“You’ve used a gun before then?” Charlotte laughed, doing the same with her gun.
“I’ve fired one or two in my time,” David said, rifling through his backpack. “I’ve got a toy for you two as well: walkie-talkies to call for help.”
Using the rope-gun again, they fired up a line into one of the cracked windows and climbed through it, dropping down to what must have been the command bridge. Lights came on automatically when they sensed a presence to reveal hi-tech flying equipment. The crew was nothing more than skeletons slumped over the controls or in their chairs, but at least their uniforms told Charles that they weren’t aliens but were in fact Americans from the far future; Charles Taylor could see the stars and stripes circled by a rocket-ship.
“Dad?”
Taylor spun round to see Charlotte shaking with fear as a ghostly man hovered in the air. “What the fuck…”
“Hello, I am Alice, the ship’s computer,” the ghost said. “How can I help you?”
“It’s a hologram,” Charlotte said, walking around it.
“Do you have them in your time?”
“No, this is far more advanced,” Charlotte said before addressing the hologram. “Computer, what year was this ship built and why do you look like my father?”
“The Star Ship Velociraptor was put into service in the year twenty-three fourteen. Scanning your memory, I chose the likeness of your father, Henry Ripley, for your comfort, Elizabeth.”
“How did the ship get here?”
“The ship’s engines were sabotaged and its power core began to drain so I locked on to the nearest power source. But the ship got pulled through a portal and crashed before I could put the crew into stasis.”
“Did any of the crew survive?” Charles Taylor said, feeling stupid talking to a hologram of Charlotte’s dead father.
“Stasis pods can be found here,” Alice said, throwing up a holographic 3D map of the ship in midair.
“The stasis pods are here,” Charlotte said, pointing to the 3D map, “so we’ll see whether there are any survivors and then grab whatever gear we can get.”
“Then I think we should destroy this ship,” Taylor whispered in Charlotte’s ear, feeling a little paranoid about Alice.
“Why destroy it?”
“I don’t want it to fall into enemy hands. The Nazis could’ve won the war within weeks if they had something like this.”
Taylor couldn’t help thinking of Milton as they walked through the belly of the ship; he would’ve loved to have seen this, especially as he kept talking about a TV show called Star Trek. From what Charles Taylor saw of the Star Ship Velociraptor it wasn’t far off Milton’s description of the Star Ship Enterprise; it even had doors that swished open automatically. But all the marvels they saw were nothing compared to the nest of stasis pods that were full of people fully clothed and submerged in water with tubes sticking into their mouths.
“On my God,” Charlotte said, gently pressing her hand against the glass of one of the pods. Taylor looked over to see the body of a little girl who couldn’t have been more than three years old. “She’s my dead daughter, Ellie.”
Before he got a chance to speak Charles Taylor felt the floor of the ship shaking and his walkie-talkie burst into life. “Err, guys, you’d better get out fast… The ship just started spinning and now it’s rising into the air.”
To be continued...
Into Thin Air:
Part 2: The Time Patrol
By Mark R Silgram
Contents:
Chapter 1 - Orientation
Chapter 2 - Captains Blog
Chapter 3 - A Tale of Two Worlds
Chapter 4 - The Machine
Chapter 5 - Doing Time
Chapter 6 - There’s No Place Like Home
Chapter 1 - Orientation
“Can I join you?” David said hovering near the table Laura was sat at in the canteen.
“It’s a free country.” Laura said stabbing at her food with a folk as if she was imagining it was his neck. David placed his tray on the table and sat down opposite her. “You could’ve backed me up before.” Laura said still not looking at him.
“I didn’t back you up because I don’t believe its the best course of action right now.” David said tucking into his food. Although the canteen was full everyone was giving their table a wide birth sensing a big argument brewing between the two of them.
“We’re the ones in charge,” David said taking a sip of his coffee “we’re meant to set a good example.”
“This place could go under any minute and you know it,” Laura said looking straight at him “let’s alter course while we can.”
“And do what?”
“Look around you everyone’s tired of this shit.”
“It’s the only life we know.”
“If you don’t do something soon I will.” Laura said getting up before David grabbed her arm. That’s when the table started to float into the air followed by the knifes and folks as blobs of coffee hovered in the air. David and Laura also rose into the air along with everyone else in the canteen.
“Engineering, what’s going on with the gravity?” David said pressing his communicator.
“Something is draining the ships power Captain!” An exasperated voice said.
“Is this you?” David said to Laura as he swam over to the canteen’s door heading for the bridge.
“Of course not!” Laura said behind him “The Star Ship Velociraptor is my home as well don’t forget.”
“Engineering,” David said pressing his communicator again “Are the temporal shields still operational?”
“Yes Captain otherwise we’ll all be dust by now.”
“Alice,” David said swimming into the ships lift “What’s caused the power drain?”
“Unknown. I’m re-routing emergency power now.” Without warning the gravity returned to ship and David and Laura hit the lift’s floor with a thud.
“Deck 10,” David said out loud we need to get to the stasis pods and check our passengers are still napping.”
“Agreed,” Laura said before adding “You were right back there we need to carry on with the mission.”
“As long as we stay on this ship we have the whole of eternity to complete the mission Commander.”
As they reached stasis the ships Doctor came up to them “What happened with the power?”
“We’re not sure yet,” Laura said pressing her hands up to the glass on one of the stasis pods “how’s the newest member of our family doing?”
“She was killed in a car accident. The mother was nearly four times over the drink drive limit.”
“How old is she?”
“When we took her from her time frame she was nearly three years old but due to the lose of power a few minutes ago she’s now seven years old.”
“What’s her name?” David said looking at the little girl in the stasis pod.
“Ellie.”
“How do you feel about starting a family?” David said to Laura pulling her to one side.
“Have you forgotten why we’re on this ship in the first place?
“I was thinking we could adopt this little girl and bring her up as our own daughter.”
Chapter 2 - Captains Blog
David had just finished radioing Taylor and Charlotte to get out of the spaceship when suddenly he had an idea and fished into his backpack to find the rope launcher. Firing a line at the rising spaceship he heard a dull thunk and was pulled violently into the air. The trees were now nothing more then dots to him and he could no longer see his house as the spaceship flew through the clouds heading for outer space. That’s when he saw that they were on a collision course with an Airbus. Crawling up the rope he found a window and dived in. Gun up he headed for the bridge. “Step away from the controls Lieutenant Taylor.” David said drawing down on him.
“At last you’ve dropped the nice guy act,” Taylor said remaining in his seat “Charlotte’s fine in case you were
wondering. Your little plan went a bit wrong though didn’t it.”
“What plan?”
“Trick me and Charlotte onto this thing and then set off into space. But you forgot one thing, I’m a pilot.”
“That’s absurd and I don’t have time for this,” David said blasting Taylor in the shoulder with a gun sending him flying off the pilot’s seat. “You’re not the only one who’s a pilot.”
The spaceship just missed hitting an Airbus. In fact they were so close David could see holiday makers through the little round windows. The next thing David did was put the spaceship on autopilot while he tended to Taylor’s wounds. He never meant to kill him only to stun the bastard into silence.
“Back away from him.” Charlotte said rushing onto the bridge with her gun trained directly at David’s head.
“If I don’t treat him now he’ll die,” David said with his hands up “look I know what it must look like but we’re running out of time. If the ship leaves the Earth’s atmosphere we’re all dead. It takes two people to pilot it.”
“How do you know that?”
“Because I’m the one that crashed it in the first place.”
June 23, 1985
Air India Flight 182
David, Laura and Ellie were on family holiday or at least that’s what David hoped it would look like to the rest of the planes passengers. They were on a 747 Jumbo jet and if David had done is homework right it was the same plane that was destroyed by a bomb planted in a cargo hold. He checked his watch; two minutes until detonation. They had to time it just right because if they froze time too soon it could cause a paradox but too late and they would have to start all over again which was usually a pain in the ass and could also risk a paradox too. Having a Ellie made things easier to procure a personal item from one of the passengers so they could determine the exact time of death. This meant pick-pocketing a wallet or a piece of jewellery like a watch for example. The closer the item on the person the better. Ellie was returning a wallet to a gentleman when she came back shaking with her head bowed “I’m sorry Dad I messed up,” she said handing him back the wallet. “he’s noticed it’s missing.” this was bad for it not only drew attention but it made things difficult for later.
“You did your best Ellie now take your seat,” Laura said “We’ve only got two minutes to go anyway.”
“Somebody’s stolen my wallet.” the man said to an Air hostess standing up.
“If you can remain seated sir,” the air hostess said in a calm but stern voice “are you sure you’ve not just replaced it?”
“Yes I’m quite sure” the man said still standing getting more agitated. “And I will not seat down I want to know what you’re going to do about it.” The man said prodding the air hostess with one of his fingers with each word he uttered. David and Laura looked at each other, this was really bad for he it might incur a paradox if it carried on any longer. One minute to go.
“Is this what your looking for?” David said standing up “I think you dropped it on the way to the toilet earlier.”
“I’ve not been to the toilet” the man said snatching his wallet off David “you stole it!”
“Can we all calm down please.” the air hostess said exasperated. That’s when the bomb exploded sending a fireball tearing through cabin roasting the passengers in its path.
Two minutes ago…
“Somebody’s stolen my wallet.”
“Is this your wallet?” Ellie said to the man handing him a wallet “I saw you drop it earlier when you went to the toilet.”
“Thank you little girl,” the man said giving some money “buy yourself some sweets.”
“Thank you,” Ellie said before skipping back to her seat. David looked at his watch; it was show time. Just when the bomb exploded David froze time. Jets of fire hung in the air along with curls of cigarette smoke and coffee being poured. The only things that wasn’t frozen was the people who were starting to get frightened.
“Can I have everyone’s attention,” David said standing in the middle of the aisle “me and my wife Laura and our daughter Ellie are from twenty fourth century and we’re going to give each and everyone one of a choice. You can either come with us and start a new life in the future or stay behind in this time-line and be killed by a bomb.”
“Can’t you stop it?” a frightened woman sobbed.
“No because that will create a paradox that will destroy the universe. If you choose to come with us your presence in this time line will be replaced by criminals from our time line.”
“What right have you got to make that choice,” an elderly man said “what right have you got to play god.”
“In our time the human race is nearly extinct; we can’t have children so this is the only other option.”
“Captain you’d better hurry,” engineering said from David’s communicator “the Velociraptor has just had another power drain it won’t be able to freeze time for much longer.”
“Okay people it’s to decide.” David said rubbing his hand.
Taylor lay slumped against the wall with blood spurting from his fingers as he had his hand over his gun shot wound “Let him help Charlotte.” Taylor said spitting blood.
“I’m sorry buddy,” David said crouching over him “but there wasn’t enough time to explain who I am or where I’m from or what my dick size is. Hold still this might hurt a bit.” David said waving what looked a bit like a pen over his wound. Taylor felt a slight tingling sensation as the his skin and tissue grew back
“All better,” David slapping him on the shoulder “Now Charlie-boy are you going to help me land this thing?”
“I’ve still got questions,” Charlotte said as Taylor and David took their positions at the ships controls. “how come my dead daughter is on board your spaceship and who the hell are you?”
“I’m from the twenty fourth century and in my time humans are nearly extinct due to a virus that nearly wiped us out. A side effect from a cure stopped our species from reproducing Our mission is to extract people from the past and bring them to the future to repopulate the planet. So that we don’t screw up the space time continuum we usually extract people from fatal plane accidents but there’s only so many plane crashes so recently we’ve branched out to include suicides or car or train crashes.”
“So that’s why I can’t remember my own fucking daughters funeral because it never fucking happened thanks to you bastards. I always thought I’d blacked it out.” Charlotte said slamming her fists into the ships console unit.
“She’s not your daughter Charlotte,” David said quietly looking at the view-screen. “me and Laura adopted Ellie.”
“Are you taking the piss?” Charlotte said “When we land I’m taking her home.”
“She can never go back to your time Charlotte it might cause a paradox.”
“Fuck a paradox she belongs with me!”
“How long have you been doing this for?” Taylor asked desperately trying to change the subject.
“A couple of hundred years give or take a decade,” David said with a shrug. “The ship has temporal shielding so we’ve impervious to the effects of time.”
“Is that why all the crew are skeletons?”
“When the ship crashed it knocked out the temporal shielding. We managed to save a few of the crew by putting them into stasis but the rest weren’t so lucky.” David cut himself off gesturing to the skeletons.
“Your getting my daughter out of stasis right now.” Charlotte said holding a gun to David’s head.
“Let’s all calm down.” Taylor said as the ship landed not far from David’s house.
“No I’ve had enough chasing after UFO’s and running from dinosaur’s. My father was killed a few months ago when we first got here. I’m not losing my daughter as well.”
“Okay but you should know that the stasis pod is the only thing that’s keeping her alive at the moment.”
“If you’re lying to me?”
“I’m not Cha
rlotte. Not long before we crashed she had a seizure so we put her into stasis.”
“Then I’m never leaving this ship.”
“I’ll wake the rest of my crew and they’ll guard the ship until we can figure out how to bring her out of stasis safely and get home.”
“I’m afraid we’ve got bigger problems to worry about then that man,” Milton as they as they bumped into him after trekking out of the ship. “Try the end of the world man!”
Chapter 3 - A Tale of Two Worlds
A few days ago…
Milton woke up to find that he was tied up in the back of a van. The last thing he remembered was drinking coffee with Elizabeth and then he blacked out. She must’ve spiked his drink but why? She obviously didn’t believe he was from another world. But that was easy to prove for although there were many similarities between this world and his there was one major difference; in this world dinosaurs hadn’t become extinct. It seemed that humans had managed to domesticate dinosaurs in the same way as horses for he had seen people use dinosaurs from anything from transportation to diggers and tractors. On his way to Charlotte’s he had even seen people taking tiny dinosaurs for walks and using them as pets while pterodactyl flew overhead with a whole cabin of people on its back controlled by a pilot in a white uniform. Plesiosaurs were used as submarines while the T-Rex was used by the police complete with flashing lights on its head and fitted with machine guns. This world was utterly utterly bonkers but he didn’t have time to contemplate it further for there was a banging on the van door before it was wrenched open.
“Get out,” a man said opening the van doors. Milton jumped out and stared into the eyes of Charles Taylor only it wasn’t his Charles Taylor but a much older version. This one looked to be in his late eighties at least. “My daughter tells your from another world, is that true?”
Into Thin Air: Omnibus Edition Parts 1 - 3 Page 4