The CHANGI BULLET

Chapter 4 - Dinah

Ari, Inggrid and Petrik, the new flight crew of the Izzati, arrived in Changi by military helicopter. They had been looking forward to meeting their fellow travelers, but soon discovered that everyone was off site, making their final farewells to family and loved ones (and to an estranged husband, in Cerys' case).

The three Indonesians were in the pale blue SEASA uniforms. Petrik was a little concerned that his uniform seemed to have been made for someone else, with the trouser legs a little short in the ankle region.

'Who's going to see?' chided Inggrid.

The men wore proper pilot and navigator caps, respectively, and Inggrid looked smart in her pale blue hijab. They had to settle for meeting government bigwigs, before spending time again with Director, John Tian, and some of the Ground Specialists who had trained them over the last two years. White-coated medics lingered in the background, keen to check out the replacement crew.

John Tian gave them the big speech, about it being fine for them to take on the main mission, about how proud they all were of them. It shouldn't be too different to the follow-on mission they had trained for, anyway. Just make sure to actually find the target location, he had joked.

Ari Octavian sat down in John Tian's office and looked through the files on all the people he would be piloting to the far side of the universe. He already knew the two professors from training, as well as Doctor Ghosh.

'That's everyone,' said John Tian. 'Except, that is, apart from the World Lottery winner, still to be chosen.'

'Oh, yes, I heard about that. Is it really a good idea?'

'Well, the person will have to pass a basic medical, of course. But if you think about the cost of the Izzati program, Ari, we had to offer a seat to a lottery winner – the sponsor governments had limits to how much of their GDP's they would put in. You see the file on the Australian security man, Roach. He pointed out that the person might only speak Cantonese, or something.'

'Then they will have a lonely journey.'

Ari and his crew were keen to see inside the Izzati. John Tian drove them out in a jeep. From a distance, the Izzati certainly looked the same as their original craft. Still, they wanted to physically sit in the cockpit, to "get a feel for the table", so to speak, before they spent the next three days in the simulator, getting up to speed.

Ari was Chief pilot. He swung himself horizontally into that hallowed seat, all the blue English sky a panorama above him. He let his eyes familiarize himself with the controls – there were less instrumentation that a normal airplane, the Izzati being fairly basic, really like a ship on the oceans to be controlled with rudders. He scratched his head, very happy with everything. His black hair was cut short, his serious young face was nevertheless smooth and handsome – the world's media would take to him.

Co-pilot, Inggrid, slipped into the seat alongside him, while Navigator, Petrik came in last. They were all ex-Indonesian military air force personnel, but Inggrid was the tough cookie of the trio. She might look cute and demure, but she could knock out your teeth in an instant. Petrik, on the other hand, was more of a nerd, with a more science-based background to him.

John Tian stayed upright on the gangway, enjoying the sea breeze, relieved to finally have them on site. One of his technical colleagues was keen to talk to the crew about something, but he gestured to let them be allowed a moment alone.

Ezra Walker's seventeen-year-old daughter, Dinah, flew in from Dutch-Russia to see him off, which was a wonderful surprise to him. She had cut her jet-black hair quite short, since their last meeting, and had become taller and as beautiful as her mother. She was studying in Amsterdam, and living with some boy, he assumed. They met at a Central Area restaurant, had a huge hug and a catch-up. Ezra had a SEASA official tagging along with him, sitting nearby with a mug of tea, but didn't bother to introduce the man; all he could think about was being with his little girl again, maybe for the last time.