Chapter 2

Aria answered the door with an enthusiastic "JIM, how's it going today". Jim said: "Hey Ari, I was wondering if you'd like to go on a surprise trip today. I was thinking we could take the air bike and transport to someplace that you might be interested in?" Aria thought for a moment, and said "well, my mom and I were going to transport to Chicago to do some shopping, but I'm sure it isn't a major deal to change it, how long were you thinking?". Jim said: "I thought we might go for the day, but it must remain a surprise until we get there." "It's far enough that we have to use the vehicle transport station downtown though, interested?" Aria responded: "Sure, I just want to let Mom know."

She disappeared, and returned a moment later saying; "She says it's alright, as long as we're back by this evening."

As she ran out excitedly, the automatic sliding door swished behind her, as she pushed into Jim and ran past.

Soon they began walking back to the Kirk household, they held hands as the proximity button on Jim's belt opened the garage door to expose the now returned corvette in mint condition. Alongside it was Jim's favorite and most prized possession, his air bike! It was a twin turbine wonder with a cockpit for two, one in front, and one in back.

The day was beautiful, Aria was next to him, and now he was faced with only one problem; Dad. He had given Jim the word, and the word was NO. One look into Aria's face gave him the only things he needed – Her, and the adventure. It seemed he would always be at odds with his eccentric father, but they shared the same gene for adventure, and right now they weren't seeing eye to eye, and Jim had little time to think about the consequences.

He told Aria, "Hop on" to which she excitedly did. He hit the switch, and the turbines began to spool up until the high pitched whine began to provide lift. As Jim eased the thrust lever back with the heel of his right foot, the bike slowly backed out of the garage. As soon as it cleared, he immediately pushed down hard with the toe of his left foot, and they both sagged in the seats as the G-forces were set in motion.

The Kirk house, and then the whole town seemed to fall away from them rapidly, as they roared straight up; the big twins firing up to their full level now. He then pressed forward very hard with his right foot and the craft blistered forward. Aria squealed with delight as she held on around Jim's waste for all she was worth. "Jim where are we going, I thought we were headed for the transport station?" Said Aria. He hollered back: "I thought we'd go for a spin first"

As the air speed began to pick up, Jim flipped a toggle switch on the steering yoke, and the shield canopy enveloped them. They were now in a pressurized, breathable cabin, and both looked down on the fast fading town below.

Jim switched on GPS tracking, and punched in Chicago. In the good old days, a trip to Chicago from Riverside took almost 6 hours, but He had in the grip of his hands, a machine which was capable of traveling 300 miles per hour, at heights the old passenger planes used to fly in. Today he just wanted to open it up and fly close enough to the ground to leave a shock trail behind them. It really didn't matter if he added an hour to their trip because he was engrossed in the raw power and speed of moving across the landscape at a pace that left both of them breathless!

He loved making Aria scream in delight, and this was a perfect opportunity to hone his skills!

The bike's pedals were rocker arm type, so all Jim had to do was rock his left foot back, and the bike began a gut wrenching drop that was just short of a free-fall. As they were falling, Jim rocked his right foot forward, turned the steering yoke to the right, and eased his left foot forward as the ground approached. It gave them both the feel of a great rollercoaster ride, similar to some of the syntho rides at Goldie's both Jim and Aria used to share together when they were 10 years old.

The bike leveled off at 60 ft above the surface of the sun-baked Iowa farmland as he applied pressure to the forward motion with his right foot. Soon they were skimming across so fast that the houses and fields were beginning to blur at this level, so Jim gave them some lift to 200 feet just in case. The GPS "air tracker" plotted a course for Chicago, and monitored their progress, as the blue dot followed the red "air trail" on the screen.

As the bike turbines opened fully, the proximity to the ground began to open up a wake in the corn fields below. If the local farmers got hold of him, he knew they would probably ring his neck. Aria was laughing in excitement as the pull of the G Force against their bodies eventually leveled out, and her body once again came in contact with Jim's, her favorite place!