Stealing Icarus - Chapter 8

 

Author's Note: 

Sorry for taking so long with the next chapter! Enjoy chapter 8, in Jerry's POV!

Chapter 8: 

       

    Jerry's POV: 

‘Uh guys? We sort of have a problem?’ he said. 

‘You mean other than the gaping hole in our wing?’ Nithya said, her voice dripping with sarcasm. 

Jerry ignored her and said, ‘We lost two tanks of fuel.’  

_________________________________________________

‘What?’ Nithya’s voice spiked higher and went to the center of my eardrum. I slightly cringed and cleared my throat, 

‘I suggest you all come down here for me to explain.’ I looked over at Nate who was muttering something under his breath and was running his hands through his hair, making it even more disheveled than it already was. Taking in the dark bags under Nate’s eyes, I wondered if he was getting any sleep at all. 

Jay, who was holding the toolbox, exchanged an uneasy glance with me. Losing two tanks of fuel was not a good thing. In fact it was a horrible turn of events. 

It seemed as if everything had started to go downhill. We all got on the Alpha, with a sense of determination and now that was crumbling as well. So far, one of our squad members almost fell out of a plane, our wing basically broke, and now we lost two precious tanks of fuel. 

The only good news is that, Jay, Nate, and I managed to fix the wing, but even that solace had a barb of poison in it. We fixed the wing, but for safety, we shouldn’t use it for another week, which means we just lost a week of our time. 

Hearing footsteps thunder towards the engine room, I opened the door and everyone skidded to a stop. Counting heads, I saw Nithya, Shravya, Scarlet, Lucia, and Rani. Nodding to myself, making sure everyone was here, I let them in the room. 

‘So uh, hello?’ Rani said, after an awkward pause of silence. 

‘We lost two tanks of fuel?’ Lucia asked, clearly wanting more information on this dire topic. 

I scratched the back of my head and felt uncomfortable with everyone’s inquisitive gazes, boring holes into my head. I let out a small breath and looked at Jay. 

He was leaning against the table, his hands crossed over his chest, and a smirk playing at his lips. I silently asked for help on how to break the news to them. He shook his head almost imperceptibly, but I knew that it was his way of communicating without saying any words. He was talkative, but not unnecessarily. I also knew that he was refusing to help me. I mutter, ‘Jerk’ under my breath, just loud enough for him to hear though. His grin widens and he nods, hinting for me to go on. 

‘Yes, we did lose two tanks of fu-,’ Everyone burst out into questions before I could even finish the sentence. Everyone except Jay and Nate. They already knew what had happened. 

Voices were overlapping one another, making it impossible to hear anything clearly. English wasn’t my first language, so I was always nervous of talking in front of crowds. Jay knew that and wanted me to overcome that foolish fear of messing up in front of others. I remembered the time where we had first met and barely said a word in front of him. People may have thought of Jay as a smug athlete, but I always saw him as the person who always tried to help me, without expecting anything in return. Unless of course, he decided to be an annoying idiot. It was either one or the other. I chuckled softly at the thought of Jay getting a bucket of water poured on him. I had to congratulate Scarlet and Rani on that later. For now, I needed them to stop talking and pay attention. 

I squeezed my eyes shut and banged my fist on the table. Upon hearing the noise the room fell quiet. 

‘No interruptions please. Let me just explain,’ Jay smiled at that and I continued. 

A chorus of soft apologies went across the room and I cleared my throat. 

‘That’s fine, just shoot the questions once I’m done. You might find some answers to your questions while I explain anyways. So, when Jay, Nate, and I were fixing the wing, which by the way is fine now. We exaggerated about the severity, it wasn’t too bad. Just the shock of that happening made the problem seem bigger than it really was. There was a small tear and we fixed that up.’

Rani cheered and threw her hands up, ‘That’s great news! Hooray!’ 

Nithya opened her mouth to say something and paused. She chewed on her lower lip and looked over at Shravya. They both had nervous and somber looks, I knew they would figure it out. They were out pilots after all. I waited for them to say it on their own.

Nithya, re-opened her mouth and said, ‘It means we’ll lose a week of flying.’

‘For safety regulations.’ Shravya added with a grim look. The room went and silent and I continued, 

‘As for the tanks of fuel, Nate found that out. He accidently knocked over a box and behind it w-was a fuel wheel. It checks to see what gas level the ship is on and tilts its arrow to the corresponding part of the wheel. Kind of like a compass. When the fuel arrow points to the top, north, it means we have more than enough fuel. If it dips to the right, east, then it means that we need more fuel. Worse case scenario, if it points towards the bottom mark, south, then we are about to crash, since we don’t have enough fuel to keep the ship up.

Fortunately, si-since we haven’t burned through our first fuel tank, our arrow is dipping to the right. However, that won’t last. We need to ask the other ships if they can spare any of their extra tanks.’ 

I run my knuckles along the edge of the table, waiting for the storm of questions to resurface again, like a dragon that’s been fed enough food to keep quiet, but eventually wanting more. I replayed my explanation over in my head and felt the urge to slap myself over the head, when realizing that I had stuttered on some words when my mouth had gone dry. 

Jay offered a thumbs up and a smile. I looked back at the group of people in front of me. They were processing all the information I had dumped on them and Lucia raised her hand, like a schoolgirl in the classroom. I nodded for her to continue. 

‘I still don’t understand how the tanks of fuel disappeared at all.’ The rest of the crew responded with a nod. Wait, did I forget to tell them that? I felt my cheeks flush a bit and explained further, 

‘Well, we’re not entirely sure, but I have a theory. When the door opened in the cockpit, we were all distracted by Nithya hanging off, obviously, but I think that in all the commotion, the two tanks rolled out of their place under the pilot seats and out the door.’ 

Nithya nodded, ‘That’s possible. I had noticed earlier that the doors weren’t as tight as I’d like them to be. Perhaps the tanks fell through the open door and we didn’t notice.’

Shravya frowned, ‘I don’t think so. Would we really not be able to notice two tanks roll out the door? I don’t buy it.’ 

Nate nodded, ‘I’m with Shravya on this one. It doesn’t seem like it would completely go unnoticed.’ 

Scarlet fidgeted a bit before saying, ‘I agree with Nithya and Jerry. We were all panicking and probably didn’t see it.’ 

Nate sighed, ‘We’ll discuss this later. For now, let’s go ask the Beta and Gamma ships for extra fuel tanks.’ 

Comment Your Opinions on the Chapter!