Redwing - Chapter 8.1

Page looked at Claire, ‘We need to continue with take-off,’’ Page said, softly.

                ‘Okay, take the others and wake her up while I explain to him why on earth he’s here.’’ Claire lowered her voice and softened, ‘Poor soul, I wonder how he woke up.’’ She quickly gave Teya a suspicious look. She clearly thought Teya’s time spell had done something, which meant Teya’s power was more than she had told Claire. I felt guilty, knowing Claire trusted Teya a little less on my behalf.

                Following Claire’s orders, Page led us all back to the seats were Aura was laying.
                ‘Any ideas?’’ asked Kelly.

                ‘Smelling salts, we need smelling salts. My earth mother used to sell them at her drug store.’’ Dawn grew excited at the thought of her idea. All I could think about was the conversation going on between Claire and Blue eyes. I could hear their angry whispers behind us.

                ‘Right.’’ Page took her silver box out of her pocket and turned it into a science book on smelling. Turning the book in her hands before opening it, she quickly skimmed a few pages, ‘Ah ha!’’ she found the word ‘smelling salts’ and brushed over it gently. Placing the book back in her pocket, she grabbed Dawn’s hands and made her hold them out. I watched, wide-eyed and amazed, as Page held up her hands and small, wriggly vowels started pouring out. They all ended up on Dawn’s hand and connected together to form a solid object.

                ‘Smelling salts!’’ Dawn cried.

                ‘I’m not certain that I copied the smell exactly right, but they should be enough to wake her up. I’m not quite sure what we’re going to tell her though. Let’s just try these out first.’’

                Dawn held her nose with her left hand while waving the salts in front of Aura’s nose with the other. Another breathe was all it took for Aura’s nose to start twitching. She woke with a start.

                ‘Phoooeeeeee!’’ she cried, her voice still groggy and dazed. She looked round at all of us but her eyes settled on me and Kelly. They hesitated, then her cry quickly turned into a scream. Claire and Blue eyes turned around, surprised.

                ‘Get out! Just get out of my house!’’ Aura thrust her face at mine and hollered. We all blinked back at her, stunned.

                ‘Um, this isn’t you’re house. This is the Pengwing. We can talk later, but right now we really need one of your mini stars.’’

                ‘Page! That’s a nice first impression, ordering her around. She’s in shock.’’ Dawn turned to Aura. ‘It’s okay sweetie, nobody’s going to hurt you. Wendy, use the wind again,’’ Dawn had knelt down in front of the seat where Aura rest her head and was introducing her role as the mother of the group. Still unsteady and guilty of Aura’s fright of me and Kelly, I raised my hands and let a powerful blast of air escape from them. I could sense Blue eyes’ eyes fixed on me as my air current whipped past Aura’s hair. Tiny dots started to appear, little, delicate and delightful.

                ‘They’re here: ten guards, soldiers and a handful of nurses,’’ announced Kelly, stepping back from the window.

                Quickly, I concentrated on one shimmering dot and tried to blow it towards the back of the ship. It was hard to control, but eventually I managed to insert it into the little hole at the back of the ship. Wincing, I touched it and instantly got blown backwards by an incredible wave of energy. As I hit the floor, the ship jerked forward and zoomed across the canal. We blasted into open air and headed for the sky.
              Claire rushed back into the controls room and Page and Kelly followed. Dawn, refusing to leave Aura’s side, clutched her hands and tried to coax Aura into calming down. Blue eye’s just stood there, staring out a window, frowning down at the world below. I dashed to Teya’s side.

                ‘It’s okay, it’s all going to be okay,’’ I started, trying to reassure myself more than Teya. ‘We’re on a mission to save the world at twelve years old. We know where we’re going, we know how to fly this thing. We really thought this through, we have things to eat. We don’t have two passengers aboard who have no idea how they got here or what they are doing here. They aren’t terrified out of their wits of us and we don’t have to convince them not to hate us. It’s alright Teya… alright.’’

She raised her eyebrows up and me, ‘Whatever you say.’’

Everyone seemed to have a job, so I sat down at the seat nearest to the control room, all the while clutching on to Teya like my life depended it. I knew Teya didn’t need any help and was perfectly capable of sitting down on a seat herself and staying there, but I held on nonetheless. Without any arrangement, my job was taking care of Teya. Curious, I looked through the small window in the control room door and listened as hard as I could. 

                ‘Page?’’ Claire took her eyes off the sky for a second to glance back at her.

                ‘Yes?’’ Page looked up from the navigation system.

                ‘I know it’s exhausting, but we need everyone on this ship to know our destination, our cause and our mission.’’ I knew who she was referring to. ‘There are still two passengers on board who have no idea what they’re doing here and we don’t have time to spin them a tale they won’t believe anyway, the emergency pods will be after us soon and we need all the help we can get.’’

                I was curious. What was exhausting? How could it help explain things to Blue eyes and Aura? My eye’s followed Page around the room as she walked towards Dawn. She didn’t look like she felt very happy with being given the task of the ‘exhausting explanation’. She took her box out and it turned into a blank book. In flipping through the pages, words started to form.

                ‘Utopians,’’ reluctantly, I slowly turned my eyes away from Page, Dawn and Aura to look at the back of Claire through the window. ‘The emergency pods are gaining, we need a plan.’’

                ‘We could die,’’ Kelly mumbled, looking at the floor.

                ‘Ha, ha, very funny,’’ grumbled Claire, clutching the wheel.

               ‘No I mean, make them think we’re dead.’’ Kelly looked up in excitement at her idea. ‘That ought to stop the chase. The only thing is… how?’’ Kelly looked back down at the floor.

                I turned down to look at Teya, who was also listening. ‘How…’’ I mumbled, deep in thought. Fake a crash? But how we get to the Destiny Guider without a ship? Even if we did crash, what would stop the Utopians from searching through the wreckage for survivors and still keep searching for us when they found no bodies? ‘Hmm…’’ still holding onto Teya, I stood up and slowly walked into the control room, lost in thought.

‘Claire? What would happen if the ship crashed? Is it possible to crash this ship in a way that it could still be functional?’’ I asked, leaning over Kelly’s shoulders, scanning the numerous rows of flashing lights and buzzing buttons.

                ‘Uh… um…’’ Claire looked down in embarrassment.

                ‘She’s still figuring out how to fly this thing, let alone knows her way around it,’’ Kelly answered for her causing Claire to pout like a five year old.

                ‘What do you mean, she’s flying it right now.’’ Teya walked up next to Claire.

                ‘Um… not really. Page… Page entered the co-ordinates of the nearest lake, and the ship is automatically getting there.’’ Claire slowly let her hands slip from the wheel and look down. ‘I may be good at issuing orders but I’m not a professional mission leader and this is only my second mission. I really don’t know what I’m doing. I’m sorry.’’ I was horrified. It was always reassuring to know at least someone knew what she was doing, to have someone that would fix every problem. Now, this whole idea seemed hopeless.

                There was a silence. ‘I could run a check on the ship’s capability,’’ Kelly offered.

                ‘Yes… yes, and Wendy, you better check on Page. I’ll try and figure out how to drive this thing.’’ I was glad to see Claire back to her normal ways. I also was secretly thrilled on being given the job of checking on Page so I could find out what was going on. As I pushed open the swing door to exit the control room, I decided to act as calm as I could in front of Blue eyes and Aura.

                ‘Hey, Page. How’s it going?’’ Page appeared to be just finished with whatever she was doing and was sitting down and catching her breathe while Dawn stared at her with anxious eyes.

                ‘Um… Page? What did you do?’’ I asked.

                ‘Knowledge transfer,’’ answered Dawn, ‘Page wrote down the stories of all that happened and Billy and Aura saw it all happen vividly in their minds.’’

                ‘We understand everything, and we want to help,’’ Aura smiled.

                ‘She may have missed out some minor details about the sick pod and enrolling Aura,’’ Dawn whispered. I wasn’t listening to any of them. Billy? That was Blue eyes name? It just didn’t feel like it suited my blue eyed boy. I smiled at him, and he smiled back.

                ‘Ok, guys,’’ Claire entered, followed by Kelly and Teya, ‘we have a plan.’’