Fly Past –by avalon2000
Where the world of Hogwarts meets us head-on.
The clouds lay below as a milky white sea, or the top of a fresh cup of hot-milk and honey, rolling and boiling. Above, all was still and black in this clear divide between states, pinpointed by the heavens great dot-to-dot book. Beneath the clouds a storm raged, the only signs above being areas of additional froth and flashes of electric blue illuminating through. Showing the passage of charged energy to ground.
Within their Plexiglas cockpit of a multi-million pound Eurofighter typhoon, two pilots observed the skies, above and below, noting its effect on their communications systems and instruments. Cruising at an altitude of 35,000 feet the sleek grey craft banked and swooped with easy grace under the hands of the young Flt Lieutenant pilot, her consummate skill, a mere fraction of the older man in the rear seat, her tutor taking the second man chair.
"Right then" began the older man, "Listen to me … my young apprentice"
That always made Susan smile.
"Today's mission is a simple reconnaissance exercise."
"Simple sir?" Susan knew there must be more to it than that.
"Well sort of simple. The basics involve dipping momentarily below the cloud line passing along the valley to return to this level and then report observations"
"I see Sir, you want me to observe at speeds of 250mph, whilst dodging unfamiliar terrain, in poor weather conditions"
"As I said" he smiled, " Simple".
Susan programmed the nose camera and brought the jet around for its first pass.
"And remember" her tutor added, "For the purposes of this exercise, we carry no on-board mapping of this terrain, the visibility is next to zero, there is increased electrical activity in the cloud base, and the mountainous terrain below, is knitted together with valleys and peaks in an insane maze."
"I say this" he continued, "To warn you to be very sure of your surroundings and alert for surprises, because…"
"Because we are not at home to Mr Cock-up" Susan replied and they both laughed at this familiar banter.
The controls felt easy under her fingers as Susan banked the fighter down into the clouds; she felt the added tension on the stick as the calm above the clouds was replaced by the thicker texture of the air and the turbulence below. She felt the new forces fighting her for control of the plane, and she had to apply more pressure to achieve her desired actions. The cloud line did not stop at the mountain peaks it merely thinned as she flew though the torrential rain, ducking and swooping through valleys. The first pass was completed quickly and the jet returned to its holding pattern above the clouds.
"Nicely done, so what did we observe?" Her tutor enquired.
"Its raining Sir"
"Oh very funny, that's a fail"
"Raining all along that 2 mile valley of basic chalkstone and granite build-up, probably left over from the receding ice sheets of 2 million years ago. There was a stone circle on Peak K14, and two cut valleys on the right wall. There was a step back lake on the left wall with a castle at the far end, by the illumination, it seemed occupied."
"All very good," commended her Tutor, except of course for that fairy story about the castle, a nice twist, the student testing the tutor, but I have just re-scanned the nose camera and there is no castle."
"I beg to differ" Susan began; she knew she had seen it, but now as she checked her own camera records, the tinge of doubt crawled in.
"Sir, I am sure my observation is correct, permission to repeat run"
"I am also intrigued, and agree, it would be perfectly acceptable, but I will have to mark you down should it prove to be a miss-sighting"
"I understand Sir"
Again the sleek silver dart powered under the cloud layer, the rain had thinned but visibility was still poor. Hugging the left wall Susan kept the craft side tilted to allow for maximum observation of the crevices and valleys that branched off.
"ZZzt. Crackle" the Comms noise began in her headset, "… No lake on the left wall my young apprentice"
"zztt that's a roger Sir, but I know the reason, its now over there on the right.."
Susan banked and turned almost holding the craft at a hover. The lake was there, and a mirror image of her first observation. The Castle spreading across the foot of a mountain at the other end. Susan checked her nose camera records again; it certainly wasn't there last time. She knew her tutor would be doing the same.
"Well"
"Indeed Sir"
"I would suggest a short recon"
"Through those woods on the right sir?"
"Good idea… make it so" both expressed nervous laughter.
Susan took the grey fighter skimming over the treetops, hard against the canyon wall. Almost at once a much larger shadow began trailing them, their two shadows as if a Pike chasing a skilled fisherman's fly.
"We're being followed – " Susan began to report when a large ball of flame exploded a treetop just ahead, She banked the jet through the firestorm and began scanning.
"M'aidez, M'aidez this is LGAT one, we are under attack repeat under fire from unknown hostile" Her Tutor was already reporting into the comms. "All I'm getting back is static," he informed her; "We are on our own".
"I can't get a positive ID Sir"
"I know, all I get from rear-dar is it is BIG"
All the while the nippy little fighter swooped and dodged, its ever-present shadow closing behind. Susan took the craft down between two large trees, akin to Redwoods in scale. Both exploded in hot fire as she passed between, Her pursuer still a shadow passing through the flames.
"Want guns Sir"
"Sorry training mission, no armaments"
Tucking the craft under an overhang Susan rolled the plane and spun out and up, aiming for altitude. Suddenly the fragile jet lurched sideways before resuming its skyward climb.
"We're Hit Sir, main tail aileron not responding, massive fuel loss as well, ."
"Functional?"
"Just Sir, I can hold it" Her tutor didn't argue, he was well aware of his trainee's skills under pressure.
Two more fireballs skimmed left and right of the craft.
Suddenly the Eurofighter was enveloped in a sparkling white bubble.
"Controls responding Sir"
"ZZtt Crackle"
"Sir"
"zztt..Crk Crk..Norbert, you get back 'ere roight now"
"Sir"
"I read you pilot, that wasn't me"
"The attack seems to have stopped sir, what is it?"
"Well if I was a sensible man looking for a reasonable explanation, I would say this is a sort of St Elmo's fire effect, or Ball lighting."
"I see Sir, couldn't be anything else really"
The Jet limped above the clouds and sped eastwards towards the sea. Finally making Safe Haven on deck of The HMS Ark Royal Aircraft carrier.
On the Deck a small group had gathered around the returning plane.
"Glad we were able to give you Brylcream boys a taxi home." Spoke the Ships Captain as he and the two pilots and a couple of the ships engineers checked over what was beginning to look like several million pounds worth of scrap iron.
"Much appreciated Commander Kerr" Acknowledged the Tutor, not rising to the bait, grateful for a secure landing at the limit of their reduced fuel time.
"So…" But Susan had no words to complete her sentence; just looking at the long deep gouges and charred shredded metal along the rear of the fighter spoke volumes.
