Velocity

• James Noonan, Grade 9
• Short Story
• 2017

An explosion rocked the room and Gerald fell over, his expensive glass of wine smashing on the floor. He looked up in fear at the deafening noise. As the floor tilted sideways, all the furniture slid to one side and crashed against the wall. A heavy table smashed through the glass window and he could hear the wind whistling through the new hole. “Why me?” he exclaimed as the floor lurched again. Face down on the yellow carpet, he crawled towards the control room door. He struggled to pull open the door. Eventually, after a desperate lunge, his hand caught and the door swung open. A man stood, back to him, desperately pulling and levers and pushing at buttons in a hopeless attempt to gain control. The man turned and Gerald could see the creased face and grey beard of the captain. “What happened?” he shouted over the tremendous amount of noise.
“Three of the five main gas pockets have caught on fire” the captain shouted back, checking various instruments. That was bad news, Gerald realised. The only force holding the frail dirigible in the sky was the hydrogen in the gas pockets.
“Why?” he asked.
“I think we were hit by a firestream.” Inferno flares or firestreams had become more common as humans continued to pollute the Earth. The flares were a brief stream of fire suddenly erupting in the upper atmosphere. They could not be predicted and scientists were trying to discover why there were occurring.
“What about the escape pods?” said Gerald desperately.
“They are all busted from the explosion” replied the captain, still trying to control the vessel. Gerald was about to reply when another explosion shook the ship. The both looked up, as if they could see what was going on. Above them, the light aluminium skin of the ship gave way and tore in half. The spent gas pockets flapped uselessly in the strong wind. Suddenly, all the sound of the equipment went silent. The lights died, the dials all zeroed and the levers locked. Gerald and the captain looked at each other as gravity seemed to fall away. They were weightless.
“We’re falling!” cried Gerald.
The airship started tilting forwards, with its tail rising into the air. The nose was pointing at the ground and the ship gave in to the force of gravity. Then, it began to build up more and more speed. The front windows burst open and the two men were pushed against the back of the cabin. The ground was approaching faster and faster. The dirigible hit the ground will a tremendous amount of force. The entire nose crumpled like a piece of paper. Then the final pocket ignited and the cabin was incinerated. The carcass of the airship, once a soaring creature of the sky, lay defeated and destroyed on the sun-baked earth.