Chapter 7
Chiffon set her bag down on the ground and walked over hugging Sister Margaret and Ingrid. An Interceptor idled quietly behind her as Varen and Andre picked up the Pandora's bags and loaded them onto the transport. It was still early morning and the sun had not shown itself as of yet. Chiffon stepped back and took a deep breath inhaling the cold morning air.
"Have everything you need?" The headmaster asked as the two Limiters continued to stack the luggage into the transports cargo section.
"I think so, yes. Thank you for seeing us off." Chiffon answered.
"It's no trouble at all. Ingrid and I will handle Nightingale operations while you're gone." She replied.
"You'll do fine." Arnette said hugging Ingrid tightly.
"Thanks, with Sister Margaret helping I feel a lot better about the whole thing." Ingrid said.
"It's all in." Andre said walking up beside the others. Varen followed behind him a short distance.
"Few weeks then?" Sister Margaret asked and Varen nodded.
"Should be. Thank you." Varen answered reaching out and shaking the headmaster's hand. He gripped Ingrid's arm and nodded to her.
"Alright, get out of my facility you kids. We'll be here when you get back." Sister Margaret said with a laugh.
"Right, see you soon." Varen said herding everyone towards the transport. The rotors began to speed up preparing to takeoff. Ingrid and Sister Margaret watched as they all climbed into the vehicle sliding the door closed behind them.
"Everything alright Ms. Bernstein?" The headmaster asked and Ingrid shrugged slightly.
"Don't know, something just feels…off." The red haired Pandora answered.
"Off?" Sister Margaret asked and Ingrid looked up into the sky as the Interceptor rose higher and turned heading north.
"Like we won't see them again."
"How long we stuck in here for?" Attia asked unlacing her boots and pulling them off. She stowed them under her seat next to Chiffon and leaned back stretching.
"Eight or nine hours depending on the wind." Elizabeth answered resting her head on Andre's shoulder closing her eyes. Varen had moved up into the jump seat by the pilot. They were both discussing something while looking over a few maps.
"Well, I for one will be following Ms. Elizabeth's lead on this one." Arnette said leaning against Attia.
"I'm not tired get off me!" Attia shouted playfully shoving Arnette away.
"I swear those two haven't changed at all." Elizabeth said with one of her eyes cracked open. Chiffon and Ticy were sitting back to back their heads rocking back and forth with the movements of the transport. They were already fast asleep using each other's bodies for support.
"Sort of makes you ashamed that our president and vice president are this easily knocked out." Arnette grinned.
"Tell that to their faces." Andre chimed in with a wink.
"Last year I would of." Arnette answered and Attia jabbed a finger in the red head's ribs.
"Until Arnette McMillan had to rely on the lowly Varen Askiligar to save her! Save me, the mighty Arnette cried!" Attia laughed holding her sides.
"Shut it half pint." Arnette snapped grabbing the white haired Pandora's finger twisting it roughly. Attia winced in pain, but continued to laugh hysterically.
"Ow ow! Save me, save me!" Attia pressed on which only made her friend twist her finger harder.
"Save me." Chiffon said happily, but still very asleep. Arnette threw her arms up in disgust.
"She's right though, you sure have calmed down a lot since then. You aren't nearly as reckless." Elizabeth commented her eyes still closed.
"Aren't you sleeping? So what, why do you all care how I act?" Arnette argued crossing her arms.
"It was a compliment." Elizabeth replied adjusting her head on Andre's shoulder. His head rested against hers fast asleep like Chiffon and Ticy. Varen sat down on the other side of Arnette folding a few papers and stuffing them into a pocket on his jacket.
"Nine hours looks like with the weather. Spireach is being hit pretty hard by winds so it'll be a slow approach. Rest now while you can because once we get closer this will be a real rough ride." He said unzipping his jacket setting it beside the seat.
"Not tired." Attia argued.
"They say children grow most in their sleep." Varen said leaning back against the wall of the transport. Attia scowled deeply at him and Elizabeth snorted quietly holding back a laugh.
"Real funny." Attia said sarcastically. Arnette kicked her boots off and closed her eyes while Varen and Attia bantered back and forth. She was jolted awake from the flash of lightning followed by a loud crack of thunder. She wasn't on the Interceptor anymore, but rather stood in a section of West Genetics she was familiar with. None of the streetlamps were working and orange colored glows seemed to surround her. She identified them as fires burning around her general vicinity.
"What the hell…" She trailed off walking down the path that would lead towards the central plaza of West Genetics. She noticed that the fires seemed to originate from the remains of buildings that once stood. In many other areas there was signs of small arms fire and ordnance from artillery.
"What is wrong with you?" A female voice yelled drawing Arnette's attention. She followed the origin of the voice around a corner and peeked around the building. A short distance away Elizabeth stood defiantly in front of a red haired Pandora. A red haired Pandora who looked exactly like Arnette.
"Get out of my way Elizabeth!" The red haired Pandora shouted back taking a step forward. Arnette shook her head to try and wake up from the obvious dream she was having. She knew she was on the Interceptor and clearly was dreaming about having an argument with Elizabeth. No matter how hard she tried she couldn't wake herself up.
"Do you think running in there will change anything? Do you?" Elizabeth yelled back as everything lit up from another flash of lightning.
"I said get out of my way!" The dream version of Arnette shouted back.
"We all made our choice! There's no going back now!" Elizabeth yelled grabbing the red haired Pandora by the arms. Arnette watched the two, her breath becoming more rapid.
"How can you be so cold…you were her friend!" The dream Arnette growled slapping Elizabeth across the face. Elizabeth staggered back in shock holding her cheek.
"Arnette…" She trailed off as another hand connected with her face.
"We were a family! Don't tell me to calm down or to just accept it!" Arnette was now screaming frantically.
"What are you doing to do then? Throw your life away for no reason?" Elizabeth answered with tears in her eyes. She still held a hand to her cheek from where Arnette slapped her.
"I won't let it end like this. We've come too far." Arnette spat and Elizabeth grabbed her arms once more shaking her.
"She's dead!" Elizabeth shouted and Arnette opened her eyes back in the Interceptor. Her breathe came out in ragged gasps and she could feel the sweat on her head. She looked around the transport as it swayed slightly from light turbulence and saw everyone but Attia was asleep. She was curled up on her side reading a book quietly and didn't seem to notice that Arnette had woken up. Varen was leaning slightly on her shoulder seemingly asleep like the rest of the team.
She took a deep breath and rested her head on backrest of the seat. These vivid dreams were becoming more frequent lately. At first she simply assumed they were from exhaustion or stress. Their frequency and how realistic they felt began to cause a small amount of worry. The other night when Attia shared the same dream she began to take them as a serious issue. After the Spireach mission she planned to speak to Dr. Schmidtz and hopefully find some answers. She hadn't even discussed it with Attia yet and decided to wait until after the trip to bring it up.
The dream was still fresh in her mind making her restless. She stood up waving a hand towards Attia who gave her a quick wave before focusing back on her book. She stepped over the divider between the passenger section and took a seat next to the pilot in the same spot Varen had been when they first left. The pilot gave her a nod handing a helmet and radio set over to her.
This particular Interceptor had been the same one they had used to drop into Kaizu on. At Varen's request the pilot had been given the position of full time pilot for the Nightingales. In the beginning he was the only one they had, and Varen trusted the man. Captain David Lane was his name and was now the lead pilot for the Nightingale's small force of transports. Arnette slipped the helmet over her head and moved the mouthpiece down in front of her face.
"Morning Captain." She said into the mouthpiece.
"Ms. McMillan, to what do I owe the pleasure?" He responded flipping a switch on a console between them.
"Can't sleep figured I'd take in the scenery." She answered looking out the cockpit windows as water raced by. The sun was up higher now so she must have been asleep for at least a couple hours.
"Sorry ma'am, but we're over the northern ocean so not much to look at right now." The pilot answered sadly. She shrugged turning her head to look out the window beside her where more ocean spread out as far as she could see.
"How we looking?" She asked and David flipped another switch and grabbed a clipboard the was beside his seat. He turned to face Arnette letting the autopilot kick in and leaned towards her holding the clipboard out.
"We're here. Should be hitting turbulence from the storm in Spireach in about 45 minutes." He answered pointing to a section on the grid of the map attached to the clipboard. Arnette looked over the map and pointed to a section further north.
"This where we're heading?" David nodded to her question.
"Very remote. Between us it seems too remote." He said and she looked up at him quizzically.
"What do you mean?" She asked and he took the clipboard back stowing it away.
"I been flying these things for a long time ma'am. Been to every genetics facility and Chevalier installation this world has. There's no good reason to put something out that far in Spireach." He answered.
"Unless you don't want it found." She said out loud.
"Exactly." The pilot agreed flipping a switch and grabbing hold of the stick again.
"So you've never flown this far north?" She asked and the pilot shook his head.
"There's nothing up here to fly to. Even if a Nova showed up in that area we would just let it self-destruct. Not worth the assets to intercept when there's nothing there it can really threaten." He answered.
"Sounds fishy for sure." She agreed.
"Makes you wonder just how long it's been there." He said and in truth she was wondering about that. A facility like the kind they were going to doesn't simply show up. It had to be constructed and well-funded. The fact that no one seemed to know much about it made it all the more mysterious and foreboding. Even its location provided natural deterrents in the form of winter storms that never seemed to cease.
"Sure you're up to it?" She asked light heartedly and she heard the man laugh quietly through the radio.
"I'll get you there ma'am and in one piece. Can't let the big man down." He answered referring to Varen.
"No, we can't have that." She laughed. The pilot turned his head and looked back into the passenger section. He nodded his head once before looking back at Arnette.
"Should get them up, it's going to get pretty bad soon. Harness up and hold on." He explained and Arnette nodded taking the helmet off and moving back into the transport section.
"Attia, we gotta strap in let's get them up." She said and Attia closed her book placing it under her seat. They went around lightly shaking everyone until they were awake and explained what the pilot had told them.
"Sounds bad." Ticy said yawning while pulling a strap down over her shoulder and chest clipping it into a buckle between her legs. Everyone else was attaching the emergency harnesses as well that would secure them in their seats. Varen went around making sure all the load bearing buckles were secure on their belongings before sitting back down beside Arnette clipping himself in.
"Captain Lane said it's the worst he's seen. Said that the storm has been getting worse day by day." Varen said.
"I really don't like flying all that much." Attia said nervously fidgeting in her seat.
"Captain Lane is the best pilot out there, we'll be fine." Chiffon said encouragingly, but even her voice showed hints of fear.
"At least we aren't jumping out this time." Andre said to which everyone couldn't disagree they were thankful for.
"Nightingales strap in and hold on, I'm beginning my approach into Spireach. A small prayer wouldn't hurt either." The radio in the transport section sounded. The inner lights went out and a red warning light lit casting a crimson shade to everything inside. He was trying to conserve all the power he could and had switched to emergency lighting which did nothing to calm everyone's nerves.
"I hate flying!" Attia cried as the transport felt like it dropped out of the sky a few hundred feet.
"Spireach genetics facility this is Nightingale 01 West Genetics approaching from the South at 11 degrees. ETA thirty minutes' request landing clearance." The pilot radioed.
"Roger Nightingale 01 thirty minutes put it down hard." A voice responded through the radio.
"Brace and hold." David said through the transport radio and the Interceptor began to shake violently. The strong winds did nothing to drown out the screams echoing inside the Nightingale.