Disclaimer: I do not own planes, I just borrow them for the occasional spin.
Chapter 8: Lucky To Be Alive
Blade's leak, though awkwardly located, had been relatively easy for Maru to repair. The mechanic was able to patch it and get the helicopter's fluids back up to snuff within 45 minutes. The tug then spent another hour and a half going over every square inch of the Chief that he could easily access, and even a few that required a bit of creativity. On some level, Maru was kind of convinced that the Blade was secretly trying to die on him and it help distract him from the heights as they waited for Windlifter to return.
After finishing Blades exam and waiting for a long 15 minutes on the cliff ledge, Maru was really starting question to his decision to bring a couple extra tools instead of a pack of cards. Not that he would have had anyone to play with. Blade was currently taking a much needed nap, which Maru would deny slipping him anything to induce. That said, solitaire had its perks.
By thirty minutes with nothing to do Maru was about ready to call down to the road crew working in the valley and seeing if any of them wanted to swap stories. Though, the mechanic quickly dismissed the idea. The last thing he needed to do was cause a delay in Dusty's rescue in order to try to cure his own boredom.
Blackout was snoring softly by Cabbie's tail section as he stood 'guard' over tarp holding the various components of the C119's intake system. Dynamite had situated herself just off the big planes port wing where she could keep an eye the old warplane. The mechanics had warned her that he probably wasn't going to wake up until after Pickles had returned from his parts run, but Cabbie had a habit of surprising vehicles so Dynamite thought it would be best to be prepared.
"Go get some sleep." Pinecone soft voice made Dynamite jump. She hadn't noticed that the teletractor and the team's dozer sneak up on her…which just went to show just how exhausted she was.
"I am fine. You two go get some rest." Dynamite tried to stifle a yawn.
"WE ALREADY HAVE." Avalanche gave one of his lopsided grin.
"Two hours isn't much to be running on."
"IT IS MORE THAN YOU HAVE GOTTEN." Avalanche pointed out as he gave her a good natured bump with his blade.
"You haven't sleep in days." Pinecone was looking at her team leader with a mixture of worry and well meaning condescension. "You and Blackout are not going to do Cabbie any good if you are asleep on your treads, and he will wakes up needing some help."
Dynamite didn't want to admit it but the teletractor had a point. Not that wasn't going to convince the ATV to follow the line of logic though. She was team lead and it was her job to make sure that every member of her team got the best possible care. She wasn't about to go to sleep on the job when their jump plane was in critical condition.
"WE WILL WAKE YOU UP WHEN CABBIE WAKES UP." Avalanche was looking at her with his big, green, concerned eyes and Dynamite knew that she had been defeated by the pair.
"Fine, Blackout and I will go find a place to sack out for the next four hours. Then we will come back and relieve you two." Dynamite stared Pinecone down before she had a chance to protest. "Everyone on the team has been running low on sleep so we will run a four on four off until either Cabbie wakes up, we get new orders, or we catch up on our sleep debt. Understood."
"YES MA'AM." Avalanche practically quavered with pride as he threw a mock salute. The dozer then parked himself directly in front of Cabbies nose, looking up at the big airplane with the same intensity that Drip used to stare down Windlifter during a staring contest. The sight kind of made Dynamite chuckle a bit, and she couldn't help but wonder if Avalanche would still be loyally staring up at the big plane when the team lead came back to relieve the two.
It was midafternoon before the skies had cleared enough to allow the Highbird to get back into place. Once it did it quickly became clear just how badly the lack of communication had affected everyone.
"They did what!?" Maru's shout made Blade jump a little.
"They completely gutted Cabbie's wings." Dynamite explained for the third time.
"And you let them do it?"
"Not like we had a whole lot of choice at the moment." Dynamite managed to sound both pissed and exhausted at the same time. "You know as much as I do that it is kind of hard to breathe through cement."
"How is he doing?" Maru started fiddling with a nearby tool, a subconscious action he always did when he was faced with a problem that he really wanted to fix.
"A lot better now that he is actually breathing." The jump team's leader anger spiked on the last comment, but she quickly calmed. "Last time I checked he was finally sleeping."
"I am surprised that you left. When a member of your team is down you are usually stuck to them like glue until you are sure they are out of danger."
"Not much of a choice on my part. I got kicked. Apparently I needed to get some sleep." At the mention of sleep Dynamite tried and failed to stifle a yawn which caused a ghost of a grin to flit across Maru's lips.
"Now tell me darling who managed to get you out of the hanger doors?"
"That would be 'Lanche."
"Good man." Maru gave a low chuckle. "Now don't waste his effort. Go get some sleep, mechanic's orders."
"Roger that." The ground pounder didn't even bother hiding her yawn this time. "Dynamite, out."
"Will Cabbie be okay?" Blade asked quietly after a few heartbeats, causing Maru to nearly jump a foot.
"Chrysler, don't do that to me." The mechanic glared up at the Helicopter.
"Maru." Blade pressed.
"How long have you been awake and listening?"
"Pretty much the whole time." Bladed sighed. "And, Maru, I have known you long enough to recognize when you are trying to stall."
Maru rolled his eyes and gave an exasperated noise. "You know I can't really form an opinion until I have actually seen him."
"But that isn't going to stop you from forming an educated guess." The Chief skillfully tried to push all the right buttons. "What do you think?"
"I think Cabbie will probably be okay. He may be an old plane, but he is a survivor." Maru shrugged. "That said, injuries that cause lack of oxygen to sensitive systems can be hard to predict."
"So he might be fine, or Cabbie might be a vegetable. We won't know until he decides to wake up."
"Pretty much." Maru said far too quickly for Blade's taste. "Well, now that the radios are up I should probably call the mechanic who is working on him directly and get a more technical update." Maru was sober, but then he let his lips split in a sad smile. "As much as I love Dynamite, I wouldn't trust her with anything more complicated than an oil change. It would be nice to get specifics from a vehicle that knows the difference between a flap and an elevator."
When Cabbie finally awoke, he wanted to scream. His intakes burned, his wings felt shredded, and he had the uncomfortable feeling of missing parts. The warplane's eyes snapped open as he tried to search for the source of the agony only to be met with the sight of Avalanche sitting uncomfortably close to his nose. A small dozer grinning up like the ground pounder had just won the lottery just didn't jive with Cabbie's mental state. The plane tried to open his mouth to ask a question, but the only sound that came out was a harsh squeak.
"Don't talk." Pinecone stirred from where she had been sitting next to him. She used her boom to gentle stroke the side of Cabbie's nose.
"THEY DON'T HAVE ALL OF YOUR AIR INTAKES PUT BACK TOGETHER YET." Avalanche said emphatically, and loud enough that the sound echoed across the hanger and caused Cabbie's headache to pound enough that he couldn't help but squeeze his eyes shut in pain.
Pinecone, the dear soul instantly realized that Avalanches volume was causing Cabbie more pain than comfort and used her diplomacy to find a solution. "Lanche, why don't you go and tell Dynamite and Blackout that Cabbie has woken up."
"YES MA'AM." Avalanche replied as he started to thread his way through the crowded hanger, though he did take a worried glance back at Cabbie when he reached the door of the hanger that made a little part of the old plane's heart break.
"I am sure that have plenty of questions." Pinecone said with her soft southern drawl. "And I can tell you that I ain't the gravel munch with answer, but I am mighty glad that you finally decided to grace us with your baby blues of yours."
The old plane was pretty glad for the jumper's company as well, though he wasn't quite sure why he was in such bad shape. The last thing he could remember was getting stuck on the tarmac during a large storm and breathing in a boat load of water. Still, rain water didn't explain why his wings felt like they had been taken apart.
Cabbie wanted to stay awake. He wanted to find out what had happened to him. He wanted see the rest of the Smokejumpers and make sure that all of his 'kids' were okay, but the deep exhaustion of pain and injury kept trying to pull him back into the black.
Pinecone seemed to sense the problem that he was having and she clucked at him quietly. "Grab a bit more shut eye. We will try to make sure that you are put back together by the time that you wake up."
It was good advice and Cabbie saw no sense in arguing with it.
None of the Piston Peak Air Attack team was going to admit just how relieved they were to get the message that Cabbie had woken up and had positively responded to the smokejumpers. To do so would have acknowledged just how afraid they were of the worst possible outcomes. Now that they could finally stop worrying about the largest member of the team, everyone could now focus all of their worry on their trainee SEAT.
For Maru that meant it was time for Windlifter to come and pick him up so that the mechanic could prep his workshop for the major repairs that Dusty would require. For Blade it meant yet another night on the cliffs...
"Are you going to be okay spending another night on your own out here?" Maru asked as he triple checked to make sure that all his pouches were secured. To which Blade only snorted in reply. "What? You knew I had to ask because clearly you didn't have enough common sense to keep yourself healthy during the first two nights."
"The leak wasn't that bad."
This time it was Maru's turn to snort. "I am pretty sure that someday 'the leak isn't that bad' is going to be your last words."
"I am fine." Blade tried to shutdown the conversation, knowing full well that Maru was going to remind him about the events of the past few days every chance he got. "Go organize your tools by color, or whatever you do when you basically have the base to yourself."
Maru opened his mouth as though he wanted to make a witty comeback, but was interrupted by the thunder of Windlifter's approach. The mechanic instead satisfied himself by sticking out his tongue at the Chief, as he started to buckle all the straps and ready himself for flight.
"Everything's secure down here." Maru said when was convinced that he wasn't going to fall out of the harness as soon as Windlifter started moving.
"Roger that." The Skycrane brought his rotors up to full speed, pulling the big helicopter out of his hover and plucking Maru off the ledge. The chopper then gave his boss the bobbing nod of a helicopter salute before turning his nose back to base. Leaving Blade to settle himself on the ledge, and prepare for another long night on the cliff face. At least tonight he could see the vehicles below him working into the evening building an emergency road through the forest.
Aerospace Note: Hope you enjoyed the ground team cuteness. I am slowly discovering that it is hard to write a bad scene with Avalanche in it, but you are not reading these notes to listen to me ramble. You are here to learn something new about aviation. In the last couple notes we have been learning the different types of airspace. Today, let's talk about the busiest airports in the world. We will be calculating an airport's business by the amount of cargo in tons that were transported in 2015.
# 5. Icheon International Airport-2,595,674 tons-A solidly located airport that not only ships out Korean goods for the world, but is also considered to be the gate way airport for East Asia.
#4. Ted Stevens Anchorage International Airport-2,624,312 tons- The gate way between the Asia and its European and North American trading partners, the Anchorage airport routinely handles the largest cargoes planes in the world, allowing them to refuel so that they have the legs to get to their final destination.
#3. Shanghai Pudong International-3,273,732 tons-China is a huge market for goods, and while the Shanghai airport sends a lot of packages international, the reason it is a strong 3rd on this list is the fact it ships a lot of products by air for the domestic market.
#2. Memphis International Airport-4,290,633 tons-Originally built for military cargo, this airport has stayed true to its roots. Today it hosts Fedex's super hub facility.
#1. Drum roll please…Hong Kong International Airport-4,422,227 tons-This airport is the main hub for transporting good across Asia, as well as the connector to send stuff from Asia to other continents. With a role like that it is little wonder that Hong Kong International Airport is the top cargo transport airport in the world.