OCCULTA

Written by: Chris Fennell, Anne Grimm, Megan Hasenwinkel, and Rachel Seow

Written for Vibs Petersen, FYS 27
December 11, 1997

CHAPTER 5

Sim dropped himself in the pilot's seat after having stored his few supplies in the cargo section. Hoverlifts were all relatively small, consisting of only a cargo space and a cockpit. However, this restricted size didn't place any limits on the vehicle's versatility; the cargo section totally converts to suit the task at hand, and it does so with relative ease. When in the liftbay, a hoverlift is totally under the control of the system. After receiving duty specifications, the system organizes and begins a removal and reorganization of the current cargo section. In around an hour, a fully functioning and completely outfitted laboratory filled the compact room. Everything he would need was set up in the most efficient and effective manner. In a sense, this hoverlift had become an extension of the building. In a glance, Sim made quick recognition of the few instruments placed around him. The route was preprogrammed in the craft's computer, so he would rarely touch the manual controls. In recent times, they have been reduced to the status of mere decorations, only built in for emergency use.

"Everything has been loaded and secured," announced the System through his earcom. "You have clearance to depart."

Straightening himself up in the seat, Sim reached out and touched the auto-control button. The hoverlift instantly rose on its repulsers and glided out of the liftbay. Weaving between the surrounding buildings, it took the shortest route out of the city and instantly set out at full speed toward the anomaly.

Calling up the rear external viewer, Sim watched the city recede behind him as the lift glided swiftly and gained altitude in order to clear the treetops. Looking ahead at the forest, trees stretched for as far as the eye could see, making him feel as if he might drown in this sea of green. Fighting the urge to turn the craft around, Sim forced himself to sit back completely in the seat. It would take six hours to reach the destination, so he might as well get some rest and start concentrating on the upcoming task.

To help him settle, the chair began to mold to his body and lean back. Before long, Sim drifted to sleep, leaving the computer in total control of the craft.

Sim woke with a start as the chair began to readjust into the upright sitting position; apparently this was the craft's way of telling him that it was near the destination. He sat forward and looked at the display panel, which showed that he was only five miles away from his destination. This prompted him to look out the front canopy screen and get an early look at the hot spot. The sight of it made him gape in awe.

He could see a column of billowing smoke towering out of a mound on the ground. At the base of this column, liquid fire was being launched up and was flowing down the lip of the opening and sides of the hill. All around this seething fury, the ground looked darkened as if permanently shadowed. The only places that weren't darkened were the streaming flows of the fire, which swallowed up everything in their path. Trees flashed in explosive busts when touched by these deadly rivers, adding to the ambient glow they put off. He would have to choose his landing sight carefully, so Sim began plotting in a course change as the hoverlift came closer and closer to the anomaly.

"Are these images coming through on the video-feed?" Sim asked, keying up the Science Center.

"There's a slight interference, but they're still coming through fine," came the reply from his earcom.

"That's good; I'm going to make a circle around it at a safe distance to get the full picture." With that said, Sim finished entering the course corrections, and the hoverlift was now right up near the inferno.

The computer then started the craft in a swift circle around the central eruption, but about halfway around, something very unexpected happened. A secondary outlet had formed on that side of the mound, and one of its intermittent eruptions flashed up right in front of the hoverlift. The computer, detecting the danger, flipped the craft on its right side and tried to pull hard out of the way, but unfortunately it was a little too late. The plume of hot gases slammed into the underside of the hoverlift and sent it careening away from the anomaly.

Stunned by the sudden flurry of occurrences, Sim grabbed the manual controls and tried to counter the spin that the impact produced. The controls were horribly sluggish, and try as he might, he couldn't regain a level glide. With the craft spinning wildly and accelerating away from the anomaly at an unbelievable rate, Sim saw only one path of action. He reached for the eject lever and gave it a hard yank, as was written on it. The lever ripped right out of the control panel, and his over-pull sent him slamming hard into the back of the seat.

Full of panic, thinking that he had broken the ejection control, he nearly had a heart attack when the chair grabbed him around the chest and blasted out of the side of the cockpit. Sim could barely breathe through the death grip that the chair had on his chest, and because of the force of the rushing wind, he had to close his eyes and hope that he wouldn't choke on his own vomit.

With the spinning of the ejected chair coming under control and the force of the air lessening, Sim chanced a quick opening of his eyes. Immediately he wished he hadn't. The trees flashed by below at a blinding pace, and they kept on coming closer and closer to him. Eventually the chair orientated itself towards the ground, and Sim was left with a much more pleasant view of the sky. However, it didn't last long, because that was when the chair entered the trees. A roar of crumpling leaves and scratching twigs filled his ears as the chair dug into the unwilling forest. He could feel the little twigs scratching and snapping on the chair and his protective clothing. One particularly thick branch broke off when it smashed into his exposed arm, and the end of it knocked him full on the side of his head. He could tell that that hit was going to hurt if he lived through this ordeal.

Sim could tell that the ride was slowing up when the back of the chair started grinding the ground in a slide. The chair eventually came to a sudden halt when it hit the trunk of a tree that was directly in its slide path. With all motion stopped, the chair became totally lax, and Sim tumbled backwards out of it onto the ground. He slowly brought his aching body to its feet and surveyed what had happened. Looking at the chair, he noticed that it was imbedded upside down halfway into the trunk of an enormous tree. Turning around, he could see a path shaved into the ground stretching so far back, that he couldn't see its origin.

Turning in the direction of where he thought the hoverlift was last headed, he started out with an unsteady walk. Blood started flowing down into his right eye, so he tried to wipe it away, but needles of pain lanced up his right arm. He cleaned it off with his other arm, only to start seeing the world blur and go black. Sim collapsed in a crumpled heap on the ground.

Continue to Chapter 6