The Monkey and Squirrel fight for freedom. Read Free Page B

reinforced, as they were not designed as a spaceship. The structure had to absorb forces the original design couldn't, but they were confident the new one would hold together under the maximum thrust of the Ion engine. For reasons of survival the conspirators decided to only use fifty percent thrust unless events left them with no other options.
    The stations built by the Monkeys and Squirrels, all looked like large Drums. The accommodation modules, including all the offices, ran on bearings inside each end, travelling in opposite directions, to maintain the micro gravity of the factory. All very practical for a micro gravity factory. Human built ones looked like collections of pipes bound together with a thick band, at a distance.
    Tension mounted, nerves frayed, worrying if somehow they had given the game away, the wait was painful.       
    The big event arrived midnight Earth standard time. When most of the unofficial Christmas eve parties were in full swing and most humans were under the influence of drink and drugs. For the non-humans it was supposed to be just another day, but this time it was otherwise.
    The fake meteor storm was unleashed, progressing around the Earth like a real major meteor storm. As hoped and planned nearly all humans rushed off to the escape pods, without checking the control room, but there were a few stragglers. With most it was just a case of leading the over indulged to a pod. On Tman's station three refused to go, suspicious of the volunteer guides, the guides called the Just In Case back up squad. This was made up of those who could, zapped the humans with Tasters from behind, fed them two sleeping pills and a tranquilliser apiece washed down with a shot of whisky. Then unceremoniously dragged to a pod, dumped in and launched. With the last pod under-way the ion engine was started, slowly brought up to fifty percent power as the station aligned its self on to the pre set course.
     
     
     

 
    Chapter 2
    Flight
     
    A few days later in the cafeteria.
    “I don’t like it, it is too slow” signed Chatty.
    “Well you know why we have to have low acceleration; if it was higher the station might come apart, it wasn’t designed to be a space ship.” signed Tman impatiently.
    “I know, but I can’t help it, they could catch on any time Tman.”
    “Yes, they detected the change in altitude after a couple of hours and they wanted to know how and why we were moving the stations. They were told that we were using the runabouts to move the stations to safety, as we could not evacuate. Our existence being illegal on earth, we would be destroyed immediately on arrival at the surface, if not before. And they accepted that, as the 'meteors' have gone into orbit, it is considered too hazardous to send up a shuttle to supervise us.” explained Tman.
    “What happens now we are clear of 'the danger' surely they will question why we are still accelerating?” asked Chatty.
    “We are just panicky animals to humans and will keep going until we run out of fuel, it's the rationalisation of the situation they have come up with. You must have heard the news with the expert's opinions, they are surprised that we had the initiative and the application. We are doing very well or have been very lucky not to have run the stations into other orbiting objects yet.” replied Tman.
    “But they will spend more time arguing about who’s at fault for not spotting the meteor storm before it arrived. Humans they love finding someone to blame when things go wrong. Only when the sacrificial victim has been found do they think of fixing things.” signed Chatty.
    “Our biggest danger is if Mars gets a message directly through to Earth, before we are far enough out and both discover the same thing has happened in both places at the same time. Not many humans are stupid enough to accept a coincidence that big.” signed Tman.
    “They accepted the moon station being effected.” stated Chatty.
    “Including the