Skyfire Part 1

PART 1

Knowing what the world was like before was difficult in these times. Many of the survivors from those days had died long ago. Their stories were now twisted and very different to the original. Arguably all history is usually subjective, pure facts are difficult to find.  Yet the stories all shared similar features. There was a time before what some people called the Great Flood, others as Doomsday or the End Times. The human race had continued its hungry desire to consume more and more, destroying great swathes of the planet in its everlasting quest for more. When the hunger for more collided with diplomacy and politics, the inevitable occurred. For humanity didn’t just have hunger as a vice, but war and conflict as well.

And the story went that after decades of destroying the planet, mother nature decided that humanity was a plague that could no longer be tolerated. At the time is called climate change...or global warming.  And very little was done about. The politicians continued their games. When the first smog storms whirled around the planet it was ignored. The governments of the planet throwing fake money at aid programs and research. Nothing was ever actually done. As usual the scientist were ignored and the damage swept under the carpet.

Of course things only got worse. The stories talk about the world having great stretches of frozen water at the poles. Ice Caps. The year of the great flood...they ceased to exist. Yet again humanity wasn’t bothered. Their great walls and dams would keep the water back and come winter the ice caps would freeze again. But the walls didn't hold. Not when the rest of the planets ice started to melt. It didn’t take long for every bit of snow...every bit of ice...every glacier on Earth to melt away. Only then did the planet wake up and realise that this was serious. But it was far too late to do anything about it. The land started to sink below the waves. The climate chaos was accelerated by the wild weather and the melting of the ice caps. Storms and hurricanes spread around the globe making the flooding worse. Soon it became clear that humanity was facing extinction.

And so the story went that in the last days on Earth those that could retreated to high land and away from the rising waters to build ships of the sea and land that humanity in some form could survive on. There was a great hope that the human race could live on in this new world. But mother nature would not be so forgiving. With the waters not succeeding in drowning the pestilence she turned their own constructions against them. With evil intent the waters started their mission. The pollution and the radiation that the human race had shown so little care about was turned against them as every power plant and dump, every secret dump and heap was swallowed by the sea, its by products rising with help from the storms. The waters surged around the world flooding worlds volcanic islands causing huge eruptions of steam. Steam that was full of the terrible by product of humanities consumerism.

Those below on the great ships had little warning of the danger as they started their existence on the seas. But those above in the great airships could sea what was happening. A thick murky soup that started to spread round the world covering the surface world below. A pea green layer of death and radiation. Deadly to all life. Those on the great ships of the sea would end their days choking and suffering from radiation sickness. Mother Nature now had to wait patiently for the next stage for the people above in the clouds may have survived but humanity was a race of conflict and war. Sooner or later the would rear their heads again and the human race would be all but dead.



Decades had passed since those days and the human race had survived. Just. The floating airships became homes of the sky, living on whatever they could drag up from the sea's below. The great ships that had succumbed to the radiation clouds were the first things to be pilfered from their supplies; for their weapons and equipment. It soon became common place to look for sunken treasures from the world before. Only these treasures were not gold and gemstone but machinery and weaponry. Food and supplies. Each airship having its own territory it would patrol, eager to keep away outsiders who may try to steal their riches.

The most powerful airships were those that protected the last few stretches of dry land that existed above the low lying cloud layers that killed in minutes. These last remnants of dry land were used to keep the little livestock and grow what little crops could be grown. For the rest, life on dry land gained a mythical status. People were born on the great floating ships. People worked and lived. People would die on them and be dropped into the waters below. That was life for what was left of the human race.

However, on this day, many years after the great events that ruined the world, one person who should have been claimed by mother nature was about to be given a reprieve. For on the day the great predator of the sky claimed another kill the two fighting opponents were not alone. A third vessel was watching, perhaps to observe the outcome...or maybe to help the prey. In either case, as the victim burned in furious fire and crumbled towards the smog layer the newcomer followed, eager to pick over the ruins.

“Pilot, hold our position over the site. Height...1000 metres.”

A stern faced captain, face wrinkled with age and eyes dulled by tiredness observed the remains of another great airship like his falling towards the sea in flames. He had seen this sight many times before. Sometimes he had been the cause of the sight. But this time he was only here for what may be left to serve his ship and the crew aboard. Everyone was a member of his crew. All 300 of them. Around him in their jumpsuits of blue and grey the rest of the control staff monitored their systems inside the control car. A construction of glass and metal that hung jutted out below the great airship. At the front of this two deck area was the pilot, in charge of the ships huge wheel for steering. Besides him were the airships two stations for altitude. A difficult job. Each station had work in perfect harmony to level the ship and achieve its height by the removal of lifting gases, water and ballast of other kinds.

“Holding altitude at 1000 metres Captain.” one of the fresh faced women at the altitude stations reported.

Captain Achilles peered below through the thick glass window in front of him in the floor. Being the Captain of an Airship was not a job for someone with a fear of heights. Below him the churning mass of putrid clouds and killer radiation that created a thick barrier to the sea below. He sighed. With green smog clouds had remained a constant feature of the planet since he was young enough to remember them. Some people had lived in hope they would dissipate. But in 50 years they had not. A shrill crackle through the radio alerted him that the diver crews were ready.

“Teams one and two ready on the lifts.”
“Go ahead. Synchronise your watches. You have 30 minutes of atmosphere.”

The captain waited in his control car, observing his staff, making sure the airship was controlled as the great lifts lowered the crews down. It had taken years to construct the two huge cargo lifts, with their huge stacks of cable. The cable itself a lucky find. Time passed. 10 minutes...15...then another crackle and the metal sound of coiling cables.

“Lift one coming up.”
“Already?”

Achilles peered down through the glass attempting to sea the platform as it rose from the green clouds. He couldn't see anything of worth on it. A crackle of radio.

“Lift one...Captain we have a situation.”
“Situation?”
“We found a man in the sea.”
“Probably one from the burn up. So what. Leave him like we do with all the dead.”
“No sir...he's alive...”

Tyrus opened his eyes slightly, the chill of wind on his face, looking up at the dark grey shape that blocked out the sun. It was the most magnificent thing he had seen. He barely registered the voices of the girl and other men on the platform talking as that great shadow loomed closer. The young girl looked down at him and smiled slightly before he passed out again into blackness.