The Santa Society - Chapter 1: part 2

The Sleigh was the first of ten high-priority delivery planes that were used primarily during the holiday season for a number of different purposes, from toy shipments, to perishable foods, to high priority passengers such as returning veterans, sick children, and people who couldn't afford to reach their families.

The other planes were named after the eight classical reindeer and Rudolph. To maintain anonymity when people who could not afford airfare, or vets, or anyone that the society deemed worthy were told that they would be getting free airfare they were told that it was the "airline" who was taking care of it, but not to let anyone know because they didn't want everyone asking for free rides.

They were used year round, though never as heavily as the holiday season. The Sleigh was generally reserved for company use, and only pressed into service when none of the "Reindeer" were available, even so it was only used when absolutely necessary, when time was a big factor.

Like now apparently.

Isaak had never had a reason to go into the airports private hangar section, and finding the right way through the maze of little roads was difficult even WITH the GPS to guide him. The mapmakers, and those who created the little codes that showed the shortest distances, probably didn't consider these wide open concrete oceans to be anything as formal as a "road."

But eventually Isaak found his way to private hangar 217 where sat the relatively small private jet, painted to look like Santa, sitting on a sleigh in a night sky, with a sack of toys at his back. Isaak rolled his eyes, but couldn't help a small grin.

He also noticed that there were what looked like a second pair of engines carefuly mounted next to the originals, but they looked kinda weird. The cowlings weren't painted at all, so they clashed with the originals, and they were only about one third the size.

"Electrical," said a voice from behind him, as he leaned in to get a better look.

He whipped around to see a blonde, slightly balding man watching him. He smiled, and put on a look of mock confusion, pointing at the man, clearly the pilot, and said, "Hammy right? Wait, no... Hambone?

The man chuckled. "Oh, I'm not giving you any help on this one. Sink or swim time for you."

Isaak smirked, saying, "Story of my life... Hammond." He had always known the pilots name, but liked to have fun with him too. "Wait," he said. "Did you say electrical?"

Hammond grimmaced and nodded. "NO idea how it works really. Something about charged particles getting sucked in one end, and pushed out the other. I think they called it an electrostatic turbine?" He shrugged. "Someone's doing some kind of Kickstarter, 'you-know-who' is supporting it, so suddenly, we're testing a couple of these things."

"And?" asked Isaak. "How have they been working?"

Hammond shrugged. "They won't get you off the ground, but it'll move you along while you're in the air. Eats through batteries like a fat man through oreos."

"Really? How much power does it take?"

"Eh, nine-volt battery."

Hammond joined Isaak, snorting at that joke, but then shook his head and nodded toward the cabin of the plane. "It's prolly gonna be a couple hours or so before we can get clearance, so might as well wait inside...."