SKY HIGH LIVING

NO MORTGAGE NO RENT

Find out what it’s all about at our coffee morning

TODAY

The large poster greeted us as we stepped out of the station. I nudged George.

’Hey let’s go to that, it could be the answer for us.’

I fingered my new, cheap, engagement ring.

‘Tams, the last thing we want is to live in a high rise block. I thought you wanted a house with a garden, that’s why we came out here to look.’

This was the latest outer suburb we were visiting in our search for a home.

‘Free coffee and cakes and a lift to our exhibition centre.’

The voice startled us. At our side was a bloke who looked more like a scientist than a smarmy salesman.

‘Don’t look so worried, we’re running a shuttle service from the station today, it looks like rain so why not hop in and start your home hunting at the Sky High centre.’

‘How do you know we’re house hunting?’

‘Hopeful people have been arriving all morning since that article in the Guardian last weekend.’

At that moment the heavens opened and we jumped gratefully into his mini bus, smiling and nodding at several other passengers.

We were surprised to arrive ten minutes later at a huge aircraft hangar.

‘You will see inside that later, but first the introductory talk.’

George groaned ‘I knew there was a catch, bet it’s one of those timeshare things.’

As the rain was torrential and there was nothing except fields around the hangar, we didn’t have much choice. We were parked near some outbuildings and the driver held a golf umbrella over our heads as we all clambered out and through a red door. The room we entered was large and bright and full of people helping themselves at a table laden with a selection of cakes. George had three and would have gone back for more if they had not announced the presentation was starting. Behind a small stage a screen lit up. I wondered if the chap addressing us was a comedian in his spare time, perhaps I had seen him on television. Was this all a big joke?

‘Don’t worry, I won’t subject you to a long sales talk, I’ll cut straight to the exciting part. Airships, solar powered airships, how we should all be travelling, not on planes and cruise ships guzzling resources. Some folk even live on those huge cruise ships, good idea to get away from the world, so could you live on an airship? Yes. Our airships orbit the earth just like the International Space Station, only bigger and lower down. Imagine working from home sky high, looking down on the countries you have conference calls with. Or being part of a fantastic project to study the future of airship life, silently gliding through the clouds.

‘That’s just pie in the sky’ said a voice from the back.

‘Hardly, we were all meant to be on the moon by now, what happened to that idea? Our plan is the realistic one. But the big advantage for you young people and a few mature folk is it’s all free. We do offer a gold package for those who want a life of leisure, but most of you will be working as part of the team, according to your talents and experience. Growing vegetables in the sky garden, technical maintenance of the ship, part of the medical team… this is going to be a mini world.’

‘How many airships have you got in orbit’ asked George ‘and how come we have never heard of them?’

‘Prototype One, which is manoeuvring unnoticed above peaceful parts of the earth. The news media are only interested in toy rockets being blasted up and falling down or exploding, not in positive stories. That’s why we will be running our own radio and television stations.’

I nudged George, I worked for a little local radio station as the general dogsbody.

‘How big is this airship, how can if fit a whole space commune on board?’ asked the voice from the back.

‘You will soon see and bear in mind it can be expanded once up in the sky. Now it’s time for the tour of Sky Galleon One’s interior.’

We were led to a door which opened into a sloping tunnel as if we were boarding an aeroplane. There were gasps of excitement as we stepped through the round doorway into a large light atrium, the centre of the four storey vessel. We were each given a small electronic device with a screen to show our location on a 3 D map and more importantly, one button to press which would guide us back to the atrium from anywhere. Thus we were free to explore until summoned by a signature tune.

‘There will be crew members dispersed on every deck to answer your questions.’

George, with his technical and scientific expertise, was busy tapping surfaces, opening cabinets and marvelling at the lightweight constructions of cabins and furniture. I was entranced by the lush sky garden and the lovely personal apartments, so spacious compared to our cramped flat. Then we walked up a sloping passage and arrived at another floor where we were surprised to find a theatre and a dance hall. George saw a sign for the observation deck and rushed me down a spiral walkway to arrive at a glass floor. Presumably there was ground underneath, but the glass rested on an aerial picture of paradise islands in an azure sea.

A tune started playing on our devices.

‘Oh this is on Mum’s playlist I exclaimed – Up, Up and Away…’

George raised his eyebrows ‘A bit cheesy, but appropriate I guess. Do you want to be up, up and away?’

‘YES.’

Back at the atrium there was a buzz of chatter, then we were called to attention.

‘We won’t go up and away until the galleon is attached below the dirigible. Now for the only time you will see what it looks like close up suspended in the hangar. Follow me.’

The hangar was even bigger than I had imagined from the outside, but the dirigible took up most of the vast space. It floated silently, gracefully, shimmering silver, how impressive it would be in the sky.

Two weeks later we were staring up at it from the airfield. Firmly tethered with our stately galleon below barely resting on the ground. We walked across the grass and up the gangway with the others, who like us had signed up on that very first day. Our ten day induction course was over, now we must learn the reality. Some opted to go to the top deck and look out of the picture windows, while George and I sat by the glass floor of the observation deck looking at grass, then the airfield and gradually a toy town.

At dinner that evening in the communal hall we chatted and found out more about each other, fifty people to get to know, all with interesting backgrounds, we would not get bored.

And we didn’t, as the weeks passed there was always more to learn, new parts of the galleon to explore and the beautiful earth to see fairly close up. Then there was our cosy apartment to retreat to. It wasn’t long before we and another two couples became part of Plan B. We were expecting a baby and put under the close care of the medical suite.

I don’t know why we had not thought about it before, but one day I said to George ‘We better find out about ground leave, we’ll have to take the baby to see his grandparents, they won’t be content with just our Facetime calls.’

When we three couples were together we mentioned the subject and the chap who was in training with the flight engineer looked worried and awkward.

‘Did you read your contract properly when you signed up, it’s not that simple.’

‘Surely when we get back above England we can just land back at the base’ I suggested.

‘You can put a balloon in the air, but not necessarily catch it.’

‘They were landing airships a hundred years ago, what’s so difficult.’

‘The sheer scale of this ship. Keep this to yourselves, but I’m pretty certain they are not ready on the ground for a landing and certainly not on board. But there is no need to worry, the ship is totally sustainable, we won’t run out of solar power and food production is going perfectly.’

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UKkNlwpajNk&t=26s

THE FIFTH DIMENSION – UP UP AND AWAY…