rediscovering eden
Who am I, that the Lord of all the earth
Would care to know my name
Would care to feel my hurt
Who am I, that the bright and morning Star
Would choose to light the way
For my ever wandering heart
Not because of who I am
But because of what You've done
Not because of what I've done
But because of who You are
I am a flower quickly fading
Here today and gone tomorrow
A wave tossed in the ocean
A vapor in the wind
Still You hear me when I'm calling
Lord, You catch me when I'm falling
And You've told me who I am
I am Yours, I am Yours
Who Am I, that the eyes that see my sin
Would look on me with love
and watch me rise again
Who Am I, that the voice that calmed the sea
Would call out through the rain
And calm the storm in me
whom shall i fear
whom shall i fear
i am yours
dailies
Sunday, February 10, 2008
-8:48 PM
I bet all of you are gonna go "Haha, there she goes again." But sorry. I have to. Once more. Heh. Sorry!
SKYTOPIA by Janelle Tam 8C7 10th February 2008
I had been born in air.
It had happened onboard an airship. I had been a tiny baby, born prematurely. I remember as a young girl I would sit next to my mother, laying my head in her lap, and ask her to tell me the same, familiar story of my birth.
“You were a tiny shivering thing. Any other baby would have died, being born at such a high altitude. But you held on. You had such a strong will! Everyone thought you’d be gone by the next day. But you stayed, and you’ve been with us ever since. So we named you Alcie, which means strong willed.”
I turned my head upwards to look into my mother’s beautiful smoky-blue eyes. “And what kind of a child was I?” I would ask, already knowing the answer.
She would smile and stroke my forehead, gently brushing a few chocolate coloured strands of hair away. “You always had your head in the clouds. I knew that you had been meant to live in the sky.”
And so I had. Skytopia was my home, and always would be. High up in the sky, among the clouds, totally surrounded by brilliant blue. It had been my home for my entire life – 14 years in total – and would be forever. Or so I thought.
§ § § § §
Skytopia was a city in the sky, a wondrous marvel of human engineering. Surrounded by a thin protective layer of ambelycto which sustained the vital gases for us to live and protected us from the harmful rays of the sun, it was a bustling center of two hundred residents and millions of tourists coming and going. Owned by the most powerful governments on earth, it was their pride and joy. Only the engineers and the people who worked here – along with the very rich residents lived here. My father was the head engineer. It was because of his job that we lived here. From time to time, when he wasn’t too busy, he would teach me the ropes of what he did – the physics of keeping the city in the air, the mechanisms that did – and over time I had developed a firm passion for it. I dreamt of doing what he did. Every minute of my spare time was spent learning the concepts and dreaming of a life as an engineer in Skytopia.
A huge artificial cloud surrounded a humongous cushion filled with heliumoctomide – the most powerful and least dangerous lifting gas in the entire world, called ‘heli’ for short – on which Skytopia was mounted. It gave the illusion that Skytopia really was a city on a cloud – which is what attracted so many tourists.
Skytopia was a major tourist attraction. One third of it was devoted to hotels and lodgings for visitors. Our downtown area was also quite impressive, especially for a small resident population of 200 - boasting history and science museums, a zoo, a recreation center, a park, numerous restaurants and shops– even an amusement park which contained rides of every sort powered by air. It also had the necessities: a hospital, a school, a police station, a fire station and a huge grocery store. The entire border of Skytopia was dotted with pads used for landing and launching. There were two big ports for tourist airships and a huge one on the other industrial area of the island for cargo skyliners that imported all the materials needed to sustain the population. The other, smaller pads were for private jets.
The island was shaped in an oval, the Headquaters at the exact center of the island, in the middle of a bustling downtown. The Headquarters was where all the important stuff happened. It was sort of alike a government headquarters. Shaped like a skywhale (a creature alike the blue whale, but one that flies in the sky), it was where my father went to work every morning. All the mechanisms that controlled the island and kept it adrift were controlled from there. All the administration and customs issue were completed there. And all the important decisions were decided there. It was where I dreamt of working in.
The entire island was connected by web of air currents. To get from one place to another, all you had to do was hop on a skyslider and jump into the current. It saved a lot of energy and was a lot safer than normal driving on the ground, because the speed of the vehicles was controlled by the air currents, which were controlled by the Headquarters. That’s why the legal driving age on Skytopia was 15. In case the air currents failed, every vehicle was equipped with an emergency power.
Because we drifted along with the currents, orbiting the earth, day and nights for us were erratic. I had gotten used to sleeping in the light, as I often had to do. All the kids still had school like kids down on the ground five days a week. However, due to the small size of the population, there wasn’t enough people to fill each grade. There was one teacher in charge, who supervised us while we studied individually, using a syllabus brought up to us from the ground.
There were two people my age at school, apart from me – my best friend Clara and another guy named Peter. Clara came here because her dad was a delegate from Singapore, one of the countries involved in this project. Peter – I had no idea.
Weekdays were pretty much occupied by school, practising my instruments and gymnastics practices at the recreational center. Weekends, however, were special. It was the time when dad would take me to the Headquarters with him.
Today was one of those days. The fresh breeze blew against my face, playing with my hair. I sat, contented, beside my father, watching his strong hands manoeuvre the skyslider.
“Here, give it a try!”
My father had been teaching me to drive in preparation for next year. I took ahold of the wheel, skilfully turning into a parking spot with a swift movement of the hand. You’re learning well, Alcie!” My dad ruffled my hair affectionately.
“Thanks, Dad!” I smiled up at him.
After locking the skyslider up, we walked to the entrance of the Headquarters.
My dad worked in the heart of the Headquarters – the engineering sector. Everything in it was extremely important. All it took was one little detail to go wrong, and Skytopia and everything in it would come plummeting down.
Lately, there had been a lot of political unrest over Skytopia. The government that owned it had been disputing about who got what share of the tourist revenue. Skytopia was arguably the biggest tourist attraction in the world, so there was a lot of money at stake for those negotiating. They had reached an agreement not more than two weeks ago, but in the process booted North Korea out of the project. Obviously the North Koreans were disgruntled at this. The remaining government, fearing the North Koreans attempt some kind of sabotage, had built up security. At first it had seemed that I would not even be allowed to come with my dad today, but I had stubbornly stood my ground and eventually they had given in.
Stepping forward in a sequence, my dad activated a secret panel in the wall onto which he keyed in a code and pressed his hand to. It quickly scanned his retina, processing the information. The panel beeped and the heavy metal doors slid open as I followed my father into the building.
Two burly security guards checked my father’s pass and a receptionist buzzed another door open for him. Our shoes clicked on the glassy floor as we walked down a long, brightly lit corridor to his office.
Once in his office, my father set quickly to work, examining blueprints that some of his assistants had come up with. We puzzled over them, discussing the pros and cons like two seasoned engineers. Before we knew it, an hour had passed.
“Whoops! Time for me to check the machines.” We entered a large room full of engineers clacking away at computers, checking measurements and making calculations. He headed over to a dark haired lady. “Let me introduce you to my newest colleague, Yvonne Parker.” I smiled and shook her hand. Suddenly, a slim, athletic teenage boy emerged from the adjoining room. “Oh, and her son Peter.”
“Hey! I didn’t know your mom worked here!” I greeted.
He grinned. “Well, you never asked.”
“Hey, why don’t you two go off for lunch first?” My dad suggested with a mischievous look on his face.
“Sure.” Peter replied, before I had a chance to reply. I shrugged. “I don’t mind.”
“Fantastic! Off you go, then.”
I rolled my eyes at Dad as I left the room and he laughed.
He grabbed his lunch and we returned to my Dad’s office, where Clara was waiting.
Her eyes widened when she saw Peter.
“Clara!” I ran toward her. A slight smile played on her face. “Hey Alcie! I wasn’t expecting Peter...” She said softly so only I could hear.
“Hey! Don’t start making assumptions. His mom’s my dad’s colleague. That’s why.”
“Yah, and I have a purple polka dotted cow!”
I looked at her indignantly.
She chuckled. “Just kidding. I believe you.”
We sat down on the settee, eating and talking and laughing.
Suddenly, Peter stopped. “Wait a minute. What was that sound?”
We all froze. This time, I heard it, loud and clear. A crash, then a scream.
We all looked at each other. There was a thumping sound, coming closer and closer. Like heavy footsteps.
“The vent!” I hissed. I jumped onto the couch and pushed the grating out. “Boost me up!”
Peter knelt down and I scrambled onto his back. Grabbing hold of the edges of the entrance into the hole, I hoisted myself up and into the small opening. I pulled Clara up and Peter managed to swing himself up. We hurriedly pushed the grating back into place just as the door was kicked open.
A small, agile man clad entirely in black with only a slit for his eyes burst into the room, a gun in one hand. He did a quick search of the room for any people, overturning chairs and tables and ripping open doors. The three of us stiffened, hardly daring to breathe for fear he would hear us and discover our whereabouts. We waited for what seemed like eternity until he was convinced there was nothing to find, and stormed out of the room.
We stayed entirely still for another five minutes as we heard crash after crash. And suddenly, noise erupted.
We looked at each other with fear in our eyes. They had discovered the main engineering room, where everyone was.
I heard screams, and thumps as chairs were overturned. Then, a single gunshot.
The sound pierced through my heart like a spear. My dad was in there. MY DAD WAS IN THERE! My mouth went dry. What if they had shot him? What if they were going to shoot him?
I almost laughed at the absurdity of it. My dad was in danger and here I was, stuck in a vent, completely helpless. What kind of a daughter was I?
I heard a few short shouts, and then the pound of many footsteps down the hall.
Silence.
We stayed completely still. The only sound that could be heard was the whoosh of the air running through the vents. There was a dull clang and then, suddenly, the air was still too.
It was utter, complete silence. I was too scared to move, too scared to talk, too scared to even breathe. My mind was completely numb, shocked from what had just happened.
And all in a matter of ten minutes.
Finally, Clara spoke in a raspy whisper. “They spoke Korean.”
The North Koreans. It must have been them. Despite all the security measures that had been put in, they had still managed to find a way in. And they had taken my father.
An anger like never before grabbed me. They had taken my father away, and all for the sake of a silly political dispute about money! Did they not care about other people’s lives? About what my life would be without my father? I had to do something! I wouldn’t let them take him away. I couldn’t.
“We have to do something!” I screamed. My voice echoed down the vent.
And then we dropped.
My stomach lurched. It was that feeling you get when you’re on the tower of doom and you’re about to drop a hundred storeys. And suddenly it clicked. We were dropping.
“We’re dropping.” I could barely say the words.
“Oh. No.” Was all Peter could say.
“The North Koreans must have to come to sink Skytopia by disabling all the engineering mechanisms.” Clara said.
Taking away my father AND my home? No way. I grabbed the grating and tore it out, dropping quickly to the floor and hitting it at a run. I sprinted to the engineering room and pushed the door open.
All the computer screens and dashboards had been smashed to smithereens. Shards of glass lay scattered across the floor, papers lay everywhere, furniture was overturned. I ran to the master controls. Through shattered glass, I read the altimeter. The digits were rapidly decreasing. “We’re losing altitude!” I sprang into action. “Clara, quickly go down and check if there’s anyone who can help you. If not, try to get help from outside. Run!” She nodded and dashed off.
I rushed into the adjoining room, the door already ajar. The levers for the emergency engines had been completely destroyed. The drums of gas had been emptied. There was only one thing left to do. It didn’t look as if Clara was going to return anytime soon.
I turned to Peter. “Alright. My guess is that the North Koreans cut a huge rip in the heli balloon. There are emergency engines that were installed that run for two hours to keep Skytopia adrift before the heli balloon is filled up again. We need to start those engines. The levers that operate it have been destroyed, and the gas drums have been emptied, so we need to first fill them up again, then manually go into the machinery and start up the engines. If the pipes have been damaged, we have to use rubber tubing to pump the gas into the engine. Got it?”
My words came out, tumbling one after another in a senseless babble but he managed to understand. “Let’s go.”
Stopping by my dad’s office to get some rubber tubing, tools and the master keys, I raced down the hall to a secret storage room concealed behind a bookcase. My hands fumbled with the keys, trying to find the right one. I could feel the ground dropping beneath my feet which only heightened my anxiousness. The key slipped into the lock and turned. “Okay...drums of gas...” Peter and I managed to roll the gas drums out, one by one and we set then just outside the door to the machinery. I cut the rubber tubing into two pieces and we quickly fastened one end into the drum. I grabbed harnesses for the both of us and we fastened ourselves to safety lines. “Oxygen masks, goggles and gloves. Just in case.” I handed him the equipment. “Do you know where left engine is located?” I asked.
“Yep.” He grunted. I pushed the emergency open door button and the doors slid open with a clang. Even though we were dropping, we were still quite high up, and the air was freezing cold. I gave him the thumbs up and dropped down into the machinery.
Everything was hard metal. I was trembling as I weaved my way slowly toward my destination, rubber tubing in hand. I stumbled, hitting my arm hard against the metal. Don’t rush, I told myself. Breathe. Just don’t fall.
All I could hear was my heart pounding faster and faster and my shaky breathing. It was just me. I was all alone. I couldn’t hear Peter anymore. Suddenly, I had an awful longing for him to be here beside me. But I had to press on. The lives of all the people on Skytopia relied on me.
There it was in front of me. The cruel wind blew fiercely about me, whipping my hair around, almost tearing my grasp off the pipes. My arms and legs were bruised from climbing through the machinery. I was exhausted. Just a little bit more. A little bit more...
I felt like I was in a dream. I grabbed onto the first rung of the ladder up the engine and my shirt caught on something and tore. I hardly noticed no longer cared. All I cared about was getting to that engine.
I progressed carefully up the side of the engine. It was slippery from grease and gas and my hands, arms and clothes were dirty from all of the dirt. I slipped. My foot twisted one way and a searing pain shot through my ankle. It was as if someone has stabbed it.
But finally, I had reached it. I pulled myself up laboriously and pushed the rubber tubing in, twisting it to secure it. I fell onto the lever, putting all my weight into it. It slid slowly down and almost immediately the engine came to life. It sputtered, and gained momentum, purring loudly. I felt the side of the island lurch, slowing its descent, and almost simultaneously it righted itself. Peter had reached the engine too. We had done it!
It was then I realised the state I was in. My shirt and jeans were torn, exposing my bare skin to the freezing temperature. My limbs were becoming numb. My ankle was twisted. I don’t know how I did it, climbing through the myriad of metal and pipes, but I did. All I remember was Peter reaching out his hands and pulling me into safety, cradling me with both hands as I collapsed into his hands and fell unconscious.
When I woke up again, I was lying in my own bed, underneath warm blankets. My ankle was all bundled up in bandages, and the rest of my body was covered in bandaids. I blinked, slowly letting the blurry room come into focus. Peter and Clara sat beside my bed.
“You’re awake.” Clara’s voice was a mixture of happiness and relief.
I pushed myself into a sitting position. “What happened? Where’s dad?”
“Don’t worry. Your dad’s safe and sound. Initially all the personnel in the Headquarters had been kidnapped by the North Koreans, but Clara managed to send out a distress signal, and a plane was dispatched which captured them. Everyone was brought back safely. He’s at the police station giving his testimony right now.
“As for what happened, thanks to you, we managed to get the engines running. We had lost quite a bit of altitude, but we stopped falling just in time. The engines held out until emergency planes came to fix the damage. The heliumoctomide balloons are being fixed right now.” Peter answered. “You’re a global hero! Look at the stack of mail you got in two days! ” He gestured to three huge bags of mail sitting at the foot of my bed.
“Well, so are you!” Clara told him.
“Nah, it was mainly Alcie.”
“You needn’t be so humble.”
“No, really, it was you.”
“Aw...Peter...”
Clara stood up. “I guess it’s time for me to go!” She winked at me. I put on a horrified expression.
“Already?”
“Yep! I have a feeling you guys need some privacy. So, toodles!” She gave me a quick hug and waltzed out the room despite our protests.
It was just Peter and I in the room. He inched his chair closer to the bedside. “You were awesome out there.”
“Thanks. You were too. It takes two to tango.” I smiled at him.
He grinned, then very quickly leaned forward and kissed me on the cheek.
“Hey, what was that for?” I asked coyly.
“For saving Skytopia.”
Good Night! (Almost morning now)
