Lightship Chronicles Chapter 6 : The Junker, Page 3

all sit there with our legs dangling out." Andee suggests and Nayaa instantly leaps and scampers up the three meter stone wall so fast she is in the cove in half a second. A couple of nearby people in the crowd react with, "Whoa!" startled by Nayaa's swift spider like climb. Gono is pretty skilled himself as he scampers up the stone. Andee helps Mykee up, and then joins them sitting next to his brother who is between Andee and Gono. Nayaa is further back into the carved lounge. She's got the worst view of the Old Road, from behind the guys, but is already leaning back in the comfortably carved stone too chill to care.

  The sequence of lights starts up on the pylons. Red flashes first, followed by orange, changing to yellow, white, then light green, and than to a hard solid green at the very bottom of the pylon. With the green another loud horn sounds in the distance. The start is seconds away.

  "How many ships we got in this race Mykee?" Andee asks getting excited again.

  "15."

  "Full race?"

  "Yup, and all the ships that survived that last prelim are back, including 1 and the junker."

  "No way, ship15 is back." Andee retorts surprised.

  "Oh-oh." Mykee reacts. "Delay."

  Both Andee and Gono focus on the display.

  "What happened?" Nayaa asks still chilling in her comfortable cove.

  "Dun'no. But they're delaying the race a few minutes. Look they're showing the lineup again."

  All three watch the display in Mykee's lap attentively. Even Nayaa scoots up and leans over Mykee's shoulder. The line up is 1 through 15. The ships that survived the last prelim, ship5 the Black-Cross, ship6 the Streamliner, ship8 the Yellow-Teardrop, and ship13 the Winged-Cone are back. Ship4, the Rusted Teardrop is also back, dented and damaged, but apparently still working. The list of ships is as follows.

  Ship1 is of course Ricio's ship, The Silver Sickle. It's all white with shiny silver racing stripes and designs. The front is broad and round in the shape of a half moon on its side, somewhat like a sickle with both points pointing backwards. The body extends from the center of the sickle in a long sleek and elegant shape of organic curves accented by grooves and rounded flares. The very back turns into a flat horizontal fishtail-like feature with back pointing tips on the outer edges. The pilot's egg-shaped bubble is encased in the center of the body. It has all around views on top as well as on the bottom, around the seat. The ship floats about a meter off the ground on a glowing pillow of hazy white light that seems to be the mechanism keeping this machine in the air.

  The new lightships start with ship2, the Dragonfly. It's iridescent greenish-blue with a bubble shaped like a single dragonfly eye, at the front of the body, which than tapers back over the top. Behind the bubble the top of the body continues to taper down into a point, all made of segments like a short and chunky dragonfly tail. On either side of the front half of the body, and attached by flexible arms, are its two light engines that curve inward in front of the bubble like crab claws, with a meter gap between them. The light pillow below it is sky blue.

  Ship3 is the Horseshoe. It has a single light emitting engine curving around the front to both sides, like a horse shoe. It's center body is egg-shaped, mostly made of the transparent bubble material, which is then encased in a metal frame to give it extra strength. It's attached to its light engine by three flexible arms, two on the side and one up front. It's leathery brown in color with a sulfur yellow light pillow.

  Although damaged, lightship 4, the Rusted Teardrop, is back. It's body is large and rounded in the front which then tapers to a point in the back. Across the top, from front to back, runs a long tubular bubble like that of jet fighter. The bubble is ringed in two places and over the middle with a rusted metal frame for more support. The entire ship is the color of rust because it is completely rusted, and full of dents and damage from the previous crash.

  Lightship 5, the Black Cross, is made up of two four meter long parallel cylinders, that house the engines which produce the purplish-blue glow beneath. Between them, the pilot's bubble is attached to both cylinders by flexible arms. The ship is all black including the perfectly spherical bubble in the center, but does have a triangular airfoil streaming behind it to a point. The solid black metal bubble has one vertical window, from top to bottom, and a cross window wrapping horizontally, from one side to the other, forming a perfect glass cross up front. Its black paint is matte, and its engines and body made of layered metal plates with sharp edges and corners. It has a Gothic dark and menacing aura about it.

  Another returning lightship is 6, The Streamliner. It's shaped like an old streamliner locomotive. The center body is vertically taller than wide and tapers into a long fin at the back. Near the bottom, it is flanked by its broad engines on both sides making only the bottom of the ship as wide as it is tall. The pilot's bubble is right up front, in the tip of the 'nose' of the ship, which protrudes slightly forward. It's a large ship with patchy rusty-red colors, and it floats on a red glow.

  Lightship 7 is another rust bucket, the Rusted-Brick. The body is essentially a giant brick. The front and back are identical and tapered laterally like the front of a chisel, with a rectangular metal framed bubble protruding up in the middle. The long thin rectangular light engines are attached on both sides by two arms. The ship is perfectly symmetrical from every angle, and the front looks identical to the back. It varies in color since the different metal plates that cover it don't match and has a bright red light pillow.

  Lightship 8 is the Yellow Teardrop. It's the same design as ship4, teardrop shaped, but looks clean and new, freshly painted in bright yellow. It floats over a light green pillow.

  Lightship 9 is the Red Menace. It's crimson red with the underside in shiny gold. The center body is vertically taller than wide with a circular bubble attached to the front. It is very angular with hard edges and the back is segmented and tapering vertically. It's light engines are swept back, starting from the middle of the body and sweeping long behind it. They are tall and thin and slightly more rounded than the rest of the ship. It floats on a golden glow.

  Lightship 10 is The Blue Eye. It's engines are one single oval black disk attached by four arms to the central black obsidian looking bubble. The bubble is transparent but pitch black and glossy, as is the oval engine around it. It floats on a rich purple light pillow.

  Lightship 11 is The Orange Almond. Like the crashed 9 it is almond shaped with the light engines built into the body and the bubble towards the back, and floats on a red glow.

  Lightship 12 The Pearl Beauty. It's a pearl white ship and looks a bit similar to old 1930's Earth Automobiles, mainly the Auburn series, with the long sleek bodies that taper down in the back. The bubble is in the center body with four shapely light engines flaring out like wheel wells. It's beautifully decorated with copper grills at the front of the engines and body, and other copper details and stripes flowing with its curves. It floats on a faint greenish-blue pillow of light.

  Lightship 13 is the Winged Cone. Shaped like a flattened cone it has winglets on either side up front, and one horizontal wing behind the pilot's glass bubble. The ship is gray with black racing stripes and accents, and floats on a blue glow.

  Lightship 14 is the Green Orb. It's a strange ship. The body is a creamy green orb with patches of transparent bubble, forming irregular patterns all around it. Out of the body four thin arms extend in each direction with near squares engines on each end. The front and back arms are longer while the side ones shorter. It floats on a bright green light pillow.

  And last, and in fact least, is lightships 15, the Junker. This one has no bubble at all. The pilot is completely exposed, with only his suit and helmet protecting him from the heat, wind, dust, and sand at speeds reaching 600 kilometers per hour. He does have a small front windscreen, and metal flares encapsulating him on the sides, for some protection. The center body of the ship is a long cylinder with the pilot startling it, leaning forward as if riding an Earth speed bike. At the front and back there are two light engines formi
ng T shapes at both ends, each a different size. The front is wider, while the back shorter but thicker. Over the front there are metal sheets bent over like streamers to protect the front end. The ship looks like a hodgepodge of formerly crashed parts hobbled together to create this masterpiece. It floats on a bright blue glow.

  All the lightships have the one common and most important feature. The light pillow glowing below that seems to be the mechanism that keeps the ships floating up in the air. It does seem to apply force to the ground causing rocks and dust to be shot out of the back. It also seems to only allow for forward and backward movement. The ships do not slide sideways. The colors vary, but most ships have either red, green, or blue light pillows glowing beneath them, but with significant variations in their hues, from purple and sky blue, to green sea, sulfur yellow, and orange sunset variations.

  Nayaa is lurching over Mykee and is first to comment.

  "Wow, those are some interesting looking lightships. Why are they all so different?"

  "No idea. It would be cool if Mykee finds more schematics on this thing." Andee answers pointing to the display in Mykee's lap. "Maybe he could figure out how all of them work."

  "Now that would be sweet." Mykee responds. "That memory card.