Stealing Icarus - Chapter 4

 Chapter 4:

Scarlet’s POV: 

For two people, who have only flown a ship in flight simulations, these two are pretty good. All of us are strapped to our seats but it isn’t necessary. Nithya and Shravya were flying smoothly and so far so good. We can still use our phones and laptops, but not to text or make calls, so I pull my laptop out of my bag and set it out on the white food tray/desk. 

Next to me was Rani, who pulled out a book and was reading. I got an immediate headache if I tried to read in motion. Speaking of which, Jay wasn’t looking so good. 

Nate, also noticing this, reached into his bag and brought out an orange pill bottle. He unscrewed the lid and handed Jay two of the tablets and said, 

‘Take it with water.’ 

Jay nodded with relief and took the pills. I watched as he poured water into his mouth and swallowed the pills along with it. Moments later he was already looking better, the tinge of green gone from his face. Nate really was prepared for everything. 

Then, Shravya’s voice came over the comms, ‘Holding position in five. Prepare for minor turbulence.’ 

A minute later the ship started to vibrate, Rani closed her book, and looked around, as if she missed the announcement. A look at her face said that she was too invested and wasn’t paying attention. 

‘Mild turbulence,’ I whispered. 

‘Ah, I knew that.’ she says. 

I smirk, ‘Totally.’

‘Totally.’ 

The ship stopped vibrating and this time Nithya’s voice came over the comms, 

‘Position held. You can take off your seatbelt.’ I reached behind me for the red seat belt button and pressed the tip. My seatbelt came out and I stood up, stretching all the muscles that fell asleep. 

Footsteps sounded throughout the corridor and Nithya and Shravya came into view. 

Nithya smiles and says, ‘We’ll show you your dorms.’ 

‘Dorms?’ Rani echoes. 

‘You didn’t think we’d sleep on these chairs, did you? Who knows how long we’ll be up here.’ 

Shravya holding a snack bag of salted peanuts, said, ‘Also, is anyone hungry?’ 

Turns out that all of us were hungry. Shravya tossed us all bags of peanuts and for a few minutes, the tear of the bag and us munching our food was the only sound we heard. 

Once we finished eating, Nithya told us to follow her through another corridor. She passed bathrooms, supply cabinets, and finally, our dorms. There were two red doors, one titled ‘Boys’ and the other one, ‘Girls’. 

The boys went in theirs and Shravya pushed the door open to ours. Inside, there were two small beds on both sides of the rooms, and one more bed between them. On the other wall, there was a cabinet which I assumed was for clothes. 

Nithya grabbed her duffel bag and threw it on the bed closest to the door, effectively claiming it as hers. Rani chose the one opposite to hers, Lucia or Luce as she preferred to be called, claimed the one behind Rani’s. Shravya took the one behind Nithya's and I took the one between the two sets of beds. Each bed had a little tray, attached to its side that functioned as a small bedside table. 

Lucia grabbed her duffel bag and went towards the cabinet for our clothes. We all were assigned two racks, and we put out clothes there. Finally, we were allowed to change out of our graduation clothes. Hard to believe that one day I was graduating and a few hours later I was flying in space. 

I took a red shirt with the word ‘Scarcasm,’ and grabbed a pair of black jeans. After ushering my squadmates out the door, I changed and put on a pair of shoes. When I came out of the closet, Lucia was wearing a sky blue hoodie and a pair of grey jeans. The rest were nowhere to be found. 

I frowned and asked, ‘Where is everyone?’ 

‘Nate called for a meeting, I was just getting my water bottle.’

‘Oh ok!’ I started out the door, and then I realized that I had no idea where they were. I walked back to the dorm and stuck my head through the open door and asked,

‘Where might they be meeting?’ 

Lucia laughed and said, ‘Come on, I’ll show you.’ 

We walked through a corridor and into a room where, Nate I’m guessing, taped a paper with the words, ‘Meeting Room,’ neatly written in green ink on the door. I twisted the doorknob and the door sprung open. 

Inside, was Nithya, Nate, Monsieur Jerry, Jay, and Shravya all sitting in chairs arguing back and forth. They noticed Lucia and me standing by the door and stopped at once. 

‘Um hi?’ I asked tentatively. 

Nate sighed and said with an exasperated tone, ‘Come in, we’ve got a lot to catch you guys up on.’ 

………………………………..

All eight of our voices were overlapping each other, with opinions of their own on how to get to the City of Luminance since that was where the stars were located. 

Finally, Nate cleared his throat and said, ‘Enough! We go one by one. Jerry, you go first.’ 

Jerry starts and says, ‘Yes, ok! I can engineer the hull to-’ 

Nate interrupted and said, ‘Does this plan of yours include the ship and us getting there in one piece?’ 

Jerry faltered and said, ‘....no?’

Nate threw his head back and asked, ‘Does anyone have a plan that doesn’t involve getting us killed?’ The whole room went silent. 

I raised my hand slowly. Nate nodded as if to say, go on and I cleared my throat. 

‘I don’t get it. Why can’t we just fly there? Does there have to be some elaborate plan? I mean it’s not like the Enchanters know we’re coming.’ 

Nate opened his mouth to speak, ‘Remember that we’re trapped here? The Enchanters kept a spell on the city so that we wouldn’t be able to leave.’ 

‘Yes, I know that. What, do you take me for a kindergartener? Wasn’t there a bubble of space that the older Alpha Squad found before the lack of real oxygen killed them?’ 

When the older Alpha Squads found the bubble of space that the Enchanters forgot to seal, they spent so long in space examining it, that the lack of oxygen killed them. 

‘Yes, but how would we locate that? The older squad died before they could get it on maps and the only way we know it existed was due to the comms system. It’s not like we can go around the whole amount of space we have and look for it! What if we get too close to the limit line and the magic kills us?’ 

The limit line was like the equator. We couldn’t see it but we knew it that the line was as far the Enchanters had permitted us to go. A step farther and we would be gone in a matter of seconds. 

The room went silent after that. Then Lucia, our magic expert, frowned. She took her phone out of her pocket and furiously started to type something. A smile began to appear on her face, and she ran out the door. 

We exchanged confused glances and Monsieur Jerry said, ‘Uh...should we see where she went?’ Before we could get up, Lucia was back with a bunch of scrolls tucked under her arm. 

She set the scrolls on a table nearby and started to read the writings. A smile grew on her face and she spun towards us. 

‘Before we left, Principal Williams gave me these scrolls and a magic detector. She suspected that we may need them and wow was she right. This detector can sense magic!’  Lucia turned the device in her hands, on and the screen lit up. She turned it towards us, and we could see the outline of our ship and light purple all around it. 

‘What does the purple mean?’ Rani asked.

‘Purple stands for magic.’ At that, I stood up straighter. 

‘It can sense magic?’ I asked. Lucia nodded vigorously. 

‘Magic outside the ship or inside?’ I inquired.

‘Outside.’ I relaxed and Nate cleared his throat. 

‘How would this help us? We already know that we are surrounded by the Enchanters’ magic? Unless…’ He drew out, starting to understand Lucia’s plan. 

‘Yeah! We could use the detector to sense the part of space that isn’t covered in magic. Then, tada! We have found our leeway!’ 

Nithya clapped her hands and said, ‘Finally, a solid plan. Shravya and I are going to need that detector thing, in the CP.’ 

‘CP?’ Jay asked. 

‘Cockpit.’ Shravya and Nithya said at the same time. They exchanged looks and I rolled my eyes. Pilot lingo. I was just glad we were getting somewhere. 

‘Good work, Luce! Now we have something to go on.’ Lucia beamed and handed the detector to Nithya. She took it and shifted its weight between her hands. 

‘Okay, meeting adjourned. Nithya, Shravya, get us on route and the rest of you guys can unpack.’ We nodded and went our separate way. 

Once I got back to the girl's dorm, I called my mother, since the plane was holding position, and brought her up on what was happening. 

Rani walked in right when I finished talking to my mom, and asked if I wanted to go explore the ship. 

‘Sure!’ I replied. The ship was pretty big and the night was long.