C.N. - chapter 71

I was just finished giving a detailed summary of the plot of Kingdom of Heaven, Director's Cut when the alarm in the flyasaurus blared from the cockpit. Everyone's attention turned to the control panel, which seemed to have malfunctioned, because most of the indicator lights were flashing on and off, some had already gone dim altogether.
Darn, I thought, I was just getting to the good part where I would explain how Kingdom of Heaven is very relatable to what Wolfgang went through in the past day. It looked like I had to put the explanation off until later.
'So what's up with auto-pilot, John?' Graham leaned over John's shoulders and asked. John was in the pilot chair, one hand pressing the panel's button instruments furiously, the other hand shaking the throttle like mad.
'Auto's dead,' John replied, 'And I can't get the ship back to manual piloting.'
'What do you mean auto-pilot's dead?' Graham shouted indignantly.
'The computer system manning auto-pilot, it got breached by a virus, and the virus is killing the system, that's what I mean!' John shouted even more indignantly.
'A virus? When the hell did the system get breached by a virus?'
'Just now!'
'What the fuck?'
'What the fuck indeed, this is a total clusterfuck!'
'Calm down there, you two,' Laura got over to John too. With three people crammed in the cockpit, I could no longer see the control panel. 'So what exactly is the virus doing?'
'It entered the ships's computer just now, corrupted the auto-pilot system, and made it impossible for us to switch back to manual controls.' John said.
'What about the firewall, the ship's computer came with a firewall, right?' Laura said.
'There is a firewall, but we haven't installed it.'
Laura's eyes narrowed, 'And why not?' She said.
'This machine is a test prototype, remember? It wasn't supposed to be ready until next year, until this recent turn of events forced us to take this out of the garage early. So yes, not all of the features on the blueprint are installed in the ship yet.'
'Yeah, even the coffee machine isn't installed.' Terry said. The other Terry nodded.
'See Michael, the bullet-proof glass thing wasn't my fault, this baby isn't supposed to fly until next year.' Eric said triumphantly.
'Aw will you drop it with the bullet-proof glass shenanigan?' Michael snapped.
'Just making my point, Michael.' Eric replied, smug in the face.
'Gentleman, I believe we have more pressing matters at hand,' Laura turned to the the rest of us and said, 'The ship can't fly for much longer, we'll have to make a forced landing.'
'Over water?' Heathcliff exclaimed, horrified.
'Yes, we're miles from mainland.'
'But-but I can't swim!' Heathcliff protested.
'I'll help you, it will be a pleasure to save Prince Charming from drowning.' Wolfgang said. I was happy that Wolfgang seemed to be back to his old self - the self I first encountered with Heathcliff in the warehouse.
'I don't need your help! I still haven't forgiven you for kidnapping my dear Theo, don't you forget it!' Heathcliff declared with indignation. Heathcliff was back to his old self too - the one I first encountered in the penthouse suite.
'Well Theo,' Terry said, with his eyes on Wolfgang and Heathcliff in their
heated argument, 'seeing these guys, I can't blame you for avoiding your suitors.'
'Totally.' The other Terry said.
'Hello? We're in a dire situation here!' John yelled from the cockpit, 'Is nobody except me scared shitless?'
'I am!' said Heathcliff, 'I don't know how to swim.'
'No, not because of that.' John said, 'I'm asking, is nobody except me scared shitless, because it seems I've been taken hostage, by Mr. Kent here.'
Sure enough, Mr. Kent was at the cockpit, with a gun pointed at the back of John's neck. Graham was no longer there, he had gone to the back to prepare the inflatable raft device on the flyasaurus.
'Exactly,' Mr. Kent said, in that cool-as-a-cucumber voice so reminiscent of Mr. Dragon's when he took me hostage at his compound, 'Now if you may all focus your attention on me, I have a few orders to give out.'

Notice

For some reason, the blog has reposted Chapter 32....please be patient as we try to fix this problem!

-K

*Edit: G seems to have accidentally republished it when he edited it...he apologizes for any inconvenience it may cause*

T.N - Chapter 70

Charlie started this long explanation about the movie Kingdom of Heaven, but unlike the others, I wasn’t listening. I was simply being observant. Wolfgang seemed to perk up a bit as the focus was drawn away from him and his family drama and onto the story that was Dennis and Charlie were unraveling (which, all I could really make sense of, was about crusades and battles of epic proportions). Laura watched him fondly, and a genuine smile, one without a single sign of her signature smirk, lit up her face. Heathcliff and the henchmen were all gathered closely around closely, asking questions with eager expressions. Kyle, despite all the hustle and bustle, was still out cold. The only person who was slightly distanced from everyone else was Kent, who was still at the cockpit, leaning forward and gazing out the window wistfully. His hands were on the dashboard for balance, and I hoped that he wouldn't accidentally doom us all by pressing a button.

I guess Dennis followed my line of sight, as he then called out, “Hey Kent! Stop being a loner and come over here! You liked Kingdom of Heaven when you watched it with me.”

Kent grinned. “I did like it, but obviously not as much as you. You threw quite the tantrum when we couldn’t find a copy of the director’s cut online.” He fixed his shirt pocket, and made his way over to the group.

I laughed. “I remember that,” I said. “It was on the rare occasion that Dennis was visiting home, and he was in the computer room in the basement. Despite the fact that I was on the 2^nd floor in my bedroom, I heard some yelling and things breaking. I think Grandfather and Kent panicked, thinking that there was a security breach.”

“Oh come on, it wasn’t that bad...” protested Dennis.

“Come now,” replied Kent, “let’s not forget the fact that he managed to short-circuit almost all the computers in the room.”

I smirked. “Oh yeah, it was quite impressive. There was a little ‘bang!’ sound, and a lot of sparks everywhere just like—“

There was a sharp sound, and we all turned our heads towards the unoccupied cockpit. Sparks were flying in all directions from the control panels, and all the buttons that were previously lit were completely dim. “—just like that,” I finished off my thoughts.

“Kent!” screamed John as he ran over to the control and started pressing buttons like mad. “What the hell did you do?!”

“I didn’t do anything!” yelled Kent. “I don’t even know how the machine works, I’m smart enough to know that I shouldn’t touch things I don’t understand!”

“Did someone jinx the entire blasted trip?! Or did Lady Luck decide to frown on me today” John growled. “First the self-destruct button was set off, and now the cockpit is on the fritz...in all my years building and piloting these vehicles, nothing like this has ever happened!”

“I think it’s time to stop grumbling to yourself and start trying to fix this,” said Laura calmly, striding over to the control and prying open a panel. “Otherwise, we have a worse situation on our hands than bad luck on our trip.”

Hello! Sorry, I did say I was going to write more, but I guess that was a lie...I've just finished volunteering, so I'm planning to try to get as much done as I can before school starts! There is construction happening in my backyard though, so it's a little but of a distracting environment to write in...

In the meantime, between chapters, check out Zone 1 (which I may start writing in), or listen to this very interesting podcast called Welcome to Night Vale (which I have been listening to and enjoying a lot).

-K