Freedom Forged

by Alan Austin

  Everything was going well until she realized that she was slowing too quickly and wasn’t going to make it. Mac then turned toward the door of the airship and signaled. The Airship slowed some and it was enough for Rosalyn’s diver to push into the hooks and feel them lock into place above her. She was docked.

  With her heart racing a million miles an hour, she took stock of what had just happened. Mac had no desire for her to be here, but he’d risked his life helping her dock safely. They could have just decided that they didn’t trust her and leave her to drift back down to her death. Even if she had made it back to the train, Sam would never believe her story over theirs. In their shoes, she had to admit that the thought would’ve at least crossed her mind. But they’d helped her, and perhaps saved her life. Why did she have to do this to them?

  Rosalyn had never wanted to hurt any of them. There was a good reason for her departure the last time, but she couldn’t tell any of them. She wanted to, but she knew how they would respond. They wouldn’t have let her go, and that would have been worse. She’d reasoned that if anything bad happened because she stayed, she’d never be able to forgive herself, but something bad had happened anyway. Now she had to put the best people she’d ever known, and the only man she’d ever loved, through hell again because of her foolishness. It was the furthest thing from fair, but it was reality.

  Mac had already climbed back down to the walkway along the outside of the airship cabin and was there to help her out when she finally opened her canopy.

  “What happened to you?” he asked, yelling to be heard over the wind as she climbed out.

  “I fell behind and was almost caught. I had to run through one of the train cabins and find a way around the other side,” Rosalyn answered.

  “We didn’t think you were going to make it,” Mac said as they passed into the calm of the cabin and shut the bay doors, further quieting the outside noise.

  “I didn’t think I would either. I was down to my last two pins on the charge,” she replied.

  “So close,” Boomer muttered under his breath.

  Well, it was nice to know that she wasn’t the only one who’d have at least thought about it. Given that Boomer had been out there to help too, she didn’t hold the comment against him and just went to the back of the cabin to change. As soon as she’d stripped her gear off and changed back into her usual attire, she just flopped down onto Sam’s bed.

  Both the toll of the mission and what she now had in front of her hit her with full force and she couldn’t stop herself when the sobs began. The others quieted down and it was painfully clear that they could hear her, which made it all the more awkward, but she didn’t care about any of that right now. No matter how practiced she was at bottling up her feelings for a con or a mission, she had found her breaking point. Rosalyn clutched a pillow, trying to muffle the sounds as she cried. Gradually, her sobs quieted and her eyelids grew heavy until somehow she was carried away by sleep. At some point in her dreams, she realized she was still sleeping, but the dream was sweet, and she recalled enough of the reality she’d left behind that she didn’t want to wake and face it.

  Chapter 12

  Truth

  A second wind of energy hit Sam as they entered the mouth of the river. It was hard to see the banks over the front of the engine and Grease had sweat pouring off her forehead as she shifted the train from side to side. Neither he nor Navada were quite as worried about the threat of guards at this point. Trying to retake control of the train now would be suicide even if there was a way for them to succeed. The rudder controls had already snapped, so the carrier was the only thing keeping everyone from a horrible crash into the banks of the river. It was also clear by this point that they weren’t going to succeed in retaking control, even if they wanted to. After a few turns, Grease began to panic and asked Sam to move to the front of the engine in order to direct her.

  From Sam’s new vantage point at the front of the train, he could see that up ahead the river narrowed considerably as it took a sharp bend to the right. He felt his stomach clench but did not want to further alarm Grease. He flashed her a thumbs up before he started giving the hand signals that would guide her through the slow left turn that would be followed by the sharper right. He was grateful for that first turn; it allowed him to gauge her reactions to his signals, and he quickly determined that he would need to be more dramatic to get her to turn hard enough into the second. That was exactly what he did.

  He felt the sudden shift as the engine rolled to the right and began turning hard. The train began to enter something of a slide. It didn’t look like they were going to make it. With a pounding heart, Sam wondered if it just couldn’t turn that hard, but it seemed to gain a little more resistance in the water and pulled into the line that he needed. He had Grease ease up a bit and watched in satisfaction as they pushed straight through the gap before the river straightened and widened ahead for as far as he could see.

  Sam gave Grease another thumbs up – knowing that this time it was genuine – and felt his breathing return to normal. He headed back to the carrier to let her know in person that it was smooth sailing ahead. When he arrived, Grease brought his attention to the sky where several army airships were lined up over the river. They were still quite a ways off, but at the speed they were moving, it wouldn’t be long.

  The plan was for the ships to drop magnetic locks down to the top of the train and then lift hard. DaVinci had been concerned with their ability to meet the train at speed and not get pulled down out of the sky, but the army’s engineers had insisted that they had it covered. Sam didn’t trust them, but given that he and his team would be able to leave before the attempt was made, he hadn’t let that concern get in the way of his part of the op.

  “Alright,” Sam called up to Grease. “We’ll lock the steering once we get closer. Can Navada fit in the cockpit with you?”

  Grease looked at the space she had in her single seat and nodded. “There’s not much room, but we can make that work. What about you?”

  Sam walked around to the back of the carrier and examined the position he’d considered. It was small, but it should work.

  “I’m going to tuck into the small cubby between your rear flaps,” he answered.

  “You’ll freeze!” Grease shouted.

  Sam hadn’t even considered the cold yet. Flying as high as they would be, the temps would drop well below freezing, but there was no other option. He could stay with the train and risk being killed either by the attempted lift or by the British before the Resistance boarded to take control. If it was a quick flight, he’d be more confident, but Grease had to make the much longer and more dangerous flight back to their airship in order to save the carrier.

  “Fly as low as you can,” Sam responded with a shrug. “At least I’ll be out of the wind.”

  Grease nodded, still looking very unconvinced. Sam’s jacket had been enough to protect him from the cold wind down here, but he’d relied on the canopy and sealed cockpit that helped trap body heat for the longer return trip in the diver. That was no longer an option.

  Grease showed Navada how to use the welding strip that was similar to the one Sam had used on the back of the metal loop below the engine. With both the others ready to go, she then lined the train up on the steadiest course she could and tried to guess the timing.

  “NOW!” She screamed, waving her hands in case they didn’t hear her.

  Sam lay the strip down, covering the cable and some of the engine’s roof on both sides. He then pulled the film off and turned away as the blue light burned bright and sparks flew everywhere.

  Without waiting to see if it had worked, he dashed for the back of the carrier and hurled himself into the small space between the control flaps. There was nothing to clip into and no restraint to hold him in place. He pressed his feet to one side and his back to the other and found a small groove to get some grip with his hand. The thought of the ship tilting up and ascending quickly was terrifying, but he
had no other choice. He’d just have to hold on.

  Whatever Navada and Grease were doing to get situated up front, Sam could feel every movement through the metal beneath him. He heard a loud clunk, which he guessed was the canopy seal, and then felt his world shift as the carrier lifted off and banked harder to one side than he was expecting. Either they were too close to the airships to pull up, or Grease was trying to make life easier for him. No matter the reason, Sam was grateful.

  Eventually the ship did tip upward, and Sam heard the buzz and felt the vibration as the propellers were unleashed. The push back wasn’t anything he couldn’t handle in his braced position, but if Grease had to use the rockets to get more speed or distance, Sam was concerned that he might not be able to stop himself from sliding right out the back.

  He could see the train behind them now and watched in awe as ten airships, lined up perfectly, all dropped what looked like anchors to the top of the speeding train. The airships all had to have been moving at full speed to lessen the blow, but the train was still moving so fast that it made them look stationary above it. Sam gasped when the airships were jerked forward out of the sky. They all began firing rockets to keep from being pulled in behind the train and crashing.

  Without blinking, Sam watched as the operation teetered on the brink of failure. The airships swung wildly behind the train before finally regaining control and lifting the behemoth out of the river below. Even with the train in the air, success was still uncertain as it swung below the line of airships. Eventually, though, everything seemed to calm down and the forward momentum began to slow. The line of ships had not lifted the train high, but it was high enough that they were able to move it over the banks of the river.

  Sam then found their destination off to the north. A long trench had been carved into the ground that paralleled the river perfectly. They were going to drop the train into the trench to keep it upright without a docking station under the Resistance control. They REALLY wanted that train. How in the world they’d managed to get all this lined up on less than two days’ notice was staggering, but it was enough to give Sam more hope for the American cause.

  Just as the train was being lined up to drop in, the carrier banked to the side and Sam lost sight of the scene. The world below got smaller and smaller and the air got colder and colder. Taking comfort from the sound of the wind and the knowledge that he was at least spared the surely deadly effects that it would have on him otherwise, Sam did what he could to maintain his grip to prevent from sliding backward. It was at precisely the moment that he felt he couldn’t handle it if the temperature dropped anymore at all that the ship tipped forward and leveled out.

  He heard two deliberate thumps and took it as a signal from Grease that it was okay to relax. Part of him didn’t want to, just in case something jostled the ship and he fell out, but he was so cold that he couldn’t resist the opportunity to pull his knees up closer to his chest and bring his gloves over his face to trap some of the warmth as he exhaled. Ice had already formed in the stubble under his nose. It had been a few days since he last shaved and it was just enough to add to his discomfort. He closed his eyes and tried to imagine being in a warm bed by a roaring fire.

  Every second felt like an hour and brought Sam closer to hypothermia. When two more thumps came from the front, he wasn’t sure he had the strength to brace again, but he forced himself to extend his legs. It felt like someone was stabbing him in the tops of his thighs, but his boots were again pressed firmly to the wall of the small cubby.

  He expected the carrier to tip up once more and climb higher, but it leaned forward and dove. Sam suddenly felt weightless and was very happy to have been warned. It felt like it had been a long time, but given how bright it still was outside, he knew that there was no way they’d made it back to the airship yet. Something was wrong.

  His ear popped as the carrier continued its downward dive, and he could feel the air warming on his skin. A mixture of relief to be descending out of the cold and fear of what was wrong kept him alert and fully braced, which helped when the ship flipped back to a more level position. A heavy vibration followed by a massive deceleration told Sam that the full carrier wings had been deployed. He’d been specifically braced for acceleration and his body slipped forward, slamming his back against the rough metal behind him.

  Once he recovered from the impact, he opened his eyes and looked out to see what he could make of the scenery behind him. To his surprise, he saw the sun glimmering off the waves. They were still moving very quickly over the water, but the speed was fading fast. Was Grease going to try to set them down on the water? How far from land were they? Sam hated not being able to communicate with the other two.

  With the carrier’s full wingspan deployed, it was able to slow considerably while maintaining its glide over the water. They were no more than ten feet off the surface and when they started to fall a little more, Sam was once again surprised – and nearly fell out the back – when Grease tipped the nose back up and started to let the charge on some of the propellers go again.

  Same watched as the water slowed to a crawl beneath him and realized what Grease was doing. She was using the lift of the wings with the upward force of the carrier’s propulsion to bring it to a near hover. He was about to do what he thought she wanted all on his own when two more thumps of her boot on the floor of the cockpit confirmed the timing and he let go.

  Even at the slower speed, he hit the water roughly. The impact on top of the shock of the water rattled his nerves for a second, but he quickly clawed his way up to the surface. It took no time at all to feel the heavy pull of his thick leather coat and several layers underneath. He began stripping down to lighten his load, and then looked over and saw that he was only a few hundred yards from the beach.

  Looking back toward the carrier, he watched as Grease set it down gently in the water and popped the canopy. Navada was the first out, followed immediately by Grease, and they both looked to be alright. They too started to remove some of their heavier clothing and Sam began swimming for the shore once he was sure the other two were in no need of assistance.

  By the time he reached the beach, Sam was completely unable to stand. He crawled out of the shallow water and pushed himself to get past the water line before rolling onto his back in nothing but his underwear. It was doubtful that the air was all that warm, but after the freezing heights he’d just come from and the frigid water, it felt damn-near tropical to him. The sun was very low on the horizon, but he soaked up every last ray that he could as he considered how lucky he was to even be alive after everything that they’d just gone through.

  After foolishly considering trying to rescue the women if they needed help – a decision which would have surely sapped the last of his strength and killed him – it was them who came running to Sam on the beach.

  “Are you alright?” Navada asked.

  Sam could only grunt an affirmative.

  “I wasn’t even sure you were still with us, but I’m glad you got my messages,” Grease said.

  “What…” Sam started to say before the shivers returned and rattled his teeth too much to finish.

  Grease knew what he was going to ask.

  “As soon as we crossed the coast, I ran through a test of all the props and one of the charge releases had jammed somehow. I tried it five times, but I couldn’t make it go. We might have made it back with the rockets, but I was sure we’d lose you if I tried that. I decided that we needed to ditch in the water by the coast if we had any chance of survival.”

  “She saved our lives,” Navada added. “I wouldn’t have ever thought to test the propulsion like that. It was brilliant.”

  Sam just nodded.

  “You need to warm up – NOW!” Grease exclaimed, shivering enough to chatter through her own words. “We all do.”

  “I saw a cabin back the way we came. It can’t be more than a mile away,” Navada said, pointing south along the beach.

  “We’ll need to he
lp him,” Grease said, reaching down and pulling one of Sam’s arms up.

  Sam wasn’t sure he could make it, even with their help. The two women pulled him to his feet and he wrapped an arm around each of their necks. With his pathetic shuffling between them, they started making their way down the beach as the sun set slowly on the horizon. It wasn’t long before pain started shooting through Sam’s legs as feeling returned after being nearly frozen. It felt like he was being stabbed and lit on fire at the same time, and there was nothing he could do to prevent the screams that he let out in his agony.

  The women never wavered. Clearly struggling themselves, they carried him all the way to the cabin, which was barely visible in the dim light of dusk and showed no signs of being occupied.

  With no lock on the door, they entered and found a small, single bed in the corner with a large stone fireplace across from it. There was dry wood stacked inside and matches on the table. Navada wasted no time starting the fire as Grease told Sam to strip and get in the bed. He removed the last of his wet clothes without a care in the world as to whether he was nude or not and rolled into the covers. When he looked back, Grease was unsnapping the last of her own undergarments from behind and let her body-hugging undergarment fall to the floor in front of her.

  Even in his desperately pained state, he could not help but feel a twinge of arousal at the unexpected sight of her body. She’d never really caught his eye before, but she had quite the figure. Before he had time to process what was happening, she lifted the covers, clearly glancing down at his own exposed nakedness, and rolled her body all the way over his to the wall side of the bed. It seemed like a strange decision, but with the fire beginning to take on its own, Navada came over and he understood. She too stripped all the wet clothing off, revealing a body that he most certainly HAD already noticed in all its glory. The second nude woman climbing into the bed with him was more than enough to stir his excitement in a physical way.