TASTE
(Seducer Part 14- Chapter 45 of Senses)
The five of them were drinking in the airport lounge waiting for Paul's plane to arrive and watching the sun set when they were approached by an airport official and asked to join him in a private conference room. They entered the room to find a conference table awaiting them, which they all sat at. Jim asked, "What's up?"
"My name is Major Genyeddey," the official said. "I wished to conduct this conversation in private, so as not to alarm either you or the other people awaiting relatives on incoming flights."
"What's wrong?" A.J. asked.
"Your friend, Mr. Cynic? He has had an engine fire, or possibly an explosion, in his airplane in the last few minutes. Don't worry, he is all right, but he is in an uncomfortable position. He is circling the airport right now, but his landing gear will not fully come down."
"He can't land?" Jim almost shouted.
"We are setting up an emergency landing strip for him right now," the Major said. "We are hoping he does not run out of fuel before that time."
"Shit!" A.J. said.
"Have you made visual contact with the plane?" Karen asked.
"We have," the Major replied. "The fire is out, but there is a large hole in the side of the plane. Mr. Cynic has a manual override on the landing gear, but he cannot get to it as he is flying alone. He is flying a type of airplane that truly requires the pilot to be on station at all times."
Jim chuckled. "That's our Paul," he said.
The Major nodded solemnly. "Would you like to speak with him?" he said. "It may help boost his spirits while we get the emergency procedures in order for such a landing."
Angie spoke for the first time. "What are his chances?" she asked.
"One in three. The problem with landing without wheels is that a fire may start, or that the plane will flip over due to friction reactions. The problem is the landing gear. They are partially down, but not locked into place. No sane pilot would try to land that way, so very few pilots are experienced at it."
"We'd better go talk to him," Carrie said.
In the air traffic control room there was a bustle of activity as preparations were being made and emergency crews put together for the expected disaster. The group made its way through the crowd and the Major found them a few chairs and a headset. The headset was connected to a speaker so that everyone in the room could hear what Paul was saying. Jim took the headset.
"Paul," he said.
"Jim, that you?" came the response.
"The one and only. How you doing?"
"I'm in a bit of a jam," Paul replied. "I take it they've filled you in?"
"They have. What the fuck happened?"
"Don't swear over the airwaves, Jim. There are rules against it, even here. To be honest, I don't know what happened. Probably something stupid like a bird getting caught in the jet intake. We'll figure it out if I get this thing down in one piece. Does anybody down there have any idea how I'm going to do that?"
Major Genyeddey put on a headset of his own. "Mr. Cynic," he said, "we are working to establish a soft landing location for you."
Paul laughed. "No such animal to a jet," he said. "I can't tell, but is the hole in the back of the plane big enough to get a man through? All I need is a second pair of hands up here and I can get the landing gear into position."
"It's big enough, but it's jagged. Sorry, Mr. Cynic, but that's a bit too dangerous."
"Figures."
"How much fuel you got?" Jim asked.
"Not much," Paul replied. "Maybe an hour's worth. You boys want to fly some fuel up to me?"
Jim laughed a nervous laugh, and nearly jumped when A.J. put his hand on his shoulder. A.J. leaned close to Jim's ear.
"You know what we have to do," A.J. whispered. "We have to go up there."
"Are you out of your fucking mind?" Jim whispered back angrily. "Fly at an airport, in full view of all these people? I know where this would have to lead. Angie would have to do her experiment too! You know we'd have to do it to be able to keep up with an airplane."
A.J. nodded. "What are we supposed to do, let our friend die?"
Jim closed his eyes. "How dark is it outside now?" he asked.
"What? Oh, right, I wasn't thinking. It's dark outside by now. We have no excuse not to try."
Jim sighed. "You're right. Major?" Jim turned in his seat, removing the headset. "May we go outside and see the preparations? Can we see the plane ourselves?"
"Certainly," the Major replied. "You can't miss his plane. It is the one with the red lights flashing quickly up in the sky."
Jim nodded and stood, while A.J. picked up the headset. "Paul," he said, "stay there. We're coming to get you."
There was a long pause before Paul answered. "Right," he finally said. "I copy you."
After being certain they could tell which plane was Paul's from the ground, Jim had asked that the group be left alone, unless any new developments were made. The Major agreed and soon the group was alone by an aircraft hanger. The five of them ducked behind a wall of the hanger and were no longer visible to the crews preparing for Paul's expected crash.
"Who gets to go?" Angie asked.
"Only one of us?" Jim asked.
"That's right. Two reasons for it. One is that should we be found back here it will be easier to explain only one of you gone. Second..."
"If the one of you that's hit goes berserk," Karen said, "the other one will need to go get him." Angie nodded in agreement.
"Me, then," A.J. replied. "Jim knows how to take me out should it be necessary."
"You sure little brother?" Jim asked. "This is a risk we should share in."
"I know, but the girls are right. One of us needs to stay behind. Everybody pool heads. What are the obstacles?"
"Heat," Carrie said. "Wear your jacket because it's going to be windy and cold up there."
"Friction," Jim said. "You'll be going from the equivalent of a wind tunnel to a closed environment, and you'll be going through a jagged hole. You'll need to compensate."
"The hole itself," Angie said. "It was probably caused by an explosion, so you'll have the equivalent of being surrounded by knives as you go in."
"Paul knows we're coming so he won't be too surprised by me showing up," A.J. commented. "Anything else?"
"All you'll have to think about is velocity once you're up there," Jim said, "so this will probably be a bit strange. Don't fly too fast going up or you'll fuck up your ears."
A.J. nodded. "Good point." He reached into his pocket and pulled out a pair of sonic ear protectors. "Good thing I carry these. Occupational hazard."
"Those won't do any good," Angie said. "Those are for sound, not pressure."
"Save them for the show," Jim added, his ironic smile returning for the first time in almost thirty minutes.
A.J. nodded and returned the sonic protectors to his pocket. "Let's go," he said.
"All right," Angie said. "Karen, hit me with the gravity formula." Karen did so, and when Angie had the formula firmly in place she said, "Ready for it big guy?"
A.J. nodded.
"Here it comes." Angie fed the formula to A.J. along with the AMH. She let it last for ten seconds, just to be sure, and then shut off her emotive ability. "Karen stop," she said, and Karen did so.
"Feel any different?" Carrie asked.
"No," A.J. replied. "Not at all. Did it work?"
"Only one way to find out," Jim said. "Paul's waiting. Go."
A.J. nodded and leapt into the air, then shot up quickly to a height of 2000 feet. They were right, A.J. thought to himself, it's cold up here.
He began to search around to the lights that made Paul's jet distinctive. He saw them circling about 500 feet higher than he was, and then saw the lights vanish. Startled, he rushed up the additional 500 feet only to see the lights below him. He began to match velocity when they disappeared again.
"Fucking thermals!" he shouted. A.J. was seeing the thermal layers that surround an airport for the first time from the air, and he realized that he was not seeing them as he thought he should. He stopped for a moment to think, and then realized that this was simply a phenomenon that he had never seen with his own eyes before, and he simply needed time to adjust to it. A.J. looked at his watch. He didn't have the time.
He searched for the airport hanger that Jim and the others were waiting by, and then forced himself to head for the ground. At a height of 500 feet he changed strategy and allowed gravity to take over, then compensated as he reached the ground.
When he landed by the group he said, "It works, but it doesn't."
"Excuse me?" Karen said.
"I can fly, so that part works. But I can't see. I'm getting ghost images from thermals up above the airport. Given a few hours I could learn to compensate, but we don't have a few hours."
"Fuck!" Jim yelled. "Looks like it's my turn."
"You sure lover?" Karen asked.
Jim took a deep breath and then let it out. "We can't let our friend die. A.J.'s right on that score. We have to try. Angie, let's do it."
Angie nodded and asked Karen for the gravity formula again. When she had it she fed Jim. As before, she let the formulae hit for ten seconds, then both Angie and Karen stopped.
"Doesn't feel any different," Jim said. "A.J., let me borrow your jacket."
"It won't fit," A.J. replied.
"I know, but I don't think mine will stand this pressure. Besides, I'd like a good layer between myself and the plane when I go through that hole. My jacket certainly won't cut it."
A.J. handed Jim his jacket, which Jim put on and bundled up in. "Here goes," Jim said. With that he launched himself into the air.
Upon lifting off the ground he found Paul's plane without any difficulty. He then added his visual graph over his eyesight (mentally thanking A.J. for teaching him that trick) and visually lined up with the plane. He then changed his velocity so that he headed straight for it.
It took less than a minute to reach the plane. Jim flew under the plane to match velocity, and then slowly changed his course so that he was along side it. The damage was surprising.
Paul's left engine was a molten mess. The fire had fused most of its parts together into a solid mass. The hole in the side of the plane was a circle with a diameter of four feet, surrounded by shards of broken metal. How Paul had managed to stay in the air Jim couldn't fathom.
Jim matched velocity with the hole in the plane and swung his body sideways. He then had to match velocity again to compensate for the wind friction that hit his body. Once he was even with the hole, he shot into the interior of the plane.
Jim landed with a jolt. He brushed himself off and took inventory of his surroundings. The interior of the plane was in no better shape. Jim had once read an account of a bullet that had been fired into a tank. The bullet had ricocheted around the inside, slicing its occupants into ribbons. The interior of Paul's plane was in similar shape.
Jim looked towards the cockpit and saw that the door to the front of the plane was torn off the hinges. He could see Paul fighting with the plane's controls. "Paul!" he called out.
"That you Jim?" Paul shouted back. "Radar on the ground is going nuts! I'm having to tell them that there's no one up here but us endangered jet pilots. How the hell are you showing up on radar?"
Jim made his way to the front of the plane and sat in the co-pilot's seat. "It's me," Jim said. "The radar part is probably A.J.'s jacket here. It's heavy enough to sink a ship. How are you keeping this fucking thing in the air? It looks like you were hit by a rocket launcher."
"There's a good chance I was," Paul replied. "All I know is that my engine fucking blew up. Can you fly this thing?"
"I don't think so."
"Figures. You can fly though."
"Figured it out, did you?"
"Momma didn't raise no dummies, just Deborah and me. I figured it out when A.J. said you were coming to get me. I must admit that I'm glad to see you."
Jim laughed. "Let's get you on the ground and we'll commiserate later."
"Agreed. We need to get the landing gear locked down."
"What do I do?"
"Towards the back of the plane you'll find a floor access hatch. Get it open and you'll find a manual release control for the landing gear. You'll have to turn the handles counter-clockwise. A lot of turns, so go get started."
Jim saluted. "Aye, Captain," he said. He left the cockpit and worked his way back, finding the access hatch only after moving a seat that had been dislodged by the explosion. It took five minutes, but Jim was able to get the landing gear locked.
Paul saw the lock light come on in his cockpit and wasted no time. "Control this is Cynic One," he said into his radio.
"Go," came the control tower voice.
"Don't ask me how, but I've got a lock on my landing gear. Please clear me to land."
"Roger. Head for runway 33-G. You may land at your convenience."
"Thank you tower."
Jim had reached the front of the plane. "You can land her?" he asked.
"I think so," Paul replied. "You'd better get off though. I'd have trouble explaining you being here."
Jim laughed. "I know. They think I'm on the ground right now."
Paul laughed back. "Go! I'll buy the first round when I get there."
Jim clapped his hand on Paul's shoulder. "Deal. See you there."
Jim worked his way back to the hole and carefully jumped out and compensating for the wind as he hit atmosphere again. He judged his height to be about 1500 feet, so he stayed at that height until he found the hanger. He then fell to the ground, compensating for gravity as he went so that he landed softly.
"Well?" Karen asked.
"His plane's pretty fucked up," Jim said, "but the landing gear is down now. He should make it."
"That's a relief," Angie said.
"How has it been down here?" Jim asked.
"The Major came by once," A.J. said. "We told him you were in the bathroom. Other than that we were left alone."
"We'd better resurface," Carrie said. "They'll be looking for us any second."
As if on cue, Major Genyeddey appeared around the corner. "There you are!" he said. "You know, you could get into trouble sulking around our airport."
"So sue me," Jim said. "I love the Russian friendliness these days. What's up?"
"Your friend has managed to get his landing gear down, so he's coming in for a landing. Would you please accompany me back to the control tower?"
The group followed the Major back to the tower just as Paul was making his final approach. The Major handed Jim a pair of binoculars while the rest watched Paul's approach on the radar screens. There was nothing said about Jim's sudden appearance on their radar scopes earlier.
Paul's plane hit the runway with a visible shudder, but managed to stay intact and Paul hit the brakes and slowly brought the plane to a crawl, and then to a stop. When the plane was motionless, a cheer went up in the control room.
"Cynic One to Tower," came Paul's voice.
"Go Cynic One."
"Thanks."
There was a sudden squeal on the speakers and Paul's landing gear collapsed, causing the plane to fall flat onto the runway. The control room was stunned into silence.
Angie grabbed a microphone and said, "You all right out there?"
"Angie, that you?" Paul asked.
A sigh of relief went through the room. "It's me," Angie answered.
"You busy tonight?"
Angie laughed. "I can be," she said.
"Good. Hey everybody, the first round's on me!"
A cheer rose from the control tower, even from the stoic Major Genyeddey. The Major approached A.J. "I understand you are a vodka drinker," he said.
"That's right," A.J. acknowledged. "I do vodka, while my brother does whiskey."
"Then let us drink together and celebrate a happy ending."
Karen walked over to Jim, who was showing much relief on his face. "A happy ending, right lover?" she asked.
Jim smiled his ironic smile. "I need a drink," he said.
"Then let's take Paul up on his offer."
"Let's do."