Chapter Nineteen: Bomb Disposal Blues
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The next day began fairly normally for Tommy. After getting to the base and meeting up with John, they headed over to the headquarter building. As they passed by a few hangars, Tommy stopped.

"John, something's not right."

John gave him a weird look. "What do you mean?"

"I can't put my finger on it…but I'm getting this weird feeling."

John chuckled. "Told you not to have too big of a breakfast."

"Not that! I mean it; I'm getting bad vibes from here."

"You're SERIOUS about this," said John with a sigh. "I don't know what to say, then."

Tommy offered John a small smile. "It's probably nothing, but still…I don't like it."

The two men walked on. Little did they know that, hidden in a dark corner of the very hangar they had stopped by, something very deadly was ticking away…

"The bombs are all set now?"

"Yes, sir. Very shortly, when the base is at its most staffed, they will go off all at once."

"Excellent. Anything else?"

"Um…actually, yes. Sir, two of our operatives had a run-in with a female Zentraedi. Full-sized. She caught them setting their bombs and tried to turn them in, but apparently they ran and she ended up right in front of our forward station. One of the Renegades had to knock her out. They couldn't leave her to wake up and spill about the bombs, so they took her with them."

"A prisoner? Wasn't part of the plan, but I suppose no harm will come of it. Tell them to bring her here."

"At once, sir."

Back on Sweetwater, Tommy and John were eating lunch in the mess hall.

"So, Tommy," began John, "I understand you and that girl have finally hit it off."

Tommy nearly choked on his mouthful of food. "Huh? Well…yeah, in a way…"

"What do you mean by that?"

"I mean…we're more than friends now."

John laughed. "Okay, now the truth." Tommy just glared at him. "…You MEAN it?"

"Yes, I mean it."

John sweatdropped. "Are you nuts?!" he said in a fierce whisper.

"Maybe I am, but the fact remains. I love her."

John sighed. "…I guess it's not my place to question your choice of significant other. But still, this makes Romeo and Juliet look like a pretty darn likely couple. Be careful, Tommy."

"Always. I'm not blind to the fact that the size difference is going to pose problems."

"Good."

"But I also refuse to believe we can't find some way around most of them."

John smiled. "Idealist."

Tommy returned the smile. "Pragmatist." Both of them laughed. "It's going to be very interesting, I'll tell you that…though you could argue it already is."

"You've got a point there. Hey, what's going on?" John was referring to a sudden commotion in the back of the mess room. Both men stood up and walked over to the area. Officers and NCOs alike were milling around, trying to get a look at what was happening.

"What the hell's going on?" asked John.

"Somebody found a weird device in the back. Might be a bomb."

"A bomb?" cried Tommy. "The 'Heads…God, I hate those guys!"

"That must be the attack those prisoners mentioned." said John.

"Yep, it's a bomb!" shouted someone up front. "Somebody call EOD!"

"Right!" replied another officer. Within several minutes, a group of men in bomb disposal gear arrived in the mess hall, and began ushering the regulars away.

"Please get back. We're on it. This is now a restricted area."

John rolled his eyes. "C'mon, let's go. Didn't even get to finish lunch…!"

"Hang on a second, John. Why would there be a bomb in the mess hall. Sure, there's a lot of people that go through there, but there are more vital places. Unless…" They looked at each other.

"…There are more bombs," finished John. "We've gotta get to the Commander!"

In a few minutes, they were in Ironsides' office.

"…I heard about the bomb in the mess. And you're a little late with the 'more bombs' theory; two more have just been found in two separate hangars."

"Sir, with respect, we have to do something," said John. "We can't just sit on our laurels."

"I know that, Lieutenant. If you wish to help, find more bombs!"

"Yes, sir."

They both saluted, and walked out of the office.

"That went better than I thought," said John. "Let's go!"

"Wait. Where would we find them?" said Tommy, with a hint of panic.

"Relax, I took an explosives/demolitions course at the Academy. It was for USING them, but that should still help. We need to look around key structural points. Blowing those up would do the most damage."

"Okay, how do we find those?"

"Just stick with me. I'll show you. But first, we'd better go grab some handheld radios."

After getting their equipment, Tommy and John headed down to the hangars.

"Now, we've got to be very quick about this, Tommy."

"Why?"

John gave him a sly grin. "We don't know how long these things are set for. They could blow up at any time…"

Tommy glared at him. "Thanks. Thanks for building my confidence!" John just laughed as they entered a hangar. Inside was a VF-5000 Star Mirage, in Crow Squadron colors.

"Okay, we're here. We'll check in the corners, by the door, and…hmm…could you take a peek under that plane?"

Tommy went over to the Star Mirage. It was a fine variable fighter, but it was heavily optimized for atmospheric combat. The thing was terrible in space battles. Tommy never did like specialization. He got on his knees and looked under the fighter.

"Nothing here-holy…!" Just behind a wheel, there was a black box-like object that was DEFINITELY not supposed to be there. "I think I found the bomb, John…"

"Great!" He turned on his radio. "This is Lieutenant J.G. Peterson. Send EOD teams to Hangar…D-7 on the double. There's a bomb under a Crow Star Mirage in here."

"…Roger. Teams are on the way."

John sighed. "That's three found out of God knows how many. Let's hurry."

They headed over to the next hangar. On an impulse, Tommy looked towards the loading area.

"Hey, John!"

"Yeah?"

"I just thought of something! What about the loading area? There are all kinds of important goods in there that the 'Heads would want to blow into next week!"

"Point taken. But we need our jets even more! Let's clear out our hangars first!"

They headed into the E block hangars, where the Cavalier Thunderbolts were chocked and stationed. Since the E blocks were designed to hold two aircraft at a time, it took them longer to find the bombs. At one point, they had scoured all over the hangar they were in and had pretty much decided it was clear of any bombs. However, when they went to leave, Tommy tripped over a wire strung across the floor…and found the bomb under a small panel in the floor that hadn't been shut all the way.

"Nice job, Tommy!" said John as he turned on his radio. "One more, in E-5. Are you okay, Tommy?"

"Yeah. The nice, rock-hard floor broke my fall."

After they got finished in the hangar section, they traveled over to the loading area. Most of the regular workers in there, including the Zentraedi, were outside. The rest were helping in the bomb search. John and Tommy even had to present I.D. passes to a pair of MPs stationed at the entrance. Before he went in, Tommy noticed something odd right away.

"That's funny, I don't see Kina anywhere…she must be in with the workers helping with finding the bombs."

They went in. All over the place, men in ED suits and regulars were looking all over the place trying to find bombs. They went up to one of the officers directing the searches.

"Excuse me," said John, "but how many bombs have you guys found in here, if any?"

"One. We've got a feeling there's a second, but we're not sure where. You're welcome to help out."

"Thanks."

They searched for about an hour. They simply couldn't find it. Tommy's mind flipped between the fact that there didn't seem to be another bomb in the building and another oddity.

"She's not here…and she never mentioned anything about being off today. This is getting very weird…!"

They continued searching for the bomb. Tommy took a look around a large girder in the middle of the area. It was one of several, so nobody had gotten to it yet. He kneeled down and looked at the point where the girder met the floor. It was an I-beam girder, so it had a recess along its entire length. Tommy looked around it…and found the bomb.

"John! Got it!!"

"Hang on!" John rushed over to join his friend. "Where?"

"Right in this little corner of the I-beam."

John smiled. "Good work, man. Let's see…oh, crap…!" John stared, wide-eyed.

"What's wrong?"

"This…this thing's timer says fifty seconds!"

"Oh, fifty seconds. FIFTY SECONDS!!?"

"Forty-seven!"

"Oh, boy…!" Tommy looked around, and then grabbed the bomb. Luckily, it wasn't anchored down. He took off running with it.

"Tommy, have you lost it?!"

"I've gotta get this thing clear!!" He sprinted for the rear exit. He hadn't seen anybody behind the building, so he hoped that it was safe. Being more thankful now for his workouts than he had ever been, he rushed for the exit as fast as he could. As he got out, he kept going, trying to put as much distance between the bomb and the building as possible. His guess had been right; there was nobody in back of the building. He hoped that the charge was merely for cutting through the girder and not for a wide-area blast. As the timer neared twenty seconds, he stopped.

"I'll get those Hammerheads for making me crazy enough to do this!" He hurled the bomb as far away as he could, then did a 180-degree spin and ran back towards the building.

John looked in the direction Tommy had taken off in with sweat beading up on his forehead.

"Tommy!?"

Suddenly, Tommy reappeared in the rear doorway.

"FIRE IN THE HOLE!!!!!!!!!! FIRE IN THE HOLE!!!!!!!!!!!!" He ran several yards in, then jumped to the side of the door and ducked. The bomb went off as soon as he hit the floor. Luckily, Tommy had also guessed right about the bomb's yield; it had only been a weak charge intended to cut through the girder, and the blast radius was very modest. No shrapnel was released by the explosion, except for that of the bomb's casing.

Tommy slowly got up. "…Whoa…I think I need a REAL vacation from this…!"

"Are you okay?" came a voice from somewhere above him. Tommy looked up. It was a Zentraedi woman, but not Kina. He sighed.

"I'll live. Thanks for the concern, though." He managed a smile.

"No problem. Hey, wait a second…you look like…you wouldn't happen to know Kina Revdirgea, would you?"

"Yes, that's right," said Tommy as he brushed himself off.

"I'm Aivea Aiena, a friend of hers. You must be Tommy Rickenbacker."

Tommy smiled. "Yep. You wouldn't know where she is, would you?"

Aivea sweatdropped. "Actually, I was hoping you knew…!"

Tommy turned pale. "What…?"