Author's Note: I just thought I'd put up the rest of the chapters for those of you who want to read them. This story is VERY OLD, I wrote this when I was thirteen. Please keep this in mind while reading and excuse any mistakes (my primary school never taught us any grammar rules – yep, stupid – and I've tried to teach myself everything since then)

The rest of this is dedicated to AlwaysInTheDark (happy birthday for next year) and ian (Sorry for leaving this for two years!) Thank you also to everyone who has reviewed this story on any site it has been put up on. Your support means a lot to me.

Chapter 9:

Gravity and other Annoying Laws of Motion

11:53 (5 minutes before The Icarus passes monitoring satellite) Operations Booth, LEP Headquarters, Police Plaza.

"You've got to be joking!" Foaly coughed as he spat half-eaten carrot across his keyboard "I'd never thought that they'd get that far!"

"Its true, sir" Foaly's lab assistant said as his boss continued to choke "the Icarus has reached the outer limits of our atmosphere-their going into space!"

"What the heck are they doing out there?" Foaly asked absently as he ran his hands ran expertly across his keyboard, swiping bits of carrot off at the same time as typing "they were only supposed to go into the outer atmosphere."

"I dunno boss, it's as if-" Roob stopped and pulled a communicator from his lab coat pocket "yes?" The gnome listened for a moment then stuffed the communicator back into his pocket with a shocked look on his face "you might want to take a look at the news, sir."

"This better be serious Roob," the centaur whinnied as he pressed a few keys "I have some important work to do today." Suddenly Foaly was confronted with screens upon screens of news reporters all waving at the sky.

"This does seem serious then," he muttered as he quickly shut off all of the windows but one-CNN.

"….Yes, its been confirmed-there was no cometary activity planned for tonight but if we take a look at the sky there is an obvious tail of…" the news reporter put her hand to her earpiece and scowled "…something and an object at its origin moving quickly across the sky at a decreasing angle." The camera's view switched to the so called 'comet'. "NASA says that there is no need to be alarmed but if you are anywhere near where it impacts, if it does impact, you must ring the emergency services and stay away from the crash site-"

"D'Arvit," Foaly swore and turned to yet another computer screen "this is all I need-and today of all days!" He sent Roob scurrying from the room as he waited for the satellite he wanted to come into range. The satellite (designation FC2-0879) that he was waiting for was one of his own, it was designed to monitor, follow and destroy space debris that got too close to the Earth-it had come in handy on many occasions. Foaly swore again when the satellite came back into range and a torrent of video boxes began to popup all over the monitor.

"Is there a problem Foaly?" Vinyaya asked as she leant against the crowded workbench behind him. Foaly jumped and tried to regain his composure-he hadn't even heard her come in.

"I don't know Wing-Commander," he started and Vinyaya immediately knew that something was wrong-he would never have been so formal in normal circumstances. "I was just checking up on a small situation aboveground."

"Don't lie to me Foaly; you were always hopeless at lying anyway."

"Truly Vinyaya, I have no idea what's going on up there, it's only a little comet-I don't see why everyone is so upset." Foaly looked up when he realised that the elf had suddenly gone very quite "what's the matter with you now?"

"Foaly," Vinyaya began at the same time as reaching for the emergency button on his desk "if that is a comet then I am a mud man." The centaur looked up as alarm bells began to ring throughout the complex.

"What do you mean?" He spluttered, zooming in on the object in question "I don't see anything unusual about-is that what I think it is?" Vinyaya nodded slightly as she spoke rapidly into her communicator, whoever was on the other end was determined to do the exact opposite of what she requested.

"Phobie right?" Vinyaya interrupted the sprites rant about security protocols and rank pulling "shut up and put Frond on."

"Why should I?" The now enraged sprite shouted down the line, so loud that Foaly could hear her without straining his ears (or using the bug he had planted in his commanders communicator) "Frond is no better than I am; this is police brutality-discrimination against female sprites, sexism."

"Phobie, I have no time left to argue with you-put Frond on before I'm forced to come down to reception myself and boot you out the front doors." There was a pause then Phobie slammed her phone down against the front desk and stormed off to find Lili Frond.

"Um, commander-about this darned comet-is it just me or is it actually one of the Icarus' escape pods?"

"You tell me Foaly, you were the one who built the thing," Vinyaya scowled then left the room as her communicator began to buzz again.

"Oval in shape," Foaly whispered to himself as he manipulated the image on his screen "metal in composition-possibly titanium, aerodynamic design, distinctive tail and jet stream." The computer he was working at gave a series of beeps as the image enlarged, sharpened and focused; Foaly gasped ad added one last item to his distinctive features list. "Outspread wing emblem on right side, triple acorns and section eight print in the centre-escape pod, origin The Icarus."

"Was it a problem boss?" Roob entered the room tentatively. He was all too aware how unpredictable the centaur could be.

"What do you think Roob? Would I be close to bashing my head against the desk if it was just a comet?"

"No sir," Roob dug his hands deeper into his pockets and tried to get a look at the monitors over Foaly's shoulder "what did it turn out to be?"

"It's an escape pod from a mission that I launched this morning-The Icarus-"

"You mean that multi-billion dollar space shuttle thing that was going to have its first test flight today?"

"Yes, that one," Foaly turned back to his computers, he didn't want to talk to a lab assistant at that moment in time-he obviously didn't take the hint "you can go now Roob."

"Oh, of course sir," the white coated gnome turned to leave then stopped, his eye caught on one of the monitors that displayed footage from a satellite orbiting over the Atlantic ocean.

"Get out of here before I lose all the self restraint that I have left at the moment and forget that we're not allowed to kill employees."

"I was just going to ask if that was normal sir," Roob pointed a finger at a large metallic object that was filling the screen completely "but I don't think you really care at the moment."

"If what is normal Roob?" Foaly asked sceptically, maybe it was time for him to get a new lab assistant-someone who didn't disobey his every word.

"Wether or not its normal for a hunk of space junk to be passing one of your permanent monitoring satellites?"

"What the hell are you talking about Roob?" Foaly spat as he swivelled in his chair to get a look at the monitor his assistant was standing by.

"I was-"

"That's no hunk of junk you idiot," Foaly gasped as a fin swept past across the screen, its silver logo flashing in the earth's reflection "that's the Icarus!"