Stolen Flyght – Chapter 25

Jinzo leans over my body, places my hands on my chest, and tucks a blanket under my head. He can’t tell that I’m right above him.

I’m right here, Jin.

I reach out to touch him but pull my hand back before I get too close. I’m not sure what it would do to interact with him like this.

“Come back to us soon,” he whispers.

“She looks dead,” Skylar whispers. She glances over her shoulder at the rest of the cave.

I drift upwards and take in the whole cave. No one else so far has noticed I’m out.

Nina is checking on Gloria. She takes off the cold compress of snow and sets it aside for later. Most everyone else is asleep. Nina, though, will attempt to stay awake until rescue. She doesn’t want the military to catch her now. Running with a bunch of miscreants like us will only get her into more trouble than she may already be in.

I can help with this.

Once I get the hang of moving, I glide out of the cave to a spot where I can still see everyone. The soft glow of the fire is unmistakable from the snow-covered plain. If we’re going to camouflage ourselves, we should put something in front of the cave or extinguish the fire. Neither of these options is desirable. There are no trees or large flora on Neve. Nothing but crabgrass inhabits the warmer areas of the planet.

So, we’ll have to get moving before anyone can spot the fire. That’s our first hurdle.

What will happen when I lose sight of my body? Right now, the pull is powerful to return to myself, like there’s an ethereal cord that stretches between my projection and the hunk of meat lying on a stone floor. At least in this form, I can’t feel the pain of my feet or hands. The weariness of my body is a faded memory. I am a shadow of myself.

But this state of being won’t last. The plant will wear off at some point, and hopefully, I’ll come snapping back to my body like a rubber band. I have to accomplish something before then.

I need to go farther. See more.

Sending my thoughts higher, my projection moves up into the sky. Everything below me shrinks until the cave opening is a prick of light, a star in the landscape.

If this were corporeal-me, I would be having an anxiety attack. I’m floating in a space usually only inhabited by birds and airships, and I fear falling. But this plant of mine has made my projection calm, cool, and ready for business. My thoughts are only for my task, where I need to go, what I should look for.

It’s time to be useful.

I turn around in the air and get the lay of the land. There’s the Amagi where we left it this afternoon. That means the base is in… Yeah. I turn my projection in the opposite direction and spot the base only a few kilometers away. Wow. It did not fare well after all we did to it. One side glows an angry orange, and smoke is still rising into the sky. Lights flit about in the space above it, circling and diving. They must be search and rescue vehicles.

I wait for the guilt to descend upon me, the ache in my chest for having done so much damage to both life and property. But the plant has left me distant from my emotions. Not an unpleasant side effect. Not at all.

I’m not done with my surveillance yet.

Where is this other older base Nina was talking about?

On the other side of the mountain, I think. Can I go that high?

Willing my projection even farther into the sky, I soar far above the mountain. Its rocky and snowy face zips by me as I shoot straight up. By the time I’m over the short peaks, I must be at least two thousand meters in the air.

There are a lot of things I’m enjoying about this plant and astral projection, but one major thing I like is that I’m not cold. The wind is howling around me, but I can’t feel it. The air is thin, but I can’t tell. My skin is still warm from the heat of the campfire back down in the cave. If I concentrate hard enough, I can feel Jinzo’s body next to mine.

Yes, on the other side of the mountain is the older military base. The evening is dark, but it’s lit up like a million candles. They obviously know what’s going on, and they’re ready to come help. Ships flit in and out of their hangar bay and buzz around like bees in a flower garden. A small chain of over-land vehicles trundles through the snow, heading for a mountain overpass far from our camp. Maybe ten kilometers away. That’s good. At the rate they’re going, it’ll be a while before they make it to the base.

But I’m worried about these other ships. At least a dozen of them skim along the land, searchlights trained on the frozen ground. Right now, they’re concentrating on the other side of the mountain range, closest to the old base. But they’re fanning out. I watch as one circles a crashed ship, bringing it into focus in its searchlights, and lands next to it. Ah, other people made it out of the base, too. They flew farther than we did, though.

An itch grows at the back of my head, a call to return to my body. I want to fly over to the base, get close to someone in charge, and hear their plans. Or maybe I could stretch to orbit and see who’s there, enter their ships, and determine how much trouble we’re in.

Jinzo was right. This was worth the risk. There’s so much I could do with astral projection. So much to see and experience.

But not now.

I need to return home. I close my eyes and imagine the rubber band pulling me back. The ground rushes up at me, the cave appears, and I inhale a deep breath.

The mask on my face is so claustrophobic that I almost bat it away. Jinzo grasps my hands, hushes me, and hovers over to make eye contact.

“You’re back.” He sighs with relief. “You were gone for over an hour, and I thought…” He squeezes my hand.

“Over an hour? It felt like five minutes at best.” I push myself up to sitting and find Skylar sleeping close to me. I yawn and stretch, but I feel… good. My body is renewed, and I’m rested and happy.

I smile at Jinzo, and he smiles back.

“I’m well-rested for once, like I just had nine hours of sleep.”

He chuckles. “Well, then pass over a leaf because I need that kind of rest.”

“Not on your life, buddy.” I jab him in the shoulder with my index finger.

“What did you see? What was it like?”

I stretch out my tired muscles and describe to Jinzo everything I felt and saw. It’s like trying to detail a dream at first, and then when I concentrate on the details of the landscape outside, everything snaps into focus.

“So, they’re out looking for survivors. What do you give them? A few hours to find us?”

“Three or four hours max. There’s a caravan making their way to this side of the mountains, and the search-and-rescue ships will find the Amagi, eventually. We need to leave before that happens.”

I’m tempted to ask about our escape route, but I keep my mouth shut. It’s better if I don’t know. What if they capture us now and try to get the information out of me? Plausible deniability is best in this circumstance.

“I want to go back out.” I reach for my pocket to take more of the leaf, but Jinzo halts my hand.

“Not yet.” He yawns. “You’re rested and need to eat. I’ll sleep now, and you can wake me in an hour, hour and a half.” He stands and pulls me to my feet. “Go get some food from Nina’s stash and check on Gloria.”

He lies down where I just was and curls into a ball. “Ah, thanks for warming the bed for me.”

I smile down at him, and I’m thankful he was the one I brought on this mission. This was the kind of life Jinzo was made for.

“Any time,” I say, handing him a shirt to put under his head. “Any time.”