The Trion drive kicked in and worked very efficiently through the new Kerasite plating. Speed was up, around 250,000 mph and Phil didn't have the throttle fully open. "One day, we must see just how fast this baby will go Roy."
"Why not on the return trip?" Roy said back, looking at Phil.
"Better make a call to base, they'll be wondering how we are."
Roy picked up the mic, "Hi Eden this is Roy. Everything is fine here, tell Jimmy his juice is a little too potent for my taste, but perhaps I'll get a taste for it when my stomach catches up with me...If it ever does! Trion is engaged, our current speed is approx. 250,000 mph."
"Roger that Roy, I'll keep an eye out for your stomach! Keep us appraised, over and out."
In just over an hour they were in orbit around the Earth.
"Right," Phil said, "now let's play hide and seek."
Roy picked up the mic and called Southgate.
"Eden to Southgate, come in Southgate."
A very weak voice replied, "This is Dave, please say you're not far away."
"Dave, I want you to keep transmitting, we are going to try to lock onto your radio signal, can you do that for me?"
"I'll sure try, but if I fall asleep can you lock onto my snoring?"
"That'll be even better Dave, I'll open the window and follow the noise."
Dave was as good as his word. He kept the transmitter permanently open. It took several orbits to triangulate the signal, but at last Roy managed to pinpoint where they were.
"He was right," Roy said, turning to Phil and pointing to their position on the map, "They are in Canada, now let's start working out the drop zone."
Roy left the cockpit and floated through the hatch into the passenger cabin. He found the four volunteers alert and talking about their mission.
"Hi guys," he said, taking them by surprise, "it sure is easy to sneak up on folks in space," he said, pulling himself down into a seat. He began to show them where to aim for on the map. "The circle I've drawn is about 5 miles wide, sorry I can't get it any closer than that. Maybe you'll be able to see where they are as you fly overhead."
"Time to get ready guys," Phil called, over the intercom.
"This is it then," Roy said, looking at them in turn. "I'll miss you guys, keep safe."
With that he helped them through the hatch that led to the cargo hold, and then into the glider. He made sure the hatch was secure, and set off back to the cockpit.
Once back, he picked up the mic and said, "Okay folks, one more orbit and we'll be in the right place to drop you off, mind the first step, it's a big one!"
The four volunteers chuckled, "Yeah, we'll miss you too Roy, count us down will you."
The ship ate the last orbit and Roy opened the cargo bay doors, "Here you go guys, ten, nine...two, one." Jake pulled the lever and they were catapulted out of the ship. They were in a low orbit, which began to decay almost immediately. "Here we go folks," Jake said, "hold on tight."
The tiny ship descended, gathering speed as it did so, suddenly, the earth looked awfully big.
"And we've got to hit a spot five by five from here!" Zeek said, looking at Jake. "Good luck buddy."
The glider started to glow as it entered Earth's atmosphere, but no heat could be felt on the inside at all. The glow was quite tame compared with how Jake and Zeek remembered other re-entries.
"The old space shuttles used to burn up each time they did this," Zeek explained.
Jake added, "Yeah, they used special tiles to absorb the heat by burning off, we've got lovely shiny Kerasite out there reflecting the heat away from us, so there's nothing to burn."
The trip through the upper atmosphere was a little rough, but as the air thickened, Tristran's design started to come into its own.
"Get ready to deploy the wings on my mark," Jake said.
Zeek turned to the girls and said excitedly, "It's just like the movies isn't it."
"Mark!" Jake shouted, and Zeek half jumped out of his skin. He pulled the lever and the wings extended outwards. Instantly, the ride became much smoother. "That's more like it bro," Zeek quipped to Jake, "you're getting the hang of it now."
Jake just laughed, he was flying by the seat of his pants. There hadn't been time for lessons before their departure, but he hadn't told the others that, he hadn't wanted to scare them.
The first part of the glide was quite easy; North America is a big target! It became ever more difficult though as their altitude decreased. "I want all eyes looking for our landing site," Jake ordered, and this time he got their full attention. The glider flew really well, considering a novice with almost no flying experience was piloting it. Jake had flown a few hours in a trainer when he was in the armed forces, but that was a long time ago now, and this hi- tech glider was nothing remotely like that old trainer. He found it easy to manoeuvre, and descended in ever decreasing circles, hoping to zone in on the landing site. The initial launch point from the ship had been good, so the general area was below them, now it just required a modicum of luck.
They dropped below the clouds for the first time and could see Terra-Firma far below. The mountains were immediately apparent, so that left the lake. It took a while and a good deal of lost height, but eventually they spotted the lake with the forest on all sides. "Now we just need the street address and we've cracked it," Zeek said.
A lot more height was lost and individual trees started to come into focus.
"We don't have too much more time guys," Jake said, a little panicky, "the ground is coming up awful fast!"
"There!" shouted Martha, "there's a cabin just inside the tree line, that must be it."
"It'll have to do," Jake said, "hold on, we're landing."
A last minute inspiration told him to land on the lake. There were no clearings that he could see, so he went for it. He flew across the lake, turned one last time, and headed down. At the last second he pulled the nose up and the glider did a belly flop onto the water. The low friction Kerasite really slipped over the surface of the lake, far easier than Jake had allowed for. They overshot the water's edge and headed into the trees.
"Hold on!" he shouted just before the crash.
A few seconds later, they came to an abrupt stop.
"Is everybody ok?" Jake asked, his voice shaking.
"Sort of, came three replies."
"How about the cargo?"
Betty, who was in the back seat, turned to inspect the cargo.
"It seems okay," she said, "well done Jake, you did it! We're home, back on Earth."
After the congratulations died down, Jake picked up his mic, "Come in Phil, this is Jake calling. We've landed safe and well, cargo and passengers all intact. Over."
"That's great news Jake, well done, I bet you're glad now that you didn't bother with all those lessons, over."
"Erm, thanks Phil, you've just blown my cover, tell the folks back at Eden that we'll be in touch when we've had a good look around, over and out."
"Will do, good luck all, over and out."
Jake put the mic down, turned and said, "Well, I guess it's time to get out folks, some people near here need our help. They opened the hatch and climbed out. There was an interesting path cut through the trees behind them. The Kerasite wings had sliced through the trees like a hot knife through butter, leaving an easy route back to the lake. They set off with Jake leading the way. When they reached the water's edge they stopped, and Zeek said, "Listen!" they all became quiet. "Is that snoring I can hear?"
❧
"Well, that's our job done Roy," Phil said, "time to head home. Let's see what this baby can really do!" He hit the throttle and the rockets fired. They were pinned in their seats for several seconds, and then Phil hit the Trion drive. There was a muted explosion and a frightening onrush of acceleration. By the time Phil had recovered enough to see clearly, they were way past 250,000 mph and still accelerating.
"We've got loads of fuel Roy, what say we by-pass the moon and see what happens?"
"Sounds good to me, we may not get another chance."
So they did just that, they shot past the Moon after a few minutes and kept going. At 500,000 mph and still accelerating, Phil throttled back and turned the ship towards the Moon.
"I guess we'd just keep getting faster," he said, "maybe if we let it go long enough we'll reach the speed of light?"
"Another time," Roy answered, "I'm hungry!" Phil laughed as they started back towards the moon.
Chapter Sixteen
Chapter 7.
Earth
Jake said, "It sure is snoring-"
"Now that's what I call precision," Zeek interrupted, "250,000 miles and we land within snoring range!"
They laughed, and Martha said, "Well at least we know one of them is alive."
"It could be a Grisly," Zeek joked, and Betty hit him on the back of his head.
"Ouch!" He shouted, the snoring stopped.
"Is someone there?" A weak voice called out.
Dave staggered out of the cabin and fell into Jake's arms. The girls took over and administered a berry whilst Jake went into the cabin to see how the others were. He was not long, and came out looking distraught.
"They're all dead," he said, with tears welling in his eyes.
"Not if I can help it," Betty said, and rushed inside.
They were dead all right, but Betty wasn't a quitter. She felt them to see if they were still warm, they were, so death had not occurred that long ago. Instinctively, she got out some berries and squashed out the juice. She poured it into their mouths and blew it into them, along with a silent prayer.
❧
The huge ship skimmed across the grassy terrain. It had performed flawlessly throughout the trip, and Phil was delighted with the whole venture. Both he and Roy were eager to get back and report all that had happened. Steve and John were waiting for them as they came in to land.
"Good trip?" Steve asked, when they had disembarked.
"Fabulous," Phil said, "we need to talk."
"They got down ok," Roy said, "we had a message from them after they had landed, all are safe and well. They said they'd call when they've had chance to look around."
"That's great news guys, now, what's this we must talk about Phil?"
On the way back to the settlement, Phil told Steve what they had done. "We figured it was worth it to find out just how fast we could travel."
"Yes, I agree," Steve said, "I'm glad you did, we should be able to work out how long it would take to get to the speed of light from the time it took to get to 500,000."
"Assuming that acceleration is constant of course, which it might not be." This was John, thinking like an engineer again.
Steve said, "Come on, Mr. spanner in the works, it's been a long day."
❧
"He's coming round," Martha said. "Hi Dave, I'm Martha and this is Jake, how are you feeling?"
"I've felt better," Dave replied, "how did you find us?"
"Oh, a bit of old fashioned radio triangulation, and your snoring. By the way, this is Zeek, and this is Betty."
"Hi everyone thanks for coming. We've been on our last legs for a couple of days now, some sort of sickness hit us, not sure what, but it hit us hard. All the others are in the cabin sleeping, have you looked in on them yet?"
"Yes, I have Dave and-" Jake started, but Betty interrupted him.
"They're still sleeping Dave, let's leave them to rest." She motioned to Jake not to say anything. He understood her meaning, thinking they would tell him when he was stronger.
Just then there was a loud cough from inside the cabin. Jake looked at Betty who silently mouthed the word, 'berry' to him. He looked a little puzzled, but followed her inside. All four were alive but very groggy. The four consisted of a woman of Dave's age, and three children, two boys and a girl.