Breeze Corinth (Book 1): Sky Shatter (32 page)

Sally said nothing as she turned to look out the window.

“I do not proclaim to know what has happened to your families. But I make it my solemn vow to set things right. I will use all of the resources at my disposal to reunite you with your families, this I swear.”

“So your plan for a super army—” Breeze said.

“Is very much on hold,” Oslo retorted. He closed his eyes for a moment to gather himself. “What I thought was Bram speaking to me from across the vast stretches of space on that cold night in my home in Scandinavia, was probably nothing more than my desire to believe that all that I had known was not lost, and that I could put the world back together as it once was. I understand how foolish that may sound, and I’m sorry I brought all of you into this madness, but I will never apologize again. We are alive and must accept the fate that has been handed to us.

As we speak, the RF are prepping a ship for you. A scout ship, as we called them back in the day. She is versatile and nimble, with the ability to range for great distances undetected. She will be the chariot that will whisk you across the Atlantic to the safety of Appalachia. There, you will reside at my wife’s farm until I arrive.”

“You’re sending us away again?” Sally said. “We’ve only been here for a few days, and you’re sending us out to get attacked again?”

“No harm will befall you, this I swear.”

“I don’t believe it!” Sally yelled.

“Silence!” Kera zoomed over the desk and loomed over her. Sally shrunk back in her seat as Kera returned to hover next to Oslo.

Oslo nodded at Sally. “You must believe me what I tell you. Perihelion has been compromised. I have managed to reestablish security, but I do not know if we have been infiltrated and if so, how deeply. We have performed multiple security sweeps between Excort, Kera and I, along with round the clock patrols by select RF, and we have not found any traces of Elephim. But one can never be too careful. I encountered a pair of Elephim on the outskirts of the fog when I departed the island. How they found me, I would never presume to know, but I have my suspicions,” he said and turned to Ray, then continued, “Nevertheless, I take full responsibility.”

Ray squirmed in his seat.

He addressed them all. “Regardless, I am dispatching all of you to Appalachia. As I stated earlier, the RF are performing the last of the repairs needed to get your scout ship up and running for the journey.”

“How come you never mentioned your wife before?” Sally said.

Oslo cringed. “It is, like everything else—”

“A long story, we get it.”

“My wife is a good woman. She will shelter you from this storm. She resides outside a town that possesses a fog that obscures the entire mountain range from the prying eyes of the Elephim.”

“Kind of like this place was supposed to,” Breeze muttered.

Oslo shot him a glance. “Yes, point taken. But in Appalachia you will meet others of our kind. It was one of the few places the Helios could go other than offworld to live in peace. There is something almost… mystical about that place.”

“Are you bringing Nina?” Breeze said

Oslo’s face grew red. “I… don’t believe so. No.”

“But she’s your daughter.”

“Yes, I know that. But Perihelion is her home and is the one place where she is truly safe. She will stay here with Excort and Mila. With our departure and with the reinforcement of the fog, the Elephim will never get near her. This I know.”

He stood up. “That is all for now. You are dismissed. Return to your rooms and begin gathering your belongings. You will depart in three days.” He stepped out onto the balcony with Kera in tow.

The three looked at one another with blank expressions, and then shuffled out of the office with their heads hung low.

DAWN BROKE OUT OVER
Perihelion as Breeze woke up with a feeling of sadness. He lay in bed and watched the sun rise over the bay through the open balcony door, its light penetrating the room and exposing the dreariness of it. Every crack on the ceiling, walls and floors were plain to see as it highlighted every flaw and blemish to be found.
The whole school, the whole island, is in shambles
.
How did Oslo ever believe he could bring this place back to life?

He rolled out of bed and grimaced when his feet touched the cold stone floor. As he reached for his clothes in the cabinet next to his bed, he replayed in his mind the events that led up to this moment: the harrowing journey to get here from his desert home; meeting Oslo, Sally, Raza, Nina and Ray; the haphazard attempts by Oslo to teach and train them; their rebellion against him and subsequent departure from the island; the ambush and attempted kidnapping by the Elephim; Sally and Ray learning the harsh truth that their city lay in ruins, their parents nowhere to be found. It had been a whirlwind for them all. Now, Oslo was sending them away. To a safe haven, he promised them. He felt he had heard this before.

He stepped out into the breezeway and breathed in the warm and humid stream of air as it flowed in from the ocean. He looked at Sally’s door and wanted to knock, but thought better of it. He heard her sobbing throughout the night, and though he always thought of her as rude and abrasive, to hear her sounding so wounded and anguished pushed out whatever lingering anger he felt toward her. She was just as lost and lonely as the rest of them.

He walked down the stairwell to the courtyard, then onto the pathway that led to the hangars. He wanted to get a firsthand glimpse at the ship Oslo said he was prepping for their trip across the ocean to Appalachia.

He arrived just as several RF were pushing it out from the cavernous hanger and onto the tarmac.

The ship was a disheveled mess. He could see where the mechanics welded patches of steel plate across her hull. She had seen better days, and it showed with every scratch, burn mark and dent across its metal skin.

He slowly walked around it as the RF continued to fuss over the ship and make repairs. She wasn’t big when compared to the other ships he had seen in the hangars. She was one hundred fifty feet in length with a twenty five foot beam. Her height with landing gear was thirty feet. There was a pilot house at the bow and on either side of the ship were a row of windows for the passenger cabin leading back to the stern, where it ended abruptly with a vertical tail fin that protruded sharply up and then laid back with a steep curve, resembling the upper dorsal of a shark. The wings were short and stubby with a turbine attached to each. Breeze could see where the wings and engines rotated in tandem, indicating the ships ability for vertical takeoff and landing.

He continued his inspection while mindful of the RF who were repairing it. Sparks from welding torches rained down on him as some of the robots stopped to look at him warily, then continued with their tasks. Amidst the noise and commotion, he failed to hear Sally and Ray approach. He turned and was stunned to see Sally standing next to him as she stared blankly at the ship with red and swollen eyes. Her hair was a tangled mess and her clothes were more like wrinkled rags. It was a stark contrast from her usual stylish and well-manicured appearances she displayed.

Ray was standing next to her, and he made a feeble attempt to hold her hand. She pulled it away as she sniffed and wiped her nose.

“What is this broken down heap the robots are trying to fix?” she asked without looking at Breeze.

“That’s our ride to Appalachia.”

“Oh,” she said, then crossed her arms and marched up the gangplank that led into the ship.

Breeze looked at Ray and shrugged, and then they followed her in.

Inside they were greeted by the smell of mildew as years of being stored away in an unventilated hangar left the interior of the vessel with a dank smell from the tropical humidity.

There were no functioning lights, only the rays of the sun streaming in through the dirty windows lit the interior. Breeze toggled a few switches on a panel next to him, but to no avail.

“Shore power is not connected,” he said.

Ray gave him a blank stare. Sally shrugged and continued on.

“No worries, I’ll go back down and grab a portable generator. I’ll plug it into the receptacle under the hull.”

Ray nodded at him, and then turned to follow Sally.

Breeze bounded down the gangplank and onto the tarmac. It felt good to be useful in something he knew a lot about as growing up around aerocraft gave him all the knowledge and experience he needed.

He ran over to a row of supply sheds where he had seen portable generators inside them while exploring the hangars in the past. His plan was to grab one and connect electrical cables into the hull to get some much needed air conditioning and lighting inside the ship.

He saw a RF pushing a generator out of a shed as it headed toward another ship. Breeze ran up to the robot, and it was startled to see him.

He started to explain to it his plan, but the robot just stared at him as he spoke, then it stepped away from the generator and began heading toward to the hangars. The robot swiveled its head briefly to look back as it walked away at a brisk pace.

Breeze was stunned as he thought for a moment it was going to resist him. He had always felt a little uncomfortable around them as he recalled Oslo telling him that the mechanics were actually reprogrammed mechanized warriors. Whenever he would ask questions about the RF, Oslo would just shrug off his inquiries and change the subject.

He got behind the generator and pushed. Though it was on wheels, it was too heavy for him to move. He turned to look for a tractor tug, and saw one next to a transport undergoing repairs. He ran over and hopped into the cab and drove it to the generator. He coupled it to the back of the tug, then jumped back into the cab, dropped the tug into gear and raced across the tarmac with the generator in tow.

He pulled up under the hull of the scout ship and positioned the generator under an electrical panel. He jumped out of the tug and grabbed a set of coiled cables that were hanging off the side of the generator and stretched them out. After plugging them into the hull, he opened a control panel on the generator and began flipping a series of switches when he noticed an emblem that was affixed at the top of the panel.

He knew it was a tag that identified the manufacturer and had seen his fair share of them while working at the scrap yard back home. They not only told the operator the make and model of the machine, but various technical specifications pertaining to it. Breeze couldn’t make out most of the information. Time and weather had faded the lettering, but it was the name of the manufacturer that caught his eye. The first two letters spelled out CO, and the last few letters were IES. The rest was illegible.

He touched the emblem with his fingertips. There was something familiar about it, but he couldn’t understand why he felt a connection. He shook his head and stepped away.

He finished setting the switches to their correct positions, and then twisted a dial to the power on setting to activate the generator. The machine stumbled at first, then run smoothly as it fed electricity to the ship.

He bounded up the gangplank, eager to see the results of his handiwork. He stepped inside and was met by garish lighting that flickered throughout the ship combined with a wave of dust that smelled as if it were burning. He began to hack and cough.

Ray ran over to him. “Why is there so much dust being blown through the ship? And why does it smell like we’re on fire?”

It took a moment for Breeze to recover from his hacking cough. “I’m just realizing that the air conditioning vents haven’t been used in a long time. There’s a lot of dust in them that has built up over the years. The air inside the vents has been heating up since the ship was rolled out onto the tarmac and has been sitting under the sun. When I turned on the ventilation, it just blew it all out.” Breeze started coughing again.

Ray waved his hands in an attempt to sweep it away. “Well, it’s settling down. Let’s go see what other disasters this rust bucket has to offer.”

Breeze responded with more coughing as he followed Ray down a corridor that led to the bow of the ship. Along the way, they passed through the passenger compartment where the smell of mildew was the strongest. Breeze counted out seven rows of seating with four seats on either side of the aisle. Every seat was worn out with cushioning in various states of decay along with rusted armrests.

They pressed on until they arrived at the pilot house. Stepping through a thick metal arch that was low enough to force them to duck their heads, they arrived at the ship’s cockpit.

The pilot’s seat was on the port side, and the co-pilot to starboard. Like the seats in the passenger section, they too were worn out though Breeze pointed out one difference.

“No cushioning. Neither one of us is going to pilot the ship,” he said.

“What do you mean?” Ray replied.

“Look, there all metal seats. That can only mean one thing. Auto Pilot.”

“Again?” Ray sighed, “I was hoping to get a chance to fly it. Besides, don’t really care for the Auto Pilots, they’re pretty weird.”

“After the incident with the trimaran? I don’t think Oslo is going to trust either one of us,” he said, then pointed up, “I’m going to look up in the crew’s rest to see if the pilot is in there.” Breeze climbed up the ladder behind the pilot’s seat to the overhead compartment where the robotic pilot was stored. A feeling of apprehension swept over him as he grabbed the handle of the sliding panel and slowly opened it. Automatic lighting flickered on, and though it was feeble, it was more than enough to see that it was empty.

“Nothing up here,” Breeze said as he slid the panel closed and climbed back down.

Ray didn’t respond though his look of relief spoke volumes.

“I don’t know about you, but I want to see the engine room,” Breeze declared, then stepped out of the pilot house. He stopped to look back at Ray. “Coming?”

“Yeah, sure.” Ray seemed more than happy to leave.

They went back through the musty passenger compartment until it came to an end. They stepped through an arch, and into a corridor that ran perpendicular to the ship’s length. In front of them was a door with a handle and a painted arrow next to it that pointed down. Above the door in faded lettering was the word PROPULSION.

Breeze gripped the handle and tried to push it down, but it wouldn’t budge. He gave it another try by throwing his weight on it, and it responded with the sound of metal scraping against metal as the door opened with a hiss. Immediately they were coughing on stagnant air that whooshed out and sent them both to opposite ends of the corridor to get away from the smell.

Breeze was the first to return to the entrance and peek inside where the automatic lighting had activated, but it flickered haphazardly. He stepped over the raised threshold and walked a few feet forward before stopping at a stairwell that led down into the bowels of the ship, then placed a hand on the rusted metal railing and descended. He could hear Ray following behind and wheezing heavily. He looked back to see he had pulled up his shirt and was breathing into it, prompting Breeze to laugh.

“What’s so funny?” Ray asked as they reached the bottom of the stairs.

“It’s obvious you’re not used to exploring old ships. It does take a while to get used to the smell, though I have to admit, most of the old ships and aerocraft we process at our scrap yard are not this bad. We don’t get this much humidity where I live, that’s why they preserve better.”

“Do you miss your home?”

Ray’s question took Breeze by surprise.

“Yeah, I guess. I’m more concerned that I haven’t heard from my father though Oslo insists that he’s okay. I still can’t reach him with the comms so I’m not sure how he knows everything is fine considering what happened to you and Sally—” Breeze stopped when he realized that he was treading on sensitive territory, as the disappearance of Ray and Sally’s parents, and the destruction of their city was something that he kept forgetting about.

He turned the subject around. “I just miss exploring all the old junk we had at the yard. That’s why I’m glad we came down here, I mean, look at all of this stuff! There are machines here I’ve never seen before. This stuff looks so old, and yet I get the feeling that it can do things that the machines back home couldn’t possibly come close to.”

“Do you recognize anything at all?” Ray said

“I guess so. I can tell those are the engines.” Breeze pointed to the back of the ship. “Twin power plants. They look like electromagnetic generators, but I’ve never seen ones like those before. We have stacks of motors like those piled up at our yard, but much smaller. These things are huge, and they look so much more advanced than they stuff we have. But why do they look so old? I don’t get it.”

They stood quietly between the massive engines that towered over them when Breeze spotted a ladder affixed to the side of one of them, and as he was about to climb up, his eye caught sight of an emblem attached to the engine.

He squinted as he rubbed the grime that had built up on it over the years and obscured the information it possessed. The shape of the emblem was similar to the one on the generator powering the ship, but he couldn’t glean much from it. The name of the manufacturer was faded, but he could still see the engine specifications. They were definitely more powerful than anything he had ever known. He took a step back to take in the immensity of the engines.

“What is it?” Ray said.

“I don’t know. There is something so familiar about them. It’s the same feeling I got when I was messing around with the generator outside.”

“What are you talking about?”

“Forget it. No big deal. Let’s just—” Breeze was cut off by a loud, piercing shriek emanating from the passenger compartment above.

They turned to look at each other. “Sally!” they said in unison and they raced back to the stairwell and clambered up as fast as they could climb.