Land Of The Thunder Dragon

by Dave Williams

  Grandpa Jack, without even thinking about it, allowed his Flashnet to place a call.

  Lauren, still standing in the middle of the fishbowl (her words), still dumbstruck by the presence of the Fifteenth Dalai Lama, saw Jack's call coming in on her Flashnet icon. She was about to reject it when "Her Holiness" suggested that she should take the call, "It's important," she said.

  Lauren allowed the connection, but still didn’t speak.

  "Hello? Lauren? Are You There?" asked Jack. "We have a really, really large problem,,,, speak to me," Jack pleaded.

  "I'm here Jack, you are not going to believe who's standing right in front of me," Lauren said, almost dreamily.

  "The problem with Flashnet", said Jack, "is that you can't yell into it like an old style phone."

  Lauren snapped back to reality, "This had better be important Jack.”

  "David's eyes have changed colour, five days early. I must have messed up the dates. Lauren, we have to leave straight away, we just lost five days.”

  "Jack? I'm opening the connection to everyone else here Ok?" said Lauren.

  Jack saw four additional identification icons log on to his Flashnet display,

  Owen C Matson

  Evan J Matson

  Russell Matson

  "15"

  Jack's heart skipped a beat as he saw the icons pop up one by one. It had been nearly eleven years since his three sons had left earth, and he hadn't been able to communicate with any of them since. While they had been in stasis since they left, Owen, Evan and Russell have been receiving updates via their Flashnet connections, but the information is purely one way, until now.

  "Lauren, I need you to holoport me into the fishbowl, I must see them with my own eyes," Jack said.

  "Can do Jack," announced Lauren. "Holoport in 3, 2, 1,,,"

  "Gday Dad."

  Jack turned to see Holographic images of his three sons walking towards him, he wanted to run to them and wrap his arms around them, but realised how silly that would look, a Hologram trying to hug another Hologram. Jack chuckled to himself, "that would not be cool."

  "Greetings Earthling," Joked Owen. Everyone cracked up laughing, which given the tension of the moment, relaxed everyone and allowed them to refocus on the problem at hand.

  "So where exactly are you three?" asked Jack, trying to look at all three of his sons at the same time, trying to take in as much as he could. He realised that they looked thin and pale, the results of being fed through a synthetic amniotic fluid for the past eleven years. Jack knew that the stasis pods routinely exercise the bodies of their occupants through a series of electrical muscle stimulations on a regular basis, but there are limits to what can be achieved.

  Owen spoke up first, "Dad, it's so great to see you, we have had to drop out of hyperspace to conduct some urgent maintenance on the shield generators of the Conservator, nothing serious, but we took the opportunity to make contact and stretch our legs. We are five light years on the other side of the Dragon's Head Nebula from you. We should have repairs completed within a few hours and will arrive above ‘Gamma Cygnus Three’ in a few days. We are exactly on schedule and the rest of the fleet is in great condition."

  The "Conservator" is one of three automated ‘freight only’ ships among the fleet heading to Gamma Cygnus Three. While it has no people aboard, it carries probably the most precious cargo of any ship among the fleet. Among many other things, it carries the last three Sperm Whales in the known Universe, one male and two females.

  Evan and Russell just stood there, grinning at their Father's hologram, noticing that the eleven years since they left don't appear to be showing on Jack's face and attitude. They realise that Russell's work in Biotech engineering, having been offered to very few people on Earth, was having its desired effect on Jack. It was important that Russell's new developments had been effective in stopping Jack's ageing process. He has effectively been ninety two years old for eleven years now. All the members of the fleet had been treated to reduce their ageing to almost zero. This was going to be critical in establishing their new colony, as it wasn't going to be possible to breed enough new humans to create a critical mass of population to enjoy a technologically advanced society without being able to reduce the death rate.

  Earth on the other hand, needs an increased death rate if its ecosystem is to survive. Or, for Jack's mission with the children to succeed, where it had earlier failed.

  "G’Day Dad," said Evan, "At least now we know beyond any doubt, that David is the one." Evan's tone was sombre, he knows that David's role in Jack's mission is critical, and way beyond dangerous. David needs to succeed where Jack failed when he was twelve years old. David is Evan's only son.

  "Can we holoport the kids in Lauren?" asked Russell. "We must see each other while this opportunity exists, we might not get another chance."

  "It's too dangerous," Lauren protested. "There will be no-one there to protect them while they are Out Of Body.”

  "Skye has a double layer of shields up Lauren," said 15. "She is very powerful, they will be fine. Russell is correct, this might be their last opportunity. There is no time to waste, but this will give them great strength to continue on their Journey. Russell, quickly, you must remove their Mothers from stasis."

  Russell nodded with great respect at 15 and his hologram disappeared.

  15 continued, "Lauren, this is an opportunity for you to plan a new way to get them all to Jandakot in a hurry, you have ten minutes max. Last night's prowler will still be lurking, and might just have some friends."

  Jack dropped out of holoport to inform the kids what was about to happen, only to find them all surrounding him, looking worried that their Grandpa Jack was standing like a statue in the middle of the kitchen. They had never been told that such a thing as holoporting was possible. "I knew it”, said Flynn. “Someone always invents my ideas before I've had the chance to do it, Sheeeesh."

  Jack didn't feel at all comfortable leaving the children unattended while out of body. While he desperately wanted to be present in the Fishbowl for this, he knew that he must stay present in the kitchen to protect them. "Things are getting weird" he thought, as he placed the communicator implant packs on the necks of Flynn, Timothy, Skye, David, and then at last Wayne.

  "This will momentarily sting," Jack said quietly to them all. "Then, you will be quite disoriented for about two minutes while the operating instructions upload directly to your brain. Then you will see the operational icons appear in the upper right side of your vision, click that icon and you will be logged onto the Flashnet instantaneously. I will then tell you what to do from there.”

  David felt a light sting, then a flash of light accompanied by a loud bang that made him instinctively close his eyes, when he opened them, a very pretty girl in exotic clothes stood before him smiling directly at him.

  "Hi, my name is 15," said the pretty girl. 15 put her hand out to steady David as he felt woozy and off balance. "His body has rejected the comm set, yet here he is," 15 said with an emotion that felt something between astonishment, bewilderment and awe.

  "15 is a number, not a name," said David, bluntly.

  The whole room laughed, "Indeed," said 15 with a smirk on her face. "Turn around David, there are some very important people for you to talk with.”

  David had seen photos of his parents every day. In his bedroom, and on the kitchen wall in the farm house, as well as the photos of the other people in the room. But so much was going on that he couldn't make the connection between the faces before him and those photos. Then, all of a sudden, as the realisation of who these people were started to take shape in David's brain, a wave of indescribable emotion totally overwhelmed him.

  His parents, Evan and Molly, his two Uncles, Russell and Owen as well as his two Aunts, Aisha and Indah, stood in shimmering reality before him. Living with his four cousins, David had as much connection with his Aunts and Uncles as he did with his own parents. He knew all about them, their achievements, their inven
tions, their roles in their mission. Yet, he didn't actually know them. David fell to his knees with the weight of emotion as the shimmering images of his Parents, Aunts and Uncles appeared around him, with equally astonished gasps escaping from their mouths.

  15 turned to see Lauren re-entering the room, she telepathically connected with her, "David has physical form Lauren."

  Laurens jaw flapped open for the fourth time that morning, she opened a flashnet connection to Jack Matson without even thinking about it. "Jack? Is David still in the kitchen with you?” she asked.

  Jack replied with a near panic tone to his voice, "He is here Lauren, but he is out of body. As soon as I put the Comm Installer on his neck it made a loud bang and fell to the floor, how can he be out of body without it?"

  Lauren said to Jack, "David is here in physical form Jack, and I don't know what the fuck is happening.”

  Now it was Jack's turn for his jaw to hit the floor, the other kids came out of their installation fuzz and asked Jack what to do next. While Jack's jaw was still flapping, the remaining four kids went out of body, Jack presumed that Lauren or 15 must have holoported them. His connection was still open to Lauren and she confirmed that the others had successfully holoported, "In the normal way.”

  Skye, recognising David’s overwhelmed emotional state, reached out to place her hand on David’s shoulder. Having no prior understanding of the realities of holoporting, she was not surprised when, as her hand connected with David’s shoulder, Skye’s form also became physical. Evan, David’s father, walked to David’s side and reached out to touch him. Evan also became physical. With astonishment, he beckoned for the others to join him, as he knelt down and wrapped his amazing son in his arms and lifted him into the most incredible intergalactic hug. All of them, came in close, to make contact and take physical form, so that they too could join in this most unbelievable event. What none of them ever truly believed would ever happen again, to see, touch and hold their family had come true. They sat on the floor, so that they could all easily maintain contact. As soon as anyone let go, they would lose physical form.

  David could not stop looking into his Father’s and Mother’s eyes. Until this moment, he didn’t truly understand that empty feeling in his life, where his mother and father should be.

  It dawned on David that this was temporary. Over all the babbling that was going on in the room, he couldn’t comprehend any of what was being said. But he realised that his Mother and Father were saying nothing, and that this was what his Grandpa Jack had been trying to teach him about, being present. To be one with another being, nothing needs to be said, there is understanding and acceptance, completeness. David had the feeling that in that moment he grew up, that he had become very powerful.

  Tears were starting to flow all around as especially the children’s Mothers were starting to realise that this amazing time must soon end. David was hearing an annoying knocking noise, no, not knocking, Banging. He forced himself to break contact with everyone. “Grandpa Jack is in trouble guys,” said David, “We have to go.”

  “Good luck with your grand adventure,” Russell said to them all. “Be honest and true to yourselves, even when that seems impossible, and you all, as a team, will achieve amazing things.”

  Chapter 6

  “BOOM”

  While everyone was saying goodbye, Flynn copied his new Comm software and uploaded it to the Synth’s operating system. He had decided to name him Lurch, he thought that was a cool name. He rebooted him and then connected via the Flashnet, “How cool is this?” Flynn thought to himself. “Very Cool, thank you Flynn,” Lurch answered, much to Flynn’s disgust, in an extremely cool, sexy, female voice.

  “No time to argue guys,” said Flynn. “Lurch, get the travel bags in the EV, start it up and bring it around to the front door.” The banging and grinding noise was now acutely obvious as they cancelled the holoport and returned to their bodies. Everyone was wobbling around as if they were about to fall over.

  Wayne thought to himself that it must be the effects of the holoport, but then realised that the kitchen floor was buckling and rising up, knocking everyone to the floor with a tremendous roar.

  “Quick, everyone outside,” yelled Grandpa Jack as a spiral shaped machine began to burst through the reinforced concrete floor. Grandpa Jack knew that time was now short as the spiral on the tunnelling machine began to slow down. Everyone got up and bolted for the door, just as a hatch opened in the nose cone and a dark clad figure with its face hidden by a balaclava style mask called to his comrades, “We’re in, round them all up and get them back to the tunnel.”

  Grandpa Jack had other ideas. Flynn was last to the door and turned to tell Grandpa Jack to hurry up, when he saw that his grandfather was standing at the kitchen sink, slicing a piece of bread and reaching for the toaster.

  Flynn yelled in a bewildered tone, “Grandpa, this is no time for toast.”

  Grandpa Jack turned his head and smiled at Flynn with a wicked grin. Flynn looked to the tunnelling machine and noticed that the lead intruder was hooked up on the hatch mechanism. He couldn’t get out, and the others couldn’t get past him.

  With that, Grandpa Jack turned the kitchen tap on and turned the nozzle to create a stream of water that was pouring all over the lead intruder and into the hatchway of the tunnelling machine. With his other hand he placed the slice of bread in the toaster and pushed the lever down. He then picked the toaster up, the element glowing red hot, and tossed it in a high arc toward the hatch and the leading bad guy.

  Time seemed to stand still as Flynn, Grandpa Jack and the bad guys, all looked at the toaster as it sailed through the air. The toaster went over the lead bad guy’s head and started to drop. The cord attached to the toaster went tight as it reached the limit of its length, and then dropped into the hatch and slammed into the bad guy’s wet back. The splashing water made contact with the electrical element and the bad guy instantly started to convulse. Electricity, water, and a well earthed metal tunnelling machine make for a great fireworks display. Grandpa Jack headed for the door just as the toaster ejected the toast. Grandpa Jack caught the toast and took a big bite out of it as he headed out of the door and made for the passenger side door of the EV.

  Flynn got in the rear door of the other side just as Lurch punched the accelerator and the EV took off down the dirt driveway, swerving from side to side. Flynn just glared across David and Skye at Grandpa Jack as he happily munched his toast. Grandpa Jack allowed the eye contact, shrugged his shoulders and said “What?”

  “I can’t believe that you buttered the toast,” said Flynn. Everyone burst out laughing.

  Then suddenly, BOOM. Grandpa Jack yelled for everyone to get their heads down just as the shockwave from the exploding house reached the car and blew all the windows out. Glass exploded everywhere, but apart from a few minor cuts, everyone was ok.

  Timothy and Wayne turned around from the front seat, “What on earth was that?” Looking through the opening where the rear windscreen used to be, they could see the rising mushroom cloud that used to be their home.

  Grandpa Jack just smiled, raised his hand and made a sign with his thumb and forefinger and said, “Maybe I might have strapped just a little C4 plastic explosive to the side of the toaster.”

  Everyone, including Lurch, looked at Grandpa Jack, gobsmacked. Timothy, incredulous, said, “Where does a ninety two year old Grandfather get ‘just a little bit of C4’?”

  As the laughing subsided, the car veered left onto the sealed road and began to accelerate away to the north, towards Perth.

  “Lurch seems to be less a name, and more of a driving style Flynn,” said David as he gripped the overhead grab rail to stop himself from being launched out of the smashed window.

  “Ha Ha Ha,” said Flynn sarcastically. “It’s the evasive driving programme I initiated with him. We can probably resume the normal driving programme now Lurch. We need to conserve our batteries if we are going to make it to Jandakot Airport.�
�

  Lurch then calmly responded with, “Flynn, there appears to be a large black car gaining on us very fast from behind. Would you still like me to slow down?”

  Everyone turned to look out of the smashed rear windscreen and saw what appeared to be a hatch opening on the roof of the big black car, and a dark looking gun rising out of the hatch. Everyone turned and yelled at Lurch, “Hell No Lurch, Drive Faster.”

  Grandpa Jack calmly got Skye’s attention “Skye, I know this is a pressure situation, but we need a shield generated around this car right now.”

  Skye’s face was horrified, all she could do was look at that menacing gun rising out of the car roof and was frozen in place.

  “SKYE” Grandpa Jack yelled, “NOW.”