Storm Chaser: Chapter 48

Chapter 48

Kiera seemed amused by the Storm Chaser, the old fashioned looking sailing vessel not being what she was expecting, but she made no comment as her gear was weighed and stowed. Elena introduced Benjamin Valentine and Kiera politely greeted the big man. Elena had to admit, Kiera’s greeting was much more polite than hers had been. For this trip out Kiera would occupy the pilot’s cabin. Mateo would be moved to the crew’s bunkhouse with the other men. Kiera had surveyed both rooms and turned to Elena.

“Makes you glad to be a girl,” she said. As the channel entrance got closer Elena became a little nervous. Thus far Kiera had not asked too many questions about their direction. She simply observed with a curiosity Elena found in keeping with her quiet nature. She stayed out of the way and helped out whenever she was given a task. That she was unfamiliar with ships of any kind was quite clear. Elena had to admit she was game though and learned quickly. Elena scanned the sea and saw no signs of military craft, named or unnamed. She did a quick scan with the sonar and nothing appeared.

“One potential problem down,” she muttered. Elena looked over her shoulder as Kiera entered the pilot house. Elena began shutting down the electrical systems.

“If you have any thing with a memory chip in it you might want to turn it off so it doesn’t get fried,” Elena told Kiera.

“My camera’s off and I figured we were far enough away from any cell towers that I turned my cell phone off as well.” She shrugged. “So I’m good memory chip wise. I don’t suppose you’d care to tell me what is going to fry the chips?”

“We have to go through a sort of electro magnetically charged passage way to get where we are going.” Elena began. Kiera looked past Elena’s shoulder and through the window. Elena followed her gaze and saw that the channel was in full view. She turned back to Kiera. Kiera was looking directly at the channel

“You can see that?” Elena asked.

“I see something,” Kiera said hesitantly.

“What does it look like?”

“It looks kind of like a heat haze. Like the sort you get on blacktop during a scorching summer. Why, is that what we need to pass through?”

“Yeah,” Elena replied. “Of course most people can’t see it.”

“Well I can only see it if I look slightly to the left of it. If I look directly at it, it goes away.”

“Interesting,” Elena said turning back to the channel and adjusting the Storm Chaser’s course.

“You can see it then?” Kiera asked.

“Yes but I don’t see it the same way you do,” she told Kiera.

“What do you see?”

“I see the mouth of a channel as if it was between two pillars. The Channel is dark and the pillars are white light.”

“Oh,” Kiera said. “And we are going into the dark?” There was no fear in her voice, only curiosity and Elena wondered how long her composure would last.

“Something like that.” Elena reached for the loudspeaker. “Channel entry in five,” she announced. Andre, Mateo and Benjamin moved away from the railings.

“Should I be doing something?” Kiera asked.

“Nope,” Elena told her. “But you might want to grab a hold of that railing as we go through.” Kiera moved to the railing and put a hand lightly on the gleaming metal. Elena gave her full attention to the channel and they began their entry. Behind her Elena heard Kiera gasp but could not spare her any attention. The lights spun and bled from rainbow to white, then back to rainbow flashing finally to star studded black as they slid from the channel and into the sky. Elena let out a sigh and called the all clear over the loudspeaker. All three men looked towards the pilot house, knowing Kiera had been in there during the crossing. Elena turned towards her.

“Are you doing okay?” She asked. Kiera had her hand wrapped around the brass railing. Her knuckles had bled to white and every part of Kiera seemed stiff. Her breath was timed as if Kiera was counting to keep from hyperventilating. She let out a slow and steady breath.

“Where are we?” Kiera asked. Her voice was calm and composed even though Elena noticed she didn’t loosen her grip on the railing.

“The channel that is kind of a dark spot between to pillars of light? It actually leads us into space.” Elena saw panic spark in Kiera’s eyes. “We are safe. We are in Sector 86-4 which is protected space.” Elena kept her voice low and calm. “The ship has what is called micro netting built into its hull. It forms a matrix that keeps oxygen around the ship. So within our railings it will be breathable air just like if the ship were in the ocean.” Elena pointed to Mateo and Andre moving about the deck on some random task. Personally she thought they were just milling in case she needed to point out to Kiera that the deck was safe. She appreciated it. “See,” Elena told Kiera. “They are working on deck with no problems.” Kiera leaned forward to look but did not let go of the railing. She nodded slowly.

“And this archaeological site?”

“On a planet we are investigating. There is currently no intelligent life we can detect on the planet but there are ruins. The pictures were taken during initial investigation.” Elena decided not to point out that the photos were taken by un-manned probes and that they would be the first to attempt entry. One shock was enough at the moment.

“I see,” Kiera said. She took a deep breath and let it out slowly. Elena watched as Kiera slowly uncurled her fingers from the railing. “I see why you couldn’t tell me, I wouldn’t have believed you.”

“Does this mean you aren’t angry?” Elena asked.

“Kinda still too freaked out to be angry,” Kiera answered. Mateo made his way up to the pilot house. Kiera flinched a bit when he pulled the door open but didn’t make a sound.

“The view on deck is pretty awesome,” He told Kiera. “In case you are interested.” Kiera glanced out of the window and nodded to herself.

“I could be interested,” she told him. Mateo held out his hand and she gripped it. Elena saw Mateo wince. Kiera saw it too and apologized as she relaxed her grip. Kiera let Mateo lead her out onto the deck. Elena watched them go and exhaled with relief.

“So far so good,” she said to herself. “Lets hope it can last the two days we need to get into the new channel.”