News from the Clouds

by Robert Llewellyn

  Okay, so I’ve never been held at gunpoint by some state-

  sanctioned murderer or fundamentalist terrorist. I’d imagine that would be quite high on the fear list but I’d argue it wouldn’t be as high as discovering you suddenly had fundamentalist religious beliefs that you could not resist.

  I explained everything in clear detail to Ebrikke even as my reptilian brain kept turning my head to stare at the huge cloud formation we were approaching, a cloud formation I knew to be over the area where Didcot once stood.

  I knew I had limited time to escape and yet there was nothing I could do about it. Not once did Ebrikke lay a hand on me or even threaten me in any way. I just had to do what she wanted.

  The big squashy mattress under the Yuneec inflated and hummed a little and then lifted the plane high above the cloud. It moved forward at speed and then dropped away as the plane took flight, meandering violently at first before leveling out, gaining altitude and then diving at considerable speed into the vast grey cloud formation.

  That was it. I was forever stranded.

  I felt Hector’s hand on my shoulder.

  ‘I’m so sorry, old chap,’ he said. ‘I feel terrible about this. There was simply nothing we could do.’

  I couldn’t quite take my eyes off the area of cloud I’d just seen the Yuneec disappear into, I was brain-numb and still unable to take in what had just happened.

  ‘It’s all my fault,’ said Brad, who stood on the other side of me. ‘I should have been able to protect you. This is going to cause grave conflict between the cloud groups.’

  I closed my eyes. I didn’t want to allow the wave of anger and regret to overwhelm me, I could feel it building and I knew I would drown if I allowed the thoughts to burst out.

  I felt some movement under my feet and opened my eyes to see Kirubel, Hector’s delightful African crewman, running toward us across the quilted expanse of the rear patio.

  ‘Heavier-than-air machine!’ he shouted. ‘We’ve just picked up a signal?’

  The last phrase was a question – he clearly didn’t understand what this information meant either. His arrival also alerted me to the close presence of the Cloud Three crew who were clearly alarmed at this information.

  ‘Where?’ asked Hector.

  ‘Twenty-three clicks west, the other side of the anomaly.’

  Hector and Brad looked at each other.

  ‘Surely not,’ said Hector.

  ‘I don’t think it can be a mistake,’ said Kirubel, ‘there’s nothing else on Earth that would give a signal like that.’

  ‘Release life drones and lock coordinates,’ said Captain Hector with gusto. He didn’t say it to anyone in particular, he just shouted.

  At that point a flock of maybe two dozen white doughnuts left the underside of Cloud Nine and made their way toward the anomaly. They were followed by the slightly slower flying mattress from which Ebrikke and the Yuneec had just been launched.

  Everyone on the patio moved to the clear barrier and looked toward the tower of cloud that was by this point slightly behind us. It remained in place while everything else, every cloud including the one I was on, kept moving slowly north.

  ‘There!’ shouted Kirubel. ‘Look, to the south!’

  There was a shout from the motley gathering on the patio, some shouts of despair – those were from the crew of Cloud Three – and some shouts of utter joy, mainly from Hector right beside me.

  ‘She blew it!’ shouted Hector at the top of his voice. ‘She’s not so damn clever after all! She just flew straight through the cloud!’

  He laughed richly, pointing at the miserable-looking group of Cloud Three bullyboys. ‘Superwoman is a dunce!’ he bellowed between guffaws.

  ‘But wait…’ I said as my limited grasp of events started to emerge. ‘Doesn’t that mean the time shift thing, the anomaly or whatever it is, doesn’t that mean it’s not working?’

  ‘I don’t think she flew straight through the anomaly,’ said Kirubel. ‘We lost the signal completely for a millisecond.’

  Brad turned to look at Kirubel. ‘Not a signal glitch?’

  ‘No, temporal anomaly, clearly registered and logged.’

  Brad nodded and turned to me. ‘We may have reason to be optimistic, Mister Meckler.’

  I then witnessed something I’d already experienced but hadn’t understood. The white doughnuts surrounded the Yuneec as it approached us. The white mattress rose slowly beneath it and guided it gently toward us.

  It was only as it was literally a few metres above the patio that it became clear there was no one inside.

  As soon as it landed, the big Cloud Three lads rushed up and opened the door. They hung their heads and simply walked away saying nothing. That was the last time I saw them.

  I walked up to the Yuneec, which looked at first glance to be mechanically sound. I peered into the cockpit and noticed something tucked in the pilot’s door pocket. I used to keep maps there as a backup in case the satnav failed. I knew it had been empty when Ebrikke took off.

  I walked to the other side of the Yuneec, opened the door and pulled out the small sheet of paper. It was ruled A4, like I used to have at school. It was a letter written in large capitals as if it had been scrawled by a ten-year-old. It read:

  MISTER MECKLER, I TOLD YOU I WAS TAKING THE PLANE, I DECIDED NOT TO TELL YOU I WAS SENDING IT BACK IN CASE CIRCUMSTANCES MADE THAT IMPOSSIBLE. IF YOU ARE READING THIS, MY PLAN HAS WORKED AS I EXPECTED. I HAVE TRAVELLED INTO THE FUTURE. I WON'T FURTHER CONFUSE YOUR SIMPLE MIND BY EXPLAINING WHERE, WHAT PERIOD OR WHAT IT IS LIKE, ONLY THAT THE CHANGES I HAVE MADE TO MY CEREBAL CORTEXT ARE CONSIDERED NORMAL HERE. I AM FINALLY WITH MY OWN KIND AND THAT IS PARTLY DUE TO YOU. I THANK YOU FOR THIS. THERE IS A HOMING BEACON PLUGGED INTO THE DRONE’S NAVIGATION COMPUTER. YOU MIGHT WANT TO GET SOMEONE COMPETENT TO REMOVE IT AS ALL THAT WILL HAPPEN NOW IS THE PLANE WILL ALWAYS RETURN TO CLOUD NINE.

  I HOPE YOUR TRAVELS ARE SAFE.

  EBRIKKE KARENSDOTTIR

  I passed the note to Brad.

  ‘Wow, she is some lady,’ he said after a mere glance. ‘I guess she isn’t coming back.’

  ‘Kirubel, check out the control locker. Ebrikke’s put a homing system on the drone. We need to get Gavin in the air.’

  Kirubel popped open what I had known to be the small cargo hold behind the cockpit. Inside was a collection of white packets that looked like bags of milk all tangled up in white ribbons. I knew it wasn’t milk or ribbons but I didn’t know what it was. Kirubel pulled the entire collection of objects out and held it up.

  ‘Not hard to find,’ he said, removing one of the packet things. They all looked the same to me. ‘Ready to go.’

  I then received a hearty slap on the back from Hector. ‘I never thought you’d be that useful,’ he said. ‘But you’ve just helped us get shot of one of the most terrifying women on the planet. Good job, sir!’

  I was unable to respond. The sequence of events was at once so emotionally wrenching and rapidly unfolding that it took all my strength not to once again go completely doolally.

  I climbed into the cockpit and the Yuneec’s systems started up. Brad and Hector were by the door.

  ‘Everything okay?’ Brad asked. I nodded.

  ‘Feeling confident?’ asked Hector. I shook my head.

  Kirubel appeared between them and handed me a white backpack.

  ‘All your possessions are in there, Mister Meckler, washed and vacuum packed. You will be fine, sir, you are a very brave man.’

  I shrugged. I didn’t feel brave.

  ‘Thank you,’ I said finally. I stowed the bag behind the seats and pulled the elasticated mesh over it to hold it in place. One of the few remaining parts of the original plane. Holding it made me feel just fractionally safer.

  I took a deep
breath and turned to face them and once again said, ‘Thank you, you have been very kind, good luck on your travels. Oh yes, and in calmer times.’

  Brad nodded, smiling broadly. He closed the door and everyone around the Yuneec stood back a little. I felt the whole plane rise slowly as the large inflated drone took the weight.

  I looked around the faces gathered around the plane. A few members of the crew, a woman with a young child, Hector, Kirubel and Brad. I hadn’t got to know any of them very well, although I suppose Brad had been the one who’d followed my every move. He waved to me just before he went out of sight. I think I waved back just too late and I felt bad I hadn’t thanked him more.

  I could only hear a low rush of pumped air and cursed myself for never really finding out how these floating cushions worked.

  Within a few moments I was high above Cloud Nine and turning toward the anomaly, which was now many kilometres away. I assumed it was very late to make this transition but I had to give it a go.

  All I knew was I really didn’t want to end up somewhere even more weird than the cloud world. I wanted to go home and this seemed to be my only chance.

  When the Yuneec was well clear of Cloud Nine I started up the motor with the touchscreen control that Pete and his team had fitted in London. The big floppy blades started to spin and soon disappeared into a blur of high-speed rotation. I could feel us gather momentum and before long I felt I had control of the Yuneec, the control stick felt heavier and the plane started to do what I expected.

  I knew from talking to Brad and Theda that I needed to get up high and dive into the anomalous cloud at a fairly steep angle.

  With the new power system at my fingertips this wasn’t a problem, I climbed to 8,000 metres and did a stall turn toward the lower section of the swirling grey cloud that by this stage filled my screen of vision.

  The speed increased with stomach-churning force and I hit the outer edge of the cloud so fast that the shocking change in light made me scream.

  I felt ridiculous. I’d done this before, I’d entered this damn cloud three times previously and survived, but this time I was terrified. I knew something was going to be on the other side of the cloud and on three previous occasions it had been completely at odds with what I was expecting.

  This time I was expecting nothing.

  29

  Of all the things I hadn’t expected, I would suggest rain was fairly high up the list.

  Deep space, a million-mile-long alien battle cruiser, or a burning fireball of doom hurtling toward me; maybe armoured hyper-intelligent dinosaurs who mistook me for an insect and sent out their huge metal tongues to eat me…

  Any of those were to be expected, but heavy rain? For some reason that made me start swearing uncontrollably.

  I suppose the other thing that brought about a certain amount of alarm was the rapidly approaching trees. I hesitate to think how long it took my muscle memory to kick in and pull back the flight stick. It was a very close call but thankfully I was soon levelled out and scanning the ground for clues.

  I was flying over planet Earth, that much I was confident of. I was flying through heavy rain, which reduced my visibility rather drastically and I was desperate to find somewhere to land.

  All I could see was trees. I was flying above dense woodland but it wasn’t the same as when I flew over Gardenia. The trees were a different colour, browns, reds and ochres seemed to make up the endless soaked landscape.

  I banked as hard as I could and kept an eye on the ground. Just more trees as far as I could see, which I have to point out, wasn’t very far.

  Then something caught my eye, a shape in the distance, a building. I reduced my altitude and speed a little. I didn’t want to zoom past whatever it was only to lose sight of it again in the sea of trees.

  I shouted for joy. I knew that roof! It was Goldacre Hall!

  I banked hard again and flew fast and low over the small collection of buildings. There was the barn, the gardens and yet it looked very different. Sort of muddy and brown.

  On my third pass I spotted figures out in the orchard. They seemed to be making their way to the Bow field, which I had managed to miss due to the fact that it was just a brown patch surrounded by trees.

  I passed over it a couple more times, trying to judge the wind speed and direction, but it was pretty hopeless. The rain was pummelling the windscreen so hard it was almost impossible to see anything.

  I banked around and passed over the field maybe six more times trying desperately to work out which way to attempt to land, but I could now see figures trudging across the small patch of open ground below me. It was clearly very sticky and muddy; hitting that quagmire with the Yuneec’s fairly frail undercarriage would be disastrous. Before long I knew I could not attempt a conventional landing.

  After a moment’s reflection on my predicament, I decided to make use of the incredible power that the Yuneec had been vested with.

  I turned and flew over the Bow field until it was just about in the centre of the open space and then wrenched the stick back and applied full power with the thumb slider on the control yoke.

  The engine made a noise for the first time, a high-pitched scream as I started to climb at a ridiculous speed. The frame of the Yuneec vibrated rather violently and a thought crossed my mind for an instant: I might just tear this battered machine to bits.

  After a couple of seconds I backed off the power as steadily as I could and felt the vertical speed drop.

  I knew this was going to be next to impossible but in the conditions I was flying with I had no choice. I was going to have to make what equated to a helicopter landing, tail first into the mud.

  As the speed dropped and I felt the Yuneec start to tip forward I increased power and pulled it up again. I continued to do this about a dozen times until I found a point where the whole plane was essentially hanging from the rotors but remaining motionless in the air.

  Due to the thumb slide control this wasn’t as hard as it may sound, a tiny increase or decrease was fairly easy to control.

  Once I had this balance I glanced around frantically behind me, which was of course directly below me. I was in a vertical climb position and pinned into the back of the seat.

  This was pretty terrifying but after going through the horror of the unknown in the cloud where I felt I had no control, in this situation I was very much in control. If I screwed up it would be my fault.

  This manoeuvre would be impossible using the technology and control systems of the twenty-first century, but since my very brief flying experience over the Squares of London I knew the Yuneec had the power to do it.

  Of course, the immense torque put out by the motor meant the whole plane started contra-spinning in the air with ever-increasing speed. This made judging my distance above the field, which I hoped was below me, very difficult. The landscape was spinning around me as I slowly descended. This made me feel dizzy and nauseous but I had to keep checking to try and judge how high I was.

  I was glancing out of the window in a kind of strange controlled panic. I was so busy trying to control the Yuneec that every fibre of my mind and body was fully engaged. Somehow the ridiculous level of concentration needed meant I didn’t go into a blind, and at that point fatal, panic.

  I may have been spinning just above the ground for a few seconds before I felt the tail make contact with the ground. It was thankfully gentle and I pulled up a little as soon as I felt it. By now all I could see from the side windows was a blur of vegetation, flying muddy water and bits of twig as the incredible wash from the propellers sent everything around the plane flying in a whirlwind of debris.

  The tail making contact with the earth meant the spinning slowed very rapidly. All I had to do from that point on was bring the plane to rest in an upright position.

  Not easy. I made at least
five attempts to reduce engine speed only to feel the plane start to drop backwards, meaning it would have come to rest upside down. Either that or it would lurch to one side, meaning the wings would make contact before the wheels. Each time I had to gently increase power just enough to pull the Yuneec onto a horizontal plane before reducing power again.

  Finally I felt the nose dip in the way I wanted. I reduced power a little until I could sense some slow forward movement.

  The relief was immense, as the nose came down and the entire plane regained its normal position on the ground. I jolted forward a bit as the wheels slid along the soft mud. I pushed the thumb slider all the way down to kill the engine and within a few seconds the enormous noise of motor, wind, vibration and heart-thumping concentration ceased. All I could hear was rain on the wings and fuselage.

  Moments later this noise was joined by applause. There were bedraggled people approaching from every direction and clapping as they did so. Many of them were covered in specks of mud that was slowly washed away by the torrential rain.

  I opened the door and smiled at them. The occupants of Goldacre Hall, a group of people I never thought I’d see again, indeed, a group of people that for a long time I assumed had never even existed, stood around me covered in dirt.

  30

  ‘Well i never did,’ said a very old man with a huge hood over his mud-spattered head. ‘I never expected to see you again, Gavin. Welcome back, dear boy.’

  Although I could barely make out his face under all the mud, I knew the voice. It was William, the man who’d flown over Gardenia with me in the Yuneec.

  ‘William, mate,’ I said and grabbed him, hugging his frail wet body tightly. ‘Oh blimey, it’s good to see you,’ I blurted. ‘I really didn’t think I was going to make it.’

  ‘Is that sort of manoeuvre standard? It was blowing mud and muck to the four corners of the universe. I’ve never seen such a mess or heard such a hullabaloo.’