Caleb 49 - Repercussions

"But you got Jeevan to help," she said. "He would never have done that for me."

"He is my brother," I said. "We do things for one another."

Maggie looked at her watch. "My god," she said. "It's nearly four. We need to get going."

"Are you sure you won't stay for dinner?" asked Ness - who had cooked lunch for them.

"Much as I would love to," said Maggie, "I can't. Cuthbert will already be cursing me up and down. I'll bet I've missed a lot of stuff he had planned for me today."

"Give him my regards," I said with a grin.

"I'm sure he can't wait to see you again," she replied with a small smile. "I still catch him thinking about that sometimes." She stood up.

"Ness," she said, "thank you for breakfast and lunch. Both were delicious. Caleb. Thank you. It's been a rough couple of days, but I'm sure we'll come through it. Do watch your back though. The old Everson Council still has friends. They may decide to come after you."

"They'd better not," said Dianna, "or they'll have me to answer to. Council or not, I'm still Matriarch."

"And still on our council," said Maggie, "unless you no longer wish to be."

They left together after Dianna had given hugs to all the girls, Ness included. Maggie merely nodded to the girls, and to me, before going through the door.

"Well," said Dean, "that could have gone a whole lot worse."

I agreed.

The evening passed in amiable conversation. Gracie still hadn't shown her face, but still I wasn't concerned. We were not her keepers. I did, however, decide to send her a text.

_Hi Gracie, just checking in. We're heading up to the ranch tomorrow so if we don't see you, it's probably going to be another 3 weeks until we're back.

_OK, See you then.

Short and sweet. I wondered if she'd found herself a new man. I grinned at that thought. I hoped, whoever he was, he wasn't another Dylan.

+++++

The next morning, we packed up our stuff and headed, once again, for the local airport. Gerry was waiting for us and the Jet already opened up and ready for us to board. We took two cars which we parked in the private terminal parking lot, rather than the hangar this time, and carried our luggage onto the jet.

We carried all of our baggage onto the aircraft and stowed it. Gerry, for once, just sat and waited in the cockpit for us to get everything stowed. Once we closed the door, I heard the engines spool up, and we started to move.

"Someone's in a rush," Dean snipped at him, having not been seated when the jet began its taxi. Gerry, as usual, ignored him.

We were in the air in a few minutes and settled in for the hour long flight. Amanda, as usual, squeezed the life out of my hand as we took off, but eased up once we were levelled off and everything had settled down. As usual Dean and Cheryl were seated up front, while the girls and I occupied the central seats. Josh and Louise sat further back. Jules immediately started to read, Ness stared out of the window, obviously bored, and the twins and I simply sat enjoying each other's company and chatting.

"Who wants coffee?" asked Ness, looking for something to do.

"Sounds good," I said as I went to get up to help her.

"Sit," she said imperiously. "I'll do it." I grinned at her. I guessed that she figured that making coffee for everyone would take up more time if she did it alone. We had spent a lot of time on the jet over the last few weeks, most recently, and least favourably, on the nearly ten-hour flight back from Spain only 2 days ago. She was done with it. It was definitely preferable to driving for ten hours, but the flight was still not an enchanting experience for her.

She made drinks for Dean and Cheryl, and then took ours and Josh and Louise's orders.

"Don't forget Gerry," I said.

"I told you not to spoil the hired help," called Dean grinning, fully expecting Gerry to, once again, flip him off. There was no reaction. Perhaps he didn't hear or had his headset on. I couldn't see more than his shoulder from my position.

Ness made the drinks, handed us ours, and Josh and Louise theirs, before going up into the cockpit to give Gerry his.

"CALEB!" she yelled.

The sound of panic in her voice had both Dean and me on our feet in an instant. Dean, being nearer to the front was beside her before me, and blocked my view of what was going on in the cockpit.

I stood back and waited to find out what was going on.

Dean turned around. "Something's wrong with Gerry," he said. "He's just staring into space."

"Can I see?" I asked, stepping back to let Dean and Ness get out of my way, and then I entered the cockpit.

Gerry was seated in the pilot's seat. My first thought was to check our situation. I looked at all the instrumentation and noted that we were on our pre-planned flightpath. I also confirmed that the autopilot had control of the aircraft. As far as we were concerned everything was as it should be. Everything, that was, apart from our pilot.

Gently I examined his mind.

My stomach roiled when I discovered what had happened. Someone had gotten to Gerry and interfered with his mind. They had left some kind of 'timebomb' in his head, so that once we were airborne, he would enter a catatonic state. Knowing that I would be on board, and that I would probably be able to undo that, they had removed all of his flying knowledge. Their idea, apparently, was that we wouldn't notice Gerry's condition and continue to fly until we ran out of fuel and crashed or, since we didn't have a pilot on board, we would crash while attempting to land. Either way, evidence of their interference would be obliterated, and the deaths ruled accidental or written off as pilot error.

I searched his memory to see who had done this to him. They'd been cautious, wiping his memories of their interaction, but they slipped up. It was brief, but they had approached him while he was in his car just before he had arrived home. For an instant he had seen the car in his rear-view mirror as it approached. In the drivers' seat was a blond haired blue eyed boy and, in the passenger seat, Zacharia Everson.

"Bastard," I cursed.

Once more I looked at the instrumentation. We had about thirty minutes flight time left. I could leave the autopilot in charge of the aircraft for a little while longer.

"Help me get him out of the seat," I said. "I don't want him near the controls, just in case there are any other surprises waiting for us."

I unbuckled Gerry's harness and, using my TK, pulled him out of the seat. Dean guided, making sure I didn't bounce him off any sharp surfaces as I levitated him back in the main cabin, and into a seat, where we buckled him in.

I left him in the care of Mary and Amanda. I went back into the cockpit and slid into the left seat.

I scanned the panels and instrumentation. Everything looked familiar and I knew I could fly the plane, theoretically at least. I hadn't had so much as a single hour of stick time on any aircraft, let alone a fifty million dollar, twenty two ton, twin engine jet.

Dean entered the cockpit and slid into the right seat.

"Can you fly this thing?" he asked.

"Technically," I said, "yes. I need to get a feel for it though."

I put on the headset and keyed the button for the intercom to the cabin.

"I need you all to sit down and belt yourselves in," I said. "I need to take control of the plane while we are up here and see how she feels. It may get a bit bumpy, I'm sorry." I released the button and turned to Dean.

"We need to let Dianna and Maggie know what happened," I said, "Just in case. We're about thirty minutes out, so I'll make the call. Then I need to spend a few minutes getting a feel for the controls. I'm also going to have to call ATC when we get close and tell them we have an incapacitated pilot."

"Hold off on that," he said. "Speak to Maggie first. Then see how you feel flying. Then let's make the decision."

I nodded, and pulled my phone out, calling Maggie.

"Caleb," said Maggie. "I thought you were going up to the ranch."

"We are," I said, "but there's been a bit of a hitch."

I explained the situation, how Gerry had been attacked by Zacharia and another member of his family, and how he was now unable to fly the plane.

"I can have a pilot on the line with you in fifteen minutes," she said. "Hang..."

"Maggie," I said, "that won't help. I took all Gerry's flying knowledge just after my birthday. You know the twins bought me flying lessons. Gerry was good enough to let me have everything he knew. I just haven't had any actual experience. Technically I know what to do. I just need to get a feel for the bird.

"I just wanted you to know what happened, just in case."

"In case?" she asked. "In case my ass. You get that bird on the ground in one piece and that's a fucking order!!!"

"Yes ma'am." I said smiling wryly.

The autopilot beeped and the plane began to bank. We'd reached a waypoint. Once we reached the next turn, it would be time to start our descent.

"I have to go," I said. "I'll call you once we're on the ground."

"Caleb?" she said, sounding nervous.

"Yes?" I responded.

"Good Luck," she said, and before I could respond, ended the call.

"You all strapped in back there?" I sent to the girls.

"Yes," Mary sent.

Pulling on my own harness, I indicated for Dean to do the same. Once we were secured, I pressed the autopilot disconnect on the control stick and took direct control of the aircraft. I needed to get a feel of how movement in the controls related to actual movement of the aircraft.

Being in the left seat put the 'joystick' control lever in my left hand. This, in and of itself, felt strange to me. Since I was right handed, my preference would have been to have the control stick in my right hand. Perhaps I should have taken the right seat, but instinct, or memories, had dictated that the 'captain' sat in the left seat.

I gently pushed the control stick forward slightly, feeling the nose of the plane dip and within about five seconds we had lost five hundred feet in altitude. I pulled it back, a little sharper than intended and the plane lurched up, climbing a thousand feet in no time at all. I managed to gain control once again and eased the stick forward gently until we levelled out and once more settled at our designated altitude. I hoped ATC didn't see that little blip.

I was heartened. The controls were not as skittish as I had feared. Since this was a fly-by-wire aircraft, I was sure that the computer was smoothing things out. I tried a little side-to-side wriggle and felt the wings dip slightly. Pressing the rudder pedals also gave me a feel for how much pressure produced how much resultant movement in the aircraft. I turned the autopilot back on and settled back into my seat, wiping my sweaty hands on the legs of my jeans.

"Everyone ok back there?" I sent to them all.

"Amanda near broke my hand," complained Jules. "But other than that, we're all good."

"We're about to make our final turn," I sent, "then about fifteen minutes to landing."

"You want to go back and sit with Cheryl?" I asked Dean.

He looked at me for a moment then gave a short nod. He undid his harness and slid out of the seat moving back into the cabin.

"I'm going to be a bit busy for the next few minutes," I sent, "so I thought I'd just remind you all how much I love you."

I felt waves of love from them all. There was more than a little fear running through it, but I could sense they were trying to suppress that.

The autopilot beeped indicating we'd reached our final waypoint and I keyed the mike to talk to ATC. I was very thankful that the weather, and the skies, were clear. There was no other traffic on approach to the airport and there wasn't a cloud in the sky, either of which would have made landing more complicated. As it was, ATC cleared us to enter a fifteen mile final approach and gave me wind speed and direction as well as an altimeter reading. That was good; I had forgotten to get the airport ATIS information prior to contacting ATC. One mistake. . .a simple one.

Despite my nerves, everything seemed to fall into place. I followed the directions from air traffic control for a visual approach and, before I knew it, was lined up with the runway. From my viewpoint, the runway seemed both incredibly far away, and incredibly small, but it was rushing up to meet me with all the enthusiasm of the Steadman dogs.

I extended the landing gear.

I managed to keep the plane steady and level, something memory said was called a stabilized approach, and I was making only tiny movements to the controls. I received my final information and landing clearance from the tower. Then the cockpit warning voice started calling out my altitude.

"Five hundred." I jumped but managed not to jerk the control stick.

"Four hundred." I had been expecting it so I maintained my control and concentration.

"Three hundred." The runway was getting closer still. I could see individual people now walking around, minding their own business. I wondered if they were about to witness something catastrophic.

"Two hundred." It felt like we were skimming the tops of trees and houses. I knew, intellectually, that there were no power lines or other obstructions. Gerry had flown into this airport hundreds of times but, even so, my eyes were darting around looking for any signs of them.

"One hundred" the airport was right there. Just across a small field and a road. It seemed like I wouldn't even clear the fence.

"Fifty, Forty, Thirty." I was over the runway now, just crossing the stripes.

"Twenty, Ten." I pulled back ever so gently on the stick, just enough to pull the nose up a tiny bit, and started my landing flare. I needed to bleed off the last bit of flying speed and make sure that the main gear touched first.

It seemed to take forever for the plane to drop that final ten feet but, with an almost imperceptible bump, the main gear touched and I eased the stick forward allowing the nose to drop too. I pulled back on the throttle levers and engaged reverse thrust, slowing the plane down and applying the brakes, until I slowed enough to exit the runway.

Tower gave me taxiing instructions as I guided the plane off the runway, down a couple of taxiways, and onto the apron in front of the Steadman hangar.

Once I brought the aircraft to a stop, I applied the parking brake, and ran through the shutdown procedure. When everything was done, I leaned forward, grabbed Gerry's chart case and, only just managed to get it open before I released the entire contents of my stomach into it. I retched and heaved until I had nothing left. I felt a hand on the back of my neck. I didn't know whose it was, nor did I care at that moment.

My phone rang, I picked it up and handed it back to the person behind me. I wasn't ready to speak yet.

"No," he said, "this is Dean. Caleb is just taking a moment. . .No, it was fine. . .How long?. . . I'll arrange transportation to the ranch. . .I'll get someone to meet you. . .I'll tell him. Bye."

Taking out his own phone he made a phone call. He was blocking the entrance to the cockpit so, although I could see all my girls wanting to get through, he was giving me time to settle myself. By the time he was done with his call I was ready.

"Okay?" he said. I nodded and slid out of the seat only to be enveloped in a crushing hug by the man himself.

"OOOOF!" I complained as he squeezed the life out of me.

Eventually he released me and I was finally able to draw breath. He turned and opened the plane door, blocking the cockpit door, and directed everyone off before finally allowing me to disembark. It made sense. Once we were all on the apron, and there was room, I was once again engulfed in the arms of my four girls. Cheryl, Josh, and Louise hung back, although it appeared that they too wanted to show their appreciation.

Dean came down the steps. Gerry was still strapped into a seat on the plane and still, apparently, catatonic.

"Maggie and Dianna are on their way up," he said. "She said they will be landing in about ninety minutes. We need to get Gerry down. The boys will be here soon with some transport to take us back home."

Disentangling myself from the girls, I stepped back up into the plane and looked at Gerry once again. The easiest way to get him down would be Compulsion and, with a quick apology, I Compelled him to undo his belt, and follow me down the steps onto the tarmac. I brought his pilots case too, for disposal. I closed up the plane just as four cars pulled up alongside driven by Bobby and some of the other hands. I recognised Jonas' father in one of the driver's seats.

We each took a seat in one of the vehicles, I kept Gerry with me, and we were driven back to the ranch. Immediately upon arrival we were mobbed by the dogs before being allowed into the house. I sat Gerry at the end of the kitchen table. I needed a drink, but first I needed to brush my teeth; I still had the sour taste of vomit in my mouth. I went up to our room, and into the bathroom, where I decided to have a shower. I had been sweating like a whore in church the entire time I was in that seat, and so I didn't smell too good.

It wasn't a surprise when I felt the cold wash of air on my back, I had almost expected it, but what surprised me was that it was Jules. Not that I was complaining. Right now sex was the last thing on my mind, and the girls must have known that. I turned around to face her and she simply pulled me into a hug, our naked bodies pressed together under the stream of warm water. She held me for a few long minutes before looking up into my face.

"Thank you," she said. "You saved me, saved us all, my entire family."

I didn't think it prudent to mention at that time that it was my fault that they were at risk in the first place, but I'm sure that would come out at some point down the line. Right now, all I wanted to do was hold onto my beautiful fiancée and enjoy the moment.

After the shower I got dressed and re-joined the others in the kitchen. Ness was busy, as usual, and within a few minutes had served lunch. We were just finishing lunch when the barking of the dogs announced that Maggie and Dianna had arrived.

Dianna immediately went to the twins and threw her arms around them, while Maggie came over to me. She stood in front of me for a moment surveying me.

"It's nice to see you can obey orders sometimes," she said.

"When the orders make sense," I replied dryly.

Then she surprised me by throwing her arms around me and pulling me into a fierce hug.

"Don't you ever do that to me again," she said.

I was shocked as we broke apart to see that there were tears in her eyes.

"It wasn't exactly planned," I said. I nodded in Gerry's direction. Maggie looked at him and she and Dianna went over.

"Show me what you saw from him," Maggie said, and I gave them both the memories. It took a couple of seconds for them both to assimilate then Maggie, face grim, picked up her phone and made a call, walking out of the kitchen onto the deck to do so.

"They blocked his consciousness," Dianna said. "That's easy enough to undo. But they also removed all his memories of how to fly. They must have thought you might be able to undo the block in flight, and didn't want to take the chance."

"How do I undo the block?" I asked.

Dianna explained the process, and within a few minutes, Gerry was back to himself wondering where he was, and what he was doing there. Dianna explained it all to him.

"Caleb was able to remove your block," she concluded. "I'm sorry, but your memories of flying are all gone."

Garry looked defeated. He glanced at Dean who indicated that they should go outside to talk.

"Who was the blonde kid?" I asked Dianna after she had finished with Gerry.