CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE

All were seated at the mess hall table with Lucy holding a sleeping Rosie on her slowly disappearing lap.

"Previously, Rufus and I hacked Flynn's tablet and found he had been searching out info on a place called Rohv, of which we've talked about," Jiya stated. "And we've been stumped. But we noticed that we kept coming across the words cold, ice and frozen. When I was a seaman, I remember hearing about a far-off ice planet called Betross. So, I researched it and when I lined up the information in ours and Flynn's research of Rohv, along with the info on Betross, they uncannily matched. Rittenhouse renamed the planet," Jiya informed as she brought up a 3D picture that hovered above the kitchen touch table monitor. Before them was a huge, ominous, greenish gray ball.

"I remember hearing, while I was bartending on Causlow, of a place built on an ice planet to store people," Karl replied.

Noah raised his eyebrows. "Cryogenic?"

Karl nodded. Lucy went pale as everyone else looked drearier.

"Since Federation has closed off a number of quadrants due to high Rittenhouse activity, it now appears that Rittenhouse has been systematically taking colonists out of planet regions and transporting them to Betross...Rohv," Wyatt informed.

"Region X4 had no one in it except Rosie, who had been hidden," Lucy added, "and Flynn's friend Jake had mentioned that there was a rumor of Rittenhouse facilities on Saylon and unresponsive regions."

"Looks like he's storing them up," Rufus muttered.

Jessica shook her head, bewildered, "What is that mad man up to?"

"I hacked the Federation database for any information of Rohv," Bam Bam said, typing on the touch table, "and this is the schematic blueprint I found of structures on the planet."

Lucy gazed at the 3D of the schematic and thought of how Flynn was there and needed her to get him.

Wyatt eyed the schematic, "This all looks underground."

"This is the only structure I could find on the planet and, yes, it's all underground," Bam Bam informed.

"So, it stands to reason that Rittenhouse has thousands of people chambered, specifically on Rohv, so that the climate can keep the vast amount of cryogenic refrigeration machinery cool," Noah surmised.

"Exactly," Rufus replied.

"We only have a small section of the underground system, but we can at least see how some of it looks," Bam Bam pointed. "Here's a place where we can enter."

Jessica looked closer, "Is that an air shaft?"

"Right," Bam Bam nodded, "we need to stop the turbine inside and we'll be able to get in that way."

"How big is the turbine?" Wyatt asked.

"About twenty yards across and the blades are roughly ten feet apart." Bam Bam zoomed in the schematic view of the vent and turbine.

"We'll be able to stop the turbine with a contained electromagnetic pulse device, but the CEP will only last for about five minutes," Jiya informed.

"Okay, but once we get in there, how do we find Flynn?" Karl asked.

"Needle in a haystack," Wyatt mumbled.

"Wait!" Lucy interjected. "All Federation officers have a chip inserted into their necks."

"Wouldn't he have had it removed?" Jessica asked.

Jiya suddenly brightened, "I remember that when we were looking for him on Durran my tracker picked up a G & I fed officer inside the tavern. Later, when I checked the read-out, I realized it was Flynn. He still has it!

"Great! Once inside, you'll be able to find him!" Lucy exclaimed. She looked around at all of them and added, "This is going to be highly dangerous. I meant what I said. If any of you don't want to do this, I understand, and I sincerely mean that."

They all were quiet as they felt the gravity of going into something they may not come back from.

"But, I'm going," Lucy stated firmly.

"No." Noah shook his head.

"No, you're not, Captain," Wyatt vetoed.

"Lucy, you're not going," Rufus stated.

"You're six months," Jessica reminded.

"You can't go, Captain," Bam Bam replied.

"Besides," Karl added, "if Flynn found out we let you go, he'd kill us all." The team nodded in agreement.

"Thank you," Lucy said quietly.

"We'll find him and get him," Jiya placed her hand over Lucy's and squeezed it.

"Alright," Wyatt stood, "let's pop over there and get Flynn."

Rufus flew the Embarcadero as close as he dared to the quadrant's edge and before them, outside the window, was the planet Rohv.

"How long before we're detected?" Karl asked.

"I'm surprised we're not already," Rufus replied.

Okay, let's all gear up," Wyatt ordered as they all got up and quickly made their way down to the gear cabinets to suit up for the extreme weather. All were going except Lucy and Noah.

Lucy entered the transportation room and placed Rosie in a container that she had transformed into a playpen with rolling casters that lock. The landing team filed in and gathered on the transport platform as Noah went and stood next to Lucy at the controls.

Lucy gazed at all the brave crew before her, feeling her heart swell, "All of you, be careful."

They all nodded with Karl saying, "Yes, Captain."

A tear ran down Lucy's face as she engaged the transporter and the team disappeared. Her shoulders suddenly slouch from the weight of everything and Noah placed his hands on them. "They find him, and they'll all come back," Noah reassured.

Lucy prayed.

PLANET ROHV

The team trailed forward on the icy planet, staying close together. Through the swirling, blowing ice, they came upon a large, hexagon-shaped, concrete hole.

"This is the air vent shaft!" they all heard Bam Bam say through their comms connected to the outside of their throats and ear pieces. The opening was about twenty yards across and the shaft extended all the way down to the underground. The sound of the turbine mixed with the howl of the icy winds was deafening.

"Let's go up!" Wyatt yelled.

They all climbed up on the edge of the opening. Once on top, they each placed a suction device on the edge of the concrete structure and turned them on. Then, they promptly secured their lines through it. All stood in a semi-circle, ready to drop their lines down the chasm.

Karl peered down the vent, "I wish Lucy could have just transported us down in there."

"She couldn't because we didn't know the exact location of the vent! If she tried, we could have all ended up in the mountain," Bam Bam explained. Karl swore.

Jiya took out the CEP, "We'll have no more than three minutes with this! Once the turbine shuts off, go go go! Got it?!" Setting the device, she held it out over the vent.

"Let's rock!" Jessica yelled

and Jiya dropped the device.

It fell down the long shaft for about nineteen yards. Right before it got diced up in the turbine blades, the device suddenly shot over and magnetically adhered to the metal vent wall and emitted a bright flash of light. The roar of the whirlwind was cut in half as the blades inside came to a halt.

"Go!" Wyatt shouted.

All of them went over the side, straight down into the vent. They held onto their sliders that were attached to the lines nearly free falling as they hurriedly zipped down to the bottom.

Halfway down, Karl's line snagged, and he was stuck just above the blades. "I'm stuck!" he exclaimed. He struggled as the others hit the floor now deep inside the facility.

"Well, get unstuck!" Rufus yelled.

"Karl, you don't have a lot of time!" Jiya warned.

Wyatt was still above him and stopped next to him. He unfastened his own harness with one hand while still holding onto his own slider with his other. "Attach this around you!" Wyatt yelled and Karl tried to swing over to him.

"Guys, losing time!" Bam Bam shouted.

Wyatt started swinging over to Karl, too.

"Thirty seconds!" Jiya yelled.

Wyatt kicked over, Karl reached out and they barely touched. Both determined to get it this time, they both kicked off and slammed into each other, but Karl held on as Wyatt clipped his harness to Karl's. Once secured, Karl let go and they both dropped through the turbine and down to the floor just as the fan blades started to slowly come back to life...and slowly wind up the line Wyatt and Karl were still on. By the time they realized this, they were already being pulled back up toward the turbine that was steadily gaining momentum.

"Cut the line!" Jessica yelled.

Rufus and Bam Bam ran over, aimed their guns and steadily shot at the line. It snapped, and both men fell hard to the concrete, getting the wind knocked out of them.

"Thank you," they both wheezed as Rufus and Bam Bam helped them to their feet.

"Thanks," Karl nodded to Wyatt.

"No prob. Now which way?" Wyatt said, getting down to business.

"This way," Bam Bam pointed and they all headed east inside the mountain.

The underground facility was basically chiseled out of rock, making it a huge, vast, cold cavern that was lit with dim, greenish lighting. Before them were two, long, four-foot-high platform rises, one on the left and one on the right, and they extended out as far as the team could see. As they began to walk down in between the rises, they saw large sliding doors on top of the platforms at different intervals on each side. They were the kinds of doors that were normally seen on the outside of a spacecraft hangar. Each set had a letter and a series of numbers on them. Jiya held up the locating device for Flynn's tracker.

"I'd thought there would be security here," Bam Bam frowned, looking around for activity.

"Don't let the quiet fool you," Jessica warned, "we need to find him fast."

Jiya adjust her locator device, "Guys, judging by this, Flynn should be somewhere over there." She pointed over in a southern direction. They moved forward and came upon an opening between the platform.

"This way guys!" She made a right and they followed her down the cavern avenue. They arrived at another intersection and saw another long aisle with the platform rises on each side and metal hangar doors.

Bam Bam looked at the schematic on his tablet, "From this, we should be about a hundred feet from him...give or take four hundred feet."

"Really?!" Karl said exasperatedly.

"Guys!" Jiya yelled, "His device has been located...in here." She pointed, and they all peered up at the big metal doors that had F-8001-9000 written in large, white letters. There was a touch monitor affixed to the wall next to the doors. They all climbed up onto the platform. Wyatt, Rufus, Jiya and Jessica moved toward the monitor as Bam Bam and Karl kept a lookout of their surroundings.

"Can you hack it?" Wyatt asked.

"Let's find out," Jiya replied. She touched the screen and the word SEARCH came up. "Oh, okay," Jiya said under her breath. "Let's...try his name."

She swiftly moved her fingers over the pad and typed FLYNN, GARCIA, and entered it. The name stayed there on the screen doing nothing.

"Did you spell it right?" Karl asked.

The monitor suddenly shut off.

"That doesn't look good," Rufus worried as Wyatt swore and raised his gun. Then there was a loud metallic sound as the doors started to slowly slide open. Everyone else pulled out their guns as the doors opened wider. Cautiously, they stepped inside and saw rows and rows of vertical, cylindrical, cryogenic tubes, all individually lit with fluorescent lights. The tubes started to move on some type of conveyor belt and inside them...were people. All ages, all colors, male and female, short and tall. The tubes went by in an eerie parade as the team felt more and more creeped out.

"Oh my-," Jiya gasped.

"What the-?! Rufus exclaimed.

Then they all saw it. Far away, down the line, a single tube was coming their way. It slowly approached and finally stopped in front of them. Inside it was what appeared to be a man, but they couldn't tell who. His eyes were closed with a tube going down his throat and tubes along his torso. He was completely naked and completely hairless.

They stood there, too shocked to move.

Rufus unfroze and stepped closer to the glass tube, "It's him." It was his friend. Suddenly filled with anger, Rufus yelled, "How do we get him out of there?!"

"He has to stay inside. If we try to take him out, he could die," Jessica explained.

Karl says, "Guys? I think we got company."

They heard something as they look around and Wyatt swore. "Drones!"

Black orbs flying in from different direction start asking their identification number's.

A disembodied voice said, "Identify or be killed."

"We gotta hold them off!" Bam Bam yelled, shooting at the drone. He, Karl, Jiya and Rufus started fighting them as Wyatt and Jessica tried to get Flynn down.

Jiya shot a drone and it took three shots to get it down. "They're hard to get!"

Karl took one out with three shots, too, "Use your launchers!"

"What's taking so long? Get it down!" Rufus yelled.

"We can't!" Jessica and Wyatt said simultaneously.

"Shoot it!" Karl shot the cable holding the tube and the magnetic plasma energy pulse bounced back and forth, pinging and hitting different tubes. They all ducked down to keep from getting shot.

"Damn it! It's magnetic in here!" Wyatt yelled.

"Now what?" Karl asked.

"Wait," Wyatt said, holding up his hand, "If we take him out of there, how long do you think he'll have?"

"It's hard to say. Fifteen minutes, tops?" Jessica replied.

"Okay," Wyatt decided, "we need to get him out and then get him back to the air vent. There we can have Lucy transport us back up to the ship since the vent goes directly up to the surface without blockage of the mountain."

"That's far, we can't make that!" Karl exclaimed.

"We have to try!" Bam Bam shouted, "for the captain!"

"We have no other option, get to-," Wyatt's words were cut short as the drones started to fire on them. Bam Bam, Karl, Jiya, held off the drones, using the launchers to take them out two at a time.

Rufus, Jessica and Wyatt worked to get Flynn out of the tube. Frantically they all ran their hands along the edge of it, looking for a release.

Jessica's fingers brushed something, "Guys, I think I got it!" She pressed a button. The top end of Flynn's tube started to lower as they stood back. It went into a horizontal position and the glass cover opened with the whoosh of vapor lock.

"Hurry!" Jiya shouted as she fired her last launcher, hitting two drones, but not before she got struck in the arm by one of their blast. She screamed as she fell backwards.

"Jiya!" Karl yelled.

"Jiya?!" Rufus yelled.

"I'm alright! Hurry up!" she cried, getting back to her feet.

"We gotta hurry!" Wyatt yelled. He and Rufus started pulling the tubes out from Flynn's arms and torso as Jessica pulled the one out from his throat and nose, making him gag, but he remained unconscious. Once they got all the tubes out and off him, Rufus and Wyatt lifted him out.

"Can't hold them much longer!" Bam Bam yelled.

Rufus hurriedly took off his outer jacket, pants and knit cap and all three quickly dressed Flynn in them. Once they were done, Wyatt and Rufus went to pick him up.

"I got him," Bam Bam said, coming over, "just cover us." He lifted Flynn onto his shoulders,

And off they went.

They shot their way back up the cavern avenue and made a left toward the vent. They all fired at the relentless drones, trying to keep them at bay with each step toward the vent feeling like an eternity.

"The shaft's just ahead!" Jessica yelled but, as they neared it, Flynn started convulsing.

"He's having a seizure!" Bam Bam exclaimed, grunting from Flynn's shaking weight but pressing on.

Finally arriving at the vent, Wyatt and Rufus helped get Flynn off Bam Bam. They struggle to hold him as he continued to shake.

Lucy paced back and forth in the transporter room with Noah.

"CAPTAIN!"

Both of them jump at the sound of Jiya's voice coming through the transporter console and rush over.

"Did you find him?!" Lucy asked with her heart pounding in her ears.

"Yes! BUT!" Jiya shouted, "he's convulsing! Transport all of us up as one! Use Flynn's chip as the homing signal! HURRY!"

Lucy was already on it as Noah pushed the gurney over near the transport platform.

Down on the planet, Flynn continued to convulse.

"Everyone! Grab hold of each other! Hand, arm, back, just make sure you're touching!" Jiya yelled.

They all did. Bam Bam and Rufus had Flynn propped up between them, trying to hold his shaking body. Wyatt reached around to hold Flynn up, too, "Stay with us, buddy." All were touching, which completed their connection to be transported as one.

"NOW, CAPTAIN!" Jiya yelled.

Lucy engaged the commands just as more drones flew in to shoot the team but they were all transported back to the Embarcadero.

All of them fell to the floor when they appeared on the transport platform. Noah ran over to Flynn as Wyatt, Bam Bam, Rufus and Karl jumped up and quickly picked Flynn up, who was still convulsing.

"Quick, on the gurney, get him to the infirmary!" Noah yelled. He quickly scanned Flynn's vitals and they went right to Noah's tablet.

And then Flynn went still.

The telltale noise of a flatline emitted from the tablet.

"Nooo!" Lucy screamed as they all made it to the infirmary.

"Jessica, you and Bam stay! Everyone else, out! Lucy, out!" Noah yelled as he grabbed the defibrillator. Wyatt went over to Lucy and gently, yet firmly, moved her out of the infirmary.

"No," she rasped as the door slid shut like a vice on her heart.

She barely got a look at him.

"We need to get out of this quadrant," Wyatt said urgently, "Karl?"

"Right," Karl replied as he touched Lucy's shoulder, then he and Wyatt left.

Lucy slid down onto the waiting room bench, struck deep with the possibility that she could lose Flynn just as they got him back.

Jiya brought in a scared, tearful Rosie, who had woken up because of the commotion. Rufus took her out of Jiya's arms because of her injury.

"Give her to me," Lucy said quietly. Rufus placed Rosie in her arms and the child immediately laid her head on her shoulder, wrapping her little arms around her neck. Lucy held her tight.

Lucy didn't cry a drop.