Gaining altitude and finally levelling off for cruising, we hear not the usual sounds of the Transporter system cycling in a new passenger but the whirr and whoosh! of the airlock as a battered, windswept and rather wide-eyed Aa is brought in from hanging on to the exterior fuselage during takeoff.
Aa! It's great to see you but Lawdy, Lawdy, you could have been killed! Here, let's have you checked over by our onboard medical staff to make sure that you're no worse for wear and tear, and then let's get some food into you! I haven't heard of any Guest Cook making his / her presence known on board, so I hope that our regular four-star fare will be okay? How about a nice steak, washed down with some champagne to put some color back in your rosy cheeks? You look a bit pale, having been hanging on in the freezing cold for so long! Whatever you choose to eat, Montana brought some delightful cheesecake for dessert and so that should surely set you right. Welcome aboard, and I beg you, PLEASE don't do that again, okay? We can't be having you sucked into the engines or falling to an untimely demise :-)
Our speed is such that it only takes a moment before we are approaching the San Juan Islands
We bank and circle a few times so that everyone can get a nice look and then we straighten out for our landing approach....which is on the water, just south of San Juan and Lopez Islands. A subtle whirring can be heard underneath our feet as the roadwheels retract and the dual pontoons extend, and a solid 'thunk' is heard as they lock into place. Gradually descending, we kiss the water lightly as we touch down and glide to a stop, while retracting the pontoons and letting the sea-worthy hull down to meet the waters..
Settling down into the water, and shutting down the jet engines, Evening begins to cast her velvet cloak over the world and her presence is all the more profound due to our location, a half-mile off a shore with few lights of it's own. We engage the propellers and begin to move gracefully Northward through the Straits of Juan de Fuca.
As God's gentle creatures begin to draw their busy day to a close on land, quite the opposite is happening below us. Neptune's realm is arising, and the evening dance of life and death that has played out over billions of years begins anew. Steering toward land and moving slowly, the stoatmobile extends it's diving planes and angles them downward, simultaneously blowing air from the ballast tanks. The waves lap against the six-inch thick windows and soon the cabin is bathed in a delightful blue-green light as we make the wondrous transition to a world that few humans have seen to the degree that we are about to.
NEST: A New World
