Authors: kevin caruso
The mission briefing showed him that he would land unobserved in a wooded area outside the city in the early hours of the morning before daylight. He would increase himself in size; store the plane in the hidden compartment in his ring and then walk to Heidelberg University with none the wiser as to how he had arrived. The plane was programmed to fly to the exact designated location and required no piloting from him. He was secretly excited for his adventure to begin.
Chapter 18
Arriving precisely on time, Armstrong and Tedford came to collect Chase and take him to the jet. He would be traveling light, a backpack, some clothing, money and his false identification papers. Nothing else would be permitted to leave the island or else it would remain on the inside of the plane. Even his ring and wristband looked perfectly ordinary and if removed from his body would self-destruct. They wanted nothing that could arouse suspicion if found. Armstrong said, “It is time to leave.”
Chase gathered his materials, took a final look around his room and followed them out. He had not left the building since he had arrived the other day. There had been no time to go outside and explore yet. They entered the elevator and began the quick descent downwards. Instead of stopping at the ground level the car continued down to an underground level.
The doors opened and the three of them stepped out into a rather modest sized room that was sparsely decorated and dark grey in color with lighter blue accents. The only noticeable feature was a wide door on the opposite side of the room. Chase walked behind them as they strode toward this door and watched as Armstrong placed his palm on the wall and that door opened. Sliding open, it revealed a small rounded, windowless room nicely appointed with comfortable individual seats. They all entered, sat down and the doors closed.
Armstrong said, “This is our subway system, what we call ‘The Snake’ and we are going take it to your rocket plane. This room we are in is gyroscopically stabilized inside a round ball which rides along the outside of a solid metal pipeway network that runs under this entire island. To use this you simply say the five digit code for whatever building or location you wish to visit. It will automatically program this room to be magnetically drawn to your chosen destination. We are going to the north western corner of the island in sector one, from where you will depart. One, zero, zero, one, four,” he stated as their location code.
Chase sat comfortably in his chair and while it did not seem to be moving, after only two or three minutes the doors opened at their destination. They exited and took an elevator that brought them directly into a large, cavernous, hanger style room. Dominating the room was a large, sleek, midnight black tubular aircraft. It was incredible looking, sort of like, if an airplane and a rocket got together and had a baby, this was that baby. What a baby it was, about forty feet long, windowless, pointed in the front and aerodynamically tapering to the rear. There were four stubby seamless looking wings toward the center of the aircraft. On second thought they didn’t seem to be exactly wings, more like stabilizing arms he guessed.
He looked on in awe as they walked nearer towards it. It was dark, looked very fast and had no outer markings. Walking around the aircraft, it still didn’t seem possible that he could be flying this thing to Germany. “I don’t know anything about flying a plane, what happens if something goes wrong,” Chase said with some last minute uncertainty and jitters.
“There is absolutely nothing to worry about; the plane will completely fly itself. It has been preprogrammed to take you to the precise location in the woods outside of Heidelberg and when you are ready to return it will bring you back to this exact site. We will be monitoring your flights and can make any adjustments necessary,” Armstrong answered.
Tedford told him “We need to make sure that you understand how to minimize the size of this plane and keep it stored inside your ring.” Grasping his hand, he demonstrated how to use the wristband on his arm to enlarge his size once he exited the plane after arrival and to open the hidden hinge of the ring that opened to reveal the concealed storage area. “The plane is magnetically linked with the ring and if you trigger the easy sequence that you were instructed on your briefing there will be no problems with your loading and unloading the aircraft.”
“Let’s take you inside, familiarize you with everything and get started,” Armstrong said. A rounded tube extended from the plane toward the floor where they stood. The door opened and the three of them stepped in. After the door closed Chase felt a sudden yet momentary sense of disorientation as if the room they were in had grown twice as large. Before he could comment, the door re-opened and they were inside the aircraft.
Chase had expected to see something like a cockpit from a fighter plane or the space shuttle or possibly rows of seats like a commercial jetliner. What he found however was a rather large room that looked much more like an extremely posh apartment. The room was improbably larger than he thought possible based on how large the aircraft looked from outside. He was certain that their bodies were reduced on the way into the plane to make for a larger space inside. The interior was beautiful, a creamy warm greyish hued beige with purple- black furniture. The couch’s color resembled the gooey middle of a warm boysenberry pie.
“As you have no doubt guessed by now, our bodies have been reduced by fifty percent to make your journey more comfortable. All of the furniture and artwork in here is bolted down for safety during takeoff and landing,” Armstrong said. Walking through the room, they entered one of the deluxe bedroom suites, then to the other end of the plane where there was a full kitchen with a large fully stocked pantry of food. “In an emergency you can return to the plane as a sanctuary.”
“Where is the command center and how do I fly it home?” Chase asked.
Pointing to an overstuffed, comfortable reclining chair, Tedford said, “You just sit here during the takeoff and landing and use your wristband and voice control. The remainder of the flight you may relax and enjoy yourself, it’s that easy.” Tedford said.
“It is almost departure time so please take your seat in preparation. Remember, we will be able to monitor your flight and your body’s health while you are away. Once you leave here do your best to not only complete your mission successfully but do it quickly as well. If it takes you six days to complete then almost six months will have passed here. You will be on your own out there and communication between us will be very limited,” Armstrong announced.
Chase sat in the chair, fastened his belt and settled in. The chair was incredibly comfortable and body conforming like sitting in a firm yet yielding campfire cooked marshmallow. He watched as they wished him good luck and then took the elevator back down to the hangar. Suddenly sitting alone now, it was all becoming very real. After only another minute or so, an alert tone sounded and announced that takeoff would commence in thirty seconds. Looking at the wall, a visual countdown began, followed by a low rumble and they were off.
Chapter 19
It was not long after takeoff that a voice announced that it was safe to leave the chair. So far, it seemed fairly smooth, certainly more pleasant than any commercial plane he had ever flown on. The fact that it was going to be a short flight was incredible. Considering how unbelievable everything else was, he was already adapting and taking it in stride. Rising from his chair, he decided to wander around and check out his plane. He was already thinking of it as his own private jet. Not that he had any experience riding on private jets but this one had to be among the best in the world. One thing it didn’t have however was a cute stewardess to bring him something to eat.
Chase went to the kitchen, made a big thick sandwich, a bowl of those globefruits he liked and a bag of chips to take with him back to his seat. He may as well have something to eat before his mission started; he wasn’t sure what awaited him in Germany. It would have been nice if they had provided him some entertainment, a movie, some music or something. There hadn’t been any on the island that he’d seen so far, he would have to remember to talk with them about that. Shortly after finishing his meal he thought maybe he might try out one of the bedrooms he’d seen and take a quick nap.
As he was going to get up, a tone sounded and the wall display accompanied by a voice announced he had five minutes to secure himself for descent. That was fast he thought, so he gathered his things and returned them to the kitchen before strapping back into his chair. Shortly, the voice announced the landing and the wall display showed an outside view of the landing site. It overlaid a map of the area with the highlighted route from the landing site into the town. The voice said “Video and thermal screening show there are no witnesses in the vicinity, it is now safe to exit.”
Chase put on his backpack and took the elevator exit to the ground below. As the display had shown, the plane had landed in a wooded area above the outskirts of the city. The mission briefing had told him that due to his extremely small size he could be in danger and needed to return to his normal height immediately after exiting. Looking around at his surroundings Chase got a quick view of the world from a unique perspective. Grass that looked like a forest, trees like skyscrapers, he was aware he would be easy prey for a bird, animal or even an insect. He placed his opened ring on the plane as he had been shown and activated his wristband and began the instant return to his true size.
He secured the plane in his ring and oriented himself based on the information provided on the display and began his walk toward the university. Adjusting quickly to his size change, he noticed the early morning air was cool and crisp enough to see his breath and the first dawn light was starting to arrive. As instructed, he began to walk down the hill towards town. Dressed in jeans, sneakers and a light grey hoodie sweatshirt he hoped he would be able to easily blend in with the crowd of college students.
The walk was about three and a half miles into the heart of the university. It had been wise to land out of the way to avoid detection. The distance wouldn’t take that long to cover and he didn’t have a set agenda today other than to scout around the school and get the lay of the land so to speak. As he came down and got his first look at the city, it seemed surprisingly foreign, in some ways as much as the city on the island he had just left. To his American eyes, Heidelberg looked old. Medieval style buildings, some that looked hundreds of years old and probably were, with red tile roofs. He had never been to Germany or even Europe before but already it all looked so European.
As he walked, the sun began to rise and the city began its daily ritual of awakening. It had been some time since he had seen that many people, he had been alone sailing and then there was only Armstrong and Tedford on the island and technically despite their appearance they weren’t even people.
Arriving at the university, no one had paid him any attention and he was able to just merge into the flow of students walking about. His plan was to walk around the entire university to absorb the flavor of the place. He also needed to scope out the location of Professor Hauptmann’s office and start knowing his comings and goings. He needed to see if he could find the Professor’s secretary and make friends with her in hopes of gaining access to him. During his first walk Chase passed a student store and went in to purchase some things he had been thinking about since they told him about this mission. He selected an envelope, writing paper, a pen and some stamps.
He took his purchases to a coffee shop, bought a cup and sat at a table by himself. He pulled out his pen and paper and began writing. He was careful not to get his fingerprints on the paper and then he sealed it in the envelope and addressed it. Chase wasn’t sure if they were actually able to monitor the telephone and email traffic but he wasn’t taking any chances. He was pretty certain they wouldn’t be able to check good old fashioned snail mail. He didn’t know how much postage was required so he just put more than he guessed would be needed and he would drop it in one of the postal boxes he’d seen when walking around campus.
Enjoying his coffee he noticed two things, firstly he had been interacting this morning in German without even realizing it and with his heightened sense of taste this coffee wasn’t all that great. It was still early enough in the morning for him to start reconnoitering the Professor’s office. He finished his drink and began to walk to the building in order to keep a look out for his mission objective.
The briefing had told him that the Professor usually walked with his secretary every day to his office. Chase looked at the building that he had been told the Professor worked. It was a very large, square, three story white building with red trim and a high black roof with a clock tower. Standing on the road called Seminarstrasse, Chase mingled with the crowd so as not to draw any attention while keeping his eyes on the building entrance for the Professor’s arrival.
He was still surprised by how good his eyesight and hearing were since his treatment with the biobots. Even when they were still several blocks away he could both see and hear them approach. Chase recognized the girl first. She was even prettier in person than when he’d seen her in the briefing videos. Her long hair was blowing a bit with the slight breeze as she held onto the Professor’s arm to steady his uncertain gait.
Watching as they neared, Chase positioned himself so that he could get a good view of them and to ensure that she noticed him as well. It took them some time to walk the short distance with the Professor’s hesitant steps tapped out in the staccato of his walking stick. As they passed, he made a concerted effort to nonchalantly smile as they made eye contact. She smiled back at him and acknowledged him with a small nod of her head. He was sure that she would recognize him later. He would then make the attempt to speak with her when ‘accidently’ running into her again.
As unobtrusively as possible he waited for her to re-emerge from the building so he could follow her. He needed to find an opportunity to meet her and find a way to get to the Professor. Shortly after noon she emerged bouncing jauntily out the front door. Chase hung back and followed behind her as she walked down the main street of the campus. He watched as she entered a building and went down the steps. After a moment he cautiously followed not knowing what to expect. He did not want her to think that he was stalking her.