When They Were Gone

Where Are We Landing? - III

"I just wanted to say that if by some miracle, I survive this, there are going to be some strong words said to whoever came up with this stupid idea."

Sitting in the front directorial room of the vehicle, Richard stared out over the land around them as the Aerocraft hovered a few metres above the ground, waiting as the rest of the group jumped out onto the land below. Alone, he once again called down, anxiously tapping his computer. "Are we sure the Aerocraft can't just go on auto-pilot and be blown up from afar or something?"

A gruff, feminine voice echoed faintly up to him. "You have to be inside the vehicle to control it - it was a safety measure put in to stop something like this happening. You should know that! You would have helped design them!"

He hissed. "I didn't help design anything! I just performed control calculations and worked out the wing patterns! ...And maybe helped program the flight system. That was it!"

"That sounds like designing to me! Just put up with it!"

Then another voice. "Suck it up, princess!"

"I do not need your input, Laura!"

He bit his lip, standing up and carrying the computer with him as he weaved through the vehicle, standing atop stairs as he looked down at them pulling supplies apart and gently moving bags down. Devin, Pea and Laura already stood on the ground outside, looking up as Jeremy hung, using his strength to carefully move the supplies and bags down in a safe position so he could drop them into the waiting hands. Charlotte, however, sat at the bottom of the stairs with a set of strange contraptions, focused on the lower ship's movements. 

Noticing his presence, she flicked her head around and scowled. "What do you want now?"

He grimaced. "Maybe I can hack into the wiring system and change some of the controls around..."

Growling, she turned back to her screen, once more focusing on her task. "Inbuilt system. Like Laura said, suck it up and do your job. Stop wasting time. I'll call you when everything's out."

He sighed, realising he would get nowhere and annoyed at his painful circumstances. He walked back through the rooms back to the front of the aerocraft. Staring at the computer in front of him, he fiddled with the controls, accessing the window wipers and switching them on. A second. He turned them back off. 

"I suppose I should probably say farewell to you, shouldn't I?" No answer. "Well, too bad. I'll be happy to leave you behind." Again, no answer. He looked down at the computer. "However, I will say goodbye to you, my precious implement. You have been a great help and a lot of effort went into your making, so I'll be sad to part." He raised a hand, stroking it. "Parting is such sweet sorrow, isn't it darling..." He leaned forward, kissing it softly. The computer just stared up at him, silent.

Brushing a hand through his hair, he sat back, looking at the roof. "All this rebellion must have made me crazy... I'm talking to inanimate objects... and myself." He smiled. "Well, no more than usual. It's just... this time, they're not talking back. And I'm not talking back." He frowned. "I think."

Closing his eyes, he whispered. "Hey, Hermes?"

No response.

A slight smile. Good, they've taken him out.

At his soonest opportunity, he had taken it out of the drink bottle - destroying the bottle in the process - and hidden it inside his bag. He hadn't spoken to it since, but it didn't have an off-setting so if it was in the vehicle, it would have answered back immediately - the vehicle wasn't long enough for him to be out of range and its receptors worked extremely well.