Part 3 (24.5.2003)

Empress,

It took me more than five hours to only get the transceiver back working good enough to send a minimal information package to the mission HQ. Yes, we are a live. We are in good health, at least physical health. As for the mental sanity... this is an entirely different story alltogether.

Well. in the midst of the quiet flight from Banff to Empress, enjoying some side effects of the cabine isolation material tests, things went astray...

Victoria did not believe me when I first said I hear some voices. I cannot blame her. After seeing some quite excitingly coloured clouds and butterflys, I first wasn't sure myself if my brain was playing games with me. But suddenly Vic also heard noises and began to be a bit worried. When we were able to locate the noises, and it became clear that they originate from back in the cargo room, we actually were more than just worried a bit... You know, I don't have any experience with awaking mummies at 9000 ft agl...

We heard the cockpit door being worked on - and suddenly, with a loud bang, the cockpit was filled with dust. Visibility dropped to 10 cm approx., just enough for me to lean forward and find the autopilot. The wood splittering noise changed into a heavy breathing, and all of a sudden, we saw this appear between us

It's difficult to say who screamed more - Victoria or me. But you have to admit this is not really an every day view in the cockpit. I think it took about a minute or so until I regained full consciousness. Then, I opened the seat belt, bent to grab the small fire extinguisher below the seat, and aimed to hit hard... in best Samurai fashion, I strengthened my muscles with will power and shouted BANZAIIII ! Just a glimpse before I hit my target in the middle of the dust clouds, I heard "NO! please !!!". With utmost concentration, I was able to stop the hit, and began to wonder: an ancient mummy that becomes alive - ok. But a mummy that talks in english???

Anyway. To be short: This mummy was in fact Fred Brommelburg from "The Mummies" - one of those grunge bands you happen to stumble over in certain pubs... He had gotten a bit too much of what I call aircraft isolation material - and ended up lying half dead in the sarcophag that they bring with them for every gig.

His band mates let him to sleep in the back stage room. Incidentally, this room shares a door with the local archeological museum. And the workers who had to pick up the mummies that I was to deliver to Empress, mistakenly thought he must be a badly packed exemplary of those mummies... So, he ended up being caught sleeping in the wooden sarcophag. And he worked three and a half hours to escape from there. Since he was almost freezing, and we didn't hear him yelling, he was cracking the cockpit door. part of the door damaged the transmitter and got stuck behind the throttle lever - so I was forced to make an emergency landing at one of the nameless lakes below us.

After a repair of the transceiver and the throttle, we took off again, and delivered the remaining mummies well packed in Empress.

I must say, this was one of the most surprising flights I ever had... but we made it to Empress within acceptable time and with only marginal damage to the equipement, and in good health (all three of us).

In Empress, we headed to pick up a couple string coffees and the cargo for the next leg.


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