One of our engines was destroyed by a ray cannonball from the spectre ships. We had to land at the nearest airport and steal another plane.
"Oh boy!" I sighed,
"Here we go again." Sagging in my seat, I exhaled.
En route TO Manta, Ecuador
It was one thing flying in-between African countries, but flying intercontinental was a different issue altogether. We needed energy and rest. Luckily, there were stacks of premade meals, snacks and drinks, liquor. We had relished as much as we could. The rest of the team took a power nap while Ranishé and I kept monitoring radar and flight data from the new plane.
After escaping from the spectres in Sao Tome, we had to get rid of the half-demolished aircraft. It couldn’t take us any further. We landed in Lomé, Togo. All airport security was on high alert, tightening incomings and the terminal. News flash reported a group of seven individuals hijacking a plane from the Jomo Kenyatta airport in Nairobi, throwing off startled staff and passengers and taking off with the craft destination unknown. Everyone, of course, speculated terrorism.
It was a tough job... we couldn’t crash land on the runway, we’d immediately be spotted and our plan could go sideways. We landed just outside of the Lomé, Tokoin international airport, stealthily introducing ourselves from behind the bushes, careful not to arouse suspicion to ourselves, meanwhile carefully eye hopping the perfect pre serviced plane. We needed something sleek, agile and faster than what we stole from Nairobi. Just then, I pointed at the new model TESLA electric aircraft. Ranishé shook nodded in approval. It was a boom supersonic, super-charged model, with vertical take-off and landing aptitudes. The design was sleek and the gold, silvery colour stood out in the evenings dying star.
We meandered, concealing ourselves behind airport transporters and passenger trolleys, averting airport security and ground crew. We broke in through the cockpit, screwing through a thick layer of metal plates, introduced ourselves inside, replaced the metal plate as soon as everyone had made it inside.
The Tesla Boom supersonic passenger plane sped at 2335 km/h faster than the BAC one eleven series, which only flew at 846 km/h. There was one direct location in mind; Ecuador, coordinates, 0° North or South of the equator —between the tropic of cancer and Capricorn, North Pacific Ocean.
“This is by far the equipment that impressed me on earth”. Ranishé quirked up a half smile, gazing at me from the corners of his eyes as we sped over the Lomé skies.
“It’s not all, cave men here you know,” I responded, returning the mirthless smile.
“We have Elon Musk.” I raved.
“What source of energy does your spacecraft’s use? Is it RTG’s, otherwise known as, Radioisotope thermo-electric generators that propel your crafts to run faster than the speed of light?” I inquired.
“Nothing can travel faster than the speed of light. There is no craft or fuel with its own type of propulsion capable of travelling at that speed.” He corrected.
“Then what?” I pressed.
“There are navigable tunnels. We open them by concentrating a beam of laser at high speed, creating space, time gaps leading to another universe, world, realm, etc. Burning holes in space fabric, creating routes pre-calculated and projected at the specific destination and time.” He grimaced punching pilot control buttons in the cockpit.
“What's more powerful to bend space, time than black holes? Theoretically speaking.” He was surprised that I knew anything in that domain.
“What? You do not think I’m dumb, do you? Please, I’m a fan of Michio Kaku.” I whined my eyes and he liked his lips nervously and questioned.
“Am I supposed to know what that is?” Ranishé creased his forehead.
“Never mind. Just go on. I’m all ears.” I smirked and turned to face him.
“Alright, Miss. To make such a journey, portals have to exist at the two points. The originating point and the destination have should have the same timestamps. We can't manipulate them… I don't know if it can be safely done. It's not my domain so I do not ask. Or venture into it.” He shrugged.
“So, are you going to state the inevitable or should I ask?” I lifted my brows.
“What’s that?” He pursed his lips.
“Fine. Let me pick your brains awhile. Is it possible?” I blinked.
“Is what, possible?” He turned halfway and peered at me, a confused look appeared on his luminous face.
“You spoke of space, time, silly.” I bent sideways and nudged him.
“Whoa! I also said it’s not my domain and such things aren’t to be tampered with.” He held his hands up in a surrender.
“Come on. Riddle me.” I folded my arms and waited for his response.
“Look, there are wormholes or time loops existing in nature, obviously.” He exhaled.
“So you’ve never used them to go back or forward with your ship?” I peered.
“No!” He articulated.
He started reluctantly.
“These tunnels are routes as well. We place our crafts in these space tunnels and they propel us in any direction in the universe. These tunnels are dotted everywhere like atoms in the atmosphere. They are here, even now, but your people do not have the appropriate technology to open them. It could be used for time travel, but that’s not its primary use.” He explained.
“Amazing. Because a kitchen knife is primarily used for cutting and slicing vegetables, it wasn’t fashioned to be a murder weapon, but people kill with it anyway.” I joked, another question brewing in my mind.
“What’s your world like?” I strayed.
“It’s different in comparison. Maybe because it's relatively older and more experienced.”
“So, you speak English back on your planet?” I mused.
“Language is nothing more but a program manifested in a concrete illusion. How are you sure that it is, in fact, English we speak now?”
“Do not confuse me,” I scoffed.
“I know what I am saying and I can spell the letters for you.” I countered, hoping it was one of his mind games and I was, in fact, speaking English. Scared that his words were, in fact, bearing seeds of doubt.
“The human brain has psychic abilities. Thoughts transcribe relaying them into some sort of language we can understand. So to speak. The only universal language is numbers. You speak in an illusionary language you think you know and understand, the words transcribe into a language I think I know and understand. Like I said before, it's simply an automated machine. A complex one to make total sense of—believe me.” Ranishé breathed a weighty sigh.
“Alright. Enough of the geek. It's giving me a headache. I’m sure back in your world, you are a considered a geek. Hiding behind your computer and wasting away.” I scuffed shrugging my tight shoulders.
He chuckled and responded.
“Not exactly. I ride Gormounts in my extracurricular time.”
“What’s that?” I inquired.
“Gormounts, four-legged herbivores, highly powerful, great muscle strength?” He explained.
“You know!” his eyes gleamed as he spoke of the creatures. It appeared they gave him great pleasure.
“Oh! Are you by any chance talking about horses?” I hastily searched horses on a tablet embedded in the cockpit, showing him the picture of a dark Arabian steed, he nodded.
“Strange name. Gormount. I hope they aren’t robots.” I mused.
“Hum, you think A.I. Rule our lives?” He pursed his lips.
“I was just kidding though.” I waved.
“What’s yours?” Ranishé blurted out, evading my gaze.
“Mine, what?” I pretended I didn’t know what he meant.
“What do you enjoy doing in your spare time?” He clarified.
If I told him my hobby, he’d probably laugh out loud, for it was in sharp contrast with my line of work. I remember when I used to rush to the neighbours’ barber shop to listen to jazz music. It was soulful and it became a hobby of mine to sing jazz and ille
gally download classic jazz music from the internet.
“Cars.” I lied.
“I love sprinting and car chasing.” I shrugged, flashing my teeth.
“Hum. Figures.” He yawned, turning to his left and picking something up.
“What are you looking for?” I questioned as he rummaged through a package just beside the pilot’s seat.
“Hum, look at that?” He revealed a crimson bodycon dress with a plunging neckline and beads of gem decorating the hem.
“Why would you go through someone’s stuff?” I threw my hands in the air.
“This would look great on you.” He smirked rummaging more and dangled a pair of silver stilettos. They were divine.
I shook my head in a bid to avoid the prolonged the uncomfortable conversation any longer. He was certainly trying to embarrass me. I could never fit into something like that. I hated how I looked. My physique was in sharp contrast with what movies portrayed femme fatales to look like. I hated my legs in heels. They were too muscular. I hated to expose my legs in general. I was disgusted at the picture my mother, once coerced me to take on Christmas while dressed in a similar attire. I kept it hidden where no one could find it. I was more than comfortable in slacks.
I stirred from my flashback and yelled
“Put those back. It's rude. Maybe it was for the pilot’s wife or girlfriend until we stole this plane.”
“Fine.” He shoved the items back into place and monitored the radar and data.
***
Manta, in central coastal Ecuador, was certainly a challenge location. It was cluttered with tourists, restaurants and shops. How could we land on the location unseen? However, we had no choice. We had to risk exposure.
The clearing between a cluster of palm trees stood as a shield from watchful eyes, but we had to be cautious, Gema scrambled every electronic device with electrostatic interference frequencies within a 3-mile radius. No one could capture images on smartphones, tablets and devices ranking as such. We made a clean, steady vertical landing thanks to the TESLA model.
We exited the craft into the yard, but the spectres were waiting... cloaked within their invisible force fields.
Electric sparks took us unaware. Avis flew and landed on her back, knocking her out. We exchanged fire from the direction the wave had come from. Gema rushed to make sure she was OK.
‘Damn, we are fighting blind.” I cussed.
“How do we kill these guys without seeing them?”
I fired my gun where the electric spur had emerged. Once more, my gun clicked. I had no more rounds left in the magazine. Avis threw me a spare EM railgun as I dodged a pulse that was headed straight for my torso, causing a whirlwind of sand. I dived aiming from an angle, covering Ranishé as he rushed to the installation position.
Ranishé and Gema hastily started the procedure of the second, millisecond Magnetar stabilizer.
I shot my EM rail gun to the emergent point. It must have knocked out the Wraith ship's force field. They appeared in full view hovering towards us. I aimed continual spurts of fire and the left side of the ship combusted.
The rest of the squad joined me as we sent blazed spurts of EMP blasts to the ship. It combusted. Its tough metallic material disintegrated into a pile of rubbish. Ranishé and Gema completed the procedure and raced to the aircraft. We didn’t want any more wraiths delaying the mission. The pile of combusted metal auto-destructed and turned to a pile of burning ash. At least, the wraiths were not senseless. They knew how to clean up after themselves.
Eyewitnesses had heard the cacophony, peeking from behind rocks, while some ran for their lives. Ranishé started the electric plane and set our location; a round trip to the arctic zone, north pole bound.
North Pole
We dropped just outside the mountainous Lomonosov ridge. The glacial terrain harboured floating formation ice sheets beneath the ice formed like art pieces. The terrestrial north pole, where every direction on the hologram pointed south, was fixated on the top of the earthly plane. Giant spikes of ice greeted us and Baikal ice emerald peaked from underneath ice formations.
It was dusk, the yellow setting sun reflected on the white terrain, casting blue shadows to white mounds. So, the glacier had started to melt. We spotted a lonely polar bear basking atop a haphazard piece of an ice sheet, gawking at us from a distance. Hopefully, we hadn’t run into any expeditors yet.
As the Orbitrion blinked, Ranishé led us straight ahead. The same scenario unfolded. A sheet of ice shifted and water away with it as though Moses held his staff dividing it. The cyclotron emerged. The nitrogen steamed and the empty device containment hummed, emerging from the heathens. Ranishé carefully replaced the superluminal ball of spinning blinding light otherwise known as the stellar stabilizer, which channelled fusion power into the ice hole. Once he was through everything back into place, shielding the instrument and then, we moved fast. Device number three was in place. It was time to install device 4 location 6.0175°S, 106.8650°e, Jakarta, Indonesia for the installation of the last electromagnetic accelerator.
***
We were being followed. The radar detected several jet planes quickly closing in on us. These weren’t wraith ships. They were of earth. Someone had figured out our movement and tracked our destination. We were pursued. Perhaps, we needed help.
“It's high time I called my people. We cannot do this alone anymore. We wouldn’t make it out alive.” I yelled at the top of my voice.
“No, you cannot let them know.” Ranishé mopped his brow.
“I won’t tell them the truth OK? Just trust me.” He stared at me with pleading eyes and I assured him
“OK.” He nodded.
“Whatever you have to do, do it fast.” He ushered, cracking his knuckles.
I retrieved a satellite phone from the cockpit and dialled my coordinated calling headquarters. I had to get to my bosses and clear the air anyhow I could.
The line beeped requesting my passcode
“HQ, do you copy?” I hollered.
“This is Blue Siren, sequential code, Tango, Foxtrot, 82154099612, requesting tactical backup. Emergency status, Delta, Alfa, November, Golf, Echo, Romeo.” I breathed.
“Soldier, what is your status?” I heard Director Roman’s hoarse voice from the other end of the receiver and a smile appeared on my face for the first time since the momentum.
“Secure, sir,” I responded sharply.
“What’s your position?” Director Roman demanded.
“Coordinates, 6.0175°S, 106.8650°E bound, sir. We are under pursuit I repeat; we are under pursuit by the confederation fighter jets.” I respired.
“What is this all about, agent Eden?”
“Sir, I promise I will let you in on it once the mission is a success. If you’ve never believed in me before, believe me now. I have to save the world will make it to command and tell you, sir.”
“Alright. I expect a full report when you get back to HQ.” Director Roman exhaled.
“Roger that, sir.” I lied.
“The president is beginning to ask questions. I will call off the jets.”
“Negative, sir. We need tactical backup. We came under pursuit from… another aircraft.” I stammered, evading to mention the nefarious threat at hand.
“OK. You have air guardians on your side now.” Director Roman announced.
“Roger, sir,” I responded.
“Eden, do not disappoint me.” Director Roman grumbled.
“I won’t, sir.” I smiled.
“Sir, have you heard of any survivors from the base?” I inquired hoping my team had made it. Director Roman breathed deeply and spoke in a meeker tone.
“I’m sorry Eden, no one lived to tell the tale.” Silent tears fell from my eyes. I stifled a moan and responded.
“That will be all, sir.”
I breathed terminating the call.
“That went great. Now we have our own firepower.” Ranishé mused.
I didn’t respond and
he turned sharply and gazed at me. I hugged my knees to my chest and tears poured.
“Eden,” He approached holding me by the shoulder. I buried my head on my knees and sobbed. I couldn’t let him see me cry.
“Eden, what happened?” He knelt taking my hand.
“They are all gone, Marie and the rest.” I sobbed.
“Oh no. I’m so sorry Eden. Come here.” He gathered me in his arms and I sank in them sobbing into his shoulder.”
“Shh! I’m here. It’s going to be OK.” Ranishé’s smooth voice rang in my ears.
“They are going to pay for this,” Hot tears stung my eyes and I let them flow unrestrained.
“I’ll make them pay.” He avowed.
“Do you think I’m a coward?” I sobbed.
“Why would you say that?” Ranishé scowled, astounded by my question.
“I deserted my Comrades. Maybe... Maybe I should have stayed and fought. Instead, I left with you.” I sobbed. Who was to blame? Would there have been a difference if she stayed?
“Nonsense. You are brave. We wouldn’t have come this far without you. You’ve been our muscle. Our back up and you know everything in this world will die if we don’t do this.” Ranishé countered.
“I know. Still, I wished I would have done something more.” I sniffled.
“There is nothing anyone could have done. As brave as you are, you can’t save everyone. Come here.” He tightened his hug and I sunk into his hard muscle, sniffing his sweet scent and drowning at the moment.
I looked up into his eyes and I could see the sincerity of his concern. An invisible force drew me closer, aching for his bowed lips, my hands rested on his chest. His eyes ogled in horror unsure of what I was doing. Just then, we heard sounds of fired torpedoes. The shades were closing in. The Jets must have heard command they sent two Wraith ships combusting in the air.
“How many of these ships are there? Why can’t they just die already?” I thumped my fist, expressing my frustration and strapping myself on my seat as Ranishé returned to his.
The agile zigzag movement and expert meandering of the well-trained fighter jets swirled dodging flaming balls and electric bolts from the Nargoth ship. The pilots fired several missiles annihilating all Nargoth ships in pursuit, granting a clear path for us to make a clean landing.
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