Rebirth Page 60

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  Both Tyler and Caroline should have known that their period of fun and laughter could not last forever, for a recorded message came in especially for them, and it was from Tom Parkinson on Earth.

  "Tyler I need your help desperately, two of my agents are on the run from a space cruiser from the planet Aldebra, they have been spying for me for a couple of years but now Quasar the planet`s maniacal leader has found out and is after them. All of our starships are busy elsewhere and in any case, they are too far away to be of much help. I need the Defender to rendezvous with my agents and get them away to safety, I have enclosed the details of where to find them in this message, plus there are details of their ship so that you will know it when you find it, please confirm as soon as possible that you are on the way to them."

  "Well Tyler, you are an agent of the Interstellar Investigations Bureau now, and we must expect this sort of call in the future." Caroline lamented.

  The Freedom had just gone into orbit around Orion when they received the message and so Tyler decided to land and get supplies, and also let the Goddard children get off, they would stay at a friend`s house until their parents returned, for Brian and Tracy had volunteered to go with him on this one further trip. He would have liked to get the rest of his 'A' team, as he called them to crew the ship. Richard Smith, Colin Freeman and Frank Mason, but they would all be needed to pilot the Defender if the need arose. He even let Paul Johnson go to captain the Defender, but he did ask Paul Divine to come on this rescue trip, as he could use another good man on what could turn out to be a very dangerous trip.

  Tyler dropped in on the town council to ensure that there was no pressing business awaiting his attention. He also sent a message to Tom Parkinson to inform him that they would be leaving on the hour, and that he expected Earth to forward the necessary credits into the planet of Orion`s credit account, to cover the costs of the crew`s time, the costs in fuel and stores to cover the journey. This last bit was said more in jest as Tyler would have gone to help the spies anyway. In less than one hour, the Freedom and its weary crew had once again taken off from home and headed back into deep space to rendezvous with the Jeanette.