SUNGLASESS AND ROCKETS Part 2: The Machine

ON ROUTE

I nodded as if there was nothing to it and passed out.

A pinch on my hand woke me up.

"It is time," I heard the doctor say quietly.

Oh boy!

It had not been a dream. Vanessa wasn't there. She stayed in the jungle at the mercy of every imaginable danger. Even worse, we were moving away irremediably—I felt like I was going to burst out crying. But I held back my tears closing my eyes and clenching my jaw really tight. The pressure in my throat gave in and tears didn't come out.

I took a moment to recover my respiration while rubbing my eyes hard.

Everything seemed like a strange nightmare. We just had finished escalating a Mayan pyramid, and now, the doctor, accompanied by Darwin and me, were flying in the last thin layers of the atmosphere on board a type of aircraft, which by the way, was going through turbulence.

I quit moaning and seized the arms of my chair.

"Unfasten your seatbelts," the doctor indicated.

Still disoriented from having been sleeping, my eyes ran across the guys who were pointing at us from the sides of the cabin. I swallowed hard and looked at the doctor with the corner of my eye.

"Come on!" he urged in a low voice. "Find the latch!"

Suddenly, a series of light beams filled the cabin. My eyes turned toward the huge front window. A deep space full of stars, topped by a gigantic blue curvature, unveiled before us. Simultaneously, the cabin was totally illuminated, as if it were daytime...

I couldn't stop being amazed by so many shocks. Was there a chance that we were flying around the Earth?

The weirdest thing was that the Earth was above. My vision was still hazy. I opted for shaking my head and my vision was back. I verified in an instant that, in fact, we were flying upside down.

Suddenly, everything began to spin around. I still didn't let go of the arms of my seat. A moment later, the vast blue curvature was below.

Now we were flying right side up.

I got a new pinch on my hand. The doctor cleared his throat.

"It's coming," he whispered. "Unfasten your seatbelts!"

It's coming? What's coming?

Shoot.

I didn't know what to expect, but I decided to obey. I looked at the guys who were aiming at us and cautiously groped for the seatbelt clasp.

All of a sudden, the cabin jounced fiercely. The horizon tipped over one side and the spacecraft began to convulse.

"To the duct!" the doctor shouted. "Now!"

I pressed the buttons on the latches. The doctor grabbed me by one arm and hurled me forward as if he was hurling a sports hammer. I crashed against a post. No. It was a vertical small stepladder. I supported myself instinctively with one of the treads and began to climb. I heard threatening shouts and I noticed that the guys in uniforms were rushing toward me.

But the cabin was roughly invaded by weightlessness and the men floated up to the roof. I resisted going for the ride, clinging to the ladder.

"Go up!" I heard the doctor's voice in spite of the chaos. "Go up!"

My extremities slackened and I automatically slid up. I passed through a small opening and ended up against the roof of a new cabin. Gravity reappeared and I fell on top of Darwin.

Something pulled us apart immediately. It was the doctor coming out of the opening.

"Let's close it!" he yelled.

Gravity was reduced to zero again and the three of us were elevated. Through my peripheral vision, I got to see the doctor diving towards the floor. I shook my arms and legs and turned around. I saw the doctor sliding a hatchway right in the orifice.

"Watch out!" Darwin shouted. "They're shooting!"

The small door was getting bulky. The doctor did not let go of it. He pulled it for the last time and the opening was hermetically sealed. Then, the doctor looked at us.

"Take your places! Now!"

He shifted like a fish to the only row of seats in this new cabin. Darwin and I could only manage to kick. But somehow, we did push ourselves forward. The doctor was getting settled into the pilot's seat. Meanwhile, my partner and I were struggling to orient ourselves in zero gravity.

The back of the seats were close, we almost touched them...

Suddenly, I stayed still. Dazzled.

My reckless eyes had found the view in the front window. It was a vast navy blue extension with two black dots...

"Here come two more!" the doctor yelled.

I reacted to them. The dots were missiles. Then, again, gravity showed up and we fell onto the floor, which quivered as if it was about to break apart.

"We're going to disengage!" our boss announced.

Darwin and I got up and threw ourselves into our seats. That instant, I noticed the huge fuselage of the silver plane right below. We weren't in another cabin. We were in a ship mounted onto the spacecraft.

And we were flying en route to a frontal collision with missiles!

"Hang on!" the doctor screamed.

The cabin began to jounce. The enormous boomerang passed us letting out a spout of smoke from one wing, which all of a sudden broke off!

One moment later, our spaceship changed its course. One more time the tingling in my stomach came back and the blackness wrapped the small windows at the same time that the crushing sensation reappeared.

After a few seconds, the brutal impulse vanished.

And a worse one followed.

My skin was tugged to the back like play dough. I tried to hold my teeth tight, but my jaw didn't respond. I couldn't feel my body. My vision was blurry...

Suddenly, we slowed down. The final push sent me forward.

"We're reaching a velocity of 24,500 miles per hour," the doctor announced.

An awkward tingling was spreading all over my body giving me back the control of my limbs. I felt different. Light. Heavily breathing, I realized that I was slightly rising off my seat. My arms and legs were stretching forward.

Weightlessness was coming slowly to the ship.

"We're in space," I heard Darwin whisper.

I raised my eyes. Millions of stars were sparkling on an obsidian background. Astonished, I turned to the right. Darwin, as marveled as I was, looked at the odd scenery gape mouthed.

He adjusted his eyeglasses.

"Yes," he confirmed. "It's outer space."

In the next seat, the doctor didn't even bother looking up. His eyes were scanning thoroughly and rapidly over the control panels in front of him.

I wanted to ask him what our destination was, but hesitated. I sensed that it wasn't the right moment to break in.

Non-sense. We weren't traveling on a highway, we were traveling in space! I had the right to know at once where the hell we were heading.

"Doctor," I called him determined. "Where are we going?"

The pilot looked from the corner of his eye.

"They're leading us to the moon..."