Superstitions

Chapter 9: The operation

"Wait, come again, this things are for what?" Tucker asked the ghost boy.

"'This things' are called claps. You need to put them on the back of the wings, and be able to lift or drop them. Otherwise you will be blown away by the first strong gust of wind. Wind will go under or above you."

"That's briliant!" Tucker exclaimed, scribing something furiously on the piece of pergament. Danny chuckled.

"No need to praise me, the idea belongs to Wright brothers. I know them personally, however," 'Even if they lived hundred years ago,' he added in his mind.

"So that's all we need to make...I just realised it doesn't have a name," Phantom hummed, he wouldn't offer the name, unless it will be very..."How 'bout 'The bird?'"...lame. Danny looked at Sam, who was still curiously eyeing their work. She looked back at him, and they both had the same deadpan expression on their faces.

"And the award for the lamest name in both worlds goes to Tucker Foley!" Danny clapped sarcastically.

Tucker missed the part about two worlds, only paying attention to the offending part. He huffed and crossed his hands.

"Oh, and what do you have in mind?" He asked, causing Danny to shrug, dropping on the chair.

"Airplane," he said offhandedly. Tucker hummed in thought.

"Sounds good enough to me," Sam supported Danny. Tucker sighed.

"Fine, even if it's not as good as mine," he scribed the name in the left corner of the parchment, "And how far it will be able to go?" Tucker asked.

"Well, by giving this additions we increased the distance from five meters to..." Danny looked at the ceiling, muttering his counting under his nose, "About six hundred," Tucker hunched his shoulders.

"Is that all?" he whined, "Can we increase it more?"

"Yes, there is a way to make the plane fly for a few hundred miles, but...I doubt we will be able to make it. Engine is a tricky thing to make, especially at the simple forge. There is also a question of fuel."

"There is plenty of coal..." Danny raised his hand.

"I'm not talking about coal. It burns too fast, all that smoke will kill you, not to mention a huge possibility to set the plane on fire. No, that's not the solution. Only oil will do."

"Oil?" Tucker and Sam asked.

"Yep. Sticky, smelly liquid and effective fuel. A little present from dinosaurs."

"Who?" Danny realised that the discovery is yet to be made.

"Alright, imagine huge reptiles, some as huge as towers. There were carnivors and their pray, but that was to be expexted. They lived here loong before humans, about sixty five million years ago."

"Then where are they now?" Tucker raised an eyebrow. He found it hard to believe, unlike Sam, who was listening closely, trying to memorise all details. She didn't have reasons not to believe his exciting tales. Danny shrugged.

"They are extinct. All of them. No one knows what exactly happened. Maybe a giant rock fell from the sky and the dust closed the sun, freezing the world over, maybe plants had changed and herbivores had nothing to eat...My point is, not much is left from them. Only their sceletons deep underground and oil. Their remains, mixed with the remains of ancient plants became black gold, as we call it."

"Well then, draw one of them," Tucker handed him a piece of coal, which Danny accepted and calmly drew something on the clean piece of pergament. He showed them pretty accurate image.