Rosa Jardine stood in the dimly lit, cramped airplane hangar with her hands on her hips, making the print of the crane on her yukata appear to be resting from a long flight. She was scowling darkly at the hurrying figure of Hanyo Soon, the handsome young man who only gave her flashes of a grin as he quickly prepared the dilapidated 1969 Twin Otter DHC-6-200 for flight. Skoaler was busy loading the plane with various boxes and containers, surprisingly deft for such a large man. Both Skoaler and Hanyo looked nervously out the opened hanger doors across the moonlit desert floor to the fast approaching red and blue flashing lights. Just outside the opened doors, Kenji Nobu squinted in the pale white light of the crescent moon, standing on the tips of his square wooden sandals and pulling aside his brown robe to reveal the handle of a sword in its sheath, readying to pull it out at a moment’s notice. Climbing into the ramshackle plane was Theo and Arfie, the young boy and his Husky bounding up the folding stairs of the aircraft’s side door into the passenger cabin. Rosa stopped glaring at Hanyo and called out to Theo, “Hold on, young man! We’re not going anywhere if this is what’s supposed to pass for…”

Rosa’s voice trailed off as she saw the beautiful young woman in the white jumpsuit walk up behind her and sit on a crate to open the black suitcase she had brought with her. Inside the case were metal legs and an arm, encased in protective foam. Before Rosa could continue to speak, the young woman pushed her long dirty-blonde hair to her left shoulder and twisted her right arm to remove it. She dropped the arm onto the sandy floor of the hangar, and picked up the metal prosthetic from the black case and twisted it on with a click. Several red LED lights came on when she pressed a button on the back elbow, and the pincer on the end opened and closed. With the mechanical arm she deftly pulled the legs from the case and together with her natural arm twisted them on, pressing buttons behind the knees and lighting up LEDs along the sides of each. Rosa found her voice again, saying, “Theo, get out of that plane!”

Hanyo and Skoaler stopped in their tracks and watched Jola walk over to them, the LED lights on her mechanical arm and legs blink rhythmically as she moved smoothly towards them, with the pincers on her arm reaching out to them open. The hiked up pant legs of the white jumpsuit revealed that the knees of her mechanical legs were double-jointed, so that her three-toed feet lifted up and forward as her legs moved back, instead of swinging forward as the discarded prosthetics laying on the ground.

“You look like the crane on Mom’s robe!” Theo said excitedly, his head poking out of the plane’s cabin door, “Can you fly, too, Ms. Winters?”

Jola laughed as she grabbed the handle of the container Skoaler was dragging towards the plane, the pincers grasping the handle and she lifted the end of the box easily. Rosa stared at Jola, mesmerized by the bird-like movements of her legs. Skoaler lifted the end of the container into the back cargo door, and Jola pushed it in with little effort, releasing it and moving back. “Do you guys need help moving anything else?” Skoaler shook his head, his long black hair shaking across his shoulders under his cowboy hat.

“I’ve never seen artificial limbs like that before. They sure look like military technology to me,” Hanyo said, closing the cargo door and coming around to stand next to Rosa, putting himself between the two woman. Rosa looked cautiously over Hanyon’s shoulder, not quite sure what to say.

“Yes, I returned from the SEA War minus an arm and my legs. I was fortunate to be invited to join an experimental project for the development of mechanical prosthetics. These things cost almost $6 million, if you can believe it!” Jola said proudly, waving her arm and stamping her feet, “They’ve made me faster, stronger, better, but they make me look, well…”

“You look like a cyborg!” Theo shouted from inside the plane, “Cool!”

“I don’t think you should come with us then,” Hanyo said, “We’re trying to avoid the kind of attention that your ‘creators’ might have in us.” Rosa nodded behind him, and then jumped back as Kenji shouted at them, running back to the plane.

“Sherriff Haught is here! All of you, get in the plane, NOW!” Kenji urged them and then stopped for a moment on seeing Jola turn and step towards the plane, “My goodness…”

Hanyo hurried Rosa and Kenji into the plane and nodded at Skoaler to get into the cockpit. He stepped aside to let Jola stride past him, and in turn followed her to meet the Sherriff, who’s vehicle was now skidding to a stop in front of the hanger, blocked by Kenji and Jola from getting any closer to the entrance to the low building.

Skoaler started up the two propellers on the tired, old Twin Otter, sputtering and smoking to life. Theo, Kenji and Rosa sat in the cabin seats, and put on their seat belts. Arfie jumped up on Theo’s lap, and through the cabin window next to them, they both looked out to see Jola and Hanyo confront the Sherriff, the headlights of his police cruiser only showing them in silhouette, both of them standing defiantly in front of the car, still flashing blue and red.

The propellers on the plane were running fast enough now that Skoaler could start to taxi the Twin Otter out of the hanger, rolling on the uneven ground in front of the hanger. Skoaler pulled back the throttle on the propellers a bit, so the everyone could hear what was being said between Hanyo and Sherriff Jebediah Haught.

“… you owe me Soon!” Sherriff Haught could be heard shouting at Hanyo, “You can’t keep jettisoning your load at the first sign of Presidential troops!”

“What choice did I have? Anyway, with this cargo,” Hanyo shouted back, pointing his thumb at the plane behind him, “I can pay you back for that load.”

“You better, or every PAB in the county will be looking for you!” Jebediah said and reached into his vehicle to pull out a package, handing it to Jola. “Make sure he delivers this, Stumpy! You know who it goes to… say, when did the robot get-up become a part of your act? Har, har! Can’t wait to see it in your next performance!”

Jebediah got back into his car and gestured for Hanyo to come to him, “By the way, Soon… I managed to send the PABs at the bar on a wild goose chase, but they’ll be here soon enough, along with the officers I was with. You’d better get out of here fast! They want that girl who was with you, whoever she is!”

The Sherriff backed the cruiser away and headed back out to the highway. Hanyo opened the cabin door and let Jola step inside, not needing to lower the folding steps, as she was able to walk in with a single stride. Hanyo hopped in and slid into the co-pilot’s seat, saying to Skoaler, “Let’s go! We gotta to be airborne fast!” pointing through the windshield to the line of headlights turning off the highway towards them. Skoaler revved up the propeller engines again, and turned the Twin Otter to start rolling across the cleared desert valley floor.

Theo pulled at Kenji’s robe, sitting in the seat across from him. “Mr. Nobu! The battlestation plans! The PAB manual is still in the car’s glove compartment!”

Before Kenji could tell Hanyo and Skoaler to stop the plane, Jola pushed open the cabin door, throwing the package the Sheriff gave her into an empty seat, and said as she jumped out, “Keep going! I’ll grab the plans and catch up with you! Trust me! We don’t have time!”

*** This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, businesses, places, events and incidents are either the products of the author’s imagination or used in a fictitious manner. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, or actual events is purely coincidental. ***