Wicked Comet part 3
It was now early morning in Shiz university. Pretty much everyone was still asleep, except for a few staff members and Rich, Elphaba and Galinda who had woken up much earlier than normal to prepare the Comet for its first engine start. Galinda and Elphaba had hot drinks in their hands which were much deserved as they had just assisted Rich in dragging the Comet outside. They were watching Rich as he attempted to pull down the aircraft's escape ladder so he, Galinda and Elphaba could board the Comet.
Elphaba, as patient as ever finally lost all patience and said to Rich "Oh, just get on with it Rich!" quietly but it was still loud enough to make Rich jump quite high off the ground. His hand reached out, caught the escape ladder and as Rich fell back down, the ladder came with him and locked into place with a loud CLUNK!
"What the heck was that for?" Rich exclaimed in a raised whisper.
Elphaba rolled her eyes at her cousin and said in a smug tone "Well it worked didn't it?"
Rich ignored her and proceeded to climb the Ladder and into the Comet.
Once Elphaba and Galinda had climbed inside they both gasped in Awe at the interior. Mostly because the interior was rather cramped even though it had no furnishing in it except for some interior walls and some hair (Which Rich had probably bought from the nearby home furnishing store). But the cockpit was the actual jewel of the interior.
It was full of a huge array of switches, dials and overall the cockpit looked exceedingly peculiar and altogether quite impossible to describe.
A few seats were in here too. There were two that were placed right up against the control panel with two wheels on poles in front of them.
Rich was sitting in the left hand seat and was flicking some random switches on the overhead panel.
"Not long now" Rich said to Elphaba and Galinda without breaking his concentration.
Both Elphaba and Galinda knew instantly that Rich was referring to the Engines being started. A sense of sheer excitement filled them all at the thought of the Comet's four jet engines being started for the first time after being installed.
But then as Rich activated one particular switch, a loud electronic BING filled the air,
making Elphaba and Galinda jump in surprise!
"Don't worry, it's just the ignition kicking in, i hope." Rich said reassuringly but Elphaba knew that tone of voice that Rich had just used. He was unsure of what was happening and that troubled Elphaba.
Finally after what seemed like an eternity, a dull shreiking whine echoed from the left hand side of the
Comet. In response to this, Rich eagerly flicked another two switches and turned his gaze to a set of
gauges arranged in three sets of four, all arranged in rows underneath the first.
Rich gestured to the set of gauges marked n1 and said "number 1 is turning over!" in sheer excitement.
Sure enough, the set of needles in the gauges marked no1 in order of Power percentage, temperature and thrust started to move very slowly upwards in readouts.
Tension mounted in the Comet's cockpit increasingly quickly and Galinda had to sit down to stop herself from falling over and fainting.
"C'mon, start. Start you useless piece of Junk!" Rich muttered underneath his breath. And as if by magic, the three needles on the number one engine gauge raced upwards and hit their maximum indicated levels briefly before returning to a constant low speed setting. This was accompanied by a loud shriek which quickly turned into a high pitched whine.
Galinda, Elphaba and Rich all yelled at the top of their voices in excitement. The first of the four engines had started!
Eagerly, Rich repeated the startup process for Engines 2, 3 and 4. All three started quickly and settled down to the same levels as engine 1.
"They actually work!" Rich yelled in joy.
Elphaba immediatley raised her right hand and Rich responded as he gave Elphaba a high five. Galinda did the same and all three friends felt overjoyed that they had started the engines of a machine that would change Oz forever.
"Rich, can you get it to move?" Galinda asked.
Rich looked at her for a moment, obviously considering Galinda's request.
"I don't see why we can't try to move the Comet" He replied and as he said this, he flicked a small red switch forwards marked "Parking Brake" to the released position and pushed four white levers marked 1, 2, 3 and 4.
Elphaba and Galinda both guessed that the four levers were some sort of Throttle system like those used on Trains within Oz.
The Comet groaned slightly as the Four engines increased slightly in power and noise, slowly but surely, the Comet started to move gracefully forwards before Rich suddenly pulled back the throttles and applied the parking brakes again.
"Why did you do that Rich?" Elphaba and Galinda exclaimed, both of them a little cross that Rich had cut this moment of history short.
Rich didn't reply except for shutting down the engines and pointing outside ahead of them where a large crowd of people were advancing at a fast pace towards them, Madame Morrible and Doctor Dillamond at the Front!
"We're in trouble now!" Galinda said in a scared tone.
Rich didn't respond as he opened a window hatch on his left and poked his head out of it.
"Good Morning everyone! What brings you all out here?" Rich said in a joyful tone, even though he knew full well why they were all here.
Morrible was the first to speak whilst gesturing to the Comet.
"We were all awoken by an infernal screeching noise. When we came down to investigate this monstrosity was standing in the courtyard! Would you mind explaining what that is and why it was making so much noise?!"
Rich looked guilty as he said
"I'm sorry about that. The noise you heard was the Engines of this, the Comet. Oz's first powered aircraft and the First Jet Oz has ever seen. It is designed to provide everyone with a fast, clean and efficient alternative to Trains. I rather miscalculated the noise of the Ghosts and i thought the distance from the dorm rooms and their soundproofing would be sufficient to hide the noise."
"So you are trying to say that this flies?" Morrible asked, now very intregued.
"Well, i'm not even sure if the Comet does fly. I haven't even completed the ground tests yet." Rich replied.
Morrible's eyes widened and it took her a moment to compose herself.
"The Wizard will want to hear about this. I'll write at once and let him know of the Comet's existance" Morrible said to Rich.
Dillamond then spoke to Rich.
"When are you going to make the first flight?"
Rich thought for a moment before he said
"maybe 3 days to 3 weeks. Depending on how the Ground Tests go"
There was a mumur of excitement amongst the gathered crowd.
Morrible then nodded and said to Rich before ushering the crowd away
"I'll make the necessary arrangements"