"Alright guys, we're about five minutes away."
Kori's voice echoed through the ekranoplan as it barely skimmed across the surface of the water. The feeling of going so fast yet still being within spitting distance of the ground was rather nerve wracking. Fischer felt his stomach lurch every time he looked over the side of the vessel into the water. Looking to his left he saw Ko wasn't holding up much better. She was sitting up as straight as a stick, her hands clenching the sides of the seat like her life depended on it. Her already whitish skin was almost completely void of any colour and her pupils were as slit as toothpicks.
"You two doing alright?"
Fischer looked towards the cockpit and saw Quin staring back at them with a smile on her face.
He forced a smile onto his own and quickly nodded in a poor attempt to appear comfortable.
Quin scoffed slightly then proceeded to jump out of her seat and make her way down to where the other two were sitting.
"Scooch over why don't ya?" she chirped. Ko slowly shifted closer to Fischer, making room for the carcan who was almost twice her size.
Quin sat down next to them, her huge tail drooping off to the side and dangling over the edge of the seat.
"Don't worry, I remember my first ekrano ride. Refused to get into another one for at least a week. It can be pretty frightening at first."
Both Fischer and Ko sat in silence, trying their best not to throw up every time they looked overboard.
"So. . . how are you guys finding it here so far? I'm surprised with how well you've been taking it considering you're apparently from Earth," she stated.
Fischer nodded his head slowly, trying to figure out how he could put his thoughts into words. He barely even understood what he himself was thinking.
"I. . . honestly it's. . .uhh, it's a bit hard to wrap my head around. Sorry if I'm not exactly the most understanding of people, still kinda of adjusting to the fact that this all exists in the first place."
Quin gave a slight smirk. "Don't you worry. I mean no offence, but hearing that you're actually from Earth is a bit of a shock in itself honestly. Anyway you'll get used to life here pretty quickly, most newcomers are taken back by the sheer size of Amaryllis Falls. Hell we have people who have lived here their whole lives and still don't know their way around the city."
"Well, yea. This place looks big enough to be a country. How far out does it go?"
"Well honestly, that's a pretty good question. I'm not too sure. Hey Kori, you get that?"
Without taking his eyes away from the ocean, he turned his head to face the others.
"How big is the city? Uhh, I dunno. I think the current guess is twenty thousand?"
"Ki-kilometres? Kilometres squared?" Fischer asked, gobsmacked.
"Yup. Like we said before, biggest city in the Epsilon sector."
"Bloody hell. . ." Fischer stated, sitting back and rubbing his forehead.
"Hey guys? Might wanna find your seats! We're about to cut GE speeds and hit the blue," Kori stated while looking back at the three of them from his seat.
A confused look spread over Fischer's face as he turned towards Quin.
"Uh. . . in English?"
"I don't know what 'English' is but basically that means we're about to land. And these things don't just touch down lightly, so ya might wanna hang on tight," she explained, quickly springing to her feet and jumping up to the chair she was seated in before.
Looking over at Ko, Fischer could see that she was still not exactly enjoying the ride. He couldn't really blame her either. It wasn't something he was particularly fond of. He petted her shoulder slightly to grab her attention.
"Hey, you doing ok?"
She replied only with a series of quick, sharp nods before going back to staring at the floor. Before he had the chance to comfort her any more, the sound of Kori's voice once again filled the air.
"Alright! Cutting GE in 3. . . 2. . .1!"
Fischer braced himself as the craft shook violently and the engines suddenly died down. The sinking feeling he had in his stomach had returned, along with the feeling that something was grasping his arm. Or someone.
Ko's right hand was firmly seizing his left, hanging on for dear life.
Almost as soon as he noticed, the craft impacted the water.
"BANG!"
A massive thump shook the craft from bow to stern, shaking the four passengers to their core. Quin wasn't lying when she said they don't touch down gently. The ekranoplan bounced off of the surface of the water a few more times, like a stone skimming across the surface of a pond. Each time the vessel crashed against the ocean Fischer felt Ko's grip tighten around his arm.
"Poor girl, she's absolutely terrified," Quin stated to Kori.
"Yea well, we aren't all born for the ocean."
He chuckled as he reached over and grasped what seemed to be a very out of place lever among the rainbow of futuristic sci-fi looking controls. Using what seemed to be a generous amount of effort, he pulled the lever to the left and a loud 'clunk' sound reverberated though the craft. Fischer then spied two panels on each side of the cockpit lift up and stick out perpendicular to the side of the vessel.
"Alright, air brakes out. We'll be halted in no time," Kori stated, wiping off some rust from the very mechanical looking lever.
Just like he said, the ekranoplan started to slow down rapidly, the momentum almost throwing Fischer from his seat. Soon enough, the craft had come to a complete halt and was parked neatly along the side of a jetty.
"Alright everyone, we're here! Now seeing as you two look like you've just seen a ghost, I think it's safe to assume you want back onto dry land?" Kori Jested, leaning a hand on Quin's shoulder.
Fischer and Ko both nodded their heads rapidly.
"Haha, alright then. Well let's get you lot inside."
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