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tell he was worried. I wanted to
hide. “Are you sure?” he said.
    “Yeah, you look like someone stepped on your
kitten,” said Guido.
    “I said I’m fine!” I yelled. Everyone stopped
talking.
    “Just asking,” he said. He moved away from
me.
    “Hey, what’s wrong with you?” said Tracy.
    “Didn’t you hear?” said Guido. “He’s fine.
Let’s leave him alone.”
    “Okay,” said Tracy. “I hear you.”
    Once we were suited up and ready, we walked
outside the hangar and found our transportation.
    The plane was a Rickshaw V-68. Nicknamed
“Wyvern”. It had been experimental. I read about it in that book in
my room. It was sleek, black, and beautiful, but at the time, I
didn’t care. Inside, it was a tight fit. I sat down and put on my
harness. I could hear what people were saying, but it was like I
was hearing it from a long ways away. I couldn’t seem to focus.
    “Sorry about the squeeze everyone,” said the
pilot. “This plane has been modified a little to make it possible
to transport you all. Usually it only fits four, but we’re trying
to accommodate all five. . .” Brock crouched down while turning
sideways in order to move past the pilot. “Make that five and a
half of you.”
    “Funny,” said Brock, who wasn’t laughing.
Neither was I.
    Once we squeezed together and strapped in, I
heard Guido ask the pilot, “How fast does this plane go?”
    “We should pass Mach 3 without much
difficulty,” he said. I just stared across the plane to the
opposite wall. What was wrong with me?
    “Anything in case of missiles?” asked
Han.
    “No worries there,” said the pilot. “This
thing outruns them. Since its deployment, the Wyvern has never been
shot down.”
    “Good to hear,” said Guido. “How long ago was
this plane first deployed?”
    “Last week,” said the pilot.
    “Great!” Guido said, “So we’re guinea pigs.
We’re gonna die!”
    “Once we get in the air,” said the pilot, “I
will have to turn on the inertial dampers. I just want to warn you
that it might make you feel pretty weird when that happens, but
it’s better than being crushed by the acceleration. People respond
differently to it, so I can’t tell you exactly what will happen. At
worst, you’ll feel sick.”
    And with that we were in the air. He was
right about the inertial dampers. It felt really weird. Kind of
like when my brother and I spun around in circles until we fell
down. We would spin until we felt like barfing, then fall down and
get back up and try to walk. The plane was like that for me. Only
add to that being punched in the stomach. Tracy actually had to
grab a plastic bag and throw up. It made me feel sick too, but I
didn’t throw up. After that, I closed my eyes. I imagined I was
back home.
    The trip took a couple of hours. The others
talked, especially Tracy who didn’t seem to stop talking except for
when she barfed. I think the others were pretty nervous, so they
were much quieter. Later, Tracy and Guido got talking and kept at
it for the rest of the trip. No one bothered me.
    I think I fell asleep for a few minutes. Of
all the strange places to take a nap. Just then, someone hit my arm
and I heard the pilot. “We’re going to lower our altitude so we can
skim just above the water. You should get ready.” We put on our
scuba tanks and fins.
    “This is where you get out,” he said a few
minutes later. “Ready to jump?”
    “What?” I said. “This is a V-68. V is for
vertical landing, right? Can’t it stop?”
    “Not this time,” he said. “No place to land
and I need to get out of this airspace before we get shot down. I'm
sorry you weren't briefed on this.”
    A door opened at the side of the plane and
the sound of rushing air was loud.
    Water was speeding by and I saw a seagull go
by like a bullet. “Are you nuts?” I yelled. I would either be
killed or crippled for life!
    The plane slowed down more, but it was still
going fast. My heart started to beat faster. I was