Winds of Aerathiea

Chapter 16 - Miracles Happen

Rebekah was pacing nervously. She couldn’t believe she just met the guy. Forty-eight hours ago she wouldn’t have cared whether Liam lived or died. Now it seemed to be the only thing she thought about. She caught herself as she thought about it. My dad is down there too. Now she felt guilty that she wasn’t as concerned for him as well.

After watching the launch depart, she went down the medical wing to check on their guest. Trish was nowhere to be found. Probably taking a much-needed break thought Rebekah. She got closer to the bay where the lady they had rescued was strapped in more for her protection than anything else. Everything was being stowed now because of the tossing and twisting the ship was going through as it battled this storm all around them.

The lady was still sedated. They feared a head injury and so sedation was used to allow her time to heal. She was also very beautiful with striking raven hair and high cheek bones. Other than the fact she was strapped to a hospital bed, there didn’t appear to be anything else wrong with her. She reminded Rebekah of some actress she had seen long ago. She couldn’t place her now.

She left the hospital and went back down to the hangar deck. She would more than likely hear anything there first as almost everyone was tuned to the parties on the ground and their progress. They were preparing in case they found what they had come for. She tried to look busy. She met Malcolm as he was securing the fittings when the call came in. He wasn’t as talkative this morning, checking and rechecking his knots.

As they moved equipment and stowed it, the people manning the hanger deck got the call at about 1000 hours.

“Ethan to Empress … Ethan to Empress, we have found something. I repeat, we have found something…”

Malcolm replied. “You found the key?”

“Sadly, not yet, but Doctor Peck is currently drooling over the equipment we did find. I couldn’t tell you what is but …” and the line dropped to static.

A cheer erupted from the twenty-odd people that had stopped in their tracks to listen. Just as quickly as the celebration started, it stopped. Over the intercom came a horrific growl, a lot of shouting and suddenly shooting. The cheering turned into a clamor. The crowd in the hangar stopped everything they were doing as they listened to the entire fight through an open comm-link channel. Just as suddenly, the intercom went dead.

“People, People, quiet…. Malcolm, try to get them back. Don’t lose that connection!”

The silence was palatable. Rebekah felt like she had the wind completely knocked out of her. Suddenly the radio receiver came back to life. “Man down. Man down. Prepare for incoming wounded.” The hangar erupted into action as people cleared the room for the launch’s arrival.

“Who’s wounded and how badly?”

Kyton replied “It’s the captain. He’s suffered at least a head injury and possible back injury. Gus is immobilizing him now. We’ll transport as soon as we can get him out of this mess.”

Doctor Weaver broke into the channel, “What happened Kyton?” Everyone gathered closer to the speaker now.

“We were attacked. Just as we feared, three of those beasts were holed up here in the plant, probably to shelter from the storm. Two of them were killed, but we were able to subdue one and will be transporting it up later.”

“Is it wise to bring one up?”

“We discussed it before, Trish. They are no more or less dangerous before and we need answers!”

“Roger that. We are standing by to receive the captain.” Doctor Weaver must have been on a mobile radio because she entered the hangar bay with two men and a crash cart almost as soon as she signed off.

For Rebekah, the moment the launch touched down on the hangar deck, everything seemed to move in extreme slow motion. They transferred Captain Grumm to the gurney and he was gone. A couple of other men exited the launch as well, one holding his arm and one holding his side where he had been grazed by a bullet or shrapnel in the firefight below. They hobbled and limped their way to sickbay, following the Captain, at a much slower pace. The crew composed themselves and quickly got back into preparations for receiving the parts from the launches below.

Rebekah got on the now abandoned radio. “Jackson Peck. Empress to Doctor Peck, come back.”

“Peck here, is that you Rebekah?” Jackson replied.

“Yeah, tell me what happened.”

Jackson, still hyped on adrenaline, proceeded to re-tell what transpired.”

“Is Liam alright?” her concern easily transmitted through the radio.

“Alright? Oh my God, Rebekah, he saved my life! I owe him big after today. You would not believe what he did.” Jackson, who had already been a fan, retold the fight scene between Liam and the ape-men. You would have thought he was reciting something from Tarzan, the way he embellished. She knew she should be concerned, but she couldn’t help the grin on her face.

“Tell Mister Waite something for me…”

“Sure anything, dear.”

“Miracles happen when you least expect them…” she repeated from their earlier conversation.

“They certainly do, dear, they certainly do. Signing off for now.” Jackson cut the link.

Doctor Weaver emerged from the surgical unit and immediately regretted it. Besides the dozen people waiting to hear about Artie’s condition, she immediately felt sea sick. Her knees buckled and she grabbed the railing to stabilize herself.

“Are you ok, doc?” Both Janice Rohm, the nurse that had assisted with the surgery and Gustov “Gus” Maher, the paramedic that had brought Artie in grabbed her to keep her from falling.

“Yeah, just fatigue. I forgot about the dampers on the surgery unit. I didn’t realize we are being buffeted around so badly out here.

“Yeah, Jules is doing everything he can just to keep us here and not getting sucked into that giant whatever it is. Not enough power to do that and compensate for the buffeting the way he normally does.” They picked their way gingerly along the short umbilical that attached the surgery unit to the rest of the ship. As they exited, the buffeting was even worse.

“Janice, pull up some rounds of Dramamine or anything else we have for motion sickness. I think I’m going to need it.” Trish grabbed for the handrail again. “I’m sure plenty of others will too.

Janice, not wishing to be delayed by the dozen or so crew waiting outside the surgery unit, ducked around a corner to get the meds. Trish was met by a hail of questions.

She shouted over the din. “People. People. I know you are concerned. There is plenty to be concerned about. There was no permanent damage. He has a head injury that will take a few weeks to heal and his back was fractured, though that was not as significant as I feared. He’ll be sore, but the back will heal as good as new. He might be disoriented or forgetful for a while. Are you getting this Kyton? Jules, is he getting this?”

“Channels to the bridge are open, Doctor Weaver. I’m so relieved to hear the Captain will be OK.” Even the holographic projection that Jules chose to portray was wringing his hands. The relief was palatable from the bridge as well. Kyton addressed the rest of the ship. “I would recommend though that everyone return to duty and let the doctor get some rest. This is going to get a lot bumpier before it gets better, so if you are not on duty, please go around and secure any loose objects and I would recommend staying in your cabins and strapping yourself down until this is over. Kyton out.”

It might have been Trish’s imagination, but there was something different in the tone of Kyton’s voice. Maybe it was the fatigue, maybe it was just the stress of the situation.

“People, you heard the man. While Captain Grumm is down, Mister Davis is in charge. Let’s clear out! We’ll be putting Artie in his cabin to recuperate. We need the space. I’ll start a visiting schedule in a couple of days. For the time being, please just let the man rest? Gus, can you make sure the Captain gets to his quarters in one piece?”

The crowd murmured their approval and began to disperse as the thunder and lightning outside took on a new urgency.

Chapter 17 - Special Delivery

It turned out that the modified RVs had more than enough power to haul up the equipment as long as they took up one at a time and jettisoned almost everything else from the RV that had any weight to it.

Zak, Ethan, Jackson, and Liam had just pushed the first pallet out into the clearing where the shipping docks had once been.

“Is it my imagination or is the Empress getting further away?” Ethan was shielding his eyes, looking into the heart of the storm. You could not see the gaping hole from their vantage point on the ground, but the swirling masses of clouds, cloaked by continuous lightning, like the scene of Mount Doom, clearly marked the center and it looked like the ship was closer to it now that it was to them.

Zak, Liam, and Jackson all looked up and squinted through the rain in the same direction. Jackson spoke first. Zak spoke through the pounding rain into the commlink.

“Jules, what’s your status. Come back.”

“Jules here, sir. It’s getting a bit iffy up here. The down swells and wind shear is almost unimaginable. I’m putting has much power into just holding the ship upright as I am trying to hold our place. Engines are running hot and we are losing ground.”

“You are holding reserves to pull out of this, right.”

“Indubitably, sir.”

“Well, just hang in there, we are almost finished.”

“Just please hurry. It’s hard to predict these winds, sir.”

Jackson spoke up, “There is no question. The ship is getting pulled closer. We may even have to slingshot our way out of this one.”

“Slingshot?” That was a term Liam hadn’t heard before.

Zak looked up from the harness he was preparing. “Yeah, slingshot, Liam. They used to do it with space probes all the time. They would let the space probe get in the gravity well of a planet, like Jupiter and use the acceleration and momentum to fling the probe away from the planet in a different direction and much faster than when it started. NASA was able to make a tiny space probe the size of car visit many different planets using very little fuel. I hope that’s what Jules is planning. I saw the Empress’s power reserves before I came down and it wasn’t pretty.” The concern in his voice was palatable. “Let’s get these pallets out in the clear and get them ready.”

Fortunately, there were two skid lifters nearby and still functional. After clearing debris with shovels and hands, they were able to make a path and from where they had found the pallets almost directly to the shipping docks. It was grueling work but over the next hour and a half they had managed to get five motors and spare parts out into the open.

Jackson Peck continued to check and recheck the pallets and their contents, making them safe for travel. While they were digging through the debris near the pallets, they had also found a motherlode of miscellaneous equipment. Liam had no idea what he was looking at, but the parts seemed to make Doctor Peck and the other engineers very happy.

Liam spoke out “Do you know what all this stuff does?”

“Much of it Liam. Some of it maybe, but there are other items here I can’t even fathom a guess. If we find your father somewhere along the way, I’m sure he can add some light to it. I’m not even sure if it’s all complete or still functional. That’s why we are taking back almost everything we find. We’ve gotten pretty good at scavenging and it’s served us well over the last couple of years.”

Liam chuckled to himself. “I feel like I should be asking for you to sign something or at least getting a receipt for all of this. It is my dad’s company after all!”

“I know how you feel, Liam. However, when we find your dad, he will be grateful to have this stuff rather than having it rot in a factory no one is going to use.” The lightning punctuated his words.

“Yeah, I guess you’re right!” Liam yelled over the driving rain.

Zak heard the call from Kyton come over the comm. “Just to give you an update. Artie is out of surgery. Trish thinks that with rest, he’s going to be fine. The back was not much more than a hairline fracture, so it’s painful but not critical. She managed to get the swelling down in his head, but there will be confusion and disorientation, plus one hell of a headache when he comes out of it. She has him sedated at the moment.”

“That’s wonderful news.”

“Well, the not so wonderful news is we have to step it up, Jules doesn’t have a lot of power left.”

“Yeah, we know. We just talked to Jules a couple of minutes ago. We are harnessing the first load now. The launches can each take a pallet as long as they aren’t carrying much else. We can tag team the pallets and then follow up with a lighter load of miscellaneous stuff on the last load out.” Zak tightened the last of the harnesses as he replied.

“We will be cutting it very close. Jules has maybe an hour’s power before we have to go to plan B.”

“Understand. We are ready on our end. What’s Plan B again?” asked Zak, shouting through the howling winds and blinding rain. He never heard the answer.

Zak climbed into the pilot’s seat on the Tom Sawyer and without any fanfare took off. The harnesses were made from woven fibers that engineers claim were a hundred times stronger than steel so there was no danger of them snapping or tearing. They performed exactly as they should. The launch momentarily struggled when the harness was pulled tight, but with an extra lurch and a groan, the RV managed to lift it from the ground and slowly ascended.

Normally only an idiot would fly a small craft in a hell-storm such as this, but seeing they had no choice, the RV buffeted back and forth in the winds and rain, the launch slowly made its way back to the waiting ship that continued to drift further and further away.

On the ground, Jeremy had been ready with another dose of whatever drug Gus had given him to sedate the monster they had harnessed up on the pallet with the some of the miscellaneous supplies they were taking back. The creature had begun to wake up.

“Yo, Chief, what do you want me to do?” Mr. Weathers was eyeing the creature and the harness that was holding him in place.

Jackson turned from his discussion with Ethan. “Just do as Gus told you.” He yelled over the driving rain, “Jab that needle into his thigh and we can all rest a little easier, including him.” Jackson gestured to the beast.

“I hate needles,” said Jeremy looking at the syringe in his hand.

“I’m sure he isn’t thrilled by them either. But would you rather him wake up? I’m sure he will be mighty glad to have a conversation about it with you!”

“Yeah, Yeah.” Jeremy took aim, but then closed his eyes as he felt the syringe meet flesh. He had his choice between medicine and engineering, right out of high school. His family had graduated many doctors. However, Jeremy Weathers could not stand the sight of blood so his career in engineering was planned from that moment on.

He opened his eyes and saw the creature visibly relax and return to its peaceful slumber. He tossed the now empty syringe behind the pallets remaining to be picked up.

The Becky Thatcher arrived a few moments later and this time they attached the makeshift harness to her undercarriage and without a word, she unceremoniously lifted off again. They didn’t want to be in a ten-meter tin can with that beast if it woke up in the middle of the flight.