Gift of Flight

by S. W. Gunn

  “He’s not the only one. Let’s go put that stuff away.” She said.

  He groaned to himself before he turned to head back to the Keg. He heard Hain chuckle behind him as they walked away.

  Chapter 18

  As they got out of hearing distance of Hain Jarron said, “Listen Elyse it was.”

  She cut him off by saying, “Don’t worry about it. I already told you I don’t care about your past. I just wanted to play along although I think you’ve got Hain in some serious hot water with Mara.”

  Giving a light chuckle Jarron replied, “He can handle himself.”

  “I suppose. Do you think these rebels are going to let us take what we need or will there be trouble?”

  Shrugging at her he answered, “No idea although I’ve heard some of these religious groups can be difficult, violent even.”

  “A violent religion?” Elyse asked with what could only be described as utter shock on her face.

  “Well I don’t know much about it but I’ve heard of religions that would kill people as part of their religion.”

  “Unbelievable.” Elyse stated while shaking her head.

  They walked down the road towards the landing pad. Jarron spotted several small groups of people hovering near the Keg but none got very close. The turret along the bottom of the Keg, facing towards to town moved slightly. Feligrin was fully alert and watching everything going on. Jarron and Elyse passed through the surrounding group and approached the Keg’s hatch. He opened the hatch and entered. Once Elyse was inside he closed and locked the hatch. They went into the engine room and stowed all of the parts that Hain bought. Jarron was very careful not to dent or damage anything. Hain could get quite fussy if things were mishandled. Once everything was stored Jarron took Elyse to their quarters.

  “Dear I appreciate your desire but I’m not sure now is the time for this.”

  Laughing uproariously at her Jarron reached over to a small panel that he had masked along the back wall. He pushed hard on the panel, which responded by popping open.

  “Ooooo! What’s this?” Elyse asked very excitedly.

  “My own private stash.” He replied.

  Jarron pulled out the small box he had hidden and opened it. Everything he had in there was intact. It was an extra full-charged blaster, a pair of fake I.D. cards, a pouch of gold, a hack-scanner, and a toolkit. All the little things a smuggler should keep handy in a pinch. He already had his blaster so he left that and the fake I.D. cards in the box before putting it back. The hack-scanner and toolkit could prove to be much more useful on this planet since Jarron guessed that the technology was a bit older than most planets he had been to. He slid each into the lower pouches of his vest. The gold he passed over to Elyse, who tucked it away with the rest of the gold.

  “You’ve been holding out on me!” She exclaimed in an almost sarcastic tone.

  Jarron chuckled before saying to her, “Well… I’ve got an account with the Terran First Bank that I’ve been slowly putting money from our jobs so I could have bought a ship. I guess we’ll use it for something else once we get to Terra.”

  She looked thoughtful for a moment before asking with what he could only describe as a playful look on her face, “How much do I have in the bank?”

  Jarron laughed at her, which caused her to laugh along with him.

  After a moment of laughing he told her, “All of it.”

  “Duh! I know that. I meant how much is there.”

  “Oh… I believe its about 700 or so gold. I’ve been skimming where I could. The job we were on last was going to make it so Hain could retire and I was gonna buy the Keg from him.”

  Elyse frowned for a moment before solemnly stating, “That’s where you met me and I’ve ruined your dreams.”

  He frowned. The last thing knowing her ever did was ruin his dreams.

  Firmly telling her, “Improved not ruined.”

  She hugged him tightly, which he responded to by giving her a hug back. He ran his fingers through her hair. It was silky soft. The bristles of his regrown goatee brushed against the top of her head for a moment. It was at the itchy phase. Soon it would be normal once again.

  Breaking his hug with her he stated, “Alright let’s get going. We’ve got to get a conveyance like Hain asked for.”

  She nodded at him and walked through the door of their quarters. He followed quickly behind her. He stopped for a moment to let Feligrin know what was going on before heading out to the hatch. Elyse was waiting for him when he popped open the hatch. The crowd around the Keg was still there, although it was much smaller. No doubt they got bored.

  Jarron walked up to one of the older looking men in the group hanging around the Keg and asked, “Could you direct us to someone selling a conveyance?”

  Without thinking the man pointed towards a nearby side road he said, “Sure. There is a man who sells a few extra although there isn’t many available in town.”

  “Thanks.” Jarron said before he started off down the road.

  As they walked down the side road Jarron noticed an immediate drop in the quality of the buildings. This area was obviously very poor. He saw several people moving about and they fit right into the area. He doubted there was much opportunity for advancement here. After a bit more walking they came up to a roped off old building with three different battered looking conveyances. Jarron knew immediately that whichever one they ended up with, it was going to be a clunker. He stopped for a moment to examine them from a distance. Two were clearly meant for farming. They had only a driver’s seat and a tow line. The third one was a two person conveyance with a small storage area. It was clearly the only option available. Jarron hoped that it would operate well enough for their needs.

  Elyse commented, “It looks like we’ve got only one choice.”

  “Yep. Let’s go see how much this guy wants for it.”

  Jarron and Elyse negotiated with a younger man who owned the conveyances and after parting with a little more gold than he wanted to he was able to buy it. It was going to take him a little bit to get used to a wheeled conveyance but he figured it out fast enough. Elyse seemed to be enjoying the ride as they headed back to the Keg. Once they got to the landing pad Jarron spotted Hain standing near the hatch.

  As Jarron pulled up and shut the conveyance down Hain approached and bellowed out, “This pile of junk is all ya could find?”

  “Ya. Unless you wanna ride in a farming tractor?”

  “Fine, fine, fine. Lemme take a peek at the engine to make sure it doesna break down halfway.”

  “Good idea.” Elyse stated.

  Jarron climbed out of the conveyance and stood next to Hain as he examined the conveyance’s engine. Hain played with it for a bit before he grunted. Jarron recognized many of his different grunts. This one was satisfaction.

  “Alright lad you n I are gonna have to go n the lasses can stay in the Keg.”

  Mara angrily said, “Hain I ain’t stayin’ here to be protected like some flower.”

  Hain grunted. It was his disbelief grunt.

  Elyse added, “Me either.”

  Jarron could tell that Hain was very displeased to be challenged. When it was him, Feligrin, and Hain they would just do what Hain said and when he said it.

  “Donna ya lasses be daft. Which of ya is a better driver than Jarron?”

  Both Elyse and Mara looked thoughtful for a moment and looked at each other.

  Mara answered, “I guess neither of us.”

  “Aye, an which of ya knows how to refine Erunium?”

  Neither responded to his question.

  “Exactly. So git in the Keg n wait with the Brumkin. I know what I’m doin’ and what we need to git the task done. If Elyse could refine Erunium den I’d be sendin’ her cause with Jarron she could just walk in n get it. I’m the one who knows how to do it so I’m goin.”

  Jarron looked at Elyse first before looking at Mara. Elyse had given up the argument and had her normal facial expression. Mara looke
d extremely mad. Elyse walked up to Jarron and planted a kiss on his lips.

  “Be careful out there.” She told him before boarding the Keg.

  He called out to her as she went through the hatch, “Love you!”

  “Love you too!” Her voice echoed out of the hatch.

  Moving over to the driver’s side of the conveyance Jarron climbed aboard. He spotted Hain and Mara whispering to each other. Mara still seemed a bit unhappy but eventually she finally hugged him before boarding the Keg. The hatch closed behind her.

  As Hain climbed into the conveyance he grumbled, “Women.”

  Starting up the conveyance Jarron laughed. It rumbled to life and as he pulled away from the landing pad he started heading west. There was a side road leaving the town here and supposedly about four hours away from the town was the mines in question. It was going to be a long ride and honestly Hain was not much of a conversationalist.

  They sat there in silence for a while before Hain commented, “Tis a boring planet.”

  Taking a moment to glance around them Jarron had to agree. The whole planet seemed to be nothing more than scrubland. He saw several large oceans and dozens of lakes on the scanner when they were landing but outside of those areas the planet was almost entirely scrubland and thinly laid forests. It was no wonder why this planet never became more than a far flung unknown planet.

  Wistfully Jarron replied, “Yes it is.”

  They continued to sit there silently for a moment before Hain stated, “Women sure can be difficult.”

  Jarron laughed. He honestly found Elyse to be extremely pleasant to be around and unlike any other woman he had ever been with she was very flexible. A fine example being just that last encounter. Once she understood Hain’s logic she was no longer argumentative. He could not blame her for not wanting to be pushed aside, even more so since Elyse was probably the most powerful being in the galaxy when he was around her. Hain’s logic was solid however. Jarron was probably the only one of them to drive this brutish conveyance and Hain was definitely the only one who could refine the Erunium. Jarron suspect that Mara was more upset in the tone Hain used to make his decision than the decision itself. Kalan women needed to be just as stubborn as their men. The rest of the ride was silent and the sun was starting to set. Retrospectively it seemed like good fortune. It would be much easier to steal some Erunium would be much easier in the shadow of darkness. Eventually as they continued along Jarron spotted a sign indicating the mines were only a few kilometers away.

  “Cut the lights and once we can see the mines shut off the engine on dis thing. Its too dang loud for us to sneak in.” Hain instructed.

  After flipping off the lights of the conveyance Jarron strained to see ahead very far. Eventually he realized that they had transitioned from scrubland to farmland. He guessed what was being farmed was some type of wheat. Finally in the short distance Jarron spotted a large building sitting next to a wooden tower. He cut the engine off and let it roll forward as far as it would before pulling the brake. Once they were at a complete stop Jarron popped out of the conveyance and scanned around them quickly. It appeared as though there was no rebels or anything in sight. In fact all he saw was the nearby farmland that came to a sudden end at the building that was plainly a factory of some sort. It looked like it had been abandoned for some time. The beat-up wooden tower next to it also appeared to be in disrepair.

  Hain stomped over to Jarron’s side of the conveyance and said in an unusually quiet tone, “I guess dey couldna figure out how to use the refinery so dey abandoned it.”

  That made sense to Jarron. He had always assumed that running things like a refinery would take more than a little bit of technical skill.

  “Let’s push this thing into the refinery.” Hain instructed.

  Opening the door to steer it, Jarron helped Hain push the conveyance into the open large doors of the refinery.

  Still in a quiet tone Hain said, “Stand pat n keep a close eye for anyone. I’m gonna go check out the mine an see if I can find some Erunium. We’re only gonna be needin’ bout half a kilogram o’ it. That’ll get enough refined to git the Keg up in the air.”

  “Alright.”

  Jarron watched as Hain stomped off out of the exit of the refinery. The sounds of his feet stomping around the refinery and towards the tower that must have been the mine before eventually it became utterly silent. Jarron strolled up to the door and scanned around. It was so dark that he could not see much however in the distance he spotted some light. It was not moving and was most likely a home of some kind. He suspected once the rebels realized they could not use this refinery they just settled back into their normal farming lifestyles. He pondered how much communication between the small city and the outlying areas there was. The town had to do some trading with the farmers in order to eat, although based on the object poverty he saw it was probably not much.

  Sneaking out of the refinery to get a better look around them Jarron said to himself, “Its the middle of nowhere.”

  He spotted another two more lights off in the distance that he was confident was another pair of homes. He was very concerned about how loud the refinery was, no doubt it would alert all three homes of farmers that someone was using it. It was going to get very interesting when the refinery was started up. He jogged back into the refinery and examined the equipment. It was clearly not the most modern of technology but appeared to be good enough to get the job done. Glancing around the refinery it was all alien to Jarron. He recognized the computer that probably ran it but everything else was a complete mystery. Jarron climbed into the conveyance to sit and wait on Hain. After a good hour or two of waiting he spotted someone moving towards the entrance. Pulling out his blaster he aimed at the entrance to be prepared.

  Hain appeared at the doors and stated, “Now comes the interestin’ part.”

  Chapter 19

  Hain was holding a large box, which he must have acquired in the mines, that was filled with a bunch of large dark colored rocks. Taking a closer examination of the rocks Jarron noted they had a dark green vein of some kind of gem. He assumed the green gem looking veins were Erunium. Thankfully he heard that it was harmless in this state. Hain stomped over to the main computer that Jarron examined earlier.

  He played with it for a moment before declaring, “It needs a power source.”

  Jarron frowned. There was not exactly a bunch of power sources laying around in the middle of a run-down refinery wedged between several farms.

  “Help my push dis conveyance over ‘ere. I can prolly jury rig it up to power the computer. Once we’ve got it runnin’ we’ll be able to start the whole thing up.”

  They moved the conveyance right up to the computer. Hain popped its hood and began playing with it. Next he scrounged around the building for a moment before coming back with a fistful of wires. Jarron’s best guess is that it came from the lighting system of the building.

  After a good thirty minutes of playing with the wires between the conveyance and the computer Hain said, “Fire up the conveyance.”

  Triggering the conveyance caused the computer system to fire up immediately. Jarron was duly impressed with Hain’s abilities. He really could make almost anything run.

  “Dang it.” Hain said both loudly and angrily while looking at the computer screen.

  “What’s wrong?”

  “Dey got a security system on dis thing. It’ll take way too long to git it working.”

  Giving a chuckle Jarron pulled out the hack-scanner out of his jacket before saying, “Maybe I could do something to help out.”

  “Lad ya never fail to impress.”

  Shrugging as he plugged the hack-scanner into the port of the computer he said, “It was random luck that inspired me to bring it.”

  “Whelp I’m just glad ya brought it.”

  The hack-scanner was very convenient. It was a simple computer that had a complex program designed to break through most security systems not designed to prevent it fr
om working. Older computers were easy for it to break through. The hack-scanner beeped very quickly which caused Jarron to grin. It was already done and the computer screen was ready to start.

  “Lets git everything up n ready before we start the machines. Take dis Erunium to the smeltin’ pot over there. Den put the lid down n lock it in place.”

  Jarron moved quickly to follow the instructions exactly. Once he locked the lid of the pot like instructed he jogged back over to Hain. Everything was pretty much ready to go, at least it looked like it to Jarron.

  “Go outside n keep a watch so we’ll know when there comin’.”” Hain instructed.

  Stepping through the doors Jarron stepped outside to watch the nearest home. If anyone were to hear it, they would be the first and probably the first to react. There was a long pause before a loud booming sound echoed through the building. After another lighter boom the machines within it fired up. He knew that there was no way these farmers did not hear it.

  Going to the door Jarron yelled over the noise, “How long is this going to take?”

  “Twenty or so minutes!”

  Jarron turned back towards the farm and grumbled to himself. More lights appeared where the building was. There is no way that they did not hear what was going on. Jarron kept a firm watch on the farm and eventually several smaller lights began moving towards the refinery. Jarron sighed because he knew this was about to get much more dangerous than he had hoped it would be.

  Turning back to the building Jarron yelled out, “They’re coming!”

  “Still gonna need another twenty minutes lad. Ya best distract em’.”

  Jarron turned back around and he saw the people approaching. It was three men, all of which definitely reminded him of farmers. They were wearing well-worn clothing and each holding a torch. He noted that each was carrying a rifle. As they started to get a little closer Jarron could get a good look at each one of the men. They were two older men and one very young one who he guessed was probably the child of one of the two others. He did not want to have this conflict. Maybe he could talk them into walking away although he doubted it. The best strategy that he could think of if they turned it into a fight would be to use the doors as a way to block off their fire and maybe distract them with his own blaster. He just wanted to get off this planet not kill some random farmers. Jarron stepped back next to the door and prepared to close it quickly if talking to them did not work. Finally the men came into sight. They were walking very cautiously towards the building.