Ash - Part 1
The turbulence was rough. Every few seconds another hard battering seemed to come from the invisible ripples of air sneaking their way through the flawlessly clear day. Each shutter of the Phoenix only made Dr. Andres woozier. He clung to an airsickness bag ready to use it at a moment’s notice. It would not be the first time on this flight if he did.
Andres did not like the fact that Phoenix 10's cabin did not have many windows. He felt claustrophobic. He unbuckled his seatbelt and slowly made his way up to the cockpit, holding some cabling along the fuselage to keep his balance.
"Are we nearly there?" he mumbled to the two pilots as he reached the cockpit’s doorway.
"Doctor," said Sergeant Dalton impatiently, the plane’s pilot, "we are still going to land at the same time we told you we were going to land when we left three hours ago."
"And yesterday," Rescue Officer Attzs smirked, the plane’s copilot.
"Mount Mayon will still be there," Dalton said, stretching in his seat. "That’s the great thing about rocks, they don't move all that much." He looked over his shoulder. "As a volcanologist I probably don't have to remind you about that."
"Of course not," Andres said, insulted. "It's just I - " The plane jolted suddenly to the left through an eddy of unstable air. Andres hit his forehead on the fuselage. "Oouch!" he cried, rubbing a swelling lump.
Dalton and Attzs chuckled.
"Maybe you should take your seat, Doctor," Dalton urged. "It's pretty turbulent, like we told you it would be when we left… Three hours ago."
"And yesterday," Attzs smirked again.
"The plane can, can take this, right?" Andres asked nervously.
"This girl," Dalton explained, briskly slapping the planes controls to Andres's horror, "this girl can handle anything. The V-22 is a work of art. Phoenix 1 always gets all the credit and the stares but don't let that flying saucer fool you. Phoenix 10 is the real workhorse."
"Good," Andres stuttered. "That’s good…"
Attzs turned around and saw the doctor's nauseated look. "You want some Dramamine?" he asked. "Works every time."
"Yes actually, I - "
"Oh, wait," Attzs said, feeling around his flight suit, "I left it back at base. Crap. Sorry."
"Great," Andres moaned.
"Can't take a little turbulence, Doctor?" Dalton joked. "Come on. You go inside of active volcanoes, don't you? This can't be worse than that, right? Those things could blow up right underneath you!"
"At least it'd be quick," Andres faintly chuckled.
"Look!" Attzs said, pointing ahead. "There it is."
Andres bent down to peer through the cockpit windows. Without even realizing it his nausea disappeared. The smoldering mountain’s nearly perfect symmetrical green, brown, and black cone amazed him. It was like an example out of a geography textbook. The scars of previous eruptions could be seen everywhere across the surrounding land. Dried mudflows. Crusty, hardened lava fields. Charred forest in various stages of regrowth. It was like a microcosm for the creation of Earth itself.
"When was the last time it erupted?" Attzs asked.
"Nine years ago in 2018," Andres answered, still mesmerized by the peak in front of him. "Mount Mayon is one of the most active volcanoes in the Philippines."
"You think it will go again soon?" Dalton asked.
"Based on the amount of earthquake activity and the periodic releases of ash and gases I'd say it's almost certain an eruption is coming. But, the UNIRO science team we are rendezvousing with will only help us to confirm that. Their data is invaluable to my government. Retrieving it will make this hellish plane ride worthwhile."
"I hope so," Dalton nodded, shedding a small empathetic smile.
Andres noticed a small release of ash from the volcano’s crater. It rapidly spewed into the air for a few hundred feet, casting a shadow across the top of the mountain, quickly dispersed by the wind.
"Can we expect more of those?" Attzs asked hesitantly. "This plane is tough but nothing beats volcanic ash. That stuff will shred a plane’s engines."
"Its likely," said Andres, "but we are pretty sure we have at least a few more weeks before any kind of real eruption takes place. For now, what you just saw will be as big as they get for a while."
Suddenly the entire top two-thirds of the mountain blew itself apart in a raging explosive cloud of black and gray ash that moved outward at hundreds of miles per hour. The billowing volcanic cloud boiled down the disintegrating slopes. Blue skies around the collapsing peak were overwhelmed and turned into a nightmarish black that was filled with jets of yellow lightning. Huge shards of rock with smoking trails fanned out in every direction, crashing back into the soil from which it came.
"Holy shit!" Dalton cried, leaning forward in his seat.
Andres's mouth fell. He could not believe what he was seeing.
Mount Mayon disappeared under its own eruption in less than a minute. The ash cloud was already tens of thousands of feet high and spreading. A small shockwave hit the plane, jostling its occupants.
"Base Gunyah, Base Gunyah," Dalton called into his radio headset, "this is Phoenix 10-5. I repeat this is Phoenix 10-5. I am calling with an urgent message. Do you copy, over?"
"This is Base Gunyah Command Center," someone answered after a moment’s pause. "We copy you Phoenix 10-5. Go ahead."
"Mount Mayon on the Philippine island of Luzon has just suffered a massive volcanic eruption. We are currently inbound to Bicol International Airport outside Legazpi City to pickup one of our science teams. We are nineteen miles from the summit. You're going to want to get a hold of the government. Based on the wind direction it looks like the ash cloud will cover both the airport and the city in a matter of minutes. Request permission to assist with evacuations, over."
No one immediately answered. The ash cloud continued to rise.
"Legazpi City has almost two hundred thousand people living in it," Andres said with a sobering look. "We should have evacuated sooner…"
"What’s done is done," Dalton said, looking back at Andres. "All that matters now is getting people to safety."
"Phoenix 10-5, do you read?" said a voice through Dalton's headset.
"Phoenix 10-5, go ahead."
"Permission to assist with evacuation is denied. Phoenix 5 satellite measurements indicate ash levels over danger zone are already not safe for aircraft. Divert back to Manila and await further instructions, over."
"With all due respect base," Dalton said forcefully, "those are our scientists we are leaving behind, not to mention thousands of civilians. Dr. Andres from the Philippine Institute of Volcanology and Seismology is on board with us and he says the data that team has been collecting could be vital to understanding this volcano’s eruptions."
"Permission is denied, Sergeant Dalton. Return to Manila at once. The science team will shelter in place until the eruption has ended. They are trained for this. Over and out."
"Damnit," Dalton sighed, staring at the menacing cloud.
"No one is trained to handle that kind of power," Andres said sadly, looking down at his feet. "They won't last more than a night. Pyroclastic flows will sweep right over that airport."
"What are those?" Attzs asked.
"Fast moving flows of volcanic rock, gas, ash, and other debris. They are very common with explosive eruptions like this one. They can move at over 400 miles per hour. Anything they touch dies."
"I'm sorry I asked," Attzs winced uncomfortably.
The sun disappeared from the cockpit as the mushrooming ash cloud began to dominate the region. The men had never seen such darkness before. Lightning continued to pierce the sky, emanating from the towering eruption column.
"We should turn back, sir," Attzs urged Dalton. "We are eleven miles away. If we don't turn around now we'll fly right into it."
"I must agree," added Andres remorsefully. "I'm sorry."
Dalton laughed to Andres's surprise. "Someone once told me to not be sorry, they told me to be different." He looked over at Attzs and said, "So lets be different."
Andres felt the aircraft start to descend towards the mountain. "Uh, what are you doing?" he asked nervously.
"We're going to save our team, their data, and anyone else we can. I'll load this thing until she can barely fly," Dalton said resolutely.
"Uh, she will already be barely able to fly if we ingest any of that ash. It will destroy our engines, Sergeant," Andres cautiously noted.
"I know," Dalton nodded, flashing a clever smile. "That’s why we won't be using our engines..."