All Things I've Done To Save You

And You And I

Hmm, now what? This time the witty Herman was like out of his wits. I might bribe the crew of the plane to stow me inside, but I don’t know whether they can be bribed or not. Looks like there are no semi-manual, freelance jobs here, everything is robotic. If I sneak inside, I don’t understand the blueprint and the layout of these flying saucers kind of hover planes.

Just then, right in front of him, there were piles of crates waiting to be loaded into a hover cargo plane. While Herman understood from the inscriptions on their labels that the crates were sent to Atut Baton, he still could only consider his options, thinking hard about a hidden position in the hangar, trying to find the best way how he could be a stowaway in that cargo plane.

When Herman was staring forward and scratching his head, suddenly a brusque, loud voice broke through the noises.

“Hey!” shouted a weighty man wearing a worn pack, a shabby towel hung around his neck.

At first, Herman didn’t think that the fat man called him. Maybe he called somebody else among the workers.

The black-skinned man approached Herman with heavy steps, as though supporting his weight. “The cargo is fully loaded, what are you waiting for?” he bellowed, standing in front of Herman with his hands on his waists.

Herman was confused, what should he do next?

“You’re the new guy, right? The replacement for Lkiga who called in sick?” the fat man inquired.

“Er, yes, but…” Herman was flabbergasted because he didn’t know what that weighty man wanted from him.

Fatty grew impatient, then opened his cap. Herman saw a bald head as round as his tummy. “Ah, shucks,” he said hastily. “Follow me. Administrations can be taken care of later.” Fatty handed a bracelet to Herman. “There is no more time. The hover plane must fly. Here, use Lkiga’s bracelet.”

Herman now understood the situation. He followed Fatty to climb the escalator into the plane. Now he had a chance to fly in this unexpected way.

If the real Lkiga comes, that’s his problem, Herman thought, fondling the bracelet which he immediately put on his wrist. This bracelet was proof of identity, like a worker ID Card and passport for a flight access permit.

When he rode the escalator towards the plane, Herman read the bracelet the fat man was wearing. It turned out his name was Uutnna Gedadabba. In the plane cockpit, Herman sat on the only vacant seat, because there were only two seats, and Uutna Gedadabba sat on the other one.

How can I fly this plane, even as a co-pilot? Herman thought, fearing that the pilot would find out and crush his plan to fly to the north in shambles.

“Because you’re new to this, just sit down and watch,” said Uutna with a warning. “Don’t touch anything. You might do an error later.”

Thank Goodness, said Herman in mind. Thank God for this lucky break. 

The cargo plane started to ascend, leaving the platform as scheduled. Herman was glad so far everything was going as planned. There was no shudder whatsoever as the jumbo hover plane floated up nicely.

Despite that, there was a bit of worry inside Herman that the destination of this plane was not Medensidor. So he asked, “Our destination is Atut Baton, right? Because the manifests said – “

“Where else do you think we’re going?” Gedadabba snapped, controlling the navigation panel that consisted only of touch buttons and something that looked like a gamepad joystick – that he didn’t touch in autopilot mode.

“But only two of us are the plane crew, and we only carry cargo?” said Herman doubtfully.

“We are cargo plane crews, why must you ask?” snapped Gedadabba. Not only that, the bulky round man scolded, “Don’t you understand technology at all? What a greenhorn!”

Herman heard that complaint, but he chose to be silent and took it at face value. He was still curious and looked left and right, watching the panels. He then asked again, “What’s the payload?”

“Rebon!” snapped Gedadabba.

“Rebon?” Herman frowned. “You mean, rebon shrimp?”

“Of course!”

“What for?” Herman became more puzzled.

“Mixed tutti-frutti ice!” Gedadabba bellowed, enraged with this naïve replacement crew. But he eventually explained and corrected his bad joke. “Of course, it’s for making sambals!”

Herman was surprised and amused at the same time. He leaned back and crossed the fingers of his two hands behind his head.

Gedadabba knew Herman felt funny to hear the payload of the cargo. “By Amun Ra, know this, Son,” said Gedadabba, wiping the sweat on his two ears with his towel. “In the north, who sells sambals? One month in the north without sambal for the pilgrims from the south is sheer gastronomic torture!”

The hover plane flew in autopilot mode, and the flight only took eight hours, said Gedadabba. Herman was ordered to watch the panels only while the Fatty Boss slept during the entire flight.

It was not a problem for Herman to get another sensation of flying an anti-gravitational hover plane that flew at high speed without seeing any turbulence at all, like an eagle riding the wind. Even the water surface in the glasses belonging to the Fatty Boss and Herman placed on top of the control panel table never moved an inch from its perfectly horizontal state.

 This hover plane cockpit was completely different from the airplane in Herman’s time. The cabin was so wide with the navigation panels in a minimalistic design, that it was even pleasant to the eye for a cargo hover plane.

The ceiling of the cockpit looked like a dome and functioned as a monitor, as though the pilot could see all the things 360 degrees outside. The big monitor in front of them was so transparent, as though one could see the sky outside directly, as though without glass at all. However, what roused Herman’s curiosity the most was to find out what kind of engine made a thing like this hover plane fly without wings and without propulsion rockets or turbines like planes and rockets in his time. Anyway, it was a cargo plane, so Herman didn’t see a blueprint or a clue whatsoever about the hover plane engine design so he could understand how this thing could fly.

One thing for sure, the energy source or fuel for this hover plane was electricity because he couldn’t see a rocket engine or a kind of emission exhaust pipe anywhere. This kind of anti-gravity engine design was used in every vehicle here, the same as the hoverbike he used to ride on. While Fatty was still fast asleep, Herman couldn’t help being continuously fascinated by all the panoramas he saw during the flight.

The skyscrapers that looked like trees so they looked in harmony with the nature around them have long changed with real trees. The mass of trees then changed into a vast mountain range. And after that, there was a vast meadow as far as the eye could see. Time passed by until at last, he was close to his destination. Herman was getting more curious about what Medensidor, Egypt in this age looked like.

Along the horizon, Herman only saw city buildings. Now the top of the buildings was closer and clearer in sight. The hover plane directed itself automatically towards the destination. As though knowing that they arrived, the Fatty Boss woke up.

“Get ready!” ordered Gedadabba. “That’s Medensidor.”

Herman understood, in its original language it means “The Land of the Gods”, but he didn’t understand the true meaning yet. The young man saw a grand, great hyperpolitan that was so beautiful with skyscrapers all around. There was a contrast between the architecture in the southern buildings and the northern ones here.

If in the south the skyscrapers look like tree trunks, here, this ultra-modern hyperpolitan was full of skyscrapers with the base shape of an obelisk with the exterior construction all from glass and dominated by golden color.

The sky above the city was full of big balloons that floated, bringing various banners containing greetings for the new millennium. There were some with the words “Live Forever for Ra”, “The Sunbath Festival”, and so on. It was more crowded and more festive here than in the southern city Herman left behind.

After flying past several interconnected cities, the cargo hover plane finally arrived in Itong Ahuan. The airport ahead was a vast open space with numerous round platforms for hover planes to land vertically. The ball shapes from the lights in various colors were connected with a line that centered on the bigger circle, forming attractive geometrical shapes.

Gedadabba went down with Herman after the hover plane landed and let the robots unload the cargo payload.

“You deliver these packages to Atut Baton to our buyer so you know how things work,” Gedadabba ordered, “while I take care of administration here.” 

Herman nodded firmly. Fatty always gets the good parts, Herman thought. But he was indeed thankful because this way he could have a chance to continue his search for Amanda.

Herman then went to the other hall by riding on an automatically moving trolley because it would be very tiring and take a long time if he go that far a distance by foot. He could even get lost if he didn’t follow the signal on his bracelet that gave him directions to go.

This time the bracelet guided Herman towards a vehicle like a tricycle bike, but it hovered and without wheels. This hoverbike was powerful enough to tow a train of cars containing the goods he needed to deliver. Herman only needed to sit down and synchronize the commands and data in his bracelet, which was read by the sensor on the bike so the vehicle would go to the destinations pinpointed by the program.

The hoverbike train accelerated on its designated lane in the middle of the traffic congestion on the highway. It was impossible for Herman to drive on his own and not follow this way. He would probably be lost and never get to the destinations. Now he was in the middle of congestion. The view above, below, and on his left and right was filled with vehicles moving to and fro. If he just stared at the traffic and did not look straight in the direction of his bike, he would be dizzy and maybe even faint.

It turned out the fake job as a delivery man gave him an advantage. That was because as he approached his destination, the Atut Baton area was closed to the public. Only a few people he saw had access to the festival site, including him. Herman concluded that those who had access were members of the crew and the festival organizing committee, so he was even sure now that he has entered the main festival preparation area. []

Although in this world Herman was amazed so many times, this time he was more astonished to see the buildings along the corridor he was passing through. Several heavy machineries like cranes and the like were placed in Atut Baton, the Giza Pyramids-like site to help people build the platforms and other things needed for the festival.

The day has beginning to turn into night, but the lighting was turned on. The sky was clear and the air was fresh, so it was pleasant to be in that area.

Herman has traveled to the Giza Pyramids complex in his own time. These Atut Baton Pyramids were the Giza Pyramids in their previous forms. The piles of symmetrical stones arranged in great precision looked 180 degrees different than the ones he saw in his own time – which were somewhat shabbier, time-worn, and not too precise.

The roads in the corridor areas were very vast, paved with natural stones full of carvings so they were beautiful to see. The shady trees grew along the pedestrian way. The pyramids he was now seeing were so neat and glamorous, showered by the sophisticated lighting, adding to their greatness and grandeur.