The Spark

In a sleek Spectra 4300, Gerry and Guy Morganza flew over the Dorfian Forest checking their scans for anything that could be used to spruce up the Spectra’s specs. The old abandoned city below was from a bygone era of high technology which had been snuffed out by the Authenticity Project nearly two hundred years ago. Despite their attempts to keep out trespassers, those like the Morganza’s always found a way to sneak in.

Next to him, his twin cousins Abbie and Mylee Omnipont soared by in her Ford Skyliner, smoke shooting from its exhaust vents like an angry dragon. Inside the two olive faced, red-heads hooping and hollering at finally catching up.

Nudging the accelerator, Gerry watched the Skyliner jiggle from the turbulence. If anything was going to get them caught it would be the Skyliner, but worse case they could ditch the old bucket and fly home in the Spectra. They had found the old Ford down in the Forest only a few months back and Abbie insisted on making it her own.

Gerry shook his head. “Their exhaust is getting trapped inside those old shields and if they go, we’ll be detected.”

The console chirped and Guy inspected the readings. “We’ve got a bogey on a direct intercept course.”

“AP hacks!” Gerry shouted. "How did they find us that fast?”

“There it is!” Guy exclaimed, pointing at something barreling towards them.

Jerking the wheel, Gerry managed to get out of the way just in the nick of time, but the bogey hit the slower Skyliner, sending it spiraling out of control.

After a bit of a fight for control, Gerry leveled out the Spectra just in time to see it was another craft that had nearly hit them, its smoking hull vanishing below the tree line, then punching into the earth with a deep plume of smoke.

“What the devil was that thing!” Guy shouted, gazing out the side window to see the Abbie’s Skyliner teetering towards the tree line.

“I don’t think that was the AP,” Gerry said, twisting the Spectra around so he could go after the derelict Ford. "If I didn’t know any better I’d say it was an alien craft.”

“You think?”

“Likely, but I’m not sure how they got through the Earth-shield. If it was an earth craft our sensors would have picked it up. The AP probably shot it out of the sky, knowing them.”

“I haven’t heard of an alien bogey since the sixties, back when Ma and Pa were running around the solar system. Don’t we pretty much know all of the local aliens now?”

“Who knows?” Gerry said with a grin, gliding the Spectra down below the tree line. "It’s a big galaxy out there.”

“Do you see the Skyliner anywhere?” Guy asked.

“I think that’s it up ahead, unless…”

Suddenly, an energy weapon blasted at them, the red bolts of an old Stagger 400 weapons system.

“Oh boy,” Gerry said. "We’ve got AP hacks already on us, but these new shields should hold.”

“Yep,” Guy said. "Pa said they would have made old Granny Elanis proud, but all I know of her is that rendering over the fireplace and all of the stories Pop used to tell.”

“I remember her just a bit,” Gerry said, as another couple shots tapped the shields. "No one’s heard from her in years.”

With expert skill Gerry glided next to the downed Skyliner and extended his shields to block the Stagger fire. "Abbie! Mylee! You guys alright?”

When there was no response, Gerry let out a moan and climbed out of the Spectra, quickly finding the girls a bit dazed from the landing.

“Come on,” he said yanking open the door. "Hurry up and we can check out the crash landing. It’s only a couple hundred feet over that way.”

“We’re coming,” Abbie said, unbuckling her twin sister who seemed a bit more shaken up.

Another bolt attacked the shield, sizzling around them threateningly. “Do they really think a Stagger is going to get through my shields?”

“It might,” a voice said, causing them to jerk around to see a dark-garbed woman toting an old fashion Slasher, its blade extended and glowing. At first she looked dangerous, then she disengaged the Slasher. “Mirabel Elanis, aka Greenie. Can you give me a lift?”

“Alien,” Guy whispered to Gerry, the woman’s skin tone explaining her nickname. She didn’t look too far off from the Omnipont twins with the red-hair and olive skin.

“Nice hair,” she said to the twins as she opened the door of the Spectra and put down her tote. "Mine was that color a couple hundred years ago, but now I'm old.”

“Who are you?” Gerry asked.

“I’m Greenie,” she repeated. "And yes, I’m a Wysterian, albeit a bit faded from my exploits.”

“You’re a Green Girl?” Mylee asked.

“Yes indeed; born and raised on Wysteria. Couple hundred light years from here.

“What happened to your craft?” Gerry asked.

“A Cruiser got me just as I broke through the Shield. If I didn’t have the Spark in her, I would have been a goner.”

“What do you fly?” Gerry asked, as both of the red-heads exchanged excited glances at the idea of a Spark.

“It’s an old Ford Skyliner, just like this one. In fact, I’ll bet their serial numbers aren’t too far off. It’s about the same model.”

“You have a Spark!” Abbie blurted. "Those things never run out of energy. You know they’re outlawed here on Earth?”

“I know,” Greenie said. "Which is why I managed to nab a whole box of them from the AP’s stronghold on Regulus.”

“A whole box!” Abbie shouted. "You’re lucky the whole of the Consortium’s not after you.”

“They are,” she said with a grin, looking up to the sky. "But, apparently there’s a ban on air traffic in these parts. It’s slowing them down.”

“Yep,” Gerry said. "We had to modify our shields so they wouldn’t detect us. There are ways around the system.”

Guy was about to explode. “You flew a Spectra in space?”

“Yeah,” Greenie said looking at her wrist. "With a Spark it's possible. Say, we might want to get in your Spectra there. I assume that you have a Skin 3400 installed and it’s losing power from those Stagger rays. We can install the Spark, then we can be out of here back to the ranch in a jiffy.”

“Are you serious?” Gerry said with a huge grin, then turned on her. "How do you know about the ranch?”

Suddenly something much more powerful blasted the crash site nearby, sending debris raining down on the extended shields, causing it to flicker and buzz.

“There goes old Betsy,” Greenie said, huddling everyone towards the Spectra. "Without the spark, she’s nothing. We’d better get out of here and fast.”

“Everyone in,” Gerry shouted. "I might be able to get us back to the ranch, but I’ll have to stay below the tree line.”

“Good thinking,” Greenie said. "If we can get under the illusory shields, they’ll never suspect us.”

“What the devil,” Guy said twisting around to peer at the woman. "How do you know who we are?”

“Let's just say I know the family,” she returned, pulling several black, rectangular objects out of her tote and handing one to Guy, who gaped wildly.

“That’s a Spark?” he said, flipping through what seemed like a thin black notebook. Something was really off.

“The power is contained within the words,” Greenie said, flipping to the first page. “Abbie, why don’t you interface it with the Spectra's systems?”

Abbie was already manipulating a computer interface on the dash. “If this works like I remember. Hmm, let’s see-- There we go: Spark integration. I don’t think anybody’s used this in years.”

With a grin, Greenie handed the book to Abbie, but before she could place it near the interface, the book opened on its own and started to glow.

“I’ve got about forty of them,” Greenie said as strange picture symbols started flowing across the pages like streams of colored water. In seconds, both pages were lit up as waves of energy rushed into the computer.

“Incoming,” Gerry shouted, as a large bolt of energy weapons tore into the forest near their position, rocking the craft. “That was a close one, and more powerful.”

“Look at that!” Greenie said touching another screen on the console. “That one page has enough energy to fire this baby up, giving us extra shield protection and thrust. Gun it, Gerry! They know we have the Spark now. Everyone between here and Canada will know we have one.”

“My goodness!” Gerry exclaimed as he fired up the engines and pulled the throttle back. In seconds the Spectra burst up and out of tree tops like a bullet. Before long they were gliding along, easily outpacing the weapon’s fire. Soon the console lit up with various alerts as the systems struggled to understand what was going on.

“We’ve got three messages coming in,” Mylee said. “They appear to be offers to buy this Spark. How did they find out so fast?”

“Sparks give off a unique waveform,” Greenie said, eying the offers. “I think we’ll take that one. J.J. Morganza. A fifty grand offer.

“Dad?” both boys said at once, then the girls issued a similar: “Uncle Jay?”

Mylee suddenly turned on Greenie. “Hold on a minute! You’re a criminal, aren’t you. A scam artist! Sparks are illegal and here you are selling them to people we know.”

“Hold your horses, Mylee dear. Since you all helped me out I’d be glad to cut you in on the deal. How does twenty grand sound? Five a piece. You could really upgrade this bucket of bolts for that. Maybe even spruce up that one that I hit back there.”

Mylee fumed. “But you stole those Sparks. They’re black market.”

Greenie laughed. “They are technically mine. I just stole them back. The Consortium confiscated them during the Purge.”

“You'd really give us twenty thousand dollars?” Guy asked, looking at the others with a grin.

“It's the least I could do,” Greenie answered.

A voice suddenly shouted through the Spectra’s com. “What the devil is going on out there? I’ve got alerts all over the region. Are you boy’s alright?”

“Hey Junior,” Greenie answered in the silence. "The crew was nice enough to give me a lift.”

“Mama! You’re the one with the Sparks? I just paid you a lot of money for one.”

“Granny Elanis?” the girl’s croaked.

“In person,” she replied. "And Junior. Business is business.”