My new toy was everything I had designed it for and more. The software Galatea and I had designed to allow us to control it as a unit worked great, the usual flow of ideas between us even faster and with less of a separation. But that was only half of what made flying it so great, there was also the feeling of power and control, of knowing that I could go wherever I wanted and there was little anyone could do to stop me. Freedom, like I had never known before, the freedom to take to the skies as I pleased, racing the clouds.

“Ugh.” a noise intruded into my exhilarating dance in the sky and I noticed that while a good part of my senses were shunted into the control of the craft, Sophia was less lukcy. I had been testing how maneuverable the craft was and, for its size, it was incredible. While I doubted it would be able to keep up with some Powered flyers, who could ignore gravity and were only partially subjected to inertia, I doubted that many man-made aircrafts would be able to keep up. I had just tried a barrel-roll, followed by a corkscrew-twist upwards, when Sophia’s distress had interrupted me.

Levelling out, I looked over to her she looked as if she was about to break the armrests of her seat.

“Are you alright?” I asked, suddenly a little worried. Sophia was normally rather sturdy, so strange noises were cause for concern. She raised her hands to her mask, unlocking the mechanism keeping it affixed to her hood, before taking a deep breath.

“I never was one for roller-coasters.” she mumbled, looking a little green around her cute nose.

“I will keep it down, unless someone is shooting at us. I just wanted to see how good my modelling was. And I think I underestimated the capabilities of this craft, the instruments show barely any strain.” I grinned, after seeing that she was shaken but alright.

“You mean there’s more?!” Sophia sounded rather worried, causing me to grin even more.

“Mhm. We have yet to try going supersonic.” I baited her, not that going supersonic would change all that much, some more vibrations, but all in all, it should remain smooth, especially compared to the maneuvers I had just tried.

“Just joking.” I reassured her, after letting her worry for a second or two.

“You are evil!” she scolded in response but I could see the grin on her face. Sadly, I could not get up and hug her, I had to remain in my seat, or at least, I had to remain linked to the control-orb. Additionally, I was not sure if I would manage to control my body as normal while being linked to the craft in the way I was, it was designed to take up most of my focus and motor-control. Talking and similar mainly cerebral tasks was easy but walking? That was a whole different challenge.

Suddenly, the communication-unit gave a chirp and I heard Technica’s voice intrude into the cockpit.

“Metis, this is Technica, please respond.” she called, our private encryption making normal radio-discipline unnecessary.

“This is Metis, what is going on?” I asked, suddenly worried. Galatea had given her the flight-plan so she obviously knew why we were out here and I doubted she would have called just to chat.

“How is the test going?” she responded, concern in her voice. But interrupting a test-flight due to concern how the test was going, that made no sense, if the tester had time to report, the test was obviously not pushing it and thoroughly safe. If not, you would not want to interrupt, possibly causing the testers to miss a problem.

“We performed a couple of tests regarding the performance envelope and so far, it flies like a dream.” I told her, while worry set in.

“What about the rest? The support-gear and all that?” she continued and I almost automatically called up the sheets, looking over what was already on board.

“The fixed equipment is operable, most of it was tested last week, including the generator. We are light on consumables, but that is merely a question of loading them. Now, please tell me what is going on.” I asked her, truly worried now. We were not in range for any of the normal networks, flying over international waters, away from anything interesting.

“There was an incident, a natural disaster. It is still developing, but instruments show that an earthquake occured in the Indian Ocean, we have yet to get a good reading on the strength, but what I’ve seen is bad. Your craft could help quite a bit, especially when it comes to restoring power.” Technica explained, causing me to shudder. If she called it bad, it had to be.

I had been lucky enough to grow up in an area where the worst “natural disasters” were relatively harmless, at worst, there might be some local flooding with a couple of cellars under water, or maybe a couple of uprooted trees after a particularly bad storm, so I had little personal experience with anything serious. But intellectually, I knew just how bad things could go if Nature decided to kick back, I had seen images of destroyed cities, looking worse than some images from the great wars of history. And I had a feeling that the images were unable to capture the truth.

“We will need more information. In addition, there is a list of supplies for natural disasters, we compiled one, just in case.” I pushed down the nervousness gnawing at my stomach. The craft we were testing might be the fastest way to restore power to large areas and with power, a lot of problems could be solved. And even if we had only flown it for the first time today, I was confident that we could make the flight to Asia. The rest of the installed gear was hardly experimental, so I was quite sure that it would hold up.

“So, you volunteer to go?” Technica asked, sounding relieved and worried at the same time.

“Yes, I assumed that was why you notified me.” I answered, only half paying attention while changing course back to the Island.

“I wanted to know if you could. Fey, my Council-Counterpart from Australia, will soon be in the afflicted area, well, one of them. It would be best if you meet up with her, she’s a good friend of mine.” Technica continued and I started to realise just how big the potentially afflicted area was, not just in terms of space but also in terms of people. My connection with Galatea helped providing some data, telling me that, depending on the epicenter and strength, millions of people could be hurt, lose their homes or even lives. Somehow, that information did not help me calm my nerves, it only exacerbated the problem.

“I can take eight more with me.” I told Technica, before focusing on Sophia next to me. “Will you come with me?” I asked her, even if I was almost certain that I knew the answer.

“I will contact those on the Island who can help the most.” Technica answered, while Sophia nodded, looking as worried as I felt.

As I continued to crunch data and made plans with Galatea, a stray-thought brought up information I had not been looking for, telling me where Sophia’s suggestion for a name came from, something about a bible-verse and God being unable to overcome chariots of iron. While only a tiny part of my mind took that information in, it propped me up, at least a bit. We might be unable to help all those afflicted by the Earthquake but I was certain we could make a difference for some of them.

“Technica, we will be back within twenty minutes. I suggest you see to loading the craft while I sleep, flying into the area will take almost ten hours. In addition, we will need the appropriate permissions to cross the airspaces on the way, while I do not really care, I doubt anyone could stop us, it might look bad. Are you going to join us?” I started to ask questions that needed to be dealt with. Sophia looked a little strange at me when I mentioned that I would sleep first, but at the end of the day, trying to rush ahead would not work. I needed to be fit to fly the distance, while Galatea could act as an auto-pilot, the craft was built to be flown by both of us.

“Not quite. I will take my own craft, dealing with another area. The main-use of my power in such a situation is to act as a generator, supplying power to the emergency equipment. If we are in the same area, it would be a waste. You will likely join up with Fey but the exact deployment is still unknown.” she explained and I understood what she meant.

“Get everything organised. We will be there soon.” I finished, before focusing on my flying.