Chapter 9 - A Turn For the Worst
The four of them sat in shock. The massive creature looked bigger than the planet they were orbiting. It had many, many, tentacles, three of which, reached out for the ship.
"MILBO, GET US OUT OF HERE!" Ozbon yelled, so loudly that it almost deafened out the warning sounds. "Fletcher, Sonrey, you two, get into the engine room, give milbo as much power as he needs." Sonrey nodded as they floated back.
"We're at full power Ozbon!" Fletcher yelled.
As the cabin became a noise whirlwind, filled with beeps, alarms, and the three of them yelling, it was apparent that Ozbon was really a very capable person. The situation would have made a crying baby of anyone else. But not him. The ship was now facing the planet, as Milbo fired the engines to get back into the atmosphere.
"It's useless!" Milbo screamed, "The Kraken is pulling us into its grasp!"
"HOW?" Ozbon said frantically looking for a switch. Sonrey looked over at his panel of science, and he yelled back,
"The Kraken is generating a magnetic field! It's pulling the ship into its grasp!" The Panel bleeped it's last bleep, and then the screen died. Along with the lights in the ship, but were soon taken over by the emergency lights, that glowed a dark red. With a sudden and very loud crash, one side of the ship partially caved in. White fumes sprayed everywhere, the air became hard to breathe.
"Everyone get your helmets on!" Ozbon commanded, and nobody argued. Everyone floated over to retrieve their helmets. Sonrey put his on, to be relieved as air filled his lung. Fletcher was already hard at work trying to pop the hull back into place. He was using a carjack of some variety to push the hull back outwards. Ozbon floated over to help him. Sonrey had no use now that his station was dead. So he got to work patching a Bust tube that was spraying into the cockpit.
Looking over at Milbo, he said,
"I guess you were right. We aren't going to live forever." He chuckled nervously as Milbo cracked a smile at him. His face turned serious.
"I am right." he said. "But today, I'm not allowing us to die to this big ugly space slug."
Sonrey noticed a particularly loud console to the left of him. It read:
Second rocket launch detected. Stay clear of designated path.
"Ozbon! They're sending Help!" He yelled in glee.
"What"s the vessel's codename?" Fletcher asked. Sonrey looked through the mass amounts of data, and found it.
"Sprout 1!" He replied. Fletcher floated over as the ship began to buckle and churn.
"That's no ship. That's a missile."
"Why do they have a missile!?" Sonrey's voice cracked as he yelled.
"They told us that it was needed in case that an asteroid was going to impact kerbin. We built fourteen right before we finished this ship." They were interrupted by Ozbon yelling for help.
They floated to the backroom, where Ozbon had his leg stuck in the carjack, and a fire had started. Sonrey got the extinguisher, and began spraying, but the fire was growing rapidly. Ozbon got out with the help of fletcher, but the fire crept up, and it was clear that they needed something stronger than a fire extinguisher. Sonrey flew over to the airlock.
"EVERYONE GRAB SOMETHING" he yelled, and opened the airlock.
The air rushed out of the ship, nearly taking him with it, and everyone held on for dear life. He looked for a split second at what was happening to the ship. Three massive tentacles were gripping the ship, they appeared to be trying to work the ship into smaller pieces. Looking the other way, he saw the mythical creature's mouth, It was a blacker than the night sky with no stars. He looked back into the ship, as The fire extinguished itself and he closed the door. Everyone stopped to get their bearings.
"I don't mean to sound pessimistic but…" Sonrey paused. "We aren't going to make this." Fletcher turned to ozbon, who was to the left of him.
"Well Ozbon? What do we do?" The missile was one minute from hitting them.
Ozbon looked grimly at the series of events that had just occurred, and muttered, "What can we do?" He looked out the porthole, at the stars outside, and softly said, "We're doomed." In an instant as he said this, A tentacle lashed through the viewport, grabbing Ozbon by the neck.
"GET IT OFF HIM!" Milbo yelled, as he frantically tried to compensate for the damage to the ship's engines. Fletcher Grabbed the tentacle, But to no use, It wouldn't move. Ozbon was being choked, now things just got serious.
Sonrey knew something had to be done. As the missile got closer, he made a split-second decision, and the only thing that had a chance of saving them. Turning the ship back around, while facing the jaws of the monster, He Turned on what was last of the fuel, and the ship slowly pushed through to the black void.
The ship flew into the mouth, mere seconds before the missile impacted the kraken, in a burst of color and flame. Inside, The four of them were in chaos. Systems were crushed, The Computers melted, and the windows cracked. The tentacle let go as it must have been like choking on a finger. Getting up, Sonrey tried to fix a leak of gasoline, but the parts were spread around the ship like snow in a snowglobe. The ship was rocking furiously, and a ball peen hammer ricocheted off of Sonrey's helmet, Putting a crack in it. The radio in his helmet was disabled. All he heard was the emptiness of space, and the sound of his own breathing. The engines were beyond repair, and that was coupled with no oxygen or control of the ship, they were dead in the water. Milbo yelled something at sonrey, and pointed, but he couldn't hear. He turned around, and what was left of the oxygen tank exploded, filling the ship full of pressure and pushing Sonrey into the ceiling support. He was coshed hard over the head and the last thing he saw before he slipped out of consciousness was his three friends closing the broken window's hatch.
Intermission - A Secret meeting.
"How could you?" Jaxson gripped his papers in in anger. " You told me unmanned." He rolled up his crumpled paper into a tube and continued, "and not only that, but you sent the kid I Almost considered my son!" There before him was three shadows.
"SILENCE!" The right shadow bellowed.
"At the moment, I don't believe you are in the position to make any demands, Jaxson." The left one snarled. "Not only that, but your calculations were..." he paused. "Less than accurate."
"You told us fourteen!" The middle one growled. "Why then did we only get ONE?!"
"I'm not working for the likes of you." Jaxson sneered. "I won't tell you squat, and you three can't possibly torture it out of me." The three shadows sat silent. "Admit it. You've got no hope." He began to walk away when he was interrupted.
"You might not want to work for us anymore." The middle one admitted. "But… You forget our little secret."
"You wouldn't dare." Jaxson muttered, looking over his shoulder.
"Oh but we would. The world hasn't forgotten about our little 'Contender' accident you were responsible for." The left one said. "In fact. I do believe we were the ones who lied through our teeth for you. So you could keep your job. In return all you had to do was help us attract a few kracken.
"The 'Contender' was an accident. You know that." Jaxson replied.
"Perhaps so, but who will the press believe? Us three? Or one lowly, inexperienced, rocket scientist?" Jaxson gritted his teeth.
"You expect that to make a difference? Compared to your Murder?" A bead of sweat dripped down his face.
"Oh it was a necessary sacrifice." The right one said, full of certainty, "And as far as the press knows, it was a freak accident… Yes, a freak accident, caused by a misguided Professor." He chuckled a bit, as he watched Jackson's fury grow. "Yes, in fact I do believe that's what the papers will say. 'PROFESSOR FOUND GUILTY OF QUADRUPLE HOMICIDE' Has a nice ring to it, doesn't it?"
"I… I'll..." Jaxson was filled with pure hate. "I'll work for you." The middle one stirred in his seat.
"I'm glad we could come to an agreement, let's hope we don't come to regret it." He turned to the other two shadows and the all nodded to each other."Bill, Bob, and Jebediah go up in two months."
"WHAT!?" Jaxson yelled.
"DISMISSED!" The right one bellowed.
Jaxson left the room. And the three shadows stood still.
