Learning To Fly Page 19

“Tolerable, young man.”

  “Just tolerable?”

  “Not too awfully eventful, It looks like you two have been having fun.”

  “Christy left us so much information on the drive,” Kendra said, “It’s almost like she knew something was up.”

  “Or she was just covering all her bases. I think she knew what she was up against,” Walter said.

  “Man,” Franklin choked, “I’m gonna miss her. She was cool.”

  “There will be time for that later. You heard what she said,” Kendra said.

  “Actually, I didn’t. She was whispering in your ear.”

  “She was sure Earth is the target...that the army we saw was prepared for an assault.”

  “Do we have any information that can be of use?” Walter asked.

  “Plenty. There are specs on those mechanized suits. They can be disabled without killing the operators. See this diagram,” Kendra said, pointing at an image on a computer screen, “There’s a hardened panel on the back. It’s apparently impervious to gunfire, but I dare say you’re strong enough to pop it and yank the chip out.”

  “It’s that simple? With all their advanced tech, there’s a chip in there?” Walter asked.

  “Not a chip like anything we have here. It’s quite small, but apparently it controls the functions of the suits, and even allows for remote control if they choose to go that route.”

  “If they control it remotely, where is that done from?”

  “From large ships in orbit.”

  “I knew this whole thing seemed like a B movie or a comic book. Take out the mother ship and the whole army just drops.”

  “Not that simple. They have redundancies built into the system. You’d have to take out a dozen ships to knock out the whole system, and they have backup ships that can jump in if one goes down.”

  “Where are these backups?”

  “That’s where it gets weird, a bit over our heads. They’re on the edge of the solar system. They’re equipped with some sort of jump drive that lets them get here in minutes.”

  “Not the hyperspace drives Christy was talking about?”

  “No, those are for going to other stars, but these still reach ridiculously high speeds, kind of like a warp in a way. The specs are all on this drive.”

  “Okay, but what are all the ships in this hangar? They don’t look like the ones in the other level.”

  “They’re fighters,” Franklin said, “There’s everything about them on the drive. Full instructions on how to fly them and use the weapons systems. We’re gonna take one up in a bit.”

  “Are you sure about that?” Walter asked.

  “We’re absolutely sure,” Kendra said, “They’re going to attack with those ground troops in the mechanized suits, and with their own fighters to provide support for the ground units. Here’s something else. You remember when those planes were disabled and one of them crashed? You managed to stop the other one from going down.”

  “How could I forget?”

  “Well, that was tech that Mixon had stolen from the government. The other guys got ahold of it and modified it for their fighters. They’ll be able to disable any equipment our military brings. Armor, planes...all of it...useless against them. These fighters are the only thing that will answer. They have shields and are hardened against any type of EMP attack.”

  “There must be a dozen of those things here.”

  “Twenty, to be precise,” Franklin said.

  “And there are two of you. You’ll need a few more pilots.”

  “I think I can find a few.”

  27

  Curtis Mitchell locked onto his target and waited for the scan to complete. Wanted. That will do, and a large ship to boot. Should be a good bounty for this one. He got behind it, closed to 700 meters, and opened fire. The other ship took evasive action, but it was in vain. It took Curtis less about a minute to finish off the ship. He smiled at the satisfying explosion and the bounty notification on his screen.

  “Curtis,” a voice said from down the hall, “Your dad and I are heading out. We’ll be home late. Don’t forget to clean the litter box before you go to bed.”

  “Okay Mom, have fun.”

  He throttled up and went in search of more targets and was just lining up another victim when he heard the garage door close and the car pull out of the driveway. He had just claimed another bounty when he heard a rumble outside that shook his bedroom window. He looked out the window and his jaw dropped. A strange craft was descending toward the back yard, not much different from the Vipers in the game he was playing, he thought. The craft settled down, a ramp descended from under the nose, and he saw a young black man descend the ramp and start walking across the yard.

  ‘That can’t be,’ he thought to himself, but the more he looked at the figure approaching the house, the recognition hit him. A moment later, the doorbell rang and he let Franklin in the house.

  “Franklin? What are you doing here? I never thought I’d see you again,” he said when Franklin came in, “And what did you just get out of?”

  “Long story. You want to have a look at it? We can go for a spin.”

  “Are you kidding? Hold on, let me log out.”

  “You still playing that space game?”

  “Elite...yeah. I don’t play much else.”

  “You must be getting pretty good at it.”

  “You could say that. Check out the setup I got.”

  They entered his bedroom and Franklin admired the gaming PC with the flight stick and throttle mounted to the arms of the chair.

  “Nice, how much did that cost you?”

  “Not as much as you’d think. I got a friend who builds computers. Bought the parts at MicroCenter and he put it together for me. The flight stick set me back a couple hundred.”

  “Would you believe I got the real thing in the back yard?”

  “If I hadn’t seen it, I wouldn’t believe it. Where’d you get it?”

  “Long story. You know Walter?”

  “Everybody knows Walter. Cool dude.”

  “I’ve been hanging with him. Dude that gave him the powers...well...he’s not from around here. There are more of these lying around. How long are your parents gonna be gone?”

  “It’s their anniversary. Dinner, movie, all the romantic stuff. They won’t be home for a while.”

  “Good, shut your computer down and let’s go.”

  A moment later they were both strapped in and Franklin was lifting off. He throttled up and punched it, heading straight up and within a few minutes they were out of the atmosphere.

  “Holy crap, Franklin, this is a real spaceship...and you know how to fly it?”

  “Yeah, it’s not that hard, really. The way you fly the ones on that game, you should have no trouble with this. You want to give it a shot?”

  “Are you kidding me?”

  “No, take my seat. The controls are pretty similar to what you’re used to, except maybe the yaw. The bottom of the stick controls that. No rudder pedals like our planes have.”

  Franklin showed Curtis the basics of the controls for the next few minutes and then strapped down in the other seat.

  “Go ahead, fly around a bit, but don’t go near the moon. This thing is fast and you can get there in a few minutes, but we don’t want to go there right now.”

  “You’ve been to the moon?”

  “Just this morning. It didn’t turn out well.”

  “What happened?”

  Franklin took the next few minutes to bring Curtis up to speed.

  “That’s a lot to take in. If I wasn’t sitting in a spaceship, I’d have a hard time believing half of it.”

  “It’s all true, and we have no idea how much time we have.”

  “Let me get this straight. You have about twenty more of these and they’re going to be the only thing that works when the space dudes attack because they can shut down our military equipment, and you need people to fly these things and try to fight off th
e bad guys and save the world.”

  “In a nutshell, yes.”

  “Do you know how crazy that sounds?”

  “About as crazy as an old white dude with super powers.”

  “You have a point. You know what else is crazy? Why did you run off? I thought things were pretty good.”

  “In short...I was stupid. Didn’t know how good I had it.”

  “Where’d you stay all this time?”

  “On the streets, until Walter took me in.”

  “You’ve been living with Walter?”

  “Since he got his powers. He’s really a cool dude. He acts all crotchety, like he doesn’t like young people, but he’s really a softie.”

  “Where are you gonna find people to fly the other ones?”

  “I was hoping you could help me with that. You got folks you play that game with?”

  “I got guys I wing with sometimes. Some of them are pretty good.”

  “How can we get ahold of those guys?”

  “I don’t know where they live. We just hang out online.”

  “Can you send them messages in the game?”

  “I can try that, but who’s gonna believe me?”

  “You might have a point, but we need to try.”

  “I’ll give it a shot when I’m back home.”

  “Well, I might have a better idea. You think we could track their locations while they’re online?”

  “I’m not sure how. I’m no hacker.”

  “There are some crazy computers back at the house. Maybe we could figure something out.”

  “Yeah, but about this thing we’re flying. Seems a lot like the ones in the game. I mean, it handles like it has flight assist. It doesn’t act like a spaceship, at least not completely.”

  “Christy tried to explain it to me. When you move the stick, the computer has an idea what you’re trying to do, but it limits what it lets you do. It also controls the G forces it subjects you to. It won’t let you pull a maneuver that would cause you too much harm, or it compensates for G forces. I didn’t catch everything she said, but we did things that I thought for sure would have made me pass out in an airplane.”

  “Let me see what I can manage.”

  Curtis put the ship through every maneuver he could imagine for the next ten minutes and then leveled off and sat there with a huge grin on his face.

  “This thing is amazing,” he said, “It’s so responsive, but like you said, it almost felt like it had training wheels. Is there any way to turn that off and fly it completely free, like taking flight assist off on the game?”

  “I’m not sure about that. We have everything back at the house.”

  “Speaking of houses, you think we could stop back by my house real quick?”

  “Just stop by? You’re not going back home to think things over?”

  “No need, bro. I’m in, but I just remembered something.”

  “What’s that?”

  “One of the dudes I play with, I think I got his address.”

  “Why didn’t you say that earlier?”

  “I just remembered. Anyway, dude’s something of an artist. Some of us took screen shots in the game and sent them to him and he did paintings of the screen shots. He mailed me one a few days ago. I’m sure I still got the box in my room, with his return address on it.”

  “Your parents won’t have a cow if you disappear for a couple days?”

  “Nah, I’ll come up with something. I’m 18. They gotta give me some slack.”

  “Maybe, but they still might worry.”

  “If what you say is true, they’ll see what’s going down and I’ll tell them what I’m doing.”

  “Whatever dog, but we can run back and you can get that other guy’s address.”

  Curtis hopped back in his seat a few minutes later with a slip of paper and handed it to Franklin.

  “Liam Henderson...you sure this address is correct?” Franklin asked.

  “That’s the address he mailed my stuff from. Only one way to find out. This thing have a GPS?”

  “Not sure. I found your house, but I knew where I was looking. You can always use your phone when we get close to the town.”

  Liam had just logged into Elite and noticed he had a new message. He pulled it up and replied.

  You gonna be flying tonight?

  Yeah, you wanna wing up?

  I was thinking of something better.

  What’s better? I found a great new bounty hunting spot. We can make a killing.

  You need to upgrade your ship.

  Upgrade? I have a fully engineered Corvette. Can’t really upgrade from that.

  Look out your window.

  Liam got up from his desk and looked out the window into his back yard. What he saw there took his breath away. Something descended and landed on the lawn, and a few seconds later a ramp came down and two young men walked down to the yard.

  “Hey Liam, here’s the upgrade,” Curtis said.

  “What the—“

  “It’s real. You wanna come aboard?”

  Liam took a couple hesitant steps toward the ramp, still trying to figure if he was awake.

  “Oh, I shouldn’t be so rude,” Curtis said, “Let me introduce you to my friend, Franklin.”

  Liam shook Franklin’s hand, “Nice to meet you, Franklin. How do you know Curtis?”

  “Long story. His folks were my foster family.”

  “Oh...were?”

  “Yeah, like I said, long story. You want to come aboard?”

  “Sure, what am I coming aboard exactly?”

  “It’s kind of like a Cobra,” Curtis said, “And you might want to pack some things.”

  “Pack some things? Are you kidnapping me?”

  “Only if you want to, but I think you might want to.”

  “How long...and do you care to tell me what’s going on?”

  “I’m offering you a chance to help save the world.”

  “Seriously?”

  “Yeah, seriously. You in?”

  “Sure, whatever. Does it involve flying one of these?”

  “Yeah, and helping us recruit a few more pilots.”

  “How many more?”

  “We need eighteen more for the ships we have.”

  “I think I can help you with that. Let me grab a suitcase and my laptop and I’ll be with you in ten minutes.”

  28

  Walter pulled up a chair and sat down next to Kendra, handing her a bottle of water.

  “You gonna take a break from that computer for a bit?” he asked her.

  “There’s so much information on here. I don’t think I have enough time to learn half of it.”

  “You need to sort it out by what’s important. You got specs on those mech suits and the fighter ships we have down here, right?”

  “Yeah, everything you need to know about both.”

  “I’d start with that. Make some printouts. Franklin is out looking for pilots. If he brings some, they’ll need to be trained. Plus, any weaknesses you can find on those mech suits would be helpful. If what Christy told us is true, most of the people in those suits are not there voluntarily. I’d like to avoid killing them if we can.”

  “There’s even information about them in here, where they’re from and all that. A lot are from earth, but not all of them. We’ll need to get people back home, or help them settle in here.”

  “We’ll cross that bridge when we get to it. Just let me know how to disable those suits.”

  “Okay. I’ve found enough data on the ships that I think I can knock up a manual of sorts pretty fast. They don’t look that complicated to fly, actually. The computer does most of it. There’s also a closet down here with flight suits. When Franklin gets back, we’ll have them suit up and start figuring out the fighters.”

  Franklin went to each address Liam gave him and within a couple hours, they had picked up willing pilots from England, France, Australia, Canada, Scotland, and the U.S. They were sitting on the floor beh
ind the flight seats, each with a small suitcase, some with laptops, and a low buzz of conversation followed them all the way back to the house in Ohio. Franklin approached the property, flew through an opening door in what looked like an ancient dilapidated barn, and then through a downward sloping tunnel to the underground hangar where everyone disembarked to find Kendra waiting for them.

  “I’ll show you where you can sleep and give you a few minutes to situate your things, and then we’ll meet up in say, thirty minutes, to go over what we know so far,” she said.

  They dropped their bags in a small room with bunks along the walls and a door in the far end leading to restrooms and showers, and they were all assembled in a larger common room well before the aforementioned thirty minutes. Kendra, surprised to see everyone that fast, commented, “You guys don’t need time to freshen up?”

  “If it’s all the same,” Curtis said, “We’re all anxious to get started. This is all rather new and we’re a bit taken aback, but I’m a right bit curious what this is all about and I’m also more than ready to take one of these up for a spin.”

  There was a general murmur of agreement around the room.

  “Well, if that’s the case,” Kendra said, handing out bundles of papers, “take a look at these printouts. It’s everything I could find on the computers about the operation of the fighters. You can study them thoroughly before we try to fly any of them.”

  A hand shot up in the middle of the room.

  “Yes?”

  “Morrison, Patrick Morrison,” the man replied in a thick Australian accent, “I think it’s safe to say that what we flew in on and what I saw in that hangar wasn’t picked up at a U.S. Air Force surplus store. Who’s the alien?”

  “She called herself Christy,” Franklin said, “but we’re not sure what her real name is. Their language is kind of funky.”

  “Called?” Morrison asked.

  “Yeah, she’s no longer with us.”

  “Let me get this straight. Some alien chick just up and gives you a mess of spaceships and then dies?”

  “Not exactly like that. This is her place. She was trying to get more intel on the threat we’re facing and she was killed. I was there with her and managed to get away. Now we have to do what we can to stop the attack.”