Andrew gave her a reluctant, “Yeah.” It was hard, but he understood her reasoning. “What’s your plan?”
“Well, the air force is going to show up and try to shoot it. I imagine that it’s probably immune to that considering a bomb turned it loose. If Mouse is right and it likes electricity, then we can disrupt it with an E.M.P. Maybe force it back to wherever it’s from. Or kill it.”
Raptor noticed Andrew’s confused expression. “It stands for electromagnetic pulse. If you shove a whole bunch of electricity into something else that uses electricity, it screws it up. Tech can it explain it better. He’s the Keeper of weapons and the one responsible for these sorts of things.”
Stopping before one of the large, double doors in the hallway, Raptor pushed a button on the wall. The door slid open, revealing a long corridor with a ten foot ceiling.
Tech came up behind them as they started into the corridor, a swagger in his step. “Hey, what’s up?” He took his sunglasses off and folded them up, carrying them at his side.
“That crystal monster is trying to destroy Paris,” Andrew said.
Tech squinted his eyes at Andrew and licked his lips. He turned to Raptor. “He’s coming?”
“He’ll be with Aerion. As for the plan, Mouse thinks it feeds off electricity. We’re going to try an E.M.P. burst on it. Either this works, or we’re not going to be there very long.”
Tech raised an eyebrow. “Didn’t it try to eat you the last time?”
Grinning, Raptor said to him, “That’s my plan. It should chase me and ignore you and Aerion.”
Tech put his hand to his forehead, rolling his eyes. “You’re crazy.”
“Speaking of, how was Chile?” Raptor shoved her left hand into the pocket of her jeans as she walked.
“Cold. Why that woman insists on living in a frozen wasteland, I’ll never understand.” Clamping his hands to the side of his head, Tech said in an exasperated tone, “And do you know what she wanted? To play chess. Like I don’t have enough to do already.”
“How’d that go?” Raptor asked, leaning closer to Tech, smiling all the while.
Tech gave her a skeptical look, squinting his eyes. “You know how I feel about playing chess with people who can read minds.”
“She can’t read minds, and for the record, neither can I. She’s just able to see what’s going to happen before it happens.”
“And you remember every move anyone has ever made. It’s close enough to mind reading, and it’s definitely cheating.” Tech pointed to Andrew using his sunglasses. “And not a word out of you.”
Andrew bit his lip, holding back a grin, his head bobbing up and down. He could not imagine either Tech or Raptor having the patience to play chess. Watching them play would most likely be quite entertaining—them tormenting each other with wisecracks and insults.
Tech grumbled to himself, “Maybe I should get Tran to teach me Go.”
“Raptor said you could explain what an E.M.P. is?” Andrew asked, keeping in pace with the other two Keepers as they hurried along.
Tech focused on Andrew, seeming to come out of his thoughts. “Electromagnetic pulse. There’s a few ways to get one, like from a nuclear explosion.”
“We’re going to nuke it?” Stunned, Andrew could not believe Raptor would allow that. He hoped he was not wrong about the Keepers being good people.
“No. We’re not using nuclear.” Tech held up his right hand, his face scowling in disgust.
Glad to see him react so negatively to the notion, Andrew smiled.
“We have missiles. Destructive, but only over a small area,” Raptor said.
Tech cleared his throat and continued. “Electricity and magnetism are interlocked. If you have a magnetic field going in this direction,” he curled his fingers around his hand, in a loose fist, as if he held a cup, “then you get an electrical current going in the direction of your thumb.” He stuck his thumb up. “It also works the other way. If you want to create a magnet, you can take wire, coil it neatly around an iron nail, and connect the ends to a battery. It’ll turn the nail into a simple magnet.”
Holding out his own hand, Andrew mimicked Tech’s motion, following along with the description.
“Right, okay.” Tech lowered his hand, thinking for a moment. “The bomb has a coil of metal inside it, which has an electrical current passing through it.”
“Turning it into a magnet.”
Tech opened his sunglasses with a flick of his wrist and put them on. “Then the bomb explodes and that compresses the magnet wave down, like squeezing a spring.” He held both hands apart and then pressed them together. “This creates a new electrical current, but much more intense because all the waves are pressed together. Everything electrical in the area is fried from an overload.”
Electricity, to magnet, back to electricity again. “I think I get it,” Andrew said.
“It’s more complex than that, but this probably isn’t a good time to explain it in detail,” Tech said, as Raptor motioned for them to walk faster.
“Nope,” Raptor said, opening another heavy door at the end of the corridor. Behind it, extended a large hangar filled with about a dozen matte black planes.
The planes were similar to two-person fighter jets Andrew had seen in various movies. There was only one glaring difference. Set inside the aircraft, just behind the cockpit, was a large round sphere. It gave the aircraft a bloated appearance, probably making it less streamline. He had no idea what hid under the black dome.
“Do I get to fly one?” Andrew asked as he marveled at the planes. He leaned over to look under the wings and noticed two pairs of long missiles attached to the underside.
Raptor laughed. “No, not yet.”
“Up here,” came a scratchy, warm voice.
Above them, sitting in the front seat, was a young woman with a short, stocky stature and olive colored skin. She waved down to them. A pair of avionic goggles and a leather cap sat on the top of her head, with light brown hair curling out from under it.
She then pointed to a pair of planes across the hangar. “Your ships are ready.”
Andrew recognized her from the meeting. She had been wearing a red scarf at the time, but not anymore.
Motioning to her, Raptor said, “Andrew, this is Aerion.”
The name dawned on Andrew; she was one of the original Keepers. “What are you the Keeper of?”
“Air.”
“Are you named after airplanes?” Andrew asked as he considered the origin of her name.
Aerion snorted a laugh. “Just air. I was born before airplanes, but once they were invented, I took right to them.”
Raptor cleared her throat. “Story time later. I want him with you.”
“Climb on up then.” Aerion motioned to a glass canopy behind her. Under it rested an empty seat.
Andrew gulped and grabbed onto a ladder hanging from the side of the plane. As he climbed higher, his stomach clenched. He hated heights. It was his dilemma with the Ferris wheel all over again, but without Christine there to see him through. Andrew gritted his teeth and forced himself upwards.
At the top, Andrew opened the canopy with one smooth motion, like the lid of a chest. He then dropped down into the seat behind Aerion.
“Good luck,” Raptor said. She and Tech moved over to their planes.
“Ha! You’re the one who’ll need it,” Aerion said with a rough laugh. She picked up a red scarf from her lap and wrapped it around her neck.
Throwing the ends of the scarf over her shoulder, Aerion said, “You’ll want to buckle in. This is going to be something like a rollercoaster ride.”
Andrew groaned, hating rollercoasters. They went too high and too fast for his liking. “Oh, joy,” he said sarcastically.
“Relax. Rap stuck you with the best. Get belted in.”
Andrew let out a slow breath, trying to calm himself. Having agreed to be part of the mission, he was determined to not back out now. He fiddled with the four-point belt, pul
ling both sides of the lap band together across his waist. Then, he brought a v-shaped clasp down over his head to meet the other belts in the middle. There was a click as the belts aligned and latched together.
“That’s it,” Aerion said. She reached up and grabbed the canopy above her, pulling it down.
Andrew copied the motion and twisted a large handle on the side of the door, locking his canopy in place.
“We’re all set.” Aerion pressed a few buttons on the control panel. An octagonal platform under the plane gave a harsh jolt and started moving upwards.
Above them, a pair of doors slid opened, revealing an octagonal shaped hole in the ceiling. Through the hole loomed nothing but darkness.
The controls in front of him matched exactly what Aerion had. One control stick rested between his legs and was like a joystick. A second one near his left hand appeared to be a throttle control. They had a few easy-to-reach buttons on them that a thumb or finger could trigger. At his feet, he noticed several pedals. He made sure not to rest his feet on any, unsure of their uses.
Aerion’s left hand rested on the throttle and her right hand flipped switches on in front of her in a set order. As she did, the plane started to come to life. Lights came on inside the aircraft and a faint humming noise came from the rear.
The platform fitted itself into the ceiling and plunged them into darkness. A loud clang of metal striking metal rang out as a clamp locked the airplane into place. Lights flickered on, revealing a tall chamber above them.
They did not stay motionless for long. There was another jolt, and the plane started to turn its nose upwards until it pointed vertically toward the ceiling.
Andrew ended up lying on his back as they prepared to launch. He took a deep breath, his heart pounding in his chest, the anticipation making him sweat.
The ceiling above them opened like a large iris. All the air inside of the chamber went rushing out in a wisp of white smoke.
Andrew gasped. A shimmering wall of ice towered above them. Most of the ice glimmered a crystal blue, but red and black streaks stained other parts of it. He could not see anything else past the rim of the tube.
The plane quivered as Aerion revved up the engines until a powerful blast of energy shot them toward the empty sky above. Andrew held on as tightly as he could. His feelings mixed thrill and wonder together, making him lightheaded.
The three planes cleared the massive wall of ice that hid the Keepers’ base within moments and then continued to climb higher. Behind him, the icy crater shrank down to a speck and faded away into the distance.
Several minutes passed until a bright light flooded the cockpit. He turned to see the giant, cloud-covered planet of Jupiter steadily rising into the sky from behind the moon. His jaw fell open in shock. He knew they were in space, but he had not expected the planet to be hanging right there.
Aerion laughed. “Pretty, isn’t she?”
“Yeah,” Andrew whispered, too stunned for words. Jupiter was like a fishbowl filled with colored sand, the vertical bands of gold, white, and red flowing across its surface in a hypnotic pattern. He could not help but feel in awe.
As they coasted higher over the moon, Andrew decided that he sat in neither a plane nor a spaceship. It was a spaceplane.
He began to hover, weightless, his body straining against the seatbelt as it tried to float away. Letting his hands relax, they drifted upwards on their own. He smiled, enjoying the sensation.
Aerion turned the spaceplane away from Jupiter and pointed it toward empty space. Andrew squinted and could just make out a few pinpricks of distant stars.
In front of him was a black computer screen. To the right of it was a series of buttons and knobs labeled with numbers and letters. Aerion pressed a button on the throttle control, holding it down. “This is Blue One. I hope everyone is ready.” She let go of the button.
“Do you all have code names?” Andrew asked.
“No, just me,” Aerion replied with a grin.
The childish voice of Mouse replied over the intercom. “I read all three of you. Sending coordinates now.” An electrical beep followed.
Words appeared in the Keeper language on the screen in front of him. However, he could not read it fast enough to understand it. He knew he would have to learn how to read the language eventually. He could not keep sounding the words out.
Andrew’s screen changed, showing three numbers. After a few seconds, a fourth number appeared.
“What’s that last number?” Andrew asked. He figured the other three were coordinates.
“That’s our orientation,” Aerion answered. “When we travel to Earth, we don’t want to appear upside down or anything crazy. We’ll enter the atmosphere from about thirty miles up, and we need to be positioned with our nose slightly down. This way, the plane doesn’t tumble out of control as we drop toward the surface.”
Andrew’s eyes bugged out. “Drop?”
“Rollercoaster!” Aerion pushed a yellow button just under the number pad.
A pair of panels snapped shut over the canopy.
Andrew shook his head as he pressed himself back into his seat. “I’ve never been on a rollercoaster before.” Mostly, because he knew he would hate it.
“Oh well, if this was a real rollercoaster, it would be the highest and the fastest in the world.” Aerion pushed the intercom button again. “Count us down, Mouse.”
Andrew tried to scrunch down into his seat, wishing she had not said that. His breathing quickened. He needed to find something to hold onto. He put his hands on the dash, but there was nothing to grab onto. Then, he gripped the edges of his seat. Not satisfied with his grip, he put his hands out, bracing himself on the sides of the cockpit.
Mouse’s voice answered over the intercom. “Right. Launch in five, four, three, ready, steady, go!”
When Mouse said “go” Aerion pushed a large red button. The plane trembled, and a low humming sound came from the rear of the ship.
Andrew swallowed hard, squeezing his eyes shut. The humming sound rose to a pitch beyond his hearing range.
The ship lurched forward with a surge of power. A slight tingling feeling, similar to passing through a dimensional portal, followed.
Andrew kept his eyes closed as a strange sensation of being stretched out passed over him. He felt as if the left half of his body rested on his right.
It was over in an instant, everything snapping back to normal, like a rubber band being released.
Andrew opened his eyes and gasped for air. His heart pounded in his chest, feeling as if a giant hand pushed him down into his seat. No longer weightless, his hands rested normally at his sides, but he did not know which way was down.
“What was that?” Andrew spouted out.
“Singular line dimension.” Aerion chuckled. “You’ll get used to it. Makes for nice shortcuts through space.”
“What does that mean?”
“What’s the shortest distance between any two points?”
“A straight line,” Andrew replied.
“That would have been correct, if we traveled through normal space, but we get to cheat. Imagine if you fold the two ends of a line together, like a piece of paper, and skipped over the whole line.” Aerion grinned at him.
“Then you get there instantaneously?” Andrew answered in an uncertain tone.
Aerion wiggled her eyebrows at him and pushed the yellow button on the control panel. The metal plates concealing the canopy slid open. Western Europe gleamed far below him. The glow of the different cities spread across the continent like a string of Christmas lights.
Andrew realized why he had felt like a hand pressed down on him. They were in freefall.
A sudden jolt rocked the spaceplane violently. “Gah!” Andrew yelped.
Aerion said in a joyful tone, “Hold on we’re entering some turbulence!” She clearly enjoyed the adrenaline rush that had Andrew’s stomach churning in circles. The spaceplane started to spin out of control. It plummeted towar
d the Earth like a rock.
There was not much to hold onto, but Andrew did the best he could. He could feel his heart in his throat as the aircraft twisted out of control. His stomach was not far behind. The spaceplane jerked him around, tossing him left, then right.
“Not fun!” Andrew shouted. She had warned him it would be like a rollercoaster. It was not. Rollercoasters did not spin out of control while plunging toward the ground. Andrew yelped and gripped the edge of the chair, trying to keep himself centered on the seat.
Aerion fought with the stick as she attempted to get control of the aircraft. She pointed the nose straight down and gave the spaceplane a burst of speed. The spaceplane turned a hard right and then everything stabilized. Pulling the aircraft into level flight, she glanced behind her at Andrew.
Shocked he had not lost his lunch, Andrew started to calm down.
“How ya doin’?”
“I think … I think I’m okay.” Andrew let out a breath, trying to convince himself he would be fine. He shivered all over, repeating the words, “I’m okay,” to himself.
“Good. We’ll have a nice smooth flight ahead.”
Andrew nodded, his heart no longer beating itself to death in his throat. He kept his eyes skywards to avoid looking down at the ground. Only moments ago they had been cruising around Jupiter.
“Faster than light travel,” he said. “I didn’t think it was possible.”
“It’s not,” Aerion replied. “It’s more like traveling in the right direction. That dimension we entered lets us take a shortcut through space, but it’s not instant. The delay is minor for short trips like this. If we travel, say, a hundred light years away, then that delay starts to add up. In that case, you’d spend five minutes in the dimension, but eight hours would pass here, in this universe.”
“That was terrifying. It felt like I was hugging myself.” Andrew pressed his face into the glass, hoping to spot Raptor’s or Tech’s plane. The sky grew darker as they fell, the sun quickly sinking over the horizon.
Stone of Power (Keepers of Earth Book 1) Page 16
