Chapter 9

Upon lowering the forcefeild, the two special operations transports launched into the storm, along with three armed hoverjets to meet the remaining pirates outside. The pirates moved to engage. At this time the ion bolts hadn’t reached the lower atmosphere yet.

“Raven Two, this is Raven Leader,” one of the hoverjet pilots radioed to his wingmen. “We have four bandits at twelve o’clock high. They are not retreating; we’re using all necessary force.”

“Raven Three, engage the right flank. Raven Two, cover me.” Raven One broke formation and moved off. Raven Leader and Raven Three opened fire, as they dove into the midst of the hostile crafts. The pirates broke off their head-on attack, and took evasive maneuvers. Raven Leader came up behind a pirate and took aim. The Holocomm jet easily outmaneuvered the obsolete pirate hoverjet. Raven Leader’s guns sounded with a flurry of rapidly firing lasers. The pirate took damage to its port side and back, as it tried vainly to dodge. It was soon brought to the ground. Two of the remaining three pirates started tracking Raven Two, firing at him.

“Raven Two! Watch your back; you’ve got two bandits on your six,” Raven Leader warned. The third pirate began attacking the transports. “A little help here!” Bill called to the escorts through his radio. Raven Three maneuvered into position to rescue Raven Two. He fired upon one hoverjet, hitting it, which caused the other one to break off. Raven Leader moved to intercept the pirate attacking the transports. As he closed in on the transports, the pirate pilot looked behind him to see Raven Three shoot down another one of his comrades. Raven Leader was coming up behind him. The remaining pirates had had enough. They broke off their attacks, deployed their afterburners and rocketed away.

“Do not pursue!” commanded Raven Leader. “Let the storm take care of them.” The three hoverjets returned to the transports’ sides. The transports sped on under Jessica’s direction. Finally, ions started flashing around the five craft. They banked and turned to avoid them, suffering several near misses.

“We can’t survive out here very long in this storm,” Bill shouted to Jessica over the din of the storm. “Where did you say your brother was?”

“About twenty miles past the Azural Plateau,” she shouted back. “We need to look for a certain ridge when we get there!” As they approached the Azural Plateau, five miles out, the ion storm began to shift course and moved off towards the southeast. The sun once again shone through, brighter than ever.

“Praise the Lord,” shouted Jessica. “I knew he wouldn’t abandon us now!” With the storm gone, the battle group was able to increase to full speed, and they closed the remaining distance in a few minutes.

“There,” Jessica said, pointing to the ground ahead of them. “Head for those ridges over there!” The transports circled low over the area, searching as the minutes dragged on with no more luck, in finding any sign of Norman’s presence, than Jessica and Sean had had before. It seemed like an eternity to Jessica.

“Norman, please! Where are you?” Jessica cried out in desperation. “Please God, don’t let me lose him!” She scanned the ridges harder for a sign, any sign. Then she noticed something peculiar on the ground just ahead. Tears of joy formed in her eyes when she noticed what it was. “Thank you, Norman,” she said aloud. “God be praised.” Everybody in the transport look at her questioningly. “I know where he is, Bill. Head for that ridge right there. See that small triangle down there? It’s partly covered by cacklebrush.” Bill and Sean looked carefully and then they saw it too. On the ground near the ridge lay a small triangle with a circle in the middle. It appeared to be made out of strips of scrap metal. Jessica recognized this symbol of her and Norman’s childhood as the triangular-shaped cacklebrush flower. It touched Jessica’s heart as she remembered when she was seven and Norman was six. They had exchanged two of these flowers between themselves, promising to “always be there for each other”. Now she was fulfilling her end of the bargain.

“How did you see that?” Sean asked, very impressed.

“I’m not sure. It’s as if God just revealed it to me.” The pilot landed the transport beside the mark, and the rescue party hurried over to the ridge to look for Norman’s cave. In passing, they noticed that the two cacklebrush that were near the symbol had been uprooted. As Jessica searched, she found some more uprooted cacklebrush hiding a small wall of rocks on front of a cavern entrance. She pulled the cacklebrush off, tore down the rock wall and rushed inside. Norman sat up with much effort to meet his sister. She knelt by his side and took him up in her arms.

“I knew you would come back, Jessica, I knew you would,” Norman said weakly. Jessica just held him there. Sean, Bill and the others shortly arrived in the cave as well. They stopped short of Jessica and Norman. They stooped, watching the touching scene, not wanting to interrupt.

“Are you alright, Norm?” she asked between tears.

“I’ve had a really bad headache for a while and feel really weak.”

“Then we’ve got to get you out of here as quickly as possible. Wait, there’s one question that’s really on my mind. How did you keep the pirates from finding the Flier?” Norman pointed behind him. Jessica looked to see the wreckage of the Azura Flier piled there. Jessica turned back to her brother, smiling broadly.

* * *

Norman was carried on a stretcher into the Comm. Room to be reunited with his parents. After his parents held him for a few minutes in joyful tears, he had something he needed to say.

“Mom, Dad, I have something to confess,” he began.

“Certainly not now, Norman,” Peter said, sniffing. “Now that you and Jessica are safely back with us you don’t have to confess anything, nobody could have prevented all this, and it’s not your fault.”

“No, you don’t understand. When we went out to play laser tag, we didn’t go to the Azural Plateau. We went twenty miles past it.”

“Norman, you didn’t,” Carol broke.”

“I’m sorry; I know I should have told you. But I didn’t tell Jessica that I said that we were only going as far as the plateau, so please don’t get mad at her. After we crashed during the storm, Jessica tried to get back here to get help for me, and that is when the pirates caught her. If I hadn’t lied to all three of you, we wouldn’t have been caught in that storm.

“Why didn’t you tell us, Norman?” Peter asked.

“I don’t know, I just thought you wouldn’t really let us go that far because you were still cautious about the pirates.”

“We told you that you didn’t have to worry too much anymore. You should have just asked us.”

“I know it was a stupid thing to do, I have no excuses, and I deserve any punishment you give me.”

“Well let’s not talk about that right now, Norman. We’re just thrilled to have you back.” Peter and Carol embraced their son again. Jessica waited for the right moment to speak.

“Mom and Dad, I would like you to meet my rescuer, Sean. Sean, meet my parents, Mom, Dad, this is Sean. Peter and Carol extended their hands to him. Sean was a little embarrassed from the attention, but he shook hands with them.

“Sean, any good friend of our daughter’s is a good friend of ours,” Peter said as he shook Sean’s hand vigorously. “Come visit us any time, in fact, you should come for dinner with us tonight. What do you say?”

“Most certainly, Mr. McKinley. Thank you.”

“Please, call me Peter.”

“How is Forty-Four, dad,” Jessica asked.

“Why don’t you ask him yourself honey?” Jessica heard a soft whirr in the doorway behind her father and LD98-44 came hovering in. “I remotely activated him and signaled him to come over while you were gone to get Norm.

“Hey Forty-Four, what’s up?” Jessica knocked twice on the robot’s side, their favorite way of greeting each other.

“You are, it seems,” LD98 Forty-Four answered.

“Yes, I’d have to say that my spirits are pretty high right now, lil’ buddy.”

“I’m sorry to interrupt, but we need to get Norman to the medical facility as soon as possible if you want to come with us,” Kelly said. “That leg looks really bad.” Peter and Carol turned their attention back to their son and they, along with Sean, Jessica, and Forty-Four, walked with Norman’s stretcher as the two commandoes holding it carried him towards the hospital, which was in the next building. “Also, you’ll be glad to know that I have sent the commandoes against the pirates,” Kelly added. “The remaining pirates that had been chasing the transports when you were out looking for Norman were forced to crash-land because the storm was too intense. Our commandoes picked them up easily.”

“Miss Kelly? Please contact your men and tell them to look for a particular pirate named Harvey while they move on the pirate camp and tell them to treat him well,” Jessica requested. “And please tell the court not to sentence him harshly; he’s been very kind to me.” “If you say so Jessica; I’ll inform the necessary officials,” Kelly answered with a kindly smile.

“Thank you ma’am.”

“Thank you, Kelly, for everything,” Peter said. The group continued towards the hospital.

“Wait until your day at school tomorrow,” Jessica said to Sean with a sly smile. “Everybody will soon know what a great guy you actually are.”

“I really don’t want all the attention,” Sean answered, blushing once again.

“Come on, it’ll be fun.”

“Are you sure they’ll even pay more attention to me?”

“Don’t worry I won’t let them overlook you.”

“That’s a comforting thought,” Sean laughed.