by George Deeb
“Uncle Tony, how did you meet Mersuul?” asked Erica, out of mild curiosity.
“Oh... met her at work. She was part of the group that saved the life of one of my men.”
Erika's eyes widened in surprise.
“How did she save one of your men?”
“Can't tell you.” he said chuckling.”
Mersuul looked at Travellor and shook her head. She knew he was having fun keeping his niece in suspense. It was only several hours more before she found out what the secret was. It would take her days after that to adjust to it. She returned her attention back to flying the plane.
7
First Day At A New Job
It was four in the morning when the alarm went off. Erika had a hard time getting out of the bed. It was so warm and comfortable, and just right for sleeping. She slowly pushed herself to get up, and start getting ready. Six hours of sleep just wasn't enough. 'Good thing I packed last night.' she thought, as she walked into the bathroom. She looked into the mirror and thought she looked terrible. A yawn took control of her mouth, and it opened so big it looked like she could have swallowed her own head – well, almost.
In a few minutes she had brushed her teeth, and was standing under the shower, and she was beginning to feel awake. Why did they have to leave so early in the morning? Even in college she always had a hard time with the early hour classes. By dint of repetition, she applied some makeup and was dressed in her new flight suit. It didn't fit very well. It was like a tent someone had sewn into something resembling clothing. 'COFFEE!' she thought. 'Want coffee!'
Mersuul was already there, looking at a laptop screen and sipping on a steamy cup. She was in her flight suit, and the silvery material looked tailor made on her. Without looking she pointed to the pot and Erika needed no other instruction. There was an empty mug already waiting for her. 'Excellent.' thought Erika, 'No thinking required.' The first sip was like liquid wakeup. Her mouth was very happy with the sweet warmth.
Just as Erika was getting comfortable in a chair, her uncle came through the back door at what seemed like rocket speed to her – but almost anything seemed like rocket speed at the moment. Her brain just didn't want to wake up. She worried that she was going to make a bad impression on her first day of her new job.
“Bags are outside and ready to go.” said Travellor. “We have ten minutes before we leave.”
“It will only take me a few minutes to put my boots on and get my overhead bag ready.” Erika said, suddenly noticing that Mersuul was looking at her and smiling. “What?” she asked, looking back at her an returning the smile involuntarily.
“TEN MINUTES!” said her uncle, a little louder than before.
He was smiling at her also. There was obviously a conspiracy going on.
“Why are you two...”
“TEN MINUTES!” said her uncle again, cutting her off. His smile got bigger.
“ALRIGHT.” she said. “Ten minutes! I got it. Jeez.”
“COFFEE.” said her uncle, as he robotically turned to the counter.
“This flight suit doesn't fit very well, Uncle Tony. Couldn't you find something closer to my size.”
“I can fix that.” said Mersuul. “Stand up.”
Erika stood up, but doubted Mersuul could do much with all the excess material she was wearing. Erika took a big gulp of coffee, and slowly swallowed it as she waited for the fitting she didn't think would help much.
“Press the top spot.” said Mersuul, pointing to the three purple dots at the upper left chest area.
“Press this?” Erika asked, with a doubtful expression on her face.
She pushed on the small spot, and immediately she felt the material of her suit get warm. Her eyes opened in surprise and the suit began to shrink. In less than a minute, all of the excess material seemed to have disappeared, and the suit formed a close fitting outfit on her body. 'Maybe a little too form fitting.' thought Erika, as she noticed how much of a second skin it seemed to be.
“Now tap the lower left spot.”
Erika did this, and with each tap the suit loosened slightly overall.
“Tailor made!” said Travellor. “Where's the jacket?”
“In my room, with the boots.”
“They also have the same fitting mechanism.” said Mersuul. “After you put them on, press the top spot. The clothes will remember your settings. When we have more time, I'll show you how to customize the fit. Men like to loosen it up between the legs. Women like to loosen it up around the chest.”
As Erika compared her outfit to Mersuul, she noticed for the first time that they had names imprinted across the upper left chest area. Mersuul's was different than hers or her uncle's. She had E. AIMSLER written in caps, and below that were symbols she didn't recognize. Her uncle had A. TRAVELLOR with some different symbols underneath. Mersuul had the strange symbols on top with M. VAANA underneath.
“FIVE MINUTES!” yelled Travellor, making both women jump.
“ALL RIGHT!” said Erika, moving to her room. “I only have to close my bag and I'm ready! VICIOUS?” she called loudly. “WHERE ARE YOU?”
“He's with the bags.” said Travellor. “I've packed his charging station, and some spare parts also.”
“Thanks Uncle Tony.” she called back to the kitchen.
Mersuul followed behind her, to see if she could help.
8
“Aren't we taking the Cherokee?” asked Erica, as they walked passed the hangar and into the copse of trees.
“Cherokee won't get us where we are going – although Mersuul would be happy if it could.” said Travellor, maintaining the smile on his face. Mersuul was also smiling as she nodded in agreement.
They were following a worn path that Erika knew hadn't been there the last time she visited. They had gone about thirty feet into the copse when suddenly they were standing on a concrete floor that just appeared from nowhere. They stood in a small room made of transparent walls, which was attached to a larger structure. The building was furnished with a small couch, some chairs, and there was a small table with a coffee maker next to a bottled water dispenser. It reminded Erika of the FBO at the local airport.
At one end of the room she saw the rest of their bags, and a number of plastic barrels and wooden crates. Vicious was moving from there towards them. Looking through the transparent windows of the room, Erika could see that there were two equally spaced circles painted on the floor of the structure. Each circle had a large letter H painted in its center. Eight red lights which were almost flush to the ground, were located around the edge of each circle. She tapped on the transparent material – it was Plexiglas.
The structure was enclosed on all sides, and the doorway behind them seemed to be the only entrance. The building hadn't been there before – shouldn't have been there now. She could clearly see all the stars of the early morning sky when she looked up. Erika spun around, looking at her surroundings again.
“This can't be here!” she said. “We flew over here yesterday, and this wasn't here!”
She stopped turning around when she saw her uncle's face. His smile was much bigger now. Mersuul was looking at him and shaking her head like you would at a child who was playing a practical joke. She nudged him with her elbow.
“Tell her, now. You have had your fun.”
“Oh, but this is once in a lifetime. Look at that expression on her face!” he said, as he was enjoying her confusion. “And she hasn't even seen the good stuff yet.”
“It is camouflaged from view overhead. Anyone flying over would only see trees.” said Mersuul, again shaking her head at Travellor.
“That's very effective camouflage! So we're going by helicopter?” asked Erika.
“Nope.” replied her uncle. “You are going to love this! What time is it?”
Travellor had just finished speaking when the red lights around the landing circles began flashing.
Mersuul sighed. “Just as I had become comfortable here, it is time to go back to wor
k.”
Travellor and Mersuul were looking up to the sky, and Erika did the same. She still couldn't see anything but the stars – except... Strange, there appeared to be a black hole in the sky – and the hole kept growing.
Then a low frequency sound could be heard. As the hole kept getting bigger, the sound grew a little louder. It sounded like a dry, low level roaring, and Erika noticed neither her uncle or Mersuul seemed bothered by it. As she stared up at the hole it began to grow lighter until it changed into a glowing hole in the sky. It wasn't bright enough to hurt your eyes, but against the dark sky background it was very obvious. Then the glow that had been above them lowered into the structure.
Erika felt a thump from the ground as if something had contacted the floor, and the glowing shape that hovered several feet above the ground began to dim. Soon it was gone. She moved closer to her uncle and took his arm. It wasn't fear she was feeling exactly – more like the anticipation of the unknown. He turned and smiled at her.
“Keep watching.” he said, and turned his head back to view the seemingly empty room.
But there was nothing to see. She look out and saw just the walls of the structure and the open sky above. She was feeling confused when suddenly she involuntarily jumped back as a large elongated oval shaped object appeared from nowhere. The object had windows, and through them she could see people inside, all wearing flight suits similar to theirs. It was held up by six legs with bristle brushes on the ends – the bristles were very thick, each being as big around as her wrist. She didn't realize that her eyes were wide, and her mouth open, as she moved closed to get a better look.
“It's an aircraft!” she said in surprise.
“Is that great camouflage or what?” said Travellor.
“It doesn't have any wings!”
Erika heard a clunk and thud, and a door opened on the side of the craft. Stairs extended to the floor, and the four men inside started down. They waved to her uncle and Mersuul as they spotted them. Just like any traveler getting off of an airplane, they carried luggage with them as they came out. As they gathered outside the ship, Mersuul took Erika's hand and led her into the hangar.
“Come. They all want to meet you. Tony talks about you so much, everyone thinks of you as family.”
Chapter 16
Starting The New Job
1
“Scan flight path for traffic.” said Travellor.
“Flight path clear within twenty-five mile radius up to thirty-five thousand feet.” said the computer.
“Looks like we're good to go. Everyone seated and secure?” he asked, even though he could see that Erika and Mersuul were.
“There are no seat belts.” replied Erika.
“None needed. I'll make sure you have a copy of the shuttle's flight manual available to study in your free time.”
It was checklist procedure – everyone seated and secure – asked by the pilot and confirmed by passengers before takeoff. Unlike an airplane, there were no seat belts in the shuttle. The seats themselves had the capability to surround and restrain your whole body during an impact resulting in up to an instantaneous ninety G deceleration. The skeletal structure is held in position so that no damage to the spinal column occurs. It was a safety system Travellor had wanted to get integrated into aircraft on Earth, but it required computer processing speeds and electro-mechanical devices with response speeds far beyond that capable by Human technology. Even the supercomputers couldn't reach that speed, and the ship's processor was smaller than an olive. In fact it looked like an olive. Ganaphe' electro-mechanical technology was structured in three dimensions, and their components took on odd shapes defined by their function.
“Doors and access points secured?” asked Travellor.
“Doors and access points secured.” replied Mersuul in confirmation.
“Checklist complete. Here we go. Manual control to pilot.”
“Pilot has manual control – confirmed.” said the computer.
Several of the display panels in front of Travellor changed from displaying monitored parameters to control indicators.
“What's in the metal barrels?”
“Water.” said Travellor.
“There's no water on location? Couldn't we use filtration systems? Transporting this much water must be expensive.”
“There are some magmatic water sources that we could use in an emergency,” said Mersuul, “but getting to them is very difficult. It is much easier to bring water from here. We do recycle most of it, but there is always some loss that we cannot control.”
“So we're land locked?”
“Ohhhhh yessss.” said Travellor. “You could say we are definitely land locked.”
Erika had been on an almost non-stop questioning binge since they had started loading the supplies on the ship. Only this time she was actually getting answers. They had loaded on a lot of cargo before taking off, but the ship rose into the still dark sky without any noticeable strain. Travellor was piloting the ship, and Mersuul was sitting back and watching him.
“So how come you're not letting Mersuul fly, Uncle Tony? Are you already qualified in this ship, Mersuul?”
Travellor broke out in a wide smile, and looked back at his niece.
“I'm flying because I'm the student in this ship. Mersuul is my flight instructor. She may look like she's just relaxing, but don't let her fool you. She is very critical and strict with her students.”
“Do not say it like that. You make me sound terrible.” said Mersuul. She looked at Erika. “I am demanding of my students, yes, because I want them to know everything that may save their lives, or what can kill them.”
“Oh!” exclaimed Erika, with wide eyes. “Wow. Will you teach me also?”
“It is required that all personnel know how to fly the emergency vehicles on the ship, in order to increase the survival chances of all the crew. After you are settled, flight training will be part of your required education.”
What Mersuul said about required education didn't surprise Erika. There was always something to learn on any new job. Since her early college years she had realized that anyone in a technical field will continually have to keep up with changing technology – in effect never getting out of school.
They had broken through the cloud layer they were in, and the sky was suddenly a light blue. There was one very large and bright star high and on their left. It was an amazing view. They kept climbing and it seemed to Erika that their speed was increasing, slowly and steadily. Soon the clouds below them looked like a carpet of fluffy cotton. The sky kept getting brighter.
“What's our altitude?” asked Erika.
“Going through forty-five thousand.” said Travellor.
“Did we file a flight plan?” she asked, knowing that all aircraft at this altitude had to be on an IFR flight plan and in contact with flight controllers.
“No flight plan, sweetie.” said Travellor as he turned to look at her. “No one can see or detect us, and it's very important to keep it that way. It will all make sense when we get there. But don't worry, we can keep track of all other aircraft around us.”
He pointed to a panel displaying little three dimensional aircraft that moved around as if they were in a choreographed ballet. A line ran through them longitudinally, which seemed to indicate a projected flight path. Erika felt a slight unease about that. Why shouldn't she? She was in a strange aircraft with strange instrumentation, violating the flight rules she knew were necessary for safety, and going to an unknown destination. If her uncle hadn't been the one taking her there she would have looked for a parachute or some other way to get out. That thought in itself was crazy, so she knew she was nervous. There had been something else that Mersuul had said, that also added to her confusion. What was it? 'Oh yes,' she remembered, she had said 'emergency vehicles on the ship' - plural. More than one of these craft on a land locked ship. What kind of ship travels on land and is big enough to require more than one of these transports, she wondered. M
aybe she just heard it wrong.
She was about to ask a question about the instruments when she realized the bright sky was dimming. She could still see the sun, but outside was definitely getting darker.
“Beginning transition to interstellar flight.” said the computer.
Erika looked around for a speaker but didn't see one.
“Engage auto flight systems. Destination moon base.” said Travellor.
“Automatic navigation systems operational. Destination is Trailblazer Moon Base.” said the invisible woman.
'There has to be speakers around here somewhere.' thought Erika, but her visual search came to an abrupt stop when she looked outside again. It was completely dark. The stars seemed to be unusually clear.
“Uncle Tony, did it say 'interstellar' flight?”
