* * * *
Morning came early. Clay and Alec had the car packed by the time the girls returned from the cafeteria.
“Here you go guys.” Dolores held out two doggie bags filled with pastries.
“Thanks Dolores, just put them in the car. We’ll eat on the way.” Clay said securing their pets in the back.
“You guys ready?” Alec asked holding the doors open. “We get the back seat, Clay’s driving.” He said to Jodi and Jessie.
“I can’t wait to get home.” Jessie jumped in followed by Jodi. Sofie climbed in the front with Dolores. Clay and Alec took one last look around before getting in themselves.
Clay flew them straight up between the crevice walls into the breaking dawn. “Look!” Sofie pointed. She didn’t need to point as they all saw the rag-tag fleet of ships hovering around the mountain base. Clay slowly spun the car giving them a 360 view… of hundreds of ships.
“Over there!” Dolores pointed as some ships parted to make room for a flying golden 1950 Cadillac convertible.
“We couldn’t let you go without saying a proper good-bye” Joshua’s voice came over their radio. He was sitting up on the back of the front passenger seat.
Jessie recognized the unkempt grey hair of the car’s driver. “Hey, that’s Stan. I didn’t know he was here.”
“You guys wouldn’t mind a little company, would you?” The surrounding ships began flickering; at least the ones who’s cloaking still worked.
“Nice car.” Clay radioed… he then gave Alec a sideways glance as Joshua was driving the car he had originally wanted instead of Alec’s Plymouth. Joshua led the way. Clay followed, along with a couple hundred war ships. Jessie thought it neat as she leaned over her mom to hang out the side window, waving at the pilots.
“Hey what’s that all about?” Sofie pointed at a wall of smoke miles ahead.
Joshua, seeing the same thing radioed. “It looks like we’re getting our first look at the remnants of the Kan-ji attacks.”
“Wow, what’s causing all the smoke.” Jessie asked.
“Fire.” Clay said. “Their energy weapons left a trail of fire. According to the news, the fires were the worst part of the destruction… and they’re spreading.”
As they neared the wall of smoke, Jessie could see the flames billowing below it. “Hey Mr. Leland.” She said into the radio; leaning over the front seat to do so. “Can you land up ahead here?”
“If nobody else minds?” he responded as they watched the ALEC’S DREAM come down from above settling onto an open field. Jessie didn’t need to ask Clay as he parked next to it. They were still over a mile away from the fires and could smell the smoke.
“C’mon Sof.” She said pushing her dad out. Sofie waited for her dad to get out first before taking off after Jessie.
“What do you think that’s all about?” Dolores asked.
“Beats me.” Alec said… then seeing their curious looks. “Really... How would I know?”
Clay reached in the car and pulled out the doggie bags. They nibbled at some pastries while waiting to see what the kids were up to. Without warning, the ALEC’S DREAM took off and headed southwest. Joshua along with some of the other craft soon settled down to see what was going on… before anyone could ask they spotted the ALEC’S DREAM returning.
“What in the world is that?” Joshua squinted at the large round object hanging below the ship.
Alec and Clay laughed remembering the incident with the girls’ toy helicopter almost a year ago. “I would believe they’ve found a way to help put out the fires.” Clay said as the ALEC’S DREAM flew over their heads toward the wall of fire and smoke. The crowd grew around them as more of the ships landed, filling the field. All of them curious of what was going on.
“Watch.” Alec pointed as the ship reached the smoke. It stopped and hovered a second before letting the giant ball of water drop. The black smoke was instantly replaced with white billowing steam. The pilots began talking at once.
“I never knew you could do that.” Joshua said to them.
“I completely forgot about it.” Alec said grinning at Clay. “That was a little project the girls came up with… quite a while ago. It looks their little toy might turn out to be pretty useful.” he said as they watched the ALEC’S DREAM return. The girls were running to meet them almost before it touched down.
“Did you see that?” Jessie yelled. “Cooool.”
“Jessie, could you set my ship up like that?” Scott Cavanaugh, one of the fighter pilots asked.
“Yea, me too.” asked someone from behind. Before long all the pilots were asking.
“Ah, sure.” Jessie replied overwhelmed by the number of requests. She looked helplessly at her dad.
Before he could respond, Stan stepped in. “Jess, show us what you did, we’ll take it from there.” He was surrounded by a dozen technicians. Alec realized many of them were his own engineers from GraviTych.
“Gee, thanks Stan.” she said gratefully then grabbed his hand and they jogged to Scott’s ship.
“You wouldn’t believe the mess.” Sofie said holding her dad’s hand. “Nothing’s left. Just a... it’s all destroyed.” her voice cracked.
Joshua gave her a long hard look. “Sofie… thank you.” He then looked at Clay, Alec and Sheldon. “It looks like our job isn’t over. It’s just beginning. Consider yourselves under contract. You’ll be receiving the official papers first thing in the morning.”
They all looked curiously at him. “I’m converting the base into a hospital and shelter. We’re only using about ten percent of its space. We’ll need to staff it with medical people. We’ll also have to move all our technical development to GraviTych and Big Sky. You’ll be in charge of building and maintaining the equipment for our rescue and rebuilding operations.”
Alec looked north at the wall of fire and smoke, seeing lights of emergency vehicles, helicopters and planes flying over. For the first time, he noticed refugees dragging carts and stretchers.
Jessie ran back as Scott’s fighter lifted off flying to the southwest. He could see Stan and his engineers spreading out to the parked ships behind her. More ships hovered above waiting their turn.
“I wish Eugene was here. I’ve got a feeling we’re going to need his help getting GraviTych back in order.” Sofie said looking at Jessie.
“What can I do about it?” Jessie asked. Sofie looked at her wrist and Jessie held it up in front of them. The swirling symbols stabilized as she thought of Eugene on the Cheorgh planet. “You think?” She said.
“Joshua, do you think you can give us that portal stone we brought back with us?” Alec asked.
“Sorry, I’ve been ordered to lock it down.” Then seeing the looks on their faces he said. “I’ll see what I can do.”
“You still need a key stone.” Sofie said to Jessie as they climbed back into the Plymouth, their heads together plotting their next venture.
Alec's Dream Page 78