It’s been one-hundred years since the Great War on the once lush planet of Ether.  Until then fair trade existed for centuries between the two vast continents of Ether – the Republic of Bulkhan – and the Tiberon Nation.  But when the Bulkhan Republic began to abuse their natural resources and no longer had anything of value to trade, economic balance was disrupted and social unrest in Bulkhan ensued.  A violent overthrow of their government took place and the radical, power-hungry leader Min Law emerged.  Min Law threw all blame for Bulkhan’s misery at the feet of Tiberon and convinced his people that the way to right the wrongs in their land was through the conquest of Tiberon.  The ensuing war and the final use of a secret Bulkhan weapon caused atmospheric havoc.  The effect was catastrophic and within one-year plunged the entire planet into an Ice Age. 

The remaining Bulkhans moved underground and formed small tribal communities that were factional at best.  Today their communities are connected by a tram railway. 

AND SO INTO THE PRESENT, the icy terrain of Ether remains the home of the bitter Bulkhans.  As for the Tiberons, their natures led them into the skies where they’ve built floating cities in the clouds above Ether’s frozen wasteland.  They depend upon solar and wind power to supply their energy needs while the Bulkans have not learned from their past overuse of the environment and continue to try to find ways to exploit it.  Their dank underground homes rely heavily on machines, which supply all of their energy needs.   All attempts to reunite the two peoples, at least politically, have failed and the Bulkhans’ hatred of the Tiberons festers like an open wound. 

Cold waves coming from the planet surface disrupt modern modes of communication so Tiberion mail carriers called SKYRUNNERS have become the life blood of the floating cities.  But the Skyrunners and the Tiberon residents of the floating cities are not the only ones who live in the air… 

Sky whales have existed for thousands of years and purify Ether’s air with each blast from their blow hole.  But catastrophic effects of the Great War have caused their numbers to dwindle drastically.  Still, unbeknownst to most, their worth to Ether is as precious as the rainforests are to Earth.      

But as Doctor Nina Wright once said, “He who knows the power of the sky whales, holds the key to Ether…”

MAIN CHARACTERS:

SHU WRIGHT:  Fifteen year old Shu is pretty but not especially interested in that fact.  Bright, outspoken,  sometimes brash and quick to judge,  she’s an ace flyer, a crack mechanic and the best of the Skyrunners.  Shu can figure out the faults in any machine by just listening to its sound.   Until now, she’s only cared for flying, but the emerging forces of the Bulkhan Republic, and her father’s mysterious disappearance will soon change her from being  self-centered to self-sacrificing.    

KEE WRIGHT:  The object of devotion from his daughter,  Shu,  Kee  Wright lost his scientist wife, Nina, to an ice cave cave-in on Ether.  Nina Wright was doing research on the planet to unlock a way to reverse Ether’s ice age and make it hospitable to life once again.  To bury his grief, Kee’s passion became his work, often making him seem unemotional and unaware of his daughter’s needs.  Kee trains pilots for the Skyrunners and possesses tactical and maneuvering skills that are unsurpassed. Unfortunately, it’s these very skills that cause his capture and imprisonment.        

NINA WRIGHT:  Kee’s beloved wife was killed five years prior to the beginning of our story.  Nina was part of an select group of scientists called the Restorationists.   They believed that Ether’s Ice Age could be reversed and that the planet could be restored to its former ecological balance.   Before Nina’s death, the Restoration scientists seemed to be getting close to a solution.  But with Nina’s death went her research – and the key to the planet’s healing.   Killed in an ice cave avalanche while conducting her research, Nina’s soul seems to have stubbornly remained behind in the cave as if crying out for someone to finish what she started…

SARGON LAW – Through coercion and sheer brutality, Sargon Law has  united the scattered tribes of Bulkhan and merged them into a formidable fighting force. Sargon’s plans to take up where his great-grandfather Min Law left off and reclaim all of Ether under his rule.  But though his fighting forces are strong, his command of the sky is weak.  Still, he is working on a secret weapon that could soon bring Tiberon to its knees.   

NUNO NADER:  Seventeen year old Skyrunner and goofy companion to Shu.  Full of practical jokes, he’s a natural clown and encourages Shu to keep things light.  But when push comes to shove, Nuno is a fierce fighter and loyal friend.  He has a secret crush on Shu but wouldn’t admit it to anyone let alone himself!      

MUTE OSBOURNE:   Nineteen year old Mute has lived as the ward of Sargon Law since his parents were killed by marauding mutant ice monsters that rapidly evolved on the frigid planet after the War.  Owing to his undying devotion to his surrogate father and his brains and skill,  despite his youth, Mute is the leader of Sargon’s Death Brigades.  These hostile minions man flying freighters from which they mount attacks against the sky cities.  But Mute’s alliance will soon be tested after he encounters Shu and, despite himself, becomes enamored with her.

PIFF:  Five-year-old Piff was orphaned on Bulkan when his parents disappeared under mysterious circumstance.  He is scrappy, intelligent and becomes completely devoted to Shu.

MOMO: A mutant teddy-bear-like cub found on the ice planet of Ether.  MoMo is adorable – in a weird three-eyed way.  But when things get tough, this little furry friend can run, jump and climb like the most agile monkey.  MoMo is fiercely attached to Shu and would give his life for her.   

THE STORY

Shu’s in the midst of a fiercely competitive sky race!   She overtakes Nuno, soaring into the lead when her path is crossed by a small herd of graceful sky whales.  Shu navigates through them and is way out ahead of the other racers when Nuno appears out of nowhere and overtakes her!  The two flyers soar low through icy Ether mountain ranges, past mutant animals that rise up to snatch them, then head toward the finish line.  Shu is sure to win when one of her plane’s solar panels breaks loose and she makes a forced landing on Ether’s icy terrain.  Being in the open is fraught with danger – not only from mutant animals but from the Bulkhans.  Shu manages to slide her plane into a cave for cover and begins repairs when she overhears a small coven of the Bulkhan High Command secretly planning an attack on Tiberon’s capital city, Mehar.   Our heroine geri rigs her plane and sets off to warn Mehar.  But she’s soon spotted and finds herself under attack by Bulkhan’s Death Brigade – led by Mute Osbourne.   But even with an ailing plane, Shu’s flying far outmatches her attackers  who lose her after she takes cover in a herd of peaceful sky whales.  Though the Death Brigade fly off to launch the attack on Mehar,  Shu’s flying abilities have been keenly noted by Commander Mute Osbourne! 

The air clear of the enemy, Shu’s about to leave the protection of the beasts when they are attacked by a sky shark.  Shu is torn.  She must warn Mehar of the impending attack but she’s also beholding to the whales for shielding her.  Besides, her mother always had a strange affection for these creatures…  Shu  squares off with the attacking shark but with her plane disabled, the crafty sky shark gains the upper hand when out of the clouds bursts Nuno, laughing triumphantly from winning the race from his best friend.  Surmising the trouble, he skillfully helps Shu send the sky shark fleeing into the clouds.   Shu sends Nuno back to Skyrunner headquarters to tell her father of the attack while she flies off to warn the city.

But Shu arrives in Mehar too late.  Tears fill her eyes as she realizes that war is upon them once again.  She battles her way back through black clouds of smoke then watches in astonishment as sky whales approach and breathe in the charred air, purifying it!   Her mother had always insisted that the sky whales had something to do with the air but she assumed it was just fairytale.  And as she zooms home…

Sargon Law swells with his first successful strike on the capital!  Now he prepares to attack the other floating cities.  But the egomaniacal Law has something else up his sleeve that could make the cities fall like dominoes.  His chief mechanics have devised a machine that could create oxygen – only it is still not on line.  And until it is – and there’s been failure after failure – his plans for domination must rely on his fighters.   Law might have abandoned the oxygen machine long ago had he not been privy to some very top secret information.  What he knows that Shu and her father do not is that Nina Wright was not killed in an avalanche.  The scientist wife of Kee Wright was murdered by Law and her scientific journals stolen.  From these   he learned how the sky whales are responsible for not only cleansing the air but for creating the planet’s very oxygen!  Destroy the whales and you destroy the Tiberons ability to breathe!  But before Law can move on the whales, he must first get his oxygen machine on line in order to supply his own people with air!   So… while his beleaguered mechanics work feverishly on the machine, Law’s minions attack the other floating cities… 

With the new war, the role of the skyrunners changes drastically.  No longer peaceful mail carriers, they’re now carriers of the resistance against Sargon Law!  And Law has declared all out war against the Skyrunners!   Nuno and Shu make the best flying team and out maneuver the Death Brigade time after time and even manage to booby-trap their ships. 

It’s clear that Law’s fighters are no match for the clever skyrunners Shu’s father,  Kee, is kidnapped by Law.   If his fighters can’t beat the skyrunners than they will learn from the best of them! 

Shu and Nuno pursue the kidnapers when their planes are hit - Nuno’s  too damaged to go on.  Shu continues on alone and faces death at the hands of the Brigade when Mute stays their hand.  He will not kill her.  At least not today…    

Shu lands her damaged plane on Ether.   With little food and no means of communication, she faces the bitter cold and an attack by mutant animals.  She drives them off but then discovers an abandoned mutant cub.  She and the cub, MoMo,  find an ice cave for cover against a building ice storm. 

Though mutant eyes watch her from every corner, the cave seems warm and welcoming to Shu – almost as if she’s been there before.  Then she remembers.  Her mother used to take her there when she was very young.  The cave had some great importance to her but what was it?  With MoMo at her side, Shu soon stumbles upon the giant skeletons of long dead sky whales.  Could this be their cemetery? 

Meanwhile, in a Bulkhan stronghold, when prisoner Kee resists training Bulkhan pilots, Law shows him the oxygen machine and informs him of his  heinous plan to destroy all remaining sky whales and doom Tiberon!

Half frozen now, Shu follows the trail of the giant whale skeletons to something wondrous.  It’s as if she’s entered the Garden of Eden!   Shu’s discovery is interrupted by the sound of someone approaching.  She prepares for battle when she discovers her visitor is an orphaned Bulkhan who’s been secretly living here.   Piff,  a scrappy little five-year-old, tells her of how he’s watched aged sky whales come to this place to die.  But the wonder of it is that as they do, their bodies release life giving properties.  Shu discovers hastily drawn etchings on the cave wall that her mother must have scrawled before she died.  These crude drawings explain how the whales create oxygen by their own breath!  Both in life and in death, these magnificent creatures are the very key to reversing the planet’s ice age!  But with their numbers so small, they’ve not been able to bring the planet back into balance.   Still,  if there numbers were to swell…  Shu’s head reels with the ramifications of all this.  But for now, only one thing truly matters to her and that’s GETTING OFF THE PLANET TO RESCUE HER FATHER! 

Piff knows where a downed aircraft lies.  But to take her there they must ride the tram-railway controlled by the Bulkhans.  Piff helps disguise Shu as a Bulkhan trader and both sneak aboard.   Shu – who should really learn to mind her tongue - is discovered and chased but the wily Piff helps her escape then leads her to the promised down aircraft that’s been there for oh… maybe a century!  Still, Shu is able to get it running and takes off with MoMo and Piff.   While flying over the planet, she witnesses the sky whales trying to purify the increasingly sooty air from the attacks...   

Scouring the surface of the planet , Shu is determined to continue her search for her father.  But where?  Everywhere you look is ice!  But Piff knows.  Being forced to survive on his own, he’s made a habit of visiting a place where the guards were easy marks for hand outs.  He also saw prisoners being kept there.  So Piff directs Shu to a deep crater, under which lies a Bulkhan base and prison…

Shu orders Piff and MoMo to stay in the plane while she infiltrates the prison.  After a frantic search she discovers her father.   They mount an escape but soon the blare of alarms and yelling soldiers warn the search for them is on.  Shu gets her father to her antiquated plane but… Piff is missing!  With precious escape time slipping away, she discovers that Mute holds Piff hostage.  He’ll trade the boy’s life if she’ll join his ranks.  Fearless little MoMo comes to the rescue and our heroes escape.  But Mute is in hot pursuit.  After a harrowing plane chase through tight tunnels and channels, our heroes burst into the freedom of the sky.   But, strangely, no Bulkhans follow them…  They’ve been ordered back.  Sargon Law’s machine is now on line! 

Law gives the order to destroy every last sky whale in the sky!  Without the oxygen they create the Tiberons will at long last die! 

Now Shu, Kee, Nuno and all skyrunners rally to protect the sky whales.  Though the skyrunners fight valiantly and destroy much of Law’s fleet,  Kee tells Shu the only way to completely stop the attack on the whales is to destroy the Bulkhan’s oxygen machine!  While Kee stays behind to protect the whales, Shu heads to the  Bulkhan stronghold to destroy the machine.  Again she faces off with Mute.  Shu tells him of her discovery in the cave and urges him to help her demolish the machine…   The massive explosion draws the sky whales near to cleanse the air…

With the destruction of Law’s machine, he calls a retreat.  The evil leader is defeated, at least for now…   But will Mute follow Shu into the skyrunner fold or will he stay loyal to Sargon Law? 

As Shu flies off to join her brethren, she knows that only time will tell…