry arrive in the village, and then continue his race toward
the hospital at the other end of it. Hospital was rather a grand name for
what was basically a health clinic, providing the Tibetan villagers, the workers
of the Central power plant and all inhabitants of the area with all the
necessary services given by a hospital. And Sangye was going straight for it,
probably hoping to find a refuge there from his pursuer. At least, that was what
Scarlet deduced.
Despite the rarefied air,
Scarlet was able to keep up – and even to narrow the distance between him and
Sangye. So he was near enough to see the Mysteron agent push open a door and
enter the hospital. Scarlet grunted; he didn’t want to lose his prey, so he
quickened his pace, at the risk of breaking his neck while sliding down the
remainder of the slope. He barely slowed down until he reached the door and
violently pushed it open.
At the other end of the
corridor in which he found himself, he could see his prey still running away
from him. Scarlet rushed after him; both fugitive and pursuer dodged past
startled hospital personnel, ignoring their gasps, shouts and protests. Sangye
looked over his shoulder, to see that Scarlet was still gaining on him; he threw
anything he was able to put his hands on into his path: trolleys, gurneys, even
a nurse that came too close to him.
“Make way! Make way!”
Scarlet shouted forcefully, concerned that civilians might be hurt, either
directly by Sangye or during the course of the pursuit. “Spectrum business!
Move! Let me pass!”
He wished again that he
had a weapon; he would have used it, if only to order the fugitive to stop, or
to shoot him in the legs if he would not obey. As it was, shouting after him was
totally useless, under the circumstances. The Mysteron agent would not listen to
him – of course, he probably would not listen even if Scarlet WERE armed… and
the Spectrum officer wondered what the witnesses’ reactions would have been if
he had used a weapon in the hospital. He had noticed the concerned and
suspicious looks they were giving him, rather than the man he was pursuing. He
was the stranger here – and so they might be thinking he was the bad guy...
Closely followed by
Scarlet, Sangye skidded to turn a corner and took a new corridor. It was empty,
except for a young woman carrying a baby in her arms; she had just closed the
door leading to an office and was quietly striding toward the exit door at the
end of the passage. Scarlet’s heart sank as he heard Sangye barking sharp words
at the young woman, who, her hand on the handle of the door leading out,
suddenly froze and turned around to investigate what was going on.
“Ma’am, get out of the
way!” Scarlet yelled a warning. “He’s dangerous!”
The young woman screamed
when she saw the two men coming at her so quickly. It was unclear to Scarlet if
she had understood him, but by the way she was looking at him, she was as unsure
about him as she was of her compatriot. She hurriedly pushed the door open just
as Sangye reached for her. He violently shoved her outside; her baby’s wailing
covering the woman’s new scream. Scarlet growled with anger as, in the space of
two seconds, Sangye, the woman and the baby disappeared completely from his
view. He literally leapt through the door…
…And found himself in a
large garden, on the flank of the mountain. Panting, he quickly scanned the
surroundings, but it was the cry of a child that made him turn on his heels. He
found Sangye standing against one of the stone walls encircling the garden,
keeping the young woman in front of him, as she held her crying baby. Scarlet
made a move toward the Mysteron agent, but stopped suddenly, barely ten feet
away from him, when his eyes caught sight of something metallic flashing in
Sangye’s hand.
“Hold!” the Mysteron agent
said coldly. “Or the woman dies.”
Scarlet recognised a knife
in the Mysteron’s hand. He had no doubt that Sangye would kill his hostages. The
baby was wailing loudly, and its mother was staring at the Spectrum agent with
wide eyes, filled with tears. She probably didn’t understand what was happening.
Keeping his distance, Scarlet tried to give the woman a reassuring nod, then
glared at his opponent, whose murderous eyes he could see just over the top of
the crying baby’s head.
“Very brave of you,” he
stated coldly. “Using a defenceless woman and her baby as a shield…”
“Be careful, Earthman,”
Sangye hissed, the blade getting closer to the woman’s cheek.
“Don’t hurt her, Sangye.
She’s done nothing to you. None of her people have done anything
to the Mysterons.”
There was a disdainful
huff from the man. “Can you really believe that argument would work with
me?”
“Does your mission include
hurting innocent people?”
“No Earthmen are
innocent, as you should know, Captain… Not you, not this woman… not even this
baby she’s holding. Every one of you has the potential to do violence.” Sangye
nodded slowly. “As we learnt…” He smiled thinly. “But we will be avenged. I know
my mission… I know what I must do.”
Scarlet narrowed his eyes.
“What can you possibly do out here?” he asked carefully. “Your target is up
there. How can you destroy the Power Plant while you’re so far away from it?”
“You’re a fool, Captain,”
Sangye scoffed. “You think you know everything? There is more than one
way to skin a cat… You came after me… But do you think I left the power plant
without an exact purpose?”
As he pronounced those
words, a violent explosion made itself heard from the top of the mountain.
Scarlet swiftly turned on his heels, eyes opened wide with horror. He saw an
enormous tongue of fire erupt from the power centre just over his head; thunder
seemed to rock all over the mountain, and the ground shook under his feet.
Scarlet realised, almost instantly, that either Sangye had installed a bomb
inside the complex before leaving it, or that he had an accomplice, who acted
quietly while Spectrum was concentrating on capturing the fugitive.
Shouts and cries came from
all sides, as the echoes of the explosion continued to roll across the valley;
people were starting to panic. The ground continued to shake, more violently, as
if the initial explosion had disturbed its delicate balance. Under Scarlet’s
horrified gaze, the side of the mountain slowly started to crumble…
A landslide!
A cry behind him suddenly
attracted his attention and Scarlet turned to face Sangye again. The wall
against which the Mysteron agent was standing was disintegrating under the
violent tremors, and rocks were falling onto him. He had let go of his hostages,
and Scarlet reached to take the woman’s hand, pulling her towards him. Her
screaming baby safely cradled in her arms, she leaned against the Spectrum
officer’s chest; he did his best to protect her with his arms, while watching as
Palden Sangye suddenly disappeared under a rain of falling rocks.
“Come now!” he shouted to
the woman over the thunderous sound all around them, and unsure that she would
understand him. “We have to get to safety!”
With the Power plant now
beyond his help and the Mysteron agent gone, Scarlet’s main concern was to get
the young woman and the child under his care to safety. But there was no real
cover, no safe shelter to be found anywhere, as the ground continued to shake,
and the rocks kept falling from the side of the mountain. All the houses around
were crumbling, not sturdy enough to resist the earth’s fury, and debris and
falling rocks were a deadly threat to anyone in their path. The only building
that seemed to have a chance to stand against the overall destruction was still
the hospital... and so Scarlet guided the young woman through falling debris and
shifting stones, the crying baby, protected between both their bodies, in the
vain hope of at least keeping this woman and her infant child from harm.
And maybe save their
lives.
The helijet was about half
way along the valley when the brilliant flash erupted before it, followed by a
tremendous rumble as the sound of the explosion reached the occupants. The
aircraft rocked with the blast impact and Harmony fought to keep it steady.
Grey swore. “That was the
plant – the bastards have caused an explosion! Scarlet can’t have found his
suspect… He must have followed a decoy!” He slammed his hand against the side of
the vehicle in frustration. “If only the authorities had taken our warnings
seriously and allowed us to bring a full security team in… with weapons. Talk
about not having the resources to do a decent job…” He activated his radio to
report to Cloudbase.
Harmony nodded to show
that she understood the situation. They were woefully understaffed on this
mission and it was always going to make doing anything constructive that much
more difficult. She directed the helijet towards the power plant. As the dust
settled, it was easy to see that the majority of the buildings had been
destroyed – but there were already some survivors staggering from the rubble,
many of them bleeding from cuts or more serious wounds. In the distance a siren
wailed mournfully. There was another, smaller, explosion and even that sound
died away.
“We’ll have to see if we
can help,” Grey said decisively. “There’s no way any serious lifting or cutting
gear can get here for hours.”
As they flew closer,
Harmony gasped out a warning:
“Captain Grey – look! The
mountainside… it is moving!”
Grey swivelled round to
the window on the other side and his face went ashen. It was as if a huge knife
had sliced through the rock, for an enormous part of the mountainside was
slipping with an awesome and seemingly slow majesty down towards the plateau.
Standing between this rock fall and the vast, open ground of the plateau was the
tiny village, with its proud hospital building, nestled in the shallow river
valley. Slowly, the Spectrum agents became aware of the terrifying rumbling that
signified the unstoppable descent of the rocks.
“Harmony, is there any way
we can warn the villagers?”
The Angel pilot had
already swerved the helijet away from the mountain and towards the village, but
even at maximum speed, the helijet could not overtake the wall of destruction as
it careered down the steep cliff face. They watched with horror as the first
boulders – larger than the houses in many cases - crashed and rolled into the
village. They could see the people fleeing out into the open, and running in all
directions away from the avalanche.
“They don’t stand a chance
– the poor souls…” Grey muttered as the now swift-moving tide of death-dealing
rocks flooded the small valley. Mothers with children were engulfed, old men and
women mown down by the flow. The huge boulders crashed and careened into the
hospital’s walls and ominous cracks appeared in the white-washed building. The
walls began to lean and suddenly collapsed, the roof falling down onto the
shattered supports in a cloud of brick dust.
Harmony looked away, her
eyes closed against the horror of the scene.
A grim-looking Grey placed
a call to Cloudbase to report the latest events, with a heavy heart. He listened
to Colonel White’s instructions, before putting a comforting hand on the young
woman’s thin shoulder. “It looks as if the Mysterons have won this round, Chan.
There isn’t much left of the installation and the power relays are coming down
all along the valley. I think we ought to try to help down at the village –
maybe we can find Captain Scarlet? We must get to him first – especially if he
is ‘hurt’. And, besides, there might be other survivors. Can you find somewhere
to land the helijet?”
Harmony nodded and forced
herself to survey the devastation below them. They flew over the scene until the
avalanche had lost its momentum and the dust had cleared enough for them to
identify a viable landing site. Harmony inched the machine down and slowly the
great rotor blades came to a stop.
An unnatural silence fell
over the area… a silence far more poignant than the peaceful stillness of only a
few short moments ago.
Harmony sighed and
disengaged her seat belt. Behind her, Captain Grey was rummaging for a first aid
kit; although what good a few bandages and aspirins could do faced with the
total obliteration of a hundred dwellings, neither he nor Harmony could imagine.
He wrenched open the door
and jumped down onto the gravel-strewn ground, turning to help the Angel down.
She rested her hand on his shoulder and jumped lightly down to the ground.
Even in such a place and such a situation, she does everything with such grace,
Grey thought affectionately. A momentary jab of shame – that he should notice
such things at such a time – made him turn a little brusquely and lead the way
towards the hopeless task of searching the ruins.
In a few hours’ time, the
daylight would be fading. Tired, dirty and heartbroken at the evidence of death
and destruction they were uncovering, Grey and Harmony stopped their fruitless
search for a moment to report to Cloudbase on the progress of the still
fledgling rescue efforts. The high altitude was taking a heavy toll on them
both, and every movement was getting harder. Grey’s shoulders ached with
scrabbling to remove debris and he was panting heavily. Harmony sank wearily
onto a boulder and ran a hand over her dirty face.
In so remote a place, the
infra-structure was not good enough to allow easy access by any craft but
planes, and without a standing army to respond to such disasters, the Tibetans
were having to ask for help from neighbouring states and their earliest
estimated time of arrival was the next morning – there were few pilots prepared
to risk flying through the treacherous mountains in the dark. The only search
team at work now consisted of the few surviving engineers and frantic villagers,
who had been away from their homes when the avalanche struck – and they were too
few to make much impact.
At the request of a
harassed-looking engineer, whose broken English testified eloquently to his own
distress, Grey went across to help rig a floodlight to a portable generator.
Over the other side of this particular area, one light was already flaring into
the gathering gloom.
The men struggled to fix
the lamp upright, and in driving it into the ground, struck something solid.
They bent to clear the rubble and found a partially intact roof, still resting
on a few courses of bricks.
“Harmony,” Grey shouted
excitedly, “bring the torch… there is someone under this… and they are still
alive!”
The Angel scrambled
towards them and held the powerful Spectrum flashlight so that the men could
gently drag the injured child from the wreckage. A little girl, about nine-ten
years old, Harmony estimated.
The child had broken limbs
and was bleeding from a severe gash in her side.
“Bandages…” Grey snapped.
Harmony handed over the contents of the first aid kit. “We need more… can you
get across to the hospital, Harmony, and see if you can find anything that will
help?”
“S.I.G., Captain,” she
replied, and, leaving them with the flashlight, scrambled away towards the ruins
of the hospital.
She staggered through the
only part of the building still standing - a roofless hall that had been an
out-patients’ clinic. There were a few posters on the wall, showing smiling
women with jolly, round-faced babies. Harmony blinked away her tears and
stumbled onwards.
Suddenly before her,
emerging from the gloom, she saw a figure; a figure in a dirty, red tunic,
kneeling in a corner.
“Captain Scarlet?” she
called.
Scarlet turned awkwardly
and waved her over. As she approached, she could see what he was doing. A young
woman, obviously dying, lay in his arms. Clasped to her heart was a baby,
wrapped in the traditional bundle of brightly coloured clothes against the
all-pervading cold. It had the full, round cheeks of a young infant and a
pouting rosebud mouth, with dark eyes open wide and staring at the man with
mixed emotions. The child was either in pain, or afraid, or apprehensive about
the presence of this stranger holding his mother this way. One thing was
certain, he was terribly upset.
Scarlet looked up at the
Angel as she stood beside him. The child shifted its gaze towards the young
woman, his eyes still displaying the same fear and uncertainty.
“There’s nothing I can do…
I think her back is broken, but I couldn’t leave her… and the baby looks all
right… battered and bruised, but I think he’s all right.”
“It is a boy?”
Scarlet shrugged. “I don’t
know. She won’t let me take it from her.”
Harmony crouched beside
him and touched the woman’s face. With enormous effort, two feverish eyes opened
and looked at her.
“We can save your
baby,” Harmony
said in Chinese – praying the woman would understand – at least enough to know
the child was safe.
Seeing the young pilot,
her kind face suffused with pity, the mother gave a weak smile and nodded her
head as if confirming a decision she had reached. She gasped something and
feebly moved her arms to push the child towards them.
“You take him,” Scarlet
whispered urgently to Harmony.
She leant down and scooped
the child up. It let out a thin wail. Its mother crooned to it with her dying
breath and, grasping Scarlet’s hand with her last strength, her dark eyes closed
forever as her head fell back.
The baby started crying.
Blinking back his own
tears, Scarlet gently laid the woman down on the rubble. He stood up, and with
military correctness snapped off a salute. Glancing down at Harmony, rather
shame-faced, he saw nothing but approval in her dark eyes as she watched him
over the weeping baby’s head.
“Sometimes,” she said, her
voice thick with emotion, “not every warrior in the fight wears a uniform.”
Scarlet gave a
self-conscious smile. “Not every warrior can even tell you his name, rank and
serial number, either,” he answered, and stroked the whimpering child’s dark
hair.
“We should find someone to
care for the child,” Harmony said, wrinkling her nose against the acrid scent
arising from the wet cloth wrapped around the infant.
“How did you find me?”
Scarlet asked.
“Captain Grey sent me to
find bandages – there is a survivor.”
“Well, you won’t find them
here, Harmony. This place is just so much rubble now.” Scarlet ran his hand
through his own dust-covered dark hair – his radio cap was long gone. “Let’s
find Grey and see what we can do… maybe someone knows who this little tyke is…”
He placed a hand on her
arm to escort her over the rubble. “Captain Scarlet,” she asked hesitantly,
“Would you carry the child? I am afraid that I am too out of breath… I might
fall.”
Scarlet’s dark eyebrows
rose. “Well, I guess so… I mean, I’m not very good with children.” He accepted
the damp bundle with a grimace and Harmony wiped her hands on her uniform before
leading the way back towards Captain Grey.
They trudged across the
devastation in the direction of the flickering floodlights. There were still
only two of them and they would do little to banish the stygian darkness and
numbing cold of the plateau at night. Suddenly, the encroaching blackness was
shattered by a brilliant flash from the mountainside as another part of the
power plant exploded like a huge orange and red flower. The noise rolled and
echoed around the plateau, making Harmony and Scarlet grimace. He handed her the
baby and advanced a few yards towards the power plant.
“What can you do,
Captain?” Harmony called.
He half-turned. As he
opened his mouth to speak, he saw a huge boulder that had been halted by a
partially standing wall, crush the obstacle in its path and start to roll
forward once more. The tremors from the second explosion had started many of the
small boulders sliding forward again. Scarlet shouted, “Harmony! Watch out! Get
out of its way….”
Startled, the Angel
twisted and, seeing the danger she was in, she turned to run back towards the
helijet. The unstable rubble beneath her feet slithered and she fell headlong
into the path of the boulder – the baby in her arms preventing her from stopping
her fall. Dazed, she could not move.
Scarlet sprang forward,
and sliding his arms under her shoulders, hefted her to her feet; scooping the
baby up and thrusting it into her arms, he shoved her away from the danger zone.
That forceful shove was enough to cause him to lose his footing and he too
slipped to the ground. Desperately, he began to struggle to his feet – too late
- as the boulder, bouncing off smaller rocks, crashed down onto his left foot,
crushing the bones.
Screaming with the
excruciating pain, Scarlet fell prone to the ground as the torrent of smaller
rocks half buried him. Harmony yelled for Captain Grey. She laid the baby on the
ground, at a safe distance from the stream of debris following the boulder’s
downward trail like the rats followed the Pied Piper, and rushed back to
scrabble at the pile that covered Scarlet.
Panting heavily, Grey
arrived and together they dragged the unconscious captain from his stony grave.
Harmony gave a horrified gasp as she surveyed, through the ruins of the red
boot, the shapeless lump of flesh and bone that was all that remained of
Scarlet’s left foot from the toes to the ankle.
When Scarlet’s blue eyes
opened, he could not suppress the groan the pain brought to his lips. He cursed
in fluent Anglo-Saxon… until he became aware of Harmony’s startled eyes,
glittering in the flashlight with unshed tears, and bit back the cathartic flow
of obscenities. At least, he thought ruefully,
when something like
this happens and I’m with Blue, he doesn’t give a monkey’s if I swear….
“You saved my life,” the
Chinese girl said, placing her slight hand on Scarlet’s arm. “Mine and the
baby’s.”
“He’s okay?” Scarlet
gasped through clenched teeth.
Grey turned and saw the
infant lying on a bank of rubble. The baby waved a chubby arm as its bottom lip
trembled and a protesting wail split the air. “Yep,” he said. “Angry, if I’m any
judge, but definitely okay.”
“We must find someone to
take care of it,” Harmony said again, “and get you back to Cloudbase, Captain,
as soon as we can.”
Scarlet grimaced and
glanced at the throbbing mass of skin and broken bone that was his foot. Grey
could see the beads of sweat on his pallid face and he guessed that Scarlet was
in tremendous pain. Retrometabolism could heal any wound, defeat any disease -
up to and including death itself – but it did not relieve the patient of his
suffering.
He activated his cap mic
and quickly reported the recent events to Cloudbase.
Colonel White waited until
he had finished before asking, “Is there anything else you can do that will
assist the rescue teams, Captain? Captain Blue informs me from Lhasa that the
Tibetan authorities have sent out an appeal for urgent help, and the World
Government is responding with all haste. Equipment is being airlifted from India
and China – it should arrive tomorrow morning soon after first light.”
Grey glanced at the
make-shift search teams and the ramshackle lights they had erected. “Well, sir,
every pair of hands is useful…”
“Then have Harmony
bring Captain Scarlet back to Cloudbase, whilst you stay there to co-ordinate
matters…”
“S.I.G., Colonel.” Grey
smiled at his companions. “You heard? You guys are off home,” he said.
“I can stay – I’ll be fine
soon,” Scarlet began.
“And have everyone see
just how quickly and how well you heal? I don’t think so,” Grey reasoned.
“We must find someone for
the baby before we leave,” Harmony insisted.
Grey nodded his approval,
and she went to retrieve the child. As she bent towards it, the wailing stopped
and the baby gabbled in pleasure. She smiled lightly, wondering if the little
bandit wasn’t somehow looking for attention…
As Grey helped Scarlet to
the helijet, she went over to where the rescue team was stolidly shifting the
rubble and debris. She spoke in English to the nearest man. “We have found this
child, its mother is dead – but the baby is not badly hurt. Does anyone know who
it belongs to – or where we might safely leave it?”
The man straightened up
and stared at her with unfriendly eyes. “No,” he replied in Chinese,
without even glancing at the child.
“Where are the village
survivors being sent?”
she asked, slipping easily into her mother-tongue.
“Woman, there are no
survivors… even those we find alive do not survive! You and your warlike friends
have drawn the fire of these evil men onto our peaceful community… we pose no
threat to anyone – why else would they attack us, except because you are here?”
Harmony stiffened, seeing
other men stopping work and nodding agreement with the speaker. There was an
undercurrent of hate in their muttered words. “Spectrum was here to try to
prevent this from happening,” she began – but her speech was cut off by a sharp
rock, which whistled towards her and caught her cheek a glancing blow. She
gasped and backed off as a second and third stone was hurled in her direction.
Staggering under the
weight of the child, her tiredness and the pain of the impact, she was making
slow progress to escape, until she felt a strong arm surround her. She gasped
and glanced up to see Captain Grey, his face stern under his cap.
“That’s enough,” he
growled warningly at the advancing mob. “She was trying to help you – we all
were…”
Another rock was lobbed
towards them and without hesitation, Grey turned Harmony around and escorted her
to the helijet. He strapped her and the baby in next to Scarlet, took the
pilot’s seat and flew the craft into the dark sky.
“Cloudbase, this is
helijet 223. We are returning to Cloudbase – all of us.” He went on to explain
why.
“Very well, Captain. I
will inform the authorities in Lhasa that Spectrum has left the area. We do not
wish to exacerbate local feelings by remaining uninvited. I will alert Doctor
Fawn to expect you,”
Colonel White said evenly. He hoped Captain Blue and Lieutenant Green were
having more success in their negotiations with the authorities in Lhasa.
Excusing himself, Captain
Blue moved across to the other side of the room and answered the insistent
flashing of his epaulettes. He heard Colonel White’s voice over his cap mic and
listened in silence as his commanding officer explained what had happened to his
colleagues at the disaster site.
“Captain Blue,"
the colonel concluded,
“I wish you to make it clear to the Minister that, whilst Spectrum
appreciates the sensibilities of the Tibetan people, we must be allowed access
to the area and granted permission to utilise whatever means we can to stop the
Mysterons – even if that means force.”
“S.I.G., sir,” Blue
replied warily. “I will do what I can – but I have to say, I wouldn’t hold out
much hope.”
“Your best will have to
do, Captain…”
The American grimaced as
the conversation ended. He sighed deeply and returned to where Lieutenant Green
was speaking to Dhargey Samdup, Tibet’s First Minister.
“Not more bad news,
Captain?” the small man asked, as Green’s voice trailed into silence.
“It is not the best news
there might be, sir,” Blue admitted. He gave a sketchy outline of the events at
the power plant.
The Minister frowned. “Are
you telling me your colleagues were attacked, Captain, even as they strove to
save the life of a Tibetan infant?”
“My commanding officer
tells me that they were, sir. My colleagues have been forced to take the child
with them to our Cloudbase headquarters, until such time as it can be returned
safely. ”
“This is most regrettable.
I know Spectrum means us well, and that no blame should attach to you or your
colleagues for the wicked actions of anyone else. I offer you and your
colleagues the deepest apologies of the Tibetan government, Captain… if there is
anything I can do to compensate you…”
Blue hid his smile and
said briskly, “Well, sir, Spectrum is concerned that the Mysterons may not have
finished pursuing their threat against your people – they may yet try to hamper
the reconstruction and repairs to the power plants and infrastructure. If you
would grant us an office in Tibet, and permission to pursue the people who
committed this crime – the Mysterons – we would consider ourselves honoured and
would endeavour to make sure no Mysteron activity hampers the recovery here.”
The Minister raised an
eyebrow. “Spectrum do not miss a trick, do they, Captain?”
“No, sir, not when the
safety of a nation depends on it.”
The First Minister sighed.
The negotiations with Spectrum had been going on for some time and were getting
nowhere. Personally, he deplored the use of any weapons – by anyone – and was
whole-heartedly committed to the nation’s policy of non-violence, but he could
also see that the Mysterons posed a threat to his country and that their
misdeeds would lead to great hardship for his people. He gazed reflectively at
the two Spectrum officers waiting patiently for his decision. They were
personable young men, obviously as dedicated to doing their jobs as he was to
doing his. The news that villagers had attacked Spectrum agents was disturbing.
He began to speak.
“The Tibetan people are a
hardy race, long inured to life in this harsh land. We love our country and
would do much to save it. Being as remote as we are, we are unused to a great
influx of strangers, yet we are a hospitable people, Captain, and gladly welcome
friends to our homes. This attack by the Mysterons on our nation is unwarranted
and unexpected, and we are not equipped to deal with such warlike actions. The
recent past has been catastrophic for us – the Dalai Lama, a most holy and
erudite scholar – died so unexpectedly that all the nation still mourns. Without
our spiritual leader, we are vulnerable. Alone, I have little authority and so I
hesitate to grant your wish – but I can understand what makes you ask it of us.”
He paused and looked solemnly at his companions. “I will endeavour to win the
council’s confirmation of this, Captain Blue; you may have your compound, here
in Lhasa. But, until the Council has ruled otherwise, I must insist you use only
peaceful means to do your job.”
“Thank you, sir. I
appreciate how difficult this must be for you under the circumstances. We will
comply with your restrictions for as long as we can, but, you are tying our
hands, and if the Mysterons attack again, we shall be forced to use weapons…”
“We are a peaceful
people…”
“But the Mysterons are
not,” Lieutenant Green interjected, with a grim look upon his face. “Look what
they have done already, sir…”
“A terrible tragedy,
Lieutenant, and coming, as it does, at such a time of uncertainty, its effect is
even more profound.”
“Understood, sir,” Blue
replied. “Believe me, we have no wish to upset or alarm your people. Spectrum’s
presence will be so discreet you will hardly know we are here. We will do all we
can to keep a low profile.”
The minister – a slight,
dark-skinned man with the large, black-coloured eyes of his race - gazed up at
the brightly-clad, 6ft 3inch, blond-haired, blue-eyed American, who could easily
make two of him, and smiled. “Indeed, Captain – as you have so far - a very low
profile indeed…” he acknowledged without a trace of irony on his mild-mannered
face.
“So, Doctor, is there
anything wrong with him?”
Doctor Fawn shrugged, as
he removed the stethoscope from his ears and straightened up. On the examination
table, where he had been laid, the small infant that Harmony Angel had brought
back from Tibet, now clean and tended to, was yelling to its heart’s content.
Harmony was standing before him; her cheek had been treated for the cut she had
sustained from the rocks that had been thrown at them, and aside from that, she
felt fine, but she was still looking pale. She studied the child with obvious
concern in her eyes.
“He’s a strong, healthy,
baby boy,” Fawn explained with a reassuring smile. “Nothing broken, no major
bumps… only a few minor scratches. He has been very lucky.”
“But he doesn’t seem to
want to stop crying,” Harmony insisted. “He was rather… wet… earlier, but now
he’s clean and dry, so he should stop, no?” The dirty and damp clothes had
indeed been removed earlier, and replaced by a makeshift cloth diaper.
“I can see you don’t have
expertise in child care, Harmony,” Fawn noted. “There might be hundreds of
reasons other than that one, why a child is crying. This baby for
example…” He gently took the tiny arm in one hand and pointed with the other to
a mark just over the elbow. “…See that? That’s vaccination marks. He received
his shots very recently… Possibly the reason he was in that hospital, who knows?
That must still sting…”
“That’s the reason why
he’s crying?”
“Amongst other things. I’m
no expert myself in baby care, Harmony, but it might also be because this baby
has just lost his mother, and is amongst strangers. He doesn’t recognise any
faces. That’s traumatic enough to warrant any amount of crying.”
“I wish he would stop.”
The grumpy voice coming from behind made both Harmony and Doctor Fawn turn
around. Captain Scarlet, dressed in pyjamas and leaning on a single crutch
propped under his left arm, was standing in the doorway, Captain Ochre and
Rhapsody Angel visible behind him. He hobbled heavily inside, grumbling under
his breath, Ochre and Rhapsody following. Fawn gave him a reproachful glance.
“Shouldn’t you be resting
in your room, until that foot is completely healed?” he admonished Scarlet in a
stern tone.
“We tried telling him
that,” Rhapsody noted, glaring at Scarlet with a look quite similar to Fawn’s.
“But he won’t listen to us…”
“As always,” Ochre piped
up.
“Who could get any rest?”
Scarlet retorted. He stopped right next to Harmony and stared meaningfully in
the direction of the still-crying baby. “With Caruso here doing his voice
exercises …”
“That’s not very kind,”
Harmony admonished.
“I came to see what was
wrong with the little tyke,” Scarlet quickly replied. “I could hear him crying,
from my room, and I was… a little concerned.”
He was obviously
struggling to get his breath back, and he was still very pale. He must have
exerted himself, walking all the way on that crutch from his bed, on that still
unhealed foot of his – which was probably hurting like hell. Harmony gave a
bashful and apologetic smile. “Forgive me, Captain… I shouldn’t have said…”
“Forget it,” Scarlet
answered, with a kind smile. “How is he, anyway? Why is he still crying like
that? Was he hurt?”
“Not so far as I can
tell,” Fawn retorted. “As I was saying to Harmony, there might be many reasons
why he would cry like this…”
“He might be hungry,”
suggested Rhapsody, looking down with empathy at the child.
“That’s a possibility,”
agreed Fawn, “and I have already sent Nurse Barlow to the SpectraMart to find
something we might give him… As you might expect, Cloudbase is rather…
under-provided… with baby-related… er… ‘rations’. No infant milk, soft cereal,
puree…”
“No kidding!” Captain
Ochre said. “And no diapers either, I guess… How did you manage to change it?”
“Him, Captain.
Change him. It’s a boy. We… that is, one of the nurses used a cotton
cloth. That’ll do just as well. Except, we’ll have to change him more often, as
it’s not like disposable diapers and it will not… er… absorb odours.”
“What a joy,” Scarlet
said, rolling his eyes. “How will you manage to feed him, Doc?”
“He must be old enough to
take a nearly normal diet – provided it is cut up small enough. If not, we could
always make puree out of whole vegetables and fruit,” Fawn said with a sigh.
“And I suppose cow’s or goat’s milk, properly boiled and prepared, will have to
do for now. We found a drinking bottle wrapped up in the layers he was wearing
and I have asked Nurse Ingham to put it in the autoclave, so once it’s
thoroughly cleaned, we can use that, at least. I’m not familiar with Tibetan
dietary preferences, but we’ll cope until we’re able to send him back to his
people. That should be soon enough, once Colonel White has contacted the proper
authorities in Tibet concerned with this kind of problem.”
“A child this age – who
loses his mother so dramatically… he’ll probably end up in an orphanage, if they
don’t find any relative,” murmured Harmony.
“They won’t find one
unless they find out his identity,” Scarlet replied. “How old is he, anyway,
doctor?”
“I'd guess he's about nine
months old... give or take a month or two...”
“And you call yourself a
doctor?” Ochre grinned.
Fawn rolled his eyes. “I’m
not really in the mood for your joking, Captain Ochre,” he warned. “As I said
earlier to Harmony, I’m in no way a specialist in paediatrics. But if I refer to
what I do know – bone structures, teeth, etc. – well, I’m probably not
that far off.”
“You mentioned teeth,”
Rhapsody noted. “Might that be the reason why he’s crying, Doctor?”
“Yes,” Harmony agreed, “he
might be teething.”
A beeping sound was heard
from the comm. link embedded on the wall, and Doctor Fawn gave a deep sigh,
before moving toward it. “That must be Colonel White, calling to inform me about
what to do with the baby. He sure took his time contacting the Tibetan
authorities.”
“He might have encountered
problems,” Scarlet retorted. “It’s not as if we’ve won any popularity contests
with the Tibetans over the last few hours…”
Fawn pressed the intercom
button and the image of Colonel White appeared on the video screen. As always,
no emotions were apparent on the Spectrum commander’s face – at least, none that
anyone could read. “Doctor Fawn…ah, Captain Scarlet… up and about already?”
“More or less, sir,”
Scarlet answered grimly. The baby cried out at that moment, as if to emphasise
the captain’s comment.
Colonel White cleared his
throat portentously and announced: “I have recently heard from Captain Blue –
who, as you know, has been negotiating with the Tibetan authorities for the
right to create a Spectrum base in Tibet – which has become more urgent now,
considering recent events. He has spoken to the Tibetan authorities about our …
guest. It seems that, for the moment at least, they are unwilling to take him
back – the area surrounding the central power complex is now completely
devastated and the whole country is in a state of emergency, and is experiencing
general power failures. They’re trying desperately to put a temporary power
structure online, and to repair the damage that’s been done… But it’s not easy.
So they insist they have far too much to deal with at the present time without
worrying about the little baby we’ve rescued.”
All through his
announcement, Colonel White seemed to fail to notice the worried glances that
the officers standing in front of the video screen were all exchanging.
“They won’t take him
back?” Scarlet asked in an outraged tone.
“No, I’m afraid not.”
“But… he’s one of their
own!” Harmony protested in turn. “What will be done for him?”
“We could always
send him to a World Government medical facility?” Fawn suggested.
“Under the present
circumstances, I don’t think that would be the best idea, Doctor,”
White replied. “After what happened at the Power Plant, the Tibetan people
might consider that an insult… So I rather think we are obligated to keep him
here for a period of time until they are capable of providing for him
themselves. I shouldn’t think that will take very long. I am sure you can
arrange that, Doctor?”
Fawn stared at the screen,
slack-jawed. “You want me to keep him in sickbay?”
“Well – where else do
you suggest we keep him, Doctor?”
“Colonel… I’m not a
specialist in paediatrics. None of my personnel are… well, none that I
can recall at the moment...” Fawn made a mental note to check his personnel’s
records, although he was sure he wasn’t mistaken. He continued, without so much
as a pause: “…and accordingly, there is no nursery in the medical
centre.”
The baby gave a loud wail
at that moment and started to cry once more, which caused everyone to stare down
at him.
Out of instinct, Rhapsody
reached to take him in her arms, and tried to calm him down. It didn’t stop him
from crying. “Poor little thing,” she said in a gentle voice. “He must feel he’s
unwanted…”
Fawn frowned with
irritation at those words, hearing the reproach in Rhapsody’s tone; but it
didn’t stop him continuing his diatribe in front of the video screen, where he
could see the now scowling face of Colonel White. “Do you hear that, sir?
This is a sickbay – my personnel and I need peace and quiet. We can’t work in
these conditions… I have patients here, other than Scarlet… You can imagine the
trauma that will cause them.”
“Now, now…” Ochre was
saying to the whimpering child. “Don’t listen to the nasty doctor… He doesn’t
mean it…”
"Yes, he’s a very nasty
doctor," Scarlet added.
The Angels approved with
energetic nods.
The irritation in Fawn was
mounting; he addressed a brief, murderous glare at the four officers, before
turning again to face the video screen.
Colonel White seemed a
little embarrassed with the situation. “I realise this is a difficult
situation, Doctor,” the Spectrum commander said.
“But if he can’t stay in
sickbay… what do you suggest we do with the child?”
Fawn gave it some thought,
very quickly. He gave another glance over his shoulder, and saw Rhapsody putting
the baby down again on the examination table. “I may have a solution, Colonel,”
he then said, with a slow nod.
“Well, do whatever you
want,” White
said in an irate tone. “I don’t have time to take care of this problem
myself. I’m leaving it in your hands, to decide what should be done. You have
carte blanche, Doctor.”
“Thank you, Colonel. Don’t
worry: I’ll take care of it.”
The image on the screen
went blank and, with an implacable expression on his face, Fawn turned around.
The four officers standing in the examination room noticed the cold fire burning
in his eyes. Suddenly, they all felt very uncomfortable. Fawn was in one of his
bad moods. That boded them no good.
The first to react was
Captain Ochre, who cleared his throat and started edging toward the door. “Well…
got to go back to work…”
"Me too," Rhapsody added.
"Standby duty in the Amber Room..."
"Goodness, is that the
time?" Harmony said quickly.
“Have to get back to my
room,” Scarlet said, hobbling away. “This foot isn’t healed yet…”
“Hold it -
don't think you are getting away so easily!” Fawn snapped. The officers and
Angels stopped in their tracks, and turned around slowly, almost fearfully, to
face him. He grinned. "We have a problem... and I think we ALL
have to take care of it. I can't keep the baby here – As I just said, Scarlet
isn't the only patient I have, and some of them need rest... Rest they can’t
have, while the baby is crying. You will have to look after him...”
“Us?” Ochre
cried. “But we are all on duty… we could be called away at a moment’s notice!”
“Not all of you
– not all at once…” the doctor said implacably. “Besides, in an hour or two,
Scarlet will be fit for light duties – and I call baby-sitting light duties…”
“Oh, you mean Scarlet
can look after him?” Ochre grinned, relieved. “Yes, good idea, Doc, he found the
baby after all...”
“Now wait a
minute,” Scarlet growled.
“I said, all
of you!” Doctor Fawn snapped again, his tone not accepting any protest. Once
he obtained silence, he smiled wickedly. “You heard Colonel White, yes? He gave
me carte blanche. You’ll all share baby-sitting duty for this
baby.”
“That’s not
fair,” Rhapsody mumbled. “You’re taking outrageous advantage of your privileged
rank, Doctor…”
“Without any
scruples whatsoever,” Fawn retorted. “Now, are you going to do it without any
complaints, or should I refer the matter to the colonel?”
Ordered about
by Doctor Fawn, Captain Scarlet returned to his room to finish his recovery,
while Captain Ochre and the two Angel pilots left sickbay – with the baby. They
were only slightly mollified by Fawn’s assurance that he had already instructed
his senior Nurse to inform the SpectraMart of all the supplies they would need
to provide the child with a comfortable stay in Cloudbase. The order would go
through to the supply base in London, to be included on the final pre-Christmas
shuttle tomorrow.
“Until then,”
he told the anxious trio, “you will have to manage with these cotton cloths and
you have the bottle – boil some water and give him that, if he’s thirsty, along
with a light meal – just cut the food into small chunks… I’m sure he’ll manage,
won’t you, Sonny?” He fought the urge to smile as he glanced at the three
bewildered faces staring at the gurgling child with apprehension. “He won’t hurt
you… he’s only a little baby,” he concluded. “You are fully trained, competent
individuals… it’ll be a piece of cake! Now – off you go – I have work to do.”
The cavalcade
of disgruntled ‘baby-sitters’ made its stately way to the Amber Room, Ochre
leading the way, and attracting a lot of attention from the personnel they
passed en route.
As Ochre
pressed the button to open the door to the Amber Room, Harmony slipped inside
with the baby in her arms – Rhapsody following close behind with a basket of
‘baby essentials’ the sickbay nurses had rustled up.
Melody looked
up from her magazine and raised her eyebrows.
“Harmony, is
that the baby you found in Tibet? Does Fawn know you have brought it here?” she
asked.
“Yes, Melody,”
Harmony began.
Before she
could continue, Ochre interrupted her to say heatedly, “Fawn’s sent us away with
him… we’re down to do baby-sitting duty until the colonel sorts out where he’s
to go!”
“It’s a boy,
then?” Melody asked mildly, putting down her magazine and coming over to greet
the baby, who was chewing on his hand and regarding his surroundings with wide
eyes. “What’s his name?”
“He hasn’t got
one – well, I mean, I expect he has, but we don’t know what it is…” Ochre
replied, throwing himself down on the sofa and crossing his booted leg over his
knee in a lazy motion.
“We’ll have to
give him a name,” Rhapsody said. “Poor little chap can’t spend his time here
known as just ‘him’ or ‘the baby’.”
“I’m not sure
that is a good idea,” Destiny said surprisingly, from her chair across the room.
She, alone of the personnel present, showed no interest in meeting the child. “I
mean if we give it a name we might get too attached to it.”
“Him!” Rhapsody
corrected, “he’s a boy, not an it, Juliette!”
Harmony sat
down next to Ochre and placed the baby on the sofa between them, so he couldn’t
tumble off. The child was wearing the smallest T-shirt they could find – one of
Harmony’s own – but even so, it swamped him. It was tied around the waist with a
length of wide bandage, giving the impression of a plain, overlarge kimono.
Ochre edged
away slightly as the damp hand reached out and grasped his sleeve. “Careful,
sonny-boy, this is my clean uniform,” he protested as the baby, intrigued by his
shiny, golden epaulette, propped himself against his arm and rose as high as he
could to try to pull it off his tunic.
“Aaah, he likes
you, Captain Ochre.” Harmony grinned.
“Too young to
know any better, I guess,” Rhapsody teased. Ochre pulled a face.
“Well,” he
said, gingerly moving away from the child, whose face was starting to crumple as
another bright toy was removed from him, “I had better leave you ladies to it
and get back to work.”
“And where do
you think you are going – and why do you imagine you are going to be allowed to
go?” Rhapsody asked, blocking his pathway to the door.
“Well, I mean
you are all here and you can take care of the baby so much better than I could…”
“Why?”
“Well...” Ochre
squirmed, and then plunged into his argument. “You are ladies – I mean women…
you know about babies – you have maternal instincts…”
"Maternal
instincts?" Melody cried. She marched up to Captain Ochre and extended her left
hand in front of his face. "See this finger, Captain Ochre? I am sure a clever
man like you can tell me which finger it is – and its significance.”
"Er... it’s your ring
finger, Mag…"
"That's right... my ring
finger... and have you noticed? There is NO ring on it. That means - I'm not
married... That means, I DON'T have a family... and don't have ANY intention of
having a family! And that means I don’t have so-called maternal instincts!
So, if you don't want me to show you ANOTHER FINGER, you will not mention that
to me ever again!"
Ochre backed off,
more than a little intimidated by her vehemence. “I only meant that… well, women
are better at looking after babies – they have the… er… natural
equipment for it…”
Rhapsody tutted. “That
won’t do, Captain.” She smoothed her leather flying tunic down, so that it clung
tightly to her figure. “I’m afraid,” she said, with a twinkle in her blue eyes
as she watched Ochre - whose gaze was riveted to the outline of her breasts “-
that these are just for decoration…”
Feeling heavily
outnumbered, Ochre spread his hands and tried pleading. “Look, girls – you
wouldn’t want to trust the baby to me, would you? You know what a clumsy oaf I
am…”
“Mais oui, you can
only make intricate models of planes, and ships and cars… you can only construct
costumes for us and props for our dramas… you are so clumsy we could not trust
you with anything that needed care and precision,” Destiny mocked from the safe
distance of her chair. “Alors, I think you should take the baby and teach
him to play poker… so you and Capitaine Magenta will have a project with
which to while away your spare time, non?”
“No… I mean we are all to
share the baby-sitting!” Ochre protested.
“Of course, and right now
it is your turn,” Rhapsody said reasonably. “Our shift is about to change –
Destiny is in Angel One and I am on Angel Two duty… We can’t baby-sit right now
– and Symphony won’t want to – she’s been on duty for 8 hours.”
They heard the rumble of
the elevator chair as it descended from Angel One. Destiny sprang up and
collected her helmet. As Symphony emerged from the amber coloured glass doors,
she slid past and took her place.
Ochre was remonstrating
once more, as Rhapsody gathered the baby-basket and tried to make him take it.
“Hi, everyone,” Symphony
called, confused at so much bickering. The others stopped and turned to welcome
her.
The tall American’s nose
twitched. “What is that awful smell?” she asked.
“Oh no, it cannot be that
time once again, already!” Harmony wailed.
Symphony’s expression
reflected her confusion. “What’s going on?” she asked; and then she saw the baby
bouncing contentedly on the sofa behind the wrangling group of Ochre, Melody and
Rhapsody. “Hey – what’s that kid doing on Cloudbase?”
“Harmony and Scarlet found
it in Tibet and now Rhapsody is trying to make out that it’s down to me
to look after it,” Ochre replied, backing away from the basket Rhapsody was
thrusting at him.
“It is your turn – that’s
why,” the red-head insisted. She managed to back her quarry into the bookcase
and made him take the basket. “Seriously, Rick, we are all busy and this is a
Ready Room, not a nursery!”
“Huh, you’re sounding
just like the old man… I suppose you think we just lounge about in the
Officers’ Lounge?” he grumbled.
“By and large, yes, you
do,” Symphony replied. “Whenever I drop by there, you are all reading and
playing cards, anyway…”
“But we have to be ready
to leap into action at a moment’s notice – we’re all living on the edge…”
The Angels all chuckled at
this outrageous assertion.
“And we are not?”
Rhapsody asked with a mischievous smile.
Ochre sighed. He knew he
stood no chance of changing their minds and he grimaced as he contemplated his
immediate future. “Well, if I agree to take the boy with me – can’t you at least
clean him up first?” he pleaded.
Harmony appeared to be
about to relent and comply with his request, but Melody was made of sterner
stuff. “No, that happened on your watch, Captain – I’d say it’s down to you to
sort it out.”
“But I don’t know how to…”
he wailed.
“How difficult can it be?”
Rhapsody reasoned. “Millions of women do it dozens of times a day the world
over. Surely you’re not saying a big, strong, capable man like you can do any
less?”
“You are the most
unnatural women I have ever met,” Ochre muttered, as Melody picked the child up
at arm’s length and thrust him into the reluctant arms of his new baby-sitter.
The Angels stood in a line
and waved ‘goodbye’ as Captain Ochre walked to the door and with a forlorn
glance left the Amber Room. As the door slid closed behind him he heard them all
break into gales of laughter.
It was with a sigh of
relief that Captain Ochre stepped into the Officers’ Lounge and heard the door
slide closed behind him. He had endured an embarrassing walk the entire length
of Cloudbase from the Amber Room, passing smirking technicians and giggling
support staff. The baby had taken to thumping his hands on his new friend’s
shoulders when not trying to wrench off the epaulette, and he seemed to take
particular pleasure from riding up the escalators to the Control Tower, his
squeals of delight echoing around the enclosed stanchion as they ascended. Ochre
had settled on the escalators instead of the lift, which he was rather reluctant
to take – the smell pervading the makeshift diaper was too awful for even the
toughest of men to take the risk of finding himself in a narrow space with it.
Across the room, Grey was
reading a magazine and Magenta was dealing himself a hand of cards.
Both of them looked up at
his entrance.
“Goodness, Rick, what’s
that you’ve got there?” Magenta asked. “I know it’s almost Christmas, but you’re
going a bit far with making a crib scene if you plan to use a real baby…”
“Har-de-har-har,”
his friend responded. “It’s the baby Scarlet and Harmony found.
The Angels forced me into looking after it.”
“How?” Magenta asked. “I
mean, they must’ve used some pretty dastardly torture to get you to agree to
that.”
“You couldn’t begin to
guess…” Ochre muttered darkly, his mind’s eye conjuring up the images of the
outraged Melody and the outline of Rhapsody’s figure through her flying suit. He
sighed and crossed to his friends. “Here, Pat, give me a hand, will you?”
He proffered the baby
towards Magenta, but that fearless man backed off. Apparently, the smell was
enough to make him draw away. “Hey, I don’t do babies…”
“Nobody does!” Ochre
raged. “But thanks to Doctor Fawn - and the soft hearts of Scarlet and Harmony –
we all have to start!”
Captain Grey spoke up for
the first time. “Ochre, if you had seen the devastation in that village and the
angry mood of the people, you’d have done no less than we did and brought the
baby to safety too,” he reasoned.
Ochre flushed. “Sure,
Brad, I know that and I agree that you couldn’t have left the little guy there,
but… well, to be frank – he’s got a dirty diaper and I don’t know where to start
with cleaning them up… someone, please, give me a hand…”
“How complicated can it
be?” Magenta said, relenting and accepting the smiling baby. “Hi there, little
fella, you gonna be good for your Uncle Pat, eh?”
The next ten minutes were
an education in itself for the three officers. The baby, relieved to be free of
its soiled clothing, began to crawl away across the table and refused to lie
down peacefully and be cleaned and re-clothed. It took the three of them some
effort to manage the task and even as they completed it, they shared uneasy
glances when the baby began to explore his new play-room and the ‘diaper’ began
to slip down.
“How soon do you think the
SpectraMart could get in a supply of disposable diapers?” Ochre asked
hopelessly.
“Going on their usual
performance, he’ll be shaving before they got the order right…” Magenta replied,
with a rueful smirk.
Despite himself, Ochre
chuckled. “Oh boy,” he smiled, “I never thought being a Spectrum officer would
include changing babies!”
“Hey, we are trained to
survive any ordeal – remember?” Magenta winked. “And that was one ordeal, all
right. Rick, you had better move that model off there, unless you want him to
smash it up…”
“We ought to give him a
name,” Ochre said, moving his almost-completed model of a bi-plane out of harm’s
way.
“I can think of a few
choice epithets,” Magenta replied cheerfully.
“No, a proper name.”
“John Doe?” Grey
suggested.
“Nah… a nice name,” Ochre
chided him.
“I don’t know any Tibetan
names, except, maybe, Shangri-la,” Magenta said thoughtfully.
Ochre gave him an
exasperated glance. He watched the baby, his diaper now at a rakish angle around
his hips, as the child chuckled cheerfully and tried to eat a playing card he
had found on the floor. The tall American bent down and removed it from the damp
grasp. It was the King of Hearts. He smiled. “Pat, isn’t the King of Hearts
meant to be a picture of Charlemagne?” he asked. Magenta nodded, surprised by
the question. “Charles the Great,” Ochre smiled. “The kid just named himself…
guys – meet Charlie!”
Grey laughed. “Don’t let
the colonel hear you call him that,” he warned.
“No – it has nothing to do
with the colonel. Scarlet found him – and his father is General Charles Metcalfe
– whilst Harmony’s name is Chan Kwan – so it’s only fair they get an
acknowledgement of the part they played in his rescue – the kid’s name is
Charlie Chan!”
His companions laughed.
“Well, you can explain it to everyone then,” Magenta warned him. He smiled at
the baby. “Hi there, Charlie… welcome to Cloudbase, Spectrum’s youngest and
newest recruit!”
After his jet had touched
down on Cloudbase, and he had made his report to the colonel, Captain Blue
strolled along to sickbay to see how Captain Scarlet was recovering. When he
entered the main ward, he saw his partner back on his own two feet and marching
up and down in front of a sceptical Doctor Fawn.
“Hi, Adam, you’re just the
man I need to see. Will you tell this saw-bones that I am perfectly fit and able
to go back on duty? Please?”
Blue smiled. “I doubt he’d
believe me anyway, Paul, but he sure looks fit to me, Doc.”
Fawn grimaced and shook
his head. “Well, I want to leave early tonight, and I already have enough to do
today without having a fight on my hands to keep you here,” he conceded. “You
can go – but light duties – understood? Light duties only, at least until
tomorrow…”
Scarlet tipped his hand to
the doctor in a mock salute. “Light duties it is – I could do with some R&R.
Come on, Adam, I want to introduce you to the baby we found, Harmony and I. He’s
a nice little kid – if a bit… damp on occasions.”
“I could hardly believe it
was true when the colonel told me the baby had been brought here,” Blue admitted
as they left sickbay and made their way slowly towards the Officers’ Lounge.
“And it seems more unlikely than ever that he is still here. I thought he would
have insisted the kid be shipped back to the ground as soon as possible.”
“He would have – except
the Tibetans wouldn’t take him back. I guess, with all the devastation down
there at the village and the general power breakdown in the country, they have
too much to deal with without worrying about one little kiddie. So – he’s here
for the time being. I had an idea about that, whilst I was cooped up in sickbay.
As it is almost Christmas, we ought to get the little chap some presents and
make sure he has a real good time – what do you think?”
“I think it’s a marvellous
idea,” Blue grinned. “You’ve really taken to the little guy, haven’t you? Yet
you always say you don’t like kids.”
Scarlet stopped suddenly
and glanced at his friend. “Well, I feel responsible for this kid – his mother
died in my arms, Adam, and she gave her son to Harmony and me to look after.”
Blue placed a hand on his
shoulder. “Well, I don’t think she could have chosen a better guardian for him,”
he said seriously.
Scarlet flushed. “Don’t
get all soppy about it – he won’t be here long…” He moved off at a quicker pace
than before.
Blue shook his head and
followed Scarlet along the corridor. Sometimes even he found Paul’s moods
difficult to read.
He had caught up with
Scarlet before they arrived at the door to the Officers’ Lounge and from beyond
the closed door came the muffled sound of excited voices. Scarlet punched in the
code and the door slid back.
The room was occupied by
Spectrum’s elite colour captains and the two off-duty Angels – Symphony and
Harmony. Symphony turned around to see the identity of the newcomers. She waved
a welcome, but rather to Blue’s surprise did not come to his side. She was
watching the baby, who was sitting on the floor amidst a pile of cushions,
laughing with delight as Captain Ochre played peek-a-boo from behind the sofa
back.
“Well, it’s easy to see
who is having the most fun here,” Scarlet said with heavy irony.
Blue grinned. “A true
meeting of minds, I’d say.”
Hearing Scarlet’s voice,
the baby turned and began to crawl towards him. On reaching the captain’s feet,
he raised his arms in a demand to be picked up. Without hesitation, Scarlet
stooped and lifted him.
“Aaah,” Harmony smiled.
“He has missed his daddy…”
Magenta snorted with
laughter and the somewhat embarrassed Ochre emerged from his hiding place with a
cheesy grin.
“I think you just saved me
from spending my future as a jack-in-the-box, Scarlet,” he called, brushing dust
from the knees of his uniform trousers.
“It was worth it, though,”
Symphony said. “Charlie stopped crying when you started playing with him, Rick.”
“Charlie?” Blue’s fair
brows rose in surprised query.
“Yes,” she replied,
“that’s the baby’s name.”
Blue sucked in an alarmed
breath and grimaced. “Is that wise?” he asked, moving to her side. “If the
colonel finds out, he’ll go postal.”
“The little guy chose it
himself, didn’t he, Pat?” Ochre said, throwing himself down on the sofa beside
Magenta. “He chose the King of Hearts card – and we thought…”
“… Ochre thought,” Magenta
amended.
“… that as it represents
Charlemagne, his name should be Charles. It has a nod in your direction, Paul –
it’s your father’s name, if I remember rightly – and then in honour of his
‘mommy’ here, we added Chan – so the little guy’s name is Charlie Chan!”
Harmony rolled her eyes
and gave Scarlet a sympathetic smile. Humour them, was the message she
seemed to be sending.
Scarlet glanced at the
baby who was happily prattling away in what might have been Tibetan, but sounded
more like some gibberish of his own devising, whilst he tried to pull the
buttons off Scarlet’s casual shirt. He gently brushed the baby’s hand away, and
shrugged. “Well, I guess it’s as good a name as any, and if the boy doesn’t
mind…”
“He doesn’t, do you,
Charlie?” Symphony asked. She came to Scarlet’s side, offering to take the child
from him. Charlie smiled at the pretty lady and threw his arms around her neck.
“He’s a real sweetie, aren’t you, darling? Would you like some more chocolate?
Let’s see what we can find, shall we?”
Scarlet sniggered and
moved closer to Blue to whisper, “Well, now you know what Karen wants for
Christmas…”
The look Blue gave him
made him laugh aloud and he stepped away to join the other men on the sofa.
Harmony watched Symphony
feeding Charlie with a square of chocolate and said, “I am not sure it is a good
idea to give him any more, Karen. He has to eat sensibly and it must be time for
his dinner soon. We ought to try to keep him to a routine and he will have to go
to sleep before it is too late.”
“He’s not tired, are you,
Charlie? He’s having too much fun with us to want to sleep.”
“Sure he is,” Blue said,
as he stood beside the sofa and watched Charlie getting chocolate all over his
face and hands. “But it won’t last – he’ll get tired and fractious and then
he’ll scream until the windows crack…”
“Oh, so you are an
expert?” Ochre said brightly. And then he snapped his fingers. “But of course,
you have younger brothers and sisters, don’t you? It’s a good job someone knows
how to do things.”
Blue frowned. “I’m not an
expert; I just know that babies spend an awful lot of their time screaming.”
Ochre clapped his hands
together loudly, making everyone jump. “Well, I reckon that now big-brother Blue
is here, we can leave it all to him.”
“Leave what to me?” Blue
asked suspiciously.
“When his diaper needs
changing again,” Magenta winked. “We all had a go last time and as you are an
expert - you can take charge from now on.”
“Diapers? I can’t do
diapers!” Blue was horrified.
“Oh, but you must’ve done
them before this, Adam,” Symphony reasoned. “Surely, you can remember how to do
it?”
“No, why would I have done
something like that? The nanny always did it… I kept well out of the way.”
“The nanny?” Ochre
stared at him with surprise. “Well, bless my soul, it’s Mary Poppins…” he
muttered in what he imagined was a Cockney accent. Captain Scarlet grimaced.
“Sure, we had a nanny –
she looked after us when my mother was busy,” Blue’s voice had taken on a
defensive edge. Ochre could be merciless in his criticism of anything he
considered elitist.
“Didn’t she teach you
anything useful?” Ochre persisted.
Blue drew himself up to
his full height. “Not about babies – and certainly not about diapers!”
Symphony gave her
boyfriend a disparaging glance. “Well, a fat lot of use you are going to be,
then. Would it be too much to hope you even thought to bring some disposable
diapers back with you? We won’t get any until the next London shuttle arrives –
and that's tomorrow – and we were hoping you might’ve bought some with you in
the meantime… ”
“Where would I get
disposable diapers in Lhasa?” Blue asked, to cover the fact that the thought had
not crossed his mind.
“A shop?” Harmony
suggested.
“I never went near a shop
– I was with the First Minister in his office all the time…”
Symphony shifted Charlie
to the other side of her lap and sniffed. “Don’t make excuses, Adam. You messed
up – admit it. You knew we had the baby here and it doesn’t take a genius to
deduce we’d need all the paraphernalia that goes with a baby – nor that it
wasn’t likely to be readily available on Cloudbase. I would have thought you’d
have had enough brain to work that out without being told. It wouldn’t have hurt
you to bring some on the off-chance – even if we had been able to get supplies
from somewhere else, in the meantime. Still, that’s just typical of men, I
suppose – if something isn’t spelt out for them in easy words, they never bother
to extrapolate and anticipate what’s needed… ” She swapped exasperated grimaces
with Harmony, who had come to stand beside her, one hand resting lightly on
Charlie’s dark head. The baby looked from one Angel to the other and then up at
Captain Blue, before blowing a raspberry and giggling at his own cleverness.
Astounded, Blue looked to
Scarlet for help, but his friend was too busy trying to hide his amusement to be
of any assistance.
Irritated at this
unexpected condemnation, Blue turned to leave the room and as he walked away he
said over his shoulder, “I was busy, okay? It never occurred to me that you
would be keeping the baby here for so long that he’d need diapers and … stuff.
If that is my fault, then I apologise for not being psychic – okay?”
They watched him leave and
once the door had closed behind him, Symphony sighed. “Damn, I tend to forget he
can be so touchy at times…”
“Well, it wasn’t really
his fault, was it?” Scarlet remarked. “And you did rather lay it on with a
trowel, Symphony.”
She shrugged. “I’d better
go and make up… or he’ll sulk for days.” She handed the baby to Harmony.
“Bye-bye for now, Charlie – be a good boy for your mommy…” She glanced at
Harmony. “How long are you off duty for, Chan?”
“Only for the rest of the
day, Karen. Doctor Fawn wanted to make sure I did not have a concussion before I
flew again.”
“Okay, well, I guess that
means I’ll have an extra duty… I’d better check. See you guys later – I think
you’ll have to organise a rota, Paul – so that Charlie gets properly looked
after.”
“Not a bad idea, Karen,”
he agreed. He glanced at Harmony, who was still looking rather pale. “Maybe you
had better got get some rest, Chan – or Fawn won’t sign you fit for duty in a
hurry.”
The Chinese girl glanced
at the baby on her knee and then up at Scarlet in uncertainty.
He answered her unspoken
question. “Leave Charlie with us – what harm could possibly come to him with
four big, strong Spectrum agents to look after him?”
“You really want me to
answer that?” She smiled, handing him the baby and saying her goodbyes.
After consulting Doctor
Fawn about the baby’s wellbeing and whereabouts, Colonel White thought it
prudent to pay a visit to the Officers’ Lounge. Keeping the child on Cloudbase
was a far from satisfactory solution to the problem, but he had been unable to
convince the Tibetan authorities of the necessity of their taking immediate
responsibility for the infant. They had pleaded for more time – explaining that,
given the extent of the devastation caused by the explosions and subsequent
landslides in the locality, there would be small chance of finding any of the
baby’s relatives and there were no facilities there that could take him
temporarily. To move him out of the area, risked the possibility his family
might never be traced.
Lieutenant Green, busy
rigging up a basic communications network to allow Spectrum’s Tibetan agents
contact with the outside world, confirmed that the situation was still critical.
“There is no reliable
power supply, sir, and although outside help is starting to arrive in the
country, things are still desperate in the hinterland.”
Colonel White was a humane
and generous man, and he had no intention of abandoning the child his agents had
saved. As he strolled from the Control Room to the Officers’ Lounge, he admitted
to himself that, in fact, he was rather looking forward to seeing just how well
his elite officers coped with the situation. He knew all their personal
histories and was well aware that many of them had little or no experience in
caring for young children within their own families – and as such, could not be
expected to know much about the subject. He was also aware – although he took
care not to reveal the extent of his knowledge - that several of his officers
were involved in established personal relationships, either with Angel pilots or
other staff members. The prospect of seeing how those couples would deal with
the situation made him smile with a certain wry amusement.
He did not intend his
approach to be secretive, but the door slid back silently and no-one seemed
aware of his arrival.
The remains of a meal
stood discarded on a canteen tray on a low coffee table. He assumed that proved
the child was being fed a suitable diet, which no doubt Doctor Fawn had
prescribed. He was pleased to see that the child had not been paraded around the
open areas of the base. He didn’t want a wave of baby-fever sweeping Cloudbase
and - given the rapidly-approaching Christmas Day - his personnel were in a
susceptible state for anything with even a modicum of ‘cute’ about it. An
orphaned baby would have had the whole place in an uproar….
Across the room four of
his five elite officers were crowded around an armchair. From inside the circle
of bodies, he could hear Captain Scarlet’s voice chanting:
Ride a cockhorse to
Banbury Cross.
To see a fine lady ride
on a white horse,
With rings on her
fingers and bells on her toes,
She shall have music -
wherever she
goes!
As the captain’s voice
rose in crescendo, the colonel heard the delighted chuckle of the baby boy, and
saw him riding high on Captain Scarlet’s leg as he was launched skywards and
into the waiting arms of the other captains. Captain Magenta caught the child
and shook him aloft over his head like a trophy, before clasping him to his
chest and allowing the child’s excited laughter to die down.
“That’s it,” Scarlet said.
“I’ve had enough… even my muscles get tired, you know.”
Ochre moved away and White
could see that Scarlet was in the armchair, one leg crossed over his other knee
to provide a see-saw for the child. With a grimace, the captain straightened his
crossed leg and winced slightly. “Besides, Fawn said I had to do light duties
only… and that kid gets heavier by the minute!”
“You can’t spoil the fun,”
Magenta protested. “He wants another go…” The child was straining to get back to
Scarlet’s lap.
“You do it then,” Scarlet
said.
“Gentlemen…” The colonel’s
voice made them all gasp in surprise. Scarlet scrambled out of his chair. “I am
sure that if Captain Scarlet has had enough, then the child must have had more
than enough as well. He seems to be getting over-excited.” As White spoke, he
moved towards the child.
The latter, unhappy that
the fun had stopped, and frightened because he sensed that his new friends were
uneasy at the appearance of this stranger with the deep voice, pushed out a
trembling lower lip. When White’s hand reached his head to give it a friendly
pat, the child let out a mournful wail, squirming away as two large tears rolled
down from his dark eyes. He wriggled in Magenta’s arms and reached out his arms
towards Captain Scarlet, who reluctantly took delivery of him.
“It seems he trusts you
most of all, Scarlet,” the colonel said brusquely to hide his disappointment.
“He’s met a lot of new
people today, sir,” Ochre chipped in, hoping to mitigate the child’s behaviour.
“I guess you may be right and he’s over-excited and getting tired. Ain’t that
the case, Charlie-boy?” He smiled at the baby who was peering cautiously at the
others from the safety of Scarlet’s shoulder.
“I beg your pardon?” The
colonel’s tone would have frozen molten rock.
“Er… it’s the baby’s name,
sir,” Magenta replied, almost stammering. “We christened him Charlie Chan… we
couldn’t call him ‘baby’ all the time. And it was Harmony and Scarlet who found
him and we thought that…..”
White’s frown deepened and
every man there felt that they were in for a roasting. Then, to their
astonishment, the frown softened and White’s mouth straightened in a rueful
‘smile’.
“Well, it will have to do
until we know his real name.” He cleared his throat and turned to his officers.
“I am sure that most of you have other things to do, apart from ‘playing
see-saw’ with our guest. Captain Ochre, I am expecting that report from you
tomorrow. I trust you have it in hand?”
“Sure do, sir… nearly
finished.”
“Very well… carry on,
gentlemen. But I would suggest you find somewhere for… young Charlie… to get
some sleep in the near future. This remains an operational base, it is not a
playgroup.”
“S.I.G., sir,” the three
on-duty officers chorused, visibly relaxing.
White gave a nod and was
about to leave when Charlie, reassured by the lifting tension, stretched out his
arms to him. Hesitantly, the colonel accepted the child and stood for a moment,
smiling at the baby in his arms. The child gave a toothy smile and chattered in
his private language, yanking at the colonel’s bright epaulettes.
“Hello to you too…
Charlie,” the colonel said. He cleared his throat again and returned the child
to Captain Scarlet; he then nodded farewell and walked out of the room.
“He’ll go ape…” Magenta
said.
“Maybe we should have
mentioned it…” Grey suggested.
“Not on your life – let
someone else get the ear-bashing,” Scarlet replied. “I thought we had got all
the chocolate off Charlie’s hands…” he mused, examining one chubby hand.
Ochre chortled. “They were
very precise hand prints… right in the middle of the colonel’s white tunic…”
The men all dissolved into
laughter.
“This kid’s going to cause
chaos on Cloudbase before he’s finished!” Magenta guffawed.
“Maybe we should find
Charlie a suitable bed to sleep in?” Grey suggested, seeing the little boy rub
his dark eyes and noticing how his head was drooping down towards Scarlet’s
shoulder.
“Slip him in your bed,
Paul,” Ochre suggested. “He’ll be happiest there.”
“I don’t want to have to
spend all night there watching over him… nor do I want a wet bed come morning…”
Scarlet grimaced.
“Well, what can we do
instead?”
“A drawer?” Magenta
suggested. He went on to explain as his friends looked curiously at him: “Use an
empty drawer – lined with blankets for Charlie. That can be taken anywhere there
is someone to look after him too.”
He had hardly finished
speaking before Ochre was on the move. “Brad, nip down to sickbay and rustle up
some bedding… I think I know where I can find some plastic sheeting to line a
drawer with. Pat, go empty one of the long drawers from your quarters and bring
it back here. Scarlet – don’t move… I think Charlie’s dropped off.”
Scarlet pulled a face. “I
know he has… he’s wet again…”
The ‘bed’ was ready in a
remarkably short space of time. Ochre had lined the drawer from Magenta’s room
with heavy-duty plastic and then they had padded it out with sheets and blankets
from sickbay. They managed to change the dozy baby without too much effort and
tucked him carefully in the makeshift cot. Whimpering slightly, Charlie turned
over onto his back, one hand thrown back on the pillow and almost immediately
went back to sleep.
“Ain’t he wonderful when
he’s quiet?” Magenta smiled.
Grey nodded. “I have to
get something to eat. I am on duty in the Control Room tonight when the colonel
goes off duty. Anyone else want to come?”
“Yeah,” Ochre said. “I’m
going to be up all night writing that report.”
“What’ll we do with
Charlie? It’s too noisy in the canteen, he’ll wake up…” Scarlet reminded them.
“Let’s drop him down the
Amber Room – there’s always someone in there and it’s about time those girls did
their share of the baby-sitting duty.”
Symphony had finally
caught up with Captain Blue on the Promenade Deck and after he had failed to
respond to her conciliatory opening remarks, she had sat in silence beside him,
waiting for his good temper to reassert itself.
It wasn’t often that Blue
got moody – that was usually her response to imagined slights or setbacks – but
she knew he could be incredibly sensitive at times, especially about the
circumstances of his upbringing. He came from a wealthy family and had taken a
great many things for granted which experience had only gradually shown him were
not the norm for most people. When the officers had first met, Ochre, in
particular, had delighted in teasing him about his casual references to yachts
and polo ponies, exotic holidays and fast cars – so that now Blue had become
very wary about revealing any details of his home life.
Symphony thought his
embarrassment at having been born rich was quite endearing really, and she
realised that he was now not only annoyed at having been so publicly given a
dressing-down for something he did not consider his fault, but was also feeling
guilty for not having assisted his mother with his younger siblings – as
everyone assumed he would have done. No doubt, the thought that he could expect
a whole new series of jokes at his expense, from the irrepressible Captain
Ochre, was also playing its part in making him depressed.
After the chilly silence
had lasted almost ten minutes, Symphony decided she was getting nowhere and that
she had better just ignore his ‘hissy-fit’ altogether. Her next duty was due to
start in somewhat under fifteen minutes. Destiny in Angel One would be out on
patrol and Rhapsody in Angel Two would be manning the flight deck – so she was
going to be all alone for a time on stand-by duty in the Amber Room. With a
sudden flash of inspiration, she invited him to help her decorate the Amber Room
Christmas tree, which had arrived from Rhapsody’s family estate that morning,
and had now been set up by the support crew.
With a bashful grimace, he
nodded agreement and, as they walked all the way through Cloudbase together, his
mood gradually improved, so by the time they arrived, they were hand in hand.
“Pass me that bauble… the
green glass one. Thanks.”
“Are you okay up there?
Maybe I should do it?”
“I can stand on a
kick-stool without risking life and limb, Big Blue. Now, what about some of the
red and gold bows – on this level of branches… how would that look?”
Symphony leant back to
gauge the effect of her suggestion and toppled off the kick-stool into the
waiting arms of Captain Blue.
“What was that about life
and limb?” he asked, as she regained her balance.
She turned in his embrace
and smiled up at him. “A controlled descent,” she smiled, “in the confident
expectation of a comfortable landing.”
“Like I’m going to believe
that…”
“I don’t care if you
believe me or not, it’s true. Oh, and while I’m here like this…” She reached up
to draw his head down to hers. She kissed him. His arms tightened around her.
It was several minutes
before they parted.
“I wish Rhapsody’s people
had sent the mistletoe as well, but she said that would come later…”
“Surely we don’t need the
excuse of a parasitic plant to share a kiss now and again?”
“You have no romance in
your soul, Svenson. Now, let’s get back to work… this tree needs to be
decorated.”
“Yes, ma’am,” he said
smartly – although, instead of turning to the task in hand, he bent his head and
kissed her again.
They sprang apart at the
sound of the opening door and stared in amazement as Scarlet backed in.
Magenta was at the other
end of the drawer they were carrying. “The very people…” he called. “We’re off
to get some food, and Charlie’s catching forty winks, so we need some new
baby-sitters… if you two have nothing better to do, you can keep an eye on him.”
“Sure,” Blue said, eager
to made amends for his previous behaviour. “We’re decorating the tree, but you
can leave the drawer on the floor there and we’ll watch him.”
“Make sure you do,”
Scarlet warned. “No getting so wrapped up in… doing the decorating that you
forget him.”
“Hey, you can trust us!”
Symphony protested.
“We can trust you, Karen.”
Scarlet winked and moved closer to whisper, “but Adam’s likely to get carried
away again if you don’t watch him…” She frowned in confusion. He smiled. “He has
lipstick on his cheek… Wait till we’ve gone before you mention it – or he’ll get
even more embarrassed…”
She grinned and punched
his shoulder playfully. As soon as the two men had left, she demanded Blue’s
handkerchief and cleaned her lipstick stain from his face, laughing at his
horrified expression.
They carried on with their
job, getting very involved with the rigging up of the fairy lights, which Blue
insisted on testing before he would allow her to string them up. Sitting near
the electrical socket, with the baby hidden by the tree, they didn’t notice
Charlie wake, and, not seeing anyone about to stop his fun, clamber out of his
‘cot’ in a determined effort to reach the shiny pretty things on the floor and
table nearby.
“They’re okay, Adam.”
Symphony’s patience was wearing thin. “It’s going to be perfectly safe to plug
them in… just let me wrap them through the branches first…”
“Wait a minute: I’m not
sure the flex will be long enough, Karen. Lay it out on the floor, first.”
“It reached last year!”
“The tree was further back
last year – I’m sure it was.”
“Oh – Adam…”
There was the tinkling
noise of broken glass and, startled, Symphony leapt across to peer round the
tree.
“Charlie! You’re a naughty
boy!” she gasped. He was reaching up to tug a strand of tinsel from the table,
and several glass baubles were rolling towards, or already teetering on, the
edge. A few had already smashed.
She ran to the child,
picking him up from the nest of tinsel he had made and checking to make sure the
fallen glass baubles had not hurt him.
Blue joined her. She was
standing kissing the baby’s hand and trying to tell him off at the same time.
The boy had strands of silver ‘angel hair’ tinsel in his hair and a thicker
golden strand was twisted around his ankle and trailing on the floor. He was
laughing cheerfully.
“I don’t think he believes
you,” Blue said.
“He might’ve hurt himself,
Adam – while we were in charge of him! I’d have never forgiven myself if he had
done!”
“He’s fine – aren’t you,
Charlie?” He took the baby from her and they sat on the sofa, side by side.
Charlie amused himself by clambering over them and playing with the various
pockets and zips on their uniforms – which seemed to have a never-ending
fascination for him.
“He’s a nice kid,”
Symphony said, smiling as Charlie yanked at her uniform zip and managed to pull
it down a few inches. He squealed with excitement at his achievement, turning
his delighted face to the two adults, both watching him with amusement.
“He’s very advanced for
his age…” Blue remarked. “I’ve been itching to undo that zip for hours…”
“Behave!”
Charlie was beginning to
droop again, and he curled up in the crook of Symphony’s arm, his thumb finding
his mouth. Sucking contentedly, he closed his eyes.
The adults exchanged
affectionate smiles as the baby dozed off.
“You may have to sit
there… if we put him down again, he might wake up.”
“It’s okay – as long as
there isn’t a red alert…” She smiled and stroked the soft cheek resting against
her breast. “You’ve never told me if you ever wanted a family…” she mused,
glancing at her lover under her lashes.
“I guess so… I never
really thought about it.”
“I bet you’d make a good
father… kids like you.”
He gave an embarrassed
gasp. “Must be because I know how it shouldn’t be done.”
“Maybe – maybe it’s just
because you are kinda cute…”
This time he laughed. “And
how about you, Karen, what do you want? I mean, looking at you there, it would
seem you’ve been doing this all your life. It looks entirely natural.”
She tilted her head
thoughtfully. “I guess one day I would like a baby. But not just any baby… ” She
turned to him and smiled. “ I kind of like the idea that one day I’ll have your
baby…”
Blue swallowed and she saw
a flush starting in his cheeks. “Yeah,” he whispered. “I kind of like that idea
too.” He reached across and kissed her.
“I don’t mean right now!”
she teased.
“Well… we could always
practice…” he replied, with a grin of his own.
“Didn’t I tell you to
behave?” Symphony lowered her tone to a barely audible whisper. “Charlie’s gone
back to sleep. You’ll wake him up again.”
She rose from the sofa and
went to put the baby down in his makeshift bed. From where he was sitting, Blue
watched her as she gently tucked Charlie in – and then planted a delicate kiss
on the tiny dark head. When Symphony turned around, it was to see an
affectionate smile tugging at her lover’s lips. She gave him an inquiring frown.
“What?”
“I was just thinking… you
know – you would make a wonderful mother … one day.”
She snorted playfully, a
radiant smile on her lips. “Come on,” she replied, gesturing toward the tree.
“We still have work to do…”
Blue rose up and joined
her to finish decorating the tree, this time keeping a wary eye out for Charlie,
to make sure he didn’t leave his bed again.
It was only a couple of
hours later that the other Angels came back; according to schedule, Melody
swapped places with Destiny to do Angel One duty for the night, and Rhapsody and
Destiny were due for Amber Room duty. The arriving Angels were amazed at the
work already done on the Christmas tree in the middle of the room, and agreed
that once all the decorations were finished, it would probably be more beautiful
than the previous year. Symphony and Blue were rightly congratulated before they
left, Blue accompanying Symphony
whilst she got
changed before they went to eat.
The others assured them that Baby Charlie was in good hands – after all, what
could happen during the night, now that he was sound asleep?
They came back barely an
hour later, in company with Harmony, whom they had met in the corridor. It
seemed that none of them were able to stay away long from Charlie.
They fully expected to
find Destiny and Rhapsody working on the tree, as the two of them had intended
to, but were unpleasantly surprised to discover that it wasn’t the case…
As soon as the door
leading into the room opened, they were welcomed by the most awful wailing they
had ever heard, and that rooted them to the spot, right in the doorway. Rhapsody
was pacing quickly around, Charlie in her arms, shushing him and trying to
comfort him. None of it had any effect. The baby was yelling as loud as his
lungs would allow.
“What’s going on here?” a
frowning Symphony asked, just as she and Harmony cleared the door to let it
slide closed. She hurried down the steps towards Rhapsody. The latter stopped in
her tracks to stare at them with a concerned expression on her face.
“I don’t know, he woke up
crying a little while ago – and doesn’t seem to want to stop… I’m terribly
worried!”
“He probably feels you’re
concerned,” Symphony suggested, hearing the anxiety in Rhapsody’s shaky voice.
“Babies know those kinds of things… Here, let me have him…”
She took Charlie out of a
grateful Rhapsody’s arms. That didn’t do any good; Charlie’s cries seemed to
grow even more in intensity when Blue tried to comfort him in turn.
“Can I try?” Harmony said,
stepping forward, her arms open to take the baby.
“Yeah, maybe he will calm
down if he feels his mommy is holding him,” Blue approved.
Delicately, Harmony took
Charlie into her arms. For a fraction of a second, it seemed that he would calm
down and stop, but it didn’t last very long – once he was comfortably settled
into the crook of the Chinese Angel’s arm, Charlie started wailing again, making
everyone around cringe.
“Told you it wouldn’t
work,” Destiny noted from where she was standing, right next to the
half-decorated Christmas tree.
“I don’t see you making
any effort to stop him crying!” Rhapsody shot back immediately. Presumably, it
was an argument the two of them had been having since the beginning of the
episode.
“Come on, let’s stay calm,
now,” Captain Blue said evenly. “Fighting amongst ourselves won’t solve the
problem. Now… let’s work out why he’s crying. Is he wet?”
“No,” was the combined
answer from Destiny and Rhapsody. “We checked that,” the red-head added
scornfully.
“Is he hungry?” Blue
persisted.
“He refused the bottle of
milk we offered him,” Rhapsody answered.
“So, what is it, Little
Charlie?” Blue asked the baby, peering into his tear-streaked face. “What is
wrong with you?”
“What if he’s sick?”
suggested Rhapsody.
“Could be…”
“We should show him to
Doctor Fawn…” Symphony suggested.
“Fawn left early tonight,”
Blue replied thoughtfully. “He won’t be in sickbay if we go there. But one of
his assistants…”
“I want Fawn,” Harmony
interrupted suddenly.
Blue opened wide eyes. It
wasn’t often that the quiet Harmony spoke so assertively. “You want Doctor Fawn
to make a house call in the Amber Room?”
“Why not?” Symphony
snapped, backing up her friend. “He’s a doctor and the child is ill…”
“He might not like it,”
Blue retorted reasonably.
“Do we have a choice?”
Rhapsody had reached for the comm.link. Slowly, Blue sat back on the sofa,
shaking his head. Surely, they were in for a good ear-bashing, once Fawn came
over…
“Okay… Let me ask you a
few questions before giving my diagnosis.”
Dragged from his bed by
Rhapsody’s urgent ‘emergency’ call, Doctor Fawn had not taken long to come from
his quarters to the Amber Room… making a genuine ‘house call’ to examine Baby
Charlie – who, in the meantime, had still not stopped crying. Doctor Fawn was in
an irate mood – that much was obvious to the Angels and the captain present. Yet
as grumpy as he appeared, he was still the professional doctor they all knew so
well and he didn’t hesitate one second before starting to check what could be
wrong with the child. It was after only a few short minutes, that he addressed
the group waiting nervously around him.
“What has he had to eat?”
Fawn asked in concern as he gently felt the child’s stomach.
“For dinner he had some
mashed potatoes and shredded roast chicken with broccoli, followed by jelly and
custard,” Blue recited.
“And later I gave him some
chocolate digestives with some of my cup of tea,” Rhapsody admitted.
“And I gave him some
banana,” Harmony added.
“And I shared some of my
chocolate truffles with him,” Destiny confessed.
The others widened their
eyes and stared at her.
“When did you do that?”
Rhapsody asked, astounded.
“After he woke up… and you
went to fetch him some milk, Rhapsody. Not… long before he started crying?”
Destiny offered, with a bashful expression.
They exchanged glances;
so, contrary to all appearances, the French Angel had let herself be
charmed by Charlie…
“Greater love hath no
Pontoin than to share her chocolate truffles…” Blue whispered in Symphony’s ear.
She dug her elbow into his ribs and tried not to laugh.
“Anything else?” Fawn
asked sarcastically. “Didn’t anyone think to give him caviar and champagne – or
pâté de fois gras and Napoleon brandy? Of course he’s ill – you morons! – he has
stomach ache! He has probably eaten more in the past twenty-four hours than he
has in his entire life to date!”
“But he was hungry,”
Symphony protested. She was wisely keeping the details of the chocolate bars she
had shared with Charlie to herself.
“No, he wasn’t – he was
greedy, and probably he’s never tasted anything like these foods before and he
liked them.”
“Actually, he spat the
broccoli out,” Blue remarked.
“Well now, there’s a
surprise!” Fawn shook his dark head. “I thought you had more sense. I thought
you could be trusted to care for this child – and not ruin his digestion!
Honestly, if you cannot be trusted to do something this simple correctly – what
chance does the rest of the world have with you as its guardians?”
They stood in a line
before the irate doctor, like shame-faced schoolchildren. Symphony reached out
to take Blue’s hand for moral support. He squeezed her fingers.
On the sofa, Charlie’s
wails subsided to hiccoughing whimpers.
“So, he will be all
right?” Rhapsody asked.
“Sure, when all the junk
you shoved into his gut has had a chance to come out… He must have nothing to
eat for the next six hours and then only a little milk and one plain biscuit – a
PLAIN biscuit – understood? And I don’t care how much he wails or how hungry he
looks…”
“S.I.G.,” they chorused.
“You can boil some water
and cool it – so he can have plenty to drink – he mustn’t dehydrate due to
diarrhoea or vomiting. Now – I am going back to my bed and I don’t want to be
disturbed again. Try to make up for your silliness by looking after him
properly.”
Harmony swept Charlie into
her arms, cradling his cheek against hers as he started wailing again.
Doctor Fawn roughly took
his bag from the table and left the Amber Room, muttering. “Maybe I’ll use the
Room of Sleep – after all, even I need to get some rest sometime – and I have a
sinking feeling that it could be a long night…”
Catching those last words,
everyone exchanged glances of astonishment, as the door slid closed behind the
physician. “Fawn… using the Room of Sleep?!” Blue declared. “Boy, he’s really
in one of his moods…”
“Chocolate truffles?!”
Rhapsody said, turning to Destiny with an accusing expression.
“Well, yes… He wanted
some…” the French girl defended herself.
“Great, so now we’re in it
real deep with Fawn – he thinks we are all incompetents,” Symphony moaned.
As if on cue, a strange
noise erupted from Charlie, who suddenly stopped his wailing. An awful smell
pervaded Harmony and the baby’s immediate surroundings and it was almost by
instinct that everyone stepped away, making disgusted sounds. An appalled
Harmony, presenting an heroic and dignified façade, looked around with
reproachful eyes.
“So much for Spectrum’s
bravest,” she commented, before looking down toward Charlie’s diaper with a
grimace.
Captain Blue backed off
slightly, heading towards the door. “I… I have to go,” he muttered.
“Oh, no you don’t!”
Symphony yelped. “If your nanny never taught you to change a diaper – you can
learn now… Uncle Adam…”
"But I'll be useless..."
he protested.
"We all are!" the four
Angels retorted in unison.
"Teamwork...” Rhapsody
added. “The colonel always places great emphasis on teamwork - and lucky you,
Adam - you just got appointed team-leader..."
"Me? Why me?" a horrified
Blue answered.
"Privileges of the rank,
my dear capitaine," Destiny said, with an enticing smile.
"Yeah, just imagine that
you're dealing with a bio-hazard..." Symphony continued encouragingly.
"I will be dealing
with a bio-hazard!" he responded ruefully. Sensing that there was no escape, he
sighed and moved towards the table and knelt in front of the baby. “Okay – let’s
get it over with… you girls can be so merciless, sometimes…”
If the first diaper change
had been a learning experience for their Spectrum colleagues earlier, this one
proved a harrowing one for the Angels – and especially for Captain Blue, who was
in the front line and suffered the worst of it. As for Charlie, for once, he
kept quiet, sniffing and sighing at the same time, probably in too much pain or
too tired to try to escape. The soiled – and smelly – diaper was quickly thrown
into a bag, along with all the toilet paper and disposable napkins used to clean
up the baby, and then promptly disposed of in the incineration unit.
Blue was holding his
breath as much as possible, and his face was in danger of turning the same hue
as his tunic. The Angels surrounding him weren’t faring any better. A fight
almost broke out when Destiny, waving a hand before her nose, brought a bottle
of perfume across and suggested using it on the baby. The others argued that it
might prove an irritant for Charlie’s delicate skin, not to mention his
sensitive nostrils… at which Destiny showed herself most insulted that anyone
would insinuate that her expensive perfume would be too powerful. To emphasise
her point, she sprayed a few short bursts of perfume towards them, managing to
douse Captain Blue - whose sense of smell was already under considerable attack.
He complained angrily. “Do
you mind, Destiny? I do not want to spend the rest of the day smelling like a
French broth…” He stopped himself in time, as a well-developed sense of
self-preservation made him swallow what he was going to say. But Destiny had
heard enough and, highly offended, she flounced away.
The situation got worse
when Symphony asked, with exaggerated innocence, just how he knew what a
French brothel smelt like anyway…
It was Harmony who finally
attached the last safety pin to Charlie’s diaper, with such skill that the
others could only look in awe and admire her expertise.
The baby had kept
extremely quiet, not uttering so much as a single peep.
“Right,” Captain Blue said
finally, his face displaying a broad smile, similar to those of the women
surrounding him. “All nice and clean, Charlie…” He took the boy in his arms,
holding him up, very satisfied that the baby had let himself be taken care of
without so much of the fuss the others had told him about. Probably, he thought,
they were exaggerating… “That’s a good boy…”
And suddenly, everything
went wrong.
Charlie’s lips parted at a
lopsided angle, as if he was dissatisfied with the way he was being handled
right now. He didn’t seem to really be paying any attention to what Blue was
saying to him. He hiccoughed violently… and a shower of brownish, very
repulsive, semi-liquid matter emerged from his mouth and right onto Blue’s neck
and tunic, missing his face by a quarter of an inch. The smile on the American
captain’s face disappeared instantly, and the nice words he was about to
pronounce died on his lips. He looked with horror-widened eyes into the face of
Charlie, who was now gnawing on his fist and looking much happier, if a little
sheepish.
As the initial shock wore
off, the Angels creased up with laughter.
“That’s it!” Blue declared
violently. He pushed Charlie into Harmony’s arms, probably more brusquely than
he intended. She didn’t pay that much attention; like the others, she was also
too busy laughing at his expense. He shot to his feet, looking at himself with
disgust. “I did my part, and look what that… that… that ungrateful brat
did to me!”
“Oh, Adam… it’s hardly his
fault,” Symphony said between sniggers. “He’s sick…” Her laugh died in a loud
snort that made Blue frown angrily at her. He had turned livid, and he was
trying, unsuccessfully, to regain his dignity. He was barely able to restrain
himself from exploding.
It was enough that Charlie
had been sick on him, but to have the Angels treating him as a laughing stock
was more than he could take.
“Now I’ll have to change
into a clean uniform!” he said, turning on his heel and stomping towards the
exit. “He’s all yours, girls. It’s about time you faced up to the consequences
of feeding a baby with chocolate truffles… Next time you want a volunteer to
deal with a… bio-hazard - don’t call me, I’ll call you!”
And he disappeared through
the sliding door amidst the Angels’ continuous laughter.
It was only when the door
slid closed again, that they finally realised what had just happened and as the
laughter died, they exchanged concerned glances.
Their fearless leader had
abandoned them…
Hard on the heels of
Captain Blue’s departure, the Angels decided to follow Doctor Fawn’s
instructions so that Charlie’s… ‘discomfort’ would ease quickly and he would get
better soon. He was still crying a little, and he was passed from hand to hand
in their attempts to comfort him the best they could.
Destiny – who really felt
guilty over giving the baby chocolate truffles – no matter how often she
repeatedly protested she had only given him ‘a very little amount’ –
boiled some water and it was an almost nightmarish wait until it had cooled off
enough so they could give it to Charlie.
It was Rhapsody who had
the child in her arms, pacing around the Christmas tree, trying to distract him
with the ‘beautiful shiny things’ when Destiny came back with the bottle – and
immediately moved to give it to the baby.
The English pilot made a
step back.
“Hold it!” she stated in a
suspicious tone. “Is it cool enough?”
“Of course, it’s cool
enough!” scoffed her French counterpart. “Do you think me that incompetent?”
The stare Rhapsody gave
her spoke volumes. Destiny looked around in direction of both Harmony and
Symphony, seated tiredly on the sofa. Both had the same expression as Rhapsody
on their faces.
“Really, girls, this is
ridiculous…”
“Did you test it?”
Symphony asked in turn, glowering at the French Angel.
“Of course, I did…”
“… On your wrist?”
insisted Harmony.
“You are getting
ridiculous,” Destiny sighed. “Très bien, if this is what you want…” She
put her arm forward and turned the bottle upside down over it.
The cap fell off, spilling
all the contents of the bottle onto Destiny’s wrist and her uniform cuff, before
dripping to the floor. A shocked and dreadful silence followed, during which
Destiny felt for sure one of the others would tell her off. As it was, only a
deep sigh from Harmony broke the silence, and she tiredly rose from her seat.
“Hopefully, there’s still
enough boiled water left,” she said, taking the bottle from Destiny’s limp hand.
“By the way, was it cool enough?”
She ignored the murderous
glare from the French girl, who, defeated, went to flop down onto the sofa, next
to Symphony.
Harmony came back with the
new bottle of water; she took Charlie and went to sit down to give him the
bottle. The little baby sucked thirstily, heaving deep, shaky sighs as he did
so, and the pain in his belly slowly eased. The Angels watched, mesmerised by
the rhythm of the water lowering in the bottle.
An hour later, Symphony
was more than happy to trade places with Melody, who came back from her stint in
Angel One to find a relatively quiet Charlie sucking on his second bottle of
boiled water. The others informed her of the recent events – including what had
happened with Captain Blue. Not having been there to see it all, Melody’s first
reaction was to be disappointed at missing Blue’s misadventure. At that, the
other Angels rolled their eyes.
“Actually, it was
quite funny,” Destiny acknowledged finally, probably not as reluctantly as she
would have wanted. “Although, he was very cross… for Captain Blue, that is.”
“I just hope it won’t
force Blue to reconsider his views on parenting,” Rhapsody said, with a faint
smile tugging at her lips. “That wouldn’t be fair on poor Karen – if she ever
wants to have children.”
“Maybe that has forced
her to reconsider her views about children,” Destiny replied in turn.
“I somehow doubt it,”
Harmony noted. “Haven’t you seen how protective she is of Charlie?”
“He seems better now,”
Melody remarked thoughtfully, checking on the small baby who, now on Rhapsody’s
lap, was still drinking from his bottle.
“He is quiet, yes,”
Rhapsody acknowledged. “Oh… I wonder if it’s a good sign… Remember, he was just
as quiet just before what happened to Captain Blue…”
The door slid open at that
moment and the girls raised their heads to see who was coming over; they saw
Colonel White stride into the room; he gestured to the three women who didn’t
have a baby on their hands and who were starting to rise from their seats.
“As you were, ladies… I
just came to see our small guest.” He gave a smile as he approached Rhapsody and
looked down at the baby on her lap. “I heard he was sick earlier this evening?”
“I’m afraid it was our
fault, sir,” Harmony confessed. “All of us. We indulged him with too much junk
food – much more than his stomach could handle.”
“He seems to have
quietened down, now,” Rhapsody announced. “Maybe he’ll be able to get some sleep
from now on.”
“So I see.” White sat down
next to Rhapsody and looked at the tired and somehow dejected young faces
surrounding him. “Ah, don’t feel so guilty about what happened to the baby,
Angels. Even if you indulged him with too many good things to eat... none of you
has experience with children, so it was odds on that was going to happen. If
anything, it proves you all have his welfare at heart…”
The colonel’s little pep
talk didn’t seem to have the desired effect, as he could see that the Angels
didn’t look very convinced by his words. Charlie gave a short whimper at this
moment and, pushing the bottle away from his lips, struggled to escape from
Rhapsody’s hands. He succeeded in rolling onto his front and started crawling in
the direction of White. The latter extended his arms and gently picked up the
child to bring him to his chest. The child gazed at him with what looked like a
shy but genuine smile.
“Now then,” White
continued, smiling in turn, and helping Charlie struggle to his feet and climb
onto him to reach for one of his epaulettes, “this child looks happy in your
company – and in rather good health, all things considered. You are doing a fine
job, all of you, Angels and captains alike… In the circumstances, I don’t think
anyone could have done much better. And there aren’t any safer hands to which
young… Charlie could have been entrusted.” Charlie leaned over the colonel’s
shoulder and gave a slight hiccup, followed by a contented cooing sound nearly
into White’s ear. The latter’s smile widened on his lips. “You see? Even he
agrees with that…”
The Angels smiled, finally
accepting their commanding officer’s words. Satisfied that he had made his
point, White pulled Charlie from his person, and gave him back into Rhapsody’s
waiting hands, before standing up again. He failed to notice the horror suddenly
widening Melody and Destiny’s eyes, as he turned his back to them. He was too
preoccupied, glancing down at the child who was now moaning faintly, rubbing his
eyes and face with his tiny fists.
“That said, however, I
don’t think the Amber Room is a good place to keep a child at night, considering
the constant activity down here. Especially with the distraction provided by
that shiny Christmas tree. Maybe he would be far more comfortable if he were
able to rest in a more quiet place... a bedroom, perhaps. That would be more
suitable for him.”
That might well have been
an order, but the colonel had the good taste not to make it sound as if it was
one. The Angels exchanged approving nods.
“S.I.G., sir,” Rhapsody
said, with a faint, almost bashful smile. Why none of them had thought of it
before was beyond her!
“Good, and I think the two
of you who are not on duty should get some rest as well. You have done far more
today than was expected of you. No matter what you may think.” He made his
good-nights to the Angel pilots and turned around, satisfied to have achieved
his goal. Harmony and Rhapsody then saw, like Melody and Destiny before them,
that their commander had a small, but still disgusting stain of dark,
regurgitated chocolate, just between two very clear, dark imprints of baby
hands, on the back of his otherwise snow-white uniform. None of the Angels dared
say a word, until the door slid closed on Colonel White.
“Why do I have the
impression that this wasn’t the first time the colonel took Charlie in his
arms?” Melody finally said after a short moment.
There was another silence;
then the Angels started bursting into laughter again.
The room was dark and
silent when the visitor quietly entered, after punching into the security lock
the numeric code that he knew so very well. Only the faint light coming from the
fish tank separating the bedroom area from the living area was illuminating the
place, but it was enough for the newcomer to find his way easily. Harmony was
sleeping, curled up on the sofa; she didn’t look particularly comfortable, but
that didn’t seem to bother her. She was enjoying a long awaited moment of rest.
The newcomer carefully made a large detour around her, so not to disturb her –
he certainly wouldn’t want to face a suddenly awakening and disoriented Harmony
– and tiptoed to the sleeping area.
Rhapsody was sound asleep
on top of her bed, still wearing her day clothes, with Charlie resting in the
crook of her arm. The baby wasn’t asleep – but was rather very quiet, making
contented gurgling sounds and playing with a lock of the young woman’s long
hair. Captain Scarlet approached silently and smiled fondly upon the scene. He
knelt beside the bed and Charlie’s eyes widened upon seeing him; he moved hands
and feet excitedly, and cooed a little louder, but not enough to bring Rhapsody
out of her dreams.
“Sshhh…” Scarlet enjoined
him, putting a finger to his own lips. “Easy now, Charlie… you don’t want to
wake the pretty lady…” He carefully untangled the small baby from his position,
taking great care himself not to awaken Rhapsody Angel, and gently lifted him up
into his arms, shushing him as he did, and whispering, to calm his meagre
protests: “How nice and cosy you are there, Charlie-Boy… You know I envy you?
Come on, now… Come to Daddy… That’s a nice baby…”
Rhapsody didn’t utter so
much as a moan as Scarlet stood up with the baby in his arms; he looked down as
she changed into a more comfortable position, a broad, fond smile on his lips.
She must be very tired if she had not reacted more to the fact that he had taken
the baby from her. He looked down at the child in his arms, and asked him anew:
“Doesn’t she look adorable when she sleeps so peacefully, Charlie? Isn’t she
just the prettiest Angel?” The faint cooing emerging from Charlie’s lips seemed
to give approval to Scarlet’s whispered remark. He chuckled in a low tone.
“Well, don’t you go and repeat to her that I told you that, Charlie… I don’t
think she would approve of my saying she was adorable…”
He silently walked out of
the sleeping area, rounded the fish tank and came to sit in the armchair in the
living area; from there, he could see Harmony who had not moved position on the
sofa since his arrival.
“Hey, look…” he whispered
to Charlie. “Mummy is sleeping too… Do you think Mummy will have a sore neck
when she wakes up?” The child blew bubbles on his lips, and Scarlet shushed him
quietly. “… Of course, she needs her rest… she’s done so much for you, since
your real Mummy gave you to us…” He shifted the child in his arms and installed
him more comfortably on his lap, staring into empty space, lost in his thoughts.
“How you must miss her – your real Mummy, I mean… And then, you’re torn from
your familiar environment, and taken to an unknown place… with… strangers,
unfamiliar faces, watching over you… People who don’t have the slightest idea
how to properly take care of a baby. ” He smothered a chuckle. “…How lost you
must feel. But… we’re not doing too badly, are we, Charlie? We’re not doing too
badly at all, it seems to me… although I think you were a little harsh in your
judgement of your Uncle Adam’s efforts, earlier…” Scarlet grinned. He had spent
some time calming the usually easy-going Captain Blue down, when the American –
scrubbed and dressed in a clean uniform - had found him in the Officers’ Lounge.
Mind you, Blue’s bad temper had been fuelled by Ochre’s repeated questions about
‘his new aftershave’… Destiny’s distinctive perfume certainly lingered…
Scarlet looked down at the
baby on his knee, who yawned widely, before rubbing his tired eyes again. The
English captain smiled broadly.
“Now, that’s a tired boy…
It has been a long day for you too, I know. You’ve already seen a lot, and
experienced more than any child should experience.” He sighed deeply. “You lost
your Mummy… And you’re all that’s left of that village. You survived, where
everyone else died. I guess it’s true when they say that whatever doesn’t kill
you makes you stronger. You’re certainly a strong and healthy kid… And after
what you’ve survived, whatever life throws at you – you’ll be ready to face it.”
Charlie yawned once more;
his eyelids were drooping, although it was obvious he was fighting hard not to
fall asleep. Scarlet realised he was about to cry, as he saw his lower lip
tremble, and heard him give a faint moan. He shushed him instantly and patted
him comfortably.
"Sshhh… Hush now, don't
you cry, Charlie-boy… You don't want to wake up those two pretty ladies who need
their rest, do you? That's a good boy… I know you're tired… You would probably
prefer hearing a song to listening to my boring talk, now wouldn’t you?" The
cooing he heard from Charlie was almost an answer to his question. Scarlet
chuckled again. "Oh you are so lucky it's not Uncle Adam holding you right now,
Charlie…"
Rhapsody Angel woke up
with a sense of sudden loss. Her still drowsy mind registered the absence of
Charlie by her side and, unnerved at the thought that he might have rolled and
fallen out of bed, she found herself crawling to the side of the bed and leaning
to look down to the floor. In the semi-darkness, she couldn’t see anything, but
before she could command the voice-operated lighting to turn on, her ear picked
up an unfamiliar, faint sound that made her stop. It took her only a few seconds
to recognise singing, coming from a very recognisable male voice. She silently
slithered off the bed and crept in the direction of the living area, where the
singing was coming from.
She first saw Harmony
Angel sleeping on the sofa, with her head in an odd and apparently uncomfortable
angle, then, the top of Captain Scarlet’s dark head, emerging just over the
backrest of the armchair; he was singing a lullaby to the baby he was obviously
holding in his arms.
“Goodnight, time to
call it a day
Sleep tight, dream your
troubles away
Goodnight, in spite of
any sorrow
There's a brand new day
on its way tomorrow…”
Not wanting to spoil the
singer’s song – and certainly not wanting to disturb the child who so clearly
was enjoying it, Rhapsody approached, quietly, but so Scarlet would see her and
would not be startled by her presence. The young woman stole a glance at
Charlie, whose eyelids were drooping heavily to the sound of Scarlet’s melodious
singing, oblivious to a few off-key notes, simply letting himself be rocked by
the soothing rhythms.
“… Someday, all your
dreams will come true
Someway, for me and you
So close your eyes and
dream of it, my darling
Till then goodnight,
goodnight, sleep tight…”
Charlie’s eyes were now
closed and as Scarlet’s song died out, both he and Rhapsody were able to hear
the baby’s regular deep breathing, as he was now sound asleep. Scarlet grinned
widely, looking up at the young woman now standing in front of him.
“I didn’t know you had
such a beautiful singing voice,” she noted in a whisper, a probing frown on her
brows. “You kept that a secret…”
“Ah… not really…” Scarlet
retorted, with a bashful expression. “But at least, it’s better than Adam’s…”
“I’d be worried if it
wasn’t – better than Adam’s, I mean – but you’re selling yourself short, Paul,”
she replied with a smile of her own. “And… you got the baby to sleep.”
“Another mission
accomplished,” he agreed, as Rhapsody was lowering herself down to sit on the
rug, right next to him. He looked down thoughtfully at her, as she rested her
head on his lap, sighing contentedly. “You look shattered.”
“I’m a little tired,
that’s true, but…” Rhapsody smiled again. “But I wouldn’t have traded those
hours with Charlie for anything…”
Scarlet’s brow rose.
“Really?” Carefully, so not to disturb the sleeping baby, he leaned down towards
her, as she raised her head to him, her blue eyes bright and her smile radiant,
although obviously still drowsy. “When I came in earlier, and found you,
sleeping with Charlie by your side… It gave me… a strange impression…”
“A bad… or a good
impression?” she asked with curiosity.
He shrugged. “A very good
one… You looked so lovely… and it seemed so natural…”
“You looked like a natural
too,” she answered pleasantly. “You have a way with babies.”
“Oh, only with Charlie,
I’m sure.”
Rhapsody shook her head.
“Again, you’re selling yourself short, my love… Maybe one day… you’ll come to
realise that, who knows? With a child of your own…”
He smiled back, leaning
closer to her, so his breath would brush her proffered cheek. “We can only hope,
can’t we?” he whispered.
“We certainly can… Daddy…”
She stretched her neck to receive the kiss Scarlet was about to give her, when
Charlie emitted a faint whimper; they both looked down, but realised he was
still very much asleep. He grew quiet.
“He’s dreaming,” Rhapsody
suggested.
“Probably about the very
pretty lady he was sleeping next to earlier. I can’t say I blame him…”
“Babies are like men,”
Rhapsody grinned. “Only they take up less space in the bed.”
“How would you know
that, My Lady?” Scarlet asked with fake outrage.
“As if I have to tell
you…”
Rhapsody leaned again to
kiss him, and Scarlet’s lips had barely touched and tasted hers when a new sound
forced them to part; this time, it was Harmony who was stirring on the sofa. As
she slowly came to, both Scarlet and Rhapsody reluctantly left each other. They
were apart and very quietly watching, as Harmony slowly opened her eyes and
straightened up into a seated position, grunting from her stiff neck and back.
She blinked a few times, and looked around before realising where she was and
who she was with. She didn’t seem surprised to see Scarlet in the armchair, with
the baby in his arms and Rhapsody comfortably seated on the floor right in front
of him. She yawned.
“Did Charlie behave
himself?” the Chinese Angel asked.
“He’s sleeping like a
log,” Scarlet answered. “I’m giving him a few more minutes, and then I’ll put
him back into the bed we made for him.”
“It’s over there, right
next to the table,” Harmony said, stifling another yawn. She rubbed her neck.
“Oh… That hurts…”
“You look sore, Chan,”
Rhapsody remarked. “You can’t have slept all that well on that sofa. Maybe you
should get some proper rest…”
“I don’t want to leave
Charlie,” Harmony retorted. And she seemed adamant enough about it. “I can’t…
leave you to take care of him all by yourself.”
“Hey, I’m here,” Scarlet
said with a soothing smile. “And I don’t intend to leave… I know you feel
honour-bound to this child, Chan, but you’ve got to get some rest.”
“I don’t know…” Harmony
murmured, hesitantly. “I’m sure I won’t sleep at all in my quarters if I’m away
from the baby…”
“Take my bed, then,”
Rhapsody offered. “You’ll be close to the kid – and it certainly beats sleeping
on that cramped sofa.”
“What about you…?”
“I can manage – you’ll be
back on duty before me in the morning, so I’ll be able to catch up.”
Harmony nodded, almost
reluctantly, then rose from the sofa, sighing. “Okay, I’ll take your offer. But
if you need any help…”
“We will manage,”
Scarlet interrupted her. “But we will call you, if it becomes absolutely
necessary.”
Harmony thanked him with
the briefest of nods and disappeared behind him, into the sleeping area. Scarlet
looked on as Rhapsody left her place on the floor and went to get the small
makeshift bed lying right next to the low table. When she put it down on the
table, she raised her eyes to catch sight of her fiancé looking straight at her
with an amused smile. With his free hand, he caught her by the arm and forced
her to lean toward him.
“Very generous of you to
give her your bed…”
She smiled ruefully. “More
than you can imagine…”
“I was kind of hoping she
would go to hers…”
She raised her brows. “I
was hoping the same,” she admitted, almost blushing. “But dear Harmony… she
wouldn’t let a small thing like fatigue get in the way of what she considers her
duty. So I couldn’t let her down.”
“She is a wonderful
person. And you are too.” Scarlet planted a quick kiss on her lips. “And that’s
why I love you so much.”
“The same here.” She
grinned. “We’d better be careful… But keep that thought of yours in mind for
next time,” she enjoined him. “I might want to continue this… conversation…
very soon. And I’ll be sure to remind you of it.”
“You won’t have to tax my
memory that much,” he answered, with a smirk of his own. “It won’t take too much
of an effort to remember, believe me…”
The arrival of the final
shuttle from London on Christmas Eve was widely anticipated across the base.
Last minute shopping, Christmas presents and treats were eagerly awaited, but
none of this was as keenly awaited as the emergency baby-supplies Doctor Fawn
had organised.
Captain Grey had been
deputised to go and collect the parcels and he queued patiently at the mail
office. They loaded him with various bundles and packages until his arms were
full. A helpful technician found him a mail trolley and the captain pushed his
booty back to the Amber Room where the Angels and the off-duty captains had
congregated to await the supplies. Charlie was being entertained by Rhapsody,
who was playing tickling games with him.
“Round and round the
garden,
Like a teddy-bear…
One step, two steps,
Tickle you everywhere!”
The games stopped as Grey
started to unload the trolley. As he distributed the various parcels, a frown
started between Captain Scarlet’s dark brows. There were personal gifts for
almost everyone and one parcel of jars of baby food – most of which wasn’t
really needed.
As Grey handed Destiny the
last parcel Scarlet asked, “Is that all, Captain?”
Grey nodded. “I wasn’t
sure whose name would be on it, so I said I’d take the lot.”
Scarlet nodded. “So,
where’s the nappies?”
“The nappies?”
“Diapers…. Where are the
diapers?”
Everyone looked at each
other in alarm, and a general hubbub broke out as they checked and rechecked
every parcel - to no avail.
“Maybe they were in Fawn’s
name?” Blue suggested. He strode to the intercom. After a protracted
conversation, in which the medical staff checked and rechecked their own
delivery, he had to announce that there were no nappies in sickbay either.
“What are we going to do?”
wailed Destiny. “Le pauvre petit, he cannot be without some garments….”
They argued and discussed
what was best to do, until Scarlet had had enough. He marched out of the Amber
Room, announcing he was going to speak to the colonel. Captain Blue followed.
“Ah,” Destiny sighed, “now
we shall have a solution. The colonel will make it all right for us. You will
see…”
But against all
expectations, the colonel did not 'make it all right'. He listened patiently to
Scarlet’s impassioned complaint and Blue’s reasoned arguments for ordering an
emergency flight from London packed with diapers, until his two senior officers
had talked themselves into silence.
“Absolutely not," he then
said categorically. "It is Christmas Eve, the ground staff will be winding down
to a skeleton crew over the holiday, and I am not prepared to authorise the
expense of an emergency flight just for a box of nappies. This is a military
base – and – contrary to appearances - not a nursery, gentlemen. Use your
initiative!”
“It isn’t a case of
initiative, Colonel,” Scarlet spluttered. “It’s a case of just how many cotton
cloths we can beg, steal or cadge from sickbay or the kitchens! The laundry room
isn’t happy at the sudden influx of soggy washing either,” he added for good
measure.
“Colonel, I could fly down
and fetch some myself,” Blue suggested, anxious to make up for his perceived
mistake of the day before. “I don’t mind.”
“But I do… you are on duty
soon, Captain. You will stay on this base. Do I make myself clear – gentlemen?”
Colonel White said, including Captain Scarlet in his order.
“Then… maybe I could ask
my mother to arrange for one of the SvenCorp planes to deliver…”
“Now you are just being
fanciful,” Colonel White snapped. “I repeat: Cloudbase is a secure, military
facility – not a branch of ‘Mothercare’. Deal with it yourselves, Captains…
Dismiss!”
The two friends slouched
dejectedly back to the Amber Room.
They managed somehow.
Every officer, every Angel, the medical staff and the kitchen staff, scoured the
base for suitable cotton cloths. Captain Blue sweet-talked the laundry room into
putting an extra load through… agreeing to meet the cost himself, and donating a
healthy tip to the department’s Christmas fund… which, he thought, was worth
what it cost him to know they’d have some clean cloths for tomorrow, if
necessary.
Charlie behaved impeccably
– the effects of his ‘banquet’ the day before being over – he was sweet-tempered
and compliant. He got very excited as he watched Scarlet and Blue, with the help
of Rhapsody and Symphony Angels, putting the finishing decorating touches to the
Christmas tree they had put up in the Officers’ Lounge, and he frequently got
himself entangled with the tinsel and bunting as he tried to help, much to the
amusement of his new friends. Scarlet lifted him up so he could throw tinsel at
the upper branches of the tree and Symphony held him as he stood on his chubby
legs and ‘helped’ Rhapsody wind tinsel around the lower branches.
As the final decorations
were put in place and Blue – as the tallest – slipped the star onto the top
branches they all stood back to admire their handiwork. Charlie clapped his
hands together as if he too approved of the tree.
Symphony sidled up to
Captain Blue and nudged him with her shoulder.
“Hey, guess what arrived
in the last delivery?” she asked him out of the side of her mouth. Blue shook
his head blankly. With a beaming smile, she produced a bunch of mistletoe,
liberally covered in white berries. “Just in time, eh?”
“Just in time for what?”
he asked, his eyes pleading with her to be more circumspect.
“Christmas kisses, of
course… didn’t they teach you anything at that University, you poor, dumb
Harvard guy? Come here…”
“Whatever for?” he asked
in mock outrage.
“Guess… I’m going to show
what a real kiss is…” She stood on tiptoe and reached to hold the mistletoe over
Blue’s head, her eyes closed and her lips in an exaggerated pucker for his kiss.
Unfortunately, the effect
was not what she had intended and he gave a guffaw of laughter, moving away so
that she toppled forward slightly.
“Hey…come back,” she
protested.
Scarlet, watching this
play-acting with some amusement, stepped forward. “Never mind, pretty lady… what
you need is a passionate English kiss…”
He caught her round the
waist and, taking the mistletoe from her hand, kissed her on the lips. He could
feel the laughter bubbling up in her as she wrapped her arms around him, and
gave an exaggerated sigh as they parted.
“Huh,” Rhapsody snorted,
“how come I never get one of those…?”
Scarlet spun round,
catching her off guard. “Your wish is my command,” he leered and planted a kiss
on her laughing lips. He glanced over at Blue. “This mistletoe is powerful
stuff… you should try it.” He tossed the sprig to his friend, who gave Symphony
an appraising glance.
“I think, maybe you’d
better show me how it’s done…” he suggested.
Grinning, she threw
herself into his arms and surrendered to his kisses.
“Oy,” Scarlet admonished
as the pair seemed likely to be locked together for some time. “Remember that
there are other people who might benefit from the efficacious enchantment of
that mistletoe – if you two haven’t used it all up… It’s only good for one kiss
for every berry on the sprig, you know?”
Blue opened one eye and
peered disbelievingly at his friend. Reluctantly, he straightened up and tossed
the sprig over. With his arms still wrapped around her, Symphony turned and
winked at their friends.
Laughing, Rhapsody took
the mistletoe from her boyfriend. “I’ll have to tell Dad to make sure he puts a
special mark on the tree this came from… we’ll have some more of this one next
year! Now… I wonder who’ll want to be next.... ”
The evening found them all
gathered in the Officers’ Lounge for the party, except for Harmony who had to
return to the Amber Room, where she relieved Rhapsody Angel from Angel One duty,
so that her English colleague could join in the festivities. Charlie was there
too, in a brightly coloured T-shirt, held in place not with medical bandage, but
with a broad, red silk ribbon that one of the Angels had produced.
“Should he be here?”
Melody asked. “I thought he’d be going to sleep.” She brought her hands from
behind her back to reveal a large, soft, teddy bear. “I brought him this – to
cuddle… I thought he might like it.” She blushed.
“Where did you get that
from?” Scarlet cried in delight, as Charlie spotted the teddy and stretched out
eager arms to receive it.
“Oh,” the Angel said
airily, “it was knocking about in my wardrobe...”
“You have a teddy bear on
Cloudbase?” Ochre crowed. “Mag, my dear girl, if you want something to cuddle at
night – you only have to ask…”
Melody gave him a look
that stopped him mid-flow. Ochre coughed nervously and grinned in as debonair a
way as he could manage.
“In your dreams, Fraser,”
she said. “I’d rather cuddle a Mysteron….”
His colleagues all laughed
– Blue maybe more heartily than the others. Amidst the laughter, Scarlet leaned
towards Rhapsody, to whisper in her ear, “Toss Rick that mistletoe… I think it
would be put to good use.” Snorting, she elbowed him in the side.
“Charlie’s only here
until he goes to sleep… only it didn’t seem fair to exclude him from the party,”
Scarlet said out loud as the laughter died down.
“That kid’ll never
get tired - he's having too much fun.” Magenta smiled.
"Must take after his
‘Daddy’, then," Rhapsody said, with a sly smile at Captain Scarlet. "He
certainly doesn't need much sleep..."
"And how would you
know that?" Symphony asked brightly.
"Well, how do you know
that Captain Blue snores...?" her friend replied, with a wink.
Blue opened his mouth to
dispute that – then thought the better of it. He glanced at Scarlet to see his
friend was blushing as violently as he felt himself to be. As both men looked
uncomfortable, Rhapsody compassionately changed the subject...
Since they had entered the
lounge, the four Angels had been very curious about some particular decorations
they had noticed adorning the Christmas tree. The captains had added five
beautiful Christmas Angels, and on each of them they had pinned one of the
female pilots’ names. To each of the figures was attached a small, brightly
decorated box, which obviously contained gifts intended for their namesakes.
There had been some questions asked about the small boxes, of course, but the
captains were adamant about them – saying they were only additional decorations.
The Angels weren’t fooled by this clumsy explanation, but decided not to insist.
They were sure they would know all the details later on during the evening.
The party went on. There
was eating, drinking, dancing and singing around the Christmas tree. Things got
a little complicated for Captain Scarlet when Rhapsody insisted that he had a
really beautiful singing voice, when he put his mind to it, and the others
insisted he sing a solo. He instantly turned the same colour as his uniform, but
finally complied, after long minutes of persistent demands by Angels and
captains alike – Ochre, not surprisingly, was the most insistent of the lot, but
he was also the first one to join in with Scarlet when the latter struck up the
second verse of “Silent Night”, his own pleasing voice harmonising well with the
Englishman’s. By the end of the carol, every one of them was singing – even
Blue, whose voice, thankfully, got drowned out in the middle of all the others.
Charlie seemed to want to
join in the joyful celebrations, his cooing resonating through the room, making
all of them laugh with delight. There wasn’t a pair of arms around that didn’t
want to pick up the baby at one time or the other.
It was a wonderful
Christmas evening – the party lasted longer than anyone really intended and went
way past midnight. Charlie had gone quiet, and it was obvious that he would soon
fall asleep. However, he had a fit of temper when Symphony tried to gently tuck
him into his makeshift bed, so she kept him on her lap and went to sit on the
sofa. The group of officers gathered around then, sitting down quietly on the
various seats and sofas, and simply talked quietly – obviously too tired
themselves to do anything else – and also mindful to give the baby time to get
to sleep.
After a few minutes, and
since Charlie didn’t seem to be ready to doze off just yet, the captains got up
all together, almost in perfect concert, and went to stand before the tree.
Captain Grey, as the eldest – although he admitted that only with reluctance –
was delegated to address the Angels, who were sitting there, watching with
curiosity. He took one of the Christmas Angels hanging on the tree, and started
explaining about the gifts attached to them. This was, he stated, the captains’
way of showing their appreciation of the Angels’ efforts – especially in view of
the latest events with Charlie.
“I think we can safely say
that we had it easy, compared to you,” Grey confessed, a little bashfully. “We
didn’t have to face a night of bellyache and… other more dreadful crises… You
took the brunt of it…”
“Oh, I don’t know about
that,” Rhapsody said, her eyebrow twitching with amusement. “I think Captain
Blue might be the one who actually had that doubtful honour… What do you
think, Charlie?”
The baby seemed to give
his approval by emitting a series of gurgled sounds, and waving his arms wildly.
There was chuckling all around, and Blue visibly reddened; he didn’t say a word,
however, and simply smiled diffidently. Grey grinned, turned and advanced, to
give Rhapsody her Christmas Angel, while the other captains were taking the rest
of them off the tree and did the same for the other girls.
“It’s only a small token,
Angels – and we wish we had been able to do more… Oh… and the regular gifts,
under the tree, are yet to come,” Grey added, with a wink.
The Angels didn’t lose any
time in opening their small boxes, and were amazed at the efforts the captains
had put into choosing for each of them a gift according to their personal taste
and need; a box of very expensive Belgian chocolates for Symphony, a poetry book
for Rhapsody, the latest novel by her favourite author for Melody, and a bottle
of perfume for Destiny - the latter having been chosen by Captain Blue himself,
who offered it with a kind smile to the French pilot. She smiled back in answer,
almost shyly, remembering how she had showered him the evening before.
“No hard feelings, then?”
she asked timidly.
“Of course not!” he said,
laughing. “Have you ever known me to hold a grudge?”
She acknowledged that, and
sprang to her feet to embrace him. All of the Angels were absolutely touched by
the captains’ thoughtful initiative and thanked them accordingly. Harmony would
receive her own Angel later on, after her shift in Angel One had finished. All
the Angels had volunteered to take her place when it was time, but it was Melody
who finally had the last word in the matter – after all, she was the one
officially scheduled for the next duty stint in Angel One.
Then, it was time to
exchange the regular presents, which were still waiting under the tree. There
was gasping and laughing around as everyone received and unwrapped their
much-anticipated gifts. Far from wanting to go to sleep – despite the late hour
– Charlie was now crawling on all fours, amongst the confusion of discarded
wrapping paper and boxes covering the floor, obviously enjoying himself with
these new toys. Scarlet found him messing about in the largest empty box he
could find, playing with creased paper. When Scarlet extricated him from the
box, the child made a face as if he was going to start crying, but it quickly
turned into a definite squeal of delight when Scarlet swung him up high in the
sky.
“If I were you, I would
put that kid down,” came a voice from the door. “If anyone of you has given him
anything like the amount of stuff you gave him yesterday, he might well be sick
again… besides, you wouldn’t like it, Scarlet, if someone did that to you…”
Everybody had recognised
the voice, before they all turned to see Doctor Fawn who, carrying a small,
brightly-coloured bag, had entered the Officers’ Lounge, in the company of
Harmony, whom he had encountered on his way up to the Lounge, where she was
going having been released from Angel One by Melody. Fawn gave a smile and
approached with the Chinese Angel, who sat down on the now vacant sofa.
“You don’t have to worry
about that, Doctor,” Symphony quickly answered. “Nothing except his
normal diet has entered this kid’s stomach today. No tea, no custard, no roast
chicken…”
“… No chocolate truffle,”
Destiny added quickly.
Scarlet lowered Charlie
onto the sofa, right next to Harmony, who took hold of him. The child’s lower
lip started to tremble again, and he whimpered, raising his arms to Scarlet in a
demanding way.
“Awww… He wants Daddy to
make him fly again,” Rhapsody said, beaming a broad smile in Scarlet’s
direction. “I reckon Charlie’s going to be a natural pilot, when he grows up…”
“Daddy is beginning to
think that it is about time that ‘Sonny’ should get a good night’s sleep,”
Scarlet replied, with a falsely stern frown. “Between last night and tonight,
this kid’s hardly had any rest at all…”
“I have to agree with
that,” Fawn concurred.
“What, you would send him
to bed before it’s time to give him his present?” Ochre complained. “Shame on
you two! Don’t you know the meaning of the Christmas spirit?”
The American captain knelt
in front of the small child, to put himself at the same level; Charlie
automatically turned his attention to him. Grinning, Ochre undid the zipper of
his tunic pocket and fished a small, golden cylinder from it.
“Here, Charlie-Boy. Have a
merry Christmas.” Ochre handed the object to the child who closed his small,
chubby hand greedily on it, cooing as he did. He shook the object excitedly and
then proceeded to start chewing it, gurgling contentedly. Scarlet sat down on
the other side of Charlie and examined the gift.
“That’s a uniform
epaulette,” he said.
“A disused epaulette,”
Ochre clarified, with a shrug. “I figured that, considering how Charlie’s
fascinated by our epaulettes, he might as well enjoy one all of his own…”
“That’s… very thoughtful
of you, Captain Ochre,” Harmony said, unsure, however, if it was such a great
gift after all.
“Couldn’t you just give
him one of your toy models?” Magenta objected.
Ochre flashed him an
annoyed look. “They’re not ‘toys’, Patrick. And what would he do with that, can
you tell me?”
“I don’t know…” Blue
continued. “Small planes, small ships… That’s very attractive for a child,
somehow, don’t you think?”
“War planes, war
ships… Considering this Tibetan child’s upbringing, that would not
have been a good idea.” Ochre shrugged again. “Besides, all of those models come
with very small pieces that might fall off. We don’t want Charlie to choke on
one of them, now, do we?”
“I totally agree,” Scarlet
admitted, looking down with interest at Charlie, who was still chewing his new
golden toy. “There’s no risk of that with this epaulette. It’s too big, and we
all know how sturdy it is. He can’t break it, and hurt himself with it.”
“And I smoothed off any
sharp edges, before anyone complains about that. I may not know much about
babies, but I do know about ‘toys’,” Ochre remarked, with a wry grin at Magenta
just to show there was no hard feelings. Magenta winked back.
“And he does seem to
appreciate it,” Harmony added.
“He does indeed,” Fawn
declared, approaching in turn. “I too, have a small gift for Charlie.” He
crouched in front of Charlie and from his small bag he produced a little clear
plastic bottle that he presented to the baby, smiling broadly. “Merry Christmas,
Charlie.”
Scarlet took the bottle
from the doctor’s hand; it was one of those numerous small phials the physician
kept in his laboratory, and on which was fixed a label identifying its contents.
Scarlet read and frowned. “Baby lotion?” he asked, giving a curious stare at
Fawn. “How did you get hold of that, Edward?”
“Yeah,” Blue added,
raising his brows in surprise. “We thought there wasn’t any baby stuff on board
Cloudbase…”
“Not that we can get our
hands on, anyway,” Grey agreed.
“I made it, you
nitwits,” Fawn replied good-naturedly. “Why, all I needed was to know the
ingredients, and a bit of research brought that up rather easily. I had all that
was needed in the laboratory… So I had the auto-analyser fabricate the stuff.
And I added my own ‘special touch’ to it. Who knows, I might still decide to
branch out and make a fortune selling that lotion…”
“You took the time to make
this,” Scarlet said, with a thoughtful nod. “Why, Edward… That’s very kind
of you…”
“Very kind indeed,”
Symphony declared, with a large smile, leaning behind Fawn, to take him by the
shoulders and hug him affectionately. “Who knew you could be such a softy,
Doctor?”
Fawn reddened violently.
“Awww… don’t think too much of it, people,” he protested in a mumble. “It’s only
baby lotion, after all…”
They all laughed of the
apparent uneasiness of Fawn – which was so unlike him. Blue, arms crossed,
standing right next to Magenta, was watching the scene with some amusement. A
peculiar thought crossed his mind, and he shook his head, with a wry glance.
Magenta caught his expression and, with a whisper inquired what might be going
on.
“It’s strange,” Blue
confided in a low tone to his Irish colleague, his remark going unnoticed by the
others who were chattering happily. “I have the impression of looking at a
Nativity Scene… Mary, Joseph… and Infant Jesus receiving gifts from the Wise
Men…”
Magenta chuckled. “With Ed
and Rick playing the part of the Wise Men? Now that’s funny… But I’ll
admit I see what you mean. That epaulette and the baby lotion could be
considered as ‘gold’ and ‘frankincense’… But we’re missing the third Wise
Man, - the one with the myrrh…”
“HO, HO, HO! MERRY
CHRISTMAS!”
Suddenly interrupting the
chattering in the Officers’ Room, the booming voice made everyone turn around.
Standing in front of the door, which was sliding closed behind him, stood a man
with a big red bag on his back and a red Santa hat and a long, curly white beard
that almost concealed his features. The dark skin was obvious enough, however,
but even without it, it would have been very difficult not to recognise the new
arrival, considering he was still wearing his Spectrum uniform.
“Green!” Half of
the assembly uttered in the same delighted voice.
“What are you doing here,
dressed like that?” Grey added, with raised brows.
“Shhh…” Green requested in
his normal, tilting voice, and giving the group a wink as he approached,
half-dragging his obviously heavy sack. “I’m Santa, remember?”
“Not from where I’m
standing,” Blue retorted. “You look rather like an elf who has stolen Santa’s
costume…”
“Well… Santa is very
occupied… This is Christmas Eve night, after all, and he has his tour
to do…” Green’s smile broadened as he put the sack in front of Charlie and knelt
next to it to open it. “… So he deputised me to make sure all these goodies come
to a very special child, here on Cloudbase.” He looked levelly at Charlie, who
was now staring at him with a quiet fascination, before reaching for the beard.
Green took the small chubby hand into his dark one. “Hi, Charlie. Pleased to
finally make your acquaintance. You know, I heard a lot about you already… Is it
true you’ve been driving all these nice people crazy?”
“You know, it actually
figures,” Symphony declared suddenly. “It’s like Murphy’s law - the one
person amongst us who has experience with small children is absent, leaving
us stuck with the baby! We’re really glad you’re back, Seymour.”
“Yeah, with you around,
we’ll now know which end needs to be fed, and which end needs to be cleaned,”
Ochre added mockingly.
“It wasn’t so bad,”
Scarlet retorted, with a shrug, amidst his colleagues’ laughs. “I think we
actually managed rather well, all things considered. Except for the desperate
lack of baby stuff that would have been very useful to properly take care of our
small visitor…”
“Ah, I have it covered,
now!” Santa-Green declared in a joyful voice, opening his bag, and producing
various items, under the other officers’ marvelling eyes. “Here. Cereals… baby
food… baby clothes – Tibetan style… Baby powder - for all those important little
places… Nappies…”
“Nappies?! You mean,
diapers?!” Symphony squealed suddenly, making a step forward. She literally
grabbed the big packet that Green had just taken out of his bag, and held it
against her heart. “You wonderful man, you! That’s exactly what I wanted
for Christmas this year!”
The room rang with
laughter as Blue said ruefully, “Damn, could’ve saved myself a lot of money if
only I’d known that…”
“That’s what we all
wanted,” Rhapsody corrected, amid the dying laugher. “You are a life saver,
Seymour.”
“Hey, I just know what
babies need, that’s all,” Green replied, with a humble smile.
“Don’t we know it,”
Destiny said, with a sigh, rolling her eyes.
While everyone was
marvelling at the ‘gifts’ brought by Green, Magenta nudged Blue with his elbow,
pointing as the young lieutenant. “Well, there’s your third Wise Man,” he said,
with a broad smile. “Who would have thought it would be Santa Claus?”
“And here I thought all
that time his name was Balthazar,” Blue murmured. “And he brought myrrh…”
“Any idea what myrrh is,
actually?” Magenta asked, with a frown.
Blue shook his head, a
faint smile playing on his lips. “It is something to do with incense, a resin
used in the production, I think. But for all we know, it might well be a kind of
perfumed diaper from the era…” Magenta gave an amused nod, seemingly
agreeing with Blue’s comments. “Which would explain why it was considered so
precious…” Blue concluded, with a grin.
Colonel White went to meet
the plane at the hangar, watching through the pressurised windows as it
descended from the runway to the internal hangar of Cloudbase. He was still
unsure why the second most important religious leader of the Tibetan people had
announced his intention to come to Cloudbase. Lieutenant Green and earlier,
Captain Blue, had both referred to the First Minister’s profound shock and
deeply-expressed regrets at the treatment the Spectrum agents had received at
the disaster site, but it seemed rather excessive to the colonel to expect the
Panchen Lama himself to deliver an apology. Either way, White mused,
I
hope I can convince him to take the baby back with his party – nice little chap
though the child is – he cannot stay here for much longer or my entire elite
staff will turn into highly paid baby-sitters by choice… and there are distinct
signs that several of the Angels are getting broody…
He glanced around at the
security team deployed around the hangar. He had been reluctant to grant
permission to allow the visit, on receiving the announcement earlier, especially
when the First Minister had reminded him that on no account were there to be
weapons deployed in the Panchen’s presence – nor those ‘Mysteron detectors’ the
Spectrum officers had spoken of. The Panchen did not wish to reinforce any
notion that the government of Tibet approved of weapons or violence in any
circumstances, against any individuals.
Despite the colonel’s
reassurance that the Mysteron detectors were a harmless and non-violent way of
securing the safety of his base and personnel, the Minister had been adamant in
his opposition to their use.
Wondering if he should
have insisted on Captain Scarlet being present – in the hope that his sixth
sense would warn them of any Mysterons present – White stepped forward as the
alarms ceased ringing and went to meet the deputation as the aircraft steps
opened to allow disembarkation.
The Panchen Lama was quite
a surprise. He was a handsome, dark-eyed man, far younger than expected and with
a lively expression. He grinned good-naturedly at Colonel White and returned his
greeting in near-perfect English.
“It is so kind of you to
receive me aboard your base, Colonel White. I have to say I have seen many
marvels in my time, but Cloudbase must rank among the most impressive sights. I
hope it might be permissible to see around and learn something of the skills
that make such a place possible?”
“Indeed, sir, I am sure we
can arrange a tour, if you wish it.”
The man’s eye’s twinkled
with pleasure, but then he said, “You wonder what I am doing here? I see that
our visit is a surprise to you. Colonel, if I might have a quiet speech with
you, alone, I will endeavour to explain.”
“Of course, sir… if you
would accompany me to the conference room…?”
White turned to lead the
way from the hangar, aware of the half dozen, saffron robed monks that had
disembarked and were lining up behind the Panchen. The small man at his side
turned to them and said something – presumably ordering them to wait – and they
murmured obedience to his wishes.
“Lieutenant Carmine,
please escort His Holiness’s retinue to the VIP lounge and give them such
refreshment as they may require,” White said to the young woman in charge of the
security guards.
“S.I.G, Colonel,” Carmine
said, with a smart salute.
“You have ladies in charge
of male officers?” the Panchen said, watching Carmine, a Ghanaian, whose
jet-black skin set off her pinkish-red tunic most effectively. “This is most
noteworthy… I had, of course, heard of the Angel pilots – the ladies who fly
your jets and one of whom I believe was subjected to unpardonable outrage by
some of my people…”
“There was no great harm
done,” the colonel hastened to reassure him.
“Nevertheless, it will be
my pleasure to offer my apologies to the young lady concerned,” the Panchen
insisted.
“I am sure Harmony Angel
will be the first to say there is nothing to alarm you, sir.”
“Harmony – a most fitting
name… most fitting indeed…”
In the secure environment
of the conference room, the Panchen Lama took one of the seats and the colonel
sat a few stools away from him. The young man was obviously impressed with all
he had seen and was asking intelligent, probing questions. Suddenly he paused
and grinned at the older man.
“Forgive me, Colonel, I am
disconcerting you… monks shouldn’t ask about computer hardware and technical
matters, you think?”
“Not at all, Your
Holiness,” replied the colonel suavely, but in truth the Panchen had hit the
mark – he did find this man disconcerting.
“You wish to know why I am
here. It is, in part, to offer my apologies to your agents for the actions of my
fellow countrymen – I am sure you can understand that they were under much
stress, but even so, to insult a young lady… is unpardonable.” He paused and
studied the colonel’s face intently for a moment. “How much, may I ask, do you
understand about Tibetan culture, colonel?”
“Well… I... eh…”
The Panchen ignored this
hesitation. “We are a proud and ancient people, with our own unique culture.
Part of that culture is the theocracy – and the leader of the theocrats is the
Dalai Lama. Traditionally, the Dalai and the Panchen Lamas are the tutors and
guardians of each other, the elder caring for the younger, until he is grown to
wisdom. I am not an elderly man, Colonel, but I am the senior theocrat… and will
be for many years to come, since our much lamented Dalai Lama passed away
suddenly, less than one year ago. It will be my task to train our new Dalai Lama
until he can lead his people.
“In the custom of my
people, we have been searching for the latest incarnation of his spirit. Much
prayer is offered, contemplation and visions sought in the search. When a
candidate is found, many tests are made, before that child can be proclaimed
Dalai Lama. I, myself have had two visions concerning the whereabouts of our
Dalai Lama. The first, when it was interpreted, filled me with much dread… for
it seemed that the child was in great danger and surrounded by flames and
destruction…but yesterday, I had a second vision. I saw the Dalai Lama walking
amongst clouds between two guardians – their names were Dorje Wangdak
and Kandro – perhaps as you would say, Lord Protector and … Angel?”
Colonel White stiffened in
his seat, his lips parting as the frown on his face deepened. “Are you saying…”
he began.
“Oh, I am saying nothing
is certain, but when the First Minister told me of this child brought to
Cloudbase – it was my duty to investigate.” The Panchen Lama gave his sudden,
quick smile. “And besides, I was curious to see just what kind of organisation
Spectrum is. I have no political power, you must understand, Colonel, but my
voice is heard by those who do. Spectrum has been lobbying for a presence in
Tibet, and one, small office has recently been granted – but already there is
opposition to that base remaining. The time will come when I will be asked about
my feelings towards Spectrum’s presence on Tibetan soil. I wish to have an
informed opinion to give, Colonel.”
“I understand, sir.
Whatever the outcome of your assessment of this child, may I assume that you
will take him back with you?”
“Most assuredly. Perhaps
we should go and see him?”
“Of course, I… know it’s
late, but I think he is in the Officer’s Lounge. A few of my officers are
holding a Christmas Party… I believe. That being the case, I doubt the child
will be asleep…”
“Ah, Christmas – a joyous
time…”
“Quite. If you would
please, follow me, sir?”
“Of course, but I would
ask that my retinue be allowed to accompany us – such meetings should be done
with many witnesses…”
“Of course, I understand.”
Lieutenant Green was
tucking into some of the buffet and listening with amusement to the story of
Charlie’s stay on Cloudbase – as told by his friends – laughing outright at the
mental image of Captain Ochre playing peek-a-boo and Captain Scarlet giving
‘pony-rides’ to the child. Charlie was sitting happily beside his latest friend,
playing with his new epaulette and some gaily coloured ribbon. He had taken to
Green at once; perhaps, Ochre suggested, realising he was the one person not at
a loss with how to care for him.
The young man shook his
head and cast baleful glances at Destiny as he heard about Charlie’s rich and
varied diet of the day before, and deliberately moved his plate of crisps and
sausage rolls out of the inquisitive child’s reach.
“By
the way,” he said, “I don’t think we’ll have Charlie with us for much longer.
The First Minister told me before I left Lhasa that a ‘high-level’ deputation
was planning to come to Cloudbase very soon. They want to speak to the colonel
and my guess is that he’ll ask them to take Charlie away with them.” He grinned
and volunteered a piece of information, “The colonel told me – when I reported
back before coming here -that the child made an awful mess of one of his uniform
tunics… I told him that I don’t suppose the child meant anything personal by
it,” Green chuckled. “He can’t help himself, can you, Charlie?”
Blue was thinking along
other lines. “I wouldn’t be surprised if this ‘high level deputation’ was to
apologise for what happened to Harmony, Grey and Scarlet at the power plant. The
minister was extremely shocked when he heard that Harmony had been attacked, and
he offered his most sincere apologies. The Tibetans are a problem - with their
refusal to allow us to use weapons – but they are a friendly bunch – I like
them.” He gave a crooked smile and continued, “I bet we’ll all miss Charlie when
he goes – even those of us who have been … on the receiving end.”
Green smiled. “Yeah,” he
said, “little kids have a way of worming themselves into your heart before you
know it. I guess it’s a survival trait: don’t hurt me, potentially-threatening
adult, see how cute and appealing I am.” He blushed as the officers stared at
him in some surprise. “There have been times, mind you, when I could have
cheerfully throttled every one of my younger brothers and sisters… cute and
appealing only lasts so long….”
Blue grinned. “Oh, I agree
with that. My brothers and sister were right pains in the … neck, most of the
time.”
“Well, I guess you two are
the experts… I’m the youngest in my family; I was usually the one getting blamed
for everything,” Ochre confessed.
“Probably with good
reason,” Magenta remarked.
“Oh no – the eldest gets
blamed for everything,” Blue asserted. Green nodded in vigorous agreement.
“Like heck – it was always
me that got told off…”
“No,” Blue argued, “it was
always: you should know better; why didn’t you stop him/her from doing that? -
like I had eyes in the back of my head!”
“Hey – imagine that times
eight!” Green complained. The two men smiled in mutual understanding of what
each had suffered.
Ochre shrugged. “Well, my
brother was always saying ‘Richard did it’… And he was always believed!”
Green rolled his eyes.
“Brothers are nothing… Let me tell you about sisters! They’ll dump you in
it every time!”
Blue demurred. “Well, my
sister was about the best of the bunch – my younger brother, he was the sneak.
The youngest, David, he’s not too bad… but then he is considerably younger than
me… I guess I didn’t have that much to do with him growing up. He was only eight
when I joined the WAS…”
“And you claim you can’t
change a diaper…” Ochre protested.
Blue grinned. “Hey,
wouldn’t you have done - if it seemed likely you’d get lumbered with doing it
every time?”
Grey nodded. “You’re not
as stupid as you look,” he teased.
Before the Angels could
pursue the idea that Blue had actually known what to do, the door opened and
they all rose to their feet as Colonel White led a deputation of men dressed in
robes of rich saffron and orange cloth.
“Sir, may I present to you
Spectrum’s senior officers? Ladies and gentlemen, His Holiness, the Panchen
Lama…” White said, casting a warning eye over his exuberant officers.
The young man at his side
greeted them with a traditional gesture, his hands clasped together at chest
height, as he inclined forward.
The Spectrum officers
returned the greeting with smart salutes.
The Panchen studied the
officers before him; tall, strong men, each wearing a different coloured tunic
over a dark uniform, and women, dressed in impeccable white flying suits. He
finally found what he was looking for amongst the group. One man, tall, with
dark hair and bright blue eyes, wearing a vivid red tunic, was standing slightly
more awkwardly then the others – this was because clinging to his leg was a
young child. The child was Tibetan, and dressed in a gaudy T-shirt, tied around
his waist with ribbon. He was a happy child, smiling and carefree as he clung to
his mentor with great determination.
Captain Scarlet, seeing
the VIP’s gaze slip down to Charlie, shifted slightly, uncomfortably. He gave
Blue an appealing glance and his friend’s eyebrows rose almost imperceptibly –
asking what he was expected to do about it…
“Ladies and gentlemen, it
is my great pleasure…” the Panchen began, but his words were halted when Charlie
suddenly let go of Scarlet’s leg and with a delighted chuckle, took several
unsteady steps towards the newcomers, a beaming smile on his face, his arms
outstretched.
There was a murmur of
proud surprise from the Spectrum officers as everyone’s attention was
concentrated on Charlie’s unexpected new ability. Such was their distraction,
that they barely noticed the commotion amongst the retinue gathered behind the
Panchen. The monks were crowding the doorway and keeping the Spectrum security
detail out, but one man, an elderly, narrow-shouldered individual, sprang
forward.
In his hand, the
astonished Spectrum officers could see a knife.
“The Mysterons’ orders
will be obeyed!” he shouted, as he moved forward.
“Blue!” Scarlet shouted.
Almost in slow motion, he saw his partner start forward towards the Panchen –
because to everyone present, it was obvious that the young man was the
assassin’s target. Beyond Blue, he saw Ochre and Grey begin to move to the man’s
defence.
Frightened by the shouting
and sensing the sudden tension, Charlie let out a wail and flopping down onto
his bottom, he rolled over and crawled rapidly back to the safety of Captain
Scarlet’s protection. He grabbed onto the red boot and hauled himself upright,
whimpering to be picked up.
Hampered by Charlie
clinging to his leg, Scarlet was unable to respond to the emergency and could
only watch, as he murmured comfortingly to the baby.
The assassin continued to
press forward; he was closing on the Panchen, when Destiny stepped into his
path, only to be swept aside by an almost inhuman strength. The astonished
Frenchwoman fell into the path of Captain Blue, who had to side-step to avoid
treading on her and in so doing crashed into the rapidly advancing Captain Grey.
The assassin gave the
Panchen a sideways blow as, to everyone’s astonishment, he raced past him,
causing the young man to stagger into Colonel White, who was moving from the
other side to his defence.
Charlie, startled by the
movements and sudden confusion surrounding him, let out another ear-piercing
wail and clung even tighter to Scarlet’s leg. The latter instinctively bent down
to lift the terrified child… and from the corner of his eye caught the flash of
the assassin’s dagger as it stabbed downwards toward him. In an automatic
gesture, he brought the child closer to him, in a protective embrace. He felt
the blade bury itself in his shoulder. He gasped with the pain and was unable to
lift the child. His hand went to his empty holster… like everyone else he had
not thought to wear a gun to the office party…
He fended off another blow
from the monk, who was hissing, “We will be revenged…”
Suddenly the man’s eyes
went blank and the frail body crumpled to the floor at Scarlet’s feet.
Harmony Angel stood over
him, a look of pure fury on her normally gentle face.
“No-one – man or Mysteron
- hurts MY baby!” she snarled. She reached her arms out to Charlie, who
willingly went to her, weeping against her bosom, with hiccoughing sobs. “Ssshh,
Charlie, Mummy’s here…” she crooned. Scarlet grimacing in pain, rubbed
ineffectually at his injured shoulder.
The Panchen, who had
regained his feet, stared at the young Chinese woman with admiration. “Kandro…”
he murmured.
“Well, done, Harmony Angel
- a most effective karate blow,” Colonel White said, as he desperately sought to
regain his dignity.
To the experienced
officers around the room, it was obvious that Harmony’s blow had been intended
to kill – and it had served its purpose – the assassin was dead. Doctor Fawn
barely glanced at the man as he went to begin examining Scarlet’s wound.
“You are obviously an
expert,” the Panchen smiled at Harmony, impressed and – a little unnerved – by
what he had just witnessed. The slight Chinese girl hardly looked strong enough
to floor a man with her bare hands.
“Black belt, fourth dan,
Your Holiness,” Harmony replied, before modestly lowering her eyes from the
smiling priest.
“When my secretary comes
round from his faint, we must question him closely as to why he feels he must
act for these Mysterons, Colonel…” the Panchen said, staring with a frown at the
body of the would-be assassin.
"Your Holiness, I do not
think he will be waking from any faint. I believe he is dead," White answered.
He was reluctant to offend the Panchen’s non-violent principles, but the Tibetan
leader would have to face the facts sooner or later - and all his people with
him.
“Nonsense, Colonel. Look,
even now he revives…”
The Mysteron was indeed
scrambling to his feet, his hand grasping the dagger once more. Harmony was
still too close to him, her arms wrapped tightly around Charlie. He caught her
by one arm, and dragged himself upright. The majority of Spectrum’s agents were
all surrounding the Panchen Lama. They desperately moved forward, even though
they realised they were too far away to intervene in time, and watched with
growing horror, as Harmony, her hands full with the child, closed her eyes and
turned her shoulder towards her attacker, to shield Charlie, who was wailing
once more at being held so tightly.
“Now - die, Earthman…”
Captain Scarlet who was
closer to the incident, roughly moved Fawn aside and, despite his wound, jumped
with astonishing speed towards the Mysteron agent. He delivered a second
killing karate strike to his neck, with all the strength he could muster. There
was an audible crack, as the man crumpled to the floor a second time.
Scarlet stared down with
disgust at the Mysteron at his feet. “Get that carrion out of here… before it
happens again – we don’t want any more explosive entertainment...”
“S.I.G., Captain
Scarlet,” Grey responded, beckoning Ochre to assist him.
Colonel White turned to
the security officers he could see beyond the door. “Lieutenant Carmine, get a
Mysteron detector, take all His Holiness’ men with you and test them at once. I
am sorry, Your Holiness, but every man here must be tested – we cannot risk
another such attack by a Mysteron agent.” He addressed the Panchen with an
authority it would have taken a brave man to defy.
“I don’t understand,
Colonel,” the Panchen was complaining. “Lundhup was one of my most trusted monks
– my secretary… why would he want to work for those… Mysterons?”
“It is rather complicated
to explain, Your Holiness…”
Colonel White and the
Panchen Lama watched as Captains Ochre and Grey dragged the corpse out of the
lounge. The Panchen seemed upset and was shaking his head in confusion. “A lost
life is always a tragedy for my people, Colonel… I cannot help thinking that it
should never have come to this…”
White simply nodded
slowly. Ochre and Grey delivered the dead Mysteron to the security guards
outside. They would no doubt dispose of him properly, with an electron gun to
make sure he was truly dead this time and would not cause any more surprises.
There was no reason to tell all this to the Panchen Lama, however. There was no
need to cause him further alarm. And of course, there were still some secrets
that had to be kept from public’s knowledge.
Thinking of secrets…
“Doctor Fawn… I suggest
Captain Scarlet be taken to sickbay at once,” White said, turning once more
toward the room.
“I’ll be all right,”
Scarlet grunted, while awkwardly sitting down on the sofa behind him, still
rubbing his shoulder.
“No, you will not be,”
Fawn quickly retorted. “We have to take care of that wounded shoulder, Captain,
and quickly…” The doctor glanced at their visitors with a significant raise of
his eyebrow. Scarlet nodded, understanding what he meant.
“How’s Charlie?” he asked,
raising his head in Harmony’s direction. The baby had stopped crying, but had
his head buried against her shoulder – almost afraid to look around him.
“Charlie?” the Panchen
said, diverted from his questioning by his interest in the child.
“That is what we’ve called
this child, Your Holiness,” Harmony explained. “We did not know his real name.”
The Panchen nodded an
understanding and approached closer to both Harmony and the child she was
holding. He examined Charlie closely, before reaching a hand to place it on his
head. Harmony nearly drew back, still remembering of the attack of which the
baby had nearly been victim, but something in the Panchen’s tranquil stance made
her stop. All around them the officers tensed, equally apprehensive, but a brief
nod from Colonel White indicated that everything was all right.
The Panchen spoke quietly
in Tibetan to the child, who gradually raised his head from Harmony’s shoulder
and turned to look at him, to stare almost solemnly, as if he was considering
the man’s words.
Everyone in the room held
their breath, when slowly, Charlie turned in Harmony’s arms and reached across
to the Panchen. With a short pause, during which time she looked searchingly
into the eyes of the Tibetan leader confirming her belief that it was safe to do
so, Harmony handed the baby over to him. Smiling broadly, the Panchen continued
to speak to the attentive child he was now holding in his arms. Then, noticing
the uneasiness surrounding him, he gave him back to Harmony Angel, just as she
was exchanging an inquiring glance with Scarlet, seated right next to her.
As everyone standing in
front of the door made way for medics with a gurney to enter the room, following
Fawn’s call a few minutes earlier, the Panchen Lama turned to Colonel White, and
addressed him yet again in a very quiet tone, that was in marked contrast with
the obvious unease of the Spectrum agents surrounding him.
“I believe, Colonel White,
that you wanted to…‘test’ my retinue. I see now why you would deem it
necessary.” His smiled broadened as he bowed slightly. “Please, proceed. And I
insist to be the first to take that test.”
Not so long afterward, in
sickbay, Doctor Fawn was putting Captain Scarlet’s left arm in a sling, when the
door slid open to reveal Colonel White and the Panchen Lama. Both men had been
advised of the Tibetan official’s visit to sickbay, and, accordingly, were
prepared to receive him, so the secret surrounding Scarlet’s healing abilities
would not be discovered. Almost instantly upon seeing the two men enter, the
English officer straightened up and moved to jump from the examination table on
which he was seated. Getting ahead of the colonel, the Panchen Lama begged the
captain to stay where he was.
“Please, Captain, don’t
stand up on my account… You must mind this wound you have received.”
“His Holiness is right,
Captain,” Colonel White concurred, “as you were.”
“Sir…” Scarlet turned to
the Panchen Lama and nodded courteously to him. “Your Holiness…”
“Does this shoulder of
yours make you suffer?” the Panchen asked, with a concerned frown.
“No… I’ll be okay in a
few… days…”
The Panchen addressed an
inquiring look towards Doctor Fawn, obviously unsure if Scarlet wasn’t
minimising the seriousness of his wound. The physician shrugged. “Hardly more
than a scratch, by Scarlet’s standards…” he confirmed, with a reassuring smile.
“As he said… A few… days of rest and he’ll be as good as new.”
“I am glad.” The Panchen
beamed with an approving nod. “I wanted to come see you, Captain Scarlet – in
order to thank you properly, for having saved that child’s life more than once…
and for having taken so good care of him.”
“Your Holiness,” Scarlet
said hesitantly, “I must inquire… Is Charlie…?”
“The child is in good
hands, Captain,” the Tibetan said, with a broad smile. “His charge has been
entrusted to my suite… That is, after that check we all have been subjected to
with that ‘Mysteron detector’, proved we were… the word one of your fellow
officers used was, ‘clean’, I believe.” He acknowledged the colonel’s decision
with a slight bow in his direction, to which the Spectrum commander answered in
kind. “None of us wish to see the child harmed in any way.”
“We appreciate your
understanding in co-operating with our security measures, Your Holiness,” White
thanked him. “Thankfully now, the danger is over. The Mysterons don’t make more
than two attempts against a declared target.”
“That would mean the child
is safe, then,” the Panchen asked, with obvious relief.
“Why was that Mysteron
agent trying to kill Charlie?” Scarlet asked, with a faint frown.
“Because obviously,
‘Charlie’ was the Mysterons target all along,” White suggested.
“Charlie?” Scarlet said,
opening eyes wide with surprise. “But he’s only a baby... And the Mysterons’
attack was against the Power Central… The wording of the Mysterons’ threat…”
“‘The roof of the
world will collapse and darkness will fall all over the entire high country’,”
the Panchen Lama recited. He shook his head, having attracted Scarlet’s
attention. “Your colonel told me about this threat, and the meaning Spectrum
gave to it. Granted, it would seem obvious that our precious power resources
would be the target – if you take the threat literally. But… your commander
explained to me that often, the Mysterons will issue cryptic threats.”
“They do indeed, Your
Holiness…” Scarlet agreed, still failing to understand.
“That must be the case
here, Captain,” the Panchen continued. “You see, Tibetans are a hardy people.
Being ‘plunged in darkness’ because of an energy failure – or even because of
economical reasons – might be a trial, but it is one we will survive – and with
the help of our friends from the Asian Republic, and the World at large – we
will be able to thrive, once more. There are… far worst fates for us, you see.”
“It would appear,” Colonel
White said, “that the attack on the Power Central was, at worst, a decoy, to
attract our attention elsewhere while the Mysterons were carrying out their
threat elsewhere – or at best, a means to destroy their intended target.”
“The child you came to
know as Charlie,” the Panchen explained, “who was at the health care centre in
the village, when the explosion at the Central occurred. The child whose mother,
Colonel White told me, had been taken hostage by that Mysteron agent you were
pursuing… The child you saved, Captain, and who, if we are to believe all the
clues, was supposed to die by the Mysterons’ hands.”
Scarlet was still
sceptical; he exchanged a curious glance with Fawn, very briefly, before
pursuing, “But… why destroy the entire infrastructure – if all they wanted was
to kill a mere child? That doesn’t make sense…” Scarlet’s voice trailed away as
he remembered the way the huge boulder had suddenly lurched towards Harmony and
the baby in her arms… the boulder that had crushed his foot. Fanciful? he
wondered. The Mysterons will use anything they can to achieve their goals…
“They wanted to make sure
that he wouldn’t survive… Because that ‘mere child’ is more important to the
Tibetan people than you can imagine, Captain Scarlet,” the Panchen announced,
still very patiently. “This child is the sixteenth reincarnation of our beloved
Dalai Lama. Our spiritual leader, without whom the Tibetans are lost.” There was
a shocked silence from both Scarlet and Fawn, who exchanged another disbelieving
glance.
“The Dalai Lama,” Scarlet
stammered. “Your Holiness… are you sure…?”
“I am positive. I followed
the visions I’ve been having these last months. I was to find the Dalai Lama
amongst the clouds. I have seen him walk between his two saviours and guardians,
Kandro, the Angel, and Dorje Wangdak, the Lord Protector, whom
nothing would make yield…” The Panchen shook his head, his smile not leaving his
lips. “Nothing indeed… as you took a blow intended to kill the child, and yet,
didn’t even surrender to the pain - you kept on protecting him. The signs are
all there, and they cannot lie. I have found His Holiness, the Dalai Lama, in
this most unusual setting… ” As silence followed, the Panchen Lama bowed to a
silence-struck Scarlet – with a very solemn and traditional Tibetan salutation.
“My people are forever indebted to you… and to all of Spectrum – for having
saved our most precious of treasures…”
With the assurance that no
threat would come to harm their precious charge anymore, the Panchen Lama and
his Tibetan retinue expressed their desire to leave Cloudbase as soon as
possible. Since they had all been cleared by the Mysteron detector test, Colonel
White didn’t see any objection to their departure. Acutely aware, however, of
the strong bonds that had grown between his senior staff officers and the small
child whose startling identity they had just learned from the mouth of the
Panchen Lama himself, the colonel made only one request on their behalf: that
‘Charlie’ be allowed to stay and join into the dinner they had prepared for
Christmas Day.
Not only did the Panchen
Lama grant that request, but he asked – rather shyly – if he and his suite could
be authorised to participate as well. This request actually managed to surprise
Colonel White, but he couldn’t really refuse – and he had to admit, he was a
little curious to see the quiet and poised Tibetans, so protective of their own
culture, actually sharing Christmas dinner with them. He had the impression that
it was also curiosity that was driving the Panchen Lama to make such a request.
He was probably interested to know what kind of people had taken care of the
precious child, over the last few days.
More surprisingly than
ever, during the Christmas dinner, the Panchen Lama and his retinue, once
they had let go of their all-too-official stance and ascetic ways, proved to be
very agreeable company. They exchanged animated discussions with the Spectrum
personnel, laughed and indulged themselves with good stuff to eat and to drink –
within the limits of what their religious customs would allow.
The dinner passed by a
little too quickly for the Spectrum officers’ taste and soon came the time
they’d all grown to dread. Charlie was going to be leaving - going back to Tibet
with his people – to be raised by the monks, to be prepared for the future that
was awaiting him.
Destiny was the first to
make her goodbyes to the small child, soon after the dinner. She had to go take
the place of Rhapsody in Angel One, so the English pilot would be able to be
present when Charlie left. To everyone’s surprise, there were tears in the
Frenchwoman’s eyes as she kissed the boy goodbye. He even whimpered himself,
when she left, waving at him as she went… and finally turned around to walk away
very quickly.
“And here I thought she
wasn’t that fond of Charlie,” Blue confided in a low tone to Scarlet, while both
were watching Destiny disappear from view.
Scarlet nodded very
slowly. “There are a few things you might not know about Juliette,” he explained
in a hushed tone. “She might be French… and a very extrovert person… But she’s
also able to keep her emotions well-hidden when she decides to – and I mean by
that the deepest feelings she might have for someone.”
Blue simply shook his
head, concurring that if someone would know that concerning Destiny, it would
certainly be Scarlet who had shared a passionate relationship with her some
years before they joined Spectrum.
Standing in line in front
of the last airlock leading to the hangar bay, Cloudbase’s senior staff were
waiting almost impatiently for their visitors and Colonel White to appear
through the first airlock. When it opened finally, to let the colonel and the
Tibetan party in, they automatically stood to attention. White called them to
ease, as he walked towards them, the Panchen Lama by his side.
The Tibetan retinue was
following behind, in silence, the first of the monks carrying Charlie, who was
now wearing similar garments to them, an impeccable saffron robe, with a proper
satin belt, a bright red cap of state – which looked for all the world like a
pixie-hood above the cheerful little face they had all grown to love - and
sandals.
When he found himself in
front of the assembled officers, the Panchen Lama saluted them with a low bow,
and then gestured to the monk carrying the child to step forward.
“Ladies and gentlemen of
Spectrum, on behalf of the Tibetan people, I thank you from the bottom of my
heart for your kindness and for the love and protection you have given to
our precious Dalai Lama. As far as it is within my power to advise the ministers
of State, I will have no hesitation in recommending that they allow Spectrum
full and open access to our country, and I will publish the remarkable story of
your devotion towards His Holiness. Rest assured, when you next visit Tibet – as
I hope you will all do in time – you will find nothing but a grateful welcome
amongst our people.”
Charlie gurgled excitedly
as this speech concluded, as if he was adding his own thanks and commendations
to them all. He squealed and squirmed in the arms of his attendant.
Blue whispered to Scarlet,
“That kid never keeps still…”
The Panchen caught the
words and exchanged a conspiratorial grin with the two officers. “I am sure,
His Holiness would like to say goodbye to you all…” He extended a hand towards
Ochre and Magenta who came forward to make their goodbyes.
“So long, Charlie-boy… you
behave, d’y’hear?” Ochre said, although those who knew him well detected a
rather forced jollity in his voice.
Charlie leant forward and
tugged at Ochre’s epaulette. “Excuse me, Your Holiness,” Ochre said to the
Panchen, “Will he get to keep his toys… I mean the little things we gave him?”
“But of course, Captain,”
The Panchen stood aside slightly to reveal a sombre faced monk with the
teddy-bear and the golden epaulette on a silken cushion. When his eyes met
Ochre’s, the men exchanged similar grins, each a mixture of mischief and
delight. “However great his destiny, we will not forget that His Holiness is
also just a little boy…” the Panchen said.
Captain Grey and Melody
took their leave, Melody kissing the chubby fingers as she shook the tiny hand.
Symphony and Blue went
next. He watched with delight as Charlie threw his arms around the young woman’s
neck, chuckling as he hugged her. For once, the brash American Angel was
speechless and she kissed the child’s cheek, stroking his face before allowing
her lover to steer her away.
Rhapsody got another hug
and Charlie grabbed a handful of her hair as if he wanted to take it away with
him. Gently, she disentangled his fingers.
“Be a good boy, Charlie.”
She kissed his check and gave the Panchen a warm glance. “Take care of him, Your
Holiness… he’s a very special little boy – even if he wasn’t who he is…” She
frowned as her sentence tangled itself in knots.
The Panchen placed a hand
on her arm. “We will, Rhapsody Angel, and we will tell His Holiness all he owes
the men and women of Spectrum…”
Captain Scarlet and
Harmony came last.
Charlie reached out his
arms and leant so far forward he was in danger of falling. The attendant glanced
at the Panchen who gave a slight nod. The boy was handed over into Harmony’s
arms.
“Well, here’s where we say
bye-bye, Charlie…” Scarlet said, gently punching the child’s torso, so the
little boy laughed. “You certainly made our Christmas special. Don’t forget us,
will you?”
Harmony buried her face
against the baby’s soft cheek and murmured in Chinese into his ear.
He threw his arms around
her and gave her a sloppy kiss on her cheek… “Ma-ma…” he murmured contentedly.
Harmony hugged him, her
face ablaze with delight.
Colonel White cleared his
throat and suddenly they were back on duty and holding things up.
“It is time to go, I
fear,” The Panchen said gently.
“Your Holiness, before you
leave – does anyone know what his name is?” Scarlet asked a little hesitantly.
“I mean, to us he will always be Charlie, but it would be nice to know
what his real name is…”
“In my vision he was
called, Ngawang… in English that might be called… Powerful Speech.” The
man smirked. “Surely we have all heard him make enough noise to testify to the
correctness of that?”
“Oh, he’s capable of much
worse,” Symphony said ruefully. As the Panchen turned to smile interrogatively
at her, she blushed and stammered, “He had a tummy ache, Your Holiness, and he
screamed for hours and hours…”
The Panchen gave a
sympathetic ‘tut’ and reached a hand to place it on the baby’s head. He spoke
quietly to the child, who with some reluctance relinquished his hold on
Harmony’s neck and allowed himself to be lifted from her arms.
“In honour of his stay
amongst you,” the Panchen pursued solemnly, “his name will now be Ngawang Namkha…
The last name forever reminiscent of his living amidst the clouds of the
spacious sky…”
“This is truly an honour,
your Holiness,” Colonel White started.
“This is only a small
expression of our thanks, Colonel,” the Panchen answered. “There is no measure
to the gratitude the people of Tibet now owe you all.”
The airlock opened, and
the party moved towards the waiting plane, but as he reached the foot of the
steps, the Panchen turned once more.
From the Panchen’s arms,
Charlie smiled once more at all his new friends. His gaze came to Symphony and
he gave her a cheeky grin before he finally turned back to Harmony, whose face
was a picture of controlled misery. With a look of intense concentration, he
extended an arm and clenched and unclenched his hand, spreading chubby fingers
in what so obviously was meant to be a wave. The watching officers melted at the
charm of it, but then the child placed his hand next to his lips and made a
smacking sound, before he spread his palm wide and blew in Harmony’s direction.
Harmony’s eyes filled with
tears as she blew him a kiss back. He shrieked with delighted laughter and
buried his face in the Panchen’s robes, peeking out mischievously over the man’s
shoulder as they mounted into the plane.
The air was filled by the
murmured sound of affectionate sighs, as the airlock closed.
"Well..." Scarlet said,
clearing his throat and trying to regain his composure. "There he goes... I knew
that kid would go far..."
Rhapsody chuckled
nervously, mostly to hide the fact that her own emotions were threatening to
burst into the open. “Yes, but we never imagined he would go that far,
did we…” She tilted her head to one side, looking straight at him. “…What was it
the Panchen Lama called you? Dorje?”
“Dorje Wangdak, the
Lord Protector, whom nothing would make yield…” Scarlet recited, with a faint,
awkward smile. “That sounds a little grand, don’t you think?”
“I looked that name up,”
Melody piped up from behind, attracting their attention. She was smiling
mischievously as she approached the couple. “Wangdak does mean ‘Lord
Protector’ – but apparently, His Holiness, the Panchen Lama was very liberal
with the ‘Dorje’ name. Mind you, it’s rather vague …”
“What does it mean?”
Scarlet asked with curiosity.
Melody’s smile broadened.
“It refers to something indestructible… which can cut through anything… And I,
for one, think it is most fitting.”
Scarlet answered her smile
with a grin of his own, before turning around slowly; he went to stand right
next to Harmony, who was staring through the porthole of the hangar access door.
“That’s two firsts
today,” Symphony said tenderly, standing a little behind, right next to Blue.
“He took his first steps and he blew his first kiss! He’s a clever boy; I knew
he’d get the hang of it – I was trying to teach him, Adam – as a Christmas
surprise for Harmony…”
Blue smiled and glanced at
Harmony. Scarlet had his arm around her slender shoulder as they watched the
party leave. Harmony’s eyes sparkled with a suspicious brightness and Scarlet’s
expression was one of rigid military correctness - a sure sign he was feeling
emotional.
Blue glanced down at
Symphony to see her eyes were also full of unshed tears. He placed a hand on her
shoulder, squeezing gently and said softly, “Make it three firsts…I think he’s
broken his first hearts too…”
Her hand gripped his
fingers as a tear stole down her cheek.
AUTHORS’ NOTES:
The previous story is a
combined effort of the authors - with thanks to everyone who might recognise
snippets they contributed to the idea - those contributors are numerous, and
we'd like to acknowledge them.
This story has been
written in a spirit of respect for the Tibetan culture and religion – and no
disrespect is intended in any way. We are not experts, but have attempted to
keep within the traditions of that culture, as we understand it.
The idea of the
‘combined power system' - sun energy and wind power electricity - was our own
and has not been inspired by anything already in existence. If it does exist, we
apologise - if it doesn't - we're waiting for a note from the Patent Office
proving that we retain the rights to that invention...
As always, we'd like to
acknowledge and thank Hazel Kohler for her invaluable work as a beta-reader on
this story.
She has
made a wonderful job, but if there should be mistakes and omissions, they are
ours alone.
“Captain Scarlet
and the Mysterons”
© is still the creation of Gerry Anderson and Sylvia Anderson, and the rights of
the classic series, once owned by Century 21, ITC/Polygram and now by Carlton
International.
Download the PDF
version of this story
OTHER STORIES FROM CHRIS BISHOP
Chapter One
Chapter Two
Chapter Three
Other stories from Marion Woods
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