by Mark Stewart
THE TRIO fanned out, combing the rooftop, searching for a hidden hatch. Josh found a small cover not much larger than a person. He found a flat narrow panel five inches long and three inches wide adjacent to the almost invisible cover. Josh tapped the entire surface. It sprung open, revealing a button. He pushed it. A metal plate rose from the rooftop. Connected to the plate was a glass tube. It stopped when the tube extended to a length of six feet.
Josh whistled at Clay and Florian. He waited for them to start running towards him before stepping inside the glass tube. Almost immediately it descended into the spaceship.
“It’s a lift,” he yelled. “I’ll send it back.”
Clay was hugging Florian when the tube reappeared. Florian stepped into the tube.
Again, it descended.
Clay paced the rooftop, waiting. Nightmarish thoughts flowed through his mind. They’d done so much in such a short amount of time he didn’t think about any new danger Florian might be facing. Josh seemed like a nice boy. What did he know of him or for that matter what did he know of Florian? They could be brother and sister for all he knew. Worse still what if Josh tried to murder Florian when they were alone. He did seem eager to enter the Piper. Had it been a calculated move to leave him outside? What if Josh knew how the ship worked? What if he and Florian planned to leave the planet, expecting him to die after being swept off the roof? Clay was still entertaining the thought Josh might want Florian for himself when the lift came back. Clay sighed heavily as he stepped into the glass tube.
Inside the ship, in front of the bridge console, Florian and Josh were waiting. Clay stepped out of the tube giving them both a heartless stare.
“Is something wrong?” asked Florian, innocently.
“Nothing,” replied Clay.
“The way you were glaring at us I’d say you thought we might have deliberately left you outside?” questioned Josh.
“I was thinking crazy thoughts,” replied Clay. “Let’s drop the subject. We have to get underway.”
Josh shrugged and walked onto the bridge.
“While waiting for you two, I scanned the instructions on how to fly this ship. It’s similar to the shuttle. Clay, you did a marvelous job getting us here you shouldn’t have any trouble flying the Piper.”
“Right,” he replied.
Josh tapped a series of buttons on the keypad. The engines came to life.
“We’ll give them a minute to warm up. It has been twenty years since the engines were started.”
“I don’t think we have the time to wait,” reported Florian. She positioned herself in front of a monitor, tapped up the menu and pressed the short-range scanner. “The computer has picked up a band of wet weather closing in on the Piper.”
“Does the computer recommend another good landing site?” asked Clay, still slightly worried about his ugly thoughts.
Florian busied herself tapping in the relevant information, and added a few of her personal ideas; ‘Freshwater, a pool of water, food, flat ground and the sea.’
“Yes,” she reported. “Enter the following course into the flight computer.”
“We don’t have the time, or the knowledge to figure out how to pre-flight the computer, we’ll have to fly manually,” suggested Josh. He pushed the hatch close button on the computer. Several bangs were heard throughout the ship.
“Okay, it sounds like we’re ready,” chirped Florian. “We have to fly towards the storm before making a ninety-degree turn to be on the correct flight path to a perfect destination.”
“Whose perfect destination, yours or the computers?” questioned Clay.
The other two looked sideways at each other, then refocused on Clay. “I’m sure we don’t know what you’re talking about?” answered Florian, still looking a little puzzled.
“I hope not.”
“Tell us what you’ve been thinking?” urged Josh, firmly.
“Later, we don’t have time. It’s starting to rain.”
“I think you should tell us,” said Florian.
“If we crash and die it will make no difference,” snarled Clay. Instead of positioning himself in front of the flight joystick he walked off the bridge.
When Florian and Josh cornered him near the elevator tube, he was trembling uncontrollably.
“What’s wrong?” asked Florian.
“I can’t say.”
“The three of us made a pact to vote on everything. If what your thinking has anything to do with the safety of our short journey, Josh and I have a right to know.”
“I can’t fly this ship.”
“Why not?” asked Josh.
“It’s too big.”
Clay could hear his voice starting to betray his fear by the stammer in his words.
“I can understand your fears. Think of the ship as if it were the shuttle. You didn’t have a problem flying here. Trust the computer; this baby practically flies itself. The only thing you have to do is move the joystick slightly in the direction you want the ship to go. Rowark fully automated the ship. It’s a one-man operation. What’s changed?” asked Josh.
Clay opened his mouth to spill the news on what he’d been thinking, but forced his jaw shut. He didn’t want to say.
Florian picked up on the vibe. Pushing her arm around his waist, she looked directly into his eyes.
“Something far worse is bothering you.”
Clay felt his head starting to nod. He looked into Florian’s blue eyes. His hardened heart melted. Her beautiful round face was too much to ignore. He broke down.
“When you two came down the lift and left me alone on the rooftop, I was thinking crazy thoughts. It entered my mind you two might be brother and sister or planning to leave me on the roof when you took off into space or Josh, you were in fact, murdering Florian.”
“How could you even think those thoughts? I’d die to make sure Florian lived. I look upon you as a brother. I could never contemplate doing anything to jeopardize our lives. My ultimate goal is seeing the three of us rescued,” Josh stammered.
Florian didn’t wait for Clay to respond. She placed her hands behind his neck, reeling him in. He needed a long reassuring kiss, and she felt determined to give it.
Josh returned to the bridge. He checked the weather. Florian, holding Clay’s hand, led him back to the flight controls.
Clay stood in front of the joystick. “Forget what I said. You’re right; we’re a team. We have to go.”
“The only thing we can do is our best,” stated Florian. “If something bad happens at least we know we tried.”
Knowing the conversation had come to a satisfactory end, Josh glued his gaze on the flight monitor. Florian focused on the navigation computer in front of her.
“I’m ready,” admitted Clay, clutching the joystick.
“Do exactly like you did before.” Josh pushed the ignition button. “We have a five-second countdown, four, three seconds, two, one, ignition.”
The ship vibrated slightly when the engines surged. The lights on the bridge dimmed before failing completely blanketing the entire area in total darkness. Almost instantly the air smelt stagnant and felt claustrophobic.
Florian didn’t like the feeling. She started to panic. A scream erupted from her mouth.
“You can’t tell me this is a normal situation?”
Josh spoke calmly. “It probably isn’t. Don’t forget, the engines haven’t been used in a long time. Give them a minute. I’m positive the power drain is only temporary.”
The slow drone of the engines turning over lasted for only fifteen seconds. The revs slowly grew constant. The lights came back on, faint at first then as the seconds ticked off they brightened. In a couple of minutes, the engines were pulsating in the normal range. The lights were back to full brightness.
The trio relaxed and manned the monitors in front of them. Clay forced the ugly thoughts from his mind. He alone must make sure the Piper arrived where they were going in one piece.
The ship lifted off
. Dirt, grass, and twigs flew into the air. Some landed on the roof, spraying the shuttle’s viewport.
The Piper ascended ever so slow, no more than a few inches a second.
“I’m going to warm up the fifth engine,” said Josh.
“Do you think it’s a good idea?” asked Clay.
“I hope so. At any rate, the vibration will stop.”
Josh’s fingers swept the menu on a monitor. He scrolled down the page, highlighting the picture of the number five engine.
The fifth engine boomed to life. In seconds, it was brought up to speed by the computer.
The Piper’s vibrating stopped altogether, helping the ship to quickly gain height.
Clay appeared to be enjoying having control.
At one hundred and fifty feet above the ground, Florian looked at the boys.
“We’ve cleared the trees. Now move directly towards the storm. In exactly fifty-nine seconds, hover and change course ninety degrees. We’ll be traveling in a northeast direction.”
Clay gradually moved the joystick, swinging the ship around to Florian’s course. He forced the ship to rise to a height of nine hundred feet.
Seven minutes into the flight, twenty-three minutes to the destination, rain bombarded the ship. In seconds the wind increased ten-fold, billowing close to two hundred kilometers per hour. The ship shuddered. The computer compensated for the wind. The trio heard a bang. The ship ducked and dived before leveling. Florian and Josh was thrown to the floor. A warning buzzer sounded on the flight monitor. A red light on a picture of another stabilizer began flashing.
“Number one engine has blown a stabilizer,” yelled Clay.
Josh set to work sending the computer a message to have the fetcher robot get another stabilizer. He looked at Clay.
“We have to go fix the unit,” he stated.
“No,” yelled Florian. “To fix it we have to set down on the ground. By the looks of the forest, there isn’t anywhere safe to land.”
Clay stared at the monitor which viewed the ground underneath the Piper. They were directly over the mountain peaks. “Florian is right. The area anywhere close to here is too steep. The only thing we can do is keep going.”
“If we don’t fix the stabilizer, we won’t be able to fly level to our destination, and if we’re blown off course, we might crash,” warned Josh.
“Okay. Make it fast,” moaned Clay.
“If you can hold the fort, I’ll go help?” said Florian.
“I’ll be right,” replied Clay. “I’ll try to hover above the storm. If too much rain hits the ship, the water might find a way through the crack in the dome and swamp the bridge.”
“It’s not a good thought,” said Florian
“The storm has given me an idea. Maybe we can use part of the shuttle to fix this ship?” said Clay.
“It’s worth investigating the idea,” answered Josh.
“Provided you don’t crash the Piper,” added Florian.
“I won’t,” said Clay. “Hurry with the stabilizer.”
Josh and Florian were tossed from wall to wall as they stumbled down the corridor towards the engines. Josh picked Florian up by the arm each time she fell.
Finally, they reached the hatch leading into the engine room. Josh pushed the button on the wall. The door slid open. The Piper dived again. Josh lost his balance stepping through the open doorway. Florian helped him up. They staggered across the massive room clinging to the vertical struts which helped form the frame of the ship. The fetcher robot entered the engine bay through a separate door carrying the stabilizer. Josh took it and was immediately thrown to the floor, spilling the stabilizer from the box. Florian dived to save it from crashing into the hull.
“Good catch,” called Josh, crawling over. “We have to hurry. The ship mightn’t be able to take too much more. If a computer-chip fails, Clay won’t be able to stop the Piper from heading for the ground.”
Josh and Florian crawled across the bucking floor. Josh grabbed the first rung of the ladder on the number one engine, looking over his shoulder at Florian.
Carrying the stabilizer up the ladder proved to be an almost impossible struggle for her.
“I’ll carry the unit to the top of the engine,” said Josh, taking the box from her.
The moment Florian stepped onto the roof, she bit her top lip. “How are we going to stop from being thrown over the edge of the engine?”
“We’ll have to manage.”
Florian copied Josh by crawling across the roof. The moment the ship tipped they lay flat, pushing their hands and feet hard against the roof of the engine. When the ship settled in a lull in the wind, they hurriedly moved on. A few minutes of crawling saw the two hanging onto the stabilizer box in the exact center of the roof. Josh went straight to work.
“What do you want me to do?”
“You can disconnect the wire plug from the old stabilizer and connect the new one.”
Florian felt the ship beginning to tilt. She clung to the lid. Josh lost his hand hold, skidding across the roof towards the side. If he slipped over the edge, he’d fall ten feet to the metal floor. Josh pushed his toes and fingers against the metal roof. He groaned from the effort. When the ship slowly drew back to level, he ran back to Florian. He found her connecting the wires to the new stabilizer, and he quickly undid the four bolts holding the old unit. Florian lifted the stabilizer out; Josh placed the new one in the box. In a race against time, they started to bolt the new unit into place. The bolts were finger tight when both Florian and Josh tumbled across the rooftop. To their horror, they fell over the side.
The ship dipped again. This time, the computer couldn’t compensate. The Piper was heading for the ground.
The Piper cleared a mountain peak by only inches. The ship had skimmed a treed valley before Clay managed to pull the ship out of the nose dive. On the viewer, he spied the sea directly ahead. Whitecaps on the crest of the turbulent water looked inhospitable. For the first time, lightning lit the sky. Clay felt like he was on the verge of panicking. He needed to slow the speed of the ship. He didn’t want to crash into the ocean or be hit by lightning.
Clay did his utmost best to keep the ship level. His arms were tiring when the ship nosedived again. He lost count how many times he needed to correct the Piper.
The ship entered another down draft, dropping to fifty feet above the ground before the computer took over. Slowly the ship ascended back to one hundred feet. Hail peppered the ship. The wind howled, slamming into the hull. Finally, the Piper reached the location Florian reported. The site did look perfect. Clay placed the joystick into neutral. He used his entire strength to fight the storm to keep it in place. The ship was finally under control for the first time in ten minutes when one of the engines faultered, starving for fuel. It was the first sign the ship had used up a fuel rod. It would be a few seconds before the engine injected the next rod and came back to one hundred percent; a lifetime when he was manually fighting a storm with a blown stabilizer. His thoughts drifted to Florian and Josh. The ship bucked and dived. He prayed they were okay and close to finishing the job they set out to do. If the new stabilizer wasn’t in the correct position, and soon, their landing might be a nightmare. It would be a miracle if they survived.
The starving engine fired. Clay managed to gain some height, fighting the joystick the whole time. Sweat soaked his shirt. Clay saw the solid black rain cloud approaching. The wind created an illusion the rain was falling sideways. He braced himself for the onslaught.
Florian hung onto the edge of the rooftop by her forearms. She made slow progress in getting back onto the roof of the engine.
The moment the ship leveled Josh clambered back onto the roof, grabbed Florian by her wrists, arched his back and dragged her to safety.
“I want you down the ladder. I’ll go finish tightening the bolts then press the button to get the stabilizer online.”
“I’m coming,” she answered.
Florian shadowed Josh back t
o the black box. Kneeling, she commenced tightening the bolts using her fingers.
Josh finished using the spanner and handed it to Florian. The moment she said done he pushed the start button on the side of the stabilizer. A light came on. In seconds, the computer stabilized the ship.
The Piper finally hovered level.
Running back to the ladder, Florian and Josh descended to the floor and sprinted towards the bridge so they could stand next to Clay.
Florian took up her position as chief navigator.
“Good job,” she whispered. “We’re close.”
“Welcome back. How long before we’re at the exact location?” Clay groaned.
She shrugged.
“Tell me anything to keep me going.”
“One minute.”
Clay gritted his teeth, mentally urging himself to hang on.
The ship finally hovered over the flat land. The grassed area looked perfect. Water flowed along a river which came to an abrupt end at a waterfall. The coastline lay twenty feet further on. Wild grass grew out of the sand dunes.
The ship descended to fifty feet above sea level.
Florian reported the wind speed.
“The gusts are eighty miles an hour and falling. They’re now sixty, fifty, forty miles per hour.” She looked across at Clay. “Go now. I think the wind is about to increase.”
A heart-stopping fifty feet to the ground seemed to take an eternity. Clay, Florian, and Josh held their breath.
Florian called out the distance to the grass.
“Forty feet and falling: Thirty feet, twenty-eight feet, nineteen feet.”
The wind increased in strength, buffeting the ship. Clay held the joystick in a concrete grip. The new stabilizer kept working perfectly.
“Twelve feet,” reported Florian. “Eight feet: two feet.”
The three travelers heard a slight scraping noise when the ship finally touched the ground. Josh cut the engines. The large ship settled into the wind-swept grass covered plateau.
For a long time, the three travelers savored the eerie silence, each one to his or her, own thoughts; their minds working overtime at what the future may bring. The trio prayed a rescue ship would come sooner than later. Josh stood back from the monitors, looking at the other two. Florian stepped towards Clay.
“Congratulations.” She punched him in the arm. “And you said you couldn’t fly the Piper. You did a great job.”
Clay looked at her through exhausted eyes. She needed to peel his fingers from the joystick. Florian craned her neck, kissing him on the lips.
Josh stepped over, slapping him on the shoulder. “Well done.”
“Thanks,” whispered Clay. “I couldn’t have done it without you two. I was getting worried at the reason why you were taking so long.”
“There were a few anxious moments,” admitted Josh.
“The three of us make a great team,” chirped Florian. She leaned over, giving Josh a hero’s kiss. “Let’s go out in the rain to see our new home.”
The trio marched down the long corridor. At the ship’s hull, Clay pushed the button. The hatch slid sideways. The storm was gone. The sea breeze felt warm. The rain looked to be slowing to a drizzle. In minutes, the sun would be out. The boys allowed Florian to step outside first. They laughed at her antics, happy in themselves to be alive. Florian lifted her arms, walked in circles, yelling.
“Welcome to our new home.”