Serve and Protect

by Douglas Varnell

  Verron – Protect and Serve

  Written by: Douglas P. Varnell 9/09/2015

  BOOK 2

  Chapter 1

  In total darkness and unable to move even an eyelid, Tala wanted to cry for help, but even her lips were unable to move. It was bad enough to be totally entombed by millions of tons of ice, snow and rock, but she was so constricted see couldn’t move even her little finger or her toes. If it were not for the oxygen tube in her mouth, she would surely be dead. In fact, she knew that at this altitude, the only thing keeping her alive was the air slowly flowing into her lungs from the ships oxygen tanks. Everything happened so fast, she could barely remember what happened. That first bump as she entered the Eye of the Needle was no more than the normal bumps and scrapes she had experienced thousands of times as she flew through the tight caves and valleys. But that second impact on the opposite side of the Needle was so hard it knocked her hands free from the flight controls. The last thing she remembered seeing was the rock wall of the canyon as her cockpit shroud scrapped along its surface. Then in a fraction of a second, everything went completely dark and she couldn’t move no matter how hard she tried. Tala was now the first person in over 5000 years to experience an Xhondarian designed Crash Capsule.

  In a fraction of a second, when the computer detected loss of control and sudden impact, the capsule activated and the pilot seat instantly encased the occupant in steel. Just as quickly, the entire capsule filled with a synthetic shock absorbing gel, making any movement impossible. Inside this capsule of steel and gel, you couldn’t break an egg housed inside even at thousands of miles-per-hour impact. From the time Tala struck the side of the mountain, she saw or felt nothing else except the tumbling sensation as her tiny Speeder bounced end-over-end through the mountain pass. She thought it was over when she came to a rest on her side and the Speeder had stopped rolling. Then suddenly, she felt the Speeder moving sideways, rolling over and over and then falling, coming to a sudden stop, leaving her upside down. Then it was very quiet and motionless once again.

  She wasn’t sure just how long she had been in this upside down position, but hoped something happened very soon, or she was going to go crazy bound-up and unable to move, see or even hear anything. She wasn’t exactly sure where she was, but had no doubt, wherever it was, it wasn’t good. She began to pray and hoped she didn’t pass out from being upside down. Then she realized, “I really need to pee.”

  Katelyn’s message was received by Lucy and immediately transferred directly to Paul’s implant. He was just sitting down to enjoy a second bowl of his Mother’s banana pudding when it came through. No one else in the room heard the message but King Paul. He almost gagged on the first bite of pudding and immediately placed his bowl back on the table. He didn’t want to start a panic by announcing the situation in front of the room full of mothers and grandmothers. He immediately grabbed his brother Kary, Tala’s Grandfather, and Marcus, her father, and pulled them to the side, saying “There’s been an accident. Katelyn just radioed to tell me that Tala has crashed in the Needle and has been covered by an avalanche caused by the crash. I didn’t want to start a panic by saying anything out loud.” Marcus and Kary were both war veterans and knew how to remain calm, at least until the emergency was over. Kary looked around the room and said, “I’ll grab Joe and Michael and meet you two downstairs in the hanger. We should have plenty of mountain climbing gear downstairs.” Paul quickly added, “How about we meet in the arms room. The altitude is over 20,000 feet in that pass and probably 40 to 50 below zero. We’ll put on body armor before we take off. We’re going to need it.” Marcus and Kary agreed with a nod.

  While Marcus and Paul headed downstairs, Kary grabbed his other son and his brother Joe. When asked by some of the others, “What are you guys up to?” Kary quickly replied, “Well, why should the kids be the only ones who have fun today, us old guys are going to go do a little repelling.” Roddy, who is an ex-Marine and the last of the great outdoorsman quickly added, “Not without me, you’re not!” Kary nodded his approval and they kissed their wives goodbye and headed for the elevator. Kary quickly filled the others in on what was happening.

  When everyone else arrived in the weapons room, Paul and Marcus were already dressed in their body armor and digging out suits for the rest. While Joe, Roddy and Kary were getting dressed, Marcus and Paul headed to the storage room where they kept the mountain climbing and repelling gear. There were thousands of feet of repelling lines hanging on the walls, never used. Paul had just had all the ropes used by his military manufactured in Verron Steel. This wasn’t exactly how he wanted to do his first evaluation of the new equipment, but he knew it was still better than the typical ropes used by the climbers. As they were leaving the storage room, they were joined by the rest of the rescue crew, who grabbed climbing harnesses and more ropes, alpine axes and a rescue harness. Paul selected the troop transport for the operation. Almost anything else would never fit in the narrow confines of the gorge. In fact, as it was, he would have to fly to the top of the 40,000 foot mountains and come into the pass from above; there was no way anything this size would fit through the Needle.

  As soon as Paul left the hanger and headed towards the mountain, he radioed those hovering above the canyon to let them know he was on his way and that they should try to locate Tala’s Speeder if possible. He then had Lucy prepare to hone in on Tala’s transponder signal. He knew he would get nothing from where he was, but as soon as he cleared the tops of the mountains, he should be able to isolate her location.

  Disgusting, Tala thought, “But I just couldn’t hold it any longer. I’m stuck in here so tight that it doesn’t seem to be flowing anywhere.” The claustrophobia was starting to get to her. She had never had an issue before, but this was without a doubt the most claustrophobic she had ever felt. It seemed like she had been in this position forever, but knew it had probably only been a half hour or a little more. She was scolding herself for her stupidity. Thinking, “I’ve been through this pass hundreds of times and never had a problem. I can’t believe I crashed. I don’t ever crash. Other people crash, but not me.” She began to cry and think, “Chase was right beside me, I hope he’s alright and I was the only one stupid enough to ram the side of a mountain. The others will never let me live this down, that is, if I live to get out of here” She once again did the only thing she could do; she prayed.

  The troop transport was never designed for a mission like this and Paul quickly realized he needed to have some ships built for nothing other than search and rescue. The wind was howling at over 100 mph at the 40,000 foot mountaintop as Paul slowly lowered the ship into the pass below. It felt as if the wind became even stronger as it blew through the restriction of the narrow pass. He looked at his instrument panel and verified; 120 mph winds. When he and Marcus looked through the front windshield toward the ice covered gorge below, they both felt sick to think that this little girl was buried down there somewhere under all that snow and ice. The transponder signal grew stronger as they approached the deep gorge. Paul’s worst fear was that she was at the bottom of the 5000 foot deep hole. He knew that his ship would never fit in that narrow crack between mountains and he doubted he had enough rope to climb to the bottom.

  Paul hovered over the spot with the strongest transponder signal then tilted the ship forward for a better look. For at least 100 yards, the ravine was totally closed-off with rocks and ice. He could tell this was the narrowest section of the ravine. The rest of the deep abyss was open and offered a clear view all the way to the bottom. He once again hovered directly over the transponder signal and knew that Tala was somewhere under that 100 yard long bridge of debris.

  Someone had to go take a look. Kary was not about to let it be any
one but him. They opened the rear troop loading ramp and secured a 1000 foot repelling line. Kary strapped into his climbing harness and disappeared over the rear exit. The wind gust hit him so hard he was almost going out away from the ship instead of down. Little by little, as he proceeded out the line, the gravity and his weight began to lower him toward the ice shelf below. Paul hovered forward, in order to position Kary at the edge of the debris field and Kary continued to lower himself into the deep ravine. Nearly five hundred feet down, he spotted it. The pink Speeder had jammed itself between the rocky face on either side of the ravine, upside down. He could see the ships canopy, but saw no movement and only a lump of something in the cockpit. There was five hundred feet of ice and rock wedged into the narrow space above the Speeder. Kary signaled to be pulled back up. His report was grim. They were struggling to figure out how to remove 500 feet of debris above the ship without shaking the little Speeder lose, only to fall the remaining 4500 feet to the bottom.

  Paul then had an idea. The remainder of the Dragon Guard were not about to leave their comrade and were hovering above and beside the troop transport. Paul joined forces with the other five hovering Speeders and little by little they began to lift chunks of rock and ice from the jammed-up mess above Tala using their telekinetic powers. It was a slow process, taking almost an hour, since no one wanted to cause another avalanche or send Tala for another wild ride to the bottom of the gorge. Paul hovered steadily as they slowly cleared the way.

  Finally they could clearly see the pink Speeder wedged firmly below. They discussed for a few minutes exactly what they were going to do to pull her out. They decided to use the cargo netting in the back of the transport and repelling ropes secured to the net to lift her from the hole below. Joe, Kary, Michael and Marcus secured themselves to their harnesses and headed over the edge, while Roddy worked the lines from the back of the transport. At first they were afraid the ropes were going to get tangled as they fluttered around in the strong winds. Eventually they reached Tala’s Speeder below, where thankfully the winds were reduced by the curves and blockages of the gorge. When Marcus looked inside, he was shocked to see no passenger. Instead, there was a large steel cocoon where the pilot’s seat was positioned. The thought of his little girl being inside that contraption made his heart ache, but he also realized, it may be the difference in her being alive or not. He knew every Fighter and Speeder came equipped with the crash capsule seats, but never had truly understood exactly what they did. He knocked on the canopy with an alpine axe but got no response.

  As the four men began to unroll the cargo net, the winds blew it so hard they had a difficult time controlling it in the windy ravine. They finally managed to maneuver the net to the opposite side of the Speeder and allowed the wind to blow it toward the other side. Kary and Michael lowered themselves under the Speeder and secured the dangling edges of the net to two Verron Steel lines. With Paul alone in the cockpit of the ship, he could see nothing of what was happening below. He decided to tilt the nose skyward and look out the open ramp in the rear of the ship. On Marcus’ signal he slowly began to inch the ship upward, thinking, “I can’t believe this thing doesn’t even have a winch to pull in the ropes. I definitely need to design a new ship.” As the slack slowly disappeared from the long repelling lines and the cargo net tightened around the Speeder, it became obvious that the little ship was wedged in extremely tight and wasn’t about to move.

  Paul could see through his enhanced body armor that there was trouble. He decided he had to do something and quickly called down to those dangling from the ends of the ropes, “Hold on tight. I’m going to try and un-jam the ship from the sidewalls.” Paul focused intently on the areas at either end of the tiny ship and caused a small explosion. Some debris fell from above, but not enough to do any harm. The ship popped loose and slowly began to rise amongst cheers from the other Speeders and the four men below. The Speeder and four men dangling from it were blowing in the wind at a 30 degree angle as they rose higher into the canyon. Paul looked around and realized that the small shelf of land between the gorge and the mountain above was much too unstable to set down the rescue crew and Speeder. He knew that only a bit further into the canyon it widened to over a mile wide for a short distance and had a good flat surface on one of the overhangs above the gorge below. He slowly flew further into the canyon as his brothers and nephews hung-on for dear life.

  As soon as he found the right spot, behind a wall of rocks and out of the howling wind, he lowered the ship and rescue crew gently to the solid rock below. Marcus was the first to start untangling the net from one side of the Speeder. This allowed Paul the opportunity to lift only one side of the little ship and roll it over to an upright position. The men were standing around trying to figure out how to open the canopy when Lucy activated the override and it popped open with a slight swoosh of air. Four men stared at the metal cocoon enshrouding Tala. Once again, Lucy activated the release mechanism on the crash capsule and a thick brown gel began to ooze from the open seam. The men quickly pulled it apart to reveal a motionless Tala covered in brown slimy gel. As Marcus wiped away the now freezing gel from his daughters face, her eyes opened and she began to smile, saying, “What took you so long. Do you have any idea how disgusting it is to pee while upside down inside a capsule of Jell-O?”

  She quickly began to shiver in the cold wind and they rushed her to the troop transport now parked near-by. There was no shortage of cheers from the rest of the Dragon Guard when they saw Tala being rushed to the warmth of the awaiting ship. They were about to close the ramp and take off and Tala screamed, “Wait, what about my Speeder? We can’t just leave it here.”

  Paul looked back out over the little Speeder and asked Lucy, “Will that thing fit inside the transport?” Her reply was, “It will be tight, but it should fit.” No one could quite figure out how they could move the Speeder from its current position and drag it inside the transport. Tala, wrapped in a heavy thermal blanket and carrying an oxygen bottle, raced out the back of the ship and climbed in her Speeder. On the first attempt, it fired-up. She then slowly guided the little ship into the cargo hold of the troop transport; as she climbed out, commenting, “I could just fly it home, you know.” Marcus was quick to answer, “Over my dead body. That thing may hover 100 feet to a ships hold, but I don’t think I’d trust it to take you home.” The others were shaking their heads over the kid’s audacity at suggesting she fly a ship that had just crashed at Mach 3 into the side of a mountain. A smiling Tala looked up at her father and gave him a hug, saying, “Thanks for all of you coming to get me. It was starting to get to me closed-up in that goop. I really could use a shower; really bad!”

  As Paul flew back to Mountain City, followed by the other five members of the Dragon Guard, Marcus walked around the little ship looking at it in amazement. There were a few bad scratches in the pink paint, but not a single dent or broken body parts. He had every intention of disassembling the entire ship to see if there was unseen structural damage. Tala soon began to cry softly and asking, “You’re not going to make me stop flying are you Daddy?” Everyone was wondering what his answer would be, when he answered, “I can tell you right now, this Speeder is grounded until I say otherwise, but I can’t very well keep you from doing your job; now can I? The tough part is going to be telling your Mother.”

  When the troop transport, rescue team and five Speeders came slowly back into the hanger bay at Mountain City, they were greeted by those who had been left behind at the Mansion, plus Hunter, Amber and Renee. Even covered in slimy gel, there were dozens of hugs for Tala. Paul knew that Lucy had snitched him out to the Queen Mother shortly after he left with Joe, Michael, Kary and Marcus. She knew they were lying to her as soon as they told her what they were going to do. Her comment to Paul was, “You may be a King, but you’re a horrible liar. Besides, I’ve never seen you eat only one bite of my banana pudding and put the bowl aside still full. It would take something pretty important for you to give up a bowl of m
y pudding.” Tala was pulled away by the girls in the Guard and soon returned showered and dressed in clean commando gray. There were always extra uniforms around the Mansion for emergencies. Her Mother, Danyel, had a big plate of food waiting on her when she came back into the kitchen. She thought, “Mom always knows how to make things better.”

  For the next few hours, Tala was the center of attention as she told every detail of her Mach 3 crash and the others who had seen it added the details of what happened with the avalanche. Chase sat silently, blaming himself for what had happened. Tala finally realized he was feeling at fault and quickly started to laugh, saying, “If it hadn’t been for Chase, we would have never known exactly what happens on a high speed crash in a crash seat. I am a test pilot and now I’ve officially tested one; I sort of feel like a crash dummy.” She turned to Chase and added, “You get to try it next time.” Chase knew now that his sister was still her old self. He smiled and gave her a hug, saying, “I have never seen anyone as determined to win as you. I’m glad you’re alright sis, you really had me worried.” She handed him a piece of pecan pie and a Mountain Dew. Food fixes everything.

  After visiting with everyone for another hour, Tala realized that the trauma of the afternoon had left her wiped-out. She slipped down to the hanger while everyone else was upstairs playing music and singing and inspected her poor little Speeder. She was surprised that it was not more severely damaged, but agreed with her Dad; no one could tell what hidden structural damage may have occurred. The inside of the cockpit was a mess. There was sticky gel all over the place. They would definitely have to replace the crash capsule seat. Tala shook her head in amazement that such a thing could actually exist and realized that had it not been for that space-age technology she would have rattled around inside the enclosed cockpit like she was in a blender. She walked over to a Fighter that actually was used most of the time by King Verron and climbed in. She fired it up and headed slowly out of the hanger, deciding to just go home and get some sleep and put this day behind her. Once behind the controls, she started feeling like her old self, and hit the throttle quickly leaping to Mach 10. She remembered Hunter and Amber talking about being thrown off a horse and climbing back on to show the horse who was boss and to make sure you didn’t become afraid of the horse. Tala set a course directly for The Needle.