Chapter 4: This is Mr Black to Ground Control
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This is Mr. Black to Ground Control
"This is Major Tom to Ground Control . . . tell my wife I love her very much."
"She knows. This is Ground Control to Major Tom, your circuit's dead, there's something wrong. Can you hear me Major Tom . . . can you hear me Major Tom . . ."
"This is Major Tom to Ground Control . . . I see an old sailing ship. My god, it's the . . . ch man . . . fly . . . ng dutc . . . man."
"He's gone sir," the tech said sadly.
"Are you sure?"
"We couldn't get life support restarted," the tech said. "He can't be alive."
"The ship just disappeared," another tech said oddly. "This can't be right. It just . . . disappeared."
"I . . . I'll go tell his wife," the Mission Commander said. "Find out what went wrong. I don't want to loose any more people."
IIIIIIIIII
"Could you come up here for a moment Mr. Black?" Henchgirl called out. "I think you need to see this."
"What is it?" Harry asked as he stepped onto the deck.
"It looks like there's something wrong with that ship over there," Henchgirl replied. "Should we rescue them."
"Law of the sea," Harry agreed.
"We draw lots to decide who gets eaten?" The Professor said oddly.
"Not that one," Harry said. "The other one, the one about rescue."
"We rescue him and he works off his passage," the Professor said firmly. "Right."
"I think we can forget the part about making him work off his passage," Harry said mildly. "Bring him aboard. Might as well grab that ship of his too."
"Got it," Henchgirl agreed. "He's with the Doctor right now."
"I'll be in my quarters," Harry said with a yawn. "I'm going back to sleep."
"Good night," Henchgirl said.
"Well." The Professor checked to make sure Harry was long gone. "Do you think they'd mind if we had a little look at their ship before we returned it?"
"I'm sure they wouldn't mind," Henchgirl agreed. "Let's get to it."
IIIIIIIIII
"Where . . . where am I?" Major Tom gasped. "Am I dead . . . I see an angel."
"You're married," the Doctor said with a smile. "But I appreciate the thought. You're safe, we're taking you home."
"Home?"
"Just rest," the Doctor said.
"Ok," Major Tom agreed. His eyes began to close.
"Is he going to be ok?" Henchgirl peeked into the room.
"He'll be fine," the Doctor said. "A few more minutes . . ."
"Good," Henchgirl said firmly. "Did you hear what the Professor wanted to do?"
"What now?" The Doctor sighed.
"He thought we'd make your patient work his way home," Henchgirl replied. "But don't worry, Mr. Black set him straight. We're taking him home for free."
"Good."
"We'll, I'd better get back to the Professor. He won't remember to put the space ship back together unless I remind him to."
"Right, later then."
IIIIIIIIII
The Mission Commander didn't hurry as he walked out of the building, he still couldn't think of how he'd be able to bring himself to break the bad news. "It's my responsibility," he said for the hundredth time. "I have to . . . what in the hell?" He couldn't believe his eyes, sitting in the parking lot in the company vehicles only section was what appeared to be the missing space craft. He was only one of a group of people that stumbled towards the craft and after taking a couple deep breaths, he looked into the open hatch. "MEDIC."
IIIIIIIIII
"Did you remember to put the hatch back on?" The Professor asked as the ship got back on course.
"Yeah," Henchgirl agreed. "Did you remember to put the clock back on the right time after you set it forward?'
"I believe they like to call it a chronograph," the Professor said in a superior tone.
"Fine," Henchgirl growled. "Did you remember to set the chronograph back to the right time? It would be rude not to after you messed with it."
IIIIIIIIII
"That's the story," Major Tom said. "Then I woke up back here."
"You mentioned seeing an old fashion sailing ship before you blacked out," the Mission Commander said slowly. "And the transcripts have you say something about a flying Dutchman."
"Maybe," Major Tom said with a shrug. "I don't remember that part."
"Major Tom . . . have you ever heard the legend of the Flying Dutchman?"
"The part where the only way off is to find someone else to take your place?" Major Tom said with a laugh. "Well, as you can see they let me . . ." The Man turned white.
"What is it?"
"I just remembered a conversation they were having as I fell asleep," Major Tom whispered. "Something about how I'd normally have to work off my passage but someone named Mr. Black said I was to go free."
"Mr. Black?" One of the other men gasped. "It can't be."
"What do you know?" The Mission Commander demanded.
"Just . . . just rumors," the man replied nervously. "I . . . just rumors. But I think Major Tom is very lucky. According to what I've heard, Major Tom is one of a very small number of people that have been taken by Mr. Black and allowed to return."
"We'll get back to that later," the Mission Commander said firmly. "Next item on the agenda, does anyone have any idea how the chronograph could have malfunctioned so badly?"
"What happened to it?" Major Tom asked.
"If it's correct," the Mission Commander said with a laugh. "You've been gone almost five hundred years."
"If it involves Mr. Black, the chronograph might not be wrong."
An: I heard the song on the radio on the way home.