Black Diamond

After the classes were over, with a big scare given to everyone by the simulation, Alexis and Natalia headed off to the Harper's. Natalia was hoping that she could find the answer to the problem that had been bugging her since yesterday from Mr. Harper.

Mr. Harper was all fine and well today and was working on a fighter pod of a battle craft when Alexis and Natalia arrived. "Welcome girls! I hope you two didn't wait outside for long yesterday. Sorry! again."

"Stop apologizing Mr. Harper. That happens sometimes." Natalia scrunched her brows because she did not want the elderly man to keep feeling guilty for forgetting. "By the way, you are fine now, right?"

"Yes, I am. Don't worry about me." Mr. Harper waved his hand and signaled the girls to go inside, "Go get changed and join me for work. And Alexis, I had ordered an overall for you as well. It's in the locker room. I bought the same size as that of Natalia. I think it will fit you."

Alexis smiled and said politely, "Thank you Mr. Harper."

Both of the girls went inside the locker room. Alexis noticed that there was a package on the floor. "This must be the overalls for me right?" she wanted to confirm it with Natalia.

"Yeah, I guess. Why else would it be here." Natalia put her belongings inside her locker and began to change into her work uniform.

Alexis was looking for a place to keep her bag in. Natalia pointed at several lockers in front of them and said, "You can take any locker you like. Nobody uses these besides us anyway."

Alexis chose the one next to Natalia's and then put her bag inside it. Then she opened the package to find a blue overall made out of jeans. She tried it on, and it fit her perfectly. After all, she and Natalia were roughly of the same size.

The girls went outside and then grabbed helmet, eye goggles, and a pair of gloves each. And then headed towards the junkyard where Mr. Harper had been working.

Normally, Mr. Harper would be repairing parts of the crafts which could be sold separately. But it seemed like this battle craft was repairable as a whole.

"So, this craft is repairable?" Natalia asked to confirm her theory.

Mr. Harper was changing the laser beam proof glass of the fighter pod. "Ah! Yes. Finally, I was able to get something good from the Dead Zone at a reasonable price. When we fix this, I can sell it for good money."

Alexis was shocked when she heard that he got the craft from the Dead Zone. "You got it from the Dead Zone?" Alexis exclaimed loudly. "But how is that even possible? Won't the military find out?"

Alexis wanted to know how Mr. Harper pulled that off for future reference because she wished to do the same with the Raider 01 that she had found.

But Alexis was disappointed when she heard his answer. Mr. Harper laughed and then replied, "Why would you think I got it illegally? The militaries are the ones who sold most of the items that I have in here to me. Of course I also bought few old ones from Private companies but most of these are from the Dead Zone."

Alexis was confused as to why the militaries would sell anything from the Dead Zone. "Why would they sell these? Isn't the reason why they won't allow any civilians to enter is because they don't want anyone to get their hands on the war remnants?"

"Yes, they don't want to allow anyone to get their hands on the alien technologies." Mr. Harper slammed on the craft he was working on and then continued, "But this right here is from earth and is not that special. It does not even have hyperspeed function. And this is pretty much a junk to the militaries."

Mr. Harper looked into the curious eyes of Alexis and then kept on speaking, "The militaries are not dumb. They keep the ones with alien technologies or the ones that has good functionalities for themselves. And as for the junks like these, they hold an auction every month. They call people like me to the auction, and we get to buy the ones we like."

Alexis finally understood the reason why the Harper's was so far away from the city and near the Dead Zone. But she was still curious about one thing. "So how do you transport these junks then? They can't fly here… because they are junks."

"Oh! We are of course allowed to take our Cargo Aircraft inside. And I fly these scraps in my aircraft." Mr. Harper smiled and revealed how he managed to transport that heaps of junks.

Alexis was even more intrigued. "You even know how to fly an aircraft?"

"You don't see anyone else around, do you? I have license to fly aircraft as well as small grade spaceships." Mr. Harper proudly boasted to Alexis.

Natalia patted Alexis on the shoulder and grinned at Mr. Harper, "Did I tell you that Alexis is also a pilot?"

"Yes, you made that very clear when she was here the first day." Mr. Harper was about to get back to what he was doing but he suddenly turned back again and asked, "Would you like to see the aircraft? She is quite a beauty."

"Yes, I would love to see her." Alexis jumped with happiness when she heard the offer because she loved seeing different models of spaceships as well as aircraft. And Natalia was also equally excited.

Mr. Harper put down his tools and then led the girls around to the back of the junkyard. There was a small hanger behind the junkyard which was enclosed by large shutters.

Mr. Harper entered the code and then all the shutters rolled up to display a magnificent aircraft. It was all black in color. Its body was large, inside which two battle crafts would easily fit. It had two tails and two wings. The wings had five propellers each because of which it could take off easily like a helicopter without the need for a runway.

Mr. Harper had a huge smile on his face when he said, "Her name is Black Diamond."

"She looks so awesome!" Natalia's eyes were twinkling with delight at the sight of the craft. "Why did you never show this to me before?"

Mr. Harper simply shrugged off his shoulders and said, "You never asked, so I never did."

"She is really beautiful. You never take her anywhere else other than to the Dead Zone?" Alexis asked Mr. Harper with inquisitive eyes.

Mr. Harper glided his hand on the aircraft's body as if it was his baby. "Yes, I do take her out sometimes if I have to travel to other Areas. She is faster than the bullet trains." Mr. Harper definitely seemed very proud of his possession.

Seeing Alexis and Natalia's awestruck faces, Mr. Harper could not help but smile. "I will give you girls a ride when I go into the Dead Zone next time."

"Really? Thank you! Mr. Harper" Natalia could not wait to get inside the aircraft and check how it functioned.

However, Alexis was a bit concerned. "But will we be allowed to go in there? Isn't it supposed to be a no trespassing area?"

Mr. Harper let out laughter and said, "You guys won't be trespassing, you work for me now. Of course you will be allowed to enter if I take you there."

After hearing that, Alexis also could not wait to ride the craft that she was seeing and go inside the Dead Zone legally. And maybe explore some more areas without being scared of getting caught by the military.

After roaming around the craft and getting a good look of it, the three of them headed out of the hanger to get back to work.

As they were walking, Natalia cleared her throat and then asked the question that had been itching her. "Mr. Harper, are you familiar with the Raider 01 battle craft? Have you ever had one of those repaired?"

"Why are you asking about that all of a sudden?" Mr. Harper was confused when Natalia asked about the Raider 01 out of the blue.

In order to not seem suspicious, Natalia told him half of the truth. "Our Professor was teaching us about the Raider 01 and I found it very interesting. I wanted to see that craft myself. And I wanted to know a few more things about it."

Natalia was trying her best not to make an eye contact and give away that she was hiding something. But Mr. Harper was not the kind of person to suspect Natalia over a question. Besides, there was nothing for Mr. Harper to be suspicious about; it was just all inside Natalia's head. She was being overly anxious lately.

Mr. Harper nodded his head and said, "I have definitely heard about that craft. It is considered to be a beast of the battle crafts. But unfortunately, I have not seen one myself, leave alone repair it. So I am sorry kid. I won't be much of a help."

"Oh! It's alright. Maybe I will get to see it someday in the future." Natalia puckered her lips and kept quiet after that.

Natalia was disappointed once again, and so was Alexis. Both of them wanted to work on that craft that they found in the Dead Zone. But no one seemed to have the answer to their problem.