Last Flight For Craggy (13 page)

'I warmed the
seat up for you.'

'Thanks. Now
it's my turn.'

Rocky undid the
line and Cragg hooked himself to it. The young man with a ninety
two average and something to prove, climbed inside the ship and as
the hatch closed up, Cragg said good luck to him. Cragg made his
way to the open airlock of the freighter, closed the outer door,
unhooked the line and entered the ship.

'Come here and
let me kiss you,' said Dillow.

'Hold that
thought. I have to go somewhere in a hurry. They really need to fit
an en-suite in that new ship.'

Dillow laughed
as Cragg made his way to an urgent appointment in the wash-room.
Fifteen minutes later, Cragg returned for his kiss. He got a hug
and a kiss on each cheek from Fawn Dillow.

'Nice,' said
Cragg. 'Mind if we go home now?'

As they buckled
up, Dillow called Rocky. 'Ready, Rocky?'

'As I'll ever
be. Ladies first.'

'I hope he
wasn't referring to me,' said Cragg.

'Let's go
home,' said Dillow.

Forbes said,
'Lance. Which do you think is the best option to fly a brand new
multi billion dollar ship. A pilot of nearly fifty years experience
who hasn't a clue of the latest technology, or a rookie who knows
the tech stuff inside out, who has never flown solo in his
life?'

'Pity we
couldn't put the two in a blender and come up with something
special.'

'You must be so
proud of Fawn,' said Stella.

'I always was.
Just make sure they come home.'

* * *

It was a slow
flight home, Dillow allowing Rocky maximum time to get used to
flying solo. Speed was not of the essence. Dillow had one eye on
the controls, and one eye on the huge ship behind her.

'You are quite
something,' she told Cragg.

'I met my match
with those controls.'

'You could
learn if you wanted to.'

Cragg shook his
head. 'Out there, no idea what I was doing, I finally realised. You
and Rocky. You're the here and now and the future.'

'No
regrets?'

'Regrets? I
have a few. Then again, too few to mention. He's a good kid.'

'Rocky? Looks
like I get to be his step mother for a couple of years.'

'Like I'm your
step dad? I know you have an awesome real father, but I always
thought of me as another father figure to you.'

'Do you have
kids?'

Cragg looked
away. 'Once.'

'Tell me about
it. We have time. I'd like to know.'

'It was a very
long time ago. Everything is, with me. His name was Leo.' Cragg
drifted away to another time and another place. 'Curly dark brown
hair, sparkling brown eyes. He had the cheekiest grin. Leo would
have been about your age had he lived. Things on Earth were so much
different, then. So many billions of people, it was impossible to
know quite how many there were. Life was a struggle, but we had
adapted. That's what humans do. Adapt.' Craggy smiled. 'You know
something? I had a garden.'

'No way.'

'True as I'm
sitting here. Almost six feet square. We grew tomatoes.'

'We?'

'Maria and I.
My wife. She was the one good with the plants. But it seemed every
time I stepped out the door, another hundred story apartment block
had grown up overnight. I was lucky. I was a freighter pilot,
getting home for a couple of months each year. I could leave it all
behind and not see it. I'd see stars, planets. My wife and son
couldn't even see the sky. Only one child per couple was
allowed.

Leo was a
bright kid, always playing and laughing. As he grew up, I wanted
Leo to be a freighter pilot like me. Get away from the rat race.
But things were a lot different back then. The Moon only had a
small settlement on it. It was a more miserable place than even
now. Mars was nothing like it is now, just a bunch of small domes.
Man, they had it tough back then. Pottsy was one of the first to
call the dump home.

Maria knew all
that, and did all she could to persuade Leo to keep out of it. Boy
did we have a few fights over that. Maria and I drifted apart.
Understandable. I mean, I was never home. I just made sure they
were provided for. But, in late twenty seventy six, I had a talk
with Leo on a vidcam. He said things were getting bad on Earth.
Talk of a fourth world war. He said he wanted to train as a
freighter pilot and he'd talked his mother round.

Because the
Moon could only take a few each year, it was almost impossible to
get a foot in the door. You can imagine the number of people
wanting to escape Earth and make a fresh start. I pulled a whole
bunch of strings and got him a place. He was due to come over in
March of seventy seven.'

'The hydrogen
war was in February.'

Cragg looked
away from Dillow. 'One lousy month. I was on the Moon and we could
see the missiles tearing the Earth apart. We all stood and watched
it like it was some kind of firework display. One after the other,
boom, boom. We could see the missiles landing, the flashes, the
mushroom clouds. It lasted less than three days. Then it stopped.
We ...none of us, could speak. We were numb. All of us had lost...'
Cragg's chin wobbled and he wiped away a few tears as the horrors
flooded his mind.

Dillow said, 'I
stood with my dad and all the others, watching it happen. I'd never
seen him cry before, or since.'

'We all cried.
Leo was four months off his eighteenth birthday.' To have to stand
and watch helplessly, knowing that his family, his wife and son,
had been wiped out, and being unable even to say goodbye to them,
was a pain that never went away. Dillow held his arm. She said
nothing but like him, she had suffered the same way. Mere words had
no meaning. She understood what he went through; what they still
went through.

Cragg took a
deep breath, forced a smile and looked at her. 'Leo would have
really fancied you. Who knows. If he had managed to come
over...'

'Who knows. If
he was a chip off the old block, I'm sure I would have liked Leo,
too.'

In theory, it
was simple. All the nineteen year old first time, unqualified solo
pilot, flying a multi billion dollar ship had to do was land on a
narrow runway that looked like a half finished theme park ride. But
with the certificate over his bed proudly displaying the ninety two
point average (simulator), Rocky Ramshorn knew all about
theory.

Everyone on
Moon Base was lined up behind the safety barrier, watching the two
ships flying in ever decreasing circles, coming ever closer to
landing.

'Take your
time, Rocky,' said Cragg. 'Only go when you are ready.'

'Thanks,
Craggy. I could do without the audience down there.'

'Ignore them.
Every emergency vehicle on Moon is ready to help if need be. You
won't need them, because you'll do this perfectly.'

'Going for one
more orbit, then I'm setting her down.'

'Good luck,'
said Dillow.

'Thanks.'

Rocky Ramshorn
felt hundreds of pairs of eyes boring holes into him. Then he
realised, if he were down there and some other rookie, perhaps one
of his classmates, was about to do something this wild, he'd be the
one with dropped jaw and eyes on stalks.

Classmates. He
thought of Amethyst Bouquet. She was in the year before him.
Perfect, petite, sassy, teasing, and probably the most wonderful
girl in the entire Universe. A pity she didn't like him. Always
called him Sheepshorn, or Goatshorn. Giggled at him when she was
with the other girls.

He never
stuttered, but anytime he was brave enough to talk to her, he
stuttered like crazy. He wondered what it would be like to kiss
her. She had a wide mouth, perhaps too generous for her small face.
She always looked as if she were smiling, which she never seemed to
do when looking at him.

He was running
out excuses. He had to land. 'Coming in,' he said.

'Approach from
the side, not from above,' said Cragg. 'You'll get a better
view.'

'Okay. I see
the launch ramp. Opening landing thrusters.'

'One half
landing thrusters,' said Dillow.

'Going one half
thrust. I'm going right of the ramp, away from the spectators.'

The landing
thrusters blew a storm of grey dust away. 'Going to one quarter
landing thrusters.' Rocky took the ship to the right of the launch
ramp.

'Rocky. This is
Stella. There are direction sensors on the bottom of the ship. They
line up with sensors on individual frequencies on the launch ramp.
As they line up, they will bleep. The closer you get them lined up,
the faster they'll bleep, until a continuous sound when bang on.
You turn on the sensors with the yellow button, far top right on
the consul.'

'Got that.
Turning on sensors now.'

With his light
touch with the controls, he manoeuvred the ship above the
horizontal part of the ramp. He could hear the bleep bleep of the
sensors. Forwards, they became slower. Backwards they sped up,
until he had the continuous tone, telling him he was in the exact
position with the ramp. Steadily, he reduced the output of the
thrusters and the monster ship lowered gently down, until it sat
perfectly on the ramp. He could now claim to be the first to land
on the ramp. It felt good.

When he opened
the hatch, he could hear the cheering crowd. Angus was operating an
extendible platform and Rocky got in the cage.

When safely on
the ground, Moon Base Commander Anton Forbes and Space Security
Commander Lance Dillow were there to welcome him and congratulate
him on a job well done. Not far away, Dillow and Cragg landed in
the freighter.

'I could never
have done it without those two,' said Rocky.

There was
another rapturous welcome for Dillow and Cragg as they got out of
the ship and walked over to the others.

'Fantastic job,
you two,' said Forbes.

'I couldn't be
a prouder father, Fawn.'

Fawn hugged her
father and he led her through the crowd. She paused and turned to
Rocky. 'Not too shabby, Rocky.'

'Thanks.'

He left Forbes
talking to Cragg and made his way through the people wanting to pat
him on the back.

'You were
fizzing,' he heard somebody say. He turned to see Amethyst Bouquet.
Even in a suit she looked amazing.

'H H Hi.'

'That was
fizzing the way you landed that ship. Like you've been flying all
your life.'

'I I I bet you
could have d d done it just as g g good.'

'Hungry?'

'Seriously
hungry.'

'Let me fix you
a feed.'

Amethyst hooked
her arm through Rocky's and staked her claim, casting warning looks
at the envious girls they passed.

* * *

'Craggy,' said
Forbes. 'No way are you working in the sanitation department.'

'That's what I
get for a reward? No job?'

'You get a job,
all right. You are now the Cadet Special Training Captain.'

'I am? Great.
Just what I always wanted. What does it mean?'

'You teach them
everything the others don't. Like how to get themselves out of any
crap they get themselves into.'

'Hmm. From
sanitation to crap. Sounds like a promotion to me. I'll take
it.'

'Good. But I
want you to think it over for a few months.'

'You do?
Why?'

'Because, if
you fancy a trip to Mars with Dillow and Ramshorn, there's a place
for you.'

'On full
captains pay?'

'But of course.
On one condition. You bring me some beer back.'

'Don't I
always?'

'Me?'

'I'm not taking
us off, Rocky,' said Cragg.

'Me neither,'
said Dillow.

'You want me to
take off in a freighter with pods?'

'Either that or
we don't take off at all,' said Dillow.

Cragg said,
'Come on, Rocky. I'm not getting any younger.'

'Come on,
Rocky,' said Amethyst Bouquet. 'I can't wait to see Mars.'

It was a
special request from hero of the day Rocky Ramshorn to let Amethyst
go with them. Forbes had been happy to allow it.

'Okay. Buckle
up. Oh. Dillow?'

'Yes,
Rocky?'

'Are you ever
going to give me my tickets?'

'Depends. Get
us to Mars and back in one piece, I'll have to think about it.'

Dillow winked
at the grinning Craggy and Rocky Ramshorn deftly waved his hands
over the controls with the skill of an orchestra conductor, then
the freighter with the train of pods gently lifted off the cradle,
and blasted off into the heavens on a trip to Mars.

* * *

The landing was
always going to be the big ask. After an uneventful trip, it was
time for Rocky Ramshorn to test himself. Cragg and Dillow put on
their best poker faces, anxious inside, calm, cool and collected on
the surface. Amethyst Bouquet knew what was involved from her own
training. She had seen Rocky land the ship loaded with marsillium.
She had always liked Rocky, but her underlying shyness had her
putting on a cover of cool indifference towards him. That he'd even
looked twice at her when he had dozens of girls drooling over the
space hero, wasn't an opportunity she was about to question.

Rocky had had
little in the way of coaching from either Dillow or Cragg. He knew
all the theory, so it was just a question of putting it all into
practice. Somewhere deep in his mind he was sure they would jump in
to help if the need arose.

'Heat shield
deployed.'

The Martian
atmosphere entry was preset by the computers. There was a soft roar
as the temperature of the shield rose. It took eleven minutes of
rushing towards Mars, before they could pull up for safe orbiting
prior to landing. Rocky gradually reduced the power from the plasma
engines, on a final orbit.