Author's Note: Sorry about the delay. A bout of depression caused me to stop writing for a small period of time. Feeling better now, at least well enough to write something up. I also have six chapters for the sequel written, it anyone cares to know. ^_^
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Chapter Seventeen
Stones in the Pond
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Project Destiny Base--Alaska
"Magnetic shielding systems are up."
"Power level's eighty five percent. Increase power to reactor ten."
"All personnel should be clear." James warned through his com system. This was it. The moment of truth.
~
Deep Earth Control
Rat was still searching through the internet for some sign or shred of hope. He'd found nothing on Destiny and his time was running out.
Access denied.
He tried another.
Access denied.
Another still.
Access denied.
One more.
Access denied.
Frustrated beyond belief, Rat slammed his fists into the keyboard. He wanted to give up, but he couldn't afford it. Too much was riding on him doing this.
~
Virgil
"No WAIT!" Josh yelled at Zimsky as they worked to release the bombs from their holding compartments. Serge watched in trepidation as one slipped, by fault of Zimsky, and fell to the ground. Braz near swallowed his tongue in the scare. Iverson just sighed and rolled his eyes.
"Oh, God!" Zimsky breathed, resting his head against a beam in the compartment. "Oh, I'm sorry."
Josh sighed and leaned against the wall. He was already exhausted, but there was still work to be done. They'd been at this for over an hour. They were running out of time.
"Jesus." Serge cursed, inspecting the bomb to see if it was damaged. "We got lucky this time." he informed them, wiping his brow with a handkerchief.
"Yeah..." Josh nodded and sighed. This wasn't going well.
~
"Okay, she's down." Braz stated, gently cradling the bomb as Zimsky and Iverson let her down gently into position.
"Approaching the first drop off point." Beck came in through the com.
~
"We got to be accurate to the second here, boys."
~
"Ready." Josh looked to Serge who had set the timer. He nodded. The others braced themselves for a bolt toward the doorway.
"And, drop in three-five seconds."
"Timer...on." Serge stated. "Pull it."
He did.
"Go!" Braz flew out followed by Zimsky. Iverson came next, followed by Serge and at last Josh. The door closed swiftly behind him. The others turned to watch as the first part of their mission was completed in full. At least what was within their control.
~
"Clear...and....ejecting."
Beck flipped the switches. The bomb and the compartment flew off into the murky abyss that was the inner core of Earth. Lost forever to them.
~
Deep Earth Control
A telephone rang beside Purcell. Stickley's blazing eyes turned as he answered it. He stared solemnly down at the floor for a few moments until at last;
"All right. Initiate firing sequence."
"Sir."
"It's our last shot, Stick."
Stick turned a sullen expression toward the giant screen in the board room.
"Damn you."
"Damn me? Too late."
~
Project Destiny--Alaska
"Ten...nine...eight..."
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Deep Earth Control
Something caught Rat's eye. Last minute he knew, but he couldn't let Josh down now.
"What's that?" he leaned in closer to the screen. He did a little more navigating until, at long last;
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Project Destiny, Central Access
Popped up on the screen.
"Gotcha!"
~
Project Destiny--Alaska
"Four...three...two...Whoa! Whoa! Whoa!" All the power columns suddenly died out.
"Someone's diverted our energy?" Called one of the control operators. "Where the hell's it gone?"
James toggled the computers a bit, then laughed ironically.
"It looks like...Coney Island."
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Deep Earth Control
Rat smiled.
"Your kung-fu is not strong."
~
"Well how long will it take to get it back online?" Purcell asked angrily over the little red phone. "Well then get to it!" he slammed the phone down. Immediately his eyes fell upon the timid young man in the corner with the five computers. Immediately he walked over. This was surely no coincidence.
He peered over the young man's shoulder.
Rat put on a class A act of surprise.
"Oh, hey General." he took a sucker out of his mouth. "Is there something I can do for you?" he smiled brightly and sarcastically. That look a child gives it's parent when they both know who did it, but there's no rightful proof to give full punishment.
Purcell frowned and turned away, Rat smiling the whole time after him.
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Virgil
"Timer on." Zimsky stated.
"Clear." Beck came in. "Ejecting."
~
"Clear." Josh was, once again, the last to leave. "Ejecting." The pod was cleared long before she was pulled from her mother frame.
~
"Pull it." Zimsky had now taken a casual note in his instruction giving. Josh toggled with a few more things on the bomb before finally letting it rest and leaving it. Serge and Braz had taken to observing the ships interior motives in the cockpit, while Iverson had taken up commanding again. It was Zimsky and Josh now in the tiny compartment. "All right."
"Lets go throw our last little two hundred megaton stone in the pond." Josh stated with a cynical grin.
"I always wanted to make a splash in nuclear physics."
They left the pod, chatting idly as they left behind the second to last bomb.
"You know, that energy propagation stuff you were talking about..."
"Oh, that was high school physics."
"Yeah, it's not exactly-"
"I just took the wavelengths from the core fluid of the MRI readings and-"
"Yeah and multiplied them by eight hundred?"
"Six hundred."
Josh's brow raised.
~
The others listened in on the coms from the cockpit. Serge was chatting idly with Braz about movies they had seen or were planning to see when they got home. Iverson threw in his opinion now and again. Beck listened intently though. Her frown deepened. Iverson drew out of the conversation and noted her countenance.
"What is it?"
~
"Surely you compensated for the MRI bias." said Josh with a skeptical glare. The blank look on Zimsky's face made his heart plummet to his toes. Immediately, he bolted back toward the compartment that stored the bomb. "We got to reset the timers!"
~
Beck listened through her coms, as well as Iverson and the others. All exchanged concerned looks. The two men in the butt end of the ship didn't have a whole lot of time.
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"Reset the timers! No!" Zimsky yelled, running after him. "It just won't work! It's not the timers. This is not enough!"
"What's not enough?" Josh wiped his brow.
"The last bomb is not enough."
"To complete the wave form."
"Yeah. No. The last bomb has to be thirty percent larger."
Josh stopped, doing the calculations in his head. "That's six or seven pounds of plutonium. Where are we going to get six or seven pounds of plutonium?"
~
Zimsky didn't have time to answer. A flare knocked Virgil off her course, and everyone inside the ship off of their seats. Josh was thrown backward into the wall, and Zimsky forward into the bomb. The joint holding the bomb in place snapped and fell forward, landing directly on Josh's left shoulder. He yelled in pain.
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Beck looked up and around in panic. The last thing she heard was Josh cry out.
"Guys we got hit by an energy flare. I can't keep us on course. Ejecting compartment in fifty seconds."
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Josh looked up at Zimsky with trepidation and fear in his eyes. After all these times of evading death, he was now at last going to meet his end.
"No, Beck! No, wait! No! Push it!"
Josh grit his teeth against the pain.
"You push it!" He snarled.
~
"Come on guys, I can't hear you." Beck stated.
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Zimsky couldn't pull it off on his own, and there was no way he could reach the cockpit in time to ask the others for help. The coms were down. There was no hope it seemed. He tried to roll it off, but Josh only hollered again in pain.
"It's got my shoulder!" He hissed through clenching teeth. "Push!"
"Guys?" Beck came again. "Clear!"
~
"Guys clear the compartment! What are you doing?"
Serge flew from his seat, Braz following after and Iverson taking up the rear. Beck bit her lip and tried desperately to quell the shaking in her stomach. Something was very, very wrong, and it wasn't getting better. Even worse, they didn't have time to make it better.
~
"I think the flare has knocked the coms out!"
"I can't get it, Josh. I can't get it." Zimsky, covered in sweat and eyes brimming in tears of frustration, looked sadly into the eyes of his comrade.
"Go..." Josh breathed. "Just go."
"I can't." Zimsky nearly sobbed.
"Okay. Go."
"I'm sorry." Zimsky breathed, swallowing hard against the tears. "I'm sorry."
"Can you hear me?" Beck rang in once more. "I'm correcting course now!"
"Joshua!" Serge's voice echoed through the corridor. Immediately Virgil lunged forward, taking everyone with her. Serge flew backward and out of the corridor. Braz caught him but slipped and fell into Iverson who was pinned against the metal wall. Zimsky fell forward and skidded across, hitting his head on the way down. Josh fell forward, along with the bomb, clutching his numbed arm and shoulder painfully.
"Ejecting compartments in ten seconds, can you here me?"
"Zimsky!" Josh yelled. The man stirred where he lay. The bomb was now stuck beneath one of the beds in the living quarters, leaving everyone safe from being crushed and pinned, a guaranteed death. Zimsky stood up groggily and moved forward, falling into the open space of the last free compartment. Josh moved clumsily after him, groping with his one good arm and desperately pulling himself forward. He was able to crawl beneath the last door that was closing and hold desperately onto the wall as Virgil shuddered with her second to last compartment ejecting from her frame.
"Ejecting."
"That's...that's it." Josh breathed. He couldn't focus his eyes due to all the pain he was now experiencing. But they'd done it. One more to go after this, and they were done. They could go home.
~
Josh crept down into the engine room to get the fuel reactor. Zimsky had told them it was the only way. It would leave them void of any power source, and a way home, but they'll have done their part, and with that, could be happy.
It seemed awkward that Zimsky would suggest this plan. But it was all they had. Zimsky understood that now. They all did.
They had three minutes to get this next bomb set and off on it's merry little way. That wasn't very long. Josh prayed that it was simply all they needed.
~
The others waited patiently for Doctor Keyes return. They didn't have to wait long. Zimsky had started when the power went out, but everyone else had been fully prepared.
"This is it." Braz stated. "No going back."
All nodded.
A few minutes later, Josh came hobbling into the cockpit. He collapsed in the isle, not really caring if he was in the way. Serge, of course, reached him first.
"Could someone take off my gloves?" He asked. Serge pulled them off, then turned and demanded the first aid kit.
"We don't have enough power to get back." he stated.
Serge nodded. "I know."
Josh sighed, and Serge took the note for what it meant. All this time they'd worked to make sure they'd get back for the Frenchman's sake. In the end, fate had dealt them a sour deal after all their hard efforts.
"I'm sorry."
Serge smiled. There was no need for words between them. Apologies were no longer necessary. They came to do what was required of them, and they had succeeded. Serge couldn't have asked for anything more. Still in the isle, he personally bandaged the young man's hands. The others sat by and waited for the end to come.
Author's Note: Yeah, it would have made more sense to have all the bombs set up at once, since everyone was there to help. But I didn't want to think too much on extra dialogue and stuff like that. It's 10:16pm. I really don't want to think at all. But here it is. It's done. Three chapters left! Woo Ho! ^_^
