CHAPTER 2. GENESIS
DISCLAIMER: Well, I own nothing of the below, none of the characters, anything, with on exception. It seems that since the Genesis is an original location, I own a 48,000 ton submarine.
AUTHOR'S NOTE: This is still a work in progress so some of the characters in this chapter be be somewhat out of character, particularly Noin. However, if anyone has any objections, I'll eventually get around to re- writing this chapter.
ONE MONTH LATER
The grey surface of the Atlantic heaved under the stormy skies, whipped into choppy waves by the bitingly cold wind.
Zechs pitied any boat unlucky enough to be caught out of harbour in this weather. Though the waves were not harsh enough to disturb a large cargo vessel or ocean liner, smaller craft would be rolling and tossing enough to make even the most hardened sailor wretch.
Not that his current position was any more comfortable. The massive two- rotor Chinook helicopter was suffering considerably in the sharp crosswind. Zechs had requested the gigantic troop transport to carry him and Noin out to the Genesis because he thought its bulk would make for a smoother ride. How wrong he had been. The Chinook's massive cross section had only served to provide a bigger surface for the wind to act on.
While he was feeling distinctly queasy, his beautiful fellow passenger, Lucrenzia Noin, was having a whale of a time. Zechs had forgotten that she had gained a reputation when training at Lake Victoria as an adventurer, taking the hardest and most physically challenging assignments just to satisfy her quest for the ultimate adrenaline rush. When that had not satisfied her, she had taken to skydiving and jumping from high bridges during her off-duty hours.
Currently, the woman in question had ejected the copter's co-pilot from his seat and was demanding to the pilot to take the controls for the rush of flying the copter in hard conditions. When Zechs had tried to persuade her during the half-hour trip to return to her seat in the main hold, she had snarled at him in a manner fierce enough to scare off a tiger. Gracefully, Zechs had retried to the hold alone.
So engrossed was he in his thoughts that he never noticed Noin sitting back down next to him.
"Two minutes till the drop point Zechs."
Zechs jumped. Making a mental note to check if hell had frozen over, he turned to her.
"I look forward to getting off this bucking bronco."
"Come-on Zechs, where's your sense of adventure?"
"You currently have the monopoly on that..."
"Oh be serious! Its not like you've never taken risks in your life," she paused and stared out the window for a brief period, "what's this Genesis then? I can't see a ship at all from here. The pilot was asking if you had given him the wrong co-ordinates."
"No, they're right. Genesis is Howard's newest toy. You'll see in a minute." The helicopter abruptly decelerated and came to a halt, still taking severe turbulence from the storm. Zechs stood up and pulled a pair of parachutes from the rack on the wall. He leaned into the cockpit and tapped the pilot on the shoulder, "open the aft hatch."
As the rear flap of the helicopter collapsed, Zechs and Noin leant out over the ocean. Even though the Chinook was several hundred feet above the sea, the high winds managed to blow a constant stream of salt-water spray into the hold. Zechs pulled a small com-link from his pocket. Yelling over the sound of the turbine engines, Zechs spoke a brief message.
"Howard, we're here. Bring her up!"
Noin turned to him, realisation dawning on her face, a single eyebrow raised, as below, a massive area of the empty sea began to churn with bubbles.
Suddenly, a gigantic mass burst through the froth at a forty-five degree angle. The sleek black nose of an antiquated nuclear submarine shot out of the water a hundred feet, before swinging back down to send up a wall of icy water. As it settled, the smooth mass of the conning tower appeared, followed by the complex apparatus of the stern hydroplanes and rudders. As hatches were thrown open on the hull, the sub came to rest, the water around its hull still bubbling with released air.
Noin gasped at the bulk of the black leviathan. It was well over five hundred and fifty feet in length and seventy feet wide. The conning tower was set far back on the hull, and bulged oddly around the base. Ahead of it, stretched a long flat deck, dotted with circular hatches, and with a chill, she realised that these were hatches for nuclear missiles. She stared first at the submarine, then at the grinning Zechs. The submarine was centuries old, but the design was infamous, and she knew what she was staring at.
"I give you the Genesis..."
"A TYPHOON! A damn' Soviet Typhoon Ballistic Missile sub!"
Still grinning, Zechs waved towards the hatch. "Ladies first, mam!"
The enormity of the situation subsided, and she grinned back. "You're too much of a gentleman!" With that, she gave him a sharp jab in the chest. Zechs stepped back in surprise, right into open air...
With a yell of "women!" Zechs plummeted towards the sub. After falling about a hundred feet he pulled his parachute and began to drift down. Thankfully, the winds had briefly subsided and he glided straight and true towards the Genesis.
With an excited cry of "BONSAI!" Noin leapt after him. Tucking her legs to her chest, she cannonball down, not pulling the rip-cord on her parachute before she had overtaken the startled Zechs and was barely two hundred feet above the water. The sudden deceleration snapped her head back, but she ignored the sudden pain and focused on landing squarely on the missile deck. Ten feet above it, she released the parachute and freefalled the final distance, landing like a cat on the smooth black deck. Like a startled bird, the discarded parachute was caught in the wind and blew away over the ocean. Zechs' chute quickly joined it.
Noin rubbed the back of her neck, 'that will hurt in the morning' she murmured, as the two officers scrambled up the slippery, wet ladder to the top of the conning tower where a lone figure waited.
For once, Howard was not wearing his usual Hawaiian shirt, but had donned a full-length black sailor's jacket. Badges of rank on his shoulder denoted the rank of Captain. A number of obviously fake medals decorated his chest. On his head sat a small black fur cap, the red star of the defunct Soviet Navy gleaming on the brow. He greeted Zechs in a hideously fake Scottish accent.
"Good morning comrades. It is cold, and harrrd..." Zechs laughed and hugged his old friend.
"Howard, you may drive the 'Red October's' twin sister but you are NOT Sean Connery!" The two pilots giggled at Howard's overblown act.
"Comrade Miliardo Kingovich Peacecraft! You have not changed. I thought the influences of the decadent west would have had some effect on your demeanour!"
Zechs scowled slightly, "you know I don't like people using my birth name."
Ignoring him, Howard wheeled on Noin, pulling off his cap in a hideously overdone bow, "and the beautiful frauline Noin. It is pleasure to serve with you again." He slipped the cap onto Noin's head.
Chuckling, Noin hugged him and briefly pecked him on the cheek, "Frauline is German for woman, not Russian Howard, I thought you knew better," she fingered one of the medals he wore, "likewise for this Iron Cross."
Howard smirked, "East Germany was part of the Glorious Soviet Union for over forty years. I think I am justified."
Zechs gave him a hearty slap on the back, "Okay Howard, you win. Always want the last word. So drop the officer of the line act. What do you have on the suit we sent you?"
"YOW! Zechs!" Howard reverted to his usual laid-back voice. "You have to hit me so hard?"
"Yes."
Howard glared, then chuckled. He yelled down the hatch at his feet, "Frank! We have boarders coming aboard!" A number of laughs echoed up the long shaft. "Come on down!" Grinning, Howard slid down the ladder. As Zechs followed, he noticed Noin adjust the Russian hat on her head to a more rakish angle.
"It suits you," he yelled over the storm before he vanished from view.
As Noin followed down, the hatch sealed itself with a 'BOOM!' that reverberated through the steel cylinder.
*
Below, red emergency lighting dimly lighted the control room. Howard looked around briefly.
"I asked for the emergency lights? Turn the main ones back on."
As harsh bright light filled the surprisingly large room, Zechs and Noin shielded their eyes.
"Howard," Noin gasped, "that is amazingly bad fashion sense!"
Howard had cast aside the sailor's jacket to reveal his traditional attire, an neon orange Hawaiian shirt with acid green palm trees patterned on it. The hideous clash of colours was causing Noin's eyes to go out of focus. Zechs thought he might have a seizure if he stared at the mutant shirt long enough. Howard and his crew were on the verge of rolling with laughter at the looks on the two's faces.
"Don't feast your eyes too much kids. These things have been known to cause spontaneous blindness after prolonged exposure.
"Then why do you wear the damn things?"
"Self defence. I'm ever in a bad situation, my attackers are so blinded by them I can get away."
Zechs couldn't help but laugh at the twisted logic. That laugh was cut short as the deck abruptly rolled underneath. Noin yelped and grabbed at the periscope for support. Howard's casual smile vanished and he turned to one of the men in the control room. "That the storm?"
"Yeah, it's getting worse."
"Then let's retire to a more comfortable depth. Take her down Gary, full ahead"
The man at one of the main control stations rang the engine room telegraph to full while the handful of other men adjusted the controls. Beneath them, the deck began to vibrate more rapidly as the engines increased speed. At the same time, the room took on a distinct tilt down.
"Care to take a last peek at the world above?" Howard was at the periscope. "Well, there go your friends." He stepped aside for Noin to take a look.
Through the periscope, Noin could see the bows of the ship, cutting rapidly through the waves, go underwater, the decks awash with surf. Above, the Chinook was wheeling about and making tracks towards the distant mainland. That was the last thing she saw before a wave swept over the periscope as the Typhoon slid underwater.
As she stepped away, Howard and Zechs were venting their spleen on each other.
"So I get your message, l bring this girl here, and then I drive around in circles for nearly a week before the present you sent me arrives, and then the same after while I wait for you two. Now you want me to sail to Oregon?"
"Yes."
"Well, I guess we can go through the Panama Canal..."
"No, this whole affair must be kept under wraps."
"What! So you want me to take this thing round the bottom of South America?"
"Wouldn't it be quicker to go via the polar ice cap and the north coast of Alaska?"
"Hey! I'm driving this girl. But I like your idea. Frank..." Howard spun on his heel, "see to plotting a suitable course...Now then...." He eyed the two soldiers, their jump suits dripping wet from the surf that had washed over them on the deck. Both were now sipping hot drinks provided by a thoughtful crewman.
"You two look freezing. I think you need to be warmed up before I give you the grand tour or you'll catch hypothermia. May I suggest a swim?"
"Oh that's a great idea," Zechs responded sarcastically. "Where would you suggest?"
"Well you could try outside, but there's our heated swimming pool and sauna, courtesy of the Navy of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics."
"Pool? Sauna?" Noin looked intrigued, "maybe communism did have something going for it after all."
DISCLAIMER: Well, I own nothing of the below, none of the characters, anything, with on exception. It seems that since the Genesis is an original location, I own a 48,000 ton submarine.
AUTHOR'S NOTE: This is still a work in progress so some of the characters in this chapter be be somewhat out of character, particularly Noin. However, if anyone has any objections, I'll eventually get around to re- writing this chapter.
ONE MONTH LATER
The grey surface of the Atlantic heaved under the stormy skies, whipped into choppy waves by the bitingly cold wind.
Zechs pitied any boat unlucky enough to be caught out of harbour in this weather. Though the waves were not harsh enough to disturb a large cargo vessel or ocean liner, smaller craft would be rolling and tossing enough to make even the most hardened sailor wretch.
Not that his current position was any more comfortable. The massive two- rotor Chinook helicopter was suffering considerably in the sharp crosswind. Zechs had requested the gigantic troop transport to carry him and Noin out to the Genesis because he thought its bulk would make for a smoother ride. How wrong he had been. The Chinook's massive cross section had only served to provide a bigger surface for the wind to act on.
While he was feeling distinctly queasy, his beautiful fellow passenger, Lucrenzia Noin, was having a whale of a time. Zechs had forgotten that she had gained a reputation when training at Lake Victoria as an adventurer, taking the hardest and most physically challenging assignments just to satisfy her quest for the ultimate adrenaline rush. When that had not satisfied her, she had taken to skydiving and jumping from high bridges during her off-duty hours.
Currently, the woman in question had ejected the copter's co-pilot from his seat and was demanding to the pilot to take the controls for the rush of flying the copter in hard conditions. When Zechs had tried to persuade her during the half-hour trip to return to her seat in the main hold, she had snarled at him in a manner fierce enough to scare off a tiger. Gracefully, Zechs had retried to the hold alone.
So engrossed was he in his thoughts that he never noticed Noin sitting back down next to him.
"Two minutes till the drop point Zechs."
Zechs jumped. Making a mental note to check if hell had frozen over, he turned to her.
"I look forward to getting off this bucking bronco."
"Come-on Zechs, where's your sense of adventure?"
"You currently have the monopoly on that..."
"Oh be serious! Its not like you've never taken risks in your life," she paused and stared out the window for a brief period, "what's this Genesis then? I can't see a ship at all from here. The pilot was asking if you had given him the wrong co-ordinates."
"No, they're right. Genesis is Howard's newest toy. You'll see in a minute." The helicopter abruptly decelerated and came to a halt, still taking severe turbulence from the storm. Zechs stood up and pulled a pair of parachutes from the rack on the wall. He leaned into the cockpit and tapped the pilot on the shoulder, "open the aft hatch."
As the rear flap of the helicopter collapsed, Zechs and Noin leant out over the ocean. Even though the Chinook was several hundred feet above the sea, the high winds managed to blow a constant stream of salt-water spray into the hold. Zechs pulled a small com-link from his pocket. Yelling over the sound of the turbine engines, Zechs spoke a brief message.
"Howard, we're here. Bring her up!"
Noin turned to him, realisation dawning on her face, a single eyebrow raised, as below, a massive area of the empty sea began to churn with bubbles.
Suddenly, a gigantic mass burst through the froth at a forty-five degree angle. The sleek black nose of an antiquated nuclear submarine shot out of the water a hundred feet, before swinging back down to send up a wall of icy water. As it settled, the smooth mass of the conning tower appeared, followed by the complex apparatus of the stern hydroplanes and rudders. As hatches were thrown open on the hull, the sub came to rest, the water around its hull still bubbling with released air.
Noin gasped at the bulk of the black leviathan. It was well over five hundred and fifty feet in length and seventy feet wide. The conning tower was set far back on the hull, and bulged oddly around the base. Ahead of it, stretched a long flat deck, dotted with circular hatches, and with a chill, she realised that these were hatches for nuclear missiles. She stared first at the submarine, then at the grinning Zechs. The submarine was centuries old, but the design was infamous, and she knew what she was staring at.
"I give you the Genesis..."
"A TYPHOON! A damn' Soviet Typhoon Ballistic Missile sub!"
Still grinning, Zechs waved towards the hatch. "Ladies first, mam!"
The enormity of the situation subsided, and she grinned back. "You're too much of a gentleman!" With that, she gave him a sharp jab in the chest. Zechs stepped back in surprise, right into open air...
With a yell of "women!" Zechs plummeted towards the sub. After falling about a hundred feet he pulled his parachute and began to drift down. Thankfully, the winds had briefly subsided and he glided straight and true towards the Genesis.
With an excited cry of "BONSAI!" Noin leapt after him. Tucking her legs to her chest, she cannonball down, not pulling the rip-cord on her parachute before she had overtaken the startled Zechs and was barely two hundred feet above the water. The sudden deceleration snapped her head back, but she ignored the sudden pain and focused on landing squarely on the missile deck. Ten feet above it, she released the parachute and freefalled the final distance, landing like a cat on the smooth black deck. Like a startled bird, the discarded parachute was caught in the wind and blew away over the ocean. Zechs' chute quickly joined it.
Noin rubbed the back of her neck, 'that will hurt in the morning' she murmured, as the two officers scrambled up the slippery, wet ladder to the top of the conning tower where a lone figure waited.
For once, Howard was not wearing his usual Hawaiian shirt, but had donned a full-length black sailor's jacket. Badges of rank on his shoulder denoted the rank of Captain. A number of obviously fake medals decorated his chest. On his head sat a small black fur cap, the red star of the defunct Soviet Navy gleaming on the brow. He greeted Zechs in a hideously fake Scottish accent.
"Good morning comrades. It is cold, and harrrd..." Zechs laughed and hugged his old friend.
"Howard, you may drive the 'Red October's' twin sister but you are NOT Sean Connery!" The two pilots giggled at Howard's overblown act.
"Comrade Miliardo Kingovich Peacecraft! You have not changed. I thought the influences of the decadent west would have had some effect on your demeanour!"
Zechs scowled slightly, "you know I don't like people using my birth name."
Ignoring him, Howard wheeled on Noin, pulling off his cap in a hideously overdone bow, "and the beautiful frauline Noin. It is pleasure to serve with you again." He slipped the cap onto Noin's head.
Chuckling, Noin hugged him and briefly pecked him on the cheek, "Frauline is German for woman, not Russian Howard, I thought you knew better," she fingered one of the medals he wore, "likewise for this Iron Cross."
Howard smirked, "East Germany was part of the Glorious Soviet Union for over forty years. I think I am justified."
Zechs gave him a hearty slap on the back, "Okay Howard, you win. Always want the last word. So drop the officer of the line act. What do you have on the suit we sent you?"
"YOW! Zechs!" Howard reverted to his usual laid-back voice. "You have to hit me so hard?"
"Yes."
Howard glared, then chuckled. He yelled down the hatch at his feet, "Frank! We have boarders coming aboard!" A number of laughs echoed up the long shaft. "Come on down!" Grinning, Howard slid down the ladder. As Zechs followed, he noticed Noin adjust the Russian hat on her head to a more rakish angle.
"It suits you," he yelled over the storm before he vanished from view.
As Noin followed down, the hatch sealed itself with a 'BOOM!' that reverberated through the steel cylinder.
*
Below, red emergency lighting dimly lighted the control room. Howard looked around briefly.
"I asked for the emergency lights? Turn the main ones back on."
As harsh bright light filled the surprisingly large room, Zechs and Noin shielded their eyes.
"Howard," Noin gasped, "that is amazingly bad fashion sense!"
Howard had cast aside the sailor's jacket to reveal his traditional attire, an neon orange Hawaiian shirt with acid green palm trees patterned on it. The hideous clash of colours was causing Noin's eyes to go out of focus. Zechs thought he might have a seizure if he stared at the mutant shirt long enough. Howard and his crew were on the verge of rolling with laughter at the looks on the two's faces.
"Don't feast your eyes too much kids. These things have been known to cause spontaneous blindness after prolonged exposure.
"Then why do you wear the damn things?"
"Self defence. I'm ever in a bad situation, my attackers are so blinded by them I can get away."
Zechs couldn't help but laugh at the twisted logic. That laugh was cut short as the deck abruptly rolled underneath. Noin yelped and grabbed at the periscope for support. Howard's casual smile vanished and he turned to one of the men in the control room. "That the storm?"
"Yeah, it's getting worse."
"Then let's retire to a more comfortable depth. Take her down Gary, full ahead"
The man at one of the main control stations rang the engine room telegraph to full while the handful of other men adjusted the controls. Beneath them, the deck began to vibrate more rapidly as the engines increased speed. At the same time, the room took on a distinct tilt down.
"Care to take a last peek at the world above?" Howard was at the periscope. "Well, there go your friends." He stepped aside for Noin to take a look.
Through the periscope, Noin could see the bows of the ship, cutting rapidly through the waves, go underwater, the decks awash with surf. Above, the Chinook was wheeling about and making tracks towards the distant mainland. That was the last thing she saw before a wave swept over the periscope as the Typhoon slid underwater.
As she stepped away, Howard and Zechs were venting their spleen on each other.
"So I get your message, l bring this girl here, and then I drive around in circles for nearly a week before the present you sent me arrives, and then the same after while I wait for you two. Now you want me to sail to Oregon?"
"Yes."
"Well, I guess we can go through the Panama Canal..."
"No, this whole affair must be kept under wraps."
"What! So you want me to take this thing round the bottom of South America?"
"Wouldn't it be quicker to go via the polar ice cap and the north coast of Alaska?"
"Hey! I'm driving this girl. But I like your idea. Frank..." Howard spun on his heel, "see to plotting a suitable course...Now then...." He eyed the two soldiers, their jump suits dripping wet from the surf that had washed over them on the deck. Both were now sipping hot drinks provided by a thoughtful crewman.
"You two look freezing. I think you need to be warmed up before I give you the grand tour or you'll catch hypothermia. May I suggest a swim?"
"Oh that's a great idea," Zechs responded sarcastically. "Where would you suggest?"
"Well you could try outside, but there's our heated swimming pool and sauna, courtesy of the Navy of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics."
"Pool? Sauna?" Noin looked intrigued, "maybe communism did have something going for it after all."