Chapter 25

The voles were released and we gathered all of our belongings between us. I held two of the crystals in my hands and concentrated on a good location. This one happened to be right on top of a very high cliff.

We felt disoriented. The sun was now directly overhead again but we were relatively safe for the first time in many weeks. We checked to make sure then looked at our location.

"You want us to fall off of this cliff and go all the way down there?"

This area was larger than the Grand Canyon in depth and breadth but was not as majestic for its full length. There was a lot of wind that rose out of the canyon and a sailplane could use this to gain a lot of altitude. The depth of this valley was enough that we would gain quite a bit of air speed and the width was great enough that we could do something with that speed once we got it.

I showed Sonya what I thought of much more clearly with my mind than my words.

"I read about sailplanes too. They work only in the daytime when the sun heats the ground. I don't know how high the vertical winds get to but we need a lot of margin to work above the mountains. I think we should see about pushing air with our PK first. When I do this it is tiring. We are going to need a lot of altitude and I doubt if we can push or pull against anything solid when we get that high."

"So, you're saying we need a motor?"

"Yes I do. Maybe even two. It will have to be more like a plane but we can build it light enough that it can use the thermals too. Have you ever thought of turning a shaft with a propeller on it?"

I took a dried stalk of grass and turned it with my mind going slow was easy but when I tried to do it fast it became uncontrollable.

"I don't think I can do this fast enough or long enough. We rebuilt the engines in the 'Lady' and didn't know everything we know now. We could probably build a lightweight diesel engine to do the pushing. I don't think it has to be very big if we have the size of wing a sailplane uses. If we use thin materials we can change them to tar. We would have no problem with heat or weight."

Sonya said, "There were all those other things that pumped the fuel into the cylinder at the right time. We had an existing design with a crankshaft and camshaft. We are going to have to make this from scratch. Then we have to make the plane from scratch and we will be here for years. There are jet engines, and some are very simple. One just has a flap in front of it."

"That kind is a lot simpler but it is very loud. I remember seeing one in a 'Popular Mechanic's' magazine once that powered a go-cart. We can make that even easier if we make propane, for that is what it used in the magazine article."

"Could we do the same thing with an electric motor. The power we make could be converted but I don't know if anybody has used it directly other than in an attack. Remember how it wrecked the house wiring in Toronto?"

"Yes, I do. It was a small group of crystals too. I have never heard of any research done on this either. An electric motor is much simpler though there are a lot of minor tweaks that are done to it to get improved performance and efficiency. A device using our power may be similar."

Sonya and I made a home and workshop first. We hollowed an area out in the cliff ten metres down from the brink. We made the area a hundred metres wide and deep with a headroom of only three metres. Posts had to go in until we converted everything around us to tar. The opening was partially closed with thin material to keep out the wind. We needed the room for a sailplane that we needed may have to have a very long wingspan.

Usually we worked together and this was no time to not do so. Sonya had a lot of good ideas and most of them were quite practical. At this point we could start with a clean slate. We knew of no information on how to use the power stored in the crystals.

When we really thought about it we used our minds to tap the crystal and this must mean that it used the forth or fifth dimension. It was logical then that our mind took this energy and channelled it the way we wanted. We wanted now to start the release of the power but to direct it other places to see how it effected matter.

The crystals we used were the smallest possible. The energy was still enough to give us problems if it rushed out uncontrollably. I held a crystal the size of a grain of rice but this was still too big. A smaller crystal required a way to support it. We simply bonded a crystal the size of a grain of sand to a large rock.

When I tried to release the energy the crystal disintegrated and I fell to the ground with a massive headache. Sonya was a safe distance away and came rushing to me. She healed me with her spells and then said, "What happened?"

"I don't know. It happened too fast to monitor. It just blew up."

We investigated the rock and found a large pit in it where the crystal was. "I see it effects matter."

"Maybe it is how you released the energy. I was monitoring you but it was too fast to see just what you did. I want to do the next."

"I was going to do that."

"We are partners or I am your slave. Which is it?"

"At times like this I like the second choice. You are just too precious to me."

"And what do you think when I see you experimenting?"

We made an even smaller crystal and mounted it to the rock but this time I used a time spell on some of the air so that nothing would hit Sonya. She looked a bit exasperated at me but kept her thoughts hidden. There was another blast but I felt most of it through our link. Sonya was still standing though she was leaning on the time frozen air for support. I had a healing spell ready when I got there and she now smiled at me gamely.

"It started the way I wanted but the energy rushed out so fast that the control I had on it was not enough."

We destroyed all of the smallest crystals and at noon we entered our subterranean home with a great view of the valley. I asked, "You want to make some whoopee?"

Sonya smiled and agreed. We made the crystals in a variety of shapes and in some we built a strong shell around the crystal to direct the discharge. In all the cases the shell was many times more massive than the crystals themselves. We experimented with tar encased crystals but these were difficult to make. We charged up all the new crystals and then did the same for the ones we usually used.

After I had nice meal of Sonya we had regular food and returned to our testing. We had some different results with the bare shapes and different again with those clad with regular and tar materials.

Over the next three days we found that Sonya had a better grasp of this than I did so I started working with materials for our powered sailplane. Glue was an important item. I rightly thought that the stronger the item was originally the stronger it would be after the conversion. The strongest thing I knew of was carbon fibre but this was a difficult commodity to make. A clear canopy would be great if we could shade ourselves from the sun if we wanted but I couldn't make anything that was clear.

I made models with a two metre wingspan and launched them from our home. Most plunged while making some very convoluted manoeuvres. Usually I just had to move the wings forward or back just a bit to make them more stable. To make the process go faster I just formed the shield I wanted over something roughly the right shape and put the thinnest paper possible on it. The wings were made separately then attached as was the tail assembly.

My glue was not bad but it was not good either. The parts were assembled and after being forced to dry were converted to tar. The weight of the ship was close to that of a balloon. Rocks were glued into the cockpit to represent our bodies and the plane was thrown out our large open window.

Sonya continued her research but looked on at what I was doing with a lot of interest.

I was up to models with a four metre wingspan when Sonya said, "I found out something about the crystals. The first is that we may not need an motor and propeller."

"Are you going to turn the shaft directly?"

"Something better. The crystals that were made like a teardrop work the best. I tap the energy at the tip. If it is inside a tightfitting tar container it will not rapidly disintegrate. It pushes the air at that point with a lot of force. We can have a rocket engine. The major problems is that the crystal heats up and breaks down from the inside. If I can get some cooling then this should go away. I have to start each of the crystals working individually."

She had her mind open and I looked at her research. It was a lot easier to learn this way and I pointed out, "Do you think you can you turn off the flow? The crystals may naturally cool this way. We can also make a metal device to help radiate the heat."

"I have thought of that too. While you were making carbon fibre, I was trying to make metallic hydrogen. As long as it is in the tar it will stay as a metal but it cannot radiate there. I used aluminum fins then but they had to be in a tar cage to hold the pressure. There is still a cooling problem."

We both went back to engine development and we made all of the designs that were in Sonya's mind and a few more that occurred to me. Sonya was happy with the results but I didn't pry into what they were.

I made a full scale model on the prairie. With my PK I gave it a good push to get going and it tipped over and crashed. Sonya had been watching but didn't let the smile reach her thoughts. She helped me move the wings forward and then turn the area back into tar.

It was two days later that I actually flew across the land at a height of a metre. I only went up to three metres as a safety precaution. It was nine days later that I had a similar sized plane but now I had the control surfaces that I would need to fly the plane. What I had before was the equivalent of a large paper aeroplane with everything fixed.

Sonya presented me with two tubes about ten centimetres in diameter and just under a metre in length. "These have a lot of thrust. I learned to turn the crystals on and off for cooling and the amount of power we want to use. When you are ready we can mount these on your plane."

I looked at her smiling face then into her mind and I saw how much thrust they really had. "Those would rip the wings off any plane we could build if we didn't have tar."

"We can use just a little of the power at a time but I don't know about charging them in flight."

"That may be fun but dangerous I think."

"We are living on the edge anyway."

I refused to have Sonya in the plane for the first powered flight and had a bag of rocks instead. It was good that I did. The acceleration was so much that the plane rose almost vertically and did a roll to crash into the ground. It was Sonya that caught the plane and kept me from being hurt.

After working out what went wrong we altered the design again. The design worked and Sonya demanded her place by me. I didn't want this but had no way of changing her mind.

We climbed to a hundred metres with a minimal thrust but when we increased it ten percent the plane became unstable. When we eased back she said, "This is a lot nicer than riding a modda. How fast are we going?"

"I'll find out soon." I swung around a marker that was ten kilometres from our home and headed back while using my internal clock. I was thinking of the time as we went over the edge to the large gorge. An updraft caught us and we almost flipped though we gained a lot of altitude.

I banked and tried to return to the prairie but the plane didn't react as I thought it should. I had never flown before and had to learn all this as I went. Sonya thought she would help and allowed one rocket to push just a bit more.

The plane now went out of control and spiralled towards the river so very far below. Sonya was frantic and so was I but I couldn't get the plane to straighten out even if it was in a dive. We were spiralling so fast that it was difficult to push against the cliff to slow our rotation.

The rotation slowed but our descent didn't. I forcibly grabbed Sonya's mind and tried to calm her as I used our combined push to get us away from the cliff and to widen our circle of rotation. There was no way I could stop the plane from rotating on its axis.

I tried thrusting with the engines to see if it would pull us out of our spin but it only brought our nose up. We were still falling with no airspeed. I used my eye and knew that the rocks were getting close very quickly. I pushed with both of our abilities so we would go over the river. With something to push on, I got the plane to stop the spin. I cut in the engines just before we hit the water. The shock of the landing was hard, even on us but then we were pushed back in our seats by the thrust. We gained altitude slowly but the bank was close.

Sonya used her PK to pick us up but that put another shock to us and the airframe. We gained enough height to miss the bank then we had to turn quickly as we were now aimed at the cliff. I banked once again but used my PK to make sure it went as I wanted it to be.

Sonya was shaking and I said, "I love you."

"I almost killed us."

"You were trying to help. This plane is experimental. We are learning as we go. We came out of this with our skin still whole. Now let's go home and see what we can do to make the plane more stable."

I stayed far from the cliff face and soon caught a thermal to assist us in climbing. I banked away from the valley only after gaining a lot more altitude and then flew low to the prairie and home.

I had to help Sonya into our home and we curled up on the bed. It was hours later that she was over the most of her fright and we made tender love.

It was five weeks later that we had a safe enough plane. The wingspan was sixty eight metres. And we could carry perhaps six more people if they stayed in place or a lot of cargo. We found that size equated with stability and size gave us room for a bed and lots of room for equipment.

Two more engines were added but these were to keep us flying longer without recharging the original set. We had not found any transparent tar so we made a large glass canopy that was specially treated to make it strong and hard.

The cabin could be airtight so we made a cylinder of air if we needed it. The day before the departure date we tried to find out our maximum ceiling. We took it easy as we circled for altitude. We were well above the clouds now and using only the engines.

Sonya said verbally, "I flew three times in my life, but I don't think I was ever as high as we are now. With a few more motors we may even get into orbit. I am not sure if the engines can give thrust then or not."

"We can try it later my pretty little engineer.

We landed and the ship was placed in our hangar. It looked small compared to the size of the opening. It was a simple arrangement but we loved this place. It was cool and had some very good ventilation if we chose to use it. For an aviation school it would be great.

That night we charged up all the crystals in the nicest possible way. We were going back into a dangerous environment and knew that we had to keep our guard up a lot more in the future. We held each other close as usual during our sleep and felt much more comfortable for doing so. I was sure our minds and dreams somehow were linked on a much deeper level.

The next morning, we showed more joviality than we felt. We tidied up the hangar of anything that could blow away after having a good breakfast. We got into the cockpit and Sonya kissed me tenderly with her mind tightly shut. She was worried.

The seats were strong because we accelerated the three hundred metres to the opening at one earth gravity. In less than eight seconds we were out the opening and into the thermal that came up this early in the morning. We circled within the thermal and climbed very quickly.

Sonya was in charge of the thrust and monitored it very carefully. She shut off crystals that had been on for a while others were turned on. It was a joy to fly this plane and I estimated that we were forty thousand metres which was higher than any planes that flew even the high altitude planes could not reach this high. It looked like we were going slow but the little motors pushed us at what I thought was three and a half times the speed of sound. At this speed the mountains we wanted came up very quickly.

We both focussed our need and tried to get a mathematical bearing. We turned very slowly at this speed and from a position more north and east we took another bearing.

With the motors now off we started to glide. We had no radar but I suspected that our glide ratio was at least seventy to one. With enough time and effort I knew we could get an even better figures.

We shot past the area we wanted at thirty thousand metres and had to drop much further so the thicker air could slow us down. We had no spoilers to arrest our speed but we could form insubstantial hands that cupped the air to slow us down.

Far ahead I saw a single colcha flying about twenty degrees off our course and looked as small as it appeared when we were on the ground. We were by him in seconds and I doubt if he even knew we were here. We used our speed to do a turn and lost more altitude in doing so. We were headed back the way we had just come but this time I think the colcha saw us.

We shot past the location one more time before making one more turn at only twenty thousand feet. The mountain we wanted was only seventy kilometres away now but we had a fast approaching colcha coming right at us. I brought my mental hands in and engaged the engines and climbed over the colcha. He could not move as we could but we got back on course for the mountain once more.

"Adam, I think that we better put a time spell on the ship. I was trying to say hello to that colcha at his frequency and I think he is very angry at us."

"We can fly a lot faster than him but he has a lot of weight and a lot of power in that jaw and claws of his. I think we better have a way of anchoring the plane to the mountain too."

We came to a high mountain valley with a lot of large caves. There was some level spots but they were all covered by some trees. I didn't know his this kind could grow at this altitude.

On a large boulder I brought the nose up to stall and we put out our PK to hold us. We slowly settled to the rock but there was very little room to even get out of the plane. Sonya got out first and cast a spell to keep us in position while I got our packs. Sonya caught them when they were thrown and I jumped out too. I reached back and closed the canopy then used the time spell to freeze the craft so nothing could disturb it.

Sonya and I got safely to the ground when a shadow came over us and in seconds we saw that colcha bank and come again. We moved only a few metres from the rock when the animal came to a rest not twenty metres from us. We could feel the thump to the ground and were buffeted by the wind from his wings.

I said, "Hello, we came to visit a friend."

The colcha tried to strike at us with its beak but we were prepared and moved. Sonya said, "That is a poor way to greet a visitor."

He seemed to suspect that Sonya was talking at him and he made a quick snap at her. I had no weapon that I wanted to use so I took a hefty limb and sheared it then cut off the smaller branches. He had tried for me now and Sonya had to distract him. When he took another snap at Sonya I rushed in and swung the ten centimetre thick club at the colcha's leg. It screeched and hopped out of the way.

"If you leave us alone we can talk. I have no interest in hurting you or anybody else."

Without knowing the thoughts of the colcha, I knew somehow that it was still very angry and not about to listen to reason. It took another try at Sonya and when I came in to bruise its leg more its tail came in to catch me instead. I had time to put up my shield and I was thrown quite a distance away.

When I got up in a few seconds I saw Sonya in close throwing rocks and dirt at the colcha to distract it. As I ran to the creature it used its beak and tail again but this time it used one of the two lower pair and was able to grab Sonya.

Sonya quickly said, "My shield is up. I am not in pain."

I knew this was not quite true but I raced forward with my PK, I was able to climb on the willy snake himself. My PK went out and I tried my best to squeeze the snakes neck. It twisted its head left and right very quickly trying to throw me off but I held on for not only my sake but for Sonya's.

The wings came up next trying to strike me and they did but my shield was ready to protect me. Sonya was using her PK to hold one of the wings a bit so the colcha would not take it into its mind to take to the air with us.

Our gyrations brought us close to the bolder supporting our plane. Seeing a chance I used one portion of my PK to hold the colcha's upper neck while I tried to draw the bolder closer. The colcha's head struck the bolder three times before it released Sonya. I did it once more and we both slid to the ground in a heap.