Chapter 13 - Sarah Took the Left Seat
Every cabin door slammed shut.
Then Lily screamed.
“Mommy!”
Sarah ran.
Captain Hayes caught her arm before she reached the cockpit door.
“Wait.”
“My daughter is back there.”
“And two hundred people are about to panic.”
Another scream came from the cabin.
Not Lily this time.
Passengers.
Someone shouted that the exits were locked.
A flight attendant yelled for everyone to stay back from the doors.
Sarah tore her arm free.
“Robert, fix the doors.”
Hayes looked at the center display.
The message remained.
EVACUATION LOCK ACTIVE
COMMAND AUTHORITY REQUIRED
Below it:
ACTING CAPTAIN: UNASSIGNED
Mercer stared at the screen.
“Halcyon is forcing command transfer.”
Sarah looked at him.
“Can we cut the batteries?”
“We can.”
“Will the locks release?”
“Maybe.”
Marcus gave a bitter laugh.
“There’s that word again.”
Outside, an impact struck the forward service door.
Metal shook.
Cole’s recovery team.
Hayes looked through the cockpit side window.
One of the black SUVs had pulled directly beneath the forward fuselage.
Men were moving around it.
Dark clothing.
Equipment cases.
Not rescue personnel.
Another impact.
Hayes said:
“They’re trying to board.”
Sarah turned toward the cabin.
“Rebecca!”
Her sister’s voice came faintly from the rear.
“Lily’s with me!”
“Is she hurt?”
“No!”
Sarah exhaled once.
Good.
One problem temporarily contained.
Hayes pointed toward the power panel.
“If we kill the aircraft completely, we risk losing emergency lighting, communications, and slide support.”
Mercer said:
“Halcyon wants a captain decision.”
Sarah looked at the display.
“Then we give it something that isn’t a decision.”
Hayes frowned.
“What?”
Sarah pointed.
“Don’t transfer command electronically.”
“How else?”
She looked at the left seat.
The captain’s seat.
Then at Hayes.
“Physically.”
For a moment, nobody spoke.
Hayes understood.
“Sarah, sitting in my seat does not make you captain.”
“I know.”
“Especially not of a 787.”
“I know.”
Marcus asked:
“What are you thinking?”
Sarah looked at the cockpit control panels.
“Halcyon is tracking system authority.”
Mercer nodded slowly.
“Yes.”
“But it’s also tracking human behavior.”
“Yes.”
“If Robert stays captain electronically while I occupy the command position and operate the evacuation systems, we create disagreement.”
Mercer’s face changed.
“Two authority sources.”
“Exactly.”
Hayes shook his head.
“That could confuse Halcyon.”
Sarah looked at him.
“That is the point.”
“It could also confuse the airplane.”
“Less ideal.”
Another violent impact hit the forward door.
A warning illuminated.
FWD ENTRY DOOR TAMPER
Hayes stared at it.
Then at Sarah.
“Get in.”
She moved.
For seven years, Sarah had avoided pilot seats.
She had sat in passenger cabins.
Airport lounges.
Rental cars.
School auditoriums.
Anywhere except the place where her hands once knew exactly what to do.
Now she stepped around the center console.
Hayes rose.
Sarah stopped.
For half a second, neither moved.
The left seat waited.
The captain’s seat.
Wrong airplane.
Wrong uniform.
Wrong life.
Then another pounding came from the aircraft door.
Sarah sat down.
The feeling hit instantly.
Harness.
Pedals.
Controls.
Forward view.
The world framed through cockpit glass.
Her body remembered before her mind could object.
Hayes moved into the right seat.
Technically backward.
Operationally absurd.
But Halcyon had been built to predict trained choices.
So they stopped giving it normal ones.
The center display flickered.
COMMAND POSITION DISCREPANCY
Mercer whispered:
“It noticed.”
Sarah reached toward the evacuation control.
Hayes stopped her.
“Wait for me.”
Sarah looked at him.
He nodded.
“On three.”
They each placed a hand on separate controls.
Hayes retained electronic captain authority.
Sarah occupied the captain’s physical position.
“Three.”
Hayes selected manual door release.
Sarah simultaneously commanded emergency cabin power reset.
The lights died.
One second.
Two.
Then emergency lighting returned.
A loud mechanical clunk traveled through the fuselage.
The forward door indicator changed.
AVAILABLE
Then another.
AVAILABLE
Then the rear exits.
The center screen flashed rapidly.
AUTHORITY CONFLICT
VALIDATION ERROR
CAPTAIN PROFILE INVALID
Sarah almost smiled.
Hayes grabbed the PA.
“Cabin crew, evacuate immediately. Available exits only.”
Flight attendants responded.
Commands exploded through the cabin.
“Release seatbelts!”
“Leave everything!”
“Come this way!”
“Jump and slide!”
Sarah heard movement.
Passengers were getting out.
Rebecca called from the rear.
“Door’s open!”
Sarah looked over her shoulder.
“Take Lily!”
“I have her!”
“Go!”
A pause.
Then Lily’s voice:
“Mommy!”
Sarah’s hands tightened.
She wanted to answer.
Halcyon wanted her to answer.
She forced herself to look forward.
Rebecca understood.
“I’m taking her!”
Sarah closed her eyes for one heartbeat.
Then opened them.
Hayes looked at her.
“She’ll get her out.”
“I know.”
Outside, the first evacuation slide inflated.
Passengers began pouring onto the island.
Then the cockpit windshield cracked.
A sharp impact punched into the outer layer near Hayes.
He flinched.
Sarah ducked.
Another impact.
Not a gunshot through the glass.
Something thrown.
Hayes looked outside.
“Canister.”
A small metal cylinder lay on the pavement beneath the cockpit.
White vapor began spreading.
Mercer’s expression changed.
“Gas.”
Sarah turned.
“What kind?”
“No idea.”
Marcus shouted:
“They’re trying to clear the aircraft.”
Hayes grabbed the oxygen mask.
“Crew oxygen.”
Sarah pulled hers on.
Hayes did the same.
The white vapor thickened around the forward fuselage.
Passengers evacuating from the rear were still clear.
Forward exits became unusable.
Hayes spoke through the mask.
“Close forward doors.”
Sarah commanded them.
Nothing happened.
“Robert.”
“I see it.”
The doors remained open.
Gas entered the forward cabin.
Flight attendants began redirecting passengers aft.
A woman coughed violently.
Then another.
Sarah looked at the display.
Halcyon had shifted again.
EVACUATION FLOW MODIFIED
Mercer swore.
“It’s helping them.”
Sarah looked outside.
One of the black SUVs accelerated toward the rear of the aircraft.
Toward the only exits still moving passengers.
“They’re going to block the slides.”
Hayes keyed the PA.
“Rear crew, stop evacuation if vehicles enter slide area.”
Sarah stared.
Stopping evacuation meant trapping passengers inside.
Continuing meant sending them toward armed unknown men.
Another forced choice.
Halcyon loved those.
Sarah looked at the parking brake.
Then outside.
Then at Hayes.
“No.”
He recognized that tone.
“What?”
“We move.”
Hayes stared at her.
“The airplane?”
“Yes.”
“Engines are shut down.”
“APU?”
“Available.”
“Start sequence?”
“Sarah, we have passengers on slides.”
“Rear only.”
“We cannot move with slides deployed.”
“I know.”
“Then what are you proposing?”
Sarah pointed toward the rear cameras.
“Get everyone back inside for sixty seconds.”
Hayes looked at her like she had lost her mind.
“After we just got the doors open?”
“Those vehicles reach them in thirty.”
Mercer leaned closer.
“She’s right.”
Hayes looked at him.
“That does not make me happier.”
Sarah continued.
“Retract slides where possible. Close doors. Start one engine. Taxi away from their perimeter.”
“On an abandoned island with unknown pavement.”
“Yes.”
“With a damaged flight-control system.”
“Yes.”
“With incomplete flaps.”
“Not relevant for taxi.”
“With a fuel state we don’t trust.”
Sarah looked at him.
“You have a better plan?”
Hayes looked outside.
The SUV was twenty yards from the aft slide.
He grabbed the PA.
“Cabin crew, halt evacuation. Bring passengers clear of exits. Prepare to close all doors.”
The response was immediate and confused.
“Captain?”
“Do it now.”
Rebecca’s voice cut in.
“Sarah, Lily is already outside.”
Sarah froze.
Everything inside her stopped.
“Where?”
“Bottom of the rear slide. I’m with her.”
Sarah looked at the camera.
There.
Rebecca.
Lily.
Brownie clutched to her chest.
Standing on wet grass near the aircraft.
And the black SUV turning toward them.
Sarah ripped off the oxygen mask.
“Rebecca, run away from the aircraft.”
“Where?”
“Toward the drainage ditch. North side.”
Rebecca looked around.
“I see it.”
“Take Lily and run.”
“What about you?”
“GO!”
Rebecca grabbed Lily’s hand.
They ran.
The SUV changed direction.
Following.
Sarah’s blood turned to ice.
“They’re following them.”
Mercer looked through the side window.
“I’ll go.”
Sarah grabbed his sleeve.
“No.”
“I can draw them off.”
“With what?”
Mercer held up the black device.
“They think I have what they came for.”
Sarah stared at him.
“Do you?”
Mercer looked at her.
“Part of it.”
Before Sarah could ask what that meant, he left the cockpit.
Marcus followed.
Sarah shouted:
“Marcus!”
He stopped.
“Help Lily.”
He nodded once.
No explanation.
No argument.
Then he ran.
Sarah turned back.
Hayes had started the APU sequence.
“Passengers?”
“Most are inside. One slide still deployed.”
“Which?”
“Rear right.”
Sarah looked at the camera.
The remaining flight attendant pulled the evacuation handle into disarm.
The slide began deflating.
“Doors?”
“Closing.”
One by one.
Green indications replaced open warnings.
Hayes began the right-engine start sequence.
The engine instruments came alive.
Sarah felt vibration through the seat.
Not a simulator.
Not memory.
A live aircraft beneath her again.
Seven years vanished.
Then the parking brake warning flashed.
Sarah frowned.
“Why did that change?”
Hayes looked.
“It released.”
“I didn’t touch it.”
“Neither did I.”
The aircraft moved.
Slowly.
Then faster.
Sarah pressed the brakes.
Nothing.
“Brakes.”
Hayes pressed his side.
Nothing.
The 787 began rolling downhill.
Toward the runway.
“Hydraulics?”
“Pressure available.”
“Brake command?”
“No response.”
Sarah looked ahead.
The taxiway sloped gently toward an intersection.
Beyond it—
The main runway.
Beyond that—
Ocean.
Hayes increased right-engine thrust asymmetrically.
The aircraft yawed.
“Steering?”
“Limited.”
Sarah used rudder pedals.
The nose shifted.
A little.
Enough.
They entered the main runway.
The aircraft kept rolling.
Twenty knots.
Twenty-five.
Thirty.
Hayes tried parking brake again.
Nothing.
Sarah looked down the runway.
Vehicles ahead.
People scattering.
The hangar.
The damaged gray test aircraft.
And several concrete barriers positioned farther down.
“They’re blocking the runway.”
Hayes stared.
“If we can’t stop—”
“We turn off.”
“Taxiways too narrow at this speed.”
“Grass?”
“Gear could collapse.”
Sarah looked at engine indications.
One engine running.
The other shut down.
An absurd idea formed.
Hayes saw it in her face.
“No.”
“You don’t even know what I’m thinking.”
“I know that look.”
“You met me two hours ago.”
“It has been a long two hours.”
The aircraft accelerated downhill.
Thirty-eight knots.
Forty-two.
Sarah said:
“Start the left engine.”
Hayes stared.
“Why?”
“If we can’t stop, we need full directional control.”
“That’s not the only reason.”
Sarah looked down the runway.
Concrete barriers approaching.
Beyond them, cliff edge.
Hayes understood.
“You’re thinking takeoff.”
“I’m thinking not crashing into concrete.”
“We just landed with almost no fuel.”
“The fuel indications were manipulated.”
“Maybe.”
“There’s that word.”
Hayes checked quantities manually against engine feed data.
His face changed.
Sarah saw it.
“What?”
“We have more fuel than the endurance display showed.”
“How much?”
“Enough for maybe twenty minutes.”
Sarah almost laughed.
Halcyon had lied.
Again.
Hayes continued.
“But Sarah—”
“What?”
“We are not configured for takeoff.”
“Then configure.”
“We have passengers standing in the cabin.”
“Seat them.”
“Slides only just disarmed.”
“Confirm them.”
“Unknown flap reliability.”
“Use what works.”
“Wet runway.”
“Less wet than before.”
“Obstacles.”
“I see them.”
Hayes looked at her.
“And you are not qualified on this airplane.”
Sarah stared straight ahead.
“No.”
He waited.
Sarah said:
“But you are.”
That changed it.
She was not replacing him.
They were flying together.
Hayes reached for the second engine start.
Then suddenly winced.
His hand fell away.
Sarah turned.
“Robert?”
He pressed his palm against his chest.
His face had gone pale.
“Robert.”
“I’m fine.”
“No, you’re not.”
He tried to inhale.
Couldn’t.
Sarah tore off his oxygen mask.
His lips were gray.
Mercer’s warning hit her.
The gas.
The cracked windshield.
Hayes had been exposed before getting the mask sealed.
“Cabin! Doctor to cockpit!”
No answer.
The interphone was dead again.
Hayes sagged.
Sarah caught him.
“Stay with me.”
His eyes struggled to focus.
“You wanted the left seat.”
“Not like this.”
“Never happens the way you want.”
“Robert.”
His hand grabbed her wrist.
“You know enough to keep it straight.”
“I don’t know enough to take off a 787.”
“You know airplanes.”
“Not this airplane.”
He managed a faint smile.
“Then listen when it tells the truth somewhere.”
Sarah froze.
Her own words.
From the old Halcyon simulator.
Hayes had remembered.
His eyes closed.
“Robert!”
No response.
Sarah checked pulse.
There.
Weak.
She grabbed the PA.
“Medical emergency in cockpit. Doctor forward immediately.”
Static.
Then the PA failed.
The airplane continued rolling.
Fifty knots.
Concrete barriers closer.
Sarah looked at the right seat.
Hayes unconscious.
At the cabin behind her.
Hundreds of lives.
At the runway ahead.
No brakes.
One running engine.
One engine starting.
And nobody else qualified to move this aircraft.
Sarah tightened the harness around her body.
Left seat.
Captain’s view.
Seven years after she had sworn never to fly again.
The second engine came alive.
Sarah pushed both thrust levers forward just enough to gain control.
The 787 surged.
The barriers approached faster.
She steered around them by less than twenty feet.
Then the runway opened ahead.
Sarah looked at the performance display.
A message appeared.
AVAILABLE RUNWAY REMAINING: 6,180 FT
Below it:
ESTIMATED TAKEOFF DISTANCE: 7,240 FT
Sarah stared.
One thousand sixty feet short.
Then the far-end barrier lights came into view.
The ocean waited beyond them.
Hayes was unconscious.
May you like
The airplane was still accelerating.
And Sarah realized there was no runway left long enough to save them.
