Megan and Ryan were sitting on a flight en route to Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. Ryan was sitting on the window seat while Megan was on the aisle seat of a two-seater row. Ryan had placed her head into the left shoulder of Megan trying to choose the latest songs on his iPad.
It was late evening local time, twilight was still there. Megan was sleepy after listening to two songs of Ryan's choice and had given his earphone back to him, instead, she had put brought out and put her own earphone.
Ryan was enjoying the beautiful sunset while his favorite song playing in his ears. When you are above in the sky you see the vastness of nature, its incredible beauty and then you can appreciate the beauty of music even more.
As Ryan was appreciating the beautiful views from greater heights of the airplane something crossed his field of view. Ryan could not understand anything. Ryan thought it was an optical illusion or creation of his own mind. Again something greenish crossed his field of view. Ryan rubbed his eyes to clear his view.
Ryan again saw something unusual and greenish in color. It was a green cloud peeping from the window of the airplane. Whew.. and it's gone. Ryan was startled. He started doubting his own saneness. Baffled Ryan called up Megan.
'What happened?' Megan took out her earpiece. Ryan narrated what he saw out of the window with curiosity.
'You started again with your silly daydreams. Don't tell this to the crew or they will land the flight. I don't want to go back,' Megan pushed her head further deep on the headset of her seat. Ryan's unusual stories were of no interest to her.
'No Megan, it was there. It's real.'
An announcement by the captain of the airplane-
WE ARE GOING THROUGH AN AREA OF TURBULENCE. ALL PASSENGERS ARE REQUESTED TO GO BACK TO THEIR SEATS AND SAFELY FASTEN THEIR SEAT BELTS.
Ryan saw the weird green cloud again near the winglets. The turbulence was swinging the plane. Within a few moments the plane sharply tilted from its nose. Passengers' faces became still. The next moment airplane's nose was tiling downwards. Megan almost fell on the seat in front of her. The passenger in the seat in front of Ryan started to have a runny nose. The crew was looking clueless and all stewards were commanded to remain seated. Ryan could not figure out what to do in such a situation.
Rayn asked the nearby stewardess who was sitting on the hind seat since she did not get time to reach her designated place.
'What happened?'
'We are experiencing unusual turbulence. Please be calm dear passenger, we will be out of this very soon.'
This textbook reply did not satisfy Ryan, nor did it alleviate the fear of his co-passengers.
'It's not the turbulence, there is something sitting at the right-wing.' Ryan thought it is better to tell the crew about that unusual thing he just saw.
'Sit down sir. We are doing what we can.'
Other passengers stared at Ryan with awe. Airplane tumbled again and started tilting rightwards. One of the overhead boxes just above the head of Megan opened up and a black colored medium-sized suitcase came down on her. Ryan tried to protect her but the handle hit her head, making her groan. There was a bump on her head. Ryan checked the bump with his fingers. As his fingers reached the spot on her head she groaned. The stewardess opened her seatbelt and came out from her seat to help.
'Mam are you injured, let me check,' Stewardess asked another colleague to bring the first aid box immediately.
ANNOUNCEMENT- WE ARE NEAR CRACATAU VOLCANO, AN OTHERWISE EXTINCT VOLCANO, IT CAN EXPLODE ANYTIME
'What?' inquired Ryan, as he could not understand what the announcement was about. Megan explained to Ryan that some volcanoes do fire up without warning.
'But the flight agency must have already checked all these things and if there are volcanoes in the path they would have changed the flight path.'
Megan further explained to him that normally flight routes are planned and they keep away from the volcanoes but sometimes it is very much possible to get caught into an unexpected cloud of ash coming from volcanoes.
'Ryan, the weather is a chaotic system and everything cannot be predicted. The effect of a volcano which is just about to erupt can be felt thousands of miles away.' She added.
The airplane tilt was increasing. Luggage started coming out of the closets above the passengers.
Megan intervened with her suggestion, 'Just understand that much deeper and complex calculations will be needed to control the flight and keep it in the safe zone. Now the only way to save this flight is to maneuver it through the dust cloud coming out of the volcano. '
Ryan's hands ran at a lightning speed to connect his iPad to the USB slot below the monitor in front of him. Ryan thought it could cost at least BitCoin 50 if the iPad started using flight's premium network services from the USB slot.
All this was happening in front of clueless Megan.
Beep beep.
There was a notification for a message on Ryan's iPad. The message read, 'Ryan hi, this is Chris the cursor.'
'Please save us.'
'What are you doing, are you mad?" asked Megan.
Ryan lifted her face but what Megan saw was a blank face.
'What are you doing Ryan,' asked Megan again.
'Trying to save the flight,'
Chris the Cursor offloaded itself into the onboard control system and gained control of the flight. The flight turned leftwards and its tilt started reducing. The green cloud which was hovering below the winglet on the right side disappeared.
Ryan took a sigh of relief looking at Megan, 'thank God it's over.'
'Ryan, I saw it coming again,' Megan words could barely come out of her dry lips as if all the moisture was absorbed by the fear. Megan looked at Ryan but her face turned pale as soon she turned towards him. The cloud was coming again from above the winglet slowly swallowing the whole right-wing.
Ryan turned towards the right to check but he could not see it, 'It's gone.'
ANNOUNCEMENT- NOW WE ARE OUT OF DANGER. BUT PLEASE REMAIN SEATED WITH SEATBELTS ON.
The airplane came back to horizontal orientation. People straightened their backs.
'The electrically charged gases of the volcano had created a whirlpool of ions in the flight path. It is these charge gases that are giving a greenish look to the gas cloud from the window. I need to do some more calculations to calculate the flight path avoiding the highly charged areas of the atmosphere, but remember I shall make it the most enjoyable ride you ever had,' Chris the cursor wrote on the iPad which was still plugged in the USB slot of the seat in front of Ryan. Even before Chris the Cursor completed typing, he appeared on the screen glued to the back of the seat in front of Ryan.
The airplane took a dive and tilted leftward. The green cloud appeared also on the screen before Ryan. Chris delivered a tight slap on the top area of the green cloud. The green cloud leaned to the left and disintegrated and went out of the screen. Passengers ducked their heads down on their seats.
After a few moments the green cloud again rose up but seemed feeble. Now there were thrashes after thrashes delivered all over to it. The green cloud went off the screen. Airplane kept tumbling up and down, became roller coaster ride during the fight which no other passenger except Ryan enjoyed. Passengers were still in doubt whether the gas cloud had gone or would it rise up again. One passenger who was earlier a pilot with a commercial airline shouted, 'How can you dive a passenger flight like this. This is illegal.' No one listened to him.
After an eerie silence for around 10 minutes everyone on board was sure that airplane had crossed the area of charged turbulence.
Ryan took the iPad out of the USB slot. He typed on his iPad's WordPages, 'Dear Chris, where are you.'
No reply.
Ryan looked at Megan anxiously, his heart was pounding. Megan showed a blank face completely oblivious to what was happening. Ryan typed on his iPad's WordPages once again, 'Dear Chris, where are you.'
After another few anxious moments..
'It's over 😁😁😁,' typed Chris the Cursor with smiley emojis on the WordPages. Ryan smiled with his eyes wide open, so did Megan. Ryan shouted in ecstasy, 'it's over'. Everyone on board including the crew was shocked at his behavior. Ryan waved at the passengers from his seat.
Flight finally landed at the Kualalumpur Airport. As Ryan was getting down through the aisle there was a smile on his face. He was engrossed in thinking whether he did it right or it was a big mistake by connecting the iPad to the USB slot of the airplane. There was no way before me.
Megan's situation was even more complex though she showed signs of appreciation on her face. She did not know how to ask the truth behind this mystery character called Chris the Cursor. She knew that there is an unknown side of Ryan's personality. Or maybe he hid it from her because it was operational requirement whatever at least Ryan could have just hinted about it.
Clouds of such thoughts started roaming in the sky of Megan's mind. Finally she decided that whatever could be the excuse she needed to know it from Ryan directly.
Ryan and Megan left the airport. There was a crowd of reporters just outside the arrival gate. A representative of the travel agency came to receive them. The representative was named Shaunlithung aka Shaun, he was also a local tour guide during their stay in Malaysia. After some initial boasting about his company and the edge it had in the local tourist market he took them to The Radisson.
On the way to The Radisson, Shaun told Ryan that there several theories circulating on twitter about the incident in the flight. A scientist from China who was an acclaimed expert in electromagnetism said that this was simply a strange case of ball lightning. Another aviation expert from France proved that this kind of behavior can arise because of the ionization of air near the winglets of high-speed airplanes.
Riding through the traffic managed by the GRIID, Ryan and Megan reached their hotel rooms in The Radisson. Shaun having put them to their rooms, invited both of them to his friend's wedding which was along the shore. When Ryan and Megan resisted he argued that it would be a fun and unique experience keeping them away from tourist burglary. Megan was only tempted but Ryan agreed. Shaun was ready to leave after saying let's meet again. This had become his signature style. Before leaving The Radisson, Shaunlithung requested Ryan to call him Shaun.
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