Steven Diggs Jr.

“Thruster Problems”

            Michio knew something was wrong with the Haruna, his large metallic machine. The thrusters on the back had sputtered just as he landed. Thankfully, he wasn’t being chased by a Tenryu.

Jumping out, he ran around to the thrusters control panel with a wrench in hand, “Come on, don’t die,” he said, nearly ripping the panel door from its hinges.

            “What’s wrong?” a voice erupted over his headset. It was Aiko, his navigator back at main headquarters. Her usually soft voice came through the COM link gruffly, like the straining growl of a bodybuilder. Grunting, he tried to tighten the loose bolt.

            “The thrusters,” he said, fastening the bolt.

            “Again?” she said.

            “Yes, please shut up,” he said tightening another bolt. This happened a few weeks past. He thought the problems with the Haruna’s thrusters were fixed back at HQ; apparently not. He’ll say something to Kenji when he gets back.

            “How dare you?” she exclaimed and continued to ramble on and on, but it was just noise in his head. It was the usual variety: how he never paid attention, how birds lay droppings on people on purpose. Did it really matter?

            “I think I found the problem,” he said looking at a long, blue wire dangling in two pieces.

“You did?” Aiko said. The rough exterior of her voice turned more and more into her normal, bratty sounding voice.

Connecting the exposed wire ends of the blue strip, he responded, “Looks like a wire wasn’t put on correctly.” After closing the panel door, he ran over to the front of the Haruna. “Oh god.”

A few bright, blue lights gleamed in the distance, gradually growing larger.

            “What is it? Tenryu?” she said.

Quickly, Michio jumped into the Haruna. A haze of green gleamed upon his helmet as the lights of the console and GPS blazed across the board, indicating his various mechanical criteria for operation: the position of the targets, his fuel, his ammunition.

 “Yes,” he said under duress. “It’s going to take a minute for the thrusters to kick on.” The green bar, charging slowly, indicated the exact time of their progress: one minute and three seconds.

 “Maybe they’re making their daily rounds,” she said. The Tenryu patrolled this part of Aldrin all the time looking for Michio’s group, the Path of the Righteous. (Or what the Tenryu’s Government, the Aldrin Society, call them – “the unfaithful”): a long lasting feud that’s existed since before Michio’s birth.

            “I don’t think so, they’re still descending towards my position,” he said as he could see their emblem, a lightly tinted blue sword with a red hammer intermingled.

LEGEND

Haruna -  Japanese word for Volcano

Tenryu - "Heaven's Dragon", a river rising at Lake Suwa, in Shinano (q.v.) province - has famous rapids.