CYS

“Aren’t you afraid?” asked the copilot, while adjusting the buttons of her Paxton Skylines logo jacket.

“Me?” asked the pilot, with a dry throat. “And why would I be afraid? I’ve been flying planes for over 20 years.”

“Yes, yes, yes. But not through those skies. Crossing the Atlantic is a very dangerous task these days. Especially carrying around these weird boxes for this ridiculous company that makes us wear this even more ridiculous outfit.”

“I never cared about the clothes,” said the pilot, now putting on the tight collar of his coat. “What’s bothering me the most is the engine power of this old plane. I feel like, if the softest wind blows in the middle of the ocean, we’re definitely going to fall.”

“I have crossed these oceans other times with my old partner,” continued the copilot, looking firmly at the horizon. “I can guarantee you wind and storms will be the least of our problems.”

Silence took over the cockpit. The copilot seemed anxious as she watched the skies above the clouds. The clouds danced under them as if it were the ocean and they were in a boat, blown by stratospheric winds.

The pilot was more interested in the goods he was carrying. From time to time, he would leave the plane in cruising mode and run to the cargo bay to make sure everything was all right there.

“What do you think we are carrying?” asked the copilot, still looking to the side, as if she was looking for something.

“No idea. Food, perhaps?”

“Don’t think so,”  she continued. “Food is not delivered in special orders like this. I bet they’re guns.”

“I doubt it… or are they?”

“Changing the subject, don’t you think you should lower your altitude a little and fly inside the clouds?”

“Under my dead body!” said the pilot, a little nervous. “This thing is going to go into a nonstop turbulence and that’s when we’re definitely going down.”

“I don’t know… we look like an easy target here.”

“Easy target for whom?”

“Didn’t I tell you how I lost my old travel partner?”

The pilot shook his head, as if he didn’t want to know what the woman had to tell him.

“Pirates!”

“Pirates!”

“Yes. Sky Pirates.”

“Is there such a thing?”

“Of course there is. And I can guarantee you that they would never come after us for food. I can’t say the same for the guns though…”

“We’re not carrying weapons, young lady. Rest assured.”

“I’m sure they’re weapons. Those heavy wooden boxes… I can smell the ammunition from here.”

Nervous and silently, the pilot began to study the equipment. He analyzed the environment, sun direction, and pressurization.

“Right,” the pilot gave in, with a trembling voice. “If we are going down, we have to be prepared for a possible storm ahead.”

Also, in silence, the copilot leaned on the armchair and loosened some of her coat buttons. It was impossible to see through her. She spoke of pirates with the utmost calm and a storm ahead did not seem to be a problem.

Without asking for more opinion, the pilot pressed a series of buttons, picked up the stick and pushed forward, making the plane he was flying dive against the thick cloud under them as if it was water.

Darkness took over the cabin and the ship began to tremble. A turbulence alert went off on the dashboard and the pilot ignored it, taking the ship even further down.

Water droplets began to hit the cockpit glass, a sign that they were entering a raining area. The pilot was now focused on his task, and could not think of anything but keeping that plane in the air. The more he worked at it, the stronger the water hitting the glass in front of him. From then on, they were flying blind, just with gadget help.

What have I gotten myself into! Thought the pilot, now fighting for his life. Feeling sorry for himself, he thought he could go back up the clouds, where he was flying well, but given the level of rain and wind, it would be easier to go down the cloud and fly between them and the sea. It was when a flash of light crossed the sky and hit the ship in full, turning off half of the machines.

“Electrical failure,” he said to himself. “We were struck by lightning.”

“Don’t you think the plane shook too much for lightning?”

Their quarrel was interrupted by another flash of light, causing the plane to tremble even more, tilting slightly to the right. Now, all the support equipment was down.

“Take the stick,” said the pilot standing up and entering the cargo bay.

It was chaotic inside. The boxes were still tied by the seat belts, but they swayed from side to side as the plane shook in the air. Water poured down the floor, back and forth. There was a hole somewhere. Leaning on the boxes, the pilot deepened into the cargo bay. Back there, he found a gap big enough for the boxes to fall out into the sea.

Despite the violent depressurization, the pilot headed towards the breach, with the intention of placing something there that could temporarily close the hole. He tied his girdle to a safety bar and moved forward.

When he got close to the breach, a lot of water was coming in. It was like they were pouring buckets of water into the ship. Outside, he could only see the darkness of the storm. Black as deep as the universe. And in the middle of nowhere, a red light stood out.

Is there another plane there?

And the pilot got his answer quickly enough. The red light approached and became even stronger. A ship was now noticeable between the light from the storms that crossed the skies, but the red light was not from the plane, but from a person’s eye, who appeared leaning against the cargo door of the approaching plane.

The figure who emerged was a tall, lean woman. She wore Victorian clothes and a sailor’s hat, hanging around her neck swayed by the wind. Two old pistols hanging from her holster made her look even more dangerous. An ocular prosthesis covered almost half of her face, and her red eye stared at the pilot as if analyzing his soul.

“Yarrrrl!  ha ha ha!” cried the woman as she approached. Her mouth opened and screamed like the devil himself, between the rain and the storm. “My eye doesn’t miss anything, my boy!”

Frightened, and fleeing from the strong air pressure that pulled him out, the pilot ran into the cockpit and locked the door. Not to mention, in the dark, he sat on the stick and took control of the ship.

“Pirates!” shouted to the copilot. “I will not deliver this cargo even if I have to die.”

However, before he could push the stick forward and thrust the plane into the sea, he felt the chill of a gun barrel touch his ear. When he looked to the side, the copilot, now in an old suit, without her Paxton Skylines’ uniform, was pointing the gun directly at him.

“You can stand there dear,” she said, in a mockery tone. “It will only last a few minutes.”

“So you…?” The pilot stuttered. “You traitor!”

“I would be if I had helped you escape. Ha ha ha! My principles are different.”

The pilot remained silent, brooding over the feeling of incapacity that had grown into his chest.

“Did it hurt?” asked the copilot pirate, with a smirk on her face. “We’ve finished. I’ll see you around…”

While talking the woman disappeared into the cargo bay.

The pilot, still shivering like bamboo in a storm, tried to restart the equipment so he could go back to flying safely. The equipment turned on soon enough, but the ship was losing so much altitude that it was about to find the sea.

The pilot managed to get the ship to fly, despite the aerodynamics being compromised. A few meters from the sea, the great mass of clouds hanging above it and not a single drop of water falling or thunder storming. On the horizon, the sky opened to show a reddish sunset, but he knew darkness would come again soon enough.

Red was the color I deserved now. Recently stolen by pirates who I didn’t even know existed, I’d have to come back empty-handed.

Besides the trauma, I’d be left with shame.