Halley's Portal - Book One

Chapter 10 - G Force

BANG… BANG… BANG… “Wake up Cadets!”

The sound of the banging startled Alfonso San Angelo out of a very deep sleep.  Then more banging seemed to flutter around his room like an annoying insect. Alfonso groaned and then pulled the pillow over top of his head.  He heard the banging again followed by a deep voice – “Breakfast is in thirty minutes!” The voice easily penetrated his fluffy barrier of cloth and feathers; only slightly muffled.  He fought to pry open his eyes, hoping it was just a dream.  He took a quick glance at the clock on the nightstand and sighed; it said 5:57am.  It wasn’t a dream; it was time to get up, already.  He’d just gone to bed it had seemed.

He knew if he rolled over and closed his eyes they wouldn’t open again until Sargent Backus returned with more pounding on his door.  That probably wouldn’t be for another twenty minutes.  But oh how good that twenty minutes of sleep would feel! But no… he knew he couldn’t do that.  He knew he didn’t take full advantage of the previous day’s training; not with Nina issues clouding his head.  He flat out sucked at the SIM training; so for nearly three hours last night Alfonso used his PID to brush up on his skills until he was exhausted.  It wasn’t a fully immersed experience like the Simulation Immersion Modules were, but it was better than nothing. Now he was regretting the lack of sleep, but Eli kicked his butt in the SIM and he couldn’t let that happen again.  If he wanted to go on the Halley’s Comet mission, it was time to get serious! It was time to kick it up a notch.  He’d catch up on his sleep tonight. He dragged himself out of his bed and into a cold shower

 The exercise routine helped.  It got his juices flowing and then the cold water in the pool made him feel like a new man.  Alfonso felt kind of sorry for Eli actually.  He was nice enough, but a bit too geeky and naïve about things.  He really struggled during the workouts and especially in the pool.  But hey, he had many months to get himself into shape and he chose not to.  So maybe Eli was great with the VR stuff, but physically he was no match for Alfonso.  He couldn’t feel sorry for him – he was the competition after all; the enemy. Yes, it was time to get serious about this competition.

** ** **

"Well good news cadets, according to your medical results, you are all cleared for full SIM training!" The high pitched voice of Mr. Teka exclaimed as he greeted the cadets to their second day of flight simulation training.  "This means we can use the centrifuge to give a much more realistic feeling of G-Force while in the trainer."  The corners of Mr. Teka's mouth curled up into a wry smile. 

"Awesome!" Alfonso laughed out as he pumped his fist; feeling much better now and fully awake.  He was ready to kick butt!

Tyra bobbled her head from side to side with pursed lips, as if saying she wasn’t necessarily thrilled, but, whatever.  Sequoia just bit her bottom lip, looking unusually nervous.   Eli had a big smile on his face and shook his head yes. 

“I’d like to go first Mr. Teka, if that’s okay with you.” Alfonso said very enthusiastically. 

“Okay, Alfonso, that’s fine by me, I do need a guinea pig.”  Mr. Teka cracked a frail smile again.  “We need to cover a few things first though.  Today you won’t really be doing any virtual flying yourself; you’ll just be along for a ride, my ride.  I’ll be in full control.”  Mr. Teka’s smile grew bigger while Alfonso had a look of disappointment on his face, especially since he had stayed up all night practicing.  Teka could clearly see the disappointment.

“We’ll have time for fun and games in the SIMs tomorrow Alfonso, but today we need to work on getting all of you accustomed to g-forces.  We need to ease you into it and teach you what to do with your body under extreme g-forces, and how to breathe so you don’t experience g-lock and pass out.”