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Chapter
27

Descend into a Crowd

Asantia’s ship pops into Earth’s atmosphere somewhere over Pennsylvania. It’s noontime on a hot day in April. Asantia looks at a map and steers toward Allan’s home.

Rubic stares out the front window. The airship is high above the clouds. “What’s our elevation?”

“Forty thousand feet. The Hubbu seems to make a hole in space that is relative in air density. When I leave a planet and I’m close to the ground, I arrive close to the ground. When I’m way up, I arrive at a similar height. At the same time, you never know where the Hubbu will drop you off.”

“The wormholes have a mind of their own,” Allan says.

Laura whispers into Allan’s ear and they laugh. Allan’s face is as red as a cherry tomato.

“I’m just glad to be home. And to have my family with me.” Rubic leans back in a swivel chair bolted near the ship’s controls.

Asantia doesn’t respond. She’s crying again.

Allan rolls to the window, Laura by his side. “How long until we’re near a hospital?”

“Twenty minutes to the outskirts of town. Then I’ll have to descend. I have to be careful. Earth police are very aggressive.”

“Why does the Hubbu always drop you off right here? Why not get dropped off over China, or Antarctica?”

“It’s the colors. There are many shades of orange. If I were to blend a bit of red into the mix I might end up over the big ocean. I did once. It took me days to find land. And when I did, they spoke a strange language.”

Rubic turns to Allan. “We are wanted by the police, you know. They’ll want to question us about our vanishing act.”

“I know.” Allan squeezes Laura’s hand. “But Laura is with us, and she knows where her mother is, and that’s who they really care about. We can’t get into too much trouble now that we’ve found them. Can we?”

Rubic looks at his bare legs and boxer shorts. “I should get some pants on before we turn ourselves in. I don’t want to look crazy. The rest we’ll have to deal with as it comes. I don’t think there’s a law against disappearing.” Rubic laughs.

Asantia lowers the ship through the clouds toward the city below. “I’ve decided to drop you off first. I will take my mother to the hospital. You can call the police and get all that straightened out.”

“You know where the hospitals are?” Allan asks.

“Yes. I’ve been to Earth a number of times. I know how to get by.” Asantia pulls hard on a lever and flips a switch. Her ship rumbles.

“That sounds like a great idea.” Rubic says. “Thank you for coming to get us. By the way, how did you know where we were?”

“Peebles are very chatty. They are also fighting with us on Lan Darr. I came to Peebland to pick up some reinforcements when I heard that Allan was there. Some things are meant to happen.” She winks at Allan. “I’ve saved your butt twice now. You owe me big.”

“I hope we didn’t screw up your plans?” Allan says. 

Asantia shrugs. “Nah, there were fifteen other transport ships with me. They won’t miss me.”

“I’d like to repay you somehow,” Rubic says.

“Well, you might owe me some cash. It takes a lot of Hubbu to push a ship my size through space. Katonaay prices are high.” She winks at Rubic. “I’m kidding.”

Asantia lowers the ship right over a cluster of buildings. They have white, flat rooftops and are three stories tall. There is a courtyard in the middle of the buildings with red and gold triangle awnings.

Allan’s eyes widen, and his eyeballs threaten to leap out of his head. “Hey, that’s my school!”

Asantia laughs. “I thought you wanted some proof that I exist?” She turns the ship in a circle, noticing two police helicopters heading her way. “Hurry, we don’t have much time. Okay if I drop you off here?” she asks Allan with a smile.

“Hell, yeah! You really are awesome!” Allan, Laura, and Rubic follow Asantia to the door.

Kids and teachers pour out from under the awnings and point up. The doors to the buildings fly open, and more kids spill outside, staring up. Outside the school courtyard approach a dozen police cars, lights flashing and horns honking as they fill the school parking lot.

“There’s not enough room to land, but I’ve a better idea.” Asantia presses a button and pushes down a lever. The exterior door opens. Wind fills the cockpit, stirring papers and maps. Asantia looks through a scope and hits another button. The ship rocks as a cable shoots from the ship and impales itself into the concrete in the middle of the school walkway. Asantia opens a closet and lifts out a box with bike handles on either side. She clips the box onto the cable. Allan knows the contraption. It rides up and down the cable and will take passengers to the ground. Asantia lets Laura take the handles. “Hold on tight. The handles go down the cable pretty fast. Once you’re at the bottom, push the up button on the end on the right handle.”

Laura nods and steps out of the airship. She zips down the cable, a scream leaving her lips. She pushes the correct button, and the handles ride up the cable.

Rubic rides the handles down to the ground. A dozen amazed and shocked teenagers greet him. The handles travel back up. A dozen police officers push through the crowd.

The police helicopters circle the airship. “Your balloon is in violation of protected airspace. Please lower it on the football field.” A voice booms from the loud speaker.

Asantia hugs Allan and kisses his cheek. “I told you I didn’t forget about you. I planned on picking you up with this.” She clips two extra, smaller cables to the handles and then attaches the ends to the wheelchair armrests. “Take care, Allan Westerfield,” she says. “I’ll stay in touch.”

“Good. I can’t wait to see you again. Good luck with the revolution.”

She smiles and presses the button on the handles. “Hold on!”

Allan zips down the cable to the ground. Near the end of the ride the brakes kick on and the handles slow. Allan touches down easily, surrounded by hundreds of his peers and a dozen cops.

A few students start to clap, but the officers don’t. They move back the crowd. One officer flips Rubic around and handcuffs him. Rubic doesn’t resist.

Allan unhooks the cables from his wheelchair armrests and rolls toward the crowd. The cable releases from the concrete and rolls back up to the ship. The helicopter speakers bark more orders, but Asantia doesn’t listen. Her ship engines belch black smoke as they idle. The airship’s copper frame gleams in the sunlight, and the size of the balloon on top of the cockpit dwarfs the police helicopters. “We will shoot you down if we have to!” roars a frustrated officer in one of the helicopters.

On the ground, an officer grabs Allan’s hands and cuffs him. “Allan Westerfield, you have the right to remain silent. Anything you say or do can be used against you in a court of law…” Allan looks up, not caring what the officer says. Allan watches Asantia’s ship spray orange Hubbu pollen from misters that line the frame. The cloud envelops the ship, creates a million sparks, and the entire massive dirigible disappears.

The crowd gasps. Murmurs echo through the students and teachers.

A student on Allan’s swim team yells out, “Nice entrance, dude!”

“I knew you weren’t crazy!” yells a girl from Allan’s math class.

Laura slips an arm around Allan’s shoulders and plants a kiss, right on his lips.

The principal’s arms fold across her chest.

There are more cheers and clapping.

“What kind of aircraft was that?” yells another boy from Allan’s health class.

A female officer whisks Laura away, to Laura’s objection.

More students yell questions, but the police lead Allan and Rubic toward the parking lot.

Allan knew the police would be a problem, but he didn’t think he’d be arrested. He lets the barrage of questions hang in the air unfulfilled. Before exiting the courtyard, Allan turns, smiles big, and waves to the crowd with his handcuffed hands. They cheer again, louder this time.

He knows that some will justify what they have seen as simple tricks, or a show, but most will never forget that ship and how Allan descended from it with honor. They will forget the rumors and the diary and that they ever questioned Allan’s sanity.

Allan’s honor is restored and so is his relationship with Laura. So is his family. One stupid, rash decision to go it alone almost cost him his life. He will never repeat that mistake. Family is forever. And if Allan goes off again, he’ll take Rubic and Laura with him. He needs them and they need him. He wouldn’t have it any other way.

Once he gets out of jail, or prison or where ever the police take him, Allan has a job to do. He’s going to find Adam Boldary, the author of
Morty’s Travels
, the man that taught English to strange, faraway worlds. He’s going to continue Adam’s work because these planets need help. Katonaay is a prison world, with injustice overflowing their streets. Lan Darr is in civil war. Mizzi and Asantia are trying to abolish slavery and corruption.

These worlds, though unique and inspiring in their own ways, are filled with lives that are oppressed, shortened, abused. They need freedom and good government. They need reformation. They need Allan and Rubic and anyone else that wants to help. Bringing peace and correcting the injustice is a truly noble idea.

Allan looks at the badge on the police officer’s uniform and smiles. That badge means something. It’s a symbol of justice. These officers are doing their jobs and nothing more.

Allan gladly gets into the police cruiser. “Thank you,” he says to the officer. Before he closes the door, the man takes off Allan’s handcuffs and hands him a soda from the front seat.

Allan has a lot of work to do. He needs more Hubbu pollen, a lot more.

Epilog

Allan lies on a thin mattress in a brick room the size of a walk-in closet. The bricks are painted tan and covered in scuff marks and scratches. Light spills through a narrow, wire-reinforced window, from the even smaller window on the steel door, and from the small TV mounted high in the corner, which plays an endless stream of cartoons at an inaudible level.

It has been two days since Allan and Rubic were arrested at the school. Allan is pretty sure he’s being held illegally because he has not gotten a phone call or been charged with anything. It doesn’t seem right to be thrown into a cell for days without some kind of trial. Three times a day someone delivers a variety of fast food, which is nice, but no one tells Allan what is going on and when he asks he’s ignored. 

Keys rattle the door handle and Allan sits up. The door swings open, and a man in uniform enters, pushing Allan’s wheelchair. “You’ve got a visitor.”

Allan hasn’t gotten off the bed in days and practically leaps into the chair. He hopes this is step one in getting out of this place. After which, he will finish out his school year and spend all summer on Lan Darr. Every time he thinks about Lan Darr he feels a rush of energy. He can help them just like Adam Boldary did. Allan can bring them textbooks about democracy and freedom and rule of law. Dantia needs to be rebuilt, and a society without slavery needs to emerge. It is possible. The US had done it after the civil war and the Civil Rights Act in the sixties. The US is, to this day, the most diverse and successful country on Earth!

Allan is pushed down the narrow hall, followed by echoes from the officer’s tapping shoes and the slight squeak of wheels. They round the corner and enter a side office.

Allan is pushed up to a plain metal table and left alone. The only thing in this room is a small camera mounted high in the corner.

A minute later the door opens, and a woman in a grey, form-fitting pantsuit, a light purple shirt and high heels enters. Allan’s eyes look up at her face and notice a scar on her neck and then on her cheek. He finds her eyes and is folded into the woman’s golden irises like falling into a warm blanket.

“Asantia,” he says, not believing his own eyes.

Asantia smiles and gives him a tight hug. Her hair has never been so combed, her skin never so clean.

Allan looks her over again. “You look… different.”

Asantia puts her hands on her hips. “Don’t make fun of me.”

“No, I’m not. You look nice. I just never expected you.” Allan stops before he says something wrong.

Asantia shrugs and gently frowns. “I’m playing a part here. I don’t particularly like this pantsuit, but getting around Earth is much easier if I blend in.” Her eyes say the opposite; she likes the suit and high heels.

“How’s your mom?”

“She’s recovering. She’ll have prosthetic feet to get used to.” Asantia looks at her hands. “It’s strange to call her my mom. I get to see her every day, which is nice. She’s in trouble, more than you and Rubic. They tell me she’ll go to prison for years. To get that sentence reduced, we’ll need a statement from you that says she didn’t kidnap you.”

“No problem. She didn’t.”

“We’re waiting to see if Laura and her mom will press charges, but the flower shop lady is suing her and there’s no stopping that.”

“Sorry. You just met her, and then she goes off to jail,” Allan says regretfully. He reaches out and lays his hand on hers. She’d helped him out so many times, he wants to repay the favor any way he can.