Chapter 1: Prologue

To refresh your memory,

It has been eight years since the sub-orbital passenger craft 'Spindrift' took its ill-fated flight towards for London, England. The pilot for this particular flight was Captain Steve Burton. An athletic man, with a slim physique. Along with his copilot and engineer, Commander Dan Erickson, a blackman who had previously participated in the Olympics Decathlon.

Also part of the flight crew was flight attendant Betty Ann Hamilton. This beautiful blonde woman had been raised in a very restrictive family environment. Her leaving the family home was met with great anger on the part of her parents, but she never looked back.

They carried along with them four passengers.

The moviestar and socialite, Valerie Ames Scott, a ravishing redhead with shoulder length hair as soft as silk. She had made her career through the infamous casting couch, but her movies did extremely well. She did have the talent, both on the screen and off. Though the studios tried to keep it under wraps, her promiscuity always made the headlines of the supermarket rag magazines.

Sitting next to her was the multi-billionaire, Mark Wilson. He made his fortune in electronics, following in the footsteps of his mentor, Bill Gates in the late eighties. He was a natural wizard when it came to anything electronic. Despite his being behind a desk most of his life, he still managed to keep trim with a strict regimen of exercise. He was taking this particular trip for a take-over meeting in England.

The third passenger was a young boy by he name of Barry Lockridge and his dog, Chipper. He was just recently orphaned and was on his way to England to be raised by his maternal grandparents. At fourteen, he was shy and inexperienced in sex.

And finally we come to the fourth passenger of this ill-fated flight, Commander Alexander B. Fitzhugh. He was actually a con-man and smuggler trying to escape the United States with his latest profits, while posing as a military officer with secret documents to be hand-delivered. He planned to disappear as soon as the flight landed at Heathrow Air Terminal.

The flight took off from San Francisco as scheduled and reached its sub-orbital trajectory within minutes. It was here that the 'Spindrift' encountered a spatial anomaly, which sent the craft careening off course into an unknown universe.

When the Captain finally brought the craft back under control, everything appeared, as it should be, except that he had lost all radio communication with the Earth below. He was forced to bring his craft to a landing without any tower assistance.

He saw the runway and came to a smooth landing. He and his copilot, Dan, were immediately aware of the unnaturalness of the airport. The Heathrow Airport should have been buzzing with activity, yet they saw no movement through the thick fog that blanketed the runway.

They decided to advise the passengers before going outside to see where the problem may lie in the towing procedures. They both stepped out of the craft and began walking in the direction that they thought the control tower should be.

Suddenly powerful lights that immersed them in its beam blinded them. Thinking that another craft was about to land on top of them, they instinctively ducked out of the way.