Capricious - The Lightning Crew Chronicles

Part One - 01 - Allan

"Captain, are you sure you want to do this?"

"Of course I want to do this! We all want to do this. The money will be really good," answered Captain Allan Roy with a charming smile. He was a tall and athletic man in his late twenties, with two bright eyes under a mass of wavy brown hair.

Jessie, his pilot, didn't seem impressed. She shook her head, sending her long dark hair cascading around her massive chair in the cockpit.

"Do you see that, Captain?" she asked, pointing to the small planet they could see below through the observation window of the ship. The whole atmosphere was bright with lightning storms. "Those are sprites! I have never seen so many sprites at once."

He gave her a dubious look, one eyebrow raised.

She rolled her eyes. "No, I don't mean freakin' little elves! Sprites are massive electrical discharges that appear high above thunderclouds, in the upper atmosphere. They are usually very rare, and quite pretty, to be honest, all those colors ... but that's not my point. My point is, this planet looks like it's having its own fireworks party all year round, and you want me to cross that hellish atmosphere to land my baby on its surface?"

"You mean my baby!" corrected Allan, outraged. "And yes, I want you to do exactly that. It will be okay," he said with another of his charming smiles. "We both know if there is one pilot out there able to do it, it's you."

She sighed. "Well, I'm not sure flattery will save your ass once those storms rip us apart."

"I'm counting on you," he said, patting her shoulder. "Think about the money."

The previous week, they had bought some information about an abandoned scientific research base on a remote planet called R-607. The planet's constant storms and insane weather made it unfit for human habitation, and none of the three nations had shown any interest in colonizing it. Or so everyone thought.

But someone did put a high-tech infrastructure on it, thought Allan. One that is surely filled with machines and goodies that we can sell for a good price on the black market.

"Do it!" he ordered.

Jessie let out another of her long-suffering sighs. The flashes from the thunderstorms below were illuminating her olive skin, and her dark eyes were alight. She had been young when he had hired her to be his pilot three years ago, barely over twenty, but he had never regretted it. She was good, really good. This time she didn't argue with him; she steered the ship onto her new course, straight to hell.

Allan just had time to think, Oh, boy, I hope this is worth it, before the whole ship started to shake and whine.

"Get ready for a hell of a ride!" screamed Jessie, joyfully.

She was always joyful when it came to flying, no matter the risks.

Allan settled himself in the copilot chair to assist her. Every instrument had a bright flashing warning, accompanied by a separate alarm for each one, expressing La Capricieuse's distress. Outside, the temperature was rising as they dived into the thick atmosphere.

They arrived in the storms, and everything became dark and ominous. The clouds were a deep gray and devoured all the light. Blinding lightning cleaved the sky without mercy. The metal panels all around the ship started to creak dangerously as the first streak of lightning hit them with formidable force. Their shield took the hit, but the noise was phenomenal. Allan felt it resonate painfully in his flesh and bones.

Hopper, his mechanic, appeared behind them in the cockpit, bellowing insults. At only sixteen years old, he was already pretty tall, muscular, and had a temper. "What are you doing to my ship?"