Land Of The Thunder Dragon

by Dave Williams

  The expression on Skye’s face changed from sheer terror to one of grim determination as she began to concentrate. She could feel the ‘Third Presence’. “She is in that car,” Skye muttered to herself, but everyone heard.

  “Who is in that car Skye?” Wayne asked.

  “The Third Presence,” said Skye, “The woman who chased you and Tim last night.”

  The roof mounted gun locked into place, “Anytime now would be great Skye,” said Timothy nervously.

  Skye imagined a finger, a slender index finger on a left hand reaching toward a button on a steering wheel. Time moved in slow motion. There is a ring on that finger, she could see it vividly, a plain gold band, with five small stones of different colours set into it. They sparkled with light from the sunshine coming in from the windscreen of the car.

  The finger moved closer to the button.

  Skye realised at that moment, that if she could stop this woman last night, she could do so again now. She closed her eyes and imagined the shield, once again, rolling down from the top, the rocking, lurching of the car from side to side didn’t help her to concentrate. The shield finally rolled into place as the bejewelled finger touched the button.

  All hell broke loose. The sound of the gun boomed. “That is no gun,” yelled Wayne, “It’s a bloody cannon.”

  It roared, and everyone flinched believing that this was their last moments alive before they were torn to shreds by the projectiles being fired from it.

  Grandpa Jack reached over and took Skye’s hand in his own, giving her his support. Skye felt her resolve harden, she became calm and the shield was holding. Bullets were bouncing off the shield, creating an electrical storm at the impact points.

  David peered out of the front windscreen, down the road, the long straight road, wondering how long Skye would be able to hold out against the hail of machine cannon bullets. Would they make it even to the first bend?

  Then he saw it, looming just above the horizon, growing larger as it raced straight toward them. At first, he wasn’t sure what the dark shape was, and then “Holy Crap.”

  Everyone turned to see what David was looking at.

  Now they knew they were screwed, as the shape sharpened and became an extremely large, four engine military style aircraft, flying straight at them up the road just metres above ground level. David had seen photos of older style military transport planes and was pretty sure that this was an old ‘C130 Hercules’.

  “That’s our ride,” exclaimed Grandpa Jack. And then the reality hit him, how were they going to get on board while we have this maniac with the machine cannon on their six. He opened a Flashnet link to Lauren, who was on board the plane. The C130 roared overhead, the pilot hoping to scare off their pursuer, but that just wasn’t going to happen.

  “Jack?” Lauren yelled over the roar of the C130’s screaming engines. “We’re going to turn and hit the road in front of you with the ramp down, you are going to have to hit the ramp while we are rolling. Is that a shield around your car Jack? How are you doing that?”

  “Skye is producing the shield Lauren,” said Jack, “Don’t ask me how she does it, but she believes I’m helping her, so don’t let on, we don’t want her to stop believing right at this moment.”

  Rajid, the pilot, pulled violently back on the controls and climbed the C130 almost vertically until it virtually stalled, then turned the nose back toward the ground. The plane raced back down, all the while, the aerodynamics of the ‘Old Herc’ were changing due to Lauren starting to lower the ramp. This made flying her accurately at low altitude very difficult. Leaving at such short notice, he had no co-pilot. Lauren was capable of being the co-pilot, but she had to be back in the cargo bay for this operation. As he came in low over the two racing vehicles, loud bangs and sparks started showering off the nose cone and windshield, Rajid realised that it was bullets being deflected from the shield around the car. “I have got to get one of those shields for ‘Priscilla’,” said Rajid to no one in particular.

  Back in the cargo hold, Lauren was hanging from grab straps looking at the sky out of the rear of the plane. As it levelled out again she smashed into the deck plates nearly losing her grip of the straps. She heard an awful cracking noise and felt blinding pain in her hip. Her smartsuit activated automatically and constricted around the broken hip joint to give it some support, while releasing pain killing and anti-inflammatory meds directly into her system. As she relaxed and let the meds begin to work, she silently thanked Molly Matson for inventing this suit. Once the pain was relieved, the suit also released a dose of NanoBots that would go to work mending the broken joint. It would take time however, time that she didn’t have right at the moment, as bullets started ricocheting everywhere inside the cargo hold. Obviously, they were now a more viable target than the shielded EV, “That’s good, thought Lauren, ‘Priscilla’ can take it, Skye will get a break.”

  Flynn instructed Lurch to get as close to the ramp of the C130 as possible, it started to shower sparks as the ramp was being dragged along the road at speed. Luckily the shield was also deflecting those, otherwise they would be hitting them all through the broken windshield.

  A light on the dashboard of the EV started to flash red indicating that the battery bank was down to five percent capacity. Hurtling down the road at 100 kilometres per hour with six people, one synthetic and blown out windows was not helping power consumption at all. Flynn knew the EV wasn’t going to have enough power to get them up the ramp.

  Jumping into action, he reached over to an access panel on Lurch’s left side and began to open it up with his minidriver. Once inside, he started to uncoil a small bundle of wire with a connection point on the end. “Lurch” said Flynn, “As soon as the front wheels hit the ramp, punch the accelerator as hard as you can, I will use your power supply to give the EV a final boost up the ramp, we will only get one chance at this.” With that, he proceeded to climb out of the passenger side window and over the roof towards the rear charging point. Wayne, realising that Flynn would need to lean head first over the other side of the car, climbed out of his side window so that he could grab Flynn’s feet to stop him from falling. David looked over to Grandpa Jack to see that he was sitting with his eyes closed, holding Skye’s hand. “Are they both asleep?” David thought, shaking his head.

  Flynn plugged in the power jack, just as the front wheels hit the ramp, “Now Lurch,” he yelled over the roaring of machine cannon fire and four massive turbo prop engines. He felt Lurch gun the EV, and it bumped up and over the bottom of the C130’s ramp.

  Rajid was yelling at Lauren over their Flashnet connection, “Get them on board now, we are going to run out of road in 30 seconds.”

  “Shit,” Lauren yelled to herself, and started heading down the ramp with the winch cable.

  The EV and Lurch ran out of juice in their battery banks just before the rear wheels hit the ramp. Lauren just managed to hook the winch cable to the front bumper of the car as it started to roll backwards, she looked up to see the frightened faces of the four boys, frozen in that moment of realisation that they hadn’t made it.

  The EV rolled back onto the cable hook and held, Lauren activated the winch remote, only to quickly shut it down again as the hook started to rip the front bumper out of the car. Lauren yelled to them to start climbing out of the front window and over the bonnet, “Do It, Do It Now,” she yelled.

  David shook Grandpa Jack awake as Flynn, Wayne and Timothy started to make their way forward. “Help me with Lurch guys,” Flynn called to Timothy and Wayne, “We’re going to need him with us.” Lauren called out, “Leave him and save yourselves,” but the boys went back and started to drag Lurch out of the smashed front window.

  Skye remained calm, knowing that she had to maintain the shield while everyone got out, this became much harder as at that moment Rajid pulled back on the controls as he ran out of road. The C130 climbed and accelerated away from the road with the EV hanging half off the ramp.

  Chapter 7 />
  “We’re going where?”

  As Skye jumped off the bonnet onto the loading ramp, she fell, exhausted into Lauren’s arms, who slowly started inching her way up the ramp backwards, protecting her broken hip. Lauren then activated the winch again to try to get the EV into the plane. As it activated, it ripped the whole front of the car off, the rest dropped away and smashed into the forest far below, blasting apart and starting a forest fire.

  As Skye drew herself away from Lauren, she looked down and noticed Lauren’s ring on her right index finger, a gold band, with five different coloured stones set into it. Skye gasped and backed away. Lauren looked at her quizzically and made a note that she would have to find out what that was all about later. Right now, they needed to settle everyone down.

  As the ramp crashed shut, the noise volume finally dropped, and everyone could start to relax. They all tried to talk at once.

  Grandpa Jack held up his hands and began to speak. When Grandpa Jack speaks everyone listens. “I want to introduce you all to my Daughter and your Aunt, Lauren. Lauren is going to speak with you briefly, and then I am going to make her find a bunk for a few hours so that she can begin healing. Thank you, Lauren, for saving our backsides again today.”

  “Welcome aboard ‘Priscilla’ guys,” began Lauren. “This old girl has been on some interesting missions over the years, but I don’t think anyone has boarded her in such an unconventional manner as you have. I desperately need to get some rest so that my NanoBots can get to work. I am going to suggest that you all get cleaned up, have something to eat and rest for a couple of hours. Then, I will come back so that Jack and I will fill you in on the whole story of why you are here, OK?”

  Lauren limped over to the nearest bunk and collapsed onto it. It appeared to everyone as though she was instantly asleep. She did, however, smile weakly as she heard all the questions start, “Is Aunt Lauren ok Grandpa Jack?” “Where are we going Grandpa Jack?” “What are NanoBots Grandpa Jack?” and the last thing she heard while conscious was from Flynn, “I can’t believe someone invented another one of my inventions before I did, NanoBots,,,, Sheeeesh.”

  David sat back against the side wall of the cargo hold and had a look around. Where they sat was like a conference room with lots of electronics around the walls. There was a group bunk area towards the front of the plane. To the back on one side appeared to be a kitchen (he would later find out that it’s called a galley), and then a bathroom to the right side, leaving a large cargo area in between, presumably where the EV would have sat if it had made it inside.

  It then dawned on him. “Hey Guys, Grandpa Jack? All of our stuff, our kit bags were on the roof rack of the EV!!!”

  They all looked at each other and realised that all any of them had left in the whole world, was one T-shirt, one pair of shorts, one pair of shoes, and yeeeew, one pair of ‘I’ve just been really scared’ undies.

  They all looked at each other, and then to Grandpa Jack, who had a very concerned look on his face. Realising that they were looking at him, Jack tried to mask his concern and said to them, “It’s ok, we have many friends in Bhutan, they will help us when we arrive.” Jack silently hoped that he was right, he hadn’t expected this violent resistance to their mission. He leaned back in his seat and closed his eyes, wondering what on earth would happen next.

  Skye, Flynn, Wayne and Timothy all looked at each other at the same time and said, “Where?”

  David replied unthinkingly, “Bhutan, The Land Of The Thunder Dragon,” and then promptly fell asleep.

  Chapter 8

  Happy Landings

  Exactly four hours later, Lauren slumped into the Co-pilot’s seat next to Rajid. He woke up with a start, but was instantly scanning the complicated instruments to check that everything was ok. Once he was sure that everything checked out, he looked over to Lauren, looked her over and said, “You look remarkably good for someone who has just had a broken hip, been shot at and nearly dropped out of the back of a low flying aircraft.”

  “Smart Suit,” said Lauren, “You just have to get one of these Raj.”

  Rajid pulled down the collar of his very casual looking flying suit, namely a T Shirt, to reveal a shimmering smart suit hidden underneath.

  Lauren raised her eyebrows and asked, “How on earth did you get that?”

  “I could tell you, but then I would have to kill you,” he laughed, and then said, “And who says I had to get it on Earth?” To which Lauren just rolled her eyes and let it go.

  Lauren and Rajid had been very close friends for years, both working solidly towards this goal of the mission they were now on together. Their experience in deflecting all attention from Jack and the kids, as well as the Gamma Cygnus Three mission, meant that they trusted each other implicitly, and knew and respected each other’s capabilities beyond reproach.

  “Do you want me to take over while you get some shut eye Raj?” asked Lauren.

  “I was asleep two minutes after you, so I am ok for sleep thanks Lauren, but I might head to the galley to get a sandwich and a coffee. Do you want me to get you one?”

  Lauren took her eyes off the fuel gauges and said, “Just the coffee thanks Raj, you know how I like it. But before you go?”

  “I know what you are going to say, I have already put in the call for a fuel tanker, but I’m a bit concerned that I haven’t had a reply yet. It’s been over four hours,” said Raj, looking rather worried.

  “How far will we get with our current fuel load?” asked Lauren.

  “The reality is, we would have to aim for southern Sri Lanka as there are no longer any viable strips for this size aircraft in the Maldives. All the major strips have been under water for months now as a result of rising sea levels, which is a shame, as the Maldives were a friendly option to us, but, I’m not so sure about the Sri Lankan options,” he said. “Perhaps have another try for the tanker while I raid the galley, we have another eight hours before we need to get desperate.”

  Rajid got up from his seat and slowly made his way back towards the Galley, while Lauren attempted to tune Priscilla’s satellite connection to another contact who might be able to help.

  One condition of Lauren working together on long flights with Rajid and Priscilla, was that they had to have a top-quality coffee machine installed in the galley. Lauren had brought Luke, her favourite barista, in to tune it, and make sure it was working properly. Rajid laughed to himself as he remembered that day. It was quite ridiculous, but he loved the coffee.

  With a sandwich in his mouth and a cup of coffee in each hand, Rajid turned to head back to the cockpit, when a confident young voice from behind said, “You look too scruffy to be a pilot.”

  Putting one coffee down and taking the sandwich out of his mouth, Rajid bent down and said, “You must be David, pleased to meet you, I am Rajid, but you can call me Raj if you like.” Rajid held out his hand for David to shake, which he took and shook firmly.

  “How did you know I am David, Oh, the eyes right?” asked David.

  Rajid nodded and looked at his eyes closely, one green, one blue, “very unusual”, he thought.

  “I thought you would still be sleeping David,” said Rajid.

  “Well, I’m seriously hungry all of a sudden,” replied David, “Is there anything I can eat? Aunt Lauren said we could help ourselves, but I don’t know where to start.”

  “Then this is where the fun starts David, I assume you haven’t used a food replicator before? Let me introduce you to another of your Mum’s amazing inventions that she installed in Priscilla’s galley as a test unit before they were installed all over the Gamma Cygnus Three’s fleet ships. It’s sooooo awesome man,” said Raj excitedly. “I love to show off the technology Priscilla has on board the plane, and this is just the beginning.” He walked a few steps over to a small rectangular hole in the bulkhead wall. “So David, what would you like to eat?” asked Raj. “Just say it clearly to the replicator.”

  “I would really like a vegemite sandwich p
lease,” said David, looking a bit embarrassed at talking to the hole in the wall.

  There was a little whirring noise and then an elevator rose up in the cabinet with a perfect looking vegemite sandwich resting neatly on a plate, cut into perfect triangles. David was just about to reach out to take the sandwich when there was a loud “Noooooo” from behind. It was Flynn, “They’ve invented another one of my inventions before I had time to invent it. A food replicator, I can’t stand it any longer.” He turned, with his hands on his head and ran back towards the main cabin to sulk.

  Chapter 9

  “Waste Not, Want Not”

  Everyone began heading to the galley after hearing the ruckus from Flynn. It was quite funny seeing the various requests of food types that a group of teenagers will request when they can have anything they want. David sat back watching the fun as he ate his vegemite sandwich.