Survivors

THE ANCIENTS

 

 

 

"You mean all of the people on Hakaan have been wiped out?" Douglas asked.

 

"I don't know," Mike answered. "All I know is I don't hear anybody talking anywhere on the radio. It's silent."

 

"Scooter, can your telescopes and viewers see anything on the planet? Like cities or anything?" Douglas asked.

 

"It's cloudy in a lot of places, but there are cities down there. I can't tell if anybody is in them. I can see what looks like farm land though."

 

"You mean like prairie?" Mike asked.

 

"No. I mean farmland. Like somebody has been plowing it and planting stuff. It doesn't look wild. It has patterns to it."

 

"Let's see what happens when we go around to the dark side of the planet," Douglas said. "Maybe we will see if the cities are lit up."

 

They were soon on the dark side.  Scooter and Brandon were both looking through telescopes trying to see something, especially lights.

 

"I don't see big cities all lit up like I think you would on Earth, but I think I can see some kind of lights burning. I just don't see a lot of them. I don't know what it all means," Scooter said.

 

"What I think it means is there just might be somebody alive down there. It looks like some people must have survived the plague," Alex said. "Whatever, we need to go down and check it out. We're going to have to go down to the surface anyway."

 

"But the `Survivor' only has enough fuel left to land on the planet. There is not enough for it to leave the planet," Mike pointed out.

 

"True," Jeremy said. "But don't forget there are three other shuttles here. They all have fuel. We can move the fuel to the tanks of the `Survivor' and have enough fuel to come back here."

 

"Super idea," Ryan said.

 

"How would we get the fuel transferred?" Alex asked.

 

"I don't know," Jeremy replied. He knew it would mean taking a spacewalk. He hated spacewalks and was hoping somebody would figure out a better idea.

 

"It's too risky," Mike said. "We have no idea how to do it, and we'd have to do it out in space and none of us are trained for that. We were lucky on our first spacewalk. Moving the fuel around is going to take a lot more than luck."

 

"But if we don't move fuel, how will we get back?" Travis asked.

 

"We hope that we find the fuel supplies Quan told us about. He said each airport should have fuel," Mike said.

 

"I think you mean to say that each airport HAD them," Travis shot back. "And besides we don't even know if there are airports left down there."

 

"If the Hakaanen don't even have electricity," Ryan said, "they sure won't be able to help anybody on Inferno."

 

"Well, no matter what, everything we need is going to be down there," Douglas said. "Fuel, some better star maps that might help get us home, supplies for Inferno, food, and maybe a way home. None of that is here in space. The shuttle has to go down no matter what the risk is.”

 

"So, are we going to vote on it now?" Jeremy asked.

 

"There is not going to be a vote. This is going to be my decision."

 

"And who made you God?" Jeremy asked. "I thought we left RC...."

 

Douglas glared at Jeremy. "Jeremy there are things we can vote on. Important things. But when it comes to running this mission, you picked me to make those decisions. And I am going to make them, right or wrong. If you don't like that, Jeremy, you're welcome to call for an election so we can pick another leader."

 

Jeremy flinched. "I didn't mean it that way, Douglas. I just meant that we all should have a voice. Not just you and your buddies."

 

"Speaking of buddies," Douglas said, ignoring Jeremy, "I want to meet with Alex, Mike, and Scooter." He got up from his chair and walked off the bridge and into the Captain's ready room. Alex, Mike, and Scooter followed him. Jeremy stood there with his mouth open.

 

Warren walked up to him. "That wasn't right, Jeremy."

 

"Yes, it was Warren. I don't want us to just be told what to do like RC did."

 

"Douglas isn't RC and you know it."

 

"You're right Warren, but it doesn't mean I'm just going to take his making decisions for us without us having a say."

 

Warren wanted to say more, but he didn't want to upset Jeremy. He loved him, but he was always afraid of losing him, even though he was sure that would never happen.

 

In the ready room Douglas faced his three friends and advisors.

 

"What was with Jeremy?" Mike asked. "I was ready to kick his ass!"

 

"He's scared," Douglas answered, “just like all the rest of us."

 

"Even you?" Mike asked.

 

"Especially me," Douglas admitted to his good friend.

 

Mike gave Douglas’s shoulder a quick squeeze.

 

"I couldn't let an argument get started. I know how you guys stand. I think the rest are the same way, but no way can we have a vote on decisions to run the mission. We are not on the ‘Moonduster’ feeling our way around in a new situation—we have a mission we need to finish.

 

“That said, we're going down to the surface. We all know we have to. I am going to give everybody a little bit of a say, though, by asking for volunteers.  Nobody is going to be forced to go down."

 

Scooter, Alex, and Mike immediately volunteered. Douglas knew they would, and he knew without them they might as well sit on the ship and die.

 

"I know Stevie will volunteer too," Alex said.

 

"Stevie's not going," Douglas said.

 

"What do you mean he's not going?" Alex sputtered. "Of course he's going! He's my brother and more important, he's my copilot! I need him." Alex was working hard to control his temper.

 

Douglas could see fire burning in Alex's eyes. He looked calmly back at his friend. "Who is the next best pilot after you?" Douglas asked.

 

"Don't try to give me your double talk, Douglas!" Alex yelled. He started pacing around the room. "You better have a good reason for not letting Stevie go, or I'm not going!" Alex glared at Douglas, thinking like Jeremy, that maybe the power of being leader was going to Douglas's head. A quick memory of the business with Matthew flashed through his head—maybe that hadn’t been an isolated incident after all.

 

The boys on the bridge could hear Alex yelling. They could tell he was yelling at Douglas, but they couldn't tell why. Jeremy got a little self-satisfied smile on his face. So, I'm not the only thorn in Douglas's side, he thought.

 

In the ready room, Douglas stayed calm as Alex stormed on about his not being appreciated, and his brother not being appreciated. Mike looked at them both, wondering if something more than yelling might start, like maybe fists starting to fly. In his own personal life, Douglas could lose his temper just as well as Alex—they were both headstrong adolescent boys. But he usually could dig deep and stay calm when he had to. It was part of what made him a good leader.

 

Douglas watched Alex pacing and breathing hard. Finally he said, "Alex, calm down and think about it. If something happens to the `Survivor' we might need one of the ship's shuttles to rescue us. I don't want to have us all stay separated forever. Stevie is the best pilot we have after you. I need him here in case we need to use another shuttle. I can't have you both going down, or everybody left behind on the ‘Paxton’ could be trapped here for life."

 

Alex took a couple of gulps and caught his breath.  "Sorry, Douglas. You're right. I'm sorry I flew off the handle. That wasn't right, especially right after you had to listen to Jeremy. You need us to all be on the same page right now. Whatever you decide is fine with me."

 

"No, that's not what I want Alex. I don't want you guys being yes men. I asked you back here for a reason. I need to know what you think. I can make the final decisions. I HAVE to make the final decisions. But I can't do it alone. I can't come up with all the ideas or see everything. I need you guys. You have to tell me what you think. But we can't argue. In the end I have to make the final decision."

 

"I know. I'm sorry, Douglas."

 

 Douglas walked up to Alex and the two boys hugged each other.  Douglas then gave Mike a hug, followed by a big hug for his lover, Scooter.

 

"Okay, that is out of the way. Now, who is going to be your copilot, Alex?"

 

"Well, you know that during the trip I had guys using the shuttle simulator program. It's a little different from the `Survivor' but close enough. Travis did the best. He could fly by himself I think. Then Stevie could go with us...."

 

"Alex, Stevie has actually manned a cockpit during landings and takeoffs. Travis hasn't—his experience has happened during flight through space," Douglas said.

 

"I know. I got to wishing again. But Travis was the best after Stevie."

 

"I want you to have the best. Then Travis it is, if he volunteers.  And I think he will."

 

They talked over a couple of other things then went back out to the bridge. Douglas took Travis aside and talked to him. Travis smiled and nodded yes. Then Douglas talked to Stevie. Stevie looked a little unhappy, but Douglas said a few more things and then he too smiled and nodded yes.

 

After having his private chats, Douglas talked to the group. He told them the "Survivor" was going down to the surface in the morning. It would have five volunteer crew members.  All hands went up, including Jeremy's and Stevie's.

 

"Hang on," Douglas said. "I already have two crew members. Alex will be the pilot and Travis the copilot."

 

The boys were surprised the copilot wasn't Stevie. Douglas explained why he picked Travis over Stevie and they understood. He said that Scooter would be going because he was needed to translate. Mike would go to be an enforcer if they needed it. He said he needed one more volunteer to be extra help. 

 

“I will be going to lead the mission,” Douglas concluded. Again, all the hands went up. While Douglas expected this, he was pleased to see the unanimous enthusiasm. He had already made up his mind who he wanted, and having everybody ready to volunteer made things easy for him.

 

 He picked Jeremy. Even though the two of them never really got along, Jeremy was good to have around in tough situations. He didn't back down to anything or anybody. Jeremy was surprised he was picked, but it made him happy. Maybe Douglas wasn’t the asshole he often appeared to be, Jeremy thought.

 

Brandon was put in charge on the ship. Staying behind with him were Stevie, Ryan, Warren, and the twins.

 

Oh great, Warren thought, the little weak ones are left to baby-sit the ship. He wished he was bigger and stronger.

 

They agreed that they would leave in the morning. Scooter, Brandon, and Alex would check the maps with the instructions they received from Quan about where the capital city of Hakaan was.  They needed to find the right place to enter the atmosphere in order to approach it properly. They only had enough fuel for one chance.

 

That night in bed, Scooter and Douglas made intense love. It consisted of kisses, licking, humping, nibble, sucking, and hugs. Finally Douglas entered Scooter, pumping his cum into the rectum of his lover. In each cabin boyfriends made love to boyfriends. The ones who would be separated hugged extra hard. Ryan and Travis, Jeremy and Warren, would be separated. Mike let Alex and Stevie sleep together that night. He made love to Brandon. Even the twins got caught up in it all in their room, finishing their night sucking each other to dry cums.

 

When morning came, Mike and the twins got breakfast ready. Then everybody met in the bridge waiting for Douglas to give final instructions. As Douglas opened his mouth to talk, alarms started going off.

 

"What's going on?" Douglas asked.

 

Alex and Stevie looked at the control panel. "Something is ahead of us," Stevie said, "and it looks like it's very, very big. In fact, it's humongous and is right in our path." 

 

 

Dralkan walked along the weed covered runway. In places he could see big chunks of concrete pulled up by tree roots and covered with plant growth. The thirteen-year-old boy was naked in the summer sun, along with Trundall, his fourteen-year-old Meshanna, and Shamene, Dralkan’s eleven-year-old brother.

 

Dralkan liked coming to the now abandoned airport. It was surrounded by woods and gave him and his friends plenty of places to play and create adventures. They were rarely bothered by adults. The three boys had just finished playing some hide-and-seek, with sex play added in to make the seeking even more interesting.

 

Dralkan enjoyed playing space explorer around the old airport—it was his favorite imaginary adventure.  From the time he was little his father had told him, Shamene, and Trundall about how the great airport of the Hakaan capital of Kana had once sent huge supersonic airliners around the globe connecting them to the other great cities of the planet.

 

Trundall's father was the Meshanna and partner of Dralkan’s father, so the families were very close. He and Trundall had grown up like brothers, and were so close they could almost read each other's minds. Sometimes Dralkan swore that they did. He felt closer to him than he did to little Shamene, who was his blood brother.  He loved his little brother in every way, in bed and out, but Trundall was his soul mate and Meshanna, and would for sure be his partner after they grew up. They had been Meshannas from the first Joining after they each had had their first wet orgasm (Dralkan was proud that he had gotten his before the older Trundall, when he was twelve).  

 

The two of them celebrated all night in bed the first time Trundall shot his clear young teen emission. That event had been all they had been waiting for, because the decision to Join had been made from the time they first understood what a Meshanna was.  All they had to do was make it official.

 

The stories that excited Dralkan most were not of the great airplanes that flew around the globe, but of the great spaceships that took people to the two lost colonies and sent explorers out exploring the galaxy. Those spacecraft consisting of the great passenger space shuttles, the cargo shuttles, the shuttles from the exploration ships, and the shuttles that went to the Merr space station took off from the spaceport some fifty miles from Kana . At night the huge space station could still be seen as it orbited the planet.

 

Dralkan had studied in history how one of the exploration ships brought back the plague and over half the population of Hakaan died before doctors could find a cure. They not only found a cure, but also found a way to prevent similar plagues.  They were too late to save the space program, however, because the Ancients, who were the oldest rulers to survive the plague, had been elected to rule Hakaan.

 

 Long before the cure was found, they promised to end all space travel so that evil would never again come from space to their beautiful planet. As the exploration, cargo, and passenger ships returned from their trips, the Ancients had them destroyed.

 

Although Urland, Dralkan's grandfather, was one of the Ancients, he didn't like how draconian their methods had become. They wanted further exploration of space stopped, but he didn't want to cut off their two colonies. The plague hadn’t come from the colonies.  They had been settled by Hakaanen and he felt they should not abandon their own people.  He finally convinced the rest of The Ancients to at least send a starship manned by volunteers to each planet to tell them why no more ships were coming from Hakaan, so that the colonists could take measures to survive.

 

The Ancients agreed to do it, as long as the colonies thought that the ships were unmanned robot ships and the crews never left the ships. The last two starships left were sent off to the two colonies. They never came back.  By the time the cure and prevention had been found, the rule of the Ancients was solidified.  The fear of a new, even worse plague, was always used to justify their policy.

 

The Ancients decided during the early stages of the plague that it was science and technology that had ruined the Hakaanen way of life. So many people had died that a lot of the factories had to be shut down. Machines quit working as the Ancients made it against the law to repair them. They then decided to destroy the machinery. Airplanes, cars, factories, electrical plants, were all destroyed. Most of the Hakaan who were left went along with the draconian methods of the Ancients because they were frightened. People were dying all around them and science couldn't save them. Science had brought the horrible disease from somewhere out in space.

 

By the time doctors found the cure and a way to prevent the disease it was too late to reverse the toll of the deaths or the policies of the Ancients.  The technology and way of life that the Hakaanen had spent centuries building up was gone. Even some hospitals and medical facilities were destroyed. People blamed the doctors for not finding a cure earlier. When the time came to have a new election the frightened people of Hakaan reelected the Ancients. That election, which took place over twenty years ago, had been the last one on Hakaan.

 

By the time the Hakaanen realized what the Ancients had done to them it was too late. The Ancients instituted an oligarchy, suspending elections and placing themselves in charge of governing what was left of Hakaan.  They ruled that science and technology must never return to bring more ruin to their beautiful planet. Except for the Shkah, whose small number had been all but wiped out by the plague, the Hakaanen weren't the type of people to start an uprising, and it became easy for the Ancients to rule the planet. Only the Ancients were allowed to have radio, so they could connect the entire planet. Only the Ancients had any kind of machines. For example, they had two airplanes that were stored at small government airport in Kana.  The Ancients had started out with good intentions, but now that they had absolute power they had no intention of ever giving it up.

 

The Ancients had become consumed with an illness that was in many ways as devastating and deadly as the plague had been. It was the same illness that afflicted Robert Charles— Power. Having it. Using it. Loving it. They allowed only themselves the use of technology, such as airplanes and radios.  They controlled what was left of the planet's electrical generation.  To maintain control, the Ancients had allied themselves with the few surviving Shkah, whose ruthlessness and cunning made them ideal for the role as the Ancient's secret police.

 

Not everybody sat still letting things happen, however.  Even though Urland, Dralkan's grandfather was an Ancient, he disagreed with their philosophy and their quest for power. When he realized that the Ancients were acting more in the interest of consolidating their own power than in the interests of the citizens of Hakaan, he started a secret resistance movement.

 

One of the things he did was make sure the spaceport wasn't destroyed. He and his followers went through the motions of tearing apart the runway. Instead of destroying it, they camouflaged it to look like it was overgrown with weeds and trees. He held out a dream to his followers that someday one of the starships would return from one of the lost colonies to help start Hakaan on the road to recovery. Urland said the lost colonies would keep Hakaan science and technology alive.

 

His followers would take their vacations at their "vacation homes" in the woods which were right by the abandoned space port. They worked to keep the runway intact and serviceable. They put a camouflage covering over it that made it appear crumbling and covered with weeds and trees.

 

Urland procured a space radio, which was hidden in one of the outbuildings at the spaceport. While it wasn’t manned every hour, somebody listened to it live as well as to its daily recordings whenever possible. They listened for the return of one of the two messenger ships. When it looked like the messenger ships would never return, they listened for a possible ship from one of the two lost colonies. At first, somebody was always at the airport, but as the years went by the rebel group worked on the runway and equipment whenever a member of the group took a "vacation" at the old cargo port.

 

Some of the rebels were becoming disillusioned with Urland’s dream. “The colonists have had twenty-five years to figure out a way to return a messenger ship or to build their own ship so they could come to Hakaan. It is unlikely we will ever see anything from a colonist, making this entire effort futile and stupid,” was the common complaint. Urland did his best to tell his followers that as long as there was a chance of a colony making contact, they had to stay prepared.

 

Trundall's grandfather, Jarmon, was a handyman as well as an inventor. In fact, he was an electronic genius, with many patents to his name. Most of his work had been destroyed by the Ancients.  He worked to keep their space radio operating, and also used spare electrical parts to make small radios for the resistance to use for communication among themselves.

 

 Dralkan had a small radio in his pack which he could use any time to contact his father's radio. It was constructed so the Ancients would not be able pick up its signal on their radios.  But Jarmon’s major invention wasn't the portable radio, it was something much more far reaching.  It was the first warp space radio, which he almost had completed before the plague hit. When the Ancients started destroying machines and technology, Dralkan's grandfather warned Jarmon to hide his invention and to tell the Ancients he was never able to make it work, so he destroyed it. Their two grandfathers had known each other most of their lives.

 

Dralkan, Trundall, and Shamene, along with other friends whose parents were part of the resistance, enjoyed visiting their summer homes. They'd been doing so since they were babies. There were seven boys eleven through fourteen who had hung out together for years. They’d played naked in the woods every summer since they were in preschool, and as they grew up, they discovered sex together.

 

Dralkan and Trundall quickly discovered how important sex was to a boy’s friendship. They were regular suck buddies by age eight and fuck buddies by age ten. They had no problem imparting their new knowledge to young Shamene.

 

Shamene received his first blow job from Trundall when he was six. Soon he and and his big brother, Dralkan, were sexually active brothers. Dralkan took his little brother’s cherry when Shamene was nine. Their sexual experiences had all been in the woods at their summer home. Dralkan's summer home was actually the old terminal at the spaceport. It had been rebuilt into summer apartments. Everybody who vacationed at the old spaceport was involved in the resistance and knew what the project was about and helped with it.

 

Right now, though, Dralkan was at the old main airport at Kana with Trundall and Shamene.  They had ridden their bikes out from town and were busily playing among the remains of what had once been a great edifice to transportation. They had brought their backpacks, small tents, a small camp stove, and food. They were planning to camp out for a night at the old airport.

 

Dralkan was sitting on a chunk of concrete from the torn up runway of Kana's airport. Chamira, Hakaan's sun, shone down on his naked body, making it glisten as the light reflected off of the sheen of sweat on his smooth young torso. He was ready to challenge Trundall and Shamene to a game of king of the hill. Shamene was disappointed that Almontzo, his best friend, couldn't come with them, but he had broken his arm the week before and still had to stay home.

 

"Drally, when can me and Almy become Meshannas?" Shamene asked. He liked using nicknames.

 

"You know when, brother. When you can both make seed."

 

"I wish it was tomorrow."

 

"Well, it won't be, you're both still too young. I was twelve and Trundall was thirteen before we could do it. I beat him by a month," he said giggling.  Trundall glared at him, then smiled. He pointed down at his crotch, reminding Dralkan that he had been the one to get hair first.

 

Dralkan looked down the old runway. There were still some fuselages of supersonic jets and shuttle craft left along the sides of the runway. They had been stripped of everything important. "Let's play king of the hill," he said, changing the subject.

 

The other boys agreed and were ready to charge up the concrete slab when they all heard a deep rumbling boom which seemed to shake the ground, and then a strange steady noise. They froze and looked around. The noise was coming from above them in the sky.  They looked up, but saw nothing. Dralkan looked all around him and saw nothing.  Then Shamene pointed to the south end of the runway. Dralkan and Trundall looked to where he was pointing, but still couldn't see anything.

 

"No, look up higher," Shamene instructed.

 

They both did and saw what Shamene was seeing. Up in the sky was a black dot, which kept getting bigger. Suddenly they saw bright lights on each wing. Dralkan thought they looked like landing lights on the vids he’d seen of old aircraft.

 

"What is it?" Shamene asked.

 

"I don't know, but I bet it's a space shuttle," Dralkan answered. "It has to be."

 

"From where? A lost colony?"

 

"It has to be. But it looks like it's trying to land here. If it comes down on this runway, it's going to crash. There isn't a runway here any more, and they don't know it. If they try landing on it they could be killed."

 

 

Alex could see the city of Kana to his left and the runway of the airport straight ahead of him. They were flying over water toward land. He flicked on the landing lights even though it was obvious nothing else was flying and that the airport was abandoned. Travis sat next to him checking out the instruments. Scooter was in the seat behind him trying to raise somebody on the radio. They could see the skeletons of old aircraft lining one section the runway.

 

The cockpit door was open. Douglas was strapped into the first seat in the cabin, thinking about the morning. After the alarms had gone off, the “Paxton's” automatic pilot turned the ship before it could collide with the object.

 

They saw that they were passing a gigantic space station. It was dark and looked abandoned.  There were the hulks of a couple of starships close to it. They stared at the dark shape going by, lit up on one side by Chamira, the Hakaan sun. It was an awe-inspiring sight, but it was a sad one too. The space station was dark, with no lights shining, explaining how they had missed seeing it earlier.

 

Alex's voice took Douglas out of his daydream. "I don't know if we can land there, Douglas. It looks overgrown."

 

"How much fuel do we have left?"

 

"An hour in regular flight."

 

Damn, Douglas thought. The plan was to land at the airport of the capital. They never thought that it would be overgrown and unusable. If the main airport on the planet was overgrown, then there would be no place to land, and they didn't have enough fuel to launch back into space.

 

The closer the shuttle came to the airport, the more Alex realized that the airport might be too overgrown to use. He saw that one of the runways looked better than the others. It was the middle one. He didn’t see any chunks of concrete or trees growing out of it, but it was hard to tell how safe it really was.

 

Alex decided to aim for it. If it looked too rough to land on, he could always pull up and circle back around.  However, if they couldn't find a place to land, then they would have to ditch the shuttle in the ocean.  If they managed to survive a water landing they would have no way to return to the starship, so they desperately needed a place to land. Alex started his landing procedures as the "Survivor" headed for what looked like the best of the three runways.

 

I got us down in a desert, he thought, so I should be able to land this one on a runway. There was one difference though. The "Survivor" couldn't hover like the "Moonduster" could. He had to land it like an airplane, and he needed a long, perfect runway to do that.

 

 

When Thraller heard the radio come on, he listened carefully and started running checks to see where the broadcast was coming from. But as soon as he started listening, he realized he didn't need a check. This wasn't a broadcast that was trying to hide itself. The broadcast was coming from space.

 

The Ancients told him to ignore the broadcast.  The shuttle had no place to land, so could not present a danger. If they heard no replies, they might think Hakaan was dead and not attempt to come down or to land. Even if they did attempt to come down to the planet, there would be no place to land and they would either go back to their colony or crash on the planet.

 

Thraller watched the shuttle approaching the airport. His radio in the capitol building had alerted him to the mysterious shuttle long before.  He had been trying hard not to be bored. Hardly anybody dared to use a radio any more.  They knew they would be caught and punished by the Ancient's Shkah policemen; men like him, who had power on Hakaan for the first time in centuries. Men who no longer had to hide out in the woods, and who were getting what they were entitled to. Of course, he didn't know about the secret radios invented by Trundall's grandfather.

 

 

The Ancients met soon after a shuttle was detected entering the atmosphere. They were upset that the shuttle was coming in to land. They didn't think it would succeed, but just its presence meant that people would see it and remember the lost colonies. They were angry that after all these years a colony had sent a ship back to the home planet. They were worried that the shuttle might bring more disease, even though the plague was no longer a danger on Hakaan. It obviously had not affected the incoming colonists on the shuttle. 

 

They hoped the shuttle would crash and that only one of the two starships managed to return. The entire group of seven stood on the balcony of the capitol watching the shuttle head for the airport. They knew if it tried to land there it would be destroyed on the deteriorated runway.

 

The Ancients had been led to believe that Urland, Dralkan's grandfather, had died a few years ago, so the entire council now thought alike. They wished for the destruction of the shuttle, hoping it would try to land and destroy itself. They had no intention of rescuing anybody after it crashed. It could sit at the airport and burn itself out.

 

Dralkan pulled his radio out of his pack. He didn't know if he could reach the shuttle with it, but he knew the big radio at the other space port could. He keyed in his mother’s channel as well as that of his grandfather. His father was working in Kano. He pushed the send button and was elated when his grandfather, Urland, answered. Dralkan felt that Urland would be easier to deal with since he would quickly understand what was happening.

 

"What is it you want, Drally?” his Urland asked harshly. “You know these radios are only for emergencies. We need to keep it priv..."

 

Dralkan interrupted him.  "Grandfather this IS an emergency. A shuttle is coming down, landing, right now, and we need to tell it not to land."

 

“What do you mean a shuttle is landing?"

 

"Grandpa, there is no time! You need to call it and tell it not to land here."

 

"What do you mean here? Where? Where are you? What are you talking about?"

 

Dralkan looked at the landing shuttle. He could see the wings now. The lights were bright and the navigation lights were blinking. It was getting close to the ground. Time was running out. He didn't have near the number of channels on his radio that the big radio did, but his grandfather wasn't understanding him.

 

He let go of the send button. He changed to the first channel and radioed the shuttle. Nothing. Second channel. No answer. Third channel. The shuttle was closer and louder. He could see that the flaps were down. No answer on the third channel. Fourth channel. No Answer. The little pocket radio only had ten channels and time was running out.

 

 

Alex could see that the third runway was covered with weeds. But weeds were okay. It was trees and concrete he worried about, and the third runway didn't have any trees growing out of it. What he couldn't see was that under the weeds sections of the runway were broken up and chunks of concrete protruded out of the ground, hidden by the tall weeds. He lowered the flaps, slowing the big space shuttle down to landing speed. He had landed it on Inferno more than once, and knew how it behaved. Even without runway lights and radio assistance he could see that he was perfectly lined up with the runway. This was going to be a perfect landing.  Everything ahead looked smooth. He told Travis to lower the landing gear.

 

 

Dralkan saw the landing gear drop down. Even though he had never seen any kind of aircraft land before, he knew what was going on from watching landings on vids. The sight of the big shuttle coming in to land almost hypnotized him. He switched to the fifth channel. No answer. There was no way he would have time to use the last five channels, and there was no guarantee any of them would work.

 

The young teen ran to the center runway, pulling Shamene behind him and waved at Trundall to follow him. They all stood up on the block concrete and started waving, trying to signal the shuttle not to land, ready to bolt if they weren't seen, hoping they could get away. Dralkan waved and jumped. He wished he had some clothing or something to wave, but the three of them were naked. All they had were their arms and hands. But the shuttle didn't alter course. It was almost to the edge of the runway.

 

 

The Ancients saw the shuttle at the tree tops. They expected to see it drop below the trees and then hear the crash and the explosion. If it was this close to landing it meant they couldn't tell how bad the runway was under the weeds.

 

 

Travis looked through the cockpit windshield at the runway ahead. It looked rough, but useable. They couldn't tell for sure what was under the weeds, but he could see no obstructions. The runway was approaching quickly, and it would be easy to miss something hiding beneath the undergrowth.  Then Travis blinked and looked again.

 

"Alex, look! I swear I see three naked boys ahead."

 

Alex quickly averted his eyes to where Travis was pointing. He saw the three boys as well, jumping, waving and pointing up. He could see that they were standing higher than the runway, which meant they were standing on something hidden under the weeds. Alex had no doubt they were signaling the runway was unsafe for landing.

 

"Raise the landing gear!" Alex shouted as he pushed the throttle forward and started pointing the nose up.  Travis raised the landing gear as the shuttle rockets roared. The runway was coming closer and Alex pulled up harder.

 

The three Hakaanen boys heard the roar of the engines, saw the flaps change their attitude, and the landing gear raise up.  The shuttle was coming in low. They jumped sideways off the slab and ran hard off the edge of the runway. The shadow of the shuttle covered them and they held their ears to block out the noise of the howling engines. They could almost feel the metal of the shuttle as it passed over them. They did feel the heat of the rockets as the shuttle started straining back into the sky, the tail missing the concrete slab by only a couple of feet.

 

The Ancients saw the shuttle disappear under the tree line and could only see the tip of its tail. Then they heard the roar of the engines, and saw the tail drop and the nose rise up. The landing had been aborted.  Somebody had seen something at the last second. The Ancients were upset that the shuttle hadn't crashed and burned, but they also knew the shuttle had no place to land. It was unlikely that it carried enough fuel to return to space, so it was only a matter of time before it had to come down.

 

Alex raised the nose up hard, hoping he had clearance and wouldn't scrape the tail on the ground.  They started gaining altitude and he finally let out his breath. They were flying again.

 

Dralkan watched the smoke pour out of the rocket engines as the shuttle roared back into the sky. He still had the radio in his hand.  He had a little more time now, but he needed to contact the shuttle before it got out of range. Otherwise it would be up to his grandfather to contact the shuttle on the big radio, if he could get him to understand.

 

He flicked to channel six. No answer. Then he went to channel seven.

 

Scooter was gripping on to his seat tightly after the close call, his heart still racing. Suddenly his headphones squawked. "Calling shuttle. Calling shuttle,” came the high range voice squawking in Hakaanen.

 

Scooter hit the send button. "Shuttle here! Come in!" Scooter could tell he was listening to the voice of a boy.

 

Alex and Travis both turned around at the sound of Scooter's excited voice.

 

Dralkan almost screamed when he heard the radio voice, but even on the little radio he could tell it was the voice of a boy, not of a man. What was that about?

 

"This is Dralkan. I'm one of the boys on the ground. The runway is all torn up. You can't land here."

 

"I’m Scooter. Thanks for waving us off," Scooter said. "That was a brave thing to do. But if the runway is torn up where can we land?"

 

"I have a place for you. You will need to fly northwest to get there."

 

"We have less than an hour's fuel left," Scooter said. "It has to be close."

 

"What's going on?" Alex asked as he started to level out the shuttle.  He and Travis couldn't understand enough of the Hakaan language to follow the conversation and control the aircraft at the same time.

 

Scooter passed on what Dralkan had told him. Scooter said that Dralkan had instructed them to fly to the northwest and look for a long clearing in the woods. He said Dralkan would be right back with instructions.

 

Dralkan switched channels on his radio and got hold of his grandfather.

 

"Grandfather, listen now. They didn't land but we need to do Emergency Plan A."

 

"Why, Drally? I don't understand what's going on."

 

"Grandpa,” Dralkan said impatiently, “this is the moment you’ve been waiting for. In about two minutes look out of your window, then you will know." Dralkan was surprised that his grandfather was not understanding the situation. It was almost like he didn’t believe the dream he had prepared for would really come true.

 

Urland went to the window and looked up at the sky. Suddenly a dark shape flew over the trees. He put his hand to his mouth. "Oh my God!" he whispered.

 

He watched as the shuttle flew past what had been Hakaan’s major airport. Urland ran back to the radio. "It's a space shuttle! Why didn't you tell me?" he screamed.

 

Dralkan sighed. "I tried, grandfather. You weren’t listening."

 

"Is it ours?"

 

"It must be. They speak Hakaanen, but the guy I talked to had a weird accent. They have less than an hour of fuel left. You need to help them land. Plan A."

 

Urland could feel tears dripping down his cheeks. As much as he had worked for this moment, he had all but given up seeing it happen in his lifetime. And now, for the first time in twenty-five years, a spacecraft was flying over the old spaceport of Hakaan.

 

“You did well, Dralkan. I apologize for not listening to you and treating you like a disobedient child. That said, let’s get to work landing that machine.”

 

They had practiced the emergency plans before. Even the teens took part in the drills, so Dralkan knew what would be involved in landing the shuttle. Dralkan's grandfather agreed that Plan A was the best one under the circumstances. It was one that two people could handle. Even the boys could have helped if they had been at the spaceport. Dralkan asked his grandfather to include channel seven so he, Trundall, and Shamene could listen.

 

"I'm back," Dralkan told Scooter in the shuttle. "Did you see the clearing?"

 

"Yes, we flew over it. What about it?"

 

"That's where you're landing."

 

Scooter told Alex what Dralkan had just said. "He's nuts!" Alex barked.  "That runway is worse than the one he told us not to land on. It has fucking trees growing on it! How do we know we can trust him? How do we know that waving us off wasn't a trick?"

 

"I sense it," Scooter said. "There are weird things going on here. He has no reason to lie to us. He risked his life to save us down there. Why would he send us to crash someplace else when he could have just let us crash at the first air field?"

 

"I'm not landing on that field," Alex insisted.

 

"You might not have any choice," Travis answered.

 

 

The "Survivor" started circling the field waiting for instructions. The Ancients looked at it off in the distance through a telescope, wondering what was going on.

 

"He's planning to land at the old space port," one of them said.

 

"Excellent," another one said. "Nothing can land there. It's in worse shape than the city airport.  The runways are covered with trees and rocks."

 

During the brief moment that Dralkan was on the radio, Urland was able to call Jarmon, Trundall’s grandfather, into the control tower to help him with the landing. He really didn’t need to call—the old man raced to the tower as soon as he saw the approaching shuttle. He and Urland were as excited as young boys as they watched the shuttle fly past the space port.

 

Urland came on the radio and introduced himself. For some reason, Alex felt relieved to hear the confident voice of an adult, even if he didn’t know what the man was saying. Urland instructed Alex to make a wide turn so he was facing south, and approach the runway. Jarmon pushed the touch screen on a computer, and motors started up, powered by the solar generators hidden along the edge of the field. The motors started moving the camouflage covering off the runway. As Alex banked the shuttle into the turn he saw the cover being moved back and an entirely different runway being exposed.

 

"Look!" he yelled pointing down. "A clear runway is opening up! This is amazing!"

 

"I told you something weird was going on here," Scooter said. "But the question is, what is this all about?"

 

The shuttle flew over the runway one more time. The boys in the cockpit could see that it was clear and ready for a landing. Then Travis looked at the end of the runway and pointed out the window. "I didn't notice that before. It looks like somebody didn't make it." The three boys in the cockpit stared out the window at the fuselage at the east end of the runway. It still had the wings and tail attached, but it looked like a hulk that had overshot the runway.  "I hope our brakes work better than his did," Scooter said.

 

"I made a better landing with the `Moonduster'," Alex said.

 

Douglas could swear he hadn't seen the hulk on the first passes, but now it had been uncovered just like the runway had.

 

Alex had the "Survivor" once again facing south and lined up with the runway. The runway was clear and had lights on to guide them in. This is just like Inferno, he thought. An easy landing on a clear, well-lit runway.

 

The flaps were down, there was no wind, and the afternoon sun was to the right of them. Everything was perfect. Scooter was right, they could trust whoever was talking to them on the radio. The three naked boys on the ground had saved them and now an adult in charge was guiding them into a perfect runway in the woods, out in the middle of nowhere.

 

Travis lowered the landing gear. The runway was approaching quickly. The shuttle went over the apron of the runway. Alex felt the wing wheels hit the ground, followed by the nose wheel. He jammed on the brakes and hit the retro rocket reverse thrusters. It was a perfect landing. At the same time Urland pushed an icon on the touch screen. As the "Survivor" roared to a stop Alex suddenly saw a blinding flash in front of him.

 

The two grandfathers in the old control tower above the terminal saw the bright flash and then saw a huge fireball roll up into the sky. The sound of the explosion was deafening.

 

Far off, standing on the highest spot he could find, Dralkan could see the fireball rise up in the distance over the forest.  He smiled. Emergency Plan A had worked.

 

Many of the citizens of Kana had seen the shuttle and were looking in the direction it had flown. They saw the fireball too, and soon heard the distant roar of the explosion.

 

The Ancients saw the fireball as well. Like Dralkan, they smiled, but for a different reason.  They turned around and walked into the capitol building, satisfied the emergency was over.

 

At the spaceport the flames continued to shoot high into the sky. The easy perfect landing of the "Survivor" appeared to have come to a surprise end.

 

Next: Chapter 54 Round-ears

 

Comments are welcomed.  E-mail me, Douglas DD, at TheHakaanen@Hotmail.com