The Ill-mannered Door (humorous sci-fi)

43.1: Falling for You

The ground was coming up to meet us very quickly, or perhaps the other way 'round. At that moment, I wished for more time, of course, but I was strangely content. I knew that was my final moment, but I was thankful for one thing: I was able to hold Isabella's hand to meet my fate.

Suddenly that hand yanked me toward her much harder than I would ever have expected from her, and I found myself wrapped in her strong embrace. That was utterly staggering, and quite frankly, far more than I could ever have hoped for.

"Hold me, Thomas!" She shouted as we fell, and in a rush of euphoria at the sheer romance of the moment, I wrapped my arms about her in a powerful hug. It was awkward with her pronounced hump, but I would love her just the same, at least for the remaining moments that we had left. I then realized with great relief that her hump was really some sort of backpack that she was wearing, so I slipped my arms underneath the pack and all was well with the world. At least my world. I was content to meet my fate.

Immediately there came a great jerk and I almost lost my hold on her, but gripped more tightly and managed to hold fast as we rocketed upward toward the Bounty.

Hold on a moment. Upward?

A quick glance at the ground did indeed reveal that we were going up. Another glance at the Bounty confirmed that we were most definitely going up, and at a rather alarming rate, I might add. It was as if we had a jet pack, but there was no sound other than the wind rushing past us as we shot through the air toward the ship.

"What's happening?" I yelled, then thought better of it when Isabella winced. Our faces were just inches apart, after all.

"Just hold on, Thomas, I think we can make it," Isabella said, a look of determined concentration in her eyes as she watched the fast approaching ship. She had lovely green eyes, by the way, and I was amazed that I had never noticed them before.

Who is this woman? I wondered. Beautiful, certainly, and just as certainly not a cleaning woman. The sheer lack of any actual cleaning had caused me to suspect that much for quite some time, but more than that, I honestly couldn't say. A sudden jerk to the right broke my reverie.

I turned from gazing at her to look up at the ship. We were close, perhaps a hundred meters or so, and closing fast. Isabella appeared to be making course corrections somehow as we flew.

As I watched the ship, I noticed the face of the king pressed against a rear window of the captain's cabin, and then he turned away and was gone from view.

I also saw the wind billowing in the Bounty's sails as she was pushed along toward the open wormhole. She was at full sail, I realized.

Without all of the jet engine or rocket sort of noise, it felt like a giant's invisible hand was pushing us along through the sky, and it was quite exhilarating!

A thought suddenly clicked into place and I turned back to Isabella and said, "Wait, what do you mean you think we can make it?"

As if my words had offended that great invisible giant, the strong pushing was suddenly gone.

"I'm sorry!" I said to the air.

"What? No, it isn't your fault, Thomas. The batteries are dead. I'm sorry, Thomas. I took the battery packs you had for some extra power in addition to what I already had, but it wasn't enough," she said over the sound of the rushing wind.

We were still closing on the Bounty, but moment by moment, more speed was being lost. The realization struck me hard at the pit of my stomach--we weren't going to make it. The Bounty at full sail would pull away from us soon as we lost velocity and she gained it.

I looked at Isabella and she looked at me. She no longer had a need, or the power really, to make course corrections.

"I'm sorry, Thomas," She said, her eyes beginning to water. "I thought we could make it, I really did. I--"

"No," I interrupted her. "No, Isabella. It's not your fault! It was me. I held you back, and I'm the one who is sorry..."

I trailed off as I caught sight of the wood framing her head, rising up to meet us just before we hit hard and everything went black.