The tale of two worlds.
There was a current political bout happening between two powers and travelling between them was strictly monitored. These two powers were on separate planets, but each planet orbited the other so close that they shared an atmosphere at a point.
At this point it was possible to cross with the help of tower bridges, which aligned when the planets rotated. A large section, small in comparison to its height, at the top of each one allowed the safest way to carry people, goods and other services across. The area of the most contested gravity between the worlds at any one point was called the equilibria field.
On one of the worlds, in a doctors surgery a young woman was having some results of her current pregnancy, which was going well I hasten to add, the consultation was for other capabilities.
“Your baby is healthy, and your well on your way to a natural birth. But in relation to your query I cannot medically sign you off on being able to travel,” the doctor spoke in relative recited tones.
“Doctor”, she tried.
“My partner cannot come to the birth, he’s stuck on the other side... I can’t go unless you sign me off as able to travel. How would you feel, I can’t just sit here? Is there nothing you can do?” she finished grabbing her thighs, frustration scratching at her skin.
“I sympathise...”, the doctor said.
Close. She guessed they were never a parent, the “but” was coming she thought.
“But, I cannot. Your baby’s health and yours is my priority and I cannot say for certain you will be fine while traveling,” the doctor finished with the practiced art of letting someone down.
She felt beaten by the policies, the government, the doctor and felt tears welling up.
“You should get some rest for the time being, is there someone here to take you home?” Tht doctor resorted to comforting tones.
“I’ll be fine, I can walk,” she said with a hidden will that had yet to exert itself.
Refusing any other help she added, “I can take care of myself doctor, thank you for your time.”
The doctors sympathetic eyes said the goodbye even without a word but it came just the same. “Safe journey home, call up again if you need anything.” He looked at her with his head slightly bowed, like an animal trying to look submissive.
Linda Harper walked out of the doctors office slowly but not at all calmly. She was not a generally timid person and had no intention of letting this go. Knowing her partner would be unable to do much under what seemed like martial control of the tower bridges, his planet having receded their sides of them and only allowing some diplomats and others to cross when they extended it and under police supervision. A partial communications block out as well.
Linda would find a way to cross over the gap, to do this she thought, would require some out of the box thinking. Rubbing her stomach she appraised her unborn child of their situation. She spoke a few comforting words that they both would see each other soon, in a hopefully better situation than she found herself in now.
She went to go home but not before dropping by a baked snack store to refill, release and reset her mind. Carefully picking off the nuts of some round pastry as she sipped on a hot drink, contemplating the unfairness of her situation. She scrolled through her mind; her need to take care of herself on her own, and her partner who she was unable to contact due to the network blockade.
With that she headed off to one the few places she might find help. The local pub for one, community outreach centre, a few discreet legal advisories with contacts whom she had never dealt with before or even knew of anyone who had, and what she eventually came to, the old war veterans club.
This vets club was full of the retired paratroopers which engaged in planet fall drops from air craft during the dynasty rebellion wars on the twinned planet. They might know of someway to get across and they wouldn’t dare refuse a pregnant woman, authority be dammed she thought, hoping to encourage herself rather than a basis of fact.
She opened the door to a small hallway which led to a room full of hexades old music.
“Hello mam, welcome, your new about here aren’t ya?” a mild manner elderly man approached in full parade dress uniform, a poster boy for eagerness. His expression one which bid her to answer in kind.
“Well yes, hello, I’m Linda, Linda Harper, can I come in? “ she said.
“Of course come on in, would you like a drink of something?” he looked down at the bump and became, if that was more possible, more energetic.
“Oh wow, come in, come in and take a seat, ” he shuffled into the rec room and started telling people to look sharp. He turned round mid rearranging the chairs.
“Sorry, would you like a drink?” he said.
“Yes please, just water thanks” Linda replied, walking down the corridor and taking in the sites of the room that unfolded before her.
Unhooking her bag from her shoulder she wandered in looking at all the military grade gear they had on the walls and on trunks about the place, mixed in with strange objects. Dotted around were dim lamps and lots of comfy chairs with similar chaps to the eager door man, rousing from their seats to greet her, while some lay with books and slept.
“What’s your name dear?” a gentleman sat in a circle of chairs with one other lady there.
“Linda Harper, how do you do?”
The energetic ball whizzed up, “Be nice now Cora, and you Tara.” Pointing at both the gent and lady.
Smiling, the seated Cora and Tara nodded. While energy ball rushed off for the water.
“What brings you here today Linda? “ said Tara, the female veteran. Noticing the baby bump Cora pitched in, ”we don’t do babysitting you know.”
“I’m sure it’s not that” Tara scolded him.
“But congratulations dear, when are you due? ” she continued.
“About 1 quarter to go, roughly” Linda said politely.
“Your not too far off then, congratulations.” Tara said, while Cora nodded.
“I’m here to ask a question,” Linda returned to the task at hand, gladly liking that this did not deviate into old tales of war just yet. “How would one travel to our twin, Yotein, without a tower bridge I mean, like you all did during the war?” Linda said.
“That’s an interesting question,” Cora began and so the deviation started.
Roughly 2 Arcs went by, I don’t know how long that would have been in hours but generally a light circle on the planet was segmented into 16 arcs of time. This continued until Linda jumped on one such part of the tale.
“You flew across with a parachute?” she found curious.
“Yes, ” Tara answered, “mostly from an equilibria flyer like the Level S gutter, or a Pinpoint, but there were a few covert missions that we went on that used planet to planet grapple lines which were one way jobs. Once you hit that sweet spot of decent you could deploy skimsuits or like I said, a parachute. Very fun it was,” Tara reminisced.
You can imagine where it went from there, Linda was then directed to someone who could help her and she was coming up on the place with a little worry in her for even thinking about doing what she thought she would.
A Disused tower, almost ancient and there would likely be no symbiotic tower on the other planet, whom had foregone archaeological preservation to more rapid expansion of new living methods and commerce. This one had been left without any sort of guard measures. And resting on top the gigantic tower bridge was a strapped down shabby hut with equipment in netted webbing around it.
This would be how she reunited with her partner, this somehow magical cairn would ferry her across at least half way. And the one to help her to do it, would be the resident of that hut. Striding through the long grass and old cattle fencing she adjusted her backpack filled with her parachute from Cora to safely carry her down once she crossed the equilibria field. Here had been one of those entry points where the vets had single way jumps during the war. To the fire with politics she thought.
Looking upon it she discerned that it was mostly stone work like some of the original sites across both planets, that allowed the first travellers to cross, but had remained intact for all this time.
Climbing the stairs of the tower bridge as it snaked inside and out at intervals. Their were balcony views and quite a lot of space for what looked like seating, utilities and some probable areas for food vendors. As the previous travellers would have likely waited upon the moment both towers on each world aligned, over days.
The aligning nowadays was monitored via science stations and weather vessels that cruised in the equilibria field, easily able to read when and if it was safe to cross. With wide areas on the tops of the tower bridges to accommodated scheduled, queued and massed transport via safe carriages that anchored between each.
Where as this looked more of a leap of faith style, or a rope pulley which pulled the user one way across the gap but she would be unable to use them for their limited range only extended to crossing between bridges and not directly to the planet.
The insides were cool while the outside radiated heat from the stones, and her footsteps echoed around the inside while loosing their impact on the balconies.
After over two arcs she finally reached the top and the shack, where there were bundles of rope, hooks, anchors and all sorts.
“Hello? Nugget?” Linda felt silly saying, but just then the door swung open and a slightly younger looking war vet in half casual half military dress uniform greeted her.
“Halo team has sent word of your mission, come in,” Nugget said seriously, a code name that the others said he preferred, instead of his real name. Which she now thought that maybe the others had hid their real names as well.
Some time passed as Nugget prepared Linda for the jump, knowing when the tower bridge would be coming into the choke point as he called it.
Strapped up in a harness, she waited for Nugget to fully check off the safety list he had been doing and appraising each component.
“Now, I want you to try and touch your toes,” he said smartly.
Linda spaced her legs out a touch and reached down.
“Good, it fits pretty well considering it was build for carrying heavy armour,” he said, “It will keep you both safe.”
Linda smiled “Thank you, it feels not too bad.”
“We have just under an arc before we hit the choke, are you feeling up to this?” he (Nugget) said.
“I am, ” she said without hesitation, the straps digging in a little but she assumed correctly it was for her own safety. Watching some birds fly across her view and dive up towards the equilibria field, migrating to the other planet. She mused how easy it looked.
“Now remember, push off and keep facing up, or down once you cross over OK? You don’t want to be falling on your back because the parachute won’t deploy properly, ” he warned her.
“I understand, ” she nodded. “Thank you again for helping me.”
“If it were up to me I’d come with you, but I’m too old for that now. Let me know what happens when you get back OK?“ he sulked.
“Of course, will you be at the rec centre?” she queried.
“Not a chance. I’ll be here, away from those stuffy rooms of demure convalescence. I prefer being out here, who wouldn’t love this view? “ he gestured outwards.
She liked Nugget, his youth stripped from him by time but lost none of his fervour. Of course she would return to see him, but first comes the tricky part.
She checked her belongings, making sure she had everything including some rations Nugget gave her and some money she could use.
Moments before the choke point arrived, a torrent of winds buffeted the tower. Dark clouds spewed out of the twin planet onto her view above, like a reverse drain giving back the water it had taken away. As if the planet cast an angry gaze upon her with its maelstrom eye.
“This won’t be easy, “ Nugget yelled over the wind, fastening some equipment on that looked similar to hers for some reason.
“Can I still go?“ Linda yelled back.
“Aye, your going in blind,” he adjusted some personal rigging. “But not alone, I’m coming withyou.,” Nugget nodded.
“What?, this... I can wait another rotation, don’t worry.” Refusing to risk his health Linda waved her hands.
“I’ve done this loads of times, one more couldn’t hurt,” he said striding over.
He reached Linda and started strapping into her rigging from behind. Despite Linda’s visible discomfort to the whole situation. Leaving the parachute on her back he used a much larger pack designed to hold both their weights.
“I got this Harper, ” he promised and she smiled as he used her last name, making it her call sign.
“Now, with me on 3. OK?”
“OK, ” she shouted, a little excitement and worry in her voice. The moments slipped by, as if peeled from them by the wind until the equilibria field closed in above them.
“3...2...1...jump!” marked the end of communication and the bumpy rise into the choke point, gravity of both the planets playing their part to create the field.
Swirling like wisps of ghosts in the air, the clouds rushed around and the field roared in front of them, billowing and reversing its contents in a kind of osmosis that couldn’t make its mind up.
Fury, taken form. Linda was scared. A gentle squeeze of Nuggets hand told her he was with her, as she almost forgot, fear taken over her mind.
“I got this Harper, just you watch,” he said without any doubt.
They were mere meters away from the point of no return, the tower bridge haven gifted them a great boost in height to begin with. Clouds swallowed them whole.
Not quite darkness followed, but like walking into thick night fog, with faint light searching through it. Wallowing as if space where no gravity existed the only thing that seemed pulling and pushing them, was the movement of air. Her hair flicked violent in her eyes and she had to squint to protect them.
Until they pulled clear through the thickness and slowly, more and more, into the centre. The centre was indescribable, Linda had seen pictures of such weather events but this was another level. And what seemed like mere moments, they passed through the clouds calm centre where it was like a grey blanket cocoon.
“We made it!“ Linda yelled.
“Almost, ” Nugget returned. “But yeah, that was a rough jump,” he tapped her shoulder.
They descended now, the clouds getting lighter and colours coming back into view. Penetrating the upper clouds the view became clear, they had crossed over.
“I can see where the old tower bridge would have been,” Linda spotted a mound with ruined stones over it.
“Yeah, we blew it up!“ Nugget said with pride.
Gradually they started to decent quicker.
“Opening in 3,2,1” Nugget yelled, taping her as he did so.
She had not been trained in this style of Co op jumping but she inferred he was going to pull the parachute now and she had been told it yanked you a little.
A zip like sound slashed in the air as the parachute deployed and unfrowned like an old man’s brow de wrinkling, much like Nuggets in the face of on coming wind pressure. There was indeed a yank on her webbing as they slowed dramatically with a slight pinch in her nether region. “Stay in, ” she prayed.
They glided down and she felt relief that it had been done, she was across and enjoying herself a little too. The landing area Nugget chose was a wide space of fields not too far from the entry point. They circled wide to descent and calculate the best angle for landing. The ground seemed to rush past in a weird perspective that made her a little nauseous.
“Remember to lift your legs up, we don’t want to lose those, haha,” Nugget yelled.
Linda had remember of course and was ready. The swell of ground met them and almost touched but for Nugget pulling on the break before impact to swoop them up a little and dispel some forward momentum. They skimmed through some long grass that sounded like pouting sand and they landed.
Nugget did not detach the kit quick enough and they jostled around for a moment until he released them.
“Woah, I need a drink,” Nugget swore aloud, detaching himself from Linda. “how about you Harper, well done on your first jump” they both remained seated for a moment.
“I’d do that again, I think, but after some more training,” she said while wrestling out of the rigging still with her parachute attached.
Nugget looked at Linda, “let’s get this stowed.”
A while later, after getting their kit away and their bearings they headed to the nearest town, where Nugget got a drink or two and Linda made a call to her partner.
“Hello?” the other person on the phone replied.
“Sam, hello its me!” Linda reacted, obviously sure she new who it was.
“Linda! How?... Where are you? How did you contact me,“ a pause. “How is our baby?” Sam said.
“We are both fine, ill tell you once you come pick me up if you could please, ” Nugget smiled from the table overhearing the conversation.
“We’re in a town called Fugalreel,” she quizzed her geography knowledge in her head quickly, “about 2 arcs away I think.”
“I’m on my way, where are you exactly, sounds like a bar?” she heard rustling of clothes as Sam was likely getting ready to leave.
“It’s called the... ,” she looked around trying to remember the name, not really noticing as they arrived. “The Flutes Glass” she finished.
Later that quarter, a child was born in the presence of both their parents. And also a very proud godfather.
The End.
Chalked is a podcast of short stories written and hosted by Stuart G Wilson, you can listen to them on the Chalked.one website or on iTunes, Podbean, Stitcher or TuneIn by searching for chalked.
