When Evil Calls
by
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However our most triumphant moments all occurred in secret with only the nine of us present: I cannot remember how I managed to persuade the Atomic Energy Authority to part with those twenty grams of Plutonium for our experiment, but one dark dismal night in December 2039 we gathered in the laboratory workshop that had been specially built for us on the airfield; before us on the floor a metal object four feet long, and two feet wide - there were some areas where we refused to use the metric system - and standing about eighteen inches high. Looking a little like a stranded submarine, it had four pods protruding from it: two small ones at the front and two larger ones at the rear. Others were concealed within the underside of the object. The moment of truth had arrived. Standing behind a transparent safety barrier we held our breath as I flicked the switches of the radio control unit within my hand. Red lights on the object glowed but for two full minutes nothing else happened. One by one the lights on the controller turned green and then slowly, and in absolute silence, our ‘toy’ rose into the air until it hovered ten feet above the ground. In retrospect it wasn’t a good idea to carry out this test in the workshop as even with me gently manipulating the controls it moved much faster than we anticipated and suddenly shot out through a window. “Shit!!” I exclaimed quickly moving the control to the stop position. We hurried outside to see it hovering about fifty feet away, silent but aglow with green lights. “Quick, get it back here,” said Peter. Gently I moved the control and our toy flew back and settled on the ground in front of us. I flicked the switch to power it down and the lights faded. “Jesus! I hope no-one saw that,” said Adrian “Get it inside and under cover quick.” “Is it going to be hot?” asked Charles. “No idea.” I replied. “That wasn’t what I was expecting. Throw that tarpaulin over it; if it doesn’t smoke then we can pick it up between us.” The tarpaulin remained smoke free so we quickly picked up our ‘toy’ and carried it back into the workshop. “Good job that window was open,” said Barry “or we’d have some explaining to do.” “We still have,” I said glancing out of the window, “someone saw and is coming to investigate. Quick get out that little hovercraft you made for Shayla and start playing with it, it’s got enough lights that we should get away with it. And get that out of sight.” I commanded as I headed for the door to meet whoever was coming. Two minutes later I ushered in the security patrol and was relieved to find Peter playing with the hovercraft which was displaying a lot more lights than I remembered “See Burt,” I said “it was just Peter’s toy. He lost control and it went out of the window.” I pointed to the open window. “I was sure it was larger than that,” said Burt, “but if you say so and there’s no danger. Well, goodnight. Haven’t you got homes to go to?” “Just finishing something up, Burt. We’ll be gone in an hour.” I reassured him as I showed him out of the door. He clearly wasn’t totally convinced as it was several minutes before we heard him drive away. “Phew! That was close,” remarked Ian mopping his brow. He then stooped to pull the cover off our creation. For a long moment we stared in silence at the thing we had created, then turning to each other we first grinned, then indulged in such a scene of back slapping and congratulation - for we had all contributed something -that had not been seen since the first flight of the TSR3. We covered our creation, locked the workshop and headed for the staff bar where Barry and Charles ordered the champagne. We raised our glasses ‘To the future’, and the ion pulse drive, so often a figment of science fiction, was now reality.
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About the Book
A whole class of boys disappear without trace from their school. Another set of boys apparently witness what happened but are physically prevented from describing what they saw for some months. This latter group of boys separate to follow their own careers, marry and raise children, but are eventually all brought together again in an engineering capacity – despite earlier interests. Working together they devise new alloys and electronic communication devices. They build a model of machine they believe will travel through space – at the same time secretly building the parts for a full size machine. The model is tested in front of witnesses and performs perfectly but disappears from all monitoring systems for most of the test flight. While testing the new communication device a message is received from their old school friends who vanished those years ago. It takes some convincing of others that these boys (men now|) are still alive but permission is given for the full size machine to be built. Whole families are smuggled aboard the machine which, rather than going for a test flight, heads for the planet where their old friends are waiting. On arrival they find that all the people there have to be underground at night and in well lit places; any person, or animal, left outside at night is found dead the next day. They explore the planet, make friends with unknown animals, but are caught outside at night. A call for help is answered and they all survive, but now have a mission to destroy the darkness. They return to Earth to pick up people versed in ancient magics and return to Paxlene where, after adventures the darkness is defeated. An attempt is made to return the special people to Earth but fails as the Earth is about to be hit by a giant Asteroid. They are able to cocoon parts of the Earth and shield them from the catastrophe, but it all happens too quickly for anyone to be returned home. They try return to Paxlene, now free of evil, where they plan to help to build new societies out in the open, but something takes over their controls. The story continues with ‘Wormhole’ , and will conclude with a third tale which has a working title of “Restitution”.
About the Author
Chris Marshall was born in London in 1947. Educated first at Kilburn Grammar School from 1958 to 1965 and then gained a BSC from St Andrews University in 1969..Employed first by Brooke Bond Liebig and then by Charing Cross Hospital Medical School where he obtained a PhD for research into gastric hormones, again from St Andrews University in 1979. It was immediately after gaining the PhD that the germ of the idea for this book took hold and the first version was completed in 1980 / 1981. Not finding a publisher it was put away for 25 years, until the manuscript was suddenly rediscovered in 2015. Extensively rewritten as technology had advanced so much (no mobile phone in original version) and now twice the original length it is at last ready for the public.
Married, and with two children from his first marriage, he has four grandchildren and also two step children and five step grandchildren.
Shortly after gaining the PhD Chris’ career took a sharp turn into computer programming which covered many computer languages, some of which have now gone out of use. Working for Charing Cross Hospital, then Vamp Health, the Royal London Dental Institute and finally for CeLSIUS (Centre for Longitudinal Studies and User Support) first at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine and finally at University College London. Chris enjoys reading, singing (was forty five years with the Royal Choral Society but now singing locally), gardening, and, when opportunity arises, travelling.
Chris developed an interest in Spiritualism