Answering Ascension

by Amy Proebstel

  Without waiting for permission, Chris continued into the craft until he could see the control panel. It came as no surprise, none of the panel looked even remotely familiar. He sat down in one of the front seats and stared at the construction and design of the cockpit. “Is this what you do at your company?”

  “Yep, she’s my pride and joy. She has all of the latest technology, most of which has yet to be seen by anyone outside of our company.”

  “This is amazing, Riccan.” He ran his fingers along the sleek dashboard and wondered what it would look like during flight. “How fast does she fly?”

  Riccan smiled and answered, “Faster than anything else on Earth or Tuala. I haven’t had the opportunity to really test her paces, but I imagine she’d surprise everyone. I discovered a new way to align the crystals, so they’re even more responsive even when a lesser crystal is used. The control panel is mostly handled the same way as the conventional telepods, but the displays are all located within the plascreen. On other telepods, each function has its own light on the board; this one integrates them all to one screen, so there’s less chance of missing something vital. There’s even a built-in safeguard against pilot error which is almost equivalent to an auto-pilot.”

  “Amazing! Can I see the power system?”

  “Certainly, it’s at the back of the main cabin.” He backed away from the cockpit and walked the few paces, past Diane, Amanda, and the girls, to the rear of the craft. He turned a few knobs and pushed aside a panel to reveal the intricate design of the main crystal and the brackets suspending it. The brackets had wires attached to them to power the various components throughout the vessel.

  “It’s such a simple and clean design.” Chris knelt down on the floor and wished he could see a schematic of the ship to see how it really worked. The whole idea of powering a vehicle with a crystal was such a novel concept, and he wanted to know more. The biggest problem he was running into now was he just did not know what questions to ask since he knew nothing about this technology.

  “I wish I knew more about this technology so I’d be able to ask intelligent questions. Unfortunately, I’m at a complete loss except to say it’s beautiful in its simplicity,” Chris said as he looked up at Riccan from his kneeling position at the panel.

  “Would you like to go for a ride?”

  “Do you really have to ask? I’d never turn the opportunity down!”

  “Let’s get buckled in and we’ll go.” He turned around and saw Diane’s expression. “Do you want to take it for a spin, too?”

  She was torn between curiosity and fear. All her life she had let fear win every battle, this time she determined to face down her fear. She looked over at Amanda and said, “I think I’d like to go for a ride, as well!”

  Amanda could not contain her surprise and blurted, “Really?”

  Diane chuckled and said, “I’ve decided to support you in everything. Remember?”

  “Well then, okay!” Amanda backed up and pointed to one of the passenger seats. “You can sit here, and I’ll sit next to you.”

  Diane hastily sat down and buckled the conventional seatbelt. It brought her comfort that at least some things were the same. Even though her heart was racing with fear, she was going to take this ride if it were the last thing she did.

  Amanda sat down and buckled up while the twins selected the seats immediately behind them. There were three seats per row and two rows of seats. The telepod could transport eight people in its current configuration, but it could be reconfigured to haul fourteen should the need arise.

  Riccan knelt down and replaced the panel over the power system. He then returned to the cockpit and sat down in the left-hand seat. At that moment Riccan recalled Amanda’s story about him taking Chris for his first ride. He decided to use the same route from Amanda’s dream for this maiden voyage.

  Chris managed to figure out the fastening system of the right-hand seatbelt and smiled at Riccan to indicate his readiness. He watched intently as Riccan began the start-up procedures.

  Riccan touched the plascreen to turn it on, and then he activated the telepod’s crystal drive. The vessel rose several inches above the ground soundlessly and hovered in place until Riccan was able to verify each green light on the screen.

  “We’re going to teleport to a location away from any people. It would be hard for me to explain my presence on Earth if the press made a big deal of a UFO sighting. The Elders frown on any publicity, and I tend to agree with them. I’m pretty sure you’d like a demonstration of how we normally travel. Are you ready?”

  “Absolutely.”

  “Okay, I’ll warn you that during the transfer you won’t have any sensory input. Some people have a hard time with that even when they know what to expect. My best advice is to keep track of your breathing and remain calm.”

  “Deep breathing and remain calm…I got it. Let’s go!”

  Riccan turned in his seat to make sure Diane had heard his warning about the sensory deprivation. The last thing he wanted was to make it so Diane never wanted to travel in a telepod; he needed her support for Amanda’s sake.

  Diane had been listening intently to her son-in-law and husband talking up front. She only had one question, “How long should we expect to not feel or see anything?”

  “It should only last three seconds, but it will feel longer the first couple of times,” he warned.

  Diane nodded and took a calming breath. She had already committed to doing this crazy stunt. Now she just had to see it through to the end.

  Riccan faced the front of the craft again and glanced one last time at Chris before he touched the activation switch to start their journey. As promised, everything went dark and silent. Riccan mentally counted to three, and they emerged into the bright daylight right on time.

  “The ride is so smooth it doesn’t even feel as though we’re moving.” Chris stared out the windows with a boyish grin pasted on his face. All he could see out the window was water far below them.

  Riccan was thrilled to have an avid flyer in the seat next to him and asked, “What do you think, should we see how fast she can travel in manual mode?”

  “Absolutely! Let’s go. Whoa!” Chris’ breath was taken away as the scenery below became a blur and nothing could be identified as they flew east. At this rate, he was certain they were traveling as fast as a space shuttle. Never in his life did he imagine he would travel at such a rate of speed. He also wondered why he was not feeling any G-forces. “I can see we’re moving really fast, how come we don’t feel it as well?”

  “I activated the anti-gravity force before we began. If I hadn’t done that, we would have passed out well before now. I think we might have found her top speed.”

  “What is it?”

  “Just under 20,000 miles per hour. At this rate, we’ll circle the Earth in just over a minute. Did you ever imagine you would travel the world tonight?”

  “Not in my wildest dreams!” He leaned forward to see if anything could be seen below, but everything remained a blur until Riccan suddenly stopped the telepod. Chris looked over at Riccan and asked, “Where are we?”

  “We are a couple of miles off of the Pacific coast.”

  Amanda glanced over at her mother to see how she was reacting to this new experience. Amanda reached out and patted her mother’s hand as it rested on the arm of the seat. Her mother’s knuckles were white as she held on tightly.

  Diane turned to look at her daughter with wide eyes as she heard Riccan tell Chris just how fast they were traveling. She was thankful she was unable to see out the windows. It was bad enough with the knowledge alone; she did not need the evidence of actually seeing the blur of land below them.

  “It’s time to transfer to the house. Everyone get ready,” Riccan advised as he programmed the plascreen to take them back to the garage in Florida. He pressed the button to switch from manual to mental control and took his hand from the controller. With one more movement, he clicked on the final destination, and e
verything turned black, and all feeling ceased.

  Three seconds later they appeared back in the garage mere inches above the cement floor. Riccan performed all of the shutdown procedures and reaffirmed the cloaking shield’s activation had held during the transfer. Since they were landed, Riccan was able to finally check on his passengers. “Are you okay, Chris?”

  “I’m sure I’ll never be the same, Riccan. That was the most amazing adventure I’ve ever been on. Amanda tried to explain this type of travel, but words do nothing to describe the reality.”

  Riccan smiled at Chris’ answer and then turned to get Diane’s take on the trip. “What did you think, Diane?”

  “It was definitely a unique experience. I’m not sure I’d like to do it regularly, but I understand how convenient it could be to travel so fast,” she replied honestly.

  “I thought it was amazing, Dad,” Juila announced from the back of the craft. She jumped up from her seat and took the few steps to the front console. “You’re going to have to show me how all the controls work! This ‘pod is so much better than anything we flew in back home!”

  “A girl after my own heart.” Chris beamed up at Juila.

  “Mine, too,” Riccan said. He smiled up at his daughter and told her, “We’ll definitely go out soon, but I think your grandma would like to get her feet back on solid ground.”

  “You got that right,” Diane laughed as she unfastened her seatbelt and stood up. Her legs were slightly shaky, and her palms were sweaty. She was glad she had gone on the flight just so she would know what Chris was sure to talk about later. She could already hear the conversations which Chris would initiate based on this one experience. For once, she would have to agree the trip had been fantastic and amazing.

  Riccan palmed open the side door from the main console and waited for his daughters, wife, and mother-in-law to exit the vehicle before he stood up himself. He had enjoyed taking them up for a ride and showing off his favorite engineering project. Chris shared his appreciation for the craft which made it more fulfilling.

  Chapter Twenty-One

  THE HOMECOMING DANCE was held the weekend after the twins’ birthday party. The girls were glad to have something else on which to concentrate. The party had been really fun and a great success with their friends, but they had been uncomfortable being the center of attention for the whole evening.

  All the dresses, suits, and transportation were eventually purchased or planned for the dance. Since there were so many of them, Sofia had suggested they rent a limousine to take them first to dinner and then later to the dance.

  Riccan had arranged the limousine. He had instructed the driver to pick up each of the boys and then bring them all to the house. It may only be a school dance, but he was still a father of teenaged girls and wanted to make sure some ground rules were laid down before they left for the evening.

  The couples were official: Behn and Juila, Luke and Jena, Jon and Sofia, and Ryan and Valentina. The pairings had worked out rather nicely, nobody was left out, and everybody seemed content with the person with which they were going to the dance.

  The night of the dance finally arrived, and all of the girls had come over to the Stel house to get ready. They had the most bathroom space of all the families, so it seemed the natural choice. The noise emanating from the two upstairs rooms was quite apparent downstairs.

  Amanda and Riccan had laughed and smiled at the level of excitement being demonstrated by the girls. Each of them remembered their own experiences with the school dances and were glad both of the girls had decided to attend. They had wondered if Jena would take a date or if she would rather go stag.

  Amanda had the camera ready. She was going to make sure this occasion was properly documented. She had taken all four of the girls dress shopping, which had been quite the experience of its own. Luckily, each of them had selected modest dresses which she had readily approved.

  Riccan had purchased the boutonnieres for the boys as well as the corsages for the girls. He had explained to Amanda that he wanted to make sure the flowers were perfect and did not want to leave it to chance. These days, the boys might not think about it, and he wanted to make sure each of the girls felt perfect and special, and not excluded because the boy had lamed out.

  There was a knock on the front door. The limo had arrived, and the boys were waiting outside. Riccan went and opened the door. He invited the nicely dressed young men into the foyer. For once, he was glad to have an imposing and grand house. The boys were properly formal when they introduced themselves to Riccan.

  Behn had been perfectly polite as he put out his hand and shook Riccan’s hand. He had been told that Riccan was wealthy, but he had not appreciated the truth of the matter. Even though they had all been to the house for the birthday party, they had been focused on the birthday girls. They had not taken any time to appreciate the surroundings. He tried to keep himself from looking around. Behn stood to the side as the other three guys with him each took their turns greeting Riccan.

  Jon was an NHRA enthusiast, so he was particularly enamored with the popular racer. He immediately began asking Riccan about racing and the tension in the room dissipated.

  They walked as a group into the living room where they received their second surprise. They met Amanda armed with her camera. The boys took the time to notice that not only was she terribly young-looking to be the mother of Jena and Juila, she was also very beautiful in the same manner as her daughters. That she was their mother was not even a question, the girls would eventually look exactly like their mother when they got older.

  Amanda stood up and shook each boy’s hand as the formal occasion warranted. Amanda was pleased to see the outfits the boys had selected. They were each dressed in a suit jacket, button-up shirt, and a colored cummerbund. The girls must have given the boys a clue as to the color of their dresses since each boy had a fair match to their date’s outfit. Amanda picked up the boutonnieres from the console table and carefully pinned the single flower on the lapel of each boy.

  She picked up the camera she’d had to set down because of the boutonnieres and began ordering the boys to pose for pictures. There were several poses at which Amanda laughed as she snapped the pictures because the boys were beginning to hear the girls giggling upstairs and their expressions were priceless.

  When Amanda finished with the picture taking, she put the camera down and said, “I’ll go see if the girls are about ready.” She walked out of the room as all of the boys watched her go. It felt nice to be appreciated by so many handsome men. She ascended the stairs and followed the noise.

  She walked into Jena’s bathroom and saw all of the girls sitting on the bathroom countertop putting on their mascara and fixing their hair. She had forgotten how much work went into getting all gussied up for a formal event. “The boys are here. Are you girls almost ready?”

  The girls giggled some more and Jena said, “Yes. We could spend all night in here!” Even though she had agreed to this, and excited about it, she also wanted to get it over with. She felt guilty despite Juila’s persistent reminders that she was not married yet.

  A mere ten minutes later, Amanda led the beautified girls down the stairs. She had expected the boys to be waiting at the bottom of the stairs like you would see in a movie. Unfortunately, this was not the actuality. With a puzzled expression, she continued to lead the girls through the foyer and into the living room.

  Now she could clearly see what had distracted the men. Riccan had turned on the TV, and all of the boys were avidly watching one of Riccan’s recorded races. The surround sound in the room was perfect for the deep growl of the high-performance engine as the truck did a burnout before the racing began. The boys all cheered and talked at once about how cool it sounded and how fun it would be to drive the truck.

  The girls watched with growing scowls as they stood unnoticed at the edge of the living room. They were less impressed with the races and were beginning to wonder why they had spent so much time getting
ready only to be ignored.

  For the first time, Amanda used her power from the crystal to turn off the TV. Riccan looked down at the remote in his hand comically before he turned and saw the lineup of perfectly dressed girls all scowling at them. He had the grace to look embarrassed, and he cleared his throat and said, “I think you boys are needed right now. We can watch the races another time.”

  Instantly, the boys leaped up from the couch, and each hurried over to his date. Their compliments were sincere, but it was a little too late to make a good first impression.

  Riccan came forward with the corsages and handed one to each boy. He watched as they opened the plastic container and then awkwardly put them on the girls’ wrists. He was glad he had thought to purchase the flowers since it seemed none of the boys had even considered it.

  Amanda decided to interrupt the commotion by picking up her camera and having the pairs pose for individual pictures. Once those were done, she had them all line up in front of the grand fireplace, and she took a group shot. The girls looked elegant in their solid-colored satin dresses as they stood next to their dates in their formal-looking suits.

  “The limo is waiting outside to take you all to dinner,” Riccan reminded them. While he had enjoyed getting to visit with the boys, he was anxious to have the house back to just the two of them.

  Juila and Behn led the group away followed closely by Jena and Luke. Valentina and Ryan followed Sofia and Jon out the front door. Riccan and Amanda stood at the entrance and waved as the group filed into the limo and eventually drove away.

  When they had turned the corner of the driveway and were no longer visible, Amanda elbowed Riccan in the ribs, turned around, and went back into the living room. She was upset with Riccan’s stunt with the racing.

  “Hey,” Riccan called out to her. “What’s wrong with you?”

  “Really? You have to ask,” Amanda spun around and accused.

  “What did I do?” Riccan asked innocently.

  “You had to show the boys your races? Really?”