Balto: Countdown

Balto, Jenna, and other characters are property of such and such, blah blah, you know, all that copyright crap. Just imagine I wrote all that junk, okay? Oh, and 'Tyrell' we used by permission of LoneWolf_fanwriter. Thanks dude.

(Here's a little tip. To help you get a better idea about this fic and what's going on, it would help to have seen 'Flightplan'.)

( Seattle 2007)

Balto Tyrell was walking toward the little cafe' that the airport had inside for a cup of coffee. He hated having to wake up at 5 in the morning so he could get here on time. As he walked up to the cafe', he noticed that his co-pilot Jenna Parker was already there drinking her own coffee.

“Morning Jenna.”

She looked up from the newspaper she had been reading. “Morning Balto.”

“Since your here already, when's our flight time?”

Jenna looked at her watch. “In about half an hour. It's six o'clock right now.”

“Half an hour? That's it?”

Jenna nodded.

Balto sighed. “I am going to need a lot of coffee to wake myself up enough. I'll be right back.” Balto went over to the counter to get his coffee. “Morning to you too Doc.”

The old Saint Bernard who owned the cafe' smiled and said “Your usual?”

“Yeah.”

Balto had been working as a pilot for this airline for about 2 years. After his and Jenna's little incident on that island a few years back, they needed to lay low for a little while. Jenna managed to convince Balto to go work for a big airline so he could put his skills to work. That and no one would have believed that an Alaskan redneckbush pilot would sit at the controls of a jet plane. They also took the extra precaution of changing their last names.

After Balto had gotten the job, he showed Jenna how a big plane worked. And he didn't even play AC/DC while doing it! After one lesson Jenna got interested in flying herself. She went to a flight school and started taking lessons. Balto quickly became Captain of a 747. He got a copilot by the name of Kodi. Unfortunately, Kodi had died a year ago. He was flying a plane through the Rocky mountains in Colorado when hisengines suddenly went dead.

Now, this is bad. Not as bad as you would imagine however. You can glide the plane for a while as you search for a place to take the plane down.

There are however, very few flat landing areas in the mountains. There hadn't been much of the plane left when they found it. As such the airline hired a new pilot. Balto gave a suggestion and a few weeks later, Jenna was his co-pilot. She has been his first mate for almost a year herself.

“Here you go Balto” Doc said bringing Balto back out of his thoughts.

“Oh thanks” Balto said taking the coffee.

As he sat back down at the table, he looked at Jenna and asked “Are you nervous?”

“Yeah. Maiden voyages are a little more nerve racking than normal flying.”

The two of them had been flying 747s most of the time they worked here. Today however, they were going to be flying a brand spanking new aircraft. The 818. It was two decks high, and 8 aisles across. It also had crew quarters and a fully stocked kitchen. It even had a bar.

Oh, and the plane was around 300 feet long and carried 600 passengers. One news reporter had called it, at it's unveiling, 'a flying city'. And rightly so.

Balto sighed slightly. “Yeah I know what you mean. I guess we'll just have to give it our best shot.”

Jenna clicked her paws as if she just remembered something. “This will ease some of the pressure on us. Guess who's going to be on the plane?”

“I don't know. The Dixie Chicks? They just won several Grammy Awards by the way.”

“ I heard. No, this person is a little more popular.”

“Um, Elvis?”

“Even more famous.”

“Than Elvis? Wow. Um... James T. Kirk? Marilyn Monroe? Mick Jagger? James Bond? Kevin Bacon? Phil Collins? Freddie Mercury? Eddie Van Halen? Ah! I know! Jimi Hendrix!”

“President Buford Hognasal.”

Balto's eyes bulged. “President Hognasal!? What is the President of the United States doing on my plane!?”

Jenna held up her handsdefensively. “Hey don't look at me I didn't do it. I think it's one of those things where he's trying to drum up support for the new election.”

“Joy of joy's.”

Jenna looked at her watch again. “Well, we should probably head out to the plane. We've got to get it ready for the President.”

Ten minutes later, the two of them were sitting in the cockpit of the plane doing there preflight checks.

Balto looked out the window and groaned. “Here comes his Majesty and all his bodyguards. Oh, on a totally different topic of conversation, where are we going?”

“I thought you were supposed to be the pilot.”

“I didn't get enough coffee. My brain isn't working right because of it.”

Jenna grabbed the flight book and started flipping thru it. “Let's see, ah, here we go. We are going to Chicago, Illinois.”

“It'll probably be a 4 or 5 hour long flight. Not too bad.”

“Speak for yourself. I don't like Chicago.”

Balto rolled his eyes. “Oh come on. So you had two or three bad experiencesthere.”

“May I remind you that they were not 'bad' experiences, they were terrible ones! What self-respecting husky would want to go on a date with a psychotic polar bear, and then get asked out by his brother!”

“Okay, I agree. I know that I wouldn'tgo on a date with Muk. Or Luk!”

Jenna sighed for a second and then suddenly looked at her watch. “Oh Crap!”

“What?”

“We where supposed to be at the boarding ramp 10 minutes ago!”

“Well let's get moving then.”

The Secret Service guards were not very happy about the delay. The minute Balto and Jenna walked up to them, one named Alex Lifeson started complaining about how the President had been exposed to unnecessary danger from terrorists because he had not been safely on the plane.

'Yeah. Whatever' Balto thought.

He ignored the rest of the protests from Alex and the other security guards and walked up to the president.

“Mr. President. It's an honor to meet you.”

As much as he hated politics, Balto was honored to shake the paw of the President. “And I hope you'll enjoy the ride.”

“I never liked flying very much. But I can make an exception. I'm sure you'll do a fine job.” Buford smiled and turned to Jenna. “And you are...?”

“Jenna Parker. Mr. Tyrell's co-pilot.”

“I would keep an eye on him. Make sure he doesn't try anything to fancy.”

Jenna smiled. “I will Mister President.”

One of the Secret Service guards was talking on his walkie-talkie and walked up to the President. “Excuse me Mr. President. I would just like for you to know that the plane is secure and we are allowing the other passengers on board.”

“Thank you Sparky. Now, if you two will excuse me, I wish to go meet the other passengers.”

Balto and Jenna gladly ducked back into the cockpit and shut the door.

Balto leaned back in his seat and sighed happily. “Safe. Safe from the politicians.”

“Oh, how do I agree.”

Little did anyone know that they were not safe at all.

Within 20 minutes all the passengers were on the plane and seated.

“Flight 815 you are clear for takeoff.”

“Thanks control. Flight 815 beginning our way down the runway.”

Balto switched on the 'Fasten seat belt' light and began to taxi down the runway. He approached the straight stretch and started to rev the engines. He looked over at Jenna for confirmation as to when he could begin going down the runway.

Jenna looked back and nodded.

Balto blew his breath. “Okay. Here we go.”

He reached over to the throttle and started pushing the lever up slowly. The plane started moving forward. He kept pushing the throttle forward and the plane started picking up speed. Jenna said “Okay we are now going fast enough to generate the lift we need.”

Balto nodded. “Raising flaps.”

It took a moment or so, but the plane started leaving the ground. Balto waited until they were almost thirty feet off the ground when heradioed the control tower. “Flight 815 has flown the coop.”

“Good luck 815. Have a safe journey.”

They were on there way.

They had only been flying for half an hour or so when a stewardess brought up some drinks. Balto smiled at the dog and thanked her. Jenna was reaching over for a drink as well when Balto heard some commotion going on behind him. At first, he thought a couple of passengers were arguing over something. Then he heard what they were saying.

“Hey look out!”

“Somebody stop them!”

“Help!”

Balto spun in his seat and looked thru the open door and his heart lept into his throat. Several dogs were charging toward the cockpit!

He stood up and yelled to the stewardess “Look out!”

BANG!

The lady never knew what happened. Balto watched in horror as her body fell to the floor. He looked back up in time to see a fist coming at him. He felt a sharp pain and fell over backwards, luckily not falling on the controls. Jenna was starting to stand up when a gun pointed in both their faces.

A large brown German Shepherd stood there holding the gun. “Both of you get up. Now.”

Balto slowly got up to his feet. He was both furious, and scared out of his mind. “What do you want?”

The big dog laughed. “I'm holding the gun and you're the one asking questions? I don't think so.” Balto

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