//------------------------------// // Chapter 24 // Story: Until Fairer Skies Beckon // by totallynotabrony //------------------------------// It was air potatoes for breakfast. This was quickly becoming ridiculous. Rainbow awoke to the familiar darkened hangar, but the floor seemed to be covered in vines.  Panicking for a moment that they might have wrapped her up in her sleep, she quickly discovered that was not the case.  However, when she made her way over the light switch, she discovered that the whole hangar floor was covered in thin, leafy vines. The so-called “air potatoes” as Pantera identified them, were in fact a kind of yam, but grew edible fruits from their stems.  That was good, Rainbow wasn’t keen on digging the tubers out of the concrete. Unfortunately, there was no way they were going to be able to conceal everything that had grown overnight. At least there was plenty to go around. As she ate, Rainbow reflected that whoever was doing this had gone past the point of subtly helping her.  That was good, the others were reaping the benefits too, but the UTA would definitely notice. “I can’t figure it out,” commented Soarin’ as he sat nearby.  It was pretty clear what he meant. “Magic,” said Rainbow.  With two different crops growing overnight, not to mention everything else that had happened, she didn’t figure she was saying anything surprising. Soarin’ made a noise that might have been reluctant agreement or amusement.  It was hard to tell with his mouth full. Rainbow went on.  “It’s things like this I was talking about when I said I’d already had a couple of opportunities to escape.  Like when those watermelons pulled the fence apart.” Soarin’ swallowed.  “You think we can use this?  Make the vines into rope or something?”  He shook his head.  “Nah, never mind.  There’s nothing to climb around here.” “Still, that’s good thinking,” said Rainbow.  “I’ll need help to get everyone out of here.” “You still think you can save everyone?” he asked. Rainbow nodded.  “I have to.” “You don’t have to.  You don’t owe anyone anything.” “It’s who I am,” Rainbow said, realizing it was true.  “One for all.” “You expect everyone else to be all for one?” Rainbow looked away.  “I’m trying.” “You know you can’t trust anyone.” Rainbow raised her head again.  “Can I trust you?” Soarin’ took another bite and did not reply. The mystery of the magic was now an open secret.  Rainbow knew about it, but even if the others didn’t have her level of knowledge, there was no denying what they all had witnessed. Though, there wasn’t much they could do about it.  When the hangars were opened, Rainbow and the pilots were met with stunned silence from the UTA. Clash was the first to react.  “What the hell happened!?” “They just grew,” said Pantera, shrugging. Clash kicked a vine, finding it firmly rooted through the crack in the concrete.  He looked like he wanted to say more, but instead shook his head and ordered, “Get the jets out of there.  While they’re gone, somebody get that flamethrower.” Flamethrower?  But there was no time for Rainbow to gawk.  They had a mission. Wind Rider led off, as always.  The other six followed him up.  The short runway made a quick takeoff prudent.  They made sure to avoid the dead elephant that was nearly on the runway. Mission or no, all anyone could talk about were the air potatoes. “This is so strange!” said Striker.  “I’ve never seen anything like it, and we have all kinds of weird plants in the jungle back home.  Not even kudzu grows that fast.” “You all really have no idea where it came from?” said Wind Rider. A chorus of no’s replied.  Rainbow wasn’t one of them. “Do you have any idea?” Kiel tried. “There have been a lot of unexplained things,” Wind Rider allowed.  “I heard something about a laughing sickness going around.  This new airport seems at least as...afflicted, I suppose, as the other place.  Strange things keep happening.  Not that we’re staying long.  I heard the other diamond mine dried up, too.” “I didn’t think I’d died and gone to hell,” Pantera muttered. “You think so?” Striker replied. Rainbow, while she might have thought so before, had gotten too much benefit from the strange happenings to think the same. “I guess this being purgatory would explain a lot of things,” Striker remarked. “If you buy into religion,” said Pug. “It depends on the religion,” said Pantera.  “I remember something Phoenix Whitebirch once wrote about-” “Who?” “She was elected First Officer of the Covenant of the Goddess back in the nineties.” “Wait, you’re actually Wiccan, not some crazy voodoo thing?” Lightning broke in. “What I was saying,” Pantera went on, “Was that not all purgatories are between Heaven and Hell.” “If you all don’t lock it up, you’ll find out,” Wind Rider ordered.  “Follow me.”  He came about on a new course. Rainbow banked into the turn, but something seemed off.  Her jet gave a little shimmy and a warning light illuminated on the panel.  She didn’t speak Russian, and didn’t know what it was for. “Six, you’re trailing smoke,” Kiel called. Rainbow craned her neck.  He was right.  “I’ve got some kind of problem here.” “Can you make it back?” Wind Rider asked. There was a faint poof and the MiG started to decelerate rapidly.  “No!” “Manatada is due south.  Try for that.” Rainbow brought the jet around, trying to save as much airspeed as possible.  The dart-shaped jet didn’t glide very well.  She could see the abandoned air base in the distance, but wasn’t sure if she was going to make it. Her mind raced, trying to process what the problem could be.  Nothing she could fix, more than likely.  It also seemed such a strange way for an engine to fail. She waited to drop the landing gear until the last possible moment, hoping that without power it actually would drop.  The fence got large underneath her, but she barely cleared it and touched down short on the runway. It was then that she discovered that the brakes didn’t work. Being on the ground was step one.  Slowing down from two hundred miles per hour was a big step two.  Rainbow lowered the flaps and tried to use a combination of ailerons and rudder to add drag.  With no power, the control inputs were heavy. She still had the ejection seat, but that was a last resort.  Not only would it be unpleasant, but with the jet on the ground she wasn’t sure if her parachute would open in time. By the other end of the runway, the MiG had slowed to an indicated ninety kilometers per hour.  It dropped off the pavement and rolled through the clumps of grass, slowing faster now, but also threatening to bounce over. The fence came up, and that finally stopped the dead jet.  The chain link tore, the MiG's punched its sharp nose through but caught its wings against the fence and came to a halt.  Rainbow let out the breath she’d been holding since the incident began. She took stock.  The remains of the fence were actually behind the canopy.  She opened the release and climbed up, sitting on the back of the cockpit with her feet down on the seat. “Six, are you all right?” she heard in her still plugged-in headset.  She looked up to see the other aircraft circling. “I'm alive.” “I’ve already called a recovery crew,” said Wind Rider.  “If you know what’s good for you, you’ll stay put.  There’s nothing left at the base for you, and there’s nowhere you can run without supplies.” He may have even been telling the truth, Rainbow realized.  Still, that didn’t mean she wasn’t going to look around base.  “I’m getting off the radio now.  I don’t want to be anywhere near the plane if it catches on fire.” She unplugged and did as she said.  Walking over the spine of the plane, she dropped to the ground, sliding down the lowered flaps. If the recovery crew was on the way, Rainbow estimated she had at least half an hour before they arrived.  Maybe as much as an hour. She saw the planes departing, still having to complete their mission.  Wind Rider either thought his warning would get her to stay put, or hoped it would.  Though, Rainbow realized, she would go back to the small airport at Katange.  Her personal mission wasn’t over yet.  Not without everyone. But while she was here, where would she go first?  The command building, of course.  Rainbow had little doubt that everything else of interest had probably been removed. Of course, it was to no great surprise to discover the place was empty.  She had to break the padlock off with a rock to find that out, though. She walked through the bare rooms, trying to visualize what they had contained.  If only she could get her hands on a map.  Just a quick look, to orient herself. There was no way to get blood from an air potato, though.  If there was nothing to find, then Rainbow would find nothing.  Resignedly, she went to wait for the crew from Katange.