The Super Olympian- Mystic Warrior

by Laer Carroll

  "Boy, what a bunch of phonies," said Silvana as the two sisters strapped into their seats, waving at the two guards.

  "Most of them. That Glenn, though, he's the real thing. His gentleman act isn't an act. You'd always be just as safe as you want to be. But he'd devour your fair white body if you gave him the least hint. "

  "My fair white body wouldn't mind. But how can you be sure?"

  Sasha held up a "One minute" finger and called Air Traffic Control. Permission came quickly.

  "Thank you, Control. Lifting off." The city dropped away below them and the air car rotated right and steadied on course, reversing the fish-hook approach they had earlier made.

  "I'm sure because of my psychic powers. Oooh!" she warbled.

  "Hmm." Silvana thought. "Maybe I'll call him. But I'm so busy at school."

  "Never be too busy for love, dear."

  "Yes, Auntie."

  Silvana was silent for a time, watching the luminous carpet below them. Some of the lights twinkled like stars in the sky. The freeway below them was a ribbon of yellow light. Off to both sides blinking red lights matched their own running lights, announcing helicopters and light planes sharing the night sky.

  "What about you? Do you have someone special?" Silvana's question took Sasha's mind off random thoughts.

  "No. Not for long. Being a super-hero is hard on relationships." Sasha smiled as she said it, but her heart was heavy in her chest. She had recently let herself get a little too fond of someone and their breakup had left its toll.

  Sunday morning Sasha was up early, as was her father. He fixed breakfast and they ate, talking quietly. An hour later Sasha's mother joined them, took her usual black coffee but, as usual, was quiet while her husband and daughter continued to chat.

  Gia and Silvana came trailing downstairs about the same time. The Elf was full of questions about the night before and Silvana was happy to answer, occasionally getting agreement or explanations from Sasha.

  "When do we get to go up in your air car?" Gia wanted to know.

  "How about we have brunch at Orange County Airport and do it then?"

  That suited everyone concerned. Sasha's parents said they'd stay home. Both had flown in helicopters before and the air car was just a different model to them. Sasha called the Twins and asked them if they wanted to come. Both agreed though they were a bit under the weather from partying late.

  The sisters spent some of the time chatting and Sasha and Silvana went onto the Internet to answer emails and such while Gianna went into the back yard and practiced her cheerleading. She had abandoned ballet that summer and taken up where Silvana had left off.

  Mid-morning the three sisters took the family van to the airport and parked in the large mall garage near their rendezvous, Ruby Redd's. This was a retro restaurant with wait staff dressed in calf-length red-and-white checked dresses and big white aprons and bobby socks and loafers. They found a corner table where they could watch the door, for the Twins were late.

  Each ordered their favorites, Sasha's two big hamburgers with a complex subtle sauce which was a specialty of Redd's and a basket of fat onion rings, from which her sisters immediately began stealing. She repaid their efforts by stealing their string-skinny French fries.

  The Twins came rushing in and plopped down and began to study the menu. They quickly ordered their own favorites and began to chat .

  After the usual Why we were late tale Rocio said, "Is this your idea of a disguise?" Sasha was wearing a billed cap with her pony tail poking out the back, variable-transparency sun shades, jeans and tennies and an orange tee with PARK SLOPE on the front.

  "No," said Silvana. "This is her idea of leisure fashion." Four pairs of disapproving fine eyes gazed at Sasha. Even Gia, the youngest, dressed with an eye to appearance.

  Sasha grinned. She was really home again.

  Three hours of food and gossip and shopping later the women forsook the mall and drove to the helicopter hangar section of the Orange County Airport. Sasha used the laser card given her yesterday to get through the gate. It also unlocked a side door to her rented hangar.

  Just inside Sasha threw a switch to bathe her air car in light from floods high overhead. Inside a space built to hold perhaps four large craft her car seemed diminished.

  None of her companions seemed to feel such an emotion. They stood for long moments gazing raptly at the Maserati.

  Silvana was the first to break from their trance and approach the vehicle. She ran a hand lightly over the brilliant red-fleck finish as she spoke to Sasha.

  "It's like your dress. It's super-smooth though it doesn't look it."

  Sasha keyed the car alarm off. It tweeted and the car doors unlocked.

  "It has to be. It can go more than 600 miles an hour—"

  "Dibs on shotgun!" Gia yelled, running to the front passenger entrance. She was in the seat and clicking her seat belt before anyone else got to the car.

  Rocio and Silvana book-ended tall Tina in the back seat and strapped in at the same time Sasha took her seat. Then she demonstrated the simple start-up procedure of the vehicle.

  "Everything is designed to be ultra-simple. It will have to be that way if air cars are ever to become widely used."

  "What scares me," said Rocio, "is having one of these crash into my apartment."

  "There are lots of safety features built in. Like a drug tester. If you're high or drunk the engine won't start. And so on. Prince Enterprises has given a lot of thought to making these things super-safe. 'Course, some fool will come up with a way to kill themselves and others eventually."

  She punched a button on the dashboard.

  "Good morning," said a distant Prince Enterprises service center.

  "This is Sasha Canaro, Air Car P-zero-zero-two-zero-one. I have a member of the press with me who will act as co-pilot for a demonstration."

  "Please have them state their name and preferred mode of address."

  Gianna panicked for a moment but none of the Canaro children were slow on the uptake, especially quicksilver Gia. "Gianna X. Canaro, please call me Gia."

  "Thank you, Gia. You are authorized to pilot this vehicle till midnight your time under the guidance of its owner. Have a good day."

  "Thank you. Goodbye," said Sasha.

  "But I'm not a reporter!"

  "Sure you are. You told me so last night. For your school newspaper, like last year. You can write this up for the paper."

  "Don't worry," said Silvana, leaning forward and putting her elbows on Gia's seatback. "I'll help you with the big words. "

  "Hah!"

  Meanwhile Sasha had pressed a button on what in a ground car would be a glove compartment. A faux wood panel slid down into a recess and a steering yoke identical to Sasha's popped out. Sasha pulled it the rest of the way into position and locked it there. She had Gia to adjust her seat for an easy reach to the yoke and visibility of the heads-up display which would project onto the windshield in front of her sister.

  She told them, with gestures, how easy it was to steer the air car, then punched a button on the dashboard. The three back-seat passengers leaned forward to watch.

  "You realize," said Tina, "if you don't let all of us play you are going to be in deep shit."

  Sasha smiled and triggered the hangar door to open with a remote loaned her the day before. The door split in two and began to slowly slide open to left and right. She showed Gia again how to start the air car. It did so to the accompaniment of a fake motor hum to warn passersby of the car's presence. Then she led her sister to drive it outside between the slowly opening hangar doors, then keyed the doors to close again.

  Gia first over-corrected then began to get the hang of the wheel. She already knew how to drive a ground car in case of an emergency though it would be a year before she could get a beginning-driver's permit. Sasha had her steer the vehicle to a helicopter take-off spot. It had the usual white circle quadrisected by orange crosshairs.

  "You can drive on the wheels up t
o about 100 miles an hour, but it really drinks electricity at the higher speeds. Still, it's good for getting around the neighborhood.

  "For off-road travel, push that—" She pointed and Gianna punched the Ground Effect button on the dashboard. The car lifted a couple of feet to the tune of a louder fake motor hum. The wheels rotated up into their wheel wells and locked into place with a quiet solid Chunk! Below, panels slid into place to make a smooth aerodynamic underbody.

  "It won't go faster than a hundred miles an hour on its paramagnetic cushion. I mean, it could, but the computer won't let you.

  "Push that."

  Gianna punched the appropriate spot on the dashboard to open up the local net communication channel. Sasha spoke up loudly enough for the dashboard microphone to easily pick her up.

  "Orange County Tower, this is Air Car P-zero-zero-two-zero-one. I have driven from Hangar 34 to Helipad A17. Request permission to take off from A17 and practice touch-and-goes within 100 feet radius, max height 500 feet."

  "Two-zero-one, we see you and read your location signal five-by. Wait for ten for pad to clear. Wait ten, two-zero-one."

  "Tower, wait ten, wait ten."

  Sasha turned in her seat so those in the back seat could hear her better.

  "Paramag levitation vehicles have no moving parts. They are simpler and cheaper and last longer. They don't burn gasoline or need lube oil or water to cool engines. They don't need roads. They float over grass and dirt and climb hills. In ten years there would be no automobiles if Prince Enterprises did not drag its feet to keep from upsetting the economy.

  "Paramag flying vehicles are more complicated, though not much more mechanically. Their jet engines don't have moving parts either and don't burn kerosene. Silvana, you mentioned safety. THAT is the complicated part. For years to come pilots will be very strictly certified and must follow communication protocols like I just did. "

  "Two-zero-one, you have clearance to leave A17 and practice touch-and-goes."

  "Thank you, Tower. Proceeding.

  "All of that jargon has a reason. Learning to use it right took up much of my training. Flying, on the other hand, I learned in just a couple of hours."

  Sasha showed Gia and her friends how to turn on the belly camera view on the dashboard screen of the concrete a few feet below them. The orange cross and the partly cracked concrete was dim in the screen because the air car was only a few feet above it and cast a shadow.

  She tapped the screen and quickly selected some options on a menu, then slowly repeated it so Gia could see what she had done. Then she had Gia do it herself and pointed to another green circle on the dashboard screen.

  "Push that." Gianna complied.

  The four air-car front and back jets hissed into action and the air car flew straight up, the fake engine hum rising in tone and volume, then cut off when they were 100 feet up. At 300 feet the air car slowed and hovered, its engines hissing gently.

  "You could have flown up here manually, but sometimes you want to reach an exact height."

  Sasha began to fly in an expanding spiral. The yoke in Gia's hands echoed all Sasha's actions so Gia could get a feel for flying manually. Sasha selected a menu item and a faint green box showed on the heads-up display. It established the limits within which the air car should stay.

  "I could just eyeball the limits. There is nothing near to collide with."

  Her passengers looked around at that. Off in one direction two helicopters were rising or lowering over two helipads. Further in another direction small winged planes were landing or taking off. Further still in another direction large jet aircraft were also landing and taking off. Above them could be seen more planes.

  Noticing her passenger's taking in how busy the airport was Sasha said, "You begin to get the idea of what the traffic controllers do all day. All that traffic protocol I had to learn was designed to make it easier for them to do it."

  She let them enjoy the scenery for a few minutes while continuing a circle, then said, "OK, take it down."

  "What? Oooh-Kay. But you are going to make sure I don't bounce."

  Gia made a creditable "landing" onto the ground cushion, only over-correcting a slight bit. But the bottom of the air car normally was four feet above the land below and it was not a serious problem. Lastly Sasha had her sister settle onto the air car's wheels and turn the car off.

  "OK, who's next?"

  The words were hardly out of her mouth before Silvana was spilling out of her side of the car. It was the closest to Gia so it was only a second or two before the youngest Canaro sister was hustled out of her seat. Then she had to walk all the way around the back to push Rocio over because Tina, sitting in the middle of the seat, had moved into Silvana's old spot. She was determined to be the next co-pilot.

  When all four ladies with Sasha had their touch-and-go session Sasha said, "Well, anyone like to go for a longer trip? Say, twenty minutes?"

  No one had any objections. Gia, back in her original shotgun position, had a request. "Yeah, and let's not poke along. How fast can this thing go?"

  "About 600 miles an hour. But that might be a little too much, don't you think? "

  "Oh, OK." Gia made a wry face.

  Smiling, Sasha punched up the control tower, verbally went through the ID procedure while quickly typing in a simple flight plan, and continued with "Ending touch-and-go. May I proceed on this flight plan?" She tapped a menu option and sent the plan.

  Inside of a minute the tower came back. "Flight plan acceptable, wait five for initiation."

  "Copy that, wait five for initiation."

  In an aside she said to her companions. "It could be more or less than five. It just sounds more official than saying 'wait a few'."

  "Two-zero-one, you are go for initiation. Have a good trip."

  "Roger that, Tower. Thank you. Complying."

  Sasha said, "Tap that" and pointed. Gianna did so and the air car began to rise and tilt back a bit. Sasha kept her hands lightly on the control yoke as it tilted down and moved forward as if she were flying the car by hand.

  She also kept a lookout on the dashboard radar-view screen and the surrounding air space. The air traffic control computers were very good and the controllers very experienced but she would never completely depend on them if she could help it.

  The vertical purple line showing their flight path appeared on the map shown on the dashboard view screen. Beside it appeared the white horizontal line pointing to numbers for speed and height and other important values. Sasha pointed them out and explained their significance.

  "Wow!" said Gianna. "We're up to 300 miles an hour! And...and 7000, no 8000, no 9000 feet. That's..."

  "Almost two miles," put in Silvana, leaning forward against the slight back-tilt of the air car so she could see the dashboard screen visible between her two sister's silhouettes.

  Beside Silvana Tina and Rocio were peering out the windows. They had a great time pointing out landmarks they well knew from traveling on the ground.

  It was just a couple of minutes before the air car leveled off at 12,000 feet, the height for the air corridor given the car by local air control. By ten minutes they were running out of city and the huge expanse of Camp Pendleton rolled into place before them. It had been a staging area for the Far Eastern theater of the Global War of the 1930s. Now it was much diminished but still a Marine base camp where much training and other activities took place.

  Sasha had another agenda. She called up the communication menu and selected a number.

  "Canaro! Where the Hell are you?"

  "About 12,000 feet above you. How's Katie?"

  "She's fine. We're out in the back yard having a barbecue with some friends. Come on down."

  "Can't, Storm Cloud. I've got family stuff myself. See you later in the week?"

  "Sure. Check back. Anytime I'm not running my ass off for work or Katie is OK."

  A sweet female voice came over the car's speakers. "I'll ease up on him if it will get you here
sooner. And bring those sweet sisters of yours. And your parents."

  "I'm sure we can work something out. Maybe for the weekend. And here are those sisters."

  There followed a round of introductions between Colonel Storm Cloud and his wife and the four passengers in the air car. Finally Sasha had to sign off. The outskirts of San Diego were coming up before them.

  Sasha switched communication channels and contacted SD Air Control. Soon she was bringing the air car down at a temporary parking spot at San Diego International Airport. Before she left the air car she double-checked the superbattery charge. It was good at a little over 80 percent.

  "Wow," said Gia. "Twenty minutes to San Diego! And we could have gone twice as fast?"

  "Sure could. But the faster you go the more juice is used. I like to keep at least 50 percent charge, just in case."

  Without any luggage the five women were soon in a taxi on their way to a family-favorite four-star hotel on the San Diego Harbor. Five beautiful young women, even if one of them was not too fashionably dressed, had no trouble finding a table on the balcony overlooking the beach.

  When it was found that one of them was a minor celebrity service became very quick and efficient. Celebrities, Sasha had found, were usually very generous tippers. Unless they became arrogant and quit tipping at all.

  Tina and Rocio were quite happy at UC Montebello in the pre-med program. Tina, who had decided on surgery as a specialty, was very enthusiastic about having an advanced biology class with a Dr. Mary McCarthy, who apparently was a legend in the medical world.

  "Imagine, someone like her teaching an intro class!"

  Silvana, looking very sophisticated sipping her wine glass, Sasha thought, was also doing well at the prestigious Pasadena School of Art and Design. She had in her teens settled on fashion design and studied the area, and so had been placed in mostly advanced courses. Already she had won awards and had several minor commissions for clothing and footwear designs.

  Gia was discussed last but not least. She was treated and felt a full member of the quintet, not looked down upon because she was only thirteen. She was, Sasha thought, the smartest of all five of them. Even Sasha. Bright to begin with Sasha had been slowly and carefully enhancing her brain for the last couple of years.