This is it! The second to last chapter! Things are really gonna heat up for
Ed and the bebop. It took me awhile since I had to learn how hydrogen was
made first. Some of it may be a bit off, but it should be accurate. R&r
please. -Randall Flagg2
Ed worked silently in the mines with the other people, not bothering to look up from what she was doing. She had never felt so miserable in her whole life. Soon they would reach the center of Calisto where all the water was stored. Once that happened, Mathers and his his men would harvest the water for their own needs. But what would they do with the water anyway? For some reason she didn't want to know. She knew that water could be put to other purposes besides for nourishment and for baths and showers, and not all of them were good ones. "Edward had a bad feeling about this." she thought to herself. She wished so much for some companionship. Ever since they killed Ray, she had felt drained of her usual cheer and boundless energy. Now she just felt like an empty shell that had nothing left inside of it. "Oh Ray Ray, Edward misses you." she whispered. She began to weep for her friend. She cried with her head down, feeling the hot tears ooze out of her eyes. She tried to keep the sobs coming out of her mouth as quiet as possible, knowing that Straker and the other guards didn't tolerate slacking off. But she missed her friend almost as much as she missed the bebop. One might not call him a friend, they had been together for such a short while, but things can happen as quickly as they can take time. Ed returned to her digging, still crying as quietly as she could. Just as she began to dig again, Mark Calhoun's voice called from further down.
"We're in! We're in! We've found the source!" Ed put down her pickaxe and went to where everybody else was going. When they arrived at their destination, Ed saw what Calhoun had been talking about. In one of the walls was a hole the size of a cave entrance. Inside of it was a gigantic pool of water which Ed guessed was at least ninety feet deep. The perimeter of the inside was about the perimeter of a large hotel. She probably wasn't supposed to speak, but Ed asked a question anyway.
"Now what happens?" she asked.
Instead of striking her, Mark replied "That you will find out tomorrow." John Mathers turned to address the people.
"We have gotten what we desired, so you may all take the day off." he said. Everybody deposited their work tools and was led back to their dormitories. On the way back, Ed noticed that the cross her friend had been mounted on had been removed. The blood on the ground had dried to a dull brown stain. "Ed will miss you." she thought. When she arrived back in her room with the other people who occupied it, she laid back and fell asleep.
During the night, John Mathers walked towards a large metal door at the northern end of the nature room. He took a small key from his pocket and unlocked the door. It opened to reveal a large hallway that led to another door at the end. Mathers stepped inside the door and into a large laboratory. Machines churned all around him. He grinned in the dim light. "In a few months, I will have enough hydrogen to bring the day of judgement to the universe." he thought. It had taken him three years to construct the machines around him from the equipment he had stolen over the years. He knew stealing was a sin, but when it was done for God and all his teachings it was anything but. After three long years, he had constructed all this, and tomorrow the crescendo to his plan would begin. He had already constructed enough holy crosses to deliver to the churches around the universe on the different planets. All he had to do was harvest the hydrogen from the water and then get it into the cross's system. Then he would take on a fake identity and sell the bombs to the churches. Once all of them had gotten one, he would detonate them and then the universe would be reborn under him and his men. They would construct a new universe, one where evil was non-existent and where God was all that would matter. Anybody who had managed to survive the explosions would be executed on sight. He was well pleased with all this. Still, one thing concerned him. That girl Ed, she had yet to be fully broken. The death of her friend had taken a lot out of her, but still she was not as easily controlled as he had wanted her to be. That was not a good sign. That girl was as wild as a coyote, and unless she could be fully controlled, she was apt to try and escape or try something else. And if she got in the way of his plans, it could mean trouble for him. That was why he had to make sure that she was completely under control. "I can't take any chances. Not this late in the game." he thought to himself. "I have to make sure that girl is broken in before the hydrogen bombs are constructed." He walked further off into the lab, hoping it would ease his mind a bit.
As John Mathers walked through his laboratory, Ed was rummaging around in his office. She had snuck out of bed after a period of time and had mustered up the courage to try to find a way to escape. She was busily digging in John's desk, hoping to find something that show her a way to get out of this place and into a place that Mathers and his men hadn't found yet, if there was such a thing here. There had to be though. There just had to be. Surely the mines held some sort of unexplored area that she could hide in for awhile. It didn't matter. She would give anything for a place to hide right now. Finally, she found a map of the entire lair. According to the information, the place was just under Calisto's surface. The mines were further underneath. But how had the bebop missed her? Surely they had scanned the planet to try and find her. And if they had, surely their computers would be able to detect something that was so close to the surface. Digging around a bit more, she found a stack of papers which contained computer codes. Ed grinned. If they had a computer here, maybe she could contact the bebop and get them to come here! Ed looked at some of the other papers. These ones revealed why the bebop hadn't found her by now. According to the paper, Mathers had constructed a machine in the rock walls that created an electrical pulse that generated a hologram of solid rock beneath the surface to hide the tunnels that led to where she was at. Normally, computers could see through holograms easily, but the magnetic pulse generated by the machine somehow extended the holograms power enough to prevent computers from seeing through it. Ed looked at the map again. The map said that the only computer in the entire underground complex was in a laboratory in the northern area. Deciding the time to escape had come at last, Ed looked at the papers which contained the codes one last time and tiptoed out.
Ed had been lucky. When Mathers had gone into his laboratory earlier, he had forgotten to lock the doors to it. Ed snuck inside as quietly as she could. What she stumbled upon amazed her. Machines of all sorts pervaded the room. Ed's interest quickly turned to dismay when she realized what they were meant for. These were the machines used to spit water atoms into hydrogen. And then she knew what Mathers had wanted the water for the whole time. He wanted it to produce hydrogen! Ed knew what that stuff was used for. She had to hurry. If he managed to create the hydrogen, who knows what purpose he would use it for? Nothing good, that was for sure. Looking around, she found a computer in the corner of the room. She sat down at it and began to hack the systems with the codes she had found in John's office. It was a bit different for her doing it with her eyes, since she had always used her goggles for hacking, but she managed. After what seemed like hours, she managed to locate the bebop and hack the systems. She hoped that they had left her computer on. "Please, let them answer Ed." she thought to herself as she waited for a reply.
On board the bebop, Ein was just about to lay down and take a nap when he heard a sound like TV static coming from Ed's computer. The welsh corgi trotted over and looked at the screen, waiting to see if something would happen. A moment later, a screen popped up and Ed appeared on it. Ein barked happily at the sight of Ed's face. "Ein! Is that you?" Ed asked on- screen from the lab on Calisto. "Edward is happy to see Ein. Ein go get Spike person and others! Ed needs to talk to them!" Ein rushed off to get Spike, Jet, and Faye.
Spike was snoring on the bed in his room. Ein jumped up on the nearby table and gently nipped the bounty hunter to wake him up. Spike slowly sat up and let his vision adjust to the darkness of the room. Then he noticed a certain data dog sitting on his table. This never ceased to annoy him. "Get off the table mutt!" Spike snarled, pegging one of his shoes at him. Instead of yelping or running away as he normally did when Spike did this, Ein just sat there and let the shoe hit him in the chest. He barked and walked to the doorway. Realizing the dog wanted him to follow him, Spike groggily got out of bed and walked into the hallway. "What do you want mutt?" he asked. Ein walked to the kitchen and came back with a tomato in his mouth. "What's that supposed to mean?" Spike asked.
"Woof!" Ein barked. He walked down the hallway again and came back with a photograph of Ed. Spike finally got the message the dog was trying to tell him. "Is it something about Ed's computer?" Spike asked. Ein barked again and went to alert everyone else. Jet and Faye soon showed up and went down the hallway with Spike and Ein. Despite the fact he was tired, Spike couldn't help but make a snide remark about Faye.
"What's with the attire? Did you decide to work in an alley or something?" Once again, Faye booted Spike with her foot. She was dressed in nothing but a skimpy thong and a cheap blouse which she had won off of somebody in a bet.
"Just shup up." she muttered, still half asleep. They gathered in front of Ed's tomato and looked at the picture on the screen.
"Hi Spike person!" Ed said from the lab.
"Ed! Where are you? Are you alright?" Jet asked.
"Edward is far from fine. Ed doesn't want to go into where she is, but she has coordinates of place for bebop!" she exclaimed.
"Where are you?"
"Edward is on Calisto. The compound she is in is underground. Bebop missed it because of special machine Mathers constructed underground."
"John Mathers is in their?!" Faye gasped. "He hasn't hurt you has he?!" Ed turned around and lifted up the back of her tank top to reveal the marks the whip had left on her back. Everyone cringed.
"Edward got this for misbehaving." she said sadly.
"Tell us where you are Ed. If you have information on your location inside the planet, tell it to us right now." Spike half growled.
"Edward is located on the eastern side of Calisto. You couldn't see the doorway because Mathers created a machine that makes a special hologram that computers can't get through. There is actually a doorway under a boulder near the middle of the eastern side of Calisto. It leads to where Ed is. Others are here too. Please hurry and help Ed!" she said.
"Alright, we'll come. We'll be there soon Ed! Don't worry!" Jet exclaimed, going off to his room to get dressed. The others followed him to get their weapons.
"Thankies bebop!" Ed giggled, and logged off.
Ed was ecstatic. Finally, she could get out of this hell hole. "Edward is happy! Edward can finally get awa-"
"So you managed to contact them you bitch." came a voice from behind her. Ed froze and turned around slowly to see John Mathers and Matthew Straker standing behind her. Ed had never seen such rage on a human face before. Mathers' eyes were showing the whites, like an animal about to fight and his nostrils were flaring. "I had a feeling that you might try something like this." Mathers snarled. "You have contacted those outlanders and given them the coordinates of my base. Well if you're going to step out of line, I'll have to beat some sense into you. Matthew, you may take care of her." Matthew Straker started forward and threw a jab at Ed. Ed dodged to one side and then ducked as a kick sailed her way. She threw a punch of her own at is stomach, but it felt as though she had punched a brick wall. Ed ducked to one side as another punch came at her.
The two of them sparred for five minutes, neither of them landing a single blow. Then Ed finally managed to get Straker across the nose with her foot, hard enough to make it bleed. But that was her biggest mistake. While fighting Straker, she had forgotten about John. Before she even knew what was happening, something very hard crashed into the back of her head. Ed tumbled to the ground and her stomach land on somebody's foot. She gagged and lay on the ground, gasping for air. Mathers grabbed her by her neck and brought her close enough to see his eyes.
"You attacked one of your elders." he said, ignoring Ed's struggles to get free. "Do you know what the bible says about rebels?" he asked. Ed only screamed and snapped at him with her teeth. John slammed her against the wall. "I have always considered myself a parent to you Ed. Not the type of parent your thinking of. I mean the type of parent that educates their children in the ways of God. Of course, the child belongs to the parent and it says in the proverbs "He who attacks his father of mother must be put to death.", so I think you know what must be done. Straker, take her to the back room of the lab." John ordered. Straker grabbed Ed's arm and dragged her towards a door in the west area of the laboratory. Ed began to scream.
What happens next? I'm not gonna tell you. You'll have to wait for the update. Sayonara! -Randall Flagg2
Ed worked silently in the mines with the other people, not bothering to look up from what she was doing. She had never felt so miserable in her whole life. Soon they would reach the center of Calisto where all the water was stored. Once that happened, Mathers and his his men would harvest the water for their own needs. But what would they do with the water anyway? For some reason she didn't want to know. She knew that water could be put to other purposes besides for nourishment and for baths and showers, and not all of them were good ones. "Edward had a bad feeling about this." she thought to herself. She wished so much for some companionship. Ever since they killed Ray, she had felt drained of her usual cheer and boundless energy. Now she just felt like an empty shell that had nothing left inside of it. "Oh Ray Ray, Edward misses you." she whispered. She began to weep for her friend. She cried with her head down, feeling the hot tears ooze out of her eyes. She tried to keep the sobs coming out of her mouth as quiet as possible, knowing that Straker and the other guards didn't tolerate slacking off. But she missed her friend almost as much as she missed the bebop. One might not call him a friend, they had been together for such a short while, but things can happen as quickly as they can take time. Ed returned to her digging, still crying as quietly as she could. Just as she began to dig again, Mark Calhoun's voice called from further down.
"We're in! We're in! We've found the source!" Ed put down her pickaxe and went to where everybody else was going. When they arrived at their destination, Ed saw what Calhoun had been talking about. In one of the walls was a hole the size of a cave entrance. Inside of it was a gigantic pool of water which Ed guessed was at least ninety feet deep. The perimeter of the inside was about the perimeter of a large hotel. She probably wasn't supposed to speak, but Ed asked a question anyway.
"Now what happens?" she asked.
Instead of striking her, Mark replied "That you will find out tomorrow." John Mathers turned to address the people.
"We have gotten what we desired, so you may all take the day off." he said. Everybody deposited their work tools and was led back to their dormitories. On the way back, Ed noticed that the cross her friend had been mounted on had been removed. The blood on the ground had dried to a dull brown stain. "Ed will miss you." she thought. When she arrived back in her room with the other people who occupied it, she laid back and fell asleep.
During the night, John Mathers walked towards a large metal door at the northern end of the nature room. He took a small key from his pocket and unlocked the door. It opened to reveal a large hallway that led to another door at the end. Mathers stepped inside the door and into a large laboratory. Machines churned all around him. He grinned in the dim light. "In a few months, I will have enough hydrogen to bring the day of judgement to the universe." he thought. It had taken him three years to construct the machines around him from the equipment he had stolen over the years. He knew stealing was a sin, but when it was done for God and all his teachings it was anything but. After three long years, he had constructed all this, and tomorrow the crescendo to his plan would begin. He had already constructed enough holy crosses to deliver to the churches around the universe on the different planets. All he had to do was harvest the hydrogen from the water and then get it into the cross's system. Then he would take on a fake identity and sell the bombs to the churches. Once all of them had gotten one, he would detonate them and then the universe would be reborn under him and his men. They would construct a new universe, one where evil was non-existent and where God was all that would matter. Anybody who had managed to survive the explosions would be executed on sight. He was well pleased with all this. Still, one thing concerned him. That girl Ed, she had yet to be fully broken. The death of her friend had taken a lot out of her, but still she was not as easily controlled as he had wanted her to be. That was not a good sign. That girl was as wild as a coyote, and unless she could be fully controlled, she was apt to try and escape or try something else. And if she got in the way of his plans, it could mean trouble for him. That was why he had to make sure that she was completely under control. "I can't take any chances. Not this late in the game." he thought to himself. "I have to make sure that girl is broken in before the hydrogen bombs are constructed." He walked further off into the lab, hoping it would ease his mind a bit.
As John Mathers walked through his laboratory, Ed was rummaging around in his office. She had snuck out of bed after a period of time and had mustered up the courage to try to find a way to escape. She was busily digging in John's desk, hoping to find something that show her a way to get out of this place and into a place that Mathers and his men hadn't found yet, if there was such a thing here. There had to be though. There just had to be. Surely the mines held some sort of unexplored area that she could hide in for awhile. It didn't matter. She would give anything for a place to hide right now. Finally, she found a map of the entire lair. According to the information, the place was just under Calisto's surface. The mines were further underneath. But how had the bebop missed her? Surely they had scanned the planet to try and find her. And if they had, surely their computers would be able to detect something that was so close to the surface. Digging around a bit more, she found a stack of papers which contained computer codes. Ed grinned. If they had a computer here, maybe she could contact the bebop and get them to come here! Ed looked at some of the other papers. These ones revealed why the bebop hadn't found her by now. According to the paper, Mathers had constructed a machine in the rock walls that created an electrical pulse that generated a hologram of solid rock beneath the surface to hide the tunnels that led to where she was at. Normally, computers could see through holograms easily, but the magnetic pulse generated by the machine somehow extended the holograms power enough to prevent computers from seeing through it. Ed looked at the map again. The map said that the only computer in the entire underground complex was in a laboratory in the northern area. Deciding the time to escape had come at last, Ed looked at the papers which contained the codes one last time and tiptoed out.
Ed had been lucky. When Mathers had gone into his laboratory earlier, he had forgotten to lock the doors to it. Ed snuck inside as quietly as she could. What she stumbled upon amazed her. Machines of all sorts pervaded the room. Ed's interest quickly turned to dismay when she realized what they were meant for. These were the machines used to spit water atoms into hydrogen. And then she knew what Mathers had wanted the water for the whole time. He wanted it to produce hydrogen! Ed knew what that stuff was used for. She had to hurry. If he managed to create the hydrogen, who knows what purpose he would use it for? Nothing good, that was for sure. Looking around, she found a computer in the corner of the room. She sat down at it and began to hack the systems with the codes she had found in John's office. It was a bit different for her doing it with her eyes, since she had always used her goggles for hacking, but she managed. After what seemed like hours, she managed to locate the bebop and hack the systems. She hoped that they had left her computer on. "Please, let them answer Ed." she thought to herself as she waited for a reply.
On board the bebop, Ein was just about to lay down and take a nap when he heard a sound like TV static coming from Ed's computer. The welsh corgi trotted over and looked at the screen, waiting to see if something would happen. A moment later, a screen popped up and Ed appeared on it. Ein barked happily at the sight of Ed's face. "Ein! Is that you?" Ed asked on- screen from the lab on Calisto. "Edward is happy to see Ein. Ein go get Spike person and others! Ed needs to talk to them!" Ein rushed off to get Spike, Jet, and Faye.
Spike was snoring on the bed in his room. Ein jumped up on the nearby table and gently nipped the bounty hunter to wake him up. Spike slowly sat up and let his vision adjust to the darkness of the room. Then he noticed a certain data dog sitting on his table. This never ceased to annoy him. "Get off the table mutt!" Spike snarled, pegging one of his shoes at him. Instead of yelping or running away as he normally did when Spike did this, Ein just sat there and let the shoe hit him in the chest. He barked and walked to the doorway. Realizing the dog wanted him to follow him, Spike groggily got out of bed and walked into the hallway. "What do you want mutt?" he asked. Ein walked to the kitchen and came back with a tomato in his mouth. "What's that supposed to mean?" Spike asked.
"Woof!" Ein barked. He walked down the hallway again and came back with a photograph of Ed. Spike finally got the message the dog was trying to tell him. "Is it something about Ed's computer?" Spike asked. Ein barked again and went to alert everyone else. Jet and Faye soon showed up and went down the hallway with Spike and Ein. Despite the fact he was tired, Spike couldn't help but make a snide remark about Faye.
"What's with the attire? Did you decide to work in an alley or something?" Once again, Faye booted Spike with her foot. She was dressed in nothing but a skimpy thong and a cheap blouse which she had won off of somebody in a bet.
"Just shup up." she muttered, still half asleep. They gathered in front of Ed's tomato and looked at the picture on the screen.
"Hi Spike person!" Ed said from the lab.
"Ed! Where are you? Are you alright?" Jet asked.
"Edward is far from fine. Ed doesn't want to go into where she is, but she has coordinates of place for bebop!" she exclaimed.
"Where are you?"
"Edward is on Calisto. The compound she is in is underground. Bebop missed it because of special machine Mathers constructed underground."
"John Mathers is in their?!" Faye gasped. "He hasn't hurt you has he?!" Ed turned around and lifted up the back of her tank top to reveal the marks the whip had left on her back. Everyone cringed.
"Edward got this for misbehaving." she said sadly.
"Tell us where you are Ed. If you have information on your location inside the planet, tell it to us right now." Spike half growled.
"Edward is located on the eastern side of Calisto. You couldn't see the doorway because Mathers created a machine that makes a special hologram that computers can't get through. There is actually a doorway under a boulder near the middle of the eastern side of Calisto. It leads to where Ed is. Others are here too. Please hurry and help Ed!" she said.
"Alright, we'll come. We'll be there soon Ed! Don't worry!" Jet exclaimed, going off to his room to get dressed. The others followed him to get their weapons.
"Thankies bebop!" Ed giggled, and logged off.
Ed was ecstatic. Finally, she could get out of this hell hole. "Edward is happy! Edward can finally get awa-"
"So you managed to contact them you bitch." came a voice from behind her. Ed froze and turned around slowly to see John Mathers and Matthew Straker standing behind her. Ed had never seen such rage on a human face before. Mathers' eyes were showing the whites, like an animal about to fight and his nostrils were flaring. "I had a feeling that you might try something like this." Mathers snarled. "You have contacted those outlanders and given them the coordinates of my base. Well if you're going to step out of line, I'll have to beat some sense into you. Matthew, you may take care of her." Matthew Straker started forward and threw a jab at Ed. Ed dodged to one side and then ducked as a kick sailed her way. She threw a punch of her own at is stomach, but it felt as though she had punched a brick wall. Ed ducked to one side as another punch came at her.
The two of them sparred for five minutes, neither of them landing a single blow. Then Ed finally managed to get Straker across the nose with her foot, hard enough to make it bleed. But that was her biggest mistake. While fighting Straker, she had forgotten about John. Before she even knew what was happening, something very hard crashed into the back of her head. Ed tumbled to the ground and her stomach land on somebody's foot. She gagged and lay on the ground, gasping for air. Mathers grabbed her by her neck and brought her close enough to see his eyes.
"You attacked one of your elders." he said, ignoring Ed's struggles to get free. "Do you know what the bible says about rebels?" he asked. Ed only screamed and snapped at him with her teeth. John slammed her against the wall. "I have always considered myself a parent to you Ed. Not the type of parent your thinking of. I mean the type of parent that educates their children in the ways of God. Of course, the child belongs to the parent and it says in the proverbs "He who attacks his father of mother must be put to death.", so I think you know what must be done. Straker, take her to the back room of the lab." John ordered. Straker grabbed Ed's arm and dragged her towards a door in the west area of the laboratory. Ed began to scream.
What happens next? I'm not gonna tell you. You'll have to wait for the update. Sayonara! -Randall Flagg2