"You must first be turning on the lights," Omar stated the obvious.
Dr. Nehru found another set of buttons just inside the door. One of them activated light panels built into the ceiling. They flickered to life with sterile illumination-like fluorescent lights-in the gray, black, and white interior. The two men waded in.
Two rows of seats designed for the larger Redcoat bodies ran the length of the passenger module. Storage compartments lined the walls, filled with even more salvageable equipment. At the rear stood a thick door that resembled a watertight bulkhead on a submarine.
"Back there is were the engine is being," Omar pointed. "Very cramped but the engines are very much compact."
To the front waited another door activated by a button on a panel. It led to the cockpit.
The windshield stretched across the front of the cockpit but it was rather thin and restricted visibility. Two big seats sat at control panels beneath the window. The controls on either side appeared identical, no doubt for a pilot and co-pilot. Pedals sprouted from the floor in front of both chairs. Each seat had two tilting armrests with big pistol-grip sticks at the ends. The sticks reminded Stone of manual shifters in a sports car.
For the Redcoats, the space in the pilot’s capsule might have felt a little tight. For a human being, it offered a surprising amount of shoulder, leg and headroom.
"This is going to take some figuring," Trevor, standing between cockpit seats, contemplated while Omar walked off to examine the engine compartment.
Trevor knew he could not ‘pick up’ how to operate the airship. After all, humans had not designed the machine so- He swooned from a sudden bout of light-headedness. The cockpit faded away, replaced by visions…
…visions of a sky dominated by two suns, one slightly larger than the other, beating down on plains of glassy pebbles and mountains of red rocks; of majestic cities built from colorful stones sitting on the banks of massive rivers straddled by gigantic dams; of buildings made to hover above the ground with no support below; of a people dressed in colorful outfits and the trappings of royalty; of ships defying gravity and gliding through the air; of an army of white and red clad soldiers marching in tight rows toward a black and gray archway crackling with bolts of electricity…
…Trevor pinched his nose. The dizziness faded.
He saw the cockpit once again; saw it in a new light.
This is not possible.
– Nina had all the gear the mission required. Her uniform fit perfectly: blue jeans, suede boots, a black sweater and a leather jacket. Of course, she also carried an M4 carbine as well as a side arm. A girl couldn’t be too careful.
Next to her waited Odin the elkhound, who felt as if he might be part of her uniform for he rarely left her side.
Nina checked her watch: 6:10 p.m. Trevor promised to pick her up at six. With a convoy, of course. This would be the best-armed date in the history of mankind. Her father would have approved.
Standing in the driveway outside the A-Frame, she saw Grenadiers walking their rounds as dusk dwindled but no sign of Trevor.
Odin whimpered. She knelt next to the pooch and stroked his head.
"You wouldn’t think he’d keep a hot chick waiting like this, do you?"
Odin grew agitated and searched the sky with his eyes and nose.
Suddenly, one of the boxy Redcoat flying ships swooped overhead, banked, then flew to the end her driveway where it eased to the pavement moving eerily quiet.
Nina pointed her machine gun and cautiously retreated a step.
A ramp extended and the side door slid open. Bright light from the passenger compartment spilled into the twilight.
"Hey, baby!" A familiar voice yelled. "Wanna go for a ride in my mean ma-cheen?"
– Trevor said again. "I shouldn’t be able to do this. I don’t understand how I, how I…"
"How you ‘picked it up’?"
"Yeah."
He flew the ship from the pilot’s seat while Nina sat on the opposite side with her eyes darting around the cockpit. Trevor wore headgear resembling a combination of headphones and goggles and used rubber bands to hold the oversized contraption on his head.
"Well, join the rest of us. Are you ever going to explain how you ‘pick these things up’?"
He dodged the question: "Awe, shucks, ma’am. And take away all the mystery?"
The craft glided effortlessly. It did not feel as if they flew; more as if they rode in a luxury sedan across perfectly smooth pavement.
"I've made an executive decision," he said. "We're going to call these things Eagles. Just like our old national bird."
"Eagles?" The idea struck her as funny. "Not very graceful-looking. More like Volvos, I think; boxy and all."
He chuckled then said, "The nose cone is like a beak; real sharp looking. Besides, they may not look slick but they sure as hell fly with the grace of an Eagle."
Nina shrugged at the whole name thing and asked a more important question: "So, you going to tell me how this thing works? I’ve noticed there are no wings."
"I don’t know all the engineering. I mean, I know what to do but not why it does it. It has something to do with an anti-gravity circuit that runs through the thing. It sort of repels gravity like the same ends of a magnet repel each other. I increase the power to the anti-grav circuit and we go up or vice versa. Then there’s just straight hydrogen thrust coming out the back."
"Armaments?"
"No. But we can change that. Just like there’s no night vision or infrared. There is something like radar but it’s limited."
Nina, surprised, said, "How could a race of people who know how to make anti-gravity circuits and energy weapons not have infrared or night vision?"
"How is it we put a man on the moon but can’t cure the common cold? Different technology trees, I guess. By the way the Redcoats shut down at nightfall, maybe they came from somewhere where the sun shines most of the time. I dunno."
"And the goggle things? Which, by the way, look way-cool on you."
"Sarcasm dully noted. But you couldn’t fly one of these things just looking out the window. Right now, it’s as if I am the ship. My forward view is unobstructed. It’s amazing-try them on; there’s another pair next to your seat."
She found the oversized headgear and held it with both hands. As the goggles slid over her eyes, it felt as if she stepped outside of the ship. The night sky surrounded her, with the moon above and black, rolling countryside below.
The sensation was one of her body flying through the air. It took a few seconds, but she stifled the thrill of the view and thought in practical terms again.
The view inside the goggles included a heads-up display with indecipherable symbols: most certainly a data stream.
"Have you figured all this out?"
"No," he told her. "I can’t read their language. But the thing at the bottom right is sort of a heading indicator. I can kinda follow that back to the Wyoming Valley Mall."
She removed the head set.
"Kinda? Kinda? You’re flying blind at night in an alien plane that you’re not even sure you know how to fly?"
He smiled and admitted, "Yeah. I’m flying blind tonight. But I was doing that before I had the ship."
She understood, shrugged, and conceded, "I guess that makes two of us."
– Dinner and a movie sounded simple. First, they went to the Grotto Pizza restaurant outside of the Wyoming Valley Mall and ate by candle light.
Nina had hoped he had somehow scrounged a pizza but instead ate from a picnic basket he brought including chicken from the farms, instant soup, and canned asparagus, all chased by cold Amstel Lights.
"Oh, look, they’re almost cute," Nina kidded when the things resembling shaved squirrels with glowing tales and fibrous wings gathered on the windows. The glow in the tails came from acid. Acid that ate through glass.
After evacuating the restaurant, Trevor and Nina moved to stage two.