by Alex South
“What’s all that?” Oa asked, feeling left out in all the preparation.
“Ammo for my guns and a few embersplitters, just in case the Legion is unlucky enough to spot us,” Kai replied cockily. She grabbed the three embersplitters from the shelf and slipped them into the pockets of her baggy jumpsuit.
Kai snatched two pistols from another shelf in the cabinet and placed them in the holsters on her hips. They were the same dull, gray color as her jacket.
“Are those boltspitters?” Oa asked, thinking he recognized the firearm.
“Gross, no! I made these myself. I never named ‘em, but they’re much more elegant than a boltspitter,” Kai replied proudly.
“We should start now. I want to spend one last cycle wind-hopping through these canyons before we make the steal. I probably won’t come back here once we leave in the ARI,” Kai explained as she slapped the clasp on her belt. Immediately, the mesh between the metal tightened, cinching the belt around her waist to support the added weight of the gear.
“I understand. I’ll be right back. I just want to go make sure Ohm is still alright,” Oa said, intrigued yet slightly puzzled. He had no idea what Kai meant by wind-hopping.
“Don’t take too long,” Kai called while opening another cabinet. She grabbed several compact tools and tossed them onto a nearby table.
Oa was already running back up the tunnel to the chamber he had left Ohm in. He knelt down next to his friend. Nothing had changed. Ohm still lay motionless. The blue light behind his mask flickered.
“Fred, are you sure Ohm is fine?” Oa asked worriedly.
“I am sure, Oa. I cannot predict when Ohm will reawaken. I frequently attempt to create an algorithm that mimics Ohm’s sleep patterns, but I still have not succeeded,” Fred replied apologetically.
“That’s alright, Fred. I need you to give Ohm a message for me when he wakes up,” Oa said hurriedly.
“I would be happy to relay your message,” Fred replied.
“Tell Ohm he is currently in a cave not far from Bolleworth. Tell him that I met an Awoken named Kai, and this is her home. We are going to steal something called a fusion drive from a nearby Legion outpost; it’s for her ship. We should be back in a cycle or two,” Oa instructed Fred.
“I will relay the message. Be careful using Seeker, Oa. My programming is not fully functional without Ohm. His sleep stopped us just short of a resolution to the data we gathered on you. Our findings were beginning to point toward several dangerous conclusions. We cannot complete the analysis until Ohm wakes up. If you are going off alone, be cautious. Take this tracker so Ohm can locate you when he wakes,” Fred advised. A tiny disk slid out of a slot in the pack. Oa grabbed it and placed it in his satchel. The disk began to blink red.
“I’ll be careful. Thanks, Fred,” Oa said. He stood up and raced back to the hangar. He arrived back at the ARI’s chamber to find Kai and Susan waiting for him. The varl was still roughly Kai’s size. Oa figured it must be her preferred volume.
“Ready to go?” Kai asked.
“Yeah, I guess,” Oa replied, slightly nervous. He had been unsettled by Fred’s ominous and annoyingly vague warning.
Kai sensed the hint of worry in Oa’s voice so she slapped him on the back reassuringly. “Don’t worry, Oa. I have done this type of thing a bunch. They won’t even know what hit ‘em.” She turned and picked up an oddly scrunched pack from the table she was standing in front of.
Oa noticed that she was already wearing a similar pack. It was made of the same shimmering mesh that held her belt together. The top section of the pack was enclosed in a matte-gray shell, just behind the shoulders. A mesh sack hung beneath the shell. Oa could see the shapes of various tools and supplies through the taut material. The pack had two straps that ran over the shoulders and buckled together in a cross over the chest.
Kai turned back around and handed the pack to Oa. “Put this on. You will probably want to put that bag of yours in here as well so you don’t lose it. We are going to start that lesson in flying.”
Excited, Oa took of his satchel and placed it into the mesh pouch hanging beneath the hard shell portion of the pack. He pulled the cover of the pouch down and buckled it to the bottom of the pack. He then slipped the harnesses over his shoulders and buckled the straps together across his chest. The pack fit loosely. He shrugged his shoulders awkwardly, feeling the baggy pack slide around.
“Hit the button on your right,” Kai instructed. Oa looked over and saw a small button on the strap running over his right shoulder. He pressed it; and the mesh of the pack tightened suddenly, conforming to his body. Oa jumped up once, trying to shift the pack. The pack did not slide at all; it fit securely against his back.
“What are these for?” Oa asked.
“Gliders for wind hopping,” Kai explained. She stepped away from Oa and slapped a second button on her left shoulder. Immediately, the shell covering the back of her shoulders cracked open, and a blur of dark gray fabric leaped up into the air. The thin material sprung into a wide chevron-shaped wing an arm’s length above her head. Two loops of the thin material dangled down from the wing just over Kai’s shoulders.
“This is air-skin material. It’s very light and compact, stretched over a micro-skeleton of memory alloys. Never forgets the shape it was crafted in, and it’s tough enough to withstand all my crashes,” Kai explained as she slapped the button on her left shoulder again. With a whoosh of air, the whole assembly folded back down into the pack. The hard shell closed again with an audible click.
“I can’t wait to try this,” Oa said, growing excited.
“It’s a lot of fun,” Kai admitted, walking toward the back of the ARI. “Alright, let’s get going before all the good currents run off.” Oa and Susan followed close on her heels as she circumnavigated the large ship. Back behind the engines three tunnels split off from the chamber headed toward unknown destinations.
After a moment of consideration, Kai grabbed a scrap of metal from the floor and threw it down the middle tunnel. The metal chunk clattered down the corridor and echoed back out to the trio. Susan barked happily, sparking with a bright purple light as she flew down the tunnel after the scrap. Kai started jogging after the rambunctious lightning varl and Oa followed. They had not gotten far into the tunnel when Susan came back with the scrap in her mouth. She followed by Kai’s side, dropping the scrap once she realized Kai was not likely to throw it again. This tunnel was the longest of the three Oa had been through during his stay in Kai’s hideout. There was no need for light, as Susan gave off a comforting glow that guided them through the darkness.
The corridor sloped downward, and Oa began to wonder where he was in relation to the bottom of the canyon. They rounded a corner, and the path abruptly ended. Before he could ask about the dead end, Kai walked over to a hand-sized device resting on the floor. She pushed one of the buttons on the square gadget, and a portion of the wall disappeared, revealing a hidden exit out onto the floor of a ravine. The terrain was unfamiliar to Oa, but he realized he had seen so many glimmering rock faces, that he doubted he would recognize this one even if he had walked past it before.
“That device is quite useful. Is that what disguised the other door?” Oa asked
“Of course. I invented this as well. It’s a camo-buffer. It projects an image and a force-field simultaneously. So far, neither the Legion nor the Howlers have caught on to the trick. I have gone unnoticed for many cycles now,” Kai said, proud of her work.
As they strode out into the canyon, Oa turned around to look for the exit. The device must have reactivated because there was no sign of the opening as far as he could tell. Kai motioned to the immense stone walls surrounding them.
“The Legion outpost is up on a nearby plateau. They should be looking toward Bolleworth still, so we will make sure to come in from the opposite direction. We will take the long way around—partly to be safe, but mostly because I want to get a good long glide in,” Kai explained as she looked around
the rocky ground for a good spot to start.
There were several deep rifts in the cracked stone. Kai walked up to each of them, putting her hand over the edge for a moment before moving to the next one. When she had concluded her investigation of the fissures she returned to one of them, motioning for Oa to join her.
“This crack has the best updraft. We will launch from here. I will go first to show you what to do, then you will try. Once you can handle being airborne, we will head out,” Kai said with anticipation in her voice for the coming flight.
“I’ll be sure to learn quickly so we can get up there,” Oa replied, gazing out of the deep canyon toward the distant sky.
Kai took a few steps back from the fissure. Then, she sprinted forward, slapping the button on her left shoulder strap. The shell on her back snapped open, releasing the large wing. The bunched-up ball of memory alloy and air-skin snapped out into its chevron shape as Kai jumped out over the crevice. Immediately the wind caught the wing, sending Kai sailing upwards toward the rock face. She grabbed the loops of air-skin dangling above her shoulders. Using them as handles, she hauled her body weight hard to the left. The wing’s left edge dipped down and Kai turned just before hitting rock. She made a lazy half circle out of the updraft, gliding back down to land next to Oa. She slapped he left shoulder again, and the wing retracted into the shelled pack.
“Okay, so the handles control your direction left and right. Pulling them back will speed you up while pulling forward will slow your speed. Don’t worry about messing up. If you do, just collapse the wing; and Susan will rescue you. She is great at catching me after stupid crashes,” Kai said, as she playfully shoved Oa toward the rift.
“I got this,” Oa said, bolstering his own confidence.
“Don’t worry; you’ll be fine,” Kai called as Oa took off running toward the edge of the cleft. He mimicked Kai’s launch as best as he could, slapping his wing-launch button just before he reached the edge. He leaped out over the gap. Instead of falling, Oa felt himself jerk up into the air as the wind whipped up from beneath him. The force of the current took the young Awoken by surprise, and he fumbled to find the control handles. His hands found the holds, and he grasped them tightly in relief. Oa shifted his body weight to the left as Kai had done. He looked up just in time to smack face-first into the rock wall. Oa was stunned briefly, but he managed to remember to collapse the wing. It crumpled down into his pack as he fell back off the rock. Before he had time to worry about his descent, he felt himself lifted up by strong, crackling paws of energy and dense cloud. Susan snatched him out of the air and floated him down to the ground next to Kai.
Kai laughed, “Nice! A ‘wall face’ on your first try. I pioneered that move, you know,” she teased, patting Susan on the head.
Oa gasped as he recovered from the rush of his first attempt. “I did not expect the launch to be so fast.”
“Yeah, it comes up quick. You gotta be ready to maneuver immediately,” Kai instructed. “Give it another go.”
Oa nodded and ran at the crevice a second time. As soon as the wing deployed, he grabbed the control handles. When the wind caught him, he was ready. He yanked the controls forward to slow his ascent. He pulled down hard with his left arm, managing to turn the glider away from the rock. Oa was elated that he had not repeated his embarrassing first flight. He glided out of the current in a wobbly half circle. He tried to land smoothly next to where Kai was standing, but he overshot his target. As he landed, Oa tripped over a pile of stone, spilling forward onto his face. Kai jogged over and helped him up.
“That was fun!” Oa exclaimed, hardly caring about his fumbled landing.
“I’m glad you liked it. You did great,” Kai encouraged.
“I think I got the hang of it,” Oa replied, knowing Kai was eager to be in the sky.
“Okay!” Kai said happily. “I’m going to take us in a wide arc out of these canyons and up into the ridges behind them. When we launch, keep turning back into this current so you can spiral up and gain altitude.”
Kai walked over to the launching point. “I might throw in some tricky maneuvers.” She glanced impishly over her shoulder. “If you can’t keep up, Susan will carry you the rest of the way. Just follow me and have fun.”
Kai ran forward and vaulted out over the breach. Her glider deployed, and the current sent her sailing upward. Oa immediately sprinted after her, enjoying the rush of the launch. He jumped out into thin air and felt the sudden jolt as the wing above his head caught wind. He quickly latched onto the glider’s control tillers and turned hard, keeping himself in the current as he corkscrewed through the air in Kai’s wake.
As they sailed upwards, Oa was amazed at how deep the ravine was. The stone seemed to rise forever. It must be thousands of body lengths high, he thought to himself in awe. They finally came out of the gorge. The rock wall ended, flattening out into a plateau. Their altitude revealed other connected cracks in the landscape. Around them, stone spires and sharp ridges of rock rose to even greater heights.
“Canyons within a canyon. This place is huge,” Oa muttered to himself.
Kai straightened her flight path and flew out of the current to glide between several spires. Oa waited until he had reached a similar height before following. He wove through the towers of stone as gracefully as he could manage. In front of him, Kai caught another updraft, and she shot up over a sharp ridge of rock. Oa aimed for the same spot. He caught the current and hauled back on the control handles, angling the glider into the wind. He shot up after Kai and cleared the jagged edge of rock. Oa glanced briefly behind himself to see Susan winding through the air lazily as she followed them.
Far off on the horizon, the peak pulsed forth the dawning of a new cycle. A refreshingly cool green light filled the sky as they rose up above the landscape. Kai gradually led them up into higher airstreams. Oa reveled in the serene flight. There were no sounds or distractions, only the wind. He gazed down to see a shimmering blue-green sea of light and realized that the sky was reflecting off the numerous glowing strands of silver that ran through the stone below. Oa lost himself in the beauty as they sailed higher and higher. Far below, the stone landscape rose into ridges and small mountain ranges, forming roots that trailed off toward the great peak on the horizon. Behind them, Oa could see the valley where Bolleworth lay. It was tiny. The great gashes in the stone desert continued from the basin and led out to the edge. The land below seemed so peaceful. The chaos of his early cycles and the Void seemed a distant memory.
Oa let the currents carry him far away from his worries and questions. He laughed as Susan hurtled over him, speeding up to overtake Kai. Ahead, Oa saw Kai reach down and pet Susan as she passed. Susan wheeled through the sky then looped back toward Oa. The lightning varl danced playfully between the pair of Awoken as they soared over the land in quiet bliss.
They traveled in a wide, meandering arc through the sky. Eventually Kai dropped out of the high airstreams, beginning a slow descent. They glided down toward the mountainous ridges that overlooked the distant city of Bolleworth. Oa watched as Kai flew in low, straight toward a thin shallow groove atop a sharp ridge. Oa wondered what she was going to do. His question was quickly answered as Kai swooped down to the rock. As she passed a body length or so above the ridge, she retracted her glider, dropping the remaining distance to the ground. Her precision was perfect as she landed on a narrow strip of stone, no wider than her shoulders. Kai sprinted the short length of the flat top then dove off the left side, redeploying her glider. It was a smoothly executed maneuver. Oa reasoned that she must have practiced the trick on numerous occasions. He stared ahead, nervous but determined to mimic Kai’s daring feat.
Oa lined himself up with the slim runway. He came in straight but retracted his glider too soon. He landed where the stone was too narrow to stand on. His foot slipped on the keen edge; and he lost his balance, falling off the ridge. Before he could panic, Susan slipped under him. He found himself now riding on the lightning var
l’s back. She had enlarged to about three times his size. Oa was slightly embarrassed. After a moment, he disregarded his blunder, choosing instead to admire Kai’s finesse and skill as they followed her down into the canyons again.
Kai led them to a broad tipped steeple. She circled above the rock then spiraled down onto the top of the tower. Susan floated in lightly, allowing Oa to jump off her back. Kai retracted her glider and sat down on the smooth stone, facing the distant valley that Bolleworth lay in. Oa sat down next to her. The light of the sky had faded off toward the edge. The cycle was nearly over.
“I was glad to see you try my little stunt,” Kai said with a chuckle.
“Yeah, I didn’t quite get it,” Oa replied.
“That’s okay; I am just glad you came along. When I built that spare glider, I always hoped someone would use it to go flying with me,” Kai admitted.
“It was a lot of fun; thanks for lending me your gear,” Oa said warmly.
“I hope this makes us buddies,” Kai said turning to look at Oa. “I have never had anyone besides Susan. I mean, Cale and Jess are there somewhere in my head; but sometimes I don’t know how real that is. Things are all muddled from before I met Susan.”
“We are definitely friends. And don’t worry; I’m sure you will figure it all out when we find them,” Oa said encouragingly. He took note of Kai’s mental struggle. Perhaps Ohm would know something about it.
“Great! Trust me, I won’t let the Legion catch up to you and your friend,” Kai said happily. She turned back toward Bolleworth and pointed to a plateau below them where two canyons merged together. “The Legion outpost is … right there. Susan will fly us down so we can get that fusion drive and then we’ll clear out before the Legion knows what hit ‘em.”
“Let’s do it,” Oa agreed, determined.
With a nod, Kai plunged off the spire, gliding down to the plateau below. Susan allowed Oa to climb up onto her back, and they floated off the spire after Kai. As they neared the fringe of the canyon-top below, Oa spotted four matte black vessels lined in a row. They landed a fair distance back from the ships, where the landscape was littered with boulders that provided excellent cover. Susan dropped back down to the Awoken’s size. The group snuck through the rock until they were right on top of the Legion outpost.