Grant's Flight
Grant's Flight
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The following is part of my book DreamPhase. If you would like the rest of it, just contact me. :)
He tapped his fingers on the side of the chair.
He was a little nervous, but that wasn't the reason why he was tapping the
chair. He was tapping the chair, because he was in a hurry. He knew tapping the
chair wasn't helping, but he couldn't help it. He had been waiting in the hall
way for about 15 minutes, now and was ready to get back to his normal life. It
was just a normal checkup, so he should be able to just as soon as it was over.
He was scheduled for the checkup 10 minutes ago, but they told him they were
not ready for him yet, and told him to wait in the hallway. So he sat down in
the metal chair facing the door.
The door made a small creaking noise as it
opened slowly, and he looked up to see an older doctor coming out of the room.
"We are ready for you now. Lt. Grant."
He stood up and the doctor motioned for him to
follow.
"If you would just come this way, we'll get
your check up done and let you get back to active duty."
The doctor led him into an examination room, and
told him to take a seat on the table that was positioned in the center of the
room. He hated getting checkups. He didn't like people examining him,
especially when he never even got to see the results, but that was the life of
a pilot. All pilots were required to get a checkup once a month or they would
be pulled from active duty. The doctors would run a few tests on the pilots and
then send them on their way. Te pilots were never told the results of the test,
or even what the tests were for.
Another doctor walked into the room and greeted
him interrupting his thoughts.
"Hello Lieutenant how are you doing
today?" The doctor was looking at the screen of his handheld computer, and
glanced up to look at the young Lieutenant when there wasn't an immediate
reply. Lt. Grant gave him a smirk, and answered him.
"I am doing just fine, but you don't need
to drag me down here every time you want to know, you could just ask, and I'll
tell you how I am feeling."
The doctor gave a small laugh. You could tell
from the way he laughed that they'd had this conversation before.
"You know that the checkups are required,
even if you are feeling just fine."
"But why, that's all I want to know, at
least tell me why, or what you are testing for."
"You know the answer to that too..."
The Lieutenant finished his sentence, "It
is on a need to know basis and you don't need to know."
The doctor chuckled again, and picked up a small
device off of a tray that was hovering next to the medical bed and held it over
the Lieutenant's arm. It flashed a blue light, and made a small beeping noise.
Lt. Grant looked at the scanner. He had never heard it make a beep before.
Normally the light on the scanner would change from blue to red, and the doctor
would put the scanner back. The doctor took another scan and it beeped again,
but this time the blue light turned red.
"Well Lieutenant, it looks like you might
get to learn what all this tests are about."
The doctor put the scanner back on the hovering
tray and pulled a communicator out of his pocket. He dialed a sequence of
numbers on the device, and lifted it to his ear.
"This is Dr. Matheson; I need a complete
lockdown of section three."
_-------------------------------
Opening his eyes, the first thing he saw was
generic ceiling tiles. Slowly he sat up, and looked around. He was in an
infirmary bed. The room was empty. He remembered why he was here, he had been
in for his examination, and something had gone wrong. They had sedated him. He
didn't know why, and it was bothering him, why was he still in here. What had
they done to him? He reached over and pulled the covers off. Someone had
changed his cloths; he was now wearing hospital scrubs. He was about to swing
his feet down to the floor when the doctor walked into the room.
"Good morning Lt. Grant. How are you
feeling?" the doctor greeted him as he walked in.
"Morning, How long have I been in
here?"
"You have been here just over night. Are
you feeling sore anywhere?"
"Not really. Why was I kept over night, why
am I still here?"
"I have some bad news, and some good news,
which would you like to hear first?"
This was going to be bad, if the doctor didn't
want to talk about it, it must be bad. He swallowed before answering.
"The bad news first, I guess."
"The bad news is that you have a deadly
infection. Everyone that has had this infection has died within two months of
getting it."
"What do you mean? Is it curable? How did I
get it, and why haven't I heard of it before?" the young lieutenant asked
as worry formed on his face.
"It is cause be being exposed to the
radiation from starship engines for long periods of times. About ten percent of
all pilots get it. You haven't heard about it because we don't want to scare
potential pilots away. There is currently no cure." The doctor paused to
let the information sink in before starting again.
"The infection is very contagious, that is
why we sealed off this room after you test. Last year we developed a treatment
that stops the infection from being contagious, but doesn't stop it from
killing the person infected. Once infected, the infection will attack the brain
and cause it to stop functioning. We don't know when it will happen, but it
always happens within a two month period. For some they die within a week of
being infected, others it happens at the end of the two months."
The young lieutenant just sat there with his
mouth open for a few minutes, before he regained his composure.
"You said there was good news, what is
it?"
"The Government has a plan set in place for
pilots that get the infection. If you volunteer for one of there missions and
if you complete it, they will buy you whatever you want. They will give you a
credit card with no limit for you to use for the remainder of your two
months."
He sat there thinking about it for a while. How
could this happen, they had never told him about any infection caused by
radiation. It was wrong they should have told him about it. Would it have
mattered? He figured that he still would have become a pilot. It was something
he had wanted to do his entire life. He spent a couple years in flight school
before he got his license and after flying for he first time, he was glad he
had spent the time getting it. He had wanted to become a pilot because he could
fly people around. People always wanted to travel, that was part of the reason
why he wanted to become a pilot. He could help people by flying them were they
wanted to go. The other reason was because he had a hard time staying put. He
always liked to be on the move. Maybe
this thing the government was offering was the right thing to do. What did he
have to loose.
A wave of hopelessness flooded over him but he
forced it into the back of his mind. Just because he was told he was going to
die, doesn't mean he is just going to give up on life. He made his decision; he
was going to accept the offer.
"Where do I sign up? If I am going to die
any way I might as well do as much good as I can."
The doctor got a small grin. "I thought you
might want to. I'll go get Col. Mayborn, he's the man in charge of the
operation.
He still wasn't sure why he was doing this, the
whole thing seemed kind of strange. He
wondered why he hadn't heard anything else about this infection. Even if the
government was trying to keep it hidden, there were always leaks. What choice
did he have? Even if this was all some kind of trick, there would be no way of
knowing what they would do to him if he didn't agree to do this mission.
He wondered what the mission would be. He was
only a pilot, but from the sounds of things, a solder would be a better choice.
He didn't have any combat training. He had gone through Basic, but that was it.
The only reason why he even held an officers rank was because he had gone
through the ROTC program. Maybe they just needed a pilot to fly a dangerous
mission. He would have to ask around, and see if he could figure out what was
going on.
A few minutes later the doctor came back into
the room followed by a military man. The rank of Colonel was on his arm.
"Lt. Grant." The Col. greeted
him "I heard you wanted to accept the mission."
"Not exactly, I would like to know a little
bit more about it first. Even if I am going to die in a little while, I am not
going to sacrifice myself for something I don't agree with. "
"That's understandable." said the
Colonel turning to the doctor. "Doctor."
The Doctor left the room closing the door behind
her.
After the Doctor left the Colonel began his
explanation.
"Three weeks ago one of our SF teams ran
into a little trouble. The team was captured by enemy forces. This team
consisted of people like you, people that had contracted the infection. They
were able to accomplish their mission, but in the process were captured. Four
days ago we received word that one of them was still alive. The team medic was
able to evade capture, but she has no way of getting out from behind enemy
lines. She sent us a location for extraction, and a pickup time before going
silent. There wasn't supposed to be a rescue mission since she was deemed
expendable because of her condition, but since we have a pilot available, we
would give it our best shot. You are that pilot. Your mission will be to pilot
a two man space ship into enemy territory and meet her at the drop point by
1700 tomorrow."
"I see. Do you have the ship and equipment
ready?"
"We have the ship ready, but we don't have
your equipment ready. You can go by the armory and pick out what you think you
will need. You will need to leave by 0800 in order to make it to the pickup
point with 30 minutes to spare. We can head there now, and if you need anything
else; just ask me about it."
"There was one other question I had."
"What is it?"
"Could I name the mission?"
"It has already been named, but since it
hasn't started, we can rename it. What did you want to call it?"
"I want to call it after my name: Grant's
Flight."
"Grant's Flight it is. Lets get to the
weapons locker so you can pickup what you need."
"Okay."
They both left the room. The Doctor was waiting
outside the room, and as soon as they had come out, she went back into the
room. They walked down the halls of the hospital until the reached the
door. There was a guard stationed at the
door. The Colonel showed the guard an ID card, and the guard stepped back, and
pressed a button on small device he was holding. There was a flicker of blue
light that looked like a wall blocking the door, and the then it went out. They
both walked out the doors.
Lt. Grant wondered why they would have a force
field sealing the door, with a guard. Were they trying to keep something out,
or keep something in? He didn't know, but it seemed strange. He hadn't noticed
but the Colonel was watching him.
"The force field is to keep the contiguous
infection from spreading."
"I see."
They continued to walk in silence. Lt. Grant
really didn't know where they were headed. Upon stepping outside, he had
learned that they had moved him after putting him out. He was on a military
base. He could tell because of the design of the buildings that were around
him. But it wasn't a base he had been to before.
They continued walking for a while before they
reached a building marked Armory. The
inside of the building was lined with metal shelving. The shelves reached up to
high ceiling. The Colonel stopped.
"Okay, pick something out."
"Out of everything here?" asked the
Lieutenant as he looked the all the different weaponry sitting on the shelves.
~~
The rain beat down on the roof of her small
shelter. The rain was already started to drip through the top of the box that
she had momentarily chosen to rest. She looked out of the box at the muddy
ground that she was soon going to have to traverse again. She looked ahead to
plan where she would be running next to avoid the freezing rain. An
uncontrollable shiver ran through her body as she thought of running through
the rain. She readied herself for the next run in the rain. She checked to see
if the latch on her bag was firm. She wanted to wait for the rain to pass, but
she only had one day to get to the extraction point. Rising to her feet she
sprinted out of the box. The freezing rain beat down on her back. Forty meters
down the muddy trail she took cover again; this time under an old spacecraft.
The ship must have crashed years ago. From the looks of the ship she guessed
that all the valuable parts had been striped from the ship not long after it
had crashed. The ship was basically a large hollow tube. She worked her way through the tube avoiding
random wreckage that was scattered throughout the ship. She stopped quickly,
steadying herself by grabbing onto one of the support columns, when she heard
some noise in the distance. She listened closely and could hear the sound of
dogs, and at least two off road vehicles. They were behind her. The dogs must
have picked up her scent. She had to figure out a way to get the dogs to loose
her trail.
~~
Having selected what he deemed a suitable armament
Lt. Grant took a seat on a bench that was next to the door. The Col. had left
him to look over the weapons a few minutes after leading him to the armory. It
had only taken him about twenty minutes to select what he wanted. The col. had
told him he would be back in an hour. So now he would have to wait again. He
really didn't like waiting. Today was just not going well for him. He looked
down at the weapons he had picked out. He had picked two different weapons. One
of which was an antique the other one was an updated antique weapon. The first
was a P90 made by Fabrique National de Herstal. It was a submachine gun that
fired a 5.7 × 28 mm round. The Five-seveN was his second
choice. The weapon was made by the same company and uses the same rounds as the
p90, but it had been modified so that it also accepted the newer electrically
charged rounds. He placed the weapons down on the bench next to him and leaned
back. He ran his hands through his light brown hair. This day was really
getting to be too much. --
A little while later the Colonel returned,
"Have you picked out all the weapons you think that you will need?"
"I didn't think I would need any weapons.
The only thing I will need is a nice ship."
"Don't worry; there is a nice ship that
will be ready to leave in one hour. You
have eight hours until you need to leave, so we can go pickup anything else you
will need, and then you should try to get some sleep before you depart."
The Colonel looked over the weapon selection, and frowned a little when he saw
the older weaponry but he didn't say anything.
"Can you think of anything else that you
will need?" asked the Colonel.
"I should get a medical pack just in case,
other than that I can't think of anything." said the young lieutenant
shrugging his shoulders.
"There will be a med kit in the ship. So
for now return to your bunk, and get some rest. You will be sent for in seven
hours."
"Yes. Sir." He saluted and waited for
the colonel to leave before doing so himself. Sleep...
yeah right; he thought to himself. How would he ever be able to get any
sleep? Making his way back to his dormer
he looked up at the night sky. The sky
was clear, and the stars were very bright. As he walked, he tried to find some
recognizable constellations. Every time he exhaled he could see his breath
against the light from the stars. After walking a ways looking up to the sky he
brought he head back down to watch where he was going. The dormer was a few
yards in front of him. He looked up at the magnificent sky once more before heading
inside to get some sleep.
~~
The rain beat heavily against her face as she
started running again. She plunged
though the muddy ground, not trying to avoid the puddles anymore. She had to
find a way to make the dogs loose her scent trail or they would get her. She
could only out run them for a little while longer before she would wear out.
She had always been a good runner she had been on the cross country teem all
throughout high school, and had kept up her running while she had attended
medical school, but even she had limits. She checked behind her. She could see
the lights in the distance, through the fog and rain.
As she ran she reached down into the messenger
bag that was hanging on her shoulder. She pulled out a small map. There should
be a small town just ahead. Maybe she would find something there that would
help her escape. She doubted it though, if the dogs were able to track her in
this muddy rain, she didn't know what would throw them off.
Upon reaching the small town she came to a stop,
and looked around. Her feet started sinking into the ground so she started
walking again. She looked around town it was dead. Everyone must be in their
houses. Looking around at the houses most of them had the lights turned on
casting an eerie yellow glow into the foggy streets. At the end of the street
there was a man loading a bunch of boxes into a moving truck. This seemed like
her best chance and getting away from her followers. She ran over to the truck.
The man had just finished loading the truck.
"Excuse me" she said in a loud voice
to be heard over the rain.
"Is there something I can do for you?"
asked the man as he sealed the back door on the truck.
"I was wondering which way you are
heading?" she paused for a moment a little but of indecisiveness coming
over her, but she continued, "And if maybe I could get a ride from you. I
can give you some money for the gas."
The man looked at her a moment. "Well
I can tell from the look on your face that you will just walk if I don't give
you a ride. What kind of a person would I be if I didn't give you a ride?"
The man sighed. "I am heading that way." He said pointing to the side
of town opposite from the direction she had come.
"Thank you very much." She said.
"Your welcome, but you did mention helping
with the gas." The man turned and started walking towards the front of the
truck. "Hop in, I am leaving now."
She ran around to the other side of the truck
and opened the door. It looks like she was in luck. She looked back to where
she had come and couldn't see any lights from the vehicle after her. She looked
quickly again to make sure then climbed into the truck. --
They were traveling at a steady pace for
conditions. Every so often she would hear the tires spin a little as they lost
traction in the mud. After a little
while of riding in silence the man asked her a question.
"You have a name? I'm Charles."
She had been hoping he wouldn't
ask her anything. She liked that most of the ride so far had been quit, having
no idea who she could trust. She debated
whether or not to lie to him and tell him a false name, but she decided that
she couldn't lie to him. Maybe if she told him she didn't want to say he would
just leave it at that. She was bout to speak when the man spoke again.
"If you don't want to tell me, that's fine,
I just like to know who I'm talking to, that's all."
She thought about what he said. She didn't think
there would be anything wrong with telling the man her name, at least her first
name.
"No, really its fine. My name is
Amelia."
"Well
Amelia, it's nice to meet you."
The man
then went on to talk about sports. Amelia wasn't particularly interested in
sports, but she listened to the man intently. She figured it was in her best
interest to keep the man as happy as possible.
The vehicle
continued along for another half hour before it reached the next city.
~~
A heavy
knocking woke him from his restless sleep. Sitting up he blinked to help his
eyes adjust to the light.
"I'll
be right there." he said, realizing how horse his voice sounded. Leaning over
he grabbed the water bottle that he had placed next to his bed before he went
to sleep. The lukewarm water plunged down his dry throat. A small feeling of
disappointment hit him when the water wasn't cold like he had been expecting,
but it passed quickly as he remembered the day before. He climbed out of bed
and got dressed quickly then answered the door. Two staff sergeants were
waiting outside his door. Both snapped to attention as soon as the door opened.
"Sir."
they said in unison.
"At
ease." he said looking from one to the other.
"Sir,
we were sent to bring you to the Colonel in hanger five."
"Lead
the way." he said.
He followed
them as they led the way out of the dorms and over to the hanger. Upon entering
he was greeted by the Colonel.
"Sir."
he said saluting, and standing at attention.
The Colonel
looked at him. "At ease Lt. Your ship is ready, and your gear has already
been loaded. Ready to depart?"
"Yes
Sir."
"Good,
Get suited up. You depart in ten minutes." Said the Colonel as one of the
Sergeants handed him a flight suit.
Lt. Grant
went to the changing room and changed into the flight suit. After he had
finished changing he went back out into the hanger and climbed into the ship.
The ship was a small troop transport meant to hold about ten soldiers. The ship
was very small. He walked into the front of the ship and sat down in the pilots
chair and looked everything over. The ship seemed to be in order. Strapping
himself in, he started the preflight checks. Everything was in the green. He
turned on his radio and requested permission to launch. He was given permission
a few moments later. He pressed a few buttons. The door closed and the engines
started. The Lieutenant slowly moved the ship out of the hanger and onto the
runway. After positioning the ship, he jammed the throttle forward. He was
forced back into his seat, and the ship started shaking. The small ship
rocketed off the runway and up into the sky.
Once he had
cleared the atmosphere he set a course into the navigation computer and powered
up the Portal drive. The small ship was swallowed by the portal and its speed
increased exponentially. Leaning back in his seat he closed his eyes. He didn't
know why they had wanted him to sleep earlier, there was nothing to do now but
sleep. That was the one thing he didn't like about portal travel. Once you were
in a Portal the ship didn't need anybody to control it unless you were changing
course, or exiting the Portal. Just as he started to relax in his seat, he
heard a beeping sound coming from the Comm. system. He recognized the sound. It
was to alert him of a prerecorded message. He reached over without opening his
eyes, and pressed the play button. The messaged started playing over the
speaker.
"Greetings
Lieutenant Grant, This message will tell you a little about the planet you are
going to. Most of the information is tactical based. The Message is 30 minutes
long, so you will have another 30 minutes of portal travel." Oh just
great, he thought to himself.
~~
Upon
reaching the city Amelia asked the man to drop her off. The man pulled off to
the side of the road. She reached into her messenger bad, and pulled out her
wallet. She pulled out some money and handed it to the man.
"Thanks
for the ride."
"No
problem. Take it easy, and try to get out of the rain."
"I'll
try." She said as she opened the door and stepped out into the pouring
rain. She watched as the truck drove off before running to find shelter. She
knew that it would be best if she kept moving, but she was hoping that the rain
would have washed away the tracks that the truck had left. But she couldn't
take any chances.
------------
Looking out
from her shelter through the rain she could see the hill where she had told
them she would be waiting for a pickup. The sun was just starting to come up,
and the sky was alit with an eerie light. It was still pouring just as hard as
it had been last night. The city was
coming to life behind her. She turned around and watched at lights came on and
the neon signs lit up. It was then that
she remembered how hungry she was. She hadn't eaten anything in the past two
days. She didn't want to risk going into a store though. Now that she was
thinking about it, her hunger was becoming unbearable. She flipped open the
caver on her messenger bag and reached inside. She pulled out her wallet. As
she did her hand brushed the cold metal of the pistol that she had been giving
by one of her escorts before he was killed. She hated the weapon, the painful
memories it brought back.
Every time she saw the gun, she
remembered how her whole team was killed off one by one. The only reason she
was alive, was because they had protected her. She was a Doctor, a civilian,
they were military, and they said it was their job. The hardest part was when
she knew that if she were given some time to treat their wounds they would have
survived. It hurt too much to think
about it. The whole reason she had become a doctor was to save people. She pulled some money out of her wallet, and
tried to push the memories to the back of her mind. Right now she needed to be
thinking about how to get some food. Having money ready in her hand, now all
she needed to do was find the busiest store in town.
~~
Wow, that
might possibly have been the most boring 30 minutes of my life. Thought the
young lieutenant as the message finally stopped playing. He looked at the
navigation computer. Still 25 minutes to go. He unbuckled his seat belt, and
climbed into the back of the ship. He
walked over to wear his bag had been fastened to the wall. Unclipping the bags,
he lowered the bags to the floor of the ship.
He pulled the hand gun he had picked out yesterday out of the bag, and
placed it on the deck. He opened another pocket on the bag, and pulled out a
holster. The holster had a belt, and leg strap. He put it on and then picked up
the pistol and placed it in the holster. He closed the bag, and mounted it back
on the wall. After the bag was secured, he climbed back into the pilot's seat
and buckled up. He looked at the navigation computer again. Another ten
minutes. He guessed it would take
another 15 after that to get to the extraction point.
An alarm
sounded, alerting him that he was getting close to his destination. Shutdown
the ship, and engaged reverse thrusters. The portal collapsed, and faded away. The
reverse thrusters slowed his ship, and he got ready to enter the atmosphere.
~~
Amelia
opened the door to the shop, and heard a bell ringing. She looked up to see
that it was a small bell mounted on the front door. Walking into the store
Amelia looked around for the food section. It was towards the back. It was just
one shelf, a bunch of snacks. Amelia grabbed a bag of chips, and brought them
to the counter. The man behind the desk was giving her a strange look. She
placed the bag on the counter.
"Did you
find everything all right?" asked the man.
"Yes I
did." she answered placing the money on the counter.
"You
don't need help finding anything?" the man asked. This time something
didn't seem right.
"No, I
found what I needed." she answered again.
The man was
moving really slowly, why was he taking so long?
"Would
you like a bag for the chips?"
"No
thank you."
"A
receipt?"
"No
thanks." yes, something was definitely wrong. He was stalling. He must
have called the police or military. She looked at the back of the store. They
had probably already made it to the front door. Forgetting the chips she ran to
the back of the store and looked for the back door. She found it at the end of
a small hallway. The hallway was stacked full of boxes with a narrow path down the
middle. She pushed her way through the boxes, and heard the clerk calling after
her. "You can't go back there, employees only." She then
heard the bell on the front door ring as the man ran out of the building.
Now her
escape was going to be blocked. He would certainly tell them she was going out
the back door. She looked around, trying to think of what do. She noticed
another door. It probably led to the basement or an office. Having no other
options she went to the door and pulled it open. Behind the door she found
wooden stairs leading to the basement. She quickly descended the stairs.
The
basement was full of overstock items and random junk. Amelia worked her way
through the junk over to the recessed window. The window was too high to see
out of, so she moved some of the boxes around so that she could climb on them.
Looking out
the window, she saw the police running around to the back side of the shop. It
looked all clear, so she opened the window, and climbed out. As soon as she was
out the window, she was soaking wet again, and now she was covered in mud too.
She looked down at her watch. Only 10 minutes to get up the hill and to the
extraction point. The rain beat heavily against her as she ran up the muddy
slops.
"Hey
there she goes; up the hill!" yelled one of the police officers.
She heard
weapons fire behind here, and mud went flying next to her. They had missed, but
they were way too close.
Her body
wanted to collapse, but she pushed on. She had to make it. I loud boom was
heard over head. She didn't bother looking. She just hoped that that was her
ride out of here. Sure enough, a few moments later she saw the ship on an
approach run of the hill. Finally she would get off this planet. But her
rejoicing was too soon. One of the police officers met his mark, and a bullet
ripped through her leg. She collapsed in pain.
She was so close.